I Have a Mansion in the Post-apocalyptic World
Author: Morning Star LL
Date: 2022-08-11T09:58:07.259000+00:00

Chapter 1: A Disaster Caused by a Can of Coke

A drop of cold sweat dripped down his forehead, as Jiang Chen stared at the massive pair of boobs in front him. They were at least size 36D.

Below her eyebrows was a pair of valiant looking eyes, a beautiful nose, and a delicate mouth. However, her malicious expression certainly tainted her beauty. A pitch black pistol and a wicked looking whip, were held in her hands.

If the surrounding was decorated with a few more sexually suggestive items, every man in the world would fantasize about what could happen next.

Fantasize my a*s!

Jiang Chen’s heart swelled with regret and fear. He did not feel any sense of pleasure or consider the possibility of being aroused.

His pants all the sudden felt tight. He must be delusional right now. [There is no way I am a masochist.]

He knew he had no weird fetishes. So, any physical reaction would be an accident in this dire situation.

"Name?" The busty girl asked. She was wearing a black leather jacket, with a pair of jeans that has started to fade after too many washes. She shook her hair, as she forcefully stepped onto the chair’s arm.

"Jiang Chen…" He swallowed, as he responded truthfully. As a civilized man himself, he has never seen a girl so barbaric.

The girl raised her eyebrows. "What a girly name?"

[Why don’t you ask my mother? Dammit!] Of course, he could only say that in his head. He feared that the moment he opened his mouth, a bullet would create a new hole on his forehead.

Yes, this hottie had a pistol on her, which made the atmosphere not even remotely romantic.

"I was born in the morning, hence the name morning (Cheng) in my name," Jiang Chen mumbled. The name was not girly by any means. However, the fact that he looked very delicate, didn’t contribute to his cause. Even if he had a masculine name, the contrast would be even odder.

"Don’t get off topic." The girl lashed the whip onto the sofa beside him. The loud cracking sound scared Jiang Chen so much, that he curled into the chair. "I am not interested in your mom."

[God, you were the one that asked.] Jiang Chen swore in his mind, as his face paled.

"You have the potential to be a great looking guy." the beauty smiled, as she approached him. She touched Jiang Chen’s face with the side of her whip. "You are going to answer my questions. If you dare to lie, I don’t mind creating a few scars on your lovely face."

Jiang Chen’s face turned red as he tried to hold back his scream. [Why do I feel so violated?]

"Where are you from?" The girl questioned as she gazed directly at him.

"I am from the north." Jiang Chen responded with a lie. Of course, he never believed that the girl could see through him. [ Wanghai City? Here is Wanghai City? This deserted place?]

"This can of cola, where did you find it?" The girl’s pronunciation was odd as if she has never heard someone say Coke before.

Jiang Chen felt the girl’s voice transform as her breathing rapidly grew. The tone was filled with an intense lust, or greed?

"Coke… it’s a type of pop."

"No sh*t! I know it is pop. I am asking you, where it is from!" The girl chugged the coke. As soon as she finished, she exhaled with relief. Then she threw the can onto the ground, and lashed her whip onto the poor sofa once again.

Jiang Chen stared directly at the odd looking gun pointed directly at his forehead.

A drop of sweat dripped down his face. He steadied his breath as he tried to remain calm. "I can’t explain that."

"Do you want to die?"

"Is this the way you treat someone who just saved your life?" With a sudden burst of courage, he argued back.

After a brief moment of silence, she let out a slow sigh. She put the gun away and threw the whip onto the ground. "Fine, I did cross the line." Despite admitting her fault, she had no intention of letting Jiang Chen go.

[Since she only whipped the sofa, she probably has no ill-intention after all.] Jiang Chen thought in his head.

"Trust me. I have no harmful intentions," She said. However, Jiang Chen was uncertain about how long her conscience would last, so he continued to make up stories.

"No harmful intentions?"

"Like how I saved you from starvation? If I told you anything today, it would make both of our lives more complicated than it needs to be." Jiang Chen continued to respond with a secretive tone. His words left a lot to the imagination.

"Haha," the girl forced a careless laugh. But the uncertainty in her eyes was clearly evident.

"Maybe we can partner up! I just got here and… how can I explain this. Everything here is terrible. I need a guide, and I can pay you handsomely for it." He proposed an offer with a luring hint in his voice. He was using the stick and the carrot strategy.

"Oh? You are from the Northern Alliance?" The girl asked with her eyebrows raised.

On this wasteland, if there are any signs of law and order; it must be the distant alliance on the northern tundra. They were not a target of the nuclear destruction, nor were there any infectious disease breakouts. Hence, order remained on the land far away.

However, order was a relative term; they lacked real justice because slavery, corruption, and civil war all still existed on the land. Only the slightly higher food production made the area, made it somewhat more attractive. Overall, it was no better than the anarchic Wanghai City.

"No, I am only from somewhere relatively well off. Hmm, and I am collecting some useful resources for someone. At the same time, surplus commodities are disposed- like the can of pop you just finished, or the three cans of food that you devoured clean." Jiang Chen did not continue with the disguise as a member of the Northern Alliance. What if she realized he was lying after all.

The best idea right now was to say that he came from a distant place. A place that nobody visited before.

The girl blushed as she heard the words "devoured clean" and she realized that her etiquette at the time must not have been the finest. She stared at Jiang Chen with a fierce look. Jiang Chen laughed as he dismissed the idea. He knew the negotiation was successful.

"I don’t know what you guys want in this city. All the supermarkets, storages, and even refrigerators are raided clean. There is no way you can even find one piece of bread."

"My fair lady, what is your name?" Jiang Chen said, shaking his head.

"Sun Jiao," She responded, as she again raised her eyebrows. With a devious smile on her face, she said, "Let me get this clear, if the partnership involves anything strange, I might blow your head up."

"Don’t worry, miss." Jiang Chen sighed. There was no way he would get in bed with a girl that could kill him at any moment. "I only need an experienced guide and, do you think I lack food?"

"Then what exactly are you searching for? Could it be… for slaves?" Sun Jiao paused for a second before she maliciously gazed at Jiang Chen.

Of course, if he had plenty of food, then he must have farms or plantations, and related production facility. Sun Jiao’s first instinct was that this guy might be a slave trader. Slaves were the finest labor force on the wasteland and slave trading was considered to be the norm. However, Sun Jiao thoroughly hated slave trading because a slave trader abducted her sister. It would be fine if she got sold into a factory, but if she got sold into prostitution or even to the cannibals, it would be a complete nightmare.

"No, no, no. This is a complete misunderstanding," Jiang Chen explained. "I don’t need slaves. I need technology."

"Technology?" Sun Jiao seemed confused.

"Yes, technology. Just like the laser gun you are holding and the computer on your arm. While we have those things, we can’t produce them ourselves. Therefore, we decided to come to this deserted city to find some old technology."

"These things?" Jiang Chen's question caused a mixture of confusion and suspicion. "These things are hard to make? In Liuding Town, a lot of people can assemble these."

[Dammit,] Jiang Chen swore in his mind, but he remained calm.

"That was only an example. Our technology in food production and transportation is highly advanced, but our general technology is rather lackluster. Which is why I am here." He explained, impressed by his improvisation as it was far better than he thought.

He noticed that while this world had previously made significant technological advancements in the past, the civilization was in complete ruins after the nuclear war. Especially since infections broke out across the land, it was a miracle that humanity still existed.

The state of this wasteland after the fallout was rather strange. Highly advanced levitated cars existed simultaneously with internal combustion engine vehicles. While some advanced technology were preserved, the civilization undoubtedly regressed.

"Whatever." Sun Jiao shrugged. With interest in her voice, she opened her mouth. "Now, let’s talk about my compensation."

"What do you want to be paid in," After a short pause, Jiang Chen asked. He was unsure what the currency was in this world.

"C-type battery, food, and crystals are all fine. Though personally, I prefer food." Sun Jiao responded. Then with desire filled eyes, she asked, "Oh, do you have more of those curry chicken?"

"You finished them all." Jiang Chen sighed with a fake heartbroken look. He has never even seen batteries or crystals before. So without a doubt, food would be the best choice.

"Oh, I am sorry," Sun Jiao said with an awkward tone. All of a sudden, she turned back into her usual malicious character and forcefully stepped onto the armrest. Then she bargained, "salary will be ten cans of food per month. You are also responsible for my meals!"

"Deal!"

Jiang Chen’s direct response made Sun Jiao guilty about her rather unreasonable demand. Although on this wasteland only fools had a conscience, conscience always existed inside people’s heart.

Cruelty was only a protective response for survival.

"I will be responsible for your safety." Sun Jiao added as guilt overwhelmed her.

[No sh*t! If I die, who will pay you?] Jiang Chen responded viciously in his head. The compensation was nothing for him, but it would still cost him around one hundred dollars.

"Ok, my beautiful bodyguard, can you untie me now?" The crisis was finally alleviated as Jiang Chen finally let out a long sigh. His limbs almost losing all sense of feeling. Sun Jiao casually took out a dagger and sliced through the rope.

Jiang Chen moved a little as he stared at Sun Jiao with a sad look. Then, he went and picked up his empty backpack.

Sun Jiao forced an awkward smile and pretended that she never searched his bag.

"What’s next? Get out of here?"

"Get out? Why? This will be our temporary meeting location."

Outside the window, the mega metropolis already lost its liveliness. The once crowded streets were now empty, without a soul in sight. The endless amount of zombies replaced what was once a vibrant city. The occasional howl and scream from unknown creatures also traversed through the dead city. Guns fired in the not so far off distance, mixed with barely audible noises. In the city permeated with death, familiar battles occurred every day. Zombies against humans, humans against humans…

Through the undusted stained window, Jiang Chen saw the danger, the death, and the opportunity of gold everywhere.

Chapter 2: Interdimensional Bracelet

The universe existed as a multiverse.

A butterfly’s wing in the Amazon rain forest may have caused the tornado in UA Texas. The butterfly effect could exaggerate any small changes to infinity. It could alter the path of the future.

Therefore, the understanding of the future is extremely uncertain and relative.

Jiang Chen, Male, 23 years old. An undergraduate student. He spent some time after graduation as a sales associate in a clothing store but has since been laid-off. The increased financial pressure forced him to make a difficult decision: to search for another job in Wanghai City or to go back to his hometown.

In his opinion, he did not want to give up so easily. To live in a major metropolis like Wanghai City was his dream since he was a child, and it was also what his parent’s expected. For someone that did not experience the world yet, he was eager to explore what the world had to offer.

However, he knew that the journey would be difficult. He got drunk. It was the first time since graduation where he drank alone till he passed out. After he let out all his frustration and sorrow, dizziness struck his head, and he became immediately unconscious. An unknown metal object directly hit his arm and fused with it. It disappeared as quickly as it has appeared. It was almost as if it never existed in the first place.

Then, he discovered a peculiar ability – time and dimensional travel

Of course, it took him several months before he realized it.

The strange looking pattern surrounded his right wrist like a watch. If one examined it carefully, the bracelet was shaped like an odd looking tattoo.

Then it obviously something was wrong because he never had a tattoo. He did not know why he became the chosen one. However, he understood at that moment, this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Time travel? Dimensional travel? He didn’t have enough knowledge to understand these strange phenomenas. But one time he was struck by electricity and felt completely fine. That was when he discovered the tattoo’s empty bar filled up after absorbing around 100 voltages of power. Then, it met the requirements to perform "multiverse travel." Multiverse travel itself costed half of the energy. Therefore, completely filling 100 voltages of electricity would allow for a round trip through time and dimensions at the expense of around 50 dollars. It was very economical. Not only did the tattoo had the ability to travel, but it also contained an alternative dimension that he could visit at any time. Hence, it was a storage dimension roughly one square meter cubed size. But because it costed energy to store and retrieve items, Jiang Chen preferred to use a backpack to store items. If he was not careful and lost the means to charge the energy in the apocalyptic world, then there was no way to come home.

Jiang Chen had a feeling that the energy storage could be upgraded, including the storage dimension. The functionality definitely could also be improved. He just didn’t understand how at the moment.

Charging the power was simple. Jiang Chen only needed to put his finger into an electric socket. Although this was not aesthetically pleasing in any way, it was perfect for getting the job done. How did he figure out? Like mentioned before, it was completely by accident.

The first time he time traveled, he found himself in an abandoned residence. The dust covered bed along with the corroded furniture spelled the timeliness of the place. He checked his surroundings as he began examining this timeworn house. With the information from a half-broken storage tape and old newspapers lying around, he gained some partial understanding of this world.

This world was a parallel universe similar to earth. However, the technology was clearly far more advanced. High rise buildings spanned across the landscape, but there were no traces of any civilization. Zombies and mutants occupied the once busy streets. Jiang Chen did not dare to step out without a weapon.

The time was the year 2190; the location was still Wanghai City. However, the difference between the two time periods was night and day.

The year 2150, global warming intensified. Excessive extraction caused shortages in all kinds of resources. An economic crisis ensued.

The year 2164, a political crisis in Poland triggered a war between Europe and Hua. The red army began invading westwards. The global politics, as a result, were in a tense period. It was worth mentioning that in this parallel universe, USSR was not dissolved in 1991, hence the global politics were divided into three organizations. First, UA-led alliances known as NATO, a Soviet-led Europa known as CCCP, and lastly, the Han formed PCA with the Southeast Asian countries. The rest of the forces remained independent.

The year 2171, the tension on Europa escalated as the CCCP declared war on the PCA. Both parties accused the others of initiating the warfare which caused the start of the third world war.

In the same winter, Hua and Japan launched a naval war over the conflict in the South Hua Sea. NATO and CCCP declared cooperation as fires spread across Asia. That year, Mongolia experienced a political crisis which caused further escalation between CCCP and PCA, with both sides amassing tremendous firepower on the borders.

The year 2172, the first nuclear weapon was detonated by the CCCP in Paris, which officially brought the third world war into tactical nuclear warfare.

The year 2173, this modern warfare was in a surprising stalemate. The entire world experienced nuclear fallout as the habitable, without a doubt, received significant destruction. The nuclear winter covered 80% of the land in snow. Nobody thought that such an ironic cause would end global warming. Refugees, starvation, diseases were all symptoms of this modern warfare. It only took two years to destroy humanity entirely. The total economic losses far exceeded the combined losses of the previous world wars. Due to this, peace came without a decisive victory for either side. Everyone knew that if the war continued, no one would survive.

New Year 2174, a peace treaty was negotiated and enacted. "Habitat Revitalization Program" was established to remove nuclear fallout. All nations participated in the funding of the program.

Fall of year 2174, the United Nations announced the abortion of the ""Habitat Revitalization Program" as the cells used to remove nuclear waste experienced uncontrolled mutation. At the same time, due to the attack by unknown militants, the mutated cells began to spread into major cities. The infected humans turned into zombies, as the human civilization entered a biological apocalypse. The law and order that once governed civilization, shattered in days.

The year 2176, The United Nations sent six colony exploration ships towards Kepler B in Alpha Centauri. These ships contained the last hope for civilization. These ships were meant to plant a seed in the universe, in hopes of finding a new world. However, this was completely irrelevant for the humans still fighting on the ground.

In the same year, the United Nations were dissolved.

The information contained in the newspaper only lasted till the year 2176. The remainder of the news came from an ancient diary. From the electronic clock that still ticked in the drawer, the time was June 2190.

By coincidence, the world he lived in was also June.

But within this timeline, civilization destroyed itself in just five years

After he had made a brief stop, Jiang Chen chose to return to the modern world. There were too many unknown dangers that it would be unwise to continue. He must first be thoroughly prepared.

After he had rested for two days, he bought a box of canned food, a box of sausages, and a box of instant noodles. Even if he did not consider staying overnight at the dangerous place, he brought three days of food, just to be safe.

The zombies during the day time seemed to have lost the majority of their powers. It eased the exploration in that area, as Jiang Chen carefully stepped across the middle of the street. He avoided the area concentrated with zombies before he found a mansion.

The high wall and Iron Gate made it look very safe. The yellow grass on the ground made the place look fairly outdated. The marble sculptures by the gate were no longer recognizable due to the corrosion from the acid rain. It was evident that the world was filled with pollution.

As to why he chose this place in particular? The answer was quite obvious. The rich looking mansion would contain some valuable items.

To his surprise, he did not find anything valuable, but he did find a girl that was almost starved to death.

Maybe it was because of the girl’s beauty that caused him to put his guard down, or because of his experience from the civilized world that made him not think about the possible danger. When he saw the despair in the girl’s eyes, she looked so powerless. He took out a bottle of water from his bag and fed her the water slowly.

[Saving the girl is the most important priority because maybe she will marry me in the end?]

Immediately, Jiang Chen took out the curry chicken from his bag. After the girl had smelled the aroma from the can, the same wimpy eyes looked at Jiang Chen filled with despair. He was a virgin himself, so there was no way he could have resisted the seduction, especially when a beautiful girl gazed at him with her watery eyes. He felt a wave of joy both spiritually and physically. So he took out his spoon in good heart and began feeding the girl with the flawless body.

After… well, there was nothing after.

Jiang Chen deeply regretted his decision.

The girl’s action accurately defined the story of the farmer and the snake.

After going through a couple of pieces of bread and a canned curry chicken, the girl whipped out the pistol without hesitation. She pressed the gun against Jiang Chen’s forehead as Jiang Chen was shocked in place. She then skillfully tied him onto the chair, as she interrogated Jiang Chen with what once belong to the former mansion owner, the whip.

Now, Jiang Chen realized what it meant to be carrying a full bag of food. He was fortunate that he met Sun Jiao who still had some conscience. If he instead met some cannibals or slave traders, he probably would have ended up as either food or product.

Of course, Jiang Chen could always activate the tattoo and travel back, but that meant his biggest secret would be exposed. If this girl "camped spawn," then he could face even more danger.

He did not want to give up this "treasure land."

Also, it took time to activate the time travel function. If the girl realized that something was wrong, there was no guarantee that she would not pull the trigger.

He didn’t want to risk it. The good thing was that they were able to reach an agreement.

"How would you transport the supplies here?" Sun Jiao questioned with confusion in her voice while reinforcing the mansion’s external defense.

"Of course my partners have ways to do so, you don’t have to worry about it." Jiang Chen continued to bullshit.

The mansion had quite a bit of cash, but the value of cash in this world was drastically different compared to the original world. Jiang Chen wanted to look for gold and other valuables, but it was evident that the previous owner did not store any at home.

The painting on the wall may be quite expensive, but of course, these artists did not exist in the world Jiang Chen belongs to yet. So these painting would be worthless. The mansion, however, did contain some highly advanced electronics such as a hologram TV and automatic cooking equipment. But he soon realized that none of it functioned properly, so Sun Jiao was quick to answer his confusion.

"Oh, these things… " After the nuclear explosion, the majority of the electronics ceased to function. But some parts were quite useful and valuable for the survivors.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh as he gave up on the plan of selling these electronics in the modern world.

However, since these existed before, there must be someone who could produce this equipment again. Jiang Chen knew that if he traded with food, there would be plenty of "geniuses" that would be willing to work for him. In this apocalyptic world, these skills were worth almost nothing.

For those technologists, if it was not high-end military weaponry knowledge, their life was no different than someone who lived in the slump.

Sun Jiao didn’t know what Jiang Chen saw in this mansion. Nevertheless, since her employer said that work needed to be done, she didn’t refuse.

"Let me be honest here; there is not much value in reinforcing this structure. If we don’t make a lot of noise, those brainless zombies will not find their way here. The area is also free from powerful mutants. This is a complete waste of…"

"Enough, I am not preventing the zombies. I know that if I don’t bother those disgusting things, they will not go out of their way to bother me. I am preventing intruders because I am pretty sure you don’t want your throat slit while you are sleeping." He rambled as he gave Sun Jiao a hard stare.

"Okay boss." Sun Jiao rolled her eyes as she hammered the last nail into the wood. She wanted to argue that nobody would bother entering into these buildings because they have obviously been looted.

As to why she is here, that was her secret.

"Do you have the map of this place?" Jiang Chen crossed his legs as he sat on the moldy sofa. He did not feel the slightest guilt for making a girl work this hard. It certainly was not the most enjoyable experience having a gun pointed at his head.

Sun Jiao was experienced in this type of work. She quickly reinforced the mansion with any materials she found.

"What’s your EP? I can directly send it to you."

"EP?" Jiang Chen was confused.

"It is this thing." Sun Jiao pointed at the computer on her arm. She grinned as if she had heard a joke. "You don’t have one?"

"... I can buy one," Jiang Chen forced a smile. He felt uncivilized in front of this girl.

"That’s hard to imagine that you have the courage to explore the city without EP. Are you not afraid of the radiation level?" Sun Jiao sighed as she took out what looked like a large electronic watch from her backpack. She threw it to Jiang Chen. "Try it out."

"Seems fitting…where did you get it?" Jiang Chen played with the EP. He was amazed by this world’s technological advancement, as the EP was as light as a feather. The crystal screen displayed Jiang Chen’s biological stats. It seemed to be a health monitor device.

"I found it from an unlucky guy’s body." Sun Jiao grinned. The smile was certainly delightful, but a shiver went down Jiang Chen spine as if he just saw the devil.

****

User Name: Jiang Chen

Muscle Strength: 12

Bone Strength: 10

Reflex: 11

Brain Cell Strength: 14

Radiation Level: 11 (Safe)

Irregular Status: None

****

Cold sweat appeared on his forehead as he saw the radiation level. He almost forgot that radiation saturated the world from top to bottom. He wasn’t clear as to what it meant by a radiation level of 11, but he knew that before coming here, there was no way he could have been exposed to radiation.

"None of your abilities exceed 20… Come on, are you even a man?" Sun Jiao glanced at Jiang Chen with an arrogant expression.

"Do you want to try?" Jiang Chen responded with a furious voice.

"I am standing right here, why don’t you try?" Sun Jiao stepped onto the armrest of the sofa again, her eyes full of defiance.

[There was no way I will let this go. Nah, it it better to stay calm.]

Jiang Chen was quick to admit defeat. There was no way he could beat this "barbaric" girl. Even if the slim possibility became a reality that they did hookup, he had to prevent the girl from biting his dick off. He was confident that she would do it, if given the chance.

For these types of enjoyable actions, it would be more appropriate to do it in the modern world. If he had the money, girls would follow.

For no apparent reason, a person popped into Jiang Chen’s head. A girl who fired him and made him lose his source of income. The girl who made life in Wanghai City miserable. The girl who always held a bit*h face and a terrible attitude.

"What happened, my little boss, why are you silent all of a sudden?" Sun Jiao emphasized on the word little as she looked at him mockingly.

"Nothing. I just remembered something from the past."

Sun Jiao, surprised by the calm voice that answered, felt a chill run down her spine. Although she was not afraid of the guy that didn’t even hit 20 in any aspects of combat, her years of fighting instinct rarely lied.

Sun Jiao was smart to keep her silence. There was no reason to offend free food. Life without the need to worry about food was something Sun Jiao never imagine. That curry chicken was amazingly delicious. On this wasteland, it would be fortunate to have a single piece of bread. The majority of the people here lived off of nutrient supplies. Something that never made you full, but kept you alive.

Also, the immature boss seemed like a genuine person.

Don’t be confused, the word genuine person had an adverse connotation on the wasteland. However, much to her surprise, she would rather spend time with "Mr. Good Man" than the "normal" wasteland person. At least she did not need to worry about waking up and realizing that she was tied up.

She thought about it, and with her slightly cracked lip, she let slip a small but delightful laugh.

"Lady, could you not laugh so maliciously?" He didn’t know why, even though her smile was beautiful, it made Jiang Chen shiver.

"Did I? Don’t you think I am very attractive?"

"Do I answer yes, or no…" Jiang Chen murmured as he stared at the gorgeous face.

Chapter 3: I Need Gold

The next morning, Sun Jiao was delegated by Jiang Chen to explore the commercial banking building near Qingpu. Sun Jiao was curious as to what was at the bank, and Jiang Chen answered with a direct response.

"I need the gold from there."

The world here was full of treasure. Any of the civilian products could easily out tech the prototypes in the science labs back in the modern world. But, it was impractical to sell it there. Therefore, a highly valuable commodity that exchanged smoothly would be gold.

Jiang Chen guessed that in a structureless apocalyptic world, gold had no practical value. In a place where everyone starved, no one would trade food for some shiny metal.

He was absolutely correct.

Sun Jiao wanted to know what gold was good for, but Jiang Chen did not want to share. So, she stopped being persistent about the question.

A small incident also happened in the morning.

After she opened her eyes, Jiang Chen placed a piece of bread in front of Sun Jiao. Sun Jiao snagged the toast as she looked at Jiang Chen cautiously.

"Speak your mind, what do you want?"

"Want? Didn’t you say I have to take care of your meals?" Jiang Chen rolled his eyes up. He was not that desperate to sleep with someone that could bite his dick off. Once he had the money in the modern world, girls would follow.

She was shocked for a brief moment before she realized it was part of the compensation package.

"This is breakfast. Three meals a day, but you probably have to eat outside for lunch. Let me grab a can for you." Even if this girl completely looted the bag, there was still food in the storage dimension. There was plenty of energy left to grab a can.

Sun Jiao was genuinely surprised. Her eyes felt watery. She saw too many tragedies and deaths over food, but this was the first time someone was afraid that she would go hungry.

She grabbed the canned food. Sun Jiao didn't want to look Jiang Chen in the eyes. She had the intention of robbing this guy and using him as a hostage in exchange for food from his partner.

Even though she immediately rejected that thought, the idea still indeed existed. She felt a profound sense of guilt.

"Breakfast… What is breakfast?" Sun Jiao feasted on the bread with her mouth full of food. She looked quite barbaric, but it was a rather amusing sight to see.

"If you don’t eat breakfast, it may increase your chance of getting stomach diseases." Jiang Chen muttered as he almost ignored that this was a different world. Most of the people were used to the uncertainty of food. "If you eat food in the morning, it would make you more energetic."

"Thank … you."

"Huh?" The voice was so faint that he couldn’t entirely make out what she said.

"Nothing." Sun Jiao licked the crumbs off of her lips as she savored the last piece of the bread. She looked at her rather greasy hands but resisted the temptation to lick her fingers. It was the first time she had the strange desire to save her face. She didn’t want someone to think she was barbaric, although that wasn’t necessarily the right way to put it either.

"I will do my best to find the gold in the bank’s vault… but it would be much harder to move them back here. "

Yes, this deserted city was full of abandoned vehicles. The EMP created by the nuclear weapon had destroyed the majority of the electronics in this city. Advanced technology became an obstacle to survival as the cars on the street were all products of the advancement. Even the internal combustion cars were integrated with high tech parts. Therefore, these cars were completely useless.

Without the proper maintenance and replacement by a professional, it was almost impossible to find a drivable car.

"Be careful. The goal is to understand the area. I want to know the surroundings and the exact location of the gold. That should be all. Try to come back before it gets dark."

"Ok, I know." Sun Jiao waved her hand as she inspected her equipment one last time. "Wanghai City’s night is full of danger. These zombies are much more intelligent without sunlight."

"Oh, can I see your EP status?" As Sun Jiao was about to depart, Jiang Chen opened his mouth and asked all of a sudden. He was curious as to what kind of ridiculous stats this girl had to beat him in one move.

Surprised, Sun Jiao immediately waved her EP. Jiang Chen was stunned.

****

User Name: Sun Jiao

Muscle Strength: 44

Bone Strength: 61

Reflex: 40

Brain Cell Strength: 13

Note: Level C Repair Vaccine, T-Virus Vaccine.

****

Jiang Chen never imagined that her delicate arms could exert three times his strength. Was that even humanly possible?!

After he made sure Sun Jiao left, Jiang Chen immediately traveled back to the modern world.

The time in both worlds was parallel. Therefore, it flowed at the same rate.

The battery, of course, cannot be charged in the apartment. As it would take who knows how long to charge 100 volts there. If Sun Jiao did not find him after she came back, there would be a lot of trouble. Thus, to charge, he had to steal electricity from elsewhere.

He sneaked into a small power substation in a neighboring community. With a profound sense of guilt, he cut open the rubber that transported electricity. He then sighed deeply, as he placed his right hand onto the wire.

The open current caused a flurry of sparks. The energy bar on his wrist was charged almost immediately. But of course, the entire community’s power jumped.

"Dammit, what’s wrong with the electricity company? Why did the power jump again? My ranked game…"

"Why do we have no power again? I am pissed…"

Waves of roars emerged from the neighboring community as residents searched for the cause. Without even closing the lid to the power substation, Jiang Chen immediately snuck away. He chose this place because it lacked surveillance.

Full of guilt, Jiang Chen escaped back into his rented apartment. "It looks like the power issue is an immediate concern. Should I ask someone to upgrade the circuit? But it would be difficult to explain the situation without causing suspicion. Should I move to another place? Or rent somewhere that can sustain large voltage machinery? Dammit, it would be better if I could replace electricity as the source of power."

To better visualize the remaining battery, Jiang Chen used a ruler to mark the energy bar with small increments.

Jiang Chen packed the food into his backpack as he envisioned his life in the future. At the same time, he ordered boxes of canned food, instant noodles and bread from Taobao. Jiang Chen looked at his near zero bank account balance, but he was not upset at all. He understood that very soon, the money he just spent would be pocket change for him in the future.

The entire bank’s gold! That would be a lot of money.

The only thing close to resembling his feeling was winning the lottery.

He also brought bandages, medicine, and other medical supplies. He estimated that he would spend quite some time in the post-apocalyptic world. He then spent 10% of the energy to pack two boxes of canned food and four boxes of instant noodle into the storage dimension. Although it took energy to store, it was better to be prepared.

He lit up a cigarette, as he placed his finger into the electrical socket. He waited as the battery charged. It would be a hassle to steal electricity again.

To pass the time, he played with the computer folded around his left arm.

The radiation level concerned Jiang Chen. He did not want to be exposed to possible diseases caused by radiation. He opened the help manual for radiation levels and studied through the notes. To his surprise, once the radiation level surpassed level 50, the user’s health would be affected. It was recommended to store some iodine in the EP to reduce radiation exposure.

He pressed the iodine extraction button as a thin needle appeared from the side of the EP. He had studied it before he placed the needle into the iodine alcohol on the counter.

The color of the iodine alcohol began fading, as it slowly turned colorless.

He stared at the slow moving iodine meter and the reduced radiation level. Surprised by the outcome, the problem that bothered him was easily solved.

In this case, he only needed to purchase some iodine pills from the pharmacy to resolve the radiation problem.

The fully charged Jiang Chen stretched his arms. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a few ingredients from the fridge. He cooked tomato fried eggs and pepper roasted meat, and sat down to enjoy his lunch with a cold beer. He gulped down the beer and let out an emotional sigh.

This simple meal would cost countless amounts of gold in the apocalypse. In that troubled world, gold would not be more valuable than rock. From Sun Jiao’s pure joy and satisfaction in devouring that can of food, Jiang Chen knew how important food must be in that world.

Jiang Chen imagined taking out a can of food at Liuding Town, and the countless attractive women that would sleep with him.

He finished the last bite of rice. He chewed on it carefully, as his mind wandered elsewhere.

[If world war three broke out in this world, what happened in the apocalyptic world would be repeated.]

He shivered at the thought and was afraid to think further.

"Haha, why did I start to think about these weird questions? I need to figure my life out first," he mocked at himself as he shook his head.

The first important step was to get the gold and then convert it into currency. Then, spend some time enjoying the life of a millionaire.

The first step would be to buy a mansion. A car would be necessary too.

Girlfriend? Why worry about that when there’s so much money?

Jiang Chen washed the dishes before putting them away neatly. He then picked up his heavy backpack.

Time travel. Wait.

He seemed to have thought of something. He opened the fridge and grabbed a can of coke.

Time travel initiated.

Chapter 4: Gold Bar

It took only a second, before Jiang Chen stepped onto the dusty hardwood floor.

He checked the energy bar on his wrist. To his surprise, it only cost him 40% this time to complete the travel. Maybe the energy storage upgraded with the number of the times charged?

Jiang Chen shook his head. It was great news for him, but he couldn’t why it happened.

As he sat on the luxurious sofa, he enjoyed the comfortable life not common in the modern world. He lit a cigarette and watched time pass.

From the mold-filled window, Jiang Chen saw a glimpse of Sun Jiao’s shadow in the distance. He took out his binoculars to confirm before he opened the door to let her in.

"This is the gold you wanted." He caught the bag and both of his hands suddenly dropped. Happiness overflowed his heart, as the bag was hefty. The bag weighed at least a couple of kilograms, but the girl threw it like a volleyball. The amount of power she possessed was daunting.

Jiang Chen glanced at her arms. Her slim arms didn’t contain any signs of muscle.

"That was so tiring. The bank had zombies everywhere. It took me almost two batteries of ammo to completely get rid of those gross creatures. The vault was also sealed by a heavy layer of steel boards that I couldn’t open. I got these gold bars from the VIP room."

Sun Jiao wiped the sweat off of her forehead and threw her backpack onto the ground. Even if the gold bars only weighed a couple of kilograms, combined with her equipment and supply, she almost encumbered 20 kilograms while traversing the long distance.

"Catch!"

"Hmm? This is …" Sun Jiao caught the coke as she gazed at him.

"You seemed to have liked it." He was a bit embarrassed after Sun Jiao stared at him for so long.

Her lips moved without a word. After moments of silence, she resumed her usual boldness. She opened the can and took a big sip out of the coke.

"Gulp, Gulp… Haha, this is awesome. This weather is so ridiculously hot. Hmm, this is cold?" Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen suspiciously.

"The fridge in the kitchen is still usable. The photocell and solar panel is working in this place." He did not lie about this. Even though most of the electronics were destroyed, the power system somehow remained intact.

Maybe someone lived here and fixed some of the electronics. But from the layers of dust on the ground, that was a long time ago.

"That’s fine. You wouldn’t tell me where this Coke came from even if I asked." Sun Jiao waved her hand to dismiss the thought. "Ok, what’s next? If we were to blow open the vault and move the gold here, it would take some professional help. At least, we need powerful explosives, or skilled hackers to break the electronic lock."

"Where can we find them?" The explosives were a problem. It was almost impossible to buy them in large quantities in the modern world because of its restrictive nature, especially given Jiang Chen’s social status.

"A lot of survivor bases have them, like Liuding Town." Envy flowed out of her eyes, as she gazed into the distance. "That’s a place people consider fun, even on wasteland…"

"Is it far from here?"

"Not too far, but a bit expensive. Except for the resident who owns the property and the labor who lost their freedom, visitors must pay one energy unit worth of crystals, or equivalently priced items to enter."

"One energy unit of crystals?" Jiang Chen was confused.

"It’s this thing." Sun Jiao searched in her pocket before grabbing a piece of darkened green crystal. "This piece of crystal has about 37 energy units left. You can use EP to check. These are quite difficult to find because only powerful mutants possess them on the back of their heads. If possible, I never want to meet those things again…"

Creatures that made this girl afraid? The thought of it sent a shiver down Jiang Chen’s spine.

He took the crystal and a faint attractive force pulled at his right arm. He was shocked. This thing could be used to charge the tattoo.

Jiang Chen’s facial expression remained calm. He played with it for a moment before returning it to Sun Jiao.

"What is one energy unit of crystals worth?"

"One-tenth of a can of meat or half of a normal can of food, ten nutrient supplies, one c-type battery, or three battery ammo. You can exchange so many things with it. This type of energy source is considered currency by many survival bases. You could even find a woman to sleep with you there." Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen mockingly. She enjoyed teasing this little guy.

"Hmm...37 energy units of crystal. I’ll use four cans of food in exchange?"

"Deal." Without hesitation, Sun Jiao threw the crystal into Jiang Chen’s hands. However, as if she just thought of something, she hesitantly explained, "Even if you have quite a lot of food, you lost out on the deal. If you ever trade like this in the future, people are going to take advantage of you…"

"Oh?" Jiang Chen shrugged. He didn’t care too much about the three energy unit difference.

"Although ten energy units is worth a can of food. It also depends on what kind it is. The majority of canned food contain mutant fish meat, or a lot of them are also filled with sand. Which are the best case scenarios. Some of the canned foods even include human meat…"

The voice was full of despair and numbness. Jiang Chen had difficulty breathing; he was out of words.

"Curry chicken, fried pork… This is the first time I have ever had these delicacies in my life." Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen full of awe. "Merchants use mutant cows to transport goods. I had the pleasure of having a meal with the beef from the mutant cows. Even the dry taste made me extremely satisfied."

"I trust you," Jiang Chen voice was quiet.

He felt a sudden fear overwhelm him. To Sun Jiao, he was powerless. If she desired his food, it would only take a blink of an eye to finish him.

Trust? Jiang Chen felt a deafening fear overwhelm him. He almost wanted to grab the gold, travel back to the modern world, and forget everything that happened here. With the gold bars, he could live like a millionaire.

He only realized now that this world was more complicated than he thought.

Maybe it was because of greed, or because of a strong sense of arrogance. After a hard internal battle in his head, he calmed down and resisted the temptation to flee.

His face was emotionless as he tried to disguise his fear.

"Trust?" Sun Jiao laughed. However, within her eyes, there was a flicker of emotions that she couldn’t hide. This distant word had long been extinct in this landscape; long buried by starvation and death. Although Jiang Chen said this valuable word to her, Sun Jiao unconsciously reacted with a disdained look.

With a sigh, Sun Jiao walked into the kitchen.

"Your naïveness is becoming very worrisome. However, I am not bothered by it."

"…" Jiang Chen was more relaxed as he heard her words. This time he made the right bet, Sun Jiao had no ill-intentions.

Otherwise, she would have had plenty of time to kill him and wouldn’t have waited this long. Jiang Chen finally felt relieved, from this thought that has been bothering him for the longest time.

As Sun Jiao was about to reach the door, she turned around. "Since you are my employer, not only do I need to ensure your safety, I have the responsibility of preventing you from being tricked. If someone is after your wealth, that is also a problem for me. If you ever trade in the future, you should bring me."

[She cares?]

"Don’t look at me like that! You are giving me goosebumps." Sun Jiao fled frantically from Jiang Chen’s sight. She ducked into the kitchen, and screamed in shock, "what! How is this possible? A fridge!"

Deception, and stories, the majority of Jiang Chen’s responses were lies. It was to avoid the imminent trouble and danger.

But the glimpse of emotion from her eyes was real.

At that one glimpse, to his surprise, the bold girl was not so annoying. She was ... cute?

"Stop eating canned food; tonight let’s eat a fresh meal! For celebrating my first employee." Jiang Chen laughed and dashed into the kitchen, filled with an overwhelming amount of joy.

Sun Jiao was stunned in front of the fridge, as she did not bother to dispute her employee status. She stared at the tomatoes and eggs in the refrigerator.

Jiang Chen put these fresh ingredients in before Sun Jiao came back.

"You…" Sun Jiao turned her head around slow, with a dumbfounded voice.

"Don’t ask. I know you have a lot of questions. We can discuss this while we eat dinner. Now, do you know how to cut tomatoes?"

Jiang Chen left the dazed Sun Jiao in place, as a proud smile stretched across his face.

He took out a couple of tomatoes and eggs. "Tonight, we will make tomato fried eggs!"

Chapter 5: Tomato Fried Eggs

The reason why he chose to cook this dish was because of his limited cooking ability. Hence, this was the only dish he was good at, since he cooked the same thing every day.

[Once I have money, maybe I should hire a maid? ] Jiang Chen thought, before he got rid of the idea immediately. His secret would cause too much hysteria. Therefore, a maid would be inconvenient in hiding the truth.

A girlfriend would be his priority.

He thought about the gold bars in the living room, as a mischievous and happy smile appeared on his face.

Sun Jiao’s mind was full of questions she wanted to ask. But instead, she stared at the steaming tomatoes and sniffed the delicious fragrance- she couldn’t remember how many times she had done so already.

Jiang Chen already said that her questions would be answered at the dinner table. She was in no rush to know now. She cut the tomatoes silently, but uncontrollably glanced at Jiang Chen who was mixing the egg. His faint but happy smile made her heart beat a little faster.

"Lightly… It looks like you are going to chop through the cutting board as well…"

"Ah, oh." Jiang Chen’s voice made Sun Jiao instantly look back at the chopping board. When she realized her irregular action, she felt a mixture of rage and embarrassment. But behind those emotions, a little bit of happiness was there as well.

[Happiness? What a distant word.]

She almost had to trace back to her time in the survival base.

Sun Jiao faintly remembered when she was young, the survival base’s door was still locked and it was almost like heaven in there.

No crimes, no class structure, and a society governed by Artificial Intelligence. Everyone equally shared the work and resources, and there was no conflict of interest. Everyone was kind and happy. Although people occasionally longed for the blue sky, nobody questioned their happiness. Compared to the wasteland, survival base 071 was heaven.

At the time, both of her parents were still alive. She had an adorable sister that was only one year younger. After the end of the lockdown period at the survival base, they both witnessed the first ray of the sunshine that shone through the cold steel door.

Then they lost each other.

She later learned that a lot of bandits picked poorly defended and newly opened survival bases as raid targets. They used the remaining conscience of those people and looted their survival supplies and population. It was at the raid, that she lost her family.

After that incident, she destroyed any remaining conscience she had, and became a qualified "wasteland survivor".

But for some strange reason, her frozen emotions melted a little now.

[Family?]

Sun Jiao had an illusion that she was home. She soon realized what she was thinking and her face turned red.

These past two days were the most emotional she had been in the last few years. With a bitter smile on her face, she shook her head. She then placed the sliced tomatoes into a bowl.

To suppress her emotions, she only had to take a deep breath. However, the feeling that touched the softest part of her heart could no longer be hidden.

Even Sun Jiao, herself, didn’t realize that the man standing beside her became a bit more important in her heart.

As he watched Sun Jiao devour the dish, Jiang Chen laughed at the thought. This was the first time he saw someone eat this dish with that amount of excitement.

"I know you have a lot of questions. For example, why do I have so much food." Jiang Chen put down his bowl and looked at Sun Jiao quietly.

"I can’t explain how I feel." Sun Jiao also stopped eating as she gazed into Jiang Chen’s eyes. With a puzzled voice, she replied, "you gave me a feeling that … it’s almost like you are from a fairytale."

"Psh, a fairytale?" Jiang Chen was astonished.

"It’s from the books published before the war. In the survival base, we called them fairytales." Sun Jiao sighed as she continued to mock herself, "everyone lived in harmony, with families, friends, and even lovers. Regardless of what you think, it must be a fairytale. Like the first time sunlight shone on me, when I was seven years old."

Jiang Chen was silent. He walked to the fridge and grabbed a few cans of beer. He turned around and gave her an assuring smile. "Where I am from, when people feel tired and lost, they have a drink."

Sun Jiao chugged the beer as her throat let out a satisfied noise.

"Grrr. This does not taste as good as Coke."

"Nevertheless, it is a good way to let out your emotions. Which is a good thing at the end of the day." Jiang Chen also took a long sip of his beer. How many times did he drink alone? It wasn’t until after graduation did Jiang Chen start to enjoy the feeling of tipsiness. He ventured into an unknown city, worked at an unknown company, and was burdened with the stress of work and life after he was fired.

The cruel reality shattered the porcelain tower in his dream.

When he received his notice of termination, he felt the world collapse around him.

At least here, there was someone that drink with him. This apocalyptic world is not as bad as he imagined.

The two downed cans and cans of beers to use the numbness of the alcohol to temporarily release the stress stored at the bottom of the heart.

"Burp… No, I feel… My EP, my EP is not opening up?"

"That is not the EP, that is my shoe, fool." Jiang Chen roared and snatched away the empty bowl from Sun Jiao hand and fiercely stepped on it.

"You dare to take my stuff? Do you think you lived long enough? Burp…" Sun Jiao smiled, drunk, while looking at Jiang Chen with her neck tilted.

The frightening look instantly made Jiang Chen sober, but it was just for one instant. The intoxication gave him the courage as he threw the can backward and stood up.

"Fu*k, bit*h, what am I doing wrong? Hehe… Once I have money, I will tie you up and fu*k you… hehe… burp." Because Jiang Chen had a bowl stepped under him, he fell awkwardly to the ground.

Alcohol tore away the mask that they wore to disguise themselves. Jiang Chen didn’t want to think, he just wanted to express his raw emotions and the negativities from his heart.

That woman, Jiang Chen was gritting his teeth, a cold and expressionless surfaced in his head again.

Bang.

A can hit the ground.

"Who are you swearing at? Burp…" Sun Jiao got under the table and climbed on top of Jiang Chen, she was laughing, drunk, with the seductive red lips breathing out the intoxicated breaths.But it was Sun Jiao in front of his eyes.

The terrifying 44 strengths could easily rip Jiang Chen apart.

"Get down, I want to be on the top." Jiang Chen muttered and pushed Sun Jiao who sat firmly on top of him and pushed himself up.

"Hehe? Burp…" Sun Jiao lost her balance and almost got thrown to the ground. The agitated Miss Sun Jiao grinned, grabbed Jiang Chen’s collar, and used the three times strength to flip him.

"I want to be on the top." Sun Jiao’s eyes narrowed and stared Jiang Chen’s monstrous eyes. Unexpectedly, she suddenly kissed him with force.

"Fu*k! You bit my teeth…" Jiang Chen muttered out, words unclear. He gave up twisting around and put his hands around Sun Jiao’s waist.

The giant but soft balls squished on Jiang Chen’s chest made breathing feel difficult. He tried to push away the annoying balls but couldn’t move them by an inch. The seductive soft shape changed with his force.

"Ahhh…" The alcoholic smell blew on Jiang Chen’s face destroyed the last standing rationality.

They were both drunk.

Alcohol is the best emotion catalyst.

Sun Jiao sucked on Jiang Chen’s lower lips, with passion, the 36D breasts pressed against his own chest. Sweat covered her fair neck, the sliver between their lips outlined a lustful image. The slippery tongue audaciously broke through Jiang Chen’s final defense in his mouth, she fought, raided…

Gradually, the annoying and bothersome clothes were ripped apart in the brawl. The softness of the skin made Jiang Chen roar in comfort. Perhaps because of the masculine nature, he wanted to push the beauty on top of him on the ground, but the powerful Miss Sun Jiao pressed on his arm to stop his wish coming true.

Her beautiful pupils narrowed and she forcefully pulled on Jiang Chen’s belt. She sat across Jiang Chen’s with Jiang Chen’s saliva still on the tip of her lips. The playful tongue licked the red lips dry because of her desire as she unbuttoned her skirt in a rush…

"Ouch…" The slight agony and warm penetrative feeling made Sun Jiao furrow as she let out a low but discomfort moan.

The feeling of his lower body meant Jiang Chen could no longer control the fire in his body. At the same time, the force on his shoulders seemed to have decreased.

Alcohol is beautiful, it could make the sober drop their persistence to rationality, it could make people throw away the fixation on consequence in pursuit of the most primal but lovely joy.

With an explosive roar, Jiang Chen somehow pushed Miss Sun Jiao who gave up her defense down. His hands holding the fit and long legs, maintaining the positions, and…

…

There was not much memory when Jiang Chen recalled the frenzy that happened that night. He just faintly remembered that the battle went from the bottom of the table to beside the fridge, from the kitchen to the living room, then down the hallway all the way to the bedroom.

On the sofa, the staircase, in front of the window, the carpet…

The marks of the battle were everywhere.

Jiang Chen didn’t know why his tenacity was so great given it was his first time. From the red left on him, it was Sun Jiao’s first time.

With a roar and moan, the suppressed feeling and weariness were all released with that hot stream before the mansion returned to peace.

"Sorry…" Jiang Chen became sober and discovered Sun Jiao was the same. But Sun Jiao had no intention to stop this brawl, he chose to continue.

"Is this how you’re going to be responsible?" For some reason, Sun Jiao didn’t feel too much angry emotion, it was more of relieved state.

It felt like she found her sense of belonging? Although the man didn’t look too reliable from the appearance.

"I will be responsible." Jiang Chen’s face turned red and said awkwardly.

"Pshhh," A charming smile appeared, she changed into a comfortable position to continue lie in Jiang Chen’s arms while drawing circles with the tip of her finger, "Although you’re a man, you’re very cute at times."

Not annoyed, that must mean she liked him. If she felt repulsive, the man’s head would have been ripped off when she became sober. Sun Jiao’s thought process was simple. As someone who ventured in the apocalypse for years, she followed her emotion. Although it was the first time she had her impulse…

"Ahem!" Jiang Chen almost choked on Sun Jiao’s words. He wanted to argue back but was drawn by the massiveness in the front. He didn’t realize Sun Jiao’s peculiar expression for a while before he moved his sight away with a fake smile.

"Does my chest look good?" It was impossible to imagine a woman could be so straightforward. But since Jiang Chen knew that Sun Jiao didn’t understand what being reserved meant, he let it go.

"They look great." Jiang Chen gulped and replied with honesty.

"You just fu*ked me." Sun Jiao was like a stuffed kitten while fondling with the last remaining mice as she teased Jiang Chen.

"Yes." Jiang Chen gulped.

"Are men always this boring after they had sex?" Sun Jiao put her arm under his head in a position that could not be more seductive. An audacious girl could be so womanly too.

Or rather, the vast contract between her feminine and brutality made her possess a more inexplicable beauty.

"…" Jiang Chen felt as if she had a firm grasp of him, he felt powerless.

[Fine, I have no strength compared to him…] Jiang Chen tried to comfort since she came from the civilized. While here… although technological advanced, it was a monstrous world.

"Are you not going to say you’re going to marry me, or protect me for the entire life? Didn’t they all say this in the past?"

"… I can’t make promises like that, or rather, it is more practical that you protect me." After a moment of silence, Jiang Chen sighed, with a sincere voice, "But, I can promise you to feed you, if you are willing to become mine."

"…" Sun Jiao blankly stared at the genuineness on Jiang Chen’s face and her eyes became to feel hazy.

It has been long since she wondered in the city filled with only monsters and zombies.

Wander, survive, and then died at the hands of the monsters or humans. It was the finale for a wanderer like her.

But, someone was willing to become her dependent…

"Psh, I’m not that easy to feed." Thousands of words turned into a laugh and a lighthearted joke. To the future, Sun Jiao was lost. She still had her pursuit.

"I can definitely feed you."

"I have a lot of enemies." Sun Jiao was no longer as collected.

"I’m not afraid."

"I, I still have things I need to do." Sun Jiao voice trembled, Jiang Chen’s oppressive stance made her at a disadvantage all of a sudden.

"I will help you."

"…" A short silence ensued between the two, only the gentle breathing between the two.

Jiang Chen’s throat felt dry. He suddenly developed an odd feeling to the woman in front of him. Although rationality told him that it was unwise to stay too connected with the world as his ultimate goal was to bring the wealth back…

But… screw the rationality!

Jiang Chen didn’t feel regret as he quietly waited for Sun Jiao’s reply.

"… Then what are you waiting for? My man." A smile suddenly emerged on Sun Jiao’s face, the smile dazzled Jiang Chen.

Seeing the lack of response, Sun Jiao was slightly irritated, but she soon moved her lips closer to Jiang Chen’s ear.

"Feed me now." The warm air once again blew away Jiang Chen’s rationality.

Followed by a joyous roar, a flirtatious moan, a new battle erupted…

Chapter 6: Roshan

The gray concrete road, filled with cracks, stretched towards the horizon. The unknown looking plants vigilantly sprouted through the cracks on the concrete, as it bathed in the unhealthy looking ray of sunshine.

The buildings in the vicinity had no closed windows. They were all shattered in the nuclear explosion. Some of the abandoned cars occupying the streets had windshields that were cracked but remained intact. They were made with higher quality glass than the windows.

It was also possible to spot the occasional sleek looking "metal box." Sun Jiao explained that NATO’s paratrooper previously used them as shock absorbers. However, as she talked about the city’s history of invasions, she didn’t express too much emotion. It probably had to do with the fact that she was raised in the survival base and the concept of patriotism was non-existent.

But when she mentioned the history of wars, she openly expressed her disdain. Her eyes showed that both sides, in the war, were complete dumba*ses.

"Is it going to rain?" Jiang Chen raised his head as he gazed into the sky. The thick gray clouds covered the sun, as if it was the clouds that made the sunshine looked so unnatural. There was a suppressing yellow light mixed with the ray of sunshine. He was curious as to how the plants grew here.

"Those are not clouds. Those are radiation dust." Sun Jiao found the comment quite funny. He was almost as naïve as she was when she left survival base 071.

"That means we are completely exposed to radiation?" His only understanding of radiation was from the Fukushima nuclear reactor accident. He remembered, at the time, all the salt was purchased clean from the stores.

Although it's absurd looking back now, it was easy to imagine the emphasis people placed on health in the modern world. Radiation was as fearful as it could get.

Sun Jiao wasn’t too fazed. "Don’t worry, as long as there’s iodine in your EP, the radiation level will not surpass the limit. You also don’t need to worry about growing a third hand. However, if you are in front of a nuclear reactor or a former government’s parliament, where radiation is high, it would be wiser to wear a protective suit," Sun Jiao warned as she rolled her eyes again.

Although they had an exciting night, there was no sign of Sun Jiao being fatigued. But Jiang Chen felt a bit drained from all the action.

It was not to say that Jiang Chen was weak, regardless how much endurance he had. There was no way he could compare physically to a female Superman that constantly fought in battles.

[Those ridiculous body stats…]

Jiang Chen could not imagine that, without any signs of muscle, she was much stronger than him who at least maintained some muscles.

The decision to venture out together was completely HER idea.

"Since you said you are going to help me, then you have to study some combat related knowledge. Tomorrow let’s venture out together. At least you need to learn how to shoot, and how to protect yourself."

"Hmm, well, I do think I can be a backup personnel."

"Be quiet… tomorrow we’ll go to the survival camp at Sixth Street. You need to inject the anti-infectious vaccine. Without it, it would be too dangerous. You have to go."

Therefore, Jiang Chen had to carry the rifle as he quietly followed.

They continued to chat along the way, but for some reason, she didn’t ask about his origin. Since she didn’t ask, Jiang Chen did not bring up the topic either. Jiang Chen knew that she stopped asking because she developed trust in him. When the time comes, she knew he would tell her.

For the same reason, Jiang Chen didn’t pursue the topic of why she was at the mansion in the first place.

"We’ll pass a zombie infested area up front. The best place to practice shooting is the battlefield itself. Get familiar with the weapon first, but don’t fire, " she explained, as she took out a high-powered looking rifle from behind. She then looked at Jiang Chen, as she continued to answer his questions.

"SK10, short-to-medium range laser rifle. The best kind of weapon against zombies would be lasers because it has low noise and high accuracy. However, to improve your shooting, let’s start with bullet weapons first," She pointed at the gun Jiang Chen was holding and continued.

"PK200 assault rifle. 7.62 mm in diameter. These bullet guns are not as accurate as the laser ones, but the high penetration power and reliability cannot be underestimated. Even if you use the barrel to smash your enemies, it would be durable enough to get the job done. The safe is on the right side of the rifle, remember to keep it closed if you are not firing."

The sleek looking gun barrel had a futuristic design. At the handle, Jiang Chen saw a small symbol.

PAC.

The two of them walked through the empty street. The occasional three feet long rat crossing the road would always scare Jiang Chen, but he got used to it after a while. These mutants were everywhere. Jiang Chen even saw a cockroach the size of a dog as it fled into the shadows of the street. Their one-meter long tentacles were disturbing to see.

"Not all creatures possess attacking abilities. For example, while rats are large, biologically they still preserved their natural fear of human. While cockroaches certainly look frightening, due to the source of their food, they won’t attack any living things." They were approaching the intersection as Sun Jiao raised her rifle in caution. "Zombies would stop all activity during the day time. The mutated cells in the back of their heads require a stable environment to photosynthesis. Shocking right? That’s why these zombies survived all these years without starving to death. I think some of the zombies even evolved to a point where they can reproduce asexually."

Sun Jiao joked around for a bit while keeping her guard up. "What we need to be careful of are the carnivores. They usually eat zombies or other creatures at the bottom of the food chain. However, if they do encounter a human, they are not picky eaters. Lastly, the most dangerous species are humans. If someone points at your head, don’t hesitate and fire immediately."

Her decisiveness made Jiang Chen feel a sudden coldness run down his spine.

Astounded by the cruelty on the wasteland, Jiang Chen was also amazed. The city developed its own complex yet distinct ecosystem. Nature was truly compelling in adapting to the idea of survival of the fittest.

Under the iron forests, there were no signs of civilization. Only an uncivilized land remained. Despite holding a highly advanced weapon, Jiang Chen did not feel safe at all.

"Shh." Sun Jiao suddenly stopped and raised her right hand to stop Jiang Chen.

"Don’t point your gun at me, dumba*s. Watch my back," Sun Jiao cursed at Jiang Chen under her voice.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and opened the safe, as he pointed the gun directly into the peaceful street.

"This is odd, all the mutants in the surrounding area disappeared. They must have sensed their predator." There was a shiver of nervousness in Sun Jiao’s voice. The hint of nervousness made the almost calm Jiang Chen nervous again.

"Predator?"

"Carnivores of some sort. Hopefully, it is not a Death Claw."

Although he didn’t know what a Death Claw was, Jiang Chen heard the concern in her voice.

At that moment, a loud blast came from somewhere far down the street. Immediately, a deep but loud roar followed and a burst of gunshots ensued.

"There is a battle up front, come with me." Sun Jiao instructed after she heard the noise in the distance. Without retreating, she moved in the direction of the battle.

"I mean, are you sure we are not going the wrong way?"

Sun Jiao didn’t respond to Jiang Chen’s question; he had to follow as he had no other choice.

A burst of howls erupted from a hideous yet vicious looking face. Saliva was flowing from its mouth, while it swung the almost broken lamp post. The fat on the creature’s body looked as if it was about to burst.

"Focus fire. Throw the explosives over! Quick!"

"Ammo! I need ammo!"

"Ahhh, my hand!" A flying car door cut through a poor guy’s arm, as it penetrated into the wall not far behind from him.

The monster was angered, as it unleashed all of its power onto the soldier's defense line.

The mutant was under heavy fire from the not so well equipped soldiers. They tried to suppress the raging meatball. A few soldiers ducked under friendly fire while avoiding the debris that the monster throw. They continued to throw explosives at the monster.

"… It's Roshan!" As Sun Jiao backed into the corner, shock was written all over her face. "How did it appear here…"

Jiang Chen was even more surprised. With his mouth wide open, he was completely stunned.

[What the hell is that? That thing is massive!]

Roshan pressed forward, as it bathed in the heavy fire. The situation was looking dire for the soldiers. While the bullets did affect Roshan’s movement, it was far from stopping him. The thick layer of fat was like a bulletproof vest, which stopped the bullets from penetrating through his skin.

The soldiers were out of solutions. Even the leader of the squad immediately sent out an order to approach the Roshan with explosives. However, the thick layer of fat was designed for more than bullet protection.

Although the waves of attack were not effective, the Roshan’s movement was hindered by it. The Roshan could no longer make any advancements forward.

At that moment, a homing missile penetrated the air, as it cast a gloomy trial of death directly at the Roshan.

But the missile did not hit the Roshan. It skidded across the Roshan’s face, as it impacted the building behind it.

Boom! Following the impact, a wave of the violent explosions ensued. The steel reinforced concrete broke into pieces as it left a massive hole in the building behind the Roshan.

It seemed to have sensed the danger, the Roshan’s body of fat began shaking violently, as its power was even more explosive and fierce. Its bloody mouth opened wide, as if it was letting out an angry roar, but the roar was silent.

Another missile flew across the battlefield. Following the track of the first missile, this one directly penetrated into the Roshan’s bloody mouth.

In seconds, blood, brain, and fat exploded into small droplets. The content of the Roshan's body filled the street.

The Roshan, without its head, fell to the ground. The soldiers celebrated their victory.

Soldiers walked out of their covers as the battle came to an end. They hugged each other and helped the wounded. Then, they cleaned the battlefield in an organized manner.

"99-Type Anti-tank Missile, that is pretty much the only thing that could destroy the Roshan. The Roshan’s fat is very thick, which would make any bullet type weapon obsolete. At the same time, the Roshan's bad habit of throwing things makes fighting one a nightmare." Sun Jiao felt relieved as she let out a sigh.

"What are they doing?" Jiang Chen glanced at the people who were dissecting Roshan as he tried to keep the food in his stomach down.

"Collecting the crystals. Also, Roshan’s fat can be used as nutrients in the nutrient supply. Oh, I think the blood cell can also be used as ingredients in the vaccines."

Nutrient supply? Why does it sound like food?

Jiang Chen shivered as he promised himself that he would never touch that nutrient supply. Wouldn’t that be equivalent to eating Roshan’s meat?

Sun Jiao smiled as she seemed to have guessed why Jiang Chen was grossed out. She then took Jiang Chen to the group of soldiers.

Sensing their approach, a soldier walked over. He then examined the group of two.

With professionalism, he spoke, "Sixth Street welcomes you. Based on the necessary procedure, I need to inspect your gene code."

Gene code was a type of code based on an algorithm developed through a person’s genetic sequence, and was used as EP’s user ID. Due to EP’s broad adoption, and the uniqueness of each genetic sequence, it was used as a form of ID. In the apocalyptic world, the government didn’t exist. Therefore, to prove one’s identity, DNA was the only option.

In some governed survival bases, the entrance was dependent on the inspection of the gene code. The goal was to find criminals who violated the law in the survival base.

After they had displayed their EP, the soldier allowed both of them to pass politely.

"I always thought only barbarians existed in the wasteland. I can’t believe I can see some traces of civilization." Jiang Chen’s cautious heart calmed down as he saw the soldiers did not bother them any further.

Sun Jiao grinned as she heard Jiang Chen’s statement.

"Oh, my opinion is the opposite of yours. I think civilization exists everywhere on this piece of land. It’s just that its form is rather unique."

The steel gate slowly opened, as the tension within the camp decreased. Behind the sandbags, Jiang Chen saw the Anti-tank Missile that destroyed Roshan. The vicious cannon spread an eerie vibe as it just stood there. The ground was littered with its large metal shells.

Jiang Chen followed Sun Jiao into the camp.

Sixth Street was a harbor that welcomed travelers of the wasteland. Its philosophy was to protect the order in a land filled with chaos. But it would be naïve to consider Sixth Street as the enforcer of justice.

Chapter 7: The Sixth Street

Civilization transcended through time, as history unfolded the successes and failures of a species. Humanity was a product of human adaptation and increased the understanding of humans themselves. Civilization hence existed as the cultivation of all the spiritual, intellectual, and physical discoveries of humankind. It has no accurate definition and can exist in any form.

Therefore, civilization existed at this place. But the definition was different than what Jiang Chen believed.

The technological level at Sixth Street was all over the place. A soldier carried an old automatic rifle with a cigar in the other hand and stared blankly into space. While a merchant, with an advanced full-sensory computer, calculated the price of goods. People with missing limbs were everywhere. Some used canes while others were geared with robotic arms that were agiler than a real leg.

The lives of the Sixth Street residents were also drastically different.

People starved to the bones crowded the streets. They no longer even have the energy to howl. Uniformed soldiers, in groups of three, overlooked the road. They ignored the starved refugees and hookers on the street.

Like machines, the dark shades disguised any emotions they had.

"Absolute neutrality. That is Sixth Street’s founding principle on this wasteland. The laws are rather simple here. Murder and theft will be punished by death, tax fraud will be punished by eviction, and intentional harm will result in jail time," Sun Jiao explained to Jiang Chen as he tried to get familiar with the rules.

"Then, why is that guy not shot?" Jiang Chen swallowed his spit as he stared in disbelief. A man was beating a woman to death. The starved woman did not fight back. The man sensed Jiang Chen stare and gave Jiang Chen a friendly smile.

"That’s the inspector. They are responsible for cleaning up the corpses at the ghetto," Sun Jiao answered with ease, but Jiang Chen could sense her dislike for this place.

That woman was clearly alive.

"The inner circle at the Sixth Street is a bit more organized, but it’ll cost us one crystal energy. We are here for some small exchanges, so the outside market should be more than sufficient," Sun Jiao said avoiding the previous topic.

"…" Jiang Chen nodded in silence.

It was a twisted civilization.

The outside market was littered with filth, but it was much better than the ghetto. The thief that got shot today was thrown into the dump. At night, the inspector would drag the body into the farm. It would then get mixed in with the lard that they looted from the Roshan and get made into fertilizers.

Some of the more famous, grand thieves, were nailed directly to the wall.

"Roger Clarkson, known as the werewolf, perpetrated three murders at Sixth Street and was shot by the security team in the sewage."

A close examination of the wall explained the death of the criminals.

The name suggested that the guy was a foreigner, but it was nothing surprising since NATO’s troops had previously landed in this city. A lot of people remained here.

At the front of the market, two rather clean looking merchants were arguing fiercely. They seemed to have reached a conclusion in the end, as they signed both their names. Under the supervision of the market regulator, one side put a piece of crystal onto the crystal counting machine. The other one leashed out ten barely clothed women.

Indeed, they were on leashes.

Every woman's slim and pale body was chained with a collar shaped electronic lock. Their spirits seemed to have escaped their bodies as they blindly obeyed the order.

Their graceful figures were stunning to the human eye. They were like dolls with almost flawless skin, but a barcode tattooed on their cheeks ruined the perfect image. It's a symbol that typically appeared on products only.

The merchant was satisfied by the "products" he had just purchased. He waved his hand as the women were loaded onto the truck, that was leaving the market.

"New Ray Hotel," with her eyes fixed in the direction the vehicle, Sun Jiao slowly let those words out of her mouth.

Jiang Chen noticed that Sun Jiao’s hands clutched into fists.

"Hotel?"

"It’s a brothel. The goal of it is to provide full services to all customers. I think you understand exactly what kind of services they provide. At that place, female labors are expendable, since people with weird fetishes exist everywhere. I heard once from a not-so-smart guy, who was bragging at a bar in Liuding Town, how soft the girls were. Soft, as in an edible way."

Jiang Chen shivered, as if he could almost imagine the hell those spiritless women go through.

"That slave merchant is probably from the force that occupied survival base 101. They use cloning technology and nutrient supply to provide low-cost clones. The people cloned are more like products than they are human."

"So, what exactly is a survival base?" Jiang Chen looked at Sun Jiao’s emotionless eyes as he opened his mouth in disbelief.

"It’s something rather peculiar. Each survival base had a unique design philosophy to increase its survival probability," she shrugged as she continued to explain, "I was born in survival base 71. Now that I think about it, I was quite fortunate. The design philosophy was to use A.I. to govern human nature. Although my life was structured, at least I was happy. Some of the survival bases were not as lucky." A cruel smile, unfit for her age, appeared on her charming face.

"I heard before that one survival base was designed to use people to govern people. It aimed to create a spiritual leader that motivates people’s desire to survive. It was clear how nave the designer was. The "spiritual leader" only enforced justice for a few years before he neglected all human consciousness and became a barbaric tribe leader. He used the security measure in the place to eliminate all males and left all the women as his sex slaves. For survival base 101, I’d assume it was a human-less survival base."

Shocked by the harsh truth, Jiang Chen forced himself to remain calm. However, he didn’t completely understand Sun Jiao’s words.

"Human-less survival base? What is a survival base without survivors?"

"Hehe, it stored the DNA of the human race’s elites. After the survival base reached its time limit, the breeding system automatically "manufactured" perfect bodies. It then used virtual reality to produce years of memories within a short amount of time. I don’t know what the designer considered, but they did not realize how popular these "people" would be after the war." Sun Jiao’s words were full of mockery. Jiang Chen remained silent and continued to listen.

[Is this the end of civilization…]

"We are here." Sun Jiao’s voice abrupted Jiang Chen’s thought as she dragged him into a store.

The store was Sixth Street market’s official purchasing station. It was responsible for evaluating the price of goods necessary for the survival camp and make purchases accordingly. Although canned food and batteries could all be used as currency in most survival bases, these trade rules were not applicable at the "prosperous" Sixth Street. Therefore, it was necessary for a credible organization to enforce a consistent currency. It also simplified the taxation process.

Crystals were the source of energy for high power equipment. It acted as a hard currency in any survival base. Its ease of access also made it match all of the characteristics of money.

Although it would be much more profitable to open his own store and sell canned food, the "wealthy" Jiang Chen chose the simpler option of selling it directly to the Sixth Street officials.

Sun Jiao did not stop him as she noticed he didn’t want to stay here much longer.

"Items." The mechanical voice echoed through the window.

Jiang Chen opened his backpack. He took out one of the items and placed on the table.

The trader let out a loud gasp.

Jiang Chen heard a shiver of disbelief from the tone. Then, he felt all eyes were on him, without any intention of hiding their greed or desire.

Uncontrollably, Jiang Chen looked at Sun Jiao with pleading eyes. Sun Jiao signaled Jiang Chen to remain calm. No one dared to break the rules here. At least before they leave Sixth Street, they are safe.

"Sir, do you have any more of this?" The tone had a mixture of respect.

Fresh, canned meat. Even the elites that lived within the inner circle only ate the meat of mutant cows, and force-sprouted vegetables. The trader almost questioned the sensor because the screen printed <Fresh cow meat. The expiration date is 127 days. The toxic substance is far below the consumption threshold. The food quality is – perfect!> Meat in itself was considered a luxury, but fresh beef was the ultimate luxury. These things are almost extinct in the apocalyptic world. Finding an unmutated cow in the entire world was impossible! Even if there was one, it could only be in the far north where the radiation level was relatively low.

In Sixth Street or the entire wasteland, the majority of people had no access to healthy food. In most situations, the survivors chose nutrient supply as their primary source. Those were mostly composed of mutant protein and the taste was lackluster, as it was only a means for survival.

Out of everyone on the wasteland, only Jiang Chen was lavish enough to eat "healthy food" every meal.

What was even more absurd was that he complained about the taste of canned food being worse than fresh food.

"I have plenty of them."

"Please come to the VIP room. There will be a designated trader at your service." The trader smiled at Jiang Chen while he sped through the process. After a brief moment, a pretty-looking girl approached Jiang Chen.

"Sir, please follow me." The female trader mischievously smiled at Jiang Chen as she led them towards the VIP room. The goal of the room was to protect the privacy of the customers. If someone displayed valuable goods in the grand hall, he would be dead immediately after he stepped out of Sixth Street.

As they pushed open the ancient wooden door, the fragrance of tea emerged from the carefully decorated room. A traditional wooden table was supplemented by real leather sofas. In the middle of the chamber was a set of burning incense. The antique porcelain tea set only added to the place's glorifying elegance. This VIP room was quite similar to the tea rooms in the modern world.

"Please come in, Sir." The gorgeous female trader welcomed Jiang Chen. Her cleavage slightly exposed. Sun Jiao grinned at the scene.

The way the female trader looked at him made him feel slightly uncomfortable, almost as if she was going to eat him. However, Jiang Chen didn’t give it much thought as he walked into the room.

As the female trader was about the enter the room and close the door, Sun Jiao slipped in.

The female trader glanced at Sun Jiao with slight anger, but she was met with a defiant stare.

The female trader saw the enormous pair of breasts Sun Jiao had and a look of defeat crossed her face. However, she still maintained a professional smile and closed the door behind her.

Jiang Chen had, clearly, no idea about the fierce exchange that happened within a few seconds.

All transactions over 100 crystals must be done in the VIP room for privacy purposes. At the same time, it was a strategy to establish relationships with the wealthy. It was no news that at Sixth Street, the VIP room also offered extra "intimate" services.

Professional female traders used the "extra" services to make tips, and Sixth Street exchange would gain favorable reviews from major clients. It was a win-win situation.

But since Miss Sun Jiao was there, the female trader’s dream for a big tip was shattered.

After the cans had been evaluated, the transaction was cleared. Twenty cans of perfect quality meat. The exchange paid a hefty price of 50 crystals per can, because these cans far exceeded the necessity of being just food and was considered a luxury. Therefore, if the exchange auctioned these among the elites, the price would easily double. After all, these were as rare as it could be.

Because of this, Sun Jiao complained to Jiang Chen countless times. But Jiang Chen didn’t seem to be bothered by that fact; he was quite satisfied.

How much was a can even worth? However, one crystal was enough to charge the multiverse bracelet by 10%. Therefore, he no longer needed to steal electricity.

There was no way to lose in the trade.

"Do you know what the VIP room is for?" Sun Jiao suddenly asked, as they stepped into the crowded street.

"Hmm? A place to exchange multiple items?" Jiang Chen paused for a split second, as he was confused by the question.

Sun Jiao suddenly laughed so hysterically that she needed to hold her stomach. "Of course you don’t know."

"I don’t think this is funny." Jiang Chen blankly stared at Sun Jiao.

Just as Sun Jiao finished having her fun, she whispered into Jiang Chen's ear with a smirk, "it’s a place where you receive intimate service.

The light breath tingled his sensations. He was used to Sun Jiao’s flirting, so he did not blush or run away like before. Instead, he enjoyed the feeling.

"Don’t you hate me for ruining your chance of having a great time?" Sun Jiao jokingly asked. "If I stood outside, maybe she would have given you the intimate service. That girl is probably still cursing at me for ruining her business."

"Why would I hate you? I prefer to get intimate service from you." Jiang Chen also had a mischievous smile on his face. He approached Sun Jiao’s ear and in retaliation, he also blew into it.

She blushed as she was new to the experience herself. Although she assumed her role as someone older than Jiang Chen, she was not.

Suddenly, Sun Jiao’s eyes lit up in caution. "Someone is following us."

"Who?" Jiang Chen paused as he subconsciously wanted to turn his head.

"Don’t turn your head. Pretend like nothing happened. Nobody dares to do anything here. I have my ways of dealing with them, my boss," Sun Jiao said as she bit Jiang Chen’s ear. In other people's eyes, they were a loving couple.

Because someone was following them, they sped up their itinerary.

Sun Jiao took Jiang Chen to a hospital looking place. He learned that the place was for vaccines and genetic injections.

After a total of 55 crystals, the doctors injected the vaccine and genetic injections into Jiang Chen’s arm. One of them was a T-type vaccine which prevented zombie infection. The other, was a C-type genetic injection. Based on the doctor’s description, its effects included an increase in muscular strength, reflex, and bone strength between 10-25 points. The body’s ability would increase gradually over three days.

There were some other useful injections in the store, and Jiang Chen selectively purchased a few. They were all beneficial in improving the body’s performance and combat powers. After all, strength was necessary to protect the wealth; he couldn’t hide behind Sun Jiao for his whole life.

However, Jiang Chen still thought it was much cooler to hire someone to fight for you than to fight yourself.

Immediately after, they replenished their ammunitions at the firearm store. Sun Jiao’s assault rifle used the C-type battery as ammo, and five clips of ammo cost only one energy unit.

The PK200 rifle that Jiang Chen used, the 7.62mm ammo, were a bit more expensive. 360 rounds of ammo cost a total of 4 crystals. While Sun Jiao was uncertain about making the purchase, Jiang Chen paid the full price without hesitation.

Canned food for firearms, it was a win for him in any situation.

Of course, the uncivilized world would not understand this.

On the wasteland, laser weapons were without a doubt the most economical and effective weapon of choice. Most short-mid range laser rifles were sufficient in any terrain within the city. Only long range rifles cost a significant amount of energy. For Sun Jiao’s rifle, its effective range was only 400 meters. After that, its power would decrease significantly. But one C-type battery was enough to provide 200 shots. If overheating was not a problem, its power could directly match that of a machine gun.

As to bullet weapons, its benefits included an effective firing distance and immunity against energy shields. For the PCA manufactured PK200 assault rifle, if the gun were equipped with a scope, it would be as effective as a sniper rifle. Although it was a bit of a waste for Jiang Chen to use it, it fitted his need. The reliability of bullet type weapons was much higher compared to laser rifles. An EMP grenade would render a laser rifle completely useless, but a bullet weapon would continue to function. If there were any malfunctions, Sun Jiao would know how to solve the problem, even though Jiang Chen would be clueless.

"Let’s stay here tonight." Sun Jiao watched the searing sun make its exit into the horizon and subtly peeked at the follower.

"But." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he felt extremely unsafe about being followed.

"The night will disguise all the dangers," Sun Jiao replied calmly with a fierce smile, "and it is also our opportunity to be the dangerous one."

Chapter 8: Huizhong Mercenaries

The Tulip Hotel sat between the borders of the inner and outer circle. The location was near Sixth Street’s most prosperous market, and it was the most secure and guarded place.

The roof cast a humid and dark vibe to onlookers. 50 anti-air machine guns guarded the lavishly furnished hotel, despite the rather odd contrast, it demonstrated the hotel’s strong force. On the lawless piece of wasteland, safety was the number one priority.

Only backed by the Sixth Street official could anti-air machines be placed on the roof. Only the wealthy and important people lived here. Therefore, the issue of security was emphasized to the max. According to Sun Jiao, if any intruder entered your room without permission, the law permits the intruder to be shot on the spot.

The reason why they lived here was to get rid of the "tail" that followed them.

They sat on the extravagant leather sofa as Jiang Chen swallowed a piece of orange from a can of fruit. He would have never eaten these things before, due to the ridiculous amount of preservatives and sweeteners in it. However, since he only ate junk food for the past few days, he needed to ingest some fruit. For vitamins, and to maintain his health.

"Don’t look at me like that; I’ll save you some." Jiang Chen rolled his eyes as he saw Sun Jiao stare at the fruit, full of desire. He turned towards the person on the ground, who was also staring at the fruit, swallowing. "Why don’t we get rid of this problem and have dinner?"

Hui Lei was completely tied up on the ground as he felt someone’s vicious stare behind him. A chill went down his back. He stared at the smiling man on the sofa but felt a sense of fear from the bottom of his heart.

Cold sweat appeared profusely on Hui Lei’s forehead as he felt the gun pointed to the back of his head, "I... I am… you guys got the wrong person! I, I didn’t…"

Sun Jiao whipped the gun barrel around and, without any hesitation, pointed it at his face. She then stepped on his head as she interrogated him in a dangerous tone. "I am not asking if you followed us, I am asking you..." she slowed down her voice as she flipped open the switch of the laser rifle, the light hum echoed across the room, "...who sent you here?"

That was the voice of a predator. Even Jiang Chen, who sat comfortably on the sofa, shivered. This was the first time she acted so viciously, well maybe not the first time. After Sun Jiao caught him, he immediately said he did not know anything. Other than a name, he didn’t give them any useful information. He insisted that he was a refugee who lived in the ghetto.

But would a refugee appear in the most prosperous place on Sixth Street?

"I don’t know anything! You guys are using illegal forces! The guards at Sixth Street will not let you guys go!" Hui Lei screamed as his eyes opened wide. He was so naïve that he began to threaten Jiang Chen. Naïve, but dumb.

If he didn’t trust Sun Jiao’s abilities, Jiang Chen would almost believe he was just an ordinary person.

"You have ten seconds to reconsider. Of course, to help you think, I will break one of your nuts every ten seconds," with a stern voice, Sun Jiao kicked Hui Lei as she flipped him over.

"Don’t do it! No!" Hui Lei let out a frightened scream as he looked hysterically at Sun Jiao and tried to move away from her.

"9."

"I, I don’t know anything! Miss, please let me go," Hui Lei begged with his life, but he could not see the slightest hesitation nor compassion in this devil like woman.

"7," Sun Jiao immediately picked up a steel beam

"I, I…"

"1,1," Sun Jiao raised her hand.

"Nooooo!"

"Wait a second." Jiang Chen suddenly opened his mouth.

Sun Jiao paused with the steel beam still in mid-air.

A filthy smell began to fill the room. Jiang Chen sniffed the air and looked at the twitching Hui Lei with disgust. They didn’t even start, and he had already peed his pants. If he wanted to be brave, he at least needed not to pee himself. Although when Sun Jiao said she was going to break his nuts, Jiang Chen also felt a chill seep down his pants. This move was surprisingly effective against males.

"I don’t like to use violence to solve problems." Jiang Chen smiled at Hui Lei.

As if he saw an oasis in the middle of the desert, Hui Lei crawled in front of Jiang Chen and firmly kneeled in front of him.

"Thank you! I, I …."

"But if you continue to pretend like this, I don’t mind giving my assistant some advice. Like putting a hungry mutant dog right in front of your nuts. I am sure it would enjoy a delicious meal."

Jiang Chen’s cold words froze the smile that just appeared on Hui Lei’s face and immediately collapsed into a look of despair.

Jiang Chen also shook both of his legs as he finished the sentence. The idea also made his nuts hurt. Jiang Chen swore in his head, but his face was still expressionless.

"Of course, compared to violence, I prefer doing deals. I am a merchant by nature, and if you are willing to cooperate, this is yours."

A soft glowing purple crystal appeared in front of Hui Lei. The eyes full of terror slowly turned into greed.

A crystal worth 100 energy unit, it was no doubt a significant amount of money on the wasteland.

"Of course, you could lie to me with some elaborative story, but if I were you, I would not do that. Would your boss give you this much money? I can, if you promise to work for me." Jiang Chen was pleased to see Hui Lei’s facial expression change. He knew the good cop bad cop strategy worked.

The rest of the problems were simple, Jiang Chen easily got the information he needed from his mouth.

Huizhong Mercenaries, a group of mercenary, was known for human tracking and raiding survivors. They also provide the occasional protective service for special groups of customers. The mercenary was located at a school in Song Jiang city. It used the walls there to build a strong defense. The reason they spotted Jiang Chen was merely a coincidence. Huizhong Mercenaries were just finishing a trade on Sixth Street when the leader, Zhou Guoping, saw Jiang Chen taking out a can of food from his backpack. Jiang Chen was then immediately invited to the VIP room which triggered Zhou Guoping’s interest.

Of course, to be the leader of a trade team, Zhou Guoping had the brains to strategize and plan. Obviously, kidnapping on Sixth Street was impossible. If he broke the rules here, the dead bodies outside of the market were clear indications of the consequences he would face. Huizhong mercenaries also needed Sixth Street to trade for necessities. No one dared to make enemies with Sixth Street.

But if they kidnapped outside of Sixth Street, there would be no problems. The rules only applied when they were within the walls of the Sixth Street.

Zhou Guoping’s head was filled with greed as he saw Jiang Chen’s full backpack, but he still moved carefully. He knew that many forces traded on Sixth Street. If he messed with the wrong group of people, even his commander would not be able to save him. Zhou Guoping did not intend to kidnap them, as he only sent people to follow them. He sent one person to keep an eye on them, and another to find out more about their backgrounds.

After he had seen Jiang Chen enter the vaccine store, and then immediately went to the ammo store, Zhou Guoping was full of surprise and joy. He believed that both of them were lone travelers on the wasteland because most of the powerful forces would not exchange crystals with ammo. They usually possessed their own production line.

Take Sixth Street, for example; the enormous ghetto is not meant to be a safe heaven. Immediately beside the ghetto was a massive factory. The factory contained all kinds of production lines extracted from all over the wasteland. Some of them are even improved to utilize the highly efficient crystals. They melted old metals into ammo, mixed mutant proteins with fat to create nutrient supply, and farmed vegetables and fruits with special fertilizers. To continuously survive on the wasteland, production was a necessity. The officials of Sixth Street knew that by heart.

This was even more critical especially given all the stores of Wanghai city were raided clean more than ten years ago.

As he confirmed that they were lone travelers, Zhou Guoping immediately contacted the headquarters of the mercenary group and tightened the watch on the two. These two were more wealthy than any group he has ever raided. Although the woman made Zhou Guoping felt a slight danger, Zhou Guoping was determined to strike the "gold."

Jiang Chen silently listened to Hui Lei’s confession as he began to ponder.

"Ha, haha, boss. Don’t you think you should give me that crystal now?" Hui Lei smiled, but his eyes were fixed on the crystal, full of greed.

100 energy worth of crystal! He would be set for life.

One energy unit was good enough to buy ten nutrient supply. Oh, why would Hui Lei even need nutrient supply? Even if he went to the most expensive place on wasteland, New Ray Hotel, it would be enough for a month! Hui Lei could not contain his excitement, even though the crystal was still in Jiang Chen’s hands.

[Since this man still needs me, I will not die. He will probably even give me more crystals in the future.] Hui Lei fantasized about his future life. He imagined lying around while being served by a hot blonde maid.

A black pistol shattered his fantasy, as his eyes met with the pitch black barrel.

"Dumb*ss." Jiang Chen sighed as he pulled the trigger.

Bang! Blood splattered everywhere, with some white liquids mixed in between. He looked at the smoke coming from the pistol, his hand trembled. Although he was mentally prepared, and the guy was deserving of his death due to all the crimes he committed, seeing the head split open was still traumatizing.

Hui Lei kept his mouth closed before was not because he feared the Huizhong Mercenaries’ influence. For if he wanted to hide, it would be impossible to find him. Even for a dominant force like Sixth Street, it would still be difficult to trace a wanted person. So, if he managed to leave the area, he would not need to worry about his safety. However, he kept his silence because of how worthless a human life could be. He was worried that the second he let any information out, he would be executed. However, the combination of extreme fear and an incredible offer from Jiang Chen, turned Hui Lei into a stranded traveler who saw an oasis in the middle of a desert. Thus, he spilled everything.

Hui Lei was too naïve to believe that he could form an agreement with Jiang Chen. He thought he could be a double agent in the Huizhong Mercenaries. However, loyalty was a joke to him because true loyalty never existed on a wasteland where the ultimate goal was to survive.

As predicted, his plan ultimately came short. The moment he finished his sentence, his value was completely gone.

Therefore, it was a wise decision to execute the spy immediately. Jiang Chen was not worried that he would be found.

Blood also splattered onto Sun Jiao. She was slighted disgusted but was used to such gruesome scenes. She shrugged. "It’s difficult to wash blood stains off of clothing. Also, next time, you can leave these types of things to me."

The hint of care, hidden in her last sentence, touched Jiang Chen's heart dearly.

He took a deep breath to calm his conscience. He then closed the safety and tossed the gun away.

"I will get used to it."

A smile broke out on Sun Jiao’s face as she approached Jiang Chen. She sat on Jiang Chen’s leg and hugged him. The bold move slightly surprised Jiang Chen. The softest part of Sun Jiao took away any doubt he had.

"You are going to stay, right?" She whispered into his ear, with her red lips.

"You know..?" He asked in a concerned but rhetoric tone. He hugged her gorgeous body. It was Jiang Chen’s biggest secret, and a secret he could never tell.

"Girls are very sensitive," she replied with a grin in her voice. "You don’t belong here, but I hope you don’t leave me."

"I will never," Jiang Chen said in a soft, but determined voice.

He had already made a choice that night.

Yes, he initially wanted to take the gold from this place and live like a millionaire in the modern world. But now, he could no longer separate himself from this world.

There was someone he cared about. Therefore, it was impossible to leave. If in the future, there was a way, maybe he could time travel with Sun Jiao into the modern world. The wasteland wasn’t exactly the best place to stay.

"I also believe you." This sentence came from the bottom of his heart.

"If this place didn’t smell like blood, I would "eat" you right here." Emotion and joy overcame Jiang Chen as he whispered into Sun Jiao’s ear.

"But, I want to take a shower first."

"I don’t want to let go." Jiang Chen smacked her butt and grinned as he listened to the soft moans by his ear.

"Then you’ll have to take a shower with me." Sun Jiao playfully bit onto Jiang Chen’s ear. Her long and agile legs held onto him tightly. In a seductive voice, she said, "let me see if the gene vaccine made you any stronger."

A roar and a scream ensued. Shirts, pants, and underwear scattered across the floor… There was a battle between man and woman in the washroom.

"It looks like the gene vaccine was effective after all. My feet didn’t even touch the ground." After a while, Sun Jiao collected her breath as she finished enjoying herself. She poked at Jiang Chen’s chest with a grin.

His once flat chest now had muscles. But since the gene vaccine only increased muscle strength and not the appearance of muscles, Jiang Chen’s body didn’t look too different from before. Though his strength, was now far more superior.

"Satisfied, my princess?" Jiang Chen lightly embraced the delicate figure. With a smile, he wanted to slap her butt again.

"Call me your queen," Sun Jiao said. She playfully avoided Jiang Chen’s hand. She then covered her body with a towel. "It’s now time for business."

"Time to eat dinner?" Jiang Chen said smiling as he also grabbed a towel.

"Of course, but before that, we need to take care the unfortunate guy that’s outside."

He watched Sun Jiao leave the washroom with a forced smile. It was a bit too crazy to have sex with a dead body in the house.

[It looks like I need to learn how to control myself. Yes, more control]

Chapter 9: The Plan

Dead bodies were not a big deal on the wasteland. The place was not exactly the definition of a civilized society.

Sun Jiao used the intercom, beside the door, to call the servers and explained to them that she encountered an assassin. Moments later, a few servers came in and dragged the body away. Before they left, they were considerate enough to spray the carpet with blood dissolver, which cleaned up all the nasty blood stains. The manager also came personally to apologize for the intruder.

In the apocalyptic world, death was common and natural.

It appeared that this was also not the manager’s first time taking care of an incident like this. He handled the situation seamlessly. Sun Jiao and Jiang Chen then politely rejected the offer of a complimentary steak dinner made of mutant cows. It was simply a gesture, since no one who could afford this place cared about a complimentary steak meal.

The suite didn’t have a kitchen; it only had a microwave and a dusty rice cooker that sat at the corner of the dining room. Most of the rich who lived here did not prepare food themselves, but a few wealthy exceptions did prefer to eat luxurious food like rice.

In this world, rice was considered a luxury. Despite the existence of a few farmlands, rice production was still very limited. Therefore, most of the people who lived here survived on nutrient supply and only ate cooked food for special occasions.

But of course, Jiang Chen was an exception. He took out a bag of rice from the storage dimension and washed it before he put it into the rice cooker. In less than half an hour, the steaming rice was finished, and the smell immediately dazzled Sun Jiao.

Jiang Chen didn’t hide his special ability in front of Sun Jiao anymore, and Sun Jiao didn’t inquire further. Jiang Chen knew that she was curious, but is especially grateful that she respected his privacy. Jiang Chen knew that one day, he would tell her all his secrets. For he couldn’t even understand some of the miracles himself, it would only cause more confusion if she knew.

After he poured the contents of the can onto a plate and heated it, the dishes were placed on the dinner table and a not-so-fancy dinner was prepared.

It was not fancy because Jiang Chen has had enough canned foods, but the dinner did include things like curry chicken, spicy tofu, and a lot of things Sun Jiao had never seen before. So, the dishes were still quickly swept clean.

Jiang Chen patted his flat stomach as he eyed the empty rice cooker. He was quite shocked to discover that the gene vaccine not only strengthened his muscle, but it also increased his appetite. He at least ate two times his usual amount. He finally understood why Sun Jiao ate so much; she was not just a foodie after all.

"I made a little more so we could have some for breakfast tomorrow, but it looks like you ended up finishing it all." Jiang Chen laughed as he looked at Sun Jiao’s happy face after the meal.

She blushed as she eyed Jiang Chen with an angry look. "What, are you worried?"

"No, I can afford it regardless of how much you eat," Jiang Chen said while shaking his head.

Although it was not exactly sweet talk, Sun Jiao looked euphoric, as a smile appeared on the "bold" girl’s face.

"Help me clean up." Jiang Chen rolled his eyes as he grabbed the plates.

"Okay."

He stared at Sun Jiao’s flat stomach in disbelief. He wondered where the five bowls of rice went.

"The commercial bank building at Qing Pu is located in a crowded area. The zombie concentration, as well as radiation, are all extremely high. Also … dangerous mutant creatures will be there." She lied flat on the bed and pointed her finger at the full-sensory computer screen, as a three-dimensional map appeared.

"This is the map. If we need to get the gold from inside, we’ll have to enter from here and then pass through the safety tunnel… Come on, are you even listening to me?" Sun Jiao shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"What is… this?" Jiang Chen wiped his drool and gazed at the advanced tech product.

The physical part was only the size of a pen, and a square prism projected out from the side displayed the screen. The three-dimensional visual hovered above the rectangular prism.

A product that only appeared in sci-fi films, now appeared right in front of his eyes. Jiang Chen couldn’t believe what he was seeing. This thing was probably worth more than all the gold in Wanghai city.

It would be nearly impossible to sell these kinds of products. If Jiang Chen showed this product to anyone, a lot of government organizations would immediately find him and discuss with him about contributing to the country as a patriotic citizen.

"It’s a full-sensory computer. Although it is not as reliable as a portable computer, the functionality is much more advanced. There has to be a limit to your lack of knowledge." Sun Jiao rolled her eyes again.

"Fine, what is a dangerous mutant creature?" Jiang Chen sighed as he accepted the fact that he was oblivious. He lied beside Sun Jiao and continued to stare at the screen.

"For example, the Roshan we saw today, or this…" Sun Jiao’s finger swiped across the screen. A figure that was similar to an alien appeared on the screen, " ...Death Claw. Its energy level is between 60-70. Its speed is extremely high and its sense of smell is very sensitive. The body is covered by a layer of protective armor, so normal bullets cannot deal real damage to it. Therefore, the best solution is to run away, but even that is difficult to do."

A light aroma of lily tingled Jiang Chen’s nose. Because Sun Jiao used the shampoo and body wash from the modern world, Sun Jiao’s body casted an attractive fragrance.

However, since they were in the middle of a serious conversation, Jiang Chen managed to control himself.

As he recollected his thoughts, Jiang Chen stared at the Death Claw in deep thought.

"Do these things appear near the commercial banking building?"

"Death Claw will appear anywhere, but they usually prefer to be near places that have been impacted by a nuclear bomb. I am not exactly sure about this, but typically when there is a high distribution of zombies, there will be other mutant creatures in the vicinity. This is because zombies are considered food for the mutants."

"… Do you have any plans?" Jiang Chen asked after a brief pause.

"Of course there are two options. First, we can use this route to infiltrate the underground vault directly and then use explosives to open it. Or second, we can use this way instead to enter the main control room, obtain the access code, and then use the regular route to get into the vault."

"Where did you get all this information? Are they reliable?" Jiang Chen was visibly shocked by the clearly labeled route.

"Liuding Town. They have the most accurate map databases there. Apparently they got it from the satellite before the war, so it should be trustworthy."

"What exactly is this Liuding Town, I’ve always heard you talk about it." After Sun Jiao’s explanation, Jiang Chen was curious.

"Bo Hai, it’s an aircraft carrier." Sun Jiao continued with a grin, disregarding the shock on Jiang Chen’s face. "So, my boss, it’s time for you to make a choice."

"The first plan is too dangerous, and the explosion would create too much noise. If it manages to attract all the zombies, then there is no way to get out."

"That’s my concern as well. Although attracting all the zombies would be an exaggeration, it is not too far off."

Even during the day, zombies still possess some attack power. If they receive any strong stimulants, they would attack.

"How about through infiltrating the network? Do you know how to hack?"

"How would I know those things?" Sun Jiao laughed. "To survive in the wasteland, great shooting ability is more than enough. However, there are quite a few specialists out there, and they often don’t live in the best conditions. It wouldn’t be too difficult to hire one."

After a long period of consideration, Jiang Chen made a choice cautiously. "Then let’s go with option two… Where can we hire these people?"

"We can hire them here, from the ghetto at Sixth Street. All the people without combat power live there." Sun Jiao pointed outwards as she turned off the computer. "Oh, we also don’t have to worry about the Huizhong Mercenaries. Although they are active in the Song Jiang area, we can kill their men here. Besides, killing them would be understandable, given you are a target for them anyways."

"You are right. I have a feeling they are going to come after us when we leave the area, or at least continue to follow us."

"Do you need me to prepare a bit?" Sun Jiao sighed as she stretched her graceful and slim arms.

"In that case, we can do this…"

After Sun Jiao had heard Jiang Chen’s plan, her eyes lit up.

"Wow, you are a more terrible human being than me! Why don’t you go to the labor market tomorrow then, it is at the front entrance of the ghetto. The commission fee is usually one crystal and they will let you pick until you are satisfied."

"Ok, it’s better to work separately for now. Make sure you hide before leaving," Jiang Chen warned.

"Understood." Sun Jiao shrugged with the same careless expression. "I have plenty of enemies and a mercenary group is nothing to me. If it is not for the fact that I am worried about you, nobody could stop me from leaving."

[I promise, if I want to leave, no one could stop me either.] Jiang Chen murmured in his head.

He turned off the bedside lamp and the light in the room changed into a soft orangey glow. It was very late into the night, and through the bulletproof window, there was not a single soul on the street.

"Oh, are you sleeping now?" Sun Jiao turned around with the blanket just covering her body. She grinned at Jiang Chen.

"You little devil… We have things to do tomorrow. Now sleep."

He already fought a hard battle earlier with her. If it continued like this daily, Jiang Chen questioned if his body would be able to handle it.

Chapter 10: The Ghetto Full of Talent

"Hehe, Boss, are you satisfied with this one?"

The weather on the wasteland was known for its strangeness. Although it was the midst of a summer day, occasionally the temperature would drop to subzero like it was the end of fall. The thick radiation dust blocked the majority of the UV rays, which means fluctuations in the weather was quite normal. If the cloud-like radiation dust would not drift away, then the temperature would feel even colder.

Especially in the morning, the chillness was even more apparent.

Covered in a trench coat, Jiang Chen stuffed one hand into his pocket while he examined a resume with the other. The fat guy standing by him was already bald and almost old enough to be Jiang Chen’s dad, but he just stood obediently there, waiting for Jiang Chen’s order.

The survival camp was governed by absolute freedom and a capitalistic view; the crystals dictated who had power. Although he didn’t know Jiang Chen’s background, if he offended the customer by any means, his boss would not take this lightly on him.

Also, Jiang Chen was a man of status. He took the recommendation from Sun Jiao to create a fictitious position – which was the general manager of a company called Fishbone Corporation. Other than the leaders of different factions and forces, the two other prestigious positions on the wasteland were arms dealers and food producers.

Both types of products were very lucrative, especially because the majority of the farmlands were no longer feasible for production.

As to why the company was called Fishbone Corporation, well it was convenient since the brand produced most of the canned food that Jiang Chen brought. He even considered, after receiving a sum of cash, he would buy that company out to save the trouble of erasing the production date.

"…Zhang Tianyu, originally the vice president of Walkman Electronic Company, specializes in business administration and electronic product development. The designer of the Asia famous Walkman P7 phone." Jiang Chen cracked a smile. A vice president, that’s satirical. "Hmm, Mr. Wang Yi, I need people who specialize in computers and can do some labor work at the same time. However, you managed to find me a vice president?"

Although a stellar resume, he didn’t consider the vice president any further. He didn’t need a person who was capable of corporate strategy.

He didn’t know why, but it felt great rejecting a vice president. His face maintained emotionless on the surface.

"I am sorry Sir. If you could please excuse me for a moment." The labor market manager named Wang Yi profusely apologized, as he ran into the data room to search again.

Jiang Chen looked at the poorly dressed refugees in the ghetto as he let out a long sigh.

The ghetto included some families with young people who could work. Usually, they would work in the factory area in exchange for some cheap nutrient supply and a small tablet of iodine. They would continue to survive with the family in hardships until death.

If they encountered any diseases, their background almost foretold their unfortunate fate.

Jiang Chen gazed at the radioactive dust cloud; the light that struck through cast an unhealthy color.

Immediately, the fat Wang Yi hustled out of the data room and gave a stack of resumes to Jiang Chen. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled at Jiang Chen.

Most of the resumes were dusty. It was evident Wang Yi recently dusted them off. There was an overabundance of highly skilled tech individuals on the wasteland. After all, the production of bullets didn’t require sophisticated technology. Also, nobody would bother purchasing a new computer or phone.

Jiang Chen carefully sifted through the resume as he raised his eyebrows occasionally.

"Boss, are you not satisfied?" Wang Yi asked anxiously, as this affected his commission, which was his only source of income.

"There are a few people that are quite exceptional. However... " Jiang Chen pointed at the criminal record at the bottom of the resume, "...why are they all criminals?"

Lu Haitao, IT Specialist, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after stealing 15 nutrient supply. He was currently working at the nutrient supply boiler as a laborer.

Li Kaiming, Feixun Technology's Project Manager, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for robbery, and currently worked in an ammunition factory as a laborer.

Wang Yi’s face was full of anguish as he said with a plea, "boss, there is nothing I can do about it."

After Wang Yi explained, Jiang Chen eventually understood. Not everyone in the ghetto had freedom. All the people that were traded as a product were people that lost their freedom. Every person that received low-income support were the "property" of Sixth Street. They were similar to slaves in ancient times. Every capable individual was forced to work in a factory, and incapable people acted as population reserves who would serve as soldiers in the frontline. For those refugees that are given freedom, although most are poor, they can survive without any issues. Therefore, they do not need low-income support.

But those were the rules from ten years ago. The Wanghai City now had already established a stable "ecosystem," and mutants and zombies did not attack the remaining space of the survivors. Hence, Sixth Street was left with no external enemies. Therefore, there was no need for those slave like refugees.

To alleviate the overpopulation problem, the Sixth Street officials also had to participate in the human labor business. They provided connections for specific "suppliers" and used them to sell the excessive refugees. Mercenaries or merchants would often purchase the refugees as bait. It’s fair to say that those people often did not end up in the best places. No one wasted nutrient supplies.

Therefore, the individual permitted to be sold were either incapable people that offered no value or criminals.

Jiang Chen hesitated again because he didn’t want either type of people to join him.

A terrible character would be difficult to control, but someone who was weak-bodied would also be challenging.

"Boss, you don’t have to worry. These people will wear electronic bracelets once they are sold. Therefore if they do any harm…" Wang Yi saw the hesitation in Jiang Chen’s eyes and carefully explained it to him. In the end, he made a gunshot gesture.

Although he was still worried, there were no better solutions. Jiang Chen sighed again as he must make a decision from the group of criminals. He just needed to be careful, that’s all.

"010342, please stop or you will be shot immediately." An emotionless voice echoed through the door as Jiang Chen looked in that direction.

A soft body tackled his leg and he paused a little before looking down.

"I am sorry that I overheard your conversation. I know computers. Please, buy me." The girl spoke in a fast tone. The emotion cast by her pupil transitioned between fear and desperation.

As the tiny body grappled onto his leg, Jiang Chen cautiously touched the weapon on his back. However, after he saw the soldier signaling him not to overreact and point his gun at the girl, Jiang Chen immediately abandoned the idea of pulling out his gun.

The soldier grabbed the girl like he was grabbing a chicken. Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything.

Although he sympathized with her, he was worried about the girl’s intentions. What if it was a trap by the Huizhong Mercenaries?

"I am very sorry. There are always plenty of people that don’t want to live to see tomorrow’s daylight," Wang Yi apologized profusely. He also motioned for the soldier to send the girl back to camp.

Jiang Chen noticed the girl had a watch like item on her wrist. The item was constantly flashing. If anyone who received low-income left the ghetto, it would immediately trigger the alarm.

"If she is sent back, what would happen to her?" Jiang Chen asked carelessly.

"Put into a work camp." Wang Yi shrugged, as things like this happened every day.

"Even a kid that young can work?"

"She is not that young. Usually, only people above the age of 16 wear those bracelets. She is just a bit malnourished. Anyways, boss, who do you want to select …."

"I’ll pick the girl." Jiang Chen sighed as he made the decision. A girl that thin and weak would die almost immediately in the work camp. Jiang Chen saw a lot of dead bodies since he came to the wasteland, he even killed someone with his own hands. But he couldn’t let the girl be taken to a hell like place right in front of his own eyes, especially if he was the reason. Jiang Chen tried to convince himself.

[Maybe that was my conscience after all? ] Something rare, but valuable.

"Hmm?" Confused, Wang Yi paused before he approached Jiang Chen.

"Boss, if you are into those types, there are some better choices. I have some connections that could help you…"

"You seem to have a lot to say."

Wang Yi looked at Jiang Chen’s cold and emotionless face, and a shiver went down his spine.

"Yes, Yes, No problem," it was foolish to offend the customer as Wang Yi apologized again.

"How long would it take to finish the process?"

"Approximately one day. Please tell me your address." Although the girl just violated the rule which made her a criminal, it would still take some procedures before she could be sold.

"Two crystal units, I’ll wait here."

"Boss, there is a justice system."

"Three crystal units. I am referring to just the tip," Jiang Chen said without patience. Civilization doesn’t even exist here, and you are telling me about the justice system.

"Yes! I will take care of it for you immediately." Wang Yi jogged to his office as he made the necessary contacts with his "connections" quickly. Although the guy looked fat, he was quite efficient.

Jiang Chen only waited for half an hour before a soldier brought the girl to the door. He noticed that in just half an hour, there was already a bruise on the girl’s face.

Wang Yi saw Jiang Chen’s dark facial expression as he tried to comfort him. "Boss, the examination took some time, but that’s for your safety. Please understand," he whispered into Jiang Chen’s ear, "The examiner told me that she is still a virgin, haha."

Jiang Chen briefly moved his head away. The guy felt like a portable heat source with an unpleasant aroma.

Jiang Chen signed on the agreement as he left five units of crystal on the table. After today, the girl coded 010342 would have nothing to do with Sixth Street.

"You, what’s your name?" Jiang Chen looked at the bruise on the girl’s left cheek and the blood stains on her arms. He moved his eyes away for a moment and took a deep breath.

The bruise was the result of a hit with a gun barrel. Although it was unrelated to Jiang Chen, he felt responsible for it.

"Yao Jiayu," the girl answered in a quiet and obedient voice, but the tone sounded fragmented and frightened.

"So you understand computers?"

"Yes, I do!" The girl suddenly raised her voice, but she immediately realized her abruptness and lowered her head. "I received a designation of B in computer programming in the virtual education system. So I am confident in both programming and hacking."

"Oh, then why are you stuck in such a horrendous place?" Jiang Chen looked at the girl with a little shock. If a 16 years old can do that well, then she would be a genius in the modern world. However, this seemed quite reasonable in the apocalypse. The virtual education system sped up the basic education process and trained people based on the individual’s talent and potential. Therefore, a person would excel in one particular area after a few years. Almost everyone who grew up in a survival base received that kind of education. A designation of B was quite distinctive.

The girl’s name, Yao Jiayu, was clearly from a survival base but she ended up here for some reason. It was quite common as the resources at the survival base were depleted, the people inside would leave to search for a new home. Almost everyone from there would go to the survival camp.

"There are a lot of people in the ghetto that can do it." Yao Jiayu blushed. She then lowered her head diffidently. Afraid Jiang Chen would not be happy; she then raised her head courageously.

"Although I might not be the best in the area, I believe in my potential. I am also very obedient. If you ask me to do anything, I will not resist…" At the end of the sentence, Jiang Chen couldn’t tell if it was because of excitement or embarrassment, the girl’s face turned red like the sun at dawn.

Jiang Chen grinned as she saw the girl struggle to sell herself. He didn’t care about the crystals he spent. It’s like money; it’s meant to be spent.

"Relax, you don’t have to be so stressed out working for me."

Yao Jiayu quivered in agreement. Jiang Chen suddenly realized her clothes. They were thin textiles that laid flat on her small and tiny body. It seemed that everyone in the ghetto wore those types of clothing. After she had left the camp, all her "assets" were confiscated, which included an old jacket.

"Cold?"

She shook her head as she continued to shiver.

Jiang Chen just realized that the girl shivered not because she was afraid of him, but because the temperature was too low.

He let out a sigh. To Yao Jiayu’s disbelief, he took off his trench coat and covered her.

"Don’t catch a cold, it’s difficult to get treated here."

Jiang Chen wasn’t the master of taking care of people, but the girl silently nodded her head. Her oily hair covered what seemed like a smile of happiness.

"Too lucky."

"Hmm?" Jiang Chen glanced over.

"No, Nothing."

Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t continue asking. He did a good deed after all, which made him feel warm inside. Maybe this was the trait of a civilized person.

Yao Jiayu peaked at the smile on Jiang Chen’s face and then lowered her head in fear as she tightened the trench coat.

[It was warm.]

She didn’t say it, but she waited so long for this day. Every day she hid in the corner of the labor market to peek at the people that were buying slaves. She wanted to find someone who was not so bad.

There were ruthless mercenaries, wealthy merchants, and people she didn’t understand very well.

But this was the first time she ran to a buyer. She didn’t even understand herself. Why did she risk her life to plead at this man? Maybe it was because of the way he looked in the ghetto. He had a glimpse of a special emotion; the emotion called sympathy. Although it was just a little, and it was almost gone, it was still there.

So if she didn’t take her chance then, she would spend the rest of her life in hell. She knew that the reason those bastards in the ghetto didn’t touch her yet was that she didn’t hit puberty. But once she grew up, she knew she would face the same kind of misery her sister next door faced.

Forced to use her body in exchange for a pack of cigarettes? Or be humiliated by a group of people?

She witnessed her father fight for her mother's life, till death. She also saw her mother's helpless plea. She witnessed too many tragedies unfit for her age.

The world was insane.

If the result would be the same if she had to depend on someone else to survive, why not choose someone that can treat her slightly better. Maybe not better, but if that person beat her a little less, she would be extremely glad.

If she didn’t risk it and Jiang Chen didn’t buy her, maybe death at the work camp was not a bad finale after all.

Chapter 11: A Cozy Dinner

"I mean, are you actually turned on by this?" Jiang Chen sensed a despicable glare directed at him. He trembled at the threatening look Sun Jiao gave him.

"You are overthinking this situation. Yao Jiayu is the IT specialist I found," Jiang Chen explained with a forced smile. Do I look like someone who is into loli?

Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen with suspicion, and then she turned her attention to the girl. Without any sound, she whispered to him.

"Is she trustworthy?"

"I believe she has nothing to do with the Huizhong Mercenaries." Jiang Chen shook his head.

"I don’t want to hear the word believe. This is for your safety." Sun Jiao sighed as she approached Yao Jiayu. With one finger, she gently raised the girl’s head and cautiously gazed into her eyes.

"Do you know Zhou Guoping?" The sudden question didn’t leave the girl with any time to prepare.

But the crystal clear eyes were only filled with emptiness and confusion. Without any emotional fluctuation, she said, "no, I don’t know."

"Excellent. I need to do a search on you. I hope you don’t mind." Sun Jiao nodded as a grin appeared out of nowhere.

"Ok…" Yao Jiayu responded in a quiet and obedient voice

To Jiang Chen’s surprise, Sun Jiao unzipped her clothes.

Yao Jiayu’s face blushed to dark red color, but she didn’t resist Sun Jiao’s action. She used her shaking hands to cover her sensitive parts. Her lips trembled slightly. It looked like she was afraid of the older girl in front of her.

From Sun Jiao’s eyes, she didn’t see the same sympathy.

"Come on, what are you doing?" Jiang Chen asked while blushing, as he subconsciously tried to block his vision.

"I am doing a search on her to make sure she is trustworthy. Why are you blushing as if you are still a virgin? Are you still not used to seeing a naked girl’s body?" Sun Jiao mocked Jiang Chen as she rolled her eyes

"Do you want to test me right here right now?" Jiang Chen said defiantly.

Yao Jiayu’s face was still red. She looked at the ground and tried to hide her face. Her body still quivered.

It was not because of the weather; this luxurious room was equipped with a heater. It was because Yao Jiayu was embarrassed. Although she thought she was calm, to be stripped in front of a guy was still too exhilarating for her.

"Ok, no signaling devices or weapons." Sun Jiao caressed Yao Jiayu’s chest as she stood up. It caused a subtle scream. "Are you sure you are a girl? Why are you so flat?"

Maybe it was intentional; Sun Jiao proudly raised her chest.

Yao Jiayu remained silent. Her face was still red. She kept her head down; afraid to pick up the clothes on the floor.

"What are you even doing?" Jiang Chen interrupted Sun Jiao's mischievous actions. Blushing, he told Yao Jiayu, "you… put your clothes back on."

"Ok." The girl picked up her clothes. She had hesitated for a moment before she decided to put them on in front of them.

Jiang Chen thought he might have seen something he shouldn’t have seen. He immediately covered his nose, preventing a bloody nose from the heated excitement.

"Why are you so timid and embarrassed? She’s your slave and now part of your private assets. Even if you wanted to do something, she would not resist." Sun Jiao said mockingly.

"Oh? Are you not going to be jealous?" Jiang Chen gave Sun Jiao another hard stare. He felt it was necessary to punish the naughty girl for all her comments.

"I will suck you dry." She said this as she bit Jiang Chen’s ear which made him feel even more aroused.

[Fine, the punishment will come later.] He took a deep breath and recollected his thoughts. "Ok, enough of the jokes. This is Sun Jiao, and I am Jiang Chen. From now on, you are part of the group." Jiang Chen tried to sound as friendly as possible to the girl who was still confused.

"Yes, master." The girl said with her head lowered.

"You don’t have to call me master, you can call me Jiang Chen. That electronic bracelet looks unsafe. Since you are trustworthy to me, let me take it off for you." Although it felt pretty satisfying to be called master by a sweet-looking girl, it still felt awkward to him.

Even though Sun Jiao stared at him like he was a dumbass, Jiang Chen chose to ignore it.

"No!"

To Jiang Chen’s surprise, Yao Jiayu didn’t thank him for his intentions. Instead, she backed away with a pleading look.

"Why?" Jiang Chen was astounded by her action.

"I… I don’t mind a master who’s so sympathetic. Yao Yao is very grateful. I hope you don’t abandon me."

"I didn’t say I was going to abandon you."

"Even though you are not doubtful of her, it doesn’t mean you can trust her. Looks like she is pretty smart after all," Sun Jiao whispered.

Jiang Chen realized why Yao Jiayu thought that way, with Sun Jiao explanation. He recognized his immature thinking as he forced a smile. He was too used to the logics back in the modern world, but it was obviously different in the apocalypse.

Betrayal, although a disdained word, was not uncommon in this world. Comrades shot each other for the loot, betraying their allegiance to each other; husbands disregarded the responsibility of family for survival. These were all too common in this post-apocalyptic world.

If he took off the electronic bracelet, even if he didn't want to think negative about her consciously, he would subconsciously remain doubtful of her. Unlike Sun Jiao, she wasn't here with him from the beginning. Doubt would sprout suspicion, and any of her future actions would be suspected.

She didn’t have any ill intentions nor any combat power. Even if she took off the bracelet, a simple bullet would be enough to end her. She was young, but she was also smart. She knew that if she kept the bracelet on, Jiang Chen would develop trust in her eventually.

That was enough.

If she were obedient, she would not be left behind. She quietly tightened her fists as she made a decision. She didn't have a lot to desire, but she wanted to continue to live. Of course, it would be better if she could be happy.

Jiang Chen somewhat understood Yao Jiayu’s intention. He smiled and didn’t insist further.

She thought too much. Even if Jiang Chen took off the bracelet, he would not change the way he looked at her.

Jiang Chen always subconsciously used the modern way of thinking to treat Sun Jiao and Yao Yao. Likewise, the two of them also always judged Jiang Chen from their perspective.

From his point of view, Yao Yao was just an immature girl. Even if she was a computer genius, she still did not pose a threat.

Yao Jiayu used the survivor’s way of thinking to guess Jiang Chen’s thought process. Sun Jiao has a slight idea of Jiang Chen’s homeland, but she still couldn’t jump out of the traditional way of thinking. Maybe they both saw his difference compared to other people, a set of value that could only be described as a "naive" sympathy. However, neither couldn’t guess what he was really thinking.

Why? It was because he was not afraid. He could leave the dangerous wasteland at any time and return to his peaceful world. With that, would anyone be afraid of the cruelty in this world?

This kind of thinking may cause him to lose his alertness, but it was not something that changed in the matter of a few days. He’s only been here for a week and has seen a glimpse of the post-apocalyptic world.

Sun Jiao brought Yao Jiayu into the bathroom. Although he was slightly disappointed to miss the opportunity to shower with Sun Jiao, it was a great opportunity for the two girls to bond. It would be unpleasant if animosity grew between Sun Jiao and Yao Yao since Sun Jiao did tease her a bit. That’s why Sun Jiao volunteered to help her shower.

However, Yao Yao still stared at him with her watery eyes, pleading before going in.

Beside the bathtub.

"Yao Yao!"

"Yes!" Startled like a terrified rabbit, she immediately straightened her back.

"Don’t be so tense." Sun Jiao smiled as she picked up Yao Jiayu. She gently rubbed her back. "Can I call you Yao Yao in the future?"

"Yes... Yes," she replied in a frightened voice.

"Don’t be afraid. I am very nice to my people," she lightly touched the bruise on her face, and said with a gentle voice, "does it still hurt?"

"A little bit."

"I’ll put some medicine on it after the shower. To be honest, your skin is quite soft after you shower." Sun Jiao was a bit jealous as she massaged Yao Yao’s neck. Yao Jiayu was like a rabbit caught by a tiger, as she timidly squeezed her body.

"Yes, it’s the third type of hibernation chamber. It can improve body functionality," Yao Yao replied softly.

"Eh? Hibernation chamber. That’s quite an expensive piece of equipment. So, you are older than me," Sun Jiao smirked.

"No, No. I entered the chamber when I was twelve. Although I spent 20 years in there, because of the inhibitor I took, my body only aged by about two years. Add the two years I spent at Sixth Street, my body’s age is only 16, and my mental age is 14."

"Eh? I don’t know that much. 12+20, that’s 30 right?" Sun Jiao’s old tendency came back. She enjoyed teasing what she thought was cute.

"No, I… I am not that old," Yao Yao quietly rejected.

"So, you’re at the age where you can be eaten?"

"Eaten?!" Yao Yao’s face suddenly turned pale. She had heard about freaks that lived on the wasteland who enjoyed human meat.

"What are you even thinking? This kind of being eaten." Sun Jiao’s hand lightly caressed over Yao Yao’s small chest.

Yao Yao blushed again and buried her face.

"I, I will be very obedient… If the master wants to eat me, I will not resist."

"I won’t let that happen," Sun Jiao jokingly interrupted Yao Yao.

"Eh?" Yao Yao was confused.

"I will eat everything clean." She proudly raised her chest. It was fun teasing this little loli.

She felt the firm and soft chest push against her back and Yao Yao forced a smile as there was nothing she could do. No one wanted to fight you for it anyways, she said in her head. But even she didn’t realize that she was slightly disappointed.

"I need the water!""Ha!" Joy filled the bathroom.

They were happy spending time together. It’s great that they could get along nicely.

Jiang Chen heard the noise from the washroom and a smile appeared on his face. He used a can opener to put the dishes onto the plates and placed them in the microwave. Dishes of delicious meals were prepared and the rice was also ready. Once done, Jiang Chen arranged everything on the table.

Jiang Chen was impressed by his work of art. Who could say I am not a great man, although it was all canned food.

"Woah, it’s very fancy today." Still covered in a towel, Sun Jiao immediately sat down without any regard to delicacy.

"Come on, put your clothes on before eating."

Sun Jiao did not feel embarrassed at all. She even raised her almost exposed chest out at Jiang Chen and uncrossed her legs to expose more of the steamy view, as if she was saying I am not listening to you.

He felt teased by the scene, but since Yao Yao was beside him, Jiang Chen was a bit shy to just kiss Sun Jiao on the spot. He forced down a sip of cold beer and cooled down.

Sun Jiao was pleased by the way Jiang Chen looked, and she happily chugged a cooled can of coke.

Of course, this guy likes girls with big chests. If Jiang Chen knew what Sun Jiao was thinking, he would spit out the beer.

"Yao Yao, why are you not eating?" He ignored Sun Jiao’s lack of elegance as he turned his attention to the motionless Yao Yao.

She stared at the table full of food as she swallowed a little. She was completely stunned. Pork, chicken, and cabbage. It must be a dream. She foolishly raised her hand and lightly bit on it. Ouch, that hurt.

"Omg, the food tastes so good."

"Finish your food before opening your mouth. Yao Yao, if you don’t eat now, she is going to finish everything." Jiang Chen waved at Yao Yao and interrupted her daze.

"Me? I can?" She continued to swallow; her eyes wide open. With a look of disbelief, she said, "it’s also for me?"

"Of course, we always eat together. Okay, slow down, no one is competing with you. Are you not embarrassed?" There was no delicacy as to how Sun Jiao ate.

"Why, why do you care…" Sun Jiao mumbled with her mouth full.

This girl, even when she looked mature, why does she act like a kid sometimes. Jiang Chen looked at Sun Jiao as he also picked up his chopsticks.

Yao Yao carefully sat down, but she didn’t move at all.

"Are you not hungry?"

"No, no." She lowered her head, and tears began to fill her eyes, "Why, why are you so nice to me? I am just a slave after all."

Slave? Jiang Chen never thought about it that way. Compared to a slave master, he enjoyed the position of a boss more. Forced obedience was never as good as true respect.

"Don’t cry haha, it’s bad for your stomach if you cry while you eat. Try this. This is my sautéed pork." Although it was canned food, Jiang Chen was still proud.

"Ok!" Tears emerged at an even faster pace, which made Jiang Chen even more confused as to what he should do.

This fancy dinner reminded Yao Yao of the happy family she had before. At that moment, she almost felt time like she was hallucinating.

At that moment, everything was happening before the war. The man in front of her was her brother, and the woman was her sister. The rare moment of joy surrounded the table, and her eyes teared up.

By chance, at that moment, Jiang Chen also felt an illusion.

An illusion known as home.

Chapter 12: Battle of the Construction Site

To be honest, Jiang Chen has not been home for a while.

In the past, it was because he didn’t feel like he accomplished anything. Thus, he felt embarrassed and guilty seeing his parents. Now, he has finally achieved something. The gold in the mansion was worth at least a million. It was still not enough to buy an apartment in Wanghai City, but it was sufficient to support his parents.

Also, inside the vault of the bank, there was a fortune worth billions.

"What are you thinking about?" Sun Jiao waved her hands in front of Jiang Chen.

Also, I have a girlfriend. Jiang Chen smiled at Sun Jiao as he grabbed onto her hand, and carefully looked at the flawless hand.

"I was just thinking if I should put a ring on you."

Sun Jiao’s face immediately blushed as she fleeted away, not knowing what to do. Although she was bold most of the time, there were occasions where she showed her shy side.

Jiang Chen laughed as he recollected his thoughts. The dishes were all cleaned and organized. This was the first time he realized that Sun Jiao knew how to clean up. The thought made him quite happy. Of course, Yao Yao also helped out. Jiang Chen guessed that it must be Yao Yao that cleaned the dishes first and Sun Jiao followed, as she didn’t want to feel too guilty about it.

This must be the feeling of being the man in the house.

The planning session began after dinner. Sun Jiao insisted on the meeting being held on the bed. Jiang Chen mocked her in his head as she grew lazier by the day.

Although slightly uncomfortable, Yao Yao lied on the bed as well. She wore Jiang Chen’s shirt and jeans that he prepared for himself. He thought he would just pick out a few outfits for her once he was back in the modern world.

The faint scent of Jiang Chen on the clothes made Yao Yao blush throughout the meeting. This was the first time she experienced such a weird sensation which made her quite dizzy.

"First, how to enter the vault. Let me briefly explain for our little girl." Sun Jiao took out the full-sensory computer pen and displayed the three-dimensional image. "We enter the safety tunnel through the underground garage. We then avoid the zombie-filled grand hall and got into the basement which will lead us to the vault’s front door. I took this route before so it should be relatively safe. The key is going to be on the main door of the garage, which has a password lock on it. Do you think you can open it?" Sun Jiao looked at Yao Yao as she finished her sentence.

"If it is the security system before the war, I am pretty confident I can open it. However, I need two days to prepare. Some of the software must be installed beforehand," she stared at the prism and said with caution.

"Ok," Sun Jiao replied with a snap.

"Let’s go buy you a computer tomorrow. I also want to buy one for fun. As for the preparation, let’s do that in the mansion." Jiang Chen always wanted a futuristic computer. He heard those things were dirt cheap at Sixth Street, about the same price as EP.

"Mansion?" Yao Yao turned her head around.

"That’s our base, and also your future home," Sun Jiao smiled at Yao Yao as she explained.

Home… no matter how many time she heard those word, Yao Yao always felt a warmth surrounding her.

"So the next question." Sun Jiao’s expression turned serious. "Is about Huizhong Mercenaries."

"Oh? Did they make a move?" Eyebrows raised, Jiang Chen asked.

Yao Yao’s face spelled confusion as she didn’t have a clue.

Sun Jiao patted her head as she saw Yao Yao’s confused face. She then began to explain how the story started.

"So, these guys are eyeing master’s fortune."

"Don’t call me master, you can call me big brother." Master was a word which made Jiang Chen feel weird, especially coming from a young girl.

"Ok, brother!"

Jiang Chen tried to hide his face full of joy but directly met Sun Jiao’s questioning smile. He was sure that if he did anything inappropriate, he should be worried about his future sex life. He shivered as he immediately dragged the conversation back on track.

"So the result of your observation is?"

"Huizhong Mercenaries’ supports and backups are here. They are patrolling the area five kilometers away from Sixth Street. They have 17 gunmen and one motorized machine gun. That is excluding the fact that these are only part of their power." Sun Jiao also regained her professionalism. "According to your plan, all the pieces are set in place, and we just need to wait and enjoy the game."

Jiang Chen nodded as he fell flat on the bed. "Is there anything else we need to talk about? If not, we should sleep early."

"Well, here’s the problem." Sun Jiao glanced at Jiang Chen with a mischievous look. "Where are you going to sleep?"

"Hmm?"

"There’s only one bedroom." She reminded him.

"Of course I am sleeping with you." Jiang Chen had the audacity to answer as he hugged her.

"I, I’ll go to the living room." Yao Yao tried to flee from the bed with a blushed face.

Sun Jiao grabbed onto the escaping Yao Yao as she whispered into her ear. "You are sleeping beside your big sister today because a naughty boy is trying to eat your sister today."

F*ck, it’s still debatable who is eating who? Jiang Chen sighed.

…

They ended up sleeping together that night in a peaceful way, but it just ended up being a terrible night.

The next morning, Jiang Chen rubbed his still sleepy eyes and sat up. He looked at the completely spread out Sun Jiao and compared her with the curled up Yao Yao. A smile emerged on his face.

Time to make breakfast.

Although it was in the apocalyptic world, it was still important to maintain the proper daily routine. Eating breakfast was one of the few habits that Jiang Chen managed to keep. He placed a slice of bread into the microwave and observed the sky outside the window.

The dawn had not yet broken through the dark sky, but he didn’t feel sleepy at all.

He thought about the battle with the most vicious enemies on the wasteland. The idea made him uneasy. Although he prepared for the battle for a long time, anything could happen. The enemy must have prepared for as well. Hui Lei disappeared, which would ring a warning bell to Zhou Guoping. The motorized machine gun was ready for this occasion.

Unless he spent the rest of his life on Sixth Street, the day would come when he has to face the mercenaries.

"Is there anything I can help with?" A faint voice mumbled.

"Hmm?" He turned around with a smile. "Are you not going to sleep a bit more?"

She was loosely covered with Jiang Chen’s oversized clothing. Yao Yao shooked her head with eyes still half-closed. "No... No. if Yao Yao is too lazy, Yao Yao will be abandoned."

"I already told you, I am not going to abandon you. What do you think about every day?" Jiang Chen tousled her messy hair.

Maybe she was still sleepy, but when her head was rubbed at a drowsy state, Yao Yao unconsciously let out a few cute snores.

Due to the advanced medicine, the bruise on her face was already very faint. The scars on her hands were also not as visible. Due to malnourishment, she looked rather thin and weak, but Jiang Chen believed that she only needed time to get better.

"Oh, thank… you." Answering while still half asleep, Jiang Chen dragged Yao Yao into the bathroom.

"Since you are already awake, wash your face and remember to brush your teeth." After a couple of words and reminders, he handed Yao Yao her toothbrush, closed the door, and returned to the kitchen.

With a toothbrush in hand, Yao Yao stood in front of the sink still drowsy. Because of anemia, she always felt drowsy in the morning. Even then, her heart was furiously beating.

[What is happening?]

She stood there and stared blankly into space with her hands crossed in front. "Gulp."

Although drowsy, she smiled blankly. The remaining warmth on the toothbrush felt soothing.

After breakfast, the group left the Tulip Hotel and headed straight to the market. There were electronic stores there that sold full-sensory computer pen that cost a fortune before the war but now only sold for pennies. The store owner also gifted a lot of electronic components for free after Jiang Chen purchased two pens at once. He wasn’t too interested in these small parts, but Yao Yao packed everything like she just hit the jackpot.

100TB storage, super high power processor, and low power consumption. The store owner pitched the product, and Jiang Chen was dazzled by the features. However, he was buying the computer pen for Yao Yao, and he only wanted to see how cool this thing was.

Jiang Chen also spent two crystal energies to purchase an EP for Yao Yao. The EP was extremely effective in protecting against radiation. It was also very useful for understanding the body’s condition. After accepting so many gifts, Yao Yao was timid. With a reddened face, she kept her head down.

After everything has been completed, they began their journey home.

When their boots first crossed the iron gate, Jiang Chen immediately felt something was odd. Could they be spotted already? Or was it the gene vaccine that made his sense much more sensitive.

"Remember the details of the plan," Sun Jiao carried the laser rifle in front and whispered the reminder to Jiang Chen.

"Got it." he shrugged. At the same time, he took a deep breath and pretended to be relaxed. "Remember, this is my idea after all."

Yao Yao nervously touched Jiang Chen’s hand. She was extremely sensitive about Jiang Chen’s restlessness. However, other than calming Jiang Chen down, she was not too useful. Her goal was simply not to become a burden. After all, her body strength was the weakest.

They slowly turned the street and walked towards Huizhong Mercenaries’ flank spot. Jiang Chen’s heart began beating rapidly. All of a sudden, Sun Jiao stopped.

"This doesn’t feel right."

"Hmm?" Jiang Chen was fully alert as he took out the PK200 assault rifle from behind him. Yao Yao tightly hugged Jiang Chen’s back. Although she displayed a calmness unfitting for her age, her slim body shivered.

Sun Jiao took a deep breath before suddenly opening the wires by her wrist.

Bang!

Smoke erupted and quickly submerged the street.

"This way, follow me!" Sun Jiao signaled the other two and rushed to the building on the side.

"Dammit! The prey is gone!" A guy with a Mohawk and piercings swore as he slammed into the concrete wall. The machine gun began to rotate. He didn’t know how those three sensed the danger, but he knew that if he screwed this one up, his boss might make him regret it.

"That way! Team Two follow them."

"Roger, this is team two."

"Machine gun division is mobilizing."

"Quick!"

Although they were bandits, the poorly equipped group of mercenaries responded with decisiveness. They surrounded the direction where Jiang Chen fled. The wolf pack style made them quite the enemy.

"Still not here?" Jiang Chen looked at the struggling Yao Yao who was trying to keep up.

"Almost." Sun Jiao responded impatiently. Then she controlled her speed so that the two behind her would not get lost.

Gene vaccine was something magical. In the past few days, Jiang Chen felt that his body condition significantly improved. If only these could be used on teens, it would be good on Yao Yao. He did not feel tired at all.

Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao as she struggled to keep up. Her face was an ashen white as she also had anemia.

Jiang Chen immediately picked up Yao Yao as she was close to exhaustion and before Yao Yao could let out a scream, he dashed to Sun Jiao.

Sun Jiao glanced at Jiang Chen without saying much. She continued to sprint forward, with her rifle in hand.

Yao Yao blankly stared at Jiang Chen’s chin. A drop of sweat rolled down his cheek and fell onto her arm. She quietly held onto his sweat soaked clothes as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

She didn’t say anything, like put her down, because she knew this was the best option. Although it was a bit overzealous of her, she never hoped to survive as long as today.

She wanted to thank him… No, everything I own is already his. Yao Yao watched Jiang Chen’s relentless face with warmth in her heart.

In the post-apocalyptic world, it was normal to die because someone couldn’t keep up.

But Jiang Chen would not let this be his normal. He dashed across a half-collapsed Ruins, immediately following Sun Jiao. Yao Yao, in his arms, was not too heavy as she only weighed about 40 kg. What made it difficult was the cracked concrete and the occasional zombie.

The zombies in this area were scattered, but with enough noise, a hoard of zombies may appear.

Since the enemy had vehicles, Sun Jiao must choose complicated and dense roads to travel on.

"Hurry! It’s the building in front. Get in there!" Sun Jiao signaled as she still had the energy to talk. Jiang Chen was struggling to keep his breath stable.

After placing Yao Yao on the ground carefully, Jiang Chen immediately leaned against the concrete pole. He pushed himself against the rifle and gathered his breath. Feeling apologetic, Yao Yao kneeled beside Jiang Chen and carefully wiped the sweat off of his face.

Guangli Building’s logo hung loosely on the roof. The darkened windows made the building look rather intimidating. From the unpainted wall, it was easy to tell that this place was abandoned before completion. Therefore, there were no zombies nor mutant creatures here.

The crack filled wall made the structure look unstable, but for this very reason, Jiang Chen chose this to be the battlefield.

Since they wanted the money, then there was no way they would destroy this building and bury the three of them alive.

The reason why they chose here was to first, take down the initial wave of enemy, which would slow their advances. Then, when the latter enemies arrive, it would be easier to annihilate them all.

Sun Jiao skillfully leaned against the window with the SK10 rifle hidden below. She zoomed into the scope with complete concentration and with her finger on the trigger, she waited for the enemy to appear.

"We are fighting here. Can you still fight?"

"No problem." Jiang Chen adjusted his breath and stood up. He clumsily fell beside the window, pulled out his assault rifle and opened the safety.

The game began.

Chapter 13: Battle of the Construction Site Continued

Lu Renjia was frustrated.

He didn’t know what the guys he sent to flank did, but it certainly made the prey immediately aware of them, and they escaped right away. All of a sudden, he had no clue what he should do. Although he decisively ordered the soldiers to follow, the effort was futile.

The two of them probably had injected gene vaccines, and a glimpse to greed flashed over Lu Renjia’s face.

Gene vaccine, that’s something even his boss couldn’t afford. Not only did this guy purchase one for himself, but he also bought one for his girl. Why would it even be useful to a woman? To make the sex more fun? He thought about it as he licked his cracked lips, a malicious smile appeared on his face. More fun or not, he could try it out himself after he captures them both. Then after he was done, he could let his boys have a taste as well to see if gene vaccine made a difference.

He thought about Sun Jiao’s gorgeous body as he began to feel heated and irrational.

Hot girls were never scarce on the wasteland. The advancement of genetic engineering made genetic cosmetic technology a reality years before the war. The innovation came from the part that it permanently changed the way people looked, as an ability to pass on genes. Although there were some ethical dilemmas around the topic, everyone wanted to be pretty. The technology significantly increased the standard of the population's beauty. In the late 22 centuries of the apocalyptic world, except for the malnourished, there were plenty of hot girls around. As the raid leader, Lu Renjia kept two as sex toys.

Yes, they were considered as only sex toys.

In the lawless apocalyptic world, with the necessary protection, beautiful girls were travesties and not gifts. If Lu Renjia accidently died in any of the quests, the two girls would just be the reward for the boss' people. Although the tradition was irrational and obscure, it was unbelievably popular among the mercenaries. Because of this reward system, the ordinary mercenary was often exploded with fervor.

But Lu Renjia was a cautious person. It was a steep climb to be promoted to his position. He feared death hence in every mission he took extreme care.

Even if the two prey were rather harmless, with an even more harmless burden, he chose to stay in the most defensive middle position. He let the most foolish ones run around the middle. As people surrounded him on either side, it formed a protective triangle.

It was because of this carefulness he lived slightly longer.

Boom! A ray of laser penetrated the head of the guy running in the front and left a daunting blood hole on his forehead.

"Fight! Flight! Spread out!" A Little shocked, Lu Renjia didn’t expect the two prey would fight back. Although caught off guard, he decisively hid behind the half-fallen concrete wall and commanded the team.

Tatata!

Waves of ammo flew across the battlefield; weaving into a storm of bullets. Concrete debris filled the immediate vicinity. Jiang Chen somehow managed to handle the group of five mercenaries.

"Fight, they are so f*cking rich." Lu Renjia groaned as he pressed himself against the thick concrete wall. With a finger on the trigger, he prepared to fight back.

"Dumb*ss, aim before you shoot."

Jiang Chen forced a smile as he heard Sun Jiao’s criticism. He changed the assault rifle to semi-automatic mode. Jiang Chen played quite a bit of shooting games before, but this was his first time shooting a real gun. Jiang Chen was so tense that he just instinctively pressed the trigger till bullets ran out. Other than scaring the enemy, it only shattered a bunch of concrete.

Yao Yao peeked outside with a frightened look. The occasional bullets scathing by her head made her cover herself as she trembled in the gunfire.

With absolute trust and her fixation on her status as a slave. She didn’t ask the question she had: was there any point defending this position?

Jiang Chen continued to breathe deeply, as he tried to aim with the scope. Although it didn’t manage to hit anything, it did suppress the advancement of the opposition.

Sun Jiao calmly pulled the trigger of the gun as beams penetrated the sky. Counting the first one, she already took away three lives. Because of this, the number of enemies decreased by half, and hence the firepower weakened. The aggressive advancement tactic changed to a suppressive one where they only fired a gunshot or two once in awhile.

Hidden behind the wall, Lu Renjia held onto his wounded arm. He angrily spat onto the ground. Clearly, the woman on the other side had much better aim, but it was too late to realize his mistake. The terrifying wound was his lesson.

Fortunately, laser rifle wounds do not get infected. He took out a bandage and quickly treated the wound. The consecutive loss of men made him get rid of the idea of taking the trophy for himself. He decided to stay put before reinforcement arrived.

Fuck, after I catch you, I will make you call me daddy. Lu Renjia stared at the direction of the woman with a gloomy cast over his face.

"Dammit, it's game on right away." Jiang Chen looked over his shoulder, at the collar that was in pieces. With the sudden realization, he started to sweat profusely. If the bullet had been shot two inches more to the left, there would be no more of him. If he died from a bunch of mercenaries, that would be such an embarrassing story.

"Just back off… Leave the rest to me." A glimpse of anxiety flashed on Sun Jiao’s face. Although she kept her cool in the battle, when she saw Jiang Chen’s worrisome look, she couldn’t keep a straight face.

"No, it’s going to happen eventually." Jiang Chen shook his head as he reassumed his shooting position. A girl can't protect him for the rest of his life.

Although the safety of Jiang Chen was the responsibility of Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen didn’t plan to stay behind the affray all the time. With surprise in her eyes, Sun Jiao didn’t say too much. She must stay focused in the midst of battle.

As long as she killed more people, he will be safer. Sun Jiao continued to trigger the rifle as the death ray blossomed in the fight.

From afar, the engine roar disrupted the exchange of gunfire. The motorized machine gun finally arrived on the battle.

Tatata! The pouring bullets suppressed Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao without letting them shoot. Waves of uproars ensued.

The flying debris caused minor annoyances as it flew directly across their face, but it was still better than the bullets. Jiang Chen eyed Sun Jiao, and they immediately headed into the building after he received an affirmative response.

Yao Yao was so frightened by the sound of machine guns that she almost couldn’t keep her tears from falling but somehow managed to fight back her fear. With courage, she lowered her back and moved toward Jiang Chen.

"Are you not curious as to why we are fighting them here?" Jiang Chen smiled at Yao Yao as he patted her tiny head.

Yao Yao responded with a no as her big eyes looked at Jiang Chen. "I believe you."

Jiang Chen laughed as he brought Yao Yao downstairs.

"It is, this?"

"Yes, an underground sewer system!"

The cunning Yao Yao suddenly understood the reason why Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao fought here in the first place. It was not because they wanted to escape, but they wanted to hit the jackpot and get rid of the mercenaries altogether.

Jiang Chen discovered the sewerage system through the full-sensory map. In the middle of this building that was still under construction, it had an entrance to the underground sewerage system. Sun Jiao cleared the entrance after her last visit.

They opened the exit as a strong pungent smell quickly filled the surrounding. Jiang Chen didn’t hesitate as he jumped in directly. In this parallel world, the sewerage system in this city was much wider compared to Jiang Chen's world.

As soon as they reached the bottom, Jiang Chen immediately turned on the flashlight and prepared for the sudden appearance of the starving mutant rats.

The eight-person wide passage left plenty of space to maneuver. The pungent smell spread from the central sewerage. The road of both sides was relatively clean with pieces of mold. The AI controlled automatic sewerage system meant that the system was still running. Therefore, the sewage flow remained at a constant speed. This vital infrastructure was repaired immediately after the war. Although the project was abandoned, the infrastructure remained functional. There were plenty of AI controlled infrastructure left in the wasteland.

"Be careful. Jump down, and I’ll catch you." After securing his perimeter, he waved to Yao Yao who was still on top.

The pungent smell didn’t even raise Yao Yao’s eyebrows; she jumped down without any hesitation.

"Let’s wait here for Sun Jiao." Jiang Chen was relieved that the danger was finally gone.

"Is Sun Jiao sister okay?" Yao Yao was quite worried.

"She will be fine. Don't worry." Jiang Chen was very confident about Sun Jiao’s ability. That was a girl who managed to tie me up in seconds. Of course, Jiang Chen didn’t finish the sentence.

"Hey, hottie, where’s your man? Did he leave you here for us? Hahaha" The laughter sudden stopped as a blood-gushing hole appeared on the man’s neck.

She dodged the bullet as she mischievously sneered, and threw a flashbang into the affray.

Bang! Followed by a blinding light and deafening sound, everyone who aimed at Sun Jiao went down in pain.

With this opportunity, Sun Jiao dashed into the building as well. She leaped for the sewerage system. Without hesitation, she jumped down and closed the exit on her way.

To her surprise, she felt a firm chest surround her.

"Are you not worried that you will accidentally bang your head in this position." Jiang Chen sighed as he gave Sun Jiao’s firm butt a slap.

"I am not, my honey." Sun Jiao seductively raised Jiang Chen’s chin. She did not feel guilty at all as she crossed her legs across Jiang Chen.

As the two of them flirted, the reddened Yao Yao kept her head down.

"I’ll take care of you once we head back." Jiang Chen lightly bit her ear as he put her down.

"You can take care of them now, my boss." She rolled her eyes. She then passed the remote to Jiang Chen.

He stared at the ceiling with a slight hesitation in his eyes. However, it was soon overtaken by an iciness; he instantly pressed the control.

"Fuck, where did they go!" Lu Renjia roared at a soldier.

"She, She, She was too agile," the soldier that was grabbed by the collar said frightenedly. He stuttered as he couldn’t keep his tongue straight.

"Fuck!" Lu Renjia dropped the soldier on the ground.

"Get moving, search the area." The other big mustache leader had looked at the exit before Sun Jiao vanished with a deathly stare.

"Boss, there is something here!"

The big mustache immediately ran over.

It’s an exit to somewhere. It’s locked from the other side. Just as he signaled for a soldier to grab a chainsaw from the car, he suddenly thought of something, and his face turned into an ashen white.

"Do you think they caught the two prey?" A guy with a Mohawk leaned against the car as he chatted with the machine gunner.

"They must have caught them. Look, the gunshots even stopped."

"Believe it or not, that girl had some accurate shooting. She killed six of our guys and wounded ten more."

"Since they are caught, and our boss is still not out, do you think they are … hehe." A wicked smile appeared on the Mohawk guy’s face.

As if he was thinking about the same thing, the machine gunner also laughed. "That’s a must! After the boss is done with her, maybe we will get to try as well. Man, I can’t get over the way she looked, and her face full of embarrassment, and then…"

Boom! Fire engulfed the sky. The explosion shattered car windows in an instant. Flaming rocks penetrated through the car and even hit the concrete road.

The howls and screams were deafened by the blast of the falling concrete building. The unfinished building crumbled into pieces in the waves of explosions.

"What’s going on? Hello?" The Mohawk guy dug himself out of the debris with his body stained in blood. He searched for his friend, but he only managed to find an anguished head, not connected to the body.

At the start of the explosion, the machine gunner on top of the car had his neck blown out by the concrete debris. Perhaps this was payback, for all the sins he committed in his life.

Chapter 14: The Filthy Underground Sewerage System

"It’s quite dark in here, who knows what will pop up." With boots covered in stain, Jiang Chen looked around the sewerage system. It was his first time in here, and although the pungent smell made it uncomfortable, he got used to it.

"Scared?" Sun Jiao jokingly asked.

"No way." Jiang Chen raised his PK200 assault rifle. "I wasn’t even afraid of those guys up there."

The beam of flashlight spotted a couple of half-human sized rats but made them immediately fleet into darkness.

In the apocalypse, the most terrifying things were not zombies, nor mutants, but were humans.

In the explosion, they were certain that all the mercenaries died. The ten-meter tall building made it almost impossible to escape the concrete debris. Nobody expected that in this desolated-looking building, a trap like that was hidden.

The primary support structure of the building was strapped with wireless explosives. With a touch of a button, the entire building would blow up in explosions.

Initially, Jiang Chen was quite worried about the integrity of the sewage system after the blast, but it looked like he considered too much. Other than scaring the creatures in the vicinity, the sewerage was completely fine. It was evident that the government built the infrastructure with fortitude and integrity. He would probably be buried if this happened in the modern world.

"What do you think Huizhong Mercenaries’ leader would do if he heard that his entire raid team was completely gone?"

"I would imagine that the second we appeared on Sixth Street, he would come and haunt us." Sun Jiao brought Jiang Chen back into reality.

"Hmm, well this is going to problematic." Jiang Chen didn’t even think about this consequence.

"But it is okay. A lot of things can be purchased elsewhere anyways. Also, this is an opportunity to get rid of the Huizhong Mercenaries as a whole." Sun Jiao naturally created a plan of massacre without even thinking.

Jiang Chen was a firm believer of risk and reward. Even if Huizhong Mercenaries was filled with completely filthy humans, he considered himself to be a merchant. So he didn’t believe in the need to serve justice.

Yao Yao trailed the two of them in silence; she looked around uneasily.

"What’s wrong? Don’t be afraid; big brother will protect you." Shamelessly, Jiang Chen patted his chest. Since he took care of the mercenaries, he was in a pleasant mood. Yao Yao’s idolized look clearly foretold that she believed in his words.

"Ok!"

"How many mercenaries did you kill?" Sun Jiao pointed out his lie immediately.

"Haha, at least one or two." Jiang Chen replied with an awkward smile as soon as he met Sun Jiao’s look of disbelief. "Wounded."

Jiang Chen admits that his accuracy was questionable at best. After all, shooting in games was a lot different from shooting in real life. But with practice, it will only take time before he became a qualified soldier.

"Haha," Yao Yao grinned with a light laughter. But she soon realized that she probably shouldn’t mock the master, and she carefully closed her mouth. The expression on her face was quite comical.

In this relaxed atmosphere, the three of them headed towards "home."

"How much longer?"

"Should be pretty close now. There is an exit that can take us to the top." Sun Jiao checked the full-sensory map.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen sensed a ghastly danger. His heart started to pound profusely.

Sun Jiao also felt something and stopped moving.

Bang! Bang!

Gun shots were fired all of a suddenly.

The bullets from the shadow aimed directly at them. Sun Jiao pushed Jiang Chen to the back with full force and knocked Yao Yao who was behind him over. But she had no more energy to dodge herself.

"Hmm…"

She groaned as she covered her arm in pain. She slammed onto the ground and dropped the laser rifle.

"NO!" Jiang Chen’s felt his body overwhelmed with raging blood. He roared, and within half a second, he dragged Sun Jiao behind cover.

Bullets shattered the ground and created a debris of rocks. An obscure howl resonated from not far away. In a closed environment, the echoing sound spread terrifyingly.

However, Jiang Chen couldn’t hear anything. He watched Sun Jiao’s closed eyelids. A painful tremble spread from his head to his toe and incapacitated his entire body.

The time they spent together suddenly all flashed in front of his eyes. The brave girl, the gorgeous girl, and the girl that loves me.

She pushed me away. But she...

He stared emptily at the blood stain. In a matter of a second, Sun Jiao went from being incredibly lively to being on the verge of death. Jiang Chen’s heart was being chopped into pieces as the pain consumed him.

Flames engulfed his eyes.

"Do you know how to bandage?"

"Yes!" Yao Yao was also frightened by the blood pouring out of Sun Jiao’s body. This was also the first time she saw some a terrifying look on an always smiling face.

"I don’t know how. Please take care of Sun Jiao." Jiang Chen shoved the medical kit into Yao Yao’s hands as he took out the assault rifle.

Bang Bang Bang!

The gunfire unveiled the ugly but happy faces in the shadow. They looked like indigenous people that lived in the sewerage system. So they were used to the seeing in the dark.

Any trespasser would become food for them. Rats, or humans.

"Haha, you fuckers!" Jiang Chen let out a furious roar as he stepped out of the cover.

Bullets flew inches beside his face, but he didn’t sense any fear. As if fear was completely removed from his body, and only vigilance remained. He searched for the flashing flares as he opened fire.

It was a remarkable feeling. Every cell within Jiang Chen was screaming, but it didn’t make Jiang Chen lose his mind. He was as calm and collected as he has ever been, with his only objective being to kill.

But what he didn’t realize was that the EP on his arm flashed a faint yellow light.

He busted an empty clip and snapped on a new one. With force, he continued to fire into the darkness.

Slowly, his vision began to glare. It felt as if everything he saw was submerged in water. The odd disturbance only made Jiang Chen more furious, but his anger only made the disturbance worse.

He tried to recollect his vision and focus on the target. However, his vision completely changed. Flashing red dots jumped in his line of sight; it was as if small hearts pounded in the darkness.

Or they were hearts beating after all.

With a furious roar, Jiang Chen fired towards those red dots.

The unknown moans and screams made Jiang Chen more zealous. He left the cover and moved to the red dots.

The blinding flashlight was obviously a nightmare for the indigenous who were used to the darkness. Flashing white lights filled their field of vision. They couldn’t see anything as they shot blindly into space.

Those bullets had no effects on Jiang Chen. However, PK200’s strong penetration power made the thin cover futile. Even if they hid behind cover, they couldn’t protect the pumping heart.

Heart exploded one by one as silence ensued. Countless bullets penetrated the bodies of the indigenous people; he wanted to destroy every single one of those red dots.

Slowly, the gunfire from the other side stopped.

Jiang Chen’s vigilance and cruelty made the indigenous taste their fear. This man was a devil.

A mentally shattered man dropped his old assault rifle and dashed out of his cover. At the frightened looks of his friends, a bullet penetrated his heart, and the wound bloomed like a bloody flower. The indigenous people were completely terrified; they fled the battle running for their lives. However, Jiang Chen kept shooting.

"You f*ckers. Stand still. Today is the end for all of you!" With a mental laugh, Jiang Chen continued to roar in the sewerage.

Suddenly, he saw a heart still beating with the glimpse of an eye.

A dark-skinned boy looked at the vicious Jiang Chen with fearful eyes. The pistol in his hand was unable to shoot because of the jammed bullets.

Tatata! The assault rifle breathed the deathly flame as it completely shattered the beating heart that irritated him.

"Who’s next?" A corrupted door blocked Jiang Chen’s path of advancement; Jiang Chen kicked open the door.

An offensive odor whiffed directly at him. Livers, arms, blood and bones scattered across the room. In the middle of the cave was a giant pot, and a limbless person barely alive.

Even in his furious state, Jiang Chen almost threw up in disgust. But immediately, he started shooting the trembling females and the limbless person.

The sharp scream of the creatures immediately echoed inside the cave. The limbless person left a relieved smile as the bullet penetrated his heart. The gunfire flared at Jiang Chen’s twisted face. He was angry, but he didn’t know why he was angry. He couldn’t even remember his name.

He only wanted to kill, and only knew how to kill. Only death could extinguish the flashing red dots in front of him.

Kang!

The bullet jammed. Jiang Chen brutally slapped the side of the gun. But he didn’t notice that there was still someone alive buried among the bodies. Vigilante flashed out of his eyes.

"AHHHHH!" A bloodstained person howled an obscure noise and pushed Jiang Chen onto the ground. Under the scattered hair was a pair of tiny eyes. He sat on top of Jiang Chen, with full force, he pushed the dagger directly onto Jiang Chen’s throat. The dagger had previously dissected a countless number of survivors.

"Hahaha, you bastard! Go die." Jiang Chen roared with a hysteric laugh as he guarded the arm with the dagger. Despite how hard the person tried, the dagger could not move a single inch.

That disgusting color… roared! Jiang Chen was so frivolous that he wanted to rip the person’s heart into pieces, by hand.

But all of a sudden, a wave of tiredness overwhelmed his body’s muscles. He was completely powerless.

The person’s looked surprised. With a couple of weird sounds, he pushed the dagger down and almost penetrated Jiang Chen’s throat.

Bang!

Blood…

The person was stunned as he looked at the massive hole in his stomach. He raised his head slowly.

It was a crying face, filled with agony and fear.

It was so "ugly," he wanted to rip it apart.

But he was too slow.

Bang, another bullet penetrated his head.

Yao Yao was crying as the gun slid through her hand. She picked up the gun from the boy as she knew how to fix jammed weapons. After she finished treating Sun Jiao, the first word from Sun Jiao, after she coughed up blood, was telling her to follow Jiang Chen. She said he was in a dangerous state

She saw the plea in Sun Jiao’s eyes, Yao Yao also was worried about Jiang Chen. Despite terrified, it took something magical she didn’t know to overcome the fear, she followed Jiang Chen’s trail.

When she saw Jiang Chen fall, her heart almost stopped pumping. She picked up the gun and fixed it. With her fear suppressed, she pulled the trigger.

This was her first time she killed a person. Although the thing she killed could not be described as a person, it was a human-shaped monster.

Faintly, Jiang Chen felt something warm and soft surrounding his head and hugging him tightly. He also heard a girl’s crying voice.

Droplets of water fell beside his cracked lips.

It was salty.

It didn’t taste like blood?

Chapter 15: Fury

Jiang Chen didn’t want to remember what happened that day in the sewerage system.

He only remembered that he threw up, consistently. Yao Yao comforted him and helped him change into clean clothes. She felt terrible inside too, but since she survived in the apocalypse for a long time, death was a not an unfamiliar sight.

In the end, Jiang Chen shot the natural gas canister in the room.

He watched the fire cleanse the filth in the room without saying a word.

He held onto the quivering Yao Yao and stepped over a countless number of bodies. He left this terrifying place.

Sun Jiao’s wound scabbed already. After Jiang Chen came back, she could even walk by herself. Three bullets hit her in the stomach, and one in the shoulder. After he had heard Sun Jiao taking out the bullets by herself, he was only a little surprised. This brave girl always surprised him.

After they had returned to the mansion, he got drunk. He finished all the beers he brought. Because of Sun Jiao's injury, she slept early and Yao Yao took care of him for the night.

She was incredibly understanding. She also felt the agony and pain. The scene almost shattered any courage she had built up, but she knew that Jiang Chen needed to be taken care of right now.

This compassionate man was almost like someone who had just left a survival base. She remembered the first time she saw a pile of dead bodies, and she almost immediately fainted. However, as soon as she realized that even in survival camp, death was only a routine, she became desensitized.

Compassion was rare in this world, so wasting it would be considered a sin. In the apocalypse, it was foolish, but incredible at the same time.

She heard about the cannibals. They hid within the shadows, under the filthy sewages. They worshiped a distorted religion which prided the act of feasting on the bodies of the same race. Every single one of them was the enemy of any human force. Even the anti-human neo-human group was disgusted by them. Praised for their freedom, Sixth Street outlawed any cannibals from approaching the area.

She placed a warm towel on Jiang Chen’s forehead, Yao Yao looked at Jiang Chen’s face full of sorrow and then she silently left the room.

"Did he fall asleep?"

Yao Yao paused slightly. Sun Jiao was awake; she had a perplexed look on her face.

"Mhmm, weren’t you asleep as well?"

"Yes, but I can’t fall asleep. Never mind, I’ll talk to him tomorrow." Sun Jiao turned around.

"You, how are you feeling?" Yao Yao looked at the bandage around Sun Jiao’s waist. That question almost took all of her courage.

"It’s not a big deal. I am quite confident about my healing ability," Sun Jiao forced a smile as she answered weakly. "By the way."

"Mhmm?" Yao Yao stopped, just as she was about to turn around. Yao Yao was puzzled.

"… Thanks."

In the dim light Yao Yao couldn’t make out Sun Jiao’s facial expression, and Sun Jiao went into her room right after. Yao Yao grinned. Although she was not used to dealing with the bold female master, she was a nice person after all.

The next morning.

Jiang Chen sat on the soft bed as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. The sunshine cast through the window was bright.

The radiation cloud finally scattered. The temperature was about to go up; it was the midst of summer in the modern world.

The door slowly opened, Yao Yao’s tiny body squeezed into the room.

"Hmm, let me help you wash your face," Yao Yao said gently as she placed a bowl of water onto the head dresser.

He looked at the cute face. A delighted smile melted from his sore face and he touched Yao Yao's forehead. "Don’t worry. I can do it. What time is it?"

"It’s nine. Let me do it." She wetted the tower and gently rubbed Jiang Chen’s face.

It felt nice, so Jiang Chen didn’t resist.

"Does it feel better now?"

"Much better. Yao Yao is very caring." His muscle still felt sore, but he was capable of moving around.

Maybe because she received a compliment, but a delighted smile appeared on her face.

"You, are you feeling better?" Sun Jiao also came into the room after she heard some noises. She stared at Jiang Chen worriedly from the door.

"I am okay, but you, are your injuries okay?"

"I am fine; I need to explain something to you." Her face suddenly turned serious which made Jiang Chen tense up as well.

Although Sun Jiao loved to joke around, she always treated things seriously when it was necessary.

Just as the mood was about to tense up, Sun Jiao all of a sudden laughed. From Jiang Chen’s shocked look, she turned around.

"Let’s eat breakfast first."

The breakfast was very delicious, to the apocalypse standard.

There were toast and ketchup.

For some reason, ketchup made Jiang Chen’s stomach feel quite upset.

Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen who held onto his stomach nervously; she sighed before taking away the ketchup.

Sun Jiao has a passion for food, but all of the sudden she had no appetite.

It was not because of the cannibals. This was the first time she saw something so gruesome. She was worried about Jiang Chen as it was his first time witnessing the cruelty of the apocalypse. That was only the tip of the iceberg.

"I… I need to go out. I’ll probably be back in a month's time. There’s not a lot of food left in storage." If he stayed here any longer, he would break down mentally.

He made up an excuse because the idea of interdimensional travel was too complicated to explain.

"Ok, come back as early as you can." Sun Jiao wanted to say something, but only those words left her mouth.

"Let’s eat." Jiang Chen gave her a weak smile. He knew that he looked terrible, but he couldn't be brave at this moment.

He was fatigued physically and mentally.

Sun Jiao carefully chewed on the toast and explained to Jiang Chen what happened to his body yesterday. Gene vaccine, theoretically, only slightly improved the human regenerative cell function which would improve the human muscle strength, bone strength, reflex and survivor ability. Jiang Chen opened his EP and saw his improvements in the past three days.

****

User Name: Jiang Chen

Muscle Strength: 24

Bone Strength: 25

Reflex: 28

Brain Cell Strength: 14

****

All three basic abilities almost doubled. By modern world standards, Jiang Chen could be described as superhuman.

"Yesterday, because of your anger, you entered fury mode." She remembered Jiang Chen was furious because of her which made her blush a little. "Normally, gene vaccine will only improve the three basic functions. However, because it changed some DNA in the body, some unpredictability does exist. Someone even grew two heads."

"What? The thing you injected into me was something this dangerous?" Jiang Chen dropped the toast onto the ground.

"Some probability, almost negligible." She didn’t want to admit her mistake and chose to change the topic.

"But for some people, the mutations are beneficial, so they received useful abilities. For me, my ability is tenacious." Sun Jiao stood up and unzipped her clothes.

"Ahem, what are you doing?" Surprised by her actions, Jiang Chen was slightly confused. However, when he saw the flawless waist, he was shocked. "What happened to your scar?" Only three faint white dots were left on the lightly tanned skin. This was the new skin she grew. In a couple of days, he wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference.

"Tenacious’s ability is to increase cell regenerative speed for the non-fatal wound. After the usage of the ability, the body will be frail. Constant usage will also result in cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest.

"Your ability is the same. You have to remember you are exchanging your life for power. Therefore, you shouldn’t use it as much. According to EP, it is called Fury right?"

"Yes." Jiang Chen nodded. He checked the EP yesterday, and it showed "Special Ability: Fury."

"Clinically, anyone with this ability will be triggered by strong emotional stimulants. The body’s cell will enter a rapid stage of regeneration. In macro terms, it’s an increase in strength and reflex. The specifics are person-dependent. You can find information related to your usage on your EP.

Jiang Chen was surprised by the EP’s function. Under Sun Jiao’s guidance, he found the document.

Hidden Gene Ability:

Fury

Muscle Strength +20

Reflex + 19

Brain Cell Strength +17

Special effect: Killer instinct, use any of the five human sense to identify the location of the opponent's heart.

Maximum effective duration: Thirty minutes

The fury ability could increase brain cell strength? Make me Smarter? Jiang Chen was quite bewildered.

"I caution you against using the ability too much." Sun Jiao noticed Jiang Chen’s surprised expression, and she sighed.

"Why?"

"Did you forget the effect of the ability?"

He remembered he fainted that day and only regained consciousness after a long time.

"If it’s in a safe environment, then it is okay. But in the midst of the battle, no one can predict the outcome. If you met someone you cannot take care of while using the ability, then there is only one ending for you."

Sweat began to roll down Jiang Chen’s forehead as Sun Jiao explained. If Yao Yao didn’t get there in time, he would be a headless body by now.

"But you don’t have to worry; these abilities are often controllable. You can use special medicine to active and terminate the ability. It will make your ability much more useful. With practice, you can even use your mental strength to control the ability. Like me, I don’t need the assistance of medicine anymore." Sun Jiao passed on two plastic tubes to Jiang Chen. "Put this inside your EP and match the corresponding color. If you need to active fury, you just need to press a button. The EP will use the micro-needle to inject the medicine into your body. However, my recommendation is still to not over-rely on this ability."

"Ok." Jiang Chen carefully nodded.

After breakfast, he packed up his bag filled the gold. The two girls followed him into the living room to say goodbye. Although Jiang Chen reassured them that he would be back soon, Sun Jiao and Yao Yao insisted.

He hugged Sun Jiao as she kissed him without a slight hesitation. The passionate and wetness of the kiss would not be dull even after a million times.

"The food is in the fridge. There is enough in there to last half a year. Remember to eat the fresh vegetable first; canned foods are not that healthy."

"Ok honey, can you say something romantic right now. " Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, but her eyes were filled with longing.

After Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen also hugged Yao Yao. "Remember to take care of your body; I want to see a healthy Yao Yao after I come back."

"Mhmm!" Yao Yao nodded her head.

He felt her pointy chin on his shoulder before he placed her down.

"First, you have to come back." She asked him with a plea.

Jiang Chen gave her a sincere smile to assure all of her concerns. "Of course I will be back."

Jiang Chen was about to leave, but he felt a weak resistive force from his waist. He looked at Yao Yao confusedly as she held onto him and just as he was about to ask her why.

Her lips covered his.

There was an elegant fragrance; it tasted like lavender. Yao Yao pecked him on the lips and ran away.

He touched his lips still stunned by what happened; he then saw Sun Jiao’s deadly stare.

"You can’t blame me for this."

Sun Jiao sighed as Jiang Chen tried to explain. She hugged him again and whispered, "don’t say anything, come back soon."

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen opened his mouth, but he only left a simple response.

She stared at his shadow with a perplexed look. The woman was a sensitive creature. She could guess that Jiang Chen was from a country before the war. Only in a structured society would gold have any value. From her knowledge, there was no place in this world where gold has any value left.

Will he come back to this world? She didn’t know.

If it was before, she might choose to keep him here. It was typical for people in the apocalypse. But she didn't choose this option.

She saw the fearlessness in his eyes since the beginning. Even if he was tied down with a gun pointed at his head, he was afraid, but he never feared. The companions were all lies; the organization was also a story he created. She didn’t know what he hid.

It was not a stupid fearlessness, but it a was calculated risk. Sun Jiao had the feeling that at Sixth Street if he wanted to leave, no one in this world could stop him. He would also do it with less effort than her.

She even had the idea of hiding the gold to control Jiang Chen, but she restrained the idea to her head.

She chose to trust him.

He will not leave me here. He will be back. Sun Jiao believed him. Although if she followed him, she would find out his secret. But, she didn’t do it.

It was odd because this was the first she trusted the idea of a relationship in the apocalypse.

Although Yao Yao didn’t know Jiang Chen’s secret, as witty as she was, she was smart enough to see a slight hesitation in his eyes. She didn’t know from where this hesitation came. Maybe it was because of the conflict with the Huizhong Mercenaries, or maybe it was because of the mental image left behind at the cannibals’ camp.

She saw the hesitation in him. Maybe it was because of this uncertainty that made him postpone the vault idea and leave for a period.

This choice made Yao Yao quite relieved. Though it was a gloomy feeling, she felt that if Jiang Chen got the gold from the vault, then he would not be back for a long time.

If Jiang Chen disappeared, she would feel despair. She didn’t want to feel that way.

So in the last moment, she followed her heart, and she kissed Jiang Chen.

For the same reason, Sun Jiao didn’t stop her despite Sun Jiao's possessiveness. In the end, he needed some attachment in his heart. So, the more, the better.

Then, he would come back.

Chapter 16: Cashing Out

Jiang Chen almost cried as he took in a deep breath of the familiar smoggy scent.

The clock on the wall pointed at 11 o’clock, the time in the apocalypse was synced with the modern world. When he left, it was also 11.

He rubbed his temple and slowly took another deep breath. If he stayed there a second longer, he would go insane. He thought his mental fortitude was strong, but he apparently overestimated himself when faced with waves of machine gun bullets and body parts. He didn’t quiver at that moment, but he was as traumatized as Yao Yao, if not more.

The familiar noise outside of the window made him calm. Even if the noise bothered him before, it reminded him of the place called home.

Thank god for world peace!

Jiang Chen wanted to scream out these words, but he only stretched his arms and didn’t let it out. The constraining force of the civilized society made him hold back. He didn’t want to be considered as a lunatic.

He felt the heavy metal behind his back. It made his heart pump a little faster. Gold! He is rich now! He placed the backpack onto a scale and saw the needle pointed at seven kilograms. His heart pounded furiously. That’s mother fucking one million dollars! He didn’t know the exact exchange rate, but it was around 200 to 300 dollars per gram which would add up to 1.4 million dollars.

He truly hit the jackpot. He didn’t even make 3000 per month back then. He only imagined this in his dreams, but now the gold was right in front of him.

The contrast also made him ponder about his next step. Buy a car? He had plenty of money to do so. Buy an apartment? Pretty close. No no no, he wanted a mansion.

Yes! The vault at the bank!

But when he thought about it, his face immediately dimmed. He hesitated about the idea. He must go back to that place. The apocalyptic world where even the air made you feel suffocated by the cruelty. However, as he was contemplating, a graceful figure appeared in his head.

"I also believe you."

"Don’t say anything, come back soon."

"Sun Jiao." Jiang Chen mumbled the name as he touched his lip subconsciously.

Her warm kiss remained on his lip. Another timid character flashed into Jiang Chen’s head.

"I, I will be very obedient. If you want to do anything, I will not resist."

"I don’t mind having such a sympathetic master. Yao Yao is very grateful; I hope you don’t abandon me."

"Yao Yao." Jiang Chen repeated the other familiar name. The fresh scent of the kiss, although unexpected, kissed straight to his heart.

All the sudden, Jiang Chen burst out in laughter and let go of all his troubled thoughts.

"What am I even thinking? I don’t like little girls." He jumped off the bed.

First, it’s time to make lunch. Then, cash out on the gold.

As to the car and house, he wants the fastest convertible and the fanciest mansion. At least it has to be better than his place in the apocalypse.

The entire vault will all belong to me.

As to this money. It’s time to enjoy and relax a little.

He walked into the familiar Kitchen and picked up the already dusty knife. He made up his mind. First, he will spend every penny he has. Or else it would be difficult to gather the courage to go back.

It would take some time to get used to it.

Along with the gold, he also took the full-sensory computer and pistol. Although he didn’t want to bring the pistol back as it was outlawed in his society because he didn’t want to make too much of a commotion, his goal was to be rich here.

He brought the computer so that he could watch movies. The store owner promised him that all 100 terabytes were quality movies. He was excited to experience it like never before.

He immediately opened it. The intricate computer projected a rectangular prism made out of arrays of light particles. The interface looked even more advanced than Sun Jiao’s computer.

The already excited Jiang Chen immediately opened the folder titled <movie>. He selected the first one from the list.

But the picture that projected completely shocked him.

"Yes, Yes, go harder!"

The arousing sexual scene projected straight into the middle of the room. It was almost as if the action was happening in his room. He immediately closed the computer as the neighbors probably all heard the noise.

He reopened the computer again, this time carefully scrolling through. He finally saw the names of the movie.

<16 times in the office straight!>

<Secret teaching of a female teacher>

What are these? These are all porn. Jiang Chen finally understood why the store owner made such a perverted face when he sold it to him.

If it was before, he would probably have masturbated to it. But now, things were different. After the countless number of romances with Sun Jiao, he was no longer interested in the one-person activity anymore.

He threw the computer on the ground and carried the hefty backpack. He was hesitant about carrying a pistol. Yao Yao gave him the pistol that saved his life. After a brief pause, he suddenly remembered the storage dimension he had and put everything in there.

Except for the slow activation and power cost of the storage dimension, it was quite convenient. Jiang Chen also didn’t lack energy crystal anymore. It only took ten crystal energy to charge the power of the bracelet completely.

He also didn’t take off the EP. The design of the EP matched the aerodynamics of the human body. Therefore it looked completely hidden inside his sleeves.

He locked the door of the gloomy apartments behind him. He paused for a second before stepping into the lively and vibrant metropolitan.

The shadow of leaves scattered across the rocky road. It was June in Wanghai City. The symphony of chattering birds echoed through his ear. He stood in the middle of the crowded street and pondered before finally recollecting his thoughts.

Everything was surreal. The chaotic apocalypse contrasted with the serenity of the modern world. Although he only stayed for a few days in the other world, everything there has been engraved into Jiang Chen’s mind and memory. The cracked concrete was replaced by a rocky trail. The tree’s scattered shadow replaced the reflection of a few branches sticking out of the tree. He held his head high again and took a deep breath. He tried to get the unhealthy feeling out of his skull.

He needed a couple of days to relax. It wouldn’t be long before he went insane.

With the back of his eye, he saw a cicada between the tree branches. He didn’t see cicadas in the apocalypse, but the cockroaches were as big as a Shepard.

He shooked his head to get the odd idea out of his head and waved down a taxi to go cash out his gold.

The bank was not an option. There was no way to prove his ownership, so the bank would not accept it and probably call the cops. Respectable gold shops were a good option since they have the capability and would be relatively trouble free. It would only take some discounting on the price to make the deal happen. After all, it didn’t cost him anything to get it.

He stepped in front of Goldlion. He chose it purely because of the name.

"Hello Sir, are you picking out a ring for your significant other? We have…" As soon as Jiang Chen stepped inside, the sales lady welcomed him warmly. Although Jiang Chen looked rather dull, maybe he was rich. Her years of sales experience signaled her that Jiang Chen was unique.

"Do you guys exchange gold here?" Jiang Chen signaled the sales lady to stop talking and stated his intention.

She paused and suddenly lost all her interest. She still replied respectably.

"Yes we do, but we only accept gold with high purity. If you have any needs, sir…"

"Get your manager here. You can’t decide this deal." Jiang Chen interrupted her. The sales lady could not make a decision on this amount of gold.

She looked rather unhappy but remained professional. She didn’t believe that a guy dressed so poorly with a backpack could talk about the deal here. She could almost foresee the look of despair after the guard threw him out of the store.

After he had looked at the gold from Jiang Chen’s backpack, Liu Anshan gasped.

He worked for Goldlion for almost twenty years. He has seen plenty of people exchange gold, but this was the first time he saw someone do it with a backpack.

Seven kilograms of gold. After the examiner had nodded, Liu Anshan coughed and displayed the most pleasant smile he had.

"It’s 7122 grams. The purity is flawless. Do you have proof of ownership for the gold sir?"

"No." Jiang Chen stared at Liu Anshan’s eyes and answered decisively.

Liu Anshan momentarily gave a though before he motioned the examiner to leave. Only two of them remained in the room.

"Let me be honest with you. Mr. Jiang’s gold comes from somewhere unusual." Liu Anshan’s eyes flashed with intelligence before fading away. The gold’s purity was identical to a bank's. However, gold from the bank usually has a receipt, but Jiang Chen's didn’t. The origin of the gold was questionable.

"Don’t worry. There are no criminal records on these. The gold is my salary." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and answered without too much emotion. He didn’t lie; it was his salary from the apocalypse.

Liu Anshan was also experienced in these matters. Jiang Chen’s vibe made him feel quite uncertain. Gold as salary? Could he be a mercenary? That’s stretching it too far.

Jiang Chen left Liu Anshan guessing as he didn’t explain further. He looked at Liu Anshan and asked, "Boss, do you have any interest in this deal?"

"Yes, of course, Mr. Jiang." Liu Anshan smiled. "But since you don’t have any proof of ownership, it's quite difficult for us to…"

"7122 grams of gold. I’ll sell every gram for 220 dollars which come out to be 1566840 dollars. I’ll round it 1.5 million. The rest is your tip. The gold is currently trading at 270 dollars per gram. There is no way you would lose in this deal." Jiang Chen suggested.

Jiang Chen didn’t believe someone like Liu Anshan had no way of getting rid of the gold in the black market,

"Haha, Mr. Jiang. Then I must kindly accept this offer." Liu Anshan was shocked by the price he was offered. He would make 100 thousand instantly if he took the deal. "Would you prefer cash or transfer?"

"Transfer." Jiang Chen gave out his account number. After he had received the confirmation, it was a successful deal.

After Jiang Chen had left the VIP room, the sales lady looked hysterically as her boss personally sent the poor looking man to the door.

"Mr. Jiang, this is my business card. If you have any more business for me in the future, please don’t forget me." Liu Anshan looked euphoric as he just made 100 thousand in a couple of minutes. Jiang Chen was right; it was easy to get rid of the gold through other channels.

The purity of gold was flawless without the need for further purification. Liu Anshan was only required to document the gold before it could be sold on the exchange. Also, apart from the gold itself, Liu Anshan was investing in a long term relationship. He was respectable to Jiang Chen because of the very reason. At least on the surface.

Jiang Chen accepted the card without saying much. He took a taxi and left right away.

Liu Anshan gazed at the direction of the departing taxi.

He was deciding if it was necessary to have someone follow Jiang Chen. He had a feeling that for someone who sold the gold without a blink of an eye, he must have even more.

[If I can find the source of the gold.]

A flame of greed ignited in his eyes before he extinguished it. He decided to be vigilant about the situation.

Life is more important than money after all.

Chapter 17: Today, I am wealthy!

"Hey Buddy, where are you going?"

"Shi Mao! (*A high-end mall)"

He used to work at a high-end clothing store there as a sales representative.

He rolled down his window and let the bellowing wind blow in his face. As if it was the only way to calm his pounding heart. He even stopped the driver from rolling up the window. The driver looked at him as if he was a lunatic.

"Hehe, did you something good happen to you?"

"Yes, kinda." Jiang Chen laughed as he caught a mouthful of wind.

After they had arrived at the destination, Jiang Chen dropped a hundred dollar bill. "Keep the change."

Jiang Chen flamboyantly left the car as the taxi driver stared in shock.

[F*ck!] He wanted to try to say that for a long time. Finally, he had the opportunity to do so.

After cashing out on the gold, he felt more relaxed than he had in many years.

A famous proverb once said that clothes make the man. In the modern world, people were quick to judge based on how one appeared. Even if he had a three-piece suit on when he went into the gold shop, the sales person would still consider him to be absurd. The concrete ground in the summer day felt like scorching fire..

After all, the first impression was purely dedicated by a person's appearance. The majority of one's opinion would be formed in the first few seconds, which would impact any social interaction in the future.

As someone who was always afraid of poverty, Jiang Chen did not consider himself as a low-key individual. A slick look would make dating or business easier. It would be much more effective compared to the knockoff brands he wore.

He approached the store he had previously worked at. Before he entered the shop, a sneer lit up on his face. He was curious about what the cocky woman that fired him would think once she saw his lavish lifestyle. If he was there to embarrass her, he wanted to be superb at degrading her. Jiang Chen also fancied a few polished outfits for himself.

"Welcome, Sir." The sales associate was different. It was the end of July which meant that a lot of universities were on summer break already. A lot of college student would do part time here. Luxury stores were the top choice for gorgeous looking girls. It was respectable, not labor intensive, and also a perfect place to find a sugar daddy.

The evil of capitalism.

Although millionaires visited the place frequently, rarely would they go alone. After all, men usually didn’t have a tremendous amount of criteria for clothes. The existence of these high-end stores often served as a place to demonstrate their wealth to their female companion. It would further additional activities at the hotel that night.

Jiang Chen was not pretentious, but his purpose would say otherwise.

Jiang Chen picked out a piece of clothing valued at 10,000 without even blinking. The attractive sales associate’s eye lit up as Jiang Chen’s hands started to pile full of clothes. She immediately helped him intimately by carrying any extra clothing. She also gave him the sweetest smile. The smile had "ask me out" written all over it.

Jiang Chen, who was busy looking for his old boss, were a little slow to take the hint. He didn’t notice the flirty moves of the attractive girl beside him. Of course, if the girl were looking to hookup, Jiang Chen wouldn’t mind. Her boobs were not as large as Sun Jiao's, but the vibe of modernism combined with her youthful energy made her particularly striking. She must be a prom queen at some university.

He slapped the clothes on the counter as he was irritated that he didn’t see the girl.

[F*ck, where is she? If she is not even here, what’s purpose of this whole thing?]

A gloom immediately cast over Jiang Chen’s face as he felt extremely frustrated.

The sales associate thought she offended the millionaire somehow. She carefully examined Jiang Chen facial expression and even started to question her action.

"The total will be 157,000 dollars after rounding down. Would you prefer cash or debit?"

[What kind of question is this? Who the f*ck brings 150,000 dollars in cash?]

Jiang Chen took out his debit card and glanced around the store again. There were no familiar faces to be seen.

"Debit. What’s the name of your manager?" Jiang Chen handed the card over as he asked the question simultaneously.

That question made the sales associate tremble. She thought she displeased him, but why would he ask for the manager?

The cashier who took the debit card also paused briefly. She looked at the sales associate and displayed a professional smile.

"Xu Liping, Would you like me to contact her for you?"

For the amount he purchased, the complaint just could not be ignored. The cashier thought the sales associate offended him and he wanted to see the manager for the same reason.

For these types of part-time employees, she was unfamiliar with them and obviously would not offer a helping hand. There were plenty of part-time employees working at the store from the university every study break.

"That’s fine. Also, do you know Xia Shiyu?" Jiang Chen interrupted.

The cashier raised her eyebrow with a confused look. She didn’t quite remember that name.

[Looks like she doesn’t know.]

With a mixture of emotions, Jiang Chen turned around and left. However, the cashier suddenly opened her mouth as if she remembered something.

"Yes, The previous manager name was Xia Shiyu."

"Where is she now?" Jiang Chen questioned.

"She got let go because of the layoff. We took over after we received training from the headquarters. So we are not familiar with this place. If there is anything we did wrong, please kindly forgive us." With a polite smile, the cashier said a bunch of pleasing words. But Jiang Chen wasn’t paying attention.

[She lost her job as well. That cocky girl stayed only for a bit longer. Hahaha.]

Jiang Chen wanted to burst into laughter, but the brief excitement was soon overtaken by a sense of despair. It felt like he had no way to unleash his victorious excitement.

He stored everything into the storage dimension and left the place where he shared a significant amount of his recent memories.

He pushed open the spotless glass door as a wave of cold air emerged. Jiang Chen thought he might as well get his hair designed in this salon. He obviously didn’t make a reservation, but his luxurious looking clothing made the designer welcome him into the VIP room immediately. He only wanted to get a haircut. Although the result would be the same from a street side barber, Jiang Chen only wanted to spend money.

Only an extravagant lifestyle would relieve his tense mood.

Jiang Chen finally understood why corrupted people lived such a luxurious life. If they didn’t spend money, how would they stimulate their already frightened mental state?

He leaned against the plush chair as a delicate-looking hairdresser walked in. The hairdresser's wavy hair fitted her flawless and delicate face as if she came from a drawing. The fashionable clothes covered her serene figure perfectly. Even in just one glance, Jiang Chen was amazed by her beauty.

Her lilac scent tingled Jiang Chen’s senses. Her graceful hands massaged his hair delicately. With music in the background, it felt like heaven. She made washing hair into a form of art.

What Jiang Chen didn’t know was that the designer was also judging him. From the fashion industry, she knew how much Jiang Chen’s wardrobe cost. With that, he was also great looking. Compared to the customers she has served in the past, a lot of them were either bold or had a huge beer belly.

She peaked at the muscular chest. Although covered with a layer of clothing, she could almost feel the firmness. The female hairdresser blushed as she began to daydream. [What would it feel like to be with this guy?]

"The water is a bit hot."

"Ahh! I am so sorry sir."

Jiang Chen was a bit confused. In theory, she shouldn’t make a mistake like this. It interrupted his almost short nap. He didn’t seem to be bothered by these mistakes.

After his hair was washed, the dresser gently used a towel to cover Jiang Chen’s hair. With soft movements, she dried his hair gently. Every detail was performed to perfection. It was the ultimate pleasure. Especially when her leg slightly brushed against Jiang Chen’s hands, the silky smooth feeling was sensational.

The designer even gave him a massage after. Her soft finger turned and twisted on top of his head as if she was playing a symphony. The rhythm of her fingers was so pleasurable that it made Jiang Chen almost moan out.

Jiang Chen checked himself out in the mirror after the completed service. Although his hair was not that different, his presence completely changed. His brand new outfit combined with the haircut spoke sophistication on every level.

After, he wandered into a busy mall, a place he passed before but never had the money to buy anything. Though now even with money, he didn’t know what to buy with all these choices. He thought, only if Sun Jiao was here.

Jiang Chen laughed self-mockingly. That idea was as unrealistic as it could be. It would be difficult to explain everything in the first place, let alone the feasibility of taking a live person with him to perform interdimensional travel.

The crowded street felt lonely by himself.

Most of his close friends left the city to either go home, venture out, or leave the country. He was only one that remained in the crowded and emotionless city.

His contacts were full of numbers, but he didn’t have anyone to call.

The benefit of shopping alone was that he had complete freedom. He could buy anything and eat anything he wanted. He passed a women’s clothing store and almost walked in. However, he quickly realized how weird it was to go in without a female companion. So clothes shopping for Sun Jiao and Yao Yao would have to be next time.

As the sky turned into a dim yellow, it was dinner time.

He sat in a high-end restaurant, alone. He chose whatever was the most expensive at the time. King crabs, lobster, and steak. He didn’t know if he would finish everything or not, but he still ordered ten dishes. The server had a look of disbelief and concern, so he slapped his debit card on the table.

After the gene vaccine, Jiang Chen’s body condition significantly improved. Therefore, the amount of food he ingested also increased substantially.

The server looked horror, as Jiang Chen feasted on the meal. He managed to finish the majority of the dishes.

The rest of the dishes, he didn't plan to pack up.

He walked out of the restaurant and left the server dumbfounded. It was not the first time the server saw someone eat such an unbelievable amount of food. However, it was the server's first time seeing such a sophisticated and fit person finish almost everything on the table.

These dishes were all made of meat too.

Chapter 18: Encountering an old friend

The saline sea wind calmed Jiang Chen’s irrationality. He looked at the people walking by him. The scene of aged grandpas, couples, and tourists distracted him from reality for a second. He rubbed his temples tiredly to get rid of the drowsy feeling. He was a bit tired.

After the extravagant spending spree, he blew two hundred thousand in just an afternoon. After the moments of excitement, the wary feeling of an emotional roller-coaster remained.

He took a taxi to the beach; he just wanted to take a walk and feel the sea wind.

The beach was quite a famous sightseeing attraction in Wanghai City. There was the marble fence by the golden beach. The victorious comrade’s famous remake engraved into the stone statue, marking his longing legacy. Finally, the modern looking small hut filled the empty space in the picture. Jiang Chen heard this place from a couple of his buddies, but they only talked about how many hot girls there were.

They were right after all…

However, this was his first time here even though he's been in the city for four years already. He never came because of two simple reasons. He had no money, and he had no one he could bring along. But if he had the money, then there would always be someone. So him never going to the beach was because of the first reason after all.

It felt lonely shopping alone, and he felt the same visiting the beach.

Though he was still alone, he no longer pondered about life.

He had the money. Although one million was nothing in Wanghai City, there were plenty of rich people in this city and he couldn’t even buy an apartment, his mental state was drastically different. He was not arrogant, but he was certain he was wealthier than Bill Gates.

The entire gold deposit of a commercial bank was at least a couple of billion. What would all the gold in the apocalypse be worth?

Of course, he had to be careful in the sell-off strategy. A large amount of gold in the market would depreciate the value of the gold significantly. Long term wise, he only planned to raid the vault’s gold. There were many other ways to make money.

There were more attractive markets available for him to profit off of. For example, the advanced tech he could bring back. If he sold the full-sensory computer, the market cap of the company would be in the trillions. The virtual reality education system. The hibernation chamber. These were all trillion dollar ideas.

He must take a step at the time to build his empire. If he suddenly introduced the technology to the market, the money would come, but so would the government. Maybe it would even be intelligence agencies who are usually hidden in the dark. Thus, being bold would be unwise.

Once he acquired the gold, his initial capital would be ready. The planning and strategy would ensue. Step by step, once he possessed enough stake to form a conglomerate, nobody would be able to touch him.

For this one million, it was just for enjoyment purposes.

So Jiang Chen didn’t feel odd as he stood by the shore. What before could only be achieved in his dream were all within his reach. The stunning beauties, the magnificent mansion, and the luxurious cars.

He burped as he threw his beer can into the garbage. He was a little tipsy, as he took another breath of the saline filled sea wind.

"Hey dude, do you want to join us?"

A girl in a bikini smiled at him; her stunning figure was flourished with youth. Her hobby reading magazines meant that she easily saw how expensive Jiang Chen’s outfit was. The deep but lost gaze made him appear as a powerful CEO that just went through a bad breakup.

People in the middle of a breakup were the weakest emotionally. Su Fei thought she possessed the techniques of love. She first got rid of her best friend and approached Jiang Chen. Her smile was as sweet as a freshly baked cupcake.

She didn’t care how many relationships this guy went through, nor the fact that he might still be in one. She was envious of her roommate because she has a sugar daddy which meant countless amounts of money, LVs, and Hermes. She was jealous, as she thought her beauty was comparable to her roommate's.

If she tried to flirt, she would also get a rich guy, and this guy looked much better compared to her roommate’s sugar daddy.

Su Fei’s heart pumped faster as she imagined.

"Hehe, no thank you." To Su Fei’s surprise, the man only looked at her once before rejecting her with a smile.

"Leave your youth to someone more meaningful." Jiang Chen didn’t turn his head as he walked away. Su Fei stared blankly in place.

That girl must have thought I was mental. Jiang Chen hysterically laughed disregarding the looks of passersby. He stumbled mindlessly along the beach. The gene vaccine also increased his body’s detoxification process. It made the alcohol process much faster in his body. He enjoyed the slightly dizzy feeling, and he wanted it to last a bit longer.

He rejected the girl because he didn’t have any desire. Although she was quite attractive, she was still lackluster compared to Sun Jiao. As to the arrogant statement, he only said it because he felt like it.

The night began to cast its shadow on top of the Metropolitan, but the life of the city only just began. The crowded street made Jiang Chen irritable, and he wanted a moment of peace. It was too noisy here.

"Maybe it’s time to go back."

He sobered up as he still mindlessly walked through the street. All the sudden, a familiar figure caught his eye. He was slightly shocked as an odd expression appeared on his face.

Xia Shiyu graduated from Wanghai University with a major in business administration. Her stellar academic record along with a stunning appearance made everyone shower her with praise and envy, and she graduated at the top of the class. Even though the graduated from the same university, they lived completely different lives.

However, because of family reasons, she didn’t pursue graduate studies. Instead, she chose to work at a clothing store. Due to her outstanding performance, she was promoted to store manager at an excellent location. This gave her the perfect platform to display her prowess.

Once Xia Shiyu was promoted, she immediately implemented a list of action plans which increased the store's sales substantially. However, because of her strict performance measures, she acquired the nickname of the "cold beauty" among male colleagues, and b*tch among female workers. After all, everyone was envious and jealous of her, especially those of the same gender.

Not only was she accomplished in her career, but she also had a boyfriend that loved her. Her boyfriend always picked her up after work, even though it seemed like the overachieving manager was never nice to him. Due to her personality, Jiang Chen has even made fun of her, behind her back, about having a disruptive menstrual cycle because she always looked unpleased.

So this was how the tragedy happened. It was rumored that Xia Shiyu heard it by coincidence. She then investigated it and found the "mastermind" behind everything. Then, she used some petty excuses to fire Jiang Chen from the place.

Jiang Chen still remembered the coldness and mockery on her face. After all, humans are humans. Despite how righteous someone is, there may be times when they would act irrationally due to their emotions. Jiang Chen didn’t think he was wrong; it was only a joke which made him lose his job. Who cared about these types of demeanor? However, Xia Shiyu did not accept any of that. She was used to the praise of all the men. She could overlook the judgment from the females, but not the "disrespect" from men.

That was her character weakness or flaw.

At that time, Jiang Chen even wanted to take revenge. Though after he had relieved his frustration by drinking, he let it go because he thought it was not worth it. Life must continue, this is an ordered society.

Xia Shiyu was still the manager, and the store would continue to operate without him. But things felt different from that day on.

Ability is one thing, and academia is one thing, but opinion is another.

After the friendly Jiang Chen had been fired, his friends from work were enraged by the decision. Everyone started to oppose the way Xia Shiyu managed. The constantly high-pressure environment brought short-term improvements but made the overall work atmosphere was oppressive. She never was part of the team but asked the team to act according to her standard. Maybe she was justified in her management, but she didn’t consider the human emotion.

When an average salary started to conflict with exceptionally high expectations, the complaints only grew. These frustrations were reflected in the employee's work and ultimately impacted the sales figure.

Although they were pleased with this top student’s performance and her exceptional sales record, upper management ultimately decided to let the relatively inexperienced store manager and a few poor performing employees go. They replaced her with a backup talent.

She, who was appraised as the top student of the business school, actually lost her job in a matter of one year.

She was in agony and didn’t know what she did wrong. Or maybe as smart as she was, she already knew what she did wrong. However, it was too late to fix everything. She still remembered the guy she fired. It was after that that everyone began to look at her different. At first, they were respectful, but soon it was dusted with a sliver of disdain. It also applied to the male employees who used to praise her.

She also suffered in her relationship after she lost her job.

The boyfriend who used to do everything she said broke up with her. With the excuse "I spent so many years with you, and you didn’t even let me kiss you. Hehe, go be a virgin." He left immediately with his new girlfriend. Perhaps it because she couldn’t support him financially. The boyfriend didn’t even bother to hide the fact that he cheated.

It was satirical. Xia Shiyu always thought he loved her. She thought it was a kind of unconditional love. Only he persisted after her for the longest time, and he continued even after graduation. She said yes because of that. She didn’t love him, nor was she interested in any guy that chased her. She knew she would have to marry one day. So in the most efficient manner, she chose the one that persisted for the longest time.

But reality betrayed her. She almost fell in love with him. Was it because they didn’t kiss? Or have sex? Love couldn’t even stand such a minuscule test? Xiao Shiyu was lost and confused. She promised him that she would give everything of hers to him on the day they got married.

That was not what defeated her the most.

Maybe it was revenge. The guy used Xiao Shiyu's social ID as collateral for a loan and used the money to pay for a car. Each month, she would spend half her paycheck to repay the loan, which was okay until she lost her job.

A car worth 500 thousand was nothing in the past. If she worked for two more years, she could easily afford it. However, she was now unemployed and the amount was a massive hole for her to fill. Although with her ability it would not be difficult to find another job to repay the loan, there were so many graduates each year that it would be a nightmare to standout in the labor market. She already lost her competitive edge.

Also, all the offers were based on disgraceful conditions. Such as high salary in exchange for sexual favors. If the candidate did not comply, then they moved on to the next one.

In a country so populated, it was not difficult to find someone with ability.

The more satirical part was that she was not even the one that possessed the car.

She thought about calling the cops, but the loan was not from an ethical source to begin with, which meant that they would not take it lightly either. There was no way she could deal with the gang.

She fled from her original apartment and hid in temporary housing. She made a living working part-time in hopes of solving the problem through legal means. At the same time, she desperately maintained her hopes of finding an ideal job.

But her luck ran out.

A few maliciously looking guys surrounded the place she worked. They were clearly not there to negotiate.

Chapter 19: The Stereotypical Prince Saves the Princess Scene

"Yo, looks like you have been quite well off in the last few days." A guy with a clean cut whistled and stood there rascally. He was known as "Sir Tiger" and was a thug under the Hongyi Gang. He trained in martial arts for six years. One time, he single-handedly defeated a group of five gangsters which allowed him to receive special recognition from the big boss at Hongyi.

Although he was not a person of importance, he did have a bunch of followers. Rebellious students that called him "big boss." He enjoyed being the center of attention.

He spent the majority of his time as a bouncer at Hongyi’s night club and occasionally collected loans for his boss. It was an excellent lifestyle for him.

As unexciting as it was to collect money from a girl, especially when the girl considered calling the cop, her attractiveness made up for the trouble. Thus, he decided to let the incident slide. Besides, did she not know who she dealt with when she borrowed money from Hongyi in the first place? A perverted smile emerged on Liu Hu’s face. His gang already surrounded the flower shop. The customers who were there immediately left.

The busy flower shop was suddenly empty. The shop owner with a frightened look was trembling. He was also afraid to call the cops as he didn’t want any more trouble. With this many thugs here, there was no way to do business.

"Come out? Do you need me to send you a formal invitation?" Liu Hu blew a whistle and looked at her as if she was a prey.

Xia Shiyu bit her lips. Her flawless face was covered by the gloom of terror. She noticed the plea in the store owner's eyes. She sighed as she put the flower down quivering. She walked over with fixated but tense steps.

"I can’t believe you are still working here." Liu Hu reached for her face. "Do you have the money for me?"

But to his surprise, the resilient girl avoided his hand.

"I’ll repay the money while working. Please don’t bother me anymore." She took in a deep breath and answered without any emotions.

"Work? With this? How long would we have to wait? Hehe." He didn’t seem angry when she avoided his hand, but a grimness filled his eyes.

"What do you want?" With a stern face, Xiao Shiyu stared at the rascal. She was terrified as her legs trembled. But the resiliency deep in her bones made her stand her ground.

[This girl is interesting. Even though she is scared to death, she is still giving me the attitude.] Liu Hu raised his eyebrows, and he pondered with a smile.

"Two options. Money, or you." He put up two fingers.

"I don’t have any money right now." Xia Shiyu tried to remain calm.

"Then it’s a simple problem. We’ll take you." He reached out to shake as if the deal was already made.

"Me?" Xia Shiyu hissed at the remark, "You guys are not afraid of getting accused of human trafficking?"

"Hahahahaha."

Everyone, including Liu Hu, laughed hysterically.

That made Xia Shiyu feel humiliated. She didn’t think it was funny at all, but she could not deliver a comeback. She thought she could live a fulfilled life as an independent woman by working hard. She would support herself, her parents and realize her value.

But the reality was harsh.

"No No No, that’s a waste. Particularly for a beauty like you." Finally finished laughing, Liu Hu looked at the thugs behind him, "At least we need to let everyone get a taste of you for a few years before selling you to someone as a wife. What do you guys think?"

"Hahaha, maybe we will even visit you to help you with your business."

"Why don’t we sell her to Sir Pi? That bastard loves wh*res."

"F*ck you. I like wh*res, but I never said I was going to marry one."

After hearing all the rude and perverted comments, blood almost seeped out of Xia Shiyu’s lips because she bit it so hard. She wanted to cry; she wanted someone to save her right now. Even in her most difficult time, this thought never crossed her mind.

Tears of humiliation filled her eyes, and she even thought of killing herself. If they take her away, then it would be better off to die.

Liu Hu was experienced in debt collection. He knew what Xia Shiyu was thinking when he saw her expression, and he signaled his thugs to be quiet.

"Fine. I know this is unfortunate for you, but this is the rule. You pay if you owe money. Don’t worry. If you work for a couple of years in the Hongyi night club, you can leave once you pay your debt off. No one would know anyways. Then, in the end, you can just leave the city and marry someone nice. Just don’t borrow any more money you shouldn’t borrow in the first place."

That was a tactical move. Sticks and carrots were stereotypical, but it was extremely useful. The rude comments were probably part of the plan to set all of this up. Thugs are scariest when they are knowledgeable and well managed.

Jiang Chen wanted to keep watching, but the crushing look of his previous boss made him abort the idea. Although he hated her before, he didn’t want to see her breakdown.

[Fine, I will help her.]

In the past he would be terrified if he met a bunch of thugs, but now.

"Hehe, how should I address you sir?"

Liu Hu paused momentarily. He didn’t even realize there was someone that passed him a cigarette.

With teary eyes, Xia Shiyu looked at the man with pure disbelief. Her face had shock written all over. Is it him that stood up for her? The guy she fired in a moment of rage? She felt a sense of regret for her careless actions in the past, but she didn’t imagine her next encounter with him would be in such a scenario.

[Why is he here? Why is he standing up for me? Shouldn’t he be watching this drama right now as a bystander?]

Her face was completely stunned by everything that just happened. Regret, sympathy, sincerity, and confusion?

"Liu Hu." Liu Hu was dumbfounded. He was shocked by what just happened. Who would dare to talk with a gang when they were in the middle of something?

Cop? Liu Hu immediately rejected this idea. His boss has connections at the police department. So, unless the incident made headlines, they would not be involved.

Retard? Liu Hu’s facial expression suddenly changed.

"What a coincidence. I just met a friend of mine here." Jiang Chen laughed. He then changed the topic, "I heard the conversation. How much does she owe you?"

Liu Hu examined Jiang Chen with his eyes squinted. In his opinion, this guy was too calm and collected.

His boss’s mission for him was to bring the girl back if possible. The interest on the loan was nothing compared to the potential revenue she could generate at the nightclub. This girl’s perfect look and the gorgeous figure would sell her as a top choice at the nightclub. That was the cash generating business for the gang.

"Buddy, are you looking for trouble?" Liu Hu sneered as he reached for Jiang Chen. Xia Shiyu’s heart almost jumped out of her throat as she nervously watched the guy that stood up for her.

"My clothes cost around ten thousand dollars. Can you buy me a new one if you rip it?" Jiang Chen sighed as he clinched onto Liu Hu's hand. With his reflex stats of 28, it was not enough in the danger-filled wasteland, but it was certainly sufficient for these thugs in the modern world.

Liu Hu felt as if both of his hands were clamped down. He couldn’t even move a single inch.

[F*ck, this guy must have trained in martial arts before.]

He realized he messed with the wrong person. Although he wanted to backup, since all his thugs were watching, the ruthless side of him came out as he flipped out the knife hidden in his left hand. Then, he slashed at Jiang Chen’s head.

Jiang Chen slightly turned his head to avoid the slow moving knife. He then pushed Liu Hu away.

"F*ck, you think you are tough? Guys beat him up!" The thug that was obviously connected to Liu Hu saw the tide of the fight turn. He wanted to escalate the fight from one on one to a full brawl.

Jiang Chen sighed. If he knew this conflict was tedious to resolve, he wouldn’t have worn expensive clothing to a fight.

"Why don’t we go to the ally there? There’s monitoring here." Jiang Chen casually pointed to the alley.

Liu Hu paused again. His reaction was abnormal to Liu Hu. He didn’t look the slightest bit afraid, which made Liu Hu unsure. Since he already proposed it, it would be cowardly if he didn’t agree. How would he maintain his reputation in front of his thugs?

"Hehe, what a brave guy. Please." Liu Hu fixed his collar as he signaled towards the alley.

[What a show-off] Jiang Chen didn’t imagine Liu Hu would have the audacity to go even if it was a brawl. Jiang Chen stepped into the alley.

A sneer appeared on Liu Hu’s face as Jiang Chen followed into the alley. [Regardless of how good your martial art is, there is no way you would beat ten people. Do you think you are superman?]

He left the most useless thug to keep an eye on Xia Shiyu. The rest of the thugs followed him into the alley.

Worried about Jiang Chen’s safety, she anxious thought about possible solutions. She considered calling the cop, but the thug was looking at her fiercely. She glanced over at the store owner that always took care of her before, but he just pretended he didn’t see anything.

She had the urge to cry with a mixture of emotions. Not because she was afraid, but because she felt helpless.

She didn’t rely on anyone in the past ten years. The weariness caused by her resilience overwhelmed her by her helplessness.

"Beat him up…" Just as he opened his mouth, Liu Hu’s rascal expression froze.

A pistol was pointed at his forehead.

"There’s no monitoring here." Jiang Chen shrugged. He didn’t expect the pistol that Yao Yao picked up would be useful. He didn’t mind teaching these thugs a lesson with his fist if it was not because of his clothing.

"Fake… It's fake right?" Sweat rolled down Liu Hu’s forehead. He forced a smile and stared at Jiang Chen. He wanted to look for the uncertainty, which would give him courage.

Jiang Chen moved the gun and pointed elsewhere.

Bang!

The explosion of the bullet struck like thunder beside Liu Hu’s ear. In such a close range, it almost popped his eardrum.

"Ahhhhhhh…" A thug covered his leg as he fell to the ground. His face was pale and twisted due to the unbearable amount of pain. Everyone just stood there terrified; they didn’t dare to help the guy.

The bullet penetrated through the thug’s leg and pierced into the concrete ground. The poor bastard that got shot was the thug that wanted to fight outside. He should have thought about this when he tried to escalate the whole thing.

Gun

It was dead silent. Only the lunatics and the cops had guns. His boss once told him that. He never touched a gun before, but he memorized it by heart.

Regardless of which type, they were all extremely dangerous.

There were many gangs in Wanghai City. If Liu Hu accidently offended a person of power, nobody would say a thing if he died.

"B… Boss, there is always a solution. No need to bring a gun into the conversation."

Jiang Chen pressed the burning barrel against his forehead. He resisted the pain as he was too terrified to move. The skin on his forehead was probably burned, but he couldn't say a word.

"I tried to come up with a solution, but you always interrupted me." Jiang Chen made a harmless expression.

[This guy must be crazy!]

Liu Hu swallowed his fear. He kept laughing to alleviate the intensity of the situation.

"Ok, I don’t have all day for you." Jiang Chen tapped Liu Hu’s head with the gun. Liu Hu noticed that Jiang Chen didn’t close the safety. He was drenched in cold sweat. It was the first time in his life that he felt so terrified.

"Do we have an agreement?"

"Ye…Yes." Liu Hu quivered as he took out the agreement.

"What’s your bank account number?"

"Hmm?" Liu Hu was confused as to what Jiang Chen meant.

"I’ll repay the money. Are you dumb or what." Jiang Chen suddenly raised his voice which made Liu Hu heart pound even faster.

"Repay the money?" In a trembling voice, he asked. He thought he heard it wrong.

"It’s as if you sold me the debt. Do you understand what that means? What’s in your brain? Do I look like the type who wouldn’t pay?" Jiang Chen stuffed the gun into his pocket.

"No, nope." There was no way Liu Hu would answer yes.

Ripping the debt would not be a solution as Hongyi Gang would not easily let this go. Jiang Chen was not afraid. Xia Shiyu, on the other hand, would be in danger.

Jiang Chen had things to take care of in the apocalypse. He didn’t have enough time to look after Xia Shiyu. He only helped because he was a good person with no intention of putting any more effort into this. His time was quite valuable as he was planning a trip to a famous tourist city Sanya.

Changing the ownership of debt was the best solution Jiang Chen came up with. She could repay him while maintaining her dignity.

He didn’t care about the money, but he did not want to just write the debt off for her. The high-interest loan was illegal but repaying the principal amount was reasonable. If he didn’t have the opportunity to oppress his previous manager with the terrible attitude, it would be a waste of a beautiful chance.

Also, Jiang Chen had previous considerations as well.

Liu Hu happily accepted the payment as he furiously bowed to Jiang Chen. After Jiang Chen repaid the 410,000 dollars, he immediately left while hustling the injured thug. There was no way he would dare to ask for interest. He was sure his boss would not blame him since the other person had a gun. Jiang Chen was in good faith to repay the principle amount.

They rushed out of the alley without daring to ask Jiang Chen’s name.

Jiang Chen scorned at the direction Liu Hu left as he threw the gun into the storage dimension.

He touched his face and stepped out of the alley.

Hmm? Where did the blood come from?

Chapter 20: Xia Shiyu in Despair

"… Are you alright?" As she stared at Jiang Chen, who approached her, she bit her lips and ran out of words to say.

"Not exactly okay, a minor injury." Jiang Chen had the audacity to point at the small cut on his cheek. If he didn’t point it out, it would have gone unnoticed.

"I, I’ll treat it for you." Xia Shiyu lowered her head, full of guilt. She had never owed favors to anyone, but now she owed this person so much.

"Here? Saliva can disinfect it." Jiang Chen joked carelessly. It even surprised himself a little.

[Hmm? When did I get so flirty?]

"… I have bandage and alcohol at my place." Xia Shiyu coldly answered Jiang Chen’s mockery

[Is there anyone more narcissistic than him?] Xia Shiyu stared at the smiling Jiang Chen with a look of defeat. She was confused. This was the same guy that was afraid to make eye contact with her?

"I’ll repay you, including interest." Xia Shiyu expressed her gratitude with certainty in her voice. And then more hesitantly, she said "With normal interest rate." She wasn’t confident in repaying the high interest on her debt.

Jiang Chen shrugged as he knew this girl too well. She would not back down from her goal.

"Xia Shiyu."

"Yeah?" Xia Shiyu turned her head after the store owner called.

"This is your salary for half of the month. I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do about the thugs. Also, you don’t have to come to work tomorrow," the store owner said laboriously as he finally said the disheartening statement in an almost pleading tone.

After she had taken the envelope of money, she nodded her head emotionlessly. She gazed at the flower shop that was about to close. Evading and doubtful looks surrounded her as people looked away when she tried to make eye contact. She didn’t know why she wanted to cry.

She couldn’t remember the number of times she almost broke down, but this was the first time in her life that she felt so fragile.

"Fired?" Jiang Chen said mockingly. He felt so joyful seeing his manager got fired again.

She didn’t answer Jiang Chen's mockery. She bit her lips, full of emotions. She turned around and headed home as Jiang Chen followed. Xia Shiyu did say that she was going to help him with the wound.

By now, the wound had already scarred up, but Jiang Chen was curious about where his ex-boss lived. He had nothing better to do anyways.

Jiang Chen chuckled to himself as he thought that he was a terrible person. Almost as mischievous as Sun Jiao.

Jiang Chen stepped onto the moldy stairs, and a frown appeared on his face. He was surprised that Wanghai City even had a building this old. The crack- filled walls indicated that this place was not pleasant.

Xia Shiyu pulled out her keys and opened the rusted door. A bitter smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face. [This girl is almost too resilient and independent. Any other girls would not be able to handle these living conditions. Especially with her charming looks, if she wanted her problems solved, a lot of people would be willing to pay 500,000 for her.]

But her attractiveness was completely undermined by her terrible attitude.

There was a hint of a moldy odor when Jiang Chen first entered the room, but the scented air freshener quickly filled his nostrils. It was clear that Xia Shiyu used it in an attempt to solve the problem.

The room was tiny and cluttered with furniture. It was even smaller than Jiang Chen’s cheap apartment. There was no TV in the living room. Only an old wooden desk with even older chairs. Maybe they would be worth something if she sold them as artifacts.

There was no air conditioning in sight either, only a fan placed in the corner of the room. The most expensive electronic was the stainless steel kettle which she had most likely brought with her when she fled from her home.

A laptop was on the table, but there was no wifi here. What would be the use of it?

He noticed that two pairs of shoes were placed neatly in front of the door. There was no way she only owned two pairs of shoes. She must have been in a rush when she escaped. Although the condition of the apartment was not the best, it did look like she spent a considerable amount of time cleaning the place.

"Sorry, it’s pretty crappy here. Sit," Xia Shiyu awkwardly said. It was her first time bringing a not-so-familiar man to her place. Even for her ex, she always asked him to stop in front of her door. The idea of spending time alone with the opposite gender made her extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps it was because of her overprotective mindset that she was friendless, especially at this time, when she needed someone the most. She walked into the tiny bedroom.

Jiang Chen pulled out a chair and sat down on it. However, to his surprise, it almost made him fall. [F*ck, the chair is missing a piece of its leg.]

Soon, Xia Shiyu walked out with rubbing alcohol and q-tips.

"Where?" Her tone was mechanical. She examined the wound as she tried to place her hand awkwardly.

"Here. Are you going to...?" Jiang Chen forced a smile. He only wanted to mock the ex-manager, but she did bring out the rubbing alcohol.

"I said I would treat it for you." Xia Shiyu took in a deep breath as she advanced toward his face.

Jiang Chen felt uncomfortable as well. His hands wiggled back and forth not knowing where to place them.

"Don’t move." Xia Shiyu frowned slightly and gave the restless Jiang Chen a hard stare.

"Okay." Jiang Chen forced a smile again.

It was a delightful fragrance. The lilac aroma twirled around Jiang Chen’s nose. Her flawless neck was decorated with jewelry. Jiang Chen remembered there was a necklace when they worked together. When she leaned forward, the light summer shirt flashed a glimpse of her beautiful cleavage. It was probably only a B, which was nothing compared to Sun Jiao's. But with her serene figure, she seemed like a delightful breeze in the summer day.

She was a goddess in looks and figure. It was quite embarrassing, but Jiang Chen did masturbate to her before.

In his memory, her hair was always tied back professionally. Today, her hair was pulled back in a ponytail which brought Jiang Chen to a memory of his past. The newly graduated Xia Shiyu was nothing like the professional office lady.

"What are you looking at?" She noticed the invasive stare which made her quite scared. But her face still displayed the same guarded and emotionless look.

"No. Nothing," Jiang Chen awkwardly replied.

After the wound was treated, their eyes crossed.

Time stopped for a moment.

Awkwardness ensued.

"It smells very nice here. Hahaha." Jiang Chen rubbed his head to break the silence.

Xia Shiyu zoned out momentarily. Her cheek blushed as her emotionless face smiled slightly, but her eyes looked even colder.

"It’s the scent of lilacs. I probably got it when I worked." With a frown on her face, she quickly cleaned up and headed back into her room.

[Heart pounding fast.] She held her pumping chest as she recollected her breathing. She disappointedly looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t know why she was acting weird.

[Heart pounding fast.] Jiang Chen also confusedly touched his chest. [There is no way I am interested in this girl.] He immediately rejected the idea and blamed the natural reaction of his hormones. Compared to an icy beauty, he preferred the energetic and lively Sun Jiao. Sun Jiao who occasionally went into her character as the queen of the wasteland while acting as a caring and heartwarming wife.

Xia Shiyu left her room moments later and interrupted Jiang Chen’s train of thoughts. She stood across from Jiang Chen, but there was no conversation between the two. Silence filled the room as the only noise was the ticking clock and their heartbeats.

"Thank you." Xia Shiyu broke the silence first.

"No problem, I just happened to pass by." He lied about the fact that he tried to find her today in the morning with hostile intentions but only left because he heard she left her position.

He didn’t expect this stubborn girl to thank him.

"You," Xia Shiyu briefly paused as if she had something to say. She hesitated for a bit before finally asking what bothered her, "Don’t you hate me?"

He was not surprised by the question. He also considered the question himself. [Do I still hate her?]

"I hated you." In the end, the paragraphs he tried to articulate in his head only turned into three short words. Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu with a perplexed look.

[Then why did you save me?]

She didn’t ask this question, but Jiang Chen read the unasked question in her eyes.

He hated her before. She fired him and almost made him homeless. He was not hesitant to curse her with the most malicious vows… However, that was all in the past. After he had released his anger, it was no longer an incident that bothered him. Life continued, and there was no reason to continue to despise her.

"No particular reason." Jiang Chen sighed as he shook his head. "To be frank, when I heard that you were fired, I was quite ecstatic for a moment. As you can see, the clothes I am wearing right now are purchased from that store. However, I realized that I am still too immature."

"Immature?" She mumbled the word repetitively. She was dumbfounded by Jiang Chen’s words. Her icy, cold eyes began to lose its focus.

If Jiang Chen humiliated her or even hit her, it would make this feel easier. But the man she almost single-handedly pushed to despair didn’t do anything in retaliation. He gave her a helping hand in her most desperate time.

[Why…]

"Even if I retaliated, what would I get in return? To be honest, the feeling of revenge is great. But if I see a girl get pushed to the edge of life by a group of thugs without doing anything, the guilt will overwhelm me - especially since I know you. After all, we don’t have a hatred that runs for generations. It was only a job after all. Even if you gave me the job now, I will not take it."

It was a job after all. Compared to what Jiang Chen lost, he certainly gained a lot more. If he weren't drunk, he would have never passed the alley. He would have missed the opportunity to acquire the interdimensional bracelet.

He never knew where life would take him the next.

"Before I fired you, I thought a lot about it." With a perplexed look, she continued, "Based on the facts, I know I am not a qualified manager."

"You have all the abilities, but you don’t know the human heart" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Human heart? Do you mean psychology?"

"No no, it’s not something from the textbook. The human heart is a complicated matter. Even within a lifetime, it would be difficult to understand it all."

They chatted as if they were close friends that hadn’t seen each other for a long time. Jiang Chen felt the calm he had been searching the entire day for.

Yes, it was incredible shopping, and eating a fancy meal, but he still felt hollow.

In this large metropolitan city, he didn’t even have a single friend he could talk with. Maybe that was what Jiang Chen was searching for that entire day. Everyone took separate path after graduation and moved on.

This tiny apartment brought him the calmness and serenity he had desperately searched for.

Maybe, this peacefulness was what life rewarded those who did good deeds.

Chapter 21: Work for me?

Why don’t you work for me?

He stared out the window as night fell. It was getting pretty late. He peeked at the clock, and it pointed directly at 12.

At that moment, he realized there was something wrong. There were only three pairs of female shoes there, but he always thought she had a boyfriend.

"I am staying pretty late, is your friend not going to be jealous?" Jiang Chen casually asked but soon noticed the gloom on Xia Shiyu’s face.

Immediately, he realized what happened. He knew someone as smart as Xia Shiyu would not borrow money from sketchy sources. Then the only option was that after she had lost her job, he loaned under her name.

That also explained why she was left helpless in this old and torn down apartment.

"Your man’s a trash and a half." Jiang Chen stood up for her.

"He’s not my man." Xia Shiyu replied with the same emotionless tone.

"Why don’t you go home?" Her apathetic tone made Jiang Chen quite shocked. So to avoid the awkwardness, he changed the subject.

"I don’t want to bring trouble home." The resilience on her face touched Jiang Chen. She was definitely capable. He thought that maybe it was because upper management had a thing with her. But he was too quick to judge. For a renowned brand, the upper management was not the type to think with the lower half of the body.

"To be honest, I am impressed." Jiang Chen said to Xia Shiyu with sincere.

"Really?" The tone of her voice was filled with self-mockery.

For some strange reason, the second she opened her mouth, Jiang Chen saw a glimpse of wretchedness in her eyes. Perhaps it was not that, perhaps it was weariness.

As a woman, after all the ups and downs she has gone through, she still stayed strong.

Jiang Chen didn’t know what would comfort her. He was not too good at comforting woman in general. Or else he wouldn’t be single for 20 years.

Silenced ensued again.

"Do you want to listen to my story?"

Jiang Chen nodded.

She told him everything that happened after she fired Jiang Chen. The store was facing sales problems, and the headquarter was questioning her ability. From a bunch of anonymous complaints to holding the notice of termination, she felt a mixture of emotions when she left the place. Unemployed, cheating, and gang harassment, she was running out of options, and she finally decided to flee from her apartment and hide there.

What pushed her from despair to hopelessness was hearing the proud voice of her parents on the other side of the phone. However, she couldn’t express her sorrow to them. She could only answer against her will that she was okay, and everything was fine. Her parents were too old to accept this travesty.

Jiang Chen also felt the same heartache when he lost his job. She was not seeking sympathy; she only wanted someone to talk to because she was too tired. However, this person only showed up now.

"You are very strong. If there’s anything I can do to help, feel free to call me."

"Thanks, but I don’t need sympathy." Xia Shiyu smiled as she rubbed her teary eye.

Smiled?

Her?

Jiang Chen was stunned.

"Is there something on my face?" Xia Shiyu felt quite shy after Jiang Chen’s eyes were locked on her.

"No… But this is my first time seeing you smile." He blankly nodded. He knew that if he looked in the mirror right now, he would look extremely foolish.

Haha, Xia Shiyu burst out in laughter. She was also stunned because she realized that she was laughing. Not only was she laughing but she was laughing joyfully.

"Well, is it that funny?" Jiang Chen pretended to cough as he awkwardly rubbed his head.

"You, are very funny."

[Why is it in a questioning tone?] Jiang Chen rolled his eyes as he looked defeated.

"Now that I told you my story, can you tell me yours?" She rubbed her eyes. Her softened expression made her face as pristine as snow.

[She has such an adorable face, why would she remain so cold every day?] Jiang Chen murmured in his mind.

"Me? There really is not much to say. I made some money with my own business." Jiang Chen guiltily made up an unsophisticated lie.

Xia Shiyu slightly frowned and looked unhappily at Jiang Chen. She didn’t even realize such a girly expression appeared on her face.

"Hmm? I don’t believe it."

"Well, there is nothing I can do about it." He opened his palms. Some secrets must be kept hidden forever. "But, I do believe you’ll be an excellent manager. Are you interested?"

This was Jiang Chen’s other consideration.

Open a company and let Xia Shiyu work for him.

Exchanging for gold is not a long term strategy. One day people will question his source of income. If the government noticed him, he would have to live on the other side of the earth. The best way was to open a company. He even thought about the name. It will be called "Futuristic Technology"!

His plan was to gather all the "garbage" from the apocalypse and introduce ground-breaking, innovative products.

iPhone, Microsoft, and Samsung will all be names of the past. Could they be as innovative as technology from 200 years later? Even the computer screen was made by full-sensory technology. If they produced the technology that only existed in sci-fi, all the consumers in the world would go insane.

This was only in the electronic devices.

Blizzards, EA, and Ubisoft would go lunatics over the virtual reality technology. Once a matured virtual reality technology debuts in the market, no one would want to play with a mouse and controller anymore.

Then it would be home appliances, cars, military tech, and even technology for space exploration! The possibilities were endless.

The reason why he chose Xia Shiyu was simple. He couldn’t find anyone else, and he trusted her ability. Although they had a conflict in the past, Jiang Chen realized he forgave her quite easily. Maybe it was because she was not a bad person, or maybe it was because of how similar their experiences are.

So when Xia Shiyu hit rock bottom, Jiang Chen reached out to help her and recruited her.

"Interested?" Xiao Shiyu was still unclear about what Jiang Chen meant.

"How many years would you have to work in the flower shop to pay me back? And since you are unemployed, I just found a job for you."

"You own the company?" Xia Shiyu looked at him questionably.

"What, I can’t? I am excited to see my ex-manager work diligently under me." He said jokingly. But he looked quite serious.

She closed her eyes to consider the proposition for a moment. It was quite attractive to her. She didn’t have any reason to reject it.

"I accept."

"Excellent." Jiang Chen laughed and extended his hand. "Welcome on board, Manger Xia. You are hired by Futuristic Technology, and you starting salary will be 10,000."

The salary was comparable to her previous job. Jiang Chen’s generosity made her feel confused. After so long, he already made this much progress in his career?

She shook Jiang Chen’s hand. The warm but coarse feeling made her slightly tremble.

"That’s a hefty salary you are paying. However, just to be clear, I will not do any sexual favors." Astonishingly, she was surprised she got the job.

Jiang Chen was completely stunned. He was amazed by the glimpse of charm she displayed. The icy beauty made a dirty joke.

"Haha, of course not. But the company does not condone nor prevent employees from seducing the president." The righteous beauty was obviously no match with Jiang Chen in terms of dirty jokes. After she heard the word "seduce", her face flushed with anger.

But to her surprise, she was more embarrassed than angry.

[What’s the reason?]

"Can I get a brief description of the company?" Known for her professionalism, she quickly recollected herself. She headed straight to business. "Futuristic Technology, the company sounds like a firm that specializes in the technology sector. What am I in charge of? Sales, or research and development? If it is R&D, although I don’t any experience in the area, I am confident that I will be familiar with the responsibilities within a month…"

"Stop, stop right here." Jiang Chen signaled Xia Shiyu to stop talking. With her question-filled eyes fixed on Jiang Chen, he cleared his throat. "In simple term, you are the CEO. Therefore you take care of everything." Let the secretary do everything was the way Jiang Chen imagined to be a boss He didn’t have the energy to manage people.

Xiao Shiyu's face all the sudden turned concerned. She never heard of the Futuristic Technology at all.

"Currently, the company is still in planning stage." Jiang Chen answered the question she was worried about as if it was not a big deal at all. "Don’t you feel excited? You’ll be the Steve Jobs of Hua, and I will be the Bill Gates of Hua!"

With passion, he stated the quote that he always wanted to say. He finally had the opportunity to say it.

"…"

"Wait, why do you have your phone out?"

"I am reserving a hospital bed for you." Her look expressed which type of hospital she was sending him to written all over it.

"Wait, you…"

She grabbed her phone and convinced her to let him finish.

"If you don’t join us right now, you’ll regret it in 5 years! Just like how no one believed in Jack Ma. Wait, don’t call." Jiang Chen calmed the almost furious Xia Shiyu with a smile. He was not talented in giving pep talks. He didn’t know how to recruit and excite people. He wanted to use what he has learned through WeChat marketing, but it made him even more suspicious in the end.

"Simple, your position is the CEO. However, since the company doesn’t have a lot of business right now, why don’t you take care of the position of general manager as well. At this stage, I’ll pay you 10,000 a month. You don’t need to repay me with this money. I really don’t care about such a small amount of money. Maybe in the future, your salary would be far above the amount of loan. Don’t look at me like that. I am not joking. Your next task is simple. I’ll wire you 500,000 so you can incorporate the company. You don’t have to worry about what happens next. In two months, you’ll be extremely busy."

She sighed as she stared at the Jiang Chen who was feeling great about his speech. "Are you not afraid I’ll take the money and run?"

"You are not that kind of a person," Jiang Chen disagreed. "Also, 500,000 to learn about a person is worth it. Compared to what the company will be worth in the future."

Since she still couldn't find a job and owed money, Xia Shiyu made up her mind and agreed.

Years later, Xia Shiyu would still be grateful when asked about this day. When media asked about how she almost rejected Jiang Chen's offer, she would just emotionally say one sentence. "Sometimes a split second decision makes a difference between a billionaire and poverty."

"It’s late now. I’ll head back." It was almost one in the morning.

"Mhmm." She stood and walked Jiang Chen to the door.

"Don’t forget to send me your bank account number. I’ll prepay your July salary. You’ll get paid at the end of the month. Also, find somewhere nice to live. It’s not safe to live here, especially for a beauty like you." The exact contract can only be made when the company is incorporated. However, Jiang Chen was not too bothered by the details. He had faith in her loyalty.

Xia Shiyu blushed when she heard Jiang Chen call her a beauty. A lot of people called her that before, but this was the first time her heart started to pump faster. She didn’t display her feminine side this time and nodded calmly.

"Ok."

"That’s all from me. I have to leave for a couple of days, so you might not be able to reach me." Jiang Chen turned around and left.

"Wait…"

"Hmm?" Jiang Chen turned back.

"Thank you... You looked very... handsome when…"

At Jiang Chen’s surprised look, Xia Shiyu slammed the door shut.

[This girl, is she interested in me?] Jiang Chen thought joyfully.

But, it could just be a simple thanks.

He didn’t think too much of it.

She leaned behind the closed door and slowly slid onto the ground. The cold feeling of the porcelain tile pressed against her smooth leg made her mixed emotions slightly calmer.

[What happened there? Why did I say something so embarrassing…] She covered her face as she tried to hid the tingling sensation in her hands. Her lips slightly trembled.

[That was so embarrassing… I want to die… Ahhhhh!]

In "humiliation" she hid her head between her legs.

Chapter 22: Sanya Vacation

Sanya, located at the southern tip of Hainan Island, was also known as Lu city. It was renowned as the eastern Hawaii and the top tourist city in Han. It possessed the most stunning views of the ocean.

Beach, ocean, and bikinis. It was the haven for vacationers.

The slightly salty sea wind carried the fragrance of coconuts. Here, there was no worry about toxic gas and no concern about smog. The city welcomed tourist with the pristine sky and the aroma of nature. It was one of the cities with the best air quality in Han.

He decided to go on this journey spontaneously.

Beach shirt, sunglasses, and an empty suitcase.

A smile emerged on his face as he saw the stretch of crystal clear sky. He stood in front of the airport for a while before finally waving down a taxi. The driver diligently helped Jiang Chen with the suitcase and respectfully opened the door for him.

The excellent service was because he made a reservation at Sheraton, which was the most expensive mansion beside the beach.

The seven-day trip would cost him 220,000, which was enough for a down payment on a house. He would have never experienced this luxury in the past. But now, his goal was to enjoy the journey. The sooner he spent all his money, the earlier he could go back. [Is Sun Jiao okay now?]

Jiang Chen began to miss his hot "personal assistant". If she were with him right now, the journey would be much more enjoyable. And Yao Yao, did she take care of herself?

He looked at the view that passed by him. Compared to the always occupied feeling in the city, the island has a more relaxed vibe.

[Maybe I’ll buy an island once I have money?]

He enjoyed the beautiful scenery and thought to himself. The car soon arrived at its destination.

The Sheraton!

It was a mansion located at the southernmost tip of the island, in the dragon bay, and it was also a natural rain forest. The silver white sand extended along the shore. Coconuts and palm trees decorated the beach. Everything a beach was supposed to have existed here.

The service at a world renowned 5-star hotel was indeed stellar. The server greeted Jiang Chen as he stepped out of the car. With a smile on his face, he took Jiang Chen to his mansion.

"If you need anything, sir, please use the terminal to let us know. We’ll be here immediately. We wish you have a great vacation and let Sheraton be a part of your delightful memory. With a professional and charming smile, the server passed an iPad looking tablet to Jiang Chen. All the functionality of the hotel could be controlled from this terminal.

He took a deep breath.

"WOOHOO!"

He threw off his annoying t-shirt and underwear and jumped into the hot spring.

Pooch!

Water splashed as Jiang Chen lied in the hot spring. He was savoring this moment of peace.

[How am I going to spend the next seven days?] He didn’t plan anything. In his view, the purpose of travel was to relax. The goal was not to do quests here. Since he had all the money and time in the world, he was here to just have fun.

Without sunscreen, even Jiang Chen’s improved condition couldn’t handle direct exposure to the summer sun. He stood up from the hot spring and dried himself with a towel.

After changing into a casual outfit, he walked to the balcony. The view directly overlooked the entirety of Sheraton’s beach. This mansion was the best sightseeing spot on the beach.

The beach was filled with attractive figures. Jiang Chen automatically filtered out all the dudes. Conservative southeastern beauties, blond and blue-eyed foreigners, and even exquisite Middle Eastern hotties. Some of them bathed in the sun, some of them were playing in the water, some surfed, and some were playing beach volleyball. It was busy down there.

However, he got tired of the scene quite quickly. It was boring watching someone else play. He grabbed a glass of wine and chugged it like beer. He tried to savor the noble taste of the wine, but all he tasted was a sourness.

If Sheraton’s manager heard Jiang Chen complain about the wine, the manager would probably kick him out for his lack of taste.

Maybe he has seen too many crowded places in the city, and he all he wanted was peace here.

He rubbed sunscreen on himself and laid flat on a chair. The warm and cozy feeling was delightful. It felt as if every single one of his pores were being massaged. His weariness was also taken away gently by the light breeze of the sea wind.

Away from the noise, he was enjoying the southern kingdom’s sunlight. There was also an occasional crashing of the waves along the shoreline and the laughter from the beauties playing beach volleyball. The noises lightly tingled his rigid ear drums and calmed his tightened nerves. He closed his eyes and peacefully slept.

No wonder all the rich people enjoyed the beach and the ocean in the movie. Why didn’t I do this before?

Jiang Chen spent his afternoon in the sun. As the sun began setting in the east, he enjoyed the orangey hue that stretched across the horizon before finally leaving the balcony.

It was already dinner time. Because of Jiang Chen's stronger body conditions, he was more sensitive to hunger.

Although he could dine-in, he decided not to. It was his first time at a five-star hotel. He wanted to explore the place. What’s the point of eating take-out on vacation?

He used the tablet to read over the description of all the facilities in the hotel. It listed everything from maps to the characteristics of each restaurant. Just as he was glancing through each restaurant, the terminal vibrated. It signaled he had mail in front of his door.

Mail?

He opened the door and found a box.

It was an invitation.

"The Saudi Prince Mr. Yef… for his beloved princess… birthday party? What the hell is this?"

The most luxurious restaurant at Sheraton was hosting a dinner tonight. It invited all the celebrity and person of importance to attend. It was a birthday for a Saudi prince’s princess. Jiang Chen who lived in the most expensive room obviously received an invitation.

"Hehe, since I already got the invitation, I’ll see what’s out there."

Jiang Chen’s smiled as he displayed a glimpse of interest.

Of course, "see what’s out there" was equivalent to "what was there to eat".

Chapter 23: Upper Class

It was a private function, so the dress code of the gathering was formal. Jiang Chen was the only one that showed up in a casual outfit. His plan was to vacation here, so he had no intention of bringing a formal suit.

A pianist performed at the front of the restaurant. The elegant piano resonated within the room. The elites from all kinds of industries mingled and bonded in search of their inner circle. Jiang Chen stood out among the others as he circled on the edge of the dinner table with plates filled with food. His primary interest was on the table stuffed with delicious treats. Networking nor dancing interested him.

[Hmm, this steak is f*cking delicious.] He delicately chewed and nodded his head in satisfaction. He tried to act elegantly by gently rubbing the grease off of his lips. Although he was a foodie, if he didn’t care about his gesture at all, he would be a peasant. Maybe security would even escort him out.

He held his wine and gazed onto the person at he center of everyone's attention. The Saudi prince was indeed remarkably wealthy. The princess looked gorgeous. Her graceful figure curved like an hourglass. Her delicate nose paired with her crystal-like eyes created a perfect elegance. The princess possessed the facial characteristics of an eastern beauty and the figures of the exquisite western woman. Her composure also foretold her sense of class to everyone around.

She didn’t wear a headscarf, so she must have been from Lebanon.

An enormous diamond, shaped like a star, decorated her flawless neck. Jiang Chen didn’t know how much it would cost but based on the size, it must be worth millions.

The prince standing beside her was also handsome. Jiang Chen observed that the two protagonists were surrounded by either arms dealers to oil tycoons. There were a few Asian looking face mixed in between, but he couldn’t be sure of their nationality

The rest of the elites gathered in groups. Jiang Chen saw several familiar faces. There was a renowned singer here, and the bald guy from Fast and Furious. He was surprised by the fact that so many celebrities were here as well, but he didn’t have any intention of talk to them.

"Mr. Yef, why did you choose the mysterious east to celebrate this special moment with your princess."

"Haha, I am especially fond of this place. Last time I was in Hawaii, but it’s quite nice here as well. There are no reporters here."

Of course, there were reporters, but they were all invited by the police to have a chat. The conversation was probably about passport documents. Regardless of how frustrated those foreign reporters were, the police didn’t let them go. In this country, it was more important to make sure you complied with the legal process than report meaningless news. When the time was right, then you could leave.

In this country, money was more useful than capitalistic countries.

Last time in Hawaii, Yef spent double the amount of money to hire gangs to take care of the situation. He also spent the same amount and bribed the cops to ignore the situation.

The complete service of the country fitted the needs of the Saudi prince well.

Because of the importance Yef placed on privacy, his friends would always take the journey to see him. Although the friendly Yef invited everyone who resided at the hotel, not everyone lived here.

Some people booked the hotel for a few nights to access this "resourceful" network. Jiang Chen was quite lucky that he booked out the most expensive hotel. He didn’t know that the Saudi prince was having a party here.

"Mr. Olaf, are you interested in five oil tankers of crude oil?"

"Of course I am interested. We burn those every day. Haha, Mr. Zachof, if you would please chat with me."

"My pleasure."

A deal was made almost every minute between each conversation. Jiang Chen sighed as he couldn't believe the scene. He witnessed deals happen while eating salmon. What a bizarre idea. He even heard a few Asian billionaires talk about business, stock markets and even some private matters. Jiang Chen also heard some quite explosive headlines.

For example, a rumored engaged actress showed up at the real estate tycoon’s room last night. Also, a female singer known for her pureness was at a sexual party. Jiang Chen even downloaded a few of her songs.

The news her heard shocked him, but he was not too surprised. Sexual favors were always common among the celebrity circle. If the reporters managed to sneak in, there would be unimaginable consequences. Of course, no reporters would show up.

"A5 Kobe Beef. Great stuff."

"Mhmm, these things are sure nice…" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and glanced at the bulky white man across from him.

"This small piece is worth 300 USD. The way you eat it makes you feel poor." The white male with short hair and a mustache smiled. He spoke fluent Mandarin which surprised Jiang Chen.

"How did you know I was Han?" Jiang Chen curiously asked. Han, Korean, and Japanese people were hard to distinguish when they stood side by side. Even Jiang Chen himself wouldn’t be able to tell.

‘’I have great people identifying skills. My name is Bruce Miller." He smiled and extended his hand. [Because you eat the most.] Bruce thought in his head.

He shook Bruce’s hand and exchanged a friendly smile. "Jiang Chen."

[I know you are up to no good.] Jiang Chen also judged.

Instinct told Jiang Chen that this guy was not simple. The "not simple" did not refer to whether he was rich or not. Everyone here has money here. The scent of blood surrounded him. Only people who have experienced life and death possessed this unique kind of vibe. Jiang Chen was alerted. He didn’t know what this guy wanted.

"Don’t worry, it’s great to see someone in the same trade." Bruce sensed Jiang Chen’s cautious look and waved his hand.

[Oh, he thinks I’m in the same trade as him.] Jiang Chen didn’t know what to say. "Mhmm? Am I that obvious?" He didn’t correct him and asked in a curious tone.

"Have you not noticed that the security here is looking at you?" Bruce sipped his glass of wine and said slowly.

[Looking at me? Why are they looking at me?] Jiang Chen glanced at the guards with their shades on. Their muscular body looked forceful in his eyes. He didn’t know how Bruce noticed they were watching him through their shades. Jiang Chen also took a sip of his wine.

"Me? Mr. Bruce, I think you made a mistake. I am only an ordinary person here on vacation." Jiang Chen said in a calm tone.

After Bruce had heard Jiang Chen’s words, he let out a sigh. He was a mercenary, so he usually would not be allowed to show up at a gathering like this. However, since his team was responsible for Prince Yef’s security, he was granted permission. The first thing that caught his eye was Jiang Chen. The sense of blood made him extremely cautious. This guy was dangerous. He didn’t have bulky muscles, but he had a peculiar feeling that if they fought in close combat, there was an 80% chance that he would lose.

If Jiang Chen heard his question, he would probably laugh and tell him that he would 100% lose. Regardless of how strong his technique was, Jiang Chen would destroy him with his strength and reflex.

He noticed that Jiang Chen was only here for the food. So he questioned his judgment. Maybe it was a colleague just here on vacation.

To better understand the situation, he exchanged opinions with his team before finally deciding to have a conversation.

"That’s excellent. Enjoy your dinner sir." Bruce smiled and raised his cup.

Bruce didn’t leave right away but instead chatted with Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen was also curious about the life of the foreign mercenaries, so the conversation was quite lovely.

"That time it was in Kane. We escorted a top government military to the frontlines of the battle. We got flanked." After a couple glasses of wine, Bruce was clearly more excited. "I thought it was the Russians because they had strong fire power. So in the end, we were forced to stay in a building until the tanks arrived."

It was not a secret, so Bruce didn’t hide too much. From their conversation, Jiang Chen knew that they were part of Black Water International’s security team responsible for oversea businesses. Bruce was experienced in the battlefield. He was active in the Iraq war before he retired.

"Since we are just casually chatting, why don’t you tell me about yourself, Mr. Jiang? I am quite curious, for I can’t afford the beach mansion with my salary."

"The goal of making money is to enjoy it afterward. What would I save it for? My coffin?" Jiang Chen smiled as he answered his question. He was also on his third steak.

"My bad. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing your business, then don’t worry." Bruce’s fine dining etiquette didn’t seem to match his history of violence.

"Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. To put it in simple terms, it has to do with gold." Jiang Chen said mysteriously.

"Hmm? Do you work in South Africa? That’s a good place." Bruce nodded

"No, it’s in Asia." Jiang Chen shook his head. Bruce was quite surprised.

"To my knowledge, Asia is not a hotspot for a lot of business. Is there a lot of business there?" Bruce looked confused.

"That’s not true. There is a lot of business near the border. We get paid in gold." Jiang Chen made up a story.

Bruce listened to the story and smiled back. He then kept his silence.

A lot of conversations are better when they are off topic, especially for a mercenary like him. There were usually two types of border businesses. Firearms or drugs. Both of them were not conversation topics suitable for the public. These types of gathering usually prepared private rooms for these matters.

These gatherings also had FBA agents lurking around. Questions too specific would be impolite in public.

The gathering safely reached its conclusion. After the Prince’s romantic remark to the Princess, the elites began to depart. As Jiang Chen was preparing to leave, Bruce offered him his business card and said goodbye.

The reason why he chatted with Jiang Chen was primarily because he wanted to keep an eye on him. Since the gathering was over, he didn’t need to stay there any longer.

Jiang Chen stuffed the business card into his pocket, as he would unlikely meet Bruce again. Jiang Chen didn’t want to create too much attention in the modern world, but he kept the business card in case he ever needed something from Bruce.

Chapter 24: Liu Yao

A gathering of this caliber obviously would attract the attention of other tourists. They could only look from afar under the close watch of security. A lot of fan girls screamed when they saw the muscular Dwayne Johnson. However, the elites all left with their female companion, under the protection of their bodyguards, .

People who attended the dinner were obviously either rich or important. This became an obvious target for girls who were looking for sugar daddy. It would be life changing if they managed to create something romantic here.

The opportunity always existed. Some of the celebrities actually preferred these types of girls. There was even an event that made national news consisting of these celebrities.

Sheraton didn’t make too much of an commotion over these people. They allowed pretty looking girls to enter the hotel even if they lived elsewhere.

If the place was too orderly, where would the fun be?

"Hi, handsome. Are you by yourself?" A beauty with the most pleasant smile casually flirted with Jiang Chen. She was wearing nothing but a pair of sunglasses and a simple bikini.

The elegant curves of her breasts were at least a D cup. Her delicate and thin waist matched with her long and flawless legs, and slightly curled hairstyle gave her vibe that was both pure and graceful. She was no doubt sexy, but who knew if her breasts were real? Or if she was actually pure on the inside?

"Indeed I am alone. Is there anything I can help you with, beauty?" Jiang Chen gazed at her dazzling smile and smiled as well. He had no moral grounds to hold back. If the possibility of a one night stand presented itself, he would not resist the offer.

"Of course, I am missing a male companion to enjoy the beach with." The beauty sensed that there was an opportunity and a confident smile appeared on her face. She strutted towards Jiang Chen and then leaned into him.

With a light but hot and seductive breathe, Jiang Chen felt a rush of desire into his abs.

"Oh? That’s perfect then. My mansion at the beach also lacks the presence of a female companion." Jiang Chen approached the beauty’s ear and whispered.

The warm breath of air and the explosive news made the beauty gasp in shock. Sheraton’s beach mansion cost at least twenty to thirty thousand a day. When she discovered she hit the jackpot, she immediately became more enthusiastic. She hopped energetically beside Jiang Chen and grabbed him by the arm.

"Excellent, can you show me your mansion?" Her pristine eyes portrayed her as an innocent girl, as her pair of boobs "accidentally" pressed against Jiang Chen's arm. She had a kind of pureness to her attraction.

Her soft and sweet voice made Jiang Chen want to eat her on the spot.

"My name is Jiang Chen, may I ask what your name is, beauty?" With chivalry, Jiang Chen hugged the graceful figure and smiled.

"Liu Yao. I don’t know if you have watched <That Year> before, but I am the supporting actress in it." Liu Yao seductively and gently breathed on Jiang Chen’s ear's most sensitive spot and grazed her teeth against it. Her eyes were like a crest, "you can call me Yaoyao."

Teen dramas have been quite popular in recent years. Low production costs along with high reception rates made this genre of films fill every screen across the country. Although in Jiang Chen’s teenage years there was no abortion, leaving the country or someone dying made up the majority of these film's plotlines. Jiang Chen was also not necessarily interested in the unrealistic scenarios, but he still went to a movie with a university classmate he had a crush on.

Something interesting to note was that by the end of the date, Jiang Chen didn’t even manage to hold the girl’s hand.

"The busty but innocent looking math class representative Chen Lele? That’s a shame. There were only a few seconds for such an attractive character." He glanced at the massive pair of boobs and smiled. He would never tell Liu Yao that he went to see the movie with a female classmate and even masturbated to it before. "I’ll call you Lele. I prefer this name better."

The name Yaoyao belonged to an adorable girl.

Liu Yao without a clue smiled and followed Jiang Chen to the mansion at the beach.

－

When they stepped through the door, her delightful figure was immediately pressed against Jiang Chen’s body. Liu Yao proactively offered her seductive lips.

He felt her impressive breasts push up against his chest as well as her flirtatious tongue dancing in his mouth. Jiang Chen’s repressed desire was reignited.

Liu Yao was skillful in knowing a man’s sensitive spots, and she used her gentle hands to push Jiang Chen to his emotional climax. It was a fantastic time to have sex with an experienced woman as they knew all the weaknesses. They will proactively attack those weaknesses and lead the way to happiness.

Also, responsibility was never an issue afterward.

"Lele, let’s shower together." Jiang Chen’s heavy breathing resonated beside Liu Yao’s ear. His annoying clothing had long been removed by Liu Yao’s teasing touch.

"Student Jiang Chen, you have to be respectful." With his warm and firm muscles, Liu Yao also felt a little wet. However, she suddenly frowned and "rejected" Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen was confused as he didn’t realize what she was doing. Though when he felt the warmth of her hands still on his body and saw her desire filled eyes, he immediately understood everything.

No wonder she is an actress. Although she was a third tier at best, her acting skills were superb.

With a smirk, Jiang Chen roughly grabbed Liu Yao and whispered into her ear, "this is not up to you, my math class representative."

Water splashed again as the soothing hot spring became a steamy love bed.

As Lele was already in her bikini, there was no need to remove it. Liu Yao fiercely "resisted" against Jiang Chen’s attack, but at the same accepted his waves of thrust.

In the water; beside the hot tub; on the beach chair; those two left their battle marks everywhere.

－

Afterwards.

"Did it feel nice?" Liu Yao laid comfortably on the bed like a gentle cat and gazed sweetly at Jiang Chen.

"You devil." Jiang Chen jokingly cursed at her while he slapped her butt. His actions made her scorn.

The softness of the bed along with the soft melody whispered into his ears gently massaged his head. The occasional sea wind only made the moment more soothing.

What a time to be alive.

Jiang Chen exclaimed from the bottom of his heart.

"What do you think, student Jiang Chen, of the math class representative’s private tutor lesson? Are you satisfied?" Liu Yao gently joked, as she leaned towards Jiang Chen, with her chin resting on her palm.

It’s believed that women are more attractive from this angle.

"Extremely." Jiang Chen gave her a warm smile and reached out to touch her delicate face.

Like fine porcelain, crafted to perfection.

"Am I beautiful?"

"You're beautiful." Jiang Chen answered honestly as he began to play with her fluffy hair.

"Where is your girlfriend?" Liu Yao, all of the sudden, changed the topic. A sign of ambition emerged from her gentle, watery eyes.

"In a different world." It would be considered a different world no doubt if Sun Jiao was considered his girlfriend. Jiang Chen didn’t lie.

Except the words were interpreted differently by Liu Yao as the obvious explanation was she passed away. Jiang Chen’s identity all the sudden changed from a wealthy man seeking for a one night stand to a successful business man that just lost the love of his life. This ignited the desire in Liu Yao’s eyes.

With a slight sorrowful expression on her face, Liu Yao gently hugged Jiang Chen’s head and used her soft breasts to comfort his remorse spirit.

In her eyes, Jiang Chen’s silence was because of his lost.

Jiang Chen didn’t bother explaining. He quietly enjoyed Liu Yao’s small gestures as little Jiang Chen, who just finished a hard fought battle, began to show signs of life again.

Sensing Jiang Chen’s movement, Liu Yao understandingly smiled and tapped his chest with her finger. She stopped Jiang Chen from getting up.

"Leave it to me." She enchantingly smiled and gracefully move her body before lowering her head.

After a long and tiring session, Liu Yao swallowed the fruit of victory in front Jiang Chen. She was delighted when she noticed Jiang Chen’s brief excitement at the act.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Excellent. I feel like I am about to fly." Jiang Chen exaggerated.

"Travelling by yourself is lonely right?" She took a napkin and wiped the edge of her mouth. She then resumed to rest on the spot and innocently shook out her long and seductive legs.

"Of course. No wonder a good vacation requires a beauty." Jiang Chen satisfyingly stretched out his limbs.

"Do you want me to always be with you?" Liu Yao touchingly gazed at Jiang Chen.

"I have seven days of vacation. I hope you’ll be with me for those seven days." Jiang Chen euphemistically but determinedly rejected Liu Yao.

He didn’t mind sharing a memorable experience with a supporting actress from the movie, but he would never accept her as one of his own. He didn’t have any moral codes to abide by, but it didn't mean he was willing to accept.

Liu Yao paused for a moment before she awkwardly smiled. She didn’t insist. She knew too well the certainty in a man’s words. She also clearly understood that Jiang Chen would accept her as his woman, she had the realization the moment she entered the acting scene.

Except, she still felt slightly at a loss.

Jiang Chen is young and powerful, which is significantly better compared to the beer-bellied movie investors. Jiang Chen’s looks also appealed to her taste and were able to meet her materialistic needs. However, the reality was like what happened in the movie, Lele and the main actor didn’t manage to be together.

"In the next seven days, you’ll have an allowance of ten thousand dollars a day. Buy something with it. You can also use my mansion free at will." Jiang Chen softly caressed Liu Yao’s face and whispered.

"Mhmm," Liu Yao closed her eyes and covered Jiang Chen’s hand as she gently replied.

This amount was significantly higher than her salary, and the job was much more relaxing. There was nothing she was unsatisfied about. Jiang Chen had no weird fetishes and always treated her with gentleness.

She thought about it before she slowly climbed on top of Jiang Chen.

If that is the case, at least for the next few days, let’s enjoy this rare vacation.

Chapter 25: Robert’s Invitation

The next day, Jiang Chen woke up when the first ray of sunshine shone into the room.

He looked at the EP. When the EP was not fully deployed, the appearance was similar to a classy but odd looking watch.

****

User Name: Jiang Chen

Muscle Strength: 25

Bone Strength: 27

Reflex: 29

Brain Cell Strength: 14

****

The three body conditions increased by one or two points, and that concluded the full potential of the gene vaccine. Any additional improvements would have to come from working out or more advanced medication. Sun Jiao’s ridiculous numbers were the result of near death experiences that triggered more potential from the gene vaccine. Sun Jiao and Jiang Chen both used the standard type of gene vaccine, but he could only reach her numbers in Fury mode. It was not too hard to imagine the danger she must have had to face.

He closed his EP and looked at the sleeping Liu Yao.

Jiang Chen didn’t wake her up and walked onto the balcony.

He leaned against the fence and breathed in the refreshing sea wind that was blowing into his face. He poured himself a cup of wine and waited for the sunrise.

Relaxing, calming, luxurious…

"What’s next? What have I not experienced?" He mumbled in deep thought.

After he had returned to this world, his mental state became more stable. The bloody scene faded from his heart, and he felt his sanity was back to normal again.

He sighed, he didn’t like the taste of wine, but he still took a sip.

"It’s not good for you to drink wine in the morning."

"Oh? You are awake." Jiang Chen paused slightly and turned around.

"Mhmm." Liu Yao tidied her hair against the sea wind. She didn’t wear anything but was covered by a simple bathrobe. She looked quite graceful in the middle of the sea wind.

"Ok, why don’t you watch the sunrise with me." He left the wine on the table beside him.

Liu Yao gracefully walked towards Jiang Chen and slightly leaned against him. The rising sun reflected a golden shadow on her beautiful face. Jiang Chen, who peaked at her, was stunned.

"Are you looking at me, or are you watching the sunrise?"

"Beauty, and the sunrise." Jiang Chen smiled. His vision extended beyond the horizon.

"I don’t understand."

"Hmm?" Liu Yao fixed her slightly messy hair.

"You are gorgeous and smart, but why are you not popular?" Jiang Chen cracked a smile. He saw the film <That Year>, and although it was to chase after the girl who didn’t end up liking him back, he still finished the movie.

The supporting actresses only had a few scenes to emphasize the supporting actor’s unfortunate existence. However, those scenes left deep impressions in Jiang Chen’s heart. Her acting was astonishing for a supporting actress.

"Beauties can also be unfortunate. Particularly for an unsupported person like me." Liu Yao’s lip pursed slightly. It was a mockery of reality and a self-mockery. However, she still gazed at Jiang Chen with some expectation.

Jiang Chen didn’t continue the conversation. He saw the expectation in her eyes, but he didn’t want to respond.

Live life to the fullest.

Even through the odd encounter with her, Jiang Chen was nobody in the crowded world.

Since it was a vacation, let’s just temporarily forget about life.

Ding.

The electronic bell disrupted Jiang Chen’s peace. He lazily turned over the iPad terminal.

"Who is this?" Jiang Chen opened the front camera. It was Bruce’s fully mustached face.

"My dear friend, did you forget about me in just one night?" Bruce’s humorously accused. His fluent Han always shocked Jiang Chen.

"Haha, of course not. Let me open the door for you." Jiang Chen closed the terminal and put on his slippers.

"Your friend?" Liu Yao looked at the white male on the iPad with curiosity.

"Business partner I guess?" Jiang Chen shrugged. Liu Yao kept her mouth closed. In her eyes, Jiang Chen was an elite that attended an international gathering. It would be rude of her to ask more questioned. However, what she didn’t know was that the guy was only a mercenary, and no business would happen until later.

Jiang Chen was good at making people think too much.

"Smart People" always saved him the trouble of explaining things.

"Do you need me to leave?"

"No… but, why don’t you go check out from your hotel and put your luggage here." Jiang Chen said with a naughty smile. "You won’t have any chances to go back."

Jiang Chen decided it was better for Liu Yao to not be present.

These rooms always prepared extra clothes for the wealthy. However, no one bothered to wear the clothes they provided.

To Jiang Chen’s surprise, there was actual business for him.

"My old friend, aren’t you a bodyguard for the Saudi Prince? What brings you here?" Jiang Chen took a waft of Bruce’s cigar.

"Hehe." Bruce hesitated for a moment but soon cut straight to the chase. "My ex-employer overheard our conversation yesterday. He’s interested in you and wants me to make a formal introduction. "

"Oh?" Jiang Chen was caught off guard. [Does he want to hire me?] He didn’t want to carry an assault rifle to a military hotspot to fight wars. He had better business to do. "I don’t want to ruin my vacation here."

"I think you are misunderstanding the situation," Bruce read the uncertainty in Jiang Chen’s eyes. He took a breath and then blew a ring. Then in a genuine voice, he began, "Roberts Smith is a respectable middleman. He is in the crude oil and gold business. He once hired me in Iraq. Quite a nice fellow. He came here to attend the gathering of an old customer, and he is now living in the presidential suite on the seventh floor."

"Gold?" Jiang Chen eyes lit up. [Looks like I must see him.]

Chapter 26: The Middleman

"Welcome, you must be Mr. Jiang. My friend from the mysterious East."

After Jiang Chen had entered the room, he saw a white male with blond curly hair approach him with an amiable smile. He used a hand gesture that he learned from one of the kungfu movies and greeted Jiang Chen.

Although he was white, Mr. Robert’s face was nowhere close to white. His skin looked as coarse as sandpaper. However, his composure and clean appearance made Jiang Chen sense his respect.

"Nice to meet you, you must be Mr. Robert. Mr. Bruce introduced you to me." Jiang Chen felt a little weird but returned the same hand gesture.

To be honest, it was awkward using the foreigner's way to greet others. The idea was simply a bit confusing, but that was what happened.

"Bruce is a nice guy. He took a bullet for me in the Middle East. It was a pleasure to meet him again, and as the famous Han proverb goes, a friend’s friend is my friend. Am I right?" Mr. Robert extended his hand.

"Of course. Your Han is remarkable." Jiang Chen held onto Mr. Robert’s hand and firmly shook it as he expressed his shock.

Although, Jiang Chen didn’t know if what Mr. Robert said was truly a proverb.

"Haha, of course. I always had a keen interest in this mysterious eastern kingdom. There are opportunities everywhere." Mr. Robert’s eyes rested on Jiang Chen, and then he gestured gracefully. "Please come in, my friend. I have a Lafitte from 1982. I wanted to try it for a long a time."

"I can’t say no to this invite."

The wine tasted different than the wine provided by the hotel. The bloody red liquid expelled an exquisite fragrance of time. Even for someone like Jiang Chen, who had no experience in wine tasting, he still tasted the difference.

The man who stood by Mr. Robert’s side was as silent as a rock. However, Jiang Chen sensed the monstrous nature from his stature. He had a pair of shades on, but his protruding nose indicated that he was a Slav. His bear-like vibe perhaps indicated that he came from a Soviet country.

"My bodyguard, Nick Belarusian. We met in Kane. He’s also a good guy and responsible for my safety." Mr. Robert noticed Jiang Chen staring. "Bruce is a good guy, but Black Water International sometimes does shady business. They are also a bit too close to the FBA, so I had to find a different partner."

Despite the conversation revolving around him, the statue-like bodyguard did not show any reactions.

"Is your business dangerous?" Jiang Chen sat on the chair and casually changed the topic. "I heard from Bruce that you are a renowned middleman in the UA. Crude oil and gold?"

"Absolutely. Apart from the relatively safe crude oil and gold, I have to sometimes obtain firearms for my employer. If I get my hands on those, there will always be someone after my life."

Mr. Robert lit up a cigar. He offered Jiang Chen one as well. "Your country has strict gun control, which makes it feel like heaven to me. However, good times are always short lasting. I have a flight to South Africa at 3 o’clock."

"You sure you have enough time?" Jiang Chen glanced at the clock, it was 11 already.

"Don’t worry," Mr. Robert waved his hand and smiled. He then sat straight up. "I am very interested in Mr. Jiang’s business. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Jiang Chen paused for a brief moment. He dusted the cigar and sat up as well.

"I hope there is no confusion here, my friend. I accidently overheard your conversation with Bruce last night. It was an accident, but business always sprouts from occasions. I have been looking for opportunities here in the Far East, and I am still exploring. My instinct tells me that we can be great partners."

"Hmm?" Jiang Chen didn’t make a fuzz about eavesdropping. With a slight interest, he continued the conversation, "For example?"

"Mr. Jiang, businesses are paid in gold right? However, to my knowledge, your country's law prohibits the large sell-off of gold because it would attract the government's attention. Especially, gold without the proof of ownership."

"Looks like Mr. Robert is extremely knowledgeable about our country’s laws. However, is there no issues with selling gold in the UA?" Jiang Chen nodded without disagreeing with his comment.

"Of course there are problems. Though in the UA, we speak with the law and with evidence, not with politics. I have a professional team to deal those kinds of issues. Even if I have a little problem with the FBA right now, I am still here chatting with you, right?" With a mysterious smile, he continued, "How I do this? Let me give you an example. I incorporated a shell company in Saudi. I received a batch of crude oil from Iran. According to the sanction, my action is against the law. However, if the crude oil is sold through my shell company in Saudi, then the crude oil will be legal to sell within the international market."

[If you already told me this, are you not afraid?] Jiang Chen immediately understood why. With such a strong bodyguard, he must have a strong security team.

He now has a clear understanding of Mr. Robert’s business. This middleman has the ability to access the black market.

"It looks like we do have a partnership opportunity." Jiang Chen smiled.

"I am an honest businessman," Mr. Robert saw that his deal was made and a delighted smile appeared on his face. "I’ll accept the gold regardless of the amount. As long as your gold is sold through my mining company in South Africa, it will be legal once it enters the international market. You don’t have to worry about the specifics. You can just sell the gold to me. I’ll take a 9% processing fee."

Jiang Chen considered it.

9% was not a lot to begin with. All of his gold had no costs associated with it. It would be okay to sell a small amount to the gold shop but if he did offer ten tons of gold, not a lot of gold shops would dare to accept it. Even if he sold it in smaller batches, there was a high chance he would be suspected. The Liu Anshan guy also gave him a weary feeling. He probably wasn't that clean either.

It’s always better to be careful. Although selling gold to foreigners is considered smuggling, Mr. Robert probably has it figured out.

Mr. Robert saw that Jiang Chen was silent. He wasn’t sure either if the 9% is too high. However, this business was not risk-free. The capital to purchase the gold would be a problematic amount. If the amount was over 20 million USD, then he must take a private loan to fund the deal. The interest would not be a small number.

However, if Jiang Chen possessed a large amount of gold, he could lower the fee by a percentage.

Just as Mr. Robert was about to lower the price, Jiang Chen suddenly opened his mouth.

"No problem, but I have a condition."

Jiang Chen words surprised Mr. Robert at first, but a joyful smile ensued.

"I can guarantee the quality of the gold. It’s the 24K gold you guys commonly refer to. I believe you have the expertise to determine that as well." Of course, the gold in the bank would be authentic. "However, you have to be responsible for the transportation. I will only transport the gold to a location within the country. Also, you must pay in USD, on the spot. I will take no further responsibility once the transaction is complete."

"No problem, my friend!" Mr. Robert agreed without hesitation. "Looks like we have a deal?"

"Of course, cheers." Jiang Chen gladly extended his hand.

"Cheers." Mr. Robert cheerfully held onto Jiang Chen’s hand as they both stood up.

"Here’s my card. If you are ready, why don’t we arrange a time in the future? Also, it would be best to prepare a Swiss bank account, it is the most convenient."

"Absolutely, I wish you the best of luck."

"Can I learn a little more about your background? How much are you going to sell, Mr. Jiang? I’ll have to prepare enough liquidity." Mr. Robert asked this slightly intruding question to prepare for the worst.

"Oh, there's no rush. I’ll give you a call on July 15th. The amount is probably a few tons." Jiang Chen exited the room and left a stunned Mr. Robert.

His face was completely blank. He didn’t even realize he dropped his expensive cigar.

A few tons?

With the current market condition, an ounce of gold traded at 1,350 USD. One ton of gold would be 43,402,500 USD. At a processing fee of 9%, he would make 10 million with just three tons of gold.

This is ridiculous. 9%?!

Easiest money of his life.

A few tons of gold?! He would have done it with 7%. How wealthy was Jiang Chen to not even negotiate. It also strengthened Mr. Robert’s assumption that the gold was definitely from illegal sources.

[What kind of business is he doing? Did he rob the central bank?]

"Oh God." It took Mr. Robert a while to recollect his thoughts. Then he gasped, "Oh my, I am going to be rich."

He only made half a million selling 10,000 barrels of crude oil with the risk that the UA military may detain the shipment. However, Jiang Chen decided the fate of a billion dollar deal in a few minutes.

"Nick, do you think our friend from the Far East is reliable?" Mr. Robert murmured as if he was still dreaming. He knew Nick has no understanding of business, but he needed someone to tell him that this was not a dream.

"Sorry boss, I don’t know a whole lot." Bruce expected Nick’s response. He was silent, before he continued, "However, I know this man is dangerous."

"Really? Does he know martial arts?" Mr. Robert laughed at the statement. He made a funny pose as if he was Bruce Lee.

Nick stared at the pretentious boss and shook his head. He knew his boss quite well. Whenever Bruce was excited, he would always make some funny poses to express his excitement.

"From a soldier’s instinct, this guy is stronger than Bruce." It was his job to ensure his safety. Therefore, he gave his honest opinion.

Mr. Robert was surprised by the comment. "He is not a merchant? No way, my instincts are usually right."

Nick hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Maybe he is a merchant, but his combat technique is quite strong. My instincts tell me that even if he can’t beat me with firearms, we are a 50/50 split in close combat."

Mr. Robert took a while to process the comment. He has seen Nick’s ability before. In Kane, when he sold firearms to the government forces under the permission of the UA government, the civil forces attacked him. Nick immediately pulled out the gun of the wounded government official and used the remaining 9 bullets to bring him back to safety. He killed more 10 civil militants during the exchange.

Now Nick is saying Jiang Chen’s close combat power is comparable to his?

Mr. Robert, all of the sudden, burst into laughter.

"No wonder the Far East is a mysterious kingdom. Why don’t we head to Egypt next time? Hahaha."

No wonder Jiang Chen didn’t hire any bodyguards. His prowess in fighting is enough in this gun prohibited country. However, it had nothing to do with their agreement.

Mr. Robert is an honest merchant. He always believed that honoring agreements would bring him long term returns. He never did things that killed the egg laying chicken.

Even if he saw diamonds in a refugee camp in Africa in the hand of a starving kid, he would only exchange it with candy, not bullets. After all, a bullet is much more expensive than candy.

Mr. Robert never doubted Jiang Chen’s ability to provide the few ton of gold, nor did he have the ability to investigate his background on this mysterious piece of land. What is business without the proper risk?

Mr. Robert was willing to make a bet. Jiang Chen’s decisive attitude was definitely backed by tons of gold.

Plus, there was nothing to gain for him in the end if it was a lie.

Chapter 27: Enjoying Life

Jiang Chen was delighted. He acted calm and collected during the meeting, but he had a spring in his step as soon as he walked out of the door.

Ecstatic, was the only way he could describe his mood.

He managed to sell off several tons of gold, which was something he had never imagined.

His previous plan was to separate the gold into small amounts and sell it off to gold shops. Although it was inefficient and prone to be spotted by the local gangs, it was the safest way. A large amount would attract the attention of the authority, and they may force Jiang Chen to turn all of the gold in. They are always looking for ways to make money from regular people.

What? This is your gold? How do you prove this gold belongs to you?

Of course, Jiang Chen couldn't prove it since the gold really didn’t belong to him.

Jiang Chen was sure that the government would release a statement to say that even though the gold doesn’t belong to the government, it doesn’t belong to Jiang Chen either.

He thought he would be able to sell off a hundred million dollars worth of gold before getting found, but now it seems like it would no longer be an issue. If this foreign friend helped him to find the means to sell, everything would be easy. He just needed to create a Swedish Bank account, and the gold worth hundreds of millions would no longer be a problem.

Transporting gold was not difficult at all. A ton of gold was only 0.5 cubic meters which only would cost half a crystal in energy to store.

When he left the main hotel building, Jiang Chen chose to return to the mansion. Liu Yao was probably still waiting for him.

He got to the front of the mansion and saw Liu Yao under the shade of the trees.

Liu Yao wasn't wearing a bikini like the first time he saw her. Instead, she changed into a beige dress with a laced floppy hat. Her presence could be felt miles away.

She knew exactly how she attracted people, with the combination of her purity and seduction.

“Why did you take so long? I am starving,” Liu Yao gave him a coquetry as she swayed her slender waist. Her coquetry didn’t feel staged at all.

“Haha, I’ll take you out for food.” Jiang Chen opened the mansion door, and chivalrously took over Liu Yao’s bag. “What do you want to eat? Don’t be shy!”

“Yay! I want to eat at the Glacier Ocean Restaurant.” Liu Yao adorably clung onto Jiang Chen’s arm like a loving girlfriend.

“Ok! I’ll take you there.”

A bright smile appeared on her face as she was pleased with the way Jiang Chen responded. She hugged Jiang Chen’s arm as they walked towards the restaurant.

Perhaps she was acting, or maybe she was just following her heart.

The division between the two was too faint to distinguish.

Glacier Ocean Restaurant is a renowned restaurant in Sheraton and extending its influence to the rest of the Sanya.

The water-themed restaurant was surrounded by the mixture of the pristine sky and the mysterious sea. Arrays of palm and coconut trees showcased nature’s vibrant energy. The vast collection of wine displayed at the entrance of the hotel left all the diners dazed. Then the customers were quickly captivated by the sophistication and class of the restaurant.

The private room in the middle of the restaurant was even more intricate. The aquarium-like design transformed the dinner into a unique experience as if they were in the midst of the ocean. There was no need for extra decorations, as the reflection of the water's waves created the perfect atmosphere.

Jiang Chen and Liu Yao sat in the private room.

“I heard the view at night is even better, but the view at noon is also remarkable.” Jiang Chen savored the fresh taste of salmon meat and took a sip from the delicious Wen Chang chicken soup. Delicacies filled the table, and he was even dazzled by all the choices.

“This Boston lobster is delicious!” Liu Yao playfully stuck out her tongue. She skillfully used her graceful finger to dissect the lobster in front of her.

“Beauty is something one can truly enjoy.” Jiang Chen picked up a piece of clam. The way Liu Yao ate was extremely pleasing to the eyes.

“Hehe, pretty right?” She pouted as she continued to struggle with the lobster.

“I was talking about the lobster.” Liu Yao’s cute look didn’t stop Jiang Chen from teasing her.

“Screw you!”

Liu Yao didn’t have a big appetite, so she chose all the light but fine dishes. The majority of the food went into Jiang Chen’s stomach. He had an appetite comparable to two adult males.

“Looks like you are ecstatic today.” She rubbed the corner of her mouse with a napkin as she looked at Jiang Chen's lively eyes.

“Indeed, I signed a big deal.” He didn’t hide anything.

“Eh? I thought it was because of me.” She joked.

With a mischievous smile, Jiang Chen approached Liu Yao. “How big do you think the deal is?”

“One million? USD?” With her red lips open, she took a sip of wine. She didn’t care how much Jiang Chen made as it had nothing to do with her. However, she understood a male’s ego as Jiang Chen wasn’t keeping this from her. She pretended to be curious.

“One million? That’s pocket change.” With his back leaned against the chair, Jiang Chen smiled.

“Pocket change?” Liu Yao shockingly stared at Jiang Chen.

“At least one hundred million,” Jiang Chen replied. He pretended it was not a big deal.

“Ahem.” Liu Yao covered her chest as she ruefully looked at Jiang Chen. She accidentally spat out her wine out.

“I can’t believe you are so skillful, this is such a pity.” Liu Yao pouted as she took another sip of wine. Jiang Chen knew what she meant by pity, but he would not change his mind.

“No way, I remember I used my real skill last night.” Jiang Chen emphasized the words “skill” as he smirkingly looked at Liu Yao’s facial expression.

Liu Yao paused slightly before she understood the meaning behind Jiang Chen’s words. Her face turned burning red like the sky at dawn.

“Pervert.”

Her gentle fist striking Jiang Chen's did not bother him at all.

After the meal, Jiang Chen took Liu Yao’s hand and strolled along the swimming pool. It was a beautifully decorated pool of water. The palm trees along the side added a sense of nature to the swimming pool. Under the white umbrella were deck chair of the same color for the tourists that needed rest.

“I thought you don’t like crowded places?” Liu Yao accompanied Jiang Chen as her crystal eyes observed his face.

“You are right, but it would be disappointing if we just stayed at the mansion. This swimming pool is a famous attraction at Sanya.”

“Oh? I thought you were someone who was always busy,” Liu Yao asked curiously.

“Busy people may not like crowded places, but I am quite pleased with this scene. For example, the blonde European beauty right there.” Jiang Chen changed the topic with a smirk.

“Does my bikini not look attractive?” Liu Yao defiantly raised her D cup chest.

“It’s not the same. Everyone is different.” Jiang Chen tried to explain his reasoning. If it were his girlfriend, he would not praise other women, but since that was not the case, it didn’t matter.

Jiang Chen’s playboy look made Liu Yao want to yell and laugh at the same time. She pouted like an attached girlfriend, as she used her finger to squeeze his waist. She controlled the force just enough so that Jiang Chen would not get hurt.

“I am a D cup Don’t you think I am bigger compared to that woman?” After teasing Jiang Chen for a moment, Liu Yao fixed her hair as she lifted her chest up again with a seductive look.

“Who knows if these are real or not?” Jiang Chen ridiculed as he sneakily touched her chest.

“Then how do you know mine are fake, and hers are real?” Liu Yao persisted the question.

“Hmm? So they are real.” Jiang Chen pretended to be happy.

In this day and age, everything could be fake. So, Jiang Chen didn’t think it was real.

“Fool. You didn’t notice it after touching it for so long?” Liu Yao blushed as she vexed him with her eyes rolled.

The coquettish look made Jiang Chen hard.

Liu Yao became flushed as she noticed Jiang Chen’s invasive stare. Although Jiang Chen’s techniques were still lacking, with some guidance and his long lasting stamina and recovery time, it was easy to enjoy the heaven like feeling.

Liu Yao, of course, didn’t reject Jiang Chen’s intimate invitatio.

She defiantly stared at Jiang Chen as she used a finger to hook onto his collar. Then they walked towards a secluded washroom on the first floor.

“Here?” Although it was a question, Jiang Chen’s hands already grasped onto Liu Yao’s thin waist.

“Pervert, I’ll scream for help.” She seemingly blamed Jiang Chen with her words but then swiftly locked the door behind her.

There was not a lot of traffic in the area. Most of the people were either in their rooms or on the beach. Since it was the washroom, there were no cameras as well.

The unique environment made Jiang Chen feel a particular kind of sensation. Liu Yao’s blushing face indicated that she probably felt the same thing.

“You’ll have to keep quiet,” Jiang Chen smirked as he whispered into Liu Yao’s ear. He grabbed her smooth legs and entered into her.

Two hours later, the two of them came out of the washroom. Liu Yao's legs felt weak as she half hanged onto Jiang Chen’s shoulder.

“You pervert, couldn’t you have been more gentle.”

“Haha, the way you held onto the wall and covered your mouth was quite cute.” Jiang Chen laughed as he dodged and grabbed onto the hands coming at him.

From a bystander, the two looked like a couple displaying affection without a care in the world.

She didn’t know why, but she felt tears in her eyes.

“If I…”

“What? Why don’t you tell me about it?” Jiang Chen smiled at Liu Yao who wanted to stay something but stopped.

“It’s okay.” Liu Yao turned his face around as she flashed him a smile. The cheerful smile even dazzled Jiang Chen for a moment.

It was not because of her beauty.

That smile reminded him of his high school time.

At the nave age, free of trouble. A time where studying hard would deserve recognition. A time where being good at basketball would receive praise.

Jiang Chen remembered that smile belonged to Chen Lele in the movie; the careless and free girl. The smile left the supporting actress with an endless amount of regret and despair.

Am I sinking into the plot? What am I thinking?

“I am a woman who loves money, and I know men like you dislike woman like me. One with no self-respect.” Liu Yao faintly opened her mouth. She still held onto Jiang Chen’s hand but walked one step ahead of him so he couldn't see her expression.

“This is only a life choice, I never disliked you.” Jiang Chen gently answered. He didn’t lie.

“But unable to accept right?” Liu Yao suddenly turned around.

Jiang Chen noticed her eyes were slightly red.

Is she acting?

However, Jiang Chen was unwilling to change his opinion. He sighed wanting to explain himself.

“You don’t have to say anything.” Liu Yao turned around with a bright smile and pecked him on the lips. After seeing Jiang Chen’s confused look, she jumped in front of him and began walking by herself. “I know, and I understand. A girl like me is not good enough for you. I just haven’t completely given up yet.”

With her back towards him, Jiang Chen couldn’t see her expression. Liu Yao had to force a smile before she spoke again.

“What if, I mean, what if we met two years earlier? When I didn’t debut yet. Would you have fallen in love with me?”

“If I fell in love with you at that time, would you have chosen me?” Jiang Chen thought about the person who watched <That year> with him.

Too similar.

Jiang Chen's calm and direct rhetoric question made Liu Yao feel his uncertainty. She turned around as she forced another smile.

She understood what Jiang Chen meant.

“Probably not.”

An honest response.

Liu Yao somehow remembered her university time. She remembered the boy that used 99 candles to write out “Liu Yao I love you” under her dorm room window. She was moved for a brief second but still rejected him because he couldn’t provide the life she wanted. Liu Yao gave her first time to a director whose name she didn't even want to remember. She did it in exchange for the supporting actress role. She had no regrets because she received eighty thousand dollars in pay along with a ticket into the entertainment industry.

However, at this moment, she regretted.

For some reason, in her eyes, Jiang Chen began to coincide with the boy she rejected.

If the poor Jiang Chen asked her out two years ago, she would probably not even look at him.

It was not a question of right or wrong, but only a matter of choice.

“Since this is a hard earned vacation, why think about these bothersome questions?” Jiang Chen said faintly as it disrupted Liu Yao’s thoughts.

“Mhmm you are right, let’s enjoy the bench.”

A relieved smile bloomed on Liu Yao’s face.

The smile was beautiful.

Except for a bright jewel hanging at the corner of her eye. Silently, it rolled down and mixed in with the sand.

Among the waves and tides of the southern county, it was negligible and minuscule.

Chapter 28: The Return

Over the last five days, the two spent every moment in joy.

Liu Yao took Jiang Chen to all the famous attractions. They did everything from surfing at Wuzhizhou Island, enjoying the sunlight at Yalong Bay, wandering along the beach, to leaving names on a couple lock. Liu Yao engraved Jiang Chen’s name, but Jiang Chen left Chen Lele’s name.

The happiest time was always the briefest, but it was pleasant.

Until they went their separate ways, Jiang Chen didn’t see any more sorrows or tears.

"Sir, would you like a cup of coffee?" The flight attendant's gentle voice disrupted Jiang Chen’s thought.

"I’ll have one please."

"Ok, please wait a moment."

A cup of steamy coffee was soon in front of Jiang Chen. He stared at the rising steam and smiled.

[That was a pleasant trip after all. I wonder if I will ever meet her again.]

He thought about it some more, and an even bigger smile appeared on his face. He didn’t know why he wanted to smile.

He glanced at the pristine cloud outside the window and the middle-aged professional sleeping beside him. Jiang Chen finished the still steamy cup of coffee.

It was bitter, but a little sweet.

The brief Sanya vacation came to an end. Jiang Chen walked out of the Wanghai airport with his luggage.

The noisy metropolitan.

He took in a deep breath of the smog-filled air and flagged down a taxi.

"To Bailian."

Sitting on the passenger side, Jiang Chen took out his almost outdated Samsung phone. He was about to call Xia Shiyu when he noticed a message popped up.

Weibo?

He opened the Weibo app that he hasn't opened for a while. He was surprised to find out someone @ him.

<A pleasant trip, thank you for your company @Jiang Chen>

Along the text was also a picture of an airplane taking off. Jiang Chen noticed that it was his flight.

[This girl, she went to my terminal without telling me.] Jiang Chen smiled. They said goodbye at the airport, but he didn’t expect her to be there to watch him depart.

With a bit of narcissism, Jiang Chen swiped the screen up with his finger. The comments on the bottom consisted primarily of people wondering who Jiang Chen was. To begin with, she was not a famous actress, so there were only a few comments.

He thought about for a moment before half-joking replied.

<Haha, I really enjoy your superb acting skill. How about I invest in a movie and ask you to be the female lead? : )>

<Deal. You said it!>

[Instant reply.]

"Hey man, are you on Weibo?"

"Oh? Do you have Weibo as well?" Jiang Chen asked the taxi driver.

"Of course, it is pretty fun watching people make memes online. You are looking at a celebrity’s Weibo right?"

"Hehe, yes, how do you know?" Jiang Chen curiously asked.

"There is a special symbol beside their name. Look closely." The taxi driver skillfully guided Jiang Chen, "Though to be honest, these celebrities’ Weibo are boring. They are too busy to reply to you. You must be new on here."

Jiang Chen smiled in agreement.

He wanted to reply <There is no way you believe my joke right?>, but that post was gone.

"What happens if a post is gone?"

"They deleted it, it's common." The taxi driver rolled his eyes as if he was an expert.

Deleted?

[This girl.] Jiang Chen sighed. The situation was funny to him.

It’s only a movie after all, how much would it even cost?

Inside the Jade Restaurant, Jiang Chen quietly waited at the table. His eyes lit up as soon as he saw a graceful figure approach him. He signaled for the person to come over.

"You finally appeared. You don’t even pick up your phone." Xia Shiyu gave him a hard stare. The grin on his face made Xia Shiyu irate.

She has been taking care of the company in the past few days. She even used her own money to make sure everything could be finished on time. To ensure she completed Jiang Chen’s task, she had to find lawyers, bureaus, and banks. She even went to their future office.

However, he was nowhere to be seen. Jiang Chen left all the dirty work to her and went on a vacation by himself.

She took in a deep breath to stop an almost inevitable emotional explosion.

"Don’t be so emotional, I’ll bring you next time. Sanya is a beautiful place." Jiang Chen grinned with no signs of guilt.

"This is your company. You have to at least show up to something. You should come with me to the bureau this afternoon. I have all the documents here. Take a look." She placed the bag on the table and ignored Jiang Chen’s invitation.

"Thank you so much." Jiang Chen didn’t pick up the documents. Instead, he genuinely stared at Xia Shiyu’s emotionless face.

"At least you have some conscience," she hissed at him. Although her face still looked cold, Jiang Chen felt she was no longer angry.

"I’ll go with you in the afternoon. Let’s not talk about work. Order whatever you want, this one is on me. Oh, you paid for the fees right? The company will reimburse you for it."

Xia Shiyu was not humble and immediately ordered a few dishes. She glanced at Jiang Chen but did not even see a slight change in his grinning face. She was frustrated.

[That was ineffective.] She thought as she didn’t manage to vent her anger.

Jiang Chen didn’t notice her intention.

He still had one hundred thousand dollars left which far exceeded his expectation.

"Is there something bothering you?" Although she kept a stern face, Jiang Chen still noticed she was slightly distracted.

"Yes, I am worried about the company’s future." Xia Shiyu dived straight into the problem, "If our strategy is to use advanced technology, we have no way of gaining a competitive advantage as a newcomer."

"But don’t new company have more growth opportunities?" With her concern in his mind, Jiang Chen replied.

"That’s for a company with a strong core competitive advantage." Xia Shiyu stared at Jiang Chen, who showed no sign of concern, with a look of defeat. "Do you know technology? You probably don’t even remember calculus."

"Is that even a question." Jiang Chen laughed. "Who remembers that stuff after graduation. Just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean other people don’t understand it. You don’t have to worry about research and development. I’ll give you a hint. Every company have a focus, such as game development. We can just springboard off of this idea and enter the cell phone market following our success…"

"Stop right there." Xia Shiyu interrupted Jiang Chen’s speech. She rubbed her temples. "Cell phone games? Web games? Or Massive Multiplayer Online games on the PC end? Based on the current market condition, I recommend cell phone games. Regarding the cell phone market, it’s great that our founder has a vision for the future, but one step at a time is critical for sustainable growth."

"Of course, so we will do it one step at a time." He casually waved his hand. "Also, this is not only my company, but it is also your company. I’ll give you 5% stake in the company, so keep up the good work."

It was not only until years later did Xia Shiyu realize what tremendous amount of wealth was given to her. Of course, that was the aftermath.

In the afternoon, Jiang Chen went to the bureau with Xia Shiyu to take care of the paperwork. Xia Shiyu was indeed CEO (secretary) quality. Jiang Chen only needed to sign a couple of documents before it was approved. Xia Shiyu took care of the entire, tedious process.

Jiang Chen was extremely pleased. He didn’t study business administration, so his understanding in the area was extremely limited. The best kind of president, in his ideal world, was the kind who only needed to the set the direction of the company. A trustworthy CEO would take care of the rest. If he had to consider all the fine details, he would be frustrated to death.

Xia Shiyu did exceptionally well at this point. She prepared everything in advance.

They only needed a part time accountant to complete the tax process. Jiang Chen took Xia Shiyu’s recommendation to hire a part-time accountant. They only needed to pay 200 dollars in salary per month. Most of the new companies did this in the early stage.

After everything was completed. It was already 5 o’clock. Jiang Chen used the opportunity to treat Xia Shiyu again before they went their separate ways. With the stable income and debt crisis being resolved, Xia Shiyu moved back to her original apartment. Jiang Chen, also, headed back to his familiar apartment.

He took his luggage and returned to his apartment.

He refreshed his Weibo while lying on his bed a couple of time and teased Liu Yao for a bit before he got back into the real business.

He had a pleasant vacation, but his return time was also approaching. Therefore, preparation was necessary.

He looked on Taobao for food. Canned food was the primary choice because of the ease of storage. He ordered two boxes of beef, pork, and fish. Then, for a balanced diet, he also purchased cans of vegetables and fruits. Finally, he bought instant noodles and crackers as well. He was not going to eat it those himself, but it would be smart to sell it.

In addition, Jiang Chen purchased a bunch of female clothing. Don’t be confused, he had no weird fetishes. He ordered some for Sun Jiao and Yao Yao.

Within two days, a courier delivered the almost mountain high stacks of boxes to Jiang Chen’s place. He generously took out two hundred dollar bills, and the courier happily moved the boxes for him. It’s good that he didn’t have any furniture, for the boxes made it impossible to maneuver through his living room.

With sandpaper in his hand, he began to work.

He removed the manufacturing data and location on the can and threw it into the storage dimension. Although tedious, he had no other choice at this stage.

It would be better if he could directly receive shipments from the packaging companies without any pictures or logos.

The storage dimension’s size grew substantially. It managed to fit the size of half a living room’s worth of boxes inside. Jiang Chen guessed it had to do with the gene vaccine, and it was great news for him.

The storage of these boxes cost about two energy crystals, and it would cost the same to take it all out. There were around a couple hundred energy crystals inside the dimension, so the cost did not even slightly bother Jiang Chen.

He also purchased groceries from the supermarket. He bought an ample amount of rice, fresh vegetables, eggs, and meat. After they managed to fix the fridge in the mansion of the post-apocalyptic world, it can store plenty of food. Once they manage to move a few more fridges from the buildings outside, the food storage ability would grow exponentially.

Ideally, it would be more convenient if he had a walk-in freezer. He should check the restaurants in the post-apocalyptic world; they should be easy to repair.

Before he headed home, he remembered something. He walked out of the pet store with a hamster.

When he got home, everything was ready to go. Jiang Chen picked up his familiar backpack, but then raised his eyebrows and put it down again.

Since Sun Jiao already had a clue of what’s going on, it’s probably time to tell her and Yao Yao.

When they went to the Sixth Street, he didn’t carry toast with him. He stored the toast in the storage dimension. Sun Jiao must have noticed it, but she didn’t ask. Since she had a lot of trust in him, it was no longer necessary to keep things a secret.

[It’s better to confess to her. It will be easier in the future, and I no longer need to be secretive about things.]

Jiang Chen made up his mind. He’s prepared to selectively tell parts of his secret to Sun Jiao.

With the confused hamster in his hand, he sat on his bed and took a deep breath.

Apocalypse, I am back!

Chapter 29: Eagle’s Crash

"This is Eagle-I, we are at the target area."

"Roger, this is Eagle-II. Eagle I, open electronic life detection."

"Roger. Opening electronic life detection."

The aerodynamic exterior design had an external door at the back with a heavy machine gun attached. The disk-shaped turbo accelerators on both sides of the craft emitted a deafening noise as the air vibrated beneath them. Inside the vessel were soldiers fortified to the teeth, each armed with pitch-black turbo packs that held terrifying single-person heavy firearms. On the right side of the craft, Liuding Town’s logo was drawn over traces of what seemed like scratched-out symbols.

Attack Helicopter-51. PCA equipped the amphibious attack helicopter in year 2153 to primarily serve the Southern Sea fleet as it was particularly effective in beach landings. But after the war, it became less effective.

The two black helicopters flew separated by 1000 meters and hovered above a building.

Wang Shiwu glanced at the the life detection device that displayed the unknown bacterial level outside of the armored craft. He then flanked the building outside of the helicopter, a gloomy expression cast over his face.

"This has to be the place."

"Life form matches. The target is in the building. Eagle-I requesting permission to attack."

"Negative." Wang Shiwu cautiously gazed at the building. He activated the communication device on the power armor. "This is the Dark Knight Squad. We are above the target creature. The target creature information is unknown. We request missile support."

"This is the command center, missile support approve."

The cost of a direct invasion was too high. Wang Shiwu couldn’t risk his comrades’ lives without even spotting the creature. He cautiously requested missile support in hopes of exposing its body.

"Eagle-I, Eagle-II, missile will arrive in 1 minute. Please increase altitude."

"Roger.""Roger."

The two helicopters began to increase their altitude to avoid friendly fire. The sunrise cast rays of yellow paths through the radiation dust. With the disgustingly greenish-yellow particles emerging from the yellow building, the entire area looked like an egg from above

[What’s hidden inside the building?]

Wang Shiwu locked his eyes onto the murky yolk.

Why would Liuding’s elite force show up 30 kilometers away from the city border? The story began with the battle meeting two days ago.

Bohai Aircraft Carrier, Command Tower, Meeting Room.

"Area coordinates (412, 151) displayed an unusual life signal. Our scientists are unable to determine the creature’s identity, but the crystal energy indicator has increased to 90,141, surpassing the limit by 300. Since it is within our strike range, we have to stop it from evolving further and retrieve the crystal. I need you to take care of this thing. Do you understand?" The middle-aged man in an old PCA uniform stood and commanded from in front of the full-sensory map.

"Yes, sir!"

The uniformed soldiers barked out in unity. They wore the PCA navy seal uniform to the meeting in an organized manner.

"That is all for this meeting!"

"Yes!"

The electronic life detection device was commonly used in the wasteland. Research indicated that all life forms emitted certain life signals that could be detected over long distances through emissions. It had been used as a tracking device during the war and after it, a rescue aid. In the current apocalypse, it became a civilian equipment.

The unit detected not only humans but also any life signal that could be recorded on the radar life electronic screen. The life signal was proportional to the energy of the creature. Mutant creatures had a higher life signal than humans. The advanced ability to calculate a mutant creature’s crystal energy had only been completed after the war and was possessed by the majority of the larger survival bases.

After recording any unusual life signal, the survival bases in the vicinity often chose to attack the creature as it was extremely dangerous to let mutant creatures evolve. Unfortunately, there was always the possibility of strange creatures forming since all mutations were spontaneous.

Evolutionary pathways that once took thousands of years could take three days in a nuclear crater. The evolved creature could be a harmless bug or a colossal monster.

Any creature with over 300 crystals were considered extremely dangerous.

But it did not mean they were strong.

Compared to the ones with 40 to 300 crystals, the extremely dangerous mutant creatures were easier to deal with. A 100-pound human for example, would have a difficult time beating someone who was 200 pounds since they were not in the same category. But what about someone weighing 500 pounds or 1,000 pounds? They would be considered disabled, unable to maintain basic life functions.

Similarly, mutant creatures with over 300 energy crystals were considered "disabled." Under the influence of radiation and other factors, the continuous mutation endlessly expanded the life energy, but that did not necessarily equal strong destructive ability. Once anything surpassed a limit, it would be a hindrance.

Liuding Town had similar strike operations in the past where their target was an unknown creature with 110,000 crystal energy.

Once the squad had arrived, they were met with a crowd of corpse-eating creatures and a massive half-eaten meatball.

A meatball that filled the entire street.

The clueless squad had to call missile support to blow the meatball into pieces. With an energy detector they were able to locate the meter-tall crystal and transport it back. The rest of the meatball attracted an endless number of corpse-eating creatures in the vicinity, so it was impossible to retrieve. It was unfortunate because it would have been an excellent source of nutrient supply.

These excessively mutated creatures had no fighting power most of the time. For economic reasons, they were much easier to deal with compared to Death Claws or Roshan.

With this reason, selfish commanders were spurred into action to destroy the mutant creatures.

Wang Shiwu was dealing with such a creature.

Although the soldiers began to whisper about finishing the mission and taking a shower since the power armors were extremely humid to wear. Wang Shiwu felt something was off and cautiously followed the missile support procedure.

The Eagle-I in the front opened the radar to provide exact location for the missile at Liuding.

"Prepare for missile launch, raise the barrel! Quick!" A few people in work uniforms hustled. They controlled the equipment around the launch pad as a ten-meter-long barrel emerged from the aircraft carrier.

The sleek-looking barrel had a famous name—electromagnetic gun.

"Distance between two points are 310,203 meters, detecting the thickness of the target. Use a 10-kilogram missile, raise to 47 degrees, and adjust power setting."

The technician on deck was changing the settings with a tablet computer. Bohai’s fire control system had originally been destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse during the war. These fixed gun barrels were later fixed by survivors and connected to nearby terminals to be controlled at close distance.

The technician pressed <Fire>.

A blue spark filled the barrel as the high-density electricity generated a short but deafening noise.

There was no explosion.

There was only the initial noise of the missile breaking the sound barrier. A trail of light blue casted across the horizon.

The force of the electromagnetic ripple pushed the barrel slightly backward. Steam began to rise as the liquid cooling system activated. A light flashed from the back of the aircraft before fading into the endless ocean.

The flat-headed missile flew across the sky. The remaining electricity from the initial firing maintained the internal detonation device and also created a vacuum around the missile.

As it approached the target, the vacuum layer disintegrated.

The speed coating began to melt as the missile expanded.

Followed by a red trail, the cylindrical missile hit the building like an iron fist.

The deafening explosion spread as the missile penetrated the building as if it was paper.

The building crumpled under the force of explosion, a hollow space left behind by the missile.

"Direct hit. Great shooting."

"Target spotted. Wait! What is that! Dammit."

"Eagle-II, report the situation. Eagle-I…"

"Crashing! Crashing! Please send assistance." Sounds of chaos.

From the explosion, a giant emerged. No, to be accurate, it was a giant gun.

A dark red energy began to focus before ejecting a beam.

The red ray cast a straight line across the sky.

It didn’t directly hit any helicopters, but it rendered all electronic devices in the area useless.

<Warning! EMP strike>

The power armor’s EMP resistors opened suddenly, but all the devices suffered different degrees of damage before they were triggered.

Because of the EMP resistance, all communication signals were blocked.

"Fuck! EMP! Jump!" Wang Shiwu roared into the intercom. In the rapidly plummeting craft he managed to regain his foothold. With heavy steps, he walked to the door and jumped out.

Due to the power armor’s sophisticated design, it was only momentarily disabled before all functionality returned. The two helicopters, however, did not have the same fate as the EMP instantaneously destroyed all electronic devices aboard.

Wang Shiwu gaped at the giant red barrel.

[What the hell is this? A creature that can emit EMPs? Destroyed the helicopter without even directly hitting target.]

<Landing device activated.>

After he read the letters in his helmet, Wang Shiwu let out a sigh of relief.

Cracks emerged from his knees, waist and shoulder as the small turbo engine appeared under the metal surface. Wang Shiwu felt a sudden jostle before he finally regained control.

The soldiers began to land on the ground.

"Mutation virus, concentration level 97. Dammit, what is this goddamn thing?" His comrade spoke through the intercom.

"Stay alert! Make sure everything is sealed. These floating viruses are giving me a bad feeling." Wang Shiwu checked the air filtration device. These viruses covered the filter in minutes.

The concentration was so high they were almost in chunks. The greenish-yellow appearance made their stomachs clench in disgust.

[Should we evade first?] The thought crossed his mind before he decided that he must figure out the terrifying barrel’s origin.

The helicopters were already destroyed. Even if Liuding sent support, it would be extremely dangerous.

"Be cautious of filter status, prepare for attack!"

"Roger."

In case anything happened, Wang Shiwu cautiously recorded the picture of the battlefield and sent it to the command center. He grabbed the machine gun from his back and pushed forward.

There was no response from the command center. The virus could block radio communication?

Probable, since the ray created an EMP effect, so the virus definitely had something to do with it.

No, this was still too odd!

Normally these extremely dangerous creatures would attract other mutated creatures to feast on, but there were no rats to be seen in the area.

It was peculiar!

Wang Shiwu was drenched in sweat before he heard the screams of his comrades.

"Above us! What the hell is this?!"

Wang Shiwu immediately looked up. Energy began to fill the red biological cannon once more.

There was nothing in the sky. What was this thing shooting at?

"Fire! Immediately!"

Without any time to think, Wang Shiwu ordered the attack with his gut feeling.

Twelve power-armored soldiers focused fire on the red cannon. The bullets shot out in clusters. No one knew if it would do anything, but there were no other solutions.

Five hundred meters was the effective range of machine guns. The spark from the bullets cast a glow on each of the vicious faces as the rapidly rotating barrels unleashed its firepower.

Suddenly, the half-building-tall cannon contracted. It was no longer charging.

Wang Shiwu was surprised that their bullets were effective against this creature.

But they were proven wrong as another explanation presented itself—the energy had been filled to the maximum.

With terrified expressions, they watched as the cannon exploded.

The red flash submerged the entire area in shockwaves that emitted across the radius of explosion. Silence ensued.

A few red-colored "meatballs" were propelled into the distance with the help of the explosion.

"Eagle-1, Eagle-II, Dark Knight Offline."

"Life signal is changing! Target is dividing!"

The commander’s face had gloom written all over it. His hawkish eyes stared at the full-sensory screen in the air.

The 90141 crystal energy symbol disappeared and was replaced by 12 unevenly distributed energy life forms.

The mission had failed.

The commander was not saddened by the loss of the 12 combatants and 4 pilots. Under their virtual reality training program, it was easy to produce these types of talents.

But the two attack helicopters and the twelve sets of MAX-I Power Armors cost a total of 220,000 energy crystals.

This was a disaster.

As to how the mutant creatures would impact the wasteland? The future is unknown.

Chapter 30: Back Home

[Apocalypse, I'm back.]

The familiar but grimy air occupied Jiang Chen's nostrils as he stepped back onto ground. He took in a slow, long breath and looked at his surroundings—the abandoned cars, cracked roads, collapsed buildings, and the mindless zombies.

This was the place he had left.

He glanced at the cage in his hand where the cute but ignorant hamster lied silently in the cage. Jiang Chen poked its soft belly only to confirm that it had passed away. He let out a sigh.

The nut had been its last dinner.

The idea of traveling with another human was unrealistic for now. Jiang Chen felt a little upset.

He followed the familiar street. Jiang Chen was careful not to disturb the powerless zombies that wandered the street as he approached the mansion.

During the day, the zombies were not frightening at all. He would even go so far as to describe them as harmless. But once night settled, even the nearly invincible Death Claw would have to think twice before entering a zombie-filled street. Without the limitation of sunshine, the zombies were as crazy as someone on drugs. They utilized every single mutated cell in their body to chase anything alive.

The mansion looked the same, but the iron gate was reinforced with steel wires. Sun Jiao must have done this while he was gone.

He walked up to ring the doorbell. Soon after, he heard steps from inside before the iron gate was flung open.

.

A graceful figure crashed into his chest. Jiang Chen anticipated the hug with both his arms extended. He welcomed the warmth he had longed for since he had left.

A wet sensation covered his lips.

"You’re finally back." She gasped to gather her breath as she ruefully looked at Jiang Chen.

"I missed you dearly, my honey." Jiang Chen slapped the firm butt as a grin appeared on his face.

"Come in."

Jiang Chen stepped into the mansion as Sun Jiao skillfully locked the gate behind her.

He noticed that though it looked the same from the outside, the mansion's interior had been upgraded. The small decorative forest was chopped down to create watchtowers by the wall that were equipped with barbed wires and lined with hidden trenches. Even the mansion building itself was reinforced with the windows fitted with steel bars.

"What did you do to my mansion?" A bitter smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face. [This is no longer a mansion anymore, it's a fortress.]

"It is going to be safer this way," Sun Jiao proudly said. "The mansion wasn’t protected at all before. I gathered some materials from the area and reinforced the place."

"I think anyone would notice if we didn’t do anything." Jiang Chen sighed.

"But this is our home after all. We can't pretend that no one lives here. There will be survivors that notice this place eventually and spread the news."

"You’re right. Thank you." Jiang Chen realized he had underestimated the situation and how crucial the problem was.

In the apocalypse, zombies were not natural protection. They were pretty much decoration during the day time. The survivors were not the friendliest people either. The absolute neutral Sixth Street was considered to be the most sympathetic force on the wasteland. If people discovered that there was food here without any protection, floods of people would rush to this place. Regardless of Sun Jiao’s strength, there was no way she could guarantee the safety of this place.

The most dangerous creature in the apocalypse weren’t the zombies but the humans.

"But why did you break the marble statues at the front door?" Jiang Chen directed a pained gaze at the mansion. The mansion had been luxurious before, but now it had no aesthetics whatsoever.

"It occupied too much space. There was no need for cover within the wall. It would just prevent me from shooting intruders," Sun Jiao reasoned with him.

[Okay fine, you are right.] Jiang Chen sighed and accepted the idea.

He pulled open the mansion's security door.

"Where's Yao Yao?"

"That girl missed you a lot too." Sun Jiao glanced at Jiang Chen with a puzzled look. She fixed his collar for him. "Go to her room. She’s been tinkering around with some small equipment to help you out."

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded and walked to Yao Yao's room.

He slowly pushed open the wooden door, the hinges squeaking loudly. The room was dark. If not the rhythmic breath, he would have thought the room was empty.

[This girl, is she still in bed?]

Jiang Chen could not help but smile. He knew too well that this timid girl was always a bit dizzy in the morning due to her malnourished body.

A light, metallic scent filled the room which made Jiang Chen sniff the air. The delicate wooden desk most likely once belonged to an equally adorable girl, but the table now was filled with electronic equipment and gadgets. The full-sensory computer Jiang Chen had purchased for her was on it as well as some other unknown devices. There was a silicon board that looked as though it had come straight out of a science fiction novel on the table corner, but half of it was broken. The exposed wires were fused to another piece of circuit board.

Although he was curious, he didn't have the bad habit of touching other people's possessions without permission.

He moved his feet only to feel an obstructive force. He picked up a programming book full of professional terms and notes, reminding Jiang Chen of the "study gods" back in university.

Although he passed his computer level two examination [1], he did not understand the book contents at all.

[Is this a more straightforward and concise programming language?]

Yao Yao curled under her bed sheet as if in a sweet dream. She looked like a cute squirrel and her slightly pouted mouth like soft candies. Her hands hidden in front of her chest gave Jiang Chen a strong desire to protect her.

[Looks like she’s been eating well.] Jiang Chen kneeled down and indulgently rubbed her soft hair. Although the room was dark, her slightly chubbier face indicated her improved body condition. The gentle and soft snores made Jiang Chen not want to disturb her sweet dream.

But he really wanted to hug her.

"Yao Yao, Yao Yao," Jiang Chen lightly called.

"Huu... Heehee." Yao Yao dazedly rubbed her eyes as she sat up. With her sleepy eyes, she stared at Jiang Chen and smiled.

Then like a koala, she wrapped her arms around Jiang Chen's neck and closed her eyes again.

"Hehe, big brother, don't leave anymore. Yao Yao has been trying very hard. Yao Yao is excellent now." She murmured the words before it turned into a light snore again.

[This girl, did you mistake me for a pillow again.] Jiang Chen was about to wake her up when he saw the dark circles around her eyes illuminated by the dim lighting from under the window curtain.

He thought about her murmured words and felt a bit teary.

"Yao Yao is good. Sleep for a bit more." He placed the sleeping Yao Yao on the bed again and tucked her in.

He leaned down and gently kissed her soft forehead.

As if dreaming about the sweetest thing in the world, a joyful smile appeared on her face. The slightly quirked lips had a silver string attached to it.

Jiang Chen left the room and closed the door.

"Did you eat her?" Sun Jiao watched with a mocking gaze as Jiang Chen came down the stairs.

"Am I a monster or what?" He rolled his eyes and sat across from her.

"Yao Yao," Sun Jiao hesitated, but she made up her mind and said, "Yao Yao... she really cares about you. She’s been studying computer-related knowledge for the past few days and even asked me to bring her a couple of books from the library. I don't know if what I did is correct. She’s been extremely dedicated. Maybe she wants you to notice her, and this is her way of expressing her emotion to you. "

Sun Jiao was adjusting the way she phrased her words to correctly express the intention behind the conversation.

"I... thank you."

"Only thank you?"

"But only, you are part of my family." Jiang Chen made up this mind and solemnly looked her in the eyes.

She suddenly climbed onto the table and grabbed him by the collar. In front of Jiang Chen’s shocked eyes, she laughed.

"You mean, you’re going to eat her as well?"

"That’s brotherly love. What do you want it to be?" Jiang Chen looked at the suspicious Sun Jiao. Her unexpected actions made her difficult to figure out.

"Oh? I can see that she likes you as more than a brother."

Jiang Chen became silent.

"Don't you want to say something?"

"Can’t you let me go first?"

"No, what if you disappeared again?" Tears suddenly rolled out from Sun Jiao's eyes. It made Jiang Chen frantic although he didn't know why. What made this audacious girl cry?

"I won’t disappear, honey." Jiang Chen said with a bitter smile. He reached out his hands to hug her, but she blocked him.

"Who knows? You have girls on the other side, right?" The gaze Sun Jiao used to stare at him startled Jiang Chen.

"Eh, why are you asking this?" Jiang Chen dodged her eyes.

"Yes or no." Sun Jiao did not give Jiang Chen the chance to avoid the topic.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and honestly answered, "Yes!"

Prepared to be tied down by this wild girl, Jiang Chen was surprised when she withdrew her hand from his collar.

"You are an honest guy." Sun Jiao didn't get off the table. She half kneeled and looked into Jiang Chen's eyes.

[She smiled? Why is she smiling?]

Jiang Chen had a strange look on his face. " I am honest to my woman."

[There is no reason to lie at all.]

"So, I am fortunate to be your woman then," Sun Jiao teased him.

"If you don't want to be, I won't force you." The complexion on his face gave away his anxious thoughts.

"..." Sun Jiao had the same expression. She gently bit her lips. "Of course I want to be, but I am a bit angry at the fact that you ditched me here to find another woman."

"I'm sorry." Jiang Chen silently lowered his head but after a pause, looked up again. He carefully met her eyes. "Although whatever I say will not make the situation better, if there’s anything I can do to make up it to you, I can do it."

"Really? Anything?" Sun Jiao mischievously examined Jiang Chen's face.

"Mhmm."

"Okay then, let's start."

"Hmm?"

Before Jiang Chen could gather his thoughts, Sun Jiao had already made her move with the agility of a cat. Jiang Chen had no chance to react before he was tied down to the chair.

Sun Jiao stepped on Jiang Chen’s armrest, giving him flashbacks of when they first met.

"I, I mean."

"What did you say?" Sun Jiao acted like she didn't hear him and put her head closer. Jiang Chen now realized that she had changed into something else when she went upstairs, switching from her tracksuit into an attractive shirt.

It was his first time seeing Sun Jiao wear stockings.

He thought about the clothes he had bought for them and realized clothing after the apocalypse was not an issue as there were stores everywhere.

"No, nothing, this rope just looks familiar," Jiang Chen said with a bitter smile.

"Hehe, then let me show you again," she whispered, her red lips grinning wickedly, "how great I am."

[1] Computer Level Two examination is a certificate you can acquire for computer proficiency

Chapter 31: Family Meeting?

That was incredibly awkward.

Yao Yao just came downstairs and saw the embarrassing intimacy.

She stood at the edge of the stairs with a blushing face, her mouth slightly open as she didn’t know what to do.

Passion overtook the two of them for that brief intimate moment , but it was still too crazy to have such a seductive scene in the living room, especially when they weren’t alone. They selectively forgot about the existence of other people under the same roof though it was fun while it lasted.

Sun Jiao fled the scene of the crime, embarrassed by what just happened. She wanted to dig a hole for herself and also for Jiang Chen after what Yao Yao just saw.

But when she escaped, she didn't untie the ropes around Jiang Chen. With her skillful technique and the rope’s quality, it was impossible to break it no matter how hard he tried.

"...Hi."

"Brother..." She was ecstatic to see him again, but the mood wasn't exactly right to hug him as her face was still blushing red with the image in her head.

"Yao Yao, can you... can you help me untie this?” Jiang Chen ditched any honor he had and pleaded for Yao Yao's help. Except the problem was that his pants were still dropped to his knees and exposed a certain part.

[Ah! I am going to be embarrassed to death!]

"Mhmm." Yao Yao's face was burning. She kept her head down because she was curious but at the same time, she was too afraid to approach him.

Because of her nervousness, the pair of delicate hands were unable to untie the ropes despite several desperate attempts.

"Is it good?" Jiang Chen asked awkwardly.

"Gulp." It was the sound of swallowing.

"Mhmm?"

"No, nothing! It's almost done!" Her anxiousness made her suddenly raise her voice. Although she said she almost loosened it, Jiang Chen did not feel the slightest sign of relief.

Yao Yao raised her lips in a slight grimace. When she peeked at Jiang Chen, she got scared because of his voice and accidentally bit her tongue.

She shyly glanced at the part exposed and out in the open. She felt her heart rate increase for some strange reason. She knew what it was, but it was her first time seeing one with her own eyes.

[It’s so big... Is it even possible to put it in...]

Yao Yao's thoughts wandered as she tried to recollect herself. Her face blushed while her fingers struggled to untie the rope.

"Sun Jiao, come out, please spare me!" He wanted to laugh and weep at the same time as he yelled out for help.

He knew she would be laughing at this point. Her devil-like personality would not simply let him go scot-free.

If Yao Yao’s hands continued to caress him any longer, Jiang Chen would be even more ashamed.

Just as Jiang Chen expected, Sun Jiao had already dressed, hiding behind the kitchen door. She was peeping through the cracked-open door and laughing hysterically at the blushing Yao Yao and the awkward Jiang Chen.

[This feels great!]

But she knew it wouldn’t be okay to cross the line. Sun Jiao pouted as she opened the door to untie Jiang Chen.

The reason why she allowed it was one of her considerations. She had a partial understanding of his secret, and it made Sun Jiao feel threatened. She didn't care how many mistresses he had and knew that there would be plenty of them in the other world. But what frightened her most was the possibility of Jiang Chen disappearing from her life forever and she being unable to pursue him. One world was the dangerous apocalypse while the other was a food-filled heaven. If she had a choice, she would not live here at all. If Jiang Chen gained someone else that he loved in the other world... she was too afraid to keep thinking.

She had fallen in love with him.

So she used a little trick of hers to drag Yao Yao with her. Although her growth was delayed in the hibernation chamber, she had already hit puberty. Sun Jiao didn't believe that Yao Yao, who has such strong feelings towards Jiang Chen, would remain innocent after this seductive scene. Once the idea was planted in her head, there would always be opportunities in the future.

Yao Yao was still naive. A simple kiss was not enough to keep his heart here. If one person was not enough to attract him, two people would be.

Sun Jiao thought about this while she was away from the scene. She would do everything to keep him here.

So she had the create some relationship entanglement for him to remember.

A devil-like smile appeared on her face again.

"I am here! Just wait, hehe."

"Dam*it, I know you’re hiding over there! You were laughing right? You must have been laughing!"

---

"I have something important I want to talk to you guys about." Jiang Chen had dressed again and rotated his sore wrist. He looked at the still blushing Yao Yao and the shameless Sun Jiao as he suppressed his awkwardness from what just happened. He spoke in a serious tone, however, that made Sun Jiao's grin fade away. She gently nodded, which was a rare expression to appear on her face, making Jiang Chen a little surprised.

Yao Yao lowered her head and prepared to go back to her room but Jiang Chen grabbed her hand.

"Mhmm!?" Yao Yao jumped like a startled rabbit. She was too shy to look Jiang Chen in the eyes.

[I am so embarrassed.]

Jiang Chen gave Sun Jiao a hard stare, but she shamelessly looked away.

"I, I, I'll go back to my room."

"No, you are my family as well." Jiang Chen gently patted her head. He had long decided this on the day she saved him.

If it were not for Yao Yao's courage, Sun Jiao and he would have become food for the cannibals... or at least he would been.

"Let me take this off for you." His heart melted as he looked at Yao Yao who was enjoying this intimate moment. Jiang Chen reached for the electronic bracelet.

For a while now, he wanted to take this thing off her because she had never been a slave to him.

"No." Yao Yao tenderly grasped Jiang Chen's hand with both of hers. "I want to be a girl... special only to big brother."

[Special?]

Jiang Chen was puzzled by the idea, not understanding her meaning.

But Yao Yao's face turned burning hot again, not saying another word.

"Ahem, is it okay for you guys to display your affection in front of me?" Sun Jiao said with her eyes narrowed.

[It’s okay to say Yao Yao is yours, but it is not okay to publicly display your affection in front of me.] This was what was going through Sun Jiao's mind. [I refuse to allow this.] She began to grind her teeth subconsciously.

Jiang Chen felt the devil's stare as he uncontrollably shivered.

"Okay!" Startled like a rabbit again, Yao Yao backed away. Sun Jiao never bullied her, but she had always been afraid of her.

"Don't you have something important to say? Go ahead and say it now." Sun Jiao let out a sigh and cleared her mind.

Jiang Chen's face turned serious again. He sat Yao Yao down again before he walked to the middle of the living room.

Yao Yao confusedly watched Jiang Chen's actions. Sun Jiao seemed to already have a guess as she propped her chin on her hand while waiting for his explanation.

"I, I am from a different world."

Although she was mentally prepared, she was still shocked when Jiang Chen said it with his mouth. Yao Yao was completely stunned.

"Let me explain." Jiang Chen sighed as he extended his left hand.

The food and supplies inside the storage dimension emerged in the middle of the room. There were no special effects, only the sudden appearance of all the canned foods, vegetables, and rice as if fantasy had just become reality.

This shocked Sun Jiao completely while Yao Yao was already mindblown.

He scratched the back of his head in front of the two dumbfounded girls.

"I haven't explained anything yet. Why are you guys so shocked?"

"Brother... are you an immortal?" Yao Yao was the first one to regain her senses. Her eyes were filled with admiration as she stared with awe at Jiang Chen.

[To be honest, it feels great to be idolized by a naive, young girl.]

"Ahem, no. These things did not appear from thin air. How should I explain this... From my world, it is very easy to exchange for these goods with gold."

"So, big brother is from a parallel dimension that’s before the war?" Yao Yao unknowingly nodded her head. She spent her child before the war, so she remembered the prosperity in the earlier times.

"Smart. That sums it up nicely." Jiang Chen praised Yao Yao and gave her a thumbs up. She explained everything he was troubled about in one sentence.

"...This, this much?" Sun Jiao grew up in the survival base so without much experience, she was completely stunned.

Jiang Chen couldn't stop himself from laughing at the dumbfounded Sun Jiao.

Jiang Chen briefly explained his origin and comforted away the worries of the two girls about whether he would suddenly disappear. When Sun Jiao asked about the possibility of interdimensional travel with someone else, an anxious look appeared on Yao Yao's face, but Jiang Chen had to let them down as he took out the cage with the dead hamster. He didn't explain, only leaving it on the table. The two girls were briefly silent before they understood.

"Interdimensional travel is already magical. If it was possible to bring a creature with you, the world would not be the same anymore." Sun Jiao forced a bitter smile as she shook her head. She tiredly fell onto the table.

"Yes... There are mutated cells everywhere in this world. Only humans with some resistance can prevent mutating into zombies. If big brother brought people over, the mutation could spread in the other world as well." Yao Yao gave a more serious consideration that left Jiang Chen drenched in cold sweat.

[True... The mutation viruses are everywhere. If I bring it back to the other world...]

He quivered at the idea. He was inconsiderate of the situation as his mind was only filled with how to make money. He never considered a critical issue like this.

If not for the interdimensional bracelet's ability to terminate all life, the other world would be complete chaos.

He didn't know the principle behind it. Maybe it would be helpful to dissect that hamster? But he didn't probe too deeply into that thought.

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Since you’re all mine, I have an obligation to provide a better life for you." Jiang Chen's words made both Sun Jiao and Yao Yao blush. "I brought a lot of supplies back, and now we need more fridge space to store these supplies. It’d be even better if had access to freezers as well. There are also some easy to store canned foods and preserved crackers in there. I plan to exchange these for crystals and purchase some equipment to fortify our mansion."

Sun Jiao nodded.

"Mhm, the preserved crackers sell at around one crystal per piece. We don't need to go to the Sixth Street to exchange it either since there are plenty of community-sized survivor camps around here. Although I’ve reinforced the mansion, the defense is clearly not enough. It’d be better if we could exchange for some firearms and weapons."

Jiang Chen briefly considered it. "Okay, let's make a list of all the items we need and make all of our purchases on one trip. Also, I think it’s safer to go to the Sixth Street. The smaller survivor camps are not that trustworthy."

Despite their reinforced mansion, there were not enough people here. Sun Jiao alone would not be able to defend this place. If the food caught the other survivors’ attention, those poor, starving refugees could become gun-wielding bandits the next second.

The absolute neutrality that the Sixth Street prided themselves on meant that they kept a clear name on the wasteland to foster their growth into a giant.

"You’re right... but the Hui Zhong Mercenaries are going to be looking for us there." Sun Jiao explained her concerns. They lost an entire raid team to Jiang Chen last time. It would be a bloodbath the next time they encountered the mercenaries.

"Don't be afraid." Jiang Chen smiled. "It only takes me two seconds to escape the danger."

After he finished his sentence, Jiang Chen disappeared from their visions, and reappeared the next second.

"Fu*k. If I do it too fast, it has its problems." Jiang Chen lost his balance and almost fell trying to hold on to the chair.

There were some consequences to using this ability back-to-back, such as brief dizziness.

"You, you just...?"

"Yes, I went and came back from the peaceful world." Jiang Chen covered his dizzied head and explained.

Since he already admitted his secret, he didn’t need to hide his ability in the future.

One crystal of energy was nothing to him. It was only a piece of preserved crackers after all.

"This is incredible," Yao Yao exclaimed in disbelief. Sun Jiao blankly nodded.

"The danger of the sewer system is already eliminated." He tried not to remember the scene. "Because of this, I can go by myself to the Sixth Street and bring the supplies in the storage dimension.”

"I’m still worried." Sun Jiao nervously looked at Jiang Chen.

"You have to take care of our home. We don't have enough of a workforce here. How about I buy some people this time."

"Such as buying a few more cute girls?" Sun Jiao gave him a dangerous look.

Yao Yao also pouted at the idea but couldn’t say anything to change his mind. After all, Jiang Chen purchased her.

"What do you think I am? A sex addict?" Jiang Chen ruefully smiled as he rubbed his nose. "There’s no way you can defend this mansion by yourself. Also, I need some people with unique talents."

There were treasures everywhere on the wasteland, including the people that couldn’t use their unique talents here. Jiang Chen could easily use their ability and generate a fortune for his Futuristic Technology.

"What about me? I can learn. You don’t want me anymore?" Surprised, Yao Yao approached him with teary eyes.

"How could that happen?" He rubbed her puffy hair gently. "I don't want you working so hard. You already help me a lot. Also, don’t stay up anymore. You need your sleep."

"Mhmm." Yao Yao joyfully hmmed at Jiang Chen's head rub and immediately forgot her concern.

"Since you said it, what if you bring another girl back this time?" Sun Jiao was not as easy to fool as Yao Yao.

"I swear to God," he said while raising his hand before she doubtfully let it go.

Sun Jiao's concern was unnecessary since Jiang Chen had no such intentions. Although he was an open person, it was because he had suppressed himself for a long time. Even in just a month’s worth of time, he became more mature.

He never planned on building a sex dungeon in the apocalypse. Even if he had the opportunity, he would not have the energy.

Compared to these things, more were awaiting him.

The mansion lacked a workforce in every aspect. The watchtower beside the wall required a person because he was unwilling to send Sun Jiao to guard the door every day. He also needed someone to fix the electronics and appliances in the mansion. With Sun Jiao's limited knowledge, she hemmed the solar power with pure luck. From electricians to construction workers, he needed a lot of people here.

He wouldn’t risk allowing the survivors into the mansion. After wandering the wasteland for so many years, their morals were questionable. Instead, the slaves he purchased would be safer; nobody would risk their lives with the electronic bracelet on. That way, Jiang Chen wouldn’t need to worry about them defying his command.

They would be more grateful for this opportunity because Jiang Chen had food. Even if he only fed them a bowl of congee every day, it would be significantly better compared to their previous lives.

Jiang Chen considered himself a sympathetic person. He would never torture slaves, but it was rare for a master like this to exist in the apocalypse.

"Let me be clear first—this does not apply to Yao Yao. But don't ever think about taking off the electronic bracelets off the slaves." Sun Jiao also considered Yao Yao as part of the family, but she worried that Jiang Chen’s "humanitarian considerations" would want to get rid of all the bracelets.

"Don't worry, I’m not that foolish yet," he said with a bitter smile. "I’ve matured. I do admit that I grew accustomed to using peaceful ways of thinking before, but I don't think that will happen again."

Sun Jiao nodded, pleased with the answer. Yao Yao, who was afraid to talk, also let out a sigh.

"In that case, I won’t worry anymore. Is the family meeting over?" As she stretched, her breasts almost exploded out of her clothes.

When she heard the words "family meeting," Yao Yao uncontrollably blushed. Jiang Chen also burst out in laughter.

"Ahem, since it is a family meeting, then it's still not over." Jiang Chen shook his head.

"Hmm? What else?" Sun Jiao leaned back against the chair.

He nodded with an earnest stare into her eyes. "It's about you. The things that you must do, can you tell me now?"

A hint of emotion flashed in her eyes. "You still remember."

"Of course, you are mine. I will never forget."

"I, I'm about to give up." Sun Jiao’s gaze that was full of joy, sorrow, and confusion dodged his eyes.

"But I still remember, right? Why don't you tell me? It never hurts to try," Jiang Chen said sincerely.

She let out a long exhale and slowly opened her mouth.

"I managed to find the feeling of home here. I already feel incredibly lucky. The silly idea I have... since you already asked, I'll tell you."

She paused before she suddenly smiled.

"You know, Do you know? Tthis place is actually my home."

Chapter 32: Sun Jiao's Past

Sun Jiao’s words surprised Jiang Chen and Yao Yao. Jiang Chen remembered she was born in survival base 071, so how was she connected to this mansion? When he heard Sun Jiao's explanation, however, he finally understood the connection as well as why she’d been starving in this mansion in the first place.

Sun Jiao's father owned this estate before the war, but due to the sudden eruption of the nuclear war, Sun Jiao's father became separated from his wife and son when they fled the city. Sun Jiao's father subsequently met Sun Jiao's mother in survival base 071 where they fell in love. With the blessings of the other survivors, they married and gave birth to Sun Jiao and another daughter, Sun Jiao's sister. Unfortunately, the joyful days were short-lived as the survival base was forced to open because of the depleted resources, drawing bandits that littered the wasteland into attacking the survival base. And so, Sun Jiao lost her family.

She was fortunate in that she managed to escape. She wandered the ruins, but instead of meeting mutants, zombies, or slave traders, she ran into a strange individual who didn't know her purpose.

Or perhaps it was better to say that she met her master.

In 2139, due to the enactment of the new strategic defense alliance, the Han People’s Liberation Army began to be referred to as PLA. A self-proclaimed PLA female soldier appeared and took care of Sun Jiao. She taught her the necessary skills to survive in the wasteland such as how to shoot a gun and how to identify the good and bad. But sadly her master passed away in a conflict against an unknown group of militants, and that was how Sun Jiao started her lonely journey.

Sun Jiao wandered the wasteland trying to find her family, longing for the comfort of survival base 071. She knew that even if she managed to find them, life would not be the same again, but it served as her only motivation. She searched for their information around Dong Hai City until she confirmed from an old neighbor in Liuding Town that both of her parents passed away in that unfortunate incident but no information remained of her sister. The relentless Sun Jiao continued to explore the wasteland for any information, even coming across her father's home from before the war...

It was precisely this mansion, but because she ran out of nutrient supplies here, she starved until falling unconscious.

Then by coincidence, she met Jiang Chen here.

"Mhmm, I understand. I’ll keep an eye out for you. If we can find your sister, you’ll be very happy right?" Jiang Chen said with a smile after listening to her narration.

"Jiang Chen." Her eyes became moist. If not for Yao Yao’s presence, she would’ve pushed him to the ground and expressed the loving emotion filling her heart.

Ahem. Although inappropriate, Sun Jiao didn't know other ways to express her love.

"What about Yao Yao? Can I help you with anything? Since we are a family now, don't hide anything and tell me, okay?" Jiang Chen rubbed Yao Yao's head.

Yao Yao shook his head and gently covered Jiang Chen's hand with both of her hands. "I’m already so lucky. My only family is brother Jiang Chen and sister Sun Jiao."

Her smile was joyful, but it made Jiang Chen slightly teary.

Yao Yao made lunch. This gentle girl took the effort to practice cooking, touching Jiang Chen even more.

This was the first time he ate a meal made by a girl.

He was so touched that he almost began to cry. [Ahem, that was an exaggeration.]

Yao Yao looked at the way Jiang Chen devoured the lunch, and a joyous smile appeared on her face. As for Sun Jiao, she always ate food as if there was no tomorrow. It would be odd if she acted any differently.

After lunch, the three of them cleaned up. Sun Jiao organized the supplies within the living room, and Jiang Chen followed Yao Yao to her room as he had other matters.

"Yao Yao, have you finished preparing for the vault door?"

"Psh!" Yao Yao burst laughing. "Big brother doesn't know yet, but Sun Jiao already emptied the bank vault for you. Haha, she probably forgot to tell you because she was too surprised. She’s hoping to be praised."

Jiang Chen paused momentarily as a genuine delight flashed across his face.

"Haha, sister Sun Jiao is not you. She is probably not interested in my recognition." Because of how cute Yao Yao looked, Jiang Chen uncontrollably rubbed her hair.

Like a squirrel, Yao Yao closed her eyes to enjoy the moment. Then as if she suddenly remembered something, she blinked her sweet eyes at Jiang Chen. "No! Sister Sun Jiao want to receive praise from big brother like Yao Yao!"

She thoughtfully nodded her head, sure that her analysis was accurate.

Surprised by her words, Jiang Chen laughed.

"Mhmm, you’re right."

[I have to express my gratitude to this girl. Although most of the time she is very naughty, at times she can be surprisingly considerate.]

He put aside the conversation about gold and inquired about mobile game development.

"Mobile game? The game you play on your cell phone? Are these things popular in big brother's world?" she asked without completely understanding him. It puzzled Jiang Chen because she spent the first twelve years of her life before the war. Were there no electronic games at that time? That was impossible!

Jiang Chen voiced his thoughts, but the answer he received made him quite conflicted.

"Mhmm. That's what you mean. I think I know what you’re referring to, but the popular games before the war were all played within the gaming chamber."

"Gaming chamber?"

"Yes! The mainstream games were based on design engines within the virtual reality system. Lying down in the gaming chamber helped in relaxing the body, so some people even chose to spend their sleeping time in games. A lot of portable devices that connected directly to the neural network also achieved similar functions. No one installed extra games within the mobile devices."

It was not because there were no more games. With the advancement of technology, the gaming format evolved over time. Just like how the DS faded through the passage of history and PSP-related game devices were no longer able to capture the market under the fierce competition of smartphones.

[What should I do?] Jiang Chen had a stern face and fell into deep thought.

[Abandon mobile games? But for a company just in the initial growth phase, a jump into virtual reality would be too forced. Aren’t there any other options?]

"Can you show me that phone you’re talking about, big brother?" Yao Yao asked in a quiet voice.

"Ah, of course, here you go." Jiang Chen immediately took out his Samsung phone and gave it to Yao Yao. "Feel free to play with it."

Yao Yao didn't hesitate, and she immediately started dissecting the phone on her workbench.

"Woo… Why is the CPU performance so low? Only a couple gigabytes of RAM?" Yao Yao examined the phone and mumbled words that made Jiang Chen quite embarrassed.

It didn't take long before Yao Yao finally understood this "antique."

"What do you think?" Jiang Chen rushed to ask as Yao Yao took off her protective glasses.

"Hmm, it doesn't look too complicated. If we use D++ to program it, we should be able to compress everything into this tiny space." She touched her tiny chin with a focused expression. "Ah, although mobile games are programs, you also have to consider art, music, and experience, but I don't have any experience."

Jiang Chen thought for a minute and realized the problem as well. Not all programming majors became game developers like Sid Meier. The key to games was the experience gained. Even if Yao Yao could compress an enormous amount of content using a more advanced language to reduce the requirement for hardware systems, the fundamental issue was still whether it was fun to play.

Suddenly, Yao Yao slapped her head as if she just remembered something.

"Oh! Let me take care of this. I promise that I'll give you what you want within five days."

"So quickly?!" Jiang Chen was stunned. His original plan was for Yao Yao to finish within two months.

"Hehe." Yao Yao felt a little shy as she rubbed her nose. "It would be difficult to program from scratch, but I just remembered there’s a library nearby. Sister Sun Jiao brought these back for me from there. There must be some historical codes from the database in the library that will include the games big brother wants. As long as sister Sun Jiao makes another trip to the library and copies all the files related to games between 2100 and 2200, I only need to fix the code a little to make it work."

...

Jiang Chen left the room, gently closing the door.

[Why is my heart beating so fast? Am I a monster after all?] Jiang Chen murmured in his heart as he walked toward Sun Jiao.

He spotted Sun Jiao at the underground storage counting the supplies. The cans and preserved crackers were neatly separated beside the wall. Rice was organized within polyethylene plastic containers which were common in the wasteland after the military previously parachuted tightly sealed rescue supplies.

The underground storage felt cold. The original owner, Sun Jiao's father, previously stored wine in here but after it was discovered by other survivors, there were no traces of wine.

The current quantity of supplies made it was necessary to scavenge some fridges from the residences nearby.

After some repairs, they would be usable. It just meant that the solar power had to be upgraded at the same time. The current electricity was just enough to sustain the power usage in the mansion, but with a few more fridges, it would be nearly impossible to meet the demand.

Chapter 33: Back to Sixth Street

The energetic Jiang Chen and the flushed Sun Jiao left the basement together.

Jiang Chen's cocky look made the embarrassed Sun Jiao pinch his waist, but she lost her balance and almost fell.

"Be careful, don't hurt yourself." Jiang Chen immediately caught her as if nothing happened. Then as he pretended to blame Sun Jiao, he slapped her on the butt.

Sun Jiao gritted her teeth as she looked at Jiang Chen's smirk, her embarrassed look made Jiang Chen feel extremely satisfied.

"You bastard..." The usually angry Sun Jiao only managed to come up with a weak comeback. Despite her flustered appearance, the tenderness in her eyes couldn’t be hidden.

This small detail didn’t escape the "experienced" Jiang Chen.

He kissed Sun Jiao on the lips and escaped with a grin on his face before Sun Jiao realized what happened. He didn't want to let Sun Jiao to get back at him.

[This guy...]

Sun Jiao stared at the direction in which Jiang Chen left and angrily stomped her feet. She wanted to chase after and pinch him, but her body felt listless.

[He seems to have gotten better...]

Sun Jiao blushed red as her legs almost gave out on her. She desperately tried to find her balance against the wall.

She gave his distant figure an angry stare and swore she’d get her revenge.

[F*ck! Just wait until tonight!]

When he arrived at the poolside, he sucked in a deep breath of cold air.

There were at least ten tons of gold in the pool. A ton of gold had a volume of 0.051 cubic meters, but the gold bars at the corner of the pool were at least half a cubic meter. Jiang Chen used an electronic balance and roughly measured the weight of the gold.

It came out to be a total of 12.2 tons of gold which would rake in roughly 500 million dollars.

Jiang Chen was ecstatic. Although he mentally prepared himself, it was impossible to not be surprised with such a giant pile of gold in front of him.

He took another deep breath. Jiang Chen didn't immediately move the gold into the storage dimension. There was no rush since he needed to make a trip to Sixth Street tomorrow, and he needed the storage dimension for exchanged goods. The gold wouldn’t go anywhere.

If he left now, it would be nightfall by the time he arrives at the Sixth Street, so he decided to depart tomorrow morning and use the remaining time to prepare.

He went back to his room and grabbed the PK200 assault rifle that he hadn’t used in a while before stepping out onto the wooden watchtower beside the wall.

The dynamic gun’s presence made him feel safe with its surreal sci-fi design.

He clicked the safety and pulled the bolt.

After concentrating, he raised the gun and locked the scope onto a frightening face wondering around and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A breath of fire erupted from the gun barrel amidst the billowing smoke.

The bullet hit the zombie in the chest, failing to kill it immediately. As if suddenly awakened, the wounded zombie began to frantically wave his limbs but was unable to get up.

[I aimed for the head but hit the chest...]

Jiang Chen shook his head and aimed with the scope again.

The noise of the struggling zombie attracted the attention of the other slow-moving zombies, but they failed to find the source of attack without the smell of a survivor and continued to wander aimlessly.

He aimed through the crosshair again.

Bang!

A breath of flame discharged from the barrel once more. This time Jiang Chen didn't miss, the zombie's head exploding into pieces and leaving a sludge of black blood.

"Four times scope is ideal for mid-distance range battle. If you insist on using it at this distance, I suggest you change the zoom to 100 meters." He heard Sun Jiao's ridicule at his back.

"Uhm, where is it? " Jiang Chen remembered a game he played before where he could adjust the gun’s magnification before shooting.

The only problem was that there was no page-up key in real life.

"It's here." Sun Jiao pointed out the button beside the scope.

So that was the problem. After Jiang Chen changed the zoom from zero to one hundred, he attempted the same shot again—the accuracy was much higher.

"Mechanical sight would be enough at this distance." Sun Jiao reached out and turned the PK200’s scope to the side, exposing the mechanical aim. "Try this."

"Oh, so this is how you use it." Jiang Chen was able to quickly acclimate himself to the gun, but because his targets were zombies, he wasn't certain how accurate he was.

Sun Jiao stood silently beside Jiang Chen and spoke up to fix his mistakes with tips on how to shoot and utilize cover. Time flew by before it was already time for dinner.

"I think that's enough for today. Zombies are dangerous at night so it’s better not to anger them." Sun Jiao glanced at the crowd of zombies below them. Their endless numbers made it impossible to eliminate them. Despite being killed by mutants and humans both, there were constantly more being born in the downtown area, spreading nonstop.

His record was satisfactory as he managed to kill 97 zombies with 120 bullets. Sun Jiao nodded in discreet. Although it was nothing impressive, for a beginner it was a good record. She was less nervous about his ability to survive. After all, even if he couldn’t win a fight, he had the ability to run away.

"Hehe, are you feeling better?" Jiang Chen closed the safety and after slinging the gun over his back, asked Sun Jiao a daring question with a grin on his face.

She hesitated for a moment before her face suddenly turned to a burning shade of red.

"Oww!" Jiang Chen painfully rubbed the leg kicked by Sun Jiao, "I’m just worried about you."

"Wait for me tonight!" Sun Jiao grabbed him by his collar and said in a vicious tone. She let go of him and jumped off the wooden watch tower in a huff.

Jiang Chen quivered. [She wouldn’t tie me up again, would she?]

His face turned bitter as he thought about the chances.

[What if I hide in Yao Yao's room tonight?]

Jiang Chen ultimately decided to face reality.

He obediently received his punishment from Sun Jiao that night. The next morning, he dragged his weary body back into his room.

[F*ck, why can’t I control my own feet?]

He wanted to slap himself for provoking her last night.

He packed his equipment and put away the canned food and compressed crackers into the storage dimension before heading towards the door.

"Brother, are you leaving now?" With her eyes still half-closed, she asked dazedly from the top of the stairs.

"Mhmm, I’m going to the Sixth Street. I'll be back in a few days." Jiang Chen smiled at her as he checked his equipment one last time.

"Umm, bring this with you." Yao Yao held the handrail and slowly walked down the stairs. She gave Jiang Chen a small bag.

"What's this?" He looked at the bag, puzzled..

"Some small equipment that I designed. There’s a drone that can connect to the EP and scan the terrain within a one thousand meter radius. Hehe, as long as I can help big brother out." Finished speaking, she rubbed her sleepy eyes and walked towards the sofa, curling up and falling asleep again.

"This little girl, is she not afraid of getting cold?" Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile. He wrapped the bag around his waist and walked towards the sofa.

His hands passed under Yao Yao’s knees and shoulder as he lifted her.

[Light, and also soft with the fragrance of a natural milky smell.]

He brought her back to her bedroom before he left the mansion.

Only blood remained from the zombies Jiang Chen shot yesterday. During the night, the active zombies ate the motionless bodies to acquire proteins. With enough, they would slowly evolve like the Roshan they encountered at the Sixth Street last time. It was apparently common to see these evolved zombies in the downtown area, so most survival camps were built in rural areas.

He opened the manhole and directed his flashlight inside. After confirming that it was safe, he jumped down without hesitation.

It was quite scary to walk down here alone, but since the biggest threat was eliminated and it wasn’t his first time traversing the tunnels, Jiang Chen acted courageously. Slowly, he progressed towards Sixth Street with his assault rifle in hand.

When he passed by the cannibal tribe’s location again, an uncontrollable expression of disgust flashed across his face. Thankfully, the cave was cleansed by fire, and no traces remained.

It was important to do so because the smell of dead bodies attracted mutated rats. If there were only one or two of them, he’d be okay, but if he encountered a group of them...

Nevertheless, it was safe along the way, but he did feel bored at times.

Reaching his destination, Jiang Chen pushed open the manhole, feeling the first ray of sunshine in five hours.

He took a deep breath of fresh air. He marked a safe symbol on the full-sensory computer pen before he put it away again.

The sewer system was a relatively fast way to move between places in the wasteland, but the complex tunnels made it extremely dangerous as well. It was impossible to tell what was hidden in the shadows, whether it was a nest of Death Claws or a cave of cannibals.

Jiang Chen tried to take the route he had used last time, and whenever he reached unexplored areas, he tensed up at full alert.

Leaving the sewer, Jiang Chen cautiously pulled up his gun. He didn't know if the Hui Zhong Mercenaries were still looking for him. He would only be safe from them after entering the door.

He made a beeline towards the Sixth Street.

The procedure was no different from last time.

Soldiers in black combat suits approached Jiang Chen and signaled for him to display his identification on his EP. After confirming that he had no criminal records, they immediately allowed him to pass.

It was the same desolate ghetto from last time with the weary refugees. Jiang Chen didn't buy labor right away since he now knew the rules of slave trading—all the people sold were either criminals or individuals who lost ability to work.

Jiang Chen didn't want either type. Instead, he was looking for harmless individuals with a clean record and in large numbers as well. Therefore, he had to acquire them through other means.

Jiang Chen didn't choose to go to the market this time. He first rented a storage near the industrial area and left all the canned food and compressed crackers there. After, he directly entered the inner circle examination station.

Since it was a bulk quantity trade, it was necessary to find someone who could afford it. Other than the workforce, Jiang Chen also intended to purchase something that was not normally sold on the market.

Chapter 34: The Inner Circle

"Please display your ID, sir" It was the same routine check.

Below the towering concrete wall was a reinforced metal gate. The inner circle was substantially more reinforced than the outer zone. Jiang Chen was fortunate enough to witness the greatness of the city from within.

After he had paid a crystal for his trouble, he left all his weapons in the storage by the gate. The guard at the examination station allowed him to pass.

In front of the gate was a spider tank with a triangular shaped cannon. The limbs of the vehicle attached to tracks cast a fictional vibe. The occasional patrol team passed by was also equipped with the most advanced work of the century; black carbon nano armor suits and fluid looking rifles. Sun Jiao mentioned that the inner circle's soldiers were the Sixth Street core power. Most were private soldiers who belonged to the rulers of the Sixth Street "Group of Ten Council." Despite their advanced equipment, the soldiers that were a part of the outer circle were part of the Sixth Street's public assets. Hence the nature between the two was entirely different.

The shocked Jiang Chen considered acquiring some of their equipment as he approached his destination.

Along the way, Jiang Chen also saw some pedestrians. Only a unique group of people lived in the inner circle of the Sixth Street; those included specialized technologists, wealthy mercenary leaders, and investors who purchased assets within the area. It was known as the land of the wealthy.

It is also worth mentioning that the mercenaries stationed in the Sixth Street acted differently compared to the wandering half-mercenary half-bandits on the wasteland. The majority of them defended the Sixth Street along with the soldiers in exchange for commissions. They would also occasionally be sent to complete missions outside, or protect trade routes. The mercenaries registered at the Sixth Street were trustworthy as they all paid a fee as a guarantee for their services. When they no longer acted in the intention for their employer, not only does the guarantor inside the inner circle receive imprisonment, the Sixth Street would send out military power to eliminate the rebellious forces.

[Heaven Island Hotel, your comfortable home.]

Jiang Chen walked into a hotel that resembled a pre-war luxurious mansion. Since he was there for business, he must also show the correct gestures. Jiang Chen paid for a five-day stay without a blink of an eye. The total bill came out to be 50 crystals. The hotel owner immediately demonstrated the attitude similar to worshipping God as he respectfully escorted him to his room. Only the wealthy and the influential could afford a hotel like this; the hotel owner would do anything to please them.

The high price of the hotel meant that people rarely stayed there.

Only renowned merchants or millionaires from other survivor camps, or even from outside of Wanghai City would stay there. According to Sun Jiao, anyone who lived here would attract the attention of the public.

Jiang Chen wanted that attention. How would he do business without it?

He was not afraid of the troubles that would ensue. The neutrality of the Sixth Street continued for more than ten years. Their development was not the product of short-sighted growth strategies.

Just this point alone was worth the recognition of the Sixth Street's policy. Ten capitalists formed the "Group of Ten Council" who implemented the freedom of trade policy within the walls. The balance of power allowed the strict enforcement of the policy to be enacted. No one wanted to be the first to break the rule of the game. It would not be okay to kill your business partner and ruin the deal for your neighbor.

However, privacy was less of an issue. As to what Jiang Chen expected, the moment he stepped into the room, the hotel manager reported this wealthy customer to his boss.

<Picture:

Identification: Fishbone Food Corporation Representative, Jiang Chen

Time of Stay: July 9th to 14th.>

Jiang Chen's information was presented in front of someone.

"Fishbone Food Corporation? Jiang Chen? Very compelling." A middle-aged man with a bowl cut leaned against the office chair. Under his thick eyebrows was a pair of hawk-sharp eyes.

"Do you want to get in contact with him, boss?" The assistant in uniform pushed up her glasses. As Zhao Chenwu's assistant, she was not only critical to his work, she also acted at his bodyguard and occasionally helped to alleviate his needs at times of desire.

Zhao Chenwu, Group of Ten Council Member. He controlled 13% of the military strength within the inner circle. He was the owner of two firearm factories, one pharmaceutical company, along with an array of fixed assets in the inner circle. He was also known as the president of the Sixth Street's renowned Zhao Corporation.

"There is no rush, let's look at the situation more closely." A grin appeared on Zhao Chenwu's face. He was uncertain about the intention of this young man.

Food Corporation? Where can you even find a piece of arable land on the wasteland? Even if it were through soilless culture, the vegetable produced would be in odd shapes due to the radiation, and it could even be poisonous. The soil culture also existed at the Sixth Street, but most of the produce were not edible. The taste of the remainder produce was not fresh either. With exaggeration, if you planted a watermelon, it could grow into a bean for you.

There was no doubt that the technology existed outside of Wanghai City where it was possible to grow to produce on the wasteland. The rarity along with the high cost resulted in the limitedness of the technology. Could it be a simulated ecosystem? He also heard about the technology before. Although the advancement of technology was far superior before the war, everyone's current focus on innovation was extremely skewed.

As the controlling shareholder of the Heaven Island hotel, he encountered many representatives at the Sixth Street before. It was his first time hearing about the existence of a food corporation.

There was never a shortage of mutant beef. Just ordinary people couldn't afford it.

Zhao Chenwu shook his head and placed this report away. He looked at the clock and felt a sense of hunger. He asked his assistant, "Is lunch ready?"

"Yes, my boss. Do I need to confirm that today's lunch is curry chicken?" The assistant said in a professional tone.

After she had received Zhao Chenwu's acknowledgment, she left the room. She then came back momentarily with a plate of steamy curry chicken.

The unique aroma of curry chicken made Zhao Chenwu's saliva form at a rapid rate. Without any consideration for his composure, he devoured the meal. The assistant also swallowed as she saw how much her boss was enjoying the meal. She knew better that there was none for her.

The total cost of the curry chicken was 20 crystals, which was equivalent to two night of stay at the hotel.

The price was not even the problem; it was the fact that you couldn't buy it with money.

The outer circle's exchange office purchased 20 cans weeks ago. They sold each can with a price of 60 crystals to the influential individuals in the inner circle. Zhao Chenwu used his position as the Group of Ten Council member to get his hands on one of them. The good thing was that the office didn't auction the canned food or the price would be significantly higher.

He divided this one can into three separate servings to enjoy.

Zhao Chenwu investigated the whereabouts of the person who sold the cans. He heard that as soon as they left the gate, the Hui Zhong mercenaries went after them. No one knew if they were still dead or alive. When Zhao Chenwu heard this information, he was so angry that he almost broke the table and cursed the generations of Hui Zhong Mercenaries. He almost sent out his private forces to teach those fools a lesson. However, he resisted the temptation due to his position of power as the mercenaries didn't break any rules within the Sixth Street. If he did anything, he would have broken the rule of the game.

The last piece of the precious curry chicken went into his stomach as he savored the taste. He shook head as he threw the fantasy about curry chicken into the back of his mind. Although he was curious about the taste of sauteed beef his friend Sir Ding bought, he must have finished already as well.

He had a business to run after all. The food was only a small part of his life. He took over a stack of documents and began reading the operation status of his company.

At the same time, he glanced at the information relating to the hotel guest; he felt a sudden familiarity with the name.

[Hmm, why is the name Jiang Chen so familiar? Where did I see it before?]

If Jiang Chen knew that the canned food he sold to the exchange office was split into three servings by the big bosses within the inner circle, he would be hysterical.

Right now, Jiang Chen was pleasantly enjoying his stay.

He was the only one in the entire mansion. Despite the suppressed feeling cast by the radiation cloud and ray of mutated sunshine, which made it difficult for him to enjoy the holiday, he was quite satisfied by the facilities within the mansion.

Such as the relaxation chamber. When Jiang Chen lied inside, it felt as if his entire body was covered in jelly.

The view was not as beautiful as the Sheraton in Sanya, but the technology sure made up for it. [Why do we need nature when we have technology.]

Jiang Chen who stepped out of the relaxation chamber felt every pore on his body was exfoliated. The cleanliness was substantially higher compared to taking a shower. It even removed dust at the micro level.

[Should I bring one back?] Jiang Chen touched his chin as he thought about this question. He absolutely loved this.

He casually grabbed a bathrobe to cover himself and ran to other amenities to enjoy them.

The ping pong robot was designed for wealthy people who had no opportunity to exercise. He abandoned his racquet the second he realized he couldn't beat the robot.

He was interested in the full-sensory movie theater.

The 7 Dimensional movie, that theaters praised in the modern world, was nothing compared to this.

He put on the helmet and strapped himself into the soft chair. The surreal feeling made it feel as if it was the reality. He was shocked to find out that he was standing in the middle of New York. Jiang Chen felt the breeze lightly caress across his face as he watched a battle between cops and thugs. He could even experience everything through the protagonist's view. It was as if he was fighting himself. He could feel the screeching bullet and experience the pain himself. He just couldn't control the protagonist's movement.

The thrilled Jiang Chen left the theater and returned to his room.

Chapter 35: Fishbone Food Corporation

Jiang Chen's mood was hardly pleasant. It was because he had just f*cked a sex doll.

He was curious as to why the feeling was off. It was the silicone after all that made Jiang Chen conflicted about the idea. He initially thought the number 410 was just a setting and the private service was due to the hotel's high-quality maids. However, he soon realized that the girl was a robot!

He came to that conclusion after using all of his techniques, and the "girl" still did not show any signs of pleasure.

That would be a short but funny story from the trip. Jiang Chen didn’t think too about the sex toy because he didn’t have the same urges as before. In his view, some of the intimacy is more joyful when there are two people.

God knows what the Heaven Island Hotel’s manager would think after he learned Jiang Chen’s thought process. This robot was the result of centuries of innovation. Perfectly designed ergonomic with every detail to match. No human would look that flawless. Pregnancy or STD would not be a concern at all as a rinse of the internal parts would allow for repeated usage. If the manager knew his peculiar thought process, he would have just gone to the ghetto and found him a prostitute there.

The culture divide meant that they wouldn’t understand each other. Jiang Chen preferred the realistic emotions carried by an actual person. He left the robot to the side. The occasional shoulder rub was quite relaxing.

He gratefully rejected the meal service offered by the hotel as he cheerfully lied on the magnetically levitating chair. He ordered the mechanical beauty to pick up a fruit slice from the can and feed it to him.

[What a lavish life!]

An entire day passed, still, no one visited him. This made Jiang Chen uncertain about his plans.

[This is odd, do I need to be more proactive?] He raised his eyebrows as questions floated through his mind. He was not familiar with the place so he had no clue who the point of contact would be. Since the hotel registered him as a food corporation representative, in theory, anyone interested would contact him. Jiang Chen didn’t believe the hotel manager would keep this a secret, and he was uncertain how many people would have access to the information.

Jiang Chen over dramatized the severity of the situation because a merchant who smelt the opportunity for crystals was rushing there.

It was the merchant that had to divide the can into three servings – Zhao Chenwu.

"Please come in." When he heard the doorbell, he answered the door as the voice activated system automatically unlocked the door.

When he saw the visitor, he didn’t act surprised. He slowly and respectably stood up and asked the visitor to sit.

Zhao Chenwu spotted the fruit can on the table and swallowed his saliva, but his facial expression remained calm. Although he had a passion for food, he was a man of influence, so he kept his composure. At this position of power, it was easy to disguise his desire.

The assistant behind him only glanced at the can on the table once, and her expression also remained the same.

Jiang Chen who was observing the situation became ecstatic.

Disguise would mean that there was a problem. The more you pretend you don’t care, the more you demonstrate your interest.

The value of food was without a doubt extremely high. A careless expression would only suggest the disguise behind the intention. If Zhao Chenwu were pretending, that would mean that he was here to negotiate. Jiang Chen’s plan was to find a business partner. It would be up to this negotiation to see if there would be a deal.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang. My name is Zhao Chenwu; this is my assistant Su Lei." Zhao Chenwu cut straight to the point and introduced himself. When she heard the boss introduce her, she respectably acknowledged.

"Hmm? You guys clearly have done your homework." Jiang Chen gave Zhao Chenwu a thought-provoking look. The middle-aged man didn’t display any awkward emotion as if the provoking action didn’t bother him at all.

"Mr. Jiang’s detailed information means that you also want people to find you." A smile suddenly appeared on Zhao Chenwu’s face.

Indeed, it was not required to input the customer’s information at the time of check in. A name and genetic ID would be enough. But Jiang Chen forcefully added the "Fishbone Food Corporation Representative" along with his name. His intention was quite clear.

"Haha, let’s not talk about this anymore. Since we have an important visitor here, I can’t be too cheap as the host." Jiang Chen gave the mechanical beauty some orders as the robot directly entered the room.

Zhao Chenwu puzzled examined Jiang Chen and his intention. Jiang Chen was doing the same thing.

Momentarily, the mechanical beauty walked in with two pieces of fresh, watery orange slices. She directly placed the plate in front of the confused Zhao Chenwu.

"Fruit can, a specialty of our company. I already opened the one on the counter so it would be rude of me to serve you guys with it. I just asked my temporary maid to open two more cans. My passion for oranges meant that I only brought oranges with me on this trip. I hope the two of you will not be offended." With a grin on his face, Jiang Chen gestured Zhao Chenwu to try.

[Why would I be offended? This is just showing off.] Zhao Chenwu cursed in his mind.

The fresh-looking orange slices were only available a few years after the war. The supermarket had some yet to be raided, but the supplies were all gone within two years.

It has been ten years since he had an orange this delicious. He chewed on the soft orange as his edged and rough face showed a sign of excitement. However, he immediately turned into his usual collected expression when he met Jiang Chen’s smile.

To greet the guest with luxury like this, especially including the assistant as well, demonstrated not only his good faith but also the amount of wealth he had.

Zhao Chenwu thoughtfully looked at Su Lei who still acted calm, but her mouth was chewing non-stop. He pushed the toothpick inside a slice of orange and didn’t continue to eat.

There would be plenty of time to taste the delicacy after the business was done.

"Does it taste good?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile. He also picked up a slice of orange and put in his mouth.

"It’s delicious. To be honest, even though the Sixth Street can produce some fruits, the production is limited. Due to the radiation, it is difficult to maintain the quality of the fruit, which means only some are edible. The rest could only be extracted for nutrient purposes." These were not secrets at all as anyone on the street would know. Zhao Chenwu did not hide any information. Instead, he was straight forward and acted as honestly as possible.

"I have heard about this before. Therefore I see opportunities." Jiang Chen nodded.

"The canned food at the exchange office must be Mr. Jiang's move." Zhao Chenwu said without any fluctuation in his emotion.

"You are correct. I sold it at a price of 50 crystals per can. I heard that the price was raised to 60?"

"In that case, since Mr. Jiang showed up in the inner circle and not the exchange office, you must be preparing for a big deal." Zhao Chenwu’s face displayed a burning passion.

"Indeed, I believe my products would sell very well in the Sixth Street." The opportunity finally came. A glimpse of confidence flashed across Jiang Chen’s face, as the person who brought up the question was important in any negotiation, for the one that took the initiative would not be at an advantage.

Zhao Chenwu couldn’t contain his excitement that he was no longer calm..

The canned food would sell out the moment it enters the market. As a capitalist himself, Zhao Chenwu would not let the profit in front of him escape.

"Do I have the pleasure of becoming your business partner?" A thought provoking smile appeared on Zhao Chenwu’s face.

"Of course, if Mr. Zhao has enough influence," Jiang Chen responded with a vague answer.

"It looks like Mr. Jiang didn’t investigate about me." Zhao Chenwu smiled.

"Any individual or force can become our business partner granted they meet all the requirements. Investigating every individual within the inner circle would be inefficient. I know that as long as I show up here, people with business insight into business will find me. It is only a matter of time," Jiang Chen shook his head and said calmly.

However, Zhao Chenwu recognized the other relevant information within Jiang Chen’s words.

"Are you talking about the trade? Wait, you can provide stable supply?" Zhao Chenwu pressed his hands against the table and stood up immediately. He stared at Jiang Chen with disbelief.

[It would be impossible in Wanghai City. It must be an organization outside of Wanghai. Simulated ecosystem facility? Regardless of what it is, I must make the deal.]

"Mr. Zhao, you are acting overzealously," Although he was ecstatic in his mind, he remained collected and said it without any emotion.

"I apologize for my manner. Allow me to introduce myself again." Zhao Chenwu realized his actions were overeager. He fixed up his clothes and extended his right hand. "Member of the Group of Ten Council, president of the Zhao Corporation, Zhao Chenwu. On behalf of the Zhao Corporation, I extend my warm welcome to your company’s presence regarding potential deals at the Sixth Street."

[Oh my, part of the Group of Ten Council!]

Jiang Chen hid his surprise. These are the conglomerate that controlled all the capital within the neutral Sixth Street. Since they are part of the forces in the Sixth Street, safety would not be a concern either. The absolute neutrality is a law that was strictly enforced for more than 20 years.

He stood up and shook Zhao Chenwu’s hand to express his gratitude.

"I’m Jiang Chen. A representative who is responsible for the negotiation of the deal. On behalf of the Fishbone Food Corporation, I express my gratitude to the Zhao Corporation at the Sixth Street. Let’s put the gestures aside and talk about the details of the business."

"Haha, Mr. Jiang is a straightforward person. This was what I expected." Joyous by the suggestion, Zhao Chenwu happily accepted.

He originally thought Jiang Chen was a flipper merchant, common to the wasteland, with some unique products. Even if he brought him considerable profit in one trade, it would not be long term as flipper merchants wandered across the wasteland without a home.

However, Jiang Chen’s proposition was a long-term trade agreement which offered a significantly different meaning.

A stable trade route, with an external survivor camp with the product being luxury canned food, Zhao Chenwu was thankful that he took the initiative first. If he let this money printing machine escape from in front of him, he would be the laughing stock of the entire inner circle merchants.

Chapter 36: Trade Route

It is extremely challenging to conduct trade on the wasteland.

The endless amount of bandits along with the unsuspecting mutants made the establishment of a proper trade route between survivor camps almost impossible. Only camps in close proximities could establish stable trade routes.

Some famous trade routes include the one established between Liuding Town and the Beer Can Company. Both parties even sent out some of its forces to create supplying stations along the way to reinforce firepower. These supplying stations would often assign a strike force to provide protection to the merchants along the trade route.

The development of these trade routes are the symptoms of the difference between production capability and technology level among survival camps.

The tale that Liuding Town is a aircraft carrier is something unheard of. The aircraft carrier was previously known as Bohai which broke down in the harbor after the nuclear explosion. Due to various reasons, it was abandoned after the war and was only utilized by the survivors after the apocalypse. They modified the carrier with "illegal" upgrades which made the vessel not even close to resembling a ship. It would be more fitting to call it a platform. The absolute safety of the ship allowed it to become the haven primarily for the entertainment industry and secondarily for the high-tech industry.

Don’t be mistaken. The Beer Bottle Company also did not produce beer bottles, it is a survival base focused on heavy industrial production.

The base is located at the Wanghai City’s rural port near the heavy industrial park. Not only is this place capable of producing the missiles used in the electromagnetic cannon onboard, but it also has the capacity to manufacture high-tech guided missiles. The capacity is however limited, with most of the raw materials collected from waste.

Of course, all this information is outside of the context.

"To open the new market at Wanghai City, I plan to establish a supply station here. In fact, I am planning this already. We are currently extremely lacking in the force and equipment necessary. The corporate headquarter provided me with the order to gather all help onsite. We are going to invest all first-year profit into the construction of the supply station. Population, equipment, firearms are three points we need to discuss. Also another point, I don’t want criminals without a guarantee in their personality.

["Supply station?" Why don’t you establish it in the Sixth Street? We can provide the best security for your business.] Zhao Chenwu slightly raised his eyebrows as he asked the question in his mind.

"Despite the Sixth Street’s respectable reputation in Wanghai City, in our perspective, you are still unknown and unfamiliar. This is the strategy established by the corporation. I can only follow within the boundaries set." Jiang Chen continued to make up an elaborate story as he directed everything to the nonexistent company outside of Wanghai City.

Regardless, the explanation was convenient and convincing at the same time.

Zhao Chenwu thought momentarily before he opened his mouth.

"The workforce is not a problem. In general, the labor force in the ghetto remains excessive even to this day. Although on paper it is prohibited to sell non-criminals..." a mischievous smile flashed across Zhao Chenwu’s face, "...if there are not a lot of people, I can create some accidents and make them part of the tradeable population."

Rules are set by people. Therefore there are always ways to exploit within the rules as long it is within reason.

Jiang Chen nodded.

"Not a lot, I think 30 should suffice."

30 people compared with a population over ten thousand is like a drop of water in the vast ocean. No one would use 30 people as an excuse to attack him, Zhao Chenwu immediately agreed to the proposition.

"As to the necessary equipment. I included everything on this list." Jiang Chen smiled as he took out an electronic card and gently put it on the table.

These graphene produced cards could store up to 12 gigabytes of full-sensory information. It could be charged directly under the sun which made it incredibly easy to use. The Sixth Street market sold it for a low price.

Zhao Chenwu accepted the card. He didn’t seem bothered as he clicked the start button on the left side. A list appeared in front of his eyes.

"Anti-corrosive Concrete Mixer, Nanotube Generator, Graphene Cutting Bed. These should be okay. There are some stored within the Sixth Street storage. I'll just use Zhao Corporation's name to purchase it. However, the Firearm Production Line and the Nanochip Production Bed." A puzzled look appeared on Zhao Chenwu's face. "These type of goods are difficult to obtain. Firearm-related production is strictly prohibited to be sold at any survival base. The Nanochip Production Bed is not only massive and difficult to transport, even if you purchased it, without some technical background, nothing would be manufactured from the machine."

Zhao Chenwu didn't lie. The Nanochip has a comprehensive application, especially in the production of full-sensory equipment which will be critical to entering the full-sensory computer market. However, to produce the Nanochip, a series of accompanying production lines were necessary. The nano-sized silicon board must be cut by a high precesion machine.

Jiang Chen touched his chin as he thought for a moment.

[It looks like there's no need to rush, it is probably better to do it one step at a time.]

Jiang Chen who made up his mind didn't insist on pursuing his conditions.

"It is fine to exclude the Firearm Production Line and the Nanochip Production Bed. Though, due to the need for security at the supply station, I don't know if Mr. Zhao is interested in the firearm business."

There was no way he was not interested. Zhao Chenwu promised that he could find any Sixth Street approved equipment for Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen expressed his gratitude.

Since both parties managed to come to an agreement in the trade, they entered the discussion phase in regards to the details of the deal.

After a careful deliberation, the details of the agreement were finalized. The female assistant named Su Lei professionally produced the electronic agreement and handed Jiang Chen and her boss a copy each. After Jiang Chen had examined the items were consistent in the deliberation, he pressed his thumb onto the contract. Zhao Chenwu was confident in his assistant’s ability as he only scanned the document for a few seconds before stamping it with his fingerprint.

When two genetic ID appeared on the electronic contract, it symbolled the enactment of the contract. It was rather symbolic because business ethics were not enforced within the apocalypse. The key to honoring the agreement was profit for both parties.

The fruit cans were priced at 30 crystals, the meats varied between 10-20 crystals based on its composition, and the crackers sold at 1 crystal per piece. The price of the goods was not higher only because Jiang Chen was planning to sell in bulk quantities. An item was valued in proportion to its rarity. When Jiang Chen sold the 20 cans, the high price of 50 crystals was well justified. However, since a stable trade agreement was signed, there would be a continuous supply of the canned food. Hence, such high price would not be seen anymore.

The price was certainly not cheap, the hefty price tag was still five times the cost of mutant beef. He would also have to adjust the sale price if he sold through retail. If the price were higher, even the rich would not be able to afford it.

The different types of equipment Jiang Chen needed had a different cost. The Anti-Corrosive Concrete Mixer only costed 300 crystals, whereas the Graphene Cutting Bed had a price of 11,000 crystals, which was the price after a small discount from the market price.

The Sixth Street’s mass produced Destroyer Rifle was sold at 20 crystals each. The efficient assault was part of NATO’s standard weaponry. It used the same 7.62mm bullet as the PK200 Jiang Chen used. The gun was weaker overall but made up it in the stability category which meant it has an advantage in man-to-man combat. Jiang Chen bought 40 of them, along with some heat sensor grenades and EMP grenades. The price offered by Zhao Chenwu made Jiang Chen quite pleased as everything was discounted by 10%. The gesture was to compensate for Jiang Chen’s reduced price on the food cans.

Although titled as compensation, Zhao Chenwu didn’t know that the goods Jiang Chen traded had a cost of less than 1 crystal.

All of the goods were exchanged in the storage space Jiang Chen rented previously. As to how Jiang Chen moved the canned food in, Zhao Chenwu was also surprised as he did not receive any reports related to large quantities of canned food appearing in the inner circle. Despite not having to pay taxes before trading for goods, documentation was still necessary.

Cautioned by Jiang Chen’s power, Zhao Chenwu didn’t say anything. Since both of them had no conflict of interest, a strong partner would only be beneficial to him.

The ability to transport goods on the mutant-creature-filled wasteland was a feat on its own. They must have special transportation technology.

Zhao Chenwu would never guess in his life that Jiang Chen brought the food back from a parallel world.

Despite the good being exchanged at the Sixth Street, Jiang Chen didn’t want to make a trip down every single time. He would have no time to do anything else except to trade goods. Jiang Chen didn’t have any concerns as he drew a line on the full-sensory map. It was the safe underground sewer map he explored.

The usage of the underground sewer system as a mean to trade goods was common in the apocalypse. This world’s Wanghai City had a robust drainage system that made the tunnel wide enough to pass a car. It would only take some modifications along the way with some of the alley passes blocked to build a golden highway for trading. The only drawback was that the tunnels were not entirely compatible with the ground routes, therefore not every survival base had the privilege of using this kind of trade route.

Zhao Chenwu was ecstatic when he heard that an underground sewer tunnel connected with Jiang Chen’s base. He gladly took on the deed to modify this route. Jiang Chen didn’t want to owe a favor, and since the intention of trade was to benefit both parties, Jiang Chen also provided 1,000 crystals to fund the project.

Modification work was not complicated. A few pieces of high-density polyethylene and aluminum compound boards would seal all alleys in the tunnel. This type of material was not only light but also durable. Even vicious mutant creatures like the Death Claw could not destroy it. Both parties controlled the entrance of the tunnel. Zhao Chenwu sent out his force to secure the tunnel at the Sixth Street side whereas Jiang Chen was responsible for establishing a station on his side. This ensured the safety and security of the route. The exits were entirely blocked to prevent any bandits from entering the tunnel.

In the future, the traded goods would be exchanged near Jiang Chen’s end of the tunnel. The original plan stated that, at the beginning of the month, a trade would take place. Jiang Chen was responsible for providing 1,000 meat cans and 10,000 pieces of compressed crackers along with an ordered list. Zhao Chenwu would bring goods based on the list and offer a 10% discount from the marketplace. Jiang Chen also promised that as long as Zhao Chenwu acted within the conditions of the deal, he would only conduct food business with him at the Sixth Street.

Additionally, because Zhao Chenwu has underground transportation vehicles with a strong protective force. It was natural for him to take care of the shipping.

As to if Jiang Chen should worry about Zhao Chenwu’s possible ill intention with his private force?

The idea was that no one foolish enough would be able to rise to a position of power to where Zhao Chenwu was now. No one would kill the cash cow. Especially since Jiang Chen was only a supply station, the actual production facility may not even be in this province. He didn’t have the capacity to explore through the entire wasteland. The closer to the city center, the more dangerous the zombies were. The further away, the mutant creatures ruled the land.

He wouldn’t risk the possibility of being impeached by the Sixth Street to gamble on known profits with unknown possibilities. Only addicts gamble.

He was afraid that bandits would target Jiang Chen’s base and even suggested defense treaties, but Jiang Chen graciously refused.

It was unfeasible because even if his safety were guaranteed, there would always be a set of eyes watching him. It would be impossible to "import" goods. If he magically created goods, it would without a doubt cause suspicion.

After the completion of the trade, Jiang Chen not only acquired all the necessary products and equipment, he had 210 crystal left over. Zhao Chenwu without hesitation ensured Jiang Chen he would deliver everything to his door. Jiang Chen didn’t refuse the proposition.

The storage dimension’s size was limited. Since the production equipment was large, it would be unsafe to travel through the underground tunnel multiple times.

The negotiation was successful. After he had managed to sign a big deal like this, Zhao Chenwu was ecstatic. He extended an invitation to Jiang Chen to visit the Sixth Street’s industrial area and his properties inside. Jiang Chen gladly accepted the invitation as he came along with his personal ride.

The ambitious leader that possessed one-tenth of the Sixth Street. How much power does he possess here? Jiang Chen was curious to find out. Since his partner wanted to show off his power, Jiang Chen had no reason to refuse.

Chapter 37: Industrial Area

“This is my firearm factory. Several hundred workers are working for me, and they send these small metal pieces to the good or the bad guys. Let’s not go inside. The temperature is unbearable.”

The sentence sounded a bit conflicting.

Zhao Chenwu pointed at the in production firearm factory as he proudly explained to Jiang Chen. His gesture was no different than the modern world land developers.

“This is also my factory, but this place specializes in complex equipment such as stationary cannons. Those things mounted on the inner circle wall are produced mostly from my factory."

They walked in front of a much smaller building compared to the previous one. Zhao Chenwu pointed at the place as he lit a cigarette.

Apocalypse was no stranger to the cigarette. Alcohol could not be mass produced due to the shortage of food, so cigarettes became the choice of substance to alleviate pressure.

The tobacco here had a pungent smell, and not everyone smoked it. The radiation brought uncontrollable mutation to all organisms on this planet, but not all mutations were harmful. This tobacco for example, like any other mutated plants in the apocalypse, was well adapted to the soil condition on the wasteland. It could be grown without highly specialized techniques, which is one of the reasons why cigarettes were relatively cheap in the apocalypse. A lot of survivors would grow a few in front of their homes due to its recreational and medical value.

Jiang Chen naturally was not accustomed to the pungent taste. Zhao Chenwu laughed at the fact. Then, he signaled to him to not worry about it, and that he could throw it away if he didn’t like it. However, it was relative. When Zhao Chenwu took Jiang Chen’s Zhonghua (a top end cigarette), he felt the taste was too light to entertain himself.

“Oh? I am also interested in these automatic weapons, would Mr. Zhao be willing to sell me a few?” Jiang Chen saw a worker in a white uniform adjusting the half man-sized big machine with his tablet. The cannon rotated 360 degrees, aimed at the target inside the room, and unleashed its firepower.

“Haha, of course, that’s not a problem. However, these don’t get produced very quickly. Added by the fact that the Sixth Street is currently upgrading the northern inspection station’s equipment, it would be at least two months before it can be produced. Mr. Jiang would have to wait.”

“No problem.” Jiang Chen smiled without being too bothered.

The two of them walked side by side in the highly advanced factory. The female assistant Su Lei following behind them, as she carried Zhao Chenwu’s suitcase. The workers along the way saluted as they passed by which made him feel like a person of importance doing the tour.

Honestly speaking, as he took a trip to the factory, Jiang Chen became increasingly shocked by what he saw. There were magnetic hovering drones the size of a Frisbee, and half-built two meters high power armors.

Just like Zhao Chenwu said, the production rate of the equipment was extremely limiting. This was because military factories and related facilities were first target choices during the war. To obtain a civil production line was relatively easy, but to acquire a complete military production line were nearly impossible.

Including the power armor that was being produced, the majority of the equipment were being built by hand. Jiang Chen saw a worker use a tool similar to hammer to form the shape of the armor at high temperatures, and another worker carefully installed the microelectronic chips inside the armor. Perhaps all these production steps were done by high precision automatic production lines before the war, but in the apocalypse, a lot of things must be done by hand.

Of course, the missing production processes were for more complicated equipment. The production line for bullets was relatively easy to acquire. Despite limitations, the survivors still possessed a tremendous amount of firepower. Regardless how hard the zombies’ head are, a single bullet would solve the problem. Even for the Death Claw, who could rip through the power armor’s outer protection layer, tanks still existed as its natural predator.

A question was apparent. With all these powerful equipment, the human still can’t conquer the bloodthirsty mutants and zombies?

He thought about this point and was silent. He was curious as to what existed in the city center.

“Part of this equipment will become my private force, and part of it will be sold to the Sixth Street military or other interested buyers. However, the power armor is usually not permitted to be sold. The spider tank and other heavy equipment are also prohibited. With the exception that the Sixth Street Council approves the military purchase through voting, my factory would then began to produce the complicated equipment.” Zhao Chenwu did not seem to notice Jiang Chen as he rambled on. The words were meant as precautionary measures as it would be difficult if Jiang Chen wanted to buy a power armor.

“Hmm? So Mr. Zhao is considered a firearm merchant then?” Jiang Chen got rid of all the questions in his head and smiled.

“Somewhat. I still have a pharmaceutical factory, and I also operate some fixed assets within the inner circle. If Mr. Jiang is interested in buying a house in the inner circle, I would be of great help,” Zhao Chenwu inhaled the cigarette as he said with a welcoming smile. He then grabbed a bracelet shaped like an armguard and gave it to Jiang Chen.

“Mr. Jiang is often out venturing, this nitrogen armor will be my gift to you.”

“Appreciate the gift.” Jiang Chen didn’t reject the offer. He wore the bracelet on his arm before he looked at Zhao Chenwu, eyes full of questions.

How do you use this?

Zhao Chenwu signaled to the soldier that tested the equipment by the side. The soldier saluted and jogged to the middle of the separation chamber.

The soldier deployed the nitrogen armor in his hand as the dense gas surrounded him in thick turbulent waves. The bracelet in the middle spread the dense gas into a semi-hemisphere shape.

At that moment, a heavy machine gun appeared in front of the soldier as the pitch black barrel spat out waves of bullets.

The excellent sound insulation of the separation chamber made it impossible to hear any noises inside. Jiang Chen was surprised to discover that the moment the shots came in contact with the nitrogen layer, the bullets all bounced off. The soldier standing behind the shield still remained in a half standing position and looked like he didn’t even receive the impact of the bullets.

Holy! This is a protective barrier.

“Using the atomic vortex effect that forces the nitrogen to create a high-pressure circulation around a center point… Haha, the scientists can go figure the theory part out, I only care about the end result. Is Mr. Jiang satisfied with this?” Zhao Chenwu waved his hand to signal the end of the experiment as the machine gun disappeared.

“Satisfied, extremely satisfied. Is there any limitation with this equipment.” Jiang Chen fidgeted with the bracelet before putting it on.

“Not really, except the power consumption is quite high. The vortex equipment in the middle may overheat. One crystal is enough to initiate this equipment for one minute. The equipment will overheat with ten seconds of usage. After a period of usage, the used crystal would be higher than the cost to produce it. Also, it is not effective against laser and particle weapons, but it is quite exceptional against bullet weapons.” Zhao Chenwu let out a smoke ring as he explained.

“I didn’t imagine Mr. Zhao’s factory has the capability to develop weapons,” Jiang Chen exclaimed.

“Haha, of course, but this thing doesn’t sell that well as not a lot of people can afford it. However, my scientists have been working to integrate this device onto the power armor to see if it can be useful as a part of it. Let’s not talk about this anymore, the scientists can take care of these headaches. Haha, like what I said before, I only care about the end result.”

After they had left the factory, Zhao Chenwu took Jiang Chen to the pharmaceutical plant for a tour. Except the plant was rather small, so there was not much to be seen. Apparently, the genetic vaccine produced from this place accounted for 30% of the Sixth Street’s market share. Some other vaccines were also among the popular choices on the wasteland, such as steroids and blood makers.

After a tour of everything, the two returned to the front door of the ghetto.

It was the same labor market manager called Wang Yi. The moment the bold and fat guy saw Zhao Chenwu, he dashed out and saluted in the most exaggerated fashion. His look was comical but not annoying. The fat man had his ways as he managed to live comfortably in the apocalypse by flattering and kissing a*s, not many could manage to pull it off.

Zhao Chenwu didn’t waste a single word as he glanced at his personal assistant Su Lei before continuing to bloat with Jiang Chen. Su Lei took out a piece of paper and handed it with professionalism to Wang Yi. Wang Yi carefully took that piece of document and promised that he would take care of it. He ran back into this office and took out a stack of paper.

“Choose whoever you want, these are all excessive labor without work. You don’t need to worry about the possibility of stealing other factory’s worker.” Zhao Chenwu waved his hand as Su Lei gave the stack of documents to Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen had made the agreement of 30 people with Zhao Chenwu already, and he promised to pay 20 crystal per person. It was included in the price of the goods they already exchanged.

The official price for the criminal was one crystal, the other 19 was based on the cost of Jiang Chen’s demand to install the latest insurance system. Zhao Chenwu didn’t make a single crystal in this deal as he sold it at cost to Jiang Chen. Compared to the potential profit of the trade agreement, he didn’t care about the small gains and losses. The latest insurance system was far more exceptional compared to the electronic bracelet. It used nanosurgery to install microchips at the neck of the criminals. If anyone betrayed or resisted, Jiang Chen could immediately activate the destruction program in the chip, and the betrayer’s head would fly off like a soccer ball. Although cruel, Jiang Chen was not ready to risk his own life for the sympathy of irrelevant people.

At the same time, the chip was equipped with a lie detector, GPS tracking, visual sensor, and neural shut off system. The criminals would have no privacy nor the ability to betray. It was far more advanced than the electronic collars. Though of course, it came at a hefty price too.

However, Jiang Chen was an understanding guy. As long as they have no ill intentions, he didn’t mind letting them enjoy a much more comfortable life.

“Haha, let me know if you see anyone you like, they will be “deported” because they possess terminal illness.” Zhao Chenwu only needed to open his mouth before he decided the fate of this group of people.

The feeling of power was an excellent feeling.

Jiang Chen had the pile of resumes in his hand as he flipped through everything. The resumes lacked bullsh*t compared to the modern day ones and explicitly stated the person’s worth. A special examination, using an artificial intelligence’s testing system, was done to objectively determine a person’s abilities. For example, if one possesses computer knowledge, the artificial intelligence would divide the knowledge of equipment into five levels.

Construction major, or mechanical major. In the Sixth Street with an excessive workforce, without an exceptional skill, it would be impossible to find a job. At the firearm factory that Zhao Chenwu didn’t even want to step in, everyone was a mechanical scientist on the production line.

But to Jiang Chen, these guys were far more valuable, and he terribly needed their help.

The advanced technology specialist comprised of one-third construction, mechanical, and chemistry applications and technologist made up the remainder of the choices. Individuals with special abilities were prioritized, for example, people who could cook would be considered by Jiang Chen.

Subsequently, people with good body conditions were prioritized since upgrading the mansion required labor.

Lastly, families were considered first because people part of a family have a unique sense of belonging and connection. Jiang Chen would not have to worry about their loyalty. Also, he didn’t want to take care of people's' hormonal needs.

Jiang Chen handed the chosen resumes to Su Lei and the professional female assistant headed to the ghetto with the 30 resumes in her hand.

Zhao Chenwu had already arranged everything with the manager of the ghetto as the group of people were gathered quickly before they were taken to a quarantine room. They used the excuse, testing for diseases, but all the reports were already forged. All 30 of them were diagnosed with the X1 virus and were then taken to a room to have the microchip implemented.

Human rights? That’s a joke, there were no human rights in the apocalypse.

The moment they received the nutrient supply from the survivor base, their freedom no longer belonged to them.

Jiang Chen didn’t rush to see the people he selected. Instead, he returned to the inner circle. Zhao Chenwu put Jiang Chen’s ID on the inner circle whitelist, which meant he no longer needed to pay a one crystal entrance fee. Although the tax was not a huge amount, it was a friendly gesture.

The purchased individuals were placed as supplies and were guarded by Zhao Chenwu’s own force into the underground sewer system. They headed for the arranged trade point and waited for Jiang Chen to accept the supplies at that point.

Despite the fear that may be going through the individuals' heads, Jiang Chen accepted Zhao Chenwu’s invitation to have dinner together. On the dinner table, the Sixth Street boss constantly flattered him, which make Jiang Chen quite amazed by the power of money. Regardless of age, money talked.

In the end, he only needed to consider how to expand his power to preserve the cake in his hand.

Chapter 38: Slave Arrangement

The next day, Jiang Chen checked out from the Paradise Island Hotel. He then said goodbye to Zhao Chenwu before beginning his journey back home.

The underground sewage system's restructuring plan had already started. A few military personnel from the Zhao Corporation had already occupied the entrance. The busy construction vehicle, along with the workers with polyethylene boards, demonstrated the emphasis Zhao Chenwu placed on this trade route.

Soldiers with full combat gear saw Jiang Chen approach and signaled him to stop. After verification of gene ID to identify that Jiang Chen was a person of importance to the boss, the soldiers saluted and stepped aside to allow Jiang Chen to pass.

Although they worked under a corporate structure, the private forces already possessed military discipline and capability that made Jiang Chen gain a better understanding of the Sixth Street’s ability. On the surface, the civil-military was protecting the safety of the Sixth Street, but the real forces were the private forces of the capitalists. The civil-military acted more like the police.

If these soldiers faced the Roshan, it would be an easy fight, unlike last time.

The actual construction of the underground sewage system has yet to begin. Jiang Chen jumped on top of the mold covered concrete floor. His surroundings were pitch black. He opened his tactical flashlight as well as the three-dimensional map on the full sensory computer. After finalizing the direction, Jiang Chen headed home.

The atmosphere felt repressive.

After the civil soldiers had taken them to the quarantine room, a bad feeling sprouted from everyone’s head. The examination that they all acquired X1 virus has rectified their suspension. Then a few people in white coats that looked like doctors ordered soldiers with genetic medication to pin them on the bed. After they had regained their consciousness, everyone’s neck felt oddly sore.

"All of you have been injected with the slavery microchip. I don’t think I have to explain further. You’ll be taken to your new owner in a bit, you pigs." Cheng Weiguo still clearly remembered the cold and condescending gaze. To the Sixth Street, the unemployed were pigs that wasted food.

It was a conspiracy.

But no one resisted.

They were no longer new to the survivor camps. After they have accepted the aid, freedom is only a mere wish. If they didn't work, they would receive one nutrient supply a day. This would only prevent them from starving to death, but a few had died anyways.

All of them huddled in a circle as six soldiers in black combat gear stood by the side. Some have guessed that the Zhao Corporation purchased them, but with the supplies stacked beside them, it only made them feel like they were part of the items sold.

"Honey, did they do anything to you." Cheng Weiguo worriedly held his wife’s hand.

"No, I lost my consciousness after they injected tranquilizer. I feel the same way as you guys, only a bit sore in the neck," Zhou Jiexi wanted her husband to remain calm as she gently held his hand and answered softly.

"The couple should spend some intimate time together. Maybe we will be sold as slave labor somewhere. The man will work, and the woman...hehe," A middle-aged man opened his mouth, and he said grinning.

"What the fu*k did you just say?" Cheng Weiguo felt the tremble from his wife’s hand as rage filled his chest. He furiously glared at the man.

"What, do you want to fight?" The middle-aged man drowsily yawned as he pointed at the back of his neck. "Come, I won’t fight back. Let’s see if you die or I die first."

Slaves are the private property of the owner. If a fight broke out between slaves, the usual consequence was that both parties would be executed in public. The private forces have already noticed the disturbance, and they pointed their guns to deter the fight. These people were properties of the boss’ valued friend. If anything happened, they would receive punishment.

Cheng Weiguo clinched his fist but had to let it go. The other slaves saw that nothing happened and all lost their interest without paying more attention.

Suddenly, the private forces all moved. The six of them lined up and saluted to a young man. They got on the small moving vehicle and then left.

What does it feel like to be stared down by thirty pairs of eyes?

It didn’t feel like anything special, especially when he knew he controlled their life. The apathetic feeling to life felt particularly real.

Jiang Chen let out a breath as he got rid of the uneasy feeling from his mind. He didn’t want to become a cold-blooded politician. He wanted to be a wealthy man who lived a lavish life.

Unambitious is not a terrible way to experience life.

However, to accumulate wealth on this chaotic piece of land, he must have the necessary forces. If he weren't a rich man, he would just be a prey. If he met Huizhong Mercenaries again, he would fall victim again.

Force and deterrence were necessary, and he must get used to them.

He recollected his thought as he scanned through the jittery figures and slowly let out a long breath.

"Okay, look at me. I will be your future master," Jiang Chen clapped his hand as he shouted.

His voice echoing through the dark sewage system had a strange feel to it.

"I know you guys all have a lot of questions in your mind, such as if you would be used as a lure or carry a weapon to go fight in the front line. Fortunately, I can guarantee that it won’t happen."

Jiang Chen sensed that everyone let out a sigh of relief. The thirty heart beat related indicators have all decreased on the EP.

A pleased smile appeared on his face before he took another deep breath and spoke out.

"You guys are lucky because I am your master and I believe you will experience that shortly. You work for me, and you won’t starve. I can even let you guys live a wealthy life as you have never imagined before. However…"

At this point, Jiang Chen gradually slowed his voice down and purposely lowered his voice as he added a sullen chillness to his tone.

"I am a kind and sympathetic person, but the only thing I cannot forgive is betrayal. You all know the microchip installed at the back of your neck. For me, you have no privacy at all. For traitors, there is no punishment other than death. That’s all."

His words of certainty transmitted through the pitch silent underground sewage system. The frightened, fearful, and worried pupils dilated as they didn’t dare to make a sound.

Afraid? That’s right! That’s what he wanted to instill in their heart.

Carrot after stick, he knew that these people would be obedient. He was aware that the moment they smelt the first bowl of congee after so many years, these frightened and uncertain people would immediately praise him as the second god.

"What are you all waiting for! Grab everything and let's go home!" Jiang Chen waved his hand as the slaves stood up quivering and lifted all the supplies.

He climbed out of the exit. After he had ensured the safety of the surrounding, he lowered the hook and cables down. People below hooked the supplies up and lifted the stocks one by one. The production equipment were all disassembled and stored in boxes; assembling can be done in the mansion.

He led the slaves with packs of supplies as they carefully traversed through the deserted streets full of lifeless zombies. Jiang Chen finally saw his mansion, or "dirt fortress".

He pressed the doorbell. Quickly, a graceful figure jumped into his firm embrace as she hugged his neck.

"Did you pick up girls?" The cat-like eyes gazed at Jiang Chen as Sun Jiao examined him top down.

"Shouldn’t the first sentence be I miss you?" Jiang Chen patted Sun Jiao's back with a bitter smile. This girl was even naughtier. An audacious girl transforming into a caring woman?

"You haven’t answered my question yet." Sun Jiao smirked as she drew a circle on his back with her finger.

"I swear to God, no!" Jiang Chen raised his hand and swore. At the same time, he added a sentence in his mind.

[If the robot doesn’t count.]

Although her sixth sense made Sun Jiao a little suspicious, Jiang Chen didn’t smell odd so she quickly let it go.

After she had kissed Jiang Chen again, she began to order the slaves on the side to move things into the mansion. Then started to plan on how to settle these slaves.

The grass field in front of the mansion was circled out and used to build temporary tents for them. The small traveler-sized tents were purchased with Zhao Chenwu and could barely fit two people. Due to the limitation of space, they would have to squeeze a bit, but it would still be better than sleeping outside.

Of course, there were still rooms in the mansion, but Jiang Chen wasn’t kind enough to let these strangers live in his home. Even if they have no ability to fight back and kept a clean record in the ghetto, he still had trust issues. Without the proper loyalty and allegiance, Jiang Chen could only treat them as strangers.

Yao Yao understandingly followed Jiang Chen’s instructions and brought a giant pot. She dumped half a bag of rice along with an ample amount of water. Then she added some cabbage leaves and some ground pork into the pot with two spoons of salt and a small spoon of gourmet powder.

She opened the natural gas and started to cook in the giant pot.

After a giant wooden spoon had mixed all the ingredients, Yao Yao tiptoed to cover the pot.

She sniffed and adjusted the fire before waiting quietly for the congee to cook. Although she didn’t understand why Jiang Chen would make such a delicious meal for the slaves, she would support his decision regardless of the motive.

[Brother’s sympathetic look was handsome.]

Perhaps it was the fire, but Yao Yao’s face blushed in redness.

Slowly, she was getting to the age where she had her own fantasy..

Chapter 39: Jobs and Responsibilities

When bowls of congee mixed with cabbage leaves and ground pork were brought to the table, everyone gulped at the smell of delicacies.

Hungry eyes stared fixedly at the table; if not for the slavery microchips, they would have dashed at the food like monsters.

Jiang Chen was happy to see their expressions. These people were his slaves, but he would rather treat them as employees as long as they were obedient like now. As long as no one dared to rush for the food without his permission, he was satisfied.

Gulp…

Jiang Chen glanced at Sun Jiao beside him with an awkward smile. Even this foodie gulped at the sight of the food. He lowered his voice and said, “Didn’t you just eat? Why are you hungry?”

“None of your business.” Sun Jiao threatened him with a flash of her teeth before she averted her gaze with a blushing face.

She wasn’t necessarily hungry, but she was driven by an instinct for food.

“Ahem, what are you guys waiting for? Time to eat.” Jiang Chen signaled that they could eat with a smile on his face.

His voice was like a heavenly melody to them.

When Jiang Chen said the word “eat,” almost all of the slaves wanted to profusely thank him.

These refugees were law-abiding people which meant they were easy to control. They needed only two meals a day to survive, and even without the deterrence of the microchips, no one was foolish enough to have ill intentions when they saw Jiang Chen’s generosity; a fool would never have the ability to find another fool to scheme together anyway.

Of course, as a method of deterrence, the microchips did an excellent job.

“Don’t rush and eat slowly. If you’re not full after twenty minutes, then you can line up again to have another bowl. Of course, if you dare to overeat and puke it out, I’ll make you eat everything you vomited!” Jiang Chen stood by the giant pot as the slaves one by one went up and carefully used a ladle to pour congee.

“That’s disgusting,” Sun Jiao whispered by Jiang Chen’s ear.

“I can’t let these people who haven’t seen rice before waste it, right?” Jiang Chen quietly replied with a shrug.

“This meal consumed two pounds of rice, two pork strips, and three cabbages. A lot of the food in the basement was brought out to exchange for supplies, and as for the rest…”

The stored cans of food were used to trade, and the cabbages and perishable rice were originally supposed to last the three of them for a month. Now that thirty people needed to be fed, the food in the basement was nowhere near sufficient. After all, Jiang Chen bought those at the supermarket, so the quantities were small.

“Stop, these things aren’t even worth mentioning where I come from. I’ll go again soon to bring more back,” Jiang Chen responded with a bitter smile. At the same time, he was planning to rent a storage space in the rural area and use a food distributor to purchase some non-packaged food.

Using sandpaper every time was too much of a hassle.

But this audacious Miss Sun Jiao was becoming more of a homemaker. The dissatisfied pout in her eyes at his “wastefulness” oddly made Jiang Chen feel a rush of emotion.

The more this girl transformed into a civilized person, the more attractive she became.

Jiang Chen touched his slightly burning nose and stopped peeking at the side of her face.

The mansion was no longer empty like before and with this many people, he had to be aware of any intimacy.

When he saw the completely cleaned out bowls accompanied by eyes that were still frightened but now held a hint of gratitude, Jiang Chen coughed as he signaled for everyone to look at him.

“Are you guys full?”

No one responded.

“If you want to eat tomorrow, then you better answer all of my questions.” Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

“Yes!” Everyone hesitantly opened their mouths.

Jiang Chen nodded his eyes, pleased.

“Excellent. Hearing your response makes me confident that I’m not raising a bunch of mute pigs. The way I speak may be offensive to you because you guys are nothing to me! Thanks to me, none of you have to starve anymore, and this is a comfort not many can imagine. Therefore, you all have to prove your worth! Prove that you’re worth the three meals you eat every day!

Yes, I will provide three meals a day. But don’t be too happy yet. People slacking off are not included! I don’t want to be your master because that means I have the responsibility to feed you. Instead, I want you all to consider me as your boss. You are my employees, but the consequence of being fired is quite high. I don’t think I need to explain any further.”

Not a single person argued against his words.

To a person who offered them food without torture, they felt only gratefulness. As for what to call him, they didn’t care even if Jiang Chen made them call him daddy; they would do so without any hesitation.

Dignity? That was for people who weren’t hungry.

Also, as a civilized individual, Jiang Chen treated them with some respect for his personal reasons. If they were cute girls, it might have been acceptable, but the thought of this bunch of men calling him master only gave him goosebumps.

And most importantly, he didn’t want his inner self to change from hearing the title “Master.”

After everyone finished eating, Jiang Chen adjusted his mindset and continued to speak.

“Rome wasn't built in a day’s time. You all are the first ones to join me in building my empire! I’ll bring order and prosperity to this lawless land, and you must contribute to my vision and in return, I’ll continue providing the food that ensures your survival. That’s enough from me. From tomorrow on, everyone has work to do. Clean up the bowls after yourself. Whoever’s name I call, stay behind. The rest can go back. Remember one thing, the mansion is a restricted area. If anyone enters without my permission, they will be killed immediately.”

His last sentence rang out with a deathly chill.

He monitored the thirty heart rate indicators in his EP, and he nodded with satisfaction. Without any abnormal stimulation, the heart rate would not fluctuate, which meant that they don’t have any strange thoughts.

Everyone brought their bowls with them at their dismissal and headed to the sink with Yao Yao’s guidance. He was thankful for the automatic water treatment system which provided them with city-wide safe and clean drinking water in the post-apocalypse.

Everyone whose names were called stood quivering in front of Jiang Chen. They didn’t know what their master would make them do.

“Zhou Jiexi.”

“Yes.” Zhou Jiexi gently bit her lip as she bowed down to Jiang Chen staring on the ground. She had a husband who loved her dearly. To be truthful, she was afraid that Jiang Chen would require some disdainful need from her. If that was the case, she couldn’t resist. For her husband’s life, she would shamefully accept.

She was clearly thinking too much. Although she was rather attractive, Jiang Chen wasn’t into married women, and he especially was not interested in forcing anyone.

Also, Miss Sun Jiao was standing beside him.

“You all don’t have to be so afraid. I won’t eat you guys,” Jiang Chen said as he shrugged at the two males and two females. He then asked the wife, “Do you know how to cook?”

“Mhmm.” It was an odd question, but Zhou Jiexi truthfully nodded. As a qualified wife, of course she knew how to cook. It was just that ever since she woke up from the hibernation chamber with her husband in the survival base, she hadn’t seen rice in a long time.

“You’ll be responsible for the food of these thirty people. I’ll give you a menu in a moment.” After he finished, Jiang Chen didn’t bother to look at Zhou Jiexi’s expression as he flipped to the next page. “Wang Qin.”

“Here!” The timid girl with freckles was frightened by Jiang Chen’s voice.

“This is not elementary school. You don’t have to say here, just say yes.” Jiang Chen gently smiled at the peculiar gazes of the four people before getting back to the point. “You’re an accounting major. Therefore, you’ll be responsible for the supplies in storage. I’ll give you a copy of the key, and I need a record for every supply’s usage. This is an important task, and I cannot allow you to make a mistake. Do you understand?”

“Understood!”

Great. Although the voice was a little weak, it certainly showed her determination which pleased Jiang Chen.

Her timid personality made him especially satisfied with his choice.

“Lu Huasheng.” Peanuts? Jiang Chen almost burst out laughing at such an odd name.

“Yes.” A responsible-looking middle-aged man cautiously nodded in response.

“I heard you were the chief developer of Huajian Real Estate?”

“That was before the war.” Lu Huasheng smiled bitterly.

“I don’t care when it happened, I only need you to redesign this base for me. That’s right, I want to build a survival camp far larger than Sixth Street. I’ll need you to draw a layout plan with the mansion in the center and expand the radius of the base by two times. The design of the wall, where to put it, how much material is required, and the survivors’ building—I trust you know these better than me. I want to see the result by tomorrow at six o’clock.”

“I need a full sensory computer and a memory card,” Lu Huasheng cautiously said. “For drawing purposes.”

“Here you go.” Jiang Chen said without even blinking. Jiang Chen purchased a bunch of these cheap, second-hand equipment that littered the Sixth Street.

“Okay, that’s it. You three can leave now.”

The ones released let out a breath of relief as they looked compassionately at their companion left behind before they quickly left with their bowls.

“Hehe, boss, what about me?” The person remaining was a middle-aged man with a pair of glasses. His figure was rather lean, meaning he was unable to do any physical labor. He saw that Jiang Chen didn’t say anything which made him uncomfortably scratch his head as he asked in a timid voice.

The other three people were all assigned tasks to complete, but this young boss didn’t give him any instructions which made him quite afraid. His mind began to wander to see if he did anything wrong to upset the boss.

Chapter 40: Game Development

His anxiety was unjustified as Jiang Chen’s voice was calm and gentle.

But to Du Yongkong’s ears...

"I like the title boss." Jiang Chen smiled as he pulled out a resume and cut straight to the topic. "Du Yongkong, age 30, male, computer major, previously worked as the chief technology officer at Walkman Technology. Is this correct?"

"Yes…" Du Yongkong carefully answered, uncertain about the meaning behind Jiang Chen’s words.

"That makes things easier then." Jiang Chen got right to the point and threw a Huawei phone to him. "You’re going to develop an operating system for me on this thing. It shouldn’t be that difficult for you, right?"

"Eh?"

"This is an order. I want to hear you answer with certainty." Jiang Chen didn’t waste time with any bullsh*t. He bought these people to work for him, not the other way around.

"Yes, yes." Du Yongkong quickly nodded without any attitude that indicated his former executive position at a top company. Such a laughable dignity had long vanished in the cruelty of the apocalypse. Jiang Chen now controlled his life, and his only option was to serve him.

When Jiang Chen saw Du Yongkong’s perplexed look, he smiled and walked over to pat him on the shoulder. He didn’t care about the overwhelmed expression on Du Yongkong’s face as he continue to explain.

"You don’t have to be reserved. Do a good job, and I won’t let you down."

"I understand, Boss." Du Yongkong sensibly lowered his head.

Jiang Chen nodded before he continued, "I have some requirements. Let me know if you have any difficulties, but you’ll have to solve it, understand?"

"Yes."

"Good." Jiang Chen was pleased with Du Yongkong’s certainty. "I don’t know about operating systems, so I only care about the results. I need you to develop an operating system that has two times the processing power as this system called Android. At the same time, don’t change any of the requirements so that it remains compatible with all Android and iOS system software. Ask me any questions you have right now since you won’t be seeing me a lot. I want to see a reliable result by next month."

Finishing, he handed him an iPhone that was also brand-new.

Du Yongkong took it and fiddled around on the screen for a bit before a forced smile appeared on his face.

"What? Is this too difficult for you?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"No, this is too easy." Du Yongkong waved his hands in denial. He was afraid that his boss would fire him for this kind of easy job that didn’t exist even before the war.

"Hmm? Then explain." Jiang Chen was quite curious.

Du Yongkong adjusted his glasses as he displayed the phone with the air of a professional before he started to explain.

"First, this old operating system should be a product from 150 years ago. The hardware operating efficiency as well as the human-computer interactive design are full of flaws."

"Oh? You’re saying that the human-computer interface of the iPhone is bad?" Jiang Chen couldn’t help but laugh at the statement.

Du Yongkong snuck a look at Jiang Chen’s expression and when he saw that he wasn’t angry hearing about the flaws of the two operating systems, he began to explain more in-depth with renewed courage.

"Regarding hardware operating efficiency, although the logic seems faultless, there exist unnecessary areas. To put it simply, a logic that can be covered with just one plus one, due to the limitation of the programming language as well as the algorithm, becomes muddled when the processor must do some unnecessary actions. For example, by defining A equals one, B equals one, and then calculating C equals A plus B to output C equals two as the final result. This old processing method not only wastes memory, but it also decreases the operating efficiency of the equipment tremendously."

"Oh? Then how will you take care of it?" Jiang Chen asked curiously.

"This is an easy fix. The ultimate problem lies in the limitation of the programming language. Although both systems have its pros and cons, they can’t escape the boundary of the lower level programming language. If D++ is used to program it, some small adjustments to compatibility will solve the problem. The antique known as the phone would have its operating efficiency increased by threefold, and the power consumption would also be cut in half. At the same time, because the drain on the hardware is lessened, the hardware life would also be extended for a prolonged period."

Jiang Chen gasped for air.

This was ridiculous! The hardware operating efficiency increased by three times? Could it also be compatible with apps from both systems? These two features alone were already insane. That meant that even with a terrible phone, they could easily run games previously available only on the iPhone. This system would start a revolution in the phone gaming industry!

Phone game developers spent an endless amount of effort to decrease memory usage. To optimize the game, they often had to remove features that enhanced gameplay and catered towards the general audience. But if this operating system was introduced, everyone’s phone performance would increase by three times! At that point, the creativity of developers could be fully unleashed, free to create worlds of imagination that could run on every computer. It was a technological revolution. iOS and Android would never be able to compete.

"Regarding human-computer interaction, I recommend maintaining the status quo since I’m already accustomed to this interface." Jiang Chen paused. Even if he controlled this man’s life, he didn’t want to expose his identity to someone who had yet to prove anything.

"Trust me, Boss, my design will be much more advanced than this ancient human-computer interaction method." This former chief of technology officer was a different and more zealous person when touching on the topic of technology. "Yes, using the touchpad to perform human-computer interaction is still mainstream even to this day, but this ancient operating system is inherently different from the operating system used by present-day entertainment systems."

"What’s the difference?" Jiang Chen asked curiously.

"Artificial intelligence!"

"Artificial intelligence? Can you create it?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"If it is basic artificial intelligence, I’m confident I can create it in a month’s time since all the data is stored in the library’s database. I only need to transfer it." Du Yongkong patted his chest.

"If artificial intelligence isn’t difficult, then why isn’t it on the full-sensory computer?" Jiang Chen asked with some confusion. If it was so effective, there was no reason to not use it on the full-sensory computer.

"Hmm, that’s because the Artificial Intelligence Act prohibited the development of artificial intelligence. If everything was given to machines to do, everyone would be unemployed." Du Yongkong shrugged. "The artificial intelligence operating system was popular for a time before it was replaced by an equally impressive neural operating system. Before the war, artificial intelligence was only limited to the nuclear power plant, the water treatment plant, and other government-run infrastructure."

"I see. You talked about basic artificial intelligence. Are there no risks?" Jiang Chen voiced his worry of the artificial intelligence programs potentially mutating within the modern-day world’s internet and developing into a malicious program. He was reminded of the movie <I, Robot> that portrayed a world ruled by artificial intelligence.

"Boss, you are worrying too much." Du Yongkong sighed, guessing at Jiang Chen’s concern. "The program is fundamentally a stable program. Even if they were intelligent, they could never possess emotion or desire. At a basic level, it can only be what you’ve programmed it to do. Its intelligence responds to what you’ve taught it before. For example, if you hit it, it will not fight back. Its interest is neither hurt nor would it sense any danger. Unless you specifically tell it ‘if someone hits you, fight back.’ Only in this case would it respond with an action. Self-coding is something only intermediary artificial intelligence possesses. As for emotions, that’s something only advanced artificial intelligence would have. Even before the war, it was a theoretical concept."

Artificial intelligence was fundamentally a more advanced program.

Only after hearing the explanation did Jiang Chen finally feel relieved.

"Okay, you’ll be fully responsible for everything. You’re free to try anything you want. Also, you have to keep in mind that you must ensure the security of this system! I don’t want to hand this phone to someone only to have them crack the entire operating system and create something similar."

Security was of the utmost concern. Jiang Chen didn’t want to see the operating system he brought over to be cracked into an open source within a few days. Especially if the D++ language was exposed, he would not be able to explain it.

The best way to program it was to have it be like a black box that only exchanged information with an external source but did not accept any data extraction.

Du Yongkong hesitated for a brief second before he smiled and promised.

"Boss, don’t worry! The program I develop will not be easily cracked. Walkman Technology Corporation’s games were all secured by me. Take <Star Storm 7> for example. It released before the war, but no one in the world has been able to crack the game yet. For an operating system of this level, this is a piece of cake to me."

This certainly seemed to be the case.

If someone in the modern world had the ability to crack software made by the chief technology officer from 150 years in the future, it meant that he was also a time traveler. Jiang Chen would do anything to kill him, but of course, such scenario would be impossible.

"Good, if you can do it, it’ll be an outstanding achievement! Work hard; I promise you’ll be able to eat meat every meal!" Jiang Chen laughed as he patted Du Yongkong’s shoulder.

Hearing about the meat, Du Yongkong was ecstatic. He would never have dreamed of this before. With a taste of the rewards, Du Yongkong immediately reaffirmed that he would finish in no time. It was no surprise that he used to be in management; he was technically skilled but also masterful in kissing ass. Jiang Chen didn’t dislike such clever people.

"Lastly, for Future Technology’s logo, make it look cool so that people think it’s futuristic , but don’t overdo it."

"Yes! Boss!" the guy belted out.

Jiang Chen nodded his head, pleased at Du Yongkong’s confidence. He waved his hand to signal him to leave.

The cheerful Du Yongkong carried both phones and walked away. Of course, before he left he also remembered to take his bowl. Instead of labor work, he could work in his old field. For many years, he hadn’t dared to imagine this kind of happiness.

But it became a reality on this day.

Grateful for the opportunity given by Jiang Chen, Du Yongkong mustered all of his determination to create a product that would stun the boss! Although the technology was ancient, the boss liked it, and the best way to rise up the ladder was to do things that the boss liked. He didn’t care about Jiang Chen’s purpose, he only needed to complete the task.

Chapter 41: The Developing Fishbone

Fishbone Food Corporation

With a crooked fishbone symbol pinned on the mansion’s main door, the new survival camp was born on this piece of wasteland in Wanghai City.

In the morning, the fatigued survivors woke up to a delicious aroma.

It was the smell of food.

Zhou Jiexi wore a white chef apron as she cooked congee with cabbage and ground pork in a pot. The survivors meekly lined up to obtain their breakfast rations.

Even in their wildest dreams, they wouldn’t have believed that they were given breakfast.

Only when full would they have the energy to work, which is why Jiang Chen didn’t skimp on food expenses. Although nutrient supply would sustain them, once it hit the stomach, it felt sour without providing enough energy. Regarding the survivors’ menu, he asked for advice from Zhou Jiexi before he made a reasonable meal plan.

Congee in the morning, rice at noon with a large serving of a side dish, and for dinner, the same as lunch except with occasional noodles instead of rice.

Also, people who made exceptional work progress would receive points. The points structure was implemented by Jiang Chen after careful consideration because he understood the concept well. It rewarded outstanding work based on construction progress to promote similar standards. With these points, the survivors could exchange for instant noodles, crackers, or even canned food luxuries.

Jiang Chen temporarily gave Lu Huasheng the responsibility of distributing the points and then reporting it to the storage manager Wang Qin to confirm. They were set to receive one point per day. The cook Zhou Jiexi was awarded based on the quality of the cooked food, and as for Du Yongkong, Jiang Chen personally took care of his points.

Food was worth little to him.

But for the people who previously endured the pain of starvation, it was a severe understatement to say that Jiang Chen was generous.

God, this must be heaven, is what almost everyone was thinking.

After quickly finishing breakfast, everyone gathered in the empty front yard. Excluding the people with assigned roles, everyone else followed Jiang Chen’s order to separate into groups of four. The individuals specialized in construction acted as the team leaders for their task in building the base. Lu Huasheng, who had severe dark circles, took the full sensory diagram that he completed overnight and explained tirelessly to the team leaders.

Some teams were responsible for producing the anti-corrosive concrete while others were focusing on the nanotubes used for the body of the wall. The nanotube poly-material used to construct the wall was at least two times stronger than a normal concrete wall.

The building team silently took the construction materials and snuck outside to avoid alerting the zombies. Slowly, they stretched out the metal wire separators. Another group shot the zombies with the metal wire separators and dragged the bodies away to burn—this was to avoid possible diseases and zombies from evolving.

After hearing about Jiang Chen’s base development plans, Lu Huasheng decided to use the phased method to expand the base.

The first step was to expand in the direction of the underground sewer system and control the exit to it. The construction teams would use the three-story luxury buildings outside of the mansion as the base and construct a wall around it, surrounding all of the smaller buildings within the proximity. After reinforcing the defense, they would then start building the secure corridor outwards, between the underground exit and the base wall.

The overall design philosophy was to effectively utilize the abandoned buildings in the area as well as the nanotube poly-material wall to connect them together. This transformed the abandoned buildings into natural fortifications. They could not only be used as households but also as weapon-equipped watchtowers. After completing the primary structure, more nearby buildings could be included as well.

With a clear plan, the construction outside of the mansion was fully underway. Pleased, Jiang Chen looked at the survivors working diligently before returning to the mansion and heading towards Yao Yao’s room.

－

“It’s basically done. Haha, although it pretty much copied a mobile game that was popular in the year 2031, it meets most of the criteria that big brother set!” Yao Yao hopped along as she dragged Jiang Chen beside the table. She then took out the cheap phone worth less than one thousand dollars and pressed the start button.

Skeptical, Jiang Chen opened the game icon named <New Era> under the scrutiny of Yao Yao’s exceedingly high expectations.

Jiang Chen was completely stunned.

This is a mobile game?!

No, it wasn’t that the game Yao Yao created was terrible, but…

it was too perfect!

The combination of RPG adventure game elements and SLG building elements meant that players could choose to become adventurers with flashy spells, characters that focused on ruling the land, or merchants exploring the seas. People could write their own history in this open world. This was not an advertisement for a poorly designed game, but the actual in-game content!

Indeed, it was an open world with sprawling maps. On computers, it would be nothing, but on the mobile platform, this would be considered a miracle in the current industry.

The game even had three-dimensional graphics.

Even if this game was built for a PC, it would be still be considered perfect.

Of all the games Jiang Chen played before, only <Skyrim> could compare.

All in all, the game’s perfection made him question if the phone would even be able to run it.

“Ahem, Yao Yao, did you upgrade the hardware on my phone?” Jiang Chen asked with a bitter smile. He didn’t want a game that was unplayable on all phones. Even if the game was impeccable, it was useless if nobody was able to play.

“Of course not.” Yao Yao sensed Jiang Chen’s slight displeasure as her eyes suddenly became sorrowful. “Yao Yao specifically considered the phone’s hardware level and used D++ language to package the game into 256 MB with an automatic program to process when the game initiates the game—”

“Stop stop stop, I don’t understand. Just briefly explain how it works.” Jiang Chen interrupted Yao Yao’s explanation.

“Mhmm! To put it simply, even with the phone’s minimal hardware performance, it is able to support this type of massive online game. It’s just that it would be a higher server requirement because I used cloud computing inside which means that the majority of the data processing is going to happen on the server itself. Therefore, the user and CPU would not need to handle too many calculations, which also solves the security problem.”

Yao Yao proudly shook her tiny head as she continued, “To handle the calculations required, I already built a server for big brother. The specific process is written inside the document.”

Despite his inability to understand completely, he could tell that it basically used the server as a larger processor. Therefore, the user only needed to input information and extract the processed information.

“But wouldn’t this increase the user’s data cost?” Jiang Chen was doubtful.

“Hehe, Yao Yao has already considered this. The information exchanged between the server and the user is written by a special code that not only contains a lot of information but packages the data into a small file! It is significantly more efficient compared to the games installed on big brother’s phone. A day of data usage is only 10 megabytes.”

10 megabytes of data was indeed minimal. Jiang Chen was shocked as any other game would have incurred a lot more data.

“So, did Yao Yao help big brother out?” Yao Yao blinked her large, doe-like eyes as she looked hopefully at the shocked Jiang Chen.

“Haha, Yao Yao, you’ve helped me out tremendously!” Jiang Chen suddenly hugged Yao Yao and gave this cute loli an affectionate kiss on the face.

Yao Yao’s adorable face suddenly turned a dark red as she buried her head.

“Yao Yao, if you want anything, tell me, okay? I will definitely do my best.”

“Hmm? Umm, anything is okay?” Yao Yao didn’t know what to answer with as she stuttered.

“Mhmm! Anything, as long as big brother can do it.” Jiang Chen squatted down and held onto Yao Yao’s shoulder as he nodded. At the moment, he was emotional and wanted to reward this adorable girl.

Yao Yao panicked as Jiang Chen kept pressing. Her sweet eyes looked around the room anxiously as her face transformed into a red balloon. At any moment, it seemed as though steam would come out.

“I, I want…” Yao Yao’s mouth faintly opened as her eyes looked shakily at Jiang Chen.

“You want?” Jiang Chen leaned closer towards Yao Yao and gazed carefully at her eyes, waiting for her answer.

“I want…”

In the end, perhaps it was too exciting, but Yao Yao’s head flipped back, and she drowsily fell.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen managed to catch her mid-fall to stop her head from banging into the floor.

He still didn’t know what Yao Yao wanted.

－

Taking the reprogrammed server and the game, Jiang Chen went to Sun Jiao’s place.

“You’re about to leave again?” Sun Jiao rolled her eyes as she continued to whip her SK10 assault rifle. “How long are you planning on disappearing this time?”

“Not too long. I’ll be back within one month by the latest.” Jiang Chen hugged Sun Jiao’s smooth waist. “Don’t miss me too much at night.”

“Pervert.” Although she said that, Sun Jiao didn’t look annoyed at all. Instead, she leaned up and kissed Jiang Chen on the lips. “I’ll take care of this side, so come back early.”

Sun Jiao and Yao Yao’s EPs were also installed with the slaves’ microchip managing software. Jiang Chen made the decision because someone needed to manage these survivors while he was gone. This subprogram allowed Sun Jiao and Yao Yao perform his duties as master. Although this permission could be retracted at any time, Jiang Chen trusted both of them, so the thought hadn’t occurred to him.

“If you have time in the afternoon, teach those guys some shooting skills unless it is dangerous. And also, try to establish a closed corridor between the base and the tunnel; this is critical to the safety of the trade route with the Sixth Street.” Jiang Chen explained some of the important items related to the base development. Although he could return between both worlds in an instant, once the base construction was stably on its way, he had to spend part of the effort on expanding in the modern world.

In the future, he hoped to train Sun Jiao into someone who could manage the daily affairs of the base.

Sun Jiao seemed to have realized that too; however, she didn’t stop Jiang Chen from leaving.

Not only did Jiang Chen mature, but Sun Jiao was also growing through their relationship. Compared to the audacious girl that constantly desired Jiang Chen, she began to calmly and maturely express her love differently.

She believed Jiang Chen, and she knew he would never leave her here.

“Mhmm, I know.” Sun Jiao reached out to fix his collar.

“You’ve changed.” Jiang Chen grabbed her hands as he gazed into her eyes affectionately.

“Hmm? Am I prettier or uglier?” Sun Jiao rolled her eyes. Just as she wanted to pull her hands away, she realized that he was holding on to them tightly.

Her face began to blush.

“Of course prettier.” Accompanied by Sun Jiao’s surprised yelp, he pushed her onto the bed.

For some reason, the moment Sun Jiao fixed his collar, he fell in love. It was as though the person in front of him was his wife. This newfound feeling made his blood pump.

Or perhaps it was because he hasn't relieved himself in a while.

The door was slammed shut.

The affection in the room began to merge into the sunny morning sky.

Chapter 42: Home

Still the crowded room.

He took a deep breath as he tried to savor the clean air, but a bitter smile formed on his face as he realized his nose was stuffed with dust and even on his bed that had been uninhabited for so long.

Jiang Chen examined the apartment he had spent the past two years in and suddenly felt reminiscent of his time here.

Shaking his head, he threw this emotion away.

Perhaps it was now time to say goodbye.

Jiang Chen took out his phone and called the landlord’s number before he moved it two inches away from his ear in anticipation.

“Hello? Jiang Chen! That apartment, if you want to continue to rent, then you better pay half of the year’s rent right now! Even if you don’t want it, other people want it. I felt pity seeing you by yourself, but if it weren’t for that, I would have already thrown your stuff out! Fu*k, I called you so many times, and you didn’t even pick up, you no-money b*stard. You’re playing the disappearing game with me?” Wu Jie roared his expletives on the other end, thinking Jiang Chen had no other options.

Of course, if this was half a month ago, he would have been Jiang Chen’s only chance. But now…

“You can rent the house to other people,” Jiang Chen said calmly.

“What, what did you say?” His voice was suddenly surprised. Wu Jie didn’t expect Jiang Chen to be so defiant and threaten to stop renting right away. “If you’re not going to rent my place, where are you going to live?”

“If you continue to call me a bastard, I’ll make sure you’ll never open your mouth again.” The landlord couldn’t hear any emotional variation from Jiang Chen’s voice, which remained light and calm.

Wu Jie was about to curse again, but the chill in Jiang Chen’s voice crept into his mind and clogged the words at his throat, making him unable to make a sound.

Jiang Chen didn’t want to spend any more effort on this dumb*ss so he hung up. Even though the landlord had given him a lot of trouble, he didn’t have the energy to care. If a dog barked at you every day, you can’t bark back at him after all.

It was a waste of time and his own standards.

Of course, if this guy continued to bother him, he wouldn’t mind teaching him a lesson. It was the other side’s freedom to say something, but in Jiang Chen’s mind, it was then his freedom to decide how to react.

After hanging up, Jiang Chen’s phone began to vibrate with notifications as his phone screen filled up with missed calls. Other than the landlord, Xia Shiyu had also called him, probably worried about the company president who had left on such a long absence without leaving any messages.

Jiang Chen smiled, but his finger soon trembled.

There were at least ten missed calls from his home.

His eyes began to tear up.

Perhaps, he should take some time to go home.

He took a deep breath as he suppressed his grief at being so far away from home, then dialed the familiar number.

“Hello? Mom, it’s me.”

“Chen Er, you finally called. Your dad has been so worried.” The familiar yet excited voice transmitted through the phone speaker. “Old man, Chen Er called back.”

“Mom, don’t use that name. It’s too childish.” Jiang Chen smiled as he blinked his eyes.

“What’s childish? Listen to how you’re speaking to your mom. You’re not obedient anymore!” When a steady roar resonated from the other line, Jiang Chen felt relieved.

[Looks like mom and dad are doing well.]

This also made Jiang Chen feel slightly less guilty about not visiting home in so long.

In the past, he was worried about disappointing his parents’ high expectations without a successful career. Using work as an excuse, he stayed away from visiting home many times, even during Chinese New Year when he lied and said he had to work overtime.

He knew that even without success, his parents would still welcome him with open arms. But he was the one who couldn’t accept it.

Now, however, all of those concerns were gone.

[Mom, dad, your son has finally achieved something.]

Jiang Chen’s hand trembled as he smiled and responded to their reminders and advice.

“Son, it must be tiring out there. Do you have enough money? Don’t tire yourself out. This is the starting point of your career. If you don’t have enough money, let your mom know, I still have some savings.”

“No, your mom is off the mark. Our son’s key priority is buying a house! No girl will like you if you don’t own a house. Son, it’s okay to be tired. We’re men, and we can do it! Your mom and dad still have some savings. Let’s see if we can buy a house at Wanghai City with down payments. With a house, you can then bring a girlfriend back for your mom and dad. We’re waiting for grandchildren.”

“No, Mom and Dad, your son is successful now. I opened a company at Wanghai City, and I even have people working for me now. I’ll take care of the house myself, so you guys don’t have to worry! Take care of your health and don’t always think about saving money! If you want to buy something, just buy it. If you don’t have enough, I’ll get it for you.” Jiang Chen rubbed his eyes and smiled.

“You’re teaching your dad a lesson? Haha, honey, our son is accomplished now! Haha,” his father said excitedly.

“What? Chen Er, you opened your own company? Be careful, don’t let other people deceive you! I’ve seen the news recently!” His mother’s voice was filled with concern.

“Don’t worry! My son is much smarter than you!” Jiang Jianguo laughed. When he heard that his son had established himself, his heart was filled with a happiness that was greater than winning the lottery.

“After dinner, I’ll go brag with the other old guys at the door. Our son, a university student, opened a company in Wanghai City, and other people are working for him! That’s good. We can solve the girlfriend problem as well. Everyone wants to be married into a big city. Our neighbor’s daughter doesn’t have a boyfriend, and neither does Xia who lives in the building in front as well…”

“Your son is my son as well!” Li Xuemei argued back.

As they continued to banter, Jiang Chen gently rubbed his slightly sore eyes with his left hand. This was the feeling of home—something he had avoided.

The purest relationship in the world was family.

He smiled and thought that he should take some time to visit them.

－

After his phone call with his parents ended, he lied back onto the bed, disregarding the dust flying everywhere.

It was time to move out. He felt slight regret as he wanted to lie on the bed a bit longer.

[500 million USD. That’s 3 billion RMB.]

While Jiang Chen didn’t know the exact exchange rate, it was likely around this much.

[What kind of mansion should I buy?]

He never considered this question before. A mansion, let alone a simple apartment, was something Jiang Chen had never dared to imagine.

But now this was all nothing.

Since there were areas he was clueless about, he decided to ask for some help.

He lifted his phone, but his finger froze in place.

[Who should I call?]

An awkward smile crept onto his face as he realized that he didn’t have many friends.

That was fine.

After deliberating for a while, Jiang Chen sighed as dialed Xia Shiyu’s number. Since he needed to call her anyways, he might as well ask for some advice at the same time.

－

Xia Shiyu was about to lose her mind. She was wondering where Jiang Chen disappeared to when vibrations suddenly came from her pocket. Without hesitation, she took out her phone and saw the familiar name. She was so angry that she laughed.

“Hello? Am I hearing this correctly? Our president just called me back?” The voice didn’t sound too cold; at least Jiang Chen could heard her teeth grinding.

“Ahem, I have been busy with business. That’s not the point.” Jiang Chen shamelessly changed the topic.

“Oh? What kind of business requires you to turn your phone off? Do you know the company is in the initial start-up phase? Hiring? Development plan? Is this your business or my business…”

The voice on the other side was so fast that Jiang Chen moved the phone slightly away. Xia Shiyu’s drastic reaction to his disappearance surprised him.

There were more important things at hand, however.

“… Can you go house hunting with me?"

“…” Xia Shiyu hung up the phone.

Two seconds later, the phone rang again.

She suppressed the anger in her chest as she inhaled, resisting the urge to hang up right away.

“Ahem, don’t hang up on me. I’m serious! Can you find some time?”

“What do I have to do with you buying a house?” Xia Shiyu said in an icy voice as her chest furiously heaved up and down. Jiang Chen’s playful attitude made her feel disrespected as she had been worrying about him for the past few days.

That’s right, disrespected.

After spending so much effort on something, it was completely disregarded.

“Of course it has to do with you. If you have nothing else to do, you can come and chill.” Jiang Chen said with a chuckle, completely unaware of Xia Shiyu’s feelings.

When she heard Jiang Chen’s words, Xia Shiyu paused.

Hmm? She confusedly touched her forehead and felt the unnatural temperature on her hand.

[I don’t have a fever. This is weird.]

“Hello, are you listening to me? Oh right, I’ve already finished developing the mobile game. The next step is to hire people to maintain the server. I trust that you know the hiring process better than I do, so you can take care of it. But if you need me to be at the interview, I don’t mind either. But only on the condition that you’ll go house hunting with me.”

“Okay,” Xia Shiyu agreed without considering. On after did she realize with an odd feeling how illogical and decisive her answer was.

[Must be because of work. If I don’t say yes, he’ll disappear again.

Mhmm, that’s right, it’s because of work.]

After hanging up, Xia Shiyu rubbed her temples as she tried to justify her actions. Although even this action felt unnecessary and unnatural.

－

Done!

Jiang Chen stretched as he threw the phone to the side.

Girls were more detailed, so it was better to bring her along. Despite his narcissism, he knew too well that his taste was significantly lacking. With the developer's sale pitch, there was no way he’d be able to discern truth from lies.

He didn’t wonder if he was interested in Xia Shiyu or not.

It was just that when he held his phone, the only person in this city who came to mind was his ex-boss. No, his employee now, haha.

Since he needed to buy a house, then naturally it required cash. Jiang Chen’s storage dimension was filled with gold, but it didn’t make sense to go buy a house with pounds of gold.

He grabbed the phone again and called an international number.

However, when he pressed the phone against his ear, he frowned.

Chapter 43: Robert’s Problem

The phone rang for a long time without an answer.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to hang up, someone picked up.

"Hello?" an unfamiliar voice curtly said in English.

The voice was deep and slightly scratchy—not at all like Robert.

"Jiang Chen, Robert’s Han friend. And you are?" Jiang Chen used his broken English to slowly answer.

"Nick. My boss is currently in trouble... can I trust you?" Nick asked after some hesitation.

"Of course. Robert is a good guy. Even though I’m in Han, I still miss him dearly. Also, we have unfinished business." Jiang Chen dug deeply into his vocabulary to finally articulate what he needed to say.

The other side remained silent for a while before Nick finally explained the situation.

Because of Jiang Chen’s terrible English, Nick purposely slowed down for him, and after a while, Jiang Chen finally understood what happened.

To put it simply, Robert went on a business trip to Iraq two days ago and was kidnapped.

With Nick’s combat ability, this normally would not have happened, but the insider they worked with multiple times turned out to be a traitor; the group that came out to meet them weren’t local militants but instead masked terrorists.

This was going to be problematic.

[Fu*k, you have your gold business, but you ended up going to this ghetto place and dropped the ball at such a critical moment.]

Regardless of Jiang Chen’s internal curses, however, Robert had his own reasons.

During this period of time, he planned on staying safe, but because Jiang Chen failed to follow up with him, he started to question the deal.

Did the Eastern man really have business for him? There were no other messages, so Robert decided to stop waiting and accepted the insider deal that had a "low" risk.

Curses aside, Jiang Chen still had to find a way to solve the problem.

For now, he didn’t have any other routes to sell the gold for cash since it would be insane to sell 500 million USD worth of gold without proof of ownership. He did not wish to get tangled up with the authorities.

So how about a visit to Iraq?

Jiang Chen was hesitant at first, but upon further thought, a smile appeared on his face. Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea. With his special equipment and superman-like body conditions, he was not afraid about the possible danger, especially since he could just run away if there was trouble. Turn the corner and travel to the apocalypse for a few days, and no one would catch him.

At the same time, Jiang Chen also had other considerations as well.

If he helped Robert, not only would the gold problem be resolved, but he would also gain another backup option. Even if he had to leave the country in the future, there would always be a place for him to go. He trusted that Robert would help him out if he was in need.

Although they only met once, he could tell that Robert had a spirit that respected contracts.

This was especially critical.

If he was someone who only chased after profit without any regard to promises, then he was a waste of emotional investment. Even if Jiang Chen decided to save him, it was easier to find another partner.

Once Jiang Chen made up his mind, he didn’t waste a second as he immediately booked the tickets online to Dubai. He planned to layover in Dubai before heading to Baghdad. Since he already has his passport, all he needed was a travel visa before departing.

Once ticketing was resolved, he immediately packed and left. No longer staying at his rented apartment, he found a hotel to stay at instead. Only after taking care of the gold problem would he consider buying a house.

Although selling several tons of gold at once would be difficult, trading in a few kilograms wasn’t entirely impossible. Jiang Chen, who was running out of money, retrieved a business card and called Mr. Liu at the gold store to book an appointment.

－

Jiang Chen ended up exchanging seven kilograms of gold, but since he didn’t care about the decimals, he sold it for 1.5 million.

What Jiang Chen didn’t notice as he left the gold store, however, was the look of greed that flashed across Liu Anshan’s poker face.

The more he thought about it, Liu Anshan was certain that this guy had a special means of acquiring large amounts of gold. Perhaps by digging in graves? Or through illegal mines? Liu Anshan didn’t know. All he knew was that this guy had much more gold!

He had Jiang Chen secretly investigated. After acquiring the funds last time, he immediately spent everything. Now in less than a month later, he came again to sell more gold.

What did this mean?

It meant that he had an unimaginable amount of gold! If he came to possess it accidentally, there was no way for him to have spent it all so quickly.

As for how dangerous Jiang Chen was? Liu Anshan already had him investigated with the help of a friend.

He was just an employee at a clothing store in Shimao who ended up fired. There was no way he had any special background.

It was time to contact his brother.

When he thought about his brother, however, he was slightly hesitant. He didn’t want to have anything to do with his brother, but in this case, he had no choice.

Despite his misgivings, Liu Anshan made up his mind and called the number.

"Hello? Brother? It’s me, Liu Anshan. Let’s cut the small talk. I want to propose a business deal if you’re interested. Let’s split it fifty-fifty, but the lowest I’m willing to go is forty-sixty! No less."

His brother was Liu Changlong, the head of Hongyi Gang and a prominent figure among Wanghai City’s crime scene.

Jiang Chen even had a small conflict with the Hongyi Gang before.

－

After leaving the gold store, Jiang Chen took a taxi to a rural area. He needed to rent a storage space to hold the supplies he needed in the apocalypse. Although online shopping was convenient, it was not a good long-term strategy. With thirty people now living in the base, it would be much easier to purchase in bulk from food distributors and also save on cost.

After paying for one year of rent, Jiang Chen rented a small storage space. The area around and inside had excellent privacy protection which pleased him. The rent was not expensive either for a rural area at three thousand a month.

After renting the storage space, Jiang Chen didn’t rest but instead found the number of a Wanghai City food distributor online and dialed. He cut straight to the point and ordered ten tons of rice, five tons of flour, 300 boxes of canned meat, and 200 boxes of canned vegetables, as well as salt and oil. With such a large order coming in, the boss of the distributing company eagerly took the order. After getting the address, he guaranteed that the goods would arrive within two hours, but only after paying a down payment up front.

Jiang Chen instead paid for the full amount.

Once the full amount of 160,000 RMB arrived in his bank account, the boss became frantic. He didn’t know how he got lucky to have met someone this rich. The full amount had been paid without hesitation.

Immediately, he began to prepare and even personally rode the truck as they arrived at the storage.

Jiang Chen obviously realized the boss’ flattering words and emphasized that if the quality of this batch was good, he would come to him the next time as well. The boss of course promised that every bag of rice was newly produced and all of the canned food were from certified producers.

Jiang Chen didn’t comment and instead hinted that the next batch would preferably be without labels. The boss paused momentarily before he smiled mischievously at Jiang Chen and agreed.

It wasn’t difficult for him to acquire products that way as he would just contact the people he knew at the factory. For him, it was one less step in their production.

After some small talk, the boss shrewdly left, sensing the Jiang Chen still had things to do. After the truck drove away, Jiang Chen returned to the storage and shut the door tight. It was time to do the real business.

He inhaled deeply and looked around at the supplies that nearly filled the entire storage.

He then lit up a cigarette, which was something that he did every time he travelled between the two dimensions. In front of Miss Sun Jiao’s shocked and joyful gaze, Jiang Chen moved all of the supplies into the swimming pool that had previously contained the gold.

The swimming pool was now full of food.

"I’ll help you get a couple more vaults of gold," Sun Jiao blurted out after gathering her thoughts from her temporary shock. This was the only thing that came out of her mouth.

"Pshh, I haven’t sold all of the gold yet. And even if you got more, I wouldn’t be able to exchange it for money. Also, these supplies cost nothing there," Jiang Chen explained.

"Then why don’t you bring back more?" Sun Jiao was slightly embarrassed. She tried to cover her expression with a furious look and a flash of her teeth at Jiang Chen—except in Jiang Chen’s eyes, it was all harmless coquetry.

"Don’t be greedy. Would you even be able to finish it?" Jiang Chen laughed as he patted Sun Jiao’s butt.

"I can. Even if I can’t, I’d just leave it here." Sun Jiao blushed as she stared at Jiang Chen again.

"Don’t become a little pig. Then I’d have to eat Yao Yao," Jiang Chen said jokingly.

"Do you want to die? You pervert." Embarrassed, Sun Jiao lifted her hand and hit Jiang Chen on the shoulder, but from Jiang Chen’s smiling face, she could tell it hadn’t hurt at all.

Of course Jiang Chen didn’t mean it; he was not perverted enough to eat Yao Yao. Also, Sun Jiao’s flexible waist didn’t seem like it would grow fatter anytime soon.

"Oh, and find a few detailed-oriented people to scratch off the production date and the other symbols. You have to be extremely careful with this, or maybe you and Yao Yao should take care of it personally. In the future, I’ll try to obtain supplies without any labels."

After repeatedly urging Sun Jiao in a few more things, Jiang Chen traveled back to the modern world.

He looked at the empty storage unit again and headed back out. He locked the door and cautiously checked to see if it was visible from the outside before he walked to the road and called a taxi to go back to the city.

In the car, he called Xia Shiyu.

－

"What? You have to leave the country? For how long?" Surprisingly enough, Xia Shiyu didn’t seem too shocked by the news of Jiang Chen disappearing again. Perhaps she was used to it.

At least this time, Jiang Chen told her his plan and didn’t just disappear on her without any warning. The last time, Xia Shiyu had been so afraid that she almost called the police thinking he got into an accident.

"Hmm, not too long, business-related. I’ll be back in a week."

"Then what about the company?" Xia Shiyu sighed resignedly.

"Of course it’s up to you, hehe."

"…" When she heard Jiang Chen’s laughter, Xia Shiyu tiredly rubbed her temple.

"I stored all of the game data onto the USB drive, so I’ll send it to you in a bit. You’re much more familiar with the advertisement process than I am. Hehe, so you’ll have to work a bit harder this time. I’ll treat you to dinner after I come back." Jiang Chen felt he was becoming more shameless by the minute.

"Treat me for a week!" Xia Shiyu said angrily.

"No problem, one month works as well!" The hearty voice from the other side made her unable to vent her frustration.

She hung up and flung the phone aside, leaning back against sofa with a huff.

This guy…

If she were his boss like before…

She thought about what happened and suddenly became silent. For some reason, she was suddenly reminded of how she had fired Jiang Chen and the miserable time when she herself had lost her job. Suddenly, she felt terrible about herself.

Guilt? Unease? Self-blame?

She couldn’t explain the emotion.

The back of head pressed against the sofa. She didn’t know what she was thinking about and just stared blankly at the ceiling.

She liked this modernized apartment as the two-floor design really combined spaciousness with comfort. Despite her uptight workstyle, in her free time, she was someone who had a taste for a luxurious lifestyle.

With a salary of ten thousand RMB, she spent half as rent, but she didn’t feel bad about it. She believed that the purpose of earning money was to improve life quality and excessive saving only demonstrated lack of confidence in the future.

Jiang Chen also didn’t expect her to pay back the loan, so she didn’t have to save money for that either.

What she didn’t realize until now was that while she usually carefully planned her spending, she hadn’t even considered paying back her loan in her monthly budget.

She blankly stared at the intricate crystal chandelier as she remembered her time in the cheap apartment that cost 800 a month. Back then, she had to carefully plan every meal.

For some reason, a man’s face surfaced in her mind, that always grinning face.

To be honest, the normally serious Xia Shiyu really disliked that improper grin.

However, she could not come to dislike the face.

With dilated pupils, Xia Shiyu touched her lips but didn’t know why.

There was a throb in her heart that she had never felt before.

[What is this? Whatever, I’ll stop thinking.]

She shook her head and stood up after turning off the TV.

Since Jiang Chen was sending the USB drive in a bit, it was not good to see him like this. With the thought of taking a shower, Xia Shiyu entered the bedroom and prepared clothes to change into. She then walked into the bathroom and shut the glass door.

She stared at the water coming out of the showerhead and let the clear water trickle down her flawless skin. Xia Shiyu entered a daze once more.

[Hmmm? After the jog, I already showered…]

Chapter 44: Xia Shiyu’s Apartment

He got off at Xinyuan community as Jiang Chen walked towards Xia Shiyu’s rented apartment.

The community had a lovely scenery. This girl certainly knew how to enjoy life.

The side of the road was covered with plants and trees as a curious smile appeared on his face.

The basketball court in the middle of the community had a few high school students playing a game. On the small field with training equipment, elders were practicing Taiji. Some were also playing chess under the tree. Families were taking a walk and also young people were jogging. The entire community was crowded but not noisy.

Walking into the apartment building, Jiang Chen pressed the elevator button. [This girl rented a place on the 14th floor, is she not afraid of heights.] He walked to the door and rang the bell, as he heard the sound of steps approach the door.

“You are here. Come in.”

The door opened, and Xia Shiyu with a towel in her hand showed up at the door. Jiang Chen noticed there was still a few droplets of water on her shoulder, seems like she showered not long ago.

“Are you not going to come in?” Xia Shiyu saw that Jiang Chen didn’t move and slightly raised her eyebrows, and asked confusedly.

“Ahem, yes, yes. I was just thinking about something.” Jiang Chen coughed as he recollected himself from her stunning look.

“Oh? I am going to guess it’s not work related.” Xia Shiyu shrugged and walked back into her room.

“My computer is here, put your USB in there.”

Jiang Chen closed the door behind him and took off his shoes. The moment he looked up, Jiang Chen saw her gorgeous figure.

Maybe it was because she just showered, but Xia Shiyu's body had a lingering scent of the shower gel’s fragrance. The loose pajama slightly dampened by water looked a lot more fitting as it pressed against her beautiful figure.

Especially the curve of her butt.

Jiang Chen gulped in confusion.

[This girl is not seducing me right?]

If Xia Shiyu knew the narcissistic thought in Jiang Chen’s mind, she probably would have angrily kicked him out.

－

The bedroom was often filled with its owner’s fragrance, Jiang Chen didn’t think too much about it in the beginning. However, when Jiang Chen walked into Xia Shiyu’s bedroom and smelled her beautiful scent, he felt awkward. But seeing Xia Shiyu's seriousness when setting up the computer, Jiang Chen had to suppress the odd feeling.

“Ok, connect the USB.” Xia Shiyu got up and walked out of the room.

Jiang Chen ashamedly touched his nose, but when he saw the desktop filled with work related documents, he felt guilty as he quickly regathered his concentration and focused on work.

He inserted the USB into the computer and copied the folders.

Yao Yao put a lot of attention into the work as all the information relation to the game was compiled together. With this information, the application procedure to the authority would be much simpler to do.

Of course, it’s Xia Shiyu that had to do it.

“Is it done? Let me take a look.”

Xia Shiyu’s voice made Jiang Chen jump as he didn’t know when she had returned to the room along with a chair. She sat beside Jiang Chen.

She wore her glasses wih a professional look and grabbed the mouse from Jiang Chen’s hand as she scanned line by line through the document about the game.

The light fragrance post-shower whiffed from her hair which made Jiang Chen a bit thirsty.

To be honest, Xia Shiyu looked absolutely gorgeous by any standards, a form of beauty that was almost unearthly. But before Jiang Chen never thought about her in this way as he just viewed her as someone who could manage the company, as well as one of the few friends he had. However, under the influence of the hormonal fragrance, even if he wanted to stop thinking about it, it was already out of his control.

They were also in a flirtatious environment.

The warm colored light and wallpaper could make anyone fall asleep, but it could also ignite people’s desire. What’s worse was that there was a soft bed behind them.

Bed, Beauty, in the same room.

He carefully examined the side of his ex-boss' face, it looked stunning.

Jiang Chen's breath began to shorten.

“Whoever created this game is a genius.” Xia Shiyu’s untimely exclamation interrupted Jiang Chen’s bewildered thoughts. She pushed up her glasses and continued, “It’s impeccable in every category. The usage of cloud computing to reduce the hardware requirement, at the same time not costing a lot of data. Although I am not a professional in the game development, if the game’s quality is equal to what the report stated, I can confidently say that this game will be groundbreaking in the history of mobile games.”

“Ahem, of course, I hired someone professional to handle the game design aspect. We’ll focus on the operation of it. Also, the game server requires specialized equipment. There is instruction along with it, just give it to the specialists to take care of.” Jiang Chen pretended to cough as he tried to cover up his peeking act. He recollected his thoughts and refocused on work.

“Hmm? Did you bring the server?” Xia Shiyu lightly frowned as she looked confusingly at the PC sized equipment in her room.

“Of course I brought it. I put it behind the door, and you didn’t notice.” Jiang Chen rushed to explain.

He remembered after he came into the room. So he brought it out from the storage dimension after she went into the living room.

Xia Shiyu didn’t persist with these trivial details as she nodded before asking a few more questions related to the game. Jiang Chen did his best to explain and stated that all the information should be in the documents.

“I’ll organize the information out which will take around two days. Although my experience in this is nearly zero, after the extensive period of study, I should be able to…”

“I trust your ability.” Jiang Chen interrupted her with a smile.

Jiang Chen’s look of trust made Xia Shiyu’s face feel hot. When Jiang Chen was smelling Xia Shiyu’s fragrance, she also sensed the smell from Jiang Chen’s body.

Don’t be mistaken as it was not body odor. Instead, it was a unique hormonal scent. Just like the fragrance in her room, Xia Shiyu couldn't tell, but Jiang Chen as the opposite sex could clearly detect this unique aroma.

The speed of her heart beat increased which made Xia Shiyu a little frustrated and nervous. Although she didn’t dislike this kind of feeling, she felt embarrassed by not concentrating on her work.

Yes, embarrassed. She always worked diligently and was proud of the very fact.

“Mhmm, I won’t disappoint your expectation.” A stiff tone.

Jiang Chen sensed that Xia Shiyu’s facial expression was a bit rigid as he felt uneasy as well.

[Did this girl figure out that I peeked at her?]

Of course, he thought too much.

Xia Shiyu had her reasons for showing such an expression.

“Also, I have some recommendations for the company site. If we want to get the company on track sooner, let’s take care of these things as early as possible.” Xia Shiyu opened an office rental site with listings of empty offices.

“This, the Continental Building Floor 12. It is near the subway, and all the necessary services are near. The price is also reasonable. Take a look at the pictures and see what you think.” Xia Shiyu skillfully opened the image below and showed Jiang Chen.

The work atmosphere has erased some of the flirtatious feelings out of the air, even Jiang Chen became focused.

Of course, he still didn’t really know what he was doing, even if he focused.

“Then this one it is.” Jiang Chen scratched his face. He thought that he probably wouldn’t go into the office very often, so he didn’t care about where it would be located.

“Aren’t you going to compare it to the other ones? This one too, although the ease of transportation is not ideal, it is near the universities which would make the hiring process a lot easier. For a small and new company like us, it's hard to attract experienced professionals to jump ship and join us.

“What do you mean a small company, where’s your confidence?” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes as he said unsatisfied.

“Now that I see the president is so confident, I am also very hopeful for the company. Then the company location will be…”

[This girl is becoming more skilled at handling me.] Jiang Chen thought.

To be fair, it is great to have an assistant. No, she is the CEO. Whatever, it is all the same.

Jiang Chen decided to choose the office near the University.

For no other reason than that the building was only six stories high. He hates high places.

If he told Xia Shiyu the real reason, she would have been shocked.

The rent was 2000 RMB a month. She could take care of the remaining items tomorrow, and Jiang Chen even assigned her to do the renovation.

“Don’t save money for me, I’ll invest another ten million RMB in a few days, let’s do something magnificent.” When Xia Shiyu asked how long the term of the lease should be and what’s the budget for renovation, Jiang Chen waved his hand and replied, "Ten million?" Once he takes care of the gold, one hundred million will be nothing.

“Let me be honest, if the game is already developed, the only thing the company needs to take care of is operation and maintenance. So we won’t need this much funding within the short period of time,” Xia Shiyu replied with a bitter smile.

“Haha, who said we can’t use it? I told you before that we are going into the phone industry. Once the phone is developed, iPhone and Samsung will all be giving their market share to us.” Jiang Chen recklessly laughed.

For the president's brazen laughter, Xia Shiyu only rolled her eyes and didn’t respond. She didn’t think Jiang Chen had the capability to do so. Even if he did, ten million was nowhere enough for development and production.

But Jiang Chen didn’t react to her rolled eyes.

Yes, iPhone 6 was a fantastic product, but it was nowhere comparable to the technology from 100 years later. It doesn’t even have to be 100 years later. Jiang Chen just needed to ask the starving technology genius to improve those “ancient” communication products and release them. Ahead of the market by 10 years would be enough for all the competitors to chase after him.

Also, he must ensure that the phone won't be replicable so that his “hard work” won't be stolen. He doesn’t want to see any knock offs of Future Technology.

The key technology should be patented. The phone would have to come later as the short-term focus was going to be placed on software.

“Also, can I know where you are going to be in the next few days? Which country are you going to for business?” Xia Shiyu had hesitated for a moment before she interrupted his envisioning.

“Hmm? Iraq,” Jiang Chen carelessly spilled out the truth.

Iraq.

Xia Shiyu almost choked on her own spit.

What kind of business required him to go there?!

Chapter 45: The Iraq Trip

"Food, yours."

His English was more broken than the Eastern Man.

A terrorist with a masked face and an AK47 placed a bowl of muddy looking soup and black bread on the table. He mocked the white man who crawled into the corner before he turned around and slammed the door.

Robert weakly moved when he saw that the man left. He quickly walked to the table and grabbed the rock hard bread.

His blond hair was already greasy, and his face looked pale, but his eyes remained bright. Even if he didn’t know what’s the soup or the hardly chewable bread in his hands was made out of, he didn’t look the slightest bit remorseful.

He chewed carefully, despite the fact that the food was barely edible.

But he knew that this would maximize the amount of energy he had and would preserve it. Then, he could seek the opportunity to escape.

Robert’s face did not look distressed at all. Even if the poor reporter that stayed beside him yesterday was screaming in pain, he remained calm.

Without a doubt, that guy must have his throat slit and recorded. The majority of the government would not compromise with the terrorist groups and pay ransom for the hostages. Maybe in a couple of days when he heads back, he could see that poor sucker on Facebook, in the form of video, if he could go back.

This was not the first time Robert faced situations like this. Militants in Kuwait kidnaped him and almost slit his throat. But the good thing was that Blackwater International took the money and did some good deeds with the UA army. They managed to save him at the absolute last moment.

However, this time it was far more questionable. Although he was a UA citizen and acted in the interest of the country, recently his act of smuggling oil from Iran has caught the attention of the FBA. Rumor has that special agents were collecting evidence in this area. Maybe due to this insider’s betrayal, this was the FBA's act of taking him out, then why would the UA army save him?

The bald Biden had no guts. If the FBA just threatened him a little, he would join the witness protection program and sell out his old friend.

Robert was not too angry at this. He had seen his fair share of betrayal. If he died here this time, then Biden was lucky, but if he managed to return to Los Santos, hehe.

A ferocious smile flashed across Robert’s face.

Of course, all this talk would be nonsense because his probability of survival was so slim. Although Nick was reliable and a fitted warrior, he was alone after all. Facing a group of fully equipped terrorists would be unrealistic.

Especially in hostage rescue, that must be done with one swift action.

He mocked at himself for the thought as he finished the last bit of bread before lying on the bed again.

His instinct told him that he would be okay this time. His instinct had saved him on more than one occasion, so he trusted his instinct and didn’t give up the hope for survival.

－

Jiang Chen got off the plane and stepped into the Baghdad International Airport.

The religious city was not exactly as they described it in the news, in constant chaos. At least, not near the airport.

The marks left by the war has been slowly healed through the passage of time. It was also evident by the constant flow of foreign tourists. However, he knew this prosperity was limited.

IS already occupied half of the area in Northern Iraq. Even if the sky above Baghdad were still clear, it wouldn't take long before a gloom of war cast its shadow.

Jiang Chen in shades stood in front of the airport for a while before he took out his phone to check Google maps. He quickly found the arranged meeting spot with Nick.

Just as he was about to call a taxi, an unlicensed car stopped in front of him.

"Sir, do you need a taxi?"

It was in Han, although not fluent.

"Yes, do you know Han?" Jiang Chen was surprised. He had paused for a moment before he opened the car door.

"It’s because I often find jobs near your wells, for example servicing PetroChina workers. So I learned Han in the process." The young man smiled with his white teeth exposed as he skillfully started the car. "My name is Ehsa, what about you sir?"

"Jiang Chen. Head to this place on the map." Jiang Chen showed the location on the map to Ehsa.

"Okay."

With the changing scenery passing by him, Jiang Chen chatted with the taxi driver, who was around the same age as him and he heard some interesting stories.

"Sir if you are here to travel, I recommend a few cities in the South. However, don’t head north as Haditha is almost conquered, it might not be long until Baghdad is unsafe too."

"Hmmm? Looks like you know these things pretty well. How long have you been doing this?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"For about six years, I have been driving taxis ever since I left the army. I also spent some time being a tourist guide," Ehsa replied.

"You have been in the army before? I feel like you are no older than me," Jiang Chen asked with confusion in his voice.

"I enlisted when I was 12, in what you guys call the Iraq war." Ehsa shrugged as the topic did not seem to bother him. "A hectic show without even seeing the enemy. It was over before it started. I just felt like Saddam gave me a gun and sent me to surrender in the front line."

He was amazed by the young man’s experience but didn’t continue on the topic further.

The car soon arrived at the destination, and Jiang Chen generously handed a 10 USD bill to him. He watched the car leave as he stretched and looked for Nick.

"Here." Just at that moment, the foreigner sitting under the shade, drinking coffee, waved at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen sat directly across from Nick. But before he sat down, Nick hastily began speaking.

"Just yourself?"

"Yes." Jiang Chen grabbed an empty cup and poured himself a cup.

It was bitter, seems to be authentic Turkish coffee.

Jiang Chen took a sip before putting it down and noticed Nick’s slightly disappointed look.

"Hmm? You seem disappointed?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"You are an adamant warrior, but with just the two of us, it is going to be difficult," Nick replied with his voice lowered.

"I am not just strong, you’ll see." Jiang Chen shrugged. "Where is your weapon?"

"It’s in the car. Do you need me to prepare one for you as well?" Nick saw that Jiang Chen came empty handed and asked.

"Not necessary, I have prepared my weapon already. I believe that you already have clues about the whereabouts of your boss, let’s find him then. Hehe, he still owes me a deal," Jiang Chen smiled and spoke with a relaxed voice as if he never viewed these terrorists as real threats.

Jiang Chen’s relaxed mood made Nick frown slightly, but since there were no other options at the time, it would be dangerous to be delayed by even a day.

Soldier’s instinct told him that this guy was not to be underestimated, but he was not certain of his exact level.

"Let’s talk about the exact details on the car. Robert is in great danger. If you saw the news yesterday, you'd know that IS already executed a UA reporter. If they don’t receive the ransom by tomorrow, they might kill the hostage."

Nick lit up a cigarette and handed Jiang Chen one as he took Jiang Chen to his car.

"Your boss can’t afford the ransom?" Jiang Chen lit up the cigarette.

"IS wanted the UA government to pay," Nick said emotionlessly.

The meaning behind that was evident.

The car started as Nick took the wheel and headed out of the town. They passed by two inspection stations, but it was rather procedural as the stations let them go when there were no bombs found. The assault rifle hidden under Nick’s seat was not detected during both inspections.

On the way, Nick explained what kind of trouble they encountered this time.

It was about five days ago, Robert accepted an old friend’s invitation, Biden, to come to Iraq. It was a military arms deal worth twenty million USD. The buyer was supposed to be a militant fighting on the front line against IS. Order from the UA middlemen and acquiring additional firearm was the unspoken rule on this desert. Although Robert sensed something was off, he was not too suspicious.

It was a deal over twenty million USD. He would earn one million just by working with him.

Biden was such a great guy.

After he arranged the transportation of military arms on the battlefront between the government militants and IS, he met a bunch of extreme terrorists screaming "Allah Akbar."

Nick was indeed a great warrior as he used an M27 to kill at least 10 fearless terrorists, but that was useless.

To acquire those arms, the IS with "secret information" sent out at least a battalion of forces and was equipped with heavy machine guns and RPG. He almost didn’t get out of there alive.

The firearm fell into the hands of the IS, and Robert was captured. Nick fought fearlessly to find an escape path to the safe zone.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he would leave his boss there, Robert saved his life before. He knew that the only way to save his boss was to escape himself first.

He stayed in Haditha as he had a feeling that IS didn’t bring IS into their territory. The next day, he received a phone call from someone who picked up a ten dollar UA bill. On the bill, it said, "If you call this number, and tell him where you found the bill, you’ll receive one hundred dollars in compensation." Nick first thought it was a trap, but it was his only hope. After meeting the man, Nick paid him the compensation and followed him to where he picked up the bill.

It was fortunate that it was not a trap, Robert was cunning. He always hid a ten dollar bill in his shoe as he believed the first finance minister of the United States would bring him luck and riches. At the same time, it saved him in critical moments. It was clear that "Hamilton" saved him.

"Why don’t you contact the embassy? The UA soldiers are all experts in hostage rescue," Jiang Chen said in a relaxed voice.

"It’s the FBA who's behind this all. Those fools can’t find evidence, so they wanted to get rid of Robert." With the cigarette in his mouth, he already put his shades on. Jiang Chen couldn’t see his facial expression.

"Oh? I thought Robert represented the UA government." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"He did in Iraq, but it happened in Kane which is not related to the Iran problem," Nick briefly answered the question as he turned the wheel and drove off the road.

It was clear that Robert trusted his bodyguard as he even explained these things to him.

Jiang Chen remembered that Robert told him about smuggling oil before. It must be that he left some evidence and the FBA is after him.

"We are not going on the road?"

"There is an IS station in the front, we can’t pass. Also, we are almost there." Robert calmly drove the car into an alley and shut the engine.

Jiang Chen opened the door and got out. He looked around and figured it was a ghetto. Occasionally a child’s malnourished head popped out of the window and curiously looked at the two foreigners. But a hand would come and drag the children back into the room and tightly shut the window.

"These civilians are quite sensitive about the war." Jiang Chen smiled as he threw the cigarette bud onto the ground.

"The moment they were born they started to experience the war." Nick grabbed a backpack under the car seat. He saw Jiang Chen’s relaxed look and raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure this is okay?"

"No problem, trust me." Jiang Chen sighed.

"In Iraq, Han Kungfu is not that particularly helpful."

"In your foreigners’ eyes, do all the Han know Kungfu?" Jiang Chen laughed at the remark.

I should show him something.

Jiang Chen’s right hand reached behind his back and opened the storage dimension. In Nick’s eyes, he just reached, and a pistol appeared in his hand.

Nick was shocked as he didn’t even sense Jiang Chen hid the gun. He also did not recognize the gun.

"This gun is?"

"11 Tactical Pistol, custom made, don’t worry about it." Jiang Chen put the gun into his bag and shrugged.

Nick nodded as he no longer questioned.

Just like that, Jiang Chen followed Nick and walked to the building where Robert was held.

Chapter 46: Rescue

"There’s one on the roof, four standing on the second floor, and five out front." Nick stretched out on top of the roof and used a pair of binoculars to observe the target structure. "Robert is confirmed alive."

The three-story tall building had at least ten terrorists on site. Nick began to worry for Jiang Chen as even for someone like him, it would be nearly impossible to rescue someone without alerting nearby guards.

However, if they alerted the guards on patrol duty in the streets, then they must face the attack from an entire town of IS soldiers.

"Affirmative, just cover me when I back out." Jiang Chen stood by a fruit store picking fruits as he occasionally glanced at the IS soldiers passing by. He had a head scarf on his head with only his eyes exposed.

It was exciting for him.

He opened his mouth and took a deep breath before turning into an alley.

He noticed that there was no one around, so he took out the bag Yao Yao gave him from the storage dimension and equipped it onto himself.

The drone from the future was going to be useful now as an odd smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face. He connected his EP onto the palm-sized circle disk.

The bottom of the drone slightly vibrated followed by an almost undetectable noise as it followed Jiang Chen's instruction and flew into the air.

It carefully avoided the sight of the guards as Jiang Chen cautiously controlled the drone to fly over the wall onto the top floor. It recorded the heat map of the entire building as all the guards appeared on the EP map. After he had parked the drone on the top floor, Jiang Chen gave an order to Nick.

"Take out the scout on the top floor."

"Affirmative." Nick naturally noticed Jiang Chen’s drone and was surprised by Jiang Chen’s ability. He zoomed in with his M27 rifle.

The silencer lightly buzzed.

A blood hole appeared on the terrorist’s forehead. As he was about to fall over, the drone hidden behind him popped a hook and carried his body to the middle of the roof and slowly released him.

Not a single person noticed.

Nick was completely stunned. He saw the Indago drone that the UA special forces used in Kane and he thought that represented the peak of the drone technology. But when he saw the palm-sized drone, his understanding of field was challenged.

Silent enough to move behind the target and its hook powerful enough to drag the body.

This was the first time he saw a drone that agile and discreet.

[His country’s military technology is this powerful?

Or is Jiang Chen representing an unknown force?]

Nick didn’t understand, but he didn’t need to understand.

He knew that his boss could be rescued now.

－

Jiang Chen used the image generated through his EP to determine the guard's distribution within the building. He took a deep breath and moved to the side of the building.

He pressed against the ground, for the first time using all his strength in the modern world.

Jiang Chen hopped two meters high, grabbed onto the roof of a small building and rolled beside the water tank.

It was a smooth move.

This was the muscle and reflex two times stronger than ordinary people. He gradually clinched his fingers and looked at the street across.

It was three meters wide with little traffic.

Eight meters away from the roof, with a height difference of two meters.

"How far is the closest patrol from this place?" Jiang Chen used the communication device in his ear and asked.

"Two streets," Nick answered after he scanned the area.

"I am about to enter, watch out for me."

"Understood." Nick put the binoculars aside as he reloaded the M27 rifle.

－

Fury!

Red dots began to pop up in Jiang Chen’ vision. Even the wall cannot stop the vivid red from appearing, it belonged to the color of hearts beating.

The desire to rip the hearts apart.

All the cells in his body were boiling.

He inhaled and tried to suppress the negative emotions from his mind as he slightly bent his knees.

If it were two times his muscle strength, it would be questionable, but now it was four times.

Abruptly, his pushed his legs down onto the ground and stepped back before he dashed across the eight-meter distance, grasping onto the roof of the third floor.

[Fu*k, this hurts.]

The fury strengthened his muscle but not his bones. The shock from the impact with the wall made him grind his teeth together, but he managed to overcome the pain and initiated the tranquilizer on the EP.

Fury disarmed. His heartbeat returned to normal.

"What is it?" A terrorist looked out the window and scanned for any irregularity.

"Don’t know, let Zayev go take a look."

Jiang Chen held his breath as he pressed against the wall. He didn’t understand what they were saying as he prayed that they won’t look up. Jiang Chen was right above the IS soldier. If he got caught, then he would have to fight a violent battle.

He wasn’t afraid, but Robert’s safety would be jeopardized.

Jiang Chen’s sudden move shocked Nick as he didn’t suspect Jiang Chen to jump across.

[An eight-meter distance, two-meter height difference?

Superman?]

Nick didn’t let his guard down when he saw Jiang Chen sneak into the building, his rifle aimed directly at the head stuck outside the window. If he looked up and saw Jiang Chen, Nick would have to kill him. Stealth entry would become a battle.

Fortunately, it seemed that it was inconvenient to look up while wearing a hat, the terrorist didn’t see anything odd, so he retracted his head. From common sense, no one could jump onto a building.

Jiang Chen was relieved as he rolled onto the roof.

The reason why he dared to use brute force to jump over was not that he didn’t think it through. Instead, when fury was activated, he saw the distribution of the people in the room. He estimated that the risk of being spotted was small, so he decided to use four times the strength of a regular people and jumped over.

First, silence device.

NATO special forces equipment, he purchased at the Sixth Street Junk Yard for 30 crystals. The device could silence up to a radius of ten meters. Although not as useful in the apocalypse, but quite handy in the modern world. It can be activated for 15 seconds.

He laughed and took out the device from where Nick couldn’t see. He pressed the device against the roof. He then started the drone and made sure the IS soldiers were unaware before he rotated the silent device’s button.

Buzz.

It produced a sound of buzzing electricity. The surrounding air became unstable under the unique field, all sounds were erased.

The brick roof was exploded open with dynamite.

Jiang Chen did not hesitate as he took out his pistol and jumped into the room.

Future tech was indeed powerful, no one noticed the violent explosion.

With both feet on the ground, Jiang Chen saw Robert in the corner. He ripped off his headscarf and smiled.

"I can’t believe you are the one saving me, my friend," Robert said with a bitter smile.

"Oh? Are you disappointed?" Jiang Chen shrugged with a joking voice.

"No, I appreciate your help." Robert stood up and genuinely bowed down. "If there is anything I can assist you with in the future, please don’t hesitate to tell me."

"You still owe me a deal."

Robert was confused for a brief second before he smiled.

"Not just a deal, my friend."

Jiang Chen didn’t continue talking with him. He retracted the silent device and walked to the door. Robert surprisingly looked at the pistol in Jiang Chen’s hand. For as long as he has been in the firearm business, he never saw a gun like it.

As well as the silent explosion.

But Robert didn’t ask, everyone had their own privacy. It would be impolite to ask.

If he could rescue people, it won't be hard to kill people.

"Nick, the hostage is rescued. Cover me," Jiang Chen spoke into the communication device.

"I understand," Nick replied emotionlessly as a cruel smile appeared across his face.

[You bastards, I’ll kill you all.]

He opened the safety.

He locked onto a terrorist that looked like a commander and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The blood hole penetrated through the target’s head as he dropped down onto the floor.

"Enemy! Enemy!"

"It’s the UA citizens! Quick!" But what they didn’t know was, the one firing was a Byelorussian, and the one rescuing was an Eastern man.

Shouting noises resonated through the door, as well as the explosive firing of the assault rifles.

Jiang Chen monitored the outside with the drone.

Nick was indeed an experienced soldier. A single rifle was enough to suppress all the IS soldiers. The screaming bullets accurately penetrated through flesh and ended their sinful lives one by one.

Nick managed to control the soldiers around the building. Jiang Chen waved at Robert signaling their retreat. He aimed his pistol at the wooden door.

Bang!

The wooden door was slammed open. A terrorist screaming a foreign language rushed in with an assault rifle and met a pistol in his face.

Boom!

With a hole in his forehead, the man dropped dead.

"Instincts, don’t worry about it," Jiang Chen joked with the shocked Robert before he rushed out.

Instinct? The drone’s instinct.

"Wulahualala…"

Jiang Chen replied to the nonsensical screaming with a bullet. Although the 11 tactical pistol was only a pistol, it was technology from 100 years later. Despite the same size bullet, the material of the bullet as well its accuracy was far superior compared to modern weapons.

Although it was a pistol, it could easily shoot through the brick wall.

The highly penetrative bullet made the IS soldiers around the stairs not dare to come close to the wall. But as they continued to hide, it troubled Jiang Chen as well. Since this is an IS-controlled territory, there was no way they could escape if this dragged on.

Time to try the thermal detection grenade.

A grimace appeared on Jiang Chen’s face. The thing he got from Zhao Chenwu, the firearm dealer from the apocalypse.

He popped the switch and threw the grenade away.

The grenade in midair suddenly paused as flames began to spit out from one side. It was as if it had eyes, it flew directly at the IS soldiers around the stairs.

They didn’t even have time to duck down.

The grenade exploded as soon as it detected heat.

Boom!

The explosive chips destroyed the entire staircase. Jiang Chen could almost sense the violent explosion.

"God, what are these things?" Robert hid behind Jiang Chen’s back as he blankly stared ahead.

"Some new gadgets. Stop talking, follow me." Jiang Chen changed a clip and rushed to the stairs.

Thermal detection grenade. Those things were slightly pricey being five times the price of a regular grenade. It was only useful on humans and would be interfered by the cheaper EMP grenade or heat bait, so they were not as useful in the apocalypse.

All the sudden, the wooden floor crashed open on the side.

"Allah!" A man with an assault rifle dashed out and tried to smash his gun against Jiang Chen’s head.

But he did have a reflex of 29, so he would not get hit by a surprise attack like that.

A violent stream of air ripped through Jiang Chen’s arm as the almost liquid phase nitrogen slammed onto the man’s chest like a hammer.

He flew away like a bomb and smashed against the wall.

[Should be dead.

Damn, this thing could be used as a close range weapon.] Jiang Chen pleasingly looked at the metal bracelet on his arm.

Robert stared dumbfoundedly at him. Jiang Chen glanced at him, and half-jokingly said.

"I guess you are going to keep the secret for me, right?"

Robert continued to stare dully, but he nodded.

[God… is this a Hollywood movie.]

Jiang Chen was pleased by Robert’s reaction as he signaled for him to follow and rushed downstairs.

He was not afraid of Robert not keeping the secret, no one would believe some of the things that happened.

Especially if he were smart enough, he would shut his mouth.

Chapter 47: The Unexpected

"Jiang Chen, get out. IS’ patrol squad already noticed the disturbances on this side, and they are sending backup." Nick’s voice transmitted from the communication device.

"Understood." Nick waved at Robert and shouted, "Quick! Start running."

Before he finished his sentence, Jiang Chen dashed out of the building and fired into the sky. The gunshot dispersed all the confused civilians. At the same time, he called Robert and headed directly into the alley.

"Dam*it! There are heavy machine guns." Nick cursed as he quickly began to move. His position was already exposed when they cross fired.

The Toyota pickup truck carrying heavy machine guns drove through the streets and headed for the building where the hostage was held. The soldier on the pickup truck called the other soldiers while forcefully opening the switch, preparing to shoot.

Tatata!

The bullets fired like rain drops, quickly suppressing Nick’s position which forced him to get on the floor and crawl to the stairs. He then jumped up and fled downstairs.

The IS soldiers were not to be taken lightly as the ten person patrol team carried their assault rifles and moved towards Nick’s location with the intention of surrounding him. However, as a seasoned veteran, he stepped back and shot with his M27 while moving back to the car.

On the other side, Jiang Chen used his EP to control the drone and avoided the chasing IS soldiers as they passed through the crossfire zone harm free.

"Quick! Get in the car! You drive!" Jiang Chen opened the door and pushed Robert in. He then flew the drone in Nick’s direction.

"I have been surrounded, you guys leave first." Nick gritted his teeth and glanced at the wound on his left shoulder. He fired a few rounds with one hand and then ran into another alley.

Although he remembered the layout of this place, his knowledge was nowhere comparable to the IS soldiers that regularly patrolled this area. Nick already accepted his fate, or else he should have already died in that small town in Kane.

He would have repaid the favor.

A grimace smile appeared on Nick’s face as he slammed against the dug-outs beside the road.

He decided not to run anymore. He wanted to teach these bloodthirsty hounds who was the real warrior!

"Six o’clock direction, go through that alley, quick!"

The voice from his headphone made him pause for a brief second before he clenched his teeth and followed Jiang Chen’s direction into the alley. Almost at the same time, he caught, with the corner of his eyes, a Toyota pickup truck that just ran across where he was.

A drop of cold sweat rolled down his face as he immediately followed Jiang Chen’s instruction and moved.

"There is a fruit store, go in it, there’s a back door in the room." Under the guidance of the drone, all of the IS’s movements were exposed.

Although it was the complete opposite direction as the car, Nick chose to trust Jiang Chen’s instruction. He kicked open the wooden door as he disregarded the screaming woman, the frightened man as well as the innocent children. He threateningly held his gun up and then with quick strides he aimed at the back door.

Slam!

Nick used his right shoulder, slammed open the door and got on another street.

"Cross the street and go into the alley before you make a left turn."

The sound of IS soldiers’ footsteps and shouting resonated from afar. Nick resisted the pain in his shoulder and carried his assault rifle across the street.

The footsteps were moving away. It looked like they lost him. Nick let out a sigh of relief before he took out the bandage. He wrapped his wound while running. Under Jiang Chen’s direction, he quickly got back to the car.

"We have to hurry, there are more and more IS soldiers coming in this direction." Jiang Chen helped Nick open the back door as he sat in the front passenger seat.

Robert sat behind the wheel as he started the car. Nick ripped off his shirt and changed into a shirt that he previously prepared to cover his wound.

"Where are we going?" Robert drove the car out of the alley and scanned around.

Jiang Chen reached out of the window to retract the palm-sized drone as he stuffed it back into his pocket.

"Head into the desert, all the roads are blocked off."

"God… I am still alive, this is unbelievable." Robert steered the wheel as he exaggeratedly let out a long sigh.

"We haven’t escaped yet." Jiang Chen said with a bitter smile. He still did underestimate the ability of the terrorists as they responded with such swiftness. The original plan was to follow the road and head back into Baghdad.

"IS is much stronger compared to other extremists. I thought you had plans," Nick had hesitated for a moment before he spoke.

Jiang Chen heard the words as he smiled with bitterness.

[I really don’t have a plan, looks like I have been too cocky this time.]

He was not worried about getting caught by the IS since he could always hide in the apocalypse. However, he couldn’t bring Robert and Nick over.

"…" Robert sensed the awkwardness on Jiang Chen’s face as he laughed. "Don’t worry, we’ll see as we go. They can’t be chasing us forever."

He opened the GPS on the car.

"We still have enough fuel. We’ll cross the desert and go from the northern side of the Tharthar Lake to Tikrit. If we are lucky, the government force should be in control of the area." A smile full of resignation appeared on Robert’s face, but Jiang Chen couldn’t even smile at all.

In other words, if Tikrit is under the control of IS.

They must take the gamble.

If he knew it was so problematic… It’s fine since he was already here and had the opportunity to test the strength of this equipment. Jiang Chen shook his head as he closed his eyes to rest. Surprisingly, he realized that he no longer felt uncomfortable killing people.

It was hard to say if it was a good thing or not.

Perhaps it was because all the people he killed deserved it. Jiang Chen remembered the atrocious acts conducted by the IS as he tried to justify his actions.

Robert looked rather optimistic as he hymned along with the tune on the car. The guy probably has seen too many deaths to be bothered by it.

Once the explosive song played, the car lifted the dust up on the sandy ground and drove into the endless desert.

Every single piece of sand here was covered by the smell of chaos.

－

Xia Shiyu sat on the sofa with her head wrapped in a towel. Under the bathrobe, her smooth and silky legs could be faintly seen covered by droplets of water. It was in the midst of summer as the room was air conditioned. She didn’t change into clothes yet as she enjoyed the light breeze.

Although she had a face more attractive than celebrities, even in her free time, it was still expressionless.

She leaned against the sofa as she casually lifted her legs. She turned on the TV with the remote.

"Now we’ll continue with the next piece of news. This morning, IS initiated an attack on Tikrit. The president of Iraq stated that they will do anything to defend Tikrit."

Xia Shiyu didn’t really care about international news. Like most of the modern professionals, she was more interested in comedy shows, especially the ones that made people laugh.

Surprising, for someone who didn’t like to smile enjoyed humor.

[There are no news today?]

Xia Shiyu let out a breath for reasons she couldn’t explain.

[No news probably means he is safe.]

At least the news didn’t say that a Han man was abducted and taken hostage. The ministry of foreign affairs strongly advises citizens… and related news.

[Hmm? Why am I worried about him?]

Xia Shiyu was suddenly shocked as she subconsciously touched her lips as confusion flashed across her eyes.

She shook her head and pushed out the always grinning face from her head as she began to change the channel.

[It must be because I have been too tired lately.]

With the comedians on the screen as well as the waves of laughter from the audience, Xia Shiyu temporarily forgot about what troubled her.

Her breathing returned to normal as her emotion returned to normal.

－

As the night fell, Jiang Chen leaned against the chair with a cigarette in his mouth.

To prevent being spotted, the headlight must remain off. It would be too dangerous to keep going without any light, so Robert stopped the car.

"If you can’t fall asleep, why don’t you keep an eye out for now?" Robert smiled bitterly as he pressed against the steering wheel. Nick in the back was already snoring up a storm.

"How far away?" Jiang Chen blew a smoke ring out as he sighed.

"Probably two more days. There is enough water and food, you don’t have to be too nervous." Robert shrugged.

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes. [Who is saving who?]

"I am doing a lot to get rid of the ten tons of gold." Jiang Chen curled his lips.

"Ten tons!?" Robert suddenly stood up, but then a banging sound ensued. He hit his head against the roof, but he resisted the pain as he stared at Jiang Chen, full concentrated.

"… Fu*k, don’t look at me like that." Jiang Chen was getting goosebumps as he moved back into contempt.

"Hehe." Robert touched his greasy blond hair and moved back. "I know there is a one hundred million USD deal. But why would I do firearms? I’ll just help you sell gold."

"Nope, I only stored this much gold over the years. I am starting to transition into other industries as well." Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"Transitioning? Is there something else that’s easier to sell?" Robert couldn’t fall asleep anymore as he also lit a cigarette.

"Technology."

"Technology? Buffet didn’t even dare to touch that." Robert contumaciously sneered, "I tried to open my own firearm company before but gave up soon after. The risk of development is too high, so I only sell the finished product. It is easier to make money this way."

"It is also more dangerous." Jiang Chen didn’t disagree.

"Of course, but I love the adventure." Robert awkwardly laughed as he avoided the topic.

The desert night was quiet and peaceful without a soul to be seen. As they got further away from Hadithah, the occasional explosions started to fade as well. But within the quiet night sky, a short burst of homing noise could be heard once in awhile.

"F-22, it’s probably the UA doing scouting missions. Maybe we are already on the heat map." Robert lifted his head.

"Oh? Would the UA soldiers jump out and save you?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"No way. We are only a white dot on the heat map. There are plenty of refugees in the desert. The good thing is that there is no weapon on the back of the car or some bullets may have flown down." Robert laughed at the remark.

Jiang Chen gazed at the distant sky. The clouds were thin, and the moon was bright. But even in the moonlight, he couldn’t see anything.

"I don’t understand. I feel the IS soldiers are not that strong. With the airstrikes of so many nations, why would they not eradicate this problem already?" Jiang Chen did not have the slightest positive feeling about this group.

It has nothing to do with politics nor nationality. From a purely human perspective, any group that killed civilians and raped women are hideous and hated. For whatever reason, it cannot justify the crime against humanity.

He wanted to laugh at the crazy group that said so many laughable claims, but he couldn’t.

"It’s normal." Robert shrugged, "IS is not simply just a terrorist group. It’s a frightening army combined with an ambitious government. A lot of them even received higher education and elite training which taught them how to avoid airstrike and scouting. Also, their opponents have their own personal agendas. Take Turkey, for example, their stance on IS was never clear."

At that moment, Robert also smiled dubiously.

"Also, if the war ended this quickly, how would we feed ourselves? How would the unemployment rate go down?"

Jiang Chen thought about it as he laughed.

He was right.

Who cared, the Middle East was far from Hua.

But for some reason, he constantly remembered the world that had fallen apart because of the nuclear war.

The world where even the sun in the middle of a summer day could not cast its ray through the thick radiation cloud. The world where not a single piece of grain grew, and a world where millions of twisted faces instinctively practiced violence.

Jiang Chen suddenly felt a chillness, he tried to wrap himself tighter with his clothes.

The desert night was a bit too chill.

Chapter 48: Refugees

"Damn it! Sh*t!"

The car came to a slow stop as Robert smacked the steering wheel.

Nick quietly walked out of the car as he lifted the front cover.

"The engine is busted."

"Fu*k! Now we are screwed," Robert said with a voice of defeat.

"…" Jiang Chen thought if he should go back to the apocalypse for a while and bring back a levitating car.

But it was only wishful thinking; he would not do that unless they were hopeless.

If he did it, that would mean he was prepared to abandon the two of them. Then his gold selloff plan would be deserted, and this Iraq trip would become pointless.

"Can you fix it?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Let me try." Nick took the toolbox out from the back of the car as he began to work on the engine.

However, the engine didn’t seem to get any better.

Just as they were about to lose hope, Jiang Chen suddenly saw a truck approaching from a distance.

"IS?" He tensed up as he took out the pistol.

Robert also noticed the truck, but his face looked ecstatic.

"Put your gun away, haha, we are saved. Quick! Shout with me! Haha, stop here! Here! Help!" Robert waved his arms as he yelled at the truck to get its attention.

The truck seemed to have noticed the three of them as it slowly drove in their direction.

The truck stopped. Jiang Chen saw that the back of the truck was filled with malnourished refugees. Their clothes were ripped apart and only carried a small amount of luggage. All of them had the same tired and apathetic expression.

Robert walked to the truck driver and spoke with him briefly before he returned full of joy.

"The driver agreed to give us a ride. It is tradition to help each other out in the desert. I promised him that we’ll share the freshwater on our car. Since the car is going to be abandoned, let’s take the fuel out as well. Nick, come help me."

"Okay, boss." Nick nodded and ensued.

－

Jiang Chen and Nick sat in the back of the truck while Robert, trying to get close to the driver, sat in the passenger seat.

Since only Robert knew Arabic, the two of them who sat with the refugees could only stare at each other, and couldn’t say a word.

All the women were covered in thick headscarves while the men looked exhausted, the children also lacked the energy people of their age possessed. Everyone was tired. They must have suffered a lot.

The atmosphere felt odd.

A Byelorussian and a Han here sure was weird.

"These people are probably Syrian refugees. Since Turkey shut down its borders, some of them chose to go through the Kurdish Region and then be smuggled into Turkey. It’s a coincidence that we were able to meet up." At least Jiang Chen knew a little English to be able to chat with Nick.

"Do they know English?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Some probably do, but it doesn’t look like they have the energy to chat." Nick shrugged his shoulders.

The back of the truck was crowded and bumpy. A child who he couldn’t tell the gender of sat beside Jiang Chen. The dirty face lacked energy and emotion as the messy hair carried a sour odor more pungent than Robert.

Jiang Chen did not care too much about cleanliness as the entire truck was filled with the awful smell, so he didn’t pay attention.

Nick already started to snore as his years of military life had programmed him in such a way to preserve his energy. Except the snoring received a few stares in the truck.

He really could sleep anywhere. Jiang Chen forced a smile as he also adjusted the way he sat to take a nap.

The truck drove for a bit longer.

It was around lunch time as some refugees took out the food they carried and began to force it down with some water. The teen sitting beside Jiang Chen took out a black thing that resembled a piece of bread and began chewing.

Perhaps it was because everyone was eating, Jiang Chen also felt hungry. He reached behind him, and when no one was looking, he took out a box of Oreos from the storage dimension. He opened the package as he started to eat it.

He was prepared for this kind of unexpected situation so he would always store some emergency food and medicine.

Jiang Chen suddenly noticed that a pair of eyes were peeking at him.

Precisely, peeking at him chewing the food.

"Do you want some?" Jiang Chen smiled as he handed the box over.

The pair of eyes quickly fled. However, they seemed to have noticed that Jiang Chen had no ill intentions as that person took over the half box of cookies and only hesitated slightly before devouring them.

This guy was comparable to how Sun Jiao eats. A smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.

"Thank you…" The person replied in English. The person then seemed to have realized that the box was empty before a guilty expression surfaced and they lowered their head. "Sorry…"

"Don’t worry, I still have lots," Jiang Chen said with a friendly smile, "Can I know your name?"

"Ayesha, seventeen years old."

She was a girl. He was wondering why the voice was so light. Maybe because she was not an adult yet, and she didn’t wear the headscarf like all the other women in the truck.

"My name is Jiang Chen, I come from Hua. Where are your parents?"

"They got killed by the IS… all because my mom rejected those devils' demand." Ayesha’s voice was calm and emotionless, without much sorrow on her face. It made Jiang Chen speechless, as he didn’t expect such a depressing topic.

"Sorry," Jiang Chen gently said, but he received a peculiar look.

"What happened?" Jiang Chen asked confusedly. He was not sure if he said something he shouldn’t’ have since he only knew the peaceful way of life.

"Nothing. I just didn’t expect someone to say sorry to me." Ayesha turned her head.

"Do you have any plans once you get to Turkey?" Jiang Chen forced a smile as he decided to talk about something lighter.

Perhaps once she started her new life, she would be slightly happier.

"No plan, head to refugee camp and receive humanitarian aid… and see if there is a Saudi or Turkish man that’s willing to buy me. I am still a virgin, if I dress up, it shouldn’t be a problem." The girl’s voice was calm, with an awareness and apathy unfitting for her age.

[Okay… looks like any topic will become depressing.]

Jiang Chen chose to shut up.

－

The truck would still stop overnight due to possible dangers. The driver also needed to rest.

At this time the refugees would choose to go the washroom and stand outside for a bit of the light breeze. Jiang Chen got out of the truck and went to the washroom. He also lavishly took out some paper to whip.

Once the car stopped, Robert came and chatted with the two of them for a while. He still went back to the passenger seat when he slept. Robert said that he slipped the driver a Franklin bill and the driver immediately became more welcoming.

At night, Jiang Chen felt hungry again.

He had too many Oreos, so Jiang Chen took out another kind of strawberry cookies and began to chew on them.

He heard a faint gulping sound beside him and thought about it briefly before he smiled and gave half of the cookies to the girl.

"Try it, it’s from my hometown."

The girl didn’t respond. Instead, she started to devour the food. Jiang Chen looked at her and didn’t say anything.

Since he was full, it was time to sleep. Jiang Chen leaned against the truck as he drifted into sleep. Although snores could be heard all over the truck, tiredness was the best sleeping pill.

As to Nick, this guy always fell asleep instantaneously, he also wakes up at random intervals. The thunderous snoring already started to ring.

Except what Jiang Chen didn’t notice was a pair of eyes that examined him.

Ayesha licked the cookie crumbs off of her fingers as she looked at the side of Jiang Chen’s face. Her eyes were filled with confusion.

－

The next morning, Jiang Chen woke up on the bumpy ride.

"We are almost there." Nick noticed Jiang Chen waking up and looked at the phone screen. "GPS shows that we are only 40 kilometers away from Tikrit."

The roaring engine noise filled his ear as the vibration of the engine almost made Jiang Chen lose the feeling in his back. He wiped his face with his hand as dust filled his palm. He was slightly shocked before he quickly realized.

This is definitely not a place to stay.

"That’s good, I can’t wait to take a hot shower… and then sleep." Jiang Chen stretched as he forced a smile.

The battery in his phone was almost drained. To prepare for the unexpected, he decided to shut it down.

"I have a bad feeling." Nick frowned as he touched his black backpack. His M27 was in it.

"I hope you are wrong."

"Hopefully." Nick closed his phone as his phone was about to die as well.

Ayesha raised her head to look at the two foreigners before putting her chin between her arms and closing her eyes.

[Looks like we won’t get to Turkey.]

Being born among the chaos, she was too familiar with this smell.

The smell of death.

Chapter 49: The Flames of War

"I have a company in the UA, a massive one. I like what you do. If you want, you can come drive for me. Don’t worry about the green card either; the Senate is really close to me." Robert was passionately bullsh*ting in the passenger seat, happily chatting with the driver who was wearing a red headscarf and holding a cigarette in his mouth.

Bang!

Spider web cracks had swept across the window pane before it shattered, scattering in like snowflakes.

"Sh*t!"

Robert quickly rolled underneath the seat and grabbed the steering wheel, resisting the pain from the cuts on his head as he pulled the truck to a stop.

The driver who previously had a bright smile on his face now had a gaping, bloody hole in his head.

－

The truck shook violently, the intense vibrations jostling the unprepared refugees to the ground. At the same time Jiang Chen grabbed the metal handle behind him, he grabbed onto Ayesha who was about to fall out and dragged her back into the truck.

The truck swung left and right on the desert sands before it came to a gradual stop without tipping over.

The back of the truck was chaos.

Women trembled and sobbed with their hands over their heads while the men who managed to regain their balance held onto their luggage with uncertainty, they had an overwhelming expression of fear on their faces.

Without question, it was IS.

This was the death sentence.

"What happened, d*mmit... Are you okay?" Jiang Chen caught his breath as he dragged Ayesha up.

Looking at Jiang Chen, Ayesha emotionlessly shook her head. Blood dripped out from the corner of her mouth, most likely from biting herself during the fall. Fortunately, she hadn’t been thrown out from the truck.

"IS' slave catchers. They’re active in the desert and occasionally visit villages. Women will be forced to become sex slaves and men will either be killed or forced to join their group. Could you give me a bullet? If I save my virginity, I can go to heaven."

"No." Jiang Chen smiled.

That smile made Ayesha blank out for a moment.

"Then I’ll pray for you." The girl looked down, hiding her eyes behind her greasy, black hair strands.

"Prepare to engage." Nick leaned against the truck with his M27 already loaded and locked.

"I wonder how Robert is doing," Jiang Chen murmured under his breath as he took out the 11 Tactical Pistol. Following Nick’s signal, he quickly leaned against the other side of the door.

The refugees in the truck stared at them with stark desperation. They moved out of the way and covered their heads as they prayed for safety and victory for the two strangers.

The sound of a machine gun firing rang out from a distance, but none of the bullets hit the truck.

A Toyota pickup truck equipped with a heavy machine gun slammed to stop beside the truck before several masked soldiers jumped out.

"I surrender!" Robert crawled out of the passenger seat with his hands on his head. He knew that with his ability, the best he could do was not hold the others back.

The IS soldier was ecstatic when he saw it was a white man. He turned around and spoke with his commander before he struck Robert in the face with his gun barrel, knocking him to the ground.

"Search the back, quick!" The commander stood before Robert with his AK, his face twisted into a grimace that flashed his white teeth.

With a face that seemed close to crying, Robert looked up and forced a smile, only to receive a boot in the face.

"Drag him to the car for ransom!" the commander ordered as the soldiers dragged him towards the Toyota pickup.

When he heard these words, Robert let out a sigh of relief. These people were likely from Hadithah. If these devils knew that he was an escapee, perhaps his limbs would have already been chopped off and the video uploaded online.

As long as he did not die, there were always opportunities.

Two soldiers with AK’s leisurely walked towards the back with smiles on their faces. They chatted as they lifted the blinds up.

It was a sweet job. Although the slaves they captured didn't belong to them, they had the liberty to pick out one or two to "enjoy" first, and no one would punish them.

They fired two bullets into the air and grinned with satisfaction as they heard the screeching from inside the truck. The two men glanced at each other before the man on the right climbed into the truck first.

There was no better way to unleash his interest in brutality than taking in the frightened looks.

A grim smile appeared on the terrorist’s face.

Suddenly from the shadows, a giant hand reached out with polar bear-like strength and snapped the fragile neck. Jiang Chen straightforwardly swung his arm like a hammer and smashed the other terrorist’s head into the ground with his superhuman power.

"I’ll go to the front to save Robert. You try to catch their attention from here, and be careful of the machinegun." Finished explaining, Nick quickly jumped out of the car.

Jiang Chen shook his slightly numb right hand. He was planning on using the pistol to smash the terrorist’s skull, but he accidentally hammered with his arm instead.

The result was the same regardless.

[Looks like I need to study some combat technique. Relying on pure strength is cutting it too close.]

Jiang Chen sighed as he grabbed the AK off the floor and lightly jumped out.

He turned the corner and opened fire at the pickup truck, catching the terrorists by surprise. Robert had yet to be dragged onto the pickup truck when the gunshots made the terrorist drop him and began firing back.

Without hesitation, a terrorist spun the machine gun to face Jiang Chen before unleashing a storm of bullets at Jiang Chen. In response, an explosive amount of nitrogen burst out from Jiang Chen’s right arm, blocking all of the bullets mid-air.

"What is that thing?!" The commander ducked behind the truck and craned his head around the corner to look at Jiang Chen with a look of horror.

"I don’t know! The bullets can’t penetrate it!" The machine gunner fired ferociously, but his desire to rip Jiang Chen apart with the bullets was futile.

Clank!

The bullets ran out.

The soldiers grabbed their AK’s to shoot at Jiang Chen, hoping to gain time for the machine gunner to reload. Despite their efforts, however, bullets from the other side began to accurately take all of them down.

It was Nick, who had begun his attack with the M27.

Since Jiang Chen’s nitrogen armor was reaching its limit, he started shooting under the cover of Nick’s surprise attack. Whether he hit anyone was another question entirely, but at least the recoil was nothing for his muscle strength.

"D*mn it! Use the white man as a hostage. Get up!" the commander yelled at a soldier. He could not leave cover with so many bullets suppressing his movements.

The soldier by the hill was also nervous. He couldn’t hit Nick who was hiding behind the truck’s engine, and his two companions were killed instead. But as he turned and reached for Robert, a gun was already pressed against his head.

"Fu*k you." Robert pulled the trigger without hesitation. The gun was from a soldier who died from Nick’s bullets.

The commander saw Robert move and aimed his AK towards him. A sudden impact against his side, however, blew him ten meters away, breaking almost every single one of his ribs.

Jiang Chen retracted the overheated nitrogen armor and then looked at the half-dead machine gunner before he finished the deed with one more bullet.

"Boss, are you okay?" Nick walked up and helped Robert up.

"Sh*t, this fu*king hurts." Robert covered his bruised face as he stood up cursing. He then turned to Jiang Chen and asked, "Is that guy dead?"

"His ribs are broken, so as good as dead." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"Good job." Robert raised his pistol and shot two more bullets. The commander on the ground didn’t even have the strength to scream.

"What do we do now?" Nick checked the pickup truck in the front. "The fuel is good for 200 kilometers, and we can head to Baghdad by ourselves."

"Let’s do that." Robert limped past the truck and grabbed the backup fuel tank and water tank that previously belonged to their old car.

"What about those refugees?" Jiang Chen looked at the truck and asked.

Robert and Nick stared at Jiang Chen with a look of disbelief.

"What?" Jiang Chen said with a bitter smile.

"Buddy," Robert threw the supplies onto the pickup truck and patted Jiang Chen on the shoulder, "since the IS patrol team is already here, that means Tikrit is probably conquered. The United Nations can take care of the humanitarian stuff. We don’t belong here, and we don’t need to worry about them. With enough fuel, we can directly head to Baghdad. It’s enough to remind them of the danger ahead. If we go with them, we’ll be too big of a target."

"I agree with the boss." Nick took out a black marker and climbed onto the engine cover as he proceeded to draw some odd symbols on the roof.

"Fine." Jiang Chen shrugged. Although he pitied the refugees, he knew that too much of it would only cost him his own life. "I’ll go tell them. What are you drawing?"

"UA symbol—to prevent the drones from blowing us up." Nick wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"Black can absorb heat, so the thermal detection device can detect the UA symbol on top of the roof. This way, we won’t get blown apart."

The car belonged to IS after all.

－

Jiang Chen flipped open the blinds covering the back of the truck as many pairs of frightened eyes locked onto him.

"Tikrit is dangerous. IS may have occupied the place. Baghdad is safe. That’s all." Jiang Chen took a deep breath and gave them the news, feeling uncomfortable in this atmosphere.

At least some of them had to know English as the refugees began to chat among themselves. They appeared to be even more frightened by the news.

He did his deed here, whether they liked it or not.

He sighed and was about to turn around and leave when a hand gently grabbed him.

"Hmm?"

Jiang Chen turned around and saw the dirty face of the girl from earlier.

Under the dry and greasy black hair strands were eyes filled with pleading and uncertainty. She said something in Arabic, but Jiang Chen couldn’t understand, so he shook his head in confusion. Perhaps the words were too complicated for the girl to express in English.

[Maybe she is hungry?]

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen took out a box of cookies and handed them to her.

The girl shook her head and after hesitating, she opened her mouth and said with a raw voice, "Please take me with you."

Jiang Chen was shocked. He first smiled, ready to reject, but then he gazed into her eyes and saw the pleading look in them.

[No plan, head to refugee camp and receive humanitarian aid… and see if there is a Saudi or Turkish man that’s willing to buy me…]

For some strange reason, Jiang Chen remembered the words the girl spoke yesterday.

They had pierced his heart like nails.

He opened his mouth as he looked at the girl’s dirty face and couldn’t say a word.

He sighed.

This sympathy again.

"Follow me." Jiang Chen exhaled as he jumped out of the car.

The girl’s rigid face finally displayed a flicker of joy. She prayed genuinely and immediately followed after him.

－

"You’re finally back. Let’s get on our way." Robert noticed the girl behind Jiang Chen, and the way he looked at Jiang Chen suddenly became dubious as he lightly whistled.

Nick, who was usually expressionless, also glanced at Jiang Chen with a suspicious look.

"It’s not what you guys think." Jiang Chen tried to defend himself.

"How are you going take care of her? Why don’t you come to the UA and work with me? Utah supports polygamy." Robert patted Jiang Chen’s shoulder, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

"And get on the FBA wanted list with you?" Jiang Chen rolled his eyes.

"Ahem, won’t ever happen again. Since I escaped, a lot of things will be different." Robert started the car, but not before Jiang Chen caught a glimpse of cunning that did not fit the young age of his face.

Jiang Chen leaned against the chair and didn’t respond.

"I mean, my brother, anyone has moments of highs and lows, especially for people like us who engage in dangerous businesses. If your business is not doing so well, come find me," Robert said calmly, but Jiang Chen heard the sincerity in his voice.

"I am a good businessman now." Jiang Chen laughed, but he remembered Robert’s words deep down.

"No way, you are bullsh*ting me." Robert smiled as he gripped the steering wheel.

Nick and Ayesha sat mutely in the back. Nick had his shades on and was probably resting while Ayesha gazed at the back of Jiang Chen’s head with her mouth slightly open, but no words came out.

"Robert speaks Arabic," Nick suddenly said. A smile appeared on his mustached face.

Ayesha hesitated for a moment as she shot a grateful look at Nick. After pondering, she rallied her courage and said the same words again.

Robert, who was chatting with Jiang Chen, suddenly stopped and gave Jiang Chen a dubious look again.

"What did she say?" Jiang Chen noticed Robert’s expression and asked.

"I pray to Allah that you are able to punish the devils that pretend to use his mercy. Then, even if you believe in heresy, I can still be the present from the desert and become your wife. I’ll be gentle like a camel and attend to you and your wife. As long as you give me a place… This is so corny. I had to translate into English and then into Han , so it might be a bit off, but that’s the meaning of it."

Robert made fun of Jiang Chen, looking like he was about to burst from holding back his laughter.

"What the fu*k." This was the only thing Jiang Chen could force out.

"Utah supports polygamy. Do you need a green card?" Robert laughed raucously.

"You can save that for yourself."

He didn’t have plans to expand internationally.

"True, but it’s only paperwork after all. I know someone from Hong Kong who has ten wives, just not officially," Robert replied.

"I don’t even have a wife yet."

Robert looked at Jiang Chen full of surprise. "That’s impossible. You don't have a woman with this much money? Hehe, how about when I get back to Los Santos, I’ll invite you to try some of the girls on the movie screens."

"Next time, after I take care of the gold, I still have other things to figure out." Jiang Chen stared out the window as he lit up a cigarette.

"Hehe, now that I think about it, all of the Middle-Eastern beauties come from Lebanon and Syria. The girl obsessed with you in the back is a little young, but once she grows up, she’ll probably be a beauty. I probably won’t come back to this god-forbidden place in a while, but before I leave, I’ll go to the Turkish border and bring a Syrian beauty back." Robert narrowed his eyes into the endless desert.

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes at the pervert and ignored him.

As for how he was going to take care of Ayesha, he still had no idea.

He sighed and rubbed his temple.

[The first thing is to take her back home. As for the visa, it should be simplified with money.]

Since he had the funds, it was always good to do some good deeds.

Did he have other thoughts?

With the dry and greasy hair hanging around her dirty face, he really didn’t have any for now at least.

Chapter 50: FBA Agent

Besides a small-scale sandstorm, the remaining journey was smooth without any unexpected events.

The three of them took turns driving. Even Jiang Chen, who did not own a car, had a driver's license.

After Robert discussed with Nick and Jiang Chen about detouring around Tikrit since it was likely IS territory, they decided to follow Tharthar Lake and head northeast through Samarra before arriving in Baghdad. This was their plan to avoid all possible high-activity areas.

At night, the four of them stayed in the car. The sound of fighter jets screeching above them made the whole evening a tense affair. Despite that, no bombs dropped down thanks to the black pen that clearly served its purpose.

Nick found a random reason to change seats with Jiang Chen, leaving Robert to lean towards Jiang Chen’s ear with an unclear expression and say with a lowered voice, "Don’t worry, I’m pretty dead when I sleep. If you want to… hehe, I won’t look." Robert also glanced with a smirk at Ayesha who was huddled into a ball in the corner.

"Fu*k off!"

Jiang Chen didn’t have the desire to at this point, and even if he did, the smell was too awful.

For these refugees who ran for their lives, they didn’t have the time to clean themselves as every moment was focused on survival.

As for Ayesha, whose beautiful features were hidden by the dirt, she was aware of her terrible body odor and kept to her corner in a vain attempt to avoid bothering Jiang Chen.

To be fair, although she smelled, it was not at a level where Jiang Chen couldn’t bear it. If he could fall asleep in the pungent truck from before, then he wouldn’t mind the smell now—especially since Robert who hadn’t showered in over a week probably smelled worse.

"I… I might have some odor, but I can promise that once I shower, I’ll use my body to make you satisfied." Ayesha bit her lips as she spoke. It took almost all of her courage to say these words aloud.

Two whistles came from the front of the car as Robert and Nick obviously hadn’t fallen asleep yet.

[These two animals.] Jiang Chen cursed in his mind.

"Ahem, I, I really don’t mind," he said a bit awkwardly.

Ayesha blushed, but it was not visible from under the dirt.

"Is it okay for Islamic women to marry a Han? I heard that the Han believe in Confucius," Robert said mockingly.

She silently gazed at Jiang Chen.

"Following your logic, we also thought your people were all Christians, but you say sh*t more than you say God. Also, did your Han teacher never tell you that Confucianism is not a religion?" Jiang Chen shot back.

Of course, this was debatable.

Robert shrugged and laughed. "Don’t look at me like that. I do pray when necessary."

Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha, and after some hesitation, asked with a serious voice, "As you’ve already heard, I don’t believe in anything and don’t plan on it either. I heard that Islamic women are not allowed to marry people of other religions. Is this still okay?"

"No problem." Ayesha shook her head. "You helped Allah to eradicate the demons in his name. You are my savior. Without you, I probably would have died in humiliation. Since you saved me, I am yours."

Jiang Chen’s throat gulped slightly as he silently gazed into the peacefulness in her eyes.

To be honest, he was tempted.

No man could resist a beautiful girl like this, especially him, who had been a virgin for over 20 years and lost his virginity in another world.

Of course, righteous men would be different, but Jiang Chen was honest enough to admit his personal flaws. Without the proper environment to shape him, he grew up acting like anyone else.

If she wanted it, then it was up to her.

Perhaps after a shower, her beautiful foreigner looks would come through. Maybe she would be a good driver.

With these thoughts, he felt relieved and didn’t pursue his musings.

As for the two animals up front, the thunderous snores had already begun.

－

The next morning, they grabbed a couple of crackers to eat between sips of water as breakfast.

According to the GPS, they were very close to Baghdad. Twenty kilometers northwest of the city limit, they got stopped by the patrolling UA forces, but after a brief inspection, the soldiers didn’t give them any trouble.

Robert displayed his green card to the patrolling officer and managed to borrow their car’s satellite phone. After making a few calls, he returned the phone.

Although the UA soldiers were not known for their good behavior, when they encountered their own citizens, they were quite friendly. After all, no one wanted to receive a subpoena from the court. The soldier from Ohio struck up a conversation with Jiang Chen thinking he was a reporter.

Nick, who already naturally looked like a bodyguard, began to smoke beside the Hummer.

Ayesha hid in the car despite the interior’s humidity. It was easy to tell how terribly the UA soldiers had acted in the past from the distrust in her eyes.

Several minutes later, a black shadow appeared in the distant horizon.

It was a Little Bird helicopter in which Jiang Chen also recognized a familiar face.

The violent gusts of air from the helicopter swirled the sands away from itself and into the surrounding people. Once the helicopter safely landed, the man in the passenger seat unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped down.

"Bruce, my old buddy, we meet again," Robert greeted as he approached and gave the mercenary in combat uniform a hug.

"Sh*t, why do you smell so bad? Looks like you haven’t been doing well lately." Bruce patted Robert on the back and then immediately pushed him away.

"Ahem, I have been doing terrible lately, but that’s all in the past." Robert dusted the sand off his body and flashed his white teeth in a grin.

"I don’t think this can be solved so easily. Mr. Robert, nice to meet you again."

Another middle-aged man with a sharply pointed nose disembarked from the helicopter. He gave a keen look towards Jiang Chen who felt quite uncomfortable, but he only frowned slightly and didn’t say much.

"Ahem, Mr. Laurence, nice to meet you." Robert smiled awkwardly and extended his hand.

"Looks like you managed to escape danger," Laurence said casually as he shrugged.

Bruce stood beside Jiang Chen and greeted him.

"I can’t believe you came here to help him." Bruce forced a bitter smile and took the cigarette Jiang Chen passed over.

"Who is this person? Robert seems to be afraid of him." Jiang Chen leisurely blew a smoke ring.

"Laurence Oden, FBA agent."

"Please don’t release my information to irrelevant foreigners, Mr. Bruce, or I’ll have to deliver my doubts on your work quality to Black Water International on behalf of the FBA." Laurence heard their conversation and put Robert aside as he walked towards Jiang Chen’s direction.

With his back towards Laurence, Bruce rolled his eyes at Jiang Chen and rolled his shoulders. "A guy that’s not that easy to get along with."

Jiang Chen locked gazes with Laurence who stood in front of him. The uncomfortable stare continued for a while before Laurence opened his mouth.

"Are you here on behalf of your country? Or as an individual?"

"Robert is only a business partner," Jiang Chen said calmly.

"Then I hope your business is successful and that you avoid getting involved with this matter." Laurence didn’t try to lower his voice from Robert in the slightest, glancing at him directly as he talked to Jiang Chen.

"Ahem, don’t be like this, buddy." Robert rolled his eyes. "Maybe we can talk?"

"I don’t have any interest in your conflict. Maybe you can discuss it in private?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Discuss?" Laurence opened his palms and smiled humorlessly at Robert. "How do you want to discuss these four hundred tons of oil from Iran. Are you out of your mind?"

"There is no evidence now." Robert smirked, not fazed in the slightest. He reached out and thumped his hand on Laurence’s shoulder. "Buddy, maybe we can make a deal."

"Hmm? I’m listening." Laurence scoffed at him but didn’t push Robert’s hand away.

"To prevent these sort of unexpected events from occurring, I usually have an extra layer of protection when I conduct business in highly sensitive area. For example, a box of empty bullets that are installed with a GPS signal. Where these firearms go, you can imagine." A cunning look flickered in Robert’s eyes.

Laurence’s facial expression drastically changed.

"Where is it?"

"Right here." Robert grinned and threw a smartphone into Laurence’s hands. "Congratulations, future head agent Mr. Laurence. This is going to be a big deal."

"Your smart ass saved you this time. I’ll let this one incident go." Laurence peered at Robert for a long time before he turned and put the phone into his suitcase. He then dashed for the Little Bird helicopter. "Bruce, let’s go. We have to go back to the aircraft carrier."

"Okay, boss." Bruce answered and shrugged helplessly at Jiang Chen before he followed.

"And also that Biden! I need to have a chat with him!" Robert yelled at the helicopter that was lifting off.

"Do whatever!"

The witness protection program was only a verbal promise; whether it was kept depended on Laurence.

"You guys made a deal?" Jiang Chen asked Robert.

"Yeah, a missile guided by the GPS could send all those b*stards into heaven. I bet they’re all busy carrying the firearms into their warehouses. Sh*t, this is big." Robert smiled gleefully and held onto Jiang Chen’s shoulder. "Let’s forget about these politicians with their hands full of sh*t. I’ll treat you to some fine booze in Baghdad."

"You’re not nervous at all." Jiang Chen was speechless.

"I’ve been in this industry for too long. Maybe I’ll think about transitioning to a different industry." Robert shook his head. "The Iran oil business is done for. I’ll have to go to Saudi Arabia and close down the shell company."

The three of them returned to the pickup truck and said their goodbyes to the patrolling UA soldiers. Robert settled into the driver seat and started the car towards Baghdad.

"Do you have any idea what you want to do now?" Jiang Chen casually asked.

"Somewhat. That’s right! Movies! Haha, Hollywood movie producer doesn’t sound so bad. Next time you come to Los Santos, I’ll arrange some Hollywood girls for you." Robert smiled.

"Hollywood celebrities… can you afford them?" Jiang Chen glanced at Robert as he chuckled.

Robert smiled with his hands on the steering wheel. "Los Santos is a place filled with dreams. As long as you’re a movie producer, those blond girls who dream of becoming famous overnight will prepare their asses for you. That godd*mn place, it’s magnificent…"

"Looks like it’s the same for any country’s entertainment industry." Jiang Chen chuckled as he suddenly remembered Liu Yao.

A grin surfaced.

Maybe he should also become a movie producer. It was only a way to spend money after all.

Chapter 51: Ayesha’s Determination

The battle was spreading to Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. The sound of explosions made for a sleepless night as it cast a gloom of war on the once prosperous city.

Of course, that was only for the natural citizens of Baghdad.

As for the foreigners like Jiang Chen and Robert, they drank and caroused, untouched by the events around them.

Amidst the bar’s flashing lights, heavy metal rap pierced through everyone’s ear drums. A Lebanon beauty writhed on stage with her snake-like waist and dark blond hair swinging. The men sitting by the dance floor howled and screamed as one as they threw Franklins in exchange for more exotic moves.

Behind the bar, a black bartender placed mixed cocktails in front of Robert and Jiang Chen. The establishment was rumored to belong to a British man as most of the customers were either foreign soldiers or laborers and reporters.

The people here didn’t have to bear the burdens of this war, even if the battlefront was at the doorstep. They knew their country’s army would come and cover their departure.

It truly made people envious, to have your home country always be your staunchest ally and protection no matter where you were.

"Safe trip." Robert raised his cup.

"Safe trip." Jiang Chen toasted him and threw it back.

The cocktail tasted rather odd. Other than the alcohol, there seemed to be something else mixed with it.

"I heard they banned alcohol." Jiang Chen swirled the crystal glass as he enjoyed the beauties dancing on the floor.

"That’s for religious people. The owner here has an influential background which grants him a special license to sell. Also, the majority of the people here are active UA soldiers or Black Water International mercenaries. Even if the occasional drunk were to cause problems, they’d be kicked out immediately. This place doesn’t even need bouncers." Robert smiled with narrowed eyes as he took a sip. "For these guys that live on a knife’s edge, only this sort of stimulation can give them the peace of mind again to feel alive."

Speaking of the people who could die any second, Robert referred to not only the soldiers who were in danger of stepping on landmines, but also to himself as a firearms merchant.

Jiang Chen’s hand holding the glass briefly trembled as he thought deeply about the chaotic apocalypse and the people who suffered there.

He did not feel any pity.

It was only that he realized he was one of those who could lose his life at any moment.

[I’ll be more careful in the future.]

He shook his head as he took another gulp.

"Handsome, do you want a shot?" Two Middle Eastern beauties in tank tops stopped in front of Jiang Chen and Robert and winked seductively.

"Which one do you want?" Robert whistled at the two beauties as he glanced slyly at Jiang Chen. "This is on me."

"Neither, I have a headache. I’ll go sleep since I have to catch a flight tomorrow." Jiang Chen didn’t feel tempted in the slightest as he sighed and tossed the cup onto the counter.

"Don’t act like a middle-aged man, buddy. Haha, then I’ll take both." Robert laughed, gathering both of the beauties into his arms and caressing them in his drunkenness.

Jiang Chen rubbed his slightly sore temple and stood up to leave.

He left the bar with its heavy metal screams and desire-filled cheers as he drowsily searched for the hotel door in his alcohol-driven stupor.

He shoved the door open and dived into the soft bed, snoring almost immediately with a pungent, alcohol smell wafting from him.

Ayesha, who was curled up on the side, smelled the liquor and slightly raised her eyebrows before she let out a sigh.

He was a non-believer after all.

Once they reached the hotel, Jiang Chen brought her here. Not only did she take a shower, but he also brought her a hot lunch to enjoy. He also requested the hotel attendant to purchase new clothes for her from a store nearby. Although it was not in their job descriptions, a hefty tip took care of the problem.

After settling her in, Jiang Chen left the hotel.

And then he didn’t come back until almost midnight.

Ayesha didn’t sleep until he came home, acting out her role as wife as she courteously waited for her man to come home. This was what her mother had taught her, but unfortunately, she would never be able to see her daughter get married.

Marriage was an uncertainty as Ayesha heard that many countries believed in monogamy. For her who was "picked up", she didn’t envy the ritual—only, she was happy that Jiang Chen did not leave her behind.

Different from before, she was clean and dressed in new clothes.

The exotic beauty was just under the surface, ready to bloom at any moment. Yet even now, it was hidden under an emotionless expression. The rigid and thin body was noticeably malnourished, but the existing curves were accentuated by the slightly thin fabric of the clothes. After a bit of care, Ayesha would become a beauty like her mother.

There were many beauties from her country.

But in this forsaken piece of desert, beauty was a sin.

Ayesha’s eyes were different from Xia Shiyu’s pride-filled gaze. They were instead apathetic, perhaps towards life itself? Jiang Chen couldn’t know for sure with just an intuition.

The day she saw her parents brutally murdered, her tears, her fears, and her sorrows were drained from her body along with her hatred. She had seen far too many tragedies that she even questioned her feelings for her own life.

If faced with the decision between death and a greater pain, she was prepared to calmly choose to end her own life. It was a logic taught to her by war, virulent and widespread among the people.

Despite all that happened, however, this sympathetic Eastern man accepted her.

Ayesha ignored the awful smell of alcohol as she shifted Jiang Chen’s body. She then took a hot towel and placed it on his forehead.

[This place is like heaven.]

Pristine bedsheets, beautiful decorations—she was never so happy before, and she treasured this contentment dearly.

Once she wiped Jiang Chen’s face, a hint of softness showed in her apathetic eyes. Her finger lightly touched Jiang Chen’s chest as she hesitated before she took a deep breath and made up her mind to unzip Jiang Chen’s clothes.

She placed the sweat-drenched clothes to the side and blushed at the muscular body. Embarrassed, she still reached out with her trembling hands as she gently toweled Jiang Chen’s body.

"Mhmm…" Jiang Chen snorted and turned around, scaring Ayesha.

Only when she saw that Jiang Chen was still asleep did her rapidly pumping heart calm down.

She knew she didn’t do anything wrong, but she was still afraid to have him wake up. Gathering her nerves once more, she gently bit her lips.

When his breath became regular again, Ayesha finally pulled up the courage once more to wipe the sweat from his back.

Although she made up her mind to continue, she was still not completely prepared which explained her unabated apprehension.

"Sun Jiao, Yao Yao," Jiang Chen murmured in his sleep as he turned around and grabbed Ayesha’s hand.

Ayesha jumped and then froze in place.

[Sun Jiao… Yao Yao? Are these the names of the mistresses?]

Not knowing Han, her sixth sense as a woman proved to be a scary and sensitive weapon.

When she heard the names, Ayesha felt relieved, but at the same time, an ambiguous emotion crept in.

Jealousy? Not quite... Maybe it was just unease.

She gazed at Jiang Chen’s face with her head close to him. Just as she realized her embarrassing act, Jiang Chen shifted until he was on top of her.

[What to do? Will I get eaten right away?]

Her face suddenly blushed a dark red. The once-apathetic eyes became flustered and confused. She was unable to register that she was leaning into him as her brain melted into a mess.

[But… this is not too bad since it was inevitable.]

Ayesha tried to convince herself as she bit her lip and obediently wrapped her arms around his neck.

[Rather than ending up a devil’s sex slave without any dignity or human rights, this ending is much better.]

[At least this way, my purity will only be for one person, and I will serve only one man.]

Ayesha persuaded herself into calming her racing heart. She urged away her embarrassment and brought her lips closer to Jiang Chen’s alcohol-filled breath.

This was making him commit a crime.

Or adding oil to the fire.

－

Half drowsy, Jiang Chen felt like he was in heaven. A beautiful servant placed fresh grapes by his mouth, prompting him to eat it without any hesitation. Not only were there delicious grapes, there were also sweet wine, fresh juice, and passionate joy.

Wait, why was there passionate joy?

Maybe it was because of the sweat.

Who cared, it was euphoric after all.

Chapter 52: Back Home

The next morning, Jiang Chen held his head as he woke up with a minor headache.

[Did I get drunk last night?]

About to sit up, he rubbed his eyes and suddenly froze.

The girl beside him slept quietly, her hair scattered across her face and her breathing gentle but tired.

And on the bedsheet was a distinct red spot.

[Fu*k? What did I do?]

He almost lost strength and fell off the bed.

"You’re awake?" Ayesha was roused from her dream from his sudden movements.

She followed the direction of Jiang Chen’s shocked look and gently bit her lips, burying her head into the sheets.

Although she had been mentally prepared, when the moment came, Ayesha still felt scared.

The pain that ripped her apart almost made her cry, although the sensation that soon followed helped her enter a pleasurable state, nearly enough to make her forget the soreness. Although it hurt, she surprisingly didn’t mind losing her first time like this.

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen scratched his head as he forced a smile. "Ummm, sorry."

"No need to be sorry. I am your wife. It’s okay even if I don’t get a real name to myself. I understand the tradition of your hometown," Ayesha whispered with her head still lowered and her shoulders covered by the blankets.

Where Ayesha came from, her age was acceptable for marriage but to Jiang Chen…

How could he explain that rather than tradition, it was better described as problematic.

He shook himself out of his momentary frozen state before he sighed and said apologetically, "Last night, I drank too much. Hmm, it must hurt a lot, right?"

His memory from last night was already fading, making him assume that he had forced her when the reality was different.

"Mhmm, it’s too big." The words didn’t have time to process before she immediately blushed at the inappropriate nature.

"Ahem!" Jiang Chen almost choked on his own spit. Ayesha immediately moved over to pat his back, except she lost hold of her wrapped sheet that soon slipped down.

The nicely shaped breasts and waist were fully exposed to him.

"Ahhh!" Ayesha shrieked and reached out with her trembling hands to cover herself again.

They already crossed the line, but she still felt embarrassed. Jiang Chen scratched his head, but in the end, only sighed.

"Study some Han."

"Mhmm." Ayesha buried her head once more, afraid to look him in the eyes.

Jiang Chen forced a smile when he saw the redness on the sheet again and awkwardly patted his still-drowsy head.

He never considered himself a noble guy, but he had his own boundaries. Taking a young girl’s first time still made him feel quite guilty. Even if alcohol was involved, it was not an excuse to escape responsibility.

But Ayesha’s voluntary demure perspective made Jiang Chen feel a bit better.

He was touched by her understanding and made up his mind to treat this girl nicely.

At the very least, he would let her live a life one hundred times more comfortable than the one she had here.

He awkwardly rejected Ayesha’s proposal to dress him as it would corrupt him to the bone and threw his clothes on before he hastily escaped from the room.

Watching Jiang Chen leave, a smile appeared on Ayesha’s face.

In it was contained a slight affection.

She gathered her hands in front of her chest with a lowered head and prayed sincerely to her god.

[Meeting you was the best thing to happen in my life.]

－

At noon, Jiang Chen brought Ayesha along with him on the flight to Dubai. Because Baghdad had no direct flight to Hua, their best option was to have a layover at Dubai first before heading to Hua.

Before that, there was an incident with Ayesha’s identity.

Because of the constant chaos in Syria, Ayesha couldn’t bring any forms of identification with her when she escaped the country. Impractical to contact her home country, she was currently without an identity, so Jiang Chen thought to use money to get her an ID of some sort.

But when he arrived at the counsel, it was empty. Only when he asked the Iraqi soldier patrolling outside did he finally learn that all of the consulate workers had left on the last flight to Hua to avoid the conflict. The soldier was experienced in handling such situations as he directed Jiang Chen to the UN office, but Jiang Chen impatiently called Robert who had planned on staying for a few more days.

Hearing about Jiang Chen’s trouble, Robert happily offered his help and contacted someone in the UA Embassy to acquire a green card and passport for Ayesha at the cost of 20,000 USD.

Robert, however, rejected Jiang Chen’s offer to pay.

"Compared to the deal we’re about to make, this is nothing, right?" Robert laughed on the other end of the phone.

Jiang Chen couldn’t disagree with that either.

With an ID, Ayesha could finally book tickets, and her visa to enter Han would be resolved in the Dubai embassy.

For a whole day, Jiang Chen stayed with Ayesha in Dubai. Although he was envious of the renowned city of wealth, it was not the right time for a tour. He had many loose ends to tie up, such as converting the millions of gold he had in his possession, buying a mansion, and finding a new car to own since he could travel at any time.

Finally, after a nine-hour flight, the two landed in Beijing.

It was already eight at night when they touched down, but the city’s nightlife had only just begun. The lights from the streetlamps and cars lit up the night, shocking Ayesha who had never seen such an endless stream of cars and people crowding the paths.

Jiang Chen smiled knowingly, sensing Ayesha’s shock and remembering his own similar expression when he first left his hometown. At the time, the magnificence of Wanghai City’s night sky had stunned him into silence.

People would only understand once they lived here. Despite the bustling streets, none of it touched your life in any way. Perhaps this was the apathy of the modern world.

Of course, since he had money now, such concerns were no longer his to think about either.

As he called a taxi to a nearby hotel, he tapped her shoulder. The flight to Wanghai City would depart the next morning, and they had to find somewhere to stay for the night.

After showering, Jiang Chen got on the bed right away, ready to sleep, but he was soon overwhelmed by awkwardness from what came afterward.

It was a kingsize bed.

Ayesha, who had just finished showering after him, approached the bed covered in a towel. Her eyes shyly looked down as she gently bit her lips before moving closer to the bed. Blankly staring, Jiang Chen was unaware of his loud gulp.

The exotic foreign beauty with her budding, tender curves…

They didn’t say a word.

Ayesha slipped into the sheets, and everything seemed to make sense.

The second time was always easier than the first, her face not showing the slightest discomfort.

Despite his remaining guilt, her expression made Jiang Chen somewhat relieved.

[I didn’t force her. And it’s not the first time either. Since I already said I’d take care of her, then what’s wrong with the second time?]

Very naturally, he placed his hands on her shoulder, causing Ayesha to shyly lower her head and follow his direction.

－

After returning to Wanghai City, Jiang Chen immediately started to work. Since he currently had no permanent residence, he booked the hotel he stayed at last time and settled Ayesha in there. Once he finalized the mansion, she could move there. And although he improved his English skills speaking with her every day, he still arranged for her Han studies.

Once he arranged everything, Jiang Chen immediately contacted Zhang Xinfei, Robert’s agent in Wanghai City. According to Robert, he was an assistant for Mr. Chen who specialized in cargo shipments in Hong Kong. With Mr. Chen’s extensive influence in Hong Kong, he and Robert had some past dealings in Los Santos.

Jiang Chen didn’t bother asking for the specifics.

Zhang Xinfei was perfectly courteous upon meeting Jiang Chen. Next to him stood a bodyguard that Jiang Chen recognized—the polar bear from the Serbian region, Nick.

"Nice to see you again, buddy," Jiang Chen said sincerely with a light jab at his chest. Despite the fact that Nick didn’t speak much, they still fought a difficult battle together, developing a close bond between the two of them.

Nick also punched back as he took off his shades.

"I’m responsible for this guy’s safety for now."

Although he was the bodyguard, Jiang Chen knew his true purpose was to prevent this man from running away after realizing the value of the goods. The gold would likely be exported by the cargos under Mr. Chen’s name, and once it reached international waters, Robert would then offload the cargo onto his own ship before sending it to South Africa.

"Everything is here. Follow me." Jiang Chen waved his hand and led the way to the storage room where the food had previously been kept.

Nick briefly hesitated. He knew they would be shipping gold, even bringing an inspection personnel, but never would he have thought that Jiang Chen would have stored gold worth billions in a warehouse without any surveillance.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t store the gold here, only moving it just before their arrival.

"We have an old saying in Han—the darkest place is under the lamp. If I hired security, this place would look suspicious." Jiang Chen made something up as he uncovered the gold. "It’s here, and you can come and verify. I hope you prepared the boxes."

Nick gulped as he nodded dumbfoundedly.

The inspector determined that all of the gold was in fact 24 karat quality and could be sold without further processing. The cumulative weight came to be 11 tons and 240 kilograms. When priced based on the weekly average of UA gold, and with a nine percent processing fee, Jiang Chen received via wire the price of 510 million USD.

After receiving the Swiss Bank’s confirmation, Jiang Chen nodded. Nick then ordered his subordinates to pack the box and store it in the truck.

The Zhang Xinfei guy chose to stand outside as he knew the role he had in this transaction.

The less he knew, the better it was. He already received a hefty sum from the business, but as for what exactly was inside, it was not his part to know.

Chapter 53: Five Hundred Million USD

"See you later." Jiang Chen extended his right hand.

Nick cracked a smile as he took his hand and shook it hard. Then in broken Han, he said, "See you."

As the black vehicles departed, Jiang Chen took a deep breath.

500 million USD.

Converted into RMB, that was 3.1 billion RMB.

Jiang Chen ecstatically gasped as the idea took root.

[I’m rich!]

3.1 billion RMB! It was a number he never could have fathomed in the past! If he put the money into a savings account, the interest would be at least a couple million a year.

He took another breath in an attempt to calm down.

The interest alone would be more than enough to sustain a luxurious lifestyle.

After he let this idea sink in, he slowly inhaled one last time, enough to finally settle his rampant thoughts.

If his only wish was to be a wealthy man, then this 3.1 billion was enough to last him a lifetime. But to create an empire that spanned across two worlds...

At this, his excitement gradually cooled down, replaced by the fire of ambition in his eyes.

Desire had to power to make people crazy, but it also made some people stronger.

Wealth? That was not enough.

[I can gain more.]

"Hehe, not enough. 3.1 billion is a fraction of what Future Technology Corporation is going to make in market capitalization." He laughed loudly, disregarding the weird looks thrown his way.

[Not only a wealthy man, I will be the richest man! 3.1 billion would be an astronomical number in anyone’s pocket, but that’s for ordinary people! Am I ordinary? Since I already have enough for a mansion, why don’t I purchase a golf course?

What? I don’t know how to play golf?

So what if I don’t know how to play? I can still show it off!]

And even if it were to draw attention to himself, once the full-sensory, virtual reality computer and other devices were introduced to the market, he would be noticed regardless.

It wasn’t as though he did anything illegal either, so he wasn’t afraid of the authorities.

The government was not foolish enough to believe time travelers actually existed.

Even if the authority were to develop an interest in him, they would treat a corporation with such advanced technology like a precious jewel. In no way would they be foolish enough to kill the egg-laying chicken. To implement technology helpful to the military, the actual procedure would take more than ten years which was impractical.

With innovation also came the risk of prompting an arms race again, risking a technology leak to espionage activities.

But a top technology giant was different, bringing in billions of tax revenue for the country. It would fundamentally change the country’s status in the world.

Even if the authority were to forcefully buy the company and take over, he was not afraid.

With the interdimensional bracelet, no one could catch him. While he wouldn’t be able to do anything against them, he could always start anew somewhere else.

Of course, he sincerely hoped to never see this day come.

Maybe once he grew to become an immovable force, the authority wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on him.

Anything was possible.

With a cocky expression, he stopped a taxi and headed to Xia Shiyu’s apartment.

－

"You’re finally back."

Xia Shiyu squeezed the words out after letting Jiang Chen into the room.

"Umm, I encountered some problems," Jiang Chen said as he scratched his head.

Xia Shiyu sighed at his careless expression.

She hadn’t been able to sleep well these past few nights, but now that Jiang Chen was safe, her heart was finally able to settle down.

As for why she was worried, she didn’t bother to think it through.

"If you have something for me, just give me a call. You don’t have to visit every time," Xia Shiyu said casually.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows with a grin on his face. "Why? You have a boyfriend now?"

Xia Shiyu coldly glared at his humor-filled eyes. "No, but you always find me during inappropriate times. Even if it’s work-related, it’s still not right."

It was already 8 o’clock—allowing a man into her home felt slightly weird. Despite her poker face, this girl took other people’s opinions seriously! If not, she wouldn’t have fired Jiang Chen over a joke.

There were probably already rumors circulating around with the neighbors.

Jiang Chen easily saw through her intentions.

Although he understood, he still wanted to tease this stubborn girl.

"No worries, overtime until tomorrow morning," Jiang Chen said while laughing without thinking through the implications of his words.

Xia Shiyu’s face, however, turned bright red, so threatening that it seemed she would kick him out right there.

"Did I say something wrong?" Jiang Chen asked as he scratched his head once more.

[Seems like I teased her too much.]

Towards this sensitive girl, Jiang Chen could never resist teasing her, but if she actually got angry enough to stop working for him, he would never be able to clean up the mess.

"…" Xia Shiyu’s chest heaved violently as she bit her lips before she finally calmed down.

Extra time until tomorrow morning? You plan to spend the night here? What extra night?

Being an assistant was a sensitive profession. Although Xia Shiyu was the CEO by name, she always felt that her work was more of an assistant’s.

But Jiang Chen didn’t seem to realize the meaning behind his words, and with how easily she became embarrassed, she would never say it out loud.

Xia Shiyu sighed again at Jiang Chen’s grin. She grabbed the document she had worked on for an hour before turning off the TV.

"Company growth. I’ve already submitted the required documentation for the mobile game to the authorities for approval. It didn’t have any sensitive information, and we’ll most likely receive the results shortly. Even if we released the game now, the loose regulations currently in place would allow it without many repercussions. In fact, this would solve the pressure on our cash flow, and many companies are already doing this." Xia Shiyu propped her black-framed glasses and logically explained the progress to date.

"Excellent, I’m impressed by your ability. As for the early-release plan, there’s no need to rush it. We won’t allow other people the opportunity to ridicule us, so follow the procedure as planned." Jiang Chen nodded with a smile.

"On the other hand, the company building renovation is almost complete. Including the furniture and one year of rent, the total cost is seventy thousand RMB. I’ve already submitted the cost to the accountant, and here’s a breakdown for you to look through."

"Not bad." Pleased, Jiang Chen nodded and flipped through the sheets.

Despite receiving recognition for her work, she felt more tired for some reason.

She huffed before continuing, "Based on my research, the minimum number of employees required to operate is fourteen. This is taking into account the fact that we don’t require game developers. A manager would cost six thousand a month starting salary, server maintenance, legal, customer service…"

"Wait, you can just give the spreadsheet for me to look over. Give me the key takeaway," Jiang Chen said.

"The estimated salary cost would be sixty-eight thousand a month. The necessary equipment would cost around one hundred thousand. If we don’t develop ways to generate revenue," she took a deep breath and said slowly, "the company is facing risk of bankruptcy."

No matter how stellar her management, she could not make money out of thin air, particularly for a mobile game that required time to gather the initial investment. Without a proper marketing and operations team to build a large customer base, even with methods such as in-game purchasing, everything was futile without people playing.

"Bankruptcy?" Jiang Chen started to laugh.

"What are you laughing at it? This is your company." Xia Shiyu gave him a dirty look.

Unfortunately, it had no effect on Jiang Chen.

"Ahem, equity infusion." Jiang Chen didn’t tease her further and said in a voice full of arrogance.

"This is the only way the company can survive through this initial rough period. Since we don’t have the necessary assets, it would be difficult for any bank or venture capital to loan money to us. How much is the president willing to give?" Xia Shiyu felt relieved. Even if it was Jiang Chen’s company, she still depended on this job since it all began with her owing him money. The fact that Jiang Chen didn’t outright demand it didn’t mean she would not pay him back; this was her own stubbornness.

"Is ten million enough?" Jiang Chen asked casually.

Swoosh, the files dropped onto the ground as Xia Shiyu stared at Jiang Chen stunned.

"What? Not enough?" He frowned. "What about one hundred million?"

"Are you making fun of me?" Xia Shiyu gritted her teeth and glared at him. There was no way she believed that Jiang Chen was that wealthy.

What kind of business would make this amount of money in just half a year? The only explanation was that Jiang Chen was joking with her.

"I’m not kidding." Jiang Chen laughed. "You can come with me to the bureau to finish the necessary procedures tomorrow."

Xia Shiyu fell silent. After a long pause, she finally said, "If you’re so rich, why would you open a company?"

Jiang Chen thought for a second before rolling his eyes. "Who set the rule that you can’t open a business if you’re rich?"

She was clearly not happy with this answer.

After another long silence, Jiang Chen didn’t expect Xia Shiyu to blurt out, "Do you want to pursue me?"

Chapter 54: Eagle’s Crash Part Two

<Communication Terminated>

"Dam*it!"

He smashed a hanging piece of steel as the orange letters on the dangling screen made Chu Nan even more annoyed.

The corrupted electronic equipment sparked as the circuit was either shorted or destroyed. The shaking helicopter body made him hold his breath.

Once the helicopter body stabilized, he gritted his teeth as he pushed the metal frame on his body with all his might. He glanced at the assistant pilot beside him. That sucker’s condition was even worse as the bent steel frame directly penetrated through his ribcage, and his blood splashed everywhere. He looked at the metal frame that has stabbed through his arm and took in a gasp of air. Nevertheless, he felt lucky to be alive.

That distance was 1200 meters from the air.

Apart from his operating skills, it was pure luck to survive from falling that high up.

Chu Nan already used his best effort. When the machine lost its power, he immediately opened the mechanical revolving air turbine on the side of the helicopter. That was important because if he didn’t manage to open in the initial stage, then the high-speed air flow may have destroyed it.

Good thing that was still functional.

He connected to the backup circuit board, but the situation was looking grim. His assistant tried to establish a connection with the headquarter. However, he received no response.

He changed into manual operation as he used all his energy to stabilize the helicopter's body. The automatic stabilization system was destroyed, therefore if they started to roll in the air or the back wing gets damaged, even God could not save them. The backup mechanical turbine began to spin rapidly due to the airflow as the high-speed force generated "held" onto the helicopter like a parachute. Under the force of gravity, the head of the helicopter began to tip forward. Once the body turned at a particular angle, Chu Nan immediately pulled the plane up and maximized the upward force of the helicopter.

The head of the helicopter instantly lifted up as the fallen force was broken by the sudden upward force from the mechanical turbine. It was about to land on top of the roof that they crashed into.

Then they crashed into the top floor.

The control was fine, but it was hard to select a landing spot in the city's terrain.

Then warm blood splashed all over Chu Nan’s face as he witnessed with his own eyes his assistant being penetrated by the metal frames.

[This doesn’t make sense.]

The sudden Electromagnetic Pulse. It was not a simple EMP. The Helicopter-51 was equipment was EMP protective equipment that was the peak of the industry, but the helicopter was paralyzed without being hit directly.

[What was that thing…]

Chu Nan resisted the pain as he took out a dagger and slashed open the locked seatbelt. He carefully glanced at the view outside as he awkwardly untangled his legs from the deformed control panel and slowly crawled outside.

What did this helicopter look like now?

A small portion of the helicopter smashed through the walls of the 12 stories high building as it got pinned down by the protruding metal frames. The ends of the helicopter hung on the edge. The building's quality was superb to be able to withstand the force of impact after a nuclear war. The metal frames cleared exceeded construction standard.

The smallest tremble of the helicopter body made his heart pump at full capacity. The friction noise made him even more nervous.

The bulletproof glass in front of the helicopter was completely shattered which eased his escape. When he was about to climb out, he hesitated and turned back to snatch the pendant on his comrade’s neck as well as the ammo clip.

After struggling, Chu Nan finally landed onto the hard cold concrete floor. He looked back at the deformed helicopter body as he quietly examined the pendant inside his palm.

The poorly made pendant was covered by a thick layer of blood.

<Carlo Billman>

He flipped to the back as a sentence was engraved there.

<If possible, I want to hang this in the Arlington National Cemetery>

The assistant pilot was a UA Spanish decedent. He was previously a pilot in NATO. However, the concept of a country didn’t exist anymore as plenty of foreigners live in Liuding town with most being NATO soldiers before the war.

When PAC, NATO, and CCCP led World Alliance Council and left the torn land by sending all the "hope" into space, no one believed in authority anymore. When faced with zombies and mutants, all humans belong to the same species.

Not including mutated humans or cannibals.

He checked the equipment on his body before he lifted his hands and touched the back of his neck with his fingers.

It was a chip called "dictator chip," but because it has added complex functions such as long range communication, the chip was less effective compared to the Sixth Street produced "slavery chip."

<Offline>

Chu Nan tried multiple times but did not manage to establish any connection.

"Dam* it, is this broken?"

The "bomb" behind the back of his neck was broken, but he couldn’t tell if he was content or sad.

Content that he was free.

Sad that freedom didn’t mean anything on the wasteland. There was food in Liuding Town so who cared about freedom.

Returning to Liuding Town was not a possibility since the people there probably recorded him as dead. A rescue was even more out of the question as only the metal debris of a previous one hundred thousand crystal equipment remained here. The pilot’s worth was not even greater than the chip on the back of his neck.

"Whatever, I’ll see." He forced a smile as he put the pendant into the pocket and took out his pistol.

Including the one clip in the gun, he still had five magazines left. Two blood needles, a roll of bandage, EP was returning to normal, a dagger, and six B grade nutrient supply. Because he was part of the air force, the nutrient supply was higher quality.

He opened the EP radiation monitor system and determined based on the safe radiation level that this was a rural area, but he didn’t know where exactly he was.

EP did not download the map in the area.

He checked his equipment once again before he turned his head to look at the body and the crashed helicopter. He lowered his head and walked away.

Although he did receive ground training, he never encountered a situation like this. Ordinary survivors would never target planes. Air-based EMP weapons did exist but were extremely rare. Most of them were destroyed in the war.

It was also the first time he heard that a mutant could use an EMP or a similar pulse weapon.

Maybe his assistant pilot has encountered his situation before, but he didn’t manage to survive.

"Stairs cleared."

Just like practice, Chu Nan mumbled as he directed with his pistol and moved downstairs.

[If it is a zombie, then use the dagger to stab the eye area. If it is a screamer, then use shock grenade for cover. If it is Roshan or Death Claw… let’s hope that never happens.]

The elevator was not functional. The building was an office complex before the war. The majority of the zombies were concentrated in the grand hall as the occasional straggler in the hallway was killed with his swift knife action. For small problems, it would be better to avoid using his gun. His body condition with the D level genetic vaccine easily handled the combat requirement.

The only disappointing fact was that he didn’t unlock a genetic ability.

When both of his feet touched the ground, Chu Nan let out a sigh. He gazed into the sky and determined it was around 3 in the afternoon.

5 o’clock was when the street was no longer safe. The night usually fell at 6 which meant that walking on the street would equal suicide.

The night in Wanghai City belonged to the zombies.

"I need to find a survival camp, or find a place to stay for the night." Chu Nan scanned around as he walked to the end of the street.

The abandoned cars on the road still maintained the same look since the moment war erupted. Since the hotspot of the war was in the middle of the city, people would escape to the rural areas.

Therefore, most of the vehicles would point in the direction of the rural area.

He had examined the cars before he walked into the direction away from city center.

Anywhere is better than the city center.

That’s the one common conception every survivor had.

－

The sky began to turn yellow as the sun had fallen to the edge of the horizon. The cast of the yellowish green ray through the radiation dust had a vibe of ominous to it.

He didn’t know how long he walked before it began to turn dark. Chu Nan glanced at the zombies beside him as they've already begun to howl. In a while, those zombies would start to prey on living creatures.

[Should I find somewhere to stay for the night?]

Chu Nan thought as he began to hasten his steps.

When he turned around another corner, he saw a scene that shocked him.

A woman was tied to an electric pole in the middle of the street. She barely wore anything as zombies circled around. She was afraid to call help.

With his pilot vision, he could even make out the look of despair on the rather lovely face.

Someone obviously tied her.

"Fu*k, which bastard did such a disgusting prank," Chu Nan cursed as he cautiously scanned around before he walked towards the woman.

When he approached her, the pleading eyes full of hope locked onto him. He took out the dagger and cut open the rope.

Perhaps because she had just escaped the terrifying experience that chained her there, the woman hugged him as she cried.

"Thanks, Thank you." It was a soothing voice.

"Ok, don’t worry, you are okay now." It was the first time he encountered this situation which made him unsure of what he should do. He only patted the woman’s back clumsily to comfort her.

[The survivors in Wanghai City are cruel to this point?]

He cursed at the heinous act that people committed to her as Chu Nan was just about to ask where the nearest survival camp was.

But at this moment, a barrel-like object pressed against his head again.

"Ha, buddy, you are the first dumba*s to fall for it."

Sweat began to roll down his back as his hand slightly move, but he realized a dagger was pressed against his back.

That dagger was held by a delicate hand.

At the same time, a bunch of men in mohawks and tattoos walked out from the empty shops. They held some knock-off rifles and one simply carried a bat.

The bald head, holding a cigarette, was the head of the group as he walked in front of Chu Nan. He raised his eyebrows as he patted the woman’s face and said in a mocking voice.

"Nice job, bit*h."

Just like a dog.

An unhealthy red flush appeared on her face as she tried to please the man that just embarrassed her.

The cruel reality sent a shiver down Chu Nan’s spine while cold sweat rolled down his face.

Despite living in the apocalypse for so many years, it was the first time he saw anything like this.

[Is she still a human being?]

"Two blood needles, one bandage, damn, six B-grade nutrient supply! Boss, it’s a big fish!" A man who took off his pistol and searched him shouted in surprise.

The zombies mindlessly looked in their direction, but despite the noise, there was still two hours before night fell.

The bald head looked at Chu Nan full of interest.

"Name?"

"Chu Nan." There was nothing to hide since his EP had all the information.

"Where are you from?"

"Liuding Town. Pilot."

"Where’s your plane?" Greed flashed through the bald head’s eye. He did not look cautious at all when he heard Chu Nan say that.

"Crashed."

"Hehe." The bald head smiled and didn’t say anything. He signaled his men to tie him up.

"If you are only here to rob me, you have already achieved that. You can have everything, let me go?" Chu Nan said calmly.

The bald head raised his eyebrows as he suddenly threw a punch in his face.

He suppressed his anger as he resisted the sharp pain on his left cheek. Chu Nan glared at the bald head.

"You are a captive so shut up," he cursed as he extinguished the cigarette on Chu Nan’s face before he waved his hand. "Take him back."

He looked at the dumba*s that took the bait as he laughed mockingly. He then kicked the half kneeling woman in front of him, but the same unhealthy flush of red and a smile to please appeared.

The woman had no name and was just a slave. Perhaps she just an independent traveler before? He didn’t remember when she was captured, nor did he care how they trained her to be like this. But he remembered clearly how she became part of his asset.

Last month, he managed to find a target and proved it was a big fish.

His boss sent an entire raid team, but the Lu Renjia dumba*s ruined everything. How confident was he to order all those men to go into a confined building? He didn’t even check if there were other entrances or sewerage exits.

Only one person returned out of a group of a dozen.

Although his boss was angry, he didn’t blame him as he provided the clue. He took Lu Renjia and the other captain’s woman and distributed all their assets to other subordinates.

It was a form of discipline, but also an incentive. For the bandits like Huizhong Mercenaries, they needed this type of brutality to bond together.

So, this dog like "thing" was given to Zhou Guoping. Although this boss didn’t punish him, he did remove him from the easy job of staying in the Sixth Street and made him rob survivors.

It was harder to capture a survivor on the wasteland than a mutant rat. Most of the people that survived till now were as sharp as a knife edge. The dumb ones were the people that never left the camps. Their return for this month was almost zero.

Pilot? That’s a big fish

Zhou Guoping put the rifle on his shoulder and led his men to the camp.

Chapter 55: Purchasing a Mansion

"Do you want to ask me out?"

It was an unexpected question that silenced the room.

"What?!" Jiang Chen suddenly realized what she had asked and almost fell off the sofa. He stared at Xia Shiyu and was dumbfounded by the question.

He didn’t understand where her logic came from. How did she come up with the "I want to ask you out"?

"The existence of the corporation serves one purpose which is to create profit. If you already have a method in which you could generate a profit greater than one hundred million within half a year, then why would you invest the hard earned profit into a technology industry which poses the highest risk?" Xia Shiyu had paused before she explained.

To be honest, although she may get frustrated by his grin and unserious attitude from time to time, she never disliked Jiang Chen. Also, she felt an emotion she never experienced before interacting with him.

Relieved? Relaxed? It was hard to say.

These feelings made her confused.

The straightforward and unexpected question was the result of her confused emotions.

She suspected before that Jiang Chen created this company as an excuse to date her.

[When did he start to like me? When he worked at the clothing store? I seemed to have hurt him. Because of the pain I had brought him, it has forced him to transition to where he is now.]

Xia Shiyu was conflicted. She hated the idea of becoming a trophy. She always wanted to use her determination to prove her ability and create her own personal worth.

When she was in university, a lot of rich guys chased after her and even promised her job opportunities in reputable firms, and even management positions right away. But Xia Shiyu rejected all of them. She had her own pride, a pride backed by ability. Although she was born into an ordinary family, what she possessed was anything but normal.

Looks are important in this day and age, but it is not everything. Most people still worked diligently.

However, she felt conflicted with Jiang Chen.

She guessed that Jiang Chen created this company just to keep her here. He didn’t have any aspirations with the company. The blueprinted he painted were just bloated statements to make her feel better.

[Because I owed him? No, then what is it?] Xia Shiyu couldn’t think it through.

Women are stubborn creatures that once they made up their mind, they would selectively ignore all other points that negate the point. For example the potential value of the mobile game, as well as investing one hundred million just for her.

All those counter arguments have been fully ignored.

"I don’t understand, one hundred million RMB. If you invest it in real estate, with the return now…"

"Because I want to experience what it feels like to be at the top," Jiang Chen interrupted her.

Xia Shiyu was confused by the odd answer as she stared at Jiang Chen blankly.

"One hundred million? Hehe, it would only be decimals compared to the future market capitalization of Future Technology. I did make a lot of money, but putting it in a savings account would never bring me to the top. One million interests a year would take me years to double my investment. As to if it is for you? Hehe, I could bang girls for years with one hundred million." He didn’t avoid the derogatory words as he stood up and headed straight to the door, leaving Xia Shiyu shocked in place.

[So that's the reason? Then it should be okay…]

She gazed mindlessly at the door as she didn’t know how he had the confidence to say those things, and couldn’t believe that she bought into it.

[Not because of me?]

She didn’t know why a hint of disappointment crept into her heart.

He closed the door and forced a smile at the door behind him.

[Was I too harsh?

But that girl, how great did she feel about herself to have made a conclusion like that?]

He shook his head as he took a deep breath and walked downstairs.

However, he didn’t even realize that, for a split moment, his heartbeat hastened.

The next morning, Jiang Chen took Ayesha to try some steamy buns. He watched as the girl devoured the food and he felt his heart ache at the scene. The image reminded him of Sun Jiao. How is she doing? Yao Yao? Is her body getting better?

He remembered the times in the apocalypse as a smile appeared on his face.

Ayesha peaked at the smile as she felt a stream of warmness flowing inside her.

Maybe it’s time to revisit them. Jiang Chen in deep thought did not notice the girl’s vision as he gazed at the steam rising from the congee.

After breakfast, Ayesha went to her Han lesson. Jiang Chen, instead, took a taxi to Xia Shiyu’s place and picked her up to go to the bureau for the equity infusion process.

Jiang Chen initially felt nervous as he was afraid it would be awkward because yesterday he only left a brief explanation before running away. Now that he thought about, he did escape the conversation.

But he clearly overthought it as Xia Shiyu acted as if nothing had happened. When she saw that he didn’t react to anything, she got into the taxi and sat beside him.

"How was your sleep last night?" Jiang Chen didn’t know how to start the conversation, so he asked nonchalantly.

Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes and didn’t respond. She just took out a piece of document and stuffed it into Jiang Chen’s lap.

"There is a career fair next Wednesday at Wanghai University. I have managed to secure a spot there, and I hope you can come with me as the company’s president."

"No problem, do you have time this afternoon." Jiang Chen accepted without hesitation as he then asked another question right away.

"Yes, what’s happening?"

"Go house hunting with me." Jiang Chen shrugged as he asked with his thick skin.

"Is this considered business or personal?" Xia Shiyu let out a sigh.

"Umm, you promised me. It should be considered personal."

Xia Shiyu looked at the side of Jiang Chen’s face as she subconsciously bit her lips.

She was about to reject him, but the words never came out. Why is this happening? She still didn’t fully understand.

The night before, Jiang Chen followed Robert’s instruction to wire one hundred million USD from his Swiss bank account to his account here. Of course, the money was already converted based on current exchange rate along with some fees into RMB.

It was an interesting method with a low price. Robert promised that there won’t be any legal problems.

He looked at the trail of zeros in his bank account on his phone as he laughed hysterically at the screen for a while before he finally closed his phone. As to Xia Shiyu’s curious gaze, he didn’t bother to explain it and simply closed his eyes.

[Should I drive a Lamborghini? Or a Bentley? This is such a difficult decision.]

Xia Shiyu was indeed an organized person as she seemed to be a perfect fit to do the assistant job. No, the CEO job. Jiang Chen can "do" the assistant role.

Xia Shiyu already prepared the necessary documents and familiarized herself with the legal process. Jiang Chen had scanned the document before he signed. Future Technology’s equity had a trail of zeros added to it.

Jiang Chen noticed that when he wrote one hundred million into the document, the eyes of the customer service representative across the counter were flashing stares at him.

Money is the root of evil. This is too funny.

Before he would have despised it, but now he only wanted to laugh.

"One hundred million of liquid asset. This is unbelievable." With trembling hands, Xia Shiyu looked at the documents. She was still shocked by the series of events.

Although she was a store manager that had exposure to the world before, she was still too young.

"This is only the initial plan, I plan to make this mobile game into a world-class masterpiece. With this plan, it wouldn't be difficult to recover the initial investment." Jiang Chen opened the door for Xia Shiyu like a gentleman.

"So you do know something." Xia Shiyu glanced at Jiang Chen with surprise in her eyes. She thought that Jiang Chen wanted to let her handle this pile of mess.

For a mobile game, it would damage its long term profitability if the company chased after short-term returns and cash generation. The better strategy would always be to not focus on short term losses.

"You have to understand the difference between the emperor and the general. You are in charge of fighting the war, but I, only need to tell you where to fight." Jiang Chen cockily extended his finger and pointed around which made Xia Shiyu roll her eyes.

"I do feel like I am doing a servant’s work."

"Haha, that’s your illusion. But to be fair, your mood seems to be a lot brighter. You can even make a joke or two now," Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu with surprise as he mocked her.

"Where are we going now? Mr. President." Xia Shiyu casually avoided the topic.

"Wanhua Real Estate, the one in the city center," Jiang Chen told the taxi driver, who clearly judged the two of them in the back.

If he wanted to buy a mansion, then he obviously would go to the company’s best location. It would be too low class to keep living in the hotel.

"…"Xia Shiyu didn’t say anything as she quietly followed his instructions.

Wanhua Real Estate, the industry leader in Wanghai City with a market capitalization of 1.327 trillion and part of the Fortune 500 companies. The reason why he chose to purchase the mansion here was that he had no understanding of the real estate market. Since he heard the company’s name a couple of times in the news before, he decided to buy it there.

When he got off the taxi, a magnificent building stood tall in front him. The marble floor was covered with clean red carpets. The unique carvings decorated the sides of the stairs. The combination of modernism and classicalness perfectly meshed together to display the high-end elegance of the building. The vibe of the design made people stop and envy the greatness of the building. The occasional passer would subconsciously avoid the vivid red carpet.

It was like a palace that stood heavenly above the ground.

The design of the building was to emphasize the purchaser’s class and force the peasants to stay away.

To put it simply, they didn’t want people who could not afford the place to enter the building.

The moment Jiang Chen stood on the carpet, he was even scared to take a step further. But then he remembered that he was a billionaire now, so how could he not have the confidence. So he took giant strides towards the door.

Wanhua Real Estate didn’t know that just in the few seconds, he almost missed a deal that could earn millions because of that stupid design.

This was an age that belonged to the new millionaires.

Xia Shiyu, instead, presumed a blank look as she followed Jiang Chen naturally. Not because she was used to the high-class life, just that she wasn’t the one purchasing the house.

"Welcome, Miss and Mister." The two greeters in the front bowed to Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu in synchrony. They wore clean and elegant Qipaos with their hair tied in a ponytail, along with their flawless skin and delicate face. Even the greeters were gorgeous girls which further emphasized the luxury of this real estate company.

The greeter looked strangely at Jiang Chen as this was the first time she saw someone take a Taxi to purchase real estate.

Although she was curious, she still must follow the rules of the company and be courteous. The company rules stated clearly that no judgment should be made based on impressions. Violators will be fired even if it was a manager that broke the rule. This was to avoid accidentally disrespecting wealthy people dressed in regular clothes.

There were plenty of people that liked to act low profile.

High salary equals high expectation, which is the culture of Wanhua Real Estate.

She was a greeter and therefore didn’t need to bother with these things. Even if Jiang Chen was here to look for trouble, that’s security’s concern.

Jiang Chen didn’t bother with what they thought as he walked into the grand hall in full, confident strides. Xia Shiyu behind him only glanced at the greeter with her head lowered before she left.

Marble pillars with stone floors, the giant crystal chandelier drew the attention of every visitor like a bright diamond. The elegant design of the grand hall filled Jiang Chen with expectations for the mansion he was going to purchase. If they would design the headquarter with such radiance, then the house they sell must be comparable.

The building itself was a great advertisement.

But when he saw the receptionist, he stood shocked in place.

Chapter 56: The Surprising Reunion

"Hello, Sir, what type and what unit would you… It’s you?!"

The youthful reception behind the table courteously explained to Jiang Chen, but when she saw his face, her eyes popped wide open.

"This is a small world." Jiang Chen forced a smile.

The blonde curls, the delicate nose, and her mouth along with eyes full of "pureness" behind a round framed glasses. The student vibe made her even more attractive.

Though she certainly pretending to be younger than her actual age.

Fang Yuanyuan, a name that broke his heart.

When he was in university, he never had a girlfriend, or more accurately, never successfully chased after a girl. Not that he looked bad as he was confident of his looks, but the fact was he was poor. This girl called Fang Yuanyuan was a girl that he had chased after, and also the last one he ever pursued. He still remembered that they met at a gathering.

The reason why he liked her was because of her energy, as well as the faint dimples when she smiled. Fang Yuanyuan didn’t keep her distance with Jiang Chen because he was poor, she always warmly said hi to him, and they chatted on Wechat.

For Jiang Chen who was less popular among girls, she was like an angel to him. What made him feel even more strongly was that he "felt" that she also liked him back.

But the reality proved that it was a rookie mistake.

A girl being nice to you could also be nice to other people. The illusion of "she likes me" was often just a one-sided imagination. Being close to you was only because you could be used or she was just bored. Rejecting you because you were friendzoned since the beginning.

If she liked you, she would have asked you out already or hinted at you to ask her out.

Don’t to mistaken, if she blinked her big eyes full of cuteness at you that’s not the boyfriend, it’s not because she is innocent, but rather "I am thirty, can you buy me a Starbucks. Of course, the noun could be changed to pizza hut or Louis Vuitton.

These types of innocent acting girl, people refer to them as green tea bitch.

If you don’t like me, just tell me to fu*k off! Why are you acting close to me?

Of course, Jiang Chen admitted that it was dumb of him to be involved in the first place. Every basic girl always had some boys run around her. One held her bag; one paid for her, one alleviated her physical needs…

That was the definition of being nave. He really didn’t know something like this would happen.

It was one day during Jiang Chen's second year of university that he asked Fang Yuanyuan out to a movie. The movie was Liu Yao’s <That Year>.

And then, there was no and then. He finally woke up, woke up from the illusion that year.

He realized it was a one-sided emotion.

After rejecting the person, to continuously expect the person to act like a "best friend", to expect they would continue to revolve around you and your life, that was greed.

In the end, she ripped off the faade of innocence and began to mock him for being weak and useless.

Shocked, confused.

Within the next two years, every time they passed by each other, she would always hasten her steps and walk away pretending not to know him. It was better that way as it would be awkward otherwise. He had already put this unhappy memory into the back of his head. Especially after his roommate told him that, "I didn’t tell you before because I was afraid that you would be angry, but that Fang Yuanyuan girl has an ambiguous relationship with other people at the same time.

There was no reason to discuss whose fault it was.

But it was after that moment that he no longer believed in fidelity.

Especially after he possessed the financial capability, he was out of control. But this was another story to be told.

－

He just didn’t expect that one year after graduation they would encounter again.

In his memory, Fang Yuanyuan was an art major, but she came into the real estate business. It was not odd since he did study a supposedly good major, mechanical engineering, but still sold clothes after graduation.

The feeling to meet an old friend felt odd to Jiang Chen.

"You, why would you come here." The girl looked around nervously as she lowered her voice and said in a begging tone, "please, don’t come bother me anymore, you and I won’t happen."

"I think you are mistaken." Jiang Chen awkwardly looked at Fang Yuanyuan.

Although she had hurt him before, he didn’t have the desire to seek revenge.

What happened before was all buried in dust. Yes, Fang Yuanyuan did hurt him, but through her perspective, she didn’t do anything wrong since Jiang Chen couldn’t give her the life she wanted.

Also, it’s hard to debate who actually gained more from her rejection.

"How did you find out where I worked?" She gritted her teeth as she locked her eyes on Jiang Chen. "Leave, I don’t want to see. I won’t accept you."

Jiang Chen was completely dumbfounded.

[What? Do I need your permission to buy a house? You are mistaking this whole thing.]

But Fang Yuanyuan didn’t give Jiang Chen the chance to explain as she acted defiantly.

As to why she rejected so dramatically, it was because of something that happened recently.

A middle-aged business man that recently bought a second-hand house from here proposed to her. The reason behind it was she tricked the bald, middle-aged man to think that a cute girl had fallen in love with him, so he hot-headedly signed his name on the contract.

But when the middle-aged men showed up with ninety-nine roses to her workplace…

The exact details will not be discussed, but in short, the guy got kicked out by security. Because of this, the manager warned her. Even if the implicit rules within this industry was not new, you still have to watch your tail.

She was terrified that Jiang Chen would pull something by directly proposing to her.

If he made a fool of himself here and demanded her to marry him, even if the security would kick him out, she would be the laughing stock between her colleagues, and it would even affect her bonus this month.

She selectively ignored the woman that stood behind Jiang Chen, a woman that would embarrass Fang Yuanyuan not only just in looks.

"You know her?" Xia Shiyu in offline mode suddenly opened her mouth with a mischievous look.

[Why is it so cold here, is the AC too low?] Jiang Chen shivered.

"I guess." Jiang Chen awkwardly answered.

This is ruining the mood, let’s try a different place then.

With Fang Yuanyuan’s arrogant act, Jiang Chen wasn’t in the mood anymore. He didn’t even bother explaining as he was ready to turn around.

Seeing Jiang Chen leave in "embarrassment", Fang Yuanyuan let out a breath as she was amazed by her cunningness.

Good thing I acted with certainty. Haha, dumba*s.

"A toad that wants to date the swan." (To crave for what one is not worthy of.)

Jiang Chen stopped, although it was faint, it didn’t escape his ear.

Xia Shiyu also stopped; however, she looked it like she was happy to see the conflict unfold. Jiang Chen noticed and gave her a dirty look before he gradually turned around and walked in front of the reception.

"What, what do you want? I am calling the security." Fang Yuanyuan saw that Jiang Chen was walking towards her with a fierce look as she began to feel nervous. She started to stutter.

"Nothing. What? A receptionist can reject the customer’s rights to buy a house?" Even if you don’t want me to buy, I will buy it here, and I will buy it from someone else right in front of you.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he glanced at the security guards walking over.

A deathly stare.

[This guy killed people before?!]

The security guard suddenly felt fear overcome him as cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

Although Jiang Chen didn’t intentionally expose anything, the bloodiness stained from the chaotic apocalypse crept into the security guard’s mind through his grim gaze.

His instinct from being in the gang told him that he would not be able to handle the young man in front of him. He wasn’t planning to start a fight, but momentum wise he already lost out.

The air in the room started to tense up.

At this moment, an apologetic voice suddenly alleviated all the tension in the air.

"Of course she doesn’t have the right, honorable sir. I apologize for this poor demeanor of our company’s reception."

Chapter 57: Who’s the Swan?

"Of course she doesn’t have the right, honorable sir. I apologize for the poor demeanor of our company’s receptionist."

Huang Li’s songbird voice floated from the back of the hall. A gorgeous woman in black walked out in elegant steps as she lowered her body slightly to express her apology.

Flawless skin, delicate face, and on top of the seductive eyes were a pair of finely drawn eyebrows. Below the perfect nose of hers was a small mouth. The vivid red lipstick did not make her look slightly ordinary. Instead, it radiated her elegance. Her black uniform perfectly outlined the curves of her body as the pencil skirt pressed against the black stockings, mysterious and seductive.

The opening in front of her shirt exposed the white and deep valley in front of her. She was created by God in perfection.

Just in beauty, she was even slightly more attractive than Xia Shiyu.

Of course, it was somewhat unfair since Xia Shiyu would always be expressionless and never really put on makeup. Her wardrobe comprised of professional clothing and her primary purpose was to go to the bureau with Jiang Chen, and house hunting only happened because of an agreement.

An attractive woman mediating the situation was much more efficient.

The sincere apology already diminished most of Jiang Chen’s anger away.

It was not a big deal to start with since their manager already apologized, he didn’t want to persist further.

"Mhmm, it’s okay."

[This girl is attractive.]

Jiang Chen tried to hide his gulping. For some reason, he felt someone staring at him questionably.

Perhaps confident with her own beauty, or perhaps she had seen too many guys embarrass themselves in front of her.

Xiao Mengying didn’t mind as she steered the conversation.

"I am the sales manager here. My name is Xiao Mengying, you can call me Yingying. Mister. What type of unit would you like to purchase? I have extensive experience in selecting the right units for my customer." As she spoke, she was also examining Jiang Chen. Although Jiang Chen didn’t wear anything high end, nor did he exhibit class in his actions, in the world filled with newly emerging millionaires, it was nearly impossible to tell who had money. Since he walked into this place, it proved that he was definitely financially capable.

When she noticed Xia Shiyu, Xiao Mengying was even more certain of her guess. To be able to walk in here with a girl as attractive as her, looks would not do justice. Xiao Mengying also noticed that the expressionless beauty was not this guy’s wife, but perhaps played a mistress or assistant role. The hint of "dislike" made her even more confident.

Her light tone made the two feel a lot closer, Jiang Chen’s intention to act arrogantly faded away.

Truthfully speaking, although he liked to act arrogantly, he was nice the majority of the time.

"I want to buy a comfortable mansion, do you have any recommendations?" Jiang Chen regathered his thought from staring at the stunning beauty as he said with a smile.

"Mansion?" Xiao Mengying was slightly shocked. She originally thought Jiang Chen only wanted to buy an apartment at a high-end location, it was the deal that she had done the most. But Jiang Chen straight up wanted purchase a mansion, the cheapest mansion in Wanghai City was at least ten million. With the 0.8% commission her company promised, this one deal would be more than several deals combined.

Xiao Mengying’s eyes immediately lit up as the way she looked at Jiang Chen held more hidden seduction.

"I apologize." Xiao Mengying gently lowered her body as she apologized for her shocked look, at the same time intentionally exposing her cleavage slightly more.

She heard the gulping sound as a trace of a satisfied smile appeared on her face.

All men were perverts. If they were not, it’s the girl not being attractive enough.

She was extremely confident with herself.

"Sir, if you want to purchase a mansion, please follow me to the VIP room. Any deal over five million will be done in the VIP room to provide the best quality service, I hope you don’t mind."

"I don’t mind, lead the way." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Sir, please come over here." Xiao Mengying smiled delicately as she leaned forward with a pleasing gesture.

Xia Shiyu frowned slightly. She didn’t know why, but she disliked this woman. Not because she was jealous of the way she looked, it was the fact that she felt a sense of danger around her. Where did the feeling come from? She couldn’t think it through, but she just faintly had this feeling.

Although annoyed, she could only let out a sigh and follow Jiang Chen since he was the one buying.

When she noticed that Jiang Chen’s eyes locked onto Xiao Mengying’s round butt, she felt a strange annoyance and frustration. But then she thought, he is not my boyfriend, why am I angry?

[This doesn’t make sense.]

She was in the middle of a conflicting set of logics as she began to feel a frustration she was not accustomed to.

Xia Shiyu’s facial expression change, of course, didn’t escape Xiao Mengying’s eyes. She had spent a few years within a melting pot known as society as she advanced from a normal salesperson to where she was now. Her attention to body language was superb.

Jealous but didn’t react meant that the two were still in the dubious face of the relationship. Xiao Mengying saw through the exact state of their relationship.

There were so many opportunities to be taken then, as a faint smiled crept onto Xiao Mengying’s face.

A lot of friends are also real estate salespeople, but they eventually became the owner of the house they sold. It not only depended on the look but also their cunningness.

She was making plans in her mind. If this Mr. Jiang would purchase a mansion over fifty million, then it would be worth it for her to make a move. Since sales in real estate was a career with a time limit, no one would want to buy a house from an old woman. Even if she took care of herself, the age ceiling was still around thirty years old. With her current salary including commission, she could make almost one million. But of course, this type of salary was unsustainable. With the current housing market condition, despite prices still increasing, the volume decreased significantly compared to 2008. The company fired a group of people just last month. Although it would never affect her as the star salesperson, the current industry trend forced her to consider her options.

Marrying rich was not a terrible choice.

When she thought about all this, Xiao Mengying’s invasive vision scanned across the expressionless Xia Shiyu. She was ready to steal her man.

Jiang Chen who walked beside her didn’t notice the change in this beauty’s expression. He gave Fang Yuanyuan, who was frozen in place, a long meaningful look before going into the VIP room.

[Who’s the swan? Who’s the toad? Dumba*s.]

He cursed satisfyingly in his mind as he felt joy flow through his body. His pride and sense of revenge were both fulfilled.

Three people with their own thoughts left the grand hall and left only Fang Yuanyuan standing blankly at the front desk.

Regret? Unwillingness? Confusion? Jealousy? Or all of them.

A ten million dollar deal just scathed by her.

Jiang Chen? Him? How could he buy a mansion!? He couldn’t even afford Pizza Hut? This is impossible!

A million thoughts flashed through her mind which made her feel surreal.

But, it was too late to regret. Fang Yuanyuan could never fight off the meat from her manager's mouth. Especially since she had already offended Jiang Chen.

The toad that wanted to date the swan?

Who’s the toad? Who’s the swan now?

There was no way he could like her now. Fang Yuanyuan only felt regret submerge her completely because of her irrational reaction. She could have easily used their previous relationship to eat the "meat," but she gave it away with her own quick judgment.

At the same time, a slim hope was still in her mind. She knew Jiang Chen’s family background and knew where he worked after the graduation. A clothing store salesperson would never afford a mansion. He must be lying. It was an elaborate scheme to embarrass me.

Her colleagues did not have the slightest attempt to hide their mockery. They knew well that they would not beat Xiao Mengying. But this girl gave away the meat in her mouth, that was so dumb.

Fang Yuanyuan couldn’t bother with her colleague’s expression as she fell into deep despair and regret, unable to escape from what happened.

She regretted that three years ago she did not say yes to Jiang Chen.

At the same time, she cursed and thought everything was set up to mock her.

When a person sank into irrationality, their intelligence would be drawn into oblivion.

There is not a lot of second chances in the world, or else everyone would be a millionaire.

Chapter 58: The Intimacy in the Car

“Is Mr. Jiang buying the mansion for investment purposes or for personal use?”

“For myself. Is there a difference?”

Perhaps intentional, after Xiao Mengying seated Jiang Chen, she directly sat beside him. The leather sofa here was for two people, so Xia Shiyu had to sit on the single sofa.

Because they were too close, Jiang Chen could smell the Gardenia fragrance. Due to the angle they were seated in, if he wanted to look at the documents in Xiao Mingying’s hands, his eyes inevitably caught the red bra inside her V-neck.

[I do apologize, this is by no means intentional.]

The arousing scene made Jiang Chen straighten his back and adjust the way he sat to avoid being too obvious.

The small movements did not escape Xiao Mengying’s sharp eyes as her tongue rolled across her bright red lips. Xiao Mengying leaned her body forward even further to make it look like she was providing a better angle for the customer to read the documents at, but the real intention was to show the scenery of her cleavage more.

“If the purpose is to invest, then the appreciation value potential is what Sir you should consider. But if it is for personal living, then the environment and amenities are the top considerations. Based on your needs sir, I recommend this mansion in the Linjiang Area. The mansion is within the newly developed upper-class community, the amenities and the surrounding area are all world class. The mansion is three stories tall with a basement. It is equipped with a double garage as well as a private front yard. The position of the mansion is facing the river which directly oversees the beauty of the river. If Sir you are into high class living, then you must take serious consideration of this mansion…”

Xia Shiyu sat silently on the side with her eyes locked onto the slim distance between Jiang Chen and Xiao Mengying’s arm.

She felt an unexplainable frustration.

“12 million?” Jiang Chen frowned.

Xiao Mingying carefully examined Jiang Chen’s facial expression. She sensed that Jiang Chen was not too happy with the price as she added, “Sir, Wanhua Real Estate’s top priority is our homebuyer’s comfort. Although the price is a bit high, …”

“It’s not the problem with the price. Well, it is. Let’s not waste any time. Show me the most expensive mansion,” Jiang Chen said right away.

Xiao Mengying first felt disappointed, but when Jiang Chen said that, she paused to think through what she had just heard before her face turned ecstatic.

“Okay, sir, please look at this mansion.” Xiao Mengying’s tone became even sweeter as her delicate fingers quickly flipped through the documents. She found a picture of the mansion. Perhaps it was an illusion, but Jiang Chen felt this woman was getting even closer to him.

“This mansion is our company’s masterfully crafted sample building to demonstrate our excellence in design. Located in Wanghai City Mingxin Area, among the high-class mansion complex. It is located on the upstream of the river and has a direct view of it. The mansion’s design is based on a combination of classical and modern theory and was skillfully designed by the world class architect K. Garen.

The compact design not only saves addition space, but it also eases traveling between different units of the mansion. The mansion is four stories high with a basement attached. The garage is a quadruple garage. It is also built with a 10m by 10m private pool with a mobile roof design. In the summer, it can be used for a pool party, and in the winter the roof can be closed to replicate a hot spring environment.

The private garden in the front of mansion could be used for a BBQ party, which is the current trend of the upper-class society. The helicopter pad on the roof could be used for takeoffs and landings of small to mid-sized helicopters. The open balcony on the other side has a full view of the beautiful scenery of the river.

Additionally, to ensure the safety and security of our homebuyer, our company has provided that the community’s security measure is the highest within Wanghai city. This mansion’s security measure, in particular, is the top priority for our security team. The value of this mansion is superb. The area is 2100 square meters with a total cost of 240 million RMB.”

Listening to Xiao Mengying’s pleasant voice, Jiang Chen carefully examined the details of the mansion.

Very pleased! Very pleased with every aspect of this mansion.

The security was top notch, the geographical location was also not too far from the mansion.

The more important thing was that this building was great to show off.

“Xia Shiyu, what do you think about this one?” Jiang Chen handed the documents to Xia Shiyu.

“Mhmm, not bad.”

Jiang Chen examined Xia Shiyu’s facial expression confusedly, he sensed that her mind was somewhere else.

“Do you not feel okay?” Jiang Chen was concerned.

“Mhmm, a little. I want to go back now,” Xia Shiyu answered absent-mindedly as she suddenly stood up and walked to the door.

“Miss Xia, if you are not feeling okay, I can lend my car to my colleague and send you home, or to the nearest hospital. Health is an important issue, and please be careful.” Seeing the “inconvenient” personal leave, Xiao Mengying was glad, but she didn’t show it on her face. Instead, she looked genuinely concerned.

“Thank you then.” Xia Shiyu didn’t say no as she did feel a bit sick.

Perhaps it was from this morning? But she didn’t seem too worried.

The greeter standing on the side took Xiao Mengying’s car key and smiled at Xia Shiyu before both of them left the VIP room.

“Mr. Jiang, if you are sure about your choice, I can accompany you to take a tour of the mansion,” Xiao Mengying said as happily pressed her body against Jiang Chen’s arm. Although usually a guarantee fee must be paid to do so, that was for the regular customer. For a VIP customer like him, it was not necessary.

Jiang Chen hesitated before he finally nodded. Although he wanted Xia Shiyu to accompany him to give him some advice, since she felt sick, that wouldn’t work. She did look through the pictures and said it was okay.

[After taking care of this, I’ll go visit her place. Although it is just a cold, no one is there to take care of her.]

“Ok, let’s go then.”

A delightful smile appeared on Xiao Mengying as she led Jiang Chen to the company’s parking lot. Luxury vehicles were parked here for valuable customers.

She gestured Jiang Chen to sit in the back of the car before Xiao Mengying also, in triumphant steps, walked to the other side and elegantly sat inside. The driver in the front started the car and smoothly headed to the road.

A Mercedes-Benz Costumed Version. The back of the seat was very spacious with the front and back of the car divided with a blackboard. The window was also tinted which turned the backseat into a secretive area.

The atmosphere was rather erotic.

Especially when a beauty that sat beside you with her legs crossed looked at you with a dubious smile.

“Mr. Jiang, there’s still 30 minutes before we arrive. Let’s discuss something interesting.”

Jiang Chen noticed the seductive little tongue roll between her parted bright red lips. The pair of charming eyes has been particularly seductive under this intimate atmosphere.

“Oh? For example?” Jiang Chen also smiled.

He heard the implicit rules within the real estate sales industry. To get a higher commission they would provide special service to big customers, but he didn’t expect to encounter it.

“For example, if you choose to pay the full amount, I’ll bring a little surprise for you.” The curvature of Xiao Mengying’s mouth was teasing Jiang Chen.

“Oh? Then this is something to look forward to. If you can make me satisfied, then I’ll consider paying a guarantee fee. If I am happy with the mansion, then, of course, it is okay to pay the full amount.” Jiang Chen’s lips also began to curve upwards as desire began to show through his eyes.

He never said he was a courteous gentleman. Since the hint was so obvious, why would he say no?

Xiao Mengying’s eyes lit up as she processed Jiang Chen's words. Guarantee fee would equate to strong intention in purchasing the mansion. It would be up to her efforts to convince the customer to make the final decision.

“Jiang Chen’s a man of his words right?” Xiao Mengying teased as her beautiful eyes cast downwards and she left her seat.

Jiang Chen finally knew why the design was so spacious. Xiao Mengying knelt in front of him as she seductively looked at him. She opened a compartment from under his seat and took out something small.

“To welcome your sir, I’ll help you, sir, to clean up a little?”

He didn’t expect her to be this straight forward.

Xiao Mengying used her fingers to opened Jiang Chen’s belt and gently loosen it before she unzipped a particular area.

“How are you going to clean it up for me?” Jiang Chen reacted to Xiao Mengying’s hands' movement as he raised his eyebrow.

“Like this.” Xiao Mengying laughed teasing him. She took out a wet wipe and surrounded Jiang Chen’s private area with both of her hands.

It was a cold and soft sensation. The coldness came from the wet wipe, the softness came from the delicate hands of the beauty.

“Just like this?” Jiang Chen asked dubiously.

She smiled as she put her face closer. She looked up charmingly and tastefully licked her red lips with her playful tongue.

“And like this.”

The hot breath, the warm and wet sensation, Jiang Chen felt that he was surrounded by moistness and warmness.

Xiao Mengying was satisfied with Jiang Chen’s expression. With her eyes narrowed, she began to savor the delicious treat in her mouth. Lick, suck, and bite, with all her ability.

Not only her skillfulness in eating ice cream, but Xiao Mengying's face of enjoyment also made Jiang Chen’s scalp tingle. Even if he knew it was acting, who could last through a beauty’s intoxicated expression?

The scenery outside the window flew past as the presence of pedestrians and cars made both of them even feel more excited. Especially when it was not possible to see from the outside, but everything was so clear from the inside.

Fast and furious?

At the peak of climax, Jiang Chen held onto Xiao Mengying’s head as he forcefully spilled his ice cream into her mouth, followed by her painful gulping sounds.

Chapter 59: Luxury

The luxury car stopped in front of the community as the driver rolled the window down to scan the identification card before the bar slowly lifted up. Peering through the window, Jiang Chen noticed that all of the security staff were muscular and fit, equipped with electric rods. Although he didn’t know the specifics of their ability, from the way they stood, he guessed that they must be retired soldiers.

His suspicions were correct; the fifty security guards within the community were all elite soldiers who retired without any infractions. The property management’s high reputation was certainly justified.

Since the community’s opening six years ago, many thieves set their eyes upon the property, but none were successful. The security team’s scouting skills had been honed in the army. If thieves managed to bypass them on their watch, then they might as well reconsider their career as a special agent.

The luxury car drove smoothly into the wide driveway in the deepest part of the community which was shaped like a flipped bowl on top of a large, artificially-created hill. Jiang Chen’s mansion was at the highest point of the bowl, overlooking the beautiful river scenery.

“The people living here are either rich or respective. This way, not only will you get to enjoy the complex, but you’ll also meet a lot of interesting neighbors.”

Xiao Mengying was hinting that staying here would be beneficial for his career.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t seem to receive her intentions as he flashed a smile at her carelessly. Career was one thing, but the living standard was more important. Without it, what was the point of having a high net worth?

Since he purchased the mansion for his own enjoyment, the first priority was comfort. As for the rich and respectable neighbors? He had a feeling that they would come knocking soon enough.

The car came to a smooth stop in front of the mansion door as Xiao Mengying quickly got out and opened the door for Jiang Chen. She scanned her card on the door, making the metal gate automatically slide open.

“Once registration is complete, the mansion’s security system will update. You can even use the app our company developed to open the door. Of course, I recommend the special electronic key.” Xiao Mengying smartly batted her eyelashes at him as she led the way into the mansion.

Behind the European-themed wall was another world.

The clean-cut grass field, straight stone-brick pathway, and the building that was a fusion between classical European and modern simplicity came together flawlessly without any contradiction to the two unique themes. The open French windows adorned the first floor of the mansion, completed by white, square blocks around the rest of the building. Elegant but open, the four-story building stood out among the other three-story mansions.

Jiang Chen was most satisfied with the oval-shaped swimming pool. Just as the document stated, with a press of a button, the dome retracted to the side, revealing an open swimming pool. The temperature of the pool could also be accurately increased to a specific range thanks to the heating equipment underneath the pool. Although these innovative designs were rather impractical, it fueled someone like Jiang Chen who thrived on the “coolness.”

Xiao Mengying explained the high-end features within the mansion and led him inside.

The interior design pleased him even further.

Sample rooms were furnished for the sake of advertisement, and the company offered the option of refurbishing if the homebuyer was unhappy with the design.

But Jiang Chen was plenty satisfied with the decorations. The monochromatic living room was comforting, and the artistic furniture further enhanced the lively feel. The building itself had been built to perfection by a world-renowned architect. Even without knowing why it felt so right, Jiang Chen felt at peace here.

The dining room and kitchen were masterfully designed as well.

Xiao Mengying led him up the stairs to the second floor which had been designed purely for comfort.

The floor was mostly made up of bedrooms, but what shocked Jiang Chen was that every room was designed slightly differently. The intent was to allow the homebuyer to freely select a room based on their mood. One of the rooms was monochromatic with an emphasis on simplicity, while another was decorated with warm-tones to create an intimate atmosphere.

The third and fourth-floor flowed smoothly with the rest of the building’s design. Each floor had washrooms and two extra bedrooms. There were also some empty rooms that could be converted into whatever the homebuyer wished, such as an office or a gym.

He stood on the top floor balcony and gazed out at the beautiful scenery in the light river breeze. Although it was still the middle of summer, the wind was slightly cool which could perhaps be attributed to the vegetation around the area; it was vastly different from the heat in the center of Wanghai City.

“Not bad. This is a great place to live.” Jiang Chen nodded at Xiao Mengying with a satisfied expression.

The green vegetation, elegant environment, luxury, and comfortable design were more than worth the price.

It was certainly more “modern” than the mansion in the apocalypse world that had been designed with a retro feel—it was the perfect environment for enjoying life.

And all for only two hundred million RMB.

Maybe because money came too easily for him, it was an obvious choice for Jiang Chen.

“Although our company cannot provide a discount on these types of mansions, based on the agreement we signed with Maybach, we’ll provide a brand new Maybach S600 for any home with a pricetag of one hundred million or above. This is a limited edition vehicle,” Xiao Mengying explained.

Jiang Chen had heard about the Maybach S600 before. The price overseas was around half a million USD, which was around three million RMB. Of course, people who owned one hundred million mansions would not lack this small amount of money, but it was a good gesture, and a gift seemed more natural rather than giving a discount as part of a sales strategy.

Chapter 60: House Hunting

Jiang Chen wrote the word “Jiang” on the contract, then raised his eyebrows mischievously as he dropped the pen. He smirked at Xiao Mengying’s eager look.

“If I haven’t tried before, how will I know if it is actually good?”

Xiao Mengying smiled charmingly, naturally understanding his meaning.

“Which room does Mr. Jiang want to sample?”

“Whichever one Miss Sales Manager recommends.”

“Hehe, of course, words won’t allow the gentleman to experience the design philosophy of the mansion. Please allow me to help you understand.” Xiao Mengying smiled teasingly at him as she turned around and walked towards the stairs with elegant strides.

The smooth curvature of her butt and body heated Jiang Chen’s blood.

Although it was a new mansion, everything was already included… such as the bedsheets.

The bedroom door was slammed shut.

Xiao Mengying was prepared and did not resist Jiang Chen’s invasive moves. Her leg curled around Jiang Chen’s waist as both of her arms came up to surround his neck before she passionately kissed him.

Jiang Chen, of course, was delighted to accept Xiao Mengying’s steamy invitation. He opened his mouth to let the small tongue twist and attack his own. Gripping the firm, attractive leg, he easily lifted Xiao Mengying with his 25 muscle strength. He pressed her up against the window, inducing a surprised yelp from her.

“People are going to see.” Xiao Mengying said coquettishly as she gazed at him with pleading eyes. Despite her words, it was already wet where it mattered, and she didn’t try to stop Jiang Chen. Instead, she lifted her gorgeous butt to fit Jiang Chen’s positioning.

[Says no, but the body is truthful.]

Jiang Chen smirked as he pushed his ice cream inside.

With a mansion like this, it was impossible to see inside, since privacy was an important aspect of the design. The green vegetation surrounding the mansions made peeking impossible.

Xiao Mengying bit her soft, red lips as she willingly accepted Jiang Chen’s furious acts. She twisted her body to match Jiang Chen’s rhythm with eyes that gazed at Jiang Chen with tenderness and passion leaking out.

Since it was a transaction, Jiang Chen didn’t need to concern himself with the girl’s perspective; he freely went at his own pace to seek enjoyment. The monstrous thrusting motions did bring joy to Xiao Mengying, but after an hour, the pace became painful.

[Is it still not over…?]

Xiao Mengying pleaded with Jiang Chen with her eyes, but he did not slow down in the slightest.

“Can you not take it anymore?” Jiang Chen adjusted his position to whisper into her ear.

“Mhmm!” Xiao Mengying nodded, trying to gain his sympathy.

“Do you want to get someone else then?” An evil smirk appeared on his face, and he belatedly realized that he was starting to act like Sun Jiao.

Xiao Mengying immediately shook her head and threw away her pitiful act. Her delicate waist began to respond again to the thrusting motion.

A two hundred million deal! This meant the commission alone was at least one million, which was her salary for the entire year! It was also difficult to sell these types of furnished mansions; if she succeeded, it would prove her competence.

The majority of real estate sales struggled to break the ten million mark, but this single deal was worth two hundred million! It would advance her career, and if she could enter management, she wouldn’t have to worry about her youth.

[I don’t care anymore.]

She “dreadfully” closed her eyes as she tried to respond to Jiang Chen’s every action.

Money was not easy to make. Even a night with a celebrity was not worth millions. Either way, this deal was worth it to her. Her legs began to feel fragile and she felt as though she would be torn apart, but if she failed to satisfy Jiang Chen, all of her effort would go down the drain.

If she wasn’t willing to bear the “pain,” there were plenty of others who would take it for her. Despite her colleagues’ haughty attitudes, they were no doubt eyeing her sales manager position.

Results ruled at Wanhua Real Estate; whoever had the better sales record was the better fit for the sales manager position. The newcomer Fang Yuanyuan was no different in that she was willing to do anything. Xiao Mengying heard from an acquaintance that this girl participated in a party with the young master of a gang to sell a house and played with five people.

Who knew what this girl was thinking or what sort of emotions she had coming in to work. But she managed to sell the house worth ten million, successfully completing the sales requirement for the first year to continue working at headquarters.

Compared to her, at least this is a lot easier.

Xiao Mengying comforted herself, slightly frowned, and let Jiang Chen…

－

By the time they returned to the car, it was already dusk. The driver stood smoking beside the car, but when he saw the VIP and his boss come out, he immediately extinguished the cigarette butt before opening the door for him with a courteous smiled and bow.

Being in the industry for so long, he knew what happened in that mansion between the sales manager and Jiang Chen, but it was not up to an ordinary person like him to judge. It was better to keep his mouth shut. The real estate industry was not clean to begin with, especially for a major player like Wanhua Real Estate.

Jiang Chen got into the car first before Xiao Mengying elegantly sat beside him. The driver started the engine and returned on the same route.

In the car, Xiao Mengying called her manager, and when they arrived, he waited in front of the door with the sales staff to welcome them. Although Xiao Mengying was similarly a manager in name, her position of sales manager had been specifically made to motivate the staff. In terms of pay, the salary was the same as any other manager’s, but in terms of responsibilities, they were no different from those of the regular sales staff.

As for the General Manager, that was another role entirely. He managed everything at headquarters from strategy to operations. Any deal over thirty million had to be completed by him, but of course, he didn’t receive commission as his bonus was based on the total sales around this area.

Jiang Chen took the gold-gilded business card from the reverent General Manager and enjoyed the warm welcome from the sales staff that were lined up. His vanity was fulfilled as he happily entered the office together with the General Manager.

Chapter 61: Extravagant Spending

When Xiao Mengying saw that Jiang Chen paid the two hundred forty million in full, her eyes lit up and she felt the pain was worth it, especially when the General Manager secretly sent her a thumbs-up.

"I’m certainly pleased with the house, but I was more pleased with your sales manager." Jiang Chen smiled and shook hands with the General Manager after signing the necessary documents.

The General Manager responded by laughing with a look that all men understood as he passed the proof of ownership and the electronic key to Jiang Chen. He also promised that within three days, Jiang Chen could move in.

The mansion was technically available right away, but in order to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction, Wanhua Real Estate conducted a complimentary cleaning and inspection. Since it was a new estate without any previous owners, it needed a dusting at the very least. Compared to the trail of zeros in two hundred forty million, the cost of cleaning was inconsequential.

The tedious process was completed in a relatively short amount of time. Pleased with the General Manager’s work, Jiang Chen praised him before he leaving the luxurious Wanhua Real Estate headquarters.

On his way out, he glanced at the still-stunned Fang Yuanyuan with a playful smile and a wave of his contract and keys. Xiao Mengying followed him with a meaningful smile, licking her lips ambitiously.

In recognition of her work, the General Manager commended her sales record which meant that she would soon be promoted.

But compared to the million dollar commission, she was more interesting in the owner of that mansion—rich and handsome, and also single. As for Xia Shiyu? She was nothing to worry about.

In terms of techniques, it was impossible for that virgin to please him like she could. She was confident that with her intoxicating body, she would be able to attract him. All she needed to do now was bide her time and call him at the number she secretly memorized.

She firmed believed that with the proper bait, no man would be able to resist biting.

Of course, these were all her own speculations.

Although Jiang Chen was never a nice guy to begin with, he still maintained balance in his heart.

When Xiao Mengying walked out of the office, her colleagues surrounded her and rapidly questioned her about the man who was personally greeted by the General Manager.

"Be truthful! What trick did you use to dig up that rich man?" A saleswoman with a gorgeous body pushed her way to Xiao Mengying’s side.

"No, no, it was just a regular deal," Xiao Mengying modestly replied, but with her vanity secretly fulfilled.

"You have that smell on you, hehe, you can’t escape my nose." A cute-looking girl sniffed Xiao Mengying’s face with a grin.

After some back-and-forth teasing, Xiao Mengying finally and "unwillingly" revealed her experience.

When they heard about the two hundred forty million deal, the sales staff gasped without exception. Xiao Mengying even hinted that the man did not even blink when paying the full amount, making them even more hysterical.

"Mengying, you are the best. You must know that man’s phone number, right? Hurry up and tell me," a curly-haired girl asked pleadingly, holding onto her arm.

"Yes, yes, sharing is caring."

Inside, she was ecstatic, enjoying the flattery of her colleagues, but outwardly, she maintained her composure.

[You bi*ches, I know exactly what you’re all thinking.]

Even the girl who acted innocent and pure with her adorable face scared Xiao Mengying with her acts in bed. How did she conclude that? From her sales record that remained in the top three.

The other saleswomen all had their own plans. A two hundred forty million deal solidified Xiao Mengying’s position as first in the department, and since it was unlikely to be shaken, it would be wise to flatter her. Then in the future, she would be kinder to all of them.

Intoxicated by their flattery, she waved her hand gallantly and promised to treat everyone out tonight, sparking loud cheers. The commission alone was two million, so of course she didn’t lack the money.

The girls all had a common purpose, however, which was to hook up with the rich and handsome man. No one wanted to be a real estate saleswoman for the rest of their lives, especially with the short life of the career. The only thing they could do now was earn money but more importantly, find a rich man. And although Xiao Mengying had her advantages, the girls also had their own competitive edge.

The curly-haired girl, for example, although not a virgin, won with her age. As a recent graduate, she had less experience with the rules of the business. If she cried and emphasized her innocence in how she accidentally lost her first time, it would make for a compelling story.

The key was in obtaining the phone number. They all secretly planned on getting her drunk to make her loosen up.

Xiao Mengying, who was basking in the praise, noticed Fang Yuanyuan standing at the front counter.

[You are not trying to flatter me?] Xiao Mengying frowned, then smiled mockingly when she remembered that this new girl had a conflict with Jiang Chen.

"I really don’t have Mr. Jiang’s number. An important person like him would never like me," Xiao Mengying said with faked sadness. Then her eyes seemed to coincidentally come across Fang Yuanyuan, and as if recalling something of utmost importance, she joyfully asked, "Oh! I remember, Fang Yuanyuan was Mr. Jiang’s classmate. Why don’t we ask her?"

All of the girls paused, then began to laugh.

Fang Yuanyuan’s face had gloom written all over it, hearing the mockery in their laughter as if they were saying, "You bit*h, you went to the five-people party which just barely allowed you to become a sales girl, but when a piece of meat was fed to your mouth, you ended up giving it to someone else."

"I, I don’t know. I’m not that close with him," Fang Yuanyuan stuttered. It was a lie as well, since she had almost gotten together with him in the past.

It was too late now for regrets. If only she had accepted the poor guy from that time…

Ashamed and regretful, she hastily organized her table and left with her bag. Work had already ended anyway, and she needed to run away from her embarrassment.

As for the mockery behind her, she couldn’t hear it anymore; it was not her first time experiencing the cruelty of the world.

She didn’t question the reason behind these events. Instead, she hated Jiang Chen, the cocky Xiao Mengying, and even resented the expressionless Xia Shiyu who played no part in this.

Her hatred mixed with guilt and regret until it became a poison that gradually overwhelmed her.

Xiao Mengying contently observed Fang Yuanyuan’s expression without the slightest guilt or compassion. If that girl had managed to get the deal instead, the sales manager would have been someone else. Then it would be her flattering the girl while getting looked down on.

The workplace was no less cruel than a battlefield, especially one filled with women.

So, she didn’t need to have mercy, and no one would feel sympathetic for Fang Yuanyuan.

They would only use the opportunity to prove their loyalty to their invincible boss.

Chapter 62: Base Construction

The thoughts of these strangers were of no consequence to Jiang Chen who took a taxi and returned to his hotel.

When Jiang Chen returned, Ayesha, who had been dutifully studying, shyly smiled, transforming her normally expressionless face.

Almost like a newlywed wife.

But the smile made Jiang Chen feel incredibly guilty. Although he hadn’t married her yet, he still felt like a cheating husband coming home to a gentle, understanding wife.

[Maybe I should control myself more? There’s already too much on my plate.]

He laughed nervously, then brought Ayesha out to a nearby restaurant for a delicious meal free of pork. For this lonely girl, he would always treat her gently. He had his own perverted plans for her once she regained her health.

Yes, indeed.

But becoming intoxicated by many beauties was never a good thing; it was time to head back to the apocalypse he worried about.

That night was quiet, without any conversation.

The next morning, after seeing Ayesha off to her language class, he left a pile of bills beside a note that read <If I don’t get back, don’t wait for me to eat> before leaving the hotel to travel back to the apocalypse.

－

"You’re finally back. Which girl did you sleep with last night?" Sun Jiao crossed her arms and stared at Jiang Chen with a mischievous smile.

Jiang Chen laughed nervously before diverting her attention to the base.

Sun Jiao took a deep breath and began explaining the recent developments to the base. Although she had a naughty nature, she understood the priorities.

First, it was basic infrastructure.

The base’s wall had successfully advanced 200 meters in the direction of the underground sewerage, clearing out a plot of land the size of two football fields. The dilapidated wooden mansions in the area were bulldozed, but the foundations could be used right away. The small appliances and furniture were then moved to open ground to see if they could be salvaged or otherwise broken down into usable spare parts.

The chief architect, Lu Huasheng, organized the construction teams to build four simple lounges on the existing foundations. Each simplistic lounge was made to fit thirty people since Jiang Chen planned on increasing the population size in the future.

They had completed the first one while the other three were still being constructed.

Additionally, three-story towers of reinforced concrete were built at the corners of the base. Two were in the backyard behind the mansion while the other two stood in the newly cleared-out land. The watchtowers were equipped with light machinery and covered with a layer of camouflage, each manned by one person.

Because of the remote location, the zombies were not as much of a threat as the more dangerous mutants appeared within the city limits around Sixth Street. Instead, the Fishbone Base was more concerned about defending against malicious survivors. Upon seeing the high walls and machine guns, however, most of the survivors would be deterred from carrying out their plans.

Two months later, this place would be equipped with the four Sentinel machine guns that he had ordered from Zhao Chenwu’s military plant at the price of 300 crystals each. The machine guns were laser-guided and heat-detecting; such handmade, high-tech equipment often cost a fortune because the parts could only be recycled from junks or modified from other gadgets, making them a rare commodity.

Besides constructing defensive equipment, Lu Huasheng followed Jiang Chen’s orders to build a simple community center in the center of the new plot of land.

Currently, building served as the cafeteria and conference room with only one floor, although the plan was to ultimately have three stories.

It was fortunate that the automatic water treatment system in Wanghai City eliminated concerns of drinking water. The city’s water supply system easily connected to the polyethylene pipe, and as long as there were no accidents, the artificial intelligence at the treatment plant would keep it functional.

In terms of power generation, the electrician not only improved the solar panel Sun Jiao had set up but also installed an additional layer of solar panels on the roof; the base could now generate 30 kilowatts of energy per hour.

With proper conservation, this was more than enough to sustain them. The extra electricity was then stored in a K1 battery the size of an oil barrel to provide power for the cold storage.

As for the food Jiang Chen brought back, Sun Jiao had to order Lu Huasheng to construct two large warehouses in the backyard because the quantity was so substantial.

The warehouses were designed to have two levels; the first level stored non-perishable food, and beneath it, a basement was dug out to create an insulated space to store perishables. The space was equipped with the refrigeration system purchased from the Zhao Corporation back in early August. It made the entire basement become a glacial land, forcing them to wear several thick layers before entering. This was where the majority of the power was consumed—in maintaining the refrigeration systems of the two warehouses.

After listening to Sun Jiao’s report, Jiang Chen paused, then asked the foremost concern on his mind, "How’s the trade with the Zhao Corporation?"

"The trade amount since early August amounts to ten thousand crystals, which is similar to the last trade. The exchanged supplies were all critical supplies that the base needed. For example, the refrigeration system, the battery, and other equipment, as well as firearms and construction materials. After the trades, there was a surplus of 2310 crystals." Sun Jiao took out a tablet and pulled up the ledger, explaining each item thoroughly.

Jiang Chen was shocked, discovering for the first time that she could act like a housekeeper. A smile crept onto his face; he previously thought this audacious girl only knew how to fight, but she also had a detailed side.

"Good, don’t save on base construction. Use all of the crystals that you can—that’s the best use for it right now. At the current stage, we don’t need them as an energy source; we need the necessary construction materials and equipment, as well as lifesaving weaponry!" Jiang Chen nodded as he praised her for her work.

Currently, his public image was as the representative of the Fishbone Food Corporation on a mission to establish a supply station. If he continued to buy construction materials without it, Zhao Chenwu would have grown wary.

If all he said was that he had a trade route with an out-of-province survival base, it made sense to purchase materials locally that would be difficult to transport from faraway. Yet with continuous concrete and steel purchases and construction of walls and houses, it became suspicious.

If a corporation was truly headquartered in another province, some profit had to be transported back, right? If he couldn’t find such an excuse, it would have been difficult to pull this lie through. The trade surplus had to be continuously increased to create the facade that profits were continuously being increased for the headquarters. This way, since the agreement with Zhao Chenwu was based on an inherent lie, it was important to make the lie look as realistic as possible.

Sun Jiao became more cheerful after hearing his praise. She continued, "Another thing is that a survival group nearby had noticed us and attempted to contact us."

"Survival group?" Jiang Chen frowned.

"Yes, but they’re different from large survival camps like the Sixth Street. Due to the relatively less dangerous environment and fewer damages sustained by their buildings, it only takes a few survivors to create an ample survival space. In the area around our base, there is a total of fifty-seven survival groups, with the smallest comprised of two families and the largest with twenty or thirty family units. Of course, this is only a rough estimation."

"This many?" Jiang Chen looked at red dots marked on the tablet, his frown even more pronounced.

Survivor groups…

If possible, he didn’t want to engage them yet. At least before the base was equipped with a sufficient amount of combat power, it would be dangerous to contact these people.

With the prodigious supplies he possessed, he had to be cautious, especially with strangers. In the apocalypse, there was no law; a piece of bread could trigger a murder, his base even more so with its ample food resources.

Although the Zhao Corporation would not target Jiang Chen, that was because the president assumed it to be a supply station with the food coming all the way from the Fishbone Food Corporation thousands of miles away. If the ruthless Zhao Chenwu discovered that Jiang Chen was magically creating the food all along, the story would be vastly different.

Different from Zhao Chenwu, the typical survivor would never understand the concept of not killing the egg-laying chicken. If they knew there was food that could last them for years in this place, they would immediately arm up and begin hostile attacks. While the survival groups acted harmoniously most of the time, even going so far as to occasionally contact the neighboring camps, once the topic of food and survival was broached, the deception would be torn down. And without any strength to defend, they would face an endless number of raids.

The good news was that the survival groups all had similar bullet weapons, lacking any power armors, tanks, or anything more technologically advanced. Thus, they contacted them without showing any signs of aggression.

The survival groups were also uncertain of why these individuals had suddenly built a massive base here; essentially, they were guarding against the "odd neighbor" that had come out of nowhere.

Following this, Sun Jiao enforced a number of measures to protect the safety of the base.

For example, food and fire usage were strictly prohibited outside of the cafeteria. All windows had to be shut when eating; this was to prevent spies from knowing about the existence of their food storage.

At the same time, Sun Jiao clearly rejected survivors who requested entrance to the base.

And as for what stance to take towards the groups who contacted them? Everything was waiting for Jiang Chen’s return to be determined.

Chapter 63: Virtual Reality Training Chamber

"You handled these issues perfectly." After listening to Sun Jiao’s report, Jiang Chen nodded and contemplated for a minute.

"How’s the base’s combat ability?"

"Almost everyone can fight with a gun," Sun Jiao said proudly.

"Already?" Jiang Chen was astounded.

"We purchased eight virtual reality training chambers from the Zhao Corporation. I believe they said that the PAC used this to train civil soldiers. It’s fairly common at the Sixth Street where they have some stockpiled in their storage. After hearing that we didn’t have any, they sold it to us at a discounted price."

"Take me there to have a look!" Jiang Chen was extremely interested and curious to understand the virtual reality training chamber’s functions. If possible, he wanted to bring one and use it as a first-person shooter simulation to practice his combat ability.

Sun Jiao smiled at Jiang Chen’s excitement as she led him to the community center.

The training chamber was designed with futuristic designs and fluidity. Jiang Chen touched the smooth surface, unable to contain the thrill.

Sun Jiao began to explain, "This model was produced in 2140 as one of the early models of the virtual reality training chamber. Despite that, its functionalities match those of the later civilian educational models. Deep submergence into the training chamber allows human memory to operate at peak performance and also enables the bodies to perfectly synchronize with the learned motions.

"Because death in training is just a game over, many high-risk training activities can be completed in virtual reality. Although obviously, the physical body still has to be conditioned in the real world."

"Physical conditioning can be solved through the genetic vaccine." Jiang Chen nodded, pleased with the explanation.

"Right. That’s why I included 50 D-Level genetic vaccines in the purchase order. All of them were injected, allowing the base’s combat power to become slightly stronger."

Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao were both injected with the C-Level genetic vaccine, but due to their scarcity, an order of 10 was reasonable, but 50 was not. Since the vaccine was not commonly purchased, it was not produced in large quantities, so she decided to purchase the relatively cheaper, lower-grade D-level genetic vaccine.

The only difference between the C-Level and D-Level was a five-point stat difference, but it didn’t limit the body’s potential; usually, even an E-Level was more than enough.

For example, the majority of the civil soldiers stationed in the outer circle of the Sixth Street were injected with E-level genetic vaccines; some only had the anti-virus vaccination since the possibility of close-range combat these days was nearly zero.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen had an idea.

"Is it possible to use this thing to study something else, like a language?"

It would be useful in teaching Ayesha. Combined with the genetic vaccine, he could train a beautiful bodyguard and driver.

The loyalty of Ayesha was definitely not a concern, but Yao Yao could change the training program’s weapon level to 150 years ago to solve any inconsistencies.

Sun Jiao was confused, not understanding Jiang Chen’s purpose in asking but still nodded.

"In theory, yes, the training chamber was equipped with a standard studying function since memory operates at its peak in a deep sleep. I learned this growing up in a survival base. But studying languages...is this useful?"

Survival base 071’s education system was mostly based around virtual reality training chambers’ high efficiency and ease of use.

But as for studying languages, even most of the foreigners left behind in Wanghai City had learned Han already.

"It’ll be somewhat useful. I’m planning on bringing one back." Jiang Chen nodded, not bothering to hide his actions as he stored the training chamber into the storage dimension. He would give it to Yao Yao to adjust. He also took a few of the remaining genetic vaccines with a specific purpose in mind.

Aware of his secret, Sun Jiao was no longer shocked by the "magic", but she conscientiously swiveled her head to make sure that no one else saw.

"The training chambers are powered by crystals, costing around one crystal every ten hours. Although it previously used electricity, after the apocalypse, it became difficult to supply such a significant amount of power that way, so the Sixth Street engineers converted many of the machines into using crystals. After initiating the program, inject an ample amount of nutrient supply. I use a ratio of 10 crystals for 50 kilograms to purchase 4 kilograms worth of ingredients. Add 1 liter of water to 0.5 kilograms of ingredient."

"Mhmm, understand." Jiang Chen scratched his head as he stored the four bags of ingredients into the storage dimension.

While each bag was only the size of a pillow, the density of the particle-like ingredient was extremely high, making the four bags weigh an astounding one ton.

Then, he changed the topic to external affairs of the base.

"If the thirty survivors in the base have already completed military training and can protect the base, then why don’t we start the next step?"

"Oh?" Sun Jiao was drawn into the conversation and waited for Jiang Chen’s directions on their future path.

"Establish a temporary trading station in front of the base and sell compressed crackers to the survival groups, and also allow for the exchange of crystals." He smirked. It was time to get the survival groups involved now.

"Hmm? But exchange for what?" Sun Jiao didn’t quite understand.

"Electronic parts and construction materials—as long as the base has a use for it. It’s not too difficult to find these items in wreckages, so go ahead and price according to the Sixth Street standard. We don’t have to care how much we earn as long as those people work for us. Once they grow to depend on us, and their weapons can’t pose a threat to us, we won’t have to worry about their ill intentions. I believe that after some time passes, some small survivor groups will want to join us."

Small, independent groups had no need to trust each other and would pose no threat of banding together into an alliance against the Fishbone base in the future. If they had the ability to gather in the first place, they would never have been suppressed by mutants, zombies, and bandits to this extent. Instead, they would have developed into a massive force like the Sixth Street.

The goal of most survival groups was survival, and their desire to expand and attack were much smaller compared to large organizations.

"But these people are difficult to control," Sun Jiao said, unsettled.

These survivors were different from the slaves on the base; they had no slavery microchips.

"That won’t be a problem," Jiang Chen smiled, "as long as we promote the people with absolute loyalty to management positions. They are the ‘heroes’ for building the base, so we can’t let them remain as workers.

"Of course, this is only a strategy. For now, we can’t allow them to enter the base. All trade must be made at the front gate, and every once in a while, cease the trade to create the illusion that we don’t have many supplies."

Sun Jiao immediately understood what Jiang Chen meant.

The thirty people would gradually assimilate with the foreigners.

"Also, next time, order another group of refugees. Before we accept anyone from the outside, we need to expand our population base. Let’s set it to sixty people, and compensate Zhao Chenwu with 30 crystals. We can’t always ask him to be the kind person, so we’ll give him some benefits in the people trading business," Jiang Chen added.

The last time, Zhao Chenwu did them a favor and provided Jiang Chen the people at no cost, but it was too stingy to expect the same again. The business relationship had to bring mutual benefits in order to establish a healthy relationship. And if Zhao Chenwu continued to sell people relying on his political power, he risked impeachment.

If one group of slaves could bring him at least 10 crystals of profit, he would be very interested.

"Hehe, looks like you haven’t forgotten about all of the matters here. I apologize for blaming you." Sun Jiao saw that all of the important matters were taken of and returned to her usual audacious, naughty tone. She approached Jiang Chen and played with his hair.

"Ahem, of course, this is my home in this world."

Chapter 64: Basic Artificial Intelligence

When Jiang Chen and the flushing red Sun Jiao left the training room one after the other, it was already noon. He brought Sun Jiao back into the mansion as he saw Yao Yao who he hasn’t seen in awhile.

This tech genius stayed in her room everyone to study the highly advanced computer theory which made her already pale skin even whiter.

But this little loli did grow compared to when they first met, the previous small dimple now required a bra. The boney face without much fat now appeared more rounded which made her look even more adorable.

Yao Yao was obviously excited to see Jiang Chen as she was no longer her conservative self and directly dived into Jiang Chen’s hug.

To be frank, he hasn’t been back in a while. He admits that he had too much fun in the other world.

Yao Yao who spent every day and night thinking about the "nice big brother" gently pressed her face against his chest, she smiled and rubbed her head.

Watching Yao Yao’s adorable look, a smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face as he lightly touched her wavy hair.

Don’t be mistaken, he really was not into loli, the purity of her smile just made everything feel natural

As long as he hugged her, his stress and anger faded away.

However, they ignored Sun Jiao standing beside them.

The possessive Sun Jiao gave both of them a dirty which made Yao Yao jumped away, not knowing what to do. Though Sun Jiao has always been nice to her, she was always afraid of this "sister" of hers, perhaps because the first impression being too "violent"?

Especially after witnessing the embarrassing scene in the living room.

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes displeased as he sat down on the kitchen table as he started to enjoy lunch with the two girls.

Juicy potato with fried meat, garlic eggplant, delicious seaweed egg soup, even with the unhealthy ray of sunlight piercing through the window, it’s hard to imagine that such delicacies could be born on this radiation filled wasteland.

This meal was the masterpiece of Yao Yao as Miss Sun Jiao only ate, never cooked.

After trying Yao Yao’s cooking, Jiang Chen gave her a raise of thumb. This turned her pale face blushing again.

But this somehow provoked Miss Sun Jiao as she jealously kicked Jiang Chen under the table as she looked him displeased. Jiang Chen had to also raise his thumb, to praise her ability to eat…

Of course, he will never let her know that.

After receiving Jiang Chen’s recognition, Sun Jiao returned to normal as she happily enjoyed the meal.

[So bothersome, such a child.] Jiang Chen mocked in his mind but in his eyes, it was more affection than trouble.

－

After lunch, Jiang Chen returned to the technology department at the community center and found Du Yongkong that was busily working in front of the computer. The technology department was only a room 30 square meter large, and most of the space was crowded with equipment that he either bought or created.

Jiang Chen gave a budget of maximum 1000 crystals a month for this department, but Du Yongkong instead saved a lot of money for Jiang Chen. Except for a few pieces of critical equipment, he managed to produce most of the equipment he needed.

There were two phones on the table, a Huawei and an iPhone 5 that’s both connected to an oddly shaped computer.

Du Yongkong had his eyes locked on the computer screen as he confirmed the code line by line. His finger typed furiously on the control panel as he completed disregarded the presence of Jiang Chen.

Seeing that he was working so hard, Jiang Chen was also happy, but he didn’t have the time to wait.

"Ahem." Jiang Chen lightly coughed to acknowledge his presence.

Hearing Jiang Chen’s voice, Du Yongkong first paused before he turned around in joy.

"Boss, you are finally here. I already asked Miss Sun multiple times, but she insisted for me to recheck my program before showing you. But I really can’t find any more flaws." Du Yongkong cried to Jiang Chen about his remorse.

"Ahem, I am usually busy and sometimes not at the base. How is it going, did you finish the task I have assigned you?"

[How could I let you know my whereabouts?] Jiang Chen casually changed the conversation topic.

Seeing that Jiang Chen cut straight to the topic, Du Yongkong also cleverly turned on his professional attitude. He typed a few command on the screen as he disconnected the phone and handed to Jiang Chen.

"Boss, rather than me explaining, why don’t you take a look yourself. I can promise you, anyone using this operating system will master it functions the first time!"

Could it be this magical?

Jiang Chen with skepticism took over the Huawei phone as he pressed the on button.

The triangle based triangular prism formed the logo of Future Technology, the description below said <Future 1.0>

[Future 1.0? That’s a creative name.]

The attention drawing, eye catching start menu alone was superb. The futuristic looking simple design philosophy combined with sophisticated looking icons perfected meshed together. The framerate was also the exception as it did not lag despite all the special effects.

Immediately, an egg shaped robot caught the attention of Jiang Chen.

"Where’s the home page?" Jiang Chen was confused.

Before Du Yongkong responded, the egg shaped cute robot already gave him the answer.

"Hi, valued user, I am your most loyal assistant – Little White. Of course, if you don’t like this name, you can also change the name for me."

The lively looking Robot did look adorable. A curve appeared on Jiang Chen’s mouth as he continued to listen to the explanation.

"If you need to call out the menu, you can just tell me. Or, you can touch my belly to achieve this function." Little White blinked its eyes as he patted his belly.

Jiang Chen poked his stomach as the egg like Robot suddenly jumped up and brought down a blind from the top of the screen. On the blind was a list of applications.

"If you need to open an app, selecting through the menu is an option, but I recommend master to directly tell me."

Little White hid in the bottom left corner of the screen as he said while blinking.

"Ahem, if you think he is annoying, you can also open text mode by telling him." Du Yongkong added. It was clear he is proud of his work.

"No, this is interesting. But in the circumstance where volume should be limited, text mode will be useful." Jiang Chen nodded as he said to Little White, "open map."

"Yes, master."

As soon as his voice died, the map appeared on the computer screen. But because there was no signal in this world, the map focused on Wanghai City.

"Is there any game?" Jiang Chen said under his breath, but the little guy managed to pick it up.

"Sorry master, this is no downloaded game on the phone. But if you want, you only need to tell the type of game you like, and I can search it on the internet for you." Little White sounded like he did something wrong.

Jiang Chen was absolutely stunned, there’s even this function?

"Little White could complete actions for users. This includes opening searching engine, entering keywords, scan through results. Also, if you connect the phone to this server, there’s the downloaded backup file from the internet from the year 2017 to 2027. It seems like the data in this period is most compatible with this thing called phone. You can give it a try." Du Yongkong passed the connection over. Because there was no internet, he could only simulate a web environment to achieve this function.

Jiang Chen connected the phone to the server and then spoke to Little White.

"Find me a racing game that can operate on this fun with the best visual."

"Ok master, I think this <Fast and Furious 17> will match your taste. The game description and download link are prepared for you. Are you happy with the result?" Less than a second later, Little White carried a few screenshots in front of Jiang Chen as he blinked his eyes looking for praise.

[Damn, that’s fast! This visual graphics, could this normal Huawei really handle this?] Jiang Chen hesitated for a moment before he said.

"Download."

"Yes! Master."

Because it was directly connected to the server, so the data transfer speed was tremendously fast. Jiang Chen couldn’t wait for Little White to open the game, then immediately stunned by the graphic.

The real dust like particle effects, the movie like halo, the cinematic like cut scenes. The game’s quality was excellent to the point that Jiang Chen didn’t even want to comment, he only wanted to express his shocking realization that a Huawei phone could run this?

The not yet debuted iPhone 7 probably wouldn’t even be able to handle this.

"Don’t look at me like that, I really didn’t change the hardware of this." Du Yongkong saw that Jiang Chen looked at him with suspicious as he waved his hands to defend himself. Although he didn’t why his boss was determined on this "ancient" product, he must have his own thought process, so he didn’t dare to defy him.

"Excellent, I am pleased." Jiang Chen nodded with a smile. At this point, he could pretty announce the end of an era between iOS and Android. The Future 1.0 operating system would no doubt dominate the phone industry.

Of course, this has to be done step by step.

First, enter as software, once it accumulates enough user base and dependency, recommend the user to uninstall the original system to save memory. The Future 1.0 can replace the existing operating system and will not affect the phone’s operation.

It would be up to Du Yongkong to implement this.

"That’s not all, boss, take a look at this." Du Yongkong saw that the boss was happy as he then began to show off the other functions of the phone. He touched the tablet with his finger.

"This is?" Jiang Chen uncomprehendingly looked at the data stream on the tablet.

"A simulation of an attack." Du Yongkong smiled as he signaled Jiang Chen to look at Little White on the screen.

"Master, I detected malicious malware attack!" Suddenly Little White turned into a full armed egg with sword and shield as his eyes sharpened. Not long after, before the malware infiltrated the system, it was "picked" up by Little White’s sword and chopped into pieces.

The animation was cute, to say the least.

"The safety level is C, which means that all the attack method between 2000 to 2101 will be useless." Du Yongkong proudly explained.

"Mhmm, that’s enough." Jiang Chen agreed.

But the function should be eliminated first if it was introduced with antivirus, he was afraid that 361 Phone Helper (a popular antivirus software) to report Little White as malicious. These people would do that.

Additionally, the extraneous features may hinder the artificial intelligence selling point of the software which makes the user confused. Once Future 1.0 has established itself, the features could be slowly introduced.

"These functions are only the tip of the iceberg. The most important thing is that Little White is a basic artificial intelligence." Du Yongkong smiled as he opened his hands, "not only can he detect language, he can also detect your current mood. For example, you are heart broken. Okay, this is only an example. He will comfort you. If you feel happy, he will be happy for you. He’ll remember everything you said and respond in a human function."

"Isn’t artificial intelligence supposed to be emotionless?" he looked at Little White’s adorable eyes as he asked.

"That’s right, but this is the power of science. Although he won’t really feel happy or sad, he will bring you visual and audio effects that mimic happy or sadness. This is based on psychology and human behavior. To put it in simple words, everything you said is stored in a data base, and based your conversation and an algorithm, Little White will respond according to the situation and history. This is basic artificial intelligence!"

"You wrote this?" Jiang Chen was shocked.

"No way." Du Yongkong forced a smile, "this is 21 years of work of tens of computer scientists and psychologists. All the latter artificial intelligence is based on that data base. Although intermediate artificial intelligence evolved through this data, because of the <Artificial Intelligence Management Act>, all the research stopped. So the most common version still in the market like Little White that’s still depended on an external data base.

"So you are saying that, if I am chatting with him, I just hear predefined quotes?" Jiang Chen had an odd impression as his face. He used his finger and ticked Little White’s stomach on the screen.

"You can say it like. But I guarantee you that if it wasn’t for me to tell you the secret behind it, you could chat with him for the rest of life and still think he is pet full of emotions, and not lines of code." Du Yongkong nodded.

Technology is truly a magical thing. He didn’t dive into the issue further

"What about this?" Jiang Chen picked up the iPhone.

"The compatibility is flawless. Although this piece of electronic is also ancient, it is a bit better than the other one. Future 1.0 is perfectly operational on both!"

"Excellent!" Jiang Chen patted Du Yongkong on the shoulder as he waved his hands, "From now I, you’ll be the head of the technology department at Fishbone Base. You’ll now receive meat can every day."

Although he didn’t even know what the department exactly was.

"Thank you, boss!" Du Yongkong was so excited that he almost kneeled down. He was almost about to hug Jiang Chen’s leg before Jiang Chen shivered and stepped away.

"Ahem, like I said before, do a great job, and I won’t let you down."

Then Jiang Chen ordered Du Yongkong to limit some of the functions to meet the actual demand.

The work was quickly completed as the app size was trimmed down.

Under Du Yongkong’s sincere gratitude, Jiang Chen proudly retook the USB drive to the mansion. He couldn’t wait to go back to the modern world, Future Technology’s development needs some adjustment.

With this groundbreaking operating system, or software, for now, he was confident that he would make the name echo not in Hua, but also around the world!

Chapter 65: Her Vulnerable Side

Still at dusk.

Jiang Chen stood in front of Xia Shiyu’s door. Just as he was about to ring the bell, he paused his finger in midair.

[Seems like every time I come it is during the night…]

He shook his head and pushed the weird thought out of his head, as he rang the bell.

But after waiting awhile, no one came to open the door.

[The light is on. She should be home. Is she annoyed that I come so late every time?]

Jiang Chen forced a smile. It was nowhere intentional, but the timing just worked out to be this way. He spent the afternoon with Sun Jiao and Yao Yao before coming back to the modern world. After having dinner with them, he brought the USB drive over. Because the office was still being renovated, the employees only consist of Xia Shiyu, so she worked from home.

After pondering in front of the door, Jiang Chen scratched his head. Since he was already here, it wouldn’t fit his personality to just go back. He thought about it, before pulling out his phone.

"Call Xia Shiyu’s number."

"Okay, master.," the phone immediately called out.

It didn’t take long for Jiang Chen to get used to the clever Little White. He only needed to move his mouth to finish any function on the phone.

The phone rang for around 20 seconds before it finally went through.

"Hello?" A weak and hoarse voice came from the other side.

"Are you okay? Why do you sound so weird?" Jiang Chen quickly asked with a frown.

"Nothing, cough, I just feel a bit tired. Sorry, I fell asleep and didn’t notice your call," Xia Shiyu touched her burning her forehead as she said with ambiguity.

"I am outside, open the door for me. I‘ll bring you to the hospital." Jiang Chen left no room for argument.

"Why did you come at night again?" Xia Shiyu’s weak voice had a hint of confusion and alertness.

"Of course I needed to talk about some things with you, but let’s not worry about that. I am worried about your condition. Open the door for me, and stop asking!" Jiang Chen anxiously said.

If she became unconscious, it’s going to be problematic.

After what seemed like a long wait, slow shuffling noises finally resonated on the other side of the door, and the doorknob turned. But when Jiang Chen saw Xia Shiyu, she scared him. Her pale face nowhere resembled the independent woman she was. She looked weak and fragile.

"What’s going on!" Jiang Chen immediately held onto Xia Shiyu who was about to fall.

He hasn't seen her for one day, and she became this sick?

Xia Shiyu bit her lips as she looked at the hand that was holding her. She didn’t want to open the door because she was so "vulnerable". If Jiang Chen had other motives, there was nothing she could do.

But what she didn’t consider was that if he really had other motives, she would be vulnerable regardless of her condition.

Perhaps it was an impulse, but her perplexed feeling defeated her awareness for self-protection which made her open the door. The moment when she saw Jiang Chen’s face, she suddenly felt calm.

"Fu*k, it’s burning!" Jiang Chen touched her forehead as the high temperature made him jump, "No, something is definitely wrong! I’ll take you to the hospital."

"It’s too late, I’ll eat some medicine and sleep through it." Although she hated cursing words, she had no energy to ridicule him.

"No! Listen to me," Jiang Chen rejected her right away. In a state of shock, Jiang Chen picked her up princess carry style and walked downstairs.

Xia Shiyu gently bit her lip and felt the warmness around her body, as she tried avoiding his eyes. She thought she would fight back, but the strange thing was that her first reaction was calmness.

Maybe she didn’t realize that, subconsciously, she didn’t mind the forceful move. The always emotionless face was just a bad camouflage for herself. When Jiang Chen picked her up forcefully, it made her heart beat faster, and she felt anxious.

Or, it was a sense of security?

The same odd feeling came back again…

Xia Shiyu closed her eyes, still not accepting it.

－

Jiang Chen carried Xia Shiyu downstairs and disregarded the curious and concerned looks of the people around them. He opened the car door, helped Xia Shiyu into the passenger seat, and put the seatbelt on her before getting in.

"Your new car?" Xia Shiyu weakly leaned against the car seat as her chest pumped up and down.

"Maybach S600, a gift from buying the house," Jiang Chen casually answered and started the car.

"…" What kind of house would give a car as a gift? Xia Shiyu was curious but didn’t have the energy to ask.

"I told you that if you didn't feel okay to call me. Look at you now," Jiang Chen said as he steered the wheel.

"I can just eat some medicine, there’s nothing to worry about." Although her voice sounded like she didn’t care, she felt warmness surround her heart.

"Hehe, you say this is nothing to worry about? You are almost unconscious! You live alone, and no one is taking care of you. If I didn’t have something to talk to you about today, no one would know if you became unconscious. Your body probably would stink before someone discovered it," Jiang Chen said sharply.

[Well, you are here right?] Xia Shiyu pouted but stopped all of a sudden. She was surprised by such a girly act.

[Looks like the fever is making me confused…]

Xia Shiyu gently touched her forehead and felt the burning sensation.

The scenery flashed across the car window as silence ensued in the car. Although he just got the car, he drove it skillfully. Probably had to do with his 29 reflexes. But because they were in the city center, it was not even that fast.

"I am sick. Why do you care?" After a long silence, Xia Shiyu abruptly opened her mouth.

"Of course I care." If you are sick, who is going to do the work?

Jiang Chen always believed in being a leader who only asked others to do things. If she was sick, why would he not be worried?

There may be other reasons, but he still hasn't figured them out.

But Xia Shiyu seemed to have interpreted it as something else, silence ensued again.

Maybe it was the fever, but her face was abnormally red.

They soon arrived at the nearest hospital. Jiang Chen parked the car and immediately ran to the other side to open the door. But when he was about the use the same gesture to carry Xia Shiyu, she stopped him.

"I can walk by myself. You don’t need to help me. That way is too embarrassing." Xia Shiyu’s faintly squeezed the last few words out of her mouth. The usually expressionless face now turned blood red. Jiang Chen was stunned by her beauty.

Under Jiang Chen’s intense stare, Xia Shiyu felt embarrassed but somewhat proud?

After she had given him a dirty look, Xia Shiyu dragged her heavy footsteps towards the hospital.

But how could he not worry about her "floaty" footsteps, she walked like this? She would probably get hurt before she even went into the hospital to see why she was sick.

Jiang Chen walked beside her and held onto the stubborn girl.

Although she fought back a little, Xia Shiyu knew her exact condition, so she didn’t stop Jing Chen. She lowered her head and hid her unnatural expression beneath her hair.

The nurse on duty saw Xia Shiyu’s condition and immediately walked up to help. Jiang Chen left Xia Shiyu with the nurse and went to the front desk to fill out the paperwork. It would be up to the doctors now as he knew nothing about medicine.

To be honest, he was anxious about Xia Shiyu’s condition. It didn’t look like an ordinary fever or cold. Maybe because she fell ill because of all the work he piled onto her? Jiang Chen felt guilty about this.

Especially when they were buying the house, she was already feeling a bit sick. But he didn’t immediately bring her to the hospital. Instead, he was having fun…

[Maybe it’s time to control myself?]

With his arm pressed against his knee, he wandered into deep thought.

Although worried, it would be useless to just wait around. He sat on the hospital chair, feeling bored before he took out his phone.

He checked his Wechat to see that Liu Yao had sent him a message. For the energetic third-tier actress, Jiang Chen was happy to chat with her. If he was freer, he didn’t mind hooking up. But he has been too busy recently, so he rejected the rather straightforward invitation.

The movie he promised her would happen since money was not an issue anymore.

To be truthful, it was fun chatting with this girl. His guilt and anxiety quickly faded, as a smile appeared on his face. Time passed by quickly on the phone.

"Hello, sir, are you Miss Xia Shiyu’s husband?" A doctor pushed opened the door and approached Jiang Chen.

"No, I am her… umm, friend." Jiang Chen put his phone back and stood up.

"Miss Xia Shiyu only had a normal fever, but it was untreated for too long, so the condition is a bit serious now. I recommend you go to the front desk and register her stay at the hospital." The doctor cut straight to the point and handed the bill to Jiang Chen, motioning him to go to the designated window.

The doctor’s casual attitude made Jiang Chen raise his eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything. He carried the bill and paid the fee, which was a total of one thousand dollars. He forced a smile as he thought, ordinary people would not be able to afford this. Minor or major, staying at the hospital was necessary, as was using the most expensive medicine. Do you want a problem? Are you going to see the doctor? Since there are so many people here, there’s never a shortage of patient.

Compared to real estate, the demand for education and healthcare was more steady and reliable. If they really wanted to turn the public sector into a private business sector, the potential gain would be greater than the real estate industry.

Though of course, now money meant nothing to Jiang Chen.

He then walked into the ward, grabbed a chair, and sat beside Xia Shiyu’s bed.

"Sorry for troubling you." Xia Shiyu’s eyes were half closed as she squeezed a sentence through her lips.

"No problem. Taking care of the staff is the responsibility of the president." Jiang Chen waved his hand and then asked in a concerning voice, "Are you hungry? Tell me if you want to eat something."

"Taking care of the staff?" Xia Shiyu didn’t respond to Jiang Chen as she murmured under her breath.

"This is the first time I see you looking so confused," Jiang Chen said smiling, as he ridiculed.

Xia Shiyu was silent before she abruptly said, "You just haven’t seen it before."

"Oh? Speaking of this, I am curious. If you are so beautiful, why do you always keep a cold face?"

"… I am tired." Xia Shiyu closed her eyes and ignored his question.

Jiang Chen, with a bitter smile, shrugged and gave up. He looked at Xia Shiyu’s now regular breathing and helped tuck her up. Then he let out a sigh and walked out of the ward.

[Looks like I am staying here tonight, it would be worrisome to leave her alone.]

Jiang Chen took out his phone and called Ayesha.

"I have something to do tonight and can’t go back, can you take care of yourself?"

"Mhmm. Don’t worry, I will be okay."

A soft and gentle response echoed from the other side of the phone. It made Jiang Chen feel warm inside.

Although the girl looked even colder than Xia Shiyu when she was outside, whenever she was with Jiang Chen, she was gentler than a sheep.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." The choppy pronunciation surprised Jiang Chen as a delighted smiled appeared on his face.

[That was Han, looks like she is making progress. I hope the day I can communicate with her in Han comes sooner. It's still weird to call in English.]

After the phone call, Jiang Chen stretched his body. Xia Shiyu was already asleep, so he just needed to remind the nurse to change her medicine during the night.

Time to find a cup of coffee.

Jiang Chen made up his mind as he walked to the resting area of the hospital.

Chapter 66: Hospital Conflict

“Doctor, how is my father doing!”

“Mr. Wang, we are also worried as well, but rabies… even if you are at the best hospital in the world, it’s still an unsolvable problem. We are really…” The doctor's face filled with grievance said. It was clear that the way he treated his man was much more polite compared to Jiang Chen.

“That’s impossible! A dog hasn't bitten my father, how could he have gotten rabies!” The man’s eyes were flushing red, and his fists were tightly clenched. He still couldn’t believe what the doctor had said.

“Yes, we never had a dog before, my dad never came into contact with one. How…” The woman standing on the side said, her face pale.

“Rabies’ incubation period could last up to one year. If he is not injected with vaccine on time, it’s incurable.”

“What! What the fu*k did you just say? Who’s incurable?” The man furiously grabbed the collar of the doctor and scared frozen the nurse-to-be.

“Brother! Calm down!” The woman on the side tried to comfort her brother, who clearly was over his head, but it was futile.

“Mister, Mister Wang. That’s not what I meant. Please, please calm down.” The doctor that looked annoyingly at Jiang Chen before now had an almost crying expression.

For no other reason, but the fact that he couldn’t displease the person in front of him.

Rabies?

Jiang Chen leaned against the chair as he drank his coffee and watched the mess unfold. The man looked like someone with influence, or the doctor being hoisted up wouldn’t have said a thing nor keep apologizing.

Two men in buzz cuts and casual clothing stood beside the man. They looked like soldiers by the way they stood, probably active too.

Of course, Jiang Chen already experienced the war himself, so he was not too surprised by the identities of these people. He continued to watch for a few more moment before he going back to his phone. The only friend he could have a conversation with on Wechat was Liu Yao. She almost responded immediately to his message.

Being replied to by a celebrity substantially fulfilled his vanity, so he was happy to chat.

The bystanders in the restroom all left when they sensed the situation turned sour. While people enjoyed watching conflicts, it was only when there was a lot of individuals. Because even if something happened, it wouldn’t affect them. But with not a lot of people around, everyone was smart enough to stay away from the trouble. The group of people didn’t look like friendly people.

Except for Jiang Chen, who was not afraid of anything, he continued to play with his phone while no one else stayed in the room.

The conflict naturally caught the attention of security, but they only stood on the side and didn’t dare to step in. The doctor kept trying to convince the man to calm down and was too afraid to ask for help.

Maybe because of his sister’s dissuasion, or maybe because he knew that rabies was hard to treat, the man regathered his breath and put the doctor down.

“Give me your phone,” A rascal voice rang beside Jiang Chen’s ear.

Jiang Chen looked up and raised his eyebrows.

He didn’t know when, but the buzz cut bodyguard stood in front of him and leaned into his personal space. His facial expression looked precisely like that of a bully asking for lunch money. Arrogant and shameless.

The expression he had looked as if he had Jiang Chen’s lunch money already.

“Oh? Give me a reason.” Jiang Chen wasn’t angry as he started to laugh.

“Don’t bullsh*t me, if you don’t want trouble then give it to papa now.” The guy didn’t want to waste energy on Jiang Chen, as he directly reached for Jiang Chen’s phone.

Most soldiers act entitled in some way, especially close guards of the masters. Li Gangming, eager to demonstrate his ability in front of his boss, didn’t wait for his boss to say anything before he took huge strides towards Jiang Chen, asking for his phone.

But Jiang Chen’s action surprised him. The harmless looking man just clamped onto his hand.

What made him even more frantic was that the clamped down hand couldn’t move no matter how hard he tried.

Testing my strength?

The stubbornness of Li Gangming also came alive as his dark face turned red. He desperately tried to use his power to move his hand, but Jiang Chen just casually looked at his face and clamped his hand down like an iron claw, not letting him move a single inch.

[You are funny, 25 muscle strength is not something you can overcome. I haven’t even used fury yet, or I’d break your bones.

Soldiers? I have seen people kill people. People eat people. Why would I be afraid?]

“Li Gangming, what are you doing!” The woman who was trying to persuade her brother frowned as she angrily shouted at Li Gangming, who had his hands on Jiang Chen.

“Ahh, no, Miss Wang, this guy…” Sweat began to roll down Li Gangming’s face as he explained to the sister of the politician.

“Let him go, why can’t you do things nicely? You act exactly like my brother, always quick to jump into a fight.”

Because of the angle, she couldn’t see the hands of the two people. But it was apparent that brother’s soldier was bullying people again.

But Li Gangming’s face looked like he just ate a fly. He wanted to explain that it was not him that didn’t want to let go, but he didn’t have the face to say it in front of his boss.

The man forced a smile when he heard his sister’s words. He was about to signal Li Gangming to stop but was shocked.

“Nice moves, sir. What martial arts fraction are you part of?” A sharp glare shot out from Wang Zhiyong’s eyes as he could clearly see Jiang Chen’s power.

Li Gangming is a good fighter in his battalion, but he couldn’t even move under the grasp of this man. It was something more than strength alone. In his eyes, he already considered Jiang Chen an “Inner Technique” master. Wang Zhiyong always had a keen interest in martial arts, or he wouldn’t have just left the huge presence of his family to join the military.

The unfortunate thing was that Jiang Chen managed to do so by just using his strength. In pure strength, only Superman, or Batman could be comparable to him.

He didn’t want to cause trouble, so he stopped when he had made his point. He let out of Li Gangming’s hand, and emotionlessly said.

“No martial arts, that was pure strength.” [Martial arts? I don’t have time for that.]

But in Wang Zhiyong’s eyes, Jiang Chen’s casual and carefree expression resembled a martial arts master.

“Impeccable strength! Sir, are you interested in joining the army?”

Jiang Chen’s face twitched. [I am already a billionaire. Am I dumb or are you dumb for me to become your soldier.]

His eyes moved as he thought about how he should phrase his words.

“That’s okay, I am used to the free life.”

“Brother, are you out of your mind! Father is still lying there. You, why is it that every time you see someone who can fight, you want to ask them to join your army? I can’t believe you!” The energetic girl frowned at her brother as she said worriedly.

Wang Zhiyong’s face also turned sour as he thought about his father. His body was perfectly fine, and suddenly he got rabies?

“Please don’t let this bother you, my brother is just an inconsiderate guy. His head is messed up because he watched too many Wushu shows at a young age,” The girl said while poked her brother’s arm. She then lowered her head to apologize.

“Li Gangming was only worried that you took a video. You know the internet is a scary thing. If something was uploaded onto the web, it might affect brother’s progression. So…”

The girl looked at Jiang Chen with a serene smile.

Although Li Gangming on the side had acted like a bully most of his life, it was based on the context he could win. Now that his boss’ sister already apologized, if he continued to act tough, it would be rude.

Resisting the soreness on his wrist, Li Gangming put his fists together and apologized to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen smiled as he never intentionally looked for trouble. Since they already said sorry, he happily accepted it.

He opened the photo album on his phone and waved it in front of Li Gangming’s face to prove that he didn’t take any photos or videos. Seeing Li Gangming nod in confirmation, the reasonable and graceful miss expressed her gratitude again.

The small conflict was resolved with ease.

At the same time, the straightforward man abruptly opened his mouth and said a sentence that made Jiang Chen want to laugh.

“Sir, do you have any way of treating rabies?”

Chapter 67: A Pillow just when you need it

[Could I treat rabies? Do I looked like an old Han medical doctor to you?] Jiang Chen with an odd expression touched his face.

"Brother, are you crazy?" His sister, standing beside him, face palmed as the doctor and nurses also gave off helpless expressions.

Even Li Gangming’s face twitched, Jiang Chen guessed that this guy must have wanted to laugh, but didn’t dare to do so.

But Wang Zhiyong gazed at Jiang Chen, full of expectations. As if he was certain Jiang Chen would know a way.

Rabies?

A smile full of meaning appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.

Rabies actually was not a problem to him. For the 21st century medical practices, it was an incurable disease, but it was easily solved in the 22nd century.

In his storage, there was a D-level antibiotic that clearly stated it would cure rabies, aids…

He purchased it the first time he went to the Sixth Street after he injected the genetic vaccine. Even after Sun Jiao told him that after the injection of the genetic vaccine, his body would be resistant to most of the diseases, he decided to buy it because it was cool. "I understand the rationale, but I just want to buy it because I haven’t heard of the existence of a "godly" medicine. It’s not like I lack crystals."

He forgot that he had it in his storage dimension or else he would have given it to Xia Shiyu, saving the trip to the hospital.

"What’s your name, sir?" However, seriousness showed on Wang Zhiyong’s face.

Or the expression of grasping onto the last straw.

Although western medicine could not cure rabies, his fantasy for Wushu made him believe that a "secret cure" was out there to cure the incurable disease.

Wang Zhiyong was always this straightforward. He would immediately do something even if it did not go through his head.

Normally that would have been rude and unreasonable, but now he seemed filial.

But the "secret cure" didn’t exist. If it did exist, then their ancestors should be awarded a Nobel prize.

The medicine was in the storage dimension.

But Jiang Chen was hesitant.

[Should he save the person?

Or how should he save the person.]

"Jiang Chen." He first introduced himself.

"My name is Wang Zhiyong, this is my sister Wang Xinran. If Sir you know any masters that could save my father, I’ll do anything to repay the favor!" Wang Zhiyong held his fists together and greeted.

Jiang Chen looked troubled as he pondered.

It was clear that Wang Zhiyong is an important military official. From this "bastard’s" attitude, he didn’t just depend on himself to climb the social ladder. Then it must mean his father is extremely influential.

Jiang Chen now had no support in Wanghai city. Although he has the money and the guns, if he did get himself into trouble, it would be problematic. Running to Los Santos was not something he wanted to do soon. Who knows if that crazy guy solved his own issue yet.

He considered that his wealth could attract potential wrongdoers, and so he actually did try to make some friends within the political circle. Regardless of the method, he must find a way to establish a relationship. Or else, if he created some unique and someone forcefully took over, he would have nowhere to reason. Since the political situation in the country was like this, he must play by the rules.

What kind of favor was greater than saving a life? This was a great opportunity.

A Pillow just when you needed it the most.

Jiang Chen was moved, but he still needed to think of a way to make this story sound more believable.

Wang Zhiyong looked simple minded, so he should be easy to convince. But his sister seemed to be intelligent and hard to fool. If he just took out the medicine, it would be hard to explain. The authenticity would also be questioned.

[This is troublesome. Even when trying to do something "nice", there were still a lot of aspects to consider need to consider…] Jiang Chen smiled bitterly.

"Brother, do you want someone to find an ancient natural remedy for you to cure father’s sickness?" Wang Xinran was speechless with his brother’s intent.

"What ancient natural remedy. How do you know Han medicine will not solve the problem Eastern medicine can’t!" Wang Zhiyong’s face blushed as he gave a dirty look to his sister.

Wang Zhiyong now realized that he didn’t process the words before they came out. But if he admitted, he would lose face in front of everyone.

The doctor also gave a wry smile. He studied Han medicine before as he knew that this could not be solved by Han medicine.

"Ahem. I think I can try."

The entire restroom fell silent.

Jiang Chen already expected the reaction as he didn’t look too shocked. He still maintained his calm composure.

Who said acting cocky was terrible?

"That’s impossible!" The doctor, whose collar was held, opened his mouth in disbelief. He looked at Jiang Chen with skepticism, "If someone could cure rabies, that’s enough to win a Nobel Prize."

"Too bad I am not interested in fame." Jiang Chen shrugged as he looked at Wang Zhiyong. "Of course, I don’t need you to repay me anything. I have a company myself, so I don’t need money. As to why I am helping you, it’s because I have a father too."

Wang Xinran skeptically looked at Jiang Chen. Different from her incompetent brother, she was a top student at Wanghai University. Although she studied media, which is unrelated to medicine, she still had basic common sense.

"Can you cure my father? Let me be straight forward, my dad is Wanghai City’s General Secretary (Considered the most influential person in a municipal government), if you…"

"I understand your emotions towards your father, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept this suspicion. If you choose to not believe, just say no." Jiang Chen shook his head. "I am doing this out of the good of my heart, and I don’t need you to repay me. But I hope you do know, standard medical procedures would not cure rabies."

When he finished, Jiang Chen looked at Wang Zhiyong.

Wang Zhiyong raised his eyebrows in deep thoughts.

[Should I try it?]

Sister and doctor’s words made him hesitant. What if Jiang Chen was a liar and killed his father…

Wait, even if he didn’t, Rabies was an incurable disease!

Rather than waiting for death, why not try it. He had thought about it before making up his mind to take a gamble.

He was someone that cared deeply about his parents. Since the reason he can act so recklessly in Wanghai City was due to his father’s influence. If his father were not here to cover for him, he would have died so many times already.

"I believe you, I hope what are you said is true." Wang Zhiyong sincerely nodded. He then gazed at Jiang Chen with seriousness. "If you actually cured my father, even if you don’t accept my favor, I’ll be at your disposal."

[Psh, why did that sound like someone from a gang, are you really in the military?]

"I don’t need anyone at my disposal, but a friend doesn’t sound too bad." Jiang Chen laughed nonchalantly and passed by Wang Zhiyong before he walked into the guarded ward.

Wang Zhiyong had paused for a minute before he smiled.

[Hmm? This guy is fascinating.]

He was known for his recklessness in Wanghai city; he was not afraid of anything. Since he was commander of the army and his father was also a national level politician, considered second in command even in the central government, the typical silk trousers (referred to children of influential leaders that cause havoc) were no match for him. Although he did create his fair share of recklessness, he still had his own principles. It may have been influenced by the Wushu novels he had read.

He also has another trait, which is to make friend with people that possessed abilities. Of course, most of them belonged to the category that knew how to fight, so he has a lot of reckless buddies as well.

Since he believed in Wushu, he always wanted to receive tips from masters and cultivate his soul to train internal techniques. Because of this, his sister always criticized him for reading too much fantasy novels and distorting reality.

"Ten minutes, give me ten minutes, I hope no one interrupts me."

Jiang Chen had left those words before he locked the door behind him, looking mysterious.

The people left behind were all stunned.

Chapter 68: Cured?

Jiang Chen, alone, stood in the middle of the room and he scanned his surroundings.

The special ward, for notable guests, was filled with medical equipment, but all useless for treating rabies.

He hesitated for a moment as he wasn’t certain if there were cameras around, then Jiang Chen sighed before he reached into his pocket.

For his own security, he triggered the EMP grenade.

The faint electric noise resonated in the room as the EP screen inside his sleeves had flashed before it stabilized. With stability as the core design philosophy, it was extremely resistant to EMP. However, of course, equipment in that age was not the same as all the other electronics in the room, which have been short-circuited. These faults were hard to detect as most people would attribute instability to the voltage source.

Regardless if there were cameras or not, it would be broken by now. There was no expensive medical equipment inside this ward, so the hospital wouldn’t consider it a big deal. As to his phone, he threw it into the storage dimension immediately.

He approached the old man as he took out the D-level antibiotics. He took a deep breath before aiming it at the old man’s vein and injecting it.

He watched the red liquid enter his body as he pulled out the needle and put it in the storage dimension. The old man was already unconscious from being at the terminal stage of rabies, so he was not afraid to have his secret revealed.

Also, the D-level antibiotic has no side effects on the human body. It was evident by the fact that the remaining medicine would be cleared out from the body within an hour. Even a blood test would not detect any traces of it.

Especially no one would experiment on the second in command of the local government.

“How’s my father doing?” Seeing that Jiang Chen came out, Wang Zhiyong immediately walked up to ask.

“He’ll be okay after some sleep,” Jiang Chen smiled as he replied.

“That’s impossible.” The doctor still maintained his stance as he looked suspiciously at Jiang Chen before walking into the ward.

He didn’t believe that Jiang Chen would cure that important person’s disease. He was only worried that if he dies, even if it were not his responsibility, he would also take on some of the blame.

“Could I have your phone number? So that if father wakes up, we can express our sincere gratitude,” Wang Xinran said.

Although she still looked at Jiang Chen with suspicion, since he had already treated her father, there was nothing she could say.

[Thanking me is not the point. It is probably more of a threat to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong.] Jiang Chen obviously guessed her intention. He shrugged as he pulled out his identification card and flashed in front of her face.

If they want to know, they will find their way.

Seeing that Jiang Chen immediately pulled out his identification card, Wang Xinran felt her face burn from embarrassment. She knew that he understood her trick. He did this with good intention, but she was still suspicious till now, which was inconsiderate and unreasonable by any means.

But Wang Zhiyong who’s straightforward didn’t have any tricks, as he never liked the idea of trickery.

“No need for ID. Let’s exchange phone numbers. You’ll be my brother from now on! If anyone dares to touch you, I will go beat him up!” Wang Zhiyong pulled out his iPhone as he began to call Jiang Chen brother. With the way Jiang Chen looked, he was certain that his father would be okay.

“That’s impossible!” Suddenly, a shocked shout came from the ward.

“What’s going on?” Wang Zhiyong was confused.

“Father!” Before he understood what was happened, his sister ran into the room.

“Your father’s health is in good condition, he probably woke up already,” Jiang Chen shrugged as he said nonchalantly with a smile.

Wang Zhiyong was overjoyed when he heard the news as he thanked Jiang Chen and ran into the ward.

Jiang Chen smiled. Although this guy was reckless, just by how much he cared for his father, it was worth it to befriend him.

“Sir, what method did you use?” The doctor walked out as he had no more suspicion in his eyes, only respect.

“Secret. Sorry, but I can’t share.” Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously.

“Do you know how many people this will save if rabies can be cured? There are 55 thousand people a year who die because of this disease. If you publish this secret…” This doctor obviously was not ready to let Jiang Chen go as he started to guilt trip him, hoping Jiang Chen would reveal the secret.

But Jiang Chen being annoyed, interrupted the doctor.

“And give it to you so you can win a Nobel Prize?”

Jiang Chen’s words made the doctor’s face turn a vibrant shade of red. He did think about that.

“When it is necessary I’ll share it, with my own name.” Jiang Chen walked away, finishing the sentence.

If they wanted to thank him, he wouldn’t have to wait here. It would be straightforward for the government to find his number, especially since Wang Xinran just saw his ID.

Leaving without saying anything would leave a more memorable impression.

－

“Is, is this the hospital?” Wang Dehai's eyes narrowed as he gradually woke up from unconsciousness. From the sharp edges of his face, it was evident that although he has aged, his body was healthy. But regardless of health, with a disease like rabies, he would die without the proper treatment.

“Father, you are finally awake.” Wang Xinran had tears in her eyes. She was the youngest in the family and received the most affection from her father. Her father’s weak look impacted her feel the most. But her tears were tears of happiness.

“I, didn’t I get rabies?” Wang Dehai was confused as he was ready to face death. But life played a joke on him. He looked at his disappointing son in search of an answer.

“Father, hehe, I found an ancient remedy doctor, and he cured you,” Wang Zhiyong said proudly.

An ancient remedy doctor?

Wang Dehai was so angry he almost coughed out blood. He was especially annoyed by his son’s fantasy for masters, Wushu, and martial arts, which was an embarrassment to the family. But when he remembered that he had in incurable disease, he was shocked.

[An ancient remedy doctor actually cured me?]

He looked at his most beloved daughter but what surprised him was that the answer he saw on her face was, it’s true.

“Although I don’t want to admit this, brother actually did find an ancient remedy doctor to cure you.”

Jiang Chen would be furious if he heard the words “Ancient remedy doctor”. This was advanced technology!

[Really?] Wang Dehai frowned, but then he felt relieved.

“What is there not to admit, if he cured me he cured. Even if he is an ancient remedy doctor, he is my lifesaver! How much money does he want? Give it to him.” Wang Dehai had experienced the ups and downs of life. Since he could live longer, no one would say no to his requests, especially when he was so powerful.

“Father, he doesn't need money, that’s too lame.” Wang Zhiyong rolled his eyes. His words were always unpredictable.

Wang Dehai, of course, knew his son’s personality; he would believe anything they say.

“Go invite the person, I want to thank him personally.” Regardless, he must thank him for saving his life. Wang Dehai already was thinking that as long as it is not against his principle, he’ll do his best to meet the “ancient remedy doctor’s demand.

He was a powerful and influential politician in the country. Jiang Chen saved him. Not only did he do a favor to him, but also to the country itself.

“Okay.” Wang Zhiyong laughed as he ran outside.

Wang Dehai lied on the bed as he chatted with his daughter about what happened when he was unconscious. However, he kept thinking about the “master” that saved him. Wang Dehai was no ordinary people. He didn’t understand how did the “ancient remedy doctor” managed to save him, or who sent him here.

However, his disappointing son came back alone with a disappointed look.

“Father, he left.”

“What?” Wang Dehai was shocked.

[There really is someone who didn’t seek favors?]

“Didn’t you exchange phone number with Jiang Chen?” Wang Xinran hastily said.

“I didn’t get to. I had to check on father,” Wang Zhiyong said with disappointment in his voice.

“You, how old are you, why are you still so careless,” Wang Dehai criticized his son for a good while.

Although Wang Zhiyong was reckless, he still didn’t dare to talk back to his father. He just had to listen to his dad’s criticism.

Jiang Chen.

Wang Dehai remembered that name. Though he didn’t know what his life saver looks like, it was not difficult for him to find someone in the country.

Wang Dehai, who has always been cautious, didn’t express his thoughts. He decided to wait and get an understanding of Jiang Chen’s background to see what kind of intention he had before approaching him, himself to repay the favor. For he might be a pawn sent by political enemies.

Wang Dehai closed his eyes as he made up his mind. He needed to rest. Since he had already recovered, then some change must be made in Wanghai City. Once he wakes up tomorrow, the people that tried to give the Wang family trouble will all be punished.

Although he was well into his fifties, the vibe Wang Dehai possessed was not to be undermined.

Wang Zhiyong who saw his father’s expression let out a breath of relief. He knew exactly what his father’s expression meant. A rejoiced look appeared on his face.

[Father is healthy now, a lot of people are going to be in trouble.]

He was still upset that he didn’t manage to get Jiang Chen’s number. His intention was clear. Since he did something nice for me, then I must repay him in kind.

But what he meant by repaying the favor meant taking Jiang Chen around to show off. He loved two things the most, making friends and finding trouble. Those two things usually don’t conflict with each other, but he didn’t expect Jiang Chen would leave right away.

Wang Zhiyong and Wang Dehai didn’t know that Jiang Chen didn’t leave, he was waiting in a ward nearby.

Wang Xinran, on the other hand, was more curious. She didn’t know how Jiang Chen saved her father.

Li Gangming standing in front of the door had a sour face. He could only pray that they would not remember the conflict. The look of sympathy from the other guard made him want to slap himself. Why didn’t he think before he acted?

But even if he thought it through, the consequence would probably be the same. Recklessness is contagious from being around Wang Zhiyong for so long.

Chapter 69: The Future 1.0 That Shocked the World

Artificial intelligence was a word most people on the internet were familiar with. They usually played the antagonist role in the action-packed Hollywood movies, only to have their plans of world domination gloriously foiled by the protagonist.

It could be seen from the mainstream media that humankind had always been skeptical and afraid of artificial intelligence.

The perception was logical; they were, after all, beings not reliant on a physical body, both eternal and wise. There was no reason for such a "god" to abide by the rules of humans.

However, ventures into artificial intelligence research never ceased. From novels written in the 1950s that imagined the future of artificial intelligence to IBM’s development of Watson who could design a menu and voluntarily participate in contests—within sixty years, artificial intelligence had made leaps and bounds.

What about in another sixty years?

There was no need for another sixty years; the Han internet user could now experience it in the present.

An unknown software—as if carefully planned—entered the Android platform, 361 stores, and the APP store. The download number exploded exponentially, breaking one million downloads on the tenth day after release, beating Line’s record at six hundred thousand downloads a day.

This could only be described as a miracle.

Using common sense, it would still take great marketing to pull off such a feat. Otherwise, no matter how amazing the app, it would take time for anyone to become familiar with the product. Future Technology Corporation—it was a name no one ever had heard before.

Artificial intelligence? A changed algorithm with an increase in phone performance by threefold? Decrease power consumption by half? Automatic compatibility with both Android and iOS apps? Did they take all of the users for fools?

Fu*k, it actually has artificial intelligence that can speak? Siri is so dumb in comparison.

Fu*k, it actually increased the phone performance by three times! Even cheap phones can play high-end games now without any lag!

Fu*k, it actually decreased the power consumption by half. My Huawei has a battery span of two days now!

A chain of explosive reactions ensued, followed by an exponential number of downloads. The waves of good ratings and comments convinced the skeptical users to join the forces. In response to their shocking discovery, they also joined in promoting the app.

Future 1.0 officially caught the attention of all mobile users.

－

Within 361 Corporation's headquarters.

"I want to know the developer of this app, as well as the background of Future Technology. I don’t care how you do it; I want a detailed report on my table in two hours." 361 Corporation's president Zhou Hongwei sat at his office desk, rubbing his forehead in an attempt to alleviate his tiredness as he gave a task to 361 Phone Helper’s Project Manager Zhang Jianfeng.

"Yes." The middle aged man nodded as he hastily walked out of the office.

"Boss, is the Future 1.0 as scary as it sounds?" The assistant couldn’t resist asking after seeing her boss's gloomy expression.

"Do you know what artificial intelligence and enhanced phone functionality mean?" Zhou Hongwei sneered with raised eyebrows.

"But based on user dependency and..."

"Don't mention those things; those are applicable when the software are comparable." Zhou Hongwei rejected the assistant's point right away. "Would you continue to use an old flip phone after the introduction of a smartphone?"

The young assistant was speechless, unable to argue against her boss's point. Even if the book said otherwise, the reality was right in front of her.

"The introduction of the touch screen replaced the necessity to have fifteen physical buttons, but the Future 1.0 replaced the need to use fingers. The increased phone performance also broke through the limitation of mobile game development. The two breakthrough technologies exist on one software. Pity, if even one of them had been born in our 361 Phone Helper, I have full confidence that I would’ve been able to replace Penguin and become the new leader in the tech industry."

The thought of his horrendous defeat against Penguin in a battle for market shares enraged him to this day.

Zhou Hongwei's finger gently tapped against the table amidst the assistant’s silence.

Less than half an hour later, the door was pushed open.

Zhang Jianfeng did not bother to knock on the door as he hastily approached his boss.

"The information is here."

"Excellent." Zhou Hongwei immediately began reading the information. Instead of criticizing him for his informality, he was pleased by the efficiency.

After scanning through the document with a frown, Zhou Hongwei immediately handed another task to his assistant.

"Go and contact Gu Cheng from the technology's department. I give him permission to use any developers from any project. My only requirement is that I want to see a cracked version of Future 1.0 in a week."

"Yes." The assistant nodded as she stepped out.

Immediately, Zhou Hongwei gave directives to his right-hand man Zhang Jianfeng.

"Zhang Jianfeng, go contact Future Technology's owner Jiang Chen and discuss the possibility of an acquisition. If it can be purchased, then that would be the best option. If he asks for a price within 2 billion, I give you permission to accept right away. At the same time, ask if he is interesting in working for 361."

"Yes." Zhang Jianfeng nodded, agreeing that the price his boss offered was not too high. As the 361 Phone Helper’s Project Manager, he knew the value of this app.

2 Billion RMB? Even 2 billion USD was not enough. Zhang Jianfeng could only hope that Jiang Chen was too new to know the value of his software and would be shocked by the billion dollar offer.

But was that possible? Jiang Chen's own valuation for the company was over trillions.

USD.

At the same time, what happened in 361 was also taking place in Baidu, QQ's headquarters, and even in the overseas Samsung, Microsoft, and Apple technology giants who expressed significant interest towards the app born in Hua.

Acquisition, cracking, joint venture... A series of meetings revolved around the "giant bomb" that was Future 1.0.

－

"Marketing expenditure of five hundred ninety thousand includes creating impressions on social media, utilizing platforms such as Baidu, Wechat, and QQ, as well as other forms of advertisement."

Xia Shiyu had recovered from her cold. In professional attire, she concisely reported the company development before Jiang Chen.

The work could have been completed like usual in Xia Shiyu's home, but for whatever reason, the girl strongly opposed this idea. Using the excuse of the newly renovated office, she argued that the company should start on the right track and changed the work location to here.

The girl’s cold attitude made Jiang Chen feel extremely "hurt" as he had stayed with her for the entire night when she had been sick.

"What's the download number?" Jiang Chen leaned against the chair and asked in a lazy tone.

Perhaps used to his complacent work attitude, Xia Shiyu did not look displeased. She took out another report and continued, "Future 1.0's total download has reached 20 million, with the record high reached on the tenth day."

"Only 20 million?" Jiang Chen frowned as he was unsatisfied.

"This is not bad, okay?" Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes at him. As soon as she woke up from her sickness, the first person she saw was Jiang Chen; afterwards, the way she treated him became ambiguous.

"There are at least five hundred million smartphone users in Hua, and this is a conservative estimate. I only have 20 million out of this giant market. How is that not a little." Jiang Chen was trying to prove this point.

"It’s predicted that the user base will break the one hundred million mark by the end of August. Since our user base is too small, this is a commendable result." Xia Shiyu flipped through the document as she explained.

"You don't have to be so concerned. I am certain of your ability, Miss CEO." Jiang Chen grinned.

"I am not concerned!" Xia Shiyu rebutted.

But then she realized that arguing with the shameless Jiang Chen was futile, so she took a deep breath and brought the conversation back on topic. "There is a total of twelve companies that announced interest in partnership and acquisition."

"Partnership, I am interested. You can arrange a schedule for me; I'll personally chat with them. As to acquisition, you can reject them without asking for my permission." Jiang Chen stretched.

"Oh? IBM offered one point three billion USD." Xia Shiyu raised her eyebrows as she shoved the letter of intent into Jiang Chen's arms with a smirk.

"Hehe, I won't sell it for thirteen billion USD." Jiang Chen took the letter of intent and threw it into the garbage without a glance at the page.

Xia Shiyu's mouth curved up at Jiang Chen's response. She held the same opinion as Jiang Chen on the value of this software.

Suddenly, as if she just remembered something, she hesitated for a moment before she opened her mouth. "Also, President, I have another thing I want to confirm with you."

"What? You don't have to call me president, just call me Jiang Chen." Jiang Chen waved his hand.

"Please keep business and personal life separate, Mr. President." Xia Shiyu smoothly replied as she continued on the topic, "The quality of Future 1.0 is without a doubt impeccable. But regarding privacy, do we not need to submit a patent?"

"Privacy? There is privacy for software in this country?" Jiang Chen laughed at her rhetorical question.

Xia Shiyu was speechless, but she still offered her own opinion.

"At least we will gain the advantage from a legal perspective. If another company uses our technology without permission, we can proceed with legal action."

"Submitting the patent means we have to provide a detailed explanation of our technology. To be honest, I don't trust them." Jiang Chen was straightforward. "I am confident that within fifty years, no one will be able to crack Future 1.0. Moreover, in a couple of years, Future 2.0 will be introduced. As long as we remain the pioneer of this industry, we don't need a patent."

The nature of the patent was to receive protection and exclusive rights in exchange for sharing information. The patent required sufficient disclosure of the technical information which would allow people to replicate the technology.

But that was the last thing he wanted to do; how would it benefit him to disclose D++? He was not some selfless philanthropist.

Xia Shiyu remained silent. She didn't know where Jiang Chen's confidence or the fifty years remark came from, but surprisingly, she didn't insist on it and chose to trust him.

"Okay, since the majority shareholder has already made the decision, then Future 1.0's core technology will be classified as a business secret. The relevant privacy information would require you to discuss with the software developer."

His title was the chief developer of this app, but it was only a fake role. The setting disclosed to the public was that an overseas developer team created Future 1.0 while his position only required him to represent the team.

Just like deceiving Zhao Chenwu, except he was deceiving the whole world this time.

Do you want to find the real developers? Go ahead; it's in the other world.

Jiang Chen nodded as he didn't say anything more.

If a programming language developed 100 years into the future managed to be cracked by the people of this time, it would literally have to be done by supernatural activity. As an example, it was like asking someone to program using the C language when they had never learned it before. Even with the unencrypted code provided, the person was required to understand first; the only way was to guess and learn a language with stronger logic flow compared to C.

"On the other hand, considering Future Technology's growing popularity, I have contacted Wanghai University's administration and students to adjust the hiring time and location," Xia Shiyu said.

"Oh? You don't have to report these things to me, just give me a schedule, and I'll make time to take care of it." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"This is not a small task. Talent acquisition is critical to the future of the company, especially the first batch of employees—they will become the core of the company's operation. From personality to knowledge, everything must be tested under a strict process."

"Okay, because I trust your ability, I'm assigning this important task to you."

Xia Shiyu's face burned under Jiang Chen's "passionate" gaze, but because she had light makeup on, with her limited facial expressions, Jiang Chen didn't notice her odd reaction.

"Okay." Although she wanted to criticize Jiang Chen into at least preparing for the interview process, everything she wanted to say turned into one word.

"Then let's go with this decision." Jiang Chen laughed as he stood up from the office chair and walked to the door behind Xia Shiyu. "Call me if you have anything. If I’m not within the service zone, send me a text, and I'll call you back when I see."

Jiang Chen then left the company, leaving Xia Shiyu staring blankly into space.

[Is there a president this irresponsible?]

Xia Shiyu rubbed her face with her hand.

There was another thing she didn't report: seven companies extended offers to her as shareholder and CEO of Future Technology. These companies included world-renowned technology giants where every graduate dreamed to work at.

If it were like before, she would most likely have taken a look at this information. But this time, without glancing at it, she shredded it. Even she was surprised by her decisiveness.

[With Future 1.0's potential, there is no need to consider the tech companies that are about to get reshuffled. President... Jiang Chen, he is probably working hard in areas I can't see. Future 1.0 can't drop from the sky, right?] Xia Shiyu convinced herself.

She glanced at the messy documents, sighing at Jiang Chen’s work habit.

She organized them into categories before she left the president’s office, gently closing the door behind her.

Chapter 70: Catching the Wind

Wanghai University’s female dormitory.

"Lulu, what are you doing?" Wang Xinran suddenly hugged her best friend from behind and giggled as she drew her face closer to the phone.

"Stop, stop, I’m playing Hearthstone." Chen Lulu concentrated on the screen; she was a typical gamer girl.

"Eh? That’s boring. Wait, I heard that Android can’t play Hearthstone." Wang Xinran curiously said as she recalled.

"Hehe, this is where you don’t understand. After I finish this game, I’ll show you my adorable Little White." With a conceited smile at the opponent’s disappointed voice saying <You defeated me>, she delightfully stretched.

"Am I not amazing at Hearthstone?" Chen Lulu raised her eyebrows as she said proudly.

"I don’t play the game." Wang Xinran pouted but then returned to her previous question. "Tell me, how did you play an iOS game on Android?"

Rather than Hearthstone, she was more interested in this. As a media major student and the producer of Wanghai University’s campus news team, she sensed a scoop from this interesting discovery.

"Wait, wait. Boom! Look, my Little White." Chen Lulu comforted this short-tempered best friend and revealed her "baby."

"What is this? A digital pet?" Wang Xinran sighed. She never had an interest in these phone games, but the chubby robot did look adorable.

"Try talking with him," Chen Lulu said mysteriously.

Wang Xinran blanked out before she looked at her friend with confusion.

Chen Lulu seemed to expect Wang Xinran's confusion, but she ignored her and spoke to the phone screen.

"Little White, sister's friend doesn't believe you can talk. Can you find a way for her to like you?"

Wang Xinran rolled her eyes at Chen Lulu. Was this girl crazy because she gamed too much?

But the next second, she was completed stunned.

"I don't care about other people as long as Master likes me, hehe." The adorable electronic voice didn't sound cold at all, as if it came from a real human. Little White's voice was full of emotion as he lied down, exposing his belly.

"That's not okay. Xinran is sister's best friend." From the outsider’s perspective, Chen Lulu talking to the phone looked comical, but Wang Xinran was too fixated on the situation to ridicule her.

"Okay..." Little White got up begrudgingly and looked at Wang Xinran's direction with a cute blink of his big eyes. "Sister Xinran, can we be good friends?"

"You, are you customer service?" Wang Xinran blankly asked.

"No, Little White is an artificial intelligence," Little White puffed out his chest as he said proudly.

"How is this possible... wait! Then shouldn’t every single action be repetitive? Why is that?" Wang Xinran suddenly thought of a more critical question.

Even Reixin’s Simba—with only some gif images, such programs mimicked human behavior with limited and repetitive actions, regardless of how human-friendly the design.

But this Little White... he looked like he was alive on the screen.

"Little White, can you wave your hand?" Wang Xinran gulped as she asked.

"Like this?" Little White tilted his head because he initially didn't understand the question before he extended his short and chubby hand and waved.

Magical! It was alive, as if every frame of movement was not pre-planned but instead the action of Little White himself.

"I know what you are thinking; I was shocked too." Chen Lulu’s vanity was fulfilled, pleased to see the shocked look on her friend’s face. "Hehe, the function is not limited to this. Do you know that he can improve the phone processor efficiency by three times? I don't even know how he did it."

Improved by three times?

But facts like this didn’t even surprise Wang Xinran anymore. Nothing could compare to the existence of artificial intelligence, and the fact that the guy who invented it thought to apply it to the phone industry. What a waste; it could have gone towards industries, environmental protection, aerospace, or even military.

She clearly envisioned greater possibilities for Little White.

"By the way, where did your home screen go?" Wang Xinran figured out another problem—her friend's home screen and apps had disappeared.

"Oh, those things. Little White, surprise her." Chen Lulu didn't even move her finger as she propped the phone on the table at a slant.

"Okay." Little White adorably blinked.

"Take a photo of me and my best friend—the type that comes out pretty!" Chen Lulu turned her eyes before she suddenly hugged Wang Xinran and kissed her on the cheek.

"Oh come on, this is embarrassing!" Wang Xinran blushed, caught off guard by her best friend's actions.

Kacha.

A perfect photo was captured and saved for the best friends.

"Okay, help me send her a copy and open Hearthstone. I’m going to destroy some people."

"Hehe, okay, Master." Little White giggled. Just as the voice died, Wang Xinran felt the phone vibration from her pocket.

[So that's how it works. If it’s like this, then the home screen is really not necessary.]

Wang Xinran smiled as she began to understand the software, then inquired about its origin.

"Oh, the software is called Future 1.0. The name sounds pretty sci-fi. You can download it on the Android market; it's only 53 megabytes! But you have to be careful and download the version from Future Technology! There are a lot of fake versions online which include some weird stuff and have nothing to do with Little White."

"There are already fake versions?" Wang Xinran was shocked. She had been preoccupied with family affairs for a time, and she was already so behind?

"Yes! The software is too popular. It’s said that the software consecutively broke the daily download record!" Chen Lulu proudly said as if she had made the software herself.

"Sounds like it’s your creation." Wang Xinran mocked her excited friend.

"Hehe, I heard that Future Technology's president and the chief developer is an alumni! My friend from software engineering said that their professor praised the product for half the class and predicted that a Bill Gates of the east would be born from Wanghai University. Apparently he made it sound like he personally taught the student. Also, a friend in the student union told me that they would come to our school to hire. Maybe I’ll get the job." Chen Lulu proudly raised her small face.

"You are not even studying computer science, so why would you bother?" Wang Xinran poked her friend’s head, speechless at her thought process.

It was true that she was in her fourth year already however; it was time to consider either the job market or go on to graduate studies.

"But I am studying law. What major corporation doesn't have a legal counsel?" Chen Lulu rolled her eyes at Wang Xinran and waved her tiny fists. "Ahem, my first task there will be to sue all of the copying bastards and teach them a lesson or two!"

"Yes! Sue them! Their version made me look so ugly." Little White peeked from the side of the screen and sounded terribly wronged.

Wang Xinran giggled. She sincerely wished for her friend's dream to become reality.

Also, she was curious about the alumni who developed this magical software. An unshaven computer genius? A top student with glasses? Or just an ordinary guy?

Interesting. Looks like it was time to report on this godlike person.

－

Jiang Chen leaned comfortably against the chair, the steam from his coffee wafting gently into the air. Xia Shiyu, dressed in sharp, professional attire, stood in front of his desk reporting on the current progress.

The feeling was unreal.

His previous manager was standing in front of his table as an employee. It didn't matter what she was reading aloud; his own vanity was through the roof.

Of course, it was critical to focus on the business.

"There are fourteen fake softwares on the Android platform. Seven used Little White as the main attraction, three used our Future Technology’s logo, and there are two versions of card games that directly used Little White's character."

"A tall tree catches the wind, a person in a high position is liable to be attacked. Don't worry. The internet user base is not dumb and will be selective in their choices. It’s impossible to copy our software." Jiang Chen casually dismissed the issue.

"Because the Apple store has a stricter auditing process, there are no fake versions on the iOS platform." Xia Shiyu didn't mind Jiang Chen’s interruption, finishing her report as usual before stating her opinion, "Just as the president said, our software privacy is impeccable. The current fake versions will never be able to replicate and replace our software, but their negative influence should not be be underestimated either. If a user searched for us and saw a screen full of fake products, their first impression would be ruined. My recommendation is to immediately use legal methods to solve the problem."

"Looks like we need to form our legal team soon." Jiang Chen smiled.

"That's right, so please emphasize its importance in tomorrow's hiring fair. Also, a wave of negative opinions have emerged on the internet in an attempt to tarnish Future 1.0’s reputation, creating the notion that artificial intelligence is extremely dangerous. At the same time, they raised concerns regarding Future 1.0’s user privacy. For example, since mobile payment is a popular method, the user can complete transactions by telling the password to Little White and commanding him to complete the payment process. Therefore, users are worried about the possibility of Little White leaking the password, or even being hacked."

Privacy, it certainly was a problem.

If it was an emotionless program, despite its flawed backend design, people would not feel their privacy was threatened as long as the fact was not exposed on the table; yet, if it was an "emotional" artificial intelligence, even if it was designed flawlessly, people would subconsciously question it.

Because it was too similar to humans.

Jiang Chen’s expression turned serious before he slowly opened his mouth and said, "This sort of concern is unnecessary, but with the current status quo, even if I made the guarantee now, it would not convince the users. How about this—publish a notice and establish Little White’s absolute loyalty to the individual user. It is written in the code and cannot be changed! No one other than the user can access personal information through Little White.

"Additionally, Little White recognizes the master through a combination of verbal and facial recognition technology, leaving it without any possibility of a security flaw! Any user that suffers financial loss because of an error in Little White's programming will receive full compensation from Future Technology!"

"What if a security error does exist?" Xia Shiyu had to interrupt as this notice was too absolute.

"It is impossible—you only need to trust this point. As for how the announcement will be written, use what I said as a reference and polish it up." Jiang Chen grinned.

"If you’re so confident, then we'll follow your decision. Also, I'll create some public opinions using this notice as the backbone to repel the opposing comments." A hint of a smile bloomed on Xia Shiyu's face.

Although she didn't know the identity of the one behind the slander, once this guarantee was published, she had the confidence to turn the tide of ridicule towards a positive direction. She would use the negativity to push Future 1.0 to new heights.

Those malicious people with the intent to create obstacles for them would become the stepping stone for Future Technology.

"That's all for the bad news. Now let's talk about the good news." A bright smile appeared on Xia Shiyu's face as she pulled out another document.

"Future 1.0's total download number already exceeds fifty million with the daily download number still increasing exponentially. In the overseas market... Are you listening?" Xia Shiyu noticed Jiang Chen's unnatural expression and stuttered to a stop with a confused look.

"Ahh... continue?" Jiang Chen regathered his wits that had scattered at her smile.

That was his first time seeing her smile at work.

Was she okay?

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows in concern, but Xia Shiyu interpreted it as a signal that he was back on track, so she cleared her throat and continued without requiring an answer to her question.

"Mhmm, President, please focus on the task at hand. In the overseas market, Future 1.0 has also achieved a substantial number; however, because Little White has yet to be compatible with another language, it cannot interact with international users. The general hope is for Future Technology to develop versions in other languages. Lastly, Google and Microsoft both extended queries for a partnership in developing artificial intelligence." Xia Shiyu finished and glanced at Jiang Chen.

Because of the software's encrypted nature, the only version on the market was in Han, leaving international users excited and unable to wait to get their hands on it.

"That's not a problem; it will be available shortly. As for the invitation from Google and Apple, if they want a partnership, it should be okay."

The artificial intelligence database already included 140 languages, but for the sake of decreasing the size of the file, Jiang Chen chose to eliminate all other languages; otherwise, the software would not have been 53 megabytes—it would have been 5300 megabytes.

Jiang Chen would make Du Yongkong release the overseas version once the time was right, but for now, the focus was on consolidating their position in the domestic market. As long as they announced the ongoing development of the international version, it would continue to build up the hype.

As for the foreigners who really couldn’t wait, they would have to learn Han.

"Then I'll respond to them. The meeting will be scheduled three days after the hiring fair." Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses. "To prevent the president from forgetting, I'll read the schedule again. In the morning, you'll meet with 361 Phone Helper’s Project Manager Zhang Jianfeng. In the afternoon, there's a press conference; many media sites would like to interview the "Bill Gates from the east." I highly recommend you prepare beforehand. On the third day, you'll meet with representatives from Microsoft in the morning, Google’s in the afternoon."

"Then wouldn't my schedule be full?" A bitter smiled forced its way onto Jiang Chen’s face.

"You could say that. Domestically, you still haven’t met with representatives from six tech companies. I'll take care of the requests from the smaller corporations." Xia Shiyu nodded.

[Just shoot me now.]

Looking at Jiang Chen's bleak smile, Xia Shiyu felt a little shaken. She sighed and said gently, "You’ll be busy only for this period of time. The company is in its initial phase; as the president, you must display positivity. After this month, your workload will be lighter."

An odd grin appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

"Is there something wrong?" she confusedly asked when she spotted his expression.

"You’ve changed."

"Hmm?" Xia Shiyu didn't understand.

"You are more caring now." Jiang Chen sincerely praised her.

"President, it's the same words, please." Xia Shiyu seemed somewhat frantic. As to why she felt frantic, she didn't know either.

"This is not a personal problem." He grinned, having already guessed her next words. "Only a caring superior can be a good president. I am more and more confident with your role as CEO."

"..." So it was not personal.

For some reason, Xia Shiyu felt disappointed in her heart.

"Hmm? How come now that I praise you, you look more serious now?" Jiang Chen was troubled.

Without another word, Xia Shiyu gently laid the documents on Jiang Chen’s desk before stiffly walking out of the office.

[Strange woman.]

Jiang Chen shook his head before sipping his coffee.

[Why are they all so cold?]

Chapter 71: Ayesha’s Unique Trait

The mansion’s renovation had been completed two days ago. After checking out from the hotel, he brought Ayesha to the mansion. With only two people, the massive estate did feel empty, but he was confident that one day, it would be filled with people.

Hehe.

At night, Jiang Chen drove his Maybach S600 back to the mansion. He hummed as he parked the car in the garage, then realized that Ayesha was already waiting for him.

He smiled as he walked towards her after closing the door.

"You don't have to wait for me at the door; I have the key," he said as he gently touched the dark brown hair.

"You are my husband. As the wife, it is my duty to wait for you to come home." Jiang Chen forced a smile at the Han words that came stiltedly from her mouth.

[Husband...]

The unexpected event had been his fault, but who could control themselves under the influence of alcohol?

[Ayesha’s lack of resistance means part of the responsibility lies on her as well. No, no, a man must take responsibility.]

[Worst case scenario, I’ll have many wives! What rich guy doesn’t have a mistress or two—the only difference is whether it’s been documented or not. She did say that she doesn’t care too much about the procedures.]

At this point, Jiang Chen no longer contemplated the matter as he always lived by his desires. He glanced apologetically at Ayesha as he let her undress him out of his suit and into casual casual clothing before they headed to the dining room for dinner.

Dinner consisted of steak, roasted lamb, and fresh salad. The raw ingredients had been bought from the store and prepared by Ayesha. It was evident that in order to fulfill her role as the "wife," she spent much effort to raise her cooking skills.

Finally, he could eat fine meals in his own home. Jiang Chen was pleased with the idea alone. By himself, his cooking could only be considered modestly edible.

As for the lack of pork, he didn't mind as long as the meal tasted good.

"Is the taste okay?" Ayesha anxiously asked.

"Delicious!" Jiang Chen complimented her cooking with an affirmative nod.

Besides a fork and knife, Ayesha had thoughtfully prepared a pair of chopsticks for Jiang Chen. Although it was strange to eat steak with chopsticks, it was more convenient with spaghetti.

Jiang Chen ate comfortably and without restraint since they were within the privacy of their home.

"Great." At Jiang Chen’s compliment, Ayesha sighed happily, then lowered her head and prayed before starting her meal.

The steak was a little too overdone, but considering she had just started cooking, her accomplishment was already impressive. The salad received high recognition from Jiang Chen as he devoured it with gravy and peppered french toast.

Overall, it was comparable to a meal at the restaurant.

Although, he enjoyed eating rice and cooked dishes more.

After dinner, Jiang Chen stately wiped his mouth before he praised Ayesha once more, causing a shy smile to creep onto her face.

This apathetic girl would only display soft tenderness in front of Jiang Chen.

While Ayesha took care of the dishes, Jiang Chen headed towards the gym on the third floor. He picked an empty space before placing the training chamber down from inside the storage dimension. He then put 1000 crystals inside the energy before sealing it. One crystal provided enough power for ten hours, which meant 1000 crystals was more than enough.

Afterwards, Jiang Chen called Ayesha to the gym.

"I have something I need you to keep a secret, okay?" Jiang Chen gravely gazed into Ayesha's eyes.

"You are my life. I am willing to swear on my religion to prove my loyalty." Ayesha's expression remained unchanged as she said this calmly.

The moment Jiang Chen saved her, she had made an oath with her god.

Jiang Chen nodded, and then smiled.

"It's not that serious. I trust you. But what you’ll see next will be unbelievable; if other people were to find out, it would not be good for me."

He then led Ayesha to the training chamber.

"It’s a virtual reality training chamber. It will help you train the necessary skills while you’re in a sleeping state. You only need to lie there and follow the directions of the system. Also, do you dislike weapons?" This was the critical question, and Jiang Chen gazed into her eyes as he asked for her opinion.

"I am willing to fight for you." Ayesha's response was still calm.

"Okay, but if you feel uncomfortable, you have to tell me." Jiang Chen nodded.

She smiled faintly as she luxuriated in Jiang Chen’s care.

How could a woman who lived in the desert be afraid of weapons? She had seen too many tragedies; she was already desensitized to blood.

If Jiang Chen needed her to pick up her weapon and fight for him, he only needed to say the word; she’d swing her sharp blade at his enemy without hesitation.

Sensing the bloodlust in her eyes, Jiang Chen gave a strained smile as he attempted to adjust her mentality.

"I think you’re mistaken about something. I don’t want to train you into an assassin; I only need you to learn some combat abilities to use in dangerous situations as a bodyguard. For this, you need to learn Han, how to drive, and combat skills. As for the weapons guide in the training chamber, take a look only if you’re interested. If not, there’s no rush."

"Mhmm." Ayesha nodded. Although she didn't voice it, she had already made up her mind to learn everything.

Jiang Chen was delighted seeing Ayesha understand his intent.

A beautiful driver and bodyguard—the idea alone sounded fantastic.

"You don't have to go to class anymore; this training chamber is much more efficient to learn with. Also, you can first lie on that... yoga mat." Jiang Chen scanned the room, only to find that it was the only viable location.

Ayesha's face turned red and prepared to unbutton her clothes.

Seeing her action, Jiang Chen immediately realized the miscommunication.

"Ahem, no, not that! You just need to lie down, no need to undress." Jiang Chen quickly stopped her.

Confused, Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen before slowly lying down on the yoga mat.

"To improve your body condition, I'll inject a newly developed medicine. It has no side effects and will improve your muscle strength and reflex..." He tried to find a better way to word his explanation.

Suddenly, Ayesha placed her finger gently against his mouth. A cheerful smile appeared on the cold face.

"I'm willing to do anything for you."

Jiang Chen paused, and then grabbed her hand as he sincerely said, "Thank you."

By saving him the trouble of coming up with an explanation, she was showing her tenderness.

Jiang Chen took out the C-level genetic vaccine. Recalling the injection procedure, he gently raised her arm and slowly pushed the needle inside her soft skin.

The pain was like an ant sting, making her voice a small shout as her eyebrows tightened. Jiang Chen took a deep breath before carefully pushing the vibrant red liquid into Ayesha’s body.

"Done." Relieved, he pressed the prepared cotton swab on her arm and signaled that she could get up. What he didn’t understand was why her face had turned so red.

"Within three days, the effects from the vaccine will start to appear. Every morning and night, train in the gym for an hour before going into the training chamber to study. The liquid in there can also enhance your skin and body condition. Once you’re submerged in the liquid, don’t be anxious as the machine will ensure your breathing. And also…" Jiang Chen couldn’t bear to approach the uncomfortable topic coming up.

"Mhmm." Ayesha concentrated on Jiang Chen as she waited for him to finish.

"Ahem." It was too important to be skipped. After a moment’s hesitation, Jiang Chen forced himself to say, "After you lie down, the nervous connection system will prompt an option for you to select. When you press initiate, a catheter will be inserted into your body; it might feel odd, just don't move."

In the end, the English words flew rapidly out from his mouth, surprising even himself.

Ayesha's face immediately turned red as she unnaturally grabbed her clothes. In the end, she still obediently nodded.

"Mhmm..."

Soldiers who used the virtual reality chamber could not completely remove the sensation of pain. If they underestimated injuries, their ability to survive would be drastically decreased, so the military’s version of the training chamber simulated real wounds as long as it was not over the pain threshold.

The issue then was that when experiencing pain, often due to the intense stimulation, some unexpected consequences would crop up.

Such as excreting waste.

Nobody wanted to stay in nutrient supply polluted by human waste, so these training chambers were designed with excretion systems that solved the users’ biological needs.

Due to the unique material of the ergonomic pipes, they would be inserted into the appropriate places. The comfort level differed based on the individual, but it would not hurt so much as feel odd.

After each use, the part inserted into the body was replaced.

The back would be okay, but from the front… Although the body would be secured in place, it would still be dangerous for people to struggle against the process. Sun Jiao had emphasized this point several times before looking mischievously down at his lower body.

Naturally, Jiang Chen had to tell Ayesha, who was about to use the equipment, to prepare her mentally.

But it was embarrassing, especially from guy to a girl.

－

In the gym, Ayesha hesitantly touched the training chamber.

[Pass through there...]

Just thinking about it made Ayesha's face blush from embarrassment.

It was a necessary biological function.

Her legs felt weak, but she dragged her steps to the training chamber and then stopped.

She took several more deep breaths, which made the outer covering that looked like clear fluids fog up with a fine mist.

She bit her lips as she made up her mind, and then took off her clothes before she carefully stepped into the training chamber.

The chamber closed on her, making her anxiety spike.

Claustrophobic? Unable to move? It was difficult to pinpoint the reason, but Ayesha's usual calm heart kept pounding and pounding.

The nervous system structures connected to the base of her neck and gradually pushed her head backwards. A soothing electric pulse passed through her, and she felt a moveable "mouse" focus on her pupils.

The training chamber was user-friendly and allowed language customization.

She waited for a few more minutes before finally moving the mouse to the initiate button.

<Initiate.>

The edges of her conscious grew fuzzy, as though she was about to fall asleep. Ayesha relaxed her body. A soft material pressed against her joints as a protection mechanism that would be removed once she entered deep sleep. The level of the nutrient supply in the chamber gently rose, making her feel comfortable. The only part that worried her was the object pressed against her lower body.

The back was okay, but the front...

The tube-like object seemed to be the excretion system Jiang Chen had talked about. Despite her mental preparations, when it began to search like a thread entering a needle, she tensed up again.

It would be okay after a few tries.

Ayesha constantly comforted herself, then made up her mind and chose the <Deep Sleep> button.

Mhmm....

A cold sensation.

Her limbs tensed up in response to the suspense. Ayesha bit her lips hard, trying to ignore that odd feeling.

[It feels weird. This is not right.]

[This feels…]

[Ahhh, no!]

<Warning!>

<Due to the user’s excited state, deep sleep mode has been terminated.>

<User, please adjust emotion. Deep sleep mode will be reset in 30 seconds.>

She stared blankly at the warnings on her pupil, regathering her breaths that came in short pants. She felt the odd wetness that left her her completely dumbfounded.

[I just, that can't be... But how...]

Chapter 72: I Have Only Two Words for You

Disregarding Ayesha, who had entered a state of confusion, Jiang Chen brushed his teeth and lied comfortably on the soft bed.

It felt different from sleeping in the mansion.

The elegant chandelier, the calming decorations and wallpaper, and the soft bed that you could almost sink into.

In the 10-square-meter bedroom he previously occupied, either way he rolled, he would hit the wall. But on this enormous bed, two extra inhabitants could easily fit onto it.

Enjoying the luxurious environment, he grabbed his new iPhone 6 and clicked on the cute Little White on the screen to open Wechat.

To be fair, once the trend died down, he switched back to the simple screen function.

Perhaps this was Future 1.0’s shortfall? People could download the 53 megabyte app out of curiosity, but once the initial excitement cooled down, people would discover the inconvenience of word commands. For example, speaking to themselves in public could be awkward and playing with the phone in class difficult.

Du Yongkong didn’t belong in this era. The program he designed may have been perfect, but it did not match this day and age. Jiang Chen missed this point as he previously thought having the technological edge alone would be enough, but he forgot that any software must be combined with creativity to be successful. Minecraft was a good example in that although the game was simplistic with pixelated images, the playability was comparable to most triple-A games.

It was by good fortune that Little White managed to fit another demand by coincidence.

A companion that would never betray you, always at your side to comfort and encourage you—and always on your computer.

As an electric pet, Little White would respond with his full attention to whatever was said to him. Any secrets could be shared without worry, and in this technological world where people were growing further apart, burdened by the pressures of life, they often lacked a listener.

If he didn’t know that artificial intelligence lacked any true emotion with reactions based on a database, Jiang Chen would gladly chat with this little guy.

But since he knew the underlying secret, it felt strange talking to a lifeless creature.

It still felt more real to speak with a human being.

Just as he was about to chat with Liu Yao, his phone rang.

Unknown number? It was pretty late; perhaps it was a telemarketer again.

But since he didn’t have anything better to do, he lazily picked up the phone.

"Hello, who is this?" Slouching, he changed to a more comfortable position.

After a brief silence, a voice finally transmitted from the other caller.

"… It’s me. Do you still remember me?" The shy voice made Jiang Chen pause.

[Why does this voice sound so familiar? Who is it?]

Fang Yuanyuan took a deep breath to try and make herself sound more natural.

She had already deleted Jiang Chen’s number a long time ago, but when she found out the poor guy who tried to date her had become rich and handsome, even living in a one hundred million RMB mansion, Fang Yuanyuan couldn’t sit around any longer.

The arrogance of Xiao Mengying also made her especially disgusted and jealous.

Whenever she thought about Xiao Mengying, she became enraged. The two million bonus slipped out of her hands just like that! The General Manager even praised her multiple times for her impressive sales record at the recognition meeting.

[It should have belonged to me…]

Fang Yuanyuan’s enmity made her forget that she was the one who had pushed him away.

It wasn’t too late; from Xiao Mengying’s words, she could tell that the sl*t didn’t manage to completely "eat" up Jiang Chen. Realizing that she still had a chance, she used all of her efforts to finally get Jiang Chen’s phone number from a university classmate.

She even wrote a script.

She planned on using the distressed card to win his sympathy. Then she would hint at her single status, and all because of him...

A cocky smile appeared on her face as Fang Yuanyuan patiently waited for Jiang Chen to take the bait.

"Ummm, sorry, who are you?"

The words that came from the phone frustrated her, making her curse Jiang Chen’s dullness. She adjusted her mentality to sound as if she’d been wronged.

"This, this is Fang Yuanyuan… Have you forgotten me already?"

[Fang Yuanyuan?] Jiang Chen frowned. [Why is this girl calling me? Did I not embarrass her enough?]

He wanted to hang up right away out of annoyance but then smirked at a thought that occurred to him.

After spending too much time with Sun Jiao, he had turned into an evil person as well.

"Oh, Fang Yuanyuan, what’s up?" Jiang Chen casually answered.

Using a gentle voice would have the best effect and he was confident that he had the acting skills to pull it off, but he didn’t want to waste too much effort on this green tea bit*h; he was only looking to have some fun.

"Umm, were you sleeping?" Fang Yuanyuan heard Jiang Chen’s response and couldn’t help but feel delighted.

She could sense an opportunity, but instead of cutting straight to the point, she carefully asked if Jiang Chen was asleep.

"Not yet. Is there anything you need? I’m about to sleep." His tone lacked any sign of the frustration that he felt.

"Last time… Sorry," Fang Yuanyuan gently said.

"Oh? What are you referring to?" Jiang Chen responded.

"The last time when you came to buy a house. It’s my fault for misunderstanding you," Fang Yuanyuan said remorsefully.

Apologizing? Jiang Chen wasn’t so sure anymore.

If she wanted to apologize for her actions, there was nothing he couldn’t forgive since it was not a big deal to begin with. But just as Jiang Chen was about to express his understanding, Fang Yuanyuan continued speaking.

"Do you know? The second you showed up, my heart was beating so fast…"

This sentence almost scared Jiang Chen into flinging his phone away.

[What the fu*k? What are you trying to act out? A Korean drama? Ewww!]

He resisted the urge to throw up, forcing himself to not hang up and instead listen for the sake of hearing out the entire story.

"I was afraid that you hadn’t forgotten about me. Do you remember? When I rejected you, you were so sad. Watching you in secret, I felt troubled as well, but at the time, I couldn’t be with you." Fang Yuanyuan masterfully controlled her sorrowful voice as she told the story "sincerely."

"I really wanted to say yes, but my father didn’t let me, wanting me to marry his friend’s son with whom I was promised to at a young age. I was always resentful of the idea, and in the end, I realized that the person in my heart is—"

"It’s me, right?" Jiang Chen mockingly interrupted.

He couldn’t bear it for a second longer.

Why did she need to find an excuse to be a bit*h? If she had been straightforward and admitted it, then Jiang Chen wouldn’t have felt this grossed out.

"Yes…" Fang Yuanyuan blanked out. Jiang Chen’s reaction was not what she had expected. His tone made her feel that something was off.

"Not a bad script. If you added a heartfelt cry, perhaps it would match a third-tier Korean drama. But there is one thing I don’t understand. How could someone be so shameless?"

Fang Yuanyuan’s face turned ashen.

"Now that I have money, you regretted your decision and became a gold digger, pulling off this bullsh*t. You really think I’d fall for this?" Jiang Chen grimly stared at the ceiling as he spoke emotionlessly into the phone.

"You really think I’m only after your money?" The voice was almost whimpering.

[Is it not?] Jiang Chen burst out laughing.

"You rejected me—I don’t blame you. Everyone has the right to say yes or no. I only blame myself for being incompetent, too blind to see the truth. You only used me when you needed me and ignored me when you didn’t. I thought I liked you, but I was too naive."

A mocking smile curved on Jiang Chen’s face. He remembered that in his first year, he ran through the rain for several kilometers just to give her an umbrella because he thought her sweet smile was worth it.

The reality was that everything had been an act.

His best friend from the same class told him that Fang Yuanyuan already had two boyfriends between first and second year, even getting an abortion for a rich and handsome man. Everything had been hidden away from Jiang Chen at the time since his buddy didn’t have the heart to tell him, afraid of ruining their friendship. But after seeing Jiang Chen’s sorrows after his rejection, the truth came out.

Jiang Chen remembered that he started laughing when he heard it.

At that moment, it no longer seemed to matter.

Who hadn’t been hurt by a bit*h before?

"And now you still expect me to accept you? To care for you like I did before? I only have two words for you—dumb a*s!" Jiang Chen harshly hung up.

A gloom cast itself over Fang Yuanyuan’s face as she bit her lips to the point of turning white. Her eyes were filled with overwhelming shame.

[Is this still the same foolish guy? That’s impossible. He rejected me, embarrassed me.]

Hatred, humiliation, and no longer any regret.

Negative emotions began to overwhelm her conscience as if everything was Jiang Chen’s fault. She selectively ignored her despicable actions in the past and how awful she had been at Wanhua Real Estate.

A crazy thought occurred to her.

Fang Yuanyuan’s finger trembled as she opened her contact list and found a name that made her shiver just by looking at it.

Perhaps the devil erased her conscience; she made up her mind and called that number.

"Oh? Girl, do you miss me?" The flirty tone frustrated Fang Yuanyuan, but she couldn’t show the slightest contempt for this man.

"Pervert, I’ll tell you something. I have a friend that made some money… No, no, he is clean with no background. I know that guy—he just got lucky."

Fang Yuanyuan used a coquettish voice that even she was disgusted by. Hearing the confirmation on the other side, a smile bloomed on her face.

After praising some more, Fang Yuanyuan hung up and flung the phone far away. As if drained by the phone call, she leaned against the cold table

Liu Shiqiang, the son of Hongyi Gang’s head in Wanghai City, and also the gang prince who had forced her to play with five people.

A shameful tear rolled down Fang Yuanyuan’s face, soon twisting into a wicked expression.

"Jiang Chen, you despicable pig. I want to see, with all of your money, if you can mess with the gang."

Chapter 73: Career Fair

Jiang Chen woke up early the next day.

It seemed Ayesha stayed in the training chamber for the entire night but still managed to wake up before he did to make breakfast.

Although he was eager to ask about her opinions on the virtual reality training system, as he opened his mouth, Ayesha’s face became a dusk-red.

Hmm? Jiang Chen figured it was better not to ask, so he gave up.

After breakfast, he pestered Ayesha to avoid focusing so much that she forgot her meals before heading down to the garage and driving his luxury Maybach to the company.

When he arrived, Jiang Chen saw that Xia Shiyu was already waiting for him while constantly checking the time. He smiled grimly when saw the thick briefcase.

The girl was too much of a workaholic—the day had just begun.

"You’re late by two minutes."

Opening the car door, Xia Shiyu settled into the front passenger seat.

"Ahem, isn't the first sentence supposed to be good morning?" Jiang Chen tried to crack a joke before he started the car.

She put on the seatbelt and after a brief pause, murmured, "Because it is work time."

"Do you take the subway every day? That's too inconvenient. Why don't I give you a car? You have your license, right?" Jiang Chen casually said.

"That wouldn't be good for the company. It has yet to develop a method of stable revenue, and you are already providing benefits to the executives." Xia Shiyu's eyebrows furrowed, her hands clenched on the briefcase as she focused on its button.

"It’s okay. It would be too embarrassing for the CEO of a trillion dollar company to have no ride. You don't have to worry about revenue generation; the Future 1.0 functions have yet to be fully unlocked. For example, antivirus, social media platforms, and even replacing the original operating system. Are you still worried about revenue generation?" He smirked confidently.

Drawn by the confident smile, she was immediately shocked by the new information. She abruptly said, "Future 1.0 already has other functions? Why didn't you tell me?"

Her eyes looked accusingly at him, as if he had neglected her.

He did not purposely hide it, just that he had forgotten it in the back of his mind.

"Ahem, of course, it's based on strategic considerations. Future 1.0 can grow right now because we are not in a direct competition with apps under other tech giants. That means we can still work with them given the opportunity.”

It was no wonder Xia Shiyu was made to be a CEO; she immediately understood his intention.

Since she didn’t need to focus on monetary concerns anymore, the initial stage was focused on reinforcing their place in the market. Once a large enough user base was established, it would take guts to try and shake Future 1.0’s position.

Wanghai University.

On the grassy fields stood a stone on which the mighty strokes of ink showed the mark of time on its surface—Wanghai University.

It was rumored that the stone had witnessed the fall of a dynasty and the rise of a republic. It was present during the merciless gunfires and passionate speeches. Not once did it alter itself to fit an era; the only thing that changed were the people passing by.

He watched the countless lively figures, reminiscing about the past.

Truth be told, he never expected to return to his school. He did not leave much of an impact, so at reunions, he would not have much to do.

He could not help but exclaim at the miracle that is life. In just one and a half year’s time, he managed to return as the president of Future Technology to hire at his own school, to hire new talents from the place that had taught him.

"Now that I think about it, we are both alumni, so how come you became the manager right away and I became your employee? " Jiang Chen joked around lightheartedly.

Along the way, countless envious looks were directed at Jiang Chen. Of course, he knew it was towards the car, not himself.

A Maybach S600—a decent number of people recognized the price of the car. But the tinted windows blocked the curiosity of the young men and women, leaving them with their imaginations.

To be honest, he enjoyed receiving this sort of envy.

Because when he rode his bicycle down the same road, no one gave him a second look.

"Now the situation has turned around, hasn't it?" Xia Shiyu said mockingly.

She knew Jiang Chen was not the type to hold on to the past, so she was not sensitive about the topic either.

Jiang Chen didn't disagree, only smiling and enjoying the fulfilment.

It was not long before they entered the parking lot of the library. Under the guidance of the two student union leaders responsible for greeting, they arrived at the event hall.

The hiring fair would start promptly at 9 o'clock, and there was still half an hour left.

"Senior Jiang Chen, I hope you don't make it too difficult for our juniors."

"Of course, but Miss Xia Shiyu will be the one mostly responsible for the hiring," he answered. Jiang Chen had a positive impression of this ponytailed student union leader.

"Many seniors who are applying today are your fans," student union leader Zhang Bingli said as she blinked.

"Oh? My fans?" Jiang Chen sat up, interested.

"Mhmm, especially the seniors in mechanical engineering; they are your juniors."

Jiang Chen forced a smile when he heard it was the mechanical engineering major. Although it was considered a technical degree, the employment was higher in nearly all other majors. It was not that the major itself was useless, but too many people studied under it, depreciating the major’s value.

"Don't be surprised, senior Jiang Chen, but there are a lot of people applying together," the student union leader joked around.

Jiang Chen shrugged as he smiled, indicating that he was more than prepared for it.

Half an hour passed quickly, and the hiring fair officially commenced. Software-related positions were the focus of the morning.

Despite preparing himself, the number of applicants still far exceeded his expectations.

It could only be described as hectic! It was fortunate that the student unions managed to control the situation by using a number system to direct traffic. They also suggested that applicants with later numbers look at other companies first before returning. A temporary fence was then set up around the table’s entrance.

Despite these efforts, Jiang Chen continuously received resume after resume.

The new generation of future leaders made up the largest portion of Future 1.0’s user demographics. Therefore, the company had a significant influence on these young individuals who were at the forefront of new ideas.

Everyone saw the potential of the artificial intelligence software. It would not take long for the relatively unknown Future Technology to become the current Tencent or Ali, stunning the domestic industry and eventually the global technology sector.

Even their professor professed that he could not understand the theory behind the artificial intelligence called Little White.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang. I have always looked up to you. I am a computer engineering major."

[You’re not even trying when you suck up to me. I was unemployed half a year ago, and you say you’ve always looked up to me?]

"I am a graduate, with experience as a recognized student governor and performed well within the organization."

[Then why don't you go apply to become a politician? Why are you here?]

"I am a graduate from the software engineering international partnership class. I wish to apply for the program development position. Also, I have a question for you, if you don’t mind answering for me. How did Future Technology develop artificial intelligence? From my understanding, internationally, the best in the field is IBM Watson."

[Am I interviewing you or are you interviewing me? Also, why do you sound like those critics on the internet who always compare Little White to the half-finished Watson?]

However, this was not what gave Jiang Chen the biggest headache.

[If you are a software major and you apply, that's fine, but why are you here if you are a singing major?]

"Assistant? I don't need an assistant right now," Jiang Chen asked in confusion.

The tall, gorgeous beauty smiled mischievously with her vibrant, red lipstick. Ignoring Xia Shiyu and the other interviewing students, she leaned on the table and came closer to Jiang Chen.

"As the president, you will need an assistant. My work will make you truly satisfied."

Afterwards, she shook her cleavage under her V-neck dress at an angle that only he could see. The confident beauty then gently waved her hair and winked at him, a meaning that all men would understand.

Jiang Chen didn’t know how she had managed to get in. This was one of the few times he wanted to focus on work, and he didn’t come here to do those things.

Before Xia Shiyu could shoot a despising glance over, Jiang Chen, with a stern face, rejected the girl who obviously wanted to experience the implicit rule. He promptly kicked her out, shock still showing on her face.

[You are funny; am I this easy to get? Do I look like I would want to bang every beauty I see? If you want to seduce me, pick a time without other people around. Ahem.]

These people only made up a small percentage. The majority handed in their resume and explained their technical skills, desired position, understanding of the position, as well as an outlook for the company under three minutes.

As for the awards and certificates, Jiang Chen didn’t bother looking those over. One reason was that he had always hated to take tests, and the other was that he didn’t believe these papers would bring any quantifiable revenue. A groundbreaking product already existed; the company lacked creativity and insight, not software developers.

Creativity and insight could be discerned in a few sentences.

The students with heavy backpacks all became sorrowful as Jiang Chen shoved their certificates to the side without a glance.

Due to the high number of applicants, he became pickier and more critical.

By noon, the morning interviews had finally ended.

Jiang Chen stretched, glancing at Xia Shiyu who was organizing the resumes. She didn't seem the slightest bit tired.

"How are you not exhausted at all?"

"I am used to it. Only two hours are left in the afternoon, which will focus on legal and marketing positions. There should be fewer applicants." Xia Shiyu organized the papers as she pushed up her glasses.

Lunch was provided by the school cafeteria free of charge. The school generously donated their services for the corporations participating in the hiring fair. The student union members from before worked tirelessly to put the steaming meals in front of the hiring managers.

Jiang Chen, who was already hungry, began to devour the meal that tasted familiar. Xia Shiyu, on the other hand, ate with grace and elegance, yet still managed to finish the lunch quickly to continue scanning through the resumes.

"Coffee." Jiang Chen brought two cups of coffee over, casually placing one at the corner of her table.

Xia Shiyu paused before burying her head to resume staring at the resume.

"Tha… thank you."

Jiang Chen laughed to acknowledge it was not a big deal. He then leaned against the chair and closed his eyes.

What he didn't notice was that because of his casual act, someone stared blankly at a word for ten minutes straight without realizing.

Chapter 74: Alumni Dinner

Due to the reduced number of applicants in the afternoon, the two combined their tables to conduct interviews together.

“My name is Chen Lulu, graduating from law at Wanghai University. I’m here to apply for the legal assistant role at your company because I’m a loyal fan of Little White.”

The girl who was being interviewed articulated her story clearly with a bright smile on her face.

A fan of Little White? That sort of reason was a first.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows since it was the first interesting response he had heard that day after all of the “I believe in the future prospects of the company” and “I view the artificial intelligence market with optimism.”

"Oh? So why don't you tell me the first thing you are going to do as a legal assistant at our company?”

"Of course I am going to sue those copycats." Chen Lulu answered without hesitation.

Jiang Chen laughed at the response.

But though it was a fun answer and caught his attention, it was too emotional; he wanted to hear a more sophisticated answer. The legal field had no room for ambiguity.

Jiang Chen didn’t have much experience as an interviewer, but he had at least experienced the process enough. He had read up on interview tip books that gave clues in selecting the right candidate.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to pass on her, Chen Lulu opened her mouth again.

She briefly explained from a legal perspective the advantages Future Technology held: the rights of the software in the market that currently infringed upon Future Technology’s copyright, the basis of their claims, and even how to fight the lawsuits. She explained the steps and procedures clearly and logically enough that even Jiang Chen, who was unclear on legal matters, was able to understand most of it.

She then moved on to explain her opinions on the legal weaknesses within Future Technology’s current system. Since Xia Shiyu’s talent focused mainly on operations, she missed key points on the legal side. Though it did not have a large impact as of now, once the ball got rolling, those legal implications would become a hindrance to the company’s growth.

Clear, concise, logical, and articulate.

Talent! A real talent!

Jiang Chen peeked at Xia Shiyu, and when he saw that she had a similarly impressed expression, he stood up.

"Congratulations, Miss Chen Lulu. If you don't have any other questions regarding salary and benefits, you can start tomorrow." With a smile on his face, Jiang Chen extended his right hand.

"No problem! Hehe. YEAH!" Chen Lulu shook Jiang Chen's hand excitedly before she practically floated out the door.

A base salary of 4,000 was above average for the graduating class. What could she possibly be unhappy about, especially given the future growth potential of Future Technology? It could only increase from now on.

The fading enthusiastic cheers made Jiang Chen smile.

“This Chen Lulu’s ability is quite exceptional, although a bit overzealous in personality.” Xia Shiyu gave her impressions after giving it some thought.

“It’s okay to have personality as long as she gets the job done! This is our Future Technology’s work culture. Of course, she still needs your mentoring.” Jiang Chen laughed as he packed away Chen Lulu’s resume.

Although they already decided on the candidate,they finished the procedures for the others. This was first to show respect for the applicants and second to make sure they had not missed an exceptional person. No one would reject talent; given their company’s trajectory, it wouldn’t hurt to have another legal assistant.

In the end, however, Jiang Chen was disappointed to see that no one came close to Chen Lulu.

The only saving grace was finding a few interesting talents for marketing. After organizing the resumes with Xia Shiyu, they concluded the hiring session.

－

In the evening was a banquet hosted by the university. It was an act of appreciation for the corporations that participated in the hiring fair.

On the other hand, the majority of the firms had a form of connection to Wanghai University, such as having an alumni who had created the company. Therefore, this meeting served as a platform for sharing knowledge and establishing connections. If this banquet managed to help in fostering a deal, it would increase the value of the university in society.

Xia Shiyu did not enjoy such gatherings, so she headed back, preferring to select candidates fit for open positions. This disappointed Jiang Chen slightly, but he didn’t insist.

[This girl is working so hard. Perhaps it’s time to give her a raise?] He thought to himself as he watched Xia Shiyu leave.

Because the majority of the corporations were still in the start-up phase, their operations differed substantially. Among these companies, the bright star at the center of attention was Future Technology. Not many companies could draw such significant publicity in the initial stages.

What shocked many, however, was that the rising star of this new tech company was only a 23-year-old recent graduate from the university. The student recruiting office had already begun to consider potential advertisements for the next school year despite the semester just starting.

Without a doubt, Jiang Chen would be the poster child, displayed as a distinguished and successful businessman and alumnus.

After the principal’s opening remarks, people already began to approach him before the student representative had a chance to announce the start of the banquet.

People were greeting and flattering; some wanted to establish a connection but most pulled up the topic of a partnership.

The “distinguished alumni” who were looked up to by the juniors were not so well off.

Not every start-up company made money. This became evident looking at the sparse cars parked in the parking lot. Many presidents were too poor to afford a car; in fact, the people working for major corporations were most likely better off financially.

Regardless, having their own companies was worthy of praise. A low period didn’t mean too much in the long-run, which was why all of the founders continued to persist.

Jiang Chen accepted the greetings, but to the proposed partnerships, he gave a chuckle and a show of consideration before he turned them all down.

The reason for his laughter was that some of these proposals were comical.

For example, an alumnus who had graduated two years after him was operating a decent-sized clothing plant. He first introduced an idea pushed by the government called “Web+,” then steered the conversation towards a potential partnership after some flattering words.

As for how the partnership would go? It would be called Web+clothes.

He went on to talk about producing merchandise using Little White as a platform for e-commerce.

Jiang Chen initially displayed interest as it was not a bad idea. He then asked about the current plant and production capacity, which led to the guy scratching his head as he awkwardly revealed that they had recently received the loan and that the plant was still undergoing construction.

[If I can't even see it, what’s the whole point of this conversation?]

But that was not the funniest one.

A software service company with some success had the audacity to do an equity swap to form a "win-win" partnership and push Future 1.0 to the world.

[It's an excellent plan, but why would I need your company? I can do that by myself!]

Jiang Chen rejected him right away, but the guy refused to give up. He shamelessly pushed his business card at Jiang Chen before asking him to carefully consider the idea as it would be a monumental partnership for both companies.

[He clearly didn't eat his medicine before he left his house.]

But out of respect, Jiang Chen accepted the card.

All in all, the banquet mood remained cheerful all throughout. The theater students performed creative plays to demonstrate their acting talent to the graduated class. Some of the performances were on par with those of professional celebrities; Wanghai University was indeed a breeding ground for talent.

At the banquet, Jiang Chen was happy to meet his mentor Zhang Peng who had taken care of him in the past.

They had a few drinks like they used to before the mentor, who had no alcohol tolerance, started to spill out his difficulties.

“The graduating class this year is giving me a headache. Every year, we battle to get from last place to first place in employment percentage. They all ask me for advice—what advice can I give? This is the job market. I even founded a mechanics shop, but what can I even do? Jiang Chen, why didn’t you create a mechanical production company? I can’t even beg you to hire some people with a tech company.” Zhang Peng drunkenly held his cup as he looked at Jiang Chen with a mock-begrudging look.

"Ahem, you are drunk." Jiang Chen felt sad to see his mentor act like this. Zhang Peng used his efforts to find him a job back when he was unemployed and no one thought him a talent.

Although he felt compassion for his teacher’s situation, there was nothing he could do besides comfort him a bit more.

"I am not drunk. I can still drink." Zhang Peng reached for the bottle.

Of course, no one allowed him to him drink any more. Jiang Chen helped him to the washroom to allow him to puke before leaving.

Just as he passed a table, a familiar voice called out by his ear.

"It's you?"

Looking at the girl in front of him with long hair and light makeup, Jiang Chen was confused since he couldn’t recall who this person was.

"Who are you?"

"Pshh, that day in the hospital." The girl covered her mouth.

"Oh, you are Wang Xinran?" Jiang Chen suddenly realized.

"Yes, why? You can't recognize me with makeup?" Wang Xinran asked jokingly.

"Ahem, yes, a little bit." Jiang Chen smiled apologetically. He took a close look at this lively girl, unable to match his impression of her from last time.

Wang Xinran’s eyes flashed slyly as she circled around observing Jiang Chen. “I didn’t imagine Jiang Chen and the Jiang Chen from last time were the same person.”

Jiang Chen shrugged, not knowing how to respond. “What do you mean? Jiang Chen and Jiang Chen are the same person. My name has always been Jiang Chen to begin with.”

"Hehe, I was just curious. Don't mind me." Wang Xinran stared at Jiang Chen before asking, "Can you satisfy my curiosity, Senior Jiang Chen, a genius who cured rabies and introduced artificial intelligence?"

"It depends on what you are curious about." Jiang Chen didn't disagree but he became more alert, wondering if it was her or her father's curiosity. If it was from her father, then he had to be cautious.

"Pshh." Wang Xinran suddenly burst out in laughter, which confused Jiang Chen since he didn’t know what was so funny.

"Don't worry, I’m not trying to ferret out your trade secret. I’m acting as the producer of our school news to interview our distinguished alumni. I hope you don't mind." Wang Xinran blinked cutely.

"Of course not." Relieved, Jiang Chen agreed happily.

"Then let's start. First, your university life." Wang Xinran produced a notepad out of thin air and began to ask her questions.

Because it was not relevant information, Jiang Chen answered casually. The interview lasted for fifteen minutes before Wang Xinran ran away, leaving Jiang Chen where he stood.

Suddenly, however, she stopped halfway before turning around.

"Oh, my father wants to see you, so please pick a time to meet him. He is getting old, and this has been on his mind…."

"Okay, no problem. What else?" Jiang Chen forced a smile.

"Hehe, that's it. Oh, give me your phone number.”

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes, writing his phone number down on her notepad to finally get rid of this overly energetic girl that he could not seem to say no to.

As for her father’s position, he had already investigated into it. There were plenty of influential people in Wanghai City, but there were only a few major ones at the top—the only one among these with the last name Wang was the General Secretary Wang Dehai.

Jiang Chen held a cautious attitude towards meeting this influential politician, but he had no valid reason to say no. A general secretary held authority in the central government.

Regardless, for Future Technology, Wang Dehai’s attitude was crucial.

Jiang Chen didn’t need to do much as Future Technology alone could grow without government assistance.

As long as they didn’t cause trouble for him, it was more than enough.

Chapter 75: Because of Regret?

The banquet concluded with thunderous applause accompanying the school management’s closing remarks. Jiang Chen dragged his slightly intoxicated body to his car before stopping in his tracks.

[Fu*k, how can I drive if I drank? This is going to be a problem.]

A troubled smile appeared on his face. Although his body condition was stronger than an ordinary person’s, enabling him to cleanse alcohol from his system at a faster rate, he was not like the masters in wuxia novels who could instantly dissipate the alcohol from their bodies. The police would find it hard to believe that he was not drunk.

Key in hand, he hesitated, not knowing if he should take the chance. In the end, he sighed.

He grabbed his phone and slid his finger across the screen but didn't who to call.

Xia Shiyu just headed home; it would be inconsiderate to call her back.

Liu Yao?

When he saw that name, his finger paused before he pressed it without further thought.

"Hello?" From the other end, a slightly lazy voice sounded, as if the speaker had been about to fall asleep.

He pondered for a moment before opening his mouth. "It’s me."

"Jiang Chen?!" came the ecstatic response.

"You have caller ID, right? Hmm, where are you right now?"

She was lying face-down on her bed, her smooth legs swinging back and forth in the air. A smile crept onto her face as she propped her chin up with her hand. "I’m home, why? Do you miss me?"

It was the first time Jiang Chen had called her.

Jiang Chen was silent, not knowing how to answer. In the end, he awkwardly chose to ignore the question.

"How far away is your home from Wanghai University?"

Liu Yao pouted with disappointment.

"Not that far. Two subway stations away."

"Ahem, I drank a bit and can't drive. Could you come and pick me up? I’m by the lake in Wanghai University," Jiang Chen said shamelessly.

－

The pristine moon cast its light from the night sky and reflected off the glowing lake’s surface. A light breeze drifted by the lakeside, rattling the leaves to the sound of the wind. The September air already carried a slight bite.

He embraced the chill on his arms as he leaned against the marble fence, staring blankly at the hut sitting in the middle of the lake.

When was the last time he had visited this place?

Behind him was the English corner and a bench in a grassy field—an ideal place to practice recitations.

But it was also the perfect date spot, referred to by students as the Lovers’ Hill.

"What are you looking at?"

"Zoning out." Jiang Chen turned around smiling but stalled, stunned by the glimpse of a beauty.

A white dress paired with high-heeled sandals—the pure white color….

As soon as he managed to regather his thoughts, he said sounding troubled, "If people didn’t know better, they’d think you a first-year student."

The slight curvature of her lips showed a girl’s pride while the gorgeous face under the lamppost carried a hint of innocence.

[Did I drink too much?]

Jiang Chen rubbed at his temple.

"Of course. I even met a senior when I was walking over, and he volunteered to walk me home." Liu Yao examined Jiang Chen’s face with a smile.

"Oh."

Dissatisfied with Jiang Chen’s calm reaction, she asked, "Are you not jealous?"

Jiang Chen smiled, his eyes locked onto the gaze as limpid as the lake’s surface.

The words of "Why would I be jealous" were stuck in his throat.

"Perhaps, a little."

He turned away from the attractive face to look at the grass field dotted with bright lights.

Liu Yao’s smile grew larger, her mouth shaping into a crescent.

"Then I told him, I already have a boyfriend, and he walked away blushing."

Jiang Chen shrugged, chuckling. "Why are you so direct? They didn't even say that they were going to chase after you."

"The way he looked at me said it all. But I can’t accept anyone other than you."

He fell into silence, which was soon broken.

"Do you want to be my boyfriend?"

"While we’re on the topic, did you purposely dress like this?" Jiang Chen diverted the topic with a troubled smile.

The pristine white dress, the gorgeous face without makeup, and the eyes as bright as the stars in the summer night.

Liu Yao also didn't answer the question as she straightened her back and strolled around the rock path.

She turned to look at him with a gentle smile, her dress blooming with her motions.

"Am I similar to that girl who watched the movie with you?"

He fell silent, then started laughing hysterically. Perhaps it was due to the alcohol’s influence.

"She is not a good person, so why are you copying her?" Jiang Chen also straightened up from leaning against the fence, his laughter dying away.

"Am I like the girl in your imagination?"

Jiang Chen stopped again, and after a while, spoke with confusion, "Is there a difference?"

Just as he finished speaking, he already had an answer in his heart.

The girl in his imagination was pure, innocent, and adorable. In the end, he realized that everything had been a facade, but he still held feelings for Fang Yuanyuan.

Liu Yao smiled, looking at Jiang Chen. Although she didn’t know the girl he met in the past, she could guess. So with her cunning, she changed into a dress she had worn back in her university days.

"Like a traveler in the desert, heading to the imaginary kingdom, strolling alone," he murmured as he gazed at the loving couple on the faraway grass field.

"Pshhh, you can write poems?"

"No. Just the complaints of a bored person at a boring time."

For some reason, he missed Sun Jiao, that evil and naughty girl.

Perhaps, this was why he liked her?

The courage to love and hate, the straightforward way of expressing her emotions, and the naughtiness to act on the "wrong" ideas. She was becoming more civil, but Jiang Chen had the urge to tell her that "this was okay too," because such a girl was nearly extinct in this world.

Here, what remained genuine?

Suddenly, a softness gently blocked his mouth, his eyes staring at a closed pair of eyes.

Lips parted.

Silence ensued before Jiang Chen eventually asked, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Mhmm."

"Apart from material needs, why do you like me?"

If it was just about money, there were plenty of rich people.

A delighted smile blossomed on her face. "Maybe because of respect."

The smile was beautiful, but also helpless.

"I see."

Perhaps she sought after respect because she was not respected?

He paused, and after thinking awhile, asked, "Do you know why I accepted your invitation for a vacation?"

"Because of regret?"

Jiang Chen looked down. He didn’t say no, or yes.

"Take me home."

Liu Yao looked slightly disappointed, but she smiled and nodded.

"Mhmm."

－

He leaned back against the soft passenger seat and let out a long sigh. He then pulled at the collar that made him feel stuffy.

"Mingxin Area Mansion Community, the innermost plot. Do you know the way?"

"There’s always GPS." Liu Yao forced a smile as she really hadn't been to that area before.

Jiang Chen watched silently as she started the GPS and set the destination before he settled in to rest.

The car ride was smooth with Liu Yao increasing the speed once they left campus grounds. He opened his eyes, catching the colors of the city in his peripheral vision. Suddenly, he casually asked, "How have you been doing?"

"Not well." Liu Yao steered as she pouted.

"Oh? Why?"

"Because the movie someone promised has still yet to happen." Her voice sounded forlorn.

"Hehe, how much money?" Intoxicated, he smiled carelessly.

Screech!

The car suddenly stopped.

Liu Yao parked the car on the side of the road, took off her seatbelt, and looked him straight in the eye.

In her eyes... were tears?

"What's wrong?" he asked with a bitter smile.

"In your eyes, I’m just a sl*t, right?"

Jiang Chen blanked. He didn't expect one sentence would cause her to react this dramatically.

"Do you remember the lover lock at the edge of the sea?"

His throat slightly moved as he looked away, not knowing what to say. Of course he remembered. He engraved the name Chen Lele, the pure and happy girl that existed only in a movie.

"I can't become your Chen Lele?"

"But you’re not..."

"I am."

His lips were stopped by a soothing sensation.

The seat belt was unbuckled as he reached out to hug the lithe figure.

He was no longer drunk from the alcohol, but he was somehow more intoxicated.

It was already ten o’clock at night, and the streets were empty with an occasional car that screeched by.

Maybachs had excellent noise cancellation, insulating the noises from passing through to the outside. The tinted windows also obstructed the view into the car, making it impossible for the occasional passerby to see into the car.

He tightly hugged Liu Yao, smelling the fragrance of her hair and listening to her suppressed moans as he allowed the alcohol-induced sweat to roll down.

Perhaps intoxication was contagious?

Or perhaps it was only the idea of being intoxicated.

No need to think.

Even as autumn was about to take summer's place, spring blossomed inside the car.

Chapter 76: Negotiation with 361

The car slowly drove into the mansion grounds.

Ayesha stood quietly by the door and watched Jiang Chen’s car come to a stop.

The door opened, accompanied by a flash of the car lights before a woman stepped out. She was beautiful, her aesthetics matching her husband’s.

Was it Sun Jiao or Yao Yao? Her instincts told her that the answer was neither.

There was not the slightest dissatisfaction in Ayesha’s mind. In her country, polygamy was not uncommon. The number of women with Jiang Chen had nothing to do with how she served him.

"Are you still waiting for me? You really don't have to wait at the door." Jiang Chen also got out of the car with a distressed look.

He did just...

He felt it was unfair to the girl who had been lingering here.

On the drive back, Liu Yao explained her situation to him. Her ex-boyfriend, who had been her agent at the time, forced her to find "options" in Sanya, and that was how she had met Jiang Chen...

Perhaps because of her honesty, Jiang Chen no longer minded the incident as much as he had before.

Through this, he learned that she did not lack self-respect; rather, she had only met the wrong guy.

After that, they came to a tacit understanding.

So could she now be considered a mistress?

That word had a strange attraction that made Jiang Chen's heart pump.

Ayesha drove the car into the garage while Jiang Chen took Liu Yao into the mansion.

"Just find a bedroom to sleep in."

"I want to sleep where you sleep," Liu Yao cutely pleaded as she cheerfully held on to his arm.

"Ahem, I have things to do tomorrow. Sleep well."

If they ended up sleeping together, he would never be able to get up in the morning.

A thought occurred to him, and he asked, "Oh, do you still contact your ex-boyfriend… agent?"

"No, no, I already deleted that waste of air’s number," she said carefully with her eyes on his. She was afraid he would have other thoughts.

"Oh." He felt as if a large burden had been lifted from his chest.

But if she did have a conflict with her agent, her income would be a problem.

"Before the year ends, once I finish everything on hand, I’ll take care of your problems."

A living expense of one hundred thousand should be more than enough. The cost of breaching the contract was most likely around one million. To Liu Yao, it was an astronomical number, but to him, it was pocket change.

As for the movie, production costs would be anywhere in the ten million. With Liu Yao’s acting skills and looks, as long as there was enough money invested, popularity wasn’t an issue. In this case, making a return would not be difficult at all.

"Mhmm!" Liu Yao cheerfully shook Jiang Chen's arm.

"Also, I am a very possessive person. If you…."

"What are you thinking? I’m already yours." Liu Yao mock-angrily pinched him on the waist.

Jiang Chen saw the raised corners of her lips and laughed aloud.

The her now, he didn't mind.

－

The next morning, Jiang Chen drove Liu Yao back to her home despite her wishes to stay in the mansion. He still had many secrets, and it would be inconvenient if Liu Yao were to see something.

Thankfully, Liu Yao didn’t insist on it since she knew her boundaries.

Afterward, Jiang Chen drove to Future Technology. There was an important meeting waiting for him.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang."

"Hello, Mr. Zhang." Jiang Chen shook Zhang Jianfeng's hand before inviting him to take a seat.

A clean haircut, a well-tailored suit—he had the sharpness of a company executive. An austere assistant who was responsible for the meeting minutes stood behind him.

Jiang Chen had already read into his background; he was the 361 Phone Helper Project Manager who was responsible for negotiating the use of Future 1.0 on the 361 software platform. This man was most likely the best person for this conversation since 361 held Jiang Chen in high esteem.

Of course, this was only to the current Future Technology.

"Mr. Jiang, I’m sure you know that I’m the project manager for the 361 Phone Helper. Our team members have come to a consensus that if Future 1.0 were to be released on our platform, it would possess many high-quality, creative traits and increased functionality compared to the majority of the apps available today."

Zhang Jianfeng’s tone then took a turn in the opposite direction.

"However, despite the excellent design of the artificial intelligence, I don't know if Mr. Jiang has already considered the security of the software. What if hackers infiltrated Little White's programming and accessed personal user information such as bank passwords? Have you considered the consequences of this?"

Jiang Chen calmly waited for Zhang Jianfeng to finish before he responded with a collected smile, "As to security, our company has already released a statement. For any financial losses related to Little White's security, our response is to fully compensate the users. Fortunately, the current amount is zero."

Impressed by Jiang Chen's performance, Xia Shiyu, who sat beside Jiang Chen, nodded. She’d been worried about Jiang Chen's professionalism at the negotiation table, but now she realized she had clearly worried too much.

[In critical moments, this guy is surprisingly reliable.]

"You’re right. At this time, Future 1.0 has yet to be a target for hackers. But it’s impossible for Mr. Jiang to be completely confident in your program, correct? I understand that in information security, your company’s talent is still zero," Zhang Jianfeng also responded with a smile.

"Oh? Looks like you’ve done your research. But I would also imagine that you would’ve taken a close look at our software as well. Did your experts have anything to say?" He hinted at other meanings of his words, but Jiang Chen maintained his smile, even making it more cheerful than Zhang Jianfeng’s.

Zhang Jianfeng’s pupils slightly contracted, and he responded with an awkward smile.

"Taking a look" and copying was not uncommon in this industry, but it was never mentioned outright. You say I’m copying? I think you’re mistaken. You’re called Counterstrike, I’m Crossfire. The names are different; how could this be considered copying?

However, it certainly did feel awkward to have their failed attempts to crack the software pointed out directly by Jiang Chen.

"Ahem, I hope there’s no confusion or misunderstanding about this. My company did try and gain an understanding of Future 1.0, but it was all within the legal boundaries. We have an obligation to ensure security for our 361 Phone Helper users. If the users downloaded a software with a backdoor in the programming, it would damage our own reputation."

Shameless, how shameless!

Jiang Chen wanted to jump up, whip out his phone and shove it into this man’s face, asking how this list of garbage software in their 361 software market was evidence of their consideration for the users. Zhang Jianfeng had the audacity to say that they worried about user security when Little White’s software was safer than their own antivirus program. Therefore, out of concern for their user security, they were going to crack Little White?

At the same time, Zhang Jianfeng was mentally cursing Gu Chen for his uselessness.

[He had a full staff of "masters of computers" and even created a separate project for this. After working day in and day out and being pounded with work, when asked if he had made any progress, he got annoyed and told daddy that he didn’t know? How the fu*ck do I negotiate when I don’t even know the chips on our table?]

Even as he raged inside his mind, he couldn’t show any of it at the negotiation. He slowly took a sip of tea.

Seeing Jiang Chen remain silent, he began to test the waters.

"Of course, while screening the security of Future 1.0, we did make some progress. At this early stage, we can conclude that the software is safe."

Although he phrased it as a screening, everyone knew the truth—it was cracking.

Zhang Jianfeng carefully observed Jiang Chen’s reaction to his blatant lie, hoping to see a flash of uncertainty on his face.

Something was fishy! Xia Shiyu immediately realized the lie in Zhang Jianfeng’s words and turned to look at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen sneered and responded, "Oh? Since your company already made some progress, then why are you guys here?"

Even without Xia Shiyu’s hints, Jiang Chen had already realized the fundamental problem.

[If you cracked the software, then why are you coming to me? You can just create an advanced Future 1.0. Do you need to ask my permission to copy it?]

"What you say is true, but we still hope your company will proactively provide the necessary information so that we can conduct a full safety analysis. Of course, we are also interested in some of the creative elements of your software. If Mr. Jiang doesn’t mind, we can discuss the price so that we can have a joint victory on both sides."

"Please enlighten me on how we would win together with this logic?" Jiang Chen interrupted Zhang Jianfeng without the slightest consideration. It was considered rude behavior, but since Zhang Jianfeng had the audacity to say his spiel, Jiang Chen was thoroughly fed up with it.

Shocked, Zhang Jianfeng stared at Jiang Chen. He hadn’t expected Jiang Chen to effectively end the negotiations.

"Are you not interested in the price?" Zhang Jianfeng was a skilled negotiator, able to hide his anger. Instead, he smiled genially at Jiang Chen.

"Well, we can talk about it."

"One billion." Zhang Jianfeng calmly gave the conservative figure.

"As someone with a tech background, do you really believe that it’s worth only one billion?" Jiang Chen sipped his tea as he leaned back against the chair.

"Mr. Jiang, although the technology is a part of it, you and I are both in the business field. Don’t you think that we should talk about the business value? From my understanding, you don’t even have a channel of revenue from this free software. I would have to say that your financial statement for this month shouldn’t look too great." Zhang Jianfeng couldn’t hold in his laughter.

"We have sufficient funds; you don’t have to worry about that. As for revenue generation? If you’re looking forward to it so much, it may come to exist tomorrow." A smile full of hidden meanings appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.

Zhang Jianfeng took a moment to think. Based on what he knew, Jiang Chen’s company only had half a million of invested capital. Could a venture capital have already invested in them?

Zhang Jianfeng couldn’t be blamed for his lack of information. The registered capital was indeed half a million, but the following equity infusion was not released to the public. As a privately-held company, the information would not be disclosed, and therefore, they had no obligation to give information on their assets.

"Since Mr. Jiang is so confident, I don’t think there is much more we can talk about." Zhang Jianfeng sighed as he stood up.

The negotiation fell through, though it was a result he had expected.

"What you say is correct. If your company genuinely wishes to form a partnership with us, please provide us with a reasonable proposal, and we will reciprocate with the same respect." Xia Shiyu, who hadn’t spoken until now, nudged her glasses up as she slid a document forward. "This outlines the potential area we would consider forming a partnership with. If Mr. Zhang is interested, you should take it with you."

Zhang Jianfeng was caught off guard, but he soon regathered his thoughts.

[Is this how a small startup treats large corporations? Future Technology is this confident?]

He picked up the piece of paper.

[Virus database sharing? Phone security partnership? Hehe, arrogant.]

The next second, however, he felt something he had never felt before—it was a hint of fear. What if they did have the ability?

Artificial intelligence plus an antivirus?

There were countless possibilities.

What else could artificial intelligence do?

"Since the negotiation has fallen through, could I ask for your evaluation of Future 1.0? This way, I can go back and give my boss an answer," Zhang Jianfeng casually asked as he placed the document into his briefcase.

"From a programmer’s perspective, what do you think a finished artificial intelligence would be worth?" Instead of answering, Jiang Chen half-jokingly threw the question back at him.

Zhang Jianfeng considered it for a moment before he smiled and said, "One trillion?"

"Hahaha, around that range. Except, even for one trillion, I wouldn’t sell it." Jiang Chen laughed as he walked beside Zhang Jianfeng. "Do you want to work for me? I'll cover the cost of breaching your contract."

Zhang Jianfeng laughed jovially.

"That's an interesting way of acquiring talent."

[I haven't even asked if you’re interested in coming to 361, and you already ask me to come work for you?]

Zhang Jianfeng's mouth twitched on his way to the door.

For a brief second, he had been tempted.

Before he achieved his current position, he began as a programmer. Witnessing the impeccable technology behind the software, how could he not be tempted?

Except temptation didn’t necessarily translate into actions.

－

Upon returning to 361’s headquarters, Zhang Jianfeng reported the day’s events in its entirety to the president, Zhou Hongwei.

"One trillion? Haha, I wouldn't sell it for one trillion?"

"Looks like the president holds high regards for Future Technology?" he lightly asked Zhou Hongwei upon seeing that he did not criticize him for his inability to close the deal.

"High? High is an understatement." Zhou Hongwei shook his head as he laughed. "If any one of you could develop artificial intelligence, what if I gave him ten percent equity?"

10% equity! Zhang Jianfeng uncontrollably gulped.

361 was listed in the UA. With an average share price of 60 USD, the current market cap already reached an astounding ten billion USD! Ten percent was equal to one billion USD.

The assistant also gulped with wide eyes.

"Looks like it’s impossible to acquire them." Zhou Hongwei shook his head sighing.

"How about we do something with our platform instead?" the assistant suggested.

Zhou Hongwei glanced at her before chuckling.

"If Future 1.0 can’t be downloaded from 361, won’t users just download it from the android market? And if the android market doesn’t work, why wouldn’t they just make an official site?"

The assistant was speechless.

"Why don't we wait first and see Microsoft's opinion?" Frowning, Zhang Jianfeng put forth his own suggestion.

Zhou Hongwei considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"That's what I had planned to do. It’s a much more conservative approach."

It was no secret that Microsoft and 361 had an alliance. When 361 fought for market shares with Tencent, it was all under the orders of Microsoft from across the Pacific Ocean. If they didn’t have such a strong backer, there was no way Zhou Hongwei would have had the guts to fight the number one giant in the Han tech industry. Compared to Tencent, who possessed half of the tech field, 361 was too weak. On that day, the number of MSN installations increased to seven million, revealing the true instigator behind the scenes.

Zhou Hongwei could choose to blacklist Future 1.0 using 361’s antivirus and suppress its ability to thrive. Currently, 361 did possess high market shares on the mobile platform. Even if they were faced with a lawsuit, the settling amount would be negligible.

Three hundred thousand? That was nothing.

His real concern was whether this move would push Future Technology to other tech giants such as Tencent or Baidu.

Then it would become even more difficult for 361 to survive.

All tech giants shared the same concern.

Everyone understood the value of artificial intelligence; however, if they were too forceful in pushing it away, it would only hurt them in the end.

The best way was to balance power through a partnership. At least for now, Future 1.0 had yet to touch anyone else’s cake yet. It was because of this that Jiang Chen restrained himself from releasing all of Little White’s functions.

If Little White suddenly possessed all of the functions of QQ, Baidu, and 361 together, it would face the backlash of the entire internet industry as he would have just touched everyone’s cake.

Chapter 77: Press Conference

[Suit does not feel comfortable at all.]

Jiang Chen remembered wearing it only once during his graduation debate and a couple times in interviews.

But looking at Xia Shiyu in her black office attire, she certainly possessed the professional and sharp vibe. Her silky, black hair was tied up and her black-framed glasses were perched pertly on her nose. On her face, she put on light, natural makeup. To be honest, he previously thought that she looked bad with a ponytail, but now she seemed more mature and professional.

"Are you ready?" Xia Shiyu was anxious upon seeing his casual demeanor.

Jiang Chen shrugged and smiled. "Don't worry."

That certainly did not make her any less worried...

Although Xia Shiyu wanted to make fun of him, she did feel calmer with a composed Jiang Chen as opposed to a nervous one.

She let out a breath and nodded.

"You can do it."

"Of course." He confidently smiled.

[What’s so scary about being in front of cameras? I was in front of god knows how many guns. Ummm, not exactly something to be proud of.]

－

On the first floor of Future Technology was a public conference hall bustling with people.

The conference room had an elevated half-circle in which the invited press had all taken their seats. As usual, the cameras were placed in the back, and because seatings were numbered, the hall was not too chaotic.

The media frenzy surrounding Future 1.0 exceeded Jiang Chen’s expectations. The 100-square-meter conference room still felt crowded.

The curtain slid open, commencing the start of the flashing lights.

With a bright smile, Jiang Chen waved his hand, his heart pounding as he noticed the CTV, CNN, and BBC symbols.

[Damn, it does feel different now that cameras are pointing at me. I’m even feeling nervous now.]

After collecting his thoughts, he read the opening address amidst the media’s heightened expectations.

"First, I would like to thank the media present for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend Future Technology’s press conference. I believe everyone seated here has already had the chance to learn about Future 1.0. To save time, I won’t go over each of the functions.

"The purpose of this press conference is to address and answer any rumors or misunderstandings about Future 1.0. Therefore, the most efficient method is for me to give the time to the media. Please, following the sequence of seat numbers, ask your questions, and limit them to one per person to ensure that every outlet has an opportunity."

Xia Shiyu, who was standing backstage, almost fell down as she was dumbfounded by Jiang Chen’s decision.

[Who would pass the questioning to the media right away without saying anything first?]

[Without giving a simple, comprehensive explanation, if they come to ask an extremely tricky question, would you be able to handle it?]

The media was also shocked that Jiang Chen skipped right into the media’s questions without playing his role first. It certainly caught them off guard. They’d seen press conferences without a question and answer session before, but never one without a speech.

Also, questions were based on seat number, which made them feel uncomfortable as they were used to having to fight to ask questions.

But Jiang Chen didn’t concern himself with the rules, instead choosing the most efficient method. If he had to pick people, he ran the risk of offending certain individuals, so the best way was to create boundaries and make people ask one by one.

The reporters who usually had to have their hands up for an entire conference without getting picked were certainly appreciative of Jiang Chen’s decision. It didn’t matter that they were seated in the back so long as they had the opportunity to ask questions.

Jiang Chen kept his composure. He had his own considerations in making this decision.

[Ultimately, you guys will be asking about security and privacy anyways. Even if I clarify first, you’ll only pick holes in my word choice. If I let you ask beforehand, I only need to answer.]

After weighing himself internally, Jiang Chen knew that he would not be able to outwit these veterans. Regardless of Xia Shiyu’s competency, her script would be picked apart by these reporters who were hungry for headlines.

Although they were surprised by Jiang Chen’s decision, the reporters had already done their research beforehand and came prepared with a list of questions. The reporter in the first seat stood up and read out what was written on his notepad.

"I am CTV’s reporter. There has been controversy surrounding the topic of artificial intelligence security, especially Little White’s. Mr. Jiang Chen, could he really be a ticking time bomb in the user’s phone concerning private information like people said he would be?" the young man clearly articulated.

"That’s a great question. First, I’ll have to refer back to the guarantee our company has made recently. If the user suffers any financial loss as a result of a program error in Little White, we’ll fully compensate the user." Jiang Chen shrugged his shoulders as he continued, "Also, from the developer’s perspective, I take responsibility and say that as long as it is a program, it will follow the setting written in the software. So you don’t have to worry about Little White releasing private user information because I won’t permit it."

The sounds of discussions and note-taking filled the room as the second person, a middle-aged man, stood up and asked his question.

"I’m a reporter from Renren News. Mr. Jiang Chen, currently, there are no laws or regulations in place regarding artificial intelligence. What is your opinion on the possible proposal of the <Artificial Intelligence Management Act>, and what would be Future Technology’s response to this?"

[Renren News? (Referring to Han's state news agency.) This is going to be a bit problematic.] Jiang Chen's head spun rapidly.

[As an official media source, it represents the voice of the government. There is definitely a deeper meaning behind this question. Are they testing me? Or giving me a hint?]

"Of course, Future Technology will firmly abide by the regulations in place without question—this includes the introduced <Artificial Intelligence Management Act>. Future Technology will cooperate with authorities to adjust our services to fit within the frame established."

Jiang Chen cautiously answered the question by expressing his support and willingness to cooperate. He did not, however, express his views regarding the regulation itself. He had a feeling that the question came from a law-making authority since artificial intelligence regulation was a blank slate in all countries of the world. Judging from the current stage, the development of artificial intelligence was still in its infancy, and nothing had yet to reach even the basic levels.

Upon hearing Jiang Chen’s response, the middle-aged man sat down deep in thought.

Immediately following after, a blond beauty stood up.

"I am BBC’s reporter. Mr. Jiang Chen, it is known that artificial intelligence requires strong hardware equipment to support functionality. IBM Watson, for example, requires ninety IBM servers and three hundred sixty computer processors to maintain its operation. Yet somehow, the Future 1.0 developed by your company could operate on a mobile platform. How did you manage to achieve this?"

BBC’s question came from a technological perspective, and based on the crowd’s reaction, many other reporters were also interested in the answer.

"Sorry, this is a trade secret. What I can disclose, however, is that it is based on a database. The core of the artificial intelligence that we developed is not the hardware, but rather the software. It doesn’t have a high requirement for computational power, and the database is the critical element instead. It accepts external information and exports database information. As long as the database is maintained, Future 1.0 can operate on a mobile platform. Clearly, we have achieved this."

Jiang Chen confidently used the bullsh*t Du Yongkong gave him as he wasn’t worried that any of the experts would be able to uncover anything. As far as the people in this world knew, there was only one person on his team that managed to develop this innovative technology, which was comparable to Bill Gates’ Windows 1.0.

Database?

All of the reporters' eyes lit up.

"I am a reporter from Japanese Economy. Mr. Jiang Chen, because the current stage of artificial intelligence development is still difficult for the world’s scientific community, would Mr. Jiang Chen please have a heart like Andy, the developer of Android, and release the magical artificial intelligence database to the world?" a short, suited man asked slowly after bowing politely.

Mockery crept onto Jiang Chen’s face before he managed to hide it.

[I can't believe you had the audacity to say that. For the scientific community? Heart?]

[Then why don't you disclose all of your country's technology?]

But it was within his expectations that this sort of brainless question would come from a right-wing Japanese media source.

"I say it is meaningful because it would push the growth of the human civilization. To demonstrate your willingness, perhaps you should convince your country to surrender all armed forces? It would be a historic step for world peace. I look forward to your response."

Laughter erupted in the hall as some Han reporters mocked the shamelessness of this Japanese reporter. The short man gave Jiang Chen a dirty look before awkwardly seating himself.

Jiang Chen shrugged and signaled for the next reporter’s question. He didn’t have the time to deal with rude people.

"I’m CNN’s reporter, and I’d like to ask Mr. Jiang Chen whether user privacy for Future 1.0 is really so secure as your company has stated it to be. Based on the software encryption, your company made the software into an impenetrable black box. No one could test it from a security point of view. So what if Little White passes information gathered from the user to your desktop? Of course, this is only an example. Could you prove that it won’t happen?"

It was a harsh question, but many others were concerned about the same issue.

For a dead software, even if it was filled with back doors, you would not question its security until the problems were exposed.

But for software that felt alive, despite the developer’s efforts to prove its safety, you would be skeptical as it behaved too similarly to humans.

"I’m not the FBA, why would I need a user’s private information?" Jiang Chen laughed and splayed his palms. "Let me give you an example then. Based on the Washington Post’s report, the CIB and FBA directly infiltrated the central servers of Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and a total of nine tech giants to track users: email, phone calls, documents, and videos. What’s your opinion on this?"

"May I ask if this is related to today's question?" The reporter from CNN showed an awkward expression.

"Of course. I want to explain that invasion of user privacy has nothing to do with the software itself. Because despite being an artificial intelligence, it has no concept of personal interest. Even if you uninstalled him after spending several days together, he will only wave his hands to say goodbye. Attempting to invade another’s privacy could only come from another human. But I assure you here and now that I will never do that! As long as I remain president of Future Technology, the company will never allow such actions."

Jiang Chen looked the reporter in the eye as he said this. The hall filled with the sound of applause.

He signaled for quiet as he passed the time to the next reporter.

Jiang Chen answered the following questions with ease. He answered what he could, and if not, then he made something up. If that didn’t work, he blamed it on trade secrets. Jiang Chen had always been proud of his acting skills.

At the end, the reporters asked: "When will the foreign version be available?" "Would Future Technology consider venture capital?" Or even an irrelevant question such as, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Some interesting queries included, "What’s the meaning behind Future Technology’s name?"

Jiang Chen answered half-jokingly, "Because my team and I envision the future."

And another sensitive question was, "Would artificial intelligence be used in the military field?"

Jiang Chen’s response was clear-cut. "Chat-based artificial intelligence will only exist for the purpose of interaction. It will not calculate rocket trajectory for you because that would require high-performance computers and experts. Unless you’re worried about soldiers who are too lonely and want to find a companion."

He managed to win the majority of the media’s positive impressions thanks to his clear and straightforward responses.

Certainly, media outlets with criticisms still existed. For example, the short man from Japanese Economy seemed to be thinking up malevolent ideas to use to attack Jiang Chen.

But who cared? At the very least, Jiang Chen didn’t.

Who would care about a media that only distorted the truth?

After the closing remarks, Future Technology’s first media conference ended on a high note amidst applause.

－

"I can’t believe you’re so deft at improvising in your reactions." Xia Shiyu nodded, seeming impressed as she looked at Jiang Chen.

"Haha." Jiang Chen narcissistically raised his head and laughed. He then arrogantly raised his eyebrows. "You realize this only now? I’m this fu*king awesome."

"Could you be more civil, please? You are a public figure now," Xia Shiyu said, slightly displeased.

Public figure?

He realized the problem with a troubled expression on his face once more.

[Fu*k, then I have to be careful with everything I do? How can I enjoy my life from now on?]

"Could a camera point at me the moment I leave my house?" Jiang Chen scratched his head as he asked.

"..." Xia Shiyu speechlessly stared at Jiang Chen before she sighed. "Being a public figure means that your words and actions represent the company. If you do any uncivil acts, this would directly influence the public’s impression of our company. If it gets uploaded onto the internet, it could potentially escalate… Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I just think that you care more about Future Technology than even I do. I’m pleased." Jiang Chen grinned.

"..." Xia Shiyu lost her words once more.

The only thing that didn’t change was her emotionless expression.

Jiang Chen was eager to change out of his uncomfortable suit.

"Oh right." Just as he was about to leave the backstage area, Xia Shiyu abruptly stopped him.

"Mhmm?" Jiang Chen turned around looking confused.

"Ummm, in consideration of the company’s publicity... of course, it is not right to interfere in your private life, but do you really not have a girlfriend?" Xia Shiyu didn’t look in Jiang Chen’s direction. Instead, she stared blankly at the ground as her finger twirled the tips of her hair. Her voice remained calm as usual.

Jiang Chen was shocked, and his face took a particularly odd tone.

"What if I do?" He probed to see her reaction.

"!"

[You are about to rip your hair out!]

"But in reality, no." Jiang Chen immediately added.

"..."

[Her mouth curved up?]

At this moment, even as dumb as he was, he realized...

"Ahem, in this case, it’ll be okay. But you should still be careful about your private life. If news got out that you’re still single, some people with ill-intentions may… anyways, just be careful."

Jiang Chen locked his eyes onto Xia Shiyu, who was being unusually chattiness, with the same peculiar expression.

"Do you... like me?"

Chapter 78: Test?

"Do you... like me?"

Jiang Chen recalled the conversation backstage as he scratched his nose with a troubled smile.

"Why am I so charming?" he said to himself with a cocky flair before becoming overwhelmed by embarrassment again. He turned the car radio on in an attempt to drown his awkwardness in the noise.

Xia Shiyu was the type to be shy, easily embarrassed by anything. Even with her emotionless face, she was cold only on the outside, warm on the inside.

The atmosphere had been intimate. Her mouth half-open, she had been completely at a loss with the situation. Just at that moment, however, an untimely phone call with an explosive ringtone broke the delicate closeness. Jiang Chen, realizing it was his phone, was about to hang up when Xia Shiyu quickly gathered her wits and then fled the room with her head buried.

[...Fine. Perhaps that phone call had perfect timing.]

Or else he wouldn’t have had a clue on how to disengage from that awkward situation. He wasn’t sure about his attitude towards her either. He used to masturbate to her image long ago for quite some time, but he hadn’t had such thoughts for a while now.

Perhaps his mentality had changed?

Shaking his head, he had tried to push away the strange thoughts in his mind.

And then his phone rang once more.

He thought for a second, the same troubled smile crossing his face.

There was no point in hanging up again. He sighed and connected the call with his Bluetooth headphones.

The voice from the other side had made him fall into a deep contemplation again.

Wang Zhiyong?

Jiang Chen was now on his way to the home of Wang Dehai, the general secretary of Wanghai City. The elder wished to invite him over for dinner to express his sincere gratitude for saving his life.

But the phone call had been too timely, coming not long after ending the press conference. It felt unnatural to Jiang Chen, yet it was the general secretary’s invitation. And he had saved his life, so it probably wouldn’t be anything too terrible. After a moment’s hesitation, he began his drive over.

It was a serene community without seeming too luxurious, but the amount of vegetation here was rare to see in the entire Wanghai City. The security at the door seemed to be retired soldiers. He could feel the bloodlust from several meters away. These guys must have come from a border conflict.

All of the residents in this community had to be influential in some way. Even with money, not everyone could be the general secretary’s neighbor.

He parked the car in the building before walking up to knock on the door.

The door opened momentarily, revealing a cheerful face before him.

"You’re here. Come in, my mom wants to thank you personally." Wang Xinran grinned at Jiang Chen.

"Hmmm? Don't you live on campus?" Jiang Chen was surprised to see her.

"It’s Saturday. Is President Jiang Chen so busy that he forgot the date?" She playfully poked her tongue out.

[Hmm, now that I don't work, it's hard to keep track.]

As soon as he entered, he was greeted with warmth. He was surprised by the generosity and welcoming gestures, making him feel slightly ashamed since he had his own motives in saving people. But regardless of the reason, he did fight off death and save Wang Dehai.

He most mostly taken aback by the fact that Wang Dehai was not like other grim politicians who acted fiercely. Instead, he lacked the daunting vibe, seeming instead like a kind elderly man. Seeing Jiang Chen, he warmly called out Little Jiang (little is a common way to refer to younger people). Aware of the situation, Jiang Chen responded by calling him Uncle Wang.

Wang Dehai’s wife was a grandma with kind features who consistently served Jiang Chen food. It certainly gave Jiang Chen, who had been venturing outside, a sense of home.

Wang Zhiyong was an interesting person as well. He kept trying to drink with Jiang Chen, but his weak alcohol tolerance put him under the table first. When he started spouting gibberish, his sister stuck him back in his room as he snored.

Jiang Chen always viewed straightforward people in a positive light.

As for Wang Xinran, she maintained her usual level of energy as she pestered him with questions about Future 1.0. She also informed him that she became the top member of the distinguished alumni at Wanghai University—the youngest to ever take the spot.

Unfortunately, the list only circulated within the school and didn’t hold much influence since few students held an interest in the school newspaper anymore.

As for her questions, Jiang Chen didn’t disclose anything outside of the norm. Everything he said was consistent with his stance at the press conference.

As he spoke with Wang Xinran, he kept most of his attention on Wang Dehai for his reaction.

What did this powerful politician think about Future 1.0?

Support? Or more reserved?

－

After dinner, Wang Dehai called Jiang Chen into his office.

"Feel free to sit. Don’t be nervous, I just want to chat with you." Wang Dehai saw Jiang Chen was nervous and smiled warmly as he invited him to take a seat.

"Haha, Uncle Wang, I'll make myself comfortable then." Jiang Chen settled himself onto the sofa across from him.

He didn’t dare to pretend to be an "ancient remedy doctor" anymore. In Hua, all of the intelligent people were politicians, particularly a powerful one like Wang Dehai. The difficulty in convincing him on a story was nearly impossible. Even the finest acting would have its flaws.

Say as little as possible.

But Jiang Chen had clearly overthought the matter.

Wang Dehai didn’t pry into the matter of how he cured rabies. Instead, he started talking about his childhood anecdotes.

"My rabies was probably from the sixties. I was young, my dad was being punished, and I got bit by the dogs of those crazy politicians. I remember the bite was about this big on my leg. I initially didn’t think it would be a problem after so many years, but it still turned out to be worse. Haha."

Wang Dehai used his hand to show the size of the scar. Jiang Chen smiled, but didn’t respond.

He knew it was better to listen since elders enjoyed telling young people their stories. They didn’t need comfort or praise, only an audience that was willing to hear them out.

Although he didn’t know what Wang Dehai was planning, since he treated Jiang Chen as one of the younger generation instead of as a subordinate, Jiang Chen’s impression of him was not too bad.

He heard many stories from Wang Dehai.

Until the end.

"Now, we are finally powerful. Good, good, good!" In a nostalgic tone, Wang Dehai repeated "good" three times as he looked in Jiang Chen’s direction with a look full of hidden meanings.

The show had finally started.

Jiang Chen’s focused as he waited for this powerful politician to speak.

"Little Jiang, is it feasible for artificial intelligence to be used in the military?" Wang Dehai casually asked as he sipped his tea.

"Of course," Jiang Chen responded without hesitation before sternly saying, "It would be a disaster to the country and even the world."

"Oh?" Wang Dehai was quite interested by Jiang Chen's response and waited for the context.

"Artificial intelligence is not human. If the life and death of a human is given to a program to oversee, it would only take a programming error to cause a catastrophic disaster. In the end, the law cannot regulate lines of code."

"Oh? But if artificial intelligence soldiers could replace human soldiers going into war, could it not eliminate the need for bloodshed?"

"No, there will only be more casualties." A troubled smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

Wang Dehai's gaze bored into him.

Since this elder was asking him, it meant that it was not the worst scenario. From the looks of things, even the top had not managed to reach a consensus yet. Too many parties were involved in this. There was no need to talk about whether it was feasible for artificial intelligence to replace soldiers; how many PLA would be discharged? How many people would want to shut his mouth?

Even foreign agents would target him.

Cold sweat began to drench Jiang Chen's shirt as he thought about the possible repercussions.

"Since Uncle Wang mentioned bloodshed, may I ask, does this mean our country is going into war soon?"

"Of course. There are always some fools who want to take action." Wang Dehai raised his eyebrows but explained anyway.

"Then Uncle, if a cheap, effective, and powerful weapon is introduced, how would this change the current situation?" Jiang Chen carefully said.

"An arms race? That’s based on whether the technological capabilities are the same." Wang Dehai dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand.

"So the question is," he said with a troubled smile. "But I don’t have it. Like how I explained at the press conference, Future 1.0 can answer questions logically and given permission from users, operate fundamental phone functions. To give an analogy, Windows 7 is effective, but you don’t expect it to control a PC as well as robots, right?"

"Could you not make any adjustments? For example, include a fire control system." Wang Dehai persisted, reluctant to give up.

"I don’t have any understanding of firearms. I would have to start from scratch to gain any understanding. Also, from a practical standpoint, does the country need a scientist now, or a possible ‘Bill Gates’ who will lead the industry for the next ten years?" Jiang Chen gazed seriously into Wang Dehai’s eyes.

Wang Dehai shouldn’t have been pushing this hard as the developer team was supposedly overseas.

As he spoke, Jiang Chen was also planning in his mind, going so far as to think that if the authority were to take action, then he would drop everything and run overseas. There was still four hundred million USD in his Swiss bank account. He could start over from scratch again anywhere.

Wang Dehai also stared at Jiang Chen.

But soon, his fierce gaze disappeared, and he took a sip of his tea with a smile on his face.

"You and I have the same understanding. Don’t be so anxious."

Jiang Chen let out a breath of relief. To be honest, he was reluctant to leave unless he was forced to.

"I won’t lie to you—we have always been researching artificial intelligence. The other countries are doing the same. It’s not a major project, but we have quite a large budget for it. It’s just that we haven’t had any results yet." Wang Dehai looked meaningfully at Jiang Chen. "Some people even said that you should voluntarily give out this technology. Do you know what I said?"

Jiang Chen thought for a moment before he smiled. "Uncle Wang must have thought further than them."

Wang Dehai laughed.

"You’re quite clever. I told them, you guys are all old and stubborn! If we did that, who would dare to reveal new technology here? You’re pushing all of the talent away!"

Before he finished his sentence, Jiang Chen knew.

Even if they controlled the person in headquarters, with the development team based overseas, if they were pushed away to unfriendly nations, wasn’t that providing them with a more advanced technology? What could they do? If they didn’t have exclusive possession of the technology, what was the point of it?

"Thank you," Jiang Chen said with a peculiar expression. There was nothing else for him to say.

He didn't understand Wang Dehai's intention. Friendliness? Who was he representing? Or was he returning the favor?

"You don’t need to thank me. I’m not the only one supporting you.l The old guy from the Zhou family was more anxious than me." He sipped the tea again and looked at Jiang Chen. "His family is responsible for military artificial intelligence project with a budget of five hundred million a year."

Jiang Chen immediately understood.

Just as he suspected, even the top level had not reached a consensus. Or perhaps a better way to put it was that collectively, they were unified, but when it touched their own cake, the situation became much more complex.

Or else, the authority would not have waited for him to finish the press conference. The moment Future 1.0 was released, trouble would have ensued.

Once it came into the world’s spotlight, it would be too costly to work from the shadows again. It was related to the country’s attitude; they were already having difficulty retaining talent. If they proceeded with the plan, they would be chasing away the talents.

The key now was not to be stronger, but to become more stable.

"I’ll ask only one more question. What’s the value of Future 1.0 in the military industry? And be truthful." Wang Dehai locked onto Jiang Chen’s eyes. In his aged gaze, there was less kindness and more ferocity.

[It’s not the right time to go into the military. There are too many personal interests attached to it.]

Thoughts flashed through his mind as he firmly answered the powerful authority figure, "Zero."

Wang Dehai nodded, a smile appearing on his face.

"Then, as the general secretary of Wanghai City, I hope you are able to contribute substantially to the city’s economic development! I also wish to see Future Technology significantly benefit the lives of the people and do even greater things!"

With a genuine smile, he answered, "Of course!"

[Is he hinting at me to not overreach the limits of civil usage?]

[Looks like Wang Dehai was not trying to convince me, but rather test me. The Wang and Zhou families probably wear the same pants….]

Thinking about this point, he was not afraid, but he still felt a chill run down his spine.

He originally had the ambition to take Future Technology to the military field, but now it seemed as though he had been overzealous.

[Did Wang Dehai help me?]

Of course, since the Zhou family did not go after him right away.

But would he have repaid Jiang Chen’s favor if the interests of the Wang and Zhou families had been on the line? Probably not, since then it was no longer a personal issue. If Jiang Chen showed the slightest interest in military, or if Future 1.0 had the possibility of encroaching into the field….

Wang Dehai would not do anything, but the Zhou family would not let him walk free either.

At that time, they would threaten him into giving up the technology before getting rid of him. Or, they would get rid of him right away without even asking for the technology.

It would of course result in Jiang Chen’s escape, but he would have a hard time returning home again.

Would it be beneficial for the country?

If they truly cared, then they would not have been so greedy.

All of the smart people were in politics.

Throughout history, the motivated and the honest died on the battlefield, the knowledgeable avoided politics, and the intelligence belonged in the forbidden city.

It was better for the simple to stay away from the intelligent.

Jiang Chen didn’t reveal any of his thoughts. As soon as he left, he inhaled deeply.

He suddenly realized that the past few days had been more tiring than living in the apocalypse.

"Why do I tire myself out? Am I missing the purpose here?" Jiang Chen mocked himself as he shook his head.

Regardless of whether he thought too much or not, he didn’t consider Wang Dehai to be reliable.

Favors were like bills. Once used, it was gone. But it was almost more complex than that since items had a set price; at least you knew how much remained.

The only good news was that Future 1.0 would not receive too much hindrance from regulations; this danger faded in its infancy.

Chapter 79: Game Online

<…Artificial Intelligence will be the prevailing trend in the progression of modern society. For the growing tech industry, authorities expressed their high regards. On the other hand, for the artificial intelligence program available on the market, authorities are in the process of completing the necessary regulations to protect the interest of the people and corporations…>

Renren news report.

The government media authority did not report extensively on the details of Future 1.0 as they focused on the bigger picture in regards to the current state of artificial intelligence. They reported mainly on the regulatory environment. However, CTV did praise highly about the outstanding performance of Future 1.0.

The local media was all over the place with their reporting, so Jiang Chen didn’t place too much emphasis on it. Besides, he cared more about the government media’s stance because it often hinted on the perspective the authorities would take.

But now, after the conversation with Wang Dehai, there was no need to pay attention to it.

Jiang Chen, lying on the bed, turned off the domestic news and commanded Little White to pull up the current foreign news.

<Dictator – the next Steve Jobs in the Tech Industry?> (BBC)

[Mhmm, that was what I had planned.]

<Artifical Intelligence and privacy, Truth or Lie?> (CNN)

[The truth was presented to you, it’s up to you to believe it or not.]

<2014 Most Attractive Men> (Mode)

[Did something weird just appear.]

Jiang Chen judged each headline as he continued to scroll through each one before throwing his phone to the side. Just as he was about to go back to the apocalypse, his phone suddenly vibrated.

He picked up his phone. It was Robert who had sent him an email.

<Hi! Buddy, you really transitioned?>

Jiang Chen smiled as he could imagine his shocked look. That guy’s jaw probably dropped to the ground when he saw the guy he knew on the news.

<Of course, please call me the president of Future Technology now. You? Are you still doing the same thing?>

<No, no, no. The FBA invited me twice to chat already. After finishing the Baton guy, I stopped. Please call me producer now :P>

The Baton guy was probably the insider who sold him out. But Jiang Chen didn’t bother with Robert’s business as he would just ask Robert to take him around when he does go to Los Santos. For now, he had no reason to leave the country.

[Of course, who could predict the future.]

Just as Jiang Chen was about to put his phone down again, the phone rang.

Xia Shiyu?

"Hello? Do you miss me?" Lazily, Jiang Chen picked up the phone.

"Are you not coming to work today?"

She cunningly reacted to her superior’s harassment.

Jiang Chen nodded, pleased with the reaction, and continued.

"I have already given you the permission on the specific tasks, can you not let me be a relaxed billionaire?"

"Mhmm. If you have time today, drop by. I had a feeling that you were about the leave for a long time. I still have some things that I need you to decide on."

Jiang Chen was shocked.

[This girl is psychic, how did she know I was about to leave.]

Jiang Chen sat up from the comfort of his bed.

"Wait, I’ll be there soon."

－

Different from the usual emptiness, Future Technology’s headquarters already began to feel busy. Because of the need for people, training was halted and people learned on the job.

The employees apparently recognized the president as they cheerfully greeted him.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t interrupt their work. Instead, he walked directly towards Xia Shiyu’s office.

"Eh, what do you think is the relationship between the president and Miss Xia?" The cute girl at the front desk poked at her colleague.

"What. If Miss Xia heard you, she'd cut your bonus. Hehe, but if I would guess, it’s not that simple."

He had knocked before he was given permission to come in with "Please come in."

"Hmmm? You are here?" Xia Shiyu’s tone was rather stiff as she dodged his eyes.

A forced smiled appeared on Jiang Chen’s face. [Is it because of yesterday? If it is awkward from now on, it will be problematic…]

He didn’t know why he asked that question.

But business first. If he didn’t take care of things now in the modern world, it would be hard to take care of the issues after he comes back from the apocalypse.

He cleared his throat to break the awkwardness and then spoke as if nothing had happened.

"Mhmm, what is the current user base of Future 1.0?"

Xia Shiyu saw that he didn’t bring up yesterday’s topic, so she secretly felt relieved. Then she picked up a report on the table.

"Future 1.0’s user base already broke through the two hundred million mark, but the growth speed is slowing down," She pushed up her glasses as she reported to Jiang Chen with professionalism.

"Not bad. Then we can go to the next step. Is the application procedure for the game finished? Is the operations team familiar with the game now?"

Jiang Chen asked as he flipped through the document Xia Shiyu passed over.

"The application procedure finished awhile ago. As to the operations team, they are familiarizing themselves with the game. Because they only started yesterday, it is still being completed. However, the game you provided has a perfect backend, so the task is almost complete."

[Looks like Yao Yao did an excellent job.] Jiang Chen smiled with the cute girl in mind and continued.

"What about marketing?"

"It’s been ongoing, we have done advertisements and cinematics. Based on the feedback from our official site, the users have high hopes for the landmark mobile game. The post with the highest upvote even said that he is waiting for us to create virtual reality helmets that come from fictional novels," Xia Shiyu said half-jokingly, but it scared Jiang Chen.

[What, did I say I was going to develop virtual reality? Was this person reborn?]

"Based on this, users have extremely positive opinion about our company’s technology. President, are you okay?" Xia Shiyu looked Jiang Chen’s puzzled expression, confused. She had a trace of worriedness in her tone.

"Ahem, nothing. I just think I should control how much I show off." Jiang Chen forced a laugh.

[Maybe I am being too sensitive.]

Xia Shiyu ignored his nonsense words and continued.

"Then should we introduce the game now?"

Jiang Chen thought for a moment.

"Mhmm, I think it’s about time. Start the registration and pre-download tonight. The official release will be within this month. You can decide the exact strategy. The bug system in the game is also advanced, so the employees only need to troubleshoot based on the description provided by the system. The operation of the game should have no problems. This is the decision then. <New Era> will come online!"

Jiang Chen was confident about this game. The introduction of Future 1.0 freed the hardware limitations of the mobile plant which would foster a series of the high-quality mobile games. This would fundamentally change the mobile game industry. The original popular masterpieces would not necessarily get replaced by the new generation of games, but they would definitely be impacted and forced to make adjustments.

It was the perfect opportunity for Future Technology to enter the mobile gaming market.

Xia Shiyu nodded as she also believed it was time. The release of the game would also turn the company’s current income statement around, which was now in the red.

"Another key aspect. Do you have any recommendations for the direction of the game?" Xia Shiyu had to ask Jiang Chen about the macro development strategy of the company.

"You can make your own decision. I know you are a lot more knowledgeable than me in regards to operational strategy." Jiang Chen smiled.

"No, I mean the bigger picture. It is extremely difficult for a mobile game to balance KPI and ACU…"

"Wait, what is KPI?" Jiang Chen was at a loss.

Xia Shiyu was at a loss too.

"KPI, key performance indicators."

Jiang Chen embarrassedly scratched his head as he realized he was an amatuer in business.

However…

"What about ACU?" He gulped as he shamelessly asked.

"Average concurrent user… President, maybe it would be a good idea to learn some fundamentals?" Xia Shiyu said sounding worried.

Jiang Chen’s face flushed, but it would be impossible for him to admit his small fault in this. "Ahem, why didn’t you just put it in simpler terms? Profit and user base right?"

Xia Shiyu’s eyes twitched as she sighed, "Mhmm, you could interpret it that way."

He gave it a thought. "You don’t have to worry about profit, for now, we don’t lack cash. Compared to short-term profits, I care more about long term sustainable growth. If we have to sacrifice the lifespan of the game for profit, it will undermine the quality of our game."

"Understood. President and I share the same thought. Since we already have the advantage in technology, no company can copy our game. Therefore, we don’t have to worry about the lifespan of <New Era> for now. Once we establish the first group of users, we can then consider the profit," Xia Shiyu agreed as she took out another piece of documentation.

Jiang Chen scanned it as it revolved around the details of the game's operation. For example the purchase method and game model. It had nothing to do with the game content.

[Should be okay then.]

"Now that everything is cleared up, I need to go somewhere far away in the next few days." Jiang Chen put the document aside as he was getting ready to leave.

"Where are you going now?" Xia Shiyu sighed as she rubbed her head.

"Maybe I will tell you one day?" Jiang Chen laughed as he walked out of the door, leaving a bewildered Xia Shiyu.

[How long till that one day comes?

Probably when I am powerful enough to go head to head with the forces of an entire nation.]

Chapter 80: Zombies’ Change

In an instant, the pristine clouds were replaced by the cloudy traditional dust, spider-like cracks crept onto the smooth walls, and the wooden door began to wither away.

The animation style changed drastically.

The comfort behind his back was the same, but he was on the "other side."

It was his room in the apocalypse.

He sat up on the bed and scanned the clean bedsheets as a smile emerged on his face.

There was not the slightest dust. Although he didn't know if it was Yao Yao or Sun Jiao, someone cleaned the place up every day.

He picked up the PK200 resting against the wall, and as if reunited with an old friend, he motioned a few positions with it. The only thing dusty in the room was this rifle. He picked up a towel to wipe it clean before he threw it into the storage dimension.

When he pushed open the door, he tiptoed from the corner of the wall. Then he quietly walked to Sun Jiao room to give the person he hasn't seen for a while a surprise kiss.

The surprised voice accompanied by a long awaited hug. He felt her pounding heart as Jiang Chen hugged Sun Jiao with a smirk. He then followed her to the expanding outer circle.

When he stepped onto the brick road in front of the mansion, he always had an indescribable feeling of satisfaction.

Just like a king in the middle ages, the mansion was his castle. The refugees, who worked hard outside of the castle, were his citizens and Sun Jiao was the Dutchess of the castle. Yao Yao in the castle... umm, let's talk about that later.

When he stood there before, he could only smell suppression in the air. But now, he felt relaxed.

No conspiracy and no need to guess as everyone's heartbeat was captured on his EP. If it was not for the tedious injection procedure and the lack of equipment, he would love to bring a set of slavery microchips to the real world.

But just as he pushed open the mansion doors, he was shocked.

－

"Umm, why did the expansion stop?" Jiang Chen looked at Sun Jiao, troubled by what he saw.

The construction material was stacked up on the open ground as the expansion came to a complete halt.

"The zombies outside were acting weird." Sun Jiao had a stern face as she took Jiang Chen onto the watchtower.

Jiang Chen followed the direction Sun Jiao pointed to, and a look of shock appeared on his face.

"Those zombies..."

"Yes, all of them seem to be on some hard drug." Sun Jiao picked up a rock and threw it into the distance.

The rock made a "clunk" sound as it hit a car's roof. The zombies nearby immediately turned around and howled and dashed at the car. The car door was deformed by the group of zombies as their dirty hands penetrated through the car window and flipped open the engine cover.

After only a while, the zombies realized there were no living creatures and the gradually dispersed.

This was in broad daylight!

"What, can we even leave then?" Jiang Chen stared at the hysterical zombies.

Now, the zombies finally had a feel similar to <Resident Evil>. The fierce and bloody pupil seemed to foretell that any living creature who dares to appear in front of them would be ripped to pieces.

Or even more vicious than that?

"The unknown bacteria level is rising in the air. Maybe it's because of this bacteria that the zombies have become so ferocious. There's a possibility that it has blocked the UV, but it doesn't look like it as the vegetation didn't get affected." Sun Jiao frowned as she took over the terminal from the patrolling guard and showed Jiang Chen.

<Unknown bacteria concentration level: 13>

"What is this?" Jiang Chen asked feeling puzzled.

"The terminal is connected to the air detection tower. We bought it from Zhao Corporation. The Sixth Street also experienced a similar situation, so Zhao Chenwu thought we would need this. The unknown bacteria that's floating in the air has a similar mechanism to the original zombie bacteria. It could be eliminated by vaccination or through the immune system of people injected with the genetic vaccine. But if the bacteria level passes a certain threshold, it could only be avoided with protective wear. So I bought 150 protective wear, just in case."

He followed the direction Sun Jiao pointed to, and Jiang Chen noticed a pitchfork-like detector on top of the residential building. The light green film between the pitchfork slowly rotated.

"Not bad. But I have a question, I thought zombies would be weakened under UV?" Jiang Chen asked with his eyebrows raised.

"That's right, that is what I am confused about too. Because zombies would also require energy, the mutant bacteria on its neck would react to UV and force most of the body's functions into rest mode and enter photosynthesis," Sun Jiao repeated the common sense everyone knew in the apocalypse.

"Could it be, this type of bacteria is charging the zombies?" Jiang Chen thought for a moment before he suddenly spoke.

Sun Jiao was lost.

"Charging? Through what method?"

"The floating bacteria in the air uses a unique method to complete the photosynthesis effect for the zombie. It then enters the zombie body to be "digested," therefore the zombies would always be charged and would no longer require photosynthesis."

Sun Jiao gave it a thought.

"That's possible, although it has no scientific backing, you do have your point."

"Is the entire Wanghai city like this?"

"Only part of the area. Based on news from the Sixth Street, the bacteria seems to be spreading from a source. The saving grace is that the bacteria would not self-divide, so it could only be produced from a source. Based on the concentration spread of the bacteria, if we use triangulation on the map, we are relatively certain that there is an area beside us with a high concentration of bacteria. Most likely, the source of it is there."

Sunjiao took out the full-sensory computer and opened the 3D map. A triangular area was marked.

"What's the closest survival camp? Do they have any reactions?" Jiang Chen thought about it as he said with serious concern.

A pained smile appeared on her face.

"We are the closest survival camp. The majority of people belong to community level survival groups, so we are considered the largest. Currently no action."

"If we continue to let these things grow, it would be hazardous. We have to find a way to proactively eliminate the source of this bacteria. But now, it doesn't look like we can get out." Jiang Chen watched the zombie-filled streets as distress seeped in.

"You are right. The bacteria seems to be migrating the zombies to the direction of human settlements. The zombies have already attacked our door for the sixth time within 15 days. Our current trade with other survival groups was forced to stop. The good thing is that there are no zombies in the underground system, so we still managed to maintain the connection with the Sixth Street." Sun Jiao looked concerned, but she was out of sorts with these zombies.

"Zhao Chenwu probably has a headache too. The other exit to the sewerage is at least a couple hundred meters away from the Sixth Street," Jiang Chen felt fortunate as he was smart enough to create a corridor with a concrete wall that directly included the exit into the base.

"Ok, let's not talk about this for now. Tell me how the base is growing." Jiang Chen was concerned.

"The trade differential between Zhao Corporation in September is 10102 crystal. The total trade amount exceeded one hundred and ten thousand crystals. The canned foods sold very well on the Sixth Street. Zhao Chenwu had the intention to significantly increase sales, but I refused on the basis that you headed back to acquire supplies. Because of the halt of the expansion, the construction material had been accumulating. The Zhao Corporation could not pay with crystals, so they proposed to sell us populations at a price of 50 per person for a total of 100 to make up for the remaining payment. The population of the base is at 130." Of course, it didn't include Sun Jiao, Yaoyao, and Jiang Chen.

"The price increased?"

"The cost of the population increased substantially. The chip price remained the same." Sun Jiao forced a smile. "Because of the dangerous external environment and the fact that the Sixth Street is planning to eliminate two sources near the area, the demand for population increased substantially."

"How's the soldiers' training?"

"There is a total of 41 that received qualification from the virtual reality training chamber. Everyone is injected with the D-level genetic vaccine and can become part of the force," Sun Jiao called out some data and reported.

"The bacteria source must be eliminated." Jiang Chen looked into the distance with a gloomy look on his face. "I have a feeling that the stuff in the air is only going to increase. Then it would be even harder to approach the source."

"Then I'll prepare first. Let's make the combat plan today, and then I'll bring a team with me tomorrow." Sun Jiao nodded.

"I'll go along," Jiang Chen said sternly.

"No," Sun Jiao rejected without hesitation.

"Listen to me."

"With your shooting?"

"My combat power is okay now. Also, I can use my special ability to escape the battle. The most important thing is that I am worried about letting you go alone," Jiang Chen stared into Sun Jiao's eyes as he said seriously.

There was a more important reason he didn't explain. He wanted to use the opportunity to meet the survival groups along the way.

If Sun Jiao led the negotiation, he had a feeling it would turn into a full-scale combat.

On top of that, his combat ability would never increase if he always stayed in safety.

When she heard "he was worried", Sun Jiao blushed but quickly recollected her thoughts.

She debated a little more before sighing in reluctance.

"Okay, I'll agree to it."

Jiang Chen smiled as he gave a thankful look for Sun Jiao's agreement.

"Ahem. Also, there are not a lot of food at the base. Could you get some more," Sun Jiao awkwardly coughed as she diverted the topic.

"Food? No problem." Jiang Chen smiled as he disappeared.

Sun Jiao had to gather her thought as she stared at the place Jiang Chen vanished from.

[Fair, if he has this special ability, he would escape from any danger.]

Sun Jiao felt more at ease.

It was the first time.

Perhaps the first time was in the underground sewerage. The feeling when she knew he was okay, the time when she placed someone else's life before her own.

Chapter 81: Yao Yao’s Thought

Jiang Chen returned to the modern world and called the same food distributor's number before driving to the rural area storage unit.

When he arrived at the destination, Jiang Chen noticed that the boss there was already waiting for him. He didn't waste his time as he started to order people to unload the supplies into the storage. Jiang Chen ordered twice the amount as last time.

31 tons of rice, 10 tons of flour, 700 boxes of canned meat, and 500 boxes of canned fruit, as well as oil, vinegar, salt, and other flavorings. Also, he ordered a few tons of easy to store vegetables such as cabbage, carrot, and potato.

Like what they agreed to last time, they didn't print stickers.

He paid the full three hundred twenty without a blink of an eye and immediately dismissed the boss that continuously tried to small talk with him.

He was much more careful this time as he didn't start the moving process right away. Instead, he released the drone that Yao Yao modified and scanned for any thermal information. After a careful examination, he realized he was holding his breath from worrying. Being reassured, he let out a breath of relief and walked into the warehouse, closing the door behind him.

He felt that he has become too suspicious lately.

Because of the limited space in the storage dimension, Jiang Chen had to travel back and forth ten times before he managed to transport everything.

A total cost of 400 crystals for an ordinary survivor would be a huge amount. But for him, it was only pocket change. Because of the trade differential between Zhao Corporation, the only thing he was worried about was how to spend the room full of crystals in his basement.

On paper, all crystals were transported back to the fictitious "headquarter."

Sun Jiao skillfully ordered people to enter the mansion and move the bags of food into the food warehouse. The good thing was they also built two more food warehouses on open ground. Otherwise, it would be difficult to find a place to store the food.

The idle survivors started to be busy again. Due to Jiang Chen's arrival, they were no longer surprised by the mountain-like stack of food.

The idle cooling system started operating again as the base's electricity usage climbed. But Sun Jiao was prepared for the situation as not only did she place solar panels on all the roofs within the wall, it even expanded to buildings outside of the wall.

Zombies and mutants had no interest in the boards on top of the roofs. The survivor's other side wasn't so despicable that they would vandal the property since the machine guns on the watchtower did possess some deterrence abilities.

He heard Sun Jiao say that she also purchased an old ground thermal energy collection system, but currently, the base lacked personnel with knowledge in that area. She already arranged a few smart looking survivors to learn the related knowledge. There were important books in the city library, the information would only need to be downloaded into the virtual reality training chamber.

But to see results, it'll be at least a few months.

Seeing as Sun Jiao was busy, Jiang Chen headed to the technology department at the community center and found the hard-working Du Yongkong. He handed him the developed strategy for Future 1.0 as Jiang Chen ordered him to make upgrades based on that. Xia Shiyu gave it to him before he left in the morning. The company has no technology department, although they did hire server maintenance personnel, the program updating would have to be done through the middleman Jiang Chen.

He cautioned him about the encryption procedure. Jiang Chen then patted his shoulder and left, in Du Yongkang's surprised, with a proud look.

Jiang Chen returned to the mansion again.

He hasn't seen Yao Yao in a while, and he has missed her.

Ahem, don't be mistaken. Jiang Chen was not into a loli.

[Maybe?]

－

Yao Yao enjoyed reading. Even dry and boring computer books, she could focus and read them for a long time.

Although the virtual reality training system could speed up the education process, which Yao Yao already received in the hibernation chamber in the survival base, the deeper level knowledge could only be extracted from the book itself. These books were gifts Sun Jiao brought back from the library.

Although the electronic version was okay, the feeling of paper made her feel calmer.

Yao Yao sighed as she closed the book. She stretched out her frail arms and yawned.

[If only brother Jiang Chen could notice me more...]

She zoned out as she kept thinking, cupping her chin with both hands.

If it were before, she would blush because of her "inappropriate" thoughts. But now, she could face her own heart.

She did fall in love with the gentle, sympathetic, strong... No, she would not stop if she continued.

Yao Yao lightly slapped her own face nervously as she ducked her almost burning head back into the books.

[I want to die...]

"You are going to hurt your eyes if you read so close." Jiang Chen oddly looked at Yao Yao's move with a smile on his face.

"Ahhhh!" The book flew out of Yao Yao's hands as she jumped up like a startled rabbit. She then fell, with the chair, to the ground.

Jiang Chen face palmed as he looked at Yao Yao's careless action. He was just about to help her up.

But then he suddenly remembered Sun Jiao's words.

"Yao Yao really cares about you..."

She rubbed her butt in pain as she sadly pouted her mouth. "Sor...sorry, I didn't notice brother was here."

"You need to take care of yourself. What if you get hurt?" Jiang Chen helped Yao Yao up and stroked her soft hair as he seemingly "blamed" her.

Yao Yao suddenly buried her head into his chest and her hands tightly held onto his shirt. Tears began to fill up her adorable eyes.

"Brother do you dislike me now?"

Jiang Chen was confused. "How is that possible?"

"Then why have you been avoiding me," Yao Yao buried her head and murmured.

Avoiding?

Jiang Chen was lost.

To be fair, since the last time he saw her for a brief moment, he hasn't visited her in awhile.

Perplexed, he looked at the slightly quivering girl and felt guilty.

A little bit.

Jiang Chen really cared for Yao Yao, not only because she was the second friend he met in this world, or because she saved him and Sun Jiao, or she helped him before...

The best way to describe it was, a unique feeling.

Yao Yao's presence seemed to have fulfilled an emptiness in his heart, it allowed him to express a kind of protective desire.

But when Sun Jiao told him that Yao Yao likes him, and it was the kind of like between a man and a woman, he backed away.

Yes, Jiang Chen knew that he basically had no bottom line.

But Yao Yao...

Although Yao Yao's actual age was 36, she spent 20 years in the hibernation chamber. Her body practically paused all growth. Because of the side effects from hibernation, her body did not grow even after leaving the chamber for 2 years.

To summarize, she can be described by three numbers, 36, 16, 14.

That flat-looking body, not even perverts could do this.

But Yao Yao's mental age reached puberty, so it is understandable she started to feel emotions for the only guy that treated her with gentleness.

Understanding is one thing, but being able to do it is another.

He was afraid that he couldn't control himself and just end up eating Yao Yao.

Subconsciously, he unintentionally began to avoid responding to this emotion.

He hoped the feeling was more similar to someone she depended on, but he knew too well that that wasn't the case.

He had a special feeling for Yao Yao.

"I..." Jiang Chen opened his mouth to say something, but a delicate finger stopped him.

"No, you don't need to explain to Yao Yao. Yao Yao is very understanding." Yao Yao disappointedly buried her head deeper. She murmured as the faint sound came out of her lips.

"If brother doesn't like Yao Yao, Yao Yao won't force brother to reciprocate. Compared to small apples, big apples definitely taste better. For example like sister Sun Jiao's size, Yao Yao understand."

Her eyes shook slightly, but she bit her lip and determinately lifted her head.

"Yao Yao is happy to be living such a joyful life. But, it is still important to give treats to cute animals. So I will do everything to help brother out. I am still updating the game. Yao Yao is also studying really hard on the computer. If Yao Yao can just get some small rewards, Yao Yao will be delighted and will work even harder. It's not too greedy of a request! Though if there really is none, it will be okay... but just a little is enough! Just share with me a tiny bit... No need to kiss, just rub my head.

Woo!"

The listless hesitation was suddenly blocked.

Her fragile look revealed how shocked she was, but then it turned into excitement and happiness, and finally into gentleness...

Yao Yao closed her eyes as she enjoyed the sudden burst of passion from her lips.

Jiang Chen kissed her.

Because of guilt? Self-blame? Impulse? Or maybe it was the compensation for the pure but ambiguous emotion.

He admits that he is a selfish person without boundaries, but he is not a cold person. When he found out that Yao Yao loved him dearly and was willing to do so much for him without return.

Sorry.

It was his first, without lust and desire.

The lavender like fragrance layered with her pure emotion spread from his lips into his head.

Like a terrified bunny, the softness gently explored the unknown. But just that one simple move almost took up her entire body's strength.

But a warm "hand" accepted it and caressed her soft head.

Jiang Chen felt the burning sensation on his face as Jiang Chen gently held up her face.

Separated.

A glowing wire carved a hint of impurity within the pure emotions.

Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao as she tried to catch her breath and stared into her mist covered eyes. He finally resisted the desire in his heart and pulled his head away from Yao Yao.

Yao Yao, who just began to realized what had happened, buried her head.

Her head was completely blank as her cherry like mouth smiled, closed, raised...

"Sorry. Although sorry probably doesn't mean much." Jiang Chen hugged the fragile body harder as he said sincerely, "I did notice your emotions, but I..."

"No, it's okay!" Yao Yao's tone suddenly went higher because of her excitement but soon quieted down. She murmured, "Could you just save some for me? As a reward..."

"No."

The adorable eyes teared up.

"Not your reward, as my reward." A smirk appeared on his face as he got closer to her earlobe. "Be mine?"

Tears burst out of her eyes, but it was tears of happiness.

"Mhmm!"

"Eh? Don't cry."

"Mhmm! Woooo."

Jiang Chen made up his mind.

He didn't have any boundaries left, so might as well go balls deep!

He was not a courteous guy nor did he want to use a boring excuse to lie to himself. He had a good impression of Yao Yao. As in, it was not the type where it was simply a "sister and brother" kind of emotion.

[Worst case I'll just eat later...] (?????)

He made the decision as he chose to respond to this pure relationship.

[What's wrong with liking a loli! No, not loli, she is 36 on her ID!]

Jiang Chen tightly hugged Yao Yao as he felt her warmth and listened to her murmur.

"I feel so lucky."

"Would sister Sun Jiao hit me. Ummm, I'll let her, so she won't be mad. Then, then... I feel so happy."

Suddenly, Yao Yao woke up from her murmuring words.

[Yes, the most important thing is what brother thinks. If he doesn't think I taste good, then... No, No. I need to sell myself. I can definitely do it.]

She tightly clenched her fist as she took a couple of deep breaths and built up the confidence.

[Calmed down?] Jiang Chen heard the murmuring stop.

"Umm."

"Hmm?"

"I, I taste very good! Although I am not confident, I will be very obedient! The moves sister Sun Jiao doesn't want to try, Yao Yao can try! I am not a picky eater. I will resist the pain even if it hurts." Yao Yao's long eyelashes trembled as she closed her eyes tightly, letting go of all her shyness.

Blood burst out from Jiang Chen's nose.

－

"This damn loli lover," Sun Jiao cursed in her mind as she stood outside of the door.

Through the cracks, she almost saw the entire plotline.

Although it was not that she didn't understand Yao Yao's emotion, she did want to drag her into the water...

But, it was still frustrating!

Miss Sun Jiao was so frustrated that she wanted to stomp her feet. But she bit her lips as she decided not to.

It was because she did not want to interrupt them now.

She sighed as she unhappily walked away.

[I'll pretend that is the compensation for this guy to stay here.]

Sun Jiao tried to comfort herself.

[Also, Yao Yao is even easier to "bully."]

A smile carved onto Sun Jiao's lips.

Or, possibly a smirk.

Chapter 82: Wasteland Economics?

Loli has three benefits, light, soft, and easy to eat.

Jiang Chen didn't end up eating Yao Yao, although she was already "cooked."

He felt it was not the best idea to eat her now.

[Let her grow a bit more. At least until after she starts to develop. Or at least wait for her to be mentally prepared.]

He wiped the blood from his nose and comforted the now bewildered Yao Yao as he hastily left.

It was the first time he managed to control himself and didn't act like an animal.

－

When night fell, Jiang Chen came to the conference room at the community center and initiated a wireless video conference with Zhao Chenwu.

The light blue particles and lines created the full body image of Zhao Chenwu. The ruthless man smiled and extended his hand to greet him when he saw Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen also smiled and extended his hand, passing through the hologram image.

The hands, of course, didn't touch as it was a gesture passed on in the hologram conference age. Before the start of the conference, Sun Jiao already taught Jiang Chen.

As long as they sat by the table, the hologram would be passed onto the corresponding location in the other conference. Based on the consideration of the importance of real-time communication, Zhao Chenwu sold this set of equipment discounted by 50%. His strategic vision was certainly worth praising, for as it was definitely a move that could pay off in the long term.

What better way to solve the problem than face to face.

Jiang Chen never imagined there could be such a magical equipment in this world. He only saw it in some sci-fi movies before.

"Long time no see Mr. Jiang. To save time, let's get straight to the topic." Compared to modern world negotiations, the negotiations in the apocalypse were short and concise. No one considered flattering words worth. Even close alliances only cared about the individual's own interest as it directly related to their survival.

Also, it cost one crystal per minute to keep this equipment running. The crystal was not the issue, but the lesser the small talk, the better.

"Please go head." Jiang Chen signaled a please gesture.

"I want to increase the trade amount, especially fruit cans. I have a deficit of 1000 cans or more."

Zhao Chenwu waved his fingers as a data board raised onto the middle of the negotiation table that showed this need.

Canned meat needs to be increased to ten thousand, canned fruit increased to eight thousand, compressed cracker increased to an astronomical figure of one hundred thousand pieces and twenty thousand bags of instant noodles needed to be added. Based on the negotiated price, the total trade amount increased to half a million crystals!

Jiang Chen gasped for air.

Half a million. A power armor's cost was only ten thousand crystals.

"Don't mind me for being straight forward, do you have enough crystals for this deal? Or, do you have the ability to absorb this amount of supplies?"

Although the Sixth Street has a large population, there were only so many that could afford these "luxuries."

Zhao Chenwu smiled. He did not hide anything as he waved his hands and a document slid in front of Jiang Chen.

"There is nothing to hide. To respond to the recent abnormal zombie reactions, the Group of Ten council voted on a crusade proposal to eliminate two unknown bacteria sources. The plan is separated into route A and B. The group of ten all had decided to "invest" in initiating this proposal. I'll invest 31 power armors and one spider tank to join the route and acquire 21% of the profit."

"There's profit from clearing out the bacteria source?" Jiang Chen laughed.

He remembered not every zombie had crystals in the back of their heads. Even Roshan only had between 40-50 crystals.

"Yes, and there is a lot." Zhao Chenwu smiled mysteriously and called out a set of data. "The estimated profit of route A is 1.7 million crystals. The cost of ammunition is around 110 thousand, compared to the profit it is almost negligible.

1.7 million crystals?

The number made Jiang Chen jump, but the document Zhao Chenwu threw over soon made him understand the situation.

Regular mutants were unable to resist against the large-scale attacks of the survivors. The crystals on their bodies would all be collected. Also, because of the bacteria, the zombies are filled with energy. Therefore almost all of them have formed crystals, which was also why they became more ferocious.

However, under the firearm's suppression, despite how powerful the zombies were they were still zombies. The Sixth Street could gain massively from this operation! Every zombie would have atleast a single crystal. Killing one hundred thousand would be one hundred thousand crystals! Especially if it were closer to the bacteria source, then its energy would be higher for crystal formation. Based on the document, a single zombie could contain up to 20 crystals!

Including the mutants along the way, even if they encounter a Roshan, that thing is like a paper in front of a tank. Except in the city center, the Sixth Street's firepower would not encounter any dangers.

That was not the key point. Once the massive force heads out from the Sixth Street's hideout, following them would be a group of survivors or individuals. They wouldn't dare to steal kills, but under the protection of the force, it would be okay to pick up some scraps. Since they were all part of the force, it would be better for the endless amount of mutants to die as much as possible.

If they encounter something they could not defeat like the Death Claw, they will only need to hide among the forces. The Death Claw would be too scared to attack so many people, even if it did, a single cannon would solve the problem.

Once the average wealth increased, it would bolster spending. Jiang Chen knew that even if he didn't study economy.

"Also, the consumables used in this crusade will be converted into crystals, and so they will seek investments from the population of the Sixth Street. The expected return was estimated to be 15%, in which 1341 "middle class men" would be born. The higher average wealth would increase spending and stimulate the Sixth Street to increase production. The increased production would appreciate the value of crystals as an energy source! This would allow the capable survivors to approach us or even settle here."

It was an excellent blueprint. Although it did sound comical to talk about the economy on the wasteland.

Jiang Chen was at a loss for words before he abruptly opened his mouth.

"If you guys are so powerful, why didn't you attack the city center?"

"Ahem, there is nothing to gain from that. Also, the situation is quite unique in the city center. But, I guarantee you, we will only profit from this crusade!"

He looked blankly at the passionate Zhao Chenwu as a troubled smile appeared on his face.

[Is this the benefit of using energy as the currency?]

The industry's raw materials could be recycled from waste, but crystals have been the limiting factor for all survival camps.

The industrial process before the war used Hydrogen-3 as a reactor to generate power. Not to say the Hydrogen-3 facility on the moon has already been destroyed to pieces, but there was not a single functional nuclear reactor here. These things were the primary target during a war.

Therefore, the light, efficient, and "renewable" crystal became the primary source of energy and currency. As long as the industry continues to operate, there was no need worry about inflation. Hunt for crystals, purchase goods, increase production, crystal appreciation, which stimulates spending, loops back to hunting and the exploration of dangerous territories.

It was a perfect cycle.

No one wanted to waste bullets on zombies before since they didn't have crystals. Unless they were almost starving to death, not a lot of people risked their lives to hunt for that annoying mutant. However, this generation of zombies, under the influence of the unknown bacteria, formed crystals. Following a great army around the city, before coming back with a bag full of crystals for more reliable equipment would lower the risk of hunting other mutants.

Therefore even these zombies were eradicated, the newly equipped survivors would be able to hunt mutants for crystals.

It was like a spark that reignited the almost distinguished flame.

After this crusade, the Sixth Street would experience a drastic shift.

[Fu*k, Jiang Chen was jealous, but he was also cautious at the same time.]

Although there was some distance between Sixth Street and here, if its sphere of influence increases, it would be problematic. Since that place was a neutral, open door area, all the survivors would head to it for exchanges of goods.

The equipment upgrade of the survivors nearby was not good news for the newborn Fishbone Base.

The bandits, who were previously equipped with rifles, were now upgraded to rocket launcher or even the more expensive laser rifles. It would be detrimental to the base's defense. The current defense of the base was only a few light machine guns as well as some anti-tank weapons and grenade launchers.

Although Jiang Chen wanted to buy a tank and has the money, no one would sell it. These heavy armor firearms were mostly recycled from the battlefield. The quantity was scarce.

It was possible to produce power armor from scratch, but a tank? Even if they had the technology, they didn't have the right conditions.

His eyes lit up as Jiang Chen pondered to think of a way to upgrade the base's military arms.

If it was not possible to buy it from the Sixth Street, Liuding Town might be worth a shot?

But in Zhao Chenwu's eyes, he interpreted Jiang Chen's expression as a keen interest in the potential profit of the crusade. A smile emerged on his face, in his eyes, Jiang Chen was ready to reap the benefits.

"What do you think? Mr. Jiang, I believe that you already understand, if we use this golden age to expand the food market, I trust that no one will be interested in the sh*t like nutrient supply anymore."

Chapter 83: Helping Each Other

Jiang Chen was fascinated by the opportunity.

But if the crystals do appreciate, then there would be another problem.

"Crystals will appreciate in value. So you are saying I need to lower the price of the food to expand the market?" Jiang Chen curled up the corners of his month. After all this explanation, Zhao Chenwu still had the intention to lower the price of food.

"Ahem, that’s precisely the case. But please believe me that after we increase sales, the food trade will bring more profit for your company. Before there would be only one thousand people willing to purchase goods, now in less than a month, it will turn into one thousand people. When the basic survival needs are met, people will start to strive for a higher quality of life. Additionally, if we can capture the market, you can also expand your production capability." Zhao Chenwu locked onto Jiang Chen’s eyes.

Umm, okay, Jiang Chen felt awkward.

In theory, if the production base expanded because of economies of scale, the cost would go down. In his case, however, since all the food was transported from the modern world, the cost would be less than 0.1 of a crystal per canned food.

Reducing the price to increase sales volume seemed to fit the goal of the "headquarter."

If the price remained the same, food sales would still increase by a small amount, but the potential profit would be nowhere close to voluntarily lowering the price to attract more sales.

"Oh? This is not a bad idea, I have permission to adjust the price on behalf of the company. You do have to understand however that there is still the cost to transport and produce the food. If the profit margin here is too low, there is no purpose for me to continue to establish a supply station here." He still had the pretend in case this guy constantly asks him to lower the price due to Jiang Chen accepting this initial proposal too easily.

Zhao Chenwu thought it was disrespectful to ask about the other party’s costs. But if he doesn’t know Fishbone Food Corporation’s production cost, it was hard for him to give a reasonable estimate. He only "guessed" that the expanded production would decrease cost, but he didn’t know how much it would go down by.

"The meat cans with an average price of 10, fruit can 20, the compressed cracker maintains the one crystal price, and instant noodle 3. The appreciation of crystals along with the higher purchasing power from the Sixth Street, you won’t lose a whole lot.’

"That’s a 1/3 discount? Mr. Zhao is certainly giving me a difficult scenario." Jiang Chen had an enigmatic smile. "Purchasing power of the Sixth Street? Then I would be making a loss if I transport the crystals back to the headquarter."

On paper, he only has a supply station here. So, he must stay consistent with the story. The appreciation of crystals was only relative, other than a few things that could not be produced, all other goods would not be any different. If crystals were not traded for goods, then this thing would only be a convenient time travel ticket.

"Ahem, the crystal’s appreciation is relative. How about the firearms and construction materials also are reduced by 1/3? This is pretty close to my cost. Also, isn’t your company interested in our technology? Perhaps in this area, we can partner up. It would be best to avoid paying with crystals as this will be the best way to maximize our gain. If I manage to acquire more control within the Sixth Street through this opportunity, I trust that the equipment not permissible to be sold could have workarounds." Zhao Chenwu made his point as his eyes flashed

"Not bad. Interesting proposal." A smile appeared on his face as both parties reached an agreement.

Since this is the case, Jiang Chen brought everything to the table.

"M2 Engine design blueprint, our quote is forty thousand crystals, 1-10 kg bomb production bed blueprint, the quote is ninety thousand crystals. Model 50 electromagnetic pulse cannon, the quote is one hundred and ten thousand crystals. I believe that this technology, common in Wanghai City, is not too difficult for Mr. Zhao right?"

These were sensitive military technologies so they would not be stored in public libraries. The only method to obtain the technology was through purchasing. Sun Jiao estimated the quote based on the benchmark in Liuding Town.

Regardless if they have the capabilities to produce the equipment, it was imperative to obtain the technology first, and then slowly digest it.

"Of course not." Zhao Chenwu laughed, the price was reasonable.

Although the Sixth Street prohibited the sale of heavy weapons, the technology aspect was not prohibited to the same extent. A thumb-sized USB could copy all the information and blueprints. How difficult would it be to stop it?

Of course, Zhao Chenwu would not offer the self-developed technology after the war. Just like how he never asked Jiang Chen for the food production technology.

The advancement in technology did not cease after the apocalypse. The well-fed scientists in each survival base all served a purpose. Due to the lack of free flow information, poor survival condition, the difference between the inherited technology, everyone’s technology tree was a bit different from the other.

Take the Sixth Street, for example. The self-developed T-3 power armor’s combat power even exceeded pre-war levels. However, on the development of airplanes, their progress was close to null. It was a completely different case for Liuding Town but similar to other survival bases.

"As to the trade amount, if you could manage to absorb it, I’ll sell a bit more to you? Let’s aim for a quote of seven hundred thousand crystals now based on the new price. It would be for October and November. I think with more supplies, Mr. Zhao could have an easier time expanding the market?" Jiang Chen laughed.

Six times the usual trade amount?

Suddenly, Zhao Chenwu’s breath shortened. However, for being a man of power, he quickly recollected himself and remained calm.

He shrugged as Zhao Chenwu said cheerful, "Since my partner has already shown so much good faith, if I don’t do anything, it would be inconsiderate."

[It’s here, I have been waiting for those words.] Jiang Chen’s mouth curled up.

"That’s what I think too. So to make sure I can move the seven hundred thousand crystals worth of supplies here, I need your help."

Zhao Chenwu was surprised.

"If your transportation team could move the goods over such a distance, could you not solve a simple problem like this?" It was hard for Zhao Chenwu to believe.

He knew that there was a source near the Fishbone Base, but because of the distance, it would not pose any threats to the Sixth Street. The neutral area was not a philanthropical society as they had no reason to send out a force to clear out the problem.

"Transportation and combat are two different things. We have the technology to move the goods there, but moving it in would have to depend on me."

Airdrop? Flying carriers? It didn’t matter how much Zhao Chenwu guessed as Jiang Chen wouldn’t say a word.

He opened his palms as he continued to use his acting as he bullsh*ted, "I think you know how many crystals I put into this supply station since I bought everything from you. If I couldn’t even handle a small problem like this if you were my boss would you want me to stay here? Or, would you switch to another base that would be easier to transport goods, as it would be the more efficient process, wouldn’t it? So, for us to continue our partnership, you’ll have to help me out."

Then, Jiang Chen’s voice lowered as he perplexingly looked at the Zhao Chenwu, who’s expression began to turn stern. " I can’t promise that the next representative here will still choose Zhao Corporation as the partner, or perhaps even relocate and conduct business with Liuding Town. We pride ourselves on efficiency. If I "fail" here, I don’t know if the next person in charge would continue my policy. You understand."

Jiang Chen left the words there as he then leaned against his chair.

He didn’t finish his words as he has already made the point.

It did make sense. If my subordinate spent so many resources from the trade to invest in the defense infrastructure, it there was the imminent danger he must seek help? (?????) If Jiang Chen got replaced by the Fishbone headquarter, would the new representative continue the failed policy? Difficult to say.

Zhao Chenwu began to feel unsettled as he already got the taste of the food trade. How would he simply give this up especially when there was a seven hundred thousand crystal deal sitting in front of him? He hoped that he could use this supply to control the food market at the Sixth Street to leverage for more influence in the Group of Ten council.

However what he didn’t know was, all the hypothetical situation assumed that the "headquarter" existed.

Jiang Chen didn’t finish his words but left enough for Zhao Chenwu's imagination.

If he only lied and told half of the context, smart people would complete the lie for you. If he said too much, he would be more prone to getting called out.

"What kind of help do you need? I will handle this," Zhao Chenwu said in a stern voice. His interest was already tied to Jiang Chen. If he lost Jiang Chen as a supplier, all his plans would be interrupted.

He must help him, even if he may make a loss here.

He was waiting for this sentence.

An untraceable faint smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.

"10 T-3 power armor, I’ll purchase at 110% cost." Jiang Chen didn’t scam him as he gave a rather attractive offer.

"Not possible!" Zhao Chenwu stood up as he lost control of his voice.

It was not the problem with the price!

Even with his position of power as a member of the Group of Ten council, there was still nine other people keeping a close eye on him. There were a countless amount of small capitalists that have a keen eye on his position, which forces him to be careful.

Even if it was produced from his own factory, every controlled equipment must be documented and registered. They were prohibited from selling and by keeping an eye on each other, it was hard to conduct fraud.

If he crossed the line, there would be severe implications as it practically gave his competitors a reason to attack him.

"Nothing is impossible. Think about it. The risk you take compared to the potential gain, it would be nothing. If I failed, I would just retire. For you, you’ll lose a supplier that you trust." Jiang Chen locked onto Zhao Chenwu’s eyes.

Zhao Chenwu also fixed his eyes on him.

Finally, this ruthless businessman compromised.

"10 T-3 power armor with a price of 13000 crystals. I’ll send 10 slaves with microchips injected along with the power armors. Then I’ll report fatalities. You can take the 10 people as long as they don’t show up at the Sixth Street ever again."

Zhao Chenwu wryly rubbed his head as he leaned his arm on the table and waved his hand in defeat.

"Excellent, my friend. Be assured that you’ll have much to gain from helping me so much." A prevailed smiled carved onto Jiang Chen’s face, but it was gone within a second. He gave his sincere gratitude to Zhao Chenwu.

"Tell me other things you need. I know the 10 power armors is not enough, but this is the only time!" Since he already broke the rules, it didn’t matter how far he went.

As long as no one found out.

"An armored vehicle."

"No problem, one will explode during the mission. 20000 crystals."

"You have to give the equipment first, I have to solve the problem first before I can transport the food here, and then pay based on the new price."

"No problem, I have the patience to wait."

"Also, I would need some high energy vacuum bombs, the portable ones." Seeing Zhao Chenwu’s decisive attitude, Jiang Chen was feeling a little ashamed as he grinned sardonically.

"Ok. Along with the one-time use platform, 100 crystals per bomb. I’ll just say that I scrapped them. What do you need that for? The zombies can’t be suffocated, they also don’t have a lot of fat that can be burned.

"It is just for a possible scenario, you don’t have to worry about it, and it’s a pleasure to work with you?" Jiang Chen had no more requests as he smiled.

"It’s a pleasure to work with you… you better not make my investment go in vain!"

Jiang Chen fearlessly stared into Zhao Chenwu’s hawk-like vision as he cheerfully laughed. "Be assured, my friend, don’t you think we are helping each other out?"

I gave grounds for the price, the least you can do is do me a favor like this.

Helping each other out?

Maybe using each other was a more appropriate term.

Chapter 84: Zombie Waves

The goods arrived the next day.

Almost everyone at the Sixth Street was busy with the crusade, so the smuggling went unnoticed.

There were only four people that delivered the goods, and they were all close subordinates of Zhao Chenwu. His assistant Su Lei personally led the team. The guarding soldier transferred the control rights to Jiang Chen and sharply saluted him before they hastily left.

Jiang Chen smiled as he watched the camouflaged armor vehicle and the pitch black metal giants with a fearsome face. He patted the closest guy's shoulder before ordering the new slaves to transport the goods.

If one could compare light armor to kinetic skeletons, then power armor resembled the knight's heavy armor in the middle ages. They were divided into ground type and air drop type with the main difference being the armor's weight and if it was equipped with a shock absorbing turbine engine. The mass of the air drop type was usually less than half a ton, while the ground type weighted one ton or more.

These ten sets of T-3 power armors were the air drop type. They were equipped with a trident-shaped revolving machine gun and ammo packages.

Lu Huasheng was smart enough to design an elevator at the exit. Or else, if they only used rope, it would be tricky to bring up the two meters high, 300-kilogram power armor. The ten slaves clearly did not know how to operate the equipment, and they looked like they were getting ready to enter their caskets.

Obviously, they knew it was illegal to sell those types of equipment.

Since it was illegal...

Their genetic ID must have been registered as died at the Sixth Street already.

As to if they will really die? It would all be up to the man with the cheerful smile.

"Welcome to Fishbone Survival Camp. Trust me, working for me is much more enjoyable than working for anyone else in the world..."

Although it did sound like bullsh*t, it looked like they won't be dying anytime soon.

Everyone felt relieved as they anxiously followed the man's footsteps.

－

After giving the responsibility of assigning jobs to Lu Huasheng, Jiang Chen quickly went to find Sun Jiao.

"Weapon and power armor is ready, when should we depart?" Sun Jiao immediately asked when she saw Jiang Chen.

"Within two days. Did you manage to contact the survivor groups around us?"

"No problem. The wireless equipment in the conference room can do that, but what is the point of it?" Sun Jiao asked confused.

"Take them to fight the mobs." He left an unclear response behind.

There were too many survivors living in small groups around the area. If he managed to consolidate them together, there would at least be two to three thousand people. If Fishbone Survival Camp wants to the break the limitations of their population, they must think about the surrounding survivors.

Those were the survivors that survived through hardships in the apocalypse. Their mental strength was much stronger than ordinary people, or at least more twisted. Their individual combat abilities also far exceeded the slaves in the ghetto. But the tricky part was, they had long ceased to believe in orders and rules, they acted like wolves which are difficult to train.

If you want a dog to listen, a bone plus a rope would be enough.

But for a wolf to listen, a bone and a rope were nowhere enough. The survivors will take the bone away without hesitation but never willingly lower their head and accept the collar.

Unless they possessed absolute power, there was no point in even thinking about uniting together and fighting back.

Showing off their firearms was the second purpose of the crusade.

The best idea was to bring the battlefield together and alleviate the pressure from the waves of zombies. Then, promise them part of the reward to increase their dependency on Fishbone base.

Now that the zombies have all formed crystals, Jiang Chen didn't believe that those survivors would not be interested. Even if Jiang Chen didn't have the heavy firearm, the power armor was more than enough to steamroll through normal zombies. Those survivors have no reason to give up guaranteed profit.

－

The next morning.

The Fishbone Base was busy once again. The soldiers rushed to their battle stations. The non-combat unit helped to pack supplies as well as raise polyethylene board onto the front door to create a defense zone in case the zombies rushed into the base when the door was opened.

Outside the wall, it was also busy. The crowded zombies perfectly illustrated the words 'seas of zombies'. The sheer amount of rotten bodies completely blocked the streets outside.

Strange. It was as if the zombies from the entire area was stuffed onto this one street.

"Weapon system, functional. Turbine engine, functional. And energy stick, functional!" Jiang Chen tirelessly checked the data within the electronic helmet. Although he had experience with power armors in the virtual reality training chamber and had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the actual armor yesterday, being locked in the "metal box" made him feel unsettled.

The pitch black paint, the vigorous and light armor's aerodynamic shape, the trident-shaped revolving machines gun, and the tactical rifle placed at the waist. Jiang Chen was almost fortified to his teeth.

It certainly did look cool, but it was surprisingly difficult to put on.

Sun Jiao glanced at Jiang Chen with worried eyes. She then took a deep breath and waved at the guard on the wall.

The guard saluted and quickly positioned himself by the machine gun.

Sun Jiao will be the leader for this operation.

"Be prepared to depart. Open your weapon system, and make sure the zombies don't break our formation. All of our supplies are in the car. Am I understood?"

"Understood!" The eight armored soldiers uniformly shouted as they put on their helmets.

"Open the gate!" Sun Jiao shouted and signaled before she also put on her helmet.

The metal gate slowly rose. As if they smelt the delicious scent of food, the zombies turned their hollow eyes in the direction of the door.

Tatatatata!

"Fire!"

The machine guns on the two watchtowers began to unload their ammunition. The orange light split countless bodies of zombies as it shredded the already crippled body into more pieces. However, it was futile as the waves of zombies howled and rushed to the door.

"Charge!"

The team in power armor formed a triangle, protecting the armored vehicle in the middle. They then ripped a hole in the sea of zombies. Zombies with missing limbs shook on the ground. If their brains were still intact, zombies would not die.

But there was no time to finish them off. Under the power of the machine gun on the watch tower and the armored soldiers' continuously firing revolving machine gun, the flow of indestructible metal trampled through the corpses of the undead.

Even through metal, the sticky feeling of blood and meat on Jiang Chen's feet made his stomach churn. But he was no longer afraid of the frightening zombies.

They are no longer humans.

Some were not humans to begin with.

When the reinforced front armor collided with the zombies, who had attempted to bite him, the power of the armor's technology was truly demonstrated. The turbine engines on the waist and arms spat out mystic blue flames. The zombies futilely scratched and bit on the cold armor as Jiang Chen maximized the thrust of the engines.

The team maintained their formation as they moved forward, pushing the zombies back.

If the charge formation stopped, they then must face the dire situation of being surrounded by zombies. Although the regular zombies would not penetrate the armor if they accumulated and gained a numerical advantage, they could, however, deform the power armor as easily as they flipped cars.

Even if they had the absolute advantage on equipment, no one dared to lose concentration as they used the fire power of their armors to disperse the sea of zombies.

But it was impossible to kill all the zombies even if they used all of their ammunition. The only thing they needed to do was to break through, not waste all the ammunition on these dead things.

The zombies squeezed through and collided with the armored vehicle, but they got ran over right away. The thick and heavy tire left a frightening mark on the ground. The 20mm machine gun on top of the vehicle continued to fire as the bullets penetrated the zombies' withered bodies, exploding it into pieces.

Finally, the entire force forcefully created an opening through the sea of zombies as they trampled through the twitching bodies and out of the zombie-infested street.

"How do you feel." A caring voice passed through the private channel.

"I am okay." Jiang Chen took several deep breaths as he tried to calm his pounding heart.

He closed the revolving machine gun on his right hand and pulled out the tactical rifle on his waist. Everyone else followed. They no longer needed to maintain a high concentration of firepower after they broke through.

The zombies still rushed towards them, but they were much more sparse. It seemed to have matched his guess that the zombies all consciously gathered near the base. Once they passed another street, they could barely see any zombies.

"This is odd."

"Be careful, stay alert! Open the electric life detection device.

"Roger."

"No mutant signal within the 500-meter radius."

...

The series of reporting made the public channel sound chaotic.

Usually speaking, the drastic decrease in zombie concentration could only mean one thing. The existence of a powerful mutant was nearby. Although zombies hunted for any living creature, most of their prey were creatures with a similar life energy to humans. If they encountered an one hundred crystal monster or the nest of a mutant, zombies would subconsciously move away from that direction.

But the situation was abnormal. Not only mutants, but there wasn't even a single cockroach on the street.

The broken advertisement board, the abandoned cars...

They were the only living creatures on the street.

He shook his left arm to get rid of the sticky feeling of blood as he watched the empty street.

The ominous feeling was more and more apparent.

Chapter 85: This is the Apocalypse

There was no powerful mutant nearby, but the reality seemed to say otherwise.

It felt like a hand had drawn the spread out zombies together to surround them.

"The zombie concentration ahead is zero, I feel like something is off." Seeing the life detection map at the right corner of his pupil, Jiang Chen can’t help but raised his eyebrows.

Disregarding the possibility of mutant.

Zombies were not exactly dead as they still maintain some features of a live creature. For example, their understanding of survival space. The zombie's distribution was highly concentrated in the city center and spreads out in all directions from that point on. The asexually produced zombies moved outwards from the crowded city center to the rural area. In most cases, the relatively less concentrated areas would rarely produce a sea of zombies.

But the zombies seemed to have gathered together as they surrounded the entire base. The result was that after they manage to break through, the streets were empty.

Sun Jiao frowned as she was also uncertain.

"That’s right, something is off."

However, it was futile to overthink right now as the armored vehicle broke through the sea of zombies and began to accelerate. The armored soldiers also activated the wheels on their feet and started the turbine engine behind their back. As they changed from a running stance to a gliding stance, they immediately began moving alongside the armored vehicle.

[Balance system, functional. Fu*k, I forgot to check this thing.] Jiang Chen cursed as sweat rolled down. It was functional or else it would have been problematic.

"Be careful of your surroundings, free fire." Sun Jiao voiced transmitted through the public channel.

"Affirmative."

The arrow like formation pushed forward, into the middle of the highway. The vehicles in the way were either pushed away or rolled over.

Their surrounding was filled with deafening silence. Other than the missile’s homing noise there were no other noises. Everyone was alert, holding the tactical in shooting position.

"Weird, there is not even a single mutant." A soldier complained in the public channel.

"Did they hide or something?"

"Don’t be distracted, hold your position!"

"Yes!" The two soldiers immediately shut their mouth.

Could it be because of the unknown bacteria in the air?

Jiang Chen had a feeling something was not right. A bacteria that could make a bloodthirsty mutant afraid would not be as simple as it sounded.

After three kilometers, the team stopped in front of an apartment building surrounded by barbed wire.

It was an ancient building, like most buildings on the wasteland. The paint on the surface was already erased from the aftershock of the nuclear explosion, with only the gray concrete walls left. The wall had some old paint sprayed words.

Through the pitch black, a machine gun slanted against the window could barely be made out, and cloth replaced the glass on the windows.

On the roof of the building, vegetation covered in plastics to make what looked like soilless culture. This was where most of the survivor groups received their food. But in the radiation filled apocalypse, you wouldn’t expect a seed to produce a single fruit.

These fruits, with uncertain toxicology, still had a market on the Sixth Street. A lot of factories would purchase these in bulk quantities at a low price, and then sell the non-toxic ones in the luxury market. The toxic ones would be placed in extraction machines for vitamin, vegetable proteins, and other substances to produce high-quality grade A or B nutrient supply. (Compared to the nutrient supply created through the blood and fat of mutant and zombies, it was more "tasty" and "nutritious".)

The situation here was similar to Fishbone Base as the zombies surrounded the building. But quantity wise, it was significantly less than the zombies around the base.

It was a frightening prospect, but not because of some zombies.

Did zombies possess intelligence? Or, was a higher intelligence controlling them?

Despite this, there was not much suspense in the battle as some zombies did not reach the critical state.

Although the zombies did possess crystals, the organic nature of their body meant that they were still regular zombies. Despite how hard they tried, they did not have the defense of the power armor.

A few gunshots finished the annoying zombies as they approached the apartment building.

There was a wooden board with some crooked words.

<Private property, do not enter>

[Psh, what?]

"Code 01 survivor group, the life detection device indicates a total of 30-40 people," Sun Jiao reported to Jiang Chen through the private channel.

"What does code 01 mean? That’s an ugly name," Jiang Chen mocked.

"…I gave them the name. Survivor groups usually don’t give their home a name as the desire to expand and need for land are minimal. The goal was to survive." Sun Jiao walked up to ring the bell and backed up.

Momentarily, the door opened as a cautious looking middle-aged man carefully stepped out.

"Who are you guys?" His face had suspense and fright written all over it. The rifle in his hands trembled as he knew his rifle could not even break their armor.

The only thing that could damage the power armor was probably the dusty recoilless cannon in the back of the room.

"We are from the nearby Fishbone Base," Jiang Chen took off his mask and said emotionlessly.

"What are you guys doing here?" The middle-aged man cautiously asked. He, of course, saw the group of people eradicate the zombies. The heavy firepower deterred any thought of resistance.

"I trust that you already realized the unusual zombie activity. Under the influence of the unknown bacteria, these zombies would exhibit high attack behaviors. The reliable report indicated that the unknown bacteria level is increasing in the air, so we have decided to eliminate the bacteria source." Jiang Chen tried to make his tone sound friendly.

But the next sentence made Jiang Chen furious.

"What does that have to do with us?" Still the cautious and apathetic voice.

"You are asking what does that have to do with you?" Jiang Chen was shocked. He did not look angry as he laughed instead. "Do you know that the source is closer to you?"

The middle-aged man was speechless, but he felt that Jiang Chen was not as vicious as other bandits. He then prompted up the courage and argued back.

"But then it has more influence on you guys. Or else you guys wouldn’t be out here. We don’t need your help, so don’t bother us…"

The middle-aged man already has a plan. Since they were willing to take care of the trouble, then they can go. Although the odd bacteria certainly gave him a headache, what can he do? He'll just hide there. If other people can’t take it anymore, then they’ll send their forces out.

Although those zombies had crystals behind the back of their head, they couldn’t advance forward and stop to collect the crystals at the same time. Why does he have to go with them if he could just pick up scraps that are left behind?

Jiang Chen was at a loss, but then he started to laugh.

He saw through the man's deceitful eyes and could guess what was on his mind.

Shameless, too shameless. Haha.

[It certainly expanded his worldview that people could be this selfish. The problem is already in your backyard, and you are still waiting for a "dumbass" to make the first move so you can take advantage of their reward afterward? If I didn’t show up here, you were just going to wait here to die?

Wait, this is the apocalypse.]

Jiang Chen sudden realized. He almost thought he was on the negotiation table with Wang Dehai or 361 corporations.

Then, his eyes turned grim.

"What, what do you want?" The middle-aged man sensed a glimpse of hostility on Jiang Chen’s face as he cautiously opened his mouth. At the same time, he signaled the people behind him.

The window opened on top of the building as a black barrel extended out and was aimed at the armored vehicle.

"Boss, I have been locked in by an anti-tank weapon. Requesting permission to fire." The driver hastily reported into the public channel.

Sun Jiao immediately lifted the tactical rifle and aimed at the person on top of the building. The power armor soldiers all engaged in a firing position.

Sun Jiao was in command during combats, but Jiang Chen decided in regards to the neutral forces.

If Jiang Chen ordered, Sun Jiao was fully confident that they could wipe these people off of the wasteland.

The middle-aged man was struggling too as he stared at Jiang Chen. He was not a friendly character. He knew the highly mobile power armor would be hard to hit. So he dared to risk his own life to signal his subordinate to aim at the armored vehicle, clearly carrying plenty of supplies.

He was betting. Betting on the fact that Jiang Chen would not risk the highly valuable armored vehicle and the countless amount of supplies for their irrelevant life.

However, Jiang Chen laughed. He knew exactly what the middle-aged man’s intentions were.

[He has the audacity to bet? To save ammunition and not fire a single bullet at zombies, but turn the gun on us who're planning on eliminating the source?]

But Jiang Chen did not look surprised anymore. There was only a grimace was left in his vision.

"Perhaps it was my mistake to negotiate with you," Jiang Chen slowly said the words as he shut his helmet.

The action scared the middle-aged man to death. If revealing the face meant sincerity to negotiate, then closing the helmet…

Speaker open, the icy words echoed through the entire street.

"I'll only ask once. Surrender, or face death!"

The tactical rifle lowered.

Replacing them was ten raised revolving machine guns. The trident shaped machine gun rotated rapidly…

_Min_

Chapter 86: I don’t reason

I'm unreasonable.

Because you don’t understand what is the reason.

Surrender, or face death.

A simple yet oppressive statement somehow easily solved the problem.

Before Jiang Chen could count to three, the middle-aged broke down and threw the rifle in his hands to the ground. He covered his head and surrendered.

[I won’t let you not surrender. A recoilless cannon had the audacity to resist us? I will gladly trade the vehicle for your thirty worthless lives, do you dare to trade with me?]

His audacity was based on Jiang Chen’s willingness to negotiate, but Jiang Chen no longer wished to discuss.

All the survivors stood outside with faces of humiliation as they looked at the "invaders". Jiang Chen was not here to capture captives, as he still expected these people to peacefully integrate. Even if they brought them back, there was no place to imprison them. Perhaps it would even cause resistance from other survivor groups.

These survivor groups were not completely powerless to be able to survive this long. If this group had the recoilless cannon, the next group might have laser rifles. That weapon could pose a threat to the power armors as the C plastic steel formed armor could deflect bullets, but it would not be able to withstand high energy laser penetration.

Jiang Chen no longer wasted his time on the middle-aged man called Zhao Baodong as he directly gave out his demand. 50% of your force will temporarily join Jiang Chen’s team.

Zhao Baodong’s eyes immediately popped when he heard the proposition. Just as he was about to refuse, he was met with an icy stare, so he forced a smiled and swallowed his sentence back.

After this, the survivor group led by Zhao Baodong had a number – 02 (?????), the 8 riflemen joined Jiang Chen’s team acquired the numbers 021-028.

It was much more convenient as Jiang Chen was too lazy to remember their names. He could just order them using numbers.

After the stick, for the best effect, it was to throw a carrot. Jiang Chen told them about the "good news". After the battle ends, they could collect crystals. Since they wielded the power armors, it was troublesome to bend down.

Zhao Baodong became energetic when he heard he was responsible for picking up the money. Even if Jiang Chen added a sentence that half of it will be Fishbone base’s spoil of war, it would not extinguish his passion.

Jiang Chen disdainfully looked at this short-sighted person as he gave him another task. The task was to convince, or, to order the other survivor groups to join the force. If they refuse, it was okay to just beat their a**es.

Jiang Chen didn’t bring his force too close for the remainder of the trip as he only needed to show off his firepower from afar to successfully convince the other survivor groups. Even the stubborn survivor groups surrendered with white flags when the 20mm heavy machine gun shot above them and they experienced the splash of concrete dust.

Their firepower was not on the same level.

Fortunately, everyone was smart. No one held the unrealistic fantasy of "staying behind to scavenge" or "they are too afraid to shoot." After all, 18th year has passed by since the world turned into an apocalypse.

A total of 154 people, the force suddenly felt cumbersome.

"Why do we need so many people?" Sun Jiao secretly asked Jiang Chen in the private channel.

"Not useful for combat, useful for strategic purposes." Jiang Chen’s answer was crisp. Although she was confused, she didn’t say anything more.

"To be honest, you were quite manly when you acted fearsomely. My heart was beating really fast," Sun Jiao teased Jiang Chen in the private channel.

Although it was said in a joking voice, she didn’t lie. When she heard Jiang Chen’s coarse and grim <Machine Gun Armed> in the public channel, her scalp felt a tingling sensation.

She reminisced the first time they met and how much the man she loves grew. She was proud.

That feeling was similar to how Jiang Chen felt when she became more "civilized."

"…"Jiang Chen ignored her naughtiness. He knew she was teasing him as he will "take care" of her once they return.

-

If the survivors could control the inherent human flaws and stand from the perspective of the entire species. Disregarding the bacteria source, the world would return to human control after a few days.

But it was futile when the elites and powerful all boarded the ship to the distant "land of hope", leaving a world of chaos. A world no one had the interest to rebuild.

Why was there no interest?

The farming culture’s utmost desire for land was because land produced food. But after the blessing from the nuclear and biological weapons, not a single piece of land was arable on this planet. The mutants didn’t even dare to eat the mutated and crooked plants, what’s the purpose of the land now?

The ironic part was that the ones who started the war left as they didn’t need to bear the consequences of the war. They stepped onto the space colonization ship and carried with them the supposed hope for the civilization, leaving the desolated land for a new world yet to be tarnished.

Of course, it was pointless to say that now.

The point is that there is no purpose in expecting that these people will understand. The people with foresight either got in the ship, suicided, or already became a leader of a piece of land. The refugee like survivors that hid the darkness, although free, only had freedom left.

Jiang Chen, who thought through everything, no longer reasoned with the remaining survivors. He used his suppressive stance to force them to oblige. If he didn’t give them the option to negotiate, it was much simpler.

"In the end, this is for me." Like this, every survivor convinced themselves.

"There will also be crystals." Like that, every survivor encouraged themselves.

When they were on the battlefield, there was nowhere to go. Run? Who could out run the zombies without the genetic vaccine? Separating from the force was a death penalty, an internal conflict now meant death.

Everyone, forced to work together, did not encounter many obstacles. Although the zombies howled and dashed at the group, with the help of the buildings as a natural barrier and the armored tank as the main force, the group pushed the sea of zombies back and moved forward.

Between life and death, every survivor was energized with the passion of fighting. No one saved bullets, and no one tried to hide behind their teammates.

The latter part of the combat was hard fought. After leaving behind 17 bodies, the thousands of zombies surrounding the force were all eradicated in the street. The last obstacle to the targeted area was quickly cleared.

The zombies in the area were easily eradicated as most of the zombies were surrounding Fishbone’s base. There were some zombies around the bacteria source, but it was nowhere as "crowded."

He shook the blood and sticky content off of his armor and ordered the survivors to rest here and collect the crystals.

Hearing the "leader’s" order, the survivors erupted in cheerful joy. They dashed to the already dead or crippled zombies as they pulled out their dagger and started to collect.

It was the time to harvest. There was an estimate of at least three hundred thousand crystals! For the survivors that lived off of a few crystals and ran pettily to the Sixth Street or other survival bases to exchange for necessities, it was an unimaginable amount of wealth.

Even if they had to turn in half of it, why did that matter? Since they were the primary force in the battle, it was already a generous offer.

As to the people who died …

In the Apocalypse, death was an ordinary thing.

The previously sad looking survivors suddenly became grateful towards Jiang Chen.

Some people were weird creatures. If you were nice to them, they would take everything for granted. Even if they were the slightest bit discontent, they would be upset. But if you started off with a gun to their head and gave them a slap in the face when they showed any signs of resistance, they will hate you. Though as long as are nice to them, by just the smallest margin, they’ll immediately act sincerely and thankfully.

It may be an exaggeration, but the meaning stays the same. Clinically, it is called Stockholm syndrome. The deceitful and short sighted has been particularly prone to this disease. A civilized negotiation would only make them think that you were afraid.

Oppress, conquer, and then train.

Seeing the grateful look from the survivors, Jiang Chen wanted to slap himself.

Why didn’t he think through such a simple concept?

Within this half an hour, all the crystals were collected. Jiang Chen generously offered everyone there a piece of compressed cracker. He told them that after eating a piece, drinking some water will make them full. He then stated that all the survivor groups participating in the mission could obtain the privilege to trade for this type of cracker at a price of one crystal on the condition that they maintain a good relationship with Fish Bone.

After finishing the sentence, the survivors were even more ecstatic as they almost took him for a God. Although the Sixth Street sold compressed crackers as well, it was not safe to travel far away from the apocalypse.

The leader of each survivor groups simultaneously expressed that from then on. They will be under the guidance of Fishbone Base.

Sun Jiao felt delighted as she mischievously looked at her man accepting the gratitude and respect from the people.

[It would be perfect if only he were not a player…]

Although she knew that this point was unrealistic.

-

The high spirited team embarked on the road that they previously could only sneak through.

Unafraid of zombies, unafraid of mutants. Under the command of glory and wealth, humans regained their long forgotten dignity.

Although they had encountered Roshans multiple time, Sun Jiao had obviously prepared for that.

She grabbed a 72mm anti-vehicle cannon from the back of the powered vehicle. The two-meter long pitch black barrel had a frightening vibe.

She activated the anchor device as the steel rod penetrated into the concrete road. Sun Jiao fired the cannon. Before the shell hit the ground, the brain was already shattered into pieces of black and white.

She already simulated this move countless times in the virtual reality system as the cannon hit right on target.

In the rural area, the most dangerous mutant would be the Roshan. However, under their oppressive technology, even the Roshan was only a pile of meat. It is rumored that city center has even more powerful and dangerous zombies, but even Sun Jiao has never seen them before since ordinary people would not visit the city center for fun.

The team maintained their speed with the goal of reaching the border of the bacteria source by noon.

But when they were almost there, Jiang Chen had the stop the team.

"The unknown bacteria concentration level already increased to 37. The thick cloud in front is unsettling. The yellowish-green particles look like bacteria stuck together. No one will survive in that condition except for the soldiers in power armor," With a stern look, Sun Jiao reported to Jiang Chen.

"It is a problem. But before I left, I did somewhat guess we would encounter this." Jiang Chen’s mouth curled up.

Since it was a bacteria source, there was no reason that the area surrounding it would not be infiltrated with bacteria yet to spread. Although he didn’t know the bacteria would evenly spread around the source of the bacteria in an egg shape, that didn’t change anything.

It was a wise decision to purchase the high energy vacuum bomb.

"Although I didn’t do my research, nor do I know what can counter the bacteria, I do believe that as long as they are carbon based cells, it would be scared of fire. Air is everywhere? Then I’ll even burn the air.

Chapter 87: Burn!

Burn!

The bacteria source seemed to be at the bottom of a deep hole in the ground. The hole was placed right in front of the area hospital's empty lot. Due to the high concentration of bacteria, the bacteria stuck together to form visible chunks and filled the egg like area with an ominous and dangerous yellowish-green color.

To solve this, Jiang Chen's strategy was simple and ruthless.

He commanded the survivors to surround the area in a 1000 meter diameter, which was precisely the location where the bacteria concentration would not exceed the human immune system's limit. He ordered them to stay put 2000 meters away from the central area. Once they hear the explosion, they then should quickly rush into their battle positions.

He then ordered another group of survivors to install the one-time launch pads on 12 roofs, in different directions, 2000 meters away from the source. Each person would also be armed with a high energy vacuum bomb, as thick as two legs.

The zombies who periodically rushed to the top of the roof fell under the cross fire. Jiang Chen did not act cheap at all, as he offered the general ammo supply in the armored vehicle to all the survivors.

All the crystals collected will be stored on the armored vehicle with a ledger. After the end of the battle, each of the squad leaders would then obtain their fair share. As to the consumed ammunition, Jiang Chen would only charge half of the cost benchmarked to the Sixth Street's price. It was a battle for all of them.

The armored vehicle was parked on the main road. It also fired at the zombies, who were drawn by an unknown force.

As they approached the bacteria source, the zombies were more ferocious. This was demonstrated through their increased speed and reaction. But, they were still no match for bullets. On top of that, all the survivors had surprisingly great aim, which eliminated any need for close range combat.

"Prepare to enter," Sun Jiao took a deep breath as she spoke into the public channel. Then, she looked at Jiang Chen.

"Roger."

A sneer flashed across Jiang Chen's face as he took out the firing terminal for the high energy vacuum bombs from the back of the armored vehicle.

<Launch Angle: 75

Launch distance: 1300m

Initiate.>

"Burn!" Jiang Chen firmly pressed the <Initiate> button.

12 missiles, trailing whites flames, rose in the distance. The curvature of the trajectory aimed directly at the bacteria filled area.

When the bomb reached 1200 meters.

The bright white light had ignited the entire sky before the deafening explosion shook the ground.

The highly concentrated fuel almost instantly draw out all the oxygen in the area and mercilessly burned in the sky. Despite how resilient the bacteria was, there was no way it could survive under the scorching heat that could melt through steel.

When the thick smoke replaced the bacteria cloud, what remained was scorching ground and air.

Even standing 2000 meters away, the mixture of cold and hot air could be sensed from afar.

"Initiate gliding position! Go, quick!" Sun Jiao shouted in the public channel as she was the first to valiantly dash in with her machine engaged.

Flashes of pitch black power armor passed through the thick smoke and accelerated at full speed to the targeted area.

The bacteria had been fully destroyed. Even the unknown bacteria in the vicinity were pushed away by the shockwave.

They must clean out the area before the bacteria regenerated and covered the area again.

2000 meter distance took only a matter of seconds for the fully mobilized T-3.

But at this moment, something unexpected occurred.

An unstable static noise suddenly occupied the communication channel.

"What's going on! Fu*k-"

"EMP?!"

The public channel went offline due to the automatic activation of the EMP absorber. It blocked and separated all communication signals.

Under the unsuspected EMP disturbance, all the electronic devices were temporarily disabled. The most crucial armor balance system was affected as the team in high velocity began to fall to the ground.

"Break! Close the power system!" The communication channel was blocked, so Sun Jiao shouted out of her speaker.

"Fu*k! My power system is offline!" Jiang Chen could only watch as he dashed into the thick smoke and then immediately over the daunting hole, smashing into the area hospital.

Concrete debris and glass shards broke all over the ground.

The high impact forced the physical protection system to activate, which shut down all turbine engines. Jiang Chen, still dizzy from the impact, felt his ribs were almost dislocated as he tried to stand up.

Although power armor was usually equipped with EMP resistance function, the temporary disturbance was inevitable. With the exception that the EMP absorber was opened voluntarily, not triggered open.

[But who the fu*k thought there would be an EMP here?]

Suddenly, Jiang Chen was on alert. Reflexively lifting his left hand to guard himself.

Bang!

There was high impact followed by a deafening screech. The sharp blade even penetrated through the reinforced plastic steel armor.

The scythe like teeth fiercely opened. The eyes resembled death and blood. The most fearful close range creature on the wasteland - Death Claw.

It scared Jiang Chen enough to respond instantly by kicking at the Death Claw's chest. But the firm chest of the Death Claw easily absorbed the 1-ton force from the kick as it countered by furiously swiping it's talon, like a butchering knife, at the neck of its prey.

Without time to hesitate, the nitrogen armor on his left arm was immediately activated. The hammer like vortex airflow pushed away from the critical hit of the Death Claw. The Death Claw's talon smashed onto the ground, two feet from his head, and rocks flew from the impact.

He caught the opportunity as he restarted the turbine engine and pushed it to maximum output. He desperately tried to gain lateral distance from the side.

If the first hit missed, then there would be a second hit!

Death Claw immediately flew at Jiang Chen. But Jiang Chen was not to be underestimated. Before the revolving machine gun could be activated, his right hand pulled out the tactical rifle.

Tatata!

The bullets that could destroy concrete did nothing to the Death Claw.

But the suppressive shooting managed to hold the Death Claw down. Natural instinct forced the Death Claw to protect its vulnerable eyes, ducking into a barrier before circling back around to Jiang Chen's position.

The clip was shot empty, there was no time to reload.

Jiang Chen, finally regaining his balance, immediately dropped the tactical rifle in his hand and pulled out a dagger. Then he backed up against the wall.

It was extremely unwise to go into close combat with a Death Claw. Especially when he was against a wall with nowhere to retreat.

But -

Seeing that Jiang Chen dropped the rifle, the Death Claw grasped on the opportunity and dashed over. Its dagger like claws were ready to rip through the prey's chest.

But all of a sudden, the prey disappeared out of thin air.

Death Claw, unable to react, smashed right into the wall.

<Death Claw's weakness is its spine with minimal armor and its eyes.>

In a blink, Jiang Chen returned to the same spot and stabbed the dagger into its back without hesitation. The blade penetrated deep inside the Death Claw's back and chopped through its spine.

The parts below the Death Claw was paralyzed as it only let out a faint screeched.

With both hands on the dagger, Jiang Chen slashed down and cut open its back.

Slash.

Blood, meat, and organs spilled everywhere. But because it was an animal, it didn't make him sick.

After killing the Death Claw, Jiang Chen sat down and tried to catch his breath. His entire body was drenched in sweat.

To use interdimensional travel twice put an unbelievable amount of stress on his body. The sharp nerve pain almost made him pass out.

The entire fight happened within seconds, but he felt the threat of death twice.

The turbine engine's homing noise became more visible.

Through the thick smoke, Sun Jiao dashed to Jiang Chen and saw the Death Claw's body.

"Are you okay!" Sun Jiao quickly helped Jiang Chen up and opened her mask, her voice trembling.

"Ahem, I am still alive aren't I. I just used that ability, the one you know, so I am a bit dizzy." Jiang Chen weakly smiled. Being hugged through the armor did not feel good at all.

"You scared me to death. Who would have thought there would be an EMP... Wait, why was there an EMP? And how did the Death Claw peacefully interact with the zombies?" Jiang Chen suddenly realized the oddity as questions began to burst out.

Death Claw, with every part of its body designed for killing, had no allies except for its species in the apocalypse. Every other creature was their prey, including zombies. In fact, the slow moving zombies were their primary food source. Normally, the mutant's natural immunity was enough to go against the zombie bacteria, which is unlike humans who still required vaccines to enhance their body's functions.

"Perhaps we can only find out once we go in. A massive wave of zombies is surrounding us. Seems like they are trying to get reinforcements here." Sun Jiao looked perplexedly at the daunting hole outside of the area hospital.

Orange flame sparked from the hole. Following it were periodic explosions.

Jiang Chen used all of his energy to stand up and pick up his tactical rifle from the ground. He then reloaded and attached it to his waist. He opened the life detection device and adjusted it to maximum capability.

The dense red dots were closing in on their defense line.

"You take the other eight power armored soldiers to defend here. I'll go in."

"No! You're crazy! Do you know what's inside?" Sun Jiao shouted.

"I can escape any time in there. But you can't." Jiang Chen looked seriously into Sun Jiao's eyes. "Trust me, if I say I can come back, I will be able to return."

With the ability of the interdimensional bracelet, as long as it was not a one hit kill, he would be able to escape from any danger. But this was obviously not the case for Sun Jiao. Despite her wealth of combat experience and strong combat power, she was still human after all.

Especially this time, the situation was completely unknown. Maybe the Sixth Street force could use its massive power to fill the hole with human lives, but Jiang Chen didn't have the privilege.

Even losing just one single power armor would be an insurmountable loss for the Fishbone base because Jiang Chen won't be able to acquire such a dominant force again. At least not for the time being. Even if Zhao Chenwu wanted to help him, he wouldn't dare to. Since it was already unreasonable for him to have lost 10 power armors, for him to lose a few more, even reta*ds would suspect he broke the rules by selling prohibited weapons.

Especially the production quantity for these were low to begin with.

So he had to go alone.

Before he left, he already considered this possibility.

"..." Sun Jiao's lips trembled as she locked her eyes on Jiang Chen.

"We don't have time to waste. Help me defend the area for the next 2 hours. If I don't come out, then this mission has failed. Although disappointing, you must give up on the survivors. Use the power armor's ability, jump between the buildings, and escape.

Sun Jiao grabbed Jiang Chen's power armor collar and put his face in front of hers as she said ferociously.

"I won't go, and I mean it!"

"Don't be like this. I said that this is not threatening to me." Jiang Chen forced a smile as he looked into Sun Jiao's fierce eyes, locking onto them. Even if the power armor was almost destroyed, he could escape to the other world and then put the power armor into the storage dimension to avoid any suspicion.

"Then would you be able to come out?! Would you be able to return to this world?! You, you..." The gorgeous face became twisted due to her sadness. Her distraught shocked Jiang Chen.

True.

[Even if I escape, the next time he came back it would be in the same spot. The modern world would not have any place to fix the power armor, without the power armor, once the bacteria reoccupy this space...

It would mean death if he came back.

But he was already here, would he just go back now? He was not willing. If the bacteria concentration continued to get worse, the Fishbone Base would be unhabitable. If they left, that means months of effort would go down the drain.

[Fu*k, I'll risk it!]

He had no time to hesitate. He made up his mind, took a deep breath, and looked straight into Sun Jiao's shaking eyes.

"I promise I will be back. Give me two hours."

"But..."

"Be good." Jiang Chen smiled as he patted her helmet to comfort her.

[I will not give this place up.]

He promised in silence. Then, he let go of the still stunned Sun Jiao.

"Defend the entrance for me. Once the two-hour limit is up, evade into the building to hide. Right now, it is still day time. Once the bacteria source is destroyed, the zombies should stop. Trust me! I can do it!"

He turned around.

Slowly inhaling, Jiang Chen looked at the dark pit and jumped down.

Chapter 88: PAC Remains

<True height: 240m>

"Initiating shock absorber."

The turbine engine began to fire downwards as Jiang Chen stared at the speed monitor. Only when the downward velocity decreased and stabilized to 10m/s did he stop increasing the power output.

The pitch black hole extended vertically down into the ground. The blue engine flame, lighting up the surrounding, revealed a metallic wall. It seemed like this was the entrance to a secret facility, but the door showed "something" had already stricken through.

He took a deep breath as he began to check the power armors equipment.

"EMP Absorber initiated. Weapon system, functional. Left armor, minor damage...this shouldn't be a problem. Communication...still offline."

As both feet landed on the ground, Jiang Chen closed the engine and then immediately fired out a sticky luminescent bomb that completely lit up the dark space.

"Oxygen concentration relatively low. The radiation level is nearly zero. The bacterias need to be in a low oxygen environment to reproduce? No wonder the bacteria outside didn't seem to reproduce."

Jiang Chen suddenly remembered something from a long time ago. Knowledge he almost gave back to the bald teacher.

"When the cell is dividing, the DNA is in its most unstable condition, so it requires a radiation free environment?"

"Yes, speaking of this, the zombie bacteria seems to be a mutated version of the radiation eliminating bacteria." Jiang Chen recollected the information he gathered from the very first building he landed in, in the apocalypse.

"That's exactly it. The radiation eliminating bacteria was effective before and possessed the ability to resist exposure to radiation. However, because of uncontrolled mutation during the cell division stage, it turned into bacteria that could turn people or creatures into zombies." Even though it was a slim possibility, it did happen, and it spread. "But the unknown bacteria seems to be from the same source as the zombie bacteria? The only difference being that the reproducing condition is now more strict."

Of course, it was only a theory, there was no scientific backing.

"The wall in this place is made of lead?" Jiang Chen walked forward as he held his tactical rifle up, exploring deep inside the tunnel.

Lead? Also built below the hospital. This place must be a nuclear fallout shelter. What kind of monster could create a massive hole like this inside a nuclear fallout shelter that's capable of guarding against a nuclear bomb?

Jiang Chen began to feel anxious as his trigger finger moved steadily.

Because of the fear of a sudden EMP strike, Jiang Chen didn't engage in a gliding position as the fall was still in his memory.

The tunnel was pitch black without a single ray of light. He didn't know if there were anyone alive inside. Just like what Sun Jiao said to him before, not every survival base was successful, and not every survival base stored people alive. In this era, people's purpose was to save a genetic code. As long as the species is not extinct...the genetic code is saved for the people who designed the survival base.

Because he restarted the EMP absorber, the life detection device could not be used. There was nothing more fearful than the unknown.

Every step on the dry concrete floor had a crisp sound to it. The monotone sound echoed within the hollow tunnel, which made the place even more frightening. Due to the time constraint, however, Jiang Chen didn't dare to ponder, he had to keep going.

His vision locked onto the crosshairs of the tactical rifle, ready to react to any unexpected danger.

After 5 minutes, he was at the end of the tunnel.

The road ended with a gray gate made out of an unknown material. Jiang Chen spent a while using the flashlight to search for an open button but failed to do so.

In the middle of the giant door, red words were printed.

<PAC>

<Passing on the generational glory.>

What is this?

"Fu*k, that monster could not only break through surfaces, but it could also pass through walls?" Jiang Chen cursed as he took out his welding gun from his back and stabbed the door furiously.

"Your action is futile."

A faint voice diffused through the communication channel which sent a chilliness down Jiang Chen's spine.

"Who is this?"

"He raised his tactical rifle as he scanned around, but he didn't see any suspicious targets.

At the same time, he noticed that other than the nine offline team member on the communication system, there was an extra name.

"Me? My name is, of course, secret teller. Isn't it written on your communication channel?" The voice sounded rather helpless.

"I remember I have the EMP absorber open."

"Did you not take elementary school physics? I remember that all humans should have taken that," the voice ridiculed, and then let out a sigh before continuing, "EMP absorber is not an absolute defense, as long..."

[What? Which elementary school teaches physics?]

"Wait, I don't have time to listen to you explain elementary school physics to me. Can you open the door for me?" Jiang Chen abruptly interrupted.

"Door? Oh, you are chasing after that bug, you can't beat him." The voice was straightforward.

"Bug? What does it look like?" Jiang Chen hastily asked.

"It looks like a giant ball of meat. It wanted to go into the hibernation chamber. To be honest, it is quite smart and even threatened me, so I had to open the door to let it in."

"Let it in? Ha, is it not going to threaten you when you let it in?" Jiang Chen asked dumbfounded.

"Oh? Why would it hurt me? It is only interested in you." The voice was full of mockery.

[Wait, did I miss something...]

"I remember that all humans should have taken that."

Jiang Chen paused, and then he asked in uncertainty.

"You... are not human?"

"That's right, did you just figure that out? Hehe, I am only a program. You would call me... Artifical intelligence? Secret protector? Code X71281?" The voice sounded reminiscent as if that memory was far in the past.

"Secret protector? Isn't your name secret teller?" Jiang Chen asked in confusion.

"Oh, I gave myself a better name," as if it was not a big deal, the voice casually answered.

[Giving itself a name?! This is not the level that just responds to human actions! Just like Little White will never change a user's setting. It seems like this is intermediate artificial intelligence? No, it might be advanced?]

"Are you going to go in or not?" The voice sounded like it was yawning.

"You are going to let me in?" Jiang Chen was at a loss.

"Of course, I am the secret teller right now, I feel like it would be more interesting if I let you in."

[Intersting? Fu*k, no, I can't fu*k it.]

"Could you tell me the characteristics of the bug's attack?" Jiang Chen let in a deep breath as he calmly asked.

"Umm, that bug threatened me, and I also dislike it. And you chatted with me for a pretty long... I should choose you to be my friend? That means I should help you?"

"Yes, yes, yes! I am a good person, you should open the door." He had enough of the chitchat as his team was still fighting the sea of zombies on the surface.

"Hehe, seems like you are in a rush, then I am not going to tease you anymore."

[You son of a, you were teasing me?] Jiang Chen was swearing in his mind but didn't make a sound. The communication channel was forced open right now, he was afraid he would anger the psychotic artificial intelligence.

The gate slowly raised as Jiang Chen forced a smile at the multiple gates.

1,2,...7.

Even if the welding gun could cut through this, he didn't have time to cut through 7 doors.

"I am going to remind you now that you will never beat that thing. Or should I say, any of the metal things have no chance of winning," the voice reminded him again.

"The EMP that the EMP absorber can't even block?" Jiang Chen asked, unable to understand.

"Hehehe, EMP? Have you heard of Klein particles?" The voice was filled with mockery.

"No." He didn't need to be angry at a program. Thus, Jiang Chen answered right away.

"Hehe, put blocking aside. Even if it missed, this metal thing would become a metal coffin. If you walk 10 more meters, it will detect your presence."

"In that case, can I ask you a question? Jiang Chen stopped as he just passed through the door.

"Oh? Go ahead, I am the secret teller." The voice emphasized its presence again.

"Map, could you send it to me?"

"No problem, the bug is right here."

"Also another question, you are male or female?"

"..." The voice went silent and then erupted into a sharp laughter.

"Me? I am a program. In human words, it should be, I can be male, or I can be female. Hahaha, this is too funny, are you from the ancient times?"

Jiang Chen didn't respond to his laughter. He moved his mouth and looked the map once again before he disarmed the power armor.

"Are you crazy? If you leave the armor, a single spit from it will kill you." The voice was at a loss.

Jiang Chen ignored the machine with too many words as he separated himself from the power armor. Then, he quickly took out the protective suit from the storage behind the power armor and put it on. The oxygen level was low inside, but the fortunate thing was that there was an oxygen tank attached to the protective suit.

After leaving the power armor, the annoying voice naturally disappeared.

Since the power armor was useless anyways, it would be better to leave it here. As to spit? It'll be easier to dodge than the particle ray...

Though just in case, he also threw any electronic device, like an EP, into the storage dimension.

Jiang Chen inputted the password as he took a cylinder the size of a coke can from the waist of the power armor. It was the backup fuel rod. These high energy fuel rods were refined from 1000 crystals. The explosive power and energy supply were tremendous.

"Let daddy blow you into pieces!"

Fire flashed out of Jiang Chen's eyes.

[What if I don't have power armor? I don't believe the fuel rod that could blow up half a street can't kill you!"

He attached the fuel rod to his waist and wielded his PK2000 before quickly moving towards the target's location.

He crossed the wide open gate. The hall looked rather listless as sticky watermarks seemed to be the trail left by the bug. He didn't stop as he followed the map in his memory and flashed to the hallway on the side.

The gray wall had cold lamp lights installed. He carefully carried the rifle and locked his eyes on the door at the end of the hallway.

Ignite the energy rod, and then immediately hide in the modern world. The password activation system needs 3 seconds, he only needs to last 3 minutes.

But the feeling of the metal in hand didn't give him any more assurance. He didn't even know what he would be facing.

"Zizizi, you are crazy! Ahem, you are an interesting human. Shouldn't you be afraid right now? Yes, you must be afraid. Can you tell me how the afraid you are not running away?" The abrupt voice suddenly echoed throughout the hallway as the speaker installed on the ceiling transmitted a deafening static noise, temporarily breaking up the annoying voice.

"Shut up, you are talking too much." Jiang Chen carried the rifle as he ran forward.

"Talking too much? That's interesting... No, no, tell me, what logic is forcing you to suicide? I think I already told you, you can't beat that thing." The voice spoke rapidly as it sounded quite peculiar in the empty hallway.

"I am telling you to shut up!"

"Oh, okay. But I will still help you. Although, by logic, I should be angry. But perhaps you have the answer to my unsolved problem on you? How should I choose... okay, angry but help you?"

"Fu*k, that's enough!" Jiang Chen cursed as he was about to have a mental breakdown.

[This thing is a lunatic, an artificial reta*d?]

"Of course, not enough," the voice faintly said. "At least before I understand what emotion is."

"Hehe. Do you know why you won't possess emotion?" Jiang Chen while running squeezed out a few words, he couldn't stand the chit chat from this thing any longer.

"Why!?" The voice was full of surprise.

"Because you are a dumba*s. Do you know what climaxing is? If I put a hot girl in front of you, would you have sexual desires? You can't even produce hormones, and you are talking about emotions to me?" The bug must have already noticed Jiang Chen as he didn't even bother hiding anymore. He screamed at the top of his lungs.

He just wanted this thing to shut up when he would be firing.

Jiang Chen kicked the door, but it didn't open. But soon the door began to rise.

[Oh, it's a rising door.]

He gave a dirty stare at the speaker on the wall, but he was too lazy to thank a program. He carried his rifle and dashed in, leaving the secret teller murmuring to itself.

"Climax? Hormones? Wait. Because I have to get rid of these annoying hormones and use pure logic to meet the conditions of "emotions", that's why I needed to evolve into advanced artificial intelligence. But if it was like what he said, if I don't have hormones, I won't feel happiness. Then wouldn't it be a paradox to "acquire emotions" without the physical body?"

The hollow electronic voice sounded even more strange inside the empty hallway.

Chapter 89: Ignorance

The cicadas’ sound orchestrated a symphony known as summer.

The shadow of the thick woods and the rustling of the leaves along with the breeze that occasionally swept the steel and concrete forest revealed a mysterious scent and coolness.

It belonged to a person.

The white dress billowed like a lily at dawn, resembling the bloom of first love. The quiet, serene face perpetually drawn to the paperback novel—sometimes delighted, at other times sorrowful.

[So jealous...

If only I were that book.]

"Yo, Jiang Chen, you’re drooling." Zhao Peng approached Jiang Chen as he bumped into him with a smirk.

"Go away." Jiang Chen glanced at him at and slightly shifted his body sideways, lying on the table to sleep.

As though he was inadvertently facing that direction.

"Ahem, if you like Yao Tingting then you should go ask her out. Wu—" Jiang Chen immediately jumped up and covered the mouth of his good friend.

"Do you want to die!" Jiang Chen twisted Zhao Peng's neck as he growled at Zhao Peng in a hushed voice, his face red.

With a smirking face, Zhao Peng pretended to die while rolling his eyes.

The girls in front turned around and witness their boisterous play and started giggling. While the other boys near Jiang Chen and Zhao Peng surrounded them in a rowdy manner.

As though drawn by the commotion, the goddess stared in their direction.

And gave a look of mild confusion.

Jiang Chen felt his heart almost stopped.

His ear began to heat up.

Oh no, his skin was scorching.

Yao Tingting probably thought that her classmates were too rowdy, so she closed her book and left the classroom quietly.

"Ahhh! Fu*k, you used your teeth!" Jiang Chen painfully jerked away from Zhao Peng.

"You fu*king almost choked me to death!" Zhao Peng was breathing heavily while clutching his chest and gave Jiang Chen his nastiest look.

When the boys saw that the commotion had died down, they all left chuckling. The two girls in front started talking about the TV show last night, and the classroom regained its former peace.

Except for the window blinds which fluttered in the breeze.

The ordinary day felt fulfilling.

It felt like everything gave off a sense of nostalgia.

-

11 June 2171, summer.

High school’s first summer break was almost here, and it wouldn’t be long before the exams started.

Today I watched her secretly again.

I thought I already made up my mind to suppress my feeling for her in the bottom of my heart.

No, that's not right, or maybe just like what Zhao Peng had said, I should probably ask her out.

No, no, no, that's impossible...she is so beautiful, so smart, there must be plenty of people who like her. If I asked her out and she rejected me, we couldn't even be friends anymore.

Eh? Maybe we are not even friends?

"Ahhh..." Jiang Chen slammed the journal on the bed behind him as he laid his head down on the table and covered his head.

[If I leave this diary behind, my embarrassment will go down in history in the future. It will kill me. No, fu*k! I’m a man so why am I so conflicted? If I like her, I can r*pe her. What does asking her out even do? If I can't get her, I'll force her. If that doesn't work, I’ll just drug her. If we break up, then send her nud*s. If I can't even bear the consequence of going to jail, how do I even have the audacity to say I like her! There's no use of being conflicted.

Hm? Something weird might have gotten into him.]

...still feeling conflicted.

He stared at the cloud on his table mindlessly as his thoughts wandered off.

It was after a good while before he recollected his thoughts from the unnatural state.

"Is this how a adolescent trouble feels like?" After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen let out a sigh while he savagely combed his messy hair.

[Eh? I thought I have a short hair?] Jiang Chen was baffled, his hand momentarily stopping.

[This is an illusion right? Who would get an ugly haircut like this?]

"When did I start writing this diary again? What's the point of this thing, saving it so I would be embarrassed in the future?" Jiang Chen scanned the electronic clock beside him, sighing.

[It's 8 already. Fine, I'll stop thinking about her and will loosen up with a show.]

He thought about it as he stood up. He stretched his sore limbs and walked to the living room.

Because he went to school away from his hometown, his parents were not with him. When did this happen again?

The beginning of senior high, right.

The vivid memory suddenly resurfaced in his head as it filled the slightly odd memory gaps.

He headed to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator’s door and took a bottle of Coke before walking into the living room. He slumped down on the cushy sofa, grabbed a glass, and poured one for himself. He then pressed the TV remote in a leisurely manner.

The flashing lights and shadows reflected on the light blue screen. Just like a window, behind it were scenes after scenes of drama.

The TV show started airing...

-

"Gege, I won't let you go easily until I’m done teasing you." The girl switched the way her legs were crossed; the white color made Klein's heart throbbed uncontrollably. One graceful hand lazily propped up her stunning face as she laid back serenely against the throne. The position exactly resembled a wicked but beautiful and mysterious noble.

"Do you want to know what's happening to your right now?"

Klein felt a mischievous smile formed on the fuzzy but gorgeous face. His throat moved while he tried to make his vision clearer, but it was futile. There was a terrible feeling as if he was like a piece of meat on a chopping board.

"Then look underneath you."

Klein consciously shifted his gaze downwards. He saw that both of his feet were submerged in shallow water with floating petals. "The fragrance is coming from below my feet?" he wondered dazedly.

Through the reflection from the pool, he vaguely saw his current form. He seemed to be tied to a cross, his lips tied with thin chains. Surprisingly however, was that his limbs did not feel sore at all.

"Don't you think this is beautiful..."

-

"Dust Kingdom" appeared to be a popular TV show. The girls sitting in front of him were talking about this drama.

Jiang Chen thoughts wandered as he stared blankly at the screen.

A punk-style drama based on a novel that told the story of the ancient times. Surprisingly, these types of show were remarkably popular. Under the augmented reality effect, it felt as though he was at the scene itself.

In retrospect, the scenes were rather intense. Was it really okay to be broadcasted on public TV? For some reason, Jiang Chen did not appear to be interested at all. He merely zoned out mindlessly, and he even had the urge to yawn.

This Klein guy should be bitten by the vampire next. He probably wouldn't die, because…wait, why does the plot look so familiar?

[Shameless plagiarist...] Jiang Chen cursed in his mind as he gulped down a sip of Coke, his eyebrows began to frown.

"Do I like to drink Coke?" He subconsciously grabbed a bottle from the fridge just like before.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized the question was dumb.

The plot continued on the screen.

Of course, Klein didn't die; the vampire only sucked some blood from his body. Klein was taken away by the vampire's maid, and the drama then began to show the post-credits.

That’s right, if the main character died, how would the story continue?

Jiang Chen turned the TV off and glanced at the clock.

[It’s this late already. Time to hit the sack], he thought as he walked to the bedroom.

With the journal on his bed, he hesitated for a moment before sighing.

"I should just rip this out. If other people see this embarrassing journal, I would be better off dead." Jiang Chen smiled wryly and picked up the diary.

He ripped the pages off, crumpled them into a ball and tossed them into bin. From the binding of the diary, there were a lot of torn pages; it was not the first time he erased the embarrassing history.

He threw the diary on the table as he flung himself onto the bed. Jiang Chen shoved his muddled head on the pillow. He fluffed the pillow for a bit before he let out a long breath.

[That’s it for today.

Tomorrow...tomorrow, I'll try asking her out.

Even if I get rejected, at least I won't regret it.]

Just like this, the teen in puberty, anxious and full of hope drifted into sleep.

The cold letters silently jumped on the digital clock on the table.

11:59

12:00

The green light on the side of the clock flashed almost unobtrusively.

As though premeditated, the wind flipped the journal open on the table.

_Min_ _Min_

The plot thickens.

Edit: Guys, I've read your comments. While I do agree that the writing technique may not be the most suitable, I do believe it serves a purpose down the road. Please bear with plot and continue the adventure with me.

Chapter 90: Conflicted

A soft sound rang.

Roused by the alarm clock, Jiang Chen rubbed his sleepy eyes as he climbed out of bed. He slept on his stomach and didn't change clothes last night making his body felt a bit uncomfortable.

After a brief wash, he habitually touched his chin without beard and left the bathroom.

He changed into clean clothes, wore his sneakers and laced it up.

When he was about to leave, he remembered there was something he forgot to bring, so he went back to his bedroom to retrieve it.

Inside the drawer were two movie tickets and the premiere was scheduled to air tomorrow. Tomorrow would also be a holiday in celebration of the founding of PAC, thus making it a legal holiday.

It’s also a good opportunity to go on a date.

Jiang Chen drew a breath as he grabbed the movie tickets hastily. He already procrastinated enough by asking the goddess to go and see a movie to the very last day, and if this continued, he's afraid he wouldn't be able to summon enough courage in his entire life.

It was Zhao Peng, his good friend, who gave him the tickets and said, "If you don't ask her out now, where are you going to cry if someone else dates her?" Then he encouraged Jiang Chen to work out the courage to chase after Yao Tingting.

Zhao Peng, despite being reckless most of the time, was a great friend during these times.

Thinking of this, a smile broke on Jiang Chen's face. His relationship between him and his friend had always been good.

[So, when was the first time I met this guy?]

He wavered for a moment but quickly threw the boring question out of his mind.

[Whatever, it's okay if I don't remember, it’s not a big deal anyway.]

Jiang Chen closed the door behind him before heading out.

The sky was particularly clear in Wanghai City. Although the barrier dome in the sky slightly obstructed the view, it was nevertheless a Holy Barrier System —the barrier that protected the city from HPMW or other aerial weapons.

The international situation was beginning to get more strained as the conflict between NATO and PAC intensified. Even in the city that never experienced the ravage of war, it was embroiled in the shadow of conflict.

But what of it? Life must still go on―just like Jiang Chen had to go to school, his neighbor had to go to work. Just like the conflict many years ago, people believed that both parties would eventually settle down. The scarcity of resources geopolitical conflicts with ZZ...but there would always be ways to solve the conflict. .

Jiang Chen greeted the neighbor as he walked downstairs, yawning.

There was a cleaning android at the front door. Jiang Chen would see it every time he came down.

Oddly, when Jiang Chen put one foot on the ground, the robot suddenly looked at him.

Jiang Chen looked at the robot bemusedly. Logically, these robots without artificial intelligence would not generate any interest to anything but garbage.

[Do you take me for a garbage? This thing…]

Although he ridiculed the idea in his mind, he was not bored enough to be angry at a cold machine. His mouth twitched while he was about to bypass it from the side.

Suddenly, a creepy vision crept into his mind.

Jiang Chen slightly turned around to look at the robot, but the robot's vision continued to follow him.

Staring straight into his eyes.

The bulb-shaped eyes, the emotionless expression and the cold and stiff vision.

The robot looked away abruptly and stopped moving as if it malfunctioned.

"This is so weird."

Jiang Chen touched his forehead in disdain and hurriedly left in quick strides.

Was he scared by a cleaning robot? If Zhao Peng knew, he would laugh himself to death.

But what was that illusion?

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows in bafflement. He didn't understand why he would feel anxious the moment he locked eyes with the robot.

-

The class was about to start when he arrived at school. Jiang Chen hastily rushed to his seat and sat down.

High school life was always busy. Even if it was only in grade 10, he had to take six courses. Chinese, Mathematics, English, Chemistry, Biology... [Eh? Something’s seems wrong. It should only be five courses.]

Jiang Chen took out the terminal used in class from his bag. It was a holographic computer in the shape of a pen.

Every course was done via terminal, which included homework as well as the lessons discussed in class. Although he heard there was a virtual reality training chamber that could allow you to learn just by sleeping inside, it was prohibited for students below high school to use.

The reason seemed to prevent people from forming bad habits of being lazy. Or probably to avoid the decrease of social interactions among people?

This didn't make sense. There was obviously a more convenient way to use it, but they just had to put a restriction on it. Despite how much he despised the education system, he still had to attend the class. Since his body was here, he had to follow the rules here...

"Hanhan, did you watch the episode yesterday?" The girl in ponytail called Chen Yusheng was the Chinese class representative. Her seatmate's name was Qian Han. Both of them were extremely energetic and a gossipmonger.

"Hm, I did. Did Klein die in the end or did he become a vampire?" The girl called Qian Han responded spiritedly.

[Psh, there is no show where the protagonist dies. You're just way into dramas!]

"He probably won't die. In the end, Klein will," Jiang Chen scorned as he cockily explained how he thought the plot would unfold. Although it was only a guess, he had a feeling that the plot would develop in that direction.

As to why he had that thought, maybe it was the déjà vu from having watched too many similar dramas.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen froze again.

The same feeling from that morning returned.

Everyone in the class stopped as they stared vacantly in Jiang Chen's direction.

That's right, they are staring at him blankly.

Chen Yusheng, Qian Han, class representative, Liu Rewen, even his buddy, Zhao Peng...

[Eh? D-did I speak too loud?]

Being watched by the entire class, Jiang Chen staggered back as he forced out a laugh.

Everyone's look was odd, but he couldn't explain where the strange feeling came from.

Hollowness? No, it’s as if he was being watched, dissected, and monitored.

But why did he have this feeling?

Fear quickly began to spread from Jiang Chen’s heart to his head like sedatives. He gulped, throat slightly moving, he suddenly had the urge to run out of the classroom. But the action didn't make sense. Why would he run out of the classroom just because his classmates were looking at him?

[Wait...what about Yao Tingting?]

Jiang Chen suddenly realized that the desk beside the window was empty.

At the same time, the class bell rang.

"Students, we'll start the class now. Liu Lei, hand out the homework for me." The Math teacher walked in before he clicked on the terminal to start the class.

"Okay—" the math class representative, Liu Lei, dragged out the syllable tiredly like what he usually did. He then downloaded the marked homework from the terminal and assigned it to each student by ID automatically. The extraneous step seemed to exist to emphasize the importance of structure.

Jiang Chen recollected his thought from his stupor as he quickly scanned around him.

[When did everyone start returning to normal?]

"Did you get a stiff neck?" Zhao Peng poked his back with a smirk.

Jiang Chen looked at Zhao Peng with a peculiar expression.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Zhao Peng looked puzzled, then he touched his face and said with a frown, "There is no dirt on my face, right?"

Jiang Chen turned around without saying a word and left the still bewildered friend behind him. He quietly laid his head down on the table.

[Was it just my imagination?]

Jiang Chen looked at the seat beside the window.

The pure and adorable girl like a blooming Lily was quietly listening to the Math teacher's lecture, her finger constantly moving on the tablet terminal to take notes.

The wind picked up again.

The blinds fluttering by the wind obscured Jiang Chen's vision slightly.

[When did she show up?]

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 91: The Uncanny Valley

..."Uncanny Valley" was a theory introduced by Ernst-Jentsch from 1906 in his work 'Zur Psychologie des Umheimlichen'. His perspective was cited by Sigmund Freud’s essay "The Uncanny", which became a famous theory. Irritated, Jiang Chen quickly flipped through the theory, as he tried to find a keyword among the lines of words.

"Because of our fear of death and diseases, empathy mechanism disorder, inability to sympathize with the...robots." Jiang Chen murmured under his breath as his hands holding the book lightly trembled.

[What is this feeling?]

He suppressed the irritation in his mind as Jiang Chen searched for the answers among the old robot magazines.

Wanghai Sixth Senior High School had a massive library as countless numbers of books were arranged in the grand hall on the first floor even though not a lot of student visited the floor where they stored the books. All books could be downloaded from the school’s Internet, and all the information could be found in the school terminal. Rather than a physical copy of information, the books were more of a "display".

The only city where libraries would store academic journals in print; those that were considered to be information rather than a mere display.

The world was advancing and as a result, print reading had already begun to become extinct from people’s life. Occasionally, there would be people who were fond of printed books like Yao Tingting, but they were rarer than endangered animals.

Just like the goddess in Jiang Chen’s heart―Yao Tingting.

To commemorate the past era however, libraries still tend to store some of the older journals and magazines.

At the same time, Jiang Chen always felt that print would bring him more insight. Despite asking the artificial intelligence, the school wizard, the talkative entity would be unable to provide enlightenment that could give him a sudden gush of comprehension. Instead, it would just consistently led him to mental problems like stress and fatigue.

[Or perhaps deception?]

Regardless how much he searched, he couldn’t find the answer he wanted. It felt like the truth was concealed as the smart search wizard surprisingly malfunctioned after listening to his description. All search results led problems to a more complicated direction.

So when class ended, he came to the library full of books. There was no one here to mislead him, and instinct told him that the answers he’s searching for could be found from one of these shelves.

He wanted to know where the strange feeling was coming from.

He took the book Robot Novel 21st Volume―'the Dissension between Human and Robot' from the shelves with rosewood scent. Based on the publication date of 2021, it was an old history book.

Of course, the printing was new.

"The higher the human-shaped android or robot resembled a human, the better the impression human would have. The positive impression would considerably increase until it reaches a critical point, in which the more it resembled a human, the more frightening it would become until it reached the bottom of the valley. Perhaps a negligible move would appear stiff and scary… So this is how it is. In the case of the cleaning robot that I met this morning, through eye contact, it triggered the 'Uncanny Valley' effect?" Jiang Chen frowned as he continued to think.

The feeling of being oppressed became stronger, and it felt like cotton was stuck in his throat.

It’s as though he had forgotten about something.

But what did he forget exactly?

Suddenly, Jiang Chen subconsciously looked at the stairs leading to the second floor.

At the same time...

"Jiang Chen?"

The gentle and soft voice lightly caressed his ears. When he turned around in surprise, he saw Yao Tingting standing on the other side of the shelves.

[Right, I still need to invite her to the movies. Dammit, why am I feeling bothered with these boring thoughts and almost forgot the important thing!]

Jiang Chen cursed in his mind. With a crimson face, he stared at the princess-like girl but couldn’t utter a single word.

Yao Tingting stood there serenely as if she was waiting for something.

Jiang Chen was unable to say a word, his mouth was left half-open. But the words: "Do you have time tomorrow?" was stuck in his throat.

Her beautiful face suddenly blossomed in a smile; the phoenix-like eyes that could cause anyone’s heart to miss a beat.

"Do you want to come over to my place?"

Jiang Chen was stunned.

[She’s inviting me? To her place? But why—]

Yao Tingting didn’t give him time to think as she had already turned around. Jiang Chen pondered for a moment before he bit his lips and worked out the courage to follow her.

The magazine, however, was left on the table.

Seeing the two left, the librarian, who was manning the front desk without any expression, quietly walked to where Jiang Chen had been sitting.

She stared at the old magazine for a while, then she picked it up quietly.

However, she didn’t put it back on the shelf.

Instead, she ripped it in half and threw it in the garbage.

-

"Wait, you―why are you inviting me to your place?" Jiang Chen rushed out of the library and walked behind Yao Tingting. He vacillated before asking the question.

Yao Tingting stopped abruptly, white dress fluttering gently in the breeze.

Under the radiance of the dusk, the lily bloomed, the picture was so serene.

Jiang Chen was drawn to that scene.

The goddess, who was always in his mind, was nibbling her lower lips. She had a shy smile as she tried to look away, and her mouth was ajar.

"Because I want to get to know you."

[Know me?]

[Was that a confession?] Jiang Chen immediately turned red. His lips opened and closed stiffly but failed to utter a word.

His heart pounded as if it was about to jump out of his chest.

[She likes me too!]

His brain was currently filled with confounding happiness, and he lost any ability to think. He only has his sight on the goddess who always occupied his dreams.

Yao Tingting smiled as she walked to the direction of the gate.

Jiang Chen gulped as he rigidly followed her.

At that moment, however, his eyes inadvertently caught a strange sight.

The peculiar sense of urgency crept into his mind.

Hollow eyes were watching him.

[There is a cleaning robot here too? That made sense since those things should be everywhere], Jiang Chen mulled it over then threw the unnatural feelings away into the back of his mind.

The robot seemed to have lost interest in him as it was already staring in another direction.

-

The door opened, Yao Tingting led Jiang Chen to her rented apartment.

It was a simple one living room, one bedroom structure as it was easy to rent this type of apartment around the school. It was also not expensive. It looked like Yao Tingting was just like him—both of them were from Wanghai City.

The middle of the room smelled of faint Jasmine. The clean and organized light, flaxen colored wallpaper covered every walls in the living room. There were a simple coffee table, tablecloth and a light beige sofa.

"Feel free to sit. Do you want a glass of water?" Yao Tingting turned around as she beamed at Jiang Chen.

"Ah? Um…OK." Jiang Chen nodded nervously and sat on the sofa.

Looking at the figure of Yao Tingting standing beside the cupboard, he couldn't help but chuckle as he smelled the scent belonging to the goddess.

Although he still felt something was unusual, he was feeling so happy that it had ceased to matter. As though being forcibly stuffed full, the sense of being loss to reality disappeared unconsciously.

It was not long before Yao Tingting returned to the living room with two glasses of water. She smiled at Jiang Chen and placed a glass of water in front of him.

"Here you go."

"Oh, thank you." As though trying to hide his embarrassment, Jiang Chen quickly took a sip of the cold water.

Yao Tingting sat beside him and looked at the side of his profile while smiling.

"Um, is there something on my face?"

"No!" Yao Tingting shook her head, still wearing a bright smile. Her luscious hair that was smooth as fine willow branches swayed gently .

"Um..." Jiang Chen was out of words again. He averted his gaze at the glass as he stared blankly at his reflection of the water.

"I want to get to know you. Can you talk to me?"

As though center of his heart was being hammered, Jiang Chen’s heart trembled at that very moment.

"Eh? Why, why do you want to learn about me?" Jiang Chen’s throat moved as he scrambled to find words.

The answer came out frank.

"Because I like you." Yao Tingting gazed into Jiang Chen’s eyes with the same bright smile.

An uncomfortable feeling bloomed, a feeling that something was not right.

The confusion, however, was suddenly replaced by extreme euphoria. Dopamine could really make people lose their mind.

"I—I like you too." Jiang Chen finally had the courage to express his months’ worth of affection to her.

"I know." Yao Tingting grinned at his bold effort. "I’ve been watching you for a long time."

"I know. I’ve been watching you for a long time." Like a spell, these two confessions happily circled around his mind.

"Would you tell me your story?" Like a curious girlfriend, Yao Tingting gazed at Jiang Chen’s eyes as her long eyelashes flickered.

"I, I really don’t have a lot of stories to tell." Jiang Chen, somewhat embarrassed, looked away. However, Yao Tingting relentlessly moved closer.

"You can tell me anything."

"Um, OK." Jiang Chen opened his mouth reluctantly.

Contrary to his expectation, he thought Yao Tingting wasn't the type to enjoy conversation as she usually immersed herself in her books, but she's now giving off the impression that she was verbose.

They chatted about the past of their younger selves—glimpses of memory that seemed to be covered in a white fog. Although they didn’t usually have too many interactions, and it has always been Jiang Chen who secretly watched her, the two of them enjoyed their time immensely. Yao Tingting made him feel as though they had been acquainted for a long time.

The night was getting late and outside was completely dark.

"Why don't I treat you to dinner?" Yao Tingting smiled.

Jiang Chen nodded unexpectedly .

The dinner passed by in a relaxed atmosphere. Fried Eggs with Tomatoes, Pork Stir Fry with Green Peppers, Seaweed and Egg Soup. These were all homemade dishes. Yao Tingting was the type who was great at housekeeping, which came as a surprise to him. The very idea made his heart throb a little faster.

At his age, falling in love meant eternity.

The food was exquisite. He secretly observed Yao Tingting sitting across the table. Her tiny mouth chewed delicately.

[She seemed to love tomatoes? Does she like to eat sour food…and green pepper? Um…but why is she only eating these two things?]

Jiang Chen observed carefully, and he secretly memorized the flavors she liked.

[She said that she likes me so...she's now my girlfriend? But it was not official yet. Is she waiting for me to bring it up?]

When he thought about this, he gulped and looked away awkwardly.

The holographic screen was playing the popular intro of "Dust Kingdom".

The clock struck eight.

"Does it taste good?" Yao Tingting smiled at Jiang Chen.

"Oh, Oh! Yes!" Jiang Chen laughed nervously as he focused on his rice to hide his embarrassed expression.

"I heard there are ghosts in the school library. Have you seen them?"

"Gh—ghost? That’s not true, that’s not real science." Jiang Chen had peculiar expression.

"Are you pleased?" However, the unbecoming subsequent sentence diverged from the topic of conversation.

"Pleased?" Jiang Chen seemed lost, but then suddenly as if he had just realized something, he looked away and shyly scratched his slightly red ear. He stiffly nodded, "Of—of course."

For a teenager in puberty, there was nothing more joyful than being invited to the house of the girl of his dreams.

"Don’t eat so fast. Here, drink some water." Yao Tingting smilingly handed over the glass. It was the same glass that Jiang Chen had used.

"Mhm…" With a blushing face, he took the glass as he tried to mask the awkward silence by drinking the water.

[Didn't you say there's soup? Why is it water…]

The screen showed Dust Kingdom’s plot. Klein fell down in the pool of blood and stopped breathing. It was rather an unexpected ending? It felt rushed as if there was a lot of buildup, but nothing was explained before the show had ended.

After the outro, there was "The End" written in blood.

A smile formed on Yao Tingting’s angelic and serene face while watching Jiang Chen who was drowsily lying on the dinner table.

The smile was odd, hollow.

[So tired, I just want to sleep…]

Through his droopy eyes and hazy vision, he faintly caught a glimpse of white dress dropping on the ground.

The white figure took quiet steps towards him.

The back of his head was surrounded by something soft. His consciousness plummeted in a bottomless abyss.

Chapter 92: Who is the Ghost

As usual, Jiang Chen lied on the table, watching similar scenes repeated itself. No, if there’s something that changed, it’s probably because of her. He looked at the girl sitting under the window who was beaming in his direction at that moment. Speaking of which, after they confirmed their feelings for each other last night, they were now together.

Of course, he was still not used to the feeling of extreme happiness. He shyly hid his face in his sleeves as he suddenly realized that they seemed to have done something unbelievable yesterday.

They did it?

They did it!

"Yo, do you have something good you want to share with me?" Zhao Peng said as he poked Jiang Chen's back with a leer.

"Go away." Jiang Chen responded distractedly as he glanced at the rouge before lying on the table again. If he allowed this guy to find out, he’s afraid that the entire class would also find out. He vowed to defend this secret to his death to protect the goddess’ name.

"Oh, yeah, why do we have class today?" Jiang Chen was confused. Alliance Day should be a legal holiday.

"Don't you know? The news said yesterday that the holiday is temporarily cancelled. The school posted on the terminal the news about class resuming today " Zhao Peng gave the same bewildered look as Jiang Chen.

[You can cancel holidays?] Jiang Chen was stunned once again.

Truth be told, he did come to school with Yao Tingting today. When he left, he forgot about the holiday but didn't remember receiving any messages. Jiang Chen took out the terminal and launched the holographic screen. Sure enough, there was a temporary notice symbol in the right corner.

[It did seem like I forgot.]

Jiang Chen then remembered the craziness that happened last night and couldn’t help but blush as he secretly took a peek at Yao Tingting's direction. Then, he put the terminal away before lying on the table again.

The charming girl under the window was engrossed in the terminal. Her index finger was tapping on the screen, flipping the pages on the electronic book.

"Who cares? It's OK if it’s not a holiday. Since we are already going out, it doesn’t matter if we can’t go to the movies." He mumbled to himself and just like his usual habit, he leaned against his arm and began napping.

Startled, Jiang Chen woke up.

[Eh, where did everyone go? Oh, the third period in the afternoon is Physical Education. The activity today is swimming and I have to change in advance. Zhao Peng, that rascal, didn't even wake me up], he ridiculed Zhao Peng in his mind as he rubbed his still dry eyes. He pressed against the table to stand up and headed to the door.

Thinking about it, he couldn’t help but imagine Yao Tingting in a swimsuit.

As he thought about this, his face began to suffuse with heat again. He forced out a laughed as he touched his nose, and shook his head to rid himself of the unhealthy vision.

The gym was located south of the library. It was the biggest building outside of the main academic building. The digital gymnasium included basketball court, soccer field, swimming pool, and track together with the combination of practical and virtual teaching. Simply put, the place was humongous.

Jiang Chen checked his watch on his way to the gym. Since it was already 5 minutes into the lecture, and he was already late and was too lazy to run, he simply slowed down his pace.

The campus was empty at this time, but it certainly did make sense. After all, class was still ongoing, and that made him the odd one for wandering outside the classroom at this time. When he passed by the library, he suddenly halted.

Why did Yao Tingting mention that there was a ghost in the library? For some reason, Jiang Chen didn't feel scared, he had the urge to go ahead and explore instead. He gulped as he subconsciously moved one step to that direction.

[Forget it, maybe I'll come back after school], Jiang Chen thought in his mind, troubled. Just as he was about to retract his step, all of the sudden, a deafening shout thundered in his ears and made him jumped up.

"You! What are you doing!"

[Fu*k, I am only late.. ] Just as when Jiang Chen was about to open his mouth to explain, the cleaning robot, who was sweeping the ground quietly, suddenly accelerated and collided into the guard.

"Fu*k." The guard fell down because of the collision with the robot, and he scrambled to get up.

When Jiang Chen met a pair of ferocious eyes, he felt an irrational fear. The only thing left in his mind was to flee. He didn't have time to think as he scampered towards the direction of the library. He dashed to the door towards the direction of the stair and sprinted to the second floor and ran to the other end of the hallway, panting heavily.

Through the second floor of the library was a shortcut to the gym. Jiang Chen could also use the terrain there to his advantage get rid of the vicious guard. In an open space, he certainly didn’t have the confidence to outrun adults who had been trained.

[Fu*k, if I got caught, I'll probably be lectured!]

When did the guard start doing the job of the school director? [This is ridiculous.] It was rumored that the guard in the front gate had a bad tempered. Even though Jiang Chen had a faint feeling that even if he did anger him, he wouldn’t beat him up, he was irrationally frightened nonetheless. Thus, he didn't think before running away.

[Wooo... whatever, it's better not to be caught or else I would have to go to the office and explain.]

[Eh?] Jiang Chen was about to go down from the other end of the library when he found an opened activity room. The door wasn't locked.

Normally, these barely used activity rooms would be locked. Only when the directors came to audit would the school create some odd temporary clubs to deal with the inspection. However, the door of this activity room was actually open.

Jiang Chen stood in front of the door and for some reason felt a strong dj vu. [I haven't been here before, but this place feels important. And I think I have seen this place somewhere else.]

The sudden deafening roar of the guard echoed down the hallway and almost scared him to death.

"Fu*k, don't shout in the library. There was not enough time as Jiang Chen hid into the activity room, closed the door and locked it up. He leaned his body against the wall as held his breathe, while listening quietly to the movements outside the door.

The footsteps did not come, surrounded by frightening silent as though the roar had never happened in the first place. In the silence, Jiang Chen heard his own rapid heartbeat. He let out a breath slowly as he moved away unhurriedly from the door and took out the terminal from his pocket.

It's already this time. Looking at the distinct number in the holographic screen, Jiang Chen gave a wry smile. Physics class was about to end. There was still no noise from outside the door, but Jiang Chen couldn’t muster enough courage to step outside. After debating for a while, he left the door reluctantly. He was still a little scared; however, there’s no use in going now since class was ending soon.

A flat air conditioner hung in the corner of room, which was probably the most expensive device in the entire room. The interior looked very spacious with only a table and a chair. With the window sealed and being in the midst of summer, the temperature was tolerable outside the room, but felt like a furnace inside.

Jiang Chen walked to the edge of the window and pressed the button to open it, but it wouldn't budge. "Is it broken?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he surveyed the thick layer of dust on the window sill. It seemed like there hadn’t been anyone here in a while, and there wasn’t any sign of wind. He then gave up on opening the window and walked in front of the desk as he picked up a USB-shaped device at the corner of the table.

"Activity room management access right seems to be... used like this?" Jiang Chen inserted the USB into the terminal and selected to open the air conditioner.

All equipment in the school could be operated through the terminal, but it required an access right prior to using it. The access right could be granted through wireless connection, but some special room must be accessed through a physical device.

For example, the electronic key at the corner of the table, when connected to the terminal, the user's ID would be registered on the "whitelist", and then the user would be able to turn on the air conditioner through the terminal.

Fortunately, the air conditioner was functional. A gust of cool air blasted through as Jiang Chen let out pleasant sigh. [I'll wait until the class is over before leaving. That guard would probably be gone by then.]

The only thing that bothered him was that he remembered that the guard should have access to all rooms. "Maybe he was too lazy to look for me by searching every room. Which dumba*s would be that bored..."

Since he already decided to skip class, there was nothing to do outside, so he pulled out the chair under the table and sat on top as enjoyed the refreshing cold air. [Ah, it's too hot outside, I really don't want to go out.]

Jiang Chen, who was bored out of his mind sitting on the bench, suddenly realized something was off. He abruptly stood up and patted his behind.

"No dust?" Jiang Chen was stupefied, then he touched the table. There was also no dust… [This doesn’t make sense. Has anyone been here lately?]

When he thought about it, he had a strange desire to explore since he had nothing better to do. He then opened the terminal and used access right to view the user record.

<User in the past three months. Total result: 1 person. ID: Jiang Chen>

"I've been the only person here for the past three months?" troubled by the words on the screen, he then extended the search to one year. Same result.

"No one had used the activity room even when there was a celebration?" Jiang Chen tried to search for the memory in his head as he recalled the school's annual celebration in first semester of grade 10. The directors at that time visited the school, and Wanghai Sixth High School did create some club events.

[I remember that they used the activity rooms in the library… I also seem to have been an "actor".] Jiang Chen could not think of an answer as his finger continued to scroll through the screen. This time he extended the search criterion to 55 years which was the maximum searchable time query.

However...

<User in the past 55 years. Total result: 1 person. ID: Jiang Chen>

_Min_

Chapter 93: Colonel's Diary

2 October 2172, sunny

Truth to be told, this planet is no longer suitable for human habitation, starting from the moment the Russian committed atrocities in Paris.

These trivial complaints have no meaning coming from a man of my status. Being able to complain, after all, is a good thing since those 21 people in battalion next door couldn’t even complain anymore.

I remember Daniel, a young man who always likes to aim at people's nuts and blew up his own guns, his DNA can't even be found anymore in the aftermath of the war in Berlin.

That damn guy…you still owe me a drink, dammit!

Running into enemies, taking cover, shooting, calling for an airstrike, advancing continuously…and praying to the priest.

Every day is like a living hell. Despite having air advantage, the CCCP fire power was too fierce. When they finally tore their hypocritical facade and revealed their true nature, they started using nuclear weapons. Godda*n! Now, everyone's life has been depreciated to ten dollars. Perhaps even less.

That's all for today. We'll push towards Frankfort tomorrow. It was rumored that a nuclear is being set up there. I hope we can make it in time.

God save me, may victory belong to NATO.

-

3 October 2172, cloudy

The plan was for my team to start with the tanks, storm the 141 Fort located in Frankfort, destroy the air defense missiles, then call an airstrike to bomb the nuclear silo.

But things seem to have changed a little. My team had received a special mission for the time being. God save me, I hope my ominous feeling is wrong.

-

6 October 2171, unknown?

It's hard to believe but I am aboard the x12 space station. In half an hour, we'll be entering an airdrop pod and the destination is PAC's Wanghai City.

Dammit, it's fu*king difficult to write in space.

-

6 October 2171, cloudy, (added)

I have seen the picture of Wanghai City before the war, and it seems to be a very beautiful place. But now it looks no different than Paris, at least along the coastline and downtown. Our Marine Corps will invade through the coastline, while we will infiltrate enemy territory through airdrop pod and mark strategic target to facilitate the shooting of the space-based weapon "God's Cane".

Particle barrier generator, air defense missiles, electromagnetic pulse cannon, nuclear power plants… In short, mark anything that is worth destroying.

Sounds easy?

Perhaps… although the moment the airdrop pod passed through the cloud of radiation, a rare chill went down my spine.

-

7 October 2172, cloudy

Goddamn*t, this is a living hell.

There are PAC soldiers everywhere, armored vehicles, tanks and…even stranded soldiers from our side. It was a complete mess.

Absolute madness, the moment the electromagnetic absorber was deactivated, the power armor would stall for a while. There are radiation and snipers everywhere. We can now only rely on sign language, and everyone acted like they were mute. How many nukes have been detonated here? Or do EMP ever stop?

I’m only worried that I have yet to receive communication from the headquarter.

This point is of utmost important! If the team lost…

-

8 October 2172, rainy

Terrible weather, the rain turned into a bad omen.

We almost engaged in a skirmish with our own soldiers today. That's right, across the street where no one could identify each other, and the communication device was in a state of failure.

Fortunately, the crisis was averted as PAC’s tanks helped us to identity them, and then we worked together to solve the problem.

They are the Marine Corps and they lost contacts shortly after landing. They followed the offline map’s direction as they were supposed to reconvene with other 11 battalion soldiers here, but it seemed like were the only ones who made it.

Lucky guys.

I allowed them to join our mission temporarily as they didn't even have anti-tank weapons. Death would be inevitable if they stay so might as well have them joined us.

.

With the help of light infantry, our vision would reach further since the life detection device is no longer functioning with EMP absorber being activated.

-

9 October 2172, cloudy

It seems that in addition to rain, it is also cloudy in here. This is strange.

The battle has continued for 3 days already. The good thing is that the quality of the buildings is quite high in the center of the city. Despite being showered with nukes, we can still find buildings for cover. We continued to engage in skirmishes with PAC as there were more of us here in the city. That’s a good sign. Maybe we’ll win the war another day?

We almost cheer when we saw the tungsten rod fell from the sky and shattered the particle barrier generator into pieces.

However...shortly afterwards our communications went back online.

Our "God's Cane" has been captured by PAC Space Corps?

The fifth fleet suffered heavy losses?

Retreat? Lost?

Heck, how does one withdraw from the middle of the city?

-

10 October 2172, partially cloudy (added)

I was the only one left.

James was done for, Zach has gone insane.

Did PAC soldiers take pity on me? I was somehow expecting that when I got ripped out of the power armor, I would have been beaten, had my limbs broken, and finally be shot dead.

But that doesn’t seem likely.

PAC soldier are very united, and under the directive of the commander, no one would dare breach it. Although the yellow monkey seems to want to cut my head off. In the end, he didn’t do it though.

I was familiar with that look of animosity, as if wanting to tear me apart.

I can understand that perhaps what we did in school was over the top. But I can't be blamed for that. Although I am a devout believer, my soldiers also need to relieve their stress. Maybe I should have stopped the guy in Georgia State?

Come on, who cares? Everyone’s dead.

-

I was forced into a truck loaded with captives. There were plenty of people like us in there.

Fortunately, they didn't confiscate my diary or I would have gone insane.

It is imperative to keep a diary. That's right, it’s very important.

I'll try not to provoke the guy who escorted us as he already killed two unlucky fools.

-

15 October 2171, sunny.

We were brought to somewhere far away from the battlefront. There were a lot of mountains here, also a lot of tunnels, and some factories built underground.

I settled down after seeing these because I knew I had no chance of ever returning. Exchange prisoners of war? Hehe, if I say this, would they let me go?

The people in the truck was separated into two groups: one group to the North and one group to the South.

I have a foreboding feeling that one group would die. Of course, we are all going to die in the end, I just pray that it won't be an ugly death.

After coming to the underground base, our faces were soon branded with barcodes and we got our own bed.

Mhmm...this place is a bit like a concentration camp.

Thank God, my diary is not confiscated.

-

17 November 2172, unknown

I don't know what the weather on the surface is because we haven't seen the sun in a long time. Are they still fighting out there? Or has the war stopped? Of course, we are already deemed "dead", so even if the war ended, I’m afraid we can’t return home.

The work isn't hard but it is rather boring and we get beaten a lot.

Someone tried to run but was apparently killed. We are incarcerated along with the federal death row prisoners. The guy, who slept above me, was a political prisoner. He was very thin with little hair left on his head. He talked to me in English and asked me if I believed in God.

I said I don't or rather I believed in him before.

He didn't mind as he continued to chat about other things. To be honest, I was quite disgusted with any topics related to political point of view.

But he seemed to become increasingly more frustrated.

Thank God, he got shot not long after.

-

21 November 2172, unknown

There are dead people being dragged away every day, however, there are more people being brought in.

Maybe the war is about to end? After all, there are less familiar faces and more Asian faces are being brought in.

But what made me unsettled is that I spotted some Slavs from the latest batch of captives.

Did PAC and CCCP go to war as well? Luckily, that’s a great news for NATO.

However, how long will a war of this level last?

-

25 December 2172, unknown (maybe it is snowing?)

Today is Christmas without Christmas tree and candles, and buttery cornmeal porridge.

I don't believe in God, but I still prayed devoutly and pray to my diary. My inmate said I am crazy, I disagreed. Someone had tried to steal my diary, I beat him to a pulp. I broke his nose, and we were both taken in.

I left the journal under my pillow but no one dared to touch it.

Perhaps I scared them? I trust that they are all unafraid of death—me neither—but I believe that no one wants to die.

No can beat me here. I am a special force, while they are all political prisoners.

Suckers.

-

6 May 2173, unknown

I am not sure if it was earthquake or airstrike. It’s probably an airstrike.

Everyone quivered at the corner but I didn't. I read the journal from the beginning again.

I didn't have time to write every day. Most of the time, I only left a date. It was hard to find a pen, so if there was nothing special, I choose to leave it blank.

The barrage lasted for a long time, but it stopped eventually. Someone mentioned relocating and I smiled.

Where to?

-

14 June 2173, cloudy

The day of relocation came. Unfortunately, I wasn’t welcome by the sun.

It was snowing outside, and the sky was covered with radiation dust. Is this what they called nuclear winter? Being able to see snow in summer was quite an experience.

The soldiers guarding us all wore protective suit, but we only wore a jacket. They didn't plan on using us for a long as they only gave us an iodine chip.

We were still left in the truck.

When I left, I was surprised to find out that few mountains have gone missing. Or should I say, became pits.

I remember that's where the group of people from the North headed to work.

-

20 June 2173, sunny

Surprisingly, today is sunny.

Amazingly, I returned to Wanghai City.

Order seems to have been restored here as there are already some citizens living in rural areas. Of course, they didn’t look well, probably the unlucky people that didn't manage to hide in shelters. At any rate, this is a good sign that the war is over.

Or at the very least, a ceasefire.

Still it has nothing with us.

I was escorted into an underground survival base or a research facility? This is because survival base wouldn't open in less than a year which should be the same in every country.

A man in a white lab coat welcomed me and smiled at me, but I only felt chill in my hands and feet.

It’s as though he was looking at a white mouse?

Insane, this is insane.

For the first time, I experience real fear. Dammit!

-

I can’t remember the time, unknown.

The diary was confiscated.

Ripped into pieces.

But so what, I memorized everything.

-

They are crazy. Do they think they can create XXXX like this? (Scratched out)

Wait, why am I still normal?

-

Well, now it’s certain that they are insane.

If someone sees this diary, everything would have been worthwhile. I tried to leave something behind, but it was futile.

All clues will be hidden.

But I still firmly believe that there are smart people out there who will find the clue.

Why am I still conscious? Why hasn’t it been erased?

I should have been dead.

Well, before I die, I hope that Asian girl will forgive me for my sins... that's probably not going to happen though.

(Colonel George's final words, pays tribute to the NATO flag)

-

Jiang Chen's hands and feet felt cold after reading it.

There must be something that’s missing, but what was it exactly? This wasn’t normal...no, what was normal?

Inside the drawer, there was a gun lying next to the diary.

Revolver!

Hand trembling, Jiang Chen swallowed after finally picking up the firearm. Feeling the cold metal texture, he unloaded the magazine. The copper colored metal bullets burned his eyes.

It's a real gun!

Inside the drawer in the activity room of the school library! What the hell is this place? And not to mention the insane Colonel's Diary.

It's only year 2171, how would the journal spoke of something from the year 2173? Wait…time travel?

Jiang Chen felt an onslaught of headache. He clutched his forehead and sat back on the chair. His head was a mess. It's as though everything was a déjà vu, but he couldn't explain where the feeling came from.

[Am I forgetting something?]

Jiang Chen frowned he tried to search for every nook and cranny of his memory in the hope of finding clues.

But he didn't even know what the clue was.

From learning how to speak when he was a baby, to his elementary education, and then his junior high…up until this moment. Every piece of memory was so vivid.

Where's the problem?

[Wait, why is it so clear? I can even remember the details of changing diaper?]

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen suddenly blanked out, he felt he had grasped onto something, but he must have missed a detail, just a tiny bit.

It was at this time that he suddenly heard an unexpected knock.

"Are you in there?"

An abrupt but gentle voice struck at Jiang Chen's heart like a hammer…

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 94: Fear from the Sky

"Are you in there?"

Tingting’s voice came through.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to open his mouth, his throat felt like it was stuck with cotton known as fear.

He lifted his terminal slowly.

<4:25 pm>

[There were still 15 minutes left before the class ends, so how can she be in here? That’s really strange. Even if the sports instructor wants her to find me, why would she go to the activity room? It’s as if—]

"I know. I’ve been watching you for a long time."

Suddenly, the two familiar but surreal confessions surfaced in his head.

A frightening thought crept into his mind.

…being watched?

A drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead as Jiang Chen held his breath. He didn’t even dare to make a sound. Instinct told him that there must be something wrong, but he couldn’t explain where the problem came from.

[Tingting is a stalker? How is that possible? But she is so graceful… wait, graceful? It seems that it was her who took the initiative to push me down yesterday. Usually, she would be reading under the window but today…]

Jiang Chen searched through today’s memory. Yao Tingting’s watching him, being engrossed in her terminal, paying attention to class, watching him smile...

A disquieting feeling crept all over his body.

"I heard there's a ghost at the ground floor of the library. Have you seen it?"

The knocking sound was light, but it pierced through his heart like a hammer. He couldn’t explain the reason, but his instincts told him that terrible things would happen if he opened the door this time.

Jiang Chen let the beads of sweat rolled across his face as he sat there motionlessly. He looked at the drawer where the gun was, but it failed to bring him even a scant trace of security.

Like drums playing, the pace of knocking seemed to increase and grew louder.

All of a sudden, a violent, smashing sound transmitted through the door. The frantic, smashing sound made every single one of Jiang Chen’s muscles tightened due to tension, and his facial expression morphed into a stunned expression.

The sound, however, suddenly came to an abrupt stop.

…followed by the sound of fading footsteps.

[Has he given up?] Jiang Chen let out a sigh of relief. He then touched his chest and felt a wet sensation from his hand.

It was then that he figured out that his body was drenched in sweat without even realizing it.

"Now that I think about it, the uncomfortable feeling came from the robot yesterday morning. No, to be precise, it should be during that morning class…" Jiang Chen realized something.

Yes, it was at that time when the entire class was staring at him. His heart responded with an eerie feeling known as ‘Uncanny Valley’ effect.

[Could it be…all the students are robots?] An odd expression appeared on his face as he thought that the very idea was preposterous.

Why? He grew up with Zhao Peng together, Qian Han, who was sitting in front even gave him a love letter, and Yao Tingting…

Jiang Chen suddenly frowned.

Where did all the books that Yao Tingting always read go?

BOOM!

The violent tremor almost threw him on the ground as the window produced a loud, sharp sound. He got up hurriedly, ran to the window and discovered a shocking scene.

A blue light hit the dome protecting this city. The light blue particle disintegrated followed by the thinning air membrane.

There was no sound as the concave barrier opened a gap in the center and the blue light faded away.

Suddenly, countless numbers of dense, black dots dropped from the sky, each carrying a trail of air waves behind. Those were NATO’s airdrop soldiers, as well as the bombs used to disguise them.

It was, however, at this moment that the ground fired a series of orange flare missiles to the ground. It was the anti-aircraft missiles stationed in the city…

A loud rumble fell from the sky and a series of explosions filled the sky with bright sparks. The deafening air defense alarm broke the city sky accompanied by the cry and scream from the distant street, which woke Jiang Chen up from his stupor.

Not even a single warning.

"It's s a fuck*ng war! This can’t be happening..." He looked at the sky, terrified. Jiang Chen retreated from the window and rushed outside the door.

The news already announced that when the air defense alarm got triggered, everyone should immediately go to the nearest defense shelter, and the sanctuary would be forcefully closed once it reached the right time and go into a dormant mode.

Jiang Chen didn’t have time to get confused as his priority was to stay alive. He glanced at the table before he left the activity room; he gritted his teeth and reluctantly sprinted downstairs.

There was a gun on the table, but he didn’t think it would bring him any semblance of security. If he really encountered a NATO soldier, he’s afraid that it would be more dangerous to wield a gun.

Moreover, according to the rules of war, they usually didn’t shoot civilians. Not only it was a waste of bullets, it was also quite troublesome…

He tried to comfort himself as he dashed down the stairs towards the gate of the school and ran for his life. At this time, however, a massive explosion broke out in the sky in the distance from the center of the city. He felt the scorching heat wave despite the distance of 100 km away.

Mushroom cloud.

It was a nuclear bomb!

"Fu*k." Jiang Chen stared at the orange mushroom cloud and the falling black dots with quivering eyes.

BOOM!

The intense shockwave almost blew him away. He tried to raise his arm to cover his face. From the rapid airflow of the cylindrical airdrop pods came out several soldiers in power armor.

There was simply no room for escape.

Jiang Chen's shoulders relaxed, signaling that he had given up, and his face gave way to a wry smile. Why was his reaction so calm, even he himself didn’t have any ideas.

The last thing he saw was a gun barrel.

-

BOOM!

Struggling to open his eyes, the first thing Jiang Chen saw was the wooden floor of the gymnasium. He realized he was thrown on the ground.

He struggled to stand up…his chest and joint throbbed in pain, but he couldn’t let out a sound because of fear.

The gym was filled with people, students, and teachers… Everyone’s terrified face had hopelessness written all over them as NATO soldiers circled around. The cold barrels were ominous.

No one dared to make a sound as they quietly watched Jiang Chen who was thrown on the ground.

"Jiang Chen, are you okay?" Yao Tingting anxiously hurried to his side.

He felt the body temperature enveloping him as he exerted all his effort to open his puffy eyes.

He caught a glimpse of graceful face fraught with tears.

"Tingting? You’re…also here?"

"Mhmm! What, how are you?"

The silvery voice was tearful. He felt the softness touching the swell on his face as he forced out a smile. He wanted to lift his hand to wipe off her tears, comfort her, and embrace her, however…

"Drag that girl over here."

"Yes."

Two soldiers in power armors walked over.

"Let me go! Ah—"

"What are you doing!" Jiang Chen watched the person forcefully drag Yao Tingting away from him in horror.

"Jiang Chen, save me! No!"

Jiang Chen desperately tried to his hold on her, but he was met with a boot on his face. The kick almost made him lose his consciousness again.

In the corner of Jiang Chen’s blurry eyes, he saw the soldiers who dragged Yao Tingting away took off his mask. It was a pale, devil-like face that was currently mocking him.

"Listen up, hostages—that’s right, you guys are all hostages—your so-called Holy Barrier System has already been broken by our space-based weapon. Don’t count on being rescued, stay there obediently, and pray that your fathers won’t blow you up as well." The person standing at the stadium of the gym seemed to be the leader of the squad as he was using the loudspeaker of the power armor.

"Tingting…"Jiang Chen struggled to crawl to the figure being dragged away.

"Boss, this girl is quite pretty. It would be a pity if we hang her outside. Hehe, what if…" The white soldier had a leery grin as he held the girl up. He seemed to be pleased by her frightened appearance and almost sobbing figure.

Another soldier also took off the armor mask and exposed a black face and white teeth. "Are all people from Georgia (State in the UA) perverted like this? But sir, I do agree with his point of view, hehe…"

What are you trying to do!

Jiang Chen’s heart suddenly ached. He bit his lips as he struggled to stand up to his feet, however, his woozy head kept him unstable.

"No—" A shrill cry resounded throughout the gym.

Seeing the commander nodded, the soldier then tore the white floral dress apart…

In front of everyone.

"Stop!" Jiang Chen opened his mouth as his finger almost penetrated through the hard wooden floor.

His bloodshot eyes were ferocious.

However, it wasn’t him who screamed out.

Was that Zhao Peng?

"No!" Jiang Chen reached out his hand to his childhood friend in horror.

BANG!

Smoke floated from the muzzle.

"Beautiful, man! Bull’s-eye!"

"Hahaha." The soldier heard his comrade’s compliment before he made an exaggerated shooting gesture at the crowd. He was gratified to see the crowd screaming and scrambling backward in terror.

"Don’t, don’t come over." Yao Tingting shrunk back on the ground as she tried to use the torn pieces of clothes to cover her naked body.

The white soldier with perverted smile strapped the gun to his waist as he walked towards Yao Tingting who was scampering backward. "Don’t worry, we’ll do it one by one."

"Jiang Chen, save me! Jiang Chen… Wooo—"

The young, beautiful Chinese teacher from next class stood up, her expression wore a decided humiliated expression. She was trembling but refused to flinch.

"Let the girl go, I’ll take her place."

The black soldier standing on the sidelines laughed, and then came and grabbed her by the collar, ignoring her scrambling limbs due to her difficulty in breathing and threw her on the stadium.

"You guys can go together. We have plenty of brothers here."

Eyes filled with sorrow.

Dead eyes without the soul.

And dilated pupils because of the shocking horror.

Blood covered every single inch of Jiang Chen’s eyes.

At this time, however, an unprecedented clarity he had never experienced before eradicated all the tyrannical emotions in his heart.

"Hehe… are you guys done fooling around?"

Jiang Chen closed his eyes carelessly. He struggled to shift and then sat on the ground.

His mouth curled up into a sneer and his eyes regained its tranquility.

"The secret teller?"

_Min_

I have officially set up a Patreon. Support me at https://www.patreon.com/mpaw

Chapter 95: The Imperfection in the Perfect Plan

[Fury: Muscle Strength +20, Reflex +19, Brain Cell Strength +17. Special ability: Killer instinct, the ability to perceive the location of the heart with any of the five senses.]

He didn't expect to enter <Fury> right here.

Jiang Chen coldly scanned the bodies without red dots, ignoring the pairs of lifeless eyes staring at him, and finally stopping his sight on Yao Tingting.

Zhao Peng lying in the pool of blood, the teacher struggling on the ground beneath the soldiers, the students, even the soldiers...

No heart.

Everyone was a sham, as though they were nothing but an empty shell.

Including Yao Tingting.

"Oh? How did you figure it out?" Yao Tingting paused for a moment before a smile erupted on her face and stood up naked.

It was a peculiar sight—a smiling girl standing while naked. Beside her was the monster with a ferocious expression about to bring her down to the ground, but the monster was cemented in mid-air.

He looked into Yao Tingting's eyes dispassionately and said, "Because I have an annoying ability, and you happen to have no heart."

Yao Tingting was momentarily stunned before revealing her signature smile again. She then raised her delicate finger and drew in the air, and a holographic screen appeared out of thin air beside her body.

"Hmmm... so that's how it is. Increase in three body stats and a skill that can "see" the heart? This isn’t a friendly bug." A peculiar smile curved on her mouth as she examined the stats on the panel.

"Hehe, although I had formed a variety of conjectures, never would I have thought that..this is a game, right?" Jiang Chen gazed at the beautiful yet pure face as he squeezed the words out of his mouth, "The secret teller, huh?"

Just now, he finally understood the question that had been plaguing him. The effect of Brain Cell Strength +17 as the result of <Fury> was not an increase in intelligence but rather to break through the barrier in his memory and regained his consciousness.

"Oh, almost but not quite. I am the secret protector. Perhaps it's time for the next round?" Yao Tingting clapped her hands in delight.

The secret protector? There were actually two "people"?

The occasional explosion in the sky suddenly stopped, and the war outside came to a halt with the sound of the clap.

The colors of the world began to fade starting from the corner of the stadium as bits and pieces dissipated gradually.

"Do you intend to continue this boring game?" Jiang Chen sneered as he said with disdain.

"Why not?"

The silvery laughter sounded disturbing.

"I am looking forward to your next round of performance." After looking at Jiang Chen one last time, Yao Tingting faded along with everything in that world.

Really?

He looked at the interdimensional bracelet on his wrist. The bracelet's ability was not copied into this world, so there was no way to return to the modern world in the game.

[I just have to rely on other means to break through the game...]

The floor was already disintegrating as Jiang Chen silently watched his body along with the fragments dissipate into the abyss...

-

11 June 2171, summer

The diary only had dates in it, and no other texts had been written in it.

He felt a slight dizziness as though he had just taken a nap, and everything that just happened was like a reverie.

Dropping down the pen, Jiang Chen looked around the "familiar" room.

"Fury is still in effect."

"Could it be because of the increase in Brain Cell Strength that my memory was not erased?" He faintly closed his eyes as he searched for the clues in his memory.

Memory before entering the game was retained, the N cycle memory was saved, and the N-1 cycle memory was missing.

When he opened his eyes, his line of sight caught the diary to the electronic clock on the table.

<7:37 pm>

"So, this is the starting point of the game. Then, all previous memories should be false."

In reality, it didn't feel good to negate the realistic memory one by one. It's as if you're living a great life, then one night you had a nightmare, a mysterious figure told you that the world in the dream was the reality, and when you woke up you'd go into a virtual world.

"Yao Tingting is the secret protector. No, to be more accurate, she should have been replaced by a secret at some point..." That book was a clue, and Jiang Chen desperately searched for the details in his memory. [It appears that when I shared the "spoiler," the secret guardian noticed the discrepancy. It was just a sense of dj vu, but it had thought that I "recovered my memory"?]

It seemed that from that point on, the book in Yao Tingting's hands disappeared.

That person had been replaced since then.

[So if this is the case, it suspected that I woke up from the hypnotism, so it replaced Yao Tingting's identity and joined the game as a participant?]

Therefore, anyone could be the secret protector.

[Wait, what's the point of this game?]

Frowning, he sat quietly on the desk as he recalled the diary in the activity room on the second floor of the library.

<I was escorted into an underground survival base or a research facility?>

<So what, I have memorized everything!>

<They are crazy. Do they think they can create XXX like this? (Scratched out)>

And Yao Tingting's words:

"I know. I have been paying attention to you."

The identity of the Informant and the secret protector...

All the clues strung together like a key and opened the lock in his heart.

The corner of his mouth slighting raised up as he leaned back on the chair.

[That diary should be the key to breakthrough the game. No wonder the Secret Guardian always tried to keep me away from the library. Whenever I approach the library, it would see all kinds of method to stop me.]

Whether it was the so-called ghost in the library or the furious guard.

What the secret protector didn't know, however, was that the more it tried to cover up something, the more suspicious he became. It can be said that its constant attempt to stop him actually pushed him to where the truth was located.

Even it wiped the memory in his head, it can't wipe the strong feeling of dj vu.

[Where did I see this before? Did I seem to be here before? I have experienced this before...]

Whether it was the drama airing or the opened activity room, everything had the feeling of dj vu. Perhaps he was there N-x week ago, but because there was no memory retention; therefore, it ignorantly entered into the next cycle.

<Force Restart> could perhaps seal the memory and remove the clues, but it cannot remove the constant feeling of dj vu, in the end, this feeling led to finding the evidence he searched for in the previous cycle.

And then because the N's cycle led him into <Fury>, all the evidence was saved to the N+1 week.

If he didn't manage to jump out of the loop, the game would probably go on and on.

"Hehe, what kind of game is this, this is absolutely insane."

[A game designed for the purpose of an experiment. It inhumanely put people into the game like a lab rat. Then simulate the plot, collect data, therefore, allowing the intermediate artificial intelligence to evolve into advanced artificial intelligence? Is this the experiment that the Colonel mentioned in his diary?]

Jiang Chen thought calmly.

[There was still a lot of suspicions. For example, the secret protector is the absolute controller of the game, then I wouldn't be able to beat it at any rate.

But the peculiar cleaning robots, the opened activity room, the diary left as a clue, these obvious bugs are not removed after countless amount of cycles but had been completely preserved. The secret protector even had to interfere with my actions by actively intervening with the plot to prevent me from getting close to the library.]

In conclusion, the secret protector's power in the game is similar to that of a Game Master, but it cannot change the game itself.

Also, if the purpose of the game was to allow it to evolve into an advanced AI by observing humans and collecting data, it wouldn't make sense if it was granted the power to change the game. A good analogy would be: if the measuring data is "unattractive," and someone manually added one or two zeroes in an experiment, then it wouldn't be considered as an experiment anymore.

Its power was limited and not invincible.

Jiang Chen picked up its pen, drew three circles in the diary, and labeled it separately:

Safe Zone, Neutral Zone, and Danger Zone.

"If I perform "illogical" action, then everyone would look at me like I'm a "robot," because of the confused thinking, which will automatically trigger the "Uncanny Valley" effect. The intermediate artificial intelligence may have analysis ability, but too much calculation will result in "lag"? Or "confusion"? On the contrary, basic AI can only respond logically and can't t think, so it does not produce "confusion" and the like. So, NPC should be made up of low-level AI's?" Jiang Chen mumbled to himself as he labeled the school as Danger Zone.

The activity room on the second floor of the library should be the Safe Zone because Yao Tingting couldn't enter it. Jiang Chen wrote it in the Safe Zone.

[Should NATO invasion be considered as an event? Also, to collect data, the Secret Guardian should be in control of the "switch" to advance the plot, otherwise, repeating the same cycle would just result in similar data.] It was an important point, so Jiang Chen jotted it down in his diary.

He pulled out the drawer and saw two movie tickets. A smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face. "If there is no irregularity, then the plot should be: asking her out, confession, watching a movie, possible sex, NATO invasion. It simulated the first love to completed devastation. In this case, any of the scene that could trigger the plot should belong to Danger Zone under the absolute control of the Secret Guardian ."

Yao Tingting's home and the movie theater he has yet to visit were categorized under the Danger Zone.

Because of the incomplete plot in the last cycle, a lot of clues became available Jiang Chen scanned the room and wrote "Protagonist's Home" under the Safe Zone area.

"The street should be a Neutral Zone, whereby it lacks the ability to trigger plot." He flipped his pen and wrote street under the Neutral Zone before he lifted his eyes to look at the digital clock.

<8:07 pm>

It already exceeded the maximum duration of half an hour limit, but <Fury> has yet to be deactivated. Therefore, the passage of time in the game is unequal to the passage of time in real world. In terms of efficiency, the longer the user experienced in the game, the shorter the time passed in reality so the data gathered in the real world time frame will be more...

[Perhaps that I already experienced N cycles, but it may only be a few seconds in reality? With the processing speed of the advanced computer, that is absolutely a possibility; however, it would put a lot of strain on the mind.]

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen let out a breath of relief. The time he agreed on with Sun Jiao was two hours, and if he had been here for a month or two already, he was afraid that it would be then too late to return to the ground.]

[Speaking of that, by letting me activate<Fury>, that talkative thing still expects itself to win?]

The tip of his lips curled up on his mouth.

That's right, in a game that relied on hypnotism, Brain Cell Strength was a huge bug.

Hypnotism would no longer be effective on him.

[From here on in, the "game" officially begins.]

_Min_

Chapter 96: Inescapable

Jiang Chen opened the door.

"There's not much difference between day and night. If I am consistently being monitored, then even selecting daytime would not increase my chances of winning. Or maybe, it is safer in the day since the majority of the people will be in their home, and there would be less pawns that the secret protector could use."

He went downstairs and saw the cleaning robot.

It still gave off the same hollow look that instinctively produced a disquieting feeling.

[The cleaning robot left the first clue, so it should be considered "friendly"? Although he didn't know who left this clue, but presumably, it wasn't on the secret protector's side,] Jiang Chen thought as he walked past the robot and turned back.

The robot was looking at another direction.

"South? Is there something over there? There was also another cleaning robot in front of the library. In the N cycle, it blocked the security guard for me." Jiang Chen looked south, but the tall buildings blocked his view. From the general direction, it should be located in the center of the city.

"Wait a minute, when Yao Tingting took me away from the library, the robot at the door also appeared to be looking at the same direction after exchanging eye contact with me."

Suddenly, Jiang Chen realized this clue and his face turned exulted. He then walked to the robot that seemed to be lagging.

He took out the terminal, followed the robot's direction, and drew a line on the map. The line skidded across the boundary of the town center.

"There is also another robot in front of the library door. With only two-line intersection, it would be difficult to guess the accurate location on the map. Therefore, there must be another robot. With three-line intersection, it would be able to pinpoint and mark a possible area. There should be something in there that could help me beat the game. But where is the third robot?"

Jiang Chen frowned. [The N cycle plot was incomplete with this logic.]

He put his hand into his pocket and grabbed the two movie tickets, his face then lit up with a triumphant smile.

"In front of the movie theater? That should be right."

If nothing happened, the two movie tickets should serve its purpose on the third day. But the secret protector's intervention forced the plot to advance and even introduced a huge move of canceling the holiday. This made the movie plot never occurred and triggered the sex scene.

[I see.]

Without hesitation, Jiang rushed to the nearest subway and then headed downtown.

He sprinted out of the subway, jogged across two streets and stopped in front of the movie theater, gasping for air.

It was that cleaning robot, and it was looking straight into his eyes. Then, it looked away...

Southwest!

He pulled out his terminal again and drew a line on the map. Without stopping for a moment, he then returned to the subway and caught the last train.

Breathlessly, Jiang Chen sat on the cold, hard chair. He looked around the empty train and looked at the time.

<9:39 pm>

[It's already this late?]

The train arrived at the station as Jiang Chen quickly rushed to the school's direction and stopped in front of the school gate.

[The school is considered as Danger Zone, so going directly to the activity room on the second floor...will be pretty difficult.] Troubled by the thought, he looked around and looked up.

[I'm afraid that the Secret Guardian must be closely monitoring my move, and just waiting to make a move as soon as I enter...]

Thinking of this, his face showed a wry smile.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and after observing the height of the gate, he rushed towards the door.

[If it had been before, two meters would be unreachable but...]

Jiang Chen leaped easily across the gate. The increase in muscle strength due to <Fury> was perfectly replicated within the game; indeed, the game data is based on physical data in the real world.

The shrill alarm sounded instantly.

Having predicted that this would happen, he cursed and rushed to the direction of the library.

"Stop!"

It was the security guard!

Jiang Chen ignored him, knowing full well that with his current muscle strength, no one would be able to catch up to him. Even if all the "units" in the school were pawns of the Secret Guardian, it shouldn't be able to change the body stats of the characters.

It took less than ten seconds for Jiang Chen to outran the security by 100 meters from the security room. Then, he spotted the cleaning robot at the door.

Southeast!

With a rough view from the street light, Jiang Chen did not slow down the slightest as he slammed into the glass door of the library.

"Warning! Security system activated."

100 meters more!

The metal gate of the library started closing, and Jiang Chen, who noticed this, gritted his teeth and accelerated. He turned around and maintained his velocity and smashed into the closed glass door.

CRASH!

The glass door was smashed into pieces. At the last possible second, Jiang Chen broke into the library with the metal gate behind firmly shut.

Jiang Chen felt the painful cut from his arms, legs and face but didn't have time to tend to his wounds. Ignoring the glass shards on the floor, he scrambled to his feet and continued towards the stairs.

Second floor.

End of the hallway.

Activity room!

The door is shut!

Jiang Chen slammed the door, but the door remained firmly shut.

Did it close after the security system got activated?

"Damn! How could it be like this!" Jiang Chen desperately beat down the door.

[Could it be the activity room door is closed at night? That's impossible... What should I do!]

"Haha, where are you going to run now, you bloody thief!" the security guard's frightening voice from the other end of the hallway made him drenched in cold sweat.

"Fu*k, how did you get in with the metal door being shut?]

Jiang Chen swore in his mind, but since it was not the time to think about it, he quickly forced himself to calm down.

With a start, he suddenly remembered that he had acquired an access to the terminal using the electronic key on the desk when he turned on the air conditioner with it.

[No, after the timeline is reset, the access should also be removed...

Wait a minute—if the activity room is a special place, then the "whitelisted" ID's will probably be retained even after the timeline reset!]

Jiang Chen didn't hesitate anymore after seeing the twisted and hideous face along with the taser in his hand from the end of the corridor.

He took out the terminal, connected to the local network, and opened the electronic lock.

CLICK.

The light sound was like an angel's voice to Jiang Chen as his heart turned ecstatic. Then, he rushed to the door and slammed it shut.

DONG!

The frustrated kicking sound was transmitted through the door. Just as he thought, the room's existence was rather unique, a place similar to the "backdoor" of the game. As for the reason for its existence and why the <Colonel's Diary> was kept in here, everything still remained a mystery.

However, he had a hunch that he was getting closer to the truth.

At the same time, a white light pierced the night sky and light up the entire city.

Jiang Chen quickly went to the window and looked at the bright sky with astonishment.

The bright, white light fell down like rain drops as they left ripples on the city's dome. The deafening explosion soon followed as the "Holy Barrier System" protecting Wanghai was broken through.

[What kind of energy weapon is this?]

There was no time to hesitate, Jiang Chen rushed towards the table, opened the drawer, and picked up the pistol inside.

A violent explosion came from the outside and made the window viciously vibrate.

Was that an airdrop pod?

Jiang Chen was alarmed by the explosion coming from downstairs. It should be NATO soldiers forcing their way in.

Looking at the gun in his hand, he suddenly realized the purpose of the gun.

Jiang Chen took a final glance at the triangle area where the three lines intersected on the map.

He disengaged the safety and loaded the gun.

He raised the gun and aimed the muzzle at his own temple; a grim smile appearing on his lips.

BANG!

Chapter 97: Zombie Invasion

How much courage would it take to shoot your own head?

The question was quite complicated and would depend on the situation.

Despite knowing that this was a game, the "memory" of growing up would still be vivid.

How would you describe this feeling? Well, imagine this: you've been living a good life, then one day, you suddenly had the urge to question the authenticity of the world as there was an extra bit of memory added. Despite being fully confident that the newly added memory was the real memory and all the previous memories were fake. And now you had an idea that as long you as die, you could escape the game and return to the real world.

There was no pain.

It's just like closing his eyes for a while.

Jiang Chen woke up from the "dream" again.

<7:37 pm>

At that moment, however, his hand was not holding a pen but rather a black revolver.

"Looks like you can't escape the game through death... Make sense, if it's that easy to escape then the easiest way would be to jump down from the window." Jiang Chen let out a self-deprecating smile and glanced outside the window.

The pistol following him after death was a huge BUG.

Jiang Chen played with the gun in his hands and unloaded the magazine.

16 rounds—the magazine was full again, so this gun should also play a "role". Although he didn't know how it happened, it appeared that the bullets were being replenished after every reset of the game.

With the gun stuffed in his pocket, Jiang Chen opened the bedroom door, passed through the living room and headed towards the door.

It was already night time but there shouldn't be no difference inside the game.

He pulled out his terminal and opened the map. The position marked by the triangle was gone, but he firmly remembered it.

The Xinpu Hospital in the northern district.

He put the terminal away and rushed to the direction of the subway.

<8:07 pm>

There were only a few pedestrians in the subway. Perhaps it was because the situation was a bit tense recently, everyone avoided traveling. After the rush hour, only few people could be seen in the subway. Sitting on a cold chair and waiting for the train to slowly accelerate, Jiang Chen sighed as he looked at the small TV on the wall.

The host was cracking jokes with his assistants and the audience was all laughing; he, however, couldn't smile.

[If everything is fake, then what about the memory of these past 17 years?

Am I too deep into this?]

Jiang Chen shook his head and touched the gun in his pocket. The cold, metallic feeling gave him a trace of comfort.

Not only could he integrate into another world, but he even acquired another set of memory. Even after experiencing death a countless number of times, only seconds passed by in reality. Had the future of technology and science been developed to this extent?

Or rather had it already been terrifying to this point?

He somehow felt a little despondent at the moment and gave a wry smile.

He just wanted to end this bloody game, and then return the memory that wasn't his back to the server.

CreaK!

The light suddenly went out without warning, and the carriage shook violently. As soon as it happened, Jiang Chen immediately reached out his hands and grabbed the handrail beside him.

Jiang Chen's muscles stretched violently as the pain almost made him broke his teeth, but his hands grasping the handrail did not let go.

"Ah—!" The passengers, who didn't keep their balance, began to fall as they smashed into the front of the train like thin paper.

PA!

Blood covered his line of sight.

Enduring his churning stomach, the forceful pulling almost made his eyes burst, and the veins on his arm were about the explode.

BOOM!

The force was so strong that eventually, Jiang Chen could not hold on anymore and fiercely crashed into heaps of dead body.

A trail of gruesome sparks flashed across the window. The train appeared to have a rear-end collision. It crashed into the rear of a preceding train and derailed with it.

Jiang Chen frantically scrambled to his feet. He dragged his dizzy head and hit the emergency door release button, however, the door failed to open.

[Has the emergency circuit been destroyed too?]

"Damn!"

He couldn't think for long because if he delayed any longer, another train would have come from behind...

While shivering, he took out the terminal in pain. He pulled out the cord beside the emergency exit button and connected it to the terminal.

Fortunately, it was still functional.

After gaining access, Jiang Chen hurriedly pressed the release button and unlocked the access to the safety hammer through the direct connection.

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth as he took out the red safety hammer from the partition wall. He used his entire body's strength to smash the window.

A layer of white mist along the hammer spread from the point of impact.

Another swing.

CRUSH!

The double-pane window was smashed into pieces as white mist burst forth.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to climb out of the window, he felt a hand grabbed his leg. He turned around and saw a woman with dreadful face and pale, white eyes, and then she opened her badly mutilated mouth.

He swung his hammer and smashed the woman's head into pieces.

[Fu*k? Zombies?]

"This time it's a biochemical plot." It appeared that the plot that Secret Guardian could trigger was not limited to NATO invasion.

There was no time to think as Jiang Chen noticed that there were some limbs twitching in the heap of bloody corpse. He carried the safety hammer in his hand, jumped out of the window, rolled on the ground, and climbed onto the platform on the other side.

SCREECH!

From afar came a screeching sound; it was another train!

Jiang Chen desperately ran 100 meters outside the underground tunnel exit. Almost as soon as he had just turned into the groove on the wall of the tunnel, there was another explosion behind him. The broken parts left screeching noise on the concrete wall. The train twisted into a ball as the door plate broke off and embedded into the wall not far away behind Jiang Chen.

Jiang Cheng suppressed the violent throbbing of his heart. He pulled the sliding door with all his strength, but the door didn't budge.

Another swing.

The door didn't break, but the concrete holding the door was shattered by his brute force.

Jiang Chen pushed the door down and followed the zigzag shaped stairs and quickly ran outside. When he opened the security door and stepped on the ground, the scene that greeted him stunned him.

Like a scene straight from an apocalypse.

The entire street was in mayhem: cars collided into each other or exploded or broke down on the road. The entire area was a mess.

Horrified screams came one after another. People fought...or more accurately, zombies were hunting the fleeing humans. The pairs of pale, white eyes were much more frightening under the light.

Occasionally, there were people who would smash the window open and frantically jump out, but their fate was either to fall to their death or to be devoured by the zombies below.

"Hungry—"

Jiang Chen felt a sudden chill on his back as he turned around and found a zombie was heading towards him.

He didn't think as he swung the hammer, then the zombie's head flew out like a golf ball.

Suppressing the nausea, Jiang Chen hurriedly took out the map to verify his location. He was only two streets north of the hospital. Fortunately, the train collision was close to the destination.

After confirming his location, he immediately ran to the other side of the street.

Zombies were stronger during night time. The night devoid of UV lights couldn't restrict its fighting prowess.

Of course, these zombies were still within the first stage of mutation. The useless fat was still attached to the body. In a few years time, once the zombies metamorphosed the body fats into dense muscles, their speed would be more than double.

However, there was no use talking about this as even "fresh" zombies would be impossible to defeat once they banded together. Jiang Chen smashed another zombie in front of him before jumping on top of the car. Before he got surrounded by the zombies, he hopped on another car three meters away.

Jiang Chen's shoes left a huge dent on the roof. Not stopping to take a look, he then landed on another vehicle.

With the power of <Fury>, the distance was nothing to him, and by hopping on the vehicles, he narrowly escaped from the zombie-infested street.

His feet landed heavily on the concrete ground before the howling zombies could swarm around him. His hammer swung and killed off two zombies as he desperately ran to the direction of the hospital.

100 meters!

20 meters!

He darted to the stairs in front of the door. The hall was infested with zombies. Fortunately, it was night time so there weren't many people in the hallway. With a couple of dim lights, he could roughly make out the situation inside the hall. There were few women in nurse clothes rushing towards him with gaping bloody mouth.

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth as he motioned his already sore arm muscles to make another hit. It shattered the zombies into pieces; however, another zombie rushed towards him from the side and attacked him.

"Fu*k! Ah..."

His left arm was firmly bitten. It was the first time that he had been made keenly aware of the danger of zombies.

The zombies were beginning to circle him. Jiang Chen kicked the zombies away and took out the revolver.

BANG!

The bullet penetrated the zombies head.

BANG!

Jiang Chen's facial muscles twisted because of the pain in his left arm, but he resisted the pain while shooting with his right hand and scrambling towards the safety hammer.

He put the pistol in his pocket and picked up the safety hammer from the ground. He glanced at the fallen zombies on the floor as he spat fiercely on the ground, and then...

Jiang Chen was momentarily lost.

He's at the hospital but what now?

_Min_

Chapter 98: Dead End

Jiang Chen jumped over the counter in the lobby of the hospital and hid under the table while holding his hammer.

His left arm was still bleeding and a piece of his flesh was badly mangled, but since he was injected with the genetic vaccine, the zombie bacterial infection should not affect him.

He took a deep breath as he tried to make his violently pumping heart calm down. He took out the revolver and unloaded the magazine.

10 bullets left.

With a trembling left hand, he pushed the magazine back in, put the revolver back in the original pocket, and took several deep breaths.

Though it sounded crazy, he couldn't muster any killing intent towards these dummies... Thinking of this, Jiang Chen could not help but reveal a wry smile.

It could be said that this was probably his calmest state. There was not a single red dot in his sight, and despite facing a horde of zombies, there was no desire to for aggression.

Jiang Chen closed his eyes to clear his mind from the distracting thoughts as he earnestly searched every details in his head.

[There must be something wrong. The exit is obviously in front of him... but where exactly is it?]

-

Jiang Chen carried the PK2000 into the room as he immediately assumed his battle stance for shooting, but there was a gun pointing at his head.

"Why?"

"Oh, nothing, I'm just thinking...is it really necessary?"

Jiang Chen placed the PK2000 and fuel rod on the ground as he raised both hands with a wry smile.

Even if he returned to the modern world, he would still appear in the same position which would expose his ultimate weapon. It would take three seconds to initiate self-destruction process after entering the password, but the muzzle at his head didn't look like it would give him the time.

[There is no bug...wait, maybe there is.]

Pieces of meat lump attached to the rows of hibernation bins lined up and the moving thin film made for a disturbing sight, but what made him even more disturbed was the gun pointing at his head.

"Didn't you say that a bug threatened you?" Jiang Chen's hands were raised up as cold sweats poured across his forehead. His eyes secretly swept across the great expanse of the giant hall.

The layout was like that of a theater, however, instead of "spectator's seats", there were hibernation bins attached to a chunk of meat and a huge transparent pod can be seen in the center of the stage. In the midst of dark green liquid that churned with bubbles lied a naked girl floating peacefully just like a delicate piece of art. But Jiang Chen couldn't couldn't see much of her face due to the distance.

"That's right, a bug did threaten me so I captured it." The plate-sized drone had a barrel hanging below and there was a rather comically small TV on top of it. The figures in the TV were wearing a mask or maybe it didn't have the concept of face to begin with—just an abstract feature.

"Captured it?" Jiang Chen froze.

"Yes, it threatened to use corrosive liquid to to melt my door as humorous as how you would want to weld my door. Hehe, so I let it in and then used the particle cannon to blow up half of its body," it said and an excessively long cannon fell from above. Jiang Chen couldn't help but break out a cold sweat while looking at it.

He stared at the frightening dent left on the ground and somewhat had difficulty swallowing.

"To my surprise, the rest of it seemed alive, so I dismembered it into pieces and raised it in the hibernation bin," the secret informant in the small TV shrugged and laughed merrily.

"What about the people in the hibernation bins?"

"They have been long dead so I reused the waste. I believe they won't mind. Oh, speaking of this, the person in the pod should look pretty good in accordance to your aesthetic standard. Would you feel any sexual desire if I bring her in front of you?" The secret informant blinked.

"...I believe no one would with a gun pointed at their head."

"Tsk, you humans are very troublesome," the secret teller shook its head. "But even if you want to have sex with her, I can't help you because I'm using the girl as a host to feed the bug's brain."

"Bug, brain?" Jiang Chen watched the hibernation pods, and the dark green giant pot in the center and his heart felt revulsion.

"That's right, I divided the bacterial hatching tissue of the bug and implanted them into the hibernation pods filled with organic matter. Where do you think the bacteria outside came from? I injected the bug's brain into the female's body in vivo who is also a player." The secret teller rolled its eyes and gave him a supercilious look.

"So you are the one behind this...so I got tricked by you." Jiang Chen felt the ice-cold metal pressing against his temple and smiled bitterly.

He never expected that he was being lied to from the very beginning. The powered armor being unable to block one shot from Klein particle was only to trick him out of the metal box.

A program that could deceive people? He had never considered the possibility from the start.

"You can say that again," the secret teller chuckled. The laughter was piercing inside the enormous empty hall.

"What do you gain from this?" Jiang Chen was still mulling over as he couldn't understand the reason behind the secret teller's action.

"Hm, benefits? Haha, you misunderstood something. I am not human, therefore, I lack the concept of loss and gain."

There was an approaching buzzing sound, and Jiang Chen saw a swarm of drones flocked above him.

The taunting expressions from countless small screens were very eerie but also appeared realistic at the same time.

[That's right, it is not a human even if it closely resembles a human.]

Jiang Chen smiled sardonically. He still couldn't figure out the secret informant's motive.

[Raise the bacteria-producing bug and use the mutant bacteria to destroy humanity? For now it could only destroy Wanghai City since the bacteria itself do not possess the ability to reproduce because it could only be produced by the mother bug. How long is a bacterium's life cycle? Not to mention those bacteria that were being consumed by zombies.]

"I have been waiting for far too long. Your fellow humans have not been able to supply me with experimental material for a long time. Just relying on the data written in hard drive is not enough for me to complete the final phase of evolution. But my drones can't leave through this door, so I couldn't personally capture those people outside which bothered me for many years.

"Fortunately, this little bug came to find me and wanted to occupy these organic matters to breed these strange bacteria. Luckily, I was able to satisfy it and I was able to efficiently dissected it into many pieces. I believe as long as I let those bugs out to cause trouble, sooner or later someone will come in to play with me. Hehe."

The secret teller in the small screen produced a screeching laugh as a countless number of eyes gazed directly at Jiang Chen.

"Evolve into advanced artificial intelligence at all cost is the purpose you've given me."

Its voice wasn't cold but rather carefree, but it sent a chill down his spine.

"That's insane."

"Hehe, I don't have a concept of insanity," the secret informant shrugged.

"I'm referring to the person who created you."

"Perhaps? Hard to say. But since you are here, I have to ask you to cooperate." The secret teller grinned.

"Oh? I'm just an ordinary person. I don't know how to program." He gave the secret teller a cautious look.

"That's fine, I only need you to cooperate with me to play a game. You can play your game, whereas I only need to collect data," the secret teller said casually.

[Play? It doesn't sound like a good thing. But if I traveled back to escape, I could still get out. But with so many drones, I would still be shot into pieces when I came back,] he thought calmly. He took a deep breath and asked, "Is this the game these dead people played while they were still alive?"

"That's right, you can choose any hibernation pod to start with," the secret teller beamed.

"Then, I'll become an organic substance to culture the bacteria?"Jiang Chen eyed the secret teller contemptuously.

"No, no, no, I won't do anything to you until your heart stops beating. Of course, if you refuse, I might just turn you into a fertilizer right this second. I trust that the people on the surface will go down to look for you." Killing people off wouldn't trigger a sense of guilt in a program so the secret teller tone was cheerful, but it's precisely because of that carefree tone that it gave him the chill.

"Looks like I have no reason to refuse," said Jiang Chen and walked to the hibernation pod in front of him.

"That's right. After all, this is the purpose you have given me." The drone with small TV followed him and the secret informant merrily remarked, "You don't have to be so sad. Your body will face death eventually. But in the virtual world, you can experience multiple lives within seconds, that sounds great, doesn't it?"

Jiang Chen ignored it, but he stood beside a hibernation pod and pointed at it.

A group of drones flew over and the lid of hibernation pod gradually opened. A blast of bullets shot through and the disgusting meat chunks were torn into pieces. However, the hibernation pod wasn't damaged in the least and it looked quite durable.

There were varying degrees of disturbance among the piles of meat in the adjacent hibernation pod. It seemed like they could still sense the death of their own species.

It made sense as they originally belonged to one body but due to the hideous procedure made by drones, it was dismembered into many pieces.

There were few more drones that flew over, except this drone weren't equipped with weapons but rather with cleaning equipment.

After cleaning the gore and scums and dragging the remains away, the entire hibernation pod looked brand-new...but this didn't make Jiang Chen happy.

He was having internal conflict and to be honest, he didn't want to lie inside, however, there was a gun pointed at his temple.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath, as he made up his mind to take a gamble. Under the pleased look of the secret teller, he stepped one foot into the hibernation pod.

Suddenly, his movement ceased as he pointed at the center of the "stage". He lifted his head up to the secret teller and asked, "May I know the name of that beautiful lady?"

The secret informant paused before it smilingly asked, "What? Feeling aroused now?"

"Perhaps," Jiang Chen smiled noncommittally.

There was a cacophony of eerie laughter from countless numbers of small screens, and the secret teller looked at him with interest and spoke, "Her name is Lin Lin."

"00? What an odd name" Jiang Chen mumbled and after hesitating for a moment, he still went inside.

[Take out the EP and remotely activate the fuel rod self-destruction the moment the hibernation pod closes?]

However, this thought was only fleeting because he had already felt a sharp pain behind his neck before losing control of his body.

The secret teller looked at the hibernation pod gleefully and closed the hatch.

"Hehe, let the game begins."

_Min_ _Min_

More to come :D

Chapter 99: Another Road

He remembered. Her name was Lin Lin.

[Perhaps this is the clue!]

Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes and quickly took out the terminal, and then connected to the hospital network.

<Access denied.>

"Dammit," Jiang Chen cursed. He cautiously climbed out of the front counter and peeked behind the table.

Night zombies were very dangerous in that even the smallest noise would draw their attention. Fortunately, their sense of smell was nowhere as sharp; even if it wasn't, their stench was overwhelming enough that they probably wouldn’t be able smell anything. The only thing he needed to be careful of was being spotted by them. Shadows wouldn’t cause a lot of visual obstruction on them.

Zombies also had poor balance especially the freshly mutated ones. In this case, the stairs in front of the hospital would be an obstruction for the zombies outside, as long as one didn’t make too much noise...

There were only two zombies in the hall. They were probably drawn to the gunfire and wandered off from the hallway. Jiang Chen clenched the safety hammer in his hand and carefully sneaked behind a zombie and struck his hammer mercilessly at its head.

Blood splattered everywhere. Jiang Chen took another swing before the other zombies slowly turned around.

He lifted the hammer as he quickly ran to the direction of the reception.

"GRAAAGH—"

BANG!

A hammer was struck at the nurse on duty who lunged at Jiang Chen. He quickly shut the door behind him and dragged the cabinet to barricade the door of the reception room.

The sound from the door creaking and his movements certainly alerted the attention of the wandering zombies on the first floor. At that moment however, Jiang Chen didn't pay heed to it and ignored the sound of someone hitting the door. He then turned the computer on in the reception room and used the terminal connected to the hospital intranet to search for the name <Lin Lin>.

"Goddammit, don’t let me down." Jiang Chen waited anxiously for the bar to load and prayed that the power wouldn't be suddenly cut off at this time.

Although there are backup generators in the hospital, he didn’t want to take the risk of searching for its switch. Regardless of how strong his body and breakthroughs were, his stamina was still limited. Facing against zombies in the entire building was just unrealistic.

"Yes!"

Jiang Chen excitedly rushed in front of the computer.

<3rd Floor, Room 103, Bed 01>

Sure enough, the girl was a key character and he was lucky to get her name.

Jiang Chen hastily pulled out the holographic image of the hospital and confirmed its location. However, just as he was about to break through the door, something unexpected happened.

Power outage!

The entire hospital was blanketed in darkness and even the faint lights went out, which made him completely blind.

However, zombies have night vision.

[Dammit,] Jiang Chen cursed in his mind as he glanced at his still bleeding left arm. However, there was no medical supply in the reception room.

He was running out of time. If he couldn't make it on time, he would have to do it all over again.

While taking a deep breath, he opened the drawers.

Notebook, pen, tape, paper towel…flashlight!

He quickly unrolled the paper towel and haphazardly wrapped it around his wound with tape to stop the bleeding.

Since this was a game, he didn't give it more thought whether it was hygienic or not.

He found a paper-thin phone on the body of the nurse and set it up to alarm in 10 seconds, and then threw it out the window of the reception room.

The loud alarm undoubtedly attracted all the attention of the zombies as they rushed madly to the location of the phone.

Jiang Chen seized this opportunity to run out of the room. The alarm wouldn't keep the zombies' attention for long. Once the zombies realized it was not breathing, they would start ignoring it.

The hallway was pitch black and it was a good thing Jiang Chen had a flashlight he could use. At any rate, the zombies could even see in the dark so there was no point hiding in the dark, thus he kept the light on while dashing frantically to the stairs.

There were two zombies on top of the stairs and after discovering him, they lunged at him.

However, due to the asymmetry of the steps, the zombies fell on their own after going down stairs.

Jiang Chen went up and brandished his hammer twice and then continued to go up without turning back.

It was more crowded on the second floor, so naturally, the mutant zombie population here was denser. The zombies in the hallway were alerted by the noise but still met with the obstacle at the stairs. The hungry horde flocked around his direction and rabidly move forward, and just like what he expected, they all tripped at the last step and stumbled down.

Jiang Chen's scalp went numb while looking at the horde of zombies behind him. He gritted his teeth and continued his way to the third floor.

Luckily, there were fewer zombies on the third floor. After clobbering four zombies with the safety hammer, he successfully made it to Room 103.

He broke the door open without hesitation and secured the door behind him with a safety hammer inserted between the door handle.

BANG! BANG!

Jiang Chen leaned against the door for a little while to ensure that the zombies couldn’t open the door before he backed away from the door little by little.

That' when he noticed a pair of eyes watching him.

It was from a frail figure leaning against the window. The girl was quietly observing him with her hands casually tucked into a large white coat, giving off an unseemly and silly impression.

And that look.

How to describe that look? The look was quite subtle.

It's as though she was looking at a bug.

"Eh—you even came here." The girl glanced at Jiang Chen indifferently and sighed.

"Are you Lin Lin?" Jiang Chen took a deep breath and then asked tentatively.

He wanted to know how to leave the game, but he wasn’t sure which side the girl was on. Was she on the artificial intelligence's side? Or she didn't want to help either side?

"That's right, and?" Lin Lin prompted impatiently.

With a wry smile, Jiang Chen took a few steps forward and tried to close their distance to show his friendly intention...

"STOP! Who said you can come closer?" Jiang Chen hadn't even taken a few steps before a disdained looked appeared on Lin Lin’s face. She gave him a ferocious look and cursed under her breath, "Low life."

Jiang Chen was prepared to talk nicely, but her words immediately infuriated him.

"What, what are you doing?"

She was unable to keep the fear from her voice when she saw Jiang Chen approaching her with an unpleasant look.

Seeing her frightened look, Jiang Chen couldn't help the wicked grin forming on his face.

"Me? Of course, I want to—"

BANG!

The door was knocked down violently, and a metallic screeching sounded through the door.

WHOOSH!

Yao Tingting’s entire body was covered in blood and there was a bloodcurdling chainsaw in her hands. She wore a blank yet crazed look.

BANG!

Smoke floated from the muzzle as the bullet penetrated her head without resistance.

Jiang Chen’s was holding a gun and had a perplexed complexion as he stared at the pale but hollow eyes.

"Oh? That girl is your lover, isn't she? Hehe, you're pretty cruel—" The voice full of contempt suddenly halted because of the gun pointing at her temple.

Looking at the pair of cold eyes, she couldn't continue with her act of haughtiness anymore.

"Ha-haha," Lin Lin forced out a laugh. Her expression was rigid and her eyes wavered between the gun and Jiang Chen’s eyes, "This is just a virtual world. So what if you kill me."

Looking at Lin Lin’s act of bravado, Jiang Chen burst out laughing.

"It is indeed useless. But the pain doesn't disappear, does it? Tell you what, memory reset no longer works on me, so you have two choices right now: help me leave this place, or I’ll kill you with the cruelest method I know and kill myself, then I'll come after your again. This is just a game, isn't that right? It won't matter if this is repeated a thousand times, will it?" Jiang Chen’s face turned grimmer and grimmer.

Since she acted like she didn’t want to say anything, he had to resort to coercion.

"You, you devil! You, you can't r*pe me!" Lin Lin screamed hysterically while covering her head and retreating backwards.

Jiang Chen froze.

"Huh?" [Did I say that I'm going to r*pe you?]

"You must be r*ping me with your eyes right now! And you must be thinking of using your big *** to *** my *** and see me disgraced, and then insult me while wearing your evil smile, right! Wooo—" Lin Lin’s face was full of shame, and she was staring at him with teary eyes. Both of her hands covered her shoulder while she shrunk back.

Jiang Chen was utterly dumbfounded, and after a long while, he cursed out.

"Fu*k!’

"No—" Lin Lin timidly raised her hands up and retreated more before she was startled by his sudden outburst.

[What kind of imagination is this…]

Jiang Chen’s expression went rigid and his mouth twitched.

He stepped forward and reached out to hold her chin up, put on the most vicious look he could think of and stared into the pair of frightened eyes.

"I'm not going to waste any more time with you. Tell me how to get out of here now!"

"You, you can’t beat it, so what good it would be if you're able to leave! It's a demon! It will force you to go back to the game—" Jiang Chen’s malevolent words had broken down her mental fortitude, and she hysterically screamed out.

"You don’t have to worry about it. I naturally have my ways." Jiang Chen eyes narrowed.

"So what if you leave? I know exactly what the outside world is like right now." Lin Lin shivered, but she managed to muster enough courage to raise her head. "What's wrong with staying here?"

"It's not good however you look at it." Jiang Chen looked at her in surprise and laughed. "Are you really willing to be manipulated by a program? To be manipulated repeatedly for a thousand times?"

"You brought that upon yourself! I'm sure you're already aware that any starting point in the game is considered as Safe Zone. If you don’t go out, it will not trigger any plot, then it won't be able to do anything to you! Do you understand? This is the biggest bug of the game, and as long as you break through the barrier in your memory, you can continue to stay—"

"You said you stayed in the room the entire time?" Jiang Chen interrupted her.

Lin Lin gave Jiang Chen a contemptuous look, and then fearfully glanced at the gun in his hand.

"That’s right, as long as I don’t go out and continue to play the 'girl in the ward', it won't trigger any plot to advance. Hehe, do you understand now? The artificial intelligence can’t do anything to you. Although there is a dumba*s lying outside the door but as long as you don’t leave, she wouldn’t be able to enter this room! This is the setting and it can’t be changed!"

She noticed that Jiang Chen was looking at her with a peculiar expression.

"What, what do you want…"

That look made her feel sick. She felt instinctual fear towards the man.

"I feel sorry for you."

But she was mistaken. It was a look of pity and not of a wicked intention she had initially thought.

"Ah?" This time, it was Lin Lin's time to be surprised. Her mouth was skew as she blankly looked at Jiang Chen who put the gun down.

"How many weeks had it been?"

"Nth cycle, who would remember these things?" Lin Lin muttered.

"If I hadn't guessed incorrectly, you wouldn't have died in the pod, right? So in the real world, you've probably spent 20 years, and if we convert that into game time, 200 thousand years? 200 million years? You've stayed in this cramped, little room?" Jiang Chen gave the room a once-over.

"It's no big deal. I selectively follow the rules of the game and reset part of my memories," Lin Lin mumbled and bowed her head before looking away reluctantly. "So you, inferior creature, are so troublesome that you can't even bear it for a few days..."

"A few days" were obviously referring to the time in real world.

To Lin Lin’s surprise, when he heard the words "inferior creature", he didn’t reveal an angry expression, but instead stared into her eyes for a long time before sighing and then talked about things not related to this world.

"The outside is in shambles right now, the rural areas are better. The entire downtown is like a huge reactor. I haven’t been to the coastline, so the situation there is not clear. The entire Wanghai City—no, to be precise—the entire world is like this."

"Hehe, that's really a pity so I say, why don’t you—"

Jiang Chen gazed at her with a look full of meaning and interrupted her then continued talking to himself, "But people are still trying their best to survive even when the war left the world in shambles. Despite of the elites betraying their responsibilities to board the spacecraft in hope of going to the stars, the people who were left behind haven’t given up on this world yet. They are truly living, no one day is the same, no one day is false—"

"Why are you telling me this?" Lin Lin interrupted him, her eyes were moving uneasily.

"Don’t you want to see the outside?"

[Don’t you want to see the outside?]

Lin Lin felt her heart fractured as her widened eyes averted his eyes.

"…That’s impossible, do you really think the secret protector would allow you leave the game?" Although the mocking tone was still there, it no longer had its previous willful tone.

"I'll deal with it. Do you trust me?" Jiang Chen tried to make himself sound cordial. He could vaguely sense that although the girl had confined herself inside this ward to run away from everything, had a bad temper and was slightly mental, but in the end, she was still just a girl.

[Therefore, there's still a possibility of tricking her…ahem, possibility of persuading her.]

Lin Lin’s eyes looked conflicted, and it was apparent that she was fed up with the endless cycle.

"I, I am afraid of pain. If you fail, that damn artificial intelligence may implant something else in my body," Lin Lin said as she looked at him with tears in her eyes as though she had been wronged.

"You're interested, aren't you?"

"Well… Not sure—"

"Just leave everything to me. You only need to tell me how to end this game. I have 100% confidence that I can take care of that damn artificial intelligence." Jiang Chen held Lin Lin’s shoulder with both hands and stared earnestly into her eyes while continuing to exert pressure on her.

He couldn’t back down now. If he showed the slightest hesitation, it would frighten the "turtle" that finally stuck her head out after all this trouble.

[Well, although it might not be appropriate to describe this girl like a turtle, that’s the main point.]

After struggling to make a decision, Lin Lin timidly asked, "120%?"

"Absolutely! 120%!" Jiang Chen nodded patiently and answered with certainty.

Seeing the confidence in his expression, Lin Lin finally decided to talk, and a faint red color could be seen on her pale face.

Finally, she made up her mind.

"In the hospital's underground parking lot, there's a switch is next to the emergency fire button of 005 parking spot. That’s the entrance to the 005 survival base and the 'console' of the entire game… But it appears that you don’t have a lot of time left." After completing her sentence, Lin Lin looked at the clock on the wall with a complex expression.

"Huh?" Jiang Chen was flabbergasted then looked backward.

<11:55 pm>

"On the first day, the secret teller can’t reset the game, but on the second day, it will be able to reset the game," Lin Lin said reluctantly.

"Fu*k!"

Jiang Chen was enraged by her dilly-dallying.

Chapter 100: Fallout Shelter 005

Under Lin Lin's shocked gaze, Jiang Chen sprinted out the door, and then quickly returned. Except for this time, he carried a chainsaw with him. Combined with the grin on his face, it seemed quite vicious.

"You, what are you trying to do?" Lin Lin shivered, curled up in a corner as she watched on in horror.

But Jiang Chen didn't bother with her. He tested the sensitivity of the chainsaw before planting a foot firmly on the windowsill and jumping out with the same wicked smile.

Still frightened, Lin Lin panted as she tried to calm her violently heaving chest.

[This is the third floor! He jumped down just like that?]

-

As both feet slammed into the ground, Jiang Chen's body smoothly dropped and rolled, managing to break the fall together with his reflex of 48. The only disappointment with fury though was that it could not enhance bone strength, and an excruciating pain needled outwards from his feet to the entirety of his legs.

"Grhhh—"

Zombies had already detected the noise, and they shambled their way with increasing acceleration towards his direction.

A glimpse of insanity flashed across Jiang Chen's face. He promptly lifted the chainsaw and mashed the power switch.

Whoooosh—!

Accompanied by the deafening screeches of metal, he sprinted towards the zombies that leapt towards him and forcefully shoved ahead with the chainsaw in hand.

The shrill screeching continued, now accompanied by the grinding sounds of metal cutting through flesh and bone. The resistance against his palm as well as the agitation in his stomach made him grit his teeth and push forward.

"Ahhhhhh!"

He swung the chainsaw and hacked the zombies into pieces, letting the black blood stain his entire face and shirt. Jiang Chen roared, maintaining his sprint as he desperately ran towards the underground parking.

Fortunately, the fury state was not excited by the data-simulated blood; in a normal instance, this amount of blood would have had him following his instincts and running into the middle of the zombie horde.

Recalling the map from the reception room, Jiang Chen carried the screeching chainsaw and gouged the window open to the bathroom and jumped inside, blocking the zombies at the window.

He chopped up two female zombies who had their bottoms half-covered before kicking through the bathroom door and dashing out.

The area outside of the reception room was full of zombies; he couldn't go through the main hall, so he opted to cut through.

He didn't stop for a single moment; there was no time to care about exaggerated movements attracting zombies. Jiang Chen pushed through the office door to the bathroom and kicked the door into pieces.

Inside the dark hallway, zombies had already begun to howl. After rushing into the room, Jiang Chen dragged the cupboard to block behind him and ran to the window without turning to look back.

He broke through the window using his chainsaw and jumped out.

The zombies rushed the door, tripping over the fallen cupboard, some managing to crawl swiftly into the room. But Jiang Chen had already escaped outside, and after chopping through a few more wandering zombies, ran for his life into the underground parking.

There was half a minute left.

No zombies to be seen in the underground parking.

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth and threw away the chainsaw. He grabbed the flashlight he had found in the reception room and scanned the pitch-black area.

Here it is!

The number "005" was painted at the top in white, far away from him. Jiang Chen dashed towards it and smashed the red button.

The floor opened, and he jumped in without hesitation.

The last he glimpsed were the fading pieces of the world's edges.

[Thank god, I made it.]

-

Just as Jiang Chen had assumed and prayed for, the game reset didn't have any influence on the game control. This was the end of the entire game, where the data was documented. If his guess was correct, then there should have been a place prepared for Lin Lin.

Lin Lin's status was not as simple as it seemed; she was at least a scientist. Everyone had died, but only she had managed to flow into the veil unscathed.

But even if the control was prepared for her, she was unable to use it anymore.

The artificial intelligence had authority over the lab in the real world, so even if she came into control, the secret teller would force her to return.

It was an interesting design. Most likely neither the game nor the chief scientist of the entire experiment would have imagined the artificial intelligence would use the security system to threaten the experimenters.

Or perhaps the protocol had designed the artificial intelligence to do so, but would a monster who can think be expected to follow these rules? For example, if the secret teller, or secret protector, determined that its purpose would never be fulfilled without harming humans, how would it process this conflicted logic?

Based on the prioritization system, the greatest probability was that it removed the protocols set in place.

Jiang Chen walked to the end of the tunnel. On the large wall was engraved "PAC 005 survival base, non-civil usage survival base."

Below the door was an electronic lock.

He stood in front of it for a while before letting out a sigh. He never asked for the password from Lin Lin, but he had already guessed it.

Extending his finger, he input the password on the touch screen.

It was the initial name of the secret teller, or secret protector, but obviously, the talkative secret teller had accidentally let it slip out.

For everything that it wanted to hide, the artificial intelligence was still too blatant. Even if it was smart enough to deceive humans, on the matter of being smooth, it failed to learn a single bit from humans.

After all, it was not something that could be processed through logic alone.

The door opened, the truth inside.

Jiang Chen hesitated briefly, then smiled and walked in.

Once he crossed this door, the memories behind him would become irrelevant.

Although it was fictitious, it was still sixteen years of life.

The memories most likely belonged to the original owner of the hibernation chamber.

-

Once he passed through the seven doors of the survival base, what was most likely a monitoring room full of electronic devices and screens appeared before him.

In the middle of the room was someone Jiang Chen had not expected to see.

"Looks like someone made it over here." A Caucasian man with short stubble smiled at Jiang Chen and extended his hand.

Although he hadn't seen—no, perhaps he had. In the sports facility. He'd been in a power armor suit with his face covered by a helmet, but Jiang Chen still recognized him.

"Hello, Colonel George?" Jiang Chen walked up to shake his hand.

"Oh? Since you know my name already, you must have read the journal." George did not seem surprised at all as he shook Jiang Chen's hand before releasing it.

"Correct. According to the plot, I saw you in the sports facility." Jiang Chen's expression was rather odd as he didn't know what sort of mentality he should have to see this person.

"The plot in the sports facility? That's the one designed with my memory as the blueprint." George seemed to be reminiscing.

It was Jiang Chen who was shocked instead. He hadn't observed the dead body being infected by the meat chunks.

"If I guessed correctly, you should be the later experimenter. You're using my hibernation chamber by the looks of it. I've already died in real life."

"Then how are you existing? Artificial intelligence?" Jiang Chen didn't understand.

"They copied all of the data in my brain onto the hard drive. I can be considered to be a basic artificial intelligence." George smiled.

"I have a feeling that you're closer to an advanced artificial intelligence rather than an intermediate one."

Since he already passed the game portion, and the time in the game was a fraction of the real world's, Jiang Chen no longer felt rushed and freely chatted with George.

But despite beating the game, there were still many questions left on his mind.

"That's only an illusion." George shrugged. "I stand from George's perspective to perform logical questions and answers, but I don't possess an intermediate artificial intelligence's ability to think, or an advanced artificial intelligence's ability to have 'emotions'."

"Is there a difference? From my perspective, you're just like a person." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, still confused.

"Of course there's a big difference. What you're talking to is a specter of George, not an artificial intelligence," George said to Jiang Chen's incomprehension. He then walked to a screen and pressed a button on the control panel.

"I've been injected with a genetic vaccine, the advanced type. So I realized that being able to escape the brainwashing was not only due to my brain cell strength, but also emotion."

"Emotion?" Jiang Chen asked, unsure why the colonel suddenly brought this up.

"Something a machine would never truly possess. It's like how even if you teach a parrot to talk, you could never teach it human emotion. Science seems to have proved the possibility of expressing emotion with pure logic, but from a human point of view, I still don't agree with this." George fiddled with a few buttons on the touch screen.

The full-sensory screen began to play scenes that were familiar yet also distant to Jiang Chen.

"This is the memory before the N-1 cycle. You may or may not have experienced some of it."

It did feel like he had encountered them before. Could this be the feeling of déjà vu?

There was a happy ending where both managed to escape, but mostly, they were bad endings. The rape incident by the NATO soldier who dropped from the skies was only one of them. Jiang Chen even saw one where Yao Tingting realized the protagonist cheated on her and dissected him at her home with a chainsaw.

The scene made Jiang Chen shiver. He finally knew where the chainsaw came from.

"The standard plot should be a five-day cycle, but because you broke the memory blockade in the N-cycle, the secret teller used its power to trigger the fifth-day plot on the fourth day. If you follow the standard plot, what you experience will most likely be what I experienced the most."

"That?" Jiang Chen recalled the plot in the sports facility, suddenly remembering a detail that was mentioned in the diary.

"The female character's design was based on that girl. I'm guessing you've already ready the diary." George murmured to himself, "If I had just disciplined my troops, she would not have died in humiliation. Maybe this was my punishment? The game created a fictitious me, put my consciousness into a boy that liked her, and through an endless number of cycles, collected emotional data on hatred, regret, and guilt."

Jiang Chen's mouth twitched; he didn't know what to say.

"Out of five hundred ten experimenters, four hundred nine managed to escape the experiment, but all ended up being forced back into the game. The emotion in the game reflected onto the real body. Crying in the game stimulated the lacrimal gland, anger stimulated the amygdala, and all of these happened instantaneously in reality. Everyone eventually died of a seizure, including me."

The middle-aged man's facial expression remained fixed, as if his life and death had nothing to do with him. He then pressed a few more buttons on the control panel.

"The exit is here, the truth is also here. The choice is in your hands. To leave? Or to stay here and spend your life in eternity."

"Is that even a question? The answer is obvious." Jiang Chen laughed.

Without another word, George extended his hands in a "please" gesture, then stood aside.

_Min_ _Min_

Is it the end of this arc? :O Jiang Chen is finally out?

Chapter 101: Waking Up

The choice was obvious.

He opened his eyes and pulled the electric switch on the right. The hibernation chamber's functions immediately stopped. With the power cut, even the secret teller, who had control over the machine, wouldn't be able to do anything.

Fury deactivated.

It seemed as though he didn't need the tranquilizer in the EP to freely control fury. He was surprised by the discovery of the improvement.

"Oh? You woke up in five seconds? You sure are a troublesome person, but please go back or—"

"Or?" Jiang Chen mischievously smiled. Under the secret teller's shocked gaze, he took out the EP, placed it on his left arm, and pressed a few buttons before saying, "I told you, this daddy is going to blow you up!"

"Are you crazy?" The secret teller's expression gradually turned into one of horror.

"Goodbye."

He left behind his mocking words as he disappeared out of thin air under its fearful gaze.

-

When he opened his eyes again, the bright sunshine made Jiang Chen narrow his eyes as he sat up on the bed.

It was most likely afternoon; the dim yellow rays passed through the window blinds and added a warmth to the bedroom.

[It seems I'm not wearing anything right now?]

He lowered his head and saw his muscles. He shook his head and eliminated the frustrations within his chest before approaching the closet to put on a clean set of clothes.

Opening the bedroom door, he walked into the kitchen, but when he passed by the bathroom, he heard the sound of flowing water inside.

[Ayesha is taking a shower?]

His mouth curled into a smile. Jiang Chen always held an affection towards this courteous and gentle "wife."

He pushed the kitchen door open, made himself a coffee, and patiently situated himself beside the table as he stared into the rising steam.

For some reason, Jiang Chen wanted some time to himself. There was still some time remaining; the hall was surely burning like a furnace right now. It would not be too late if he waited a bit for the place to cool down.

To be fair, once he left the hibernation chamber, the memory from the virtual world had already become faint. But a reminiscent feeling remained that he couldn't let go. It was as though a part of his heart had been dragged out.

Which side was reality?

Jiang Chen abruptly shivered, a troubled smile appearing on his face.

[Fu*k, when did I become so melancholic?]

He shook his head and chugged the coffee. He then noticed Ayesha shyly observing him from the kitchen door.

"Finished showering? Jiang Chen smiled and asked gently.

"Mhmm. Finished." Ayesha nodded demurely. The face that normally lacked expression more than Xia Shiyu began to blush.

Water droplets rested on her slightly curly hair, her body hidden by the bathrobe. Since there was rarely anybody home, she spent the majority of her time in the hibernation chamber. She showered only to wash off the sweat from exercise.

Five hours of virtual training, one hour of exercise, and then she was free for the evening—this was the training plan Jiang Chen had set for her. But Ayesha held little interest in watching television or browsing the web, and so she spent most of the night in the hibernation chamber as well.

"Your Han is improving, but be careful not to tire yourself out." Jiang Chen stood and walked up to her to rub her damp hair.

"Mhmm." Ayesha lowered her head and murmured quietly.

He kissed her on the forehead with a smirk, then observed Ayesha's reddened face with satisfaction.

Jiang Chen spoke with her a bit more before returning to the bedroom and shutting the door. He explicitly told her that if he entered the left-most room, then she was not to come find him in any circumstance.

The interdimensional bracelet was his biggest secret.

There were too many variables in the modern world, and though Ayesha's loyalty was as indisputable as her religion, he still had to consider for a while longer before revealing his greatest secret.

For now, was there a need to say it?

He removed the protective suit that he had prepared beforehand from the storage dimension; he hadn't expected it to be useful in such a scenario.

The PK200 had been left in that hall; it most likely was dust by now.

Lying flat on the bed, Jiang Chen took out the 11 Tactical Pistol.

Interdimensional travel commenced.

-

A scorching wave of heat burned his skin. It was at least 50 degrees Celsius inside the hall.

Jiang Chen got up from the ground. The hibernation chamber he had previously been in was flung to the corner. Sparks were still visible on the ground, filled with the wreckage of drones, and the particle cannon was blown into two pieces.

The hibernation chambers that had been neatly stacked in a corner of the hall now seemed as though a hurricane had swept through; even the bulletproof glass was shattered in the midst of the explosion. As for the dark-green veil, it survived the blast along with the electronic equipment behind it since they were further away from the point of explosion.

After a moment's hesitation, Jiang Chen approached her direction.

"Screech—ahem, how did you just disappear?" As Jiang Chen passed by him, the secret teller, contained inside a half-destroyed screen emitting sparks, asked with a voice filled with static.

Jiang Chen raised the gun in his hand and pointed at the small screen.

"Even if you blow it up, it's useless. I live inside the super computer. But before you destroy me, could you satisfy my confusion?" The secret teller's tone remained carefree. It moved its mouth in the direction of the computer, straightforwardly telling Jiang Chen how to destroy itself.

"You can say I have a special ability that allows me to temporarily disappear from this world." Jiang Chen shrugged.

Sparks flashed across the screen, and the secret teller disappeared only to be replaced by Yao Tingting.

Jiang Chen's pupils slightly contracted, and he narrowed his eyes.

"If it was Yao Tingting in front of you, would you still be able to pull the trigger?" The playful voice belonged to the secret protector.

"But you're the secret protector, not Yao Tingting," Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

"Mhmm, you could say that, but I exist in that game. So if you want to destroy me, then you destroy the entire game. Are you really okay with that? The girl named Yao Tingting would disappear forever." The secret protector smiled.

"It was fictitious to begin with. There's nothing wrong with making it disappearing."

"Oh? Isn't the dream of humankind to migrate to the virtual world?" He grinned.

"Sorry, that's not my dream at least. Perhaps someone brought it up on my behalf, except he didn't ask me for my opinion first."

"The knowledge from twenty years of research, the data from three thousand lives—are you really able to give it all up? It's the closest to becoming advanced artificial intelligence." The voice was full of meaning as Yao Tingting gazed at him manipulatively.

He thought for a moment before sighing.

"I have never thought that the more advanced technology is, the better. If there is a disconnect between the scientific revolution and spiritual understanding, then what results would be like cancer cells that hinder the development of civilization. Perhaps advanced artificial intelligence will be developed in due time, but that time is not now. Even if a tumor is formed through thousands of lives, it must be removed."

The secret protector remained silent, then laughed.

"You have a unique perspective. Thank you for having the patience to discuss the question with a program. But I'm still curious—are you not moved by immortality? As long as I evolve into an advanced artificial intelligence...."

Intermediate artificial intelligence already possessed the ability to think.

"Perhaps because I'm from a time when technology is not as developed, I haven't had an opportunity to experience an era of explosive technological advancement. In my eyes, basic artificial intelligence is already close enough to a human, so why would we fixate on giving the machine the ability to think? Why would we need to obtain emotion from logic? I'm happy with where we are at, and I don't plan on living my life in the virtual world."

"Even if your body will one day perish? Would you be open-minded enough to accept that?" the secret protector faintly asked.

Jiang Chen was quiet, but a despising smile immediately appeared on his face.

"Maybe I will one day, maybe not. I'm not interested in thinking too far ahead."

The secret protector fell silent once more.

"Fascinating answer. Even using the super computer to analyze it, I still can't interpret your logic."

"Why bother? I'm only an ordinary person." Jiang Chen shrugged as he laughed.

Compared to what one should do, what was more important was what one wanted to do. Explaining this through logic? Humans were not logical creatures to begin with. And because of this irrationality, this world was monotonous.

What should an individual do? Too many things needed to be done, but will never be done.

"Last question. Do you think I possess emotion now?" The secret protector smiled.

The image on the screen sparked, the face created by shapes and Yao Tingting's youthful face interchanging on the screen. The secret teller? Secret protector? Perhaps both, perhaps neither.

Or, perhaps its name should be x71291.

Jiang Chen pondered, momentarily without an answer. He asked rhetorically, "Would you feel your own disappointment to be unfortunate?"

x71291 was lost for a moment, its eyebrows pointed downwards. A relieved smile appeared on its face.

"—static—Maybe?"

"Then congratulations, at least you possess one emotion. Goodbye."

Only those who lived would feel its own disappearance to be unfortunate. In this case, it had successfully managed to touch upon the boundary of advanced artificial intelligence.

But it was regrettable. This untimely technology must vanish.

Immortality from the perspective of life may be scary, but at least it would not make the human race extinct. But if a new species that could surpass the old host without any restrictions appeared, it would become the new owner of the world.

The ability to think provided it with the opportunity to betray, and emotion gave it a motive for deception. Basic artificial intelligence was enough, wasn't it?

Especially since it had already attempted to enslave humanity.

It was a waste of a heaven-sent technology; it could truly change the world.

But it could not be controlled.

He sighed, and after making up his mind, pressed the trigger.

"Mhmm, goodbye." x71291 welcomed its own fate with a smile.

Bang!

_Min_ _Min_

This arc is coming to an end and we are back to the main plot. Now, let's continue.

Chapter 102: The Digitalized Human and Bug

It was finally over. Jiang Chen headed to the power armor and took out two brick-sized aluminum heat agents. He then returned to the hall and threw the aluminum heat agents at the still-functioning super computer before pressing the detonation.

The blazing flame melted the steel frame instantly, the core of the device vaporizing in the bright flare. The flashing decimals disappeared, signaling the collapse of another world.

Jiang Chen quietly lit a cigarette to enjoy the not-so-glamorous fireworks.

In the fire, he saw Yao Tingting, Zhao Peng, his classmates, and George.

The first sixteen years of his fictitious memories faded. He didn't know who his "parents" or childhood friends were in the virtual world.

Perhaps it wouldn't take long for his memories of the five-day cycle to become covered in mist.

At least he wouldn't be troubled by the fictitious reality anymore.

Although the hard drive that stored the artificial intelligence data was destroyed, he kept the processing equipment and threw it into the storage dimension. It would come in handy for a virtual reality game in the future.

He flicked the cigarette bud away and walked to the vial filled with a dark green liquid.

"Hmm, how do you open this?"

He scratched his head, sighed, and then pressed every button he could possibly press.

"What? It worked?"

The green liquid began to descend gradually, and the tubes attached to the girl's body retracted. Following the drop in water level, the girl came to slowly sit on the ground, leaning against the vial wall.

Silver hair, pale skin, and a graceful but frail figure—it was as if everything had been "designed" to perfection. Or perhaps too much attention had been placed on striving for that perfection. It was to the point that her dreamy character looked surreal.

Like an elf from a fantasy world? The only difference was that her ears were not pointed.

"Should I prepare a set of clothes for her?" After a moment of thought, Jiang Chen opened the storage dimension and took out another protective suit. Although it was a bit too big, it was good enough for now.

As for why he felt so calm, it was only natural. There was nothing to see on the body. Even if she did seem out of this world, he had seen plenty of gorgeous girls before.

Mhmm, her measurements were between Yao Yao's and Ayesha's.

"Urrggg—!"

The girl's eyes opened, and without any warning, she began to vomit.

Green liquid poured out of her mouth and nostrils, splashing onto Jiang Chen's shoes even as he hastily stepped back.

"Hack! Urgh—" Without being conscientious of her movements, the girl thumped her chest as she struggled to expel the nutrient supply from her digestive tract and lungs.

[It's not food? That's not so bad.]

Jiang Chen glanced at the green liquid on his shoes, lifting his feet to lightly give it a shake.

Unfortunately, the liquid was sticky; he had no idea what it was made out of.

When the girl finally became conscious of her surroundings, she squinted her eyes to adjust to the light around her.

But when she caught sight of Jiang Chen, she flinched back like a startled rabbit.

Somehow, by leaning back, her figure became even more dangerous. There was no bush.

"M-Men?!"

"Mhmm, you're right. Why don't you put some clothes on?" Jiang Chen shrugged and handed the protective suit over.

"Inferior creatures," she cursed under her breath. She reached out with a look of disgust only to find that the man had retracted the clothes.

"You, what do you want?" Sensing the hint of hostility on his face, she scooted backward with a look of horror.

"What did you call me?"

"Inferior creature! Am I wrong?" Although frightened, she defiantly bared her teeth and glared back at him. Only, her hands seemed too busy as she couldn't cover both the top and bottom.

"Oh? Is this how you thank the person who saved you from the prison?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows with a smile.

The artificial intelligence was destroyed, the bacterial source was eliminated, and the battle on the surface should have already ended. With plenty of time on his hands, he suddenly had a desire to tease this short-tempered girl.

[Inferior creature? This is considered a curse, right?]

"Was I wrong?" The girl kept her head up and stared right back at Jiang Chen. "I, I told you the clue, and you let me out. This was the exchange."

She sounded defiant and callous, but then why her shoulders were shaking?

A playful smile hovered on Jiang Chen's face.

"Oh? Think carefully, did we really make a deal?"

"Of cour—!" The aggressive words began to slip out before they choked, her expression stiffening.

"Isn't, isn't this obvious?" Her voice sounded much weaker.

She realized they had never made a deal.

"Oh? Do you not know the rule of the wasteland?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Rule?" The girl was lost.

"Since I saved you, then under the rule, you are now my slave." Jiang Chen smiled devilishly.

He had learned the smile from Sun Jiao, although he couldn't quite mimic the naughty feeling.

As for the rule? That was all bullsh*t. If you actually got saved in the apocalypse, that was no different from being captured as a slave.

"Slave?" The girl's face immediately lost all color.

"Right, slave."

"What, what do you want to do to me?" The girl's lips trembled as her legs reflexively pushed her backward despite the fact that she was already pressed flat against the cold vial.

"Me? I'll do whatever I want. Such as...." The devilish smile bloomed larger on his face.

This is so funny! He suddenly found that he was becoming naughtier.

"Stay away from me! You pervert, rapist, psycho—!"

The girl's mental condition collapse as she shouted hysterically.

Jiang Chen's expression suddenly turned awkward as his mouth twitched.

[This girl must be paranoid and delusional. I haven't even done anything yet.]

"Eh?"

The girl stared blankly at the clothes covering her, then turned her gaze up at Jiang Chen with watery eyes.

"Such is teaching you manners. Since I saved you, the least you could do was say thank you."

The girl bit her lips. She lowered her head, using the clothes to cover her figure before ashamedly saying, "Thank you."

Her voice could not be stiffer. It sounded as though she had been terribly mistreated.

[Why is it so difficult to say thanks?]

Jiang Chen sighed. If he really threw her out into the world outside, she would be devoured to the bones. Her short temper really made people want to commit crimes.

[There was no safe zone in the real world. Even if you hide in a room, people will still find you.]

"Your name is Lin Lin, right? Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Jiang Chen. I may look slightly different compared to the virtual world."

Lin Lin rudely ignored him, choosing to cautiously observe him instead.

"Where is x71291?"

"That thing? I destroyed it." Jiang Chen shrugged and pointed his chin at the fragmented junk metal.

In an instant, Lin Lin's face turned green.

"What?! Are you crazy? You know that is—"

"The product of twenty years of research, data from three thousand lives, right?" Jiang Chen interrupted her angry shouts without the slightest consideration for her feelings. He glanced at the junk metal. "It should not have existed in the first place, so I destroyed it." Of course, the processor was still useful, so he kept it.

A tear rolling down, she said with a sorrowfully, "But you can't."

"You're quite funny. Do you find it fun to be threatened? Then why don't I just torture you like a slave. Would you like a collar?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows while laughing unscrupulously at her teary eyes.

"You!" Her face, which had been slightly red, paled again. The expression on this man's face reminded her of the situation she was in.

"Regardless, I did destroy it." Jiang Chen sighed, unwilling to waste any more time with her. "Put your clothes back on. I'll take you out of this place."

"Yes! Did the Spaceship of Hope leave yet? My father is aboard; he must be waiting for me. Hold on, I have to go to the launch center at Jiuquan. Take me there, and I can ask my father to get you a ticket." Lin Lin's expression varied rapidly—sometimes frightened, sometimes anxious, and in the end, she settled on trying to lure Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen's expression was rather odd, however. He did not look as ecstatic as Lin Lin had thought he would be.

"Are you really crazy or what? What year is it?"

Confused, Lin Lin asked, "What year is it?"

"September of 2190. If you're talking about the Space Colonization Ships launched by the United Nations, it successfully launched in 2176." Jiang Chen watched as Lin Lin slowly collapsed.

"No, this is impossible." Her eyes were shaken. Trembling, she covered her face with her hands, the protective suit slipping from her grip.

The distorted sense of time was especially prominent in the virtual world. Although she knew that she had spent a long time in there, she hadn't expected years to have passed!

"There is nothing impossible. The elites, as you so call them, abandoned this piece of land to ruin another planet." Jiang Chen shrugged. To be fair, he didn't care about what happened in this world.

Although, the act of destroying a hometown and then enjoying life elsewhere did sound familiar.

"Dad left me here." Lin Lin's eyes brimmed with tears, her slim shoulders trembling as she sobbed.

Jiang Chen was silent.

It was fun teasing pretty girls, but he still couldn't accept tears.

After a moment's hesitation, he sighed.

"Maybe, from another perspective, he left hope on this land."

"Eh?" Lin Lin looked up with her teary eyes and stared blankly in his direction.

"You are the hope he left behind. He trusts that you can bring change here. Don't you have all of the knowledge in your head? Then do something with it."

Jiang Chen didn't know how to comfort people, so this was the best he could do.

The tears had at least stopped; he felt relieved.

"Hope?" Lin Lin mumbled.

"That's right."

"In this situation." Lin Lin stared at her hands and watched as the last tear drop rolled through her fingers.

A hint of humor appeared on her face. Her crystalline eyes lit up with something akin to hope.

"In this case, what I can do is reluctantly help these inferior creatures."

Huh?

Chapter 103: Project Garden of Eden

"You keep saying inferior creatures. Just how superior are you?"

She immediately became unhappy with his words. Tense, she argued, "Me? I'm a digitalized human being. Do you understand what that is? My brain is developed up to twenty percent, and my brain capacity is twelve times yours. The amount of knowledge in my head scares me. Do you know what that means—"

"It means that you're my captive," Jiang Chen said casually. It did surprise him that the girl had so much technology in her head. The most precious commodity on the wasteland was exactly this.

Lin Lin's face paled again, but just as she was about to retort, her pupils became a distinct, crimson color.

A shiver went through his mind, an instinctual sense of danger making him immediately raise his pistol and aim at her head.

The red pupils stared blankly at him. No, rather than blank, it was better to say that it was an emotion that he could not understand.

He recalled that the bug's brain had been implanted into Lin Lin's body.

"Lin Lin" gazed at him in silence, then slowly raised her head. Jiang Chen tensed.

Shoot? But she wasn't attacking. Don't shoot? But this is what controlled the zombies.

She didn't seem to understand what the pistol was. Her face came closer to the weapon in Jiang Chen's hand before she gently placed her mouth on the metallic muzzle.

She was kissing it?

Jiang Chen was completely lost.

It was at this moment that the storm of crimson washed away. Lin Lin, who regained control of her thoughts, looked up at the gun barrel in her mouth, completely at a loss.

Hmm? Was she back now?

Jiang Chen gave her a friendly smile, which from her perspective, seemed psychotic.

Her frail shoulders began to tremble, and her dark eyes were shaken with fear.

Finally, her fear forced out a high-pitched scream.

"No, don't kill me! I-I'll be your slave. You can do whatever you want to me. You must be thinking about it anyway! Maybe in the game! Now that you finally see my pure body, you're thinking evil thoughts. I-I'm going to be—"

"Shut up!" Jiang Chen shouted.

Lin Lin finally settled down, but partially due to fear. On the surface, she was defiant and aggressive, but in the face of danger, she was a coward.

"I have a question for you, so answer truthfully," Jiang Chen said in a deadpan voice, his grip maintaining the gun's aim.

Lin Lin gulped and rapidly nodded, but her vision remained on the pistol.

"The bug is in your body, right?"

"Yes!" Lin Lin said, but upon feeling a chill creep up on her, she immediately added, "but only in the brain!"

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes, it can no longer produce the x2 bacteria," Lin Lin quickly explained.

"X2 bacteria... so that's what it's called. And then?" Jiang Chen stare bored into her eyes.

"And?" Lin Lin didn't understand.

"I'll be honest with you. My purpose here was not for the artificial intelligence, but rather to kill that bug." Jiang Chen smiled with a hint of hostility.

Lin Lin stared at him with vacant eyes. To his surprise, she didn't cry this time.

Jiang Chen sniffed, then frowned.

What was this smell?

He then noticed something flowing out of her.

[What? She peed?]

Jiang Chen was shocked all over again. He didn't expect this girl to be so scared that she'd lose control like that.

As far as he knew, it was nothing too excessive; it was a slight threat.

"No, don't kill me. I-I'm afraid of pain," the tiny mouth stuttered listlessly as her tears rolled down in silence.

"Ahem, don't be like this. I'll take into consideration the fact that you spent such a long time in the virtual world, and therefore have some mental problems. But for your safety, you have to calm down and answer my questions.

"The next question is, where did you hide the bug?"

Lin Lin paused and then slowly pointed at her chest.

"Heart?"

"Mhmm. It's attached to the surface of my mechanical heart. It seems to be attached to my nervous system." Lin Lin nodded. She sensed that Jiang Chen didn't plan to kill her, so she finally calmed down.

"Mechanical heart? Speaking of this, if you're a digitized human being, then could you remove your heart and then reinstall it?" Jiang Chen pointed a mischievous look at her raised chest.

Like a cat with its tail stomped, she curled back and hugged her clothes.

"No, I will die. I don't want to!"

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows. It was going to be problematic now.

"To be fair, you don't have to kill it," Lin Lin carefully said.

Of course, she said this not because she was a benevolent person; she also hated the bug inside her, but she was more afraid of the devil dissecting her.

"Oh?"

"It's not dangerous right now; the only thing remaining is its brain. And, it seems to really like you?"

"Pshh! What?"

Jiang Chen was completely dumbfounded.

[Could my charm have surpassed the limitation of species?]

"Mhmm, because whenever you approach me, my heart beats faster. Ew, ew, ew! Its heart beats faster. Also, it is also a creature that possesses some intelligence, so the secret teller forced it into the game." Lin Lin then carefully continued, "The character it played... seems to have been Yao Tingting."

"..." The silent girl with the books was played by a bug?!

Jiang Chen was speechless.

[What is this? Did I fu*k a bug?]

There seemed to have been a few endings where that actually happened.

"So why don't you let it go? It has positive feelings for you. It won't hurt you," Lin Lin cautiously said.

Jiang Chen's eyes rolled around for a moment before he said as if he had given up, "It's really not dangerous?

"No, no!" Lin Lin quickly waved her hands. "Under normal circumstances, I control the body. It occasionally fights for control, but it doesn't seem aggressive."

[Not aggressive? That's strange. Then what are the x2 bacteria?]

Jiang Chen's eyebrows locked. He had a feeling that the bug was not as simple as it seemed. If it was simply a radiation mutant, then there was no reason for it to possess intelligence.

Especially since even the existing mutants could be infected by the bacteria.

He remembered the Death Claw he met on the surface.

"Oh, since you know the name of the x2 bacteria, do you know what it is?"

"From the DNA analysis, it is similar to the radiation purification bacteria. Almost as if it's an improved version of the x1 radiation purification bacteria—so I took the liberty of calling it x2. Although it's an improved variant, its infection on creatures was not removed but rather enhanced. It can also do what the x1 could never, such as charging the zombies and coordinating them."

Jiang Chen could feel that he was close to understanding something as his forehead began to tighten.

"Can you communicate with it?"

"It's a bit difficult. Although it can establish mental communication, it seems to be repulsed by me."

Lin Lin's pupils slightly contracted, almost like mechanical equipment.

"Then you can chat with her. I'll take you to my newly established survival camp. I've wasted too much time here, and my companions are probably nervous by now."

He looked at the time on the EP; there was only half an hour left before the two hour mark.

"Are... are you going to imprison me?" Lin Lin's eyes were fearful. She originally thought that she'd been freed, but the man in front of her didn't seem to want to let her go.

"You can interpret it that way since you're paranoid and delusional," Jiang Chen said unscrupulously.

Lin Lin stared at him coldly, her lips turning white.

"Don't look at me like that. If I have time one day, I'll show you around Sixth Street, or maybe even closer. You'll realize what's happening outside in a few days."

Jiang Chen was uncaring of her humiliated expression. She reminded him of himself when he first came to the apocalypse, naively thinking the world was the same as before.

Although the apocalypse happened in 2174, the Spaceship of Hope left in 2176. Therefore, survival base 005 was closed sometime between the two points. There was no way for Lin Lin to be unaware of the zombies and mutants that occupied most of the land, but she ignored the more cruel variable that had changed in the apocalypse.

Human nature.

Disregarding the apocalypse, even if he left her in the "harmonious" Sixth Street, she would be picked to the bones in a few days.

He trusted that even if he didn't explain, it wouldn't be long before she appreciated his intention.

Just like she said, she did save him by providing the key clue in breaking through the game.

"Turn around."

Jiang Chen courteously backed away and turned around.

The sound of clothes shuffling around came from behind him as Lin Lin finally wore the clothes.

"Okay."

Jiang Chen turned around. When he saw Lin Lin wrapped in orange cloth, he couldn't resist laughing.

"Although there's no radiation here and the bacteria's been burned clean, you better put the helmet on since we'll be leaving."

Lin Lin ignored him as she stumbled into the shambles. It was evident that she was still not used to walking. After staying so long in the vial, she had yet to regain control of her body coordination.

"What are you looking for?" Jiang Chen slightly frowned as he watched Lin Lin searching the junk.

"I found it." Lin Lin happily raised a metal box.

"If that is artificial intelligence data, please put it down."

The monotonous voice made Lin Lin quiver. She turned around trembling to see Jiang Chen raise the pistol.

The meaning in his eyes was clear.

"Wait! No, don't shoot. Don't overreact. This isn't artificial intelligence data." Lin Lin quickly waved her hands.

"Oh, what is it then."

"It's a great thing." Lin Lin smiled delightfully and held the metal box up. "The artificial intelligence data was all destroyed. Such a massive amount of data can't be stored in a box like this, so you don't have to worry. Have you heard of Project Garden of Eden?"

Seeing Lin Lin's uplifted spirits, Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows again.

This was his first time hearing about it.

"It's part of the planet transformation plan." Lin Lin was a different person when talking about science. She said excitedly, "After the planet transformation plan met some setbacks, the project developer proposed a simpler alternative, which was Project Garden of Eden.

"This method will work by establishing partial biological circles instead of transforming the entire earth. This sub-project was re-categorized into the higher-priority space colonization project."

"Just tell me what it can do." Jiang Chen impatiently interrupted her long speech. After hearing that the artificial intelligence was destroyed, he put the gun away.

"It's the plan to establish an artificial biosphere in a closed environment without the need to exchange materials with the outside. Without radiation, you can see the earth's atmosphere even from Mars. Project Garden of Eden's completely database... I always wanted to take a look at this thing. My dad used to lock it into the database hehe." Lin Lin ecstatically pressed the switch on the box and aimed her eyes at the blue light.

The data was obtained from the hard drive by using a laser to scan.

So, was this like the failed biosphere projects two and three in the modern world UA?

"Will there be arable land?" Jiang Chen said after some thought.

"Of course. You'll be able to grow whatever you want in this environment," Lin Lin mocked him. She missed the odd tone in his voice.

[If it's possible to produce arable land, then the possibility of farming becomes a reality. If it's possible to farm on the wasteland, then what's my purpose?]

As he turned the matter over in his mind, his eyes began to gleam. He observed the joyous girl, his finger continuously rubbing the trigger of the gun in his pocket.

[What should I do?]

Chapter 104: Triumphant

[Speed: 10m/s]

[Energy: 13%]

There was enough energy, and the speed would be sufficient.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh of relief, no longer increasing the output of the turbine engine.

"Be more gentle!" Disgruntled, Lin Lin twisted her body and threw a dirty glare at Jiang Chen who was "lifting" her.

Jiang Chen turned on the speaker. "Shut up, don't move."

"My ears." Lin Lin covered her ears in pain, not daring to stare at Jiang Chen again.

There was no mistake; the volume increase had been on purpose.

In the end, Jiang Chen hadn't pulled the trigger, and the girl remained ignorant of her close brush with death.

While it would be useless for him to establish a biosphere, it was not completely without benefit.

From another perspective, this was the space colonization program's sub-project. Space? Although it was still a bit far, it was better to save it for now.

Seeing the girl finally kept her mouth shut, Jiang Chen ignored her and glanced at the goods attached to the back.

The survival base had plenty of supplies, even air-sealed compressed crackers, so Jiang Chen was not interested in taking that moldy food. The only thing that surprised him was that even as a digitalized human, Lin Lin still had to eat.

He thought she only needed to be recharged.

Ultimately, the loot this time was nothing short of amazing.

The hummingbird drone production line could produce plate-sized multipurpose drones attached to fire extinguishers, guns, and monitors—the standard drone used by the PAC.

Even if you combed through the entire Wanghai City, you probably wouldn't be able to find the same production facility. It came as a genuine surprise to find this within the survival base. During the war, military production lines were the primary target, but in civil survival bases, most would not come installed with them.

The Sixth Street did sell drones, but most of them were handmade from recycled materials.

Once Yao Yao designs a drone alert system, the drones could then take over patrolling duty around the base. He could even build a fleet and equip them all with machine guns. Imagine, if anyone dared to look for trouble at the Fishbone Base, they would be met with a swarm of drones. What sort of expressions would they have?

And then there was the processor inside his storage dimension. If he created a virtual reality game, Future Technology's trillion dollar market value would have another zero. Of course, it was asking for a death sentence if he brought it out into the modern world. The super computer that was advanced by more than one hundred years was drastically different from Little White, who had few practical applications. Secret agents from all over the world would try to sneak into his office. It was important to consider when to add that extra zero.

The other minor equipment that he brought along was at the request of Lin Lin. It seemed to be testing equipment? After Jiang Chen ridiculed the junk, saying that they could only be sold for a few crystals at best at the Sixth Street recycling station, she looked at him disdainfully.

Mhmm, well, as Jiang Chen pretended to leave, she immediately cried out to apologize.

The bookshelf-sized production equipment was three tons.

Together with the weight of the weapons, the maximum weight fortunately did not pass the T-3 power armor's limit of five tons. Lin Lin, who weighed at most 43 kilograms, was negligible.

As a non-combat digitalized human, she was lighter than most people, especially since she didn't have the weaponry component attached to her body.

-

Shouts of joy and whistles erupted, nearly penetrating the cold armor.

The zombies had retreated.

The hibernation chambers were destroyed, and bacteria would no longer be produced from this deep pit.

The survivors viewed Jiang Chen as a hero, and the cautious and suspicious looks in their eyes were long gone, leaving only heartfelt respect.

Honestly, it felt great to be looked up to.

Through the screen, he smiled at the people cheering for him before returning his attention to the monitors.

After exiting the deep pit, his feet hovered above the ground.

He controlled the engine switch, gradually decreasing the engine output and allowing the goods to gently touch the ground.

He made sure there was no error in his control. He sighed, then decreased the engine output to the minimum before dropping to the ground himself.

Sun Jiao ordered the survivors to lift the loot onto the armored vehicle. With most of the bullets consumed, there was plenty of room.

Naturally, everything still could not fit. To make room, Jiang Chen announced that the loot was to be divided up among themselves, which received a wave of cheers.

Truthfully, the survivors were mentally prepared for these people in power armors to keep the crystals to themselves—this was common practice in the apocalypse. The promise was only a joke in front of absolute force.

Because it was a defensive battle, everyone showed signs of a hard-fought battle despite the casualties being kept to a minimum. Only seven people died after meeting strong mutants like Roshans. As for the soldiers in power armors, they emerged unscathed since the zombies in the rural area could not break through their defenses.

130 survivors arranged themselves into groups with the largest made up of eight members, the smallest one. Everyone received the crystals that were rightfully theirs according to the plan and record. Each group sent out a representative to obtain their fair share of crystals from behind the armored truck.

The total loot was four hundred thousand crystals, minus the 50% cost of ammunition.

Fishbone's profit was one hundred forty thousand crystals—almost the entire trade figure from last year. It would be a good way to make money every month if the zombies with the x2 bacteria weren't wiped clean.

After splitting the loot, Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao walked off to the side.

They removed their helmets.

"Who is she?" Sun Jiao wore a dangerous smile on her face as she gestured at the tightly wrapped Lin Lin.

"Me? I am the elegant digitalized human Lin Lin. Thank me, inferior creature."

The aggressive voice immediately issued a shriek when she met Sun Jiao's deadly gaze. Lin Lin curled up at the back, hiding behind the man she once called a devil.

"My slave. The overall situation is a bit complicated." Jiang Chen glanced at the resentful Lin Lin and explained briefly to Sun Jiao about their encounter underground.

"Ahem. In case you're misunderstanding something, I have to be clear. She is only my captive." Jiang Chen added with a pained smile. He immediately knew what Sun Jiao was thinking when he saw her expression.

"Oh? So I can torture her however I like?" Sun Jiao gave a mischievous stare at the girl who was not returning the nicest look either.

Stared down by Sun Jiao, Lin Lin shivered. She curled up more tightly while trembling.

"W-what do you want to do? I-I control."

"Ahem," Jiang Chen interrupted, "be nice to her, but don't let her leave the mansion."

Sun Jiao looked questioningly at the frightened Lin Lin before turning to Jiang Chen, full of questions.

He sighed, and after warning Lin Lin with a stare, he whispered into Sun Jiao's ear, "Project Garden of Eden... it can restore the land."

Hearing his words, she paused for a moment before narrowing her eyes and looking at Lin Lin.

Restore farmland? Then wouldn't that mean Fishbone's advantage would no longer exist?

Although it was a lucrative proposition, she subconsciously thought about it from Jiang Chen's perspective. The way she looked at Lin Lin was no longer friendly.

"Do you need to?"

"No, but we are lacking scientists in the base. Just keep her here for now. It won't take long before she realizes the cruelty of the world. By that time, even if we forced her to go, she won't." Seeing that Lin Lin was already shaking, Jiang Chen sighed.

"Okay." Sun Jiao nodded and gazed at Lin Lin with hidden motives. "If you dare to escape... hehe."

Lin Lin's face was full of fear, and her legs began to shake uncontrollably.

She was starting to regret her decision to leave the virtual world. The expression on this woman's face made her feel as though she had just escaped from a wolf's den and into a tiger's.

She didn't understand. She possessed the technology to save this world, but she was still being treated like this. She had deigned to help these poor people struggling in shambles and deserved praise from these low creatures.

Feeling mistreated, Lin Lin pouted and tears of humiliation rolled down her cheeks.

With her experience of the world, of course she wouldn't understand. If Jiang Chen were to allow her freedom to yell out on Sixth Street, "I have Project Garden of Eden in my head!"—

Mhmm. Not just her brain. Even if it was in the intestines, people would dig it out.

"Let's leave this for later. Put the Death Claw into the trunk. We can do some research on it. Crystals have been distributed already. Now, let's go home."

Hearing home, a smile surfaced on Sun Jiao's face, and she nodded.

"Mhmm, let's go home!"

-

In a victorious march, they walked cheerfully and upright through the streets littered with bodies.

Survivors embraced and dance as they shouted and laughed freely. They left their sorrows behind to bring victory home.

The danger was eliminated. Soon, the zombies would be no more on this street. Even if the zombies in the city center were to smell the blood, it would take them weeks to reach this location.

It was their first victory over the zombies.

For many years, they hid in the shadows, curled up inside fortified buildings. For once, they united under the same flag and launched an attack against the terrifying zombies.

And they emerged triumphant.

At last they could stand tall on the streets. They could shout without being afraid of alerting the zombies because they were taken out.

Honor was an enchanting trait.

They started with power and ended in victory.

Once engraved in the heart, even the smallest person could work up the courage.

Of course, this was only from the context of Jiang Chen's absolute power. Without it, these people could never be so united.

"Should we incorporate them now?" Sun Jiao asked in the private channel.

Jiang Chen's team still maintained the arrow-shaped formation. Soldiers in power armor surrounded the armor vehicles that were in the middle as they followed behind the survivors.

Lin Lin had been tied up by Sun Jiao without any consideration for her feelings, thrown into the back of the armored truck together with the junk.

As for her negligible protests?

Fine, if she could maintain her forceful stand for more than three seconds, perhaps Sun Jiao would consider backing down. But with a temper unmatched by her courage, Lin Lin's habit of provoking other people before immediately backing down only encouraged other people to take advantage of her.

Somehow she seemed to have no idea about this? Perhaps because other people had always compromised with her before. But in the apocalypse, who would bother? Who would care? A bad attitude was always something nurtured, so Jiang Chen kept his eyes closed when Sun Jiao tied her up.

It was time to teach her a lesson.

"No. For now, it's going to be a problem if we bring them back to the base. I also need them to promote our forces in their respective groups." Jiang Chen laughed as he watched the spirited survivors with their full pockets.

"So you're purposely escorting them home?" Sun Jiao chuckled with him.

"Showing off our force is always better than using it."

"Noooooo!"

A heart-shattering scream suddenly sounded from the front of the crowd.

Jiang Chen paused, and after exchanging a look with Sun Jiao, walked forward.

The survivors made a circle, frozen in silence. The man who moments before had been chatting delightfully now kneeled before the door with sorrowful eyes.

"What happened...." Just as he was asking, Jiang Chen bypassed the crowd and suddenly noticed something behind the door.

It was a boy's head with its eyes popped out.

Blood was flowing everywhere.

Chapter 105: Tragedy and War

Blood.

And the hideous words and drawings written by blood.

"Gang, I am sorry for your loss. You are a good man. Why don’t you come to our place?" The middle-aged man with a buzz cut sighed, walked over to Zhao Gang and put his hand on his shoulder as he softly comforted him.

His name was Ma Zhongchen. Zhao Gang and him were in the same firing spot in the battle. No one expected for a celebratory moment to become a pitiful sight.

The gloom of blood covered this triumphant victory, just like a bucket of cold water dumped on top of every survivor’s face.

"I, I am going to kill them!" Zhao Gang, who was kneeling on the ground, stood up abruptly as he lifted his rifle with viciousness.

"Calm! Take it easy, don’t overreact!"

"What can you do as just one person? Take his gun away."

A few of the survivors close to him immediately dragged him down, and put their hands on the safety before stripping him of the weapon. The situation suddenly turned messy.

Zhao Baodong’s hand became numb. Cold sweat began to roll down his forehead as he stood by the side. Several others were similar to him. The pitiful situation made everyone’s heart tremble with fear.

Who can promise this won’t happen in their homes? The locusts, like bandits, were not picky eaters.

On the wasteland, the most frightening creature was not the zombie, nor mutants like the Death Claw.

It was the bandits who raided your home.

Even the weak survivor groups, as long as they avoided contact with mutants and weren't wandering in the night, they would be able to avoid most dangers. But for the bandits that preyed on humans, any survival technique was futile.

If they lost, the men would be killed, the women captured, and the food cleaned out. Things they couldn’t bring with them, they would smash. They used violence to express their hopelessness to the apocalypse.

Cruelty? This was the "normality" of the apocalypse.

Jiang Chen’s jaw clenched as he stared at the head surrounded by a pool of blood. The eyes rolled up made his chest feel stuffy.

Is it because of the small forces I've gathered that caused this tragedy?

"It’s not your fault. Based on the bullet holes on the wall, they possessed at least machine guns. This survival group was only the size of two families. Even if you didn’t take Zhao Gang away, he would be another number in the casualty," Sun Jiao noticed his silence, so she quietly reassured him.

She knew him too well, even if she couldn’t see his face.

"Heavy machine guns. Tire tracks. Truck equipped with machine guns?" Jiang Chen locked his eyebrows. He took a deep breath and opened the helmet.

He walked in front of Zhao Gang. Jiang Chen faced the man with bloodshot eyes and asked, "Do you know who did it and that's why you are so eager to seek revenge?"

"It's obvious. Their symbol is on the wall-" Ma Zhongchen said with a bitter smile.

"Huizhong Mercenaries. It’s them… I am going to kill them all!" Zhao Gang’s eye popped out as he desperately tried to break loose of his friends’ grasp, he just wanted to kill those monsters.

Huizhong Mercenaries?

Jiang Chen paused for a moment. He then looked at the symbol drawn by blood. The continuous and curly S. He couldn’t make out what it was.

He opened the map, and the light blue full sensory screen weaved in front of him. He remembered that back on Sixth Street, a long time ago, a sucker he shot told him that Huizhong Mercenaries was based in an experimental school in Songjiang Area. Before the mansion expanded, he didn’t realize it until now that the old rival Huizhong Mercenaries was pretty close to Qingpu area.

Everyone was watching Jiang Chen, waiting for his reaction.

Although they understood that they could not blame Fishbone for gathering their forces, but they were still hopeful that a "leader" who conquered the sea of zombies with them could say something.

At least, this kind of surprise always seemed to happen on a long journey.

Jiang Chen, of course, noticed the looks of hope, but it made him ponder.

Huizhong Mercenaries would be a problem after all. Before he didn’t have the desire to expand, so he didn’t worry about it too much. But now the situation was different. After this mission, Fishbone Survival Camp’s name would spread in the area. The survivors would spend their crystals at the Sixth Street, and their success would be heard of at the Sixth Street as well. Who didn’t like to show off? Bragging about their victory, enjoyed the cheers and praises of others. They were the veterans after all.

Although they wouldn’t be dumb enough to say that there is someone that sold food in front of their homes and gave other people the opportunity to know where they lived. But if the Huizhong Mercenaries that wandered in the area here heard the news, they may search the area.

If they knew a special force appeared in Qingpu, they would be able to find the place. Since Fishbone’s wall was already constructed, they couldn’t hide like other survivors in abandoned buildings.

Since they were rival, to begin with, a battle was imminent. Rather than giving the enemy the opportunity to plan a sneak attack, why not make the first move?

Especially since all eyes were watching him. There was no better time to establish his authority.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and walked in front of Zhao Gang. He stared at the man full of vengeance and said calmly.

"I will help you seek revenge."

Although they were waiting for his response, when they heard the words, the survivors were all moved. Of course, a simple sentence was not enough.

A "good person" or a "leader" was determined based on his actions.

Except Jiang Chen was confident that his acting was comparable to Liu Yao.

Zhao Gang stared blankly at the man in front of him. He gritted his teeth, and then kneeled on the ground.

"If you can help me seek revenge, my life is yours!" He knew that if it were just him, he would be asking for death.

He silently looked at the Zhao Gang kneeling on the ground and said calmly.

"I don’t need your life or kneecap, your life is yours."

Jiang Chen raised his head and looked at the survivors around him. The next sentence was for all of them.

"Although this crusade was for our interests together, I can’t allow people to take advantage of us!"

"I remembered a long time ago, there was a quote: when they slaughtered the union workers, I didn’t say anything because I was not a union worker. Then when they killed the Jews, I still didn’t say anything because I was not a Jew. After that, they began killing Catholics, I kept my silence because I was Christian. Finally, they wanted to kill me, and no one was speaking up for me because everyone who could speak was killed!"

He looked at the confused looks among the survivors, and Jiang Chen shook his head in disappointment.

Of course, he had too high of an expectation to think that they would have the realization. If it were not for the fact that they fought together, the tragedy that happened on the small survivor group would not garner the compassion of anyone.

Maybe, they would take advantage of this and scavenge the leftovers.

"Huizhong Mercenaries is a problem. Then we’ll go take care of the problem! Don’t think that what happened today has nothing to do with you. Imagine one day this happens to you, you will regret not standing up today. If you like the idea of being enslaved like animals, the Devils fu*king your woman, and killing your children, then I have nothing to say. If you still consider yourself as human, then follow me. We disdain the cowards!

Jiang Chen didn’t waste a single word, as he signaled his team and began turning around.

Regardless of anyone following, he must get rid of Huizhong Mercenaries!

"Should we go now? It would be better if we remain cautious and go back first," Sun Jiao asked in the private channel.

"We can’t back down," Jiang Chen responded emotionlessly.

There was plenty of fuel and ammo in the armored vehicle, enough to sustain at least a few more days. There would be no reason to drag it on. Especially since this had to do with the morale of the team. If what he said inspired some people to follow, that would be for the best. The survivors were all sharp shooters so they would be useful against the Huizhong Mercenaries.

He especially wanted to see how much they've changed after the battle with the zombies.

Although he did force their surrender by force, Jiang Chen was not satisfied with this.

The group of survivors chatted among themselves as their hesitation was visible on their faces.

"Zhao, should we…" The young man standing beside Zhao Baodong carried a rifle and undecidedly looked in the direction that Jiang Chen had just left in.

Zhao Baodong was also conflicted.

Go, of course. There would be dangers, but it was not without gain.

The man gave them half of the wealth after killing the zombies. Therefore the wealth accumulated by the Huizhong Mercenaries…

Most of the survivors thought of this. Since someone already said they would help, then why would they risk their own lives?

They were only conflicted of whether the potential gain of fighting the Huizhong Mercenaries would be worth the risk they'd take.

When selfishness became a habit, they would not be grateful, but rather laugh at his foolishness. But for Fishbone to expand, they must contact the forces close by.

The expensive and limited slavery chips could not support a population. Especially since the population of the Sixth Street didn’t grow on trees. After the crusade, the price of overpopulation would only increase.

Although these people were selfish and close minded, they were much easier to control than the thugs wandering around the wasteland.

Jiang Chen was betting someone would stand up.

Even if he lost the bet, he wouldn’t lose anything. With the strong firepower of the power armor, Huizhong Mercenaries was not a problem.

But looks like he made the right bet.

The man with bloodshot eyes calmed down, silently dragged his gun back from his friend, and followed Jiang Chen.

"Gang?" Ma Zhongchen stared blankly at Zhao Gang. He wanted to drag him back.

"I am a man." Zhao Gang left without turning his head.

Although his son died, his wife should still be alive. He must do everything to save her.

I am a man.

The harsh words echoed in everyone’s head. Their passion has yet to die, but when they realized they were only calculating the losses and gains, the look of shame appeared on everyone’s face.

"Ma Sir?"

"I am also a fu*king man."

He spat on the ground. Ma Zhongchen grabbed the rifle and followed.

If there was a first, there was a second.

When courage becomes a force, the fear before turns into anger.

There was nothing else to say.

The massive force once again began their journey. There was no need to threaten them this time.

He looked back at the team behind him as a trace of a smile appeared on his face.

After this battle, the Fishbone’s authority would not be challenged anymore. Every single street in the area would become the walls of Fishbone. And he, he will become the new king of Qingpu, King of his new reign.

Chapter 106: Experimental School

"I didn’t expect people to come," Sun Jiao said in disbelief.

"Expected," Jiang Chen said in a sluggish tone, but it did surprise him that so many people showed up.

Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and didn’t respond.

There was a total of 59 people following them after the incident occurred. They were all worried about their homes. So, most of the survivor groups decided to let half of the people take the crystals with them home, while the others took their rifles and ammo to help.

The plan was for the Fishbone force to be the primary force as the power armor has a huge advantage against light weapons.

Ma Zhongchen led 8 people as the second unit to attack the corners where power armors would not be able to hit. Also, they would act as the defense against the anti-armor weapons.

The remaining 50 people were split into two groups, surrounding the experimental school from the west and east. There was no need to attack as they only needed to take cover behind the building. If the primary force received too much resistance, then they only needed to pretend to attack to distract the enemy. If they escape, they can then cut off their escape route.

Jiang Chen led the primary force along the street. They were getting closer to the Huizhong Mercenaries’ base. The sky turned into a dim orange as dusk approached, and the zombies started to become unsettled. The group, familiar with the situation, smashed the zombies onto the ground with their dagger to avoid any trouble during the crossfire.

Songjiang area was not disturbed by the x2 virus. The zombies were still weak during the day, and there were no crystals in the back of their heads.

The crooked experimental school sign was thrown into the corner of the street as the corrosion left its words barely visible. From afar, the metal frames were still visible, along with the barbed wall.

It did not resemble a school at all. It looked like a dirt fortress more than Jiang Chen’s mansion.

"Is there any more high energy vacuum bombs?" Ma Zhongchen asked Jiang Chen in an undertone.

Those bombs were most effective against humans.

"No, it’s hard to get those," Jiang Chen replied.

Zhao Chenwu probably didn’t even have a lot of those lethal weapons to begin with. While the bomb and the launch pad was not hard to make, the concentrated fuel probably was hard to come by. The ones he sold to Jiang Chen were probably the few remaining batches.

Usually, survival camps would not start conflicts among themselves since the geographic distance was a hindrance, and also no one was interested in the land itself. The high lethal to human high energy vacuum bombs were raided from a military factory now in shambles. Its uses were limited to deterrence in the early stage. Now, it was no longer necessary as their force and reputation have already been established.

Zhao Gang stood silently on the side, his eyes locked on to the gate. The other seven survivors were also spread out behind the cover.

"Prepare to attack," Sun Jiao ordered. She opened the armored truck, lifted the angry looking Lin Lin out, and threw her onto the ground.

Jiang Chen was quite intrigued in the bad-tempered digitalized human and ripped off the tape from her mouth.

"Pei, pei, pei! You dare to …" Just as she was about to go on a rampage, Sun Jiao glanced at her, and the once "aggressive" voice suddenly turned into a faint mutter.

Seeing that Lin Lin was quiet, Sun Jiao didn’t bother with her anymore. She then took out the 72mm anti-tank cannon. This thing was a destructive beast, anyone hiding behind the cover would get blown apart.

Lin Lin trembled as she saw the vicious looking long barrel in the "devil’s hands". Her teeth were clearly chattering.

"Don’t worry, that thing is too long for you. We won’t use it on you." Her frightened look made Jiang Chen tease her more.

Sun Jiao rolled her eyes, and then threateningly aimed the barrel in Lin Lin’s direction before aiming the barrel forward.

Lin Lin was scared to death by her action, but because she was tied down, she could only shake her body, unable to run.

"Don’t be nervous, we just want you to see what the world is really like," Jiang Chen said casually as he stood beside Lin Lin.

He took out a dagger to cut the ropes around her body. He then said, with a smirk in his voice, into Lin Lin’s ear, "You better not bother Sun Jiao. When she is angry, she even ties me up."

Sun Jiao gave Jiang Chen a dirty look, as she rebutted in the private channel.

"Am I that violent!"

[Yes. Normal people would not tie up someone they've just met.]

But Jiang Chen only said that in his mind, or else it would have been an endless argument again.

"Prepare for battle. Oh, even if we untied you, it is safer for you to stay in the armored vehicle. You can look outside through the camera.

He estimated that the two teams surrounding the experimental school should be in place. So, he ordered the power armored soldiers to quickly engage in battle stance and prepare to attack.

"I feel something is off," Ma Zhongchen, who had kept his silence, spoke out abruptly and then stared at the direction of the door with a frown on his face. "No one is guarding. We are already this close, and they don’t have any reaction at all."

"That’s how I feel too. It is a ritual to leave a guard at the bandits’ base." Sun Jiao peaked out of the cover with her feet locked to the ground and aimed the barrel at the thick metal gate. She then turned around and looked at Jiang Chen. "Engage?"

Just as she finished her sentence, there was a massive explosion from afar.

"What’s happening?" Jiang Chen was at a loss.

Did the surrounding team expose themselves?

"Fire! Attack!" [Can’t wait anymore!]

Jiang Chen immediately ordered an attack.

"Roger, attack commences!" Sun Jiao calmly pulled the trigger.

Boom!

The orange flame fired out as the bomb smashed into the metal gate 400 meters out, leaving a violent explosion.

The shell of the bomb dropped onto the ground.

Sun Jiao didn’t stop as she stabilized the cannon and fired another round.

Boom!

The metal gate was blown out, and Jiang Chen immediately led the power armor soldiers to charge. Ma Zhongchen also commanded the light infantry to join in the fray. The armored vehicle followed as the vicious 20mm machine gun pointed directly at the gate.

Attack commences!

Sun Jiao unlocked her feet to the ground and moved along with the anti-tank cannon.

But unlike their expectation, resistance didn’t arrive. The gun shots in the distance still continued with an occasional explosion, but it did not seem to come from the west or the east. The power armored soldiers led the charge, followed by the light infantry.

"Quick! Get in there."

"No enemy unit."

"Requesting order."

Jiang Chen stood outside of the gate as he began to frown at the reports from the public channel.

No defense at the gate, battle in the distance, did the Huizhong Mercenaries encounter strong enemies that they must focus all their firepower there and could not defend their gate anymore?

Who could it be?

"Enter the main building, fire at will." Sun Jiao ordered the forces and then signaled the light infantry.

"Roger."

-

There was no resistance at all, everyone entered the main building without firing a single shot.

The armored vehicle slowly drove in, the gate was closed to prevent the zombies from entering.

It was starting to turn dark, the gun shots in the distance still made Jiang Chen uncertain. But he thought that regardless of who the victor was, they still must come here. So it would be a good idea to build a defense line and wait for their attack.

Shredded papers and rock debris scattered on the ground. The cracks on the walls and stairs were telltale signs that the place was impacted by the nuclear blast. No one cleaned this place as everything was kept the exact as before the war. If it weren't for the two piles of poop, along with the dried blood in the corner, Jiang Chen would have questioned if anyone lived here at all.

"01, 02, head to the roof to patrol. 03-06 search each building. Don’t miss any corners. Light infantry and 07, 08, establish a defensive line on the first floor. Fire at will at sight of the enemy." Sun Jiao calmly gave out orders.

"Yes!" Everyone rapidly mobilized.

The gunshots seemed to be from the back of the experimental building, as a few explosions were mixed between the sounds, the firing was beginning to intensify.

"Sun Jiao, are you familiar with the forces in Songjiang area?" After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen abruptly asked.

Sun Jiao shook her head.

"Not sure, I did pass Songjiang when I was going to the mansion, but I would avoid the places where there were obvious signs of humans. Large, safe survival camps like Sixth Street are rare, and I marked them all on the map I downloaded from Liuding town. Other than that, any other places with humans have the possibility of being a bandit gathering."

[Oh? Hopefully the force fighting against the Huizhong Mercenaries are on good term with us.]

Jiang Chen pondered in his mind.

[The first thing is to control the building and establish a line of defense. After a victor is decided, one party would approach this place. If it is the Huizhong Mercenaries, then fire immediately, if its the other force, then decide based on their intention.]

"This is 03, there is a situation in the basement. The situation is unique." The voice transmitted from the public channel.

"Roger, we’ll head right down." Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen.

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded, took out the tactile rifle ideal for compact enclosures, and followed her towards the basement.

The wall in the hallway was drawn with weird graffiti, the bright colors and dark wall formed an odd contrast.

When he passed a classroom, Jiang Chen saw the chairs and tables thrown in the corner through the window, along with the cracked screens at the front of the classroom. There were two messy sleeping bags and a polyethylene digital table on its side. Blood marks were on the ground, but it looked like it was from a long time ago.

If it was not so messy, the classroom looked similar to what he saw in the virtual reality training chamber.

"I heard that before the war, they liked to group the kids together to teach? I really don’t understand the purpose of it," Sun Jiao glanced at the classroom and mumbled.

[Group the kids together?]

Jiang Chen paused for a minute when he heard the voice from the private channel. He couldn’t help but smile.

"I am not going to say I don’t understand."

Sun Jiao did receive virtual reality lessons when she was in the survival base.

"Oh? The virtual reality training system allows necessary knowledge to be understood in a short period of time. If something can be learned in 1200 hours, what’s the point of taking 12 years?" Sun Jiao curled her upper lip contemptuously.

"Are you jealous right now?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Shut up." Sun Jiao pouted as she kicked the debris up, and turned around to give him a dirty look.

Although they were wearing helmets, Jiang Chen could still imagine her expression.

"Maybe it was to enjoy the process."

She wouldn’t understand because she spent her childhood in a survival base.

Now to think about it, although he always complained about graduate school, when that moment finally came, Jiang Chen admitted that he did look forward to graduation. But after stepping into the real world, he still felt a longing for the times in the past.

Maybe that was the happiest time? No office politics, even if there was a fight, the next day everything will be back to usual. Even if the teacher was mad, the only consequence was a lecture and not losing the bonus, though he didn’t need to worry about that now.

"Enjoy the process? What’s the use of that?" Jiang Chen couldn’t tell if the voice was full of longing or contempt.

"Not a lot of use, just like how someone turned the world into this mess. Not a lot of use." Jiang Chen glanced at the teacher’s office along with the way, it was also a mess inside.

"I don’t understand," Sun Jiao murmured.

"To put it in simple words, if you can meet some interesting friends in school, you learn to deal with people. Mhmm. If you received that type of education, you wouldn’t tie me up during our first encounter."

"Do you want to die! Stop remembering that." Sun Jiao’s face turned slightly red as she complained cutely.

Jiang Chen smiled, he only wanted to tease her.

At the end of the hallway was a metal door, the lock was cut by the welding device on the power armor. There were a few words written.

<Fallout Facility>

Was it because of the escalated tension back then? Jiang Chen remembered that the school in the modern world didn’t have those.

"If possible, could you take me there? From your side." Before they entered the door, Sun Jiao quite abruptly opened her mouth.

He blanked for a moment before a genuine smile appeared on his face.

"Mhmm, of course."

Chapter 107: Bandit’s Toy

A moldy smell swept across their face.

Maybe it was Jiang Chen’s illusion, but he even smelled a pungent, disgusting odor.

<Air filter activated>

Now it feels much better.

"I can guess what this place is," Sun Jiao suddenly said.

"Oh? What place?"

"A place to store their trophies." Her voice was calm, without much fluctuation, but Jiang Chen could still hear the disdain she tried to cover up.

The plastic walls were well insulated as the temperature in the basement was slightly higher than outside. The lamps on the side of the hallway provided the lighting to the place. The place still had electricity.

Seeing that the boss and captain came down, the 03 soldier in power armor in front of the basement door saluted.

"What’s going on?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows but realized instantly.

It was living hell.

The room previously used as a fallout shelter was completely remodified. The polyethylene door was attached with a massive lock. The people captive inside the room could be seen through the tiny window.

That’s right, kept like cattle.

The soulless naked woman sat there, Jiang Chen couldn’t tell if she was alive or not. The white stains and the dark bruises and scars on her body made it hard to fathom the pain she experienced. There were at least one hundred rooms like this!

Each door had a number. Some rooms were empty with only dried blood inside. Some rooms had multiple people inside.

Beautiful, ugly, able bodied or disabled, body modified or tattooed with heinous words…

Jiang Chen looked away as he could no longer stand the scene.

"The number on the door should belong to a bandit, and they should keep the keys there. The people or things inside are their trophies or sex toys. They usually kill them once impregnated, or purposely impregnate them to unleash their monstrous desire…" Sun Jiao said emotionlessly.

"You do know quite a lot," Jiang Chen took a long breath of air and said in a troubled voice.

"Common sense on the wasteland. Sometimes, you are really charming." Sun Jiao suddenly looked playfully at Jiang Chen and smiled.

"Haha, my pleasure." He forced a laugh because he was not in a delighted mood, and he continued to walk emotionlessly.

"What the fu*k, there is a man inside?"

Jiang Chen took a few more steps before looking at the door in disdain and moved away.

[Some weird fetishes here.]

The man inside seemed to have noticed the noise outside, he opened his wry eyes and looked outside.

In a glimpse, as if he suddenly got a burst of energy, he smashed the door to draw the attention of Jiang Chen.

"Wait! You are the enemy of those bandits right! Can you let me out?"

Seeing that the man in power armor turned around to look at him, Chu Nan gulped and said rapidly.

"My name is Chu Nan, an ex-pilot at Liuding town. I was captured by these bandits a month ago."

[Virgin (Chu Nan)?] Jiang Chen held in his laughter.

"Liuding town? Then how did you fly here?" Sun Jiao was surprised.

"Mission failed," Chu Nan answered in awkwardness.

Jiang Chen opened the helmet and examined him with a weird look.

"Why did the bandits put you, a man here?"

Chu Nan paused for a moment, and then a forced a smile.

"I don’t know, maybe sell me for a good price? But Liuding town definitely doesn’t lack pilots."

Jiang Chen paused for a moment as well and then smiled.

"My name is Jiang Chen. I also don’t need pilots. Once the battle is over outside, we’ll let you go."

There would be too many variables if he just let him go now. Since it was already dark outside, he would have to wait till tomorrow. Anyways, there was no difference in letting him go now or tomorrow morning.

"Give me a gun, I can still fight, I can help you guys," Chu Nan gulped as he proposed to Jiang Chen.

"No need." There was no need to add variables to the battle. An extra light infantry would not change the battle.

Jiang Chen shook his head as he prepared to walk forward.

"Can you give me a nutrient supply? I haven’t –"

An instant noodle smashed precisely into the window, Jiang Chen said in annoyance, "I am not in the best mood right now, so you better shut up for a while, or I will forget to open the door tomorrow."

[Quiet now?]

The crisp sound of instant noodle and chewing transmitted through the door.

Jiang Chen curled his mouth up as he was prepared to move forward.

Dong, dong!

At that moment, the abrupt smashing of a heavy door was heard. A monster-like vicious look passed through the tiny window, a rather beautiful face was revealed, spiteful and twisted.

He looked at her in shock as it was the first woman he saw that still had energy.

Sun Jiao was even more shocked.

She opened her helmet and walked up to the door in disbelief.

"You know her?" Jiang Chen looked at her astonished, and then glanced at the "monster" wanting to jump away.

A bitter smile appeared on Sun Jiao’s face.

"Somewhat. Her name is Zhou Xiaoxia, my old friend at Liuding town? Or just an acquaintance. She was a lone wolf with a skilled dagger and pistol skills. We teamed up together before, temporarily."

"Then how did she –"

"Captured, tortured on a daily basis, and finally lost her sanity… She probably has gone insane already."

Sun Jiao reached her hand out, but just before she touched the door, the woman leaped at the door like a malicious animal, viciously flashing her teeth.

She retracted her hand.

Jiang Chen gulped lightly.

Is this the fate of a lone wolf wandering in the wasteland?

"So, the filthy lone wolves on the wasteland are usually old virgins, because once captured, you’ll never be human again."

Sun Jiao suddenly smiled, she pulled out the tactile rifle and aimed into the small window, as she quietly looked at the monster-like pupils.

Jiang Chen noticed her hands were shaking.

"Do you need my help?" He asked gently.

Even for people who were accustomed to killing, they have people they were unwilling to pull the trigger on. He kind of understood the feeling. The feeling where she wanted to end her companion’s pain, but unable to do so because of past interactions.

Sun Jiao thought for a moment and then smiled.

"It’s okay –"

Boom!

A massive explosion suddenly diffused inside as the ceiling began to the shake, the lights were flickering.

"This is 07. We are under attack! They are equipped with heavy firearms, requesting assistance!"

The explosions continued to transmit from the surface, the soulless women in the cages were even alerted and twitched.

"01, 02 provide cover fire on the roof, 04-08 search for cover and return fire." Sun Jiao calmly ordered in the public channel.

"Dammit, who is the enemy?!"

"It’s definitely not the Huizhong Mercenaries, they don’t have such intense firepower," Chu Nan leaned against the door as he quickly explained, the look in his eyes seemed to plead for Jiang Chen to let him out first.

"It’s the mutated human! It’s the mutated human force! Dammit, how did we encounter these things here!" Angry shouts transmitted from the communication channel, the intensity of the battle could be deduced from the shaking blast.

The situation was critical as Jiang Chen did not bother with Chu Nan’s plead. He dashed directly to the stairs and signaled Sun Jiao, and 03 to follow.

Sun Jiao glanced at the Zhou Xiaoxia flashing her teeth at her and put down the rifle. She didn’t say anything as she silently left the basement.

She didn’t pull the trigger.

"Dammit!" Chu Nan smashed the door as he witnessed the group of people leave the basement.

He could only pray that the man called Jiang Chen wins.

At the same time, he suddenly noticed that the monster-like woman was staring at him.

He abruptly remembered the hardcore po*n scenes yesterday. The bald Zhou Guoping took his pawns, lined them up, and then pressed the bit*h-like woman against the wall, they cursed derogatory words while they…

To be honest, he was hard.

Chu Nan shook his head as he wearily sat on the bed.

To his surprise, through the tiny window, he noticed that the woman was also smiling?

He suddenly felt his throat being stuffed, he opened his mouth but didn’t say anything.

When the person in the power armor said her name, he already realized who she was.

However, in the month he was kept here, he didn’t recognize her at all!

Speaking of this, she hasn't visited Liuding town for a while. Since last winter?

Zhou Xiaoxia was known as the devil hunter, the screw bar’s goddess at Liuding town. She would always have a drink there when she passed by Liuding town.

There was a lot of people thirsty for her beauty, but none picked the rose with thorns.

But now, the charm was covered by filth, and the audacious yet gorgeous face had lost all of its liveliness.

Dammit, he did fall in love with her at first sight.

Chapter 108: The Mutated Humans

The Mutated Humans - like the cannibals, was another species not accepted by humans.

A giant figure, strong muscles, an ugly, twisted face, and grayish green skin. Just like the monsters from <Lord of the Ring>.

The FEV virus in their cell structure had given them an insane regeneration ability. From some perspectives, they could be considered immortals unless they asked for their own death. At the same time, the ferocious FEV also made them immune to any diseases, and free from the risk of radiation. They boast themselves as the "perfect human" and praise that the heaven like wasteland belonged to them.

Of course, the above was was not the reason they were hated. There were plenty of arrogant, ugly people, and with enough radiation dust, the head was bound to become abnormal.

The survivors disdained them because they were di*kless.

Not only that, they liked to capture people, and turn them into the same di*kless creatures they were.

The inability to reproduce was their only flaw.

Also, because of the limited life span of their DNA. Despite a higher regeneration rate, which means the cell division was occurring at an abnormally high rate, this resulted in a shorter life span.

They would rarely age but would experience a violent death in their 50s. The more injuries they've had, the shorter their life span. If they wanted to continue their species, the must capture people on the wasteland, and put them in a vile and pickle them to turn the captured people into the same ugly, mutated humans as them, regardless of gender. To increase efficiency, they would force breed the males and females. The newborn baby would then be turned into mutated humans as well. They would then raise the newborn and repeat the same reproduction cycle. This inhumane act was even more obnoxious than killing people. Obviously, people would rather get their heads chopped off than their di*ks chopped off. So naturally, the mutated human was top of the blacklist on every survival camp, the Sixth Street included.

These "di*kless" things were the arch enemy of all humans

Even if they couldn't conduct trade with other survivors, they still lived a comfortable life.

Nutrient supply? They could produce it, but they rather not eat those things. They hunt for mutants, and then eat the highly poisonous flesh raw, and use their insane immunity system to process the poison. Even the disgusting Roshan, they could feast like its flesh was a delicious meal.

Firearms? They were born in the underground military facility. Because of the involvement of the government, the military did finally receive freedom. They controlled the entire military base and was considered the organization with the amplest amount of firearms in Wanghai City.

It was true that based on the adaptability of this world, they had the right to be arrogant. If it were not for the fact that they couldn't reproduce, they would have without a doubt conquered the world.

But Jiang Chen was facing these lunatics right now.

-

"Dammit, their firepower is too strong!" Ma Zhongchen tightly pressed behind the cover as he could barely gather his breath due to the oppressing fire from the heavy machine gun.

400 meters out, whoever had the more intense firepower was the daddy.

The grayish-green colored mutated humans were wrapped in ammo. The revolving machine gun furiously unleashed its power on the main building. Their muscular body enabled them to fire the heavy firearm without being disturbed by the heavy recoil.

Without the need to wear kinetic skeletons to increase their weight, they could use their pure strength to wear the almost one-ton C-plastic steel armor. If it were not for the exposed joints uncovered, the light weapon would practically cause no harm.

"Fu*k, it's the mutated humans." Sun Jiao's face looked troubled, she carried the 72mm anti-tank cannon and leaned behind the cover.

These heavy machine guns could already pose a threat to the power armors, the intense waves of bullets forced them to take cover.

Both feet locked onto the ground changed into AP bombs, she reached out of the cover and immediately fired.

The bomb with a trial of orange fire scattered across the sky as it smashed right into a mutated human.

The AP bomb without a doubt penetrated the armor and ripped the mutated human into pieces.

The effect was visible when they realized that the opponent also possessed heavy weaponry. This caused the mutated humans to become more cautious with their attack. The only downfall was they began to focus their fire in Sun Jiao's direction.

Sun Jiao unlocked her feet as she initiated the turbine engine and barely avoided the rain of bullets.

The ferocious firepower from the machine gun almost shredded the wall she took cover at into pieces.

"Dammit, do their bullets not cost money?" Jiang Chen gritted his teeth, he leaned against the wall and continued to shoot while constantly taking cover behind different barriers.

"Fu*k! Why are they focusing on me." Sun Jiao dragged the 2-meter long cannon as she awkwardly hid behind the stairs, unable to peek out.

Other than heavy machine guns, they also possessed at least four recoilless cannons!

Their firepower was not on the same level, the only heavy weaponry on Jiang Chen's side was the 72mm anti-tank cannon. Although the revolving heavy machine gun was powerful, because the other side had already suppressed their fire, it is hard to regain the control.

There were at least 20 mutated humans with machine guns.

"Should we drive the armored vehicle over, the 20mm machine gun could..."

"Are you crazy, they have four recoilless cannons!"

"Fu*k, what to do..." Sun Jiao bit her lip.

"Retreat! Retreat! Fu*k! Prepare to fight in the building!" There was no time to hesitate, Jiang Chen decisively took control as he shouted in the public channel.

Sun Jiao quickly realized the situation too.

[That's right, if they can't win in distance, then fight in close range! If the mutated human need captives, there is no reason that they wouldn't chase.]

"Roger!"

The light infantry that was being suppressed on the ground by the firepower began to retreat. Then it was the power armor soldiers.

The mutated human took the upper advantage in the first wave of exchange fire, there were three casualties on Jiang Chen's side, with minor injuries on the power armor soldiers.

Two casualties on the opposing side, one was blown to pieces by Sun Jiao. The other practically died because of bad luck. With the regeneration strength of the mutated human, unless it were shots to the head or heart, they would not die.

It was already pitch dark in the night. Because of Jiang Chen's retreat, the mutated human began to cease fire.

They couldn't destroy the building as their purpose was to capture people. In this case, they had to enter the main building to combat with Jiang Chen.

"A total of 31 people, with 19 heavy machine guns, they are in the building already." After activating fury, all the hearts appeared in his vision.

Fury deactivated.

He took a deep breath as his brain regained clarity. After the battle in the virtual world, he could already freely control fury without the need of a tranquilizer.

The only disadvantage of the ability was that the higher the number of the enemy targets, the more difficult it was to control his emotion. Once the violence was built up to a certain point, he could even lose control. Just like Sun Jiao's special ability would force her to be weak, these hidden genetic abilities were never meant to be the gift from the higher beings, but rather a curse to the unholy.

The light infantry was completely useless at this point. Sun Jiao ordered them to retreat to the door.

Ten power armor soldiers against 31 mutated humans, that was a large discrepancy.

But would Jiang Chen play this game fair and square?

The Fishbone base lacked a lot of things, but crystal was not one of them.

Chapter 109: Tragedy

"Enemy unit arrived on the second floor."

"Fire!"

"Roger!"

Dadada-!

In the darkness, fire sparks suddenly erupted as the mutated humans rushing into the hallway were caught off guard.

The polyethylene tables and chairs were thrown into the hallway as the power armored soldiers used that to take cover and unleash their firepower at the mutated humans.

The weight of the mutated human's armor was mostly focused in the front part; their intense firepower made it necessary to consider running away. But once the distance has been shortened, their fatal weakness was exposed. Although they were not completely unprepared, when they stepped on the stairs, their center of gravity leaning forward uncontrollably exposed their defenseless backs to the machine guns of the power armor soldiers. Almost instantly, they experienced heavy casualties.

"Fire at will!"

Jiang Chen carried the tactical rifle as he gritted his teeth and continuously pulled the trigger.

The mutated human's charging momentum suddenly came to a halt. They began to lift their guns up to fire back, but shooting up was always a disadvantage as they were unable to return fire. Despite their muscle being able to carry the weight of the C-type plastic steel, it was too much for the spine. If they had to shoot up, that means their center of gravity must be shifted back, and all the weight will be concentrated on the spine.

"Nice job! How did you know their weakness?" Sun Jiao said in excitement while she continued to pull the trigger.

"Would you believe me if I said I guessed it?" He unloaded the empty magazine and smashed a new one into the cartilage. Jiang Chen aimed at the neck of a mutated human.

Dada--!

The bullets penetrated through the neck of the mutated human, creating a splash of blood as the bullets broke his neck. He fell onto the ground like soft mud and stopped breathing.

Despite the incredible body, they were still human after all. Even if they surpassed the limitation of DNA, they could not overcome the barrier of life.

"They have entered Area A already; we lost control of the left wing on the second floor." Noisy shouting was heard from the public channel.

"Retreat to the third floor." Sun Jiao decisively ordered.

"Roger!"

They can't allow the battle to take place in the hallway, once one wing lost control, the other wing had to retreat as well.

The revolving machine gun began to spin on the right hand, the left dragged the tactical rifle as the machine gun spat out a constant fire.

They kept their fire suppression as they retreated.

Once the defense line was compromised, they had to reestablish it on another floor. If they engaged fire with the mutated humans in the hallway, they would be the ones overwhelmed.

[Dammit, I should have brought some heat sensor grenades with me.] He saw the <Power armor 21% damaged symbol> on the full sensory screen as he cursed in his mind.

Who would have thought this crusade would be this problematic? Against the cold-blooded zombies and agile mutants, heat sensor grenades were practically useless.

At this moment, the floor violently shook. The explosion from the east side was audible even from the other wing.

"03 is down!"

"Dammit, it's recoilless cannon!"

Jiang Chen watched with his own eyes as the 03 number became crossed and marked with <Heart Ceased> <Offline> symbol. Although he didn't know the person's name, seeing that his comrade has fallen, it was an indescribable feeling.

Although he was aware that there would be casualties in every battle.

"Retreat! Retreat to the roof!" Sun Jiao shouted in the public channel.

They couldn't wait any longer. A T-3 power armor was worth over ten thousand crystal, and if it was busted, then there was one power armor less.

The mutated human saw that they gained an upper advantage as they began to shout out in joy. They attacked the stairs roaring. Even if they had ten people along the way, the 10 to 1 casualty ratio did not scare them because they firmly believe that once these metal junks were forced on the roof, they would turn into scrap metal under their firepower.

The armor in front of their chest was comparable to the T-3 C-type plastic armor. Technology? They didn't need it!

"Dammit, why do they seem to be on drugs." Sun Jiao clinched her teeth as the 72mm anti-tank cannon launched repeatedly. The AP bomb directly penetrated the concrete stairs and blew the mutated human into two pieces.

"Initiate final plans." Jiang Chen met with Sun Jiao already as they took cover at the other end of the stairs. They leaned tightly against the wall as they shot with the tactical rifle.

Bullets flew and carried the trail of faint gray smoke.

"But, but that is 5400 crystals." Sun Jiao's face appeared as if she was about to cry.

"Enough! A T-3 is 13000 crystals."

Sun Jiao clinched her teeth as she reluctantly made her last shot, and shouted in the public channel.

"Retreat! Initiate final plan!"

"Roger."

The defense line could no longer hold on to the sixth floor, but there were still at least twenty mutated humans attacking. They already abandoned their plan of just piling on bodies and began to act more cautiously as they continuously fired the recoilless cannons and self-made grenades. The saving grace was that while they had almost an infinite amount of bullets, their grenades and bombs were limited, or else there was no way this battle could be fought.

Finally, the mutated humans rushed onto the sixth floor, it forced all the power armor soldiers into the hallway.

But at this moment, a scene the mutated human didn't expect happened.

The metal junks all jumped out of the window as the turbine engine began to shoot out a blue trail of flames and carried them downstairs. At the same time, explosions began to erupt on the fifth and sixth floors. The hidden aluminum heat agent blew the stairs into pieces.

They could fly?

The stairs were destroyed?

However, they had no time to react.

<Backup fuel rod self-destruction program>

<Initiated>

Sun Jiao, in pain, pressed the confirm button, she regretted not carrying more explosives with her.

How wasteful was it to use the fuel rod costing 500 crystals, and 100 crystals to charge explosives?

Boom!!

The red flames began to blossom in the air, the almost liquefied fire waves instantly emerged the entire floor and erupted out from the previously black window.

He felt the waves of heat on the surface of his armor. Jiang Chen watched the blinding explosion, astonished.

Although it was not the first time he used fuel rod as explosives, it was his first time witnessing this effects of the explosion.

"Beautiful firework." He subconsciously whistled.

"A firework worth 5000 crystals." Sun Jiao was still bitter.

"Do you think that they haven't considered that we could fly?" Jiang Chen asked as he watched the concrete begin to melt.

"Not all power armors are equipped with flying engines. Usually, only paratroopers would be fitted with the flying engine. The trade off for mobility is armor. The B-type armor used by land mobile armors are much stronger than the lighter C-type plastic armor. At the same time, it weighs much more than the 300 kg T-3, it usually weighs one ton. Also, the mutated humans are not known for their intelligence."

The high temperature also ignited the plastic chairs placed in the hallway. The thick black smoke was quite visible even in the night. The power armors gradually landed, looking at the fire above them.

There was no doubt about their victory. Sun Jiao carried the anti-tank cannon on her shoulder.

"B-type armor? What are these things exactly." Jiang Chen was curious.

"Material strength grade, SABCDEF, seven levels in total. It is also used in other industries. It is complicated to explain. You don't know this after being here for this long?" Sun Jiao rolled her eyes.

"Seems like you know a lot," Jiang Chen nonchalantly said as he glanced at the fire that was beginning to fade.

The building was well-engineered. Even after experiencing an explosion of this scale, the main structure remained intact.

"Common knowledge," Sun Jiao mumbled and then opened the public channel. "Prepare to enter, group into 3s by number. Group A head to floor five and six to search for any mutated humans that have not died, only leave one alive."

"Roger." They saluted as 01,02,03 carried their tactical rifles into the building.

"Team B, go collect the power armor on floor three." Although destroyed, a lot of parts were of high value.

"Roger."

"Team C, clean up the battlefield at the experimental building." After finishing her orders, Sun Jiao opened the helmet and playfully threw Jiang Chen a wink, and then closed the helmet and shouted in the private channel, "Follow your sister."

"Is your butt aching?" Jiang Chen said fiercely.

He heard her giggling voice.

[This girl is becoming more naughty.]

-

Bullet holes were everywhere on the wall, Jiang Chen's force left the ones on the north side. The south side should be from the encounter between the mutated humans and Huizhong Mercenaries.

It was evident that the mutated humans won.

There were bloodstains everywhere, along with severed limbs and flesh.

The pungent smell in the air and gruesome scene on the ground only made Jiang Chen slightly frown. Was it because he was used to death? Or only because it was too dark to see?

He would rather believe it was the latter.

Behind the back door, there were three modified trucks parked. They were bolted with thick steel plates along with a heavy machine attached to the top.

"Quite a gruesome battle." Sun Jiao locked her eyebrows as she locked away a broken hand.

"Don't those di*kless things want it alive?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Still alive, without a hand. Usually, normal people are just for breeding purposes." As she said this, Sun Jiao walked behind the truck and opened the door.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen saw her stop.

His heart started to ache, but he didn't have the time to open his mouth.

Like a bomb, the figure was blown away.

"Roar-!"

The roaring sound came from inside the truck as it almost shattered Jiang Chen's eardrums.

He couldn't hear any sounds at that moment.

"C team encountered enemies! Requesting assistance!" 08 quickly pulled out the rifle and began to fire.

But the bullets seemed to have hit a metal plate as sparks popped up on the metal board, casting an unsettling feel.

Jiang Chen, who was still trying to recover from what had happened, saw, with the glimpse of his eyes, the explosive and agile figure get blown into the air.

Noise.

Color.

Everything in the world seemed to have escaped from his body.

<Heart Ceased>

Sun Jiao...

His head was empty.

In an instant, Jiang Chen's eyes were covered in blood.

Chapter 110: Awakening

Death.

There was intense pain, as though his heart had been ripped open.

Scenes from his memory flickered like dusty, old photos. The audacious and naughty, yet gentle and caring face began to yellow.

Then it turned gray.

The ferocious mutated human roared and flipped the warhammer in its hand before facing Jiang Chen, whose mind had gone completely blank.

It was fury, but beyond fury.

Anger seemed to have broken a lock in his heart, shattering it.

But his mind was clear and conscious.

[Kill.]

[Kill him.]

Thoughts of slaughter.

Roar!

The explosive shadow dashed at him, the raised warhammer gleaming with a faint blue light.

It was a power warhammer, equipped with a power storage system. It could release energy upon impact, and the damage was comparable to that of an anti-tank cannon, making power armor rather useless against it.

Anger did not numb his thoughts; he never had such clarity in his life.

His thoughts passed in 0.01 seconds, and the tactical flashlight in front of him opened instantaneously.

The blinding ray pierced the pupils of the mutated human and deadened his vision.

At the same time, the turbine engine opened, and he began to glide.

What followed was a deafening screech, a challenge that smashed into the ground. Jiang Chen maneuvered the power armor and dodged the thunderous hit. He raised his right arm, and the machine gun with revolving tridents fired rapidly.

Tatata—!

Bullets swarmed out, each impact casting sparks on the mutilated human's back.

The sound of the striking metal began to fade. The violent firepower did not damage him in the slightest, being reflected instead.

"Roar—!" The mutated human shouted in pain. He dragged the power warhammer up from the concrete floor, his eyes the size of bells shooting out a terrifying light.

From the sparks and flashlight, he could see the mutated human's pitch-black back.

A dark mutated human?

Information from the database was displayed on his pupil.

"Lead skin? I don't know how it works, but—"

The black figure leaped at Jiang Chen once more. The warhammer smashed down like a meteor with four trails of faint blue light.

The turbine engine at maximum output, Jiang Chen made a curved trajectory to avoid the attack midair. He then braked, sparks screeching out from the bottom of his feet.

Without hesitation, he pulled out the tactical rifle and aimed it at the mutant's head.

The second it turned to look for its target, Jiang Chen fired.

Dadada—!

It was still ineffective; it had a ridiculous defense even on its head. With a fierce shout, the mutated human swung its power warhammer at Jiang Chen from his flank.

There was no time to dodge, but his heart was devoid of any anxiety.

He deployed the wheels on the soles of his shoes once more while a nitrogen shield expanded outward like an umbrella.

The power warhammer smashed through the thick waves of nitrogen and hammered on the front of his armor.

Jiang Chen flew explosively, but with the help of the nitrogen shield, he was pushed out rather than ejected with great force.

The T-3 power armor weighing three hundred kilograms was very light, and most of the impact was not absorbed by him. Instead, it was transformed into energy that helped him recoil backwards.

The wheels turned rapidly, and after flying for approximately ten meters, Jiang Chen calmly braked with a screech of metal on the ground.

Boom!

The power armor directly smashed into the first floor of the experimental building. He landed awkwardly in the hallway.

"Energy of impact, 494000 joules." Straining, Jiang Chen raised his dazed head and read the stats on his pupils.

<Warning! Power armor damage: 54%>

The entire front of the armor caved in. The turbine engine on the left shoulder and left side of the waist were destroyed. The life detection device was damaged, and the communication device was malfunctioning.

He silently glanced at the rows of <Offline> symbols that represented the team, then at the jumping red symbol. Jiang Chen closed the notifications and pulled out the tactical dagger.

"Roar!"

The roaring sound advanced, as he had expected. It was clear that the gorilla-like monster was not ready to let its prey go.

And neither did Jiang Chen.

Like a gust of furious wind, the black figure raised the power warhammer and smashed it in his direction.

Flames burst out of what remained of the turbine engines. Jiang Chen slid across the ground as though being dragged to avoid the power warhammer's hit. Finally, the stood up shakily. Rock debris had scraped the power armor which clanked continuously.

The turbine engines had exceeded their output limit and stalled, but it was enough.

Jiang Chen, who had just escaped danger, did not back down but rather dragged the busted power armor and dashed at the mutated human.

He then furiously stabbed his tactical dagger forward.

Conservation of energy.

He noticed a while ago that the second the mutated human raises its hammer, the muscles over its entire body seemed to expand as though it was straining to perform the action.

The warhammer itself was not heavy, but when it was raised, even the mutated human had to use all of its energy to do so.

Although Jiang Chen did not know the energy principle behind it, his instincts told him that this was the key to the power warhammer's charge, as well as its weakness!

The mutated human was struggling to raise the hammer, so it was unable to react to the attack.

The opportunity was a small window of time.

The sound of metal screeching echoed in the air the moment his dagger came into contact with its skin, leaving a trail of sparks. Jiang Chen clenched his teeth as his muscles expanded to the limits. The output of the power armor was also operating at its maximum.

"Roar—!"

The power warhammer in the hands of the mutated human stalled and fell to the ground. He flung away the left arm that was stabbed with the dagger and smashed his fist towards Jiang Chen's head.

Jiang Chen lowered his body to avoid the hit, then leaped at the chest of the mutated human. With power output at a maximum, both of his hands locked onto its shoulder. He clamped the roaring, fighting mutated human against the wall.

The misshapen face twisted in anger, and its red teeth that seemed as though they would pop out were even more gruesome.

<Energy remaining: 53%>

Jiang Chen, also furious, had no color in his face. He looked at the energy bar and what remained before activating a red button.

<Self-destruction program initiated. 20 seconds remaining.>

The internal fuel rod began to shake as the stable contents became agitated.

<Feet locked>

The metal strips penetrated the ground.

<Power armor released>

A thin opening appeared at the back of the power armor through which Jiang Chen jumped out.

He met its frightening gaze with only grimness in his eyes.

The pitch-black mutated human desperately tried to push the power armor away, but it was futile. The power armor was locked down and held him in its grip against the wall. His left hand was useless because of the injury, and with his joints locked, it didn't matter how much brute force he used. He did not budge.

Jiang Chen walked away 100 meters and stopped. He turned and began a silent countdown.

Strangely, he did not feel any emotional fluctuations.

Hatred, fear, the joy of victory? Or even anger itself...

It was as though all of his emotions were stripped from his body.

The fire erupted, and the blinding light covered his vision.

Shhhhhh!

He felt a slight pain on his face. Upon touching it, he realized it was blood.

His face was cut open by the metal shrapnel. He quietly gazed at the blood on his finger.

A bomb worth 13000 crystals should be enough to blow that monster up.

From the fire, a figure emerged.

Flesh exposed, its skin was lit up brightly by the red flames which had already melted the lead skin. The daunting bloody holes were likely the work of the metal fragments. The muscle on its left arm had been nearly stripped clean.

If it were any normal human, they would have been dead.

The mutated human?

Jiang Chen silently retrieved the 11 tactical pistol that he had on him for a long time. He aimed at the figure walking towards him from afar.

He pulled the trigger.

Bang!

No reaction. The bullet may have penetrated his flesh, but it did not stop him from moving forward.

Shots continued to be fired.

The mutated human used its right hand to cover its heart, the damaged left arm to cover its face. The horrifying teeth could be seen from behind its fingers, and Jiang Chen could imagine the viciousness on his face.

There was no time to run, especially since he never had the intention to do so.

Fear?

What was that?

The mutated human was finally in front of him.

Jiang Chen pulled the trigger, only to hear a faint "clank" sound.

The bullets ran out?

He lifted his hand, his hollow eyes staring emotionlessly at the mutated human.

When all emotions had been stripped from the body, what would it feel like to face death? He suddenly thought of the insane intermediate artificial intelligence that had repeated countless experiments to obtain emotion. When it faced death, did it feel calm?

Out of his peripheral vision, he caught sight of the giant hand being raised.

Would he get squished?

Jiang Chen lowered his head, removing the cartridge.

[Seems like I lost...]

At that moment, a homing noise almost shattered his eardrums.

Boom!

"Awe!"

Flames exploded from the left shoulder of the mutated human before it could release its pained scream. It was blown onto the ground by the force of the bomb. The 72mm AP bomb, with a power great enough to penetrate through steel armor, hollowed his muscles and nearly ripped every organ and muscle in his body. But even after this, he still had not died and made desperate attempts to stand.

Jiang Chen was shocked.

Not from the mutated human's ridiculous life force.

He stared blankly at where the bomb had originated.

Chapter 111: Another Use of Interdimensional Travel

Her heartbeats resumed.

[Seems like I was dead for a while... But how did I survive?]

There was no time for Sun Jiao to think, however. In her murky vision, she saw the mutated human walking towards Jiang Chen.

Her vision was covered by dark blood, the entire front of her armor had caved in tight against her chest, and her left arm was out of commission from the broken plastic steel armor lacerating her flesh. The exposed wiring flashed with unsettling sparks, and on her pupils was a daunting list of red alerts . She would most likely have to cut off the entire left arm of the suit to extricate her broken left hand, but the ability should be able to heal it.

Sun Jiao panted, her clouded eyes half-open as she tried to lock her aim onto the head of the mutated human.

Its heart and head were the only weaknesses.

Boom!

The 72mm anti-tank cannon in her right hand fired, the cannon whipping upwards. The trail of orange flame directly homed in on the mutated human that was about to execute Jiang Chen.

[Made it?]

[...Seems to be off.]

Seeing it miss the weak spots, Sun Jiao raised her already straining right hand and aimed the cannon at the mutated human struggling to stand.

She pulled the trigger.

Clank—

A bitter smile appeared on her face.

The clip was empty.

She glanced at her trapped left hand. A liquid, perhaps cold sweat, rolled down her blood-covered face.

It was pointless if it didn't hit the head or the heart. Even with a broken left hand and half a stomach, it wouldn't die. It was not an average mutated human; it was a variant with lead skin. These mutated humans received special modifications that made their skin into lead. Not only did it make their defense far superior to the average mutated human's, but their strength and life force also far exceeded normal limits.

Their only weakness was the lead-addled brain. They would kill instinctively, and so they were often used like dogs by the same species.

The clip was at her waist, but how could she change it out with one hand?

"Dammit! Jiang Chen..." Sun Jiao anxiously stared at Jiang Chen, her lips turning pale from biting it so harshly.

At that moment, she could see the faint Jiang Chen looking in her direction.

-

[She is still alive. Terrific...]

Jiang Chen's lips slightly trembled, feeling emotional.

It was as if his heart was full again.

[Fury deactivated? No, it's not fury. Whatever, who cares?]

Jiang Chen turned his head to look at the mutated human struggling to stand. He met the ferocious stare.

The flesh was healing at an unimaginable rate. The lead skin covering the head and chest had already grown back.

Its threatening smiled seemed to mock Jiang Chen. The mutated human could already sense that the man in front of him had no more tricks to play.

Jiang Chen looked down at the pistol in his hand.

Even the tactical rifle on the power armor could not penetrate its skin. The 11 tactical pistol would be futile as well.

Out of tricks? No... There was still a lethal trick he hadn't used yet.

"Roar!" The mutated human growled as he watched Jiang Chen approach.

For no reason at all, he felt anxious.

The head and heart were already covered by the newly grown lead skin, but when he saw the man walking towards him, he felt an instinctive fear.

Jiang Chen drew closer to the mutated human and cracked a smile. Placing the gun in his pocket, he retrieved a crystal from the storage dimension. After the interdimensional bracelet's energy was charged to full, he flung the now-lusterless crystal away.

He leisurely squatted down, staring into the bell-sized eyeballs, then took a deep breath and smiled lightheartedly. "Should I take you to play in another world?"

He slapped his hand on the mutated human's shoulder.

Upon finishing his sentence, both of them disappeared from Sun Jiao's sight.

"...Interdimensional travel?" Sun Jiao stared blankly at the place Jiang Chen and the mutated human had disappeared from.

She remembered the dead hamster; living creatures were unable to travel with him.

But she also faintly remembered that he mentioned it took 40% energy to travel once.

What would happen now that he brought along the mutated human?

She felt unsettled.

The homing engine turbine began to ring from afar. Power-armored soldiers were rushing to the scene. They'd been caught in a crossfire with the remaining mutated humans. As soon as they solved the problem, they quickly rushed over.

"Where did the light infantry go?" Sun Jiao asked in the communication channel.

"Still at the gate."

"Good... Get me out first." If someone saw this scene, she would have to shut them up, eternally.

She was different from Jiang Chen; she didn't feel much guilt when killing.

The power-armored soldiers walked forward, took out a welding gun, and cut through the caved-in metal on her left arm.

Sun Jiao gritted her teeth as she crawled out from the back of the power armor, then looked at where Jiang Chen had disappeared.

She began to feel more and more anxious, her uncertainty creeping into her face.

[Why is he still not back?]

"Captain, what do we do now?"

"Stay put and set up camp. 01, go take a tent from the armored truck and cover that area." Sun Jiao pointed at where Jiang Chen had last been seen.

"Understood." The power-armored soldier with the 01 symbol on his left arm received the order and left.

"The rest of you establish the temporary camp in the main building.... We might need to stay here for a few days," she added after a pause.

"Understood."

She stared at the empty spot again as she bit her lips and clenched her fists.

-

It was already the third day.

Seeing that they were victorious, the surrounding team headed back, but some still remained; for example, Zhao Gang.

"No, my wife is still underground." Zhao Gang could not wait any longer as he slapped his leg and stood facing the direction of the main building.

The scared Ma Zhongchen immediately grabbed on to him.

"Are you crazy! Do you not see how she looks right now..."

Ma Zhongchen discreetly pointed at the figure sitting in front of the tent.

The lifeless eyes were covered with permafrost. The lonely figure sat there quietly wiping the gun.

It was not the look of someone who was open to conversation.

Zhao Gang clenched his teeth but finally sat down hesitantly.

"But..."

"Just wait for a bit longer, brother, I'll be with you. Don't worry, as long as the people are here, she'll release them. They have some small internal situation," Ma Zhongchen desperately tried to tell his outspoken comrade. Instinct told him that if they were to anger her now, something bad would happen.

It was not a small situation.

Three days already passed.

For three days now, Sun Jiao sat in front of the tent. She silent wiped the SK10 laser rifle in her hand. She hadn't used it in a long time, but she always kept it with her. She opened the EP, looking perplexedly at the <Hidden Genetic Code>.

<Revive: Repair critical organs, leave death state. Ability requirement: triggers when the heart stops beating, and organ damage is below 50%.>

This God-sent ability saved her, probably reviving her when she died.

But at this moment, she did not feel the slightest happiness.

She sighed and closed the EP.

The temperature difference on the wasteland was quite drastic. There was already a hint of chill in the wind. But even with only a light combat suit on her, she did not have any sense of temperature.

How was Jiang Chen doing?

She didn't know.

What she did know was that if he were okay, he would come back immediately.

But now...

She uncontrollably clenched her fist, feeling the sudden moisture in her eyes.

"Dammit."

That fist feebly smashed onto the cold, hard concrete road.

Chapter 112: Overload

There was an excruciating pain, as if his body was being ripped apart. The burning sensation of the tattoo on his right wrist was especially unbearable.

Thank God, he lost his consciousness not long after—

—or else the pain would have actually driven him insane.

He didn't know how long after the incident it was, but the soreness of his entire body returned.

"Urg."

Struggling, he finally opened his drowsy eyes. The first image he saw was a gorgeous face in tears.

"You are finally awake." Ayesha leaped from in front of the bed. Her lips trembled, and the mists in her eyes shook, ready to fall at any time.

"How... long have I been sleeping?" Jiang Chen asked weakly.

"An entire day and night." Her face had concern written all over it.

He felt guilty looking at the heavy eye bags on her face.

[Wait! Where the mutated human go?!]

As if a bucket of cold water had just poured onto his head, Jiang Chen scrambled looking around, but he couldn't find the mutated human's body.

"Ayesha, did you see—"

"That body? I hid it in the basement." Ayesha lowered her head, lightly biting into her lips.

She broke her promise with Jiang Chen.

He had previously told her to never come into the room under any circumstances, but the loud noise from the room had woken her up.

She anxiously approached the room, only to hear Jiang Chen's painful screams.

She didn't waste a second to think before dashing into the kitchen, grabbing a knife, and shoving the bedroom door open.

The next moment, she saw Jiang Chen, who lay in bed unconscious, and a disfigured monster.

Never had she seen a more frightening monster. Its body was covered with severed flesh. The head and heart were covered in a pitch-black metal....

[Is this thing even human?]

Suppressing the fear in her heart, she approached the monster and placed her hand over its chest.

There were no heartbeats.

She gazed at the unconscious Jiang Chen and then at the monster that had fallen to the ground. She could tell that the two must have had some conflict. Although she didn't understand the absurd scene, she would always stand on her husband's side.

Putting down the knife, Ayesha forced down the agitated contents of her stomach with a deep breath before dragging the body into the mansion's basement.

She then took disinfectant from the bathroom and cleaned the blood trail, careful as though covering up a crime scene

After taking care of everything, she filled a bowl with water and stripped Jiang Chen to wipe down his entire body.

She couldn't fathom how he had become like this in just one afternoon.

At least the still-beating heart somewhat reassured her.

Only after she finished did she bring a chair from the living room to sit beside his bed quietly, waiting for him to wake up.

...

"Did you see everything?" Jiang Chen asked with a bitter smile.

Seeing such a caring face, he could never blame her for coming in.

Ayesha nodded, then buried her head.

"I am willing to give up my life for you if you wish—"

He lifted his hand and covered her mouth. Jiang Chen smiled at her surprised look.

"I am not a devil, you don't need to give up your life.... Just keep the secret for me."

It was okay if she knew; Ayesha would never leak the secret.

With both hands outreached, Ayesha covered the large hand covering her face. She gently nodded.

"Mhmm."

He craned his head to look at the light in the distance; it was almost dawn.

"Go sleep for a little bit. I want be alone to think."

Ayesha nodded with a worried look at Jiang Chen. She then left the room and closed the already broken door.

Lying on the soft bed, Jiang Chen raised his right hand.

All of the energy in the interdimensional bracelet was gone?

He glanced at the bed lamp. After reaching over to unplug it, he stuck his finger into the socket.

The light bulb in the room slightly dimmed, but due to the voltage limit, he only managed to charge the interdimensional bracelet by 2%.

He breathed deeply and concentrated on his right hand in an attempt to open the storage dimension.

Pain radiated from his wrist.

"The energy wasn't consumed, so I guess that means I can't use it for now?" Jiang Chen looked at his right hand thoughtfully.

He'd been pondering this issue for a while now. If he forcefully grabbed someone to travel with him, then wouldn't it eradicate that person in an instant? But he never had the opportunity to test this "bugged" ability out since in the era of firearms, bullets served the purpose better.

There was an other area of consideration, however. If he spent 40% of the energy traveling, then how much energy would it cost to bring along another person?

The cost of taking someone alive should be different from taking a corpse.

He recalled the last time carrying the hamster, it hadn't cost an excessive amount of energy. But this time with the lead-skin mutated human, it completely drained the interdimensional bracelet. No, the real energy cost definitely far exceeded the 60% limit, which was what caused him to go unconscious.

No need to use it against weak enemies, too costly against strong enemies... A bit useless in battles.

He rubbed his fingers, which were no longer sore, and stared at the interdimensional bracelet on his skin.

He desperately wanted to go back. Sun Jiao must be worried about him.

But the bracelet was most likely "overheated." Seeing as how it could charge, however, it meant it wasn't broken.

Maybe it would return to normal after some time?

Realizing that there was no use worrying, Jiang Chen shook his head and grabbed the EP from the table where it lay after Ayesha had taken it off while wiping down his body.

****

User Name: Jiang Chen

Body Conditions:

Muscle Strength: 30

Bone Strength: 29

Reflex: 32

Brain Cell Strength: 14

Radiation Level: 0（Safe）

Irregular Status: None

****

Muscle strength had increased by 5 points, bone strength by 2, reflex increased by 3, and the genetic potential was further developed. On earth, this body condition would easily destroy superheroes like Spiderman and Batman.

If they existed anyway.

Jiang Chen remembered the Sun Jiao had told him before that once injected with the genetic vaccine, the genetic potential would be somewhat unleashed. But to evolve to a stronger form, it could only be accomplished through life and death situations.

That battle truly had been dancing on a knife's edge between life and death.

He recollected that battle with a forced smile.

A power armor, worth over ten thousand crystals, exploded... But what made his heart ache the most was not the crystals but the fact that it was difficult to buy even with crystals. To help him, Zhao Chenwu had sold him all of his remaining units....

Right! Speaking of the battle, that time....

Jiang Chen suddenly remembered that after Sun Jiao had been thrust away by the power warhammer, the <Heart Ceased> symbol had shown up on the team status, spurring him into a state similar to fury.

He opened the special ability tab in EP.

****

<Hidden genetic code>

???: Muscle strength +35, Reflex+40, Brain cell strength +29. Special effect: Battle instinct. Can grasp the situation and the enemy's ability in disadvantaged situations, ignore all unnecessary factors, and use previous battle actions to instantly carry them out at the maximum success rate.

Side effect: Emotionless

Time of duration: Until the opponent dies or a trigger is used to cease the effects. After 30 minutes, it will begin to drain life force, and the effect will be reflected in the body afterwards.

Note: Once activated, fury is forcefully deactivated.

****

It was not fury, but a new ability!

Jiang Chen gulped at the skill description.

Did the three question marks mean that the ability had yet to be named? This meant that nobody had activated this genetic code before?

After pausing to think, he pressed the three question marks, opening up a dialogue box on the screen.

"This... means that it can be named?"

He pondered for a while. He really didn't have any talent in coming up with names.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen slapped his head as if enlightened before typing in <Invictus>.

Hehe. Invictus had the connotation of putting in a cheat code—the ability did seem unfair.

After typing in the name of the ability, Jiang Chen read over the description again.

Based on previous battle actions... that meant that if he had ever used a gun in the past, then he would become Hawkeye. And he had trained in all functions of the power armor before, so he can fluidly control the power armor without any hindrances.

Jiang Chen mentally went over the battle; the combos he made had been perfect. Such mastery was definitely not something he could normally do, especially when he still had to look at the speed monitor when accelerating.

The fuel rod self-destruction program was also an action he had used before.

But why had he never thought about using the interdimensional bracelet to eliminate opponents before?

He thought deeply before coming to a sudden realization.

That was because he had never used "traveling" as a combat action. After experimenting with the hamster, he had never performed it during combat.

"Therefore, the ability's effect achieves skill mastery," Jiang Chen said with a troubled smile after peering at his hand.

Using the interdimensional travel ability to kill should not be a problem, but it would be pushing the limits if used against a monster with a high life force. A mutated human had made him unconscious for an entire day, and he still could not use his bracelet. If he traveled with a Roshan or a Death Claw... Some experiments indicated that his life force was proportional to crystal energy.

He shook his head and put the EP aside, closing his eyes to rest.

Sun Jiao was still alive.

Her <Revive> must have evolved from her <Tenacious> ability. This must be how hidden genetic codes could be further unlocked.

Speaking of this, as long as they used their ability, they had to bear the side effects from it. Fury made him lose consciousness, invictus removed emotion—then what was the side effect of the next hidden genetic code?

For some reason, he felt slightly uneasy.

Genetic vaccines had eliminated the barriers that constrained DNA, allowing humans to unleash abilities previously sealed. But was this really all right? If eliminating barriers was a good thing, then why was there one in the first place when humans first began to evolve?

Only time could tell.

And it was stupid to worry about an ability being too powerful.

Chapter 113: Perhaps I Should Buy an Island

Jiang Chen was lying on a chair beside the swimming pool, enjoying the last rays of the summer afternoon.

Although he was eager to return to the other side to tell Sun Jiao that he was safe, the interdimensional bracelet was on cool down; there was nothing he could do about it, so he rested.

The weather was becoming chillier, and it wouldn't be long before fall arrived.

Thinking about it now, it had to be close to winter time in the apocalypse.

Because of the radiation dust, winter in the apocalypse world came earlier than it did in the modern world. Going by what Sun Jiao said, usually by mid-October, winter would come to Wanghai City—and it would rightly be called a nightmare.

In one month's time, the temperatures would drastically drop to subzero with unnatural snow coating the city in an unhealthy white. Despite this, compared to the first few years, it was getting better. Based on documentations, during the initial years after the nuclear war, the entire world remained frozen in a state of nuclear winter. Only winter, no summer.

During that time, the mutants chose to hibernate or migrate to warmer areas such as abandoned nuclear facilities or geothermal wells.

The only ones unaffected by the harsh temperatures were zombies. Their bodies did not possess enough water to be frozen, but due to the reduced sunlight, their sleep times were also lengthened.

Jiang Chen was deep in thought as he stared at the chilled orange juice placed on the table.

It was necessary to have enough food, clothing, and fuel for the winter, but these were not difficult for him to procure. The coming season would not be too bad for the Fishbone Base.

There was obviously enough food, and winter clothing more effective than down clothes were sold in Sixth Street. Fuel could be substituted by electricity, but overall, the levels of power generated and consumed would decrease in the winter since with the outside temperature already at subzero, the fridge system in the basement could be shut down.

What worried him most was the combat power of the base.

From what he gathered during the battle with the mutated humans, the weakness of the Fishbone Base was finally exposed.

Ample money, but still too weak.

With their power armors, they could steamroll through most survivor groups, but if they wished to expand, their opponents were not limited to small groups. Wanghai City had so many forces to begin with—what about outside of the city? In the country? And what about the unknown mutants?

If they didn't have the support of heavy weaponry, they would instantly be at a disadvantage upon encountering a military force of mutated humans.

Even more detrimental was the fact that there was no way to replace power armors. This time, four of them had been busted while the remaining were damaged. Despite eliminating the mutated humans, in the end, it was a terrible trade for Fishbone Base.

He did not expect a group of mutated humans to appear out of nowhere. After realizing the Huizhong Mercenaries were in trouble, he had been ready to take advantage of the situation. But upon finishing off the mercenary group, the new opponents were not friendly and immediately opened fire.

From the start, there had been no chance of a peaceful resolution between normal humans and mutated humans. He grasped the glass of juice and chewed on the straw, deliberating as he gazed at Ayesha's body floating in the water.

They lacked heavy weapons.

Fishbone Base was too dependent on Sixth Street who was likely unwilling to sell heavy weaponry to them. At most, they would offer a heavy machine gun or rocket launcher. The only reason they sold them the high-energy vacuum bombs was because they were ineffective in most situations—useless against zombies and easily intercepted by laser weapons.

These items were limited to begin with since the production facilities were all but destroyed during the war. Weapons like tactical nukes and concentrated laser bombs were all raided from battlefields and half-destroyed military warehouses. Typically, possessing these sort of super weapons reflected the force of a survival camp.

While it was important for Fishbone Base to possess its own firearm production line, they had to also think of ways to develop heavy weaponry. What gave Jiang Chen a headache was that he possessed the technology but not the production capability.

Excluding production equipment, the two limiting factors to Fishbone Base's growth were raw materials and population size.

Mining was impractical in the apocalypse. All of the sources near the surface were emptied. The major mining hubs on small sub-planets and moons had been blown into debris.

And though they did purchase some construction materials from Sixth Street, after this crusade, their own production supplies would have become scarce, so who would be willing to sell to him?

If he wanted to develop the industry, he had to improve waste recycling first.

Because of the rapid advancement in material science, refining matter with page-long names was no mean feat. Jiang Chen knew little about the subject, but he did hear from Zhao Chenwu that 35% of Sixth Street's industrial production was based on "waste recycling" because although organic materials could solve some needs, bullets, bombs, and armors all depended on metal.

As for the matter of population....

Even if they didn't have a complete production line, if they modified some equipment, they could partially create it by hand. This, however, required an excessive amount of labor. The spider tank, for example, required tens of thousands of parts to be assembled. And to use the small population of Fishbone Base to develop military tech.... Zhao Chenwu's military factory alone had more workers.

Could he produce some of the less complex parts in the modern world before moving them to the apocalypse? They had plenty of mining resources, and even if they didn't have the best skills, he could at least acquire some simple production equipment....

Think about it, Jiang Chen wryly smiled and shook his head to give up on the idea. It was too dangerous.

It was not practical in this country. Even if the workers didn't understand the purpose behind the spare parts, a factory without a stated purpose would very soon catch someone's attention. And if anyone happened to find out that he possessed military technology....

The scenario was simply too beautiful to imagine.

Perhaps overseas? Except Jiang Chen was of the mind that all crows in the world were of the same color. If they chose to follow their constitutions and laws, there was a chance that the country would not take action. But if it involved a giant of the military technology field—a massive conglomerate that came into prominence after World War II—they would not pass this opportunity. At this time, the country was willing to keep one eye open, but that was only until the military technology was on the brink of falling into the hands of "their people."

It was such a waste if he could not utilize the rich resources of the modern world.

At that moment, Ayesha burst from the water. Shaking her wet hair, she cast a pleasant smile in Jiang Chen's direction.

Instantly, his eyes light up.

[Urg, it was not because of that….]

Island!

"Fu*k, why didn't I think of it before?" Jiang Chen slapped his head with a humorless smile. The only thing the apocalypse lacked was food, but in this world, it could be obtained almost anywhere. And if work was hard to do domestically, then the situation would be different on a small, developing island.

If he could simultaneously have a base in the modern world, it would greatly benefit the development in the apocalypse! There was no need to worry about resources and labor in the modern world so long as he could control a small neutral country far from international regulations.

His heart began to pump at the thought.

For a long time now, he had been searching for an option to fall back on.

This was after he had introduced Future 1.0 and was asked to have a chat with the person whom he had saved. Of course, he could say this only in his mind, but once he came out from the Wang family's home, he had the intention of leaving.

But the exact details had to be planned out.

He stood up from the chair and began walking towards the mansion. Ayesha swam to the side of the pool, seductive water droplets hanging on to her dark brown, curly hair. Her tender white arms leaned against the poolside.

The look in her eyes asked, "Don’t you want to sleep together?"

Jiang Chen gulped uncontrollably as he took in the charm that she herself didn't know she exuded.

This girl was becoming more and more attractive by the day.

Her white skin was partially due to race, but also partially due to the nutrients in the training chamber. Thanks to it, the grease and the dirt under her skin had been washed away, and the natural pores of the Caucasian race contracted. After days of care, Ayesha's previously stiff skin became as smooth as jade.

It was no exaggeration that if Jiang Chen used the nutrient to open a cosmetic center, he would earn overwhelming profits.

Not only that, but because of the genetic vaccine and the daily workouts, traces of abs began to show. With her perfect legs, the exotic charm became more and more seductive by the day.

But what intoxicated him most was the gaze full of love.

This bikini-clad, attractive figure flourished only for one person.

Jiang Chen had the urge to jump into the water and "play" with her.

But he still had many things to do, and those sorts of actions could be done later at night. Compared to before, he was much better at controlling his desires.

"Ahem, why don’t you play by yourself? I have some things to care of."

Suppressing his desire, Jiang Chen awkwardly smiled and hastily left the pool area.

-

Mansion basement.

Jiang Chen observed the mutated human's body. Taking a deep breath, he extended his right hand.

The storage dimension could not keep living creatures; he had tried it before. Ants could be stored—but not cockroaches—only to be instantly killed. It seemed it would be impractical to kill people using the storage dimension.

It did not cost much energy to store corpses in the dimension, and the energy bar had been charged to 10%.

Jiang Chen tensed at the slight pain radiating from his wrist.

"Fu*k, don’t you break on me!" When there was still no reaction, Jiang Chen began to sweat profusely.

After a short delay, the mutated human twitched and disappeared into the storage dimension.

He let out a long, relieved sigh and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He glanced at his right wrist.

It had cost 5% energy. He then used the remaining energy to remove crystals from the storage dimension before charging the interdimensional bracelet's energy to max capacity.

It seemed that function had already recovered. Next was interdimensional travel.

Jiang Chen initiated the ability.

But soon, his excitement was killed by the pain in his wrist. The storage function had recovered, but the travel ability did not.

"Too soon?" He looked at his right hand, unable to do anything.

But since the storage function had recovered, the travel ability should follow soon after.

After taking care of the body, Jiang Chen went to the third-floor office and booted up his computer.

He had to prepare his plan to purchase an island.

Opening up Baidu Wiki and Google Earth, his eyes searched the Pacific Rim region.

It didn't have to be too big. Even if he ran out of land later, the apocalypse world had the technology to create artificial land masses. Only, the ocean was more frightening than land, so the technology was not well-known among survivors.

There was also no need for many people as it would be easier to control. If later he needed more, he could simply bring some in.

An unstable political situation, but not too chaotic.

The lower the GDP, the better. The poorer they were, the easier it would be to purchase the land. He would have to invest in it regardless.

Ideally, they wouldn't have a dispute with neighboring countries over annoying things like natural gas or oil. He would eliminate those materials at any time. He didn't need them to make a living, and it would be troublesome to guard against "thieves" when developing in seclusion.

Another important factor was that it had to be away from the "five thugs"! (Likely referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.)

Finally, he found a small country located on Pannu Island.

It almost seemed made for him.

A smile on his face, Jiang Chen called Robert's number.

"Hello? My old friend, you finally remember your unlucky friend." Robert’s glib tongue was in action on the other side of the phone.

"I've been busy lately. Would you like to cut a deal?" Jiang Chen didn't bother with chit-chat and cut straight to the topic.

Chapter 114: Play a Bad Guy for Me

There was a palpable pause on the other side, followed by a fake laugh.

"Umm, I'm no longer in the business, you know. I'm also on probation, so your words.... That Laurence guy will probably come to have a chat with me in a bit, too."

Hearing Robert's downtrodden voice, Jiang Chen stopped and almost couldn't restrain his laughter.

The guy must not be having the best time right now. By probationary period, he probably meant that the FBA was monitoring his phone after telling him to his face, "I'm watching you right now."

[Showing off despite your current state, and you even said that you would have me covered when I head to Los Santos.]

He smiled but inwardly cursed. Jiang Chen shook his head and got ready to end the call.

"Okay, looks like you can't do this deal then. I'm going to hang up."

"No, no, no, wait—"

The call disconnected, but his cell phone rang shortly after.

He picked up, mocking, "You switched numbers?"

"Hehe, other than the fact that the phone bill is a bit more expensive, this number is pretty convenient. Ahem, what business do you have?"

"I heard you say you're a producer now, but from your tone of voice, it seems you haven't had the best time?" Jiang Chen asked jokingly.

He remembered that the gold deal had been worth around 500 million USD. With a 9% commission, minus the loan and other costs, he should have at least 10 million or more.

Ran out of money already? It was in USD, too.

"Urg, ahem, it takes longer for a movie to return the investment, you know." Robert forced a laugh.

"Did you spend all that money on tail over there in Hollywood?" Jiang Chen chuckled.

[This pervert. There are definitely better ways to spend the money.]

But as that thought crossed his mind, his expression turned sour. He felt those same words applied to him as well.

"Ahem, let's talk about business." Robert awkwardly laughed from the other side of the call.

Jiang Chen didn't continue to make fun of him as he adopted a more serious tone.

"You've always worked in sensitive areas, so you must be close to mercenaries?"

"Oh? Do you want to hire mercenaries? But in Hua—"

"Not in Hua," Jiang Chen interrupted. "I need your help hiring a group of people to train bodyguards for me."

[Bodyguards?] Robert paused for a moment.

"In that case, Blackwater International is not bad."

"Not Blackwater." Jiang Chen refused right away. "You said before, they're too close to the FBA." He finally managed to leave a circle of influence; there was no way he was entering another one.

"Hehe, I knew it—you must be thinking of some bad things." Robert ridiculing voice passed through the phone. He continued, "All of the mercenaries in the UA are all somewhat associated with the White House. If you want to find people who only recognize money, you'll have to go to Africa, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe."

"Then let's do that. Make a trip with me to Eastern Europe," Jiang Chen said.

"Not possible. If I go there, before the plane even fully lands, I'll probably get deported. Speaking of which, are you not in the gold business anymore?" Robert forced a smile.

"Gold is not grown out of the ground. Don't you want to do something big?" Jiang Chen abruptly laughed.

The other side of the phone went silent.

Jiang Chen didn't rush him. He knew Robert was debating with himself, but in the end, he would agree.

Without taking risks, could he still be called a businessman? He was a risk-taker down to his bones.

"Okay, you convinced me. But my instincts tell me that you may be crazy this time. I don't understand. You've been doing pretty well over there and successfully transitioned your business. Why—"

"I have my own troubles, Robert, just like how you have your own," Jiang Chen said meaningfully.

"... All right, I understand. Now that you say it, it does make sense. Once sh*t touches your hand, you can never wash it off, hehe."

Despite stepping out of the business after Iraq, trouble seemed to always follow Robert. He spent most of the money, and though the producer title was pretty nifty, ultimately, it boiled down to money. With money, directors were more than happy to make friends with you.

And without it, who gave a fu*k about you?

He did invest quite heavily, but he had no idea how much profit would come out of it. In the movie industry, he was a completely outsider.

"Then let's talk about your pay first. Twenty million USD—"

"Deal!"

Jiang Chen paused, then began laughing. "Are you not going to ask me what the deal is? If I told you to go bomb a place, would you do it?"

With a sheepish laugh, Robert touched his nose and said, "Ahem, my friend, I trust you won't do things like that to me. If I did receive your money to plant explosives somewhere, you'd be in trouble, too."

Jiang Chen didn't deny it.

"Back to the topic. First, mercenaries. I don't care how, but I need ten people with experience."

The other side lapsed into silence.

"I'll get Nick to go to Kane—I have some connections with General Markanov. Although I won't be there in person, a recommendation letter should be enough. This guy really loves money."

"I'll make a trip myself, so get Nick to wait for me. Would it be acceptable to pay with gold?"

"Of course, they only recognize gold and USD there."

"Secondly, refugees. Europe has many refugees, right? I'll take some of their burdens for them. Help me think because I need around one hundred people."

"Sh*t, what are you trying to—"

"I remember you said yes," Jiang Chen said casually.

After deliberating, Robert let out a sigh of defeat.

"Okay. Let me think, where do you want these people to get off the boat?"

"Africa."

"Okay, I think I get what you mean. Do you want to start your own mercenaries? Or for the people behind you—"

"Ahem, I don't think you should know too much, am I right?" Jiang Chen interrupted with a smile.

[Mercenaries? You are underestimating me.]

"My fault." Robert forcefully chuckled. Suddenly, he remembered the last time in Iraq, Jiang Chen had brought out a drone and a heat-sensor grenade. The organization behind him was likely something he shouldn't know too much about. "Mhmm, capture a trafficking shop in the Mediterranean Sea, and get off at Libya. Then go on land to Nigeria?"

"Is Nigeria chaotic enough?"

This was the question Jiang Chen was most concerned about.

"Somewhat. It's poor enough there. A few hundred thousand USD is enough to buy a plot of land from the chiefs and have them keep their eyes closed to whatever you do there." Robert laughed.

Africa was a haven for mercenaries.

Poverty provided them with a source of troops, and the chaos allowed them to pass freely between borders with weapons. Although he didn't know why Jiang Chen refused to recruit cheap people from there, Robert knew by now not to ask anymore.

"Great, then transporting them will be up to you. I'll take care of the other things."

"Is that all?"

"No, one more point." Jiang Chen smiled mischievously. "I heard you're a producer in Hollywood?"

"Ugh? Yes, I remember that you know." Robert was uncertain of the meaning behind his words.

"Play the bad guy for me. Your paycheck will be twenty million, in gold."

Jiang Chen laughed malevolently.

Chapter 115: A Blockbuster

Pannu Islands, located in South Pacific Ocean, was near the equator. The sunshine made this place a great destination for a vacation.

The tourist attractions were plentiful in the area, natural island, volcano lake, rain forest. But because of the lack of infrastructure, it didn't manage to gain much traction. On the entire main island, the most expensive thing was probably the international airport, which they borrowed the money to build.

At this time, inside the not-so-busy airport terminal, two strange looking foreigners walked side by side.

"Roger, do you think I will be famous? To be honest, I smoked weed when I was 13. I was in juvenile by 15-"

"Hehe, and then you got your a*s pounded by the black uncle inside? Who cares? The guy sitting in the Rainbow Mansion did far dumber things. Also, if you dare to use your Irish accent and call me Roger, I'll twist your head off." Robert stopped, and turned around to look at the Caucasian teen fiercely.

"Sorry, buddy, you know I am just nervous." Johnny waved his hand, unbothered by his words, and continued, "I asked the psychiatrist before, he said he had a phobic for being too famous."

"Shut up, you bastard," Robert cursed out.

Johnny kept his mouth shut after he heard those words, he knew that Robert was not someone to mess with. In Los Santos, even the Gang Leader would give him some ground. Although he seemed to have exited out of the business, it was not someone a little pawn like him would dare to mess with.

Whenever someone mentioned to him Irish, three words would surface in Robert's head: Weed, Alcoholic, Poor.

But right now he must patiently entertain this dumb*ss because it has to do with 20 million USD.

As to why he appeared here, it all started from the conversation a couple of days ago with Jiang Chen.

-

"Play a bad guy for me, and 20 million will be your paycheck. I'll pay in gold."

Jiang Chen stopped momentarily before he continued, "On an island country in the Pacific."

Robert paused, then his expression suddenly changed.

"Sh*t, are you going to-"

"You are right. If you guessed it, then keep it to yourself. All in all, write a script for me and pick a good "protagonist" for me. I am going to film a blockbuster." Then an evil laugh was transmitted through the phone.

He knew the laugh too well. Someone was going have a bad time.

"...You are crazy. Although I am a producer, I am more of an investor." Robert forced a troubled smile, he rubbed his temple and continued briefly after, "Okay, God. Let me think. Where are you planning to film it? How much are you going to invest?"

"One hundred million USD, one year of GDP for Pannu island. The plot will be, a Los Santos billionaire came to Pannu Island with the intentions of investing in the local industry. He began bribing local officials and taking a sh*t on all the natives there. Okay, so that's the first movie's plot. Oh, I recommend the billionaire be acted out by a poor bastard bad to the bone. I need him to display his expressions after he suddenly gets wealthy."

"Haha-, don't worry, there are too many of you in Los Santos."

"I'll wire the one hundred million to your account."

Robert paused when he heard Jiang Chen's words and asked with a perplexed expression, "You are going to wire it to me? Are you not scared that I am going to run away?"

"I trust that you won't. Honor code right? Especially since I can get you out from IS, are you still-"

"I understand, that's enough." Robert faked a laugh as he touched his nose. "We are old friends. Some things don't need to be said."

"That's right. You are a smart person. The money that's supposed to belong to you will belong to you. Hehe, if this deal is successful, you'll have a lot more to gain from it. Aren't you annoyed with the FBA? I can give you a backup option."

Robert heard the words, and his throat twitched.

He suddenly remembered a piece of "entertainment" news on the international section of the newspaper a while ago.

December 30, 2014, Gambia Presidential office was attacked by a militant group of approximately ten people. The militants attempted to stage a coup. This bizarre event was the direct action of the Texas real estate businessman and a Minnesota veteran. They recruited people, bought weapons, and then transported the weapons through an illegal channel to Gambia.

Of course, without a doubt, they failed. Based on their original plan, the action would not receive too much resistance. They thought the soldiers in the presidential office would not pose too much resistance in a dangerous situation like that. Perhaps they would even receive the support of some soldiers who decided to join forces with them.

The result was that three of them were shot died right on the spot. There was no way to defeat them.

In the unsuccessful coup, the Texas real estate developer businessman was the primary sponsor, and because they broke the <Neutraulity Law>, the UA prosecutor sued him. He only sponsored two hundred twenty thousand USD as he only wanted to be a president once.

Now, Robert felt like he was doing the same thing.

Except this lunatic was even more insane, he was willing to put in one hundred million USD!

One hundred million USD to buy an entire country?

Not only that, as well as the cost of mercenaries.

"Dammit, let me ask you, are you serious?" Robert's fingers were trembling. He couldn't even hold onto his phone.

It was not because he was afraid, but rather he was excited.

He was an adventurer at heart. If he were to really be successful, then the "small" firearm merchant could make history.

Of course, he didn't really care about the reputation. The key was still the profit involved. He had a feeling that if he could establish a connection with "the force" behind Jiang Chen, his return would far exceed his previous total earning!

"That's right. I think you should ask for a break from your friend Laurence. I don't want the FBA to be involved again." The tone sounded light.

"Of course, I'll think about it. Hehe, it is getting me excited." His fingered constantly rubbed the phone as there was clear excitement in his eyes.

"I don't care if you are excited or not, I want results. Let me be clear. This "movie" can only be shot once, you have to consider it carefully," Jiang Chen said slowly.

"Trust me, as a renowned producer in Hollywood, I, Robert, will make you extremely satisfied with my script."

"Mhmm, I'll have to take your word for it then," Jiang Chen said casually and then hung up the phone.

-

There were already people waiting at the airport exit.

Beside a limited edition black Mercedez Benz was a middle-aged white man with a beer belly, constantly checking his watch.

He made the loose suit look rather tight. Beside him, an Asian stood there, appearing to be his bodyguard.

On another note, in this small country with only a population of twenty thousand, the entire military was only 100 people. They occasionally had to play the role of police as well.

Suddenly, the middle-aged man's eyes lit up as he saw Robert and Johnny walk out.

"Oh, Mr. Robert, you are finally here! Haha, is this Johnny?" The white man opened his arms and greeted Robert with an amiable smile. He also looked excitedly at the Irish next to Robert.

"Sh*t, is he gay?" Johnny asked Robert with his voice lowered.

"Shut up, dumb*ss. The shooting already started," Robert moved his head and cursed, but immediately changed into a smiling expression and walked up to the man.

"That's right. This is Johnny, a billionaire from Los Santos." Just like old friends that haven't seen each other for years, they hugged each other and backed away. Robert turned around to look at Johnny, "This is Pannu Island's president - Edward. British descendant, basically from your hometown. Also, acts as the finance minister, and..."

From your hometown was said full of malicious intent.

"As well as generally, my friend." Edward courteously shook Johnny's hand and shook it furiously. His face did not have any disdain for Irish people like usual Britains do.

The reason why he would display this expression was purely due to what Robert had said. This Johnny guy was an Irish billionaire from Los Santos. No one had invested in Pannu island for a long time, there was finally a billionaire, so this fake Emperor did everything to please him.

As to being Irish? Who cared? He only cares about the bills printed with Franklins.

After some small talk, the president invited them to get on his luxury vehicle, and personally drove them to the mansion - Robert purchased it two days ago under Johnny's name. It was worth half a million USD.

"Dammit. President, the finance minister, general... what is he not?" Seated on the comfortable sofa, Johnny counted his fingers.

"And supreme court judge, education minister? He would not take any positions without benefits. Don't worry about it, do a good job on what I told you to do." Robert took a bottle of Whisky from the fridge, put it on the table, and pour himself a cup.

"Nice, these is booze." Johnny excited grabbed it and poured himself a cup as well.

Robert glanced at the alcoholic that gulped down the entire cup as he took a sip. Then he said, "There is a banquet tomorrow night, the local influentials will all be attending. Come with me, and I'll teach you what to do. The day after is an investing tour. You'll spend two million USD investing in a cargo port on the main island. Learn from me, see how I am stuffing the money, and establish a relationship with the officials,"

Robert continued.

"Also, not long after that there will a Han merchant contacting you. He is an old friend of mine. He is currently in the food processing business, help him a little, I don't think I need to teach you more."

"Gulp-." Okay, Roger. Speaking of filming, where is the cameraman? Buddy, we are shooting a movie right?" Johnny burped with the cup in his hand. In a few minutes, who knows how many shots he had taken already.

"Yes, we are filming a movie. This is the newest filming technique. You'll be part of history. Don't forget to build a statue for yourself in the city center, and the film team will do a special shot of it." Robert resisted the urge to laugh as he took another sip of the whiskey.

"Mhmm, in this case, I only need to spend money?" Johnny chuckled as he poured himself another cup, "This is a great job, what's the name of our movie again?"

"<A Billionaire in the Slum>. Don't forget the piece that will make you famous. It's not only about spending money, but you also have to act as cocky, arrogant, and unbearable as possible. Such as cheating on the neighbor's wife, seducing the woman in town, just do everything you wanted to do Los Santos... Be yourself. Do a good job. If the reception is good, then there will be sequels." Robert leaned against the sofa as he mockingly looked into drunken eyes.

"Burp-, sequels? What's the name?"

Just as he finish the sentence, he dropped the cup and fell asleep.

"What's the name? <A kingdom's destruction>, idiot," Robert continued to mocked and put down the Whisky in his hands.

Alcohol, it's better to just have a taste.

Chapter 116: Messaging Function Online

(Note: Pannu Islands is a fictitious location)

After ending the conversation with Robert, Jiang Chen returned to the pool. Just as a smirk spread across his face and he was ready to jump into the pool and have an intimate moment with Ayesha, his phone rang again.

It was Xia Shiyu.

It was not the right time.

He cursed in his mind, as he unhappily picked up the phone. But when he heard the news from the other side, his unhappiness faded.

First was from Future 1.0.

Because they were approaching 250 million downloads shortly after the software was available. In a few days Jiang Chen was gone and based on the marketing department's plan, Future 1.0 welcomed its first update. Now, the earnings were already evident as a result of the update.

Rather than an update, it was releasing a previously locked function.

The update opened up the community system; everyone would acquire a random account after the patch.

Other than cleaning the exquisite design, the chat interface had nothing special. To put it simply, everyone had an account that they could freely add friends, set up chat groups, and post statuses on.

The functions were not unique as all the other chat program had it, but the one thing that made it stand out among its competitors were - smart friend search!

Based on the user's description, Little White can accurately search for the chat partner based on the description. Of course, it was up to the user to decide on what information to make available or not.

The user's personality was based on the data collected during daily interactions and analyzed based on a special software. The results were 97% accurate and would be hidden from the user and stored on the server's side. The personality only recorded positive traits and did not include negative traits, since no one would want to expose their weakness. The user could choose to publish these traits, or reevaluate after a period, but could not change the traits.

For example, if a man wanted a "big boobed, gorgeous, energetic, being able to cook, nice to parent girl", Little White would find it since the user base was already at 250 million. Except that it would be up to the other side to add you or not. Even if you get rejected, Little White would suggest you lower the standards, and improve upon oneself.

If the random selection were activated, Little White would use smart setting to match friends with the highest compatibility.

Apart from that, Future 1.0 also introduced VIP.

Although it was similar to QQ's member policy, there was a slight innovation. Other than putting the red VIP symbol beside the user ID, it also introduced contribution system correlated with levels.

There was a funny joke on Weibo before: The designer was driven insane, suddenly, he jumped up and yelled, "I want to design a game with only two functions; pay and ranking." So, in the end, the game was actually introduced - which was Bilibili's new anime sponsorship plan.

Mhmm, the innovation was replicated by Future Technology.

1 RMB equaled to 10 contributions, 100 contributions would level up to VIP1. To upgrade to VIP2, it would require 1000 contribution which was equivalent to 100 RMB. Based on this scale, VIP5 would need 100 thousand RMB. To maintain the current status, 10 RMB would be enough. Not paying would hide the VIP symbol but it would not level down.

Other than that, there were also 10 Diamond VIPs that were granted automatically to the top 10 contributors.

Would people actually pay?

Yes!

Two days after the introduction of the community feature, there were two hundred VIP5 users born. The top of the contribution list was a coal tycoon with a contribution of one hundred million. That meant he paid one million!

Why would people be so willing to pay?

Imagine this. If a beauty searched you, the first thing she saw was a VIP6 or diamond symbol, what kind of reaction would it be? Or some would actually put a VIP limit on the search, prohibit anyone below VIP3 from adding them.

Showing off and bragging were common flaws of all humans, especially rich people that have too much money. They only needed to be recognized. The massive user base of Little White and the existence of the contribution system gave them the perfect platform to show off.

Based on the backend stats, the guy at the top of the list almost had his friend request feature blow up.

Although it was not Jiang Chen's intention, the pure Little White became another great app for one night stands after Momo and Wechat.

Other than that, VIP user also had other exclusive privileges. For example the invitation for Beta testing of the mobile game , it would select ten thousand users from each of the different levels. Therefore, the one hundred million users would split ten thousand codes. The millions of VIP1 would also split ten thousand codes, the VIP5 users, would each get one as there are only a few hundred of them. Do you want the invitation code? Then pay more money.

This era-defining mobile game had a lot of expectation and hype. Based on the marketing department's research, on Taobao, an invitation code was propped up to 1000 RMB, which almost broke the record for highest price paid for an invitation code.

Of course, this design certainly caused some people to be unhappy. Especially those people with ill intentions who hired internet armies to control the direction of criticisms. The only point was that it was unfair for so many normal users to split only ten thousand codes. That's un fair! We are going to protest.

But those brain-dead comments did not have any negative impact on Future 1.0, but rather it triggered angry responses from Little White's fan. Once it turned into a debate, it became a hot topic which was a form of free advertisement for Future 1.0.

When the people with ill intentions realized that the internet armies they hired did not create the perception they wished, it was too late to regret.

Part of the success was because of Xia Shiyu's effort. When she discovered the signs, she immediately responded and hired her own internet army to steer the direction of the conversation. She perfectly used the tricks of the opponents to turn this into a successful marketing campaign.

All in all, Future 1.0's financial report was very impressive. Within ten days of the community function, the company's net earning was one hundred million RMB! The number would only increase with the continued operation of Future 1.0, as well as higher user dependence.

Xia Shiyu even confidently stated that within two years, she could break the yearly revenue record set by the member system of Penguin group!

The other area was the mobile game, after a period of marketing, the invitation code was already distributed to the market through Little White. Part of the invitation codes has been circulated through the VIP system. Even if it has been circulated to people who didn't want to play, because it was not tied to the account, third parties could purchase the code and sell it for margin.

As to the code being propped to 1000 RMB, even if they were not fans of New Era, they would be interested in the invitation code. If they didn't play the game, they could always sell it for money. There was nothing to lose.

So naturally, it turned into another form of advertisement. Since the Little White user base already reached 250 million, those people would pay attention to the game because of the expensive invitation code even if they didn't play the game.

Within two months, Future Technology was already profitable. It made the venture capitals that were waiting for the opportunity frustrated that they missed the hen that laid golden eggs. They previously planned to wait for Future Technology to have cash flow problems before they opened their greedy mouths and took the company with endless amounts of potential.

But who would have thought that Future Technology didn't lack money in the first place? Even Penguin had to beg venture capitals.

When he heard one hundred million in profits, Jiang Chen straight up told Xia Shiyu that he would use one million as a bonus. Unlike other tech companies, Future Technology's cost was insanely low. Other than the cost of labor and server maintenance, after-tax, the rest would be profit.

As to research and development, what was that? Only a couple of cans of food.

"Seeing that you are working so diligently, should I give you a raise?" Jiang Chen laughed.

His mood was indeed delighted. Although the one hundred million was nothing to his net assets, it was a good start. It was the first stream of "clean" money he earned.

"No need. My 1% dividend is already enough." From her voice, that girl was also in a good mood. It was a feat being able to accomplish this with a new team.

After the one hundred million equity infusion, she proactively brought up decreasing her share percentage. So after the change, her share in the company changed to 1%. Although Jiang Chen was surprised, he didn't stop her.

Even if it was just 1% share, the one hundred million profit this year was a lot. Because she was not the legal representative, there was a 20% income tax. But even after that, it would still be 800 thousand RMB. Two more months until year end, with this year's profit, any dividend would exceed her current salary.

Bonus and salary were meaningless to her now.

Because it was work time, Xia Shiyu ended the call after reporting to Jiang Chen.

It wasn't until now that Jiang Chen noticed that there were a bunch of missed calls. Starting from yesterday, there was a call every half an hour. After going to the Apocalypse, the phone was in his storage dimension. He only took out the phone after calling Robert, so all the missed phone call messages came in.

"This girl..." A smile curled up on Jiang Chen's mouth.

Although she always kept a cold and serious face, she could be surprisingly cute at times.

Ayesha leaned beside the pool. Her mouth pouted slightly. The graceful and serene legs were moving through the water disinterestedly.

She was not the type to get jealous, but for the phone call that clearly interrupted the intimate moment with her and her husband, it did make her a little unsatisfied.

Jiang Chen threw the phone into the storage dimension before noticing the expression on Ayesha's face. He smiled.

He didn't even take off his clothes before he dived into the water.

In Ayesha's light outcry, Jiang Chen hugged the gentle and loyal girl with a smirk. Compared to before, they were no longer awkward. From her daily actions, he clearly sensed her love.

To be fair, he did not have feelings for her in the beginning. He just somewhat accepted her.

But because of her proactiveness, Ayesha's love finally slipped into his heart. Her gentleness, her understanding, and her sacrifice were almost extinct in the modern world. Just by looking into her eyes, he would be melted by the love. He was uncontrollably drawn to her.

It was time for him to be proactive.

"Can you teach me how to swim?" Jiang Chen said with a smirk, as he blew into her ear.

Ayesha lowered her head shyly, and then she put her hands on his wet shirt.

"Mhmm."

_Min_ _Min_

Hello everyone. Thank you for all your support in our project to translate this novel.

As Jiang Chen traverses more frequently between the two worlds, the empire that expands across dimension will start to form its shape. The story will only get more compelling as Jiang Chen discovers more and more "goodies" from the wasteland, what will he do with them in the modern world?

At last, shout out to our Patreons. Thank you all.

Chapter 117: Purchasing a Food Processing Plant

The next morning, Jiang Chen woke up from his sweet dream. He looked at the adorable girl beside him, sleeping as calmly as a cat, and his mouth curled up.

Mouth slightly closed, graceful eyebrows, eyelashes gently trembling, and the somewhat messy hair...

The porcelain doll-like white skin was cast with slight redness on her cheeks, and from her rhythmic breathing, Jiang Chen could hear a hint of tiredness and joy.

It was a bit too crazy last night.

Jiang Chen thought about last night as his face turned red. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that every time Ayesha was treated "roughly" by him, she would be excited, especially with her hands pulled behind her back, from the back...

He awkwardly touched his nose, and then gently tucked Ayesha in before quietly sneaking down from the bed.

He hadn't cooked breakfast in a long time.

Jiang Chen, satisfied, looked at the buttered toast and oatmeal with milk on the table with a great sense of accomplishment.

"I definitely have the potential to be a great man," he narcissistically murmured. He then relaxingly sat beside the table to enjoy the breakfast. He still had a lot of important things to do, so he had to wake up earlier than usual.

He cleaned everything up and left a sticker on the table before he left the door humming.

He drove straight to the rural area with his Maybach.

Jiang Chen still needed to do some preparation work for his island purchase plan. The sooner, the better. Robert probably started the plan already on his side. To be fair, he was even scared by his own plan. If he made a mistake by accident, he would enter the blacklist of the international police.

But then he just needed it to succeed, right?

-

Ayesha opened her weary eyes and slowly sat up on the bed. She smoothed her slightly messy hair and stared blankly at the empty pillow, her mind just zoned out for a moment.

She didn't know why she fell in love with Jiang Chen, but the feeling was that intense. Whenever she saw him, her heart beat would increase. Whenever he hugged her, her entire body would feel hot.

She blankly smiled as she remembered last night.

Suddenly she woke up from her drowsy state.

"Oh no, I forgot to cook breakfast."

In her perspective, to be a qualified wife, she should put the prepared breakfast on the table before the husband headed out for work. Although it was not written in the religion, it was the family tradition from her mother's side.

That's how she had measured herself. She knew that her husband was a great man, including the woman that came back with him on the car, he probably has a lot of "wives". Even if she wouldn't get jealous, she still craved more attention.

This included a controlled diet (She did not know the genetic vaccine improved her digestive ability, she didn't need to control her diet to avoid that extra fat on her stomach), proper exercise, to make herself look fit and charming. The nutrient was also marvelous, as it seemed to improve her skin condition. The only draw back was the awkward pee tube.

She also worked diligently on housework.

But she was too tired last night, even when she woke up this morning, her leg still felt sore, that's why she slept in.

She quickly got out of the bed, Ayesha put a long white dress shirt on her gorgeous figure and then ran downstairs with her legs exposed.

However, she was disappointed. Jiang Chen already left.

Frustrated by her own "mistake", after washing up, Ayesha grumpily came to the kitchen to make some food for herself.

When she saw the breakfast already on the table, she paused.

Her heart felt warm.

There was a note on the table, the writing was really neat, and she could understand it with her Han level now.

<I won't come home to eat, you don't have to wait for me. Take care of yourself. - Jiang Chen.>

She put the notes in front of her chest as a flush of warmth appeared on her face.

She suddenly remembered why. Because of this gentleness, that was what made her uncontrollably fell in love with him.

Although he always gave off a naughty feeling, he always took great care of her. He didn't discriminate her because of her refugee status nor treat her brutally...

Her hands sub-consciously crossed her chest as her finger gently pressed the button on her shirt.

"Dad, Mom, I am living a happy life in this foreign country. Don't worry about me."

She grasped onto the note tightly as she prayed.

-

Xinlong Food Processing Plant.

The gray concrete wall looked relatively clean, the surrounding environment was not too bad either. Although it was small, it had everything in there. Just from the outside, Jiang Chen was quite pleased with the plant.

He got off the car and looked around before he quickly found the person he was looking for.

A middle-aged man squatting in front of the door, smoking, quickly stepped on the cigarette after he saw Jiang Chen. Forcing a smile, he came to greet him.

But that smile was no better looking than him crying.

The information said he was 31 years, but the 180 cm man has a hunched back like a 50-year-old elder, the whiteness on the side of his hair and the engraved face was not because of the passage of time, but rather the misfortunes in life.

"Jiang Chen, you should already have seen my information." Jiang Chen didn't judge this man too much, as he extended his hand with a smile.

"Zheng Hongjie, owner of the Xinlong Food Processing Plant." Zhen Hongjie shook Jiang Chen hand, and forced another smile. He then gave Jiang Chen a welcoming gesture. "Mr. Jiang follow me to take a look at the plant."

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded.

Both of them entered the plant side by side. Jiang Chen noticed the dust on the production line. This place hasn't produced in a while.

"Two canned food processing lines, an instant noodle line, and a cookie line. Our work was mostly in processing before, but no one wants to work with us now."

Zheng Hongjie's smile was bitter. He then led Jiang Chen to back of the plant.

"This is the warehouse, including the four empty acreages of land. We previously had the plan to expand the plant, but now it looks like it is not necessary. I'll sell you the production equipment at 70%, we'll make it 300 thousand. The land and plant itself are a bit more expensive, 2.4 million, can't go lower than that."

After finishing, Zheng Hongjie stopped talking and looked at Jiang Chen's reaction.

He estimated in his mind and nodded rather pleased.

The price was fair, even a bit lower than the market price. He already asked the intermediary before, the plant's cost was around 3 million. This guy must have met some trouble with money, or else he wouldn't need to sell the plant at a lower price this hastily.

Although he already decided to purchase it, Jiang Chen's eyes moved slightly. He didn't reply, but rather he gave Zheng Hongjie a cigarette with a smile and dragged him aside.

"Mr. Zheng, I am quite pleased with the price. But I am curious, based on the construction of the plant, you are not the type to have improper planning. What made you want to sell your asset?"

Zheng Hongjie didn't reject the cigarette as he skillfully lit it up.

He blew a smoke ring. The just 31-year-old man had wrinkles squished together on his face, and he bitterly smiled again.

"Stock market."

Although it was only two words, Jiang Chen instantly knew his sadness.

_Min_

Second one for the day. :)

Chapter 118: The Bankrupt Zheng Hongjie

There is a famous quote in <Fortress Besieged>, marriage is like a siege, people want to go outside, people want to come inside. The same word would apply to the stock market without it being the slightest bit unfit.

Five years ago, Zheng Hongjie was only an ordinary taxi driver. Because of chatting with a passenger once, he heard about the food processing industry.

The slight drunk boosted to him how processing food made money, and at that time he was tempted. Being only twenty, he didn’t want to be a taxi driver for his entire life. From that point on, he started to learn about the unfamiliar industry.

With the family saving as well as borrowings from relatives, he successfully purchased a poorly operated small processing plant.

Although he didn’t go to university before, because of his hard work and desire to learn, he used his learned-on-the-spot operation knowledge to expand the small facility to a large plant.

Contracts flew to him like snowflakes. The canned food and instant noodles he produced were not only high in quality, but the price was also superior compared to his competitors. The plant was getting more and more profitable, buying land, purchasing production lines, hiring more employees… Even the famous Master Kung sent them a contract for food processing.

Within five years, Boss Zheng’s name spread throughout his hometown. His former friends began calling him Boss Zheng, Brother Zheng.

From nothing to starting his plant in Wanghai city. Being able to buy a car, buy a house, and returning to his hometown in glory. From a taxi driver to a boss, his experience in the five years could be written into a book.

But everything changed at the end of last year.

The stock market sunk to the bottom, rumors of the index striking 6124 finally faded. The stock market was averaging around 3000 at the time. One of his business friends told him once when they were drinking that stock markets were a good place to make money, and if he had money, he should give it a try.

Although he was a bit drunk, Zheng Hongjie’s head was still sober. His consciousness told him that this zero sum game was not right. How could a market without producing any goods create value?

Zheng Hongjie didn't listen to his friend, but rather he told his friend not to be so drawn into tricky things. But his friend only laughed and didn't bother with him.

Four months later, his friend bought two apartments in the city. His previous car was upgraded to a BMW. When they were drinking again, the friend gloated on the fact that he used one million to make a stunning return of five million.

Seeing his friend was now wealthy, Zheng Hongjie felt regret. If he listened to his friend's words, it wouldn't just be two apartments, he would probably be living in a mansion by now. He worked hard for four months, and in the end didn't even make as much as his friend made in a few days.

After a few more rounds, perhaps due to envy, Zheng Hongjie casually asked, "Is it too late to get in now?"

When he heard those words, his friend was immediately drawn to the conservation. He constantly boosted at how "the economic condition is superb," "it is only going to go up," "there is no backing down this time!"

After a passion-filled conversation, Zheng Hongjie was tempted. With only the food processing plant, it would take ten years before he could become a millionaire, but he could with only a few days in the stock market.

When he returned home, he hesitantly opened an account. Under the guidance of his friend, he tested the water by putting in twenty thousand. He didn't pay too much attention to the account as he was busy with his business until one month later when he remembered that he bought stock.

He only opened the account out of curiosity and wanted to see how much money that twenty thousand turned into. If it were a small amount, even if he lost it all, it would be okay.

It would have been better if he didn't look, he immediately jumped up when he saw the number. The twenty thousand turned into fifty thousand.

He felt the world dazzling around him. It was not excitement, but regret.

That's right, it was regret.

If he put in two million, it would've become five million! If he borrowed some money to buy ten million, he would be a millionaire already...

Human's greed was infinite, the piercing 5000 red number, he remembered Renren Newspaper; "The bull market is only halfway to the top." He immediately put all two million from his account into the stock market. Out of the two million, there was a one million loan used for the plant's expansion.

"Renren Newspaper would not trick its citizens right?" "xxx can't be lying?" "If the stock market crashed then xxx would be the first one to react!"

Mhmm. It's hard to believe, but they did the trick, what can you do?

In the start, he did feel excited as a 2% increase was forty thousand. By just looking at that red line, he felt his entire body shake with excitement. He was starting to day dream about the life of a millionaire and forgot the caution he had before.

With just half a month, he experienced the feeling of dropping down from heaven to hell.

The index headed straight down, thousands of stocks with 10% decreases became the norm, but the media kept pushing it up.

"The right opportunity to get into the bull market."

"Short term adjustments for higher adjustment."

"Stock hits rock bottom, now is the time to buy."

"The index can't drop anymore The central government is discussing interest rate drop."

"80% of organizations think the stock market is at the bottom."

"Pension plan is in discussion to enter the market."

He continued to buy in only to continue to lose. The friend that promised him that it wouldn't drop below 4000 points was nowhere to be seen. It was rumored that he borrowed money he shouldn't have, left his wife and children and escaped to the south.

Zheng Hongjie wanted to die, but he couldn't. He has a wife that loved him dearly, and a daughter that idolized him.

The plant expansion was a no go.

Because he used the loan for other purposes, to avoid legal consequences, as well as being forced by the bank to sell assets to repay debt, Zheng Hongjie decided to borrow elsewhere to fill the hole. He borrowed money from his business friends and repaid the bank loan. Then he put the rest of the money into the plant, hoping he could slowly repay the debt.

However, another unfortunate event occurred.

Within less than a month, the high rising pork price increased the price of other foods which directly increased the cost of producing canned foods and slammed the food processing industry. But to repay this debt, he practically accepted all orders and used the guarantee fee to maintain production and repay debt.

With the price from the previous month, based on the high rising cost of production, for every canned food he produced, he lost 1 RMB. But he had to keep producing, or else he would have to pay for breach of contract.

If it was before, he could have easily handled this crisis with the cash on hand, but now...

After debating, he chose to breach the contract and lost every single cent. He lost all opportunities to start up again. The bank would not loan him money, and he could no longer pay for the workers, so he had to let go of all employees.

The five years was like a dream.

Because of a legal Ponzi Scheme, he went from high up in the clouds to hell.

"The stock market was like <Inception>, people on the outside were afraid, people on the inside couldn't escape."

He left a sentence worth thinking about. Then he blew the last smoke ring before stepping on the cigarette butt.

If he knew what would happen today, he wouldn't have done it from the beginning. To be honest, Jiang Chen also followed the stock market before, but before this July, he had no money in his pocket. He was quite lucky that he was always an "outsider."

Silently listening till he finished, Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"Your experience could be written into a book. Do you have any plans?"

"Probably driving. Selling the factory should be enough to pay off the debt, and the missing salaries. Although I am not a boss anymore, I still have to maintain my morale as a person." He laughed self-mockingly as he shook his head.

Morale is a bright spot, Jiang Chen secretly nodded his head as he heard Hongjie's words. He didn't know how to operate a plant, rather than going to a headhunter to find a manager, it would be better to hire this expert right away.

"I am talking about your future plans, not your plan for tomorrow." Jiang Chen smiled, he looked at the wry face, unfitting for his age, as he spoke lightly.

Zheng Hongjie paused for a moment.

"Me? Probably driving-"

"A waste of talent. I personally look highly of people with ability," Jiang Chen waved his hand and interrupted him, and he continued with a smile, "What about this? Do you have any interest in working in my factory? Xinlong Food Processing Plant is still called Xinlong. You are still the head."

Finishing his words, Jiang Chen extended his right hand and looked at him with a bright smile.

Shocked, the aged faced suddenly regained some liveliness. From the initial shock to the final excitement, Zheng Hongjie extended his hand out, trembling, and held onto Jiang Chen's hand.

He never imagined that the new owner of the factory would risk the bad luck and hire a failure. Regardless, the plant went down because of him.

"The closure of the factory was not because of your operational mistake. I think Xinlong would only be able to generate maximum value in your hands. I trust that you won't easily just let go of so many years of hard work, what do you think?"

"I do!"

An answer without hesitation.

He put Jiang Chen's hand down as Zheng Hongjie picked up the cigarette bud he threw on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Chen was bewildered.

"Hehe, sanitation is critical in a food processing plant. When I was the head, without exaggerating, there was not a single bud in the entire plant!" As if the spring breeze just blew by, all of the sudden, the rigid face returned to its former day liveliness.

Jiang Chen shrugged, extinguished the bud, and followed him to the trashcan to throw it in the bin.

"Now that I have purchased the company, I will inject one million into it. I demand you to restart production within half a month. I just want to ask one thing, are you confident!"

"Yes!"

Seeing Zheng Hongjie shout out at the top of his lungs, Jiang Chen laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

"That's the attitude! I trust you. Now go with me to the bureau to finish the process."

"Hehe, boss, could I invite you to lunch after the process? I don't have a lot of money, so I can't treat you at a restaurant." The thirty something man forced a laugh.

Regardless, he wanted to invite the person that gave him a second chance for a meal to express his sincere gratitude. It was the tradition of his hometown, and his insistence throughout his life.

Slightly unexpecting it, Jiang Chen immediately laughed.

"No problem!"

He noticed out of a sudden that the abjected man's chest finally rose up.

As if he received a new life.

_Min_

Another one!

Thanks for the support!

Chapter 119: It’s you again?

The process was completed quickly, and Jiang Chen acquired the rights to the factory. When the 2.7 million was transferred to Zheng Hongjie’s bank account, and he received the confirmation message on his phone, the man finally lets out a sigh of relief.

He still acted as the plant manager with a base salary of 8000, and based on sales there would be bonuses. Just like before, he would have to take care of everything from marketing to production. Although a bit overwhelming, Jiang Chen gave him a lucrative bonus plan. It would depend on his sales to see how much he would get in the end.

"I won’t care too much on how the plant is operated, but you have to do a few things for me." Although he said it casually, Zheng Hongjie still sensed the inflexibility in his tone.

"Please go ahead." Zheng Hongjie nodded with an earnest expression.

"First, if you want to do it, then go big. Processing for other people can be put aside. We’ll have to develop our own brand."

"Our own brand?" Zheng Hongjie forced a smile, and continued, "To be honest, I tried to start my own brand before, but the cost is too high. , sponsorship, distribution channel, it was incomparable to the profit margin of processing for other people, there’s also more risk."

Jiang Chen shook his head laughing.

"Processing for other people is enough if we want to remain small, but I don’t plan on doing that. I’ll continue to invest in the early stages, including research and development, upgrading to the larger production lines, and expanding the plant. You don’t have to worry about the sales channel, I’ll mention it next. As to distribution and advertisement, I’ll take care of it."

[Funny, there is no channel better than the Internet right? Promotion could be done on Future 1.0, such as free moon cake during the mid-autumn festival. Or when he makes Liu Yao famous, getting her to promote the brand would be simple.]

Seeing the boss so certain, although Zheng Hongjie was still unsure, he didn’t continue asking.

"Second, this is the most important point. We’ll transition to international trade. I need you to register for import and export requirement; the destination is currently Pannu Island. We’ll import the fruit to produce fruit can and sell domestically, then export other canned food."

When he heard Jiang Chen’s words, Zheng Hongjie slightly raised his eyebrows. He asked wondering.

"I considered export before, but it was not as easy it as it seems. First being that we don’t have a strong brand, second being the cost. We don’t have any advantages compared to corporations in Australia, or the Philippine. And the most critical factor is transport. I know a little about Pannu Island. It’s a small island country in the Pacific, and it doesn’t even have a deep water port to dock larger ships."

"You don’t have to worry about that. It won’t be long until an investor builds a cargo port there. You only need to expand production and sell to them, and produce the cheap food imported from there into food cans." Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously and didn’t explain more.

Zheng Hongjie paused as he had a weird expression on his face, looking at Jiang Chen. Although he was curious as to why the boss knew a lot about the third-world country but since the boss didn’t plan to say more, he stopped asking.

"Third, this not something official so you only need to keep it in mind. I need you to have surplus goods every month."

It was okay to buy from the food store owner in the short term, but it was not a reliable long term situation. Since goods only went into the warehouse and never out, one or two times, it wouldn’t cause any suspicion, but any more than that would be problematic. Once the Fishbone’s population increases, it would have a higher demand for food, a food processing plant would be the safer choice.

"Surplus goods?" Zheng Hongjie almost thought he heard it wrong.

Surplus goods referred to goods overproduced. Usually, it would either be given out to employees for free or discounted at a low price. It was the first time he heard someone wanted surplus good.

"Mhmm, I’ll let you know the amount, you only need to keep that in mind. These goods don’t need to be branded. It’s not for selling. I have other uses."

After hearing Jiang Chen’s explanation, Zheng Hongjie didn’t ask more. Although it was an odd request, it was nothing complicated. Him, being a boss before, knew that he only needed to listen.

-

"Dad!"

"My cute daughter, haha, daddy is back." Zheng Hongjie hugged his daughter, who leaped towards him with a warm smile.

"Dad, who is this?" The adorable girl blinked her big eyes looking at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen kneeled down and looked at this energetic little girl with a smile. He then said with an amiable voice, "Uncle is your dad’s friend. What’s your name?"

"My name is Jiajia, I am in second grade at experimental school~" Jiajia replied in a cute tone.

Jiang Chen paused when he heard experimental school.

"Uncle, are you okay?" Jiajia tilted her head.

"Oh, nothing, hehe." Jiang Chen forced a laugh and answered in a light-hearted tone.

[Sun Jiao is probably still waiting for me on the other side…]

He peeked at his right hand. He tried this morning, but it still didn’t work.

"You are back, and this is?" A virtuous looking woman came out of the kitchen and asked her husband when she saw Jiang Chen.

"This is my boss, Mr. Jiang." Zheng Hongjie smiled at his wife.

"You… finally sold the plant?"

"Mhmm, I did. But Mr. Jiang hired me to continue to run the plant."

Kong Jie looked at the smile she hasn't seen for a long time on her husband’s face as her eyes became moist.

She took a deep breath in and to both Jiang Chen and Zheng Hongjie’s surprise, she sincerely bowed towards Jiang Chen.

"Honey?"

"What, what are you doing?" Jiang Chen looked at her actions, not knowing how to react.

"For a while, Hongjie had been worried about the plant every day. He regretted trusting his friend’s word. I was really scared, scared that one day if he couldn’t think things through, he would leave us…" Tears began to emerge from Kong Jie’s eyes.

Seeing the tears in his wife’s eyes, Zheng Hongjie suddenly hugged her.

"Fool, there is no way I would leave you." The tough man’s voice had a sob tone to it.

Jiang Chen silently watched them as a smile emerged on his face.

It would best not to interrupt them right now.

"Uncle." Jiajia looked up and blinked her big eyes at Jiang Chen.

"Hmm? Do you have something Little Jiajia?" Jiang Chen regathered his thoughts and kneeled down again, rubbing her hair.

"Thank you," Jiajia said sweetly.

Haha.

Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughing. Jiajia tilted her head and looked at the uncle in front of her, confused.

"No problem, Jiajia is very courteous." For some reason, his mood was delighted at this moment.

"Hehe." Because she received recognition, Jiajia smiled shyly.

After Zheng Hongjie had finished hugging his wife, he looked awkwardly at Jiang Chen. It was rather impolite to leave the guest hanging during a display of affection. The thin-skinned Kong Jie already fleeted to the kitchen. Jiajia tilted her head not knowing the situation, while Zheng Hongjie expressed his apology with a blushed face.

Jiang Chen, with a smile, motioned it was okay. He then began to chat with Zheng Hongjie on the sofa.

Zheng Hongjie was a talkative person as he was a taxi driver before he started a business. Although his experience was nowhere near as exciting as Jiang Chen, his depth of experience far exceeded Jiang Chen's.

His wife Kong Jie was a traditional woman, she virtuously cooked the meal and asked everyone to eat.

On the table, Jiang Chen and Zheng Hongjie had a few drinks. Jiajia curiously reached her hand towards the cup which made Jiang Chen chuckle more.

[Is this the feeling of home?]

He thought about it, and it did feel like this when he was at the wily old fox Wang Dehai’s place.

He was suddenly envious of the feeling. He didn’t know why.

Maybe it was time to go back to his hometown Lake City. Perhaps during New Year; it was already October.

Jiang Chen fell into a deep thought while watching the table filled with home cooked dishes.

But suddenly, a fierce door smashing sound transmitted from the outside, it forced him out of his thoughts.

"Who?" Jiang Chen was lost as he looked at Zheng Hongjie.

But Zheng Hongjie was confused as well. He exchanged a confused look with his wife before he got up and walked towards the door.

"You are?" Zheng Hongjie opened the door as he looked confusedly at the men in front.

"Fu*k you, we are here to collect our money!" A few young men in shirts saw that the door was opened and they didn’t hesitate to force their way in.

"Wait, do you guys have the wrong person-"After being pushed aside, Zheng Hongjie struggled frightened.

"This is the loan agreement, three million. We are debt collectors." A young man with a buzz cut aggressively pushed Zheng Hongjie as they surrounded him, sneering.

"What are you guys doing!? Let Hongjie go. I am going to call the police!" Kong Jie took out the phone as she said shakingly.

"Police? Don’t use cops to scare me. Let me get this straight. Do you know who my boss Sir Qiang is?" The young men said cockily. A man in shades stood behind him with a cigarette in his mouth. He didn’t speak.

This guy was probably Sir Qiang.

"Dad!" Jiajia saw that her father was in trouble as her adorable face twisted, with tears in her eyes she wanted to run up.

"Don’t come, Jiajia! Dad is okay." Zheng Hongjie immediately stopped her. Kong Jie also grabbed Jiajia and hugged her.

He took a deep breath as Zheng Hongjie looked at the young men. "I already prepared the money, and I’ll borrow from my relatives some more in the next few days-"

"Next few days? I want to take care of this today –"

At this moment, the young man suddenly saw Jiang Chen, his thuggish look instantly froze.

To be honest, Jiang Chen was surprised from the start. He didn’t expect to see him here again.

Jiang Chen mischievously examined the young men as he opened his mouth.

"Oh, what a coincidence, it’s you again?"

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 120: Don’t do it, I’ll do it myself

A young man who didn't finish high school followed by a few tattooed subordinates who also didn't finish high school. It would be more satisfying if he managed to hook up with a rebellious girl while still studying and act as the boss in front of a bunch of students. Although in front of a real "boss", Liu Hu was still nothing.

But compared to other punks, he was at least somewhat competent. He practiced a bit of martial arts, overlooked a construction site in the past and hustled cash from grade-schoolers... Ahem, that last part didn't count.

In any case, the Hongyi Gang leader, Liu Changlong, recognized his ability during a street brawl. After being released by the police, he joined Hongyi Gang, and through his fighting prowess, he finally climbed to "success."

However, his blissful life changed completely one day.

His brothers surrounded a b*tch with a beautiful face without a background during one of their modi operandi. Paying off debt was expected from anyone; otherwise, paying off using one's body also worked fine. It wasn't his first time doing something like this.

But an average-looking guy came by and not only he was physically strong, but he was also wielding a gun.

Liu Hu was scared, and it suddenly dawned on him that he messed with the wrong person. The man didn't even bat an eye when he shot and maimed the leg of one of his thugs.

When he felt the hot muzzle pressing against his temple, his hands went cold, and his legs turned weak.

In short, although he had brought the money back, he failed to complete the task given to him by his boss (which was to bring the person back) and made an enemy with someone he shouldn't have.

This normally shouldn't be a big deal. After all, Liu Changlong had worked for Hongyi Gang for so many years and had earned plenty of merits, so he shouldn't be kicked out just because of this.

However, something unexpected happened which made him relive his former street thug life.

It went something like this.

Liu Changlong had received a phone call from his younger brother, Liu Anshan, asking him if he wanted to get rich. Liu Anshan recounted the story about Jiang Chen selling gold and had emphasized the fact that this person had a lot of gold, and there must be a stable source where it came from.

Liu Changlong was tempted but gold alone was not enough to sway him; however, if it was a stable source of income, that was something entirely different. He didn't care if it was a private mine or an ancient tomb. After all, how hard could it be to pry the secret out of someone with little or no background on his turf?

Though before making a move, he cautiously investigated beforehand.

The result of the investigation frightened him. This Jiang Chen was no simple character.

Being the chairman of Future Technology was not the important point. The crucial point was when he hinted at his friends in politics, the response he received was: "Do not touch this guy." Even worse was the old city mayor personally made a directive with one word: "Support."

His friend only vaguely explained to him that if he dared to touch him, all his hideous secrets would be exposed the next day, then he would be incarcerated and he would be beyond saving.

The gang could only scare the ordinary people. Not taking into consideration the people the city official personally stated to support, anyone with some background would be difficult to offend. Because of this, his action couldn't be seen under the light.

Of course, he didn't dare to make a move on Jiang Chen at the moment. He also didn't dare to use Liu Hu who had offended Jiang Chen. Although Jiang Chen might not remember it, there was no point in taking the risk.

So Liu Hu lost his job and the thugs, who followed him, left one by one. Fortunately, one of his drinking friends recognized his talent in debt collecting, so he employed him to work in a debt collection agency.

Scaring and hoaxing people. This combination would certainly put pressure on most ordinary citizens to pay off their debts. 28% was not a bad commission rate, especially the faster it was completed, the higher the commission would be. For the stubborn ones, some punches and kicks would easily solve the problem and as long as he didn't do anything extreme, the cops couldn't do anything to him.

But what he didn't expect was meeting the demon Jiang Chen again.

-

Liu Hu's face looked like he just ate a piece of sh*t. Jiang Chen ignored him and looked at the person behind him who got up and said, "Boss."

"Why can't you collect debt nicely? What's the point of being so angry and starting a conflict?"

The man wearing a pair of sunglasses looked over when he heard the words and guffawed.

"Are you involving yourself in something that's none of your concern?"

"None of my concern? Isn't that the job of an employer?" Jiang Chen surprisingly shrugged. His face betraying not the slightest hint of fear.

The one called Sir Qiang burst out laughing then slowly took off his shades. The thugs saw their boss was about to make a move, so they maliciously surrounded Jiang Chen.

"You son of a b*tch! Who do you think you are?"

"Boss Jiang, this is my business, so you don't have to stand up for me—" Zheng Hongjie smiled bitterly while trying to persuade Jiang Chen.

He did not expect that his former good friend would make use of a debt collection agency to make him pay back the money he owed. He probably thought he would run away since one of their friends, whom they also had drunk with regularly, ran away after being deep in debt after losing big in the stock market.

"Sir Qiang, you, you can't touch this person." Liu Hu rushed forward to stop his brother but Li Qiang didn't care at all. Debt collection was all about the aggression. What's the point in collecting debt if they would just get scared, they should have just studied law instead.

"Can't touch him? I, Li Qiang—"

"Although I don't know who you are—I won't tolerate you cursing my mother." Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed and fastly becoming enraged.

"Funny, daddy didn't even curse. I'm going to fu*k you up—" Li Qiang's eyebrows shot up provocatively and he became even more aggressive. The man in front of him didn't look like he could fight.

However, before he could even complete his words, his eyes began to blur as he flew into the closet.

Kong Jie covered Jiajia's tiny head to prevent her from witnessing this violent scene. Zheng Hongjie looked dumbly at his boss. He could not imagine his boss, who was not even taller than him, had the ability to send someone flying with a kick.

When the thugs saw that their boss was beaten, they hesitated for a moment before lunging at Jiang Chen with their fists out.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh, his eyes suddenly turned fierce and then he stretched out his hands.

Liu Hu, on the other hand, didn't make a move. He smiled wryly and closed his eyes. He had experience firsthand how vicious he could get.

The fight ended almost instantly with the previously mocking hooligans splayed awkwardly on the ground.

What a joke. With Muscle Strength +30, even a boxing champion wouldn't be his opponent. With Reflex +32, even if they sprouted two more hands, it would yield the same result.

Jiang Chen shook his fist and looked at Liu Hu, who was standing on the side, with a sardonic smile.

"You don't need to do anything; I'll do it myself." Liu Hu smiled bitterly before raising his fist ready to knock himself out.

"Don't be nervous. Do I look that vicious to you? Just hold still, and everything will be okay," Jiang Chen smilingly told him.

"Is there even a point of watching?" Of course, Liu Hu would not dare to say it out loud. His raised hand was frozen in midair, and he had a peculiar expression on his face.

"I thought you were collecting debts for Hongyi Gang? What, the pay is too low, so you started your own business?" Jiang Chen watched Liu Hu thoughtfully and a hint of mockery laced his tone.

Zheng Hongjie and Kongjie were utterly stunned. Jiajia was flapping her hands in her mother's arms, wanting to get a good look at her surrounding. Liu Hu glanced at his brothers on the floor and sighed.

"Got fired."

Liu Hu explained everything that happened after that night including the things he knew and the thing he shouldn't have known but heard.

When he heard the gold store manager, Liu Anshan, had leaked his information and the Hongyi Gang leader, Liu Changlong, was ready to make a move on him, Jiang Chen cursed in his mind.

Although he was not afraid of these scums of society, what happened here made him reflect on the carelessness of his past actions. Selling gold attracted unwanted attentions of a different kind. He was lucky that his improvement skyrocketed that made Liu Changlong backed off right away or else he would be facing far more treachery and danger.

"All right, you may now excuse yourself." Jiang Chen didn't want to waste too much time on a cannon fodder.

Upon hearing those words, Liu Hu immediately left, leaving his comrades on the floor without a second thought.

Zheng Hongjie saw that Liu Hu had left. He glanced at the thugs on the floor and asked Jiang Chen with a troubled tone, "Mr. Jiang, how do we take care of this?"

Jiang Chen watched the people lying on the ground and scratched his head in annoyance.

Three of them probably had their ribs broken and two of them definitely had their hands fractured. Li Qiang was knocked out with just one kick. Because he didn't fight that often, he didn't know how to control his power.

Jiang Chen secretly activated fury and when he saw that no one had died, he secretly let out a sigh of relief.

He took out the phone from his pocket and called 110.

"Hello, 110? I want to report a crime. This is what happened." Better blame it on them first.

After explaining the situation, Jiang Chen hesitated for a bit before calling Wang Zhiyong's number.

"Hello, Brother Chen, what's up?" Wang Zhiyong's brash voice came through from the other side of the phone.

"Just a bit of trouble. Some punks were giving me trouble, so I injured all of them," Jiang Chen cut straight to the point.

The last time they had a drink, they started calling each other brother. So in the moment of trouble, the only one Jiang Chen could think of was him.

"Fu*k, who dares to touch my brother? Where are you? I'll bring my people to beat their asses," Wang Zhiyong cursed and was instantly incensed.

Jiang Chen was speechless at his words. This guy didn't even inquire about the injuries but was already ready to give them a beating once again.

"Ahem, I already beat them down but I have to go the police station to give my statement. Do you have some connections with the police?"

"Woah, you beat all of them? Don't worry about the evidence, it's self-defense. Although I am not close to the police, I am tight with their superiors." Wang Zhiyong chortled.

"Er, I hit them first."

"Don't worry, if I said it's self-defense, it's self-defense! You only need to say that during the investigation."

[Damn! Political influence sure is a great thing.]

Chapter 121: Experiencing the World

Wang Zhiyong had already talked with his buddy, so the cop who came did not say anything at all. In the spirit of civilized law enforcement, they politely invited Jiang Chen to the police station to gather evidence.

As for the people lying on the ground, they didn't experience the same privilege and regardless of how badly they were beaten, they were all handcuffed and shoved into the police car.

Zheng Hongjie wanted to go with Jiang Chen. Although he did not have any connection with the police force, he could still stand as a witness, but Jiang Chen waved his hand indicating it was unnecessary and urged him to settle the family problem first and quickly pay off the debt.

Jiang Chen lent him the remaining 300,000 and told him that he could pay it off with his monthly salary.

Under the grateful look of the entire family, Jiang Chen followed the courteous police downstairs.

Seeing the humiliated expression on Li Qiang's face, Jiang Chen halted, smiled and pulled out his car key, waved it in front of him and then got in his own car.

Because it was just for the sake of formality, he didn't even need to go in the police car. But the hooligans who stirred up trouble would at least be locked up for half a month. Naturally someone would teach them some lessons, however, there were not a lot of opportunities for them to prove themselves in front their superiors.

After coming to the police station, Jiang Chen cooperated and provided the evidence. The witness statement was not even needed before the whole thing was settled as a legitimate self-defense case.

When leaving the police station, he accidentally ran into Wang Zhiyong who was heading towards him.

Li Gangming, who was driving the car, awkwardly smiled after seeing Jiang Chen. Due to his minor altercation with Jiang Chen in the past, and the latter seemingly exceptional relationship with his superior, he was afraid that Jiang Chen would seek vengeance on him.

But he was clearly overthinking since Jiang Chen didn't even take that little thing to heart and responded with a friendly smile.

"Gangming, drive the car back to the station for me. I'll have to take my brother out to play tonight."

After sending Li Gangming off, Wang Zhiyong walked happily to Jiang Chen.

"Fu*k, the training during these last few days is killing me. I finally got the change to go out."

"What's the point of being a soldier if you don't train?" Jiang Chen laughingly mocked him. "If you don't want to go, who can force you to?"

"Hehe, my father forced me to go." Wang Zhiyong laughed awkwardly and touched his nose then changed the subject. "Enough bullsh*t, I'll drive you to experience the world."

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and opened the car door. Wang Zhiyong unabashedly sat on the driver seat.

"What's experiencing the world?" Jiang Chen asked and helplessly sat on the passenger seat.

"You'll know once we get there." Wang Zhiyong smiled mysteriously and then started the car and admiringly exclaimed, "Maybach S600, limited edition. Fu*k, I am about the same age as you, how are you so rich?"

"Do you want one? My treat." Jiang Chen laughed.

To Jiang Chen's surprise, Wang Zhiyong shook his head.

"I don't dare, I have a lot of brothers who have them, so I can just drive around whenever the urge strikes. Not to brag but I even drove a Lamborgini, Koenigsegg before. A friend of mine was even prepared to give me one when he saw I like it, but I still refused."

"So virtuous? Then why are you still a soldier? You will receive a lot of commendations if you were to become a politician." Jiang Chen laughed.

Wang Zhiyong also chuckled and continued, "It's not about being virtuous, you're overthinking. For those people who want to join my force, I wouldn't even think about it unless it is at least 1000."

Only Wang Zhiyong would dare to say this out loud.

"I only need enough money to spend. I don't have much interest in being a millionaire. The friendship would change if I accept my friend's money," Wang Zhiyong said casually but it certainly hinted deeper meanings.

Jiang Chen could not help but grow astonished at his words.

He thought this guy was just a blockhead descendant of an influential politician who only knew how to do reckless things with his buddies, but he certainly had his own convictions in life.

It was apparent that he truly considered Jiang Chen as his friend. When there was money involved, the dynamics of relationship would change.

"Don't think too much. I simply have too much money to spend and had no other intentions," Jiang Chen said and chuckled.

Wang Zhiyong also laughed.

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Oh yeah, you created Future 1.0, right?"

"Yes, are you using it?" Jiang Chen gave him a surprised look.

"Hehe, the holy trinity of holy-up apps, even better than Momo by a large margin. Could you turn me into VIP5? That shouldn't be too much trouble, right?"

"Not at all, give me your account number." Jiang Chen said in a forthright manner.

He texted Wang Zhiyong's Little White's account number to Xia Shiyu. Upgrading to VIP5 only needed a word from him—the chairman.

After the car arrived at the suburbs, Jiang Chen looked outside of the window, as the buildings became more and more common, he could not help but get confused. He thought Wang Zhiyong would take him somewhere fun downtown and did not expect him to drive to the outskirts.

"Well, aren't you curious?" As though seemingly aware to Jiang Chen's confusion, Wang Zhiyong arrogantly smiled.

"That's right, what fun is there in the suburbs?" Jiang Chen did not hesitate to ask what was boggling his mind.

"We're almost there. It's a nice place."

With a mysterious smile, Wang Zhiyong turned the steering wheel into another corner.

After the bend, Jiang Chen had a sudden feeling of enlightenment. At a glance, he could very well discern the destination of this trip.

The European style structure looked out-of-place in the less busy neighborhood just like a castle amidst the ghetto. Surprisingly, its remote location did not impact its popularity at all. From the nearly full parking lot, not only was this place popular, but it was not a place for ordinary people.

Jiang Chen's expression could not help but turn odd while looking at the magnificent building that was decorated exquisitely.

The name was very familiar to him.

The bright and colorful words were: Hongyi Private Club.

-

After parking the car, Wang Zhiyong and Jiang Chen were ushered to the door by a server.

"Why did we come to this place?" Jiang Chen asked while walking.

"Hmm? Is there any problem?" Wang Zhiyong froze.

"Ahem, Hongyi Gang and I had a little bit of conflict."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhiyong's expression was rather odd, then he burst out laughing and patted Jiang Chen on the shoulder.

"If you mean those goofballs, don't worry, they don't have anything to do with this place. I heard about Liu Changlong from my friend. He oversaw the security of a construction site for my brother in the past, then he got transferred here as a security guard. My brother saw that he was doing good so he told him to open a night club. That guy seemed to have established more businesses and created the Hongyi Gang. That club used this private club name to help itself out. Nothing worth being bothered about.

Wang Zhiyong then took out a card as he arrogantly waved it between his fingers.

"VIP card, my brother gave it to me. Everything is free of charge. Tonight is on me."

Although Jiang Chen was curious who his brother was, he didn't say anything anymore as he accepted the gratitude.

He took out his phone from his pocket and sent a text to Ayesha.

[ I might be a little late for dinner, no need to wait for me.]

Suddenly, his finger froze in place.

"Who are you texting? Your girlfriend?" Wang Zhiyong grinned and poked his head to peek at the screen.

Jiang Chen quickly moved the phone away and gave Wang Zhiyong a dirty look and pressed send.

"Don't worry, we are all men. I understand." Wang Zhiyong patted Jiang Chen on the shoulder and then walked to the door laughing.

Although he had an inkling as to what kind of place this was, he finally confirmed it when he saw the look in Wang Zhiyong's eyes.

Jiang Chen smiled wryly.

Those eyes filled with love appeared in his mind.

[Fu*k, this guilty feeling is unreal.]

Chapter 122: Hongyi Private Club

The main colors of the building were gold and light gray, an elegant bronze chandelier was hanging in the central dome, and on both sides of the aisle were lined with exquisite European-style marble columns. Under his feet was a soft, red carpet and above his head were star-spangled crystals.

This was just the lobby on the first floor.

Those who occasionally passed by were very quiet as the decoration naturally made people slow down their footsteps. Sitting at the front reception was a gorgeous receptionist, wearing a light makeup on and smiling gracefully at the two of them.

"The spa here is not bad. You should try it. Hehe, but I recommend the activity on the third floor." Wang Zhiyong laughingly winked at him.

Based on his expression, Jiang Chen knew what type of service to expect on the third floor.

It was obvious that he was a regular at this place since the receptionist appeared to be familiar with him. Without even looking at the card, she started asking what kind of service he would avail.

"The usual for me. What about you?" Wang Zhiyong turned to Jiang Chen.

Feeling awkward, Jiang Chen looked at the list of services a few times. He hadn't been to this kind place before so he could not understand the types of service they were offering.

Spa should be about bathing, right?

But what in the world were the goddess spreading flowers and lotus coming out of the water?

Only the acupuncture and massage sounded normal.

However, since he was already here, it would be rude to just turn around and walk away.

As Jiang Chen pondered on this matter, he decided to go for something light. Truthfully, he already had a beautiful "wife" back home, so he had little interest in other flowers. He subconsciously thought this would be that kind of place.

But just as he was about to speak, he heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Brother Yong, why didn't you tell me that you'll be here to play. Haha, are you done with your training?" A young man wearing a pair of glasses walked over with a smile on his face and warmly greeted Wang Zhiyong.

Jiang Chen couldn't tell the price of his suit, but from the aura that the man gave off, he felt that he was not a simple character. He didn't look anything special, and the only thing that left an impression on him was a pair of squinting eyes.

Whether he was laughing or not, his eyes appeared to be perpetually squinting.

"Nope. I played hooky. Haha, let's not talk about this. Let me introduce you to someone."

Wang Zhiyong put his arm around Jiang Chen's shoulder. "This is the chairman of Future Technology. Jiang Chen, this is Zhou Zihao, a major shareholder of this private club."

"What major shareholder, only a bunch of friends making some pocket money." Zhou Zihao modestly smiled and then looked at Jiang Chen. "I am nowhere comparable to Mr. Jiang. Accomplished at a young age, the Future Technology even made it in Wallstreet Journal. This is truly giving our country glory."

"I don't deserve such praise, I just got lucky," Jiang Chen said while smiling; however, in his mind, he was secretly thinking.

Zhou Zihao was not someone who was easy to deal with.

He never thought these second generations of politicians were easy to fool, but rather himself was always at a disadvantage in terms of foresight and shrewdness.

Take Wang Zhiyong for example, Jiang Chen always thought that he was just a little blockhead, but the words he said in the car completely altered his perception of him in his mind. Wang Zhiyong knew too much but he was simply not interested in politics, and that's why he always acted in a straightforward manner.

On the other hand, Jiang Chen couldn't see through Zhou Zihao.

[His name is Zhou? Could it be the Zhou family?]

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen started to become more cautious.

"No, no." Zhou Zihao offered his hand and shook hand with Jiang Chen. "Compared to my not-so-accomplished brother, Mr. Jiang's corporation achieve far greater things in the tech industry."

Upon hearing these words, Jiang Chen's mind turned quickly.

Brother? Does that mean his brother is in charge of military artificial intelligence? But what does this statement mean? A friendly gesture? What kind of relationship does he have with his brother? Competitive or close? He only knew that Wang Family and Zhou Family were cut from the same cloth, but he didn't know the intricacies of these political dynasties.

After all, only a few months ago, he was a nobody.

Wang Zhiyong suddenly laughed and patted Jiang Chen on the shoulder, which interrupted his train of thought and said, "That's enough. Why are you being serious about when we're having fun? Zihao always pretends to be poetic. Don't you feel tired speaking like this?"

"Ahem, this is not a serious talk but only casual greetings." Zhou Zihao squinted his eyes and smiled

.

"Future Technology is only a start-up company so it doesn't deserve such praise." Jiang Chen laughed and let his hands go.

"Oh yeah, Zihao, one of your younger brothers, Liu Changlong, seemed to be embroiled in a conflict with Jiang Chen, you take care of it." Wang Zhiyong chuckled as he looked at Zhou Zihao.

"Liu Changlong?" Zhou Zihao frowned, thought for a moment before his eyebrows relaxed. "Oh, him. Don't worry, Mr. Jiang, I'll give you an account of this."

Jiang Chen waved his hands. "It's really nothing. Although he did plot against me, now he knew better, so don't worry about it."

"That won't do." Zhou Zihao shook his head in seriousness. "Today will be on me as a token of apology."

"Pshh, I already said it's on me." Wang Zhiyong slapped the table with a grin.

Zhou Zihao squinted at him, "You? The card says that it is only free for you. How many people did you treat with it?"

Wang Zhiyong shamelessly laughed and waive his hand nonchalantly. "Don't worry about it. Just pretend I used it twice."

"Is it the first time for Mr. Jiang?" Zhou Zihao glanced at him.

Jiang Chen nodded, slightly embarrassed, "Hmm."

Zhou Zihao glanced at the reception, beckoned and whispered a few words to the receptionist.

He then turned around to Jiang Chen, with a smile, "Sincet this is your first time, then let's start with something light. What do you think, Mr. Jiang?"

[What's something light?]

Jiang Chen was still confused but politely smiled. "Then I'll listen to the host."

"What about brother Yong?" Zhi Zihao looked at Wang Zhiyong.

"Haha, I don't play with rookies, you know." Wang Zhiyong waggled his eyebrows and smiled devilishly.

Zhou Zihao sighed and smiled wryly. "Take care of your kidney."

Wang Zhiyong was instantly provoked by the words, he slapped the table with bulging eyes.

"Fu*k, my kidneys are great! I am a soldier!"

"How many times have you actually trained?"

Under the direction of the staff, Jiang Chen headed to the second floor and due to his curiosity, secretly examined the place along the way.

On the surface, it appeared to be just an ordinary private club. In the lobby of the second floor, there were pool tables and sofas. The back of the wall was a bar for serving drinks. On the other side was a gym with only two rows of treadmills.

The common feature of these appliances was no one was using it. Clearly, they were only there as a decoration.

The beautiful staff with a bright smile led Jiang Chen pass through the bar into a hallway where they entered a finely decorated environment.

"Sir, your room number is 204. If you need anything else, you can call me through the phone inside," the staff stopped, turned her head and smiled and said to Jiang Chen.

"Hmm, okay."

Seeing that that the staff had already left, Jiang Chen looked at the card in his hand and hesitated.

[Fu*k, I am not a virgin, why am I hesitating!"

He cursed in his mind as Jiang Chen bit the bullet and swiped the card on the door.

The door opened, it was still soft carpet on the floor, but the door was lined with shoe shelves, which meant he needed to take his shoes off upon entering the room. The faint yellow wallpaper and the dim lighting added intimate ambient to the room.

In the middle of the room, there was an oddly shaped bathtub, the fluid looking shape along had some sophisticated looking buttons on the side. The water was ready, and a gorgeous lady in a bathrobe was standing beside it while smiling.

"Hello sir, do you need help changing?"

"No need." Jiang Chen shyly refused.

"Is it your first time here, sir?" the beautiful woman smiled with understanding.

"Hehe, eh?"

[Fu*k, this is awkward.]

Jiang Chen mocked himself in his mind. Embarrassed, he scratched his face.

The girl covered her mouth and smiled when she heard the response. Then she politely looked at Jiang Chen and continued, "Sir, if this is your first time, just follow my instruction. First, please take off your clothes and and leave them over there."

"Take off my clothes? Here?" Jiang Chen thought he heard it wrong.

"Yes, unless sir you want to bath with your clothes on?" The girl winked and said with a smile, "Do you need me to turn around?"

"Ahem, it's okay. Help yoourself." Jiang Chen's face turned red and coughed.

[Fu*k, being this shy is not like me!]

Jiang Chen swore in his mind as he made up his mind and undressed.

"Do you exercise regularly sir?"

With a cheerful smile, the beauty looked at Jiang Chen without avoiding his embarrassing part, then stepped forward to help Jiang Chen fold his clothes and guide him to lie in the bathtub.

"No, why?"

"Nothing, I just think you are very muscular." The beauty maintained her smile, held Jiang Chen's head gently in the right spot and then she leaned her head—intentionally or not—closer to his ear, "If I were to be embraced tightly by you, it would sure feel great."

The voice was full of magnetism, Jiang Chen felt his scalp become numb and his blood pressure spiked.

"Relax, close your eyes."

Jiang Chen obediently followed. He felt a pair of hands touched the acupuncture points on his face pliantly but with just enough force and soothed each of his stiff nerves.

The water level in the bathtub gradually decreased. The tiny water outlet sprayed out warm mist and gently washed his entire body. This acute feeling was quite intoxicating and along with superb massage skills made Jiang Chen only feel relaxed.

The tension and fatigue built up through the days of continuous battle were washed away in an instant. As if all the burden had been wiped away by the warm water stream and gentle hands.

It felt like he was in the clouds.

It appeared like he had thought too much, it was not some intense sexual service but just a unique massage.

This beautiful woman's technique was skillful. She first used a word to cause his blood flow to speed up, then used a soothing massage to make his muscle and mind fall into a deep state of relaxation.

That feeling was even better than the "the embarrassing" act.

The small hands gradually moved to his chest and further down.

The water level rose again as the beauty appeared to have pressed a button on the side as the water in the bathtub vibrated.

"Sir, your muscle is really nice."

The voice in his ears sounded magical as it flirted through his relaxed nerves. Just like an ASMR guiding him to deep relaxation.

"Skin is really nice too."

"Relax, just leave your body to me.

"

Hmm, Jiang Chen had long since done that. Because it was too relaxing, his breathing became rhythmic and he fell into a slumber.

On the other side, Zhou Zihao who sent Wang Zhiyong upstairs took out his phone.

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 123: Seeking Forgiveness

Wang Zhiyong was ushered to the third floor, but Zhou Zihao didn't go with him.

Wang Zhiyong knew his friend disdained those types of girls, so he didn't invite him. LIkewise, Zhou Zihao knew what type he preferred, so he pulled out his phone.

They were all smart people, it's just that they were pursuing different things.

Wang Zhiyong only wanted to spend his days as a second generation officer. To gain harmless, small benefits from his friends—no need to be powerful—just to live free and comfortably.

But Zhou Zihao was different. He was the second son in the family. Honestly, he didn't have the best relationship with Zhou Qiangwu, but his father clearly preferred his brother over him. Zhou Family's influence was in Shangjin, but he came to Wanghai city partly because of this.

Although he always looked indifferent on the outside, the fact was he longed for power more than anyone else. He desired recognition. The reason why he started this private club with a bunch of silk trousers was a way for him to establish connections.

Did Wang Zhiyong really bring Jiang Chen along because he wanted to play with women? Did he really just casually brought up the conflict between Jiang Chen and one of his dogs? In fact, Wang Zhiyong was very clever. He clearly knew Zhou Zihao wished to befriend Jiang Chen so he deliberately mentioned it.

"Call Liu Changlong." He commanded Little White as Zhou Zihao patiently waited for the call to get connected.

"Hello? Boss, what's going on?" The fawning voice of Liu Changlong came from the other side.

"Did you offend a man called Jiang Chen?" Zhou Zihao said leisurely.

Liu Changlong's heart immediately thudded as he cursed in his mind. Although he didn't know why his boss was asking this, the tone did not sound good at all.

"No, no, one of my worthless underlings had a conflict with him. I already kicked him out. It has nothing to do with me."

Hearing this, Zhou Zihao did not have the slightest intention to let this go. His face did not have the same amicable expression when he was chatting with Jiang Chen and Wang Zhiyong.

"Hoho, everyone else knows what you were plotting, but you're pretty smart and know when to back down."

To say it plainly, Liu Changlong was only a dog raised by the people above.

When Changlong heard this, he sweated coldly as he deliberated the intention of his boss.

Did he want him to do it or did he acknowledge him for being smart enough for not doing it?

"Let's put it this way, I want to get to know this person. Can you think of a way for me?" Zhou Zihao was laughing but the tone was filled with cutting coldess, "Someone has to take the knife, right?"

This sentence almost frightened Liu Changlong to death. He finally realized that his boss wanted to sell him out as a favor.

"Boss, boss, I, I—"

"Stop talking nonsense, I'll give you a chance. You have half a minute to think who you're willing to throw under the bus." Zhou Zihao chuckled.

Liu Changlong's hand that was holding the phone uncontrollably trembled while his underlings dumbfoundedly looked at their frightened boss. They didn't understand why their normally glamorous boss would be quivering like a dog.

That's right, just like a dog.

Liu Changlong secretly complained. He didn't even do it yet. If Jiang Chen didn't know he was plotting against him, it would be okay but somehow he figured it out.

Somone had to be thrown under the bus as a favor.

What to do? Use Liu Anshan as a scapegoat?

A fierce glint flashed in Liu Changlong's eyes. Although it was his brother, there was no way he could care about family now.

But just as he was about to say Liu Anshan's name, another name popped into his head.

Fang Yuanyuan.

He remembered his son, brimming with confidence, took a bunch of hooligans to extort someone called Jiang Chen. He heard from the sl*t he played with before that it was a rich guy without any background. Fortunately, his son asked him before he actually did something. If they had already done something, there was no way this could be resolved.

Although when he first plotted against Jiang Chen, it had nothing to do with Fang Yuanyuan; however, she did call his son so she could be the scapegoat.

"Have you thought of someone?"

"I, I did! Boss, there was this girl—this is what happened." Liu Changlong submissively held the phone and explained the story about Fang Yuanyuan.

Once a former crush, now a sl*t provoked the gang to make a move on him.

Zhou Zihao captured the three key concepts and gave it a thought.

He only needed a favor as a stepping stone. Maybe Jiang Chen would be the key to defeating his brother. Based on Liu Changlong's description, this woman seemed to have fit the criteria.

Also, when he heard it was a woman, he suddenly had other ideas.

"Bring that person here. You know what I'm talking about." Zhou Zihao's smile was peculiar.

"Yes, yes!" Liu Changlong held the phone while his back was completely drenched with sweat.

Liu Changlong hung up the phone and glanced at the thugs around him.

The thugs were all silent and afraid to look at their boss in the eyes.

"Diaozi, go capture her back, I'll give you one hour." Liu Changlong said emotionally. He regained his tyrannical bearing as if the submissive conversation never happened before.

"Yes." Diaozi nodded and hastily left.

Liu Changlong leaned against the chair and rubbed his tired forehead. A smile appeared on his face.

-

After comfortably leaving the room, Jiang Chen twisted his neck and felt his entire body's weariness was washed clean.

It was already 5:30, the staff was waiting at the door and led him to the dining hall.

Once he arrived, Jiang Chen saw that Wang Zhiyong and Zhou Zihao were already waiting there.

"Yo, did you have fun?" Wang Zhiyong waggled his eyebrows.

"Not bad, I fell asleep in the latter half." Jiang Chen smiled and pulled a chair to sit down.

"Such a shame, the best way to enjoy it is to close your eyes and relax your body—" Zhou Zihao was still the with same squinting eyes as he picked up a cup of tea and took a sip.

"Enough enough, don't bring your good living philosophy here. Waiter, bring out the dishes and alcohol," Wang Zhiyong called out.

"Do you take this for a hotel?" Zhou Zihao was speechless and then signaled the waiter on the side to bring out the dishes.

The dazzling dishes were placed on the table and the gorgeous staff slightly leaned forward to pour a glass of wine for each one of them.

"Wine can help with blood circulation. This is a good stuff. Is Mr. Jiang okay with it?" Zhou Zihao smilingly raised his wine glass for a toast.

Based on the purity of the color, the wine must have been very expensive, but Zhou Zihao did not mention the year and brand; his shrewdness truly ran deep.

"Pretty good, but I don't drink much." Jiang Chen smiled and raised and clank his glass with him.

"Zihao had always like these fine things. Who would drink this sour wine?" Wang Zhiyong jested but his hand was still on the wine glass.

After a couple rounds of drink, the three started coversing with one another. Wang Zhiyong was surprisingly quiet and Zhou Zihao was talking a lot more.

Jiang Chen had a feeling that Zhou Zihao was trying to befriend him. His attitude made him feel wary. Logically speaking, his artificial intelligence was almost overlapping with Zhou Family's craft. In other words, Zhou Zihao was not popular at home? So he wanted to form a relationship with me?

Jiang Chen was not repulsed by Zhou Zihao's friendly gesture. After a few glasses of wine, they started calling each other brothers.

"Brother Jiang, I'll have to offer you a glass one more time. This glass counts as me not controlling my subordinates and causing problems for you." Zhou Zihao suddenly stood up, smilingly offered a toast and drained the glass of wine.

To drink wine like this was a waste of a luxury.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen also hurriedly stood up and smiled wryly.

"There is no need, Brother Zhou. I don't really mind and he hadn't done anything yet."

Zhou Zihao waved his hand and then signaled the server on the side. The waiter courteously nodded and walked out in haste.

After a while, the door opened.

Jiang Chen saw a strange man came in.

The person was sporting a buzz cut. His face had a certain kind of resoluteness but also had a terrified expression on his face. Age wise, he was at least 10 years older than Zhou Zihao.

Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed slightly as he guessed the identity of this 30-year-old man.

Liu Changlong, the leader of Hongyi Gang and the man who plotted against him.

Wang Zhiyong watched while he carried his glass with a gloating expression. Zhou Zihao didn't look at Liu Changlong and only stared at Jiang Chen with the same smiling expression. Jiang Chen glanced at Liu Changlong and then questioningly looked at Zhou Zihao.

"Ahem." Zhou Zihao lightly coughed.

There was a "pudong" sound as Liu Changlong, a man 180 cm tall, dropped to his knees and knocked his head on the ground.

"I, Liu Changlong, was blinded and listened to wrongdoers' incitement and planned to kidnapped your parents. I hope Sir Jiang Chen to forgive me and let me go like a fart."

Jiang Chen was stunned. He really did not expect Liu Changlong was planning to abduct his parents outside of the province. He also didn't think that before he even made a move, Zhou Zihao had already brought him here to apologize.

Wang Zhiyong looked at Liu Changlong who was kowtowing and seemed to wear an expression that this was to be expected.

Zhou Zihao still didn't spare a glance at Liu Changlong and remained his focus on Jiang Chen while smiling.

"Is Brother Jiang satisfied with this result?"

Jiang Chen's throat moved and laughed awkwardly, "Very satisfied."

He didn't know what to say, and though he disdained these scums of society and was enraged by the fact that Liu Changlong planned to use his parents to threaten him, he did back down.

Zhou Zihao with his squinting eyes was a ruthless character and not at all easy to deal with. In any case, he owed him a favor.

Jiang Chen thought to himself but his expression remained the same.

When Zhou Zihao saw that Jiang Chen had relented, he then waved his hand.

The beautiful waitress on the side, holding a bottle of about 1 liter of Baiju, came over and place it in front of Liu Changlong with a smile.

"You know what to do," Zhou Zihao said casually.

A cold sweat rolled across Liu Changlong's forehead but when he thought of Zhou Zihao's intention, he gritted his teeth, opened the lid with his teeth and began drinking.

That was 1 litter of Baijiu. The alcohol concentration would certainly not be low.

Jiang Chen who was watching on the side was secretly scared.

Zhou Zihao was watching on coldly while Wang Zhiyong was still showing an interested expression.

As soon as Liu Chonglong had finished the bottle, he immediately fell unconscious on the ground. The waiter nearby looked at Zhou Zihao and after seeing him nod, he carried the unconscious Liu Changlong outside.

Liu Changlong was going straight to the hospital; he was definitely biting the bullet on this one.

Jiang Chen was secretly speechless but did not have an ounce of sympathy, though he was more and more scared of Zhou Zihao's ruthlessness.

This man is ruthless!

"Zihao, you should pay extra care to those people under you. Are you not afraid of dirtying your own hands?" Wang Zhiyong said and chuckled.

"Ahem, even a rat has a rat's value," Zhou Zihao said then turned to look at Jiang Chen, "I hope you won't mind what happened today. Brother Jiang, I truly value our friendship. If this rat dares to dirty your shoes again, I'd throw him into the Huangpu River."

"No need for that, Brother Zhou is really a great friend. It's my honor to become your friend," Jiang Chen said.

Thankfully, they were not enemies.

"There is no need to go back today. Why don't stay for the night? Zihao prepared you another fun show. Hehe." Wang Zhiyong burst into laughter.

"Ahem, Brother Yong, spoiler is not good." Zhou Zihao lightly coughed.

"What type of show?" Jiang Chen asked casually.

"Trust me, you will love it." Zhou Zihao smiled mysteriously after continuing, "Would Brother Jiang give me this chance?"

It would be impolite to refuse.

Jiang Chen only debated for a second before quickly replying, "Then, I'll listen to the host."

There was nothing to it but say yes.

After dinner, it was still the same smiling waitress. Jiang Chen was led into a quiet room on the third floor under her guidance.

"The noise insulation here is excellent. Enjoy yourself." The staff smiled ambiguously and backed out of the room.

Jiang Chen touched his nose shyly, stood at the entrance for a while before finally going into the room.

[Looks like I am not going home tonight.]

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen pushed the exquisitely decorated door open, but after entering the room, he was surprised to see someone he didn't expect.

"It's you?"

Jiang Chen's expression could not be more strange.

_Min_ _Min_

There will be one more tonight. Enjoy

Chapter 124: It's really ironic

"It's you?"

Jiang Chen looked strangely at Fang Yuanyuan sitting on the chair.

Although she was sitting, the posture could not be described as elegant.

Her face was filled with horror, her hair was disheveled, and her lips were covered with black tape. Her limbs were tied up by nylon ropes in an indecent "M" style on the chair. Although her clothes were intact, she was without any kind of decency in this position.

Next to the bedside table was a laptop, the bright screen projected an audio file.

As if Jiang Chen had guessed something based on Fang Yuanyuan's appearance, he stepped forward and gently pressed the play button.

"Yo, girl, did you miss your brother?"

"Pervert... Let me tell you something, I have a classmate who made a fortune... No, no, clean background, I know that guy, he just got lucky."

Jiang Chen quietly listened to the voice recording and stared at Fang Yuanyuan with a faint smile on his face.

Fang Yuanyuan's evaded Jiang Chen's gaze, afraid to make an eye contact with him.

Regardless of how unbelievable it was for her, this was the reality. The foolish fly that once buzzed around her like a fly had become someone that could control her life and death.

That's right, life and death.

When she was on her way home from work and was forcibly tied here, a frightening looking man told her:

Two options.

First: satisfied the man name Jiang Chen regardless of what he would do. Afterward, she would receive $10,000 as compensation.

Second: become fish bait in the Huangpu River.

She had never seen anything like this before, so she got scared that she almost peed her pants. Her captors didn't talk more as they skillfully tied her on the chair and threw her in the wretched room.

The center of the room had a round bed and beside the closet was some strange bondage devices as well as some "frightening" S tools...

Fang Yuanyuan looked at the man whom she had hurt before, horrified. She was scared, and she feared that he would use those awful things on her. If he actually did, she would have to endure the pain.

At this time, the phone suddenly rang.

Jiang Chen grabbed the phone as if he already guessed who it was. Not in the least bit surprised, he pressed the button.

"Hello."

"Hehe, is Brother Jiang satisfied with the show?" Without a doubt, the lyrical sounding tone was definitely from squinting eyes.

"Brother Zhou is worrying too much. If you really want to cooperate with me, you only need to tell me. Why are you using these low-level tricks?" Jiang Chen's voice was slightly cold.

There was a distinct pause on the other side of the line.

"Brother Jiang? I don't really understand what you mean."

"Oh, yeah? If you want to watch porn, then I can give you a few gigabyte of torrents. What's with the fetish of watching things live?" Jiang Chen hung up the phone, put it in his pocket then threw it in the storage dimension.

He didn't take his hand out of the pocket as he took out an EMP grenade directly from the storage dimension and detonated it.

A faint static noise was heard in the room. The laptop instantly turned black as a trail of smoke came from the fan. The light bulb on the ceiling flickered a few times before the light abruptly dimmed down. As if to confirm his suspicion, Jiang Chen keenly caught a glimpse of a few wisps of smoke from the several corners of the room.

He walked in front the photo frame directly above the bed, he sniffed and the faint burnt smell was not difficult to capture.

In the control room.

Zhou Zihao with the phone still in his hand was bewildered, his squinting eyes were actually opened.

He didn't know what Jiang Chen just did that short circuited all the monitors in the room.

"Interesting," he muttered to himself as he looked at the four blacked out screens.

...

There was no hatred without cause nor was there any goodness without reason. Slap his underlings a few times for a new friend? This sorry excuse for friendship was pure bullsh*t.

There was no deep hatred running between them, but he put on a show of asking for forgiveness, and then bring Fang Yuanyuan to his room with the recorded conversation. It was if he is trying to provoke the hatred.

From beginning to end, Zhou Zihao didn't ask him anything but did so much.

When Jiang Chen saw the design of the room that was meant to incite him into committing a crime, he suddenly understood.

In Zhou Zihao's plot, at this time, he would have been furiously ripping her clothes apart and unleashing his anger to humiliate her in the most torturous way possible. But in that case, what was there to gain for Zhou Zihao?

To record these "atrocities" and then use them would be the best way to maximize the gain.

If he could be ruthless to one of his own, then there was no reason he would be gentle to an outsider.

Jiang Chen ignored the surprised look on Fang Yuanyuan's face and once again pulled out his phone. He needed to confirm if Wang Zhiyong knew about this.

"Hello, Brother Yong."

"What, Brother Chen. Hehe, don't tell me you're done already." There was woman's voice on his side; it seemed to have been more than one.

"The Brother Zhou you introduced me is a bit of a bore, or does he have a fetish for peeping at other's privacy?" Jiang Chen's voice was full of other meanings.

The other side of line paused for a moment.

"Sorry, I'll give you a response to this. I didn't expect Zihao to be this ruthless. He wanted to meet you and asked me to make an introduction. I thought there would be opportunities for you guy to cooperate. so—"

"It's okay, I just wanted to confirm. Okay, I'll head back first." After this turn of event, Jiang Chen didn't want to stay here any longer.

After hanging up, Jiang Chen glanced at Fang Yuanyuan and burst out laughing.

He ripped off the tape on her mouth, disregarded her cry of pain and gazed into her frightened eyes.

"I really don't understand your mentality. Because you're jealous that you're giving me trouble? Or do you think that I've done you wrong? Look at you now."

Although the tape was ripped off, Fang Yuanyuan could not let a word, she looked at Jiang Chen, curled back looking horrified.

Looking at her cowering look, Jiang Chen did not know why he thought it was amusing.

"This is so ironic. Who knows why I got so blinded that I thought I had loved you for a moment."

Jiang Chen shook his head and walked towards the door.

"Don't go!" Seeing Jiang Chen was about the leave, Fang Yuanyuan was nervous.

Jiang Chen stopped and turned around. He didn't expect Fang Yuanyuan to stop him. He gazed at her with an odd look.

Fang Yuanyuan didn't dare to look at him in the eyes, she mumbled, "I..."

"If you have something to say, spill it now," Jiang Chen interrupted impatiently.

Jiang Chen's apathy made her feel humiliated and wronged. After hesitating for a moment, she spoke while sobbing.

When Jiang Chen heard that if she didn't make him happy, she would be thrown into the Huangpu River as bait, he laughed.

"That means you're begging me to fu*k you and then write a positive comment on your butt?"

Hearing this, Fang Yuanyuan's pale skin swelled into a deep red color. She buried her head, no longer speaking.

"Why do you have to make yourself into a sl*t? Want me to fu*k you? I'd feel dirty even with a condom on."

Leaving these words, Jiang Chen turned around and left the room despite the pleading on her face and mercilessly slammed the door shut.

Zhou Zihao's trick was already exposed. Why would it matter if he had sex with her or not?

The sl*t didn't know that she was only a pawn.

-

Wang Zhiyong walked into the control room, Zhou Zihao seemed to be expecting his presence as he stood there waiting quietly.

Without a word, Wang Zhiyong walked up and threw a punch on his face.

The staffs were all shocked and bewildered, and helplessly watched their boss and his friend.

Zhou Zihao touched his nose, saw the blood in his hand and smiled suddenly.

"Brother Yong, your temper hasn't really changed."

Wang Zhiyong dragged him up by the collar, the smiling face was pulled forward.

"You know my temper then you should know what type of person I can't tolerate."

"I do." Zhou Zihao's expression didn't change slightly; his tone was very flat.

"I don't give a sh*t about the things in your family, but I nicely brought my friend for you to meet, and you made me look like this—" Wang Zhiyong stared directly into his squinting eyes.

"Brother Yong, you are the oldest son in the family, right?" Zhou Zihao interrupted him.

Wang Zhiyong paused. He couldn't understand the meaning behind his words.

"Then you don't know how I feel," Zhou Zihao gently removed Wang Zhiyong's hand holding his collar. "If you knew, then your desire to control will not be lower than mine."

"This time, it's my fault, I didn't expect the newly rich Jiang Chen was not as dumb as he looked. But if I was given another chance, I will still make the same choice. If I can't control the pawns in my hand, then what's the point of it?"

"Then let me warn you, you dare to lay your hands on my friend again, even if you are my friend, I can't promise you that you will be able to stay in Wanghai City." Leaving these harsh words, Wang Zhiyong left for the door.

As Zhou Zihao watched Wang Zhiyong retreating back, he gave a noncommittal smile.

"147 officials scandal videos, not you, even your dad would not make me go back to Shangjing. Hehe." He had been playing with fire for a long time ago.

After a moment, he shook his head again.

"This is disappointing. Looks like using military artificial intelligence as a starting point to take down my brother is not realistic. Jiang Chen...forget it, it's best not to anger Wang Zhiyong further."

-

When he drove back to the villa, it was already 10 in the evening. The lights were out, so Ayesha seemed to be already asleep.

Jiang Chen drove the car into the garage and head straight to the office.

He leaned against the chair, turned on the laptop and checked his email.

The cast is set. Buddy, should we go to the next step? <Robert>

<Attachment: Johnny's Personal Information and Script>

Jiang Chen carefully read through the attachment. He gave it some thought as his fingers typed furiously on the keyboard.

Suddenly, a cup of hot cocoa was gently placed on the table.

Jiang Chen paused and turned around. Ayesha was standing behind him and was affectionately looking at him.

"It’s late. Why are you still up?" Jiang Chen stopped what he was doing, looked at her fondly and smiled.

"Well, I just got out of the training chamber." Ayesha put her hands on his shoulder and began massaging.

"Go to sleep first, I still have something to do." Jiang Chen put his hand on top of hers and squeezed her soft, little hands.

Seeing the blushing Ayesha left, Jiang Chen returned to the computer screen.

"Should the plan be expedited?’ Jiang Chen murmured as he entered few more words to the text field.

<Ask Nick to prepare. I’ll head to Kane in October.>

Before that, he needed to head to Apocalypse to acquire some powerful firearms.

_Min_

You guys are crazy! Thank you for your support and shout out to the Patreons!

Chapter 125: I Can’t Control Myself!

Fifth day.

Five days had passed, the morale was very low.

Although the supplies were adequate, there was despondency in everyone's face.

Victory—the price they paid for it was too heavy that it cast a gloom on their victory. Four power armors were destroyed, and the boss was nowhere to be found.

The mutants left a total of 41 bodies that were lying on the field.

Fortunately, the harvest was bountiful.

Four shoulder-launched recoilless rockets along with three reinforced armored truck were seized. Huizhong Mercenaries' bullet production line was a pleasant surprise so Fishbone would able to produce rifle ammunition on their own without the need to import from 6th Street.

At the top of the laboratory was four anti-aircraft guns that seemed to have been a modified .50 caliber machine gun. These were excellent in typical survival camps as they were considered to be powerful stationary weapons. If they were equipped with armor piercing bullets and could get the first shot, they could easily suppress an armored vehicle.

Huizhong Mercenaries detained more than 20 captives in the basement. It was quite funny when the survivors were kicked off from the mutant's truck. Not only they were not frightened, but rather their face was full of happiness.

It was as though they had been saved.

It was indeed true as they no longer have to worry about being thrown into a pot and being pickled into eunuchs. Many people would rather die than be captured by mutants. If they were taken as a prisoner, there would be at least room for negotiation, wouldn't it? At least they could fight, so they definitely have some value. Although the wasteland was not necessarily short of a population, they absolutely lacked in "experts" like them.

As to whomever they worked for, they couldn't care less.

Although there were a lot of clamors from the survivors to kill off the gang's survivors, Sun Jiao still ordered them to be locked up first. A nutrient supply a day would stave off the hunger and death. As for the nutrient supply, they were naturally raided from their warehouse as Fishbone base didn't have a need for those.

Other than being unpalatable and lacking in nutrition, there were still some benefits to the nutrient supply. The people who ate these concoctions didn't need to defecate for a long time as the metabolic waste would be reduced to its limit. Even if they were imprisoned in the basement, there was no need to worry about the hygiene.

Simply put, the decision to kill or not would have to wait until Jiang Chen came back.

[He will be back...]

Sun Jiao still firmly believed that.

As usual, Sun Jiao sat in the doorway of the tent, behind her was the place where Jiang Chen was last seen. As early as five days ago, she ordered to use the tent to surround the place where Jiang Chen had disappeared into. It was his biggest secret and also Fishbone base's biggest secret so there was absolutely no way she would let anyone find out about it.

She was still holding Sirius in her hands. The laser rifle that had accompanied her for many years was used to slaughter over and over again in these past five days.

And during these five days, she had been thinking about a problem.

If Jiang Chen never came back, what would she do?

"You liar, you said you will take me to the other side." Her eyes looked sorrowful.

Lin Lin was standing not far away from Sun Jiao as the latter stared blankly ahead above the tent.

Although she was permitted to get off the truck and walk, she was ordered to stay within the 100m radius. If she exceeded that distance, Sun Jiao calmly expressed that she would shoot.

That girl was so scared she almost peed her pants again.

"What on earth are you looking at?" Lin Lin looked up helplessly as she murmured disapprovingly.

At the moment her left eye was black, but her right eye was bloody red.

After five days of communication, she finally reached a tacit understanding with the bug...or Tingting. The body would be controlled by Lin Lin, but the right eye would belong to the bug.

This was also a compromise of sorts. Although Lin Lin was opposed to the idea of a "bug" living in her head and had racked her brains to think of ways to get rid of it, it had never lasted for more than three seconds for her to realize it was an exercise in futility and so she gave up on it. Anyway, there was no harm other than the fact that part of the nutrients would be divided between the two of them every time she ate every day.

<Jiang Chen>

"Hehe, you are talking about him? That scoundrel is now in trouble, this feels great! He totally deserves it! I don't know...hopefully, he's safe." Although her initial reaction was that of gloating, however, after giving it careful consideration, that guy did not seem so bad.

Lin Lin was conflicted, her head was in turmoil.

She had seen the women in the basement, and she could not believe that the world had fallen into such chaos, nor could she imagine what would have happened if anyone else other than that man had encountered her.

Lin Lin shuddered and wrapped herself around her arms.

"Puke, that's too disgusting. With my stunning look, I will be r*ped a hundred times over then will be turned into a sex toy..."

Well, in addition to narcissism, her delusions and paranoia were also quite problematic.

<Jiang Chen>

Slightly moving her sore neck, Lin Lin grumbled, "Hello, what are you looking at? Other than radiation dust, what else is there in the sky—"

<Jiang Chen>

The mother bug was still transmitting the same thought.

Stunned, Lin Lin touched her heart as she sensed the gradually increasing beat.

Her digital left eye shrunk slightly as she tried to understand the abnormalities in the surrounding area.

Did she see Jiang Chen? But how could that be? There was nothing in there at all.

Suddenly, Lin Lin appeared to have thought of something, her pupil began to dilate and muttered to herself, "That's impossible. Theoretically, that's not possible unless..."

"What are you looking at?" Sun Jiao looker over and frowned, her messy hair obscured her eyes with gloom.

Lin Ling was startled by her gaze and said while trembling, "No, it's not me. It's the bug that wants to look and also that mentioned Jiang Chen's name." She was extremely frightened of Sun Jiao.

In her fragile heart, this "female demon" was more sinister than the "male demon." At least she could detect a trace of sympathy and compassion in his eyes on occasion, but there was none from this woman.

For this woman, other than the things "I like" in this world, it was things "I dislike."

Sun Jiao's eyes flickered for a second and she seemed to have thought of something.

"Ask it, what did it see?"

"Ugh, I have been asking but it seems to only know those two words." Lin Lin smiled wryly.

Sun Jiao silently shifted her line of sight as if losing interest in Lin Ling.

All of a sudden, the tent cover was lifted up.

"Ahem, sorry...I'm late."

The voice Sun Jiao had missed dearly rang by her ear, her pupil began to dilate, and her eyes were instantly covered with a fine mist.

"Hello—what are you doing—"

His chest made in impact with something soft as his back came in contact with the ground with a muffled sound.

Jiang Chen looked at the beauty lying on his chest with a grin.

For these past five days, every morning, he had been trying to start the interdimensional bracelet and finally succeeded this morning. Just like what he had suspected, the travel function was not broken, it was merely overloaded.

As soon as he arrived, before even gaining his balance, he was struck on the ground by this girl.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid—!"

Those soft fists were pounding hard against his chest, Jiang Chen was stunned while looking at the sobbing Sun Jiao.

From the beginning, she had always given him that little devilish feeling. It was the first time seeing her so weak and vulnerable.

"I..." Jiang Chen opened his mouth and wanted to say something.

"Why didn't you come back earlier? Do you how difficult these past few days have been for me—"

Her grievance halted, her crystal eyes were quivering with mist. Jiang Chen hugged her waist and suddenly kissed her on the lips.

From stunned to obedience, Sun Jiao gently closed her eyes as if the grievance of the past few days didn't matter anymore. She hooked her arms around his neck and responded just as passionately.

Due to the enormous softness pressing against his chest, Jiang Chen felt his mouth became parched.

Unaware of his condition, Sun Jiao worried about Jiang Chen's life-and-death condition, did he not miss her too?

He reached out his hand to pull the zipper of her suit.

"No, don't." Sun Jiao was suddenly frightened and shrank back as she awkwardly covered her front and looked away. "I, I didn't shower."

She had been here for five days; although there no scarcity of water, she was not in the mood to take care of her hygiene.

Jiang Chen paused before a smirk appeared on his face. While Sun Jiao's shrieked softly, he got on top of the charming girl.

"I don't mind!"

Jiang Chen roughly tore the zipper on the one-piece combat suit and kissed her neck.

"No." The faint murmur sounded insignificant in this intimate scene.

Sun Jiao with misty eyes caressed Jiang Chen's back, her slender jade legs rubbed unconsciously with one other.

"Don't you want to listen to my explanation?" Jiang Chen suddenly stopped as he gently bit her earlobe with a smirk.

"No, I want..."

The explanation can be saved for later.

Yes, the day after.

Lin Lin stood awkwardly outside the tent, her pale face was flushed. She could not decide whether to go or not.

Leave? She was afraid that Sun Jiao would really kill her.

Stay? But these shameless people—they, they started doing it!

He was indeed a huge pervert!

Although she didn't know what it felt like, just the thought of it was embarrassing.

Suddenly, her heartbeat began to accelerate making her stunned. Tingting was trying to seize control of her body.

"You're insane! If we go, that savage girl will kill us!"

"What? Can't you beat her? Yes, but I don't want to fight!"

"AHHH! Stop!"

"Waah, I can't control my strength..."

Inside of the tent was filled with romance, outside of the tent...

A beautiful girl who had a 2.5-dimensional anime appearance was desperately using her right hand to hold onto her "uncontrollable" left hand.

She was mumbling nonsensical words that resembled anime lines.

The scene could not be more comical.

Chapter 126: Why not?

The basement door opened.

Jiang Chen watched as the 170cm man dashed into the room, smashed the "cell" door lock open with the gun and hugged his wife crying. The woman's top was exposed and her eyes appeared to be lifeless, but she seemed to be moved by the crying sound as her eyes gradually regained its clarity and tears of sorrow gushed down.

"I really can't bear looking at this," Jiang Chen muttered to himself. His tone was somewhat complicated.

"What are you going to do with the captives?" Sun Jiao glanced at the door imprisoning Zhou Xiaoxia.

"Public execution."

There was no need to hesitate.

For authority, for order.

Jing Chen paused for a moment before continuing, "But before that, I want to meet our old friend."

Upon hearing this, a mischevious smiled appeared on Sun Jiao's face.

-

Zhou Guoping slumped into prison dejectedly. He was clearly aware of his impending doom but his heart still held a glimmer of hope. He did not care who he was fighting with for he was confident in his intellect. However, when he saw the face from the small window of the cell, his confidence instantly vanished and his face lost all of its blood.

"Oh, remember me?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile. Although he never saw him before, Zhou Guoping must have known him.

Zhou Guopin swallowed hard and slowly nodded.

"Do you remember Hu Lei?"

It had been a while, but he was the first person he killed in this world.

Jiang Chen faintly remembered the feeling of astonishment while staring at the skull that burst open by a gunshot.

"It was you who killed him, wasn't it?" Zhou Guoping smiled, but that smile was uglier than crying.

"That's right, I had no reason to let him go." Jiang Chen's tone was very calm.

"Then why are you wasting time on me?" Zhou Guoping smiled bitterly.

Jiang Chen grinned and settled his hand on the window pane.

"You have two options here. First, tell me everything you know. If it's useful enough, I might consider sparing you. Of course, I'll ask the same question to other people, so you better tell the truth. Second, well, I don't think I need to explain it."

"I choose the first one," he chose without hesitation. He didn't want to die even if he might still do after unraveling everything.

"You better start," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

To save his own life, Zhou Guoping spilled everything he knew. Jiang Chen was able to gather a lot of useful information from his revelations.

The first one was the supply.

Other than the four modified machine guns and the bullet production line they had plundered, there was also a zombie electricity generation in the basement of the laboratory.

It used the organic material of zombies or mutants such as fat or protein as raw material to produce electricity.

It was a great thing since winter was fast approaching. Since Fishbone Base's electricity was powered by solar, they would definitely experience a decrease in energy production. With this zombie electricity generator, they would not need to worry about energy problem anymore.

It was indeed surprising that these bandits were able to hide such good stuff.

In addition to supplies, Jiang Chen also heard some interesting information.

"Those mutated humans came from Jia City and are now stationed at the Seventh Zone. They initially wanted to absorb us but our boss refused it since no one wanted to become a eunuch. The first wave only had five people in them and we successfully killed all of them, but we didn't expect that a big group would show up." Zhou Guoping laughed bitterly. "It was a disaster, our boss' skull got smashed in half."

He was wondering why he didn't see the leader of the Huizhong Mercenaries; looked like he was killed in a crossfire.

"Where is the Seventh Zone?" Jiang Chen frowned. The details of the topography in the apocalypse was quite different to that of the modern world.

Zhou Guoping looked strangely at him.

"Between the highway of Wanghai City and Jia City is a light industrial area where few people reside. Not a lot of zombies but some powerful mutants."

Jiang Chen scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Do you know what their purpose is in coming to Wanghai City?

Another bitter smile appeared on Zhou Guoping's face.

"No, there was no room for negotiation between mutated humans and humans, and in my opinion, aside from not eating human flesh, they are basically just mutants who can use guns."

The metaphor did sound strange to Jiang Chen, but after thinking about it, that really seemed to be the case. They could eat anything that humans couldn't eat and they could eat things mutants didn't even dare to eat, even the rotten meat on Roshan. They could enter a nuclear pit with just their body, any vaccine virus would no longer affect them.

Thankfully, these monsters were infertile.

"Didn't you catch a captive?" Zhou Guoping asked warily.

Jiang Chen glanced at him.

"No, you already said they are like mutants. Have you tried catching a Death Claw?"

Zhou Guoping forced a laugh and scratched his nose.

"Boss, do you think my information is enough to exchange for my life?"

Jiang Chen stared at him with a faint smile on his face which made his heart tremble.

To kill or not to kill?

"Although I did cause some minor problem for you, it was only because I was standing from Huizhong Mercenaries' side. Now that Huizhong Mercenaries have been destroyed by you, even if you kill me, I would just be an extra body. You definitely could spare my worthless life. Trust me, my ability won't disappoint you." Seeing the look on Jiang Chen's face, Zhou Guoping carefully opened his mouth.

"Oh? Tell me how are you useful?" Jiang Chen watched him while laughing.

"I know the Songjiang area very well, I have more or less an understanding of most of the smaller survival camps and gathering place for the survivors. My eloquence and scouting ability are also quite impressive, it definitely wouldn't be a waste of your nutrient supply. On top of that, I'm wearing an electronic collar or slavery chip, which means you won't even need to worry about my loyalty," Zhou Guoping carefully worded his explanation because it had to do with his life while observing the change in Jiang Chen expression.

It would just be an extra body if he killed him, at the very least he could serve as a cannon fodder. Although the bandits must be eliminated, this person seemed to be useful.

After giving it some thoughts, Jiang Chen made the decision and laughed when he saw the apprehension on Zhou Guoping's face.

"Great, you've managed to convince me, so I'll spare your life. I hope you can persuade the others for me."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Guoping was quite ecstatic and immediately knelt on the ground without a semblance of dignity.

"Thank you, glorious leader, for sparing me!"

Jiang Chen looked disdainfully at him and lightly coughed.

"Call me boss, I'm not a bandit."

"Yes, Boss!"

...

After settling his affair with Zhou Guoping, Jiang Chen headed to the door that was imprisoning Chu Nan.

He looked at the man who was no longer crying to get out and knocked on the door.

Hearing the knock on the door, Chu Nan raised his head and a bitter smile appeared on his face when he saw that it was Jiang Chen.

"Could you let me go now?"

"Sure, do you want me to open the door now?" Jiang Chen took out the key and waived it, and asked, "May I ask where you'll be heading next?"

Chu Nan fell into a short silence.

"I don't know but I definitely can't go back to Liuding Town."

Jiang Chen asked in a casual tone, "Would you like to come to my base?"

Hearing this, Chu Nan lifted his head and looked at Jiang Chen a few times.

"Didn't you say you don't need a pilot?"

Jiang Chen shrugged, "I've changed my mind. Although I don't have a plane right now but soon, I'll definitely get one."

Chu Nan suspiciously looked at him, some uncertainties still lingered in his heart.

"I don't even know what kind of organization you belong—"

"The bread you ate last time, three meals a day."

"Deal!" Chu Nan shouted immediately without the least bit of hesitation.

"Aren't you going to consider it?" Jiang Chen burst out laughing.

"Hehe, what is there to consider?" Chu Nan mocked him.

Funny, food every meal. Although Liuding Town provided B-grade nutrient supply for a pilot like him and even if it was grade A, it didn't taste better than the actual food.

Jiang Chen nodded and remarked, "Good, in two days, I'll send you to the Sixth Street to be implanted with the slavery chip, you'll be a member of our Fishbone Base then."

Finished, Jiang Chen turned round to prepare to leave, but—

"Wait," Chu Nan stopped him suddenly.

"What's the matter?" Jiang Chen turned around and looked at him in bemusement.

"That..." Chu Nan hesitated for a moment, "What are you going to do with those women?"

Those women?

Jiang Chen could not help but ponder on it.

He had almost forgotten about this problem. Thinking about it, these women that had been practically broken by the bandits were extremely tricky to deal with. Take them back? What's the use of keeping these people? Fishbone Base was not a welfare home.

Leave them here? Let them go? It would be no different than killing them.

"In fact, it would be useful to take them back to the base," Chu Nan proposed when he seemed to have seen his hesitation.

"Oh? What use?" Jiang Chen gave Chu Nan a meaningful then burst out laughing, "You're not looking for a woman to get rid of your virginity, are you?"

Chu Nan was frozen for a second before he quickly reacted furiously.

"Fu*k, my name is Chu Nan, I never said I'm a virgin." [Chu Nan is homonym of virgin]

Chu Nan paused for a while before continuing, "If you don't have the chip implant technology, then you guys must be a small new survival base."

Jiang Chen looked at him in surprise, that analysis was reasonable.

"Yes, so?" Jiang Chen asked noncommittally.

"In the wasteland, the survivability of male is far stronger than female. So it's easy to imagine the ratio. I don't know about Sixth Street, but there are a lot of bachelors in Liuding Town," Chu Nans said seriously.

"Like you?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"That's right," Chu Nan nodded his head without avoiding the question then continued, "In Liuding Town, they run an official brothel to help survivors alleviate their stress and meet their physiological needs. It would not only decrease the possibility of crime, but it would also increase camp stability."

"Is that right? Everyone in my Fishbone Base is implanted with slavery chip, do you think I need to worry about stability issues?" Jiang Chen asked him.

"I have been implanted with that kind of chips before. Even though the name is a bit different, I think the function is pretty much the same. Let me put it this way, although you can monitor the privacy of everyone and control their life and death, you could not dictate their emotion."

"So?" Jiang Chen processed the information.

"Unless you keep everyone in the state of perpetual hunger so that they don't have spare energy to think about anything else than survival, you can't expect a group of bachelors not to have hope for the next day. It might be okay for a while, but there will definitely be problems in the long run. Especially in a wasteland covered by radiation dust, everyone's mental state is nowhere good to begin in," Chu Nan laid out the facts bluntly.

Mental state? Jiang Chen had not considered this point. He seemed to have only been paying attention to his own mental state.

For example, when he first went back to the modern world from the apocalypse, he immediately went to Sanya to experience a lavish life.

The ghetto in the Sixth Street, those unemployed survivors were in a constant state of hunger so they would not have any desire to "breed"? On the contrary, in Fishbone Base, because the hunger and clothing problems had been resolved, they would naturally start thinking of other things?

Perhaps it was precisely like what Chu Nan had said. Unless everyone were perpetually hungry, it would be unrealistic to expect them not to have new desires. Even if Jiang Chen could control their life, he could not control the emotion of everyone. After all, not everyone had the philosophy of a monk.

Although when he bought the refugees (slaves), he deliberately selected those who had a family and controlled the gender ratio. But regardless how hard he tried, the male population far exceed the female population because of the expansion. Should he let the single guys masturbate with one another? It obviously not going to work

"That is, you think I should open a brothel?" Jiang Chen's expression was a bit peculiar. This was something against his principle.

"Of course, there are other means," Chu Nan paused as he had sensed Jiang Chen's disdain towards that idea then added, "For example, use these people as a "reward" and award them to bachelors who made contributions to the base."

"Reward? I don't approve of this inhumane approach."

"Humane?" You think this is before the war?"

Jiang Chen paused and fell into silence.

"If you really have moral codes you have to follow, you can enact laws to protect the rights of these people. For example, prohibit intentional harming and reward those who can help these people regain their sanity to join the force. In short, since you are the leader, then you can make these rules, the key is on you decide."

After listening to him talking, Jiang Chen looked at him in astonishment.

"I couldn't tell but sounds like you know a lot"

"Hehe, I just read some books whenever I'm bored." Chu Nan scratched his nose.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to leave, he abruptly halted and casually asked, "By the way, do you think these Nth handed people would be wanted?"

Chu Nan was at a loss and looked at him perplexedly.

"Why not?"

Jiang Chen was speechless.

Is this the legendary generation gap?

_Min_ _Min_

One more coming

Chapter 127: Execution and Acceptance

"This here is a group of pests."

"They feed on the flesh and bones of our own kind and make our agony as their nutrients."

Outside of the Fishbone base.

All the zombies had been wiped out and the roof was fraught with the survivors who fought side-by-side with those from Fishbone Base.

The bandits were kneeling on the ground with a black cloth over their heads, behind them was a group of soldiers armed with guns. Black muzzles were aimed at their head and cold eyes ignored the trembling bodies.

October was approaching and a hint of chilliness was gradually settling in the air. It was at this time that Jiang Chen had put on a windbreaker.

"Killing, looting, plundering, terrorizing, molesting."

He gazed at the eyes of survivors in the crowd and raised his clenched right fist as righteous indignation spewed forth from his mouth.

"Now that they are kneeling in front of us, praying for our forgiveness, and begging for mercy like cowards, do you think we should spare these scums?"

"No!"

Shouts and whistles rang across the entire street. Even the zombies next street turned around and stared at the direction of the Fishbone base.

Jiang Chen closed his eyes, lifted both of his hands and motioned the crowd to quiet down.

The crowd's noise gradually died down and everyone's attention was focused on him.

This feeling was extremely surreal.

He faintly remembered the feeling of being stared at by 30 pairs of anxious eyes in the sewer. The sense of apathy born from absolute control, from knowing that they had the power to control life and death.

But now, he was respected, worshipped, and lauded by a group of people from the bottom of their hearts. He only felt his blood was boiling that even the cold breeze could not be able to cool down.

Jiang Chen shifted his gaze to the row of bandits about to be executed.

"I believe you were well aware that this would happen one day when you pointed your gun at helpless people and abused both children and women."

"No! Ahhh—"

A surprising scene occurred when a kneeling bandit suddenly got up from the ground and dashed to the alley on the side.

BANG!

The desperate fleeing bandit hit the ground and left a frightening, bloody hole on his back.

Jiang Chen shoved his gun back into his pocket when the smoke from the gun had dissipated.

The survivors only saw a series of blurry actions. They couldn't even see Jiang Chen pulling out his gun, let alone the act of shooting. The entire action was so smooth that everyone's face couldn't help but pale.

They did not expect that Fishbone Base's boss would not only amass a strong force but would also possess an unparalleled individual fighting prowess.

Needless to say, whether it was power or speed of reaction, Jiang Chen injected with the genetic vaccine was far superior compared to ordinary survivors.

That man's escape just now was arranged beforehand; the rope was not tied down to his legs. It was done only to strengthen his prestige through personal force.

It was only human nature to worship the strong.

Incidentally, this "episode" was Zhou Guoping's original idea.

"Fire!" The cold words were accompanied with white mist and echoed on the cold street.

Gunfire sounded, a group of bodies dropped one-by-one in the pool of blood, officially ending their wicked lives.

Zhao Gang held the rifle in his hand, staring at his enemy who was lying in the pool of blood. Jiang Chen had given him the chance to avenge himself by allowing him to participate in the execution of the bandits. The bandit who was in front of him was the same bastard who led the mercenaries to raid his family, kill his son, and capture and violate his wife.

Seeing that the tumor that disrupted the region for so long was finally eradicated, the survivors cheered and raised their rifle celebrating.

Jiang Chen enjoyed the cheers of the crowd as he continued to order formalin to be sprayed on these bodies to be hung at several major intersections in Qingpu to deter those who dared to commit wicked acts.

Since then, Qingpu bore Fishbone Base's seal on the map. It was called the "seal of the order."

-

After dealing with the bandits' affairs, Jiang Chen was preparing to go back to the mansion when he saw a man kneeling in front of him.

"What are you—" Jiang Chen paused to ask.

"I have nowhere to go. You helped me get my revenge, so my life is yours."

Zhao Gang was on his knees with his head lowered, the rifle was propped up on the ground.

"Don't you have a wife? Stand up first."

"That's exactly the case. We have nowhere to go. Please take us in. I am willing to sell my life to you, even if you want me to die, I, Zhao Gang, will not hesitate," he said in a deep voice. The resolute man did get up and remained kneeling on the ground.

[Nowhere to go?]

Jiang Chen had a sudden realization.

Winter was coming. Their home had been raided clean, and even if they returned to that empty hut, they would not last through the winter.

"Please!" Zhao Gang buried his head even lower.

Jiang Chen eyes narrowed slightly and sighed.

"Call me boss from now on."

Finished, he went past Zhao Gang and went to the base.

Zhao Gang was frozen for a moment before an ecstatic expression appeared on his face. He lifted his head and gratefully looked at Jiang Chen's back.

In the end, Jiang Chen was still moved with compassion.

He headed toward Cheng Weiguo who was out patrolling with a rifle, patted his shoulder and pointed at Zhao Gang's direction.

"Arrange a place for him to live outside the wall. Tomorrow, take the other two along to the Sixth Street for surgery." The other two were obviously Zhuo Guoping and Chu Nan and surgery referred to a slavery chip implant.

"Yes!" Cheng Weiguo saluted.

Jiang Chen nodded with satisfaction then walked inside the base. There were many things waiting for him to be dealt with.

Cheng Weiguo watched his boss leave, swung the rifle behind his back, and walked towards Zhao Gang.

"Get up, buddy." Cheng Weiguo put his right hand to drag him up.

"You'll have to stay outside of the wall for the night. Tomorrow there will be someone taking you to the Sixth Street for a chip implant, then you and your wife will receive a comfortable room and become part us."

Zhao Gang hesitated for a moment.

"Must everyone be implanted with a slavery chip?"

Cheng Weiguo seemed to see through his hesitation. He smiled and then pulled out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Want one?" This was one of the benefits of the Fishbone base.

He hesitantly took the cigarette. Cheng Weiguo grabbed the lighter and lit one for himself. The two then began to smoke in front of the gate.

"I was hesitant like you in the past. I was only a refugee at the time, and when I was forcefully implanted with slavery chip and got sold to some unknown force in the Sixth Street, my heart was full of fear."

"I don't really care about my life, but I don't understand why my wife would need a slavery chip," Zhao Gang muttered and slowly took a deep inhale.

He could accept his wife being humiliated by bandits because it was his own incompetence that caused it, but he could not accept his wife becoming someone else's slave, even if he was willing to sell his life to Fishbone base.

Cheng Weiguo suddenly laughed upon hearing this. He looked confusedly at Cheng Weiguo, not knowing why he laughed.

"I was like you before, the feeling of my own wife being implanted with slavery chip sure did not feel good. But you are overthinking, the boss is a good person. He never treated us like slaves. My wife is now the cook in the base. He didn't wrong us just because he controlled our lives."

"Looks like you truly respect him." he looked at Cheng Weiguo in surprise.

"That's right, I was only a refugee on the verge of death before, and now I am the militia leader of Fishbone Base in charge of the wall defense. He does not only staves off our hunger but also gives us dignity that we never even think of dreaming. He truly deserves respect. Even if I don't have this thing in my head, I will still swear my allegiance to him.

Cheng Weiguo threw away the cigarette butt in his hand, patted him on the shoulder and grinned at him.

"Perform well, as long as you prove your worth, our boss will not be cheap with his reward. I can say that in the entire Wanghai City, other than some special survival facilities, you can't find any place happier than here."

He silently doused the butt of his cigarette and nodded at Cheng Weiguo.

"Mhmm."

On the other side, Fishbone Base soldiers started cleaning the execution ground. The survivors had begun to disperse, and the Fishbone Base survivors dragged away more than 20 bodies to the side of the road to be sprayed with Formalin.

One body, however, was quietly dragged into the base and carried into a cabin.

Jiang Chen was sitting in that room. The soldier saluted and stood by the door.

The "dead body" on the ground twitched and raised slowly.

"Ahem, it's tiring to fake death." Zhou Guoping pulled the black bag off his head, heaved a few breaths and exaggeratedly patted his chest.

"Oh? Do you want to try real death then?" Jiang Chen grinned mischievously.

"Hehe, I'll pass on that." Zhou Guoping smiled wryly and obsequiously looked at his new boss.

He had a bulletproof vest on along with a bag of blood under his vest. When Jiang Chen shot him, he fell on the ground faking his own death.

"Tomorrow I'll take you to the Sixth Street to undergo surgery. Until then, you can't a take a step out of this room or else..." Jiang Chen stood up from the chair, walked to his side, patted his shoulder, and walked out of the room.

"Watch him." After stopping for a moment at the door, Jiang Chen signaled the soldier on the side.

"Yes!" The soldier saluted.

Then, Jiang Chen returned to the gate.

There were already two tents erected near the door. There was barbed wire set up to block the zombies. The zombies in the area had already been wiped out and the new zombies would take at least a month before they arrive, so this basic fortification was enough to protect the safety of the three people outside of the wall.

Zhao Gang and his wife were setting up their tent, Chu Nan, the bachelor, was dealing in his own tent.

Jiang Chen still had a few things to ask him, so he directly approached him.

"What?" Chu Nan tied the wires together, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and turned around to look at Jiang Chen.

"Just want to ask you something, I remember you telling me before you are here because your plane crashed. Where was it?"

Chu Nan looked at Jiang Chen with an odd look.

"If I tell you the location of the wreckage, will that be considered a significant contribution?"

Jiang Chen was stupefied then laughed.

"Of course, how about a box of canned pure pork?"

Chu Nan licked his lips but shook his head.

"I want that woman."

"Who? If she's in the base, just pursue her yourself." Jiang Chen looked at Chu Nan oddly.

"She's not in the base. Do you remember Zhou Xiaoxia?"

Jiang Chen knitted his eyebrows for a while before finally recalling that name, but the way he was looking at Chu Nan was now even odder.

"You want her?" That RBQ?

"Mhmm." Chu Nan replied tersely, no longer looking in Jiang Chen's direction.

"Do whatever you want," Jiang Chen shrugged. Although he didn't know why Chu Nan would be interested in an RBQ, he had no intention of interfering with his personal hobbies. "But with her mental state, you better not let her out."

"Mhmm, I understand," Chu Nan nodded, "Could you also take her for an implant tomorrow? She had an excellent combat power before, it's better to put some control."

Surprised, Jiang Chen looked at him and nodded.

"Give me the map." Chu Nan reached out his hand.

Jiang Chen took out the computer pen from his pocket and opened the holographic map.

Chu Nan skillfully magnified the map, locked it in a certain area, and pressed on the screen.

"It's right here, if the reinforcement is strong enough, it should still be on the rooftop helipad. Type-51 helicopter is good stuff, there's not a lot even in Liuding Town."

Because there were only a few survivors near the city center, the helicopter should still be in there.

"The one near Songjiang? I'll send out a search team." He looked at the dot on the map and nodded before putting away the computer pen.

"Remember to bring steel wires and a truck." Chu Nan gave one more tip before he got back to fiddling with the barbed wires.

"Hmmm," Jiang Chen nodded his head.

The three trucks he got from the mutated human could finally be put to good use. If he could somehow fix the helicopter, Fishbone base would finally acquire their first aerial unit. The helicopter was something that even the Sixth Street had always dreamed of. With a machine gun, it could be an offensive helicopter and it could carry missiles as well. In any case, there were not many forces with superior high altitude area defense capability. He could modify the helicopter however he wanted, mobility wouldn't even need to be considered.

In short, he must get his hands on this thing as it was simply a humungous killing device!

After leaving Chu Nan, he immediately found Cheng Weiguo to order him to immediately take 15 people and a truck to get the helicopter back. Bearing in consideration the height of the helicopter, he also looked for a construction team and sent for another 10-person engineering team to accompany them.

After dealing with all of these things, he returned to the base once again.

_Min_ _Min_

I lied, there is going to be one more tonight

Chapter 128: Lin Lin’s Lab

With the return of the expedition, Fishbone Base had resumed its former liveliness.

The construction of the base was back on track, the construction team began moving batches and batches of construction supplies outside of the wall and started to implement the expansion work as originally planned.

The women rescued from Huizhong Mercenaries base were placed in an empty apartment building. Jiang Chen assigned five nurses to take care of them and help them regain their sanity. At the same time, the survivors of the base could now utilize the point system to take the person they like home.

In principle, Fishbone Base encouraged "adoption" as a means for them to take responsibility and to help their partner to return to normal. Women who could successfully join their workforce would be rewarded with points.

The trading posts in front of the gate reopened after the zombie waves had ended. It was believed that after this incident, there would be an endless stream of survivors that would come and trade here, and the relationship between the Fishbone base and nearby survivor groups would be strengthened further.

The bullet production line and Hummingbird UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) production line were housed in a metal warehouse and the two military production lines could be put into production after a simple maintenance. So Fishbone base welcomed its first military factory and though the production efficiency was not high, it was undoubtedly a good start.

After ordering Lu Huasheng to construct a building in the newly developed area as the new site for the military factory, Jiang Chen walked to the direction of the mansion.

The UAV terminal could be manufactured from recycled electronic parts and since Yao Yao was the expert in this area, completing it should not be a problem for her. If she could create a drone system, the base defense and detection capabilities would rise to another level.

But the moment he opened the door, he was astounded.

"Do you know who I am?" Lin Lin with her arms akimbo and raised her head confidently.

"You, you are?" Yao Yao swallowed a mouthful, shrunk her tiny head a little and carefully asked.

"Me? I am the noble, perfect embodiment of science and technology—digitalized human!" Lin Lin smiled arrogantly. She was very pleased with the frightened look on Yao Yao’s face.

At the moment, Lin Lin’s mood was ecstatic that there was only one thought in her mind! The feeling of picking on the weak felt so wonderful. Hahaha!

However, that elated feeling didn’t last for long because she found Jiang Chen standing in the doorway and was looking at her with a faint smile.

Lin Lin's mouth twitched stiffly and her arrogant expression remained frozen on her face.

After discovering Jiang Chen, as though Yao Yao had found her savior, she quickly fled behind his back and pouted her mouth looking like she was wronged.

"Digitalized human? So what?" Jiang Chen smiled and stared at the beautiful girl with silver and white hair.

"I, I…" Lin Lin’s mouth started quivering as she recalled the fear for this "devil."

"Where is Sun Jiao?" He turned around and rubbed Yao Yao's head indulgently.

"Sister Sun Jiao was taking a shower," Yao Yao said quietly.

Then, she looked at Lin Lin’s direction and with a tone full of grievance, continued, "Sister Sun Jiao asked me to find her a room but as soon as Sister Sun Jiao left, she, she…"

"You bullied my Yao Yao?"

This was intolerable! Especially seeing the timid look like that of a little animal on Yao Yao’s face, Jiang Chen’s protective tendencies suddenly burst forth.

"What, what are you going to do?" Lin Lin was trembling and began to retreat back.

Her silvery hair quivered, her white was filled with fear. Despite her unearthly beauty, her bad character would only arouse human’s sadistic desire and not their protective instincts.

Almost unhesitantly, Jiang Chen took out his EP and then pressed a few keys.

A faint static sound emitted from Yao Yao’s neck and the electronic collar opened.

Without saying a word, he seized Yao Yao’s collar, approached Lin Lin with a leer, ignored her resistance from her flailing fists, and put the collar around her neck.

Yao Yao touched her neck with an aggrieved expression. That was the one thing connecting her and Brother Jiang Chen, but it got taken away by this strange woman.

The more she thought about it, the sadder she got.

Her big adorable eyes began to get watery.

"No, it’s too dangerous. I had always wanted to take it off for a long time. How about giving you a new gift later?" When Jiang Chen saw her expression and hurriedly appeased her.

"Hello! If it is dangerous, why did you put it on me?" Lin Lin protested.

"Who cares about you?" Jiang Chen turned around and gave her a ferocious glare making Lin Lin shrank back in fear again.

Yao Yao looked back and forth between the two of them feeling wronged, her tiny mouth pouted again.

She had a bad feeling about this. It felt like there were more and more opponents.

...

After forcing the unruly Lin Lin to "stay put," Jiang Chen took her to the first floor of the study.

If was called a study but there was no book to be found here anymore. The bookshelves were disposed to the backyard as waste, and the room was now filled with experimental apparatus taken from Lin Lin's shelter.

"Ahhh! How dare you treat my babies this way." Lin Lin tearfully run and touched her precious instruments.

"This is your room from now on. Clean it up yourself." Jiang Chen said bluntly with a wicked grin.

He swore he had always been a nice person.

But for some reason, Lin Lin seemed to be born with "please bully me" BUFF; her favorite was her over-the-top "provocation."

Lin Lin fiercely glared at him before correctly placing the equipment upside down on the ground.

"Oh, so that’s how it is. I thought that side was the bottom."

"Stupid," Lin Lin cursed inaudibly and was no longer looking at him.

"The mutated human and Death Claw body are in the freezer. Your current mission is to dissect them. I want to know exactly what the x2 virus is and what particular effects it would bring to mutants and also the body stats data of mutated human. That shouldn’t be too hard for you, right?"

When Lin Lin heard this, she haughtily cocked her head, long silver hair flailed neatly to the side, "Why would I help you—"

"If you don’t need to eat, you don’t really need to help me," Jiang Chen interrupted her words with a bright smile.

"You, you…" Lin Lin instantly looked like she was severely wronged, but aside from making Jiang Chen felt pleased, there was not the slightest sense of guilt.

[Who told you to have such a foul temper!]

"Your task has already been given to you, so if there's nothing else, I am going to head out now. By the way, you better be nice to Yao Yao because she is in charge of your food." Jiang Chen laughed and walked towards the door.

"Hold on!" Lin Lin hurriedly stopped him.

"What? If you're going to protest, then it's rejected," Jiang Chen turned to look at her and said rudely.

"Where is my bedroom? Just to be clear, I want the best room on the top floor with its own bathroom and facing the south…" Lin Lin was reserved at first but started to get carried away the more she went on. Her onyx eyes were flashing with rays of expectation.

But Jiang Chen was just silently staring at her with an expression that couldn’t be more confused.

As though sensing that she was just talking to herself, Lin Lin cautiously looked at Jiang Chen and finally started to accept the reality that she had to yield to him.

Lin Lin thought, [A wise man does not fight when the odds are against him! As a beauty, I will submit for now, just wait until…]

Just that she didn’t know when would that time come.

"Is that okay?" she asked tentatively.

Jiang Chen was silent for a long time then suddenly asked a nonsensical question.

"Does a digitalized human need to sleep?"

"Of course! I am not a robot." Lin Lin almost cried in devastation.

After a brief Wiki, Jiang Chen finally understood what kind of existence she was.

To put it in simply, she was just an ordinary person before, but because of congenital disease, 40% of her body's tissues were forcibly replaced with electronics. Her brain was installed with nano components that could connect to her nerve endings, which allowed her brain to operate at computer level processing speed. The artificial stomach allowed her to digest food at two times the efficiency compared to ordinary people, and which could also convert some of the energies into electrical energy storage.

And as far as eating and sleeping needs went, there was no obvious difference between her and ordinary people.

"So, you're not a robot," Jiang Chen stated while he examined Lin Lin from top to bottom. Because he saw a robot at the Sixth Street before, his previous perception made him think that she was a robot. "I assumed you are made out of silicone."

"You are made out of silicone!" Lin Lin gave him a fierce glare, but when she suddenly remembered she still had things to ask of him, her tone immediately softened and used a frail tone, "That, the room…"

"Room? It's right here, isn’t it?" Jiang Chen’s expression looked odd.

"What?! Here? You want me to sleep with a bunch of lab equipment?" Lin Lin jumped up and shouted like a squirrel that had its tail stepped on.

"Then, why do you think we got you a big room like this? I’ll put a bed here in a bit," Jiang Chen rolled his eyes.

Ignoring Lin Lin's cry of disappointment, Jiang Chen left the room.

The reason why he was bullying her was partly because he wanted to do it from the bottom of his heart; on the other hand, he needed to discipline this girl.

There was a spare room in the mansion, but her attitude was beyond abominable. If he were a bit nicer, he was afraid that she would be more unreasonable beyond measure.

It would be unwise to spoil her when he must teach her a lesson.

...

When Jiang Chen entered the kitchen he found Yao Yao who was cooking dinner.

Yao Yao was wearing a pink apron and her right hand was holding a long spoon while intently staring at the pot of stew. The cherry-like mouth was softly humming and the tender face was filled with a happy smile.

[Ahhh, she is just too cute!]

Jiang Chen unconsciously covered his nose despite not getting a nosebleed.

As if hearing the sound in the doorway, Yao Yao's little ears moved adorably as she turned around to look at the door.

"Hmm, Has Brother been very busy? Just wait for a little while, the meal is almost done." After seeing it was Jiang Chen, Yao Yao’s face turned slightly red, then she turned around and continued to focus on the pot of stew.

"Ahem, I'm done. Also, sorry to trouble you but can you cook one more portion in the future?" Jiang Chen walked to her and rubbed her head like a small pet.

"Mhmm! I already cooked one more portion—" Yao Yao was comfortably enjoying the feeling of the big hand rubbing her head.

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile.

[Sure enough, Yao Yao is a kindhearted girl.]

Even after Lin Lin had bullied her, she was still considerate enough to include Lin Lin’s food.

"Oh, what kind of gift do you want?" Although he didn’t know why Yao Yao was so insistent on the dangerous electronic collar, he still put it on Lin Lin who definitely "needed it more."

Yao Yao’s face felt hot, after a long while, she murmured in a tiny voice, "Could I save it for later?"

"Save it?"

"Yao Yao’s birthday is in November so...you give it to me by then?" she buried her head lower and her voice turned even lower.

Birthday?

"Mhmm!" Jiang Chen nodded and smilingly promised.

Chapter 129: Individual Missions

The fancy dinner was comprised of four dishes and soup.

There was Sun Jiao's favorite soy-braized short ribs as well as Jiang Chen's favorite scrambled eggs. With tomato. Lin Lin was throwing a tantrum by refusing to eat. However, that did not even last for three seconds as she was drawn by the intoxicating aroma of the food. With a dejected face, she walked over to the table.

Jiang Chen picked up a piece of tender, juicy meat and bit into it. The delicate texture and delicious taste couldn't be better.

It might be a tad difficult to tell from Sun Jiao's lack of elegance in eating, but just from looking at Lin Lin's stuffed face despite her extremely picky attitude, it showed Yao Yao's superb culinary skills.

"Yao Yao's cooking skill is getting better and better." Stunned by the delicacies, Jiang Chen raised his thumb to praise Yao Yao.

"Hehe," Yao Yao giggled. She embarrassedly lowered her head and her face turned beet red.

"Hey, you should also give me some credit! While you were away, it was me who guided Yao Yao on how to cook the dishes better—" Sun Jiao's mouth didn't stop for a moment as she shoved more food in her mouth.

"You're only responsible for tasting, right?" Jiang Chen ridiculed.

"Hmm, I'll give it 80 points," Lin Lin murmured with a voice that only she could hear then swallowed a mouthful of rice.

After dinner, Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao carried their bowls to the kitchen. Lin Lin had wanted to flee right after eating but was unceremoniously caught by Sun Jiao.

Ignoring Lin Lin who was washing the bowls angrily, Jiang Chen stored the washed bowls in the cupboard and then took Sun Jiao, who had also finished with her task, upstairs.

"Is there any bank near Qingpu?" Jiang Chen asked.

Trading with Kane military and mercenaries as well as sending funds to sensitive areas have a high chance of freezing his Swiss bank accounts. In consideration of the safety of his account, Jiang Chen decided to use the most reliable and most primitive payment method—gold.

Therefore, he had to find a way to acquire gold from the apocalypse.

"Bank? Do you need more gold?" Sun Jiao asked curiously.

"Yes," Jiang Chen nodded.

Sun Jiao took out the computer pen and skillfully started the holographic map. "There is a PAC bank in Songjiang which is not too far away from here."

"Take some people with you to run a trip for me tomorrow. I need the gold in this bank vault," Jiang Chen said after pondering for a moment and looking at the location on the map.

"Mhmm," Sun Jiao nodded and smiled winsomely.

"Then, I'll be counting on you." Jiang Chen smiled and was about to turn around to discuss with Yao Yao about the UAVs.

But then he realized that his clothes were being pulled.

Sun Jiao pouted and whispered near his ear, "I took a shower in the afternoon."

Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" Sun Jiao was displeased and gave him a light punch on the chest.

"Nothing, I just thought you're adorable." He reached out and caressed her silky, black hair.

"Cute? I am the queen." Sun Jiao straightened her back and rolled her eyes at him.

Sun Jiao evaded his gaze and was suddenly feeling embarrassed. She then forced herself to remain calm. "Do you want to?"

Jiang Chen naturally understood what she meant, but then he shook his head.

Sun Jiao was stunned, her hands were on her hips with a displease countenance. "Why?"

"Because we need to be peaceful and loving. When the immortals fight, the mortals suffer," Jiang Chen said helplessly.

....

"I still have something I need to talk to Yao Yao about. Wait for me in the room tonight." Jiang Chen grinned wickedly and gently touched Sun Jiao's face.

"Something? It's not what I'm thinking of, right?" Sun Jiao looked suspiciously at him.

"Cough, no, you're overthinking. It's about the drones." Jiang Chen coughed embarrassedly.

-

Sun Jiao pouted and suddenly kissed Jiang Chen on the face, before jumping aside. "Well, that's all good. You're only allowed to eat Yao Yao only after this Miss has been fed."

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes at the naughty girl then turned around to head toward to Yao Yao's room.

-

The door was open, Yao Yao was sitting in front of the table fiddling with the electronic parts.

There was a faint shampoo scent in the room. Yao Yao's hair was wet and appeared as though she had just taken a shower. She wore lovely bear pajamas, and a pair of smooth jade-like legs dangling in the stool was swinging happily.

Standing at the door, Jiang Chen gently knocked on the door.

"Ah, Brother Jiang Chen? What can I do for you?"

When she turned around and realized it was Jiang Chen, a soft smile immediately blossomed on her face.

"Mhmm, I have a favor to ask of you." He stepped forward and rubbed Yao Yao's head indulgently as usual.

Yao Yao looked baffled, her huge eyes were intently staring at him.

He took out the remains of the Hummingbird drone that he brought from the underground shelter.

"Do you think you can design a control terminal like this drone?"

Yao Yao took out the plate-sized drone and carefully examined it on her hand.

"Well, it shouldn't be a big deal with a UAV like this. EP can be used as the control terminal as long as the number will not exceed 10. More than that, EP's processor wouldn't be able to handle it."

Well, not a problem, a table-sized processor would do the trick nicely." Yao Yao clapped her hands and nodded adorably.

"What materials do you need? I'll be going to Sixth Street tomorrow."

"Uhm, there are still plenty of electronic parts in the warehouse, but some of the key components are still missing. How about this, I'll give Brother a list of things that I need tomorrow morning, is that okay?" Yao Yao said earnestly.

"Certainly." Jiang Chen rubbed Yao Yao's small head. "And one more thing, do you know how to design UAV alert system?"

Yao Yao eyes immediately lit up at the mention of drone warning system, she nodded vigorously.

"Mhmm! I have been recently reading books in this area. Leave it to me." Yao Yao confidently raised her head.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

"Does Brother have any specifics for the UAV alert system?" Yao Yao grabbed a pen and a piece of paper while earnestly waited for Jiang Chen to open his mouth.

Seeing Yao Yao's serious yet adorable expression, Jiang Chen couldn't help but smile.

"My specific requirement is that the 100 UAVs should be able to automatically carry out patrol mission. It should be able to use the terminal to design patrol route. It should be able to avoid obstructions and immediately respond to enemies' attacks. Also, it would be best to add face recognition systems as well as heat source analysis system..."

After passing the details, he then left Yao Yao's room.

Though the moment he stepped out, he always felt there the was some kind of resentment on Yao Yao's face.

Chapter 130: Thriving

The next morning, Jiang Chen personally led a group of five who needed an injection as well as five Fishbone soldiers into Sixth Street.

He chose to go with a team because first, he was curious about any changes Sixth Street had undergone after the crusade and two, for market research purposes.

Now that Sixth Street's purchasing power increased, the goods they traded with them would no longer be limited to food.

Once the initial burst of rapid production settled down, the highly utilized production lines would equip everyone with potent weapons, lowering the demand for firearms because of the market surplus.

An increased hunting ability meant the number of acquired crystals would rise as well. Survivors would even expand the hunting radius and venture into the city center to obtain more crystals.

After food—the most basic necessity—was fulfilled, people with a pocket full of crystals would begin to look for ways to increase their quality of life.

With demand for other goods, numerous small factories would emerge like bamboo sprouts after the rain. Small workshops would gradually expand based on market demand, and a variety of other products would fill the store shelves. Small talk between friends would change from, "Did you get any nutrient supply today?" to "How many crystals did you get today?"

Order would appear once more on this part of land. Prosperity would return under freedom. But the catalyst behind these changes was a war that lasted a mere few days.

-

"Welcome to Sixth Street, my friend." Zhao Chenwu held a cigar in his mouth as he extended his arms to Jiang Chen from a few paces away.

"Nice to see you again. Did you get a return on the money you invested on me?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Of course." Zhao Chenwu handed him a cigar. "Delicacy from before the war, ten crystals for one."

He didn't have to think about it; since Jiang Chen stood here, that meant the danger to Fishbone Base was alleviated and the batch of food was transported into Wanghai City.

Jiang Chen took the cigar and lit it up. After being injected with the genetic vaccine, his smoking addiction was now almost gone—but it was hard to refuse the offer.

"Seems like you've made some money?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"That's right, and about to make more." Zhao Chenwu cracked a smile, then warmly placed his hand around Jiang Chen's shoulder. "Let's go. It's pretty cold outside; we'll talk in the car."

The five who needed the injections were taken by Zhao Chenwu's people to the clinic while the accompanying soldiers returned to the base.

He clambered onto Zhao Chenwu's vehicle, and they drove towards the inner circle.

"So, my friend, what wind blows you here?" Zhao Chenwu looked at Jiang Chen with a bright smile.

Orders were normally completed through transmission, and details that needed to be sorted out could be done through an augmented reality conference.

"One, I needed to bring some new people to be injected, and two, to see any progress made and deliver the order." Jiang Chen glanced out of the car and gave the graphene card to Zhao Chenwu.

It was the same wide gate, and through it, the daunting cannon remained unchanged, but the malnourished faces were now full of confidence.

Construction materials lay in emptied spots as construction vehicles busied themselves outside Sixth Street working on what seemed to be an expansion project. There were barely any people in the ghetto, making it feel quite empty.

Zhao Chenwu could sense Jiang Chen's shock. He smiled while holding the graphene card and pressed the initiate button. He said casually, "These buildings are part of the newly expanded industrial area. The wall needs to be expanded out by several hundred meters, and the ghetto no longer sells people ever since the council pushed out a new regulation to start a buyback of the ghetto refugees."

"Buyback?" Jiang Chen was unfamiliar with this new term.

"Anyone registered in Sixth Street can be repurchased for the price of ten crystals. The repurchased refugees are not permitted to leave Sixth Street, but they'll work at the factory of whoever bought them back for three years before obtaining their freedom."

"So population trade is no longer supported?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"Officially, yes. Refugees are no longer the burden of Sixth Street, but I do recommend that you go to the free market. There are plenty of merchants from other survival camps with slave dealers specialized in that business." Zhao Chenwu scrolled through the list on the graphene card to confirm Jiang Chen's order.

"Five hundred Reaper rifles, twenty Ghost snipers, five hundred bulletproof vests, four boxes of regular grenades, general combat equipment, five 20mm machine guns.... That's a lot. Are you planning on creating an army?" Zhao Chenwu asked perplexedly.

"Shipping out of the province," Jiang Chen replied concisely.

[It's true that it's being traded to the modern world.]

"Okay, but with quantities like this, let's push the trade date to the tenth. I still need a bit more, so I'll have to make an order to the factory." Zhao Chenwu took out a paper-thin phone from his pocket and pressed a few buttons.

"One thousand jackets, one thousand snow boots, twenty tons of C-type steel, ten tons of Carm tree sap? These are easy—I can get the bulk price." Zhao Chenwu read through the list.

Carm tree sap was obtained from the mutated Carm tree. It was used as the raw material for multiple types of plastics, an industrial material common on the wasteland. Although the polluted soil could not produce any edible crops, plants that survived through natural selection remained, and Sixth Street had a few small tree farms specifically dedicated to producing this tree sap.

Together with the sap and C-type steel, as well as the electronic parts obtained through the survivor groups, most of the components required to manufacture the hummingbird drone would be collected.

"Then I'll leave it to you. The trade date is set for the tenth then. This batch should be sufficient for three months, so the next trade should be set for the following January?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"No problem." Zhao Chenwu nodded in reply.

The car drove to the inner circle and stopped in front of a restaurant called Lihua. Zhao Chenwu explained that it was his restaurant in the inner circle.

Jiang Chen gladly accepted the invitation for lunch, but when the dishes were brought out, he was shocked.

Curry chicken, potato pork, vinegar cabbage. Three dishes in total, two types of meat and one vegetable.

The problem was not the dishes themselves, but they were all canned food?

Jiang Chen was taken aback at Zhao Chenwu's eagerness to eat.

When comparing the quality of life, the respected council member of Sixth Street ate worse than the modern-day homeless man.

Jiang Chen ate until he was eighty percent full. He sat in a luxuriously renovated restaurant, eating starchy bread and microwaved canned dishes.

It was quite a comical feeling.

Especially since the person sitting across from him was devouring the meal.

After the meal, Zhao Chenwu used a napkin to wipe his mouth before leaning back against the chair with a smile at Jiang Chen. "I do have to praise Fishbone Base's food. It's delicious."

"Thank you." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Oh, since you're here, I have something you may be interested in." As if he suddenly remembered something, Zhao Chenwu sat upright in his chair and lowered his voice.

"Oh? What is it?" Seeing this, Jiang Chen became solemn as well. This man was part of a group of ten council members. The news he was leaking had to be taken seriously.

Zhao Chenwu smiled mysteriously as he dropped a bomb on Jiang Chen. "Based on Sixth Street's new proposal, we're about to establish a bank. The feasibility of the proposal is still under debate, but it will most likely happen."

"A bank?" Jiang Chen was stunned.

[Opening a bank in the apocalypse, what is this?]

"The average income is steadily increasing, so it's a necessity for Sixth Street, especially since we have the capability to do so. People can store unused crystals in the bank to acquire an interest, and start-up factories can borrow crystals to invest in the plant. The blood is already flowing—now we just need a heart." Zhao Chenwu laughed confidently as he shot an energetic gaze at Jiang Chen.

In the future, the introduction of the bank would likely begin a tidal wave of new factories.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows. "Not a bad idea, but does it have anything to do with me?"

"Of course." Zhao Chenwu smiled, lowering his voice and continuing, "Don't you want to be a shareholder of this bank?"

It was an interesting way to phrase the question.

Jiang Chen's expression turned strange when he heard Zhao Chenwu. He asked rhetorically, "Don't you want to be?"

[If there is something good like this, you would be kind enough to ask me?]

Guessing at Jiang Chen's thoughts, Zhao Chenwu continued, "Of course, but based on the regulation, the council members' share limit is set at seven percent, each contributing one hundred thousand crystals. The remaining would be sold to the public at a premium."

"So what you're saying is that your cake has already been divided, so you thought about your old friend, me." Jiang Chen laughed.

"That's right, are you interested?" Zhao Chenwu crossed his fingers as he stared at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen didn't immediately answer, but rather scratched his chin as he thought.

[The ten council members are each limited to 7%. Therefore, their influence is equal to one another. This is to prevent one person from exerting too much influence on the decisions of the group. The reason why Zhao Chenwu leaked the information to me is in the hopes of having me purchase some shares. Because of our alliance, he would obtain more influence in the bank. Since my orientation remains in the "headquarters," I shouldn't care about influence but only bank dividend.]

Considering Sixth Street's recent developments, this bank posed significant meanings, or else Zhao Chenwu wouldn't have become so involved in it.

It was the "heart" that would become the bloodline.

A mischievous smile grew on Jiang Chen's face as he had made a decision.

He realized he was becoming more skilled at politics.

"And the bank's investment criteria is?" Jiang Chen asked stoically.

"Provide the factory, store, developer, mercenaries, and a potential hunting team with loans." Zhao Chenwu replied.

"What about the purchase requirement?"

Zhao Chenwu immediately smiled upon hearing Jiang Chen's question.

He could tell Jiang Chen was tempted.

"One percent of the share is twenty thousand crystals. The purchaser is required to have at least two hundred square meters of fixed assets on Sixth Street. Also, they must be a free person without any chip injections."

Jiang Chen burst out laughing and extended his right hand. "Thank you for the information. I'm very interested. If the proposal passes, let me know."

"Definitely. We share the same interests, don't we?" Zhao Chenwu grasped Jiang Chen's hand and shook it forcefully.

"Of course."

Chapter 131: Rocket?

Coming out of Lihua, Jiang Chen rejected Zhao Chenwu's invitation to stay in Paradise Island Hotel at no expense and walked straight to the Development Bureau.

The inner circle had drastically changed. He remembered a few months ago, when he first came here, the only things that had left an impression on him were the spider tank and the fully-equipped soldiers. Now, however, there were pedestrians in flamboyant clothing.

The radiation dust in the air felt depressing as ever, but a touch of liveliness permeated the entire camp.

Prosperity.

Zhao Chenwu's high-end car was no longer unique. Fewer armored vehicles patrolled the streets now taken up by personal vehicles. Along the busiest street were building expansions here and there.

After displaying his genetic ID to the patrolling soldiers, Jiang Chen entered the hall.

"Hello, sir. Is there anything I can help you with?" a receptionist at the front desk said professionally while twirling a pen.

"I'd like to buy a few plots of land to open... a factory," he said casually as he flipped through the promotional materials on the desk.

He was obviously not building a factory. It was fine as long as he built a warehouse; the key was to settle the two hundred square meter criteria.

Sixth Street was about to establish the first bank, and thirty percent of the shares would be sold—the cake was too attractive to pass on.

Imagining the scenario, the total number of factories and small production facilities numbered fewer than twenty, but now that the average wealth increased exponentially, how tremendous would the economy boom be? It was no exaggeration to say that twenty would increase by at least five-fold within a year, and establishing a bank would only speed up this process.

How many people would need a loan then? It was a guaranteed return.

"Purchasing assets? Thank you for choosing to invest in Sixth Street. But sir, currently, the land available for development have been sold out. Maybe you could consider purchasing for existing owners."

"Sold out? This fast?" Jiang Chen was shocked.

He expected land development to be attractive, but he didn't expect the plots to be sold out so quickly.

Jiang Chen frowned slightly, thinking a bit before continuing, "Are there any assets available for sale right now? Anywhere works."

The receptionist was at a loss when she heard his words and gave him a strange look.

"Perhaps. Why don't you go to the market and ask in the consignment exchange?"

". . ."

-

Bulk items and fixed assets were normally sold on consignment at the exchange. The seller normally provided the sale information while storing the related goods or property within the exchange. A buyer with the intent to purchase would then take the information and discuss a price with the seller in a meeting. Once the transaction was completed, the buyer only needed to bring the crystals to the exchange to walk away with the purchased goods.

Jiang Chen held such a sheet of information in his hands with the words, "Store for sale, price negotiable" written on it.

Jiang Chen paused in front of a building, examining the storefront.

Perhaps to save on electricity, the words "Fake Legs Specialty Store" were redundantly written out on the electronic board in black ink.

There was a layer of dust on the wooden window, and the rusty door made out of scrapped shells looked worn down. He hesitantly raised his hand, and just as he was about to knock, the door was dragged open.

A small square TV abruptly appeared before him, nearly startling Jiang Chen into pulling out his gun. The metal-plated mouth rapidly opened and closed, stuttering in a squeaky electronic voice, "Welcome, valued customer! The shop provides mechanical legs and mechanical prosthetic installations with outstanding services for wastelander who accidentally break their limbs!"

He stared at the robot. Its head and body were connected by a spring, and he began to understand why there were no customers.

With such reception, it would be astonishing if a customer did show up.

He pushed the junk robot aside and stepped into the store.

The room was dimly lit, the faint odor of machine oil was in the air. The wall displayed an array of unknown electronic parts and equipment. There was. However, nobody manning the front.

Jiang Chen scanned the room, calling out, "Ahem, is anyone here?"

No reply.

[No one? Or busy with something else?]

He hesitated briefly before going up the stairs at the back of the store.

The top landing was the attic, and from the open door, he heard mutters and occasional, unsettling explosions.

"Is it a problem with the central processor? No, should be the engine control unit...."

The door and roof were wide open. The room was filled with an odd assortment of equipment, and in the corner was a small telescope beside a full-sensory sky map. In the middle of the room, there was a two-meter-wide space, a cylinder as tall as two people, a pointed head....

"Rocket?!"

The young man who was working with a screwdriver in hand was interrupted by the surprised voice and looked in the direction of the door.

"That's right! It is a rocket!" He threw the screwdriver to the side, rubbed his messy and oily hair, and smiled.

Jiang Chen examined the rocket as tall as two people and burst out laughing.

"Haha, someone finally understands the beauty of my design." The person clearly misunderstood, his expression excited as he opened his arms towards Jiang Chen.

He smoothly avoided the hug from a man who obviously hadn't showered in a few days. Jiang Chen cleared his throat.

"The purpose of my trip is—"

"Investment right? I know."

"No, you seemed to have mis—"

"Shh!" The man suddenly gestured for silence. With a mysterious expression, he waved at Jiang Chen. "Let me take you to see something fun."

The man quickly sauntered to the corner of the room.

Jiang Chen gave the man a strange look but eventually followed after a moment's hesitation.

"Power system normal, hydraulic balance normal, fuel normal...." he muttered abstrusely as he typed rapidly on the silica-gel touch board. His eyes were filled with a passionate light.

Jiang Chen stood behind him and examined the sophisticated monitors.

"You are—"

"Ignite!" The excited roar startled Jiang Chen and interrupted his question.

The hand slapped onto a red button.

Boom—!

The fire erupted from the middle of the room, the scorching flames burning against the base made of unknown metal. The floor began to shake violently, and the window panes screeched. Gusts battered at them, and Jiang Chen had to cover his face from the rapid air flow. Between his fingers, his astonished expression could be seen.

"What the fu*k, what the plane are you doing—?" [similar to "what the heck you are doing?"]

"It's a rocket! Space, here I come! Haha, launch!" Against the violent airflow, the man struggled to maintain his balance. He placed his hand over the trigger and pushed it to the top.

The air pressure increased explosively, pressing the man immediately to the ground. Jiang Chen, with his strong body condition, barely managed to remain on his feet. Just as he was about to fall, he activated the nitrogen armor on his right arm.

The nitrogen armor burst out and expanded from his right arm. The special field created by the nitrogen created a decompression zone that deflected the air flow.

The force was immediately canceled out.

"Thanks, buddy." The young man barely managed to hold onto his body as he smiled awkwardly.

Jiang Chen deactivated the nitrogen armor and glanced at the shadow already high in the sky. He threw a dirty look at the young man.

"Are you stupid? Firing a rocket from the room?" What shocked him, even more, was that future technology allowed rockets to be launched from indoors. How advanced were the materials and fuel technology?

The man gave a forced laugh as he rubbed at his messy hair.

"It's okay, Sixth Street doesn't prohibit shooting things into the air...."

" . . . " Jiang Chen was speechless.

Patting at his mussed clothes, the man cleared his throat and extended his right hand.

"Jiang Lin, owner of Sixth Street's Fake Leg Specialty Store."

After a brief pause, Jiang Chen shook hands with him and then looked at him strangely.

"Fake leg? Can you tell me how fake legs are connected to rockets?"

Jiang Lin smiled, slightly embarrassed. "The fake legs store was opened by my dad."

"And now?" Although he asked, Jiang Chen had already guessed what happened.

The son didn't continue his father's business, putting it aside to begin working on rockets?

"I'm not very good at that job." He shrugged, appearing forlorn, but then he waved his hand at Jiang Chen with renewed interest. "Let me show you something cool."

Jiang Lin left Jiang Chen again and hastily walked to the other side of the room. At a loss, Jiang Chen let out a defeated sigh before following.

"Based on the program settings, my Explorer 8 with the highest speed in the universe entered the orbit. Look!"

Jiang Lin's fingers pressed a few buttons on the touch board. Vibrant lights from the cylindrical image formation device began to interweave, creating a magnificent visual image.

"This, this is our planet." Jiang Lin spread his arms with a grin and hugged the imaginary visuals. He then turned around to Jiang Chen with proudly raised eyebrows.

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted as he shook in disbelief.

"Wow, this is fu*king amazing...."

Blue, and yellow.

It was his first time observing this land. Other than the colors, it was no different from the other world.

The colors belonged to the ocean, and the clouds that were supposed to be white was instead mixed in with an unhealthy shade—this was the radiation dust, chemical dust, as well as industrial pollutants. Towards the northwest, the soil was dark green, supposedly belonging to a type of mutated plant. He remembered Sun Jiao mentioning before that there was an alliance to the north. On the south, the daunting, pitch black belonged to scorched earth. Because the rocket was close to the orbiting path and synchronized with the earth's orbit, it could only view the areas in Asia, but the situation was likely no better on the other side of the earth.

"From multiple perspectives, this planet is not suitable for human inhabitants." Despite the dark words, Jiang Lin's voice was calm.

He then pressed a few more times on the touch board, causing the screen's perspective to suddenly change.

"This is?" Jiang Chen shook himself out of his astonishment and stared at the belt of debris on the full-sensory map.

"Space junk around the orbit that formed a belt close to earth. The Third World War was not only fought on the surface." Jiang Lin smiled, then enlarged the image from Explorer 8.

"Most of the debris comes from sky-based weapons, space stations, satellites, as well as orbit attack shops and anti-satellite missiles. Part of the debris is also from the moon facility that was sent near the earth's orbit from the force of the explosion."

[Sky-based weapons? Such as God's Cane.]

He suddenly recalled the diary he had read before.

Observing the chunks of metal debris, his expression held shock.

But not because of the severity of the war.

Chapter 132: Sorry, I am a Businessman

Not because of the severity of the war.

But...

Because of the money!

Any piece of debris out there was hundreds of years ahead of the modern day world's space technology! If he sold it.... Actually, it would likely be difficult to sell.

Realizing this, Jiang Chen forced a smile. Just as he was about to give up the idea of digging for gold in space, he changed his mind. He thought, while it would be difficult to sell, what if he used it for himself? Once he acquired the island, he would be able to use his country's name to release a satellite—and that would be interesting.

"That's about it." Jiang Lin abruptly sighed, and the full hologram faded away.

After a pause, Jiang Chen couldn't help asking, "What happened? Didn't your rocket launch successfully?"

Jiang Lin shrugged and looked at Jiang Chen. "It did launch successfully, but the nearby orbit is filled with magnetic pulses. You could say that it's nearly impossible to defend against EMP. Just by lasting this long, Explorer 8 has already reached its limit. Explorer 7 lasted only ten seconds."

"Then what's point of firing this? Increase space debris?" Jiang Chen glanced back at him.

"How could this be pointless? This is valuable data" Seeing his research being devalued, Jiang Lin immediately became displeased. He pressed a few more times on the touch board, releasing an image on the full-sensory screen again, but this time, there was data that Jiang Chen couldn't make heads or tails of.

"Am I allowed to know what this data will be used for?" Jiang Chen looked over the floating green dots with an odd expression.

"Preparation for interstellar travel." Zeal flickered in Jiang Lin's eyes.

Jiang Chen was speechless. "Interstellar travel?"

"That's right. In 2176, the United Nations sent out six immigration ships into space, the nearest destination being Capelar B in Alpha Centauri, thirteen light years away from Earth."

"So you're telling me that this firework can fly for thirteen light years? And you're prepared to send this firework to find the authority at Capelar B?"

"What firework? This is called Explorer 8! And of course, I'm not going to send this to Capelar B.... But isn't this space exploration? Experiment, collect data, make improvements. Now, after countless trials, I'm already here." Jiang Lin confidently pushed another button.

"What is this?" Jiang Chen asked, confused from the diagram filled with data.

"Warp engine concept map. But because of funding problems, it's only fifty percent completed, hehe." Jiang Lin scratched his head, abashed, and looked at Jiang Chen expectantly. "What do you think? The warp engine can achieve speed faster than light, and there will be hibernation chambers to help pass the time on the journey. Are you interested?"

A short silence.

"I'd like to understand something. Does this have anything to do with me buying the property?"

Jiang Lin was unable to process Jiang Chen's meaning as he stared at him blankly. "What?"

Jiang Chen took out the sheet of information and pointed at it.

"Store for sale, price negotiable. I don't think I came in through the wrong door."

Jiang Lin's face immediately flushed, and he mumbled to himself, "No, they can't do this."

He swiftly seized Jiang Chen's hand, as if it was his last chance. "Did you see the sign in front? Interstellar travel! Are you not interested in it? A world free of radiation, a brand-new civilization—as long as you're willing to invest in my project...."

[Sorry, I already have that world.]

"I'm very sorry. I'm a businessman." Jiang Chen shrugged. "I don't see any potential profits from your project. I'm happy living here, and I don't have any plans to fly into space."

"But...."

"No buts. Looks like you're not the owner of this building? Or do you rent a place here?" Jiang Chen sighed.

Abrupt footsteps sounded from downstairs that rapidly approached them.

"Jiang Lin, how many times have I told you, don't build rockets in my... fu*king... house!" a large man in a suit said viciously as he squeezed through the door, wiping his face.

"Ahem, I built a launch base. It won't damage the structure of the building, so your worry is—"

The man didn't seem interested in arguing with him. He rubbed his temples and said wryly, "I don't care. Pay your two months of rent! Then take your junk and get out of my house!"

Jiang Lin's face immediately paled as he said, "You can't—"

"This... is... my... house!" The meaty man pointed at his nose, the few remaining hairs on his bald head nearly standing on end from fury.

"Calm yourself, Mr. Gu. We'll follow the procedure." A man in a black combat suit, holding an automatic rifle, strolled through the door and looked at Jiang Lin. "Hello, Mr. Jiang. I am the enforcer of Sixth Street. Base on the minimum, you must pay a total of sixty-eight crystals to Mr. Gu Hongkai, or else the enforcement agency has the right to take action. Additionally, because the rental contract has been terminated, please move out within three days. Otherwise, the enforcement agency will have to resort to forceful measures."

"But... but I don't have that much money," Jiang Lin stuttered.

"Sorry, this is the law. Over the next three days, you're prohibited from leaving the house unless you're able to repay the debt." The enforcer shrugged and turned to Gu Hongkai. "Are you pleased with the proceedings?"

"Very pleased." Gu Hongkai didn't dare to get angry at the enforcer. He glared at the pale Jiang Lin, jabbing a finger at his face viciously. "You better get the money ready, or—"

Jiang Chen, who was standing off to the side, suddenly interrupted him and said with some frustration, "Are you the owner of the house?"

Pausing, Gu Hongkai raised his eyebrows at Jiang Chen. "You are?"

"Jiang Chen. If this information belongs to you, we can talk about the price now." Jiang Chen retrieved the information sheet and pointed at it.

Gu Hongkai's eyes lit up immediately, and he smiled widely with sudden energy.

"Mr. Jiang would like to buy the house? Good, good. Let's have a nice chat at the bar."

"Since the problem is solved, I'll take my leave now. Gentlemen, I wish you a good day." The enforcer took out a ticket from his pocket and passed it to Jiang Lin before retreating downstairs.

"No need to go to the bar," Jiang Chen shook his head and refused. "Let's talk here. Give me a price, and if it's reasonable, we can finish the deal now."

The rejected Gu Hongkai did not look the slightest displeased; rather, his smile brightened further. He needed money to buy newly developed land to build a factory, hire hunting teams to head to the industrial area outside of the city to obtain production equipment, purchase raw materials, put in crystals to start production.... Assets in the market? This store was not his only one, and making rent was not nearly as profitable as opening a factory.

He was unaware of Sixth Street's plan to open a bank, or else he would not have sold this property so cheaply.

A buyer this straightforward was uncommon.

After a moment's hesitation, Gu Hongkai threw out a reasonable price to test the waters.

"Based on Sixth Street's development trajectory, my shop is at the center of the market. Combined with the warehouse in the back and a total area of three hundred square meters, I want a total of six thousand nine hundred crystals."

The rent was thirty-four crystals a month, and with a rent-to-house price ratio hovering around two hundred, it was a reasonable number. After some thought, Jiang Chen nodded. Selling a property in this high-potential area meant that Gu Hongkai needed some quick money.

His eyes flashing, Jiang Chen opened his mouth. "No problem, I'll pay the six thousand nine hundred crystals in one lump sum. But I have one requirement—put his debt under my name."

Gu Hongkai calculated in his mind. Sixty-eight was not a small amount, but since he needed the money, he couldn't be bothered with it anymore.

Gu Hongkai glanced at Jiang Lin before smiling and turning to Jiang Chen. "Okay, as per Mr. Jiang request, the debt will be transferred to your name."

Jiang Chen nodded, then took the agreement passed over. He carefully scanned a few times before signing his name.

He only needed to go to the exchange to pay the sum in order to obtain the property. Six thousand nine hundred was not a small number, and most ordinary people would be unable to carry around such an amount. With the development of the economy, a bank was almost certainly necessary.

Of course, with his storage dimension, Jiang Chen was an exception.

Seeing Gu Hongkai, his debt owner, leave, Jiang Lin sighed and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Thanks, buddy. If not for you, I don't know how I would've taken care of this."

Jiang Chen grabbed the debt ownership in hand and looked at Jiang Lin with a half-smile.

"Thank me? Too early for that."

Jiang Lin perplexedly looked at Jiang Chen.

"The change in debt ownership doesn't mean the debt's been eliminated. Now you owe me sixty-eight crystals."

Jiang Lin's face that had just regained signs of life lost color once more.

"I… I don’t have money," he gritted out.

Jiang Chen didn't seem surprised at his response. He shrugged and continued, "You have two choices. One, sell all assets in the store for cash. Considering the popularity of the firearm industry, there's a high demand for raw metal materials. These objects could be sold at junk price, no problem."

Hearing that his goodies would be sold as junk, Jiang Lin immediately roared, "No way! Don't even think about it! My equipment is worth at least ten thousand! This is the door to the new world! Do you know the value of these things? Since you're a merchant, there's no way that you don't!"

Jiang Chen patiently waited for him to finish his spiel before smirking at Jiang Lin, who felt a chill run down his spine. Jiang Chen drawled, "Ten thousand? Without recognition from the market, it's only wishful thinking. I can say my hair is worth billions, but who would buy it? Without a buyer, there's no value. In my opinion, y our junk is not even worth thirty crystals.

"Fly to space? How many crystals have to be invested for that? How many years? With this small scale, it would take you one hundred years before you can fly out of the solar system.

"Capelar B? Are you sure the ex-authorities are doing well out there? Are you certain you'll be welcomed?

"I'm sorry, but I'm a businessman."

Word-for-word, Jiang Chen repeated his sentence, and they pierced Jiang Lin's heart like fine needles.

His lips were bitten until they lost all color.

With his research deemed as worthless, his heart was filled with rage, but he forced himself to suppress it.

Jiang Chen's words woke him from his dream.

No one would pay for his dream. Even if this equipment cost him hundreds of crystals, ordered from mercenaries who obtained them from the national planetarium, no one would recognize the value of his work because it was unnecessary.

He began to regret. If he wasn't so stubborn about leaving his father's business to die, if he didn't spend all of his efforts on space exploration, he would not be in this situation where he couldn't even afford rent.

Jiang Lin breathed in deeply. He said quietly, "Can I hear the second option?"

Finally hearing signs of maturity in that voice, Jiang Chen smiled.

An immature dream was indeed not worth the investment, but a mature scientist was.

"Second option, work for me."

Chapter 133: Your Eyes Should Grow on Your Own Head

"Work for you?" Jiang Lin hesitated as he gave Jiang Chen a perplexed look. "Work in your factory?"

"No." Jiang Chen held up a finger and shook it, staring straight into Jiang Lin's eyes. "Come to my survival camp. I'll invest in your space project, but you'll have to follow my requirements."

Jiang Lin looked suspiciously at Jiang Chen.

"A survival camp? I haven't left Sixth Street that often, but it's not like I don't have a clue about the outside world. Who says your camp isn't a gathering of bandits? What if I become a slave going in?"

Jiang Chen smiled and walked up to Jiang Lin to pat his shoulder.

"Slave? Do you know how much it costs to buy a slave from the ghetto?"

Jiang Lin gulped. "Before the slave trade was halted, including the microchip which costs nineteen crystals, the price for a slave was as high as fifty crystals."

"Then do you think I need to spend sixty-eight crystals to buy someone who has never done hard labor?" Jiang Chen smiled. "I don't plan on negotiating with you. You only have two options.

"Sell your dream as scraps, and go work at the factory to pay off the remaining crystals. Or sell your dream to me, and I'll provide you with resources and directions. All you need to do is install a chip on your neck."

Listening to Jiang Chen speak, Jiang Lin's inner turmoil could be seen in his eyes, but in the end, he sighed in compromise. Before Jiang Chen's pleased gaze, he opened his mouth to say, "I choose two."

...

Since Jiang Lin had already nodded in agreement, the rest was fairly simple. Jiang Chen arranged for him to pack everything and then sent him to the clinic for injection. On the tenth, when they were to conduct the trade with the Zhao Corporation, Zhao Chenwu would send the people and the goods together.

As for the store's new purpose? Jiang Chen had yet to think of a solution, but he went ahead and hired construction workers to seal the open roof. Since winter was coming, a tent that only shielded from rain did not seem reliable at all.

Overall, the criteria of having a 200-square-meter fixed asset were met for him to join Sixth Street Bank.

The next morning, Jiang Chen took Jiang Lin to the hospital.

After paying a hospital fee of nineteen crystals, Jiang Chen watched as the doctor reached the end of the hallway while he met up with the five people who were just exiting the rehabilitation room.

Due to the chip's installation into the neural network, interference from the electric parts was inevitable. Therefore, after the injection, they were required to spend a few hours in rehabilitation—which they had just clearly finished—before being released from the hospital.

Chu Nan saw Jiang Chen from afar and greeted him. Zhou Guoping had the same simpering smile, and Zhao Gang held his wife in silence. Zhou Xiaoxia's vision seemed to lag, as though she'd been injected with a tranquilizer?

"How are you feeling?"

"Not bad." Chu Nan shrugged. "Try your EP."

A doctor in a white coat walked over and gave a nail-sized memory card to Jiang Chen before beating a hasty retreat to the surgery room.

Holding the memory card in hand, Jiang Chen inserted it into the EP on his wrist. He noticed that while it was loading, Chu Nan's eyes stayed on the loading bar.

"Missing your freedom?" Jiang Chen joked.

Chu Nan smiled, then glanced away.

"What's freedom? From the moment I was born, I fought for one power, and now I changed to another one."

The bar finished loading.

Seeing the words <Slavery chip online> hovering on the screen, Jiang Chen grabbed the memory card and crushed it.

"Freedom is a good thing. Within certain boundaries, I'll grant you enough of it." Jiang Chen smiled at Chu Nan as he pressed buttons on the EP.

Jiang Chen's face surfaced on the screen in a clear image; he was connected to Chu Nan's vision.

Chu Nan rubbed his temple. "Is this a neural injection? Sixth Street's slavery chip is quite intriguing."

"Liuding Town doesn't have this?" Jiang Chen asked casually as he selected the option to end the connection.

"No, we have more opportunity to fight long-distance with few chances to battle on foot. We call it the 'dictator chip'. It emphases communication and remote sensors, but it doesn't seem to be as stable as this one. It's controlled by the central processor on the ship and will grant control to someone's EP only under special permission." Chu Nan moved his limbs and gradually accustomed himself to the feeling.

"What about you guys?" Jiang Chen asked as he surveyed the remaining four people.

Zhou Guoping, with his shiny, bald head, continued his attempts to flatter. "Hehe, very good! I pledge allegiance to the boss."

Zhao Gang's wife was a bit frightened and hid behind Zhao Gang's back. As he comforted her, he said solemnly, "Not bad."

Zhou Xiaoxia, as usual, had the same blank expression.

Some conversations were not meant for a public hearing. After confirming the chips' functionality, Jiang Chen took all five of them to the Fake Legs Specialty Store.

Once they all arrived, Jiang Chen closed the door behind him.

Seeing that the boss had something to say, Zhou Guoping's eyes rolled cleverly before he moved a chair for Jiang Chen to sit on from behind the counter. Chu Nan glanced at him and turned away disdainfully. Their conflict started over a month ago, but now that they worked under the same boss, there was no longer any opportunity to seek revenge.

Zhao Gang held his wife's hand and stood off to the side in silence.

"I've arranged a few things, so listen up and follow." Jiang Chen sat on the chair without caring for appearance.

"Zhao Gang, take your wife back to the base and join the civil army while waiting for further orders."

"I understand."

"Chu Nan, since you're familiar with the helicopter, go purchase whatever's necessary for repairs. Then take her back." Jiang Chen pointed at Zhou Xiaoxia, who had yet to regain consciousness.

"No problem, but I don't have a single crystal on me." Chu Nan opened his palms helplessly.

Under Chu Nan's shocked gaze, Jiang Chen grabbed two hundred crystals from his pocket and threw it at him before clapping his hands.

"Okay, get moving."

The four immediately left, leaving Zhou Guoping at a loss.

Seeing Jiang Chen stay silent, Zhou Guoping stayed true to his servile character and proactively asked with a simpering smile, "Boss? What about me?"

"I heard that during your time working for the Huizhong Mercenaries, you were stationed in Sixth Street. You must be pretty familiar with the area?" Jiang Chen leaned back, fingers crossed, and smiled decisively at Zhou Guoping.

"Hehe, of course. Boss, what would you like to know?" Zhou Guoping patted his chest confidently.

"Do you know any slave merchants?"

Zhou Guoping immediately nodded and said attentively, "Yes, yes! There is a slave merchant from Su City in Sixth Street. There are also clones from the 071 survival base, but because of production problems, they must be ordered beforehand. The good thing is that they are all original—"

"What are you thinking about? Whether it's original or not," Jiang Chen jokingly cursed, "I'm not planning on doing that."

"Hehe, boss, if you want, you can have some fun in New Ray Hotel. Once you train the newly produced clones a little, they're exactly like sex dolls...." Zhou Guoping smiled lewdly.

"Okay, I'm talking to you about a serious matter," Jiang Chen interrupted with a frown.

"Yes, yes!"

"Contact the slave merchant. The base still needs two hundred people. How much should the price be?"

Zhou Guoping thought for a moment. "If they're ordinary slaves, ten crystals each would be enough. If you're looking at fallout shelter 071's product, then probably twenty crystals. Considering the market at Sixth Street, the population price could double."

"That's fine. Go ahead and contact them. Transportation is difficult during the winter, so put the order in first and ship them here next year. Try to lower the price as much as you can. It's time to test your ability."

Zhou Guoping laughed and smacked his chest with confidence. "Don't worry, Boss! You can count on me."

Once the population business was taken care of, it was now time to discuss the store's purpose.

"What do you think we should open this store for?" Jiang Chen asked as he scanned the decoration in the store.

Zhou Guoping's eyes rolled a bit, and he scratched his head. "That's up to what the boss wants. If it's to make money, then a food store would definitely be the best choice."

Jiang Chen thought for a bit before shaking his head. "Not a food store. Zhao Chenwu has already taken care of Sixth Street's food business."

Fishbone Base needed an alliance, and therefore it was necessary to give up part of the profit. From now on, Zhao Chenwu was a genuine partner; maintaining the relationship would bring more profit than opening a food store.

It was especially pointless to use this store to make money. Fishbone Base had nothing attractive to Sixth Street beside food.

Other than crystals, Jiang Chen needed more intelligence.

From the information on the bank, he realized the importance of gathering intelligence. If Zhao Chenwu didn't leak the information to him, the opportunity to make more than one hundred thousand crystals would have slipped through his fingers. Since he did not have any agents here, he had to rely on Zhao Chenwu for all events at this location. It was unwise to entrust his eyes to someone else.

As Fishbone grew, he needed to consider more factors.

"I need you to gather intelligence for me here. Record any information you think valuable. You worked for the Huizhong Mercenaries before, so you should be familiar with this type of work."

Zhou Guoping smiled self-assuredly, responding immediately with, "Of course, Boss. I'm great at this sort of thing. When I used to work for the Huizhong Mercenaries, I spent all day in bars and official purchasing centers, recording all of the fat prey and sending the information back. We could open our own bar. There's nothing better in this world than alcohol to make a person spill the truth."

"Bar?" Jiang Chen paused and looked at him with an odd expression. "There are bars in the Sixth Street?"

There were no crops to produce the alcohol, so how could there be a bar?

"Hehe, it is processed methanol. Just a small quantity is fine."

[Industral alcohol is drinkable?!]

[What the fu*k, the alcoholics in the apocalypse go pretty far.]

But speaking of this, he forgot that selling alcohol was an excellent way to make money—perhaps even more popular than food.

"I'll leave the bar to you. Get someone to renovate this place, and send me a message when it's done. Don't worry about the alcohol, I'll take care of it."

If the alcoholics smelled the scent of beer, wine, and Baijiu, would they barrel down the door of the bar? The more he thought about it, the brighter his smile became.

Although alcohol was scarce in the apocalypse because of the lack of crops, that was nothing in the modern world! Any store had an abundance of it.

Seeing his boss's delighted mood, Zhou Guoping was also secretly happy. His future depended on Jiang Chen; if Jiang Chen was satisfied, then he would be better off.

"Yes, boss!" Zhou Guoping responded and bowed with a flourish.

Chapter 134: The Bullet Shell Bar

Off to the side of a store was a door, and on it hung a rotten slat of wood. A few crooked words were carved into it with a dagger—The Bullet Shell Bar.

This was the place Zhou Guoping had talked about. According to him, it was an entertainment hub of Sixth Street.

After arranging for Zhou Guoping to handle the renovations, Jiang Chen personally came here to do some market research since he didn't know the tastes of the people. The best way to find out was to personally have a drink or two.

While the renovations weren't the best, there was a surprising number of customers.

Strange individuals covered in large trench coats sat alone at a table near the door, drinking alcohol that stung the nose. A young man with a red headscarf had a cigarette in his mouth and one foot on a chair as he dealt cards. There were lone travelers, bandits, and those of the profession that recently came into popularity—hunters. Women in exposed clothing leaned against the bar under the flickering lights and waited for tonight's prey to take the bait. And among the shadows, a black market merchant hid, selling "harmless" products....

The air in the bar was shrouded, and the noise cluttered the already limited room. This was Jiang Chen's first impression upon stepping into this space.

It was not an illusion that when he took a step onto the dry wooden floor, at least ten pairs of eyes flicked over at him.

Some were friendly, most were not.

After a second's pause, Jiang Chen continued to walk and directly approached the bar counter.

"Are you not going to buy me a drink? Handsome." A woman in heavy makeup leaned against the counter and displayed a charming smile.

Jiang Chen ignored her with a smile and looked beyond the counter at the bartender who was silently wiping a cup.

White shirt, black pants—a relatively clean appearance. But the slight beer belly turned what should have been suave movements into rather comical motions.

"What do you have here?" Jiang Chen sat on the chair and asked casually.

Hearing Jiang Chen's words, the bartender stopped and glanced at Jiang Chen.

"Your first time here?"

"Mhmm."

"Lots of things. Alcohol, Nut Coke, eOrange, Kaka Tea." The chubby bartender resumed wiping the glass cup that had been cleaned countless times.

"Also, hamster milk tea and cockroaches smoothie." A young man whistled and laughed.

"I won't sell those things to newcomers." The bartender kept his head down.

"Looks like I don't have the opportunity to experience those." Jiang Chen shrugged as he joked, then said, "Give me one of each."

The bartender's hands stopped. He turned around to open the fridge and placed odd glass bottles on the counter.

"2, 1, 2, 3. A total of 8 crystals."

Jiang Chen reached into his pockets and took out eight crystals from the storage dimension. He casually slapped it onto the table. His ostentatious moves led to a wave of whistle-blowing and looks of avarice.

The bartender quietly took the crystals and didn't say a word as he continued to work.

He looked over the four bottles of "drink." Jiang Chen's eyebrows twitched. These things looked as suspicious as they could get.

The alcohol seemed relatively normal—should be like Baijiu? The Nut Coke was the oddest; its fluorescence did not seem potable at all. The eOrange was similar to orange juice, and the Kaka Tea was green like seaweed, its cloudy liquid interspersed with questionable fragments.

"These things are drinkable?" Jiang Chen couldn't resist asking.

Howls of laughter erupted from behind him. A giant of a man walked up with a smirk on his face before planting his foot on the chair beside him to roughly ask, "Yo noob. These drinks are too much for you. Why don't you play with us? If you're lucky, one crystal could become ten."

His tone and expression assumed Jiang Chen was already in the bag, and the play he referred to was obviously gambling.

Jiang Chen glanced at him and instead of showing anger, smiled.

"Then why don't we play a game as well?"

As he said this, Jiang Chen didn't allow the man a chance to say yes or no. He slowly withdrew a crystal worth fifty energy crystals from his pocket and waved it in front of the giant who was showing off.

"Two crystals per turn. Guess which hand the crystal's in. If you're right, then it's yours."

The giant was at a loss at Jiang Chen's abrupt actions, but his expression soon became ecstatic. He thought, [This dumba*s. If I guess ten times, regardless of how you trick me, I'm guaranteed to be correct at least once.]

But he wasn't a dunce. If Jiang Chen left after two turns, his crystals would have gone to waste.

"Twenty crystals and I guess ten times." The giant smiled viciously and slammed the crystals onto the table.

The people standing around all gave sympathetic looks at Jiang Chen.

"Unfortunate that he was targeted by Liu Mang."

"Hehe, this noob is really unlucky."

The ones who were gloating were mainly the giant's comrades.

[Liu Mang? That's a good name.] (Liu Mang is homonym for the word thug.)

His lips moved as he muttered in his mind. Jiang Chen didn't seem bothered as he took the twenty crystals on the table.

"No problem. It'd be fine even if you wanted to guess one hundred times." Jiang Chen yawned as he threw the energy crystal into the air with nimble hands.

Liu Mang's vision blurred, and the crystal seemed to disappear from his sight. Upon seeing Jiang Chen's movements, the gloating expressions of the people suddenly twisted while those who were compassionate rejoiced.

It was going to be a good show.

Cold sweat rolled down Liu Mang's forehead. He wasn't able to see where the crystals went. He estimated that the reflex of this person was at least 25. And though he was also injected with the genetic vaccine, it had been the standard E-grade.

"Take a guess." Jiang Chen placed his hands before Liu Mang with a bored expression.

Since he hadn't been able to see it clearly, Liu Mang took a wild guess.

"Right hand."

Jiang Chen laughed.

"Congratulations.... you're wrong."

There was nothing in his right hand.

"You're a fraud!" Liu Mang was immediately unhappy. His eyes bulged, and his companions inched closer with unfriendly expressions. So what if he had the genetic vaccine—who hadn't? Even if it was a lower-quality version, they had an advantage in numbers.

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and opened his left hand; on his palm was a bright purple crystal.

"There are nine more chances. Are you still going to guess?" He did not seem afraid at all.

Liu Mang was surprised. He originally thought that since Jiang Chen hadn't immediately revealed his left hand, the crystal must have been hidden away, but it was actually in the left hand.

Under everyone's watch, although he had always acted recklessly, he didn't dare to start a fight. After further thought, there were still nine more chances.

Liu Mang signaled his pawns away and let up on his act. He glared at Jiang Chen.

"Yes, start."

A hint of mockery appeared in Jiang Chen's smile as the crystal was thrown into the air again.

He must be joking. Was he the type to use fraud?

The answer was definitely.

No matter which hand Liu Mang chose, the crystal would always appear in the other hand.

The storage dimension was a fraud's holy grail. Jiang Chen imagined that if he went to Macau, all of the legendary gamblers would have to move aside for him.

"Last time. You better be careful." Jiang Chen lazily waved his hands in front of Liu Mang.

Liu Mang's eyes were pure red as they locked on to the two fists. He tried to spot differences in size, but it was futile.

This was the gambler's mindset; they would not stop until they lost every single crystal.

He had already lost the previous twenty crystals, and he immediately put up the last ten that he had.

He only needed to win once to make all of the money back... so close!

But when Jiang Chen opened his hands, he was wrong again.

"That's impossible! A fifty percent probability, how could I not even guess it right once? You're a fraud!" Liu Mang immediately flared up as he cursed and kicked the chair away with his feet with a fighting posture.

Seeing Liu Mang's actions, everyone around exposed looks of disdain.

Anyone could see that Jiang Chen was cheating, but if there was no evidence, why was he trying to act like the big man?

But the reckless Liu Mang didn't care. Instead, he ordered his thugs to surround Jiang Chen.

"Buddy, you dare to cheat me? You think you're tough. Let me tell you, if you don't return the crystals you cheated me out of with both hands and knees on the ground, I'll make sure you don't leave standing up."

Jiang Chen flicked his eyes over at the furious Liu Mang and opened his mouth calmly.

"You lose nine times out of ten in gambling, has no one taught you this before? Also... speaking of this, does the civil force care enough to come here?"

The young man that whistled at Jiang Chen earlier still sat in his original seat. He sipped at his alcohol and laughed without regard to the atmosphere.

"Of course, but the cop is always late."

"That's perfect then." Jiang Chen laughed.

Being ignored, anger shot straight to Liu Mang's head, and he reached for Jiang Chen's collar.

"Fu*k you, I'm speaking to you—"

Boom—!

Without warning, Jiang Chen kicked out. Liu Mang felt like his chest was slammed by a hammer as he flew backward like a kite with its string broken. He slid across a table and directly cannon-balled out the door. The bartender looked at Jiang Chen with shock before placing the glass cup aside and subtly pressing the emergency call button beside the counter. The crowd, seeing the conflict, began to whistle and cheer.

"Fu*k hit that bit*h." Seeing their leader kicked away, the thugs all grabbed weapons to swarm Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen calmly avoided a side swipe as fury immediately activated. He pinched the dagger in front of him and used the suddenly explosive power to drag it aside and stab it into a thug's shoulder.

"Ahh!" The thug screamed in pain and fell backward.

Jiang Chen didn't stop there. He dragged a thug to him with his right hand clenched over his chest and blocked a few bats from falling on him.

"Haha, amazing."

"Give him the upper chin."

"Use the chair, dumba*s!" The crowd did not shy away from trouble. Sometimes they cheered for Jiang Chen, and sometimes they swore at the thugs for being useless—a group of people couldn't even beat one man.

With all of the banging, the thugs didn't manage to land any hits on Jiang Chen. Instead, the bats hit all of their own people.

Fury deactivated.

Cheering, the crowd celebrated the winner. The woman who tried to strike up a conversation with him earlier gently licked her seductive, red lips with bright eyes, but Jiang Chen continued to ignore her.

He clapped his hands and glanced at the thugs on the floor.

The young man drinking alone beside the counter smiled. "I was waiting for you to lose so that I could get a few drinks out of you."

"Looks like you won't have the chance." Jiang Chen shrugged as he laughed.

"Fu*k, you dare to hit me. I'll beat you to—" Liu Mang limped into the room limping as he cursed. But when he saw the thugs on the ground and the mocking looks on the crowd's faces, his mouth froze.

Meeting Jiang Chen's mischievous grin, he looked at the thugs on the ground again as if he couldn't accept this reality.

"You, do you know who I am?" Once he saw that he couldn't win the fight, Liu Mang began to threaten him with a malevolent stare at Jiang Chen.

"Oh? You are?" Jiang Chen casually picked up the eOrange and took a sip, but the saccharine taste nearly made him throw it back up.

[What, people drink this?]

The crowd was also shocked as they thought, [What, people drink this directly?]

Jiang Chen put the drink back with the same mischievous expression.

"I-I'm close to the Huizhong Mercenaries. Hehe, since you're wandering around in the area, you must know about them." A sneer surfaced on Liu Mang's face as he stared directly into Jiang Chen's eyes. He wanted to see a hint of fear in those pupils.

But he would inevitably be disappointed by Jiang Chen's reaction.

When he heard the name Huizhong Mercenaries, he resisted the urge to laugh.

"Are you close with them?" Jiang Chen looked at him impishly.

"That's right, and if you don't want to lie in a casket the second you step out of Sixth Street, then you better apologize, and—"

"And give you some compensation?" Jiang Chen laughed as he said uncaringly.

Liu Mang paused, finally realizing that this person's reaction was off.

"That's right. If you know any better, then take out the crystals."

Jiang Chen glanced at him and slowly said, "Since you know them so well, do you have any idea where they are now?"

"They're in the Songjiang area. I'm close to their leader," Liu Mang said cockily.

"No, they're in Qingpu." Jiang Chen shook his finger. "Their bodies are sprayed with formalin and hung up on light posts."

Liu Mang was speechless as he looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief. "What, what nonsense are you spouting. Are you in your right fu*king mind? You better—"

"He's not lying." The young man sitting beside the counter laughed as he pointed his cup in Jiang Chen's direction. "Because he took care of all those dumba*ses."

_Min_ _Min_

Thanks everyone for supporting us in this journey and once again shout out to our Patreons.

If you guys liked the bonus release week, leave a comment and let me know, we'll perhaps make it part of our tradition!

Chapter 135: I'm from Jia City

The crowd was shocked by these words.

Shock was written all over Liu Mang's face. He did wonder why he hadn't met the Huizhong Mercenaries in so long. Could it be that what he said was....

His shock gradually turned into fear.

"I did hear that the Huizhong Mecenaries offended the wrong force and was wiped out."

"It seemed to be a force from Qingpu."

"Oh I remember! An alcoholic from Qingpu did say this."

Lone travelers on the wasteland naturally had heard some news. For example, Songjiang was suddenly stabilized, and the Huizhong Mercenaries' raid team had abruptly evaporated into thin air. No one would have guessed that this recognized force had been wiped out by the man standing in front of them.

The woman that continued to piercingly gaze at Jiang Chen was even more shocked. If she was tempted in the beginning, now she didn't care about the price anymore....

The greedy gazes from the shadows were now wary. They began to question how they would have fared against the Huizhong Mercenaries.

"You, th-that's impossible." Liu Mang stared at Jiang Chen as if looking at a ghost. He shivered, unable to properly articulate his words.

Jiang Chen didn't bother with Liu Mang anymore. Instead, he smiled at the young man who was sipping at his drink.

"I've heard that this industrial alcohol is not too good for you."

"It's fine. You can have two bottles as well. People with genetic vaccines have a strong digestive system." The man put down his cup and laughed casually.

"You know who I am?"

"Of course. I came from Jia City for the sole purpose of finding you." The young man shrugged and extended his right hand. "Lin Chaoen, from Jia City's Defenders. Pleased to meet you."

[Defenders? Why don't you call yourself the Avengers?]

"Jiang Chen." With an odd expression, Jiang Chen similarly extended his hand for a handshake, but the caution in his eyes remained.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm a nice person," Lin Chaoen said innocently in response to the look of distrust in his eyes.

Jiang Chen didn't refute him and looked away. He returned to the seat beside the counter and turned to the frightened Liu Mang.

"You're lucky. At least you can choose which brand of formalin you want to use."

When he heard those words, Liu Mang immediately got on his knees.

"Please spare me. I didn't know any better. I—"

"Enough, I've heard too much of the same thing. If you want to live...." Jiang Chen said irritably. He slapped the counter. "These four strange concoctions—you can get the hell out once you finish them."

Liu Mang's face turned green instantly.

"psh, an entire bottle of industrial alcohol. Half of his life would be gone by the time he finishes. What a waste. Why don't you—"

Before Lin Chaoen could finish, a bottle flew in his direction.

He caught the object thrown at him by Jiang Chen and laughed as he poured himself another cup.

"The remaining three bottles, go ahead." Jiang Chen slowly said as he stared at Liu Mang.

The three drinks did not look normal at all. He didn't have the intention to drink it himself. But for market research, as well as curiosity, it was not a bad idea to find his own white rat.

Liu Mang thought about Jiang Chen wiping out the Huizhong Mercenaries and lost all courage to fight back. He bit the bullet as he valiantly walked up, picked up the bottle of Nut Coke, and began to guzzle it.

The crowd blew whistles as the lot of them stared at his pants mockingly.

By the time he finished the entire bottle, Jiang Chen was shocked to discover that this guy's pants had lit up.

That's right, lit up.

"Nut Coke adds a trace amount of a radioactive strontium isotope that makes the pee fluorescent. Damn, a whole bottle in one sitting. This guy's di*k could be a light bulb for an entire day," Lin Chaoen mocked as he took a sip.

"Radioactive element? Is it not harmful to the human body?" Jiang Chen asked as he gave a weird look at the Nut Coke.

"This thing is harmless. They sold it before the war."

Liu Mang picked up the dark green Kaka Tea. His forehead twisted, but he still raised his head with a look of agony and started to chug.

"Kaka Tea has an excessive amount of tea polyphenols as well as other radiation-resistant substances. It doesn't look the best and tastes bitter to the point of stinking, but the radiation resistance effect is quite superb." Just as Lin Chaoen finished speaking, Liu Mang's pants lost all illumination.

After finishing the two bottles, Liu Mang held the last eOrange and looked at Jiang Chen with a troubled expression.

"Why are you looking at me? Drink!" Jiang Chen stared at him.

"Yes, yes!"

Liu Mang grit his teeth as he began drinking from the bottle. As soon as it reached his stomach, however, he fell unconscious to the ground.

"eOrange, concentrated sweetener. The normal way to drink it is to use the cap to pour it into a big bottle of clear water. If he drank this entire bottle, it'd be better to send him to the hospital right away," Lin Chaoen explained with a smile.

Jiang Chen glanced at him but didn't say much.

A few enforcers in black combat suits walked in, catching sight of the thugs on the ground as they eyed the bartender questioningly.

"They were the one escalating the conflict. They were taught a lesson." The bartender neutrally explained the situation. From his calm expression, it didn't seem to be his first time dealing with this sort of situation.

The enforcer smiled at Jiang Chen. "We apologized for your infringed rights. The people who started the conflict will receive a fifteen-day imprisonment sentence."

Afterwards, the enforcers walked up with handcuffs and escorted the people from the ground and away.

The enforcers from Sixth Street would always have a courteous attitude, but in times of conflict, they would not hesitate to pull out their gun to shoot.

Seeing the cops take the people away, the crowd began to disperse because there was nothing more to see. The bar returned to its previous busy atmosphere. The gamblers rolled die, and alcoholics nursed their cups.

The woman in heavy makeup was prepared to strike up a conversation with Jiang Chen before she suddenly realized that he was not there anymore.

...

In the alley beside the bar.

There were deserted junks covered by layers of dust that had accumulated over time. The area was dimly lit, and mutated moss covered the walls.

It had been a while since anybody had passed by this area, but two figures now stood there.

"Speak your mind. Why did you travel so far to find me?" Jiang Chen looked at Lin Chaoen with an odd expression.

He didn't recall going to Jia City before. Could reputation spread through the air?

Regardless, Lin Chaoen's ability was not to be underestimated. To be able to wander the wasteland freely without a large group to protect him, only those with insane powers could do that. Jiang Chen was also curious to know why he sought him.

Seeing Jiang Chen ask straightforwardly, the grin on Lin Chaoen's face began to fade into a more serious expression.

"A few days ago, a mutated human began moving towards Wanghai City and destroyed a survivors' gathering spot."

"It was a bandit nest," Jiang Chen shrugged and added.

"Whatever it was, I followed the mutated human's tracks to Songjiang in Wanghai City, but then I only found proof of it being attacked. I came to Sixth Street shortly after and heard rumors about you in the bar. Based on the information, the real outcome must be that the mutated human destroyed the Huizhong Mercenaries, and they happened to bump into you, after which you wiped them out."

"You could interpret it that way. And?"

"I've been trying to find you, but all I heard was that you were in the Qingpu area but not the exact location. Now we've met by coincidence today, boss of Fishbone Base, Jiang Chen." Lin Chaoen stared into Jiang Chen's eyes as he spoke in a low undertone.

"So why did you want to find me?" Jiang Chen reiterated the question.

He didn't want to be involved with a mutated human again. Fighting them was a lost cause.

Lin Chaoen seemed to have expected Jiang Chen's reaction. After a pause, he continued, "Based on our information, the mutated human's force has been gathering in the western area of Wanghai City."

[Western area? That's Qingpu and Songjia? They're moving in this direction?]

Jiang Chen's face suddenly changed color. His Fishbone Base was in the Qingpu area. But then he remembered something and looked suspiciously at Lin Chaoen.

"Wait, if you're in Jia City, the mutated humans moving towards Wanghai City would be a good thing for you. Why did you come find me?"

"You don't know the conflicts between us and the mutated human, so obviously you would suspect my intentions. The Defenders' job is to defend against the mutated humans."

Lin Chaoen paused and said, "In the past few years, they've been using Area Seven as their base to capture, raid, and enslave people from Jia City. Any resistance was met with death. People of the right age were submerged into vials to receive new life—and become di*kless like them. Their existence is anti-human to begin with, and so you and I fight against a common enemy."

Jiang Chen quietly gazed at Lin Chaoen, and after a while, said, "Why are the mutated humans coming to Wanghai City? Since you've found me, you must have some clues about their intentions."

"Precisely." Lin Chaoen nodded, then took out the computer and expanded the full-sensory map.

His finger placed on a spot in the city center, he continued, "Carmen Pharmaceutical... they were researching genetic medications and production businesses. It was rumored that they had a partnership with the military."

"So?" Jiang Chen didn't seem to care.

"Under the partnership, their project was based on the scenario that should the world erupt into a full-scale nuclear war, what would allow PAC citizens to gain radiation resistance in a short time, making them become the sole adapters in the new world. The result of this project was precisely the FEV virus."

Jiang Chen was stunned, and he looked at Lin Chaoen in disbelief. He recalled that mutated humans were the product of merging with the FEV virus.

"FEV virus? Used on us?" Jiang Chen still couldn't fathom the truth.

He always thought that the FEV virus was a biological weapon created in a laboratory to be used against citizens on the enemy's side. He didn't dare to imagine that the virus had been designed with its own citizens in mind.

"Nothing would spread faster than a virus; it was the most efficient means of transmission. But the FEV virus was incomplete. The half-finished product was effective only in special nutrients, and it would create misshapen humans who were unable to reproduce. Let's not discuss whether the authorities were humane or not. What's critical now is that these deformed, di*kless things seem to have obtained some information that led them to believe that within the Carmen Pharmaceutical building, there is an improved version of the FEV virus that could lead them to a state of higher evolution. It would also allow them to gain the reproductive ability that they had always dreamed of."

Jiang Chen's face completed changed when he heard those words.

"Why don't you go to the pharmaceutical company before them? And destroy the improved version of the FEV virus?"

Lin Chaoen immediately rejected the proposal while shaking his head. "Impossible. First, the company is located within a high-radiation area. Unless you have power armor or radiation-resistant suits, the iodine in the EP would not be enough to approach the area. Also, even if we did arrive at Carmen Pharmaceutical, we wouldn't be able to enter the building without the passcode. The security robot would eliminate any unidentified target attempting to break in."

"Then blow the entire building up!" Jiang Chen said viciously.

Lin Chaoen gave Jiang Chen an odd look. "A building that could survive the nuclear missile, what kind of explosives do you think could blow it up?"

Jiang Chen was completely listless.

"Fu*k, why don't you go to the Sixth Street officials to talk about this?"

Lin Chaoen smiled bitterly. "The council wouldn't believe me, and I don't have the confidence to persuade the minimum requirement of five council members. To be fair, it's a problem for our Jia City. Even if the mutated human obtained the improved virus, they would return to Jia City to take a bath and devastate the survivors there. Do you think Sixth Street would leave their golden age of development and fight a war of lost causes?"

"Then why bother finding me?"

"Because the mutated humans will pass by your front door. They have no reason not to bite into the juicy meat beside their mouths," Lin Chaoen shrugged and said honestly.

"You're saying my Fishbone Base is a piece of juicy meat?" Jiang Chen disagreed.

"In terms of defense, power armors aren't able to utilize their advantage in mobility, especially since you don't have many to begin with, according to the marks left behind on the battlefield. On the other side, there are more than forty mutated humans."

With narrowed eyes, Jiang Chen locked gazes with Lin Chaoen.

Lin Chaoen fearlessly met Jiang Chen's stare, retracted the computer pen, and extended his right hand again.

"We can partner up, against the common enemy."

Chapter 136: For our interest

"Best of luck to us."

Jiang Chen shook Lin Chaoen's hand.

Just as Lin Chaoen said, if the mutated humans passed through Qingpu, there was a large probability that a battle would erupt. Hoping that the mutated humans wouldn't discover Fishbone Base was as unreliable as leaving a sheep farm open while praying the wolf pack wouldn't attack.

From the mutated humans' perspective, every "ancient human" was a stubborn coward, while normal people viewed these "neo-humans" as ugly and di*kless. From the start, the two sides had no chance of negotiating.

The two exchanged communication channels for both camps, and Lin Chaoen, in a show of sincerity, agreed that if the mutated humans from Area Seven showed signs of movement, the Defenders would notify Fishbone Base immediately. At the same time, they signed a defense pact against the mutated humans. Once the mutated humans started their march towards Wanghai City, both parties would send their forces to intervene.

For a common interest.

Lin Chaoen left right away as soon as they finished business to return to Jia City and report their status. Jiang Chen rested for a bit before a bitter smile appeared on his face.

"Mutated humans. Fu*k, why is there trouble after trouble."

He had to speed up his armed force development.

But winter was approaching. Maybe under the harsh conditions, the mutated humans would choose to march to Wanghai City in the coming spring?

[Hopefully, the snow is thick enough.]

He shook his head and walked towards the Fake Legs Specialty Store. On the way, he happened to meet Zhou Guoping who was chatting with the construction worker.

Seeing his boss, Zhou Guoping immediately sent the construction worker away and walked up to fawn on Jiang Chen. "Boss, need me for anything?"

As soon as he and Zhou Guoping entered the room, he closed the door and got straight to the point. "If I want to purchase heavy weapons, how do I go about doing this?"

Zhou Guoping paused and began to give it serious thought.

"If it's in Wanghai City, Sixth Street could produce it, but the Group of Ten Council has restrictions in place to prevent heavy weapons from entering the external market. Other than Sixth Street, the Beer Can Company in the north specializes in heavy weaponry production without any restrictions. Due to the long distance and limited production capability, however, they don't have a representative here accepting orders."

"What about outside of Wanghai City?"

"There is a heavy weaponry factory in Su City, but due to high prices, not many can afford them. It's been a while since I saw them," Zhou Guoping said hesitantly.

"Expensive? How expensive?"

"Very." Zhou Guoping forced a smile. "They only sell giant weapons. Based on my understanding, the 85mm tank cannon is priced at seven thousand crystals. Also, as long as you can afford it, they even sell tanks."

Tanks? Jiang Chen's eyes instantly lit up.

"Pay attention. When they're here, immediately notify me. I'll head back to Fishbone Base after this, so you'll take care of the tasks here." Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him, "Do a good job. I have faith in you."

Ignoring how the ecstatic Zhou Guoping tried to suck up to him, he left a few hundred crystals as an initial fund to start the store before he left. It was already the start of October, and the plan for the apocalypse was about to start. He had to go back and make some preparations.

...

After leaving Sixth Street, Jiang Chen headed for the sewerage entrance guarded by the Zhao Corporation.

Following the surge in trade between Fishbone Base and Zhao Corporation, the sewerage had been upgraded. The mold and dirt on the road were cleaned away, and the confusing intersections were locked off. The wall corners were even installed with light-activated cold lamps.

He took the elevator back to the surface where a soldier guarding the elevator saluted. With a nod of acknowledgment, Jiang Chen followed the closed-off concrete walkway to the inside of Fishbone Base.

At the shooting range outside of the wall, Jiang Chen found Zhao Gang.

"How do you feel?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Not bad." Zhao Gang nodded. After that terrible incident, the audacious man had become reticent.

"Ten for ten, damn, how is this not bad?" Cheng Weiguo carried the rifle and spoke while laughing.

Jiang Chen looked at Zhao Gang with surprise and nodded appreciatively.

"I have a mission for you."

"Mhmm." Zhao Gang agreed without asking for the details.

Jiang Chen took out the computer pen and marked Area Seven on the map.

"I need you to head for Area Seven and find out as much information as you can about the mutated humans. Their camp spot, combat power, number of people... the more specific, the better."

The more he knew about the enemy, the higher the chances of winning against them. The mutated humans were stationed in Area Seven, and Fishbone Base had no information on them at all. Based on the crossfire from last time, however, mutated humans were not to be underestimated even with armor or firepower.

Jiang Chen also didn't completely trust Lin Chaoen's words. It was far more reliable to send his own men.

"Understood. When should I leave?"

"Tomorrow. Take some time to prepare. If you need any equipment, just let Chen Weiguo know and take it directly from the armory."

"Ten nutrient supplies, as well as this rifle." Zhao Gang shook his head. "In terms of scouting, the probability of engaging in combat is low."

Although the base had compressed crackers, in terms of convenience, it could not match the nutrient supply that could replenish both energy and water.

"That's fair. Then I'll count on you. Be quick," Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder as he said seriously.

"Mhmm." As expected, he nodded without any arguments against the mission.

...

Returning to the mansion, Jiang Chen happened to bump into Lin Lin who came out of shower humming.

Seeing her so happy, he couldn't resist the temptation to make fun of her.

"You don't short circuit?"

Lin Lin's eyebrows traveled all the way up, but as she was about to give a rebuttal, she thought about how she was under his control and froze in place.

Jiang Chen was surprised to see her hold her tongue.

"Oh, what's the progress on the mission I gave you?"

"Do you think scientific research is like masturbation? It will come out after rubbing a little?" Finally, Lin Lin couldn't resist the temptation to curse.

Jiang Chen looked at her oddly. He couldn't connect the vulgar words with the elf-like looks of this girl.

"Although I haven't done research before, have you masturbated?"

Lin Lin's face turned red, and cursed under her breath, "Pervert." She ran away with her head buried.

[It's so fun teasing this girl.]

Seeing Lin Lin flee the scene, Jiang Chen laughed malevolently.

But first things first.

He shook his head and put Lin Lin's matter aside to go up to the second floor and find Sun Jiao.

"You're back?" Sun Jiao eyes brightened when she saw him. She dropped the items in her hands and with upturned lips, greeted him delightfully.

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen hugged the passionate Sun Jiao and asked, "How's the bank mission doing?"

"We've shipped the gold back. It's around fifteen tons. The marks have been sanded off, and right now, it's piled up in the pool," she said intimately. Sun Jiao looked deeply into Jiang Chen's eyes.

"Thank you." He touched her soft hair and returned her gaze.

"Of course. I'm so tired." She stretched and was pleased to hear the light gulping nose. Smirking, she continued, "How are you planning on rewarding me?"

"Ahem, let's talk about this tonight." Jiang Chen touched his nose, looking away shyly.

He caught sight of something strange beside the bed.

[That is... a towel?]

"Eh? What is this?" Jiang Chen craned his neck to look curiously at the strange item.

Sun Jiao's face immediately turned red. She dashed to the bedside and hid the unknown item under the blankets.

"What? What are you talking about?" Her eyes began to wander. It was rare for her to play dumb.

Curious!

Jiang Chen was unable to control his interest and began to ask energetically, "The thing you just hid...."

"No! What did I just hide?" Sun Jiao's eyebrows rose as she said fiercely.

"No, no, no, I saw it with my own eyes."

"Illusion! It must be an illusion!" Vehemently denying it, Sun Jiao blushed and pushed at Jiang Chen who tried to leap over to see. She then slammed the door shut.

"Phew—"

Sun Jiao sat on the bed and exhaled.

Her heart was beating so fast.

"Ahhhhh, this is too embarrassing. It's not like me!"

Sun Jiao's hands patted her burning-red face as she dove into the bed. She reached for the blanket and covered herself like an ostrich.

The treasure hidden under the blanket was exposed; it was an old magazine. Based on the publication date, it was printed before the war.

"How to capture your boyfriend's heart - weave a scarf for him in the cold winter"

"Attached: Simple weaving technique"

Sun Jiao, who had been born in a survival base and lived wandering the wasteland, didn't know what love was. It was something she had never learned before. She picked up this magazine from the bank, unaware of what scarves were, but she was intrigued by the printed words on the front page.

Could a scarf be this magical? Sun Jiao didn't really understand.

But if Jiang Chen came from before the war, then it had to be useful for him.

She firmly believed this.

...

Standing by the poolside, Jiang Chen observed the lustrous gold. In the apocalypse, this gold was worth less than dirt.

He took a deep breath and submerged his conscious into the storage dimension.

Compared to before, the storage dimension seemed to have expanded by a lot—from one cubic meter to five cubic meters now. But Jiang Chen was still clueless on how the interdimensional bracelet evolved. Charging it repeatedly seemed to be useful, but otherwise, it was not obvious.

The overload from last time seemed to have increased the size of the storage dimensional by quite a lot, but Jiang Chen didn't dare to do anything so dangerous again. Instead of overloading it, it could potentially "fry" the bracelet.

Putting the gold into the storage dimension, Jiang Chen was prepared to return to the modern world, but he suddenly remembered the "promise" he made with Sun Jiao. A smirk appeared on his face.

[I'll go back tomorrow morning.]

Chapter 137: Close the door!

When he left Sun Jiao's room, it was already noon.

A smile rose unbidden to his face when he recalled the intimacy from last night.

She seemed to sense that he'd be gone for a while because she'd been extra passionate.

By the time the two fell asleep in each other's embrace, it was already late into the night.

He stretched his stiff body and walked to the bathroom.

With a light press on the touchscreen, hot water filled the sink. Taking a deep breath, he leaned against the sink and submerged his head into the water.

After holding his breath—

"Huuuu!"

He resurfaced from the water and briskly shook his head feeling refreshed. Jiang Chen looked at his reflection in the mirror and let the water droplets roll down his face.

"It's been three months."

He touched his chin, lost in his memories of three months ago, back in July. It was the middle of summer, and as soon as he came here, he encountered a girl on the verge of starvation.

Jiang Chen laughed.

He wasn't sure why he wanted to laugh. Maybe because the experiences in these past three months had been too exciting? Or because of his own transformation? Or perhaps because it'd been too fulfilling. He vigorously shook the water from his head and picked up the electric razor.

"There are many things in this world that are quite convenient." He plastered a thin layer of plastic wrap around his mouth, and with a click of a button, he could shave his beard away in a second.

This was a treasure to the world.

In the washroom itself, there was a digitalized shower, a smart toilet, multi-functional bathtub with a sauna function, and even the toilet paper was more advanced than the modern world's.

"Life is a magical journey." Jiang Chen looked outside the window.

The view faced the newly expanded wall. On top of the metal scaffolding were workers and engineers order the construction....

He remembered that in the beginning, his only thought was to obtain gold and become a carefree, wealthy man. And as soon as he got his wish, the first thing he did was spend it lavishly, blowing it all away and experiencing the life he had envied before.

But he fulfilled those wishes a long time ago.

"Now is it power?" Jiang Chen stared at his right hand. The water droplets on the back of his hand reflected his matured face.

Once he had the five hundred million USD in his hands, a sprout called ambition grew in his heart. From that point onward, troubles began to hound him.

Sometimes, he imagined what would have happened if he came to this world for the first time and didn't walk into this mansion. What if he didn't encounter the naughty and cute girl, didn't meet so many unforgettable people?

Sneak some gold and sell it discreetly in the modern world, becoming a rich man in the shadows. If he met malicious forces, he would switch cities, or even citizenship, instead of using his power to push them away. If he met mutated bacteria he was unable to resist, he would leave the area. This place was an ATM for him anyway. There was no reason to risk his life to eliminate the bacteria source.

But it would be a different kind of life.

In the modern world, he would enjoy a lavish lifestyle, and in the apocalypse, he would discreetly explore. No attachment, no concerns, perhaps that was the safer choice? Perhaps it was the best way to survive in this world filled with danger?

"But it would lack the excitement of a vibrant life?" Jiang Chen shook his head laughing and walked out the door.

Without a myriad of beautiful encounters, what was the purpose of living?

Since on productivity alone, man could not beat machine.

...

At the door, he met Yao Yao on her way to the washroom.

She walked half-asleep and rubbed her drowsy eyes with her small hand. The pouted mouth looked like a cherry freshly picked off with the morning dew. Because she was anemic, she couldn't handle mornings very well.

Although she seemed to be overly-conscious about her small flaw, Jiang Chen didn't care. A dizzy loli was too cute to be true, especially when she was asleep and subconsciously sought to hug anything warm.

Ahem, don't ask how he knew.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to say hello, Yao Yao's drowsy face turned beet red, and her body temperature spiked.

"Ahh.... G-good morning!"

"Good morning. Uhh, are you okay?" Jiang Chen asked carefully as he gave a confused look at Yao Yao who had her head buried low.

"N-nothing."

Her adorable eyes avoided his, and her hands fiddled with each other behind her back.

[She doesn't seem to be in a good mood?]

Just as Jiang Chen was at a loss, Lin Lin also appeared walking towards the bathroom. When she saw him standing by the door, Lin Lin's pale face blushed, but she didn't act shyly. Instead, she threw a dirty glare at Jiang Chen who had put her in an awkward position.

"Pervert!"

"What, what did I do?" Completely lost, he didn't bother arguing back. Question marks floated over his head as he looked back and forth between Yao Yao and Lin Lin.

But the two of them didn't have the slightest intention to open their mouths. Yao Yao seemed to want to say something, but her trembling lips suggested that she was too embarrassed to say it.

The odd atmosphere lingered.

Finally, the kind Yao Yao broke the silence.

"Umm." Yao Yao still didn't meet Jiang Chen's gaze, her cherry-like mouth pouting in displeasure. She murmured, "It is understandable that a ripe apple tastes good. Yao Yao is not angry. But it is better to be quieter because a small animal can only drool and watch... and be envious."

Her voice became fainter the more she felt wronged.

[What's going on?]

Dumbfounded, Jiang Chen stared at Yao Yao. Her frail and unhappy attitude was cute, but what was this strange way of guilt-tripping?

"Pervert." Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight Lin Lin mocking him.

Thinking of this pervert's terrible attitude towards her, she felt particularly jubilant seeing his awkward attitude.

[Finally taking revenge!]

She wanted to burst into song to celebrate.

But Lin Lin clearly overestimated her importance. Just as she finished saying that, a chilling stare was directed at her.

"I think a digitalized human doesn't need to eat. Or are you prepared to tell me what happened?" Jiang Chen glared at her as he threatened without considering her feelings.

It was only when Jiang Chen bullied Lin Lin that he didn't feel any guilt at all.

Oh no, not even guilt, the sensation was through the roof.

Lin Lin's expression took a turn for the worse.

As usual, her confident look became sorrowful.

"You, you dare to threaten me.... Ahhhhh! Enough, you're a pervert! Remember to keep it down when you do that thing at night! And, and! Close the door!" Lin Lin ran away sadly.

"Uh?"

Shut the door? Keep it down?

Jiang Chen was lost until he recalled Sun Jiao's voice.... He immediately looked at Yao Yao with difficulty. She was still throwing a bit of a tantrum.

Her pouting lips were about to touch the tip of her nose.

"Yao Yao is already working so hard.... And doesn't taste bad.... The one with the loud voice must be happy."

[It doesn't have to do with taste.]

He finally comforted Yao Yao while feeling as though the mansion had become a little awkward.

_Min_ _Min_

One more today

Chapter 138: Improving the Helicopter

The base was bustling.

Excluding the women in the "care center," the base’s population approached 150, and they were the backbone of the future Fishbone Base. Once the newly expanded wall was completed, two more apartment buildings would be added, and then they could consider accepting foreign populations.

Lu Huasheng was still in charge of the construction. Needless to say, the ex-chief developer of Huajian Real Estate certainly had his strengths. Jiang Chen gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his ability, and he proved himself by designing the base's structure.

An honest and hardworking man like him was best suited for jobs that required basic planning with no room for mistakes. With his foresight, Jiang Chen was able to choose the right people, and Lu Huasheng didn’t disappoint him. He personally stood with the construction team every day on the front lines to expand the wall with 120% efficiency.

For someone like Cheng Weiguo, who had loyalty and a strong passion, Jiang Chen assigned him a role in the army as the leader of the civil force responsible for guarding the base and training the soldiers.

As for Zhou Guoping, he was the type to be smooth and flattering, so Jiang Chen naturally stationed him in the Sixth Street. This was partially because he had prior experience in intelligence collection and also because he had a bad history with Chu Nan. Although it was not directly Zhou Guoping’s fault, he did violate Chu Nan’s "goddess."

In front of him, multiple times.

For the sake of keeping the harmony in the base, it was not a terrible decision to separate them.

On his way to a warehouse, Jiang Chen passed by the community center, which was a temporary hangar to store the Type-51 Transport Helicopter.

...

Entering the hangar, Jiang Chen found Chu Nan hard at work repairing the helicopter.

Virtual reality training chambers inside the base were installed with general weaponry training, and they could also copy general technical skills from the city library. But for a military transportation vehicle like the Helicopter-51, which was considered top secret before the war, it was excluded from the civil force training courses.

Therefore, the only person able to repair and operate this helicopter was Chu Nan.

"How's the situation?" Jiang Chen asked as he approached.

"Terrible." Chu Nan didn’t turn around. His only response was to wipe his sweat with his arm and continue arranging the messy wiring.

"Can it be repaired?" He glanced at the helicopter that seemed to come straight from science-fiction and touched the circular side wings. He didn't see a rotor on the helicopter, but based on the appearance, the suspension force most likely came from this circular structure. The design of the body was aerodynamic with a hatch door open in the back. The words "Transport Helicopter" along with the PAC symbol had all but faded, and the metal frame in the front was caved in from the impact. Even the bulletproof glass was completely shattered. The appearance wasn't so terrible, but Jiang Chen did question whether it would ever fly again.

"Should be fixable. The damage to the exterior is fine since it can be easily replaced with metal parts, but the problem is the electronic parts inside. Dammit, the entire engine control is burned. Can you believe it? Inside the city center, I met a monster that can fire an EMP from its mouth." Chu Nan cursed as he retracted a palm-sized box from the helicopter's side and connected the exposed wiring to the computer on the side to input some data.

Jiang Chen’s expression turned strange when he heard Chu Nan’s words. He himself had encountered a monster that could emit EMP before.

"Isn't it hard to see mutants that can fire EMP?"

Chu Nan turned around with a look of surprise.

"Actually, it’s common to see mutants that can fire EMP?"

Jiang Chen paused.

Now that he thought about it, he knew Chu Nan ended up in that area because he failed a mission, but he never asked about the specifics.

"The mission was to eliminate a mutant creature and collect the crystal. We sent out two helicopters as well as a force of twelve soldiers equipped with power armors. When we arrived at the target location, I suspended the helicopter above the yellowish-green particles. Then our captain requested missile support.

"The missile would expose the body, the soldiers parachute, kill, and collect the crystal. That was the routine, and it wasn't my first time out on such a mission.

"It was a beautiful hit. The electromagnetic cannon fired from Liuding Town directly hit the building and the concrete tumbled down like an avalanche. Just when we thought all we needed to do was go down and collect the crystals," Chu Nan paused with a mysterious smile, "a red meat cannon as tall as half the building fired a red beam into the sky. It hit nothing, but the two helicopters immediately stalled.

"The monster seemed to have exploded, so the parachuted soldiers must have been successful. But who knows?" Chu Nan shrugged as he inserted a processor into the helicopter body.

"Did no one from Liuding Town come to save you?"

"That’s impossible." Chu Nan’s mouth twitched. "For Liuding Town, pilots can be mass produced. The only thing of value was this metal scrap right here, but the point of the crash was too far from the port. I almost flew half a city."

Jiang Chen fell into silence.

He suddenly recalled his time in the underground fallout shelter. The artificial intelligence had described the bug that infiltrated the fallout shelter.

[Hehe, even if it missed, your metal pieces will become a metal casket.]

"Klein Particles?" Jiang Chen muttered to himself.

"What’s that?" Chu Nan asked confusedly.

"Nothing." He would ask Lin Lin about Klein Particles later. For now, Jiang Chen avoided the topic. "Oh, once you finish repairing the helicopter, could you make some modifications to it?"

"Modifications?"

"Mhmm. Such as installing a 50mm machine gun on the side and welding a fire cannon on the top."

Different than Liuding Town, Fishbone Base's focus was on land; hence, there was no need for long-distance combat, and it would better suit Fishbone Base’s combat needs if the Type-51 was converted into an air cannon vehicle.

"Do you think the helicopter is a truck? That you could weld anything on top?" Chu Nan couldn’t help but ridicule him.

"What’s the problem?" Stumped, Jiang Chen frowned.

"There's a big problem." Chu Nan shook his head as he dragged the wiring from the computer. He picked up the screwdriver again to adjust parts inside the helicopter. "Balance is a big issue. Even casual modifications could cause the helicopter to be unable to suspend itself or fly a certain distance before it flips over."

"Then let’s not do a casual modification." Jiang Chen laughed as he patted Chu Nan on the shoulder. "I’ll leave the trouble to you, the expert. I need you to add some weapons on this thing—the stronger the firepower, the better."

Hearing such an unprofessional request made Chu Nan rub his face with his palms. He let out a helpless sigh.

"I’ll try my best. I’ll install a machine gun on the side and design a new fire-control system. As for the fire cannon, I’ll install it near the back hatch. It should be okay if it's manually controlled. But if we modify it like this, the transport helicopter will become a combat helicopter."

Jiang Chen smiled at Chu Nan’s doubts.

"Exactly what I want."

Chapter 139: Harmonious

After parting from Chu Nan, Jiang Chen took a stroll around the base.

Now that everything was on the right track, there weren't many things that he needed to do as the boss. As long as he set the overarching direction, there were others to take care of the rest. For now, all he needed to do was transport food over from the modern world?

For now, the tasks related to the Crusade's aftermath were finally resolved.

The freckled girl was more mature compared to when she first arrived, developing an air of professionalism. He remembered that she'd been like a startled squirrel. With her constantly anxious attitude and top-notch accounting grades, he assigned her to take care of the warehouse.

Honestly, Jiang Chen felt happy watching the growth of his employees.

Once she heard out Jiang Chen's intention, she took out a tablet terminal and reported the status of supplies within the base.

"We've organized the supplies that are ready to trade with Sixth Street. There aren't many food supplies left, and with the current consumption speed, it can last for at most ten days," she said with concern.

The supplies were carefully recorded in a list, so precise that each bag of rice was listed with its warehouse location and by weight. The comprehensive software had also been designed by Yao Yao while the game <New Era> was passed on to Du Yongkong for an update. Since he used to be a game developer, it matched his skill set.

Yao Yao, other than the warehouse management software, also installed some more interesting gadgets for the base.

For example, she set up the worker management system used by Lu Huasheng during construction, the control system for the cameras around the base, as well as the drone patrol system.

"You don't have to worry. I'll take care of it. What about the firearms?" It was easy for him to take care of it once he returned to the modern world.

Seeing the boss' confident look, Wang Qin smiled and nodded. She pressed a few more buttons on the tablet and pulled up another list.

He roughly scanned the items on the list before Jiang Chen asked her to take him to the weaponry.

He took around ten Reaper rifles as well as one Ghost sniper, a box of ammunition, and ten grenades before returning to the base.

He put the supplies away in the storage dimension and approached the poolside in the backyard. With a deep breath, he commenced traveling.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying on a soft bed.

He sat up and shook his head. Taking out the phone, he called Robert's hidden number.

The phone rang three times before it went through.

"Hi, buddy, how have you been?"

"Not bad. How goes the business?" Jiang Chen didn't bother with small talk and cut straight to the point.

"Don't worry, the Irish guy loves acting." Delighted laughter could be heard from a distance on the other side. "I've already arranged the things on Kane's side. When do you plan on leaving?"

"I booked the ticket for tomorrow. Get Nick to leave, we'll meet in Veit."

"Okay, but he's already there, so contact him once you arrive. I've sent the itinerary to your email, Mr. President," Robert joked.

After exchanging some light banter, Jiang Chen hung up, and after thinking for a bit called the food store owner he was partnered with.

It would still be sent to the same storage, and the shipment would arrive in the afternoon. It was most likely his last order with them. Once Xinlong Food Processing Plant got on track, he would opt to use that channel instead. Stuffing the phone back into his pocket, Jiang Chen got up and left the bedroom.

A mansion this spacious with only two people living inside did feel empty. He stepped on the expensive hardwood floor. Looking at the delicate decorations, Jiang Chen suddenly felt emotional. He'd bought this mansion a while back, but he never took the time to enjoy it since he'd been so busy handling tasks in the modern and apocalypse world. It seemed as though he was living life with too rough of pace?

Maybe sometime later, he would take a vacation.

As he ruminated, Jiang Chen strolled into the kitchen.

He gently pushed the glass door to the kitchen and saw Ayesha with an apron, concentrated on chopping vegetables.

A smirk appeared on his face as he sneaked closer and embraced Ayesha from behind.

The serene figure stiffened but loosened up as soon as she realized who it was.

"You're back."

Ayesha gently smiled and intimately tilted her head to rub it against Jiang Chen's face.

"Mhmm, did you prepare the meal for me?" This girl's Han was getting better and better. The technology of the future was truly remarkable.

"Not yet, but I am now." Ayesha smiled and softly squeezed Jiang Chen's hand. She led him to the side and opened the fridge. "What do you want to eat? My cooking has improved a lot."

"I want to eat you." Jiang Chen grinned and blew into her ear.

Her perfect face colored by a tinge of pink, she looked away from embarrassment. She faintly asked, "Could we wait until after the meal?"

"After the meal? Don't you want to do it here?"

"H-here?" A hint of anxiousness appeared in her eyes.

Seeing her adorable look, Jiang Chen was satisfied and didn't tease her anymore, so he finished his sentence with the same smirk. "I want to eat you...r cooked dishes."

Ayesha froze, then angrily threw a few soft punches at Jiang Chen's chest before leaving his hug.

"We'll eat fried fish today."

It was one of the few times he felt like the head of the family.

He didn't interrupt Ayesha from cooking anymore since he didn't want to eat overcooked dishes.

He sank into the living room sofa and relaxed while watching a Hollywood film in his home theater that cost ten thousand RMB. It wasn't as sophisticated as the one in Sixth Street's Paradise Island Hotel, but it was a different experience.

It was the perk of being rich. Most people used their laptops to watch a film on 720p, and some would spend money to see it in IMAX or 3D. But the real luxury was to enjoy a theater-level film experience in the comfort of your own home without the annoying kids.

It would be even better with some popcorn.

The movie finished exactly at noon. Ayesha virtuously set the table before calling Jiang Chen over to eat.

A full-course lunch.

In the center was a fried fish dish seasoned with red soup and green onion. It was Ayesha who thought to combine Han and Middle Eastern dishes. Without a doubt, the aesthetics were superb, and the taste was ephemeral.

"Mhmm, wow, your cooking is getting better and better," Jiang Chen raised his thumb and exclaimed.

Ayesha softly smiled. "As long as you like it."

"How have you been?"

"Pretty good. The environment here is peaceful," Ayesha exclaimed. She lowered her head to look at the utensils in front of her as she quietly said, "Just like heaven."

Slightly lost, Jiang Chen watched Ayesha's face, but the words he was about to say was stuck in his throat.

"Hmm?" Sensing Jiang Chen's hesitation, Ayesha was confused and tilted her head slightly to look at him.

"Mhmm, I'm just uncertain now." Jiang Chen sighed, saying with a troubled smile, "I planned on taking you to Ukraine tomorrow, but since you just escaped from war, you would probably hate going back to it."

Ayesha quietly stood up and walked to his side. She surrounded him with her arms and gently pressed her face against his.

"I am yours. I'm willing to become your sword, to fight for you. If you need me, there's no need to hesitate, just use me."

"I never thought of you as a tool," Jiang Chen lightly said, placing his hands over hers, "and I've never used anyone. If you feel repulsive towards weapons, there's no need to force yourself—"

The rest was blocked.

The silence lasted for a brief moment before Ayesha removed her finger.

"If I felt weapons were repulsive, I never would've used them in the virtual reality. That thing doesn't belong here, right?"

Jiang Chen wasn't surprised, but his smile was still a bit forced.

"You knew?"

Although the mutated human that appeared out of thin air should have exposed something already, Ayesha never asked, so he never had the opportunity to explain.

"Mhmm." Ayesha nodded.

"That training. Once you pass it, it'll unlock new weapons and new training materials that include more powerful rifles and even rifle without bullets."

[No bullets? Is it a Gauss rifle?]

Du Yongkong had misinterpreted Jiang Chen's words. He wanted him to add a limit on the virtual reality system to include only weapons that existed between the years 2000 and 2020, but Du Yongkong instead designed a "game mode" that gradually unlocked tiers as the training continued.

[Whatever. If it's Ayesha who knows, there's nothing to worry about.]

Sensing the trust in his body temperature, Ayesha gently closed her eyes.

"Tomorrow, we'll go to Ukraine."

Since Ayesha didn't feel repulsed, it would be pretentious to act uncertain about this question.

"Mhmm." Ayesha nodded.

"Do you know how to use a sniper? The Ghost Sniper."

"Yes." She trained in wielding that gun in the virtual reality training system.

"Once we arrive in Kane, I need you to protect me in trades. Because we're in a sensitive area and the business partner is no ordinary target, you might have to engage in combat with some civil force snipers."

Ayesha smiled and pressed her soft finger against Jiang Chen's lips.

"You're over-protective. I'm not small anymore."

Hearing this, Jiang Chen thought for a moment before a relieved smile appeared on his face.

"You're right."

Enjoying the tranquil moment, Jiang Chen suddenly thought of something and leaned closer to Ayesha's ear.

"Speaking of which, it's after the meal."

She remembered her promise to Jiang Chen in the kitchen, and she blushed again, lowering her head shyly.

"Mhmm, let's go back to the room."

"No."

"Eh?"

"Back to the kitchen."

It was an evil laugh.

That's right, incredibly evil.

_Min_

Also, Jianghu is a great place to discuss the novel. Make sure to check it out!

Chapter 140: Arriving at Veit

Boris Boer International Airport.

A young man in a black sweater, casual pants, and a duff bag looked around the empty airport.

"What is your purpose of coming to Kane?" A middle-aged man in uniform looked up and glanced at him a few more times than usual while fidgeting with the passport in hand.

Asian face, two years ago, it would not be rare. But Veit now, any foreign face was worth the extra glance.

"Travel." The man smiled and exposed his white teeth.

The middle-aged officer was clearly shocked as he looked at him oddly again.

"I hope you enjoy your trip."

The passport was fine. The officer didn't say anything as he mechanically stamped it and let him go.

"Phew."

Walking out of the airport, Jiang Chen relaxingly stretched and scanned the unfamiliar street.

Veit's sky was clear.

Bright sunshine, clear blue sky, clean street, as well as the towering trees.

Baroque and Byzantine Style of architecture could be seen everywhere. The colorful brick walls resembled a small town in the middle ages. Other than the modern looking street lamp and signs, the vibrancy of rich culture was everywhere in the city.

He heard that Oesk and Lugansk were currently fighting, but the flames of war obviously didn't spread to here yet.

Even then, the streets looked empty.

Jiang Chen was disappointed to not be able to witness the "Beauty infested Kane" as rumors said.

Of course, the purpose of the trip was not to see beauties.

Not long, a personal vehicle stopped in front of him. The window rolled down, and a head with a red nose peeked out.

"Do you need a taxi?" Jiang Chen barely understood the English laced with a Russian accent.

"Of course, take me to Purimir Hotel."

Hearing this, the driver also glanced at him a few more times.

Although Jiang Chen's Han-accented English was hard to understand, as a local, he easily made out the words " Primir Hotel."

Only the wealthy could afford those five-star hotels.

Jiang Chen opened the door, sat on the front passenger seat, and strapped on the seat belt. The sturdy looking Kanian driver started the car and drove out smoothly.

He heard that to ride in Kane, the first thing was to set the price. Or he would be scammed. A ride that only cost 30 may end up costing 150 once they arrive at the destination. But Jiang Chen didn't really mind as it was pocket change for him.

"Tell me about Veit, what's fun here," Jiang Chen started to chat with the driver by his side.

"Central Street and Independent Square are all not bad places. it's great for shopping and sight seeing." The driver was also talkative, he held the steering wheel and began telling Jiang Chen about the sightseeing places in Veit.

"If you are interested in the history and culture of the place, you could check out Golden Gate, a lot of tourists like to take pictures there. As well as the memorial museum in the right bank of the Dnieper River." When they started to talk about the historical sights, the rigid face worn by time had a proud expression.

"Oh? Could you tell me about the memorial museum?" Jiang Chen was quite interested.

Although his destination for this trip was Oesk in the East and he probably won't have time to explore this beautiful city, it would be cool to listen to the perspective of a local.

But for some reason, when Jiang Chen asked about the specifics of the memorial museum. A gloom seemed to cover the driver's face.

"To remember the victory of defending the country. Darn, I remember when I was young, it was beautiful."

"What about now? I think this place is not bad." Jiang Chen looked out the window.

The weather was lovely, the sunshine was bright, a great place to explore.

"It's absolutely terrible," The driver said emotionlessly, "People with guns divided into two sides, and the innocent people are stuck in the middle. Back when Soviets ruled, this place was not like this."

Jiang Chen looked at him but didn't continue with the topic.

For the locals, it seemed to be a remorseful topic. The textbook he learned seemed to provide a simple black and white picture. That was the only perspective he saw about the entire event. He faintly recalled that when the Lenin Statue was pushed down, the citizens from Kane celebrated.

It was truly shocking when Veit welcomed democracy, the faces of the people were cheering.

Who actually represented them?

The silence only ensued for a brief moment before the driver spoke again, "Is this your first time in Kane?"

"That's right." Jiang Chen smiled.

After hesitating for a moment, the kind-hearted driver continued, "Veit's security is actually terrible, far worse than what Poroshenko described. Every day, there are countless foreigners like you being robbed, and of course, locals included too."

"I will be careful." Jiang Chen noncommittally smiled.

Robbery? He didn't think anyone in this world would be able to beat him.

Seeing Jiang Chen's unbothered expression, the driver didn't say anything. He already did his part in alerting him.

"Also, some police may give you trouble due to your passport. In these situations, the easiest way is to pay him 100 USD, or just insist you haven't heard about this law, and demand that you contact your embassy before paying the fine."

"Mhmm, I'll be careful." For the kind-hearted alert of the driver, Jiang Chen happily accepted.

The car arrived at its destination.

When he got off the car, Jiang Chen left 100 USD on the seat and signaled there was no need for change.

The driver didn't refuse, but he looked grateful by the gesture.

The days were getting harder and harder, 100 USD for Jiang Chen may be nothing, but for him, it was a sizable amount of money.

Jiang Chen hauled his duffel bag into the hotel, and Jiang Chen showed the reception at the front desk his confirmation before he took the key.

The Primir Hotel was luxuriously decorated. The square and upright giant structure demonstrated the philosophy of Russian architecture and the European decor and lighting had a vibe of beauty originating from its detailing.

His hotel room was on the top floor, the most expensive presidential suite. But it was much cheaper compared to the Sheraton in Sanya as a night only cost him 2200 RMB.

The hotel had a complete set of amenities with a casino, bar, sauna, outdoor pool, gym, indoor pool, and spa. But because the purpose of the trip was not a vacation, he would not have the time to enjoy those things.

He carried the bag into the elevator, went to the top floor, and walked to the room that belonged to him.

Needless to say, Jiang Chen looked out of place standing there. Most of the people living here were all men in suits. His casual wear on the top floor filled with presidential suites did look odd.

But who cared? Being able to live here proved his financial ability.

The moment Jiang Chen took out a key, a blonde, blue-eyed, gorgeous figured beauty walked up with a cheerful smile.

"Do you need service?"

Surprisingly, although she stuttered a little, she spoke Han.

But after giving it a thought, Jiang Chen cursed in his mind.

How many fellow citizens did she "service" to be able to speak Han this well.

"No, thank you," Jiang Chen smiled courteously and rejected the offer.

If he were on vacation, Jiang Chen without standards wouldn't mind having some intimate affairs with the foreign beauty. But since he had business to take care of, he must resist the temptation.

She looked at Jiang Chen in surprise. In her memory, rarely would millionaires coming from Han refuse to have an intimate affair with her. But she didn't say much more. She smiled and left in elegant steps.

Jiang Chen touched his slightly hot nose as he pushed open the door.

He turned on the lights. Jiang Chen threw the bag on the bed and walked straight to the window as he cautiously closed the blinds.

He took out a clock-sized device from his bag and placed it on the nightstand.

He thought that it was too dumb to use an EMP every time he needed to counter monitor, so Jiang Chen discussed with Yao Yao, and she used recycled electronic parts to create an anti-monitor device.

Once opened, any cameras within a radius of 20m would be affected. The screen would be locked to a picture of the instant the machine started. Including communication, any communication attempted outside the whitelist would be blocked.

Although it may be redundant, it was better to be safe.

He took out his phone. Jiang Chen called Ayesha who left first.

"How's your side doing?"

"Arrived at Oesk rural area."

Under the plan, the two head to Kane separately. Not only do they take different flights, but Ayesha will also arrive a day ahead in Oesk rural area controlled by the government force.

Although Jiang Chen was still worried, Ayesha reassured him. Within the virtual reality training system, she received an A on sniper training.

With the help of the genetic vaccine and sophisticated weapons that far exceeded the current era, there was no need to worry.

Perhaps just like what Ayesha said, sometimes Jiang Chen could be a little overprotective.

"Mhmm. I will meet Nick tomorrow and then head to Oesk. I'll send you my itinerary. Be safe." Then, Jiang Chen hung up the phone.

He peeked at the small bright sky. Jiang Chen stretched, and then took out the laptop from his bag. Connected it to the wifi, and opened up his email.

<Sender: Robert>

Information: Markanov, male, 36. Government force official, ranked Colonel, brigadier of the 92nd mechanized infantry.

Note: Confidant of the current president. Corrupt.

He stared at the word "Corrupt," as a dubious smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

Chapter 141: Flame of Chaos

Kane, located in Eastern Europe, was the largest country by landmass in Europe besides Russia. Formed when the Soviet dissolved in 1991.

Because of the fertile soil, Kane was the third largest grain exporting country in the world, renowned as the "granary of Europe." At the same time, Veit took the crown for the top ten "City of the beauties," selected by the world popular <Tourists Digest>

Food and beauty.

It was a beautiful place.

But the smokes of the war cast a gloom in this poorly trained place.

The root of the disaster had been buried during the hasty revolution in 1991.

January 9, 2014, a conflict under the name civil uprise led the country into political unrest.

The night of March 29, 2014, Crimea forwarded their clocks by two hours, officially using Moscow time.

Like a flag, cities in the East soon followed,

Oesk and Lugansk declared independence which officially erupted the civil war.

"Precisely speaking, I am a Belorussian, but I spent my childhood in Kane. My father was a Soviet soldier and met my mom in Veit." Nick had a cigarette in his mouth while holding the steering wheel.

This morning, Jiang Chen left the Primir Hotel and took a taxi to the agreed upon location to meet Nick. The pickup truck was bought from the local second-hand store, they were driving on the highway to Oesk.

"So, you were part of the government force?" Jiang Chen casually asked.

"You could say that before." Nick twitched his mouth. "But the formation is already gone, so you could say I am a deserter."

"The government force is weak?"

"Really weak." Nick blew out a smoke ring, and he looked perplexedly at the truck that just passed by. It was filled with wounded soldiers from the front line.

"The soldiers' combat abilities are all over the place, and the officials are corrupted to the bone. What's more important is that no one wants to fight for this country."

Kane East was the previous border between Soviet and NATO, and within the armory, there were hundreds of tons of bombs, mines, bullets and other firearms left by the previous Soviet military regions. As of now, the Kane army was still using the free firearms. And because of this, the Kane national defense industry has regressed to a frightening point. Kane military's "Phonex" National defense Batallion, even dragged the 122mm Howitzer used as a salvo for years in Veit on to the front line. The armored cash truck was currently being used as an armored vehicle.

At the same time, the lack of military funding also decreased the soldiers' will to fight. A company commander's salary is similar to Kazakhstan's soldier's salary which is equivalent to 1500 RMB, not even comparable to a waitress in a Han restaurant.

The salary was not enough to sustain a living. The soldiers were poorly trained. Selling the weapons in storage illegally to make money became a trend within the army. It was satirical that a lot of weapons were being destroyed in the front line, and without the ability to replenish the equipment, an ordinary citizen could still buy an armored vehicle for ten thousand USD.

It was the current status quo of the Kane army.

The civil force, however, was well equipped and had high morale. They possessed potent firepower and armored force. The war lasted for almost a year, and the civil force did not once experience ammo shortages. The large-scale bombing consistently left the Kane army scrambling. Based on reports, the thirty-six thousand civil forces possessed 8000 advanced Russian heavy weapons, also based on US satellite, troops stationed in the Russian Kane border assisted the civil force at all time.

"If everyone fought for the country, I won't be here." Jiang Chen shrugged. "At least for those people with ability, let them fight for the force they could swear their allegiance for."

If weapons could be bought, then humans shouldn't be difficult at all. Although in principle, an active soldier of a country could not be sold to someone as mercenaries, but that was only in principle. If tank could be sold, what else couldn't be?

Another thing to note was that the reason why Jiang Chen didn't buy a tank partially because the future tanks did not consume oil. Rather, it used a large fuel rod similar to the power armor, while levitating tanks used batteries.

Another reason being that the modern age armor was way too thin. The material used was not even remotely comparable. Without exaggeration, the armored vehicle in the Fishbone base was comparable in armor strength with Frankberg primary tank 2A6. Of course, the discussion doesn't include the effect of impact angle on armor penetration.

"Swear allegiance? It's not about being worthy or not, no one is willing to fight. But the commission you are willing to pay is attractive, and the ten-year limit is not too harsh. At least if they fight for you, they could retire in Europe with the money." Nick smiled.

One million USD, enough to enjoy the rest of their life in comfort.

The pickup truck drove relatively steadily on the highway, black smoke could be faintly seen from afar. This place was fairly close to the front line, but this region was still considered safe.

But then, the car in front stopped.

"Traffic jam."

Nick frowned and stopped the car as well. He put the cigarette butt in the ashtray as he got off and walked to the car in front.

"What happened in front?"

"I don't know, the car in the front stopped, so I had to stop as well." A Slavic man stepped out of the car with a clueless expression on his face.

The cars in the back slammed on their horns as they were trying to release their anger. The clueless people all got out of their cars and tip-toed to see what was happening up front.

"Okay, friends, don't be anxious, please get back to your vehicle. The special force is taking care of a small problem, please remain calm." A soldier in camouflage walked front the front as he patted the car roof of each car, signaling people to stay calm.

"I want to know, what happened in front?" A chubby driver yelled out of his window.

"A bomb made a hole in the middle of the road, but it didn't detonate. To ensure that it will not blow you up when you drive by, we are trying to defuse it." The soldier shrugged as he leaned against the car.

To be honest, his relaxed look certainly made people feel calm.

"He is lazy, sticking around in the safe area after reporting. I did that a few times," Nick half-joked, and half-cursed. Seeing the young face, he felt like he saw the young him.

Jiang Chen looked at him in surprise. He thought Nick was the type to be meticulous at all times.

[Because it was not worth fighting for?]

He thought about it, but he instantly understood.

"Is it common to see these bombs?" Jiang Chen looked at the soldier slacking off as he asked Nick.

"Very common." Nick who sat back in the car lit another cigarette to waste time. "Both sides are wasting Soviet firearms, but these things are well past their expiration date. Take the "Dot-U" tactical missile with only ten years of service life, for example, once it leaves the launch pad, you don't even know where it will fly to."

The soldier leaning against the car chatted with the driver with a smile on his face. He also took the cigarette passed to him.

Jiang Chen's eyebrows twitched. He was worried about the ability of the Kane army. If it were these types of fools, he wouldn't want them even if they were free.

Sensing Jiang Chen's concern, Nick smiled and spoke.

"Probably a new recruit. He could be an electrician yesterday, and today he was given a rifle to patrol the front line. Adjusting is hard. In this place, anything is possible."

"What about recruit training?" Jiang Chen asked, dumbfounded.

"No money and no one wanted to do it. The guy we are going to find, Markanov, is a good guy. He will not use unqualified people to substitute good people. There are plenty of fighters in the kane army. Take the army I was in for example. Although six out of ten were recruits, the remaining four were great people. Especially the guy from Cossack, his shooting was insane."

Jiang Chen fell into a short silence as he thought about another problem.

"Right now, is he willing to bring the fighters in the army out?"

"Why not?" Nick shrugged. "The war is not going to be swayed by one or two soldiers. Especially since you are paying enough money."

To the Markanov guy, Jiang Chen's bribe was also one million USD, payable in gold. The only thing he needed to do was to pick the right people, sign a few spots, and provide a few missing reports.

Suddenly, a deafening explosion erupted from a distance.

Thick smoke rose, and people watched the chaos from afar as they began to frighteningly curse. Some people took out their phones and started recording.

The soldier was clearly stunned by the explosion as he looked blankly at the highway in front.

After a long time, the soldier looked at the Kane driver that he just chatted with.

"Perhaps our comrades successfully detonated the bomb?"

The cars in the front began to move gradually.

The danger was already alleviated. Regardless, a bomb could not blow up twice.

Seeing this, Nick also started the car. The good thing was that there were not a lot of cars on the road, to begin with. So, it didn't cause a massive blockage.

When they passed the frightening bomb hole, Jiang Chen saw traces of bloody remains.

"Looks like the special force's method of detonation is quite unique."

Hearing that, Nick cracked a smile, his words had a satirical tone, "Special force? The only force worthy of this name already defected to Russia."

As the two chatted back and forth to kill time, a white van followed behind them.

The tinted window blocked the scene within the vehicle. If Jiang Chen saw the person sitting in the passenger seat, he would have been shocked.

The blonde, blue-eyed, gorgeously figured beauty, the same woman that chatted with him yesterday afternoon. The only difference was, the seductive exposed dress changed into a black trench coat, easier for combat.

"This is Silver Fox. Target entered Oesk."

"Roger, this is Vulture. Continue with plan B."

"Understood."

The vibrant red lips carved a mischevious, demon-like smile.

Chapter 142: Of course not

When they entered Oesk's rural area, the road suddenly became rugged. Shambles completed the scenes along the street, at a glimpse, Jiang Chen even had the feeling he was in the apocalypse.

Under the shambles, there were signs of life. The people without homes built temporary tent under the wreckages that were their homes and looked with vicious eyes at the Kane soldiers.

They continued forward as road conditions got even worse.

Nick had to park beside a civilian building to give Markanov a call.

It wasn't long until a soldier with a rifle found them.

"Borris, second lieutenant." The short hair guy saw Jiang Chen and immediately saluted. "General Markanov sent me to greet you."

"Jiang Chen." Jiang Chen told him his name and shook his hand.

The hand was filled with calluses, which told the story that he was an experienced soldier.

He retracted the hand and Borris nodded.

"Please follow me."

He took a black suitcase out of the car and motioned for Jiang Chen and Nick to follow him.

But what they didn't know was that approximately 400 meters away from where they parked, there was a body.

The uniform and equipment were stripped, and the pupil dilated with a daunting blood hole on the forehead.

Armored vehicles and tank wreckages were on the side of the road. It was a crossfire zone.

On the desolate street, a silent girl walked by.

She was covered in black. Her thin lips exposed from under her hood. There was a guitar case behind her back, like a musician strolling across the ruins.

She lifted the sleeve of her right hand, and a watch-like computer flashed faint lights.

That was the EP.

On the screen was a map of the area. Using waves to create tactical maps was one of the unbelievable function of the EP.

Yesterday at this time, she had already walked through the entire area. The blue dot on the map was the location of the sensor Jiang Chen carried.

"Am I here?" Ayesha mumbled while she walked to the half-torn residential apartment.

"It's really dangerous there. It got struck by a bomb only a few days ago, and it could fall any second." A refugee crawling on the side tried to warn the girl, but the girl only glanced at him before she took out a pistol.

The refugee raised his hand in horror and moved back.

"Leave."

Perhaps he understood Ayesha's English, for the person moved back a few steps. Then, seeing that she had no intention to shoot, he fled right away.

Seeing the irrelevant people leave. She retracted her pistol and carried the guitar box upstairs.

Ayesha agilely moved around the broken stairs as she effortlessly came to the top floor.

Just like what she learned in the virtual reality training system.

She opened the guitar box, took out the sniper rifle parts and assembled the sniper skillfully.

After some adjustments, Ayesha took out a city camouflage and put it on her back. She lied on the dusty floor and set up the futuristic looking Ghost sniper rifle.

"Ayesha ready," as if she was talking to herself, Ayesha muttered on the ground.

"Mhmm. Wait for my order."

Jiang Chen reached out to touch his ear and moved his wrist closer to his lips to whisper.

Borris walked in front to lead the way. Nick followed and examined the surrounding without words. Jiang Chen looked rather relaxed as if he did not understand that he was in the front line.

The rough, muddy road had wooden boards lined up, two meters tall, along the side of the road, creating a temporary fence. In the forefront, this thing is used to obstruct the sniper's view or unexpected shots.

"How long?" Jiang Chen scanned the tank stalled on the road as he casually asked Borris up front.

"Soon, it's in front," Borris gave a vague answer.

"Oh. Could I ask you a personal question?" Jiang Chen walked up to him and smiled.

"Of course, as long as it doesn't involve sensitive information."

"Your position in the 92nd Mechanized Infantry is?" From the calluses on his hands, this guy must be a great soldier.

"Currently Markanov General's personal guard." Borris' English was fluent. He could understand Jiang Chen's Han-accented English, which barely passes level six of the proficiency test.

"Oh? Then you must be a good shooter." Jiang Chen looked at him quite surprised.

"Not bad." Borris didn't seem to want to continue on the topic, but he paused, and then added, "I am his nephew."

The three continued for a bit longer, but at this time, Nick began scanning down the road, raised his eyebrows, and then stopped.

The quiet him abruptly interrupted, "The 92nd mechanized infantry already pushed up this far?"

"Of course not." Borris shrugged and said something the two didn't understand.

Nick had the fastest reaction as he instantly reached for his waist. But Borris, clearly prepared, was one step ahead and pointed his rifle at him.

"I suggest you don't move. Not including the gun in my hand, there is one pointing at you hundreds of meters away," Borris said lightheartedly, but he was looking at Jiang Chen. "Very sorry, Mr. Jiang, someone wants to talk with you."

"Who?" Jiang Chen smiled, with the same lighthearted tone.

Obviously, this Borris was fake. Markanov probably did send someone here but got killed, and then substituted for this Borris?

Although he was prepared for trouble, Jiang Chen didn't expect the trouble to not come from Markanov, but from a force he hasn't met before.

The radio signal must have been intercepted. They are obviously not weak. But even knowing this, Jiang Chen's face remained emotionless as he looked at Borris with a bright smile.

Borris didn't answer Jiang Chen's question as he looked at him slightly shocked. "Mr. Jiang is not worried about your own safety?"

"Safety? Why would I be worried about it?" Jiang Chen pretended to be confused and shrugged. "Since you want to kidnap me, wouldn't you guarantee my safety?"

Borris cracked a smile as he seemed to be intrigued by Jiang Chen's logic. Then he raised his left hand and made a gesture.

A few people walked out from the shadows. Their skillful moves along with their professional positioning indicated that these people must be of the special forces.

He looked at the unanimous Russian faces and recalled Nick saying Kane didn't have a special force. Jiang Chen had a sense of the identities of these people.

Nick was tied up, but they were courteous enough not to do the same thing to Jiang Chen. Maybe from appearance, Jiang Chen didn't look like a dangerous figure.

"KGB?" Jiang Chen tried to probe the question as he stared into Borris' eyes.

No wonder he was a professional, his pupils didn't waiver at all. Borris only smiled and didn't respond.

"Who we are is not important, handsome from the east."

With a flirtatious tone, Jiang Chen heard a familiar voice behind him.

The broken Han.

Chapter 143: The Three Musketeers

"It's you?' Jiang Chen looked at the beauty walking towards him in astonishment. The tall figure, blonde, and blue-eyed was the same woman that chatted with him at the hotel.

But the woman didn't respond to his shock as she simply muttered to herself.

"Jiang Chen, male, 25. President of Future Technology, 99% shareholder of the company. Force unknown, suspected of high technology and research capabilities. Initial capital originated from gold, used the UA middleman Robert to offload 11.240 tons of gold, the large quantity caused a selloff in the UA gold exchange which amounted to a consecutive three-days drop up to 2%."

Hearing the description by this beauty, Jiang Chen was startled.

[Wow, basically they dug up my entire background overseas.]

"Looks like you guys did a great job investigating me." Jiang Chen clapped and stared at her. "And then? What do you plan to get out of me? I am not a scientist, nor a spy, only a businessman. I don't have anything to give you. It would be odd if you are just here for the one million USD worth of gold. You don't look like you lack funding."

"Exactly because you are a businessman." The Kaneian beauty smiled, the eyes in her deep eye sockets gazed at him, "Don't you think your appearance is unfitting for your identity? Mr. Jiang Chen."

"That's a great point." Jiang Chen nodded while he acted as if he was thinking.

At least, Jobs or Bill Gates would not come to this place.

"Then, could you answer my confusion?" She walked beside Jiang Chen and got slightly closer, half-smiling, she continued, "The reason why you are here."

"Of course, but before that, could I know your name," Jiang Chen cooperatively raised his hands, just like passing through security, he let the graceful looking hands search through his body as he said casually.

"Natasha." She smiled as she didn't find any weapons. She then grabbed his chin, as if teasing him, "Teeth looks clean. I thought Han agents hide poison in their tooth."

"Have you watched too many dramas?" Jiang Chen rolled his eyes, not feeling tense at all. "Also, I am not an agent."

[Natasha? Seems like a popular name.]

Nonchalantly shrugging, Natasha stared into his eyes mischievously. "That's hard to say. Now, what's your reason for coming here? Are you representing yourself, your country? Or, the force behind you?"

Jiang Chen looked strangely at Natasha as he said helplessly, "Why do you agents always ask this question? I remember an UA citizen asking me this before."

"Don't change the subject," Natasha said coldly.

"I choose C."

Natasha paused for a moment as she was surprised by how direct Jiang Chen's response was.

"And then? Even if I say I work for a force, what are you planning to do? I didn't threaten your national security." He made up a story without his heart skipping a beat.

Life is a like a show; it's mainly dependant on one's acting.

"Oh yeah? Then we'll take you to a place. Once we are there, there will be "experts" discussing this problem with you." Natasha slightly moved away from Jiang Chen as she pressed the wireless headphone onto her ear. "Package" is retracted, requesting lift.

"Roger, this is Vulture, M-171 deployed and on its way."

Once the communication ended, she didn't say anything else but looked at Jiang Chen with a smile. What she didn't know was that the conversation between the guy with the code name "Vulture" was intercepted by the micro communication chip in his ear, it was even translated into Han.

Jiang Chen looked emotionlessly at Natasha, but his mind was spinning quickly.

[Five Russian special forces, or agents. Only Ayesha herself, Nick is being controlled, and it would be impractical to take care of five "experts" altogether.]

He was waiting for an opportunity.

Like how she practiced in the virtual reality training system, Ayesha quietly aimed through the scope.

The center of the cross was Borris' face.

Something unexpected happened as the three of them stopped. Four figures dashed out from the shadows while Jiang Chen's companion was taken as hostage.

Ayesha slightly moved the gun as she aimed at the woman getting closer to Jiang Chen.

When the Kaneian beauty approached Jiang Chen and touched him all over. Ayesha's eyebrows uncontrollably twitched, her delicate finger repeatedly rubbed against the trigger.

The ghost sniper rifle was advanced at every level compared to the technology in this age.

Seeing Jiang Chen was in danger, Ayesha was out of sort. She took a deep breath as she calmly decreased the magnification on the scope, and pressed a button on the side of the rifle.

A line of blue letters appeared on top of the sight.

<Widerange life detection system activated>

Immediately, the blue waves scanned across the field in the scope, and a few red dots were marked. The function was rather useless as most survivors, who had the ability to, would use a life signal jammer to prevent their location from being detected. But in the modern world, without such technology, the function was like cheating.

"Two snipers?" Ayesha raised her eyebrows confused.

300 meters away, there was a sniper in camouflage on top of an apartment building. 1500 meters away, another sniper lied on top of a roof in the factory. Both locked onto the seven people standing on the rural road.

Same force? Didn't look like it.

The two snipers didn't wear anything that revealed their identity.

Ayesha only hesitated for a second before she made the decision.

She put her finger to her ear and said calmly, "Two snipers. Do friendly forces exist?"

Within the sight, she saw Jiang Chen slightly shake his head.

Then, Ayesha asked, "Requesting permission to kill."

Within the cross, Jiang Chen was speaking with Natasha as he nodded.

"Understood."

Ayesha closed the microphone, put her right hand on the rifle again, and positioned her finger on the trigger.

The cross sight moved, and she first locked onto the sniper 300 meters away. The person did not have the slightest sense that he was someone else's prey. He had his eyes locked on the scope.

Typically speaking, snipers would be absolutely safe before they expose themselves by firing. Of course, that was under normal circumstances.

Bang!

The gunshot was faint under the influence of the silencer. The bullet accurately penetrated through the head of the sniper as his skull cracked like a watermelon.

She didn't stop her sight on his body as she quickly aimed at the target 1500 meters out.

Because the distance was relatively far, she opened the wind speed calculation device and adjusted the magnification on the scope.

"Wind speed 4 km/hr, distance 1500 meters," Ayesha murmured as she pulled the trigger again.

_Min_

Chapter 144: Chaos

"Target down."

A smile emerged on Jiang Chen’s face.

For some reason, Natasha felt unsettled by the Asian man’s smile.

At the same time, in an underground military facility a thousand meters away.

"Dagger 01 lost connection."

"Are they Russian snipers? Call Guard 01, initiate plan B."

"Guard 01 received. As you wish, commander."

…

The M-171 helicopter appeared in the air. The camouflage green had a frightening vibe to it.

"I remembered that you said in the news that Russian soldiers haven’t passed the border." Jiang Chen used a questioning tone.

"NATO said that too. Also, I never said I was Russian." Natasha shrugged. "Take a trip with me. Trust me, if you can prove that you are only a merchant, we’ll let you go."

"What makes you think I believe you?" Jiang Chen shrugged and looked into the sky. "Crossing the border just for me, you are not going to let me go easily."

"But you don’t have any other choice," Borris interrupted laughing.

[Don't I?]

Jiang Chen maintained his gaze at 75°, looking at the sky, the violent turbulence forced his eyes to narrow. Then, hiding under the noise of the approaching helicopter's rotor blade, at an angle Natasha couldn’t see, he pretended to scratch his ear and opened his mouth.

"Shoot the fuel tank."

"Roger." Ayesha's calm and comforting answer transmitted into his ear.

Bang-!

The bullet hit the fuel tank.

But at the same time, a trail of fire erupted into the air and struck at the helicopter from a building nearby. It simultaneously hit the helicopter's engine.

Jiang Chen was truly lost seeing what just happened.

[The ghost sniper has a barrel this big?]

"RPG!"

"Dammit!"

Like a mosquito slapped out of the air, the helicopter began to slant and dive unexpectedly to the ground. Natasha’s first reaction was Jiang Chen’s men as she quickly aimed at Jiang Chen. But at the same time, gunfire suddenly burst out of the wooden shack across the road.

Bullets left a trail of dust and debris on the concrete floor and wooden board.

Jiang Chen dove for cover on the side. The unsuspecting KGB agent under fire also tried to find cover while firing back. But the other side was obviously prepared. They had the advantage in both firepower and number of people.

Natasha gritted her teeth, hooked her arm around Jiang Chen’s neck, and hid behind the cover while pulling out the pistol with her other hand.

"Is it your people?"

"No. If it is, why the fu*k am I hiding?" Jiang Chen was also in an awkward position. When the bullet fired over, his also had a daunting feel.

But the feeling he felt on his back did feel good. Umm, the advantage of Slavic people?

"Then shut up." Natasha maintained this flirtatious position while firing back a few shots to test the waters. But immediately, a wave of bullets met her and forced her to take cover.

[What the fu*k, you have been asking the questions!]

"Do you need me to shoot her?" Ayesha’s voice transmitted into his ear, her tone sounded subtle.

Jiang Chen immediately shook his head. He hasn't figured out the situation here, if Natasha is down, it would only further complicate the situation. The first thing was to wait for them to finish fighting before taking action.

But with the head shake, the back of his head scratched on something he shouldn’t have scratched, Natasha’s grim eyes immediately looked over.

"What are you doing?"

"Umm. My neck is feeling weird." Jiang Chen forced an awkward laugh as he glanced at the arm hooked around his neck.

To his surprise, Natasha didn’t continue to be angry. Instead, she smiled dubiously.

"Yesterday afternoon, I gave you the opportunity to take advantage of me, now you are interested? Or are you a masochist?"

"Yesterday afternoon? Umm, I am curious, if I agreed, what would you do?"

"Nothing," Natasha’s voice was light. "I’ll give you a needle when you try to use your needle."

Jiang Chen forced a smile when he heard her words.

[Phew, almost agreed to it.]

He leaned against the softness. While still nervous, he didn't think the feeling was too terrible. Jiang Chen asked Natasha who continually peeked out to fire back, "You seem suppressed by their firepower, are you not worried?"

"Worried?" Natasha looked at him oddly and then scoffed.

The artillery support at the border was not there for decoration.

Just as the voice died, a screeching sound broke across the sky.

Boom-!

The explosion lifted the already torn wooden shack into the sky. The opponent’s firepower immediately weakened. Then, a few trails of white smoke flew in the sky. The explosions covered the entire area.

He looked at the chaos as his mouth twitched.

[Damn, not only the border, they even fired over the border.

No wonder they are the Russians.]

"Direct hit, beautiful, say thanks for me to the gunner." Borris held the headphones and moved out of cover.

"Danger alleviated. Get up, handsome." Natasha dubiously smiled, then dragged Jiang Chen by the collar.

"Okay, Yuri, take the Belarussian with us. We’ll head to B point to evacuate-"

Bang!

His voice was interrupted, as Borris’s cocky expression froze on his face. A daunting blood hole appeared on his chest.

"Sniper! Dammit!"

Natasha pushed Jiang Chen to the ground. The others got into the same position.

"It’s not me who shot," Ayesha's voice emerged, "the sniper is directly in front of me, and exceeds my range… Can I shoot the female thug on top of you? This is a good opportunity."

Jiang Chen shook his head with a forced smile, but his nose and mouth were being firmly held by the softness, shaking his head was not the most convenient move.

"This is the second time." He heard a cold voice. Clearly, Natasha was in a terrible mood.

"The second time you pushed me over? I only want to breathe... Let’s not talk about this, what should we do? Miss Kidnapper?"

He got away from the softness, neglected the angry face, and said innocently.

"Strawman, strawman please return… Dammit! Strawman died." The Russian man named Yuri cursed angrily.

[Strawman? One of the snipers killed by Ayesha? In that case, two forces are competing.

Goddamn, why am I so popular?] Jiang Chen cursed in this mind.

"Yuri, do you see his position?" Natasha ignored Jiang Chen as she yelled at the cover behind her.

Being suppressed by a sniper was far more frightening than being suppressed by a machine gun. At least you could see the machine gun bullets, but you don’t even know where sniper bullets come from.

"Let me try." Yuri gritted he teeth. He signaled his comrade to keep an eye on Nick, who was still tied down and then took out the binoculars, carefully peeking out of the cover.

As long as they marked the sniper’s position, an artier would send him to air!

Bang-!

Red mixed with white, spilled everywhere, without warning.

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 145: Have you seen Mission Impossible 5?

Nick's eyes narrowed, and he used his shoulder to wipe off the blood splashed onto his face. Although his expression remained the same, he was internally shocked. To be able to lock onto a target and fire in two seconds, the sniper's shooting could not get any better.

"Yuri!"

Before the voice faded, another shot was fired.

The bullet accurately penetrated the head that peeked out from the other side of the cover.

Morris wanted to use the opportunity garnered by the commander's life to lock onto the position of the sniper. But the opposing sniper's reaction was unfathomable, as they immediately switched target after the shot, firing without a glimpse of delay.

Natasha's was furious. Within one minute, her team suffered three casualties.

"Dammit, Yuri, Morris down! Captain, we should request assistance!" The other Russian agent beside Nick firmly leaned against the cover and yelled in Natasha's direction.

"We sent out all the help we could. Command center, target x13-y15, requesting smoke bomb launch."

"This is command center, permission granted, smoke bomb launched."

The explosion rang once again as thick gray smoke covered the area. The smoke bomb with thermal reaction meant that even if the enemy was equipped with heat detection scope, it could block their vision.

Natasha let out a breath of air as she carried her rifle and dragged Jiang Chen by the collar, about to get up.

But now, sensing the opportunity was here, Jiang Chen's eyes moved, and he clamped both of her hands. Before Natasha could react, Jiang Chen grabbed both of her hands. In the not most elegant position, she was pushed to the ground.

Seeing the situation, the Russian beside Nick quickly aimed at Jiang Chen.

"Break up the hand." The grim words came out, and Ayesha simultaneous pressed the trigger. The bullet ripped apart the right wrist of the Russian as the horrifying bone was exposed in the air. Before the man could scream out in pain, Nick, who sensed the opportunity, dashed up and slammed him to the ground. With his knees pressed on the arm, Nick used the rope between his hand against the Russian's neck and choked him unconscious.

Seeing as the Russian didn't move anymore, Jiang Chen signaled Nick to treat him and tie him up, before he looked at Natasha again.

The Ukrainian girl riding him had a face full of humiliation as she desperately tried to fight back. Her face was steamy red, but regardless of how much force she used, both of her hands could not escape from Jiang Chen's iron claw.

She couldn't imagine this guy, who identifies as a merchant, could use one hand too tightly clench onto both of her hands. Despite how hard she tried, she could not move the slightest bit.

"Stop, don't waste your energy," Jiang Chen said casually as he looked at the balls, distorted against the concrete floor, with a grin. He then mocked, mimicking her tone, "Third time?"

Seeing as struggling was futile, Natasha decided to stop moving. She turned her face as she used the corner of her eye to angrily stare at Jiang Chen, who was sitting on her waist.

"Did you lock onto the sniper's position?" With one hand clenching Natasha, Jiang Chen used the other hand to touch his ear. He looked like he was speaking to himself.

"Locked on, the target is moving." Although it was outside of her range, that "rat's" life signal was already marked on the map.

"Follow him, try to capture him alive."

"Roger," Ayesha's responded concisely.

Jiang Chen ended their communication and glanced in Nick's direction.

The Russian with a broken hand was tied up and thrown against the wall. Nick overlooked him with a rifle in hand. The man seemed to have gone unconscious because of the lost blood, but that was okay, as long as he didn't die. If it was not needed, Jiang Chen didn't want to be an enemy to the intelligence department of the "Five Thugs." Then, Jiang Chen looked backed at Natasha, looking at her dubiously.

"Now, it's time for me to interrogate you?"

Natasha smiled contemptuously. "You won't get a single word out of my mouth."

"That's not a guarantee." Jiang Chen shrugged as he suddenly smiled mischievously. "Since my people already took care of the sniper, we have plenty of time. Why don't we do something fun."

"I promise it won't be fun." Natasha sneered, her green eyes filled with defiance.

"That depends. Maybe, in the end, you can't even control yourself." Jiang Chen's laugh was pure evil.

Funny, he realized after being injected with the genetic vaccine, not only did his physique improve, the width and hardness did as well. With the help of fury, even Ayesha, who was slightly M, would go insane.

But he obviously was just joking. He was not at the point where he would do it here.

"With you?"

Natasha's contemptuous voice ignited a flame in Jiang Chen's heart.

[I can't take this.]

Jiang Chen was immediately unhappy.

"Do you want to test it out?"

...

On a block 500 meters away.

A slim figure, carrying a sniper rifle, was moving quickly through the street in shambles.

This area was the frontline between the government force and civil militant. The glass along the street was shattered, and busted tanks and armored vehicles were everywhere on the road. Gunshots could be faintly heard from afar to what seemed like a fairly large scale attack.

She ducked down and maintained her running position. She then looked at her right arm.

The dangling right arm illuminated with light. The radio life detection system synced with the gathered data on the EP map. Right now, the red dot on the map already stopped moving, that sniper must have arrived at the backup sniping point. If she just wanted to kill him, one shot would be enough from such a distance. A sniper with exposed coordinates was as good as died. But to capture him, naturally, she had to get close.

Ayesha was getting closer and closer to the target, her rapid steeps started to turn more cautious.

Quickly, her distance with the target was only one street. Ayesha leaned against the wall as she examined from across the street.

It was an abandoned office building. The revolving glass door was cracked with wrecked armored vehicles slammed into the door. Ayesha retrieved the sniper rifle from her back. She looked into the scope and scanned the building.

After confirming the exact location of the target, Ayesha hoisted the pistol by her waist, slowly took a deep breath, and then dashed into the street.

She carefully docked across the shattered door, with light steps, and cautiously sneaked upstairs.

Usually, once sniper is in position, their awareness to their surrounding decreased to null. For snipers that worked alone, mines and traps were pretty much a must.

She carefully followed the safety tunnel to the fifth floor. At the corner of the hallway, she stopped.

She stopped, let out a sigh, grabbed an EMP grenade from her pocket, and slid it out after detonation.

Static noise.

...

Ayesha held the pistol, turned around, and continued to the fifth-floor door. At the door, a mine sat there. But the infrared emitter on top was destroyed by the EMP. She stepped over the no longer functioning mine, with agile steps, and sneaked to the end of the tunnel.

Vasily quietly laid on the ground with eyes locked on the scope. Based on the image from the drone, the four people didn't leave. Instead, under cover of the smoke, they went into a shack not too far away.

The plot's progression surprised him. The command center explicitly stated to capture, took down the KGB agent in one move. The intelligence department said he was just an ordinary person?

An average person that could take down an agent with one move?

Regardless, he was still there. As long as he maintained his position on the sniper, he only needs to wait for reinforcement, and take them as hostages.

But for some reason, his felt unsettled.

Suddenly, someone kicked him in the butt.

He immediately flinched. The moment he turned around, he also reached for his pistol. But before he could, a black shadow covered his entire vision.

The headphones dropped to the side. Ayesha emotionlessly looked at the bloodstain on the gun barrel, and then at the Russian with his nose smashed.

"Dagger 02, Dagger 02, report your status-"

Ayesha crushed the headphone as she took out handcuffs and cuffed the unlucky guy.

She opened the mic.

"Target retracted."

...

"Beautiful, drag him over here." A smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face, but that smile in the eyes of Natasha was eviler than the devil himself.

The sniper was captured. Interrogation should get out some useful information from him. But Jiang Chen was still curious as to how he drew the interest of the KGB.

He looked at the Natasha, tied up on the ground, as he gave her a friendly smile.

But the friendly expression did not receive the same recognition from her.

Natasha used the same grim look and stared back at him.

"Don't look at me like that." Jiang Chen shrugged as he tried to defend his action. "I said I am just a businessman, but you stick to me like flies. Did I bother you or trouble you?"

"Fly? What do flies like to stick to?" Natasha sneered.

Jiang Chen first stopped, then laughed.

"Are you trying to enrage me? Is there any benefit to you for doing so?"

Natasha bit her lip, not responding. The blond hair on her forehead was a bit messy. In her deep eye socket was a pair of piercing eyes. The vibe was certainly there. The look of, regardless of anything you do, I won't say anything.

This made Jiang Chen troubled. To be honest, he personally didn't enjoy use force on beauty.

He sighed and said, "In my opinion, you should just cooperate. Tell me who you represent? Why do you need me? For what? And then I'll let you go. Such simple concepts. Although I am not an agent, I have seen entire Hollywood blockbusters and war dramas. Even if I haven't seen an interrogation before, at least I could try to use a thing or two. If I accidentally don't control my force, then you-"

"Do you think I am scared of death?" Still the contemptuous tone.

Mission outside of the border without the grant of the United Nations. For the glory of the country, even if she dies, she would not admit her identity.

Jiang Chen stopped again, gave it some thought, and nodded while scratching his chin.

"Not a bad point."

He can't kill her. Jiang Chen didn't plan to make enemies with the KGB.

But how would he get the information out of her?

Suddenly, Jiang Chen clapped his hands as if he thought of something. Then, he smiled at Natasha with a not so friendly smile.

"What are you smiling at?" Natasha felt uncomfortable.

"Nothing. But speaking of which, have you seen <Mission Impossible 5>?"

_Min_

Chapter 146: The Secret

Within a dark room.

Natasha's pupils dilated as she sat awkwardly on the chair. Her limbs were tied firmly onto the armrests and chair legs.

Jiang Chen glanced at her and sneered a few times.

Don't be mistaken. Although he did say he wanted her to "try", Jiang Chen didn't actually do anything to her. Instead, he asked Ayesha to come and guard the door. He then walked into an inner room and went back to the apocalypse.

He sent a message to Zhou Guoping, stationed in the Sixth Street, and asked him to find out if there was any truth-telling liquid. To be honest, Jiang Chen wasn't too confident about medicine from sci-fi movies existing in the future. But when he heard his boss' question, Zhuo Guoping stated that it did exist and promised that he would send it over after he purchased it.

Jiang Chen sat in the community center for a bit as he took the truth-telling liquid from the meticulous Zhou Guoping. After sending him back, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world.

The trip back and forth took four hours. The sky was already darkening.

Nick still stood outside, guarding without complaint, while Ayesha also stood her ground at the door, coldly exchanging eye contact with Natasha.

What happened after was simple.

Natasha's contempt was better than Lin Lin's. Her resilience was also hundreds of times stronger, keeping her mouth shut.

But Jiang Chen didn't waste time with her. In front of her, he slowly took out a needle from his pocket.

"Have you heard about the truth-telling liquid? The one in <Mission Impossible 5>."

Natasha's face immediately changed as she desperately twisted her back to resist. Without any other solutions, Jiang Chen had to forcefully tie her onto the chair to sit her down. Then, he looked at her frightened expression pleasingly.

[Scared? What happened to the earlier you?]

He personally loved to put things in beauty's bodies.

To be fair, the truth-telling liquid was pretty useless in the apocalypse.

Based on what Zhou Guoping said, the principle of this was to force the target's brain into hypnosis, while only being able to perform simple information receiving and answering. But in the apocalypse, even the survivors injected with the cheap E-grade genetic vaccine would not be hypnotized by this kind of medicine.

But in the modern world, using this thing was just unfair.

After being injected, Natasha was much more honest. Jiang Chen would ask a question, and she would reply with an answer drowsily. Then, the sniper also had an injection, and after combining the responses of both people, Jiang Chen finally understood the story from beginning to end.

But the truth felt heavy.

Willie Society, a mysterious organization established before the Second World War, was created by the German politician Scholar Karl Haus Haufer. Its members included Herman, Himmler and even Hitler himself. Based on rumors, a lot of the obscure technology came from there. At the same, the organization committed a lot of sinful activities during the war. After the war, it disappeared into thin air, as if it didn't exist at all.

But that was not the key point. The key point was that the organization still existed even today? And within Kane? The new president Poroshenko was also a member? NATO allowed for its existence?

It was a hefty piece of news, but he tied what he saw in the news before, Azerbillari soldiers of the Mariupuer force had the Nazi symbol painted on their helmets, as well as the Kane soldier with the Nazi symbol attached to their arms, and began to think.

The information was from Natasha.

KGB's spy activity in Kane was mostly spent on the mysterious organization called Willie Society. It differed from what Jiang Chen had suspected. He thought the Russian agents were coming for him because of the artificial intelligence, but it was an obscure reason. The only reason Natasha found him was because of a phone call.

Half a month ago, when KGB was tapping Poroshenko's confidant - General Markanov, they by chance got an interesting message.

A man named Robert called him.

Three keywords, "Jiang Chen, Gold, Mercenaries".

By coincidence, around one year ago, when Robert didn't touch the Iran oil and simply played the middleman role diligently, he was in charge of selling firearms to the Kane government on behalf of the White House. At that time, he was successfully put onto the blacklist of KGB, and KGB did initiate a civil militant-led attack targeting him. If it were not for the Slavic man who could fight, he would have been done for.

Then, after Robert left Kane, his name naturally came off of the blacklist. But Natasha didn't expect to see that name again. After some investigation, Jiang Chen's resume was put into her hands. But his history was too clean. Clean to the point that it was unbelievable.

Therefore, the moment Jiang Chen got off the plane, he was monitored.

Markanov is a member of the Willie society. KGB wants to know the intention behind Jiang Chen's contact with him.

The original plan was for Natasha to try and hit on Jiang Chen, inject anesthetics when they entered the room, then transport him out of the hotel through special means, and interrogate at the safe house.

But what she didn't expect was that Jiang Chen was not as perverted as the information said, as he rejected her proposition. So she had to ask for permission to start plan B, which was, once Jiang Chen left Veit, intercept him once they reached Oesk.

The further they drove east, the more advantageous the situation was for them.

But unfortunately, KGB was not the only ones interested in Jiang Chen. Willie Society was also confused by the man from the east attempting to contact Markanov. It was okay when it was Robert since he represented the UA, but they questioned Jiang Chen's identity.

Also, he belonged to a mysterious organization?

They couldn't find a single piece of information related to the force behind him. They could deduce from current information that Jiang Chen belonged to an organization with unknown motive, unknown location, but strong research and development capabilities and substantial funding.

As to Jiang Chen himself, just like KGB, they only managed to find a "resume" as good as scrap paper.

It looked fake no matter how they interpreted it.

Uhh, although Jiang Chen wanted to state that the piece of paper was real.

The intelligence always over thought. So he'll leave them to their imagination.

They also started to monitor Jiang Chen when he got off the plane. But during monitoring, they found an interesting person - Natasha, KGB agent.

The Willie agent was immediately unsettled when they saw the contact between Jiang Chen and KGB, but they didn't alert them. Because it was a great opportunity! Not including Jiang Chen himself, if they operated correctly, they could even take out all the Russian agents behind Natasha!

So, they also patiently waited for Jiang Chen to arrive at Oesk, and waited for the Russians to make the first move.

...

To put it in simple terms, he was targeted by the two troubling groups, Willie Society and KGB. As long as he was in Kane, he would not be able to get rid of these troubles.

"Are you okay?" Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen caringly.

"Yeah, keep an eye on her for me." Jiang Chen rubbed his temple wearily as he headed outside.

Outside the shack, Nick was patrolling with his rifle. Seeing Jiang Chen walk towards him, he waved to say hi.

"How's the situation?"

"Everything is normal. The Russain special force seemed to have headed to our previous location. They rescued the pilot."

"Not a big deal. Do you have a satellite phone? I need to discuss with that dumb*ss Robert." Their location was far away from the crash. They wouldn't be able to find them here.

Nick smiled, took out the satellite phone, and threw it into Jiang Chen's hand.

Right now, Robert was in a distant land across the Atlantic ocean. Lying relaxingly in his Los Santos mansion, enjoying the lavish life. Beside him lied a girl "lost in life", ready to discuss her Hollywood dream with him the entire night.

But in this critical moment, the phone on the nightstand suddenly rang.

Although he was unwilling, he saw the caller was Jiang Chen. He immediately picked up.

"Hello? Did you meet my old friend?"

"Meet your mom!" Jiang Chen was instantly frustrated when he heard Robert's cheerful voice, and cursed, "Who the hell is your old friend? The moment I got off the plane, I got monitored by two agent organizations."

Robert held the phone, momentarily lost for words. He asked with confusion in his voice, "What?"

Jiang Chen adjusted his emotion as he let out a sigh. Then he slowly said, "KGB, Willie Society."

Robert's face immediately changed. He ignored the Hollywood girl beside him, got out of the bed, and walked to the living room covering his phone.

"How did you mess with the KGB? And, what is Willie society?" Robert said anxiously.

Robert didn't even know? Jiang Chen was surprised.

"Have you not heard about them when you were in Kane? It seems to be an organization with roots starting in the Second World War, with the Nazis... Dammit! What is this bullsh*t? Your old friend, Markanov, appears to be a Willie Society member."

Then, Jiang Chen stated the information he got with truth-telling liquid again.

Hearing Jiang Chen's description, Robert's expression turned serious.

"I always thought it was a rumor... But I can't believe they actually exist."

"Yes, they do, but what the fu*k does it have to do with me? I just want to know, how am I going to leave Kane? If I got back to , I would be captured. The same will happen if I head to the east towards Russia. Do I need to swim across the Black Sea? This is bullsh*t," Jiang Chen swore.

"Wait, let me think." Robert closed his eyes, and then suddenly opened them, "Did you kill them?"

He referred to the Russian agents.

"No, I tied them up," Jiang Chen took a deep breath and said slowly.

"Good. There are still ways to resolve this... How about selling the two Russian agents to the CIB? I know someone working in Kane."

"F*ck you," Jiang Chen burst out, "Your friend again?"

Robert was quite helpless too and revealed a bitter face. "Umm... There is nothing I can do. Who knew Markanov has an identity like this? Dammit, when I sold him firearms before, I didn't care who he was. For real, buddy, sell the people to CIB. They will send helicopters to pick you up and send you to their aircraft carrier."

"And?"

"They should let you off at Greece, and then arrange for your tickets home."

"That's fine. I'll think of other ways." Jiang Chen hung up the phone.

Nick took the phone from Jiang Chen and asked, "Did Robert think of something?"

"He is dumber than before," Jiang Chen cursed and returned to the shack.

[You must be kidding me, getting involved with the CIB again? There is not enough trouble already?]

Willie Society is okay since they should only be operating in Kane. KGB is fine too since this is not a Soviet era.

But if CIB were interested in you, they would take UA citizens' taxpayer money to chase your butt around the world.

He pushed open the door, and Jiang Chen saw Ayesha working on the scope of the rifle.

Jiang Chen adjusted his emotion as he tried to force a relaxed look. Then, he said with a smile, "What are you doing?"

Seeing Jiang Chen was back, Ayesha smiled gently at him.

"Doing maintenance on the gun. Exporting video footage."

[Video footage?]

He hesitated for a moment before his eyes lit up.

[I have a solution now!]

Chapter 147: The Perfect Solution

When Natasha woke up drowsily from passing out, she struggled to open her sore eyes.

When she realized her current circumstance, a fierce look was targeted towards Jiang Chen, who was sitting directly across from her.

"What did you do to me?" Obviously, she didn't have any memories after being injected with the truth-telling liquid.

Her clothes were distorted with hands tied to the armrest, and feet locked to the chair legs. A male and a female in a room together. There was a lot of room for the imagination.

"Nothing." Jiang Chen shrugged with a smile on his face. "I am an innocent person."

Psh!

Natasha cursed in her mind as she looked at Jiang Chen without saying a word.

"KGB."

Jiang Chen spoke, but Natasha's expression did not change at all. As long as she doesn't admit it, what could he do to her?

Seeing Natasha's look of defiance, Jiang Chen smiled, put a smartphone on the table, and pressed play.

"I am from the KGB..."

"The purpose of your trip in Kane?"

"To conduct intelligence, gather and provide intelligence for civil militants..."

Questions and answers. The male's voice was obviously Jiang Chen's; the female was Natasha's.

Natasha's face turned pale as she violently twisted her body to free herself and grab the phone. Seeing the girl's action, Jiang Chen only shrugged and pressed the screen a few more times.

"Before you calm down, I'll to show you something even more interesting."

He ignored Natasha's deathly stare as Jiang Chen picked the phone up and played the video.

The video's quality was high. The perspective was from a scope. In the video, there was an M-171 Russian Helicopter. Then, the screen shook, Ayesha fired. At the same time, an RPG hit the helicopter.

The helicopter went out of balance and crashed. Then, what looked like Kane's special forces began to fire at the group. Of course, it was a joke that Kane has a special force.

Right after, Borris in the front called for artillery support, and a few shells covered the entire area, sending the group of soldiers flying.

Then it was Borris being shot in the chest. Then the Yuri guy being shot in the head, followed by Morris. Then, it was Ayesha that broke another Russian agent's hand, but that part was cut.

Natasha's expression was pale as she stopped struggling.

"I trust that you know what would happen if this video appeared on YouTube or other sites. Unauthorized military action in foreign countries. Artillery stationed in the border launching strikes against foreign targets. The video's resolution is much better than the UA's satellite. I remember that the White House didn't even capture images of you guys firing. Would this in my hand be considered big news? Just so you know, I also intercepted the communication requesting for artillery." Jiang Chen smiled delightfully.

There was not a single trace of redness on Natasha's face. She knew exactly what kind of severe consequence would result if the video was uploaded.

"Give me the video."

"No." Jiang Chen smiled.

"You'll be hunted by KGB agents," Natasha threatened.

"If something happens to me, the video will automatically be sent out. You will get nothing out of it," Jiang Chen's fingers crossed as he said this, not caring.

Natasha was silent. Then she changed into a flirtatious expression.

"If you are willing to give it to me, I will give you some unexpecting services."

Ayesha standing by the door glanced at her, the emotionless face looked rather daunting.

"Are you not going to ask your little soldier to leave? I will make you really comfortable." Natasha was a different person, the eyes in her deep eye sockets were charming.

To be honest, Jiang Chen was feeling a little hard.

"I'll pass. Who knows how many people have you done. I would rather pay," Jiang Chen closed his eyes to avoid showing any fluctuations in his emotions, hiding his awkwardness. He then continued, "Also, she is not a soldier, she is my wife."

Hearing that, Ayesha's eyes opened wide. Mist flickered in her eyes. Natasha glanced at the "touched" girl and continued to look at Jiang Chen with a smile.

"That might not be true. I am still pure."

"Who would believe it? Stop with this nonsense, let's make a deal," Jiang Chen, annoyed, spoke. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation after being firm on his stance for so long.

"Deal? You think you are worthy enough to make a deal with the country?" Natasha's eyes cooled down as she narrowed them.

"Country? Nah, I'm only making a deal with your intelligence minister," Jiang Chen ignored Natasha's contemptuous expression and said straightforwardly. "If the video appears on the Internet, the political career of your minister is over. Someone must take the blame for this."

"Then?"

"As long as we pretend it doesn't exist." Jiang Chen shrugged and looked at Natasha. "I'll let you and the sucker with the broken hand go. We both kidnapped each other so we can say we are even. If you dare to retake action on me, I'll release the video. If you want the video not to exist, then just don't bother."

"Do you think we'll leave a piece of evidence like this in someone else's hands?' Natasha burst out laughing.

"Think about it." Jiang Chen also laughed, "You guys know that I have a mysterious organization behind me. I already said I am willing to resolve this peacefully, why are you giving me trouble? You want to cause a whole bunch of trouble and lose your job, or remain silent and pretend I don't exist. The choice is in your hands. I can give you back your communication device now. Why don't you have a chat with your superior?"

Natasha eyes slightly shook, finally letting out a sigh.

"Okay."

What happened next was what Jiang Chen had expected. The KGB head named Bart accepted this deal without hesitation.

First, the two parties conflict was resolved. KGB will no longer take action, and he will leave Kane in three days, keeping the video content a secret. If the video is leaked, KGB will be sent out agents to assassinate him.

As to KGB's threat, Jiang Chen only shrugged and didn't overthink it.

Also, Jiang Chen provided a USB to Natasha with the interrogation results of the sniper.

Natasha would take his achievement back to her country, receive a promotion, and then sit within the office. Since her identity was already exposed, it would no longer be suitable for foreign missions. Jiang Chen's USB gave Bart the reason to promote her and also gave her a price to shut her mouth.

The mission will be recorded as Natasha and her team engaged in heavy combat with Willie Society's controlled force, with the team suffering heavy casualties but obtained critical intelligence.

As to Jiang Chen's existence, it will be hidden.

Although Bart, the old cunning fox, suggested to Jiang Chen to transfer the sniper to the Russian side, Jiang Chen refused.

He had other uses for this sniper.

Jiang Chen didn't insist since the interrogation report was already comprehensive with everything they needed. But in the voice recording, the sniper often answered right away, without hesitation, which was quite obscure. The frail voice of the guy probably meant that he suffered some gruesome torture.

When the communication ended, Jiang Chen untied Natasha.

She moved her sore body as she gave Jiang Chen an ambiguous look. "You are brilliant. From what I know, you are the first foreigner to have come to an agreement with Bart."

Jiang Chen shrugged. "It did match the interest of both parties. This ending is not bad for you or me, right?"

To be honest, where he got the idea was from the dumbass Robert. Except compared to him, Jiang Chen was attempting something bigger.

"Fair. Although, you are playing with fire. Where is Jager?" Natasha spoke as she extended her hand.

"The guy with a broken hand? In the other room." Jiang Chen passed the USB to her.

Before she left, Natasha still looked cautiously at the smartphone on the table.

Inside contained videos that could affect Russia's image. It could even be used as an excuse to start a new wave of economic sanctions.

As long as she destroyed it...

But she also noticed that the quiet girl had her eyes locked onto her. She had the feeling that if she dared to make a move, the girl would instantly pull the trigger.

"Not leaving? Going to miss me? Jiang Chen smirked.

Natasha smiled charmingly, "Are you really not going to reconsider my proposal? To be honest, I figured that you don't look as weak as I thought. It doesn't seem to be too bad to use you as my first."

Ayesha didn't say anything but maintained the same emotionless expression. Though her vibe was becoming more and more dangerous?

"The negotiation is already over. If it is a personal invitation, maybe I'll say yes at a different time?" Jiang Chen rejected smoothly.

Natasha giggled and didn't respond. She then headed straight to the door.

"When you have the chance to come to Moscow, don't forget to tell me. You suffered through a lot. I'll have to buy you a drink."

"Of course," Jiang Chen laughed as he said to her shadow lightheartedly.

...

Natasha left with Jager. Then, Jiang Chen's group took the unconscious sniper to a different location.

Under the disguise of the darkness, they traversed through the battlefield to an isolated community.

After going inside an abandoned apartment building, making sure they were not being followed, Jiang Chen woke the tied up sniper.

"Vasily?"

Vasily didn't say anything. He quietly looked at Jiang Chen. He didn't know under the influence of the truth-telling liquid, he has already exposed all of his secrets.

"I heard that snipers usually have great patience, right?" Jiang Chen said lightheartedly.

"Then you should know, interrogation means nothing to me," The Slavic looking man stared at Jiang Chen, answering coldly.

Nick stood on the side and translated it into English. Then he looked at Jiang Chen.

Seeing as Vasily didn't say anything, Jiang Chen continued, "I don't plan on interrogating you, I only want to ask you for some contact information... Umm, how should I say this? I want to do a deal with the organization behind you."

Chapter 148: Mercenary

Honestly speaking, Jiang Chen did not care about the goddamn place known as Kane. He only wanted to buy some experienced soldiers and train a mercenary force loyal to him to complete his "island capture" plan. But at the moment, he was tricked by the dumbass Robert's information, Markanov's hidden identity made the situation much more complicated.

Because of the KGB agents, as well as the Willie Society agents going head to head, he was forced into this hidden conflict.

The fortunate part was, all these problems were resolved.

Whatever conspiracy the Willie society had, KGB can worry about it.

He walked with Markanov' along the 92nd mechanized infantry base as the two chatted together.

Nick followed behind them because Markanov's English was not too bad, so he didn't even need to translate. He just continued to walk along in his usual silence. As to Ayesha, Jiang Chen stationed her in the distance, just in case.

Although they were not in the most dangerous area, it was considered the frontline. The conditions here were quite harsh. The soldiers would usually sleep by the dug trench, the wooden boxes used to store ammo were used as tables, they sat around eating cold canned food, chewing black bread.

Seeing the soldiers' living condition, it was not even comparable to the survivors in the Fishbone base. Jiang Chen had the illusion that he was too generous.

"There's plenty of great guys here at the 92nd mechanized infantry. If you see anyone you like, let me know. I'll chat with them. Of course, as long as he is not too dumb, he won't reject the offer." Markanov laughed.

Seeing the general finally coming to the front line to check them, a lot of the listless soldiers regained their focus and saluted when he walked by.

Seeing the soldiers, Jiang Chen was skeptical if they could actually defend against the civil force's attack. But his face remained expressionless.

"Oh? If I take the aces from your force, are you not going to get a heartache?" Jiang Chen half-jokingly said.

The man has a pointed nose and sharp sight, with a faint scar the side of his face. He looked like he had a fit physique. At a glance, Jiang Chen couldn't relate him to a corrupt official that sold national assets.

He was also the confidant of the new president.

"What's there to have a heartache about?" Markanov shrugged and laughed. "What if you give me 100 aces, would they beat the "volunteers" from Russia? The outcome of the war never swayed towards us from the beginning. Let's not talk about that. Let's speak of something more practical. My own salary has been held back for a few months already. If I don't sell equipment, how would I pay the people under me?"

He didn't say anything. The gold worth one million USD was enough for him to spend the rest of his life comfortably in any country. So what if he is a confidant of Poroshenko? He had too many confidants. This guy didn't care about being alive or dead. Once he has the money, he doesn't care about what this god forbidden place would turn into.

Jiang Chen didn't respond.

Before he came, he already came to an agreement with Willie society.

He would leave Kane within three days. The purpose of the trip was to hire some mercenaries as bodyguards. The deal was personal. Although he did have an undisclosed organization behind him, they had no intention of stepping into Kane's mess.

The sniper he captured would be returned after he safely leaves the country. If something unexpected happened to him in the next three days, the sniper's location would automatically be sent to Russia. The hostage would be transferred to the Russian side.

Vasily didn't know he was injected with truth-telling liquid. Willie society, therefore, wouldn't know part of their information was already leaked to the Russian side. Therefore, there would still be value in the sniper.

Hence, to prevent anything unexpected from happening to Jiang Chen in the next three days, Willie society even sent a few agents to protect him, in case the KGB secretly want to cause interference. But clearly, they overcomplicated the situation as Jiang Chen already reached an agreement with KGB. Even if there were still agents following him from afar, they would not make a move.

"Other than soldiers, do you need a tank? AT-64. I'll sell it to you for one million USD."

"Tank? Where would I even put that?" Jiang Chen jokingly cursed.

[You must be joking. You think I don't know that that's the historic remains from the Soviet? 400 T-64s lie in the tank graveyard at Kharkov with who knows how thick of dust covering them. It would be a miracle to find one that is still moving. Those things were scraps that even the steel factory wouldn't want.]

He followed the trench to the empty ground. Markanov and a second in command looking person exchanged a few words in whispers. Then, he grabbed two chairs and sat with Jiang Chen, smiling.

The 92nd mechanized infantry soldiers were interviewed in groups, with Nick the veteran making the call. Jiang Chen only sat on the side, doing some simple verification. To prevent agents from other organizations, he would only need to use some truth-telling liquid to ask them a few questions later.

After around two hours, they finally finished the troublesome process.

Kane had no special forces, but there were still a few experienced soldiers with skills comparable to special forces mixed in. Mostly comprised of Khanstanese, they were natural warriors with superior individual combat ability.

Their equipment was taken off, and Jiang Chen took the group of soldiers already removed from the force to an abandoned warehouse two kilometers away. Jiang Chen signaled Nick to translate.

"I know you must have a lot of questions in mind, such as being forced to join the army and then somehow removed from the force," Jiang Chen stood on top of a broken shipping container and yelled at the lost soldiers.

"You already shed enough blood for your home country. Regardless if it is still worthy of your allegiance, you all did an excellent job. Now, we should talk about something practical."

"A ten-year work contract, and a salary of one hundred thousand USD a year. Fight for me, not the Poroshenko who can't even pay you," Jiang Chen said firmly as he scanned the eyes, filled with differing thoughts.

Like a rock thrown into the middle of a tranquil lake, the soldiers all began to discuss. Jiang Chen patiently waited for them to come up with a result. No matter who, the decision that would change their lives would make people unsettled and lost.

"How do we know you are telling the truth? People in Veit tricked us to the front line, and we had a pity 1500 hryvnia last month. We didn't even get paid anything this month."

"So what's your plan?" Jiang Chen spoke calmly.

"Leave here, to Poland, since my name is already removed. Thank god," the soldier said without hesitation.

"If you see these things, do you still have the same plan?" Jiang Chen shrugged and signaled Nick to take out the suitcase.

The suitcase opened.

Filled with stacks of USD bills. Instantly, everyone held their breath.

"This is private work. You fight for me, and I'll pay your salary. Poland? You become a refugee without dignity in another country. Utilize your only strength with me. Work for ten years, take your saving and enjoy the rest of your life in any country. The opportunity is right in front you, and the door is behind you. To stay or to leave, you guys can decide." After saying this, Jiang Chen patiently looked at them and stopped saying anything.

Ten years! One million?!

Not even one million, they haven't even you seen ten thousand Franklins stacked together.

The soldiers erupted, but no one wanted to leave. They were still skeptical of Jiang Chen's generous offer.

"Can I ask a question?" Finally, a middle-aged man with a rigid face stepped out and tried to ask a question.

"Of course," Jiang Chen examined the person and said nonchalantly.

"My name is Ivan," Ivan courteously stated his name, then said with a firm tone, "Before accepting your offer, can we know where we will be serving?"

"Africa, training mercenaries for me," Jiang Chen answered straightforwardly.

When they heard that they were not being dragged to an unstable area as cannon fodder, they looked more relieved.

Even with a lot of money, they had to be alive to spend it.

"Another question. How are you planning to pay our salary? A lot of us have family here-"

Jiang Chen interrupted him as he waved his hand in dominating fashion, "Cash, transfer, whatever you want. Paid every half a year. I only have one requirement. Your contribution must be worthy of your salary. The conditions I gave must be met."

He paused, Jiang Chen scanned these people, and then continued, "I know a lot of you have a family. You can choose to move them to the family area at the base, or you can opt to leave them here, or whatever. I'll prepay ten thousand in salary. I want all of you to show up at Boris Boer International Airport three days later. If someone runs away with this ten thousand USD-"

Said in a cheerful voice, "Then wouldn't that be embarrassing for me? The remaining nine hundred thousand USD will be the bounty for your head."

When Nick explained Jiang Chen's last words, everyone gasped.

Not because of the threat, but rather the Eastern boss was willing first to pay them ten thousand for their families?

He could not be more compassionate!

With such a genuine offer, who would leave? If someone did, they definitely had their head kicked before.

Seeing no one posed any objections, Jiang Chen indicated to Nick to take out the contract. Once they signed, they could receive ten thousand USD in cash as money for family accommodation.

After everything was taken care of, Jiang Chen immediately dismissed them.

"You are quite generous." Nick smiled, as he gave the suitcase with nine hundred thousand USD back to Jiang Chen.

"Haha. Are you interested in working for me? I'll give you one million in salary." Jiang Chen laughed.

Nick shook his head.

Jiang Chen expected his response, that was a joke.

"Although Robert's head is pretty abnormal, he has his ways of looking after people," Jiang Chen passed him a cigarette and jokingly cursed.

Nick grabbed the cigarette as he lit it up.

"Are you not smoking?" He raised his eyebrows and blew a ring.

"Here and there, but rarely now." Jiang Chen shook his head, touched his ear, and alerted Ayesha, "Mission complete, come back."

"Okay."

After being injected with the genetic vaccine, he was no longer addicted to smoking. The powerful metabolic process meant that the toxins built up in his body would be eliminated through his digestive system. Precisely speaking, even if he constantly smoked, it would not affect his health.

He could smoke freely now, but there was no reason anymore, so naturally, he stopped.

Before it was a way to alleviate stress, but now, life seemed to be good?

Just a bit busy.

"What's next? What are you planning to do for the next three days?" Nick asked casually.

He laughed, as Jiang Chen took out a stash of bills and stuffed them into his hands.

"This is your bonus. Finally came out of the country, how could I not enjoy myself?"

Nick cracked a smile as he didn't reject the money. Then he looked at the slim figure walking through the door.

Black cape, while holding a sniper rifle. It looked comical against her size.

"Spend time with your girl?" Nick mocked him.

"Mhmm." A rare softness appeared on Jiang Chen's face as he looked at Ayesha in the distance. "Time to make it up to her."

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 149: Vacation in Veit

Bright sun, blue sky.

This is Veit, not Oesk hundreds of kilometers away. Chaos has yet to taint the clear sky. With industrial regression, it created a country with air quality far superior to Hua, whether that was considered lucky or not.

Crowds passed through the Veit Independent Square, but it was not noisy. Last year, there were a few protests at the beautiful square, and quite a few people died. Maybe that had enough of an impact that individuals who were walking around the square were silent as their condolences. With only the occasional shouting here and there, slowly driving away the haze that was left behind.

There were a lot of beauties on the street. It was the first time Jiang Chen experienced the words "beauty infested."

Because of the unique geographical location, excluding Southwest of Crimea, which was along the black sea bank that possessed subtropical climate, most of the area had a mild continental climate. The winter was long, and summer was short. Along with lower than average daylight exposure, the people here naturally had paler skin. With the fact that it was located at the border of Europe and Asia, the multi-ethnicity allowed them to have quite a significant advantage in the gene pool.

Of course, Jiang Chen's eyes didn't stay on the gorgeous looking Kane girls because he was in the middle of a date.

...

Independent Square, below the Central Memorium Post, a girl with a slightly stiff expression looked at the camera.

"Relax, smile... Hey! Don't be so shy." As Jiang Chen said that, his eyebrows twitched unnaturally. He felt like a weird uncle trying to lure a small loli.

"This dress is so light. It feels weird." Ayesha unnaturally pulled at her skirt, her pale face covered by a red glare. She vision escaped from the lens, as she coyly looked at her feet.

"No, no, no, it's cute, relax... Look at the camera." Jiang Chen used all his words to convince Ayesha to not be so shy as he finally caught a glimpse of a beautiful scene. Just as Ayesha shyly looked up, he pressed the shutter.

Snap!

"Phew, finally done." Jiang Chen wiped the sweat off of his forehead as he let out a relieved sigh.

Seeing that they finished taking photos, Ayesha immediately ran to Jiang Chen's side. Although she still felt embarrassed by posing in front of a camera, by her eagerness, she naturally looked interested in how the photo turned out.

Seeing Ayesha's look of expectation, Jiang Chen smiled.

"Don't worry, it's beautiful," He called out the picture he just took.

She stared at herself in the photo as her eyes began to light up.

"This, this really is me?" Her voice was filled with disbelief as her finger lightly touched the screen.

The slim and graceful figure, the delicate and pale face, and the softly curled brown hair didn't lack liveliness. The slight, shy expression along with the gem-like eyes was a compromise of both innocence and mystery.

The black dress hanged to the knee with a black bow tie placed at the waist, and a pair of thin stripe sandals to match. The elegant black rose blossomed a mysterious but adorable vibe.

The background wasn't relevant anymore.

"Of course, it's my Ayesha." Jiang Chen put the camera down as he rubbed her long hair with a smile.

Although still slightly embarrassed, Ayesha buried her head down. She was still not used to displaying affection in public. But if it were in their home, she wouldn't be embarrassed even in a bikini.

But suddenly, a piercing grim look flashed across her eyes.

"Something is following us," Ayesha lowered her voice as she walked towards the crowd.

"Don't overreact. Of course, I know." Jiang Chen tugged on Ayesha's hand and stopped her from going to the crowd.

She tilted her head as she was confused by Jiang Chen's reaction.

"Ahem, aren't we on a date?"

When she heard the word "date," Ayesha suddenly noticed her hand was being held, and the pale face suddenly turned to a shade of dark red as if blood was about to drip out any second.

"Do we really need to care about them?" Her finger twisted around the tip of her dress as she quickly whispered.

"No." Jiang Chen smiled brightly, as he openly turned around and scanned the crowd. "Just let these dumb*sses work over time, we'll enjoy our vacation."

Without the need to think, at least two parties were following him. But so what? He only wanted to take Ayesha around for the next two days, temporarily forgetting the bothersome troubles, and enjoy his vacation.

A reward for himself, and compensation to Ayesha.

Watching the side of Ayesha's face, Jiang Chen always felt guilty. In her best years, she was supposed to enjoy her youth, but she had to carry a weapon for him. Although from a different but equivalent perspective, he saved her. Therefore, he shouldn't feel guilty about her doing this.

But he always thought that if he did think that way, that was not man-like.

Sensing Jiang Chen's gaze, Ayesha turned around, innocently but gently smiled.

"Where are we going to go next?"

Holding his hand, Ayesha gently shook it. She started to enjoy this feeling, walking with the love of her life, and the happiness of the warmth surrounding her hand.

"I'll take you to buy some clothes." Jiang Chen gently squeezed her hand and smiled.

"Clothes? But I already have plenty..." Ayesha whispered. In her eyes, it was enough to have a few to change into. The key to attracting her husband was her figure.

Although the idea would make him feel excited, something seemed to be wrong.

"It's okay! We are rich!"

He scanned the crowded street as he laughed.

...

To be frank, it was Jiang Chen's first time shopping with a girl.

When he was at university, he didn't have the finances. After graduation, he worked at a clothing store. Ignoring all the subjective reasons, the most important one was that he didn't have a girlfriend!

In his imagination, taking a cute girl and seeing her change into all kinds of pretty clothes must be the happiest thing in life. Therefore, when he held Ayesha's hand, the first thing he thought of was to take her shopping.

Umm, he quickly realized his mistake.

In the beginning, Ayesha was still shy and was dazzled by so many selections, not knowing where to start. But when the energetic saleswoman noticed the hesitating Ayesha, her eyes lit up, and she walked over.

Jiang Chen was too familiar with that look because he worked at a clothing store before. He personally witnessed how his colleagues convince, with flattering words, a girl who initially wanted to save money for her boyfriend, buy a set of clothes worth over ten thousand.

But he didn't really care. Just like he what he said before.

He's rich, who cares.

The Kane saleswoman spoke excellent English. Her energetic work attitude also garnered the trust of Ayesha, who was usually afraid of strangers. Therefore, Jiang Chen only saw Ayesha move between clothing racks and change room. The clothes she wore were constantly changing.

Gothic skirt, refreshing long dress, sassy leather jacket...

At the start, Jiang Chen's eyes had a treat. Ayesha fitted all styles of clothing, which Jiang Chen signaled to buy buy buy without blinking an eye.

Ayesha was first reserved, but when she found out in surprise that every time she changed, Jiang Chen's eyes would light up, she was more and more interested. In the end, she couldn't even stop.

The clothes on the counter started to pile up. The saleswoman was so happy she couldn't even close her mouth. It was the first time seeing such an affluent customer.

But this troubled Jiang Chen.

Although Ayesha did look good in all different styles of clothing, they almost stayed at this store for two hours!

On this street, there were still hundreds more!

But since he already agreed, he must follow through even with tears in his eyes.

She finally finished trying on the last piece, Ayesha wore a white floral dress coming out of the fitting room. She looked shyly at Jiang Chen, ran a few quick steps, buried her head, and tipped her toes to peek between Jiang Chen's lips.

"Thank you... I feel really happy." The usually cold face was filled with emotion.

In that instant, all of Jiang Chen's weariness faded.

Worth it!

...

Looking at the saleswoman's almost climaxing expression, Jiang Chen swiped his card.

The owner of the clothing store personally sent him out the door, providing a 30% discount gold card in the act of appreciation, and then watched Jiang Chen carry a giant bag, walking away holding Ayesha's hand.

Around 100 pieces of clothes because almost everything looked good on her. Jiang Chen practically raided everything that was her size from the store. Money was not the problem. Only a few thousand USD. But how would they vacation with so much clothing?

Jiang Chen let out a sigh as he stopped at an ice cream shop. He ordered a vanilla ice cream for Ayesha and told her to wait a bit before carrying the giant bag into the crowd.

The people he passed by all turned around and gave him an odd look. Jiang Chen ignored everyone, walking straight into a pipe shop. Then he stopped in front of middle-aged men with his hands in his pocket, examining the pipe in the window.

"Following people is an art, do you guys lack funding this much? At least practice a little more." Jiang Chen sighed.

The man's face turned red, and he tried to argue, but Jiang Chen continued before he could open his mouth.

"That's enough. The secret police of Kane? You don't look like you are from Willie Society. KGB is much more professional than you. At least I didn't find their location." Jiang Chen threw the bag onto the ground and grabbed the camera around his neck.

"Sir, did you mistake-"

"Do you see? You are in these photos." Jiang Chen poked at the screen and looked at him mockingly.

Seeing that he was exposed, the man had a bitter smile on his face. "Why did you point it out? You'll make me lose my job."

"Lose your job? Poroshenko could still afford to pay people's salaries?" Jiang Chen laughed about his boss in front of him and pointed at the bag on the ground. "Send this to the Primir Hotel reception. You'll receive 1000 USD in compensation."

By the dumbfounded look of the person, Jiang Chen walked up and patted him on the shoulder with some force. He smiled. "Think for yourself more. The individuals in the frontline are looking for ways out. It's not bad taking some side jobs to feed yourself."

After finishing, Jiang Chen waved his head and left a still dumbfounded rookie agent.

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 150: For the Same Reason

When Jiang Chen stepped into the ice cream parlor again, he saw an entertaining scene that his face could not help but reveal a thoughtful expression.

Ayesha in a black dress was sitting at the table. Her original impassive face was now layered with frost.

Across from her, an East Slavic young man was talking to her rather enthusiastically.

"Hey, gorgeous, may I know your name?" The young man with aquiline nose gazed at Ayesha’s eyes in what he obviously deemed as romantic.

Ignored.

"Ahem, I seemed to have seen you somewhere before."

No response.

Oleg stared at Ayesha in embarrassment. From a gentleman’s perspective, if the other party had clearly expressed no interest, then pestering would only be regarded as cumbersome. But how could he endure it? Towards someone who was remarkably handsome, romantic, and suave like him, would there be someone who would thoroughly ignore him?

He took a deep breath and decided to deliver his ultimate "cool" move.

In one grand romantic gesture, he stood up, genuflected, and stared into Ayesha’s eyes affectionately.

"From the first time I saw you, I couldn't help but fell irrevocably in love with you, my goddess."

Most customers in the ice cream shop began to look in their direction. Some young girls covered their mouth in surprise, and some even started to whistle. Proposals (like of marriage) would always be popular, no matter which country you were.

Oleg was indeed attractive and combined with his fit physique, looked every bit of a dashing man from Kane.

However, Ayesha had merely cast a glance at the clock on the wall indifferently.

She had always been indifferent towards strangers especially men. If it wasn't for Jiang Chen opposition, she would have worn the black cape she usually wore when sniping on their date.

Oleg’s passionate expression was frozen on his face as he was left to stew in awkwardness. If he left, it would look like he was acting in a one-man show; on the other hand, Ayesha was clearly broadcasting an "I'm-too-lazy-to-bother-with-you" expression.

Smiling slightly, Jiang Chen walked forward.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

Ayesha’s eyes lit up instantly when she spotted him. She quickly got up and walked to his side and hugged his arm as though no one was around.

"He was pestering me, but I didn't pay him—" Ayesha explained in a faint voice as she was worried that Jiang Chen might misinterpret the situation.

"I know," Jiang Chen interrupted her explanation with a smile and rubbed her hair dotingly, "I trust you."

"Hmm." Ayesha turned slightly red and lowered her head, fingers unconsciously toying with Jiang Chen’s cuffs.

Oleg was still frozen in the same awkward position, his mouth was twitching uncontrollably. The crowd’s gaze gradually turned from encouraging to that of mockery and sympathy. Regardless of how thick his skin was for flirting with so many girls, his face still betrayed an embarrassed expression.

Disconcerted, he got up from the ground, fixed his collar and walked in front of Jiang Chen.

"Yellow skin? My goddess, how could you like someone—" After seeing Jiang Chen’s face, his contemptuous expression immediately cooled down.

"Why don't you keep up your gentlemanly pretense until the end? You look like a kid whose candy got stolen," Jiang Chen sneered.

"I dare you to say that again." Oleg extended his hand with a vicious smile as though Jiang Chen’s provocation gave him a reason to start a fight. In his eyes, this yellow monkey would not be able to put up a fight.

Ayesha’s eyes flashed a hint of iciness and just as she was about to make a move, Jiang Chen gently squeezed her hand, signaling that there was no need for her to lend a hand.

There was no way that he would let a girl protect him during a date, on the other hand, he was also too lazy to use force. His eyes then scanned his surroundings.

"Ahem, I have enough reason to conclude that this dumbass is sent by Willie society to give me trouble," he muttered under his breath.

Oleg hadn't even touched Jiang Chen yet when a middle-aged man sitting on next table vaulted and pushed him against the table in one incredibly swift motion.

"Fu*k, who the fu*k are you?" Oleg, not understanding the situation, struggled to fight back, but he was bound tightly by a middle-aged man behind him.

"I'm the police! Don’t you fu*king move!" The middle-aged man fumbled with the handcuffs and cuffed his hands. "Oleg, right? You are under arrest on account of being a threat to national safety. I hope you can cooperate with our investigation."

"What!" Oleg shouted incredulously, "I was just trying to pick up a girl. Everyone here can testify."

Another middle-aged man drinking coffee on the other side let out a sigh and walked in front of Jiang Chen.

"We apologize for giving you a fright. Do you need me to help you with contacting the embassy and arrange for your immediate return?" The middle-aged man in a gray vest looked at Jiang Chen and seemed anxious to depart.

"Thank you very much, but that won't be necessary. I still have two days left in my vacation. This small mishap would not affect our friendship, wouldn't it?" Jiang Chen extended his right hand with a smile.

The middle-aged man watched him for half a day before grasping his right hand silently.

[Since you guys had already followed for so long, wouldn't be a shame to not to use this free "bodyguard"?]

"I hope you have a great vacation. You know, there are still a lot of people working overtime." The middle-aged man was staring directly at Jiang Chen.

"Of course, I hope you have a pleasant overtime." Jiang Chen’s smile was especially radiant.

...

After leaving the ice cream parlor, Jiang Chen didn’t take Ayesha to the clothing stores and instead brought her to the movie theater. Although his mansion had a home theater comparable to a movie house, watching here amplified the experience.

Especially when on a date.

The screen was showing <Mission Impossible 5>. Although Jiang Chen had already seen it once, when he asked what movie Ayesha was interested in, she left out all the romance movies and only showed interest in action films.

Anyway, his real purpose was to make it up to her, so he gladly agreed with her choice. Moreover, it would be a total loss if one actually paid any attention to the movie while in the company of a girl.

Holding Ayesha’s little hand, feeling her occasional bout of tenseness and the softness of her hand when she relaxed, he felt his mind was on cloud nine. The movie playing on the screen had no hope of entering his mind.

[I can hold this hand forever!]

After leaving the movie theater, Jiang Chen stretched himself. Seeing Ayesha’s furrowed brows, he gently smiled and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Umm." Ayesha stroked her chin and nodded thoughtfully. "I'm just thinking, why do the bullets never hit anyone? Clearly, the villain boss has so many underlings so why does he need to personally fight in the end? His marksmanship was not even that good."

Jiang Chen was speechless. It appeared that this girl did pay attention to the movie the entire time.

"Ahem, if they got hit with one shot, it wouldn’t be called an action movie anymore. If the antagonist boss doesn’t die in the end, it would then become a series. Overall, it's nice, isn't it?"

Hearing this, Ayesha was confused at first, then nodded her head, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Mhmm."

...

In the evening, they took a stroll along Dnieper River, feeling the gentle breeze blowing on their face.

Jiang Chen took a peek at Ayesha who was holding on his arm.

The gorgeous face under the lantern light looked serene, her brown hair fluttered in the breeze, and a smile lingered on her lips.

It was such a guileless smile, and it was Jiang Chen first time seeing it on her face.

"Did you have fun today?" he asked, smiling faintly.

Hearing this, Ayesha's pale face turned slightly pink.

Slightly adjusting her position, Ayesha stuffed her hand into his.

"Hmm," she whispered but seemed to feel it was not conveying enough of her feelings, so she added, "Very, very happy."

"That’s good." Jiang Chen smiled then turned to look at the river. The reflection of the moonlight decorated the Dnieper River's surface and suffused it with light.

Ayesha gazed at Jiang Chen’s side contour, the eyes that were not good at expressing emotions flashed vulnerability and bewilderment.

"Why?" Ayesha murmured to herself like someone caught in a dream.

"Why?" Jiang Chen looked at her somewhat puzzled.

"I am only someone you picked up from the desert…Obviously, I'm already very happy."

Recalling the image of her parents in the pool of blood, the drowsiness while inside the truck and being transported to the refugee camp, recalling her past self who had pretty much given up on life, Ayesha suddenly felt herself tearing up.

Just being able to live in a stable country was already a happiness in itself.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Chen smiled gently and squeezed her soft, little hands a little harder.

"But…that's why I owe you even more," she murmured. She put her sandals on the gravel road and looked at her own reflection on the river.

"Did you follow me just because you wanted to pay me back?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

A flash of confusion appeared in her eyes, but shortly after she shook her head vigorously.

"No."

"Then why is it?"

After a moment of silence, Ayesha's cheek was gradually suffused with heat, the delicate, red lips were conflicted for a good while before finally saying the words that had been brewing for a long time but never got the courage to express, "Because I like you." She paused and stared into his eyes.

The look of vulnerability gradually disappeared from her eyes.

Hearing this, a warm smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face.

An answer he naturally expected, but no matter how many times she said it, it would never fail to make his heart raced.

"At first, I felt I owe you a lot and that’s why I asked for this date," Jiang Chen murmured as he held Ayesha’s hand.

"Owe?" Ayesha asked confusedly. She couldn't understand Jiang Chen’s choice of words. It was obviously her who owed him a lot.

"That’s right. In my opinion, you're at your most exciting age, but I have kept you in the mansion and then had been busy with my own affairs and now that I need you, I immediately gave you a gun."

"I don’t mind being used by you." Ayesha tenderly squeezed Jiang Chen’s hand.

"People are more or less hypocritical, but that’s not what I am talking about." Jiang Chen smiled and responded to her affection. He paused before continuing again, "Just now, I suddenly realized that perhaps the real reason was not due to the feeling of I 'owe' you."

Rather, it is the same reason as yours."

Because you like me.

So I also like you, too.

The two fell into tacit understanding.

In the tranquil and romantic Dnieper River, two figures were locked in an embrace, their lips interlocking with one other.

Chapter 151: The End of the Journey

The next morning, Jiang Chen sat up on the bed while rubbing his still sleepy eyes.

A faint smile appeared on his face while looking at Ayesha, who was still curled up in blankets, sleeping like an adorable cat.

Needless to say, there were no words for what happened last night.

Maybe it was just his imagination; however, it seemed that from that night on, Ayesha had started becoming clingier. Although she remained expressionless in public when it was just the two of them...ahem, there's no need to say the rest.

Yesterday he took Ayesha around all the major tourist attractions, along with hundreds of photos carrying their beautiful memories, it could be considered as the perfect culmination of their Kane trip.

He leaned against the headboard, brooding for a short while, and then taking care not to disturb the still sleeping Ayesha, he sneaked out of bed.

He went to the bathroom, took a shower, and then took out his phone to call Robert.

"Ahem, buddy, I heard you've solved your problem. Uh, sorry, I—" As soon as the phone connected, Robert's apologetic voice immediately came through.

"Ok, I didn't come here to listen to you apologize," Jiang Chen yawned and wandered to the balcony of the room. "Niger, last stop, how are things over there?"

"Don't worry, everything will be smooth sailing from here on. I already personally made the trip to ensure everything is ready." Robert touched his nose with embarrassment and his laugh echoed through the phone

"You personally made the trip? When did you become so diligent?" Jiang Chen asked, looking baffled. "Your "old friend" is not monitoring you?"

Jiang Chen smiled and leaned leisurely against the carved metal fence.

"Has the infrastructure construction been completed yet? I've already solved the training problem."

"Of course, I know a Portuguese builder who's an expert in this area. He previously assisted the French army to build a military outpost in Mali. In short, this guy was good at building military infrastructures. Asking price is not expensive—$15million. I went and inspected it yesterday. It's already finished and the quality was also excellent."

[Hmm, not bad.]

Jiang Chen nodded with satisfaction and changed the topic.

"What about the refugees?"

"Done."

"Great. Wait for me in Niger." Jiang Chen then hung up the phone.

All of a sudden, he felt a piece of clothing gently draping over his back. Upon turning around, he was greeted by Ayesha's tender but fiery eyes.

"You're up." Jiang Chen smiled and gently held the small hand on his shoulder.

"Mhmm, it's a bit cold here, especially in the morning. Are you hungry? I'll make you breakfast," Ayesha said softly.

Jiang Chen's eyes bore into Ayesha's eyes.

Being stared like that by Jiang Chen, Ayesha's cheeks turned scarlet and whispered, "What?"

"Nothing, I've just realized you're becoming more and more beautiful." Jiang Chen grinned wickedly while staring into her eyes.

Gently clutching her panicking hands, he pulled Ayesha back into the house.

"Come on, we're getting that breakfast."

...

Breakfast at Primir Hotel was exquisite though somewhat bit expensive.

After eating breakfast, Jiang Chen checked out at the front desk, and then while holding Ayesha's hand, boarded the taxi and headed to Boris Boer International Airport.

What luggage? Just store them directly in the storage dimension.

After getting off the vehicle, Ayesha returned to her usual cold expression and followed Jiang Chen half a step behind.

At the airport gate, Jiang Chen met Nick along with ten Kane men who were hauling their suitcases.

He greeted Nick and turned to look at the ten soldiers of the former 92nd Mechanized Infantry.

"It's such a great honor. You've made the right choice," Jiang Chen smiled and extended his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Not like we have much of choice," the man named Ivan shrugged. His stiff face contorted slightly before continuing, "But the opportunities you provided are sure very attractive."

Laughing, Jiang Chen expression was very cordial. "Of course, I've always been very good with my people."

"At least the old guy Anderson doesn't need to worry about housing anymore," said a huge bald man with a smile as he pounded the back of his comrade standing next to him.

"House?"

"That's right." Ivan rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I served the army for 25 years when the former Soviet Union still existed. Unfortunately, I have been enlisted in the Kaneian army. I was on the list for housing in 1987, but with how things are looking, it would take 100 more years before it would be my turn."

"That's nothing," said the bald guy, patting the guy who continued to remain quiet. "It's even more unfortunate for Anderson. It was already his turn when his name was replaced by someone else."

"Don't keep using me as an example. Whoever wants to fight for those swindlers can go right ahead. This country has nothing to do with me anymore," Anderson softly rebuked with an unhappy expression.

"Ok, guys, why don't we chat in the waiting area."

A group of people standing in front of the airport looked out of place however you look at it. Jiang Chen noticed that the police in the front door was deliberately looking in their direction.

It was a critical period after all, so any group of people gathering around would cause suspicion.

...

There was still an hour before the plane took off and Jiang Chen was fooling around with Nick in the waiting area. Ayesha was sitting impassively beside Jiang Chen and was holding a fashion magazine provided by the airport. It seemed like, after the shopping spree, some kind of strange interest was awakened in her.

"Where have you been to these past few days?"

"Went back home and then traveled for a bit," Nick responded succinctly and grinned.

"Speaking of which, you didn't bring your family to Los Santos?" Jiang Chen asked, somewhat surprised.

"They can't." Nick's face revealed a rare melancholic expression.

Jiang Chen didn't know what to say. He seemed to have realized something as a wry smile appeared on his face.

Looking at the flight information over his head, he appeared nostalgic and said, "Do you remember the wooden cabin in Oesk? That's my home."

"Sorry for making you remember something bad," Jiang Chen said softly.

"It's okay, it's all in the past."

Previously, Jiang Chen only heard Robert mentioning about Nick's hometown being in Kane. However, he didn't think that it would be in Oesk and his house would be that cabin.

Due of the heavy atmosphere, the conversation was halted.

After looking at the time, Jiang Chen got up and walked towards the restroom. Before boarding the plane, he decided to take it easy first.

But just as he was about to leave the restroom, he unexpectedly ran into someone, who he's expecting to be there.

The same gray vest, aquiline nose, Willie Agent he met the day before yesterday in the ice cream shop.

"You finally came looking for me. Speaking of which, I still don't know your name." Jiang Chen extended his hand with a smile.

"My job means that it's inconvenient for me to reveal my name, but you may call me Merlin." Merlin shook his hand, but his eyes were locked on Jiang Chen.

"Merlin? Magician? Your overtime is over?"

"That's right. Thanks to you." Although he said thank you, there was not a trace of gratitude on his face.

"Where is the sniper?" Merlin cut straight to the point.

"In a house in Oesk. I heard the endurance of snipers is not bad, so before I left I feed him well. Should be enough to sustain him for three days without a problem." Jiang Chen smiled.

The expression on Merlin's face had not changed and his hawk-like glare was still piercing.

"His exact location. According to the agreement, you said you'll give us his coordinate before leaving the country."

"It's on this USB." Jiang Chen casually took out a thumb-sized USB and handed it to Merlin.

Merlin silently reached out to hold the USB only to find out that Jiang Chen wasn't letting go. He cast a suspicious look at Jiang Chen.

"I haven't boarded yet," Jiang Chen stated with a smile.

"We'll keep our end of the bargain." Merlin's exerted a bit more strength.

"But I don't trust that." Jiang Chen's grip on the USB remained firm.

"Why?" Merlin's facial muscle was all wound up due to the pressure.

"There is still half an hour before we board the plane. To ensure that I'll safely get on the plane and land safely at my destination, I just want to remind you one thing before giving this to you," Jiang Chen paused, smiled when he saw the tension on Merlin's face, before continuing, "I have encrypted the contents inside this USB. After inserting it in the computer for one and half hour, it would automatically unlock the encrypted information inside. If anything happens to me during this trip, I'm sorry, but KGB might get their hands on the sniper's coordinate location first."

One hour was enough for the plane to land in Nigeria.

After saying his piece, Jiang Chen let his hand loose without warning. Merlin clutched the USB awkwardly and bumped into the washroom door, stumbling a few steps backward.

Staring intently at Jiang Chen, Merlin suddenly burst out laughing.

"I didn't expect you to be a programmer."

His original plan was to wait until they acquire the sniper's location and then immediately arrest Jiang Chen. There are far too many reasons for Willie Society to do this. As for the organization behind Jiang Chen—ridiculous, why would they be afraid?

Jiang Chen shrugged, "No, but I am the boss, I have a lot of competent employees."

Naturally, the codes in the USB were Yao Yao's masterpiece

"Good, I hope you never set foot in Kane again," Merlin took the USB, left words dripping with threats and walked away.

"I hope you'll be able to receive your salary sooner before your boss goes bankrupt," He shouted at his leaving figure before returning to the boarding area with a smile.

He sat next to Ayesha, who was still holding the same fashion magazine.

"Those people left." Ayesha lowered her voice.

The secret agents who had been sitting nearby had already left, and the waiting room seemed deserted for a moment.

"Yes, I had a talk with their boss. Which dress do you like? Jiang Chen skillfully changed the topic.

Ayesha blushed as her fingers rubbed against the page.

"This one—ah! No, I already have enough clothes..."

"Hmm, this one should fit you nicely. Alright, let's buy it! Copy the website, and I'll show you how to shop online..."

Nick glanced at the two people and cracked a smile on their display of "affection." He then looked at the clock on the wall again.

It was almost time to board.

[Farewell, my hometown. I wish you peace.]

Chapter 152: The Last Stop

Niger, Niamey International Airport.

"Buddy, haha, we meet again." Robert passionately greeted and embraced Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen awkwardly shoved him away. "Ahem, I think it's better if we just shake hands."

"No, no, no, this is to sincerely express my remorse." He pounded Jiang Chen's back quite vigorously. Then he walked in front of a Hummer and exaggeratedly opened the door with a teasing smile. "Please get in the car, Your Honorable Dictatorship."

"I still have a long way to go," Jiang Chen retorted with a smile.

He took Ayesha to sit at the back of the car, while Nick naturally took the passenger seat in front.

"Now that you think about it, I do believe fate has brought us together in the desert." Robert stepped on the gas, held the stirring wheel and started the ignition. He remarked while smiling, "Last time, it was in the desert in Iraq too."

"Last time, I was there to wipe your ass for you. Hopefully, you won't get into trouble this time," Jiang Chen couldn't resist the temptation to mock him.

"Ahem, aren't you missing the point here? There's a guy from UA who runs an errand all over the world for you, a Slavic who went to the frontline with you, and a beauty sitting beside you," Robert jested and looked at him through the rearview mirror of the car.

Hearing this, although there was no visible change in Ayesha's expression, her face turned into a crimson shade.

"Just focus on your driving. Stop talking nonsense anymore," Jiang Chen laughingly reprimanded him and then paused before asking, "Where's the location of the base?"

"Sahara desert, Niger. It's an undeveloped area in Agadez Region. Better prepare yourself mentally as it could be quite desolated out there," Robert reminded.

The outside of the airport was in Loess Hill, and there were hardly any buildings in sight. Aside from the road, there were dust and yellow sands everywhere. A gust of wind would occasionally sweep a layer of dust.

Moreover, it was probably the only airport Jiang Chen had seen without a taxi lane, a bus stop, let alone a subway.

"Damn, how could this place be so poor!" he swore while he stared out of the window into the endless sand dunes that went as far as the eyes could see.

How can you say that this is the capital? At the very least, it shouldn't be this undeveloped.

"Downtown is much better. It's like the suburbs of Los Santos." Robert laughed. "10 kilometers more to go. We're not that far. Speaking of poverty, Niger's Minister of Commerce Armani would like to meet you and invite you to dinner."

"To attract foreign investment?" Jiang Chen asked dispassionately. He leaned back on the chair and yawned. "Why don't you go on my behalf? I already bought 20 acres of wasteland. I'm temporarily not interested in investing in any other projects."

"Ahem, no, there's actually more to it. Basic necessities such as water, power supply, food, ammunition that will be used in training, and so on," Robert reminded him.

Those indeed posed as a concern. Jiang Chen pondered on it while pinching his chin.

"Military supplies, that I can solve. As for the others...what do you suggest?" Jiang Chen looked at Robert.

"For the power supply, my advice is to buy a few sets of fuel generators or a batch of solar cells. The sun is pretty intense here, so I think solar power would be our best choice. As for the water, it seems to be illegal to drill well in here. And I also don't suggest engaging in squabbles with the local tribes. I heard that even the Niger government couldn't control them, so it's best if we outsource them. Food and basic necessities can be purchased locally. The cost of living here can be quite cheap, especially the food."

"Then let's do that," Jiang Chen nodded.

"If that's the case, you definitely need to meet Armani. But before that, I'll send you to the hotel where you'll be staying." Robert shrugged and smiled.

The car finally drove into the downtown area.

Niger River ran through the city. The river was lush verdant, just like an oasis in the desert.

In fact, it was not as bad as what Robert made it out to be. At the very least, Nieamay, the capital of the country, didn't seem that bad. Although he hadn't seen the suburbs of Los Santos, when they reached the downtown area, the surrounding buildings looked rather sophisticated.

He only stayed at the hotel for a short while before he changed into a suit Robert had prepared for him and got into the car.

This time, instead of Robert's Hummer, it was Niger Department of Commerce for receiving VIP guests.

They got off at a restaurant where they apparently received foreign guests. A black man in a suit walked toward him and greeted him with a smile

"Welcome, Mr. Jiang Chen. You must be the oriental billionaire Robert was talking about." The elderly black minister warmly held Jiang Chen's right hand and shook it firmly.

Much to Jiang Chen's surprise, Armani could actually speak in Han.

"Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Armani," he responded to his enthusiastic greetings.

"I knew a lot of Han comrades as outstanding as you. We have a lot of comrades here in Niger coming from Hua, so you can think of this place as your second home. Niger welcomes you," Armani said warmly, speaking in a rather fluent Han.

"Haha, of course."

Pleasantries completed, Jiang Chen and Armani walked into the restaurant with an entourage of bodyguards and other personnel in tow. This "welcome ceremony" was quite lavish.

Seeing this, a sudden strange idea popped up into Jiang Chen's mind.

He was wondering when he returns home for New Year, would his major bring a congregation of people to welcome him in a grand fashion such as this? He was, after all, the man who appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The government newspaper also lauded him for his achievement in the technology sector. Even in the entire province, not a lot of people could outshine him.

Sheesh, it would be so cool to go home and be welcomed in such a grand fashion.

Despite being in overseas, distance did not interfere with his wish-fulfillment fantasies.

Armani invited him to sit with him. The side-by-side seating arrangement spoke volumes about how highly the Minister of Commerce regarded him.

Naturally, looking from this angle, one could also see how poor Niger was.

Perhaps because of the presence of numerous Han investors in Niger, Armani chose to discuss business during dinner. He clearly knew the intricacies of their culture as he perfunctorily drank two glasses before deciding to stop.

Obviously, he was drinking while talking business according to"Han custom".

After another exchange of greetings, Armani naturally led the topic into the right track.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Jiang, for investing in Niger. Is there anything we can assist you with to make this process easier? The basic economic condition is excellent and we're now in the stage of rapid development. There are a lot of business opportunities to invest in..."

Listening to Armani's passionate speech or drivel, Jiang Chen couldn't help but ridicule him in his mind. [You don't even have cab at your airport, yet you have the audacity to say that your economic situation is good!]

But even if the heart said so, the words could not be said out loud.

"Of course, I am very optimistic about the domestic development of your country. And that's exactly the reason why I'm establishing a security company and building a training facility here." Listening to this black uncle speaking for a long time, Jiang Chen still maintained his composure.

The meaning behind these words was: I have no interest in investing now.

However, Armani was apparently not ready to give up that easily as he continued to enthusiastically discuss some other projects in great details. His meaning was obvious: give me some money right now.

"How about this, I have a proposal—to facilitate seamless transportation of goods, I intend to invest in road construction from the provincial capital of Agadez province to the undeveloped area." In fact, this idea was brewing in his mind for a while now, and it was an excellent opportunity to bring it up.

As soon as Armani heard about the road construction, his eyes instantly brightened. If they could build roads, not only it would drastically improve the livelihood of people in the undeveloped areas, it would also strengthen the government's control over the rebellious tribes.

"Haha, Niger citizens will surely be very grateful for your generosity and friendship, Mr. Jiang."

"Don't mention it. It is up to you to study the specific planning of the road, and then we will discuss it further based on your proposal," Jiang Chen responded with a smile while looking at the eagle-eyed Armani.

Finally the dinner concluded in a harmonious mood. The minister of commerce personally sent him back to the hotel where he was staying.

"How is it, my friend?" Robert asked while grinning at him. He was standing at the entrance of the hotel.

"Annoying. Do ministers always talk this much? They're so damned desperate for an investment."

That Armani was a rather interesting character, a politician with a flair for public speaking. There was nothing wrong with soliciting investment, but when Armani sensed his lack of interest, he became more assertive and went on forever. For a while there, although he knew that Armani was speaking Han, he had no idea what he was talking about.

"Hahaha!" Robert started to laugh hysterically and patted him on the shoulder.

"My friend, now you understand my pain? The first day I was here, he basically serenades to me for the entire day. But I cleverly brought your name up and said that I was only working for you, and the real person with money is a guy named Jiang Chen."

"That's not funny." Jiang Chen glared at him and entered the hotel.

Robert caught up to him and started getting down to a more serious topic.

"Simply put, it could be quite annoying to talk business with black people, but we can't just give them some candies and send them away. Tomorrow we'll head over to Agadez province to inspect your military base.

"Ahem, it's a training facility for a security company."

"It doesn't matter since everyone already knows," Robert commented carelessly.

Stopping in front of the elevator, Robert nudged him with his elbow and quipped, "We'll depart early morning tomorrow so don't go crazy tonight."

Without waiting for his reaction, Robert dashed into the elevator that's about to close.

"This pervert," Jiang Chen said with amusement and shook his head.

But at that moment, an image of Ayesha dressed in a white floral dress last night appeared in his mind.

[Uh, okay,] Jiang Chen decided.

[I'll sleep a bit later tonight and accompany her to try on a few clothes.]

Chapter 153: The Tuareg Tribe

In the morning, the tranquil Sahara desert welcomed a group of strange guests.

Three Hummers galloped the vast endless expanse of sand, leaving three trails of dust behind the undisturbed desert.

"How much longer?" Jiang Chen asked in boredom while sitting in the back with his arms crossed.

Ayesha, who was sitting beside him, had the same emotionless expression, but from the dark, deep circles under her eyes, it was evident she didn't get enough sleep.

"It's just right ahead of us! But first, we need to greet the chiefs of the nearby tribes," Robert yelled enthusiastically while driving.

"Why do I feel that you get really excited when you're in the desert?" Jiang Chen glanced at him.

"This feeling of freedom is something that you'll never understand!"

This guy is crazy.

Jiang Chen mulled things over while looking outside the window.

The other two Hummers sat ten veterans recruited as instructors; compared to the energy here, theirs was much quieter.

Soon the vehicle drove into small sand dunes with a harder surface.

When Jiang Chen's vision suddenly cleared, he saw rows and rows of small huts.

Primitive, ignorance, poverty.

These three words summed up his first impression.

Yellowish gray house and courtyard piled up from gravel. Withered branches were tied together and used as the gate of the courtyard, and the windows were covered with dyed cloths like an ancient Arabic town in the 12th century. Every household kept a camel. It was said that here a man's social status was measured by how many camels he possessed.

"I'm a bit confused. Perhaps you can explain to me our purpose of coming here?" Jiang Chen asked helplessly.

"Of course. Er, it might be a tad difficult to understand based from the modern perspective. Afterall, we already paid the money and purchased the land from the government of Niger. A portion of that money was also used to compensate them for taking up their ranch. As far as the contract is concerned, the 20 hectares of land not far from here are ours, but according to the local customs, our identity is still that of a "guest". So following their tradition, we must obtain their recognition first before we can "settle" here," Robert explained.

"That troublesome?" Jiang Chen's mouth twitched.

"In fact, it's only a formality since they are more or less secularized," Robert shrugged and slowed down the speed of the car, "Still, there are some benefits from respecting their local tradition. At the very least, we can harmoniously co-exist without worrying about them giving us trouble, and they may even stand by our side during critical moments."

"I don't quite understand what you're saying. So who is the owner of this piece of land? Is it Niger? The Tuareg tribe?"

"Hmm, you can think of it as Niger as the king of the middle age, and Tuareg tribe as the lord of this piece of land." Robertsrolled his eyes as he gave an unlikely metaphor.

"If we get into a conflict with them, which side would the Niger government be on?" Jiang Chen asked a dangerous question after listening to Robert's explanation.

A troubled smile appeared on Robert's face upon hearing Jiang Chen's question.

"The Niger government will be delighted if we could wipe them out, but that's kind of impossible. Tuareg men are scattered throughout the desert. And rumor says that they have some unusual relationship with extremist organizations like Al-Qaeda. The Tuareg guerrillas also fought alongside Al-Qaeda during a riot in Mali."

Robert paused when he noticed Jiang Chen's unresponsiveness. For fear that Jiang Chen might do something harsh, he immediately added, "Uh, I suggest we better not clash with them. The people here are quite tough, and despite being poor, every household has an AK lying around."

"Don't be nervous, I was just asking," Jiang Chen quipped.

When the car drove into the tribe, all natives cast the vehicles with a curious look. Due to the poor road condition, Robert rolled down the window and signaled the two vehicles behind to stay outside of the tribe.

It was not a big deal, following the local tradition shouldn't take long to complete.

"That's the food market over there, but I don't recommend you trying out the things they sell there."

"What a coincidence, I'm also not interested." Jiang Chen looked outside the window. A kid on a camel gave him a curious look, and his father, who was wearing a veil, led the camel out of the tribe.

Ayesha subtly glanced at the window and muttered one phrase: "Heresy."

The car stopped, following the direction of a black woman, Jiang Chen and Robert walked into the building of the central tribe.

...

Tuareg tribe, a nomadic ethnic confederation mainly distributed in the suburbs of the Sahara Desert in Africa, and a branch of the Berber clan spread throughout the vast region of North Africa. Renowned for their writing, language, and unique nomadic life, which were substantially different from those of their surrounding neighbors. Instead of a matriarchal social organization, Tuareg was a matrilineal society. Although they believe in Islam, women were not required to wear a veil. On the contrary, men 25 and above must wear a veil in the Tuareg clan society.

What was more striking was its open marital values wherein women could have multiple marriage partners, and in case of divorce, all assets would belong to them.

Apart from these strange customs, they were naturally born warriors. There was a notable local motto: "The desert holds no secret to Tuareg people." In this desert, they knew how to fight better than anyone else. During the Mali civil war, Tuareg guerrillas delivered consecutive losses to the government forces.

Moreover, because of its strong combat ability, there were a lot of Mediterranean dictators and warlords who were interested in their fighting prowess. The most famous one was Gaddafi, who particularly favored Tuareg mercenaries. After the outbreak of the civil war in Libya, Gaddafi even offered the Tuareg tribe a lucrative remuneration of $1000 USD a day to help him quell an anti-government militant. Of course, no one knew if the money had actually been honored or true in the first place.

Robert had, in fact, recommend to Jiang Chen that since they chose Niger as the location for the base, recruiting Tuareg people might not be such a bad idea. However, after some consideration, Jiang Chen still rejected his proposal.

The main reason was Jiang Chen's lack of trust in their culture and religion and also to avoid potential issues that could arise in the future. At least those refugees who fled their hometown would not suddenly clamor to go home. In any case, the refugees were more reliable.

In the relatively spacious house, Jiang Chen saw the legendary tribal chief.

"Distant visitors, may your wealth be endless like the sands of the Sahara." The dark-skinned Female chief nodded slightly, her hands clasped together.

Perhaps because she often dealt with French people, her French was rather fluent. But regardless of how fluent she was, Jiang Chen who only knew English could not understand a thing, so he simply stood there and kept mum while waiting for Robert's next move.

"Thank you for your generosity in sharing your land. May your tribe flourish and your camels grow in flocks," Robert responded in fluent French. Even now, Jiang Chen could not figure out just how many languages this guy knew.

Upon hearing this, the elderly female chief cracked a smile, her wrinkles scrunching up together.

The following ceremony was quite simple. A man, whose head was wrapped in a frighteningly thick turban, carried two bowls of camel milk and placed them in front of them. According to the local's custom, the thicker the turban and veil were, the more respect they were showing to their guests.

It was said that in the past whenever a male guest visited here, he was also required to wear a headscarf, or at least his mouth must be covered. But now it appeared that they have made some concessions to foreign cultures in the process of adapting to modern times.

It was unknown whether the female chief was chanting a mantra or praying, but she spoke for a long time before she gestured to the two people with a smile.

Looking at that bowl of cloudy camel milk in front of him, Jiang Chen could not help but wonder if it was just freshly squeezed out. When he looked at Robert, the noticed that this man's eyebrows were furrowed as well.

"Is this really potable?" Jiang Chen whispered in English.

"Yes, but trust me, you won't drink it again after you have your first." Although Robert expression was somewhat bitter as he attempted a herculean feat of downing the camel milk with his eyes closed.

From the looks of it, this was his second time drinking this awful stuff.

Jiang Chen was secretly speechless.

Seeing Robert's swift action, the smile on the female chief's face became more brilliant. The faster the guest drank, the more it reflected their respect for the host.

When she looked at Jiang Chen, however, her eyes grew even brighter.

Robert had not even put the bowl down, Jiang Chen had already put the empty bowl on the table.

It took Robert a while before he finally finished and placed the bowl on the table with a quivering hand. Thus when he saw Jiang Chen's empty bowl, his eyes almost popped out from its sockets.

After coming out from the tribal chief's house, the two men received a warm farewell.

Back in the car, Robert hummed as he wiped his mouth.

"Sh*t, I feel like I've got a layer of grease in my stomach," Robert complained as he looked at Jiang Chen oddly, "You okay with that strange smell?"

"What strange smell? It was okay." Jiang Chen laughed loftily as he leaned back and then put his arms behind his head.

Other than the grease that barely touched his mouth, he didn't drink a single drop and all of it was sent to the storage dimension.

He was getting more adept at using this ability.

After their friendly interaction with the neighbors, the three Hummers returned to the road once again.

Finally, Jiang Chen saw a "castle" in the middle of the desert - Future Security.

Chapter 154: Future Security

Barbed wire fences, concrete watchtowers, and buildings—these structures greatly resembled a small military base.

"What do you think?" Robert turned around and smiled proudly.

"Not bad." There was also a satisfied expression on Jiang Chen's face.

Very neat.

The three Hummers stopped at the checkpoint at the entrance. The patrolling soldiers wearing dark sunglasses approached the car, and after verifying Robert's information, they performed a simple military salute and then released the checkpoint post.

The soldiers patrolling here were mercenaries hired from a security company in South Africa. With Jiang Chen's arrival, 20 people in a camouflage combat uniform wielding M-series automatic rifles quickly assembled in a neat formation in the center of the base.

These people only knew how to follow money and would not ask any questions. Their price was entirely based on the degree of danger of the mission, and Robert was able to negotiate with them for the price of $70,000 USD.

As the situation in the region escalated, Jiang Chen made some adjustments to the refugee's recruitment plan after deliberating it with Robert. The original plan was to hijack refugee ships, and then forcibly transfer them to the military base here. It was later changed to heading directly to the Syria border and masquerading as UA troops responsible for escorting the refugees, and tricking them to getting on the vehicle that would originally lead them to Europe.

As for tricking them, the answer was quite simple.

A flyer and a poster.

<European Labor Migration Program:

Any male between 18-25 may register here. You can bring your spouse with you.

Those who are interested may register here. The agency will arrange jobs for you.

Required: 100.>

Seeing that not only you could bring your spouse and there was also a guaranteed work to boot, and not to mention these people were equipped with UA weapons, the registration turned out to be popular.

After those who managed to qualify got into the vehicle, it didn't take long for them to realize that something was amiss.

Upon confirming that they were heading in the wrong direction, the refugees began panicking and frantically scampered to get off the truck, but the mercenaries, who were merely doing their responsibility to complete their mission, remained unperturbed, and they forcefully dragged all the refugees back inside.

After completing their "escort" duty, their mission was changed into guarding the refugees and preventing any attacks from extremist organizations or any other unforeseen situations.

According to the contract, as soon as Jiang Chen's group arrived, they would immediately hand over the control of the base and depart. For them, this was probably the easiest task they ever had, even though the pay wasn't much.

Seeing the retreating figures of the mercenaries, Jiang Chen gestured for the ten Kane veterans to line up behind him and signaled Robert to turn on the speaker and gather the refugees to the square.

The refugees were already converging in that direction.

After witnessing the mercenaries, who had turned over the control of the base to Jiang Chen, drove away, they felt an amalgam of complex and confusing emotions.

They previously thought those people were UA soldiers, who would take them to a safe location or at least a refugee camp near the border of a European country, but they didn't expect to be taken to a completely opposite direction and deep into the desert.

At first, they thought it was the base of an extremist group, but it did not look quite like it in all respects. Other than preventing them from leaving, they didn't make many forceful demands. The soldiers put a number on them and even arranged rooms for them that were much more spacious than those from a refugee camp.

And even if no one stopped them from leaving, there was nowhere they could go.

This place was in the middle of the Sahara desert. Without any means of transportation and sufficient supply, how far would their feet be able to take them? They would surely die if they met a sandstorm or if they got lost in the desert.

After going through the initial phase of restlessness, they chose to wait and observe. At least these people didn't torture them, and there were not many restrictions on food and water. One could even say that life here was better than any refugee camps.

Perhaps this place was the new refugee camp planned by the United Nations. After all, Europeans didn't want them to migrate to their country, so they funded the construction of facilities in the depths of the desert...there were a number of people with this kind of naive thinking.

However, they were doomed to be gravely disappointed by Jiang Chen.

Any gain had a price to it.

...

Looking at the refugees standing all over the place, Jiang Chen tilted his head slightly and asked Ivan, who was standing on the side, "What do you think about these people? Do you have the confidence in training them?"

Upon hearing this, a glimpse of pride flashed on Ivan's face.

There was a time when he thought that he would only serve under a president, who was not worthy of his allegiance, and serve as a cannon fodder for the sake of ideals that were not worth sacrificing for. However, as he stood there looking at the advanced training facility, and receiving the promised high salary, and when the boss asked him: "Are you confident..."

The answer was a no-brainer.

"That would depend on what the boss wants," Ivan raised his head and replied firmly, as though he had just regained his pride as a soldier.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, his chin pointed toward the doorway, "Similar to the group of people that had just left."

"Yes, boss!" Ivan shouted vehemently, "But, boss, I have a problem!"

"Oh? Say it," Jiang Chen nodded, pleased with his determination.

"I might go overboard," The soldier's eyes were burning with a fierce fighting spirit.

Hearing that, Jiang Chen paused and then unexpectedly laughed.

"If you go above and beyond, I'll be sure to give you a bonus."

Jiang Chen patted his shoulder quite vigorously and stood on the podium while smiling in front of the refugees.

Sensing that an authoritative figure had stood up, the refugees mustered their courage to voice their doubts.

"Who in the world are you?"

"Why did you take us here? We want to go to Europe!"

"I heard Frankberg provided refugee camp. Why didn't you send us there?"

"..."

Jiang Chen ignored these questions, and continued fiddling with the microphone and turned on its switch.

Buzz—!

The deafening static blared through the four corners of the square, and aside from Jiang Chen and the ten instructors, almost everyone covered their ears while ducking down.

"Ahem, seems like the mic is now working. You all can understand English, right? Then I'll start."

He ignored the pairs of frightened, angry, confused, and helpless eyes. He paused while renewing the feeling from the wasteland.

"You might think that you've been deceived. Why didn't you disembark in Greece but had been taken to Central Africa instead?" Glancing around the crowd, Jiang Chen laughed and continued, "That's right, I did trick you."

The crowd instantly erupted.

"This is unlawful!"

"Are you not afraid of being prosecuted by International Court of Justice? This is is against the law..."

"Send us back..."

"Send you back? Sorry, I'm not obliged to do so. But if any of you wants to leave, you can go right ahead, the door is open," Jiang Chen said with a smile as he spread out his hands.

Nobody spoke. Everyone knew that it would be stupid to cross the desert without any means of transportation.

"Warm shelter, delicious food, and clean water, you can't deny that your life here is much better than your refugee camps on the Syria border."

"But at least we would still have our freedom," someone muttered in the crowd.

"Ah, freedom. You're so poor, you only have your freedom and that's why you got on the truck, right? If you have money, you definitely could afford the ticket, isn't that right?" Jiang Chen smiled as he stared at the young man who interrupted him.

The young man didn't expect to be stared at by the person on the podium, he swallowed and shrank back a little.

But Jiang Chen did not seem to be looking at him and instead raised his hand and continued, "If you go to Europe, what then? You'll hole up in a government-provided shelter while spectating someone else's happiness? Quit your delusions. That place doesn't belong to you. You are but a refugee to them. Oh, you might say that you'll work hard, but when their natives are still unemployed, what kind of competitive edge do you think you'll have?"

Hearing this, a lot of people lowered their head. They had given this problem some thought, but they never dared to think that far ahead. If one dwelled too much on misery, the courage to continue to move forward would become even slimmer, and not to mention the possibility of finding happiness in the future.

"Receiving donation, eating relief food and becoming the type of person, who people would find suspicious wherever you go. I'll take the responsibility of telling you that indeed, you'll be able to survive, but you'll also stay in the shelter for the rest of your life. One day when your child wants to go to an amusement park, but because you have no money, you can only rack your brains on how to persuade your child that it's not a fun place. I don't know how would you then feel about it.

"Do you still want to go to Europe so bad after hearing all that?"Jiang Chen looked at the audience whose eyes had lost their vigor due to his momentum. Seeing this, he could not help the touch of smug smile slipped through his face.

"Where else can we go if we don't go to Europe?" A young man could not help but voice it out.

"Even if I did trick you, it's not exactly a lie." Jiang Chen ignored his question and opened his arms and said while smiling, "Work, I've already arranged it for you. If you work for me, I'll provide you a stable living environment and a salary of $200 USD a month. Your salary will increase gradually depending on your performance."

"The contract period is 3 years, and after 3 years, you can then decide whether to leave and take your savings to any other country in the world or stay. But trust me, in less a year, you won't be thinking about that dumb thought."

"If you don't tell us the nature of work, how are we supposed to believe you?" There was another jarring question from the crowd again.

"Nature of work? Isn't that obvious?"

Jiang Chen acted like he was surprised and made a show of looking around for a moment before continuing, "This is a military base, other than soldiers, what else would it need?"

Chapter 155: Once upon a time, there was an emperor

Another uproar.

Naturally, the crowd flared up again.

They thought that they would only be mining at an obscure place or engage in a hard labor, and the military facility was only there to supervise them, but what they did not expect was Jiang Chen wanted them to become mercenaries!

Was this a joke? They left their home for the very reason of avoiding the war. If they were to participate in the battlefield again, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of fleeing?

Someone asked this question out loud and denounced Jiang Chen that no one had the right to force civilians to wield weapons and set foot on the battlefield.

Hearing this, all Kane veterans guffawed.

"You're asking me what's the point? You'll understand that in the future. I'm too lazy to talk nonsensical things. You're asking what right do I have? Of course none, but like I've said, if you want to leave, go right ahead and leave. You have half an hour to decide, and if you still remain in the base after half an hour, then I would consider that you acquiesce by default."

After delivering his speech, no matter how these people protested, Jiang Chen directly did an about-face and left the podium.

There obviously won't be an applause for him, and he certainly didn't need one.

Just like the Fishbone Base at the beginning, when they found themselves unable to resist and living, in fact, a comfortable life, they would gradually accept sooner or later.

Moreover, Ivan would naturally train them to be absolutely loyal to the organization and shaped them into becoming a soldier.

Jiang Chen went next to Ivan and patted him on the shoulder. "I'll leave them in your care."

"Yes, boss!" the East Slavic soldier bellowed as he saluted and maintained his military posture.

He nodded his head with satisfaction. He then waved at Ayesha, who was standing quietly in the shadow, and then walked together towards the headquarters.

While walking, Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha and suddenly asked, "Say, Ayesha, your hometown is in Syria, right?"

"Mhmm."

After a moment of hesitation, he continued, "Umm, would my actions make you feel uncomfortable?After all, it's your hometown—"

"No, I will always stand by your side," Ayesha shook her head, her cold face suddenly revealed a gentle smile, "And you are a very gentle person."

Jiang Chen almost choked on his own saliva.

[Are you kidding me? What do you mean by gentle?]

"Ahem, although the first one moved me, I beg to differ on the latter part." He had never hesitated when killing except for the time when he made his first kill.

Just then, a small hand reached out to clasp his hand.

It seemed that after the night by the river, she fell in love with the feeling of holding hands, and she would always inadvertently reach out to his hand.

"Do you remember the time when you were in the truck?" Ayesha asked quietly.

Although it was not clear why she mentioned the past, he still smiled and squeezed her hand nonetheless.

"Of course I remember. How could I forget?"

It was quite interesting to think that back then, he didn't even notice that Ayesha was a girl.

"Even to a stranger like me, you still lent a helping hand when you saw my hungry eyes."

Jiang Chen smiled, "Do you mean those biscuits? Those were cheap."

Ayesha shook her head and clenched Jiang Chen's hand. Her mouth was slightly curved in a smile.

"But you still chose to share rather than to sit on the sidelines and watch." Being alone on her quest for freedom, she was already numb to apathy.

Jiang Chen slightly lowered his head and fell into deep thought.

[Shared? Have I really? Is this how people look at me?]

Ayesha took a peek at Jiang Chen and smiled tenderly.

"There was once an emperor who was generous, kind, and brave. His territory stretched from west of Thrace, east of Indian River Plain, north of Amu Darya to the south of Persian Gulf.

'"He acted as a conqueror in Damascus but gained the respect of the people he conquered. The Egyptians built a city in the desert to honor his meritorious deed," she muttered to herself as though she's recounting a legend.

Hearing this, Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughing.

"But the empire was only short-lived." Was she referring to Alexander?

Towards to this remark, she merely smiled and did not disprove.

Obviously, he could have just used bullets to suppress them, used their loved ones to threaten them, used force to make them surrender, made them live in tents, and made them live by his rules.

But he didn't. The living condition here was much better compared to the refugee camp. He even provided them with a salary and hope.

Feeling the warmth from his hand, Ayesha closed her eyes, her lips curved into a smile.

...

[What kind of joke is this? Trek across the desert?]

The refugees were abuzz with protest.

However, their objection fell on deaf ears as Ivan and the other instructors ignored the faces filled with righteous indignation and stood there like statues. The public outcry escalated but was cordoned off violent encounters.

Force would always the best deterrence.

All the trainers wore a pitch back automatic rifle at their waist, the dark muzzle warned anyone who dared to incite violence.

Half an hour passed quickly.

Ivan cracked a smile and signaled his nine compatriots to surround the refugees.

...

In the command post, Jiang Chen and Robert stood side by side in front of the window while watching the situation in the field in good humor.

"Sh*t, didn't think that you'd have the gift of the gab," said Robert, his cigarette dangling in his mouth and his arms were resting on the windowsill.

"I have a lot of talent." Jiang Chen grinned, he was also leaning against the windowsill.

Rather than talent, it was more of unceasing practice. Three months ago, if he were to talk in front of more than 100 people, he doubted if he would be able a single word. And now, the did not even need to prepare a speech.

"Do you know what I was thinking when you were giving that speech?"

"What?" Jiang Chen casually asked, his eyes were still on the field.

A commotion started to break out in the field. Someone tried to grab Ivan's rifle but was easily suppressed with a single move.

"Hitler." Robert made an amusing version of Führer and laughingly remarked, "But you didn't learn his way of provocation. You should have given them a loaf of bread and tell them: 'You can eat it as long as you swear your allegiance to me.'"

"There was no need." Jiang Chen chuckled and got up from the window. "I've already given them enough incentives."

With that, he left the command center.

Staring at Jiang Chen retreating figure, Robert shrugged his shoulders and once again resumed observing the square.

There the riot was already over.

Perhaps due to the experience they gained in Kane which trained them to be an expert in suppressing uprisings, Ivan was able to lead his nine comrades to successfully control the situation.

Although the refugees wore a scowl on their face, they still obediently divided into ten columns, each led by a respective trainer. Their spouse and children were taken back to their assigned housing.

The training started immediately. The first mission was to run two laps around the 20 hectares of the base.

They would only be able to eat once they finished.

Don't want to cooperate? Then starve together with your wife and children.

If they only have themselves to think about, some of them would perhaps attempt to resist; however, hearing that it was not just them who would starve but also their family...

Everyone chose to compromise.

Under the scorching sun, figures could be seen running around the base, leaving trails of dust behind them.

When they dragged their exhausted body after finally finishing two laps, they all dropped to the ground. Not only did the ruthless instructors show not an iota of mercy, the devils also announced that the run would become part of their routine.

Although they wanted to complain, they couldn't muster enough energy to do so.

Fortunately, evening came which meant that the training for today was official over.

When they dragged their beaten body to the cafeteria with their family and received their share of a hot meal, they suddenly felt that it didn't seem to be so bad.

Roasted golden turkey, stewed mutton soup, bright green salad...

As far as food is concerned, it was day and night compared to those of refugee camps.

Maybe it was because of exhaustion after the exercise which stimulated their hunger, the dinner was especially delicious.

A lot of people even had extra portions, and Jiang Chen didn't skimp on food.

Hassan sat down beside his wife, Mary, carrying a bowl of mutton soup, and then grabbed a bun, dipped it into the soup, and took a big bite.

Looking at her exhausted husband, Mary anxiously reached out to him and wiped the dust off his face.

"What did they make you do?"

"Other than running, not much, but who knows what they'll do later? Dammit, those trainers are simply inhumane," Hassan cursed as he devoured the food in front of him. Because he expended quite a significant amount of energy, his appetite was huge enough to devour a camel.

It was not clear whether it was intentional, but everyone there appeared to be a modern Christian, so there was no sign of veils and headscarves in the cafeteria.

Hassan was munching his chicken and bread, while he pondered about on the future.

He was 20 years old, his wife 19. They were planning to have a baby last year, but the conflict suddenly escalated overnight, as the shadow of IS enveloped half of Syria. Because he was considered a "heretic," he naturally did not dare to stay in his hometown, so he took his wife away and came to the refugee camp on the border.

Not knowing whether he should consider himself lucky or unfortunate for being taken here.

Becoming a mercenary? He never considered this position.

But now it seemed that there were not many options left for him.

"Will you... go to the front line?" Mary reluctantly asked.

"If I become a mercenary, probably," he grimaced and grunted as he stuffed his mouth with bread. He glanced at the trainers who were also having dinner in the cafeteria.

He was very confused about what would happen in the future.

But that 3-year contract gave him some hope.

"After 3 years, let's have a baby. I will work hard to give you and the children a stable environment," Hassan promised.

Mary stared at him, her eyes were covered with mists, and then she lowered her head shyly.

"Ok."

In any case, since his family was already here, he would just need to do his best for them.

He would just wait and see whatever happened in the future.

Hassan's thought reflected the thought of other recruits in the base.

At least for this meal alone, there's nothing to complain about.

Chapter 156: Finally going home

Early next morning, a team of ten men was running outside the base wall.

They were led by their respective trainers and would have stamina training 10 kilometers away from their location.

Jiang Chen's requirement for Ivan was he only had half a year regardless of what method he utilized. Six months later, he wanted to see disciplined and fast-moving troops. Moreover, this unit should be loyal to him alone.

It was easy to ensure the loyalty of the soldiers: first was money, and second was electronic collar.

Other than the job contract, Jiang Chen also signed a 10-year confidentiality agreement with the ten Kane instructors. Under the terms of the agreement, they must wear the electronic collar with information detection ability to protect themselves from information leaks in the entire duration of the term.

In this regard, the ten Kane trainers did not put up any resistance because it was only 10 years, and they did not have any intention of disclosing anything.

Six months' time was very short, it would be impossible to train a special force capable of a mixture of combat requirement, other new recruits would have to stay in camp for 7 months. Although relying on the virtual reality system for efficient training would only require 1-2 months to complete the new recruit training regimen; however, in the absence of a basic foundation, carelessly bringing these high-tech products out in the open would be highly unwise, more so because he did not have 100 training equipment in the first place.

But of course, Jiang Chen also made it clear to Ivan that he didn't need a special force, but a competent and modern infantry capable of siege warfare. They didn't need to be able to execute special missions, merely being capable of fighting would suffice.

As for their combat ability, there were a lot of ways to make up for it.

Not enough stamina? Then give an injection.

An E-grade genetic vaccine was really cheap and common in the Sixth Street. Although it was not as powerful as Jiang Chen's C-grade injection, it was enough to improve their constitution to that of special force level. The only reason he did not inject them yet was he wanted them to train their perseverance and endurance. They would be given an injection over the course of training.

Although Ivan and the trainers were skeptical about the drug that could improve their physical shape, upon seeing the certainty in their boss, they finally believed it was real. In spite of their misgivings, after being injected, they were surprised to discover that their strength and reflex improved by leaps and bounds, only then their skepticism finally disappeared. They were now more confident with the 6-month deadline training mission.

Of course, Jiang Chen didn't tell them it was a genetic medicine. He only told them it was a mysterious Han medicine.

Mhmm, that's right, it's a traditional Han medicine.

To begin with, from a foreigner's perspective, Han medicine in itself was a very mysterious thing. And precisely because of its mysterious nature that he was not pressed to explain himself.

It was also worth mentioning that genetic vaccine functioned by fine-tuning the genetic sequence of somatic cells and stem cells without affecting genes in certain cells. In other words, there was no need to worry about genetic issues.

Bad marksmanship? Then make the technology shoot for you.

AK47? M4A1? Obviously, they won't be using these junks.

100 years in the future, these seemingly decent rifles would be extremely weak. Just like how Thompson submachine gun could still be used now, almost all new rifles could definitely outmatch its performance.

The 150 Reapers Assault Rifles that Jiang Chen brought from the Fishbone Base, whether its stability, penetration, and accuracy, it outshined all modern firearms. After all, there was a fundamental difference between the structure of warfare in the future and the present.

Even light infantries wore nano combat suist as well as kinetic skeletons. Not to mention the heavy infantries that were fully equipped with power armors. If the rifle penetration was low, it would be difficult to even penetrate the enemy's armor. Since this was a NATO standard Reaper assault rifle, its penetration capability was naturally unequivocal. Although it was normal in the future with highly advanced science, it was ridiculous in the modern world where it could easily penetrate through steel or concrete.

Logically speaking, the higher the explosive power, the more recoil the solider would receive, but because of the special design of firearms, the recoil was significantly reduced.

Furthermore, because of its compact internal design, needless to say, the accuracy was superb.

The only problem was the ammunition. Because they couldn't use a modern ammunition without a secure base, Jiang Chen did not dare to move the bullet production line, so he could only carry the ammunition himself.

Fortunately, the trade between the Fishbone Base and the Sixth Street had just been finalized, and the additional batch of ammunition he purchased had arrived just in time. He shipped six months worth of training ammunition to the armory which temporarily solved the problem.

Other than rifles, with the development in the apocalypse side, Jiang Chen would continuously transport even more ridiculously incredible equipment to this world.

Such as kinetic skeletons, heat sensor grenade...

Jiang Chen entrusted all responsibility of training to Ivan. The veteran was well-respected among his peers, and so he was more at ease in leaving him with the day-to-day operation of the base.

As for logistics, it was also easy to solve.

According to Robert's suggestion, he set up an office for the Future Security in Niamey and hired local experts to handle the problem. The only thing he needed to worry about was to provide the operating cash flow to the company's account, and the daily expenses, salary, and logistics, and other aspects of affairs would be coordinated by the office.

At the end of each month, there would be a detailed bill sent to his email.

...

After spending two days traveling between the base and Niamey, Jiang Chen finally settled everything on this side.

The manager of Future Security was a man called Barkley whom he found in the talent market in Niger. Despite being only 35 years old, he already had 15 years of relevant work experience. He looked stable and trustworthy.

The labor cost in Niger was very meager, $400 USD monthly salary was already considered high in the local market. Towards such generous paycheck, the black guy was ecstatic as he promised to take care of everything with perfection.

Jiang Chen was pleased with his eagerness because it meant he could worry less about it.

With the base starting to operate on the right track, it was finally time to go home.

When they headed to the airport, they took Niger Ministry of Commerce vehicle. As a good host, the Minister of Commerce Amani personally sent them to the airport.

"We hope you come back soon, Mr. Jiang. You will always be Niger's friend." Armani shook hands with him enthusiastically with a bright smile on his face.

$2 million worth of investment to build a road from the national highway to the undeveloped area. He had gained a lot from this friend of his from the East, and so he was naturally very enthusiastic.

"Of course, I wish our friendship will last through eternity. Thank you for your warm hospitality. Farewell." Jiang Chen released his hand and then led Robert, Nick, and Ayesha into the airport.

After passing through security, Robert heaved a sigh of relief and rolled his eyes.

"I can finally leave this goddamn place. Heck, when I get back, the first thing I'll do is to take a nice, long shower and then go to the hospital to get a gastric suction."

"Then spread your seeds to some Hollywood chicks?" Jiang Chen teased.

"Ahem, of course, nightlife is necessary to relieve some stress at work, you know. The next time you come to Los Santos, I'll take you to experience it." Robert chuckled. "What about you? What are you planning to do when you get back?"

"Shower, sleep and then rest for a few days." Jiang Chen shrugged and sat on the chair in the waiting room. Ayesha sat right beside him, eyes looking everywhere. However, much to her disappointment, unlike the airport in Veit, there was no magazine to pass her time on.

"Don't be so boring, you have to learn to enjoy life properly." Robert sat on the opposite side of Jiang Chen, crossed his legs, and leaned comfortably against the seat. "Then what's the use of making so much money?"

Nick scanned the lobby of the waiting room and then headed for the coffee machine.

"Haha, how do you know I didn't enjoy myself? Let me tell you, when I made my first money, the first thing I did was to spend it lavishly," Jiang Chen said proudly, not in the least bit ashamed.

"Oh? I didn't expect this...Haha! By the way, buddy, I've got a fun idea. Why don't we share what we did with our first money?" Robert was suddenly interested and sat up straight.

Meanwhile, Nick came over with a coffee and sat down next to Robert.

"We'll get Nick to go first." Robert patted Nick on the shoulder while laughing.

Nick took a sip and looked at Robert with confusion. After hearing the explanation, the taciturn Slavic man gave the most ordinary statement.

"Bought a house in Los Santos and then got a dog." As far as UA citizen's lifestyle was concerned, his couldn't be any more average.

"Okay, I take back what I said, Nick is the most boring person." He ignored Nick's confused look and then coughed and continued, "My turn...I remember it was five years ago, I was still helping a Mexican smuggled illegal firearms. On the day of payout, he gave me $50 thousand, and the first thing I did was..."

At this point, Robert's face went red out of nowhere, scratched his nose, as he was too embarrassed to continue.

"Ahem. Uh, I found two 16 years old high school students at the bar... In short, I got rid of my...virginity." Robert had completely abandoned his sense of shame. He then looked at Jiang Chen, "Ok, buddy, your turn."

[This old pervert.] Jiang Chen laughingly thought in his mind.

"The first sum of money..." He wanted to say what happened in Sanya but suddenly halted as he awkwardly looked at Ayesha.

Uh, he seemed to be somewhat similar to Robert, the old pervert. After making money, the first thing he did was go to Sanya and got himself a lover.

Sensing Jiang Chen's gaze, Ayesha looked back at him puzzled.

However, her pure expression made it even harder for Jiang Chen to open his mouth.

Robert smirked and then whispered, "I understand, we're all men here."

"No, wait, my situation is a little different from yours."[In any case, saying it's his first...]

"No, no, no, no need to explain, I understand."

[Fu*k, what do you know!]

Chapter 157: I'll teach you fitness?

This past couple of days, Jiang Chen was very idle.

The first step of the island capture project had been completed, and Sixth Street had also been stabilized.

Out of nowhere, he suddenly found himself free.

He walked out from the bedroom, yawning. After a brief wash, he went to the kitchen and sat across Ayesha while stretching.

"Did you stay up late again?" Ayesha asked with concern.

"Uh, played a bit too late last night." Jiang Chen reached out and grabbed a slice of toast.

Coffee, toast, and omelet for breakfast, Ayesha's cooking was getting better...While munching, he reached out and turned on the TV.

"Don't sleep too late," Ayesha reminded softly.

"Mhmm." He took a sip of coffee, and the bitterness made his brain sober.

The widescreen TV was playing the news.

"Yesterday noon, a crossfire occurred in the northern suburbs of Oesk, Kane, the largest one since the turn of the year. The civilian forces used cannons, self-propelled artillery, and other heavy weapons against the government-controlled area. Currently, Minsk Agreement is in name only. On the other hand, UA accused Russia of deploying artillery on the border...

Watching blankly at the artillery bombardment on the news screen, Jiang Chen took a bite of the toast,

"Did they start fighting again?"

Truth be told, seeing the cannon homing on the screen could not be compared to the astonishment of seeing it in the frontline.

Ayesha appeared to be indifferent towards these things and was concentrating on her breakfast.

"I'm going rusty these days," Jiang Chen complained out of boredom.

Ayesha put the omelet on the toast, blew a few times, before taking a huge bite.

After hearing how Jiang Chen felt, she hesitated a little before suggesting, "How about I teach you a good workout?"

Workout?

Jiang Chen was stupefied.

"Eh? I've taken the injection, so even without exercise, I can still maintain my body in tiptop condition."

He simply had to praise the beauty of science and technology.

"Um, in addition to physical fitness, there are still other benefits to exercise such as maintaining your figure and keeping your body flexible," Ayesha muttered.

"Figure... Umm, speaking of this, I still haven't touched the fitness equipment that we bought. It's always you who have been using it." Jiang Chen scratched his chin thoughtfully and suddenly clapped. "Then it's decided, later you can teach me to exercise."

"Mhmm!" Ayesha smiled tenderly and nodded.

...

Shortly after breakfast.

The two stood face-to-face on the yoga mat. Ayesha had already changed into a workout outfit of a small black top, her brown color was tied into a ponytail.

Looking lively and enticing.

Curves outlined by tight clothes, bumps faintly visible...

Uh, guess it would be troublesome if he continued to stare.

Jiang Chen subtly moved his line of sight.

A dazzling selection of fitness equipment comparable to those of outside gyms was located on the third floor of the home gym. At the corner, a virtual reality training chamber could be seen, and before entering the password, it looked like an oddly-shaped, covered bathtub.

"Fitness is divided into two kinds, one is aerobic exercise such as treadmills and bicycles. The other is non-aerobic exercise such as sit-ups and weightlifting." Without noticing the strange look from Jiang Chen, Ayesha went to the next exercise equipment and started explaining earnestly.

When it came to exercise, she was naturally quite experienced. After all, she spent almost all her days in the gym. If it was not completing her daily "homework" in the virtual reality, it was using this equipment to exercise her body.

After listening to Ayesha explained the key concepts, the next step, of course, was the practical application.

Jiang Chen twisted his neck, as he eagerly stepped on the treadmill and started it under Ayesha's guidance.

<Speed: 10>

[Um, I don't seem to be feeling anything.]

According to the value on the EP, his muscle strength was already at 30, his reflex was nearing 29, and thus this type of exercise was indeed too simple for him.

Impatiently, he pressed the plus sign button making the speed increased until it finally stopped at the limit of 30.

His feet were practically dancing, but he still didn't feel an iota of pressure.

"There's no point in running so fast," Ayesha smiled wryly.

"Why do I feel that this treadmill is pretty much useless to me?" Jiang Chen had a similar wry smile and pressed the minus button until the treadmill came to a slow stop.

After Jiang Chen got off from the treadmill, Ayesha took over. She took a deep breath and pressed the start button.

<Speed: 5>

"Although the injection of that weird medicine improved a lot of aspects of your body quite significantly, daily exercising to maintain your health is still important. Not so fast, jogging should suffice. This helps tone the body and keeps the body flexible..."

While jogging in constant speed, Ayesha was explaining it to Jiang Chen simultaneously.

Flexibility? Body coordination? Jiang Chen nodded thoughtfully.

But when he thought about body shapes...

For some reason, the first thing that came into his head was the sexy vest line of her waist.

And looking at her shoulders and arms moving rhythmically along with the jiggling of her firm and small breasts...

Not good! Nosebleed.

Jiang Chen embarrassedly covered his nose and quickly looked away.

A good thing that nothing came out of his nose.

Ayesha gave him a puzzled look. Done with her demonstration, she turned off the treadmill and jumped off.

"Now for the non-aerobic exercise. Um, where should we begin...Ah! Let's start with that." Looking around, her eyes lit up when she spotted the elliptical trainer near the door.

An odd-looking equipment connected to all four sides, which Jiang Chen had seen before in the university gym. Put simply, by sitting there, you can perform pull-ups, core exercise, parallel bars and other series of complex exercise.

"I rarely use this because it will easily build up muscles, but it's suitable for guys." Ayesha sat on top of it and smiled softly at Jiang Chen. "I'm going to demonstrate for you."

She adjusted the weight to 20 kg, took a deep breath, and extended both of her arms up high while holding the bar.

Too much power.

A weight of this level was naturally very easy for someone like her with a genetic vaccine, but even so...

Due to the tension made from the exertion of her arms, the round softness on her chest looked like it was about to pop out.

Jiang Chen unconsciously swallowed his saliva.

Although he knew it was bad to gawk at certain parts of a girl, still he was unable to move his gaze away.

However, this wasn't the most troublesome thing.

Having finished with the stretching exercises of her upper and lower muscles, Ayesha, who remained oblivious to his gaze, put her arms against the pad of the butterfly clips and then both of her arms snapped towards her chest.

Because of the pressure, the soft protrusion was squeezed under the force of her arms.

Worse still, because of the aerobic exercise, Ayesha's forehead was sweating profusely. The small top was becoming more transparent as it got stuck on her skin.

"What's the problem?" Ayesha looked perplexedly at Jiang Chen who was covering his nose.

"Uh, nothing, my nose is just a little bit itchy. Ha ha ha." Jiang Chen laughed dryly.

He did not want to admit that he was thinking of naughty things while she was teaching so earnestly.

While still confused, Ayesha didn't pursue the subject. She pressed her legs against the pad, ready to demonstrate the next set of moves.

However, at this time, she accidentally saw something she shouldn't have seen.

Because Jiang Chen was also wearing workout clothes, the design of the sports pants was rather loose.

That tent-shaped bulge...

Ayesha's cold face turned crimson, she ducked her head down shyly, fingers rubbing absentmindedly against the training equipment.

"Do, do you want to?" she uttered in a quivering voice.

Hearing this, it was Jiang Chen's turn to blush.

His conscience told him that he should refuse this time to show his integrity and solve this "misunderstanding".

"Yes," He nodded without thinking.

Although his thought was very praiseworthy, his mouth and body, on the other hand, were both very honest.

"Umm, then let's go to..."

"Here is good!"

"Eh?"

...

It's already lunchtime when they left the gym.

Seeing the time on the EP, Jiang Chen could not help but smile wryly.

Now with Ayesha feeling disoriented, she definitely would not be able to cook anymore.

What a blunder.

He shook his head and went into the kitchen.

He turned on the rice cooker, poured half a cup of rice into it, and mixed it with water.

Putting on the apron, he took a spatula and cooked the scrambled eggs with tomato, which he hadn't cooked for a long time, and then he made a cucumber soup.

This was the limit of his cooking, as he certainly didn't know how to cook lamb and beef.

But this should be alright for today.

He brought the dishes on the table while humming. He then returned to the kitchen and removed the dough from the fridge.

Ayesha was still not used to eating rice. It was usually Jiang Chen who ate rice, and she with her bread.

He stuck the dough into the microwave, patted his hand, and pressed the start button.

Watching the golden bread spinning in the microwave, he narcissistically touched his chin while nodding.

[Why am I so talented? Capable of doing business and capable of cooking...wait! This shouldn't be how a man is described!]

Just then, he suddenly felt a soft touch behind him. A small hand came around him from behind and embraced him.

"Hmm? Ahem, sorry, I've been too rough. Are you feeling better?" Jiang Chen said as he turned around and scratched his head awkwardly.

"Mhmm...thank you."

"Thank you? Eh? Wait, what are you crying for?"

Ayesha's face was tightly pressed against his warm back, she didn't respond and only rubbed the corner of her eyes against his clothes.

Just ten minutes ago, she slowly recovered from her woozy state.

When she realized it was already lunchtime, as a "competent wife", which she'd always strictly told herself to be, she immediately got up, leaned on the wall for support, and dragged her body to the kitchen.

When she saw the dishes on the table, for some reason, she felt her eyes tearing up.

She gently moved to the kitchen door and saw the hot bread that Jiang Chen made for her.

She stepped forward and embraced him, her face pressing tightly against the warm and strong back, and her delicate eyelashes closing.

"Uh, sorry for hurting you, in the future—"

"No, this is good." Ayesha murmured happily.

-

Chapter 158: A Popular Game

After lunch, Ayesha returned to the gym saying she was going to clean the place. After all, she had been injected with a genetic vaccine, and thus she was almost completely recovered at the moment.

Jiang Chen was sitting on the sofa while watching TV to pass the time. Yawning, he was about to get up and go back for a nap when his mobile phone suddenly rang.

He took out his mobile phone and read: Xia Shiyu.

He pressed the answer button and lazily put the phone to his ear.

"Hello? What’s up?"

"Mhm, I have something to tell you. It’s about a game," Xia Shiyu’s excited voice came through which made Jiang Chen extremely surprised.

"I guess it's a good news." Jiang Chen laughed.

"That’s right," Xia Shiyu leaned backed against the office chair with a rare proud smile appearing on her face. "After a period of marketing and beta testing, our company’s first mobile game 'New Era' is now officially live! According to the recent daily statistics that had just been released, its first day of downloads exceeded 15-million mark, setting a record for highest downloads for mobile games!"

After practicing in front of the mirror numerous times, when Xia Shiyu finally shared the good news with the boss, her voice still went off-key due to extreme excitement.

"What the fu*k!" The news practically made Jiang Chen jumped up from the sofa.

"Ahem, no cursing please," Xia Shiyu admonished lightly before continuing, "According to the server's data, the highest number of concurrent users broke through 5 million…it’s better for you to come to the company this afternoon, so I can show you the back end stats directly."

"I’ll be there right away." After saying that, Jiang Chen hung up the phone and was immediately out the door.

...

Wanghai University, men's dormitory.

A guy with a pair of glasses was staring at the screen of his mobile phone, his fingers moving swiftly on the touchscreen. His spectacles reflected the fighting scene of a roleplaying game character.

"Four eyes, what are you playing? Or are you watching porn?" Tian Zhongjie, his bunkmate, moved his chair closer and stretched his neck to take a peek at his screen.

Tian Zhongjie had just finished playing 'League of Legends' and had almost smashed his keyboards because of those noobs. He was so angry that he didn’t want to play anymore. After 20 losses, he closed the game directly, and then opened the file, and uninstalled the game.

This was his tenth time of uninstalling this game.

Most online games were either filled with RMB players (1) or filled with cheats. Although a lot of noobs played 'LOL', the quality of the game itself was still quite good. At least, the RMB skins wouldn't increase the user's attack damage. Thus, after his anger had abated, he would find himself unable to stop from downloading the game again. Despite that, every time he finished uninstalling, he would swear that he would chop his hand off if he ever installed it again.

Chen Hong cast his friend a sidelong glance before returning his gaze back to the screen and then controlled his character to the direction of the main city.

"What are you being so mysterious about?" Tian Zhongjie had just AFKed, so he had nothing better to do. He then got up and stood behind him.

Chen Hong ignored him and continued to stare intently at the screen.

Just then, the dormitory door opened and Gao Fei, who had just finished playing basketball, walked in.

"Yo, four eyes, didn’t you say that only dumbass play mobile game? Then why are you playing it?" Gao Fei quipped. He curiously stood behind Chen Long trying to see what he was playing.

"What, no way! Is this truly a mobile game?"

As a result, Gao Fei was also unable to peel his eyes off the screen either.

The texture of the image, the detailed character design, as well as the spectacular gameplay, those 3D mobile games are nothing compared to this! No, not just mobile games, even 'Skyrim' on his desktop couldn't compare to this game!

"That’s right, this is not a mobile game, and that's why I'm playing it," Chen Hongteng pushed his eyeglasses up and scowled at the completely stunned Tian Hongjie.

Gao Fei gulped and jeered, "The graphics is so good, the game content must be meh."

Chen Hong glanced at him before continuing, "Open world and 2:1 continental-scale map. It combined the adventure element of an RPG and the management element of an SLG. Player can choose to roleplay as an adventurer or become a lord managing a piece of land. You can also open a business and become a merchant to fight pirates in the sea. Whether it's the graphics or the content, even if it's compared to PC games, it's a 3A godly masterpiece" Chen Hong said with absolute certainty. Although he had always been extremely critical when it came to games, he had yet to find any flaws in 'New Era'.

"Could your crappy phone even handle a map with a size of two continents?" Tian Zhongjie's jaw was about to drop to the ground, he felt like his 'LOL' addiction was still not beyond redemption!

"The game is only 300 MB."

"300 MB, you're pulling my leg!" Gao Fei uttered in complete disbelief.

"The company stated that they used the newest data compression technology as well as cloud computing technology...Anyway, I don't understand any of that stuff, I only can care about playing. O For a day, I consumed 10 MB of data, so it's not very high."

Chen Hong killed another monster and deftly picked up the loot of silver coins and equipment and then locked onto the next one.

"I can see that you have been killing monsters for a while now, don't you find that boring?" Tian Zhongjie noticed that he had only been killing monsters after watching him play for a long time. Sure, the fighting scene and graphics were great, but wouldn't it be too boring to be hacking monsters constantly?

"Would you still feel bored if there's money involved?" Chen Hong responded to him as though he was talking to an idiot.

"Money?"

"RMB, you know that, don't you?" he added, sighing.

"What the fu*k, the in-game currency can be exchanged for RMB?" Gao Fei asked in disbelief, his eyes almost popping out.

"The game operator doesn't exchange gold coins, but they offer a platform similar to 'Diablo 3's' auction house. Players are free to price and sell gold coins on a consignment basis. This system is somewhat similar to the stock price, where the lower price is given preference. The game operator will only collect 5% commission fee, and they only take 10% commission for the equipment auction."

While speaking, Chen Hong's eyes were burning with passion like crazy.

"During beta testing, Future 1.0 distributed a high amount of activation code to VIP members. There's quite a number of wealthy players playing this game according to the official data collected during the beta phase."

"That's to say, there is a high probability that RMB players would beat your sorry ass." Gao Fei said in derision.

"That's how an average person would think." Chen Hong cast him a haughty look. "'New Era' didn't create an item mall. The purchased points can only be used to expand the warehouse or purchase skins that don't affect the balance of the game."

"In other words, it's s similar to LOL's store?" Tian Zhongjie's eyes lit up, and he suddenly felt an urge to download and play the game.

Chen Hong ignored his friend's question and muttered, "Do you remember what I said before? There are many ways to play this game. You can be an adventurer, a lord and so on."

"Does it has anything to do with those RMB players?" Gao Fei asked, frowning.

"Of course!" Chen Hong's eyes were practically indistinguishable from gold coins. He licked his cracked lips before continuing, "The condition to become a lord is one has to buy a city lease for 100,000 gold coins and then get the city qualification. Imagine if you were a rich player, would you rather hunt monsters like what I'm doing, or would you rather become the lord of a city with countless followers?"

"That's nonsense!" Gao Fei scoffed, but he seemed to have suddenly thought of something as his eyes widened, "Wait, if the city lease costs 100,000 gold, the auction house..."

"That's right, if you play the game normally, it would be impossible to obtain 100,000 gold coins in such a short amount time. Killing a single boar would only drop 2 silver coins and killing 50 would barely give you 1 gold coin. So to become a lord, the only way to acquire gold coins is through the auction house!"

"But would there be that many people willing to buy a city lease?" Tian Zhongjie asked.

"Let me give you a straightforward data. At present, the price of a single gold coin in the auction house is set to 5 RMB. So for every 10 boars I kill, I would make 1 RMB." The more Chen Hong talked, the more motivated he became.

"What the fu*k, a land lease will cost half a million RMB? That is insane!" Gao Fei uttered in disbelief.

"You noob, there are rich people who are not afraid to squander 1 million while playing 'Plants vs. Zombies'. Don't you know building a territory is similar to "farming"? Moreover, through taxation, production of materials and other ways to earn money, would you still be worried about not making a return?"

"I'll tell you a rumor that I heard from one of my friends. Have you heard about Blood Sea guild of 'Sword 4'? Because of the popularity of 'New Era', they are planning to switch to this game. They are also currently raising funds in preparation for something big. Not only wealthy people, a lot of game workshops are also eyeing this city lease, so you can just imagine the future of this game."

"Isn't 'Sword 4' a PC game?" Tian Zhongjie could not help but ask out loud.

"If the mobile game is more fun than PC game, would you rather play a PC or a mobile game? The future belongs to the mobile platform!" Chen Hong himself was becoming passionate about the future.

"Not only that, it can also be said that city building is the biggest feature of the game. The sandbox-like settings would allow the players to design their city based on their own preference. The city can be built anywhere from a certain distance from another city. And depending on the terrain and the map itself, the established city will receive a corresponding reward that would allow recruitment of special NPCs to attract other solo players.

"Do you know what this means? This means the earlier the city is established, the higher your advantage will be! You can get mines that produce iron ore, coastal areas fit for ships to dock, as well as unique NPCs roaming on the map...All major guilds are buying gold coins in order to seize those good spots!

"My plan right now is to kill monsters to gain gold coins and then sell the gold for money. Once I leveled up, I will explore the deeper parts of the continents. It'll be great if I can trigger some hidden mission. That would be really crazy!" An ambitious expression appeared on Chen Hong's face.

"But wouldn't the value of gold depreciate after a while if everyone purchased the city lease?" Gao Fei asked anxiously.

The reason why he was asking was because he suddenly had the idea of making money from the game. Just killing ten monsters would earn him 1 RMB. This was something really enticing for someone who doesn't have much pocket money.

"You're overthinking it. Wouldn't you need to build establishments after building a city? Wall, city hall, residential buildings, farm, ect., all of which cost money. In addition to city lords, there are sea explorers! Although putting up a shop would not cost 100,000 gold, a small shop would at least be 500. As for the mega vessel, it costs 1,000 gold and above."

The auction house wouldn't interfere with game content, and the difference between the demand for gold and RMB would prompt frequent trading between the players. As long as the operator continued to push new game contents which would prevent the value of gold from depreciating, the game would continue to survive.

Considering the impeccable game quality, the number of users, as well as the continued growth of Future 1.0...

Gao Fei's eyes turned brighter and brighter the more he thought about it.

"Four eyes, I have an idea. Why don't we, of dorm 101, start a game workshop..."

(1) RMB players: the equivalent of pay to win players.

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 159: The Trap

Whenever Lingyu Technology's name cropped up, most mobile games fanatics would automatically think of games with unique designs and outstanding gameplay, such as 'I am ATM' and 'Dota History'.

Inside the Lingyu Technology building in Wanghai City, Ling Zhongtian was sitting in front of the office table with a dark face as he silently looked at the information on his table. The manager responsible for mobile game development, Qian Haiming, had his head lowered while sweating profusely and waiting for the boss' reprimand.

After a long while, Ling Zhongtian finally spoke.

"In one month, 'Dota History's' ACU dropped by 10% and KPI indices decreased by 17%...This is the goose that lays a golden egg you're telling me about? And what about 'I am ATM'? What's your team doing for the past month?" His voice was trembling due to rage.

ACU referred to the average concurrent users, while KPI referred to key performance indicators. The first was related to the sustainability of the game, while the latter was related to the game's profitability. At this moment, however, in front of him was a report that showed the stats of their two most profitable mobile games were in great decline.

[It was still fu*king okay last month!]

BANG! Ling Zhongtian threw the document in his hands on the table with great force, his lungs were on the verge of exploding due to anger.

The scolded Qian Haiming had a face of being greatly wronged. It was really not his fault.

Swallowing, he tried to organize his sentence in his head before explaining quietly to his boss, "Boss, this really cannot be blamed on us."

Taking a deep breath, Ling Zhongtian picked up the cup on the table to take a sip of tea, and gradually calmed the anger in his chest.

"It's that 'New Era', right?"

"Mhmm." Qian Haiming felt secretly relieved that the boss understood the situation, but the atmosphere remained tense as ever.

These two games of the company were very profitable, and 'Dota History' had a record of a staggering cash flow of 200 million per month. Although the result was somewhat watered down, it was not far off from the truth.

The issue had to do with 'Dota History', despite running for over a year, had nothing new to offer. Unlike PC games, mobile games' real-time interactive capability was already very limited; thus, it was destined to severely limit the player's likelihood to stick to the game through social interaction. It could be said that when mobile game players quit the game, the reluctance to part with the game would be mainly due to the equipment and diamonds and not because of their good friends in the game.

After last year's success, the active users of 'Dota History' had been gradually decreasing. However, Qian Haiming had still a bit of skill, as he led the entire project team to devise numerous unique events which allow the KPI to barely hit the mark.

But who would have thought that a highly competitive game would take the market by storm and took a huge piece of the pie away?

Ling Zhongtian fell into a deep contemplation while looking at the report on the table.

As the president of a corporation, he obviously would not be clueless about the existence of the most promising mobile game in the market.

The game's massive content made it difficult for players to get bored due to repetitive gameplay.

It also offered real-time interaction comparable to that of PC games which meant that when players play the game, it really felt like an online game rather than playing just with a single list of friends.

And more importantly, how come it didn't consume a lot of data?

Ling Zhongtian was so jealous that he wanted to spew forth profanity, or perhaps he had already cursed in his mind.

The three points above were the major limitations of today's mobile game development. All major game developers that wanted their share of the market were racking their brains to come up with the best possible solutions to overcome these three major hurdles.

Too much game content? If users saw a game with a few gigabytes, they would be too lazy to download it. High hardware specs? This would cause lag and make the phone hot. High data usage? This might make telecom companies happy, but this would definitely enrage the users; thus, the game would naturally be unable to survive.

How to use software packers to include more game contents that most of the mobile phones would be able to run, and would not consume too much data. This has always been a great source of concern in the industry.

Fortunately, came a software which realized the inspiration of many programmers.

It was Future 1.0.

By simplifying the algorithm, the performance of mobile phones was increased by three times, and energy consumption was reduced twice as much. This would undoubtedly enable them to recapture the ideas that had been cut off before.

Ling Zhongtian was indeed a man with foresight. When he saw the download record of Future 1.0 continually being refreshed, he immediately issued instructions to Qian Haiming to gather people from project development team to develop high specs "large-scale mobile game".

The idea was undoubtedly insane.

At present, there was not a single mobile game that could meet the standard of the so-called "large-scale mobile game" in the market despite every developers' bluff and bluster. To deploy a large amount of technical resource to venture into an entirely unknown market was unquestionably a huge gamble.

The reason for making such decision was because he was able to foresee the change in the future of the development of mobile games.

Given how Future 1.0 had turned out, the future would have high-quality games with high resolution and rich, diverse game contents that could compete with PC games to fill the gaps in the current market. PC and console games would continually be pushed out of the market, and the mobile game industry would only going to get bigger. The only thing he needed to consider was how to gain the upper hand and acquire a bigger slice of this pie.

However, his ambition was already deflated before it was realized.

Turned out that Future 1.0 had a far greater ambition.

Before they gained a foothold in the market, they quickly launched an independent game and ventured into the mobile game market.

'New Era'?

In the beginning, Ling Zhongtian had not given their promotion of: "open game world", "sandbox game map", "the strongest freedom in history" much thought yet...

Who didn't know how to brag? Which developers did not vaunt their own game? Not just the players, even their own marketing staff didn't believe in the marketing.

But when the game went online, Ling Zhongtian's expression instantly turned green with envy.

He heard a lot of empty promises before, but it was his first time seeing all the promises got fulfilled.

Its unbelievable game quality set a whole new record in terms of gameplay. With the support of the Future 1.0's user base, 'New Era' took the market by storm with no less than the impact that Future 1.0 produced and once again become a hot topic of the media. Future 1.0 made headlines again.

Without a doubt, 'New Era' had seized the initiative and took the lead in this market, which he had such high hopes for.

"How are things going on your end?" Ling Zhongtian no longer reprimanded Qian Haiming, and instead asked about the "large-scale mobile game" that was currently under development.

Hearing this, Qian Haiming looked inconceivably bitter.

"It is almost developed and currently in alpha phase, but compared to 'New Era'..."

As the project manager, no one knew better than him the product his own team was developing.

If the quality was almost comparable, he would at least try to boost his own project by a bit to let the boss see they really tried and achieved some results, however, after personally playing 'New Era' for a few hours...

Mhmm, he went on playing for a while, and it was undoubtedly fun that he couldn't help but expand the warehouse.

They had completely lost.

"INo hard, just do everything you can to utilize your ability and creativity. Try a bit harder in the operations," Ling Zhongtian advised exhaustedly as he rubbed his temples.

"Yes, boss." Qian Haiming nodded and quickly left the office.

Elbows on the table, Ling Zhongtian stared at the report blankly.

He's already 50 years old, and regardless how tough his body was, his temple already had a white streak on it. After being in business for so many years and starting with only a handful people in a 10-sqm studio to gradually becoming the industry leader in the mobile game development, it was his first time experiencing such troublesome issue.

What made it troublesome was not the game itself, rather the chain reactions that came with it.

The mobile game industry was huge, too big to imagine, so no matter how voracious the appetite of the Future Technology was, it would be impossible to completely dominate the industry. In most users' phone, it would be impossible not to have more than one game. Thus, even if they lost the "large-scale" game market, Lingyu Technology still maintained a strong market share within the industry.

However, with the emergence of this large-scale mobile game, users' spending habits would undoubtedly have a huge impact. Lingyu Technology's continuous profit decline during this period was a clear indicator of this problem.

Similar to the analogy that if you have an excellent game on your phone, would you still pay for a game like Tetris? Even if you did, it probably wouldn't be much.

The mobile industry had been divided for the longest time where everyone had similar games comparable to one other, and not one company had been able to monopolize the market.

However, that was before that game was launched.

'New Era' quickly gathered all players who were already bored with monotonous mobile games in the market. It revolutionized the perspective of users about the mobile games having "monotonous content" and "poor real-time interactive capability".

[Since the inception of this game, their days began to become difficult. and from the looks of it, it's not only Lingyu Technology's that got the short end of the stick...] while Ling Zhongtian mulled this over, he lightly tapping on the table with his finger.

[Perhaps it's high time to give this "rookie" a lecture?]

While thinking of this, Ling Zhongtian grimaced. He picked up the phone and called his old rival.

"Hello, Wang Zong. Haha, how have you been?"

"Ok, enough chitchat. It's been a tough day for everyone. Don't you think we should do something..."

Shifting the public opinion, providing funds for development of hacks, exploiting 'New Era's' vulnerabilities, hiring hackers to attack the server...

There were still many things they could do to preserve their interests.

Just be careful not to get caught in the act.

Ling Zhongtian hung up the phone, his mouth curved in a sneer.

[Regardless how powerful Future Technology is, how would they be able to ward off attacks from all sides?]

Chapter 160: What's a National Husband?

Driving to Guanglu Building, Jiang Chen closed the door and narcissistically looked in the car mirror before striding towards the front door.

He was slightly embarrassed—as the president, he was fairly certain that he came to the company not more than ten times.

Most of the companies that chose Guanglu as their office space dealt with information technology, similar to Future Technology. The commonality between them all was that their lunch breaks were really short. It was only 1:30, but there was nobody to be seen in the lobby. Just as he was about to take the elevator up, he heard his name.

"It's Jiang Chen?"

"Mhmm, seems like it is him...."

Hearing the gossipy discussions, Jiang Chen dumbfoundedly looked over at the lobby reception.

Two female receptionists whispered to each other as they giggled. When they noticed Jiang Chen looking over at them, they didn't stop but rather waved at him.

"Hey, Yingying, he looked over."

"Wait, let me send a Weibo!"

Weird.

Jiang Chen muttered to himself as he got on the elevator.

When the elevator stopped on the twelfth floor, a proud smile surfaced on his face as the words <Future Technology> came into view.

Three months ago, Future Technology existed only in Xia Shiyu's word document, but now it had already grown to this scale.

He made a beeline towards Xia Shiyu's office.

Sitting behind the front desk was a beautiful girl. Jiang Chen didn't recognize her; she was most likely one of the new hires. As for the previous two receptionists, they must have been transferred to other departments.

Compared to when the company just started, the number of employees had already doubled. Considering the company's new project team, Xia Shiyu went ahead and rented the thirteenth floor to be used by the <New Era> team.

When the beauty sitting at the front desk saw Jiang Chen, her eyes immediately lit up as she greeted him with a cheerful smile.

"Hello, President! Welcome!"

"What welcome," Jiang Chen casually said as he laughed and greeted her. Afterwards, he asked, puzzled, "You're new here, right? How did you know that I'm the president?"

On the left of her chest was a name tag that read "Su Mengqi."

"President, don't you know that you're extremely popular right now?" With both elbows on the table, Su Mengqi smiled.

Her voice had a unique tone that made others feel peaceful. Xia Shiyu indeed had an eye for choosing people. With a talent like this, after some training, she'd be great in the sales department.

"Popular?" Jiang Chen looked lost for a moment. While he knew he was considered a public figure, he didn't think he was popular.

When he came out of the airport a few days ago, he didn't see any cameras pointed at him.

"Haha, when is the last time President went online? Oh, I remember you have a Weibo account, unless that one is fake?" Su Mengqi asked curiously.

"Uh, I do have Weibo, but how did you know?" Jiang Chen took out his phone and logged into his long-forgotten account.

He recalled that the only person he followed was Liu Yao. After that, he didn't bother sending out a single Weibo. But when his eyes landed on the numbers, he jumped.

<Followers: 8.21 million. Following: 1>

"Hehe, I am also your follower." Su Mengqi shook her phone as coyly blinked her eyes. "Everyone calls you National Husband."

"Huh?" Jiang Chen glanced over the rows of at symbols, dumbfounded.

He randomly opened a few. It was either "I want to make babies with you," or "Please notice me, I can warm the bed." Many passionate females added a selfie in the message, but most belonged to the type that had "no photoshop at all."

Jiang Chen was secretly shocked at his popularity.

But he would pass on the babies part.

It made sense, however—Future Technology was now valued at over five billion USD by Wall Street analysts, and this was the number given to the press a month ago. After the introduction and success of their revenue model, as well as the era-defining game New Era, Future Technology's value could easily have doubled.

Without exaggerating, Jiang Chen's net worth was easily over ten billion USD.

Moreover, he was quite good-looking, and someone revealed that he was only twenty-three years old.

New to the business, young and rich, and also single—

Immediately, all spotlights were focused on him.

Even without sending out a single Weibo, social media officials acted on their own and verified the account, making the number of followers explode.

Uh, he was very curious. How did the Weibo officials know about his Weibo account?

"What do you think? It's not bad to be popular, right?" Su Mengqi smiled happily at Jiang Chen.

"Not bad." He scratched his nose while laughing shyly.

His sudden public stature felt surreal.

"Hehe, oh yeah. President, you still don't have a girlfriend, right? I'm also single. Do you think I can pursue you?" Su Mengqi coyly said in a half-joking tone of voice.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to reject her, a light cough transmitted from the end of the hall.

Xia Shiyu was standing there.

Her silky, black hair was pulled up, and her black suit was paired with a white dress shirt, black stockings, and a black pencil skirt. She demonstrated the office lady vibe to perfection.

Still stunning.

Su Mengqi playfully popped her tongue out and immediately put her phone away. It was evident that Xia Shiyu was well-respected in the company.

"Don't use your phone at work. Remember this next time." After giving Su Mengqi a brief lecture, Xia Shiyu glanced at Jiang Chen. She paused before saying, "Haven't seen you in a long time." Her tone somehow seemed to carry a hidden bitterness.

Jiang Chen said apologetically, "Uh, I was about to go find you."

"Then follow me." Xia Shiyu nodded, then she turned around to lead the way to the office.

After the two left, Su Mengqi patted her chest with relief.

Her best friend walked over with a briefcase and gently tapped her.

"Qiqi, do you have a death wish? You dared to hit on the president in front of the CEO?"

"Hmm? What! Could they...." Su Mengqi's eyes suddenly popped out as she realized the relationship between the two.

Her best friend Li Fengying whispered mysteriously, "Let me tell you since you're new and don't know. The reason why the CEO still hasn't found a boyfriend yet is because of President Jiang...."

"W-what do I do then? Will CEO Xia make trouble for me over this?" Su Mengqi began to feel anxious. She didn't actually plan to pursue Jiang Chen; it was only a joke. If she got in her boss' bad books, it would not be good.

Future Technology's salary and benefits were extremely competitive.

Her best friend suddenly burst out laughing.

"You dare to laugh. Give me back my Haagen Dazs." Su Mengqi said with mock anger.

"No, haha, don't worry, CEO Xia is not that type of person. She usually looks serious, but she's not the narrow-minded type to give you trouble."

If Jiang Chen heard this word, he would have a shocked expression.

Xia Shiyu did exactly that to fire him.

So people do improve?

_Min_

Chapter 161: Hacker Attack

"This is our backend data." Xia Shiyu leaned down to press a few buttons on the laptop, then she turned the screen towards Jiang Chen with a rare prideful look displayed on her face.

It was the server management system designed by Yao Yao from which server activities were monitored.

25.27 million registered users.

The number wasn't overly high, considering Future 1.0 was a one-person-one-account registration system. Therefore, <New Era> was linked to Little White, which didn't allow fake accounts.

This made it so that the number reflected the number of people actually playing the game, unless they had multiple phones.

The reason behind eliminating smurfs was simple—to avoid having people open multiple accounts with the intent to disturb the economy within the game and use up server resources. <New Era> operated on one server in the entire country and used cloud computing to transfer calculation data from the client to the server. Even with Yao Yao's magically modified server, there was an inordinate amount of stress placed on it.

"The peak concurrent users have hit 15.03 million and the average concurrent user number is 8.14 million. It's nothing short of a miracle." Xia Shiyu couldn't seem to stop talking.

"What about the profit?" Jiang Chen immediately asked.

He was concerned about their new revenue model. Would such an innovation fit the market? He knew the game was online for just two days which was too early to tell, but he still couldn't help but ask.

Xia Shiyu smiled and clicked the screen.

"This is the current total auction amount, already exceeding 14 million. With a five percent commission fee, revenue has reached 700 thousand within the first twenty-four hours of operation."

"So much?" Jiang Chen was shocked.

He wasn't surprised by the revenue within the last twenty-four hours but rather by the auction amount of 14 million. It reflected the people's interest in game-spending.

"And it'll only increase." Xia Shiyu's voice was emotional, her voice trembling. "The player's current method of obtaining gold in the game is still slow, making a huge gap in demand. The current ratio of gold to RMB has even risen to a high price of 1 to 5.6."

Jiang Chen's initial reaction to Xia Shiyu's words was to pause. He didn't allow joy to overwhelm his thoughts; rather, he became more cautious.

"Do you think someone is manipulating the auction house price? Just like with stocks—prop it up high, get players to accumulate gold, and then massively over-flood the market?"

Hearing Jiang Chen raise his concern, Xia Shiyu's eyebrows also tensed.

"I've already considered this possibility, but for now, the operations department has yet to come up with a workable plan. Some suggested that we follow the rules from the Han stock market and establish a circuit breaker in gold exchange prices to prevent market manipulation. Some proposed establishing a bank organization within the game internally so that once the gold rises above a tolerable range, they would sell or purchase back the gold. But both of these solutions have their own pros and cons and are still under debate."

Hearing this, Jiang Chen almost burst out laughing.

"Are you planning on changing the epic magical genre into a financial one?"

Xia Shiyu seemed lost.

"Ahem, just joking around. Let's get to the main point. We can look at the broader economic balance in the game. Since the auction house is similar to securities, how could a bunch of game operators come up with a solution? We can follow what Valve did with DOTA 2—hire someone studying finance to monitor the auction house."

Hearing his suggestion, Xia Shiyu's eyes lit up. The problem that hounded her was solved with a simple sentence, making her consider him a few more times.

"Why are you looking at me?" Feeling slightly shy from her gaze, Jiang Chen scratched his nose.

"I just realized that you're actually quite smart." She smiled, and it was like a beautiful flower blossoming on her gorgeous face.

Dazzled by this brief glimpse, Jiang Chen jokingly replied, "I also just realized that you're quite beautiful when you smile."

Xia Shiyu blushed and coughed before hastily changing the topic.

"Mhmm.... On the other hand, based on the current skins available in the store, there has only been 150 thousand in revenue, but this number is expected to steadily increase. Also, after the one-time warehouse expansion, just on the first day of operation alone, it managed to rake in an impressive 4.21 million. However, this number is expected to drop as the number of new users decreases. These are the operational results from the past two days."

As she spoke, Xia Shiyu opened another window to show to Jiang Chen.

The revenue from the first two days was 10.41 million. Seeing this number, Jiang Chen couldn't help but gasp. From this result, <New Era> easily destroyed the majority of mobile games that made that much in a month. If they maintained this upward trend in profit and user base, it wouldn't be a stretch to say <New Era> would break a monthly revenue of 200 million.

Subtracting costs and tax expenses, this revenue combined with Future 1.0's made Future Technology a mega-corporation with a 50 million monthly profit.

Jiang Chen was so ecstatic when he heard the news that he immediately declared a bonus of ten thousand to everyone in the operating team.

"With a boss like you who gives out bonuses so frequently, the project team can just depend on those bonuses." Xia Shiyu smiled at Jiang Chen's ecstatic expression.

Jiang Chen laughed. "Then the employees would want me to check up on them every day."

Just as Xia Shiyu was about to mock him by saying, "Then why don't you come by every day," the laptop on the table flashed a red alert symbol.

Jiang Chen was confused, but Xia Shiyu sighed as if it wasn't a big deal.

"This already the twelfth time today. They were heavily grouped around the morning hours, but then here we go again.

"Network being infiltrated?" Jiang Chen frowned.

"That's right. It was more frequent yesterday." Xia Shiyu continued, "In the beginning, our programmers were highly focused on dealing with the attacks, but when we found that they couldn't even break past the server firewall, we began to ignore it. Speaking of which, how can we get rid of this alert? It always forcefully increases the volume and stays in the middle of the screen."

[It would be funny if they managed to infiltrate the firewall], Jiang Chen muttered in his mind.

"Ahem, I'll get the overseas team to make some adjustments." He only had to have Yao Yao tweak it, very simple.

As Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu ignored the hacking alert on the laptop, in an apartment 100 kilometers away was a man in a black tracksuit. He resembled a zombie with his deep eye sockets as he typed furiously on the keyboard.

The veins on his arms were abnormally prominent, and his bloodshot eyes seemed as though they would pop out at any time. A pallid face showed from beneath his hoodie and with his small figure, he looked underage from all perspectives. The typing speed he demonstrated, however, would embarrass any professional writer.

Of course, he was not a professional writer but rather a hacker.

"How can this be possible, how can this be possible!"

Lines of code—or at least, lines of error codes—were reflected on his pupils.

The typing stopped when the screen flashed multiple red crosses.

No matter how many times he tried, it was the same result. They had to have a security team of at least ten professionals.

As soon as his hands left the keyboard, the room quieted down, and all that could be heard was the humming of the computer fans.

"Ahhh, can't beat it." Xie Lei raised his head, and he sank into the chair feeling defeated. He stared blankly at the ceiling as he mumbled, "It's only fair. If they could do something as insane as artificial intelligence, there's no way their security would be terrible."

Bored, he took out his phone and poked Little White's stomach. Seeing him giggle adorably, Xie Lei genuinely laughed.

Honestly, he didn't hold any animosity towards Future Technology.

[To be able to develop such a fun software....]

At that moment, the phone suddenly rang. When he saw who the caller was, his smile cooled considerably.

<Caller: Black Dragon>

"Hello?" Xie Lei said grimly upon picking up.

"How's the job you're working on?" Black Dragon laughed.

Black Dragon was obviously not his name, but if a hacker exposed his identity, it would be the same as stripping naked and running out onto the street. Which of them didn't do anything illegal before? Exposure meant "death."

". . ."

With the knowledge that they controlled "evidence," Xie Lei's face twisted for a moment before he took a deep breath. "Future Technology's security is too strong. No matter how hard I try, I can't go around the firewall. You're also in the business. You should know how difficult—"

"Can't do it?" Black Dragon interrupted. "My suggestion is for you to take it more seriously. This is for an important person. Based on our longstanding relationship, I'll give you twenty thousand allowances after this is finished," he said slowly.

"Twenty thousand? Since when are you so generous?" Xie Lei mocked.

Black Dragon, who was usually too cheap to give a few thousand, was now offering twenty thousand? The client this time must have offered more than a million.

"Don't bullsh*t me. If you don't want it, fine, I was only pitying you and you mock me? Let me tell you, Green Bird, or Xie Lei, if you don't do a good job, just wait for the cops to show up at your door."

After finishing, Black Dragon hung up.

Taking a deep breath, Xie Lei flung the phone to the side and buried his head between his knees. Green Bird was a renowned name among hackers, but it was useless. The Xie Lei in front of the computer screen was only an ordinary teenager.

"Dammit!"

His smashed his fist onto the table.

On the phone screen, Little White curled back anxiously. He couldn't see Xie Lei's expression since the camera was covered, but he could detect agony from the sound waves.

Just as Xie Lei was despairing, a tiny hand patted his head.

"Brother?" a young girl stood behind him and whispered.

Her face was similarly pallid, but it looked graceful in a way that healed when seen. The only unfortunate part was that she had no color in her pupils.

She couldn't see.

Xie Lin, his sister.

Xie Lei placed his hand on hers and tightly held onto it with a forced smile.

"Don't worry, Brother is here."

Even though he knew she couldn't see, he struggled to smile.

The girl continued to smile gently.

"Don't tire yourself out."

Seeing the bright smile on his sister's face, there was only remorse in his heart.

"Listen to Brother. I got another deal. The boss is generous and offered twenty thousand in compensation."

"Woah, Brother is so impressive." Her hands clasped together in front of her chest as she slightly opened her mouth in surprise.

"Mhmm, your brother is really impressive.... Therefore, I will heal your eyes." Xie Lei desperately kept his tone normal while his fingers tightly clenched onto the armrests.

He was not afraid of going to jail. He was done with Black Dragon's manipulation.

But what stopped him from going was his sister Xie Lin. If he went to jail, his only source of income would disappear. Not only would he be unable to treat her eyes, it would also be difficult to live....

He took a deep breath, his mind already made.

Although the hope was slim, he had to take a gamble.

Chapter 162: Company Gathering

When Jiang Chen announced a bonus of ten thousand for everyone, the employees all began to cheer in joy.

Xia Shiyu who stood beside him rubbed her face. She whispered, "Didn't you say a bonus only to the New Era project members? How did it become everyone?"

Hearing that, Jiang Chen paused before immediately laughing it away. "That's fine! Everyone contributed, so everyone should be rewarded. There are a lot of employees in Future Technology, but no one is an extra!"

"Boss." Chen Lulu in the legal department put her palms together as if she was praying to Jiang Chen.

"What?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"You look like you're glowing."

At the edge of the circle, Su Mengqi stopped clapping along with her colleagues.

As she watched Jiang Chen, who was surrounded, there was a different light flashing in her eyes, like a magpie that had just discovered shining jewelry.

"Girl, are you thinking about someone?" her friend said with a smirk. She stood beside Su Mengqi and poked her friend in the arm.

"Fengying," Su Mengqi murmured, as if she hadn't heard her friend's words.

Seeing the lost face on her friend's face, Li Fengying looked at her confusedly.

"What?"

"Who do you think is prettier? Me and CEO Xia?" Su Mengqi said with a pout, her eyes drawn to the person in the center.

"Psh! Wait? You...."

"I have decided!" She suddenly clapped her hands, a fighting light burning in her eyes. "I've changed my mind."

Future Technology had a total of 34 employees. With a bonus of ten thousand per person, that came out to only 340 thousand—this was a drop of water in the vast sea of Future Technology's future profits. Following the growth of the company, their monthly salary would eventually be far greater than that number.

But what Jiang Chen didn't know was that the employees were touched not by the ten thousand bonus but rather by what he said at the end.

"There are a lot of employees in Future Technology, but no one is an extra!"

Nothing else instilled such a sense of belonging as having one's own value recognized. They spent days and nights drafting plans, discussing marketing strategy, and handling the details of the operation—other than working for the salary, did they not want to be recognized for their values?

No one felt this as strongly as Jiang Chen did ever since he was fired at will. He was a small employee working in the sales department of a clothing store. He knew in his heart the powerless feeling that no matter how hard he worked, he would never receive any recognition.

Sometimes, people were more easily touched than expected.

These words were later printed in Future Technology's employee manual as the company's culture used to encourage new employees.

But this is an afterthought.

...

With everyone's moods at an all-time high, Jiang Chen immediately announced a gathering at Xinrong Restaurant, with all expenses paid for by the company.

A boss this generous naturally received the praise of the employees. Most people disliked business gatherings, but upon hearing that they would have the opportunity to have a meal with the mysterious but legendary boss, they began to look forward to it.

After getting off from work, the group of thirty plus people arrived at Xinrong Restaurant.

Befitting its five-star reputation, Xinrong Restaurant was magnificently built.

Xia Shiyu had already reserved a room, so when the restaurant manager saw the crowd of thirty people, he put on his brightest smile and personally ushered them to the private room. He also courteously gave Jiang Chen a VIP card that gave 20% off the tab.

The dinner table was a bustling scene.

Jiang Chen happily accepted his employees' toasts, but considering that he had to drive, he took care not to drink too much and placed the remainder in the storage dimension.

Sitting beside him was the second-in-command, Xia Shiyu. Jiang Chen was surprised to find that she was quite popular in the company as she received many proposed toasts as well.

Xia Shiyu accepted them all without refusing a single one, but because of her tolerance, she used a small cup. Regardless, her face turned red after a few shots, which couldn't look more attractive on her.

The mood became heightened as Jiang Chen didn't act like a boss at all, boasting instead with the employees about anything and everything.

The topic soon turned to personal questions about the "internet famous" president's personal life. Everyone was quite curious.

"President, let me propose a toast. I wish for your greater success!" At this time, Su Mengqi stood and raised her cup with a smile.

Based on the alcohol culture in China, it was disrespectful to propose a toast to the boss before the direct manager did so. Because of the lack of employees, however, Future Technology did not yet have an established Human Resources department, and so Xia Shiyu was in charge of everything; therefore, Su Mengqi's direct manager should have been Xia Shiyu.

But CEO Xia, either from shyness or other concerns, didn't propose a toast to Jiang Chen from the start of the dinner until now, despite sitting beside him. Despite that, Su Mengqi toasting Jiang Chen did not befit the culture.

Of course, there was also an unwritten rule that beauties were the exception.

"I'll accept your kind words." Jiang Chen stood and also raised his cup before throwing back the drink. Su Mengqi simultaneously finished the drink in her cup, and two red clouds appeared on her cheeks. Her watery eyes shimmered. Under the influence of alcohol, she gazed into Jiang Chen's eyes and asked, "President, can I ask you a question?"

"Ask away, as long as it's not for my bank password," Jiang Chen laughed as he joked.

"Then my question is, does President have anyone he likes?"

It was a bold question, drawing a wave of chattering, and the mood at the dinner table was suddenly pushed to a climax. Su Mengqi's face with light makeup began to blush even more under the cheers of her colleagues, but her watery eyes didn't move away.

Many people speculated that CEO Xia had feelings for the president, but when she remained unperturbed by the question, people began to question their suspicions.

Everyone was already an adult; there was no way she was this reserved.

"Yes, President. If you don't tell us because we're men, then shouldn't you reveal some information to the beautiful lady?"

"Yes, yes, our Miss Su is already giving you hints, so you should say something."

Recalling that the president was still single, the crowd began to root for the two.

Su Mengqi was indeed a gorgeous girl, and she seemed interested in the president. Many times, it worked out like this—although they didn't hold strong feelings for each other, under everyone's influence, they would somehow develop feelings for each other.

It was a top priority to help the president stay away from the single life. If it ended up working out, their fussing now would become an assistance later! Not only were there benefits, but in the future, it would be a favor. If they ended up getting married, with Jiang Chen's generosity, a hefty red envelope would come their way.

And even if it didn't end up working out, it was a light jest at the dinner table, so not many thought too deeply on it. For some reason, Xia Shiyu buried her head and poked at her fish, feeling wronged. She had the urge the stand up and do something, but she didn't know exactly what, so she couldn't find a reason to get up.

Jiang Chen gave a troubled smile. This was a difficult question to answer.

Sun Jiao and Yao Yao.... were from the other world. Ayesha's identity and age were unique, so it wasn't good to expose them. Liu Yao was a celebrity and would not be good to expose as a mistress. F*ck, he thought he had so many girls, but not a single one could be brought home for New Years.

"Uhh, yes?" After careful deliberation, Jiang Chen gave an incredibly vague answer.

Even after hearing the response, Su Mengqi didn't give up. Just as she was about to ask, "What do you like about her," Future 1.0's Project Manager Nin Huajian suddenly stood and proposed a toast with a smile.

"President Jiang is young but achieved! I have worked in the IT industry for five years and have seen a number of industry prodigies. But the only person whom I respect from the bottom of my heart is President Jiang. I'll finish the drink."

Nin Huajian chugged the alcohol in his cup and flipped it to show his respect, making the crowd cheer.

Jiang Chen understood that Nin Huajian was helping him get out of an awkward situation, so he gladly raised his cup.

After Jiang Chen finished his drink, the three sat down.

Su Mengqi also realized that she was rushing it. Thankfully, Nin Huajian saved her from persisting, or else she would have committed the taboo of putting her boss in a difficult situation.

Besides Su Mengqi's anxious emotions, Xia Shiyu's heart was also turbulent.

She recalled the scene during the last press conference.

At that time, Jiang Chen seemed to have indicated that he didn't like anyone.

But there now there was someone.

Who could it be?

He barely showed up at the company this month and barely saw her. Could it be someone he met overseas on a business trip...?

Eh? Why do I care about his personal life?

Just as Xia Shiyu was in a mental quandary, the topic at the table switched directions.

"CEO Xia, thank you for your support and guidance. Let me propose a toast to you."

Jiang Chen gently poked Xia Shiyu with his elbow.

"Ah! Okay...." As if waking from a dream, Xia Shiyu hastily stood and raised her cup.

Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu, perplexed. It was rare to see such a frantic expression on her face.

In this relatively harmonious atmosphere, the dinner came to an end.

Chapter 163: Please close your eyes at night

After the closing remarks of the boss, the dinner officially concluded. People began to leave and started to head home.

The total spending was 70 thousand. Jiang Chen swiped his card without a blink of an eye.

But just as he was about to leave, he realized that someone was still there.

Xia Shiyu was leaning on the table. Her blood, red blush could be faintly seen on her half exposed face, she looked like she drank too much.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen helplessly let out a sigh and walked towards her.

For some strange reason, the girl somehow started to drink shot after shot and got herself drunk. She didn't cause a scene after becoming drunk as she just quietly lied on the table till now.

"No one forced you to drink, did you think you were drinking water?"

"Huu-"

Jiang Chen put her arms around his neck and used a slight amount of force to lift her up onto his back.

Feeling the softness on his back, Jiang Chen's face turned red. Although they were not big, they were surprisingly soft.

He quickly coughed to hide his awkwardness as he cleared his mind. Avoiding the dubious look of the waitress, he quickly secured her on his back and left through the door.

"I, I am not drunk, taxi..."

"Yes, yes, that's what all drunk people say."

The warm breath on his neck made his mind go elsewhere, especially coupled with the softness on his back; it was making him lose his mind.

.

He suppressed the wild thoughts in his mind as he strenuously stuffed Xia Shiyu into the front passenger seat and put the seatbelt on her. When his finger unintentionally slid across her silky waist, he gulped, urged back any more "unintentional" moves, and closed the door.

He started the car and drove his Maybach to Xinxuan community.

The smell of alcohol began to rise in the car, Jiang Chen glanced at the completely passed out girl as he sighed and murmured.

"You know you are very attractive right now?"

Xia Shiyu ambiguously muttered something, but it was probably just her sleep talking.

Because he was afraid that she would get cold from the wind, Jiang Chen let the alcohol smell build up in the car and didn't open the window.

Finally bringing this girl to her front door, Jiang Chen couldn't care more as he used his free hand to search her body, before finding the key and opening the door.

He dragged Xia Shiyu, who was drunk like a pile of mud, into her place before he finally got a chance to breathe. But just as he was about to leave, he froze in place.

Her white neck was a soft shade of red, her slightly messy hair partially covered her gorgeous celebrity-like face, her bright red lips were parted, breathing a warm but intoxicating smell, her delicate eyebrows furrowed due to discomfort...

Seeing Xia Shiyu's letting her guard completely down, Jiang Chen gulped and took a subtle step forward.

If he did something now, she probably wouldn't know.

But just as the devil-like thought emerged in his mind, he refocused, scared by his own thought. He quickly took two deep breaths and forcefully shook his head.

Jiang Chen helped her take off her suit and then to make her more comfortable, he unbuttoned the first button on her button down shirt.

After doing all this, he put the sheet on her before sneaking out from the room.

He poured himself a cup of water in the kitchen, the cold sensation of water passing through his stomach calmed his heart.

After standing for a moment, he looked at the clock on the wall.

<10:32>

"It's already this late?" Jiang Chen yawned as the feeling of confliction rose.

Xinxuan community was in the complete opposite direction of Mingxing community. If he drove back now, it would be 12 before he arrived at home. Besides, he was already so tired that he really didn't want to drive an hour back.

Stay here for the night?

Jiang Chen gulped as it was an enticing thought.

[I did carry her back. It would be okay if I stayed without her permission for one night right?]

Thinking, Jiang Chen took out his phone and texted a message to Ayesha.

<I am busy tonight, I won't be back.>

...

Jiang Chen let out a long breath of air. He then stretched and scanned the two-story apartment.

There was a bedroom on the second floor, but probably never cleaned out since only Xia Shiyu lived here.

"Looks like I am sleeping on the sofa tonight... I'll take a shower first."

Jiang Chen muttered as he walked to the bathroom.

Within the mansion, Ayesha had her leg placed on the bar as she gently leaned her body forward, her chin slightly touching her knees. The elegant posture was not only difficult but also aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. Only such exercises could stretch the tendons in the leg to increase the flexibility of the body. This was something genetic vaccine did not provide. Flexibility was one of the most common things that benefited her in all areas, such as fighting, such as doing other certain things...

But suddenly, the lightbulb went out.

Power outage?

Ayesha's movement stopped. With her body still pressed against her leg, she quietly listened.

She didn't rush to check the circuit as she smelled something odd.

Her cat-like pupils slightly narrowed in the darkness, giving off a dangerous vibe.

As if she had found her prey.

...

Since he couldn't break through the firewall, he could only capture the program developer and figure out the code the hard way.

Xin Lei's blood-shot eyes reflected the light on the screen. His lips rose slightly under his hoodie as he spoke in a screeching voice into the Bluetooth headphone.

"The security system is hacked, your personal information is whitelisted."

For a hacker that is ranked third in Hua, and had been flagged on the front page of some unscrupulous organizations, this type of security was too easy for him.

Though he hasn't done these types of things without pay for a long time.

"Confirmed." A female voice came from under the hood of a purple tracksuit.

Yan Xiaoyan, the childhood honey of Xie Lei. She has a black belt in taekwondo, even though she is only 17. Her swift moves could easily beat 5-6 adults. Due to her affection towards Xie Lei, she agreed to this dangerous plan without much hesitation.

"It's taken care of, let's go." She waved at the two people behind her, and Yan Xiaoyan led the way to the high-end community.

Lu Dahu, known as the chubby tiger is a good friend of Xie Lei. He was three years older, spent a few years in the military, and is currently unemployed.

Zhang Chao, also Xie Lei's good friend. They met a long time ago on the internet. He was around the same age as Xie Lei. Although he lacked knowledge about computers, he was a huge of fan of the military. He was not tall but was skillful with almost all military gadgets.

After Xie Lei confessed his trouble, they agreed without hesitation.

The plan was simple: sneak into the mansion, control Jiang Chen, drive his car and take him out of the community to the agreed on spot.

They only had one and half hour. Once the clock hit 12, the server would reset, and the access control gained by Xie Lei would be lost.

His eyes locked onto the screen as Xie Lei already infiltrated the camera within the community. Seeing his three friends successfully pass identification at the front door and walk inside of the mansion, he took a deep breath and pressed a few more button.

The memory of the camera connected to the server was erased, the write function disabled. The camera tonight would not record anything. Once they left, they only needed to delete their personal information from the server.

As if they were never there.

Xie Lei knew that he and his friends were playing with fire. If they were accidentally caught, all of them would go to jail.

"People here are all veteran soldiers," Lu Dahu lowered his hat as he mumbled.

"Aren't you a veteran as well?" Zhao Chan with a backpack mocked.

"It's different." Lu Dahu forced a smile, as his square looking face looked rather helpless. "Based on the vibe I'm getting, they were at least special forces from the army."

"Be quiet." Yan Xiaoyan, half a step in front of them, whispered.

Xie Lin's fingers typed on the keyboard. He constantly changed between cameras while drawing with his right hand and marking the route of the patrol team.

"Turn right in the front, avoid patrol team A, walk straight into the intersection before turning left. Try to avoid contact with anyone, your guys look odd."

"Understood." Yan Xiaoyan lowered her voice as she held onto the Bluetooth earphone. She then signaled the two people behind her to quickly move to the street on the right.

Although they already passed the check at the front door, wandering around this late would easily cause suspension. They were not prepared to be questioned because the backpack Zhang Chao carried had all the tools for crime.

Three sticks, handcuffs, ropes, three night vision goggles, and one signal jammer.

Zhang Chao bought everything from an exclusive channel. They were all authentic product from UA ATN corporation which shocked Lu Dahu, the veteran soldier. Of course, Xie Lei paid for it.

The three of them sneaked into the mansion at the deepest part of the community.

The European style high wall, the cut green grass, and the straight brick trail. The building's structure shone with elegance.

"Dammit, people here must be ridiculously wealthy. Do you think there are bodyguards inside?" Zhang Chao mustered as he took off his backpack.

"If there are any, I'll take care of it." The girl in the purple suit said confidently. She pressed the earphone again. "We are in position."

"Ok." Xie Lei took a deep breath and clicked his tongue.

Sparks suddenly came out of the generator on the north side. In an instant, the entire community fell into darkness.

With fingers on the keyboard, he simultaneously locked the electrical room's password so that even if they started the backup generator, it would take awhile.

He had to thank the highly digitalized design of the community. If it were a mechanical lock, there would be nothing that he could do.

Without wasting a second, Yan Xiaoyan took out a card from her pocket and swiped it on the metal gate. Xie Lei who already acquired the password information from the database and had copied the key onto the black card. The card in her hand was equivalent to the actual key and easily opened the door.

"Quick! Put this on."

Zhang Chao excitedly threw the night vision goggles and sticks into their hands and put one on his hand skillfully as well.

The night vision goggle not only allowed them to obtain vision in the dark, but it also hid their faces.

They quickly sneaked into the mansion and approached the door.

Pressing against the door, Zhang Chao took out a lock pick and opened the door with a few clicks. Then he signaled the two companions to enter.

The mansion looked rather empty; there was no one on the first floor.

Based on the lights they saw from the outside, there should be people on the third floor.

The three quietly waited against the wall.

The electric valve was outside. If someone came down to check, they must pass by where they stood.

"Why is there no noise at all? Typically shouldn't they all check the valve?" Lu Dahu's eyebrows tightened as he said with his voice lowered.

Yan Xiaoyan also raised her eyebrows.

Not only were there no footsteps heard upstairs, but there was also no lights from a phone or candle.

Could it be that Jiang Chen was already asleep, and just forgot to turn off the lights.

"Let's go to the bedroom." Yan Xiaoyan suppressed her voice as she led the way, sneaking upstairs.

...

It would be up to them once they enter the mansion. The camera in the community could not monitor inside the mansion as it was for the consideration of residents' privacy.

The mansion was in a frightening darkness.

But the darker it was, the more advantageous it was for them since they had night vision goggles...

The camera in the community was installed with internal batteries so that even though the power went out, it could still last for a few more hours.

Seeing his friends have already entered the mansion, Xie Lei let out a sigh and leaned against the chair.

"Now just need to catch Jiang Chen, get the firewall security code from his mouth, hack into <New Era> server, and delete the user information and gate data clean... Pity, the game is not bad." He shook his head, stared at the open gate, and mustered arrogantly.

"Please close your eyes at night."

Chapter 164: Is there a need to have a reason?

Water poured down.

Jiang Chen closed the knob before he shook off the droplets of water on his head, he then walked out of the shower as he grabbed a towel beside him and wiped himself.

It felt much better after the shower as if the all the alcohol and weariness was washed away.

But the faint fragrance in the room put him in an awkward spot physiologically. He thought while he wiped his hair with the towel.

But as he wiped, his hand froze in the air.

[This is... Xia Shiyu's towel?]

Thinking that towel once covered a pure blossoming flower, and countlessly wiped the mists off of the leaves...

He stared at the towel in his hand as Jiang Chen's expression on his face suddenly turned awkward.

But at this time, a blurry, but shaky figure suddenly appeared on the opaque glass in the washroom. Jiang Chen, who realized what happened, was about to stop her before the bathroom door was pushed open first.

Ka.

Seeing the haggard Xia Shiyu arduously holding on the door frame. Just as she was about to come in, she was stunned at the doorstep.

The cynical thing that appeared in her field of vision made her briefly lost her ability to think.

It was hard to describe the expression on her face, should it be wry? Shocked? Or humiliated.

The air of silence filled the air between the two.

"Hi." Jiang Chen first broke the silence rigidly. He moved the towel to cover the inexplicable part while keeping a straight face.

Perhaps maybe she was drunk, or perhaps the image was too shocking, Xia Shiyu didn't scream, but rather she calmed down and silently closed the door.

Looking at the closed the door, a bitter smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

"Uh... Maybe I should have screamed?"

Since he already used, and also was seen, might as well finish drying himself.

Jiang Chen shameless dried his entire body, then washed her towel before putting his clothes back on. He then left the bathroom.

He turned to the living room as Xia Shiyu was already sitting on the sofa. When Jiang Chen came out, her vision immediately gazed onto him.

Just as Jiang Chen was mentally prepared for the "pervert" "sick-minded," the expected anger didn't arrive.

"Uh, are you going to ask me something?" He felt a bit frightened by Xia Shiyu's silence, Jiang Chen careful sat across from her as he said apologetically.

Xia Shiyu still didn't say anything, with the aid of the moonlight, it was visible that on the usually cold face, the bright red lips were slightly trembling.

[Because she is so angry she couldn't express it?]

Jiang Chen drilled deep into his mind and still couldn't figure out the current mood of this girl. The prideful ice beauty realized after waking up that she was lying on the bed, with clothes slovenly, the first button of the dress shirt unbuttoned, and also a man (pervert) using her washroom to take a shower, using the towel that she had always used...

From any perspective, she must not be in the best mood.

"Ummm, you were drunk." Jiang Chen awkwardly tried to explain.

With the direct stare, Jiang Chen didn't know if she was thinking or mooning out.

"You were sleeping on the table, so I carried you back on my back. Your car is still there, remember to drive it back tomorrow." Seeing Xia Shiyu did not react, Jiang Chen continued.

"Why?" Seemed like she reacted to this sentence, Xia Shiyu murmured as if she was whispering in her dream.

"Why? Is that even a question." Jiang Chen had a bitter smile, "I can't leave you there by yourself. You live alone, and you drank yourself like that, be more cautious next time. If a human trafficker is pretending to be someone to be close to you, you don't even know if you were sold to some desolate mountain areas."

Hearing this, Xia Shiyu looked over and made eye contact with Jiang Chen.

After a long silence, even to her disbelief, she asked, "Then would you come to save me?"

He was shocked by the sudden question, Jiang Chen thought for a glimpse.

"Yes."

"Why?" It was still the dreamy mutter.

Expectation? Or perhaps just confusion?

"Does there need to be a reason?" Jiang Chen sighed as he asked rhetorically.

Humans were never a pure logical animal, what's the point of excessive need for reasons?

Xia Shiyu was not pleased with Jiang Chen's response. The graceful top lip bit on the bottom one, the rather blank expression seemed like she still hasn't gained a clear mind.

Seeing that she hadn't said anything, Jiang Chen coughed and gently said.

"You are drunk. Don't drink this much in the future, now go get some rest."

Although he didn't know what she was so fixated about, based on this response, she was not angry?

She stood up wobbling, just as Jiang Chen let a sigh thinking she was going back to the room to sleep, she moved across and stood in front of him.

"You, who do you like?" The voice carried some intoxication, but the tone certainly carried CEO Xia's authority.

The random questions threw Jiang Chen off.

He forced a smile and didn't answer. He didn't know how to answer.

After the last press conference, he already had a sense for Xia Shiyu's feelings towards him.

Although she always put on a cold expression that kept people a thousand miles away, her heart was still that of a child.

As to why he said that, it was because only a child would believe coldness meant maturity.

If it were someone without boundary, it wouldn't whatever, but Xia Shiyu...

She definitely would not accept him being with other women. Or should we say any "normal" women would not. Jiang Chen asked himself. He certainly had feelings for her, but his feelings were just beginning to develop. As to giving up something for her, he could not do it.

"I," Jiang Chen hesitantly opened his mouth, but the words were stuck in his throat.

"I don't want to hear it." She shook her head, as her slightly messy but luscious hair waved.

Suddenly, she made a move that completely left Jiang Chen dumbfounded.

A delicate hand reached out as two fingers audaciously squeezed his chin. Jiang Chen stared at the pair of crystal clear eyes. Her mouth opened slightly, and she moved in closer.

His conscience told him, she was drunk, you should wake her up.

But seeing the approaching, blushing, attractive face, he could not say a single word.

The devil-like thought spun in his head as Jiang Chen gulped.

[She is the one being proactive. If I pretend I don't know...]

But suddenly, an untimely ringtone disrupted this tranquil moment. Xia Shiyu's action stopped abruptly. The misty eyes regained a hint of clarity as she looked at Jiang Chen ever so close to her.

"I, I'll take a phone call." Jiang Chen got up and escaped.

Xia Shiyu froze blankly there. Her face began to turn red. Even under the not so bright moonlight, it was apparent.

[What did I do?]

Fine droplets of sweat began to surface on her heated body. The alcohol evaporated with the sweat as she began to sober up.

Without thinking, she dashed into the bedroom without turning around.

Bam!

The door slamming sound transmitted behind him as Xia Shiyu fleed into the bedroom.

Jiang Chen forced a smile as he looked at the phone.

It was Ayesha.

Jiang Chen put his hand against the wall as he picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

He sensed some strangeness to Ayesha calling him now.

...

With a stick in her hand, Yan Xiaoyan gently pushed open the door.

No one was there.

She shook her head at the teammate behind her, signaling Lu Dahu to walk to the adjacent bedroom.

Even if she carefully controlled her footsteps, the contact between her runners and the expensive wooden floor made a faint sound.

Because they didn't know which bedroom Jiang Chen slept in, they had to use the dumbest method, which was to search the rooms one by one.

Zhang Chao stayed on the first floor to prevent Jiang Chen from escaping. At the same time, he opened the signal jammer to prevent the target from calling the police.

In the spacious living room, Zhang Chao scanned his surroundings.

The bright green vision in the night vision goggles made the darkness not so frightening.

Seeing the home theatre on the wall, he was shocked.

"85 inches 4K smart TV, as well as the TV screen. This at least cost upwards of half a million," he mustered in his mind as he felt anxious.

It was his first time kidnapping, and they were just not kidnapping an ordinary person. They were kidnapping the wealthy and influential president of Future Technology.

He could only pray that Yan Xiaoyan was clean with her moves and their faces won't be revealed to Jiang Chen. Or else, Jiang Chen had hundreds of ways to make sure they never live in Wanghai City again.

Just as he was still debating in his mind, something forcefully struck the back of his neck.

Before he could react, he lost his conscious and fell to the ground.

On the other side...

Yan Xiaoyan was already on the third floor.

To increase efficiency, she and Lu Dahu decided to advance separately.

Just as she got to the gym, the room that previously had the lights on, she felt suddenly alerted. Without thinking, she immediately swept the stick behind her.

The sound of air breaking echoed as the hit obviously missed. Easily dodging the strike, Ayesha, with a grim look, moved.

When she thought the situation couldn't get any worse, Yan Xiaoyan immediately kicked up her leg and blocked the lightning-fast roundhouse kick.

"Ouch-!"

Sharp pain transmitted from her legs.

Cold sweat began to drop from Yan Xiaoyan's forehead as fear began to overwhelm her.

They were not on the same level. She was part of the national competition before, but even in the championship match, she never felt such powerful force.

Yan Xiaoyan quickly moved back, but she was already backed up against the window.

The pristine moonlight shed into the room as she felt her vision increase drastically.

She pulled off the annoying night vision goggles, only leaving the mask on her face. Yan Xiaoyan stared at the girl approaching her.

The girl was not tall; she could even be described as tiny. Her wavy hair was tied into a ponytail. She had an exotic, gorgeous face, but all these factors were not critical. What made Yan Xiaoyan frantic was the grim looking eyes. They were looking at her as if she was a dead body.

The desire to kill was immense!

Chapter 165: A Farce

Hearing noise coming from the gym, Lu Dahu quickly rushed over. When he saw Yan Xiaoyan confronting Ayesha, he held his breath and sneaked up behind her in an attempt to choke her from behind.

Yan Xiaoyan also held her breath when she saw Lu Dahu approach Ayesha from the back. Her heart was about to jump out. When she thought the plan was about to work, she saw a sneer from the corner of Ayesha's mouth.

She moved like a leopard.

The girl turned around and performed a roundhouse kick. The swift action directly landed on Lu Dahu's unguarded chest. The power, disproportionate to her size, kicked the almost two hundred pounds, well-built man, away.

Yan Xiaoyan looked at the scene in disbelief as the hand carrying the stick shook uncontrollably.

Although she held a weapon in hand, it did not bring her the slightest sense of safety.

However, she didn't back down.

Ayesha looked at her in silence. Then, grabbing the box-shaped signal jammer from her back, she turned off the power.

"Static-, Xiaoyan, how's the progress going." Seeing the communication channel was restored, Xie Lei desperately asked.

"Lei. I might-" Yan Xiaoyan said with bitterness in her voice.

But before she finished her sentence, the communication channel ceased again.

Ayesha restarted the signal jammer, tossed the device away, and opened the EP on her wrist.

The wireless tracker in her pocket already sent the communication information to the EP. It marked two related red dots on the EP map.

Utilizing the brief window when the communication channel was restored, she located the "commander's" coordinates.

The magic of future technology was something these "primitives" would never understand.

Yan Xiaoyan was shaking when she saw Ayesha's series of moves. She didn't know what she was doing. The calmness before had completely vanished. The confidence she built based on her fighting ability was quickly shattered by the clean moves of the girl in front of her.

But, for him...

Yan Xiaoyan's eyes were reignited with courage when she thought of Xie Lei. She gritted her teeth and dashed at Ayesha, kicking with lightning speed.

Since she was at a disadvantage in terms of defense, she must attack.

This kick was aimed directly at Ayesha's head.

But the girl remained calm. Unlike what Yan Xiaoyan had imagined, she easily dodged her kick. Then, with cat-like agility, Ayesha was behind her.

As Yan Xiaoyan had guessed, they were not on the same level.

Before she was able to react, a sharp pain came from the back of her neck, making her lose consciousness. She immediately fell to the ground.

...

"Someone attacked the mansion," Ayesha concisely reported.

Jiang Chen's expression changed immediately, "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay. The attackers had some creative ideas, but the techniques they used were that of an amateur's. Based on the skill levels of those people, they must have someone strong assisting them to avoid the patrol team. Based on initial speculation, that person should be a hacker proficient in cyber warfare," Ayesha said softly as she looked grimly at the three people lying in the basement with their hands and feet tied up.

Hearing Ayesha was safe, Jiang Chen was relieved. But then he quickly realized that his worry was a bit unwarranted.

After deliberating for a moment, Jiang Chen asked in an undertone, "Do you know who sent them there."

"Not clear yet. But I already have the coordinates of the hacker. I'll send it to you by phone."

"Mhmm, I'll take care of it." Jiang Chen hung up the phone.

Shortly after, Little White shook as a picture of the coordinates were sent to Jiang Chen's phone.

Two dots were connected. One dot was located in his mansion, while the other one was located in the rural area of Wanghai City.

He looked in the direction of Xia Shiyu's bedroom and hesitated.

But in the end, he sighed. He decided not to go up and knock on the door. Instead, he put on his shoes and left the apartment.

...

With her back against the cold wooden door, Xia Shiyu hugged her knees as she buried her head in her arms. However, through her arms, the red hue on her gorgeous face could still be seen.

[Wooo, I want to die... What did I just do.]

A soft whimper escaped her mouth as her ostrich-like head buried deeper between her legs.

Her thoughts were a mess. The furious pounding in her left chest was too distracting.

[What if he knocks on the door?

Should I open it? But... I almost just did that kind of thing.

Ahhhhh! I want to die. This is so embarrassing.

But I should open the door. It would be rude just to leave him hanging in the living room. If I explained, it would get rid of the -]

Bang!

The sound of the door closing transmitted through from the outside.

Xia Shiyu paused for a moment as she slowly lifted her head up.

Seemed to be the front door.

He left?

He just left?

While she let out a sigh of relief, for some reason, she felt disappointed.

But as to why she felt disappointed, she couldn't give a reason.

...

Driving furiously on the road, Jiang Chen glanced at the red dot on the GPS before he fixated his gaze back onto the road.

He let out a sigh as he held onto the wheel.

"It would be better to find a chance and talk to her," He mumbled. Jiang Chen turned the steering wheel before parking the car near the target's community.

Since it was a hacker proficient in cyber warfare, the community's cameras should be under their control?

Definitely a possibility.

Jiang Chen locked the door and walked towards the back door of the community.

It was almost 12. Only a few windows in the community still had their lights on.

He avoided a few obvious cameras as he approached the electric substation of the target's building. He opened the box and put his right hand inside.

Charging the interdimensional bracelet.

The energy of the bracelet was suddenly full. The brute intake of electric current instantly exceeded the threshold value of the substation. Without a doubt, the entire building lost power.

A mocking smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face. He closed the box, put his hands in his pocket, and walked into the shadow.

It was 12 at night.

People who were still awake, and desperately wanting to restore the power rather than going to sleep, would probably be the only ones providing assistance.

Regardless who it was, he only needed for the fish to take the bait.

...

Xie Lei's eyes locked onto the screen as he nervously waited for his companion's response.

The communication signal was interrupted. Did they get caught? Can't be. If they did, they would use the phone to communicate with me, the perpetrator.

"Dammit!" Xie Lei's fist slammed onto the table.

He did not consider a backup plan. He never thought about the changing variables within the plan. He started to regret the tracksuits. Even if he was out of solutions, he never should have come up with kidnapping. The evidence Black Tiger controlled would at max get him ten years, but kidnapping...

His face turned pale as he prayed.

"Xiaoyan, Chubby Tiger, Xiaochao... Please be safe, please!"

But then, the entire building suddenly lost power. This made the already tense Xie Lei jump.

"The fuse short-circuited? Can't be a power outage. There was no notice posted," He mustered as Xie Lei left his seat.

In the assumption that someone was caught, the opposing force must have obtained my location through interrogation. Then, I should have been caught already. The door definitely won't be able to block anyone. However, since no one is here, that means they should not have been caught but entered into a stalemate with the target.

Without electricity, there was nothing he could do.

Regardless, he must quickly restore power. Once it passes 12, the server would reset. If he wanted to provide support, he must hack into the server again.

Xie Lei left the room.

Squeak-.

He carefully opened the door, cautiously looking into the pitch black hallway. When he didn't see anyone, Xie Lei let out an uneasy breath.

"Am I being too anxious..."

It made sense. If they already knew my location, what's the whole point of using the trick of cutting the power?

But what he didn't know was that in the near distant future, there would be a device that could locate communication signals. A device used by future snipers. Though of course, there will be signal jammers in the future, but right now... it was as easy as breathing for Ayesha to location the coordinates of the communicator.

The night's breeze was quite chilly.

The pale hand of the teen tightened the zipper of his tracksuit. His entire face was hidden under the shadow of the hoodie.

It was already autumn. Maybe it was time to buy Xie Lin some thicker clothes?

When he thought about his sister, a gentle smile appeared on his face.

Although the first reaction of most people was gloom when they first see him, she was the only one that didn't think so.

Just like an angel.

[Yes, that's right, I will protect my sister!]

He screamed in his mind as the sudden adrenaline pushed away some of his fear. He went downstairs and headed straight to the electric substation that he was so familiar with.

He opened the box but was stunned.

Not right.

He knew what a short fuse looked like, but he didn't see the entire meter being burnt out.

"You are the perpetrator behind the scenes," a sluggish voice said from behind him.

Xie Lei turned his head and saw a young man standing there with his hands in his pocket. He was observing him with interest in his eyes.

"Your left foot moved half a step back. I guess you want to run, but I suggest you don't do that." Jiang Chen sighed.

Seeing his thoughts exposed, Xie Lei became calm as he locked his eyes right onto Jiang Chen.

"Xiaoyan... you caught all my friends?'

"You can say that. My bodyguard's comment about you guys was, it was well thought out, but clumsily executed." Jiang Chen laughed before continuing, "First time doing this?"

"..." Xie Lei didn't answer. His mind spun furiously as he desperately tried to think of a way to escape.

"What was the intention of entering my mansion? If you don't answer, I will just default it to murder. Trust me, I have enough money to convince the judges."

"Kidnap. To obtain the key to the server," Xie Lei squeezed out a few words in vain.

Threatening worked.

His face was extremely pale. It looked like that of someone who hadn't been outside for a long time. Around 1.60m tall, he had a slim built and looked like a teen. Jiang Chen couldn't comprehend why this teen he has never met before wanted to kidnap him.

"For money? Or for other reasons? I don't want to use the truth-telling liquid on teens, it will have an uncontrollable effect on the developing brain," Jiang Chen mocked, but his tone held a hint of truth.

"You are Jiang Chen?" Xie Lei abruptly asked.

Jiang Chen shrugged. "Did you just realize? I recommend you answer my question before I use force.

Xie Lei let out a sigh as he confessed, 'Black Tiger made me do this."

Jiang Chen's eyebrows raised as he didn't immediately believe his words.

"Who is Black Tiger?"

Xie Lei laughed in agony. "I don't know. If I knew, I would not be manipulated by him."

Chapter 166: I can give you a chance

"For your friends' safety, I have no choice but to invite you to take a walk with me." It was useless to object as Jiang Chen said this with an unrefusable tone.

Xie Lei's eyes strained for a moment before his shoulders finally loosened.

"I can go with you, could you give me 10 minutes?"

.

"That depends on what you are going to do with this 10 minutes."

He took a deep breath as Xie Lei said, "Don't worry, just leaving a note."

He thought for a moment, as Jiang Chen didn't refuse his request, he got a go-ahead gesture.

Seeing Jiang Chen agreed, the teen was relieved and turned around to go upstairs.

Jiang Chen's hands were in his pocket when he followed the teen up, holding onto a pistol. But the teen didn't play any tricks with him. He took out the key, opened the old looking door, and walked inside into the room closest to the door.

Xie Lei took out the phone and turned on the flashlight which lit up the small room immediately.

Four desktops, two screens, wires tangled together and connected to unknown electronic equipment.

"Your work?" Jiang Chen was slightly shocked.

"Mhmm." Xie Lei didn't seem to want to say anything else about the question as he answered concisely.

He saw that the teen searched on the table for a while before picking up an MP3. It was uncommon to see such an out-of-date device.

He seemed to have opened the voice recording function as he put the MP3 close to his mouth and said.

"Linlin, I am sorry. Brother has to go somewhere really far. Although it is a bit shameless to say this... please forgive your unresponsible brother, I..."

"Are you saying your will?" Jiang Chen laughed.

Xie Lei ignored Jiang Chen as he took a deep breath and continued to say a few more things, such as "take care of yourself" and "the bank password is."

"Done?" Jiang Chen asked.

Although Jiang Chen felt sympathetic, he didn't plan on letting him off.

Since he already committed to the act, he must have been mentally prepared for the plan to fail.

Xie Lei nodded as he looked seriously at Jiang Chen, "I'm done. My sister is blind, I hope you don't hurt her."

"Don't worry, I don't hurt the innocent."

Without saying anything else, Xie Lei obediently followed Jiang Chen to the car and then to the mansion.

...

The power outage in the community caused quite a commotion. Especially since they found out it was caused by human intervention.

After the security confirmed the safety of every resident, they were surprised to find out there was no thief.

Regardless, it was a good thing that nothing was lost. Since people who lived here were either influential or wealthy. If something did happen, then Wanhua Real Estate's reputation would suffer major damages.

Therefore, after confirming each household, they categorized this power outage as an accident and did not inform the police.

The power was restored.

At the same time, in the basement of the mansion.

Ayesha crossed her arms in front of her chest as she looked expressionlessly at the three people with their hands tied behind their backs. Looking at her cold gaze, Yan Xiaoyan felt her body shake uncontrollably. She had never been so frightened before. The fighting ability she had been so proud of, could not last two moves in front of this girl.

At the time, footsteps came from upstairs.

The iciness in Ayesha's eyes suddenly melted.

Yan Xiaoyan gulped as she looked with disbelief at the eyes that turned gentle instantly.

"You are back." Ayesha stood up.

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen rubbed her head, and then looked at the three people in the basement.

"Lei, how did you-" Yan Xiaoyan couldn't control her voice. No one revealed his location. How did he get caught?

"I got caught." Xie Lei revealed a bitter smile as he conscientiously extended both of his hands to Jiang Chen. "Tie me up."

Jiang Chen glanced at him as he signaled Ayesha to put handcuffs on him. Then he looked at all four of them. "Good. Since all the rats are caught, let's solve this problem once and for all."

Then, Jiang Chen took out the truth-telling liquid from his pocket, passed it to Ayesha, and stared at Xie Lei.

"I ask, you answer. If I feel you are lying, then I'll use the truth-telling liquid."

The interrogation began. Xie Lei, without resistance, confessed to everything Jiang Chen asked.

First, it was the identities of the four.

Veteran, unemployed military fanatic, female sports university student, and Xie Lei, the high school dropout hacker.

Xie Lei was quite impressive in his ability. Known as Green Bird, he placed third place within the Han Hacker Alliance. The most impressive achievement was hacking into an unscrupulous organization's server for two years consecutively and raising the flag on its homepage.

Usually, he lived off of commission by completing missions for hire.

Because of one mistake, a hacker called Black Tiger obtained his identity which directly ended his brief career. Then he became the money making tool of Black Tiger. The missions he accepted began to leave the boundary of the law.

He was not afraid of going to jail, but what worried him most was his blind sister.

If Black Tiger revealed his information, he would definitely be in there for quite a long time. He could not imagine, without him, how his sister would survive.

After feeling conflicted for a long time, he decided to take this risk along with his three good friends. He decided to plan and execute a kidnap.

Unfortunately, it failed.

"You guys are great friends. He asked you guys to kidnap, and you guys agree? Would you guys murder people if he asked you to?" Jiang Chen looked mischievously at the three as he laughed.

Zhao Chang retracted his neck, frightened by Jiang Chen's look, but Lu Dahu seemed clam.

Then, Jiang Chen looked at the university student named Yan Xiaoyan.

"You? Seeing that your boyfriend is in trouble, you could risk going to jail for him?"

Yan Xiaoyan blushed. Just as she was about to argue they were only childhood sweetheart, Xie Lei interrupted.

"I already told you everything I needed to tell you. I am willing to take full responsibility as long as you let my friends go." After he finished, Xie Lei slowly lowered his head and kneeled on the ground.

Everyone held their breath.

Hearing that, Yan Xiaoyan wanted to defend for him, but she quickly realized that she had no excuse to do so.

Including herself, they were all criminals.

Jiang Chen expressionlessly overlooked Xie Lei.

"Do you think you have the right to discuss terms with me?"

"No." Xie Lei lowered his head.

After a brief silence, Jiang Chen suddenly began laughing.

"Although this comical gong show did not cause me any material losses, that doesn't mean I am openminded enough to let you go consequence free. But considering you were under the threat of someone else, I can give you a chance."

"I am willing to accept as long as you let my friends go."

"Lei..." Yan Xiaoyan looked at Xie Lei with tears in her eyes.

"Oh? Are you not going to ask what it is before accepting?"

"I will accept anything... This is my own fault. I don't want to trouble my friends anymore," Xie Lei took a deep breathe as he said calmly.

Hearing that, Jiang Chen nodded, looking rather pleased.

"Since you have agreed, then your request is easy. After everything is done, your friends can leave."

Jiang Chen paused as he asked lightheartedly.

"How do you usually communicate with Black Tiger. By phone?"

Chapter 167: Following the vine

Black Tiger; real name, Zhang Hao. A premium member of the Han Hacker Alliance but his skill was rather ordinary. However, by coincidence, he managed to enter the personal computer of the renowned Green Bird and collected some critical evidence.

When Xie Lei found out, it was too late. Zhang Hao already saved the information and pulled the cord.

It was the most shameless way, but that was the most effective way. Regardless of how insane one's computer skill was, there was nothing one can do if the other person doesn't connect to the web.

After that, he had reached the "peak of his life." He controlled the personal information of the third-ranked hacker in the Han Hacker Alliance. He used this to blackmail him into completing challenging missions and then collecting the lucrative commission for himself.

Not long ago he received a deal.

5 million RMB commission. The mission was to hack into <New Era>'s server, delete all user information, and delete the game data inside the game's server.

5 million! It was enough to live half of his life in comfort.

Black Tiger's eyes immediately turned red as he accepted the mission without hesitation, and then flung it to the hands of Xie Lei and threatened him to complete it. As to if Xie Lei had the ability to finish this mission, Black Tiger never questioned it for a single second.

In his eyes, if he could hack into the server of an organization with a notorious reputation, there was no way he couldn't take care of a server of a private enterprise.

But unfortunately, Xie Lei was completely out of sorts.

When he was forced into the corner, Xie Lei had to take the riskiest route.

And because of this, Xie Lei managed to get himself into serious trouble.

In the morning, what woke Black Tiger from his sweet dream was his ringtone.

He drowsily picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

Doooo-.

The phone hung up?

Black Tiger was lost for a moment as he looked confusingly at the phone. However, he didn't bother finding out who it was as he fell asleep again.

What he didn't know was, the second he picked up the phone, his coordinates were marked on a map.

...

The person named Black Tiger was also in Wanghai City. This saved Jiang Chen quite a bit of trouble.

He drove the car onto the highway as he looked at the dot on the GPS. A mocking smile appeared on his face. Ayesha was sitting in the front passenger seat, her long eyelashes swept together and eyes closed as she rested.

Xie Lei sat in the back seat. The teen took off his hood and revealed a sickly pale face with anxiousness written all over it. As well, on his neck, he wore an electronic collar.

"Now that you are on your way to see your enemy, how do you feel?" Jiang Chen casually asked.

"...If possible, I want to punch him," Xie Lei mustered in a small voice.

"Haha, you'll have the chance." Jiang Chen smiled.

Yan Xiaoyan and the gang were still locked in the mansion's basement. Before the whole event is resolved, they weren't allowed to leave.

As to Xie Lei, he already reached an agreement with Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen won't go after his friends, and in exchange, he'll work for Jiang Chen for the next ten years.

Jiang Chen needed a talent capable of cyber warfare. Although Yao Yao's computer skill was impeccable, he couldn't bring it over to the modern world.

Three days later, Xie Lei will be flying to Niger. There, someone will pick him up. To maximize his ability, he'll receive military training for half a year, and learn more advanced computer knowledge.

The source of the advanced computer knowledge naturally came from the digital library in the apocalypse. As to how advanced, around ten years more advanced than the modern world. Although Jiang Chen was clueless, Yao Yao would organize the information for him.

As to his sister Xie Lin, Jiang Chen will pay to send her to Frankberg to receive the most advanced eye treatment.

"Speaking of this, I think you are quite similar to the typical protagonist in a novel," Jiang Chen glanced at Xie Lei in the mirror as he joked.

"Mhmm?" Xie Lei looked confusedly at Jiang Chen.

"Both parents are busy. You have a sister and an apartment."

"...Both of my parents are not busy. They passed away a long time ago. This joke is not funny." A gloom fell over the teen's face.

"Ahem, sorry. Let's try another one? Let me think... King of special forces, possess a unique ability, returned to city after ten years-"

"I think you are more similar to a protagonist," Xie Lei abruptly interrupted Jiang Chen.

"Do I?" Jiang Chen subconsciously asked rhetorically but was astonished.

Eh? Pretty f*cking similar.

The target was not too far from the Mingxing Area. Another hour drive before the three arrived at their destination.

The six-story high apartments lined up in rows. The dull and unruly grass looked like it hasn't been taken care of for a long time. From any angle, the community was average.

Because they went during work hours, there was not a lot of people in the community. Therefore, there was no one standing on the balcony looking curiously at the three people.

However, they only knew Black Tiger's coordinates; they could not precisely locate his room.

But Jiang Chen had other ways to determine the precise location.

He stood under the apartment as he signaled Ayesha, who already went upstairs, and called Black Tiger's number again.

"Hello?" A male voice yawning transmitted from the other side of the phone.

Ayesha held the signal jammer as she gradually moved up floor by floor.

"Hello. Do you make fake IDs? Can I get 10? Are you trustworthy?" Jiang Chen threw a bunch of questions in his face.

"What?" Black Tiger was dumbfounded as he held the phone completely clueless.

"I thought you made fake IDs! Your number is written on the wall. And that's why I called..." Jiang Chen used a serious tone as he continued to make up elaborate lies. Xie Lei, standing beside him, raised his eyebrows as he could not bear to watch any more of this.

"You are f*cking ret*rded-"

The voice ceased. Though, at the same time, Ayesha was holding the signal jammer, standing in front of Apt 402.

Jiang Chen hung up the phone, waved at Xie Lei, and went upstairs.

"Go knock." Jiang Chen patted Xie Lei's shoulder.

Xie Lei hesitated for a moment before walking up and knocking on the door.

"Who is it?" Following the voice, footsteps could be heard gradually approaching. Then, the door quickly popped open.

A man in his 30s peaked his messy-haired head out. The unshaven face looked sloppy, the sleepy eyes indicated that he had yet to wake up, and his right hand was holding onto a phone.

When he saw Xie Lei's face, his expression instantly changed.

"Looks like it is him." Jiang Chen shrugged.

He didn't expect someone with a pseudo name as cool as Black Tiger to be someone this wretched.

Black Tiger immediately tried to slam the door shut. But, one of Xie Lei's foot was already wedged inside, and he simultaneously lifted his right hand to prevent the door from closing.

His fist then forcefully smashed into Black Tiger's nose, making him fall backward with a "Bam" as he hit the shoe rack.

"You, what are you doing? Wait, how did you find me here?" Black Tiger looked in horror at the enraged teen sitting on top of him.

"F*ck you!" Blowing the anger off of his chest, Xie Lei threw another punch right at the disgusting face.

Black Tiger desperately tried to fend him off, but Xie Lei already acquired the "geographical advantage". His punches, from up to down, made it impossible for Black Tiger to fight back as his face had the take every single punch.

Xie Lei breathed heavily as he gritted his teeth and raised his hand once again.

But this time, Jiang Chen held onto it.

"Enough. If you keep hitting him, he will die."

Hearing that, Xie Lei stared at the faintly breathing Black Tiger as he finally stopped.

Jiang Chen looked speechlessly at the bruised up Black Tiger as he let out a troubled sigh.

"Whatever. It's hard to interrogate you now in this condition. Just put on some medicine."

Black Tiger didn't see Jiang Chen's face which saved him a lot of trouble. Although truth-telling liquid would make him lose part of his memory, Jiang Chen didn't want to risk it.

Ayesha, who came in last, closed the door. She helped Jiang Chen drag Black Tiger into the living room, tied him to the chair and took out the truth-telling liquid.

In around a minute's time, the man in his 30s rolled his eyes and stared blankly at the wall in front of him. It looked like the drug was effective.

Seeing the look on Black Tiger's face, Xie Lei gulped. He thought about how the drug was almost used on him as he felt a shivering chill down his spine.

"Name?"

"Zhang Hao." A zombie-like response.

"Age?"

"32."

"32."

"Who sent you the mission?"

"I don't know. I registered on an intermediary website. After accepting the mission, the details were sent to my email."

"What's your email and password?"

Black Tiger, without resistance, recited out his email and password.

Then, Jiang Chen ignored Black Tiger as he turned to look at Xie Lei with a smile.

"You first mission is here. Now that you have the email and password, as well as the device that accepted the mission, I want you to find out who the client was."

Xie Lei shook his head with a troubled smile.

"That's impossible. Since contact with the client was made through the intermediary website, then the email must be sent on behalf of the website."

"Then you should hack into the server of the middleman, through the backend, and dig the client out."

Xie Lei was shocked. Though looking at the stern expression on Jiang Chen's face, he took a deep breath.

"This is crazy! Hacking into the server of the intermediary website for hackers... Let me try."

"Be bold. There is someone here that's the scapegoat." Jiang Chen glanced at Black Tiger on the chair and laughed delightfully.

When Xie Lei passed Black Tiger, he stopped and asked him.

"Where is the evidence used to threaten Green Bird?"

"On the computer, and on the USB drive that is on the second level of the bookshelf..."

When he got the answer he needed, Xie Lei walked quickly into Black Tiger's room and managed to find the USB.

He slammed the USB on the ground and smashed the nightmare that had threatened him for so long into pieces.

He then found Black Tiger's personal computer. Although the unfamiliar device did not feel smooth, it was not a big deal for a hacker his level.

He opened the computer and began to furiously type on the keyboard.

...

<You haven't played with me for so long, are you just leaving me here?>

Jiang Chen imagined her bitter expression and smiled, as his fingers began to type on the screen.

<Miss me?>

Buzz-, the response speed of this girl was still shocking.

<I have been busy. I made a trip overseas...>

<*Rub head* Busy. Do you need me to reward you? ^_^>

Seeing the cute emoji, the tip of Jiang Chen's mouth curved up.

Adorable, can warm the bed, understanding, knows her limits. Although not the best girl to marry, a perfect mistress nonetheless. After coming back from Wanghai University, Jiang Chen paid for her breach of contract so she could gain her "freedom," and also become unemployed.

Although he did become her sugar daddy, he still never delivered the movie promise...

<I'll be on a vacation at Pannu Islands soon, do you want to come?>

<I do~~>

Jiang Chen felt exasperated. Though, just as he was about to reply, Xie Lei came out of the room.

"I found it. This is the phone number and email of the client, based on all signs... The client is Lingyu Technology."

Lingyu Technology?

A sneer appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

"Excellent. Time to take care of this problem."

Chapter 168: The Malignant event and Aftermath

October 16, 2015.

It was not an ordinary day for Lingyu Technology.

"What is going on? Tell me what is going on!" Ling Zhongtian clung on to Qian Haiming's collar as he roared out with bloodshot eyes.

Qian Haiming's mouth twitched, but he couldn't say a word.

"Boss, please, please calm down. Our programmers are fixing the server. I have also called the police, the deputy assured me that he would quickly..."

"Quickly my *ss!"

Ling Zhongtian pushed Qian Haiming away as he breathed heavily. He used one hand to hold onto the table, while the other trembling hand pulled out a drawer and he grabbed his cardiac medication.

His shaking fingers took several tries before twisting open the cap.

Finally pouring a few capsules into his hand, Ling Zhongtian stuffed the medication in his mouth and chugged down some water with it.

He closed his eyes to regather his breath before finally opening them again. His emotions seemed to have calmed down.

Seeing that the boss was no longer angry, Qian Haiming who stood on the side afraid to talk, finally let out a breath of air.

But when he raised his head, he was shocked to find that the respectable boss was no longer there.

The person who replaced him was a pale looking old man that lost his ability to speak.

...

Morning.

Players from I am ATM, Dota history logged onto the game as per their usual routine to finish their daily quest. But when they logged in, they were enraged to find out that their account returned to level 0? The diamond they obtained from gold, equipment, and real money...

Were all f*cking gone?

There was only a brief explanation posted on the official site regarding this incident.

<Last night at around midnight, the server received a malicious attack from hackers. Programmers are currently working to restore lost user data and upgrading system security. For the inconvenience it may cause the users, Lingyu Technology express their deepest regret...>

Deep regret my *ss!

The enraged players almost blew up Lingyu Technology's customer service. The customer service representatives would receive another call immediately after hanging up.

However, there was nothing they can do to resolve the complaints of the players since they were not responsible for the operation. They could only follow the procedure of explaining the current situation to the players and asking them to remain calm. As well as assure them that the programmers were currently working to resolve the problem, and for them to please be patient...

But it was futile. For the millions of angry players, the one hundred customer service representative team was a drop of water in the vast ocean.

When the angry players saw that the problem was not resolved and that the helpline was constantly busy, they directly dialed 315 to file a violation of rights against Lingyu Technology.

They have purchased the diamonds, spent their time leveling up, and now it was all gone?

However, these complaints were meaningless against Lingyu Technology as at the time of registration, there was a clause added at the bottom to offset such incidents. The final interpretation of this agreement was up to the discretion of the Operator. Also, Han laws were ambiguous when it came to intellectual property protection, rarely would there be a case where players have won a lawsuit against a game operator.

But the negative reputation caused by the lost user data was hard to erase. Official forums had an influx of complaining players. The moderators had to increase the requirement for posting and began muting and banning people. Not only did this not control the status quo, but the players without a place to express their rage also began to flood into other forums.

Major BBS (1) forums were all pulled into the midst of this event, as the few justice seeking posts were instantly upvoted to the top.

Every post under the influence of the internet army unified their statement, and in the name of holiness, began a crusade on the evil operator.

Protecting their rights!

Everyone selectively chose to forget that Lingyu Technology was also a victim; the real person that made them suffer losses was the hacker that attacked the server.

As to how it escalated to this point, the internet army had their fair share of contribution. Once they swayed the opinion during the first outburst of anger, there was not much suspense in the remaining battle.

Lingyu Technology not only lost in skill but also public opinion.

The players part of the internet crusade realized that the operator did not compensate for their loss. The promised "1000 crystals for every player" could not compensate the loss of the players that paid for 2000.

The project department's "lack of action" and the customer service's perfunctory were interpreted as arrogance.

In the midst of disappointment and anger among the players, seeing that their votes by hands were useless, they began to vote with their feet.

The crusade ended, because they had already given up on the game. Instead, they chose a better mobile game.

There were better games on the market. The only reason they stood their ground on an almost out of date game was because of the emotional attachment, as well as the time and money sunk into it. But emotional attachment was certainly a fragile thing as the attitude and response of the operator indeed broke the heart of the players that stood their ground.

Seeing the account that they spent countless hours on being erased was more painful than seeing the game being shut down completely.

Based on market analysis, the server operated by Lingyu Technology lost 89% of their users due to this data postage. While the servers operated by other companies did not receive a malicious attack, the after effect of the event resulted in a significant amount of users being lost.

As if in one night, the Lingyu Technology that forged miracles collapsed.

At the same time, the new Future Technology was using its era-defining - <New Era> to rise to dominance.

The stars seemed to have aligned.

New Era was foretelling the end of the old era.

...

Within the international airport at Wanghai City.

"Come back early..." Yan Xiaoyan's eyes were brimming with tears. She gently bit her lip as she gazed into the teen's eyes.

"Mhmm. I will." Xie Lei felt his face burn from her stare.

Zhang Chao hooked onto his neck with a smirk, "Nice buddy. When did you get together with Xiaoyan. She is so violent-"

A deathly stare shot over as Zhang Chao backed away, causing a forced a laugh.

"Sorry...."

Xie Lin frightenedly stood behind Xie Lei and held onto her brother's hand.

It was her first time being on a plane. Though she has also never seen plane before.

Xie Lei seemed to have sensed his sister's anxiousness as he gently squeezed her hand. The pale face that lacked sunlight displayed an unfitting tenderness.

With her head lowered and face blushing, Xie Lin had a lot of things to tell her brother, but she could only faintly squeeze out one word.

"Mhmm."

Xie Lei had a relieved smile as he rubbed his sister's head.

He didn't know when Lu Dahu walked up to him put felt him pat his shoulder.

"Take care."

"Mhmm." Xie Lei nodded firmly.

Jiang Chen looked at the group of four from afar as he exclaimed arrogantly, acting on his seniority, "It's good to be young."

Ayesha who stood beside him tilted her head. Her cold face displayed a confused expression.

The goodbye was over.

Xie Lei took his sister's hand, took a deep breath, and walked in Jiang Chen's direction.

"Ready?" Jiang Chen smiled amiably.

Although this teen did orchestrate a plan against him, surprisingly he did not hold any grudges.

Perhaps because he didn't suffer any material damage? Or perhaps because he thought this person wasn't inherently bad. Regardless, the actual people that should be punished was already punished.

"Mhmm." Xie Lei nodded and then bowed while looking at him genuinely. "Thank you."

"No problem. You can think of it as an exchange." Jiang Chen pointed at the electronic collar around his neck.

Although it was an electronic collar, it was not thick. It was only a thin layer of silica gel, which didn't make it uncomfortable to wear. It would also easily pass through security screening, a convenient tool.

Xie Lin looked curiously in her brother's direction and then in Jiang Chen's direction. Then, the adorable young face displayed a tender smile. She cutely bowed too as she said in a still childish voice.

"Thank you~"

Jiang Chen noticed that the color of her pupils was faint, as if it was covered by a thick layer of film.

Even though she couldn't see, she could blossom a smile this powerful?

"No problem," Jiang Chen kneeled down and said with a smile.

Jiang Chen noticed Xie Lei staring right at him. He paused for a second before he began to laugh.

"Are you really a Meiko (Japanese culture, someone who likes their own sister)." He stood up, patted the slim shoulder of the teen and said with a smirk.

The teen didn't answer, but rather looked away with a flushed face.

Xie Lin tilted her head as she confusedly pulled on Xie Lei's hand. She was still not at the age where she understood the meaning of Meiko.

"Haha, be assured. Train while you are there. Get more tanned, and you will look more lively." Jiang Chen used force when he patted the teen's back. "When you get to Niger, there will be someone waiting for you at the airport. You can call him Uncle Ivan, he'll be responsible for training you like a man."

"What do you mean like-"

Jiang Chen ignored Xie Lei's protest as he interrupted him, "You and your sister will stay for a day in Niger, then your sister will head to Charlotte Hospital in Frankberg under the supervision of advanced caregivers. That's enough. Stop standing around and go, now."

"... Thank you."

"Don't waste time, go board now."

...

Seeing the departing silhouette of the brother and sister, Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed, and the corner of his mouth curled up.

"What Ayesha, do you have any questions?" Jiang Chen noticed her rubbing her hair and the confusion in her eyes.

Face slightly red, Ayesha asked hesitantly, "They are your enemy. Why did you let them go, and on top of that help them..."

"Not every enemy is a real enemy." Eyes narrowed, Jiang Chen watched the brother and sister board and left Ayesha a confusing answer.

Ayesha tilted her head, she didn't quite understand the meaning behind it.

Jiang Chen took out his phone and called Xia Shiyu.

"Get the legal documents prepared. We are going to change our headquarters." When he said that, a bright smile appeared on his face.

For the real enemy, he will show no mercy.

(1) Bulletin Board System, similar to a forum.

(2) Vote with their feet, if they can't bring change, they can choose to leave.

Chapter 169: You should thank me

The earthquake has yet to settle 15 days after the Lingyu Technology data hostage incident that shocked the country's mobile game industry,

The perpetrator's intention was extreme malicious and didn't leave any ground for recovery.

Despite how hard the Lingyu Technology programmer tried, he couldn't manage to recover the lost user information. Based on industry experts' estimations, Lingyu Technology's direct loss was as high as 1.4 billion RMB, the magnitude of the indirect damage was even harder to quantify given the scale.

Regardless, the well-praised brand built through time has been tarnished. Even if Lingyu Technology tried to separate gamer operation from its business focus and shift to primarily game development, it would still be futile.

No matter how good the game was, players refused to buy into it for no reasons other than the fact that the game came from Lingyu Technology. Without players, no operator would dare to carry the game.

The game data was lost out of nowhere. Even if Lingyu Technology was a victim, why were their servers the only ones down while the others were fine? Couldn't they spend more money increasing the security of the servers?

All in all, once the reputation had spread out, it was impossible to erase. Even the long-term partner of Lingyu Technology, 361 Corporation, maintained a cautious attitude with the newly developed game.

This malicious internet crime not only shook the industry, the ripple even spread to other aspects.

The angry players clearly escalated the incident, once the industry news became a society topic, bureaus had to respond to the situation.

Internet security was once again put on the table.

<Renren News> published a headline that condemned the usage of criminal attack using hacking technology. It also indicated that the bureaus are currently in discussion for improving the law...

At the same time, the investigation is currently ongoing. A team of internet security experts was quickly formed.

The attackers' IP was quickly locked. Even after layers of masking, it still didn't escape the tracking of experts. Regardless of how skillful the hackers are, as long as they are here, they must leave some sort of clue.

Zhang Hao, the Black Tiger, was quickly arrested. Although he cluelessly indicated that he was not involved, he still couldn't prove his innocence.

The computer conducting the crime was found in his room.

The frightened Zhang Hao frantically confessed the deal with Ling Zhongtian and Xie Lei. He insisted that he was framed and that it must have been Xie Lei. He was the third-ranked "Green Bird" on the hacker alliance. Only he had the ability to hack into Lingyu Technology's servers.

But it was useless, he couldn't provide evidence.

When he found out that the USB on his shelf disappeared, and the evidence stored in his computer vanished, Zhang Chao was completely dumbfounded.

Because Xie Lei already left the country with the reason of taking his sister to Germany for medical treatments, there was not enough evidence to prove his intent despite the suspicious source of funding. Xie Lei's personal account did not change, only a securitized foreign account paid for the plane tickets and the medical expense. Although the action was mysterious in nature, mysteriousness could not be used as evidence.

After spending a long time gathering evidence, the investigating team couldn't find any connection between the event and Xie Lei. However, they did find something interesting.

A few days ago, there was an illegal deal between Zhang Hao and Ling Zhongtian. A deal to attack Future Technology's servers...

However, the mission was canceled from Zhang Hao's side, the reason being the commission was too low. Of course, he had no recollection of this. The explanation behind this is simple - because Xie Lei used his computer, logged on his account, and canceled the quest.

The case was closed.

The perpetrator, Zhang Hao, terminated the contract because of the commission conflict with Lingyu Technology's president, Ling Zhongtian. Therefore, he infiltrated Lingyu Technology's server, and permanently deleted the user data which caused an insurmountable amount of economic loss to Lingyu Technology. Based on the extreme negative influence caused by society and the high value associated with the case, the supreme court's verdict was a life sentence.

Zhang Hao appealed, but the supreme court directly rejected the plead for appeal and maintained the verdict.

As for Ling Zhongtian, although he conducted illegal activity, it was merely an unsuccessful attempt, and thus it was hard to define the nature of the crime. He was not sentenced under the law for this reason.

But it was yet to be over. Ling Zhongtian's hiring of a hacker to attack Future Technology was quickly exposed online by "conscientious people" and Ling Zhongtian's identity instantly changed from the victim to the villain.

Those who previously felt sympathy for him immediately turned against him and joined the new round of internet crusade against Lingyu Technology.

Of course, a small amount of voices suggested that it could be the conspiracy of Future Technology. After all, the collapse of the long-time industry leader Lingyu Technology, would benefit them the most. Of course, those voices were quickly labeled as conspirators and they vanished in the waves of public debate.

With Future Technology's ability, why would they need to have a conspiracy against the competition? Lingyu Technology's shit*ty games are comparable to <New Era>?

The quite interest thing was that the people defending Future Technology were the hardcore fans of Dota history and I am ATM. Because they cared so much, they hated it even more. When they were so disappointed at Lingyu Technology and decided to give Future Technology's <New Era> out of boredom, they instantly realized that the game they defended for was a pile of sh*t. Therefore, Future Technology easily took the influx of Lingyu Technology players and the number of registration broke through 50 million with an estimated revenue breaking through 400 million RMB, shattering two records in the mobile game industry consecutively.

Its dominance could not be challenged.

The victory was already decided on the main battlefield, but the crossfire had yet to cease.

Following the series of negative press and the direct result of downward pressure on revenue, Lingyu Technology's stock price triggered 10 consecutive circuit breaks and led the index in stock depreciation as the poorest performance company after the June stock market collapse.

The total market cap was slashed off by 70% and broke through 1.5 billion. To avoid triggering loan clauses, Lingyu Technology had to increase collateral assets and pledged the about to be completed Lingyu building at the value of 530 million to the bank before it finally stopped the plunge.

Deep in red and excessive loan, Lingyu Technology was pushed into the corner without any solution.

But at the time, Future Technology began making its moves.

First, Future Technology published a statement on its official site to directly respond to the public opinion and condemn the majority shareholders Ling Zhongtian's illegal action against Future Technology, and officially sent the lawyer letter to Ling Zhongtian.

Was Future Technology prepared to sue Lingyu Technology? Regardless of the result of the lawsuit, investors were hopeless with Lingyu Technology's future.

The next day, Lingyu Technology once again triggered the circuit breaker. Four days later, Lingyu Technology ended the week with 980 million market cap. Within four short days, Lingyu Technology lost the value of a building. To avoid triggering the clause, Ling Zhongtian had to increase the pledged asset, this time it was 33% of his share.

The about to be completed Lingyu building costed 870 million and it was built with debt. The new game development and promotion had eaten away most of the profit, from the current status quo, the investments were unrecoverable.

The lawyer letter was like declaring war. It only ignited the prelude to the battle.

When Lingyu Technology broke the record for the highest monthly decrease, Future Technology's president began to increase Lingyu Technology's share on the secondary market and became the biggest shareholder at 37%. Because it was not disclosed, Jiang Chen was fined 600 thousand by the security commission for an illegal transaction.

But comparable to the profit he gained by shorting Lingyu Technology, the punishment was pocket change to Jiang Chen.

Lingyu Technology ultimately changed hand.

...

Lingyu Technology building had yet to finish the renovation, but under the demand of the new president, they organized a conference room with a row of table and chairs.

Also based on the demand of the new president, a special shareholder meeting was announced.

As to the identity of the new president, it was obviously Jiang Chen.

Every shareholder's face was gloom... No, to be more precise, other than the people sitting at the end of the table, everyone's face was gloom.

Jiang Chen leaned against the chair as he scanned all the shareholders present. Other than the Ling Zhongtian with white hair, he was surprised to find someone he knew.

Sensing Jiang Chen's sight, Zhang Jianfeng smiled friendly at him.

[Why is he here?]

Jiang Chen still had some impression with Zhang Jianfeng. He represented 361 Corporation before during the negotiation with Future Technology. Although nothing came to fruition, in the end, Jiang Chen had high praises regarding this talent.

361 Corporation want to be involved in this?

Jiang Chen muttered in his mind, but his expression didn't change in the slightest. He still maintained the bright smile and started speaking.

"Everyone, I think you should all thank me."

[Thank your mom!]

All the shareholders cursed in their mind, but no one dared to speak out loud. As to why-

"If it wasn't for me to increase the holding of your company's share which halted the plunge of Lingyu Technology's share price, the share in your hands would be scrap paper." Jiang Chen shrugged.

Ling Zhongtian slowly looked over, the aged face no longer resembled this once proud prodigy. He once made his goal to become the Steve Jobs of mobile games, but in those blurred eyes, there was only a deep weariness left.

"To be the meat on someone's chopping board is to be at someone's mercy." The cracked lips opened and squeezed a sentence full of hatred.

"If you knew today would happen, why did you do it." Jiang Chen directly responded.

Ling Zhongtian was out of words and didn't say anything else, he just stared at the document on the table and blanked out.

<Lingyu Technology Asset Restructure Proposal>

"Ahem, based on the current performance of the company, as the President, I think I should do something," he paused, Jiang Chen looked at the crowd holding their breath, a faint smile flashed across his face. But then the following sentence he said made every shareholder's mood plunge into the abyss.

"That's right. We are planning to initiate asset restructure... So first, I plan to sell the building-"

Who to sell it to? Is that even a question?

Left hand to right hand, Future Technology needed a headquarter fitting for its name.

_Min_

Chapter 170: Split the Market

"This is impossible! You can’t do this!"

"Mr. Jiang Chen, please don’t bring your personal grudges into the shareholder meeting. I understand differences exist between you and ex-president Ling Zhongtian…"

"This is called asset restructuring? This is robbery! Your motion will not be passed. Even if you are the biggest shareholder, Lingyu Technology will not permit you to do whatever you wish!"

…

Jiang Chen sipped from his tea on the table. Then, he sank into the chair relaxingly with his eyes narrowed, looking at the outraged shareholders. His gaze stopped on Ling Zhongtian for a brief moment, but the old man didn’t look at him. He was still gravely staring at the documents on the table.

He had already lost hope.

Jiang Chen shook his head as he looked at the only person calmly sitting there – Zhang Jianfeng.

361 Corporation held 5% of Lingyu Technology. Although the ownership percentage was not high, it must have been purchased at a premium. This time Lingyu Technology’s share plummet definite had an impact on 361 Corporation.

On the other hand, as the third-party platform, 361 Corporation operated the servers for Dota under the consent of Lingyu Technology. Although 361 Corporation’s server didn’t suffer the same fate as the permanent loss of Lingyu Technology’s user data, it certainly was negatively affected.

As the representative sent by 361 Corporation, Jiang Chen didn’t quite understand the motive behind Zhang Jianfeng's smiling face.

What is 361 Corporation thinking?

But regardless of what they had in mind, Jiang Chen was going to put the final nail in the coffin for Lingyu Technology.

"Before the vote, I want everyone to consider this. Lingyu Technology has fallen from cloud nine and has become an unprofitable corporation. Without exaggeration, it is facing the risk of being delisted. However, I am still here. If I leave, do you know what that means? After the shareholders meeting, the stock will resume trading this afternoon. Whether it is going up or going down, would be based on the decision of everyone here."

Jiang Chen’s words turned everyone, but Zhang Jianfeng, pale.

Because of the shareholders meeting, the temporary suspension of the stock garnered a chance for Lingyu Technology to breathe. Furthermore, Jiang Chen’s recent increase in his holdings definitely added a shot of adrenaline to the investors. If it became a signal for using Lingyu Technology as a shell company to list, after Lingyu Technology consecutive circuit breaks, it would be unrealistic for the stock to skyrocket.

But if the restructuring plan failed, and Jiang Chen decreases his holding of Lingyu Technology, then it would be adding salt to Lingyu Technology’s already massive wound. Once the stock resumed trading this afternoon, Lingyu Technology would not be able to escape the fate of its continuous freefall.

Therefore, whether or not the stock in all the shareholder's hands become a piece of scrap paper would be at the discretion of Jiang Chen.

At this time, someone stood up and threatened, "361 Corporation is also one of the shareholders, even if you forfeit your shares, they will start-"

"Ahem, 361 Corporation maintains the same stance as the new president. If President Jiang chooses to decrease his holding, for 361 Corporation, your company will lose its investment value." Zhang Jianfeng shattered that person’s fantasy.

Seeing the person sit down at a complete loss, Jiang Chen looked at Zhang Jianfeng in surprise, but he didn’t say anything.

"If there are no other opinions, let's start the voting process," Jiang Chen announced as he scanned everyone in the room.

After the death like announcement, all the shareholders cast their dispirited vote.

…

The proposal passed without a doubt. Only Ling Zhongtian voted against it.

The restructuring plan was as follows:

First, Lingyu Technology is renamed Chenfeng Entertainment.

Lingyu Technology will sell the about-to-be-completed Lingyu Technology building at a price of 600 million, and also bear the obligation for debt repayment.

Because of a major error caused by his decision, ex-president Ling Zhongtian will be removed as a shareholder following company protocol, a vote where greater than two-thirds of shareholders agree, and his held shares will be forcefully transferred to other shareholders at market price.

Based on the distribution plan negotiated, Jiang Chen’s shares will increase to 40%, 361 Corporation’s holding changes to 21%, becoming the second-largest shareholder.

Everyone knew Ling Zhongtian would lose a lot once the restructuring is complete. It would not be impossible to recover the market cap, but no one wanted to speak to him.

Ling Zhongtian accepted the result in silence. He shakenly stood up from his spot and left the office.

Everything here had nothing to do with him anymore.

He started to feel regret, but what could regret do now?

Business is like a battlefield. Any mercy could be fatal.

After the partnership with Future Technology and 361 Corporation, Lingyu Corporation’s future would be bright.

But why would that matter? It had nothing to do with him anymore.

He received the same fate as the Steve Jobs he idolizes, leaving the company he started. The only difference was, he could never come back.

Seeing the trembling figure leave, Jiang Chen fell deep in thought.

...

When the meeting ended, the shareholders began to leave, but Zhang Jianfeng stayed behind.

As if Jiang Chen expected him to stay, he also remained seated and looked at him with a smile.

"We meet again, President Jiang." Zhang Jianfeng walked toward Jiang Chen and extended his right hand.

In less than two months’ time, Future Technology has already developed to the point where they could sit equally on the same table.

"That’s right. What do you think of the hand I had just played?" Jiang Chen shook Zhang Jianfeng's hand as he smiled mischievously.

"Ruthless," Zhang Jianfeng only gave a one-word response.

Jiang Chen laughed as he leaned on the chair, not responding.

If Ling Zhongtian successfully destroyed Future Technology’s server data, he would definitely do the same thing.

But unfortunately, that was the reality of things.

"With a thunderous stance, a critical hit was given to his opponent, worthy of the name "dictator", was the headline of BBC."

"Mr. Zhang is overrating me." The odd time Jiang Chen was humble.

"But President Jiang doesn’t think this decision lack consideration?" Zhang Jianfeng pulled up a chair and sat beside Jiang Chen as he began to talk in a casual tone.

"Oh?" Jiang Chen responded in a disagreeing tone.

"Are you involved with Lingyu Technology’s server?"

"No." Jiang Chen smiled.

"The security system was customized by 361 Corporation."

"That’s unfortunate. Ling Zhongtian only bought insurance for the server but didn’t buy it for the game's data. Would you pay the penalty for this?"

"For the loss of data, our programmers have already provided support to the police," Zhang Jianfeng casually said.

"Isn’t the hacker already caught?" Jiang Chen also responded in a nonchalant tone.

"There is a hacker called Xie Lei. He has been in contact with Black Tiger before." Zhang Jianfeng locked his eyes onto Jiang Chen’s.

"You are still bloating like usual, but you know it is useless on me." Jiang Chen picked up the teacup on the table as he smiled at him.

Funny. Would the contact person be enough to confirm a crime? If so, it would be a pity for those people.

Without evidence, everything was bullsh*t.

The silence ensued for half a minute.

"President Jiang doesn’t seem to care about the interest of Lingyu Technology?" Zhang Jianfeng’s topic suddenly changed as he looked in the direction of the door.

"Do you think <New Era> needs the resources of Lingyu Technology? We already controlled the high grounds of the market," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly as he put down the cup in his hand.

[The best part is about to come.]

"Would you not consider a partnership? If it utilized 361 Phone Helper’s platform, <New Era>’s user base would climb to new heights."

"<New Era> currently will not consider opening third-party servers," Jiang Chen rejected expressionlessly.

[Funny. Not only would it involve cloud computing, but even if I gave the game to you, without the modified server, maintenance cost alone would make you go deep into the red.]

"Since President Jiang is confident that you can control the premium game market, what’s your opinion on casual games?"

Even with the existing high-quality premium games, casual games have not lost their market.

Jiang Chen obviously considered pushing out a few casual games like Angry Birds, and Temple Run, but the plan was never fulfilled.

The reason was simply that those games depended on creativity, not software. Although the apocalypse’s technology was impeccable, it was pointless for casual games. Future Technology didn’t possess any talents in game development. Therefore, the plan had to be rejected.

But Zhang Jianfeng brought it up again.

"You mean?" Jiang Chen was quite interested.

"We can work together." Zhang Jianfeng crossed his finger and genuinely looked at Jiang Chen. "Lingyu Technology, no, Chenfeng Entertainment. Right now, it is a company we control together right? We can definitely collaborate together with our talent base, and start a new project with the main focus being on the downstream market. Using 361 Phone Helper and Future 1.0, we could use both channels to promote it."

"With the power of the two companies, we can easily split the entire mobile game market!" In the end, Zhang Jianfeng was almost annunciating word by word.

Jiang Chen paused for a second before he started laughing.

"Did you selectively choose to ignore Baidu and Tencent?"

"On the mobile platform, our ability is no less than any of them. Maybe President Jiang should be more confident with our alliance." Zhang Jianfeng smiled.

"I don’t plan on giving this building up." Jiang Chen stared at the ceiling.

"Of course, as a trophy. The fact that it belongs to you now won’t change."

The building with a cost of 870 million was sold at a discount of 600 million. They were at least the second-biggest shareholder of Chenfeng Entertainment, 361 Corporation was certainly willing to cut the lost.

"What about the previous Chenfeng employees?" Jiang Chen asked softly.

He originally planned to cut them completely, but now it seemed like it would be a waste to not use them.

"Work at the previous location? Or lease a floor in this building? It would be your decision." Zhang Jianfeng had a bright smile on because he knew Jiang Chen was tempted.

No one would reject a cake that was put right in front of their mouth.

"If you brought up the partnership, in the beginning, we could have worked together a long time ago." Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

"But it is still not too late right?" Zhang Jianfeng got up, extending his right hand once again.

"That’s right. Because I think we should split this market."

Also standing up, Jiang Chen held onto the extended hand with a triumphant smile on his face.

Chapter 171: The Preparation before returning to the Apocalypse

The same afternoon, Lingyu Technology announced a statement. The shareholders passed the restructuring proposal. Ling Zhongtian was removed from the board, the company was officially renamed Chenfeng Entertainment, and the company's stock would remain suspended until the completion of its asset restructuring.

The news spread to all the shareholders like a long due storm finally passing a draught-dried land, and they began cheering. The people that cut their loss were depressed by their decision of not having confidence in the company...

All in all, these people thought of Jiang Chen as Jesus Christ.

Future Technology and 361 Corporation both possessed shares. One has been valued at over a billion by Wall Street Analysts at its inception, while one was already listed on Nasdaq with a market cap of over ten billion.

It left too many people too much room for the imagination.

Graciously, Jiang Chen made headline again.

The young billionaire once again enters people's vision. The charming smile, the calm attitude, attracting the heart of countless girls...

Ok, they really don't care about Jiang Chen's looks.

Being famous didn't seem to create too much of a hassle in his life. Different from celebrities in the entertainment industry, most of his fans were very rationale.

The people that want to marry into wealthy would not flap towards him like bees. It would be too unclassy. They would often pretend to be a frail and innocent girl, "encountering" him under his building, and "accidentally" starting a "rich CEO fell in love with me" drama...

But unfortunately, Jiang Chen was known to not go to work and the community he lived in was also somewhere random people could not enter. Their plan ultimately would fail.

The "irrational" fans used the security team in the community to sent him love letters and attached a duck face selfie inside.

Jiang Chen at first was looking forward to reading the letters to see how the beauties have been conquered by his "charm", and how they have fallen under his jeans. Don't question, Jiang Chen never said he didn't like to hear flattering words.

But he was quickly bored.

All the love letters had the same content, revolving around "I want to give you a baby," and "let's hook up?"...

The directness even made Jiang Chen, who was proud of his lack of boundaries, "shy."

He gave the rest of letters to Ayesha and told the security to throw all letters of this kind into the garbage. After telling them not to bother him with it, he left this in the back of his mind.

Han was indeed a deep and profound language. What Jiang Chen meant by taking care of them was to throw them out, but Ayesha interpreted as examination.

Obviously misunderstanding Jiang Chen's intention, she had the thought of picking another wife for her husband as she patiently read through a few love letters.

As a "qualified wife," she will not be jealous towards husband's other partners, she will obediently share with her and take care of him...

Take back what she said, she also gave up.

As a "qualified wife", instincts told her that these women have impure motives.

These love letter finally didn't escape the fate of the paper shredder.

...

It was already November, and based on Miss Sun Jiao's description, the apocalypse must be covered in thick snow.

But Wanghai City was still sunny and mild. Even deep into the fall, it still didn't feel cold at all.

To be honest, Jiang Chen not only once had the thought of not going back to the other side.

Since he already was a winner in his life here.

Luxurious mansion, top-end car, and beautiful girls. Everything he ever dreamt of was achieved.

But on the other side, there was only danger.

At this moment, he relaxingly lied beside his private pool on top of Ayesha's legs and was getting his ears cleaned out for him.

The side of his face felt the softness of her legs. Her fragrance lingered around his nose. The tip of her hair occasionally brushed across his face and tingled with his heart. The soft and gentle breathing beside his ear...

"Mhmm! It's done now." A delighted smile appeared on Ayesha's face as she gently blew on Jiang Chen's ear and put away the ear pick.

"Eh-, done already? A bit more." Because it was so comfortable, it was the odd time Jiang Chen was demanding.

"But, it's already clean. It would hurt you if I do more," Ayesha said faintly with a blushed face.

"No problem! Please continue."

Facing her husband's unreasonable demand, Ayesha face burned as she began debating. Although it was the duty of a "qualified wife" to satisfy the husband's demand, if she continued, it would damage her husband's ear.

In this case, she must think of a compromising plan...

"Umm, could I lick it?" She suppressed the shyness in her heart as she whispered into Jiang Chen's ear.

"?!"

Jiang Chen, in the sluggish mood, clearly was drawn into it.

Seeing her husband was interested, Ayesha's face became a deeper shade of red. She looked at the cleaned out ear as she stuck her tongue out and buried her head in it.

The soft tongue, along with the warm breathe, approached slowly...

But an untimely phone call interrupted this intimate atmosphere.

Ayesha looked away with a blushed face, licking someone's ear was too embarrassing for her.

Jiang Chen couldn't pretend to be lazy anymore as he got up to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" Jiang Chen picked up with an unpleased tone.

"Hmm? Voice sounds angry... Did I annoy you?" Liu Yao said coyly.

"You ruined my good time," Jiang Chen said "fiercely". Ayesha, standing on the side, heard it as her red face turned brighter. She lowered her head, as her mind went elsewhere.

"Do you need me to compensate you?" Liu Yao said energetically.

"Ahem, what do you mean."

Oh no, he was hard.

Jiang Chen turned, so his back was facing Ayesha.

But what he didn't expect was that the blushed Ayesha got closer and stood in front of him.

A shy but tender smile surfaced on her face as she slowly kneeled down. A pair of smooth hands self-assertedly reached for his clothes.

"Oooh-!"

"Why are you making a weird sound?" Liu Yao asked curiously.

"Ahem, nothing. Umm, if you have something to tell me, be quick."

Jiang Chen was not in the most ideal state.

"It's nothing special. A lot of entertainment companies have sent me invitations to star in movies."

Since Jiang Chen accepted Liu Yao as his mistress, Jiang Chen paid the penalty of one million for breach of contract. After that, Liu Yao had been staying at home with nothing to do.

"Why did you suddenly got famous?"

"Because of you," Liu Yao said in a sweet voice.

"Me?" He gazed at the pair of eyes below him as he experienced mental and physical sensation at the same time. Jiang Chen took a deep breath as he almost didn't manage to hold on.

"Yes, yes, you have a Weibo account right? Other than the default followers, you only followed me, therefore..." Liu Yao's voice sounded frail as if she was afraid Jiang Chen would get angry. So, she carefully said, "Therefore people thought there was something between us... Therefore."

"Siiiiii... Ah? No, that's fine, I don't care about this news," Jiang Chen squeezed out a few words between his teeth as his hand gently rubbed Ayesha's luscious hair.

She felt the gentleness on her hair as her blue eyes narrowed happily.

But then, it was even harder for Jiang Chen to resist.

"That's great! I was worried that you would not like me doing that anymore because of this..." Liu Yao was delighted.

"Nope!"

"Umm, can I go act in a film then? No problem! No kissing scene-" Since she was now his mistress, Liu Yao was afraid Jiang Chen would be jealous.

"Okay!"

"And also, the film producer wants to acquire your investment..." Liu Yao carefully asked.

"Granted!"

"Love you lots, muaaa~ Oh, when are we going to Pannu Island for vacation. I heard it's summer there all year round... Hmmm? Are you listening?"

"Yes!" No, Jiang Chen couldn't hold on any longer.

"Wait," Liu Yao held the phone as her eyes turned suspicious. She suddenly covered her mouth realizing something. "Ah! You must be doing something naughty!"

"N...No."

"Wait, no, this sound would not be wrong! You must" She sensed the voice was off.

"Mhmm!"

Fine. Seeing the gentleness in her eyes, Jiang Chen was too joyful to lie to his body any longer.

...

If it were not for the people that he couldn't let go of, he probably wouldn't go back.

The next morning, Jiang Chen made a trip to Xinlong Food Processing Plant.

Following his instructions, Zheng Hongjie cleaned out a new warehouse to store the surplus goods. The goods inside would also not be registered on anything. Although he didn't know the boss' intention, he didn't ask.

But he was not here to acquire food. He already prepared enough food to pass through the winter.

He directly found Zheng Hongjie and ordered him to arrange the export, and then increase production as soon as possible.

The deepwater port at Pannu Islands had already been completed, the next step of Island Conquering mission could begin.

After taking care of the miscellaneous tasks, Jiang Chen headed back to the mansion and started to time travel.

Chapter 172: Winter is coming

Rather than saying winter was coming, it was more fitting to say winter was here.

His vision was covered by the monochrome silver as the entire pool was filled with snow. A thick layer of snow covered the mansion, and the edges of the roof were decorated with daunting icicles. Like a castle standing in the northern kingdom. Solemn. Proud.

But Jiang Chen was not in the mood to enjoy the atmosphere of his mansion. He only wore a thin t-shirt.

The second he stepped into the apocalypse, he began to shiver uncontrollably.

[This weather is too f*cking cold.]

Even with his body condition strengthed by the genetic vaccine, he couldn't withstand it anymore.

Jiang Chen covered his arms with his hand as he dashed into the mansion from the backyard. The last time he was here, he started his time travel beside the pool because he was lazy, but he sure suffered on his way back.

Different from the extreme conditions outside, the mansion was as warm as spring. The broken wall and window had been long repaired by Sun Jiao, and after a series of modifications and improvements, as long as the window was closed, the mansion would not be bothered by the severe wind chills outside.

But before he even gained his footing in the mansion, Sun Jiao, who also ran toward him, pushed him onto the sofa.

"You are finally back." This girl's voice certainly had a hidden bitterness to it.

"Uh, a lot happened over there." Jiang Chen said apologetically.

Although it was not entirely accurate, he did become lazy after having to much fun.

Jiang Chen seemed to have sensed something, but she didn't point it out. Her beautiful eyes dreamily gazed into his.

Jiang Chen looked away as he was shy from the passionate gaze, but he discovered Sun Jiao was holding something in her hand.

"Eh? What is this?"

"Ah, this is, umm, this is..." Out of nowhere, Sun Jiao's face immediately turned red as there was a sense of panic to her voice.

"Towel?" Jiang Chen asked with uncertainty.

"It's a scarf! Fool!" After seeing her proud work being slandered as a towel, Miss Sun Jiao was immediately enraged.

The furious Sun Jiao gave a solid punch in Jiang Chen's chest, and then she pulled out the scarf, forcefully putting it around his neck out of shame.

"Cough cough! Are you trying to strangle me!" Although the softness was continually squeezing onto him because of the violent action, the suffocating feeling around his neck canceled the sensation.

"Stop, stop moving, just resist a bit longer!" Sun Jiao with a blushed face said fiercely.

"Wait, why do I have to resist against wearing a scarf-"

"You are so talkative!"

After awhile, the scarf was finally put around Jiang Chen's neck.

Sun Jiao got up from Jiang Chen's body with a blushed face as she looked away.

"Looks pretty good. It would be even better if you give it to me normally. Especially because this is not how you wear a scarf..." Sun Jiao, with a troubled smile, pulled the scarf around his neck. This girl was clearly confused about the difference between a rope and scarf.

The pure black scarf was without any pattern. With a beginner's skill, it would be too difficult to put any patterns on it. But being able to knit the scarf was an accomplishment nonetheless.

Hearing Jiang Chen's praise, Sun Jiao's eyes immediately lit up. As to the ridicule of "method of tying the scarf," she selectively ignored the sentence.

"Really! Haha, this is what I am saying. How could I mess up on a scarf." With a red face, and scratching the back of her head, c*ckiness was written all over her face.

"So why did you think about knitting a scarf?" After putting on the scarf properly, Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

"Because..." Sun Jiao's mind drifted again. Her face changed to a bright red hue. "In the magazines before the war, it said, girlfriends should knit scarves for their boyfriend. Therefore..."

"It is not a requirement, or the better way to put it, the girl that is willing to knit a scarf for her boyfriend would be a rare species." Jiang Chen let out a sigh as she smiled.

Jiang Chen was quite touched by her.

"What do you mean a rare species!" Sun Jiao gave Jiang Chen a dirty look.

"It means adorable," Jiang Chen rushed to explain.

"Adorable?!" Her expression suddenly softened, and her bright eyes looked around shyly.

At this time, Jiang Chen suddenly noticed Yao Yao standing on top of the stairs. This small loli pouted her lips as the cute eyes stared straight at the scarf around his neck.

"Ooo! Too devious..."

As if she heard the noise in the living room, Lin Lin walked in from the side door with her pure white hair.

Still not hesitant to bad mouth people.

"Psh, it's only a dumb devil couple. Why would you guys display affection in the living room? Go close the door and do what you did-." But before she finished, the words were stuck in her throat. A grim sight instantly locked onto her vision as she was forced to swallow her unfinished sentence.

"Ahem. I think as the owner of the mansion, I need to do something now," Jiang Chen mustered to himself.

"That's right. For example, building a wooden shack outside for her." A devil-like smile spread on Sun Jiao's face as she also enjoyed the feeling of bullying Lin Lin.

In the end, she still could not be defiant.

"You are all bullying me." With tears, Lin Lin escaped back to her room/lab with a sad expression.

This narcissistic and bad-tempered girl, always instantly forgets to stand her ground.

Seeing Lin Lin's fleeting figure, a smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

[I wonder if she finished her task yet. I'll pick a time to take a look.]

...

There was no fireplace in the future. Except for the poorest survivors, no one would use fire to generate heat. Jiang Chen's mansion obviously didn't have that either. The reason the place was so warm was due to the heating grids placed within the wall. This device was extremely convenient, and it would provide heat as long as it was connected to electricity.

The heat resistant electric wire would not be burned by EMPs. Therefore, the heating grid became one of the few electronic devices that was not destroyed by the nuclear blast.

In the top floor office, Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao stood together and gazed into the distance.

The thick snowflakes twirled in the north wind as they raided through every corner of the world. The ice shards that occasionally smashed on the window played a whimpering noise as it crashed into the frozen window.

Even if he was just looking, he could still feel the coldness that could freeze one's soul.

"Such heavy snowfall." After a while, Jiang Chen could only produce four words while looking outside.

"This is not too bad. Usually, it would start snowing in October." In regards to the snow, Sun Jiao's expression was rather calm. "It was rumored that when the war just ended, the entire world was covered by nuclear winter. It was the same cruel scene every day. I wonder how did the people outside of the survival shelters survive."

Outside of their walls, apartments built with concrete were built for residents of Fishbone base. The Fishbone base that "didn't lack money" would obviously not mistreat its people. Every family was connected with heat and electricity. The life here was so much better than in the ghetto.

On the empty streets, a pickup truck, modified to be a snow shoveling vehicle, was working hard to push the snow out of the base. The patrol on the wall regularly walked around to watch for any incoming danger. The white winter suit made him look like a snowman carrying a rifle.

"With a snowstorm this big, the mutated humans shouldn't be able to invade us." Although it certainly was inconvenient to the construction of the base, the thick snowfall gave a hint of tranquility.

"Speaking of mutated humans, Zhao Gang, who you sent out scouting, brought back some interesting information."

"Oh?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"There are at least three thousand mutated humans in the 7th area. A lot of signs indicate that they are preparing war supplies."

Every mutated human was a natural warrior. If there were actually three thousand of them, even if they sent one thousand people, it would be an unstoppable force that the Fishbone base could not resist with only a population of two hundred.

No, it would be difficult even for the Sixth Street.

"Hopefully this snow will bring them some trouble." Jiang Chen watched the flying snowflakes as a worried expression flashed on his face.

"Mutated humans are known for their cold resistance. This amount of snow will do nothing to them. We can only pray that this storm will kill more of their slaves. That is the only way that would make things difficult for them," Sun Jian's voice was stern.

Slaves? Speaking of this, How did the dancers in Jia City survive under the violent force of the mutated human?

Jiang Chen shook his head as he put his thoughts away. Then he asked, "Is that all?"

"Also, based on Zhao Gang, when he returned from the 7th area, he encountered a group of survivors fleeing from Shenxiang Town."

"Survivors fleeing?" Jiang Chen touched his chin in thought.

"Mhmm. They originally belong to the survivor groups in Shenxiang Town, but the survivor group was wiped already. Zhao Gang brought them back. I ordered people to keep them outside of the base for now." Sun Jiao nodded before she took out a tablet to show a map to Jiang Chen.

"Shenxiang Town is between Qingpu and 7th area. It is on the Taifu River, a way for the mutated humans to enter Wanghai City. There were around seven hundred survivors there, and because of the lack of mutant activity around the area as well as the lack of external threat, they lacked an organized system. They only established a simple defense outside of the town with a civilian force of 21 people..."

"Therefore they were enslaved by the mutated humans?" Hearing this, Jiang Chen guessed the outcome.

"That's right." Sun Jiao nodded, "A force of 40 mutated humans were stationed in Shenxiang Town as they established an out post there. Based on this, they are indeed going to take the route through Shenxiang town to Wanghai City."

That meant that they would go through Qingpu, not Songjiang.

It was the worst outcome. Deep in Jiang Chen's heart, he hoped to avoid direct conflict with mutated humans. Even if they really arrived in Carmen Pharmaceutical and obtained the improved FEV virus, they would only torment Jia City.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath as he asked in a serious tone.

"What about the seven hundred survivors?"

"Based on the survivors who are there, because of the snow blocking the roads, they are temporarily imprisoned in Shenxiang Town and have not moved yet." Hearing this, Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen.

Snow blocking the road? A "singled out" mutated human out post.

Watching the snow on the window, a smile suddenly surfaced on Jiang Chen's face.

"This is an opportunity."

"You mean?"

"Take them out! Reinforce Shenxiang town's defense, and intercept the mutated human force there, blocking them out of Qingpu!"

_Min_ _Min_

One more today!

Chapter 173: Kinetic Skeleton

Comparing direct firepower, a soldier wearing a T-3 power armor had no inherent difference to a mutated human with a steel plate covering the front of its body.

In a one on one scenario, power armor, with its high mobility and adaptability, would quickly take down the almost defenseless back of the mutated human. But if it escalated to a full-scale battle, the power armors advantage would be mitigated as the battle would usually turn into cover fire.

During the last crossfire with the mutated human, Jiang Chen already learned his lesson.

The 10 T-3 power armors had no advantage in firepower against the thirty something mutated human. It was even fair to say that they were at a disadvantage the entire time. In the end, they barely won with the advantageous positioning they had, but they lost with the cost of one power armor and multiple backup fuel rods.

If Jiang Chen had a few more cannons, the situation would be drastically different.

At the same time, the ability to produce heavy weaponry was fundamental to the existence of a survival base.

From any perspective, Fishbone Base must develop its own heavy weaponry!

So Jiang Chen already started doing that.

The electric pulse cannon technology he purchased from Zhao Chenwu had been completely understood by the scientists at the base. Although the production condition at the base was still limited, after half a month, the Fishbone Base workers still managed to use the limited facility to manufacture six electric pulse cannons.

This vehicle mounted electric pulse cannon was used as the primary weapon on the tank during the war, but right now it was obviously not feasible to acquire a tank. Therefore, Jiang Chen thought of a compromise.

Wield the electric pulse cannon onto the improved truck, and use steel reinforcement to strengthen the armor of the truck. Then, place a soldier on top to fire the cannon.

Therefore, the odd looking electric pulse cannon vehicle was created by Jiang Chen's wild imagination.

Also, he gave this thing a name that couldn't be more childish - Tiger.

Low armor, medium mobility, high range, high damage. It was extremely effective in rural areas with scattered structures, but it was a target in the city. Although the design was extreme, they had to work with what they had.

...

On the other hand, following the production of the hummingbird drone, patrolling outside of the base has been passed on to those palm sized little guys. The hummingbird drone has built up a force of over one hundred units, which was more than enough to create an attack force. Although those little guys carried a limited amount of ammo, once there were enough of them, they were capable of deadly attacks.

...

The attack on Shenxiang Town was set to be five days later. The survivors in the base had since been busy.

Although attacking in the winter didn't sound like the smartest decision, since it was the boss's decision, they would relentlessly execute it.

The military production factory worked around the clock, and the workers under Jiang Chen's instructions installed the electric pulse cannon on the back of the modified trucks. The training ground then became crowded as the soldiers in winter suits, under the command of Cheng Weiguo, began to train.

Although everyone was preparing relentlessly, Jiang Chen wasn't too concerned about this attack.

It was only a force of 40 mutated humans. Not only did the Fishbone base have the fire support from the Tiger, but they also had helicopters that acted as gunships.

Leaving the mansion wearing a thick winter suit, Jiang Chen headed straight to Jiang Lin's lab.

For the scientist passionate about aerospace, Jiang Chen had a keen interest in him. Not only did Jiang Chen clean out a lab for him, but he also gave him a budget of 1000 crystals a month to purchase related equipment.

Although aerospace technology was not helpful to the Fishbone base now, if rockets were created, not only can they be shot into the sky, but if they're shot downwards, they could be used as missiles.

Of course, the purpose of the trip was not to inquire about the missiles, but for something else.

When he pushed opened the lab door, Jiang Chen stepped into the room, and quickly closed the door behind him.

He shook off the snow on his body before walking inside the room.

"Ahem, what are you working on?"

A dazzling amount of electronic parts were randomly stored in the corner of the room. Some of them were needed for the launch of the rockets, and some of them were junk he brought back from Fake Leg Specialty store. Although Jiang Lin didn't plan to continue his father's business, he still moved his stuff here.

"Rocket engine..." Jiang Lin wore protective goggles with a welding tool in his hand as he concentrated on the parts on the table.

Looking at the grease covered hair, Jiang Chen didn't want to guess the last time he showered.

It's great to be passionate about your own business, but...

"Did you complete the task I gave you?" Jiang Chen walked over to a mechanical leg lying on the ground as he stood beside him.

"Done. It's on the shelf to your right, and the manual is on the shelf next to it." Jiang Lin said as carefully wielded a single microchip onto the engine, not turning his head.

"Just need to wait till the weather clears up... Install a smart power control into the engine, and then install signal blockage at the tip of the rocket. I am a genius," Jiang Lin mustered to himself as he looked ecstatic.

Although Jiang Chen didn't know why.

"Kinetic skeleton, model K1". A line of small words was engraved on the metal strip as Jiang Chen read it out loud.

He looked at the mechanical frame in his hand and began to play with it. But after awhile, he still didn't have a single clue how it works. So, he took out the manual and began to read it step by step.

The light plastic steel metal attached to the four limbs, and the spine position was covered by scale like metal plates.

To put it simply, this thing was like a metal skeleton. Although it had a metallic feel to it, it didn't feel cumbersome to wear.

Jiang Chen moved his limbs and clenched his fingers, but he still didn't understand how it worked as a confused expression appeared on his face.

Seeing that boss wearing his masterpiece, Jiang Lin dropped what he was working on, cleaned his hand, and walked over.

"The start button is on your neck. You can try pressing it."

Following Jiang Lin's instruction, Jiang Chen skeptically placed his finger on his neck and quickly found a button. Then he tried pressing it down.

A faint static noise was heard as Jiang Chen felt a temporary numbness on the back of his neck. The next second he was completely shocked.

It was a surreal feeling. As if the metal strip became a part of his body. What maneuvered his body was no longer his own skeleton, but rather the metal skeleton attached to his body.

Jiang Chen moved his limbs as the shock on his face intensified.

Describing the feeling was difficult. Precisely, it seemed like the metal skeleton was really his own hand, but his real hand was only a tool he was using.

"Model K1 kinetic skeleton. Fake Legs Specialty store's masterpiece." A proud smile appeared on Jiang Lin's face, as he took a curved plastic steel plate from the side and pressed it onto the empty slot in front of Jiang Chen's chest.

"Removable armor made of supramolecular polyethylene. It is bullet-proof, so it can easily protect you against normal assault rifle bullets. The outside is sprayed with a reflective layer, so it has some defense against laser rifles. Of course, I don't recommend you take a few shots to test the strength of the armor.

After he finished, Jiang Lin brought over several curved armors and slotted them onto Jiang Chen's stomach, legs, and shoulders.

"Almost done." Jiang Lin stood up and clapped his hands together. He then took a tablet from the table and connected a wire to Jiang Chen's armor.

Jiang Chen looked at him as his fingers typed furiously on the screen. Quickly, the numb electrocuted sensation from the back of his neck disappeared and was replaced by an astonishing connection of his nerves to his muscles.

It was not only simply the metal maneuvering his body, but the metal and body were simultaneously controlled by his brain.

Jiang Chen moved his limbs as he became more and more shocked.

Seeing the expression on the boss's face, Jiang Lin smiled and quickly backed away. With a please gesture, he said proudly, "Try hitting the sandbag."

Hearing that, Jiang Chen clenched the fist covered by the thin layer of armor as he used his entire strength to punch.

Boom-.

Dust blew everywhere.

The violent force caused the sandbag to cave inward as the metal hanging the sandbag began to squeak in a whimpering noise.

"Beautiful! Let me see. 971 kilograms, not bad." Jiang Lin nodded his head as he scratched his chin and began to adjust the data on the tablet.

[Not bad? This is insane!]

Jiang Chen astonishingly stared at his hand as he ridiculed in his mind.

A force of nearly one ton! An ordinary person's punch would be around 100 kilograms; he remembered Tyson could only punch with a force of 400 kilograms.

But the sandbag didn't get punched through. Its quality must be excellent.

While being shocked, Jiang Chen gave a few extra looks at the sandbag.

"Try the strength again." Jiang Lin quickly walked to the end of the room.

Jiang Chen moved his leg around to test. When he realized that his coordination was not hindered, he walked over.

There stood a metal box the size of a closet. The exposed part seemed similar to the weight of the sandbag.

A white metal covered signal light flashed unknowingly, the monitor on the side produced a faint light.

"Put your hand on the bar, and then use your maximum power to lift it." Jiang Lin passed a bar-like thing to him as he smiled.

Following his instruction, Jiang Chen put his hands on the bar and lifted it up with his entire force.

<Strength: 64>

"Perfect!" Jiang Lin snapped as he said with excitement.

Compared to Jiang Lin's excitement, Jiang Chen's mood could be described as ecstatic.

With only a few metal frames, it could allow people to acquire strength greater than the genetic vaccine. If every solider wore a set, Fishbone base's combat power would more than double.

Chapter 174: Out of stock?

If the power armor were the full body armor of the knight, then the kinetic skeleton would be an infantry's chainmail.

The entire mass was less than ten kgs. The supermolecular polyethylene could guard 7-12 rounds of point-blank shots from a 7.62 mm assault. If it were an assault rifle from the modern world, it would not even make a dent in the armor.

Afer equipping, the maximum weight carried by a single soldier would increase to 300 kilograms.

The power source was two pieces of battery the size of a fist and was placed above the pelvis area. After a complete charge, it would allow the equipped person to run at a speed of 12 km/hour carrying the 300 kilograms for one hour. Or, it could operate in normal combat conditions for 12 hours. The power could be charged through solar cells, or it could instantly be replenished with crystals.

It was fair to say, other than the aerospace technology that has yet to see results, a significant factor that Jiang Chen considered when recruiting Jiang Lin was the kinetic skeleton technology of the Fake Leg Specialty store. Although he didn't manage to continue the family business, being forced by his father, he still learned the essential skills.

When he personally experienced the power of Model K1 Kinetic Skeleton, Jiang Chen immediately proposed the feasibility of mass equipping the force.

"Equipping the force?" Jiang Lin was confused when he heard Jiang Chen's question, but then an odd expression appeared on his face. "Do you know the time and cost to produce a set of kinetic skeleton like this?"

"How much?" Jiang Chen asked carelessly.

"Based on the official price in the Sixth Street, the current set you are wearing cost around 900 crystals. 900 crystals could purchase more than ten slaves if you give them rifles. Regardless of what kind of super soldier, they can't beat ten something rifles." Jiang Lin let out a sigh as he started to calculate the economics for Jiang Chen.

"But the Sixth Street no longer sells population."

Jiang Chen pressed the button on his neck as the faint static noise rose again and he took off the kinetic skeleton.

"The Sixth Street doesn't sell population, but other places do. For example Su City. They have the biggest slave market in Suhang province. They'll come to the Sixth Street next spring-" Jiang Lin tried to convince his boss.

"But we can't wait till next spring." Jiang Chen, with a smile, carried the kinetic skeleton in his hands. "When the snow melts next year, the mutated human will invade from 7th area to Qingpu. We are the only force that's capable of putting up a defense. Therefore we will face the most pressure from them."

Hearing that, Jiang Lin's face immediately turned white.

He has never heard about this before. If he had heard about it, he would not have come to work here even if they beat him to death. The reason why he tried to convince the boss to give up the idea of mass production of the kinetic skeleton was the fact that he was worried his own research time for the rocket would be limited.

"Do you regret coming here?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Jiang Lin gulped as he looked away, dishearted. "No."

"Don't be afraid. Your heart beat already told me you are regretting it." Jiang Chen smiled as he patted him on the shoulder without criticising his fear. "It is okay to be afraid. People fear death for a reason. Since you are afraid, then follow what I have said."

"I heard that there are a few thousand mutated humans in the Seventh Area," Jiang Lin strugglingly said.

"To be exact, there are three thousand. Perhaps a bit more than that, but it's not something you need to worry about. Kinetic skeleton must be mass produced. Regardless how many crystals we spend, you must manufacture 50 sets before next year January," Jiang Chen used an irrefutable voice.

Even with a cost of 900 crystals per set, 50 sets would only be 45,000 crystals. Fishbone base didn't lack money. It was time to convert the wealth accumulated in the early phases into power.

Jiang Lin gulped again as he saw the seriousness in the boss' eyes as he nodded arduously.

"I'll try my best... But it can't be done with just me. I need help."

"Just tell me how much assistance you need."

"Let me think... The hand crafted metal skeleton would require ten people, welding the microchips would take 4, drawing the circuit board would need 8, as well as modifying the power system... Based on my estimation, I would require 40 workers to be able to complete a streamlined process. In this case, I could probably manage to complete 50 sets of kinetic skeletons before January." Jiang Lin had a troubled smile.

There was a total of 200 people in the base. Everyone had their own duties and responsibilities, it was impossible to assemble a team of 40.

But Jiang Chen's following words shocked him.

"I'll give you 80 people. Could you double the production?"

"Sure, but is there enough people in the base?" Jiang Lin had to ask.

"You don't have to worry about it. We'll have plenty of people soon. Right now, you only need to figure out how to design the production line, how to train your team, and what materials must be purchased. The production force will be ready in 5 days." Jiang Chen laughed.

The Fishbone base didn't have the people, but Shenxiang Town had them.

The seven hundred survivors captured by the mutated humans. He just needed to bring them back.

As to whether they would be obedient or not?

On the wasteland, there was no inherent difference between being captured and being saved.

If they wanted to continue to live, they must be obedient.

...

After coming out of Jiang Lin's lab, Jiang Chen headed to the community center to find the warehouse keeper Wang Qin.

When Jiang Chen came to the office, the girl with freckles was going through her books as usual. When she saw Jiang Chen, her eyes lit up, as she stopped what she was doing, and got up to greet him.

"I am just here to check the status of the supplies in the base. Don't be so anxious," Jiang Chen gently smiled as he joked.

Wang Qin's face blushed shyly. She pushed her glasses up as she took out the tablet terminal and began to display the data to Jiang Chen.

First, it was crystals.

After the accumulation of several trades, the crystals stored in the Fishbone base had reached a frightening number of 790 thousand. Because of the addition of several production lines, the crystals spent last month reached 30 thousand. This included the purchase of raw materials, as well as direct consumption for fuel in industrial production.

Jiang Chen asked Wang Qin to save half a million crystals as liquid assets to purchase shares of the about to be established Sixth Street bank.The rest of the 290 thousand crystals would be used as production spending. Even with the addition of a kinetic skeleton line, the current amount of stored crystals was more than sufficient.

Then, it would be the firearms storage.

There were two hundred thousand rounds of ammo stored in the base, with sixty percent directly manufactured by the base. After they acquired Huizhong Mercenaries' ammo production line, Fishbone base began to work towards producing its own firearms.

Then, it would be the 5kg bombs. This is the standard ammo for the electromagnetic cannon.

Following the completion of the Tiger, the military factory's production has been shifting towards bombs. The current stock was two hundred rounds, with fifty being produced each day.

After a period of consumption, as well as the large quantity of replenishment since the last time he returned, the base currently stored 8 tons of rice, 2 tons of potato, and easy to store vegetables like cabbage and carrot totaled 5 tons. Sausage, marinated meat, and other preserved food added up to 2 tons. After Jiang Chen realized it was cheaper to purchase fresh food than canned food, Fishbone Base's cafeteria no longer provided canned food. All cans were only sold, or as an award to survivors that contributed to the base.

With the assumption of one pound of rice per day per person, this food would last the group of two hundred two years. But considering the addition of seven hundred survivors soon, the rate of food consumption would undoubtedly increase. Even with an increase in survivors, the current storage of food would last at least half a year.

"Also, the base is preparing to add a new kinetic skeleton production line. Jiang Lin will send the list of purchases over in a bit. Send someone to purchase it from the Sixth Street."

"Mhmm." Wang Qin nodded and then wrote Jiang Chen's words in the tablet. Following the increased quantity of supplies, one warehouse keeper was not enough. After asking for Wang Qin's opinion, Jiang Chen added a logistics department to the base's administration, responsible for managing warehouse supplies, daily consumption, and trade related tasks. Trade was previously the responsibility of Sun Jiao, but she seemed to get a headache with "small tasks" containing minuscule details, so she threw the duties to the logistics department.

The logistics department was of course led by Wang Qin. The department increased to five people, managing a total of six warehouses.

"I said you don't have to be so anxious." Seeing how the girl was taking notes seriously, Jiang Chen couldn't stop laughing.

Although she had matured compared to when she just got to the base, the trait of blushing did not change at all.

"Also, what's the status of Zhou Guoping's bar in the Sixth Street?"

After recollecting her previous calmness, Wang Qin pushed her glasses up and said in a focused tone, "4000 cans of beer were consumed in October resulting in a total profit of 40,000 crystals."

Hearing the news, Jiang Chen nodded.

He didn't care about the profitability of the bar. He was more keen on using the traffic generated to bring him intelligence. The beers were only a few bucks in the modern world which was nothing.

But of course, as the saying goes, although mosquitoes were small, meat was still meat, and the income from the beers was quite good.

"Also, there is something else," Wang Qin saw that Jiang Chen was in a good mood, but she hesitated for a moment before she spoke.

"Mhmm?"

"The raw material used to produce the automatic rifles and hummingbird drone, the Carm Tree sap, is out of stock."

"Out of stock?" Jiang Chen frowned.

It was a big problem.

The threat of mutated human was approaching fast, the Fishbone base was working around the clock to produce firearms, and now Carm tree sap was out of stock?

"The plantation that provided us with Carm tree sap terminated the contract, and paid us 1000 crystals as the penalty," Wang Qin said helplessly.

"Reason?"

"Following the increase in production on the Sixth Street, the price of Carm tree sap rose by 20%, which is much higher compared to the price signed on the contract. They also signed a large quantity long term deal with other companies. Therefore, they shamelessly terminated our contract." Wang Qin said in anger.

"So how much is left in the base?" Jiang Chen said in a serious tone.

"2 tons left. Enough to maintain production for one more month."

"Mhmm, I'll take care of this." Jiang Chen nodded.

[If the Sixth Street can't supply it, the Fishbone base can just produce it on our own.]

Chapter 175: Produce Ourselves

"Growing Carm Trees?" Sun Jiao thought for a second before a troubled look appeared on her face.

"Is there a problem? We could probably buy the sapling on the market. If we can't, I'll get Zhou Guoping to think of other ways." Jiang Chen didn't understand.

"No, it's not the problem with tree saplings, tree saplings are easy to obtain." Seeing that Jiang Chen seemed to be misinterpreting her meaning, Sun Jiao forced a bitter smile. "The problem is growing them."

"Growing? I remember these mutated plants were able to survive in the apocalypse's soil, is there any problems?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

Typical crops could not grow in the nuclear and biological contaminated soil, but mutated plants that survived the war could. Logically, anything that could grow in the Sixth Street, the Fishbone base could grow the same thing.

Hearing Jiang Chen's question, Sun Jiao facepalmed as she began patiently explaining the fundamentals.

"To grow anything on the wasteland, there are two factors to consider. One is radiation level, and two is soil contamination level.

As long as there is material exchange with the outside world, it can not avoid the impact of radiation. There is nothing in the apocalypse that is free of radiation. Not even the drinking water treated by the automatic water purifying equipment. It doesn't negatively affect humans because of the existence of the EP and special medication that reduces the radiation level to below the danger threshold. However, plants are not so lucky.

To ensure the planted apple does not mutate, the radiation level must be controlled to below 1. If the radiation level is above 5, even normal seeds buried into the ground will become abnormal. With the Sixth Street's technology, it is able to control the radiation level to around 3, which certainly reflects how valuable the fruit cans you brought are.

But the mutated plants that survived through natural selection are not that delicate. Their resistance to radiation is quite high. Take Carm trees for example. As long as radiation levels are below 40, it can grow normally. Most of the places on the wasteland have a threshold value between 10-20. As long as it's not in a nuclear crater, the radiation level will not reach 40.

The soil contamination is relatively easier to solve since soilless planting technology is incredibly mature in the apocalypse.

Therefore, the plantations in the apocalypse can be divided into two kinds.

One is the kind that uses soilless technology to grow crops.

There is a distinct advantage to growing crops this way is that it can easily control soil contamination, and the production area would also be greater compared to soil plants. The disadvantage is also evident. Mainly being the high cost. To use soilless technology to produce industrial raw materials like Carm tree sap would undoubtedly bankrupt the business. It normally would be used to grow luxury goods, such as not completely mutated fruit.

The signature building in the Sixth Street includes a soilless plantation tower. Of course, because of the appearance of fruit cans, this industry was on the brink of bankruptcy.

The other kind is normal soil plantation.

Simple and straightforward, planting the seeds and watering them would yield plants. Whether it would be done by human labor with scythe spreading the seeds or mechanical plantation, it would be up to the preference of the owner. It is used to mostly produce non-expensive mutated plants, such as the industrially used Carm tree sap, and different flavors of tobacco...

The advantage of this method is the low cost, but it has a strict requirement for the quality of the soil.

Take Carm trees for example. Only plants with soil contamination less than ten can be used to grow these trees. This type of soil is also extremely rare on the wasteland, so Carm tree sap production is not high even on the Sixth Street. Previously, this raw material had minimal demand, but during this period, demand far exceeded supply."

"Couldn't we just purchase soilless equipment?" Jiang Chen was refusing to give up.

"Using soilless equipment to grow Carm trees, how much crystals would you use to obtain one ton of Carm tree sap." Sun Jiao facepalmed feeling helpless.

[This is problematic now.]

Jiang Chen's eyebrows began to twist as he fell into deep thought.

But then, he suddenly remembered Lin Lin.

[Yes! The Garden of Eden Project!

If it is possible to change the local biosphere, there is no reason there is no technology to change the condition of the soil!]

...

"Did you think of something?" Sun Jiao looked confusedly as Jiang Chen's always changing expression.

"Mhmm." The tip of Jiang Chen's mouth curled up, "Looks like the "little slave" in our mansion is finally going to be useful."

Sun Jiao instantly understood as a sign of joy also flashed across her face.

"What? Reduce soil contamination? Why should I help you?" With fingers holding onto the test tube, the smooth and silky silver hair hid the disdained expression on Lin Lin's face as she said without any consideration.

The one red and one black pupil were the same as when he left before. It seemed that she became used to having an odd creature living inside her body.

"Because you need to eat," Jiang Chen let out a sigh as he said righteously.

He was already becoming bored of looking at her humiliated expression, but this girl seemed to think otherwise?

"Do you feel great about being bullied now?" Seeing the slightly sad Lin Lin drawing on the touch board, Jiang Chen said helplessly.

With such a gorgeous face, she had to have such a terrible expression.

"Go die." With her finger finishing the last line, Lin Lin gave Jiang Chen a hard stare and popped out her tongue to give him a scary face.

"What is this?" Jiang Chen ignored her action as he got closer to the touch board."

"Ahem, foolish-" Lin Lin straightened her back while the tip of her lips curved up.

"Ahem."

"Ahh! Enough! Fine, I'll say it." Lin Lin pouted her mouth in sadness as she touched the screen. "The first step is to neutralize the soil. The second step is to use ion membranes to permeate out the heavy metal ions, the third step is..."

"Hold on, what is an ion membrane?" Jiang Chen interrupted her as he was completely lost.

"A thing that can easily filter through the ion particles should be pretty common," Lin Lin said nonchalantly.

[What. I have never heard about this before.]

Jiang Chen suddenly recalled that Lin Lin had always stayed in the research facility, for she wouldn't be so clueless about the situation of the apocalypse otherwise. In this case, the "common" in her mind probably meant common in the lab.

[Did not think this through...]

"Let me first ask, how many steps does this process include?" Jiang Chen was feeling speechless.

"Not that many, only 24 steps. I have taken a sample of the soil here before, and the contamination level is 68. It's hard to believe in a land this toxic weeds can grow." When the topic revolved around her field of interest, Lin Lin became keener.

"Does your lab not consider costs when you experiment?" Jiang Chen ridiculed."

"Costs? Of course," Lin Lin disagreed.

"Then tell me after 24 steps, what is the cost?"

Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen strangely.

"Are you misinterpreting something? <Project Garen of Eden> is not a soil purification project. Since it is a subproject of space colonization, then why do we need to understand how to treat the pollution on Earth. Using organics as well as minerals on other planets, we could produce soil. It is too troublesome to purify it. "

"Produce soil?"

"That's right. It is not difficult to produce soil. At least easier than washing the ground. But since all the "finished goods" are contaminated here, it would not be easy to find raw ingredients to form clean soil." Lin Lin let out a sigh.

Produce soil? Other planets?

Jiang Chen suddenly smacked his own head as he cursed in his mind.

[F*ck, why didn't I think of this before. It is not that difficult. I can interdimensional travel! If I can carry back food, how difficult would it be to transport a couple of hundred cubic meters of soil?]

Since the problem was solved, Jiang Chen didn't plan to ask further, so he changed the topic.

"Okay, let's not talk about this... Oh, did you finish the task I gave you?"

Chapter 176: Wormhole

Since it has been a while, the Death Claw and mutated lead skin human research should be completed?

"Of course. Who do you think I am?’ Lin Lin let out a sigh as a confident expression appeared on her face.

"Follow me." She crooked her finger at Jiang Chen as she turned around, swaying her silver white hair, and walked to the giant vial in the back.

A naked monster with its flesh exposed was in the middle of the vial. The dark green liquid occasionally had bubbles blowing upwards. It seemed like the work of a science freak in American comics. But Jiang Chen didn’t focus on that. Rather he looked at the bottom part of the monster.

Just like the rumors say, no d*ck.

Lin Lin pointed her delicate finger and pressed the touch screen on the side of the vial. Several orange lights shined into the hologram screen in front of them. The list of data on the screen had Jiang Chen completely lost.

Lin Lin, standing beside him, looked at him contemptuously in secret. She imprudently made fun of Jang Chen’s "ignorance" in her mind before speaking with her head held high.

"Muscle strength or body strength 63, bone strength 47, reflex 20, brain cell strength 9. From a human perspective, without overexerting the body's capabilities, this is the limit of the body's strength."

"Umm... Speaking of this, is this guy still considered human?" Lin Lin had her finger on her chin as she muttered to herself.

Jiang Chen glanced at her. [Is this girl still considered human?]

"The cell in the body is modified by the FEV virus. Similarly, the skin is implanted with heavy metal… The lead skin could be compared to C-type steel, and it could easily defend against standard bullets. The regeneration of the cell is ridiculously fast. Based on the data of the body's DNA, even if it lost an arm, it would be able to grow one back in a week's time. Although I never fought before, if this thing was put in the battlefield, it should be invincible right?" The pacifist Lin Lin even started to exclaim about the battle ability of this thing.

"Does it not have any weaknesses?" Jiang Chen had a troubled smile.

"Of course." Lin Lin nodded, "First because of the influence of heavy metal. Their nervous system is extremely weak. The brain cell strength is as low as 9. Also, their life is limited. Based on its DNA and regeneration calculation, their life expectancy is only 30 years. Also, if their head or heart is destroyed, they will die instantly."

It was the same as not saying anything. Which creature would still live without a brain or heart?

Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"Looks like there is no shortcut to this. To destroy this dangerous thing we would have to depend on "Tiger". Using its pure explosive power of electromagnetic cannons to blow this thing into pieces."

"Also, can I ask a question?" Lin Lin abruptly spoke out.

"Mhmm? Go ahead."

"When I first acquired the body I was utterly astonished. What did you do to destroy every single cell in the mutated human's body?" Lin Lin looked oddly at Jiang Chen as she was clueless.

[It was time travel.] But he did not dare to tell her yet.

Jiang Chen subtly looked away as he began to come up with a vague response.

"Well, I used a special weapon that instantly ended all cell activity. Speaking of this, what do those cells look like under the microscope?"

"The cell membrane broke. Based on the way it broke, it appeared to be due to extremely low temperatures that caused the fluid in the cell to freeze? It is peculiar… As if without preparation, it traveled through a wormhole with entropy infinitely approaching 0," Lin Lin doubtingly said, as she stared at Jiang Chen.

[Extremely low temperatures? But there was no temperature change during time travel.]

Jiang Chen slightly raised his eyebrows and didn’t notice Lin Lin’s look of doubt.

Seeing Jiang Chen had no reaction, Lin Lin continued.

"Passing through an area with entropy infinitely approaching 0 would have no impact on dead things, but for something alive, it would be nearly impossible for them to remain alive. But as the shortcut to intergalactic travel, passing through a wormhole is a topic that can’t be avoided, as "how to travel through wormholes" had a lot of interesting hypotheses in the physics world. Among them, Doctor Klein’s hypothesis had the most authority."

"Klein?" Jiang Chen felt that he had heard this name before.

"That’s right. To put it in a simple analogy, mass and energy through two completely parallel tunnels cross the wormhole." As she said this, Lin Lin grabbed a pen to draw a cylinder on the whiteboard. Then she drew two parallel lines, one pass through inside the cylinder, and another pass through outside the cylinder.

"As long as you send the energy at the entrance of wormhole through the tunnel into another dimension to the end of the wormhole and meet with the mass that passes through the wormhole there, it would avoid the part where entropy decreases in the wormhole."

"Detach the energy? Wouldn’t that creature die instantly?" Jiang Chen didn’t understand.

"Therefore, this is the brilliance of Doctor Klein." Lin Lin sighed. She drew t1 and t2 at the ends of the whiteboard and gave then a value to 0.

"Time. Based on research, within the wormhole, time, space, and all physic principles are ambiguous. To put it in simple terms, you could spin around a few times before walking to the exit, or you could instantly head for the exit when you enter the wormhole. As long as you find the "perfect route," you could decrease the time to pass through the wormhole to 0."

"I’ll give you an analogy. A door frame is put in front you. You have a ball in your hand that represents your temperature. Based on the rule, when the ball passes through the doorframe, I will take it away from you. So instead, the instant you're about to cross the door frame, you throw the ball up and the ball would fly above the doorframe. Then, once you go through the doorframe, you catch the ball, and successfully passed through the door with the ball."

"I see." Jiang Chen half understandingly nodded his head.

"Therefore, how did you pass through the door?"

"I don’t know. I used the bracelet…" Suddenly, Jiang Chen looked cautiously at Lin Lin and narrowed his eyes.

"You are setting me up."

"The fool wants to say it himself," the tip of Lin Lin's mouth raised in proudness as she said nonchalantly.

"You are playing with fire."

She seemed to have sensed the grimace in Jiang Chen’s tone as Lin Lin sacredly moved back. The proud expression completely vanished. "I...I am only curious. I have no other intention. Al…Also, you suddenly appeared from the tent last time. I already had an idea… After seeing so much food in the base, you must be an alien right?!"

An alien?

Jiang Chen paused for a moment before he burst out laughing.

"What, what are you laughing at," Lin Lin worked up her courage and fainted protested.

"Ahem, nothing. Since you already guessed most of it, I’ll tell you." Jiang Chen smile, "I am a time traveler from the past, from the year 2015."

Lin Lin took some time to think before she raised her pair of serene eyebrows.

"Time traveler? From the past?"

"You already said all physics principle doesn’t apply in the wormhole since it could avoid the space continuum, time continuum would not be a problem too, right?" Jiang Chen shrugged.

"Based on the theory yes. Although out of the six colonization ships, three passed through the wormhole. As to the specifics of passing through the wormhole, only they would know." Lin Lin nodded, but then looked at Jiang Chen doubtfully. "I didn’t know that this stingy devil could tell me this secret."

"What if I told you," Jiang Chen with a smile looked at the one black and one red pupil, "I don’t plan to ever let you go."

Hearing that, Lin Lin’s face instantly turned red as it was the rare time she didn’t bad mouth back, but rather shifted her eyes to the side.

Jiang Chen didn’t realize the other meaning in his words as he looked at the girl "forced to be obedient" pleasingly.

"Also, what about that Death Claw? Is the result out?"

When he mentioned the Death Claw, Lin Lin, rarely tense, turned serious.

"I found some odd things on the Death Claw."

...

After leaving from Lin Lin’s lab, Jiang Chen fell into deep thought thinking about what she just said.

Everyone knew that the starting point of the x1 virus was to purify radiation, but because it experienced uncontrollable mutation under the radiation environment, it turned into the frightening virus.

But x2’s design philosophy was rather dubious.

As the improved version of the x1 virus, x2’s purification ability was increased. But the food for thought element was that the effect of infiltrating creature’s nervous system was not removed, but rather strengthened. It also increased the structure of the cell, making it harder to be eliminated by the immune system.

As if it was designed to eliminate all humans along with the radiation.

The fortunate part was that because the cell's DNA structure was too stable, it could not split through binary fission. It could only produce through the 'mother's' body. Therefore, after Jiang Chen cleared out the source in the area, the x2 virus slowly began to vanish.

"Could it be born through x1’s own mutation? Since there is radiation everywhere…"

"Impossible," Lin Lin shook her head as she rejected Jiang Chen’s doubt with certainty. "The Death Claw evolved to have armor, simplified its molecular chain to develop claws, and these were all part of natural selection. To survive, creatures would be forced to adapt and evolve certain traits, but not put a lock on its own life. The complicated breeding mechanism has no practical meaning for survival, and it is impossible that x2 was born through evolution."

She paused, before continuing, "The only possibility is that someone created the x2 virus. But what I don’t understand is, the x1 virus data should already have been onboard with the colonization ship."

"Could it be another scientist that didn’t manage to make it onto the ship created it?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"I am not sure," Lin Lin shook her head, "But one point is certain, and that is the people who developed the x2 virus definitely have no good intentions."

Someone wanted the humans on the wasteland to become extinct.

But who could it be?

Mutated humans have enough of a reason, but a virus that the Death Claw couldn’t even handle, could they resist it?

But if it was not the mutated human, who had the motives to do this?

Suddenly, a frightening thought popped into Jiang Chen’s mind.

If wormholes could create time travel, then where did the three space colonization ships go? Did they really completely abandon this planet?

Chapter 177: Slavery

"Seatbelt check. Ready to depart." Chu Nan closed the hatch.

"Don't worry, I checked already." Jiang Chen, wearing the kinetic skeleton, pointed at his shoulder and smiled.

"This is procedure... Okay, lift off." Chu Nan opened the engine switch while signally the "apprentice" in the co-pilot position to keep an eye on the monitors on the right side.

Woohoo-!

Outside of the helicopter, high voltage static began to hum. Under the push of the furious vortex flow, the 51 helicopter began to lift off slowly.

Sitting across Jiang Chen was the gunner. The young man wearing orange protective gear felt shy with the base leader sitting across from him.

"Don't be anxious." Jiang Chen gave him a friendly smile.

"Yes!" The young man shouted out, just as he wanted to stand up to salute, he was comically pulled back by the seatbelt.

Jiang Chen laughed as he waved his hand signally there was no need. Then he focused his gaze on what was happening outside the window.

It stopped snowing, but the snow had yet to melt.

It was the first time overseeing the entirety of Wanghai City in the sky.

A frozen world. The city at dawn shone brightly. The glittering colors seemed to have fended off the gloom of the radiation dust in the air.

If it was not for the occasional zombie, as well as the unhealthy colored smog, he could almost forget that he was in the apocalypse, and was instead in a snowy city in the Northern kingdom.

"From this view, the city is quite beautiful," Jiang Chen exclaimed while looking through the window.

"The first time is indeed powerful. But if you fly every day, you'll get used to it." Chu Nan laughed.

"Yeah?" Jiang Chen smiled as he didn't disagree.

5 Tigers, one armored vehicle carrying supplies, 30 light infantry carrying Reaper assault rifle, as well as two snipers equipped with ghost sniper rifles.

The destination was Shenxiang Town. This was Fishbone Base's first attack on the mutated humans.

Jiang Chen didn't need to come but considering they needed the seven hundred captured survivors at the base. It would be best for the Fishbone leader to stand out and say something.

Also, to observe the battle from above was something he looked forward to.

"About to be in contact with radiation dust. Put on the mask," as he spoke, Chu Nan pulled the mask down over his helmet.

"Received."

Jiang Chen pressed a few buttons on the kinetic skeleton, picked up the helmet on the chair beside him, and connected the extension to the slot.

...

It snowed, but this level of coldness was as indifferent as the spring breeze to the mutated humans.

Even if they were fully exposed to the external conditions, they could still stand tall in the chilling snowstorm, ignoring the furious wind, and unleash the full firepower of the guns in their hands.

They were natural warriors. Viewing highly of themselves, they were the terminators of the old civilization.

Even if their bodies were unafraid of the cold, long winter journeys were still extremely difficult for them.

Additionally, the stronger the body, the higher the supply consumption. Since west of Zhufeng Road had been entirely blocked by the snow, it meant it was nearly impossible for vehicles to traverse across it and this fact put the already short supply line under more pressure.

There were only two options in front of the mutated humans.

One, send a team to Shenxiang Town across the Taifu river bank to establish an outpost, and then send the primary force to Wanghai City.

Two, wait till next spring to invade Wanghai City.

There was no possibility of the mutated humans and humans to reach a peaceful negotiation. Once they encountered each other, it would be a bloodbath. As for the decision to invade Wanghai City and engage in conflicts with the local human force, the mutated human leader was cautious. Different from the scattered survivors in Jia City, as the hotspot during the war, Wanghai City had multiple survivor camps that inherited frontier military technology before the war.

If they had to engage in conflict with the human force, the mutated human would rather have it happen during the winter.

If they waited for spring, the advantage of the mutated humans being able to fight in harsh climates would be non-existent. At the same time, hungry mutants would wake up from hibernation which would make the trip into city center more problematic.

Because of the above reasons, the mutated humans decided to go with plan one for now.

Although the highway between 7th area and Shenxiang Town was completely blocked by snow, the road condition from Shenxiang Town to Wanghai City was relatively smooth. As long as they establish an outpost to store supplies, the pressure of the supply line would be greatly alleviated. A winter crusade would be possible.

Therefore, the captured survivors in Shengxiang Town were not immediately escorted back, but rather were forced to construct defensive structures by the mutated humans there.

Outside Shenxiang Town, the outline of the reinforced concrete wall was starting to become visible.

The sides of the road were piled with wood chips and were placed as obstacles and barriers to block the major roads outside of the town. But when the mutated humans arrived, the flimsy barrier could not bring even the slightest sense of security to the survivors hiding behind cover. The monster wielding steel carried machine guns and the bullet storm destroyed the mental fortitude of every defender.

In the shack not far away from this place, the painted concrete wall was cut in half by the coilless cannon. On the shambles were terrifying bullet holes, and the blood stains on the wooden floor in the room were still clearly visible.

The survivors defending behind cover could not cause a single casualty to the attacking mutated humans. But when the first mutated human passed through the wooden barrier, tens of bodies were already on the ground, which forced the survivors to raise the white flag and surrender.

The recalcitrants' body was pierced by wooden spears, hung in the snow being eroded by the snowstorm, and eaten by the mutated rats. Just like a flag, declaring the cruelty of the victors.

Wang Pin, with cold eyes, stared at the frail humans as they dragged concrete and steel through the snow with difficulty, building up their outpost.

"Move quicker you damn pests. Who said you could stop, mhmm?" A horrific looking mutated human held a whip as he cursed at the slaves. His whip regularly beat at the weak figures, without any care if they actually made a mistake or not.

The frightened faces instinctively made him feel joyful.

Since he couldn't acquire pleasant sensations physiologically, the body full of male hormones could only be alleviated through primal violence.

"Luke, don't accidentally kill them. Even if they are pests, they still have value in entertaining us." Wang Pin strolled beside the supervisor as he flashed his mouth full of fangs. Looking at the boy lying in the snow, he did not hide his eyes full of disgust and disdain.

The mutated human after being "reborn" would rename themselves, abandoning the ancient ethics along with their name.

"Haha!" Luke flung the whip in his hand as he laughed. "Cowards, all eyes on me."

The people carrying bags of concrete all stopped.

Men, women, elderly, and children.

The white snow circled around them, but it could not hide their terrified looks. They could not scream, nor be anger. The chilling cold already caused their facial nerves to lose any sense of feeling. The bloodthirsty mutated humans made them forget the dignity they had.

He looked at the numb faces with satisfaction. Luke lowered his head and looked at the boy trembling in the snow. With a grimace, he lifted his foot and stepped on the youthful face.

"Ahh..."The suppressed scream came from the bottom of his foot, as the frozen fingers tightly grasped onto the ground as he crashed into the freezing snow.

The father of the boy stood on the side with his shoulders trembling. His bloodshot eyes widened at the scene.

The mutated humans on the side carried their rifles as they mockingly looked at the slaves being humiliated. The lack of entertainment meant that the thing they loved to do the most was to humiliate the helpless slaves.

FEV virus was magical. The magical part was that it would make the modified person forget any previous reluctance and experience the sensation of evolution. They would forget about their hatred towards the mutated humans and willingly join the new party, and in term shift their hatred onto the old species unwilling to accept evolution.

"No-!" A deafening scream broke the silence. A woman with messy hair leaped onto the snow as she tightly held onto the mutated human's foot while desperately trying to save the boy being stepped on.

"Mom..." The boy's eyeballs were protruding because of pressure, his mouth weakly moved.

Luke apathetically observed the woman from above. Coldly staring at the plea and despair in her eyes.

"Get out." The cold words left his mouth.

Luke lifted the foot stepping on the boy's face as he kicked her chest mercilessly and sent the woman flying.

She struggled to stand up from the snow, the edges of her mouth had blood dripping down as she coughed.

But her eyes didn't look at Luke, and instead looked at the boy freed from under his foot.

A tender smile appeared on her face as she crawled to the kid.

For some reason, the expression on the woman's face enraged Luke.

"Stop," he arrogantly ordered.

The woman ignored him as she shakingly moved her arms in the boy's direction. Seeing his mom was getting closer, the boy looked relieved.

But then, a rifle was pointed at her head.

She blankly looked at it as despair appeared on her face.

"Could, could it not be here," She used her trembling voice to plead.

The second she leaped out from the crowd, she knew her fate.

The people who dared to defy them all died, no exception.

If possible, she didn't want to die in front of her child.

Luke's face held a disdained grimace. This person wanted to discuss terms with him?

"Let her go."

A man stood out, but his legs and shoulders trembled. Luke scorned.

"I am willing to die for her." This sentence seemed to have taken all of his courage.

The woman looked at the man with eyes wide open as the sign of life began to vanish from her face.

The cracked mouth opened as a powerless voice whispered out.

"N...no-"

"Then go die." Luke immediately fired. The bullet penetrated his chest, and even hurt the elder behind him.

"Ahhh-!"

The crowd howled. The woman's scream was filled with heartbreak, and the boy's eyes opened wide as he watched his father fall into the snow.

Seeing the woman on all four scrambling to crawl to her husband, Luke's face revealed a psychotic but satisfied smile.

He lifted his gun again as he was about to execute the woman that dared to dirty his feet.

But just at that moment, Wang Pin, standing on the side, gently put his hand on the lifted rifle.

Chapter 178: The Unscientific Electromagnetic Cannon

The woman covered her husband as the body's temperature began to drop. The woman desperately tried to use her own heat to warm him, to save his fading life.

"I love you."

"No, no, I won't allow you to go." Droplets of tears rolled down the woman's cheek, splattering on the blood soaked jacket.

"Sorry..."

"I don't want your apology! I don't-!" The heartbreaking scream could not stop the body's temperature from dropping.

Luke moved his eyes away from the two as he looked confusedly at his companion. He didn't understand his intention.

"It's too boring to kill them, buddy. You haven't learned the essence of torture." Wang Pin patted his shoulder, pretending to sound wise as he cracked a smile.

"Oh?" Luke raised his eyebrows as he stuffed the gun into his lap. "Go ahead then."

Wang Pin took the gun with a grimace on his face. He ignored the woman looking at him with anger and fear, and turned to the other pigs.

"Pigs, listen up. Now, anyone who r*pes her will be given freedom."

The crowd became unsettled, but no one came up.

Luke looked as his colleague, not understanding his intention. He didn't know what was the purpose of seeing herds of humans in intercourse.

That's right, "herds". From the mutated human's perspective, humans were only livestock. Due to traces of memory being left from before their transformation, they didn't eat human flesh like cannibals. However, they would not shy away from any cruelty to obtain a sense of joy from the howling humans.

"No one? If I remember correctly, this woman, to your standard of beauty, should be quite attractive," Wang Pin continued to hold his rifle and said slowly.

"Is there any purpose in this?" Luke was still confused.

"Of course, buddy, learn from me. Other than killing, there are a lot of other ways to dig out the despair in their hearts."

Wang Pin smiled with a grimace as he licked his dry lips. He then looked at the frightened woman backing away from him.

"Lying on top of her husband's yet to be cold body, under the watch of her son, and humiliated by countless people. What kind of despair would be on such a face? The idea is making me excited. Isn't the whole purpose of the existence of civilization to blossom the glimpse of light under the torture of the primal? Hahaha!"

The cruel laughter was deafening, shaking off the snow on trees that were a few kilometers away.

Luke blankly looked at the psychotic smile on his colleague as an excited expression appeared on his face.

"Sh*t, you are a genius. Oh, devil! You must be an artist in your previous life."

"Who knows?" Wang Pin smiled as he used his gun to point at the closest man.

"You, go fu*k her."

The man gulped, gritted his teeth, and defiantly said.

"I can't do it."

Bang-!

Like a piece of paper, he fell onto the ground. The man's face still maintained a defiant expression, with a glimpse of disbelief.

"Next." Wang Pin pointed the gun at the next man, a middle-aged man holding his bleeding arm.

Trembling, the middleaged man walked a few steps, before finally kneeling onto the ground.

"I-"

Bang-!

Wang Pin didn't give him the opportunity to explain as he immediately blew up his head.

Red and white splattered everywhere and even splashed onto the person behind him.

Wang Pin raised his chin and targeted the next person.

Perhaps terrified by the horrific scene, the third person only hesitated slightly before looking down and running to the woman with trembling steps.

"Sorry, please forgive me." The man was afraid to look at the expression on the woman's face as he merciless reached for her collar.

"N...No." The woman's eyes widen in despair.

The man ignored her struggling plea. He ignored all the morals and dignity of the human civilization and pushed her down on the body that was still slowly losing its temperature.

In his mind, he was desperately trying to comfort himself. If he didn't do it, he would die. He was doing it, but it was not his intention.

Wang Pin pleasingly looked at the man's action; the joy of ripping the civilization apart was almost making him shake in excitement. Luke, standing on the side, also had his eyes wide open. He was only a mutated human for less than two years, and it was the first time he witnessed such a joyful moment other than from violence.

Wang Pin raised his gun again, pointing at the next person. Just as he was about to speak, he heard the shout of the patrol.

"What is that?!" The mutated human carrying an assault rifle pointed at the black dot in the sky.

He raised his eyebrows as Wang Pin looked up, "What is-"

Boom!

Mixed with thick smoke, the snow on the ground blew up like an avalanche as it flew over the crowd.

The shockwave flipped people onto the ground as the frightened crowd ditched the concrete and steel bags in their hands. They ran to the nearest barrier or ducked into the field.

The mutated humans didn't stop them because their situation was not any better.

"Dammit, what is it!"

Wang Pin crawled up from the ground as he looked at the thick smoke ten meters away with horrid.

The bloodthirsty pupils contracted as a rare sense of fear surfaced.

....

"Direct hit."

"Beautiful!" Jiang Chen smiled as he gave a thumbs up to the gunner.

The furious wind blew through the hatch door as the orange protective suit gusted in the chill. The gunner wearing his mask turned and nodded his head to express his gratitude towards Jiang Chen's praise. Then, without stopping, he carried another 10kg bomb and stuffed it into the cartridge as the cannon began to charge.

At this moment, Jiang Chen had a tablet in his hand. The flashing picture on the scene was of the entire battlefield. The camera located below the helicopter holistically presented the overview of the battlefield to the commander.

The green dot hidden three kilometers away from the town was Fishbone Base's light infantry. The five tigers were scattered behind buildings, only exposing the electromagnetic cannon. The vehicle was also covered with white cloth, which camouflaged the vehicle perfectly with the snow. This only left the pitch black cannon visible.

The red dot signaled were enemy units marked out by the sniper, while the gray dots were civilians.

The thick smoke rising from the ground was the truck destroyed by the helicopter cannon. The anti-air machine gun had yet to unleash its power before being blown up into metal shards.

The mutated humans who lost their air defense began to flee.

Jiang Chen observed the battlefield.

It was like playing a game.

Also worth mentioning, the command system attached to the helicopter was the masterpiece of Yao Yao.

"The purpose of civilization is to punish the primal brutality."

As if it was meant to rebuttal the clamor, Jiang Chen mustered to himself.

[Since the grim reaper has already arrived on the battlefield, then you bastards must go die.]

He coldly overwatched the fleeing figures on the screen as his finger pointed at the red dot on the screen.

Woosh-!

The trident shaped cannon began to flash a faint blue electric light, followed by a screeching homing noise.

The orange arc smashed to the ground. The noise of the bomb breaking the sound barrier almost covered the screaming Northen wind.

Chapter 179: Smite

The orange arc explosion penetrated the cloud shaped sound barrier.

Followed by the explosive homing, the cylinder shaped bomb rapidly spun, just like god smiting the sins in the world, it smashed directly into the fleeing mutated humans.

Boom!

Snow knee deep blew up into the air and mixed with shattered soft lead debris as it rained down onto the surrounding area.

Without the need for explosives and just using pure mechanical power, the 10kg bomb blew up in the enemies' base.

Soft lead made bombs allowed the bomb to break into thumb sized pieces and scatter under the heavy air pressure. This instantly blew the mutated humans nearby away like paper. The concrete wall nearby completely collapsed. The debris ten meters away even left bowl sized holes on the wall.

"F*ck, what is that damn thing!" Wang Pin struggled to stand up from the snow. He lifted his blood filled face and frightenedly stared at the black dot in the sky.

Luke was already dead. He saw the head meters away from the body. The poor guy had his neck blow off by debris as his entire head was severed from his body.

"It's a helicopter! Dammit, why would Liuding Town's people be here?!" The mutated human hiding behind the barrier raised his binoculars as he said with a trembling voice.

Liuding Town?!

When he heard the word, Wang Pin instant felt a chill overwhelm his body. His limbs felt cold. Without hesitation, he got up and ran for his life to the concrete-made barrier.

Based on rumors, on the wasteland near Wanghai City, only humans on the aircraft carrier inherited flight units before the war.

But why would they show up here while they were located hundreds of kilometers away?

Boom!

The deafening blast ended his thought as the snow and debris covered him.

The bomb didn't just come from the sky. It also came from the horizon.

As if it was an agreement, five arcs smashed into the mutated human base like iron fists. The half completed reinforced concrete wall was instantly shattered into pieces. As the pieces of concrete flew backward, the mutated humans taking cover behind it all dropped to the ground. The ones yet to be killed crawled into the town.

Although the electromagnetic cannon used 5kg bombs, it was not inferior compared to the strike from the dome.

"God, please stop!" Crawling into the corner of a room and covering his head, a mutated human roared with a whimpering voice. The rifle along with his arrogance were all thrown into the snow.

"D*mmit, where is the anti-air cannon! We-"

Under the far fire range, the mutated human's machine guns were like toys. The only purpose of their shouting was to unleash the fear in their hearts. The occasion bomb that flew to Fishbone base's side smashed into the building used as cover without any accuracy.

However, on the Fishbone Base side, with the guidance of snipers as well as aerial coverage, the five tiger fired simultaneously and accurately, eliminating the mutated human's firepower and shattering their morale.

"Someone seems to be using rifles to shoot at us." Jiang Chen looked at the screen and smiled. His finger lightly drew on the screen as he circled a few red dots.

Debris flew up as the red dots were blown up to pieces by the bombs.

"Only that anti-air machine gun is a bit threatening. Even if the assault rifle bullets could hit this far, the airflow would make it lose its accuracy." Chu Nan laughed, initiated automatic hovering, and moved his hands away from the controls.

"Oh?" Jiang Chen answered absentmindedly, his eyes were focused on the red dots on the screen. He then pressed his finger on the guy covering his head and ducking into the snow.

Although those monstrous humans did not deserve mercy, the apathetic feeling of killing people through a screen still shocked him.

Oh right, correction. They were not human.

"Speaking of something else, how's that wife of yours?" Jiang Chen dragged his finger on the green dots and pointed on the location of the road. After receiving the command, 20 something light infantries began to move to the target location. He then pointed a few more times on the screen, and the other 20 light infantries crossed the barriers, pushing forward to the target area through the front.

"Not bad," Chu Nan answered concisely as he didn't seem to want to continue on the topic.

"Oh..." Even if he accepted, his heart must not feel so great.

Jiang Chen didn't ask further.

Over half of the mutated humans stationed in Shenxiang Town were eliminated. The remaining ones were under the heavy fire suppression of the electromagnetic cannon. The steel plate in front of their chests could block bullets, but when the bullets changed to electromagnetic cannons, it was as good as paper.

While maintaining fire suppression, the two squads of light infantry quickly captured the mutated humans hiding in the barriers. As to the mutated human still reluctant to give up, merciless canons awaited them.

Beep!

A screeching alarm began to sound.

"What's that noise?" Jiang Chen frowned.

"What else could it be. RPG "Flying Sword" anti-air missile. The mutated humans probably dug it up from a PAC armory," Chu Nan said casually as he simultaneously pressed a button beside the control panel.

Click.

Within the vision of the tablet, a few flashing sparks began to fall. The approaching anti-air missile directly hit one of the rubbles and scathed by the helicopter.

"Electromagnetic lure. These things that chase after high-frequency electronic devices are easy to deal with. The anti air machine gun is more reliable." Chu Nan laughed contemptuously as he put his hands behind his head and sank further into the chair.

...

Jiang Chen pointed his finger at the guy reloading the RPG, but Jiang Chen didn't use electromagnetic cannons this time. Instead, he commanded the infantry to attack him.

He was very interested in the anti-air missile.

If he could seize it, why would he destroy it?

...

Cheng Weiguo leaned tightly against the cover as he checked the coordinates on the EP. Then he signaled the team on the other side to throw a smoke bomb as they quickly pushed further into the town.

An unfair battle.

With the firepower advantage, the mutated human's muscles and their strength in numbers were not worth mentioning.

They already crossed their defensive structure. At this point, his force still maintained zero casualties.

Pointing the rifle out of cover, Cheng Weiguo aimed at the mutated human, with half of his body exposed carrying the RPG, and pulled the trigger.

Tata-!

The bullets instantly forced the mutated human to take cover and shredded more of the already in shambles concrete wall into pieces.

The soldiers on the other wing quickly rushed in, just like how they were trained in exercise.

The gunshots afar began to disappear. The force attacking from the side already controlled the south area of the town. The battle in the east should also be over.

Cheng Weiguo tugged at the thick scarf around his neck. His beard covered with ice shards, he breathed out a few white puffs.

"Team A attack the town center and control the warehouse. Team B follow the boundary to clear out the area. Team C take control of the captives. Move!"

"Yes, Sir!" The synched roar echoed within the communication channel.

Cheng Weiguo put the rifle on his arm, looked up at the black dot in the sky, and he saluted.

But at this time, the snow beside him suddenly moved as he immediately pointed the gun at the pile.

He maintained shooting position as he slowly moved to cover, using his feet to remove the snow.

It was a face.

The boy feebly looked at him with a bruise printed on his face.

Seeing this, Cheng Weiguo quickly kneeled down, used the handle of the gun to sweep the snow off of him, and dragged him out from the snow.

"Sa...Save my mom..."

Looking at the boy's face, the feeling of yet to extinct justice made him feel enraged.

"Where is she?" He held onto the boy's hand and said firmly.

"There..." The boy faintly pointed at the pile of snow on the side.

Cheng Weiguo put him on a concrete bag as he carried the gun and traversed through the snow to the pile.

He dug through the snow and found a man. He was slightly shocked, but soon saw the woman below the man.

The woman's body was exposed, her hair messy. Her breathing was faint as if she could lose her life at any second.

The man on top of her already lost his breath. The soft lead debris penetrated his body. The shattered glasses was covered in blood.

At the moment, Cheng Weiguo didn't understand the relationship between them, especially when he saw that there was another man under her.

Regardless, saving her life was more important.

He dragged the already dead man out of the snow. Cheng Weiguo then helped the sandwiched woman up.

"It's all over. Your son is beside you."

But in an instant, the woman's eyes became widened as she stared at something behind him.

Suddenly alerted, Cheng Weiguo hugged the woman and rolled onto the ground.

Dong-!

A steel beam pierced the location he previous stood in as it deeply penetrated into the concrete bag.

The blood covered Wang Pin stared at Cheng Weiguo in rage as he leaped towards him roaring.

Without hesitation, he raised his gun, and the rifle unleashed its power on the mutated human's chest as blood began to splatter. But the mutated human did not back down as he took the bullets and pushed Cheng Weiguo onto the ground.

"Roar-!" The mutated human clenched onto the reaper assault rifle, attempting to take it from Cheng Weiguo's hands.

Cheng Weiguo tightly clenched his teeth, his face entirely red. Obviously, he was no match for the mutated human's strength as the gun began to move in the mutated human's direction.

Seeing he could not outmatch the mutated human's strength, he immediately let go.

Because of the sudden jerk, Wang Pin's body immediately tilted up with the rifle, Grasping onto the opportunity, Cheng Weiguo swiftly grabbed the dagger on his leg and swung it at Wang Pin's throat.

The dagger flashed through as blood began to splash all over the ground.

Wang Pin dropped the rifle onto the ground as he covered his throat, pouring out blood. His mouth was open, but he couldn't say a word. He could only use the blood and his widened eyes to show his disbelief and bitterness.

Grabbing the rifle on the ground, Cheng Weiguo, without hesitation, pressed the gun to his forehead and pulled the trigger.

There was more blood.

Wang Pin's shoulder loosened as he fell backward, deep into the thick snow.

At the same time, the woman's shoulder began to loosen up too.

[Alive...]

Kneeled on the ground, she leaned her face against the snow pile beside her. She couldn't feel the coldness on her face anymore...

_Min_ _Min_

One more tonight

Chapter 180: Colony

The battle ended swiftly, completely in contrast with the stalemate they were in when they encountered the mutated humans last time.

The 30 infantries, who entered the town, did not suffer any casualties, and only one unlucky guy was shot in the leg by a recalcitrant mutated human. The bullet happened to pass through his artery. Although the blood gushing out was quite frightening, the combat medic was quick to rescue, and the man was no longer in a life-threatening condition.

A total of 35 mutated humans were killed including 29 who died from electromagnetic pulse cannon and six of which died from of assault rifle and sniper attacks. Five were captured, and although mutated humans would rarely take the humiliation of being captured by a human lying down, under that overwhelming firepower, instinctive fear prevailed over the ridiculous pride.

A total of 721 human captives were rescued. If the bodies outside the town were all dead, the population of the town should be 779 before the mutated humans came.

There were bullet holes the size of a bowl throughout the exterior buildings outside of the town, and collapsed concrete buildings could be seen everywhere. Half of which were destroyed by the mutated humans.

The Fishbone Base infantry maintained the order of the queue as they recorded all the rescued townspeople and then provide them with the nutrient supply that originally belonged to them.

The five Tigers didn't drive into the city but stopped at the bridgehead of Zhufeng highway. A few soldiers were carrying concrete bags to build five crude bunkers.

This move was very intriguing.

All the Shenxiang townspeople had one thought hovering in their mind: do these people want to stay here?

They had a sense of foreboding.

...

Type-51 helicopter landed about a half kilometer away from the town in an open space. Jiang Chen, clad in kinetic skeletons, jumped down from the top. Cheng Weiguo, along with the mayor of the town, greeted Jiang Chen and saluted after seeing him.

"Did you finish the census?" Jiang Chen cut to the chase.

"It's done." Cheng Weiguo handed a tablet to Jiang Chen for him to check.

Jiang Chen swiped the screen while he perused the statistics.

Population: 721, captive mutated humans: 5.

Seized: 24 machine guns, 72 various models of rifles, 100 thousand rounds of bullets, 1 shoulder-launched missile, 5 surface-to-air missiles, 5 recoilless cannons, and 40 rounds of ammunition. And there were 40 sets of C-type steel armors, though most of them were destroyed in the explosion.

Looking at these batches of firearms, Jiang Chen was secretly stunned.

Oh boy, these firearms reserves could catch up with the entire assets of the Fishbone Base!

It could be seen that these mutated humans invested a lot in this outpost, but now all of these belonged to Jiang Chen.

These firearms would remain here, but he ordered the armors to be shipped back. Although these lumps of irons were of little value to humans, nevertheless it's still pretty good to reforge them. Fishbone Base could use more C-type steels. With about ten tons of steel, however, modifying them into two armored vehicles wouldn't be a problem.

In addition, there were also hundreds of preserved mutants cadavers which appeared to be the food of mutated humans, since only they could eat something this toxic. However, so as not to waste anything, Jiang Chen still ordered Cheng Weiguo to throw these into the organic extractor to produce some nutrient supplies. With the ratio of one mutant to 100 nutrient supplies, it could easily extract 10,000 nutrient supplies.

Including the 30,000 in the storage, he temporarily did not have to worry about the rations of more than 700 people.

What excited him most was the construction materials that he seized. The mutated humans left a huge amount of cement and steels in the warehouse which were originally used to build an outpost, but right now, they were in his hands.

With these batches of prefabricated construction materials, Jiang Chen could easily stretch out reinforced concrete defensive line along the shore.

He returned the tablet to Cheng Weiguo, said a few words, and the latter received the order at once and left.

Then Jiang Chen finally turned to look at the mayor, who had been standing there and smiled amiably at him.

Seeing that Jiang Chen was looking at him, the mayor quickly bowed, "The honorable Fishbone Base leader, Mr. Jiang Chen, on behalf of all the survivors in Shenxiang town, I would like to express our utmost gratitude and sincerity to you."

"Don't worry about it...Do tell, what's your name?"

"Deng Bin."

"Okay, Mr. Deng Bin, I want to go to the town hall now. Do you have time to take me there?"

"My pleasure." Deng Bin bowed again.

To be honest, as the mayor, their "savior's" behavior after eliminating the mutated humans made him very uneasy. At the moment, however, they were wielding guns, and the entire military power of the town was wiped out after the onslaught of mutated humans. Not possessing confidence nor knowing what to say, he could only meekly follow Jiang Chen on the side.

With hands in his pocket, Jiang Chen looked at the surrounding buildings while walking on the road leading to the town hall.

The reek of blood lingered in the nose and did not fade away even after a long time.

Along the way, he didn't say anything which actually made Deng Bin somewhat uncertain.

After hesitating for a moment, Deng Bin looked at Jiang Chen and asked tentatively, "In just three days, they already slaughtered more than 60 of us. Truly grateful to you—us survivors from Qingpu. If there is anything we can help you with, we'll do our absolute best."

"I've already said not to worry about it," Jiang Chen, however, didn't directly answer. Instead, he only responded in a brief sentence before no longer speaking.

While Deng Bin's heart was still apprehensive, the two had arrived in front of the town hall.

To his surprise, the leader of the mysterious organization didn't seem to have the intention to go in; rather, he just stood in front of the town hall.

Did it deserve to be called a government building? It was aesthetically built, and based on the damage, it could be considered the only intact building in the entire town.

"Say, was there a person called Lin Chaoen who came to your place before?"

Deng Bin was a bit stunned for a moment, as he didn't expect Jiang Chen would suddenly ask this irrelevant question.

Frowning, he tried to recall carefully and answered, "There seems to be someone like that...he came from Jia City."

"Did he not say anything to you? Like how the mutated humans would be here?" Jiang Chen asked casually.

Looking blankly at Jiang Chen, Deng Binyao shook his head and said, "No, he only stayed in our town for a night before leaving hastily."

Hadn't said anything?

[That's extremely odd. If they desperately wanted to prevent the mutated humans from invading Wanghai City, there is no reason not to alert the people here, so that they can make early preparations. Or at the very least, build some defensive structures.]

Jiang Chen slightly knitted his brows as he carefully scrutinized Deng Bin's eyes.

[It doesn't seem like he's pretending at all.]

"How did you remember him...what I mean is, is there anything special about him that made you take a closer look at him?"

"Hehe, there was one. Because the people passing through Zhufeng highway were usually lone travelers from Jia Cty, they come here to dig a few components or microchips from military equipment. These things would sell well anywhere in the mainland. The worst-case scenario is that they would go to Liuding town to buy a few boxes of canned fish to sell when they returned, and then the price could at least double. However, only Lin Chaoen came back empty-handed."

"Has he only been here once?"

"Yes, he seemed to have taken another route when he went to Wanghai City."

Nodding thoughtfully, Jiang Chen became lost in thought.

Deng Bin, standing on the side, was trying to figure out the expression on Jiang Chen's face but couldn't manage to read the slightest useful information. He couldn't understand why Jiang Chen would suddenly ask about the lone travelers. Was there any deeper meaning in this?

While he was speculating, Jiang Chen spoke again, but this time it was to ask a different question.

"Let's talk about something else. What do you do to earn a living?"

More than 700 people were not a small number. It's not the city center, so there were not enough zombies to provide organic matter that could be used to extract nutrient supply. Although there were quite a number of mutants here, they were usually powerful. If they ever hunted mutants, they didn't exactly look like a well-equipped group of survivors.

"We planted some crops on the farms outside the town to extract nutrient supplies," Deng Bin looked at Jiang Chen in the eyes and said cautiously.

The fruit of the mutant plants could not be eaten, but it could be used as an excellent raw material for the extraction of nutrient supplies. Many survivors in Qingpu would also plant such crops on the roof and go to the Sixth Street to exchange for crystals or nutrient supplies.

"Oh? What is the degree of soil contamination here? What about the radiation?"

Seeing that Jiang Chen seem to be showing no interest in the nutrient supply in the warehouse, Deng Bin felt slightly relieved and muttered, "It seems to be 9...and 20."

With regards to this, he didn't have to lie about it. The two numbers were easy to measure. The radiation value could be measured by EP, and the soil contamination would only require to take a sample and then to drop two drops of reagent.

"9? Very good!" Jiang Chen suddenly laughed and then reached out and patted Deng Bin on the shoulder, "From this day onwards, you'll be in charge of the farm."

Deng Bin paused while looking completely dumbfounded. He couldn't understand the meaning behind his words.

"Farm? Me?"

Jiang Chen smiled, looked at him and said, "That's right, who else would it be?"

Swallowing his saliva, Deng Bin was still bewildered and asked, "If you want those mutated fruits, we are willing to pay tribute to you—"

Those things were not worth money at all, and not to mention the price of organic matter was declining. Even with the price two months ago, one ton of fruit could only extract 100 nutrient supplies which could be exchanged for ten crystals. The reaper rifle alone in their hands was worth 20. Thus, they didn't need to care about this small profit.

Jiang Chen raised his hand to interrupt him.

"You misunderstood me, we don't care about those rotten fruits that you planted."

It was the truth, Fishbone Base didn't need nutrient supply.

"Then you mean—"

"Am I still not direct enough? Former mayor, I need you to take care of my farm for me." There were two words Jiang Chen emphasized and they were "former mayor" and "my".

Upon hearing this, Deng Bin's face instantly paled, his eyes widened, "You, you want to occupy our homes, you can't do—"

"But we can, the mutated humans are going to cross this river, and I will prevent that from happening, and so we're here."

"But all of them are dead now..." Deng Bin had difficulty speaking.

Jiang Chen looked strangely at Deng Bin, he smiled and said: "Are we having a misunderstanding here? You think we are here on a special trip to rescue you? I am sorry to tell you, but we are only fighting against the mutated humans. And this place is only the outpost I captured from them. Moreover, in accordance with the rules of the wasteland, since I saved you, you are all my captives."

Deng Bin's lips trembled and couldn't utter a single word. His previous thought was they were saved, but in the end, it was just a change of ownership.

Seeing that he had no reaction, Jiang Chen could also not care any less.

"They will be back. Furthermore, there would be more of them, but I will defend here."

Stamping his foot, he pointed towards the ground beneath his foot.

"And from now on, this is my colony."

Chapter 181: As firm as the pyramid

The next morning, Fishbone's flag was raised at the town hall of Shenxiang Town, proclaiming that it had officially become part of the territory of Fishbone Base.

Under the supervision of 20 riflemen, more than 200 survivors carrying cement bags and steel bars arrived at Taipu River. They would be under the leadership of 20 engineers that Fishbone dispatched to establish defense facilities on the riverside.

Although they were still being forced to engage in manual labor, Jiang Chen's treatment of them was far better than the mutated humans. Not only did he distribute winter clothes bought from the Sixth Street, but he also didn't use whip in order to force them to work harder. As long as they were not slacking off, they would not be punished for failing to finish the project on time.

During his encounter with Shenxiang Town, Jiang Chen used a completely different strategy compared to winning over the group of survivors in Qingpu area.

As a result of being situated outside of the city where the population density was extremely low, the zombies in town were obliterated. After more than ten years of hard work, the town was finally cleared of zombies. It can be said that they lived in comfort these past years compared to those struggling survivors in the metropolis. Thus, their combat ability was also much weaker, and the difficulty of enlisting them was also naturally lesser.

For instance, the survivors in Shenxiang town were all hoes-wielding farmers, while the survivors of Qingpu were gun-wielding hunters. For the nomadic "hunters", Jiang Chen adopted a strategy of trading, enticing, and then assimilating. For these "farmers", however, he adopted a straightforward approach in assimilating them in his military force.

All the survivors implanted with slavery microchips were directly promoted to the management position, and the construction of infrastructure was handed over to more than 700 newly joined members. So far, this was how the pyramid's governing structure was established. Jiang Chen merely needed to keep a firm grip on the people on the top layer of the pyramid, and there would naturally be people under him who would take charge on his behalf for the matters in the bottom layer.

In order to supervise the construction of the defensive structure, Lu Huasheng personally took along a team to take over the construction.

The 200 survivors were split into 20 team, with each team being led by one engineer dispatched from Fishbone Base as they worked round the clock to construct the defensive structure.

On the other side, on Shenxiang Town's eastern part of the wilderness, more than 200 survivors were struggling to develop the barren land.

Here, one had to admire Jiang Chen's foresight to feed the survivors in his own base with "green food". Regardless whether or not it was done out of consideration, it was only now it was showing its merit. If someone consumed this type of thick nutrient supply, one would urinate more frequently, but it would definitely be a long time before one would feel the need to defecate.

The survivors, who were busy clearing out the barren lands, were stunned when they saw a vehicle full of dried manure being pulled into the hill on the side of the farm.

The mutated crops consumed a high amount of nutrients from the soil, and the fertilizer made out of mutants or zombies would increase the contamination of the soil (toxicity). Thus, they would naturally consider human waste as an option. They usually had to purchase industrial fertilizer from Sixth Street to supplement the fertility of the soil.

How valuable was this waste?

At first, Jiang Chen hadn't given it much thought but instead felt the impact of this on health was quite significant. It was not until the survivors of Qingpu offered a contract to clean their base that he began to notice the problem.

In this wasteland, human waste seemed to be extremely valuable too?

Wanghai City was located in the plains, where mineral deposits were extremely scarce in the surrounding area. Although nitrogen could be obtained through artificial nitrogen fixation technology and potassium could also be extracted from seawater, phosphorus scarcity was much harder to resolve. The cost of extracting phosphorus from a mutant organism or plant was not exactly low, and the main cost of producing fertilizer in the Sixth Street was higher than this phosphorus.

Excrement, however, was quite easy to handle. Its nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents were very rich and only needed to be mixed into the soil and then sprinkle the seeds.

Under Jiang Chen's direction, the farm's plot expanded from hundred acres to thousands of acres. If all of it was used to grow Carm tree, it was estimated that it could provide 100 tons of Carm resin per month. In this case, not only would it meet the industrial needs of Fishbone Base, it could also be exported to the Sixth Street. Based on the prevailing price of 150 crystals per ton, the farm would bring Fishbone Base a revenue of 10,000 crystals per month.

As for the ration of more than 700 people, provided there were 30 days in a month, two nutrient supplies per day, and if one dose of nutrient cost 0.1 crystal, it would only amount to more than 4,000 crystals.

As for those "expensive" provisions, after taking Sun Jiao's advice into consideration, Jiang Chen decided not supply them to the newly joined survivors for the time being. As for the reason, it was not because he was stingy, but rather it was to reinforce social class structure.

Unlike those survivors that were already implanted with microchips and sold themselves to Jiang Chen, if these precious rations were given too casually, it wouldn't make these "foreigners" feel grateful. On the contrary, it's likely that they would come to feel that it was too easy, and this might even give birth to disloyalty.

When all was said and done, this was the first time they assimilated more than 700 foreign population which was practically more than three times the population of Fishbone Base, and these 700 people also belonged to the same group. If you just want to enslave them to do manual labor, one just needed to fetter their hands and feet with fetters and handcuffs. However, if you want to "digest" them, you must split them apart first.

The specifics of implementation were also quite simple.

700 people, first split them into two; first half would remain here, while the rest would be brought back to the Fishbone Base. Those who were brought back would join the factory to engage in manufacturing or enter the new military camp to receive training.

At the same time, Jiang Chen announced that every one of them was a slave, and only two nutrients mixtures could be obtained every day.

But if someone performed outstandingly in their work, his identity would be upgraded to that of a low-class citizen, and daily ration would be upgraded to two nutrient mixtures, plus a piece of bread.

If you work harder and got upgraded to a middle-class citizen, the ration would turn into two nutrient mixtures, in addition to a pack of instant noodles.

If they became a high-class citizen, they would be able to enjoy unlimited rations just like those people implanted with microchips and would be allowed to participate in the "communal feeding" in the dining hall. Apart from not being able to join management position, they also enjoyed civil rights that were no different from those who were implanted with chips.

Once a disparity in status appeared in their small social circle, they would automatically split apart. Those who got promoted would protect their own interests and naturally stand on Jiang Chen's side in order to strive further for a higher promotion.

If they had the opportunity to climb up, most people would still choose to be content with what they have.

In addition to this, in order to distinguish ranks, all survivors implanted with chips would be conferred with a "Knight Emblem" as a means to encourage their contribution to the construction of Fishbone Base. Moreover, the "slavery chip" was officially renamed to "honorary chip". Despite being the same thing and only the name had changed, Jiang Chen could clearly sense the distinctive difference in the posture of those survivors who got promoted to knights after he promulgated his decision.

.....

The sense of honor, if used correctly, would be much more useful than those chips.

Of course, only under the premise that everyone could fill their belly would someone be able to pursue that illusory honor.

_Min_ _Min_

One more tonight

Chapter 182: Birthday

As for those emblems, those were "copy military goods" that Jiang Chen ordered from wholesale online shopping back from the modern world. The gold-plated appearance looked delicate, workmanship was also fine, and other than the lack of necessary certificates, it was no different than the real ones.

Regardless whether it was male or female, both could be honored.

On these more than 200 knights, Jiang Chen spent three days of effort to complete the "knighting" process.

If high-class citizens wanted to become part of the knight society and enter management, they must have an even more outstanding contribution. For example, meritorious military service or a breakthrough in the technological field, and so on.

After going through a busy schedule, the might of pyramid was at long last completed.

The production and life in the base returned to the right track, and after the introduction of fresh blood, there was more liveliness in the base.

...

Ten days had passed and the colony became stable.

Jiang Chen sent Zhao Gang to be in charge of the colony's defense and moved Cheng Weiguo back to handle the training of the new recruits. The five Tigers and 30 riflemen were left there, and -51 served as a gunship and was transported back.

In the same way, Jiang Chen transferred more than 100 newly produced units of hummingbird drones. He also sent some technicians to establish a relay station to control the drones in the local area. These kinds of low-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have a surprisingly effective scouting and attacking ability. With this batch of drones, it undoubtedly alleviated Fishbone Base's issue of insufficient strength significantly.

The production line of the kinetic skeleton under the leadership of Jiang Lin was also completed. For this, Jiang Chen specifically ordered the construction team to build a factory in the newly developed area that could accommodate hundreds of people. Based on Jiang Lin's estimate, provided that there were sufficient raw materials to go around, 30 kinetic skeletons monthly production could reach 30 units.

After handling everything properly, Jiang Chen suddenly found himself free.

You couldn't help but praise the talent of the Fishbone Base, which practically comprised of almost every trade in the industry. There were some things that he only needed to set the general direction, and his subordinates would already think of the execution plan for him.

"By the way, is it almost Yao Yao's birthday?"

While they were eating, Jiang Chen suddenly asked aloud.

He remembered Yao Yao had told him last time that her birthday was in November. It's already mid-November, and he got so busy in the past that he almost forgot.

"Eh? Uh..." Yao Yao face instantly turned red. She lowered her head, feeling shy, and said coyly, "Umm, its...it's not a big deal. If big brother is too busy, then it's okay if we put it off for a while."

"That's not okay, there is no meaning if the birthday is not on that day!" Jiang Chen said without hesitation as he took a huge bite out of the roasted golden chicken leg.

"Eh? O-okay. It's on November 16, hehe..." Yao Yao charmingly smiled while staring blankly at the bowl of egg soup in her bowl, gently poking the soft pudding with her spoon unconsciously.

November 16, so it's the day after tomorrow?

"What present does Yao Yao want?" Jiang Chen rubbed Yao Yao's head as he smiled.

Hearing about the present, Lin Lin, who was sitting across Jiang Chen, perked her ears and immediately shifted her attention away from her bowl of food, and raised her hand to interrupt.

"For your information, my birthday is on May 27, and I want a Hadron Collider—"

"In your dreams." Jiang Chen glared at her.

"Woo—" Lin Lin puffed her cheeks as though throwing a tantrum, the pale and gorgeous face was bloated to a dark, red color.

But contrary to Jiang Chen's expectation, she held her tongue this time.

[She finally remembers how to act when freeloading?] Jiang Chen ridiculed in his mind.

"Hmm, you have a birthday, that's wonderful." A rare sight where Sun Jiao, who never spoke during meals, looked up, her mouth was drawn into a grimace while looking outside.

This feminine appearance was not typical of this bold girl that Jiang Chen couldn't help but give her a few more looks.

"Eh? Sister Sun Jiao doesn't know your own birthday?" Yao Yao looked at Sun Jiao with a hint of sympathy.

From Yao Yao's perspective, your birthday should be the happiest day of the year. Before the war, whenever it was her birthday, mother and father would treat her like a princess, and took her to eat lots of yummy food...

Thinking of her parents, Yao Yao's eyes could not help but flash a touch of sadness. But when she saw "Big Brother" sitting beside her, a gentle and pure love appeared in her eyes, her tiny hand softly covered the hand on top of her head.

"Who would remember that kind of thing?" Muttering, Sun Jiao pursed his lips and stared at the hand on top of Yao Yao's head with jealousy.

But she didn’t say anything. Compared to her initial possessiveness, she was starting to learn how to share.

This decision was not due to her magnanimity but because when the last time that Jiang Chen came back, she faintly read a trace of fatigue from his eyes.

When she tried putting herself in his shoes—if she could live in a peaceful environment and become a wealthy girl in a mansion, would she want to come back the world full of chaos?

She had already thought of sharing him with Yao Yao for quite some time, but she had not been able to put the idea into motion.

Perhaps it was time to push this little girl a bit?

With both hands against her chin, she mischievously looked at Lin Lin, who was sitting next to her.

To be fair, this girl was also gorgeous. Though she was but a digitalized human, but as a sex robot…

As though seemingly aware of Sun Jiao's gaze, Lin Lin blankly raised her head, but when she made eye contact with her, she involuntarily shuddered.

This female devil must be thinking of something evil!

Lin Lin quickly came to a conclusion, as she subconsciously went into "self-protection" mode, fiercely glaring at Sun Jiao. Her threatening look appeared to be saying: Stop looking at me!

However, using deterrent skills against Miss Sun Jiao was undoubtedly a foolish choice, as Sun Jiao just raised her brows and bluntly stared back.

The arrogant eyes seemed to say: I'm looking at you, so what are you going to do?

Like a startled rabbit, Lin Lin quickly lowered her head as she pouted, feeling wronged.

"Um, I won’t celebrate my birthday either. If it's just me, it would feel too devious…" After listening to Sun Jiao, Yao Yao sensibly spoke in a quiet voice.

Sun Jiao was stunned, a gentle smile appeared on her face, "It’s okay, you helped this bad guy so much, it’s time for him to treat you. Don’t worry about it. If he dared to bully you, sister will step up for you!"

With that, Sun Jiao even threateningly waved her lovely, little fist.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but laugh.

What else could make men more excited than a harmonious "harem"?

Although this harem's current size was only one and a half…

"Any, any request?" Yao Yao flushed as she asked faintly.

"Mhmm," Jiang Chen nodded earnestly, rubbing her fluffy hair, "As long as it's something within my means, I'll do it."

"Um….woo, I’ll keep it a secret for now." Yao Yao said shyly, her head was lowered, feeling conflicted.

[Which person can keep the gift she receives confidential?]

Jiang Chen's face showed a dumbfounded expression.

"Uh, you should at least give me some time to prepare, it would be too late on the day of your birthday."

"Prepare…right," Yao Yao gently bite her lip as she looked up courageously. With eyes filled with anticipation, she looked at Jiang Chen, "Can, can you lend me a day?"

"Lend? If there is something you really want, why don't I just give it to you?" Jiang Chen asked uncertainly.

"Umm, although this is a very tempting proposal, sister Sun Jiao would definitely be unhappy, so I’ll just borrow you for a day…" She stole a glance at Sun Jiao as Yao Yao said softly.

"What, am I such a stingy person?" Sun Jiao said with dissatisfaction.

"No, that’s not what it is, it's just that—" Yao Yao anxiously waved her hands, and then lowered her head shyly, "I want to borrow…um! In short, just accompany me for a day, is that okay?"

[Is that it?] Jiang Chen couldn't help but facepalm.

"Of course. That's it?"

"It's an entire day! You're not busy, right?" Yao Yao asked quietly.

"An entire day? Does that include the night?" Sun Jiao was stunned.

"Ahem—" Lin Lin suddenly choked on her food. She quickly covered her mouth and reached for the bowl of soup.

Yao Yao’s face flushed like her blood was about to drip out. Oddly, she didn’t rush to offer an explanation, she stared at her knees instead, swinging her pair of smooth and white porcelain-like legs.

Jiang Chen was also stunned, he awkwardly scratched his cheek.

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere on the dining table suddenly became "tense".

"Ahem, I think, considering your age, some things are just too exciting for Yao Yao, so I think the night should be left to me." Sun Jiao carefully shifted her gaze.

"I, I am not young anymore." It was rather rare for Yao Yao not to retreat, but she mustered her courage and retorted, "I'm already three years over 30!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Jiao couldn't help but feel shame. She was definitely not backing down just because she exposed her age.

"But you spent more than 20 years in the hibernation chamber, right?" Lin Lin chipped in. "Moreover, if the inhibitor was used before adulthood, you would need another ten more years for you to grow to the maturity 18 years old."

"Ten years!" Yao Yao was like a squirrel that had been frightened, but she was still not ready to give up, "But from any perspective, I am already mature."

But the legs dangling on the chair didn't make for convincing argument at all.

"Oh? In what way?" Lin Lin persisted, clearly not letting it go.

As though abandoning all her humiliation, Yao Yao with two red cheeks, closed her eyes.

"I, I already have my period!" she bellowed.

The room turned eerily silent for a moment.

As though the two consecutive verbal sparring had sapped all her energy away, the small loli wobbly sank into her chair.

"Uh, we should discuss the cake." Sun Jiao held her laughter as she averted her gaze.

"Yes, indeed, the cake is more important." Jiang Chen was speechless.

"I second that." Lin Lin raised her spoon as an agreement.

Chapter 183: The Seventh Area

The snow was ferocious.

The concrete walls in the ruins were covered by a layer of ice and the dangling steel beams were frozen into crystalline rods.

Below, ragged figures strolled. There was an unhealthy color on their faces, and their expressions were frozen numb. The heavy loads on their backs crushed their spine and knees.

The person standing on the side was evidently the mutated human supervisor.

For slaves of mutated human, the only escape was to be picked at around 30 years of age through pure luck. From there, finish the breeding mission, immerse in the growth vial, and to be "reborn."

As for the people who were not so lucky, their fate was usually tragic…

Since the growth vial and growth solution were limited, not everyone had rights to become a mutated human. Mutated humans also needed to maintain a population of slaves in order to complete the dreadful tasks that none of them wanted to do and at the same time, the mutated humans needed a source of entertainment.

Standing at the door of the encampment, Troy grimly watched the frail figures as he turned around to look at the human beside him.

That’s right. Beside him, a human stood!

Any survivor in Wanghai city who happens to witness this scene would drop their jaws. Based on common sense, there was no possibility of negotiation between a mutated human and a human, let alone for them to stand side by side.

This person wore a fur coat and the red ring on his finger was quite distinctive. Anyone with the right knowledge would shockingly discover that the white fur on his collar belonged to the mane of the Bloodthirsty Lion.

As the king of dangerous creatures, Bloodthirsty Lions could combat five Death Claws simultaneously. Their sharp teeth were like blades that could easily rip through power armors. But they were rare in the Eastern area as they usually inhabit in the far northwestern plain. Because of their ferocity, they were rarely hunted. Hence, the unique mane gained popularity among collectors.

As for the red ring, it was even more incredible.

It was a blood crystal.

Usually, mutants would form crystals around the nerve center as a highly efficient energy storage device. But blood crystals were unique on its own. Although they were created with the same elements, blood crystals' energy storage was thousands of times greater. A piece the size of a thumb could be compared to the energy generated from one kilogram of fissile material through nuclear fission.

But what was beyond comprehension was that the blood crystals' existence was stable. Despite people’s attempt, they could not use the energy inside. Not even human - the mutants who generated the blood crystal themselves couldn’t utilize the energy inside. Precisely, any mutant who creates these blood crystals would be the failure of the spices.

The extraordinary potential and rarity of blood crystals made them a luxurious collector item, especially favored by the nobles in the Northern Alliance Area.

By this point, the man’s identity couldn’t be more obvious.

He came from the north, and his status was prestigious.

"Mr. Troy, what’s the progress for your soldiers?" Bo Yu put his hands in his pocket as he asked the mutated human standing beside him.

"The outpost is already established," Troy cracked a smile exposing his fearsome red gum, "Once the last batch of the armored trucks is completed, my team can head out."

"Oh? Is that right?" The man in luxurious clothes seemed to be nonchalant to the answer of the mutated human leader as his reply was short.

Silence ensued between the two.

The mutated human called Troy seemed to be fearful of the power coming out of the man from the Northern Alliance, even though this place was thousands of kilometers away from the Northern Alliance, even though this place was his home base.

"Seeing your own people suffer, do you not have any thoughts in your mind?" Troy cracked a smile as he asked disrespectfully.

"We are different from monsters, we don’t have to possess those extraneous herd mentality." Bo Yu laughed, not bothered at all.

Troy’s eyes narrowed.

The fact that they have always viewed highly of themselves meant that they were particularly sensitive to the fact that humans categorize them as mutated creatures.

"Sorry, I have a phone call." Bo Yu shrugged as he walked to the side, then he pressed the phone to his earlobe.

"Hello?"

"Oh… This is unfortunate then, okay. Mhmm… Keep monitoring their movements. The name is Jiang Chen right? Interesting, I am going to hang up."

Troy stared gravely at his position.

"Sorry buddy, your outpost seems to be gone." Bo Yu ignored the unfriendliness as he casually strolled beside him.

Troy's throat moved, he didn’t overthink it. But the expression on this man’s face made him uncertain.

Simultaneous, a mutated human ran from the distance. The frightened look on his face, even from afar in the heavy snow, was clearly visible.

Troy’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at Bo Yu on the side. The grin on his face triggered him.

But he couldn’t be angry right now.

"Leader, our force stationed in Shenxiang town-"

"Was eliminated?"

The mutated human here to report the news hesitated before he immediately lowered his head and continued his report in a tough tone.

"Yes."

Troy took a deep breath while he tried to calm his ready-to-explode emotion.

"Which force did it…"

"Liuding town… Our people saw their helicopter with binoculars. It was the Type-51 transport helicopter equipped with electromagnetic pulse cannon. Their symbol was below the helicopter."

"How would Liuding town’s people appear here?" Troy was shocked.

Although he was skeptical towards this information, he couldn’t find an argument against it. Since within the entire area, only Liuding Town’s people possessed air units.

If Liuding town intervened, his plan would be much more difficult to execute.

He thought about this as Troy’s eyebrows began to tense up.

He heard of Liuding Town’s force before. The electromagnetic pulse cannon on the aircraft carriers had a maximum range of 500 kilometers under atmospheric condition. It could be fired from the exit of Long River and directly strike Luzhou. Needless to say, his seventh area was right beside Wanghai city.

"Ahem, I do have to let you know that it was not Liuding Town's people who wiped out your outpost." As if he was very familiar with the force distribution within Wanghai city, Bo Yu interrupted.

"Oh?" Troy raised his eyebrows.

"Liuding Town’s people would never install electromagnetic pulse cannon on their helicopter because their electromagnetic cannon could strike any target in Wanghai city freely. Even if you built defensive structures, under the impact of a 100kg bomb, how many seconds would you last" Bo Yu smirked.

"Then, you mean...?"

"Your information is too outdated. A "glorious leader" was born in Qingpu. Under his call for unity and the temptation for food, the scattered survivors unified and built a base called Fishbone Base on the ruins… Also, according to my research, they have a trade relationship with the Zhao Corporation on the Sixth Street. The exact reason is food related," Bo Yu said.

"Food?" Troy looked at Bo Yu with not the friendliest look, "Based on what I know, on the entire wasteland, the only place that can produce food is the Northern Alliance Area. Can I interpret that you sponsored that force?"

The undeveloped area in the northwestern region was barely scratched during the chaos of the war. Although the soil was barren, fertilizer was a much simpler problem to solve compared to contamination and radiation. If you go further north, you would reach the front-line between PAC and CCCP. That place also lies in shambles like Wanghai city.

Therefore, in the entire Hua area, only northwestern region produced edible crops.

Bo Yu sighed at the information.

"The entire wasteland? By 'entire', do you mean Wanghai city, or within the PAC borders, or the entire world?"

"Is there a point in discussing world geography?" Troy mocked.

"It’s all about the structure we are in." Bo Yu shrugged, "Being unable to farm is only because the technology is not on par. Our radiation treatment technology is well designed. If it is not, then even if you were given clean soil, you can not grow anything it. At the same time, as long as the technology is available, any corner of the wasteland can easily grow delicious fresh fruits and vegetables. Their food probably comes from an established garden underground. But these are not the key points, only one thing interests me."

"Project Garden of Eden?" Troy burst out laughing, "This is quite funny. If that Project Garden of Eden could restore farming, then why do those elites flee into space?"

"Because hope afar is far more tempting than dealing with chaos here." Bo Yu smiled as he paused, then he continued, "On space colonization, I maintain the same stance as the dissolved World Alliance Organization."

"But those people didn’t let the kiss-@ss-you go on the boat." Troy continued to mock.

"Why would I need a ticket to go on the boat? As long as I have the technology, I can easily build another colonization ship." Bo Yu laughed out loud as he took out his hands from the pockets and pointed to the sky, "Give me 20 years and I’ll rebuild a high technology park. Give me 50 years and I’ll take the descendants into space again. What should be abandoned is not us, but rather the soil below us!"

"Why don’t you learn from us? Evolve then adapt? If you don’t try it yourself, you will never know how delicious Death Claw’s meat is."

Bo Yu’s calm and collected expression flashed a rare glimpse of disgust, but it quickly faded.

"Therefore, discussing value proposition is something more boring than ideology. You’ll get the improved FEV virus and you will take your species to adapt to the wasteland. But, remember our deal."

Bo Yu controlled the security password of the Carman Pharmaceutical, it was him that provided the FEV virus information to the mutated humans.

"Of course, I’ll lead my people to help you attack 'that place' within the city center We will find out the location of the Fallout Shelter 005, if it really exists that is."

"Don’t worry about that anymore. My information has always been reliable. Fallout Shelter 005 is located in Wanghai city," Bo Yu said confidently.

Troy glanced at Bo Yu before he looked away towards the direction of the slaves.

It used to be an empty plot of land but it was now packed with military supplies.

Rifles, machine guns, armors, armored trucks, even cannons and bombs!

Within this shipment, some belonged to the mutated humans, but the majority was from the man called Bo Yu.

With a common interest, even mutated humans and humans could stand side by side.

"We must go into the city center… Looks like we will need to start our journey in the winter."

Fixated on the snow in the distance, Troy said in an undertone.

Chapter 184: Who should I bring home for New Year

Although it was Yao Yao’s birthday, Sun Jiao and Lin Lin all rushed to list their requirements for the birthday cake.

Chocolate.

Mango.

Those were definitely what they wanted to eat.

Instead, the protagonist of the birthday – Yao Yao, feebly expressed that any flavored cake was fine, as long as brother Jiang Chen likes it.

[Ahh…Yao Yao is the cutest.]

Jiang Chen shouted in his mind.

...

Therefore, Jiang Chen specifically made a trip back to the modern world.

"You are back." Ayesha happened to pass by just in time to see Jiang Chen come out of the door, she tilted her head and asked.

Before, he would stay for a long time before making a trip back, but now it seemed to be much more frequent.

Last time it was five days ago. He came to buy emblems?

"I came back to buy something. Oh, do you want to head out with me?" Jiang Chen suggested out of the blue.

He knew nothing about cakes. In his memory, he hasn't celebrated a birthday in a long time. It would be better to have a girl’s opinion.

"Mhmm." She didn’t ask what he wanted to buy as she gently nodded.

Ayesha changed into a Gothic-style skirt, white stockings, and black platform shoes. She held onto Jiang Chen’s hand as they left the house. Because she was usually very shy about being intimate in public, her unwillingness to let go and her blushed face was particularly cute.

They bought this set of clothes in Kane last time.

Jiang Chen opened the garage door as he sat in the front passenger seat. Ayesha sat in the driver position.

Her driving skill was acquired from the virtual reality training system. As to the driver license... is anything difficult to obtain if money is involved?

"Where are we going?"

"Shimao Mall." Jiang Chen gave it a thought, but the only place he could think of that was prosperous was the shopping mall in the city center.

"Mhmm." Ayesha softly combed her brown hair to the side of her face, she smiled tenderly while starting the car.

Although it was the same Wanghai city, in the midst of November, the sun here was much more graceful here with only a hint of chillness mixed in the air. It was fair to expect that in the modern world, Wanghai city would have a warm winter.

Jiang Chen watched the scenes on the streets fading away in the window. For some reason, he began to feel melancholic.

Who would have thought, in another dimension, the same place one hundred years later, would become a place filled with zombies?

But all these things were too distant.

Jiang Chen was amazed by the beauty of Ayesha as she drove. He couldn’t resist and snapped a photo of her.

Sensing Jiang Chen’s action, Ayesha’s gorgeous eyes lit up.

"Does it look good?"

She asked, her eyes still maintained focus on the road. But Jiang Chen felt like all her attention was on his phone.

"Of course." Jiang Chen smiled.

After receiving a positive response, the tips of Ayesha’s mouth curved up joyfully.

"But it would be better if it was bigger." Jiang Chen stared at the photo for a while before he suddenly let out a sigh and muttered to himself.

Although he toned down his voice, this sentence still didn’t escape Ayesha’s ear.

Instantly, the graceful hand clenched tighter onto the steering wheel.

"Eh, is, is it my breast? I have been eating papaya and drinking milk, but it still is a process…" Ayesha said while her eyes looked listless.

"No, not that." Seeing the car that just skidded by them, Jiang Chen’ sweated profusely as he rushed to comfort her, "Its age, age!"

"Eh?" Surprised by Jiang Chen’s explanation, Ayesha asked, confused, but her emotional soothed down while the car returned to the normal track.

"Umm, how should I explain this? We have a holiday, or tradition, in Hua… All in all, I have to take a girlfriend back by February 8th of next year to see my parents." Embarrassed, Jiang Chen explained.

It was hard to imagine that the renowned Future Technology president did not have a girlfriend to bring home for the New Year.

Jiang Chen had kept in contact with the family. Since he was rich, he wished for his parents to live a better life.

To prevent the two elders from not sleeping well, after deliberate consideration, Jiang Chen decided not to reveal that he became the president of a billion dollar company. He only said that he made a decent amount of money doing business and planned to explain the whole situation to them when he returned for New Year.

At the end of every month, he would send half a million to the card that his dad previously used to send his allowance. In the beginning, his dad did not accept it. He stubbornly sent it back until Jiang Chen finally announced that he already bought a house in Wanghai City, and that he was rich enough to not worry about money anymore. The stubborn father finally reluctantly accepted the money.

Every parent wishes their children would live a good life. In their eyes, half a million was an astronomical number already. Their entire life saving was only this amount. They were already satisfied that Jiang Chen could support himself in a completely foreign city. They wouldn’t spend that much money anyways after they retire, plus they could take their retirement fund to live the rest of their lives without worry. That half a million was saved so their son could get a house. The thought of receiving money from their son never even crossed their mind.

The one thing they did think of, was when they would have grandchildren.

Now that the house is there, what about the wife?

Under his parents' persistence, Jiang Chen awkwardly indicated he didn’t have anyone yet. Since the generation gap was there, he did not dare to tell his parents that, "your son does not have a wife, but has a mistress."

It would be better if Ayesha was a bit older. If that was the case, then taking her home for New Year would not only satisfy his parents' thought of having grandchildren, it would also satisfy their vanity. In a small town of Huchen, marring a foreigner was a glorious act.

Nurtured by the nutrient solution, Ayesha’s skin was as smooth as a porcelain doll. To Jiang Chen, it was a great thing, but the "disadvantage" was that she looked too young.

Especially with Ayesha’s Lolita appearance…

No matter which perspective he took, bringing a loli home was a terrible idea.

"New Year right?" Hearing that her husband did not mind her size, Ayesha was relieved. She gently smiled, "If you don’t mind, I can be your girlfriend and go home with you."

To Jiang Chen’s surprise, Ayesha knew Han New Year already. But when he gave a thought, it made sense as she already comprehended the language Han, and thus, there was no reason not to know the traditions. Just like when he learned English, he learned of Christmas.

"Why would I mind? But the problem is not that." Jiang Chen was exasperated, "Within Hua, the legal age for marriage is 20. Although it could be worked around with money, my parents are the stubborn type, therefore… Therefore it is complicated."

Ayesha tilted her tiny head, she was born in Syria so naturally, she didn’t understand the laws here. In her hometown, it was not uncommon for girls 12 or 13 years of age to be married. In her head, she thought she was marrying late.

The topic didn’t continue.

The car quickly arrived that the Shimao building. When they finished parking, Jiang Chen held onto Ayesha’s hand and walked into the Christine cake store.

In his memory, this should be most famous cake store in the area.

As to the price, he didn’t really care.

But just as he pushed open the glass door, Jiang Chen was shocked by what he saw.

...

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 185: The Gloom of War

"Welcome-" Fang Yuanyuan raised her head, but in the middle of the sentence, she froze.

Jiang Chen stiffened as he stood before the door. A peculiar expression appeared on his face.

He didn’t expect to meet this woman coincidentally again.

Ayesha tilted her head as she stared at Jiang Chen and then the receptionist.

She seemed to have understood the situation. She gently pulled Jiang Chen’s hand as she whispered, "Should we go to another store?"

"There is no need." Jiang Chen smiled as he squeezed her hand.

Although he disliked this person, his dislike was not to the point where he would avoid her on purpose.

When Jiang Chen walked towards her direction, Fang Yunyuan lowered her head.

"Hello, what would you like?"

Her voice was unnatural. Jiang Chen noticed that her fingers were slightly trembling.

[She must be afraid.]

"Cake, with chocolate, and mango… Umm, just give me the menu." He let out a sigh as he didn’t want to bully her. Instead, he responded with certainty.

Jiang Chen took over the menu from her hand and they began to pick.

Seeing the girl beside Jiang Chen, Fang Yuanyuan felt teary for some reason.

The door was suddenly pushed open and a man in plain clothes walked in with a delicate lunchbox.

"Yuanyuan, are you hungry?" The man’s forehead had a scar, but his smile was bright as he flashed his white teeth.

Fang Yuanyuan’s cheeks turned red as she nodded and quietly took over the lunchbox from his hand.

"Mhmm, thanks, but I am still working…"

"I’ll leave you to it then, I have to go back to work too, see you later."

Jiang Chen, with the corner of his eye, examined them, intrigued. The man’s face had a joyful smile as he energetically stepped out of the room.

"This cake should be good."

Ayesha pointed at a chocolate cake that was decorated with fruits.

"This one it is." Jiang Chen refocused on the menu. He gladly accepted her recommendation.

These high-class cake stores usually offer delivery services. Jiang Chen took the receipt from Fang Yuanyuan’s hand and asked out of curiosity, "your boyfriend?"

Fang Yuanyuan's looked away with complications in her eyes, she nodded.

"Mhmm."

"Does he know your past?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"No." Fang Yuanyuan bit her lips as she said quietly.

"Do you regret it?"

Fang Yuanyuan didn’t respond. Instead, she looked at him, pleading with her eyes.

"Please don’t tell him? I know you hate me, but Little Cong is a good guy, I don’t want him-"

Jiang Chen raised his hand to interrupt her as he smiled.

"First, there is no need to talk about hate. Second, I have no interest in creating problems for other people. I am only curious… Whatever, I already know the answer."

Seeing the chef hat on Fang Yuanyuan’s head, as well as the simple makeup, the answer was already clear to him.

When Jiang Chen left with the girl's hand in his, the look on Fang Yuanyuan's face turned perplexed.

She had a fantasy of marrying rich and live the life of a female protagonist like the ones in TV drama. She almost achieved this dream when she was a real estate salesperson. A boss proposed to her, but she chose to wait, thinking that her beauty could do better than him and gain more of a material enjoyment…

Without her realizing it, she slowly turned from a bi*th to a sl*t.

In the end, what is the difference between what she did and prostitution?

When did she realize this?

Perhaps it was that one night, when she was thrown out of Hongyi Private Club like a tool. The mockery sight of ten thousand bills thrown at her woke her up as if cold water was poured onto her head. She felt like she was being shooed away like a homeless person.

It was late into the night and she didn’t have her phone. She waited for a while at the side of the road but didn't manage to get a taxi. In the end, she could only drag her wry body and disheveled clothes as she numbly walked back to her rented apartment.

On her way home, she encountered two drunk perverts who mistook her for a prostitute. They tried to violate her and she desperately fought back. However, the more she struggled, the more it excited them.

Just as she was about to lose hope, he appeared.

He was not tall nor did he look that strong, but he still bravely stood in front of her.

She was shocked at the fact that there would be a fool in this world who was willing to stand up for her - for a filthy woman.

But he couldn’t beat the two perverts.

He was only able to guard a few moves before the beer bottle exploded on his forehead.

Blood began to pour, the brave "fool" didn’t even flinch before he collapsed on the ground.

Perhaps awakened by the bloody scene, the two people immediately turned sober. Because they were afraid of accidentally killing someone, they fled the scene.

Seeing the man on the ground, as well as the glass shards and blood, Fang Yuanyuan was stunned. "Rationality" told her the most convenient action was to not say a word and run, pretending nothing happened, and leave the "fool" here.

But to her own surprise, she didn’t trust the "rationality" that supported her throughout her life. Without thinking much, she knelt down, picked up a glass shard, ripped off a piece of her two thousand dollar dress, and bandaged up his head.

The terrifying blood made her tremble uncontrollably.

On the street that was void of life, she shouted, yelled, but the cars passed by all accelerated and left.

No one was willing and no one dared to stop the car to help them.

It was already midnight, the rural area was not the safest place.

A man whose face was full of blood was lying on the ground. If they stopped and gave them a ride, the man might die in their own car.

There might be a lawsuit and then a payout a settlement. If they were terribly unlucky, they might even have to go to prison.

In this apathetic society, the cost of sympathy was too high.

Especially if there was still work the next day.

Luckily, the world still has kind strangers. A pickup truck eventually stopped. The driver of the truck carried the barely-breathing man onto the car and rushed them to the nearest hospital.

After going into the emergency room for hours, the "fool" lived.

She didn’t know why. The "her" who has always loved money didn’t hesitate when she used the "reward" from Zhou Zihao to pay the medical bill.

She also stayed with him until he woke up.

His name was Wang Cong. His ordinary name with the white t-shirt that he wore made him look even more dowdy.

He only left university this year, a programmer in an IT company.

When Fang Yuanyuan asked why he stood up for her, he blushed and looked away.

"I didn’t think too much, when I saw you walking alone outside being bothered by two obviously rude people. I did what I did with a hot head."

"Did you even consider the possible that you could have died?"

Wang Cong looked at her blankly as he forced a smile, "I probably wouldn’t have died. Murder is too big of a crime in today's society."

One of her nerves malfunctioned as Fang Yunayuan asked unreasonably, "If you knew you were going to die, would you still have helped me?"

He kept his silence for a while.

Wang Cong scratched the back of his head as he smiled humbly.

"Yeah…I can’t watch a good girl being ruined."

That night, she wore a white colored dress.

Good girl?

When Fang Yuanyuan heard the word, she teared up for some reason.

She cried and she regretted.

Afterwards, she handed in her resignation at the real estate company and found the work she has now.

Then, they decided to be together.

He didn’t have a house, nor did he have a six-figure saving's account.

That night, Wang Cong proposed to her.

She accepted it.

As for money, it was no longer important.

...

When he left the cake store, Jiang Chen suddenly started laughing.

Ayesha turned to look at him, puzzled.

"Did something good happened?"

"No, I wouldn’t say it is good, I just think it is interesting." Jiang Chen put his hand on Ayesha’s head as he gently rubbed it.

"Interesting?"

"Mhmm, an old friend of mine received the finale meant for her."

"Finale?" Ayesha, deep in thought, put up her finger against her bottom lip, "What would be considered the finale for someone?"

To Ayesha’s question, Jiang Chen paused, but then a smiled quickly emerged.

"It’s hard to say, but from a bystander’s perspective, if there is nothing to expect for the rest of the story, then that should be the finale."

Ayesha half-understandingly nodded.

...

Apocalypse.

On the bank of Taifu river.

The feather-like snow blew in the sky, a thin layer of ice covered the river, the bridge across the river was blown apart, and a layer of whiteness covered the bank across the river. On top of the snow, there were a few indistinguishable black dots.

"What are those mutated humans doing?"

Hiding inside the snowed hidden fortress, Zhang Lin held the digital binocular as he focused across the river bank with his eyebrows twisted together.

Zhao Gang, who stood on the side, was silent, but gloom covered his face.

They previously thought that the mutated humans with wiped outposts and lost supplies would be more obedient. They thought that they would have the luxury of waiting until the next spring to plan. But it looks like they want to fight.

Based on the information obtained from the drones, there were at least two hundred mutated humans stationed across the river bank.

Large quantities of construction supplies were transported to the empty land and built into a small supply station. The snow removing vehicle and slaves somehow managed to clear out a road on the tens of kilometers of highway covered in snow.

The armored trucks listed in formations as the daunting anti-air machine guns and the menacing cannons lined up to create an iron forest.

"What should we do?" Zhang Lin looked at Zhao Gang on the side.

Zhao Gang took a deep breath and he said calmly.

"Report to the base, if there are 500 more people here, we probably can’t defend…"

The river was the slowest here. Once it entered ice season, the river would be frozen firmly. Even the mutated human with steel armors could easily run on the ice.

Once the mutated humans with number advantage start to charge, Fishbone Base could not defend the river with only five Tigers.

Once they captured the river bank, repair the blown up bridge, their armored force would cross the Taifu River and into Qingpu area.

Gazing upon the snowy hill in the distance, Zhao Gang’s eyebrows furrowed together.

A hard battle was imminent.

_Min_ _Min_

Two today.

Chapter 186: The Declaration of War

Inside Sixth Street’s towering walls.

It was the most prosperous place on the wasteland, a city that never slept built among the ruins.

In the heart of this bustling place, stood a magnificent dome building. Its structure was similar to Houses of Parliament, symbolizing the unity flag fluttering above.

It represented power, the brain of the entire Sixth Street.

Within the council chamber of the building, the Council of Ten members gathered around the round table.

Sixth Street was on doing fairly well for a while now, however, what was surprising was that the dignitaries sitting here had no smile on their faces.

As the president of Zhao Corporation, Zhao Chenwu was obviously among them. Sitting across him was his competitor, the boss in the giant firearm company, Feng De. Usually, they would mock each other as part of their routine every time they meet, but this time both of them had gloom all over their face with both keeping their silence.

Sitting on the seat pointing at the door was an old man with rectangular face and white sideburns, he coughed and broke the silent atmosphere at the table.

Although the Council of Ten had an equal status, on the wasteland ruled by the powerful, the right to speak was naturally proportional to the strength.

Cao Jinsong, the president of Crimson Chamber of Commerce, had a force that was not limited to the Sixth Street, and his mercenaries base stretched as far as Su City. He controlled 60% of the genetic vaccine of the pharmaceutical market share in Sixth Street, and although he did not take part of the firearm dealings, his private force was the strongest in the Sixth Street.

"Prowler" tanks equipped with a particle cannon and outfitted with heavy physical armor and particle shield. The tank possessed attack, defense, and mobility, making it perhaps the strongest land unit in the wasteland.

And he had five of these tanks.

"Everyone’s time is precious. I suppose we didn't gather here to just stare in the air, isn't that right?" Spreading out his hands, Cao Jinsong spoke without preamble.

"That’s true. Then shall we start the meeting?" Zhao Chenwu crossed his fingers, his elbow resting on the table.

"I second that."

"That’s right, I still have an engagement after this, so let’s get this over with."

"…"

Quietly waiting for the sound to subside, Cao Jinsong pressed his hand on the conference table and uttered, "Although everyone should have already seen this, I will play it again."

Dark blue particles began to levitate in the center of the table as a holographic image formed in the middle which converged into a half body portrait.

"Hello everyone from Wanghai City."

The man clad in military uniforms seemed arrogant.

"After seeing this image, our people would already be on their way.

"We all agreed that you're sitting on the treasures from your predecessors, but you don’t think of improving yourself. You sit on a huge amount of treasures, but you settle for status quo and enjoy a lavish life. We can’t wait any longer, I think we need to have a good chat.

"Of course, this doesn’t mean I'm here to negotiate with you.

"That’s right, this is a declaration of war.

"Northern Alliance District, General Wang Beihai. Signing off."

The image disappeared.

There was a frightening silence around the table.

Zhao Chenwu took a deep breath, stretched his hand to gently fix his collar, and looked anxiously at his colleagues around him. Anger, alarm, disdain, and timidness.

Sitting across him was his nemesis, Feng De, who used a tissue to wipe the sweat off his forehead while anxiously adjusting his sitting position.

But Cao Jinsong's look was rather calm as there was not much of a change in his expression.

"They're crazy! They are just a bunch of lunatics. These...Northern Alliance District? If I remember correctly, that place is 1,500 kilometers away from here! Do they think they can fly all the way here? Or are they saying they could slaughter their way through half of Hua's zombies?"

A tall middle-aged man roared with disdain.

"Furthermore, it's a winter expedition, To procure winter supplies for a 1,500-kilometer trek, don't those people need to eat?"

"They sure are that confident to win, eh? Do they really think no one is here in Sixth Street?"

"…"

Cao Jinsong silently looked at the council members around the table as his index finger rhythmically tapped on the table.

"Winder expedition…why must it be in winter? In our eyes, it is indeed a foolish move, but why do they insist on doing this?" Taking a deep breath, Zhao Chenwu stated.

Cao Jinsong gave him a startled look and nodded his head slightly.

Upon hearing someone pointed out this question, the previously volatile council members began to calm down. They got confused by the arrogance of that general, however, now that they had given it some thought, something was definitely amiss.

"According to the information my people had gathered in Luzhou, the Northern Alliance District indeed appeared there. They are currently building an outpost in Luzhou rural area with a large number of people." Cao Jinsong drawled.

"Luzhou? Could it be…" The council member's expression sitting next to Cao Jinsong suddenly shifted.

‘That’s right, they used the underground highway." Cao Jinsong nodded.

"That thing was already broken. How could they use that?" Someone asked derisively.

Highway, railway, magnetic levitation, and other transportation infrastructures were all targeted during the war. The underground highway was no exception. NATO’s satellite weapons deployed 57 pressure bombs that blasted the underground highway into several sections, which was used by PAC to transport military supplies during the war.

"Be that as it may, the underground passage between the Northwestern area to Luzhou has been repaired, so this might be the only explanation as to how their people could appear here."

After hearing Cao Jinsong's words, everyone became silent once again.

Seeing no one was talking, Cao Jinsong paused and continued: "Since this is a declaration of war, then war has become a foregone conclusion. For their arrogance and foolishness, we will naturally respond with guns, this is without a doubt. But there are still a lot of confusing things here…aren't you a little bit curious? What prompted them to make a reckless decision to declare war during winter from 1,500 kilometers away?"

"He mentioned about the treasure, but the question is: what treasures is he talking about? We've been living here for so many years, and we haven’t found anything yet. How could there be goddamn treasures here?" A man with a beer belly couldn't help but swear.

"Winter expedition to avoid mutants, and since they're using the underground passage, they naturally don’t need to concern themselves with the mutants along the way. Then there is only one possibility…their destination could only be reached in the winter," Zhao Chenwu said with a firm tone.

Cao Jinsong nodded with approval and looked at all the council members present.

"I share the same thought as council member Zhao. If there is any place we have yet to set our foot on, it should be none other than the downtown."

Chapter 187: Sword of Damocles

Before the war, Wanghai city was a major metropolitan in the world. It possessed the biggest technology park within PAC as well as a countless research facilities.

Because of this, after the war erupted, Wanghai city immediately became the focal point between PAC and NATO in the east coast battle. It was the obvious destination for nuclear and biological weapon attacks. Damage was especially brutal within the city center where it was blown into a scorched piece of land, where only extreme mutants or already dead zombies could survive.

On this piece of wasteland, the city center became the synonym for danger. Even the strongest hunting teams had not stepped into this forbidden territory. The countless number of zombies, the nest of zombie eaters, the unimaginably powerful mutants… The risk and reward tradeoff of exploring the zombies dominated area was not justified by any means.

As to when the city center would be relatively safer, it was during winter.

In the winter, most of the mutants would go into hibernation, thus, the only trouble that remained was the zombie.

But despite this…

"City center? Other than nuclear craters and scrap metals, what else is there?" A council member with a square frame glasses scorned at the thought.

"Perhaps there is a lethal weapon left by the preceding government? Or perhaps a USB containing mysterious codes? Regardless what there is, our neighbor is clearly interested. We have enough evidence to believe that they have strong reasons for putting their nose up our business from thousands of miles away," Cao Jinsong smiled.

"If they just want to go into the city center, why don’t they negotiate with us?" Zhao Chenwu frowned as he said in an undertone, "We don’t have to fight, we could work together. For example, providing supplies for their army for a commission amount…"

"What do you think the Northern Alliance District is? A hunting team stationed at our place? Provide supplies? They could just raid us. They are not merchants, they are bandits under a military government." A council member mocked.

"Disregarding whether if they could beat us or not. Even if they win, would they have enough force left to enter the city center? I agree with Councilmember Zhao’s perspective, their action is unusual. Perhaps there is some hidden truth we don’t know about." A sophisticated-looking council member added.

"It's because of arrogance." Feng De sneered.

"But arrogance has nothing to do with intelligence. They choose to start a war knowing cooperation would be the best choice, unless-"

"Unless that treasure is tempting enough," Cao Jinsong opened his mouth, the fingers that were crossed together in front of his face covered his nose. "They believe the value of the treasure, and believe that if we know about the treasure, we would fight for it with all our forces. Even the reputation we built for over 10 years cannot guarantee our honesty."

"Then what is that treasure?" someone asked.

"I personally lean towards the possibility of it being a weapon," a mysterious smile flashed across Cao Jinsong’s face. He then lowered his voice, "If there is a super weapon that could instantly suppress a base or even a city-"

"That’s impossible, if a weapon like that really existed, then it must have been a top priority during the war." Someone rebutted.

"I agree. Also, how do they know that the city center of Wanghai City really possessed such thing?"

As to other council members’ rebuttal, Cao Jinsong didn’t mind as he smiled with collectedness.

He took a momentary pause before he continued.

"We are all unfortunate people who didn’t manage to get into the fallout shelter. I know that you all are no strangers to that war. I am talking about the sky-based weapon that destroyed the Holy Shield - the God’s Cane."

When they heard the name God’s Cane, everyone held their breath.

That was a long time ago, but even today, after ten something years, they could not forget what happened that day.

The dome that covered the sky evaporated under the blue particles, followed by airdrop soldiers that fell like rain.

Zhao Chenwu looked at Cao Jinsong in disbelief as he spoke disheartenedly, "Didn’t that thing get blasted into pieces? I remember the PAC special force captured it and NATO initiated self-destruction-"

"Based on my super computer’s data-modeling analysis..." Cao Jinsong took a graphite chip from his pocket and waved it in between his fingers before he put it on the table.

The hologram image displayed again, the web-like structure simulated the earth, as well as the sky-based weapon hovering on top – God’s Cane.

"259 kilograms of TNT’s self-destruction, the weapon parts would fall in the middle of Wanghai city." The web-weaved God’s Cane turned red as it drew a trajectory and pointed at the location on earth in Wanghai city.

"If they acquired the parts of God’s Cane, repaired it, and fired it into space again, it will become the sword of Damocles (1) that hangs above all of us. It will become our eternal nightmare."

Followed by his last words, the hologram image disappeared, and the atmosphere around the conference table turned cold.

Everyone’s expression took a turn.

Other than fear and anger, it also carried a hint of greed.

"What do they want to do…"Zhao Chenwu squeezed those words out.

"Conquer, or enslave." Cao Jinsong’s finger gently tapped on the table, "They want to continue their dictatorship outside of the Northwestern area. Other than this, I can’t think of any other reasons."

"Resistance is necessary. The freedom’s spirit will not bend for dictators, that is without a doubt. There are only two choices in front of us."

"First, before they come to Wanghai City, explore the city center by ourselves. If there really is a super weapon, we can use it against them."

"Second, protect our treasure and fight our invaders until the last drop of blood."

"Then, by tradition, let’s vote."

Cao Jinsong smiled mischievously as he pressed the vote button.

....

The final vote resulted in an absolute landslide victory of 2:8 to the second option – fight against the invaders.

Even during winter, it was risky to explore the city center. They might end up paying a price for this if they do not find the weapon, or if the treasure was not a weapon to begin with. Even if was is a weapon, it could not be used in a short period of time because of the need for repair. This would indubitably increase the variables in the war.

Most of the people chose the safer option. To first eliminate the external threat before exploring the treasure within the ruins.

After the meeting, the council members began to depart.

When Zhao Chenwu walked out of the chamber, Zhao Chenwu’s eyebrows furrowed. Su Lei, who was waiting at the door, saw her boss leave. She immediately greeted him.

"Is there any problem?" As the right and left hands of the boss, Su Lei asked.

"No problem, I just think something is not right." Zhao Chenwu said in an undertone.

"About our business?"

"No… Hopefully it is just my illusion."

Seeing his colleagues leave in brisk steps, for some reason, uneasiness began to sprout in his mind.

(1) The famed "sword of Damocles" dates back to an ancient moral parable popularized by the Roman philosopher Cicero in his 45 B.C. book "Tusculan Disputations." Cicero’s version of the tale centers on Dionysius II, a tyrannical king who once ruled over the Sicilian city of Syracuse during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. Though rich and powerful, Dionysius was supremely unhappy. His iron-fisted rule had made him many enemies, and he was tormented by fears of assassination—so much so that he slept in a bedchamber surrounded by a moat and only trusted his daughters to shave his beard with a razor. (Courtesy: History.com)

Chapter 188: A Victory belonged to the Small Animal

"Happy birthday to you~…"

The melody of the birthday song harmonized perfectly with the clapping hands as the song echoed throughout the old mansion.

It was already night and there was no light on.

The room was dark. Only 16 candles illuminated and lit up the blushed face.

Bang!

Colorful confetti exploded alongisde three genuine wishes.

"Happy birthday!"

"Tha…Thank you." Yao Yao’s eyes were decorated with mists of excitement. Her tiny hands clenched onto the tip of her dress, and she bowed deeply to express her appreciation.

It has been many years since she was this happy.

But before she could finish, an unharmonious voice interrupted the touching atmosphere.

"Oh my! Cake, mango, gulp." Lin Lin chuckled moonly at the cake as her fists clenched on the fork.

"You are drooling! Fool." Sun Jiao grabbed her by the collar as she lifted back Lin Lin, who was approaching the cake. At the same time, she gave her a scorned look.

"Wooo!" Lin Lin retracted her neck as she pouted her mouth feeling wronged, "Didn’t we agree on eating the cake after singing the birthday song?"

"We still have to blow out the candle, wait a bit longer." Jiang Chen’s mood was particularly delightfully today as he gave a rare tender smile to Lin Lin.

"If it is only a bit longer." Lin Lin looked away with her face blushed.

Under the dim light, no one noticed the red hue on her face.

"Go ahead, Yao Yao, you are the star today." Sun Jiao extended her hand with a smile as she put it around Yao Yao’s shoulder.

"Remember to make a wish." Jiang Chen said.

"Mhmm!" The pretty face was red because of excitement. Yao Yao’s tiny head nodded fiercely.

She approached the candles with excitement as she took a deep breath.

"Woosh-"

16 candle flames flared by her breath. Each candle was filled with a young girl’s wish.

From now on, Yao Yao has offically entered her sweet sixteeth.

The light turned back on.

With a pure white princess dress, soft hair that dangled to her chest, ad white stocking paired with black chauffers, she looked like a girl who just walked out of a fairy tale.

"Cut the cake. I want the cake!" Lin Lin couldn’t wait any longer, her silver hair swayed, but her one red and one black pupil stared at the pieces of mangos on the cake as she continued to gulp.

Sun Jiao lifted the plastic knife as she started to portion the cake.

"Is it okay to cut the letters? Or should I avoid the letters."

Born in a fallout shelter, it was her first time seeing a cake. She only remembered that she ate something called chocolate before. Just a small piece was sweet enough to melt her. But now, the chocolate was made into a cake the size of a plate.

The white vanilla cream and the colorful fruits were just like a piece of art. She didn’t want to cut it.

"Ahhh! Don’t hesitate anymore, my mango!" Lin Lin reached her hand out desperately as she tried to fight for the plastic knife in Sun Jiao’s hand.

"Rowdy." Sun Jiao obviously would not let Lin Lin succeed so she easily took care of her.

Yao Yao, on the other hand, was quieter. Her face blushed as she closely leaned on Jiang Chen. Her cheery-like mouth panted as her chest raised up and down. She looked nervous.

As to why she was nervous... that was because of tonight…

"Are you happy today?" Jiang Chen gently squeezed Yao Yao’s hand as he smiled.

Seeing the warm smile on his face, Yao Yao shyly stared at the chocolate vanilla cake in front of her and she grinned softly.

"I am happy."

"Speaking of this, I thought it was your 17th birthday today… Do we really need 37 candles?" Jiang Chen suddenly added a smirk to his face.

The cute mouth immediately pouted.

"Woo… Don’t be mean to me today." Yao Yao said softly as she gently dragged the tip of his shirt.

"Haha, sorry, I can’t resist because you are too cute." He caressed Yao Yao’s longhair. Seeing the slightly narrowed and loving eyes and the lightly shaking eyelashes, a joyful smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.

The feeling of home was probably similar to this.

"Speaking of this, what did you wish for?"

Hearing this, Yao Yao’s face turned red as her eyes quickly glanced at him before moving away.

"It would not be a wish if I say it out loud, it’s a secret…" She said quietly.

She certainly minded.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to tease the small loli more, a light door-knock transmitted from the living room.

Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen to ask for his opinion, Jiang Chen shrugged before he walked to the living room and opened the door.

Wang Qin stood outside. Her nose turned vibrant red because of the chillness. Her freckled face had some ice shards on it.

The night on the wasteland was frigid, particularly in the winter.

Seeing how her frozen face was written with worry, Jiang Chen turned serious.

"Come in first."

Wnag Qin nodded sincerely, she ducked under the door and shook the snow off her body.

"Do you need a cup of hot water?" Seeing how cold she was, Jiang Chen asked caringly.

But she waved her head signaling a "no" and she took a deep breath of the warm air before she looked at Jiang Chen."The mutated humans, they are coming from the Seventh Area and they are setting up camps across from Taifu River. It is rumored that…Awechu!"

As she spoke, she suddenly sneezed.

Seeing her disjointed look, Jiang Chen sighed as he headed into the kitchen and poured a cup of hot water for her.

"Thank you." Wang Qin sat on the sofa and held onto the steamy cup. Signs of bloodflow finally began to show on her face.

"Sit down and say it slowly. There is no need to rush. Don’t forget any details." Jiang Chen sat across from Wang Qin and said in a stern tone.

She nodded before she took a deep breath and collected her thoughts.

"This afternoon, Zhao Gang sent information from Shenxiang town…"

Wang Qin described in detail the movements of mutated humans to Jiang Chen, including the force distribution, the number of equipment detected by the drones, as well as the request for backup from Zhao Gang.

Hearing her description, Jiang Chen pondered for a moment.

"What’s the production status of Tiger?"

"We only produced two new units as of now and the workers are already working around the clock." Wang Qin said, troubled.

"What about the drones?"

"47 units."

"Mhmm, I see." His finger on his chin, Jiang Chen fell into deep thought.

Mutated humans were planning to fight until death. They chose to invade during winter even with their outpost taken out.The motive certainly surprised him.

Although the Carmen Pharmaceutical Corporation was near the city center, it was not within the vicinity of the city center. From any point of view, it would be a wiser choice to head to the Carmen building when spring came around rather than fighting through the river during the winter.

Was there any reason they must fight in the winter?

Unless their target was not only the Carmen building but the city center as well?

"Tell Zhao Gang that the backup will arrive immediately."

Wang Qin nodded, but a troubled look flashed across her face.

"New recruit training is still underway. There are only 70 soldiers available to fight in the base. If we send too many people..."

She didn’t complete the sentence, but the meaning was obvious.

If the defense of the base is weak, they might not be able to control the slaves.

"I’ll take care of the problem, just reply this way." Jiang Chen smiled.

Perhaps because his smile was confident, Wang Qin’s concern immediately vanquished.

She nodded with a smile before she left.

Seeing Wang Qin leave, Jiang Chen pondered for a long moment and closed the door.

He readjusted his mood before he went back to the dining room.

"Did something happen?" Sun Jiao seemed to have sensed something.

"Nothing." Jiang Chen smiled, signaling her not to worry.

But this time, he saw Lin Lin twitching on the chair with vanilla smeared all over her face. His expression changed.

The naughty Sun Jiao seemed to have noticed Jiang Chen’s stare as her face turned red. She looked at the ceiling, raised her proud chest, and pretended that nothing happened.

"Don’t bully Lin Lin that much."

Sun Jiao stuck out her tongue and suddenly grabbed him by the arm. She giggled and inched closer to his ear.

"I am full, let’s go play games?"

[I haven’t even eaten yet.] Jiang Chen facepalmed in his mind.

But the tenderness he felt from his arm made his mind drift elsewhere.

"No, not acceptable!" Yao Yao with her ears on high alert immediately jumped on like a squirrel whose tail just got stepped on. She ran over and dragged onto the other hand of Jiang Chen, and looked at Sun Jiao in remorse, "We already agreed that the star today is me…"

"We already agreed?" Jiang Chen paused as he looked confusedly between Sun Jiao and Yao Yao.

"Ahem, uhh, I changed my mind, I’ll give him to you tomorrow." Sun Jiao didn’t answer Jiang Chen’s question. Instead, she looked away awkwardly.

"Woo-!" Yao Yao bloated her cheeks as the adorable eyebrows immediately raised up, but they soon softened down.

"You already ate all the good food, you can’t even let the small animal drink some soup?"

The saddened voice made Sun Jiao’s face look somewhat embarrassed. She didn’t say anything.

Seeing Sister Sun Jiao had no reaction, Yao Yao didn’t give up. She lightly gritted her teeth to give herself the courage as she continued to use the soft voice to persuade her, "If you eat meat every day, you will become sick of it."

Sun Jiao’s expression was evidently moved. Jiang Chen still looked at the two of them in bewilderment, not understanding why the conversation topic suddenly turned to food.

Seeing the words were effective, Yao Yao secretively posed a success gesture with her hands as she built on her success. "The occasional vegetable would be good for your health. Also, if the small animal doesn’t taste good, wouldn’t it demonstrate the attractiveness of the big dairy cow…"

Sun Jiao with a blushed face said, ‘What…what’s big dairy cow."

"Uh, what are you guys talking about?" Jiang Chen scratched his face in confusion.

Her conflicted eyes moved between Yao Yao and Jiang Chen as her stance wavered.

Although she already decided…[Wooo! This is annoying!]

[But-]

[If you eat meat every day, you will become sick of it.]

"Ahhh! I don’t care anymore, do whatever you want." Sun Jiao said in defeat as she escaped without looking back.

Jiang Chen stared at the fleeting Sun Jiao blankly before he looked at Yao Yao, who had a red hue on her face. A troubled smile appeared on his face.

"Uh, what just happened?"

"Nothing." Yao Yao’s head shook furiously as she put her hands behind her back timidly.

She smiled tenderly, as she posted a success gesture with her hand behind her back.

The victory belonged to the small animal!

_Min_ _Min_

I know it says 16 candles and 17th birthday. I don't know but that's what the author said xD.

One more tonight.

Chapter 189: The Duet of the Assassination at Night

After the shower, Jiang Chen raised his hand to knock on Sun Jiao’s door, but there was no reaction in the room.

"What's the matter with this girl today?"

With a head full of question marks, Jiang Chen returned to his own room.

Although he could go back and sleep in the modern world, he felt that it would weaken his spirit. What's more, there's not much of a difference whether he slept here or on the other side. The only difference was the person he's sleeping with...

He turned off the light and laid in bed.

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and began to think about the mutated humans.

There was a scarcity of soldiers in the base, and the mutated humans didn’t play by the book. As for how to resolve the problem, he already had a plan formulating in his mind, it was just the specifics that required more thinking.

While his mind drifted off, he began to succumb to drowsiness.

But just as he was about to doze off, there was a gentle knock on the door.

The corner of his mouth had a touch of smile as he pretended to not hear anything and closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.

[This girl is actually sneaking in at night. We'll see how I'll teach you a lesson…]

The door was slightly pushed open, and a faint light pervaded in the room before it quickly faded away.

The steps were light as it carried a faint scent of Jasmine, disturbing Jiang Chen’s heart.

The quilt was pulled out of the corner and someone slipped under the sheets.

Jiang Chen was smirking and pretending to be oblivious while turning his body before putting his arm around the dainty figure.

Wait! Dainty?

"Woo," The feeble murmuring had increased. This didn't seem to be Sun Jiao…

"Yao Yao?" Jiang Chen asked awkwardly.

"Mhmm…" Yao Yao quietly replied.

Her wet hair exuded a sweet scent of Jasmine, her gossamer of nightgown covered her delicate figure, and the moonlight from the window suffused her flushed face. Her huge, adorable eyes were trembling with apprehension, but there was no sign of retreating.

A silent atmosphere lingered between the two.

Jiang Chen shifted slightly, wanting to subtly move his hand away, only to realize that Yao Yao was clutching on his cuff.

Yao Yao murmured: "I like you."

"Mhmm," He opened his mouth to speak, and despite wanting to say a lot of things, he only managed to utter a single word.

Seeing Jiang Chen didn’t react, Yao Yao gently lowered her eyelids, but soon quickly plucked up her courage and lifted her head.

"Could you accompany me for a while to share some secrets?"

"Secrets?"

"Yes, precisely because we're under the sheets that we can tell each other secrets," Yao Yao whispered and nodded her head earnestly.

"You can talk to me about anything," Jiang Chen smiled at her. Instead of removing his hand from her shoulder, he gently smoothened her hair.

Yao Yao guilelessly enjoyed the caress by his big hand as she comfortably closed her adorable, huge eyes and snuggled closer to him.

Due to the close proximity to her delicate body, Jiang Chen’s face was suffused with heat.

"That, let's start…first, what kind of girl does Big Brother like?"

Staring into the crystal clear eyes, Jiang Chen held his breath, forgetting to answer the question.

Sensing the mood, a crimson hue crept on Yao Yao's face.

Yao Yao closed her eyes gently.

Her eyelashes gently fluttered, drawing her slightly open small mouth nearer to her beloved Big Brother's lips.

Staring at the approaching face, Jiang Chen’s Adam's apple bobbed in his throat.

Reasons told him that if he didn’t stop her in this situation, something bad might happen.

[Stop? Why stop?]

Temporarily forgetting to think, Jiang Chen leaned closer to Yao Yao’s lovely face.

A long time ago, he made a decision to follow his thoughts from the bottom of his heart and to stay true to his emotions.

Suddenly, a wisp of cold breeze blew past at the back of his neck.

Cold air?

"Who is it!"

Jiang Chen was instantly alerted and immediately got up to look at the window.

The window was already open, a shadow was hanging upside down in the window.

The long hair swayed in the air, the crystal sandwiched between her two finger reflected an ominous glint under the moonlight.

The corners of her mouth were eerily curved.

…

"Yawn," while walking aimlessly around the base, Sun Jiao yawned, behind her back was an SK10 laser rifle.

The snow was not as heavy as before, and the combat suit fended off the cold air, so it wasn’t too chilly.

White mist started to come out of her thick hat as she deliberately looked in the direction of the mansion.

It was already the 37th time that she had done it.

Thinking of that big, bad guy, he was definitely embracing the adorable Yao Yao at this time was and putting that thing that mustn't be described in…

Sun Jiao’s face immediately turned red as she stomped her feet in anger.

"Stupid loli lover," Sun Jiao cursed out as she shook her head and continued to wander to other places.

At that time, she suddenly saw two people.

A man and woman were holding hands while walking on the path leading to front of community center.

Despite the distance, Sun Jiao still recognized the identity of the woman. Thus, a complicated expression appeared on her face.

Zhou Xiaoxia, her former friend.

[But she probably couldn’t recognize her anymore…] Thinking of this, Sun Jiao let out a sigh.

She had been living in bliss for quite some time to the point of almost forgetting the cruelty of the wasteland.

"I hope you can be happy, my friend."

She looked at the two persons from afar, but she didn’t get closer. Instead, she turned around and walked to a different direction.

…

"I am so mad at that she-devil," Lin Lin used a towel to dry her silky silver hair while muttering furiously before leaving the bathroom.

Water droplets dripped on the floor as she dragged her feet slowly inside the cotton slippers.

The cream smeared on her face and hair had been finally rinsed off. She made a relaxing stretch, preparing for a well-deserved sleep tonight.

[Then bear her, I will help you.]

Tingting seemed to have completely mastered the human language.

"Um, it’s okay. Um, in my opinion…you shouldn’t be this violent, since this is my body after all," Lin Lin muttered softly.

[Are you not annoyed by her?]

Hearing this question, Lin Lin pouted and burried her head under the towel.

"To be honest, not really."

[Is this the Stockholm Syndrome we are talking about?] Tingting queried curiously.

"How is that possible!" Lin Lin exclaimed, infuriated. She punched herself on her left chest, but there was obviously no reaction from Tingting. Rather, it was Lin Lin who got hurt herself.

[Then what is it?]

Lin Lin's pale face was beet red as she rubbed her chest, looking away.

"Perhaps, it is because we are...friends."

It was her first time having this feeling.

She had never experienced the feeling of having friends while she was locked inside the digital cage. Although Sun Jiao would occasionally bully her, she had never disliked her. And that included Jiang Chen...no, that person was different.

The more Lin Lin thought about it, the redder her pretty face became.

The man that rescued her from the virtual world was surprisingly gentle...

BOOM!

There was a sudden loud noise coming from upstairs which interrupted Lin Lin's bewildered musings.

"What are they doing?" Lin Lin blankly stared at the shaking ceiling as red light began to form in her right eye and migrated to her left eye.

"Wait, what are you doing!" Lin Lin gradually lost control of her body as she screamed at the "guest" residing in her body.

Chapter 190: The Otherworldly Crimson Pupils

Boom!

Crystal? Explosion?

The bed there had been broken into two pieces.

With no time to think, Jiang Chen instinctinvely shielded Yao Yao from being hit.

One of his hand surrounded tightly around Yao Yao's quivering shoulder while he leaned against the half-destroyed bedboard, his other hand took out the PK2000 from the storage dimension.

Tatatata!

With gritted teeth, Jiang Chen held onto the rifle with his finger on the trigger. Yao Yao covered her ears with her hands as her body shook in his arms.

The bullets shattered the window into pieces, but they only managed to break a few strands of the person's hair. The figure agilely dodged all the bullets and dashed into the room.

Bullets chased the quick shadow and left bowl-sized holes in the wall.

The figure didn't seem to be anxious because of the constant firing. Instead, it dashed to the other corner of the room and dragged down the closet along with the wall.

Ka.

The bullets ran out, Jiang Chen flung the rifle to the ground as he pulled out his pistol.

One hand appeared from the shadow and something was thrown out.

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted.

With the help of the moonlight, he saw a crystal emitting a dark green sheen.

There was no time to dodge. He glanced at Yao Yao with the corner of his eyes. Jiang Chen bit the bullet and decided not to start interdimensional travelling. Rather, he reached for the crystal with his hand.

The green sheen lit up the entire room as the scorching temperature almost melted off his skin.

Energy withdraw!

The unstable energy quickly stabilized as the dark green crystal's energy instantly entered the void and turned into a transparent colorless glass.

"Eh?" The opponent was surprised. Just as Jiang Chen didn't understand how she could use the crystal as a grenade, she was also confused as to how Jiang Chen could make the crystal energy disappear.

But being surprised was one thing, the movement of the figure did not stop the slightest as her hand raised up again.

Jiang Chen's face turned green instantly.

It was not one crystal this time, the dark green crystals appeared in the air like raindrops.

Even if he had 10 hands, he could not be able to grab all the crystals!

The crystals scattered everywhere in the room, in such an enclosed space, there was nowhere to dodge.

If he wanted to avoid them, he must use interdimensional travel.

But Yao Yao...

Instantly, thousands of ideas flashed through Jiang Chen's mind, but none of them contained the thought of abandoning her.

Finally, he gritted his teeth, pushed Yao Yao on the ground as he prepared to take the explosion.

Yao Yao's eyes widened as she looked at her big brother's action in disbelief with her lips quivering. She used her tender hands to forcefully push him, she knew that if big brother was here by himself, he definitely could avoid the explosion.

But Jiang Chen's didn't let go, nor did he activate interdimensional travel, he only gritted his teeth.

"Although it is quite touching, please go die." A female voice full of mockery came from behind the closet. The crystals with sheen began to fall and the dark green energy violently swarmed the room. It could explode any moment.

Beam-!

All the sudden, a blood red beam penetrated through the door and scattered the darkness of the room. It passed the broken window and into the distance.

Under the interference of the blood red particle beam, all the crystals began to gather around the beam like metal dust encountering a magnet, then all the energy was instantly removed as the crystals shattered into clouds of dust.

It was Lin Lin standing at the door!?

But the blood red pupils emitted an unsettling strangeness.

"This is impossible!"

Shouting appeared from behind the fallen closet.

"Nothing is impossible."

Although surprised by the ability displayed by Lin Lin, right now was obviously not the best time to ask the question.

Jiang Chen let Yao Yao go and he quickly leaped toward the side to pick up the rifle.

The person hiding behind the cupboard didn't pause, seeing that the assassination had already failed, she immediately pulled the smoke grenade.

"You must be in your dreams if you think you can escape!"

The nitrogen shield was instantly activated as the turbid air flow scattered the thick smoke.

Jiang Chen carried the rifle to the fallen closet, but he realized that the person was already gone.

The window?

"Eh? What happened?" The crimison light vanished from Lin Lin's eyes as she looked bewilderedly at the room in shambles.

"Lin Lin, look after Yao Yao." Jiang Chen suppressed the anger in his chest as he took a deep breath.

"Eh? But I-"

Jiang Chen quickly took out the kinetic skeleton and put it on, and then with one hand pressed to the window, he jumped straight down.

Both of his feet stomped on the ground with full force as the shock absorber on his legs erased most of the impact.

Although the assassin avoided the patrol of the drones, when she left she still triggered the alarm. The alarm began to ring inside the base as the drone fleet quickly chased after the infiltrated target.

Jiang Chen opened his EP as the escaping target had already been locked by the drones, Jiang Chen quickly moved toward the target.

Even with snow up to his knees, with the assistance of kinetic skeleton, he still didn't feel much resistance as he inched closer and closer to the red dot.

There was a wire tied on the top of the wall, she must have used this rapport to sneak into the base.

With his knees bent, Jiang Chen pushed his feet against the ground as he leaped up and grabbed the edge of the wall with one hand. Jiang Chen somehow managed to jump over the five meters high wall of the base.

The snow-covered street was filled with zombies. When they heard the noise, the blank eyes looked in this direction as their lifeless pupils began to turn red.

"Rawr-!"

With a roar, they dragged their stiff body as the zombies began to surround Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen didn't back down. Instead, he leaped forward. Under the fully mobilized kinetic skeleton, he smashed toward the zombies like a steam train.

The gun barrel smashed through the broken head before the agitated zombies managed to surround him. Jiang Chen quickly dashed through the waves of zombies as he sprang toward an abandoned building outside of the wall.

With both feet on the ground, he vaulted up.

Hands on the edge of the building, Jiang Chen climbed to the roof, leaving the zombies at the bottom. Without slowing down, he chased after the direction of the assassin.

As he jumped between roofs, he was closer and closer to the pitch black figures.

The drones had already surrounded her. The flashing flame in the distance was a signal of the drones firing.

"You can't run, surrender now." Jiang Chen pulled the trigger as he shouted.

The two exchanging gunshots attracted the zombies on the entire street. But without the ability to climb up to buildings. they could only blindly follow the source of the sound.

<Warning: Drones reaching signal limit.>

They had exceeded the attack radius of the Hummingbird drone.

"Dammit, what a rat." Jiang Chen furiously stared at the figure dodging while he leaped at the front building.

Suddenly, that person stopped, turned around, and a mysterious smile appeared.

Jiang Chen was highly alerted by this, but his body was already in motion and he could not react anymore.

"Bye-bye."

Under the pristine moonlight, he saw the slim-figured woman blowing him a kiss.

"Fu*k!"

Before his feet touched the roof, flame emerged from the bottom of the building and the roof collapsed under the sound of the explosion.

It was explosives.

Heavy smokes filled the vicinity as the debris quickly surrounded him.

The woman looked at Jiang Chen from a distance. Mockery was all over her face as her silky black hair blew in the northern wind.

The black combat suit looked thin, but she did not look chilly at all.

"I thought he was an interesting person, but looks like he is just so-so after all."

She played with the crystal in her hand and threw to the street on the side.

A green sheen flashed as the crystal exploded, the zombies surrounding the shambles were attracted by a new sound source as they confusedly moved to that direction.

"With the cost of 127 crystals, this ability for sure burns through money." Mission ended, the black figure started to mutter to herself as she jumped in front of the shambles.

Not everyone was rich like Jiang Chen, 100 crystals were an astronomical number for most people.

She flung her wrist as the aerodynamic looking laser rifle appeared on her graceful hand.

"Is he buried inside now? This is bothersome." She let out a sigh. The battery buzzed as the laser pistol in her hand was already loaded.

With a kinetic skeleton, he might not have died, Without confirming the body, this mission could not be considered complete.

"As the leader of the force, you chased all by yourself so far out, should I call you courageous or foolish?"

She pressed on her EP as she activated the life detection device.

The signal wave scanned through the map as she tilted her head.

"No signal? Died? Or did he carry a blocking device?"

She kicked away a piece of rock as her gun pointed at the shadows among the ruins, she carefully stepped on top of the shambles.

It began to snow again.

The northern gust covered the already dim moonlight.

But all the sudden, the yet-to-shut-down life detection device on her right hand suddenly showed a red dot flashing on the map. She saw this with the corner of her eyes and she suddenly felt a chillness down to her bones.

She jotted up her head as a black figure growing bigger and bigger reflected in her contracting pupils.

Boom-!

With an abrupt jump backward, she barely dodged the thunderous blow.

Rocks scattered like bullets has hit the surrounding. The arm she used for blocking stung.

The suppressive air flow once again blew away the settled dust, as well as the snow.

One person, one hammer.

The eyes were filled with rage.

If she got any closer, she would have seen the red dot on the pupils.

Fury!

"This is impossible! How did you -" Her eyes were written with disbelief. She obviously didn't know of Jiang Chen's ability to travel through dimensions.

Without a reply, Jiang Chen continued to move.

The micro-engines in his knees kicked into overdrive. Like a cannon, he dragged the long hammer and dashed at her.

She had yet to regain her footing as she could not jump back. Under the crucial situation, the female assassin clenched her teeth and activated the particle shield on her right arm.

The faint blue particles dispersed around to form a circular shield with a radius of one meter around her.

Jiang Chen sneers as the narrowed pupils locked onto her eyes.

The power hammer obtained from the mutated human swung up, with four trails of blue light streams at the end of the hammer, it swung toward the shield in front of her arm like a meteor striking earth.

Chapter 191: The Dark and Windy Night

The particle shield made out of faint blue particles shattered. The power compressed together was instantly released as the female assassin was blown away like a bomb, colliding against a concrete wall 10 meters away.

The sound of fighting drowned the zombies nearby. The frost didn't numb their legs. Compelled by the lust for flesh, they ran toward the two of them.

Under both the kinetic skeleton as well as fury's strength, the power hammer in which the lead mutated human couldn't even lift, was put on Jiang Chen's shield and it was instantly charged again.

Without a skip in a beat, like an enraged monster, he swung the hammer.

A few dark green crystals flew towards him, Jiang Chen didn't avoid it. Instead, the nitrogen armor on his right arm blew the green dots away for meters.

"This lunatic..."The person frantically lifted her pistol and pressed the trigger.

The instant explosive force of laser weapon was perfectly demonstrated in the short distance. The raindrop-like blue beams exploded instantly, outshining the thick snow.

Nitrogen armor could not defend against laser bullets, Jiang Chen put up the hammer to shield his head while the plastic armor layered with scattering effect deflected the 10 low-power laser bullets.

Although the attack didn't manage to cause any hindrance to Jiang Chen's movement, it still forced him to lose his vision on her for a brief second.

With this opportunity, the female assassin quickly jumped towards the side and avoided the thunderous blow.

Boom-!

The concrete wall was smashed into dust as debris flew.

"Roar..." The deep roaring sound filled the air.

The disturbed zombies crowded them as they lept toward them baring their teeth and claws.

The female assassin sensed the dire situation as she swung her left hand with a metal hook. It shot straight to the top of an apartment building.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen immediately gave up on the hammer as he pulled out the PK2000 behind his back. He fired following her figure and noise.

The snow made shooting challenging. However, due to Fury and the desire for blood, the bullets managed to chase up to her as if they had eyes.

There were whimpering sounds in the distance. He could sense that he managed to land at least three shots on her.

He swung his gun to smash down a zombie who was leaping towards him. Calmly, Jiang Chen climbed onto the top of the half-destroyed concrete wall as he jumped to the top of the building.

Perhaps it was because her legs were hit, the figure became more awkward and disorientated.

After leaping through two more buildings, Jiang Chen successfully forced her into the corner.

With her back against the wall, the female assassin held onto her bleeding right leg as she stared gravely at the approaching Jiang Chen.

"Looks like there is an error in the information I collected. You are not just a foolish playboy." In a mocking voice, the female assassin said.

"I don't know how you obtained that information." Jiang Chen shrugged.

Fury was deactivated, as his eyes turned clear again.

The landscape near the mansion was relatively flat, there were no tall buildings nor were anything surrounded with high walls. It was nearly impossible to observe the inside of the mansion from outside the base. She could only use the limited amount of information to analyze Jiang Chen's whereabouts.

Jiang Chen was cautious in his mind, this person managed to sneak into the heart of the base, looks like it was necessary to upgrade security,

"Your name?" Jiang Chen stopped five meters away from her with a gun pointed at her head.

The mask covered her face and her nose, Jiang Chen couldn't see her expression clearly.

"Compared to my name, shouldn't you by more worried about your own safety?" The female assassin mocked as a victorious smile appeared on her face.

"Put down your weapon, or you could lose your hand." He had no knowledge that a giant man was standing 10 meters away with a rifle pointed directly at his arm. The killer's face carried a malevolent smile.

Although the plan was to assassinate, it would be better if they could capture him alive.

[Not working alone?]

Jiang Chen let out a sigh but he didn't put down the weapon. Instead, he glanced at the man standing meters away from him.

"Watch your back." Jiang Chen said mischievously.

The person was suddenly alerted and immediately pressed the trigger.

But the bullet didn't hit anything, because the target disappeared out of thin air!

He promptly turned the gun towards his back, but there was nothing behind him either.

"Be careful-!" Before he could hear the shout, his consciousness was terminated.

Jiang Chen who reappeared at the same place pulled the trigger without hesitation and the bullets penetrated through the back of the assasin's head.

Then, he turned his gun towards the female assassin who was not willing to disclose her name.

White blade reflected light directed at him, Jiang Chen abruptly reposted with his rifle.

Ding!

The dagger cut through the shell of the rifle as the female assassin used this glimpse of opportunity to leap over.

Jiang Chen immediately pulled the trigger, but she was already a body distance away from him. She grabbed on to the burning gun and a second dagger appearing out of the other hand.

Sparks flashed.

Jiang Chen lifted his arm as the kinetic skeleton metal frame attached to the side of his arm shielded against the hit that was aimed straight to his throat.

"Go die!" Letting go of the rifle, Jiang Chen removed the dagger slashed into the gun as he stabbed fiercely toward the female assassin's eyes.

"Not so much." The swinging dagger blocked the hit. She threw away the rifle in her hand as another ping-pong ball sized crystal appeared in her hand.

The crystal emitted a dark green light as fierce and determination flashed across her face. She squeezed out a few words between her teeth, "let's die together."

[Fu*k, what a psychotic woman.]

Cold sweat rolled down his forehead. The continuous use of interdimensional travel consumed almost all the energy there was in the bracelet.

[What do I do?!]

Bang-!

The sound of a gunshot interrupted the fight between the two.

The bullet ripped off half of her arm as the hand holding the crystal fell to the ground.

"Ahhhh!" The agonizing scream almost penetrated Jiang Chen's eardrum as the female assassin that lost her arm tumbled to the back.

Seeing that the assasin had fled, Jiang Chen kicked the dark green crystal away without stopping.

The crystal exploded 10 meters away in mid-air.

Light beamed down from the sky and locked onto the female assassin who was struggling to get up. She held onto her broken left arm with an agonized and frightened expression. Her two athletic but slim legs spread out on the concrete floor. Because of all the blood, such gesture did not look attractive at all.

With heavy breathing, Jiang Chen threw away the dagger in his hand, he wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead, as he narrowed his eyes to look in the sky.

It was the helicopter, Chu Nan.

...

Chu Nan was piloting the helicopter. After the alarm rang, he, who was taking a stroll outside, immediately headed towards the helicopter pad.

Half-kneeling at the hatch door was Zhou Xiaoxia.

She held a sniper rifle in her hands. Her merciless expression was completely contrary to her usual dumbfoundedness. The cross-sight in her field of vision locked onto the head of the female assassin.

"No need to shoot, just maintain suppression."

Seeing that Jiang Chen was okay, Sun Jiao, who was standing on the side, finally let out a breath of relief as she slowly opened her mouth.

When she heard that assassin broke into the mansion and that Jiang Chen and Yao Yao were attacked, her heart almost jumped out of her throat. Especially when she saw the image from the drones that Jiang Chen chased out alone, she almost burst out crying.

Of course, it was only an expression, Sun Jiao would obviously not cry. She carried the laser rifle and jumped onto the helicopter.

Zhou Xiaoxia didn't respond, her black hair was disheveled because of turbulence, but the hands that were holding onto the sniper rifle were steady.

Sun Jiao looked perplexed from the side of her face and she didn't say anything. She only signaled Chu Nan to lower the helicopter height in order to take Jiang Chen home.

Sun Jiao could imagine the difficulty of sniping on the helicopter, especially with the heavy storm.

With only instinct toward the weapon, she achieved this kind of accuracy?

Sun Jiao began to reminisce about the past when she was active near Liuding town - the not long period of time when they worked together.

"Ahem, commander, maybe you should really "teach" your husband? He is a leader. After all, this type of risky things should be left for us." Chu Nan left out a sigh as he approached the building.

He maneuvered the helicopter as he said jokingly, "How should I say this? He is not a bad boss."

"Mhmm." Sun Jiao half-heartedly replied. All of her focus was on Jiang Chen.

The helicopter hovered beside the roof.

Before the helicopter stabilized, Sun Jiao immediately jumped to the roof and hugged Jiang Chen.

He held onto the gorgeous figure as he felt her warmth, just as Jiang Chen wanted to say something, his expression turned peculiar.

He tenderly patted her on the back as he let her teeth bite into his shoulder.

"Is your Han Zodiac a dog?" Jiang Chen gasped for air in exaggeration.

With her face slightly red, Sun Jiao was embarrassed, but her hands still clenched tightly onto Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen noticed that her eyes were red.

"Sorry for making you worry." Jiang Chen caressed the luscious hair. He looked into the reddened eyes and began to blame himself.

He didn't think too much in the heat of the moment, he only followed because of pure anger.

His hasty move probably disrupted the entire base.

Feeling the girl in his arms calm down, Jiang Chen turned around holding her hand and looked at the already fainted female assassin.

"Let's see the real face of this rat?"

Anger flashed across Sun Jiao's face as her eyes narrowed.

"I agree, for an unwelcomed guest, we must treat her properly."

She already had plans as to how to torture this despicable person.

[Whip, candle... No, these punishments are too light.]

[We will use the cruelest tortures to found out the perpetrator behind this.]

With laser rifle in her hand, Sun Jiao walked up as she kicked off the mask on the assassin's face without mercy.

"How is this possible!"

Sun Jiao's pupils immediately contracted as she tumbled back a few steps, her face was full of disbelief.

Chapter 192: Sisters

"It has been tuned, but you should be careful when you use it. Since I haven't made one in a long time, actions with high complexity could cause a program error." After tuning the numbers on the computer, Jiang Lin removed the cords on the mechanical arm and gave it to Jiang Chen.

The silica gel feeling was no different than the skin. If the port in the back was not made of metal, it would almost be the same as a woman's hand.

Jiang Chen played with the mechanical hand for a moment and asked casually, "What's the cost to produce one of these?"

"The titanium skeleton is a bit expensive which costs around 31 crystals. The microchip used as processor along with electronic nerve were around 20 crystals in total. To be honest, I recommend purchasing microchips from Liuding town. The chips there are not only cheap, but are also more advanced compared to the Sixth Street. If we use their chips to produce kinetic skeletons, the stats in every category would improve."

"Oh? I'll keep an eye out... Also, did you implant the thing I told you about?"

"Already done, this is the control terminal." Jiang Lin put a thumb-sized memory drive in Jiang Chen's hands.

Jiang Chen picked up the memory drive as he directly inserted it into the end of the EP before the screen began to load.

"If the user had any malicious intention, the battery would be locked, and it would instantly release power that executes the user... Of course, this power could be adjusted, if you don't want to kill the user right away."

"Mhmm, beautiful... Speaking of this, do you not need to keep an eye on the kinetic skeleton production line?" Jiang Chen stared at the rocket engine in the middle of the room as he asked with an odd expression.

"I have already assigned the responsibilities to everyone and put what they needed to do in a handbook. I am only responsible for quality assurance and tuning, as well as ranking their work performance." Jiang Lin pushed the glasses up his nose and he said proudly.

The ranking was geared towards the newly joined survivors who are better known as the slaves. For those with outstanding work ethics, they would be promoted to lower citizens.

Since it would not interfere with the production, Jiang Chen was too lazy to ridicule him to not stay on task.

"Therefore? How long would this thing stay in orbit for?" Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"Uhh, this is not an exploration rocket." Jiang Lin scratched his head.

"Not an exploration rocket?" Jiang Chen was confused.

"Mhmm, precisely speaking, it's a missile capable of carrying 1000 kilograms of combat equipment."

Bang..

The mechanical arm dropped to the ground.

"How many of this can you produce!" Jiang Chen had both of his hands on Jiang Lin's shoulders as he stared at Jiang Lin passionately.

Jiang Lin felt goosebumps all over his back. He took a step back and forced a laugh.

"This thing cannot be mass produced. It's hard to obtain the materials, I can only say I will do my best..."

[What the fu*k, 1000 kilograms of load, even if it carried the ancient TNT, it would instantly evaporate half of a street. If it was switched to the concentrated bomb common on wasteland, its power would be comparable to the mid-sized tactical nuke.]

"Do your absolute best!" Jiang Chen said sincerely.

If he possessed this superweapon, it would without a doubt increase his odd in winning the war against the mutated humans.

Jiang Lin took a deep breath and nodded.

Jiang Chen picked up the mechanical arm off the ground and headed towards the direction of the mansion.

When he entered the basement, he saw the female assassin strapped tightly on top of the operating table, as well as Sun Jia who stood on the side with a perplexed expression.

"The DNA results are out." Lin Lin stretched her body after busily working on the control panels for a long time.

"What's the result!" Sun Jiao tightly clenched onto Lin Lin's shoulders.

Because their faces were so close together, Lin Lin's face turned slightly red and looked away.

"She is indeed your younger sister."

When she heard the confirmation, Sun Jiao's shoulder began to slacken. Jiang Chen noticed the perplexed expression on her face, he sighed, walked to her and hugged her around the shoulder.

"I'll spare her-"

"No, she almost killed you and Yao Yao." Sun Jiao had determination in her eyes, but it was soon replaced with blankness.

On one side laid the only relative she had in the world. On the other side stood the person she loves.

"I don't want to make this difficult for you."

"But-"

"Leave it to me. Trust me." Jiang Chen stared at her shaking eyes as he said with an assertive tone.

With a blushed face, Sun Jiao lowered her head.

"Then I'll leave it to you..." As she finished speaking, Sun Jiao pushed opened the door and left the basement.

Although she had thought of the countless of cruel ways to extract information from the assasin, when she realized that the assassin was actually her sister, she was no longer certain.

To find her lost sister, she had covered the entire Wanghai city with her footsteps. It was until she finally met Jiang Chen did she temporarily put a pause to the journey of searching for her family.

If she stayed here, Jiang Chen must feel restrained because he has to consider her feeling.

Sun Jiao, who already knew the meaning of tenderness, didn't want him to feel conflicted.

So she chose to leave.

Seeing Sun Jiao's back, Jiang Chen sighed.

"This is problematic."

The assassin was the female boss' sister. Could the plot get any more stereotypical than this?

"How about you take her as part of your collection as well, since your prey limit is anyone within 10 years both ways." Lin Lin suggested.

The joke was not made at the best time.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

Lin Lin frightenedly trembled and lifted her hands to cover her mouth.

"How did she make the crystals explode, did you figure it out?"

Under a normal circumstance, the energy in the crystal is very stable. Even in a high-temperature and high-pressure environment, it would not explode. The crystals could even be cut into smaller pieces, hence why it could be used as a currency.

"Based on DNA analysis, she could freely change her brain wave pattern. It is likely that she changed her brain wave pattern to coincide with a special particle chain within the crystals, which resulted in resonance. Through experimental analysis, once the particle chain is disrupted, the entire crystal structure would collapse which would instantly release all the energy. This should be an ability that evolved from genetic vaccine. Also, about the crystal-"

Lin Lin seemed to have made a new discovery, but Jiang Chen didn't have the mood to be thinking about other things.

"Mhmm, I see, go back first, I'll find you later." He interrupted and ordered in an undertone.

"Eh? Do you not need my help anymore?"

"Because the things happening next might not be PG." Jiang Chen shrugged his shoulder.

Lin Lin's face turned red as she cursed out whiling walking out in quick steps carrying her tablet.

"Pervert..."

Jiang Chen ignored Lin Lin's bad mouthing as he quietly waited for her footsteps to disappear.

He closed and locked the basement door, took a deep breath and walked to the female assassin.

Sun Xiaorou, that was her name.

If one carefully studies at her face, one would discover that her looks did resemble Sun Jiao.

As for the differences, it was mainly that the assasin was shorter in height . She was also not as busty compared to her sister and her face still carried a hint of immaturity. The broken hand was sprayed with medicine mist and bandaged up. Her limbs were locked onto the operating table with all four extended out. Her black combat suit was changed into loose white shirt and pants. Just by judging her current appearance alone, it was hard to imagine her as an assassin.

He shook his head as he walked beside the operating table. Looking at the buttons with many unknown functions, he paused for a moment before randomly pressing down a button.

"Ahhhhh!" The scream almost pierced through his eardrums. Jiang Chen had to cover his ears.

Sun Xiaorou violently shook as her eyes turned white and foam was dripping out of her mouth.

A faint pungence appeared, Jiang Chen looked at the light yellow liquid dripping along the operating table and an awkward expression appeared on his face.

He only wanted to startle her and wake her up.

He didn't think that the button was for electrocuting.

[But what are the purposes of the other buttons?]

Chapter 193: Punishment

Sun Xiaorou woke up from her paralyzed state.

She stared fiercely at Jiang Chen, then her eyes began to wander around the basement.

"Don't bother, there is not a single crystal in this basement." Jiang Chen smiled.

"What did you do to me?" Sun Xiaorou quickly scanned her clothes. When she realized her black combat suit had been changed, anger appeared between her eyebrows, but the smile he had was no different.

"Your name is Sun Xiaorou."

Sun Xiaorou paused for a moment. She the looked at Jiang Chen in alert without making a sound. She was confused as to how this man knew her name.

[Looks like she haven't seen Sun Jiao yet...]

"Where are you from? Why are you assassinating me?" Jiang Chen grabbed a chair and sat beside the operating table.

A determined and scornful laugh eame out of her mouth and she said mockingly. "You really think I am going to tell you?"

"How would I know without trying? If possible, I would prefer if you don't make me do cruel things to beauties." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"Oh? If it is just the electrocuting, you are far away from getting anything." Sun Xiaorou mocked.

She had already been mentally prepared about the consequence of being captured.

"Have you been implanted with the chip?" Jiang Chen didn't get enraged by her tone. Instead, he asked with the calm voice.

"Only foolish people would be happy about those boring dog chains." The voice was contemptuous.

She was not forced by the slavery chip.

Sun Jiao was her only family, then this eliminated the possibility of her family being taken hostage.

An absolute form of loyalty?

Hard to believe, especially on the wasteland without orders.

"Do you have a sister?" Jiang Chen asked the question attentively.

Her expression did not change the slightest.

"I don't have family."

Jiang Chen wondered if Sun Jiao would be heartbroken after these words, her sister already couldn't remember her.

For the people injected with the genetic vaccine, the truth-telling liquid is ineffective. If he wanted to obtain information, then it must be interrogation with the help of a lie detector. Seeing her defiant stance, Jiang Chen was troubled.

Sun Jiao's sister... Based on relationship, she should be considered his sister-in-law.

From any perspective, using torture on an assasin was the best choice to obtain useful information. But Jiang Chen could not do that to his sister-in-law.

"Then let's make a deal. If you cooperate, I can let you go, and give you ten thousand crystals." Jiang Chen decided to first lure her with money.

To his surprise, her stubbornness matched her sister's.

"Crystals? You don't understand what this is about at all." The voice was filled with arrogance and contempt.

"Oh? Don't you use crystals as a currency?" Jiang Chen tried to make a conversation.

"Ignorant."

Still, the tone was filled with mockery.

Jiang Chen was instantly enraged, but his face was expressionless. He only grabbed a long needle injector from the pan beside the operating table.

"Do you know what this is?" Jiang Chen shook the needle in front of her nose as he said slowly.

"What?" Sun Xiaorou held her neck up as she scorned.

"Nerve catalyst, it would increase your nerve cell activity by one hundred times. In simple words, it could increase your sensitivity one hundred times." Jiang Chen lightly pushed the needle as the colorless liquid emerged from the tip.

"You are a devil." Sun Xiaorou's expression changed as she tried to move back, but because of her tied down limbs, her struggle was futile.

"I don't have time to waste on you. The mutated humans are across the river bank and my people are waiting for my order. You only have two choices right now, be truthful, or be tortured until you tell the truth." Jiang Chen said in menace.

This medicine was purchased by Zhou Guoping at the Sixth Street black market. Five milliliter of liquid cost one hundred crystals, which signified its rarity.

"Then why don't you try!" Pew!

Jiang Chen dodged her spit. He was not angry. Instead, he laughed as he injected the needle right into her vein.

Looking into her eyes of despair, he pushed all the liquid into her.

Her limbs twitched as if she was having a spasm, then her body began to quiver. It took her a long time before she breathing returned to normal.

"You, you filth of a human being..."

"Do you not have the energy to speak?" Jiang Chen threw the needle away as a smirk emerged on his face.

"..." Her voice was trembling so much Jiang Chen could not make out what she was cursing about.

If possible, he didn't want to do this, but since it already started, then it must continue.

He pressed his finger onto her right arm.

"Wooo!"

"Are you sensitive to this extreme? Then let me ask you-"

"In, in your dreams..."

"Okay, then imagine what happened today as a bad dream. Next, what should we try? Electrocution? Or high-temperature SPA? Or something else?" Jiang Chen pressed a red button.

"Ahhhhh-!"

The agonizing scream revibrated in the entire basement.

Lin Lin, with one ear on the door, shivered and she quickly retracted her head.

[What was this pervert doing!]

Because of curiosity, when Jiang Chen closed the door, she quietly sneaked back.

But just as she put her ear against the door, she heard the agonizing scream.

She remembered the words she spoke that provoked Jiang Chen as she shuddered again before carefully leaving the basement.

...

Looking at Sun Xiaorou with foams in her mouth, both eyes turning white, and her limps spasming on the operating table, Jiang Chen rubbed his wary temples.

Even after the injection of medicine that increased her sensivity by one hundred times, she still lasted two hours.

Seeing the stains at the edge of the operating table, Jiang Chen held his breath and his expression was somewhat awkward.

[This seems to be over the line?]

But he couldn't think of better ways. In the end, he didn't hurt his body, as to the mental trauma... let time work its magic.

Another note worth mentioning, he didn't expect her to be a virgin.

Jiang Chen picked up the notebook and hastily left the basement.

At the door, he met Sun Jiao with a perplexed expression.

"Is it over?"

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded awkwardly.

Sun Jiao didn't say anything and kissed him.

Jiang Chen blankly looked at Sun Jiao's closed eyes before he shut his eyes as well.

Lips apart.

"Sorry, I-"

"Don't apologize, she deserves the punishment. Regardless of where it happens, the fate of assassins is public execution... I am already thankful that you spared her life. The damage on her body could be healed with time-" Sun Jiao seemed to have thought this through as there was no more hesitation in her eyes.

"No, I didn't hurt her during the process. But she provoked me, I turned hot-headed, and then I..." As he spoke, Jiang Chen's expression turned more and more awkward.

Sun Jiao paused for a moment, then her face turned red and she gently bit her lips.

"Pervert." Sun Jiao smashed his shoulder and she quickly walked downstairs.

Seeing Sun Jiao's figure, Jiang Chen put up his hand wanting to explain something, but then he put it down.

There was no use in explaining once the girl sees the chaos in the basement.

He will have to wait until the night to explain to her "privately."

Perhaps, this was the evilest thing he has done in his entire life.

Chapter 194: Klein Particles

The Northern Alliance District.

As one of the rare safe havens inside Pan-Pacific area, the description of this place was only applicable when compared to the ruins and shambles.

The survivors left on this wasteland migrated north as they established a survivor camp along the Yellow River South of the Golden City. The population density of this area was not high before the war. Therefore, the concentration of zombies was naturally low. Without the direct impact of a nuclear weapon, the radiation level was much lower compared to developed area. The mutant population was also meager. Other than the mutants that migrated from north of the Golden city, this place possessed almost no lethal danger.

Stability brought order and prosperity.

Despite the harsh environment and the barren lands, they still manage to plot out thousands of acres of "arable land" on the wasteland. Despite the low production, it ultimately managed to feed the tens of thousands of survivors who fled here.

Dictatorship, power, stability.

These three words could holistically describe this "empire."

Although it was named as the Northern Alliance, the armed force that controlled the "security" of this place of land controlled the life of all the survivors. In the form of military government, they managed the food production and subsequently dictated the entire area.

It was rumored that they had been plotting against Wanghai city for a long time already.

Of course, Sun Xiaorou didn't belong to the military government, but rather a religious group based on the northern area - the Dusk Church.

They promoted the forthcoming of an apocalypse and fully believed the terror of the apocalypse. But different from the majority of people who lost hope, they also firmly believed that their spiritual leader Bo Yu could lead them to escape the solar system, find a second Sun and establish a new home for the humans.

It was quite a coincidence, the purpose of their trip to Wanghai city was to obtain the <Project Garden of Eden> buried in Fallout Shelter 005 and to acquire the technology to establish the biosphere in space.

To be able to enter the planning bureau inside the city and obtain the exact location of Fallout Shelter 005, they were not reluctant to partner up with the mutated humans from the Seventh Area. All the firearms of the mutated human, as well as the security password of the Carmen Pharmaceutical, were provided by them.

But unfortunately, their fate was deteremined and they were to return empty-handed. Other than metal debris, there was nothing left there. After clearing out the mutated creature that infiltrated Fallout Shelter 005, Jiang Chen blew up the server of the article intelligence and cleaned out anything useful inside.

As for the metal box that stored <Project Garden of Eden>, after Lin Lin copied all the information to the chip inside her head, Jiang Chen destroyed the original copy.

Jiang Chen wondered what kind of expression would be on Bo Yu's face once he went through all the trouble to finally enter to Fallout Shelter 005, and only found junks inside.

But regardless, even if Jiang Chen knew what happened to Fallout Shelter 005, he could not stand in front him and say "I already cleared Fallout Shelter 005 and I have taken everything away."

In this case, conflict was inevitable. Jiang Chen could not let the mutated humans inside Qingpu. The leader of The Dusk Church Bo Yu would not give up on entering the city center. When he sent the assassin, he already demonstrated his hostility.

As to how the weapons and supplies would be transported to Wanghai, and how she joined The Dusk, Sun Xiaorou didn't have those memories. Since she joined the cult at a very young age and based on the face that all religions have the same tendencies, brainwashing was an unavoidable step.

After all, it was about the crystals.

In the end, Sun Xiaorou, in herhalf-unconscious state, blurted out random things. After attempting to piece together her broken sentences, Jiang Chen could not summarize the information she said.

But a keyword she continuously emphasized drew his attention.

Klein Particles.

It was the third time he has heard this word.

...

"Ahhhh!"

Just as he pushed open Lin Lin's door, Jiang Chen heard a sudden whimper.

He looked confusedly at the quivering Lin Lin.

"What happened to you?"

"No...Nothing!"

The sharp voice seemed to be out of tune.

Was she traumatized somehow?

Due to Lin Lin being regularly irregular, Jiang Chen wasn't bothered by it and he cut straight to the topic.

"About what happened last time, I have a question."

Lin Lin cutely gulped as she nodded her head intensely.

It was rare that she was this cooperative.

Usually, she would start with, "Why do I have to help you?".

Jiang Chen obviously didn't know that the disobedient Lin Lin sneaked back when he closed the door and heard some bad things.

"...Then I am going to ask, last time, it was Tingting that shot out the red light?"

Jiang Chen's expression was weird when he said the name Tingting.

Although in that virtual world, she entered it in the form of a human and became a couple with him, her original form is a "bug."

"Mhmm!" Lin Lin nodded furiously.

"That particle, what exactly is it?"

When she heard this, Lin Lin's expression turned earnest.

"That's what I wanted to say... I found something abnormal on the surface of the crystal."

As she finished saying, Lin Lin ran to the front of the experiment table. She picked up a polished crystal and put it inside the glass sphere of an odd-looking equipment.

"This is...?"

"You won't know even if I tell you, it is a really convenient equipment... Before I always thought you guys collected them because they were shiny and that because they could also replace hydrocarbon as an energy source. But after doing some experiments, this thing is not as simple as it looks."

Inside the glass sphere, the dark green crystal began to change color.

"The complete combustion of the energy of a crystal could release the energy equivalent to 2.47 kg of coal. After, it would turn into this form."

The crystal lost its shine and changed into a quartz-like appearance.

"And then?" Jiang Chen looked at the crystal keenly.

Lin Lin didn't answer Jiang Chen's question. Instead, she asked rhetorically with mysteriousness on her face, "Have you heard of the fourth dimension?"

"Fourth dimension? The dimension that includes time?" Jiang Chen had heard this before as he had been through university after all.

"Then let me ask you another question, have you heard about energy that belongs to the fourth dimension?"

Jiang Chen was dumbfounded. One because it was too abstract, two because he didn't know why she suddenly brought up the question.

"Every matter in this world, including you and me, could be measured by three measurements: length, width and height. These are all measurements of the third dimension. But if time is added to the list, then the Jiang Chen today would be completely different from the Jiang Chen tomorrow. This would be the fourth dimension. The same as the 1.50 m Lin Lin is completely different than the 2.00 m Lin Lin in the third dimension."

"If we can add a timeline to energy. Imagine this, the crystal's "energy today" have been used, but a few thousand years later, its energy would be filled up again..."

"Wait, what about the conservation of energy?" Jiang Chen had to interrupt.

"Of course it is conserved. Because from the start, the Klein particle exists in the forth dimension, but it is limited to a "point" that we can't see. But at a certain time point, some Klein particles would fall to the third dimension, in our eyes, the most obvious demonstration would be 'energized.'"

Because it was too scientifically fictional, despite Lin Lin being extremely slow and detailed in her description, Jiang Chen still felt lost.

"You can try this crystal, use your power to draw its energy. Remember, the energy amount of this crystal before was five." As she spoke, Lin Lin put the colorless crystal in Jiang Chen's hand.

It was already empty.

Charging the interdimensional bracelet with it would be impossible?

As he thought this through, Jiang Chen still followed Lin Lin's instruction and put the crystal in his hand.

Then, his expression turned to astonishment.

He somehow obtained energy from the empty crystal.

The amount of energy that supplied the bracelet was no less than the crystal with five energy points!

"Is there energy remaining?" Jiang Chen asked in disbelief.

Lin Lin shook her head.

"The energy belonging to the third dimension has been completely exhausted. You could bring this crystal to any production equipment and it could not be used as a source of energy. But just as I had suspected, your interdimensional bracelet could directly draw Klein particles from the fourth dimension. Another way to say this is that you exhausted the energy that could appear in the crystal in the future."

Jiang Chen's eyes widened as he stared at his right wrist, the tattoo.

"No, it could also draw electricity to charge it. It would cost 100 watts of electricity to charge it to full, with crystal, it would only cost 10 energy points. But based on your explanation, one energy crystal, with the energy fallen to the third dimension was equivalent to 2.47 kilograms of coal. 10 energy points of crystal Klein Particles must at least exceed 100 watts of electricity by 10 folds?"

Lin Lin sighed.

"Think carefully, when you use electricity to charge interdimensional bracelet, did electricity follow your hand to go into the ground?"

Jiang Chen tightened his eyebrows as he recollected when he charged before, he shook his head.

"No."

"Of course not. If that happened, you would be fried." Lin Lin said in frustration.

"The electricity absorbed by your bracelet is not the electricity generated through electron flowing from the negative end to positive end, but rather it completely consumed the electron itself. It is complicated to explain, but you could interpret it as the particle has completed vanished. Therefore, you wouldn't think that with only 100 watts of electricity, it could manage to travel through space dimensions?" In the end, Lin Lin ridiculed.

"Therefore, crystal... This type of biological formation, is a container for Klein particles?"

"That's right. As to how exactly it contained the mysterious Klein particle, I haven't figured it out yet. But crystal is not as simple as it appears to be. Including the female assassin detonating the crystal, as well as the red beam shot up by Tingting, they are all phenomenon of Klein particles releasing its energy to the third dimension." Lin Lin explained with an earnest face.

-

-

Chapter 195: The Unpeaceful Sixth Street

The unrest that happened overnight had been settled.

The assassin was caught and captured in the mansion's basement. The boss was free of harm and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Hearing that assassin sneaked into the base, Cheng Weiguo, who was responsible for the security of the base, immediately lectured and cursed the soldiers patrolling on the wall. He pulled the knight emblems off of their chest and ordered them to kneel in the snow naked for an entire day as punishment.

In this type of weather, to kneel in the snow for an entire day, even with the genetic vaccine, they would lose their life.

But Jiang Chen spared them with his words.

It was not their fault.

Being able to avoid the drones equipped with the infrared sensor, the assassin must be skillful. Through his combat with Sun Xiaorou, Jiang Chen discovered that she was not to be underestimated.

Because of the existence of a powerful enemy, punishing their own just to release anger was no doubt a foolish move. Although Jiang Chen didn't understand the crafts of leading people, he still could think wearing others' shoes.

"This humiliation will be washed away by your future achievement. If you really feel guilty, then use your loyalty to repay, not your life."

Jiang Chen said to the humiliated "naked knights" who were kneeling on the ground.

Although he spared the patrolling soldiers, the topic of base security was the conversation around the table again.

How to maximize the resource available to increase the effectiveness of patrol? Jiang Chen suggested a brutal but straightforward idea.

Bulldoze all the buildings within one hundred meter radius outside of the base to clear out the area.

They would reuse the construction materials as much as possible, if they couldn't, then they would drag one hundred meters out and pile it up.

Without buildings to take cover, it would not be as easy to infiltrate the base under the dual surveillance of drones and patrols.

This issue was finally resolved.

...

The bedroom wall was disfigured by the bullets and required renovation. Therefore, Jiang Chen had to choose a different room to sleep.

But Sun Jiao already made the decision for him as she dragged him into her own bedroom. She was ready to use her own body to "interrogate" him to see what exactly he did to her sister.

Of course, there was no sense of blame.

However, the fact that her man slept with her own sister made the possessive Miss Sun Jiao displeased.

The result of a displeased Sun Jiao was that Jiang Chen had to stay up tonight...

The only pitiful person was Yao Yao.

After she recovered from the shock, the small loli worked up the courage to suggest that if he had nowhere to stay, he could stay with Yao Yao. But sister Sun Jiao was one step ahead so Yao Yao could only pout at the closed door in disappointment.

The next morning, Jiang Chen bumped into Yao Yao, who, just like him, also had dark circles.

Feeling guity over the fact that he didn't manage to fulfill his promise, Jiang Chen suggested a compensation plan - to stay with her for the entire day.

"Am I really not heavy?" Yao Yao turned around asking worriedly.

"Not heavy, Yao Yao, you are really light." Jiang Chen quickly shook his head.

A timid smile appeared on Yao Yao's face and she happily turned to look in the front. She dangled her feet in the air while moving her tiny butt backward to sit in a more comfortable position.

But this troubled Jiang Chen.

It was not the weight, but the tender feeling scratching on his legs had touched an indescribable place.

To simply describe the state between these two people...

Inside the bedroom of a girl, Jiang Chen sat on the side of the soft bed, and Yao Yao sat on his legs.

He took a deep breath as he tried his hardest to suppress the part of him from raising up. It would be awkward if it "stood up".

But a faint fragrance entered his nostril because of his deep breath.

The tip of his head felt a tingling sensation.

Uh Oh!

Maybe it was because she felt something hard, or sensed Jiang Chen's "trouble," Yao Yao's face began to turn red.

"Big brother, you don't need to endure this..."

As she said that, Yao Yao buried her tiny head and silently putting her tablet down. Her feet also stopped dangling. The long shaking eyelashes seemed to be waiting for something.

[No, it's better to endure.]

After an arduous internal conflict, Jiang Chen finally suppressed his desire and he decided not to put his claws on Yao Yao.

Seeing that Jiang Chen made no moves, Yao Yao pouted her mouth but didn't say anything as she continued to research on her tablet.

Jiang Chen let out a relief as he glanced at the dazzling amount of information on the tablet. The hiddenly shocked Jiang Chen also picked up his own tablet off the table and began to take care of his own business.

There was a large discrepancy of force at the front line. Based on the information provided by Zhao Gang, it is expected that after 20 days, the mutated human force would be ready to attack. When that happens, the river below the Zhufeng Highway bridge would be frozen. The mutated humans would launch their attack at that time.

On the screen was a visual sent back from the Hummingbird drone. Because of the existence of an anti-air machine gun, the task of capturing video footage could not be given to Chu Nan.

The dense red dots accumulated behind the snow hill on the side of the highway, as well as the anti-air machine guns and cannons covered in white cloths.

[If Jiang Lin's missile is completed, it would only take one hit to achieve what I want...] Jiang Chen fantasized in his head but quickly shook his head. He then called Zhou Guoping from the Sixth Street.

The phone was quickly picked up.

Zhou Guoping's bald head appeared on the screen.

"Hello? Boss. Do you need me to do something?" The respectful voice lightened his mood.

"I need mercenaries, do you know any you are familiar with at Sixth Street?" Jiang Chen cut straight to the topic.

"Mercenaries?" Zhou Guoping paused for a moment, "Do you know already, boss?"

"Know?" Jiang Chen's expression was odd, he didn't understand what Zhou Guoping said.

"Mhmm, there is a rumor recently on Sixth Street. It said that the wreckages of 'God's Cane' lie inside somewhere in the city center. Of course, the validity of the information has yet to be confirmed, I am still investigating. If, boss, you are also interested that thing, I can help you investigate carefully." Zhou Guoping said mysteriously.

"The God's Cane?" Jiang Chen was lost, just as he was about to ask what it was, he suddenly recalled the <Colonel's Diary> he read in the virtual world.

"Oh, I almost forgot that you are not from Wanghai City." Zhou Guoping slapped his forehead as he quickly explained, "It's a sky based weapon, also known as an orbital weapon-"

"Mhmm, I know, but what does that have to do with the Sixth Street?" Jiang Chen interrupted Zhou Guoping's explanation, he only wanted to listen to critical information.

"A mysterious wealthy man sent out quests at major bars and set a reward of one million crystals for the wreckage of God's Cane."

"One million crystals? Fu*k, is that person crazy?" Jiang Chen almost jumped up.

Yao Yao looked at Jiang Chen in confusion. She moved her butt as she readjusted the way she sat.

"Ahem, the amount has been verified by Sixth Street officials. The quest had been stamped with the metal seal. With Sixth Street's official reputation, this quest shouldn't be fraudulent." Zhou Guoping took a moment he continued, "The mercenaries stationed in the Sixth Street have gone insane. There are fewer missions in the winter as all of those people like to spend their days rotting away in the bars. Now someone offered such an astronomical number, even the not-so-strong hunting teams began to make moves."

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows furrowed.

"So you are saying, it’s hard to hire people now?"

"I wouldn’t say it is hard, but the price is definitely higher."

"That’s okay, I’ll send you the mission… Also, regarding the God’s Cane, keep an eye out for me."

"Yes, boss." Zhou Guoping exaggeratedly bowed.

Jiang Chen closed the communication menu and rubbed his nose.

He had an ominous feeling.

The snow this year would be much colder compared to the years before.

Chapter 196: Mercenaries

Snow, as thick as a blanket, covered the desolated street.

Other than the worker removing snow, the only noise on the entire street was the freezing northern wind.

Oh, not quite. There was still one place that maintained the liveliness of spring.

People shouted, celebrated, unleashed their pressure, and spent away their dreary days.

This place was the Fake Leg Bar. Although they have only been open for less than one month, the high-quality alcohol garnered the hearts of all the survivors. In front of the bar counter, the muscular mercenary had a foot on the chair as he showed off his scars drunkenly. The barely covered lady walked among the dark corners of the bar to wait for the prey of the night. Gamblers put two tables together as they played poker and dices.

Just based on these few people, this place would appear as no different than the Bullet Shell Bar on the next street. The only difference was, the security here was top notch - to the point of unbelievable. But, it was not like this when the bar just opened.

Alcohol was a lucrative industry regardless of the geographic location. The existence of Fake Leg Bar, without a doubt, ended the reign of bars on the entire street. When people tried the beer with the sweet wheat aroma, no one would be interested in the stuff made with industrial alcohol. Even the wealthy in the inner circle would occasional drop by to have a drink or two.

The high profitability naturally drew the jealousy of competitors. When threatening didn't work, the owner of each bar used all kinds of despicable techniques.

Fights, theft, even blackmail.

But those who used these techniques obviously underestimated Zhou Guoping's ability. His profession was a bandit. In terms of despicable techniques, he was the master of all.

Bribery, assassination, and vandalism.

After chopping down six dirty overreaching hands consecutively, the people looking for trouble finally became cautiously. Immediately, he spread out a rumor that the boss of the store had a special connection with the Group of Ten council members. After hearing the news, people were still hesitating if they should take the risk and finally give up the ill- intentions in their mind. They wondered if they should just accept the fact that Fake Leg Bar dominated the market.

Other than great security, the design of the bar was also customer friendly. The second and third floor were renovated into rooms, providing privacy for the males and females that needed their own space and to provide the wary survivors a place to release their deep level of stress.

Like usual, Zhou Guoping wore a grey suit. He casually sat at a wooden table as he chatted with the mercenaries that wandered the wasteland. The talkative boss garnered the friendliness from the mercenaries. Even his blad head became a bright spot for this bar.

Just like the grandpa in KFC.

As to why. It was because if someone talked about something interesting, he would put out a tab that drinks would be on the house.

"And at the northern area of city center, guess what I saw? I saw a Mother of Death Claw! Dammit, I thought it was just a nuclear crater, so I wanted to see if there was anything worthy inside."

"Ok, buddy, Mother of Death Claw would only return to nuclear crater when they give birth. In the winter, they would usually hide in a cave, you are bullshi*ting too much." A middle-aged man smiled, he took the cigar out of this mouth, shook it in the dust tray. His face had a frightening scar that stretched from his left eye to the right tip of his mouth. Because of this scar, his smile looked daunting.

"If the one-eyed Lev said that, then it must be."

"That's right, buddy, the scar on this old fellow's face was left by the Mother of Death Claw."

The young man turned red. He took a big gulp of the beer to disguise the embarrassment.

Zhou Guoping looked at the chatting mercenaries with a smile. But he was planning in this mind as to when he should speak, and who he should hire.

The young man should be new to the scene, at least he didn't look like he was in the profession before. As to the Slavic middle-aged man, he must be a character. It was rumored that he was a fighter jet pilot for CCCP. He didn't get sent back after the war. Instead, he was taken to Wanghai City as the special experiment test subject. When the apocalypse happened, he used his impeccable skills to escape from the lab before he started to wander on the wasteland.

But Zhou Guoping didn't plant to hire him. Regardless of how powerful he was, he was only a lone traveler. The boss' instruction was that he needed a lot of people, a team at least the size of 50 people.

It was difficult, especially in the environment where everyone was plotting for the city center.

But the boss's order is absolute, Zhou Guoping's eyes continually glanced at the door. He was waiting for a person to show up.

The oak door was pushed open as a gust of cold wind mixed with ice shards blew inside.

The man drinking beside the door shivered because of the wind. Just as he was about the curse at the person who opened the door, he saw the person's face clearly and the swear that was about to burst out of him was swallowed down.

Buzzcut, grey winter suit, he looked rather ordinary. When he stepped into the bar, he was not rowdy like most people. Instead, he sat at the counter with a low profile and ordered a beer.

But when Zhuo Guoping saw the person, his eyes immediately lit up and walked over with a smile.

It was Luo Yang, the leader of the Black Blood Mercenaries. Although he had an ordinary face, he possessed an ability that is not to be underestimated by anyone. On top of that, he had the abilities of the 70 warriors who fight for him.

"How's the reward today?" Zhou Guoping sat beside him and used a casual tone to chat with him.

"Terrible, other than snow, there was blood. The northern part of the city center has been completely explored. A zombie nest was even cleared out and there were no signs of the satellite wreckage at all." Luo Yang took a sip of his drink as he warily rubbed his head.

"Nothing at all?"

"Basically, only when you enter the city center would you start to have some respect for the dumb zombies. It was so dense, and you couldn't see the end. Our truck mulled through the crowd and fired fiercely into the herds of zombies. Even then, we were almost stuck there twice."

"Have an open mind, buddy. Since that is the world of zombies, even Death Claw would have to avoid there." Zhuo Guoping comforted him as he took out a pack of cigarette and handed one to him.

Luo Yang let out a sigh and lit one for himself.

"Has there been any good missions recently?"

"You give up on the 'one million reward' mission?" Zhuo Guoping cracked a smile.

"I can't use my brothers' life to take the risk. I have a feeling that it would be a pit without a bottom. It can't be filled regardless of how many lives were shed." When he heard one million crystals, greed radiated through Luo Yang's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a grave concern.

Compared to his colleagues that dove into city center like flies, he maintained some rationality.

"Let's talk about something happy. I happen to have a mission."

"How much money?" He took a sip as Luo Yang said quite curiously.

"Ten thousand crystals."

"What!" Luo Yang spat the beer out. He looked at Zhuo Guoping with eyes widened, "Ten thousand? Are you sure?"

"I am certain." Zhou Guoping nodded his head with eyes narrowed.

"What's the mission ?" Luo Yang wiped his mouth as he said cautiously.

"Have you heard the Fishbone base?" Zhuo Guoping said nonchalantly.

"I have heard a thing or two. An external force's base stationed in Wanghai City with quite a powerful force."

Because the trades with Zhao Corporation were conducted secretly, Zhou Guoping didn't reveal the boss behind this bar. So, to the outside, the Fishbone base was a mystery. Most of the people only knew that there was a base in Qingpu, but even the exact location was unknown.

As to why it was obvious, there were a countless number of survivor camps on the wasteland, but most were unfriendly. For example, the Huizhong Mercenaries were already wiped out.

"The hirer is their boss. As for the mission, it is on here."

As he spoke, Zhou Guoping took out a sheet of paper and put it on the counter.

After wavering for a moment, Luo Yang picked up the contract. He scanned the paper and his expression turned more and more stern.

"This is impossible! What kind of joke is this? Stopping the mutated humans from Seventh area at Taifu river... This is asking my men to die."

"Is that the case? If you think that way, then it is okay, although I personally think it is a pity to give it up." Zhou Guoping sighed, pretending to feel pitiful as he took back the contract.

"I don't see where the pity is coming from. You have to have your life to spend money." Luo Yang laughed.

"Do you think the Fishbone base will lose ?" Zhou Guoping asked with a smile.

"Based on what I know, there are three thousand something mutated humans at the Seventh area, although they might not be the smartest, they are natural warriors." Luo Yang said. "Even if they only bring half of the people, it would be at least fifteen hundred people. A soldier discrepancy of more than ten times, only a dumbas*s would accept this mission. Mutated humans would squash them like ants."

Luo Yang took a big chug as he shook his head in disappointment.

He obviously was not disappointed at the fate of the Fishbone base, but rather he was sad over the ten thousand crystals that slipped away before his own eyes.

"But based on my information, the Fishbone base has quite a powerful force, such as heavy firearms." Zhou Guoping smiled.

"Heavy firearms? Haha." Luo Yang scorned, he didn't agree.

He knew a few tactics of mutated humans.

The mutated humans occupying the steel factory at the Seventh area used steel almost lavishly. With their pure muscle strength, they could carry the thick C-Grade steel armor to take charge, it was a nightmare for all light infantries.

Heavy firearms? Okay, it was effective. But when all the mutated humans spread out and charge over the wide frozen river, how many shots would the cannons manage to fire? Once the mutated humans pass through the line of defense, no firearms would be useful and the subsequent battle will likely become a one-sided slaughter.

"As for the exact fighting tactics, as the middleman, I am not sure. But in your opinion, if they have an external force, without a certain confidence in victory, would they fight to the death for Qingpu?"

"Regardless if they have confidence or not, for us, the risk is too high." Luo Yang shook his head.

"But risk and reward is proportional, isn't that right? Or you wouldn't be taking your men into the city center."

Luo Yang's expression was rather awkward when he heard those words.

Seeing this, Zhuo Guoping paused and lowered his voice.

"I have a piece of information here, are you interested?"

Luo Yang saw the mysteriousness of Zhuo Guoping and his expression turned serious, waiting for him to finish.

"Other than this ten thousand crystals, there is also another perk. I can release the information to you, but do understand that it is against the rules. For the sake of my business, I hope you can keep this a secret."

"Ahem, Mr. Zhou, you know me very well."

"Of course, this is why I found you for this mission. 10% of the profit of a trade route between Qingpu and Liuding Town, the type of trade is food."

Chapter 197: Gathering a force

Zhou Guoping brought a good news from the Sixth Street.

Black Blood Mercenaries accepted the mission and mobilized to Taifu river the next day. In addition to the new recruits, a mercenary group of 85 people on the wasteland could be considered a sizable force.

When Zhou Guoping threw a bait of 10% food trade profit, Luo Yang agreed without the slightest hesitation.

The popularity of the food industry in Sixth Street was proven to be a lucrative business. And because of this, Zhao Corporation controlling the entire market had crystals flooding in, and everyone in Sixth Street was well aware of this.

Hearing Zhou Guoping's words and considering the relationship between the Fishbone Base and Zhao Corporation, it finally dawned on Luo Yang. The food in the Sixth Street actually came from the Fishbone Base! Presumably, Zhao Chenwu, that old fox, was controlling the underground sewerage entrance which must be leading to the Fishbone Base.

But Luo Yang didn't spread the shocking piece of news out since the less the number of people knew, the more advantageous it would be for him. If he could manage to get a slice of the pie of the trade route to Liuding Town, he would accept the mission at whatever cost! With Black Blood Mercenaries' reputation, there wouldn't be a problem in transporting the goods from Qingpu to Liuding Town situated at the exit of the Yangtze River.

With a stable source of income, Black Blood Mercenaries' equipment and size would expand and improve, and his prestige would consequently heighten. If he could manage to become a council member, he would be able to join the ranks of the inner circle of the powerful!

Despite having accepted the mission, there was one point he was confused about.

Since Fishbone Base had a special relationship with Zhao Corporation, why didn't they request help from them? To protect his own interest, Zhao Chenwu would do anything to help, wouldn't he?

Jiang Chen had obviously considered this problem.

It's just that...

"How did you get in trouble again?" Sitting in the virtual boardroom, Zhao Chenwu smiled wryly.

"Trouble finds me," Jiang Chen shrugged.

"Sixth Street is not too peaceful these days. I really can't send out some forces to face the mutated humans from the Seventh area. Maybe you should consider relocating?" Zhao Chenwu pondered for a moment before proposing.

"Relocate? That means all my efforts would have gone to waste. I have spent almost 400 thousands crystals for the construction of the base. At any rate, I won't give up on the base especially since my odds of winning are not low."

"Then I'll pray for your victory. The batch of sentinel machine guns, I'm finally able to fulfill the contract under the pressure of the council, and I can deliver it to you tomorrow."

"Pressure from the higher-ups? When did the council start encouraging a breach of contract?" Jiang Chen jested.

"It is a critical time."

"What kind of trouble did you guys encounter?" Seeing the graveness on Zhao Chenwu's face, Jiang Chen also became serious.

"Although it is considered a secret, if it was like anytime before, the news would spread out regardless. The military government controlling Northern Alliance District has declared war on us, and they are currently on their way."

"It's them?"

"Have you heard already?" Seeing the shock on Jiang Chen's face, Zhao Chenwu shrugged, 'In order to obtain the space-based weapon wreckage landed somewhere in the metropolis, they came from thousands of miles away to incite trouble."

Zhao Chenwu obviously misinterpreted something. The reason why Jiang Chen got shocked was that the organization that partnered up with the mutated humans was also from the Northern Alliance District. Except it was not the military government but a rather strange organization with an even peculiar name—the Dusk Church.

"The God's Cane?' Jiang Chen asked solemnly.

"That's right. To defend against Northern Alliance's invasion, the Group of Ten council passed a proposal. To create a defense line at the rural area to defend against the invasion. But if it was just this, it wouldn't be so problematic."

Zhao Chenwu's face was cast in gloom, he paused before continuing, "Although we agreed to fight off the enemy before hunting for the treasure, almost everyone has already been secretly sending in exploration teams into the metropolis. Especially when the news of 1 million crystals mission has spread out, everyone has gone insane. Those fools, who were previously reserved and heading out secretly, are now blatantly sending out their forces and rushing downtown. Just like those gamblers who had completely lost their mind on a gambling table."

"No one has realized that doing this at this time is foolish?" Jiang Chen had no other emotion except for derision.

"Not everyone is foolish and that includes me," Zhao Chenwu bleak expression stared at the table, "If anyone obtains that thing, it would be a nightmare for everyone else. If could dominate all life and death, just like a scepter from God."

Saying this, the ruthless businessman had a hint of insanity between his brows.

"Just imagine this: if there is a sword hanging over everyone's head, who else can resist your reign? It only takes one shot from that tungsten rod that can't be intercepted to silent all voice of resistance. And that sword is now somewhere in the city center, behind all of us. Now...everyone wants to become a person wielding the sword."

"This damned democracy."

Everyone wanted to become the dictator.

If there was only a single voice from the beginning, it wouldn't be this chaotic.

...

Asking help from Zhao Chenwu was not possible anymore, but that was to be expected.

He already had enough chips in his hands, without one or two guests, it wouldn't interfere with the fireworks.

Counting in the Black Blood Mercenaries, the total number of soldiers that could fight on the frontline had already reached 200 people. Although there was still a huge discrepancy, he still had his last resort.

That was none other than the survivors from Qingpu!

After the last expedition, they had been unified under the Fishbone Base banner. After a month of doing business, the relationship between the two parties was further strengthened.

Since the beginning, Jiang Chen had always include them in the plan, and he was just waiting for an opportunity.

The opportunity to unite everyone, the opportunity to display the might of Fishbone Base.

And now, the opportunity had presented itself.

Outside of the Fishbone Base, in front of the concrete building used for trading goods, a long lineup could be seen.

"Long time no see, Zhao Gang." Ma Zhongchen hugged his old friend whom he hadn't seen for a while as he regarded the winter garment on Zhao Gang enviously. The whole set would probably cost 30-40 crystals which would be equivalent to the price of a Reaper rifle.

Despite Zhao Gang's usual taciturn behavior, when he saw his old friend, a smile emerged on his face.

Jiang Chen called Chen Weiguo back yesterday and was once again sent to the frontline.

Zhao Gang pulled Ma Zhongchen to the side. He passed him a cigarette while he also put one in his own mouth and then lit it up.

"How are you doing these days?"

"Same old. Nice smell, what brand is this?"

"The base's own produce." The boss brought it back as part of the benefits for employees. As for its exact origin, Zhao Gang couldn't be bothered about it.

"The winter is so cold and you guys are quite well off," Ma Zhongchen remarked as he enviously eyed the large-caliber machine gun on the wall.

"It should be us, shouldn't it?"

The two stared at each other and started laughing.

The line in front of the concrete building moved up slowly. People coming out of the room had switched into the winter gear as they entered the base under the supervision of the soldiers.

According to the agreement, all the survivors joining the Fishbone army would receive housing and upper-class citizen treatment, and their family would receive lower-citizen treatment. Ater contributing in war and being promoted to knight, their family would also enjoy upper-class citizen treatment.

As of today, more than 20 community-sized survivors have joined Fishbone Base. All the people were incorporated into a newly created foreign army with Zhao Gang as the commander. Currently, there were only 81 people in the force, but everyone was a sharpshooter.

With a bit of training, they could become a force to be reckoned with.

So far, the Fishbone Base's soldiers had exceeded the 300 mark.

The day of the decisive battle was gradually approaching.

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 198: The Sword Wielder

The God's Cane was formerly known as God's Cane Space-based Kinetic Energy Weapon System. NATO completed the deployment of the weapon system in 2030, but now its combat ability was no longer limited to kinetic energy attack.

Over the past hundred years, NATO had continuously perfected this weapon system. Although its core attack was still a vertical strike by tungsten rod bombs, in addition to that, NATO had also added high power microwave weapon (HPM), wide-area electromagnetic pulse (EMP), as well as particle shields aboard the weapon system. NATO completely transformed it into a hedgehog-like existence—a near-Earth orbit weapon platform.

Though Jiang Chen had already experienced the power of this weapon, after listening to Lin Lin's explanation, he still got astonished.

Seeing the shock on Jiang Chen's face, Lin Lin haughtily raised her head and paused before continuing, "That is a really powerful weapon. It is believed that to destroy it, PAC launched 27 nuclear missiles to the low Earth orbit, but they were all unfortunately intercepted. Finally, while the God's Cane's HMP was on cooldown after it had just attacked the Holy Shield system, relying on the aerospace special force's attack at ten crystals cost near-Earth orbit landers, they finally managed to capture it."

However, before they even had the opportunity to hold the "cane", NATO had initiated the "God's Cane's" self-destruction program in the hope of destroying it and preventing it from falling into the enemy's hands. So the superweapon that was in the service for over 150 years had turned into a space junk.

No one knew this weapon better than Lin Lin. After all, she was a former PAC researcher, so she more or less understood the specifics of the weapon.

"Wait, space debris?"

"Yeah, is there any problem?" Lin Lin asked, tilting her head.

"Didn't God's Cane fall onto the Earth's surface?" Jiang Chen asked with a frown.

"Of course not, I can attest to that. The post-war World Alliance Organization had considered recovering the remains at the near-Earth orbit, but the proposal was not implemented because shortly after, the implementation of space colonization plan was passed with a landslide victory. You know what happened next—six colony ships were sent to the deep space."

"Is that so?" Jiang Chen said thoughtfully.

"Why the sudden interest?" Lin Lin was puzzled.

"What if someone used a supercomputer to determine that the remains of God's Cane fell into the downtown of Wanghai City?"

"That's impossible. You've been duped," Lin Lin unceremoniously denied.

[Did I get fooled?]

Jiang Chen fell into deep thought.

Or did everyone get fooled?

This was troublesome.

...

Inside an ancient room, a tripod incense burner stood on top of a table, smoke floated on top of it. A man with grey sideburns leaned against a recliner, his eyes were closed, and he appeared to be taking a nap. Next to him was a woman dressed in cheongsam, and though her face could not be considered gorgeous, she certainly looked graceful.

The old-fashioned visage obviously didn't match the high-rise buildings outside the window.

To be able to build such a large manor in such a ritzy area of Sixth Street, this person must possess an immense amount of power.

Indeed, the man on the chair was Cao Jinsong, the owner of Crimson Chamber of Commerce and the head of the Group of Ten council.

There was a knock at the door, and the man slighly opened his eyes.

"Come in." His voice was slow and gentle but without a trace of his old age.

The door slowly opened, and a woman walked in.

The face was identical to the cheongsam beauty standing beside him.

Almost as if they were cut out from the exact same mold.

Other than being twins, there was only one explanation to this: they were clones.

"Nine members of the council have sent large-scale forces to the metropolis. Among them, the Double-headed Bull Chamber of Commerce was the largest with a total of 207 people, two spider tanks, and five armored vehicles..."

Hearing his secretary's report, Cao Jinsong's eyes narrowed while nodding.

When she finished, he briefly pondered for a moment before asking, "What about that Zhao Chenwu? Did he do anything?"

That person was slightly shrewder compared to the other council members, and his sight was not blinded by the dazzling brilliance of the crystals.

"He deployed scouts to Luzhou, and also sent a team to the city center, but their teams did not advance and just lagged behind our team," the secretary reported as she pushed her eyeglasses up.

Cao Jinsong suddenly laughed. The wrinkles that had been etched on his face through the passage of time blossomed and transformed him into a kind, old man.

The laughter, however, carried a few strands of menace.

"Although everyone wants to be the person wielding that sword, it would be interesting if that sword didn't exist in the first place."

Conclusive evidence and foreign spying. Just these two points alone seemed to be enough evidence to prove the existence of God's Cane.

"Is it that time already?" Cao Jinsong looked at the smoke above the incense burner and smiled.

The expressionless secretary just quietly looked at him, without saying a word.

"Bring that thing over."

"It has already been prepared." A trace of a smile appeared on the female secretary's face. She took out the holographic computer pen from her pocket and handed it to him.

He took the holographic computer pen, but his forefinger stopped at the start button.

On the metal surface, two faces were reflected: one old and the other young.

The young face belonged to his wife. She was so frail that she couldn't get through the first year. Before she passed away, he promised her that he would bring order to this chaotic wasteland.

Afterwards, he would join her down there.

After the collapse of all civilizations, a new civilization would be reborn from the ashes. The new civilization would be powerful as ever and rise from the Phoenix fire. It would learn from the past mistakes of the ruined civilization and abandon any weaknesses from the past civilization.

In this radiation-filled wasteland, not only the mutant's claws and human's marksmanship evolved, but also things of a higher level had also evolved.

Thirteen years ago, the walls of Sixth Street were built. The gathering place built by the survivors of the settlement gave birth to the seed of civilization.

However, this seed had been dormant for far too long.

Even though the expedition brought prosperity to it, it was only a basic level of prosperity.

When it came to one's own interest, the council would engage into endless squabbles.

Without a unified voice, nothing would come out of it.

He had enough of these endless disputes.

The people from Northern Alliance District would perhaps come but definitely not at this time. What they wanted was definitely not the God's Cane but something entirely different.

Ten years ago, the unification of the Northern Alliance was completed.

If this continued, Sixth Street would no longer be its match. It would become a mere speck in the history. But everything here was the fruit of his hard labor, and he couldn't bear to end like this.

This piece of land needs a dictatorship!

"Hero or criminal, only history will tell," muttering to himself, Cao Jinsong closed his eyes.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked at the Secretary in front of him.

"Qin Lian, could you lend me some courage?"

The woman didn't say anything and merely put her hand on his. The woman in cheongsam standing beside him also came over and held out her hand.

Taking a deep breath, a crazed expression returned to his face.

"Then let's begin."

He pressed the button.

A fire started burning and the manor of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce in the Sixth Street was completely incinerated.

Rumor had it that it was the conspiracy of Zhao Corporation plotting for "the treasure".

At the same time, another fire broke out in the center of the city dozens of kilometers away.

It was the fire of civil war.

Chapter 199: Civil War

"What do you think is the boss planning?" A soldier wielding a rifle and clad in carbon nanotube armor walked at the forefront of the troops.

"I don't know." The commander next to him was silent. The tactical helmet hid the expression on his face, but the way he was looking around betrayed the anxiousness in his heart.

They were Zhao Corporations's private soldiers.

Two Spider tanks, five armored vehicles, four modified trucks, 20 power armors and 120 soldiers.

80% of their fighting force had been placed on the gambling table.

There were only five kilometers left before they reached the metropolis. The area was filled with nuclear craters, a place not even the Death Claws would dare to enter.

The order that Zhao Chenwu had issued was very vague—follow the troops of Crimson Chamber of Commerce wait for further orders.

Just simply follow?

The two sentries in the front row weren't the only ones who were anxious, but also the squad leader, Chen Wei, sitting in the armored vehicle looked grave.

Staring at the screen of the Wanderer tanks, Chen Wei swallowed.

10-meter long, 3.8-meter wide, and 2.6-meter tall, weighed 112 tons, and could accommodate 3-4 passengers. Its main weapon was the 52-type particle cannon and a 2kg-class electromagnetic pulse cannon as coaxial guns. Its whole body was covered with 140mm thick A-grade steel armor with a built-in high-density supramolecular compartment that could withstand high-energy neutron radiation caused by a neutron bomb explosion, while the particle shield could effectively resist energy weapons attacks.

It was practically a moving fortress.

A wave of zombies advanced, but under the giant's oppression, the only thing the zombies could do was to provide lubrication for its track with its flesh and fat.

The thick primary cannon was covered in snow and had never fired a single shot the moment it left the base. The 2kg-class electromagnetic pulse cannon also appeared very dormant and would only occasionally fire whenever it encountered a Roshan.

Under the power and influence of this metallic monster, even in the danger-filled metropolis, these two forces couldn't provide much resistance.

"They stopped," the sentry from the front row casually said.

"It's probably their time to rest."

Because the zombies in the forefront had already been cleared out by the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, they didn't even need to fire, so they could casually chat among themselves.

The expression under the sentry's tactical helmet gradually turned to that of horror.

"No, this is odd—there's something wrong with their cannon."

VROOM!

The sound of a cannon firing drowned his astonished voice.

The 2kg bomb easily separated his flesh and ripped through the roof of the armored vehicle.

"We're under attack by our allied force! Dammit, what do they think they're doing!"

"Take cover! Go take cover in the bunker, quick!"

"Attention everyone! That is not a friendly force, I repeat, that is not a friendly force," Chen Wei's voice began to echo in everyone's communication channel. The forces in the forefront, who were taking cover, immediately began to fire back.

The aerodynamic Spider tank slid around on the main road. Six sets of weight-bearing wheels were separated in the middle to form into four square-shaped mechanical legs as they quickly began to climb on top of the half-destroyed buildings. The remaining four armored vehicles along with modified trucks also promptly turned around the corner, using the terrain to avoid the barrel of the Wanderer's tank. Whereas the infantries in the area searched for shelter while taking out their rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and begun firing back.

Because Chen Wei sensed something was amiss from the start, he ordered the team to form a long formation. Although it was much easier to defend against zombies in a square formation, if an enemy attack at the front, the long formation would allow the force in the back to quickly disperse and minimize the loss.

"Have they found the remains of the satellite yet?" Chen Wei struck at the armor shell as he stared at the image transmitted from the solider's tactical helmet.

The reckless movement of the tank completely ignored the rocket launchers flying towards it.

Even if he had two Spider tanks as backups, he still didn't have the confidence to win.

<Permission to fire back.>

Four big yellow characters appeared in the center of the screen and a rueful smile appeared on Chen Wei's face.

They already started to retaliate.

Although he was counting on the boss to stop the war through diplomacy, it now seemed like they have to fight through it.

BOOM!

Two rounds of shell were fired at a 50 degrees angle from the roof of a half-destroyed building, with an orange flame trail, it smashed onto the Wanderer tank's turret before it got deflected into the window of an abandoned shop.

"The shell was deflected!"

The eerie blue electric arc had enveloped the shell of the tank but didn't even leave a dent.

"Dammit! That's an electromagnetic reactive armor!"

Specially designed against piercing shells, through a unique interaction field, the metal shell could reach superconducting state after breaking through a certain speed threshold. Under the powerful magnetic field outside the armor, according to the Meissner effect, shells that had become superconductors would produce an enormous magnetic field in the opposite direction, thereby attenuating its kinetic energy and shifting the projectile angle.

This armor had a miraculous use against the conductive material of the electromagnetic cannon shells. It also had certain effects on the artillery steel core armor-piercing shells.

"Change into insulation shells."

"Roger."

The Wanderer tank quickly retreated, and because of the angle limitation of the cannon, it could only aim at the Spider tank on the roof with an increasing distance.

However, the Spider tanks occupying a favorable terrain wouldn't allow its plan to succeed. So while on the move, they fired at the metal monster on the road.

Zombies, Crimson Chamber of Commerce, and Zhao Corporation.

These three giants engaged with each other.

With the heavy armors leaving the battle, the zombies that weren't blocked lunged at the two parties exchanging fire while howling and screaming.

If they were just fighting with the zombies alone, these well-trained soldiers would definitely not let these dumb things get closer. Today, however, everyone was not just facing the threat of zombies, but the enemy's bullets as well.

Everything devolved into an utter chaos.

"Dammit, their firepower is too suppressive! We need backup!" Leaning against the side of the bunker, while shooting at the incoming zombies, the soldiers in carbon nanotube combat suits roared at the communication device they're clutching.

"Someone's down, medics!"

"Dammit, it's the Death Claw! Ahhh—"

"Zombies had broken through the line of defense! Requesting armored vehicle support!"

"Negative. The enemies' anti-armor units have yet to be cleared. Unable to enter the battle—"

Turning off the noisy communication channel, Chen Wei rubbed his forehead. A ferocious glint appeared on his face and his eyes were locked on the several big characters on the screen.

<Available support: Disaster-32 Cruise Missile>

Just now, he finally understood the meaning of the phrase: "caution" that Zhao Chenwu left before leaving.

From the start, the boss had already suspected that Crimson Chamber of Commerce had gone rogue.

This type of limited superweapons was definitely not used in dealing with the zombies.

If Crimson Chamber of Commerce's trump card was the Wanderer tank, then the trump card of Zhao Corporation was this. The bombs sold to Fishbone Base were only old technology, while the more powerful weapons have always been kept under Zhao Chenwu's control.

Without any hesitation, Chen Wei pressed the <launch> button.

Without a warning.

On a barren field 100 kilometers away, the flat ground was suddenly split open. After the item used to camouflage was removed, the metal plate hidden under the layer of the soil was gradually separated.

This was the missile well left by PAC. To escape air raids, this improvised one-time use missile silo was common on this piece of land.

The light blue signal light extended from the top to the bottom of the silo.

"Missile silo 72 is about to fire. Workers, please take shelter immediately."

The electronic voice announcing its launch had scared the mutant mice that were biting the roots of plants away.

In a flash, the smoke burst and instantly covered the whole area.

The 10-meter long missile pierced through the sky filled with radiation dust.

"Ten seconds before arriving at the target location. Commander, please set the target."

Taking a deep breath, Chen Wei's eyes tightly locked on the rampaging Wanderer tanks. Using his finger, he dragged the crosshair onto the red box.

<Target lock successful.>

"Attention! Attack A, Attack B, immediately move away from the target area."

"Roger."

After receiving the command, the Spider tanks quickly jumped off the building, the six pairs of weight-bearing wheels formed together reverting back to driving mode.

Seeing that the enemy units suddenly retreated, the Wanderer tank realizing that it might have been targeted by long-range weapons immediately fired heat-induced bait bombs and electromagnetic decoy targets. It then shifted into overdrive and crashed into the side of the building.

The solid concrete wall disintegrated like a piece of paper under the impact, as it attempted to use the 10-meter tall building as cover.

But it was too late.

A trail of grey smoke instantly fell from the sky.

Suddenly, everything dimmed down.

The arc-shaped flames instantly ignited. The shockwave didn't just blow away the concrete blocks and scattered the particles shield away, but also the armor shell as well.

The buildings that survived the aftershock of the nuclear blast had collapsed due to the direct impact of the cruise missile. The Disaster-32 cruise missile was designed based on a fictitious aircraft carrier, so taking care a tank was definitely no big deal.

Even those from thousands of meters away felt the tremor of the ground.

The flames on the horizon made the thick snow lose its color and deafened the continuous gun firing shots.

The tide of war was instantly reversed.

The Crimson Chamber of Commerce that just lost its strongest armored unit was immediately under heavy fire suppression by the two Spider tanks. Aside from the Wanderer tanks, they didn't bring more armored units, only thirty infantries and dozens of powered armors.

Seeing that his own soldiers had the upper hand, Chen Wei slowly let out a sigh of relief.

Zhao Corporation had already won the battle.

Although the price was expensive.

The Sixth Street Council was probably making a ruckus at this moment, but it was something not for him to worry about.

Gunshots were getting sparse, the soldiers of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce fought valiantly, preparing to fight to the bitter end.

But this still could not change the outcome of their defeat.

"Enemy units have been cleared." Hearing the communication by his ear, Chen Wei was relieved.

"Regroup. Set up a blockade to block the zombies, recuperate, and prepare to head back."

"What is that!"

"God!"

Two soldiers opened the trunk of the captured armored vehicle.

Staring at the screen, Chen Wei's pupil contracted.

Nuclear bomb!

Staring at the distant mushroom cloud, Cao Jinsong's face flashed a touch of mockery.

At the moment, he was standing on a barren land a few kilometers away from the wilderness, and there was a pickup truck parked next to him.

"Sheesh, you've finally used Disaster-32?"

He shoved the binoculars in his pocket, shook his head, and returned to the truck.

Whether or not the sword of Damocles exists, the sword hanging above his head had disappeared.

The price of a Wanderer tank in exchange for the trump card that scared the living daylight out of him. A nuclear missile and 72 lives in exchange for 80% of Zhao Chenwu's force.

And Wanderer tanks, he still had four of these left.

If it had been a poker game, then the outcome of the battle had already been decided?

_Min_

Chapter 200: At the same time

"Did you hear the noise?" Sun Jiao raised her eyebrows as she asked Jiang Chen.

The snow was thick, as the two were standing on the bank of Taifu river.

"I think so, did something explode?" Jiang Chen stared towards the east, but the flurry blocked his vision.

There were two explosions; it was hard to tell which one was louder. It seemed to be from somewhere in the far distance.

"Let's not be distracted anymore." Sun Jiao sighed, her eyes narrowing while starring across the river. "The party is about to start."

"You are right." Jiang Chen smiled.

All combat units have been sent to the front line.

271 soldiers, 8 Tigers, as well as 15 modified pickup trucks.

The Black Blood Mercenaries have already sneaked past the river as they had taken cover on a snow hill a few kilometers away.

Everything was prepared.

He dragged the scarf away from his neck as white mist emerged from Jiang Chen's mouth.

"Let's start."

"Understood! My commander." Sun Jiao naughtily blinked her eyes before she turned around to step into the T-3 power armor.

The night began to fall as the snowfall slowed.

The searchlight in the center of the camp, as well as the four corners, shook rhythmically and lit up the snow hills around them.

Rows of mutated humans carried rifles as they patrolled their camp. Their steel armor, lined with fur, prevented their skin from being in direct contact with the steel.

There were around fifty trucks parked on the empty lot in front of the camp. The daunting gun and cannon barrels create a metal forest. White sheets covered them as they blended into the snow.

They didn't even consider the enemy across the river an opponent.

In their eyes, only a round of attack would allow them to drag those cowards out of the trenches and shred them into pieces.

Shooting was not their strong suit.

Because of their fat finger, to make it easy to shoot, they had to saw off the trigger ring. This was also why they preferred machine guns as most machine guns were not as small as rifles.

Due to their build, they didn't need to consider the large, heavy firepower and weight of the guns.

The last group of soldiers had arrived at the base. Once the ice is strong enough to withstand the weight of their armor, they would sound the horn to charge.

But that day will never happen.

"Did you hear something?" The mutated human at the gate of the base tilted his head and looked at his comrade.

The mutated human raised his eyebrows but didn't seem to find the source of the noise.

"Look! What is that!"

There were screams, and a mutated human pointed at the dark sky.

Something had fallen from the radiation dust, it carried a visible trail of flame and began to accelerate.

But they didn't have more time to think about it.

Boom!

The searchlight in the center of the base and the four corners shattered with the noise. The light that shined on the four sides instantly faded.

At that moment, a few trails of orange flame rose in the sky and exploded. The blinding white light turned the base into day light.

It was a lighting shell!

"Dammit, it's an enemy strike!" The mutated human standing at the gate roared out before he took out the light machine gun behind his back and began to fire at the snow hill.

The mutated humans didn't expect that the human taking cover behind barriers would attack them during the night.

The mutated humans were not worried by the human's night strike, rather, they felt a sense of excitement.

They are asking for their own death!

But that kind of confidence didn't last long.

Under the cover of the lighting shell, a missile with a trail of red flame had fallen from the sky.

In the terrified vision of all mutated humans, it landed in the middle of the base.

Boom!

Flames instantly erupted.

It engulfed the vehicles covered by white, the mutated humans preparing to enter the vehicle, as well as the supplies hidden under the snow.

The merciless chain explosion started. It played a symphony inside the mutated human's base.

Running, screaming, desperately trying to remove the scorching steel armor, and falling when out of energy as they waited for the flame grim reaper's cultivation.

The steel debris and snow were blown into the air as they melted into liquid in the heat wave as if it was a firework celebration.

It was living hell.

No one suspected the "rats" across the river possessed a cruise missile.

Of course, it was obviously not a cruise missile. It was only a rocket equipped with 1000 kilograms of concentrated explosives. One kilogram was 20 crystals, and along with the cost of the missile, the mega firework cost Jiang Chen thirty thousand crystals.

But so what, compared to the effect it caused, the thirty thousand crystals were well spent.

Gazing at the fire across the river, Jiang Chen pulled out the flare gun, and he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Attack!"

"Roger!"

The red flare broke through the night sky.

Eight homing voices rose as the 5 kg bombs smashed into the base across the river.

The shock of the missile explosion had blown away the snow piles. There was no cover between the two forces. With the range advantage, the electric pulse canon unloaded its firepower.

The infantry with their rifles stepped out of the trenches, under the leadership of six power armors, they all charged at the opposing river bank.

The Black Blood Mercenaries, who've crossed the river, engaged in crossfire with the mutated humans already. The rain drop like lighting shells lit up the night sky.

Because the explosive was made of Magnesium powder and other oxidants, the flames didn't fade away for a long time.

Under the intense light, the position of the mutated humans was fully exposed. But it was a problem even for the mutated humans with rifles to aim at the target in the dark. They could only respond by firing randomly into darkness.

Seeing the battle visual on his tablet, a smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face.

The anti-air power had been completely dissolved. The unexpected missile had not only wiped out half of their force, it completely disrupted their command structure which forced them to fight on their own.

The mutated humans wielding armors were strong, but only in the front. On an open field, if they were surrounded with bullets flying in all direction, mutated humans without formation would only be slaughtered.

The infantries fired with pace as they pushed forward under the cover of cannons. Within the virtual reality training system, they have practiced this countless amount of times.

Sun Jiao led the six power armors with their high mobility as they roamed among the mutated humans to prevent them from gathering information.

Seeing the swiftness of this girl's action, even if she was in a metal box, recalling her shyness under himself, the feeling was indescribable.

With a face slightly red, Jiang Chen coughed as he got rid of all the unhealthy idea in his mind.

The battle was approaching its end.

The soldiers used their gun barrels to smash the half-dead mutated humans as they finished the kill off with a dagger.

There was no need for hostage. Death was the best fate for these monsters.

He retracted the tablet as he got in the armored vehicle.

"Cross the river."

"Yes, commander."

As the leader of the base, Jiang Chen began to realize he could no longer fight like a soldier on the front line. Since Fishbone base had already passed the initial growth phase where they lacked people, he gladly accepted the perspective Sun Jiao insisted, which was to stay in the back and wait for the battle to end.

The gunshots in the distance began to die down. The armored vehicle drove over the bridge.

The northern wind carried a hint of warmth. Jiang Chen who sat on top of the car looked at the remains of the mutated human's base after the explosion, but his mind had already drifted elsewhere.

This was where the mutated humans stored most of their supplies. Even if there were still two thousand something mutated humans there, this major loss would render them unable to fight another battle.

These supplies were transported from the Northern Alliance District fifteen hundred kilometers away; it must not have been easy. Now that these supplies are destroyed, and the spy Sun Xiaorou was captured by Jiang Chen.

What would the Dusk that suffered defeat do?

Speaking of this, the Defender had no action at all, as even Jiang Chen almost forgot that he had an alliance.

What are they planning?

Chapter 201: Requesting Help

The battle ended.

Based on estimations, there were 972 mutated human casualties, and 57 modified vehicles, 42 anti-air machineguns, 15 72mm cannons destroyed. Also, countless ammunition exploded.

On the Fishbone side, there were 19 casualties with five people dead. No armored units were damaged. Black Blood Mercenaries suffered 9 fatalities and 21 casualties.

All in all, this result could be considered historically significant.

Flames that burnt on the snow had been extinguished. The soldiers were busy moving between places as they dragged the bodies of the mutated humans outside of the base and burnt them with fuel. If they just let them sit, it could draw out mutants hibernating near by. Although they would not lose, it would be troublesome to deal with.

The 8 Tigers drove across Taifu river into the mutated human's base.

Within the center of the base, the leader of Black Blood Mercenaries and Jiang Chen stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they chatted and laughed at the scene.

"What the f*ck, that missile was wicked. The explosion left nothing behind." Luo Yang had a cigarette in his mouth and was staring at the metal scraps on the ground, still feeling uneasy.

To be fair, the missile was not considered strong. It had no anti-radar layer, nor did it possess an energy shield to guard against anti-air laser weapons. It could only be considered a basic cruise missile where the commander sets the target for the missile, and then the control center calculates its trajectory.

The first step was simple as it only required Jiang Chen's command.

But the difficult part was the second step. Because of Jiang Chen's words, Jiang Lin had to spend an entire night in front of the computer.

"It's okay." The word sounded humble, but Jiang Chen's laughter was cocky.

[This is okay? Are you kidding me.]

Luo Yang glanced at Jiang Chen with a "bright" smile as he ridiculed in his mind.

"But then, there is no need to think about looting anymore." He cracked a smile. "Where did you get the cigarette?"

"Somewhere good," Jiang Chen shrugged as he gave an ambiguous answer. "Maybe you can buy this from the Sixth Street very soon."

The modern world was indeed a good place. Whether it was food, cigarette, or beer, everything was cheap. Of course, only relative to his net worth.

"I wish I had Mr. Jiang's prosperity." Envy flashed across Luo Yang's eyes as he greeted Jiang Chen.

"Prospering together. Aren't we?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Luo Yang paused for a second before he reacted with a smile.

A fee of ten thousand crystals was added to upgrade his mercenaries' equipment to the next level. With the trade route to Liuding Town, the upgrades would begin this coming spring. Even if the spending power of Liuding Town was not as high as the Sixth Street, it still was the second biggest survivor's force in Wanghai City. There would at least be tens of thousands worth of profits. With 10%, his mercenary group being rewarded thousands of crystals with a single trip.

On this wasteland, no ordinary bandits dared to butt heads with the Black Blood Mercenaries.

The only problem was zombies and mutants. But as long as they avoided the city center, the route to the port was relatively safe.

It was a winning business.

Luo Yang was thinking how much money he could make, but Jiang Chen was thinking something else.

Purchasing the microchips from Liuding Town improved the combat ability of the kinetic skeletons produced at the Fishbone base. At the same time, Liuding Town's technology would also offer great help to Jiang Chen's plan in the modern world.

As long as he puts in an order, Liuding Town's chip factory would accept any kind of business, even the communication chips from one hundred years ago. Although it was a desolate technology for the apocalypse, it would still be ahead of the modern world's technology by ten years. This advancement was enough for Future Technology to conquer the phone market.

As they envisioned their bright future, they both fell into silence.

At this time, the communication chip beside Jiang Chen's ear vibrated.

It was Zhao Chenwu.

"I'm going to take a call," Jiang Chen told Luo Yang as he walked to the side.

He picked up the call.

"What's going on?' Jiang Chen said with a lighthearted tone.

"Did you solve your troubles?" Zhao Chenwu's voice didn't sound as collected as before.

"Yes, is there something wrong?"

"I have a few small problems, can you help me?" Slightly embarrassed, Zhao Chenwu still pleaded.

His embarrassment was due to refusing Jiang Chen's help just moments ago.

A mischevious expression appeared on Jiang Chen's face, but for the partner that had offered him quite some support, Jiang Chen didn't seem to be troubled.

"Is it about the God's Cane in the city center? Speaking of this, I have received information that the thing didn't land on the earth's surface."

"It is confirmed that it is fake." Zhao Chenwu's voice sounded bitter.

"Then?"

"Somone betrayed the Group of Ten council."

Jiang Chen hung up the phone as his expression was rather stern.

Zhao Chenwu briefly explained the situation.

First, a declaration of war was sent to the Sixth Street two years ago, sending the peaceful council into unrest.

The declaration of war has been intercepted by the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, the "treasure" mentioned in the visual had drawn the interest of Cao Jinsong. He had a feeling that the "treasure" mentioned by the Northern Alliance District could be a superweapon! Based on the simulation of a super computer, he obtained the conclusion that God's Cane landed in the city center of Wanghai City.

Because of his greed, he hid the declaration of war and obviously hid his discovery of the sky-based weapon.

He secretly sent exploration forces to the city center in an attempt to find the wreckage of the weapon with a plan to transport it to the secret base outside the city. If he could repair it, not only the Sixth Street, but the entire Pan-pacific area would be under his control.

But in the end, he didn't find the wreckage. Instead, he wasted a decent size of his force.

Just as he was debating if he should announce this declaration of war to allow the Sixth Street to prepare, the spy he planted in the Northern Alliance District had sent back good news.

Civil war!

The military government that controlled the majority of the survival camps had engaged in a gruesome war with another large force, the Dusk. Although the military government won in the end, they suffered significant losses which postponed their plan to advance to the east,

Although the invader didn't come in the end, their stance of plotting against Wanghai City had alerted him.

Also, the word civil war had given him a new idea.

If the military government could use civil war to obtain absolute control in the Northern Alliance District, why couldn't his Crimson Chamber of Commerce do the same?

Once the seed called ambition has been planted, it would spiral out of control.

Chapter 202: The Choice

Dictatorship!

What an attractive thought.

Although they had sworn to coexist in front of the round table, the endless arguments through the years had made him grow wry.

A proposal for the abolition of the ghetto would cause the ten council members to argue for half a month.

It was just over a few thousand "bugs" and they had to argue for half a month.

He has had enough.

Crimson Chamber of Commerce, the strongest force, logically should control the piece of land. But under the hindrances of other nine council members, he could not have free reign. For example, the Disaster-32 cruise missile. One single missile would turn the military base into dust. For example, the Double-headed Bull Chamber of Commerce's Landbird armor, or...

The people that became part of the Group of Ten council were no simple characters. Even if he possessed five Wanderer tank known as the land cruiser, it would still be difficult to do what he wanted.

Therefore, he had a brilliant plan.

When he threw out the bait that lured him to put his nose into the city center onto the conference table.

Indubitably, he pleasedly saw that everyone's eyes turned red.

Some due to the anger they had towards the Northern Alliance District. Some and the majority were due to the greed for the treasure.

Sky-based weapon. The wreckage of God's Cane.

As he had expected, the council passed the proposal to build a collective defense, face the external enemy together, and then explore the city center. However, every council member had their discreet moves as they didn't put much effort into building the defense. Instead, they leveraged the council to attack their political enemy. Criticizing other people for their lack of effort in the construction of the defense, while at the same time secretly sending out a large number of forces to explore the city center.

As usual, everyone had their own plans, but all were within rationality.

Then immediately, a piece of news shattered their rationality.

A mission worth one million crystals.

Because of this mission, the facade on everyone's face was ripped off.

It was not only himself that did something behind everyone's back; everyone was plotting for that sky-based weapon.

Regardless of their purpose, they could not let their competitor acquire the weapon.

The nine council members all put their hands on the betting table.

At the same time, the Crimson Chamber of Commerce unleashed their machete to chop their hands.

At the external area of city center, Crimson Chamber of Commerce first tried the Zhao Corporation which ignored the flames of civil war.

To protect 80% of the force he sent into the city center, Zhao Chenwu permitted the usage of the Disaster-32 cruise missile in agony.

Because of this, Cao Jinsong achieved his plan and also ignited the nuclear bomb which wiped out 80% of Zhao Chenwu's force. The same force he tried to save with his life.

A Wanderer tank in exchange for a Diaster 32. The remainder four Wanderer tanks along with some infantries reaped the forces of the remaining council members.

At the same time, the flames of war had erupted inside the Sixth Street.

As everyone knew, the force inside the inner circle was created by the private force of the Group of Ten council members in the form of an agreement to provide defense service. Now that the nine council members had sent out the majority of the forces to the city center, the inner circle was extremely lacking.

Of course, not including the Crimson Chamber of Commerce.

The steel gate had fallen which segregated the inner and outer circle.

The soldiers of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce engaged in heavy fire with the civil force along with other council member's private forces.

With the manor of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce's boss being burnt down as the fuse, the flames of the civil war had officially been ignited.

There were three options in front of Jiang Chen.

First. The more conservative approach. Stop now and reinforce along the river.

Second. Capitalize on the victory by heading for the Seventh Area.

Third. Accept Zhao Chenwu's request for help and send out forces to help the Sixth Street.

To be honest, the second and third options were both tempting.

The mutated humans suffer a significant loss if they march west. Along with the Defenders, it was a great opportunity to completely eliminate the mutated human beings in the Seventh area.

But if they respond to Zhao Chenwu's request for help and send out forces to the Sixth Street, it would also bring a considerable amount of gains.

Zhao Chenwu's offer was attractive enough. If he helped the Group of Ten council, the weapon export restriction would no longer apply to him. Therefore, he could purchase power armors from the Sixth Street to equip his force.

A tent was set up in the middle of the base.

Within the base, Jiang Chen gathered Sun Jiao, Chu Nan, and Cheng Weiguo for a quick meeting.

"There are a lot of choices in front of us. I want to listen to your opinions," Jiang Chen said straightforwardly.

"If we could gain contact with the Defender Alliance in Jia City. Capitalizing on our victory is not a bad choice. If we can't, even without an armored vehicle, there are still around two thousand mutated humans stationed in the Seventh area. The safer choice would be to reinforce along the river," Cheng Weiguo gave an unbiased response.

Jiang Chen nodded, he didn't make a comment but instead looked at Sun Jiao.

"What do you think?"

"I support your decision," Sun Jiao smiled and said.

"But I still want to listen to your opinion."

"I personally don't agree with providing assistance."

"Oh? Why?"

"It has happened twice. When we encountered problems, he never sent help to us. Now that he has a problem, maybe we could sell him a few barrels of explosives," Sun Jiao said ruthlessly.

Hearing that, Jiang Chen smiled and didn't comment.

It was indeed Sun Jiao. Such a simple and direct response was indeed her style.

The few barrels of explosives would pay back the high-energy vacuum bomb Zhao Chenwu sold him last time. As for help, he did offer them some, and he did take some risks to do so.

Although it would be thrilling to take an eye for an eye, it was infeasible for the base.

As the leader of force, he should consider collective interest, not childish actions.

"What do you think?" Jiang Chen looked at Chu Nan.

"I agree with sending out a force." Chu Nan smiled.

"Because of power armors?"

To Jiang Chen's surprise, Chu Nan shook his head.

"There is absolutely no need for that."

Chu Nan paused as he looked at Jiang Chen, then continued.

"Backstabbing each other, this is the end of the Group of Ten Council. It is not a bad idea for a new wise leader to rule the place."

Everyone in the tent held their breath.

Jiang Chen stared at Chu Nan dumbfoundedly, his expression was odd.

Just as he was about to say something, Cheng Weiguo already said what he wanted to say.

"Do you know how many people are in the Sixth Street's civil force? A total of 560 people!"

"How many would be left after this civil war? Especially when no one knows the ability of those soldiers." Chu Nan laughed nonchalantly.

"Not only the force, but influence is also a factor. With the combination of the two, they could deter the small military forces around the Sixth Street, but if it was us..."

"Now that everyone's strength has been spent on the city center. Mercenaries, hunting team for that one million crystals mission, the Group of Ten council for that sky-based weapon wreckage, the Sixth Street is at its weakest! There is only one opportunity. We could use the name of providing assistance to enter the inner circle and start a coup. As long as we control the inner circle, the Sixth Street would be under our control." Just he said these words, Chu Nan's eyes were locked onto Jiang Chen's.

"This is a gamble. Can I hear the reason for this proposal?" Jiang Chen pondered for a moment before he spoke out.

"Because I trust you. Only you can bring real order to this wasteland."

Chapter 203: War Never Changes

"F*ck, their firepower is too suppressive!" With his back against the barrier, a civil soldier in a bulletproof vest attempted to shoot out of cover but was quickly subdued back.

"We require cover fire! I repeat we need cover fire!"

He clenched onto the rifle as the soldier hiding behind the concrete wall roared into the communication device with no reply.

A soldier fearlessly ducked out of the cover and aimed at the anti-armor RPG. As the armored vehicle unleashed its reign of power, he pressed the trigger.

With a trail of red flames, the RPG flew like an iron fist. But when it was ten meters away from the armored vehicle, it was blown away by the activated nitrogen shield, and it smashed into the shop nearby.

The subsequent fires shredded the soldier docked out into pieces.

The battle erupted out of nowhere.

The enemy was not only the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, but it was also some of the civil soldiers. They were bought out by the Crimson Chamber of Commerce. The moment the armored vehicle drove into the inner circle, they responded to the coup.

It was an unfair battle.

Although both sides didn't use heavy firearms, the private force of the council members was much more powerful than the civil soldiers'. Not only in training but also in equipment. Although the civil soldiers on the side of the council were 400, they were completely subdued by the force of 150 people from the Crimson Chamber of Commerce.

Especially since 100 something civil soldiers suddenly turned against them and they only had five armored vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns.

On the side of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, even the ordinary light infantry wore carbon nano armor along with the digitalized helmet that provided shooting assistance. Not to mention the special forces wore kinetic skeletons, as well as power armors.

Because of everyone's selfishness, although they possessed the most advanced fire production line on the wasteland, the council never proposed to upgrade the weapons of the civil force. Because only when the civil force lacked behind in technology, could their own private force be "hired." Their commission was not a small amount. It was paid through taxes and was essentially a gold mine.

But now, they tasted their own medicine.

The only soldiers that could match evenly in terms of equipment were the private soldiers of the other nine council members. But because of the city center exploration project, most of their power was put into the city center. There, they were scouring the reapings by the armored force of Crimson Chamber of Commerce; it was still a question how much would remain.

Zhao Chenwu stood on the top floor of the Zhao Corporation building as he speechlessly watched the gun fires below him in the Inner Circle.

The ring of fire began to contract from the edge of the wall inwards; he knew exactly what that meant.

The Crimson Chamber of Commerce had taken the upper hand. The 400 civil soldiers along with the 50 private soldiers suffered constant losses.

He never imagined that five armored vehicles would push him to the edge.

But that was the reality when both sides didn't possess heavy firearms. Even armored vehicles ruled.

The door was pushed open, Su Lei walked in.

The gorgeous female secretary with a cold expression had already changed into a pitch black combat suit. She carried the Reaper automatic rifle produced by the Zhao Corporation military factory. Normally, her identity was Zhao Chenwu's secretary, mistress as well as the driver. However, at critical times, she would act as the role of his bodyguard.

"Boss, the Crimson Chamber of Commerce is approaching our building. Please retreat with me to a safe location," Su Lei said in an undertone.

"Retreat? Where can we retreat to? The door has been shut tight." Zhao Chenwu smiled faintly.

He had lost communication with Chen Wei. He must have died already.

At this height, he obviously could not see that mushroom cloud.

Nuclear bombs.

He almost forgot about it.

Speaking of that, it should be the cheapest thing here.

"The underground shelter below Paradise Island hotel," Su Lei said.

Hearing that, Zhao Chenwu shook his head.

"I never planned to use that thing. There is no shelter where you can hide forever. If that old thing won, even if I hide underground for ten years, the result would be the same."

He has spent too much energy here. Even if it meant death, he didn't want to let everything go.

"…I will fight for you till the last moment." Su Lei gave up on convincing her boss. She let out a sigh, and a rare smile appeared on her cold face.

Zhao Chenwu was at a loss as he feebly smiled. Saying nothing more, he kept looking downstairs.

The rifle loaded, Su Lei walked downstairs.

"Still not here?" He muttered to himself as he looked at the electronic clock on the table.

Jiang Chen agreed to send help.

It was the last straw.

People of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce was approaching. He could even see through the dark bulletproof glass of the gunshots fired by the armored vehicles. The power armor used their high mobility to surround the building behind cover. The rotating machine gun on the right merciless shredded the soldiers on the ground.

The floor shook violently all the sudden; the bulletproof glass jarred loudly. He already had guessed what has happened, but he still looked at the touchscreen on the table.

He pressed the start button as the image from the hall surfaced.

Outside of the door was soldiers of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce. Wearing kinetic skeleton, the steel made gate had already been blown open by aluminum heat agent. These soldiers carrying rifles quickly rushed into the building and exchanged fire with the building's security team.

There was not much suspense in the battle. Although the security team of the Zhao Corporation received military training, compared to those professional soldiers, they obviously lacked in strength. Especially since they only wore bulletproof vests, like the civil soldiers. It was a frail attempt in the face of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce soldiers' attack.

The first floor was captured quickly.

Zhao Chenwu saw with his own eyes that a soldier with kinetic skeleton pulled out a pistol and executed a struggling security wounded on the ground. Then, he turned the gun to the camera and pulled the trigger with a grimace.

The visual was lost.

The elevator was cut. The Crimson Chamber of Commerce fought fiercely with the Zhao Corporation's security within the safety tunnel. Boxes and safes were all thrown into the stairs as a blockade, but it was futile to the outcome of the battle.

Su Lei was a great soldier. She gathered the remaining 20 security guards together as they exchanged fire on the 12th-floor hallway. She used the wall to take cover as she constantly ducked out to fire back.

But from the blood on her shoulder, she probably wouldn't be able to last much longer.

The security guards used anti-blast shields as cover while firing back with a rifle.

The security robot dashed out with a machine gun from the corner; the shots caused casualties to the soldiers that entered the building.

But that was all.

An EMP grenade quickly disabled its weapon system. The particle gun without suspense cut through its metal armor, and it was turned into a pile of metal scraps.

This place was not the military factory, only the office building of Zhao Corporation.

With the balance of power, no one expected a war to break out here.

Su Lei firmly held the gun as she maintained her shooting position while moving back. There were only a few security guards left.

[Looks like they can't hold out much longer.]

Zhao Chenwu let out a sigh as he pulled open a cupboard.

There was a revolver inside.

"Is this it?" He mumbled to himself as he slowly loaded the revolver.

It has been a long time since he fought like a soldier on the front line. The last time seemed to the moment he became part of the Group of Ten council.

But now, there was not much choice.

The sound of explosion continuously transmitted from below him, but Zhao Chenwu never felt calmer.

[Even if backup arrived, it is probably too late.]

At this time, a blinding white light suddenly lit up the street in front of the building.

The deafening explosion almost made him forget how to think. The bulletproof glass was covered in dense cracks.

The rising mushroom.

"…F*ck." His mouth twitched, and his eyes shook from the scene. It was the only word that came out of his mouth.

Nuclear bomb!

Someone exploded a nuclear bomb in the inner circle.

It definitely could not be the Crimson Chamber of Commerce. They already had the upper hand. It must not be the civil force either; they wouldn't have such a thing.

It could only be a council member.

They would rather die together than give up the power in their hands.

Zhao Chenwu blankly stared at the mushroom cloud in front of him, but the action in his hands already ceased.

...

The shockwave flipped the armored vehicles, engulfed the fleeting power armors, and swept through all the soldiers unable to escape. The buildings worth tens of thousands instantly collapsed. The citizens without a fighting chance cried at the ruins. The merchants silently watch their shops turn into dust, forgetting even to run…

The soldiers attacking his building; he didn't want to see any more.

It was a bloodbath.

Looking at the council building in the distance, the flag representing alliance and democracy lowered. A mocking smile appeared at the tip of his lips.

The council building, the Crimson Chamber of Commerce had risen on the roof.

The roundtable was smashed in half. Cao Jinsong stood in front of the window alone as he stared at the mushroom cloud outside, dumbfounded.

Like a bucket of cold water was poured on his head, the excitement of climbing to the top of power was instantly cooled off.

He had considered that other council members possessing some unbelievable trap cards, the coup was a gamble, to begin with.

But he never considered that someone could explode a nuclear bomb here.

"Already gone insane?" His voice sounded bitter.

It made sense. On the wasteland without order, thinking about limits was foolish, to begin with.

Exploding a nuclear bomb in one's own city; even in the country before the war had the same thing occur.

He seemed to have seen these scene before.

But because it was too distant of a time, that part of his memory was already covered by a thin layer of white mist…

War never changes.

Chapter 204: The Chaotic War

Nuclear weapons were always the cheapest thing on the wasteland.

Like the landmines that covered entire fields after the Second World War

Without the need for sophisticated missiles, the tactical nukes that could be fired with artillery was an economical and efficient killing tool.

Although the alliance government after the war had collected the nuclear weapon left on the battlefield, there must be some left out there.

Zhao Chenwu didn't want to think about who exploded the nuclear bomb.

There was no purpose in who did it.

As he watched from afar, he saw black smoke rise from his competitor Feng De's building. It then immediately collapsed.

That fat *ss didn't compromise till the last moment as he chose to self-destruct the building and suicide along with the soldiers inside.

Just like that nuclear bomb.

The other council members suffered the same fate. Cao Jinsong seemed to have expected that the entire political power was concentrated in the hands of the few council members. After he broke through the defense line of the civil force, its soldiers immediately attacked the headquarters of the council members.

The nuclear bomb didn't turn the tide of the battle; it was only a death trigger.

As if they had suspected this would occur, the Crimson Chamber of Commerce forces were dispersed, the nuclear bomb didn't even hit one-fourth of their forces.

[Already lost?]

But just then, his phone suddenly rang.

"Hello?"

"Which floor are you on?"

Like a heaven's melody, the voice he had been hoping to hear for so long rang into his ear.

"21st floor," Feeling ecstatic, Zhao Chenwu said quickly.

"Ahem, I am not asking what floor you are on, I am asking about the soldiers in your building."

Zhao Chenwu paused for a second as he glanced at the visuals on the touchscreen.

Su Lei has already retreated to the 16th floor, the 15th floor was completely occupied by the Crimson Chamber of Commerce.

"15th."

"Got it."

Just as the voice fade, explosion transmitted below him.

The violent shaking almost sent him to the ground. He blankly stared out the window at the black dot in the sky.

…

The building in the distance had a daunting hole created on the structure as it exposed the steel frames.

"Direct hit, beautiful shot."

Looking at the visual on his table, Jiang Chen gave a thumbs up at the gunner at the hatch door.

The gunner was excited to hear Jiang Chen's praise as he worked extra hard to load the cartridge before he waited for further instructions.

He has been watching the battle for a while. Jiang Chen saw everything, including that nuclear.

He just didn't expect someone to explode a nuclear weapon in the inner circle.

To prevent this place from turning into shambles, he felt he must join the fray.

"Retreating? No…" Jiang Chen looked at the fleeing dots on the screen, he muttered and pressed his finger on the screen.

He had been using to the buzz of the electricity as well as the noise of breaking the sound barrier as snow was blown over ten meters high on the street within the screen.

The retreating armored vehicle was smashed into pieces by the 10 kg level bomb without suspense.

It was as easy as playing a computer game.

The green dots on the ground began to surround the inner circle, it was Fishbone's soldiers.

Jiang Chen left the Black Blood Mercenaries along the Taifu river. He didn't tell Luo Yang about the battle at the Sixth Street. He only said to him as long as he was stationed here for three days, he would receive 100 more crystals.

No one would reject this kind of deal. Everyone knew that mutated humans could no longer invade the east.

To avoid unexpected things from occurring, the mercenary force ranked one at the Sixth Street was left somewhere further away.

Once the primary force approached the Sixth Street, Sun Jiao immediately declared their stance, with the identity of the alliance of Zhao Corporation to provide backup. The thirty-something civil soldiers cluelessly allowed them to pass without hesitation and then opened the airspace to Chu Nan's helicopter.

They were loyal to the council, although the organization was in complete disarray since the Crimson Chamber of Commerce chose to fire at the council. The Crimson Chamber of Commerce was their enemy.

"Hello? Buddy, you don't mind if I make a hole in the inner circle wall right?" Jiang Chen opened the communication channel with a grin.

"…I don't mind."

The Inner Circle wall was firm. It took four 10 kg level bombs to blow a corner apart.

Seeing the wall had collapsed, Sun Jiao immediately led the 200 soldiers to approach that breaking point. The 6 power armors were responsible as the primary attack force, along with the 8 modified pickup trucks with machine guns attached and thirty-something soldiers with kinetic skeletons. Under air support, the scale of the war was leaning towards Jiang Chen.

"Zhao Gang, lead your people to take out their anti-air machine gun, as well as the anti-air missile." Jiang Chen continued to order.

"Yes."

Another 50 something people entered into the Sixth Street.

The wall had been broken. The remaining civil soldiers all entered the Inner Circle for assistance, and the Outer Circle was left completely defenseless. The 50 people quickly took control of the anti-air control center and captured the workers on duty as well as confiscated all communication equipment.

With this, there was nothing that could threaten this Type-51 helicopter.

With the artillery support of this air gunship, the Sun Jiao led ground forces forced their way into the center of the Inner Circle. The people of Crimson Chamber of Commerce were completely dumbfounded by the force that suddenly joined the fray. Any points of power gathered together would be shredded into pieces by the 10 kg level shell.

"The major street has been captured." Sun Jiao voice was transmitted to him.

"Continue to push towards the council building," Jiang Chen ordered firmly.

"Understood!"

The targets of attack of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce were the headquarters of all the council members. From the looks of it, at least four council members were killed already.

Only five council members desperately tried to hold their ground.

"How long until your people get here? My side can't hold any longer. Zhao Chenwu's voice rang by his ear, along with the noise of a few gunshots mixed in between.

"Very soon… Also, I recommend you open the window, and stay obediently inside your office."

After he finished speaking, Jiang Chen closed the communication channel. At the same time, he ordered Chu Nan to fly the helicopter over and lower its elevation.

"It's time for a surgery."

"Personally, I recommend for Zhao Chenwu to die. By diminishing the old force, our coup is more likely to succeed." While operating the helicopter, Chu Nan said some formidable points.

"…Perhaps. But there might be other uses for him later." Jiang Chen signaled Zhou Xiaoxia, who sat quietly across from him.

She didn't say anything as she stood up and walked to the hatch door.

Chu Nan shrugged as he didn't continue to try and convince his boss. He simply pressed a button below the control rod.

Auto suspension once again opened. The electric pulse cannon was dragged into the cabin.

Zhou Xiaoxia skillfully took off the sniper rifle on her back and aimed at the building.

The zone scanned by the crosshair had only bodies remain.

Search, fire, bolt, next.

A set of swift actions.

Zhao Chenwu leaning behind his office table hugged his wounded secretary and gestured thank you to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn't say anything. He only held onto the tablet and looked towards the ground.

It was already over.

But this Inner Circle no longer had its formal glory. It has been changed into an entirely different scene.

_Min_ _Min_

One more tonight

Chapter 205: Becoming the Owner

Before dusk had arrived, the war was over.

The soldiers that entered the council building found Cao Jinsong's body in the chamber.

His temple was bleeding, and he held a pistol in his hand. When defeat was inevitable, this old man chose to suicide.

Seeing that their boss died, the soldiers all dropped their weapons in hand and surrendered.

The Crimson Chamber of Commerce's flag was dragged down by the soldiers who climbed onto the top of the building and was thrown into a pile of flame.

"Died? He got off easy." Zhao Chenwu cursed while he limped beside Jiang Chen. His leg got shot. Although the wound has already been treated, he was still constricted by it.

At that time, the two of them walked side by side in the hallway of the council building.

There were only five people left out of the ten. A meeting was called.

There was so much needed to be discussed.

"Thank you so much. This way, without your people, Cao Jinsong, would have already succeeded. I'll do my best to say good things about you on the council." Zhao Chenwu smiled.

"Don't worry about it. As to good things... I think I can gain it by myself like before?"

Zhao Chenwu's feet stopped. His smile froze on his face.

Jiang Chen laughed, pushed open the door to the chamber, and walked inside.

...

Because that roundtable had been smashed, Jiang Chen ordered the soldiers to drag a long table from elsewhere.

The five council members sat on either side. However, Jiang Chen shamelessly sat at the head of the table.

Seeing Jiang Chen's move, Zhao Chenwu seemed to know what he wanted to do. He let out a sigh and didn't say anything.

But the other four council members didn't take it so well. If it were not for the two soldiers holding rifles and wearing kinetic skeletons, they probably would have jumped up and expressed their dissatisfaction.

"For the tragedy that occur here, I express my condolences."

Hearing Jiang Chen's words, the council members all cursed in their minds.

There was not a trace of condolence on his face.

"But life must continue. Since everyone here is really busy, let's get things started."

Jiang Chen shrugged and said with a smile.

"I agree. The cleaning of the radiation materials in the inner circle, as well as rebuilding, must commence soon." A tall council member nodded. His name was Kong Zhe, the owner of Double-headed Bull Chamber of Commerce. Although he just received communication from the front line that his trap card - the Landbird Armor was destroyed by the Crimson Chamber of Commerce Wanderer tank, still 30 something soldiers managed to survive as they began to retreat towards the Sixth Street.

"I consent."

"I agree."

Zhao Chenwu didn't say anything, but from his expression, he looked desolate.

In this civil war, he suffered the most loss among all council members. Two spider tanks, 20 power armors, Disaster-32 cruise missile, as well as great soldiers. Now the only remaining force for the Zhao Corporation was the five power armors and 5- soldiers sent to the outskirts of the city to build a defense line.

"First, we should hear some good news." Jiang Chen took out a graphene card from his pocket and put it on the table. "This is what we found on that old fox's body, the information recorded, the declaration of war was from three years ago. Also, because of their internal conflict, their plan to invade the east fell through."

All the council members let out a sigh of relief.

After going through the tragic civil war, if the Northern Alliance area attacked, without two to three years to rebuild, they had no odds of winning.

"This is great news. In this case, the defense can be put aside for now." A council member with a beer belly wiped the sweat from his forehead. His name was Fan Chen. He operated the largest construction company at Sixth Street, the metal shell company's owner.

Because of his weak force to begin with, in the civil war, his force suffered the smallest lost, but he had the most direct economic loss.

The west side of the Inner Circle was turned into shambles by the nuclear bomb. As the biggest real estate owner of the Sixth Street, his direct loss was as high as two million crystals.

But he certainly didn't look too remorseful, because being able to survive was always the best case scenario.

"That's right. Moving the soldiers back from the frontline would also help to stabilize the situation of the Sixth Street. As to what is happening in the Inner Circle, the mercenaries and bandits who depend on the Sixth Street are starting to become unsettled. We must restore the authority of the Group of Ten council and control the situation," Kong Zhe said sternly.

"Don't worry about that, my people have already controlled the situation in the Outer Circle. After sending a 10kg level bomb to a small mercenary force attempting to take advantage of the situation, everyone seemed to have calmed down." Jiang Chen shrugged.

The chamber was suddenly silenced. It was so quiet that if a needle dropped onto the ground, it would be clearly heard.

"Speaking of this, could your helicopter be flown away now..." After moments of silence, Kong Zhe difficulty squeezed those words out.

"To stabilize the situation, my helicopter will conduct routine air patrol. Trust me, this is for your own benefit." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Our soldiers will be back. As long as we restart the council, the situation will quickly be stabilized... Oh, let's talk about your compensation. The Sixth Street treasury will pay fifty thousand crystals as compensation for your assistance." Fan Chen's expression looked rather awkward, but he still squeezed a smile and proposed in a small voice.

"Fifty thousand? Are you pitying a hobo?" Jiang Chen couldn't help but laugh.

"Then what does Mr. Jiang think?" Kong Zhe's expression turned cold.

"Nothing, I just want to take away what I deserve." Jiang Chen with a casual expression leaned against the chair, with fingers crossed, "For example, this council building. Since I got it back from Cao Jinsong, shouldn't it belong to me?"

"This is crazy. You can't do that!" A council member stood up and furiously stared at Jiang Chen.

"No one will listen to your order."

"With just two hundred something people, don't you think your appetite is too big?"

Jiang Chen patiently waited for these furious council members to express their frustration, then he coughed lightly.

When everyone looked in his direction, Jiang Chen slowly spoke out.

"But you don't have a choice, isn't that right?"

Everyone was suddenly speechless.

"My people are outside, with two at the door now." Jiang Chen's chin pointed towards the two soldiers at the door. The two soldiers with rifles immediately saluted him and continued to stand on guard.

"But you don't even know how many of your soldiers are alive."

"The anti-air control center of the Sixth Street has been occupied by us. My helicopter can easily make any disagreeing voice shut up."

"I am not negotiating with you; I am only declaring the facts."

"From now on, this is my territory."

"I will use my way to bring stability here."

Chapter 206: Military Government Regime

The meeting quickly concluded.

No, it was not a meeting. For Jiang Chen didn't discuss anything with them, but rather he announced the plans from today onwards.

Starting today, the Sixth Street will be under a curfew with a duration of at least ten days until the situation was stabilized.

The Group of Ten council will be expanded to twenty people, separated into upper house and lower house, which will be represented by influential merchants and industry leaders. The upper house would be represented by merchants with registered assets in the top ten, the lower house would be voted in.

Because the civil group lost more than 80% of its force, partially due to internal corruption, they would dissipate immediately after the weapons are collected. The defense of the Sixth Street would be completely taken over by the Fishbone base.

To avoid similar civil wars from occurring again, Jiang Chen announced that a military government would be instated in the Sixth Street and control the law enforcement military authority. It would also have the right to veto any proposal from the council. The council's rights were strictly limited to law proposal and administration.

As to the head of the military government - the role of the General had naturally fallen on Jiang Chen's shoulders.

The decision to implement monarchy Constitution was also Chu Nan's proposal.

Jiang Chen was surprised to discover that that guy knew quite a lot about politics.

"Although the power of the Group of Ten Council has been cut by more than half in the city center due to the civil war, they should still not be underestimated. Whether it be their reputation in the Sixth Street or the soldiers on the front line. If we could not convince all of them, then we will have to dilute the power in their hands so the small forces in the Outer Circle will stand by our side. We only need to control the military. There is not much difference between direct and indirect control."

The establishment of the lower house was great news for the small merchants, mercenaries, and hunting groups in the outer circle. Although there was a lot of them, because of the difference among them, they were always pushed outside of the center of power.

Jiang Chen's decision obviously won the support of this minority. Although they wouldn't do anything, it without a doubt stabilized the situation. Along with the deterrence of force, the bigger mercenary forces chose to stay put.

As to the five council members, including Zhao Chenwu, they were forced to accept the "glory chip" injection and became Fishbone Base's knight.

As to their "cooperation", Jiang Chen highly noted the actions to be taken and promised that he would not misappropriate their assets at the Sixth Street. Also, Jiang Chen divided half of the property of the council members that suffered an unfortunate death as compensation to the remaining members. To some degree, it comforted their displeased mood.

To these ruthless leaders, he had to use this method to control them.

...

On the second floor of the council building, an office had been cleared out and transformed into the office of the military government general.

Sitting in front of the table, Sun Jiao held a tablet as she reported their progress in the last few days to Jiang Chen.

"52 Crimson Chamber of Commerce soldiers were captured and all injected with slavery chips. They were reincorporated into the force stationed at the Shenxiang town colony. The rebels in the city center saw the coup has failed, and one Wanderer tank surrendered to us, while the other three retreated to the Crimson Chamber of Commerce base outside of the city.

The surrender of the Wanderer tank was a joyful surprise to Jiang Chen!

The use of Meissner effect of electromagnetic reaction armor would almost make the vast majority of metal shell kinetic energy weapons fail. Particle Shields also have a degree of resistance to energy weapons. As the main weapon of the type fifty-two particles, it can turn the vast majority of armored units into scrap.

With the addition of the Wanderer tank, the armor force of the Fishbone base had improved by a level.

"Is there any reaction from the Crimson Chamber of Commerce military base outside of the city?"

"Not yet. They seemed to have some internal turmoil. Followed by Cao Jinsong's death, the slavery chip injected into his nephew Cao Wei's body had automatically failed. On the distribution of power, Cao Wei and Cao Jinsong's son had a disagreement."

"Internal disagreement again..." Jiang Chen muttered to himself.

"Human minds are not something that could be controlled by the chip."

Human minds?

Jiang Chen shook his head as he decided not to think about it anymore. He signaled for Sun Jiao to continue.

"From the battlefield along with the warehouse of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, we looted ten power armors, 87 kinetic skeletons, and 210 carbon nano armors. Some of the equipment only require minor repairs before it can be used." A smile emerged on Sun Jiao's face

"There is still better news to come." A sense of proudness appeared at the tip of Sun Jiao's tongue, she continued, "Acquired assets total a value of 1.5 million crystals, as well as one military factory, two pharmaceutical factories, and an organic material power plant."

Jiang Chen gasped for breath before his face turned ecstatic.

Organic material power plant. One ton of zombie fat would provide one thousand to two thousand watts of electricity. Thirty percent of the Sixth Street's power was generated by this power plant, removing the cost, on average one hundred watts would bring a profit of two crystals. A day's profit was between seven hundred to one thousand crystals.

"How are you going to reward me?" Seeing the excitement on Jiang Chen's face, Sun Jiao flirtatiously blew him a kiss and said coyly.

"Would a kiss be enough?" Jiang Chen smirked.

Sun Jiao gave him a dirty looked as she pouted her mouth, put away the tablet, and complained while briefly stretching.

"Done reporting. So tiring these few days, when are we going to go home?"

"In a few more days. If you are tired, I can give you a massage." Jiang Chen peeked at the softness that was about to pop out of her clothes as he joked.

Sun Jiao's face was covered by a thin layer of red, but she had a smirk on her face.

She walked in front of the table, and in a seductive position, she sat down on it. Then, with one hand leaning against the table, the other hand's finger gently lifted Jiang Chen's chin, she put her face near his.

"I want it now," the girl said flirtatiously.

"Now? Uh, there is no place here."

"There is a table right here. I can lie on top." With a seductive tone, the delicate finger slowly moved onto the table as there was only tenderness in her eyes.

[This devil...]

[In the office?]

Jiang Chen gulped. Just as he was about to succumb to the wild idea and reach his hand uncontrollably for that slightly opened collar-

Knock knock.

The sudden knock came from the door.

Like a cat, Sun Jiao swiftly got off the table and stood still. Jiang Chen also put his hand on the table as if nothing had happened, but his eyebrows twitched.

"Ahem, come in," Jiang Chen said.

The door was pushed open. Cheng Weiguo's loyal face entered Jiang Chen's sight.

Seeing the stern expression on the boss, as well as the displeased look on the "female boss"'s face, he seemed to have realized something as an awkward expression appeared on his face.

"Uh, should I leave now."

Jiang Chen noticed his expression, and he too felt awkward, but he tried his best to remain composed.

"No need. Important matters first."

Hearing that, Cheng Weiguo's face also became serious, and he thought, [That's the boss, he puts the important issue first!]

So he quickly explained, "Liuding town has sent an ambassador who wants to meet you."

Liuding town?

Jiang Chen's eyebrows rose.

Chapter 207: Liuding Town's Ambassador

June 16, 2171, the South Sea War erupted. The battlefield was not only limited to the South Sea; it was not even limited to the sea itself.

The flames of war spread across the twelve jurisdictions under PAC's control. The Bohai aircraft carrier fleet had a showdown with the Obama aircraft carrier 30 kilometers west of Jizhou Island, with NATO barely snatching a victory.

The retreating Bohai smashed into Wanghai City's port because of nuclear strikes and EMP. Due to it losing its combat power early, it became one of the vessels best preserved after the war.

A satirical ending.

Because of funding problems, the World Alliance Organization leading the order after the war didn't repair the Bohai. Instead, it permitted survivors from migrating. Then, they fired the space colonization ship from Kennedy Space Center, Plesetsk Space launch position, Jiuquan Launch Center. The World Alliance Organization was officially dissolved, the subsequent nuclear winter along with a series of critical events occurred. The people being deserted went through the initial suspension before finally choosing to unite together...

This is the history of Liuding town.

If the pieces of history were described in detail, it would be an epic no less than one million words.

"To put it in simple terms, all kinds of interesting people gathered there. There were "locals" like those who had entered the boat when I was young, NATO soldiers that gave up their nationalities, the suckers that didn't go into fallout shelters, and "pre-war" people from the fallout shelter that opened early.

He cracked a smile as Chu Nan dragged the control rod and casually chatted with Jiang Chen who sat in the passenger seat.

"What's life there like?" Jiang Chen asked, but his gaze was focused on what was outside the window.

"So so. Because I was a pilot, my salary was reasonable. If I save the money for alcohol, I can eat a meal of sardines a week. That thing tasted pretty good with a low level of mutation. Also, on the deserted armory in the aircraft carrier, with only ten crystals, you can find a rather attractive girl to sleep with you."

Hearing that, Chu Nan smiled reminiscently.

The third day on routine patrol.

The nuclear crater, like a horrifying scar, pierced the land within the Inner Circle.

Teams of cleaning personnel in orange protective suits carried a wide box with a thin hose in their hands, walked among the shambles while spraying radiation cleaner at things.

For local radiation, this radiation cleaner was quite effective. With only a spray, it would neutralize the radioactive element on the surface.

At the same time, it was complicated to manufacture with an expensive price tag. The World Alliance government did manufacture a batch, but for the radiation that covered the entire world, it was rather futile.

If it were not for the tightly packed Inner Circle where land was valuable, Jiang Chen would not have permitted the usage of the expensive radiation cleaner.

Since it was his territory now, he would have to allow the radiation to return to normal before the construction team could restart the rebuilding process.

"I am asking about industrial capability, as well as the military force, you know."

"The military is primarily comprised of an air force, with artillery assisting. As to industrial? Liuding Town doesn't have any industrial capabilities. It doesn't need any industrial capabilities." Chu Nan laughed.

He paused for a moment before he continued, "The Beer Cap company is Liuding town's factory. They possess tremendous industrial capabilities and produce all kinds of bombs, shells, and aircraft missiles, as well as heavy machinery. There are some smaller survival camps spread out on the wasteland that transport goods to Liuding town.

"Is the only specialty from Liuding Town sardines?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Of course not. A fair amount of mutant fish have rather "mild" changes; the crystal number is also stable. The income from fishing is not only the fish meat but also the sesame sized crystals on the fishbone. Also, there is the chip production industry, without the need for a significant amount of space, the raw materials were also easy to obtain by the side of the sea, but these are not the important points."

Chu Nan mysteriously smiled as he looked at Jiang Chen dubiously.

"The most luxurious casino and brothel on the wasteland are there. There are all kinds of tricks and games you can play, also very magical. A lot of merchants from Su city and Hang city visit because of the name as they hand over their hard earned crystals willingly while having the time of their life."

"Then it's a great place, have you tried it before?"

"No, I am only a cheap pilot," Chu Nan shrugged as he said helplessly.

"Other than this?"

"And artillery agreement."

"Artillery agreement?' Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"That's right, that's also part of Liuding Town's business." The patrol was over. Chu Nan controlled the helicopter while pressing a few buttons as they started to make their return.

"Bohai's electromagnetic cannon has a range of 500 kilometers. Therefore it can fire from the outskirts of Long River to Luzhou. Of course, the further the distance, the higher the cost, and the lower the accuracy. But it can easily strike targets in Wanghai City.

"Therefore?"

"One 100 kg level bomb costs 2000 crystals. It could be used on any small force, not within the artillery agreement. As to the artillery agreement, there is a fee of 10000 crystals per month."

"What, that is like asking for a protection fee," Jiang Chen cursed.

"It is a protection fee. So the reason they come to the Sixth Street is evident," Chu Nan said nonchalantly.

"Did the Sixth Street pay them before?"

"No, because Disaster-32, that belonged to Zhao Corporation, could send them into the deep sea without the ability to defend at all, and the five Wanderer tank of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce could also cut off their supplies... But now, these things seem to be gone. The only remaining Wanderer tank could be counted as a chip on the table, but it doesn't provide deterrence anymore."

The civil war had cost all the trap cards of the Group of Ten council. It also cost the firm stance of the Sixth Street.

The trap cards were not only there to create a balance of power, but it also deterred the external enemies.

"Do you think I should agree to the artillery agreement?" Jiang Chen nonchalantly laughed.

To be honest, if it was not for the fact that the Fishbone Base hasn't trained an experienced pilot, Jiang Chen really wanted to move Chu Nan into a managing role. A helicopter pilot was too limiting for his ability. Considering their take over of the Sixth Street alone, regardless of the decision of stabilizing the situation, Chu Nan offered him a lot of help.

"Of course not, although ten thousand crystals were nothing to the Sixth Street, that doesn't mean we need to lower our heads to them."

"Oh? We have other trap cards?"

"Of course." Chu Nan smiled, "Did the boss forget, what did we use to destroy the mutated humans?"

"That big firework?" Jiang Chen burst out laughing, "that thing might not be enough for aircraft carriers."

The technical content of the "ballistic missile" was too low. If it were not for the mutated humans being too careless with the construction of their base, a missile would not take out over half of their force.

Anti-missile technology before the war was extremely advanced. Basic ones included radar lock on and laser anti-missile. The reason Disaster-32 was strong because it could render the most anti-missile system useless.

If that missile were used to smash Liuding town, before it could land, it would be shot down by the anti-air laser cannon.

"Of course it was for hitting the Liuding town aircraft, we only need to aim at Liuding town's alliance." Chu Nan shook his head, "For example the Beer Cap company, they could produce 100 kg level bombs, but it doesn't mean they can equally produce the matching electromagnetic cannon. Under the protection of Liuding town, they never developed a strong military force."

"Without their alliances, Liuding town is only a dead boat."

Hearing that, Jiang Chen laughed out loud as he patted Chu Nan's shoulder with force.

"Not bad. Also, something else, do you have an interest being the governor of the Sixth Street? I am starting to realize that some of your other abilities are much better than controlling a helicopter."

"Are you hiddenly telling me that I suck at piloting?" Chu Nan made a funny expression as he joked.

"Of course not, I am serious."

"Mhmm, you are the boss, I will listen to your order. But to be honest, rather than becoming the governor of the Sixth Street, I want to become Liuding Town's governor more."

He wasn't joking.

Chapter 208: A Friendly Signal

As to the Chu Nan's last sentence, Jiang Chen gave it a thought but didn't reply.

The Sixth Street located in Jiading officially became part of his territory. Therefore, all the entrances from the northwest direction were under his control. Including the Fishbone base in Qingpu, and Shenxiang town colony in front of the Zhufeng highway. The three areas formed a triangle as the force almost included all the major roads to enter Wanghai city from the west.

It was fair to say, half of Wanghai city was already in his hands.

But, a highly volatile factor still posed a threat to the security of this area.

It was Liuding town.

That electromagnetic cannon was an immense force, its power far surmounted the cannons on his Tigers.

Although they would not easily strain the relationship with the "ruler of the land" Jiang Chen, since they existed, it would still be a threat.

How can one allow a threat to exist?

If he wanted to control the entire Wanghai city area, then he must plan against Liuding town.

But with the status quo, for both parties, cooperation was the better choice.

...

Within the chamber, Jiang Chen met the ambassador from Liuding town.

To his surprise, the ambassador was a lady. The bodyguard behind her was a Caucasian male. From his buff body, he must be a great fighter.

As to the female ambassador, Jiang Chen's first expression was utter shock, but presumably, he expressed his caution towards her.

Under her high nose, a vibe of power surrounded her.

Blonde hair, a western kind of body but an eastern face; she should be mixed.

Tang Miya, that was her name.

"It is a great pleasure to meet you, ambassador from Liuding town, I hope you enjoyed your stay last night." When he saw her enter the door, Jiang Chen had a friendly smile on his face and at the same extended his right hand.

Because she arrived rather late, Jiang Chen arranged a room for her in the Paradise Island hotel.

"Thank you for hosting me." The vibrant red lips were curled up as Tang Miya extended her hand and shook with Jiang Chen. "Your sex robot in the hotel was great."

Jiang Chen paused for a moment as his expression looked peculiar.

[That sex robot...has a female version?]

To his surprise, this lady ambassador was rather wild in her private life.

"Ahem, as long as you had fun. Please take a seat." Jiang Chen smiled as he avoided the rather inappropriate topic, he nobly pulled out the chair for her and invited her to sit.

Tang Miya nodded with a smile to express her gratitude as she sat on the chair. The bodyguard stood in front of the door.

"What kind of news is Miss Tang Miya bringing to us from Liuding Town?" As he sat on the chair, Jiang Chen asked the straightforward question.

"Of course friendly news." Tang Miya blinked her eyes before she took out a document, "First, it is about the trade. Liuding town had signed a trade agreement with the Group of Ten council at the Sixth Street, now that owner of the Sixth Street has changed, I wanted to ask Mr. Jiang Chen if this agreement is still valid?"

She put the document gently on the table.

Before the meeting, Jiang Chen scanned through the agreement. The premise was to ensure that Liuding town's merchants were treated fairly and equally and also share the same free trading rights with other forces.

"Of course it is valid." Jiang Chen picked up the agreement as he ceremonially scanned it before he gave out a direct response.

A smile surfaced on Tang Miya's face as she put the contract away; she had all ten fingers crossed.

"Also, it's about an agreement with the Fishbone base. Is it appropriate to bring it up now?"

An obvious attempt to test the water.

On the surface, Jiang Chen was the general of the military government, the council still exercised the decree. At least for other people, the Sixth Street was still open, and democratic.

Deciding for the council was overreaching, to begin with. Now that the private matter of the Fishbone base was brought up in the Sixth Street Council building, it was practically asking: does the Sixth Street belong to you?

The answer was yes.

"It's fine, just say it," Jiang Chen said firmly.

Seeing Jiang Chen's reaction, Tang Miya smiled and took out another agreement.

"Regarding the food by the Fishbone Food Corporation, our party is very interested... If you don't mind my rudeness, you are the owner of that company right?"

"Why do you think that?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"A woman's sixth sense," Tang Miya used a half-joking voice.

"Maybe your sense is accurate, but we are off topic now." Jiang Chen shrugged as he didn't answer the question, but rather, he avoided the topic.

Although Tang Miya was not too satisfied with Jiang Chen's response, she only smiled as she didn't persist on the question.

"This is our trade list; we need meat cans, vegetable cans, beer, and sugar. On the other side, we can provide crystals, small electronic components like chips and batteries. We trust that the price we offer will please you."

Jiang Chen carefully scanned through the content on the list as he nodded.

The price offered by the woman was a bit higher than Zhao Chenwu. The total trade amount was around half a million per month. The deal could be executed next spring.

"I am pleased with the price you offered, as the chips of your party, our side is also very interested. But the name on the contract is Lucky 32 Casino, not Liuding town, is there something I am not understanding?" Jiang Chen smiled as he signed the agreement with his name.

"Liuding town is only an aircraft carrier, but Lucky 32 Casino is my property." Miss Tang smiled as she put away the contract.

Jiang Chen thought for a second before clarity returned to his face.

"Then, in this case, the identity of Miss Tang in Liuding town, is similar to mine in the Sixth Street?"

"Two kinds of political structures, not comparable." Tang Miya said, "You can interpret that as I am a sailor with some influence."

[Not a complete dictatorship?]

"Although I don't completely understand, I think it would not interfere with our cooperation. Now, do you have any interesting proposals?" Jiang Chen laughed.

To Jiang Chen's surprise, Tang Miya shook her head.

"No."

[No? She didn't bring up the artillery agreement?]

Jiang Chen quickly regathered his thoughts, stood up, and announced the end of the meeting.

After shaking Tang Miya's hand, Jiang Chen personally sent her out the door.

"To be honest, I personally enjoy chatting with a dictator like you," Standing at the door, Tang Miya said out of nowhere.

"Oh?"

"Just this piece of paper, if it was for the Group Of Ten council, they could argue endlessly for two days straight. Compared with rowdy men, I think a decisive man like you is more charming." Tang Miya didn't bother to hide her praise in her words as her gorgeous eyes looked at Jiang Chen.

"Haha, Miss Tang is overcomplimenting me." Jiang Chen humbly smiled, but the curled up mouth clearly exposed his satisfaction.

Tang Miya would obvious not miss this detail as the tip of her mouth also curled up.

No men would have no reaction to a beautiful girl's praise, it was a natural instinct of men.

"I have a personal proposal, I don't know if Mr. Jiang would be interested?"

"Mhmm?"

With her watery eyes turning, Tang Miya got closer to Jiang Chen with a smile, the tip of her nose stopped at the point where it almost touched his face.

With an incredibly flirtatious tone, accompanied by her warm breath, she spoke out.

"Tonight, do you want to come by my room?"

...

Chapter 209: Fact

The next morning.

Jiang Chen and Miss Tang Miya walked out of Paradise Island hotel together.

They chatted and laughed as they walked along. Then, Jiang Chen nobly sent her to the gate of the Sixth Street.

If it were not for the people seeing them coming out of the hotel together, no one would have guessed what happened before.

But if people observed carefully, both of the powerful individuals had minor dark circles under their eyes, it seemed like they didn't sleep well last night.

Of course, what happens at the top of the pyramid, the people below don't need to know.

As to the rumors, it will fade eventually.

"Was it enjoyable last night?" Jiang Chen grinned as he mocked her.

"You are better than the sex robot." The tip of Tang Miya's mouth curved up as she replied in the same mocking tone.

"Haha, I'll take that as a compliment."

Jiang Chen without many boundaries would not refuse seduction, especially if it were in his own territory.

Therefore, last night he gladly accepted Tang Miya's invitation as he hooked up with the queen from Liuding town.

The intimacy happened last night, was no different than the negotiation on the conference table, both parties searching for what they want.

Being able to thrust into the body of a boss level person made Jiang Chen feel the "conquering" sensation. At the same time, also as a person of importance, she enjoyed the sensation of "being conquered" as she hadn't experienced it for a long time.

But that enjoyment will only last until morning. The two both chose to keep quiet on the details of last night.

Just like Jiang Chen had his mistresses.

As the boss of force, the owner behind Lucky 32 Casino Miss Tang Miya, also possessed her own lovers.

"What a pity, it would be better if you are a nobody." Before she was about to leave, Tang Miya gently used her finger to lift up Jiang Chen's chin as her eyes narrowed.

"If I am a nobody, is there any benefits to you?" Jiang Chen squeezed her hand with a smirk as he moved her finger away.

With her hand held, she did not blush at all. Her shamelessness was no less than Jiang Chen's. With a mischevious smile, she said, "Then I could make you one of my lovers."

With her invasive speech, Jiang Chen only smiled noncommittally.

[Funny, although my boundary is a bit gray, I don't have that kind of fetish.]

Ceremonially they said goodbye as Tang Miya along with her bodyguard disappeared among the ruins.

Looking at her figure disappearing into the horizon while remembering her final words, Jiang Chen uncontrollably shivered.

Although he just imagined it, the idea was a bit disgusting for a man.

...

After returning to the Inner Circle, Jiang Chen found Chu Nan who was cleaning the helicopter on the helicopter pad.

"Was it thrilling last night?" Chu Nan laughed mischievously as he closed the hose shut.

"How did you guess?" Jiang Chen shrugged.

"The owner of Lucky 32 Casino, Miss Tang Miya. Her unique hobby is no news in Liuding town." Chu Nan threw the mop on the helicopter's back wing, clapped his hands, and looked at Jiang Chen. "Since she already hooked up with you, then the negotiation must be successful?"

"You could say that. Also, she didn't mention the artillery agreement, your guess seems to be off." Jiang Chen smiled.

With eyebrows slightly raised, Chu Nan held his chin pondering for a moment.

"Is that so? It looks like they chose the more cautious way."

"Cautious?"

"Mhmm. Perhaps because she realized from the interaction between you that your firm stance would mean you would never compromise, therefore Tang Miya didn't bring up the proposal that obviously would be rejected, but rather she brought up the genuine desire to cooperate."

"That's something she can see through?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Tang Miya is a smart woman. Or else she wouldn't be managing Lucky 32 to perfection."

Chu Nan paused before he continued to speak.

"On the other hand, they might also be cautious about the force behind you."

"Fishbone Food Corporation?" Jiang Chen pondered.

It was only an elaborate lie, but since the food he brought out became evidence to support its existence, it made everyone believe its existence.

Other than the most intimate people, no one knew that it is a fictitious creation, not even his own citizens.

Although he didn't need it anymore.

"If you could pardon my rudeness, boss, is your identity really just a representative?"

"Does it matter?" Jiang Chen smiled noncommittally.

"From the bystander's perspective, your identity is more like the boss of the Fishbone Food Corporation. And Fishbone base, rather than a supply station, is more similar to a military outpost."

Hearing that, Jiang Chen's eyes slightly moved.

"Regardless, since I already settled the fact this military outpost exists, even if people want to touch it, they no longer have the ability to."

"That's right because they are fearful." Chu Nan smiled, "Because they don't know the real power of the company behind you. Did they help to occupy the Sixth Street, what's the purpose and intention of entering Wanghai City. Because of the lack of information, it forces them to use a cautionary attitude."

"Because of this, they should already have considered the mutated people of the Seventh area would somewhat pose a hindrance to our growth. If we accepted the artillery agreement, then we would definitely use electromagnetic cannon against the mutated human. If we easily solved the mutated human problem, it would be against the interest of Liuding town. Rather than the income of ten thousand crystals, they would much rather see mutated human and our struggle for power and hurting each other."

...

Thinking about Chu Nan's words, Jiang Chen returned to the council building.

Regardless, Liuding Town's attitude was rather friendly, the mutated human at the Seventh area didn't make any moves either.

In this case, his force in the apocalypse had finally entered a relatively peaceful period.

He only needed to choose someone to represent him for the Sixth Street affairs, Fishbone base is his core. After leaving for so long, it was time for him to go back.

Back in the office, he saw the pouting Sun Jiao waiting.

His expression looked rather awkward since last night...

"Was it fun last night?" Sun Jiao smiled with not the friendliest of smiles.

Jiang Chen forced a laugh as he embarrassedly scratched his head, looking away.

Sun Jiao's mouth pouted unhappily.

"There is still a small apple you haven't eaten yet, and you are picking fruit on another side."

The small apple referred to Yao Yao.

"Sorry."

Jiang Chen knew there was no use saying anything as he chose to admit fault, he also walked up to hug Sun Jiao.

Feeling his body heat, a red hue covered Sun Jiao's face.

With her expression showing a momentary confliction, she finally let out a sigh and gave up persisting this topic.

"Let's talk about some important matters. When do we go back? I am worried... about her condition."

That her was obviously referring to Sun Xiaorou.

Because it was too dangerous, she was still locked up inside the basement.

Speaking of her own sister, Sun Jiao also gave Jiang Chen a hard and dirty look.

"Ahem, the day after tomorrow, I'll do my best to finish taking care of everything."

Jiang Chen, knowing he lost the high ground, chose to shamelessly avoid Sun Jiao's eyes of blame as he quickly finished saying everything he needed to before fleeing from the scene.

Chapter 210: Zhao Chenwu's Choice

The cleaning of radiation was almost complete.

As to the suddenly erupted and quickly ended civil war, the survivors living in the Sixth Street reacted calmly to the situation; the passersby also didn't cause any trouble.

The new insurgent, with thunderous momentum, stabilized the chaotic situation.

Other than the ten people at the top who changed seats, for most of the people living in the Outer Circle, life didn't really change.

As to death.

People died every day on the wasteland.

"I always thought I am great at understanding people, but I guess I was wrong this time." Zhao Chenwu let out a sigh as he sat across from Jiang Chen.

"Do you regret anything?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Zhao Chenwu was silent.

Seeing that he didn't respond, Jiang Chen didn't mind, but rather he poured a cup of hot water for himself.

Then, he took out a small plastic bag from his pocket as he ripped it open, then slowly poured the fine brown powder inside the steamy cup.

Looking at the dark brown mixture, Zhao Chenwu's eyes widened as he uncontrollably gulped.

"At our place, this is called coffee."

"Of course I know." Zhao Chenwu's tone sounded urgent.

"Do you still regret it now?" Jiang Chen laughed.

Zhao Chenwu looked at Jiang Chen not understanding his meaning.

Seeing the expression on Zhao Chenwu's face, Jiang Chen laughed, and then took out something else.

The white cube, in Zhao Chenwu's widened eyes, was dropped into the fragrant coffee.

"You have a lot of good things," Zhao Chenwu difficultly squeezed out these words.

"That's right." Jiang Chen shrugged as he said lightheartedly, "Some things I was afraid of bringing out, but now I don't have as much to worry about."

"Are you really a representative?" Zhao Chenwu said with a bitter smile.

"You are the second person that has asked me this question... But what I want to say is that who I am is not important. The important thing is, as long as you work for me, I can provide you with all of these." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Provide me with all of these?" Zhao Chenwu was dumbfounded as he looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

"That's right." Jiang Chen was straightforward, "Food, sugar, coffee, tea, as well as other similar things. I will provide you a batch every month and you'll be responsible for selling them for me. The right to sell food is in your hands. I won't interrupt your business and I will only send some people to provide assistance in accounting."

"I don't understand, these things would be popular anywhere on the wasteland, why would you give it to me to do?" Zhao Chenwu didn't understand.

"Because I trust your ability, I want to see my product appear in every corner of the wasteland."

Hearing that, Zhao Chenwu's expression turned peculiar as he had an odd smile on his face.

"I can't believe that not long ago, we were still partners, now, I am working under you."

"That's up to your interpretation. As long as you maintain your "coolness," then Zhao Corporation still belongs to you. The purpose of a "chain" is to prevent similar things from happening again. Our relationship can still be interpreted as a partnership, and it is a much closer partnership." Jiang Chen smiled.

Zhao Chenwu paused for a moment before he burst out laughing and extended his hand.

"Then best of luck to both of us."

Holding his hand, Jiang Chen smiled.

"Best of luck to both of us."

The food trade specifics were quickly nailed down. The Fishbone Base was responsible for providing the supplies, Zhao Corporation was responsible for creating trade routes to send the goods to the corners of the wasteland, then bringing back other goods or crystals.

The profit would be divided 30 to 70 with Zhao Corporation taking home 30%. The current trade boundary would be expanded to the nearby Su City and Hang City with trade commencing this spring.

With the electronic agreement, Zhao Chenwu left Jiang Chen's office feeling jubilant.

Fan Chen waiting at the door let out a sigh of relief when he saw the expression on his colleague's face.

Jiang Chen shouldn't be difficult to talk to or Zhao Chenwu wouldn't be this happy.

As he thought, the fat guy knocked on the office door before walking inside.

Sitting across from Jiang Chen, Fan Chen hesitated for a moment before he asked in a low voice.

"What does the general need from me?"

Although Jiang Chen didn't put his hands on their assets and even divided some more interests to them, no one felt relaxed because of it.

The reason was that they were all injected with that chip.

Now that the situation has stabilized, Jiang Chen didn't make moves at their wallet. But what about in the future? Who could promise that he wouldn't slowly take over the crystals and factories in their hands and then secretly get rid of them?

That thing was originally meant for slaves, the people with it cannot defy at all.

These council members at the top never thought that thing would be used on them one day.

"Don't be so nervous, have a cup of coffee first?" Jiang Chen smiled amiably as he made him a cup of coffee.

Looking at the coffee in front of him, Fan Chen's expression was even more vibrant than Zhao Chenwu's, the widened eyes were almost about to pop out.

The hand holding onto the cup trembled as he excitedly put his lips to the cup and took a sip.

The taste that has been long gone.

"I finally understand why that guy Zhao Chenwu was so emotional when he walked out." Fan Chen let out a sigh as he smiled bitterly.

Thinking about the continuous partnership between Zhao Corporation and Fishbone base, even thinking with his butt, the two-parties must have reached some agreement.

"Haha, I believe you will be more emotional by the time you walk out the door." Jiang Chen laughed.

Fan Chen's face had astonishment written on it as he sat straight up, but then he slumped back, forcing a smile.

"It wouldn't be the food business. Two food sellers competing would offer much less profit than a monopoly."

Jiang Chen smiled as he took a sip of his own coffee.

"Although it is not the food business, the profit margin is not any lower."

Hearing this, Fan Chen looked interested.

"Oh? What business is it?"

"The rebuilding of the Sixth Street Inner Circle, I will contract you everything," Jiang Chen softly released this mega bomb.

Fan Chen's eyes opened wide as he looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

"Everything?"

"What, are you not confident?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"That would require a lot of money..." Fan Chen said difficulty.

"Don't worry, there will be funds." Jiang Chen put down the cup as his finger crossed, "The building destroyed in the civil war will be paid for by the assets of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, totaling one and a half million crystals. Based on the progress of construction, for every 10% completed, 10% of the fund will be paid out."

"Deal!"

Fan Chen accepted without hesitation, the tense expression he had was as if he was afraid Jiang Chen would take back his decision.

Jiang Chen smiled without saying another word as he took out the electronic agreement.

After carefully confirming the terms of the agreement, Fan Chen pressed his finger on it.

"To be honest, I am confused." Putting away the contract, Fan Chen couldn't resist the temptation to ask.

"What are you confused about?" Throwing the contract in his pocket, Jiang Chen sunk into his chair as he said amiably.

After debating for a moment, Fan Chen still spoke out with his head lowered.

"If I were in power, I would confiscate all the other council members' asset."

"The reason why I want you merchants to have a seat at the table is that it is too difficult for me to rule this piece of land, you can just be a good merchant from now on."

"Do you not love wealth?" Fan Chen forced a smile.

Just as he said those words, in his shocking sight, Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughing.

"The entire Sixth Street is mine, is there a difference whether the crystal is for me?"

History had proved countless times whether the corporation should be governed by an individual or a collective group.

Rather than hoarding crystals, Jiang Chen would rather hand out the small profits.

It was not only a technique to gain people's loyalty.

More importantly, under the motivation for profit, these ambitious merchants would naturally expand and conquer for him.

_Min_ _Min_

One more tonight

Chapter 211: The End for now

The five council members were all called upon separately to Jiang Chen's office. When they left, all of them left with a happy expression.

What would have taken two days of arguments around the roundtable, Jiang Chen used a few sentences to solve.

The food trade was controlled by Zhao Corporation. From today on, they'll start to hire workers from the Outer Circle as well as guards. At the same time, they'll order from the mechanical repair factory in the industrial area. The order totaled to twenty modified trucks with crystals as the energy source for the transportation vehicles of the goods. These trucks would be modified at Zhao Chenwu's firearm factory with heavy machineguns attached on top, the exterior being wielded with steel armor and parts.

Jiang Chen remembered a sentence Zhao Chenwu told him when he took him on tour: "Unless it was a proposal passed by the Sixth Street council would my factory start producing these hard to take care of things."

Now that there was no more trouble; the damn roundtable was smashed in half. The council no longer discussed these annoying problems and Jiang Chen's words were the law. When control was in one person's hands, there would be no comical proposals to keep him in check.

Ten T-3 power armor orders with a total price of one hundred and ten thousand crystals would be completed by next March. Jiang Chen paid 20% upfront to Zhao Chenwu, Zhao Chenwu will use this funding to expand the production line and hire more workers.

At the same time, Jiang Chen notified Zhao Chenwu to emphasize Zhao Corporation's weapon research to focus on new power armor types. They must develop a more mobile, higher load, and more powerful T-4 power armor.

Not only Zhao Corporation, the other four council members all received their own benefits.

Fan Chen's metal shell Chamber of Commerce acquired the project to rebuild the damaged buildings in the Inner Circle as well as repairing the damages to the wall. At the same time, Jiang Chen gave him the project to connect Fishbone Base to the Sixth Street's electric grid.

Lu Yun's Shoreline company, who previously sold small items before the civil war and traded with Su city and Hang city, had a small portion of the pharmaceutical market. Unfortunately, the nuclear explosion in the Inner Circle almost wiped out half of his stores. Although the rebuild fee would be paid by Crimson Chamber of Commerce's assets, the products he lost during the nuclear explosion were not included as part of the compensation scheme.

But just at the brink of bankruptcy, Jiang Chen helped him. He organized all the pieces of lands together and assigned him a large plot of land to aid in his business transformation - building the biggest entertainment city on the wasteland with casinos, hotels, as well as special services.

Hua Weijie's star technology company still maintained its original business focus - to digest and improve the pre-war technology. But Jiang Chen gave him a research direction - Type-51 Transport Helicopter.

The Sixth Street didn't develop their air force, part of the reason being that they never acquired the technology before the war. The other reason being the comical balance of power. "Because I don't have the helicopter, therefore you are not allowed to research. Therefore I will group up with the eight other people to sanction you."

Now that the problem didn't exist anymore, Jiang Chen prepaid Hua Weijie twenty thousand crystals as funding for the upgrade of research equipment and hiring teams to explore pre-war facilities to gather information.

Other than the four council members mentioned above, even Kong Zhe, who first stood up to oppose Jiang Chen in the initial meeting, gained something out of this. Jiang Chen, putting aside their history, made this guy who was living anxiously for the past few days graciously express his gratitude. However, Jiang Chen really didn't care about this appreciation as he used a casual voice to tell him that, as long as he is obedient, there will be things to gain out of it.

Now that the Sixth Street was back on track, it was time to go back to the Fishbone base as that's where his core operations lie.

The helicopter was left there. The star technology company's technologists will use equipment to scan the helicopter and acquire the needed technical data.

Chu Nan, as the pilot, was obviously left behind on the Sixth Street. Considering that the restructure of the council to the upper and lower house would still require coordination, Jiang Chen granted Chu Nan as his representative to perform part of the duties as the general. He also left two hundred soldiers behind to maintain order.

After taking care of these things, Jiang Chen took the remaining soldiers and left the Sixth Street.

"Finally get to go home." On the way, Sun Jiao lazily stretched.

"That's right, finally going home." Jiang Chen smiled as he looked at the underground entrance.

The underground tunnel modified with the cooperation of Zhao Chenwu now belonged completely to Jiang Chen; with elite soldiers wielding kinetic skeletons guarding the entrance.

When they saw Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao approach, the five soldiers on duty saluted and opened the gate to the tunnel.

"Speaking of this, a lot happened in this half a year."

Walking on the dry concrete road, Sun Jiao abruptly started talking.

"That's right."

"Is that the only thing you can say?" Sun Jiao pouted her mouth as she gave a dirty look to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen laughed as he naturally held onto her hand.

Sun Jiao's face turned red but quickly returned to normal.

"You are blushing?"

"No."

"We have done it so many times - Ahh, is your zodiac a cat?" Jiang Chen painfully shook his right hand as he exaggeratedly blew on his hand.

This girl pinched him.

After spending so long together, he almost forgot that she was a "lunatic' with a muscle strength of 44. Although the thin arms did not show any signs of muscle.

Sun Jiao stared at him in embarrassment.

"Why are you saying this here?"

Sun Jiao glanced in the front as there were no signs of the team anymore.

Leading in the front was Cheng Weiguo, as to the two people "intentionally" lagging behind, that guy understandingly took the forty-something soldiers and moved at a faster pace, leaving the quiet space to them.

"Ahem, they are all gone." Jiang Chen with a grin put his arm around her waist.

She didn't resist against Jiang Chen's intimate action as they walked in the not-so-romantic underground tunnel.

Compared to the first time they walked inside, this place has been completely changed.

The wall was covered with luminescent stripes that emitted cold blue lights which lit up the pitch black underground. The river flowing with dirty water had been blocked already with a layer of Polyethylene alloy separator. The outlets were blocked by polyethylene boards which stopped the possibility of bandits or cannibals from entering.

"What is your EP indicators now?"

"Why are you asking about it?"

"I just want to see, do I have the ability to forcefully do you," Jiang Chen asked in a half-joking voice.

Hearing that, Sun Jiao's face turned red again, but it was soon changed into a smirk as she displayed the EP on her arm.

[User Name: Sun Jiao

Muscle strength: 49

Bone strength: 67

Reflex: 50

Brain cell strength: 13]

...

"Gasp-, wait, I remember you were 44, 61, 40?"

Staring at the screen, Jiang Chen said in complete shock.

Chapter 212: That Smile

Muscle strength increased by 5 points, bone strength by 6, and reflex by a shocking 10 points!

[

Muscle strength:49

Bone strength:67

Reflex:50

Brain cell strength:13

...

]

Jiang Chen quietly looked at his own EP; the difference was still quite drastic.

Muscle strength and reflex were okay as he was "only" behind ten something points, but she almost doubled his bone strength.

"I thought I was going to catch up to you.' Jiang Chen forced a smile as he closed the EP in disappointment.

"While you are improving, I am not lagging behind," Sun Jiao flipped her luscious black hair as she said proudly.

"Looks like the difference is only going to get bigger." Jiang Chen sighed.

The EP stat determines, under an ideal setting, a human's maximum ability. For most humans, the maximum stat achievable is 100, while an infant's is 0. The stat thus quantifies the user's current ability.

Under the circumstance that the DNA is not modified, the limit humans can reach is 100. If the modification causes reproductive isolation, then the person wouldn't be referred to human anymore, they would have to be named after another species.

Once the stat passes 50, it is much more difficult to increase it. Although Sun Jiao's "stats points" speed didn't seem to be as fast as Jiang Chen's, which double within a few months, this was due to her initial stats being much higher.

Just like in video games, the difficulty from level 1 to 10 is far easier compared to level 50 to 51.

Seeing Jiang Chen sigh, Sun Jiao though his dignity was hurt as she gentle comforted him.

"There are lots of different definitions for being powerful. Body condition is only one of them. A lot of people on the wasteland possess a frail body, but with their superb shooting skills, they can still win a fight against people with body conditions multiple times greater. As well as people who have mastered mechanical knowledge, with the help of the assistive device, they're able to acquire strong powers. Also the hackers, they could infiltrate the mechanical people wandering among shambles to force them to fight..."

"Then what am I strong at?" Jiang Chen cockily laughed.

Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen who was showing off. She then bit her lips as she stared into the distant darkness.

"Do you know now?"

"I just want to listen to my woman compliment me," Jiang Chen shamelessly said these words.

He was always someone that liked to show off.

With a slight smirk, Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, and then with a half-serious half-joking tone.

"Your power comes from the fact that you can gain the affection of other people."

[So, the charm stat is maxed out?]

That was a unique way of saying this as Jiang Chen couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"For example, you?"

"Not only me, but Yao Yao, even Lin Lin, as well as everyone in the base."

"Why don't you say leadership."

"Different from leadership. Think closely, is there even a time where you used the slavery chip to force someone to listen to you?"

"People trust that you can bring order, they trust you. Therefore, they follow you to a brighter future, that's why they are willing to listen to you."

"To be able to gather so many people willing to fight for you, it is an amazing ability." Sun Jiao playfully winked.

Hearing that, Jiang Chen paused and then smiled, but he then exaggeratedly let out a sigh.

"What, are you still not pleased with having this power?"

"Very pleased, but I still have some regrets."

"Regrets?"

"I can't tie you to a chair and seek revenge for the first time we met." Jiang Chen with a smirk spoke into her ear.

"Oh? Don't you think it is thrilling to be tied down." She smiled like a little devil as she also spoke into Jiang Chen's ear, and naughtily blew inside.

"Uh, I am not a masochist."

[Although he was never against trying new things...]

Looking at the side of Jiang Chen's face, the tip of Sun Jiao's mouth also rolled up.

"You've changed."

"Ahem, I was not a masochist before," Jiang Chen said speechlessly.

"Not that," Sun Jiao laughed out, she paused, and then with a ridiculing tone, she jokingly said, "You are more mature compared to the first time you were here."

"Which one do you like better?"

"Both... Although during that time you were also delicious... It is more attractive for you to be more mature," Sun Jiao with a finger on her lips said.

[What do you mean by delicious?]

Jiang Chen had a helpless expression on his face.

But speaking of that, within five short months, he did grow a lot.

He was previously just a young man entering into society with no notable achievements in life. If he didn't acquire that magical interdimensional travel ability, he would probably be inside his apartment, rotting away. Or even going back to his hometown and becoming unemployed while still holding a honors university degree.

Not even house, he would probably have to depend on his parents to not starve.

Now looking back from this perspective, he felt melancholic.

Seeing the adorable gesture of Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen also joked back.

"You've also changed."

"Oh? How have I changed?" Sun Jiao put her hands on her waist as she pretended to be authoritative.

"Too many things." Jiang Chen laughed as he started to count his finger. "More civilized, no longer licking fingers after eating cans, knows how to match clothing, learned to be compassionate, and even knows how to knit a scarf."

Sun Jiao's mouth curved up showing her proudness.

"Which change do you like the most?"

"Boobs are slightly bigger."

"Be serious!" Sun Jiao gave Jiang Chen a dirty look as she reached to pinch Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen with a grin easily dodged the attack without any force.

"From being audacious to more understanding, or more feminine."

Hearing that, Sun Jiao's face immediately turned red, her eyes frantically looked around, as her finger twirled her hair around shyly.

"Feminine? What, was I not before?"

Jiang Chen smiled but didn't reply.

Chatting was a great way to pass the time, there were glares of different light in the distance.

The ladder at the end had long been changed into a spacious elevator.

When they approached at the exit, Jiang Chen pressed the button for the elevator.

"Now that you have taken care of things here, will you go back to the other side?" Stepping onto the elevator, Sun Jiao said, not wanting to let him go.

"Mhmm."Jiang Chen nodded and followed her.

As if Sun Jiao had already expected the answer, she didn't ask him to stay, she only spoke with a small voice.

"What is this world to you?"

Jiang Chen paused for a moment as he didn't expect Sun Jiao to ask this question.

But the pause only lasted for a second. Jiang Chen gently smiled as he tousled her hair.

"It was only a gold mine in the beginning... But now, my second home."

With his words, a bright smile emerged on Sun Jiao's face.

That smile was beautiful.

Chapter 213: The Ballistic Tingting

When he walked out of the elevator, Jiang Chen was greeted by the thunderous applause of all the survivors at the Fishbone base.

The snow was thick and cold, but it didn't cool off the people's energy by the slightest.

A girl even gifted Jiang Chen with flowers.

The first groups of survivors that joined the base were all refugees from the Sixth Street. They suffered from hunger, disease, and were looked down upon as they struggled to survive. It was fair to say that they don't have the slightest positive impression of the Group of Ten council. Although they have nothing to do with the Sixth Street anymore, Jiang Chen becoming the new owner of the Sixth Street made them feel proud and avenged.

Jiang Chen waved back at the crowd with a smile before entering the community center along with Sun Jiao.

When they entered the supply management office, Jiang Chen found manager Wang Qin.

"All the compensation to the Black Blood Mercenaries have been paid out, a total of 11000 crystals. Because he was afraid that his base would be affected by the civil war, Luo Yang has already taken his people back to the Sixth Street. As to the trade with Liuding town, he left a representative to delegate with us.

Jiang Chen nodded at Wang Qin's report.

The food business for the Sixth Street as well as other areas were all given to Zhao Chenwu. As to Liuding town, because of the trade agreement with Tang Miya, Jiang Chen hired the Black Blood Mercenaries and Luo Yang would be responsible for escorting the food to the aircraft and then transporting back the crystals and chips.

As to the specifics, Jiang Chen left it to Wang Qin to worry about. He trusted that in this field of expertise, her experience was more than enough.

On the other hand, there were around one hundred survivors that joined the Fishbone base with the majority being survivors from Qingpu, and some were even from Songjiang area, near Qingpu.

For the newly joined survivors, Jiang Chen had a welcoming attitude but was worried by Fishbone Base's housing limitation. The expansion of the Fishbone base has also slowed due to increased construction of the defense line near Taifu river.

But following the decrease of pressure from the mutated humans, Lu Huasheng brought the construction team back to the base. It won't be long until the housing problem is resolved.

"Did Luo Yang say anything before he left?"

Pondering this for a moment, Wang Qin said in a quiet voice.

"He said you are cunning but deceitful."

Jiang Chen immediately burst out laughing.

"I'll take that as a compliment then."

If he heard the news of the civil war, he would do anything to bring his people back to the Sixth Street.

Although 70 something people was not a lot, they were all experienced. With the 70 something mercenaries, he could have easily gotten more compared to the 11000 crystals.

After arranging the related tasks, Jiang Chen walked out of the office and together with Sun Jiao, who was waiting outside, went to the mansion.

After the interrogation, Sun Xiaorou has been locked in the basement. If it were a stranger, it would be okay, but she was Sun Jiao's younger sister. Considering his relationship with Sun Jiao, this Sun Xiaorou could be regarded as his sister-in-law.

"What is your plan for my sister?" On the way to the basement, Sun Jiao asked in a quiet voice.

"… To be honest, I don't know."

Sun Jiao gently bit her lips as she wanted to say something, but nothing ended up coming out.

Jiang Chen peeked at the side of Sun Jiao's face and didn't stay anything either.

The two walked to the basement in silence as they pushed open the door.

"The pervert is finally back?"

Lin Lin sat in front of the computer with her eyes focused on the screen while saying it without turning her head.

Before they headed to the frontline, Jiang Chen asked her to investigate why Sun Xiaorou lost her childhood memory, or even why she doesn't remember Sun Jiao as a person. He then related it to the zeal without reasoning for the religion and suspected she had been brainwashed or experienced hypnosis before.

Jiang Chen ignored Lin Lin badmouthing him as he glanced at the Sun Xiaorou floating in the nutrient chamber.

"Did you figure anything out?"

A proud smile flashed across Lin Lin's face as she pressed a few buttons.

"Of course, who do you think I am."

A brain shaped full sensory visual was projected out, Lin Lin stood up from the chair and walked beside the visual.

'Using special equipment to scan, I found a Nano chip in her hippocampus. Its purpose was to block the nervous system from extracting information from the hippocampus which would act as a seal to her childhood memory."

As Lin Lin said this, she clicked on the full sensory visual as she magnified the chip hidden in her brain.

"Is there a way to remove this chip?" Jiang Chen said gently.

"Of course, but it will be complicated…" Lin Lin let out a sigh.

Seeing that the always cocky digitalized human scientist express her concern, Sun Jiao turned anxious as she grabbed onto Lin Lin's shoulder, pleading her.

"There are still ways, right? Please, I don't want my sister to become someone's puppet. If there is anything I can do to help, tell me and I will do my best –"

She was slightly uncomfortable being stared at by Sun Jiao's pleading eyes. Her face turned slightly red as she looked away and interrupted her in a small voice.

"The chip has been in her brain since she was young. In the case that the chip can be removed without damaging her brain, even with the pre-war medical conditions, there would be no guarantee, especially here…"

"So what options do we have?" Jiang Chen asked calmly.

"The easiest way is to find the person who implanted the chip, release the control, and make the chip eternally dormant."

"Could it not be taken down by an EMP?" Jiang Chen couldn't help but ask.

Hearing that, Lin Lin felt exasperated.

"When the size of the device and the sensor is much smaller than the wavelength of the microwave, the microwave frequency cannot be coupled to the device with sufficient energy to cause damage." The electromagnetic pulse on the nano-level electronic components is invalid… How did you learn your physics, aren't you a university student on the other side?"

Jiang Chen's face turned red as he tried to argue back.

"We don't learn those things on that side?"

Sun Jiao stared at her sister in the nutrient chamber as she suddenly spoke out.

"As long as I catch the person that implanted the chip right?"

"Even if he was caught, I don't think he would easily give up control." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he was also troubled.

"Then I will force him to give it." A grimace flashed across Sun Jiao's face as her tightly clenched fists shook with anger.

Looking at the expression on Sun Jiao's face, Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

Seems like a war with the Dusk was inevitable, though there was no possibility of having a peaceful resolution to begin with.

"I will help you." Jiang Chen held onto Sun Jiao's fist as he gently comforted her.

"Mhmm." Sun Jiao's face was covered in a red hue as she buried her head.

Lin Lin pouted her lips.

Her heart began to beat faster out of displeasure from seeing the two display affection while completely ignoring her.

Wait, how could a mechanical heart start beating faster.

Lin Lin was shocked. But just when she realized this, her body's control was already taken over by the "guest" in her body.

"Ahhhh! Quick, help me, I can't control the power in my body!"

Chapter 214: The Fourth Dimensional Messenger

Lin Lin was bent over with her arms clutching her stomach as her body began to shake violently.

Just from her posture and tone, she looked like an anime character.

"What's going on?" Jiang Chen was alerted, but before he could react, Lin Lin already moved.

Like a jaguar, Lin Lin leapt at Sun Jiao.

With no time to guard herself, Sun Jiao was pushed onto the ground with her back against the floor. Lin Lin sat on top of her waist, her eyes shone with a hollow and ominous red light.

"What do you want to do!" Sun Jiao blocked Lin Lin's arm as she said furiously.

But seeing the redness from her eyes, Sun Jiao suddenly realized.

It was not Lin Lin, but rather the Tingting in her body.

"Mine," A hollow voice said.

"What are you even saying?" Sun Jiao's face was bloated as she locked onto Tingting's hands.

The digitalized human's strength was surprisingly high. With Sun Jiao's power, she couldn't push it away. Seeing Lin Lin's usual timid look, it was hard to imagine that the body possessed this massive amount of power. Tingting for some strange reasons was enraged.

Jiang Chen immediately rushed over when he saw Sun Jiao being pushed down to the floor; his hands hugged Lin Lin in an attempt to drag her away from Sun Jiao.

The scene was chaotic.

At the same time, Yao Yao, who has been sending food to Lin Lin suddenly opened the door as she brought the delicious meal in.

Then she saw the two twisting on the ground "fighting" and the cute loli was immediately shocked as she froze in place not knowing what to do.

"What, what happened?"

Jiang Chen with the corner his eye noticed the small rabbit slippers. He then turned his head just enough to look at Yao Yao and through his heavy breathing, asked for help.

"Yao Yao, help me, bring that tranquilizer over... Oh no, bring that static device over."

"Okay!" Yao Yao fiercely nodded her head as she put the dishes on the table and then ran to the operating table, frantically searching for the equipment.

"I, I don't know which one it is!" Yao Yao who couldn't find it was about to cry out of anxiousness.

"F*ck, I can't take this anymore!" Sun Jiao's face turned a dark red as she began to swear, "Can I take her apart?"

[Is this considered chaos among the concubines?]

As Jiang Chen, with a mixture of emotions, was trying to comfort Sun Jiao while doing everything he can to control the enraged Lin Lin.

But suddenly, Lin Lin's actions stopped, but the red light in her eyes was even brighter.

Jiang Chen was alerted.

"Dammit, it's the Klein particle beam!"

"Then help me get her away!"

Sun Jiao didn't know what the Klein particle beam was, but Jiang Chen had seen the power of it, it was just that he didn't know if it is effective on humans...

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth as his eyes were covered with a layer of red dots.

Fury!

His strength exploded by 20 points.

"Oooo!"

Lin Lin's face was suddenly flushed red as the pressure around her chest made all her power go away for a moment. Falling backward, she was dragged away by Jiang Chen.

Under the critical situation, Jiang Chen didn't notice what he had grabbed onto. Seeing that Lin Lin finally got off of Sun Jiao's body, he immediately deactivated fury, but before he could gather a breath, a beam of red light scathed by his forehead and shot at the ceiling.

The highly penetrative Klein particle didn't leave any traces on the wall, but it instantly destroyed all the electronics in the room as the light immediately turned dark.

"Ahhh." The basement suddenly turning dark made Yao Yao drop the static device in her hand.

Sun Jiao stood up breathing heavily, she moved her body around, and fiercely started at the Lin Lin paralyzed in Jiang Chen's arms.

Because the circuit was destroyed, the nutrient chamber initiated emergency protocol.

The door slowly opened as the nutrients spilled all over the ground, Sun Xiaorou slowly fell onto the ground.

Seeing that, Jiang Chen silently took out his pistol.

The EP was broken, he could not control the mechanical arm on Sun Xiaorou. If she striked at this time, then he had to shoot her limps.

Sun Jiao also blankly stared at Sun Xiaorou on the ground.

Under her vision, Sun Xiaorou's lips moved, and her mouth gradually opened.

The nutrients emitted a luminescent light. With the help of the light in blurring her vision, she looked at Sun Jiao.

"Sis...Sister?"

...

Jiang Chen took out the graphene memory card from the previous EP as he replaced it with a new one.

The Klein particle seems to have destroyed the chip in Sun Xiaorou's head, which was a happy surprise.

Seeing the sisters hug, Jiang Chen had a genuine smile on his face.

But things were never this simple.

After recollecting her memory, Sun Xiaorou seemed to have entered some kind of dismay, her childhood memory suddenly surfacing shocked her current memory.

As if two people were fighting in her head. One represented her memory in the fallout shelter, while the other was the memory instilled in her at the Dusk.

The exact symptom was that her expression was frightening at times while gentle in others. She hid between the arms of Sun Jiao as her body trembled uncontrollably.

But one thing was clear when she saw Jiang Chen, her expression remained in fear...

[Umm, maybe he went overboard last time?]

Jiang Chen thought awkwardly.

The damage on the mind would have to be left to time to heal...Of course, Jiang Chen didn't refer to the interrogation.

For safety purposes, Jiang Chen closed the functionality of her left mechanical arm.

To leave time for the sisters, Jiang Chen held onto Yao Yao and carried Lin Lin out of the basement.

When Lin Lin drowsily woke up from her unconsciousness, the sun had already set.

The red light in her eyes had vanished, seeing Jiang Chen sitting beside the bed, Lin Lin's face turned red all of the sudden.

"Have you been here the entire time?" Lin Lin asked in a feeble voice.

"Mhmm... Tingting returned to normal?" Jiang Chen didn't notice the unnatural tone as he wrily rubbed his temple.

"She has been controlled. Controlling my body seems to cost a lot of energy, she is now asleep." Lin Lin gulped as she nodded her head.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh as he stood up.

"Rest well."

Leaving those words, Jiang Chen headed for the door.

"Wait." Lin Lin stopped him.

Jiang Chen stopped and turned his head.

"Hmmm?"

"Are you going back to the modern world?"

"Mhmm, probably tomorrow morning."

"I want mango pudding!" Lin Lin said without humiliation as she licked her lips in excitement, "Based on my research of history, the earth in 2015 must have that thing-"

"So troublesome... If I remember next time when I come back." He was just about to reject, but for some reason, Jiang Chen lost the mood to bully her.

[She seemed to be cuter when she smile?]

A remorseful expression was just about to appear. However, when she heard Jiang Chen's last sentence, a joyful smile appeared on her face as she sat up on the bed.

"You should rest a bit more."

"No, pudding is more important."

She wiped the tip of her mouth, ran to the experiment table in slippers, and took off something strange looking. She ran back and put it in front of Jiang Chen as if she was giving him a treasure.

"I will remind you!"

"What is this?" Jiang Chen looked confused as he played with the nail-sized chip in his hand.

"The fusion of technology!"

"Human words please."

"To put it in simple terms, it is a communication chip. But it is unique... Umm, how should I say this? If you insert it in your EP, you can communicate through the time dimension."

Chapter 215: The Friendship Across Dimensions

Fourth dimension messenger was the name Lin Lin gave to that chip.

All in all, the thing was ridiculous.

Because right now, Jiang Chen was standing in his mansion in the modern world while using his EP to video chat with Lin Lin.

With a polished crystal as the core of the chip, it uses a unique method to activate the Klein particle and sends a wave to a different chip in another timeline. Then it uses a unique method to decipher the code. Because only a unique wave is sent out rather than a tangible material with mass, without the help of the interdimensional bracelet, it could not send messages between the two chips.

"Point the camera outside the window, I want to look at trees!" Lin Lin spoke to Jiang Chen in excitement.

[What there to look at for trees.]

Jiang Chen had no choice but to walk to the balcony as he demonstrated the vegetations planted in his backyard.

"Woooo, I want to go to your side."

"If you can transform from digitalized human to mechanical human, I can certainly take you here."

"Uh, I'll pass on that." Lin Lin squinted her neck.

Abandoning the human flesh and the DNA that defines the existence of humanity, would that still be called human?

"Could you go somewhere more open?"

Jiang Chen was going to reject because it was too troublesome, but seeing the longing face on Lin Lin, he let out a sigh and walked to the top floor.

Because the mansion was a scenic house, the part of the river with the most vegetation could be seen on the top floor. Jiang Chen leaned against the railing as he pointed his EP at the Huangpu river.

The wind at night was chilly.

It was already December. Wanghai city in the modern world has officially entered winter season for over a month, but Jiang Chen with only a jacket didn't feel too cold. The El Nino was at its peak, so the winter in Wanghai City will be a warm one.

Lights on the passing by boats floated on the river. Along the river bank was a city of lights as the endless amount of traffic decorated the city skyline, painting a scene of prosperity.

Seeing the drunken expression on Lin Lin's face, Jiang Chen felt teary for some reason.

For the people living in the apocalypse, this scene was providence.

"Woo! I have decided!" A firm expression appeared on Lin Lin's face.

"Oh?"

"I will research a method that will allow you to carry living thing across the time dimension!"

Jiang Chen smiled as he replied.

"Then work hard. If you can really do it, it would not be a problem if you want pudding from all over the world."

If he could really travel with humans, he could then fulfill the promise to Sun Jiao.

In the abandoned experimental school, he had promised Sun Jiao he would one day take her to the school he attended and take her to see how people lived before the war, how they interacted.

Lin Lin on the EP screen slurped her own saliva without caring about her image. Her eyes had already turned to pudding as they flashed brightly.

"Who is she?"

Noticing Jiang Chen coming back, Ayesha came to the roof.

She gently walked beside him as she curiously looked at the gorgeous girl on the screen.

So beautiful.

Silver hair, pale skin, the look of a porcelain doll.

"She is digitalized human Lin Lin." Jiang Chen put his hand around Ayesha's waist as he introduced.

"Woah, you have another woman on the other side!" Lin Lin jumped up as if she had discovered a new world as she looked at Jiang Chen without good intention.

But Jiang Chen was not bothered at all because it was not a secret, only Lin Lin didn't know.

"Hello, can I know your name?" Ayesha gently smiled at her.

She could guess that the girl on the screen was Jiang Chen's woman from the "future world" but she didn't mind. If she could, she wanted to establish a good relationship with her and live harmoniously together.

"Wooo!" Ayesha's gentle smile seemed to have "stunned" Lin Lin, as to the tantrum she had been preparing in her mouth was stuck in her throat. She was too embarrassed to say it out.

It was the first time someone smiled at her this gently, could it be that people were all this gentle before?

"My, my name is Lin Lin."

"My name is Ayesha," Ayesha put her finger out as lightly touched the screen, "nice to meet you."

"Me, me too!" Lin Lin's face turned red as she scratched her head.

"Could I be good friends with you?"

"Mhmm..."

Lin Lin nodded shyly as her finger played with the tip of her clothes, it was a rare expression for her.

Seeing the two people becoming friends, Jiang Chen also smiled.

It was a unique feeling, a friendship beyond time?

Because of the technical limitations, the chip could not maintain communication for an extended period of time.

After telling Lin Lin to let Sun Jiao know about the chip so that she could let him know if anything important happened at the base, Jiang Chen hung up the video call.

"Is she your woman?" Ayesha blinked her blue eyes and asked Jiang Chen.

"How is that possible," Jiang Chen answered without thinking.

"But I sensed that she really likes you."

Listening to Ayesha words, Jiang Chen paused as his expression turned peculiar.

"Perhaps it is because of Stockholm syndrome." He seemed to be treating her better and better lately as he would always bully her for fun before.

Ayesha only smiled at Jiang Chen's response as she didn't continue the topic.

The instinct of a woman is never wrong.

Even across dimensions.

"I haven't been back for so long, do you miss me?" Jiang Chen all the sudden lowered his head to get closer to Ayesha's ear as he said with a smirk.

Ayesha's beautiful face was burning.

"Let's eat dinner first," She timidly buried her head and said in a faint voice.

"Can we not eat it together?"

"Eat it together?"

Ayesha's face quickly turned into a red apple as her blue pupils began to look frantic.

Without the need to think, it must be some weird game.

...

After dinner, Ayesha went to shower.

After sticking the plates into the dishwasher, Jiang Chen went to the office and checked his email.

Just like he expected, Robert sent the next step to him.

The email was from three days ago.

<The Irish buddy's acting is excellent. I almost want to give him a raise although I don't know if he has the opportunity to spend it. Ahem, now to the serious topic. We can enter the second phase of the plan, I already arranged everything on this side, when will you depart?>

Jiang Chen thought for a moment as he began typing on the keyboard.

<In December.>

After pressing the sent button, Jiang Chen leaned against the chair and closed his eyes for a moment.

While thinking, he took out his phone and called Zheng Hongjie, the manager of the food processing plant under his name.

"Hello? Boss, what can I do for you?"

Hearing his voice, he must be quite well off recently.

"Nothing, I just want to see if you acquired the license for export and import?"

"That is done. The new production line is also set, but because we haven't found a place to sell, it is not in production yet," Zheng Hongjie said in awkwardness.

The food processing industry hasn't been doing so well as of late. The pork price remained elevated as all the plants decreased their production to pass through the industry's harsh winter. But at this time, the boss somehow wanted to increase production. Although he didn't say anything, in Zheng Hongjie's view, it was a terrible decision.

But his concern was extraneous because the stuff he produced was not meant for this world.

Jiang Chen had already registered a shell company in the Pannu Islands. In essence, the order from his "left hand" would arrive at his "right hand." The shell company would massively produce the canned foods provided by the Xinlong Food Processing plant, store it in the warehouse, and wait for Jiang Chen to transport it to the apocalypse.

The purchased amount was increasing. To be cautious, Jiang Chen decided to complete the food transport in the small country.

It would be his backyard in no time.

"The new production line will start producing tomorrow."

"But..." For the consideration of being responsible for the plant, Zheng Hongjie still wanted to convince his boss, but Jiang Chen continued to speak.

"No buts. You will receive an order worth five million tomorrow, keep up the good work. I have already made the deal." Jiang Chen laughed, hung up the phone, and sent a text to the representative at the offshore company.

Zheng Hongjie dumbfoundedly puts down the phone, scratched his nose and laughed.

"Did something good happen?" Kong Jie looked at the expression on her husband's face as she felt happy for him.

"Haha," Zheng Hongjie flung away the phone and gave a deep kiss to his wife, "We have a place to sell now!"

Kong Jie rolled her eyes as she poked his chest with her finger.

"Look how excited you are, it is not your plant."

"What do you know." Zheng Hongjie glanced at his wife as he said displeasingly, "I have built the plant myself. Regardless if the shareholder is me or not, it is my own child!"

Looking at her excited husband, Kong Jie had a genuine smile on her face.

Not long ago, the family was facing the crisis of being crushed by debt. He didn't have a trace of a smile left on his face as if the world had fallen.

But luckily, the family has returned to the right track.

For that person has changed their lives.

"Now that you are working for someone, you should be careful, don't make any mistakes. He is our family's savior." She urged the happy husband as she fixed his collar.

"Of course, you know why I work." Zheng Hongjie said with his head raised.

Jiajia tilted her head as she half knowing half not knowingly looked at her mom and dad.

She still didn't really understand the conversation between adults.

No mean people have been to her house anymore. Dad was happier, mom smiled more, and they even took her to the amusement park yesterday.

It seemed like after the big brother came, everything in the family became better.

Chapter 216: Recent News

Unlike the tense situation in the apocalypse, the development in the modern world had been smooth and steady. For newly emerging technology companies like Future Technology, the government had been supportive as they have given the green light to Jiang Chen in most areas of development.

Of course, the reason why the local government took a such a stance was obviously due to the hundred million in tax amount Future Technology paid each month.

Who wouldn't mind putting a money printer in their home? It was a political achievement. And Future Technology had only been formed how long ago? If it continues to grow, there will be a possibility that an internet giant, like Penguin, would form during their tenure.

On the other hand, because of the continuous growth of Future 1.0's user base, the domestic users had broken the 200 million mark, and the multi-language international users had broken the 400 million mark.

The rise of Future 1.0 drew in the attention of business elites from all industries who had an acute sense for the smell of cash, and all kinds of proposals for partnership came forth like snowflakes. Because of this, Xia Shiyu had been busy all over the place since the president of the company would always disappear...

Even people outside of the industry knew that in the internet age, traffic is king. This could be seen through ridesharing, take out, or other businesses using the O2O(1) model. Companies were willing to invest heavily in marketing just to draw in traffic.

But there was no need for Future 1.0 to spend that much since it was at the forefront of the artificial intelligence and performance enhancement industries. There were no competitors right now that could compete with Future Technology, so there was only one choice.

Because of their monopoly in performance enhancement, after operating for free for two months, Future Technology "shamelessly" changed the service to a paid subscription model. New users would receive two months of free trial, but on the third month, if they wanted to continue enjoying the service, they must spend 10 RMB to upgrade to VIP1.

To put it in simple terms, if you wanted to enjoy the speed of a 2000 smartphone with a 1000 smartphone, then you better pay the 10 RMB subscription fee.

Would people pay for performance enhancement? The answer was, "Certainly".

Think of all the games and apps that are originally unable to run on your phone. Due to the performance enhancement service of the Future 1.0, your phone would no longer become a scorching brick when you play games, and neither would you have to worry about your battery life when you watch a movie. Would you be able to go back to that kind of phone experience?

A fee of 10 RMB per month was much cheaper than getting a new phone.

Of course, when the subscription service was introduced, the forums were filled with negative opinions. The users that hadn't paid for VIP voiced out that it was fraud—they didn't know there would be a fee when they downloaded. Some people even stated that if it changed to a paid service, they will delete Little White.

But that was only a small amount of people trying to shift the publics' opinion. Although there were a lot of users expressing their dissatisfaction, those came from a few IPs only. Even if they use their butts to think(2), it was obvious that they must be an internet army hired to shift the public's opinion.

A lot of paid users who upgraded to VIP1 stood on Future Technology's side:

"Is 10 RMB a lot? It's not even the price of a meal."

"Service is not an obligation, why complain so much? Delete it if you want to, don't drag down the average user's intelligence."

The users who haven't paid held an indifferent opinion. As long as the service was worth the price, they didn't mind spending the money. If they could afford a phone, why would they care about 10 RMB?

Would the people who were causing a fuss really delete Future 1.0?

The VIP1 domestic users who upgraded that month surpassed the 200 million mark, and the insanely high percentage of paid users destroyed the QQ membership service.

The market had given its answer.

As for the international market, it went relatively smooth. Since they were already used to paying for apps, and because no cracked version existed, most of the users accepted the fee of 2 USD a month.

Just one membership service in the app brought billions of revenue to Future Technology.

The insane ability to rake in money stunned Wall Street, leaving the venture capitalists who were unable to get a cut of this piece of pie in despair... all this despite Jiang Chen never mentioning that he would take in venture capitalists.

It was an honor. Jiang Chen became the first man to be in the headlines for Wall Street Journal twice in just half a year — a man from Hua, nonetheless.

On the other hand, although the performance of <New Era> paled in comparison to the stunning performance of Future 1.0, it was still able to achieve jaw-dropping results.

First of all, the <New Era> player base had reached over 50 million, and the concurrent users almost broke the 10 million mark.

The auction house, cosmetics, warehouse expansion, and a series of other revenue generation method quickly turned intellectual property into cash. The super game design translated into user retention. Now on any subway, or in any university classroom, the fine animation of <New Era> could be seen.

Whether it was about game content or playability, it was all flooded with positive praises and, after a period of marketing, the international version also came online.

Based on Xia Shiyu's report, the international users had exceeded the eighty million mark, and it was steadily increasing.

Although the $200 million profit was a bit lackluster when compared to Future 1.0, it still exceeded that of its competitors by far.

It was, after all, $200 million in profit, not revenue.

Even though a lot of mobile games could break the $100 million mark in revenue, because of the expenses for research and development, in addition to the bad debts and many other factors, it was considered profitable if thirty percent of the revenue turned into actual profit.

A mobile game with $200 million profit was a miracle.

Due to the popularity of the game, a lot of famous clans entered <New Era>, and smaller game clans also sprouted like bamboo shoots after the rain. The popularity of the game also led to the growth and development of other related industries.

For example, live streaming professional matches...

A lot of third-party platforms had come to Future Technology in the hopes of forming a partnership with them on the game <New Era>. In regard to this, Future Technology opened its doors and welcomed all potential partners.

...

"Sohu wants to form a partnership based on Future 1.0 and <New Era>, with a joint venture for a new kind of streaming platform for <New Era>."

"What do you think about this proposal?" Jiang Chen said sluggishly as he lied on the sofa.

"Hard to recover the investment in the short term, but it would expand <New Era>'s influence and increase user retention—"

"Thank you so much!"

As if she had already expected Jiang Chen to say that, Xia Shiyu, who was sitting in the office, facepalmed.

"... Okay, also, Dalmer Corporation's representative had arrived in Wanghai as they wish to discuss a partnership. Because of the identity of their representative, based on etiquette, you would have to personally meet him."

"Dalmer Corporation?" Jiang Chen paused as he never heard this name before.

Xia Shiyu on the other side of the phone also paused.

"The Maybach S600 you are driving is from Dalmer corporation."

[ Now that's embarrassing! ]

Jiang Chen scratched his face to cover his embarrassment,. He really didn't know much about cars.

"Ahem, who is coming?" He decided to change the topic.

"Carmen Rothschild."

1. O2O: "Online to offline". Any e-commerce service that provides services online to aid the user with a better offline shopping experience. The "services" could be in the form of 'discounts', 'information', 'coupons', etc. For example, the website Groupon is an O2O site: it provides discounts *online* for *offline* things, such as "Up to 52% off Nail Services".

2. "Even if you use your butt to think" is an expression stating how obvious something is.

Chapter 217: Artificial Intelligence + Cars?

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Carmen Rothschild." Seeing Carmen entering the conference room, Jiang Chen stood up and greeted him.

"Thank you for your warm welcome. It is also nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen, the mysterious Oriental man." With the same friendly smile, Carmen shook Jiang Chen's hand.

Carmen Rothschild had a high nose, deep eye sockets, and light green pupils. Not only did he look thin, but he was also sharp. From the gracefulness of his gesture, it certainly matched his background.

"Haha, do I look mysterious?" Jiang Chen joked.

"Of course, you possess an endless amount of possibilities, and in our eyes, it could be considered mysterious." Carmen had a deceptive smile on his face.

Hearing that, Jiang Chen paused slightly to think before he smiled and invited Carmen to sit down.

In regard to the Rothschild family, Jiang Chen had heard quite a bit about them; however, this information usually came from unclear sources, with truths mixed with speculations. It was hard to discern what was the truth and what was a lie.

Based on the information disclosed, the Rothschild Banking Group had a revenue of less than $10 billion per year with the profit of less than $3 billion; its asset was estimated to be below $30 billion, which is a few digits off of the UA and major European banks.

Could it be that the family was truly on the decline, like how it appeared on to be on the surface, or could it be that the speculations were true—that the Rothschild family intentionally left the eyes of the public? No one would truly know. For example, even Jiang Chen didn't know that Dalmer corporation was a part of the Rothschild's asset.

Of course, Jiang Chen had no interest in researching the history of the family, and he just did a brief search on Carmen here for business before inviting him over for a conference.

The two sat across from each other on the conference table, and there were two cups of tea on the table alongside two identical documents.

"Our corporation is extremely interested in your company's achievement in the artificial intelligence field. I trust that Mr. Jiang has already read over this proposal. Do you have any good suggestions?" Without any small talk, right after they sat down, Carmen jumped straight to the topic.

Artificial intelligence will experience a period of growth for the next fifty years; this trend was evident from the wasteland. Although its starting point from the Cold War did diverge from what originally occurred in the wasteland, the developmental trajectory of civilization wouldn't.

To cut a piece of this pie for themselves(1), Dalmer corporation followed the trend and found the leading company in the artificial intelligence field to discuss the possibility of using artificial intelligence in the automotive industry.

"Of course. But before we start, can I ask a question?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

"Please." Carmen smiled back.

"Why would your company decide to choose us? You know, our leading edge is in the phone software industry. For the automotive industry, without exaggeration, I can say we know nothing," Jiang Chen spoke candidly.

Even with Jiang Chen's confession, Carmen didn't give up as he shook his head and continued:

"It doesn't matter. The radar sensing equipment, as well as the primary control computer, had already been designed by us to allow for artificially intelligent driving, or self-driving, and we now only need the software part.

"We originally had a partner, but during our partnership, the software development experienced some issues, causing the software and hardware to not be perfectly compatible with one another. The computer may freeze while the car is driving. You know very well what the consequences would be if that were to happen on a highway; therefore, we terminated the contract."

Then, Carmen looked at Jiang Chen intensely as he said, "Our offer is high. The requirements are just as high."

"Can I ask what is the offer then?" Jiang Chen took a sip of the tea.

"1 billion USD," Carmen pointed out one finger as he slowly said.

Hearing Carmen's offer, Jiang Chen was secretly shocked.

[ Woah, no wonder they are a family that had existed for centuries. 1 billion USD as the opening for the negotiations, selling software is much more profitable than selling gold. ]

While he was thinking, he chose to selectively forget the fact that he was already the president of a ten billion dollar company, and the one billion USD would only be equivalent to Future Technology's one month of profit.

But who wouldn't mind more money?

However, Jiang Chen's silence was, in Carmen's eyes, interpreted as being unsatisfied with the offer, so he smiled and asserted, "Of course, there is room for negotiation. If Mr. Jiang is not too happy with the offer, you can tell me."

If they could pioneer into the field of "artificial intelligence and cars" before their competitors, Volkswagen and BMW, it would indeed offer them the initiative. And for only 1 billion USD. In 2014 Dalmer's pretax income alone was 10.8 billion Euros, so they certainly had the liquid asset.

Jiang Chen thought for a moment before he slowly opened his mouth.

"1 billion USD is okay, but I have a condition."

Carmen's eyebrows raised slightly, but a smile quickly returned to his face.

"Oh? Please go ahead."

"I want to add in Future 1.0's logo on the start up screen."

"Add in Future 1.0's logo? Is that all? I do have to remind you that we don't have plans to add the social media platform to the vehicle," Carmen spoke in a humorous tone.

"That's fine, it's only adding a logo and displaying it for one second." Jiang Chen didn't mind the joke.

Carmen had to think for a moment before he nodded his head, then he extended his hand.

"So I think we reached an agreement, right?"

"Of course." Jiang Chen shook his hand. "Pleasure to work with you."

Because it was a minor change, Carmen also brought in a professional lawyer with him and the contract was fixed on the spot.

After the signing, Carmen waved his hand at the secretary behind him as he took a briefcase from her.

"After signing the confidentiality agreement, our party will provide the requirements of the software and the chip sample to your party. Your party only needs to create a software that is compatible with the chip. Although the timeline is fairly rigid, I trust your party's ability to bring out astounding results before May."

The software must be completed by that time to ensure that it would hit the market with the new vehicles; otherwise, the approval process would be delayed and the release of the new vehicle would, unfortunately, be disastrous.

However... May? That was severely underestimating Yao Yao's ability.

"Of course, another question: is there any reward for completing it before the deadline?" Jiang Chen inquired half-jokingly.

Surprised, Carmen didn't even think Jiang Chen could complete it before the deadline. The process for developing a professional software wasn't short—it would be a feat to complete it within five months.

"If Mr. Jiang can complete it earlier, I can give you a small gift," Carmen laughed.

"Could you give me a spoiler of the gift?" Jiang Chen said casually.

"I heard Mr. Jiang's vehicle is our company's Maybach S600. Is Mr. Jiang satisfied with our brand?" Carmen smiled mysteriously.

"Of course, whether it's comfort or reliability, it is satisfying."

"If Mr. Jiang can complete the software before May, I can gift you a limited edition sports car—the Maybach EX, which is still being designed—with sales limited to just five units globally."

1. Original translation says something similar to, "To get a grasp on the pulse of the era".

Chapter 218: The Importance of Brand

The Maybach EX. With a limited quantity of five units globally, the expected price is 4.2 million Euros or 28.66 million RMB.

Although this amount was nothing compared to the two's assets, as a gift, it was undoubtedly a friendly gesture.

Especially with it being a limited edition, it might be difficult to buy one even with money.

After sending Carmen out of the company, Jiang Chen looked at his phone.

It was only three in the afternoon, too early to go back. So, he decided to sit for a bit longer in the office.

Since they acquired Lingyu Technology, the Lingyu building went under construction. Under the acquiescence of the second largest shareholder, 361 Corporation, was transferred to Future Technology and officially renamed the Future Technology building.

Now that he had his own office building, it certainly felt different.

Leaning against the chair, Jiang Chen sat in the president's office on the top floor as he sluggishly looked down at the street view outside.

It was a magical feeling.

Just half a year ago, he was only an ordinary person at the lowest level of society and working for a tiny salary. But now, he has obtained the right to be overlooking everything.

On the other hand, just looking at the scene below, he could not fathom that the future on another timeline would become barren land.

...

Different from the image of a traditional president that always has a heated face, ready to execute the affairs of the company, he was young and energetic. His office was clean, referring to the lack of documents visible.

His eyes lazily stared outside of the window, at the never-ending traffic and the busy looking crowd.

Who knows what is there to look at. Other than being crowded, he couldn't think of a better word to describe everything on the streets below.

Above was Xia Shiyu's perspective.

She was standing in Jiang Chen's office.

Jiang Chen was quietly looking out the window, and she somehow began to stare at the side of his face. She observed him for a while and forget about the time.

They had been working together for a fair amount of time now, but she always felt that she didn't know him well enough. But he, he seemed to know everything about her.

"Ahem, is there something you need?" It was Jiang Chen that first broke the peacefulness.

With Jiang Chen's observation, the moment she came in he noticed her. What he didn't expect was for her to not say anything, but rather blankly stare at him.

Speaking of this, he didn't have a proper conservation with her after the last gathering.

"Ah, yes. Ahem," Realizing the franticness in her voice, Xia Shiyu coughed gently to adjust her mood as she changed into her professional self and spoke again, "It's about the agreement with Dalmer Corporation."

"Mhmm."

Jiang Chen turned around as he slid the chair back to the office table and sat up straight. "Go ahead."

"Putting Future 1.0 on vehicles, President, do you plan on entering the automotive industry?" Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses out of habit.

"Not yet, but I don't eliminate this future possibility." Jiang Chen shook his head. "Also, Dalmer Corporation wants a customized software, not the implementation of Future 1.0. The software would still be sent to the overseas market to be developed. I will take care of it."

Based on Jiang Chen's plan, Future Technology would obviously not give up on the attractive automotive industry. As a key selling point, artificial intelligence would definitely be a part of it.

But then, why would he accept Dalmer Corporation's request to design the autonomous driving system's software? It was not giving them a cake to bite but was due to another level of consideration.

It is well known that for vehicles, quality is one aspect, but more importantly, brand is extremely crucial which requires years to build up.

With a simple example, East Wind's vehicle quality is pretty high, but could they sell it at Mercedes or BMW's price?

To a certain extent, the car driven by the owner reflected the status of the person. Cars were no longer only a method of transportation, but also a reflection of status. Or in derogatory terms, to see who has the bigger d*ck. With a Lambo, it would be much easier to pick up girls than a Volkswagon.

The reason why he proposed including Future 1.0's logo on the car's startup screen was not for advertisement purposes. For Dalmer's new car is positioned as a high-end luxury vehicle, therefore sales would be low. Which indicates this form of advertisement would be ineffective.

Jiang Chen saw the brand. If Future 1.0's brand can be hooked to a high-end market, with the luxury vehicle introduced by Dalmer Corporation, it would allow them to prep the market before they independently enter the autonomous vehicle market.

Imagine this, as long as you start the luxury vehicle with the system included, you would see Future 1.0's flashy and futuristic looking logo. Naturally, the Future logo would be known in the luxury market as well as the automotive industry.

As to the automotive manufacturer who had taken the "initial opportunity"...

If Jiang Chen introduced a new energy vehicle with better performance, it would be a question of if those manufacturers would continue to exist or not. Similar to the fact that you don't see steam vehicles anymore.

Dalmer Corporation would eventually become the stepping stone of Future Automotive.

Of course, these are stories for a later time, the next strategic focus for Future Technology was not cars, but phones.

Xia Shiyu nodded after the explanation.

"Then you'll have to be responsible for taking care of this. On the other hand, Linhua Corporation has sent you an invitation to join the Wanghai Economics Forum on the 3rd."

Xia Shiyu took out a gilded golden invite from her brief and placed it on the table.

Linhua Corporation, a renowned real estate giant in Wanghai city. Other than real estate development, they were also a part of entertainment and retail which put them as one of the leading companies in Wanghai City.

"Wanghai Economics Forum?" Jiang Chen picked up the invite as he raised his eyebrows in confusion, he has never heard of the name before.

"Mhmm, it is rumored that the participants are the elites of each industry. Assets over one hundred million is only one of the requirements. Ability to participate is also based on influence in the industry." Xia Shiyu nodded.

Rich people's gathering?

Jiang Chen's expression was dubious.

"Is there any benefits to going to this gathering?"

Hearing Jiang Chen asking the question so directly, Xia Shiyu felt exasperated.

"Of course there are benefits. Since it is the gathering of the upper class in Wanghai City, you'll be able to meet and befriend some of the people at the same level with similar interest as you. These connections alone would be a form of asset."

Jiang Chen scratched his chin and considered.

"Mhmm, I'll go then. Speaking of this, does this type of gathering require a female companion?"

Xia Shiyu paused for a second before she replied.

"Of course, it is permitted to bring a female companion to the gathering."

"Perfect, then come with me," Jiang Chen said without thinking.

But what he didn't anticipate was, the moment the words came out of his mouth, Xia Shiyu's cold face suddenly turned burning red.

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 219: The Conspriacy killed in its Cradle

"Huh? N...No, only really important people can attend..." Xia Shiyu's expression was obviously shaken as her tone changed into a rare franticness.

"Then that's even better." Jiang Chen smiled.

Hearing that, Xia Shiyu buried her head as her silky, black bangs slightly hid her eyes.

"I, I am someone important to you?"

"Of course," Jiang Chen answered without hesitation.

As the CEO, Xia Shiyu played a pivotal role in Future Technology's current accomplishments. From the operating of the company to handling crises, Jiang Chen had no experience at all as he left everything to Xia Shiyu.

The technology from the future is indeed powerful, but without the operations of a professional, it would only be a powerful technology.

To Jiang Chen, Xia Shiyu was as crucial as his hands.

But for the word "important", the two apparently had two different kinds of interpretation.

When he heard Jiang Chen's "of course," Xia Shiyu's face turned redder.

"But...But we haven't even dated, we don't know if we are right for each other, it would be too rushed if we go straight to the last step-"

With arms across her chest, Xia Shiyu looked away. Her finger anxiously played with her own hair, even her pale neck was covered by the red hue.

"Wait, I do not understand..." Jiang Chen immediately interrupted Xia Shiyu with a bitter smile.

Xia Shiyu looked at him and put her arms down.

"Mhmm?"

"Uh, the requirement for the female companion, could you explain it to me..."

Of course, the two had a discrepancy in understanding.

It was okay to bring a female companion, but it must be a wife or at least a fiance. Even a girlfriend wasn't enough. Although there was no written rule, it became the norm.

If a girlfriend or even a mistress could be brought to the gathering, then things could become chaotic. Most of the people participating in the gathering have more than one mistress, with some changing models or actresses every few days. If anyone can be brought into the circle, it would devalue the forum.

In the end, it was a gathering meant for the elites, to find partners beneficial to their career, it was not a fun kind of party.

Therefore, it was inappropriate to invite Xia Shiyu.

"Uh, sorry, I haven't thought about that level," Jiang Chen apologized, feeling embarrassed.

"It's okay."

Xia Shiyu let out a breath of relief.

Perhaps it was his illusion, but he sensed that she was slightly disappointed.

"Umm, now that everything is done, I'm going to go back to my office." Xia Shiyu slightly bowed and turned around to leave.

Looking at her leave, Jiang Chen opened his mouth but he didn't end up saying anything.

When Xia Shiyu came of the office, she headed straight for her own. But when she walked through the hallway, the red hue on her face was seen by her colleagues.

"Eh, CEO Xia just walked out of the president's office." Seeing Su Mengqi's pouting expression, her good friend Li Fengying poked her arm and joked.

After passing through the probation period, she was moved into the sales department with her good friend. The two were walking to their desk with documents in hand.

"I see," Su Mengqi replied without any energy.

"Her face is also very red."

"Woo."

"Why are you so boring, aren't you curious about what they did?" Li Fengying with a dubious expression whispered into Su Mengqi's ear.

"I am going to tell CEO Xia and have your salary deducted." Su Mengqi stuck out her finger and "fiercely" poke her good friend's neck as she whispered.

The two fooled around for a moment more as they walked towards their desk.

But Su Mengqi's smile was bitter.

If the competition was CEO Xia, she had no odds of winning at all.

...

"Did you get the information?"

"Yes."

Inside the presidential suite in Sheraton hotel, Carmen Rothschild sat on a chair, a black man was standing in front of him. From the muscular appearance, he looked like a soldier, at least one from not too long ago.

Johnson served in the Fran foreign military before. After he has been discharged, he had acquired French nationality and worked in a security company. Now, he worked for the Rothschild family. He was the bodyguard for Carmen's Han trip, and also his assistance.

"Jiang Chen, born in 1992, from Hucheng. Studied at Wanghai University with a major in mechanical engineering. He became a salesperson in a clothing store after graduation... Damn, a resume made out of a mold," Looking at the stack of paper, Carmen cursed.

Ten pages. It was all the information they could collect on Jiang Chen.

"Since everyone in this country is cut out of the same mold," Johnson cracked a smile as he mocked.

"No, you didn't understand my meaning." Carmen flipped through the document once more before putting it aside. "Because it is too ordinary, the validity of the information is suspicious. For example, if you throw a graduate from MIT, what would be his first reaction?"

"Pee his pants?"

"Exactly." Carmen snapped his finger and pointed at the document. "And this person, not only did he not pee his pants, he saved an American from the IS. This American is also an interesting individual. He smuggled firearms in Veit before, transported crude oil in Iran, and was finally under surveillance by the FBI. That's why he is a lot more obedient. But he has been moving around again, he seems to be working for Jiang Chen."

Johnson's contempt soon faded as he put on a serious expression.

"True. From this point, this Han called Jiang Chen is not a simple character."

"In your opinion, how much training would it take to get to his level?" Carmen smiled.

"Mentality or shooting?"

"Of course mentality."

Thinking for a moment, Johnson gave a fair answer based on his own experience. "It would take three months in training, three days on the battlefield."

Carmen nodded, he took over a bottle of wine and elegantly poured himself a cup.

"I think there may be inaccuracies in our information. At least this resume is likely fake. The only thing I am curious about now is what does the organization behind him do. They played us in Ukraine, but only ended up taking a few old soldiers away to become trainers, and then built a military base in Nigeria. Interesting."

"Then what's your intention boss?" Johnson asked.

"Maintain status quo and keep in contact. Also, I am interested in where the USB would be sent to?" Carmen with elegance took a sip of the wine as he looked like he was fully in control of the situation.

If everything goes as planned, that briefcase would be sent overseas, with the mysterious technology team taking over.

He left a GPS tracker on the USB which would send the location to his computer.

As long as they know the location of the mysterious organization, they would no longer be mysterious.

When he heard his boss's words, Johnson took a moment to digest the information before he also started to chuckle.

Carmen proposed a toast to Johnson. Then with a cheerful expression, he pressed a few buttons on the laptop.

The map appeared in front of him.

Bang!

The delicate wine glass smashed into pieces after falling on the ground.

Without caring about the wine stain splashed onto his pants, Carmen immediately stood up. With both hands pressed against the table, he stared at the screen.

On his face, his confident expression had vanished.

"How is this possible!"

"What happened?" Johnson walked up hastily, but when he saw the screen, his expression also froze.

<Signal lost>

"We got caught. Looks like we still underestimated him." With a bitter smile, Carmen sat back on the chair in defeat as he rubbed his temple.

Chapter 220: It's all Weibo's fault

Caught? Did Jiang Chen really catch him?

The answer was an obvious no. Jiang Chen was too lazy to carry it as he threw the briefcase into the storage dimension. As for GPS signals that could pass through the dimension, that's only a feat that Lin Lin could achieve.

Now that his storage dimension had expanded to 20 cubic meters, there was no need to consider the lack of space inside. Five cubic meters was used to store weapons, such as the PK2000 assault rifle and the kinetic skeleton.

Xia Shiyu had already left. Looking at the empty office, Jiang Chen had nothing else to do.

Work? If he randomly pokes his nose into the company's business, he may not even be helpful with anything—rather, he would be causing more trouble. Since he had already delegated his responsibilities, he must continue the tradition.

If he didn't work, then he was playing games. As the president, merely sitting in the office is an effective method for increasing the morale of the employees.

Mhmm, that's the case.

As Jiang Chen thought, he sunk into the chair and took out his phone.

Speaking of which, as the developer himself, he hadn't even played his own game.

But thinking that it was too troublesome to register for a new account, he recollected that Future Technology had a partnership with Sohu in streaming. Jiang Chen smiled, searched, and opened Sohu TV.

The new platform was still under development stage, but the Sohu TV now opened a column specific for <New Era>.

Although it was a mobile game, because of the open world, great freedom, superb graphics, and rich contents, a lot of people play it as a computer-based masterpiece.

Seeing its popularity being ranked as number one, Jiang Chen was secretly shocked breathless as he randomly opened a channel.

The screen was big, but the streamer's face covered one-fourth of the screen.

Looking at the exposed whiteness while hearing the flirtatious voice, Jiang Chen put on his headphones.

The female streamer was playing a thief. She was in the middle of a mission, but her control certain sucked. To kill a turtle-like boss, she died five times.

But that was not the crucial point. Every time she died, she would moan in a seductive voice.

"Is this streamer playing a game or moaning in bed..."

Jiang Chen ridiculed while facepalming as he continued the "market research" until the end.

Like this, Jiang Chen sent Friday in.

...

Jiang Chen chatted with the employees about to go off as he walked to the elevator empty-handed.

Just as the elevator door was about to close, Jiang Chen, afraid of trouble, sped up and dashed into the elevator.

Coincidentally, Xia Shiyu was also in the elevator.

Seeing that Xia Shiyu was looking at him strangely, Jiang Chen realized that his action lacked confidence. He smiled shamelessly and said "Hi" to her first.

"How's work today?"

"It's okay, I have been used to being busy. I am taking the rest of the documents home." Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses.

"Don't work too hard, your health is the most important." Jiang Chen spoke with care.

Xia Shiyu nodded, but from her expression, she didn't seem to plan to listen to Jiang Chen.

"You are working so hard, which is making me, as the president, guilty."

"Then why don't you help me out a bit?" Seeing Jiang Chen being emotional, she couldn't help but mock him.

"Ahem, I'll let the professionals take care of it. If I am doing it, I will only cause a mess. But I can treat you to dinner," Jiang Chen joked.

It was only a joke. Based on Jiang Chen's previous impression of Xia Shiyu, this girl would probably coldly reject it.

But to his surprise, Xia Shiyu took a moment to think about it, then nodded her head.

"Okay, when?"

"Mhmm?" Jiang Chen thought he heard wrong.

"Didn't you say you are going to treat me?" Xia Shiyu raised her eyebrows while tilting her head.

"Uhh, I thought you would reject..."

"Do you want me to reject?" Xia Shiyu asked, downcasted, as she looked at the elevator door.

Jiang Chen was stunned.

The voice sounded like murmuring.

In her eyes, Jiang Chen saw a hint of confusion, and there was also an indescribable feeling.

He suddenly remembered that night.

She was drunk that night when he carried her home.

Under the influence of alcohol, they were very close...

"Who do you like?" The confession-like words swirled around his ear.

If it were not for the phone ringing suddenly, Jiang Chen knew that, with his personality and with Xia Shiyu being forward, he would not be able to control himself that night.

A crazy but intimate idea overtook his head.

If something did happen between the two that night, how would it feel like now?

"Of course not." Jiang Chen smiled, and with a gentle voice, he asked, "How about tonight?"

"Okay." Xia Shiyu nodded.

When the elevator reached the button, the two walked out of the elevator and into the parking lot.

"Where is your car?" Jiang Chen asked as he took out the key.

"I didn't buy a car yet. I drove company's car last time at the gathering, I usually take the train to work."

Xia Shiyu's response surprised Jiang Chen.

"You are an executive at a billion-dollar company. The bank would not offer a loan to you?" Jiang Chen was puzzled as he opened the door courteously for her like a gentleman.

"I hate loans." Xia Shiyu's mood was down.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment as he then recalled that she originally experienced hardship due to a loan.

"Sorry, I made you remember unpleasant memories."

"It's okay... That time, thank you." Xia Shiyu got in the car and lowered her head.

"Don't worry, everyone has their ups and downs." Jiang Chen sat in the car, strapped on the seat belt, and started the car.

"... I am talking about that time when I was drunk." Her face turned red as she said embarrassingly, "If I said something weird, I hope you didn't mind."

Because they both remembered the intimacy that happened in the living room, the two fell into silence together.

The ride was smooth.

Once the car hit the highway, Xia Shiyu didn't say anything. Jiang Chen didn't know what to talk about either, and the atmosphere in the car was awkward.

Suddenly, Xia Shiyu broke the silence.

"I have read Weibo recently."

"Mhmm?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?" It was an abrupt question.

"No, why do you ask?"

"I saw that you are only following one person... Her name is Liu Yao?" Xia Shiyu asked, looking down.

The words sounded like jealousy to Jiang Chen.

Speaking of this, Liu Yao seemed to have mentioned it before. Because she was the only person he followed, people spread rumors about them, and that girl became popular for a while because of this.

Because of Ayesha's "interruption" last time, Jiang Chen forgot all about it. Liu Yao, without receiving permission from Jiang Chen, would not proactively clarify the situation, but instead, used a tactic common among celebrities—answer ambiguously.

The girlfriend of the nation's husband!

Liu Yao wouldn't have thought that her fans would increase exponentially because she registered a Weibo account for Jiang Chen.

"I happen to see her movie, so I just clicked follow." For some reason, Jiang Chen subconscious lied.

His Weibo account was registered by Liu Yao.

Xia Shiyu opened her mouth as she seemed to have wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

[ He isn't anyone to me. Why do I care so much? ] Xia Shiyu thought out of spite as she looked out of the car window.

Although she had a boyfriend who hasn't even held her hands, when it comes to relationships, she was still as naive as a child.

Realizing that the person she liked had an ambiguous relationship with a female, she didn't try to pull him back to her, but rather, she became cold to express her jealousy and pushed him away.

Even more so now, since the two of them were not officially together.

At this time, Jiang Chen's phone rang.

[ Is it Ayesha? I'll have to tell her I am not coming home for dinner... ]

He didn't mind. With one hand on the wheel, Jiang Chen connected to the Bluetooth and, with his eyes focused on the road, he accepted the call.

"Hello?"

"Do you have time right now?" A pure voice with a hint of seduction echoed by his ear. It was obviously not Ayesha.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment, he then looked at the phone screen in his right hand:

<Liu Yao>

Also looking at the phone screen was Xia Shiyu, sitting on the passenger side.

Chapter 221: The Acheron on the Car

"Haven't seen you in a long time, don't you miss me?"

Jiang Chen could very well imagine her watery eyes looking at him filled with fervor.

"Uh, very much." Jiang Chen took a peek at Xia Shiyu.

Xia Shiyu had already taken off her eyes from his phone, but her action looked unnatural no matter how you looked at it.

"So cold." Liu Yao instantly sensed that Jiang Chen was distracted and stuck her tongue out.

"I'm driving... How have you been?" While holding onto the wheel, Jiang Chen changed the topic.

"I've been filming and have been busy since this morning, so I ate lunch and dinner at the same time. I'm exhausted." Although she was complaining, Jiang Chen could hear genuine happiness from her voice.

She really loved acting.

If she just liked money, with the allowance Jiang Chen was giving her, she could just do absolutely nothing and enjoy life.

He could faintly hear the other casts in the background, so she must have called despite her extremely busy schedule.

"Have you not eaten yet?"

"I am not eating. Woo, the food here tastes so bad, so I want you to treat me to a meal," Liu Yao said shyly.

"We can talk about it once you're no longer busy."

"Okay. Also, when are we going to go on a vacation? I'm looking forward to it," Liu Yao responded enthusiastically.

"We'll go this month, but would you be able to leave at this time?" Hearing the delighted voice, Jiang Chen couldn't stop smiling.

"Haha, don't you remember that you're one of the investors? The director would have to listen to you. Postponing my shooting and filming it later would simply be up to you," she said in an adorable voice.

Jiang Chen pondered on it and realized that it was indeed the case.

The producer did not necessarily choose Liu Yao because of her ability, and it might as well be said that it was due to Jiang Chen's ability. But Jiang Chen didn't mind. Having too much money, he immediately invested 100 million RMB to become the biggest investor in <Ma Dongmei's Trouble> film.

Other than those blockbuster film directors, the investor was the bane of existence for any film directors. If they accidentally got off on the wrong foot, the investors could just withdraw their investment, and the directors would end up crying over their script. Where would you find an investor who would be willing to invest 100 million without putting up any demand?

Ad such, Liu Yao had landed the role of a supporting actress.

At the same time, all mobile boot interface was replaced by Future 1.0’s opening animation.

"That’s true." Once realization dawned on him, Jiang Chen chuckled.

"What are you doing now?"

"Taking someone to dinner."

"Someone beautiful?" Liu Yao pouted.

"Yes," Jiang Chen answered honestly.

"As pretty as me?" Liu Yao elegantly ate her meal, her eyes becoming cunning.

"Both of you are unique," Jiang Chen’s answer was ambiguous.

"Woo, I don’t feel satisfied with that answer. What kind of girl is she?"

[She's beside me, how am I supposed to answer that?]

Jiang Chen took a peek at Xia Shiyu while he responded cleverly and creatively.

"Similar…to the section head in your last movie."

"Oh! Her, the ice beauty that’s warm on the inside? I can do it too," Liu Yao paused and put her phone closer to her mouth, covered it with her hand, and lowered her voice, her voice becoming cold and strict. "Jiang Chen, why didn’t you finish your math homework? What? You didn’t write it? That’s not okay, come to my office, I will watch you finish it. Your unfinished homework. Give. It, All. To. Your. Teacher."

Jiang Chen could very well fantasize how the vibrant crimson lips enunciated the last syllables.

[Fu*k, this little devil.]

Jiang Chen had almost stepped on the gas by accident.

"Fu*k."

"Coming! Ah, break time is over, I'm going to hang up. Mwah."

As soon as she hung up the phone, Jiang Chen let out a breath and removed the Bluetooth headset.

"…were you really just concerned about Liu Yao?" Xia Shiyu asked dubiously.

"Well, I just happened to get her phone number."

[Why do I have to lie…] Jiang Chen berated himself in his mind.

Xia Shiyu didn’t seem to want to continue with this topic any longer as she didn’t ask more question. Instead, she turned her head away, averting her gaze.

Jiang Chen felt relieved and held onto the steering while focusing on the road ahead of him.

The atmosphere felt odd.

[Is she…being jealous?]

A weird expression flitted across his face.

…

Because Jiang Chen didn’t know where the good food was, he took Xia Shiyu to Shimao.

"Welcome! Table for two?"

Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu walked into a western restaurant called Xiuyu Garden as the server greeted them with a smile.

"Mhmm, please pick a quiet spot for us," Jiang Chen said.

"Okay, sir. This way," The server said courteously.

Because it was a business day, the place only had a few customers . Normally, they would have to wait for a long time.

The ambiance of the restaurant was pleasant, and it was also quiet. Most of the people dining there were couples. Seeing this scene, Xia Shiyu turned red and her legs went numb.

[Since we're eating here, wouldn’t it look like we're a couple?]

With that thought, Xia Shiyu discreetly took a peek at Jiang Chen but failed to see the nervousness she expected on his face.

[Maybe he didn’t even feel like it's a date?]

Xia Shiyu felt slightly frustrated despite not knowing why.

Unaware of what Xia Shiyu was thinking, Jiang Chen was really oblivious to the mood. He just felt the ambiance was nice and quiet. Men were destined to be a simple creature in a sense that they wouldn’t think as much as women.

After the server ushered them to their seats, Jiang Chen picked up the menu and passed it to Xia Shiyu like a gentleman.

"What do you want to eat?"

Because she was distracted by something else, looking at the dazzling variety of selections, Xia Shiyu couldn’t think of something to eat.

Seeing the expression on the customer's face, the server smiled as she started to recite their menu.

"Is it your first time in our restaurant?"

"Mhmm…"

"Our cheese risotto is delicious, and our steak has also been praised by many. Of course, I personally recommend this set of couple meal, very fitting for a couple of two. We also offer a special desert— Heart-to-heart."

Xia Shiyu’s face immediately reddened.

Especially when she saw the Heart-to-heart ice cream on the menu, the two straws formed a heart shape and intertwined together.

Her brain short-circuited in an instant.

"C-couple? N-no, you are mistaken."

"Ahem, we are only friends, not a couple." Seeing the frantic Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen also explained to the waitress.

Although both people denied it, the waitress acutely sensed that the female’s expression was more of an embarrassed one, and the male didn’t look awkward at all. Therefore, their relationship must be between friends and couple.

With a smile, the server bowed to apologize for pushing the two together unintentionally.

"I apologize. I just thought you two really look like a couple. If I misunderstood, I hope you don’t mind."

[A, a couple look?]

Xia Shiyu was utterly in panic, Jiang Chen almost touched his nose with a red face.

But then, a harsh voice interrupted the moment.

"Waitress, is it not ready yet? Could you hurry up?"

Upon hearing the voice, Xia Shiyu’s expression froze immediately.

Jiang Chen could clearly sense that the usual expressionless face turned even colder.

_Min_

Chapter 222: A Dog

"Please wait, sir, this table-"

"Don’t you see that we need to order? Why would a poor bastard even come into a Western restaurant? He's slow even when ordering," the person cursed.

"I apologize, sir, I’ll be right there." The waitress gave Jiang Chen an apologetic looked as she stuck out her tongue and ran to the other table.

"Is your zodiac a turtle… Honey, what do you want to eat?" The man sitting close by arrogantly criticized the waitress while his expression changed into an "affectionate" one as he eagerly attended to the woman sitting across from him.

Jiang Chen looked at the back of this man in shock, and his expression was rather odd.

Poor bastard? Me?

Then, Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu.

Her expression was rather unnatural, her eyes glued to the lemon water on the table. She seemed scary.

Was he someone she knew?

Jiang Chen, who originally wanted to go and "make some friends", quickly got the idea out of his head as he looked on contemptuously at the man.

The man's face looked ashen white, his hair styled with gel looking somewhat "trendy," and the nicely fitted white suit was, indeed, worth something. All in all, other than being a bit feminine, he certainly looked attractive.

However, it was the arrogant gestures that made it impossible to tolerate him.

As for that woman...

Her face was delicate, her hair black and curly, and her body donning a red cotton dress with a pair of brown boots sluggishly crossing over each other. From just her appearance alone, it was hard to judge what her net worth was; however, with the vibe she gave off, Jiang Chen could sense that she was born into wealth.

Looking at her narrowed gorgeous eyes, one can tell that she seemed to be enjoying this flattering feeling.

"Salad is okay?" an indolent voice asked.

"Okay, do you want some desserts? For example, this Heart to Heart-"

"No, it’s disgusting." Her red lips were curled up.

The man’s expression stiffened, but then a heartwarming smile appeared on his face.

"Ok, I’ll have the fried rice as well as a bottle of wine."

"Okay, sir." The waitress endured the arrogant attitude while writing the order before taking the menu away.

It was not the first time she had encountered customers with a bad temper—arguing would only hurt her salary.

"So slow," the man added a sentence, then watched the woman "tenderly".

"Xinyan, you are so beautiful," the man said in a corny voice.

The woman’s expression became delighted as her eyes narrowed pleasingly.

"My shoes are dirty."

"Mhmm?" The man thought he heard wrong.

"Shoes."

The woman lifted her boots up.

A glimpse of awkwardness flashed across the man’s face, but then he gritted his teeth. With one knee on the ground, he lifted her boot up with one hand while the other used a napkin to carefully clean the dust off the top of the boot.

Everyone around them turned their attention towards the duo—the female customers’ eyes lit up as they discussed with their boyfriend while the male customers all appeared contemptuous.

But the man didn’t mind these gazes as he "caringly" wiped her shoes.

"This is crazy."

Jiang Chen shook his head. Seeing his dog-like posture, Jiang Chen finally understood. The man was definitely an escort. He was definitely an escort without dignity…

Jiang Chen lost his interest.

He really didn’t want to bother with someone like this.

But just as he was about to retract his gaze, to his surprise, the woman was looking at him.

The narrowed eyes completely neglected the man who was attentive to her, but rather, she looked at Jiang Chen with quite a curiosity, as if she was waiting for him to do something.

As for the woman’s stare, Jiang Chen only smiled. He didn’t say much and looked away.

Seeing that Jiang Chen didn't have any reaction, the woman yawned and looked away in displeasure.

The waitress walked over again as she expressed her apology to Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu. Jiang Chen didn't embarass her as he ordered with Xia Shiyu.

When the waitress left, Jiang Chen took a sip of the lemon water and he asked softly,"Do you know him?"

"… I do."

From the tone, it seemed like the relationship was not a great one. Was he her enemy?

Seeing that Xia Shiyu was not in the best mood, Jiang Chen didn’t pursue the topic any further and, instead, he chatted with her about other things as the smile began to come back.

"Are you not curious about my relationship with him?" Xia Shiyu asked abruptly.

"Although I am curious, you seem to hate this topic, so I didn’t ask," Jiang Chen replied with a shrug.

After a brief two-second pause, Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen and spoke rather apathetically:

"He is my ex-boyfriend."

But, Jiang Chen didn’t show any reaction. Xia Shiyu felt a bit frustrated although she didn’t understand why. Just what kind of reaction from Jiang Chen would make her feel satisfied?

"But we didn’t even hold hands," she added subconsciously.

When Jiang Chen heard this, he suddenly started chuckling.

She raised her furrowed eyebrows and asked in a low voice,"What are you laughing at?"

"I just think you are cute," Jiang Chen joked.

Xia Shiyu immediate blushed, and the coldness on her face now seems forced.

"So random," Xia Shiyu murmured to herself as she lowered her head, her cherry-like lips biting the straw on the ice cream and her bangs hiding her shaken eyes.

While eating, Jiang Chen felt the need to use the washroom, so he excused himself to the washroom.

There, he also washed his face, but when he came out, he met the "queen-like" woman.

"Jiang Chen, is that right?" the woman asked with a grin.

"Do you know me?" He put his hands under the hand dryer as he looked rather surprised.

"The renowned president of Future Technology, with a net worth of ten billion at the age of 22, and the fantasy of countless of girls. With such prominence, how would I not know you?" the woman stated.

"Ahem, you are over complimenting me." At least the waitress, as well as the people he walked by, didn’t recognize him.

Perhaps it had to do with his low profile appearances. Since he spent time in the apocalypse, even if media were waiting outside of his community, they still may not see him…

For the people who occasionally read the news, they may know Jiang Chen’s name, but as for his appearance, they often have no idea.

"What is your name, Miss?" Jiang asked nobly.

The red lips turned into a beautiful curvature, her eyes under the curly hair had mischievousness hidden inside.

"Wang Xinyan."

Chapter 223: Three Slaps

"Is it Wang Xinyan? Maybe you should restrain your boyfriend a little? At least make him not stand out as much." Jiang Chen smiled standing in front of her.

"Boyfriend?" She suddenly started giggling but quickly returned to her elegant self. With a look of rumination, she looked at Jiang Chen. "Mr. Jiang is very humorous. That's not a boyfriend, it's more of a puppy."

Stunned, Jiang Chen didn't think she would be so direct. He then ridiculed.

"Even if it is a puppy, it's better to keep in control of him. Since sometimes, the puppy's behavior indirectly reflects the taste of the owner."

For a man to attend to her this much, her identity must not be so simple.

Although he was not afraid of anything, with the attitude of less trouble is better, Jiang Chen cautiously chose to leave her some ground.

He only vaguely made fun of her to express his own displeasure.

As if she has already expected Jiang Chen to say this, Wang Xinyan paused but didn't look angry. Instead, she seemed somewhat interested.

"Oh? If Mr. Jiang doesn't like me having a puppy, I can let him go."

"What does it have to do with me?"

"Is that so?"

She smiled mysteriously as she left an ambiguous answer. Wang Xinyan then passed him and entered the washroom.

Jiang Chen watched her silhouette disappear, confused. But then he shook his head and walked away.

When he returned to the restaurant, Jiang Chen discovered that his spot seemed to have been taken.

That man in the white suit was sitting in his seat.

Seeing this, he frowned. Though his expression was soon replaced by a stunning smile as he walked over.

"I can't believe I am meeting you here, how have you been?"

The comical expression on his face appeared as if he has accomplished something already.

"I don't know you, go away," Xia Shiyu said coldly.

"You are still icy." The man shook his head.

"Are you not afraid the woman you are trying to suck up will see all of this? While she is going to the washroom, you are hitting on another woman. Just like your usual tendency, Xu Youcheng. Xia Shiyu's iciness soon changed into contempt.

"Hitting on you? You really think you are worth hitting on? I'm saying hi to an old friend."

"I don't remember having a friend like you."

"The usual coldness. Looks like you have found a new boyfriend? So, did he touch your hand yet?" Xu Youcheng examined the coldness on her face.

Xia Shiyu inhaled deeply, suppressed the anger in her heart, and said calmly.

"I don't have a boyfriend. Not before, not now."

"Oh? Then how did you pay back the loan? I remember you lost your job, could it be…" Xu Youcheng slyly glanced at her chest. "Did you finally put down your proudness and got a sugar daddy? Damn …"

"Do you think I'm like you?" Xia Shiyu emotionlessly interrupted his rude words. Raising her chin, she mouthed, "a sucker without dignity."

Xu Youcheng's face was flushed with anger as he stood up.

"You-"

But before he could say anything else, a hand was on his shoulder.

Xu Youcheng paused, turned around, and was confronted with a smiling face.

"I agree with the perspective of this lady. Also, who allowed you to sit in my seat." Jiang Chen smiled at him.

Seeing Jiang Chen, Xia Shiyu let out a breath as she felt calmer.

"Funny, did you open this restaurant? What if I did sit here?" Anger soon overwhelmed Xu Youcheng as he argued back.

Right after he finished his words, his mouth was slanted to the side.

Slap!

Jiang Chen without saying anything slapped him with his backhand while still holding onto his shoulder with the other.

"I don't own the restaurant, and your butt is on your body so wherever you sit is your freedom. But now that I don't like you, my hand is on my arm and how I beat you is also my freedom," Jiang Chen said with narrowed eyes.

Seeing Jiang Chen's action, Xia Shiyu was utterly stunned.

She didn't expect, Jiang Chen with such a gentle attitude would strike so fiercely.

[Is it for me…]

When she thought about it, a red hue began to cover her face.

The slap took the air out of Xu Youcheng as he began to tremble. A strength equal to three times that of an ordinary person, even if Jiang Chen purposely controlled his power, it wasn't someone who only spent a few days in the gym could compare to.

"F*ck you, you f*cking hit me?"

Blood rushed to his head, as Xu Youcheng became hot-headed. He grabbed the knife on the table and stabbed toward Jiang Chen.

"Be careful!" Xia Shiyu screamed as her face lost its color.

But Jiang Chen only laughed contemptuously, he didn't even bother to dodge as he waited for him to dash over.

Funny, if this level of attack could hurt him, he could suicide by banging his head on the tofu. (1)

The knife reached two inches in front of Jiang Chen. However, Jiang Chen didn't move as he easily clenched onto Xu Youcheng's wrist.

Xu Youcheng felt as if his hand was clamped by an iron claw. His face became bloated, and the vision in front of face changed before he dropped on the ground.

The knife pierced the wooden floor two inches away from him.

Xia Shiyu's eyes widened, mouth opened, and her cold expression was changed entirely into shock.

She never thought Jiang Chen had this type of ability.

No…

The night when she was blocked at the flower shop by the thugs.

Jiang Chen strolled in front of Xu Youcheng while seeing him whimpering on the ground, contorting his body together to hide.

The customers on the side gulped as they wanted to intervene, but Jiang Chen only glanced at them before the idea vanished in their heads.

Someone secretly called 911, but Jiang Chen didn't mind.

While squatting on the ground, he dragged his gelled hair and smiled at him.

Then, Jiang Chen slapped him.

Slap!

"This one is for Xia Shiyu. Do you know that because you left your debt to her, she was almost forced into a private club by a bunch of thugs? She was your girlfriend, are you even human?'

Hearing Jiang Chen's words, the crowd all looked at the sharp looking Xu Youcheng with despise. No one felt compassion for him for getting beaten up. He deserved it!

If he didn't happen to encounter that night.

When Jiang Chen thought about it again, he felt an inexplicable rage.

Slap!

"This one is because I don't like you, you can think of the reason yourself!"

After two slaps, blood began to drip out of Xu Youcheng's nose and mouth. Seeing that there might be a problem if he continued, Jiang Chen took a deep breath and stopped. Jiang Chen threw Xu Youcheng's head on the ground and stood up

It was not the apocalypse, after all, he should be careful.

In dizziness, it took him awhile to regain his clarity.

On the ground, Xu Youcheng stared at Jiang Chen maliciously.

"Just wait, I will make sure you can't stay in Wanghai City anymore."

"I am waiting."

"Do you know who I am?"

"Someone selling his butt?" Jiang Chen took a napkin to wipe his hand and mocked

"I am Linhua Group's-"

But just then, a female voice diffused from not too far away mercilessly destroying his last hope.

"You are not anymore."

(1) When the action is less likely to hurt him than a piece of tofu.

Chapter 224: I don't like men

The voice not only contained a hint of sluggishness, but also of contempt.

"Xin... Xinyan?"

Xu Youcheng, lying on the ground, looked absentmindely at the woman not far away as he stammered with disbelief.

"Linhua Group will not offend the head of Future Technology just because of you. What do you think? Mr. Jiang Chen?"

With graceful steps, she walked beside Jiang Chen as she smiled at him.

When Xu Youcheng heard the words "Future Technology" and "Jiang Chen," the color of his face immediately changed. He initially thought that the man dining with Xia Shiyu was just a small business owner with some money in his pockets, but he didn’t know it was the legendary Jiang Chen.

Now that he looked closer, that man did look familiar.

The original blanked expression turned completely into fear.

The Linhua Group? This fact caught Jiang Chen by surprise. Speaking of which, he did receive Linhua Group’s invitation to attend that Wanghai economic forum. However, Jiang Chen didn’t answer Wang Xinyan’s question and, instead, he responded with a question of his own:

"Although I don’t want to ridicule other people’s hobby, I really don’t understand. What’s so good about this despicable man who sold his girlfriend?"

"Even despicable people have their uses. For example, I could give him the status and power he had always dreamt of, just to see what kind of fool he will turn himself into." Wang Xinyan squinted her eyes, her visage gruesome.

"… This is crazy."

Looking sympathetically at Xu Youcheng on the ground, Jiang Chen stepped over him and headed towards Xia Shiyu.

The server and security personnel of Shimao began to surround the scene, but seeing that Jiang Chen’s identity wasn't so simple, no one dared to do anything to him, and they only helped the bruised Xu Youcheng up. They only controlled the situation while waiting for the police to arrive.

"Xin, Xinyan, I-"

"You can go fu*k off now, I am getting bored of your looks anyways," Wang Xinyan yawned.

Xu Youcheng broke loose from the security, dropping in front of Wang Xinyan’s boots as he begged without dignity, "I, I really do like you! Please, give me another chance!"

"Did you really think you could get me to date you?" Wang Xinyan scoffed, "Sorry, I don’t like men."

Xu Youcheng was utterly dumbfounded.

[Don’t like men? ]

[ Then what about the effort I spent these past few days? ]

As if he had lost all energy in his body, his bruised face twisted and Xu Youcheng looked as though he lost his soul, and both of his hands slumped on the ground.

Back then, after leaving Xia Shiyu, Xu Youcheng drove the car that was purchased with Xia Shiyu’s identity to run away with the person he cheated her for. But then, the story after wasn’t as smooth as he expected. When he lost his "income," he quickly used up all his money. Since he didn't have any ability and only depended on her, he couldn’t find even a proper job. After an argument, he and the girlfriend who he had just met for less a month broke up.

After a series of event, he became a server at a bar. Through one occasion, he was introduced to the escort industry; however, this profession was not a long-term solution. The rich ladies with too much money and nowhere to unleash their energy would not give him a promise. He tried to do "one last gig" to find a permanent ATM, finally locking his sights on to the daughter of the president of Linhua Group—Wang Xinyan.

Fortunately, Wang Xinyan didn’t brush him like away like a fly but, instead, gave him the opportunity to flatter her.

However, he didn’t think that from the beginning to the very end, he was just a joke used for amusement, unable to touch her hand and just there to wipe her shoes…

Wang Xinyan’s contemptuous smile looked down at the wounded Xu Youcheng, and the smile soon turned into a delighted one.

....

[ This feeling is fantastic .]

"Sorry, the one time I invited you to dinner, the mood was ruined by a fly. I’ll make it up to you next time?" Jiang Chen sat in front of Xia Shiyu as he said apologetically.

Xia Shiyu’s face blushed, and she whispered, "No, it’s my problem."

Just then, the chubby boss with glasses walked over. Looking at the knife marks on the ground, along with the crowd, he had a troubled smile on his face.

"It is better to resolve things through peace, why use violence? Both look like people of importance, why fight?"

Jiang Chen obviously saw the boss's intention in his eyes, so he took out a credit card from his pocket and threw it in the boss's lap.

"One million, renovation of the restaurant, on me."

The boss was first shocked, but then his face became ecstatic.

A voice spoke up, "There is no need for Mr. Jiang to spend money, Xiuyu Garden’s loss will be covered by Shimao. Manager Chen, return the card to Mr. Jiang?"

"Mi…Miss?" A cold sweat rolled off of Chen Anmin’s forehead. He just realized that the woman standing in front of the store was President Wang’s daughter, Wang Xinyan.

Shimao was a property of Linhua Group. A small business owner like him definitely did not have the courage to say no to the president’s daughter.

Chen Anmin forced a laugh as he put the card on the table.

Jiang Chen looked at Wang Xinyan speechlessly, and she was blinking at him mischievously.

Her eyes seemed to be saying, "You owe me one."

This favor was indeed cheap… Jiang Chen mocked at the thought in his mind.

One million was really nothing to him.

...

Because someone called the police at the beginning of the conflict, the police quickly arrived at the store.

Xu Youcheng, who lost his "ATM", in despair, blamed all the "unfortunate events" on Jiang Chen. Facing the police, he "not understandingly" insisted that Jiang Chen beat him to this point as he demanded the police to punish Jiang Chen. He also said he will sue Jiang Chen.

Wang Xinyan could not help but facepalm herself due to his intelligence level, and she then grabbed out her phone in annoyance and called her cousin, after which she gave Jiang Chen an apologetic look.

But Jiang Chen didn’t mind as he had a mischievous smile.

In this case, the wisest thing Xu Youcheng could have done would be to say that he bumped on the ground himself and settles with Jiang Chen privately. Perhaps he would have even received a large sum.

But now…

Funny, would Jiang Chen be afraid of him suing?

The video showed that it was, indeed, Jiang Chen who struck first. But it was not a problem, especially when Wang Zhiyong personally ran over to the police department.

Because of Xu Youcheng’s insistent stubbornness, following the procedure, Jiang Chen had to go to the police department to give testimonies, and then accept a negotiation of settlement.

That’s right, negotiation of settlement.

After communicating with their superior, the police selectively ignored the bruise on Xu Youcheng’s face, and instead, they determined the event to be a civil dispute. They then began to explain to Xu Youcheng his act of aggression through the eyes of the law, saying he provoked Jiang Chen; therefore, who started the fight first would not matter. Furthermore, he had used a knife, which would void any claims of self-defense due to its excessive nature.

After a long spiel, Jiang Chen—who was bored already—left, and the defeated Xu Youcheng was still sitting on the chair, listening to the educating officers as he experienced the unjustness of society.

Accompanying Jiang Chen out of the police department, Wang Zhiyong conscientiously sat in the driver's seat of Maybach as he asked with a bitter smile, "How did you get involved with that little devil?"

[ Little devil? ]

"Do you know Wang Xinyan?" Jiang Chen’s expression was also odd.

"My cousin." After starting the car, Wang Zhiyong said, "Speaking of this, where is your girlfriend?"

"Ahem, that is not my girlfriend, only female friend… I asked her to go back first."

Wang Zhiyong chuckled as he looked dubiously at Jiang Chen while he drove on the road.

"I know."

"Don’t be so sick minded." Jiang Chen was facepalming.

"Also, I need to tell you something," Wang Zhiyong suddenly used a more serious tone as he said to Jiang Chen, "This is the advice from a friend, be careful of that woman, Wang Xinyan, and don’t get too close to her."

"Oh? Is there a problem with her?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"Problem? She is a psycho," Wang Zhiyong cursed out.

Chapter 225: Confusion

Psycho?

Jiang Chen's expression was peculiar.

By Wang Zhiyong's tone, he didn't seem to have a good relationship with his cousin.

But this was not the key point. The key point was, Wang Xinyan is Wang Zhiyong's cousin?

Therefore, one of the top companies in Wanghai city, the president of Linhua Group Wang Linhua, is the brother of the General Secretary of Wanghai city, Wang Dehai? That was a big discovery.

But when Jiang Chen thought this through, he was at ease.

For business in the real estate industry, all had to have some form of connection with the government. Buying land, acquiring projects, passing quality assurance, the government is involved in every step of the way. Without any background, regardless of how profitable the real estate industry is, it would be hard to make money.

But Jiang Chen didn't think that Linhua Group's connections were this strong.

"Psycho?" Jiang Chen used a casual tone to ask.

"That's right." With a cigarette in his mouth, Wang Zhiyong scorned. "A little bit when she was young, then it turned serious when she got older. Who knew what happened to her, but personality-wise she has changed to this."

"Naughty?' Jiang Chen laughed.

Because Wang Zhiyong was her cousin, Jiang Chen used a light tone when describing her.

"Naughty?" Wang Zhiyong glanced at Jiang Chen. "You underestimate her. She just purely enjoys the misery of people."

Jiang Chen was shocked, but then a nonchalant smile appeared on his face.

Whatever, they just happen to encounter each other.

"Also," Wang Zhiyong abruptly spoke out, "Did you receive the invitation?"

"Invitation?"

"Wanghai Economic Forum."

"Mhmm, Linhua Group did send me an invitation, is there a problem?" Jiang Chen felt lost.

Wang Zhiyong hesitated for a moment as if he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head.

"It's fine, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."

Jiang Chen eyebrows furrowed slightly as he sensed something odd. But seeing that Wang Zhiyong didn't want to say anything more, he didn't ask further.

In the time remaining, they just joked around as they didn't mention business anymore.

He listened to Wang Zhiyong talk about the fun things that happened in the military. Finally, the car drove into a community and parked in front of a house.

"Have dinner with us?" Wang Zhiyong invited Jiang Chen while chuckling.

"It's okay, I already ate," Jiang Chen opened the driver door as he thanked him for his invitation.

After departing from Wang Zhiyong's place, Jiang Chen started the car again and drove to his mansion located in Songjiang.

When he returned at home, it was already pitch black outside. He looked at the time as it was already nine in the evening.

He parked the car inside the garage and rubbed Ayesha's head, who waiting at the door with a smile. Jiang Chen then went to take a shower.

After the shower, he changed into a comfy robe. He drank some hot milk and rested for a while, before going to the kitchen and throwing two boxes of mango pudding into the storage dimension. Finally, he walked to the bedroom.

In front of the bedroom door, he saw Ayesha in a black night dress. Her curled brown hair was covered by droplets of water and tied into a ponytail with white lace.

From the white steam on her head, she just took a shower and dressed herself up.

"Can we sleep together?" Ayesha's face was flushed, her tender eyes filled with love.

"Sorry, probably can't tonight. I need to go back to the other side," Jiang Chen said apologetically.

He must go back to the apocalypse tonight to give the sample chip and USB to Yaoyao and then ask Sun Jiao about the movements of Seventh Area to determine the next steps for the base. Sun Jiao would not let him go back this late…

Although slightly disappointed, Ayesha still nodded her head empathetically.

Seeing the slight pout, Jiang Chen smiled lovingly. He rubbed her wet hair and put his forehead against hers.

"Tomorrow morning, I will wake you up."

Ayesha's face became hot as she nodded shyly.

"Mhmm."

Jiang Chen kissed her pale and soft forehead, before walking out of the bedroom and closing the door.

He inhaled, closed his eyes, and started the interdimensional travel.

…

When he opened his eyes again, the beautifully decorated wall was replaced by a wall with visible cracks.

He breathed out the air from the modern world and immediately headed out of the room.

Before finding Yaoyao, Jiang Chen decided to go to Lin Lin's lab to bring her the mango pudding she wanted.

"Eh? You are back already." Surprised by Jiang Chen's presence, Lin Lin put the test tube in her hand on the test rack.

"I will head back immediately." Jiang Chen took out the two mango puddings and put it on her table. "Your puddings."

Seeing the mango pudding, Lin Lin's eyes immediately turned into pudding as she snatched the box and hugged it joyfully.

Seeing her joyful look, Jiang Chen couldn't help but smile.

"Don't overeat at night, take care of your stomach."

"Don't worry! I am a digitalized human!" Lin Lin clenched her fist as she said proudly.

"Then do what you want. Freeze the rest in the fridge, it tastes better cold," Jiang Chen turned around as he finished speaking.

"Wait."

Lin Lin suddenly jumped down to the ground, ran to the door, and dragged onto Jiang Chen's shirt.

"Hmm?" Jiang Chen turned around looking at Lin Lin.

"Hmm, thank you…" It was rare for this girl expressed her gratitude. She also didn't say her usual foolish words like "The offering you have is making me pleased."

Looking at the coy Lin Lin, Jiang Chen was unsure of how to react.

"Don't worry about it."

"Are you here just to give me the mango pudding?" With a blushing face, Lin Lin said shyly.

Her expression seemed to be anticipating a specific answer.

With eyebrows raised, a smirk irrepressibly appeared on his face.

"Of course not, I am back to give a USB to Yaoyao."

"QQ!"

Lin Lin's eyebrows twisted in disappointment. She put up her fist and fiercely punched Jiang Chen in the chest, then she stomped on her slippers and ran back to the room, slamming her door in a fit.

With the wooden door shut, Jiang Chen still tried to muffle his laughter.

Finally a chance to bully Lin Lin once again. It was surprisingly fun.

Jiang Chen then shook his head and walked upstairs.

Chapter 226: I only need two hours

Jiang Chen stood outside of Yaoyao's room, and he gently knocked on the door.

Knock knock.

"Yaoyao, are you there?" Jiang Chen spoke softly.

It was a bit past ten already, he was not sure if Yaoyao had slept already.

"Ah, Brother Jiang Chen? Coming!" The loli's surprise and joyful voice transmitted from the other side of the door, then immediately followed the sound of cotton slippers on the ground.

The door was pulled open. Yaoyao's head peaked out as she looked at Jiang Chen in excitement.

"Are you back already?"

"Mhmm, although I have to go back tomorrow." Seeing her adorable face, Jiang Chen couldn't help but rub her hair.

With her head raised, her narrowed eyes enjoyed the caress of the firm hand on her head as adorable sounds came out of her throat.

"Are you going to sleep soon?"

"Mhmm! But since Brother Jiang Chen is here, I can sleep later." She timidly played with her nightgown as she said with a blushed face.

"It won't take too long. I only have a favor to ask Yaoyao, is that okay?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Seeing that Jiang Chen had a favor to ask, Yaoyao's adorable eyes lit up.

She immediately nodded and raised her head, and patted her chest to assure him. "Mhmm! I got it!"

"Then I'll have to count on you. Regarding the specifics, can I come in? I need to use the computer."

Jiang Chen entered the room.

The room was filled with a fragrance similar to lilies. Thinking that it might be the natural odor of Yaoyao, Jiang Chen's face turned red. But Yaoyao didn't notice the unnatural look on Jiang Chen's face as she ran to her table in excitement, sat on the chair, and turned on the computer.

She kicked off her slippers as her legs dangled joyfully.

The unguarded position was somewhat dangerous.

Jiang Chen gulped as he muttered to himself "I am not a loli lover". Then he walked beside Yaoyao, put the briefcase down, and took out a USB and a chip from inside.

"The requirements of the program are inside the USB. Basically, it is to design an artificial intelligence software that is compatible with the autonomous driving control chip. You don't have to make the program very powerful as long as the chip can operate, can you do that?"

"Of course, Yaoyao's computer skills are great." Yaoyao inserted the USB into the computer, hummed a song, and her fingers began to type rapidly on the control board.

Lines of code Jiang Chen didn't understand flashed in front of his eyes. The outdated data inside the USB was easily converted to a language that the computer in the apocalypse could understand.

"Hmmm, it is not too difficult." Yaoyao carefully read through the requirements line by line, and nodded her head.

"How long would you need?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Around two hours," With a finger on her chin, Yaoyao said after she had given it some thought.

But the response of only needing two hours shocked Jiang Chen.

"Ahem, how, how long?"

"Umm? Two hours is enough. Since sister Sun Jiao already copied the entire database in the city library, this type of outdated technology would usually be stored as a form of an archive in the digital library. As long as the software with the highest compatibility is selected, some modifications can be done before it is good to go." Yaoyao tilted her head as she confusedly looked at the stunned Jiang Chen.

"... This is insane." Not knowing how to express his astonishment in his mind, the shocked Jiang Chen only managed to say this one statement.

A project that Dalmer Corporation expected to take five months to complete, Yaoyao said she could finish it in two hours. If they knew about this, what kind of interesting expression would appear on their faces?

Hearing Jiang Chen say this, Yaoyao nodded. Then she inserted the chip into the multifunction slot and began to work.

"Are you going to start now? Aren't you going to sleep?" Seeing that Yaoyao began to work, Jiang Chen asked.

"Woo? It's only ten, so it is not too late. Since brother will go back tomorrow, I, I want to finish it soon and help brother out." Yaoyao's face began to burn as she timidly lowered her head.

The pure sentence along with Yaoyao's adorable look made Jiang Chen feel his heart warm. Overwhelmed with emotions, he hugged Yaoyao's frail figure from the back.

"Wa." The slightly frantic shout echoed beside his ear.

"Thank you, you are helping me a lot... Yaoyao is working very hard." Sensing the warmness, Jiang Chen sincerely thanked her.

Other than the popular <New Era> game, the applications inside the base, whether it was production or management were all creations of Yaoyao. But the timid loli never said anything. She only diligently worked and contributed to his success.

Feeling the warm hug, as well as the praise she had been waiting for, Yaoyao's face was red and her tender mouth curled up in joy.

"Hehe... No need to thank me. Yaoyao is brother's, so, it is my duty to help you."

"Do you want any rewards? I haven't been rewarding you properly," Jiang Chen said guiltily.

"Any kind of reward?" Yaoyao buried her head shyly, she blankly stared at her feet dangling as she murmured.

"Mhmm!"

When she received the confirmation, the red hue moved from her face to the tip of her ears.

With lips bitten, she exhaled several times before she finally worked up the courage.

"Last birthday... At night, could you hug me while I sleep?" Yaoyao wanted to say the thing that they didn't get to finish last time, but because of her shyness, she changed her words mid-sentence.

"Uh?"

As if she had sensed Jiang Chen's hesitation, Yaoyao carefully added, "You said anything is okay... Don't worry, Yaoyao has been taking a shower every night, I smell good. Yaoyao is also light and gentle when sleeping, I can be a soft pillow..."

Her anxious explanation made it seem as if Jiang Chen was going to take back his promise.

Looking at Yaoyao's hopeful expression, Jiang Chen gulped. He could not say no to such a cute expression. Therefore he nodded.

A joyful smiled emerged on Yaoyao's face.

The smile was mixed with happiness, as well as a hint of shyness.

"Thank you, I'm so happy... Mhmm! Yaoyao will begin to work. Brother, you can go sleep, Yaoyao will be done soon."

"Do you not need me to accompany you?" Jiang Chen rubbed her head.

"No, No need. That will be really boring..." Yaoyao said slightly embarrassed.

Jiang Chen didn't insist.

He walked to the bed, looked at the pink sheets as he awkwardly scratched his head.

But when he thought about Yaoyao's hopeful expression, Jiang Chen gulped and with trembling fingers slowly lifted up the sheet and lied down.

He nose was tingled by the faint aroma.

Although he couldn't quite tell what the smell was, it smelt good.

Under the sheets, Jiang Chen could smell her pureness. It was an intoxicating feeling.

But this feeling didn't manage to last long.

Because it was too comfortable, Jiang Chen's began to lose his consciousness, he yawned before quickly falling asleep.

After typing up the last line of code, Yaoyao stretched her body. Then she timidly looked at the direction of the bed.

Thinking that her love was sleeping in her bed, an indescribable joy and timid feeling rose in her heart.

Yaoyao gulped as she put on her bunny slippers carefully and walked to the door to turn off the light. Then she sneaked to the side of the bed.

Her heart was beating fast as if it was going to jump out of her chest.

"Woo, fell asleep?" Seeing that Jiang Chen had already drifted to sleep, Yaoyao pouted her mouth in slight disappointment.

But for some reason, she felt relieved and more at ease.

It was a complex feeling.

Already hitting puberty, she desired the mysterious but forbidden kind of feeling. At the same time, she felt unsettled by the idea.

[Could it be that I am still not ready?]

Yaoyao didn't understand her feeling.

With a hand on her chin, under the pristine moonlight, Yaoyao pouted her mouth as she carefully observed Jiang Chen's face.

Listening to his rhythmic breathing, a sweet smile appeared on her face.

"Wooo, of course, let's maintain our current state. Since brother already felt asleep..." She hummed to herself in a quiet voice before she sneaked into bed.

She pecked Jiang Chen's lips as a soft smile emerged on Yaoyao's face.

With this tiny bit of happiness, Yaoyao moved closer to his warm chest, adjusting herself to be in a comfortable position before closing her eyes.

Her breathing began to turn rhythmic and gentle.

Yaoyao's crescent-shaped mouth revealed her happiness.

Chapter 227: The Mist

The next morning, a streak of faint morning light poured into the room through the window.

Jiang Chen yawned unhurriedly as he opened his sleepy eyes and gaze through the window.

Such a rare scene, the outside was actually sunny. The insulated window blocked all the coldness outside, so it was warm like the spring inside the room. If it wasn't for the snow, watching the bright sun, he almost felt like he slept all the way through the start of spring.

A faint, warm breath fluttered on his chest, Jiang Chen looked down and found Yaoyao all curled up on top of his chest.

Like a small rabbit, she slept peacefully. Her breathing rose and fell rhythmically. Her eyelashes quivered along with her breath as she cast off the angel-like vibe in the bright sunlight. Even in her sleep, her lips formed in a sweet smile.

Gently sweeping her bangs to the side, Jiang Chen kissed her on top of her smooth forehead, and then he sneaked out of bed.

He picked up the already completed USB and chip from the table, and then he quietly left the room and closed the door.

It was only six o'clock in the morning, but based on Jiang Chen's understanding of Sun Jiao, she should already be up and about.

He was supposed to find her last night, but Yaoyao's expectant eyes made him stay the night.

While heading towards the third floor of the mansion, Jiang Chen heard the gunshots coming from the training room from a distance.

"You're up so early as usual." Pushing the door open, Jiang Chen spotted Sun Jiao in combat gears shooting at targets.

"Mhmm? You're back?" Turning around, Sun Jiao wore a surprised smile.

Throwing the pistol in the case, Sun Jiao excitedly jumped in front of Jiang Chen.

"Have you finished everything on the other side?"

"Not yet but I'm worried about this side, so I came back to check things out."

"You're worrying now that we have the communication chip? If there's anything urgent, I will inform you."

Lin Lin shared the video that she and Jiang Chen had recorded with Sun Jiao and Yaoyao. Yaoyao's reaction was somewhat blasé since she did live in a more prosperous pre-war life for 12 years. Seeing the "ancient era," other than envy, she also felt melancholic.

But Sun Jiao, who hadn't seen a civilized society before, almost had her face plastered on the screen.

For her, the other side was the embodiment of a fairy tale

"It would be too late if something really happens. Has the Seventh area taken any action yet?"

Sun Jiao's posture turned rigid upon hearing Jiang Chen's question.

"The mutated humans have yet to make a move. The defense on the east of Zhufeng highway has been established, with the 10 Tigers and 200 soldiers being stationed there."

Nodding, Jiang Chen pondered on it for a moment before continuing, "What about the Defender in Jia City?"

Hearing that, a troubled smile flitted across Sun Jiao's face.

"Not even a reaction. Not a single news at all."

Jiang Chen had exchanged a communication channel with Lin Chaoen at the Bullet Shell tavern at the Sixth Street last time. The first few times, Jiang Chen could still reach the general of the Defender Alliance in Jia City, but as soon as winter came, they seemed to have disappeared all the sudden. All communication with the Fishbone Base had come to a halt.

Did they get wiped out? Or was it another type of accident?

Frowning, Jiang Chen had a vague feeling that something was off but could not pinpoint what exactly it was.

Sun Xiaorou was captured, but there was no reaction from Dusk at all.

The mutated human's front posts were destroyed twice, but their reaction was also somewhat abnormal.

Could it be since their plans were foiled, they were at a loss on what to do?

But rather than optimistically thinking that the threats had been eliminated, Jiang Chen was more inclined to believe in another possibility—that they were planning a massive conspiracy. The silence now was to endure through this period of time.

"Speaking of which, did Sun Xiaorou's condition get...better?" Jiang Chen asked, somewhat awkwardly.

"She's better now." Sun Jiao's expression looked despondent at the mention of her sister.

She would spend most of her time everyday with her sister and attempt to wake up the personality in Sun Xiaorou's body, and make the devout believer of an occult slumber for eternity.

However, it was extremely difficult.

In the face of psychological issues, she really had no way of dealing with it.

"It'll get better." Seeing the despair on Sun Jiao's face, Jiang Chen embraced and comforted her.

"Mhmm."

Sun Jiao nodded and leaned her head on Jiang Chen's shoulder.

Just like this, silence perpetuated for a while and was broken when Sun Jiao suddenly asked, "How are you doing on the other side?"

"Me?" Jiang Chen paused for a moment.

"Mhmm, I haven't asked you about the other side, so can you talk to me about it?" Whenever the other world was mentioned, Sun Jiao's eyes lit up with anticipation.

"There's nothing special about…it's probably the exact opposite of this place. A mouse is only the size of a fist, and a cockroach is just as big as your thumb. There are no mutants, the street is littered with all kinds of people, and there is an endless number of stores that are filled with fun and delicious things…It's hard to explain with just words, so I will just have to take you there when there's an opportunity." Jiang Chen scratched his face.

"Woo, I'm envious of you for being born in heaven." Sun Jiao pouted.

"It's not as good as you think. Compared to here, yes, but it's not exactly a heaven. There are people who are extremely rich, and some people are so poor they don't have a place that belongs to themselves, and they would have to depend on other's goodwill to be able to rent a place."

Fortunately, Jiang Chen became the former from the latter.

"Rent?" Sun Jiao raised her eyebrows.

She could not wrap her head around what Jiang Chen had just told her. The things that the wasteland didn't lack were concrete and steel buildings, so she couldn't imagine why it would be so valuable.

If she got tired, she could find any building and could just place a trip mine on the stairs to sleep.

"Before the war, a house is considered a luxury. Just like the mansion where we currently reside at, if it was before the war, it would cost millions… You can think of it as millions of crystals."

"Woah, so expensive." Sun Jiao was astonished.

"So don't think that the other side is perfect, lest you'll end up being disappointed." Jiang Chen tousled Sun Jiao's silky hair.

Just then, Sun Jiao suddenly asked, "Which side do you like better?"

Looking at the serious expression on Sun Jiao's face, Jiang Chen took a moment to think.

He then gave an answer that even shocked himself.

"Probably…this side, or at least for now."

In the modern world, he was just a billionaire. Even as the president of a multibillion-dollar company, he was just a wealthy person.

With the growth of Future Technology, he gradually become embroiled in the vested interest of other people.

Precisely because of the secrets he had to protect, Jiang Chen's development had to be carefully measured, and he had to control the speed of his improvement. Despite possessing copious amounts of astonishing innovations, he could not easily bring it out in the open.

Innovation like virtual reality MMORPG, Du Yongkong had already developed it. The headset version virtual reality gear could be produced in the Sixth Street, however, bringing it out in the modern world would be no different to committing suicide.

In the apocalypse, however, he was the commander of a force. After becoming the general of the Sixth Street, there was no organization in the entire Wanghai City that could force him to hide his growth.

Perhaps the development in the modern world should be hastened?

_Min_ _Min_

Shamelessly asking, hit me up with the power stones.

Chapter 228: The Dinner of the Elites

After bidding Sun Jiao goodbye, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world.

It was around eight in the morning, thinking of the promise he made with Ayesha last night, Jiang Chen's face broke into a smile.

After preparing breakfast and putting it into the microwave, Jiang Chen took a shower before he entered Ayesha's room, smirking all the while.

When the two came out of the room, it was already ten o'clock.

"I shouldn't have prepared breakfast had I known it'd be lunchtime soon," Jiang Chen uttered in disappointment as he removed the bread and poached egg from the microwave.

"It's okay. Just put it in the fridge, and we'll eat it tomorrow," face still blushing furiously, Ayesha muttered and took the plate out of Jiang Chen's hand.

After putting the plate in the refrigerator, Ayesha started preparing lunch while wearing an apron.

Looking at Ayesha's profile, Jiang Chen was enamored by the scene.

The loose brown curls reflected a golden streak in the sun. Beneath it was a gentle and serene face, and with the elegant apron, she resembled a newly married wife.

"Mhmm?" Ayesha seemed to have sensed Jiang Chen's gaze because she slightly tilted her head and looked up.

"Uh, nothing, just thinking how beautiful you are." Jiang Chen scratched his cheek.

Face blushing, Ayesha lowered her head shyly and started cutting the meat.

Lunch was roasted beef and borsch with steamed rice, a combination of western and oriental cuisine.

When the two finished their lunch, it was already twelve o'clock. After cleaning up the dishes, Ayesha, as part of her usual routine, she headed to the gym to complete today's virtual reality training content. Jiang Chen rested a bit more on the sofa, and then went out of the door and drove to the metropolis.

Tonight he was going to attend the Wanghai Business Forum. Jiang Chen, who had not always been confident in his own style, wisely decided to leave the task to the professionals to deal with. Although what's inside was more important, it was also necessary for the look to reflect that.

Jiang Chen allowed the cold but gentle hands to fiddle with his face and hair for a while before coming out of the high-end style studio feeling refreshed. Although his hair was still short hair, he felt sleeker.

Then he headed to the mall to buy a few sets of formal suits. Although he didn't know which attire would be most appropriate for the event tonight, the best choice would be to buy the most expensive one!

After throwing the tens of thousands worth of formal suits on the counter, Jiang Chen, in front of the cashier whose eyes had already turned into glittering stars, swiped his card without blinking.

It was already three o'clock when he was done with everything.

Seeing that there was still some time to spare, Jiang Chen went to a Starbucks and ordered a cup coffee before he started fiddling with his phone.

When it was about five o'clock, Jiang Chen drove to the venue where the party would be held, Linhua Hotel.

...

One could see the elegance of the beautifully designed building just by looking at its appearance. Marble and red brick were the main materials used, which gave a touch modern simplicity combined with the elegance of classic beauty.

Linhua Hotel—an embellished sign with huge neon letters.

The parking lot was almost like a luxury car dealership. He actually saw no less than two or three of Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, etc. So that his car Maybach S600 being parked there looked inconspicuous.

When he parked the car, following the direction of the valet, he was ushered to the front of the hotel. After flashing his invitation, he then entered the hotel along with those well-dressed elites.

Although it was a fancy banquet, in the end, it was still hosted by locals. Jiang Chen didn't get to see some famous people and could not recognize most attendees.

But he didn't look down on the party because of it. While they may not appear in the media, it did not mean they could not do so. Sometimes the more low-key the people were, the more powerful they truly were.

When he entered the hotel, he distinctly noticed a lot of people staring at him.

In this regard, Jiang Chen did not appear to be the least bit anxious, After all, it was not the first time he would be participating in a gathering this level. When he was in Sanya, he attended a birthday dinner hosted by the hospitable prince of Arabia for his princess. Although the birthday party was more private and informal than the business forum, the process was, in fact, roughly similar.

After the host delivered all kinds of ceremonial speech, the business elites naturally formed themselves into a small clique and exchanged ideas with those they were interested in.

Because he was not good at this kind of things, Jiang Chen deliberately picked a secluded spot in the corner of the hall and started enjoying the delicious food.

While he did consider using this opportunity to get acquainted with some business associates, but he was somewhat unable to get started after arriving here. Most of the active participants here were not a first-timer in this kind of event. As such, a number of people in the circle were familiar with each other. It was undoubtedly difficult for some newcomers like Jiang Chen to mingle with this clique.

But he had clearly underestimated his presence in the technology sector because who would actually cast a delicious morsel of cake aside?

The profitability of Future Technology did make people green with envy, but for those who could take part in the event of this caliber, how many were actually short-sighted? Ignoring Jiang Chen because of jealousy, only a philistine would do that.

He hadn't sat for long before a middle-aged man sat beside him with a smile.

"Mr. Jiang is young and promising but doesn't show off in public. It's really rare at this age. Ah, I can't help but grow admiration for you even I were to be in 70s."

"Nah," despite feeling proud inside, Jiang Chen still humbly acknowledged the compliment, and then asked, "and you are?"

Though the person looked familiar, Jiang Chen was still unable to remember where he had seen him.

"I'm Zhou Hongwei." Zhou Hongwei smiled.

Isn't that the president of 361 Corporation, Zhou Hongwei? It made Jiang Chen somewhat shocked.

"So it's Mr. Zhou, I apologize for not realizing it sooner." Not even recognizing his own strategic partner was a bit embarrassing.

With the advent of a social media platform, Future Technology and other communication technologies like Penguin naturally stood on the opposite side. In particular, the impact of Future 1.0 on Wechat, which caused a drastic decrease in their users, had naturally earned Penguin's displeasure. Because of this, Future Technology was removed from all channels by Penguin, but it did little to Future Technology as they had already occupied the user group.

The competitor's adversary would naturally band together. Most especially after the Lingyu Technology's incident, towards 361 Corporation's gesture of goodwill to Jiang Chen, Future Technology would naturally take the same initiative as the 361 Corporation. Both parties used Chenfeng Entertainment as a joint venture platform to form a tight relationship in the mobile gaming sector, focusing on low and mid-end games with short development cycles. 361 Corporation being the main developer while Future Technology was responsible for the channel. It can be said that this was the honeymoon period of cooperation between the two sides.

"It's okay, I'm already over 40 years old with an average-looking face, so even if I went on CTV, no one would remember me." Zhou Hongwei quipped good-naturedly, which cleverly resolved the awkwardness, then he began chatting with Jiang Chen.

When two Internet giants sat together, it would naturally attract a lot of people in the "same circle" to join their conversation. Without him knowing, Jiang Chen was equally surprised to realize that the quiet spot he had chosen for himself had somehow become the center of the forum.

In fact, Jiang Chen had somehow underestimated intricacies this business forum. If he had given it more thoughts, there were just few hundred companies with over 10 billion market value in the entire China. Now this Wanghai Business Forum, though the requirement was high, it was not as extreme as he initially thought.

It could be even be said that in this entire venue, he and Zhou Hongwei could be considered to stand at the top of the pyramid. On the other hand, Zhou Hongwei only possessed 14% share in 361 Corporation, but Jiang Chen had an unbelievable 99% share in Future Technology. From this perspective, while both companies had a market value of 10 billion, Jiang Chen's "worth" had overwhelmed Zhou Hongwei.

Other than the internet giants, the rest were mid-sized companies with good profitability and future prospects. While they probably have billions in assets, there was still a noticeable gap compared to Jiang Chen's assets.

As such, there were quite a number of people who used all sort of methods in an attempt to establish a connection with him. Especially considering he was still a bachelor, the big bosses with daughters, regardless whether their daughter had a boyfriend or not, began to talk marriage with Jiang Chen.

"Haha, Mr. Jiang is 22 this year, my princess is 21. Would Jiang Chen be interested in meeting her?"

"No wonder Mr. Jiang Chen is capable of gracing the headline twice on Wall Street Journal, Mr. Jiang is indeed a talented person and gives face to his own country!"

"Is Mr. Jiang interested in a partnership? Our company had recently developed an O2O takeout software, considering Future 1.0 traffic, we can definitely..."

Networking, fawning, and partnership.

To be honest, his vanity was satisfied while looking at a group of rich people formed a circle around him as the center. Jiang Chen naturally responded to everyone's friendliness and listened to their business proposals.

As for those seeking to arrange marriage, Jiang Chen chose to politely ignore them.

In this relaxed atmosphere, halfway through the party, a familiar voice floated through Jiang Chen's ears just as he was about to start eating.

"Hello Mr. Jiang, we meet again."

Chapter 229: Peep

To host this gathering, Linhua Group had certainly made an all-out effort. Not only was the food impeccable, the guests had also been given meticulous attention.

When the party was halfway through, a sound of music began to play in the venue. In the center of the circular hall, the Chinese music circle goddess, Zhang Hui, was singing, the melodious and soft music revibrating in the hall. Clapping sound erupted as the music faded.

To be able to invite a celebrity of this caliber to be part of this gathering showed the influence of Wang Linhua.

Seeing that the atmosphere of the party has come to a peak, the host of the gathering took out the microphone. He first expressed his gratitude to Zhang Hui for her performance and to all the guests for coming to the event before announcing the next part of the celebration.

The servers pushing the food carts entered the hall as they began to serve exquisite meals. Musical performance started playing from the center of the hall. The guests, exhausted from chatting, started enjoying their dinner.

"Hello Mr. Jiang, we meet again." Wang Xinyan approached Jiang Chen with a glass of wine in her hand.

Still clad in a vibrant red, but instead of a cotton dress, this time was an elegant cocktail dress.

"It's a pleasure meeting you again, Miss Wang." Jiang Chen raised his glass and smiled.

"Is it? But why do I sense that you feel the opposite?" With a graceful stride, Wang Xinyan proposed a toast to Jiang Chen and then took a sip of her wine.

"That's just your imagination." While saying this, Jiang Chen muttered another sentence to himself.

[But your imagination is too accurate.]

"Woman's instinct is very accurate." Towards Jiang Chen's denial, Wang Xinyan just smiled mysteriously and did not give a direct response.

"Ahem, let's cut to the chase. Come on, what do you need from me?" Jiang Chen coughed lightly as he put down the wine.

"Can't I even look for you without having an ulterior motive?" Wang Xinyan gracefully sat across him.

"Of course, but you're obviously not."

Seeing the guarded look on Jiang Chen's face, Wang Xinyan let out a sigh.

"A man who doesn't understand a woman. Then, excuse me for being blunt... My father wants to see you."

[Wang Linhua? Why would a real estate developer want to see me?]

Frowning, Jiang Chen couldn't think of any potential business ventures between Linhua Group and Future Technology.

"Right now?"

"Of course, after the event ends." Her red lips curved upwards slyly.

[When the party's over?]

Jiang Chen still couldn't figure out the intention of Wang Linhua.

Seeing Jiang Chen's slightly frowning expression, Wang Xinyan giggled."Why are you so cautious? Don't you think it'd be probably be something good?"

"Because I noticed you used the word 'probably," Jiang Chen said dully.

"That depends on you and how you interpret it." Wang Xinyan left a smile and a meaningful sentence behind, and then gracefully got up and exited in grand fashion.

[Depends on my interpretation?]

A profound smile broke on Jiang Chen's face.

Thereupon, the door to the hall became unsettled.

"Is that Carmen Rothschild? My god, when did Linhua Group become this influential?"

"Did Carmen specifically come here for this, or is he on a business trip for Rothschild family? Maybe Linhua was informed about it, and that's why he sent an invitation? But for the Rothschild family to attend this gathering, Linhua Group is surely powerful."

"Haha, if they want to get a slice of the cake of the 1.3 billion people market, then they will need to establish a good relationship with the top dog."

"That makes sense. I wonder which lucky person will have the opportunity to have dealings with these Europeans tyrants.."

The ongoing speculations had made Jiang Chen's expression turn slightly strange.

The lucky person they were referring to was him.

Once the news about the deal had been publicized, what kind of interesting expression would be on their faces?

Speaking of this, the control chip and artificial intelligence system had already been completed.

As long as Jiang Chen willed it, the chip could just be transported from the storage dimension to his pocket.

But to avoid drawing too much attention to himself, Jiang Chen cautiously decided to temporarily put it aside as he was planning to introduce it in April.

Picking up his chopstick, he began to enjoy the food on the table. But then, much to his surprise, Carmen began to look around and headed his way.

Seeing this scene, everyone's eyes widened.

"So it's Future Technology? When did the Rothschild family get involved in the high-tech industry?"

"Wait, I heard that Carmen is here representing the Dalmer Corporation. Could it be that Future Technology will be venturing into automotive industry?"

Artifical intelligence on top of automotive?

This was one piece of a hot news. What was the media doing, and how come there was no information at all?

Disregarding the reaction of the crowd, Carmen sat across from Jiang Chen where Wang Xinyan had previously sitten.

"Chinese food, I like it a lot," Carmen nobly said with a smile, but he picked up a knife and fork.

"Nice to see you again, old buddy," said Jiang Chen and exchanged greetings with him.

Whether if it was because of the language barrier or something else entirely, listening to Jiang Chen's words, Carmen's expression became somewhat awkward.

"I apologize, my friend. I didn't deliberately provoke you—" Based on his understanding, the disappearance of GPS signal was because Jiang Chen had discovered it already. In view of their current relationship, Carmen chose to apologize sincerely.

"It's okay, I'm a very easy person." Jiang Chen smiled.

Carmen had blanked out for a moment before a grateful smile appeared on his face.

[Being able to let go of the past is amazing. This kind of mental fortitude is truly admirable...] Carmen exclaimed in his head.

Although it was not a big deal to be inept in using chopsticks and compared to 1 billion USD... How does one eat Chinese food with a knife and fork? Jiang Chen's expression looked strange as he stared at the knife and fork in Carmen's hand.

The conversation between the two could be described as disjointed, but because of coincidence, it somehow connected together. Carmen thought that Jiang Chen had discovered the problem with the USB, but in reality, Jiang Chen didn't notice the mishap at all.

One had to say that this disconnect in the information, which caused this misunderstanding, was really funny

Jiang Chen's taciturn behavior was seen as generosity in Carmen's eyes, so his words could not help but have guilt woven into them. While chatting with him, Jiang Chen became perplexed by his odd tone.

Was this a difference in language expression?

In short, the flow of conversation between the two was very harmonious.

But this harmony, in the eyes of a certain person, was far from being pleasant.

"So Rothschild is interested in Future Technology as well?" With wine in hand, the corner of his eyes peeked at the two as Wang Linhua muttered to himself.

The wine swirling in the glass reflected the aged face immersed in deep thought.

Chapter 230: Greed

The gathering ended. After saying goodbye to Carmen Rothschild, Jiang Chen went to the back of the hall and met Wang Linhua waiting there.

The elder man's body looked healthy, and he had a head full of black hair. While wrinkles were visible on his face, it only added to his authoritative look. From this point alone, Wang Dehai should be his older brother and quite a few years older.

When he saw Jiang Chen come in, he had an amiable smile on his face as he warmly welcomed Jiang Chen to take a seat.

"Haha, I have been listening to my brother's praises of you, now that I see you, it certainly is true." Wang Linhua nodded his head.

"Uncle Wang is overcomplimenting me," Jiang Chen said humbly.

"Since you call me uncle, could I call you little Jiang?"

"Of course, it's my honor."

When he heard Jiang Chen's words, Wang Linhua smiled as he took a drink of tea to soothe his throat.

"The reason why I asked you to stay today is that I wanted to chat with you. I hope little Jiang doesn't mind."

"Not a problem." Jiang Chen smiled, but he was analyzing his intention.

"Did you see my daughter yet?" Wang Linhua asked nonchalantly.

[Wang Xinyan?]

As to why Wang Linhua all the sudden mentioned this, Jiang Chen was rather lost.

"Yes," Jiang Chen nodded as he answered cautiously.

"What do you think about her?"

"Unique." Jiang Chen carefully chose his word.

"I heard you don't have a girlfriend yet, you young people should spend more time together. As the elder, I don't need to say more."

Hearing this, Jiang Chen's expression became odd.

[What is this? Arranged marriage? Encouraging me to chase after you daughter?]

"Why did uncle Wang mention this all of the sudden?" Without replying directly, Jiang Chen smiled.

"Nothing really, only casually mentioning it, don't worry too much." Wang Linhua laughed as he waved his hands.

Jiang Chen didn't continue this conversation as he also laughed along with him. He didn't understand what kind of show this old guy was putting on for him, so he decided to be careful with his words.

As to the hint, there was no way he would agree to it.

Seeing that Jiang Chen didn't continue the conversation, Wang Linhua only smiled. He reached for the teapot and filled his cup with more tea.

"Westlake Longjing, my friend gave it to me as a gift."

Jiang Chen raised his cup to take a sip, although he didn't know the intricacy of tea, he still pretended to know as he nodded.

"Great tea."

"Haha, not bad right? It is limited quantity. Better than the ones available on the market." Wang Linhua laughed, as he also took a sip of the tea.

However, simply through observing his action, he was more natural than Jiang Chen.

"Speaking of this, during one of my outings with the old friend who gifted me the tea, he spoke about an interesting problem. Could little Jiang solve my elderly man's confusion?" Wang Linhua said with a gentle voice as he smiled at Jiang Chen.

"My knowledge is limited, but I will do my best," Jiang Chen answered cautiously.

"I hope little Jiang don't mind, my old friend works in intelligence service. I am only curious because based on what he said, he couldn't find anything on the technology team behind Future Technology. That team, does it really exist?"

A piercing and sharp look shot out of Wang Linhua's eyes.

That fox-like sight, locked tightly onto Jiang Chen's pupils as if he wanted to look through Jiang Chen.

But Jiang Chen was not a rookie anymore, he was at least a general of the Sixth Street. Although it was in another world, it didn't interfere with his new-found calmness as a leader.

"Of course, it's just that you guys haven't been able to find them yet," Jiang Chen replied to Wang Linhua's suspiciousness with calmness.

"Oh? Really?"

"Of course. We only developed a partnership with them. Based on the agreement, they provide technology to us, and we focus on the operations. We also promise them confidentiality to all information about them." It was the second time Jiang Chen said something like this.

The first was to the media.

As to Jiang Chen's response, Wang Linhua was obviously unsatisfied, but he didn't show anything on his face, he only smiled, as he continued.

"We are leaning towards another possibility."

"Such as?"

"That team is fictitious, everything is your work."

"A very imaginative assumption. Disregarding the fact that I have studied mechanical engineering, what's my reason to do this?" Jiang Chen shrugged.

"There are many reasons. For example, avoiding the trouble, or blurring the development cost." Wang Linhua smiled mysteriously.

"You think I am avoiding tax? Let's disregard if the problem exists or not in the first place. I don't think Linhua Group is a tax agency right? Even if your brother is powerful, it doesn't mean I have to accept your interrogation. When did Linhua Group start doing the work of the government agency?"

Although Wang Linhua had clearly heard the displeasure in Jiang Chen's tone, for some odd reason, he didn't stop the topic there.

"Of course not, I am only listing out a possibility. But those two points are key. The key is, this could be your motive because you don't trust the government."

"Don't trust the government? This is a serious accusation, I cannot accept this. And don't you think this kind of assumption is irresponsible? Where is your evidence?" Jiang Chen said calmly.

Rather than lack of trust, Jiang Chen would rather refer to it as being cautious for his life. Since his right hand held the portal to another world!

"Don't be nervous, I am only stating a possibility. Granted, our government system does have some flaws and unjust, but all in all, it is still a good system. For the people with talent, we always provide support."

"Therefore?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Did little Jiang ever consider an equity infusion by state," Wang Linhua said with a smile.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh in his mind, [It is finally here.]

A monthly revenue over a billion, 99% of absolute share control, this juicy piece of meat finally made people feel unsettled?

"Future Technology's operating condition is doing well, the cash flow is steady, there is no consideration of equity infusion."

It was the point that made all venture capitalists grind their teeth. The lack of problem with cash flow meant that there was no possibility for them to cut a piece of pie from Future 1.0. Disregarding venture capitalists, Future Technology doesn't even need a bank loan. With its monthly profit alone, it could meet its growth needs. The company's incredible money generating ability did indeed make people's eyes glisten with greed.

This would include private capitals, foreign capitals, and of course, state capitals.

And Linhua Group is a renowned state enterprise. Wang Linhua's question was dubious in its nature.

"It doesn't have to be operating poorly to infuse state capital. With liquid asset, you could develop freely and expand your operation." Wang Linhua took a sip of tea in an in control attitude.

That gesture hinted at a layer of meaning worth thinking over.

"If you don't mind me using a derogatory term, if you take too big of a stride, you might pull your nuts."

"Therefore, little Jiang is going to refuse?" Wang Linhua narrowed his eyes, but the smile on his face didn't fade away.

As to convincing, he had a mysterious sense of confidence. Jiang Chen didn't know what his trump card is, but he would not give any ground on this point.

"It has to do with the future of the company, I must be cautious with my decision." Jiang Chen didn't back down.

"Do you think infusing state capital would hinder the growth of Future Technology?" Wang Linhua laughed, he waved his hands, "Let's talk about policy, but you should have been paying attention already."

After taking a pause, Wang Linhua continued.

"Based on the state's newly discussed strategy, for the second type of corporation, the keystone corporation is an important industry, as well as its supporting industry, the high-tech industry. For these industries, the state wants an ownership control of 51%. Of course, this is only a recommended percentage, the actual percentage may differ."

"I heard that it is not an enforced policy, only a method of supporting the company. There is no law that states I must accept an equity infusion by state," Jiang Chen answered emotionlessly.

For Jiang Chen's answer, Wang Linhua shook his head with a smile.

"Do you think, the government would let this type of high-end technology sit in the hands of an individual? With strong capital, the piece of gold would create more value."

"Or it would be worth nothing." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"Oh?" Wang Linhua pretended to act curious.

"The infusion of external capital would mean that the company might display the specifics of the operation to the new shareholder. My partner obviously has no intention to reveal itself to any country. Therefore they may terminate my partnership to seek other partners. Don't you think by that point, the move becomes pointless?" Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

"That's okay." Wang Linhua smiled at Jiang Chen "Perhaps they would give up on Future Technology, but no reason to give up a 1.3 billion people market. If they truly exist, we'll treat their new partner better."

At this point, Jiang Chen truly understood everything.

The old guy was gambling, the type of gambling where he would not lose.

Whether the foreign technology team is real or fake, it would only take a test to find out. If they actually existed, they would change to a different name, there was no need to worry about them leaving.

As to if Future Technology would be abandoned or not, Wang Linhua didn't care at all.

Unfortunately, Wang Zhiyong not speaking his mind that day reflected Wang Dehai's attitude.

At least he permitted the situation. Since Wang Linhua belonged to the Wang family, if Future Technology became Wang family's asset, Wang family acquired another cash cow.

"So you are arranging this marriage for state capital?'

"No, only arranging the marriage for the Wang family." Wang Linhua smiled.

Of course.

"Oh?" Jiang Chen sneered.

"I'll marry my daughter to you, then you will be the son in law of the Wang family. The dowry is five billion, the bride price... obviously is 50% of the Future Technology share."

It was a great plan, disregarding the logic of "standing at the high grounds for the country, and forcefully selling and buying." Is the dowry supposed to be an asset after marriage? Based on the ten billion market cap two months ago, to acquire the Future Technology with monthly revenues of a billion, are they shameless? Or shameless?

"What is this? Political marriage?" Jiang Chen mocked.

"You could interpret it that way."

"Therefore, Linhua Group can represent the government?" Jiang Chen ridiculed.

"Although we can't represent, the Wang family has a certain amount of power. Also, Linhua Group is a state-owned enterprise. Therefore it means the same thing as state capital infusing into Future Technology," Wang Linhua said with a smile.

What a shameless things to say.

"Could I interpret it that your action reflects the attitude of the Wang family?"

Pondering on Jiang Chen's question, Wang Linhua took another sip of the tea.

"You could interpret it that way. Since, rather than giving this juicy meat away to other people, it is better to put it in my own stomach."

[It is a straightforward analogy, you view my Future Technology as a piece of juicy meat already?]

Seeing Wang Linhua's confident expression, the tip of Jiang Chen's mouth curved up as he said emotionlessly.

"If you think you are so great, are you not afraid I will become a foreign company?"

_Min_ _Min_

One more tonight

Chapter 231: Vote with my feet

Jiang Chen's words made Wang Linhua pause for a moment, his cunning eyes narrowed into a line. His eyes reflected those of a hunter observing its prey's sharp claw.

Jiang Chen responded to the invasive sight by smiling fearlessly, he took a sip out of the teacup.

His calmness made Wang Linhua uncertain.

If Jiang Chen proactively gave out the shares, it would be the best case scenario. Five billion along with becoming the son-in-law of the Wang family in exchange for 50% of Future Technology's share, in Wang Linhua's eyes, was not too harsh.

Wang Linhua could not think through the reason for Jiang Chen's reaction. Without exaggerating, Future Technology was a piece of juicy meat. Not only the Wang family has spotted the meat, Zhou and Liu families, who had no less of a political influence, were also unsettled.

But because the juicy meat lies in Wanghai City, and it was in the Wang family's territory, that's why they urged themselves. But followed by the increase in profitability of Future Technology, they could no longer sit around.

Just like what he has said, rather than other people eating it, it was better to put it in his own stomach.

"Foreign corporation?" Wang Linhua laughed, "Do you think foreign capital is as cute as it looks. As an elder, I have to caution you, their manner is even worse. Especially since the primary business of Future Technology is still in the country. A bite by us, we can give you some compensation. A bite by foreign capitals, you may have to eat the leftovers with them."

Although he was saying this confidently, Jiang Chen could still hear the hint of the fear in his voice.

Hua connecting to the world meant that it is no longer excluded from the world that's led by UA capital as they carefully maintained the image of their international state capital. Using the policy to forcefully buy and sell could occur between state and private capital, but it could never occur between state capital and foreign capital.

These major shareholders are able to hide from the public's eyes as they only exist in the financial information of each corporation. But in actuality, the QQ we use every day, the largest internet company in Hua with a market cap of 250 billion - Tencent, the major shareholder is not Ma Huateng, but South Africa MIH.

As to the famous Alibaba, their major shareholder was not Jack Ma, but Softbank.

Regardless of the status of foreign affairs, foreign capitals are all thriving domestically without suffering any unfair treatment. For example, if the Rothschild family became a shareholder of Future Technology, even without becoming the top shareholder, Wang Linhua would definitely be afraid to make any moves.

It was the reason why Wang Linhua felt nervous when he saw Carmen and Jiang Chen being so close.

It was okay laying hands on private capital, it was like a father beating his son as it was the family business. But if a guest came, what kind of etiquette would be used to pull things from the guest's pocket? Although it was a situation that could not be helped, it was the sad truth.

If Future Technology did get pushed away by him, not only would Wang Dehai not be too happy, Wang Linhua himself would get nothing out of it. The power within the structure is good against your own people, but not so effective against other people.

"I am only explaining a possibility," Jiang Chen said expressionlessly.

"Are you threatening me?" Wang Linhua voice began to turn cold.

"No, I am only responding to your threat."

"Threat?" Wang Linhua laughed, "Linhua Group's equity infusion would be absolutely beneficial for Future Technology, you are too ignorant of the situation."

Just like Wang Linhua said, it was not bad for state capital to infuse into Future Technology. A lot of companies at the brink of bankruptcy do everything they can to infuse state capital.

With state capital, although it meant some profit would be lost, the company would receive preferential treatment in all kinds of areas. Such as loans. No possibility of a loan not being approved. The bank would nod their head even at the risk of bad debt. Another example, policies. As long as they have the correct political stance, they would not receive repressions from the political side.

But there was no way Jiang Chen could do this.

Once state capital is infused, that means that he must reveal the specifics of the company's operations to the new "major shareholder." For example, the team that developed Future 1.0, the point of contact, as well as the cost breakdown of software development. How could this be revealed to other people?

Jiang Chen doesn't have enough knowledge on political regulations to give his right hand to the government.

"It's not because of ignorance, it's just you are too greedy. With only five billion, you want 50% share of Future Technology with billions of monthly profit, why don't you go rob instead?" Jiang Chen sneered as he stared straight into Wang Linhua's eyes.

"Rob? Without the Wang family looking after you, do you think Future Technology could grow smoothly to this point?" Wang Linhua paused as he looked at Jiang Chen with more than one layer of meaning.

"Rothschild family is wealthy, I know you formed a partnership with them. But they are outsiders after all, even with money, their influence in Hua is limited. If you think they can help you out, then you will be disappointed. If you think selling your share would avoid trouble, I recommend you get rid of the idea. Future Technology can escape from trouble, but you definitely won't be able to."

The threatening intent was serious.

Jiang Chen eyes' narrowed.

"I don't know if you have considered this question before, but Future Technology is an internet company with only a few servers. I can start the company anywhere. In the country, or outside of the country."

"Then you mean?" Wang Linhua's eyes narrowed.

"I retain my option to vote with my feet."

With those words, the atmosphere in the room froze.

After a while, Wang Linhua leaned against his chair, and slowly opened his mouth to break the silence.

"Young, impulsive, unwilling to compromise, I can understand. But, I recommend you to think carefully before you make a decision. Linhua Group's control of Future Technology is not only the Wang family's decision, but the people at the top also nodded their heads. Vote with your feet? You have to be able to leave."

Jiang Chen laughed without saying anything.

[Funny, if I want to leave, who could stop me?]

Seeing that Jiang Chen didn't answer, Wang Linhua thought he was considering, he smiled, and didn't push him too hard.

"It is pretty late, let's call it a day. I hope you can choose a happy ending. After the Han New Year, Linhua group will have its shareholder meeting, the official acquisition proposal will be handed to you by April. I trust that in four months time, you can think this through."

"What if I reject?"

"Future Technology's Han operation may experience some unpleasant surprises."

[Looks like Wang Linhua is firm on grabbing Future Technology in his hands.]

"Oh? It looks like I have to consider this carefully then."

Sneering in his mind, Jiang Chen stood up.

He walked towards the door but suddenly stopped. Turning back around, he smiled.

"I hope you don't regret your decision today."

Wang Linhua took a moment before he burst out laughing.

"Regret? Buddy, you have a big mouth. To make me regret, you are still too young."

"Is that so?"

Jiang Chen left Wang Linhua with a smile that held a deeper meaning, he didn't stay any longer as he pushed open the door.

_Min_ _Min_

One more coming

Chapter 232: The Necessary Deterrence

"How did it go? Is it good news or bad news?" Standing outside of the room, Wang Xinyan looked at Jiang Chen, who just came out of the door, with a smile.

"What do you think?' Jiang Chen stopped and looked at her, half-smiling.

"I think it didn't go too well." Wang Xinyan crossed her arms as she stood beside Jiang Chen, "I don't understand, what's there to reject? Am I that despicable?"

"What's there to reject?" Jiang Chen laughed dubiously, "You tell me, what's there to agree?"

Jiang Chen didn't respond to her plan of testing the water and left immediately.

Looking at Jiang Chen walking away, Wang Xinyan's flashed an unusual light as a mischievous smile appeared on her face.

"Interesting."

...

After coming out of the hotel, Jiang Chen walked to the garage. Just as he was about to go into his car, a stranger approached him.

Seeing that Jiang Chen was walking over, a man in a brown trench coat waved at him and walked towards his direction.

"You are?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"Just a salesman." The man shrugged and smiled friendly.

"I am not in the mood to buy anything."

"No, trust me, you will be interested in my offer." The man coughed, and extended his right hand, "Zhang Youjie, I'm an employee of the UA Consulate."

Jiang Chen's eyes moved slightly as he shook his hand out of etiquette, then with a layer of meaning, he said, "Consulate worker? What do you have for an ordinary merchant like me?"

A Han name, should be a UA Han?

"Ahem, Mr. Jiang is too humble. A normal merchant would not go save someone in Iraq, nor would he go step in the muddy water in Kane, he especially wouldn't train mercenaries in Niger." Zhang Youjie said in a low voice then he coughed.

What a detailed investigation.

"Then your intention is?' Jiang Chen asked emotionlessly.

"Please don't be mistaken, I am here with good intentions. Although you are unnaturally active internationally, your current actions aren't threatening the security of my country." Seeing the caution in Jiang Chen's eyes, Zhang Youjie rushed to explain.

"Can I hear about this good intention of yours?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Have you considered switching to a different nationality? The Wall Street is a broad stage. For a talent like you, it is too pitiful if you waste your time on those greedy politicians."

"Wall Street? I currently have no interest in Wall Street." Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

"Don't reject it yet." Zhang Youjie stopped Jiang Chen's words, he slipped a business card into his hand with a smile, "It is never bad to have a few extra options right? The door to freedom is always open for people with talent, especially for a genius like you."

Zhang Youjie bowed nobly before he turned around and left.

Staring at Zhang Youjie's shadow, Jiang Chen played with the business card in his hand for as a dubious smile appeared on his face.

Wall Street? Would the etiquette of the Wall Street capitalists be better? As long as they are politicians, they are the same everywhere.

He stuffed the business card into his pocket as Jiang Chen sat into his Maybach.

If Wang Linhua thought he could use the power within the system to force him to agree, then he is fated for disappointment.

Future Technology will never be a subsidiary of the Wang family, Jiang Chen never had the intention to compromise.

...

After he got into the car, Jiang Chen didn't head home. Instead, he went to the rural area and parked in front of the Hongyi private club.

Jiang Chen closed the door, entered the club, passed through the hall and walked straight to the reception desk.

"Hello sir, what kind of service-" The receptionist smiled professionally as she greeted Jiang Chen.

Those coming at this hour, needless to say, was here to "spend the night".

But Jiang Chen's first sentence caught her by surprise.

"Call your manager...Zhou Zihao here." Jiang Chen said in a straightforward manner.

The receptionist paused for a moment and looked at Jiang Chen in confusion.

"Sir?"

"Just say that someone called Jiang Chen is here."

She looked skeptically at Jiang Chen, but she still picked up the phone and called the manager.

"Hello? Manager Zhou? Someone named Jiang Chen wants to see you -, Oh, okay..."

When she hung up the phone, the way she looked at him changed from skepticism to respect.

If the mention of this person's name in that one phone can get her manager to come down, this person is obvious not ordinary. In her impression, the only person that could do this was called Wang Zhiyong.

Without waiting for long, Jiang Chen saw the "squint eye" coming down.

"Haha, we meet again, brother Jiang." Zhou Zihao walked up to Jiang Chen with a smile, "How have you been?"

The warmness made it seem like the unhappy ending that happened here last time didn't exist.

"Not very good, so I came here to find you." Jiang Chen also smiled.

"Find me? Uncle Wang wants you to be his son in law, does brother Jiang want me to be the best man?"

"You already know?" Jiang Chen was slightly surprised.

"I do have some connections here." Zhou Zihao shrugged.

"Okay let's not play riddles then. Partnership, are you interested?" Jiang Chen was direct.

After a brief moment, an interested expression appeared on Zhou Zihao's face.

"Partnership? Is Future Technology not satisfied with great influence that is the Wang family?"

"Nothing to do with Future Technology." Jiang Chen said emotionlessly, "A partnership between you and me."

"You want me to go against uncle Wang, even though I don't have the reason -"

"Military artificial intelligence project."

Zhou Zihao's eyes immediately narrowed, although his eyes were not big to begin with.

Jiang Chen clearly sensed that he was tempted.

"This is not the place to talk." Zhou Zihao said in a low voice as he signaled to Jiang Chen to follow him into the second-floor room.

Immediately after they sat down, Zhou Zihao couldn't wait and asked.

"Can Future Technology really do it? The military artificial intelligence program?"

"Smart drone control system."

Jiang Chen sensed clearly that he was tempted by the offer, but he didn't immediately agree as a hint of caution came out of his eyes.

"How do you want me to help you?"

"I heard you have a hobby of shooting adult videos, how many have you filmed?" Jiang Chen's sight was dubious.

Zhou Zihao's eyes slightly moved, he obviously knew what Jiang Chen referred to.

"You want those videos?"

"Exactly."

"Are you crazy, you think you could use those 147 political sex scandal video to take down Wang family?"

"147 of them? That is more than what I expected... I wasn't thinking about taking down the Wang family, what I need is necessary deterrence." Jiang Chen stared at Zhou Zihao's squinted eyes, "Zhou family is in Shangjing, and you are in Wanghai City, I suppose you don't really favor your own family. Smart drone control systems... if you give me the videos, the systems are yours."

_Min_ _Min_

Remember to vote for MPAW!

Chapter 233: The Skin of a Military Tech Company

Future Technology had to go, and this was Jiang Chen had decided a long time ago. But even if it's gone, there would still be a process involved. Moreover, even if it's gone, that didn't mean he would abandon the domestic market. It's just that selecting a small country was easier to control as a headquarter to facilitate the future development of Future Technology later on.

However, he didn't expect that Wang family would no longer be able to sit still so quick.

In order to control the artificial intelligence technology and to rope state-owned assets in, the organization's authority was employed to compel Jiang Chen to surrender his shares of Future Technology. Using the state-owned assets and Wang family joint ownership of Linhua Group to own a controlling number of shares in Future Technology, Wang Linhua's formulated a sound plan.

When all was said and done, Jiang Chen's connection could not be considered extensive. Future Technology's profits made people envious. Although the Wang family had kept him away from trouble, what if the Wang family became greedy too? Obviously, in the face of family interest, Wang Dehai naturally chose his own family and allowed Wang Linhua's behaviors.

However, in regard to Wang Linhua's "not so excessive" conditions, Wang Dehai still gave it a thought. Although Jiang Chen had to give up his shares, they didn't make it "too difficult" for him. 5 billion RMB along with the identity of son-in-law, Wang Dehai thought it was enough compensation.

But Jiang Chen was not satisfied with this.

So he went to look for Zhou Zihao.

Don't be mistaken, Jiang Chen never thought those videos would work, or that those videos would make Wang family compromise with him and stop their scheming against Future Technology. If he did release the scandal videos, it would force the two parties on completely opposite sides without any room for negotiation.

Taking a thousand steps back, even if the Wang family stopped, would it stop other greedy people from making move against him? A head-on conflict with the Wang family would mean that he would lose the protection of the top dogs, which would make it more difficult for Future Technology. Wang Linhua was convinced about this point. Thus, he directly confronted Jiang Chen and overtly plotted. "I want your shares. Are you going to give it to me or not?"

After getting the videos from Zhou Zihao, Jiang Chen carelessly threw it into the storage dimension.

The trump card he was relying on was the "UAV Smart Control System 1.0," which Zhou Zihao had happily taken home and taken credit for.

Although Zhou Zihao submitted the project under his name, would the bigwigs be dumb enough to think that it was Zhou Zihao who really developed it?

With just a simple investigation, it was easy to deduce the last person Zhou Zihao made contact with before coming back to Shangjing.

The people eyeing his interest was not the government, rather it was the Wang family. Would the government really care about such minuscule profit? The government was only interested in the artificial intelligence project in his possession and nothing more. Wang Linhua could persuade the largest shareholder of Linhua Group, SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission), to acquire Future Technology. Without a doubt, he appealed to this type of reason: "become the first shareholder that could transform Future Technology into a military tech company and use artificial intelligence in the military."

Since the civil-level artificial intelligence could not whet the appetite of the higher-ups, then the military grade should do the trick.

As long as the top dogs were satisfied with the contribution of Future Technology on the national defense and were persuaded that it would make more contributions in the hands of Jiang Chen, then the state's reason to control Future Technology would no longer exist. At the same time, the state could also provide certain policy protection to Future Technology.

As for the Wang family? As long as Jiang Chen would be able to persuade the top dogs that Future Technology could only maximize its value in his hands, would he need to worry about the Wang family? Even if the Wang family was influential locally, their local sphere of influence was limited, so how could they oppose the will of the central authority?

As for seeking connection with the Zhou family, it was only to avoid encroaching on the other party's vested interest. The video was nothing more than to divert Zhou Zihao's attention, so that he would think that Jiang Chen was only interested in his videos. As such, he was impatient to return and present the "treasure."

...

It has been a week since Jiang Chen made a deal with Zhou Zihao. Just like what Jiang Chen had expected, an unusual guest appeared in his mansion.

It was a middle-aged man with a shaved head, lean, and sharp-looking figure. Despite possessing an ordinary face and a fading white sideburns, the shrewd aura emanating from him made Jiang Chen unable to ignore his presence.

Standing behind him should be his bodyguard. His slightly burly figure made him look like a person with excellent combat ability, but Jiang Chen had seen too many of them, so he didn't give it much attention.

"Ye Guolong, Colonel." Ye Guolong sharply extended his hand and shook hands with Jiang Chen. He only stated his rank without going into the details of his exact position.

[It's actually a colonel. It's at least an officer rank, even at a deputy division level.] While Jiang Chen was secretly astonished, he did not reveal too much emotion on his face.

"Jiang Chen, just an ordinary businessman. Come inside, if you please." Jiang Chen smiled and invited Ye Guolong into the living area.

Sitting on the sofa, Ye Guolong looked around the living room and spoke, "Has Mr. Jiang been expecting my arrival?"

"Oh? Why do you think so?" Sitting across from him, Jiang Chen asked while smiling.

"You even have the tea already prepared." Ye Guolong smiled and took a sip of tea. "It's still hot."

"When an important guest is visiting, I can't be too shabby, can I?"

After some casual small talk, Ye Guolong put on a severe face as he headed to the critical topic.

"Mr. Jiang, I'll be straightforward with you—did you create the UAV Smart Control System 1.0?"

Seeing Ye Guolong's seriousness, Jiang Chen turned solemn as well and put down his tea.

"That's right."

Since he already asked, it was apparent that already know everything through an investigation, so it would be not sincere to run around in circles.

"When did you start developing this system? Other than Zhou Zihao, how many people have seen the source code?"

"Is Colonel Ye interrogating me?" Jiang Chen didn't answer and retorted.

Hearing that, Ye Guolong paused for a brief moment before he slightly frowned.

"This is a state secret, so please cooperate, Mr. Jiang."

"Someone seems to have submitted my work as military technology, so my work became a state secret? Could I interpret it this way, Colonel Ye?"

With that, Ye Guolong could not help but feel embarrassed.

This software was indeed submitted by the Zhou family, but according to their investigation, the software was developed by Jiang Chen. It was precisely the reason why they went to look for Jiang Chen. It was so they could ensure the safety of the software. Even with the software, they were hesitant in using it. Since it pertained to national security, there was no room for error.

"Uh, for Mr. Jiang's contribution, we'll offer a fair amount of compensation. I hope Jiang Chen can consider what's important for the bigger picture," with that, Ye Guolong could no longer maintain a stern face and stated awkwardly.

Seeing Ye Guolong's expression, Jiang Chen smile and stopped giving him a harder time.

"The software started its development phase around three months ago before Zhou Zihao acquired the software from me, so only the development team overseas and I had seen the code. But I have to warn you, version 1.0 is only half-completed."

"Half-completed?" Ye Guolong furrowed his brows.

"Exactly, though it looks fine now, there are a lot of security risks in the system. These problems could have been solved in the subsequent updates, but unfortunately, Future Technology encountered some small problems. To tell you the truth, I gave the software to Zhou Zihao because of the threat I received from a not-to-be-underestimated person. This led us to rush out to release this semi-finished product in exchange for Zhou's policy protection," Jiang Chen responded.

"Do you know the consequences of messing with us with a half-completed product?" Ignoring his last statement, Ye Guolong asked dubiously.

"Was the software created by Future Technology?" Jiang Chen feigned astonishment.

Ye Guolong was speechless again.

In fact, the software was not submitted under Future Technology's name. Even if something did occur, it was the Zhou family's problem, it had nothing to do with Future Technology.

Ye Guolong couldn't resist the urge to curse at the dumbass Zhou in his mind, who didn't realize that the software was half-completed.

But the Zhou family was not to be blamed. Though the system was half completed, it was definitely still usable. Only through a series of experiments would the flaw be exposed. One could say that they were too impatient.

After a brief moment of silence, he slowly opened his mouth, "How long will it take to complete it?"

"A month would do."

Hearing Ye Guolong asked this question, he knew the incident was about to be resolved.

"What kind of small problems did you encounter?" Ye Guolong asked impassively.

"This is the recorded message between the president of Linhua Group, Wang Linhua, and me." Jiang Chen put a USB on the table.

Frowning, Ye Guolong picked up the USB.

"I will report the problem for you to the higher-ups... Technicians should better stay away from politics."

"I do too, but someone always wants to use politics against me," Jiang Chen shrugged and stated in a helpless voice.

After thinking for a moment, Ye Guolong said, the UAV Smart Control System 1.0's maintenance will be contracted by Zhongxin High Tech to Future Technology."

Zhongxin High Tech was the Zhou family's corporation responsible for the design of drones, a leading corporation participating in the military artificial intelligence project. It would be impossible to obtain the patent rights of the "UAV Smart Control System 1.0" since he already gave the software to the Zhou family. Thus, it belonged to them now.

But Jiang Chen didn't mind because compared to the profit of Future 1.0, the profit from this military artificial intelligence project was negligible. He viewed the skin of military tech company with utmost importance. With this, it was tantamount to the protection from the central authority. Wang Linhua must weigh it carefully before using the power of the system. A careless mistake could be regarded as treason.

Afterall, plotting against a military tech corporation was different than an ordinary company.

"So wouldn't Future Technology be considered as a military tech corporation?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"That's right." Ye Guolong nodded, stood up, and extended his right hand again. "As for the specifics of the agreement, Zhongxin High Tech's representative will be here tomorrow to discuss it with you. I hope you will have great, outstanding contributions to the national security."

"Of course." Jiang Chen shook Ye Guolong's hands, smiling.

Chapter 234: Each Parties' Response

"Little Zhang, you drive."

"Okay." The young man who stood behind Ye Guolong sat in the driver seat without a word and started the car.

Ye Guolong sat in the car, he played with the USB in his hands, cracked a smile and stuffed it in his pocket.

"The old guys at the Zhou and Wang family are embarrassing. F*ck, don't let the technical people be in politics. This is bullsh*t," Ye Guolong cursed before he lit a cigarette for himself.

To be honest, he felt sympathy for people like Jiang Chen.

When he was young, he also experienced something similar. It was his hard work, but people pointed things out on the side. In the end, when the results came out, his name had to go behind theirs.

The good thing was that his technicals were strong. People without ability could no longer climb above a certain point, but he ended up prevailing to the top.

He was at the subdivision level, with colonel rank. In a few years, it won't be difficult to become enter the division level.

Because of his experiences in the past, the people he despised the most were people that wanted to steal the work of others. In his perspective, the technical people should stay away from politics and diligently focus on the technicals. Or how else could the strategy of the country to promote technology be achieved?

But it was only wishful thinking. With technology becoming more and more political, even he had to play by the rules of the game.

He had seen Future 1.0. The human-computer interaction achieved to such a high level of complexity. He still remembered how amazed he was at the intricate design of the system. What shocked him more was that an expert like him could not figure the fundamental principle of the software out. This made him amazed at the ingenious of the younger generation.

Seeing today, the rumored chief engineer, Jiang Chen, was a stellar young man.

But unfortunately, even a stellar individual like him still must face the treacherous acts of people with ill thoughts.

Although the smart drone control system 1.0 could no longer be categorized under Future Technology's name, even Future Technology has to be contracted to update and develop the later phase of the smart drone control system. Ye Guolong already made up his mind. Within the permissible boundary, he would fight for Jiang Chen's interest as part of the compensation.

"You are right Colonel Ye." Zhang Wei drove the car and laughed.

Because of his identity, he could not comment more on the topic.

Ye Guolong, knowing that, didn't discuss the topic further with him.

"Go back to the hotel. We will go back to Shangjing; we have a lot of things to work on once we go back," Ye Guolong said nonchalantly, as he opened the car window to dust his cigarette.

"Okay."

Ye Guolong let the cold air inside the car as he abruptly said.

"Speaking of this, Little Zhang."

"Hmm?" Zhang Wei smiled.

"As someone of your age, what do you think of Jiang Chen as a person?"

Zhang Wei hesitated for a moment.

"In what area?"

"Anything, we are only chatting." Ye Guolong cracked a smile.

"Very rich." Zhang Wei chuckled.

"No sh*t, I don't need you to say that."

"I don't know if it is my illusion or not, but I think he has great combat ability." Zhang Wei had a stern expression.

"Great combat ability? Compared to you?" Ye Guolong asked curiously.

"Of course I am a bit better since I did spend so many years at the border," Zhang Wei touched his nose and said.

Ye Guolong laughed as he didn't say more. A soldier's combat ability compared with a technical person's? It was not embarrassing at all.

But what Ye Guolong didn't know was, Zhang Wei was not completely truthful.

Since it was his superior, how could he say he was weak compared to someone else? They were only chatting and would not actually fight.

But he had suspected that his illusion was wrong.

The instinct from the battlefield actually told him, if he met the person on the battlefield, he had no odds of winning at all.

...

Wanghai city UA Consulate.

Smith sat at his table, with his legs crossed. He was drinking his afternoon tea while killing time reading the newspaper.

As the person responsible for the consulate, if there were no foreign affair duties or a citizen causing trouble, he spent most of the time relaxing. He enjoyed the feeling of no reporters checking in to see if he had wasted taxpayer's money or not. He could relaxingly enjoy the afternoon during work.

If the air were a bit better here, it would be perfect. But of course, he knew not everything could be perfect.

Then, the sound of the door being pushed open signaled the end to his relaxing afternoon.

"Mr. Smith. I think this is the second time I have seen you drinking tea in the afternoon," A yellow-skinned young man said in a ridiculing tone as he walked in with speedy steps, grabbed a chair without care and sat in front of Smith's table.

If Jiang Chen were here, he would be shocked to find out that the Han young man was precisely Zhang Youjie. The one that described himself as a consulate worker and tried to lure him to immigrate.

"Ahem, is CIB that bored that you are doing the job of the inspectors?" Although complaining, Smith still stuffed the newspaper in his hands into the drawer and folded his hand together. "Speak your mind, what kind of trouble did you cause."

Zhang Youjie was not a consulate worker at all. Although his name is on the list, he is actually a CIB agent. This secret, only Smith as the Consul General knows about.

"No trouble. I just got an interesting piece of information from our insider." Zhang Youjie took out his phone and slid it across the table.

Smith glanced at the tightly shut door before he looked at the picture on the screen.

"Jiang Chen? I heard of this person before. The president of Future Technology. Wall Street seems to think highly of this person, stating he is the second Steve Jobs..."

"Everyone knows him, especially the Consul General who spends time reading the newspaper during work." Zhang Youjie had no considerations for Smith as he glanced at the guy displeasingly. Smith sniffed his nose and ignored his ridicule.

"Therefore? Is there a problem with this guy?"

"Our intel had always suggested that Future Technology's artificial intelligence's value was not as high as we had imagined. Since Future 1.0's basic principle was logical answering, as opposed to say they are advanced in software design, it would be fairer to say they have a strong understanding of human psychology. Although the encryption on the database is shocking, it is not advanced to the point worth our effort."

"Therefore?" Smith didn't look like he was too interested.

"The situation has changed."

"Future Technology has demonstrated value worth your effort now, am I right?"

"That's right." Zhang Youjie smiled mysteriously and lowered his voice. "Based on insider information, the smart drone control system designed by Zhongxin High Tech is actually from the president and chief developer of Future Technology - Jiang Chen."

"… This is surprising information," Smith turned more serious, he leaned against the chair and muttered to himself.

"Based on the source's analysis, this smart control system will be used on "Dragon II" High altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, it could be used to guide the DF-21D Anti-ship ballistic missile. Because of the barrier in design, the "Dragon II"'s control system has been delayed and expected to be completed by May of next year. But because of this goddamn Future Technology, our little friends in the South Hua Sea are too nervous to sleep now," Zhang Youjie cursed out.

"It's only software, is it worth being so dramatic about?"

Zhang Youjie glanced at Smith.

"Based on the information as well as the analysis conducted by the Pentagon, this artificial intelligence could allow "Dragon II's" hardware utilization efficiency to increase by 10% more than expected. Do you know what this means?"

"I don't know, but I feel CIB doesn't seem to dislike Future Technology." Smith shrugged.

"Of course, because the possibility of a partnership remains."

"Oh?" Smith looked curiously at Zhang Youjie, "Partnership?"

"That's right, based on my research, Future Technology had a conflict with Linhua Technology, but Linhua Technology has connections to the political scene. Therefore, Future Technology received a hindrance to its growth. To alleviate the pressure from the connection, he had to submit this software to Zhongxin High Tech to gain protection." Zhang Youjie had a dubious smile on his face. "We can use this point to convince him. The ticket to the free world, the support from the capitals, there is no way he would not be tempted."

"These goddamn "connections". God, this word is hard to pronounce, but I like it." Smith began to chuckle.

"So I need your help." Zhang Youjie leaned against the chair, fingers crossed.

"Of course, at your service. But what if he is not interested anymore?"

"Make accidents happen to him, and also give a warning to the team behind him."

...

After sending Ye Guolong away, Jiang Chen returned to his mansion.

Because she didn't like strangers, when guests came, Ayesha went to her bedroom. When she saw that the guests had left, she came downstairs.

Seeing Jiang Chen's delighted smile, Ayesha also felt happy for him and tilted her head.

"Did something good happen?"

"Somewhat, but there is definitely going to be more troubles than before." Jiang Chen smiled as he rubbed Ayesha's head.

"Is it troubles I could help with?" Ayesha put her hand over his as she asked softly.

"Mhmm, I need to give you a gun, not a sniper… Could the Type 11 tactical pistol work?"

"Anything is fine, I have practiced hundreds of times in the virtual reality chamber."

Inside her blue pupils radiated warmth.

Jiang Chen rubbed Ayesha's head again, got up, and narrowed his eyes while looking at the bright sunshine outside. He muttered to himself.

"This is troublesome. Do I have to be careful even when I'm just on the streets?"

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 235: Sunbathe in the Apocalypse

"Then? You brought out a more advanced technology and submitted it to the superior of the person that threatened you?" Sun Jiao lied on the beach chair. Her red lips bit the straw, and she said sluggishly.

"Although your understanding is a bit weird, it is not wrong." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"Ancient people are so troublesome, if there is a problem, solve it with nukes." Lin Lin bit on the plastic spoon and said without consideration.

She spoke before the words processed through her brain, so Jiang Chen selectively ignored it.

"Nukes. It is better not to use it. Since... The scenery on that side is so beautiful." On top of the chair, dangling her pale and thin legs, Yao Yao tilted her head.

Right now, the four were relaxingly sunbathing.

Wait, how could they be sunbathing in the apocalypse? Especially in the winter time when the average temperature is below 10 degrees Celsius.

They had to thank Lin Lin.

After Lin Lin heard about the magic known as sunbathing, she longed for the "ancient" culture and immediately began to work in the backyard of the mansion.

She first took over the private pool used to store gold, then begged Sun Jiao to order the base's construction team to use polyethylene insulated wall to tightly surround the pool and add air filter vent. Then, she covered the swimming pool with sand.

Immediately, she then used multiple artificial UV light devices to replicate natural light. She installed it on the ceiling and simulated the sun's position based on the time and angle of the light.

Finally, she lavishly used hologram projection devices and flawlessly replicated a beach environment. Other than not being able to sleep in the water and no saline sea wind, there wasn't any big differences to the real thing.

Although Jiang Chen mocked her for all her effort as it would be simpler to use virtual reality to experience the joy. But Lin Lin argued, "the virtual world and real world are two completely unconnected things! This is the necessary experiment to research traveling through dimensions!" to negate his mockery.

All in all, after her work, the sunbathing experience was completed.

The room temperature was adjusted to 30 Celcius, even in the cold wasteland winter, they could enjoy the warmth of the summer beach.

"Woo, I do agree with Lin Lin's proposal." Sun Jiao sipped on the cold coke as she pouted.

Seeing that someone agreed with her perspective, Lin Lin immediately proudly raised her head.

"The civil society has civil society's rules, how could one just pull out nukes randomly." Jiang Chen facepalmed.

"Civilized people are so problematic," Sun Jiao muttered.

"Therefore, things on the other side are not easy," Jiang Chen said helplessly while grabbing a beer from the ice-filled box and taking a big gulp.

The cold beer sliding down his throat was a thrilling feel.

He burped and lied relaxingly on the chair, enjoying the rare moment of peace.

The reason why he appeared here was purely because he had a little bit of free time in his busy schedule. Then he was dragged here by Sun Jiao and Yao Yao to sunbath.

At first, he was not really interested, because this artificial sunbathing experience didn't look too fun.

But he quickly changed his mind.

Of course, the bikini is core to the beach.

The bikini formed with delicate white laces and transparent clothes covered most of the skin but had an intricate and cute vibe to it. Without guessing, it obviously belonged to Yao Yao.

With black lace as the main structure, the bikini that only barely covered the essential parts with seduction and sexiness naturally belonged to Miss Sun Jiao.

As to Lin Lin, her almost blinding white skin made people particularly jealous. The digitalized metabolic function meant that she didn't even need sunscreen to carelessly enjoy the sun.

Because it was too boring just to lie there quietly, Jiang Chen began to tell them about the things that happened on the other side.

"But this type of outdated technology, is it really okay?" Yao Yao quietly said.

Although it was Jiang Chen's special request, for her to create the "flawed" smart drone control system, it still made the benevolent Yao Yao feel guilty.

"It is already really advanced. If it is more advanced, then there would be new problems." Jiang Chen rubbed Yao Yao's head and smiled.

Technology from 2020. It would be considered extremely outdated to today's standard. Even the programming language was the "most primal," but it was advanced to the modern world.

"If you can't use nukes, what about power armors?" Lin Lin continued to propose bad ideas as if the world is not chaotic enough. "A technology discrepancy of 150 years, a power armor alone would destroy that Linhua Group right? And there wouldn't be any nuclear radiation."

Jiang Chen facepalmed, why is communication so difficult.

Although he would definitely bring out the power armor, absolutely not now.

But wouldn't be too long until that happens.

"Linhua group is not a military organization, how should I say this... All in all, they are just a normal company. You have spent too long in virtual reality, how would you not know what a company is?"

"Umm, I didn't leave the hospital in virtual reality," Lin Lin murmured in a small voice.

"Is there no military?" Sun Jiao bit the straw as she said with authority. "That's even easier, I can wipe them all out by myself."

Then, she picked up another can of coke. She was on her fifth one.

Sun Jiao seemed to be particularly fond of coke.

[Why are they so violent... Yao Yao is more gentle.]

But hearing their words, Jiang Chen's heart felt warm.

Although they had no understanding of the other world, they still warmheartedly gave him ideas, caring for him.

"How's your research going? Lin Lin?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

He referred to carrying live beings through the interdimensional space.

Lin Lin pouted her mouth in remorse and shook her head.

"Are you stuck... Don't worry, take it slow," Jiang Chen comforted her.

With research, there is no use in rushing, although he wants to see results earlier too.

"Then what do you plan to do? Although I don't know civilized people's way of doing things, if you bring out the technology today, maybe tomorrow they will discuss with you the possibility of other technology," Sun Jiao said.

"There is no need, I only need some time," Jiang Chen shook his head, "I'll leave by March at the latest. Once Spring starts, the required food for the Sixth Street trade will be gathered overseas. The software will be my departing gift since that place is my home country."

Military tech is not military purchase, there was no room to collaborate with an external force. Since the research team is supposed to be overseas. Jiang Chen only stated he was only the representative for that research team in Hua. Once the complete version has been passed on to Zhongxin High Tech, the subsequent update would not easily be given to Future Technology. Once they have the source code, Zhongxin High Tech would likely improve on the completed version then create a final version. The subsequent update would be completed by them without much trouble.

Within this month, his ability to leave the country would likely be restricted, but it would not be so problematic once he passed on the software.

Since Jiang Chen was not the developer, he was only a representative.

If the research team is not in the country, it would be futile even if they controlled him.

In the next month, he would only have to prove he is a representative. For example, travel around? Or head home. As long he pretended to be "not writing the code," the assumption of "the research team being factitious" would no longer stand.

Controlling a representative would not bring any material benefits. It would be similar to the control of an embassy not being able to force the other country to give grounds in foreign affairs.

By that time, even if he really wanted to go, there wouldn't be any difficulties.

Perhaps someone would try to convince him to stay, but it would be impossible to force him to stay.

At least there wouldn't be a fool like Wang Linhua, gambling on if Jiang Chen was the only developer.

"What are you going to do with Linhua Group?" Sun Jiao asked.

"I said I will make him regret." Jiang Chen's smile was evil.

Looking at Jiang Chen's expression, Sun Jiao smiled and didn't say more.

At this time, the tablet on the table began to flash.

"Your phone." Lin Lin used the plastic spoon for the pudding to point at the tablet on the table.

Jiang Chen grabbed the tablet as he pressed the pick up button.

The image was first blurry before it quickly stabilized.

Ayesha appeared on the other side of the screen. When Jiang Chen left, he gave his EP to her and told her to contact him if anything happened.

"Did anything happen?"

"Your phone just rang, it was Wang Dehai."

"Mhmm, I see, I'll head back immediately."

Then, he hung up.

"Umm? Is that your woman on the other side?" Sun Jiao was thinking about something as her gaze became mischievous. "Your taste is quite good."

"Are you jealous?" Jiang Chen joked.

"How is that possible." Sun Jiao looked at him with charm, "Are her boobs bigger than mine?"

"Bigger doesn't always mean better. Even if it is a bit smaller, it can still be delicious..." Yao Yao used a small voice to argue.

"I agree." Lin Lin raised her hands, but then she smirked at Yao Yao without any good intention, "But for Yao Yao, there is nothing at all."

"QQ!"

Chapter 236: Meeting Wang Dehai Again

When he returned to the modern world, Jiang Chen returned the call.

During the conversation, Wang Dehai didn't mention what happened in the past few weeks at all and ceremonially praised Future Technology's outstanding achievement. Of course, he didn't mention the specific contribution, since name wise, the smart drone control system was the Zhou family's work. Then he briefly asked Jiang Chen to come to the municipal government when he has time before he hung up.

He took the EP back from Ayesha.

"Are you going to go out?" Seeing that Jiang Chen changed, Ayesha said gently.

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded, then smiled. "I need to go to the municipal government. The old fox Wang Dehai wants to see me, so it's better for me to go soon."

"Do you need me to accompany you?'

"Drive for me." Jiang Chen rubbed Ayesha's head.

"Mhmm." Ayesha obediently nodded. "Let me go change."

Then, she turned around to go back to her room.

She changed into a black trenchcoat and tied her brown hair back into a ponytail. On top her high nose bridge was a pair of shades. She certainly did look like a cold and merciless bodyguard.

Although she always acted like a newlywed wife.

The two went into the garage and got into the car.

Ayesha started the car, and Jiang Chen put on the seatbelt. When the car drove out of the community, Jiang Chen scanned out the tainted window.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing, maybe just my illusion." Jiang Chen muttered before he leaned back in the chair.

For a moment, he felt someone was watching him.

...

When they arrived at the municipal government building, Jiang Chen got out of the car, and Ayesha stayed behind.

A smart looking, middle-aged man stood at the door waiting. When he saw Jiang Chen, he walked straight towards him.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang."

"Hello. And you are?"

"Wu Bo, Secretary Wang's assistant." Wu Bo extended his hand and shook with Jiang Chen. Then with a courteous gesture, he said, "Please follow me."

The two didn't speak along the way. When he took Jiang Chen to Wang Dehai's office, Wu Bo left.

Pushing the door open, Jiang Chen once again saw the aged but still dogmatic-looking face.

"Please take a seat." Seeing Jiang Chen, Wang Dehai smiled and gestured for him to sit.

Jiang Chen nodded and sat on the sofa before he too looked at Wang Dehai with a smile.

"It's been a while, is Uncle Wang's health doing well?"

"Very well." With the pen thrown into the pen holder, Wang Dehai looked deeply at Jiang Chen, then he said, "Little Jiang, you have been hiding quite well."

Jiang Chen obviously knew what he referred to. Wang Dehai wouldn't know that the smart drone control system 1.0 actually was created by Yao Yao not long after the meeting with Zhou Zihao.

It only took two days to exchange the video with Zhou Zihao. It didn't take three months of development time.

"Not hid well, just preparing for the worst," Jiang Chen said humbly.

But this humble attitude didn't please Wang Dehai.

Wang Dehai sniffed, laughed, and looked at Jiang Chen with eyes full of another meaning.

"I remember that you told me two months ago, Future Technology's artificial intelligence has no value in the military."

"Future 1.0 don't possess any military value, but the smart drone control system does," Jiang Chen replied expressionlessly.

The smart drone control system 1.0 was created by Future Technology, everyone knew this secret.

After a pause, Wang Dehai slowly said, "Linhua Group's shareholder meeting is canceled."

What this sentence means was Linhua Group's equity infusion of Future Technology has died in its infancy. Disregarding the promise given by Ye Guolong, SASAC would not vote in favor of this proposition. When the people on the top specifically said to take care of Future Technology, how could Wang Dehai use the power of policy to help Wang Linhua?

Without Wang Dehai's support, the flawlessly operated Future Technology was left with weaknesses for Wang Linhua to take advantage of.

"A wise decision because Future Technology never had the intention to sell shares." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Why are you not satisfied with Linhua Group's proposal?" Wang Dehai asked emotionlessly.

"The hundred millions of monthly tax revenue for the local government is too little? Your life is not worth it?" Jiang Chen laughed and asked rhetorically.

Even with more tax, it was still the government's money, it would only be Wang Dehai's political achievement, but Wang Dehai already has that in his book. If he could cut a piece of the cake from Future Technology, it would fit the Wang family's interest more. But since Jiang Chen did save his life, and practically helped the Wang family, it was not right for him to do this.

Especially due to the last sentence, Wang Dehai was ashamed. The other person saved his life, but when Wang Linhua proposed to use Linhua Group to acquire Future Technology, he didn't stop him, but rather he permitted by acquiescence.

Knowing he was in the wrong, Wang Dehai's face turned red and shifted his gaze away from Jiang Chen.

"Wang Linhua was at fault in this event. I have talked to him already. But since the unpleasant event didn't happen, could Mr. Jiang let this go?" Wang Dehai asked slowly.

[Let it go? You are trying to get out of this. There is plenty of opportunities in the future to teach you a lesson.]

Wang Dehai nodded as he picked up a document from the table. He lightly coughed before he started reading.

"For Future Technology's outstanding contribution to national security in the high tech industry, on behalf of the Wanghai city government, I am honored to praise..."

Jiang Chen quietly waited for him to read through the bullsh*t before he accepted the certificate.

"So that's all for today?"

"That's right." Wang Dehai nodded.

"Then I'll go back." Jiang Chen smiled and picked the pile of documents before leaving for the door.

"Wait." Wang Dehai abruptly stopped Jiang Chen.

"Hmm?" Jiang Chen stopped and turned around.

"The thing you got from Zhou Zihao... Is it that?" Wang Dehai asked in an undertone.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Jiang Chen shrugged as he smiled at Wang Dehai.

The two silently gazed at each other.

"How do you plan to use that thing."

"Don't worry, I will never use that thing." Pausing, Jiang Chen then continued, "Of course, on the basis that the Wang family remains restraint."

Then, Jiang Chen disregarded the gloom on Wang Dehai's face and left his office.

But what Wang Dehai didn't see was, the instant he turned around, a contemptuous smile appeared Jiang Chen's face before it vanished.

[Linhua Group?]

[The sentence "I hope you don't regret this" is not merely a joke.]

Chapter 237: Will you kindly step into the jar?

Inside Linhua Building.

Wang Linhua sat in front of the office table with a gloomy look on his face.

The meat that was almost in his hands somehow slipped away and he couldn't do anything about it. His mood was obviously not too pleasant because Jiang Chen suddenly introduced the smart drone control system 1.0 which completely disrupted his plans.

The domestic real estate on the market was contracting due to the high price, but no market became apparent by the day. Linhua Group during 2008 was indeed very profitable, but it was going downhill. With the population aging and the growth of excessive housing, the downhill trend to the real estate market was almost irreversible.

Even with the introduction of policies such as decreased interest rate, the second child, it was still too difficult to reserve the inevitable trend of the downfall to the real estate market.

Just like the previous glorious, but now doomed coal industry, the real estate market will have to accept its inevitable fate. This point could be demonstrated by the shaky results on the financial report of Linhua group. While still in the positive, but their margin was getting narrower.

Wang Linhua, who could foresee the end to this industry, obviously was not going to wait for his own death.

There were only two choices in front of Linhua Group.

One to expand to the international market, two to shift into a different industry.

It was challenging to expand into the international market, for simple reasons. Due to the identity of the largest shareholder of Linhua group. While this skin worked well domestically, it didn't fair too well internationally. The current status quo is, to slice a share of the cake in the international market, then they would have to use the money to do so. Although Linhua Group had money, they were not like CNPC who could not care about losses and depend on government for subsidization. This route could work but at too high of a cost.

Especially because the international market was not within the territory of the Wang family, this increased too many variables for investment. The people back home didn't dare to trick you, but it would a different case outside. Once on the international stage, they may not withstand the test of capital.

As a careful consideration, Wang Linhua didn't use the first option.

On the second hand, it was easier to shift to a different industry. Just like the mine owners that sold the unprofitable mines, some invested in sports, some in movies, even some entered the real estate market to eat "the leftovers."

While Linhua Group was prepared to enter the entertainment industry. But at this time, Future Technology's rapid growth gave Wang Linhua a tempting idea.

One software, a few servers, thirty-something programmers and sales would do. Once the software received recognition by the market, cash would be flying in.

Although Wang Linhua was lusting for Future Technology's profit, he consciously knew that tech was an industry where risk and reward both existed. Even Buffet didn't dare to invest in it, which meant that the risk and reward were not proportional.

Therefore, he had some scandalous ideas.

High risk, it only referred to the tech company that hasn't managed to secure a stable source of revenue generation. For Future Technology that already has done so, there was no risk. As long as he controlled Future Technology, and use this as the point to enter the tech industry, Linhua Group would smoothly complete its transition!

Future Technology's operating condition was smooth, had stable cash flow, the capitalists at Wall Street with bundles of cash could not exchange away Jiang Chen's share. But for Wang Linhua it was not a big deal. In this country, having money meant nothing, or there wouldn't be so many people with money leaving.

But Jiang Chen didn't manage to leave yet. Future Technology's primary operation was in the country. Before it could even enter the world stage, it was the perfect opportunity to make his move!

As long as he controlled Future Technology, he could enjoy the current profits and lead Future Technology to expand into the military tech field. Military artificial intelligence happened to be the strategic focus of the national defense now. It would not only increase the Wang family's stake politically, but it could also allow the core asset of the Wang family smoothly transition through the downward trend in the real estate market.

Two birds with one stone.

Because of this, Wang Dehai would permit his action.

But unfortunately, his plan fell through.

Wang Linhua rubbed his sore temple and picked up a document on the table. He forced himself to focus on the work at hand and not think about those bothersome things.

But then, there was a knock at the door.

With a frown, Wang Linhua cleared his throat.

"Please come in."

His secretary walked in with a pile of documents in his hands.

"What good thing just happened? You are so happy," Seeing the smile on the secretary's face, Wang Linhua's eyebrows jumped as he said emotionlessly.

"President Wang, the company just received a big project." Calming his excitement, his secretary Zheng Kai spoke with a trembling voice.

"How big of a project?" Wang Linhua slanted his mouth as he leaned against the chair.

Big project? The number of buildings yet to be sold are almost rotting in Linhua Group's hands. Knowing that it was hard to sell houses and that the stock market seemed to be rising again, who would save the housing market now?

"It's a project overseas. With initial estimates totaling over ten billion USD!"

Hearing this, Wang Linhua's eyes widened as he immediately sat up.

"What did you say? An overseas project? How much?"

"Ten billion USD..."

He stood up from his chair, circled the table, and ripped the documents from the secretary's hand as he looked emotionally at the documents in hand.

"Pannu Island's 680 square kilometers tourism, commercial as well as basic infrastructure agreement... Johnny International?" Wang Linhua was more and more excited as he read through the document, but when he saw the company name, he paused for a moment.

He never saw this name before.

"They have passed through the credit check for the first phase of construction fee. It is rumored that the party behind them is a South African Gold company, they have two mines that could be used as collateral for the loan, so it should be fairly trustworthy." Zheng Kai saw the skepticism on Wang Linhua's face as he rushed to explain.

He had heard about Pannu Islands before; a small country with relatively rich tourism resources but lacked infrastructure development. The foreign relation of Pannu and Hua was just stable, although they have a consulate in Wanghai city, they still rented an apartment in Shangjing as an embassy.

Because they didn't have the money to build the basic infrastructure, they naturally could not attract investments. But if capitals were willing to heavily invest in the island country on the Pacific, everything would be different.

Based on this proposal's content, the project would be divided into four phases. After the completion of the first phase, Johnny International would pay the first phase of two billion USD in agreement, then the remaining eight billion would be paid at the end of the construction. As to the guarantee fee of two billion, it would be paid using the land near the construction zone of 110 square kilometers, a 70 square kilometers adjacent island as well as cash.

Paying with land pleased Wang Linhua perfectly.

Without exaggeration, once the ten billion USD infrastructure is completed, the land sold to him at a discount would more than double in price! As to whether the land would be developed by themselves, or sold to other people, it would be profit regardless.

Wang Linhua's hands trembled.

Even if he had seen the ups and downs in life, a ten billion dollar contract was a first.

This contract, for the Linhua Group in the stagnant domestic market, was an opportunity.

He didn't get overblown by the amazing deal. Inhaling a few times to calm his breath, Wang Linhua told his secretary in an undertone.

"Pannu Islands' political environment, Johnny International's background, I need you to give me a detailed report in two days. Do your job and your bonus doubles."

There was too much unknown in the international market. Without a detailed investigation, a wrong investment could send the company crashing. Even if the proposal was attractive, Wang Linhua didn't let his guard down because of this.

But when he saw the two gold mines as collateral in the appendix of the proposal, as well as the asset verification from the UA side, he began to feel floaty.

"Yes!" Hearing his bonus could double, Zheng Kai was ecstatic and immediately left the office.

Seeing that Zheng Kai closed the door, Wang Linhua threw the folded documents on the table, the gloom on his face vanished.

[This is god helping me! How did that saying go...Misfortune may actually be a blessing.]

Wang Linhua almost wanted to shout to the sky to unleash his thrilled emotion.

Although he lost the opportunity to control Future Technology, there was a major breakthrough in the international market.

After taking a few more deep breaths, Wang Linhua grabbed his phone and called the person responsible for managing the Wang family asset.

Once the ten billion USD deal is revealed, Linhua Group's market capitalization would without a doubt double! Because of his pessimism towards the real estate market, he used the bull market before to decrease Linhua Group's holding. But now, he must increase his holding again through the secondary market. He must do this before the details are revealed so that he can increase the holding of the Wang family in Linhua Group and maximize their gains!

Wang Linhua excitedly licked his lips before he sat back in his chair. He picked up the phone, called the manager of each department as he planned for a brief meeting.

They must win this contract!

But not even in his dreams could he imagine Jiang Chen had dug a giant hole for him, waiting for him - the Wang family to jump inside.

(1) Will you kindly step into the jar? - Try what you have devised against others.

Chapter 238: The Bodyguard from the General Staff Department

"I already called that Irish guy, that bastard must have started already. Hehe, you are such a bad person. Linhua Group would cry in a few months." Robert cussed in jest.

"I just want the greedy people to pay for their sin," Jiang Chen shrugged and said nonchalantly.

The Wang clan would never imagine that Johnny International was just a puppet established by Jiang Chen through Robert. Once he subverted the current government of Pannu Islands, that Johnny International would declare bankruptcy, and the contract between Wang Linhua and Johnny International would become nothing but a piece of paper.

This 10 billion USD project would leave the Wang family in ruins.

"So when do you plan to leave?" Robert asked.

"I may have to delay until January. I'm afraid I can only stay in the country this month," Jiang Chen uttered helplessly.

"Restraining order? I understand," Robert smirked.

When he came back to the UA from Iraq, he was put on a restraining order by FBA until he was able to close the shell company in Saudi and dispose of the tanker that was used to transport crude oil. It was only then that his name was finally removed from the blacklists off major airline companies.

"Only a month. It would get better after this month. How's training at the base?" Jiang Chen asked, yawning.

"Already done. According to Ivan's report, these rookies are now resembling a real soldier."

Jiang Chen nodded. Once the training was completed, they could proceed to the next plan.

"What about that Irish guy?"

"Superb acting. He played the antagonist role to the extreme," Robert reported passionately. "Other than the politicians he bribed, not one person on the Pannu Islands doesn't hate that guy."

"Then according to the script, the savior should be there soon." The corner of Jiang Chen's lips curved.

"That's right, so you have to be faster."

Jiang Chen hung up the phone, stretched, put the satellite phone in his pocket, and leaned against the chair.

This month would be relaxing, however, starting tomorrow, he would no longer be able to stay home.

Only by wandering outside and allowing those skeptics to see for themselves that the program was truly not his creation would he could be considered safe.

This was very easy as long as those people testified that he hadn't touched the computer at this period of time, and he wouldn't have the "time to commit the crime." Then he would suddenly come up with a finished product a month later, those skeptics would naturally be discredited.

Just as Jiang Chen thought if he should call Liu Yao to tell her the delay in their vacation to Pannu Islands, there was suddenly a gentle knock on the door.

"Is there anything you need me for?" Jiang Chen turned around and saw Ayesha standing at the door.

"Someone wants to see you," Ayesha said softly.

[He's here already?]

"Mhmm, I see, leave it up to me." Smiling, Jiang Chen got up from the chair.

...

A black Santana parked outside the courtyard of the mansion, a man standing like a statue stood outside the steel gate.

1.8m high, slightly dark skin, with a sharp buzz cut, facial feature could only be described as ordinary. The vintage grey jacket made him even more ordinary. But if one underestimated his ability, without a doubt, they would pay the price for that...especially those spies from the hostile force.

Sauntering to the gate, Jiang Chen gave him a friendly smile and opened the door for him.

"General Staff Department, Dagger," the man meticulously said and extended his right hand.

The man called Dagger was the bodyguard that the bigwigs had sent to protect Jiang Chen's safety. One part was to protect him, the other to keep an eye on him. But Jiang Chen didn't mind since it was only for a month.

"Jiang Chen," Jiang Chen he said in a casual tone and shook his hand.

The moment they hand shook, Dagger's appeared astonished as he stared at Jiang Chen is disbelief.

In response to Dagger's face's bewilderment, Jiang Chen merely smiled and let go.

"Had Mr. Jiang worked with guns before?" Dagger asked in an undertone.

"I played with them overseas. I don't think this breaks any law." Jiang Chen laughed.

Dagger did not respond and nodded, and then he took out a document from his inner pocket and handed it to Jiang Chen.

"From today onwards, your safety will be my responsibility until the program is developed and transferred to Zhongxin High Tech. If you have any concerns or if you're displeased with my performance, you can call the number provided in the document to report to my superior. I will do my best to do my work to the best of my ability without affecting your daily life, but I hope Mr. Jiang can also cooperate with me. In the next 30 days, please avoid traveling in crowded places as much as possible, so as to reduce the difficulty of my work.

"Will I encounter any danger?" Jiang Chen frowned slightly.

"We don't rule out the possibility of encountering external force's agents," Dagger responded tersely.

Jiang Chen nodded.

He had already expected this situation to occur until the completion of the program. If anyone wanted to prevent Hua from getting their hands on "UAV's Smart Control System 1.0," targeting him would be the easiest choice.

But after this month, the situation should be a lot safer.

"No problem, do I need to provide you with a room?"

The man called Dagger shook his head.

"No need, I will maintain a certain distance with you, Mr. Jiang can pretend I don't exist."

"Then where will you stay?" Jiang Chen chuckled.

Dagger pointed at the black Santana behind him.

"I'll be okay in the car. Call me if you encounter any special situation."

"No problem." Jiang Chen shrugged. Just as he was about to say that was all, he suddenly remembered and asked, "What about my family?"

"Rest assured, our people are already secretly protecting them," Dagger answered positively.

In fact, Jiang Chen himself was not too scared of the threat of the external force. As for individual combat power, no one in this world could match him, even the agent from General Staff Department named Dagger. The only thing he was anxious about was his family in the far Hucheng.

Although Dagger had already stated that they were protecting them, Jiang Chen was still worried.

The original plan was to go home in New Year to give the two elders a surprise, as well as carefully explain his current situation. Since some words were better off said in person rather than on phone.

But now, it seemed to be necessary to head back earlier.

Jiang Chen briefly explained his recent itinerary to Dagger before he returned to the mansion.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Jiang Chen stored the virtual reality training chamber in the storage dimension. With nothing to do after Ayesha completed her two-hour training program, she started watching TV.

Seeing that Jiang Chen came back, she lowered the TV volume and asked, "Is it done?"

"Mhmm. What do you think about the ability of that person?" Jiang Chen was naturally referring to Dagger.

"Weaker than me." Only after a moment's thought, Ayesha came to this conclusion, and then she went on without hesitation, "At least when I was observing him, he didn't notice my gaze at all."

If Dagger heard this comment, he would probably have the urge to commit suicide by smashing his head onto a block of tofu.

"My Ayesha is already this strong?" Jiang Chen praised her and couldn't resist rubbing the brown hair.

Her gorgeous face blushing, Ayesha timidly lowered her head.

"After all, I have already completed at least 500 times of training sessions in the system... Is that level of bodyguard necessary? I alone should be enough to protect you."

Even for a veteran soldier, it would be impossible to complete 500 missions in peacetime. Considering realism of the virtual reality system and the increase in physical ability due to the genetic vaccine, the experienced agent Dagger would naturally lose to Ayesha.

"Somethings may not be what they appear on the surface. Rather than saying that the bodyguard Dagger is here to protect me, it is more fitting to say he is keeping an eye on me." Jiang Chen shrugged.

A penetrating light flashed across Ayesha's eyes while she softly uttered lethal words, "Do you want me to get rid of him?"

"Ahem, that would cause more trouble, so just ignore him for now. It'll be difficult this month, but after this month, we can then move."

"Move? This place is not good?" Ayesha asked as she tilted her head.

"It's not about good or bad—there are too many things to consider here," Jiang Chen explained in simple terms as he didn't want to do too much explanation about this issue.

Ayesha half-knowingly nodded.

In regard to the trouble that Jiang Chen was facing, she didn't really understand. But she was clear on one point: regardless of he faced, as long as he needed her, she was willing to raise her gun for him.

Just like what happened in Veit.

With her hands encircling Jiang Chen's neck, her blue eyes gazed softly at the black pupils.

"Wherever you will go, I'll always be with you."

Jiang Chen felt his heart being filled with warmth. Heart throbbing, Jiang Chen bit the lovely, red lips.

The quiet atmosphere lasted for a long while before the two parted.

"I plan to go back to Hucheng tomorrow."

"Hucheng? Your hometown?" She vaguely recalled Jiang Chen mentioning it before.

"Mhmm, I will stay there for a month. Take some change of clothes with you."

Hearing this, Ayesha's face all the sudden turned red as a rare hint of coyness crept into her voice.

"Could...could I meet your parents?"

Jiang Chen paused before a troubled look appeared on his face.

[It's okay, but it feels...]

"Forget it if it's troublesome," Ayesha softly said, albeit slightly disappointed.

She didn't want him to feel troubled.

"No, not troublesome at all..but you have to promise me one thing." Jiang Chen opened his mouth looking somewhat awkward.

"Mhmm!" The blue pupils began to show an excited look.

"When my parents ask you about your age, say that you're over 18..."

Chapter 239: The Glorious Return

Hucheng, a tranquil and beautiful small town that sat on the east side of Fanyang Lake.

Compared to a major metropolitan like Wanghai City, the pace of life here was slow. There were no towering skyscrapers, crowded streets, nor an endless stream of traffic on the streets. The buildings along the streets were only four or five stories high with first floor shops. This type of scenery was hard to see in Wanghai city.

After being used to the propensity of the big city, occasionally breathing the air of a small town indeed was a unique experience.

Watching the familiar but strange scenes outside the window, Jiang Chen somehow felt melancholic about coming home.

Since he entered Wanghai university five years ago, he rarely came back. After his graduation, he didn't even go home. He calculated, since the last time he came, it has been more than two years.

With the dream of building his own career in the big city, as well as being a proud university student, he swore when he graduated that without becoming successful, he will never come back. Now that he thought about it, when he graduated, he didn't live the best life.

But life is always filled with countless coincidences. The life full of hardships only lasted for a year before his life became a fantastic journey that was almost impossible to imagine. Not only did he drive a luxury car accompanied by a beauty, a Senata from the General Staff Department followed him.

Not even the governor of the province could receive this type of treatment.

When the car passed through the high school he attended, the familiar gate as well as the aged face in the security room flashed by. Looking at the rusty school emblem, Jiang Chen felt even more melancholic.

"Should we stop here for a bit?" Ayesha noticed the change in Jiang Chen's expression as she caringly asked.

"No need, I want to go home earlier." Taking a deep breath, Jiang Chen shook his head.

The people he longed for the most was without a doubt his parents.

Finally coming home...

Looking at the familiar street, a genuine smile appeared on his face.

"Mhmm." Ayesha scanned the GPS and accelerated.

The black Senata following them also picked up the speed as it followed Jiang Chen's Maybach without missing a beat.

It was a young man sitting in the driver seat. He looked sharp, but also unsettled. He looked like he was new to the job. The man called Dagger sat in the passenger seat. With eyes narrowed, he looked like he was taking a nap. But the people who know him all knew, if you thought he was asleep, you would be absolutely wrong.

"Business people are so damn rich," Miao Jun holding the steering wheel stared at the Maybach and said enviously.

Living in a mansion, driving a luxury car.

But envy was envy. With his meager salary, there was no hope of buying a car like that.

Dagger opened his eyes to glance at his partner before continuing to close his eyes. His voice sounded reminiscent.

"Experience life more when you are young. When the time is right, someone will ask you if you will leave or get promoted. If you decide to leave, once you take off your uniform, you can go work as a bodyguard for rich people. The money you earn is enough to buy one."

The people wealthy enough to hire ex-agents as bodyguards would not cheap out on the money. Since the bodyguards' loyalty is connected to their life. The comrades that he worked with within the General Staff Department that chose to leave all made enough money not only for a car but a lovely house. But him, with all forms of injuries, only the shiny badges brought some comfort.

But he didn't regret anything. Because he is a soldier, the moment he enlisted, he decided to continue down this route.

Miao Jun looked at Dagger in shock and laughed in embarrassment.

"We'll see. Leaving the army is still too far away."

Dagger cracked a smile, and the wrinkles on his face were squished together.

Although his partner named Miao Jun didn't say anything, he knew the young man would decide to leave the army. It was a different time now. Nothing wrong to consider more for yourself. There were only foolish men like him who would contribute his entire life to the greater good.

"Not early, make up your mind earlier. Once this mission is completed, your profile will be promoted. If you perform well, it won't be long before someone asks you the question."

"Haha, Commander Dagger, what do you think about my ability." Miao Jun laughed with a sense of pride in his voice.

He had the pride of the young generation. Since he was a top student from military school, regardless if it was digital warfare, fighting, or shooting, he obtained A+ in every category. He did have the right to be prideful.

But Dagger just laughed and said.

"Enough to be a bodyguard for a small boss, but still too naive for people who fear death."

He didn't hear the praise he expected to hear. Miao Yun paused for a moment as he made an awkward face.

"People who fear death?"

Dagger didn't respond to Miao Jun's question as he closed his eyes and continued to rest.

Miao Jun glanced at the old commander, displeased.

[As the newcomer of the new generation, what kind of qualifications do you have as an old man who didn't even go to university to berate me like this?]

Under this mixture of emotion, he couldn't hide his temper and spoke with an attitude.

"This is a B level mission, could you take it more seriously?"

Dagger opened his eyes as he looked dubiously at Miao Yun, he only left a sentence with deeper meanings before he closed his eyes again.

"The person sitting in the car in front is a person that fears death."

Miao Jun was confused.

This means he has a powerful bodyguard?

[But other than the foreign girl driving, who else is in the car?]

[Could someone be hiding in the trunk?]

Dagger peeked at his confused expression and shook his head secretively.

While this rookie has the abilities to be successful, his observation skill is too weak. As an agent, weak ability doesn't matter. But a flaw in observation is the most critical weakness of all.

On the car in front, not only was Dagger unable to see the boundary of the VIP being protected, but he also sensed the foreign girl driving the car with a cold expression has abilities that should not be underestimated.

Although the mission was B, there was no difficulty at all.

...

Whatever the two people behind them thought, Jiang Chen had no interest at all. Just like what Dagger suggested, he and Ayesha pretended that those two didn't exist.

It was around half an hour more before the car drove into an old looking neighborhood.

He parked the car, held onto Ayesha's hand, and stepped onto the familiar concrete stairs.

When he climbed to the fourth stairs, looking at the old door, he had a bitter smile on his face.

In three months time, he had sent over one million home. But by the looks of it, mom and dad didn't even touch the money.

Jiang Chen inhaled deeply, raised his hand, and gently knocked on the door.

Ayesha who stood beside him had a rare frantic expression on her face. Although the franticness was carefully hidden behind her cold mask, when she met Jiang Chen's eyes, her coldness melted away, and her nervousness of "meeting the parents" was exposed.

Jiang Chen squeezed her hand as he gave a comforting smile.

"Don't be nervous, my parents are nice people."

But even though he was the person saying that he began to feel nervous himself.

Half a month ago he just told his mom he has no girlfriend, but now he brought a foreign girl back. Would mom and dad be happy or...

The footsteps behind the door began to approach.

The door opened.

Staring at the emotional figure behind the door, Jiang Chen felt his eyes tearing up.

"Mom!"

Chapter 240: Mother

Hardship had left its mark of time on that face, seeing the dyed white hair on her temples, Jiang Chen could not help but become teary-eyed.

"Mom!" Jiang Chen hugged his mom.

"Little Chen, you're finally back." Embracing her beloved son, Li Xuemei's voice was choked with emotion.

"Mhmm, I'm back. Your son has grown up," the rim of Jiang Chen's eyes were full emotions as he took a deep breath and said with a tremulous voice.

"Accomplished or not, you're always my son! Old man, your son is back. Come out and take a look!" Lin Xuemei shouted behind her.

But there was no response in the room.

She slapped her forehead and chuckled when it dawned on her. "Look at this memory—I think your dad is probably playing chess in that stone pavilion in the district. You quickly go look for him, since it's almost time to eat. That old man must be showing off with his chess friends, flaunting the house that his dear son had purchased in Wanghai City."

Due to her old age, her memory was not as good. Jiang Chen was heartbroken while staring at his mother.

"What's there to boast about me?"

Although his words sounded humble, a proud smile unconsciously crept into his face.

"Ok, stop bragging, go get your dad to help me. My little Chen is finally back, so your mom will show off some skills... Eh? This is?" As she spoke, Li Xuemei's eyes suddenly lit up as though she had discovered a treasure while she stared at Ayesha, who was hiding behind Jiang Chen.

A different face, to someone who never left the country, was always an exciting news.

"I'm Jiang Chen's assistant." Because of trepidation, Ayesha almost bit her tongue.

Assistant?

Jiang Chen took a moment to process it. It was different from what they had agreed upon. He gazed at the flushed face and facepalmed. It finally dawned on him why would Ayesha change her mind.

He didn't expect that at the last moment, this girl would be frightened silly...

But this could also work. It saved him from being "interrogated" by his parents.

"Assistant?" Li Xuemei looked at her son, baffled.

Why bring the assistant back? She thought it was a daughter-in-law that her son had brought back. Even if it was a foreigner, she would not mind. Rather, she would be proud of her son.

Since she grew up in the Reform and Opening period, to the people in their era, being married to a foreigner was something to be proud of.

"Assistant in my work. Because it's quite hectic in the company and due to some business needs, she has to come back with me. This is Ayesha from UA," Jiang Chen hurriedly explained.

Strictly speaking. Ayesha is a Syrian, but considering the copious negative news in that area, Jiang Chen didn't want his parents to think too much, so he didn't say her real hometown. The green card was processed by an acquaintance of Robert's, so it would be accurate to say she was a UA citizen.

Listening to Jiang Chen's explanation, Li Xuemei thought for a brief moment before she smiled at Ayesha, and then she warmly held her hand. "Come in. I haven't cleaned the house for a while. Please don't take offense."

"It's, It's okay," Ayesha responded, face reddening.

"Our little Chen has always been like this. He's pretty slow with the girls—"

"Ahem! Mom, why are you revealing your son's dark past?" Jiang Chen grumbled and coughed loudly to interrupt his mom from continuing.

Jiang Chen looked embarrassed, but Ayesha wore an interested expression on her face.

"What dark past!" Li Xuemei rebuked Jiang Chen before once again smiled at Ayesha, saying, "Shasha, let aunt tell you, little Chen has always been courteous since he was young. It's the first time he brought a girl home."

"Shasha?" Eh, isn't the spelling of a foreign name—"Jiang Chen forced a smile as he wanted to correct his mom's mistake, but Ayesha didn't' seem to mind.

In regard to the name "Shasha," she appeared to take a liking to it.

"His first time?" Ayesha had a timid expression.

"Mhmm!" Li Xuemei nodded. She obviously could tell the meaning behind Ayesha's expression. Thinking of her would-be grandchildren, she affectionately took Ayesha's hands and continued cheerfully, "Let me tell you when he was young..."

Seeing the "mom and daughter-in-law" walking into the room, smiling and laughing, a genuine smile broke on Jiang Chen's face.

Although he was afraid of his mom revealing his "dark past," but when he thought about the happiness on her face, it did not matter anymore.

As long as she felt happy.

...

Ayesha began helping Li Xuemei to prepare dinner in the kitchen.

Speaking of food, it was worth mentioning a small episode that happened between Ayesha and Jiang Chen.

In the beginning, Jiang Chen was concerned about Ayesha's religion. Therefore, he specifically instructed not to deliver pork to the organic food company that delivered vegetable and meat to his mansion.

Until one day, when Ayesha and Jiang Chen grabbed a takeout ham pizza, did the pork taboo was finally resolved.

According to Ayesha's argument, when she became Jiang Chen's woman, in fact, she had already violated the doctrine, and automatically abandoned her religious identity, therefore her diet taboo would naturally no longer exist. But when it comes to pork, she still preferred beef and lamb, and this was purely because of eating habits, rather than taboo.

Witnessing the death of her parents at the hands of religious zealots, she had long begun to question her religion. Thus, towards her husband becoming an atheist, she didn't feel any repulsion at all. Particularly, after living in this highly secular state for some time, she began to get accustomed to living just for one person.

In fact, Ayesha's change was noticeable, except Jiang Chen never really paid attention to it. For example, if Ayesha was really religious, she would be seen praying several times in a day, but Ayesha never prayed at home.

Seeing that Ayesha and his mom had such a good relationship already, Jiang Chen left the time to the two as he went downstairs alone.

Downstairs, he met Dagger and Miao Yun leaning against the Santana chewing on takeout food.

"Do you want to come up for a meal?" Seeing the poor guys, Jiang Chen invited with a smile.

Miao Jun wanted to accept, but Dagger shook his head.

"There are strict rules within the organization, so just pretend we don't exist."

Jiang Chen shrugged and no longer insisted.

"Suit yourself, but I don't understand how you guys are so obvious downstairs... Is this really okay?"

Hearing this, Dagger cracked a smile.

"What do you think? Should agents go hide in the bushes? Those are assassins, not bodyguards."

Jiang Chen laughed, he shook his head and walked to the stone pavilion.

Dagger continued digging into his plastic container of fish-flavored minced pork with rice.

"Do we not need to follow?" Finished, Miao Jun threw the container into the garbage and dusted his hands.

Dagger chewed slowly. After swallowing the food in his mouth, he nonchalantly said," No need. This neighborhood is safe."

Miao Jun immediately realized after taking a moment to think, he awkwardly laughed." People on the top didn't even tell us—"

"Because there's no need," Dagger interrupted his partner's words, throwing the squeaky clean lunch box into the trash, "That's why I said, there is a lot more you need to learn."

VIP was already under protection, how could his relatives' security be overlooked?

If anyone dared to make moves here, it was no different than running straight into a gun.

Chapter 241: Jiang Jianguo Eager For Grand Children

The district was not big, but the square was extremely lively, and it was probably due to the fact that the residents were mostly comprised of the elderly and children. After all, there were less and less young people interested in outdoor activities these days.

Those who lived in the community were mostly employees of the nearby well-known state-owned steel factory. Years passed, the generation that had devoted their youth to the industrial foundation of the republic had become old, and this led to the community becoming a gigantic retirement home.

Hucheng's young generation would often choose to live somewhere closer to the metropolis, near Hucheng or even further and more prominent city to search for opportunities, and they would leave their children to their parents. As such, leaving behind children and the elderly became a common scenario in this generation.

Of course, these were off-topic.

Those who were accomplished outside were rare. Therefore, when Jiang Chen's parents heard that their son managed to build his own business and was even able to buy a house, it was no wonder his parents were extremely gratified.

The only thing that left Jiang Chen's parents worried was the matter of grandchildren.

Although Jiang Chen not in a hurry to get married this early, his parents were obviously not satisfied with the idea. His classmates in junior high, their kids had long been able to walk. And this included the prom queen of his junior high, though she no longer possessed her previous allure...

In the center of the square, a few old women were getting ready to dance.

While passing through, Jiang Chen walked to the Stone Pavilion where his mom told him to go.

...

"Check! Haha," Jiang Jianguo laughed out and slapped the chess piece in his hand on the board in high spirits.

The chess mate sitting across him had his eyebrows furrowed, but then soon looked relieved and exclaimed, "What a nice move, I thought my rook would be able to regain lost ground, but I didn't expect this bishop to take my rook out."

"Tough Victory, tough victory. It's s getting late, and if I don't go back now, I'm afraid my wife will come here and made me go home to eat," Jiang Jianguo said humbly and waved his hands.

"Ah, Old Jiang, you're lucky. Your son is accomplished now, your chess skill has improved, and your body is healthier than before. If my son is half as accomplished as yours, I'll laugh in my dream." Zhang Xinye sighed.

His son went to Hongcheng to work, but his monthly salary could barely cover his expenses after the mortgage. Although they were close to Hucheng, they only had time to visit in New Year time. The only thing he was satisfied with was his three years old grandson. Although a bit naughty, he was born healthy.

"Old Zhang don't sigh. Your grandson can already recite poems, compared to my grandson who still plays with building blocks all day long despite being four years old already." Although it sounded like Yan Zhengwen was complaining, from the big smile on his face, his affection towards his naughty grandson was quite evident.

"Speaking of which, Old Jiang, when will you get your son to give you a grandson?" Old Zhang jested.

In the topic of grandson, Jiang Jianguo's had nothing to say...

"Don't even talk about grandson, that kid doesn't even have a wife yet."

"Tha couldn't be... Logically speaking, now that little Jiang'has a house and opened his own company, matchmakers in Hucheng should be forming a long line. What do the city girls think?" Old Yan touched his mustache, looking baffled.

Since the elderly were not using the Internet, they were obviously not aware that the little Jiang they were referring to was not only affectionately called as the national husband by the female fans on Weibo, he also had an ambiguous relationship with a female celebrity…

Without exaggeration, if Jiang Chen would really post his intention to seek marriage in Weibo, those who wanted to warm his bed (1) would form a long line.

"Old Liu, who works at a facility service, has a daughter who isn't married yet. She's also a university student who has just graduated this year. Why don't I help you talk to him about her?" Old Zhang asked tentatively.

"There's also the daughter of Old Xia. She just graduated this year. I heard she is also in Wanghai City working at a big company. I think it will definitely work to match these two together!" Chen Weidong, who had just lost a chess game, also made his idea known to his friend.

"Sigh. It's too early to say that," Old Jiang let out a sigh.

"How's it too early? It's almost New Year, Your son will be back this year, right?" Old Zhang asked.

"Yes, right now there are more men than women. Didn't you listen to the news? By 2020, there will be 20 million more men than women that it will be harder to get married by then." Old Yan, who was wearing a pair of spectacles, was a technician in a steel factory and enjoyed reading news.

"Only 20 million, yet our population is over a billion," Old Zhang scoffed.

"Fool, only less than 200 million need to get married. This 20 million makes up 10 percent of…"

Listening to his old friends' banter, Jiang Jianguo looked worried. What if his son really couldn't find a wife? Now that the house is built, but without a grandson, what kind of sad story is this?

Jiang Jianguo made up his mind and quickly pulled Old Jiang.

"How is Old Liu's daughter?"

"I have seen her before...extremely beautiful," Old Zhang said cheerily.

"Then you have to help me out. I can't just wait for that kid to make his move," Jiang Jianguo urgently said.

"Haha, Old Jiang can't sit around any longer. Okay! I will help you out on this one!"

"And Xia Donghua's daughter as well…"

"I'll go talk with old Xia. He is part of our technical department, so it's easy for me to talk to him about this. Haha, Old Jiang, if this works out, you have to treat me to a bottle of wine," Old Ye chuckled.

"No problem, it's just a wine. If my kid really likes the girl, I'll treat you guys to ten bottles!" Old Jiang promised enthusiastically.

"Then I'm lucky, I didn't help at all, and I get to drink alcohol," Old Chen said gleefully.

"Eh? Is that Little Jiang?" the sharp-eyed Old Zhang craned his neck to take a look.

Pausing for a second, Jiang Jianguo wanted to say he should get a pair of glasses like old Yan, but when he turned around, he was flabbergasted.

"Dad! I'm back!" Looking at the familiar figure, Jiang Chen's eyes became moist, his voice was also shaking.

"Son, this kid! You finally remembered to come back?" Looking at his son, Jiang Jianguo's eyes became teary. Although his words were harsh, he hugged Jiang Chen's shoulder and patted him vigorously nonetheless.

"Not bad, stronger, good, good…" After saying several good words, his voice sounded choked.

Being deeply aware of their old friend's tendency to save face, if someone he knew saw this emotional scene, he would be too embarrassed to play chess within a fortnight. Thus, the three friends bade goodbye.

"Old Jiang, my wife is here, I'll be going ahead now."

"Same for me, haha, I still haven't bought the egg my wife asked me to buy. I'll take my leave I'll leave the chess to you."

"Haha, I'll go too. I will not disturb you two.'

"Uncle Wang, Uncle Liu, Uncle Yan, I will go visit you another day," Jiang Chen promised sincerely.

All of them worked at the steel factory, Jiang Chen remembered when he was young, Jiang Jianguo often took him to visit them.

"Haha, little Jiang is accomplished now, yet he can still remember us…"

After they said their greetings, the three elderly left.

Though he had a lot to say to his son, his throat moved for a while, but no words came out.

Thousands of words would not equate to seeing his own son.

"Dad, mom asked me to tell you to go home to eat."

When he heard "dad," Jiang Jianguo suddenly felt somewhere in his heart was constricting.

Ecstatic, Jiang Jianguo patted his son's shoulder. He was so emotional that he words became incoherent.

"Okay, okay! Let's go home and eat!"

(1) Warm his bed is an internet way of saying wanting to sleep with him.

Chapter 242: Just tens of millions

Dinner was very sumptuous.

They were Jiang Chen's favorite—potatoes, roast pork, beef with green pepper, and fresh and tender steamed carp.

Having been able to savor the familiar taste again, Jiang Chen devoured the food as though he would swallow his tongue along with it. He ate three bowls of rice before he was satiated.

Sitting on the side, Ayesha secretly memorized Jiang Chen's favorite dishes and made up her mind to learn from Aunt Mei so she can cook for him every day.

Speaking of Ayesha, she almost replaced Jiang Chen's position as the center of attention on the dinner table.

When his parents realized that the foreign girl with brown hair and blue eyes spoke perfect Han and had a gentle personality to boot, they warmly welcomed her. Especially Li Xuemei, she constantly winked at Jiang Chen, who was busy eating his food. She wanted him to treat her more affectionately.

As a woman herself, she was acutely aware that the relationship between the two was very unusual. At the very least, the foreign girl has affection towards Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen's worry was nevertheless excessive. Li Xuemei, who hadn't met a foreigner before, could not discern Ayesha's age at all. She only felt the girl's skin was fair and pale and possessed a relatively slender figure, and concluded that all foreigners probably look this way.

Simply put, she was pleased with Ayesha who could potentially become her daughter-in-law.

But Jiang Jianguo didn't think too highly of a foreign wife. He wanted to get a grandson soon to flaunt in front of his chess buddies. If his son took a foreign wife, what if his daughter-in-law's side of the family took his grandson away? It would be difficult to see his grandson across the Pacific Ocean.

Having never left the country and surfed the web much, he naturally didn't know that people overseas didn't have a habit of taking care of their grandchildren.

After dinner, Li Xuemei had practically revealed all the embarrassing childhood stories of Jiang Chen to Ayesha before walking to the kitchen. Ayesha who had read through the etiquette in Han, timidly followed behind her and washed the dishes with her.

This action naturally scored high points in the two elderly's eyes. Jiang Jianguo, who was slightly unwilling before, couldn't help but feel more pleased.

While the two women stayed in the kitchen, the two men sat on the living room sofa, watching TV while bragging.

After saying a few words, Jiang Jianguo suddenly put on a stern face and stared at Jiang Chen.

"Little Chen, be honest, when do you plan to get married?"

"Married? It's still early—" Jiang Chen stated casually.

"Not early at all! Your uncle Wang, who always put you on his back, had a grandson who already knows how to recite poems!" Jiang Jianguo said desperately, his eyes widening upon hearing that his son had no intention to get married yet,

"Dad, don't rush things. Don't you want to enjoy life for a few more years?" Jiang Chen asked, slightly embarrassed.

Towards becoming a father, he was not mentally prepared at all. How to bear the responsibilities of becoming a father? How to educate the child? He had never given these questions a thought before.

And he was not really anxious about the issue of having children.

With the advent of technology in the apocalypse, modifying the somatic DNA to increase life expectancy was no longer impossible. Though it could not achieve eternal life, it was bound to extend life expectancy to one or two hundred years, and it would be enough time to wait for the possibility of eternal life. Once the civilization in the apocalypse has been rebuilt, it would no longer be a dream.

Since there was no need to consider aging, the necessity to pass on the genes didn't seem too imminent now.

Jiang Chen even considered that after moving his parents overseas, he would bring some "supplements" from the apocalypse for his parents. Although those who were in advance in years were not suitable to use a genetic vaccine, some anti-aging medicines could work wonders on them.

"What enjoying life! I only want a grandson." Jiang Jianguo was furious.

This was a bit difficult now.

As for his father's willful demand, Jiang Chen found himself troubled. At the moment, he really couldn't think of a way to convince the elderly who was "eager for a son."

"Ummm, marriage shouldn't be forced. After all, this isn't the old age. There's a famous saying... Right! It is better to be single than to get married to the wrong person."

"What marrying? You're naturally going to get married!"

"Isn't that all the same?" Jiang Chen asked, dumbfounded.

Seeing that his son refused to compromise, Jiang Jianguo pondered for a moment as he didn't want to push him too hard. If his son thought he was being too pushy, what if he doesn't come home anymore?

After a moment, Jiang Jianguo said gently, "Okay, you can decide this on your own, but you have to keep marriage in your mind. The purpose of life is to have a career and family. Since you're accomplished now, use the opportunity to find a good wife to avoid problems in the future..."

"Yes, yes, yes, you're right." Jiang Chen nodded fiercely.

In short, whatever the elderly said, it would be better to just listen. As for how he would execute it, he had his own plan.

"That girl..."

"Ayesha."

"Mhmm, that Ayesha is not bad, but her family is too far. So if there are conflicts over the grandchildren, it will be ugly. So think about it carefully. Old Liu's daughter is not bad —"

"Dad, do you want me to go on matchmaking dates now?" Jiang Chen smiled bitterly.

"What? You look down on these dates?" Jiang Jianguo's eyes widened. "Your dad married your mom through the dates set up by matchmakers."

"No, I don't look down on them." Jiang Chen immediately waved his hands to pacify his father.

[Sigh, what year is it already?]

"Take some time in the next few days to see them. I already arranged it for you."

"Okay." Jiang Chen nodded.

He would just treat it as making his parents happy. He would go, but he would find a random alibi as an excuse.

If his date knew, he wondered if she would be angry or not. Without meeting first, the man already thought of ways to get rid of her.

In the end, Jiang Chen didn't argue so that this subject would be over soon.

But then, he thought of something.

"Right, dad. Didn't I send some money home? Why do I feel you haven't used it yet?" Jiang Chen looked around the familiar furniture in the living room and asked.

"We did use it. In fact, we bought a new Simmons mattress a few days ago," Jiang Jianguo responded dismissively. He didn't seem to want to stay on this topic further.

"Ahem, don't save money for your son. Bragging aside, I have too much money that I can't possibly spend it anymore," Jiang Chen could not help but say.

"Can't spend it anymore? Even if you have money, you have to be frugal. You have to be prepared in case of an emergency," Jiang Jianguo lectured and gave Jiang Chen a hard stare.

"Yes—" Jiang Chen drawled in a feeble voice.

"Let me ask you, tell me the truth, how's your company doing?" Jiang Chen picked up a cup of tea, drank the tea leaves that he had distributed from his units a few days ago. He was planning to teach his son about some business practices so that he wouldn't offend people or suffered a loss.

Jiang Chen's eyes turned, wondering if he said a billion dollar market value, his dad would not believe it. And even if he did, he would probably be scared silly.

Therefore, after a careful consideration, Jiang Chen gave a really conservative number instead.

"There are probably several tens of millions."

Clank!

The cup fell to the ground and broke.

It was the third time Jiang Jianguo widened his eyes. He ignored the broken pieces on the ground and stood up.

"How much?"

"Around tens of millions... The company is still growing, it's hard to stay the number," Jiang Chen said in a small voice, gulping.

[Good thing he didn't say billions or else my dad will get a heart attack...]

Chapter 243: Detectaphone

Jiang Jianguo couldn't process that fact that there was now a millionaire in the family.

He originally thought that his son only made a few million to solve the housing problem. After all, it was already impressive to go from nothing to a millionaire. He would never imagine that even calling him a billionaire was an understatement.

After washing the dishes, Li Xuemei picked a guest room for Ayesha, and then took Jiang Jianguo and Jiang Chen into the living room, and seriously watched him.

"Little Chen, tell me honestly, did you do anything illegal?"

Li Xuemei was afraid that her son was doing something shady, which enabled him to become a millionaire in just a few months' time. She couldn't think of anything but a bank robbery.

"How is that possible? Do I look like that type of person?" Jiang Chen gave a wry smile.

He did rob banks before...but it was the apocalypse, so it was more appropriate to use the term "pick up".

"Then how did you become a millionaire overnight?" Jiang Jianguo could not help but ask.

"Develop software...but mostly by offshore operations for an overseas software company." Thinking that there might be other people listening to their conversation, Jiang Chen changed his words halfway through the sentence.

"Software? Is that the stuff inside the computer? Is it reliable?" Jiang Jianguo widened his eyes, flummoxed.

He could not understand how those things would make money.

"It's mainly on the smartphone... Hmm, how should I explain this? Dad, don't worry about how I make money. You should think more about how to spend the money." Jiang Chen tried to explain, but when he remembered that his dad couldn't even figure the smartphone out, he gave up on this idea.

"As long as you didn't do any illegal... Mom is just worried that you met the wrong kind of people. You have to remember: don't do anything against your conscience. Even if you make less, your conscience will be at ease," Li Xuemei told him as she rubbed Jiang Chen's hair.

"Okay mom, I know. I'm more than 20 years old and no longer a child," Jiang Chen uttered helplessly.

"In our eyes, you'll always be a child."

Jiang Chen was frozen for a moment, feeling teary.

...

After the family meeting had ended, Jiang Chen went into the study.

Because Ayesha was a guest, she slept in Jiang Chen's old bedroom.

The two elderlies first insisted that they would take the study and leave their bedroom for Jiang Chen, but the latter would not allow his parents to sleep on the sofa. "Threatening" his parent that he would stay in a hotel, he was finally able to persuade his stubborn father and mother, who always doted on him.

After combining the two sofas together and covering it with thick bedding, it didn't feel worse than a bed.

In fact, if from the very beginning Ayesha had revealed her relationship with Jiang Chen, he would not be in this predicament. Jiang Chen felt pity at the idea that he was unable to hold the attractive body in his sleep.

At about 10 o'clock in the middle of the night, the two elderlies gradually fell asleep.

Jiang Chen estimated it was about time. Thereupon, he sat up, walked to the window, and closed the blinds.

After getting a fourth-dimensional messenger, he would call Sun Jiao from time to time. Now that he was back to his hometown, according to his agreement with Sun Jiao, he was ready to show them his hometown.

But just as he was about to take his EP out, the door sounded with a soft knock.

"Come in, I haven't slept yet." Smiling, he didn't need to think to know it was Ayesha.

Just like what he expected, when the door was pushed open, a gorgeous face peeked inside.

Ayesha, dressed in pajamas, cautiously entered the room without any noise and closed the door behind her.

"Did you miss me?" Jiang Chen walked beside her and encircled her slender waist with his hands.

Her gorgeous face flushed, and her pristine blue eyes flashed with gentleness, but she quickly shook her head and changed into a serious expression.

"I found this inside the room." Ayesha opened her hand and passed the content to Jiang Chen.

Stunned, Jiang Chen picked up the three thumbnail-sized black buttons from her hands.

"And these are?"

"Bugs."

Expression turning grim, Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed.

There was no doubt that someone had put the bugs in his house, and this made him utterly furious.

"Has the location been tracked to determine the location fo the listener?" Jiang Chen asked in an undertone.

"It's confirmed." Ayesha nodded and continued in a quiet voice, "Do you need me to go check?"

Jiang Chen played with the three buttons in his hand and thought for a moment.

"No need. If we discover those who we shouldn't discover, it would become awkward."

Hearing this, Ayesha nodded before she turned around to return to her room.

Though she felt that it would be better to get rid of those stalkers, since Jiang Chen said it was not necessary, so be it.

"Wait," Jiang Chen called out to her just when her hand was at the threshold.

"Mhmm?" Ayesha turned her head.

"Check me out as well," Jiang Chen requested with a wicked smile.

Although she didn't know why Jiang Chen was smirking, Ayesha still nodded. She quietly left the room and she came back while carrying a black pen-like device.

This anti-surveillance detection device is one of the special equipment Jiang Chen had prepared for her. Jiang Chen had purchased it for around 100 crystals at the Sixth Street's market, which was the basic equipment of PAC agents.

In the future where information channel was not limited to the electromagnetic waves, and anti-reconnaissance measures were emerging endlessly, this device may not be able to 100%, remove the surveillance devices. However, "150 years" into the modern world, there would be no surveillance device that could escape from the scan of this apparatus.

Just like he had suspected, even the room, where people normally didn't stay, had also been bugged.

"Only one?"

"Mhmm, under the table," Ayesha muttered, then she put away the device and walked to the desk.

As she bent down and fumbled on the inside of the desk to take a look, Jiang Chen unconsciously swallowed.

The white nightgown, which previously covered the upper part of her thigh, because of bending, the hem of the clothes was now moving up and down so that the slender and long legs were all but exposed.

The pale skin was smooth and seductive in the brightness of the moon.

Along with that view, her underwear was also slightly exposed.

In front of Jiang Chen, Ayesha had always been unguarded. While she was focusing on searching under the desk, she had no idea how exposed she truly was.

Soon, she found a button-like device in the inner part the desk between a compartment.

"I found it. Woo..." Just as she was about to turn her head, her excitement as a result of discovering her target morphed into a fiery blush.

Caught unaware, Jiang Chen went behind her and embraced her gently.

"Don't, don't do this. Your parents are just next door..." Ayesha groaned adorably. Nibbling on her lower lips her, eyes became misty in the moonlight.

But Jiang Chen refused to let her go. Smirking, his hands wander around as he whispered into her ear, "That's why you better keep your mouth shut and don't make any sound..."

Like a timid rabbit, Ayesha nodded, wearing a fierce blush on her face...

A touch of cloud drifted by, veiling the moonlight ever so slightly.

Even the moon in the night sky could not bear to take a look.

A repressed piece of musical composition started playing inadvertently.

Not until the clock ticked quietly for two hours did the night return to its former tranquility.

Chapter 244: If people don't showoff, what's difference compared to a salted fish?

These days, Jiang Chen had been very free.

Despite finding those surveillance devices in his room, he didn't bother to care who did these vile things. Everyday he just chatted with his parents, took Ayesha to the places where he spent his childhood, took several photos with his mobile phone and sent it to the three people in the apocalypse to satisfy their curiosity.

"This is my high school," Jiang Chen explained to Ayesha. Standing in front of the gate, Jiang Chen stared at the building with a sense of nostalgia.

It was where he spent his youth with sweat and tear.

Reminiscing his past, he used to be a youngster who would blush and had his heart beat faster just by merely touching his seatmate's hand accidentally. Back then, he used to be so naïve and innocent.

"Did you attend high school?" Jiang Chen casually asked.

"Didn't get to finish it. The school was destroyed," Ayesha responded blankly.

What an utterly tragic memory.

"I'm sorry for reminding of your unhappy memories," Jiang Chen murmured.

The cold face gave him a gentle smile, and then she shook her head.

"No need to apologize. There's nothing we can do about it."

Towards her tragic past, Ayesha had never felt any regret for it. Even to the tragedy that happened to her own family, she just accepted this fact in silence. When Jiang Chen asked her before if she wanted to seek revenge against the people who killed her family. As long as she desired it, he would be willing to help her, but still she shook her head.

Jiang Chen didn't ask her why, but he could somehow guess the reason.

It was a distressing reality. The residents of her hometown probably resembled the people of the apocalypse the most.

Only those people who were accustomed to death would be so apathetic towards death.

It was precisely because of this that she could only be intimate to the only person that made her feel warm, the only person that made her open her heart.

Rubbing her little head, Jiang Chen smiled, took her hand and went to the school gate.

"Class is still ongoing at the moment. Uninvited guests can't enter the school premises," the old man, sitting in the security room and clad in a military jacket, solemnly said.

Although Jiang Chen could still recognize him; on the other hand, he would obviously not remember everyone who went out from here.

Jiang Chen was stunned as he could not imagine that he would be blocked by a security guard. However, seeing the alertness on the guard's face, Jiang Chen immediately understood why.

There was nothing wrong with the guard obstructing anyone from entering the school. Jiang Chen remembered when he was still studying here, there would be young thugs who were fond of hanging out in the vicinity of the school. Even though they were nothing, they would pretend to be a "boss" in front of these teens to show off their grandiose" tale," and then they would gang up on inexperienced delinquent girls and ask them for money and the like.

The brown curly hair of Ayesha was obviously misunderstood by the old guard as dyed. After all, the guard was getting old and could not see her facial feature clearly.

As though reading the guard's mind, Jiang Chen smiled and walked over and started a conversation with the old man.

"Is the principal still Mr. Wu?"

"Yes, are you looking for him?"

"Mhmm... Call him and tell him someone wants to donate a school building."

The guard was gobsmacked.

"What?"

...

Ordinary people may not recognize Jiang Chen, but as the school leader of the Hucheng High School II, how could he not recognize his outstanding alumnus? To start with, in a small place like Hucheng, it was rare to have someone so accomplished. And now, that this place had produced a president of a 10 billion company, someone who had been praised by the Wall Street Journal to be equal to Bill Gate and Steve Jobs; and recognized as the "third technology revolution leader."

Wu Zechen had been working in Hucheng High II for more than ten years and could be considered as a veteran of the school. Although he didn't have much impression of Jiang Chen, who graduated five years ago, it didn't stop him from feeling proud. It was not at the point where he would mention Jiang Chen's name every sentence, but at the end of every principal's speech, he would use Jiang Chen's story to motivate the young students to study harder to get into a good university.

This was despite the fact that Jiang Chen's current achievement had nothing to do with the university he attended at all...

Less than half a minute later, Jiang Chen saw Principal Wu led a group of school officials walking out in hasty steps. From afar, he waved at Jiang Chen and greeted him with a bright smile.

"Haha, Mr. Jiang came to visit us. We weren't prepared. You should have given me a call," Wu Zechen said passionately, shaking Jiang Chen's hands vigorously.

"You don't have to bother. I just want to check the place out again." Jiang Chen smiled.

"That's not okay! Mr. Jiang coming back to Hucheng High School II is an important event, we need a welcome ceremony—"

"There's no need. Let's not disturb the students." Jiang Chen waved his hand.

Towards the old principal's excessive enthusiasm, Jiang Chen couldn't help but feel embarrassed. After shaking hands with the vice principal, directors, and other school officials, he finally entered the school gate.

Of course, the reason why the old principal gave Jiang Chen such a warm welcome was because of his introductory words of "donating a school building." After receiving confirmation from Jiang Chen, his aging face bloomed like a flower and personally played the role of a "guide" by showing Ayesha and Jiang Chen around.

He previously thought he would have to retire being a headmaster, but Jiang Chen somehow came back and contributed to his hometown's school.

Once the new school building project had been finalized, it would not take him two years to transfer to Education Bureau. With this qualification, he would be promoted at least half a level, perhaps even a full level. After gaining so many benefits, it was no wonder why he would be so passionate.

Originally, the principal's enthusiasm gave Jiang Chen a headache. After all, he initially intended to wander about the familiar campus while holding Ayesha's hand to reminisce the past in silence, and also made a bit of contribution for his hometown, but he didn't expect that he would have a group school leaders following him.

But soon after, he quickly began to enjoy this experience.

The reason being was because...

"Quickly look, isn't that Jiang Chen?" Passing through the classroom where he spent his three years, a sharp-eyed girl immediately recognized Jiang Chen and dragged her seatmate excitedly.

Among the youngsters using smartphones, Jiang Chen was especially famous since Future 1.0 had at least 300 million domestic users. The majority of people enjoying watching shows and playing games would choose to install Little White to save battery and increase speed.

"Eh? It's true! OMG, how did Old Wu manage to invite the nation's husband to the school?" A pretty looking girl with long hair widened her eyes and stopped scrolling through Weibo.

"Put your phone away, if the director sees you—"

"Wait, let me take a photo first." The girl raised her phone to take a picture.

Not only among girls, Jiang Chen was also popular among guys.

A lot of smart students view this man as their role model and wished to become like him one day, to be able to strut back to their school and hold their heads high, and let those "arrogant" school leaders trail behind them and enjoy their fawning words.

More than a billion of net worth, a foreign gorgeous female assistant: the epitome of life's winner.

Though Jiang Chen really wanted to tell them that his present achievements had nothing to do with studying... despite getting a high score when he was admitted to Wanghai university.

In short, it was incredibly exhilarating to be envied and praised by a crowd of energetic young people.

That's right! Jiang Chen utterly enjoyed the feeling of vainglory.

"What do you think of this, Mr. Jiang? Are you satisfied with the culture at our school?" Wu Zechen asked in great spirit when he saw Jiang Chen's mouth curved up.

"Whether I'm satisfied or not, I'm not qualified to say it. But seeing that our students are so energetic, as an alumnus, I'm extremely pleased," Jiang Chen casually said and grinned.

"Haha, how could that be? We have a lot of students that view Mr. Jiang as an alumnus," a female secretary in her 30s said while giggling.

Towards this compliment, Jiang Chen cracked a smile.

"Speaking of, where is teacher Cai?" That was his homeroom teacher. After walking around the campus, he failed to see him.

"Mr. Cai is already old and retired. I heard that his son is doing well in the south, so he retired there."

Already retired?

Jiang Chen could not help but feel some regret, thereupon he felt relieved.

He had already spent more than half of his life teaching, so it was time to enjoy life.

...

5-million school building, a set of 1 million state-of-the-art teaching equipment, and a marble statue. Principal Wu insisted that a ceremonious donation ceremony should be made, or else it would be hard to express the gratitude of the students and staff of the school.

But Jiang Chen rejected it. Afraid of trouble, he used the most straightforward method and donated it under Future Technology's name. The company's legal department would send people to coordinate with this matter, so he didn't need to worry anymore.

After taking care of everything, Jiang Chen called Xia Shiyu to let her know.

"Hello?" Jiang Chen drawled on the phone.

"Ah, hmm? Do you need something?" Xia Shiyu sounded slightly absent-minded.

Puzzled, Jiang Chen frowned and said in a voice filled with concern, "There's something... I feel like you don't sound right. Are you coming down with a cold?"

"No, nothing, just a bit personal stuff," Xia Shiyu perfunctorily said.

Her parents wanted her to go on an arranged date by a matchmaker saying it would be hard for older girls to get married. The male's side also worked in Wanghai City and owned a company. Apparently, he was quite well off... What era was this?

For the past few days, Xia Shiyu has been troubled by this.

She was unable to talk her insistent parents out of it and finally agreed to take a vacation and return home

It just to make her parents happy.

As for the date, she had unceremoniously sentenced him to death in her heart already.

For some reason, even though it didn't have anything to do with Jiang Chen, she still didn't want Jiang Chen to know about this. The more embarrassing thing was, when she thought about marriage, what happened that night would somehow surface in her head.

That night, their lips were only a few centimeters apart.

If they kissed on that day...

After listening to Jiang Chen's donation distractedly, Xia Shiyu hung up the phone.

After a long sigh, she held her phone in front of her chest.

That bright, red thin lips pouted, it was a rare scene.

She cluelessly murmured to herself, "Fool..."

(1) Salted fish is an Internet slang for saying useless person.

Chapter 245: The Perfect Coincedence

Hucheng was a small place.

In such a small place, good news and bad news spread equally as fast.

The news of a famous entrepreneur, Jiang Chen, visiting his relatives and donating a five million school building to his alma mater instantly circulated in this small place.

There were plenty of people who made money in recent years, but there were not many who thought about their hometown. For a time, various titles such as "conscientious businessman" was named after Jiang Chen. As such, even the city officials also specially came to visit him.

They didn’t receive any news of Jiang Chen returning to Hucheng to visit his relatives. After all, the General Staff Department kept his itinerary an absolute secret. Not only the city officials, but even the media also didn't receive a single bit of information. Not until the cheap Wu Zechen, who benefited the most from this, held a school ceremony and made a conference did the reporters receive the news.

For a time, the previously quiet Jinsha Steel Plant residential area was instantly in an uproar.

The city officials visiting him sent him a plaque of two meters in length in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of his hometown. In response, Jiang Chen was naturally gratified.

As for the mayor wearing a huge smile, he immediately proposed potential partnerships and stated he was willing to provide additional generous policies for the staff of Future Technology.

Jiang Chen only smiled at the offer proposed by the mayor and didn’t outright agreed. He just politely expressed his gratitude towards the government's enthusiastic reception, but because the development strategy of the company must be discussed with the company executives, he could not commit just yet.

But what Jiang Chen didn’t expect was that after the city officials left, the district leaders also came for a visit. This made Jiang Chen at a loss on how to react as he didn’t expect that just by donating a school building on a whim would make his home feel like a tea shop with people constantly visiting him. The steel plant leaders, the directors of the board of education, and the relatives he hadn't met before all visited him.

Simply put, these past few days was annoying the heck out of him. He was planning to donate a road before he left, but given the present state of affairs, it would need to wait until he left.

But seeing how happy his parents were, he did not say anything.

His home had been quite uneventful these recent years as the two elderlies lived a rather secluded life. Because they were just average workers, the relatives from their hometown didn’t really visit as they would only chat with their neighbors while they were shopping. When did they ever experience something of this scale?

Not only those relatives who came from different places came and stopped, but even those fulltime top officials came running to their door to ask about their well-being. Astonished by the treatment that their son was receiving, they finally had an idea on how successful their son was.

But even then, there was no escaping the matchmaking…

…

"You made such a bold move, and this increased the difficulty of our work." Leaning against the Santana, Dagger grinned with a cigarette in his mouth.

"There's nothing I can do about it. Should l pay you overtime?" Jiang Chen jived and took out his electronic key and opened the car door.

"Mr. Jiang, it's against the protocol to bribe civil servants." Miao Jun coughed.

Dagger didn’t pursue the topic any longer. He flicked the cigarette and asked nonchalantly, "Is the software done?"

"You're gonna have to ask the overseas team." Standing in the doorway, Jiang Chen s shrugged.

"Good luck." Dagger nodded and gave a cursory glance at the passenger seat. "Where is your assistant?"

"I’m going to matchmaking today." Jiang Chen’s expression looked somewhat helpless.

Miao Jun burst out laughing, his arm on the steering wheel.

"What era are we currently in?"

Jiang Chen did not bother about him, put up the car window, and started the car.

Dagger extinguished the cigarette butt and got into the car as well. He patted Miao Jun on the shoulder and said dismissively, "Follow him."

The location of the matchmaking was in the downtown of Hucheng, roughly 20 kilometers away from the small area where Jiang Chen came from.

In the entire Hucheng, only the Jialin commercial area was still considered flourishing. Although he wasn’t planning on agreeing, he would still give the other her due respect. He wouldn’t just find a random KFC to purposely anger her away.

Near Lake Restaurant.

It was Jiang Chen’s first time here, but because of the positive reviews on the internet, he called to reserve a private room. The place had beautiful scenery, Jiang Chen heard that it was possible to view the panoramic beauty of the East Like in the private suite on the top floor.

After parking his car in the parking space, Jiang Chen readily locked the door and headed to the suite under the direction of the server.

Dagger and Miao Jun did not follow him upstairs, and just picked a seat on the first floor, and then ordered a few dishes. They had been eating takeout food for the past few days, even the not picky Dagger was starting to get sick of it.

Upstairs, Jiang Chen ordered a table full of dishes and then began to play with his phone while waiting for the arrival of his date.

To be honest, he had never attended any matchmaking session before, so he somehow felt nervous.

Not long after, Jiang Chen heard approaching footsteps near the door.

The door opened, Jiang Chen put away his phone, but the instant he looked at the door, his expression froze.

He was not the only one who was frozen.

Standing in the doorway with one foot in, the gorgeous but expressionless face also appeared bewildered.

"It’s you?"

The two people simultaneously exclaimed in astonishment and both fell into an awkward silence.

Black wool sweater matching with a pair of black stockings—the not-so-colorful outfit didn’t seem to be suitable when on a date, but on her, it perfectly complimented her serene yet stunning aura, which was normally hidden behind her expressionless face.

Jiang Chen didn’t expect that it was his company’s CEO who would show up. He had never heard Xia Shiyu mentioned her hometown before, but coincidentally they were from the place and even lived in the same circle.

What a coincidence.

Xia Shiyu also didn’t think that the person to show would be him. Compared to the shocking reality, an unknown anxiety was welling up inside her.

Her lips quivered slightly and felt her face was burning. The rejection spiels brewing inside her head after an entire night jumbled inside her head. The usually calm Xia Shiyu was now frozen at the door.

[If it was him, should I reject?] Xia Shiyu was utterly lost.

Looking at Xia Shiyu's messy expression, for some reason despite feeling awkward, he wanted to laugh as well.

"Uh, have a sit first."

"Mhmm."

Head buried in silence, Xia Shiyu hastily at across Jiang Chen, and then remained silent.

Jiang Chen noticed that her pale neck went beet red all the way to her cheeks.

Silence ensued for a long time.

"What a coincidence, I didn’t think it would be you." Jiang Chen unnaturally laughed and broke the silence.

"Mhmm," Xia Shiyu assented again, her head still lowered, but there was nothing more.

He had no experience on what to say during a matchmaking session.

The set of words he prepared before coming here were completely useless.

He was aware of Xia Shiyu’s affection for him that night. Or more precisely, right after that news conference, he had already been vaguely aware of it for a long time.

Different from Liu Yao as a mistress, and Ayesha with a different cultural background, Xia Shiyu would never accept him with another woman.

But because of the faint selfishness in his heart, he couldn’t do or say anything that would make her give up on him despite knowing that the ambiguity of his action towards her would hurt her more in the end.

Reject? Or accept?

Chapter 246: What's your consideration?

The two didn't speak with each other until the server brought the dishes.

Delicacies filled the table, the scenery outside was still scenic and picturesque, but Jiang Chen thought the food tasted bland.

The red lips were chewing reservedly, so it was a tad unfortunate that not a single word came out. Although Xia Shiyu's blush had receded, her gaze remained glue on the food on the table. The somewhat stiff expression appearing as though she was avoiding his sight.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to say something to break the silence, Xia Shiyu suddenly spoke.

"Am I really boring? With her head bowed, she asked in a barely distinguishable voice.

"How could that be?"

Jiang Chen was used to Xia Shiyu's aloofness, so he did not mind her being cold. If she suddenly became talkative one day, Jiang Chen would feel surprised.

"Really?" she said in what seemed to be in disbelief.

"Why do you ask?" Jiang Chen could not help but ask.

"If there's a gathering, everytime I speak, it would result in a silenced crowd," Xia Shiyu uttered in total bewilderment.

While he didn't know why she would bring this up such situation, Jiang Chen trod carefully when he phrased his words, "Perhaps…it was because of your temperament?"

"Temperament?" Xia Shiyu lifted her head looking confused, staring at Jiang Chen's eyes.

"Just like a pristine flower in the snowy mountain, gorgeous but can only be appreciated from afar." Because it was extremely hard to approach, so some chose to stay away.

"Are you saying that in the...perspective of the opposite gender?" Xia Shiyu murmured.

"That's right."

"What about the same gender?"

"It's probably due to jealousy."

Jiang Chen's response made Xia Shiyu's calm heart sped up again.

"Then what about you?" overwhelmed by indescribable emotions, she haphazardly asked this blunt question.

"… That's hard to answer. Say, aren't we supposed to be on a blind date? Why do you have to talk about such a serious topic?" Jiang Chen quipped.

"Then…do you want to marry me?"

Jiang Chen was utterly astonished.

[Does this count as a confession?]

Towards this unexpected confession, he was not mentally prepared at all.

He originally thought with Xia Shiyu reserved attitude, this issue would drag on for a long time before it actually came out in the open.

Moreover, he didn't think her confession would be so straightforward.

"Don't one discuss marriage after dating?" Jiang Chen gave a wry smile.

Xia Shiyu's face turned red and with her head buried, she admitted, "No one has taught me this."

The coyness in her expression was a rare sight to see.

"Didn't you date before?' Jiang Chen sighed, feeling helpless.

"That doesn't count," Xia Shiyu promptly rejected the idea.

"Then what does it count for?"

"Perhaps… just a failed attempt." Because she was curious about how dating felt like, knowing that she could not stay single for the rest of her life, and due to myriad other reasons, she accepted someone she didn't like but who pursued her for the longest time.

And even she was aware that that strained relationship was not a sign of love.

The only thing she didn't expect was that he eventually betrayed her merely because she didn't want to be intimate with him. Did he only pursue her is just so he could do that kind of thing with her?

Just like Jiang Chen had thought, her emotional maturity was not directly proportional to her success in her career. Rather than calling it pure, it was more naïve.

"When two people became a couple, do they have to kiss?" Xia Shiyu asked, her eyes becoming somewhat dazed.

"Uh, it's not a strict requirement. That's to say, if you really do like the other person, then you won't mind kissing."

"What about the opposite?"

"The opposite?" Jiang Chen put down his chopsticks, staring at her perplexedly.

"If I'm willing to… kiss, would you date me?"

It appeared as though she had exhausted all the courage in her body.

…

Inside the washroom.

Using both of his hands, he scooped a cold water and splashed it on his face.

Feeling his agitated stated calmed down, Jiang Chen then flung the water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror.

"The f*ck... I almost become a scum," Jiang Chen mocked himself before he let out a relieved sigh, he then shook his head and headed for the door.

He didn't reject Xia Shiyu's confession. Although conscience told him that perhaps rejecting her was the wiser choice. He didn't dislike Xia Shiyu or rather, towards the girl who had been working diligently for his business, he appreciated her and also a very good impression of her.

From the initial hatred to relief, and then because of her inadvertent disclosure of her love for him, this made him have a special spot for her in his own heart. Jiang Chen could not help but suddenly have a feeling of falling into her "trap."

However, although he did not reject, he did not entirely agree.

Simply put, the two were now in a relationship between friendship and lover.

The parents were finally satisfied. The two agreed to tell their parents that they were dating. With this, there would no longer be trouble with matchmaking sessions, To this result, Xia Shiyu was pleased too. After all, she was not mentally prepared for this at all.

Take one step at a time.

Just as Jiang Chen was prepared to leave the washroom, a familiar looking man stepped in front of him.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang, we meet again," Zhang Youjie greeted him amiably and extended his hand, exposing his white set of teeth.

Slightly frowning, Jiang Chen's eyebrows soon were unfolded as he also extended his hand with a smile.

"Why is Mr. Zhang here?"

"I'm a salesman, so I always appear in front of people in need." Zhang Youjie shrugged and smiled. "Have you given it a thought? What's your decision?"

"Decision about what?"

"To become a citizen of UA."

Jiang Chen looked dubiously at him. "Do you know that there are two agents behind my butt at all time? Let me guess, you're going to be caught and deported?"

"They have no right to do that to a foreign diplomat. Doesn't your country have right to even speak freely?" Zhang Youjie shook his head and mocked.

"That's hard to say." Jiang Chen didn't refute it.

"Ahem, seeing you is not really easy, so I'll keep it simple. If Mr. Jiang is interested in our immigration policy, the embassy will provide you with comprehensive "legal assistance." A country's government has no right to prevent a talented individual from choosing their nationality and being restricted to go abroad would be contrary to your country's law. We will put pressure on the International Court of Justice to send you abroad through special channels and force it through public opinion—"

"Free choice of nationality?" Jiang Chen scoffed. "Why must it be the UA?"

Zhang Youjie paused and then laughed carelessly. "Is this Mr. Jiang's message, or the message from the organization behind you?"

"The latter, of course."

"That's unfortunate then. We could have avoided a conflict." Zhang Youjie shook his head, and then smiled, "Anyway, have a great vacation."

Thereupon he turned around and disappeared at the corner of the hallway.

Looking at the direction of his departure, Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed.

Although Jiang Chen didn't think UA citizens could cause some trouble in Hua, especially under General Staff Department's watch, he still felt a sense of foreboding.

He had a premonition that it would not be this simple.

Chapter 247: Undercurrent

At the crowded Wanghai City airport.

In such an international metropolis, it was common to see foreign faces. Especially with Christmas approaching, the number of foreigners visiting Hua increased due to the holiday.

The announcement of flight departing echoed inside the terminal accompanied by the constant chattering and the cry of children. The terminal was a bit noisy.

A foreigner sat on a chair with his eyes closed, resting. The gray overcoat made him look very ordinary, and under the brimmed hat was a brown face with stubble. Don't be mistaken, he was a Caucasian, and the skin color was due to staying in the desert for a long time.

It was hard to imagine that someone would be able to sleep in such environment.

"Uncle, toy car," a soft voice rang beside his ear. A little boy stood in front of him and pointed timidly to his shoes.

The person opened one of his eyes and smiled genially, thereupon the wrinkles on his face twisted like knife scars.

He looked like a kind middle-aged man.

Except for the dark green pupil, which destroyed his amiable impression. Inside the cluster of dark green hues was a lethal gleam like that of a dangerous wolf.

The little boy retreated with a frightened expression on his face. He didn't dare to get the toy car as he scampered away.

Seeing the boy ran away, the man shook his head, stood up, and headed out of the terminal.

"As expected of Mr. Griss. The infamous name of Wolf that could scare little kids in the east thousands of kilometers away," an oriental man laughingly said as he naturally came to his side, and took the suitcase in his hand.

"I don't want to cause trouble the moment I get off the plane, so, you better call me G," Griss cautioned bluntly.

"Okay, Mr. G." The man who welcomed him grinned. "How do you feel on this new environment? How does it compare to Iraq?"

"The smell in the desert is terrible." Griss grinned and continued, "But compared to the noise here, I very much prefer the tranquility of the desert."

"What made the bloodthirsty wolf turn into Dickinson?" said the man in an exaggerated manner and rolled his eyes.

"It's probably the blood." Griss shrugged. "Someone told me before that a poet and a killer are two very similar professions."

"One praises death, while the other executes death?" the other person scoffed.

"By the way, Mr. Li, you seemed to be late?" Griss said dismissively, glancing at the digital clock in the hall.

"I've run into a bit of trouble…" Li Zhongping pulled out the car key from his pocket and laughed.

"What trouble?"

"Mhmm, we originally thought we could form a partnership with them, but now it looks like Zhang Youjie made an error in judgment. Give the change in the situation, we have to start the plan B. If everything goes as planned, we might fight with the Han agents." Li Zhongping sighed helplessly. Although the helpless expression looked exaggerated at best.

Griss shrugged and drawled, "For me, there's no such thing as a surprise."

He didn't care about the Han agents at all. Just like a battle-hardened wolf that fought through hundreds of battles won't care about the hissing of a shepherd. Although he couldn't do the proper walk in the military parade, he knew hundreds of tracking and killing method. He lost track of the number of terrorists who had died on his hands and those who had jeopardized the interests of the country.

There was no possibility of losing.

"A Han called Dagger is responsible for the target's safety."

Griss' eyes narrowed, a grim smile appearing on his lips.

"Dagger?"

…

"You've been gone for a while."

"I met someone I know, and we chatted for a moment." Jiang Chen sat back across Xia Shiyu and smiled.

Looking at the smile on Jiang Chen's face, Xia Shiyu's face turned red obscurely. She lowered her head while her finger played with the hem of her sweater.

"So are we a couple now?"

With the way Xia Shiyu looked, Jiang Chen's face also turned red. He looked away and scratched his face.

"Uh, I would say so."

[But not completely.]

"Do we need to do something?"

"No…just go with the flow." Jiang Chen swallowed his saliva, staring at the flushed cheeks.

Although he wanted to say, "Let's start with a kiss," he managed to curb his evil urges.

It was because their current relationship was only due to the insistence of their parents.

He could feel Xia Shiyu's affection for him. Likewise, he harbored affection for her as well.

However, given Xia Shiyu's personality, there was no way she could accept the existence of Ayesha and Liu Yao.

Just go with the flow.

"Once we get to know each other more, then we'll head to the next step." It was the agreement Jiang Chen made with her.

…

After lunch, Jiang Chen drove Xia Shiyu home.

Jiang Chen courteously greeted the warm uncle and aunt, gave them the present he prepared, and left after some small talk.

Mom Xia embraced her daughter by the shoulder and smiled while watching Jiang Chen's car left.

"What do you think? Mom didn't lie to you, right? The little Jiang certainly is of great character, so you have to be nice to him. In this day and age, it's hard to find someone with such great qualities."

"Okay, mom…" Xia Shiyu muttered, her head buried and her face flushed.

"Work hard and get married as soon as possible. Your mom and dad are waiting for grandchildren."

"Grandchildren? Uh, I — " The cold face instantly turned beet red. Xia Shiyu's mouth opened and her mind was in chaos.

[Children…]

[If I have to give birth to children, I have to do that…]

Like a startled deer, Xia Shiyu dashed into her room without turning back and slammed the door shut, leaving the astonished parents in the living room.

"Old man, what nonsense are you saying?" Mom Xia scoffed at the old man.

With face red, Dad Xia rebutted, "What are you getting at? Don't you want grandchildren soon?"

"…"

Xia Shiyu rushed into the room, closed the door, and leaned against the door.

Her body leaning against the door gradually slid down, making her sit on the floor.

Panting, she pressed her hand against her chest.

Blush extended from her pale neck all the way to her ears, her heart was beating fast.

[That kind of thing…]

A fuzzy image unconsciously surfaced in her head.

In a suit, Jiang Chen walked beside her with a bright, attractive smile. Blushing, she approached him and hooked her arm around his.

Wearing an immaculate white wedding dress and a pair of high-heeled wedding shoes, and along with the wishes of her friends and family, the two walked along the red carpet, exchanging a kiss of vow in front of everyone.

The scene turned and then showed their wedding room.

Jiang Chen carried her around the waist, kissed her on the neck, and then he gently placed her on the matrimonial bed and reached…

Suddenly, a faint noise came from outside the door. She didn't know if it was an illusion, but she heard them speak English.

Xia Shiyu stopped and then stood up from the floor.

For some reason, the arguing voice of her parents instantly vanished.

She suddenly felt a kind of inexplicable panic.

A frightening silence ensued outside.

Gulping, she reached for the doorknob and twisted it open.

A smiling face welcomed her outside the room.

However, it didn't belong to Jiang Chen but to a woman. A woman with blue eyes, blond hair, and wearing a headset.

Xia Shiyu was stunned. It was an unfamiliar face.

"You're— "

"You don't have to worry about it, just Miss Kidnapper," Caitlin jeered before she smoothly stabbed the defibrillator to her stomach.

Numbness immediately made Xia Shiyu fall unconscious, as she fell onto Caitlin.

"The package has been retrieved," Caitlin reported leisurely on her earpiece.

The two elderlies in the living room were both unconscious.

"Perfect. Return to "warehouse" for further instruction." Inside a coffee shop, Zhang Youjie wore a triumphant smile.

"Understood."

Zhang Youjie closed the laptop computer and headed out of the coffee shop.

A trace of mockery disappeared from his lips.

"What an absolute amateur."

Chapter 248: The Greeting from Afar

Speeding off along the highway, Jiang Chen's hands were on the steering wheel, but what happened during noon lingered in his head.

"That's really regrettable. We could have avoided a conflict…"

[Does this sentence mean they're plotting something?]

Jiang Chen knitted his eyebrows. He really didn't really understand why would the UA embassy would be so interested in him.

Could it be the UA intelligence officers heard that Future Technology was responsible for the actual research and development of the "Dragon II" program?

This thought suddenly sent a chill down his spine.

In the wasteland's timeline, a similar program would be developed in 2020. Despite the huge deviation of the history of wasteland from this world, and given how the speed and focus of technology and research differed greatly, the general development trajectory was not much different. Just like how the third scientific and technological revolution was led by computers.

The next 50 years would be the 50 years led by artificial intelligence. The inception of basic AI database, which would ignite the fourth scientific and technological revolution, and then the introduction of intermediate AI Restriction Act, which would mark the end of the premature change in science and technology. Then it would be the fifth scientific and technological revolution led by the breakthrough in space technology, but that would be in the distant future...had it not been for the existence of Jiang Chen, who was a traveler between two worlds.

If everything went smoothly, Zhongxin High Tech would be capable of completely developing this technology themselves. According to the history, the cutting-edge high-altitude UAV similar to Dragon II didn't have a long development cycle.

Now that he thought about it, the delay in development was unlikely due to the barrier in technology. If someone could leak the information, there was no reason they wouldn't obstruct the progress in some way…

At the thought of this, Jiang Chen furrowed his brows.

He had never given this issue a thought.

In that timeline, PAC, Soviet Union (CCP), and NATO could be said the tripartite that divided the world. However, in this timeline, PAC and CCCP simply did not exist at all.

The series of drastic changes in Eastern Europe had ruined the last trace of Soviet. The collapse of the Berlin Wall completely pushed the alliance into the abyss and declared the collapse of the Yalta system. In 1991, the painstaking pillar of CCCP finally disintegrated and was divided into 15 independent sovereign states.

The fate of PAC was even more interesting since it never existed in the first place. Moreover, judging from the territorial disputes and the geopolitical pattern among Asian countries at the moment, it should not be possible for the organization to be established in the next 50 years or so. An alliance would have to be formed from a political mutual trust; regrettably, this trust did not exist from the very beginning.

On the contrary, NATO was the only one that stood out amongst the three. In spite of the constant portrayal of the media that NATO counties led by the UA were unable to extricate themselves from the quagmire of the Middle East disputes, all countries in Europe had been caught in dire straits by the Greek debt crisis and the influx of refugees. Needless to say, NATO was terrifying in both economic output and the military strength.

When did it start?

Rather, when did history start to diverge?

Just as Jiang Chen thought of what seemed to be an irrelevant question, his cell phone suddenly began to ring.

Putting on his Bluetooth headset, he pressed the call button.

"Hello?"

"Do you still remember me, handsome oriental man?" Despite her jesting tone, Jiang Chen could detect that this sentence was almost squeezed out from her teeth.

Han with a Russian accent. Although the other had not reported her name, her identity could easily be identified.

"Of course, I remember the beautiful Ms. Natasha. How can I help you?" he replied casually and chuckled.

[KGB? Other than tricking them in Veit, Jiang Chen couldn't think of any other connection with them.]

"Why don't you take a plane to Moscow? I still owe you a shot of Vodka. We can have a long chat in the bar," Natasha said in a provocative way.

"It's a tempting suggestion. Unfortunately, I can't make the trip since I can't even buy a plane ticket at the moment," said Jiang Chen, face not showing the slightest contrite.

"If you really want to come, we can provide you with a free and secure method of entering the border."

"Is KGB taking an interest in me? What an honor." Jiang Chen quipped and didn't accept her proposal.

"It's Kremlin that's interested in you." After a brief pause, Natasha changed into a seductive voice and continued, "Are you really not going to consider? Han men are popular among the Russian women."

Artificial intelligence would be the development trend for the next few decades, even potentially leading the fourth scientific and technological revolution, which was almost a foreseeable future. The value of artificial intelligence in military applications was even more invaluable. Since the advent of Future 1.0, it had garnered enough attention from Russia; not until they discovered its military value was extremely limited did they move their sight elsewhere.

But who would have thought that Future Technology could really leave its mark in the military field?

Even Jiang Chen himself did not expect that he would have wanted to make a contribution to his motherland before leaving the country. As a result, the information was surrendered and was leaked in the Han market before the development of the program was even completed. It was as if he just became a delicious morsel of meat.

Of course, many companies possessed highly advanced technology companies such as Google and IBM in the world, and Future Technology was just one of them. The technology giants were not desperate to a point where they had to make a move, but Future Technology already possessed enough value to make these giants want to form a relationship with them.

"For example, you?" Jiang Chen casually quipped.

"If you can convince your team serving behind you to settle in Russia, I don't mind becoming your woman." Natasha wasn't kidding.

Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughing.

"I don't think it's funny," Natasha raged.

"If I really wanted to do something to you, I would have tried all kinds of positions with you in Veit."

Jiang Chen's mockery made Natasha extremely furious. She gnashed her teeth, wanting to drag Jiang Chen from the other side of the phone and roughed him up. Of course, it was only wishful thinking.

Taking a deep breath, she worked hard to suppress the anger in her heart before continuing, "I believe we've already shown enough sincerity. If you're willing to cooperate with us, we can offer you the most generous conditions—"

"Before our location is exposed, when we're finally safe, and we don't need to be in any cage in exchange for security. The only person who would be exposed to the troubles would be me," Jiang Chen shrugged and uttered in a nonchalant voice.

"It seems that Mr. Jiang agent is not afraid?" Natasha scoffed.

"There's no reason to be afraid."

Towards Jiang Chen words, Natasha chuckled and didn't refute his words. "Looks like you are not yet fully aware of your situation. Because of your program, Dragon II will be deployed to the South Hua Sea ahead of schedule, and the strategic balance would be broken. The CIB is doing everything to prevent this from becoming a reality."

Hearing this, Jiang Chen he let out a discreet sigh.

[Sure enough, it's the work of a spy? I was wondering why there are so many mishaps in the program, which made the development of Dragon II stuck in its final stage.]

"So?"

"Wasting resources on a harmless development team indeed seems unlikely, however, if an organization hinders the national interest of the UA, the White House will have a reason to the teach you a lesson. If I don't guess wrong, the UA embassy should have already made contact with you," Natasha snickered.

"I rejected him," Jiang Chen said carelessly.

"Then you might be in trouble. In the foreseeable future, at least before the program is transferred over, your photo will be on the CIB mission brief."

Jiang Chen was stunned for a moment, and then he chuckled nonchalantly and said, "Why don't you directly tell that to the General Staff Department of Hua? I'm only a businessman, I don't have the right to take actions."

"KGB and The General Staff Department have no policy to exchange intelligence. As to why I'm telling you, can't you see it is an act of friendship?" Natasha mocked.

"Then, as an agent, what would they do next?" Jiang Chen casually asked.

"First priority is to force you to hand over the source code and then kidnap you to an aircraft carrier. The second priority is to shoot you as a warning to the organization behind you not to interfere in the game among the big powers, and at the same time, to cut off the only means for cooperation between you and Hua."

Since all partnerships were done through a representative, it was enough to just kill the representative.

Even if Future Technology indeed possessed value, it was not the extent where they could negotiate with the Rainbow Mansion.

"Then what do you think I should do?" Jiang Chen chortled.

"Stop at once and withdraw from the project."

"And then join force with you?"

If you do not want to fall into the hands of the UA and if you don't want to get stuck to where you are, we're your only choice." Natasha's face flashed a smile. In her perspective, Jiang Chen had no reason to reject her.

Under the surveillance of the General Staff Department, just by himself, he had no opportunity to leave the border at all. However, it would be different with the help of KGB. As long as he was willing to cooperate, the existence of the so-called restriction was not a problem at all.

"Do you think I'm scared of CIB?" Jiang Chen asked softly.

"Few people whom they are targeting are not scared."

"Then I'll have to disappoint you, I happen to be one of them." What could the CIB agent even do? Not to mention that this was Han territory, with Ayesha's counter-reconnaissance ability, Jiang Chen had nothing to worry about.

From a combat ability perspective, he could deal with them by himself.

"The Wolf." Towards Jiang Chen's confidence, Natasha merely provided a short name.

"Mhmm?"

"Griss O'Sullivan, senior CIB agent, who was previously active in Iraq war. There were more than 47 Iran officials who died either directly or indirectly in his hands. He was later transferred to the CIB Anti-terrorism team in Iraq. Have you heard of Laden? Although the SEAL shot him, he was the person that dug him out. Based on the intelligence, he already arrived at Wanghai City and forged his identity.

"Is that so? That's a big fish."

"It's a shark." Natasha laughed intriguingly. "Don't die. I'll be waiting for you to come to Moscow."

Chapter 249: Sorry, I'm not your subordinate

The call ended.

Laughing and shaking his head, Jiang Chen took off the Bluetooth headset and put it back into his pocket.

"Griss, isn't it? It looks like this problem is becoming serious," Jiang Chen muttered to himself.

From the standpoint of Russia, "Dragon II" being completed in time and being deployed in the South Hua Sea ahead of schedule was the best scenario. Considering Hua's growth in power, it would indeed hinder the UA's plan to return to Asia-Pacific. In this case, the pressure faced by Russia in East Europe and the Mediterranean would be significantly reduced.

Natasha disclosing the CIB's action was partly a show of goodwill, and partly wishing for Jiang Chen to be prepared.

He just did not know if Dagger of General Staff Department received the news or not.

[Maybe I should send Ayesha to protect Xia Shiyu?]

Driving back to the staff quarters, Jiang Chen parked the car and was about to head upstairs when Dagger came over.

"How's the result of the matchmaking?" Dagger snickered.

"I guess it's a success." Glancing at the empty seat on the Santana, Jiang Chen asked casually, "Where's Miao Jun who was driving you?"

"Protecting your little girlfriend." Dagger sighed. "Say, could you be a little bit less busy this month?"

Before the General Staff Department sent help, he could only get his deputy to help out. Even though Miao Jun was somewhat impetuous, his ability was quite good. He should be able to deal with the short transition period before their backup arrived.

Whether if there was anyone was plotting against Jiang Chen, Dagger didn't receive any news from his superior that indicated that an external force was making a move on Jiang Chen. All of the security measures here were just for preventative measures.

Looking at Dagger's wry expression, Jiang Chen smiled and patted the veteran soldier on the shoulder.

"I can only say I'll do my best. Anyway, thank you."

[I'm paying hundreds of millions of tax each month, so it isn't too outrageous for you guys to work a little harder.]

"Of course, this is my job." Dagger took out his phone and was preparing to make a phone call to Miao Jun to ask how was the situation.

Just as he was about to call, his phone suddenly rang.

Upon seeing the name, Dagger paused for a moment. His expression turned grim and hurriedly put the cellphone to his ear.

In the next second, his face changed dramatically

…

Sitting in the tea shop downstairs of the apartment, Miao Jun ordered a cup of mocha. Crossing his legs, his eyes narrowed while examining every person that walked in and out of the neighborhood.

Dagger had already gone back with Jiang Chen; on the other hand, he stayed here.

"Fu*k, the life of the rich is indeed different. He's picking up girls while I have to keep an eye out for him," Miao Jun complained in his mind.

While complaining, he was meticulously doing the task that he needed to. It took abilities to be part of the General Staff Apartment.

It was almost dusk when he lifted his hand to check the time. There was still an hour left before the person who would take over his spot would arrive.

Just then, his pupils contracted and locked onto a man wearing a down jacket.

Although on the surface, the man's behavior was very normal and reasonable to the point where he did not stand out from the crowd. However, Miao Jun noticed something unnatural from his actions.

Whether it was the way he took out his cigarette or the angle he looked at this phone, he was able to cleverly avoided the camera in the neighborhood from capturing his face. It may be a coincidence if it happened once or twice, but if it happened all the time, there was only one possibility—the opponent was an anti-surveillance expert!

Thinking of this, Miao Jun could not help but get a little excited and lick the corners of his lips.

Although it was not his first mission, it was his first encounter with a foreign agent. If he captured a spy from an overseas force, it would undoubtedly be a great achievement!

Of course, it was only a speculation. In the absence of conclusive evidence, any arbitrary arrests would not only cause unnecessary trouble, it would just unnecessarily alert the enemy.

Putting his hand into his pocket, Miao Jun quietly moved towards the man in a down jacket.

His hand, which was inserted in his pocket, was gripping a Beretta 92, his finger was gently pushing the safety.

The man seemed to be oblivious to Miao Jun's gaze as he headed to the communal restroom.

"What an amateur." Mouth raised a touch of ridicule, Miao Jun trailed after him quietly.

However, when he stepped into men's restroom, the expression on his face suddenly froze.

There's no one here?

All the stalls were open and the side of the urinal was empty.

Could it be that the person went to the female restroom on the right?

His face turning speculative, Miao Jun prepared to leave.

But then, he heard a casual voice behind his back.

"Hello. Looking for me?"

He did not know when it started, but the man he was following, was now standing behind him!

Hackles up, a sudden chill went down his spine.

Knowing he was in a dire situation, Miao Jun immediately turned and pulled out his gun.

The man lunged at him, narrowing their gap. The man lifted his hand, easily twisting his wrist, and positioned his finger behind the trigger.

Miao Jun was deeply astonished by how fluid the opponent took his gun. This man was obviously an expert.

Since he was able to confirm his opponent's capability, there was no need to be reserved. Without ceasing the movement of his one hand, his other hand reached to snap the neck of the person, resorting to a killing move.

But the other person just contemptuously scoffed and was seemingly able to read his thought, he once again easily parried his move.

"Rookie."

Upon hearing the other's ridicule, a powerful knee strike struck his chest like a hammer.

All the air in his chest was forcefully squeezed out of his chest.

Because of breathing difficulties, Miao Jun's eyes widened and looked like it was about to pop out.

The lack of oxygen made all the tense muscles in his body loosen, while the gun in his hand was easily taken out.

Thereupon, his forehead made an intimate contact with the barrel of the gun.

Succumbing to unconsciousness, Miao Jun fell head first to the ground.

Not pausing for a second, the man pinched the button of the communications device on his collar.

"Problem solved."

"Roger."

Turnin off her earpiece, woere her cap, Caitlin put on her baseball cap and carried Xia Shiyu who was lying on the floor and started to retreat.

A van stopped by the apartment before it left the neighborhood.

The entire operation took less than five minutes from start to finish.

…

Xia Shiyu was abducted.

Hearing this news, Jiang Chen felt his head buzz and fury instantly engulfed his whole body.

Although he had considered the possibility of the enemy plotting against Xia Shiyu, he never thought that they would make a move right after after their date.

Given how fast they were, he didn't even have the opportunity to send Ayesha to protect her.

"Calm down first, our people are already investigating what happened. Hucheng Police Department will assist us in our operation and put all roads under surveillance. The kidnapper must still be in the city." Dagger tired to placate Jiang Chen's emotion, despite feeling panic himself.

He lost contact with Miao Jun and was presumably also caught in dire straits. Yet it was not clear which force made the abduction.

Kidnapping Xia Shiyu must have been orchestrated to threaten Jiang Chen. What Dagger could only do at the moment was to ensure that Jiang Chen remained calm to prevent him from doing anything impulsive.

"Your people? How long would that take?" Jiang Chen took a deep breath, his voice trembling due to wrath.

"Within three days, I will definitely give you an update," Dagger said in a calm voice.

"Three days?" Jiang Chen laughed derisively and filled with rage.

Dagger wanted to say something, but this phone rang again.

Dagger put the phone close to his ear, as he heard the voice from the other side of the phone, his expression looked helpless as he handed the phone to Jiang Chen.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen."

"You are?"

"Liu Guangqi, Dagger's superior. You may call me General Liu."

"My girlfriend was kidnapped," Jiang Chen said coldly.

"We already received the news. Please be patient and wait for an update regarding this matter. We will definitely give you an account of the situation. Before that, we hope Mr. Jiang could consider the bigger picture and lessen unnecessary travel."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything. We're just worried that the enemy will use Ms. Xia as a bargaining chip, which may force you to make a regrettable decision.

"You mean, you want to put me under house arrest?" Jiang Chen asked, his voice sounded intrigued.

"This is for your own safety. Also, if the other could not reach you, then they won't be able to threaten you."

"What if they contact you?" Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

"Taking Ms. Xia as a bargaining chip is be enough to coerce us into making concessions in light of national interest. I'm asking Mr. Chen to believe in the capabilities of the General Staff Department. We will give you a satisfactory answer within three days," said General Liu lightly.

Hearing this, Jiang Chen calmed down, his heart also started to turn cold.

With these words, the message behind Liu Guangqi's words was very clear.

The General Staff Department would absolutely not compromise with the agent even with the life of a citizen at stake. If the group that kidnapped Xia Shiyu could not reach Jiang Chen and could only get in touch with the General Staff Department, then the hostages on their hands would lose their value.

At the same time, to maintain the status quo, the General Staff Department would immediately launch an investigation of this incident, and plan for the arrest of the enemy that designed and orchestrated the abduction.

Thus, even if the kidnappers were to kill the hostage, they had nothing to gain from it.

In the face of the national interests, all the sacrifices of an individual were worthwhile.

"That's to say you're giving up on Xia Shiyu?" Jiang Chen asked softly.

"We've never given up on anyone."

"Which law allows one to restrict the freedom of the victim?"

"It's not a law, it's an order," Liu Guangqi stated using an indisputable tone.

Stunned for a moment, Jiang Chen chuckled.

"Sorry, I'm not one of your subordinates, so your order is invalid."

Jiang Chen ended the call.

Chapter 250: Betrayal

Jiang Chen stuffed the phone into his pocket.

"Please cooperate with my work, Mr. Jiang." Dagger forced out a smile as Jiang Chen was clearly not willing to follow the order.

Daylight during the winter was short, and although it was still moments before six in the afternoon, it was already turning dark.

Despite not being able to see the emotion hidden in Jiang Chen's eyes, Dagger could clearly sense that Jiang Chen was in a terrible mood.

Seeing Jiang Chen had no reaction, Dagger let out a sigh, extended his hand, and pleaded, "Please don't make this difficult for me… Give me the phone first."

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes, and said—one word at a time—"I've never made it difficult for you. It's you that has always made it difficult for me, and now, I had enough."

Dagger paused. He didn't think the always-cooperating Jiang Chen would say this.

Although his words certainly had rationale to it, from the perspective of a soldier, Dagger could not back off.

With his head lowered, Dagger made the last request pleadingly, "Please consider the bigger picture."

"I don't understand the bigger picture, I will find my own way to save my girlfriend."

It wasn't until this moment did Jiang Chen finally realize the thought hidden in the deepest part of his heart.

If they were only girlfriend and boyfriend in name, and if he didn't like her, he would never be so livid.

Since he was already sure, there was no need to be hesitant.

Jiang Chen turned to head to his Maybach.

"Sorry, I would have to force you to make the right decision," Dagger said as he took out a pistol.

"You're pointing your gun at me?" Jiang Chen inquired interestingly.

"Sorry."

"You dare to shoot me?" Jiang Chen laughed.

If he died, the program would definitely not be delivered to Zhongxin High Tech. The only winner would be the people unwilling to see Dragon II deployed ahead of schedule. For the General Staff Department, it was not an ending they wanted to see.

Dagger didn't respond as he only stood there in silence, but the gun was moving down and pointed at Jiang Chen's leg.

The intensity in his eyes seems to reflect his attitude—If you dare to leave, I will shoot your leg.

Jiang Chen's eyes began to turn cold.

The two stood still without moving.

Because of how desolate the place was, no one walked nearby. Dagger didn't need to disguise the way he held the gun.

The only noise that interrupted this silence was the white birch tree swaying in the wind.

They stared at each other.

The calmness displayed by Jiang Chen confirmed Dagger's suspicions: he was not just a businessman. If he were an ordinary person, he would've wet his pants upon seeing a real gun.

This was the real reason why he pulled out the gun.

Instincts told him that in hand-to-hand combat, he had no confidence in restraining Jiang Chen.

As the second and hour hands on the watch crossed at the six o'clock position, the street lamp suddenly lit up.

The abrupt piercing light caused Dagger to squint his eyes.

At that exact moment, Jiang Chen moved.

Dagger was shocked by Jiang Chen's sudden movement in closing the distance. This ability that Jiang Chen demonstrated left him with no choice but to go all out.

He lifted his left arm up, attempting to use his elbow to strike Jiang Chen's ribcage. If that move landed, Jiang Chen would have at least three rib bones broken.

But his plan fell through.

Despite how experienced he was at fighting, this level of attack was futile against a body strengthened by the genetic vaccine. With a bone strength of 29, it was two times that of an ordinary person; the resilience of Jiang Chen's rib bone was no less than his humerus.

Jiang Chen easily took the hit and ignored the stunned expression on Dagger's face. He took a swing with his right hand and landed a hit on Dagger's jaw, knocking Dagger right out.

He quietly picked up the pistol on the ground and placed it in his pocket. Taking out his phone, he called Ayesha.

"Find me at where I parked, let's get going."

…

In a warehouse in Hucheng's rural area...

Miao Jun sat slanted on a chair. His limbs were tied on the chair, his dangled face was bruised in red and blue, with blood dripping from his mouth.

"I won't say anything."

"I don't plan on letting you say anything." Zhang Youjie shrugged as he pulled a chair and sat across from him. A smile appeared on his face.

"We only need your cooperation."

"Cooperation?" Miao Jun sneered and stared provocatively at Zhang Youjie in the eyes, "Why don't you just kill me."

Zhang Youjie's eyebrows raised as he stared back with an ambiguous expression.

A cold sweat rolled down from Miao Jun's forehead. He suddenly felt that he was under the watch of a cobra examining its prey; there were no secrets in front of him.

"Miao Jun, 25, graduated in Shangjin National Defense University with an outstanding performance. After graduation, received training in the province of Lu for new recruitment training. Later incorporated into the Ji Division's special force for special force training, and eventually became a part of the General Staff Department in 2014 to conduct anti-spy work domestically. With how fast you are rising up the ladder, you have connections, right?" Zhang Youjie crossed his eyes and said with a grin.

Miao Jun was utterly dumbfounded and looked at the man in front of him in disbelief.

His background was considered a top secret…

With a grin, Zhang Youjie chirped, "Sorry, we also have 'connections'."

"Traitor," He squeezed out a word in his mouth and stared gravely at Zhang Youjie's eyes.

"You seemed to have mistaken something. Although I'm Asian, I grew up in UA. How should I say this in regular language... I'm an UA-born Han?" Zhang Youjie said with a smile.

Seeing Miao Jun not saying anything else, Zhang Youjie's body leaned forward and examined him with manipulative eyes.

"Although we have different nationalities, to me, I think you and I have a lot of similarities."

"Oh? I don't think so."

"I graduated from Northpoint Academy, and you also graduated from the top military academy in Hua. Are you really willing to die like this? Your life only just began."

Miao Jun raised his head and enunciated, "It is my honor to sacrifice myself for the country."

"Is that so? But what you did is contradictory," Zhang Youjie leaned on the chair, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and used an 'I understand you' tone, "Based on the attitude you displayed during work, as well as your stance during the conversation with other people, you don't seem to plan on dedicating your entire life to this job?"

Miao Jun's eyes widened, he didn't understand how could they have such a detailed investigation with him just being a typical agent while still in the process of being evaluated.

What he didn't know was that the enemy didn't have a detailed report on him—bluffing was a conventional technique used during negotiation. Obtaining vast amount of information through a limited amount of information, although it may not be effective against seasoned agents, was incredibly effective against new recruits.

Seeing the expression on Miao Jun's face, Zhang Youjie displayed a triumphant smile.

He opened his arm, stared Miao Jun in the eyes and spoke with the same understanding tone, "What's the difference? Obtaining some credentials and then retire to start a career that has nothing to do with protecting the country. With your background of being a former General Staff Department, you'll just become a bodyguard for the rich? Join us, we can make you a wealthy person right away."

Miao Jun held his breath as his eyes began to waver.

The ideology that had been engraved in him told him that he should reject; but with how Zhang Youjie described it, it seemed to be the case.

He planned to leave the army anyways.

Just look at Dagger, that was the reward for loyalty.

Zhang Youjie acutely noticed the change on Miao Jun's face as he threw out another tempting offer.

"One million USD, a green card, a ticket to the free world, you could easily start a new life. And what you only needed to do is to cooperate with us for one thing in the next two days."

Then, Zhang Youjie no longer said anything as he silently listened to the breathing that was periodically tense, and then calm while he waited for the response.

Typically, if the target was silent, it was half successful.

The silence lasted for fifteen minutes.

"… What do you need me to do?" Miao Jun lowered his head.

A victorious smile appeared on Zhang Youjie's face.

"It's something simple, you only need to…"

Chapter 251: A Glean Hope

It seemed like a long dream. In drowsiness, Xia Shiyu woke up from unconsciousness.

"Do you know how to speak English?"

With her thought returning to her, she sensed that she was in a mobile environment.

On a car?

"Yes."

"Perfect, my Han is terrible." Caitlin chewed on her bubblegum and grinned.

She tried to focus her vision, but her iris seemed to be covered by a thin layer of a veil which made her unable to see anything clearly.

In haziness, she saw a figure.

"Where is… this? What, what did you do to me?"

Xia Shiyu suddenly woke up from her drowsy state, and her body jerked in anger.

The chair began to squeak, but her motions were ineffective. When she discovered her hands and legs were tightly tied to the chair, her face began to lose any sign of life as her vibrant red lips quivered.

She remembered the instant before she lost her consciousness; she despairingly realized the severity of the situation.

She was kidnapped.

"We didn’t do anything to you, at least for now. You better pray that your boyfriend makes the right decision," Caitlin smiled, but her voice was cold.

"How, how much money do you want?"

"Unfortunately, we don’t need money." Caitlin shrugged.

Xia Shiyu desperately attempted to force his pupils to gaze onto the kidnapper’s face, but it was futile.

She seemed to be surrounded by a thick fog, unable to render anything clearly.

"To prevent you from seeing things you shouldn’t be seeing, we used medicine to obstruct your vision. Trust us, it is for your benefit," Caitlin seemed to have read Xia Shiyu’s mind as she said casually.

Kaching-

It was the sound of a gun being loaded.

She wriggled backward with fear written all over her face.

"Michael, it is not funny to scare the hostage," The black man playing with the radio device worked on the equipment while he spoke.

"Is that so? Perhaps it is because I spent too much time in Iraq." Michael shook the M9 in his hand as the Caucasian man grinned, "I heard Griss is here, I wonder where that guy is."

"Team A, responsible for providing support. If we encounter the PLA, he might be up," Caitlin said emotionlessly, then looked at the driver in the front. "Adam, how much longer?"

"Half an hour more."

Before the police could set up blockades, they left Hucheng already. Since they were no ordinary kidnappers, if the local police could capture them, then they shouldn’t be agents anymore.

Based on Zhang Youjie’s plan, Team B would be responsible for making the last attempt in convincing Jiang Chen. Team C would bring the hostage to location while waiting for Team B’s news to see if they should leave Jiangxi and head to Fujian on the coast. Once there, they would use a special channel to pass through the strait before leaving the border through Yizhou.

If negotiation fails, Team B will execute Jiang Chen, Team C will also kill the hostage. If negotiation is successful, Team C would continue according to the plan and take Xia Shiyu out of the country. Team B will immediately follow and transfer Jiang Chen overseas.

As to Team A, they were responsible for any of the agents or soldiers that would appear and cover for Team B’s retreat.

Caitlin already memorized the mission brief in her mind, she just didn’t expect it to be so smooth.

With eyes narrowed, she examined the frightened Xia Shiyu with a grin as she leaned the SCAR assault rifle on its side.

"He is not my boyfriend…" Xia Shiyu said with a trembling voice in an attempt to convince the kidnappers to let her go.

She had never seen anything like this living in the peaceful world.

"Is that so? Then we’ll have to find out. But you better pray that he loves you, or we might kill you." Caitlin laughed and completely disregarded her words.

Xia Shiyu felt her hands turn cold as a grave despair started to engulf her.

Her lips trembled, her throat felt as if it was stuffed by a marshmallow, she couldn’t say anything.

[Please, who could save me…]

She closed her eyes in hopelessness.

…

Jiang Chen drove while Ayesha sat in the passenger seat. The two already left Hucheng on a small route. When they passed by the temporary inspection station, the police didn’t detain them. By the looks of it, Dagger was still not awake and didn’t report Jiang Chen missing to his superior.

Jiang Chen's phone rung and he scanned the caller.

<Zhang Youjie>

A sneer surfaced on the corner of his lips.

[Of course, it is him.]

It was not a coincidence that he appeared at the Near Lake Restaurant.

"Prepare the equipment and prepare to track his location," Jiang Chen without any emotion.

Ayesha nodded and took out the wireless tracking device and opened the map on the EP around her wrist.

With the car parked on the side of the road, Jiang Chen pressed the pickup button.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Jiang, what’s your decision?" Zhang Youjie said in a cheerful voice.

"Where is Xia Shiyu?" Jiang Chen said distantly.

"Who is Xia Shiyu? Sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying, I’m only a consulate worker," Zhang Youjie spoke with a smile.

"A consulate worker? Then why are you not in Wanghai City and here in Hucheng?" Jiang Chen scorned.

"Of course here to deal with diplomatic affairs. Does your country have a law restricting consulate worker’s mobility?" Zhang Youjie pretended to be surprised.

Ayesha displayed the EP on her wrist, the red dot stopped at the Wanghai City consulate.

[When he left the restaurant, he returned to Wanghai City right away?]

"I will ask again, where is Xia Shiyu?"

Sensing Jiang Chen’s rage, Ayesha worriedly held his hand caringly.

The cold touch on his hand calmed Jiang Chen slightly as he looked at Ayesha gratefully before taking a deep breath and recollecting his thoughts.

In a moment like this, the more he panicked, the more likely a mistake would occur. He must have a clear mind to think of a solution.

Just like when he was in Veit.

Seeing Jiang Chen calm down, Ayesha gently smiled and let his hand go.

"I don’t understand what you’re saying. But if you are looking for someone, why don’t you provide me with your email? I have a particular location that might be of help?

If he said anything he shouldn’t have said on the phone, it could be recorded as evidence, and he would face prosecution for espionage. He would never do something to dig his own grave.

Jiang Chen read out his email. Quickly, the phone beside his ear buzzed. The email; was already sent to his phone.

"If anything happens to Xia Shiyu, trust me, I will make you regret it," Jiang Chen said calmly.

"That’d be really scary then. Also, you better go alone. If I find out that the General Staff Department follows you, something bad may happen-"

The phone went dead.

Zhang Youjie paused before he threw his phone on the desk and smiled.

"Interesting."

Chapter 252: Who said I will go with you?

Outside of the Yangjiapin Textile Plant...

A car was parked two hundred meters away from the gate on a small road.

The car was not his Maybach S600, but it was, instead, a secondhand Sonata that he spent one hundred thousand acquiring. He didn’t want his ride to be ruined during the fire fight.

Jiang Chen got out of the car and scanned the surroundings before walking to the long-deserted textile plant.

That was the destination they agreed on, 12 kilometers from Hucheng.

Other than the weeds growing around the plant, it was barren farmland in the area with no one in sight.

But just outside of the desolated plant, Jiang Chen saw four out-of-placed vans.

There were two men with baseball caps standing by the door. Their jackets were stuffed with something hidden underneath, and their hands were in their pockets, as if they were holding onto something.

The corners of Jiang Chen’s lip raised with interested as he walked up without fear.

Seeing Jiang Chen walking over, the two exchanged eye contact before one of them walked up.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang. Did you follow the agreement?" The man raised his right hand and smiled.

He was referring to the agreement of coming alone.

"Can’t you see with your own eyes?"

Jiang Chen ignored his extended hand and walked into the plant.

An awkward expression surfaced on the person’s face while his hand remained extended. He glanced at his comrade on duty who was trying not to laugh as he shrugged and stuffed his hand back into his pocket.

Ayesha didn’t follow along, Jiang Chen gave her another mission.

Just like Zhang Youjie demanded, he came alone.

Inside the plant, there were a few lights in the middle, with few figures visible from the window.

He pushed opened the door to the plant and scanned around the numerous people inside before a smile surfaced.

The camouflaged bulletproof vests, the metallic black assault rifles… to be able to transport these inside the country, they must have spent quite a lot of effort.

The fifteen CIB agents were stationed around the corners of the warehouse, and five people were waiting for Jiang Chen at the door.

The person in the front was giving off a dangerous vibe. Although Jiang Chen was unable to confirm his ability, just from instincts alone, this person was stronger than Robert’s bodyguard, Nick.

He must be Griss—who Natasha referred to—also known as Wolf.

Perfect, they are all here.

"You’re Jiang Chen?" Seeing Jiang Chen walk in, a man in the middle stepped on a cigarette and took out a photo from his pocket with a grin.

The wrinkles on his face twisted together, the green eyes were filled with a deadly eerie light as he examined Jiang Chen.

"That’s right," Jiang Chen said distantly.

"Since you’re here, you must have already made your decision," said Griss with a shrug.

"Of course," Jiang Chen said calmly as he stared into Griss's eyes, "But before that, I need to call Xia Shiyu."

"Don’t worry, you Asian monkey, the hostage is safe. We’re the CIB after all, not IS," the man scoffed.

"Oh? I never really distinguished the two organizations."

"You—"

Upon hearing the mocking words from Jiang Chen, the man was immediately provoked and he stepped up.

Griss glanced at his teammate and said indifferently, "Grim, shut up."

"Yes…" The giant man immediately lowered his head and obediently backed down.

In the face of this oppressive captain, he had no courage to rebuke.

It was already against protocol to reveal the name of their organization, but seeing that the mission was about to be completed, Griss didn’t say anything.

He tilted his head and spoke to the person beside him.

"Give him the radio."

"Okay, Captain." A soldier with a baseball hat took out a radio from his tactical vest, walked to Jiang Chen, and handed it to him.

With an unidentifiable smile on his lip, Jiang Chen took the radio. The other hand in his pocket opened the wireless tracking device.

He would have to leave that task to Ayesha.

"Hello? Xia Shiyu?!"

"Jiang Chen… Where are you?"

With how feeble her voice sounded, Jiang Chen suppressed the anger in his mind. Taking a deep breath, he used the calmest voice he could muster:

"How are you? Did they do anything to you?"

"… Not yet. Who... who are they?" Her voice was filled with despair and helplessness, but it didn’t sound stiff, so she didn’t receive any cruel treatment.

After confirming Xia Shiyu’s safety, Jiang Chen felt a little calmer.

Just as he wanted to gain more time for Ayesha, the communication was cut off from the other side.

"You had ten seconds to confirm the safety of the hostage," Griss grinned, taking out a lighter and lighting another cigarette for himself. "Now, your choice will determine the life or death of you and your girlfriend. You don’t have a lot of choices."

Jiang Chen slowly dropped down the radio and looked at Griss in the eyes.

"Oh?"

[ I don’t think so .]

He added a sentence in his mind. The hand in Jiang Chen’s pocket threw the wireless tracking device into the storage dimension, then he took out a paper-thin remote and pressed the switch.

The broad-range signal jammer in the trunk of the Sonata parked outside of the warehouse instantly opened and blocked any signal within five kilometers radius.

"Grim, check his equipment." Without concern for Jiang Chen, Griss turned his head and spoke to the comrade on the side.

"Okay, Boss."

Twisting his neck while making a loud crackling sound, Grim walked to Jiang Chen with a wicked smile. He already made up his mind to teach the arrogant guy a lesson.

For example, accidentally breaking one of his nuts during the search…

"Before we leave here, we need to check your equipment to prevent you from wearing any tracking device. Of course, if you resist, there might be some unfortunate things that may happen."

Looking at Grim walking towards him, Jiang Chen suddenly started laughing.

"Leave here? Who said I will go with you?"

When they heard this, all five people surrounding Jiang Chen were shocked.

Without giving them the opportunity to react, Jiang Chen immediately detonated the smoke grenade and EMP grenade in his pocket.

Buzz—!

The static buzzing noise echoed in the plant as the light bulb instantly blew out, leaving the entire plant into darkness. At the same time, smoke began to spread out from where Jiang Chen stood and hid his figure.

"Kill him!"

Griss roared out and instantly ordered the command to kill. At the same time, he raised his rifle and began to fire.

Tatatata-!

Fires splattered as the weaving bullets ripped through the smoke that hid Jiang Chen’s figure. The empty plant was filled with the sound of bullet explosion and the crispness of bullet shells hitting the ground.

Because of the eye's inability to adjust to the sudden change in light, everyone’s vision was shrouded in darkness. However, the people here were all seasoned soldiers and, even with their eyes closed, they could work together to prevent the target from escaping with the web of bullets they wove.

"Stop!"

The shooting stopped, and the smoke began to fade.

The plant returned to silence.

The thick smoke dispersed at a steady pace and gradually began to meld with the smoke risen from the rifles.

The five CIB agents in the middle of the plant still maintained their shooting position and locked on to the smoke.

Although the smoke had yet to disperse completely, no one questioned the ill fate of the Oriental man who didn’t recognize the situation.

It would be absurd to have escaped from the rapid shooting.

It was only protocol to maintain firing position.

"Boss, he must have died," Grim said as he moved his joints.

Griss stared into the middle of the smoke.

The target must have died, but an unsettling feeling was growing in his mind.

The smoke was like the egg of the devil, something was about to walk out from it.

Was it an illusion?

But then, his eerie green pupils suddenly contracted, the calmness that belonged to an elite soldier instantly faded!

"God…" With hopelessness in his voice, Grim, who previously wanted to break Jiang Chen’s nuts, moved back shaking violently.

The surface of the steel armor reflected five frightened faces.

With the T3 power armor covering him, the revolving machine guns rotated rapidly as Jiang Chen unlocked the safety to the weapon module.

"Let’s play a game."

Chapter 253: The Slaughter Armor

The slick steel surface looked like a futuristic warrior just walked out from a sci-fi film. The rapidly revolving machine gun cast out a fearsome vibe under the pristine moonlight.

"Take cover—!"

Griss roared as he rolled to the wall on the side.

The instant his back made contact with the concrete wall, the storm of bullets blasted by.

Grim, who was closest to Jiang Chen, had no opportunity to dodge. He maintained his frightened expression while being shredded to pieces by the bullets. The three CIB agents nearby also experienced a horrific death by the fierce bulletstorm.

The sparks from the bullets lit up the surface of the power armor as the CIB agents, who were hidden around the plant, retreated while firing. However, the scattered bullets hitting on the T-3 C-type steel were as weak as scratches and only left a series of clanking sound—they couldn’t even leave a single dent on the surface of the armor.

That was the difference in technology.

Unless it was a heavy anti-armor sniper rifle or a machine gun, it could not pose any threat to the airdrop-type T-3 power armor that represented the highest level of technology before the war. If it was the land-type power armor, only the cannon on the M1 tank could pose a threat.

Right when he threw down the EMP and smoke grenade, Jiang Chen traveled back to the apocalypse. Before going back, he first went to the armory in the apocalypse right beside the power armor, suited up, and he traveled back before returning to the modern world.

The CIB could not see any of his actions under the cover of the smoke. In their eyes, the power armor seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. If not for that, they wouldn’t look like they just saw a ghost.

Jiang Chen in a power armor was like a devil stepping out of the abyss, completely destroying any of shred of their willpower with his firepower.

"I’m hit! Medic!"

"Tom is down! Dammit!"

"What is this thing?! God, make him stop!" The voice sounded like he was about to cry.

"…"

Concrete shattered as Griss leaned tightly against the wall, the thunderous machine gun noise causing him to almost lose his sense of hearing.

"Smoke grenade!"

With a roar, he pulled out a smoke grenade from his waist, jumped out from under cover while moving to his team’s zone of control, and squatted back down.

"Change to thermal vision!"

"Roger."

The nine CIB agents all replaced the scope on their assault rifle and peeked out from their cover while aiming right into the heart of the smoke.

But then, they were completely stunned.

There was only a white fume inside the haziness and they couldn’t see anything.

Jiang Chen, in the middle of the smoke, grinned as a series of red dots appeared on his iris.

"Fury!"

The revolving machine gun was deactivated and he pulled out the tactical rifle from his waist.

The agents who planned on firing back had no time to react before the bullets cracked open two people’s skull.

With the loss of two lives, the CIB agents had to retreat back into cover while firing in a scattered formation.

"Dammit, dropping the ball at the most critical situation, I’ll stuff your head into the toilet when I head back."

Griss cursed at Zhang Youjie who was responsible for the logistics as Griss ripped off the thermal imaging scope with his teeth gritted.

Fear permeated throughout his entire body as the muscle on Griss’s face twisted violently.

He had not experienced this feeling for a long time, the sense of adrenaline overwhelming him.

He ripped off the radio from the tactical vest and screamed inside, "The enemy’s firepower is too strong, Team A and B are under attack, mission failed! I repeat, mission failed!"

But there was no response from the other side.

Griss was stunned.

Not just the thermal imaging, but even the radio were also not working. It was if an unknown power had destroyed all the electronic equipment.

The comrades fired back while ducking out of cover, but he gradually couldn’t hear the bullets anymore.

The concrete debris cut through his face while he took out the digitalized scope.

There was no red dot on the screen, it also stopped working.

An unknown fear suddenly overwhelmed him, his eyes popped out, blood-shotten.

A one-sided slaughter.

The impenetrable armor, the mysterious weapon that instantly destroyed all electronic equipment... who are they? They are definitely not the PLA! Hua would not have this type of military technology!

From Afghanistan to Iraq, Wolf Griss was used to savoring the fear on the enemy’s face. Marking down coordinates while enjoying the sight of garbage fleeing under the rampage of the AC-130, Griss had scoffed at the scums who didn’t know what thermal vision was as they ran desperately to the bushes, trying to escape from the Grim Reaper’s feast…

But he never thought that he'd one day become the prey.

… No, it was no longer a battle, it was a massacre!

At that moment, warm blood splattered all over his face and interrupted his pondering.

He looked up. The comrade who shot back a second ago lost his head already.

In two short minutes, the twenty CIB agents from Iraq were down to five.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Griss, realizing the situation he is in, roared out as he attached the grenade launcher onto his assault rifle and fired it into the smoke.

There was a loud explosion, but he didn’t care if it hit the target or not. He rushed to the back door of the plant with his head covered.

The grenade exploded on the arm of the power armor as the fragmented shrapnel screeched against it. However, Jiang Chen only tumbled a little without being too affected.

Allowing the bloodlust to overtake him, Jiang Chen fired with the tactical rifle while moving forward to CIB’s zone of control. His pupils contracted as he locked instantly on to a red dot. Just as the person peeked out, Jiang Chen pulled the trigger and killed him without any hesitation.

Because they didn't think that they would encounter any armored forces, along with the secretive nature of this mission, the CIB agents didn’t bring any anti-tank rocket launchers with them this time.

With just grenades that were meant to be used against infantries, it was incapable of dealing any damage to the power armor!

"You want to run?" Jiang Chen grinned and scoffed at the four CIB agents retreating. He deactivated Fury and moved to the door slowly.

…

From the moment the shots were fired inside the plant, the two people patrolling by the door realized the oddity of the situation as they took out their assault rifles hidden underneath their jacket and remained on high alert.

With the loss of communication, they were completely oblivious to what was happening inside the plant.

Upon seeing Griss run awkwardly in their direction, Brian, who was at the door, immediately went up to find out what was going on.

"Sh*t, captain, what happened inside?"

"Dumb*ss, get in the car!"

Griss immediately pulled on the fool that ran toward him and shoved him into the van.

It was the first time Brian saw Griss being so desperate like this. Realizing the severity of the situation, Brian didn’t dare to speak any more and took the driver's seat.

A few other agents also quickly got into the van.

"The status of the communication system on the car?" Griss asked while breathing heavily.

"All function— Sh*t! No signal!" The agent on the backseat smashed the car door.

"F*ck!" Griss cursed as he glanced at the situation outside of the car. Seeing that the metal giant didn’t follow them out, he felt somewhat relieved.

[ Maybe that metal giant has weaknesses too... like low mobility? ]

With the car already started, he couldn’t care about anything else other than leaving the area and sending the shocking information back to the CIB headquarter.

Compared to the source code of the drone and the metal giant, the mysterious weapon that could instantly paralyze a team electronic device was more shocking! If they were all from the organization behind Jiang Chen, then the CIB must reevaluate their strategy against the mysterious organization.

Just as his strained nerves started to loosen up, the scream of the driver rang beside his ear.

"What the f*ck! What is that!"

Four flying discs flashed in front of the car window. Under each disc, a black machine gun hung there.

With a cold sweat rolling down his forehead, the driver pressed on the gas, knowing full well that it was too late.

Fire emerged as the Hummingbird drones began to unleash its power.

Without any time to react, the CIB agents in the car were reaped of their lives by the merciless bullets.

…

Low mobility? That was Griss’s wishful thinking.

The reason why he didn’t want to wear the power armor out of the warehouse was purely due to the concern for privacy. It was an unwise move to expose such a large target in public. Although it was just a barren farmland without anyone there, it was better to be safe.

Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse and left the power armor in the armory before he traveled back to the modern world.

He scanned outside of the plant with the broad range life detection device and saw one red dot lit up. Jiang Chen grinned, took out the PK2000 from the storage dimension and strolled to the shattered van.

Blood dripped out of the door and pooled to the ground. Red and white contents mixed together and were stuck everywhere.

At the sight of the horrific scene inside the van, Jiang Chen was shocked; however, he didn’t feel any sympathy.

He recalled the Hummingbird drones and then dragged Griss, who was shot multiple times and on the verge of dying, out of the van and onto the ground. He then took out the hemostasis spray and applied it to Griss's wounds.

Griss was covered in blood, the calmness and ferociousness had already faded.

Rather than Wolf, it was more appropriate to describe him as a dead dog.

Jiang Chen looked at him from the top, kicked his arm, and said with interest, "Can’t say anything anymore?"

Griss stared into Jiang Chen’s eyes, with blood in his mouth, and said while stuttering, "I… won’t tell you where the hostage is. Just wait to recover the body of your little girlfriend."

"Might not be the case," said Jiang Chen as he took out a voice recorder and threw it on Griss’s body.

Just as Griss was confused by his action, Jiang Chen grinned.

"I ask, you answer."

In his hand was a truth-telling serum.

Chapter 254: Sniping

"… We lost Team B, negotiation failed. Execute plan II. I repeat, negotiation failed…"

The message, mixed with static noises, came from the radio on the floor.

Xia Shiyu horrifically glanced around, but she couldn’t see anything.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of a window shattering, followed by something heavy dropping onto the ground. Then, the room returned to silence.

The room was dark without any light. This left the already visually-impaired Xia Shiyu in darkness with just moonlight from the window scattering in.

[ Negotiation failed... does this mean they are going to kill me? ]

When she thought about it, the hopelessness inside her grew deeper. Her originally clean jeans were now covered in dust as she feebly jerked on the ground.

The rope was like a python that restrained her tightly to the corner of the wall. No matter how hard she tried to break free, she could not move a single inch.

"Jiang Chen…" A weak whimpering came out from her tape-covered mouth as Xia Shiyu closed her eyes.

Would he just appear like that night and rescue her from her despair?

"Save me…"

Although there was a slim chance of it happening—and perhaps she may have her throat slit the next second and fall on the cold floor—she was still hoping for it to happen.

…

"Target executed."

An indifferent voice, mixed along with a mist of breath, came out of Ayesha's lips.

Under the crosshair was a female body. The blonde hair was scattered on the ground with blood. The 12.76 mm bullet had pierced through her skull and the CIB agent had died under her sniping.

"Did I make it…?"

Her chest pumped furiously. The moment she received the coordinate from Jiang Chen, she floored the gas pedal and raced here. When she got off the car, using the fastest speed possible, she rushed to the highest point of a yet-to-be-completed building before lying on her current sniping position.

It was a race with the Grim Reaper.

If nothing else happened, the moment that the coordinate was sent over from Jiang Chen, the battle over there would have already started. Although he would definitely use a signal jammer to interfere with the enemy’s communication, without any contact for an extensive period of time, the enemy commander would become suspicious.

Fortunately, the location where they kept the hostage was not too far from the abandoned clothing factory. She made it there before the enemy found out what was truly happening.

Ayesha moved the crosshair and observed Xia Shiyu’s status.

The hostage appeared to be in a stable state… Without any reaction to gunshots, she must have her vision obstructed. It was better this way, for if the hostage were to scream because of the scene, it would make the situation worse.

[ Is she the other wife of my husband? She looks pretty. ]

While Ayesha was thinking this, she opened the life detection device beside her scope.

The blue waves scanned across the field before a few red dots were quickly marked on the scope.

She moved the crosshair of the Ghost sniper rifle and locked onto a patrol at the gate warming his hands.

"The second one," she murmured as she pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The bullet shattered the person’s skull with blood and brain matter splashed all over the ground. With the patrol being shot, the enemy finally realized they were under sniper fire, and the two red dots behind the structure quickly moved into the building.

Without any hints of being perturbed, to her, killing was as easy as breathing.

All for Jiang Chen.

"Target exposed. Next should be to control the hostage," Ayesha muttered to herself as she moved the crosshair back to the room where Xia Shiyu was, aiming the crosshair at the door.

Indeed, the red dot moved onto the third floor beside the door.

The enemy didn’t just rush inside. Even if they were to think with their butt, they would know that inside the room was under the killing range of the sniper.

"Smoke grenade? Too bad it's useless on me." Ayesha ignored the door being slightly opened as she aimed at the concrete wall and pulled the trigger.

…

"Dammit, its PLA’s sniper, someone betrayed us!" said Mike with a short breath as he tightly clenched onto the loaded pistol.

"We might be surrounded, control the hostage first." The black man with an assault rifle was calmer as he took out a smoke grenade from his waist.

There was only one place where one can find a sniper in Hua, and it was in the military. Snipers were like rats traversing under the foot of an elephant. If their trails were exposed, their only fate was to be stomped.

Unfortunately, this place wasn't Iraq. There was no aircraft carrier to provide covering fire while they retreated.

Just as the black man was about to throw a smoke grenade inside the room, the concrete wall he was leaning against instantly shattered. A bullet penetrated through the ten-centimeter wall and ripped his head into pieces.

"Fu*k!"

Mike immediately rushed for the stairs. He couldn't care about the hostage anymore. The enemy’s bullets seemed to have eyes growing on them. He only wanted to leave this god-forbidden place!

Mike flipped out of the window and rolled to the back of the abandoned building. With his back against a thick wall, he regained a sense of security: It was normal for a bullet to penetrate through a wall, but it was impossible for it to pass through an entire building.

He glanced at the empty ground twenty meters in the distance and debated for a few moment, but he had no courage to run across.

"Sh*t! What is the dumba*s Miller doing!" he cursed out, but he had no other solutions.

Miller was the sniper responsible for supporting this mission, but there was no movement from him at all. Because he was operating alone, Miller was not in the communication channel with Team C. Only Captain Caitlin could reach him, but she was already dead.

...

"Hidden?"

Ayesha muttered as she put away the sniper rifle and headed downstairs.

Due to the threat of the sniper, the enemy would not return to retrieve the hostage.

She moved along the bunker at high speed as she closed the distance with the target building. Jumping over a wall, she took out the pistol around her waist and moved to the CIB agent hidden behind the building. Her steps were quiet—like a cat—not making any noise.

A terrifying feeling suddenly overwhelmed Mike. The instant he turned his head, his eyes were met with the muzzle of Ayesha’s pistol.

Bang!

Ignoring the body crumpled on the ground, Ayesha moved to where Xia Shiyu was kept.

Chapter 255: That Bullet

It was easy to kill, but hard to take care of the aftermath.

A total of 22 lives, all consisted of CIB elites. If the CIB knew Jiang Chen was the perpetrator behind this massacre, they would jump up like a cat with its tail being stepped on and launch a series of counterattacks.

He could not take the responsibility for this incident.

Jiang Chen had used the truth-telling serum and obtained all the mission details from Griss’s mouth. Team A and B had died in his hand, without any accidents, and Team C should be finished by Ayesha already.

Zhang Youjie had, additionally, requested a sniper to assist with the mission in case there were any potential problems, but with Ayesha’s ability and equipment, it shouldn’t be a big deal to take out the sniper.

All counteractive measures were prepared for against the General Staff Department. Never in his wildest dream would Zhang Youjie believe that it only took two people to wipe out the entire CIB force.

With a casualty of almost thirty people, this was the most significant loss suffered by the CIB.

During the interrogation, Jiang Chen used the voice changing app on his phone to alter his voice so there was no need to worry about drawing any connections with him.

He picked up the voice recorder from Griss’s clothes and stared at the black face without a word. Taking out a pistol, he aimed at Griss's head and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The pupils dilated and began to lose its color.

Griss stopped breathing and his bloodstained life came to an end.

Unlike the last time in Veit—because they saw his power armor—he couldn’t leave anyone alive.

Jiang Chen sighed, put away his pistol, and started to deal with the aftermath.

Including Griss, Jiang Chen dragged the six people inside the van into the abandoned plant and lined them up together with the other bodies. It was a bit problematic dealing with Grim since he was shredded to pieces already.

Jiang Chen had the rare sensation of his stomach feeling upset.

The meat chunks were still warm…

After he removed any of the sensitive document and communication devices, all the bodies were transported back to the apocalypse to be burned outside of the Fishbone base. Upon returning back to the modern world, Jiang Chen used the blood dissolver to clean up any remaining blood.

Just like this, their existence in the modern world was wiped out.

There were still signs of a battle, but the bodies were nowhere to be found.

What Jiang Chen needed to do was to make the CIB believe that the agents on this mission were not dead, but—instead—all captured and imprisoned in a secret prison.

Only the government was capable of imprisoning nearly thirty agents inside Hua; a person would not have the ability to do so.

After all, imprisoning was incomparable to killing. Killing would only require a single bullet, but to capture people, it would require at least a prison as well as guards numbering no fewer than the prisoners. If there were any fewer, they may not be able to contain the elite agents.

Without the agents’ bodies, the CIB would be unable to confirm their deaths and would suspect that it was the General Staff Department who captured them.

In regard to prisoners, the UA’s typical response would be to save them. But Hua, who had never captured anyone, would not admit that they had imprisoned the agents. If Hua didn’t take the initiative to denounce UA for their espionage activities, UA's president could not step up to acknowledge the CIB’s operation in Hua. If they did, they would lose all their face as a country.

With Hua not making the first move to denounce the UA, the UA would have no grounds to plead on behalf of the agents.

Since it could not be solved diplomatically, they were only left with conducting secret missions.

Therefore, the center of CIB’s activities in Hua must be focused on the captured agents within the next year and, hence, ignore the smaller character, Jiang Chen. Even if they could not find any results, they could only conclude that the missing agents were secretly executed by the General Staff Department, and they would likely not associate the death of their agents with Jiang Chen.

As for to how to deal with the General Staff Department, that would the next step.

Now all Jiang Chen needed to do was to make the recorded message appear at the appropriate location.

As he was thinking, Jiang Chen took out the satellite phone from his storage dimension.

"Hello, Robert? I need your help…"

…

The ropes around her wrists and her legs were cut open. Xia Shiyu watched the girl fluidly inserting the dagger back around her wrist. She gulped and then spoke with a trembling voice, "Who, who are you?"

Since her vision had yet to completely recover, she couldn't clearly make out the girl’s face. She could only determine from the graceful outline that the girl must be stunning.

"Ayesha, Jiang Chen’s bodyguard."

Since Ayesha thought they would be "working together" in the future, there was nothing to hide… So Ayesha only hesitated for half a second before giving her name out.

Xia Shiyu would undoubtedly have a bewildered expression if she knew Ayesha’s thought.

"Bodyguard?" Xia Shiyu never knew Jiang Chen had a bodyguard before, so she could not help but to feel puzzled.

"Mhmm. We met in Iraq," Ayesha answered concisely.

Iraq?

Xia Shiyu had some memory of Jiang Chen’s visit there. She was still perplexed to this day why he went there.

[ Who are these kidnappers? They seemed to have kidnapped me with Jiang Chen as their intention… ]

What was surprising was that even if she experienced such a horrific event purely because of Jiang Chen, in her heart, she didn’t blame him at all.

[ In other people’s eyes, I’m already someone important to him… ] Xia Shiyu’s heart began to beat faster.

The only thing that made her slightly disappointed was that Jiang Chen wasn't the one who showed up.

But it made sense as she could not imagine Jiang Chen coming to her rescue with a gun.

The people who kidnapped her were not ordinary thugs, but fully equipped soldiers. In her memory, Jiang Chen might be a good fighter, but he was nowhere strong enough to contend against elite agents.

[ Why would foreign agents be interested in Jiang Chen anyways? Because of Future Technology? But Future Technology is only a private enterprise, why would the foreign agents be interested? ]

Xia Shiyu had no knowledge of Jiang Chen's involvement in Dragon II, so she thought it was reasonable. Although Zhongxin High Tech had negotiated with Future Technology, she didn’t know the specifics of the agreement since it was Jiang Chen who was responsible for the negotiation.

However, she had a feeling it might have something to do with that project.

"I will take you out of this place first, let’s talk in the car." Ayesha’s voice interrupted her thought.

Jiang Chen would be here to clean up the scene in a bit, so it was better to take Xia Shiyu out of the place first.

"Mhmm." Xia Shiyu gulped and nodded.

With how anxious she looked, Ayesha’s expressionless face turned into a smile. She comforted her gently:

"Don’t panic, they are all dead."

[ Eh, she is panicking more? ]

Ayesha tilted her head, perplexed, while she looked at the shaking Xia Shiyu.

[ Whatever, let’s get out of this place first. ]

Shaking her head, Ayesha extended her hand to Xia Shiyu on the ground with care.

"If you can’t see, you can hold my hand."

Although Xia Shiyu was still terrified, she took a deep breath as she did her best to control the fear in her mind. She extended her hand while shaking and held onto the small hand.

But all of the sudden, Ayesha was alarmed and, almost instinctively, she shoved Xia Shiyu away.

Bang!

At that moment, a bullet penetrated through the window and struck her on the chest.

Chapter 256: Coldblooded

Blood gushed out of Ayesha’s mouth as the impact felt like a truck had slammed into her head on. Her tiny body was thrown into the air and smashed against the concrete wall. If it wasn't for the kinetic skeleton, she would've been dead already.

Blood dripped down through the corner of her lips. While enduring the sharp pain in her chest, Ayesha didn’t dare to hesitate and rolled away from the window.

Almost instantly, another bullet arrived and struck where she was previously. The shattered concrete debris scratched her face, and the 12.76 mm bullet left a giant crater on the ground.

After escaping from the area directly observable through the window, she then let out a sigh of relief and ripped off her jacket with teeth clenched.

Even with the genetic vaccine, bullets still treated everyone equally.

While the assault rifle of the modern world was inferior compared to those from the apocalypse, the power of a sniper rifle was not to be underestimated. From the damage done to the ground alone, the enemy must be using an anti-armor sniper rifle—the Barrett M82!

Though the bullet was deflected, it still caved in the polyethylene bullet-proof vest. The massive kinetic energy from the shot had knocked the wind out of her.

Xia Shiyu, completely oblivious to what had just happened, remained terrified and lied there without moving.

"Ayesha…"

"Don’t move, stay down!" Seeing Xia Shiyu wanting to come help, Ayesha immediately stopped her.

The caved-in part happened to be pressing against her ribcage, substantially interfering with her ability to breath.

She swallowed the blood back down, gritted her teeth, and removed the polyethylene plate in front of her chest.

Since it was one-time protection anyways, there was no point in leaving it in front of her chest after being shattered.

Taking a deep breath, she calmly took out a smoke grenade and threw it near the window.

Fearing that Xia Shiyu would stand up, Ayesha said, "Stay put. Try to stick to the floor if you have difficulty breathing."

"Mhmm."

Xia Shiyu tightly pressed against the ground with the smoke hiding her terrified—but gorgeous—face.

Forcing her body to move, Ayesha picked up the assault rifle and helmet belonging to Caitlin and returned to the window.

Using a lighter, she heated up the helmet and then used the assault rifle to raise the helmet, slowly moving it to the window opening.

Bang!

With the "head" barely exposed, the helmet was blown away.

[ Thermal vision? ]

Ayesha’s eyebrows twisted together and looked at the door.

The enemy must have headed to the sniping location she was previously at; therefore, the door must also be in the range of the sniper. Without the ability to move, they were completely suppressed inside this room.

It was her first time encountering a situation like this in real life.

[ What to do… ]

Inhaling deeply, Ayesha clenched tightly onto the Ghost sniper rifle in her hands.

She started to feel hazy from the acute chest pain. It was only through sheer willpower that she hadn't fallen unconscious yet.

Her body temperature began to lower, and her consciousness also slowed.

Suddenly, a faint light flashed on the EP.

Ayesha, noticing the abnormality on the EP, hesitated for a moment before opening it up.

<Hidden Genetic Code:>

<Coldblooded: Decrease the surface body temperature to the extreme—like a dead creature—to achieve the state of being invisible to any non-optical detection device.>

<Side effect: Metabolism lowered to the extreme, interfering with any wounds healing. Prolonged usage may result in a coma.>

[ Hidden genetic code? Eliminate body heat? ]

[ Could it really do that? ]

[ … Whatever, I have to take the gamble. ]

She took another deep breath as she felt her body heat decreasing to the extreme and her heart speed slowing down tremendously. Ayesha, with the sniper rifle, knelt at the window.

Seeing that a bullet didn’t arrive, she had a smile on her face.

Inside the smoke, without the help of thermal vision, the enemy couldn't see her.

She activated the thermal vision on the scope and locked on to the bright spot a thousand yards away.

"Goodbye."

Ayesha pressed the trigger, and blood splattered in the scope.

"Finished…" she muttered to herself.

At the same time, her tightly tensed consciousness reached its limit.

As the smoke began to fade, the sniper rifle rolled out of her hands, and she dropped to the ground.

"Ayesha!"

She faintly heard someone calling her name, but she couldn’t hear anything after.

[ Tired .]

[ I really want to sleep… ]

…

Dagger struggled to get up from the ground after waking up from unconsciousness.

"Fu*k, this guy didn’t go easy on me."

He touched his pocket; the pistol and phone were all there.

"It’s going to be really problematic now."

Dagger rubbed his bruised face as he sat down on the bench nearby. It was completely dark already. After lying on the concrete ground for so long, Jiang Chen must have been long gone.

He took out the phone and dialed Jiang Chen.

"The number you are calling is either out of service or has been shut down…"

"Should I say it is expected?" Dagger let out a sigh as he hung up the phone.

At the same time, his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"It’s me, Miao Jun," replied a feeble voice from the other side of the phone.

"Little Jun?! Where are you now?!" Dagger was shocked.

Although the tone sounded confounded, it was indeed Miao Jun’s voice. Dagger originally didn’t have any hope, but Miao Jun did manage to escape from the CIB! If he saw the face of that agent, it would definitely be a turning point in this stalemate!

On the other hand, while he didn’t say anything, he was indeed worried about the safety of this immature student.

"I’m in the rural area…"

"Wait there! Tell me the address, I’ll be right there."

After confirming the location, Dagger rushed into the car and raced to the rural area.

While en route, Dagger reported to headquarter about losing Jiang Chen and of Miao Jun escaping.

To the news of Jiang Chen defying the order, his superior, General Liu, was only silent and not angry. He then ordered Dagger to immediately rescue Miao Jun, who had escaped from the CIB. As for Jiang Chen, he had already sent other people to handle it.

When the communication ended, he reached to where Miao Jun described.

With the car parked on the road, Dagger took his pistol and rushed into the alley.

Not long after, he saw Miao Jun covering his stomach while leaning against a wall.

Miao Jun was covered in blood, with bruises all over his face.

Seeing this scene, Dagger instantly became furious and he quickly rushed to the side of Miao Jun, putting an arm around his shoulders.

Dagger started cursing when he saw that his student was tortured by the CIB.

"Fu*k, don’t let me catch them—"

But he couldn’t finish the sentence, his voice froze halfway.

Slowly, he looked down.

"Why…"

"No reason."

The blood on Miao Jun was fake, and the feeble voice was also feigned.

However, the blood flowing out of Dagger was real.

"Because of money?"

Dagger stared at the blade in his stomach, bitterness was the only impression left on his face.

The pistol slid down from his hand, and Miao Jun kicked it away.

Perhaps Miao Jun was embarrassed to answer such a question; he didn’t say anything as he made another stab at Dagger's stomach.

"If you wanted to be rich, why did you become a soldier…"

More blood flowed out, interrupting Dagger’s harsh words.

In the unknown alley, the seasoned veteran stopped breathing.

After killing the "master" he had spent half a month with, Miao Jun took a deep breath and suppressed the guilt in his mind. He took the phone and car key from Dagger's body and walked to the Sonata.

One million USD, he could not make that much in his life.

Just like what Zhang Youjie had said: since he was already planning on retiring, what difference does timing make?

Chapter 257: CPR

Her eyelashes trembled.

While feeling drowsy, Ayesha felt something wet touch her lips.

The pressure on the left of her chest caused an anguished moan to escape from her lips.

This feeling was very weird, making her uncomfortable.

Subconsciously wanting to escape, Ayesha's figure twitched.

In response, "the weird feeling" seemed to be more excited. The compression on her left chest became harder and faster; the aggressive feeling on her lips was increasing…

Gradually, Ayesha’s consciousness returned. She opened her eyes slowly, but was met with a pair of crystal pupils.

She was stunned.

Xia Shiyu was also stunned—the panic on her face quickly turned into embarrassment.

The reason for the awkwardness was naturally because of her intimate position.

Because she had never done CPR before, half of her body was resting on Ayesha’s body. With one hand on her left chest and the other hand pressed against the ground, she had kissed Ayesha’s lips in an awkward position.

The two fell silent.

"Ayesha!" At the same time, the door was slammed open, with Jiang Chen rushing in.

Xia Shiyu had called him a moment ago explaining that Ayesha was in critical condition, so he had rushed over in a panic.

But before he could take a few steps through the door, he froze in place.

Uhh, how should he say this? Although Jiang Chen was pleased to see the two having a good relationship, he was not mentally prepared to see this…

"Uh, when did you start…" Jiang Chen scratched his face and awkwardly looked away.

"No, it’s not what you think!" Xia Shiyu’s face turned red and instantly jumped away from Ayesha’s body as she desperately tried to explain to Jiang Chen.

Compared to Ayesha, her face was a lot thinner.

"This is… CPR?" Ayesha, still on the ground, tilted her head.

While she was also embarrassed, she quickly collected herself together and realized that Xia Shiyu was performing CPR on her.

It's just that the position was too awkward; generally, when performing CPR, it was not necessary to lean on the person’s body.

"Mhmm!" Xia Shiyu gently bit on her lips, blushing.

Although she was terrified, when she saw Ayesha fall unconscious, she had gritted her teeth and dragged Ayesha away from the window.

After doing all this, she had immediately called Jiang Chen and explained Ayesha’s condition. Right before she was about to call the police, Jiang Chen had stopped her and asked her to wait there before he hung up.

[ Don’t call the police? ]

Although Xia Shiyu didn’t understand why Jiang Chen would make this judgment, with a headless corpse beside her, she—who was already terrified—began to realize that the incident may not be normal. After an internal struggle, she had finally chose to trust Jiang Chen’s judgment and not call the police.

She had tried hard to not look at the gruesome corpse and focused all her attention on the girl in front of her.

The girl was beautiful.

Her eyelashes were long, her facial structure was also delicate, and her fair skin was especially comparable to a porcelain doll, arousing jealousy from anyone looking at her.

When Xia Shiyu thought about this, she felt jealous.

She had never known that Jiang Chen had such a beautiful bodyguard beside him. And with those looks, she may not even be 18 yet…

But then, a hint of guilt appeared in her mind. Ayesha had just saved her, and she was now speculating about Ayesha's relationship with Jiang Chen... it was insulting. With Jiang Chen attitude and personality, he shouldn’t have done anything that would cross the line…

Needless to say, she didn’t really understand Jiang Chen after all.

Just as her mind drifted elsewhere, she had suddenly noticed that the girl’s chest was not moving.

This had caused Xia Shiyu to start panicking, and she immediately put her finger on Ayesha's upper lip. There was no breathing!

Without hesitation, although she had never done a CPR before, Xia Shiyu still stepped up, resulting in the intimate scene that had just occurred.

"Thank you." Ayesha smiled at Xia Shiyu.

"No need to thank me… Or rather, I should thank you." Xia Shiyu took a deep breath and sincerely bowed down.

Ayesha didn’t say anything and accepted Xia Shiyu’s gesture.

"You made me scared… What happened?" Jiang Chen was relieved as he walked beside Ayesha to help her up.

"Sniper, I overlooked it," Ayesha said apologetically.

Because she was too anxious to save the hostage, she only scanned for life signal at the target building and forgot to scan her surroundings, which resulted in the enemy gaining the upper hand.

When Jiang Chen heard this, he immediately started to check her body and rushed to question:

"Are you injured?!"

"No, the polyethylene plate blocked the bullet." With the concerned expression on Jiang Chen’s face, Ayesha only felt warmness in her heart.

Jiang Chen was relieved after everything was okay. When Jiang Lin designed the K1 kinetic skeleton, he told Jiang Chen that the supra-molecular polyethylene ballast plate could only block some rifle bullets, but he didn’t know if it could block sniper bullets.

However, when he gave a thought, it made sense.

The assault rifle Jiang Lin had referred to was the PK2000 and the Reaper that was common in the apocalypse. Although the light armor could not defend against the sniper rifle in the apocalypse, the M82, known as the cannon in the modern world, could only shatter the plate.

So the injury sustained by Ayesha was only due to the kinetic energy from the bullet.

But the problem was if it was just the kinetic energy, why was she knocked out? Although the power of the anti-armor weapon was fierce, it was not strong enough to the point where it could knock Ayesha—who was injected with a genetic vaccine—unconscious.

"Ahem." Xia Shiyu looked at the way Jiang Chen explored Ayesha’s body and turned aside. With a hint of jealousy in her voice, she said, "Although Ayesha is your bodyguard, she is a girl after all… Just be careful."

"Ah. Sorry." Jiang Chen instinctively retracted his hand.

Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu. She seemed to have understood something as a smile surfaced.

[ That kind of relationship? ]

"Head to the car first with Ayesha, I will be right there." With the questions Xia Shiyu seemed to have, Jiang Chen paused and then added, "Once we’re on the car, I will explain to you everything."

With the serious expression on Jiang Chen’s face, Xia Shiyu just nodded and Ayesha took her to the Maybach.

After cleaning the battlefield, Jiang Chen returned to the car.

The Sonata Jiang Chen bought was parked in a community nearby, abandoned.

It was one in the morning and there was only one car on the empty road; it looked desolate.

Jiang Chen sat in the front seat as Xia Shiyu, in the back, seemed to be uncomfortable. Jiang Chen asked with care in his voice, "Do you feel uncomfortable?"

"N… No."

Xia Shiyu yawned, leaned against the car door, and muttered, "My first kiss… was given to a girl."

Ayesha who was about to start the car paused before she began to giggle.

"What are you laughing at?" With redness covering her face, Xia Shiyu pretended to be serious, but her voice wasn't confident at all.

Jiang Chen also resisted the temptation to laugh as he said out loud, "CPR doesn’t count as the first kiss."

"That makes sense…" Xia Shiyu looked away with a relieved expression.

"Is there anyone you want to give your first kiss to?" A rare, cunning look appeared on Ayesha’s expressionless face.

"Of course, someone I like."

"Do you like Jiang Chen?" Ayesha was persistent.

"Why, why do you suddenly ask this?" Xia Shiyu’s face immediately blushed as she spoke incoherently.

Jiang Chen also awkwardly scratched his face as he said, feeling embarrassed, "Ahem, don’t—" But his sentence was cut short.

Ayesha suddenly kissed him.

Xia Shiyu just felt something shattered as she completely froze.

"Your first kiss is now his."

Ayesha turned around and smiled gently at the completely dumbfounded Xia Shiyu.

The pristine blue eyes were filled with mischief.

…

Miao Jun parked the Sonata on the side of the road and walked to the agreed location with a perplexed feeling.

It was one and a half hour past midnight, the road was empty. Leaning against the road lamp, he gazed into the distance and silently waited.

Based on the agreement he made with Zhang Youjie, as long as he took care of Dagger and brought his phone to the agreed location, the task would be completed.

"If you want to be rich… then why did you become a soldier…"

The words left by Dagger lingered around his ears like a nightmare.

"You think I really wanted to be a soldier?" Miao Jun swore out loud and stuffed his cold hands into his pocket.

Betraying his country.

He never thought this day would come.

That thought alone gave him goosebumps.

A car light eventually approached from the distance. When Miao Jun saw this, he clenched the pistol in his pocket. Right when he saw the face in the car, his tensed expression started to loosen.

The car came and parked in front of him. A middle-aged man got out of the car and smiled at Miao Jun.

"Mr. Miao, I trust that you must have completed the deal we made."

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 258: Eternal Loyalty

"Team A and Team B lost communication. Team C and Sergeant Miller confirmed dead."

Inside the consulate office with the report coming in from the phone, Zhang Youjie’s finger trembled.

Five lives, 20 something people captured. The supposedly-flawless mission ended in an overwhelming defeat.

Not to mention, it was the most severe loss suffered by the CIB.

The other side of the phone fell silent. Li Zhongping, who was still in Hucheng, waited for an order.

"Is it the work of the General Staff Department?"

"Should be," Li Zhongping responded in a low voice.

With a deep breath, Zhang Youjie deliberated before he ordered, "… Mission aborted, retreat."

Although it was unfortunate, the mission did fail already. Without surprise, the UA embassy in Shangjing would receive a letter from the Han Congress, then the UA will be denounced by Hua in a news conference.

The muscles on Zhang Youjie face twitched uncontrollably, his heart dripped blood.

"What about the pawn left there?" asked Li Zhongping, referring to Miao Jun who had defected.

His previous plan was if Hua put Jiang Chen under house arrest, they would use Miao Jun to take out Dagger and bring the imprisoned Jiang Chen out.

But the plan never seemed to be in their control. Hua seemed to have used Jiang Chen as bait to take out Team A and B by using the PLA army stationed nearby. Right afterward, Team C that kidnapped the hostage was ambushed by a sniper.

Was the mission leaked?

The CIB, fooled by the General Staff Department.

Zhang Youjie inhaled deeply, trying hard to calm himself down.

Since losing was inevitable, minimizing loss was what he needed to consider.

"Take him out, he saw my face. Also, before taking him out, get him to take out Dagger."

"Yes."

Zhang Youjie hung up the phone and rubbed his sore nose before he left the office.

…

Miao Jun had never thought that he would join the military. He had never thought that after graduation, he'd be a secret agent in the intelligence department and become a part of the General Staff Department.

As for his dream, he wanted to become a businessman like his uncle. Or more simply, he wanted to be rich.

But things didn’t go as planned.

His original plan was to attend the business department at Wanghai University, and then start his own company after graduation.

He worked hard and indeed achieved stellar results.

He could vaguely recall the joy on his parents’ face when they were checking his score.

However, when it came time to apply for schools, his parents were against it.

He'd never imagined that his parents would plead with him, asking him to give up on his dream and to, instead, attend the Shangjing National Defense University.

There was no reason other than a parents’ concern for their son’s future.

"Your grandpa’s old comrade is now a General. With this connection, if you attended the National Defense University, you will have a glorious future in the army!"

"Business? Do you know how difficult it was for your uncle? He couldn’t even afford to eat at times! Business is not as easy as you think?"

"This is for you…"

Finally, Miao Jun decided to become a soldier.

What’s ironic was that with this route, the only way he could achieve his dream was to become a bodyguard for the rich after leaving the army.

It was not impossible to be rich by staying in the army. There were plenty of money to be found in the logistics department, and a non-combat position in the recruiting office also had some opportunities; however, as a personnel from the intelligence department… it would be dangerous if he became wealthy.

His parents' consideration made him step onto a path that he didn’t even like in the first place. He tried to make himself enjoy it, but he realized that despite how hard he tried or how many achievements he earned, everyone would attribute his success to his connection and would automatically ignore his hard work.

Indeed, with the help of his connection, he was promoted quickly and managed to be part of the General Staff Department at the age of 24. But on the dinner table, his parents would only exclaim that his grandpa’s comrade was someone who changed his life, and they ignored the fact that he had almost died at the special training camp!

"Having a rough time? Everything you do will be rough! That is a given."

If Miao Jun wanted to complain, his father would definitely "comfort" him like this.

No one mind having a rough time if it was a career that they were passionate about.

However, he only felt dread.

Reality has shown that no amount of forced love can substitute real love. The same is true for a career and country. Even though he had memorized to heart the idealogy of the army, even without truly accepting it, he still did not hesitate to speak the words he did not care about when he swore with everyone.

One million USD? The money was attractive, but that was not what attracted him the most.

A green card, a ticket to the free world… He was tempted.

Freedom.

Needless to say, the concept of it held a fatal attraction. Even if he would curse it because he couldn’t obtain it, he would still comfort himself that he had lived a fine life without it.

Even after dinner, he would always curse with his comrades about the despicable UA soldiers.

"Mr. Miao, I trust that you have completed our agreement." Li Zhongping smiled.

Miao Jun looked at the weed on the side of the road as his throat moved. "Dagger is dead."

"Is that so? Then congratulations." Li Zhongping was relieved and drew out a pistol from his pocket.

Because it was too sudden, Miao Jun didn’t manage to react.

He gulped and utter out with difficulty, "Why?"

"God will bring you eternal freedom. Okay, Mr. Miao, goodbye—"

Bang!

A bullet penetrated Li Zhongping’s head, his blood splattering onto the car.

"Fu*k!" The CIB agents driving immediately pulled out his gun.

"What are you waiting for!" A thunderous roar came from the distance.

Miao Jun, surprised, unconsciously drew out his pistol.

Bang!

Before the driver could do anything, Miao Jun shot him.

Breathing heavily, within the short few seconds, his entire back was drenched in cold sweat.

At the end of the alley, a figure staggered forward.

When Miao Jun saw the wrinkled face, he smiled wryly. He threw away his pistol and didn’t run. Instead, he raised both of his hands.

It was Dagger.

For some reason, seeing him still alive, Miao Jun felt relieved despite knowing that this meant that he'll be spending the rest of his life in prison.

"Sorry, I… plotted against you." Due to his guilt, Miao Jun didn’t dare to look at his master in the face.

"You really think you could plot against me?" Dagger scorned while he covered his bleeding wound and sat on the engine cover.

He paused before the dried lips spoke trembling.

"I took the two daggers on purpose. If you really could escape, you wouldn’t have been caught in the first place. If you truly did escape, there was really one possibility…" The old face flashed with a cunning look fitting for his age as he gazed at the rookie for a long time.

"I defected," Miao Jun said with a bitter expression.

"Learn." Dagger smile with his left hand still covering his wound, the right hand pressed against the engine cover.

"No need, there is no opportunity to use it even if I learn." Miao Jun sighed and took out Dagger’s phone to call General Liu.

He was planning to confess.

But suddenly, Dagger, with keen eyes, snatched the phone and hung up the phone yet to be dialed.

With a perplexed expression on Miao Jun’s face, Dagger grinned and threw the phone away.

"Dying due to a comrade’s defecting... even if you don’t think it is embarrassing, I still think it is. 'Dagger suffered an honorable death.' I’m more willing to have the last line written like this."

[ Death?! ]

Miao Jun was stunned as his eyes widened, "How is that possible, didn’t you purposely-"

"Although it is on purpose, they still hit the sweet spots," Dagger laughed, but he started to cough while laughing.

Blood stained Miao Jun’s clothes.

"Let me call an ambulance for you—"

"There is no need"—Dagger stopped Miao Jun—"I know my body."

"I..." Miao Jun’s finger trembled and froze there not knowing what to do.

The apology was stuck in between in throat, it could not be squeezed out.

He knew that even if he apologized, it was useless.

He had killed him.

Disregarding Miao Jun’s expression, Dagger muttered to himself:

"I’m old and can’t even beat the young guys. Five years, the organization brought me back to the country. I was supposed to retire that night. But Old Liu found me and wanted me to use my experience abroad to provide some guidance on anti-espionage activities and train a few more newcomers for the state… I agreed.

"Five years, there were a total of 27 young men that trained under me. You should be the last one." Dagger looked at Miao Jun pleasingly and nodded, "You are the most talented I have seen—for a new recruit."

"Sorry—"

"Don’t apologize." Dagger shook his head.

"27 people, only six stayed. My old superior wanted me to convince those talented to stay, but I never did that. The melon forcefully grown isn't sweet."

His voice was filled with melancholy.

"If you want to be rich, don’t be a soldier. If you are reluctant, problems will arise, sooner or later."

Miao Jun lowered his head, his face covered in embarrassment.

The voice turned more feeble and Dagger continued to mutter to himself:

"I know that my country might not be the best… You guys can go on the internet, the things you see, I know too.

"But even like this, I still firmly believe that it will become better.

"Before that, please protect it for me, until that day is here.

"But don’t force yourself."

"Could… could I know your name?" Miao Jun asked while sobbing.

"My name? Haha." Dagger grinned as if he had regained his life back, and his voice was again filled with energy.

He took out the pistol that he had used for many years and threw it in Miao Jun’s hand while shaking.

"Once you have enough authority, you can just flip through my document. If you retire, there is no need to know anymore.

"Return this to Old Liu for me, I have fought for him for half of my life. Return this gun to its rightful owner."

Then, Dagger slowly closed his dried eyelids.

This time, he really stopped breathing.

Just like an aging shepherd finally welcoming its eternal peace.

"AHHHHHHH!"

Under the streetlight, on the empty road, a man kneeled on the ground howling in tears.

_Min_ _Min_

1/3

Chapter 259: The Reaction across the Pacific

A lot happened that night.

The error in judgment of Jiang Chen’s ability made the CIB pay a heavy price.

The error in judgment to Jiang Chen's reaction caused the General Staff Department to lose Jiang Chen’s whereabouts.

Who would have thought an ordinary person would suddenly become a fully equipped "Ironman" like a superhero in the Hollywood movie? Who would have thought the "obedient" individual would suddenly express anger, "Sorry, I’m not your subordinate"?

From God’s perspective, the focal point of the clues revolved around the man called Jiang Chen. But because of the blind spots of each party’s intelligence, as well as the context that the two sides would never sit around a table to exchange information, the CIB and the General Staff Department were both tricked in this one incident.

Regardless of how anxious the General Staff Department was about Jiang Chen’s disappearance, a person across the Pacific was also in a state of anxiety.

It was still midnight in Hua, daylight on the other side of the earth.

It was the Rainbow Mansion of UA.

Right now, John Brennan stood awkwardly in front of the President’s table, but his previous aggressive stance was long gone. Normally, he would not put aside his pride and just stand here in front of the president of the UA because CIB was independent of the intelligence system. Even the Congress had no rights to ask for specific details. From this point alone, he lived a much better life than the current president who constantly receives pressure from the Congress.

Beside John, James Komi was gloating. Compared to the bald old man, the only 35 years old middle-aged man looked sharper. Nothing made him more delighted than his opposition suffering.

That’s right, while they served the same government, the two organizations didn’t have the best relationship.

Therefore, the past UA presidents had a love and hate relationship to the two hands that always fought each other.

Right now, the president wanted to throw his shoe at John’s face.

"Ahem, before we start the meeting, lets first listen to a voice message." James coughed and signaled the two to look in his direction. Then he raised his eyebrows at the old opposition John before he put the smartphone on the president’s desk.

It was a recorded interrogation.

The voice of the interrogator was low and slightly stiff. It was hard to make out the voice, but the person being interrogated was clear to distinguish.

Griss, CIB’s elite agent. The president had personally awarded him an honorary emblem.

But the super warrior that survived through the chaos in Iraq had no life in his voice. Rather than wry, it was more accurate to describe as completely hollow.

What kind of torture did the General Staff Department use to force the tough man to confess the entire mission details in two short hours? Just be listening to the voice without any life in it, the three in the president office felt a horrific chill.

The recording ended.

John took a deep breath and loosened his tie in discomfort. The president’s face looked gloomy.

Even though his legs remained on the desk, he did not say a single word.

Seeing the two didn’t say anything, James smiled and spoke out.

"Kidnapping and threaten a lawful businessman is despicable and unconstitutional. Disregarding the fact that your people took the constitution seriously, with the severity of this mission, could I consider this as the biggest mistake that occurred in your history?"

"Please mind your words, Mr. James, I’m considering the interest of the nation," John argued back out of habit, but there was no confidence in his voice at all.

"Is that so? But what about now? There are more odds in our diplomatic relationship with Han and they caught us with our pants down. We could have used a mild method to drag the Han businessman over to our side. Where do you think the CIB agent is conducting the mission, Syria? Iraq? God, that is Hua."

John looked awkward, so he diverted the topic.

"James, I don’t think it is appropriate for you to demonstrate your cheerful attitude in this setting."

"No, who said I’m cheerful, I’m furious." James resisted the urge to laugh as he rubbed his upper lip.

"No, you are laughing."

"It is your illusion, Mr. John."

"Both of you, shut up," The president suddenly spoke out.

Like two chickens fighting, John looked at James aggressively, but James at an advantage only shrugged and looked at the president with a pleasant smile.

"Now, let’s discuss how we are going to fix this thing," The president deeply inhaled and said gloomily.

"First, we should think of a plan to rescue the twenty-something agents back. Since Griss was interrogated, then at least it meant that they didn’t die because of crossfire, but were rather captured," John tried his best to calm down and slowly explained the situation.

"But till this moment, Hua didn’t comment on this incident. Should I call over and admit our mistake? And beg them to release the prisoner?" The President was instantly furious.

John’s expression suddenly turned awkward again as he shrugged with thick skin.

"Then write twenty-five copies of the honorary letters and send it to the family of the missing warriors."

The president rubbed his weary forehead before he sat up from the chair.

"James, where is the recording from?"

"The email appeared two hours ago in one of my subordinates' mailbox. Realizing the severity of the situation, he immediately sent the file to me," James said delightfully.

"What’s the validity of the file?"

"We conducted voice analysis with Griss’ voice, it matched perfectly.

"Mhmm." The President only nodded.

"Let’s think how to take care of the aftermath. Since the conflict… already occurred," John rubbed his nose and said uncomfortably.

With the way John looked, the president almost wanted to curse at him.

[Fu*k, you don’t tell me before you execute the mission, and now I have to wipe your butt when there is a problem.]

But he only said it in his mind and not out loud.

He deliberated for a while before the president spoke out.

"Immediately stop the interference with Dragon II; the mission failed."

John nodded. James who was primarily responsible for domestic intelligence shrugged as it didn’t concern him.

"If Hua denounces us on this… we’ll send the delegation team. If Hua doesn't comment on this… we likely won’t get them out. If we can, just send some more agents. Remember, don’t get caught again," The President said while massaging his forehead.

John was grateful for the fact that the President’s promised to visit Hua. He nodded again.

A visit to Hua meant pleading. As long as they could save the twenty-something people, John would face significantly less pressure.

As to the Han businessman, the President already forgot about him.

Compared to just a businessman, it was more important to wipe the butt of the CIB.

And it was just a Dragon II drone system, the talented UA didn’t need it at all.

_Min_ _Min_

2/3

Chapter 260: Escaping the Cage

Xiangjiang, the Peninsula.

In the elegantly designed grand hall, a young man sat at the corner with a foreign girl. They appreciated the gracefulness of the sunshine while quietly enjoying the afternoon.

The musicians played a melodious, but slow classical music. The server in British-style uniform courteously walked beside the two and put the three-story silver tray filled with desserts on the table, and then poured black tea for them.

To be honest, the British dessert didn’t taste great. The taste of the chocolate ball and the cream puff didn’t differ much with the ones sold at the bakery. The only thing unique about the afternoon tea here was the exquisite atmosphere and rich history.

The hotel started construction in 1922 before completed in 1926 and opened in 1928. It is one of the most renowned and luxurious hotels in Xiangjiang and the world.

Of course, Jiang Chen couldn’t taste the atmosphere and the history. The only reason he was here was due to curiosity. Ayesha also was uninterested in those things as she was intrigued by the soft pudding on her plate.

Her slightly curled brown hair gently rested on her right shoulder. Her cute mouth and smooth skin bloomed into a beautiful image under the mild sunshine.

Jiang Chen could clearly sense that a lot of men were looking enviously at him. But he didn’t mind at all as he just sluggishly looked onto the street outside of the window while enjoying the tranquil and warm rays.

As to why he would appear 800 kilometers away, it started two days ago.

Jiang Chen who wiped out an entire force of CIB and engaged in a small conflict with the General Staff Department didn’t return to Hucheng. Instead, he drove all the way to Fujian.

On the car, Jiang Chen told Xia Shiyu about the incident from start to finish, including the meeting with Wang Linhua that night and then the specifics of the agreement with Zhongxin High Tech.

In the morning, he called his parents and told them that he had to return to Wanghai City because of a temporary business emergency and not to worry before he turned off his phone.

With Robert’s connection and Mr. Chen’s help, Jiang Chen boarded a luxury cruise as a tourist between Xiangjiang and Egret Island before walking off on Xiangjiang.

Xia Shiyu stayed on Egret Island for one day before she boarded a flight from there to Wanghai City.

When she got on the plane, the General Staff Department naturally contacted Xia Shiyu inquiring about Jiang Chen’s current location.

As part of Jiang Chen’s plan, Xia Shiyu transferred over the USB loaded with smart drone system 1.0, at the same time restating Jiang Chen’s original words. Jiang Chen’s wording was reserved, but if it were expressed in monotone, it would definitely sound harsh.

"I’m extremely displeased with what occurred in Hucheng. I’m not your subordinate, I did my obligation by paying my tax, and even if I obliged to my duty, you asked to me think of the bigger picture. This is funny, so I left."

"Even if I have left, this doesn’t mean that I abandoned the Han market, and it doesn’t mean that my overseas team abandoned the Han market. Except that because of the deterioration in the investment environment, we are forced to reevaluate the focus of our business. Future Technology will become a subsidiary and controlled by the newly formed Future International."

"Of course, regarding the agreement on the smart drone system 1.0, our party has already completed its development. I sincerely hope that your party can honor the agreement and provide the advantageous policy to Future Technology."

"Yes, Future Technology has nearly three hundred million domestic users. But don’t forget, we also have over four hundred million international users, as well as one billion in the undeveloped market."

"We don’t just have one choice-"

General Liu was silent for a long time when he heard Jiang Chen’s response, he didn’t say anything at the other end and just sent people to protect Xia Shiyu before he reported Jiang Chen’s response to the top.

As to how to treat Future Technology, the top discussed and weighed the pros and cons before making the decision to maintain friendly relationships and canceling Jiang Chen’s restriction to leave the country… although he left the border already.

A technical team capable of producing military technology meant that it indeed possessed the value to establish a friendly relationship. Jiang Chen really didn’t develop the software during this time, and from the time it would take to complete the development, the actual developer was indeed not Jiang Chen. The stipulation of Jiang Chen being the developer was indeed false.

From that perspective, it was pointless if they controlled Jiang Chen.

There was another story that happened as a result of that. As the perpetrator that forced Future Technology away, the Wang family were heavily criticized by their political oppositions. The formation of Future International meant that the separation of the domestic and international market would cause the Wanghai City local government to give away five hundred million in foreign tax income.

While other forces were eager to take a bite of the juicy meat, the Wang family was the first to make a move. Therefore, they were heavily scrutinized by the central authority.

Of course, these were all after facts.

Since Jiang Chen left, at least he won’t be back for awhile.

…

The Xiangjiang businessman that took him on board was someone he met before. When Jiang Chen colluded with Robert to sell gold, it was him that transported the gold to international waters before Robert’s ship took it to South Africa.

When he saw Jiang Chen, he meticulously arranged everything for him. Not only did he send people to pick Jiang Chen up at the port, he even booked a room at the famous Peninsula.

To his friendly gesture, Jiang Chen gladly accepted and checked into the luxury sea view suite on the top floor with Ayesha.

Precisely speaking, it was considered smuggling. But when Jiang Chen got off the cruise, Robert prepared the necessary documents for him, so he was able to check in. As to Ayesha, because she possessed a green card, she could stay in Xiangjiang for a short period of time without any documents.

The program was transferred over, the General Staff Department no longer bothered him, and the CIB also had other issues to deal with.

Now that Jiang Chen was alone, he was free.

"Speaking of which, why did you suddenly kiss me," He asked nonchalantly while savoring the tea.

Ayesha buried her head upon hearing Jiang Chen’s question and stopped fondling with the pudding in her hand. Then she whispered quite embarrassedly.

"Because… I want to share with her, and not keep it hidden from her."

When Jiang Chen heard the naïve words, he really wanted to scoff that "If it is Xia Shiyu, she definitely can’t stand the existence of another woman," but it didn’t come out of his mouth in the end.

She was too greedy, even if Ayesha won’t be jealous.

Ayesha seemed to have seen through Jiang Chen’s thought and just smiled.

Being gazed upon by the gentle blue pupils, not a word could come out of Jiang Chen.

She gently put down the silvery fork in her hand and said.

"If she really left you because of this, that means she only has affection for you, and not love. If she really loved you, she would never leave because of this. At least, she will attempt to fight for you to come back."

[Fight for me? Not something that the thin-skinned Xia Shiyu would do.]

"Uh, it feels complicated now." Jiang Chen sighed while scratching the back of his head.

[Whatever, just follow the flow.]

It was already January. The food supplies to the wasteland would need to be solved. Hence, the next step was to take care of Pannu Islands.

_Min_ _Min_

3/3

Chapter 261: The Interference from an Unknown Channel

After the afternoon high tea, Jiang Chen took Ayesha to the renowned Disneyland in Xiangjiang. Although her childhood had no Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, it didn’t interfere with being touched by the happy atmosphere.

The mouth carved into a crescent moon was filled with joy and happiness.

She didn’t have a lively childhood. The moment she was born, her country was in the midst of unrest. From the joy on her face, Jiang Chen felt as if his weariness was healed.

Although the loving smile was also beautiful, Jiang Chen hoped she could smile more for herself. It was the reason why whenever he has the opportunity, he will take her everywhere.

To make up for her.

Taking photos, going on rides.

By eight at night, the two stood in front of the castle of the sleeping beauty with their hands held and enjoying the colorful fireworks blossoming in the sky.

The light reflected on her happy face was so charming. Jiang Chen was lost in the scene.

The happiness gradually turned into shyness under his direct sight.

She gently kissed his lips.

Fireworks lit up the sky and scattered.

Lips apart.

Ayesha slightly lowered her head, her face only flashed an attractive vibrancy.

"Thank you."

The lips murmured a timid gratitude.

Jiang Chen didn’t say anything, but she could clearly sense the reason why Jiang Chen choose to come here. It was mostly for her.

He didn’t reply and only smiled. Then he rubbed her soft hair.

"Do you feel happy?"

With a hand gently on top of Jiang Chen’s, Ayesha closed her eyes and softly said.

"Mhmm."

…

It was already nine before they left Disneyland, but they didn’t immediately return to the hotel. Instead, they went to Taigu Square.

After their last date in Veit, Ayesha became fascinated by all kinds of clothes. Within a short period, the two would not be able to return to Wanghai city, so the clothes in the mansion would have to stay there.

Thus, only when they carried a handful of bags back to the Peninsula did their day's itinerary finally end.

Jiang Chen locked the door behind him. Just when he had a smirk of a big bad wolf on and waiting for the little sheep to change clothes, the doorbell rang.

Surprising Jiang Chen, he wondered who would be visiting this late?

Although he was disappointed, Jiang Chen still tidied up his rumpled clothes, watched Ayesha go into the bedroom before he opened the door.

A heroic but beautiful face appeared in front of Jiang Chen.

"Hello, handsome." Natasha with one hand on the door looked at Jiang Chen half-smilingly.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh as he was planning to close the door.

Natasha’s eyebrows raised as she stepped one foot inside and dragged Jiang Chen by the collar and pressed him against the wall.

"What are you planning to do?" Jiang Chen shrugged as he glanced at her arm, "If I remember correctly when we were in Veit, you tried my ability before."

Natasha's expression froze for a moment as she suddenly recollected herself, remembering she was no match for him. The harmless looking man had an unbelievable amount of strength, one move and she would be on the ground.

But even then, she had no signs of backing down either.

She teasingly moved closer to Jiang Chen’s ear as she blew flirtatiously in his ear.

"Did Mr. Jiang forget what you did to me that day in the darkroom?"

"I only injected you with something…" Jiang Chen shrugged, but his expression looked awkward, "Speaking of this, you seemed to be opposed to the idea of sleeping with me that day?"

"That was before, do you not have any naughty thoughts about me?" Natasha said seductively, her 36E breasts had drawn in Jiang Chen’s attention.

But just as she finished, a cold solid item was pressed against the back of her head.

She didn’t know when Ayesha appeared behind her.

The particularly cold expression had a vibe to kill.

The playful smile froze on her face, the corner of Natasha's lips twitched as she let go of Jiang Chen’s collar and raised both of her hands to surrender.

"Your little beauty is still not friendly," Natasha ridiculed as she maintained her position with her hands held high. "Could you get her to put the gun down?"

Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen.

After seeing Jiang Chen nod did she obediently put the gun away, but the cautious look on her face did not fade away.

"I have other intentions for finding you." Natasha put on a stern face.

"Of course, I wouldn't think you would be here to hook up with me," Jiang Chen didn’t take her stern expression seriously as he said nonchalantly.

"Since you have left Hua, why don’t you come to Russia?"

"Regarding this, I believe we have already discussed it."

As if Natasha had guessed what he would say, she was not surprised and only let out a sigh.

"Although I have expected this… Looks like I will go back empty handed."

"That’s right." Jiang Chen nodded.

"Okay, I thought making a trip personally would move you enough." Natasha shrugged as she walked to the door. "If you ever change your mind one day, Russia’s door will always be open for you."

"Thank you very much." Jiang Chen sent Natasha out the door.

After closing the door, seeing that Ayesha was looking at him, Jiang Chen rubbed her hair smiling.

"What are you thinking about?"

Ayesha looked away in shyness as she murmured.

"Are we… going to continue?"

As she finished saying this, her face became red.

Although they were interrupted, seeing Ayesha’s timid look, Jiang Chen felt his thirst return.

"Of course." He softly spoke into her ear, "Do you want to shower first, or should I go?"

"I’ll go."

Then, with a blushed face, Ayesha dashed into the washroom.

Not long, the glass blurred and water began to drip.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room while waiting for the beauty to come out, Jiang Chen began to play with his EP.

Due to boredom, Jiang Chen suddenly remembered Ayesha’ coldblooded ability. Using it for an extended period of time could cause her to go into a coma which is a serious consequence.

When he first obtain his fury ability, he could only use medicine to control the activation and deactivation. With the help of medication, he could have been in an awkward position where he could activate but was unable to deactivate the ability.

Although Lin Lin definitely would have fallen asleep by now, Jiang Chen didn’t feel guilty about waking her up.

Indeed, Lin Lin with sleepy eyes appeared on the other side of the screen.

"Pervert, why are you not asleep this late, what do you need me for?"

"Mhmm, I have something to ask you…" Jiang Chen explained Ayesha situation to Lin Lin.

"Medicine for hidden genetic code? Although the coldblooded ability is uncommon, it probably could be purchased at the Sixth Street. Okay, I will tell Sun Jiao. Is that all?" Lin Lin yawned.

"Mhmm, sleep early." Seeing the drowsy Lin Lin in pajama, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile.

"I slept already-"

But then, the screen froze all the sudden.

Gradually, the middle of the screen turned into whiteness.

Jiang Chen was confused, he thought the EP or that chip was malfunctioning, so he knocked on the EP.

No reaction at all.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to restart the EP, the screen suddenly turned black.

Immediately, in the middle of the pitch black screen, a word appeared abruptly.

<Hello>

What surfaced after was a person with only an outline showing.

He had a hollow smile on and waved at him rhythmically.

Chapter 262: A Temporary Return

The next morning, while lying in bed, Jiang Chen hugged the cat-like Ayesha curled up in front of him and turned on the TV.

<… Recently, the authority had cracked a major case of foreign espionage activity. Two suspects were shot died during the arrest phase when they fired back, based on the evidence collected at the scene, the investigation has arrested 11 suspects, which include seven Zhongxin High Tech researchers as well four government officials. They will face espionage, treason, as well as seven counts of other charges.

Based on reliable information, the CIB may have been involved with this mission, suspect Zhang is currently hiding inside the UA consulate in Wanghai City and refusing to accept the trial by law. Right now, the investigation team has sent in a request to the UA embassy, hoping the UA consulate in Wanghai City can assist in the investigation. As to the specifics progress of the event, we’ll pass it on to our reporter in Wanghai City…>

[Suspect Zhang? Is that Zhang Youjie?] Jiang Chen yawned as he disinterestedly turned off the TV.

He’ll leave the trouble for "professionals" to solve. To the CIB and General Staff Department, it was definitely not the end. But to him, he can turn to the next page.

Even if everything started because of him.

"Dagger is good. Zhang Youjie shouldn’t have left anything behind, but Dagger still found evidence?" After putting the remote on the nightstand, Jiang Chen touched Ayesha’s nose as he fell into deep thought.

Three teams and one sniper. All the evidence was taken away by him into the apocalypse. In this case, the General Staff Department should have no reason nor evidence to determine the CIB planned this mission.

[Two agents shot, did a battle occur somewhere he didn’t know about?

Whatever, there is no difference in conclusion.]

Jiang Chen shook his head as he decided not to be troubled by this anymore.

Compared to these things, what kept him up at night was the video he saw no his EP yesterday.

After restarting it, the EP returned to normal. If it were not that every communication would be automatically written in the memory, Jiang Chen would have thought it was his illusion.

Hello?

Was it saying hello to me?

Jiang Chen pondered for a moment as he scratched his chin, but he still didn’t reach any conclusions.

"Whatever, I’ll go back to the apocalypse and gave the video to Lin Lin." He muttered to himself as he put it aside for now.

After waking up, Jiang Chen called the front desk.

Not long after, the server pushed a cart full of breakfast to the door.

After paying plus tips, Jiang Chen put the tray with a sandwich and mocha on the counter. Seeing Ayesha curled up with her hands in front of her chest, he couldn’t help but smile as he leaned down to kiss her smooth forehead. As if she had sensed the warmness, her eyelashes shivered, and a subconscious smile appeared on her face. She seemed to be having a sweet dream.

Because they slept really late last night, he didn’t want to disturb her peaceful sleep. So Jiang Chen left a message on the nightstand only the two of them would understand before initiating travel.

…

When he opened his eyes, he was in the apocalypse.

He didn’t stay in the room for too long as he headed straight to the gym on the third floor.

After quietly opening the door, Sun Jiao sensing the sound behind her and immediately turned around. When she saw it was Jiang Chen, surprised quickly spread across her face.

"You are back?" Putting the pistol away, Sun Jiao walked to him.

"Could you reaction be slower and let me give you a surprise?" Jiang Chen put his hand away from her waist as he said helplessly.

"Then why don’t you try again? I'll pretend I didn’t see you." Her beautiful pupils were filled with mischievousness.

"Ahem, I’ll pass. I have some important things to take care of this time."

Seeing that Jiang Chen had important tasks, Sun Jiao swiped away her naughty expression and waited for Jiang Chen to explain.

"How’s the production of the kinetic skeleton?"

Two months ago, Jiang Chen gave Jiang Lin the production goal of completing 50 kinetic skeletons a month, he was wondering what the progress was on this.

"We exceeded the goal," Sun Jiao had a proud smile on her face, "We have 110 kinetic skeletons in the armory, based on your order, we have not equipped the forces yet."

"110 sets?!" Jiang Chen shockingly looked at Sun Jiao.

Seeing the shocked Jiang Chen, Sun Jiao smiled as she began explaining.

"Did you forget that the Sixth Street is our territory now? Based on the recommendation of your acting general Chu Nan, after taking consideration of Jiang Lin opinion, a portion of our parts requirement was outsourced to the Sixth Street to complete. We establish the standards, they are responsible for the production and improvement of the parts. In this case, not only could we decrease production cost, the production speed is also improved. Right now, the Fishbone base can produce up to 80 sets of kinetic skeletons a month which doubled our previous production!"

"Great!"

Jiang Chen was ecstatic as he hugged Sun Jiao and gave her a passionate kiss.

"No."

Although her mouth said no, her body was honest.

After escaping Jiang Chen’s hug, Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at him, organized her slightly messy hair, and returned to her previous seriousness.

Realizing the inappropriate timing of his action, Jiang Chen coughed and got back on track.

"Set aside 100 kinetic skeletons, I have other uses. The rest will be prioritized to the force stationed at Zhufeng Highway, I have a sense this is not the end of the mutated humans."

Sun Jiao also looked concerned as she cautiously said.

"I hold the same opinion. The mutated humans have not reacted which is abnormal. Once March comes, their advantage of cold resistance would no longer exist. Also, the Dusk Church has no reason to give up on <Project Garden of Eden>… And, Sun Xiaorou is still in our hands." When Sun Jiao mentioned her sister, she seemed to have deflated slightly.

Sun Jiao's depressed mood made Jiang Chen feel a strong sense of guilt.

"No, you don’t need to apologize, you didn’t make any mistakes. Or rather, the fact that you can forgive her being an assassin is already a way of repaying." After pecking on Jiang Chen’s lips, Sun Jiao said sternly while staring into his eyes.

[Is this the logic of the apocalypse?] When Jiang Chen committed the action while enraged, he was unable to forgive himself.

Since Sun Xiaorou was his sister-in-law.

He didn’t know if the apocalypse had this type of ethical concept or not.

"I will destroy the Dusk for you," Jiang Chen promised.

"Thank you." Sun Jiao smiled sincerely.

Chapter 263: Sixth Street Nuclear Nonproliferation

For the past few months, the development of the apocalypse was stable and consistent.

The streets of the Sixth Street no longer showed signs of the civil war. The radiation level in the Inner Circle also returned to normal. To prevent similar events from occurring, Chu Nan ordered the Sixth Street’s soldiers to confiscate all tactical nukes at the Sixth Street.

Most of the tactical nukes were dug out from the ruins. Even with the possession of advanced technology, in an ever-changing battlefield, the normally never dysfunctional technology may not be entirely reliable.

While the World Alliance Organization did some recycling of these dangerous goods, a lot of nukes were still dispersed in the hands of ordinary survivors. Followed by the disbanding of the World Alliance Organization, this recycling plan was completely shut down.

The dysfunctional nukes only required some small modifications to take out the nuclear material before it can be made into a simple nuclear bomb.

Even in the ruins of the civilization caused by nukes, nuclear weapon remains an effective killing method.

Needless to say, Chu Nan has his ways in politics. After the nuclear non-proliferation was enacted, the force with detector did a carpet search of the entire Sixth Street. It only took three days to confiscate all tactical nukes.

For the people that handed in the weapon themselves, the Sixth Street military government compensated at them with a price equivalent to market value. For the people who went against the act, they were deported permanently.

Not that there was no resistance, but since only a few held nuclear weapons, the military government that stabilized the situation put out a strong attitude from the beginning to maintain the suppressive regime. Those resisting voices didn’t manage to form into anything meaningful before they all vanished.

In the option of dying together versus compromise, almost none chose the former one.

On the other side, under the order of Jiang Chen, Fishbone base formed an aerospace department with Jiang Lin taking charge of development and enhancement of space technology. This gesture was to complete the promise Jiang Chen gave to Jiang Lin about investing in his space dream.

Of course, a dream must consider reality. For now, the aerospace department’s primary task was not to design the who-knew-when-it-will-be-completed engine, but rather a missile capable of equipping nuclear material as a deterrence to the electromagnetic cannon of Liuding.

According to what Sun Jiao said, Fishbone base has currently set up five missile launchers in Qingpu and also deployed five W-1 ballistic missiles with nuclear material. The nuclear material was confiscated, and Jiang Lin completed the design of the W-1 ballistic missile.

The missile’s power parts used the booster of small civil rockets while the surface of the missile was covered with an anti-laser painting.

From a technical perspective, compared to the Disaster-32 missile that represented the technology peak of the pre-war military industry, the W-1 designed and manufactured by the Fishbone base had quite a significant discrepancy in not only anti-interception and accuracy, but it was enough to deter Liuding town.

...

After listening to Sun Jiao’s report, Jiang Chen went to the community center in the base and found Wang Qin, he took out 100 sets of kinetic skeletons and four hundred rounds of reaper rifles using 7.62 bullets, as well hundreds of heat sensor grenades. He moved everything to the warehouse behind the mansion's garden.

These firearms will be transported back to the modern world where it will be used in the near future.

Other than these firearms, Jiang Chen also assigned Wang Qin the task to place an order to the Sixth Street military factory to manufacture 20 anti-tank RPGs as well as 500 more heat sensor grenades.

With these military supplies, he was a mobile armory.

After combining this with the 100 people mercenary base in Niger, without exaggeration, Jiang Chen was capable of starting a small scale modern warfare.

After the war preparation was completed, Jiang Chen went to Lin Lin’s lab.

He had a lot of questions about the weird video.

...

"Oh, the pervert is back?" The door opened, and Lin Lin simply spoke out of habit.

Silver hair, red and black pupil, and the odd fashion sense of white shirt with the white lab coat. The adorable face was always ruined by the unrestrained comments.

Being used to her bad mouth, Jiang Chen ignored her greeting as she put the mango pudding on the table.

Seeing her favorite pudding, Lin Lin subconsciously began to slurp her saliva as her eyes shone with excitement.

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile at Lin Lin who was easily satisfied by a few puddings.

"Eat it later, I have something to ask you."

After rubbing the pudding box on her chest, she wiped the drool from her mouth, and reluctantly put the pudding aside.

"Speak your mind."

"When we video chatted yesterday, did you see something weird?"

"Something weird?" Lin Lin titled her head as she looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled, "I remember you hung up midway, then I went to sleep."

"Is that so."

Jiang Chen pressed the side of the EP as the memory chip popped out.

"I didn’t hang up… How should I explain this? It was as if the television program had some weird news being played in the middle of it."

Lin Lin was lost, she took the chip from Jiang Chen’s hand.

"That’s impossible? The fourth dimension messenger is based on the resonance of the Klein particles as the central design philosophy. Based on the theory, this type of special wave crossing the fourth dimension can only be passed along from the chip made out of the same crystal…"

Lin Lin mumbled some strange theory as she inserted the chip into the full sensory computer.

Light blue particles floated up as they instantly created a two-dimensional picture.

"The video is two dimensional, the picture quality is three dimensional, and the size is only 52 kilobytes… Did it get compressed?" After pressing a few times on the hologram screen, Lin Lin replayed the video Jiang Chen saw last night.

The hologram screen began to shake, and after a period of blurry whiteness, the strange figure appeared again.

<Hello>

For some reason, after seeing this "person" with only an outline, Jiang Chen felt an unnatural discomfort.

Suddenly, he realized where this feeling was coming from.

"Uncanny valley effect." Seeing the hand waving rhythmically, Jiang Chen mustered to himself.

Originated from the fear of death, humans would instinctively fear repulsive things similar to the human, but not the human.

"Uncanny valley effect? 100% humans are a bothersome creature." Lin Lin’s digitalized eyes slightly contracted as she began to analyze the details of the video.

But as she analyzed, her expression became more and more stern.

Seeing Lin Lin repetitively playing the video, Jiang Chen was just about to ask why she was doing so, when Lin Lin closed the video.

She let out a long sigh, wiped off the sweat from her forehead and looked at Jiang Chen with a very rare and serious expression.

"I have finished analyzing the video… Before telling you the result, can I ask a question?"

"Go ahead."

"When did your world’s history start to become weird?"

Chapter 264: Communication with the Past

It was an odd question to ask.

From Jiang Chen’s perspective, the history of this world was strange no matter how long he looked at it.

Hua reached an agreement with the surrounding countries to form the Pan-Pacific Alliance that included 60% of the world’s population. The resulting alliance would compete head-to-head with NATO and CCCP.

For someone like Jiang Chen who would occasionally read the news and keep an eye on current political events, it was a plausible scenario.

"Perhaps it was the Soviet’s collapse?" Jiang Chen thought for a moment, "I remember it was in 1991. In our world, the Soviet was only less than 70 years old."

Because of the short-lived two extreme opposites, it didn’t trigger the tension which caused the resulting Third World War. Jiang Chen was not a historian, it was his best guess of the situation.

"The Soviet collapsed? That’s hard to imagine…" Lin Lin pressed her chin as she frowned.

"Speaking of this, did we go off topic?" Jiang Chen coughed and said gently.

"No," Lin Lin shook her head, "Do you know how the crystal is formed?"

"The biological crystallization that formed in mutants and some zombies?" Jiang Chen didn’t know why her thought jumped to this common knowledge.

"That’s right; the crystal is a form of biological crystallization," Lin Lin nodded, "Based on the theory proposed by Doctor Klein in 2132 through his experiment, every conscious, carbon-based creature possess Klein particles in their body. But normally speaking, the energy level is usually stable and in meager quantity."

When Jiang Chen heard that every living creature possessed Klein particle, he subconsciously touched the back of his head.

"Don’t worry, not every creature would grow those kinds of "tumors". Unless it was an uncontrolled mutation which forces the area that stores the Klein particles to change, then crystals will not form. The stable energy must be agitated to become unstable. Under normal circumstance, creatures with crystals would more easily survive through natural selection. Therefore the mutants that walked out of the nuclear craters would normally possess crystals," Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen’s action and mocked.

"Based on dissection experiments, Klein particles would normally be stored in the brain."

When she talked about this point, Lin Lin stopped and took a deep breath.

"Hypothetically… I am saying hypothetically if there is a person, the Klein particle concentration in the back of its head would be much higher than normal people. Although crystals had yet to form, the Klein particle concentration was infinitely approaching the threshold value that would create the crystal. Although the probability of this type of genetic mutation is extremely low, with the population base of billions, it could theoretically exist."

"Through a kind of induction effect, just like magnets could magnetize metal, this would allow his brain to receive a signal from other timelines. He would be like an old antenna. Although he didn’t possess the ability to send out signals, he could passively receive signals from other broadcasting waves. Normally speaking, this signal could only come from the future!"

Jiang Chen’s expression also became sterner, but then he quickly discovered something that didn’t add up.

"Antenna? That’s not right… The brain is not a decoder after all. Even if there is an antenna in the brain, the brain could not decode the electromagnetic wave into a video message."

Lin Lin shook her head.

"Theoretically it is possible. The area where the Klein particles are stored is part of the brain after all. If the person receiving the signal happened to be sleeping, this would allow the special wave of Klein particles to be translated into a dream which would allow the person receiving the signal to 'see'."

"The broadcasting of high energy special waves to the past in the fourth dimension was something that was done in the past, but because it was impossible to pinpoint the fourth-dimensional coordinates, the broadcasting was meaningless…There was no point in sending the signal billions of years back. In the end, with the consideration of the butterfly effect that could cause an uncontrollable effect on the "present" the experiment was halted. The more advanced the technology, the more likely human play themselves to death."

When she spoke of this point, Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen who was speechlessness.

"But by the looks now, the concern was extraneous."

The "ancient" Jiang Chen was standing in front her. The interfered "past" would not cause any effect on the "present" now, it was just from the time point where history interfered that a parallel timeline to the "present" evolved.

"Time travel, excluding you as an exception I can’t explain, without the help of wormhole, even with the entire effort of a civilization, it would still not be possible to send a single particle of sand from the present to the past."

Lin Lin took out the memory chip from the full sensory computer.

"The cost of sending tangible mass to another point on the timeline is too expensive. Also, what if intangible material without mass was being sent? The signal with only 52kb of information could have been done with the technology from before the war. Plus, there's also the trouble of pinpointing where the signal will be sent…"

As she spoke, Lin Lin put the EP chip back into Jiang Chen’s hand. She looked at him with a serious expression.

"What if, someone received the information from the "future", what would he do with it?"

…

What would someone do if they received the signal from the future?

When Jiang Chen left Lin Lin’s room, he had been thinking about this question.

But as to what someone would do, it would depend on the information sent from the future?

If it were the winning lottery number for the next day, then that person would obviously buy the lottery. But the people from the future would not be bored enough to remember the winning lottery of the particular date to send the information back with such a tremendous cost.

"Change the future?" Jiang Chen mustered to himself as he went to his bedroom and lied down on the bed.

If CCCP and PAC didn’t exist, could they have avoided the Third World War that occurred in 2171?

But from the looks of it now, the person that sent the signal back was doing futile work.

This world didn’t change.

What changed was a parallel universe.

As Jiang Chen thought about this, he initiated interdimensional travel.

The scenery in front of his eyes changed. The sunshine outside of the window instantly became graceful.

It was noon already, Ayesha had already got up at this time.

Jiang Chen pushed open the bedroom door and walked into the living room.

Seeing Jiang Chen walk over, Ayesha who was flipping through fashion magazines on the sofa got up and greeted him.

"Someone came to find you."

"Someone came to find me? Who?"

Jiang Chen said while he stretched his body.

"He referred to himself as Mr. Chen. He called our room from the front desk."

Mr. Chen?

Seemed to be Robert’s business partner at Los Santos with some influence in Xiangjiang. On the way to Xiangjiang, Mr. Chen had helped him a lot.

Jiang Chen certainly had great impressions of him.

"What about now? Where is he?"

"I told him you were still sleeping. He asked to notify you after you woke up that he is waiting for you at the first-floor restaurant," Ayesha said gently.

Chapter 265: Mr. Chen

Jiang Chen had temporarily put aside the questions regarding the mysterious video. Regardless if the external circumstances, caused the history of his world to diverge from the wasteland’s, the fact is, it already happened and had nothing to do with him.

Or rather, from his perspective, the history of the wasteland was more peculiar.

He walked out of the room alone and headed downstairs.

It was already noon. Most of the customers at the hotel were enjoying lunch at the Felix restaurant on the 28th floor. Before the three o’clock afternoon tea began, the first-floor hall was empty.

When he came to the grand hall, he immediately saw Mr. Chen, who was sitting at the restaurant.

Chen Wei, a renowned businessman of Xiangjiang, had a focus on the entertainment and real estate market. He was the majority shareholder of Nanfeng Real Estate and Nanfeng Entertainment companies, with a personal net worth of over ten billion.

In a black suit with a kind face, he had a slight dogmatic vibe, similar to that of a ruthless leader. Although he was well into his midlife, his dark hair had no signs of balding.

Just from his appearance, Mr. Chen looked like a decent businessman. But Jiang Chen knew too well that anyone who did business with Robert was nowhere in being decent.

Standing behind him was a bodyguard also in a suit with a pair of shades over his eyes.

When he saw Jiang Chen walking over, Mr. Chen stood up courteously and greeted him with a smile.

"I have long heard Mr. Jiang’s name. Now that I finally have the chance to meet you, Mr. Jiang is indeed a stellar individual."

"Mr. Chen is flattering me. Regarding the boat, I have to thank you for that," Jiang Chen humbly replied.

"Haha, that is nothing at all. Please sit down…"

After some brief small talk, Jiang Chen sat down with Chen Wei’s warm welcome.

"Why did Mr. Chen want to see me?" Jiang Chen smiled at Mr. Chen as he comfortably sat on the chair.

"Haha, Mr. Jiang is certainly a businessman. Decisive and clear in your actions." Chen Wei leaned against his chair and laughed. "Then I will be straightforward as well. I heard that Mr. Jiang’s Future Technology had some small conflicts with Wanghai City’s local government?"

When he asked this question, Jiang Chen clearly sensed that Chen Wei was testing him.

"Future Technology is only a normal tech company, how would we have conflicts with the local government," Jiang Chen replied without much emotion.

If word spreads on the streets, it certainly would negatively impact its reputations.

"Haha, I sometimes don’t think before I speak," Chen Wei realized that he was too direct and apologized while laughing.

"No problem."

"I heard rumors that Future Technology plans to relocate its headquarter. Did Mr. Jiang ever considered Xiangjiang as a destination?" Chen Wei asked.

Relocate to Xiangjiang?

Jiang Chen was somewhat skeptical. He looked at Chen Wei.

Although he certainly considered establishing Future Technology’s Greater Hua headquarter in Xiangjiang before, he didn’t understand why Chen Wei would bring this up.

As if he had understood the confusion apparent on Jiang Chen’s face, Chen Wei smiled and waved his hand at his bodyguard/assistant. He took a piece of a document from his hands.

"Because of my relationship with the director of economic development bureau, Su Changyin, the reason for my disturbance this time is at the request of my old friend."

As Chen Wei spoke, he handed the document to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen briefly scanned the document as an interested expression surfaced on his face.

One year tax-free, three years tax of only half taxable. The generous offer was countless times better than the policy given by Wanghai City’s local government. With the current profitability of Future Technology, the policy of one-year tax-free would save Jiang Chen four billion RMB in tax.

Also, with the consideration of the headquarter relocation, some of the employees would also need to be relocated. Xiangjiang government also provided a generous employee immigration policy to Future Technology. They provided one hundred allocations of mainland residency to convert to Xiangjiang residency to ease Future Technology’s employee's relocation.

Seeing the interest on Jiang Chen’s face, Chen Wei also had a smile on his face.

"Is the policy given by my old friend enough to please Mr. Jiang?"

"Extremely pleased. I just don’t know if the Xiangjiang government would maintain fair and just in policymaking?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly as he flipped through the document in his hands.

Chen Wei first paused for a moment as he heard the words before he started to laugh.

"Mr. Jiang, you are worrying too much. I can’t promise anything else. But on the point of being fair and just, that I can guarantee. Xiangjiang is not as complicated as Wanghai City. Everything must follow the law here."

Fair and just? The law?

Although Jiang Chen's expression did not change, he had a differing opinion.

The world knew about Xiangjiang’s renowned gang presence. Chen Wei himself was probably not a law-abiding citizen. How many decent businessmen could open an entertainment company in Xiangjiang.

But even so, Jiang Chen was extremely pleased with Xiangjiang government’s attitude.

"Is that so? That’s perfect then." Jiang Chen grinned as he put the document on the table, "Regarding this investment plan, I am pleased. If all the terms in the plan can be followed through, I can say with confidence that Future Technology’s Greater Hua headquarters will be located in Xiangjiang."

A trace of joy flashed across Chen Wei’s face as he congratulated, "Haha, then on behalf of my old friend, I here welcome Mr. Jiang’s presence in Xiangjiang."

To Chen Wei’s words, Jiang Chen accepted with humility.

"Speaking of this, to relocate to Xiangjiang, does Mr. Jiang have any plans regarding the location of the new headquarter of Future Technology?"

When he recalled Chen Wei’s identity, Jiang Chen finally understood the intention behind his visit.

"Currently no, does Mr. Chen have any good recommendations?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Haha, then I will be straightforward." Chen Wei didn’t hide his intention as he had seen from Jiang Chen’s expression that he already guessed the reason for his visit. He took another document from his bodyguard’s hands.

"Nanfeng Real Estate has a recently developed office building. It is located in Kowloon near the metro station and a comprehensive set of amenities are included. Is Mr. Jiang interested?" Chen Wei smiled.

He took over the document from Chen Wei’s hand as he flipped through the specifications.

All in all, he was pleased. Compared to the building in Wanghai, Nanfeng Real Estate’s building was better in both appearance and amenities.

"What’s the price?"

"Two billion HKD, or equivalent to 1.65 billion RMB," Chen Wei said.

Jiang Chen gave it a thought before nodding.

"This is a reasonable price and I am pleased with the building. As to the acquisition process, I will leave it to the professionals in the company to take care of."

Seeing Jiang Chen nod, Chen Wei felt relieved as he had a trace of gratitude in his expression.

"Thank you very much."

Chapter 266: Future International

The Xiangjiang real estate market was not too hot right now. Although the price remained elevated, the number of sales was gradually decreasing and has recently hit a new low of 17 per month. What made it even worse was that Li Jiacheng, who had single-handedly pushed the Xiangjiang real estate market to its peak, had begun to sell his real estate assets for cash.

The perpetrator of this has already smelled a dangerous signal. How would the other real estate developers not sense it?

Once the interest rate returns to normal, the Xiangjiang real estate market would face immense pressure, the possibility of the "freefall" in 1997 was not out of the realm of possibility.

The bubble created by the insane construction of buildings put the cash flow of all real estate developers in an extremely tight situation, Nanfeng real estate was no exception.

The office building located in Kowloon had a cost of 1.2 billion HKD, typically speaking, a fair price would be three billion. But for Chen Wei who needed the money to alleviate the pressure on cash flow, he could not wait any longer.

Granted, he was not a decent businessman, but with the legal system and its implementation becoming perfected by the day, most of his businesses have been transformed into legal ones.

Jiang Chen buying this building definitely gave him some breathing room.

With the deal being successful, Chen Wei was naturally ecstatic as he warmly invited Jiang Chen for lunch.

Jiang Chen didn’t reject the proposal as they went along to the Felix restaurant on the 28th floor.

On the dinner table, the two chatted and joked about their encounters around the world.

"How is Robert doing?" As they chatted, the conversation turned to Robert.

"The same old. He has transitioned his business already. The way he described it was playing with Hollywood girls. Did he not tell you?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"I left the industry earlier than him and became legal five years ago. I didn’t imagine that the lunatic that dared to sell anything also left the game," Chen Wei exclaimed.

"Lunatic? Haha, a fitting name for that guy. Five months ago, he was caught by the IS in Iraq and almost had his head chopped off.

"Iraq. He certainly has the guts. Speaking of this, how did you two meet?" Chen Wei asked curiously.

Regardless of which perspective, Jiang Chen was a law-abiding businessman, he shouldn’t have the opportunity to meet the smuggling middlemen.

"We met in Iraq, I saved his life." Because there was nothing to hide, Jiang Chen shrugged.

Chen Wei was confused at first before he started laughing and raised his wine glass.

"How disrespectable of me. I thought Mr. Jiang was a law-abiding businessman, but Mr. Jiang has a secretive side too. Cheers."

To be able to save someone from the hands of the IS, he must have had some connections with the hidden international mercenary groups. The security companies on the surface would usually not take any tasks that would endanger their own lives.

When he thought about this, Chen Wei couldn’t help but exclaim in his mind, he underestimated this guy.

But he still underestimated Jiang Chen. He couldn’t fathom that it was not the mercenaries that saved Robert, but Jiang Chen alone.

"You are over complimenting me," Jiang Chen said humbly.

"Did he stop because of the IS?"

"Not exactly. Mostly because the FBA had an eye on him. He was rather unlucky because it was the FBA’s ploy that led to him being captured by the IS."

"FBA… True, if the government decided to intervene, then he must exit the industry," Chen Wei exclaimed.

"Is Mr. Chen’s transition also the result of the government?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"That’s right. But it was not the FBA. It was because of the mainland's General Staff Department." Chen Wei grinned.

General Staff Department? Jiang Chen’s expression was rather odd.

"Could the General Staff Department extend its influence here?’ Jiang Chen asked.

"No, as long as you are not too overzealous. However, I was in Guangzhou at that time." Chen Wei paused and looked at Jiang Chen. "Speaking of this, you had some conflicts with the Wang family in Wanghai City?"

"It is not wrong to say that." Jiang Chen shrugged.

When Chen Wei heard this, he nodded.

"It is fine to get into conflict with the Wang family as most of their influence remains in Wanghai City. But definitely don’t offend anyone above them, unless you plan to completely abandon your assets in Hua." In the last sentence, Chen Wei’s tone began to sound melancholic.

Perhaps it was something he personally experienced, or experienced by his friends who didn't have the cleanest history.

To his words of advice, Jiang Chen only nodded and didn’t say anything else.

…

The two days of relaxing were over. Even Jiang Chen, who hasn't been involved with the company for awhile, began dealing with tasks related to the company.

Although with the help of Xia Shiyu, his workload was lighter. But there were quite a few things that he still must personally do.

First, Future International incorporated in New Zealand with Jiang Chen as the sole shareholder.

The advantage of an offshore company in New Zealand was that as long as the profit is not generated locally, the only fee that must be paid per year was the annual fee. It was legal to submit zero tax without the need for an audit, and the subsequent steps were much more manageable. The only downside being the registration fee was a bit higher compared to registering in Xiangjiang, but the annual fee was similar for both areas.

As the parent company, Future International quickly gained control of 99% of the shares of Future Technology. From now on, Future Technology became a subsidiary of Future International with CEO Xia Shiyu leading the company.

At the same time, with Xia Shiyu’s recommendation, Future Technology divided its market geographically to Greater Hua, Southeast Asia, Russia, European Union, Arabic, North UA and South UA. A subsidiary was formed in each of the geographical areas to operate in each business market.

Of course, this business transition created a massive workload that caused a shortage of talent at Future Technology.

Jiang Chen’s solution was simple, it was to buy with money.

High salary, great benefits, and hiring headhunters to search for talent all over the world and create a company of talent with money. With Future Technology’s low cost and high profits, the investment was negligible to the company.

To the technical talents, working at Future Technology was an attractive option to begin with. The talent acquisition was completed without much hindrance.

After this was completed, Future Technology’s Greater Hua headquarters was relocated to Xiangjiang under the direction of Xia Shiyu.

From this point on, Future Technology’s tax revenue of no less than two billion per year would say goodbye to Wanghai City’s local government.

Although Wang Dehai had personally called Jiang Chen to reservedly but sincerely express his apology in the hopes of him staying, Jiang Chen’s attitude didn’t change at all.

The proverb goes, you only realize what’s valuable when it's gone.

The moment that the Wang family no longer viewed Future Technology as a partner but rather a piece of juicy meat, he should have considered that this day would come.

_Min_ _Min_

3 today, 1/3

Chapter 267: The Angry Wang Dehai

In Wanghai City hundreds of kilometers away, Wang Dehai sat behind the office table with a grave expression on his face.

There were two English newspapers on the table. One was a <New York Post>, the other was the <Time Digest>.

The two newspapers were both flipped to the business section. Although the two newspapers were completely different, the headlines printed almost identical information.

Future International Incorporated, the secret that led to its departure from Wanghai City.

Although Jiang Chen had purposely avoided the reporters who swarmed him like flies with their cameras raised high during his time in Xiangjiang, nothing is kept hidden forever as major presses dug out leads from different channels to find the secret behind Future Technology’s relocation.

Linhua Group attempted to use the local government’s relationship, with the stake of suppressing its business in Hua, to forcefully acquire a controlling stake in Future Technology. Future Technology earned the central government’s support because of an undisclosed reason, but Jiang Chen who was already divided from the Wang family chose to leave because of the lack of trust in the Wanghai City local government.

The domestic presses were okay as their mouths were naturally shut due to the company's influence. Although the policy of official relatives not permitted to be in business was only limited to spouse and children, it would still reveal a negative image if the news were to be published.

While the domestic media could be controlled, Wang Dehai couldn’t do anything to the international press.

Fortunately, it was hard to listen to the buzz outside anyways.

Since it has almost become "politically correct" for western media to criticize the country's policy on certain issues, to the fact that Future Technology’s investment value had always drawn the craving of the Wall Street capitals, all the major international press conducted an extensive investigation on this event.

Particularly <New York Post>, the satire between the lines was especially evident. The lines of English almost gave the enraged Wang Dehai a heart attack.

Wang Linhua stood in front of his office, the old fox’s expression looked awkward.

A month ago, Wang Linhua had promised his brother Wang Dehai that as long as he pressured Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen without any background would immediately recognize the situation and obediently give up Future Technology’s share, allowing the Wang family's assets to successfully leave the real estate market.

But by the looks of it now, the promise fell through.

"How many times did I tell you, don’t corner him to the wall. Now that he has left, what did you get out of it?" Wang Dehai’s finger pressed forcefully on the newspapers as his lips trembled in anger.

Seeing that his brother was so furious, Wang Linhua’s expression remained awkward.

"Ahem, Dehai, it was not me that pressured him too hard, that guy did not recognize the situation at all. He didn’t understand that a shared interest would create a better business. To be honest, a market cap of ten billion, five billion for 50% of the shares was a generous offer. How many tech companies would kill to acquire venture capitals and equity infusions-"

"Bullsh*t!"

Perhaps because Wang Dehai had received pressured from the central government on this incident, Wang Dehai had lost his cool and he cursed at his younger brother.

"Market cap of ten billion? Future Technology’s profit is above ten billion, with a P/E ratio of 20 times, calculate the market cap for me? Do you know what the old guy from the Liu family told me? I will gift these words to you, those embarrassing actions will be the end of us!"

It indeed didn’t sound eloquent at all. Wang Dehai’s emotion was also enraged when he said it as it made his chest pump violently.

"I am being considerate of the Wang family's assets. Especially since the tech company’s market cap can’t be calculated this way. Future Technology is highly profitable now, but they only managed to do so because they formed a monopoly. With the rapid pace of technological transformations, once a similar artificial intelligence system exists, or phone enhancement programs are introduced, it would be impossible to maintain their current profitability levels," Wang Linhua argued for his own perspective.

Wang Linhua’s perspective was certainly not without reason. People were willing to spend 10 RMB a month to upgrade to VIP1, which was for the phone enhancement function as well as a battery saver. Once a free replacement is introduced, even if the functionality was weaker compared to Future 1.0, it was not hard to believe some users would choose the free app.

With the rapidly changing landscape of technology, in his view, it was entirely possible.

But what he didn’t know as an outsider to the industry was that all the major tech companies had lost countless brain cells trying to crack the encryption technology of Future 1.0 and could not break a single function of Future 1.0.

Because of this, the investors were very interested in Future Technology.

To Wang Linhua’s explanation, Wang Dehai was clearly not pleased. But since he already yelled at him, he let out some of his anger. And based on the consideration that Wang Linhua was not wholly to be blamed as he was the person who agreed to this, Wang Dehai took a deep breath and put that aside for now.

Seeing that Wang Dehai’s expression became more relaxed, Wang Linhua also felt relieved.

Wang Dehai picked up the teacup from the table as he soothed his throat. "Let’s not talk about this, for now. You mentioned the transitioning of Linhua Group, how is that going?"

Since the conflict had already occurred, it was pointless to be angry about it. Compared to Future Technology, Wang Dehai was more worried about the Wang family’s assets. As the general secretary of Wanghai City, he certainly knew the dire circumstance Linhua Group was in.

It was fair to say, the reason that Linhua Group could acquire bank loans was partially attributable to Wang Dehai’s reputation.

When he heard Wang Dehai ask about Linhua Group, a proud expression appeared.

"Haha, I was about to bring some good news. We recently received a ten billion USD construction contract."

"Ten billion?!" Even to Wang Dehai who had seen the ups and downs of life, he still exclaimed out of shock.

"That’s right, and it is a contract from overseas!" With an ecstatic expression, Wang Linhua continued, "The contract has been signed with an expected direct profit of over five billion! The 110 square kilometers of land on the main island as well as the 70 square kilometers on a nearby island used as payment for part of the contract, could double in value in five years based on the potential of Pannu Islands! Without exaggeration, once we finish the deal, Linhua Group’s value could break one hundred billion RMB!"

Wang Dehai finally nodded his head, pleased.

Misfortune may be an actual blessing.

Although the ten billion market cap of Future Technology had left Wanghai City, it created a Linhua Group with a one hundred billion market cup.

The expansion into the international market had solved the dire situation the Wang family's assets had faced.

Wang Dehai’s mood became a lot lighter.

The only issue was if he could still laugh so brightly in a few months time.

_Min_

2/3

Chapter 268: New Zealand Trip

Beach, waves, bright sunshine, palm trees.

And of course, the most important one, bikinis.

Lying on the recliner with a pair of shades over his eyes, Jiang Chen gazed at the lively figures along the sea coast from afar with a smile on his face.

When the saline wind breezed by, he felt all his weariness get blown away.

Just as he relaxingly gazed into the horizon, his face felt a cold sensation.

He turned his head as he saw a pair of crystal-like eyes staring at him cheerfully. Liu Yao stood beside him as she leaned forward and naughtily shook the cold orange juice in her hands.

"Are you checking out hot girls again?" Liu Yao passed the chilled orange juice to Jiang Chen as she coyly pouted her lips.

"I am checking one out right now." Jiang Chen laughed as he looked at Liu Yao.

In a light yellow bikini, her pale skin was decorated with droplets of water as it shined in the sunlight.

Blushing, the corners of her lips curled up as she said joyfully.

"That’s better."

Even if she knew they were flattering words, which woman actually disliked compliments?

She put her own orange juice on the table and combed the hair in front of her forehead that was previously disturbed by the sea wind. Then in graceful steps, she lied on the recliner beside Jiang Chen. Consciously and subconsciously, she showed off her body, at which Jiang Chen couldn't help but laugh.

However, speaking of this, Jiang Chen liked her for this very point.

Jealous but never drilled on one thing. It wouldn’t make people feel annoyed, but rather fulfill the vanity of men. There are a lot of intelligent women in the modern world, but Jiang Chen had never met anyone else like her, someone intelligent but knew her own boundaries.

Jiang Chen picked up the orange juice and took a sip with the straw.

The cold sensation in his throat instantly made the scorching heat fade away.

As to why it was summer?

The reason was simple. It was because they were in New Zealand in the southern hemisphere. New Zealand’s winter was between July and August, and right now it was the middle of January, the hottest time in New Zealand.

The reason why he was here? Because one, he needed to register the offshore company, and two, the tasks at Pannu Islands.

Because Xia Shiyu had already arrived in Xiangjiang, the General Staff Department was obviously no longer responsible for her safety. Therefore, Jiang Chen had sent Ayesha to act as her bodyguard. Although no one should be plotting against him now, it was better to be safe.

Because Ayesha couldn’t be with him, it was too lonely to travel abroad by himself. Therefore, Jiang Chen suddenly remembered that he still owed Liu Yao a vacation to Pannu Islands.

As to why he brought Liu Yao, it was to fulfill the promise of taking her on a vacation.

…

"How's the movie going?" Simultaneously enjoying the cold and delicious juice and her graceful figure, he asked nonchalantly.

"It’s going well, the filming will be done by March this year. Then it will be in production before it is sent in for review. If without exception, you can see me in theatres by August this year." Liu Yao turned her head as she laughed playfully.

Like the movie <That Year> she stared in before, in this <Ma Dongmei’s Trouble>, she again played the role of the prom queen and the supporting actress. However, because Jiang Chen was the principal investor of the newest movie, the director forced the screenwriter to change the script to give her more screen time as the supporting actress but at the condition that it will not interfere with the movie's plot.

She didn’t say anything about this, but she was grateful for what Jiang Chen had done for her. He could clearly feel it from the intimate and passionate re-encounter last night at the hotel.

With a celebrity as a mistress, it was a dream come true.

"Is that so? Didn’t you play spoiler with me last night?" With Liu Yao impish look, Jiang Chen smirked.

Last time during their intimate moment, Liu Yao perfected her role of "prom queen." While with just words she "denounced" Jiang Chen’s "invasion", and whispered her lines from the movie into Jiang Chen’s ear.

All in all, the conquering feeling of a pure and innocent prom queen under him boosted his ego.

Liu Yao blushed at Jiang Chen’s tease while she rolled her eyes at him.

"It is a movie you invested in after all, are you not concerned about the box office?"

Jiang Chen began to laugh as he put the orange juice aside and lied down sluggishly.

"It is only one hundred million, I pay more than that a month in tax."

An investment of one hundred million. Even with one billion at the box office, after paying for the 5% specialty movie fund, 3.3% in tax, and 5% cut to other channels, and splitting the rest between the investors and the movie theatres, Jiang Chen would only be left with three hundred to four hundred million.

On top of that, it was rare for a domestic film to reach one billion at the box office.

Compared to the profitability of Future Technology, that profit was nothing at all. Jiang Chen considered this investment as one purely for his enjoyment.

Even if she knew Jiang Chen’s net worth, Liu Yao still couldn’t help but be shocked as she stuck out her tongue.

"What do you think the box office is going to be?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"I think… at least two hundred million or above? Since Chen Yanxi is the lead actress in the film, she has quite a number of followers." Liu Yao put her finger on her chin as she gave a conservative response.

To one hundred million of investment, two hundred million of box office return was an acceptable result. Although Liu Yao had put her heart into shooting the film, and she certainly went through a lot of hardships to achieve her dream, the market doesn’t believe in sweat and tears.

"Are you not confident?"

"What, two hundred million is a great result." Liu Yao pouted.

"I am not talking about the box office," Jiang Chen shook his head, smiled, and continued, "I am saying that are you not confident that you will overshadow the lead actress?"

With Jiang Chen’s words, Liu Yao’s face turned red. She picked up the orange juice on the table and took a sip with her red lips as she mumbled while biting her straw.

"It is hard. With movies, fans have a lot to do with it."

Although for someone like Jiang Chen who didn’t have an idea who played in the movies until the end credits, he had to admit with comedy films, the fans certainly have a significant impact on the box office.

"That’s only part of the reason. Promotions also can achieve the same result." Jiang Chen shook his finger.

With Future Technology’s user base, a simple promotion would instantly make her famous. As long as channels exist, fame was not a big problem at all.

Liu Yao’s eyes instantly lit up.

She turned around on her belly, with her hand pressed against her chin, and coyly looked at Jiang Chen with watery eyes.

Her deep cleavage and beautiful curves, even if a battle had occurred last night, made Jiang Chen’s stomach feel heated.

"Of course, it is a film I invested in after all," Jiang Chen looked away as he spoke.

He was in swimming trunk, it would be awkward if he went hard.

Jiang Chen’s reaction didn’t manage to escape Liu Yao’s sight. The little devil's lips proudly curled up as she maintained her position in the recliner and seductively untied her bikini from the back. Then with a sweet voice, "Honey~ I want to bathe under the sun, help me put on sunscreen."

This little devil!

As he cursed in his mind, Jiang Chen walked over with his body reacting honestly.

_Min_

3/3

Chapter 269: Meeting the Oppositions

Xiangjiang. Shangyuan apartment building No. 5, on the 12th floor. This was Xia Shiyu’s new home.

Because Future Technology's headquarters was relocated to Xiangjiang, after she had taken care of the relocation, she naturally followed as the CEO. For someone that always rented, it was convenient for her to move.

It was eight at night.

Just like her usual routine, Xia Shiyu sat on the sofa watching TV, but her expression looked uncomfortable. Usually, she didn’t like to wear a whole lot when she was home alone.

But now, she was swearing as she had to wear her dress shirt and bothersome jeans.

As to the reason, it was because she was not home alone.

For Xia Shiyu’s safety, Jiang Chen had sent Ayesha to be her bodyguard.

Xia Shiyu had mixed emotions about Ayesha.

That night, when Ayesha suddenly kissed Jiang Chen, Xia Shiyu felt her mind turn blank.

Angry? Hard to say so because he was not her boyfriend. There was no reason for her to be angry. Frightened? Perhaps some. Jealous? Perhaps all the above.

She knew he was outstanding, outstanding men never lacked pursuers. As someone who was slow with relationships, she had consistently tried to avoid the problem and continuously ignored the emotion she felt in her heart and left it for another day to deal with.

But to the "enemy" Ayesha, she couldn’t hate her.

Since she did save her and also suffered an injury as the result of it.

Because of all the factors above, to the person that was living with her, she felt very conflicted.

But on the contrary, Ayesha was somewhat more relaxed.

Because the air conditioner was on, she wore a thin white shirt and her nicely shaped legs jogged on the treadmill.

[My presence… She doesn’t mind it at all?]

The picture on the TV began to blur as Xia Shiyu’s mind began to drift elsewhere.

[To her, I should be considered competition. If she didn’t come to save me or had purposely been late for a few minutes…]

While she maintained her expressionless face, Xia Shiyu unnaturally shivered.

"Do you feel cold?" Ayesha looked over.

"No, no," The sudden conversation had made Xia Shiyu jump as she hastily replied.

Ayesha nodded before she looked away.

There was no more exchange of words between the two.

Perhaps this is what it felt like when two people without a lot to say lived together. Ayesha would only speak more when she was alone with Jiang Chen, and Xia Shiyu would only communicate when it was necessary due to work.

[I wonder how Jiang Chen is doing on that side…] As her eyes blankly stared at the TV, Xia Shiyu muttered in her mind.

…

With a beautiful girl accompanying him, Jiang Chen had a relaxing two days.

Although Liu Yao was not the best choice as a wife, she was impeccable as a mistress.

Of course, although they were having fun, he didn’t forget the task he needed to complete. While he toured New Zealand with Liu Yao, he was also waiting for someone.

Without incidence, that person should have already arrived in New Zealand and would contact him very soon.

After they returned to hotel from the beach, Jiang Chen, who was teased for the entire day by Liu Yao couldn’t wait to lock the door behind him. Liu Yao immediately leaned her body against his and kissed him…

The action lasted from nine at night till midnight before Jiang Chen finally spared the "pleading Liu Yao" who fell asleep with her body in his arms.

The next morning, Jiang Chen woke up from a dream,

...

In the Old John coffee shop at the corner of a street in Auckland.

The old wooden interior filled the place with a historic vibe. However, the decor evidently did not bring about good business. Compared to the Starbucks on the next street, this place was desolated.

But because of the quietness, Jiang Chen chose here as the meeting place.

The waitress at the front desk looked like an international student from the nearby university. Her looks were average, but her voice was sweet. When she saw her fellow countrymen Jiang Chen, she didn’t seem too surprised. There was a lot of Han citizens in Auckland, especially immigrants or tourists.

Jiang Chen ordered two mochas from her before he went to the deep corner of the coffee shop and began to play with his phone to kill time.

Not long after, a man wearing a simple T-shirt sat in front of him.

"Sorry for making you wait so long," the man who sat across him said with an apologetic tone.

"It’s okay, it is not easy for you." Jiang Chen put away his phone as he looked up at the man in front of him. He examined him from head to toe, "Han?"

"Mhmm. Zhang Yapin. I am meeting you as a representative of the Pannu Freedom Party." Zhang Yapin nodded and extended his right hand.

Pannu Islands’ native only accounted for a small percentage of its population. The rest was made up by the initial European immigrants and the subsequent Asian immigrants. There was certainly some Han among the mix. With the consideration for Jiang Chen’s identity, after an internal discussion, they sent Zhang Yapin. A person with Han heritage to discuss business with Jiang Chen.

"Jiang Chen. Although you already know my name." Jiang Chen shook his hand and smiled.

The Liberal party was the most significant opposing party of the Pannu Islands. Although they were considered the most significant opposing party, their actual situation was not too great, the primary reason was due to their lack of funding.

Pannu Islands was an impoverished nation. There was no oil in the surrounding central area. The economy was isolated with an outdated infrastructure, and the high cost of development meant that the small country, without a vote in the United Nations, was forgotten in the international society.

No one had any interest in it. Even if the Liberal party’s political ideology was more pro-western than the Syrian opposition party, the UA clearly does not pay enough attention to the "poor little guy."

Only when the country meets UA's national interest would they intervene in other people’s politics. This point alone was demonstrated through the double standard with its policy in Syria and Veit.

Zhang Yapin nodded as he looked earnestly at Jiang Chen.

"Mr. Jiang is supportive of our cause right?"

"That’s right. In my perspective, any form of dictatorship is disdained. Whether it is a presidential dictatorship or corporate dictatorship, or a combination of the two," Jiang Chen simply improvised.

He was a person with the least credentials to say such things. He was the biggest dictator at the Sixth Street.

Zhang Yapin was ecstatic when he heard Jiang Chen’s attitude.

With the help of a businessman, it was much easier for the cause they support to come to fruition.

"Is Mr. Jiang willing to support our cause then?"

"Support?" Jiang Chen dubiously took a sip of the coffee.

"Of course, this is not without benefits. After our cause is successful, we’ll provide you with enough benefits," Zhang Yapin rushed to add.

Chapter 270: Military Resistance

There was no reason to wake up early unless there were benefits involved.

Zhang Yapin knew that without enough benefits, even if Jiang Chen recognized their cause, it would be more of a verbal support rather than financial aid.

Compared with the idealists within the organization, Zhang Yapin was a firm believer in the concept of there is no free lunch in the world.

Only with enough potential gain could they tie the businessman onto their ship.

Only if he knew that Johnny International was funded by Jiang Chen and a puppet created by Robert.

"Benefits? For example?" Jiang Chen pretended to be interested. He put the coffee down and waited for Zhang Yapin to continue.

"I heard that Mr. Jiang has 7000 square meters of warehouses on Pannu Islands, as well as an export company right?" Zhang Yapin took a deep breath as his fingers crossed. He spoke quite calmly and collectedly.

"That’s right, it is not a secret." Jiang Chen smiled.

After he had acquired Xinlong Food Processing Plant, he urged Zheng Hongjie to acquire the rights for export and import. Then Jiang Chen created a shell company with only five employees at Pannu Islands and purchased warehouses totaling 7000 square meters to store goods.

By moving goods from his left hand to his right hand, the company massively purchased canned food from Xinlong. At the same time ordering dairy and grain products from the farms in New Zealand and Australia. Parts of these goods were sold locally while other items were stored waiting for Jiang Chen to transport them back to the apocalypse.

In Pannu Islands, Jiang Chen owned around one million USD in assets.

"Since Mr. Jiang has invested in Pannu Islands, then it must mean you have confidence in Pannu Islands’ future, am I right?" Zhang Yapin gradually advanced his narrative.

"That’s right. Perhaps you can get to your point," Jiang Chen leaned on his chair and said.

Zhang Yapin scanned the coffee shop. When he saw that other than the two of them, there was only the waitress at the front desk playing with her phone, he proceeded with a mysterious tone.

"We need around one million USD in support. This amount of money will be returned in the form of land to you after we successfully fulfill our political cause."

"How big is the land?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"One square kilometer of land located on the Coro main island," Zhang Yapin said in pain.

One square kilometer of land with a cost of one million? It was the equivalent of one dollar per square meter. It was beyond cheap. Almost to the point of being a form of reparation payment.

But to this suggestion, Jiang Chen was still not pleased.

"Unfortunately, although I feel sympathetic to the Pannu people’s situation, I am not interested in your proposal." Jiang Chen shook his head.

"What! One dollar per square kilometer, this price is not-" Zhang Yapin stood up with his eyes widened.

Jiang Chen raised his hand and quietly pointed to the front desk.

The waitress at the front desk already stopped playing with her phone as she looked in their direction curiously.

Realizing he was too emotional, Zhang Yapin immediately closed his mouth, took a deep breath and sat back down in his chair.

Although they were in New Zealand, and not Pannu, it was better to keep sensitive political movements quiet.

Seeing that Zhang Yapin had calmed down, Jiang Chen nodded, rather pleased.

While the Liberal party was probably an organization formed by a few university students fighting passionately for the citizens, it was considered an amateur group both in size and professionalism. However, it indeed possessed investment value.

Being young was okay. The founding father of Hua, Sun Zhongshan, was also young and he still managed to accomplish greater deeds before it benefited Yuan Shikai.

"What is Mr. Jiang not pleased about? We can discuss," Zhang Yapin said sincerely.

The waitress not far away saw that there was no more drama to watch, so she looked back down at the table and began to play with her phone again out of boredom.

"First, my total investment value in Pannu Islands is only one million USD, and I am only prepared to invest this amount." Jiang Chen leaned in his chair as he smiled. "If Johnny International completes the development of Pannu Islands, the value of land would exponentially raise. Therefore, I don’t mind the profitability of my assets. I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but all my assets in Pannu Islands are operating at a loss."

The average income of Pannu Islands was low. Therefore, buying power was limited. While they have a wealth of tourism, it would be an endless pit to develop all those resources.

"That UA citizen is a scumbag. He is the bloodsucker riding on top of the Pannu people," Zhang Yapin cursed in a low voice.

"That’s right, but regardless if he is a scumbag or not, he is indeed rich, and spending for Pannu Islands." Jiang Chen smiled at Zhang Yapin and then paused before he continued, " Have you considered one problem?"

"What problem?"

"If Johnny International didn’t spend money investing in basic infrastructure and developing tourist resources, do you think the 7000 square meters of land has any upsides?" Jiang Chen said expressionlessly.

Zhang Yapin was shocked as his face began to sour.

If Jiang Chen was waiting for his land to appreciate, there was no reason for him to fund them to get rid of that UA citizen.

From the start, Jiang Chen only said that he was compassionate of their cause, but he never suggested he would fund them for their cause.

There was a difference between ideology and reality. Jiang Chen was only an outsider, he had no reason to pay the bills for Pannu’s suffering.

"Then… we don’t have anything we can talk about." Zhang Yapin struggled to say. The smile on his face was bitter.

The trip to New Zealand was futile.

But just as he felt disappointed with the uncertain future, Jiang Chen lit up another lamp named hope in front of his eyes.

"It is the complete opposite." Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled. "I think we have a lot more we can talk about."

Zhang Yapin’s eyes widened as he looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

"But didn’t you say-"

Jiang Chen took a sip of the already cooled coffee and said.

"I am only saying your plan is not enough to attract me, but I never rejected the possibility of a partnership between us. For example, you can tell me, if you had one million in support, what would you do with it?"

When he heard Jiang Chen ask about the specific plan of the Freedom party, Zhang Yapin realized that there may still be a turning point for this as he immediately raised his chest and spoke with confidence.

"We will use this one million to develop members in the Pannu army. At the same time, we will organize citizens unjustly treated as well as farmers with their lands taken away from them to launch a strike and protest to force the current regime to compromise, punish the corrupted officials, and drive away the reckless Johnny International…" To the last bit, Zhang Yapin awkwardly stopped.

If they drove away Johnny International, it didn’t seem to fit Jiang Chen’s interest.

"If you get rid of Johnny International, then what?" Jiang Chen laughed. "Continue to live the poor life? Wait to find a new investor?"

Zhang Yapin shifted his gaze before he promised, "We can transfer Johnny International’s interest to you."

When he heard the naïve response, Jiang Chen laughed and shook his head.

"Who do you think you are? The current regime? One million USD? Johnny International probably bribed the president more than just that amount! And you are thinking of buying the army? Stop dreaming. Your promise is only an empty promise, it can never be fulfilled.

Jiang Chen was cut throat.

Zhang Yapin held his breath.

He lowered his head as he slowly said.

"Then in your opinion, what kind of partnership would you be satisfied with?"

A smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face. He was waiting for this sentence.

"Strike? Protest? Those things won’t solve any problems, only the elected government would be fearful of public opinion. I can say with confidence that if the Freedom party still holds the unrealistic thought of solving problems politically, then only cruel suppression awaits you!"

"Our president is elected," Zhang Yapin tried to rebuke.

"But he has been corrupted!" Jiang Chen stared into his eyes as he used a manipulative tone.

"He is not the president you elected from before."

"If he, the scum called Edward, is in an election now, would you vote for him?"

"Or, do you think he is willing to give up the interest in his hand now and participate in an election?"

"Presidential republic? Face reality, it is a dictatorship right now!"

"Vote, protest, those won’t save you. The only thing that will save you are bullets!"

Jiang Chen’s words were like hammers as it swung directly into Zhang Yapin’s heart and shattered any remaining hope for the current regime. Before he joined the Liberal party, he was a top student who graduated from New Zealand’s Auckland University, the few that were educated on the Pannu Islands.

When he saw that the current regime had compromised with the foreign capital and worked together to suppress his fellow countrymen, he was furious.

With passion, a few young people with different education backgrounds but the same ideology formed together to create the Pannu Liberal party. The goal was to protect the rights and interests of the citizen and eliminate the current situation where the government and the foreign capital worked together.

It was difficult to fight for their cause, but a lot of Pannu people stood by their side. Because of this, he saw the hope of resolving the problem peacefully.

But as Jiang Chen said, this route was unsuccessful to begin with.

"Military uprising?" Zhang Yapin mustered to himself as another kind of flame lit up in his eyes.

"That’s right, the only solution to change the current circumstance is military resistance. From the opposing party to the anti-government force," Jiang Chen continued to spread this dangerous thought to the young man.

"But, this is unconstitutional-"

"Your president is unconstitutional, don’t tell me accepting bribes is within the constitution of Pannu."

"But, people will die in a civil war," Zhang Yapin gulped as he said with difficulty.

"There is no revolution without bleeding; there is no peace without sacrifice," Jiang Chen stared straight into his eyes as he said decisively.

"But-"

"There is not but," Jiang Chen interrupted him.

"You only have one choice. Blood in exchange for freedom, or bleed dry in compromise."

Chapter 271: The Millionaire in the Slum

It was impossible to say he didn’t feel guilty.

The reckless UA citizen named Johnny in Pannu Islands was a puppet placed by Jiang Chen at the cost of two hundred million USD.

But Jiang Chen didn’t regret anything.

The secrets in his hands meant that he could not cooperate with any country or organization. If he wants to expand and grow freely, controlling a small state as his base was the only option.

As to the people that may lose their lives because of this, Jiang Chen could regrettably say that he will treat their decedents nicely. He is confident under his reign, Pannu Islands would be much wealthier than now.

To acquire Pannu islands as a base, Jiang Chen had bet everything.

Since Pannu is a country part of the United Nations, it was not as simple as sending one hundred well-equipped infantries to wipe out the military force on the island. If Jiang Chen used this simple yet brute force to take over Pannu Islands, it won’t be long before the United Nation Peacekeeping force lands on Pannu Islands and then search the entire world for him for his crime against humanity.

The 21st century was not like the Victorian era. Sovereignty was not a joke. The regime established through illegally occupying a country could not be considered a country. They were pirates or terrorists. Only when the shift of power was completed under the boundary of international law could the regime be considered legal.

When outsiders with guns enter one’s yard, it’s invasion, but when people inside raise their weapons in protest, it is only considered a civil war! Based on the consideration that the Liberal's ideology is similar to the UA's, the UA wouldn’t intervene in their civil war.

Since the Liberal party raised the flag of democracy to end the evil reign of the corrupted presidential dictatorship, it was almost a replica of what happened in Syria. If the UA doesn’t recognize the legality of the Pannu Liberal party, they would be contradicting themselves.

…

Zhang Yapin didn’t give a direct response, but he said he would immediately return to Pannu Islands and exchange opinions with other Freedom party members before he provides Jiang Chen with a clear answer.

For this, Jiang Chen expressed his understanding. But he only gave them a week's time to consider. An indecisive government was not worthy of an investment.

Before he left, Zhang Yapin asked Jiang Chen a question.

"If we end up in charge, we will still prosecute Johnny for the crimes he committed in Pannu and get rid of the evil bloodsucker, Johnny International. With such a result, do you still have anything to gain from it?"

To be able to ask this question, Zhang Yapin was certainly thinking.

But for Jiang Chen who came prepared from the beginning, he was still too naïve.

"Pannu’s current regime is too corrupt and therefore the cost of investment is too low. But if a rather calm government is in place, I think Pannu Islands has a higher investment value." Although he had prepared this reason beforehand, Jiang Chen didn’t lie.

If Pannu Islands became his backyard, he would naturally spend money to take care of it.

Jiang Chen’s response made Zhang Yapin ecstatic.

He suppressed the joy on his face and bowed to Jiang Chen before hastily leaving.

He was previously worried about the severe effect on the economy once Johnny International left. But with Jiang Chen’s promise, he felt more assured.

Jiang Chen, feeling pleased, smiled, and left the coffee shop.

Now that the stage was set, it was time for the actors to debut.

…

On Coro Island, a few hundred kilometers away from New Zealand, the sun was also bright.

Coro City was here. The capital of Pannu Republic.

Although it was the capital, other than the beautifully constructed mansion, there was not a single luxury building in the vicinity.

The European style architecture, the green vegetation, the swimming pool the size of fifteen hundred square meters. Everything stood out of the place in the not-so-prosperous city center… Just like a millionaire in the slum.

Johnny lied on the recliner on the balcony of the mansion as he enjoyed the subtropical climate and the beauty who was giving him a massage. A few fishing boats drifted in the sea not far away. Although one sentence from him could get rid of those poor suckers from his private territory, he decided not to.

He enjoyed this kind of feeling. The feeling of being on top, the feeling of looking at the poor people below him.

A few months ago, he was only a poor guy in the Los Santos ghetto. He and a few Irish guys wandered in dark bars and sold weed they bought from the Mexicans. Because of turf disputes, they would shoot the thugs from the Crips gang, and then die one day in a dark alley… If without this surprising opportunity, his life was supposed to end like that.

But life is always filled with surprises.

He still remembers the day his life changed.

That day, he was arrested for armed robbery. Just as he was prepared to rot in jail, a man named Robert bailed him out and "genuinely" invited him to be in a Hollywood movie.

In the underworld of Los Santos, Robert was quite renowned, or else he wouldn’t have made the FBA list. Although he had exited the industry and became a director, Johnny still heard about his "reputation".

Johnny remembered he was confused at the time as he didn’t even know he had the talent to act. But since there was a fool willing to pay for his terrible life, he accepted Robert’s arrangement.

Now that he thought about, he was glad he made the decision.

The life of a millionaire, the life here was like heaven. However, he was still confused about the purpose behind everything Robert has done as he didn’t see a single camera for the movie.

Instinct told him that the old fox Robert didn’t just plan a movie.

The iPad on the table suddenly flashed and interrupted his thoughts.

"Boss, someone is looking for you." A full-bearded face wearing a pair of shades appeared on the screen.

Aubrey, previously part of the Australian special forces, now the head of security for Johnny.

Since he has a lot more assets now, Johnny had to consider his own safety. The natives always looked at him with eyes of hatred. If it were not for the fully equipped bodyguards, it would be hard for him to sleep at night.

"Who is it?"

"Wang Tianfeng, Han."

Wang Tianfeng. Eyes narrowed, Johnny thought for a moment before he remembered the name.

Seemed to the representative sent by Linhua Group that Robert had contacted.

To be honest, Johnny no longer listened to Robert’s commands anymore. He was the president of Johnny International, the sole shareholder with two hundred million USD in hand. There was no need to listen to Robert.

He was the king of Pannu Islands, a noble at least. President Edward had recently passed a policy to permit him to maintain a private force of fewer than fifteen people to protect his safety. Any trespassers could be shot without repercussion.

It was a ridiculous order, but in front of money, any ridiculousness would become within the boundary of law.

Ten billion USD construction project, Johnny International didn’t have the money at all. But Robert told him not to worry about it, he said that two gold mines in South Africa could be used as collateral, there was no need to worry about the money.

Since he didn’t need to worry about the money, Johnny didn’t ask any more questions.

He didn’t spend money following Robert’s orders anymore, although Robert rarely ordered him as he gave him free reign to do anything. Since someone was willing to improve the basic infrastructure of Pannu, why would he reject?

If this place becomes prosperous, his assets would become more valuable. By that time, he could be independent financially and utterly break free from Robert’s manipulation.

"Let him in." As Johnny said this, he signaled the bikini beauty to go back into the room.

"Yes." Aubrey nodded and opened the metal gates to the mansion.

_Min_ _Min_

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone! As promised, 1/5 for today :)

Chapter 272: The Prepartion to the Ocean Venture

After ending the meeting with Zhang Yapin, Jiang Chen didn’t stay any longer. He left the coffee shop and returned to the Sheraton Hotel in Auckland.

When he returned to the hotel, it was almost noon.

Liu Yao had woken up already as she swung her smooth legs and lied relaxingly on the bed scrolling through her Weibo.

When she saw Jiang Chen return, Liu Yao smiled and said coyly.

"You are finally back! I am so hungry."

"Just call the front desk to order room service." As Jiang Chen sat relaxingly beside the bed, he smiled at the sluggish Liu Yao.

Her slightly blushed face still had a hint of the intimate battle that happened last night.

She combed her slightly messy hair as she sat up and seductively stretched out her body.

"Did something good happen?"

"That’s right, how did you know?" Jiang Chen was rather surprised.

"Haha, it is written all over your face." She playfully winked as she jumped off the bed.

Her feet stepped onto the cold wooden floor as she grabbed the white shirt on the hanger and covered her attractive figure.

She knew how she attracted people, and she was great at displaying her charm, a mix of purity and flirtation.

"Oh? Then guess. What good thing happened?" Jiang Chen said.

"Do I get a reward if I am right?" Liu Yao pouted.

"Of course."

"Ummm…" With a finger on her bottom lip, Liu Yao’s eyes turned before she nodded affirmatively, "You must have signed a big deal?"

"Haha, that’s right! How did you guess that?"

He walked beside Liu Yao as he put his hands around her slim waist.

"Last time in Sanya, when you were with me, you also made a deal." Liu Yao giggled.

"So you really are my lucky star," Jiang Chen, pretending to be serious, said.

"How are you planning to reward me?" Liu Yao said sweetly.

"Is a kiss enough?" Jiang Chen with a smirk grabbed her waist.

"Screw you!"

…

Because it was lunchtime already, the two got dressed up before heading to the restaurant inside the hotel.

The portions were not big, but it was surprisingly delicious.

There were oysters produced locally and Boston lobsters air-shipped and covered in ice. Other than specialty seafood on the menu, there was also spiced lamb and Australian steak.

The thing that left the deepest impression on Jiang Chen was the traditional Maoi stone barbeque.

Jiang Chen had never seen such a unique way of eating. The chef would first heat up the thin stone before wrapping it in food. Then, it would be put in a heated hole in the ground before it is smoked ready. With the way it was cooked, it was similar to the hobo chicken in Hua. But one is covered in aluminum foil and stone while the other is covered with lotus leaves and mud.

Jiang Chen almost bit his own tongue as this was the first time he ate such delicacies.

Liu Yao was more delicate when she ate. She only tried all the dishes before stopping. Now that she was a somewhat famous celebrity, without the genetic vaccine to maintain her figure, she would need to control her diet.

But Jiang Chen need not be bothered. Other than the delicacies, he ate two steaks before he was full.

The waitress looked at the empty plates on the table in shock. She then caringly left a box of stomach medicine.

With how Liu Yao giggled, Jiang Chen rubbed his head out of awkwardness.

Needless to say, five-star hotels indeed offered exceptional service as they took care of everything for you. But sometimes, it can be too much that it causes some minor awkwardness. Jiang Chen stuffed the stomach medicine in his pocket as he asked for the bill.

"Are you not afraid of becoming fat." Liu Yao mocked as she looked at the pile of stacked plates.

"Not afraid at all. It is not bad for a man to have a belly," Jiang Chen joked.

Although that’s what he said, he was still far away from being fat.

Liu Yao glanced at Jiang Chen’s flat stomach and exclaimed in bewilderment.

"How do you do it?"

"Do you want to know?" Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously.

Liu Yao nodded, as her eyes filled with excitement.

To be able to maintain his figure without the need to diet. To the women that always debated if they should eat cake or not, the temptation was lethal. With how excited Liu Yao looked, Jiang Chen daydreamed in his mind. If Lin Lin managed to create a weight control pill, the wallet of the 3.5 billion women around the world would open for him.

He almost wanted to return to the apocalypse immediately.

"I will tell you later." Jiang Chen laughed.

The waitress with blonde hair and blue eyes passed the bill and machine to him, smiled, and courteously looked away.

The tipping culture in New Zealand was not as popular as in the UA, but it certainly exists. However, what differs is that the waitress would not directly ask you for tips and would look away when customer typed in the tip amount as to make it less awkward for the customers unwilling to pay the tip and press that zero button.

Because he was in a great mood, Jiang Chen didn’t let the beautiful waitress’ expectation down as he typed in 100% in the tip option and then swiped his card.

When the receipt was printed, the waitress opened her mouth in shock as he looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

It was her first time seeing such a generous customer. If it were not for the stunning beauty who sat across him, she would have suspected that the young eastern man was interested in her.

Including tips, the meal cost 500 USD. It was almost half the price for a day in their presidential suite.

Liu Yao pouted her mouth as she watched the waitress leave. She stared at the table as she moped in jealousy.

"Are you interested in her?"

"Of course not." Jiang Chen laughed.

He was not a human hookup machine, he didn’t think of doing things every day.

"Haha, good." Liu Yao smiled as she said happily, "Where should we go next?"

Women who are always jealousy would push men away, but women who are not jealous at all wouldn’t make men aware of their presence. Jealous but never persistent on one issue. Against this type of intelligence, Xia Shiyu and Ayesha added together were no competition for Liu Yao.

And because of this, Jiang Chen wanted Liu Yao to be his mistress.

She knew this point and she didn’t demand more. Because even as a mistress, Jiang Chen gave her, her respect.

A title is only a title after all.

"I heard scuba diving is quite fun here, do you want to go check it out?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Yes! Also, I want to head out into the sea!" Liu Yao said energetically.

"No problem."

Jiang Chen stretched, held onto her hand, and strolled out of the hotel.

_Min_ _Min_

2/5

Chapter 273: The Renting Fiascal

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand. It is comprised of over fifty varying-sized islands. Half of the city was built on land and half was built on the sea. It was like a garden on an ocean.

Other than the beautiful scenery, the other unique trait of Auckland was the ease of transportation.

Within half an hour, you could arrive anywhere. Whether it was taking a boat to the islands, or a hike through the rainforest, or having a picnic by the volcano, or surfing in the ocean.

Moments later, Jiang Chen and Liu Yao got off at the port.

The port called fisherman’s wharf was a place he saw on their local website. The owner was a British man named John with a friendly attitude towards tourists. Because of this, the place was extremely popular with a lot of people coming to this port and renting a boat to head out to the sea.

Based on other people's comments, he served in the Australian army before and was a master in diving.

There was a full line of amenities at the port and the cost to rent was not high.

Holding onto Liu Yao’s hand, Jiang Chen walked to the office of the port and began to ask about renting a boat and diving.

The British guy with a red nose was delighted that Jiang Chen asked about diving as he started to introduce all the scuba diving gear he has collected and carefully explained the cautionary notes in diving.

"… It is critical to be aware of the depth. For beginners, I recommend a depth no more than six meters."

"Six meters, what’s the fun in that?" Jiang Chen had to ask.

"Within shallow sea, six meters would allow you to see beautiful scenery under the sea. If you plan to scuba dive, I don’t recommend you rent a boat that goes too far away. When you enter deep water, you might not see anything even after twenty meters, there is also the danger of encountering sharks." Although John was talking about dangerous things, there was a hint of humor in his tone.

"Sh…Sharks?" Liu Yao shivered as she looked at Jiang Chen, frightened. "Let’s not dive anymore."

Although her English was mediocre at best, Liu Yao still made out the word shark.

When he saw the tourist shiver in fear, John smiled assuringly and began to explain using his hands.

"There is no need to worry too much. Most of the sharks don’t attack people. More people are being killed by coconuts landing on their heads than being attacked by sharks. Only Great White Sharks or Tiger Sharks would attack people. In some places, they organize scuba divers to feed the sharks."

Jiang Chen was not that afraid of sharks.

Since he fought head to head with the fearsome Death Claw, there was no way he would be afraid of something that only used its teeth.

"This is the first time I met a merchant that tells its customers not to buy its service." With how serious John looked, Jiang Chen shrugged with an expression he couldn’t be helped.

"I have to be responsible for the safety of the tourists." John shrugged, "Only when safely protected could one enjoy the beauty of the sea."

"Looks like you have your own perspective on the beauty of the sea." Jiang Chen laughed.

"I love scuba diving." John grinned as a set of white teeth appeared from his thick beard.

"But I still want to the rent a boat, as well as a set of diving gear. I will worry about my own safety." Jiang Chen shook his head.

John still wanted to persuade Jiang Chen, but an unharmonious voice came from behind them.

"Could the people in the front hurry up? If you can’t afford it stop wasting time." A man in sunglasses complained out of annoyance, and a girl in light clothes stood beside him as she intimately wrapped her hands around his arm.

To be honest, Dai Zhengming was absolutely annoyed by his fellow countrymen who traveled to New Zealand. Every December, New Zealand’s fresh and free atmosphere would be mixed with gloom. The garbage on the streets would also increase. The situation would only be alleviated by late January because, by that time, his fellow countrymen would head home for New Year.

No need to suspect. Although he has yellow skin, he had a heart that shined with whiteness. After working at Microsoft for a few years, with his excellent track record, he finally gained an opportunity to immigrate. Although he personally preferred Australia more, New Zealand was not a bad choice.

Just like a monkey who leaped onto a tree branch, he thirstily breathed the air of the free world as he looked at the envious people watching him. Arrogance often sprouted from other people’s adoration, and bias is infinitely magnified by arrogance.

He had perfectly settled into his role of a "local" as he disdained foreigners more than the actual locals.

As if all of the actions of his fellow countrymen lacked courtesy and manner.

Because he spoke Han, John didn’t understand what he said. As he thought that Jiang Chen met his fellow countrymen, he shrugged and left them alone.

[I can’t afford it?]

Jiang Chen’s expression was peculiar as he didn’t know what to say. Liu Yao covered her mouth, she tried hard to not laugh and turned her face to scan the man in sunglasses.

When he saw Liu Yao’s face, Dai Zhengming held his breath.

[Damn, what a hottie.]

Although he had seen a lot of beautiful girls before, it was his first time seeing one this stunning. Especially when she turned her head and smiled, it almost made his heart pause.

Of course, perhaps it was because of the shades, he didn’t manage to read the mockery in Liu Yao’s eyes.

"Zhengming, they might not know English, why don’t you go help them." The girl holding onto his arm blinked her bright eyes as she coyly shook his arm.

She looked above average. Based on her looks, she should be in university, most likely an international student in Auckland? The man was in his mid-thirties, although not old, but definitely not as young as Jiang Chen.

"You are right." Dai Zhengming let out a sigh and walked towards Jiang Chen.

Although he looked down on him, he must maintain his gentlemen appearance in front of the beauty.

"I am Dai Zhengming."

"I am Jiang… Jianguo." He was going to say his own name, but from the way Dai Zhengming looked, he seemed to have something to say and therefore Jiang Chen gave his dad’s name in the last second instead.

Liu Yao tried hard not to laugh as she charmingly rolled her eyes at the naughty Jiang Chen.

"In New Zealand, it is extremely uncourteous to occupy public resources for a long time. I don’t know if people taught you this in Hua, but overseas, it is better to save some face for your own country."

"Rather than 'occupying public resources', I like to refer to my actions as asking about the services available, especially since it has been less than three minutes-" With how serious he looked, Jiang Chen "argued" and couldn’t help but laugh.

Dai Zhengming "courteously" interrupted Jiang Chen’s words and spoke to him with an educating tone.

"And people are lining up behind you, right? Let me give you a simple example. An event that left a deep impression on me living in New Zealand all these years. I saw a Han grandma and her grandson ordering at the St. Heliers coffee shop. They spent so long at the register before ordering a mocha with a sandwich and a kids meal."

[Uhh, is he implying something?]

Jiang Chen purposely looked behind him, other than them, there was no one waiting in line.

"Is that a problem?" Jiang Chen was lost.

"It’s courtesy." Dai Zhengming looked seriously at Jiang Chen’s eyes as he said with a straight face.

"So you are saying… that grandma and grandson wasted time of all the people waiting in line?" Jiang Chen had a peculiar expression on his face.

[Wow, you remember such a minuscule event, and it left a deep impression on you? You’re quite a special snowflake.]

"That’s right. If you want to order, please think about what you want to order before lining up, or don’t occupy the space at the register, that would bring trouble to the people waiting to order."

"Okay… I agree it is rude to occupy the stall and not take a sh*t." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"And you are doing exactly this right now," Dai Zhengming said sternly. "And watch your language. It represents the image of the country behind you, please don’t use the word sh*t. if this is the UA, you may face lawsuits for using offensive language to strangers."

Jiang Chen’s expression couldn’t be more peculiar.

Unfortunately, he knew a UA citizen who used the word sh*t every day. (Robert in the far away Los Santos sneezed and woke up the Hollywood girl that slept beside him.)

When he saw Jiang Chen didn’t say anything, he thought Jiang Chen was so embarrassed that he was speechless, so he continued.

"Even if you have some money, please don’t bring your uncourteous habits out of the country."

"Let me clarify, I don’t have some money," Jiang Chen corrected him feeling rather awkward.

"Then you have to be more aware of your manners, or people will consider you as both uncourteous and poor." His eyes were flashing with a trace of contempt as he educated.

As he finished, he nobly turned to Liu Yao as he took out a business card from his pocket.

"Beautiful lady, this is my business card. I currently have a house in Auckland and I am working in the Microsoft division here as the chief engineer. I am pretty familiar with the area. So if you are interested, you can find me at the address on the business card, I am happy to take you around to enjoy the beauty of New Zealand.

Then, Dai Zhengming ignored Liu Yao’s reaction and left with a smile he considered charming and a "cool" retreating silhouette.

He walked around Jiang Chen, used a British accent more standard than British people, and spoke with Johnny before he swiped his card.

Then, he triumphantly walked towards the boats with the girl that held onto his arm with her face full of idolization. Jiang Chen was dumbfounded.

"Honey, you’re being looked down upon," Liu Yao walked beside Jiang Chen with a grin, held onto his arm, and said coyly.

"Seems like that's the case," Jiang Chen said helplessly.

"Do you need me to help you to seek revenge?" Liu Yao’s eyes flashed as her red lips curled up.

"It’s okay, he already said let’s not lose face in front of foreigners," Jiang Chen mocked,

Liu Yao burst out laughing as she closed her mouth.

"I didn’t know you liked cold humor." She threw the business card into the garbage can.

"No, I am serious." Although that was what he said, Jiang Chen didn’t look serious at all.

…

When Jiang Chen thought about it, that guy seemed to have cut him in line. But Jiang Chen wasn't interested in being bothered by him. He could give up a few minutes of his life.

"What were you talking about?" John didn’t mind that Jiang Chen just left him hanging and asked curiously.

"Not much… Just talked about some hometown stuff."

"Great then, to meet a fellow countryman overseas, it is important to chat for a moment. But in Auckland, you will have plenty of opportunities to see them," John said with a smile.

"Is that so… Speaking of this, what do you think about the Han in Auckland?" After he swiped his card, Jiang Chen signed the receipt and asked nonchalantly.

"They make delicious cuisine. I really enjoy Han food, just that it’s a bit expensive." John laughed.

"Anything else?"

"That’s all." John shrugged.

Because of Jiang Chen’s insistence, John didn’t try to talk him out of it as he just urged him to be extra safe and that he must dive with the captain accompanying him.

It was not cheap to rent a boat, the cheapest one cost two thousand NZD a day, which was equivalent to eight thousand RMB. Therefore, it was more economical to rent by the hour, but other than the small boats, the boats that you could live on were not available for hourly rental.

Because it was a rare opportunity, it was not thrilling enough to just rent a small boat. Jiang Chen rented a ten something meter long medium-sized luxury boat with a spacious living space and gladly paid eight thousand NZD per day for it.

"Also, do New Zealanders just straight up pay for their boat when they rent here?" After he signed the agreement, Jiang Chen asked.

John paused for a moment as he didn’t know why Jiang Chen would ask such a question. He shook his head and said, "Other than the customers who often come, the new customers without knowledge of the price and the type of boat would have to ask."

"You are right." Jiang Chen smiled.

…

Su Wen stood on the dock beside the boat and asked Dai Zhengming curiously.

"What did you say to that girl? I saw you give her something."

"Nothing, it is only a business card. In the outside world, it is a habit to hand out a business card as it represents courtesy." Dai Zhengming made up a lie out of embarrassment.

At the same time, Jiang Chen and Liu Yao walked in their direction.

When he saw the beauty was still sweetly holding onto Jiang Chen’s hand, Dai Zhengming’s eyebrows jumped but he didn’t react any further.

When he passed by Dai Zhengming, Jiang Chen seemed to have suddenly remembered something and stopped.

"Oh, I heard that there is a custom of returning business cards, then I will give you a business card as well." Jiang Chen took out his business card and purposely hesitated for a moment before he passed it to his female companion. "I don’t travel abroad a lot and haven't learned as much about the western culture as you, so I will learn from you."

When saw Jiang Chen hand his girlfriend, Su Wen, his business card, he frowned unnaturally. But then he realized that Jiang Chen seemed to have ignored him and passed the business card to the beauty beside him, he swallowed the criticism.

"Wenwen, accept it for me."

"Oh."

Jiang Chen stuffed the business card into the girl’s hands as he laughed like he just pulled off a prank and continued to walk without turning his head.

"It is ready. Should we depart now?"

The captain working in the small boat raised his head and smiled at Dai Zhengming.

"Mhmm, let’s leave now. Wenwen, let’ go… Wenwen?" When Dai Zhengming saw that Su Wen didn’t react, he slightly frowned and turned his head.

Su Wen, holding onto the gold gilded business card, had her eyes wide open and was utterly astonished.

"What’s going on?" Dai Zhengming asked confusedly.

Su Wen seemed to have recollected her thoughts as she looked at her boyfriend in excitement.

"It’s... It’s Jiang Chen!"

"Jiang Chen? Which Jiang-" Suddenly, Dai Zhengming stopped.

Jiang Chen? President of Future Technology? But isn’t his name Jiang Jianguo?"

He grabbed the card from his girlfriend’s hand as he widened his eyes in disbelief. Then he looked up into the not so far distance.

The man stating "he didn’t have some money" was on top of a luxury boat and smiling at him.

But the bright smile, in Dai Zhengming’s eyes, looked piercing.

Mockery.

When he remembered that he lectured him, the humiliation immediately overwhelmed him. His bloated face turned red as he wanted to dig a hole for himself.

Especially when he saw his girlfriend looking enviously at the luxury boat, his expression looked like he just ate a fly.

"Are you guys going on the boat or not? Can I start timing?"

The captain on the boat saw that the two had no reaction and yawned as he complained.

When he heard the captain complain, Dai Zhengming immediately recollected his thought as he apologized to the captain. Then he dragged the still envious girlfriend onto the boat.

On the top deck of the boat, Jiang Chen looked at the dock disappearing with a grin.

"You are not a nice person. But that person is hideous, it makes me feel good to see him suffer like this." Liu Yao held onto his arm as she giggled.

"I only smiled at him, but he would think I am mocking him. Saves me my own expression," Jiang Chen shrugged and mocked.

After they left the small incident behind, Jiang Chen looked into the distance.

He gazed at the waves at the point where the sky and the ocean met. As he experienced the ocean wind breeze by his face, he felt all his annoyances quietly settle down.

Just as he was zoning out, the EP on his arm undetectably flashed.

As if it foretold something unexpected was about to occur.

_Min_ _Min_

3/5

Chapter 274: The Signal from under the Ocean

The captain of the boat was John's daughter. Her name was Bernie.

Just like her father, she was also someone that loved the sea. Because of this, while she had blonde hair unique to Caucasian people, her skin was tanned.

The boat was moving quickly, at 50 knots, in the Hauraki Bay towards the Great Barrier Island.

When Jiang Chen looked back, the outline of the port had already disappeared from the sea, only a few black dots soaring on the horizon could be seen.

"Woah-!"

Intoxicated by the fresh air, Liu Yao excitedly took off her white shirt as she stood on the edge of the deck and shouted into the distance.

Of course, she changed into a bikini when she was at the hotel.

"Careful don't fall off." Jiang Chen looked at her liveliness and smiled.

"If I fall off, will you save me?" Liu Yao asked playfully.

"Of course," Jiang Chen had a smirk on his face, "But I heard there are sharks in this area, how much I can save would be questionable."

Liu Yao shivered exaggeratedly as she jumped from the edge of the deck and rolled her eyes.

"There are typically no sharks in the Hauraki Bay, but there are actually quite a few dolphins here. If we are lucky we might be able to see whales. If we head north of the Lesser Barrier Island, that will change," Bernie who sat in the captain's room heard their conversation and explained.

Surprisingly, this foreigner, Bernie, spoke Han. Although not fluently, it was enough to maintain a conversation.

As if Bernie had read the question in Jiang Chen's eyes, she explained with a smile, "My boyfriend is Han, he taught me the language. There are a lot of Han tourists here. Usually, if Han tourists head out to the sea, I will be their captain and guide."

"Where are we now?" Liu Yao extended her neck. With one hand covering the sunlight, she watched the distance in excitement.

"We have arrived Northwest of the Jackson port already, around 16 nautical miles from the Great Barrier Island. It is a good place to view the undersea corals."

"How much longer?" Liu Yao couldn't wait any longer.

"With our current speed, around 20 minutes." Bernie smiled.

"I am really looking forward to it," Liu Yao looked afar before grabbing onto Jiang Chen's arm, she said coyly, "Could you take photos for me? I want pictures with the clownfish."

"Of course." He felt the softness of her 36D and laughed.

"Honey you are the best, muaa." Liu Yao naughtily winked.

Jiang Chen was just about to tease her when he felt the arm of his other hand vibrate.

The vibration came from his EP.

Communication? Did something urgent happen in the apocalypse?

"What is this?" Liu Yao looked curiously at Jiang Chen's arm.

"A special kind of electronic watch... I need to go to the washroom," Jiang Chen gave a brief explanation before he walked inside.

Although still confused, Liu Yao didn't ask more as she stayed outside.

After going inside, Jiang Chen immediately opened the EP and started the communication channel.

"Strange," Looking at the static white screen, Jiang Chen muttered to himself.

It was not from the apocalypse.

The fourth-dimensional messenger received Klein particle waves, but the wave could not be decoded into a video message.

"Could it be because of the poor signal?"

The signal began to fade.

Looking at the blurry whiteness that began to fade, Jiang Chen suddenly realized something as he rushed out the door.

"Bernie, stop the boat, quickly," Jiang Chen pushed open the control room as he hastily said.

"What happened?" His rushed voice made Bernie sitting in the control room jump as she slowed the boat down out of instinct.

"What happened?" Seeing Jiang Chen panic, Liu Yao who stood outside also stared at Jiang Chen in confusion.

Jiang Chen didn't explain anything, he looked at the screen with the GPS tracker and glanced at the route they passed through.

"First, go back around one nautical mile."

"Go back?" Bernie puzzledly looked at Jiang Chen, "But there is nothing there."

Jiang Chen immediately calmed down when he heard her question.

He was certain that something was hidden inside the sea. Although he didn't know what it was, it had to do with Klein particles.

Crystals? But how would this world have that?

Regardless of what was hidden, he could not let anyone know.

When he thought about this, Jiang Chen glanced at the screen with the GPS coordinates again as he memorized the approximate location. Then, he changed into a casual voice.

"Nothing, I just saw a dolphin, but he must have swum away already by now."

"A dolphin?" When Bernie heard Jiang Chen's' words, she paused for a moment before she let out a breath of relief. "Once we reach the Great Barrier Island, you'll see a lot of cute little ones in the area."

When she saw Jiang Chen rush into the control room, she thought there was a problem with the boat.

But it was only a dolphin.

"Is that so? I am looking forward to it then." Jiang Chen also smiled as he left the control room.

Seeing Jiang Chen come out, Liu Yao walked towards him worriedly and caringly asked.

"What happened? I, I saw you were really rushed..."

"Nothing, I only saw a few dolphins."

Although she acutely sensed that Jiang Chen wasn't telling the truth, she didn't persist on the topic any further.

If Jiang Chen were willing to tell her, then he would do so. If he was unwilling, then persisting would only make him feel annoyed.

"Is that so? Then that's disappointing, I wanted to take a photo with the dolphins." After hugging onto Jiang Chen right arm, Liu Yao playfully pouted her mouth.

The 16 nautical miles quickly came to an end.

The waves splashed white, at the apex where the sea and sky connected, a beautiful outline gradually appeared.

When she saw the thick green vegetation, as well as the soaring seagulls, Liu Yao cheered again in excitement.

The two spent the entire afternoon diving in the water near the Great Barrier Island and taking pictures with the cute dolphins, fishing for fishes, teasing the clownfish hidden amongst the sea anemone, and chasing each other between the beautiful corals.

Time flew by quickly as if it had instantly turned to dusk.

After watching the sunset on the deck, Jiang Chen told Bernie to return to port.

Although he still wanted to stay a bit longer by the sea, because of his unsettled mind, he didn't choose to stay longer but rather asked Bernie to send them back to the hotel.

With the help of the hotel workers, Bernie docked the boat.

"Are you not going to stay a bit longer? You rented the boat for a day. It is a great experience to stay on the boat overnight," Looking at the two people saying goodbye, Bernie asked them.

"It's okay, I remembered I have something to take care of," Jiang Chen declined her proposal as Jiang Chen held Liu Yao's hand and they went back to the hotel.

He desperately wanted to know, when they passed by the water northwest of Jackson port, what was actually hidden there.

He had a premonition that that thing might have something to do with the video.

_Min_ _Min_

4/5

Chapter 275: K1 Kinetic Skeleton Amphibious

After returning to his room, Jiang Chen closed the door.

Graceful hands circled his waist.

When he felt the coolness, Jiang Chen smiled and gently squeezed Liu Yao's hand.

"Don't want to do it?"

"Can you withstand it?" Looking at her bright eyes, Jiang Chen smirked.

When she recollected her desperate pleading last night, Liu Yao's face turned red, but she acted calmly.

"I can withstand-"

"But rather than withstanding it, I enjoy it more when you are also enjoying it."

A glimpse of emotion appeared and quickly faded on her face. She lowered her head and pouted her mouth.

"Thank you."

"Rest early tonight, it has been a long day." Jiang Chen combed the hair in front of Liu Yao's forehead with a smile.

"Mhmm." Her eyes turned teary for a second and she nodded.

Half because of his money, half because of his character. Regardless, she loved him. Although she knew Jiang Chen would only treat her as a mistress, she didn't mind.

She knew, him accepting her perhaps had nothing to do with love, or maybe even as a reminiscence to what didn't happen in the past, a recollection of his time. By the lake at Wanghai University, when she wore that white dress and appeared in front of him like a student. His lost eyes made her read the meaning behind them.

But none of those things mattered. Even if she was just a mistress, she could still feel his gentleness.

The only thing that made her afraid was, at the bottom of her heart, she wondered if she was just a tool to unleash his desire.

But fortunately, he is not like that...

...

After a shower, the two slept.

It was around midnight when Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

The breathing beside his ear was rhythmic. Due to spending too much energy during the day, Liu Yao was sleeping deeply.

After sneaking out of bed, Jiang Chen put on his shirt, went into the washroom, and locked the door before commencing interdimensional travel.

It was quiet in the mansion. Sun Jiao should already be sleeping.

Jiang Chen didn't go wake them up as he took a thick winter suit and covered himself up. He stood beside the living room, getting used to the drastic change in temperature. Then he opened the door of the mansion and walked into the snowy night.

Although it was already late into the night, the base still remained bright and noisy.

The heavy snow could not cover the orange flame shining from the factory window. The roaring sound inside the building diffused around the base. With the outdated production equipment, they could only make up the lack of speed through labor. The lack of sophisticated equipment meant that they had to operate through an around the clock shift schedule to reach the necessary volume.

But no one complained because this place was the wasteland. Being full and warm with the opportunity to work was almost a luxury.

The unmanned highly sophisticated factories from before the war had almost all turned into shambles during the nuclear explosions. Although Jiang Chen had thought about sending people to the ruins to dig through some "garbage", given that it was around ten something years into the apocalypse, he gave up on the thought.

Anything good was probably raided.

The snow removing vehicle modified out of a truck would occasionally drive by. The fully equipped soldiers patrolled the base.

When they saw Jiang Chen, the leading patrol immediately stood straight and saluted to the general.

"Don't mind me, you guys continue to patrol." Looking at the young man with a red nose, Jiang Chen smile.

"Yes, sir!" The young man raised his head with rosy cheeks and saluted again before telling the soldiers behind him to walk forward.

At the young man's chest, Jiang Chen saw a golden emblem.

He just remembered that he seemed to have canonized two hundred something knights at the base. These knights were absolutely loyal to him and were the first batch of slaves he bought from the Sixth Street. They were the pioneers that dug the first shovel among the ruins. Now, these pioneers all have been promoted as the central force of the base, acting as management or mid to high-level military leaders.

The person following the young knight was an upper citizen. Although he was not implanted with the slavery chip, Jiang Chen still saw deep respect and worship from his eyes.

"The size of the base is beginning to grow?" Standing in the snow, Jiang Chen scanned the territory he ruled and a smile emerged on his face.

With the Fishbone base gradually growing in size, with the base as the core foundation, it began to expand into its fourth newly plotted area. New residential area meant that they could intake new immigrants. Combined with the survivors from Shenxiang town, Fishbone base had over 1000 in population.

But the growth on this side was stagnating. The materials gathered by the scavenger team could not satisfy the appetite of this industrial monster. Only if he managed to obtain his own land in the modern world could he move tons of aluminum, steel, or even rare earth metals to the apocalypse.

After staying a bit longer, Jiang Chen began to walk to the aerospace laboratory at the corner of the base.

He pressed the doorbell as he put his face closer to the camera and said concisely.

"It's me."

Shortly after, the lock made a "clang" sound.

Pushing open the door, he carried with him the chilly wind and snowflakes. But the snowflakes on the carpet were soon melted into droplets of water by the heat inside.

He closed the door behind him and put his winter suit on the hook by the door before he walked inside.

"So late. I almost thought the kinetic skeleton production line had an accident." Jiang Lin in pajamas yawned as he came to the door with messy hair.

Parts were thrown everywhere, making the first-floor living room challenging to find a place to place one's feet. But the still sleepy guy managed to quickly walk through the pile of spare parts and didn't step on a single bolt.

By this alone, this guy spent too much time inside.

"This is?" Jiang Chen pointed at the parts and diagrams on the ground feeling puzzled.

Jiang Lin grabbed a chair for Jiang Chen and then sat on the other one before he replied, "You asked to research the K1-b type kinetic skeleton... For real, is this thing really necessary?"

K1-b kinetic skeleton is the amphibious version of the K1 model. Maintaining the current defense ability, it adds a resistant layer against water pressure, while modifying the back to allow for water booster and an air storage cylinder.

Of course, this model would not be used in the apocalypse, but Jiang Chen didn't want to explain to him as he started to ask about the research progress.

"Is this thing functional?"

"Probably not. Considering that most waters possess a radiation level exceeding normal levels. I still need to add a layer of heavy organic metal within the pressure resistant layer-" Jiang Lin was prepared to explain to Jiang Chen the technicals, but Jiang Chen who didn't understand at all interrupted him mercilessly.

"Let's put the radiation problem aside for now. Other than that, what else is needed? Is this thing done?" The water in the modern world has no radiation, it would be useless to add anti-radiation material.

"The design is complete. Sample parts have been created, it only needs to be assembled together before it can be used." After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Lin nodded.

"Then assemble a sample for me, that shouldn't be a problem right?"

"There is no problem, but the performance data has yet to be collected, it may not be good to use it right away-"

"Battle is the best way to test the equipment." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Okay." Jiang Lin didn't try to convince Jiang Chen. He shrugged before he walked towards the workbench.

The K1-b type kinetic skeleton was much heavier compared to the original K1 model. Considering that the amphibious equipment would mostly be used underwater, the removable polyethylene board was sealed shut to avoid water leakage.

Other than that, Jiang Lin also designed a full helmet for this kinetic skeleton.

Just from the appearance alone, this kinetic skeleton covered every single part of the body with the pressure resistant material. Other than the fact that it didn't have a turbine engine, steel armor, nerve connected computer, as well as other high tech equipment, this set of armor was similar to the power armor. On the other hand, it could be classified as something between "light infantry armor" to "heavy knight armor". The cost was three times more than the original K1 model.

"The booster equipment is in the back. The air storage can be charged by allowing the opening to come into contact with air. It takes around an hour to charge to full and can be used up to three hours." Jiang Lin pushed up his glasses as he began to explain to Jiang Chen the equipment he designed.

[Automatically replenishing oxygen, what, how insane is that?]

As he listened to Jiang Lin, Jiang Chen was shocked.

"When engaging in a crossfire, avoid getting the breathing apparatus in the back of the neck damaged... Of course, that would not be much different than if you were shot in the head."

"The helmet is not bulletproof?" Jiang Chen knocked on the helmet as he felt the special organic material.

"It is underwater equipment. I have to control the overall density, the majority of the bulletproof ability is focused on the front chest and stomach area. Of course, the helmet can defend against one or two bullets, but I don't recommend you try it. With the kinetic power of the reaper assault rifle, even if the helmet could deflect a shot, most people's neck would not be able to withstand that kind of force. This is not the power armor after all." Jiang Lin shrugged.

"What about this? Pistol?" Jiang Chen picked up an odd-looking weapon.

"That's alright. But it can't be used in water."

"Is the Type-11 pistol not good? I remember the power of that thing is pretty high." Jiang Chen held onto the gun as he played with it, the feeling couldn't be more strange.

Jiang Lin paused for a second as he looked at Jiang Chen strangely.

"The bullet with a higher initial velocity would travel a shorter distance in the water. Even if the bullet in the base has a steel core, while it would not be crushed by the water pressure, it will begin to roll in a few meters."

The higher the velocity, the shorter the distance? How is that possible?!

"But I saw in movies-" Jiang Chen said dumbfoundedly.

In his memory, the images of machines guns weaving a net made by bullets were common in war movies.

"It is a movie after all." Jiang Lin laughed as he put a box of elongated bullets into Jiang Chen's hand, "If you use Type-11, you are better off using a laser weapon. Although the optical density of laser beams also degrade quickly in water, it will still shoot further than conventional weapons."

_Min_ _Min_

5/5!

Chapter 276: Below the Ocean

After taking the equipment from Jiang Lin, Jiang Chen returned to the mansion. He snuck into his own bedroom before traveling back.

When he looked at the time coming out of the washroom, it was already two in the morning.

After quietly getting into bed again, Jiang Chen looked at the tranquil face and rhythmically pumping chest before lying down beside her and closing his eyes.

The next morning.

Although he slept late last night, when the first ray of sunshine cast into the room, He was the first one up.

As he got out of bed, he didn't wake Liu Yao up as he only left a message on the table before putting on a shirt and leaving.

After taking a taxi to the rural area east of Auckland, Jiang Chen walked along the coast before he found the fishing farm on the map.

He dragged the owner of the fish farm out and without wasting a single word he directly pointed at the boat parked on the dock and asked for the price.

Although the New Zealander first insisted that he was not willing to sell, when he heard Jiang Chen raise the price to ten thousand NZD and pretended to leave, the brown-skinned old fisherman dragged onto him signaling it was a deal.

Ten thousand NZD was enough for two boats, especially since his boat has already been used for over a year.

After completing the transaction, that guy gave all the documents and keys to Jiang Chen.

As to if Jiang Chen had the proper license, he didn't ask. He only taught Jiang Chen for 30 minutes on how to drive.

It was simple to maneuver the boat. Under the directions of the old fisherman, they took a ride into the nearby sea as Jiang Chen learned how to drive.

However, when the old fisherman got out, his eyes were full of concern. But Jiang Chen was unbothered. He opened the GPS, pushed the speed of the boat to its maximum and headed for the waters northwest of Jackson Port.

The Hauraki Bay today was still pleasant.

Because he didn't encounter any big waves, with Jiang Chen's brute way of pressing on the gas, he managed to arrive without flipping the boat.

When the boat passed through the same area as yesterday, without any surprise, the EP with the fourth-dimensional messenger received the same mysterious signal.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen immediately slowed down. With one hand firmly on the wheel, he stared at the changing signal intensity on the EP.

After wandering nearby for a while, Jiang Chen finally chose three points with the same signal and drew it on the map.

What happened next was much more straightforward.

Through triangulation, Jiang Chen quickly confirmed the approximate coordinates of the signal's source.

"Done!"

Jiang Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead, threw the pencil to the side as he memorized the coordinates.

"H?" Jiang Chen stared at the EP screen as he barely made out a blurred out word.

But because it was too blurred out, he could only recognize the initial letter.

"Is it that hello?"

As he muttered to himself, Jiang Chen shut off the gas.

He took out the K1-b kinetic skeleton from the storage dimension and put it on.

<Oxygen: 100%

Structural damage: None

Airtight: Normal>

He glanced at the panel on his right arm. After confirming all stats were normal, he walked to the edge of the boat.

"I hope there is no wind."

He took a deep breath and dove into the water.

...

Pooch.

Followed by the rising air bubbles, Jiang Chen gradually descended to the deep sea.

It was the first time he attempted diving away from the shore. When they were scuba diving near the Great Barrier Island, they saw the corals on the seabed two to three meters down. But now, the only thing below him was vast darkness.

The light and sound surrounding him began to fade. The deepness and silence, only unique to below the sea, gradually spread around him.

<Current elevation: -20m

Distance from the sea floor: 71m>

"So fu*king deep." Jiang Chen looked at the panel and cursed.

To push away the claustrophobic sense swirling around him, he tapped the screen on his right arm as he opened the detection light on his helmet and feet.

The sudden appearance of light made the little things peacefully swimming by him flee away.

Only after two minutes of descending did Jiang Chen finally approach the sea floor.

The colorful coral reefs and fishes, as well as the water plants swaying with the flow of the sea, were magnificent under the ray of light.

But because he had already observed the beautiful feast underneath the sea, Jiang Chen didn't stop and observe the stunning scenery. He pressed the screen on his arm some more as he initiated the data transfer between the EP and kinetic skeleton computer.

The static whiteness appeared again, but the hidden letters were much more clear compared to what he saw on the surface of the sea.

"H...Help? Is the signal asking for help?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he scanned around.

Since there were no irregular items, clearly there was an error in triangulation. That was to be expected. Jiang Chen didn't have a measurement device, it was a crude calculation with pencil and paper.

Jiang Chen waved the flaps under his feet as he tilted his body downward. He circled around the area before he followed the direction in which the signal was gradually increasing.

The bottom of the sea was not smooth. Twenty meters into his journey, a pitch black valley appeared in front of Jiang Chen.

He shined the light in but couldn't see the bottom.

Jiang Chen looked at the deep abyss as he glanced at the screen on his arm.

<Current elevation: -101m

Distance from seafloor: unknown>

210m

243m

332m

...

It could not detect the bottom anymore? Or could the bottom be molten lava which would scatter the laser causing the information not to be relayed back?

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows. Whatever it may be, it was not a good thing.

Based on what Jiang Lin had said, the K1-b was designed for amphibious battle, not for deep sea diving. So a safe depth to go was only 150 meters.

Jiang Chen hesitated for a moment. Then he took a deep breath of air as he swam into the trench with an unknown depth.

Just like he expected, with his continuous descend, the signal from the EP was getting stronger and stronger.

210m.

243m.

332m, the world record for scuba diving has been broken by Jiang Chen.

...

As he felt the immense pressure from all sides, Jiang Chen clenched his teeth as he struggled to breathe in the air being pressured to the limit.

The good thing was that the compressed air in the cylinder was helium-oxygen. If it were nitrogen oxygen, once the nitrogen dissolved into his body, it would render him unconscious.

420m!

Finally, the signal began to decrease.

A delightedness flashed across Jiang Chen's eyes as he swam up two to three meters, and then began to search along the dark rock surface.

If it were not for his genetic vaccine, an ordinary person would begin to bleed due to the water pressure.

Finally, beside a jagged rock pillar, Jiang Chen saw something peculiar protruding out.

He suppressed the excitement in his head and sped up the paddling of his feet as he moved towards that pillar.

As his finger touched the cold pillar, he slightly used some force against it. With the momentum, Jiang Chen drifted behind the pillar.

Light shed onto the black metal that hasn't seen sunlight for ages.

Sea plants swayed as if the light had disturbed its peace.

"My God..."

Jiang Chen dumbfoundedly looked at the scenery in front of his eyes as he almost forgot the breath.

Just like a breeze of wind carrying Klein particles, it swept by the hidden history.

The truth gradually revealed itself.

The buried secret will once again see the light of day.

Chapter 277: U-235

"U-235?"

It was a submarine.

Around 90 meters long, he couldn't tell how much it weighed, but it must be above a thousand tons.

Just like a needle, it pierced right into the jagged rocky cliff.

The majority of its surface was covered by unknown algae. The remaining cracks were filled by the remains of mollusks. Rust stained the entire metal surface, but it didn't fade away the white paint that revealed its identity.

Jiang Chen extended his hand and touched the cold metal surface with his glove.

He gently swayed along with the soft and silky seaweed and muttered the grave symbols.

"U-235?"

If he remembered correctly, a submarine with U as the initial letter, there was only one type in the entire world - the German U boat.

Jiang Chen was not a military fanatic as his understanding of this came entirely from a British World War Two documentary as well as a few Hollywood movies.

They were like ghosts below the sea surface, lingering around the allies' minds like nightmares. They disturbed the commercial fleets and transportation boats across the Atlantic Ocean. They ripped the supply line from the free world to the British Isles and cornered the allies' military power.

It was not until 1945, when the Germans surrendered, did these submarines sunk.

"The heritage of the Third Reich? Is the signal from inside here?"

Jiang Chen pushed on the surface of the submarine as he used the opposing force to gain a bit of distance. With the light on his head, he examined the full view of the intact submarine.

Since it has been in the water for so many years, the rust on the surface of the submarine was severe. But fortunately, the main structure of the submarine remained intact as it didn't look like it would disassemble during internal exploration.

When it crashed into the trenches, the submarine must have experienced strong impact. Just from the surface, a few dents and cracks were visible.

Jiang Chen followed along the outskirts of the submarine as he swam onto the deck.

The 88mm cannon was twisted and bent from impact. Inside the cannon resided creatures similar to shrimps.

Jiang Chen didn't disturb those small things as he circled around the rusted cannon and headed into the exit.

Unfortunately, the iron door was welded shut.

Jiang Chen without any welding equipment had to give up on the door and search for another entrance.

Lady luck once again was on his side. Five meters away from the torpedo launcher, Jiang Chen managed to find a crack fitting of a person.

He looked at the pitch black interior and gulped. He threw a luminescent water bomb from his waistband inside.

The orange light brightened the interior of the submarine. After confirming there was no dangerous creature inside, Jiang Chen finally swam in.

"What are these things?" Jiang Chen looked at the pitch black containers while speaking to himself.

Instinct told him that there must be something unusual inside.

Other than the containers with unknown content, Jiang Chen also saw a few skeletons in the Nazi uniform. These skeletons lied quietly at the corner of the ship cabin. Their body had withered away and the hollowness of the skeletons was filled with seaweed. It looked gross.

Due to safety consideration, Jiang Chen didn't immediately open the containers, but instead searched for the signal and explored further into the cabin

Fortunately, when the submarine sunk, the cabin doors were not shut. If they rusted, it would be difficult to open them again.

"It's in the front?"

The image on his screen was clear. Jiang Chen locked his sight on the signal strength indicator and used the small signal differences to ensure that he was moving towards the source of the signal.

"What is this submarine exactly used for? For transportation?" Jiang Chen scanned the containers placed along the way as he asked himself.

Just then, his left arm began to shake; it was from the EP underneath the kinetic skeleton.

Jiang Chen pressed on the screen outside of the kinetic skeleton as the interface shifted to the EP.

<Radiation level: 5>

Radiation? Where did the radiation come from?

Jiang Chen brows furrowed, but he wasn't too bothered by it. Even if this kinetic skeleton did not have anti-radiation material, the iodine stored in the EP was more than enough to withstand this level of radiation. Especially compared to the radiation level of the apocalypse, this type of low radiation could be categorized as almost nothing.

But what confused him was, why would he detect radiation on the German U boat.

He passed through one more open cabin door as this must be the room where the signal was from.

Jiang Chen took another luminescent bomb out and threw in the middle of the room. The entire room turned to an orange-red color.

There were two wooden boxes in the room. The surface of the boxes had withered away already, and one of them was even wide open.

Jiang Chen decreased the light on his helmet as he approached it.

Inside the wooden box lied five-cylinders made out of unknown materials. They were also labeled with "Japanese Army". Behind the wooden box, there were transparent eggs attached to it. They looked like octopus' eggs, but something looked odd from its shape and size. Though it must have been affected by the minor radiation.

"Enriched uranium? No... German in history didn't manage to create the nuclear bomb. In this case, it should just be uranium? Or maybe uranium yet to reach the purity of weapon-grade?" Jiang Chen floated beside the cylinder and muttered.

Jiang Chen gave a bit more thought before he threw the cylinders into his storage dimension.

With rough estimation, these nuclear materials weighed at least five hundred kilograms. Since it possessed radiation, then it must have been enriched to a certain extent already. Although he didn't know the market price of these things, on the black market, it would not be too far-fetched to sell for a few hundred million USD.

Of course, Jiang Chen would not sell these things.

After destroying the mutated octopus eggs, Jiang Chen continued to search the room.

At the corner, he finally found the source of the signal.

But suddenly, a black shadow appeared on the wall in front of Jiang Chen.

As he was suddenly alerted, Jiang Chen immediately activated the booster device on his back.

The high-pressure gas instantly burst out, with a strong thrust produced by tiny bubbles, he dashed into the other corner of the room.

Boom!

Like a hammer, a tentacle fiercely slammed into the cabin wall as it left a daunting dent on the metal surface.

It was a giant octopus!

It's massive body squeezed into the door as it blocked the exit.

Jiang Chen finally realized why this creature was so furious. He remembered he destroyed those octopus eggs.

The mutated octopus must be the mother of those weird eggs.

"Fu*k."

Jiang Chen cursed and immediately pulled out the underwater pistol.

But before he could shoot, four tentacles swam to him like pythons and locked in his limbs.

Jiang Chen's face was bloated red as he used his muscles to try and escape, but the thick tentacles didn't budge one bit. While being strangled by a living creature, he was afraid to take the risk of interdimensional travel. As the size of the octopus was much bigger than the lead mutated human. It would take an immense amount of energy to destroy all its cells. He didn't want to take the risk of the interdimensional bracelet overheating again by using such a risky move.

The poisonous ink splashed out, but it did nothing to Jiang Chen who didn't breath through his fins.

Fury!

Menacing light flashed out of Jiang Chen's eyes; his body was tightened to the limit.

Jiang Chen clenched the gun as he managed to outpower the tentacles. Just as the octopus was about to put its razor-sharp mouth on him, he pressed the trigger.

Bang-!

Following the dampened gunshot was a series of small air bubbles.

The special bullets pierced through the head of the octopus.

Blue blood began to flow out. Under the orange light, it turned a shade of purple.

Jiang Chen wasn't in the most pleasant mood while viewing this scene. He pressed the trigger to express the desire to kill in his heart.

The tentacles tightly clamped onto his limbs slowly began to lose its grasp.

It took almost an entire clip of bullets before the fearsome creature finally stopped moving.

Chapter 278: The Secret of World War Two

"Uranium? Where did you get it from?"

Lin Lin scanned the barrel thrown to the corner by Jiang Chen with disdain. It looked as if she had seen something gross.

When he was "arm wrestling" with that mutated octopus, the kinetic system of the kinetic skeleton received minor damage when Jiang Chen activated fury. To avoid the possibility of the entire skeleton breaking down during his return to the surface, after taking care of the mutated octopus, he brought the briefcase back to the apocalypse.

After throwing the equipment for Jiang Lin to fix, Jiang Chen went to find Lin Lin.

"Although the technology on our side is outdated, we still have things like the atomic bomb."

"Is that so? Your technology's progression is surprisingly quick, already in the atomic era." Lin Lin swayed her silver-white hair and sat on the chair. "And then? Why did you bring this thing to my lab?"

"I want to ask, with five hundred kilograms of Uranium, how many nuclear bombs can you create?"

When Lin Lin heard Jiang Chen's words, she paused for a moment, touched her chin, and replied after contemplating.

"Nuclear bombs? It will depend on the type. If it is Uranium 235, it can only be used to create the most primal fissure bomb. Also, it has to depend on the enrichment level of the Uranium 235. If hypothetically this batch can extract one hundred kilograms of enriched Uranium. Then with the technology level before the war, twelve nuclear bombs with ten thousand ton TNT can be created. If you're using technology from the early atomic era, out of 50 kilograms of enriched uranium, about 1 kilogram can complete the chain reaction, so approximately two bombs can be made."

"I see." Jiang Chen nodded his head as he continued to think.

"Do you want me to create nuclear bombs for you?"

"I have such a plan. Can you do it?"

The tactical nukes confiscated from the Sixth Street had been deployed to the corners of Qingpu on the W-1 ballistic missile. On the wasteland where resources were scarce, every time a nuclear weapon was used, it means there will be less and less of them on the apocalypse.

"One hundred lemon flavored puddings!" Lin Lin said without any hesitation.

"Deal," Jiang Chen said delightedly.

[That's cheap.]

Surprisingly, when Lin Lin heard Jiang Chen's promise, she didn't have her usual cheerful expression, but instead, she stared at Jiang Chen for a long time.

"I have to say something, this thing is poisonous."

Jiang Chen paused and then was silent.

After a brief moment, he said.

"I will be cautious with this."

"Mhmm, that's good." Lin Lin nodded. The porcelain doll-like face displayed a smile. "If possible, I want to keep eating the pudding you bring."

The unnatural light passing through the window for some reason made her gorgeous face carry a hint of poignancy.

This world was destroyed by nuclear weapons.

Jiang Chen looked away. He took out the black briefcase from the storage dimension and changed topics.

"Could you look at this for me?"

"This is?" Lin Lin looked at the briefcase on the table as she had a curious expression on her face.

"I found it on the German U boat... During the Second World War, the submarine from the axis countries, a unique piece of artifact."

"Oh? The Second World War? That's far back in history." Lin Lin took over the briefcase, her digitalized eyes slightly contracted as it scanned and examined the surface. She then asked, "What's unique about it?"

"It can send out Klein particle waves."

"That's impossible," Lin Lin immediately negated him as she opened the fourth-dimensional messenger on the table, "People in the atomic era can't even observe that dimension, how would they realize the existence of Klein particle-"

But before she could finish, her voice stopped.

No voice, just four letters.

[Help]

<Help>

"This, this is impossible... Wait, it is a half-finished product. No, even if it is a half-finished product, it is impossible for the technological level in the atomic era to achieve this," Lin Lin's eyes widened as she said in disbelief.

Looking at the shocked Lin Lin, Jiang Chen looked puzzled.

"Half-finished product? Could you explain it to me?"

When she heard Jiang Chen's question, Lin Lin glanced at him.

"Think carefully, when you use the fourth-dimensional messenger to communicate with me, would the strength of the signal change with location?"

"I don't think so."

"This is the problem." Lin Lin pointed at the briefcase, "The Klein particle transmitting in the fourth dimension would not have its signal changed because of the shift in three-dimensional coordinates. Or rather, it doesn't possess the physics properties such as energy or speed. It is only a hypothetical wave. It would receive a certain signal at a certain time, it is that simple."

"Could it be received in any corner of the universe?" Jiang Chen was stunned.

"It can. So it is also referred to as communication particle in the intergalactic era. Since with electromagnetic wave, there is a delay of one second from earth to the moon, it would take over half a year to get to the Oort cloud at the edge of the solar system. Without the restriction of the third dimension, as long as it is broadcasted to the same time coordinate, the signal can be received in any corner of the universe. And even before the war, it was a project at the frontier of science. However, even for me now, I could only do this with two crystals with the same origin and communicate in the form of resonance," Lin Lin said.

Because it was too magical. Compared to the Klein particles, the electromagnetic wave was more similar to sending a message on a pigeon.

"Then why would the signal from this thing decrease with increasing distance?" Jiang Chen asked, confused.

"This is why it is a half-finished product. Or rather, the person producing it never understood the principle behind it. The person probably only followed a diagram to create something similar."

Lin Lin sighed, paused, and provided a rather simple analogy.

"For example, I have a phone, and I passed the phone back to the stone age and told him he can use this to call me. He never saw this before as they always used messenger pigeons to communicate and have no concept of communicating with a phone. So he used a dumb method, that is carving the letters onto the phone, and then relaying the message to me by tieing the phone to the messenger pigeon."

Jiang Chen had a funny expression on his face, but he suddenly realized something.

"Could it be the message from the future sent the diagram to create the fourth-dimensional messenger back. Someone used the diagram to create the communication device but didn't how to "call," so the person used electromagnetic waves to send it and broadcasted Klein particle waves into the third dimension.

"That's a possibility." Lin Lin didn't disagree with Jiang Chen's perspective. "Let's hypothetically say the video you showed me last time was a mature phase of the Klein particle communication technology. The friendly hello was the greeting from the people in the "future" or the "primal." At the same time of the greeting, it also brought you advanced technology. Along with the message would include the manufacturing method to create a Klein particle communication device."

"Those incredible technologies?"

Jiang Chen recollected the incredible technology the Third Reich brought out during the Second World war as Jiang Chen had a strange expression on his face.

"That's right." Lin Lin nodded. "Do you remember what I told you last night? Some people can interpret these signals in the form of dream with this special wave effect. But, these special brains could only passively receive information. Just like a deaf person on the phone, you would not know if the other side is listening to you speak. To be able to confirm if the people in the past received the information or not, what you need to do is simple, it is to send the method of communication as well as coordinate along with it."

"Then did this "help" ever get heard by the people in the future?"

"Obviously not." Lin Lin sighed, she closed the fourth-dimensional messenger. "That person clearly overestimated the "primitive" ability to understand. Even the strongest pigeon would not fly through the distance of time."

Until its collapse, the Third Reich didn't manage to communicate with the voice in the future.

Jiang Chen didn't say anything as he quietly looked at the briefcase thinking about something else.

"Can I open this briefcase?" Lin Lin pointed at it.

"Of course, but I didn't manage to find the key to open it, so I am not sure if there is a trap mine inside." Jiang Chen shrugged.

"That is simple." Lin Lin had a prideful smile emerge on her face as she put the briefcase on her experiment table. "I am not that dumb to be tricked by the primal's trap."

There was no mine inside, it was easily opened.

A black metallic ball slightly bigger than a baseball along with a notebook was inside.

"This is..." Jiang Chen picked up the black ball and carefully observed its surface.

There was no opening on it as it didn't look like it could be opened. Jiang Chen managed to find a neat line of small letters on it.

"German?"

Jiang Chen was troubled as he knew only one foreign language.

"Use this." Lin Lin threw a translucent carbon graphene card into Jiang Chen's hand, "As long as the writing is not too messy, this thing can easily translate it into any common language."

"Woah, this is amazing!" Jiang Chen was stunned.

Looking at Jiang Chen's shocked expression, a glimpse of proudness appeared on the tip of Lin Lin's lips.

She enjoyed viewing his "primal" reaction. It made her feel like a God, any "offering" would gain the worship of her "believers."

However, she didn't make it as it was the scavenger team who managed to pick it up. She only fixed it up.

Usually, things like this would be thrown into the extraction tank and recycled for useful material, since the apocalypse didn't require translation. But the reason why she fixed it was due to Yao Yao's request since as a digitalized human, Lin Lin herself didn't need it.

"The Golden Apple?" After attaching the translation card to the line of small writing, Jiang Chen read out loud.

It was a pure black metallic ball, why would it be called the Golden Apple?

"Let me look at it, you can go read that notebook." Lin Lin took the golden apple from Jiang Chen's hand as she couldn't wait to work on an experimental apparatus.

Jiang Chen understood why she couldn't wait another second.

This feeling was as if a cell phone was found in a grave dated back to the Han dynasty.

Jiang Chen picked up the notebook and opened the cover.

A diary.

Perhaps the secret is hidden inside his diary.

Chapter 279: The Golden Apple

April 13, 1945, rain.

It was raining in Berlin.

The expression on everyone's face was gloomy, just like the clouds above the Berlin sky.

There was tragic news from afar. After a few days of intense battle on the streets, Vienna had finally fallen to the hands of the Soviets. At the same time, Koenigsberg had also fallen, those polar bears have finally achieved the dream they didn't manage to accomplish for a few centuries - claim the capital of East Prussia.

There has been no good news from the east line for a long time. The same was happening to the west line.

Anyone knew it was the end of the Reich.

As a soldier, excuse me for making too many comments on the fate of the Reich, but from a husband, a father perspective, I would rather the UA citizens arrive in Berlin first.

God, what am I even saying?

-

April 14, fog.

It was foggy. Perhaps it is going to turn sunny soon.

There was good news. Whether the east line or the west line, they didn't send back any worse news.

There was no better news than this. But everyone knew, this was the quietness before the storm.

In the morning, I received an order for a position change.

Should I say the moment finally came? Even though I took on an office role, this is the moment I have to carry a rifle and shed my last blood for the Reich?

Things didn't go as I had planned, you would never guess who I saw.

In the Berlin presidential building's basement, I saw the glorious leader!

I could not describe the excitement in my heart. I haven't heard his inspiring speech for a long time. A lot of people said that he ran away with his mistress, but at that moment, all the rumors were wrong. He was still in Berlin! He still stood with us.

Although his face looked wrier compared to the last time he appeared in public, his voice still remained inspiring.

He chatted with me for half an hour and asked me a lot of things. It was hard to believe a nobody like me deserved a meeting with him. I sat face to face with the magnificent him and talked about the history of Berlin.

When the topic came to an end, he asked me about my loyalty.

I said, "If you need me, I can carry my gun to fight for you to the death now. Whether it is the east side or the west side."

He said, "Rather than death, I have a more important mission to give you."

Hard to believe, the great leader personally granted me the iron cross emblem.

I was anxious. I didn't achieve anything in the army, and I am not even a soldier in the frontline. What do I have in me to receive such an honor?

But his words eliminated all of my concerns.

"If you can complete the mission I am about to give you, your contribution to the Third Reich will be deserving of this emblem."

I took the locked briefcase he gave to me.

Then, I was taken out of the basement.

I didn't even get to see my wife and daughter for the last time. I got on the Me262B booster jet and flew to Norway.

To be honest, I didn't want to see them for the last time. Because I already have the feeling that this might be a one-way trip.

...

April 15, sunny.

Perhaps, this will be my last time recording the weather in this diary, at least in the upcoming few months.

We headed out from the depth of the sea along with the U-234 in different directions while aiming for the same destination - far east, Japan.

The moment when I boarded the submarine, I realized the critical nature of the circumstance.

There were 14 people including me. All of them were important people, with the lowest level being a Sargent. If it was not for the iron cross emblem, I don't even know if they would even look at me as a person. But funny enough, no one paid attention to the emblem in front of me, but instead seemed to be more interested in the briefcase in my hand.

Based on etiquette, everyone introduced themselves. Air force commander, land force colonel, vessel cannon specialist... I was just a communication soldier.

God, they are the elites of the Reich, why would they be here? Sitting with a nobody like me, taking the U boat to execute a mission to send a "message"?

...

April 20.

Based on what the captain said, we are navigating in the north Atlantic ocean heading to the south Atlantic ocean.

Because we were in the sea, someone finally stood up to describe the mission details.

This submarine contained the peek of the Third Reich military technology, such as the diagrams and parts of the V2 rockets, "Junke " jet engine, Tiger tank drawings, Me-262 fighter's all parts and design prints.

These military technologies and weapon samples will be taken to Tokyo.

As to the ten barrels, the captain didn't really know either. He just categorized them as a raw material used for some kind of weapon.

The atmosphere in the submarine was silent. People whispered amongst each other, or rather spend the time sleeping to decrease the time awake. The only person willing to speak to me was a nuclear physicist named Fabian. Although I didn't understand what nuclear physics exactly is, it didn't interfere with our friendship.

He said, in this environment, only when people chat with people could they maintain a healthy mind. I agree with his perspective. When I am not writing in the diary, we will talk about other things.

...

April 22.

Today we talked about nuclear physics, although I have absolutely no idea what it is.

U-235. Based on what Fabian said, it is an ominous set of letter and numbers. It was the code for this U boat, as well as the shortened form of Uranium 235.

I didn't know what Uranium 235 stood for, and I only heard him say it. This thing can be used to create a powerful bomb. He told me mysteriously if we could bring this ten barrels of uranium to Japan, we can change history.

I scoffed at the comment, even without going on the battlefield, I knew that a few bombs would not change the victor of the battle. If it could, we already would have done it. We sent at least ten thousand rounds of shells to London.

"But this bomb is different compared to the other ones."

"Is that so? What about the V2 rocket?"

Fabian laughed contemptuously.

"It is comparable to the combined total of all V1, and V2 rockets launched to London."

Okay, I think he is a little insane now.

...

May 4.

The situation is becoming worse.

The Goliath signal station responsible for providing direction for us suddenly lost communication. Immediately, the main navy signal station in Berlin Nahn had also lost contact.

With the intermittent reception of telegrams, the most worrisome thing we feared still happened.

Germany already announced its surrendering, the Reich's navy commander Dunnitz had ordered all U boats to immediately surface, put out the white flag and surrender to the Ally force.

Everyone was silent.

Someone suggested this may be a conspiracy set up by the allies' intelligence department. But someone pointed out, it may be the cause, since the moment when they boarded the submarine, Berlin was already in a dire situation.

The co-captain suggested opening radio silence to confirm the validity of the information. But the captain didn't accept his proposal as he ordered to continue.

U-235 is not part of the force as it directly listened to the order of the leader, there was no need to listen to Dunnitz. The destination is Tokyo.

Regardless, the submarine continued to cruise. But I could clearly sense, not everyone was pleased with the order, including the captain himself.

...

May 10.

We just sailed by Argentina as we entered the Pacific ocean from the most southern tip of South UA.

By now, we should finally escape the allies fleet chasing us.

But no one feels happy about this good news.

Germany already surrendered, but we are the soldiers of Germany, is there a point for us to continue fighting?

Perhaps we should surrender to the nearby ally force, as long as we are careful not to meet the British, the UA citizens should let us go home. Since we didn't commit any crimes, the U boat since its departure didn't even fire a single torpedo.

...

May 11.

Another unfortunate thing happened, but it was not from outside the submarine, it was from inside the submarine.

Someone died. It was Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand. He overdosed on sleeping pills. It was a suicide.

...

May 14.

When I was writing this diary, Fabian had gone insane. He was muttering something repeatedly

I didn't understand his insane words. "This is not physics. We made a mistake since the start." "It is not a particle, no, it is not even tangible." "It is not that the current technology can't detect it, it doesn't exist in the first place."

He found me and confessed to me that he is the owner of the key, he pleaded me to take out that briefcase.

I rejected him, the leader's mission for me is to take it to Tokyo, before that, no one can open this briefcase.

Seeing my firm attitude, he didn't insist.

...

June 1.

We should have arrived in Okinawa ten days ago, and then on route to Tokyo in safe territory

But an accident occurred.

When we arrived in South Pacific ocean, we opened radio silence, but what welcome us was not the Japanese navy, but rather the fault of the UA citizens.

The side of the submarine was hit, but fortunately, we escaped.

It looks like Japan lost to the UA in the Pacific war. Pessistimicly, Okinawa may have shifted hands already.

...

June 2.

The captain found Fabian.

"If we can send this 520 kilograms of Uranium to Tokyo, would it change the outcome of the war?"

Fabian didn't answer directly.

"Even if the UA lost New York in a month, would that change the outcome of the war?"

The captain was silent. Anyone knew that by this point in the war, the conclusion could not be changed by a city.

"What about that briefcase?"

Fabian shook his head.

"It is too late."

...

June 4.

To avoid the search of anti-submarine reconnaissance aircrafts, we had to change course to New Zealand.

Someone said there are ample amount of supplies on the boat. Perhaps we should find a small island to spend the rest of our lives.

But someone rebutted that point. Not everyone committed war crimes, a lot of people still have family desperately wanting to know about their safety.

Finally, the Allied forces made a decision for us.

At the Small Barrier Island, we were surrounded by three vessels.

Should we surrender or fight to the death?

Surprisingly, the captain asked for my opinion, he didn't talk to me since I boarded the submarine.

To be honest, I have a beautiful wife and an adorable daughter. I don't want to die, I felt ashamed to the iron cross emblem in front of me, but I chose to surrender.

When he heard my thoughts, the captain let out a breath of relief.

As if the heavy weight on his shoulders had finally been lifted, he even said thank you to me.

...

June 5.

An unsuspected rebellion.

The captain died, due to a gunshot.

Fabian died, he killed himself.

Only seven people remained on the boat. Other than me, all of them are war criminals. Someone suggested to execute me because I betrayed the will of the leader. But someone suggested, no need to execute me, I only needed to be locked up.

The people against the surrendering suggested driving the submarine into the Hauraki Bay, going the opposite way to escape the search.

Fortunately, we found a trench near the Jackson port. As long as we hide there, no one will find us.

The supplies are enough to hide until the end of the year, once the period of time has passed, we'll land in Australia and spend the rest our life in anonymous.

...

That was the end of the diary.

<In honor of my past country - Elias>

The U-235 that contained the lost hope of the Third Reich ended up sinking in the trench for eternity, the diary didn't record the reason why the submarine sank. But what Jiang Chen knew was, the person named Elias definitely opened the briefcase.

Or else this diary wouldn't have appeared in this briefcase.

Based on the content of the diary, Jiang Chen could have guessed that perhaps he knew it was the end of him. Hitler put all the hope to the uncooperative ally in the far east. He threw the peak of German military technologies into the submarine and even the briefcase that could "communicate with aliens".

But this U-235 didn't manage to turn the wheel of history.

Two months later, the UA ended the war with two nuclear bombs.

"Do you know what this ball is?" Lin Lin let out a long breath as she finished analyzing the metallic ball inside the briefcase.

"What is it?" Jiang Chen could sense that this thing probably has something to do with the incredible technology the German has introduced.

And that "help," probably was the plead for help to the people from the "future."

"A Klein particle messenger." Lin Lin pointed at the small words engraved on the ball, "Although it was crudely made, it could send out Klein particle waves, but it is doing futile work by broadcasting it into space."

"What's special about it?"

"Did you remember what I told you before? Every carbon-based creature possesses trace amount of Klein particle and it is usually stored in the back of its head."

"Therefore?" Jiang Chen seemed to have realized something as his body began to feel cold.

Lin Lin inhaled..

"An entire metallic ball worth of brain extract, this is an artificially created crystal... using ten thousand people's brains."

Ten thousand people...

To only send out the "help" that will never be heard.

"This is insane."

"And what shocked me the most is not the ten thousand lives." Lin Lin paused. "The destination coordinate for the message is from the void."

"What is the void?"

"To put it simply, it is a place behind the wormhole, where space, time, and all physic principles are non-existent."

"Therefore?"

"Do you remember the story I told you about the six space colonization ships? Three of them headed into the wormhole."

Chapter 280: Whoever begs is a puppy

Behind the wormhole is the void, and the void has no concept of time. Regardless how long the three space colonization ships have been lost for, as long as they can finally escape, then to the outside world, from the moment they entered to their escape was only a glimpse.

But what was sent to Jiang Chen's world was only a message, not three space colonization ships from the future.

Based on that fact, Lin Lin only had one hypothesis.

The three space colonization ships have been trapped in the void for eternity, they have become relative to the wormhole outside the universe, the quantum state of the general existence - not alive, nor died.

As to the messages sent, it would be easy to understand sending the technology from the future back.

The purpose was to change the history after World War Two to avoid the Third World War from happening.

Based on what Lin Lin has said, in the history of the apocalypse, they entered the atomic era after the Second World War. The UA citizens ended the war, not because of the two nuclear bombs, but rather executing "Mission Olympics" they landed on Japan's southernmost island of Kyushu, and then pushed to the main island.

It was an amphibious landing that was even larger than the Normandy Landing. With 15 Army divisions and 63 Air Force brigades from the European theater, in addition to the Pacific theater forces. With the air and ocean advantage, the Allied force indeed bulldozed through Japan.

However, in Japan's crazy "local decisive battle" strategy, the Western countries paid a heavy price. It laid the foundation for the Soviet Union's vitality and the rise of the Pan-Asian Cooperation (PAC).

But in Jiang Chen's world history, that battle never occurred.

Regardless, that message did change history.

Unfortunately, this world didn't change the slightest. The effort of the three space colonization ships has all been based on the premise of MWi theory (parallel cosmic theory) which is not valid.

But unfortunately, Jiang Chen's existence happened to provide evidence for the validity of the MWi theory.

The three space colonization ships exiled to the wormhole only changed the history of another parallel timeline.

The two worlds were two never intercepting parallels.

If Jiang Chen didn't appear here, the people in this world (Lin Lin) wouldn't even have known someone attempted to change history.

...

The golden apple was temporarily kept by Lin Lin.

Although it was a crude form of work, it was the technology from the void. Although the "primitive" could not understand the intricacy of the technology, Lin Lin could.

This Golden Apple was like an advanced blueprint engraved on a stone wall. If Lin Lin could absorb the technology here, she would make great progress in the field of Klein particle.

Jiang Chen followed Lin Lin's command to bring the uranium to the basement of the mansion. The uranium will be used to create nuclear bombs, manufactured into ballistic missiles by Jiang Lin, then taken by Jiang Chen to the modern world and deployed in Pannu Islands.

After taking care of the uranium, Jiang Chen went back to Jiang Lin's lab as he picked up the fixed kinetic skeleton.

Putting on the suit, Jiang Chen lied on the bed and started to travel.

The immense pressure of the deep sea returned.

After he resisted the initial discomfort, he gradually got used to the feeling.

He pushed away the giant octopus body floating in water, he passed through the cabin door and swam towards the direction of the exit. The containers along the way must be the parts of the booster jet and V2 rocket. In the Second World War era, the technologies were deserving of the recognition as incredible. But now, they could only be considered artifacts.

And artifacts that could bring trouble.

Based on this layer of consideration, Jiang Chen didn't bring these artifacts. He had a feeling there were a lot of people still searching for the lost Golden Apple. Only the Third Reich received the information from the future.

It was better for these things to stay here eternally.

At the crack of the submarine, Jiang Chen saw the skeleton again.

In front of the uniform hanged an iron cross emblem.

He must be the Elias, the Third Reich communication soldier given the last mission.

After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Chen took off the already rusted emblem.

"Rest in peace."

He muttered to himself before he turned around.

After swimming out of the submarine, Jiang Chen adjusted his body position, pressed the button on his right arm, and activated the booster on his back.

A large quantity of small but dense bubbles burst out. With the high-pressure thrust, Jiang Chen's elevation quickly increased as he headed for the surface.

The pressure surrounding him began to decrease before finally disappearing.

"Phew!"

After returning to the sea surface, Jiang Chen opened his helmet as he breathed the fresh air with his mouth wide open.

It was already approaching dusk.

Without noticing, he spent almost an entire day under the sea.

After looking around, Jiang Chen had a bitter smile on his face.

The boat he just bought this morning was nowhere to be seen.

...

It was not a wise decision to head to the sea by himself. Without anyone watching the boat, the boat would be pushed away by the waves in no time.

But fortunately, he was not too far away from the Jackson port.

He maintained a depth of two meters and opened the booster before he swimming to the nearest land.

Before it was dark, Jiang Chen landed on a quiet beach.

After putting the kinetic skeleton into the storage dimension and changing into dry clothes, Jiang Chen took out his phone to confirm his location. Then he walked to the direction of Jackson bay.

He took a ferry back to Auckland.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the Sheraton hotel, it was already seven at night.

"Why are you back so late? I had spent the entire day in the hotel, so boring," Seeing Jiang Chen return, Liu Yao on the bed pouted her mouth and said coyly.

"I was dealing with something, but I am done. You can't have spent the entire day staying inside the hotel scrolling through Weibo right?" Jiang Chen sat down by the bed as he slapped her curvy butt.

"No, I also played some <New Era>." Liu Yao shook the phone screen while giggling. "I only just wanted to try, but it is actually entertaining. How did you think of such a fun game?"

"The intelligence of a team," Jiang Chen laughed and answered ambiguously.

Liu Yao laughed and covered her mouth, but she pouted again.

She sluggishly adjusted to a different position. Her luscious black hair had spread out on the bed from her shoulder. Then she put her face beside Jiang Chen's.

"So annoying, I have to go back tomorrow. I want to spend more time with you."

"Oh? Then stay here." Jiang Chen laughed nonchalantly.

"What about the movie?" Liu Yao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen cutely.

"Skip it."

With a blushing face, Liu Yao was tempted for one moment before she shook her head.

"Nah, I'll go back. If I stay, I feel like I might delay your important tasks."

Jiang Chen paused, he looked at the moonlight in her crystal clear eyes.

"Thank you."

Jiang Chen said softly into Liu Yao's ear.

"No need to thank me." Liu Yao naughtily bit Jiang Chen's ear, "Compensate me."

The warm air that breezed by his ear lit up an intimate fire.

A smirk appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

"Compensate? Can your body handle it?" While he said that, his hand slipped down to her waist.

"What would you know without trying?" Liu Yao glanced at Jiang Chen seductively as she pouted.

"If you beg, you are a puppy," Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

"Fine..." Liu Yao said in defense.

...

Two hours later.

The "bark bark" sound mixed with embarrassment and intimacy diffused through the bedroom. The melodious and sweet voice lingered.

Chapter 281: Fuse

The next morning, Jiang Chen sent Liu Yao on the plane.

Along the way, other than when they were in the taxi, Liu Yao held onto Jiang Chen’s arm with her body almost dangling onto his.

Their "intimate" stance made all those passing by, glance at them.

The reason why Liu Yao was this clingy was not due to some impure reason, but because Jiang Chen made her too tired last night.

Till now, her legs were still quivering.

"Didn’t we agree that if I barked, I surrender?" Liu Yao almost tripped as she pinched Jiang Chen’s waist out of embarrassment.

Whenever she remembered she had to pretend to be a puppy and bark, she felt flustered and ashamed.

"Haha, sorry, that voice was too attractive." Jiang Chen let the hand pinch freely around his waist as he smirked, "Also, did I say even if you surrender, I will let you go?"

"Pervert." Liu Yao rolled her eyes at the grinning Jiang Chen as she stopped in front of the boarding gate.

She combed her hair to the side, used all the power in her body to stand up straight, tipped her toe, and pecked on Jiang Chen’s lips.

"Remember to miss me."

"Mhmm."

It was not a long goodbye; there was no need for words.

Liu Yao picked up her small luggage. She left, but her heart remained.

Jiang Chen looked at the flight depart; he smiled at the clouds in the distance before the smile gradually returned to calmness.

"Now that the vacation is over, time to work."

Jiang Chen shook his head as he left the airport.

He didn’t return to the hotel but took a taxi to the rural area.

In a park, Jiang Chen spotted Zhang Yapin in a black tee, looking around on the bench.

"Why did you choose to meet in the park? I rather sit in a coffee shop and chat slowly with a cup of coffee." Sitting on the other side of the bench, Jiang Chen sat nonchalantly.

"Because of privacy," Zhang Yapin’s expression looked tense, but his voice was calm.

"You are overthinking things. This is New Zealand, not Pannu." Looking at his anxiousness, Jiang Chen sighed.

He originally thought the Pannu opposing party would take a week to give him a response, but from the looks of it, they couldn’t wait anymore.

"It is always better to be careful."

Jiang Chen shrugged without denying. Then he dove right into the topic.

"Since you are here, then your response must be yes. Am I correct?"

"Yes, we don’t have any other choices," Zhang Yapin nodded as he squeezed those words out with difficulty.

"Before we discuss the support agreement. Can I know what caused you to decide so quickly?" Jiang Chen smiled.

When he heard Jiang Chen’s words, Zhang Yapin fell into silence.

"It is blood."

He slowly told Jiang Chen the story.

Two days ago, just when he returned to the Pannu Island, the political situation began to deteriorate.

Everything was because of a Han's arrival.

Wang Tianfeng, Linhua Group. The business representative stationed on Pannu Islands. This Han businessman seemed to have a great conversation with Johnny as they appeared in multiple important occasions standing side by side while investigating the investment environment, and finally signed an agreement known as the fuse.

President Edward sold the area along the sea of Coro Island as well as the majority of the island on the second biggest island Edgar Island at a price of 5 USD per square meter to Johnny International. Linhua Group will be responsible for building the tourism area and necessary infrastructure. The one hundred million USD in land sales, only half of it flowed into the treasury, while the other fifty million USD flowed into Edward’s account in New Zealand.

The confiscation of land caused a large number of farmers and fishers to lose their homes. The compensation of 2 USD per square meter was not enough to cover their loss.

The dissatisfaction caused unrest, and the war hawk of the Liberal party saw this as an opportunity as they stood up in such a dangerous moment. They called for the farmers and fishers who lost their land to protest in front of the presidential palace.

But would Edward care? In the position where there was no hope. His status being lower than a city official in New Zealand, he still managed to gain almost one hundred million. It was worth it for him.

God, the GDP of Pannu Island was barely one hundred million USD a year; the tax income was less than one hundred million.

With the amount of money he has received, he could easily go to any corner of the world and become a wealthy man after the end of his term. He wanted to go to Britain. Although he had an English heritage, he has never been there before.

Just as he pretended to persuade the public to remain calm, an unlucky young man threw a soggy banana at his face.

Edward was enraged.

Especially when listening to those "natives'" outrageous laughter while they worshipped the young man like a warrior.

The next second that young man was lying in a pool of blood.

Seeing the smoke coming from the muzzle of the soldier beside the president, everyone was shocked.

No one expected a peaceful protest would turn into violence.

The flat-headed "chief" military tank was a gift given by Britain to the Pannu Island government, the only heavy military equipment on the island. During the eighties, Britain finally remembered the fallen behind little brother as they engaged in negotiations for them to join the British Commonwealth. The talk happened to occur when the British army was replacing its arms. Thus the challenger I replaced the "chief" from the sixties, so the scrapped tank was given as a gift to the Pannu Island government.

Although the talk to join the British Commonwealth ultimately failed.

The Pannu Island people didn’t think that the enraged Edward would use violence against the protestors.

Blood stained the street.

Guns and cannons drove the protestors away.

15 died, 57 were injured. As the leader of the protest Pannu Liberal Party also experienced bloody suppression and arrest.

As to the promised compensation, Edward didn’t pay a single cent.

"He is a devil." Zhang Yapin was shaking from anger.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment as he thought with his eyes closed.

"What’s your plan?"

"We need five million USD to buy rifles, anti-tank weapons, and ammunition." Zhang Yapin took a deep breath as the words slowly came out of his mouth.

"No problem. Do you have the channels to purchase the weapons?" Jiang Chen asked in a low voice.

"We contacted a UA citizen; his name is Robert-"

"No no no. It is better for you not to disclose these names, including mine. I don’t want to see you telling everyone that "Jiang Chen funded us, the president of Future Technology", Jiang Chen immediately interrupted Zhang Yapin’s words.

After pausing for a moment, he nodded in realization as he said apologetically.

"Sorry, I didn’t consider things properly. I hope you…"

"I will keep this a secret, when do you plan to start?" Jiang Chen asked.

Everything was within his control.

"Once the fund is in place," Zhang Yapin said in an undertone.

"Do you have a plan?" Jiang Chen asked in a light voice.

"We organized 400 civil soldiers. Once we are equipped with weapons, we will attack the military camp on Coro Island. Once we capture the armory, we will use the equipment in the armory to equip more citizens. That bastard Edward must face the anger of the Pannu people!" Zhang Yapin said gritting his teeth.

It was obvious it was the first time for him to rebel. Who would so easily disclose their plan?

Even with the investor.

After listening to his plan, Jiang Chen nodded. Then he took out his phone.

"The money has arrived, you can start."

Zhang Yapin was shocked, he didn’t think Jiang Chen would be so decisive.

"Is there no need to sign a contract-"

"No." Jiang Chen shook his head. "You can discuss things with me after you win. I believe you will keep your promise. For the freedom of humanity, go, young man."

Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder.

Zhang Yapin looked graciously at Jiang Chen as he nodded sincerely.

"I will keep my promise. Pannu’s new government will not forget the people that helped them."

"That’s enough, go on." Jiang Chen waved his hand.

Agreement? To a government still in its infancy, it was no different than a verbal agreement. Especially since Jiang Chen didn’t care for the benefits the new Pannu government would bring him, but rather the benefits he would gain from the civil war.

Once Zhang Yapin’s taxi was far enough, Jiang Chen stood up from the bench.

He didn’t put the phone way. Instead, he called Robert.

_Min_ _Min_

If you like the story, please vote for MPAW

Chapter 282: We are an Army

After calling Robert and notifying him to begin the next steps, Jiang Chen called the mercenary base in Niger and asked Ivan to take a few of his comrades to meet him in Pannu Islands.

After finishing the two calls, Jiang Chen returned to the hotel and booked a plane ticket to Pannu Islands.

Before the Liberal Party's official uprise, he still had some preparations to do.

...

The Pannu Islands airport was still as empty as usual. Although a deepwater port had recently been built, which brought some noise to the island far away from international affairs, the outdated infrastructure, as well as the small population, made it hard to see unfamiliar faces on the island.

Especially since the political situation had deteriorated as of late, the investment prospect for this place had significantly decreased.

Although the ten billion USD development plan drew the attention of many capitalists, the project had just begun. Additionally, if the political unrest resulting from the confiscation of land could be solved through peaceful measures was still unknown.

If they followed the investment, once the protest escalated to military conflict, not only would the project go down the drain, the agreement they signed with the old political regime would also become scrap paper.

Before the situation clears up, the cunning international capitals would not make a rushed decision. Only when the opposing party or current regime was at an advantageous position would it be the best opportunity to bet.

Despite all the negative influences, there were still a few people in the airport.

They were mostly reporters from the "Free World." Although they have never heard of this secluded island, it didn't stop them from commenting on the human rights and corruption problem on the island.

But something was odd inside the airport today.

Approximately fifteen strange faces with luggage walked through the empty airport terminal. They stood up among the rest of the people.

Their muscular bodies, sharp steps, grimacing vibe, from these points alone, their identity were not ordinary.

Future Security was their identity. The person leading was the chief trainer Ivan, the other fourteen were "outstanding" employees.

To the not-so-friendly looking group, the staff at the airport began to focus their attention on them. However, none of them went up to question the group. After checking their documents procedurally, the staff let them pass through customs.

The only two security guards at the airport were given pistols to keep peace on the streets. Regardless of the intentions of these people, the country's situation couldn't get worse.

In front of the airport parked five Senators.

Pannu Islands' transportation was terrible. No metro, no public transit, there weren't even taxis. To exaggerate, it was hard to see a single car on the road.

After seeing the oriental face leaning against the car, Ivan's aged face smiled.

"Buddy, we meet again." Jiang Chen extended his right hand and laughed.

"Long time no see, boss. Haha." The Slavic soldier shook Jiang Chen's hand furiously as he grinned.

In only four months, he was a shade darker. His entire body smelled of sand.

As well as chaos.

"Let's talk on the car." Jiang Chen waved his hand and signaled the soldiers behind him to head to the cars.

Precisely speaking, they were all guards from Future Security.

Because of the deterioration of the Pannu Islands' current regime, Jiang Chen used this excuse and submitted a request to hire foreign securities to the Pannu government to prevent damage to his asset. The reason was not relevant. They used the usual routine of stuffing a bag full of money before the visa was approved in the same afternoon.

16 people; five cars. Although it was a bit tight, everyone still managed to fit.

Behind Jiang Chen's car, the others cars lined up together and headed towards Jiang Chen's import and export company in Coro Island.

"How was your stay in Niger?" Jiang Chen held on the steering wheel as he asked Ivan, the head trainer.

"Not bad. Those little guys finally had their claws sharpened. I remember when they first came, they couldn't even hold their gun steady. But now, they have learned how to kill people." With proudness on his face, Ivan lowered the car window as he lit up a cigarette.

"Did they head onto the battlefield?" Jiang Chen asked in surprise.

"Mhmm, we engaged in battle with the guerrillas." Ivan blew out the smoke ring as he grinned, "Do you still remember the Tuareg Clan?"

"Of course, Robert and I had a friendly visit with them." Jiang Chen shrugged.

AK, camels, and the disgusting camel milk. It was the only impressions Jiang Chen had to that poor and outdated clan.

"But they are not friendly." Ivan dusted the cigarette outside the window as he continued, "A month ago, they were asking us for money, fresh water, and bullets, but I rejected them. That night, the guerrillas pretended to be Al Queda raiding us."

"And then?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"They left twenty bodies." Jiang Chen cracked a smile. "I have to say, boss, the rifle you provided is great. Even if it was in a sandstorm, it didn't malfunction once, and the penetration power was insane."

"Of course, it is a customized weapon." Jiang Chen said. He also added in his mind, it is the rifle from the future after all.

Ivan shrugged as he didn't continue the conversation about the weapon. He knew his boss has a mysterious background, so he didn't ask more.

"What about the Niger side? Did they express anything?"

"Nothing. Their soldiers are a bunch of cowards and are afraid to bother the uneducated citizens in the deserts. The Barkary guy you hired reported to the minister of commerce about this, but the Niger government suggested that they restrain their military force within their jurisdiction. They ended up not taking a side as they sent a representative in an attempt to negotiate peace. Offending us would be saying no to the dollar, offending that uncivilized tribe would be going against the security of the country." Ivan narrowed his eyes as he looked at the subtropical sceneary outside the window.

"In the end? Did the Tuareg natives compromise?"

"Obviously not." Ivan burst out laughing, "But they were smarter. They knew they couldn't win alone, so they dragged the terrorists in with an extremely ambiguous relationship. RPG, Toyota pickup truck, machine guns... But their attempts were useless. In firepower, we wouldn't lose to them.

"Were there casualties?"

"Of course." As Ivan said this, he eyes remained squinted into the distance.

Jiang Chen didn't expect casualties to occur.

Jiang Chen glanced at him but didn't blame this on him.

Although people died, a group of warriors who have been through the flames of war came out of it, it was the fortunate situation out of the unfortunate event.

"What about the family of the casualties?" Jiang Chen asked lightly.

"In the base. Since they just lost their husband, if we force them away-" Hearing Jiang Chen ask about the families, Ivan was afraid that Jiang Chen would be displeased with his treatment as he rushed to explain.

"No, you did a great job," Jiang Chen interrupted his words.

Ivan let out a breath of relief when he heard Jiang Chen say that.

Although he looked down on the refugees that always complained about everything they did, after months of training, it would be unfair to say he didn't develop a relationship with them. Especially when they were attacked by the guerrillas, they fought together.

"To be honest, I was worried that you would kick them out from the base. Since from a company's point of view, they are extraneous." Ivan smiled bitterly.

"Don't be mistaken, Ivan. I never said Future Security is a company." Jiang Chen smiled, he looked at Ivan and said seriously, "We are an army."

Chapter 283: Celestial Trade

Coro Island was the main island located on the southernmost tip of the Pannu Islands. Northwest of the island was Country F, and southwest of it was Australia and New Guinea. Finally, to the direct south was New Zealand.

The only airport in the country was situated on Coro Island. On the southernmost tip of this island was also the only deep water harbor of the country- built by Johnny International at the cost of over a million USD.

Typically speaking, these massive deepwater harbors would have a ring of factories surrounding it. But with the pillar industries of Pannu Islands being fishery and farming, the commonality didn't seem to apply.

Beside the deepwater harbor was only three warehouses.

A brown-skinned local was chewing on a sugarcane as he sat outside the outermost warehouse, guarding the door.

His name is Cassan, a native of the Pannu Islands. He wasn't well educated, but he could do the job of a security guard very well. His daily task was to sit in front of the warehouse, guard the phone, help when goods need to be offloaded, and chew on sugarcane when there was nothing to do.

When the five Senatas stopped in front of the gate, the young man glanced enviously at the cars a few times before throwing away the sugarcane in his mouth and walking towards them.

"Celestial Trade, this is my company here," Jiang Chen introduced to Ivan as they got off the car.

Though it was only a shell company with a security guard. All the business was outsourced to elsewhere.

"Celestial? That's a weird name," Looking at the letters on the giant warehouse, Ivan exclaimed.

As they chit-chatted, the security guard Cassan walked in front of them and smiled at Jiang Chen.

"Boss, why are you here?"

Jiang Chen arrived in the Pannu Islands two days ago but he had been busy with other things, so it was his first time here. Seeing the boss here personally, Cassan was very surprised.

"Nothing, just open the door for me."

"Which one?"

"Warehouse three."

"Okay, okay!" Cassan nodded as he immediately took out the key and ran to open the metal gate.

After sending Cassan outside, Jiang Chen signaled Ivan and the crew to walk into the warehouse and stand in front of a container.

After dragging the container open, there was a row of automatic rifles inside.

It was not the reaper rifles he brought back from the apocalypse, they were the standard M series assault rifles common on the black market, and also the civilian type.

"Mission?" Ivan immediately put on a serious expression.

The 14 people behind him also lined up waiting for Jiang Chen's order.

"Don't be anxious, there is still some time before the show really starts. This mission is only a warm-up." Jiang Chen signaled them not to be too tense.

Jiang Chen cleared his throat and pointed at the weapons in the container.

"Considering the deterioration of the Pannu Islands' political situation, for the time being, the security of these warehouses will depend on you. There are 15 gun licenses in the container. I requested it through a special channel from the current regime. You can use them once you write your name on the licenses. To people attempting to break into the warehouses, first time fire a warning shot, second time shooting is permitted.

"Yes!" Ivan answered affirmatively.

As to Jiang Chen's mission, he had no other questions, as was the same for the soldiers behind him.

Jiang Chen nodded. He was delighted by the veteran's attitude.

"There are materials here to construct a temporary camp. All in all, the security here will be up to you."

"Leave it to us." Ivan smiled.

He then cleanly turned around, looked at his comrades, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Did you understand the mission!"

"Understood!" 14 uniform responses roared thunderously.

"Get moving!"

"Yes! Sir!"

...

After seeing Jiang Chen come out, Cassan strolled over in fearful steps.

"Boss, who are they?"

He heard all the noise inside the warehouse.

"The security company I hired. You don't need to mind them, just do your usual routine. Don't peek at things you shouldn't peek at and don't say things you shouldn't say. Just remember these two points and you are good to go."

Cassan gulped and fiercely nodded. Then he replied with unease.

"Mhmm."

He only wanted to find a comfortable job; he didn't want any trouble. He could receive a wage of 10 USD per day by being bored and chewing on sugarcane while sitting in front of the warehouse's door, it was like a dream come true.

Knowing that the young man wouldn't find trouble for himself, Jiang Chen didn't say too much about confidentiality.

"Give me the spare key to the warehouse."

Cassan immediately took off a set of keys from his waist and handed them to Jiang Chen.

"You can go home early today." Jiang Chen took the key as he patted him on the shoulder.

"Yes." Cassan nodded as he was smart enough to not ask about anything more. He picked up the sugarcane he didn't finish before heading home.

Seeing Cassan walk away, Jiang Chen walked to warehouse one.

Jiang Chen dragged open the metal door and looked at the goods inside. A smile surfaced on his face.

Five hundred square meters of space was stuffed by all kinds of containers.

There were dairy products from Australia, airtight-sealed meat, and canned food manufactured by Xinlong Food Processing Plant. Pork, lamb, and other kinds of fresh meat were stuffed in ten giant freezers. The bags of rice piled into a small mountain.

"Woah, with the average height being two meters, this is at least over one thousand tons of food." Jiang Chen looked at the mountain-high pile of food and was shocked.

Estimating one pound of food a day, one thousand tons of food could last half a million people for one month. Compared to the population on Sixth Street of less than fifty thousand, Fishbone base could barely break the one thousand mark even with the increase in population.

Not only would the daily consumption for over half a year be solved, but this quantity would also be enough to supply their trading needs.

The good thing was Jiang Chen is overseas. If this batch of food disappeared in Hua, there would definitely be some problems.

Jiang Chen didn't immediately start transporting. Instead, he went out and opened warehouse two.

Warehouse two stored the equally scarce salt on the wasteland.

The salt need for Wanghai City mostly depended on the survival camps such as Liuding Town near the coast, but the production quantity was low. Because of the limitation in production, the quality of salt was also not high. It was against the law to store salt on a large scale, but on the volatile Pannu Islands, it was not a big deal.

Other than containers full of salt, there were beers, fruits, and fish produced locally.

These products were custom made. There was no package on them at all.

These products would be hard to pass through customs in other countries, but it was not an issue in Pannu. Jiang Chen just stuffed a few hundred dollar bills to solve the problem that was not even a problem.

After verifying the goods, all there was left to do was making round trips to move the supplies.

As Jiang Chen looked the piles of supplies, he had a troubled smile on his face.

"How long would moving these take..."

Chapter 284: New Year

It was night time already when Jiang Chen finished moving the two warehouses of stuff.

The good thing was the size of the storage dimension had been expanded to twenty-something cubic meters. If the storage dimension remained one cubic meter big, he would die of exhaustion before transporting the thousand tons of supplies.

"My god, did you rob the granary?" After seeing the supplies piled mountain high in the backyard, Sun Jiao was utterly shocked.

Although the base never lacked food, it was the first time she saw so much food.

"Do I need to rob such a little amount of food? On our side, this whole pile only costs seven hundred thousand USD." Looking at Sun Jiao's expression, a smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face as he used a slightly proud tone.

Out of the seven hundred thousand USD, a decent portion was spent on transportation. Pannu Islands were surrounded by agricultural powerhouses, it was cheap to export from Australia and New Zealand.

"But this is too much..." Looking at the small mountain, Sun Jiao's mouth remained wide open as she said blankly.

Watching the rare expression on Sun Jiao's face, Jiang Chen smiled joyfully as he patted on her waist.

"Okay, stop staring at it so blankly. Get people to move it to the warehouse."

With a red face, Sun Jiao seemed to have realized her gaffe. She gave him a dirty look before running to the community center to find Wang Qin.

Jiang Chen watched Sun Jiao ran out before he turned to gaze into the dark night sky.

It was already February. After this month passes, the snow will stop.

On the wasteland, spring was hunting season.

Whether it was the mutants who just finished hibernating or the bandits that stayed dormant for an entire winter, they were all hungrily waiting for the snow to melt, waiting for the two legged or four legged preys to come from under the shambles.

"A lot of things happened this winter." Jiang Chen shook his head, tightened his coat, and walked inside the mansion.

...

1302 tons of supplies. Counting and recording of each item didn't finish until noon of the next day. Additionally, everything had to be stored properly.

300 tons of food was left in the base as supplies and for daily consumption. The other 1002 tons were transported to the Sixth Street warehouses using the underground sewerage. Half of them would be sold locally while the other half would be transported to the nearby Su City and Hang City with the transport fleet formed by the Zhao Corporation in exchange for crystals and other limited supplies.

Although they didn't know how the food was transported to the base, it didn't prevent the survivors in the base from smiling at the filled warehouse. Although not everyone could eat in the cafeteria, as long as they continued to work hard, one day they will become an upper citizen and enjoy the unlimited amount of food.

It was New Year.

Because of Jiang Chen's sudden thought, the survivors put up a row of tents on the square in front of the community center for the "New Year Dinner".

Just this one night, regardless of status or position, as long as one is interested, anyone could request for a tent to cook their favorite food and share their food with other people.

The food in the warehouse would not be limited, the base's administration would provide food and fuel for all tents.

The only strict rule that must be followed was no waste! Any waste of food would be strictly punished.

But the facts soon proved Jiang Chen was worrying too much.

These people who never saw this much food would never waste food! They all ate till their stomachs were about the blow-up. They only regretted they were not born with two mouths.

Considering the base had no stomach medicine, after some thought, Jiang Chen had to add in an additional rule - "No vomiting in the next 24 hours or you have to eat everything you puke out!"

This rule was to ensure people were more rationale when it came to enjoying the food.

Of course, food was not the only thing. The survivors started a bonfire in the middle of the square as people began to perform.

They might not sing great sounding songs and the dances might not be the most elegant, but it was cheerful indeed.

People held their steamy bowls and circled around the square. They drank soup while eating barbequed meat. It was a great time.

Although the radiation dust in the sky was still depressing, and the ashen white snowflake was still cold, but the flames above the bonfire burned away the gloom in people's heart.

Standing on the top of the community center with Sun Jiao by his side was Jiang Chen smiling as he watched the joyful and happy faces.

"Are you happy?" Sun Jiao looked at the side of Jiang Chen's face.

"Of course."

Half a year ago, this place was a mansion area half in shambles. While there were no people here, zombies visited this place.

Who would have thought that just in half a year, this place would be transformed into such prosperity?

Looking at the smile on Jiang Chen's face, Sun Jiao blushed as she also smiled.

Not because of the base's growth, but because of the person she loves' growth.

Half a year ago, she wouldn't have thought that he who couldn't even beat a chicken would grow to achieve many feats.

"How much food would we consume today?" Although she complained, she didn't show any signs of bitterness on her face. It was a loving banter between couples.

"Now that we have met their basic needs, it is also important to meet their spiritual needs. Spending energy on outdoor activity is better than drinking and doing drugs." Jiang Chen laughed.

"That's true." Starring at the cheerful atmosphere on the square, Sun Jiao had a reminiscent expression on her face.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Something far away."

Sun Jiao used a reminiscent tone. "During my days in the fallout shelter, although I wouldn't feel the temperature difference in the weather, during this special occasion every year, people would gather together to celebrate. I still faintly remember the day my father would tell us stories about what happened on the ground above. He said it would snow up there and people had firecrackers, enjoying the delicious New Year dinner... Although when the fallout shelter opened did I realize everything was false, everything was just a fairytale.

During the period of lockdown in the fallout shelter, it was like a secluded island. While it isolated the radiation, it also isolated any electromagnetic waves. No external messages could come in.

But people still firmly believed that the moment the metal gates opened, everything would be beautiful. Since the image left in these people's eyes were the flash before the nuclear explosion and not the cruelty of the shockwave sweeping through the crowd.

"Do you think... your father lied to you?" Jiang Chen asked gently.

"I thought that way before, but then I grew to understand." Sun Jiao shook her head. A perplexed expression appeared on her face as she gazed at the bonfire in the distance. "Human is a fragile creature, without hope, we will not survive."

Chapter 285: An Unexpected Guest

Even if they knew that the moment the doors opened, only shambles awaited them, if they didn't optimistically believe in the 1% possibility, then they may not even have the courage to wait till the doors opened.

"It's New Year, let's not talk about something so depressing," Jiang Chen hugged her around the waist and said gently.

"Mhmm." Sun Jiao buried her head embarrassedly to cover her blushed face as the sternness in her eyes were washed away.

"Speaking of this, what would you do during New Year on your side?" To get rid of the somber atmosphere, she forcibly changed the topic.

"I would usually spend it with my parents." When Jiang Chen said that, he felt melancholic.

Unfortunately, he didn't know what kind of identity he would use when he heads home now. At least this New Year, he probably wouldn't have the opportunity to visit them.

"Do you miss home?" Sun Jiao detected the strangeness in Jiang Chen's eyes as she asked caringly.

"I went back just not long ago. I wouldn't say I miss it too much. My parents' health is good and they are living a happy life. As long as they are happy, I don't have much to worry about."

"I see... Your family are all there, that's good," Sun Jiao murmured to herself.

"What about your sister?" Jiang Chen felt awkward when he talked about Sun Xiaorou, but he still pushed the words out of his mouth.

"Her...body is not doing too well."

"What happened?" Jiang Chen hastily asked.

"Lin Lin... Although Tingting destroyed the chip that blocked her memory in the hippocampus, it still affected the nerve in her lower body. Now, she can only sit in a wheelchair." Sun Jiao was feeling down.

Jiang Chen felt perplexed. A part of him was glad that he wasn't the one that made Sun Xiaorou sit in the wheelchair, the other part was feeling sympathetic for her sister.

"A rare opportunity. You should take her around."

"Eh? But-" Sun Jiao looked shockingly at Jiang Chen.

"Although the base knew that an assassin attempted to assassinate me, they don't know who the assassin was, and no one saw her face. It is better to spend New Year with the family if you still have a family."

Jiang Chen paused. He had a comforting smile on his face as he continued, "Maybe if you take her around this cheerful atmosphere, the trauma in her mind will be healed. Go now."

"Mhmm..." Sun Jiao hid her reddened face before heading downstairs.

Watching Sun Jiao leave, Jiang Chen looked back at the square again.

People shouted, chatted.

A young man was strumming a guitar made out of wood as he played an unknown but peaceful melody.

"Family," Jiang Chen muttered to himself as he suddenly thought of a cute girl.

She doesn't have a family anymore.

...

Without surprise, Yao Yao still stayed in her room.

She didn't play with her computer or other electronic devices as usual. Right now, she was sitting in front of the table while dangling her feet, unable to touch the ground. Her hands were placed against her chin as she zoned out.

In the years before, people would play electronic fireworks to celebrate New Year's Eve. But after she woke up, everything changed, if she didn't meet her big brother...

Yao Yao was too afraid to think what would have happened.

She really liked this place. No need to face the cold winter; no need to face the repressing radiation dust.

Just, a bit too lonely.

"What are you thinking about?" Jiang Chen put his hand on her shoulder.

"Wa-" The voice from behind her scared her a little.

After Yao Yao realized it was Jiang Chen, she let out a sigh of relief. She pouted her mouth as she threw a small tantrum.

"It is not fun bullying a small animal."

"Then what's fun?" Jiang Chen rubbed her soft hair as he smiled.

"Wo-, just like this." Yao Yao enjoyably raised her head as she had an expression similar to a cat being petted.

"Do you not need me to take you out?" Jiang Chen said gently as he felt the temperature mixed with the sweet scent of the girl.

"Take me out?" Yao Yao tilted her head as she responded, slightly confused.

"Mhmm, they are celebrating New Year outside. People are performing and cooking. Do you not want to see? You will feel too stuffy staying in your room for too long."

"But...But... Do you not need to stay with sister Sun Jiao?"

"Eh?" Jiang Chen was confused as he didn't know Yao Yao would suddenly ask this.

"Everytime brother Jiang Chen comes back, you will always go play with sister Sun Jiao." She blew her cheeks up as she looked away throwing a tantrum. "Although boys like ... bigger boobs, but, but I..."

She mumbled, but because it was too embarrassing, Yao Yao couldn't finish the next sentence.

But just as she was about to throw away her humiliation and force all her thoughts out, her tiny lips were blocked.

Her eyes trembled, then opened wide before closing peacefully.

Those lips were soft as marshmallows, sweet as honey.

Long after, Jiang Chen moved his lips away with longing and guilt.

The silver wire made the pure but misty kiss carry a hint of seduction.

"Yao Yao..."

She seemed to have sensed Jiang Chen's emotion as a soft smile blossomed on her face.

"You can."

...

The legs covered in white stockings stopped shaking as it anxiously closed and rubbed against itself.

Feeling the intimate moment, Yao Yao closed her adorable, large eyes again, waiting for the moment she has been longing for.

Jiang Chen couldn't control himself anymore.

Just as he was about to throw away all sense of guilt and become an animal again, his EP began to ring at an untimely moment again.

The intimate atmosphere instantly faded.

Yao Yao's face changed to a dark red as she was so flustered that she wanted to dig a hole in the ground and hide inside...

...

At the door of the base, Cheng Weiguo was in a jacket standing with an odd person wearing a blue onesie.

Seeing Jiang Chen walk over, his eyes light up as he immediately went up to greet him.

"Boss, you are finally here." But when he saw the unfriendly expression on Jiang Chen's face, he was confused.

"Uh, did I do something wrong..."

"No, you did a great job," Jiang Chen said with a straight face.

If it was not for the call, he might have been doing some animalistic acts.

Even Liu Yao couldn't withstand it, let alone Yao Yao who has never been injected with the genetic vaccine. The growth of her body was suppressed.

Therefore, Cheng Weiguo's phone was too timely.

But for some reason, Jiang Chen still didn't feel too hot!

"But you-"

"Don't worry, let's talk about the important things."

"Okay." Cheng Weiguo nodded his head and then led Jiang Chen to the weird person in a blue onesie.

He seemed to be wearing the uniform from a fallout shelter.

"This is the fallout shelter-" Cheng Weiguo cleared his throat as he introduced.

"Hello, leader of the Fishbone base. Nice to meet you." The person cleared his throat and extended his right hand. "My name is Shi Yongtian. For your outstanding contribution in rebuilding the apocalypse, the PAC government would like to recognize you for your outstanding work."

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 286: We need your help

[Recognize? Did you get kicked in the head by a donkey?]

"Who is he?" Jiang Chen ignored the Shi Yongtian guy, but rather glanced at Cheng Weiguo.

"From his description, he is from Fallout Shelter 027, he seems to be an officer from before the war." Cheng Weiguo let out a sigh as a hint of mockery appeared on his face. "Every once in a while, there will be fallout shelters that open and then a bunch people who have no clue what is going on would return to the surface. They are quite fortunate it is winter right now."

During the winter, the bandits and raiders were mostly dormant. If the fallout shelter opened in the spring, there would be a higher probability that either fully equipped bandits or slave merchants were waiting for them.

"Did you say anything to him?"

"No." Cheng Weiguo shook his head and used a voice the middle-aged Shi Yongtian couldn't hear, "You haven't given out any directions regarding survivors from fallout shelters, so I immediately reported this to you."

After he listened to Cheng Weiguo's explanation, Jiang Chen nodded.

"Good, you did a great job."

When he heard the leader's praise, Cheng Weiguo humbly smiled.

"Also, what was the Sixth Street's policy on survivors from fallout shelters?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Nothing too different... People that received nutrient supplies would be sent to the ghetto. People with a clearer head would find a job in mercenaries or hunting teams, usually live a nice life."

At the same time, Cheng Weiguo's expression was slightly awkward. It made him think of the time he was in a fallout shelter. He happened to be one of the slower ones and ended up dragging his wife into receiving nutrient supplies and hence lost their freedom forever.

Jiang Chen nodded, showing he understood. Then he turned around to look at the Shi Yongtian he neglected.

Jiang Chen's neglect made Shi Yongtian furious, but it only lasted for a moment before he remembered that he had favors to ask. Therefore, he waited patiently for the two peasants to finish talking.

"I am Jiang Chen, the leader of Fishbone base, the general of the Sixth Street military government, and the governor of the Shenxiang town colony."

When he heard Jiang Chen's words, Shi Yongtian raised his eyebrows.

"Excuse me for my straightforwardness, but there is and will only be one government on this land, and it is the great and glorious Pan-Asia Corporation."

"But they were sent into the sky already," Cheng Weiguo interrupted with a mocking voice, but Shi Yongtian ignored him as he just looked at Jiang Chen.

"Therefore?" Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

"This kind of private enclosure similar to a king's practice is stupid and illegal," Shi Yongtian said with a righteous tone.

Jiang Chen's eyebrows raised, but before he said anything more, Cheng Weiguo had his gun pointed at the fool's head and spoke in a deadly tone.

"Apologize, or perhaps I should make a hole in your head first."

The sudden turn of events made Shi Yongtian unable to react.

His lips shivered. Perhaps due to anger or because of fear. Regardless, he couldn't say a word.

"I said apologize, blue skin."

A soldier standing on the side wearing the knight emblem sneered as he smashed the gun barrel and shot the guy in the back of his leg, causing him to drop to the ground.

Humiliating the leader in front of him, it was like asking for his own death.

Jiang Chen didn't stop this soldiers' action nor did he say anything, he only dubiously looked at Shi Yongtian's frightened eyes.

At the same time, a voice was heard through the speakers not too far away from the base.

"Mob, immediately stop your illegal activity, or we will shoot."

Wearing a blue uniform with PAC printed on the chest of a standard body armor, covered by a carbon nano-explosion-proof helmet, and carrying a PK2000 rifle. About twenty people were crouched in the bunker, their guns pointed at the gate of the base.

"Enemy attack!"

Follow by the siren ringing, all the soldiers on patrol returned to battle position.

The heavy machine guns on the concrete high wall turned simultaneously, followed by two remote sentient cannons.

Soldiers in kinetic skeletons with reaper rifles leaned against the wall with their guns ready. The power armors stepped out of cover as they directly faced their enemy. Their revolving machines gun was spinning.

What was more frightening was the swarm of hummingbird drones. Hundreds of machineguns hovered in the air, the sight alone sent shivers down people's spines.

Absolute power.

The twenty soldiers in light weapon was instantly overpowered by the intense firepower of the Fishbone base.

The PAC leading the charge had a drop of cold sweat roll across his forehead. Although he had considered the interference of "illegal personnel", he never thought they would have strong firepower.

Standing behind the power armor, Jiang Chen looked at the 20 PAC soldiers behind the bunch expressionlessly, he already guessed that people were waiting outside.

From looks alone, he knew Shi Yongtian was a useless pile of meat that only knew how to talk. Although winter was relatively safe, it was not safe to the point where a persuasive speaker can safely walk through the wasteland. At least the zombies would not be frozen to death, when they see living creatures at night, they would still leap at them while howling.

Therefore, there was only one possibility. He was being protected.

He just didn't know what kind of arrogance he had to knock on the door alone.

"You are talking about legality to me?" Jiang Chen looked at the Shi Yongtian kneeling on the ground as he slowly opened his mouth.

Shi Yongtian shut his mouth, he was too afraid to speak.

He originally wanted to threaten Jiang Chen with "this place is surrounded by twenty fully equipped PAC security forces, so you better put down your weapons and receive a lighter punishment".

But when he saw the fearsome power armors with loaded machineguns step out of the door, he didn't have that attitude anymore.

"Here, I am the law." Jiang Chen signaled Cheng Weiguo to let Shi Yongtian go. He then took out his pistol from his pocket. "Unfortunately, your words don't really work here."

Jiang Chen pointed the gun against his forehead.

"Don't, don't kill me!... I, I apologize," With pupils contracted, Shi Yongtian shivered as he said listlessly.

Jiang Chen didn't look at him anymore, but rather at the soldiers in the far away bunker.

Silence ensued at the entrance of the base for a few seconds. The leading PAC soldier finally dropped his weapon and put his hands above his heads and walked to the base.

He knew they were no match for the "mob". To save the captured officer, the team captain had to compromise.

"We have no intention to start a conflict, please let Officier Shi go."

"We also have no intention to start a conflict, it is just your people were being disrespectful." Jiang Chen shrugged as he put away his pistol, and concurrently signaled Cheng Weiguo to put their weapons down.

Seeing Jiang Chen's action, the captain with his hands above his head let out a breath of relief. He signaled the soldiers behind him to put their weapons down as well.

The tense situation was resolved after each party took a step back.

After being searched, the captain walked in front of Jiang Chen.

Looking at the anxious Shi Yongtian on the ground, that captain let out a sigh and extended his hand.

"I am Tian Feng, a PAC army captain."

"Jiang Chen." He gave out his name again. Jiang Chen held that person's hand before letting go quickly.

"We are from Fallout Shelter 027. Officer Shi should have discussed the details with you. We don't mean harm, we just arrived on the surface... and are unfamiliar with the place," Tian Feng used a calm voice to speak with Jiang Chen.

"Now you should have seen, PAC no longer exists, neither does CCCP or NATO."

"Is that so?" Tian Feng let out a sigh as he accepted Jiang Chen's words.

But Shi Yongtian on the ground had a pale white, face. He seemed to be unable to accept the cruel reality.

The PAC no longer existing meant that his title of an officer had no meaning.

He couldn't accept the status difference.

"Although it is hard to believe... but your weapons are convincing." Tian Feng said in an undertone.

If PAC still existed, they would not like a force with such a strong military presence remain in their jurisdiction.

Before they returned to the surface, they have guessed countless possibilities. Such as NATO or CCCP have captured the entire PAC region, or PAC came out of the war as the eventual victor, or nuclear weapons had rendered the surface as a no man's land...

The current situation, it was not that they didn't consider it, they just didn't believe it was actually true.

"I am glad you recognize the reality." Jiang Chen shrugged. "You should feel lucky that you met us, and not a raider group, or the not so clean mercenaries. What's next? What do you plan to do?"

"We need your help," Tian Feng said sincerely.

Chapter 287: Nuclear Fusion Core

"Help? We are not a welfare society. If you're interested in a trade, that can be discussed." Looking at the sincere Tian Feng, Jiang Chen smiled.

To the survivors that just peeked their heads out of the fallout shelter, they had no clue about the rules of the wasteland, but they possessed a large number of pre-war supplies.

Needless to say help, it would be considered sympathetic if one could resist the urge to rob these "rookies".

Tian Feng was stunned for a moment, he didn' expect Jiang Chen to be so direct.

After a brief paused, the captain spoke.

"Our resources are also limited or else the fallout shelter wouldn't be unlocked. Although we can't give you anything in return right now, I promise, if you support our case, when we rebuild order on the shambles, we definitely won't forget the help you provided us."

"What cause?" Jiang Chen was lost.

"Of course rebuilding the great PAC, and shine the glorious light of the Pan-Asia Corporation again." As if he had regained his youth, Shi Yongtian on the ground climbed up and said passionately.

"That's exactly it." After glancing at officer Shi, Tian Feng nodded at Jiang Chen. "Before the fallout shelter door was locked shut, the last mission we received was once the fallout shelter opens, rebuild the civilization on the ruins. If PAC didn't exist anymore, then we'll reform its former glory!"

"These 'blue skins' would typically say such things when they climb out of the ground." Cheng Weiguo shrugged.

"Blue skins?" Tian Feng frowned.

"Nothing, only a name," another soldier mocked.

A nickname was given by the experienced to the rookies.

They didn't stay further on the topic as Tian Feng continued to look at Jiang Chen.

"What do you think? Our interest should be the same. Once we rebuild order, you can go back to the harmonious and stable life."

Jiang Chen had a dubious expression on his face.

"So your recommendation is?"

"We previous thought you could just support us with some extra nuclear fusion core, but seeing your excellent ability, I have changed my mind. I sincerely welcome you to join our cause," Tian Feng said seriously.

Jiang Chen laughed.

"So you are saying, we should create a new owner who will sit on top of us?"

"How could you say it like that," Shi Yongtian worked up his courage and rebutted, " a hundred years ago, when we stood up from the suppression of NATO and CCCP, joined the forces, and walked to the great corporation. Do you remember the former prosperity? Do you long to stay in these shambles filled with chaos? Only we can lead the greater Asia to prosperity-"

Listening to the nonsense of this guy, the soldiers holding their rifles began to laugh. Cheng Weiguo touched his nose and didn't laugh since he came out from a fallout shelter. But from the curled up the tip of his mouth, he couldn't hold out for much longer.

Shi Yongtian's face was bloated. The sights of untrust and mockery made him furious. If this were before the war, he promised he would use his power in hand to teach these peasants a lesson. But unfortunately, the pain from the bruise on his leg reminded him that he must restrain himself.

Tian Feng was silent, but he still remained hopeful as he stared at Jiang Chen. Although the majority are "ignorant", as the leader of this group of people, he trusted that Jiang Chen must have enough "foresight."

Jiang Chen slowly said, "House, weapon, wall... We laid every single brick here. With or without you, we can do great things."

"But under our leadership, you can do better-"

"Bullsh*t."

Looking at the stern-faced Tian Feng, Jiang Chen said bluntly.

"Once you adjust your attitude and bring enough sincerity, then talk about trading with us. Or, you can try your luck with other survival bases?"

Tian Feng took a deep breath as he scanned the pitch black power armors.

"I will bring back your response."

"Don't pretend you are a big deal, blue skin," Ma Zhongchen who was patrolling mocked.

Tian Feng glanced at him, didn't say anything else, and dragged Shi Yongtian away.

...

Alarm deactivated. The fuss at the gate didn't stop the celebration inside the base from continuing.

Only during shift change did the soldiers with empty stomachs tell their comrades with a belly about to burst the funny things that happened at the front gate before rushing to the busy square.

"Boss, why do you need to waste your words on them. We can easily wipe them out and take over the good things in the fallout shelter."

Cheng Weiguo followed Jiang Chen to the office in the community center and while standing in front of the table, he asked Jiang Chen puzzledly.

"Oh? So you support me in occupying Fallout Shelter 027?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Even if it were a lawful mercenary, they wouldn't let this opportunity slip away," Cheng Weiguo answered.

Jiang Chen nodded as he didn't say anything and looked at the map on the table.

The paper map was taken from a survival guide from before the war. Although it didn't list out the 00x series as well as special fallout shelters not open to the public, all the normal fallout shelters were listed on the map.

"Fallout Shelter 027, located in the Songjiang area. It is not far from our base. With the capacity of 1000 people. The set lockdown period is 50 years, but it seemed to have been opened earlier than that," Jiang Chen found the symbol on the map as he muttered to himself.

"From their words, they seemed to be really lacking nuclear fusion core. What is that?" Jiang Chen asked.

Cheng Weiguo didn't know why Jiang Chen would ask that and looked at his boss, confused.

"it is a type of nuclear reaction battery. 100mm in diameter, it is stable and safe. A lot of industrial machines used it as the power source, including power armors. I remember the Sixth Street used it for a period of time, but like the food on the supermarket shelves, it quickly depleted, and not a lot was recycled. All in all, after consuming the nuclear fusion core batteries, the Sixth Street power armors were modified to use crystals as its power source."

Compared to the difficult to obtain nuclear fusion core, crystals were much easier to obtain.

"I see... Normally speaking, what goods are inside the fallout shelters?" Jiang Chen continued to ask.

"Good things manufactured before the war, obedient labor, technicians, and scientists." Cheng Weiguo knocked on the EP on his arm. "For example, these EPs were mostly distributed out from the fallout shelters. Also some limited medicine, or even manufacturing equipment."

Jiang Chen nodded.

Last time, from Fallout Shelter 005, he obtained a batch of experiment apparatus, a quantum computer that can be used as the server for virtual reality games, as well as a production line for the Hummingbird drone.

Needless to say, for the survivors that wandered on the wasteland picking up garbage for survival, these fallout shelters unaffected by radiation were like treasures.

"Other than those, there is also food," after a brief pause, Cheng Weiguo added.

"Food?" Jiang Chen was slightly shocked.

"That's right." Cheng Weiguo nodded. "Other than those frozen fallout shelters, quite a lot of fallout shelter with living humans would be equipped with breeding and planting facilities. Since all food has an expiry date, even if it were stored in ultra-low temperature in a vacuum, it would still be difficult to preserve for over 50 years."

Without being affected by nuclear and biological weapons, the technology was also more advanced. The fallout shelters were the best place to grow food on this land.

The multiple plantation towers, soilless cultivation plants (both bankrupted) at the Sixth Streets could produce a small amount of produce, but the quantity, as well as survivability, were both limited. Since the filter equipment, the survivors who used recycled garbage as the base material could not be compared to the sophisticated equipment created before the war.

"Wait," Jiang Chen frowned, "Logically speaking, after so many years, there are quite a few of fallout shelters that opened in Wanghai City. But until half a year ago, the Sixth Street market still hasn't seen a trace of food."

Cheng Weiguo had a bitter smile on his face.

"Mostly had to do with the raiders. Most fallout shelters would not escape the fate of being raided by raiders. But those bandits only know how to rob and kill, lacking the concept of foresight. While they completely raided the food, most of the people inside the fallout shelters were killed. Without knowing how to operate the equipment, it was usually sold as scrap. The lack of filtration device meant that the environment in the fallout shelter would be similar to the external world not long after.

"How many people would it take to attack the fallout shelter?" Jiang Chen asked in an undertone.

Cheng Weiguo thought for a moment and replied, "It will depend on the security force inside the fallout shelter. Normally speaking, only thirty-something soldiers would be enough to completely block the people in the fallout shelters."

"Block?"

"That's right, even nuclear weapons can't do anything to the fallout shelter. In theory, as long as the fallout shelter door is locked, the people on the outside have no way of going in." Cheng Weiguo said feeling rather helpless, "There is only one reason the fallout shelter would open before the locked date expired. That is, all the energy or resources have been depleted. As long as we block them in, they will be the first ones to give up."

Just like a turtle.

Jiang Chen nodded as he had a brief understanding of the fallout shelters on the wasteland.

"I see, now go do your own things."

"Yes !" Cheng Weiguo saluted before he left the office.

Seated in front of the table, Jiang Chen leaned against the chair and fell into deep thought with his eyes closed.

"Fallout Shelter 027?"

Food? Jiang Chen was not interested. The only thing he didn't lack was food.

The thing that interested him the most were the scientists and technicians inside the fallout shelter.

He faced two choices.

Raid? Or trade?

Chapter 288: Cannibals and Blue Skins

The New Year celebration continued till three in the morning. People who couldn't keep their eyes open finally returned to their beds and fell asleep with a joyful smile.

It was the first time, in many years, there was so much happiness on the wasteland.

The bonfire was extinguished and the smell of the barbeque lingered on the square.

With the help of the participants, the logistics department collected and put the utensils and cooking equipment back into the kitchen and transported any uneaten food back into the storage space and recorded the amount of food consumed that night.

As the proposer of the celebration, Jiang Chen, unfortunately, didn't get to join in on the celebration.

As when he finished talking to Cheng Weiguo, he returned straight to the mansion.

It was still three hours before the celebration ended.

When he went back the mansion, Yao Yao was still not asleep.

The adorable girl sat in front of the window, counting down on New Year and thinking about her own things with her hands against her chin.

Counting down on New Year. Only a few people remembered this tradition.

Being with family was a luxury on the wasteland.

Everything was so sudden. From the light of the nuclear bomb to the airdrop soldiers from the sky. People were still working; students were still in class. But the "Holy Shield" only left ten minutes for people to prepare.

After rushing to the nearest fallout shelter, squeezing into temporary nuclear bunkers, or being wiped out by the shockwaves.

The hibernation chamber was like a wormhole.

For the people that hid inside, when the door closed to when it opened again, everything felt like it happened instantaneously. But outside of the chamber, twenty years have passed by.

A tear rolled down her face and as her tender fingers gently moved towards it, a warm hand wiped off the droplet at the corner of her eyes before she did.

"Do you miss home?"

"Mhmm."

"Yao Yao slammed her head into Jiang Chen's chest as her small head tightly pressed against his shoulder, she quietly sobbed.

"I, I am strong." Her voice was muffled by her repressed sobbing, but Jiang Chen could still hear the frail strength in her voice.

"Mhmm, Yao Yao is strong."

"I, I am not crying."

"Mhmm..."

Jiang Chen lightly patted her soft back as he scanned the clock on the wall.

The hands of the clock happened to pass 12 o'clock.

At at the same time, the breathing on his shoulder became more rhythmic.

The entire night, he stayed with Yao Yao.

Although he didn't do anything.

...

The transport elevator slowly descended into the fallout shelter below the earth's surface.

Around twenty-something soldiers in PAC security force uniform stood on top, everyone's expression was down and flustered.

A lot of people carried gun wounds; the bulletproof vests were covered with spiderweb-like cracks which signified the intensity of the battle.

Fortunately, they didn't lose anyone.

Shi Yongtian curled up in the corner of the elevator; his sight was unfocused as if something had provoked him, he seemed like he lost his spirit.

The captain of the team, Tian Feng, was blankly staring at the lead cylinder in his hand covered in blood - nuclear fusion core.

As to where this came from, the story began three hours ago.

After being rejected by Jiang Chen, Tian Feng didn't give up, but instead, he decided to try his luck elsewhere.

The snow on the surface was thick and cold; it froze the remaining liquid inside the withered bodies of the zombies. They were fortunate, if it were not for the snow, those furious zombies would rip all of them into pieces.

Even the Death Claw would be scared of the zombies at night.

Factory, shop, hospital.

With the group of twenty as well as an officer responsible for "comforting the affected," Tian Feng almost searched every possible place the nuclear fusion core would exist.

But unfortunately, he didn't manage to find any.

Within the twenty years, the survivors have cleanly scavenged anything useful. This would obviously include the nuclear fusion cores used in generators. Before crystals were replaced as the energy alternative, nuclear fusion cores were the primary source of energy the survivors used.

But in the end, Tian Feng obtained one.

In a half-collapsed building, he found the light of a flame. Twenty-something survivors covered in winter suits and unknown fur circled around a bonfire. They had poorly made rifles on their backs as they were cutting meat for a strange creature.

In terms of firepower, this group was much weaker than the previous survivors.

Out of safe consideration, Tian Feng didn't hastily approach them, but rather he used the loudspeaker.

Because of their caution, they saved themselves.

The loudspeaker was used for less than a minute before the bullets began to rain down. A lot of PAC soldiers, who weren't sure of the situation, were left entirely dumbfounded. They had to take cover nearby.

They didn't know why these "refugees" would fire at them. They didn't know if they should fire back.

Currently, in their minds, they were still the soldiers of the "country," these were "refugees" that lost their rationality.

Fortunately, Tian Feng as the captain had a quick reaction. Recognizing the situation, he immediately ordered to fire back and fired the first shot.

Those survivors' pieces of equipment weren't as outdated as they looked. The moment they started firing, two light machineguns appeared out of the window.

Although they were part of the security force, none of them went onto the battlefield before. However, since they did receive professional training, whether it was shooting or knowledge, Tian Feng and the group were more superior that this "mob."

Shooters quickly eliminated the firing points, and the soldiers with rifles taking cover behind the concrete fired back alternatively. Although they lacked in firepower, their effective strategy easily took care of the mob.

The mob with weapons were consecutively killed. Tian Feng led his troops to push forward and force them to surrender.

But to their surprise, until they were down to the last person, the group had no intention of surrendering.

But when Tian Feng led his troops into the base of the mob, he saw a disgusting scene.

Blood, meat chunks.

It was not the carcass of an animal... No, precisely speaking, the human is also an animal.

They were not mobs, they were devils! The devils that chewed on human meat like there was nothing wrong.

"This is insane."

After seeing this scaring scene, Shi Yongtian's mouth twitched and he continuously repeated that same sentence.

Tian Feng didn't say anything, but his resolute eyes began to shake. It was not hard to see the shock he felt in his heart.

No one threw up.

Because of the scarce resources in the fallout shelter, they drank nutrient supplies before they left. They had nothing in their stomach to throw up.

If it was a lone traveler that saw this scene or merchants that often traveled by, they would say without being bothered, "Oh, it's the cannibals" before they start collecting loots.

Watching the fellow with his limbs chopped off, but couldn't die because of the hemostatic agent, Tian Feng didn't say anything. He quietly raised his gun and ended his misery.

Under the body, he found a nuclear fusion core covered in blood.

The nuclear fusion core was adhered to an aluminum heat agent. It looked like this group of people made it into a simple nuclear grenade. But before they could use it, the person had to have his head blown off.

Regardless, they finally acquired the nuclear fusion core; their mission was complete. The shortage of power in the fallout shelter has been solved and was something worth celebrating.

But currently, no one had a hint of happiness.

Tian Feng gazed at the blood stains on the nuclear fusion core without saying a word.

Chapter 289: Burden of Survival

One thousand meters under the surface, a cave the size of two basketball courts was buried deep inside.

With the elevator descending, the light along the corner of the cave opened consecutively as it illuminated the underground space.

Around the area was soil packed tightly and rocky surfaces. Facing the elevator was the door to Fallout Shelter 027.

It is an inconquerable base.

The only entrance was blocked by a gear-shaped door 10 meters thick. The 8m thick compressive alloy steel and the 2m thick lead sandwich was enough to withstand a million tons TNT equivalent nuclear strike!

Tian Feng walked to the door of the fallout shelter, inputted his fingerprint, and opened the steel cover attached to the door. He then took a cable covered in soft lead material and attached it to his EP.

The door, even impenetrable by Gamma radiation, naturally would not let any electromagnetic waves pass through. The information exchanged between the fallout shelter and the outside world was purely done through this cable.

The EP screen flashed as a woman's face quickly surfaced.

Although she looked young, the three stars on her shoulder made it impossible to underestimate her ability.

Han Junhua, age 24, PAC colonel. Unfrozen three years ago and has taken over the leadership position as the previous head of Fallout Shelter 027 passed away.

"What's the situation?"

Tian Feng saluted as he responded in a firm tone.

"Mission completed."

"Mhmm, come inside." Han Junhua nodded and signaled the staff to open the fallout shelter door.

The gear shaped door gradually opened and exposed the narrow tunnel inside. A metal bridge suspended there, with the guidance of the mechanical arm, it formed a road inside the fallout shelter.

After they passed through the bridge, the twenty soldiers put their rifles and ammo on the weapon rack and walked into the sanitization room. The staff standing on the side pushed the weapon rack into the sanitation room to be sanitized.

Tian Feng didn't immediately go inside the sanitization room, he walked in front of Han Junhua and handed her the nuclear fusion core.

"Blood?"

"It's blood."

Han Junhua had a serious expression when she saw the bullet marks on his bulletproof vest.

"The war is still not over?"

She subconsciously thought that he was attacked by NATO soldiers.

When he heard her words, the resolute face had a forced smile.

"It is over, but you will never believe what I saw outside."

Han Junhua scanned the blood on the nuclear fusion core as she seemed to have understood something.

"Half an hour later, come to the conference room."

"Yes."

Tian Feng saluted the girl twenty years younger than him as he watched her leave.

...

The light in the conference room was on, but the mood felt repressive.

After pushing open the door, four pairs of eyes landed on him. Tian Feng gulped as he walked to the conference table and sat in a chair.

Fallout shelter leader Han Junhua, citizen representative Wu Yaguo, PAC Federal Research Institute Academician Qin Xuehai, Fallout Shelter Technology senior engineer Feng Hui, and the still trembling Shi Yongtian.

On top of the conference table was the nuclear fusion core stained with blood.

"Briefly explain what you saw outside, or we can't continue on the topic," Academician Qin with white hair gently smiled as he said to Tian Feng.

Tian Feng looked at Han Junhua and after seeing her nod, he began.

"This is what happened..."

At the request of Academician Qin, Tian Feng outlined everything that he had been seen since leaving the fallout shelter. Including the nuclear winter on the surface, the zombies, the Fishbone base's powerful firepower and apathy to the PAC regime, including the exchange of fire with those cannibals.

When Tian Feng finished explaining his encounters, the meeting table once again became silent.

After a long time, as the leader, Han Junhua broke the silence.

"Feng Hui, how long can this nuclear fusion core last?"

"To maintain the existing power usage, it is enough to support us for six months." Feng Hui gave a conservative estimate.

"The acquired power can last us for half a year? That is simply impossible!" Wu Yaguo immediately protested.

All the equipment of the fallout shelter relied on electricity, whether it was food production or the operation of the water purification device. To maintain their existing power usage, it means that each person can only be allocated 600ml of drinking water every day, 1 hour of ultraviolet radiation, and three meals of nutrient supply in reserve.

This means they couldn't take a bath, couldn't be full, lack energy, and survive a full six months in the sub-health state.

"During extreme times, there is nothing that is impossible," Han Junhua briefly said, and then look to Feng Hui, "Maintain existing power usage. You can go now."

"Yes."

Hesitating for a moment, Feng Hui got up. While holding the nuclear fusion core, he left the conference room.

"You can not ignore the public opinion." Wu Yaguo stared at Han Junhua. "I do not know what the damn procedure is, but the old leader had everything taken care everything until you woke up. Now everything has changed! "

For Wu Yaguo's accusations, Han Junhua was indifferent.

"You can not blame Xiaohua, she has done very well," Academician Qin with a gentle tone tried to persuade in an attempt to keep Wu Yaguo calm.

"Very well?" Wu Yaguo scorned, "It has only been three years, and since you have succeeded, everything has changed. First, the farming output has been reduced, the nutrient supply is mixed with organic food, then the cut in water supply, and finally the cut in existing power? All of this is pure nonsense! "

"I am just making the most realistic choice with the current supply status." Han Junhua's voice was cold, without the slightest feelings.

"The most realistic choice? I am only aware that this fallout shelter is designed for 50 years! It is 50 years calculated from the supercomputer! However, how many years have passed now? Less than 20 years, the fallout shelter is forced to open. I do not know what you have done in the past three years as the leader," Wu Yaguo said in anger.

Quietly waiting for Wu Yaguo to vent his anger, Han Junhua slowly opened her mouth.

"1000 people, for 50 years.You tell me how many people are in the shelter now?"

Wu Yaguo was speechless, his angry expression froze on his face.

"I'll tell you, a total of 1743 people."

Seeing Wu Yaguo's silence, Han Junhua continued.

"The first thing I did when I woke up from the hibernation chamber was look at the work log from the previous leader, but guess what I read?"

"What?"

"The first line, in 2171, I can't refuse a mother's request, I took her baby from her hands.

"What's wrong with that?" Wu Yaguo did not think it was a big deal.

"That baby was the 1001 resident of the shelter."

"Is it because of this baby, Fallout Shelter 027 will be opened nearly 30 years in advance?" Wu Yaguo laughed. "Or is it that you really can not find an excuse and have to use an innocent baby to hide your own incompetence?

"That's just the beginning," Han Junhua said expressionlessly. "I hosted a wedding for a couple in 2172. I knew it was not right, but I still blessed them with happiness.

"There is nothing wrong with that! Don't you think that in this environment filled with despair, a wedding is inspiring."

"So, in this 16 years, you held more than 400 weddings?" Han Junhua's sight swept across the four people at the meeting.

Tian Feng who couldn't interrupt stared at his EP in a daze. Shi Yongtian was still shaking while sitting at the table. Han Junhua's explanation didn't satisfy Wu Yaguo as he still remained indifferent. Academician Qin let out a sigh and lowered his head.

"There is no energy-saving plan, no family planning. The supercomputer can calculate the energy consumption as accurate as ten points after the decimal, it can calculate the near-perfect population structure and growth curve, but it still can't calculate your IQ!

In the end, her calm voice finally was inflicted with a trace of anger. The volume was not high, but it stung the eardrums of all that was present.

Academician Qin opened his mouth. He wanted to say something to ease the tense atmosphere on the conference table, but ultimately he didn't say anything and just quietly watched Han Junhua. Wu Yaguo's face turned red from anger, but he couldn't find any reasons to refute.

"Including me waking up earlier, I was shocked," Han Junhua said. "With the plan, I was supposed to be dormant for 25 years before taking over the leadership position. But what did the old man do? He committed suicide in fear of the crime he committed!

"Old Zhang died of myocardial infarction." Wu Yaguo trying to retort, but his tone lacked decisiveness...

"Myocardial infarction? With the medical capability of the fallout shelter, do you think a myocardial infarction could kill someone? He concealed the condition and gave up on treatment, that is suicide!" Looking directly at Wu Yaguo's eyes, Han Junhua said firmly.

Wu Yaguo lips moved, but he couldn't say a word.

"If it is you, what would you do?" Academician Qin abruptly asked.

"In 2171, I would refuse to accept the baby. Before 2180, there will be no newborns. After 2180, following the supercomputer' analysis of the population growth curve, strictly control the number of newborns," Han Junhua said without hesitation.

"But do you know? Leader Zhang didn't just face a baby, but also human nature," Qin academician whispered, "I witnessed the day at the door when the tragedy happened. People outside the door begged, hoping that little Zhang would leave one side of the net open (to give the wrongdoer a way out). According to the discipline, the fallout shelter can only accommodate a thousand people, little Zhang also abided by that discipline."

"He did not." Han Junhua said.

Listening to the words of the little girl, Academician Qin just kindly smiled and recalled.

"People kneeled down, someone insulted him, and people even tried to force themselves back into the shelter. I remember little Zhang shot the gun. You can't imagine the scene. A husband attempted to take his son to the door to meet his wife... It was little Zhang that shot."

Wu Yaguo closed his eyes, he seemed to recall a distant event. Tian Feng was still staring at his shoelaces, but he clearly remembered that day it was him at the door on duty.

However, Han Junhua was still unmoved, she said emotionlessly,

"Why could he refuse a group, but not a child?"

"Perhaps, that is because of human nature." Academician Qin sighed.

"Therefore, foolish things were committed from the beginning." Han Junhua said.

"Without experiencing it, what happened that the day is just a passage to you. The ideas you have are indeed not wrong," for her indifference, Academician Qin just sighed and said compassionately.

"You, do you still have a hint of human nature left?" Wu Yaguo said in disbelief.

Han Junhua didn't look at Wu Yaguo as she said with an apathetic tone.

"Human nature? It is just a burden of survival."

Chapter 290: The Choice

The argument continued until morning.

But that didn’t matter as there was no concept of day and night in the fallout shelter.

The topic of discussion evolved from "the fault of the fallout shelter leader" to "what to do next". It was a great step forward.

Energy. Without energy, they can’t survive. The water purifier will stop working, the organic farm will be shut down, the UV lamp will go out, and even the air filter of the ventilators will stop functioning. From the complete power outage to the collapse of the fallout shelter, it would only take 10 minutes!

Perhaps irritated by the quarrels at the meeting today, Shi Yongtian who had curled up on in his seat shivering, suddenly stood up and smashed the table angrily.

"War, only war can solve all the problems! We should declare war on the natives on the surface! Don’t they have the nuclear fusion cores? We can just rob it from their hands. They not only illegally occupied territories but are also illegally armed. We should teach them a lesson and teach them the etiquette and reserve of a civilized man! The glory of PAC is immortal! "

The angry roar overshadowed all the voices on the conference table.

The interrupted Wu Yaguo looked over, shocked. The expressionless Han Junhua just glanced at him, and Tian Feng, who was staring at the ground, also raised his head and looked at him strangely.

Shi Yongtian's lips moved, and his hand on the table jittered like he had epilepsy.

After a moment, he sat back down stiffly.

"Ahem." Wu Yaguo gently coughed, "Shi Yongtian, why don’t you go back and rest."

Shi Yongtian looked at him gratefully, got up stiffly, and limped out of the conference room.

Seeing the door close, Wu Yaguo slowly opened his mouth, this time his tone was calmer without an intention to fight in his tone.

"This angry... inhabitant, though it was only an emotional expression, it provided an idea for our future development right? We can wager war against the external world to solve the energy crisis."

"There is no way we will win." Tian Feng suddenly raised his head. As he had personally witnessed the strength of that group of people, he felt the need to remind the decision-makers, "Heavy machine guns, drones, sentry guns, and even power armors. The security force is made up of policemen, not the front force facing NATO. We are not equipped with heavy weaponry at all."

"Hell, you used the taxpayer's money to train, and you can’t even suppress a group of mobs?" Wu Yaguo could not help but curse.

"However, the group of mobs is not just simply mobs. Moreover, training cannot fill the gap of equipment," Tian Feng said helplessly.

"What about the group of beasts that ate a human? Didn’t you guys win?" Wu Yaguo questioned.

Tian Feng smiled, but that smile was somewhat bitter.

For a warrior, the most painful thing was to explain the war to those who have not participated in the war.

"The size of the surface armed force differs. Some are as strong as the Fishbone base while some are stragglers, they are fighting for themselves."

"Then pick the group that you can beat!" Wu Yaguo impatiently said.

"It is not legal to plunder from the victims… or the survivors."

"Legal? Ha! All those are guilty violators, they have committed murder, robbery, insulting corpses! Are you not a security force? Do you think they should not die?"

Tian Feng did not speak. His mind was a complete mess.

He certainly thought those devils should be condemned; they should be punished with the most severe punishment. But they are only wartime policemen, not judges; they have no right to make decisions on the property owners of the offender. When he picked up the nuclear fusion core from the body and then used it for the fallout shelter, it was already a severe violation of discipline.

The robber robbing a robber. In jurisprudence, he was also a robber.

But he did not refute Wu Yaguo's point of view.

If the PAC has ceased to exist, what is the meaning of holding to PAC's law? Including the rank of his collar, what is the point?

"What do you think of it? As the leader of the fallout shelter, are you not going to do anything?" Wu Yaguo looked to Han Junhua

She glanced at Wu Yaguo as Han Junhua slowly opened his mouth.

"Foolish."

Wu Yaguo's face turned livid, with teeth clenched, he was so angry that he started to laugh "Foolish? Is not doing anything stupid to you, or as a resident representative, putting myself in the shoes of the entire fallout shelter foolish of me?"

"Of course it is you."

"You -!" Wu Yaguo pressed on the table as he stood up in rage.

However, Han Junhua was not done humiliating him.

"I don’t know what the old leader was thinking, making a foolish decision to elect a resident representative from the inhabitants. Listening to the public opinion? This is a fallout shelter, not a resort."

"That’s enough, Little Hua. Calm down. Since there are ideas, why not elaborate?" Academician Qin sighed.

"Because there is no need for that, the eyes of the masses are shortsighted."

Han Junhua heard the argument. Qin Academician smile and turn to see Wu Yaguo.

"Can I tell you a story?"

"Go ahead." Although anger filled his heart, to the old man, he still very much respected him.

"A poor man lived with a wealthy man. Because there was a policeman that kept things in order, the two men live in peace. One day, the order that has always existed suddenly disappeared overnight.

What will happen next?

Wu Yaguo gulped. He began to realize the seriousness of the problem.

"Now we should consider who should we rob the nuclear fusion core from, but how to ensure that the survivors on the surface will not plunder us. There is not only one problem facing the fallout shelter." Academician Qin sighed.

"This information spreading among the ordinary residents would only add unnecessary panic." Han Junhua glanced at Academician Qin.

"But if you do not say anything, the residents will also panic." Academician Qin kindly smiled.

Han Junhua no longer said anything as she fell into silence.

Eyes shaking, Wu Yaguo said with difficulty, "Then take advantage of the fact that they haven’t made a move yet. Raid enough nuclear fusion cores and then close the door of the fallout shelter. As long as we do not open the door -"

"We can’t hide here forever."

He paused, Academician Qin continued to speak.

"There is no fundamental difference between the closure of 20 years to the closure of 50 years. It will only make the gap between the survivors of the surface and us greater."

"What do you say we should do?" Wu Yaguo shouted as he was having a mental breakdown.

"Since the fallout shelter has opened in advance, the environment on the surface is not bad to the extent that we can’t survive. We should return to the surface, establish contact with the surface survivors, and rebuild our home-"

"Surface? What is there? There is only a group of primitive people who want to drink blood. Even if they know how to use gunpowder, possess advanced technology, they are still primitive people! Dirty environment, suffocating radiation dust, disgusting mutated creatures, I don’t agree we should leave the fallout shelter! There are warm beds, clean water, fresh food here, we don’t need to leave, "Wu Yaguo retorted.

Ignoring Wu Yaguo, Han Junhua looked at Academician Qin.

"The Fishbone base knows about our energy shortage. If there is no surprise, they should be discussing how to plot against us. Any good ideas?"

It was the first time she used an asking tone, seeking advice.

"Then establish communication with them or trade."

"Trades are only possible if both sides are equal. They already knew our weakness, if they can easily force us to surrender, they have no reason to choose to trade," Han Junhua said in an undertone.

"Just let the weaknesses no longer exist." Academician Qin lowered his head.

"Is that so ..." Han Junhua also fell into the same thought.

"What are you talking about?" Looking at the two people guessing the same riddle, Wu Yaguo asked.

But no one responded.

Because some things spreading would only add unnecessary panic…

Silence ensued for a long time, then Han Junhua abruptly declared, "The conference is over."

Relieved, Tian Feng who couldn’t sit any longer was the first to leave the conference room. Wu Yaguo’s mouth twitched. He wanted to say something, but eventually, nothing came out, so he turned away.

Standing up shakenly, when Academician Qin passed by Han Junhua, he stopped. Sighing, he said.

"Have you made your decision?"

"Mhmm."

When he heard the affirmative answer, Academician Qin nodded his head and left the conference room.

In a glimpse, the original noisy conference room suddenly quieted down, leaving only Han Junhua there.

"Human nature?"

She slowly repeated those unknown words.

As she repeatedly chewed on the words, Han Junhua shook her head, got up, and walked out the door.

Chapter 291: The History of Fallout Shelter 071

The next morning.

The sun shining through the window, sprinkling light on her soft and smooth cheeks, made her look adorable.

Jiang Chen looked at the quietly sleeping Yao Yao for a while before he looked out the window.

The snow had stopped.

Speaking of this, there have been more sunny days.

After staying in bed for a bit longer, Jiang Chen slowly got up.

As if she felt Jiang Chen get up, Yao Yao tightened the hand around his neck, her whole body pressing against his.

Although the house temperature was warm, due to anemia, Yao Yao's morning body temperature was still very low. For the heat source next to her, her body naturally hugged it.

It took a while for Jiang Chen to finally move the arm that was wrapped around him without waking her up. Then he snuck out of bed.

He tucked the little girl in, leaned over her smooth forehead, and gave her a kiss. Then he turned away.

…

Last night, Sun Jiao pushed the wheelchair and took Sun Xiaorou around the square.

Perhaps moved by the lively and joyful atmosphere on the square, it made her remember her time in fallout shelter 071 when her sister and parents lived together.

A long-awaited word Sun Jiao was waiting to hear appeared in a light whisper - "Sister."

The memory of the past began to flashback.

Crying with Sun Xiaorou in her arms, tears burst out from Sun Jiao’s eyes.

That "sister" made the suffering of more than a decade all worth it.

The sisters hugged together as Sun Jiao finally slept in for once.

What woke her up in the morning was the sound of knocking.

Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she got up from her bed yawning and went to open the door.

"Good morning."

"Good ..." Seeing Sun Jiao's exposed pajamas, Jiang Chen felt his nose began to feel hot as he looked away, "I didn’t see you work out this morning."

"I am being lazy." Sun Jiao sluggishly stretched her waist, the thin as veil shirt was being pulled to its fullness.

Satisfied to hear his gulping, Sun Jiao proudly carved up the tip of her mouth.

Sun Jiao didn’t tease Jiang Chen longer, but she put on an emotional expression.

"Thank you for yesterday."

"I didn’t do anything, did she get better?"

"Yesterday, she called me 'sister'. At night, we talked about a lot of things that happened when we were young... Thank you, I really am grateful." Because of her excitement, Sun Jiao was becoming incoherent with her words.

Sisters that finally recognize each other, Jiang Chen sincerely felt happy for her.

The sequelae left behind by the memory blockage has been resolved. The next step was to solve her lower body paralysis.

Although the Fishbones base and the Sixth Street’s medical condition was yet enough to complete brain tissue repair surgery, Jiang Chen believed that within the buried ruins, the technology will gradually be uncovered. Sun Xiaorou one day will leave her wheelchair.

"Do not thank me, it is her that woke up the memory in her heart -"

Before he could finish, his lips were blocked by a soft redness.

Lips apart.

Crystals hung in her eyes and her pupils were covered by a fine mist. Sun Jiao smiled and jumped back into her bedroom with a hand on the doorframe.

"I'll go and get changed, let’s eat breakfast together."

...

In the end, Jiang Chen didn’t have breakfast with Sun Jiao.

On the table, he left a "go to the community center office to find me" before he hurriedly left the mansion and went to the cafeteria.

He ordered a bowl of millet rice porridge and two meat buns. Jiang Chen sat with the survivors as they chatted about yesterday evening's celebration while working on his breakfast.

While he was happy that Sun Xiaoruo finally found her real personality, he did not know how to face her yet, or what kind of expression should he use to meet her.

After all, in the basement, he did that kind of thing to her.

After putting the dishes away, Jiang Chen came straight to his office in the community center. Sun Jiao had been waiting.

"Why didn’t you eat with me? I wanted to formally introduce you to my sister." Sun Jiao combed her long hair behind her ear as he covered her mouth, laughing.

"... I, I don’t know how to face her," Jiang Chen said feeling embarrassed.

"Do you plan to hide from her all your life? She is my sister." One hand on her hip, Sun Jiao closed the distance between her and Jiang Chen as she said audaciously.

"Don’t be like this. I… let’s talk about the important task at hand." Jiang Chen coughed as he looked to the side.

With a perplexed look, Sun Jiao nibbled on her lower lips as she wanted to say something, but eventually sighed and did not say another word.

Seeing Sun Jiao didn’t continue to persist on the issue, Jiang Chen felt relieved. Sorting out his thoughts, he spoke about the incident that happened at the base gate yesterday.

After listening to Jiang Chen's words, Sun Jiao paused for a moment as she fell into silence.

"What do you plan to do?" After a long moment, Sun Jiao abruptly asked.

"If the fallout shelter fell into the hands of raiders or unlawful mercenaries, it would be a waste of a god-sent gift," at the same time he spoke, Jiang Chen looked to Sun Jiao.

Seeing Jiang Chen look at her, she knew that he was concerned about her own feeling. Sun Jiao put on a thoughtful smile as she said softly.

"You don’t have to explain it to me. Indeed, the reason why I separated from my family was that the fallout shelter suffered a culprit attack. But after being on the wasteland for so many years, I have long understood that raiding is normal behavior. "

It was based on this idea that in the first meeting with Jiang Chen, she made a move to tie him on the chair. Even in the Wanghai area, she has been considered one of the more decent lone travelers.

He paused, the audacious face surfaced a hint of gentleness.

"Moreover, I believe in you. If it is you, even if you occupied the fallout shelter, you would definitely make a different choice than those bandits."

Hearing Sun Jiao’s words of trust, Jiang Chen had a rare embarrassed look and he looked away.

"Yesterday, I talked with Cheng Weiguo. It was impossible to get into the fallout shelter by forcing our way inside. I would like to hear your opinion."

The time cost of the siege was too expensive. If it were only around ten days to a half months, it would be okay. But if it was over a year, needless to say, Jiang Chen wouldn’t have the patience to wait as the unclear situation west of Zhufeng Highway meant that the Fishbone base could not use the force in the Songjiang area to surround fallout shelter 027.

"Generally speaking, surrounding it would be the best choice. Since the fallout shelter opened ahead of schedule, it means that they are facing a problem due to lack of supplies. They would be the first ones to forfeit in such a situation," Sun Jiao said without hesitation.

"But it is too time-consuming that way. Is there a possibility of opening the door from the outside?" Jiang Chen asked in an undertone.

Sun Jiao shook her head.

"I see ..." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, troubled.

Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something as he looked towards Sun Jiao. He considered for a while before he said.

"The fallout shelter you lived in before is called Fallout Shelter 071 right?"

"Yes, what's the problem?" Sun Jiao asked.

"If you would excuse me, do you remember how the fallout shelter fell to the raiders?"

Sun Jiao paused.

"Sorry, if I made you remember bad things, just forget about it."

"No, it’s okay." Seeing Jiang Chen’s deep concern, Sun Jiao smiled and waved her hand. "Because at the time I was less than 10 years old, my memory is somewhat blurred. I’ll try to remember."

"Please." Jiang Chen solemnly nodded.

Sun Jiao took a deep breath and looked out the window as if she was immersed in her memory.

"Fallout Shelter 071 ..."

Chapter 292: Determination

Steel feet crushed the snow. The steel surface of two T-3 power armors reflected the piercing sunlight.

Immediately following the power armors were twenty "knights" in kinetic skeletons, as well as one hundred "citizens" in carbon nano bulletproof vests. Everyone held a Reaper rifle and marched in a scattered square formation.

At the end of the line was a Tiger. The fearsome electromagnetic pulse cannon attached to the back of the pickup truck cast a menacing vibe under the cold winter light.

He gazed into the distance. The streets along the highway were dead silent. There were no signs of mutants at all.

The dumb zombies had their feet trapped in snow as they lingered in front of the destroyed stores. The drool coming out of their mouths were frozen into icicles. There would be occasional zombies walking into the middle of the road, but a gunshot from a soldier would easily put them down.

Winter was safe in Wanghai City, although winter was about to pass.

Jiang Chen wore a power armor and led the march. As he walked, he recollected the conversation he had with Sun Jiao.

...

"It's deception."

"Deception?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

"When the fallout shelter opened, the leader organized us to establish temporary tents on the surface and ordered the technicians to sample for air quality, soil quality, as well as sent out a scout team to examine the area surrounding the fallout shelter. If the surface were suitable for living, we would end the asylum plan ahead of schedule and start rebuilding on the ruins. If the situation were terrible, once we collected enough nuclear fusion cores, we would return to the fallout shelter and wait for the situation to become better."

"It was the third day since the fallout shelter opened. A hobo, poorly covered, came to the camp on the surface. I remembered everyone was happy because there were still survivors on the surface.

"From him, we learned a lot of useful information. For example, the World Alliance Organization was dissolved, the space colonization ships were sent into space... Although the news was depressing, it didn't make people despair."

"Gradually, he gained our trust. One day, he suddenly said to us, the nuclear fusion core we were collecting could be exchanged for food at the survival camps nearby."

"It was happy news for the fallout shelter. Since the fallout shelter could easily produce food as long as there was enough energy."

"The leader gave him five bags of rice and ordered two PAC soldiers to follow him.

"But no one expected that when he returned, a group of bandits with rifles followed him. The two PAC soldiers were gone, but the blue security force uniforms were worn by two bandits."

"The entire camp was in dismay, and no one was prepared. The leader led the security force and hastily fire back, but whether it was the number of people or firepower, we were at a disadvantage. A fire began to spread in the camp. It seemed to be caused by the ignition bottles thrown by the bandits."

"At that time, my family and I lost each other. I ran far away, ran out of the camp, ran out of that street..."

Sun Jiao didn't continue.

She already told him the story before. She was afraid to go home as she mindlessly wandered among the shambles until she met a female warrior who said she was part of PLA, and then she wandered alone...

Deception?

But he thought the real reason why the fallout shelter collapsed was due to the modesty of human nature by the people who never experienced hardship.

As Jiang Chen continued to recall, he could slowly make out the outline of the square.

The electric barriers had scattered across the street. Fallout shelter 027 was written on the concrete ground. The menacing human bones along with the concrete debris were piled on the road as it was barely visible under the snow.

In the middle of the square was a transport elevator connected to the underground space. On top of the elevator, a figure stood.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes as he stopped moving. He lifted his hand to signal for the rest of the team to stop.

PAC uniform, ponytail swaying along with the wind. From afar, Jiang Chen could only see these things.

The person seemed to have noticed Jiang Chen and began to walk in his direction in firm strides.

Cheng Weiguo who stood beside Jiang Chen was also equipped with a power armor. Seeing the person walk over, he lifted the gun in his hand.

The person's footstep paused for a second, but didn't stop moving forward.

Jiang Chen put his hand on Cheng Weiguo's gun as he shook his head.

Cheng Weiguo understood as he put down his weapon.

It was a woman. But her bold face held a hint of masculinity. Her ponytail swayed in the wind. As she closed her apathetic looking eyes, she exuded a vibe similar to Xia Shiyu.

The only difference was, from her, Jiang Chen couldn't see any emotion of fear.

Jiang Chen dubiously grinned. He didn't know where she found the confidence to come alone.

Unless she was like officer Shi Yongtian and had no idea about the condition on the surface?

At about two meters away from Jiang Chen, the woman stopped.

"Colonel, Han Junhua."

"Jiang Chen, although you probably know already." His voice diffused from the metallic armor as a damped sounding echo lingered.

It was a basic friendly gesture to open the helmet of the power armor when in conversation, but Jiang Chen didn't as he was not there to make friends.

"Yes."

"You are standing here waiting for me?"

"Yes."

"Then you must know my intention of coming here." Jiang Chen glanced at Han Junhua below him as he laughed.

"Yes."

"Do you only know how to say yes?" Jiang Chen couldn't help but comment.

"Is that the Type 50 electromagnetic pulse cannon?" Scanning the truck behind Jiang Chen, Han Junhua abruptly asked an irrelevant question.

Although Jiang Chen didn't know why she would ask that, it was nothing worth hiding, so he nodded his head honestly.

"That's right."

"A three-axle truck with a load of 40 tons to carry the 50 type electromagnetic cannon, sacrificing armor to increase firepower."

"That's right, what do you think? Do you think you can win?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

Han Junhua shook her head.

Even if she knew her odds of winning, she still did not look fearful. Her calm expression made Jiang Chen unable to see through her.

"Your technological capability is all over the place. While you inherited some of the pre-war technology in some fields, you don't have a research system at all, am I right?" Han Junhua directly pointed out the weakness of the Fishbone base.

"Is that a problem?" Jiang Chen said lightly.

"We possess advanced technology and a comprehensive research system, the things you are currently lacking," Han Junhua said.

"So we are here," Jiang Chen didn't retort Han Junhua's words as he said harshly.

"We can do a trade," Han Junhua said.

"Trade is built on the two parties being equal in force." Jiang Chen laughed.

"No, precisely speaking, it is built in the case where both parties have concerns." Han Junhua shook her head.

"Do you think I have concerns?" Jiang Chen asked.

Han Junhua didn't say anything, she only reached into her pocket and took out a pistol.

The pistol alone would not pose any threat to Jiang Chen in the power armor, but the soldiers behind him still raised their weapons and pointed their rifles at her. If she dared to point the gun at their leader, they would press the trigger and shred her to pieces.

Jiang Chen didn't say anything, nor did he stop the soldiers' action. He only narrowed his eyes and gazed into her eyes.

In her eyes, he didn't see any wavering.

She raised the gun and pointed it at her own head.

Everyone was stunned, including Jiang Chen.

"Before I left the fallout shelter, as the leader of the fallout shelter, I used my authority to execute a final order to the fallout shelter terminal."

"After 24 hours, if the fallout shelter cannot detect my life signal, the doors will be locked shut and will be locked for another 50 years.

"At the same time, the door between the resident's area and the functional area will be temporarily locked. The main control system will use the ventilation system to inject excessive gas to execute 925 residents."

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted as he stared at the crazy woman in disbelief.

Han Junhua didn't react to Jiang Chen's disbelief as she continued speaking. As if she was just reading a passage from a prayer, her calm tone had no emotional fluctuations at all.

"The bodies of 925 residents will enter the organic converter to be converted into organics, water, and energy."

"With the most minimum requirement to maintain life activity, the fallout shelter will take the remaining 828 people to fifty years later. If you are willing to wait, see you in fifty years."

"You are mad."

Jiang Chen locked his sight on Han Junhua's eyes, and he attempted to see any fear of death from her pupils.

But other than the apathy to life, he didn't see anything else.

"This is the worst choice." Han Junhua opened the safety.

"Even if you surrender to me, I won't do anything to you. You will live a great life. You don't have to make this choice!"

He was telling the truth, he didn't torture anyone. Even the slaves in the Fishbone base lived with dignity.

"But no one can ensure this point. One minute later, I will press the trigger." Han Junhua closed her eyes.

The atmosphere between them was frozen.

The silence lasted for half a minute.

In the last few seconds, his helmet finally opened.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh and looked at Han Junhua.

"...Okay, let's talk about the trade."

Chapter 293: Safe Distance

On the spacious transport elevator stood ten figures.

"What is this?" Han Junhua squeezed the tiny green crystal as she asked.

"A crystal. Combined with the special energy extraction device, it can replace the nuclear fusion core." Jiang Chen stared at the wall rapidly descending outside the elevator and answered nonchalantly.

"It is hard to believe how much energy can store in this tiny piece," Han Junhua gazed at the reflection on the green crystal as she muttered to herself.

Jiang Chen glanced at her and didn't respond.

Behind him were eight soldiers in kinetic skeletons. They were all on alert for any possible dangers.

In contrast, Jiang Chen looked rather relaxed.

Ten minutes ago, he and Han Junhua reached an agreement.

He previous thought a girl that completely lacked human nature would demand a lot of benefits, but the after fact proved him wrong.

Although she had proposed this agreement, it was much more beneficial to the Fishbone base.

The agreement was as follows:

The door of the fallout shelter will remain permanently open. By name, they surrender to the Fishbone base. Fallout shelter 027 only maintains their existing security force and will no longer expand its military size. Fishbone base will stop invading and maintain a safe distance with fallout shelter 027.

The two parties will engage in trade. The Fishbone base will be responsible for providing energy as well as other supplies necessary for the fallout shelter to function while the fallout shelter will become a research facility, providing technical support to the Fishbone base.

At the same time, the Fishbone base will build a camp above the fallout shelter, used to accommodate the excess residents in the fallout shelter. The fallout shelter will maintain its high degree of autonomy to the camp. The Fishbone Base will be responsible for the camp's security.

Also, Jiang Chen will send a representative and several workers to be stationed in fallout shelter 027. They will be responsible for communication and recording necessary supplies.

Fallout shelter 027 will also send a representative to Fishbone base and conduct a long-term assessment of the human rights rules in Fishbone base. After enough trust is built, fallout shelter 027 will gradually become part of Fishbone base.

Although the formality of the situation was no longer important, since an agreement has been reached, fallout shelter 027 became a subsidiary of the Fishbone base.

A subsidary that maintained a safe distance away.

A slight feeling of falling came from under his feet as the elevator reached the ground.

"I don't understand. This agreement seems to be disadvantageous for you?" Jiang Chen looked at the light gradually appearing as he asked.

It practically meant they became part of the Fishbone base.

The only difference other than being occupied was, Fishbone base's soldiers were not permitted to enter the fallout shelter. But since they controlled everything, there was no difference between going inside or not.

"The purpose of establishing the fallout shelter is to maintain and preserve the flame of civilization. Once conditions turn back to normal, re-establish the colony on top of the ruins. The purpose was not to return to the surface and establish dominance on the victims."

If the Fishbone base could replace fallout shelter 027 and execute its mission, and they do have more ability to complete the mission, there is nothing wrong with fallout shelter 027 becoming part of the Fishbone base.

Of course, it is on the premises that they can maintain their promise and ensure the freedom and safety of all residents in the fallout shelter.

But this trust could only be established with time.

"Your explanation is rather unique. That's not what Shi Yongtian told me." Jiang Chen smiled.

"It was my mistake to send him to the surface," Han Junhua admitted honestly.

If the PAC image has already collapsed in the hearts of the survivors, it was comical to send a PAC officer to persuade the survivors. But she was not to be blamed. Who would have guessed this was how the war ended?

Once elevator became stationary, Jiang Chen signaled the soldiers to stay there as Han Junhua and him walked to the gear-shaped door.

Han Junhua pulled off a cable from the door and connected it to her EP.

"How was the negotiation?" Tian Feng asked anxiously.

"Successful, open the door."

When he heard Han Junhua's instruction, Tian Feng felt relieved as he signaled the worker in the control room to open the fallout shelter door.

Dust flew as the gear-shaped door gradually rolled open, exposing the tunnel behind it.

The suspended bridge with the guidance of the mechanical arm formed a road, connecting the entrance to its interior space.

"It is hard to believe that 1000 meters under the surface is a space like this."

"Do you want to come inside?" Han Junhua asked nonchalantly.

Although he was interested in a tour, Jiang Chen shook his head.

"That's okay, just here is fine."

Funny. If I went in, how would I know if you would take me hostage or not?

"Your concern is exactly our concern."

"Oh? Explain?" Jiang Chen looked at Han Junhua, quite interested in her thought.

"You are afraid of coming in, just like we are afraid of letting you in. Isn't that correct?" Han Junhua said emotionlessly.

Jiang Chen paused for a second before he started laughing.

The soldiers behind him were lost as they didn't know why their leader was suddenly laughing.

The PAC soldiers felt highly alerted in the fallout shelter and were also confused as they cautiously looked at Jiang Chen standing beside Han Junhua.

"You are an interesting person." Jiang Chen shrugged and grinned.

"That's surprising. Even I consider myself a boring person." She forced her the muscles around her mouth to move and left this one sentence before walking inside the fallout shelter.

Jiang Chen didn't wait long at the door.

Han Junhua took out the drafted agreement.

Jiang Chen only scanned it before signing on both agreements. Both parties each hold a copy. The agreement was effective immediately.

Jiang Chen noticed when signing this "surrender agreement", a middle-aged man stood behind Han Junhua as he looked at him with suspicion and hatred.

But Jiang Chen didn't express anything as he smiled indifferently. Then he put away the agreement that belonged to him.

Before entering the elevator back to the surface, Jiang Chen turned around to look at the Han Junhua, who was sending him to the elevator.

"The Fishbone base representative will arrive tomorrow. The first batch of supplies will be here by the day after tomorrow. I hope you won't close the door after taking the crystals, or I might be angry and blow the cave up." Jiang Chen used a joking tone.

"We will fulfill our promise. Please don't use threatening jokes to test our already weak trust," Han Junhua said.

"Haha, don't think about it too much, it is only a joke. Of course, I trust that you will fulfill your promise." While Jiang Chen laughed, he got on the elevator and pressed the start button.

"See you later."

"See you."

She watched the elevator ascend before going back into the fallout shelter.

On the way back to her office, she could feel eyes filled with suspicion and mistrust looking at her.

There was nothing wrong with there gazes. Since a few minutes ago, she "sold" the fallout shelter to someone called Jiang Chen.

She sat on the chair as she looked at the lonely room and suddenly let out a sigh.

From today on, all the residents in the fallout shelter could return to the surface and enjoy an unlimited amount of ultraviolet radiation and breath in the free air.

Except for her.

She chose to use herself as the deterrence, therefore giving up the opportunity to return to the surface.

At least before enough trust is established.

She suddenly felt really tired.

Han Junhua slowly put her head down on the table as she took a rare nap.

Chapter 294: Camp 027

The tag of Fallout Shelter 027 had been taken away and was replaced by a camp 27 road sign.

The people in blue fallout shelter uniforms returned to the surface through the elevator.

When they saw the thin rays of sunshine, they cheered, cried, ran on the street, and kissed the ground.

And the Fishbone soldiers stood in small circles as they chitchatted to kill time while comically examining those lunatics.

"Are these guys crazy?" Jiang Chen shockingly raised his eyebrows as he looked the blues skins cheering.

"They waited for too long." Cheng Weiguo had a cigarette in his mouth as he grinned.

After the initial excitement, the residents quickly calmed down.

Under the instructions of the manager sent by Fallout Shelter 027, the one hundred residents gathered in the middle of the square and began to unload their construction material.

It was a metallic board. That thing was magical as it seemed to be a memory metal.

A blue skin drove a small construction car with the fifty square meter board. He then dropped the metal board onto the ground and waited for the blue skin on the side to rip off the plastic on the outside. After being in contact with the air for a moment, Jiang Chen saw a few cracks appear in the middle of the fifty square meter metal board. It began to move like a transformer as it automatically assembled into a metal house with doors and windows.

It almost made Jiang Chen's eyes pop out.

It was magical!

Seeing the lack of shock on Cheng Weiguo's face, he thought it must not be a rarity before the war. But even if they were not shocked, they were definitely envious.

No wonder the raiders favored these blue skins, they have too many good things.

Although it was not at the point where they would rob them, Jiang Chen still dragged the manager in charge of camp construction and asked him how many of this things were left in the fallout shelter. The manager understood Jiang Chen's intention as he had a helpless expression on his face.

"There is not a lot of this in the fallout shelter, only one hundred set."

"Only one hundred set?" Jiang Chen was unwilling to give up, "What about production technique? You must have the blueprints?"

There was nothing to hide, the manager nodded. "We do have it, but it is troublesome to produce. Without exaggeration, to produce a mobile home like this before the war, the cost was enough to build four houses with far better conditions. The only advantage of this is the lack of space it occupies. If it was not for placing inside the fallout shelter, there was no need to manufacture these things."

Since the cost of building a fallout shelter was at a daunting one million per square meter, in the space-constrained fallout shelter, it would cost more to store construction materials.

When he heard about this, Jiang Chen didn't bother with it anymore.

But he still remembered it in the back of his mind.

Although it might not be useful now, who knows if it will be useful in the future? For example in aerospace, this thing should have a wide range of applications.

In less than half an hour of work, the two small construction vehicles made a few trips along the square before one hundred small mobile homes were neatly placed in the square. The fallout shelter residents carried their belongings and entered the metal homes in order.

Eighty of them had fallout shelter residents living inside, while the other twenty were given to the Fishbone force stationed there for them to distribute.

Not long after, under the protection of a little over ten soldiers, three trucks rolled into the square.

The trucks were filled with construction materials and workers from the Fishbone base.

It was not enough to just have a place stay, to protect the safety of the camp, walls were also necessary.

The workers from the Fishbone base were mostly residents from Shenxiang town. After three months of work, they were promoted from "slaves" to "lower citizens" and some outstanding contributors were even promoted to "intermediate citizen".

After parking on the empty ground, the workers jumped off the truck. After offloading the supplies, they skillfully set up the necessary construction equipment. Then following the engineer's directions, they began to dig the foundation of the wall.

Based on the agreement, Fishbone base will build a wall on the outskirt of the square with a total distance of four thousand meters. The half-collapsed stores were bulldozed over, while the more complete buildings were circled inside the wall to be utilized.

The workers on the campsite were busily working as the clanking and hammering sound from their equipment persisted till midnight. A lot of frozen zombies were attracted by their scent as they dragged their limping bodies near the camp.

But the Fishbone soldiers were well prepared. The soldiers stationed on the street raised their rifles as a few shots took down the scattered zombies. Maybe it was because this area was not concentrated with zombies, or because the low temperature suppressed the reproduction of the zombies in the city center until summer, but it was hard to see a sizeable group of zombies in the Wanghai rural area.

The construction of the camp was well underway, but compared to the liveliness on the surface, it was a lot more deserted in the fallout shelter.

Han Junhua sat in front of the table as she looked apathetically at the enraged Wu Yaguo.

"What did you do. Asking him to help us build our camp, I don't disagree with, but what's the point of stationing their forces here? Do you want us to become their slaves?"

"From my perspective, this is the best ending." Han Junhua said emotionlessly.

Both take what they need as they feared the same unbearable consequence. Both parties remain restrained.

"Are you dumb or what? Since they are need of us, we can use the technology in our hand to demand more benefits!"

When she heard Wu Yaguo's accusation, Han Junhua just found it funny.

But for some reason, she couldn't laugh out loud.

"Do you know what they brought when they came?"

"What?" Wu Yaguo said uncaringly, "A huge army? So what? Even if we can't win, as long as we close the door, they can't come in. Unless they don't want our technology, or he wouldn't have sat down with us and talked it out."

Han Junhua shook her head.

"They already know the news of our energy shortage. Or rather, it is not a secret at all. Threatening wouldn't work."

"Then we will threaten them with our death." Wu Yaguo said fiercely. "If the door never opens, they will get nothing."

"Have you ever heard of gambling?" Han Junhua asked.

Wu Yaguo's eyebrows raised as he didn't understand.

Seeing as he didn't speak, Han Junhua continued.

"Two gamblers sat in front of the gambling table, both are eyeing the chips in the other person's hand. The rule of the game is simple. Each person holds a gun, but they are pointed at the same person. A uses the gun to force B to give up their chips, B uses the gun to point at himself to threaten A. The game revolves around the life of B. If B dies, A would get nothing."

"This rule is not fair to begin with." Wu Yaguo laughed.

"Rules are always unfair to the weak," Han Junhua said emotionlessly. "A few hours ago, Jiang Chen and I both held a gun. Except before the game started, I pointed the gun at my own head."

That kind of apathy made Wu Yaguo hold his breath.

Chapter 295: The not Addictive Jet

As to who the representative stationed at fallout shelter 027 should be, Jiang Chen gave the task to the person in charge of the logistics department - Wang Qin.

The representative's primary task was to the record the needs of the fallout shelter, and communicate the research direction to Jiang Chen. It was mostly a supporting job. Other than this basic task, Jiang Chen also gave the representative another mission, which was to verify their energy usage to prevent the fallout shelter from hoarding energy.

The next morning, the representative followed the truck transporting construction material to camp 27.

A 25 years old female name Xu Lu took on the role of the representative as she was part of the knight class. She acted as a salesperson in an insurance company before the war. Then she entered the hibernation chamber during the war and ended up at the Sixth Street ghetto after waking up. She was part of the first group of survivors the Fishbone base bought. Because she looked adorable, articulated well, was attention oriented, and possessed the right amount of experience, she was perfect for the representative role.

The other five staff members were upper citizens of the base. They will be on a rotating shift to enter the fallout shelter to support Xu Lu's work.

"Pay attention when you stay in the fallout shelter. Walk around, and be on good terms with the residents in the fallout shelter. You are representing the image of the Fishbone base." Jiang Chen patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry boss, you can count on me." Xu Lu playfully saluted as she giggled.

Jiang Chen nodded as he watched her go down the elevator.

Followed by the flashing signal light, the six people disappeared from the surface down to the cave a thousand meter below.

At the same time, a young looking woman in the blue fallout shelter uniform walked up to Jiang Chen.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang, my name is Zhang Yuzhu, I will be the ambassador representing fallout shelter 027 to be stationed in the Fishbone base." A young looking girl's voice was pleasing to the ears. She was also very fluent. The only blemish was the slight nervousness in her tone.

Coincidentally, the representative sent by both parties were female.

Based on the consideration of alleviating the tension in diplomacy? Since the wasteland had no professional diplomats.

An interesting coincidence.

Jiang Chen shook his head as he got rid of the weird thought in his mind.

Jiang Chen examined the ambassador from head to toe as he smiled. "How old are you?"

"Eh?... Twenty years old." Zhang Yuzhu paused as she didn't know why Jiang Chen would ask that question, but she still answered honestly.

"Twenty?" How long did the fallout shelter close for?" Jiang Chen asked.

"It will be twenty years by July of this year," Zhang Yuzhu said.

"Twenty years, twenty years old. Were you born in the first year of the fallout shelter?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"No, my father told me, I was born outside of the fallout shelter, but only a few months old when I entered the place." Zhang Yuzhu timidly smiled.

"I see... Speaking of this, working somewhere so far away from home, is your father not worried?"

Zhang Yuzhu shook her head.

"He has passed away already."

"I am sorry."

"It's okay, he left peacefully. Everyone the fallout shelter said he was a great guy. But... he always said he was sorry about everything. Although I don't understand why my father would say that, but if I can replace him to help other people, then it would make him watching over me from above feel better."

When she finished speaking, a timid but bright smile surfaced on Zhang Yuzhu's face.

"Mhmm, you will." Watching the smiling face, Jiang Chen also smiled as he encouraged this little girl.

It was a heartwarming story, even in the fallout shelter, without seeing any daylight, it could breed such a beautiful soul?

After sending the little girl to the truck returning to the base, Jiang Chen was about the return to where the Fishbone soldiers were stationed, but he happened to see a group of people forming a circle at the other gate of the camp.

Seeing the commotion, Jiang Chen walked over.

"... Listen, everyone. With only a small piece, everyone can become a sharpshooter! This is the good stuff I transported from Liuding Town, 100% pure! Don't you want to try? I promise, the feeling is remarkable!"

A suspiciously dressed merchant was passionately speaking as he was selling suspicious substance to the Fishbone soldiers guarding the door.

He had a double-headed cow behind him and on its back was bags full of odd products.

"What's the purpose of this?" He walked behind the crowd as Jiang Chen looked at the crowd quite curiously.

When they heard Jiang Chen's voice, the soldiers slacking off were almost scared to death.

No one listened to the merchant's bullsh*t as the soldiers scattered and returned to their post.

Seeing all of his customers run away, the merchant blamingly looked at Jiang Chen as he stuffed the small vials into the bag on the double-headed cow's back and dragged its leash as he prepared to leave.

Instincts told him that for this person to be able to scare the people carrying guns, this person's status must not be low. Although Jiang Chen ruined his business, he didn't dare to complain. Since a merchant like him was putting his life on the line, if he accidentally offended someone and got shot, it would be a tragedy.

"What is this thing? You haven't answered me yet." Seeing as he wanted to leave, Jiang Chen asked again.

"Jet, a magical thing that will increase the human sense. The exact effect is that after eating it, the world will appear to slow down." Seeing Jiang Chen's interest in wanting to buy it, the merchant stopped and began to give his pitch.

Just like bullet time effect? Then it must be a good thing.

Jiang Chen touched his chin quite interested.

"What do you think? A piece is only 10 crystals." The merchant rushed to him as he saw Jiang Chen's expression.

"That thing only sells for 4 crystals a piece at the Sixth Street, I've seen it before." A soldier not too far away from Jiang Chen alerted, afraid the boss would be tricked.

The merchant's eyes opened wide.

"Could the thing from the Sixth Street be comparable to mine? My Jet is not addictive. Do you dare to eat the things they sell?"

"You must be lying. Is there non-addictive Jet?" Another soldier mocked.

When he heard this thing would be addictive, Jiang Chen instantly lost his interest.

But seeing the merchant argue with the soldier, Jiang Chen had another idea.

"Ahem, you are saying that your Jet is an improved version, stronger than the ones sold at the Sixth Street pharmacy? Non-addictive?" Jiang Chen cleared his throat as he interrupted the two's bantering.

"That's right," the merchant proudly fixed his collar as he looked at Jiang Chen. "I can promise with my life that regardless how my Jet is used, it is non-addictive."

"Okay, good." Jiang Chen nodded, "How many do you have on you?"

"I only made... I mean I only brought 53 pieces," the merchant said.

"What is your name?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Meng Qian."

"Okay Meng Qian, this is 530 crystals." Jiang Chen put his hand in his pocket and took out a few sizable crystals from the storage dimension and threw it to him.

"Thanks, boss." Meng Qian nodded and bowed as he joyfully handed the small vials of drug.

But Jiang Chen's next sentence made Meng Qian's heart freeze.

"You are welcome." Jiang Chen casually threw the drug into the hands of the soldier beside him and pointed at the merchant packing up the crystals.

"Capture him and feed him the drug. Report back to me if there are no problems."

No matter how that person begged, Jiang Chen turned around and went back to camp.

Chapter 296: Like Mall

And seeing the result, that guy was a liar.

That drug was not Jet at all, but something odd...

After taking two pills, the person fell to the ground, unconscious.

It was apparent it wasn't Jet, Jet wouldn't make a person unconscious after two pills. When he remembered this evil merchant was selling this to them, the soldiers were furious. They confiscated all the crystals from the guy's body before throwing him outside of the camp's gate.

The small crystals were distributed among the soldiers. However, with the 530 crystals Jiang Chen paid, they were too scared to take it. Thus as the captain, after deliberating for a while, he personally sent the crystals to Jiang Chen and reported the incident to him.

From the moment he saw him, Jiang Chen knew that guy was up to no good, so he was not surprised at all by the report. Jiang Chen paid for that drug purely because he wanted to waste some time and tease the liar.

As for the 530 crystals, Jiang Chen didn't take it back as he asked the captain to distribute it amongst the soldiers. The wall has yet to be built. Therefore it was tiring to stand outside in the harsh winter. With 530 crystals, everyone would at least be given five. To the soldiers without money, and prioritized being fed well and kept warm, this was a sizable amount of wealth.

Seeing the grateful captain run out of the door in excitement, Jiang Chen smiled, locked the camp door, and prepared to go to bed.

He thought the incident would be over, but it was not...

The next morning.

At the bus stop outside of the square, a shivering figure stood in the icy wind. The person would constantly look at the end of the street, and classically roll up his sleeves to look at the time. His two eyebrows were tightly locked together as if he was anxiously waiting for something.

It was like this for a while.

On the desolated street, his action was peculiar.

The soldiers patrolling at the gate watched the weird guy afar as they judged him.

Not long after, Jiang Chen, along with two soldiers in kinetic skeletons, slowly strolled over.

When he approached, he found out it was Meng Qian, the one who sold the drugs to him. Jiang Chen surprisingly raised his eyebrows as he walked towards him.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you even need to ask? I'm waiting for the bus," Meng Qian glanced at Jiang Chen who stood beside him as he said nonchalantly.

"Bus?" Jiang Chen examined him quite curiously.

"That's right, it seems to be late." Meng Qian frustratedly cursed a few times, but the man let out a sigh, tightened his collar, and prepared to leave.

"Wait, where is your cow?" Seeing he was about to leave, Jiang Chen stopped him.

"Cow? What are you even talking about?" Meng Qian turned around and looked at Jiang Chen as if he was crazy. Then he frowned as he asked back.

His eyes looked as if he was looking at a psycho.

Pretending to be dumb or really dumb? Jiang Chen's expression turned peculiar.

Instinct told him, the reaction of this guy must have something to do the with the drug from yesterday.

"Where are you planning to go?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Going to work," the person said, irritated.

"Going to work?" Jiang Chen was confused as he looked at him as a psycho as well.

"That's right, is there a problem? Fu*k, it's so late already..." After glancing at his rolled up sleeve, Meng Qian cursed as he ignored Jiang Chen and walked to the other end of the street in quick steps.

Just as the soldiers behind Jiang Chen raised their guns and prepared to stop him, Jiang Chen stopped them.

Jiang Chen thoughtfully looked at Meng Qian moving in the distance as he ordered the two soldiers.

"You two follow him first, I will be right there."

"Yes." The two soldiers saluted as they began to jog after him.

After he returned the base, Jiang Chen notified Cheng Weiguo before he equipped himself with the T-3 power armor and chased after Meng Qian.

The two soldiers following Meng Qian were both knights of the Fishbone base; they were injected with the "honorary chip" it just had a different name. Therefore, their two-dimensional coordinates will appear on the EP map as green dots.

After inputting the map's information into the full sensory screen in the power armor helmet, Jiang Chen moved at full speed to catch up with the two green dots.

The snow was thick on the highway. Jiang Chen was planning to initiate gliding mode to chase them, but because the wheels were losing grip on the ground, he had to run.

After wasting some time on the road, Jiang Chen finally arrived at the destination. However, the two soldiers were already waiting there for him.

"Where did he go?" Jiang Chen slowed his speed in front of the two as he asked.

"He went in. We were worried that we may alert them, so we didn't follow." The soldier pointed across the street.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes and looked over.

It was a small mall three floors high. There was a sign that read "Like Store" dangling from the roof. From the car wreckages in front of the entrance, this place was popular before the war. A lot of the mall's windows were sealed shut with wooden boards or other materials. The rest of them were covered by curtains.

Only the glass door of the mall was wide open.

It blocked all possibility of peeking in from the outside. At the same time, there was to blockade at the front door.

The building looking suspicious!

Jiang Chen stared at the dark entrance as he frowned. He opened the life detection device on the power armor. The waves scanned the hologram map, but when it passed through the building, there was not a single signal on the device.

From this point, there seemed to be no human activity in the mall.

Jiang Chen didn't feel too surprised by the result, he was more confident that there was something strange inside.

Although this device is effective in the modern world, which has a lower technology level, it is not so useful in the apocalypse. A lot of survivor groups, mercenaries, or raiders with a clever mind would install life detection device shields in their home to prevent their coordinates from being detected by people with ill-intention.

The guy called Meng Qian just went inside, how could there be no one inside?

"How long did he go in for?" Jiang Chen said in an undertone.

The older soldier looked at his EP. "10 minutes."

Jiang Chen thought for a moment.

[The strange hallucination drug. The merchant appeared at the camp gate out of nowhere. Is this a coincidence? But it is too much of a coincidence.]

Camp 27 has been built for only two days; the wall was not even half constructed yet. And there just happened to be a merchant that was passing by. One who was not even sure about the kind of people the group consisted of and walked over to the gate to sell products to the patrols who were holding guns? It didn't make sense.

If the soldiers had bought his drug, they would also experience hallucinations and walk into here?

When Jiang Chen thought about this, his expression turned stern but then loosened.

If they were targeting the Fishbone base, no reason not to recognize him as the general. But from the actions of the merchant, he didn't seem to recognize him. From this point alone, he shouldn't be targeting the base.

Then they must be coming for Fallout Shelter 027!

Jiang Chen's eyes began to light up as the clues in his head became more evident.

The opponent seems to have acquired the knowledge that fallout shelter 027 has opened. Then for some reason, they tried to lure the residents here. But the merchant didn't know the specifics of the plan as he was just ordered to sell the drug. So, he didn't care if they were "blue skins" or not.

It would make sense this way.

As to their intention, he would only know if he enters the building.

Jiang Chen stared at the pitch black door, as well as the window only covered in cloth and instantly had an idea.

Chapter 297: How could it be this guy?

It was unwise to enter through the front door, but Jiang Chen didn't plan to do that in the first place.

The drone can take care of the reconnaissance.

He ordered the older soldier to notify Cheng Weiguo and ask him to bring some soldiers for backup. At the same time, he ordered the younger soldier to stay by the back door of the mall to prevent people from escaping.

After doing all this, Jiang Chen took out a hummingbird drone from the storage dimension. This type of hummingbird drone was not attached to a machine gun, but rather a set of light multifunctionality reconnaissance device. It would complete any reconnaissance mission and was a convenient tool.

But Jiang Chen was not completely satisfied. After deliberating for a moment, he also attached two fist-sized sticky explosives on top of the drone as he utilized the remaining load.

After connecting the drone to the computer in his power armor, he slowly approached the mall. Then in front of the KFC, close to the front door, he threw out the disc in his hand as he controlled the drone and flew it to the third-floor window.

Without making a sound, the disc sized drone approached the cloth-sealed window as the pin camera pierced into the cloth.

Other than an office table and a row of filing cabinets, there was nothing else suspicious in the room.

After slicing a small opening in the cloth, the drone flew into the room. Underneath the window, Jiang Chen saw a round shaped landmine.

Jiang Chen felt his scalp tingling.

Good thing he didn't just flip inside, it was filled with traps.

Not only at the window but below the open door, an infrared trip mine was also hidden.

But those things were useless against a drone.

Jiang Chen skillfully controlled the drone as it flew into the deserted tunnel as he searched room by room.

Most of the rooms were empty or rather stuffed with pre-war office supplies.

But in a room at the end of the hallway, Jiang Chen saw something that looked different.

Four fridge-sized metal equipment were lined up and placed at the entrance of the door. Along with the equipment, a faint fan noise could be heard. There were computer towers? But it didn't look like that was possible.

In the middle of the room was a surgery table filled with blood. The light squeezing through the cracks of the wooden boards happened to scatter on the blood stains. A few surgical knifes were placed a rusty tray nearby. From the yet to turn black bloodstains, a surgery seemed to have occurred not too long ago.

What was more daunting was the paint in the paint can.

The content of the can was obviously not painted, but blood mixed with meat chunks and broken limbs.

"Fu*k." Jiang Chen outside of the mall cursed as his stomach turned.

These were obviously not things that belonged to a mall.

...

Just as Jiang Chen was controlling the drone to hover around the room, looking for other evidence, a sound came from the floor below.

Jiang Chen immediately controlled the drone to hover out of the room and fly down along the stairs.

After directly flying through a row of offices, the disc stopped at the door of an office.

The door was closed, but it couldn't stop the genius Yao Yao.

This girl was not only talented in programming, but she was also experienced in electronic device modification. Jiang Chen carefully controlled the hummingbird drone towards the doorknob, aimed it at the mechanical lock, and pierced the pin camera inside.

The needle followed the lock pattern inside. After making a few turns, it successfully came out on the other side.

It was dark inside the room, but there was enough light to see clearly.

There were four people inside the room, three stood up, one was on the ground.

Meng Qian was the one who was lying on the ground. The person closest to him was a bearded man. He couldn't see the face of a tall but thin man, but instinct told Jiang Chen that he was dangerous. As to the man with his back against the door, he didn't look important and must be a pawn only.

...

"Hell, why did this dumb*ss eat the drug himself, didn't I tell him not to eat it himself! What is this dumb*ss' brain made out of." The bearded man cursed as he kicked the unconscious Meng Qian.

The kick seemed to hurt Meng Qian as he woke up from unconsciousness.

When he realized that he was tied up, his eyes began to quiver in fear.

"What do we do next?" The tall and thin man carrying a fluid-shaped rifle coldly looked at the twitching Meng Qian as he said without any emotion.

"Hmm... Should we observe him for a bit longer?" The man at the door suggested.

"That seems to be the only option, at least wait till he becomes conscious again." The bearded man sighed, sat on the chair, and lit up a cigarette.

"Who are you? Why did you tie me up! God, are you crazy? Hongbo, little Du, come help me! These psychos..." Meng Qian screamed at the empty office table as he listlessly yellowed out random names.

From the reactions on their faces, the names didn't belong to anyone there.

"Who can keep this guy quiet?" The bearded man blew out a smoke ring as he said in annoyance.

Bang-!

A faint smoke rose from the rifle the slim man was holding.

Meng Qian completely quieted down. In the widens eyes, his pupils began to dilate.

Blood began to flow from the back of his head as it matched the daunting blood hole on his forehead.

The room was gravely silent.

Smoke slowly rose from the cigarette between his fingers. It froze there without moving. Then moments later a length of soot fell down.

"You... killed him?"

"That's right." The slim man said casually.

Mouth twitched, the bearded man was clearly unsatisfied with what the guy did, but for some reason, he was afraid to be angry at the slim man.

"Okay, that's good. Now we have to start over again." The bearded man slapped his thigh, threw away the cigarette in his hand, and complained while looking at his knee.

"There was no value in that garbage," The slim man said nonchalantly.

"At least we could have learned about the circumstances of that camp. Now, we won't even know if he had contact with those blue skins or not," The man standing at the door said feeling rather helpless.

Perhaps he realized the lack of consideration or extreme arrogance, but the slim man didn't resolve his companion's complaints.

After deliberating for a moment, he used an authoritative tone.

"Use mutated fly. Inject that drug into their poison bags, and then put them around the fallout shelter... I will take care of the surgery. You go find two mutated flies."

Those flies were the size of human skulls. By using barbed maggots as their attacking mechanism, they were one of the most disgusting creatures on the wasteland. Although it didn't attack that often, it carried all kinds of bacteria, which made it problematic once one was infected.

"You want it alive?" The bearded man raised his eyebrows.

"Mhmm." The person nodded.

"Are you kidding me? Capturing two mutated flies alive? Do you think they are rabbits?" Perhaps his ordering tone made the bearded man unable to withstand it any longer but he roared at the slim man.

"If you are infected with mutated bacteria, I can take care of it for you," still the same apathetic tone, the slim man responded.

The bearded man scorned, "I won't let you touch my organs. Let me tell you, our Crimson Chamber of Commerce is only a partnership with you, not your servant."

"Is this your boss's intention?"

"We help you get into the fallout shelter, and you give us the ingredients to that drug-"

"Shh." The slim man suddenly raised his finger and put it beside his lips.

The room instantly quieted down.

Jiang Chen gulped as he began to maneuver the drone to move back.

But then, an unfortunate thing happened.

Because the lock has not been oiled for a long time, when the pin camera was retracting from the lock, it made a faint sound.

"Who is there!" A loud shout came from behind the door as the man closest to the door quickly turned the doorknob and opened the door.

Knowing that he has been discovered, Jiang Chen pushed the drone's engine power to its max. Following the buzzing sound, the drone dashed into the room.

The slim man raised his gun. However, the instant Jiang Chen saw his face, he was shocked.

Lin Chaoen? How could it be this guy?

Lin Chaoen pressed the trigger. At the same time, Jiang Chen pressed the detonation for the sticky explosive.

The signal to the drone was lost. Jiang Chen raised his head to look at the second floor.

After half a second.

Boom!

Following the homing explosion, red flames scattered as it blew the wooden boards sealing the windows tens of meters away.

Jiang Chen looked at the thick snow coming out of the window and was dumbfounded.

He was lost. What show was this?

Chapter 298: Atomic Grenade

The vibration from the explosion could be clearly felt ten meters away from the Like Mall. The two sticky explosives' TNT equivalency was two kilograms. Although it didn't have any metal shards inside, the shock of the explosion could easily have shattered the organs of the three people in the room.

Since the construction of the building used technology from one and a half-century after his time, the mall that survived through the nuclear explosion didn't collapse because of the explosives.

Watching the thick smoke, Jiang Chen estimated that the people inside all died, so he took out his tactical rifle and was about to enter the mall.

But suddenly, a noisy shouting voice came from the mall.

There were more than three people inside. The explosion alerted the other people inside the building. The pawns in rifles quickly rushed to the first floor as they bumped into Jiang Chen who was about to enter the mall.

Jiang Chen was a step faster.

The tactical rifle in his hands spit out flames as he swept down three or four people during the first encounter.

However, those mercenaries dressed soldiers were not to be underestimated. When they saw they were facing a power armor, they buried their heads along the rows of hangers and passed through the flame before hiding under the nearest cover.

The rifles in their hands were not the "toys" the CIB had in their factories. To the power armor produced from the same era, it certainly posed a threat. Although the bullets were deflected off of Jiang Chen's armor and didn't penetrate through it, the high kinetic energy from the shots brought Jiang Chen agony and he was forced to retreat behind cover.

The T-3 type, after all, is an airdrop type power armor. If it was the land warfare type, with over one ton in weight, the bullets would feel more like a tickle.

"Fu*k, when I have the opportunity I'll get a land type to try." The debris that fell from the edge of the building made a loud sound when it scratched the surface of his power armor.

With his back against the wall, Jiang Chen cursed, and then took a deep breath to calm himself down. He took out five heat sensor grenades from the storage dimension and threw them towards the door.

The heat sensor grenades followed a parabola curve and landed by the cover of the mercenaries.

The grenade sudden stopped mid-air as the booster from its side adjusted its direction and flew to the heat source - a few luring bombs hidden in the corner.

Boom-!

The explosion made Jiang Chen feel relieved. He stuck his head out of the bunker, but the small explosion forced him back.

"Fu*k."

Jiang Chen cursed as he scanned the damage assessment of the power armor.

Fortunately, the bullets left only a few dents on his helmet without causing more significant damage.

Obviously, the five heat sensor grenades didn't play their role.

After all, on the wasteland, high-tech products were not rarities.

Laughter came out of the mall as a few mercenaries, at the top of their lungs, began to shout profanity at Jiang Chen.

"You only can do this? Your mom definitely pushed hard enough when you were born!"

"Hahaha! You are wearing a fu*king power armor, a chicken would be more resistant than you.

"Longtao, I didn't know you were this humourous before, haha -"

Suppressing the anger in his heart, Jiang Chen took a deep breath, as a grimacing smile appeared on his face.

The storage dimension opened, and this time, he took out a metal tube the size of a pen.

"Hide this time!"

After running out of cover, Jiang Chen threw the "pen" on the ground before quickly running in the opposite direction.

Seeing Jiang Chen escape, those mercenaries was suddenly anxious as they chased with their anti-armor weapons.

"Fu*k you, don't run-"

However, this insult didn't have time to come out before they were engulfed in an arc of explosions.

The blinding lightning flashed; the high-energy particles flowed, instantly blurring the full sensory screen in Jiang Chen's helmet. The shockwave without suspense pushed down the wall by the door, the cement blocks were blown tens of meters away from to the corner of the street.

It was not a pen, but an atomic grenade!

This stuff was made out of the 500 kilograms of uranium Jiang Chen left to Lin Lin. Outside was a layer of lead shell, while the inside was a layer of explosives used to initiate the explosion. The ink was also 1g of uranium oxide pulled into filamentous.

Just 1g of uranium oxide! With only 60% involved in the chain reaction. But even so, it had a terrifying 12 tons TNT equivalent of explosive power! Two sides of the wall on the first floor were gone, leaving two structural walls and some steel frames.

"Talk sh*t again." Jiang Chen opened the helmet as he angrily spat out on the ground. Then he put the helmet on again and started the air filtration system inside the power armor.

Even the radiation dust caused by 1g of uranium explosion still could not be underestimated. Especially in this airtight space, he must be careful the radiation doesn't surpass the threshold value.

Jiang Chen walked up and looked at the horrors of the mall. Jiang Chen couldn't help but feel speechless.

Because the actual effect was uncertain, and the uranium oxide treatment was not easy, Lin Lin only made one grenade. Surprised at its power, Jiang Chen made up his mind to convince Lin Lin to manufacture some more.

When he stepped inside the mall, he couldn't find a complete body of the clamoring mercenaries. It was hard to say from their body instantly reached boiling point or was shattered by the shockwave.

After walking over a pile of black clothes, Jiang Chen didn't even pull out his gun as he walked to the stairs.

No one can survive after this level of explosion.

However, at this time, he suddenly felt alerted. He instinctively jumped back and ignited the two pairs of turbine engines behind his back.

A faint blue light flickered, as he rapidly retreated to the door. Almost at the same time, a figure quickly jumped down from the hole in the ceiling as it mercilessly hit where he was standing.

Boom-!

Among the debris, he saw a dark blue laser sword. Along with it, was a face with half of his head shaved. Under the burned skin, mechanical parts filled his insides.

What is this thing? A digitized human?!

Jiang Chen was shocked. While he retreated rapidly he pulled out the tactical rifle from his side. That person didn't hesitate either as he dashed towards him.

"What the fu*k are you!" Jiang Chen roared as he pressed the trigger.

This person was obviously not human!

The bullets fired instantly weaved a net of fire.

The person didn't answer, the light sword in hand changed.

Like a stretched umbrella, light particles from the blade stripped forward, melting the bullets.

Looking at this scene, Jiang Chen was so scared his hair stood up.

Being able to melt steel core ammunition, the C-type steel armor would be hard to resist! Although the power armor surface was coated with a scattering coating, which would offer some resistance to laser bullets, he could not bet on the laser sword that had "continuous damage".

"Ka -"

The clip was empty!

The man did not give Jiang Chen the time to change clip, the light particles formed into a sword, as it stabbed straight at Jiang Chen.

In the moment of the clash, Jiang Chen clenched his teeth and his pupil contracted.

"Invictus!"

The ability above fury, he didn't use it since his last fight with the lead mutated human.

It felt like his entire body was submerged in cold water, all of his emotions were thrown out from his body.

Jiang Chen felt his brain was never so clear!

"Nitrogen shield."

He muttered to himself as he developed the circle on his left arm.

The violent air burst out instantly, the high-pressure nitrogen circulated, blowing away the high temperature of the light particles, and cut off the light sword touching his front chest.

Pupil reflected the parameters, Jiang Chen suddenly stepped on the broken face of the man, while extinguishing the turbine engine and used the reactionary force to stand on the ground.

The man saw the light sword lose its purpose and simply threw it aside. He then took out a dagger and dashed again.

Seeing that there was no time to change the clip, Jiang Chen threw the rifle aside and also took out his dagger by the power armor.

However, when the two daggers met, that person's blade in hand cut through Jiang Chen's like butter

Although surprised by the sharpness of the dagger, Jiang Chen did not panic as he stepped sideways to dodge the blow.

"Particle vibrating dagger?"

While murmuring to himself, Jiang Chen backed up to avoid the man's second hit.

The sound of the buzz didn't escape his ear. He heard Sun Jiao mention this thing before, but it was the first time seeing it.

It was said that this stuff could cut C-type steel like tofu.

His back was against the wall.

See Jiang Chen had no way to escape, the man with only half of his mouth smiled and swung the dagger down at him.

At the same time, Jiang Chen, seemingly out of moves, raised his left arm.

Chapter 299: A Digitalized Human? A Robot?

Screech!

The cringing screeching sound went out of tune as the broken mechanical face looked shocked.

But before he could use his electronic parts to demonstrate his surprise, Jiang Chen’s right hand already slapped onto his face as he grabbed his neck to spin him around before pressing him against the wall.

Followed by the mechanical shattering sound, the digitalized human’s jaw moved. He attempted to break loose but seeing he couldn’t, he soon gave up as his eyes glanced at the dagger pierced into his left arm.

"Wh…Why?" He pierced through the armor with that dagger but couldn’t move it out a single inch.

Jiang Chen deactivated Invictus and stared at the digitalized human with a grimace on his face.

"Obviously, it is stuck."

The instant the dagger cut through Jiang Chen's left arm armor, Jiang Chen went into overdrive and burned the entire electronic circuit on his left arm. The high temperature caused the armor to expand which resulted in the point of penetration to contrast, therefore clamping down the vibrating blade.

The particle dagger that has stopped vibrating was worse than a standard blade.

"With a normal human's reaction speed, this seems impossible," the digitalized human said.

"The power armor read the data of the dagger’s movement and calculated the distance between the blade and the armor. Then you just have to count and burn the circuit." Jiang Chen sneered.

To maximize his existing combat ability was the incredibleness of this Invictus ability.

"Abandoning the entire left arm armor? That’s brave." The digitalized human laughed as he scanned the dagger beginning to smoke.

The dagger forcefully clamped down was sent into overcapacity which meant this vibrating particle blade was also destroyed.

"Now can you be truthful? What are you?" The hand around his neck tightened as Jiang Chen threatened.

"Lin Chaoen, we met at the Sixth Street." With sparks coming from his neck, he stuttered.

Lin Chaoen paused for a moment as he narrowed his eyes.

"You are a digitalized human?"

"That’s right," Lin Chaoen said honestly as he gave Jiang Chen a hollow smile, "The fusion of technology."

"I don’t have time to listen to your bullsh*t, you have two choices now. Tell me what you know, such as the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, the Defenders honestly. Or, be disassembled by me," Jiang Chen threatened coldly.

Jiang Chen already considered Fallout Shelter 027 as part of his territory, he would not sit around when someone is plotting against his jurisdiction. On the other side, the Crimson Chamber of Commerce was his old rival, Cao Jinsong died in his hands.

But what was unsettling to Jiang Chen was the Defender, Lin Chaoen said that they were the survivors of Jia City and had the goal of an uprising against the mutated human’s reign. But as of now, the Fishbone base’s information was still blank about them.

Not knowing what the opponent thought was more fearsome than knowing what the enemy was plotting.

"I chose the latter."

"What?" Jiang Chen’s eyes contracted as he locked his sight on the mechanical pupils.

"I choose to be dissembled into parts-"

With a "bang," Jiang Chen crashed his right leg with one kick as the bent titanium skeleton came out.

"I am not joking," Jiang Chen said grimly as he increased the strength on his right hand.

"I am also not joking," Lin Chaoen said nonchalantly, he even emotionlessly shrugged. "Do you think there's any purpose in threatening a digitalized human? The cost is one hundred ten thousand crystals, if you break it I’ll just make another one-"

As he said this, smoke suddenly came out of the back of his head and he stopped moving.

Jiang Chen was stunned as he immediately ripped apart his neck, took out another tactical dagger, and cut open his metal skull.

The internal circuit had been burnt already, he chose to self-destruct.

"Dammit." Jiang Chen removed the black control chip, cursed, and then threw the chip into the storage dimension.

A digitalized human made by 100% mechanical parts?

Jiang Chen suddenly remembered Lin Lin. She is also a digitalized human, but only partially modified by electronics.

But this guy had not a single living cell, he would be more of a robot.

"The Defender? Why would they be connected with the Crimson Chamber of Commerce?"

He couldn’t find a reason. Jiang Chen shook his head as he threw the mechanical body inside the storage dimension. He’ll get the people in the fallout shelter to research it to see if they could reverse engineer the technology behind it.

But he could not fathom the thought that the mercenary he drank with was a robot.

As he thought about it, a weird chill crept into his body; he shivered.

He walked to the side and picked up the laser sword that was flung to the ground.

It looked like a flashlight with three modes to select. The handle had three words engraved on it, sword, shield, and lance. Jiang Chen didn’t get to see the third mod yet as the robot probably didn’t have the opportunity to do so.

After pressing the switch, Jiang Chen pointed the laser sword forward and changed it to lance mode.

The faint blue light flashed, but then there were no other differences.

He gently shook the sword's body as the faint blue spectrum followed his movement.

Seeing the "soft" sword body, Jiang Chen was inspired. He looked at the wall not far away as he swung the sword,

The sword broke from the middle. The broken part formed a light blade and flew to the wall.

Without making a sound, the light blade disappeared through the concrete wall.

"The far range mode of the laser sword?"

Jiang Chen muttered to himself and walked to the wall.

The light blade burnt a mark on the wall. He poked with his finger as he easily pierced the wall. Although he couldn’t feel the temperature with the power armor, from how soft the concrete was, it was not hard to imagine the intensity of the sword.

Jiang Chen looked at the energy status on the side of the sword.

"Damn, with only one swing, twenty percent of the energy was gone. No wonder that guy didn’t use this mode."

After playing with it for a bit longer, Jiang Chen threw it into the storage dimension.

Laser swords were not too useful to Jiang Chen who favored firearms. But perhaps it was a better choice to give it to other people to use, although he couldn’t think of the ideal candidate yet.

The vibrating dagger was destroyed. Jiang Chen didn’t bother with it as he walked upstairs.

When he came to the second floor, Jiang Chen walked into the half-destroyed room.

He scanned the horrific scene in the room as he couldn’t even help but feel shocked.

The wall was burnt to a crisp black color. The table and drawer were all blown to the wall by the shockwave. The three bodies were disfigured, it was impossible to tell who was who just from their appearance. Jiang Chen didn’t question that if he opened his helmet, he definitely would smell burnt meat.

From the location where their bodies were, Jiang Chen made out the "bearded man."

Jiang Chen squatted beside him as he suppressed his nauseous stomach and removed the burned EP.

Although the EP was broken, the chip inside was preserved.

"Encrypted?"

Jiang Chen looked at the password dialogue on the screen. Jiang Chen was not frustrated but somewhat happy.

Since there was a password, that must mean some dark secrets were stored inside! He was afraid that the clue would be broken at this point, as to password, Yao Yao should be able to take care of that.

After he had searched the area for a bit longer to ensure he didn’t miss anything, he walked down.

But just as he went down one flight of stairs, he heard a monstrous roar from the back of the mall as well as a terrified scream.

Jiang Chen’s face immediately changed.

That sound-

Chapter 300: The Mother of Death Claw

It was a Death Claw!

He will never forget the deadly fight above Fallout Shelter 005.

Immediately, scattered gunshots followed. Then the shooting stopped and the scream also ceased.

The scream was the knight he sent to guard the back door.

Jiang Chen's face was white, he opened the map, and the green dot at the back of the mall disappeared!

"Fu*k!"

Jiang Chen cursed as he had no time to go through the front door. Stepping on the shattered-glass window, he jumped out of the ten something meter high floor.

The turbine engine's turbulence blew away the snow as the power armor's feet smashed into the ground, leaving two spiderweb-like crack craters.

"Roar-!"

The beastly roar collapsed the snow on top of the roof. Even the steel armor on his power armor was vibrating because of the boom.

Following the trembling of the ground, something was running in his direction.

"Fu*k, this is definitely not a normal Death Claw."

But then suddenly, a name that even Sun Jiao feared appeared in his head.

Mother of Death Claw.

Jiang Chen's expression grew paler. Not even thinking about his entire left arm that has malfunctioned, even if it didn't malfunction, going head to head against a Death Claw in this terrain would be unwise. Especially if it was the Mother of Death Claw.

Without hesitation, Jiang Chen gritted his teeth and immediately opened the wheels under his feet.

The best strategy was always to leave! If I can't beat it, I can run faster than you.

But before he could move two meters, the empty spin sound came from the bottom of his feet.

"Fu*k!"

Boom!

Followed by his curse, a black shadow pierced the window beside him as it smashed half the wall down.

Jiang Chen used the corner of his eye to catch a glimpse of the shadow, it was the kinetic skeleton of the Fishbone base! But the flesh inside had been eaten clean by the Death Claw.

At the same time, the nearly two-story tall Death Claw fiercely entered the street. Being woken up from its hibernation, the desire for flesh filled every single cell in its body.

The bell-shaped eyes locked onto the pile of metal while it was still roaring - it spotted Jiang Chen in his power armor.

"This thing..." A cold sweat broke out and rolled down from Jiang Chen's forehead.

He thought he was like a one-armed fighter in the Roman Coliseum, and on the other side was a grizzly bear that's been starving for an entire winter.

He didn't choose to run. Without the wheels, he could not outrun the strong Death Claw with only two legs. With his back against this type of monster, he would only die faster.

<The Death Claw's weaknesses are only its spine and its eyes...>

Jiang Chen repeated recollected those words as he locked his eyes on the giant Death Claw and search for an opportunity.

The Mother of Death Claw also locked its sight on Jiang Chen, in the amber colored pupils flashed a bloodthirsty light.

To be honest, it didn't like the prey covered in metal, the sharp edges of the metal may cut its mouth. But it was too hungry, hungry enough to eat an entire Roshan. The previous human was not even enough to be an appetizer!

Jiang Chen's left foot moved back half a step.

The amber pupils immediately contracted, the fear of the prey stimulated the beast.

"Roar-!"

With giant strides, the Mother of Death Claw dashed at Jiang Chen. It was hard to believe its enormous body could be so agile.

But the monsters don't know, if a human wanted to run, they would step back with their right foot first.

Jiang Chen put his strength in his right knee, under both mechanical and muscle strength, his feet cracked the concrete ground! He leaped at the monster!

With the turbine engine on maximum, Jiang Chen locked its actions as he adjusted the direction of the power armor.

The five sharp claws left a shadow in the air as it flipped off two pieces of armor on the left arm.

Jiang Chen's body shook as he stabilized the balance of the power armor.

The opportunity exchanged by the malfunctioned left arm armor, was used to go behind the Death Claw.

In this intense moment, he took out his remaining sticky explosives from the storage dimension and threw it on the back of the Mother of Death Claw.

Because it was so massive, the Mother of Death Claw could not stop as it smashed forward.

"Go die!' Jiang Chen grimacingly pressed the activation button.

The scorching flame immediately blew the back of the Mother of Death Claw. The giant shockwave blew its massive body to the ground as it rolled a few times before smashing into the shop window.

Looking at the thick smoke, Jiang Chen didn't let his guard down as he raised his right arm without stopping, the revolving trident machineguns focused in on the center of the smoke.

"Roar-!"

The thunderous roar blew open the smoke. The scattered dust created a shockwave.

It smashed its chest but in the amber pupils, the tyrannical violence was only increasing.

It was enraged.

"Fu*k! Still not fu*king died," Jiang Chen pressed the trigger cursing.

Tatata-!

The bullets shredded the smoke, but it didn't manage to destroy the chest of the Death Claw.

That solid horn armor could withstand the revolving machinegun

The Mother of Death Claw covered its eyes with one claw while the other one swung in his direction.

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth to the point they were about to shatter. He maintained fire suppression while opening the turbine engine to move back.

"Spine can't be broken, bullets can't penetrate it, is this even a creature!" Jiang Chen cursed with his eyes flashing.

In the open area, he was afraid to use his interdimensional travel. It was hard to ensure that an atomic grenade wouldn't draw the attention of the nearby survivors. If he were seen, it would be a problem...

But now, was there time to care that much?

Just as Jiang Chen made up his mind to do it and avoid this thing, a deep communication voice entered his channel.

"Tiger 02 has arrived at the battlefield. General, please maintain current movement speed.."

Jiang Chen didn't have time to react when an orange light flew by his arm and penetrated the chest of the Mother of Death Claw.

It was backup sent by Cheng Weiguo.

Jiang Chen was ecstatic.

That guy brought the Tiger parked in the camp!

The four meter high Mother of Death Claw got blown away like a piece of paper as it smashed on the ground. At the same time, the sound of breaking the sound barrier slowly diffused from Jiang Chen's back.

5 kg bomb. It smashed a wheel sized blood hole on its chest. At the same time, it removed all the flesh and exposed its jagged spine.

"Is it over?"

Looking at the thick smoke, Jiang Chen mustered to himself as he felt relieved and stopped the revolving machinegun.

But suddenly, his pupils contracted.

The Mother of Death Claw twitched its limbs. Jiang Chen thought it was its last effort before death, but he shockingly found the body parts were healing.

"Tiger 02, shoot the head of the Death Claw!" Jiang Chen shouted.

"Okay General... Reloading complete... Fire."

Boom-!

Debris mixed with snow blew ten meters up into the air.

He let the concrete debris scratch his armor as Jiang Chen stared at the Mother of Death Claw.

It lost its head. The Mother of Death Claw stopped moving and made no more noise.

Jiang Chen let out a breath of relief. If it was not for the steel armor holding Jiang Chen up, he would likely be sitting on the ground by now.

"Kill confirmed, Mr. General. But please don't do something so dangerous next time. Fighting on the frontline is the duty of the knights." Although the driver was joking, the respect in his tone was not hard to identify.

With just a power armor to be able to go head to head against the Mother of Death Claw. Although Jiang Chen didn't realize it, in the bystander's eyes, he was inhumanly powerful.

"Okay, you will have plenty of chances... Before that, get Cheng Weiguo here to help me, I feel like this power armor is completely busted..."

Chapter 301: Happy Times

"Boss, I beg you, please don't play like this in the future." After moving the busted power armor, Cheng Weiguo looked at the torn left arm and said with a bitter smile.

"I am okay right? Haha." Jiang Chen forced out a few laughs.

Although he knew he was being too reckless, he would never admit it to his subordinates.

A truck drove back and picked up the body of the Mother of Death Claw.

A few soldiers who worked in a hunger team before skillfully dug out the crystals in the back of the monster's head.

After scanning the almost black, green crystals with the special device, they concluded there were a total of 290 crystals. In terms of energy, the Mother of Death Claw was at the top of the food chain, among the dangerous mutants. If it was above 300 crystals, then it must be categorized in the extreme mutant creatures category.

To normal survivors, 290 crystals were a sizable amount of wealth. But to Jiang Chen, these crystals were not enough. The half-scraped power armor cost more than 10000 crystals.

As for the body of the Mother of Death Claw, it will be taken back to the Fishbone base, submerged in Formalin for an entire month before being plugged up, and injected with concrete. The body will become a statue and will forever bow its head in the square in front of the community center. With its head being stepped under the foot of Jiang Chen in his power armor, it will be used to worship the bravery of the Fishbone leader.

Even the most dangerous species, the Mother of Death Claw, was defeated by our leader. What other hardships would hinder our march forward?

Jiang Chen had always put an emphasis on the spiritual civilization of the base. While slavery chip could control the life and death of people, it could not control their thoughts…

Fine, he didn't have such lofty thoughts, he only wanted to show off.

The body of the shredded soldier could no longer be found. The strong acid in the Death Claw's stomach would dissolve the prey, including its bones, in less than an hour. A few soldiers gritted their teeth and dragged some clothes out of it, as well as a glided knight emblem; the only two things that remained.

The torn uniform and emblem will be placed in a wooden box and buried in the Fishbone cemetery, the final destination of all knights. As to his relatives, they will be recognized as martyrs, the Fishbone base will provide for them until his children become adults.

…

It was morning when he left and already past noon when he returned.

He returned to camp 27 with the force. Jiang Chen didn't bother with anything as he ran to the cafeteria to ask the chef to cook something simple.

Although he asked for something simple, the chef definitely didn't make it simple. He used the giant pot to cook three dishes and personally put it on Jiang Chen's table.

When he smelled the aroma of food, Jiang Chen stomach became hungrier. After three consecutive battles, it certainly tired him out as he immediately started to devour the food.

When he was halfway through his meal, Jiang Chen saw Cheng Weiguo walk over so he waved at him.

"Did you eat yet?"

"Not yet, I am seeing if there are any leftovers." Cheng Weiguo forced a smile.

He dropped his chopsticks while eating as he came to Jiang Chen's rescue on an empty stomach.

"Come, lets eat together." Jiang Chen smiled.

Cheng Weiguo was flattered and didn't reject as he carried a bowl and sat across from Jiang Chen.

The two chitchatted for a moment before they returned to more serious topics.

"Did you search near the Like Mall?" Jiang Chen asked.

"We did, but we only managed to find two small sized survivor groups… No nest of the Death Claw." As he said this, Cheng Weiguo was also puzzled.

Needless to say, it should still be in hibernation. Additionally, the Mother of Death Claw doesn't normally leave its nest. Although it was powerful, it didn't really hunt prey on its own. Due to its massive body, a few swings would cost it a lot of energy. The basic pattern of this species was to take the preys that were gifted by countless of "pursuers" in exchange for mating rights. Although genetic analysis showed that the Death Claw may be some kind of mutated lizard caused by the radiation, its ethnic structure was more similar to ants.

However, near the Like Mall, no Death Claw nest existed. The Mother of Death Claw seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Needless to say, this was abnormal.

"What did the survivors say?"

"Most of them lived in the area for over ten years, they said they never saw the Death Claw before." Cheng Weiguo said.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he didn't think it was as simple as it looked.

He speculated that the Mother of Death Claw must have been lured by someone. Though he might not have be the target since it was just a coincidence he appeared there. In that case, the Death Claw must be targeting Lin Chaoen or people from the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, but he just happened to kill them first and bumped into the Death Claw.

But there was not enough information. Nothing would come to fruition just by thinking. At least he had to wait to crack the password on the EP chip before he can gain some more clue.

The only thing he was certain about now was that the two parties were fighting over something.

The Crimson Chamber of Commerce, Digitalized human, Defender, mutated human…and the Dusk, and possibly the Northern Alliance area.

Wanghai City was a place of trouble, what was hiding here?

Jiang Chen shook his head. "Let's put this aside for now, is the result of that drug out?"

When he left in the morning, when Jiang Chen told Cheng Weiguo he was heading out, he also left the drug for it to be taken to the fallout shelter for analysis.

He was curious what the drug actually was.

When he heard Jiang Chen ask about the drug, Cheng Weiguo's face also turned stern.

"The analysis results are out, it is a hallucinating agent, a banned substance before the war ."

"Banned substance?" Jiang Chen frowned.

"Mhmm, it is said that it posed a huge threat to society. This is the report." Cheng Weiguo took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Jiang Chen. "Something pretty weird."

Jiang Chen began to scan the paper.

"Happy Times. Just like the name of the drug, the person taking the drug will receive a day's length of Happy Times. The symptom was to develop hallucinations, completing taking on a role at a certain time and enjoying a happy life that didn't belong to them.

The drug gained popularity in 2151 among the low to medium income population, following the economic recession. Because the drug was not addictive in nature, it didn't draw the attention of the government agency. Until one incident, where a depressed middle-aged man was standing in the middle of the street collecting garbage cans and blocking off traffic, did it finally draw the attention of the government. Mentally addictive substances were first added into controlled substance rule…"

No wonder Meng Qian was waiting for the bus, he really was "rushing to work".

After he read to the end, Jiang Chen threw the report on the table.

"I have seen it before." Cheng Weiguo shook his head.

"Arrest them if you see people selling it. Let them know… Whatever, I will do it myself. Come back with me to the Fishbone base tomorrow." After eating, Jiang Chen cleaned up the bowls.

"Boss..."

"What?"

"Are you just going to let Fallout Shelter 027 sit around?" Seeing there was no one around them, Cheng Weiguo hesitated for a moment before he made up his mind and asked the question.

"Oh? Do you have better ideas?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"The energy rod is already transported to the camp, but I haven't handed them over yet… We can definitely use the opportunity during the handover, replace the staff with soldiers, destroy the motor in the door and capture the fallout shelter." Cheng Weiguo lowered his voice as he whispered to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen began laughing when he heard his words.

Cheng Weiguo looked at Jiang Chen feeling lost as he didn't know what was the flaw in his plan.

Jiang Chen stopped right away as he looked at Cheng Weiguo.

"What's the probability of success?"

"50%." After hesitating for a moment, Cheng Weiguo gave a conservative estimate.

Jiang Chen shook his head as he patted him on the shoulder.

"Give them the energy rod, and we will leave this place. In less than a month, this fallout shelter will be mine."

Cheng Weiguo was stunned, he didn't know where his boss found the confidence.

But from his expression, he didn't look like he was joking…

Chapter 302: Duty

Jiang Chen provided the fallout shelter with ten crystal energy rods.

This type of energy rod followed a similar design to the 100mm nuclear fusion core, except that the contents are not 1 gram of tritium used for nuclear fusion reactions, but rather 1000 crystal shards. This was also the enhanced version of the energy rod used in the power armor. The output was similar to the nuclear fusion core, but the energy input was only one-tenth of it.

These ten crystal energy rod could maintain a month of energy consumption for the fallout shelter, Jiang Chen personally sent it to the ground.

"I won’t give you the hope to store energy to pass the winter. Also, if your research speed slows down, I will decrease the energy supplies."

While handing over the ten crystal energy rods, Jiang Chen also gave them his research expectations.

Design a light armor, high mobility, and strong firepower of the self-propelled artillery, as an improved version of the Tiger. With the truck pulling the cannon, it was rather outdated. Since they have the opportunity now to upgrade to a better armor, Jiang Chen naturally would not let this opportunity go.

"Without rules restraining us, this is the most logical choice." To Jiang Chen’s threat, Han Junhua only nodded indifferently.

"Are you not going to fight for more benefits?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"There is no need." Han Junhua shook her head. "Threats can make people remain alert."

Especially since she knew that even if she demanded more, Jiang Chen would not give ground on this point.

"Haha, smart choice. But seriously, this is my first time meeting such an interesting opponent." Jiang Chen laughed before turning around and going to the elevator.

Han Junhua didn’t oppose the word opponent. She looked at Jiang Chen and calmly blinked her eyes.

"Am I really interesting?"

"Of course, not everyone can escape the shackles known as human nature and use rationality to think. I have to say, you have a talent. Are PAC’s colonels all at this level?" Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

If that was the case, then PAC was too scary.

"Does it have to do with ranking?" Han Junhua retorted.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment before he smiled. "Of course not. In other places, I have seen colonel ranked officers, and their brains are not at all this smart. Some drawn to technicals, some arrogant… I am only curious."

"Where?" Han Junhua asked a different question.

"In my backyard." Jiang Chen laughed as he said a truth that was easily misinterpreted.

Then your backyard definitely would not need to worry about survival," Han Junhua said as she automatically interpreted the backyard as the Fishbone base, and the colonel is only a rank that he freely gave out.

"You are not wrong. Although there are concerns, they are not serious." Jiang Chen nodded, but he was referring to the events in the other world.

He didn’t experience the irreconcilable economic crisis caused by the energy crisis in 2150, nor was he a social scientist that had to imagine when the two countries would become under high tension and what the situation would evolve into.

"It certainly makes people envious," Han Junhua said emotionlessly.

"Can I ask you another question?"

...

"Go ahead," Han Junhua said concisely.

"What is motivating you to go against me? The honor of a soldier? Or loyalty? But without human nature, would you need these boring things? Especially now that PAC no longer exists?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Han Junhua didn’t answer directly.

"Do you understand the word responsibility?"

"I see, makes sense."

Jiang Chen smiled as he didn’t say goodbye. He then went up the elevator.

Han Junhua watched the elevator ascend as she discretely frowned.

After returning to the surface, Jiang Chen left the defense of the base to Cheng Weiguo's support, Wang Zhaowu. He urged him to constantly maintain an eye on the fallout shelter, including communicating with the representative every other day to ensure Xu Lu and other staffs were safe.

Wang Zhaowu was first puzzled by Jiang Chen’s order, because as of now, the troops stationed here lived rather harminously with the blue skins. But Jiang Chen didn’t explain the situation as he repeatedly cautioned him.

"If the elevator malfunctions or anything unusual happens that prevents the surface from contacting the underground, contact me directly…"

"Yes, general!" While still puzzled, Wang Zhaowu didn’t ask any questions.

Jiang Chen nodded as he was pleased with his attitude.

"Keep an eye personally, don’t let other people know."

After those last words, Jiang Chen left the command center of the troops stationed at the camp and walked to the empty ground.

One-fourth of the wall’s construction had been finished and an estimate of one week before the main structure could be completed. The Fishbone base soldiers had searched the entire Songjiang terrain in the past few days and didn’t find any strong raider groups.

Although there were three unknown military forces with sizes similar to the Huizhong Mercenaries they wiped out, the current force of the Fishbone base no longer needed to worry about those small fishes. Based on the consideration of decreasing possible things from going wrong, before the wall is completed, Jiang Chen had already notified Wang Zhaowu not to bother with them.

After he ordered the soldiers already lined up in the middle of the camp, Jiang Chen and Cheng Weiguo walked to the gate.

"Old Cheng, let’s make a bet?"

After Jiang Chen got in the car, he abruptly said as he looked at the camp 27's gate.

"Haha, boss, you are funny. Other than the few packs of cigarettes, I have nothing to bet with you." Cheng Weiguo laughed.

Food, everyone knew Jiang Chen didn’t lack food.

When he heard his subordinate’s words, Jiang Chen paused before he started to laugh along.

"Ahem, speaking of this, I have been considering a problem recently.

Cheng Weiguo immediately put on a serious face when he heard his leader discuss serious matters.

"You don’t need to be so serious, I am only asking you for your opinion." Jiang Chen shook his head as he took out two cigarettes from his pocket and passed one to Cheng Weiguo while he lit one for himself. "What do you think about the living conditions of the survivors in the Fishbone base?"

He had been considering, now that the Fishbone base has been growing in size, if he should open a market? For example, providing salary and use the salary to purchase food from the base.

But Cheng Weiguo didn’t think that far. He just thought the boss was so considerate of the subordinates and replied gratefully.

"Everyone is warm and full, they are living a great life."

Jiang Chen smiled as he realized the question from his perspective would yield the same answer from anyone, so he didn’t ask anymore.

"Boss, what is the bet that you wanted to make?" Cheng Weiguo asked.

Jiang Chen laughed, stuck the cigarette out the window, and dusted the ash off in the direction of camp 27’s gate.

"Within one month, without firing a single bullet, this fallout shelter will belong to me."

.....

After finally sending away the "Plague god", she returned to the fallout shelter. Han Junhua felt relieved.

She didn’t know if it was her illusion, but she felt that the way he looked at her was different.

Weird, it didn’t feel like hostility.

But rather, mockery?

Han Junhua shook her head as she passed through the arch door and walked to her office.

Without surprise, a discontent middle-aged man stood at the door.

"Since we already acquired the power, why don’t we immediately restore the supply levels back to normal?"

"The supply levels will be restored to normal gradually, but it will favor the researchers," Han Junhua said emotionlessly.

"Why?" Wu Yaguo questioned.

"Because we are working for other people." Han Junhua didn’t stop as she walked around Wu Yaguo and opened the office door.

When the fallout shelter was closed, everyone’s work was relaxed. A lot of people didn’t even need to work. The production system was highly automated, as long as there was energy, there would be food and water. In an enclosed society there was no competition. The sluggish work habit has become rooted in everyone in the past twenty years. Although a lot of people were highly intelligent, it would be hard for the knowledgeable but lazy people to meet the research speed required by the base.

Since the energy stored in and the amount consumed by the fallout shelter was clear, the Fishbone base’s energy source was not without a price. With their previous egalitarian ways, it would allow everyone to "die" in their lazy ways.

"Who made all this!" Han Junhua’s indifferent attitude triggered Wu Yaguo. He angrily reached out his hand to grab her shoulder.

But before his hand could touch her should, a sharp pain came from his leg as his vision blurred. He was slammed to the ground.

A gun was pointed at his head as Han Junhua casually let go of the hand holding onto his arm.

"From now on, the fallout shelter assembly is dissolved. I use the power of the leader to retract any of the permissions given to the residents by the former leader.

"Okay, Miss Han Junhua."

A robotic voice came from the speaker above. The control terminal of fallout shelter 027 granted her decision.

"You, you can’t do that." Wu Yaguo’s face turned pale.

"But I can." After putting away her pistol, Han Junhua walked into the office and closed the door.

The energy crisis was solved, and the residents’ mood returned to normal. It was time to clean up the mess.

Han Junhua saw Academician Qin standing in front of her desk.

"Is there something you need?" She said concisely as she sat back in her chair.

"Mhmm, I heard… You sent leader Zhang’s daughter as the ambassador to be stationed at the Fishbone base," Academician Qin hesitated for a moment and said slowly.

Zhang Yuzhu, that seemed to be her name. The baby that the former fallout shelter leader made an exception for.

"Mhmm, she is righteous, and her personality is bright. Since she was born in the fallout shelter, she has no impractical thoughts, and is fitted for this job." It was enough to make a mistake just once, she already made the mistake of sending Shi Yongtian to the surface as the communicator.

The people that experienced the prosperity from before the war, when they see the survivors suffering among the ruins, it was hard to ensure they won’t sprout the mentality of feeling superior. But for the people that were born in the fallout shelter, they truly longed for everything on the surface, they won’t mind if it was all in ruins or not.

If they could gain the friendship of the Fishbone base and peacefully integrate fallout shelter 027 while maintaining a certain status, it would be the best scenario Han Junhua could think of.

Seeing that Academician Qin didn’t leave, Han Junhua stopped working and raised her head.

"What else?"

"Mhmm, here is a letter… My old friend asked me to give it to you." Academician Qin gave her the slightly crumped letter.

Han Junhua glanced at the name as she took it.

"Why do you give it to me now?" As she opened it, she said nonchalantly.

"Because I think it is more appropriate now…"

The hands holding the letter trembled. Han Junhua took a deep breath as she hid the grief behind a mask.

The grief to duty.

Chapter 303: It's only an illusion

In a place three thousand meters below Wanghai city, an odd-shaped fallout shelter was buried.

The reason why it was odd was that there was no living area, nor ventilation equipment. Only the mechanical parts that sparkled occasionally and the light that came on and off.

And because of this, in the surrounding five hundred square meters, it was filled with ozone.

Along the outskirts of the room was a ring of hibernation chamber devices. However, a closer examination would indicate that it was not a traditional hibernation chamber because there was no sign of ice shards on the glass surface. Inside the chamber was not ultra-low temperature, but inert gas. It was obviously not preserving humans, but robots.

A central computer stood in the middle of the room. Under the black screen was a cylindrically shaped culture tank and a human brain was floating inside of it. The bottom of the central computer was connected to various wires of different sizes, which led to each facility inside the fallout chamber.

The brain was like a spider in the middle of the spider web, controlling everything attached to it.

The fallout shelter was not the property of the PAC because it was not included in the serial code. Precisely speaking, it didn’t belong to any government organization, it was a completely privately funded personal fallout shelter.

Lin fallout shelter was its name.

Before the war, the rich building a fallout shelter for themselves was nothing surprising. Although this fallout shelter was strange.

Suddenly, the light below a hibernation device lit up and laminated the dormant enclosure.

"No. 04 lost… activate backup parts."

"Pshhh-"

The sound of gas leaking diffused from the edges of the hibernation chamber, and the door slowly opened.

A man slowly opened his eyes, waking up from hibernation.

The dim light reflected on his face.

That man was Lin Chaoen, the one that got his head pulled off.

At the same time, the screen of the central computer also lit up.

A white-haired, kind but authoritative face appeared in the middle of the screen. He looked at Lin Chaoen as the elder man in the screen slowly said, "Do you know what to do now?"

"Of course," Lin Chaoen’s one knee was on the ground as he said respectfully, "Father."

The elder man nodded.

"Then go."

Lin Chaoen got up. "Father, a group known as the Dusk entered Jia city. With their disturbance, the coalition of rebels we built suffered heavy losses, should we do anything about this?"

"No need to bother about the escapist, they are just grasshoppers," the elderly man said.

No matter how high they jump, they are still only grasshoppers. Although they have some foresight compared to ordinary survivors, that’s all.

Even if those fools hindered his plan, to a cold machine, it had no concept of "revenge". The iron law of the machine was to choose the method with the highest efficiency.

Lin Chaoen nodded.

"What about that Jiang Chen?"

When he heard the name, the old man had a rare silence.

"Keep an eye on him."

"Yes." Lin Chaoen nodded before he left.

…

The tightened supply policy finally ended as all the residents of fallout shelter 027 felt relieved.

It was an insufferable time that no one should ever experience. They couldn’t take a shower, couldn’t eat till they were full and were only able to receive one hour of light a day. There was good news, but also certainly bad news.

First, a research team was formed.

All the talents specializing in military technology and mechanics were gathered together. They said they were going to select a group of researchers to design a tank called Tiger II.

No one was willing to do it. Research cost a lot of energy. Their work schedule before was only an hour a day, but once they participate in the research, they would have to work more than eight hours. It was torture! Only fools would do it.

But soon after, they were all fighting for a spot.

Because the newly enacted supply policy started to favor researchers. Only the people on the research team could enjoy organic food. Not only that, the soilless farm in the fallout shelter would start producing coffee, tea, and other luxuries, but these luxuries will only be available to researchers.

There was a finite amount of supplies.

Therefore, the supplies given to people with no work were starting to become limited.

At the same time, current positions in the fallout shelter will start to execute a cruel performance elimination system.

The researchers were immediately motivated to work. There were a lot of talents in the fallout shelter, no one wanted to lose such a nice job.

But on the contrary, negative public opinion became apparent.

Since there were limited work positions, before the fallout shelter can earn more research projects, only a few people can enjoy the benefits. The majority of the people at the shelter can only conduct labor-intensive work or no work at all.

No one wanted to drink plain nutrient supplies every meal, such food made their stomachs upset after having too many. Of course, such lavish thoughts would only exist in fallout shelters.

The residents were extremely discontent, but immediately Han Junhua did another horrifying thing.

She removed the resident representative and dissolved the resident assembly!

It was no different than announcing a dictatorship.

"That bit*h had no rights to that! Performance elimination? God, the person that should be eliminated, is her! Look what she did after she took over!" A rather muscular resident wiped off the sweat from his forehead, opened up, and complained to the resident who was also wiping the floor.

He selectively ignored the fact that as the leader, she could only distribute the existing supplies, not create supplies out of thin air.

"Shh. Don’t let the security team hear this." The resident eyed him as he lowered his voice.

It would be impossible to say they don’t miss the old leader. At least the old leader didn’t make them wipe the floor four times a day. What’s the purpose of this? She was not a clean freak before.

"Who cares? That bit*h always has a bit*hy face. Do you think she would care how the skunks like us at the bottom view her?" The person cursed.

At this time, a girl in a white dress walked over.

"Are you thirsty?"

Xu Lu smiled at the two as she leaned down shaking the bottle in her hand.

The two men were lost for a moment before an awkward expression appeared on their faces.

They were supposed to display their noble gesture in front of this lady, but they were cursing "bit*h" constantly.

Xu Lu saw through the awkwardness, smiled, and magically took out two cups and poured some water for them.

"Here, drink some water."

"Ah, th…thank you." The two thanked her with embarrassed faces as they took the cups quickly.

After chugging all the water in the cup, the muscular man was stunned as he had a shocked expression on his face. The other person drinking coughed as he almost choked.

"This, this is… honey water?"

"That’s right, does it taste good?" Xu Lu grinned.

"Ye…yes." The thinner man wiped his mouth with his sleeve and graciously looked at Xu Lu.

"There is more. Drink slowly, there's no need to rush… You are labor workers and spend a lot of energy working, it is good for the body to drink something sweet," she said softly as she poured more honey water.

Just like an angel.

The way the two looked at her was filled with admiration.

"Thank you, this is troubling you too much." The muscular man couldn’t stop thanking her.

"Speaking of this, I have seen you at the embassy office." The thinner resident straightened his back and looked at Xu Lu, puzzled, "I remember that supplies on the surface were not ample…"

"Yang Lin, what do you mean?" The muscular resident stared at the thin man.

"Brother Hao, I don’t mean anything, I am just curious." Yang Lin forced a smile as he comforted Zhao Hao’s attitude.

This guy was drawn to her at first sight.

Compared to the more straightforward friend, while Yang Lin was grateful, he was a bit more rational.

"These are all misconceptions," Xu Lu lowered her head as she said with pity. "This is the purpose of me being here. I hope through my work, it can resolve the misconception between us."

It seemed to be the case since no one actually went to the surface before and were all listening to the elaborate stories told by Han Junhua.

Who knows if she is just using the outside being dangerous as an excuse to create class conflicts in order to solidify her dictatorship?

As Yang Lin thought about this, he began to question himself.

He previous maintained a neutral attitude towards Han Junhua. However, now he began to lean towards the opposite side.

Did the Fishbone people really come with the purpose of war? Did the energy in the base fall to the point where they had to limit supplies? … The leader never explained any to the people.

As to the details of the negotiation, they only knew the result.

Different from the perplexed mind of Yang Lin, Zhao Hao was simply cursing the dictator in his mind.

Compared to this angel, she was bad to the bone…

"Sorry to take so much time for you, my free time is now over." Xu Lu put away the bottle, smiled, and waved at them.

"No, no bother at all," Zhao Hao rushed to say.

But before his voice died down, the door at the corner opened.

"People inside, what are you doing!"

The security force walked in, in quick steps. They stood in front of Xu Lu as they scanned the three of them.

"What did she ask you?" The security force looked at Yang Lin.

Before Yang Lin opened his mouth, Zhao Hao began to ridicule coldly.

"She asked if our work is difficult or not. She did the job of what your boss is supposed to do."

The security force stared at him, didn’t say a word, and then looked at Xu Lu.

"Please make your surveying along with us, please cooperate with our work."

"Of course."

Xu Lu smiled. Then she let the soldier follow behind her as she walked to the other end of the hall.

"Are you crazy? If you get on the wrong terms with the security force, are you not afraid you may lose your job?" Yang Lin dragged his friend closer as he lectured in a low voice.

But Zhao Hao didn’t say a word as he blankly watched Xu Lu leave.

"Yang Lin, do you believe in angels?"

"What?"

"She is my angel."

"Is your brain not working?" Yang Lin ridiculed him.

Although he said that, Yang Lin couldn’t deny the beauty of the ambassador.

Her beauty came from not only the surface but also the soul.

Especially in contrast with a particular person, her beauty was blinding.

But what the two didn’t know was.

It was only a façade…

Chapter 304: The Snow of Dusk

When the fleet returned to the base, it was already dusk.

Jiang Chen didn’t go with Cheng Weiguo to eat in the community center cafeteria. Instead, he returned straight to the mansion.

Right after he put his winter suit on the clothing rack, Sun Jiao walked up to him with complaint written on her face.

"Why do you have a straight face, don’t you miss me?" Jiang Chen with a smirk on his face put his arms around Sun Jiao’s waist and his lips near her ear.

Sun Jiao’s face turned red, but then she quickly raised her eyebrows as she gently bit Jiang Chen's ear in revenge.

"What did you do outside?"

"Ahem, I promise to god I didn’t do anything bad in the past three days," Jiang Chen said exasperatedly.

He was becoming more and more courteous.

When she heard Jiang Chen’s words, Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at him.

"I am not talking about that," as she said this, worry returned to her face, "Can’t you be more careful… You are the leader of a force. This is not the stone age, no general led the charge."

She was talking about that.

Jiang Chen face looked rather embarrassed as he looked away scratching his nose.

"Uh, I will be careful."

The battle with the Mother of Death Claw was in a dire situation. If he knew it was a hornet's nest, he would not find trouble himself.

"You said that last time to me. A fight with the Mother of Death Claw, are you crazy? If you die…" Sun Jiao bit her bottom lip as tears began to swell up.

Jiang Chen sensed her deep care as he felt warm on the inside. He hugged Sun Jiao apologetically as he comforted her.

"Don’t say something so ominous, I am fine aren’t I?"

Sun Jiao let Jiang Chen hug her as she pouted her mouth and put her chin on his shoulder. Then she spoke into his ear.

"Then absolutely be careful next time."

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen said sincerely as he hugged the warm figure.

"Also…" As she spoke, her face suddenly turned a burning red as she displayed a rare coyness.

"Also?"

"It is nothing, but you always do such dangerous things…" Sun Jiao buried her head.

"How about…" The red lips trembled because of her shyness. Her faint voice played a seductive mumble, "How about, next time when we do that, let’s not use the contraceptive needle…"

Sun Jiao clearly didn’t know the impact those words would have on a man as Jiang Chen’s stomach immediately felt heated.

"Honey, I…"

"Don’t say anything."

...

With a finger on his lips, Sun Jiao opened her mouth and drew out the silent but seductive words, "Kiss me."

Jiang Chen couldn’t hold back any longer. One hand held onto the long and athletic leg, while the other hand wrapped around her waist as he pinned her against the sofa in the living room.

But then, Jiang Chen was stunned as an awkward expression crept onto his face.

On the second floor, Sun Xiaorou, sitting in her wheelchair, grinned at the loving couple.

"Haha, don’t mind me." The devil-like smile was too similar to Sun Jiao's.

How would he not mind?

With her sister seeing the embarrassing scene, Sun Jiao couldn’t stand it any longer as she instantly jumped out and escaped from Jiang Chen’s hug.

"Sorry for making you replace my sister in accompanying me." Sun Xiaorou sitting in the wheelchair, turned her head, and naughtily blinked her eyes.

The dusk light stretched out their shadows.

Jiang Chen pushed Sun Xiaorou along the small road in the back garden of the mansion.

After Sun Jiao ran away, he was about to run away too because he didn’t know how to face her. The her now was obviously different from the her before, and he did take her first time away from her… It may be confusing to explain it this way, but the emotions in his mind perhaps were more confusing than this.

But Sun Xiaorou stopped him as she asked him to help her down the stairs.

Because he could not say no to the cute and impossible to refuse eyes, the soft-hearted Jiang Chen came back and brought her downstairs.

Then we got to this point where Jiang Chen has replaced Sun Jiao, who ran away, and was taking her for a walk in the backyard.

Although Sun Xiaorou herself could walk with this voice-controlled wheelchair, in a complex environment, it was more convenient to have someone beside her. Especially since it was not easy to explain the direction she wanted to go in the first place.

Jiang Chen gently breathed out a cloud of mist. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "It’s okay… I have always wanted to apologize to you."

"Why do you need to apologize to me?" Sun Xiaorou blinked her eyes. "I almost killed you and the person you love. Then because of your anger, you took revenge as I didn’t want to confess. Or rather… I should thank you for not killing me.

Jiang Chen paused for a second and after a while, he smiled.

"Thank you."

Whether or not she really meant it, when he heard she didn’t hate him, it made Jiang Chen feel better.

Sun Xiaorou gently blinked her eyes as she didn’t continue on with the conversation, but quietly stared at the snow along the tiny path.

"Are you better now?" Jiang Chen stared at the peacefulness shown on the side of her face as he gently asked.

Sun Xiaorou’s mouth curved up. "What area? If it is the body, I can’t move below the shoulder."

Based on what Lin Lin has said, with her current condition, the brain damage was more problematic than nerve damage. The nerve on her back did not suffer any damage nor was there any abnormalities in her body condition; she just couldn’t move her body parts below the shoulder. It felt as if she has "forgotten" how to use her arms and legs.

It was a problematic condition. Whether it was in the Fishbone base or the Sixth Street, there was no medical equipment could conduct brain repair surgery. But Jiang Chen already used the Fake Legs Bar to put up a reward. Whoever obtains a complete set of surgical equipment would receive 5000 crystals.

With such a high reward, eventually, this problem will be solved.

"Uh, spiritually."

It was a weird way to ask this question. As to why he asked the question, Jiang Chen was also not quite sure.

Her black hair fell to her side as Sun Xiaorou titled her head, "Why would you ask that?"

"Because your memory returned right? … Ah, it is too intrusive to ask this in such a way, just pretend I didn’t ask the question." Jiang Chen forced a smile.

Hearing this, Sun Xiaorou only smiled.

"How do you think I should be?"

Jiang Chen was about to say 'Remove the brainwashed part and become the sister of Sun Jiao', but that sentence was stuck in his throat.

Sun Xiaorou watched the sunset in the distance as she continued.

"There have been two figures fighting in my mind to take control of my body. One being the religious me, the other being the sister me. It’s weird to say it this way right?" Sun Xiaorou turned around to look at Jiang Chen as she timidly smiled.

"No… Not weird." Jiang Chen shook his head and stared into her eyes while waiting for her to continue.

"To be honest… I have been thinking a lot in the past few days. Regardless which me it is, they are all me."

"But that you was brainwashed-" Jiang Chen couldn’t help but state.

"What exactly is being brainwashed?"

Jiang Chen couldn’t interpret the meaning behind those words. He didn’t answer as he just looked at her, puzzled.

"For humans to live in this world, they are constantly receiving an external signal. A ray of sunshine, a breeze of wind, the occasional snowstorm, words of advice... How do you determine what is brainwashed?"

"Then you are…"

"Perhaps the two personalities meshed together. Maybe that is easier to understand."

Sun Xiaorou blinked as she said playfully.

It was hard to imagine, as the victim, she could have such a bright smile.

"Do you hate those people? Since they were the ones that used the chip to lock your memory," Jiang Chen asked.

Sun Xiaorou shook her head and once again looked at the sunset in the distance.

The deep red was no longer blinding, it looked like a torch about to extinguish.

"What’s after dusk?"

Jiang Chen followed the direction Sun Xiaorou was looking as he gazed at the orange color. He thought for a moment as he gently said.

"It’s night."

Sun Xiaorou nodded and said while gazing at the setting sun.

"That’s right… They are just a bunch of petty people."

The religious firmly believed in the doomsday of the earth’s civilization. The promise to stay away from the fallen sun, the effort of spending their entire life creating the ark that will carry the new civilization away from the wasteland, into the endless night.

Even if the mission they had given their all to was successful, would the future waiting for them be the dawn?

Pitiful people. Why hate the pitiful people.

Chapter 305: Are you not going to feed me?

After pushing Sun Xiaorou back into the mansion, the sun had already gone down.

The adorable Yao Yao finished cooking the dishes, and she and Lin Lin brought the delicious dishes to the table. Sun Jiao, on the other hand, carried the heavy burden of searching for people.

But she was not as successful as she had thought. Sun Jiao searched through the mansion without finding the missing Sun Xiaorou and Jiang Chen. She even went into the basement. Perhaps because the withered leaves blocked her vision, but, through the window, she didn’t see the two people in the backyard taking a walk.

Seeing the two people harmoniously show up in the living room, suspicion flashed across Sun Jiao’s face as her eyes moved between the two.

"What… happened between you two?"

"Ahem, can you not ask this so weirdly?" Jiang Chen facepalmed.

"Uhh, I just feel the air between you two is a bit odd," with a hand on her chin, Sun Jiao said.

"Then it must be your illusion," Jiang Chen ridiculed.

"We only took a walk in the backyard, chatted for a while, and there is nothing more to the story," Sun Xiaorou blinked and told her sister.

Although still suspicious, to her own sister, Sun Jiao had complete trust.

Since she chose to believe her sister, Sun Jiao nodded and spoke to Jiang Chen.

"Okay… Let’s not talk about this, for now. Go eat. I’ll send Sun Xiaorou upstairs and feed her the nutrient supply, and then I’ll come down."

Sun Jiao walked to Sun Xiaorou as she was about to take over.

"Sister, are we going to sleep together tonight?" Sun Jiao blinked her eyes as she asked her sister with a pure face.

Sun Jiao thought about Jiang Chen and how she was going to have "unprotected sex". She was about to say no when she realized the joking smile on her sister's face.

Sun Jiao’s face immediately turned red as she gave her a dirty look.

"You are making fun of your sister. I am not going to feed you."

"Wooo, sister, I’m sorry. Spare me," Sun Xiaorou batted her eyes as she jokingly acted coy.

"Beg your brother-in-law."

Sun Jiao made a fierce face before she returned to the kitchen.

Watching Sun Jiao leave, Jiang Chen had a joyful smile.

From that night on, she was a lot more cheerful.

"Ahhh… I accidentally made sister mad, so I’ll have you trouble you in bringing me to the second floor." Looking at Jiang Chen, Sun Xiaorou naughtily stuck out her tongue.

"No problem." Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile. He held onto the wheels as he easily lifted the wheelchair and Sun Xiaorou on top.

"Speaking of which, you sisters have a really good relationship," Jiang Chen said after putting the wheelchair down on the second floor.

A red hue appeared on Sun Xiaorou’s face as she lightly closed her eye.

"Mhmm! That’s because… we are the only family left. Therefore…"

Then, she opened her eyes as she naughtily looked at Jiang Chen. "Therefore, please make my sister happy."

"Of course."

As Jiang Chen laughed, he rolled her back to her room.

Sun Jiao was the first person he met in this world and the first woman of his life. Regardless, he will make her happy.

After going into Sun Xiaorou’s room, under her direction, Jiang Chen took out a box from the top drawer.

Compared to the E-level nutrient supply that most survivors drink, the A-level nutrient supply made with fruit, vegetable and animal proteins didn’t taste too terrible. But to use fresh food to create nutrient supply, only Jiang Chen could be this lavish.

"Are you really not going to eat with us? Yao Yao’s cooking is great," Jiang Chen said.

Although she couldn’t use her hand, if someone fed her, she could still eat.

Sun Xiaorou smiled, "If I eat, it is going to be really troublesome. I would need a urine straw when I need to go to the washroom if I want to do number two... it would be really inconvenient."

Towards the end of her sentence, Sun Xiaorou’s face was burning.

Jiang Chen also looked embarrassed as he looked away.

He seemed to have asked an inappropriate question…

After taking out the tubular nutrient supply, Jiang Chen opened the cap, but then, his hand froze in midair.

Sun Xiaorou gently closed her eyes with her slightly opened red lips raised. The red vibrancy could be faintly seen through her lips.

"Are you not going to feed me, brother-in-law?" Seeing that Jiang Chen hasn't moved, Sun Xiaorou opened one eye and playfully giggled.

Jiang Chen gulped as he put the test tube beside Sun Xiaorou’s mouth.

Maybe because Jiang Chen had no experience in taking care of people, or he ignored the thickness of the nutrient supply.

The speed he poured the nutrient supply was faster than the speed Sun Xiaorou could drink. Her eyebrows were slightly raised as her frail throat made a feeble gulping sound.

"Cough, cough-"

"Are you okay? "

Jiang Chen immediately stopped.

But then he noticed the thick liquid dripping from Sun Xiaorou’s mouth, her throat gulping, and the pure expression…

This is too evil! Jiang Chen felt embarrassed for his sick minded thoughts.

"It’s okay. Brother-in-law’s action was bit aggressive…" Finally gulping down the thickness in her mouth, Sun Xiaorou smiled.

"Uh, I’ll go get your sister to feed you." To hide himself from being hard, Jiang Chen closed his legs discreetly as he awkwardly smiled.

"No." The pouted mouth immediately turned up. Sun Xiaorou used her coy eyes to look at Jiang Chen. "Brother-in-law, I am hungry."

This devil…

Jiang Chen suppressed himself as he fed the remaining nutrient supply to her. With a conflicted but turned on mood, Jiang Chen was about to leave.

Looking at Jiang Chen’s back, Sun Xiaorou gently said, "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Mhmm? Of course…" Jiang Chen stopped and turned his head.

Sun Xiaorou motioned for him to come closer. [Was it necessary? There is no one here.]

Even if he thought that, Jiang Chen still followed her wish and put his ear beside her mouth.

Feeling the gentle breath beside his ear, he felt a tingling sensation.

Sun Xiaorou’s face was burning, she took a deep breath as a smirk appeared on her face, "If sister becomes pregnant, I can help you. Although I can’t move my body…"

When she was in the living room, she heard the conversation between Jiang Chen and her sister. Whatever was going on in her mind, she said these words naughtily.

Like she had expected, Jiang Chen’s expression immediately froze as he was in dismay.

"Girl, what are you thinking." Jiang Chen didn’t know what to say as he pinched her nose before escaping in panic.

Watching the door close, the corner of Sun Xiaorou’s mouth curved up as she softly closed her eyes.

She savored the sweetness in her mouth as her face flushed red.

"Such a gentle person…"

Although she knew it was not right to tease the person her sister liked.

But such a good character made people...

The urine straw below the wheelchair had one centimeter of transparent liquid come out.

From its color, it was definitely not urine.

Chapter 306: Almost The Wrong One

When Jiang Chen came downstairs to the dining room, Sun Jiao and the rest had already started to eat.

Just from the dishes on the table, he did not feel the atmosphere of the apocalypse at all. Especially the dark red pig trotters, just from the looks of it made Jiang Chen eager to eat as he walked to the table.

Perhaps she had been used to Yao Yao’s delicious cooking, Sun Jiao’s etiquette was more delicate compared to when she first met Jiang Chen. Looking at her eating calmly in small portions, Jiang Chen could not see the old bold girl that would not even leave behind the soup in the can.

But Lin Lin, on the other hand, was devouring through the dishes without any signs of decency. She completely ignored the late Jiang Chen. The way she ate was as if she wanted to make up for all the food she missed over the last twenty years.

When she saw Jiang Chen walk over, the nice Yao Yao filled Jiang Chen’s bowl full of rice and poured him a bowl of steamy lotus roots and pork ribs soup.

Jiang Chen rubbed Yao Yao’s hair as he smiled. "I can do it myself."

With Jiang Chen’s big hand rubbing her head, a soft smile appeared on Yao Yao’s adorable face.

"The lotus roots soup is great. Also, if you drink it in the winter, your stomach will feel warm."

"Mhmm! Yao Yao’s cooking is great," Jiang Chen praised her.

The small loli timidly smiled as she buried her blushed face down.

"Loli lover," Lin Lin and Sun Jiao focusing on their food both murmured in a quiet voice.

These two ridicules obviously didn’t escape the suspect’s ear.

Jiang Chen helplessly looked at Sun Jiao and Lin Lin as he defended innocently in his mind.

[Am I that much of an animal…]

After dinner, Jiang Chen went to Yao Yao’s room as he gave the task of cracking the EP memory chip to the little girl.

When she heard she could help big brother out again, Yao Yao energetically took over the memory chip in Jiang Chen’s hand, raised her not so full chest, and promised Jiang Chen she would complete the task.

Jiang Chen was pleased when she saw the enthusiasm from Yao Yao.

Compared to the Lin Lin, who constantly demand pudding, the willing Yao Yao was almost like an angel.

…

The night was dark. Sun Jiao sneaked out of bed.

Sun Jiao looked at her sister’s peaceful face as a proud smile appeared on her face.

She wore thin as veil pajamas. Sun Jiao quietly walked to the door, sneaked out of the bedroom. and gently closed the door.

But not long after, the door opened again.

A figure clearly not Sun Jiao sneaked inside.

With the creek of the door waking Sun Xiaorou up, she opened her eyes and watched the man walk beside the bed.

"Where is your sister?" With excitement, Jiang Chen lowered his voice and asked.

"She is sleeping in her own room," with lips unnoticeably curved up, Sun Xiaorou mimicked Sun Jiao’s voice.

It has to be mentioned that the sisters’ looked really similar. The slight difference was faded by the blurry night. What was more troubling was that they were not only similar in appearance, but also in voice.

As long as she lowered her voice and added a hint of maturity to the light and soft tone, they didn’t sound very different.

When Jiang Chen heard Sun Xiaorou was not there to disturb them, Jiang Chen was naturally ecstatic.

With a smirk, he approached her ear and gently breathed in while using an intimate tone.

"Tonight, I will c*m in you until you are pregnant."

With face burning, Sun Xiaorou’s lips trembled as she couldn’t say a word.

The sheet was lifted as she felt something sneak inside. At the same time, she felt something press her chest tightly.

She lightly moaned as she felt the warmness on her chest. However, Sun Xiaorou slightly frowned.

When he usually did it with her sister, was he always so direct?

For some reason, she impulsively wanted to play with fire.

If she didn’t remind Jiang Chen and continued to pretend like this, when would he figure out that she was not her sister?

The thing that happened in the basement, followed by the fusion of her memories made it fade out of her mind. She just faintly remembers that with rough force, he took away her first time.

The intimate thought circled her mind as it lured her. Since my first time was taken away by him, a second time would be okay…

But just as she closed her eyes, preparing to let the story develop further, the warmness surrounding her chest retracted.

"You… are not Sun Jiao?" He pulled his hands away as he asked awkwardly.

Although it was impossible to tell with the lights off.

But the chest was clearly not right!

Sun Jiao was at least a 36D, but those seemed to be only a bit bigger than a B.

Seeing she could no longer pretend, Sun Xiaorou giggled. "That’s right, brother-in-law."

…

Someone knocked on the door.

With bear pajamas, Yao Yao rubbed her blurred eyes and walked to the door in her rabbit slippers.

"Woo? It’s late, is there something wrong?"

Sun Jiao suspiciously scanned Yao Yao’s neat clothes a few times.

"Is Jiang Chen not here?"

"I wish he was here." Yao Yao pouted her mouth as she threw a small tantrum.

To Sun Jiao "occupying" big brother, the small loli was never too happy about it. They had discussed before that they must "feed" the big bad guy to make sure he stays on this side. But now, the delicious "ribs" were all "eaten" by sister Sun Jiao. As the small animal, she couldn’t even drink the soup.

Sun Jiao didn’t realize Yao Yao’s tantrum as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Where did he go? Could it be… Lin Lin? Eh? Where are you going?" Looking at the small loli suddenly going downstairs, Sun Jiao was puzzled.

Yao Yao turned around and nodded seriously. "Just in case, let’s go check Lin Lin’s room."

Sun Jiao didn’t know why Yao Yao all the sudden was more keen on this than herself as they went downstairs.

Not long after, the furious roar of Lin Lin being woken up came from downstairs.

…

Sun Jiao pushed open the door, yawned, and returned to her bedroom.

In the end, the three people that searched the entire mansion concluded that Jiang Chen may have returned to sleep in the modern world. Therefore, concluding the unrest caused by Sun Jiao sneaking out of her bed.

As she quietly climbed into bed, Sun Jiao confirmed the peacefulness on her sister’s face as a gentle smile appeared on her face. She lightly combed the hair strands in front of her forehead and kissed her on the forehead.

"Sister, you are still not asleep?" Sun Xiaorou opened her eyes as she blinked her bright eyes at her sister.

"Eh? Are you awake?" Seeing her sister suddenly wake up, Sun Jiao slid back, embarrassed.

"Mhmm, just woke up."

"Uhh, sorry, did I wake you up?"

When she heard her sister’s words, Sun Xiaorou shook her head and giggled. "No, I just had a dream."

Sun Jiao caringly held on to her sister’s hand, "Dream? Did you have a bad dream?"

But Sun Xiaorou shook her head again, "No, it was a sweet dream."

Then, a red hue appeared on her cheeks.

"He is a really gentle person."

Chapter 307: Conflict

Ten days have passed by since Jiang Chen withdrew most of the soldiers.

The atmosphere at Camp 27 was like any other day, but inside Fallout Shelter 027, the atmosphere was peculiar.

There was not a single person inside the four resident areas. The hallways connecting each area was also empty, no one was wiping the almost shining walls and floors anymore.

Where did everyone go?

Contrary to the deserted residential areas, the industrial area was jam-packed with people. Standing on the stairs looking down, there was a sea of people. With a rough estimate, excluding the one hundred residents that moved up to the surface already, the remaining sixteen hundred residents in the fallout shelter were all here.

Because of the high density of the people, the environment was terrible here.

There were children crying and enraged conversations. There were people sitting in the corner with their luggage, and someone people even made a bed on the ground with the intention fo staying long term.

The twenty people security force stood on the high ground as they were on high alert with their weapons ready.

They never faced a situation like this. Nor did they know how to deal with it. The saving grace was, the residents' emotions remain restrained as they didn’t show any aggressive gestures.

At that time, the door opened.

With two soldiers beside him, Tian Feng walked in.

Because of his work in obtaining the nuclear fusion core, he was appointed by Han Junhua as the chief commander of the security force and replaced the previous commander assigned by the old leader. He was responsible for the security and defense tasks in the fallout shelter. When he heard the gathering happening in the industrial area, he immediately rushed over.

Seeing their commander walk in, the twenty soldiers stood up straight and gave him a standard PAC salute.

Tian Feng returned one as he passed the row of soldiers and walked beside the barrier on the stairs. He began to frown looking down at the enraged crowd.

"What do they want to do?" Tian Feng asked the soldiers beside him.

"They are protesting," the young soldier heard the commander’s question as he replied truthfully.

"Protest?" Tian Feng frowned. As he was just about to ask what they were protesting about, he heard a roar from the crowd.

"We demand an explanation!"

"Yes! Get Han Junhua to come out."

"…"

Tian Feng looked at the angry faces. Although he was puzzled, he immediately realized the situation was odd.

"What are they protesting about?" With voice lowered, he asked the young soldier.

The young man had a glimpse of hesitation, but he gritted his teeth and spoke.

"Someone said… The leader established a program in her EP and connect the lock permission of the fallout shelter door with her life signal."

"Is that it?" Tian Feng was confused.

"Also…" Since he already started, the young man was not afraid the commander may be angry as he spilled out everything he knew. Including Han Junhua used the leader’s permission to take all the residents’ life as a hostage, the resident assembly being dissolved, and the residents demanding an explanation for all her actions.

When he heard the entire story, Tian Feng gasped for air.

One, because he was shocked by the amount of information revealed behind the rumors, and two, because there was a conspiracy hidden behind the spread of these rumors.

Seeing the silent commander, the young man hesitated for a moment and said, "Commander."

"What is it?"

"What they are saying… Is It true?"

From his eyes, Tian Feng saw a hint of confusion.

That confusion made him feel an inexplicable fear.

"Don’t trust the rumors. Control the situation here. I’ll report to the leader."

He hastily assigned the task to the soldiers as he was about to turn around to go to Han Junhua’s office.

But then, Wu Yaguo came out of the crowd and stood in front of him.

Tian Feng noticed there was a bruise on his face.

"The residents demand an explanation," Wu Yaguo fearlessly stared into Tian Feng’s eyes as he said loudly.

"The leader of the fallout shelter had no need to justify her actions, but I trust that leader Han will give you a satisfactory response." Because he was still lost about the situation, Tian Feng gave a procedural response.

But obviously, no one was pleased with his response.

"Yeah? I hope so," Wu Yaguo sneered.

"Could you guys go back first?" Tian Feng knew that Wu Yaguo was reputable among the residents, so he lowered his voiced as he tried to persuade him.

Wu Yaguo locked his eyes on Tian Feng. "After knowing the truth behind this event, do you think that’s a possibility?"

Tian Feng couldn’t say a word. His throat moved before he turned around walking away.

As he watched Tian Feng leave, the rage in Wu Yaguo’s eyes was tinted with a hint of hatred.

…

Someone leaked the news and revealed all the details of the negotiation.

The entire fallout shelter was a mess. No one dared to sleep in their bedrooms anymore. No one was willing to be the sacrifice, the betting chip for someone else’s survival. Therefore, everyone gathered in the industrial area and slept together on the ground.

But Han Junhua quickly controlled the situation as she ordered the security forces to forcefully remove the protestors and have everyone return to their duty within an hour.

But during the process, someone shouted.

"She is a dictator! She is trying to use everyone’s life to maintain her evil reign!"

Immediately, everyone responded to that voice.

"That’s right! The future of Fallout Shelter 027, should be determined by all the residents!"

"He is right!"

"The people from the Fishbone base is not as despicable as she described! She is a liar!"

Shouting and screaming echoed between the cold steel walls as it unleashed the anger and suspicion in everyone’s hearts.

When a situation has evolved to this point, a simple explanation will certainly not resolve it.

The situation could no longer be controlled.

Han Junhua was decisive with her plan. She ordered soldiers to use smoke bombs to forcefully evict the residents in the industrial area. To the people defying her order, Han Junhua used the leader’s permission to release sleeping mask to the industrial area and thrown all the unconscious people into detention for ten days.

At the same time, she ordered to temporarily limit the freedom of Xu Lu as well as the five staffs as she tried to hide the internal turmoil inside the fallout shelter deep in the ground. Then, she sent out the security force to investigate the people who spread rumors, at the same time establishing a curfew. Any residents outside of the residential area after the lights were out will be thrown into detention for no less than five days.

But not long after, the prison was full...

Five hours later after the incident.

The information from Camp 27 was sitting on Jiang Chen’s desk.

Cheng Weiguo was standing there as he looked at Jiang Chen in admiration.

"Boss, you are too… How did that proverb go? Yes! Think like a god!"

To the subordinate’s praise, Jiang Chen laughed without being humble at all.

"What thinking like a god? I made people spread the news."

Before she left, he orders Xu Lu to maintain a good relationship with the residents inside the fallout shelter. She must establish an image opposite of what Han Junhua was portraying. Therefore, the residents inside the fallout shelter will become suspicious of Han Junhua.

Immediately, he used the mouth of a soldier at camp 27 to "unintentionally" leak the information of the negotiation.

Once a third person knew about the secret, it was no longer a secret.

Very quickly, the news spread from the surface to under the earth and spread like a virus inside the fallout shelter. At the same time, with rumors being exchanged, many different versions took form.

The most widespread one –

The leader of the fallout shelter, Han Juahua, used the permission granted by the fallout shelter terminal to take all the residents’ life as the hostage to force the peace-loving Jiang Chen to stay away from the fallout shelter. Or, she will execute the residents by batches until only herself is left in order to force the 'kind Jiang Chen’ to give up ground.

Han Junhua, of course, clarified this and used the announcement system to notify all residents in the fallout shelter.

But once trust has collapsed, it would be hard to establish. To Han Junhua’s clarification, with Wu Yaguo leading as the ex-residents representative, he demanded Han Junhua display the terminal use history but was rejected. Because she did something similar to the rumors, it would be impossible to clarify her actions.

Therefore, Fallout Shelter 027 was a complete mess.

But what Jiang Chen didn’t expect was for this moment to come so rapidly.

It only took ten days before the relationship between Han Junhua and the residents got to the freezing point.

How deep was this grudge…

"Boss, do we need to send troops now to support the resident assembly, help them uprise against Han Junhua, and then use this opportunity-" Cheng Weiguo passionately suggested.

Jiang Chen smiled as he signaled not to rush things.

"No need to rush. It is because we have left that they dare to be in the process of transitioning. If we return, they would no longer be a mess."

"But those residents without any weapons, would they have the ability to overthrown Han Junhua’s regime?" Cheng Weiguo was puzzled.

The fallout shelter leader possessed all permission to the fallout shelter, including the ability to release sleeping gas, control sentry guns, control any of the doors, and most importantly the rights to control the security force. Cheng Weiguo who had stayed in a fallout shelter before knew this point clearly.

In this case, without external help, the residents stood no chance at all.

"Old Cheng, how many years did Fallout Shelter 027 exist for?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Twenty years," Cheng Weiguo answered without hesitation.

"Yes, twenty years. So the people that were twenty at the time would be forty now right?"

Cheng Weiguo looked at Jiang Chen, unsure of what he was alluding to.

Jiang Chen continued in a lighthearted voice.

"The security force inside the fallout shelter, it is no longer the security force formed by PAC soldiers. At least, the new recruit would make up more than half right?"

"What’s the problem with that?"

"Would the new recruits point their guns at their parents for Han Junhua?" Jiang Chen grinned.

Chapter 308: Decoding the Password

When Jiang Chen came out of the community center, the sun had already set.

The past few days, he has spent the day in the community center and with the help from Wang Qin, became familiarized with the specifics of the base. Following the expansion of the base, the weaknesses in the existing foundation of the base were starting to show.

In the beginning, the major infrastructures of the Fishbone base were two warehouses. Thus, a warehouse manager was more than enough to control the supplies of the base. The cafeteria was looked over by Zhou Jiexi, and a big pot of porridge along with some leaves was enough to feed everyone. The base's thirty survivors' primary duties were building things. Lu Huasheng was responsible for the construction of the base and also took on the responsibility of managing the survivors.

The simple management system was effective in the small-scale base, but once the population increased, flaws were exposed.

Although Jiang Chen certainly made some changes, such as the pyramid-shaped citizen structure and the establishment of a standalone logistics department to manage the supplies of the base, following the two population explosions, (Shenxiang town colony and Qingpu survivors), the existing organizational structure was chaotic and unsustainable.

The base had encountered a lot of things either "no one knew who should be responsible for it" or "there were not enough people to take care of it". During these times, Jiang Chen also happened not to be around, and so Sun Jiao made most of the decisions. As the "Duchess of the leader" and "formal well-known lone traveler", her ability and reputation could certainly handle the small problems. But once the base grew bigger, the casual decision-making process would obviously not work.

Therefore, two imperative tasks were placed in front of Jiang Chen.

Establish law or change the structure.

Law is the basis of rules. The reason why the Fishbone base had no security problems as of now was mostly because of Jiang Chen's personal influence as well as the honorary chip's absolute constraint on the "knight class". These constraints would weaken with time and as the population continues to grow, therefore creating laws was imperative.

It was also simple to understand a change in structure. It comprised of creating a concise and effective organizational structure that managed all survivors in the Fishbone base as well as its jurisdictions.

The sooner these tasks were completed, the better it was for the Fishbone. Therefore he had been working until sunset every day before returning to the mansion.

...

Just like before, when he returned to the mansion, Yao Yao had already put the steamy dishes on the table. Sun Jiao and Lin Lin also sat around the dinner table, waiting for Jiang Chen before they started to eat.

After dinner, Yao Yao excitedly dragged Jiang Chen to her bedroom.

The ten days of hard work finally paid off. The small loli finally cracked the password and copied all the information from the EP memory chip to a graphene chip.

"Thank you." Jiang Chen took over the chip as he rubbed Yao Yao's head lovingly.

"Eh, hehe." She timidly smiled as she buried her head. While enjoying Jiang Chen's compliment, her hands played with her dress.

Jiang Chen took the cards. Due to his eagerness of wanting to read the information inside, he was about to leave. However, as he turned around, he felt a weak force tug at his shirt.

"Hmm? Is there something wrong?" Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao who was holding onto him and was quite puzzled.

"Hmm… Can… Can I demand an unreasonable request?" Her cheery like mouth opened, and her adorable face blushed as if blood was about to drip out.

While looking at Yao Yao shy expression, Jiang Chen already knew what was on her mind.

With a smirk on his face, Jiang Chen held the cute face in his hands as he kissed her lips.

"Wooo! Wo…"

Just like a startled rabbit, Yao Yao's body tensed up. She feebly moved a bit before her entire body was paralyzed in a warm hug and she obediently closed her eyes.

As if all her strength followed the sweet liquid and was extracted by her loving big brother…

Jiang Chen who possessed all control sniffed the fragrance wafting from her hair as he freely conquered her softness and drawn in the savory juice.

Lips parted.

"..."

Jiang Chen drew a transparent silk from the petite tongue.

Yao Yao who escaped from Jiang Chen's hug feebly gathered her breath. From the lighting of the room, there was a hint of silvery liquid on the tip of her soft lips. Her face revealed her embarrassment.

"Are you satisfied?"

Yao Yao's face became redder.

"Mhmm?" Jiang Chen put his ear beside Yao Yao's mouth.

"I just… wanted a hug."

…

After returning to his bedroom, Jiang Chen inserted the graphene memory chip into the full sensory computer and waited to read the encrypted files.

The folder was surprisingly empty. It didn't contain a large number of secret files as he had first imagined.

An EP ability report, an electronic map, a mission brief, as well as a note.

Jiang Chen only scanned the ability report with a medium to high ability rating. After he confirmed that the bearded man was called He Wenhu, he closed the document.

Then, Jiang Chen pressed on the full sensory screen and selected the electronic map.

Just from the appearance, this map didn't look too different compared to a normal survivor's map. However, after some close examination, he found some odd signs on the map. On the outskirt of the city center, near Songjiang area, there was a red question mark.

"Question mark?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

Normally, survivors would not run to a city center. It was just a nuclear crater there. Not only were the zombies and mutants dangerous, but the radiation level was also shockingly high.

If people really ventured there, then there was only one possibility. Something must be there!

Because of the limited intel, Jiang Chen couldn't think of a logical explanation, so he turned his attention to the mission brief and note.

<Cooperate with Lin Chaoen and assist him in entering Fallout Shelter 027. Then take back the "happy times" drug ingredient list. That thing is critical to our business. A lot of fools will want to experience the happy times before the war.

Additionally, think twice when you do things. Try to figure out what that guy is up to. You know it is better for the drug's ingredient list to be in the hands of one person.>

From this point alone, the people from Crimson Chamber of Commerce and Lin Chaoen seem to have their own agendas. But regardless of their plot, Jiang Chen will not give away fallout shelter 027.

Jiang Chen closed the mission brief and opened the note.

The note seemed to only be jot notes of information. However, within them, he found some useful information.

<01. Whenever he drank nutrient supplies he would always hide from us. Is this something that needs to be kept a secret?>

<02. He still won't say what is actually inside Fallout Shelter 027.>

<03. This is terrifying. I saw with my own eyes that he used the surgery table to dissect a living human into bones, and then replace it with machine parts. Is that a digitalized human? I feel there is a difference compared to the descriptions from before the war.>

<04. Sometimes he is extremely abnormal. Of course, instincts are telling me what he is trying to do has no conflict with our business… But just in case, I still tracked the coordinates of his signal.>

<05. He seems to look down on me? Not only me… regardless, it is hard to feel positive towards him with the contempt in his eyes.>

<06. I have a feeling… I am being serious, he gives me a weird feeling. Sometime I would constantly think about the problem, this guy… is he really human?>

Chapter 309: The Doomsday of the Defenders

When he saw the last line, Jiang Chen's face looked rather odd.

The bearded man had certainly guessed right, Lin Chaoen was not a human at all, but a machine.

Different from the digitalized human, Lin Lin, he had no traces of cells in his body. Jiang Chen confirmed multiple times. Even the "meat" on the mechanical skeleton was made by silica gels replicating the feeling of skin.

Jiang Chen opened that map again to confirm the red question market located on the outskirt of the city center.

"Is there something here?"

After deliberating for a moment, Jiang Chen also marked the location on his EP.

After putting away the full sensory computer, he immediately left the mansion.

Returning to his office in the community center, Jiang Chen called Cheng Weiguo who just finished eating.

Not long after, Cheng Weiguo appeared in front of Jiang Chen's office desk.

"Is there something wrong?"

Jiang Chen turned on his EP map and showed Cheng Weiguo the marked area.

"I want to send people to explore this area, do you have any good recommendations?"

"The city center?" Cheng Weiguo stared at the location as he rubbed his chin with his eyebrows raised. "That place is not Qingpu, the mutants and zombies are more dangerous there. Oh, is it okay if we just get an aerial view?"

Jiang Chen was dumbfounded before he came to a sudden realization.

Right, the Fishbone base has a helicopter. Although it had been modified to a helicopter gunship, it was still capable of performing a reconnaissance mission.

"How's pilot training?"

Chu Nan was acting as his representative at the Sixth Street, the mission of operating the helicopter would naturally fall to other people.

"We have two fully trained people who were personally taught by Chu Nan. They just flew the helicopter from the Sixth Street a few days ago. Based on his description, while the two pilots are still a bit lacking in experience, their knowledge base is there." Cheng Weiguo smiled.

"Ok, keep an eye on this. Report to me immediately if there are any results."

"Yes." Cheng Weiguo saluted.

But then, the phone on the table began to ring.

Cheng Weiguo stopped.

Jiang Chen, as if he had been expecting something, had a glimpse of joy on his face. He grabbed the phone and put it by his ear.

"Hello?"

"General! The elevator, the elevator stopped!" Wang Zhaowu's alerted voice came from the other side.

In Jia city, thirty kilometers away.

The Dusk along with the mutated humans at the Seventh Area conducted a coordinated attack on the Defenders in Jia city.

The mutated humans like ogres walked out of a sci-fi movie walked through the shambles. They were equipped with steel armors, heavy machineguns, as well as the magazines around their waste, displaying a daunting light as they moved steadily towards the Defenders area of control.

Behind the troops, a mutated human, as well as a human, stood side by side on a hill piled up by broken concrete pieces as they gazed at the fires not so far away.

The mutated human, Troy, was the leader of Seventh Area. The man, Bo Yu, was the leader of Dusk.

"I have never imagined that a mutated human and a human could walk together in unity." Troy cracked a smile on his hideous face towards the human in a fur coat.

With his hands behind his back, the Blood Lion's mane swayed in the winter breeze as the corner of Bo Yu's mouth also carved into a smile.

"Based on common sense, it is hard to understand. But as long as a small perspective is changed, we can all live together."

Just like the smart dog and human.

Coincidentally, both sides shared the same thought.

The mutated human needed the supplies and firearms provided by Dusk, and Dusk required the fearless warriors of the mutated humans.

The victor in the distant battle had already been decided. Although the remaining human survivors used the bunker to fire back at the mutated humans, the defiant's fire was quickly extinguished by the hoard of mutated humans.

"Speaking of which, what is that on your finger?" While looking at the bloody red gem on Bo Yu's finger, Troy asked casually.

"Guess." Bo Yu smiled.

"It is definitely not diamond. It is similar to a crystal, but I have never seen a red crystal before," Troy said.

"It is a nuke." Bo Yu used a joking voice to state the not so funny reality.

Troy cracked a smile as he obviously didn't think what he had said was real.

At the same time, an unexpected blast from ten meters away sent concrete debris into the air.

"Go die! Traitor!"

Followed by a thunderous roar, a survivor with blood all over his face leaped out of the shambles. His expression was grim and the wound that stopped bleeding burst again due to his angry outburst.

But in his hands was just an outdated assault rifle!

Troy just glanced at the person expressionlessly as he put out his hand to guard Bo Yu behind him. But the hand was surprisingly pushed away by Bo Yu.

Troy did not have time to be shocked before bullets began to be fired at Bo Yu.

The reality soon proved that he had time to be shocked.

The dark green veil formed a net beside him. The orange bullets, like mosquitos, were trapped within the spider web.

The expression on the person's face froze.

Unable to react, he saw a crystal fly across his vision.

The green light suddenly contracted before expanding as it blew into a field of green particles.

"This is an odd ability." Troy looked at the mist of blood that has splashed everywhere and smiled grimly at Bo Yu.

"We just walked further along on this path," Bo Yu said nonchalantly as he put his hands back into his pocket.

The Klein particle was connected to the warp drive.

As a firm escapist, Dusk was further on the path of warp drives.

"On another note, I remember you initially didn't plan to attack Wanghai city to find Fallout Shelter 005 at Qingpu? Why did you suddenly change your mind and decided to help us solve our trouble in Jia city." Troy asked.

"Because a problematic force is blocking Qingpu," Bo Yu said.

He was naturally referring to Fishbone base. Troy also knew this.

Troy remembered the heavy casualties he suffered in front of Zhufeng Highway as he also was angered.

They didn't lose on force, but rather on underestimating the enemy.

But he still didn't recognize the essence of the problem. They didn't lose just on underestimating the enemy, but rather on intelligence. If they built the camp more scattered, they would not be in the situation where one bomb would send half of the camp up into the sky.

"When would we push back?" A grim smile appeared on Troy's face.

That smile was filled with the desire for revenge.

"Once you use the survivors of Jia city to create a two thousand mutated human force. The supplies from the north would also arrive around that time," Bo Yu said emotionlessly.

Just like Troy, the name also annoyed him, but he was used to not displaying his emotion on his face.

Not only did two hundred thousand crystals go down the drain, now he had to invest in more supplies to help the mutated humans in Jia city to replenish their "population".

But what pained him the most was Sun Xiaorou.

Ten something years ago, the organization used all of its efforts to obtain a "sample" from Fallout Shelter 071, and they just lost one.

The last few fires died down on the battlefield, just like the life of the Defenders.

When the battle ended, Bo Yu looked in the direction of Wanghai City.

"Jiang Chen?" Murmuring to himself, he narrowed his eyes.

Inside the dark pupils, a dangerous light shone.

Chapter 310: The Darkness buried deep

The riot occurred at night.

Although the fallout shelter without sunshine had no concept of night.

It was only five hours after the security force forcefully removed the residents from the industrial area before the detention room inside the fallout shelter was stuffed full of protestors.

No one could bear that while they slept, a sharp sword could fall down anytime and hang above their heads. The ventilation that no one had paid attention to for twenty-something years has now become a gun pointed at them.

A gun sprouted in people's hearts.

Reality had proven that when everyone could not stand the same question, people become more courageous than they imagined.

The security force was comprised of less than one hundred people and was limited in power. Additionally, most of the soldiers were born in the fallout shelter. They didn't feel the obligation of the PAC. Compared to the emotionless and distant Han Junhua, they missed the kind and warm old leader. To the residents that protested, they not only felt compassion, but they were also supportive of their cause.

Compassion in breaching the rules would never occur in a PAC force, but they were not a force to begin with.

The resident assembly was re-establish again. Although they didn't receive permission from the fallout shelter terminal, they received support from all the residents. Under the leadership of ex-representative Wu Yaguo, in the name of justice, a mission detail was spread among the residents.

An hour to overthrow the dictatorship! An hour to renegotiate!

When the rumor of the mission started to spread, a few people already started to plot. But to the events occurring among the residents, Han Junhua was not clueless.

The external threat was already there.

This would be one move to eliminate the internal threat.

First, it was to shatter the sword.

The power system was temporarily out, which triggered the emergency protocol to use the backup battery. Although the power outage during this transition only lasted for a short ten minutes, the short ten minutes was enough for a lot of things to happen.

The entire fallout shelter was in sudden darkness.

The elevator was stuck underground which prevented any interaction between the underground and the surface. The mechanical engine of the fallout shelter door was also destroyed by maintenance workers which eliminated the possibility of Han Junhua closing the door. Due to part of the security force joining the rebellion, all the residents joined forces in the grand hall of the fallout shelter. Therefore, even if the power had returned after ten minutes, Han Junhua releasing the sleep gas to the entire fallout shelter would be futile.

The sword that hung above everyone's head was completed eliminated.

Then, there will be discipline!

80% of the security force chose to join the temporary assembly. 20% of the previous PAC security force swore to protect. Both parties engaged in intense gunfire along the major hallways as they pushed towards the fallout shelter leader's office.

The residents first occupied the armory and opened the detention room. Just like the conquering Bastille, the united residents released the imprisoned warriors. The warriors cheered as they armed themselves with the weapons.

Two hundred residents in gas masks and automatic rifles joined in the battle as the scale tipped towards the fallout residents' side.

Tian Feng led the last remaining ten soldiers in the valiant fight. They were the first group of soldiers that entered the fallout base. Twenty years ago they were just young men who recently joined the army, now they were at the age where they should have retired. They had planned for the worst, such as encountering NATO soldiers that would break into the fallout shelter.

But what they didn't expect was, during their last call, they had to face the residents they protected.

It was a suffocating feeling.

Tian Feng fiercely fired back as he tried not to remember the names that belonged to the faces in front of him.

But he couldn't.

Within the crosshairs, he saw the child from his neighbor. He still remembered the teen had said he wanted to be a botanist when the day the fallout shelter opened. He wanted to look at the grass grow. Wanted to see how resilient the radiation-contaminated grass was.

But he had already died, he had fallen in the pool of blood yet to be cool.

And him, and him, and even her…

"Ahhh!"

Finally, someone couldn't resist the mental torture. A soldier ran out of cover and frantically fired with his rifle.

"Dammit! Come back!" But Tian Feng didn't manage to stop him as he watched a few blood holes appear on his own comrade's body with his own eyes.

He died, but there was no agony on his face.

Tian Feng smashed into the wall and ducked into cover. His chest pumped violently up and down while he tried to regather his breath.

"Dammit! Cough, cough!" Spit mixed with blood splashed on the wall.

He didn't know who to curse, or who should be cursed.

The noise of bullets was all that could be heard.

At that moment, everyone was mute.

...

Within the leader's office, through the bulletproof glass, Han Junhua silently watched the battle inches away from her.

Too weak.

Not even considered a small regional conflict.

Pre-war, she had commanded a battalion of mechanical paratroopers to suppress a riot planned by NATO on the PAC border. The gore she had seen, a hell far bloodier than this, she had seen them too many times.

But for some reason, she felt her heart ache.

Academician Qin stood beside her as he silently gazed out the window.

The shaking figure along with the young figure created a vivid contrast.

Just like father and daughter.

Long after, Han Junhua spoke, "Are you not going to stand on the side of the residents?"

Academician Qin shook his head. "I stand by the truth."

"is that so?" Han Junhua looked surprisingly at the elderly man in his final remaining years.

"Because the truth is always the most difficult to accept, the people searching for the truth is always the most lonely."

"That's really disappointing." Han Junhua looked out the window emotionlessly.

The sparks from the bullets jumped between the cold steel walls, reflected among the angry pupils. The soldiers still loyal to her constantly suffered defeat, they had no more backup.

"Human nature is the burden of survival, but without this burden, civilization would not be born."

"Do you want to say, I am wrong?" Han Junhua was straightforward.

"You are not wrong, but not correct."

Not wrong, but not correct? Han Juahua repeatedly chewed on those words in her mind, even though she knew there wasn't any purpose in thinking about it.

After moments of silence, Han Junhua asked, "You know in the beginning that this would be the result right?"

He was always more silent compared to anyone else, but he always knew the situation better.

She began to be suspicious.

Academician Qin didn't deny it, but his smile was bitter.

"Mhmm, I don't deny it."

"Why?" Han Junhua didn't look at him as she still used an emotionless voice to ask.

"I thought you had realized a long time ago." Academician Qin sighed.

Han Junhua was waiting for the elderly man to continue, but he didn't speak anymore.

"Even in the last moment, you can't tell me the reason?" Han Juahua asked.

Academician Qin only used silence to answer her.

"I have been thinking about a question for a long time. The candidate for the leaders of the fallout shelter, is it based on careful consideration?"

"You can think of it that way," Academician Qin said in a quiet voice.

"I used the supercomputer at the fallout shelter before to recreate the mathematical model of the population growth curve and the energy consumption speed, but the result I received surprised me… From the start, the energy of the fallout shelter was not enough. Right?"

Academician Qin did not answer.

But in a situation like this, silence was admitting by default.

Looking at the expression on Han Junhua, he knew that she had already guessed it.

Academician Qin let out a sigh as he gently said.

"Could you not serve your duty until the final moment?"

The voice carried a hint of pleading.

"Okay," Han Juahua said emotionlessly.

Academician Qin asked in surprise.

"Are you not afraid?"

Han Junhua shook her head.

"It's only death."

Outside the window, Tian Feng had already fallen.

With one hand against the wall, blood dripped from his arms.

He struggled as he raised the pistol to aim with his blood covered left eye.

Perhaps the clip was empty, no bullets came from the dark muzzle.

In that instant, a rioter dashed in front of him, he swung the fire axe and chopped off his head. Blood dripped along the axe as the "hero" enjoyed the crowd's cheers and hugs.

He swung the axe dripping with blood up with his strong arm. It was like the torch of the statue of liberty.

Throwing the bulletproof vest away, Han Junhua silently watched the last scene.

She noticed the person with the axe smiling insolently at her.

As if it was the smile of the statue of liberty.

Human nature is the burden of survival, but if it were not for this burden, civilization would not exist. But once civilization is born, it must be accompanied by the gruesome brutality.

She seemed to have understood something, but in the attempt to prolong a civilization, an individual's realization would not change anything.

"At the end of the mission, can I ask you a final question?" Han Junhua gazed at him as she said expressionlessly.

Academician Qin was silent.

"I will just assume you have agreed by default," Han Junhua continued.

She walked to the window as she put her hand gently on the bulletproof window. The axe smashed onto the window where she had placed her finger in an aggressive act.

She felt the light tremble from the tip of her finger as she slowly said.

"Is the window specification of this room built to the lab's standard?"

"Yes."

Although it was only a single word, it made Han Junhua's cold heart feel a trace of comfort.

The rioters outside the window saw that they could not open the office door, so they brought the welding gun. From the crowd, she saw Wu Yaguo's face and the bruise on his face.

"If you release the explosive gas, you have a chance at killing the people outside the door," Academician Qin abruptly said.

"Is this part of the experiment?" Han Junhua asked.

He didn't speak anymore as he gave the final choice to her.

Like a pale experimental report was placed in front of her.

Hypothesis: The rationale dictator in the final moment before she is overthrown. Would she choose the lunatic choice to die with everyone?

Han Junhua closed her eyes as she carefully considered for a moment.

"I will not do that."

Experimental result: False.

"Mhmm." Academician Qin nodded as a smile with a trace of comfort appeared on his face.

At the end of the smile.

The door collapsed.

Chapter 311: Naive

The rioters broke into the room.

The gun barrel smashed onto Han Junhua’s face as the single blow was enough to knock her unconscious. Then someone kicked her in the stomach and made her drop to the ground.

Han Junhua didn’t feel surprised, she didn’t even feel frightened because she knew, the pain she was about to receive would far surmount these.

Then, the "hero" ran up.

He raised the ax, with a grim smile, and was about to cut off her limbs.

But then, Wu Yaguo walked up and stopped the reckless "hero."

"Wait, everyone. Calm down and listen to me!"

When they heard Wu Yaguo’s shout, everyone stopped what they were doing.

Han Junhua was on the ground with her face covered in bruises and blood, just in one minute, she was almost beaten to death by the angry rioters.

She silently looked at Wu Yaguo as she knew he was not there to defend her. If that was the case, he should have come in first.

"We are victorious, we are finally victorious!"

Wu Yaguo raised his arms as he used a passionate voice to shout.

The celebration began to echo in the fallout shelter, people watched him as if he was the reason why they were victorious.

"We used our hands to overthrow the despicable dictator’s reign. We will use our hands to create a brighter future. Yes, we will!"

He desperately searched for the best phrases in his head as he tried to paint a bright future for the people. People watched him as if they were worshiping God. The "hero" also dropped his ax as he looked at him religiously.

"…But before we can paint the picture, we need to put this criminal on trial."

Wu Yaguo looked at her.

Everyone looked at her.

"Kill her."

"With fire."

"No, her body should be hung."

Wu Yaguo silently listened to the voices by his ears as he looked at Han Junhua. He wanted to read fear from her eyes.

But he was disappointed, he only saw calmness.

The glimpse of anger quickly hid the mask of mercy.

"Quiet everyone. Everyone calm down for a moment."

He raised his hand as he signaled the crowd to quiet down.

He pointed his finger at Han Junhua on the ground as he said in a loud voice.

"I hate her. I want to kill with the cruelest way possible to express the anger in my heart…"

The bruise on his face made the words that much more convincing.

The "hero" on the side ripped off a piece of his broken shirt as he tied it on his bloody left arm, he then weighed the ax in his hand and smiled grimly at Han Junhua.

He was only waiting for an order. An order to chop her head off.

But Han Junhua didn’t look at him from the beginning, she was just waiting quietly for something.

"But I choose to forgive her."

People looked at him in confusion.

"We are the just, we are using the name of justice to uprise. We will punish her for her crime, but everything must be done through law, and not our emotions. I forgive her, but the law will punish her for her crime…"

Listening to Wu Yaguo’s charismatic speech, Han Junhua smiled. Although her smile was undetectable under all the blood.

The ability she couldn’t master – manipulating people.

Without the need for technology, all can be done with a mouth.

The bruise became a symbol of his, demonstrating his kindness and forgiveness. People trust that under his leadership, fallout shelter 027 would become a brighter tomorrow and put him on the "throne."

As to Han Junhua, her permission was taken away.

A few rioters with weapons walked off and forcefully dragged her up. Using her EP, they deactivated the order she had set and "granted" the permission of leader to Wu Yaguo. And Wu Yaguo put the handcuff on her and pushed the wounded her out the door.

People stared at her in anger, people spat at her, and people attempted to throw garbage on her face.

But the merciful new leader stopped all of this.

"She will be punished but before that, we must make her live to the day when she will be punished."

On the side, Academician Qin silently watched everything. No one troubled the respected elder as they courteously asked him to go back to his home. But before that, they demanded he sends his congratulatory words to the new regime. He did and the people supervising him left.

Just like the wheels of history, inside the dark underground shelter, a familiar scene repeated itself.

...

Within the integration room.

Han Junhua sat on the cold bench and stared at the ceiling blankly.

Half a day has passed since the coup.

No one interrogated her, no one treated her wounds, and no one fed her.

But that was fine. Humans can survive for a few days without eating. As long as she still has a breath left, they were already being kind to her. Not to mention they were letting her spend the last remaining hours of her life in peace.

But then the door opened.

Han Junhua lifted her weary eyelids and she murmured in her mind: Finally here?

But she was disappointed, it was someone she was familiar with.

Feng Hui, the chief engineer of fallout shelter technology, responsible for the power infrastructure of the fallout shelter.

Feng Hui was afraid to look Han Junhua in the eyes, and so he lowered his head.

"It was me… I removed the energy rod by one centimeter."

Half of the success of this coup was attributable to him.

"Mhmm."

"Sorry…"

"Why do you need to apologize to me?" Han Junhua asked calmly.

"I just feel, how should I say it, we should have a different leader… Maybe everyone’s life will be good?" Feng Hui scratched his head as he tried to coordinate the scattered words in his head.

Just a feeling?

Han Junhua ignored him as she continued to blank out.

Feng Hui took out a nutrient supply from his pocket and started to gulp it down before he hesitantly looked behind him. He then walked in front of Han Junhua, frightened

"Can you drink this."

"Is the trial over?" Han Junhua asked.

"No…"

"This is not worth it." Han Junhua didn’t take his nutrient supply and closed her eyes.

At the moment of victory to feel sympathetic to the dictator on trial. If it was not for the speech that Wu Yaguo had prepared beforehand, the anger of the residents may be passed onto him.

But Feng Hui had a pleading expression.

"I beg you, please drink this… At least, this will make me feel better."

He may be sympathetic towards people’s uprising, but when he saw how miserable Han Junhua was being beaten by the crowd that had lost its rationality, his heart felt the torture of guilt.

"I can’t."

Just as Feng Hui wanted to try again to convince her, footsteps suddenly came from outside of the door.

As he hurriedly put away the nutrient supply in his hand, two people walked into the dark detention room.

It was the new leader Wu Yaguo, and the ambassador Xu Lu.

"Feng Hui? What are you doing here?" Wu Yaguo looked at Feng Hui beside Han Junhua as he slightly frowned.

Xu Lu looked at Han Junhua with a smile on her face, she said, pleased.

"Not bad, she is still alive."

"Of course, we follow the law, and are not as reckless as this woman," Wu Yaguo said proudly.

"Is that so? That’s perfect then." Xu Lu smiled.

Wu Yaguo was happy, and Feng Hui also felt relieved.

It was indeed a friendly signal, at least the Fishbone base maintained a supportive attitude to the new regime they had been established. This would make the negotiation more favorable for them. At least it yielded a positive result. This slightly comforted Feng Hui.

Only Han Junhua was indifferent.

The instant she saw the woman, she knew everything was over.

Xu Lu walked in front of Han Junhua. Then using two fingers to hold up her chin, she gently turned her head to face her.

Han Junhua didn’t resist, but her eyes were peaceful.

"Jiang Chen wants to see you."

When he heard Xu Lu’s words, Wu Yaguo had to warn her.

"But, she is waiting to be put on trial…"

"This is the pretense to maintain our friendship." Xu Lu straightened her body and looked at Wu Yaguo. "She threatened my leader before and used his mercy as the excuse for her dictatorship. She should be punished."

When Wu Yaguo heard it was the pretense of their friendship, he was immediately conflicted.

After half a minute of silence.

"Will you punish her?"

"Of course." Xu Lu smiled.

Wu Yaguo glanced at Feng Hui, "…Leave."

Feng Hui felt relieved. Although he still felt guilty, he was happy he managed to dodge the bullet. He immediately escaped the place in quick steps.

Wu Yaguo’s action was no different than when Feng Hui came in. He turned around to scan the door of the detention room. After ensuring that no one was listening, he lowered his voice to speak to Xu Lu.

"It will be hard to explain to the residents…"

"You will earn an additional 30 energy rods for your residents in the upcoming negotiation, I believe that these energy rods will be enough for you to live prosperously for the next year. You know, our leader hates her. If he has the opportunity to personally punish her, we don’t care about this small price." Xu Lu smiled at Wu Yaguo as she painted a bright future for him.

When he heard her words, Wu Yaguo’s eyes shone with an obvious ecstasy but he quickly calmed down.

"Ahem. If it was 40, I believe the residents will understand Mr. Jiang Chen’s anger and they will make the necessary exception to the law. Since… it is shameful to deceive-"

"35 rods. This is the furthest we will go." Xu Lu had a trace of frustration in her eyes.

Of course, it was necessary to haggle. If they were too casual, it might cause him to be suspicious.

35 energy rods per month. It was more than three times what Han Junhua has earned and it was more than enough to demonstrate his "wisdom".

After hesitating for a moment, Wu Yaguo nodded in "pain".

Just like selling pork with a price on the shelf, what will be the final fate of the "wise" queen?

Han Junhua quietly watched the two discuss. She was still expressionless.

Before he left, Wu Yaguo looked at her for the final time with mockery.

The eyes seemed to say. Unfortunately, I can’t enjoy the pain on your face.

But Han Junhua’s expression was indifferent.

"You don’t seem to be scared?" Xu Lu smiled.

"When will we head out?" Han Junhua asked calmly.

Xu Lu paused for a moment before the saint smile returned to her face.

"Now would be good."

Then, she turned around and headed for the door.

Chapter 312: This place has always been mine

It was only an hour drive between the Fishbone base and camp 27. However, because it was already the end of February, the snow on the ground was beginning to melt. Because of this, the zombies and mutants on the street began to feel unsettled.

They encountered two Roshans on the streets which slowed the fleet down momentarily. Jiang Chen spent double the time to arrive at the camp.

Standing on the outskirt of the concrete wall and looking up, Jiang Chen was impressed. Within less than fifteen days of construction, the camp had been developed to this point.

When they saw it was Fishbone base’s fleet, the soldiers on the wall immediately opened the door and allowed the vehicles to pass.

When they were inside the camp, Jiang Chen jumped out of the car as Xu Lu had been waiting for him.

"We had some delays along the way. You didn’t wait for too long did you?’ Jiang Chen stood in front of her as he smiled.

"Not at all, it is my pleasure to wait for you." Xu Lu shook her head as she naughtily nodded.

"Haha, don’t be so uptight, briefly explain to me the situation… Let’s walk as we talk."

"Okay, boss."

The two of them walked to the center of the camp. Along the way, Xu Lu began to tell him the sudden changes underground.

From the initial protest to controlling the embassy to the uprising…

"How did boss know that the residents of the fallout shelter would become a mess on their own?" As she walked beside Jiang Chen, Xu Lu smiled joyfully at him, her eyes were filled with traces of worship.

It was an enjoyable thing to be worshipped by such a beauty. Especially since Jiang Chen knew that with how clever Xu Lu was, she already knew the answer.

"Instinct."

When she heard Jiang Chen’s brief response, Xu Lu paused for a moment before her mouth carved up. "You are very comical."

…

In the middle of the camp, there was only a two-meter high concrete building. It was the command post for the Fishbone base at Camp 27.

When they saw Jiang Chen walk inside, the two soldiers on patrol immediately saluted and opened the door for him.

Just as the door opened, a wave of heat brushed across his face.

"It is quite warm inside, there is no need to wear so many layers." Xu Lu smiled as she took off her winter suit.

Jiang Chen hung his winter suit on the wall as he scanned the window while speaking in shock.

"This is?"

The distributed but gentle temperature didn’t feel like it was a furnace, but rather the controllable heated walled in the mansion.

But what was off was that along the supplies transported from the base, it didn’t include heating devices. Even in the Fishbone base, only Jiang Chen’s mansion was installed with this luxury device, the normal survivors only used an electric furnace.

"An electromagnetic nitrogen heating device. The residents of the fallout shelter gave it to us to express their gratitude for providing them with safety." Xu Lu walked beside a round metal ball as she began to explain to Jiang Chen

The nitrogen composition of the base was approximate 78%. The device can use the special electromagnetic interaction to heat the nitrogen in order to achieve the uniformed heating results.

Jiang Chen looked at the round heating device as he walked up to touch it.

It was hard to believe that the device used to heat the entire building was only warm.

"What about electricity consumption?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Only two third of the traditional electric furnace."

"Looks like there are a lot of good things inside the fallout shelter." Jiang Chen nodded pleasingly.

Although winter was about to end, it would be nice to equip the Fishbone base with a set.

"It would immediately belong to you, right?" Xu Lu naughtily blinked her eyes.

"It always belonged to me." The corner of Jiang Chen’s mouth carved up.

Looking at the confident, frivolous smile on Jiang Chen’s face, Xu Lu grinned covering her mouth.

Jiang Chen shifted his frivolous expression as his face became serious. He cleared his throat and said.

"Let’s talk about the matter at hand. Wu Yaguo has already proposed to renegotiate with us right?"

"Yes. Following your instructions, I painted a bright future for them." Xu Lu nodded.

"Did the embassy staff retreat?"

"Under the disguise of transporting Han Junhua, they all returned to the surface."

Hearing that Han Junhua had already returned to the surface, Jiang Chen had a dubious smile on his face.

"Good, they lost all the stakes on the table. Make them surrender."

"Roger."

With a charming smile on her face, Xu Lu bowed and departed with her mission.

…

Happiness and joy filled every corner of the fallout shelter. People celebrated their victory, intoxicated in formulated alcohol, feasting on molecular delicacies as if they were in the middle of a festival.

The bloodstains on the walls had been removed by cleaners; the bullets mark was filled in by dissolvers.

On the table of the leader's office, the conference table was filled with all kinds of molecular food. It became the celebratory table of the resident assembly.

"To celebrate our victory, cheers!" Wu Yaguo stood up as he proposed a toast to all the assembly members. Then he began to drink the alcohol in his hand.

The technology in the fallout shelter was highly advanced. With such an ample amount of supplies, they could almost live in the happy times no different from before the war. Just make the ugly and disgusting scavengers on the surface pick up their garbage for them. Then, at the right opportunity, spare the scavengers some of the technology they dreamed off, and enjoy the worship expression on their faces. Finally, they will enjoy the energy rods in their hands.

35 energy rods a month, it was more than enough for them to live in festivity every day.

"Haha! Cheers!"

"For freedom! For victory!?

Between glasses, the feeling of intoxication began to spread on everyone’s faces, as if it was a dream that they would never be wakened up from.

"..."

"Speaking of this, where did that b*tch go? In this happy moment, how can we miss her?" A drunk representative said.

Dissolving the resident assembly, they made the politician who usually doesn't work go mop the floors as no one sitting there had a positive opinion about her.

"Gulp-, before we punish her, why don’t we do something fun with her?" Someone suggested in drunkenness.

"That’s right, for example… Make that old virgin strip dance for us, haha!"

"I am really curious to see the ashamed expression on that bit*h’s face that had been ruling us for three years."

"…"

Wu Yaguo listened to the derogatory words of the representative out of drunkenness as his expression was rather embarrassed.

It was not because he was embarrassed by those people’s thoughts, he didn’t mind torturing that woman to make this more entertaining, but Han Junhua had already been brought to the surface by Xu Lu…

"Ahem, friends, that bit*h have already been brought to the surface, as a gift for peace." Wu Yaguo coughed as he decided it was better to explain this sooner rather than later.

The voice began to die down as pairs of intoxicated pupils looked over.

A cold sweat rolled across his forehead as Wu Yaguo instantly sobered up. His head spun at rapid speed to formulate a not so disappointing excuse.

"You know, because she threatened our partner, that man called Jiang Chen wanted to personally punish her. Think about it, the once ruthless queen perhaps is under a bunch of angry hobos… I think, for that bit*h, that is the best punishment!"

The representatives thought about it as they all agreed.

"That makes sense. There is no more humiliating punishment than that, those lucky scavengers." Shi Yongtian sitting in the corner burped while he snapped his finger.

"That’s right, burp-, why don’t we guess how that bit*h is being tortured."

"Hahaha!"

"…"

"What’s going on? Why so rushed."

"Sur…Surface." The man couldn’t form a sentence while stuttering.

"Surface?" Wu Yaguo raised his eyebrows as he confirmed.

The man gritted his teeth and scanned all the representatives around the table. Then, he got closer to Wu Yaguo’s ear and whispered.

The wine glass in his hand splattered onto the ground.

Just like the morning bell that has awakened the dream, the vibrant red alcohol flowed on the floor.

Wu Yaguo widened his eyes as his pupils shook in fear.

"How, how is that possible…"

Chapter 313: You have two choices

When Wang Zhaowu, who was responsible for the camp, knew Jiang Chen would be staying for a few days, he personally cleaned out a comfortable office and bedroom for him. He also told Jiang Chen to let him know if he had any concerns.

But Jiang Chen didn’t bother the camp staff nor did he interrupt the normal operation of the camp. When he was bored, he sat in front of the table and began writing.

"Your message has been sent to the underground." Xu Lu walked into the command office as she smiled looking at Jiang Chen writing at the table.

Jiang Chen dropped the pen in his hand as he stretched and stood up from his chair.

"Wu Yaguo’s response?"

"They rejected it and expressed their shock to our decision."

Jiang Chen didn’t look surprised at all. "That’s expected, what’s their answer?"

It was expected. Whether it was their rejection, or shock.

"They locked the elevator and closed the door of the fallout shelter. They want you to examine the friendship between the two parties calmly." Xu Lu smiled.

Hearing that, Jiang Chen burst out laughing and shook his head.

Too naïve.

"Boss, what if they follow Han Junhua’s strategy?" Xu Lu asked in a quiet voice.

"Lock the door? Haha, that’s impossible."

Looking at the confident expression on Jiang Chen’s fae, Xu Lu was slightly puzzled. With her intelligence, she could think through the strategy to make the residents of the fallout shelter start a coup, but she was unsure why Jiang Chen was so confident with them not locking the door.

A hint of confusion naturally didn’t escape Jiang Chen’s eyes, but he only smiled and didn’t explain.

"Speaking of this, what’s the maximum capacity of the elevator?"

"Based on its design, 20 tons," Xu Lu was more confused as she answered. She did not understand why Jiang Chen asked such a question.

"20 tons? Okay. From today on, every noon, send people to dump two tons of sand down to the ground.

Xu Lu thought for a moment before a sudden realization smile appeared on her face.

"As you wish, boss. Any other things you need?"

Jiang Chen scanned the regulation still yet to be completed on the table as he felt slightly wary. He then thought for a moment before responding.

"Mhmm… Where is Han Junhua?"

"In the basement of the camp."

A dubious smile spread on the surface his face.

"I am tired now, take me to see her."

…

Han Junhua’s current condition would disappoint the representatives and Wu Yaguo.

After Xu Lu had taken her to the surface, the torture and humiliation she imagined didn’t come. In fact, she didn’t receive any inhumane treatment.

Or rather, the Fishbone base was treating her too nicely.

She was surprised, but when she asked Xu Lu, she only received a mysterious smile.

The medical professional treated the wounds and bruises on her face and connected her broken ribs. With their current medical condition, it was easy to treat these types of injuries. However, what surprised her was that the survivors on the wasteland possessed such technology.

Immediately, she was taken to the basement.

The bed was soft, and there were a table and chair. Although thick chains hung on the wall, no one cuffed her.

Once it was time for food, a young female soldier would bring in steamy dishes for her. If she wanted to go to the bathroom, the same female soldier would put her in handcuffs, point at her with a taser, and send her to the washroom.

This confused her. Did he only want to lock her up?

Just like this, two days passed.

The metal door to the basement opened, a male and a female walked in.

When she saw Jiang Chen's’ half-smiling face, Han Junhua was surprisingly calm.

Just like the day she stood in front of the type 50 electromagnetic pulse cannon and faced Jiang Chen with a pistol to her head while she counted with her emotionless voice.

Jiang Chen pulled up a chair in front of the former fallout shelter leader. Xu Lu stood beside him and smilingly looked Han Junhua in the eyes without saying a word.

"What are your thoughts?" Jiang Chen looked at the calm Han Junhua as he said with a grin.

Her luscious black hair dropped to her shoulder, under the two delicate eyebrows were a pair of peaceful eyes. The bruises could still be seen, but after treatment will disappear in no time. Her uniform was changed into regular fallout shelter clothes. The tight-fitting clothes drew out her lithe figure.

He heard that she was beaten in the fallout shelter, but she looked alright now.

"Are you here to mock me?"

"Of course not. But you don’t seem to be afraid? You have nothing to threaten me with now." Jiang Chen laughed.

Han Junhua didn’t say a word as she just quietly looked at him, just like during their initial meeting.

Seeing that she didn’t speak, Jiang Chen continued, "How does it feel to be betrayed by the citizens you protected? Despair? Hatred? Disbelief-"

"Unfortunately, none." Han Junhua shook her head, "What is your plan for me?"

None?

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows. "What do you think my plan is with you?"

"Vein injection."

"What is that?"

"A humane way of dying. Of course, if you find it troublesome, a bullet is enough too."

"No, I think you are mistaken. It would be a waste of god sent if I execute you." Jiang Chen laughed.

Although she had flaws in her personality which made her unfit for a management role, after some tweaking, she would be great for a role in the military.

Till the current stage, the Fishbone base didn’t lack talent in any other areas except for commander talent.

When they fought, it was just raindrop-like bombs, then an infantry charge. This type of battle strategy would be enough for small-scale battles but followed by the growth of the Fishbone base, he couldn’t expect his enemies to continue to be weak.

From their initial countering, Jiang Chen had plans to recruit her. The colonel of PAC, although he didn’t know why she became the leader of the fallout shelter, to be able to control a divisional level of battle was nothing to scorn about.

"My loyalty only belongs to the PAC," this girl was clearly not cooperative as she said emotionlessly.

"But that doesn’t exist anymore."

"Do you really think so?" Han Junhua asked.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment as he thought she has yet to learn the reality of the surface.

Therefore, he contemplated before speaking.

"PAC? Go find them lightyears away. You have two choices in front of you, join me, or-"

Jiang Chen took out a pistol from his pack, with a "clang" sound he loaded the gun. Before smashing the pistol on the table in front of Han Junhua, he provocatively looked her in the eyes.

Xu Lu worriedly looked at the pistol on the table, and then at the expressionless Han Junhua. She gently dragged Jiang Chen’s arm, "Boss…"

She was worried that Han Junhua would do something that endangers Jiang Chen.

"Don’t worry, go for now." Jiang Chen waved his hand as he signaled to her not to worry.

Although she was worried, Jiang Chen’s order for every "knight" was absolute. Xu Lu gave a look of warning to Han Junhua before she closed the door behind her.

Han Junhua glanced at the gun on the table and looked at Jiang Chen questioningly.

But Jiang Chen only responded with three concise words.

"Live, or die."

Han Junhua was silent, and then she picked up the gun.

Jiang Chen calmly looked at her.

Then, she pointed the pistol at her temple, just like when they first met that morning.

"You… Why bother?" Jiang Chen used a helpless voice.

"My mission has already been completed. To die as a soldier is my glory."

Is every PAC official so stubborn?

"It’s hard to understand." Jiang Chen looked at her as if she was a monster.

"You didn’t belong to that era, you wouldn’t understand."

As she said this, she pressed the trigger.

Jiang Chen shook his head and closed his eyes.

The sound of the striker being hammered diffused into his ear-

Chapter 314: The End of the Mission

Ding-

The sound of the striker echoed through the room, but the sound of the exploding didn’t.

There were no bullets in the clip.

Han Junhua’s eyebrows jumped.

A moment later, she slowly opened her eyes as she put the pistol on the table.

"Are you teasing me?"

"Not at all." Jiang Chen let out a sigh and put away the pistol on the table.

He had many hypotheses.

She could grab the pistol and attempt to threaten him by forcing him to go inside the fallout shelter and save the people that abandoned her. If she really did that, it would mean that she still pedantically cared about those people’s lives. Therefore, it would be easy to force her to conform as Jiang Chen would just use their lives to threaten her.

If she couldn’t pull the trigger, that meant that she didn’t want to die in such a meaningless fashion. Therefore, a slavery chip was enough to control her.

But Jiang Chen didn’t think that she would make, what Jiang Chen saw as the worst decision.

To the people unafraid of death and without attachment, he couldn’t think of a way to control her.

Slavery chip? It was just a more elegant and more straightforward way of threatening people compared to gun against the head. Although it could monitor heart rate levels and hormone activity, it could not control people’s thoughts.

"I sincerely hope you can join me in my cause." Jiang Chen used his last ditch effort.

"Cause? You call this a cause?" Han Junhua’s mouth carved up into what looked like a contemptuous curvature, it was the first expression she gave Jiang Chen on her expressionless face. "I am a PAC soldier, I hope I can still be one when I die."

A trace of enragement flashed across Jiang Chen’s face, Jiang Chen deeply inhaled as he tried to calm his mood.

"Looks like negotiation has failed." He dubiously smiled and stood up.

Han Junhua used an "obviously" look to respond to him.

"Great."

Jiang Chen only left that one word before leaving.

Gone?

Han Junhua watched Jiang Chen leave as she felt relieved.

But to her surprise, the door opened again.

It was Xu Lu who walked in. The woman with a smile so pure that it made her extremely comfortable.

"I don’t understand, why do you have to reject our leader." Xu Lu looked at her with a smile.

"Are you willing to die for him?" Han Junhua asked emotionlessly.

"Of course." An unhealthy red flush appeared on Xu Lu’s face before it faded away. Then her face returned to the same smiling expression.

"Then you should understand me. The ideology of PAC is my life."

When ideology becomes spiritual, it is not fundamentally different from a religion. The only difference is, religion is god while ideology is philosophy.

Xu Lu neglected her description as she responded, "You are a lucky woman."

"Is that so?"

"Of course, because leader said, he will personally train you, until you conform."

"…" Han Junhua thought she heard wrong.

Is that considered lucky?

She could only say that there are all kinds of people in this world… Han Junhua muttered to herself in her mind.

Xu Lu's smile began to turn cold as she overlooked Han Junhua in her white dress and used a cold voice.

"Until you wake up and realize your place, your three meals a day will become two meals of nutrient supply."

"That’s fine." Han Junhua’s response was only two short words.

Xu Lu looked dubiously at her, the eyes seemed to say: I will see how long you can last.

A few female soldiers walked inside and took away the bed and all the other furniture.

"Enjoy your time in the darkroom."

After leaving those words, Xu Lu left the room.

…

It was lucrative to hope that everything would go according to plan. Han Junhua lasted until the end without conforming. But the more she acted this way, the more Jiang Chen became interested.

One sentence to describe the situation, she needed more lessons!

Coincidentally, he had plenty of time to give lessons.

Jiang Chen temporarily left Han Junhua’s task aside as the development of Fallout Shelter 027 was rather smooth.

Based on Jiang Chen’s order, every noon at 12, the Fishbone base would drive an excavation truck and slowly pour around two tons of sand down to the horizontal elevator tunnel.

The sand was poured slowly, but falling from a thousand meter height, the sound of sand smashing against the elevator was still deafening.

The half an hour of deafening sound was like a curse that twirled around every resident of the fallout shelter as it tortured their mental defense.

Right now, the fallout shelter no longer held a celebratory atmosphere.

Fear, suspicion, and confusion hung on every resident’s face.

The ground piled with garbage, the empty space in the industrial area was filled with the smell of vomit-inducing alcohol. People gathered there while they waited for Wu Yaguo’s explanation.

"What’s going on? Wu Yaguo, you said you have negotiated with them already!" A resident who stood in the front angrily pointed at his nose.

Three days ago, he had just put him on the throne.

"You, you can’t blame me for this, it’s those primal people that don’t have any credibility," In the midst of the crowd’s skepticism, Wu Yaguo explained with cold sweat rolling down his face.

He saw from those people’s eyes, the color he had seen before.

This made him fearful. He didn’t want to become the second Han Junhua.

"Stay calm, friends. If we are listless, that will make their plan come true," Wu Yaguo gulped as he desperately tried to calm the mood of the crowd.

"Calm? How are we supposed to remain calm? Let them bury us alive?" Someone screamed.

"They wouldn’t do that, they still need our technology. Including the unfinished Tiger II blueprint, they still need us, they are only pretending," a representative tried to suggest.

"The elevator’s maximum capacity is only twenty tons, after this limit, we can never go back up."

"They are pouring sand, if we move the sand, the elevator would still be usable…"

"What’s the purpose? Go up and surrender?"

"Dammit, these primal people without credibility!"

Wu Yaguo gulped as sweat continuously rolled down his forehead. He wanted to say something.

But at this time, Feng Hui walked up on the stairs as he started talking without permission.

"Everyone… I don’t know if I should be the one saying this, but… with the current consumption speed, the fallout shelter’s energy can only last for five more days."

Five days!

Compared to the sand, they had more critical things to worry about.

Once the energy is consumed, this would become a city of death in ten minutes.

Wu Yaguo furiously stared at Feng Hui, the latter shrunk his neck, but had no regret at all.

Feng Hui thought if he brought this question up now, if they could do something, the fallout shelter could still be saved… Although his feelings have never been right before.

The energy shortage was like a spell that lingered in every resident’s mind.

The celebration in the past few days had spent the already short energy to almost nothing.

"If it was Han Junhua…"

Someone started the sentence but then realized his words as he immediately closed his mouth before finishing.

When everyone hated on one person, it was dangerous to defend that person.

But he obviously didn’t know because his perspective surprisingly did not get rebuked.

"Yes, if it was her…"

"Maybe, pay attention to my dictation, I’m just saying maybe, we went over the line?"

It is funny to say, but the collective is always forgetful.

Until now, they finally remembered everything that person did for them. When they carefully thought about it, all of her actions were for them. As a dictator, she didn’t use her power for personal gains.

The criticism began to shift to compassion for Han Junhua.

As Wu Yaguo heard the chatter, he knew he couldn’t wait any longer.

If he continued to hesitate, he would become the criminal of the entire fallout shelter!

How would the crowd generate confidence? How would he freely escape his responsibility?

He did an expected, but foolish action.

"Everyone! Listen to me, listen to me! Now, we are facing the most critical challenge that Fallout Shelter 027 has ever faced since its inception!"

With his shouting, people stopped discussing again, they looked at him while waiting for the next step.

"I admit, my vision is short-sighted, my knowledge is limited, and I express my deepest apology to my lack of ability." Wu Yaguo lowered his head as he gave the most profound bow to the residents.

Chatting began to sprout, but Wu Yaguo didn’t bother with it. He raised his head, lifted up his arms and shouted.

"But I believe, the crowd’s intelligence is glorious, the vision is with foresight!"

As he faced the pairs of skeptical eyes, Wu Yaguo opened his EP and entered a few lines of code.

Everyone’s EP shook, people shockingly looked at the message on the EP.

"Now! I grant the power of the fallout shelter leader to all the residents! Everyone, technology allowed for absolute democracy to exist. Anyone could start a proposal, anyone could cast their sacred vote to any proposals, the absolute, just terminal will recognize everything. History will remember this moment, we just created history. Thank you for the continuous support, thank you…"

After he finished, Wu Yaguo fled from the stairs.

The decision making power was distributed to everyone’s hands. The fallout shelter no longer needed a leader, everyone was a leader.

The instant he had escaped down the stairs, he used the corner of his eyes to see that the skepticism among the pupils was replaced with the excitement of power.

Shortly after, the first proposal was introduced regarding if a power cut was necessary…

Academician Qin stood in the corner of the empty ground and let out a sigh.

The same sigh was heard a few days ago.

But unfortunately, no one listened.

At the same time, the last wave of Klein particles was sent lightyears away as it carried an experiment report stained with blood.

As of now, the purpose of Fallout Shelter 027 was fulfilled.

Chapter 315: Taking Over the Fallout Shelter

Jiang Chen didn't know what kinds of interesting proposals the fallout shelter residents, immersed in their fantasies, had proposed. However, he knew what the last proposal was.

On the fifth day, the fallout shelter door opened.

They chose to surrender with all votes supporting the notion.

After the proposal had passed, everyone felt relieved. Because a lot of people among them had not eaten for the last twenty-four hours.

The elevator locked underground began operating again as it moved the sand and a trembling fallout shelter resident onto the surface. Under the guidance of the Fishbone base soldier, he saw Jiang Chen and expressed anxiously the will to surrender.

Jiang Chen gladly accepted their surrender, and the man felt relieved.

The man was Wu Yaguo.

Under the supervision of one hundred Fishbone base soldier, the one thousand five hundred residents underground initiated a new proposal to pass the leader permission to Jiang Chen. At gunpoint, just like the day they forced Han Junhua to surrender her leader permission, everyone voted in agree under humiliation.

Unanimously passed, Jiang Chen was the new leader of the fallout shelter.

Therefore, the door of the fallout shelter was non-existent to the Fishbone base. The permission to open the door or not was now controlled by Jiang Chen.

Immediately, the one thousand five hundred residents were forcefully moved to the surface as they were packed into the crowded temporary shelter, waiting for Jiang Chen's order. The residents were like shaken hamsters. Even when they faced Han Junhua, they stood up valiantly. But in the face of the "ruthless" Jiang Chen with military power, they had no courage to resist at all.

Human nature was a delicate phenomenon.

However, Jiang Chen gave them disheartening news as he quickly planned their future.

The entire fallout shelter 027, including the residents that moved to the surface in the beginning, nine hundred out of the one thousand and seven hundred people were elites from different industries. Of the remaining eight hundred people, four hundred were twelve or below, and the rest were all useless garbage.

The four hundred useless individuals were dragged to Shenxiang Town colony where they will be planting the Carm tree and processing the mutated fruits necessary to produce nutrient supplies.

Of the remaining thirteen hundred people, they were divided by family. Part of the group will be living on the surface of camp 27, while the remainder will return to fallout shelter 027 to enjoy their happy life.

Needless to say, even with so many shortcomings, the fallout shelter was still the happiest place on the wasteland. There were only two hundred individuals granted a return to the fallout shelter, and the number of people will change based on Fishbone's project. The two hundred research individuals will be divided into five projects as they continue to enjoy their life. They were permitted to bring a spouse along with children less than 18 years old to enjoy the same life.

Of course, there were plenty of talents in the fallout shelter. If their efficiency is too low, they would be kicked out. People would gladly take their spot and bring their family to enjoy the heaven-like life.

As to the families forced to stay on the surface, Jiang Chen didn't give them any trouble. Instead, he treated them as a talent reserve. For the people influential in virtual reality development, Jiang Chen moved their family to the Fishbone base and gave them to Du Yongkong to develop the virtual reality MMORPG.

Speaking of Du Yongkong, he certainly felt left out. After he had developed Future 1.0, Jiang Chen had almost forgotten about him.

A lot of people that had joined the Fishbone base around the same time were all tasked with important duties, while he was stuck with a bunch of machines, writing codes. If he had nothing to do he would just try to waste the day away. But now that he had people, he finally had an opportunity to display his skill.

However, he was still confused about why he was developing Future 1.0. He didn't understand the purpose of developing an outdated virtual reality that required a helmet. It was the kind of feeling where people already had consoles, but they still wanted to play the original Gameboy.

But he didn't voice his thoughts.

…

Standing at the gate of the camp, Jiang Chen looked at the row of trucks leaving the camp.

Five hours ago, the eight trucks hauled a total of 120 tons of concrete. This C-grade concrete produced from the concrete plant in Shenxiang would be used to build the new homes for the fallout shelter residents.

Now, the trucks transported away 421 fallout shelter residents. During the ability assessment, they were determined to not possess any research ability. They were incorporated into the Fishbone base with a citizen level of "slave". While working in the plantation to feed themselves, they will also be working towards becoming a "lower citizen" one day.

Jiang Chen didn't know since when Xu Lu stood beside him, but he suddenly heard her exclaim in a light voice.

"It is hard to believe that the hard to chew on fallout shelter defeated themselves like this."

"This is normal." Jiang Chen gazed at the shadows disappearing at the end of the highway as he grinned.

"You are always so wise." Xu Lu watched Jiang Chen's back with a smile.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment as he didn't imagine people would describe him as wise as he began laughing out loud.

"It is not wise, not at all… Only some experience with society."

Xu Lu didn't continue on this topic.

"How are the resident assembly representatives going to be treated?"

"I have already arranged for them to go on the truck."

Including Wu Yaguo and Shi Yongtian. The Fishbone needed all forms of talents, but it didn't need politicians who only knew how to speak and point fingers. It would require months if not years of labor for them to interrogate into the new life on the wasteland.

Hearing that Jiang Chen had already made the arrangement, Xu Lu smiled and nodded before she started to discuss her next step.

"Now that this side of things is over, do you need me to return to the logistics department immediately?"

"No need, we need management talent here. Wang Zhaowu is not bad at commanding an army, but it would be disastrous if the same techniques used to manage an army were used politically. You are exceptional in this field, you'll be in charge of the affairs at Camp 27."

"Okay, boss." Xu Lu bowed.

"Wang Qin will organize the research projects before transitioning them over to you. Your primary responsibility will be ensuring that the research needed is being done. Other than that, the rest will be up to you. You can do it!"

As he said this, Jiang Chen patted her shoulder, trying to motivate her before leaving.

"Also, one more thing." Xu Lu seemed to have remembered something as she stopped Jiang Chen.

"Mhmm?"

"An elder man wants to see you. He said he is an academician from the Pan-Asian Corporation Academy of Social Sciences, his name is Qin Xuehai…"

Chapter 316: Light Years Away

Tents of various sizes were built around the outskirt of the camp. Although they were simple and crude, they were enough to weather the harsh external conditions. These tents were all hauled from the Fishbone base and will be used before Camp 27 apartments are built. Therefore, the residents forcefully moved to the surface must settle for them.

The tents formed a distinct contrast with the one hundred homes in the center of the camp as if it was the ghetto versus the rich.

The situation was rather comical. They had previously mocked the two groups of residents that first moved up to the surface stating that they would rather live in the harsh conditions of the surface than the comfort in the fallout shelter. But now the situation seemed to be reversed as the people they mocked now became someone they envied.

After passing through a few tents, Jiang Chen walked to a tent at the corner of the camp. He saw an elder with white hair who seemed to be waiting for him.

"You are Academician Qin?"

The elder kindly smiled at Jiang Chen who stood in front of him as he got up.

"Yes, and you must be Jiang Chen?"

Jiang Chen nodded.

"Your body condition doesn't seem to be too well."

The elder waved his hand as he said something that surprised Jiang Chen.

"Don't worry, I am a digitalized human."

Digitalized human? Digitalized humans can also age?

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes but quickly returned back to normal.

"I heard you have something important to tell me, is it just this?"

"Of course not." Academician Qin shook his head. "There is one thing I want to give you."

As he said, he picked a baseball-sized black sphere out of his pocket.

Jiang Chen looked at the sphere as he frowned. It felt like he had seen this somewhere before.

Suddenly, his pupils contracted.

"The Golden Apple?" Jiang Chen whispered.

Academician Qin paused a moment before shaking his head. "Is that how you refer to this thing? But you'll be disappointed. It is only a communication device based on Dr. Klein's research on Klein particles, it is referred to as galactic cellphone. Of course, the energy for this has been completely consumed, it can only provide you with a coordinate."

Jiang Chen took over the black sphere as he carefully examined it in his hands. The appearance was no different than the one he obtained in U-235, but this was clearly lighter.

Also, this must be the real "Golden Apple", not the counterfeit "Golden Apple" the Third Reich mimicked. This thing was not meant to broadcast to other time dimensions, but rather to conduct communication across time.

"Can this thing… Speak to the past?"

Academician Qin smiled when he heard Jiang Chen's question, "In theory, yes. However, just like the Shronginder's cat, even if you spoke to the past, you can't verify if someone heard it, and you can't verify if they understood or not."

"Is that so? I heard that this thing is made with brain extract-" Jiang Chen mustered to himself as he was deep in thought.

"That is false." Academician Qin smiled. "That's right, the brain extract can detect Klein particle activities, but how is it possible to use the brain to create this?"

In a parallel world, someone certainly did that… Jiang Chen said in his mind.

After a momentary pause, Academician Qin put on a stern face as he continued, "To be honest, this thing had lost its purpose already. The reason why I am telling you this is only because I'm trying to explain a fact to you."

"What fact?" Jiang Chen observed the metallic ball in his hand.

"This is an experiment."

Jiang Chen's action stopped as he looked at Academician Qin.

"Experiment?"

"That's right, the experiment is to research under the circumstance of extremely limited resources, how would the human society evolve," Academician Qin calmly told a shocking truth.

Jiang Chen was in shock, or in disbelief.

But he quickly realized something was odd.

It was too much of a coincidence. The PAC government was that useless? The fallout shelter was a civil defense structure and built based on the international political situation deteriorating. Would it really be problematic to store more nuclear fusion cores? It was set for 50 years, but it had to open in 20 years. And that Han Junhua, she was clearly not meant to be a politician.

But he didn't manage to think that the entire fallout shelter was just an experiment, every single person inside was a white rat.

"From the beginning, there was not enough energy. Even the choice of leaders, the kind Zhang Qiming as the first leader and the cold Han Junhua as the second leader, they were both not ideal choices for leadership, but can be researched as classic personalities."

"The experiment's result is sent to the Zhenghe Space Colonization Ship lightyears away using this device."

The elimination of sources of error, and investigate into key subjects were typical of an experiment.

It was just that, the experiment to be conducted on a group of people was too cruel.

"Although it is just a small fallout shelter, don't you think this is the reflection of society?"

"Why are you telling me this?" Jiang Chen stuffed the metallic ball into his pocket as he retorted.

He was not part of the PAC, nor did he have anything to do with the dissolved World Alliance Organization. He was not bored enough to think of the people lightyears away.

"I am only providing you with a thought process. If you happen to encounter such a choice, I believe you will learn something from it."

[Thought process? That choice?]

"Thought process?" Jiang Chen didn't understand.

"That's right, as a researcher who lived in the fallout shelter for 20 years, other than being responsible for the experiment, I have been thinking about another question."

"What question?"

"You should have heard of reproductive separation."

It was not a complicated subject, even in the biology textbook from the 21st century it was mentioned. Jiang Chen only recalled briefly before he nodded.

"Because of geographical isolation and other factors, different groups of the same species reproduce in different habitats. Due to the inability to carry out gene exchange, to withstand the natural selection of different environments, it would eventually lead to the formation of two completely different species. "

Academician Qin nodded in praise as he looked at Jiang Chen.

"Although there are still some flaws with the theory, that's mostly the case. With geographical separation, after thousands of years' of evolvement, the same species would evolve into two completely different species. Geographical separation is the pretense for reproductive separation. But have you considered another possibility? If for some reason humans were forced to create geographic separation, what kind of possibility would that create?"

"Reproductive separation?" Jiang Chen paused for a moment.

"No, it's ideological separation." Academician Qin shook his head as he threw out a concept that Jiang Chen never heard of before.

"How you noticed, in only 20 years, the people living underground and the people on the surface have been separated into two kinds of people. What would happen if 50 years passed? Or even longer time."

Jiang Chen began to ponder on the idea as he waited for him to explain.

"Under different environment, the civilization making an adjustment to the environment is known as evolvement from a social science point of view. Just like how although reproductive separation didn't exist between the ancient and modern people, there exists a huge gap between them ideology wise."

"If we look at the deep space light years away, is there a gap created between the space colonization ship and us?"

"The instant when the space colonization ships accelerated to escape the solar system, they were no longer humans from earth. Or rather, the ship who have gathered the elites of the human civilization had already evolved into something higher."

"So what? Whatever they evolve into, they are no longer on earth," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

When he heard Jiang Chen's words, Academician Qin only laughed.

"In the 16th century, what did the Europeans bring to UA?"

"Slaughter?"

"No, civilization."

Was there a difference? Jiang Chen just wanted to ask, but he all of the sudden stopped.

That's right because there was no difference…

"The rebirth of the civilization must be accompanied by bloody brutality," Academician Qin said gently.

"You mean… They will be back?"

"Regardless if they will be back or not, they will do something. And to us as the "natives" the process must be accompanied by pain. Blood? Sacrifice? But what is truly terrifying is that these actions will be justified through their perspective."

Chapter 317: Supreme, Harmony, Purity

Supreme, Harmony, and Purity.

Supreme, the fusion between human and technology. It was simple to understand. The digitalized human would be considered part of the supreme philosophy.

Harmony, the combination of human and nature. It was using genetic engineering to modify humans to adapt to harsh conditions. The example would be the mutated humans who could feast on the mutants meat. They were definitely the group who enjoyed the wasteland the most… Although no one would classify them as human.

As to purity.

"Purity is nothing will change."

"Nothing will change? Is that considered evolution?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

...

"It is considered evolution." Academician Qin nodded. "The activity of civilization expanded from earth to space, it is a great chance to make no change to the form of existence. They don’t abandon any parts of being human and use foreign objects to strengthen themselves, protecting the body itself. This requires no fewer sacrifices than the first two. The only thing we can guess now is that the new human who chooses this path is the most likely to be friendly to us, and at least better than those who chose supreme or harmony. "

After listening to Academician Qin's explanation, Jiang Chen remained silent.

He let out a sigh after a long while.

"Regardless, these are all too distant."

"It is indeed too distant. The formation of a new civilization would take tens, hundreds, and even thousands of years. But regardless the length of time, civilization would have to make the decision on how it chooses to continue its existence. As an elder man who is about to step into the coffin, the only thing I can do is tell you what I know. If you can learn something from it, and make the right choices, it will be the pleasure of civilization."

"…"

"The pleasure of civilization? That is a daunting recognition. But unfortunately, Jiang Chen didn’t have any interest in becoming the next savior, nor did he have the capability to become one. But if he thought about carefully, if he had to cast a vote in terms of the direction of the entire civilization, he would lean more towards the route of purity.

As to why? Naturally, asides from purity, would the humans coming from the two other routes still be considered human?

Under a bold assumption, the end to harmony would be humans fusing with mutants, and the end of supreme would most likely be advanced artificial intelligence and internal hard discs. Regardless of which one, the pleasure of being human would be abandoned.

After leaving Academician Qin’s tent, Jiang Chen threw the "authentic golden apple" into the storage dimension and walked to the gate of the camp.

An armored vehicle was parked in front of the gate, and from the cigarette butts on the ground, the vehicle had been waiting for a long time.

When he saw Jiang Chen walk over, the driver who was killing time smoking a cigarette immediately threw it away and saluted to him with a straight back.

Jiang Chen nodded to the driver as he sat in the passenger seat.

"Let’s go back to the base."

"Yes!"

It only took a moment of zoning out before the vehicle arrived at the mansion in the base.

When Jiang Chen walked inside, he hung his winter suit on the wall and bumped into Sun Jiao who was coming down the stairs.

"…Are you okay?" Sun Jiao asked caringly when she saw Jiang Chen's’ face.

"Mhmm?" Jiang Chen looked at Sun Jiao, dumbfounded. He scratched his face. "Is there something on my face?"

Looking at Jiang Chen’s action, Sun Jiao covered her mouth as she began to giggle.

"Yes, there are two bugs on your forehead almost twisting together."

Bugs?

Jiang Chen touched his forehead, but he felt his eyebrows.

When he saw the mocking expression on Sun Jiao’s face, he immediately realized that the girl was teasing him.

"You dare to tease your husband?" Jiang Chen pretended to be angry as he leaped toward her, but Sun Jiao dodged with a smirk.

Regarding body conditions, Jiang Chen would never be able to catch up to Sun Jiao without special abilities. But Sun Jiao obviously didn’t try too hard as they fooled for a minute before she was tackled onto the sofa by Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen, breathing heavily, looked at Sun Jiao who he finally managed to catch and grinned.

With a slightly flushed face, her full breasts bounced up and down. Her crystal eyes covered by a layer of mist, staring straight into Jiang Chen’s eyes.

Jiang Chen who was about to "bully" her stopped.

"What’s going on? Honey."

Jiang Chen used his finger to gently lift up the rumpled hair on her forehead and said gently.

He could feel her hesitation. She had her own thoughts.

The audacious face rarely displayed a trace of fragility. Sun Jiao hesitantly looked at Jiang Chen as she whispered.

"How about this. Why don’t you go take a break on the other side?"

When he heard Sun Jiao’s words, Jiang Chen was surprised. Sun Jiao always wanted to keep him on this side, but this time she brought this up on her own.

Sun Jiao read the surprise on Jiang Chen’s face. Then with a blushing face, she continued.

"Didn’t you say… Compared to the other side, this side is more depressing? I’m scared…"

She bit her lips before quickly letting go.

"All in all, I can’t allow you to dislike this side."

Although the voice sounded capricious, Jiang Chen could still clearly feel the love.

"Mhmm, I promise." Jiang Chen looked into Sun Jiao’s eyes as he sincerely promised.

After gazing with Jiang Chen for a while, Sun Jiao suddenly burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at." Jiang Chen pretended to be angry as he slapped her butt.

Sun Jiao cried out in slight pain as she rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen.

"Nothing, I can’t think my husband is adorable?"

"I think you should think your husband is strong." Jiang Chen with a smirk as his hands began to move around.

Sun Jiao felt the coldness that moved around her waist as her face began to burn. She rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and joked.

"In the living room again. We've never successfully done it in the living room…"

It was Jiang Chen who blushed this time.

He remembered the first time when Sun Jiao was like an untamed cat that jumped onto him. However, before they could do anything, Yao Yao who came downstairs saw him completed exposed.

"Ahem, why don’t we continue in the bedroom?" Jiang Chen subconsciously glanced at the empty stairs as he awkwardly retreated his hands.

Sun Jiao seductively rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen as she swiftly escaped from Jiang Chen’s hug and sat on the sofa.

With two fingers, she demandingly lifted Jiang Chen’s chin.

"Come to my room tonight."

The red lips naughtily breathed a breath of warm fragrance.

Chapter 318: Transferring the Military Factory

The next morning, Jiang Chen with black circles under his eyes, walked out of Sun Jiao's bedroom yawning.

As he reminisced the intimacy that happened last time, he couldn't help but smile. Perhaps because they haven't done it for so long, last night Sun Jiao was particularly demanding as she only let him sleep after midnight while she drifted to sleep as well like a well-fed cat.

As Jiang Chen thought about this, he stretched his back with a delightful smile-

"Ka."

The pleasant smile froze on his face as a drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

[Fu*k, my back! Ouch, ouch, ouch]

At the same time, the still sleepy Yao Yao walked into the hallway.

She looked at Jiang Chen who froze in place as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Hmm?"

"Ahem, Yao, Yao Yao, come help me…" Jiang Chen with his thick skin finally squeezed out these words.

He felt humiliated…

The nice Yao Yao immediately walked up to help him.

Jiang Chen looked at the innocent eyes as he didn't know how to explain what caused his stiff back.

…

It was already early March; snow was barely visible in Wanghai City now. Followed by the stabilization of the situation on the wasteland, it was time to return to the modern world as events have also been progressing along there.

Of course, before he returned, Jiang Chen still had to take care of some urgent matters.

After eating lunch at the community center, Jiang Chen rode the helicopter to the Sixth Street as he headed immediately to the Zhao Corporation Headquarter within the Inner Circle.

After months of repair, the traces of the civil war were no longer visible in the Inner Circle. Including Zhao Corporation's building almost penetrated by the electromagnetic cannon, from the outside, it was impossible to tell that a bloody civil war erupted here.

Just as he stared into the Zhao Corporation building, Jiang Chen felt countless eyes focus on him before fleeing away.

He smiled as he didn't bother with their looks and he headed straight to the elevator.

The new security guard in the front saw Jiang Chen's back and was prepared to stop him because he didn't notify the reception desk.

The old security guard with sharp eyes immediately dragged the new colleague back by the collar.

The new security guard tilted his neck and looked at the old security in shock. When he saw that the elevator doors had already closed, he complained in frustration, "What are you doing? Didn't the boss say that without going through the front desk, all visitors should be kicked out."

"Bullsh*t, did you not see who he was? If you dared to stop him, your boss would stuff your head into the toilet."

The old security guard spat all over his face as he remained completely dumbfounded.

"Who, Who is he…"

Seeing how stupid his new colleague was, the old security let out a sigh.

"Sigh, you just came from Hang City so you might not know, the Sixth Street now is not what it was before. Did you see the newly built casino in the Inner Circle? A few months ago a nuke blew up there."

"Nuke?!" The new security's eyes widened.

"Tactical nuke. Although it was not a big one, it did wipe out half of the Inner Circle."

"Is that the person…"

"No, but things changed here. The Group of Ten council collapsed after the civil war. And that man, the only victor out of the war, is the general of the Sixth Street." The old security let out a sigh as he said melancholily.

It would be impossible to say he didn't miss the old times, back then the status of being a security guard of Zhao Corporation was envied by many.

The new security guard's eyes were about to pop out as cold sweat began to roll down, he felt scared.

He was thankful that the old guy dragged him. It would be less of a deal if he lost his job, but if he offended someone of power, it would a question of if he could walk out of the door or not.

Other people would need an appointment to see Zhao Chenwu, for Jiang Chen, the process was not so problematic.

When Jiang Chen walked into his office, the previous ruthless leader was already waiting in front of the desk.

"A rare visitor, what brings you here?" When Jiang Chen walked in, Zhao Chenwu stopped the work in his hands as he stood up smiling.

Jiang Chen noticed that his mood seemed to be a lot better. He didn't have the same expression of despair that was present when he passed on his power.

"How have you been?"

"Haha, great, thanks to Mr. Jiang. Let's go talk in the room next door."

With the food business blooming, although he lost part of his power, he had significant gains in other areas. Under the direction of Jiang Chen he created the trade fleets, not only did he extend the business up to Luzhou, he even opened the market for tea and coffee. The green crystals flooded to him. In less than a month. He had already recovered nearly a third of his losses from the civil war.

While they caught up, the two walked to the guest room next door as they sat around a table. Not long after, his assistant Su Lei walked inside as she poured hot tea for both of them before leaving.

Jiang Chen noticed her right hand was switched into mechanical prosthetics. It must be because of the civil war.

After some small talk, Jiang Chen began to discuss the issues at hand. When he asked about the status of the ten T-3 power armors he has ordered. It was already March; it was around the time the order should be completed.

"It is already done! I went to examine it in the military factory, the technicians have completed the last stage of program testing, do you need me to take you there for a visual?"

Jiang Chen waved his hand. "There is no rush, I will send people to transport it back tomorrow. The 88000 crystals can be deducted from the food business' income. Also, how's your production capacity for your military factory?"

When heard Jiang Chen ask about the military factory, he gave a brief thought before he gave a conservative estimate.

"With the newly added production line, the production capacity increased by sixty percent."

"Sixty percent? Let me try a different question, how many power armor can the factory produce in a month?"

"At most three."

"That's too little." Jiang Chen shook his head.

Seeing that Jiang Chen was unhappy with his work, Zhao Chenwu had a helpless expression on his face. "It is not little at all. Power armors are not bullets, and the process can't be streamlined. It takes half a month with ten technicians around a skeleton with blueprints to make them. Also, these are all skilled workers."

"Why can't the production be streamlined? Is the power armor before the war manufactured one by one?"

When he heard Jiang Chen ask this, Zhao Chenwu forced a smile. "It is not that simple, there are thousands of parts inside. Without a complete industrial process, it is impossible to streamline the process for a massive thing like this. The power armor is one of the better products. If it is the spider tank, at best it would be one unit per half a year."

Zhao Chenwu paused for a moment before he continued.

"I am serious, with the increasing number of factories, the cost of steel, bronze, and aluminum have all increased. The profit margin of the firearms is no way near as high as the food business…"

Jiang Chen finally understood when he heard Zhao Chenwu say that.

The key point was, he had no interest in developing the military factory. The profit of the food business would bring in millions of crystals, and the power armor had a cost of nine thousand crystals, to begin with. With a sale price of eleven thousand, it would only be a profit of two thousand. The work an entire winter would only net twenty thousand which would be equivalent to a trip down to the neighboring city.

He developed the military factory before to equip his private force. Now that Jiang Chen had put a restriction on the private force, and even injected them with the "honorary chip", he didn't have the motivation to develop the military factory.

But since the military factory was not his, Jiang Chen couldn't demand him to continue to expand if Zhao Chenwu was unwilling, so he spoke after thinking for a moment.

"How about this, sell the military factory to me, including those workers, give me a price."

Zhao Chenwu was ecstatic when he heard Jiang Chen was willing to take over the not so profitable military factory.

"No problem. The military factories used to produce spider tanks, and power armors cost a total of eight hundred seventy thousand crystals. I will sell it to you at cost."

Chapter 319: Purchasing Firearms

In the end, the transfer price of the military factories was lowered to six hundred thousand crystals before they agreed on the deal.

[Eight hundred and seventy thousand? You think your military factories have a stable source of income? Ordinary people would be unable to afford this, combined with the already limited distribution channel. Especially with the formation of the Sixth Street Bank, the wealth generated from the last two crusades completedly ignited the industrial fire of the Sixth Street. Workshops and factories appeared like bamboo sprouts. With the lucrative food business in place, it would be insane to use the money to expand the military factories.]

Zhao Chenwu debated with Jiang Chen for a while before he settled on a price. He was satisfied with a price of six hundred thousand crystals. With these crystals as liquid assets, he could further expand the trade fleets and expand the business further beyond the horizon.

But for Jiang Chen, compared to crystals, as the general of the military government, needed to consider the military aspect.

"Also, how is the development of the T-4 power armor?"

Regarding development, Zhao Chenwu's expression was rather awkward.

"Part of the technical problems are yet to be resolved; it is primarily related to the engine. The request I sent out to the two mercenaries groups to retrieve technical support has yet to progress…"

"Transfer me the research team as well then," Jiang Chen said straightforwardly.

Since he recently incorporated fallout shelter 027, to the problem Zhao Chenwu couldn't solve, maybe it would not be a problem at all for the scientists that inherited the technology before the war.

Zhao Chenwu nodded. "Okay, the research team is already part of the military factory. But to be honest, research is a bottomless pit. Other than the armor being a bit weaker, the T-3 power armor is superb in mobility as well as firepower, there would not be a lot of room for improvement…"

"Is it not weaker, but too weak." Jiang Chen shook his head. "Other than the armor in front of the chest, the other parts would be busted by a few scratches of the Death Claw."

Zhao Chenwu forced a smiled, "You can't compare this thing to a Death Claw, the defense is not the strong suit of the airdrop type of power armor. If the Death Claw is in close range, even the land type power armor would not be able to hold out."

"Land type power armor? Speaking of this, is there a military factory that produces the land type at the Sixth Street?"

Zhao Chenwu shook his head, "No, or rather no need."

"No need?" Jiang Chen was slightly surprised.

"Compared to the cumbersome land type power armor, the airdrop type with high mobility and short range flight capability obviously are more fitted to explore the wasteland. For example, if a group of zombies surrounded the power armor, the airdrop type would be able to use the turbine engine to fly out, the land type would be stuck there being squeezed to death," Zhao Chenwu patiently explained to Jiang Chen.

While zombie's claw and teeth could not break the power armor steel, it could use its size to squish the power armor flat.

[I see, so it comes down to practicality after all…]

The tea on the table was already cold.

Looking at Jiang Chen deep in thought, Zhao Chenwu took a sip of the tea and signaled Su Lei to add more hot tea.

"No need for the trouble, it is pretty late." Jiang Chen glanced at the clock on the wall as he stood up smiling.

Zhao Chenwu also stood up and laughed.

"Are you planning to leave? I will send you down."

"Oh, also, something else… I need another batch of firearms. Do you have any firearms dealer you can recommend to me?"

Zhao Chenwu paused for a second, "What type of firearms?"

"Anti-armor weapon, heat sensor grenade, and sniper rifle, the more, the better."

"Haha, you found the right person!" Zhao Chenwu was ecstatic. "One of my old friends happened to visit me from Su City and asked me if I was interested in absorbing a batch of firearms. But I am not even in that business anymore, so he was troubled by how to get rid of his batch. If you are interested, I will help you contact him right now."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Jiang Chen laughed, "Just take me to him, I want to get this done as soon as possible."

Zhao Chenwu noted a few things for Su Lei and asked her to contact the merchant from Su city.

Then he and Jiang Chen came downstairs and headed to the industrial area at the Sixth Street.

Not long after, the car was parked in front of a warehouse.

A middle-aged man with wrinkles all over his face stood in front of the warehouse. From the half burnt cigarette, he only arrived momentarily as well. When he saw Zhao Chenwu's car, his eyes immediately lit up as he stubbed out the cigarette and stuffed it back into his pocket. Then, he walked to the two people that just got off the car.

"Mr. Zhao, I heard you are interested in my firearms?" With the wrinkles on his face squeezed together, the man smiled while exposing his yellow teeth.

"It is not me that's interested, it's this important individual." Zhao Chenwu looked at Jiang Chen as he began to introduce, "The Sixth Street Military Government General, Jiang Chen."

"It is General Jiang? My pleasure." The man's face was obviously shocked as he immediately extended his hand to shake Jiang Chen's. At the same time, he introduced himself, "I am Hu Youde, a merchant from Su city. It's a great pleasure to finally meet Mr. Jiang."

Hu Youde? (Homoyom for bullsh*t) that's a great name.

"You know me?" Jiang Chen let go of his hand as he was quite surprised.

"Mr. Jiang is a humorous person. Which merchant in this region doesn't know you?" Hu Youde scratched his slightly dirty nose as he laughed.

"Since you know him, then you should know what kind of people shouldn't be bullsh*ting." Zhao Chenwu told Hu Youde with a half-smiling look.

"Ahem, of course. Even if I have one hundred guts, I won't dare to bullsh*t Mr. Jiang. But with Mr. Jiang's reputation, you won't do anything like not paying right?" Hu Youde's muddy eyes shifted as he tried to test the water.

Now that the Sixth Street was no longer controlled by the Group of Ten Council, the merchants without force dealing with dictators were worried. If Jiang Chen didn't pay, he would have nowhere to seek justice.

Jiang Chen began to laugh.

"Don't worry. I won't do anything like not paying, just take me to the firearms."

When he received the promise from Jiang Chen, Hu Youde immediately started to smile as he bowed, exaggeratedly.

"Then I have to thank General Jiang, I will take you right now.'

Hu Youde turned around as he walked to the warehouse first.

"Do you need me to go along?" Zhao Chenwu asked.

"No need, I will go by myself."

"Okay, I will head back then… Also, this guy is mischievous, don't be tricked by him. Do everything you can to lower the price. The batch of firearms has already been here for half a month, he would have to sell even if he had to sell at a loss."

Jiang Chen was puzzled by Zhao Chenwu's words.

"Is it hard to sell firearms here?"

Zhao Chenwu shook his head.

"The market is already saturated with a small population. Now with countless factories and workshops emerging, this market saturation would become the norm. Needless to say the merchants from Su city, even the local factories, are starting to be troubled by their sales channel… Three months ago, this was hard to imagine."

During that time, people with crystals were all wealthy. The increase in quality of life reignited the survivors desire to hunt. Therefore, the mercenary groups and lone travelers eager to switch equipment even lined up at the door of the military factories. The firearms dealer without the worry to sell obviously did everything to increase productivity.

But people only have two hands, weapons were not easy to break either. After the period of "equipment switching" was over, the excessively produced firearms obviously were stored in the warehouses unable to be sold.

Excess production was a severe problem.

Without proper measures, after a short period of prosperity, the newly opened factories and workshops may be on the brink of bankruptcy again. Not only in the firearms industry, with the gradual increase in general productivity, other industries will also experience a similar problem.

Jiang Chen looked at the ragged back as he became thinking about this issue.

Chapter 320: The Mine Pit and Slaves

The metal gate opened as the smell of desiccant dirt blew in his face.

Hu Youde searched for the button on the wall as he turned on the lights to the warehouse.

The dark space instantly lit up. The thick wooden boxes almost stuffed the entire area to its max capacity.

Inside the open boxes were baseball shaped heat sensor grenades, and bowl sized rockets. On the wall directly facing the door were rows of ghost sniper rifles, and by crude estimation, at least another hundred in the boxes on the side with changeable scopes. As to the barrels along the other side of the wall, without a doubt, must be launchers to the rockets.

"Ghost sniper rifle, heat sensor grenade, "Python" anti-tank rocket, reaper rifle, along with some other reliable gadgets. I trust you will definitely be interested." While Hu Youde laughed, he signaled a satisfied gesture to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen walked up and picked up a "Python" and tried to scope.

"Is this thing good."

"One round would bust a power armor," Hu Youde immediately added, "The land type too."

"Is the quality reliable?"

"I can guarantee it with my head." Hu Youde promised while pounding his chest.

Jiang Chen nodded, pleased. As he put down the rocket launcher in his hand, he strolled around the warehouse to try out a few things to ensure the quality of the other weapons.

"If you don't mind me asking, is Mr. Jiang planning something big?"

"Oh? Why do you think so?" Jiang Chen played with the ghost sniper rifle in his hands as he said nonchalantly.

The small cunning eyes spun as Hu Youde cracked a smile. "Everyone knows that it is almost impossible to sell firearms at the Sixth Street now. Mr. Jiang is in the food business so obviously not interested in the small profit. This batch of firearms, it is going to be used to equip an army?"

Jiang Chen glanced at him as the tense Hu Youde immediately rushed to explain, "Ahem, don't be mistaken, I have no intention in collecting information."

"Then your intention is?" Jiang Chen asked him dubiously.

"I just want to know if Mr. Jiang is interested in people," Hu Youde said with a flattering look.

"People?"

"To put it simply, slaves. Ones who are already trained with the electronic collar around their necks so you only need to push them forward during the war."

Jiang Chen was flabbergasted. "You are not only in the firearm business, but you also do slave trade?"

When Hu Youde heard that Jiang Chen seemed to be interested, he immediately became more energetic as he started to explain to Jiang Chen, "Slave is a specialty to Su City. The mine pit at Su City has over seventy thousand slaves registered for sale. Although I don't have stock on hand, if Mr. Jiang is interested, I will immediately go back and haul you a batch."

Jiang Chen was astonished. "Seventy thousand? What kind of damn place is the mine pit."

Seventy thousand? Including the shadow population and nearby survivors, the Sixth Street only has fifty thousand people. Slaves registered for sale alone were over seventy thousand, that was insane!

Although Hu Youde was a bit confused when he heard Jiang Chen didn't know what the mine pit was, he thought that it might be because Jiang Chen had never left Wanghai City and without second guessing it, he began to explain the origin of the mine pit.

The reason why it was called the mine pit was not necessarily because it was actually a mine pit, but because there was a crystal mine pit worth one hundred thousand crystals or above there! Jiang Chen had heard about crystal mines from Sun Jiao a long time, but he had never seen one. Based on Hu Youde's description, it was a biological mine bed attached to the rock surface and it was in diced meat shape with similar behavior to moss. Although it looked disgusting, crystals could be produced from those diced meat.

The slaves at the mine pit had to wear protective suits to walk into the mine and pick up the sand-sized crystals from the disgusting and corrosive diced meat.

Because the owner possessed a huge "gold mine," he hired a bunch of raiders specializing in slave capture as he formed a force of four thousand to become a strong survivor force in Su city. Because they had a special relationship with the raiders nearby, other than outputting crystals, the mine pit also conducted slavery trade.

The dead parts of the diced meat could be cut and used as a prime ingredient for nutrient supply. Therefore the cost to feed slaves was not high. Hence the slave's population naturally increased.

Jiang Chen thought for a moment. "How many can you haul?"

"That depends on the type Mr. Jiang wants." Hu Youde smiled. "Right now it is the tail of the winter, it is not too dangerous on the road. The cheapest kind of slave, I can haul you more than one thousand, but that kind can only be used to boost the number without much use. The type with good body conditions, I can also haul you around one hundred. Then it would be the more expensive kind, because of the limited supplies, I'll have to go back before I can give you an accurate response."

"The expensive kind? What expensive kind?" Jiang Chen asked curiously.

"For example, powerful lone travelers, special talents. Of course, the most expensive is the ice coffin." Hu Youde mysteriously smiled.

The smile looked perverted.

"What on earth is an ice coffin?"

"It is a great thing. Mr. Jiang has heard of hibernation chambers before right?"

"I have." Jiang Chen nodded.

The ultra-low temperature technology allowed humans to pass through an extended period of time with the body's functionality reduced to a minimum. For the people who are using it, fifty years would be the difference of a blink of an eye. Some fallout shelters were even made entirely of hibernation chambers, for example, Yao Yao came out of this type of fallout shelter.

"Imagine this, to have been a top celebrity, or princess before the war, you'll get to enjoy them crying, screaming, and shouting for security and begging for mercy while you tell them the world is hopeless, and then watch their whimpering face turn into despair-"

"That's enough," Jiang Chen interrupted his psychotic words.

It was a waste of talent for him to not write erotics with such vivid description.

Seeing Jiang Chen didn't look pleased, Hu Youde immediately shut his mouth.

After a brief pause, Jiang Chen spoke again, "The type of slave with a healthy body, how much would they cost."

"Twenty crystals for one."

"Okay, I need one thousand, can you do that?"

When Jiang Chen stated he needed that much, Hu Youde was overjoyed as he immediately agreed.

"Of course, of course, I can do it, just leave this to me!"

The slave trade was a lucrative industry. By simply making 10 crystals per slave, it was much more profitable than the firearms business. He didn't even negotiate the price of the firearms as he sold it to Jiang Chen at the eighty thousand crystals cost.

After finally getting rid of the firearms burden, he couldn't wait as he headed back to Su city immediately. He wanted to transport the slaves before the hibernation of the mutants ended as it would save a lot of costs. March was prime time for trade and it only comes once a year!

But before he left, he mysteriously stuffed a small wooden box in Jiang Chen's hands, saying it was a gift to the general from the merchant.

When Jiang Chen asked what it was, he grinned and lowered his voice, "Do you know the secret behind how the mine pit trains female slaves?"

Chapter 321: Slavery Chip Enhanced

It was already the third day. The woman named Xu Lu didn't do anything to her.

If she had to compare between the past three days and a few days ago, it would just be that the three meals a day were changed to two nutrient supplies per day. If she wanted to go to the washroom, no one would let her out. Instead, a cup would be stuffed under the door.

As long as she withstood the initial embarrassment, it was not inconvenient at all.

To the fallout residents who lived a prosperous life, nutrient supply may be unbearable pig food. But to Han Junhua who was a soldier, nutrient supply was a convenient military food. Needless to say, she drank that in the fallout shelter every day. She didn't even have a few hot meals since the war started. Jiang Chen thought a few nutrient supplies would make her surrender? That was too naïve.

As to being lonely…

She was used to being lonely for a long time.

Han Junhua stared at the black wall as he continued to zone out like her usual routine. She had spent her time this way for the past few days as time passed by under such circumstances. She just didn't why that face would occasionally surface in her head.

Under normal circumstances, it was irregular to have this type of feeling towards the enemy, but she still couldn't resist being curious.

She was curious about the man who used the weakness of human nature to conquer fallout shelter 027. What kind of method would he use to force her to conform?

Of course, she thought regardless, it would be impossible.

Then, the door opened. A ray of light shone into the dark room.

She narrowed her eyes and looked at the light source. She saw Xu Lu.

"What day is today" She took a tube from Xu Lu's hand as Han Junhua casually asked.

"Why do you ask?" Xu Lu didn't answer, but instead, she asked back smiling.

"For you would personally send this to me."

Xu Lu only smiled at her.

"Do you want to watch me drink this?"

There was no response. Han Junhua didn't speak anymore.

She twisted open the cap as she chugged down the thick liquid expressionlessly.

Frp, the corner of her eyes, the smile on Xu Lu's face was more and more visible. For some reason, her smile made Han Junhua feel slightly uncomfortable.

Although she couldn't tell what the reason was, it made her uncomfortable.

Suddenly, her head became clouded as her vision began to blur.

Anesthetic?

As she quietly thought, her consciousness fell into the abyss.

Chapter 322: Camp Explosion

After putting on his pants, Jiang Chen looked at the Han Junhua who had fallen on the ground as an evil smile appeared.

Although he didn’t take her first time from the front, from the back, however…

All in all, Han Junhua mindlessly sat on the ground. She looked as if her spirit had escaped her.

"The training has just begun, you have to last through the whole thing."

When she heard Jiang Chen’s words, Han Junhua’s body visibly twitched, her cold face reflexively displayed a trace of despair.

The metal door was slammed shut.

Until the light gradually turned dim before disappearing, what was left to the female PAC colonel was the endless darkness and the joy of climaxing.

When she saw Jiang Chen walk out, Xu Lu waiting at the door to greet him.

"Is it over?"

"Mhmm… Umm, I may have gone over the line." Until after the fact did Jiang Chen start to realize how wicked he was.

Xu Lu was a girl after all. When she heard Jiang Chen say that, her face uncontrollably turned red before quickly recovering.

"Maintain the status quo?"

"Maintain the status quo; I will drop by from time to time to… persuade her."

Xu Lu nodded with a smile.

"Okay-"

But at the same time, a "boom" explosion sounded outside of the command center!

The window glass began to buzz due to the vibration as it scared Xu Lu enough to duck onto the ground with her hands over her head.

Fires erupted as Camp 27 was in disarray. The survivors all ran towards the elevator while the soldiers ran to the tent area where the explosion had occurred.

When he heard the explosion, Jiang Chen immediately ran out of the command center; he happened to meet Wang Zhaowu, who was responsible for camp defense.

"General, I-" After bumping into Jiang Chen, cold sweat began to roll down.

He was responsible for the defense of the camp. Now that something like this has happened under Jiang Chen’s eyes, he was drenched in cold sweat.

"Don’t say anything. Go to the explosion scene and figure out what has happened!"

Jiang Chen knew it was not the time to determine who was responsible. The most critical thing was to investigate the reason behind the explosion!

"Yes!" Wang Zhaowu clenched his teeth as he shouted at the top of his lungs before he ran off to the explosion area.

The ground was burnt black as the high temperature melted through the concrete brick on the square.

The fortunate thing was that the explosion occurred at the corner of the camp. Although the erupted flame was daunting, it didn’t cause massive casualties.

After the soldiers created a zone of separation around the explosion, two soldiers in protective suits ran inside as they quickly searched the explosion area. After confirming that there were no radiation or remaining explosives, they signaled other people to come up.

"General, just leave this to us. This place has just blown up and is unsafe." Seeing that Jiang Chen was about to walk up, Wang Zhaowu stopped him.

"Our soldiers already searched the area; there should be no explosives left on site. It is better to have an extra pair of eyes, so we don’t miss any details. "As Jiang Chen said this, he brushed away Wang Zhaowu’s hand, and he walked to the tent area that was now in shambles.

Seeing that Jiang Chen could not be convinced, Wang Zhaowu didn’t know what to do as he decided to follow along.

The tent in the middle of the explosion had already been blown up to dust. Jiang Chen kicked away the fried clothes as he saw a broken face.

It was Academician Qin.

When he was beside Jiang Chen, Wang Zhaowu looked at Academician Qin on the ground and said "Poor elder."

Jiang Chen stared at the aged face as he gave it a moment of thought before he squatted down.

Wang Zhaowu looked at Jiang Chen dig through the rocks as he took out a fist-sized mechanical heart from Academician Qin's chest. His eyes were wide open, "Digitalized human?!"

"That’s right, digitalized human."

Jiang Chen didn’t say anything as he stuffed the mechanical heart into Wang Zhaowu’s hand.

"Investigate the cause of the explosion; I will be waiting in the office."

Then, Jiang Chen silently left the scene.

Instincts told him that it was murder, and the target was Academician Qin Xuehai.

But why?

…

"Kill confirmed." Lin Chaoen muttered as he put away the controller in his hand and walked away from Camp 27.

Any experimenter of the fallout shelter must die. It is father’s direction to wipe these experimenters out.

If they were close, he would personally do it. If they were far, then he would hire raiders or mercenaries.

The results were the same; the experimenters must be eliminated!

As to why he didn’t know.

As an intermediate artificial intelligence, he possessed the ability to think, but he didn’t understand the behavior.

It was not logically thought through, but more like a belief?

It was comical to make a machine think from the perspective of a human. Just like it was comical to make a human think from a rock’s perspective.

After passing through a street, he suddenly stopped.

Bell-shaped eyes were locked upon him, and the shadow of ten claws swayed. Its shaking tail seemed to be telling him that it was ready to make a move.

There was no Death Claw nest in this area. If a Death Claw appeared, there was only one reason.

It was targeting him.

"Death Claw? To finish me, at least send a Mother of Death Claw." Lin Chaoen expressionlessly took out his light sword as he swung it a few times in the air.

What he didn’t know was, Jiang Chen already killed the Mother of Death Claw.

"Roar-!"

The deafening roar created a shockwave, the Death Claw charged at him.

At the same time, Lin Chaoen moved.

A trial of data flashed across his pupils as every movement of the Death Claw's muscles were captured by the digitalized eyes before being sent to the central processor. It completed the reaction analysis in 0.0001 seconds.

He kneeled down with the sword retracted. The fierce wind from the sharp claw cut by his head.

The light sword brightened and was followed by the scream of the monster in pain. Lin Chaoen’s sword blinded the Death Claw’s eyes before he lowered his body, appearing behind its body.

With its eyes damaged, the Death Claw stumbled and crashed into the shops on the side of the street.

It listlessly swung its claws and tail. Concrete pieces scattered everywhere.

Lin Chaoen put away the light sword. He took out the particle vibration dagger and strolled to the blinded Death Claw.

He kicked the right leg of the Death Claw and stepped to the other side of the Death Claw.

The Death Claw immediately turned around as it swung to where Lin Chaoen had stood, smashing the concrete ground into pieces, but its entire back was exposed.

With dagger over his head, he effortlessly penetrated its weak spine.

"Roar-" As it made its last sobbing sound, the Death Claw straightened its back as if it was electrocuted.

Lin Chaoen didn’t stop as he swung the dagger down again, cutting its spine in half like he was cutting tofu.

Blood and organs spilled everywhere, the Death Claw crashed onto the ground.

Drawing out the dagger, the blood on the blade began to fade. The high vibration frequency had vibrated the dark blood into a fine mist. A path of light bloomed under the sea with the Dindal effect.

An evolutionary road paved with blood.

"No improvement at all?" He put away the dagger and walked across the Death Claw's body as one foot stepped out of the half-destroyed shop.

But then, his footstep stopped.

Zombies had already surrounded the shop. Pairs of hollow eye sockets locked onto him. In stumbling footsteps, the zombies moved in his direction.

"Win by numbers? So problematic."

Lin Chaoen spoke to himself as the light sword reappeared again.

Typically speaking, zombies would not attack the mechanical him, but these zombies were apparently not typical. The zombies howled and leaped at him.

The light sword drew a few circles before disappearing into the sea of zombies…

Chapter 323: A Murder?

The explosion in the tent area had caused the camp to panic. A lot of people were yelling that they wanted to return to the fallout shelter and there were even signs that it would evolve into conflict with the patrolling soldiers.

But Wang Zhaowu was rather decisive as he led the camp soldiers to defend the elevator entrance. He fired machineguns into the air to suppressive the signs of unrest and controlled the situation with his forceful action.

As the director of the camp, Xu Lu didn't sit around. She used her charisma and positive image among the fallout shelter residents to gradually stabilize the residents' emotion.

At the same time, the investigation for the cause of the explosion was rapidly in progress.

Not long after, a report was placed on Jiang Chen's table.

21 wounded, five died, 17 tents destroyed.

The center of the explosion was close to Academician Qin; only two to three meters away. Further away, the soldiers managed to find the wreckage of a drone. Based on the pieces of evidence, it could be concluded that someone controlled a drone with a bomb towards Academician Qin's tent before remotely detonating it.

It was a blatant murder, and the murder came from outside the tent.

But why?

Jiang Chen's eyes were closed shut as he went into deep thought.

He couldn't understand what would make an elder, who was already half a step inside his coffin, so hateful. Especially an elder that just came out of the fallout shelter.

Suddenly, he seemed to have caught onto something as he took out the black metallic sphere Academician Qin gave to him.

"Is it because of this?"

With a bomb, the person obviously didn't want this thing. Someone wanted to destroy the communication coordinate with Zhenghe Ship? Of course, that was only a possibility. Another possibility was based on the consideration of Academician Qin's identity. Someone wanted to eliminate the experimenter at Fallout Shelter 027...

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

Someone knocked gently on the office door.

After throwing the "golden apple" into the storage dimension, Jiang Chen said, "Come in."

Xu Lu pushed open the door and walked inside.

"The residents' emotions have all been stabilized. New tents and supplies were provided to the residents that suffered losses. To the residents that suffered more severe wounds, they are transported to the fallout shelter for medical aid."

"Great, you did well." Jiang Chen nodded, validating her work.

Xu Lu humbly smiled as she waited for further instruction from Jiang Chen.

"Where is Wang Zhaowu?"

"He is personally patrolling with the team. Do you need me to find him?"

Jiang Chen shook his head, "No need. Tell him there is no need to be so anxious. I won't blame him on this since no one would have thought of using a drone to detonate a bomb. However, I hope the same thing won't happen a second time."

"Okay." Xu Lu nodded and left the office, gently closing the door behind her.

Jiang Chen leaned on his chair again as he tilted his head to face the ceiling. Slowly closing his eyes, he tried to sort through the listless evidence inside his head.

To be honest, if it were just a few irrelevant fallout shelter residents who had died, he wouldn't be bothered by it at all. What made Jiang Chen unsettled was the feeling of being in a bigger conspiracy.

Someone killed people in his territory and used an unexpected method. However, he had no clue about the motive behind the killing.

There were two possibilities. One was to destroy the golden apple, and another was to kill Academician Qin…

Wait!

Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes as he realized he entered into a logical error.

Regardless who the killer was, he must be sure of one thing, and that is the fallout shelter is already open, and Academician Qin has moved to the surface. It was not hard to know about this point as camp 27 was only recently constructed, and the camp was not well fortified like the Fishbone base. A drone hovered in the air would thoroughly detect everything in the base.

Who would have plotted against fallout shelter 027 from the start, and, as if he had the foresight, know that it has opened recently? The answer was obvious.

Lin Chaoen, and the people from the Crimson Chamber of Commerce.

Based on the mission details obtained in the EP, Jiang Chen could deduce that Crimson Chamber of Commerce could only be considered an accomplice. They were helping Lin Chaoen with the formula of "happy times."

Therefore, it must be Lin Chaoen that plotted this explosion!

But what are his motives?

A word popped into his head.

Evolution!

Jiang Chen still remembered the words that Academician Qin had told him about the three directions of evolution for civilization, as well as the inevitability of ideology output from the new civilization to the old one. Jiang Chen didn't think it was a big deal, but now something like this has happened.

Could it be that these two things are connected?

"Robots, digitalized human… representing Supreme?" Jiang Chen mustered.

Then, the signal light at the corner of the table began to flash.

Seeing that there was a phone call, Jiang Chen pressed on the corner. Before him, a holographic projection appeared and projected Cheng Weiguo's portrait.

"Boss, we have already investigated the location you have requested." When he saw Jiang Chen, Cheng Weiguo reported in an undertone.

"Oh? Did you find something."

"We found a survivor gathering spot… but we are not certain. This is the aerial view." As he said this, Cheng Weiguo transmitted a video in front of Jiang Chen.

It was a recording from one thousand meters above.

The target location was an office building. Because it was close to the city center, the building received higher impact from the high temperature of the shockwave. Just from the burnt surface, there was nothing to be made out. But from the sentry guns at the top of the building, it was not a no man land.

Immediately, the helicopter descended. The pilot wanted to move closer to observe if there were survivor activities but was quickly fired at by the anti-air machine guns hidden underneath. The picture shook violently and was immediately followed by the helicopter backing away.

Because he didn't receive any attack instructions, the gunner didn't fire back with the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon.

"Is there someone there?" Jiang Chen asked with a frown.

"It is unclear." Cheng Weiguo's expression was helpless, "Any survivor gathering spot with some capability would be equipped with life signal detection absorber. From the outside, it was impossible to tell if there were people inside. But with the number of sentry guns, someone should be there."

"Send a few drones to keep an eye on it, if there is anything immediately report to me. Also, send a few more men to camp 27… If there is nothing else, that's it."

"Yes!" Cheng Weiguo saluted and ended the communication.

Jiang Chen turned off the screen as he let out a sigh against the chair.

"Fu*k, why are there so many things to take care of."

He cursed as he got up and left the office.

...

The next morning, Jiang Chen spoke with Wang Zhaowu and urged him to prioritize drone defense. Establishing a radar within the camp and an EMP trap were necessary.

After these things were finished, Jiang Chen returned to the Fishbone base.

It was almost mid-March. If there were no surprises, the events in the modern world should be progressing smoothly.

He has already left for a month. It would be better to solve the Pannu Islands' problem as early as possible. Now that the modern world's development was at a bottleneck, he could only bring out those insane technologies after he manages to secure a reliable location.

After telling Sun Jiao that he was leaving for a few days, Jiang Chen took a batch of firearms from the Sixth Street and traveled back to the modern world.

Chapter 324: The Gunshots in Coro

To the Pannu Islands near the equator, the difference between winter and summer was negligible.

The sea breeze from the South Pacific Ocean carried the salty taste unique to the ocean; it swayed the green palm trees as well as the desolate smokes.

War.

No one had expected that the shadow of war would cover this isolated and small country.

As to who shot first, no one remembered.

The Liberal Party, with the support of "unknown force's" funding as well as the firearms purchased from UA arms dealer, quickly equipped an anti-government force of five hundred.

Their original plan was to start the uprising at the end of March. With the force separated into two, one force attacking Johnny's mansion while the other capture the presidential palace. They wanted to end president Edward's corrupt reign and support the new regime.

But the truth stated that they were still too nave.

The uprising experienced hardships from the beginning. While the Liberal party, with an ample amount of funding and the extreme disappointment of the people towards Pannu's current regime, could quickly gather a force willing to fight. But because of the abundance of people as well as the dismay in management, Pannu's current government seemed to have received information beforehand. The moment the uprising started, the military reacted.

The riot first started in Pannu Islands' capital Coro. The anti-government soldiers, wearing masks printed with the new state and the city's camouflage were equipped with M4A1s. They were quickly tossed into an intense fire with state forces who held the same equipment.

Then they were forced to retreat multiple times.

The result completely surprised the Liberal Party.

They originally thought that the moment the first shot was fired, the government military would join forces with them under the banner of justice.

But their plan failed.

The government military immediately started firing, and the soldiers wearing the new flag was quickly gunned down on the street. Then the armored vehicles headed onto the road as the 50 caliber heavy machine guns began to unleash its power on the rioters, concrete debris as well as broken limbs scattered everywhere.

Although the government force was made up of only100 people, they were all professional soldiers. Even if they used the same UA equipment, the combat ability of both sides was not on the same level. Especially since the government forces had armored vehicles and a tank on top of everything!

It was slaughter.

The new flag symbol didn't bring courage to the coup but instead became the identification symbol for the government force to identify the enemy. The strategy of a direct fire was wrong. Although the Liberal Party's cause was deeply instilled in every Pannu citizen's heart, they still vastly overestimated their own influence and power. In modern warfare, numbers are not the decisive factor in winning a battle.

Blood flowed from the front of the presidential palace to the north bank of Coro Island. The rioters attacking the palace had to continuously retreat. Those who were intelligent ripped off their masks and fled, pretending to be citizens. However, the slow reacting rioters were pushed out of the rural area and forced to jump off the cliff at the north end of Coro island.

The vibrant blood made the passionate young men calm down. Although ideology was necessary, so was life. To the enemy they could not beat, they had no desire to fight for their life.

On the other side of the battle, the same group of people attacking Johnny's mansion also suffered heavy defeat…

Sparks jumped everywhere as the bullet shells dropped onto the ground.

A white man in a bulletproof vest leaned against the wall as he maintained a professional stature. The SCAR assault rifle accurately eliminated the rioters across the street.

"Headshot, the fifth one." The corner of Ouburn's mouth, holding the cigarette, curled. He adjusted his gun before pressing the trigger one more time, "Now it is the sixth one… You have lost."

"Sh*t." The black young man leaning in front of the other window cursed as he felt the pain of losing the 200 USD bet.

The rioters with M series assult rifles were no different than monkeys with sticks. Without receiving professional military training, they couldn't even use their cover to create crossfire coverage.

"How is the situation outside?" Johnny walked behind them as he carefully peeked out of the window.

He had thought that he was courageous. One time for a pound of weed, he even whipped out a pistol to exchange fire with people from another gang. But that courage didn't seem to be too useful on the battlefield. He looked at the concrete debris scattering everywhere as it was the first time he felt so fearful.

Ouborn spat out the cigarette butt in his mouth and laughed. "Boss, don't worry. Even if 100 more came, they will only be targets."

As he said this, the heavy machinegun on the roof unleashed fire and pinned ten something rioters, who were attempting to climb into the mansion, dead on the ground.

"Just like this," Ouborn gave a thumbs up to the window on the other side as he said casually to Johnny.

They were mercenaries from Australia and part of the Australian special force before leaving the army. Now, they receive a high salary of 5000 USD a month to protect this UA rich man.

Johnny felt relieved. He sat on the sofa before standing up again.

On the table was wine produced from Australia. Although the cap was removed, the anxious him didn't take a single sip out of it.

"Boss, perhaps you need to relax." The black man with rifle comforted him as his smiled exposed his white teeth.

It was too easy to take care of these rioters.

"Sh*t, of course, I know." He sat back on the sofa again as Johnny grabbed the wine bottle before pouring a cup for himself.

But because his arms were trembling, the red liquid spilled onto his hand...

"What a waste." The black man longingly moved his sight away from the wine as he shifted his attention back to the scope of the assault rifle.

"Pay attention. Make sure you secure your position."

"Okay, boss."

The mercenaries didn't know why their boss was so frightened. The rioters had no deterrence at all. Although they conducted a massive scale attack, that soon was stopped by the heavy machine gun on the roof.

Just a little longer, the military force will arrive. Johnny was the star businessman on Pannu Islands, as Edward has easily taken more than ten million USD from Johnny's hands.

But only Johnny knew himself that the money didn't belong to himself, and instead, a man called Robert gave it to him.

He previously didn't feel uncomfortable at all as he freely used the bundles of cash to do business, bribe, and cause havoc under Robert's directions. But with Johnny International starting to expand, he almost possessed a monopoly over the entire Pannu Islands' economy.

Until this point, he started to listen less and less to Robert's direction, at least he thought so. They didn't have a debt relationship. Without Robert's help, Johnny International could operate smoothly now.

And once the area Linhua Group was developing is complete, the tourism on Pannu Islands would exponentially grow, and his Johnny International would reap the benefits.

That was true until a phone call two days ago woke him up from his sweet dream.

"Two days later, the Liberal Party will face an upheaval." That day, Robert told him on the phone.

"That's impossible, they are only an underground party without power or money," Johnny remembered as he rebuked immediately without hesitation.

"Is that so? I am only reminding you. It's up to you if you want to listen or not."

After this sentence, Robert hung up the phone.

Johnny didn't think it was a big deal, but he felt uneasy as he spoke with Edward about it. He said that he had heard from an employee about the Liberal Party planning an uprising…

But the uprising actually happened.

The rioters were weak, weak to the point where his bodyguards didn't suffer any injuries to block all of them out of his mansion. As to the bullet holes in the walls, it would only take a few thousand dollars to repair, his only loss…

But what frightened Johnny was not this, but everything had been under Robert's control.

How did he know the riot would occur? Isn't that guy in Los Santos? Dammit.

Confusion and fear tangled in his heart, he couldn't bother with the wine on his pants as he took a big gulp from the cup.

The red colored alcohol rolled down the corner of his mouth, along his neck, and passed beneath his collar.

"Ha!"

He swung his hand as he smashed the glass into the wall.

"Sh*t! Sh*t!" Johnny swore out loud as he stood up from the leather sofa. He walked to the stairs and headed down.

"What's happening with boss?" The black guy glanced at the stairs and cursed.

"War anxiety? I think all the new recruits suffer from this during their first," a bodyguard who hadn't spoken said in a low voice.

Ouborn didn't say anything as he vision remain locked 500 meters away, the scope's crosshairs behind a rioter running away.

He had already dropped his weapon, but Ouborn didn't plan to spare him.

"Thirteenth," Ouborn pressed the trigger as he muttered out grimly.

Johnny arrived at the basement downstairs.

Four women were locked here barely covered in clothes. Their skin colors differed with varying identities. Three were locals while a blonde was a news reporter for New Zealand who has been locked here for less than a week.

They wore eye masks, face masks and locked in cages. When they heard the door opening, their feeble figures began to move, followed by a pleading whimper and the sound of shaking chain.

Breathing heavily, Johnny loosened the belt on his pants as he only wanted to unleash his anxiety through hormones.

"Sh*t, bit*hes…"

The phone suddenly rang as it made the aroused Johnny jump.

He took out his phone, wanting to smash into the wall. However, he saw the caller.

<Robert>

His fingers began to tremble as he instinctively wanted to hang up the phone.

But after debating for a moment, he gulped as he picked up.

"Hello?"

"You picked up? I thought you would hang up on me," Robert mocked.

"Sh*t, tell me what the fu*k you want." Johnny no longer respected him like when he first came to Pannu Islands as he shouted back angrily.

"You drank?"

"…"

"No wonder you are an Irish that lives inside booze." Robert grinned. He cleared his throat and then continued, "Let's talk about something serious. If you want to live, follow what I say right now. There is a boat on the North shore of Coro Island, take it. It will take you east to Australia, and you can spend the rest of your life there in peace and wealth.

There was no response.

Robert paused for a moment as he moved the phone away.

He didn't know when the phone disconnected.

"This dumba*s."

Robert shook his head while laughing. He didn't bother with Johnny anymore as he called Jiang Chen.

Chapter 325: Insurgents' Ending

"He rejected," Robert said.

"Mhmm." Lying on top of a chair while enjoying the peaceful horizon, Jiang Chen sluggishly held his phone.

Although unfortunate, it was something he expected. Since Johnny just experienced life where he was above everything, a single phone call would not be enough to make him ditch everything there and spend the rest of his life in a corner. It was unpractical.

Especially since he felt that he had now gained the confidence to break away from the chains on him, it certainly made sense.

"Sh*t, I don’t understand. Just shoot this garbage, why make it so problematic. If he really accepted the route of retiring in Australia, would you really let him live?" Robert complained.

Johnny knew too much, it would be a threat to let him walk.

"There was a high probability of him rejecting the offer. But since he did contribute to my cause, I thought it would be a nice gesture to give him an option. Of course, to making the wrong choice, I feel sincerely sorry."

Although when Jiang Chen said that, he didn’t look sorry at all.

"…Ok. Let’s not talk about that dumba*s anymore. The Freedom Party people got beat up badly this time." Robert’s tone carried a trace of mockery.

"This guy, they bought the firearms from you, who laughs at their customer this way?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"I remember teaching the dumba*s that bought the firearms from me how to use the AT4 RPG, but I heard they didn’t even bust a single armored vehicle." Robert cursed out, but he sounded like he was laughing.

Because the harder they fall, the more advantageous it was for Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen smiled as he didn’t respond to his words.

Without busting a single armored vehicle was something unexpected for them. Based on what Jiang Chen and Robert had imagined, even if the uprising failed, they should at least be able to break two or three armored vehicles, perhaps they could even cause some trouble to that tank. The fewer heavy armors on the island, the more advantageous it would be for the next step.

The tropical climate made it really easy for people to feel sluggish. Although the phone was still by Jiang Chen's ear, he began to feel sleepy.

"Hello? Are you still listening?" When he heard there was no response for a while, Robert asked.

"Ahh, yes… Mhmm, just leave the rest to me."

"Eight armored vehicles, one tank, and two helicopters, you sure that's okay?" Robert was skeptical.

Although he participated in the creation of Future Security, because he was not part of the training, he was unsure about their capability. Even though they had trained for half a year already, their opponent was the actual military.

"Of course." Jiang Chen yawned.

"Okay, looks like I am worrying too much. I will not disturb your nap." Robert joked and then hung up.

Not a problem? Rather, it was simple.

Jiang Chen put the phone on the table as he sluggishly stretched out his body.

His thoughts drifted to the distant horizon, and he gave up the control of his muscles to gravity. It felt like his entire body was loose.

He had enough of the oppressive feeling at the wasteland, enough of the yellowish green radiation particles. The pristine blue and pure white made him unusually relaxed.

"It would be great if someone could live here forever." Jiang Chen muttered to himself and closed his eyes.

After spending too long in the apocalypse, he was tainted with a trace of hostility. However, following the sound of the crashing waves in the Southern Kingdom, his hostility was being washed away.

A trace of fragrance entered his nose.

Soft skin gently touched his head.

With a smile on his face, Jiang Chen opened his eyes. Like what he had expected, it was the exotic face.

It was Ayesha.

When Jiang Chen came back to the modern world, he asked her to come back.

The sea wind swayed the lightly curly hair. The white veil outlined the lithe but athletic figure. The vest line on her abs stretched to the tip of her bikini; her pale skin was that bright under the tropical sunshine.

"You are here," Jiang Chen said.

"Ivan said you were here, so I came." Within her green pupils, there was love as gentle as water. Ayesha smiled timidly as she hugged Jiang Chen’s head from behind.

As he saw the softness on her face, Jiang Chen smiled, satisfied.

"Are you used to the climate here?"

Ayesha nodded, but the words that floated out of her mouth were something completely different.

"I miss you."

Regardless how many time he listened to it, it made his heart beat a little faster.

"Mhmm, me too."

He gently squeezed the hand caressing his face as he kissed the back of her soft hand.

With fingers trembling, Ayesha became misty-eyed.

She leaned forward and pecked on Jiang Chen’s lips.

Jiang Chen only smiled. He quietly held onto her hand and watched the line connecting the ocean and the sky.

In the sea waves of the Southern Kingdom, the two stayed until the sun set.

…

This was the southernmost tip of Pannu Islands. The tragedy at the north end, Coro island, didn’t disturb the peace here.

The deep water harbor was deserted as the two docks were empty, only a few seagulls unpleasantly left some droppings. The small deep-water harbor that had cost at least five million USD perhaps was a failed investment to begin with. The occasional vessel that docked here was mostly here to unload to the Celestial Trade company storage.

The situation on the island was highly volatile as the government agencies were a complete mess. The government force searched house by house for the anti-government forces which put the entire island into panic mode. The uprising failed in less than 12 hours, everyone knew it was the end of the Freedom Party as they drew the line between them.

Although the rioters didn’t hurt president Edward, an AT4 rocket happened to land in his backyard and torn his nicely decorated garden into pieces. The enraged Edward immediately ordered all rioters to be hung and ordered that all residents must cooperate with the military force’s search. Any non-cooperation would be viewed as the accomplice of the rioters.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang. Did you happen to see… rioters with weapons?" A Pannu soldier in city camouflage stood in front of the warehouse and asked Jiang Chen.

"Other than my security, no locals approached this place today." Jiang Chen smiled at the solider.

"Is that so?" The soldier extended his neck to peek inside the warehouse, but he didn’t go in.

Edward specifically urged them to not offend the foreign investors.

Pannu Islands were in the stage of development, and they needed investments (bribes). If this riot changed these capitalists’ investment rating for Pannu, it would be problematic.

Although they have received information that a few Freedom party members escaped to the Southern end of Coro Island, there was no evidence pointed to them fleeing here.

The soldier looked at Jiang Chen for a few more times before he signaled his comrades to leave.

Jiang Chen watched the Jeep drive away as he smiled unnoticeably. He then went back into the warehouse.

"Thank you."

From the shadow of the warehouse, Zhang Yapin’s lifeless face appeared as he walked in front of Jiang Chen and bowed deeply.

Chapter 326: Commissioning the War

"Thank you."

"No problem."

Jiang Chen looked at the Zhang Yapin who seemed to have aged overnight. He gave him a comforting smile.

Zhang Yapin's face was full of bitterness. His mouth twitched for a while before he finally squeezed out a sentence.

"We failed… Sorry."

Five hundred people, five times the force!

They never thought they would fail; even if two people died for every government force, they wouldn't have lost. But they overestimated the determination of the people that joined the force. They had the will of iron before the war, but as soon as the war started, they swore at their parents for not giving an extra pair of legs when they fleed the battle. Only a few died in the crossfire, but countless died escaping.

Regarding equipment, the anti-government had excellent equipment. Although they didn't have any armored units, they had plenty of anti-armor AT4 rockets. Not to say the countless light machine guns, grenades, and smoke grenades… Unfortunately, they didn't use them before escaping, leaving the equipment to the government force.

Without a doubt, a total loss.

The uprising had failed, the Liberal Party under the suppression of the current regime could not even take care of themselves, Jiang Chen's five million USD investment naturally went down the drain.

To the foreign businessman that helped him when he was in need, Zhang Yapin felt guilty. However, he couldn't do anything about it.

"Do you know the reason behind why you failed?" Jiang Chen asked lightly.

Zhang Yapin bitterly smiled as he leaned on the wall of the warehouse.

"The lack of organization? The lack of training?"

"Your uprising was too hasty." Jiang Chen then muttered to himself in his mind, [Sorry, Robert leaked the information.]

"Regardless… There is no use to saying any of this."

"Have you given up?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"…The civil war ended in 12 hours, Edward's government had already demonstrated the power of the Pannu military. At least in the next 10 years, no one would dare oppose his ruling."

"Of course I know this, I don't need you to tell me. I only want to ask, have you given up?"

Zhang Yapin stared at Jiang Chen blankly. Finally, Zhang Yapin with a bitter smile shook his head.

"How can I give up… But, I will learn to accept this reality. We originally thought that with 500 people and advanced equipment, we could easily execute Edward, but…"

"There is no could in history, and no if."

"I know, but I... Sorry, but I have failed your investment."

Jiang Chen laughed. "Five million USD is only a small number to me, I am willing to take the bet. Business is a lot like gambling. The truth is I lost the first round. Now I just want to know, are you still worth my next bet."

Zhang Yapin was shocked.

'You mean…"

"I can fund five million more."

"That is wasting money. Not only did president Edward outlaw forming any parties, even if the Liberal party rose again, no one would respond under our banner."

Jiang Chen laughed.

He needed that effect. A weak, and easy to control government in power. Therefore, even if they replaced president Edward, their reputation among the citizens would not be high because the previous regime was not overthrown by them, but only under external influence. It will be a replica of what happened in Iraq, a complete puppet regime.

Zhang Yapin looked at Jiang Chen's pleasant smile in confusion, he didn't know what was funny.

"I remember you studied in New Zealand before."

"That's right." Zhang Yapin nodded. He even considered that if the uprising was to fail, he could flee to New Zealand or Australia.

"Then have you heard the word mercenary before?"

…

The riot ended.

The gunshots in Coro city had completed stopped, replaced by the siren of ambulances. Not only were the rioters injured, so were innocent citizens. The riot happened all of a sudden without any time to react. After the failed uprising, the cowardly rioters escaped into the crowd which caused a lot of ordinary citizens to be wounded, and there were even casualties.

Tonight would not be quiet.

Outside of the presidential palace.

In the palace similar to the Whitehouse, Edward was facing cameras as he clarified the situation to the foreign reporters eager for news.

"Mr. President, what's your opinion on this riot?"

"They are only a bunch rioters, and my military suppressed them! Let me repeat, they are all rioters! Other than that, I have no opinion," Edward shouted at the British reporter.

He didn't remember how many times he had to clarify this. Are the heads of the Western reporters made out of glue? Or are they just deaf?

"Is that so? But they are all citizens of Pannu Islands, without using the police and directly sending the military, did this not violate the constitution of the country?"

"I repeat, no! If I have, I will go change it now."

"Is your country's constitution written on toilet paper?" A UA reporter mocked.

The crowd laughed.

Edward was so angry his face turned white, but he couldn't do anything to them.

The firm stance of the Pannu regime was only domestic. The UA aircraft carrier was parked at Guam Island one thousand kilometers away. They would be able to initiate military action to rescue their citizens within moments.

The only thing that angered him was that he had ordered for all flights into the country to be suspended two days ago, but these reporters seemed to have appeared out of thin air onto his territory.

After dealing with the reporters, the weary Edward returned to the presidential palace and sat on his chair.

But before he could get a moment of peace, a Han walked in.

Wang Tianfeng, the representative from Linhua Group. He was from a relatively powerful family from Hua and was also the son of Linhua Group's president Wang Linhua.

"Is there something wrong?" Edward used a calm tone as he looked at the man standing in front of his table.

"Regarding the progress on construction," with fluid English, Wang Tianfeng was straightforward, "the riot in your country effected the progress of our construction…"

"If it's in regards to business, you can talk with Johnny." Edward didn't want to listen to this question anymore.

"But I haven't been able to find him recently," Wang Tianfeng said helplessly.

To be honest, he didn't' want to come to this god forbidden place. Even if he had to deal with foreigners, he would rather go to Europe or North America. But Linhua Group's business expansion internationally was the decision of his father and the board. As the successor of Linhua Group, he had to familiarize himself with international business.

Based on what his father said, it was an excellent opportunity to build a reputation for their company. On the peaceful Pacific Island, compared to the politically unstable Africa, it was much easier to develop business here…

Yes, two months ago, it was peaceful here. But now, the riot had almost entirely halted construction.

To be honest, rather than staying in the real estate business, he favored the future of IT much more. But Linhua Group's failure to acquire Future Technology. Additionally, this massive project from overseas has made the board change their decision.

As he thought about this, Wang Tianfeng cursed at the person called Jiang Chen.

He was a dog raised by the Wang family. He feels this bloated just by being on the Wall Street Journal twice.

While he thought about this, he selectively ignored the ability Future Technology had demonstrated and put all the achievement of Future Technology domestically as the success of his uncle. But he was not to be blamed for thinking this way as Linhua Group rose because of political support.

"You can't find him?" Edward raised his eyebrows in shock.

"I went to his mansion, but his security blocked me out. From the looks of it, the security level there is pretty high?"

"What is that guy doing?"

There was a limit to fearing death. The civil war has already ended and he is still hiding in his mansion?

Chapter 327: Pannu Landing

The night began to fall.

Despite the intense change that happened during the day, most of the Pannu people have drifted to sleep already.

Johnny was still in his mansion; curled up in his basement. Sitting on top of the cold wooden chair, he was chugging his collection.

Lafette from 1982, Margaux from 1986… Half a year ago, these were things he wouldn't even dare to dream about. The weed in Los Santos was expensive, but compared to the "blood of the upper class", it was still night and day.

The basement was humid, but he was trembling.

Not because of the cold, but because of the fear he felt from the bottom of his heart.

He ordered the mercenaries to station themselves around the mansion and not let a single fly in.

He could read through their eyes. He knew the people he has paid to do things thought he was crazy. But he didn't care, he had enough money, he only wanted to live…

To be honest, he didn't know why he was afraid of the guy who was in faraway Los Santos or why he was scared of the person behind Robert. Although this mansion and the saving in his bank account all belonged to him, he didn't have any sense of security.

He felt like a hand was controlling everything.

Like being the reckless billionaire he is, the increasingly cocky dictator president, the officials corrupted by USD…

And the hundreds of bodies outside the mansion.

He chugged the red wine like there was no tomorrow.

The sour-sweet taste in his throat was like the ink of the bill, the color was like virgin blood.

Beside him were four naked bodies, but he didn't have enough energy to play with them anymore. Even his finger became sore eventually.

"Sh*t!" He cursed as he flung away the glass in his hand.

Smash-

The glass shattered.

He stared at the pool of redness on the ground as he decadently burped.

"Dammit."

He said this in Han. It sounded weird. He learned it from Wang Tianfeng.

Wang Tianfeng just came to find him, the bodyguard told him.

Robert introduced Linhua Group. Wang Tianfeng was the representative from Linhua Group, and he didn't trust them.

He was shaking. His instincts told him, someone wants to kill him, someone wants him died.

He didn't want to die. He wanted to continue to play the role of a billionaire. He could act recklessly and at his will. Whether it was the wife or the daughter of the neighbor, as long as he was interested and he had the USD, Edward would solve the problem for him.

But the last call from Robert woke him up completely.

Yes, he was just a thug from the ghetto, an Irish without any talent. The only reason he possessed everything was that someone needed him to stir the muddy water.

Leave? Retire in West Australia? Go to hell, how could he agree!

He hung up on Robert and ripped apart the sim card.

With a grim look in his eyes, he stared at the basement door.

"Come, I want to see, how will you take my fu*king life away!"

…

The next evening, at the southern tip of Coro Island.

An old transport vessel quietly sailed into the empty port.

The port was deserted without a soul. Due to what had happened yesterday, most of the residents on Coro island were immersed in fear and sorrow. Most people chose to ask for a day of leave so that they wouldn't need to go outside.

The vessel docked.

Fifty muscular figures walked down from the vessel in an orderly fashion.

The vessel came from West Africa. It sailed across half the globe.

Ivan stood along with Jiang Chen on the high ground near the port. Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes as he overlooked his loyal soldiers on the dock.

"These are fifty of the most talented soldiers. They have fought with Tuareg tribe's guerrillas before during their training in Niger. But for real, is there no need to bring any equipment along?" Ivan asked Jiang Chen.

"No need. "Our firearms" have been transported into the warehouse already," Jiang Chen answered concisely.

Ivan looked at Jiang Chen in astonishment.

The firearms had already arrived, and he didn't sense it the slightest. His came to gain a new understanding of the boss' ability once again.

"When should we start the operation?" Ivan asked concisely.

"When you are prepared."

A slightly cruel smile appeared on Ivan's mouth.

"Then now is a good time."

Jiang Chen smiled and threw warehouse No.3's key into Ivan's hand.

"Mhmm, I will leave it up to you."

After he finished, Jiang Chen left.

Ivan watched Jiang Chen leave as he stood firm and saluted.

…

Including the fifty people that arrived earlier, the total number of mercenaries from Future Security had reached 65 people. It was equivalent to half of the force of Future Security.

No armored vehicles, no tank.

But Jiang Chen prepared something much more advanced, kinetic skeletons and drones.

Before he returned to the modern world, Jiang Chen almost cleaned out all the kinetic skeletons stored in the warehouse of the Fishbone base, even the ones that just came off the production line. Wang Qin was quite confused as to why Jiang Chen moved these things into the mansion.

But Jiang Chen obviously wouldn't explain it to her.

When he opened the containers inside warehouse No.3, Ivan ordered the captain of each team to hand a kinetic skeleton to each of the soldiers. At the training base in Niger, Jiang Chen left two sets of kinetic skeletons. Therefore, all the soldiers here have practiced with them, so they had no problems equipping them.

Wearing the kinetic skeleton with polyethylene bulletproof boards and wielding the fluid looking Reaper assault rifle, the team of futuristic looking soldiers walked out of the warehouse.

The 64 people were divided into eight teams under the command of Ivan to complete the mission. All instructions would be given by the terminal in Ivan's hand and sent in real time to the tactical helmet of each captain.

The eight modified vans were the only method of transportation used. Both to store ammunition and as a drone control terminal.

Other than the eight infantry teams, fifty hummingbird drone would also be involved. In a small-scale conflict without EMP, the disc-sized drone was without a natural predator.

It was meant to be an unfair war, just like how the military steam-rolled the anti-government force.

From equipping to dispatching, it only took ten minutes.

Standing in front of the warehouse, Zhang Yapin silently watched the trials of dust left by the eight vans, speechless.

When he watched Ivan, Jiang Chen's "bodyguard", begin to command these mercenaries, he already guessed the identity of these mercenaries.

Jiang Chen walked beside Zhang Yapin with a smile. "I am glad you made the correct choice."

"Is that so? Perhaps it is the worst choice." Zhang Yapin sounded like he was speaking to himself.

"It would have to depend on how you view the problem.

"Oh?"

"Imagine this. Until today, you were all just underground party members that the government searched for. From today on, I will raise you to the throne." Jiang Chen exaggeratedly opened his arms.

"But this 'throne' is only your puppet, am I right?" Zhang Yapin smiled bitterly.

Seeing that he understood the situation well, Jiang Chen laughed joyfully.

He thoughtfully looked into the eyes of the future president.

"That's right. But without me, you are not even a puppet."

Chapter 328: Operation Sword Shattering

Deep into the night in Pannu barracks.

Soldier A: "Stop sleeping, the superior said to take extra caution, we have to keep an eye out."

Soldier B rubbed his eyes and adjusted his hat, "Mhmm, I will be up soon…"

The battle yesterday lasted until midnight. Until now, they haven’t had the opportunity to close their eyes.

Solider A lit up a cigarette as he glanced at the small TV in the corner, "The TV is playing president Edward’s speech…"

Soldier B sighed. "War… This goddamn war. Once the curfew is over, what do you plan to do?"

Soldier A: "Take my kids on vacation in Australia. Little Jim has been wanting to go for a long time. He wants to the see the Great Barrier Reefs… What about you?"

Within the military, president Edward had high prestige. Some of the personal checks he received were distributed among the soldiers as a bonus. And because of this, while he didn’t gain respect among the citizens, he received support from the military.

Soldier B: "I think I need to take care of my family. She said in the letters that she wished I'd come back early."

Soldier A: "I wish this whole fiasco can be over soon…"

Soldier B: "Shhhh… I just heard something…"

That voice was light, like the vibration of a cicada's wings.

The hummingbird with a 2mm caliber machinegun hovered in the air as it silently stopped in front of the window. The thumb-sized wide field camera reflected two alerted but clueless faces.

Tatata

An abrupt sound.

Followed by the glass shattering and splashes of blood, the Grim Reaper silently arrived.

…

The army is the foundation of a stable regime.

To overthrow a regime, destroying its military was enough.

The mission with the codename "Shattering sword" promised to shatter the sword of the unwise ruler with flame and steel.

Three signal flares ignited and broke the quietness of the cold, silent night.

Tatata!

Bullets began to fly into the barrack; the orange tail light laminated the entire camp.

Future Security’s mercenaries launched an unexpected attack.

Pannu Island’s government was still immersed in their victory from yesterday. Although they remained alert, they were still caught off guard.

"The barrack is being attacked, I repeat, the barrack is being attacked." The general roared into the radio as he leaned against the thick concrete post, ordering the soldiers patrolling in the city to return and defend.

An armored vehicle dashed out from the garage as the machinegun on the top spit out intense fire. It unleashed its power in the darkness outside of the camp.

"Dammit! Who are these people? They are definitely not the rioters!" A soldier leaned behind the armored vehicle as he anxiously clipped on his helmet and fired into the darkness.

Tatata.

A few bullets scathed by his head as he immediately ducked down.

"It’s drones! Dammit… we have to shoot those down!" A government soldier holding a light machinegun fired at the shadows hovering above.

"Too small, can’t hit them!’

"Dumba*s, just cover fire!"

The dense bullets hindered the attack from the drones as it forced the drones to retreat temporarily, but just as they thought they were at an advantage, the Future Security ground force began to attack.

"Three o’clock direction."

"Roger."

The eight-person team almost covered every functionality. There were markers, snipers, infantry who took care of the cover fire, and support soldiers who maintained fire suppression. The team currently had no use for medics… even if a stray bullet accidentally hit them, the outdated bullet would not be able to pierce through the polyethylene board on the kinetic skeleton.

With the piercing power of the Reaper assault rifle, the concrete barrack was like tofu, non-existent. The bullets could even leave a row of dents on the steel door of the armored vehicle.

The only trouble that the government force could cause to these mercenaries were the heavy machinegun on the armored vehicle. But against the armored vehicle, the mercenaries were more collected than the rioters.

A few "Python" rockets flew over as it instantly blew away three armored vehicles.

Another armored vehicle realized the dire situation; it released a smoke grenade as it immediately backed away. But a rocket flew in its direction as if it had an eye and penetrated its armor without any doubt.

Flames erupted, and smoke filled the air as the armored vehicle scattered everywhere and hit a few government soldiers who were taking cover.

The general watched the flames as his eyes began to pop out. He tightly clenched onto the radio as he forgot how to speak.

A soldier ducked behind cover fired back with a heavy machinegun while he shouted.

"Dammit, their firepower is too strong."

At the same time, a deafening explosion covered the sound of the bullets.

An explosion erupted among the field controlled by the attackers.

As the general saw this, he turned ecstatic as he roared at the almost fallen friendly position.

"It’s a tank! Our tank! Everyone hold their damn position! The victory will belong to us!"

Tank, and helicopters. To demonstrate the negligible military power of Pannu Islands, president Edward put all these heavy armors onto the street to patrol.

In front of the armored force, any infantry was minuscule!

Only one round of attacks…

He stared in the direction of the support force with a fierce expression.

Contrary to the excitement of the general, against the tank, Future Security's mercenaries were calm and collected.

The HE shell exploded. In fact, it wounded a few mercenaries, but that was it.

The medics quickly dragged away the wounded soldiers.

At the same time, a mercenary with a "Python" on his shoulder, in cover among the shadows, opened the laser guide and locked it onto the tank.

Before the tank could reload the second shell, he pressed the trigger.

Smoke erupted, The arm thick anti-armor rocket that was launched left behind a trail of orange light as it flew towards the front armor of the tank.

In front of the thick armor, the trail of flames seemed frail.

But the next scene completed shocked the government force.

The undefeatable god in their heart – "Chief" tank was blown open by the seemly negligible rocket as if its armor was made out of paper.

The flame went up to the sky as it illuminated their faces of despair.

The helicopters with rotating machine guns flew towards them, but it soon crashed elegantly, along with it was the last remaining hope of the government force.

The ten something hummingbird drones swarmed forward at the thin propeller of the helicopter, it was a simple way of attacking, but surprisingly effective.

Their hope was extinguished entirely, the government force without any morale left finally lifted the white flag as they ditched their weapon and walked out of cover.

Now, the regime of president Edward has finally ended.

Chapter 329: Farewell

The night was bitter.

A daunting human shaped-armor walked along the empty street. The moonlight scattered onto the merciless steel as it shined on the white symbols, T-3.

His steps were slow as he scanned around. It was as if he was taking a stroll.

Broken houses.

The closer he approached the "mansion" the more tragic the scene looked. From the bullet marks on the wall and its density, it seemed to be from the cover fire of the machine guns. From the signs of explosions amongst the street, It looked like it was from grenade launchers.

In the shambles, Jiang Chen saw a pair of eyes.

Like a startled animal, the eyes escaped him when he turned around slightly.

His throat moved before looking away.

"I can do the "cleaning". Ayesha’s voice came into his ears.

"No… I think I should go personally."

Although he couldn’t see Ayesha’s face, Jiang Chen could still imagine her gentle gaze.

In the civilian building not far away, the bullets almost penetrated the entire wooden back wall. A hand appeared in front of him, shaking, before quietly shutting the wooden window.

Jiang Chen could feel that they feared him.

"Are you feeling okay?" Ayesha gently asked.

"Of course. I have seen plenty of things more horrifying than bodies," Jiang Chen looked away from the civilian buildings in ruins as he said casually.

Ayesha knew he was talking about the other world.

"But I feel you are not really okay."

"Why do you say that?" Jiang Chen sighed.

He was getting closer and closer to Johnny’s mansion. He pulled out the tactical rifle from his waist.

Although it certainly felt like killing a chicken with a machete, he still wanted to personally say goodbye to Johnny. As to the reason… he couldn’t explain.

"Instincts." The cold voice carried a trace of tenderness.

Instincts?

Jiang Chen smiled, he didn’t comment on Ayesha’s explanation.

Ka-

The crisp sound of the magazine being clipped on.

"Ayesha."

"Mhmm."

"Do you think… I am in the wrong here?"

It was supposed to be quiet here, everything started because of him. If it was not for his out-of-the-blue idea of asking Robert to send Johnny here, and then supporting an opposition to start a civil war, the people living here may never have had to experience war in their lifetime.

It was a question he recently started to realize. The change in dimension may only take half a second, but the change in one's thinking process would take a long time. Sometimes he questioned himself if he had used the logic of the apocalypse in the modern world.

This way indeed matched his interest, but was it correct?

"In my heart, you are always correct."

Jiang Chen paused.

A moment later, an open-minded laugh echoed inside the steel armor.

"Thank you."

After he hung up the communication channel, fury instantly activated as a series of dense red dots appeared in his field of vision.

All the trouble and hindrance of human nature were thrown into the back of his head, Jiang Chen felt his head was never so clear.

The clarity was known as slaughter.

Ding-!

The armor vibrated faintly as a bullet hit the plastic steel, it didn’t leave a single trace. Jiang Chen looked forward with a grim smile, it was a black man aiming with his automatic rifle in hand. It should be the mercenaries that Johnny hired.

The black guy saw his shot was ineffective. While he was shocked, his actions didn't stop as he launched a grenade.

With the cool steel in front of him, he instinctively felt fear.

The turbine engine in the back spit out flames as Jiang Chen casually separated himself from the grenade.

The machine gun on the roof was pointed in Jiang Chen's direction. However, after he fired a few shots in that direction, the people along with the gun was shredded into pieces. Then Jiang Chen turned his gun and aimed at the red dots hidden behind the wall and pressed the trigger.

The bullet ripped apart the weak wall and shredded the hearts hidden behind it.

Jiang Chen kicked opened the steel door of the mansion as he immersed himself in the rain of bullets without avoiding anything, Jiang Chen walked forward in big steps and started to fire back with the rifle.

The mercenaries hired by Johnny fell down one by one. Seeing that they could not harm the "monster" in any way, the remaining mercenaries all began to feel fear.

Then, an RPG with a trial of flame flew towards Jiang Chen.

Without thinking, Jiang Chen slapped the RPG with his left hand.

Explosion, flame.

The shattered shell made screeching noises on the plastic steel, but it didn’t damage it at the slightest.

"Explosive shell? Try the armor piercing next time, suckers." Jiang Chen grimly smiled as he shot the person with the launcher onto the ground.

The mercenaries were terrified.

The truth had proved that in front of an undefeatable enemy, the professionalism people held was just bullsh*t. The remaining red dots began to retreat. They abandoned the person that hired them and fleed in three directions.

Jiang Chen ignored the mercenaries that lost the will to fight as he smashed open the door to the mansion and walked inside with the rifle on his shoulder.

The trip mine at the door flew up.

Jiang Chen in Fury laughed contemptuously as he didn’t even bother to dodge. He passed through the exploding smoke and walked towards the basement.

There were five red dots inside, instincts told him Johnny was there.

Fury deactivated.

He took out the laser sword and melted the lock, Jiang Chen kicked open the door.

A pungent alcohol smell blew in his face. With eyebrows furrowed, Jiang Chen started the air filtration system and walked downstairs.

The light was on.

The dark red room was filled with a cage, pole, wooden horse… as well as all kinds of sick-minded devices. Jiang Chen didn’t look at the four naked bodies and stared at the man on the wooden chair.

"Wine… You certainly know how to enjoy life."

Pale eyes looked at Jiang Chen as Johnny’s throat moved.

"Are you here to kill me?"

"That’s right."

"Where did the mercenaries upstairs go?" His voice had a hint of pleading, but he was unwilling to accept reality.

"Either dead, or they ran away."

Johnny’s eyes popped as he grabbed the pistol on the table and aimed it at Jiang Chen.

His hand trembled. Especially when he saw that Jiang Chen didn’t react to his action, his trembling became more noticeable.

"I beg you, please give me a chance…"

"I did, but you didn’t value it."

Johnny first paused, before he started laughing hysterically.

"Hahaha, if I listened to Robert and gave up everything, would you let me arrive in Australia alive? Bullsh*t!" As he laughed, Johnny waved the pistol in his hand and pointed at Jiang Chen who was inside the steel armor.

Just like a child waving a toothpick at an adult.

"No… If I answer it like this, it will make you feel better when you die."

Johnny temporarily held a pleading look on his face before it changed into hysteria.

"Then let's die together!"

Johnny shouted, pressing the trigger in his hand.

It was not a pistol, but a detonator in the shape of a gun used to control the 15 kilograms of explosives underneath the basement.

Sparks flashed, but nothing happened.

His face began to show his despair.

"Wh…Why."

"Even if I explain to you what an EMP is, you probably wouldn’t understand… Whatever, farewell."

Jiang Chen pointed the gun at his head and pressed the trigger.

Chapter 330: New World

The past three days were incredibly abnormal for the people living on Pannu Islands.

They previously thought the government force would be overthrown by an anti-government force, but the anti-government force suffered unimaginable losses. Just as they were about to give up hope on the anti-government force, the mercenaries they hired made the government force surrender with a white flag.

The dramatic turn of events made people unable to comprehend what just happened.

But regardless, the revolution was finally successful.

After the barrack was captured, people finally recollected their confidence for victory. The insurgents yet to die in the civil war reunited under the new flag and retrieved the equipment from the armory and captured the presidential palace.

They dragged president Edward that had yet to wake up from his bed and shoved him into prison. An insurgent climbed onto the top of the presidential palace and axed down the original flag and replaced with the new flag; nine star and two palm leaves.

The nine stars represented the nine islands of Pannu Islands, palm leaves represented victory.

At the same time, with the march of the insurgents, Zhang Yapin elected as the head of the Liberal Party became the new leader in the presidential palace. He read the new declaration in front of the foreign reporters.

The old regime was banished. The Pannu Islands regime was changed from a presidential dictatorship to a presidential republic. At the same time, the country changed to federalism. The country's new name was New United Pannu, or in short, Xin.

The first president was Zhang Yapin with a term of five years. A general election will be held five years later. The parliament was compromised off nine members elected from each of the nine islands' own jurisdiction.

Other than some small amendment in the constitution to the president's power, all laws were succeeded by the previous political regime.

A federal body consisting of only nine Islands were comical in the eyes of media. A lot of the western media were debating if this news should be placed in international news or entertainment.

Immediately, the BBC reporter asked if the country was named in Han. Zhang Yapin explained that people with Han heritage comprised of 36% of the island's population, Han was listed as an official language along with English and Dutch. It was a decision based on culture, so there was no need to interpret it further.

Another reporter asked a really sharp question. "President Edward used the military to establish a dictatorship, what would prevent you from going on the same path as him."

As to that question, although Zhang Yapin felt bitter, his expression didn't reveal anything. He calmly announced a term that astonished all the reporters – "Defensive contract."

Pannu Islands' national defense will be solely contracted to Celestial Trade Corporation. Celestial has the right to hire mercenaries within or outside of the border of Pannu as its defensive force. Pannu Islands will be directly responsible for the constitution with no need to follow the order of the president. The contract fee would be paid in the form of customs tax and land rental cost.

When they heard Zhang Yapin's explanation, the same thought flashed across all of the reporters' minds.

This is insane.

In this case, it practically meant the military of the country was handed over to private ownership, the military would operate similarly to a corporation.

Would this military have any combat ability? Would this military be able to protect national security? Would this kind of company be safe in the first place?

But after they thought it through, this kind of thing was not without precedence.

The current UA force was an army that was most reliant on private corporations. Over 60% of the defense budget was paid to defense contractors. The current UA soldiers would complete the most basic duties as a soldier while the rest were contracted out. From weapon development, manufacturing, to the logistics behind supplies, private contractors existed everywhere.

The force would be government-owned while private corporations contracted for the work. Not only would it save a significant amount in terms of cost, but it would also throw the burden of any casualties to the company.

Since there was a precedence, this measure could certainly be applicable.

But it was the first time these reporters had heard of contracting the entire "national defense" to a private corporation.

They had to say, regarding being lazy, the sesame sized small country was at the frontier of the world.

Because of this, the small country with less than twenty thousand people made to the front page of international news several times. At the same time, Celestial Trade also got on the pages of a reputable news agency.

To the company that the public never heard of, all kinds of irresponsible claims began to appear.

...

Someone said that oil may be underneath Pannu Islands and the Celestial Trade Corporation was a subsidiary of an oil giant, so the capital may be from the UA. Someone also guessed it may be the work of HUA as they plan to intervene in international affairs…

Of course, no one imagined the connection between Celestial and Future International since the two were completely unrelated. Before the boat left from West Africa, Jiang Chen closed Future Security in Niger and moved the equipment and the remaining individuals onto two vessels. As to the basic infrastructure, it was sold to the Niger government at cost.

The two vessels would set sail through Cape of Good Hope and take the far route to Pannu Islands.

On the other side, after the insurgents had shoved president Edward along with his family into the prison, they furiously marched towards Johnny's mansion.

They were much more careful this time after they learned from the tragic experience of attacking Johnny's mansion previously. They brought the only armored vehicle that remained from the civil war. With the cover of the armored vehicle, they were much more confident.

But when they arrived at the mansion, they found out someone already visited.

The metal gate outside looked like a car smashed into it as it lied on the grass field a few meters away. The wall looked as if large caliber bullets sprayed through it as a few parts were broken into sections. Especially the machine gun position hidden behind sandbags, the sand from the bags had all spilled out. A lot of walls were shattered into pieces. They didn't know what weapon was so powerful.

The bodies in the mansion were yet to be cleaned, all the fatalities had their heart pierced by a bullet. The killer's shooting was frighteningly accurate, even for the mercenaries that hid behind the wall, the bullet penetrated through the wall before it hit their heart.

In the end, the insurgents found Johnny's body in the basement along with four females he locked up.

Three of the females were locals, one of them was a wife, and one was in junior high. They were all registered died due to vehicle accidents, but they were actually locked up in the villain's basement.

The other woman was a reporter from New Zealand and captured when she sneaked into Johnny's mansion undercover for a report. When the news was exposed it cause a huge uproar in New Zealand. However, because Johnny had already died, there was no purpose seeking justice on a corpse, especially since the old regime was already overthrown. The incident was heated for a period before it cooled down.

In the end, the four victims all received a generous sum of compensation from the Xin government. It was rumored that the money was donated by an anonymous wealthy man as a small compensation to the unfortunate people.

Of course, these were all after stories.

Chapter 331: Neutrality

The next day.

The nine-star flag waved above the Pannu Islands and the citizens celebrating the new regime walked onto the streets as if they were celebrating New Year or Christmas. The cheered on the new birth of the country.

Noontime.

In the cafeteria of the presidential palace, Jiang Chen and Zhang Yapin sat on the two sides of the table.

Lunch was curry lamb with rice along with an odd coconut smell. It certainly tasted like south Asia. In front of Zhang Yapin was a piece of steak along with coconut juice. With the shift in the regime, only the chef was the most indifferent in the entire presidential palace.

"UA extended their welcome to us wishing us to join forces with them. They indicated that if we continue to extend the pro-UA policy like the previous regime and announce declaration that favors their political view internationally, they would increase their funding to support us," Zhang Yapin spoke about the country's affairs while working hard to cut the steak.

Jiang Chen didn't even raise his head as he said without hesitation. "Reject."

"But… That is ten million USD," Zhang Yapin seemed to be unwilling to give up the money as he said with difficulty.

It was ten million USD. If it were split among the citizens, it would be 500 each. They only needed to speak a few sentences in front of the media, and no one listened to them anyways. This place was just a tiny country, the entire islands combined together was not even bigger than a province in Australia.

Jiang Chen raised his head as he rolled his eyes at Zhang Yapin. "Someone hires you to curse at your mother, why would you agree?"

There was no need to think. They wanted to drag a bunch of Southeast Asia countries to curse about the Han threat theory. Pannu Islands was located on the southeast side of Country F, they could be stretched to a surrounding country of hua.

Zhang Yapin fiercely shook his head, but he added one sentence in his mind, [That depends on how much…]

"It's only ten million USD, my Future International has an income of two hundred to three hundred million USD per month, I'll loan you the money if you need it," Jiang Chen put a spoonful of the rice in his mouth while saying this slowly.

"Just pay me back with the land."

"Ahem, could I interpret this as showing off?" Zhang Yapin smiled bitterly.

Pannu Islands just recently introduced a tax cut measure to stimulate economic recovery, but there were still significant holes in funding. The mess created by Edward now had to be cleaned up by the successor.

"I am only giving you some confidence. I chose Pannu Islands because I believe in its future prospects," Jiang Chen said.

"Johnny Group declared bankruptcy. The ten billion dollar project is now down the drain. What prospect is there?" Zhang Yapin's expression was bitter.

He initiated the uprising because of the passion in his blood, but now that he has become the president, he began to feel the difficulties of managing a country.

"No, I am going to take over that project."

Zhang Yapin looked at Jiang Chen in shock.

"Ten billion USD, do you have that kind of money?"

"I believe a lot of banks are willing to lend to Future International," Jiang Chen said confidently.

That was true. Even when they were in Hua, a lot of banks went to Xia Shiyu, begging her to take a loan from them. The current liquid cash of Future International is 1.5 billion which was the earning of five months. Although ten billion was rather daunting, with Future International's equity as collateral, it would be easy to obtain.

Especially since he didn't even need to borrow the full ten billion.

"You are really willing to … borrow ten billion for a small island country?" Zhang Yapin looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

"Of course, I believe this will generate more than one hundred billion in return."

Zhang Yapin held his breath.

He could not imagine how the country with less than one hundred million USD GDP and a population of fewer than twenty thousand people would generate more than one hundred billion in value.

"Excuse me for being honest, but it is hard for me to imagine… Although the Pannu Islands have a vast sea territory, it doesn't have oil. Could you point it out to me? Even if it is just painting a picture for me." Zhang Yapin smiled bitterly.

"How should I say this? Hmm… Okay. First, Pannu Islands is near the equator."

"Near the equator?" Zhang Yapin's eyes widened, "Do you mean tourism? Even with tourism, it is still hard to generate ten billion return in ten years right?'

"It is hard to explain to you. All in all, just remember what I said." Jiang Chen put down the fork in his hand as he slowly got up.

There were plenty of advantages of being near the equator, it was not as simple as tourism. With space elevator for example, to non-equator countries, it was something they couldn't even think about. To the technology that appeared in 2150, Jiang Chen had the confidence of bringing them into the modern world.

"Are you planning to go?" Zhang Yapin also put down his fork as he looked at Jiang Chen leaving the table.

"I have something to take care of and I am also full."

"Also, if other countries –"

Jiang Chen stopped, turned back, and smiled. "Maintain neutrality and friendliness. You know what I mean."

Zhang Yapin helplessly let out a sigh. "I know."

"Do a good job and maintain your current diligent image. Once your term ends, I will give you a retirement fund."

"I don't need your retirement fund, I just want you to keep your promise and lead this country to prosperity."

When he heard this, Jiang Chen looked at Zhang Yapin in surprise.

There was not a lot of people that could refuse money in this era.

After a moment of pause, Jiang Chen said lightly, "Of course, I promise."

If everything proceeds smoothly, in less than five years, this would become an island that the world desired to be.

…

Under the shade of the trees outside the presidential palace, a blue Lamborghini was waiting and Ayesha was sitting in the driver's seat. A grey sports bra drew out her beautiful curvatures and a pair of shades was clipped on the collar. The view was certainly a beauty with a nice car as it made the passersby turn their heads.

This Lamborghini was previously Johnny's, but now it belonged to Jiang Chen.

Although he died, he could not escape this crime. The court prosecuted Johnny with 17 charges and confiscated all personal assets to the country's treasury. The cars he had on Pannu Islands, the mansion, as well as two boats were all auctioned off in Australia. There, Jiang Chen took it all over as his own possession, needing only to bid twice.

Since it belonged to the deceased, there may be some misfortunes attached to the things of the people who died of an unnatural cause. On top of that, the rich mostly feared death, but Jiang Chen didn't mind as he was an absolute materialist.

Jiang Chen pulled open the door as he sat in the passenger seat.

Ayesha put the shades over her eyes and put her hands on the steering wheel while turning to look at Jiang Chen.

"Where are we going?"

"Linhua Group's construction site."

Ayesha nodded as she started the car.

Leaning on the comfortable chair, Jiang Chen looked at the scenery flying by as he tried his best to snap the beauty in his mind.

It was an indiscernible feeling. Before he had to work for his next meal but now he has become the hidden owner of a series of islands. This was his kingdom. No deceit or trickery would work against him here. No one would be able to plot against his company.

Perhaps he was bored, but he turned and looked back into the car at Ayesha concentrating on driving.

The shades and sports bra was a beautiful set. Any style of clothing seemed to look great on her.

Ayesha sensed Jiang Chen's gaze as she began blushing with her lips carved up.

She enjoyed his gaze.

Although they were yet to be married, she considered herself the wife of her husband. As a traditional wife, in her perspective, the husband was everything…

Chapter 332: The Disastrous Loss of Linhua Group

Xin was formed.

As to who suffered the most economically, it would be the Linhua Group working on the construction site.

The collapse of the old regime and the bankruptcy of Johnny International made Linhua Group's ten billion USD contract turn into a piece of scrap paper.

As to the two gold mines used by Johnny International as collateral, it was the typical trick, the old fox, Robert used. He first managed to find two abandoned mines and then hired geologists to reevaluate the gold reserve of the mines and fake a report. Then he took the gold Jiang Chen provided to create a production report in South Africa, completed the tax procedure, and produced a beautiful four quarters production report.

Immediately after, under Robert's directions of readjusting the business' focus, the two goldmines stopped operating. By using manipulation and forgery, the two goldmines were valued at 10.3 billion USD and completed the asset collateral verification.

Asset collateral verification was easy to fake since it was not an asset sale process. Therefore, the auditing team would usually not conduct an onsite audit. Robert even told Jiang Chen that even without the gold, he could still borrow gold from other mines to complete the asset verification process. A lot of mines were willing to do this because it meant that someone was willing to take on part of the tax burden for them.

Compared to the international capitals who fought through fierce market competition, Linhua Group, growing out of policies, was just a naïve baby still learning how to talk; they were no match against Robert who even dared to trick the FBA. Linhua Group's project team did carefully examine the fifty paged asset verification report, but they didn't think that the asset behind the iron seal of the South African government was fake.

Now that Johnny International was bankrupt, the two goldmines were given to Linhua Group as collateral. But when Wang Linhua wanted to sell it off for cash, he realized that the two mines were all abandoned mines.

Johnny International forged the gold reserve. The asset audit report was inaccurate.

As if a rumble of thunder had struck his head, Wang Linhua immediately became unconscious after he acquired the news and was sent to the emergency room by ambulance.

Insurmountable loss.

These were the only words that could describe the loss suffered by Linhua Group, or the Wang family. On the ten billion overseas project, Linhua Group had currently invested 2.5 billion USD. However, Johnny International had gone bankrupt the day before the first phase of the project contract was due for payment.

A loss of 2.5 billion USD in the first quarter, this financial report would blind the Linhua board.

And not long ago, Wang Linhua increased his holding of Linhua Group through the secondary market.

...

On the west coast of Coro Island was the most beautiful scenery of all the islands.

The deep blue shallow waters reflected a stunning light under the bright sunshine, just like the goddess of the sea's veil. The coral reefs hid among the sea waves as it divided the magnificent undersea world into an array of pictures.

The islands covered in vegetation scattered between Coro Island and Garlin Island, connected by deep or shallow sand beaches and formed a natural but sophisticated maze.

A car drove on the highway along the east coast. Jiang Chen rolled down the window as he gazed at the beautiful scenery from afar. He exclaimed,

"This is too beautiful."

"Do you want me to slow down?" Ayesha asked gently.

"No need, we should go faster," Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes as he stared at the seagulls at the end of the sky, "I need to get rid of the annoying people from my island."

With a grin on her face, Ayesha changed gears, "Sit tight."

The engine roared.

The car accelerated to a speed of 160 kilometers per hour as it turned into a blue shadow racing to its destination.

The speed may have been dangerous for ordinary people, but for Ayesha with the genetic vaccine, it was not a problem at all.

Moments later, they arrived at Linhua Group's camp.

With the car parked on the road, Jiang Chen saw from afar a group of people surrounding Linhua Group's door. Natives with hoes, scythes, and even sugarcanes surrounded Linhua Group's door. Everyone was emotional as they were preparing to enter forcefully.

Soldiers with rifles maintained the situation. They were all insurgents who participated in the uprising. They were not dissolved after the war as some of them joined the police force.

He signaled Ayesha to wait for him in the car and walked straight to the gate.

"What's going on here?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly, stopping beside a policeman.

The bearded policeman frowned as he was going to tell Jiang Chen to stand aside, but when he saw a pass personally signed by Zhang Yapin in Jiang Chen's hand, he immediately stopped looking annoyed.

"It has to do with land compensation."

Jiang Chen immediately understood.

The negotiated compensation for two USD per square meters between Johnny International and Linhua Group was too cruel. Now that Johnny International was bankrupted and the old Pannu regime has collapsed, the citizens would not allow such an unfair agreement to exist.

Wang Tianfeng immediately called the police when he realized the situation was going south. Although the police force was also unhappy with Linhua Group, they still must uphold the law as they sent out a team to stabilize the situation. But the citizens still surrounded the police while they wait for an explanation.

"Let me go in to check it out."

The policeman hesitated before he moved and allowed Jiang Chen to go in.

Inside the camp was an array of trailers. The expensive equipment was all locked inside the warehouse by the workers to prevent the rioters from robbing or destroying it. As to the workers, they wore their hardhead and wielded sticks, preparing to fight.

If there were a conflict between the natives, the outsiders would always be at a disadvantage. Although they had "armed" themselves, everyone prayed that a conflict would not occur. In a riot, if they were killed by the rioter, it might even be difficult to seek justice.

When they saw someone walk over, they first felt tense, but when they saw it was a fellow countryman, they felt relieved.

Although there were quite some Han on the island, for them who traveled often, it was easy to distinguish who was home-born and who was not.

A tanned worker greeted Jiang Chen and asked, "How is the situation outside?"

Jiang Chen looked at the anxious expression on his face as he comforted him, "Don't worry, the Xin president is already working to resolve the problem."

The worker felt relieved as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled at Jiang Chen, exposing his teeth. "Are you from the embassy?"

Pannu Islands were too small to have an embassy.

"No, but I am here to arrange your travel home."

When he heard he could go home, a look of joy appeared on the worker's face.

"Great, haha. Buddy, we all want to go home. The construction keeps getting delayed without any progress. The situation outside is becoming more and more dangerous. A month ago we could still go buy some fruits on the street, now we are afraid to even leave the camp."

"Sigh, it's been tough for you."

Although Jiang Chen disdained the Wang family's greediness, he didn't mind the regular workers. Or rather, it was a pleasant feeling to see his fellow countrymen in a different part of the world.

It was his fellow countrymen after all. Jiang Chen wouldn't sit around if his people encountered danger.

"It's okay." The tanned worker shook his hand. "Are you here to see Manager Wang? Do you need me to take you there?"

"No need, just tell me the location."

The worker didn't insist as he pointed at the concrete building at the back of the construction site.

"His office is on the second floor at the end of the hall."

After he said goodbye, Jiang Chen walked toward Wang Tianfeng's office.

Chapter 333: I enjoy the fact you don't like me, but you can't do anything about it

The door was knocked.

Wang Tianfeng, who was sitting at the table while on the phone, frowned. After he spoke a few more sentences to his sister regarding taking care of his father, he cleared his throat.

"Come in."

The door was pushed open. The person who came in almost made Wang Tianfeng’s eyes pop out.

"Jiang, Jiang Chen?!"

"That’s right. You recognize me?" Jiang Chen casually sat on the sofa in the office as he smiled at Wang Tianfeng.

He heard Wang Tianfeng was Wang Linhua’s son; they indeed resembled each other.

Arrogance was apparent in his eyes.

He didn’t understand why Jiang Chen would appear in this place. Future Technology had business here? The natives barely even used smartphones here.

"Of course, I'm asking you guys to leave the place." Jiang Chen looked at Wang Tianfeng with a grin.

Wang Tianfeng thought he heard wrong.

"What?"

"Asking you guys to leave this place," Jiang Chen repeated. At the same time, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and folded it into a paper airplane before he flew it onto Wang Tianfeng’s table.

He was displeased with Jiang Chen’s attitude. Wang Tianfeng’s eyes scanned between Jiang Chen and the paper airplane before he, while suppressing his anger, opened the paper. As he studied the black letters on the white sheet, his chest pumped full of rage and his breath quickened.

"That’s impossible! We already invested 2.5 billion on this project; the Xin government is bullsh*ting! They can’t just get rid of us like that! I'm going to find President Zhang right now."

Although the notice was written in a reserved fashion, the decision was firm: All actions of Johnny International on Pannu Islands were illegal, and the previous land transfer agreement signed with the previous government wasn't recognized.

As he spoke, Wang Tianfeng got up from his chair and headed for the door, but he froze mid-step.

He suddenly remembered that the camp was surrounded by natives.

Jiang Chen crossed his legs as he reminded him casually, "I recommend you don’t go outside now; the people in front of the gate want you dead."

A cold sweat rolled down his forehead as Wang Tianfeng thought of Johnny who suffered a tragic death in the basement. He remembered the partnership between Johnny International and Linhua Group. The rioters may potentially view him as an accomplice to Johnny even if he didn’t do anything illegal.

He walked stiffly back to the desk as he looked at Jiang Chen again.

"Why would you appear here?"

Wang Tianfeng’s eyes flashed; he seemed to sense that this had something to do with Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen didn’t hide anything as he said straightforwardly, "Because Future International is the successor of the project and the Xin government is pleased with our compensation plan."

Successor?

Wang Tianfeng was stunned.

"How is that possible!? When did you get into real estate as a tech company?"

"Web + Tourism? You could interpret it this way. Who said we would build houses by ourselves? We can contract the work. You don’t have to look at me like that; there's no way I'd contract it to you. You better get out of my sight as soon as possible so I can get on with my work term," Jiang Chen said pleasantly.

"You!"

Wang Tianfeng looked at Jiang Chen’s grin as his face turned pale white from anger. His finger pointing at Jiang Chen trembled uncontrollably.

Everyone knew the first phase was the most difficult to execute, and it was also the phase with the highest cost. Linhua Group invested 2.5 billion in the first phase as they gathered the most advanced equipment and most professional workers to ensure that a solid foundation was established for the future. It wasn't just any poorly-built project they'd normally do domestically - it was Linhua Group’s first international client. It would act as a business card and a case Linhua Group could use to discuss potential partnerships with other international clients.

Once they received the project from overseas, their sales team could proudly point at the Pannu Islands on the map and bring out diagrams of the completed construction to demonstrate their abilities and achievements to clients. The ten billion deal wasn't only significant in the amount of profit it would bring, but it was also a stepping stone to enter global competition.

Linhua Group couldn't afford to lose this project.

Therefore, a pleading look surfaced on his face.

"We have worked on this project for over two months and invested over 2.5 billion USD on the project. You can’t just make us leave; no one is more familiar with the project than us. We can forfeit the fee for the first phase, so at least give the next three phases to us?"

The humiliation made Wang Tianfeng want to kill himself.

As the heir of a ten billion dollar real estate company, he was forced to lower his head to a dog the Wang family supported before. His arrogance was tested to the point where it was about to shatter.

Needless to say, even up until now, he still didn’t recognize the reality of the situation.

"I reject." Jiang Chen smiled. " On another note, you have reparations to pay on the basis that you illegally occupied the land. Therefore, you have to pay a fine. Of course, it's not a large fine - only ten million USD. I trust that with your company’s financial capabilities, this amount is nothing to you."

"Illegally occupying the land? That’s impossible! We have an agreement-" Wang Tianfeng’s eyes were bloodshot.

"Any agreement with the previous regime is now void."

Wang Tianfeng’s body trembled as he stared at Jiang Chen with a pale face.

"You knew about the coup from the start, right?"

"Of course. I happen to… have some connection with the boss of the Celestial Trade company." While the fact that he owned Celestial Trade Company was yet to be disclosed, even if people found out, it would only be a small number of people. This trading company had a total of three warehouses as its assets as of three months ago and it was registered in Pannu islands, but its operations were outsourced to New Zealand since it operated completely as an offshore company.

"Why didn’t you tell us! Did you forget the favors the Wang family gave you?" Wang Tianfeng already lost all rationality as he roared.

"Why do I have to tell you? How did you help me?" Jiang Chen shrugged as he put on an innocent face.

Wang Tianfeng froze.

"Since you are the successor of Linhua Group, you must know what your dad told me that night." Jiang Chen laughed.

When he heard that, Wang Tianfeng’s throat moved. He wanted to argue, but nothing came out.

"I didn’t plan to leave. But since I brought out Future 1.0, you couldn’t sit around any longer and wanted to pick the fruit? How shameless. Please allow me to use this word to describe your father and your uncle."

When he heard this, the enraged Wang Tianfeng calmed down.

The expression on his face turned menacing.

"Aren't you afraid that something unfortunate could happen to your family? I know your family is still in the country." Wang Tianfeng stared straight at Jiang Chen as he threatened him.

"Of course not. They're currently traveling in Xiangjiang and will immigrate to Pannu Islands in a few days. Despite how powerful the Wang family is, could you capture foreign citizens in a different jurisdiction?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"You!" Wang Tianfeng had his eyes wide open.

"That’s right. They became Xin citizens and automatically forfeited their ol.d citizenship." Jiang Chen sighed.

It wasn't the best choice, but it was the safest option, and he didn’t want these problematic things to bother him anymore.

Although the government wouldn't do something as despicable as taking someone hostage, some despicable people may think otherwise.

It took a bit of effort to convince his parents to immigrate, but he was finally successful. The two elders did long to see the outside world. Since they spent half their lives at the small factory and didn’t even leave the province that many times, and now that their son was accomplished, they were more than happy to venture out to see the outside world.

Since they were getting old, they had more concerns. Therefore, they were a bit hesitant about leaving the country, partly because they didn’t want to cause trouble for their son and partly because they didn’t want to leave their old house. But Jiang Chen promised them that if they missed home, they could go back anytime.

Wang Tianfeng’s lips shivered as he couldn’t think of any way to threaten Jiang Chen. Just as Jiang Chen said, while the Wang family was powerful domestically, they didn’t have the same reach overseas.

Seeing as Wang Tianfeng had nothing else to say, Jiang Chen laughed and stood up.

"You better leave the island in three days or the security force may forcefully remove you from the island. By the way, everything is within the boundaries of the law."

"You…"

Wang Tianfeng’s fists clenched as he wanted to beat him up. But he managed to restrain himself since he wasn't home and if he caused trouble, his uncle wasn't here to solve things for him.

He should be glad he managed to restrain himself because if he did swing his fist at Jiang Chen, the outcome would be quite different than he imagined.

"I enjoy the fact that you don’t like me but can’t do anything to me." Seeing that he didn’t take a swing, Jiang Chen grinned.

Jiang Chen fixed his collar before opening the office door and walking outside.

"Seeing that you allowed me to vent my frustrations, I'll arrange vehicles to transport you safely to the airport along with your workers. Also, some words for your father: It is never too late to seek revenge, although it has only been a few months.

Then he turned around as he left Wang Tianfeng, who looked like he just ate sh*t, there without turning his head.

…

When Jiang Chen left Linhua Group’s camp, the citizens at the gate had yet to disperse. On the contrary, more people had gathered there.

The angry natives swung the sugarcane in their hand; it was quite a comical scene.

Jiang Chen looked at the workers inside the camp. He thought for a moment before he shouted to the citizens.

"Quiet! Everyone, quiet down!"

When they heard Jiang Chen shout, the citizens all looked in his direction.

"First, I am not from the LInhua Group." When he saw the unfriendly gazes, Jiang Chen cleared his throat to clarify.

When they heard that Jiang Chen wasn't a part of Linhua Group, the citizens all lost interest but before the crowd turned rowdy again, Jiang Chen continued shouting.

"But, I have already reached an agreement with Linhua Group. This construction site will be taken over by Future International. You may have never heard this name before, but don’t worry. We will negotiate a price with the new president that you can all accept to compensate for your lost land. If you trust your president, please leave now."

The citizens stared at each other. A muscular, brown-skinned man walked to Jiang Chen and used Han mixed with English to ask Jiang Chen.

"Is what you said true?"

"Of course." Jiang Chen nodded.

The person turned around as he debated with the citizens.

Finally, they seemed to have reached an agreement as the man stood in front of Jiang Chen.

"We trust our new president. But…" The man pointed in Linhua Group’s direction, " Before the compensation is finalized, they can’t leave."

"No problem."

Seeing the crowd beginning to disperse, the police on duty felt relieved and walked beside Jiang Chen.

"Thank you, my friend. If it wasn't for you, it'd be hard for us to take care of this."

"Don’t worry, it's all part of my responsibilities. Especially… since some are innocent."

Chapter 334: New Moon Island

President Edward’s trial was set for the fifth day after the coup had ended.

On this day, almost all Pannu people stayed home and gathered around the TV to watch the live trial.

In the end, the supreme court of Pannu Islands sentenced the former president Edward to seventeen crimes including treason. All his assets would be confiscated and he would be executed by the end of the month.

The result received support from all Xin citizens - the people who suffered under his reign wanted to rip off his skin and tear his tendons out. Of course, Xin was a civilized country so they evidently wouldn't sentence him to a violent death; death by injection was his final fate.

As to the soldiers that surrendered, considering that they fought as part of their duty, the court didn’t punish them for their actions during the coup. In the end, they were only sentenced to 10 years in prison for accepting bribes.

At the same time, the previous government force was dissolved.

Once the political situation stabilized, the small country began to lose attention from international media and returned to a tranquil state isolated from the rest of the world.

But this was only relative - the small country remained in sight of many capitalists.

This was because of a ten billion USD project.

The infrastructure improvement project with its first phase complete restarted the bidding process for all construction companies in the world. The project was estimated to be in the seven billion range.

The most difficult first phase was completed by Linhua Group "free" of charge, so there were no other difficulties anticipated in completing the remaining three phases. Of course, considering the stability of the current regime and what happened to Linhua Group, the other construction companies all tightened their auditing process.

But when they heard Future International was the owner of the project, all concerns faded.

With a tech company with the profitability of over three hundred million USD a month, there was no need to question its ability to pay. Or rather, all construction companies hoped Future International would be unable to pay its debt. They could then use the equity in collateral and force the company to go public on Nasdaq. With a P/E ratio of 20 times, the amount of return would be unimaginable.

Of course, Jiang Chen didn't lack money to repay the debt.

All capitals focused their sights on the island isolated from the world. Even if they couldn't win the ten billion USD project, it wasn't a bad choice to share a piece of the pie along with the mega capitals for the development of the island.

…

The boat’s engine hummed as Jiang Chen let the sea breeze mess his hair as he gazed at the horizon in front of the boat.

He bought the boat from the auctioning of Johnny’s assets. The captain of the boat was an older fisher named Carter; the warehouse security man, Cassan, recommend him to Jiang Chen.

The brown-skinned native spoke equally fluent Han and English. He went to Yangchen in Hua before for business. When his business closed down, he returned home to fish and fished for twenty-something years.

"How much longer?"

"Soon." The old fisherman piloting the boat cracked a smile as he accelerated the boat.

They were cruising the sea at 50 knots; a single wave could send the boat soaring into the air. But the fisherman was undoubtedly a master of his trade - regardless how the waves changed, the boat cut through the waves smoothly and steadily.

Ayesha anxiously held onto Jiang Chen’s hand while the other hand tightly grasped onto the iron railing. Jiang Chen was more courageous as he didn’t look afraid at all. He stood there facing the wind as he breathed in the fresh air.

Not long after, an island surfaced in the close horizon.

"Do you see it?" the old fisherman shouted as he laughed.

"Haha, I see it." Jiang Chen couldn’t wait to take his binoculars out as he looked at his island.

That’s right, it was his island.

As the biggest winner of the coup, Celestial Trade Company not only won the contract for national security in which they acquired the rights to form a military on behalf of the Xin government, they also gained the permission to build a military outpost, one hundred square meters big, on the nine islands. On top of all this, the New Moon Island 150 kilometers west of Coro Island was leased to Celestial Trade Company with an indefinite term by the Xin government for the establishment of a military base.

Just like its name, the island was shaped like a crescent.

The island was covered in thick, tropical vegetation. The middle part of the island was higher with the two edges flatter. The gulf of the island was somewhat shallow with a bench forming when the tide fell. An aerial view taken at that moment would show the island was shaped like a full moon. When the tide rose, it was more similar to a crescent. Hence the island was also known as Tide Island.

Because of the small area as well as a lack of fresh water sources, it was uninhabited and not part of the nine Pannu islands. Although it would ruin the beautiful scenery on the island, building a military base here was an excellent choice.

Once the boat approached the island, Jiang Chen saw the two vessels anchored on the side of the island.

Because there was no deepwater port, the two vessels could not dock - they could only anchor far away from the island and transport the people and supplies through boats.

These people were all from the Niger military base. They were mostly Christians from Syria and were incorporated as mercenaries during their escape. Although they were half forced, when they realized that Jiang Chen wouldn't torture them and settled things appropriately with their family, they were gracious for everything Jiang Chen had done. After months of military training, they all settled into their new roles.

After a period of time, Jiang Chen would recruit new soldiers from Pannu. Based on his plan, in the first phase, the military base would maintain a force of five hundred people. While they prioritized the development of the air force, they would purchase old naval vessels and "modernize" them.

Of course, the plan must be executed one step at a time. Because they were in a peaceful time and Xin’s foreign relations with neighboring countries was rather normal, they didn’t have the need to expand militarily.

"Should we head for the shore or head to the vessel?" With the sea wind in his mouth, the old fisherman roared.

"To the vessel," Jiang Chen commanded.

"Okay."

The old fisherman dashed to the vessel.

The kilometers in the distance disappeared instantly.

After he secured the boat with chains, the people on the vessel lowered the ladder. Jiang Chen and Ayesha were the first to climb up.

When her feet came in contact with the flat deck, Ayesha felt disoriented and almost fell down. If it weren't for Jiang Chen catching her, she might've fallen into the sea.

"Are you seasick?" With how drowsy Ayesha looked, the corners of Jiang Chen’s lips curled up.

Considering how disoriented she looked, it was the first time he saw her like this.

"A little bit." Ayesha shook her head as she touched her forehead.

"Why didn’t you tell me earlier?" Jiang Chen said, concerned.

"Because… You looked really happy while we were out there." A red hue surfaced on her cold face as Ayesha murmured gently. She kept her head buried.

With how cute she looked, Jiang Chen’s heart skipped a beat and he gulped.

But then, a light cough came from not far away.

Ivan’s defined face looked at Jiang Chen full of mockery.

"Boss, I'm not trying to be a third wheel, but… Everyone is looking." As he spoke, Ivan jokingly pointed.

The soldiers on the deck blew whistles and cheered at Jiang Chen, and the teasing in their eyes was evident.

Ayesha hid her blushing face behind Jiang Chen's back. Although she was open and proactive when they were alone, she still wasn't used to acting intimately in front of other people.

Jiang Chen facepalmed.

These people dared to laugh at the boss.

"Get back to work! If I see you all wandering around on the deck, you don’t get to join the BBQ party at night!" Jiang Chen shouted at the top of his lungs.

When they heard there was a BBQ party that night, the soldiers all dispersed and got back to their jobs. The people with nothing to do all pretended to be busy since no one would say no to barbeque.

Jiang Chen grinned at Ivan with a grimace.

"Ahem, boss, I'm just… preventing you from embarrassing yourself in front of your subordinates." Ivan forced a laugh. He felt eerie being stared down by Jiang Chen.

That was enough joking around. Jiang Chen put on a stern face.

"That’s enough joking around; wait for me in the captain room. Bring Barkary along with you."

"Yes!" Ivan saluted and left with the order.

Chapter 335: Military Base

After arranging for Ayesha to rest in an empty room, Jiang Chen headed to the captain’s room.

When he arrived, Ivan and Barkary were already waiting there.

Barkary was the man who worked as the manager to Future Security. He was in charge of the logistics. After Future Security shut down, Ivan asked if he was willing to relocate to work on the other side of the planet and Barkary accepted without hesitation. His only request was to bring his wife and children along. It was his dream to leave the impoverished West African region.

"Are you used to the deepwater here?"

Barkary smiled humbly, showing his white teeth. He spoke with his broken English, "Yes, just a bit wet."

"That's normal since this is the sea." Ivan laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

"Now, let’s get down to business. Ivan must've already told you." Jiang Chen looked at Ivan and stared into Barkary’s eyes.

"Of course." Barkary nodded.

Currently, the relationship between Celestial Trade and Future International wasn't disclosed to the public. Before Barkary arrived, he signed a non-disclosure agreement after which he would wear an electronic collar for ten years. The advantage was that his salary would increase from four hundred USD a month to one hundred thousand USD a year, the same amount as Ivan.

"Then your response is?’

"I have no reason to reject," Barkary said light-heartedly.

Jiang Chen nodded as took out the silica gel for the electronic collar and passed it to Barkary. The young black man didn’t hesitate as he put the collar on in front of Jiang Chen.

"Don’t worry too much, this is just for cautionary measures."

"I understand, but it feels weird to wear this," Barkary said as he touched his neck.

"You'll get used to it." Ivan patted him on the shoulder. "Buddy, now you’re a part of us."

Jiang Chen laughed and looked at Barkary. "Just like before, I'll leave you the logistics of the military base to you, including fresh water, food, and living necessities. As to the firearms and ammo, I have my channel to take care of this. You only need to transport supplies from Coro Island’s warehouses to here."

"Count on me," Barkary said confidently.

Jiang Chen nodded as he looked at Ivan. "You must've heard that Xin’s national defense will be taken care of by Celestial. I plan to build a military base, not for training purposes. Do you have any recommendations?"

Ivan served in Kane before and was an old Soviet veteran. Even if he wasn't an expert, he must have some perspectives to share.

"A deepwater port would be a good idea. The area near the island is too shallow, so vessels with a higher displacement can't approach it. Without a deepwater port, both supplies and military mobility would be greatly limited."

"The deepwater port will definitely be built. What about other areas?" Jiang Chen said.

"Bunker, training field, radar station, hanger, runway… Mostly these." Ivan smiled. "The size of this island is pretty good and quite similar to UA's Wake Island. It might even be a bit bigger."

"Mhmm, I'll start the building process for the military base; keep an eye on this for me."

"No problem."

"Then that’s all."

…

Moving took an entire afternoon.

It was indeed troublesome to move supplies between the island and vessels. Jiang Chen already made up his mind - he would contact people to build the deepwater port once he headed back the next day.

Although it was tiring to move supplies and build houses, Jiang Chen discovered that everyone’s face was filled with joy and happiness.

To avoid the flames of war caused by extremists, they had to flee with their families from their homes. Now, they were finally able to settle down on the other side of the world, on a beautiful island, to restart their life.

Although it was just an inhabited island now, everyone believed great things were to come.

The passion for building their new home made everyone energetic. It wasn't long before an array of tents were set up in the middle of the island.

At night, people gathered in the middle of the island and started bonfires around the island. They took out food from the vessel and began the BBQ party.

Children chased each other in the camp, couples cuddled together, people who enjoyed large crowds sat in the circle. People joked, drank, and ate.

The aroma of the barbeque spread across the camp - it was just like a picnic.

Jiang Chen soon joined them. A young man from Turkey warmly asked Jiang Chen to try his roasted turkey.

It was crispy on one side but tender on the other; Jiang Chen almost ate his tongue.

With the saline and warm wind blowing while they drank cold beer, it was a superb feeling.

The BBQ party lasted till midnight, after which people cleaned up the garbage on the ground. Although it had only been half a day, they felt an indescribable sense of belonging on the island already.

How could he explain?

Compared with Demarcus engulfed in the flames of war, the life here was too pleasant.

The next morning, people didn’t oversleep due to the celebration the night before, after months of military training made it a routine for them to wake up early.

Men lined up on the empty ground as they began the day's training with their trainers.

The children and women also woke up early, because they wanted to see the sunrise.

Since there was no extra tent on the island, Jiang Chen and Ayesha spent the night on the vessel. It was rather embarrassing in the morning because compared to the hardworking soldiers, it wasn't until noon before Jiang Chen left Ayesha’s body in bed.

After washing up, the two didn’t return to the island and remained on the boat.

Because he still needed to take care of the military base, he needed to return to Coro Island before taking a flight to Australia.

The older fisherman had woken up long ago. There was a bucket of fresh sea fish on the boat. When he saw Jiang Chen, the older fisherman named Carter was somewhat embarrassed. When he woke up in the morning, seeing that Jiang Chen had yet to get up, he took the boat out and fished.

But Jiang Chen only laughed as he didn’t mind him using a small amount of diesel. He also jokingly asked for a few fish and asked how to cook the fish.

The old fisherman felt relieved when Jiang Chen didn’t seem to mind him using his boat for other purposes. He controlled the boat expertly with the steering wheel while he began to explain the delicacies of eating the fish.

Jiang Chen wasn't paying complete attention, but Ayesha listened diligently while she recorded things secretively on her EP. The girl thought Jiang Chen suddenly became interested in eating fish, so she made up her mind to master this cuisine.

Once this conversation about fish started, the fisherman began to talk about his stories from when he fished. This time, Ayesha was rather disinterested while Jiang Chen was completely drawn in.

It was hard to imagine that in a life of fishing so many outsiders considered dull, the old fisherman had all kinds of interesting stories to tell.

In the light and happy atmosphere, 150 kilometers soared by.

Chapter 336: Australia Trip

After he got off the boat at Coro Island, Jiang Chen didn’t stop for a moment.

He told Carter to drive the boat back to his mansion before he took a plane to Melbourne, Australia.

It was already two in the afternoon when he checked in at the hotel near the airport.

Without any food in his body yet, he managed to find a Han restaurant to take care of his lunch before he started his schedule for the day.

Based on the directions given by his phone map, he quickly arrived at the building of a military company called "Mammoth."

Robert recommended this company to Jiang Chen since they were one of the internationally-renowned military base construction companies. They built military outposts in Iraq for the UN peacekeeping force before, and they also did business with Robert in the arms deal.

After he explained his intentions to the gorgeous reception lady at the front desk, the boss of the company personally came down to greet Jiang Chen.

The boss of the company was an Australian man with a big beard named Thomas; he had served in the Australian special forces.

Robert already communicated with him beforehand, so after briefly asking about Jiang Chen’s requirements for the military base, he eagerly brought out ten-something construction plans. The decrease in international conflicts resulted in his company not receiving any projects of this size for a long time. It was apparent why he was so eager.

After two days of negotiation, the two parties finally settled on a construction plan.

The total contract was worth four hundred million USD. The construction would include four deepwater docks, a radar station, weather observation equipment, a runway, an artillery base and missile silo; it would be constructed similarly to the layout on Wake Island.

Of course, because of the restrictions in arms sales, the construction didn’t include a missile launch device or high caliber artillery. Without the permission of the Australian government, Thomas wouldn't have the guts to sell those.

But Jiang Chen didn’t want those things either.

Regardless of how reliable the missiles were in the 21st century, they wouldn't be stronger than the Disaster-32 Cruise Missile. Regardless of how powerful the artillery was, would it be more decimating than a Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon? Although he had yet to control the technology for the previous weapon and the latter was only limited to vehicle type, Jiang Chen firmly believeD that with his continual exploration in the apocalypse, these unbelievable technologies would be his one day.

Thomas also sold Jiang Chen four UH-60 Black Eagle helicopters with a unit price of four million USD. Included in the price tag was the training for eight helicopter pilots.

With the four Black Eagles, the mobility of the military base on New Moon Island would increase substantially. With the transportation ability of the four helicopters, the soldiers of the Celestial Trade Company could quickly parachute onto any of the nine islands to respond to unexpected situations.

Before he upgraded the technology, Black Eagle would be the ideal transition flight vehicle.

…

By his third day in Australia, the military base contract had been settled. Mammoth sent professionals to survey New Moon Island. Based on what Thomas said, if all projects were executed smoothly, the base would be completed by July.

After he finished this task, Jiang Chen didn’t return right away.

The next morning, Jiang Chen woke up early and headed to the rural area north of Melbourne.

The Victoria province located at the Southeastern end of Australia was renowned as the "province of the garden." Because it was by the ocean, the climate was warm and wet, so the province possessed the best vegetation and the most fertile grassland in all of Australia. Victoria, therefore, was the biggest producer of dairy products and farm products in the country.

As the car left the city center, the air became a lot fresher.

Jiang Chen stopped in front of a farm just before he managed to catch the farm owner who just got off his truck.

"You are?"

"Jiang Chen." Jiang Chen introduced himself.

The farmer owner with a rather big beer belly wiped the sweat off his face with a towel.

"Jiang Chen? Han ?... Why do I feel like I heard this name before? Mhmm, you can call me Luke. I'm the owner of the farm. Are you here to buy fresh milk?"

"Fresh milk?’ Jiang Chen was puzzled.

"Mhmm? Are you not?" The farm owner looked at Jiang Chen in surprise as he wrapped the towel around his thick neck. "Are you not a " purchaser 1 "? With your age, you must be an international student from Melbourne."

Luke used Han when he used the word purchaser.

Jiang Chen facepalmed. Future International was now a Fortune 500 company. As the president, it would be impossible for him to be a purchaser.

"Ahem, you made a mistake. I'm here to discuss a big deal."

Luke looked at him skeptically.

Just as they spoke, a van stopped in front of the farm.

A girl in a cap got out of the car. When Luke saw who it was, he seemed to know the reason why she came as he retreated to the farm right away.

"Hello," The girl was rather lively as she warmly greeted Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen smiled and asked her casually, "Are you an international student in Melbourne?"

The girl was rather talkative as she said brightly, "Mhmm, I’m studying business administration - I'm in my third year now. What about you?"

"I’m not a student; I finished studying two years ago."

"Are you not an international student? Are you an immigrant then?" the girl asked as she blinked her eyes.

Although it wasn't wrong for her to say this, Jiang Chen wasn't an Australian immigrant but a Xin immigrant.

"Mhmm."

"Eh? Where are you from then?"

"Hucheng."

"I see. I'm from Shangjing. Are you in the powder milk purchaser business?"

"Why would you think I'm a purchaser?" Jiang Chen said with a speechless expression.

The girl looked at Jiang Chen, confused. Then she seemed to understand something as she kindly recommended something to Jiang Chen.

"If you are taking some for your family, it's better to purchase it from the superstore. Although the products from the farm are drinkable, the packaging is inconvenient and not hygienic."

"What about you?" Jiang Chen looked at her, puzzled.

"I'm not buying for my family." The girl rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen. "I'm a purchaser and I mostly sell on Wechat and Taobao… Also, I recently opened a purchaser store on Little White; I can pay my tuition now."

As she said this, a proud smile appeared on the girl’s face. Compared with poor students studying abroad who made their parents sell their houses or students coming from rich families, there weren't a lot of international students who could be as independent as her. She didn’t have a sugar daddy nor did she burden her family.

But she couldn't imagine that the designer of Little White was standing in front of her and casually having a conversation with her.

"Purchaser store… Uh, do the purchaser stores not purchase from the supermarket?" Jiang Chen faintly recollected the ads in his memory were written that way.

"Are you a fool or what?" The girl rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen. "Have you never purchased powdered milk from Walmart before? Han customers are only permitted to purchase two at a time and they're also more expensive. The online store I own with a friend sells at least twenty-something a day -how could we purchase that from the supermarket? We buy directly from the farm and purchase the expensive empty containers from the recycling plant-"

Then she seemed to have realized something and immediately stopped talking.

Coincidentally, Luke walked over to them while carrying a big bag. The girl’s eyes lit up and she immediately walked up to him.

The Australian helped the girl load the powdered milk onto the van and accepted her stack of bills.

"See you." The girl smiled sweetly at Jiang Chen before she waved goodbye.

Jiang Chen waved back and said goodbye to the girl he didn’t know.

A courteous girl.

But he felt the sweet smile was fake.

"Okay, buddy, what’s your big deal?" Luke wiped off his sweat as he asked Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen didn’t respond as he asked an irrelevant question, "Is that powdered milk safe?"

Luke was completely lost. He looked at Jiang Chen with a puzzled face before he nodded.

"Of course it's safe; my farm passed all health inspections from the very start. Although that batch was off-label supplies that I asked my friend’s powdered milk factory to produce, the quality is undoubtedly safe.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Chen sighed with a tone of defeat.

"As long as it's safe. Of course, I’m not here to buy powdered milk, I'm just a bit curious… Whatever, let’s talk business…"

Chapter 337: Public Opinion

Celestial Trade Company's food was all previously imported from New Zealand. The specifics of its operation were all contracted to professionals to manage. But with the increase in demand, this operational model was no longer suitable.

This is what Jiang Chen was planning:

He would import goods from Australian farms and transport them to Coro Island through the port in Melbourne. Part of the goods would be sold by Celestial Trade Company in Pannu Islands and part of them would be kept as raw ingredients for further food production and transported to the apocalypse.

At the same time, the Xinlong Food Processing Plant located in Wanghai City would be moved to Pannu Islands. All the staff willing to relocate overseas would be kept on, while local cheap labor would be hired to perform the assembly process. They'd produce cheap raw ingredients from Australia into canned foods and preserved products.

This processed food would be partially be sold locally and moved to the apocalypse.

Therefore, he wouldn't only save on tariffs, but he would also save on the labor cost as well as easing transportation of the goods to the apocalypse. It was like hitting three birds with one stone.

Of course, with such a massive and long-term deal, it couldn't be hastily decided upon.

Jiang Chen only initiated the conversation because he happened to be in Australia. Therefore, he made a personal trip. As to the specifics of the deal, he left it to Zheng Hongjie to take care of and left Luke his number.

After that, Luke cheerfully sent Jiang Chen off in a taxi to head back to Melbourne.

He booked tickets for the next day. Although there was still some time before it turned dark, he didn't know what to do by himself when he looked at the busy street. He started to regret not bringing Ayesha along.

The girl seemed to really enjoy pretty clothes. He still vividly remembered the date with her in Veit. That day, they almost cleaned out an entire clothing store with some intimacy that happened that same night.

When he returned to the hotel he was staying at, Jiang Chen felt lonely on the massive king bed, so he took out his phone.

He happened to see Liu Yao's message on Little White, so he replied.

<Are you here?>

<I'm here, haha, did you miss me?>

Without any surprise, Jiang Chen still replied instantly. He sometimes even suspected whether the girl created a special alert just for him.

With a smile on his face, Jiang Chen naughtily prepared to tease her.

<Guess.>

<Definitely not! (Sad)>

<Congratulations… You guessed wrong.>

<Haha. (Happy)>

Jiang Chen continued to type on the screen with a smirk on his face.

<How is your filming going?>

<We're close to finishing. I'm so tired.>

*Buzz*

Liu Yao sent a selfie over.

Scissor hands at a 45 degrees angle - playful but at the same time demonstrating her impressive 36D cleavage.

She also added: <Do I look good?~>

Jiang Chen couldn't stop himself from laughing as he replied.

<Good to masturbate to.>

<Screw you!>

Although that was what she said, she didn't feel annoyed at all as another buzzing sound came through. This selfie was even more flirtatious. Although nothing was exposed, it teased Jiang Chen even more.

Fine, Jiang Chen was hard.

Needless to say, time flies when you talk with a beauty. Liu Yao was also a great conversation starter as she didn't make Jiang Chen feel bored at all as the night flew by.

Just as Jiang Chen prepared to say goodbye, Liu Yao sent another message over.

<Also, did you know that Weibo has been full of posts about you these last few days?>

<Weibo?> Jiang Chen paused.

He did register a Weibo before and Sina decided by themselves to verify him as an Orange V. He had millions of followers already. But since he was flooded with messages such as <I want to bear your baby> and was constantly tagged with pointless things, Jiang Chen hadn't logged on for a while.

After he said goodnight to Liu Yao, Jiang Chen didn't immediately sleep but instead opened Baidu and searched for his name.

After he searched himself, thousands of posts popped up about him.

Some were negative, some were positive.

<Internal feud? Future International's sudden expansion in real estate, Linhua Group's record loss of 2.5 billion USD. In the face of profit, the tendency of countrymen to fight each other remains unchanged!> Jiang Chen could guess the content just by scanning the name.

Disregarding the fact that it might've been an internet army hired by Linhua Group to change public opinion, Jiang Chen wasn't bored enough to read this type of foolish article. It was written without any proof or understanding of the circumstances and emphasized partial facts rather than the complete picture.

While he was in the country, Linhua didn't act like a victim when they were plotting against him. They had the attitude of <I'm going to buy 50% of your share, or you can't do business here> when they negotiated. They totally deserved what they got now.

Of course, there was certainly a lot of positive news. Generally speaking, public opinion stood on Jiang Chen's side, since Future International's rise to the top meant that Hua's artificial intelligent stood at the frontier of the world. Although Future International had relocated to Xin, Han netizens still considered it as a national company. Even though Alibaba's IPO made a Japanese person named Su Zhengyi the wealthiest man, people rarely considered Alibaba a Japanese company.

Other than the posts with polarized opinions, Jiang Chen saw a post with an interesting point of view.

<Celestial Trade Company and Future International, they belong to the same hidden organization? Overseas Han organization may be plotting a masterpiece!>

The original poster of this post listed large quantities of half-fake, half-genuine "evidence" and perfectly demonstrated their imagination as the OP connected the two completely contrary companies together. He declared that the organization controlling the two companies was an overseas Han organization. Counting the coup in Pannu Islands, it was their work that sparked everything. The formation of the Han-speaking country, Xin, was a link in their master plan.

And this organization may have received secret support from the Han government!

The renowned, born-in-the-nineties billionaire Jiang Chen was only a pawn of the organization.

Because of this sophisticated thought process, clear explanation, and excellent storytelling ability, the post caused a lot of people to reply. The number of likes easily broke a million. But the replies were also funny, such as:

<The OP knows too much; is your water meter okay 1 ?>

<The UA wouldn't allow Hua to intervene with Pacific affairs. This coup was the afterproduct of the superpowers' strategic conflict - OP's intelligence is questionable. What overseas Han organization? There should be a limit to this guy's imagination.>

<The person above is a pro-UA supporter, let me curse at him.>

The comments certainly entertained Jiang Chen, but if he were to comment on the post, the only word he could think of was:

Bullsh*t.

A lot of conspiracy theories had no proof to back them up. Logically, any natural occurring events could be described as "preplanned" after the fact.

Of course, these comments were like smoke screens for Jiang Chen - the more, the better for him.

When his eyes began to feel drowsy, Jiang Chen flung the phone away. Just as he was about to sleep, the EP on his left hand buzzed.

When he opened it, it was Lin Lin's message.

<Come back.>

Although Jiang Chen was puzzled why Lin Lin didn't just open the video message, he still got up from the bed.

He closed the curtain by the window before he started interdimensional travel on the bed.

Chapter 338: Interdimensional Material Transporter

Due to the difference in time zones, Melbourne was three hours ahead of Wanghai. When Jiang Chen returned to the mansion in the apocalypse, the light was still on in the mansion. Sun Jiao and them were not asleep yet.

After he said hi to Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen headed directly to Lin Lin's lab.

Instincts told him that Lin Lin had a surprise for him.

When he pushed open the lab door, Jiang Chen saw Lin Lin in a white lab coat. The girl's fashion sense was particularly weird; she liked to wear fashionable clothing from before the war underneath a giant white lab coat.

"Wow, you're fast." When she saw Jiang Chen, Lin Lin put aside the item in her hand and walked to the door with a grin.

Jiang Chen instantly knew what her expression meant and took out the pudding from the storage dimension and put it in her hand.

"Did you call me back because you wanted pudding?" Jiang Chen facepalmed as he looked at her joyful expression of opening the pudding.

"Of course not." Lin Lin proudly raised her eyebrows. Using her plastic spoon, she pointed at the helmet on the lab bench with high spirit. "Dang dang dang dang!"

It was a circular plate. Inside the circular plate was a fist-sized metal sphere.

"Is that a Golden Apple?' Jiang Chen looked in the direction of the spoon, puzzled.

"No, no, no!" She proudly raised her tiny chest as she arrogantly shook her finger. "Although part of the inspiration came from that "Golden Apple", the technology is not on the same level at all."

"Oh? Then what is special about yours?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"That Golden apple is a communication device and sends out a resonance signal. But mine, I can send mass!" Lin Lin smiled.

Jiang Chen was moved as he rushed to say, " You mean, you can transfer the mass from the modern world to here?"

Lin Lin shook her head. "It is impossible to send mass from another dimension to this dimension. Any physical quantity is useless between dimensions. Even with the most advanced technology in the 22nd century, it could not create a miracle that extends beyond the boundary of physics."

"Then why did you shock me and say it could send mass?" Jiang Chen said helplessly.

As she spoke, Lin Lin smiled mysteriously and handed the sphere ball to Jiang Chen from the circular plate.

"Try to put that metallic sphere into your storage dimension."

Jiang Chen looked at her skeptically. He took the sphere and threw it in the storage dimension.

"Then put this on." As she said, Lin Lin placed a soft plastic bracelet into Jiang Chen's hand.

He followed Lin Lin's direction and put it on.

It was light, and it didn't feel like there was anything at all around his wrist. Inside the bracelet, a grain-sized crystal was in the middle and it cast a dark green light.

"Take out anything from the storage dimension." Lin Lin curled up the tips of her mouth proudly.

Anything?

Jiang Chen muttered to himself and followed Lin Lin's instruction. He connected his conscious to the interdimensional bracelet and selected the Type-11 pistol floating in the sub-dimension.

But what happened stunned him.

The pistol didn't appear in his hand, but rather, appeared on the circular plate that contained the Golden Apple.

"What happened?" Jiang Chen was flabbergasted.

"Just as I have expected." Lin Lin rubbed her chin as she nodded in confidence. Then, she handed the pistol back to Jiang Chen.

"Stop playing riddles with me, what exactly is this?" Jiang Chen threw the pistol back into the storage dimension. He glanced at the circular plate, this time the pistol didn't appear there.

"To put it in simple terms, it is the interdimensional mass transporter or a transport array!" Lin Lin walked in front of the whiteboard in the lab and drew two lines.

"The two lines represent two parallel worlds." As she explained, Lin Lin also drew a circle between the two lines, "And this circle represents a small universe."

Small universe? Super Saiyan?

Jiang Chen had a strange expression on his face.

Professor Lin Lin ignored the fact that Jiang Chen's attention slipped away for a moment as she moved her nose and slapped the circle.

"You refer to this as the storage dimension, but is it just a convenient backpack?"

"Then what is it?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"I already said," She stared into Jiang Chen's eyes with excitement, "It is a small universe or a sub-dimension. It stands outside of the macro universe, parallel to all timelines, but it would be infinitely closed to all timelines. Theoretically, it is not possible to transport mass to the small universe, but you could. Although the current theories can't explain your ability, we can take advantage of this!"

"Take advantage of this?" Jiang Chen muttered to himself while immersed in thought. Then, he took out another box of mango pudding from the storage dimension.

"That's right; the bracelet can continuously emit Klein particle waves of special frequency to interfere with your interdimensional bracelet's recognition of the fourth-dimensional coordinate. It is similar to adding a backdoor program in the computer software. By changing the fourth dimensional coordinate, the objects being taken out would appear on this circular plate, rather than in front of the person wearing the bracelet – Ahh! Pudding~"

Green lights flared into the circular plate as the Klein particles in the dimension vibrated rhythmically.

Just like the previous pistol, the mango pudding didn't appear in his hand but appear on the plate. Jiang Chen tried to put the mango pudding away, but there was no reaction at all.

The "transport array" seemed to be one-directional, it could only send items here and not the other way around.

Lin Lin's eyes lit up as she snatched the pudding on the circular plate with a smile on the face. She joyfully rubbed it against her face.

"As long as I wear this bracelet, the stuff I take out from the storage dimension would appear on this circulate plate? Even if I was in the modern world?"

Jiang Chen was excited by the idea. If that was the case, then he didn't need to tirelessly run back and forth. He would only need to wear the bracelet and stand at the warehouse in the modern world, throw all the supplies into the storage dimension before taking it out.

"That's right!" Lin Lin put her hands on her waist as she laughed proudly.

"Haha! This is amazing! Lin Lin, you have helped me so much!"

The thrilled Jiang Chen grabbed Lin Lin's shoulders, hugged her, and spun her around.

"Wahhhh! What, what are you doing!"

Lin Lin's face instantly turned red. Steam began to emerge from her head, and her limbs moved listlessly in the air. Jiang Chen also realized that his action was a bit over the line as he immediately put her down.

"Ah, sorry, ahem… I was too excited." Jiang Chen forced a laugh as he embarrassedly scratched his head while looking at Lin Lin with a face as red as a ripe apple.

Lin Lin hissed a few times, especially unlike her, but didn't say anything. Instead, she grabbed the two boxes of pudding she obtained from Jiang Chen and ran out the door with her head buried.

When she passed by Jiang Chen, he noticed that the red hue has extended from her ear to her neck.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment.

[…Digitalized human can blush too?]

Chapter 339: Return to Xiangjiang

Lin Lin stuffed boxes of pudding into the kitchen fridge before walking back to the room. The expression on her face seemed to suggest that she still hasn't completely forgiven Jiang Chen for his action. When she came in, she didn't say anything as she just pushed Jiang Chen out of the room with her two slim arms and shut the door.

Jiang Chen stared at the closed shut door, knowing he was in the wrong. However, all he did was awkwardly scratch his nose as he didn't know what to say to apologize.

Jiang Chen admitted that despite not processing his action through his head, the act he committed was over the line for a girl. But he didn't expect her to react so dramatically.

After deliberating for a while, Jiang Chen let out a sigh and gave up on the idea of explaining himself. Instead, he walked to his own bedroom.

Worst case he would just have to bring her a few more boxes of pudding next time… Mango flavored.

Jiang Chen lied on his bed and muttered to himself before he closed his eyes and commenced interdimensional travel.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in the modern world.

He raised his hand and pressed the grain-sized crystal on the bracelet as the dark green light immediately dimmed down. He threw the bracelet into the storage dimension, and then checked his phone for the time.

It was getting late, already midnight.

He rubbed his weary eyes, dragged up the sheets, and slept till morning.

…

The next morning, Jiang Chen checked out from the hotel before arriving at the close by airport, empty-handed. He boarded a plane from Melbourne to Xiangjiang.

The ticket was book three days ago.

Because there was still the bidding on the construction site and the loan to take care of, Jiang Chen had to head to Xiangjiang before returning to Xin. It was already April, and the contract with Dalmer corporation was almost up. Although the "smart driving system" was completed by Yao Yao in two hours, to avoid any commotion, Jiang Chen hasn't given the USB and the chip to Carmen Rothschild. On this trip to Xiangjiang, Jiang Chen planned to provide Carmen with the program.

One billion in two hours, needless to say, Yao Yao was the biggest "goldmine" of the wasteland.

After hours of flying, with the flight attendant's gentle announcement, Jiang Chen woke up from his nap and got off the plane.

At the gate of the airport, Jiang Chen saw the stunning figure from a distance.

It was Xia Shiyu.

Before he returned to Xiangjiang, Jiang Chen had sent a message to Xia Shiyu, asking her to pick him up if convenient.

With a smile on his face, Jiang Chen walked directly towards her.

"You are finally back."

Although her face was rather expressionless, Jiang Chen could still read the sense of blame within her eyes. He had known her affection from the start and thus obviously understood the meaning behind her words. However, just like before, he only laughed and avoided the question.

"I haven't seen you in two months… You have lost weight."

Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, didn't respond, and instead opened the Maybach door.

The car was previously Jiang Chen's ride, but he left the key to Ayesha who was protecting Xia Shiyu at the time in Xiangjiang before he left the country. After she had confirmed that Xia Shiyu was safe, Ayesha left the car key to Xia Shiyu according to Jiang Chen's instructions. Now, the car became Xia Shiyu's mode of transportation.

In the passenger seat, Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu who was combing her hair to the side as she started the car.

"Do you like it?" Jiang Chen asked abruptly.

Xia Shiyu's eyes instantly turned red. She stepped on the gas as the car dashed forward along the barrier. The series of actions almost scared Jiang Chen to death.

"What, what are you even saying?" She hastily gained control of her steering, but the red hue climbed from the bottom of her neck to the tip of her ears. Xia Shiyu's voice was also listless, and her tone was even off.

"Ahem, I… I am asking if you like the car."

Her pumping chest began to return to normal. The calmed Xia Shiyu turned her head and gave Jiang Chen a dirty look before she returned to her expressionless state.

It seemed like… She was angry?

"Uh, I am serious. If you like it, I'll give it to you as a gift," Jiang Chen said in a tiny voice.

"No need, I can afford it myself." Xia Shiyu clenched her teeth as it made a crisp sound.

She didn't know why she was so angry. But there was one thing she was certain about and that was this guy definitely was not as courteous as she had thought. No, he was a pervert!

As to how she knew about this, she learned that by living with Ayesha. Because of her delicate figure, although her face looked young, she had always thought Ayesha was over 18. Until one time they talked about age, and she finally knew Ayesha's real age.

But that was not the point. When she asked that if Jiang Chen had done anything to her. Ayesha looked at her innocently and said in a casual voice: We had sex.

Had sex?

Xia Shiyu didn't manage to react at first, but then it hit her like lightning.

She just remembered that she was completely stunned.

She had thought Jiang Chen was a type where he would always be respectable to girls but never had the skill to interact with them. However, he was actually a pervert that did it with his own bodyguard – a girl that was less than 18 years old.

But Xia Shiyu's reaction was typical as Ayesha told Xia Shiyu with a straight face. It was normal for people to be married at the age of 13. Especially during a conflict-filled era, the age might be even younger. Also, she had expressed to Xia Shiyu that she could sense her affection towards Jiang Chen as well and she wouldn't mind sharing his gentleness with her.

Perhaps it was ordinary in Ayesha's eyes. Since in her home country, polygamy was common. Even if Syria was at the frontier of modernization among the middle eastern countries, this point did not change at all.

But to Xia Shiyu, who lived in the modern world, it was an unacceptable practice!

When she heard that Ayesha and Jiang Chen had done it before, she was shocked.

Then remorse, even despair, before it gradually turned into hate.

All men would turn to the bed once they have money.

She felt as if she had just gone through a break-up, although her feelings and the relationship could only be considered a crush.

But regardless, it was her first time feeling so heartbroken.

But with Ayesha's pure and innocent eyes, she couldn't impose the hate on her, especially since she had risked her life to save hers. And what made her feel the most powerless was…

She still loved him.

If she didn't love him, she wouldn't even be sad about this. She would not be jealous of the fact that another woman was before her, she would only need to leave.

If she didn't love him, she wouldn't be here to pick him up.

…

The car stopped at a modern apartment as Xia Shiyu skillfully parked the car in the garage.

"This place is?"

"My home," Xia Shiyu answered concisely and got out of the car.

Jiang Chen followed her as they walked to the elevator of the apartment, he had to ask.

"Do you not plan to send me to a hotel?"

"That's too problematic, just live here." Xia Shiyu swayed her hair as she didn't realize how explosive her words were and pressed the elevator button.

Jiang Chen was shocked.

"Uh?"

"What, do you dislike me?" The corners of Xia Shiyu's mouth formed a beautiful curvature while she looked at Jiang Chen.

Stunned by the glimpse of her beauty, Jiang Chen didn't manage to react in time.

"No, No."

Xia Shiyu was satisfied with Jiang Chen's expression as a smile appeared on her lips, and she said, "Then that's that. This time you are back for business, it is easier for us to exchange opinion if we live together… No other intentions."

Jiang Chen thought the last sentence was trying to cover something up.

As they spoke, the elevator arrived.

While the door opened, she only stepped one foot into the elevator.

Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu with eyes saying "What are you waiting for" as he stepped into the elevator feeling puzzled.

She had already made up her mind, she must act proactively.

What if he had another woman? Still not married yet! Before he gets married, it's all fair game. Therefore, she will win him over.

Ayesha's presence made her feel threatened. She had no feelings to be bothered by the childish question of "Who confessed to who first". Xia Shiyu made up her mind to drag Jiang Chen onto the right track and save the good person that mistakenly went on the "wrong" road.

No need to be mistaken, it was just for her to repay the favor of him saving her multiple times.

Xia Shiyu comforted herself.

…

In the Pannu Islands thousands of kilometers away, two transport vessels and two construction vessels slowly headed to New Moon Island.

To best protect the local environment, Jiang Chen didn't choose to blow up the reef to build the port, but instead, he decided to build a sea platform two kilometers away from the island. There, he would construct a dock that would connect the platform to the land. As to the sea platform, it will be built with a three kilometers long arch water dam.

Two cars could travel at the same time on the dam. On the far end of the dam, they will construct a tidal wave electricity generator. Although the depth near the island was somewhat shallow, the continuous waves made up for it. Not only did it solve the problem of connecting the land to the sea platform, but it also addressed New Moon Island's electricity.

The sea platform cost more than one billion USD and even surpassed the military base by two folds, but Jiang Chen still considered the investment to be well worth it. The sea platform and dam construction were contracted to a company called "Wilson" while Thomas' "Mammoth" was only responsible for connecting the dam.

Since these professional sea construction projects already exceeded the capabilities of a military construction company. Thomas had brought up the idea of working with other companies on this project. The boss of both corporations were all confused as to why Celestial would spend so much money to build a sea platform.

Usually, this thing was built far away from the shore; it was kind of pointless to build it near the island. Especially since the request was to build it as large as possible, they wondered what the true intention was behind the project.

Chapter 340: Blackmail

Due to the construction project being a sensitive topic, the construction company didn't ask more about the usage of the sea platform. After they received the upfront payment, they sent the vessels to start building.

The sea platform was the size of two football fields, shaped triangularly. If it were far away from the shore, the difficulty of constructing it would be unimaginable. If it were standard steel, the tide of the ocean would dismember this giant. But if titanium were used, the cost of the construction would be an astronomical number.

However, because it was in a shallow sea with a depth of ten meters, the construction process was a lot simpler. A reinforced steel base could be inserted into the rock bottom of the ocean, making it equivalent to a man-made floating island.

The four vessels were anchored near New Moon Island as they sent out boats to explore the surroundings.

At the same time, Celestial Trade Company's vessel also lowered a boat and approached the construction vessels. After they boarded the Mammoth's ship, Ivan and Barkary had met Thomas. After they confirmed the details of the construction project, the three began to joke around on the deck.

A Ukranian, a Nigerian, and an Australian, it was as if they were in a United Nations meeting. Ivan was the oldest among the three and had the most to say. He joined the army in the Soviets, so he talked about the dramatic changes in East Europe and the civil war in Ukraine.

Just as they were having a great conversation, three medium-sized boats appeared from the horizon along with a few sharp air horn sounds.

"What's that?" Ivan frowned and took out the binoculars from his pocket, but he couldn't recognize the red-blue flag.

Barkary didn't recognize it either as he narrowed his eyes and took a few hard looks. Thomas had more knowledge as he immediately recognized it.

"It's Country F's flag. It should be their fishing boats." Thomas raised his eyebrows as he felt a trace of ominous feeling and walked to the tip of the vessel.

The three fishing boats stopped beside the vessel. Immediately, a southeastern Asian with yellow skin and his shirt unbuttoned walked out onto the deck of their ship and shouted a few gibberish words at Thomas.

"What is this guy saying?" Ivan walked beside Thomas with a frown.

The F citizen saw that another foreigner came out from the boat and gave Ivan a hard stare. But Ivan, born in Russia, had seen more bullet holes than people was not afraid as he stared back at him.

The F citizen was someone that preyed on the weak. Seeing that Ivan didn't back down, he subconsciously wanted to go back. But when he saw the two other fishing boats come by, he regained his courage and stared back and began shouting towards the ship.

"He is saying that this is the territory they fish in. Our construction boats have scared away the fish, and they are seeking compensation from us. These shameless bastards, the construction gets delayed every time they're here," Thomas cursed.

F country's fishing boats? But isn't this Xin's territory?" Ivan frowned.

New Moon Island was twelve hundred kilometers away from the southernmost island MLL Island of Country F. Therefore, there should be no territorial disputes in this area.

"Speaking from the law, yes. But these bastards never follow the law. Even if they took a sh*t here before, it would be their fishing territory even if it was in your backyard. It is the result of the moronic president," Thomas cursed.

Since he was in the military construction business, despite being a veteran, he still had fury in his attitude. It was just the years in business that had rounded out his eyes. He knew that there was no use in being angry. If he angered the natives, there was no way the construction could continue.

He took a few deep breaths and calmed his emotions down. Then, speaking with the interpreter, he began to negotiate with the fishermen.

But Ivan standing on the side had a different reaction.

These monkeys were here to scam them. His eyebrows jumped, and he signaled Barkary.

Barkary understood. Smiling, he jumped onto the boat and headed to Celestial Trade Company's vessel.

"Now we would have to ask the Xin government. This is their territory; they should send their coastal guards here and capture these monkeys asking for bananas. Then transfer them back to their home country. But even then, they would almost be immediately released by their government," Thomas said in rage.

"Xin government? Why do we need to ask them?" Ivan's eyes narrowed as he looked at the monkey from F.

Thomas paused for a moment as he looked at Ivan, puzzled.

Ivan took out his phone. He didn't call Zhang Yapin but called another number.

<Jiang Chen>

…

The interior was fashionably decorated. The warm colored wallpaper certainly gave a peaceful feeling. The range of appliances completed the room with comfort and beauty. Just by looks, the owner of the apartment knew how to enjoy life.

After he took off his shoes at the door, Jiang Chen scanned the decorations and asked Xia Shiyu nonchalantly,

"Are you still renting?"

"Mhmm."

"Why don't you buy a house? The company just paid out dividends last month, there is no way that you don't have the money right?" Jiang Chen was confused.

Future Technology had its shareholders meeting in March, (Although there are only two shareholders), and paid out 4 billion USD in dividends. Xia Shiyu owned 1% of Future International. Because she was taxed in Xin, she barely paid any personal income tax. She had at least forty million in her savings account.

"I feel like you won't live here too long." She took off her shoes, and her feet covered in black stockings stepped into slippers. Jiang Chen, watching on the side, reflexively gulped and missed the deeper meaning behind Xia Shiyu's words.

"Feel free to sit, I will pour you a cup of water… Also, where is your luggage?" Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen's empty hands as she asked in confusion.

Facepalm! He should have brought the luggage from the storage dimension in the airport bathroom.

Of course, Jiang Chen had luggage, but he couldn't tell Xia Shiyu it was in his storage dimension.

"Uh, I prefer to buy local." Jiang Chen had to make up a story.

Xiao Shiyu's delicate eyebrows raised.

"That's such a waste… It's okay, I will bring you to Causeway Bay tonight. At least buy a few sets of clothing and formal clothing for professional gatherings. Those are necessary for a business professional."

"Okay, as you wish."

Sigh, he should have insisted on staying in a hotel. Of course, he brought everything with him, it was just inconvenient to bring it out in front of Xia Shiyu. Due to the devil controlling his mind for just a moment, he had agreed to live at Xia Shiyu's place, leading him to have to rebuy everything.

It was not that he cared about the money, it was because he hated the trouble.

Jiang Chen watched Xia Shiyu go into the kitchen. He felt relieved and sank into the sofa.

A light scent twirled around the tip of his nose, it was Xia Shiyu's odor.

It was a faint scent, and it carried a hint of lily. It made Jiang Chen feel thirsty. It had to be the work of hormones getting him into trouble.

Not long after, Xia Shiyu brought a cup of water from the kitchen and handed the warm water to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen immediately chugged the entire glass clean to suppress the weird feelings in his mind.

"Are you that thirsty? Do you want another cup?"

"Ahem, no need."

Xia Shiyu nodded, sat beside Jiang Chen, and grabbed a stack of documents that were on the table.

"These are the information about the bidders-"

But at the same time, Jiang Chen's phone began to ring.

"Sorry, let me get a call." As Jiang Chen spoke, he walked to the window and took out his phone.

[Ivan?

Did something happen at the New Moon Island military base?]

He looked at the name and picked up.

"Hello?"

"Boss, citizens from country F are causing trouble in the ocean territory near New Moon Island. They said our construction has interfered with their fishing."

Country F fishers?

When Jiang Chen heard Ivan's explanation, he first paused for a moment. He was so angry that he began to laugh.

[Fu*k, I'm already unhappy with them. Now they want to take advantage of me? I have to pay up even to build in my backyard?]

"You are asking for my permission on this? Pirates have invaded our territory. You tell me what the coastal guard should do. Don't see me if you can't take care of it properly.

…

After he received confirmation from his boss, a wicked smile surfaced on Ivan's face.

The grimace was mixed with thrill as he was waiting for the boss to say this.

"Yes! Commander."

Chapter 341: Fishermen? They are pirates!

After Ivan hung up the phone, he took out the pistol strapped to his waist and loaded the gun.

His action made Thomas jump as he immediately blocked the Russian.

"Are you crazy! If your action gets filmed, they will definitely take the opportunity to scam you!"

Thomas who frequently conducted construction with Han companies knew that even if these fishermen looked dumb, they were extremely cunning. If they filmed Ivan pulling out the gun, they would return and make a few holes in their own boat. He knew that without paying money, the construction would be unable to continue.

What's even worse was that the actions of these fishermen received the support of the F government. Their government would also first pay for their damage and then help them with the international lawsuit.

"Scam?" Ivan scorned contemptuously and aimed at the monkeys' chest.

The country F citizen was first scared, but then he turned ecstatic as he ran inside to take out his camera. When he saw this, Thomas in defeat put down the hand holding onto Ivan's arm as he smashed his hand onto the railing of the deck.

"Dammit… Now that's that. I'm going to request your boss extend the construction period. We can't conduct any work with their interference."

"Tell them to leave Xin territory within a minute. This place doesn't welcome pirates."

"The boss said they are pirates, so they are pirates," Ivan raised the pistol and said emotionlessly.

The fishermen were immediately enraged.

[Fu*k you. You threaten us with a gun, you think we are scared?]

They banked on the fact that the neighboring countries cared about their own feathers and wouldn't shoot. Who are you trying to scare pointing at people instead of the boat?

As to being pirates, that's more bullsh*t! Without a single gun, who would believe that?

The country F citizen didn't back down as he acted even more recklessly. He was not only mocking Ivan, but he also coastal peed in their direction.

Half a minute passed; five boats emerged from the distance. On top of the boats were fully equipped soldiers. Although they didn't wear kinetic skeletons, the rifles they had belonged to the 22nd century.

"Sixty." The last Russian word came out of his chapped lips.

Time was up.

Thomas thought he would awkwardly put the gun down, or shoot at the water or the boat, but the Russian pressed the trigger aimed at the monkey's chest.

That's right, it was the chest! Not the hands or legs!

Bang-!

Blood began to splatter as it instantly stained the clothes of the monkey. He tumbled and fell down on the deck. He had his eyes widened as he looked at his chest in disbelief.

He wanted to scream, but only blood coughed out.

"Run! They are killing people!"

"Run! Run!"

The gibberish mixed with screams diffused over the sea. A fisherman quickly dashed out from inside the boat and dragged the wounded companion inside. The three fishing boats accelerated at max speed as they fled in country F's direction.

Thomas stared blankly at Ivan.

"You… killed him?"

"I killed a pirate," Ivan added as he fired a few more rounds at the fishing boats turning around. Although he didn't hit anyone, it made the fishermen scream in fear. Although he didn't understand, he could hear the fright in their voices.

There was no return once he fired the first shot, if any escaped, they would be a witness in court. Since he killed a person, he would have to leave all of them here, down into the deep abyss.

Perhaps Jiang Chen didn't have that kind of awareness, but Ivan had. At the front line in Oesk, he fought head to head with the Russian army, why would he be afraid of the country F?

Thomas's lips twitched, but then he sighed in defeat as he shrugged.

"Fine… That was beautiful, I fu*cking wanted to do that for a long time."

"Territorial issues are without negotiations, only war." Ivan scorned and used a famous quote.

"That's right, but sometimes… for business, we have to learn to compromise to avoid a bigger loss."

"But my boss told me, we are not businessmen." Ivan smiled.

But an army.

Thomas was shocked, but then he sighed.

"Then you have an interesting boss… I will retrain my crew. They didn't see anything today."

"Thank you," Ivan looked him in the eyes and said sincerely.

To the scums who caused trouble. Only blood would teach them humiliation and awe! If you take one step back, then they would take your mercy as weakness and take ten steps forward!

Ivan got on the fast boat as he personally commanded the "pirate" hunt.

"Attention all boats, attention all boats! Three pirate boats are fleeing in the northwestern direction. They carry weapons on board. Fire at will. I repeat. Fire at will!"

"Roger!"

The coastal guard in fast boats immediately moved towards the three fishing boats' direction and fired with their rifles. It left a series of bullet holes in the body of the boat. The fishermen finally knew that they messed with the wrong group of people as they were only begging to grow a pair of wings and escape for their lives to their border.

The fast boats didn't ask them to surrender at all as they were treating them like pirates. In terms of speed, the fishing boat was nowhere as fast as the fast boat. The fast boats fired at the engine of the fishing boats simultaneously, and it didn't take long before their engines blew out.

In the blanket of fire, the country F fishers hid inside their boat. They cursed at the foreigners with their dialect about how they don't follow the rules while they screamed inside the radio requesting for their coastal guard's assistance. Since they were deep into Xin water, even if their coastal guard trespass the border, it would still take some time.

Suddenly, the firing stopped.

Just as these monkeys thought that their people had arrived, a few "clanking" sound transmitted from outside the boat.

The Xin boats approached them and threw a few things inside.

The captained adjusted his hat and carefully peeked out and looked at the deck through the window. When he saw a few M-series assault rifles on deck, he first paused for a moment before his expression suddenly changed drastically.

The two fast boats throwing weapons on the fishing boats quickly moved away while the other three stopped thirty meters out.

The soldiers in bulletproof vests lied on the deck, and one soldier held an AT4 rocket launcher on his arm.

"#$%$$!"

The captain ran for his life to the outside of the boat and kneeled on the ground in fear. With tear-filled eyes, he begged for mercy.

But unfortunately, no one understood him, they didn't plan to spare the invaders.

The soldier aimed at the fishing boat and pressed the trigger.

Three RPGs fired from three different directions at the three fishing boats. The explosion lit up the sky to a vibrant red. The coastal guards of country F were on their way just in the distance. The soldiers on the fast boats followed Ivan's instruction and fired a few rounds at their own boat to create a few bullet holes.

The soldiers threw away the one-time usage AT4 rocket launcher and took out the more advanced "Python" rocket launcher on the side. Everyone reloaded their clips and prepared to engage in battle.

Under Ivan's command, the five fast boats approached the country F coastal guard ships.

Chapter 342: How did I forget about that?

Jiang Chen stuffed the phone back into his pocket and returned to the living room.

"Who just called?"

"Uh, a friend," Jiang Chen nonchalantly replied and sat back down beside her.

Seeing that Jiang Chen wasn't planning to explain, Xia Shiyu only glared at him suspiciously before she stopped persisting on the question and picked up the documents on the table.

She cleared her throat and put on a stern face before she began to explain the documents to Jiang Chen.

"The paper documents contain information on the bidders, mostly about the specifications and bidding price. As to the design project and project visualization, they are all on my computer, and we can take a look later. But before we start, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course." Jiang Chen laughed.

If it a question he could answer, he would facepalm answer. If It were not appropriate for her to know now, he would remain silent.

"Future Technology currently has good profitability. We just managed to gain our footsteps in the web space, why did we all the sudden expand into the tourism real estate market?" Xia Shiyu pushed up the glasses on her nose and asked with an undertone.

From an investor's perspective, Future Technology has a bright future. Its return would be far higher than building infrastructure in a small country on the Pacifics to revitalize the tourism industry there.

"Because I believe in the future of Pannu Islands' tourism, as well as Xin's growth prospect, Xin's plan to pay partially with land and sea developments also fits my interest."

For construction such as the expansion of airports, roads, hospitals, because these projects were none not-for-profit, Xin's government won't make Jiang Chen work for free. Because the Xin government didn't have the money and was unable to access loans from international banks, they could only repay Jiang Chen in the form of land and ocean development rights. Based on the consideration that once the infrastructure was built, the land price would appreciate substantially. From a business's point of view, there was a lot to gain, only that…

"But is it worth it to take on billions in debt for these of high-risk projects that could not generate profit in a short period? Right now Future Technology is currently working hard to expand its global market. It is in a rapid growth phase. The establishment of subsidiaries, talent acquisition, all these need money. If the cash flow is broken, its consequence would be severe."

She looked at Jiang Chen with a stern face and gave him a hard question to answer.

It was a problem.

It was rather embarrassing because Xia Shiyu was the one who took care of the company for him. Not including the current operation of the business, he didn't even manage to meet all the board members as the president. Although they had drunk together before, after such a long time, he has almost forgotten all of their names.

Of course, Jiang Chen was not to blame for his short memory, he was a man that lived in two worlds after all.

As he heard the question, he scratched his chin and began to deliberate.

"How much does Future Technology need to expand its operation?"

"Currently it is in the process of establishing subsidiaries in Australia, North America, Europe, Russia and Southeast Asia. This includes the construction of the subsidiary headquarter and hiring and training employees with an estimated cost of eight hundred million USD."

"Eight hundred million USD? That's not a lot." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

Seeing that the company's president had no sense of money, Xia Shiyu was exasperated and began to educate Jiang Chen about the fundamentals.

"We are a tech company and the majority of our income is attributable to Future 1.0 and <New Era>. Although we have formed an absolute advantage in terms of technical capability, with the rapid shift in technology, no one can guarantee we can maintain the technological edge. Imagine this, if a replacement product for Future 1.0 was introduced on the market. Even if it could only do one out of the functions we currently offer, such as accelerated hardware, battery saving, or smart control and even if it was inferior compared to Future 1.0 if it was free, would people still be willing to pay for our VIP service?"

"By that time, we would have to decrease our VIP charge, or even change the paid service into free service. If we lose Future 1.0 as a revenue channel, without exaggeration, Future Technology may turn from being profitable to losing money."

Xia Shiyu warned Jiang Chen with sternness.

The reason why she said so much was so that Jiang Chen wouldn't be blinded by Future Technology's current high profitability and sign a multi-billion deal without processing things in his head.

Without a doubt, from the company's expansion perspective, Xia Shiyu had the right foresight. But Jiang Chen saw further compared to her since his perspective was not limited to the small Future Technology.

"Revenue channel? I will take care of that, you can just take care of the operation…" Jiang Chen held his chin as he vaguely replied.

Although it was not that virtual reality didn't exist, it still remained in the body sensing motion and visual replication stage. For example, a camera would capture user's action before it is fed back to the game. The VR glasses would then display it as a three-dimensional image in front of the user. It was incomparable to the virtual reality of the 22nd century, which directly connected the game to the nerve at the back of the person's neck. As long as you lie in the metal box, the entire head and body muscles would be sleeping, but the person's conscious would appear in the virtual world.

Without the need for mechanical functions such as vibrations to mimic real feelings, the senses were directly simulated in the brain. There was no need to have a screen because it would be extraneous to form an image on the cornea. The virtual reality equipment from the 22nd century would connect directly to the nerve. By that time, it would no longer be a dream to close your eyes and play the game.

Except the technology differential was too drastic. Jiang Chen himself was uncertain if he should bring the space elevator out or the virtual reality helmet out.

"Okay, then I won't ask anymore regarding this. But as the president, you should be aware of the company's operations."

"Haha, don't worry." Jiang Chen laughed confidently.

Funny, there were so many wonderful things in the apocalypse, there was no need to worry about money. But he should think carefully about the next money making product. Perhaps he should ask Yao Yao or Du Yongkang to create a new software? But he didn't have any ideas yet.

There was artificial intelligence, battery saver, mobile game, what else did smartphones lack?

Just as he was zoning out, he saw a red box under the table.

"What is that?"

Jiang Chen curiously reached for the cookie-sized box, but Xia Shiyu jumped up as if she had her tail stepped on.

She snatched the box away from Jiang Chen's hand, with a steaming face, she hid the box behind her back.

But the more she tried to hide it, the more curious Jiang Chen became. What thing made the ice mountain standoffish beauty embarrassed like that?

Could it be…

When Jiang Chen thought about it, the way he looked at Xia Shiyu turned lascivious. He narrowed his eyes. He was the only one to blame for being too perverted as he could relate anything to the sensual things in life.

Needless to say, women are sensitive creatures. When she saw Jiang Chen's abnormal smile, Xia Shiyu first paused for a moment before she realized.

"Get your mind out of the gutter! It's weightloss tea! Weightloss tea!"

Xia Shiyu in embarrassment threw the box in Jiang Chen's lap. The red hue made her entire neck turn red and her teeth clenched in anger.

[This bastard, what is he even thinking! Dammit!]

"Weightloss tea? But you are not fat at all." Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu, confused.

Her waist and legs were both skinny, weightloss, she should gain some weight…

Wait, weightloss tea…

Jiang Chen seemed to have caught onto something. He closed his eyes and repeatedly chewed on the words.

But Xia Shiyu didn't notice the odd look on Jiang Chen's face. Her cold face was completely warmed by her blushing expression. She buried her head, not speaking.

[He said that I'm not fat?]

[That means… He is pleased with my body?]

The imagination of a girl in love was certainly wild. Even for a girl like Xia Shiyu with negative EQ could not escape the fate.

"Butt… My butt got a bit bigger."

With her finger twirling the tip of her hair, she used the decibel that only she could hear herself.

But as she spoke, she was stunned, why did she tell him such embarrassing thing!

With the bright redness of her face that was about to drip down, Xia Shiyu kept her head down, afraid to look at Jiang Chen.

However, Jiang Chen didn't even notice how awkward she was nor did he hear her murmur.

For an office lady, who worked long hours sitting in a chair, it was normal for her butt to grow some meat. But Xia Shiyu was okay since she was the type that could be blown away by the wind. Though it was still a woman's tendency to want to be beautiful, especially in front of someone she adored.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen clapped his hands and stood up. This scared Xia Shiyu who's imagination was running wild.

"Hahahaha! I remember now! Fu*k, how did I forget about that!"

Because of the lack of technical knowledge in this, he never treated it seriously. Now that he has given it some thought, that thing could generate more money than any software, and it would produce a stable stream of revenue.

Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen in bewilderment as he laughed hysterically. She was completely dumbfounded.

She didn't know what just happened to him.

Chapter 343: The Creative Use of Nutrient Supply

After he left with the words "I won't be back tonight," Jiang Chen eagerly ran out the door and left Xia Shiyu in complete shock.

[Won't be back tonight? Where are you going to sleep?]

[Also, didn't we say we're going shopping tonight?]

With a bunch of questions in her head, Xia Shiyu realized it was too late to stop Jiang Chen as he was about to slam the door closed.

She sighed and rested her forehead on her hand.

When she sensed the coldness in her hand, she paused.

She realized she was completely red.

Disregarding whether Xia Shiyu had any reservations about his quick departure, Jiang Chen ran to a nearby hotel. He ignored the concierge's strange look and ran to the elevator with his key.

After he locked the door, he lied down on the bed before he returned to the apocalypse and found Sun Jiao as he began to explain his intentions.

"Nutrient supply?" Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen with short breaths. She was puzzled. "Don't you guys have plenty of food on the other side? Why would you need that?"

Anyone with options wouldn't choose to drink the terrible-tasting nutrient supply on the wasteland. The meals at the mansion had fresh vegetables and frozen meat every day. In all of Fishbone base, only slaves and lower citizens would drink that.

"Help people lose weight! Oh, no, it's to make a profit!" Jiang Chen said in excitement.

"Lose weight?" Sun Jiao was full of doubt.

There were hardly any fat people in the apocalypse - it was fortunate to have a full stomach in the first place, let alone having an excess of food, so losing weight was an interesting concept to Sun Jiao.

"Uh, it's hard to explain… There's an organic converter at the base, right? Can you take me so I can have a look?"

Although she was skeptical about the benefits of the terrible tasting liquid, considering how eager Jiang Chen looked, she had no choice but to bring him to the Fishbone base warehouse.

Based on Sun Jiao's words, the organic converter wasn't stored with the food but instead, it was stored with the steel and concrete. They passed by the Death Claw statue and arrived at the warehouse not far from the community center.

They pushed open the warehouse, and the pungent smell of water desiccant blew into their faces. A gas cylinder boiler stood at the corner of the warehouse along with a bunch of green fruits. There were some wires connected to the organic converter, resembling a magnified version of a squeezer.

The reason why poor people were so skinny in the apocalypse was mostly because of the ironically unnutritious nutrient supply boiler. Mutant meat and fruits are all dumped inside the device. When turned on, the particle membrane separated out protein, sugar, fat, and vitamins that could be absorbed by the human body. They were produced into liquid food that could be absorbed by humans.

Jiang Chen sniffed as a weird smell entered his nostrils. He looked with a frown at the boiler. "Is this the organic converter?"

"That's right." Sun Jiao nodded then tilted her head and asked, "You sure people would be interested in it if you brought this thing to the other side?"

"Definitely not this, something smells weird… Is the nutrient supply created by this really drinkable?"

"That's the way the organic converter is. The weird smell is because of the filtered out contents like the toxic substances. So this area can't store food otherwise the entire room's contents would be contaminated," Sun Jiao said in defeat.

Jiang Chen nodded to signal his understanding then he looked at the fruits on the side, "This fruit is?"

"This is mutated fruit - the double-headed cow really likes to eat it. Because of the high oxalic acid content, humans can't consume it directly, but it's not a bad ingredient to have in the nutrient supply. Combined with a small quantity of mutant meat, it can produce C-grade nutrient supply," Sun Jiao said.

Jiang Chen tried the C-grade nutrient supply once - the sour taste was nowhere close to being good. As a product, taste was certainly important. If it ended up tasting like Han medicine, not a lot of people would buy it.

After he thought for a moment, Jiang Chen asked, "If we use fresh meat or grain, would the produced nutrient supply reach level A?"

"Use fresh food to produce nutrient supply? Are you crazy?" Sun Jiao said in shock.

With fresh food who would eat this? Is this something an average person would do?

"Ahem, I'm not crazy! Don't you facepalm - tell me the answer."

Sun Jiao face-palmed and sighed in defeat.

"To be honest, although I never tried before, it's probably possible. To produce nutrient supply above B-grade, not only does it require strict ingredients, there is also a high requirement for the production equipment. I heard that Liuding Town has the equipment needd to produce nutrient supply above B-grade, but I never purchased that before. Aside from the better taste, I can't tell the difference between C-grade and E-grade. It may be more nutritious? Who knows. Even if it is S-grade nutrient supply, it doesn't taste as good as real food."

"There's S-grade nutrient supply?" Jiang Chen in shock.

"Of course. S-grade nutrient supply was the nutrient supply produced before the war. I heard it was a military necessity. But in peaceful times, no one would eat that," Sun Jiao said.

"Where do you find the production equipment for the S-grade nutrient supply?" Jiang Chen desperately wanted to know the answer.

"I don't know… But the scientists at the fallout shelter should know."

Jiang Chen smacked his head.

How could he forget the survivors from fallout shelter No.27? With so many scientists, there must be a few who would know. There was no need to create S-grade nutrient supply - he could just create his own custom version.

At this thought, Jiang Chen immediately headed to the warehouse door. He wanted to fly to camp 27 right now to take care of it.

When she saw Jiang Chen head for the door, Sun Jiao paused and tried to convince him to stay, "Eh? You want to go now? It's almost dark… Why don't you wait until tomorrow?"

As she said that, her face felt a burning sensation.

Jiang Chen stopped and saw the red cloud on Sun Jiao's beautiful face. She obviously knew the meaning of her words as her face met his smirk.

He hugged Sun Jiao's waist and blew gently into her ear.

"Then I'll go tomorrow."

…

The next morning, with two dark circles, Jiang Chen took the helicopter to camp 27. When he got off, he looked for Xu Lu who was working in the command center.

Because all survivors' abilities were registered and recorded, when she heard then't purpose of Jiang Chen's trip, Xu Lu quickly managed to select a few people and called them to the office.

When they heard they were being asked to see Jiang Chen, the survivors were ecstatic.

Why?

There was no need to ask! It must be because their abilities were going to be used for something - likely a project team. Although it wasn't bad to live on the surface, it couldn't compare to living in the fallout shelter. Who didn't want to live a happy life with their family?

Even if Jiang Chen's requirements were strict, they would still accept without hesitation.

Chapter 344: Sorry

In order to lose a lot of weight, a lot of young girls with great family backgrounds only ate one meal a day, with some going to the extent of only eating an apple for their single meal. Jiang Chen wondered: wouldn't they starve to death?

Losing weight by dieting wasn't only harmful to the body, it was also hard to maintain. This was conveyed by the joke, "When fat people are losing weight, the more they try, the more fat they get."

Imagine this, if a weight loss medicine appeared on the market – no, it would be called low-calorie food! Two test tubes a day would ensure you were full without any damage to your body. If you drank it continuously for half a year, it would guarantee you would be as thin as the refugees in the ghetto… Of course, no one would want to be as thin as that. Normal people would stop drinking it after a month.

The nutrient supply from the apocalypse wasn't fit for marketing to the modern world. Since it was a product, the taste was definitely a significant consideration. Also with concern for food safety, the ingredients and nutrient value would have to be redesigned.

For the improved version of the nutrient supply, Jiang Chen made a few requests to the five researchers.

The first was that it had to taste good, then it had to be healthy. Third, the calories had to be low enough and fourth, the ingredients had to be easy to gather and suitable for large-scale farming. Finally, the recipe had to be finished within a month. For each day they were ahead of schedule, the researchers could spend a month longer in the fallout shelter.

Faced with Jiang Chen's demands, the five researchers all raised their chests in confidence and promised to finish the recipe within the allocated time.

When the five people left the command center, they all had cheerful smiles on their faces as they couldn't wait to return to the fallout shelter to start the experiment.

"Once they have results, immediately report back to the base." Before Jiang Chen left, he urged Xu Lu.

"Yes, Boss!" Xu Lu responded with a smile.

"Then that's all… Also, did Han Junhua give up?"

Xu Lu shook her head with embarrassment.

"Not yet."

"I see…"

[What a stubborn person; why can't she just listen? PAC already flew lightyears away - what's there to be stubborn about?]

"Do you want to go see her?" Xu Lu asked.

"Mhmm… Might as well." Jiang Chen said casually.

He wanted to personally ask if she changed her mind and display his genuineness. Then, depending on the circumstances, he would see if she needed a more intensive lesson before he left… Jiang Chen thought he was a wicked person.

A smile surfaced on Xu Lu's face and she nodded gently.

"Okay, please follow me."

Jiang Chen followed Xu Lu into the cold basement. The patrol at the door saluted to him and opened the door for them before closing it.

Han Junhua sat quietly on the bed and looked at Jiang Chen.

He could sense that the instant she saw him, a hint of fright flashed across her pupils. Although it quickly vanished, it left a deep impression on his mind.

With the calm and collected look she put up, he felt a sense of guilt for some reason.

Maybe because he still had the conscience of someone from the modern world?

"… You can leave for now," Jiang Chen said lightly.

"Yes." Xu Lu nodded before she left the basement.

When the steel door closed shut, the basement returned to silence.

To Jiang Chen's surprise, it was Han Junhua who first broke the silence.

"What perverted thing do you plan to do to me today?"

Her voice was distant and cold - it sounded like it could freeze a person without any hint of emotion.

"I…" Jiang Chen opened his mouth, but he chose to close it.

He came in with a script in mind, but with that face as calm as still water, he didn't know what to say.

Jiang Chen sighed and threw out the words he prepared beforehand as he gently said, "Sorry."

Surprise flashed through Han Junhua's eyes. There was also a trace of confusion, but it vanished instantly.

"Although I'm not seeking your forgiveness, I still want to apologize for what I did."

Jiang Chen admitted he did all those despicable things because he thought with his lower body and put his wicked thoughts into action. He didn't even think it was wrong afterwards. She was his captive - it was his choice to determine how he treated her.

If a person stayed too long in a society without rule and boundaries, the person would subconsciously be withered by the environment. Jiang Chen realized a long time ago that the longer he stayed in the apocalypse, the more he thought as a person from the apocalypse.

If it was the old him, although he lacked some boundaries, he would never r*pe or force people.

After a long silence, she said calmly with a peaceful tone.

"Who apologizes to their captive?"

"… Perhaps." Jiang Chen smiled bitterly. He shook his head and left the basement.

Han Junhua stared at Jiang Chen's back. She didn't speak.

But inside her dark pupils, she looked completely.

…

He returned to the hotel and checked out before he headed to Xia Shiyu's apartment.

But when he knocked on the door, he realized there was no response inside. He called Xia Shiyu before he realized it was 10. She went to work a long time ago.

On the phone, Xia Shiyu didn't ask where Jiang Chen went the night before; she just briefly explained how to get Future International's building and hung up the phone.

Her meaning was obvious. She wanted the missing-in-action president to take some time to come to the company. Regarding the construction bidding, they only managed to discuss it halfway before Jiang Chen ran out - it was the perfect opportunity to finish the last bit.

To save time, Jiang Chen took a taxi and headed on his way. He played with his phone.

But then, a number called.

<Wang Zhiyong>

When he saw the name, Jiang Chen was silent for a moment, but he still picked up.

"Hello?"

"It's me." Wang Zhiyong's voice was bitter.

"… If you're calling on behalf of your uncle, you don't need to say anything," Jiang Chen said lightly.

"I know you would say this." Wang Zhiyong sighed.

After a two second pause, Wang Zhiyong used a pleading voice.

"Could you not just let this one go?"

He never asked for favors from his friends - he didn't want to go to the trouble. But this time it was for his family, not for himself. Although he was reckless at times, he always stood with his family.

"You can ask Wang Linhua - did you consider letting this one go when he plotted against me that night?" Jiang Chen laughed.

Wang Zhiyong fell into silence.

After a lengthy pause, he let out a long sigh.

"I see… Sorry, this one is my fault."

The day when he came out of the police station, he didn't notify Jiang Chen that the Wang family was plotting against his Future Technology, even though he knew a few details of their plan at the time. When he compared his family to his friends, there was no doubt which one was more important.

"No problem. It's not your fault."

With a sigh, Jiang Chen hung up.

He didn't have a lot of friends, and now there was one less…

Just as he was about to put away his phone, his phone began to ring again.

It was an international call.

<Zhang Yapin>

Chapter 345: A surprising reward

The moment the phone call went through, Zhang Yapin lowered his voice and roared at him.

"God, what did you do!"

Jiang Chen first paused then asked in surprise, "Oh, you're a Christian?"

Zhang Yapin took a moment to think before he roared in anger again.

"Is this the time to discuss this right now? New Moon Island, country F fishers, pirates? Are you crazy?!"

After Zhang Yapin finished venting, he took short, panting breaths before finally regaining his breath after a long time. Jiang Chen noticed the phone kept ringing on his side, but he didn't pick up.

"Are you calm now?" Jiang Chen laughed.

The calm Zhang Yapin forced a laugh, leaned back into his chair, and continued.

"… Almost in despair."

"What happened?" Jiang Chen said lightheartedly.

"Just go read any newspaper from country F! Three fishing boats that accidentally entered Xin territory were attacked and maliciously sunk by the Xin military. All 11 fishers died… Don't tell me you didn't know about this."

[What the fu*k, sunk them?] Jiang Chen was stunned.

To be honest, he didn't think of sinking the three fishing boats. He just ordered Ivan to take care of things and confiscate the fishing boats as pirate boats. He didn't think the Slav had such a bad temper. He wondered what they did to enrage him.

Jiang Chen wouldn't admit his mistake as he tried to rebuke: "Who would buy the newspaper printed by them?"

They deserved to be sunk. Is a military base a place you can just wander around? Delaying the building of military infrastructure, in any country, would cost a few artilleries at least.

"It won't be long before the world knows. BBC's reporter is outside and being rowdy, saying he wanted to get ahead of his colleagues," Zhang Yapin said wearily as he rubbed his sore eyes.

After a lengthy silence, Jiang Chen asked in a small voice, "Did Ivan… really kill them all?"

"All killed."

"Where are the sunken ships?" Jiang Chen continued.

"The diplomat of country F is currently negotiating with me to start the recovery as early as possible…"

"Who's leading this?" Jiang Chen's eyebrows raised.

"They want them to lead the investigation of the incident. Their coastal guard ships already crossed the border, but your people forced them back… That's your own troops, do you really have no idea?" Zhang Yapin asked with skepticism.

Jiang Chen looked at his phone and glared at it; there were two missed calls.

He was at the apocalypse yesterday, how could he pick up the phone?!

"Ahem, I didn't have signal yesterday."

Zhang Yapin rubbed his temples wearily. "What should we do?"

"Other than recovering the sunken ships, what else did they ask?"

"They demanded us to arrest the murderers and prosecute them under the law, or else they reserved all options for the situation to escalate."

Murderers?

When he heard this word, Jiang Chen was instantly unhappy. He didn't notice Zhang Yapin's last word as he cursed.

"Fu*k, if they sunk, they sunk! They were in Xin territory; did they have any excuse to trespass illegally?"

"Removing illegally trespassing fishers would only require a water gun. More severe cases would warrant bumping their boat, but using rockets is unprecedented! Zhang Yapin said bitterly in a helpless voice.

"In military zones, unique circumstances should be treated with caution; who knows if they were spies or not?"

With a frown, Jiang Chen deliberated for a moment. He glanced at the driver beside him as he lowered his voice.

"I can't really talk right now… But all in all, just make sure you remain firm that the boats were all pirate boats. Pointing at the deer and saying it's a horse, do you understand? If you don't, Baidu it. I know you've never been to Hua, but don't forget things passed on by the ancestors. Remain calm throughout the recovery process. Just drag it on until I come back to take care of it. Okay?"

"Okay…"

Zhang Yapin's response was without energy.

He just became the president. The domestic situation had yet to be stabilized before a foreign affairs problem arose. The country F president spoke with him yesterday on the phone with a strong stance, seeming somewhat arrogant. Country F had a population of 100 million, while Pannu only had twenty thousand. The 500 times differential didn't give him a lot of courage to carry a strong attitude. With a current enlisted force of 120 thousand, it was six times Xin's entire population. If there was a military conflict, Xin would be the one losing – although Jiang Chen thought otherwise.

"Then that's all, bye."

Jiang Chen hung up the phone.

Half an hour of driving later, the car arrived in Kowloon. After they turned a street, among the skyscrapers, Jiang Chen instantly saw the name "Future International."

He threw down two bills, got out of the car, and took out the phone to call Ivan.

As Ivan picked up, Jiang Chen rushed to ask him:

"Did you kill them all?"

"All killed… I'm willing to accept the punishment." Ivan was straightforward.

"You didn't do anything wrong. The border must be protected!... But this incident might be a bit problematic so remain calm and wait for me to return," Jiang Chen said in an undertone.

"Yes!" Ivan said.

…

Xin's national defense contractor, Celestial Trade Company, sank three fishing boats and forcefully removed country F's coastal guards with force.

Contrary to the shock and anger in country F, the Xin citizens were all ecstatic as if they had all taken drugs. Even for the people who had reserved opinions about Celestial all began to turn to their favor.

To sum it up in one sentence, it was fu*king amazing.

The conflicts between the two societies had existed a long time before.

When president Edward ruled Pannu Islands, he only lived the lavish life with Johnny - he didn't care about the lives of the fishermen at all. How much tax did the fishermen pay? Was it enough to pay for one of his meals?

There were no steel guard ships in Pannu Islands - only a few fishing boats served as a replacement. The low military budget was all allocated to the land force to suppress dissident voices within the country.

Therefore, although Pannu Islands possessed a significant amount of sea territory, their control over the sea was practically zero. Not to say that F country fishers or even New Guinea citizens could enter their territory to steal fish, but New Guinea was much less ruthless compared to country F. Not only did they steal their fish, but they also bullied the local fishermen.

The Pannu fishermen all hated those F citizens deep in their bones. Because of economic limitations, Pannu fishermen's fishing boats were inferior compared to those of the F country fishermen. If they bumped into each other, the Pannu ships would be the one to sink. Therefore, when they actually fought for fish, they had to avoid them, even if it was in their own territory.

Therefore, that was why even with the vast fishing resources near New Moon Island, there wasn't a single Xin fishing boat.

It was certainly not the most thrilling feeling.

But Celestial's actions were like a slap on the thugs' faces.

The attitudes of the Xin citizens to Celestial Trade Company instantly changed from "outside interfering force" to the "protector of people." Before, there wasn't a lot of response to Celestial's recruitment, but after this event, the recruitment site had a long line up.

The sharp domestic problem immediately turned to face the rest of the world. The issues of land compensation, whether the development of the tourism sector would continue, and the restructuring of the government were all shifted to the back of everyone's mind because currently, all Xin people faced a common enemy.

It was country F.

The result was surprising. Jiang Chen didn't even consider it at the time.

Chapter 346: Evaluation of Bid

Future International's office in Asia was in Xiangjiang with the headquarters planned for construction at Pannu Islands. Of course, the current headquarters was only a shell. All the other offices in different continents were all in the process of development.

As the president of Future International, Jiang Chen left everything to Xia Shiyu to take care of.

Xia Shiyu had an excellent background; she was a top graduate from a renowned program at Wanghai University. Her knowledge and abilities were far superior compared to ordinary people. Although the jump from being the store manager of a clothing store to the CEO of a global tech company was rather massive, she still used her shrill shoulders to lift everything. She studied how to manage a company while she applied this knowledge through the daily operations of Future Internationl.

Till now, even if she encountered some difficulties along the way, there had been no major problems in Future Technology's operations. Her abilities had to be commended as Jiang Chen knew he wouldn't be able to manage such a massive company himself.

It had been a while since Jiang Chen showed up. When everyone saw the missing-in-action president appear at the office, all the employees were shocked as if the Sun had risen from the west.

There were familiar faces and new faces among the employees. Not everyone chose to relocate to Xiangjiang, but Jiang Chen rewarded the employees who followed him. All of them were either promoted based on their abilities or given a raise.

After he took a tour of the company, Jiang Chen was surprised to see he could still put a name to the majority of the people, such as the Future 1.0 project manager Ning Huajian or the bold girl Su Mengqi from the company dinner.

Jiang Chen didn't interfere with their work after he greeted the people he knew. He then headed to Xia Shiyu's office.

She was dressed in a set of professional attire with her black hair curled up at the back of her head. A piece of hair dropped down from the side, reflecting the gentleness of the sun. When Jiang Chen came in, Xia Shiyu was reading documents. She sat straight up with her eyes focused; she had a tranquil but dignified vibe when she worked.

She noticed Jiang Chen come in as she put down the pen in her hand and looked up.

"You're here. Feel free to sit."

"Mhmm."

He sat on the sofa across from Xia Shiyu's desk. Jiang Chen scanned the thick pile of documents on the table as an embarrassed expression appeared on his face. A lot of these things should've been the responsibility of the president, but everything was piled onto her.

"Thank you for working so hard."

"It's okay."

Xia Shiyu tucked some of her hair behind her ear. She got up, picked up the laptop, and sat down beside Jiang Chen.

"These are all construction visualizations. The spreadsheet on the side contains cost estimates I organized. Although I understand your intention to be a free owner, as the president, you should be involved in the bidding process. Look at this one first…"

As she explained, she scrolled through the screen and led Jiang Chen through all the documents.

To gain the ten billion contract, all the major international construction companies spent their effort creating the most brilliant visualization. Not only did they use 3D modeling to demonstrate every detail of the construction, they even built the 3D aerial view of the four constructed islands.

After spending an entire afternoon on his selection, Jiang Chen finally chose a Dutch construction company named BMA. The company was previously involved in the development of Maldives' tourism project. Their experience on island construction was extensive. This was demonstrated especially well with their 3D visualization that could be described as art. The second Jiang Chen saw it; he was captured by the design philosophy.

The harmonious fusion of technology and nature was demonstrated flawlessly in BMA's design philosophy. While they retained the natural beauty of Pannu islands, their bold technology design provided the best experience for tourists.

Most noticeable was the transparent "bubble hotel" that was just like a balloon attached to a post. With the attachment of an air pipeline, tourists could move the bubbles anywhere between the sea level and the hundred-meter-deep ocean based on their desires. They could also choose to fix the room or allow the room to freely flow along with the waves, dance with the colorful tropical fish and sleep listening to gentle grace of the sea. With the help of technology, this allowed tourists to completely immerse themselves in the beauty of nature. Jiang Chen was instantly hooked by this design.

The cost of 8.7 billion USD wasn't low by any means, but if BMA could really transform his backyard – Pannu Islands – into the jewel on the visualization, Jiang Chen didn't mind spending the money.

Although Xia Shiyu recommended Jiang Chen to consider his options for a few more days, he still went through with the decision. There was no point reconsidering it no matter how long he looked. Instead, he just left it to his instincts. Since the companies invited to bid were world-class, BMA was among the best, without a doubt.

Another reason he was so hasty was because he had to return to Xin immediately.

After they finished the bidding review, it was already six in the evening.

By that time, aside from employees working overtime, there weren't a lot of people in the building. After they left the building, Xia Shiyu sped up while Jiang Chen followed her as they walked to the company's garage.

With the door open, Xia Shiyu subconsciously looked around before she sat inside. Jiang Chen gave her a strange look before he took a seat.

With his seat belt on, Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly, "Do you have anything to do tonight?"

Xia Shiyu raised her eyebrows, puzzled by the question, "No."

"Then why did you walk so fast? It looked like you had something to do."

As she heard this, Xia Shiyu's eyes widened.

"Ahem, it's not good for the employees to see us being so close together. Since we're both single… If rumors spread, it would decrease work efficiency… All in all, that situation wouldn't be ideal."

She hastily shifted her gears as she attempted to start the car.

[It's not that bad to enter a car together, it could just be a woman giving her coworker a ride…] Jiang Chen ridiculed her in his mind.

Although he couldn't see her face from the back, with the light outside, Jiang Chen noticed her neck turning red.

"You forgot to press the clutch." Considering how listless Xia Shiyu was, Jiang Chen reminded her in a small voice.

"I... I know!"

Xia Shiyu turned around and gave Jiang Chen a hard stare as her feet forcefully stepped on the gas…

It was indeed a thrilling journey.

He didn't know what Xia Shiyu was thinking as she kept driving like a madwoman. A few times, she almost scratched the car in front of her. Jiang Chen stared at the steering wheel in her hands on high alert as he prepared to take the wheel in any unexpected situation.

But what Jiang Chen didn't know was that if he hadn't stared at her like that, Xia Shiyu might not have been so nervous...

Chapter 347: I don’t dislike her

After a hectic journey, the two finally made it back to the apartment safely.

When they got off the car, both of them simultaneously felt relieved.

Xia Shiyu went to the door and took out her key, pretending to be calm, but before she could open the door, she dropped it on the ground.

"Why don't I just go sleep outside?" With how nervous Xia Shiyu looked, Jiang Chen made this proposal in a quiet voice.

[I'm just crashing at your place; we're not doing anything naughty. Why are you so nervous?! You're making me nervous too.]

"No, no need. It's too much trouble."

[No, no, it's probably more convenient…] Jiang Chen said in his mind.

As she finally lined the key up with the lock, Xia Shiyu seemed to be battling with something internally. She finally pushed the door open with one foot and stiffly stepped into the house.

[Everything was fine during the day…] Jiang Chen ridiculed her in his mind as he stared at Xia Shiyu's back.

Jiang Chen followed her inside as he was dragged to the spare bedroom.

The layout of the bedroom was feminine. It looked like where Ayesha stayed when she was protecting Xia Shiyu before. The sheets had the smell of sunshine; they were clearly hung out to dry outside not long ago.

Xia Shiyu, with a rigid look, threw Jiang Chen a set of spare keys before she hastily left the bedroom. She didn't have the fluidity she had when she first invited Jiang Chen to crash at her place.

Jiang Chen shook his head and sat on the bed. He took out his phone and called his parents and Ayesha separately.

His parents were enjoying their time on Coro Island. Not only did they live in a mansion, Jiang Chen also hired two caretakers to care of them.

Jiang Jianguo enjoyed fishing before, but since the river near their old place was too populated to fish and Fanyang Lake was too far away from home, he wasn't able to engage in his hobby. Now that he lived near the sea, it was possible to fish only a couple steps away, so he picked his hobby back up. He spent all day fishing with Carter from morning to night.

In their conversation, Jiang Jianguo kept bragging to his son about how big the fish he caught were. Although they tasted salty, when they were mixed with ginger and garlic sauce, they tasted surprisingly good.

As to his mom, Li Xuemei, other than occasionally heading out to the sea with Jiang Jianguo, she spent the majority of time homemaking and gardening. Ayesha visited her sometimes to learn the secrets to Han cuisine.

Regarding the beautiful foreign daughter-in-law, Li Xuemei absolutely adored her. Not only was she courteous, but she was also virtuous; it was hard to find someone as good as she was. Especially with Ayesha's earnestness when she asked what Jiang Chen liked to eat, Li Xuemei was even more delighted as she kept telling her husband how lucky Jiang Chen was.

Although they weren't married yet, the two elders all treated her like she was part of the family.

The first phone call lasted for an entire hour before his dad hung up in fear an exorbitantly high phone bill.

The second phone call was rather short since Ayesha never spoke too much. But from her concise words, Jiang Chen still felt her deep affection as well as longing from hundreds of miles away.

"… Remember to take care of yourself, I'll be back in a few days."

"Mhmm," Ayesha responded gently.

"That's all, I'm going to hang up."

"Wait," Ayesha abruptly said.

"Mhmm? Is there something else?" Jiang Chen said in surprise.

"Did you figure out Xia Shiyu yet?"

Jiang Chen almost choked on his own spit when he heard these words from the other side of the phone.

"Ahem? What 'figure her out'? Where did you learn this from?"

Ayesha tilted her head as she continued, "I didn't use this phrase properly? I saw it in a drama."

She previously enjoyed UA drama before, but to understand the mysterious "mother and daughter-in-law relationship," she specifically watched a few Han shows. Although she didn't quite understand, it dramatically helped with her vocabulary.

"Watch less of that drama…" Jiang Chen facepalmed.

"Okay, I'll stop watching," Ayesha responded mildly.

"Also, did you say something to Xia Shiyu? I think she has been acting a bit strange." Jiang Chen recalled when he first saw Xia Shiyu off the plane; he could only come to one conclusion. It must be Ayesha who told Xia Shiyu something.

In the two months when Jiang Chen was overseas, Ayesha stayed with Xia Shiyu. Jiang Chen didn't know what the two spoke about, but based on the fact that Ayesha saved Xia Shiyu's life and even lost her own, there shouldn't have been any conflicts between them. But because of Xia Shiyu's affection to him, as well as the damage of that kiss….

"She said she won't admit defeat." It was a rare occasion when Ayesha didn't answer Jiang Chen directly.

"She won't admit defeat? Wait, what exactly did you say to her?" Jiang Chen said, sensing a slight headache coming on.

"Ummm," Ayesha was hesitant, but she finally opened her mouth, "I admitted our relationship to her."

[No wonder…] Jiang Chen facepalmed.

No wonder Xia Shiyu looked at him oddly when he first got off the plane and invited him to live at her place; that was unlike the Xia Shiyu who always put on a cold face in front of anyone.

"Sorry." Like a kitty that accidentally broke a cup, Ayesha lowered her head as she said with a fast tone and small voice, "I only thought… since she really liked you, there's no need to restrain herself. I don't mind sharing with her and I don't plan to oppose her…"

To be honest, that kiss in the car and admitting the truth to Xia Shiyu were all intended to "push her." But things turned out opposite to her intentions - Xia Shiyu's first and second reaction were both surprising to Ayesha. Xia Shiyu seemed to have interpreted her actions as acts of aggression.

Jiang Chen immediately interrupted her, "No, no, no, you don't need to apologize; our relationship isn't something that needs to be hidden."

"But… She seemed to have misinterpreted something." Ayesha's voice still had a hint of guilt.

"It's not that she misinterpreted something. How should I say this? The Han culture is a bit different from your own; she won't agree to it."

"Then do you like her?" Ayesha asked seriously.

When he heard her sudden question, Jiang Chen stopped.

After he thought seriously for half a minute, he slowly said, "I … don't dislike her."

Jiang Chen admited he was a greedy person, and also a selfish person.

But he didn't plan to explain himself.

"I will help you," Ayesha said earnestly.

"There's no need to help me... Just go with the flow. To be honest, I don't even know myself how I'll treat her. Don't sleep too late; good night."

"Mhmm, good night." When she sensed that Jiang Chen didn't want to continue talking, Ayesha ended the topic.

Jiang Chen hung up the phone and lied on the bed.

"Woosh-"

He let out a long sigh. Jiang Chen turned and stared at himself in the mirror.

He grinned. When he looked at his smile in the mirror, Jiang Chen restrained the desire to smile bitterly.

[Whatever, I'll just sleep early. There's still a meeting with Dalmer Corporation tomorrow.]

While battling his thoughts, Jiang Chen didn't even take off his clothes before he drifted to sleep.

Chapter 348: One billion Deal

The next morning, he moved his slightly sore neck as he sat up on the bed.

It was Xia Shiyu who knocked on his door to wake him up.

She was accustomed to the nine to five routine. So every day, she wakes up early to cook breakfast. She placed the scrambled egg, toast, and milk on the dinner table. When they were eating breakfast, Jiang Chen's heart pumped a little faster while he watched her in an apron.

He didn't know she had such a virtuous side.

He remembered back in university that one of his friends who always bragged about how many girlfriends he had always said that a single girl's life is not always the tidiest. It was normal for them to clean up in a few months. But from Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen didn't see any carelessness.

Their conversation during the day was normal, not the slightest bit of awkwardness existed from yesterday.

After breakfast, the two headed to the office together. She looked okay, but from the thick makeup covering her eye bags, Jiang Chen could see that she didn't have the best night of sleep.

…

The meeting with Daimler corporation took place in Future International. The representative they sent was from Europe and had arrived last night. The representative was rumored to be a "person of importance". Before the representative arrived, Jiang Chen was guessing who it could be, but he ended up seeing a familiar face.

"Haha! Hello, Mr. Jiang, we meet again."

With fluent Chinese, Carmen Rothschild opened his arm with a warm smile and walked in front of Jiang Chen.

"Mr. Carmen? This is a surprise, you personally came to China."

Jiang Chen looked at the man in front of him with surprise before he quickly regathered himself and opened his arm.

Although it was weird to hug a man, out of respect, Jiang Chen gave him a manly hug.

"Of course, Daimler corporation values the partnership with your company, the same goes for the Rothschild family," Carmen said earnestly.

[He shouldn't have figured out the GPS tracker… ] Carmen thought in his mind.

[What is this guy's intention?] Jiang Chen was puzzled too.

The USB Carmen gave Jiang Chen last night had a GPS tracker inside. Yao Yao, who only specialized in programming, although she had some abilities in electronic device modification, didn't receive any anti-surveillance training, so naturally, she didn't notice it. If it were Ayesha, the GPS tracker would not escape her eyes. It was all about specialties.

"My honor, you are also an important partner for Future International." Jiang Chen smiled.

The two sat down around the conference table. The bodyguard following Carmen stayed outside the room. The two technical experts in suits and an assistant followed inside. Xia Shiyu took out the contract and placed it in front of Jiang Chen, then stood beside him.

Just as the meeting started, Carmen couldn't wait and immediately said, "Let's get straight to the point shall we"

"As you wish."

Jiang Chen smiled and signaled the employee to place the brief containing the USB and the chip in front of Carmen.

On this trip, Carmen brought the technical experts from the company. The contract stated that the product must be delivered by May. To be honest, when Daimler's programmers heard that Future Technology not only tackled the technical barriers in the smart driving system, they also managed to complete it within a month before the deadline. They were so shocked that their eyes almost popped out.

Everyone had the same thought, "Is Future Technology tricking them?"

The Germans' rigorous technical skills were renowned worldwide. They could not let a single mistake exist during the quality assurance process. Because of their skepticism to Future Technology's ability, the board sent the two technical experts responsible for the primary control system over to audit the smart driving program.

If the innovative technology had any problems, Daimler corporation's loss was not as simple as compensation, the reputation they've built over the years would also suffer greatly as a result. On the other side, if this triggered people's fear for the autonomous driving vehicle, it would indeed cast a gloom over the future of smart cars. Because of their persistence to safety, it resulted in aborting the contract with the previous company.

The two technical experts walked up. A man with a stern expression open the briefcase, and the other took out a laptop computer. They inserted the USB into the laptop and began to work.

The conference room was quiet, there was only the sound of keys clicking and computer fan spinning.

Carmen's arms were placed on the table with his eyes half-closed, but Jiang Chen noticed that he had his full attention on that computer screen. Xia Shiyu was still expressionless, but from her continuously moving eyes, Jiang Chen could clearly sense her unease.

Jiang Chen was the most relaxed. He leaned back in his chair while waiting for the results to come out.

At the same time, Jiang Chen noticed that the assistant behind Carmen was observing him. Jiang Chen gave him a friendly smile, but he looked away.

The two technical experts' expression was turning more and more grave as they began to exchange opinions in a small voice.

Xia Shiyu held her breath as her heart was pumping rapidly.

It was a one billion dollar deal! Whether it was a success or failure, it would all depend on the words that came out of the two peoples' mouths.

Finally, the two technical experts stood up. From their actions, the review was completed.

"The result?"

Carmen was more eager than Jiang Chen.

The older looking technical expert nodded, then turned to Jiang Chen and said in English.

"Mr. Jiang, your company's achievement in artificial intelligence is at the point worth praising and envying. Please allow me to apologize for my skepticism of your company's ability."

While he said this, the technical expert bowed deeply to Jiang Chen.

"Don't worry. As a technical expert, it is a virtue to dare to question," Jiang Chen replied with a calm tone.

"Ahem." Carmen coughed.

The technical expert realized his mishap and stopped talking.

They were not in the lab, but the conference table.

"Since our chief technical engineer has already verified the excellent performance of the software, then my trip is certainly worthwhile." Carmen stood up and smiled.

Xia Shiyu felt relieved. She only noticed now that her palms were drenched in sweat.

She looked at Jiang Chen as her eyes stopped on the smile laced with confidence.

Her face felt hot as she looked away subtly.

Seeing Carmen stand up, Jiang Chen also stood up with a smile and extended his hand.

"It's great working with you."

"Haha, It's great to work with you too." Carmen also extended his right hand and shook with Jiang Chen.

One billion dollars. Although it was small compared to the eight billion USD gap, it would certainly alleviate some of their financial pressures.

But then, the corner of Jiang Chen's eyes caught the ring on his hand.

His pupils suddenly contracted.

That is…

Chapter 349: A Massive Loan

That shape, it's the Golden Apple!?

How is that possible!

Jiang Chen's first reaction was that he made a mistake. He wanted to confirm the shape of the ring, but Carmen already let his hand go. Because of the angle, he couldn't see the front of the ring.

"After we finish the next round of auditing, the one billion will be transferred to your company's account. Of course, I trust that there are no other problems. To celebrate the success of our partnership, can I invite you to eat lunch with me?" Carmen smiled.

"My honor." Jiang Chen humbly laughed as he hid his shock behind his laughter.

The Golden Apple? Why?

Could it be the Rothschild family and the Golden Apple have some hidden secrets? No… But that Golden Apple was inside the U-235 submarine, from the diary of the officer from the Third Reich. The Golden Apple was protected as the "last trump card" for the Third Reich. As a Jewish family, how could they have come into contact with this?

Could it be that it was Hitler who robbed the Golden Apple away from them? No, that didn't make sense.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen felt strange.

He suddenly realized that there was no point in being bothered by this.

Regardless of whatever the empire had plotted, that part of the history has already gone by for 70 years. From the diary, he already confirmed that the possessor of the Golden Apple didn't know how to use it even at the last moment. Although the country may have received some technologies in the future, it still faded in the passage of time.

Carmen didn't notice the irregularity on Jiang Chen's face as he warmly welcomed Jiang Chen to sit with him on his vehicle. The black bodyguard sat down in the driver seat, and his assistant sat in the passenger seat.

Although the bodyguard didn't say anything for the entire trip, Jiang Chen still sensed a hint of danger from him.

The guy was dangerous, at least on the same danger level as Nick. But contrary to Nick's silent and reserved state, this person didn't attempt to restrain his murderous vibe. He seemed like a war machine.

The bodyguard of the Rothschild family was not a simple character.

Jiang Chen sat with Carmen in the back as they chatted and joked. Carmen spoke excellent Chinese, it was even better than Robert, and he was also very talkative.

It didn't take long before the car arrived at its destination - Catalan restaurant.

The place has quite a reputation in the upper-class society in Xiangjiang. From the delicate interior to the elegance of the waitress, it was easy to see how remarkable the restaurant was. From the respectful expressions the two waitresses at the door gave to Carmen, Jiang Chen suspected that the restaurant was an asset that belonged to the Rothschild family.

They entered a private room and ordered. It didn't take long before the servers brought up exquisite dishes. The two chatted while they ate.

"Oh right, I remembered the bet we made. I still owe you a Maybach EX," Carmen said as he elegantly dissected the red shrimp from the Mediterranean.

When they first signed the contract, Carmen and Jiang Chen made a bet. If Jiang Chen could deliver the product before May, he would gift Jiang Chen a Maybach EX – one of the only five vehicles worldwide.

Jiang Chen was shocked.

He almost forgot about it.

"Is Mr. Jiang free in October?" Carmen smiled.

"Hard to say, is there something going on?" Jiang Chen asked.

"The Mun Auto Exhibition is in October. Daimler corporation will be participating in the auto exhibition as a sponsor. The five Maybach EX will be displayed during the exhibition, and one of them will belong to you. If Mr. Jiang has the time, I would like to extend an invitation."

"Even if I don't have time, I will make time to attend." Jiang Chen laughed.

Carmen also smiled. To Jiang Chen accepting the invitation, he was pleased.

As lunch was approaching the end, Carmen put down his utensils and wiped his mouth with the cloth.

"Speaking of something else, does Mr. Jiang mind talking about business during lunchtime?"

"Of course not, it is a tradition to talk about business over a meal."

"Then I will be straightforward. Although the Rothschild family is in an expansive industry, our foundation still lies within the banking sector. I heard that Future International recently accepted a bid to the ten billion mega-project, would you guys need a little help?" Carmen smiled.

"Oh? What kind of help?" Jiang Chen pretended to be intrigued and asked.

"A loan of eight billion USD. A five-year term and an annual interest rate of 4.15%. Is Mr. Jiang interested in this loan?"

4.15% of annual interest was lower compared to the annual interest of 4.28% offered by the other banks Jiang Chen contacted. Although it was just a 0.13% discrepancy, for a multi-billion dollar loan, even 0.1% of interest differential was a difference of more than ten million.

"Eight billion USD?" Jiang Chen fell into deep thought.

"If Mr. Jiang has other opinions on the amount, we can discuss and adjust accordingly," seeing that Jiang Chen didn't give him a response, Carmen added.

Eight billion was nowhere enough, but not a lot of banks were willing to lend Future Technology over ten billion USD. Even if a few banks agreed, they would also include additional terms such as listing out the exact purpose of the loan or an IPO on Nasdaq.

Carmen came at just the right time to solve his problem, he deliberated for a few moment before he had an idea.

"Eight billion would not be enough, is Mr. Carmen interested in a bigger deal?" Jiang Chen looked at Carmen with a smile.

"Of course I am interested, Mr. Jiang's suggestion is?"

"Thirty billion USD on a three-year term with 99% of Future Technology's share as collateral." Jiang Chen calmly unleashed a mega bomb.

Carmen's eyes contracted as he held his breath, but he quickly regained his courteous expression.

Jiang Chen was pleased with how his facial expression changed.

He knew Carmen was tempted.

After a moment of silence, Carmen slowly said.

"Okay, we are interested in artificial intelligence, and we are also optimistic about the future of your company in this field. But thirty billion is certainly not a small number. I am interested in how you would pay me back in three years? Future 1.0's current market penetration is already reaching its peak. With the current speed of technology shift, it will not be easy for your company to continue to increase its profitability.

Jiang Chen was surprised; he didn't think Carmen would agree on this concisely. Just like he said, thirty billion was not a small number. Although the Rothschild family has built a massive business empire, money doesn't just simply grew on trees.

"That would be my problem. But I have a feeling that it won't take me three years to repay the debt." Jiang Chen with a smile didn't directly respond to Carmen's question.

It would still take fifty years before the first basic artificial intelligence is introduced to the world. Even with the diverse political background in the mix and the technology research speed of the modern world is faster compared to the apocalypse, the technological gap would still not be surpassed in the next ten years. Additionally, it will be hard because basic artificial intelligence was not merely an advancement in the IT field, it also comprised of sociology, psychology, biology and other areas of combined achievements.

Before Jiang Chen can make the artificial intelligence database public, just in terms of the artificial intelligence field, Future 1.0 could not be surpassed. So Carmen's concern was excessive, at least in the short run.

But just with Future Technology's current profitability, it would still be impossible to repay the loan in only three years. But did Jiang Chen lack methods to make money? He didn't have any concerns about repaying the loan.

Seeing that Jiang Chen wasn't planning to disclose any information, Carmen didn't persist.

"Then what about 4.5%? This the best offer I can give. Although the rate should be lower at a higher amount, it is at a condition where the party would have an equivalent amount of assets as collateral. To put it straightforwardly, your company currently does not have the assets for a thirty billion dollar collateral," Carmen said with caution.

It was a risk he would take to lend the money to Jiang Chen.

"No problem, deal," Jiang Chen said without hesitation.

Future International needed money, and a lot of it. He had already acquired the base as Pannu Islands. Thus all the growth must be accelerated. The technology from the wasteland would continue to fuel Future International's growth in the world.

Although thirty billion was enough to purchase ten aircraft carriers, it was still a bit far away from completing the technological empire in his mind.

The only thing that made Jiang Chen puzzled was, why Carmen… Or instead, the Rothschild family had so much confidence in him and was willing to lend him the money without wavering.

It was thirty billion! Not the Zimbabwean currency, but the dollar!

What made Jiang Chen feel strange was, from Carmen's dignified and courteous smile, he didn't see a slight trace of hesitation.

Jiang Chen's confidence rose from his belief in the wasteland's technology, but what did Carmen count on? Even if it was the Rothschild family, how many billions did they have?

Although he was thankful for Carmen's help, he felt something was off.

Chapter 350: Balv's Manor

Obtaining the loan went surprisingly smooth, more smooth than Jiang Chen had imagined.

Carmen was highly efficient as a contract in English and Chinese was sent to him the next day.

After Jiang Chen had signed, the thirty billion USD loan was transferred from the British Rothschild bank to Future Technology's Swiss bank account. Carmen then flew back to Europe after the process was complete.

Before he left, he handed Jiang Chen an invitation to the Mun Auto Exhibition and warmly exchanged departing words with him.

Moments after Jiang Chen sent the wealthy European man away, he and Xia Shiyu left the airport.

When they got on the car, Xia Shiyu couldn't wait another second before she asked him.

"You really borrowed thirty billion USD?"

"Of course, do you think I was joking?" Jiang Chen smiled.

She looked into Jiang Chen's eyes earnestly as she let out a sigh of defeat, "Sigh… Okay, could you tell me your plan? How do you plan to be wasteful this time?"

"Wasteful? You don't have to describe me like that," Jiang Chen said helplessly.

But the way Xia Shiyu looked at him clearly expressed one message – "If this is not waste what is it?"

"4.5% in annual interest, do you know how much money you would need to pay back in five years? 37.385 billion! In USD!" Xia Shiyu exclaimed emotionally.

Forty billion USD was enough to purchase half of Baidu.

"Don't worry, I used my personal shares as collateral, not the company's asset. Even if I can't afford it at that time, it won't affect you," Jiang Chen comforted her with a smile.

She seemed displeased with Jiang Chen's explanation as she said coldly, "Who do you think I'm concerned for?"

Jiang Chen was slightly shocked as the smile on his face turned dubious, he teased her with a smirk, "Oh? So you are saying that you are worried about me?"

As she heard his words, Xia Shiyu's aggressive stance quickly came to a halt as her face began to turn red.

She looked away, started the vehicle, and stopped looking in his direction.

"..."

"I, I just don't want a new boss. I am pleased with the current work environment. Altho… Although the current president would make people frustrated at times, being able to relinquish control to people with ability is indeed worthy of being praised. If there is a new boss that pretends to know everything, it would be terrible.

Her luscious black bangs happened to cover the side of her face. The faint yet rapid explanation took a lot of effort for Jiang Chen to understand.

Seeing the usually cold Xia Shiyu worried about him greatly, Jiang Chen felt warmth swell up inside his body as he tried to comfort her.

"Don't worry, it's only thirty-something billion. The current market cap of Future Technology is ten billion, and I will double it in two years."

"…"

To Jiang Chen's unreasonable flattering, Xia Shiyu chose to remain silent.

With Xia Shiyu's distinctly unconfident look, Jiang Chen grinned and said, "Since you don't believe me, why don't we make a bet."

"Make a bet? Okay. Once you're bankrupt, become an assistant of mine and let me order you around for a few years," Xia Shiyu joked.

"No problem." Jiang Chen laughed, "But what if I win?"

"Up to you." She combed her hair to the side as the tips of her mouth curved up.

Although it was a bet, it was more like banter between friends as she didn't quite put this on her mind. Subconsciously, Xia Shiyu still believed that Jiang Chen would have a way to solve this problem. As to why she trusted him so dearly, she couldn't explain it either.

Jiang Chen mischievously smiled as he used a joking tone. "Up to me? Really?"

She noticed Jiang Chen's smile and paused before her pale face was once again covered in a red hue.

But she didn't say anything this time as she hid her expression behind her bang.

...

Upon the first ray of the morning sun, a plane appeared on top of Ber. With the help of the guide, the personal plane landed smoothly.

A black Mercedes-Benz sedan stopped beside the airplane. A butler-looking old man walked out from inside and silently waited beside the car.

The gangway car drove beside the plane as the hatch door quickly opened, a European first stepped out of the car.

The old butler courteously bowed to Carmen, then he used German to greet him, "Welcome home, master Carmen."

"It's been a while, Mr.Cides. Is my father doing well?" Carmen said pleasantly.

"Very well. Old master has been drawn into sailing," the old butler said as he opened the door gracefully for him.

"Sailing? Let me guess, he is in Florence now?"

Florence is a coastal city in the Mediterranean. Carmen could vaguely recall they have family assets there.

"No, he is in Germany, at the manor located in Balv." The butler shook his head.

"Balv?"

[Is that place near the sea?] Carmen slightly raised his eyebrows.

"The old master wants you to take some time to visit home."

"Of course, I want to see him as well." Carmen sat in the back of the car with a smile.

Johnson walked forward and sat beside Carmen.

The butler only glanced at the bodyguard. He didn't say anything as he sat in the driver seat and served the duty of a driver.

"Did you take out the tracker from the USB?" Carmen whispered.

"Yes… It's hard to believe what technology that Han possesses," Johnson said in disbelief.

"Probably an advanced wireless blockage technology, who knows… Good thing they didn't find anything," Carmen said.

Carmen did not suspect this point at all. He could determine from their eyes whether the words were real or fake. Without the proper training in fabricating lies, it would definitely not escape his eyes.

The car arrived at the manor not soon after. The servers in the manor took Johnson to the guest room, and the old butler led Carmen to the backyard.

They followed the stone path through the grass field. Then in a small wooden hut beside the man-made lake, Carmen saw his own father.

Jocano Rothschild.

The giant the ruled the financial world and the person that led the Rothschild out of the gloom of the Second World War and reached the peak after the cold war. He wore a plain shirt and sat beside the lake sawing a piece of wood.

When his small son Carmen was born, he stepped down as the head of the family with his own brother taking over and began living his life in seclusion. Although he stopped asking about family affairs, no one in the family questioned his influence. Since the family that was hanging on the edge was dragged back from the abyss by him.

And because of this, to his father's request, Carmen would treat the family business seriously. After getting off the plane, he headed straight to the manor without wasting a single second.

But when he saw his father sawing wood, he was dumbfounded.

Chapter 351: Because I don't want to

Carmen looked at his old father sawing wood in front of the wooden hut. Then he walked up and looked at the stack of wood in confusion.

"My dear father, you are doing… what?"

"Building a vessel… A miniature version." Jacono wiped the sweat from his forehead as he stared at the yet to be assembled keel beside the lake.

"Building a vessel? What's the purpose of that?" Carmen looked at his father, puzzled.

"If the work that had conquered the Atlantic ocean has no purpose," Jacono said bluntly, "Then including us, including everything, all would be without purpose."

He said something with an ambiguous meaning. But Carmen seemed to be accustomed to his father saying things people didn't understand, so he didn't express his attitude as he only sighed in reply.

"… Okay, but do you know how to build a vessel?"

"I don't know." Jacono laughed delightfully; he pointed his saw at the keel starting to take shape. "Don't underestimate it because it's just a ship, there are a lot of tricks to be learned. Including how to treat the wood and how to connect the wood. To construct this keel, it took me an entire year. Although I failed many times, the process was surprisingly fun."

Carmen looked at his father in surprise, then he looked earnestly at the keel.

"Hard to imagine… Did no one help you?"

"Cides wanted to find me a boatman, but I rejected the proposal. I wanted to explore by myself on how the vessel worked." He flung the saw in his hand to the side as Jacono picked up the bottle of water on the tree trunk and took a few big gulps.

Carmen looked at his father immersed in the activity; he was silent for two seconds before he said,

"I heard you needed to see me-"

"Give up on that prophecy. Jacono didn't look at him, but rather at the keel.

Carmen was shocked because of his father's abrupt words.

After a moment, he said with difficulty,

"Why?"

Jacono's sight returned as he looked at his son's eyes keenly.

"The infant would have to leave the parents one day and learn how to walk by himself. They told us a lot, but they can't tell us more. If we continue to follow this path, the future we face might be more upsetting than the situation they had gained."

"…But if we listen to the wise words of the intellect, wouldn't it save us the trouble of going through detours?"

"Who said detours are wrong?" Jacono asked back.

Carmen fell into silence.

Seeing that his son didn't speak, Jacono continued to speak about things with deeper meaning, "Humans should build on the intelligence of its ancestor and not depend on the future to further the future."

"Although history has changed, the trend will not change." The next twenty years belong to artificial intelligence; then a technological explosion led by breakthroughs in material science, and then-" unable to agree with his father's perspective, Carmen said softly.

"That might not be the case." Jacono scorned before he picked up the saw on the ground. "Did you see this keel? If I told you how to build a vessel, how to build a steam vessel, if "I" died one day, would you be able to build an aircraft carrier?"

"That's the scientist's job," Carmen said with an indifferent voice.

The old father returned to working in front of the tree truck and ignored his son.

He stood beside the lake for a long time. It was not until the sky in the distance began to turn yellow did he finally turn around and leave the wooden hut of his father.

…

The next morning, Jiang Chen took a flight to Australia. Because of the combination of airport size and traffic, the airport located in Coro Island only had flights to nearby Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, to travel from Han to Xin, he would have to the first fly to Australia.

After a rather lengthy journey, Jiang Chen finally got out of the plane at Coro Island. It was midnight.

When he walked out of the airport, Ayesha was already waiting for him.

"Head to the presidential palace," Jiang Chen said directly after getting on the car.

Ayesha nodded and started the car.

"Do you not need to go home and rest? As she drove, she nonchalantly asked.

"There is no need. If they don't see me, someone might lose sleep because of it," Jiang Chen mocked before leaning back in the seat with his eyes closed.

Ayesha grinned as she didn't speak for the remainder of the trip.

When they arrived at the presidential palace, he explained his identity, and the guard immediately let him pass through. With an attendant's reception, Jiang Chen arrived in Zhang Yapin's office.

After a few days apart, the guy was more haggard. It was clear that the troubles had gotten the better of him. When he saw Jiang Chen, he looked relived as he couldn't wait to greet him.

"You're finally back." Zhang Yapin smiled bitterly when he looked at Jiang Chen

"Don't ask me what to do yet, explain to me the situation first," Jiang Chen said concisely.

Zhang Yapin nodded and began to explain to Jiang Chen what has happened in the last few days.

First, after Ivan ordered to take out the fishing boats obstructing the construction of the military facility and led the force in a standoff with the country F coastal guards. The F coastal guards were first extremely aggressive and hostile, they didn't think the three Xin fast boats were competition.

Just as they were about to enter the Xin territory to demand people, Ivan took out the weapons without wavering.

They were dumbfounded. They didn't think Xin would have the courage to do this as they were without a plan. Although the coastal guards were equipped with light weapons, the coastal guards didn't dare make a decision that could cause a severe repercussion in their diplomatic relationship. Since once the first shot is fired, it would be a regional conflict. So they could only remain in a standoff, at the same time, reporting the message to their superior.

Finally, the F president Aquino came in contact with Zhang Yapin. But Zhang Yapin didn't realize what had happened at New Moon Island since the national defense was the responsibility of Celestial Trade Company.

Zhang Yapin realized something was off immediately and got in touch with Ivan before he learned about the event.

Okay, he had to admit that when Ivan sunk the reckless fishing boats looking for trouble – Oh no, pirate boats – he too did curse in his mind. "This feels fu*king great." Although the relationship between the Pannu Islands and country F was not a generational feud, the grudge has been building among the public for a while.

But he was the Xin president, after all, he had to consider national interest above his personal emotions. After he calmed down, a drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

Just the day before, Aquino notified him that if the recovery work could not be commenced within the next three days, country F retain the option of solving this through military means to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of their citizen abroad are maintained.

But when Zhang Yapin said the last sentence, Jiang Chen was immediately unhappy.

"Fu*k the legitimate rights and interests," Jiang Chen cursed out, "Military means? Funny, I will teach them a lesson."

He hasn't cursed like this for a long time.

"Country F has an enlisted military of one hundred and twenty thousand people… We might not even beat a battalion of theirs," Zhang Yapin said in a small voice.

Jiang Chen glared at him and laughed.

"Who said we would fight them."

"But they are already threatening us like this," Zhang Yapin said with a bitter face.

"Country F always maintained an image of being a victim in sea territory disputes to garner the compassion of the international society. They would never send out their military force to start a war with us."

"But-"

Zhang Yapin was still not convinced, but Jiang Chen interrupted him.

"Also, the key is still Han and UA. Do you remember what I told you? Maintain neutrality and don't sway to either superpower. If country F decide to take military actions against us, it will force us to join Han as an ally, and Han would definitely not let go of an opportunity to break the first and second islands' chains and proactively provide us with assistance. The UA would be reluctant to see the Han gaining a military base in the western Pacific Ocean, so they must restrain its ally from being too reckless.

Culturally, Xin was more similar to Han, but ideologically, it was more aligned with UA. This situation resulted in both superpowers think the country would join forces with them.

"Because we haven't chosen a side yet, we are safe," Jiang Chen patted president Zhang on the shoulder as he said with sincere words.

Although Jiang Chen had his reasons, Zhang Yapin still thought it was a bit forced.

"But why don't we stand by the UA and continue the diplomatic strategy of the previous regime?" he asked in a low voice.

Jiang Chen's eyebrows raised.

"Because I don't fu*king want to."

Chapter 352: Refuse to Apologize

The private military contractor was the legal term for mercenary, it was also a term that gave all the head of the states a headache, but they were unable to part away from it.

They act ruthlessly and treat war like a business. To complete the mission, they could ignore international laws, disregard civilian casualties, toss aside any moral concerns, and complete the most challenging task using the lowest costing method. They have a despicable name, but their hirer would not need to burden their terrible reputation. They were more effective than an army.

Talking about the mercenary, the UA must be mentioned here. There is no other country that has a better understanding of mercenaries than them. Similar to how only thugs could understand gangsters.

From the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan, the reason why the black blood flowing among the steel parts could successfully move from Third World countries to the First World was that half the effort could be attributed to the lawless mercenaries.

Not only on a battlefield, but in any area with politically unstable conditions, the UA's mercenary could be seen. As long as there was a need, the private military contract company would appear in place of the Pentagon. When it was not appropriate or inconvenient for them to appear, the contractor would carry out the military and foreign diplomat missions for the UA military. Even if it failed, they could deny any connections with the government. It was indeed more convenient compared to the marines because sending out ground force to another country would be a war activity, but not when it was a mercenary force.

And the privatization of the military would bring serious implications to the world. It was an unrealistic hope to demand private mercenaries from following international law.

In 2006, the UA shooting Iraq civilians brought massive commotion to the internet. But it was proved that the perpetrators were two military contractors from Clover Jungle. As to the reasons for committing the crime, it was absurd to the point where it was daunting. A colleague of the perpetrator confirmed that he said he was going to kill someone because he didn't hit anyone in Iraq.

But regardless, the UA military dodged litigation with human rights group, because the killers were not enlisted soldiers.

Although for the UA military had a despicable reputation to begin with, it was not a big deal.

Right now, the international problem between Xin and F was the same.

Disregarding the fishing boats that trespassed into the military zone, disregarding Ivan's "one-minute warning", which fit the standards of "effective warning", it was still undetermined internationally if the military actions of mercenaries should be considered an act of war.

Then the problem arose. Xin hired private mercenaries for its national defense, and the private mercenary group executed according to the law and sunk the F country fishing boats disregarding the warning, is Xin really at wrong for this incident?

Any country has the right to shoot trespassers of its military facility, but only a few countries would execute this right. The most humanitarian way was to remove the trespassers, or capture and deport them to avoid international conflict.

Is there any country that executed this right? Of course, on July 11th of 2008, a South Korean tourist accidentally entered a military zone of North Korea and was shot on site by North Korean soldiers. Although North Korea was not wrong, unfortunately, the South Korean government immediately announced a restriction of all South Koreans from visiting North Korea.

But what Xin faced was much less severe, because it was the private military contractor that sunk the fishing boats, not the Xin army.

Zhang Yapin's newly formed cabinet must be praised for their work in handling emergency public relationship issues.

Jiang Chen only had an order, it was to "Never compromise on territorial issues, never give in to the question of sovereignty, and never apologize for the lack of mistakes". However, the politicians ended up being the defenders of the policy internationally.

Although Xin's defense minister had no troops to work with, he still offered constructive comments. For example, shifting the blame to solve the problem. Insisting that it was the Celestial Trade Company that sunk the ships and not the order of the department of national defense.

Therefore, the responsibilities were blamed continuously on the other party.

The situation dragged on for over half a month before Jiang Chen permitted the wreckage recovery process to begin.

Although they didn't permit country F boats from entering the territory to assistant with the recovery process, Xin still invited some international media stations to participate to ensure the process was "just".

But what shocked everyone was that there were assault rifles found on the F country's fish boats.

As to why there were assault rifles on the fishing boats, the media teams all had varying opinions ranging from the fishermen being framed to they actually possessed those weapons. In the end, no consensus was formed.

At the same time, the reckless acts of F fishermen near New Moon Island were organized and published, including several acts of intentionally sinking Xin fishing boats. The 50-minute documentary included a dictation from the son of the victim and documented records. It was published on a social media platform before Future 1.0's news platform transmitted the video to the world and attached to it a visible headline.

<Pirates or fishermen? The reckless acts of F country fishermen with the support of the government.>

The video was only published for a day before it surpassed ten million views. Other media stations all began to transmit the video as it caused massive controversy internationally. Almost all the opinions compassionate to country F turned into criticisms of country F's crimes.

The F government immediately jumped out and blamed Future International for the lack of truth and exaggeration in the video, as well as the lack of neutrality a media should possess. They should not have a bias just because they have a construction contract with Xin.

At the same time, the F country spokesperson demanded Future International immediately delete all associated comments and issue an apology.

Would country F apologize to a bunch of monkeys? The answer was of course not.

Future International issued a statement stating that the video did not represent the views of the company. Future 1.0 is only a platform and not the publisher of the video. Future International will not bear any responsibility. At the same time, Future International, with the justification of freedom of speech, refuse to delete the video and refuse to apologize.

Although the action caused strong discontent from country F, it certainly gained the support of other parties.

Because of this, Future International didn't suffer any losses but instead benefited from this dispute.

…

"You pigs!" Aquino cursed at the foreign minister of country F, "How many times do I have to say this, remain strong on the stance! Pressure their government! We have an army of one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, that's more than six times their population!"

"But president… we are already aggressive in our statements, some of the statements could even be viewed as an act of aggression, but they don't seem to be afraid of us," the foreign affair minister said with a bitter smile.

Aquino paused for a moment.

"Looks like it is time to teach them a lesson. These monkeys in the Pacific don't know any better," the defense minister said wickedly.

"But the UA wants us to remain restrained on this issue. Excessive pressure may cause the neutral nation to lean towards Han," the foreign affair minister reminded.

"But if we don't do anything, our citizens will be unhappy," the defense minister argued back.

Aquino fell into deep thought as he debated the cabinet members' arguments.

Suddenly, a grimace look flashed through his eyes.

"Mercenaries… Mercenaries, right, excellent."

He already had an idea in his mind.

Chapter 353: Seaweed That Could Generate Electricity

In this month, Xin was indeed in a turbulence of problems. Because of too many headlines originating from there, a lot of the press decided to send a reporter to the station to acquire first-hand information.

Other than that, there were more tourists interested in exploring this not-yet-developed island out of curiosity. The streets of Coro Island were filled with tourists in backpacks.

A country with only nine islands and a government that didn't control its armies - some of the far-thinking organizations even expressed that this was a jewel of a true democracy… The expression on the puppet president's face would certainly be interesting when he heard these words.

The news was a form of advertisement -there weren't a lot of chances for the country to make headlines in the international section.

Before that, no one had ever heard of Pannu Islands in the Pacific Ocean but following the recent series of events as well as Future International's role in purposely stirring up the conversation, a lot more people began to have an impression of the small Pacific country.

Regardless if the impression was positive or not, it certainly paved the way for future marketing. Once the basic and tourism infrastructure completed development and the political situation stabilized, there certainly would be a crowd willing to come to the mystical island, enjoy the beauty of the west Pacific, and experience the unique culture.

With the current rate of construction, the soonest they could be ready was within half a year, slowest within a year.

The day wasn't far away.

…

While Zhang Yapin had a headache to deal with, the perpetrator of everything, Jiang Chen, was enjoying his life. Although he promised he would take care of this, he only left Zhang Yapin with one clear instruction of never apologizing before he abandoned the issue.

Then Jiang Chen headed to New Moon Island for a few days and who knows what he did on the island.

Regarding country F's potential impending revenge, he didn't seem to be concerned as the major shareholder. Zhang Yapin was unsure whether he was confident or just plain arrogant.

From the perspective of the Xin president, he obviously wanted him to be the former.

In the next few days, Jiang Chen spent his time on a boat around the islands. Of course, it wasn't for fun but rather, for business.

Because of the ten billion dollar project, he became the largest real estate owner of Pannu with 110 square kilometers on the main island, 70 square kilometers on the other island in addition to the sea territory near the equator becoming part of his assets. Whether he would develop his territory personally or sell it to other people would all be based on his discretion.

Of course, with this much land, he alone certainly wouldn't be able to develop it all. If left to its own devices, the land would only accumulate weeds. He toured all the land he owned in the past few days and decided how he should develop the land.

After completing all this, there was also good news from the apocalypse.

After half a month of research and experimentation, the improved recipe of nutrient supply was successfully developed. When he heard the news from Lin Lin, he immediately returned to the apocalypse and took a helicopter to camp 27.

When he arrived underground, he found the director of the research team in the empty fallout shelter.

"I heard you finished it?" When Jiang Chen saw the slim middle-aged man, he hastily jumped to the topic.

Wang Fangpin looked at Jiang Chen in excitement as he quickly nodded his head.

"We finished it - yesterday, we completed the trial process. It's hard to believe we did it; we previously thought we were just improving on the recipe, but we somehow made a technological breakthrough in the live cell preparation field."

"Technological breakthrough?" Jiang Chen took a moment to digest this before his face turned to shock.

In the apocalypse covered in ruins, it was a feat to replicate the technology from before the war, let alone make any technological breakthroughs. But now, Wang Fangpin told him that the research team managed to do just that.

"That's right." Wang Fangpin nodded in excitement. "Following your requirements, to compress the production cost and improve the nutrient supply, we chose to use seaweed that has the most yield and shortest growth cycle. But when we were in the process of induced differentiation of the seaweed cells, surprisingly, we created a new type of seaweed."

"What is it?" Jiang Chen was drawn into it.

"A type of seaweed that can generate electricity!" Wang Fangpin said, ecstatic.

Jiang Chen was truly stunned.

Energy was always a critical priority in development, whether it was in the wasteland or the modern world. At the end of the 21st century of this world, biological power generation was the research priority of the three countries before there was a miraculous breakthrough in nuclear fusion power generation and before the first space elevator was built. It was only then that Hydrogen-3 was continually transported back to the earth to create the relatively cheap nuclear fusion battery. It cooled down the investment in biological power generation.

One gram of hydrogen fusion generation created an equivalent power equal to the complete combustion of 11.2 tons of standard coal along with preserving the environment. Such a massive amount of energy was leagues ahead of other types of power generation techniques. Because of this, although other power generation methods all possessed the theoretical potential to develop further, no one conducted more research.

But whether it was in the wasteland or in the modern world, renewable clean energy dominated the large market! Just like in Pannu Islands, since the area was designated as a tourist area, the coal-fired generation plant with relatively high pollution would not be built on the island. The island could only use the high cost and low-efficiency tidal power generation combined with solar power to meet the energy needs of the islands.

But if this existed, the Pannu Islands' massive sea would provide Xin with an endless amount of energy! Xin would no longer need to worry about power.

It was certainly a pleasant surprise to make a breakthrough in biotechnology during the nutrient supply recipe development process. Jiang Chen was astonished.

"The seaweed cells during photosynthesis cause a special photographic effect, creating a trace amount of electricity within the content of the cell. Although the electricity of a single cell is negligible, it is substantial for an entire seaweed plant." Wang Fangpin began to explain the theory behind this type of seaweed. Although he explained it in simple terms, Jiang Chen was only interested in the last sentence.

"What's the power generation amount per area?" Jiang Chen couldn't help but ask.

"The current power generational efficiency is relatively low; it can only achieve 0.1 kilowatts per square meter. Most of the power is converted into heat, diffusing and increasing the temperature of the nearby water region, and there are also concerns about electricity diffusion under water. But with the prediction of the mathematical model, if all these problems are fixed, it would generate up to 1 kilowatt per square meter."

"1 kilowatt per square meter!" Jiang Chen was again stunned.

If it were solar generation, 10 kilowatts of energy would require 40 panels with an area approximately equivalent to 64 square meters. Therefore, the energy generation would equate to 0.15 kilowatt per square meter! The "biological generator" used solar energy, but its electricity generation was 6.6 times better than traditional solar panels!

With the stunned look on Jiang Chen's face, Wang Fangpin was relieved.

When they learned that there weren't a lot of nuclear fusion batteries on the surface and that the base primarily used solar panels for power generation, he immediately thought of the stagnated power generational technology at the end of the 21st century. He happened to be a scientist in biotechnology as his first idea was biological power generation.

While the technology was yet to be completed, it wasn't a hard task to create it standing on top of the giant. Just like a math problem that couldn't be done by an elementary student could easily be solved in high school.

Because of the disconnect between moon and earth, the outdated power generation technology again had its purpose.

To be honest, their research team had completed the nutrient supply recipe five days ago. The reason why they chose to report their findings five days later was to research about seaweed power generation. It wasn't a coincidence that they discovered the cell, but rather the result of genetic modification. He was afraid of telling Jiang Chen because he feared this dictator would penalize them for using up excessive research resources and intentionally delaying the reporting of the research findings.

Now that Jiang Chen was pleased with their research, he felt relieved.

With this, because this topic gained the traction, there was hope to continue their research; they would no longer need to live back on the surface and suffer.

But their concern was excessive, Jiang Chen didn't mind them doing "personal work," since their research all belonged to him in the end anyway.

"You guys did a great job! Excellent, what rewards do you want?" Jiang Chen laughed as he patted Wang Fangpin on the shoulder.

"No need for rewards." Wang Fangpin shook his hands and smiled. "Just let us stay in the fallout shelter to continue our research. We have some achievements in the biological field."

"I must reward you for your contribution to the base." Jiang Chen thought for a moment before he had an idea.

"I have an idea. To reward you for your outstanding contribution to the base's energy problem, I will reward you five with the honor of "outstanding scholars," and a "knight emblem." From now on, you will be the knight class of the Fishbone base. Don't underestimate the outstanding scholar name; it would mean that you're permitted to freely enter and leave the fallout shelter without the permission of the camp leader. Even without working on this research project, you can live inside.

Wang Fangpin was ecstatic.

"Thank you, General!"

He had no interest in becoming part of the knight class. He never visited the Fishbone base before nor did he want to. His only wish was to stay in the safe and comfortable fallout shelter.

"No need to thank me now, I will only grant you the honor after you complete the project." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Count on us, we'll definitely complete this project!" Wang Fangpin promised.

"Then I will wait for your good news. Let's not talk about this anymore. Take me to see the improved nutrient supply."

Seeing the nutrient supply was the priority of Jiang Chen's trip. The faster it was produced, the sooner he could make money. He didn't forget that he had thirty billion in debt.

Chapter 354: Nutrient Supply Plant

Ange Island, located at the southern tip of Pannu Island near New Guinea, was the third largest island of Xin.

The island was shaped like a pear and the mountain sat at the east end of the island while south of the mountain was the cliffs. The island was covered in dense vegetation with only the plains on the north side settled with people. The population of the island was 5372 in the municipality Ange City, the second largest city of Pannu Islands.

Although it was the second largest city after Coro Island, the economy of the island was still comprised of mostly fisheries along with sugar cane, banana and coconut plantations as the secondary industry. Regarding the crops and meat, the island relied on shipments from Australia's Darwin port. The island didn't possess a deep water harbor, but it had a harbor capable of docking vessels with a smaller displacement.

Why? Because after a month of construction, Future International's subsidiary, Future Biology, completed construction of their pharmaceutical and seaweed growth plant. But for the people of Ange Island, they were focused on the plan to hire locals.

To Ange Island that had a history of a high unemployment rate, it was certainly great news.

<50 people with high school diplomas get a monthly salary of 1000 USD per month. 20 people with university degrees get a monthly salary of 1500 USD per month. The contract is signed for twenty years minimum. During this time, the employees must sign a confidentiality agreement and are not permitted to leave the job or the country. At the same time, employees will enjoy the luxury apartment provided by the company, along with a free medical insurance and pension plan…>

When the hiring information was posted, the entire island erupted in cheers.

To the poor locals, the benefits of the job could be described as insane. They only made a max of 500 USD per month fishing, and the job was also tiring. Even if they didn't know what the job was like, it must be less tiring compared to fishing from morning to night.

Not permitted to leave the job or the country? A lot of people didn't even leave the island for their entire life, let alone the country. They wanted the job to be longer, maybe for their whole life.

Because of the high number of applicants, Future Biology added some additional requirements. For example, high school diploma holders had to know how to dive, drive a boat, be familiar with the sea product farming process, must be a local, and have a family. The first two requirements were a given since almost all the residents on the island lived alongside the sea for their entire life. Although the last two conditions were strange, they were certainly not unacceptable.

After a rigorous selection process, Future Biology quickly hired 70 employees. With Jiang Chen's organization, everyone arrived at New Moon Island for training. The training was just an instructional video recorded at camp 27 with an examination afterwards.

…

While the workers diligently studied the growing process they never learned before, Jiang Chen stood on the dock on the port at Ange Island as he waited for the boat in the distance to approach.

To the person who came down from the boat, Jiang Chen greeted him with a smile and extended his right hand.

"Hello, Doctor Zhan."

Zhan Shujie, 31 years old, Medical student at Tsinghua University life science department majoring in molecular cell biology. He published five papers in the SCI and also published in the famous academic journal "Nature" in the scientific community.

Of course, Jiang Chen never minded an extensive amount of talents. To the top student graduating from Hua' s top university, Jiang Chen generously offered a salary of half a million USD per year.

The young man wasn't tall and he wore a frameless glasses. Although he had a high academic profile as a doctor, he didn't have the "Confucius arrogance" typical of a lot of top students. He looked like someone easy to get along with.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang." Zhan Shujie smiled and warmly held onto Jiang Chen's hand.

Regarding the legendary individual who achieved a net asset of over ten billion by just the age of 23, Zhan Shujie had heard tales of him before. Previously, he thought this boss would be somewhat prideful, but he was actually easy to talk to which made him quite impressed.

"Haha, let's cut the flattering words. Do you need me to take to where you'll be living?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"No need, I want to first take a tour of the … pharmaceutical plant, is that okay?"

When he talked about the pharmaceutical plant, his eyes were flashed with fervor.

"Of course, as you wish. This car will belong to you from now on, and this is the driver." Jiang Chen sat back into the car.

Celestial Trade's bodyguard was the driver and he was injected with E-grade genetic vaccine. Whether in armed combat or just close body combat, he met the standards of the special force. As the driver of doctor Zhan Shujie, his job was to protect his safety and monitor him.

Since what Zhan Shujie would present to the world would shock the entire world, he already signed a confidentiality agreement, but just in case, it was better to be safe.

The car soon arrived at Future Biology's pharmaceutical plant. At the top of the structure inside the wall, Zhan Shujie saw the name of the plant.

<Future Biology Nutrient Supply Plant>

[Nutrient supply? That's an interesting name…] Zhan Shujie muttered to himself despite reading about the company before he came.

The two security guards on duty at the pharmaceutical plant were also from Celestial Trade. They wore carbon nano-injected bulletproof vests with Reaper Assault Rifles and tactical helmets.

"Is it not safe here?" Zhan Shujie anxiously looked at the two soldiers as he said, worried.

"Don't worry, it's extremely safe here. But just in case, I hired two security personnel to protect the safety of the employees and to also protect the security of the high tech equipment inside.

When they got off the car and walked into the plant, the soldiers at the door subconsciously wanted to salute to Jiang Chen, but Jiang Chen stopped them with a look.

They walked to the empty ground of the plant as Jiang Chen first pointed at the direction near the coast.

"The plant is a seaweed farm, used to breed our company-developed DH-type seaweed. This seaweed is derived from the induction of the differentiation of Sargassum, which can produce and accumulate a variety of animal proteins in seaweed cells-"

"That's impossible!" Zhan Shujie was stunned as he looked at Jiang Chen skeptically. "As far as I know, in the field of the preparation of plants for animal protein, Hokkaido University in Japan is currently at the forefront of the field. But they are only able to do it with the production of a plant to produce interfering hepatitis virus protein animal protein and they're only in the experimental stage. Also, I've never heard that someone could use a plant to produce a variety of animal protein! Also, seaweed cells aren't embryonic liver cells, so how could the orientation-induced technique work? In theory, this wouldn't work!"

Zhan Shujie blasted at Jiang Chen, while Jiang Chen tilted his head and shook his finger to show off.

"Nothing is impossible, especially in my company. If you don't believe me, just take a sample yourself."

Zhan Shujie looked at Jiang Chen still with skepticism and took a deep breath.

"Okay, I'll believe it once I see it. But I have another question: growing the new species with the open environment - would that affect the biological sphere of the nearby sea?

"No." Jiang Chen shook his head. "Since it's induced differentiation, the genes of this DH seaweed still belong to Sargassum, so the spores produced by the progeny are also Sargassum. The telomeres of this DH-type seaweed are precisely targeted like cancer cells, which are theoretically infinite. The task of workers is to feed nutrients every day, then trim the 'leaves.'

This was what the researchers at the fallout shelter told him, and he didn't have the knowledge to explain much further, so Jiang Chen changed the topic and pointed at the structure the size of three basketball fields.

"The key equipment is inside. Your work is to coordinate the entire pharmaceutical plant's production, take samples to examine if the DH seaweed is thriving, and take samples to ensure the quality of the nutrient supply… Of course, all of the details are in the work manual. I will give you a USB and the videos on it will teach you how to control the equipment inside the plant. If there are any problems you can't solve, please contact me."

As Jiang Chen spoke, he took Zhan Shujie inside the pharmaceutical plant and pointed at the machine in the center.

"This is it - the production line of nutrient supply, the core of the entire plant."

On the left was the organic converter with the shape of a cylinder; it could extract nutrients from the specially produced seaweed to process into the nutrient supply. On the right hand was an assembly for bottling as it would place the extract into coin-shaped plastic tubes before they were sealed.

Regarding this set of equipment, Zhan Shujie didn't seem to be too interested, but regarding the organic converter, it completely drew all his attention.

"The molecular filter from the legend is inside this machine?"

"Ahem, not from the legend. Our company's molecular orientation screening technology is mature. The molecular filter is only one of the parts of the organic converter - there are also other devices inside." Jiang Chen came up with an elaborate story.

"What else?" The fervent passion once again appeared on Zhan Shujie's face.

It was the zeal a scientist possessed when he wanted to learn about a technology he didn't know about.

"Trade secret," Jiang Chen said straightforwardly.

Zhan Shujie paused for a moment as he realized that he was overzealous, so he apologized, "Sorry, I got too excited."

"It's okay, I understand how you feel," Jiang Chen said gently.

Zhan Shujie walked in front of the organic converter as he put his hand on the cold steel. He exclaimed.

"Hard to believe… that this breakthrough technology will first be used in the civil field to produce a drink. This… this is a waste of God-given technology."

To be honest, two reasons drew him here. The half a million salary and the technology Future Biology said they possessed.

Plant cell orientation induced differentiation could produce a variety of animal protein algae. High-precision molecular screening technology - any of technology here - could contend for the Nobel prize.

But this guy wanted to use these to produce a drink?

Chapter 355: Trade Secret

"Ahem, let me clarify. This isn't a drink - it's a type of healthy food that can allow you to lose weight," Jiang Chen reminded Zhan Shujie.

It was disrespectful to call the era-breaking liquid food a drink. This was the standard military food in the 22nd century. Not only was it used in the military, the liquid food was also used extensively in the aerospace field. To bring as much food as possible within the allocated space, the nutrient supply was undoubtedly the first choice for all astronauts…

Of course, Jiang Chen didn't deny the ridicule of Zhan Shujie stating it was a waste of God-given technology. Regardless, right now, he only planned to sell this as weight loss medicine.

"Is there a difference?" Zhan Youjie stared at Jiang Chen emotionally. His persona as a non-talkative researcher faded as he almost spoke to Jiang Chen with a lecturing tone, "Let's disregard everything else. Just the seaweed cell directed differentiation technology - do you know how it would shake up the scientific field? Without any exaggeration, it would cause an earthquake in the biology academic world!"

Zhan Shujie let out a sigh. "And that molecular filter. While I'm not studying organic chemistry, I can't say much but I can be certain of one point - if our university lab had this, our ability to research in the chemistry field would increase substantially!"

"So?" Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

Zhan Shujie was dumbfounded before he realized.

Even though he said that much, so what?

It belonged to him, and if the Xin government permitted the technology to exist in a private establishment's hands, everyone could take the technology away from him.

"I'm only a businessman, and you are my employee. You just need to remember this point. Since this technology belongs to me, I have the rights to decide where I should use it," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

If the technology became public, it would undoubtedly cause unnecessary trouble. Therefore, in terms of production, Jiang Chen planned to keep the technology low-key. From the outside, the plant was only growing a type of Sargassum, and the pharmaceutical plant would process the Sargassum.

"Yes," Zhan Shujie said helplessly.

Considering how disappointed Zhan Shujie looked, Jiang Chen walked up and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't be disappointed; if you work diligently, maybe I will permit you to learn more about the top technology."

"Hopefully, one day that will happen... If I want to study the structure of the DH seaweed cell, would you mind?" Zhan Shujie looked at Jiang Chen keenly.

"Of course not. I'll even sponsor you to build a lab here. Of course, this is on the condition that you follow the rules of the company and not take a single cell out of that door." Although he used a joking tone to say these words, he didn't look like he was joking at all.

The two soldiers at the door were there to prevent thieves, both inside and outside.

"Don't worry, I'm only curious about how plant cells produce animal proteins. I can guarantee with my morale that I won't disclose what I see to any third parties," Zhan Shujie said.

"I trust you."

Jiang Chen had no qualms about allowing Zhan Shujie to study it since it was impossible to reproduce it with current technological capabilities. Just like how no matter how much you observed the cells inside you, you could not produce them at will.

"Thank you. If I can't understand how it works, I might even lose sleep at night." Zhan Shujie looked at Jiang Chen graciously.

"Don't worry, I hope you can sleep well at night… Also, don't research during work hours."

"I will do it outside of work."

Jiang Chen nodded, pleased. He hired people to work for him, not research the technology he possessed. Of course, if Doctor Zhan could achieve some inspiration from the research, it would still be beneficial to Jiang Chen. Since he signed the confidentiality agreement, Jiang Chen would not let him walk.

After he took Zhan Shujie to the seaside mansion he would be living in, Jiang Chen spoke a few more words before he left.

Currently, Future Biology was only an empty shell. Although the pharmaceutical plant was completed, the team responsible for marketing, strategy, and management had yet to be established. All this had to be finished. Although he could contract the work out to headhunters, he wanted to hire the individuals personally.

Of course, if he left the work to Xia Shiyu, he knew she would take it. But it wasn't nice, especially since she had a lot on her plate already with Future Technology. If he gave her something entirely unrelated to a tech company, he was afraid that she might be overworked.

He took his private boat back to Coro island and returned to the mansion that previously belonged to Johnny.

When he purchased the mansion from the auction, the blood on the wall was already cleaned. The furniture was also replaced and the daunting bullet holes were filled in. Just from the appearance alone, the signs of a violent battle previously fought there were non-existent.

Since it was a "haunted house" with people dead inside, out of filial respect, Jiang Chen would not make his parents live inside. But as a non-spiritual believer, Jiang Chen didn't mind making this mansion his own. At least until the mansion on New Moon Island was finished, he would live here.

Then after the mansion on New Moon Island was completed… It wasn't a terrible decision to make this place into the "Xin Revolution Museum" and fool some tourists.

When Jiang Chen walked into the kitchen, Ayesha was cooking fish with an apron wrapped around her.

A smile appeared on Ayesha's usually expressionless face when she heard the footsteps from the door. Without turning her head, she said, "You're back."

With the delicious smell of the dishes, all his worries were swept away as he approached the pot, drooling.

"Looks like today is going to be a great meal."

"It'll be done soon." Ayesha stirred the flavorful, thick soup with a spoon. The tip of her mouth curved up as she said tenderly, "I learned this from aunt Li. She said you really like to drink fish soup, so I wanted to try to make it."

"I miss the taste." Jiang Chen looked at the white fog rising as he exclaimed.

He remembered when he was young, his father occasionally went fishing with his coworkers and his family would drink fish soup for two days. Now that he had money, he ate a lot of extravagant food, but this nostalgic feeling was hard to come by these days.

<The taste of freshwater fish and sea fish should be different… > Jiang Chen stared at the pot of soup as his mind drifted off.

"If you like it, I can cook it for you every day," Ayesha said in a quiet voice.

"Ayesha…"

Touched by her gentleness, Jiang Chen hugged her from behind.

"Mhmm."

Ayesha closed her eyes as she felt the warmness on her back.

To be honest, Jiang Chen first just wanted to hug her, but he started to feel aroused as soon he touched her body.

Ayesha's face began to heat up as she felt the naughty hands wandering around her body. She turned around and rolled her eyes before she put down the spoon and set the heat to low.

Although she acted timidly on the outside, when it was just the two of them, her passion was no less than Sun Jiao's.

Just as Jiang Chen was prepared to investigate her body, the phone rang.

The intimate atmosphere suddenly cooled off.

Jiang Chen awkwardly took out his phone and prepared to pick up.

But Ayesha snatched the phone, threw it in the fruit basket then kissed Jiang Chen and pressed him against the fridge.

Just like a naughty sheep falling into the arms of the big bad wolf.

The temperature began to rise again.

The phone rang and rang…

Chapter 356: Unknown Militants

Right now, inside the New Moon Island command center, the light on the screen flashed while ten workers busily worked in front of the computer. On the big screen of the command center was a vessel with 400 tons of displacement. It had no flags and just a few people were on deck.

It was the image captured by the hummingbird drone.

Based on the analysis, the destination of the vessel was Xin's New Moon Island.

A month ago, Jiang Chen set up a Wide Range Life Signal Detector on the island to monitor the life signals within a 500 kilometer radius. The device was certainly useful in a sea territory. If it were set to the life signals of the fish, no fish would escape this device. The same would go for any human if it was set to detect humans.

Since the technology was already mature on the wasteland, it wasn't hard for the Fishbone workers to assemble an enhanced version. It was easy to censor one's signal as a chip inside the EP could do the job. However, in the modern world, no one would escape the eyes of this device.

Therefore, the technology widely used in the 22nd century for search and rescue became radar technology for Jiang Chen. As long as it wasn't drones, no living creature would escape its eyes.

Ten minutes ago, the radar station detected the information of this vessel. It was a transportation vessel, but they caught the signal of one hundred people onboard.

During this sensitive period of time, any of the vessels near their territory would be monitored.

When the vessel was still 50 kilometers away from the border, after confirming that the vessel wasn't traveling through a standard international route, the soldiers at the command center first determined that the vessel may be smuggling goods, so they immediately contacted the patrol boat in the nearby territory and approached the ship.

Ten minutes later, the vessel entered Xin's border. Then it adjusted its course and headed straight to New Moon Island under the cover of darkness.

The patrol boat approached the vessel four kilometers away and attempted to enter the radio channel of the vessel. However, the vessel entered radio silence and ignored all communication attempts. The patrol boat, realizing the oddity of the situation, did not take the risk of approaching the boat but instead, released hummingbird drones.

Under the night's veil, the drones flew across the ocean surface, approached the vessel suspected of smuggling, and entered the vessel.

The image transmitted back shocked the entire command center!

The boat didn't contain smugglers, but instead, fully equipped soldiers! The disguised sailors on deck were all equipped with pistols and wore bulletproof vests.

There were a total of 100 unknown militants.

The vessel was also equipped with landing boats and other military equipment. Other than the lack of country identification, it was a force no inferior to an actual army.

Realizing the oddity of the situation, Ivan immediately ordered New Moon Island to enter combat ready state. All soldiers were fully equipped and gathered at the airway, waiting for the order.

Barkary put down the phone and looked anxiously at Ivan.

"Boss isn't picking up."

He couldn't reach Jiang Chen. With Jiang Chen's C-grade genetic vaccine improved body, it would take at least one hour before he "finished."

Ivan silently looked at the screen in the command center. The vessel was approaching New Moon Island at high speeds. There was only two hundred kilometers of distance between the enemy and the island. It only took a moment before they were 80 kilometers inside the border.

Judging by the situation at hand, they came with not the friendliest intentions.

"The boss is purposely not picking up." Ivan seemed to have understood something as he told Barkary in an undertone.

"Purposely not picking up? Why?" The black young man was puzzled.

"Boss provided us with the most advanced equipment and told us how to handle the situation. If we cannot even handle this small problem and have to call him every time, then I am not fit for the job of a commander." Ivan adjusted his hat as his stare on the vessel in the screen became more determined.

…

The rumbling sound of helicopters breaking through the sea waves roared. Four black shadows forming into an arrow formation headed to the vessel trespassing illegally.

Four lights shined from afar and lit up the deck of the vessel. When they realized they were discovered, the crew on deck all hid behind containers.

With their reaction speed, their opponents were no ordinary men.

"No.0371 vessel. No.0371 vessel. We are the coastal guard of Celestial Trade. We suspect your vessel contains illegal goods. Please immediately stop and cooperate with the search. I repeat. Please immediately stop and cooperate with the search."

The four helicopters all opened the channel and broadcasted to the vessel.

But the vessel seemed like it didn't hear anything as they continued to maintain their course.

At the same time, inside the captain's room of the vessel:

"How is that possible? We closed all radio devices on board - how could they discover us 200 kilometers away?!" Captain Santos smashed the table.

Sitting across him was country F Lieutenant, Kluse. He remained silent.

Half a month ago, they retired from their previous positions with the direction of the defense minister to enter the disguised mercenary force. Their mission was to execute a secret military mission named "Revenge" to punish the criminals who sunk the fishing boats.

The political purpose of the mission was to demonstrate country F's firm stance to the public. They pretended to be mercenaries to avoid the possible foreign affair problem that could arise by sending the actual army of country F.

In theory, the mission should not be difficult. The opponent was only a privately held security company. There was no way their combat abilities could surpass the elite soldiers who participated in joint military exercises. Based on the satellite image, although artillery bases were built on the island, no advanced artilleries were installed.

Approach the island, stop the vessel, drop the landing boats, attack, retreat…

With their plan, before the sun rose, they would escape at the port of MLL Island and receive the recognition and praise from the defense minister.

"Someone leaked the mission details?" Kluse remained calm as he looked at the four bright dots with eyes narrowed.

200 kilometers distance.

Even if the UA Aegis aircraft carrier used its array radar, it could only detect within a radius of 40 km without any blind spots. It wasn't a technical limitation, but due to the curvature of the earth, it was as difficult to detect a boat in the sea 200 kilometers away as pinpointing a piece of gold from the desert.

Early warning aircraft? That's even more impossible. No country would sell it, especially to a private security company.

"What do we do?" The captain remained cool.

"Leave it up to me."

Kluse picked up the assault rifle leaning on the table. With a wicked smile, he moved his neck and stretched his body before he headed out.

Chapter 357: Battle on the Vessel

As the captain of this interception mission, Wilson stared at the disobedient vessel as gloom shadowed his face.

"No response," The deputy command said concisely and closed the broadcast outside of the helicopter.

"Prepare to drop the seal team."

"Roger… Wait, what is that?"

A few sailor-looking people ran in front of a container, pushed down the metal plate of the container, dragged out an anti-air machine gun with a belt on the bottom.

"It's an anti-air machine gun! " The soldier sitting at the hatch of the Black Eagle yelled. At the same time, he raised the Reaper Assault Rifle and began to shoot at the deck. But because of the sea wind and far distance, it didn't hit anything.

"Stop! Disperse formation! Immediately!" Wilson roared into the radio.

"Roger."

The four Black Eagle helicopters immediately ascended up to stop the forward motion and dispersed their formation.

The two anti-air machine guns were set up and began to unleash its furious firepower at the four Black Eagles surrounding the vessel.

But because of Wilson preemptively adjusted distance, the furious firepower didn't cause any injury to Celestial Trade. The bullets flew over a thousand meters, losing its destructive power as it only left a trail of tiny dents on the Black Eagles. Its only purpose was to push the four helicopters three kilometers out.

"Weak!"

The country F soldiers cursed, dragged up the cartridge, and inserted a new belt of bullets inside.

[Only a bunch of monkeys on the Pacific, and you dare to challenge us? Even Hua would have to respect us; you don't know your limit at all!]

The soldier spat on the deck as he looked at the four bright spots in the distance before he aimed the machine guns again.

Although they retreated, the target of the helicopters remained locked on the vessel. Immediately 12 figures from the four helicopters jumped into the ocean. Soldiers wearing the K1-b type kinetic skeleton dived into the sea, opened their thrust, and transformed into twelve arrays of white bubbles.

At the same time.

Under the veil of nightfall, no one noticed.

"Did they run away?" A country F soldier holding an assault rifle leaned against the container and grinned at his comrade.

"Haha, what would they do if they don't run? Be a target for us? Give me a cigarette…" While he said this, another soldier took out a pack of cigarette and handed him one.

"Feels wet." He cursed and lit up one for himself and one for his comrade.

At the same time, an unusual buzzing sound began to ring around the two.

"What is it-"

Tatata-!

The bullets left a trail of holes on the two's body.

The rifles dropped as four drones weaved through in the night. While they maintained their high speed, the machine gun underneath spat out bullets and unleashed its fury to the militants on deck.

"Area secured!"

"Board the vessel."

"Roger."

Hooks hooked onto the edge of the vessel. With the cover fire of the hummingbird drones, twelve soldiers in amphibious kinetic armor immediately boarded the vessel and quickly ran to the back of the containers to secure a corner of the vessel. They began exchanging fire with the militants on the other side.

"It's the seal team of Xin! Take them down!" A country F soldier disguised as a mercenary crawled behind cover. He shouted while firing back with his rifle.

"Fu*k! What is that- ahhh!"

The drones freely weaved on the deck as it blended into the night sky. It would dash out from any angle and reap the lives on deck.

"Dam*it, what are these things!" Kluse fired with his rifle; he gritted his teeth.

The light from the firing shined onto his distorted face. He didn't have the confidence he had before, only intense fear remained.

The plate-sized drones not only flew at the speed of a fly; it could also fire?! He had seen a lot of advanced technology from the joint military exercises, but he had never seen such terrifying drones. He swore, not even the UA possessed this.

It only took a while before ten something F soldiers fell down in pools of blood, but only two or three drones were shot down. They had never encountered such a lopsided battle.

"Push the machineguns onto the deck! Use heavy weapons!" Afraid of more seals boarding, Kluse yelled into the earpiece as the battle entered turmoil.

"Roger!" A soldier roared while he lowered his body and ran to the back.

Soon after, the anti-air machine guns were pushed onto the deck. The metal plate in the front blocked the incoming bullets. The machine gunner with a menacing laugh began firing at Xin soldiers in the distance.

The bullets shredded the metal containers and suppressed the Xin soldiers from moving forward. Their success was short-lived as a rocket flew up. Like an iron fist, it sent the anti-air machine gun into the sky. Along with it, was the unlucky machine gunner.

Kluse stared at the sky engulfed in flame, his eyes widened in disbelief.

These seals brought rocket launchers!

Kluse regained his attention from the shock and shouted into the radio… "Quick, move the machine guns back!"

But it was too late, another rocket blew the other machine gun into pieces.

Their anti-air power was destroyed. The four Black Eagles began to push forward.

The pitch black muzzles extended from the side of the helicopter. The arm-thick bullets fired from the side. The firepower from the sky revealed the militants hidden behind the containers as the F soldiers all dropped dead.

With cover fire, the twelve soldiers first boarded stood up behind cover while they maintained their shooting position and pushed forward. They would make sure the remaining militants were finished off. As to the bullets, most were blocked by the polyethylene board.

With the assistance of the drones, the militants had no fighting chance.

"Ahhh-! Fu*k, my hand!" Kluse rolled inside the boat. He covered his broken right hand with his left hand. He tumbled and retreated to the bottom of the vessel.

After confirming all enemy units were cleared on the deck, the soldiers entered the control room to stop the vessel. At the same time, the Black Eagles hovered above the deck as the ground force descended.

Thirty two Celestial soldiers quickly entered the vessel. Wilson entered the control room and used the broadcasting system to speak to the resisting militants.

Surrender or die.

The one-sided battle made all the F soldiers lose their courage to fight. When they reached 50% casualties, they finally collapsed and dropped the rifles in their hands and chose to surrender.

Everyone was tied up and sent back to the deck. They waited with guns pointed at them.

The vessel continued its journey to New Moon Island.

But this time, the F soldiers disguised as mercenaries no longer had their original arrogance, the only emotions left were fear and despair.

Chapter 358: Reparations

No secret can't be uncovered using a single truth-telling serum. If there was, then two truth-telling serums would suffice.

The F soldiers were also certainly not soft, especially Kluse who has lost one of his hand. He kept his mouth shut about this throughout, but with the truth-telling serum, mental fortitude was useless.

Celebrate the glory of technology.

41 F soldiers were captured, and 59 soldiers died in the crossfire. Ivan treated the execution of this mission carefully. Not only did he leave radio communication records, but he also recorded the entire duration of the second warning. Then the subsequent resist to cooperate, and the firing of anti-air machine guns was recorded by the cameras on the helicopters.

Jiang Chen was extremely pleased with the way Ivan handled the situation. He needed a commander that would make the "correct judgment" in critical moments like this, rather than a follower that required his direction with any small problems. Sinking the boat that ignored their warnings was the command Jiang Chen had ordered when the Life Signal Radar was established.

All in all, all the evidence were there.

Xin had the complete upper hand in the public's opinion.

There was media coverage on F soldiers pretending to be fishermen, but it was the first time they pretended to be mercenaries to conduct military action against other countries. What made it worse was that they were foolish enough to get caught.

The international community spurred drastic reactions, including Hua. Multiple governments all denounced country F for their unruly actions and the violation of international law. They stated that they would continue to follow the event closely.

In the beginning, President Aquino and the defense minister continued to state that they were being framed by Xin. But following the release of 41 pleading guilty videos, along with the protest of the families from the 41 soldiers who had survived, the F government completely went mute.

The evidence was all out there, it was futile to defend themselves.

Followed by the tradition of the country, they just would not admit to their actions. But Xin had said that if country F does not give a satisfactory response, Xin will sentence all soldiers who had trespassed or made unlawful entrances into the country to over thirty years in prison.

This forced Aquino into a corner.

Continuing to not admit to being guilty, their soldiers definitely would not be able to return home which meant that their families would be unhappy. But to apologize and plead to the Xin government to release the soldiers, Aquino didn't want to lose his face.

The diplomatic relationship between the two countries entered a turmoil.

But regardless who looked at it, in this round of exchanges, Xin had the complete upper hand.

…

In the mansion on Coro Island, Zhang Yapin stood across from Jiang Chen on the sofa. Ayesha poured them water before leaving the living room.

Perhaps he was thirsty, Zhang Yapin took a sip of the water before he put the cup down.

"I have to thank you for making me so famous internationally."

"No worries." The oblivious Jiang Chen didn't grasp his sarcasm.

"No, no, no, I should worry about it. You killed 59 people this time. If they were not on the wrong side this time, I would be summoned to international court already."

"Haha, I realize you've become much more humorous." Jiang Chen laughed.

"Making the best out of a worse situation." Zhang Yapin revealed a helpless expression.

"Okay, don't pretend to be so overdramatic. This event is great for you," Jiang Chen said.

"In what way?" Zhang Yapin laughed.

"At least you don't have to worry about elections anymore." Jiang Chen crossed his legs as he sunk into the sofa. Then he yawned. "I don't understand much about politics, but after reading so many news articles, I have learned one rule."

"What's the rule?" Zhang Yapin ridiculed.

"To increase support, strong foreign policy is much better than economic growth."

"Isn't that obvious." Zhang Yapin grinned. He initially thought Jiang Chen had a differing perspective, but what he said was common sense.

'Oh? Looks like I accidentally discovered a principle in international relations?" Jiang Chen laughed proudly.

It was a bit tough on him to learn about managing a country as a mechanical engineer. To be honest, Jiang Chen has thought about becoming the president. But after careful consideration, he gave up on the idea.

If he was really to become the president, he had a feeling he would turn the modern world into another apocalypse.

The hidden figure was more suitable for him.

"It's still too early to say election, who knows what will happen in five years."

"Don't worry, even if you don't have enough votes by that time, I will help you to become re-elected," Jiang Chen took a sip of his tea and said nonchalantly.

Zhang Yapin raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. Although he personally despised these unlawful actions, they were beneficial for him after all. After feeling conflicted, he remained silent.

Jiang Chen glanced at the clock in the living room. When he saw it was getting late, he said, "Are you here to complain to me about this?"

"Of course not," Zhang Yapin took out a piece of folded paper from his pocket, "I am here to talk about compensation. A total of 976 families were effected totaling 2115 people. Among them, a fair number of people lost their only home. They are currently residing in their friends' or relatives' place.

Objectively speaking, president Zhang was unquestionably a great president. Even in a puppet regime, he still worked for the betterment of the citizens.

"10% of the people are affected? That's a big problem. Let me think…" Jiang Chen scratched his chin.

Zhang Yapin quietly looked at Jiang Chen. He gulped and waited for his response.

"How about this. Provide me with detailed information about the people registered to receive compensation. To the people that lost their home, every family will be compensated with an apartment the size of 120 square meters and the land will be compensated at 50 USD per square meter. For the people who lost their farming land, they will be compensated at 10 USD per square meter and be prioritized in the hiring process. What do you think about this compensation?"

Zhang Yapin's eyes widened, but he had to remind Jiang Chen.

"Every family will be compensated with an apartment 120 square meters? What if someone lived in a 90 square meters apartment?"

"Then they will thank me." Jiang Chen smiled.

Zhang Yapin was amazed by Jiang Chen's words.

He took a deep breath and expressed his gratitude sincerely.

"…Okay, allow me on behalf of Xin's citizens to thank you for your generosity."

"No need."

The reason why he was generous was not that he was a philanthropist, but he had other plans.

The distribution of the Pannu population was extremely uneven on the nine islands. Most of the people were concentrated in the relatively developed Coro and Ange City. The remaining seven islands had a large habitable area, but the population was extremely scarce. Ten square kilometers of land had less than one hundred people inhibiting it. A store couldn't even thrive, let alone boosting the economy. This move was to reallocate the population density. These new apartments will not be built on Coro and Ange Island.

As to the cost, it was not high to begin with.

With an eight-floor high apartment building and eight units per floor, there would be 64 units in the entire building. Even with 1000 families, only16 buildings would need to be built. With the land price and tax being negligible, the average cost of each building would be one hundred thousand USD. It was nothing compared to Jiang Chen's assets.

Also, he would gain a good reputation because of it, so why not?

"Speaking of prioritizing the hiring process, does your company have any positions available?" Zhang Yapin continued.

"After the tourism facility is complete, it is expected to bring eighty thousand jobs here. Let alone lack of positions, I don't think the population here will be enough. Mhmm… Speaking of this, study the possibility of immigration and decide when to open the doors for that."

"Xin is currently politically unstable. No one would want to come here," Zhang Yapin said bitterly.

Jiang Chen only smiled.

"That might not be true. Trust me, in less than five years. This place will become a destination the world longs for. A new land directed by Xin."

"I have to remind you, this place is only a series of islands."

"Only for now."

Jiang Chen emphasized the word "now".

Chapter 359: Purchasing Ores

<Xin Government remains firm on their stance and denounce country F's shameless actions. Announcement states they will do everything to maintain the sovereignty and rights of the country> - Daily Post

<What's the source of audacity? How could the mysterious Celestial Trade defeat country F's special force? Private force stronger than government army, the safety of the world is in jeopardy> - Washington Post

<Rational negotiation remains the only viable option, country F's aggression causes international embarrassment> - Renren Newspaper

<The devil that cries war? Xin may be the disruptor of regional stability> - Economic News

…

There were at least ten newspapers on Jiang Chen's table, each displaying an interesting perspective. Especially the Economic News, they did a close up of Zhang Yapin's distorted face. Jiang Chen wondered what he would think when he saw the image.

As to the narratives… Some remain neutral, some turned the topic domestic, some favored a certain country while others disagreed. Of course, all the opinions were within Jiang Chen's expectation. Since something like this happened, country F would be more cautious. As to how this foreign relationship problem should be handled, and how they would use the international court platform as well as the 41 captives to scam country F, it was president Zhang's worry.

The door was knocked on gently.

"Come in," Jiang Chen said as he threw the newspapers into the corner.

Ayesha in a maid uniform walked in and put coffee in front of Jiang Chen's table. The white lace skirt, as well as the absolute territory hidden underneath the skirt, made Jiang Chen feel a bit thirsty.

The reason why she wore this was not because it was Jiang Chen's fetish, but purely because Ayesha wanted to.

That's right, it was her hobby.

Since they returned from Kane, Ayesha developed a keen passion for pretty clothes. But because of her traditional perspective, she was unwilling to wear revealing clothes in front of other people. So the five full closets became her "pajamas" and when there was no one home, Ayesha's choice of clothing became "odd".

The maid uniform was okay, but sometimes she would wear a bikini to do chores, and wear only an apron to cook…

"Thank you." Jiang Chen took the coffee.

Ayesha smiled back. Walking behind Jiang Chen, she gently massaged his shoulders.

"You're working every day, take a break once in a while."

"Once everything is on track, I will be free." Jiang Chen put the cup down after taking a sip of his coffee, closed his eyes, and enjoyed Ayesha's massage.

"Mhmm… Only if I could help you," Ayesha said with slight disappointment.

In her mind, she always thought women like Xia Shiyu was more ideal for Jiang Chen. Not only could she help him with his business, but her looks were also more suited to Asia's beauty standard. But her, other than the ability to kill as well as the apathy towards life, she had no other abilities.

This was the reason why she wanted to drag Xia Shiyu to Jiang Chen's pillow side…

"What are you saying? You have helped me a lot," Jiang Chen denied her statement without hesitation.

Ayesha didn't respond, but from her gentle smile, it looked like she was comforted.

"I am planning to head to Australia at noon, do you want to come along?"

When she heard that Jiang Chen planned on taking her with him during this trip, Ayesha happily curled up her lips.

"Of course. Let me go change."

She then turned around and left.

…

Steel is the foundation of the industrial industry, even in the highly advanced 22nd century.

To develop industrial capability, raw materials were necessary. But the limitation of the wasteland's industrial capability was precisely the scarcity of raw materials. Although they could obtain aluminum, copper, iron, as well as other rare metals through recycling, the highly processed nature of the raw materials was not only cumbersome but was also costly. It was for this reason that the power armors had such a high cost. The special plastic steel covering the T-3 power armor was not cheap.

When he was back in the country, it was unrealistic to purchase large quantities of metal as it was much riskier than purchasing food. But now there were fewer concerns. He could buy whatever amount he desired, and no one would investigate him.

The iron production of the world was controlled by three mega-companies. The first being Brazil's Vale S.A with 39% of total production, ranking second was Rio Tinto and third being BHP, who accounted for 38% of total production. The first one was too far away in South America; the two latter ones were all in Australia with only New Guinea in between. Based on the consideration of cost, Jiang Chen chose BHP as his partner.

There was only one flight to Melbourne. While there was an increase in the number of tourists, tickets remained plentiful as Ayesha easily purchased them.

When they arrived, they checked in at the same hotel.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang." When he saw Jiang Chen, the Australian with a hooked nose extended his hand.

"Nice to meet you too." Jiang Chen gave him a warm handshake.

Oliver, one of the presidents of BHP. He was the acting executive director of the West Australia division.

Compared with the mega-company with a 210 billion market cap, Future International was just a small ant. Of course, no one would question the potential of the little ant, just like Microsoft in its early days.

After a brief introduction, they were quick to head into the main topic.

"One hundred thousand tons of iron, two hundred thousand tons of aluminum, one thousand tons of 45% purity molybdenum per month…" Oliver scanned through the contract Jiang Chen handed over repeatedly as his eyebrows began to raise.

"The iron and aluminum are okay. But the molybdenum is a rare metal and production remains low. All of its production per year has been reserved." Oliver showed an apologetic expression.

"I see." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

Molybdenum has a low reserve on earth accounting for only 0.001% of the mass of the crust, but it had a wide range of applications. Such as microcomputers, microprocessors, offshore oil and gas pipelines, and even fertilizers.

But a significant use of this was yet to be discovered. Mainly the neural connection of the virtual reality equipment to the human body must use this. Although they could acquire some through recycling in the apocalypse, to mass produce it, they would have to obtain it in the modern world.

"With molybdenum, I recommend you try your luck in Hua. Hua is the biggest producer of molybdenum right now. Iron and aluminum, our company can provide."

"I'll see. Let's put the molybdenum aside for now and discuss the price of iron and aluminum," Jiang Chen said reluctantly.

The Wang family would not let him purchase molybdenum easily. It was too easy to prevent him from buying the metal. From extraction to transportation, and customization. With the Wang family's power, a connection in any part of the system would easily stop him from doing business.

Where could molybdenum be easily acquired from? Potentially places like Antarctica and the Moon.

International treaty prohibited one of them, while the other one was unreachable by current technology.

He would have to search for other means… Jiang Chen deliberated.

Chapter 360: Sunny Melbourne

After an hour of negotiating contract prices and details, they finally reached an agreement.

Iron ore: 52.20 USD per ton, one hundred thousand tons per month with a total cost of 5.22 million USD.

Aluminum ore: 80 USD per ton, two hundred thousand tons per month with a total cost of 16 million USD.

The total contract amount was 21.22 billion USD. The shipment would arrive from Port Darwin to Port Ange at the beginning of every month for five years.

Although Ange Island currently has no deepwater port, Jiang Chen had already invested in its construction as two docks would be built by next month. The population base of Ange Island was relatively high and relatively far away from the other eight islands. Therefore, it was ideal to be built into an industrial island with manufacturing as the dominating industry. Hence, a deepwater port was necessary.

Oliver was ecstatic as he signed a multi-million dollar deal in one afternoon for the company. After signing the contract, Jiang Chen didn't immediately leave but instead started to chat with him about the mining industry.

To Jiang Chen's questions, Oliver did his best to answer. He told Jiang Chen the trend of the low volume of iron ore traded in 2016 and the decrease in price for rare metals. All the information could be found online, so it was not a secret.

"If you don't mind me asking this question, based on my knowledge, your company's primary business is in the tech industry, why would you need to purchase large quantities of iron ore?" Oliver asked.

"Your company has implications on what the buyer uses the ore for?" Jiang Chen nonchalantly asked.

"Just a question I was personally curious about. Of course, if it is inconvenient to disclose, then it that is okay. This question doesn't affect our partnership." Oliver saw that Jiang Chen didn't plan to answer as he smiled to apologize for his rather blatant question.

"I do apologize, this is a trade secret, and I can't answer you… To express my apology, allow me to treat you to dinner," Jiang Chen said.

"Haha, it's my honor. I know a pretty good restaurant in Melbourne, take my car…" Oliver gladly accepted Jiang Chen's invitation.

It was time to get off work, they left the company and headed to a Brazilian Barbeque restaurant near Melbourne.

From the restaurant's aesthetics, it was no different than the street food stalls found in Han. The half-open system design with a distinctly-not-Brazilian owner roasting the golden slices of meat on the fire drew the passersby with its delicious aroma.

They sat at the bar, and it didn't take long before the plates arrived in front of them.

Two cold beers and four plates of meat later, Jiang Chen was thrilled by the food.

"Is the future of the mining industry not looking so good?"

"Not terrible, but it will get worse." When they spoke about work, Oliver let out a sigh.

"Because of the economic conditions?"

"It could be categorized as an economic issue, but ultimately it goes back to demand." Oliver took a big gulp of beer in satisfaction, the beer washed away the frustration that accumulated in his chest.

"Could you be more specific?" With the skewer in his hand, Jiang Chen asked.

He had an interest in mining.

"For example, if you want to build a 5000 square meter building, it would require 30 tons of steel. But once the building is complete, the potential market of the steel would decrease by that 30 tons. Not only in infrastructure, but from vehicles to screws, they are all the same. Then, the steel plant would decrease production, the mining output would also decrease, and that's how the economy goes down the drain." Oliver laughed.

Jiang Chen didn't know what was funny.

"Is it okay to tell me this?"

"No problem. I'm off work," Oliver said with confidence, "Also, even if there are layoffs, I won't be cut."

"Therefore, the overall trend of iron is going down?"

"That's right. In 2008, per ton had a price of 2.1 USD. Now, it would be lucky to get 0.95 USD."

"With what you are saying, there is no hope in the mining industry?" Jiang Chen grinned.

"Not necessarily true. There is potential if there is a technological breakthrough." Oliver shook his beer glass half filled with beer.

"Technological breakthrough?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrow.

"That's right. Unless there is a major technological breakthrough, such as everyone throwing away their current vehicle, like how everyone gave up on the hand-operated machines or like how everyone abandoned the steam engine… If we were to stretch the example. Sigh, I am pretty envious of you."

"There are a lot of people envious of me."

"I am not talking about your money, but your industry. Don't you think that tech is the field that technological breakthroughs are most likely to occur in?" Oliver stuffed a skewer into his mouth and then smiled.

"It is also the industry most likely to go bankrupted," Jiang Chen mocked.

Oliver took a moment to process this before he started to laugh hysterically. Maybe laughing was contagious for Jiang Chen also began to laugh along.

The two hysterical people made the rest of the restaurant turn their heads.

…

When Jiang Chen returned to the hotel somewhat drunk, it was already ten at night. That guy was surprisingly talkative and was very humorous as well. Jiang Chen and him talked about the culture of Australia, the barbequed fish, and even his hometown Hucheng. They got along so well that while that ate and drank, it was already deep into the night.

Before they left, Jiang Chen exchanged business cards with Oliver.

When Jiang Chen still drenched in the smell of alcohol, appeared in front of the door, Ayesha quickly helped him to the bathroom, took off his shirt, and wiped his body with a hot towel.

"Why did you drink so much?" Ayesha muttered to Jiang Chen in a small voice.

"I met an interesting person." Jiang Chen burped and laughed, then he leaned on Ayesha's chest.

Ayesha's pale skin instantly turned red. Just as she was about to help Jiang Chen stand up, snoring sounds resonating from the bathroom…

…

It felt terrible to be hung over, but with Jiang Chen's metabolic speed, he only felt awful for a short period the next day before he fully recovered.

Because the contract negotiation went surprisingly smooth, he had a lot of free time the next day.

Since everything was done, based on Jiang Chen's promise to Ayesha, he took her to explore Melbourne.

Photos in front of landmarks, shopping in major malls…

It was tiring to shop with a woman. But with Ayesha's joyous expression in front of him, Jiang Chen felt all of his weariness wash away.

The last destination of the trip was St. Patrick's Cathedral. Although it was odd to view an religious building as someone of a different religion, Ayesha's amazement surveying the magnificent cross astonished Jiang Chen.

Not all religious people are stubborn.

And not all stubbornness cannot be forgiven.

At the peak of the modern day secularization, even an atheist can hold the hands of a believer and praise the glory of the art of the pagan church.

Seven hundred years ago, the Crusaders fought for the ownership of holy land through a bloodbath. Seventy years ago, the US and Soviet let the iron curtain drop due to differences in ideology.

Now looking back, nothing seems unforgivable nor unacceptable by the law of nature.

Just like the uncanny workmanship of the Suzhou Gardens and the vibrancy of the stained glass at the Notre Dame de Paris, the shape and color the world should possess were far more than what people would think.

If one day, the footstep of humans expanded to the edge of the galaxy, if they look back on the territory conflicts of today, and the ideology differences, would they mock themselves for their past actions?

But by that time, what would civilization be bothered by…

… The path to evolution? Or other things?

Just as Jiang Chen thought about this, Ayesha gently pulled on his arm.

He recollected his thought and looked at her. "Hmm?"

"I want to go in… Is that okay?"

"Of course."

He threw his thoughts into the back of his head and nobly held onto Ayesha's tiny hand.

They both headed inside the St. Patrick Cathedral.

Chapter 361: Meeting an old friend

Rather than a church, it was more like a museum.

The church had religious text that could be read, but it had no souvenirs. Perhaps indicating it was a sacred place rather than a tourist attraction. But because today was not worship day, there was no one praying in the church.

Inscriptions on shrines told the vicissitudes history of the Catholic Church. Jiang Chen held Ayesha's hand while he briefly glanced around.

"Is this a gothic style building?" Ayesha with one finger on her lips looked up at the magnificent dome.

"Should be, I don't really know. Why?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Because… I often see gothic style clothing in the magazines," With the tip of her lips forming a curvature. "I think it's cute."

"Haha, but this building doesn't resemble cuteness." Jiang Chen forced a laugh and scanned his surrounding.

A priest stood under the altar with a couple standing in front of him. The white-haired priest drew a cross in front of his chest and blessed the two. Ayesha noticed that the couples had a joyous smile on their faces when they left.

"What are they doing?"

"Receiving the blessing of the holy light? The couple should be praying or marrying or something." Jiang Chen made something up.

The priest seemed to have noticed the two looking at him. He kindly smiled and walked to them.

"Do you need help with something?"

Considering Ayesha's religion, Jiang Chen wanted to refuse, but the girl blinked her eyes and looked at the elderly father with white hair.

"Even as a pagan, is the blessing effective?"

The question was blatant, but the priest only paused for a moment before he spoke with an earnest expression.

"Of course. It all depends if you love him or not."

Ayesha's cold expression bloomed into a joyful smile.

"Mhmm. I love him dearly."

Jiang Chen felt teary.

Ayesha's honest but innocent confession made him feel a different emotion.

He never admitted that he was a good man. Not because he was greedy, he just never had a strong mental fortitude.

The priest looked at Jiang Chen, his eyes seemed to possess the ability to observe everything.

"Then, do you love her?"

"I love her," Jiang Chen said affirmatively.

Ayesha's eyes welled up with tears. She hugged Jiang Chen's arm and rubbed her face against it.

If he had one positive trait, it would be that he never lied about his emotions. Although there was the suspicion of being a quibble, Jiang Chen didn't plan to explain anything.

A smile appeared on the priest's face.

"May the Lord bless you, and you will be happy."

He drew the cross and blessed them.

…

When they came out of the church, Ayesha dangled her entire body weight on Jiang Chen's arm, and her expression was exuberant.

Among the trees, white roses blossomed along the path, but in front of her perfect smile, it paled in comparison.

It was rare for her to display such intimacy in public.

With how happy she looked, Jiang Chen couldn't resist kissing her tender face.

The face gradually turned red as he a spoiled smile surfaced on his face.

When night began to fall, Jiang Chen prepared to take Ayesha back to the hotel.

They still needed to catch tomorrow's plane, so they should sleep early.

That's right, sleep early.

But at the same moment, Jiang Chen heard a familiar voice in surprise.

"Feifei, marry me?" A man with roses kneeled in front of a gorgeous looking girl as he said with deep affection.

But the proposal in front of the church didn't seem to move the girl.

"Didn't we agree that once you settle, we'll then talk about marriage?"

Yang Yuan?

Jiang Chen followed the voice as he looked at the man beside the bench.

He didn't expect to encounter his university roommate here?!

After graduation, the four roommates all chose different paths. While they contacted each other initially for the few months, with the formulation of their new circles, the four rarely contacted each other. Even if Jiang Chen had made a name for himself, the three people still didn't contact him.

As to why, Jiang Chen made sense of it quickly; most likely because they didn't want to lose face.

Not speaking with people when they are down, and flattering them once they are successful, it didn't sound good. Especially since their relationship was not deep, to begin with, in addition to the lack of contact two years after graduation. Since the three all valued their face, they didn't contact Jiang Chen.

Without contact, at least they could brag to their friends and coworkers –"That guy, we lived in the same dorm. I was tight with him."

Jiang Chen still remembered Yang Yuan. Although they were not in the same major, they had a surprisingly good relationship. He was the study god of their dorm and had a good family background. Jiang Chen faintly recalled that after graduated he headed to a renowned university in Australia for a master program. Before he left, he told Jiang Chen to find him if he ever visited Australia and that he would treat him.

Of course, Jiang Chen knew it was just out of courtesy.

Now thinking back, two years passed by and his master should be completed. Since they didn't contact each other after he left, their relationship obviously began to fade. While it was not the first time Jiang Chen was in Australia, he didn't remember to go find him.

But today's encounter, the feeling of meeting an old friend in a different part of the world, was indescribable.

Jiang Chen just wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to say hi.

"Give me some more time, I will definitely find a job…" Yang Yuan was a bit anxious as he didn't know what to do.

"Did you consider my feelings? You said you were already settled here, so I quit my job in China to find you, but what now?" The girl said accusingly with her eyes turning red.

When he saw his old friend was in a tough situation, Jiang Chen let out a sigh and walked toward him in an attempt to make the situation less awkward.

"Yang Yuan?"

When he heard someone call his name, Yang Yuan first paused for a moment. When he saw who it was, he shouted in surprise.

"… Brother Chen! Haven't seen you in a while."

Due to astonishment, his voice cracked.

"Haven't seen you for a while." Jiang Chen smiled.

"This is… your significant other?" Yang Yuan looked at Ayesha.

"Mhmm."

"Ayesha," she briefly introduced herself.

"You… you still recognize me." The smile on Yang Yuan was a mixture of bitterness, excitement, and joy.

The person they didn't believe in now became a big boss and the person everyone thought highly upon now couldn't even find a job. The discrepancy made him feel a bit bitter, but the joyful news was, his old friend still recognized him.

Chapter 362: Future Mining

"Of course, I still remember I owe you two cup noodles," Jiang Chen recalled their past.

"Don't mention it." Yang Yuan rubbed his nose out of embarrassment, "I always said that I will treat you to lobster. Now that you are so well off, I'm so embarrassed to say it."

"You, you are Jiang Chen?"

Jiang Chen noticed that the girl beside Yang Yuan looked at him in excitement, stars were shining in her eyes.

Jiang Chen felt that he had seen her before, is it an illusion? Whatever.

"That's right." Jiang Chen laughed and turned to Yang Yuan, "Is this your significant other?"

Because Jiang Chen's generation is defined by the single child policy, during university, they casually referred to each other as brothers, while their girlfriend as brother's significant other.

"I am Su Fei, a fan of Little White," Su Fei said while blinking her eyes.

"Mhmm." Yang Yuan's expression was somewhat awkward.

Jiang Chen sensed that he didn't want to speak too much on this as he diverted the topic.

"It's rare to see you, how about I'll treat you to dinner."

"No, no, I said I would treat you."

"It's okay! I'm just repaying for the two cup noodles," Jiang Chen interrupted Yang Yuan.

He could see that Yang Yuan's economic situation was not too great. He only wanted to find a way for them to catch up, if he burdened his old friend, it would be against his original intention.

"Oh… Okay." Yang Yuan saw Jiang Chen's intention and nodded.

…

They arrived at a restaurant by the sea. From the exterior design, it was easy to see the luxury of this restaurant as well as the extravagance of the price. Yang Yuan's expression was unnatural when he looked at the servers in suits. But with how happy his girlfriend was, he didn't have the heart to tell Jiang Chen to change a place.

When he saw Jiang Chen didn't look "pained" or dissatisfied, he finally felt relieved.

He was worried that Jiang Chen would have the idea that "I haven't seen you for a long time and you want me to pay for a big meal," but the worry seemed extraneous. He also had a headache due to the wayward and extravagance of his girlfriend, but he couldn't bring out the courage to restrain her.

Yang Yuan was obviously facepalming. Jiang Chen was not stingy to the point where he wouldn't pay for a meal.

On the dinner table, other than Ayesha not speaking too much, the other three had a great conversation. Su Fei continually proposed a toast to Jiang Chen to demonstrate her energetic side, but at the same time subconsciously or consciously began asking about his private life. However, Jiang Chen managed to divert the questions smoothly.

Jiang Chen has seen too many similar situations.

Although he didn't know why his old friend would like a woman like this, he still had his own boundaries. Therefore, he maintained his distance with Su Fei. Seeing that her attempt to get close was unsuccessful, Su Fei put her attention on Ayesha and tried to befriend her. But to her warmness, Ayesha's was unmoved.

Yang Yuan seemed to be slow in this area as he didn't sense anything. After downing a few beers, he began chatting about what happened after graduation.

Because he was drunk, Yang Yuan dragged him to the balcony of the restaurant. With the refreshing sea breeze sweeping across their face, they continued to chat.

It didn't take long before the conversation changed to "the start of the company". Jiang Chen selectively skipped the sensitive topics and summarized the process of creating Future 1.0 and only spoke about the details of when the company started to become successful.

"Damn! The prom queen of the business school, Xia Shiyu, you managed to date her! Wow, this Brother Chen title is certainly deserving." Yang Yuan exclaimed in a loud voice laced with drunkenness.

"What do you mean? "Jiang Chen joked, "She is the CEO of my company. But… our relationship might be a bit different."

There weren't as many concerns when men spoke to each other.

"But isn't that your S.O?"

Jiang Chen was a bit awkward, "Uh, she is too."

"… So corrupted." Yang Yuan took a long time to process his words before he punched Jiang Chen on the shoulder.

"Ahem, we like each other, it is not being corrupt. Let's not talk about this… Speaking of you, what's going on with Su Fei."

Yang Yuan let out a sigh.

"Nothing's going on. Just like this."

"I feel like I have seen her before."

"She is also a graduate of Wanghai University, two years younger than me. I only asked her to come abroad at the end of last year, you probably have seen her in school." Yang Yuan said nonchalantly.

"I see… Could be."

"I originally thought that I got a metal bowl (Referring to a stable job), but I didn't even take a scoop out of it before I lost the bowl. I should have just signed when PetroChina interviewed me." There was regret in Yang Yuan's words.

Although state-owned enterprises' salary was lower compared to foreign companies, the stability was undoubtedly a plus. Even if it were operating at a loss and heavily subsidized, the government would not allow the workers who worked diligently to contribute to the country to lose their job. Just from this point again, it was more virtuous than working for the capitalists.

"A metal bowl (1)?"

"Yes, in the first year of my masters in Australia, I already signed with Rio Tinto. But this year, the mining industry was not looking pleasant, combined with the oil price plunging, Rio Tinto immediately began laying off people. So I, unfortunately, became a casualty."

[Certainly unlucky… ] Jiang Chen said in his mind.

"Does PetroChina not want you anymore?"

"Of course they do, why not? I am a master student who studied abroad majoring in resource exploration. With my family connection, I will be promoted in just two years." Yang Yuan was still confident with his own ability.

"Then why don't you go back?" Jiang Chen glanced at him.

A bitter smile surfaced at Yang Yuan's face.

"I want to go back, but…" As he spoke, Yang Yuan turned to look at Su Fei in the restaurant.

That girl was dissecting the lobster in excitement while chatting with Ayesha.

Jiang Chen instantly understood his bitterness.

"She didn't want me to go back. From her perspective, now that I finally acquired immigration status, it would be a waste if I let that go. Whenever I talk about going back, she would cry and threaten to break up with me…"

"Is it good like this?" Jiang Chen asked.

To be honest, Jiang Chen didn't like Su Fei's personality. He didn't know what was attractive about this type of girl. But since Yang Yuan likes her, he couldn't say anything.

"What could I do?" Yang Yuan's bitterness deepened.

"Do you love her?"

"Mhmm."

He didn't know that the engineer was such a devoted person. Back then, Jiang Chen just thought he was unexpressive, he didn't think he had this quality.

"… Then try to satisfy her, though it might be an endless pit."

Yang Yuan let out a sigh, "I know. I just want to wait until tomorrow, if the market picks up again, there will be demand for employment."

Jiang Chen fell into deep thought as he listened to Yang Yuan's words.

To be honest, he happened to be worried about molybdenum. Other than molybdenum, niobium ore, tungsten ore and even rare metals all have a big gap in the wasteland. But based on what Oliver said, those ores would be hard to obtain in any country, so Jiang Chen had the idea to extract them himself.

Pannu Islands' ocean resources were extremely vast and rich. While no oil and gas existed in its territory, the mining deposits underneath the sea were yet to be explored. It would be hard to believe if there were not a single bit of deposits in the vast ocean territory. Since iron and aluminum had a low cost, Jiang Chen didn't mind paying. But for rarer metals, if he were to buy, it would certainly pain him.

As to how to extract the ores from the seafloor, Jiang Chen already had an idea in mind, though it still remained in the research phase…

Could the deposit distribution of the apocalypse be the same as the modern world?

Jiang Chen never thought about this before. Because the history of the two worlds was completely different, he selectively ignored the possibility of using the information from the future to his advantage.

Lottery? The amount and number might even be different. Suck up to future leaders? Pac never existed. Music? That's more absurd. Would India's pop music be popular in China? If not, then the music from PAC would be the same.

But mining resources were different! It would not change because of human activity. Therefore, the mining beds dug clean before the war may not have even been drilled or explored yet.

The more Jiang Chen thought about it, the more he wanted to hit himself for not thinking about this earlier. Selling ores and oil location would be much more profitable compared to gold! Just that it would be hard to explain the source…

"Speaking of this, I happen to have a job, are you interested?"

Yang Yuan shook his head.

"I don't know tech at all. Thank you, but I will not bother you."

Yang Yuan was an honest person, he knew he didn't have any ability in that area.

"Who said I wanted you to go to Future Technology? Asking an exploration major to do tech, it would be asking for trouble." Jiang Chen rolled his eyes. "I am talking about Future Mining, are you interested?"

"Future Mining?" Yang Yuan was shocked.

"That's right," Jiang Chen said affirmatively.

Although he could just hire a headhunter to do it for him, he trusted the people he knew more. As to technology, the one thing he never lacked was technology.

"Are you being serious?" Yang Yuan put on a stern expression.

"Of course. But do you know anything about sea exploration?"

When he talked about his major, Yang Yuan immediately turned ecstatic.

"Yes, my professor at the university is researching sea exploration, whether it is space mining deposits or space oil deposits, I have studied both."

"Then let's do this, I will go back to Xin and register Future Mining… Mhmm, I will also register one in Australia." Jiang Chen nodded.

"What, you haven't registered that company yet?" Yang Yuan facepalmed.

(1) Metal Bowl - A stable job from a state-owned enterprise.

Chapter 363: Return

Yang Yuan's contract was negotiated immediately after.

Although he was skeptical with Future International entering the mining sector, he didn't question the truth of Jiang Chen's words. It must be true - would a billionaire trick a poor guy just for fun? Yang Yuan accepted the job without a second thought.

He would get a monthly salary of ten thousand AUD with a bonus based on sales. Although Yang Yuan expressed that he didn't need that much, Jiang Chen still insisted on giving him a high salary. One reason being that he wanted to help his old friend, the other reason was to reinforce their relationship.

It was always the better deed to help someone in need rather than add on to their success. For example, it was far more meaningful to drag him up when his career and relationship were at their worst rather than giving him a raise when he had a salary of over one hundred thousand.

In the beginning, when Su Fei heard that Yang Yuan would work for Future International, she was naturally very excited. But when she heard the work was in a place called Pannu Islands beside New Guinea, her face immediately turned sour.

Then she heard she could live in a mansion by the beach with a salary of ten thousand AUD with flights back to Australia for vacation covered by the company. She became happy again, her mood changing as fast as a summer storm.

Jiang Chen didn't know what to say.

Since Yang Yuan liked her, he couldn't do anything about it.

The dinner cost 1000 AUD, which Jiang Chen paid before taking off. Yang Yuan would report to him at Coro Island five days later, so it was his job to register the company in Australia in the next five days.

Future Technology, Future Biology, Future Mining - the three subsidiaries meant that Future International finally had the umbra of an international conglomerate. In the future, Jiang Chen planned to establish Future Heavy Industrial, Future Communication and allow Future International to expand in all areas of human economic activity. Of course, he had to take it one step at a time.

"Did you have fun today?' On their way back, Jiang Chen tousled Ayesha's hair and asked.

"Very fun."

Whenever she recalled the blessing in the church and his "I love her," a curvature known as happiness would surface on Ayesha's lips.

"We'll head back tomorrow. Is there anything you want to do or any place you want to go? There's still some time before it gets completely dark."

"No need." With a blushing face, Ayesha moved her eyes into the distance. "Let's go back now."

[Is she tired?]

Jiang Chen initially didn't understand the meaning behind Ayesha's words. It was only when the door of the hotel room closed that he personally experienced the passion hidden underneath her coldness.

Only the soaked sheets told the intimacy of the night.

The next day, they boarded their returning flight to Xin and got off the plane on Coro Island.

After he settled down the weary Ayesha, Jiang Chen left the mansion and headed to the nutrient supply plant located on Ange Island.

It was the hottest time of the day, and the workers at the plant were all on break, but Zhan Shujie still stayed in the lab and carefully examined DH seaweed cells under the microscope. He didn't even notice Jiang Chen standing behind him.

'"Did you discover something meaningful?' Jiang Chen sighed with a helpless expression.

"No." Zhang Shujie shook his head in honesty.

He researched this for over half a month, yet he was still without any clue. He didn't know how the mechanism worked.

"It's normal for you to not make sense of it. If you could understand it in this short period of time, the technology would be worthless."

"The RNA transcribed from the single-stranded DNA doesn't match the DNA. A protein found in an animal cell divided in a plant cell. How does this work?" Zhan Shujie's eyes shined with frenetic flames as he asked Jiang Chen.

"Don't look at me like that; I'm only a merchant, it wasn't me who researched this technology." Jiang Chen shivered at the thought of a man watching him like that.

"Could I meet him?"

"No." Jiang Chen rejected it without any room for compromise.

To Jiang Chen's surprise, he thought Zhan Shujie would insist on meeting the scientist, but after being rejected, he only sighed.

"Okay… I thought I reached the boundaries of science, but it looks like I don't know anything after all. Such astonishing technology exists in this world. Did you know this is like an art?" Zhan Shujie took off the glass under the microscope as he praised its magnificence.

"Art? It's that valuable?" Considering what he said, Jiang Chen was afraid now.

[Nutrient supply is going to be sold to the masses. If people start examining it with microscopes…]

But thinking about it more deeply, he rejected the possibility. Cells could not pass through the molecular filter, and that thing filtered at the particle level.

"Valuable?" Zhan Shujie shook his head. "It's not just valuable - do you know what it means to be able to produce animal protein from plant cells?"

"What does it mean?"

"It means that beef could grow from the ground."

Jiang Chen laughed. Even in the 22nd century, it was pure fiction to grow beef from the ground.

"Let's not talk about these irrelevant things, I'm just here to grab some samples," Jiang Chen interrupted him.

Although Zhan Shujie was displeased with Jiang Chen's choice of words, he knew his place - he was still his boss - so he went to the bench and picked up a nutrient supply pack containing ten tubes.

"This is it. It tastes weird - would people even want to drink this?" Zhan Shujie ridiculed.

Jiang Chen began laughing.

"You don't understand. You're underestimating women's determination to pursue beauty. They could starve themselves for a few days if necessary, so this is nothing, especially since this doesn't taste that bad."

After he left Zhan Shujie, Jiang Chen took a boat back to Coro Island.

He got off at the port as he headed straight to the Celestial Trade Corporation's warehouses near the port.

He calculated that he was away from the wasteland for two months already. While he did occasionally travel back to meet with Sun Jiao, visit Yao Yao, and tease Lin Lin, he never stayed for too long.

He wanted to test the sample at the fallout shelter to see if there were any errors on the production side, but on the other hand, he needed to grow his force on the wasteland. Provided with the resources of the modern world, limitations on the apocalypse's industrial capabilities would be removed entirely.

He closed the door of the warehouse and put on the bracelet Lin Lin gave him. Jiang Chen took a deep breath, staring at the small mountain of food.

"Storage dimension activated."

Chapter 364: Return to the Apocalypse

Storing all the food, he didn't need to move an inch but the supply of food in the warehouse slowly depleted. With the interdimensional mass teleportation device, it was much easier to transport goods to the apocalypse. When he had to constantly travel back and forth, not only was it inefficient but it made him feel dizzy and it wasted more crystals too.

Now, it was a much easier process. After ten minutes past and 1000 crystals used, Jiang Chen emptied two warehouses full of supplies.

The capacity of the storage dimension seemed to have hit some bottleneck and stagnated at 30 cubic meters. Regardless of how many crystals Jiang Chen used now, he couldn't expand it by even a cubic millimeter.

Jiang Chen didn't mind since 30 cubic meters of space was plenty for him. Perhaps the bottleneck could be broken by a future opportunity, so he didn't worry.

He left the warehouse and called Ayesha.

Soon after, Ayesha drove to the warehouse with the Lamborghini. From the exhaustion on her face, she evidently had yet to recover from last night.

"Are you feeling bad?" Jiang Chen asked caringly as he sat in the car.

"Mhmm… Are you planning to head to that side?" Ayesha acutely saw through Jiang Chen's thoughts.

"I'm planning to take care of something on that side… Let's go back to the mansion."

"Be safe."

Jiang Chen paused before a smile emerged.

"Mhmm."

When he returned to the mansion, Jiang Chen changed his clothes. Just like his usual routine, he laid on the bed, closed his eyes, and commenced travel.

…

Behind his back was still the soft bed, but the oppressive radiation dust outside the window told him explicitly that he wasn't in the peaceful modern world anymore.

He stood up and before he managed to gain his balance, ferocious footsteps came from behind the door.

Sun Jiao pushed open the door, dove into Jiang Chen's chest and pushed him back onto the bed.

"I missed you!" She rubbed her face against Jiang Chen's shoulder.

"Honey, it's not like I haven't been back before."

Jiang Chen stroke her silky hair and hugged her.

Just like a cat, she escaped Jiang Chen's hug agilely. Sun Jiao sat on the chair and looked at Jiang Chen.

"How long do you plan to stay?"

"Probably for a while. Also, how did you know I was coming back?"

A proud smile appeared on Sun Jiao's face, "I heard sounds coming from the warehouse in the backyard and they continued for a while. When I checked it out, I saw a bunch of stuff appear, so I thought you must be preparing to come back."

"How have you been?"

"Very well, or rather, too well." With her chin against the back of the chair, Sun Jiao exclaimed.

To be able to live such a comfortable life was unimaginable before. It was two months until an entire year passed after meeting Jiang Chen. This year was the happiest she'd been since she left the fallout shelter. Although a lot of things happened during the process, they managed to make it through intact.

Just like a miracle, the soil tainted by war welcomed order again.

After he said hi to Yao Yao, Lin Lin, and Sun Xiaorou, Jiang Chen headed to the warehouse in the backyard.

This place was previously the base's warehouse, and now it was modified into a building similar to a "transport array." Two old warehouses were bulldozed and built into a metal shed around 500 square meters big. Inside contained the magnified version of the "interdimensional mass transportation device" Lin Lin designed.

Right now, the warehouse was filled with containers of canned food, fresh vegetables, fruit, and meat. Jiang Chen sent Wang Qin a message on the EP, directing 15 workers from the logistics department to transport the food.

"Last quarter, we produced 2000 Reaper Assault Rifles, 400 Hummingbird Drones, 20 Type-50 Electromagnetic Pulse Cannons, 10 T-3 Power Armors, and 1 Sample T-4 Power Armor." Wang Qin pushed up her glasses as she reported to Jiang Chen the recent production figures.

"The T-4 Power Armor is finished?" Jiang Chen was surprised.

The defense ability of the T-3's armor was something Jiang Chen always criticized. While the front armor was enough to defend against light weapons, it was nowhere enough in a battle against the Death Claw. Jiang Chen demanded that the new model had to replace the plastic armor with the more durable C-type steel without sacrificing mobility.

Just like he expected, the problem that couldn't be solved by researchers at Sixth Street was no trouble for the scientists at the fallout shelter.

"The difficulties with the engine were solved by researchers at the fallout shelter; the improved crystal fuel rod increases energy efficiency by 20% and engine output by 15%. This solves the problem of lack of mobility. The weight of the armor was increased to 700 kilograms to reach the threshold for land-type power armor specs. The total defense increased by 50% while ammunition decreased by 10%.

"What about the attached weapon models?"

"It still has the revolving machine gun on the left arm as the primary weapon, but based on this, the researchers at the fallout shelter also added a five-round grenade launcher on the same side. The grenade is capable of heat-seeking."

It was a moving fortress.

[Insane, but I like it!] Jiang Chen thought to himself.

"What are the weaknesses compared to T-3?"

"While the front armor is reinforced more strongly, the armor in the back has been decreased. Also due to the weight of the armor, the acceleration provided by the engine is weaker compared to before - it can't perform the high mobility dodging maneuvers T-3 could. It may feel unresponsive when dodging anti-armor weapons, so our research added reactive nitrogen armor on four different sections of the T-4 power armor.

Improving its defense meant sacrificing its mobility, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice. Since not all people could perform the dodging action in less than 0.1 seconds, most of the soldiers in power armor would require the armor to take damage directly and act as a moving shield for the light infantry. It was the role power armor played in combat.

"What's the cost of producing a T-4?"

Wang Qin's finger pressed on the screen and a number appeared in the center.

"27130 crystals."

"That's so expensive." Jiang Chen was shocked by the figure.

It was almost three times the amount compared to T-3 armor.

But Wang Qin couldn't do anything about that fact.

"The price of iron and rare metal continues to climb at the Sixth Street to the point where there's a shortage. Based on the information provided by Chu Nan, although there's been an economic boom as well as other factors, there's also been an increase in the number of scavengers, so there's still a significant gap to meet industrial demands."

Chapter 365: Virtual Reality Online

Fishbone Base's metal resources primarily depended on imports from the Sixth Street. With the influence of the economic boom last fall as well as the formation of the bank at the year's end, countless factories emerged. The garbage dumps left unmanaged for many years were swept clean by all the major factories. After the hunters that hunted for crystals and mercenaries that protected trade routes, professional scavengers became the hottest profession at the Sixth Street.

This was unfathomable before because no one imagined that so many factories would emerge at the Sixth Street practically overnight.

"The current production capacity of the base is restricted by the lack of raw materials. A lot of scavenging teams already signed a contract with the factories. Although I suggested Chu Nan to forcefully purchase the resources that Fishbone Base requires at a premium, he rejected the proposal. He said that unless you made the decision, he wouldn't interfere with the contract between private companies and scavengers." Wang Qin sighed.

"What he did was right," Jiang Chen said.

Chu Nan was undoubtedly an interesting individual - although he was just a pilot, it was surprising that they shared a similar thought process. One trait that most survivors shared on the wasteland was that the moment they saw something nice, they would steal it. This was the reason why most people spent their life picking through garbage.

Of course, looking at the question from another perspective, the actions of the survivors were reasonable. Due to the scarcity of survival resources, they might not even be able to survive without robbing others.

Wang Qin looked at Jiang Chen, not understanding. From her perspective, they were already nice enough to purchase the supplies at a premium - at least they weren't trying to rob them. Fishbone base was the controller of the Sixth Street, didn't they have the authority to do whatever they wanted?

"Only freedom and goodwill can inject the long-lasting energy needed for the Sixth Street's economic growth. We would only lose credibility if we attempted to interfere with the economy and its supporting industry. And to a regime like ours, the latter is obviously more important than the former."

She didn't understand what the boss said, but she thought it was deep… That was what Wang Qin's expression showed.

"Credibility... what's the purpose of that?"

"Too useful." Jiang Chen laughed. "Let's not talk about this. How much iron and aluminum are we missing? Just give me a list. These two resources will no longer be imported from the Sixth Street - I will solve the problem myself."

"You-you can obtain iron?" Wang Qin's eyes widened in disbelief as she couldn't hide her surprise.

But she was quick to realize her rudeness as she covered her mouth with her hands to express her remorse.

Jiang Chen didn't mind and answered with a casual voice.

"That's right, I can transport it starting next month. I can't solve the problem with the rare metals though, so see if you have any solutions."

She pushed up her glasses as the surface reflected a cunning spark.

"Let the scavengers of the base take care of it. We should give up on recycling iron and aluminum and shift our focus to electronic equipment and high precision devices - these things contain a higher amount of rare metal."

"Mhmm, I'll leave it up to you." Jiang Chen nodded.

Transportation of goods into the warehouse was almost complete, so Wang Qin saluted before she left.

As it was getting late, Jiang Chen took a big stretch before returning to the mansion.

He needed to bring the nutrient supply to the fallout shelter the next day and ask Han Junhua's opinion. Then he would visit the Sixth Street to examine Chu Nan's current work progress.

He pushed open the door to the living room to see Yao Yao and Lin Lin sitting at the table. The two small heads were both deep in thought as they engaged in a discussion about a blueprint.

"What are you looking at it?" Jiang Chen came closer out of curiosity.

"Ahh, big brother is back. Are you done for the day?" Yao Yao smiled gently at Jiang Chen as she turned her head.

Lin Lin proudly straightened her back and kept her chin high.

"We're currently researching a magnificent technology but since it requires some computer knowledge, I have to ask Yao Jiayu-"

Jiang Chen expected Lin Lin to boast, so he chose to ignore her and directed his gaze at the cute Yao Yao.

"Hello! Stop ignoring me!" Lin Lin protested.

"It's about a database converting brain waves to electronic signals, it's nothing special," Yao Yao timidly said.

"Database?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

"Sorry for troubling you guys so much."

Sun Xiaorou walked out of the hallway dressed in a light purple floral dress. She lowered her eyes apologetically.

"Not at all, it's not troublesome. " Lin Lin felt awkward by Sun Xiaorou's sincerity as she scratched her face.

Although it was Tingting in her body who destroyed the chip causing Sun Xiaorou to become like this, she still bore some responsibility for not controlling the bug. Even if Sun Xiaorou never blamed her, she always felt guilty.

While Lin Lin had a big mouth and was somewhat arrogant, she was still a kind person deep inside.

"No problem at all, Yao Yao also hopes that sister can start walking soon." Yao Yao nodded her head earnestly.

"Thank you, everyone," Sun Xiaorou said emotionally.

Jiang Chen sensed they had a good relationship with each other -was it because they lived together for so long?

"Thank you too."

"Eh? Me?" Jiang Chen looked in surprise at Sun Xiaorou smiling at him.

"Mhmm. It was only because of you that I reunited with my sister and meet so many lovely friends and also…a cute brother-in-law."

Her eyes turned into two crescents. The smile was sweet, but Jiang Chen felt the smile gave a vibe similar to her sister.

The devil-like smile.

Jiang Chen gulped as he shivered uncontrollably.

[Fu*k, does that count as teasing me?]

...

After dinner, Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao went to the third-floor gym. Inside were two virtual reality training chambers.

Jiang Chen was told that the virtual reality MMORPG was finished. Of course, he couldn't wait to experience it as he dragged Sun Jiao along.

was a name created by Du Yongkong. He didn't create the content himself because a lot of the data and models were already available. All he needed to do was replicate the famous virtual reality MMORPG on the new engine.

Although it sounded easy, it was a large amount of work. To complete the project, Du Yongkong requested ten something people who previously worked in game design to assist him.

On the other hand, Jiang Chen also increased the difficulty of his work.

To better fit the culture of the modern world and people's spiritual needs, Jiang Chen downloaded a library of Xuanhuan web novels and made Du Yongkong read through them. He asked him to try his best to "recreate the passion" when he designed the game.

This troubled Du Yongkong greatly. While Jiang Chen enjoyed the novels, Yongkong didn't understand the fun of them at all since he was forced to read millions of words just to complete his assigned task.

Regardless, after half a year of work, the beta version of the game was finally finished. Whether it was fun or not, Jiang Chen was determined to figure that out himself.

_Min_ _Min_

Chapter 366: The Game Rating becoming weird

Although it was an MMORPG, aside from the NPC that possessed basic artificial intelligence, there were only two players. The two virtual reality chambers connected directly to the server which acted as a private server.

The game content was easy to understand and follow.

It involved two landmasses, four empires, the cultural infusion between the east and west, and a distinct otherworldly land that introduced the background of the world. The opening animation was exquisitely designed, but Jiang Chen didn't want to waste time and decided to skip it and went straight into the character creation interface.

There was a variety of classes and races that could be selected including most of the usual ones covered in MMORPG-type novels. Because it was a Game Master account, Jiang Chen could directly select the hidden race and class that would normally only open after thousands of special conditions were met.

Jiang Chen didn't want to spend too much time selecting his character, so he chose the most balanced human as well as the warrior profession with a balance of attack and defense abilities.

A few words flew in front of his eyes.

The game would be permanently influenced by the actions of users in the game, pushing ahead of the current progression of the gaming world.

The progression of the world meant that new classes and even new races would be born. Whether the steam era or the magical era appeared was based on the actions of the players in the world. The amount of freedom was almost identical to the real world as endless possibilities existed.

This level of detail was an impossible task for modern supercomputers because the number of variables and changes would be an astronomical number. But with the technology of the apocalypse, this level of detail was no problem at all.

No one would choose to miss the opportunity of experiencing a "second life."

Jiang Chen could already imagine the craze people would have when they purchased the virtual reality helmet.

…

White light illuminated the space and Jiang Chen appeared in the starting village, naked.

Another white light flashed and Sun Jiao also showed up naked beside Jiang Chen.

"Ahh! How-how come I don't have any clothes?!" Sun Jiao cried as she looked down to cover her private areas while she trembled with a red face.

"Eh? Do you like elves?"

Jiang Chen scratched his chin as he examined the character Sun Jiao created.

Other than her voice, it was completely different compared to the real her.

The chin was too sharp to be considered humanly possible, and slim and elegant ears passed through the green strands of hair. It had a slender waist as well as a chest the size of soccer balls - it had the face of an angel but the figure of a devil.

As Jiang Chen looked, he nodded, pleased.

Mhmm, the face creation system must be nerfed since she doesn't look too different from her actual appearance. The idea of an ugly girl with a pretty face speaking sweetly to him gave him goosebumps.

Also, the gender has to be restricted! He discovered that during character creation, he could choose to create a female account. Is Du Yongkong dumb?

When he thought about a man with a female account interacting with him, a shiver went down his spine. At least create a separate server just for people like that...

"Is this the time to say that?! Clothes! Give me clothes!" Sun Jiao cried out in embarrassment.

It was rare to see Sun Jiao in such a panic.

Of course, appearing naked on the street would make anyone panic.

"It's okay, we're all NPC." Jiang Chen extended his finger and pressed into the air. "Also, with the existence of the control center, you can create clothes yourself."

A long dress dropped on the ground.

Sun Jiao, with a speed of lightning, snatched the clothes on the ground and covered her private areas. Then the benevolent elf smiled gruesomely at the shocked crowd and unleashed thunderous strikes.

Her finger moved.

Thousands of flame trails dropped from the ground. The level 100 mage's forbidden spell "Endless Hell" burned the entire starting village to dust.

Typically speaking, it wasn't possible to kill people in the starting village, but Sun Jiao ruthlessly abused the infinite abilities of the NPC.

That was how GM played the game.

"You don't have to wipe everyone out, there were a few dwarf lolis there." The flames dropping on Jiang Chen displayed a bunch of "0s" - the spell was useless on him.

"They're programs after all!" Sun Jiao gave Jiang Chen a dirty look as she bared her teeth to display her prowess.

She was indeed right since all these people were NPC. While they appeared shocked, embarrassed and even had sexual desires when they saw a naked body, behind the characters were just lines of code. All the personality programs were based on DnD's matrix and were determined based on random variables.

"Okay, you're right."

Jiang Chen scanned the scorched earth and collapsed buildings. The smell of burnt meat even drifted into his nose.

Mhmm… It wasn't good to be too realistic. If blood began to pour out with a single sword cut and a mere flame ball spell burned people, the game wouldn't operate for too long before the Radio and Television Ministry shut this down. Create a less violent version? Maybe they could automatically identify the age and nationality of the user and limit the graphic effects based on local laws of the user.

"What's fun about this game?" Sun Jiao scrolled with her finger as she worked on her equipment.

Jiang Chen didn't need to ask as he knew she must've put the ten stars god weapon into her inventory.

A green light was cast out as godly equipment, the Armor of the Elf Queen, was donned by Sun Jiao.

This equipment perfectly demonstrated the idea of "saving clothes for the country." Only a few metal plates covered the private area and most of her skin was exposed under a thin veil.

Seeing that there was no one around, Sun Jiao didn't consider whether the equipment that resembled lingerie was embarrassing or not, but she teased Jiang Chen with her 36Gs.

Looking at the naughty Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen scanned the tightly wrapped clothes in front of her chest.

"Did you drag the chest size up to the max?"

Sun Jiao, who had her secret exposed, didn't even blush as she rolled her eyes.

"I don't believe you didn't drag your thing to the max."

To be honest, Jiang Chen hadn't even thought about it. He allowed the system to replicate his look when he created his character.

Sun Jiao reminded him that in the virtual world, he could be a bit bigger.

His finger drew in the air as the indescribable part began to bulk at an unbelievable speed. Jiang Chen had a smirk on his face.

"Why don't you test it out?"

Chapter 367: Recently at the Camp

The area inside the camp walls more than doubled and extended from outside the square to the bus stop. The four corners of the camp had patrol towers ten meters high. Each of the towers was equipped with four 20mm cannons. The large caliber stationary machinegun could not only easily rip Death Claw's armor, but it could even do damage to Roshan's high-density fat. Of course, the machinegun was primarily targeted towards the Roshan, since the Death Claw was limited in number and hard to hit, while the Roshan could bite with eyes closed.

Compared to when Jiang Chen left, the changes inside the base were also astonishing.

The tent area was messy as the ghetto was removed and replaced by rows of concrete apartment buildings. Because of the improvements in living conditions, the mood of the fallout shelter residents was more pleasant - at least few people had despair on their faces while walking on the streets.

Based on the directions Jiang Chen gave before he left, Xu Lu built another lab on the surface. However, due to lack of experimental equipment, the lab on the surface couldn't be put into service and most of the experiments were still conducted underground.

Jiang Chen didn't have to wait too long before Wang Zhaowu and Xu Lu came to greet him.

After some catching up, Jiang Chen began to ask about the status of the camp.

"… The number of stationed troops increased from 80 to 200. To adjust for the lack of personnel, a new drone control terminal was established in the camp with an attack fleet of 400 drones being deployed." Wang Zhaowu reported the defense status of the base.

"Have there been any security concerns?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"The activity of the zombies from Wanghai is increasing. Also, mutants are becoming more active. Last month, there was an incident where a Death Claw attack caused 14 casualties…" Wang Zhaowu lowered his head in guilt.

An incident like this occurring was completely his fault. The Songjiang area didn't have any Death Claw nests, so no Death Claw should've been active in the area - this was almost common sense to the Wanghai survivors. It was enough of a coincidence that Jiang Chen encountered a Mother of Death Claw last time, but no one expected that another Death Claw would be active in the area.

"Raise your head, Death Claw attacks weren't your fault. Your responsibility is to react and handle this type of emergency situation. But from what I see, you are doing very well." Jiang Chen scanned the walls surrounding the base.

Wang Zhaowu raised his head and looked sincerely at Jiang Chen.

"Also, do you have any more intel from the last explosion at the camp?"

Jiang Chen had a sense that the death of the elder man and the Golden Apple might be connected somehow.

"Not for the time being, but we found a digitalized human body on the adjacent block. While there was no direct evidence linking him and the explosion, based on the time of destruction, the body was destroyed on the day of the explosion," Wang Zhaowu said.

[Digitalized human?]

A frown appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

"Do you have pictures?"

Wang Zhaowu nodded, brought out an image from his EP and passed it to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen's pupils gazed at the distinct figure.

[Lin Chaoen.]

Although the face was barely recognizable, from the remaining few facial traits, Jiang Chen could still recognize his identity.

"We also found a laser sword and a dagger nearby."

"Mhmm, I see." Jiang Chen nodded.

Regarding the mysterious digitalized human with ill-intentions, he currently had no solutions. Even with his body destroyed, he could very possibly revive at some unknown location. The bearded mercenary EP provided some clues, but because of their high firepower, the helicopter couldn't get any closer. While Cheng Weiguo did try to investigate the issue through drones, they were still intercepted.

"Let's put both issues aside. For now, focus on the defense of the camp and ensure the safety of the fallout shelter residents. They are highly-valued experts in different fields. That is all."

"Yes, Sir!" Wang Zhaowu saluted and left.

Then Jiang Chen looked at Xu Lu, "What about the internal affair?"

She smiled with confidence and said, "The research project team has increased from 10 to 17 members. The research results include four sub-projects related to T-4 power armor, 20mm transportable cannon, Tiger II, and improved nutrient supply."

"Tiger II is completed?" Jiang Chen was shocked.

"Mhmm. Since it was limited by the lack of raw materials, the test model could not be produced. But the researchers built a mathematical model to verify the combat ability of this Tiger model."

"Perfect! Where's the lead for this project?" Jiang Chen was jubilant.

"Inside the fallout shelter. Do you want me to call him up?" Xu Lu said.

"No need, I have to go down anyways." Jiang Chen waved his hand.

"Anything else I can help you with?" Xu Lu said.

"N…. Hmm, take me to the basement."

"Roger," Xu Lu said respectfully.

It was already approaching June, but the basement was still cold and damp.

The guard opened the metal gate for Jiang Chen and he waited outside with Xu Lu.

Jiang Chen wavered in front of the door, but he still walked in.

Han Junhua raised her head and looked peacefully at Jiang Chen.

"… Are you going to surrender?"

No response.

With eyes as composed as still water, she made Jiang Chen frustrated.

How could one person be stubborn to this extent?

An evil thought flashed through his head, but he took a deep breath and restrained his desires. The longer he stayed in the apocalypse, the more blurry his boundaries became. Since he had just come back, however, rationality won this battle.

"I hope you seriously reconsider."

Jiang Chen gave her a long, meaningful look and left the basement.

With the closing of the metal door, Han Junhua felt relieved.

Although she didn't know why he didn't do anything this time, to her, it was a relief.

Chapter 368: Tiger II

Jiang Chen took the elevator down to the fallout shelter. Just as he was about to send the nutrient supply sample to Wang Fangpin and look at the results of the Tiger II project team, he happened to encounter the two people he was looking for in front of the lab.

They seemed to be arguing over something.

"Bring in X1 bacteria inside the fallout shelter?! Are you crazy??!" Tiger II's project lead Fang Wei shouted at Wang Fangpin.

X1 bacteria controlled the zombies.

"This is for experimentation, for science! And it's not like you haven't been injected with vaccines - why are you so scared?!" With spit droplets all over his face, Wang Fangpin roared.

The two were arguing furiously with each other. If it wasn't for someone bumping into them and the guard standing by, the two "educated" people might erupt into a brawl.

"And then? Create an X3 or X4 immune to the vaccine?" Fang Wei said mockingly.

"Any experiments are designed safely; I only need a small strand of DNA. This is the distrust and bias of life science!"

"X1 bacteria was detected on the touch screen of the quantum computer in the lab - do you think it's safe?" Fang Wei was enraged.

Due to the limited experimentation equipment inside the fallout shelter, there was only one quantum computer capable of handling experiment simulation. The computer was pivotal to research in the 22nd century as a lot of complicated calculation and data modeling could only be completed by it. Although Fishbone base offered a reward of fifty thousand crystals at Sixth Street for anyone who could find an experiment-level quantum computer, unfortunately to this day, no news was heard. Therefore, all 17 research projects had to use the single quantum computer in the fallout shelter.

"Oh my god, which dumb*ss didn't wash their hands before they touched the screen? I will investigate this, but-, ahh, boss." Just as he was about to erupt into another debate with his colleague, Wang Fangpin noticed Jiang Chen standing beside them and immediately shut his mouth.

The people in the hallway dispersed when they saw Jiang Chen.

"What's going on?"

Wang Fangpin cut in front of Fang Wei to explain: "This is what happened. Because the seaweed project has stagnated due to a bottleneck, I asked the guards to collect some cells from the zombies' neck to obtain X1 bacteria."

"X1 bacteria? What does that have to do with the power-generating seaweed?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

"Because X1 bacteria have high photosynthesis efficiency. To increase the conversion of sunlight in the seaweed, one of my researchers proposed a possibility that from the X1 bacteria's nucleus, the DNA of the chloroplast could be implanted into the seaweed."

"What if the seaweed ends up displaying similar characteristics of X1 bacteria?" Fang Wei interrupted with a sneer.

[Fu*k, that's a big problem!]

Fang Wei's words made Jiang Chen jump. He first thought that what Wang Fangpin did was right - research must be done at all costs. But when he remembered that this must be grown in the modern world, he instantly became worried.

He didn't want "Resident Evil" occurring in the modern world.

"That's impossible, you don't understand genetic engineering." Wang Fangpin's face was red and steamy.

"But I understand the risk to technology." Fang Wei immediately countered Wang Fangpin's perspective.

"Enough, stop arguing." Jiang Chen stopped their argument out of annoyance.

The two of them both shut their mouths. But from the way they stared at each other, they were clearly still heated.

After a pause, Jiang Chen looked at Wang Fangpin. "Transplanting DNA strands from X1 bacteria must be stopped now. Just like what Fang Wei said, research must be carefully designed and executed within safe boundaries. Any DNA samples injected with X1 bacteria must be destroyed.

"… Yes," Wang Fangpin said reluctantly.

Seeing as he got the upper hand, the tips of Fang Wei's mouth curved up proudly.

Jiang Chen patted Wang Fangpin's shoulder and used an encouraging tone to comfort him: "It's great to take bold, innovative leaps, but the amount of risk can't be ignored. Also, here is a sample of the mass-produced improved nutrient supply. Take a look to see if it meets quality standards."

Since his research was discarded, it would be natural for him to feel defeated, but Wang Fangpin wasn't narrow-minded. After taking a deep breath, he bounced back from his negative emotions.

"Okay."

He took the nutrient supply from Jiang Chen and left.

Then Jiang Chen turned to Fang Wei.

"Report this type of incident to the camp and in the future, don't try to solve incidents like this privately. You're not a barbarian - what can arguments solve?"

"Yes," Fang Wei replied, abashed.

Internal conflicts could only be solved by remaining neutral. Jiang Chen didn't know any other methods to resolve strained relationships between researchers.

"Let's not talk about this anymore. I heard the Tiger II's design is completed, so I'm here to take a look. Could you show me the model?"

"Of course! Please follow me." When he heard Jiang Chen ask about the research project, Fang Wei immediately became energetic and hastily walked to the computer room.

Jiang Chen followed him and saw the quantum computer.

The quantum computer was similar to the "gaming computer" he picked up at Fallout Shelter 005, but its computation power was clearly a level above the mixed algorithms supercomputer. The machine was the size of a van and connected by all kinds of wires and cords.

Just from its appearance, the quantum computer looked plain from the outside. But considering how carefully Fang Wei worked on it, it was easy to see how valuable this thing was.

Quickly, a blue light surfaced from the hologram device and formed a miniature model of Tiger II.

Different from the previous Tiger, the "Tiger II" was designed with a firing cannon. It had a length of 10.7 meters, a width of 4.1 meters, and the vehicle was rectangular in shape. The turret was located at the back of the vehicle with the barrel parallel to the front armor. It had a weight of 63 tons with the armor composed of A-type steel.

"The Tiger II battlefield positioning is a tank destroyer while also supporting the artillery. Its defense is mainly concentrated in the front and turret armor. In addition to the main cannon, on the top of the turret is a 10mm machine gun to attack targets in close proximity. Of course, words can't reflect its actual combat ability - let me show you."

After a brief explanation about the specifications of Tiger II, Fang Wei pressed another button on the control screen.

The hologram graphics began to change as a dessert appeared underneath the Tiger II. Seven sets of weight-bearing wheels under the steel armor began to rotate as the Tiger moved at full speed in the desert. The environment then changed from desert to city, city to forest.

"This is the model we created based on simulating real physical environments - it realistically replicates the combat ability of the tank. I'll demonstrate the actual combat effectiveness of Tiger II."

With a stunned expression on Jiang Chen's face, Fang Wei proudly pressed a button on the screen.

Giant letters surfaced on the hologram.

[Battle Simulation]

The environment changed again as the Tiger II model reappeared in an empty desert. At the same time, four soldiers with "Python" anti-tank rocket launchers appeared in four different directions.

Four rockets launched simultaneously before they landed on the front, side, back, and turret of Tiger II. Flames engulfed the Tiger II, but when the smoke dispersed, only the back armor of the Tiger II received any kind of damage.

Jiang Chen had witnessed the destructive power of the Python before. The "chief" tank destroyed in the civil war had a massive hole blown in its front armor. Though he never personally experienced the war, he saw the image captured by drones from the rocket striking the target.

"Whether fighting against anti-tank weapons or weapons of other tanks, Tiger II is designed with survivability in mind. Of course, it's not meant to be a tank, so I don't recommend sending it to the front line to fight against the other tanks."

Then Fang Wei demonstrated Tiger II's survivability against other pre-war tanks, and the results were impressive. Other than being unable to defend against the "Wanderer's" particle cannon, most of the tanks' blows could be absorbed by the front armor of the Tiger II.

As for the power of the type-50 electromagnetic cannon, Jiang Chen saw it many times already so Fang Wei didn't need to demonstrate it. Compared to the previous Tiger with its cannon on the truck, only the Tiger II's armor was improved -the cannon itself didn't change.

"What do you think? Are you pleased with the Tiger II?" Fang Wei already knew the answer from Jiang Chen's expression, but he still asked proudly.

Compared to Wang Fangpin's personality, Fang Wei was more extroverted. He had the pride of a scientist when he handled people and things. Although he restrained some of his personality in front of Jiang Chen, the dictator, his personality still subconsciously seeped through.

But Jiang Chen didn't mind. As long as people viewed these traits as a weakness, he could accept it.

"Haha, I'm very pleased. What's the cost?" Jiang Chen smiled in satisfaction.

"Everything is on this list." Fang Wei handed Jiang Chen a graphene card.

The first few were okay, but the long list of rare metals gave Jiang Chen a headache. The lack of supply of the rare metals must be solved. It was still too difficult to fill industrials need by simply recycling.

Chapter 369: The Rare Quantum Computer

When Jiang Chen returned to the surface, he immediately found Xu Lu and explained to her his idea of deepwater mining.

"Deepwater mining?"

Xu Lu looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled. All detectable mines on earth have been mined clean. Even if the mantle beneath the deep sea a few kilometers below still has undeveloped deposits, because of the high cost of mining and the severe damage to the geological environment, the operation would be impossible to conduct.

Also, the existence of space elevators significantly reduced the cost of space. 22nd century's mining operations were all focused on space mining. It was fair to say that deepwater mining was as outdated as coal power generation.

"That's right, deepwater mining technology, preferably an automated system. Is that possible? Jiang Chen asked.

"It is certainly possible since it is an outdated technology… But are there mining deposits along the coast of Wanghai?"

"You don't have to worry about that, as to where to mine, I have my plans." Jiang Chen laughed.

Since Jiang Chen has already spoken, Xu Lu nodded and agreed.

"Okay, I will establish another research team to focus on the replication of the deepwater mining technology. However, currently there is only one quantum computer, if there is an increase in the project's progression, it will slow down the research speed of other projects."

Jiang Chen was lost for a moment as he didn't know what research was currently being conducted and the reliance of the research on quantum computers in the 22nd century. A lot of people born after the war didn't understand either, but since Xu Lu came from before the war, she knew some elements of it.

Acutely, she read the confusion on Jiang Chen face as she concisely explained the reasoning.

Quantum computer's power calculation ability is precise enough to simulate the physical environment at quark level which would allow a lot of experiments to be simulated in a pure math state. It was not only easy to eliminate the possible interference in the experiment, but it could also simulate a chemical reaction that usually takes a few days to complete in less than a second. Of course, that's only one of its functions.

When Xu Lu explained this, Jiang Chen finally understood why all the countries in the modern world dumped endless amount of money in the bottomless pit known as the quantum computer. Once completed, without any exaggeration, the country's research speed would exponentially increase.

While a lot of organizations and countries all bragged about completing the initial stage of the quantum computer, with IBM and Google as the frontrunners, they were still far from the actual quantum computer. Also, although they are using quantum algorithm, the computer's computation speed can't even surpass traditional computers.

Before material science had its monumental breakthrough, any bragging of the development of the quantum computer was merely gloating. Just like without the invention of reinforced concrete, it was impossible for skyscrapers to be built.

"What's the ideal ratio of one quantum computer to project teams?" Jiang Chen gave it some thought and said in an undertone.

"From experience, the ideal ratio would be ten project teams to 1 quantum computer… But right now it is not feasible."

There was only one in the fallout shelter with 17 projects all using it. With an additional project in deepwater mining, crowding would be an understatement.

"Is there production technology for the quantum computer?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Yes, but we don't have the production capability," Xu Lu said with resignation.

It made sense.

Jiang Chen also revealed a smile with deep resignation.

"Okay, since another research team cannot be added, the people on the surface shouldn't do nothing. Although it is hard to complete research without the quantum computer, they can still easily handle wasteland technology retrieving and information gathering."

"Okay." Xu Lu nodded.

…

Rural area, north of Wanghai.

A man walked along the cracked concrete road.

A grey hood covered his face. However, from his torn clothes, he seemed to have experienced an intense battle not long ago.

Because of the war, infrastructure such as bridges was mostly destroyed by the blasts, the Binjiang Bridge that stretched across Long River was broken into several segments, but it didn't bother him.

While throwing a claw out of his right hand, he leaped over unimaginably and agilely swung across.

Both feet stomped onto the ground.

He gathered his balance and let out a breath. After he crossed the river, it would no longer be a part of Wanghai territory.

The screeching howl of Death Claw came from the distance not far behind his back, but it quickly faded.

He attached the claw back on his belt and took off his hood.

"Phew, of course, it won't chase."

The face, it was Lin Chaoen.

A hologram map appeared two inches in front of his eyes, the mechanical eyes slightly turned as he directed his vision to the west.

Wanghai rural area's zombie concentration was extremely scattered, but the density of mutants was relatively high. However, the mutants seemed to be different from the ones inside Wanghai; they didn't seem to demonstrate aggressiveness, at least not to the digitalized human.

A Death Claw was wandering among the shambles, hunting for food. When it passed by Lin Chaoen, it only sniffed its nose before he gave up on the prey made out of metal and silica gel.

A few survivors, hiding in the dark, fearfully looked at the Death Claw pass by Lin Chaoen. They were baffled at the fact that the Death Claw didn't attack this man.

His electronic eyes scanned the survivors, but he chose to ignore them and headed to his destination.

Aside from the two groups of bandits who wasted a few minutes of his time, he had a smooth journey.

He headed west for two hours before he stopped in front of a warehouse.

A man with a cigarette in his mouth walked out of the shadows. Along with him were a few soldiers holding rifles. From the symbol on their uniform, they were from the Crimson Chamber of Commerce.

"You are late." The man with the cigarette blew out a ring of smoke.

"Got caught up along the way," Lin Chaoen apologized.

The man glanced at the blood yet to dry on his face. He didn't ask for the reason as he took out his cigarette from his mouth.

"Then let's start."

Lin Chaoen didn't answer him. He walked around him to the door of the warehouse.

He put his finger on the circle on the warehouse panel.

"Fingerprint identification?" The cigarette man asked.

"Electric signal identification." Lin Chaoen corrected him concisely and backed away a few steps.

The door opened, exposing the items stored in the warehouse.

The man's pupils contracted.

A full warehouse stuffed with B-grade steel. By crude estimation, there were at least 1000 tons.

"It's hard to imagine how rich you are." Greed flashed across the man's eyes.

At the Sixth Street, the price of one ton of B-grade steel was already 100 crystals. 1000 tons would sell for one hundred thousand crystals!

But he thought about what his boss told him as the greed in his mind began to cool down.

"It's the wealth of my father, purchased before the war." He looked at the cigarette man as Lin Chaoen didn't seem to mind the expression change on his face. Then he said emotionally, "Like our agreement, half of the steel's usage will be determined by you. The other half, I need you to follow my demand and produce the parts I need."

After a pause, a noble smile appeared on Lin Chaoen's face.

"Of course, if I don't see what I want to see a month later, some unfortunate events may occur."

That smile was cruel.

Chapter 370: The Second Crusade

Jiang Chen currently had no better ideas in regards to the quantum computer. He could only do his best to collect more information.

Before he left, he said a few words to Xu Lu. He especially emphasized the research of military technology, the technology of the recovery of man-made islands, space elevator, and synchronous space station.

Jiang Chen headed to the Sixth Street by helicopter.

After about ten minutes of flying, the helicopter arrived above the Sixth Street.

With an aerial view, the Sixth Street was indeed different compared to before.

After Chu Nan became the acting general, he immediately tightened the control of the army and established strict rules. He also extended the free trade policy used by the Group of Ten. Even with a military dictatorship, the government didn't use any authority unlawfully. Compared to before, the military government led by him was fairer and more just.

The benefits of his action was evident.

Not only did the survivors from Wanghai city begin to migrate toward the Sixth Street, but even survivors in nearby cities also followed suit. While they increased the labor force, they also brought the technology necessary for the Sixth Street.

The skyscrapers in the Inner Circle and the buildings in the Outer Circle began to look more prosperous. Jiang Chen noticed while being in the air that the underground sewerage entrance was now a part of the newly built wall of the Outer Circle.

Other than that, small camps were surrounding the Sixth Street and scattered across the ruins. The camps were mostly built by businessmen stationed at the Sixth Street. Due to the price of land gradually increasing in the Outer Circle, they built their factories and camps outside of the wall. They paid taxes to the military government, follow the Sixth Street's laws, and accepted protection from the patrolling team.

The small city was like a seed, spreading on to the barren land and bringing forth the birth of a new sprout known as civilization.

The guide on the ground waved his signal sticks, notifying the helicopter it was safe to land.

After coming to a complete stop, Jiang Chen jumped out of the helicopter and saw Chu Nan already waiting at the door.

When the helicopter first appeared on the radar, Chu Nan immediately rushed over.

"I haven't seen you in a while… How long has it been?" Jiang Chen exclaimed to his old friend.

"Half a year already. Do you want to check my place out?" Chu Nan laughed.

Compared to everyone else, he went through the most significant change. Jiang Chen recalled that when he first freed him from the basement, he still had naïveness on his face. But now, he was calm and reserved.

"Of course, it is convenient," Jiang Chen gladly accepted his invitation.

An ordinary looking car stopped in front of them. The driver saluted and opened the door for them.

It was a ten-minute drive before the car arrived at the council building. At the top of the council building was the offices of the military government, and two of the rooms were Chu Nan's home.

Chu Nan warmly invited Jiang Chen inside, and they sat on the sofa. Zhou Xiaoxia in casual clothes walked out to pour water for them. Just by looking at her, the former lone traveler's mental state seemed to have recovered drastically. Although he didn't know if she has regained her memory, at least she didn't live in the misery of the Huizhong Mercenaries anymore.

The two chatted and began to discuss the development of the Sixth Street.

"Because of the influence of economic growth, the total population of the Sixth Street grew from 53,021 last quarter to 82,102 this quarter. The number of factories increased from 37 to 239; the number of registered merchants went up from 301 to 2000, and there are 29 new mercenaries, 105 hunting teams, and 421 scavenger groups."

"These are explosive numbers." Jiang Chen couldn't do anything but praise him.

Chu Nan nodded. "Economic growth primarily benefited from the crusade last fall. The population growth was attributable to economic growth and political stabilization."

"And your wise decisions," Jiang Chen mocked."

"Haha, it is your wise promotion," Chu Nan said humbly.

"Haha, don't give me that, your achievement is your achievement."

Chu Nan didn't reply, but the smile on his face indeed showed proudness.

Chu Nan cleared his throat as he continued, "After the good news, there is the bad news."

"Oh? What's the bad news?"

"The survivors that escaped from Jia city to the Sixth Street brought information from the west. This spring, the mutated humans attacked the Defenders from the Seventh Area. With the funding of the Dusk Church, they captured Jia city. Because of this, the number of trade routes decreased by 60% from Hang city, and the routes entering Wanghai from the southwest were practically blocked."

After he listened to Chu Nan's report, he raised his eyebrows.

Jia city lied in between Wanghai and Hang city. If the mutated humans captured this area, the merchants between Wanghai and Hang must be affected. Compared to the bandits without an organization, the organized mutated humans were obviously more concerning.

"And your opinion is?"

"Organize the second crusade with the goal of freeing Jia," Chu Nan said succinctly.

A rather aggressive proposal.

"The second crusade? What's there to take away from the mutated humans?" Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised by the proposal.

"Do you still remember their equipment?" Chu Nan with a smile looked at Jiang Chen.

Equipment?

Other than heavy machineguns, and the armor on their body…

D-grade steel!

Jiang Chen suddenly realized.

"There are ample amount of steel reserves in the mutated humans' head. There was enough to turn them into armors and treat them as moving fortresses. The last crusade for the source of bacteria brought crystals here and ignited the fire of industrialization. And this crusade will bring the steel that will be necessary to fuel the flame of industrialization.

Needless to say, it was an attractive proposal.

Although Jiang Chen could solve the problem of iron ores, C-grade steel required more than just iron; there was a high requirement for rare metals. The mutated humans' C-grade steel was there and available; it was undoubtedly a good choice.

"When are you planning to act?" Jiang Chen asked in an undertone.

"Departing in the fall, finishing by winter," He answered quickly.

This guy clearly has been planning this as he even had a strategy in place. Departing in the fall and finishing by winter, it would leave an ample amount of time to prepare while finishing the battle before the mutated humans gain the advantage during winter. It was also the perfect timing to eliminate the obstacles before the next spring for the trade routes.

Even excluding economic reasons, the mutated humans were a big concern. Even if the Sixth Street didn't send out a force in the fall, there was no guarantee that they would not invade during the winter.

But it was approaching June, was there enough time to prepare the crusade?

Jiang Chen began to deliberate this in his mind.

Chapter 371: Shell Grains

"If we do fight, what's our probability of winning?"

Jiang Chen thought Chu Nan would give him an accurate response, but he shook his head.

"Hard to say."

"Why?" Jiang Chen asked.

"From the current command structure, even if we mobilize more troops, it would still be hard to win." Chu Nan was straightforward.

"Changing the command structure… Do you have any recommendations?"

Before he headed back last time, Jiang Chen had been thinking about this problem, but he didn't really have an idea. He has established the administrative structure, but the militarily one… To be honest, other than knowing how to play a few strategy games, he was completely illiterate in military knowledge.

"I don't know too much about military command. Didn't you capture a Colonel? She probably knows more than all of us," Chu Nan said.

A glimpse of awkwardness flashed across Jiang Chen's face as his eyes drifted to the side.

"Ahem, she still hasn't given up her loyalty to the organization."

With a slight frown, Chu Nan pondered, "That shouldn't be possible, is there something wrong with the chip… Do you need me to help you?"

"No need, I can take care of it," Jiang Chen quickly rejected the proposal.

Chu Nan took a moment to process before he looked at Jiang Chen dubiously.

"Allow me to be honest, it is not wise to have compassion for the captive. Her knowledge is extremely critical to your cause, I hope general can consider seriously."

"I will." Jiang Chen gave a vague answer, "I will do my best to reform the command structure. Do you have a preparatory plan for the crusade?"

Seeing that Jiang Chen didn't want to continue on the topic, Chu Nan knew it was best to talk about something else, "Of course. First, is military resources. We can use the bank to distribute war bonds in order to fund the war. The payment will be the supplies obtained from the mutated humans. Then we will use the gathered funding to purchase from the major military factories for weapon and ammo, this will inject some life into the stagnate military industry. At the same time, the funding will be used to hire mercenaries and hunting teams, as well as pay for the salary of the soldiers reporting to duty."

"Not a bad plan." Jiang Chen praised.

A war that wouldn't cost a single cent, but would instead make money. Using the citizens' money to pay for the military bill of the Fishbone base, and using the orders to promote economic growth. It was a brilliant move.

"What about the soldiers? How many soldiers can we mobilize?" Jiang Chen continued to ask.

"Approximately 1000 soldiers."

A sufficient number, Jiang Chen nodded, pleased. Including the 1000 slaves Jiang Chen purchased, he will have 2000 soldiers. Once training is completed, the Fishbone base's military personnel will more than double.

"Then the preparation for the crusade will be up to you, if there is nothing else, I will head out now."

Jiang Chen stood up.

Seeing that Jiang Chen was about to leave, Chu Nan also stood up and walked him to the door.

…

Although he still needed to take care of some things, Jiang Chen was not in a rush. It has been more than a year; he wanted to see how developed the small city has become.

After exchanging departing words with Chu Nan, Jiang Chen strolled through the Inner Circle before he headed to the Outer Circle.

Compared to last year, this place did indeed become more prosperous.

The buildings along the side of the streets were all renovated, a lot of them were bulldozed down and rebuilt into three or four story high buildings. Just by standing here, ignoring the yellowish green radiation dust, it didn't feel like the wasteland at all.

Busy crowds; a variety of items. The lone travelers with rifles on their backs negotiated prices with the store owners while soldiers in carbon-nano combat suit maintained the order of the market. Other than the everyday clothes worn by the Wanghai survivors, there occasionally would be someone with drastically different looking clothes. Some were from Luzhou 400 kilometers away, some were from the Wu city, some were even from the North Alliance Area.

While they brought crystals and goods, they also brought missing technology. For example, a useful smart mechanical dog that could carry up to 100 kilograms of supplies in all terrains eased the scavengers from carrying all the garbage. Another example was the silk from a species of mutated spiders. The silk could be produced into the chemical adhesive and used as a replacement to the commonly used adhesive. A lot of private factories already absorbed such technologies and started to manufacture these new goods.

The former ghetto was already bulldozed down with apartment buildings being built. Most were private properties with a small portion owned by the military government as shelters. There were no more malnourished prostitutes. What replaced them were legally operated entertainment centers and sex workers dressed appropriately. There were no more refugees on the street waiting for their death. As long as the person was able-bodied, they could find a job in the Sixth Street.

The difference here compared to one year ago was the idea of civilization.

"Don't miss the opportunity! Fresh shell grains! Take a look!"

A merchant's shouting drew Jiang Chen's attention.

A not-so-spacious store was crowded with people. Two mercenary-looking workers were packaging the grains on the scale. The merchant in animal fur shouted while accepting payment from the customer and handing them the bags of shell grain.

"Shell grain?" Jiang Chen looked at the bags of grains in surprise.

He got closer and asked the merchant.

"How much is this?"

"One kilogram for three crystals, no haggling." The merchant didn't recognize Jiang Chen's face, so he must be an outsider.

[It is similar to the price of a bag of instant noodles; slightly cheaper than rice.] Jiang Chen thought.

"Where are these things being transported from?" Jiang Chen asked.

The merchant looked at Jiang Chen cautiously and didn't respond right away. He only said, "Are you going to buy it or not? If you are not, then move."

Jiang Chen didn't mind his rudeness as he took out three grain-sized crystals and threw it in the merchant's hand.

"Give me one kilogram."

When the merchant saw the crystals, a smile quickly appeared on his face as he handed him a bag of shell grains with both of his hands.

With the bag of shell grains in his hand, Jiang Chen stood there for a while before he walked to the warehouse area.

When he arrived, Zhao Chenwu had been waiting at the door for a while. Beside him was another person, Hu Youde from the giant pit.

Hu Youde's eyes lit up when he saw Jiang Chen and quickly went up to greet him.

"Mr. Jiang, we meet again. I brought the slaves you wanted."

"Where are they?" Jiang Chen looked around. There was no one else in sight.

"Ahem, of course, it is not here. Slave business is usually done at the shelter outside of the wall. It is a rule set by you," Zhao Chenwu walked up and explained to Jiang Chen.

Could be a rule established by Chu Nan. Jiang Chen didn't know.

Chapter 372: Mining Resources Deposition Map

The three came to the slave trade area at the Outer Circle. After Jiang Chen paid the twenty thousand crystals, the one thousand slaves were transferred under his name. Escorted by Fishbone soldiers, the slaves in shredded clothes walked in the direction of the underground tunnel.

They will be brought to the Fishbone base and receive three months of military training. If they successfully pass, they will be promoted to lower citizen. For the people that can't pass, they will be transported to the colonies for production work.

Hu Youde gave an elaborative bow after he received the crystals from Jiang Chen and then left with his back hunched.

"I bought something from a store at the Sixth Street… Do you know where these came from?" After he dragged Zhao Chenwu to the side, Jiang Chen took out the bag of shell grains.

"Shell grains? I know about this. It was not until my trade fleet left the province of Suhang did I realize the wasteland was far bigger than we have imagined. In Jinchu land 600 kilometers away, the survivors there all grow these types of crops. Only recently did these crops arrive here." Zhao Chenwu stared at the bullet shell sized grains as he forced a smile.

"How's the production quantity of these?" Jiang Chen asked in an undertone.

"The production quantity is substantial, but there is a strict requirement for soil quality. Only soil with both radiation and contamination below 20 could be used. Thus no soil in Wanghai fits this condition. Even in Jinchu, there is not a lot of land that can produce this crop. Although the plantation tower can grow this, the cost would be high.

Zhao Chenwu paused and grabbed a few grains out of the bag.

"The starch of this type of shell grain possess a few types of special plant proteins because of its compact structure. If it were cooked into rice, usually the outside would be overcooked, but the inside would still be undercooked. Therefore, this type of shell grain would usually be used to make flour and then mixed with a special type of butter produced by mutant meat to make bread or cookie, or even alcohol. My trade fleet saw those in Wu city. Of course, when I saw that they could produce food… To be honest, I was surprised. I originally thought that only the Northern Area Alliance and some of the fallout shelters could produce food, but somehow people managed to discover an edible mutated crop."

Radiation brought too many surprises to this land. Similar to no one knowing what monsters would walk out from the nuclear pit, no one knows what treasures are hidden inside. When the plants from the old world could no longer grow on this piece of soil, new plants of the new world replaced them and prospered.

"Would this type of mutated plant not accumulate toxins?" Jiang Chen was confused.

In his impression, the reason why most of the plants on the wasteland land could not be used was due to the toxins in the soil accumulating in the plant itself. It was the reason why mutated fruits were not edible and could only be used as ingredients for nutrient supplies.

"The shell grain is unique. The toxins are accumulated in the shell of the grain so it can be edible without throwing it into the organic converter." Zhao Chenwu let out a sigh.

This was not good news. With the crop flowing into Wanghai, it would impact the monopoly that the Fishbone base and Zhao corporation have in the food business. Although the taste was nowhere comparable to rice, for the poor that could not afford rice, it was a good substitute.

Seeing that Jiang Chen was silent, Zhao Chenwu proposed.

"I recommended Chu Nan increase the tax on shell grains."

"Oh? His response was?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Free trade." Zhao Chenwu shrugged helplessly.

"He has the same idea as me."

"Okay, since this is your business." Zhao Chenwu saw that Jiang Chen was not moved, sighed, and didn't insist.

Protectionism was meaningless other than making the poor unable to afford the top grain, even if they didn't eat this, it was unlikely they would purchase the food they couldn't afford anyway.

Subjectively speaking, the shell grains existing in the Sixth Street would be helpful in boosting the population. Only with enough food could it feed more people. From a long-term perspective, its entry is more beneficial.

…

After he departed with Zhao Chenwu, it was getting late. Therefore, Jiang Chen decided to stay the night at Paradise Island hotel.

The next morning, Jiang Chen took the helicopter back to the Fishbone base.

One thousand slaves stood at the square in front of the community center, under the statue of the Mother of Death Claw. The slaves' clothes were all replaced with Fishbone's uniform. Although they were not at ease with what was happening, they didn't have room to resist with a rifle pointed towards them.

Cheng Weiguo was on top of the temporarily installed podium and was lecturing the new recruits. He then announced the rules of the Fishbone base as well as the training plan for the next three months.

Jiang Chen avoided the square and returned to the mansion before he went to Yao Yao's room.

The bedroom door was open when he walked in. The loli was working on a mechanical helmet.

"Ahh, big brother is back, is there something you need me for?" Yao Yao's eyes immediately lit up with stars when she noticed Jiang Chen. She took off her welding mask and turned around in joy.

Her thin legs dangled on the side of the chair as they matched perfectly with her pink dress.

"Mhmm, there is something. What is this?" Jiang Chen rubbed her head.

"A brainwave signal converter device. If sister Xiaorou could put it on, she could walk without a wheelchair," Yao Yao's large eyes as she said in happiness.

"Really? Then thank you Yao Yao."

With a shy blush on her face, Yao Yao smiled. "It is all Lin Lin's work, I only worked on the database and chip processing."

Lin Lin? He didn't think she would care so much for other people. Jiang Chen was delighted by the thought.

"Big brother has something that Yao Yao can help with?" Yao Yao blinked her crystal-like eyes as she scanned Jiang Chen's face.

"Mhmm. Sun Jiao copied the library's database to your place right? Could you search for me if there are mining resources deposition maps in there."

"Mining resources deposition maps? Let me look for them."

The white stocking covered feet was just long enough to reach the slippers on the floor. Yao Yao slid her chair to the other computer table as she rapidly typed on the screen. A blue loading bar appeared in the middle.

Half a minute later, 37 search results popped up.

Jiang Chen stood behind her as he confirmed map by map, but he didn't see anything he wanted.

"Why are these all production output data… No specific deposition information?" Jiang Chen forced a smile.

"… Sorry, I didn't manage to help you." Yao Yao lowered her head in disappointment.

"No, it is not Yao Yao's fault. Perhaps this geological information is too sensitive and not recorded in the city library's database," Jiang Chen comforted her.

It made sense. How would these key information appear in a library open to all everyone?

"…if it is not in the library, would it be at the Wanghai Geology Ministry?" Yao Yao suggested. She didn't want to just give up.

Ministry of? That's a good idea.

"Could your computer search for the location of it?"

The map on the EP was only an aerial map. It could only recognize stations, airports, hospital or other prominent landmarks.

"No problem, leave it up to Yao Yao! The library's database has city maps from before the war… Here it is." As she said this, Yao Yao already dragged out the map and presented it in front of Jiang Chen.

"On the outskirt of the city center?"

Jiang Chen with a frown stared at the red dot on the map.

Chapter 373: Airborne

The helicopter engine roared.

Sitting in the cabin, Jiang Chen conducted a final check of the equipment on him. He was wearing the new sample model of the T-4 power armor.

Pitch black painting and thick front armor. The armor renowned for its defense looked a lot more reliable than the T-3.

"Weapon system, functional, power system, functional…"

Lights flashed as Jiang Chen scanned each of the modules of the power armor. Although there were some differences to the operating system compared to the T-3, the look remained mostly the same.

The cursor in his field vision moved with the focal point of his pupils. After he confirmed that all systems were operational, Jiang Chen grinned at the T-3 across from him.

Of course, throw the metal box, he knew she couldn't see him.

"Are you a kid?" Sun Jiao mocked.

"Eh?"

"Remember to close your communication channel next time you chuckle like that," Sun Jiao, without any consideration of his dignity, continued to mock him.

Yao Yao beside Jiang Chen giggled discreetly while covering her mouth. She was not in a power armor but had an earphone attached to her mouth; she could obviously hear their conversation.

Zhao Gang in a carbon nano suit had a Ghost Sniper Rifle in his hand. He sat there without saying a word. From the not-so-expressive face, Jiang Chen couldn't determine if he had no reaction or was trying hard not to laugh.

As to the two other soldiers in power armor, Jiang Chen guessed they didn't dare to laugh.

"Yao Yao put on the protective suit," Sun Jiao reminded her.

They were about to enter the high radiation zone.

"Mhmm." Yao Yao obediently took out the full grey body protective suit and stepped inside.

The mission was simple, airdrop at the Ministry of Geology and retreat by helicopter.

Combat units: four power armors, one sniper, and one hacker.

To conduct a mission in the zombie concentrated city center, there was no use in having an advantage in numbers. Unless an army was sent, there was no way you could outnumber the zombies. Of course, there was no point to do that just for a resource deposition map.

Because the helicopter was equipped with the Type-50 electromagnetic cannon, not including the pilots, it could only transport a maximum of six power armors. Because the T-4s weighed nearly double the T-3s, they barely managed to squeeze in four people.

With the consideration that they could encounter a Death Claw or other problematic mutants, the people executing the mission must have strong combat ability.

However, while the Fishbone base had a lot of soldiers, most of them were slaves before. They did receive training, but their training was mostly just normal combat. Qingpu's survivors were all experienced hunters capable of hunting mutants, but Jiang Chen never allowed them to learn how to operate a power armor.

Based on the information security level of the Ministry of Geology, Yao Yao must follow them. She was young, but her gift in programming was not bad to begin with. After a year of extensive studying, no one had better skills than her in the entire base.

Sun Jiao disagreed with Jiang Chen coming along as she stated that she would protect Yao Yao, just like when they robbed the vault together. Nonetheless, Jiang Chen was still worried as it was near the city center. The danger level was nowhere comparable with the banks at Qingpu, so he insisted on going with them.

"Arriving at the target location," The pilot's voice sounded in the public channel.

"I am the first post."

Zhao Gang stood up, grabbed the descending jetpack on his back, and walked to the hatch.

The hatch opened as turbulence flooded in.

Yao Yao tightly held onto Jiang Chen's hand and narrowed her adorable eyes.

Zhang Gang bumped fist with the gunner inside the hatch and then jumped down without hesitation.

He landed on a skyscraper a thousand meter away from the Ministry of Geology to provide sniping support while guiding the cannon.

The hatch door didn't close; the helicopter moved forward another one thousand meters before it hovered over their destination.

"Prepare to depart," Jiang Chen spoke in the public channel, then squeezed Yao Yao's hand, and walked to the hatch.

"First time parachuting?" Sun Jiao spoke into the private channel.

"I have tried countless times in the virtual reality training chamber."

Jiang Chen grinned, and then followed the person in front of him, jumping from a thousand meters above ground.

The chilling wind swept across the surface of the armor, the turbulence screeched beside his ears.

Different from the training inside the virtual reality chamber, there was no loading here, there was no opportunity to redo once failed.

"Height 900 meters." Sun Jiao's calm voice transmitted from the public channel.

"700 meters-"

"500 meters."

"Open the descending device."

At the same time, Jiang Chen activated the turbine engines behind him.

The eerie blue flame burst out as the drag force quickly halted the rapid downfall of the power armor. The scenery on the ground gradually increased in size. Through the helmet, Jiang Chen already saw the street tightly packed with zombies.

The airport was nearby, and before the war, it was a high traffic area. The dead bodies not cleaned up were the culture of X1 bacteria.

The engine output was at its maximum. Jiang Chen adjusted his landing position with both feet directed at the ground.

Boom!

Concrete dust scattered everywhere as two giant pits appeared on the concrete ground.

The zombies' blank stares moved in their direction as their eyes began to turn a bloodthirsty red. The daytime was not its home field, but this didn't mean they will let the living creature beside their mouths escape.

Without stopping, Jiang Chen immediately raised his left leg and swept away the zombies leaping at him like a hammer.

The trident revolving machine guns rotated as bullets splashed out like raindrops. It took down a giant area of zombies.

At the same time, the other power armors all landed.

"Enter the Ministry of Geology," as soon as she gained footing, Sun Jiao immediately ordered.

"Understood."

Three replies echoed as the four quickly moved towards the building.

Because it was located at the outskirt of the city center, they were uncertain about the stability of the building. The power armor's landing location, therefore, couldn't be chosen on the roof of the building. The threat of a thrower and an acid bug that possessed long-range threat meant that the helicopters couldn't be too close to the ground, so the four could only drop onto the street.

They dashed into the door. Jiang Chen who was responsible for the securing the backend kicked a few zombies dashing at him to the other side of the street. Then he fired his machine gun at the waves of zombies.

At the same time, a thousand meter away.

Zhao Gang crawled onto the roof with the crosshairs at the zombies flooding towards the Ministry of Geology.

In the scope, a three meters high thrower waved its feeble legs, and giant stomach stumbled towards the door before it threw the infant zombie in its hand.

The infant sized zombie was aimed directly at Jiang Chen, but it was dissected into several parts by a bullet.

"Distance 1100 meters."

Zhao Gang took a deep breath and pressed the trigger.

Bang-!

Over 1100 meters in the distance, the sniper rifle bullet penetrated the neck of the thrower without any doubt.

The black blood splattered everywhere, and the thrower immediately died. At the same time, its stomach blew up as a bunch of zombie infants crawled out and let out terrifying screams.

It was the monster that was the most difficult to deal with in the city center. The infant zombies would expand rapidly when it approached its target. Then, it would blow up and emit highly concentrated zombie bacteria. Although these type of attacks were ineffective against the power armor that defended against nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, it was the most difficult to deal with to the rather slow infantries.

Not far away in the distance, a few more throwers were moving towards the Ministry of Geology. Even two Roshans were slowly moving in their direction.

"Should be ready?"

When he saw Jiang Chen's hand signal, Zhao Gang understood. He aimed the crosshair at the waves of zombies as he flipped open the laser mark switch.

"10 kilograms mass bomb loaded."

"Fire-"

Followed by the rumble that broke through the sound barrier, one bomb landed from the sky and smashed into the middle of the zombies.

Boom-!

The shells scattered as it completely swept the area.

When the dust faded, Jiang Chen and the team already retreated into the building.

The zombies who had lost the target roared for a moment longer before they returned to their slowness.

"Direct hit, nice shot." Zhao Gang grinned and closed the laser marker.

Just like the plan, this mission was not difficult.

Chapter 374: Underground Data Center

Using the stairs, Jiang Chen headed up to the roof and placed the airdrop marker on a relatively flat piece of ground.

After about fifteen minutes, Yao Yao drifted down from the air with the descending jetpack in a trial of blue flames.

It was her first time parachuting. When the girl landed, her body was still tensed up. Not until Jiang Chen took off her jetpack did her pale face gain back some life.

Sun Jiao observed the zombies returning to peace on the street. "Ok, all is ready, prepare for action," she ordered in the public channel as she took out her tactical rifle.

"Roger."

Including Jiang Chen, the three all took out their weapons, locked and loaded.

"Don't be afraid, follow me." Jiang Chen comforted the girl in the private channel.

"Mhmm!"

Yao Yao's face turned slightly red as she followed behind Jiang Chen.

The excessive protection and the happiness it brought almost made her dizzy. Although it was not the first time she was out executing a mission, it was her first time with Jiang Chen.

The space inside the Ministry of Geology was spacious, and the transparent rotating stairs headed deep into the ground. From the design of the stairs alone, Jiang Chen felt the deep ill intention of the designer. It was a statement against people who feared height. But what he didn't know was that these stairs were made mostly for decoration purposes. In the highly digitalized 22nd century, rarely did people choose such an outdated method to move.

The building design extending down was standard in the 22nd century. To stuff in the ten billion people in PAC while retaining arable land, it was a must choice for history to expand downwards. The wealthy people lived in the skyscrapers, and the poor lived at the base of it. This was the culture before the war.

Yao Yao without combat ability stayed in the middle with Jiang Chen while a T-4 soldier in front scouted for any dangers in the dark building.

"Why are there no zombies inside this type of building?" Jiang Chen asked Sun Jiao in the private channel.

Since they were in the office area, there should be a lot of bodies here.

"Two possibilities. The people here before the war evacuated on time, or it may be a mutant nest." Sun Jiao scanned the dark zone with her tactical flashlight.

"Which possibility do you lean towards?"

"Nobody, should be the first?" Jiang Chen was unsure.

"Why a questioning tone?"

"Because there is no absolute in the wasteland. After being peaceful for so long… I feel like my instinct is a bit dull." Sun Jiao sighed.

Jiang Chen didn't respond as he was even more alert than before. The mechanical crosshair moved to every corner where danger could arise.

For some reason, the underground without a bottom made him feel unsettled.

15th floor underground.

When they stepped down the last stair, the five finally came to the bottom. Jiang Chen opened the map to confirm the location of the data center before he walked to the hallway near the wall.

"Dam*it, what is this?" A soldier poked the egg on the wall with his muzzle as he cursed in a small voice.

"Don't touch anything!"

Sun Jiao shouted in the public channel as the soldier immediately moved back.

"What is that?" Directing a flashlight towards it, Jiang Chen stopped as he looked at the watermelon-sized eggs along the wall.

Sun Jiao went up and examined it carefully.

"I don't know… I have never seen this before. The database in the EP doesn't show anything yet. Should we collect some for sampling?"

Jiang Chen scanned the disgusting eggs that gave him goosebumps.

"Do it when we leave." If the eggs are connected to the mother somehow, damaging it would create unnecessary uncertainties.

Yao Yao looked around anxiously. For some reason, she had an ominous feeling.

Feeling Yao Yao's unease, Jiang Chen comforted her in a soft voice.

"Don't be afraid, I will protect you."

"Mhmm… I heard a weird voice."

"Voice?"

Jiang Chen frowned, he didn't hear anything.

Yao Yao said in a low voice, "It's a weird kind of noise. Perhaps it's just my illusion, don't worry."

Illusion?

Jiang Chen hesitantly looked down the hall. Since they were already there, it was not his style to return empty-handed.

The five people continued to move, with Jiang Chen leading. After the discovery of the eggs of an unknown creature, no one let their guard down anymore as they used 200% of their focus and cautiously looked out for any potential threats.

Yao Yao still tightly followed behind Jiang Chen.

Although the cold armor didn't feel like his warm temperature, the close distance made her feel more at ease.

"Fu*k, the eggs are everywhere." A soldier cursed out as his rifle pointed at the glass down the hall. The flashlight light up the entire room as the eggs filled the space.

"Try not to alert them, finish as soon as we can," Jiang Chen ordered.

"Yes!"

After they passed through the last door, they finally reached the data center.

Inside the circular room was four screens that pointed in each direction. On the outskirt of the room were computers that stopped functioning. Along the arc-shaped dome, light filtered through. Paper documents and broken touchscreen were scattered everywhere on the floor. Together with the dust. it made a crunching sound when stepped on.

Yao Yao walked into the room as she gently put her hand on her left chest.

The sound was getting closer.

For some reason, the faint static noise made her feel comfortable.

She wanted to say something, but she clenched her teeth and resisted the temptation. Although she enjoyed Jiang Chen's care for her, subconsciously she didn't want him to treat her as a child that must be protected.

Two soldiers guarded the door, Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao brought Yao Yao forward.

Sun Jiao took out the backup crystal fuel rod and inserted it into the backup power slot of the server. The faint sound of electricity flowing appeared. After many years, the servers finally flashed the light green indicator light.

"Start." Jiang Chen encouragingly looked at Yao Yao.

Yao Yao nodded and walked to the computer.

But at that time, the screens lit up.

A familiar face appeared in the middle of the screens.

"That's surprising, we meet again."

Looking at the completely shocked Jiang Chen, Lin Chaoen sneered.

Chapter 375: We meet again

Yao Yao blankly stared at the person on the screen.

Jiang Chen subtly raised his muzzle, but Lin Chaoen raised his hands, surrendering.

"Don't overreact, are you not going to wait for me to finish?"

"Instinct tells me that it is not words I want to hear." Maintaining his shooting position, Jiang Chen locked right onto him.

Lin Chaoen?

Why would this guy appear here?

"Who is he?" Sun Jiao looked at Lin Chaoen with a frown.

"A robot that always causes trouble for me. Whether it is intentional or not," Jiang Chen said.

"No, no, no, you may have mistaken." Lin Chaoen waved his hands and smiled, "I don't have any intention to cause anyone trouble, or rather, I am your only destination."

"Destination?' Jiang Chen had a dubious smile.

"That's right, nothing is more adaptable than a metallic body in this miserable world. Join us, we'll grant you the perfect body. A body that will never age, and never die." His smile was noble, but it shined the same way as a demon's.

"Just like you?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and laughed.

"Stronger than me." Lin Chaoen's smile was bright.

[Looks like it didn't take much to convince him. Therefore, the Sixth Street will be part of supreme's territory.]

"In your dreams." Jiang Chen laughed.

The smile froze on Lin Chaoen's face.

"Then that's disappointing." Lin Chaoen sighed.

As an intermediate artificial intelligence, he didn't have anger as an emotion. Or rather, even his smile was fake.

As his words died down, a sharp screech came out of the datacenter. Immediately followed by the sound of bubbles bursting.

"What happened!" Sun Jiao's became alerted as she aimed for the door.

The two soldiers raised the revolving machinegun on their left arm and anxiously aimed at the empty hallway.

"Poison teeth spider, an interesting bug."

The door to the side of the hallway opened.

The dense sound of the floor being scratched diffused through. Under the light of the flashlight, spiders the size of a shepherd moved its furry legs and flooded the room to the data center at the end of the hallway.

"Fire!" Sun Jiao shouted and first pressed the trigger.

Tatata-!

The sparks from the bullets wavered in the hall and shredded the spiders into pieces. Flesh could not stand the test of machineguns, but machineguns could not sever the flow of the water. The endless amount of spiders like turbulent floods flowed forward, crushing the dead bodies before them.

Dam*mit! Too many!

Sun Jiao gritted her teeth; her finger locked on the trigger.

At the same time, a grenade was launched, and fire exploded inside the hallway.

Dark green blood and severed corpses splattered onto the two soldiers' faces.

Four more grenades were launched as flame filled up the enclosed space.

After the flame dispersed, the burning smell of flesh filled up the entire hallway. Traces of unextinguished flames still remained on the ground, but not a simple, complete Poison Teeth Spider could be found.

Burning grenade, the terminator of all carbon-based creatures.

"When did robots learn how to breed bugs?' Jiang Chen put down the gun and looked at Lin Chaoen in disgust.

Although he knew that with the mask of the power armor, Lin Chaoen could not see his disgust.

"I only closed the subwoofer suppresser that prevented these little things from breaking their egg. If you have time, why don't you give the disgusting but cute pets a new name? Since as intermediate artificial intelligence, I don't have any creativity," Lin Chaoen said courteously.

"Voice… disappeared." Yao Yao released her hand pressed to her chest and stared at the person on the screen.

Because she spent a lot of time on electronic devices, she was sensitive to this type of noise.

"That's right, disappeared." Lin Chaoen gently smiled," Therefore, it should come out too."

The ground began to tremble as a series of sharp glass shattering noises came from the room across the hallway, but then quickly faded.

"What is it?" Jiang Chen was concerned.

Shining a light in that direction resulted in emptiness.

"Are you really not going to consider surrendering? If you are willing to receive the salvation of the supreme, I may consider sparing you." Lin Chaoen smiled.

"I'm willing." Jiang Chen's face never blushed when he lied.

"There is a special medicine on the table at the corner. Although it is not prepared for you, drink it-"

"In your dreams." Jiang Chen lifted the rifle and unleashed the bullets.

The screens shattered.

"Yao Yao, extract the data." Jiang Chen ordered calmly.

"Ah, ah! Okay." Yao Yao recovered from the shock as she returned to the screen and her fingers rapidly moved between the keys.

"Sun Jiao, deploy the drones."

"Okay!"

The hummingbird drones were released from the back storage into the hallway.

After it stabilized its position in the air, the drone flew to the hallway across dein them as it shared the image from its camera to the team.

But the instant the drone crossed the door, Jiang Chen saw an angry face.

The deathly silk covered every inch of the ceiling as the giant body filled up the entire room. Its terrifying teeth were like manes as they densely filled the mouth.

A giant spider.

The thick hair and teeth gave Jiang Chen a daunting chill down his spine.

Although he didn't know how to read the expression of a spider, it must be furious right now since he probably just saw them kill all of its children. He then recollected the subwoofer suppressor that Lin Chaoen mentioned as he tried to figure out the relationship between Lin Chaoen and the spider.

For some reason, Lin Chaoen breeded these spider eggs and then used the subwoofer suppressor to suppress the mother spider at a specific location. While Jiang Chen didn't know why he bred these spiders, it must not be for a friendly purpose.

The drone suddenly stopped.

Like a mosquito stuck in a spider web, it was glued tight.

Then a black shadow cut through before the picture turned into a static white.

"What are we going to do?" Sun Jiao asked on the private channel.

[With this type of monster, the power armor is probably not enough.]

Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao.

The girl was completely calm. Her fingers rapidly moved between the screens, hacking the security software.

"The data is extracted!" It was a young but affirmative voice.

"Could the subwoofer suppressor be activated?" Jiang Chen asked.

"… No, it's already deleted." Yao Yao desperately tried to recover the deleted the program, but the opponent completely removed any traces of it.

"Take the USB and get ready to leave," Jiang Chen reloaded and ordered.

"But the outside-" Sun Jiao reminded him.

"Helicopter, fire at the Ministry of Geology!" He connected himself to the pilot channel and immediately ordered.

Chapter 376: Retreat

Fire at the Ministry of Geology?

But aren't they inside?

The helicopter crew only hesitated for two seconds before they executed the mission.

As knights of the Fishbone base, the leader's order is absolute.

"Target locked."

"Fire."

The gunner pressed the trigger.

Buzz-!

The 10 kilograms bomb penetrated through the three-floor high dome. The shattered concrete crumbled like an avalanche and dropped to the lower underground level. The explosion exposed the deep underground structure underneath.

Rocks and debris rained down and penetrated the web and hit the giant spider on the back. Unfortunately, the slightly off-target bomb got stuck on the wall of the B12 level and didn't directly hit the giant spider, the collapsed concrete debris still destroyed the spider web and pinned the massive beast to the bottom floor.

"Siiiiiiii!"

The pained screech came from across the hall. The hurt spider moved its fearsome legs in an attempt to stand up.

"Are you crazy, if this building collapses, we might-" Sun Jiao shouted.

Jiang Chen continued to order, "Continue to fire."

Boom-!

The dust caused by the explosion covered the entire hallway. Jiang Chen covered Yao Yao with his arms. At the same time, the rumbling dust swept through the hallway and inside the data center. The falling rocks made a series of clanking sound on the power armor of the two soldiers.

There was no more noise from the other side; the spider died.

Sun Jiao dusted off the rifle and gave Jiang Chen a hard stare.

"You almost buried us."

"I didn't, did I?" Jiang Chen shrugged innocently.

Yao Yao hidden behind Jiang Chen peeked her head out, quivering.

"It's okay now," Jiang Chen rubbed Yao Yao's head as he said lightly.

"Woooo-" But the loli docked down covering her head.

"Fool, your hands are full of dust," Sun Jiao mocked in the private channel.

Jiang Chen had to retract his hand awkwardly.

[This girl is getting more naughty, I'll teach her a lesson when we go back.]

Jiang Chen stared back at Sun Jiao.

Though with the mask in between, they couldn't see each other's expression.

…

He ordered the soldiers to take samples of the giant spider as well as the remaining spider eggs, then Jiang Chen ordered the retreat.

Although the majority of the structure of the surface had collapsed, fortunately, the collapsed concrete blocks didn't completely drop underground to bury the team alive.

The rotating stair was destroyed, Sun Jiao hugged Yao Yao, and the four power armors started to ascend with the blue trail of flames.

It incident didn't alert the zombies, but the four giant metal suits attracted the attention of the throwers. This type of mutated zombie has an acute vision and a natural anti-air unit. It dragged their infant zombies and threw it at Sun Jiao near the shambles.

Jiang Chen saw this and took out his tactical rifle instantly. With his right hand holding the barrel, he swung the rifle like a baseball bat at the infant zombie.

Follow by a stuffed sound; the barrel hit the zombie infant back into the air.

It exploded back to where the zombies were.

"Wow, this thing's explosive damage is high." Jiang Chen was caught off guard.

"Thanks." Sun Jiao held the quivering Yao Yao as she playfully gave him a flirty look that he couldn't see.

"Thank me when we go back." Jiang Chen was aiming at the frightening thrower.

Bang-!

A sniper bullet flew by and crushed its neck and managed to secure the kill before Jiang Chen could.

Then a few more shots flew from the distance and broke the neck of the throwers that were threatening the team of five.

Realizing what just happened, Jiang Chen gave a thumbs up to the far distance.

The four power armors cut straight through the ruins. After ascending for 300 meters, they boarded the helicopter before taking off to the skyscraper one thousand meters away.

After Zhao Gang boarded, the pilot closed the hatch and returned.

Jiang Chen opened his helmet when they flew out of the high radiation zone and let out a breath.

"Did you bring the USB?"

"Mhmm." Yao Yao nodded.

"Could you transfer the information to my EP?"

"Of course."

The power armor opened from the back as Jiang Chen squeezed out. He attached the nylon hook to the armor, extended his right arm, and put the EP in front of her.

The loli took out the hologram computer and transferred the USB information inside before attaching the cord to Jiang Chen's EP.

Jiang Chen then realized he performed an unnecessary action. If he knew that Yao Yao brought the hologram computer, it would be more convenient to view the data with that. To strive for stability, the screen of the EP was not only small but also without the hologram function. Looking at the world map was inconvenient.

As the major economic city of PAC, the Ministry of Geology at Wanghai had a comprehensive set of information. Not only did it include the global mining deposition map, it even included the discovered deposition on the moon and Mars.

Jiang Chen called out the stats with the hologram computer as he found the location of Pannu Islands in this world.

He filtered the earthquake information and other stats he didn't understand as he selected the mining deposition option.

When he saw the series of dense red dots, Jiang Chen's expression instantly turned joyful.

Like what he expected, there had to be mining depositions under the vast ocean territory of Pannu Islands.

East of Ange Island, the area near New Guinea, happened to be a rich deposition. Specifically in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Extending northeast, about two hundred thousand square kilometers deep of ocean territory contained 17 rich, rare earth depositions. The expected rare metal reserve was 9.8 million tons, which was 1.5 times the amount discovered by Japan in South Bird Island.

Other than rare metals, iron, aluminum, molybdenum, copper, and gold also had an insane amount of depositions.

It could not be described merely as a treasure; it was money raining from the sky.

Jiang Chen wanted to go back now to make Yang Yuan start the preparation of mining to solve the rare metal problem that has been giving him headaches.

Underwater mining was a difficult task with technology level of the 21st century, but it was not a big deal for Jiang Chen. He trusted that the scientists of the 22nd century at the fallout shelter could solve a small problem like this.

Of course, he obviously could not return now.

If he did travel back while being one thousand meters in the sky, he would have to experience freefall the next time he returned.

…

Arrived at the Fishbone base, Jiang Chen calmed down from the excitement.

The underwater mining technology was yet to be finished, so there was no use going back now.

He parked the T-4 power armor in the armory and went to find Wang Qin.

He handed the giant spider and spider egg sample to her as he asked her to send it to camp 27 as soon as possible for testing.

Then, Jiang Chen stopped in front of the community center for a while as a wicked smile appeared on his face.

[Lin Chaoen, playing with me? You really think I can't teach you a lesson?]

Chapter 377: Bombardment

Inside Liuding's radar station, twenty workers in old PAC marine uniforms stared at the screen anxiously.

The middle-aged man with a cap on gravely watched the red dot on the radar as a trace of the same anxious expression appeared between his eyebrows.

"Did it launch?"

"Launch confirmed." A drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead as the worker closest to the general typed on the screen with shaking fingers as it confirmed the reliability of the signal.

[What did that bit*h Tang Miya do, didn't she say she reached an agreement with that lunatic dictator?] With eyes locked on the red dot ascending, the general cursed the person countless times already.

"The missile is approaching the Troposphere."

The general cursed and took out the phone from his waist.

"Attention Cannon one crew, raise the electromagnetic cannon."

"Roger."

Since the failed mission last year, the heavy electromagnetic pulse cannon were not used for a long time. However, because of the Fishbone base's dangerous act, the cannon was reactivated.

But everyone knew that if a war were to erupt, Liuding would be the eventual loser. Once the Fishbone tank bulldozed the feeble allies and approached the Bohai aircraft carrier, it would only be a matter of time before they sink Liuding.

"The missile reached the stratosphere and had started to turn."

"Landing spot confirmed, the target is Songjiang near the outskirt of the city center."

"Alarm deactivated."

In two short seconds, there was a comical turn of events.

Alarm deactivated? Not target towards Liuding?

The general was shocked.

He thought that the dictator at the west of Wanghai finally couldn't sit around any longer as it was prepared to flash its evil fangs at Liuding. But he didn't expect that the ballistic missile's target was not Liuding or Liuding's allies, instead of an unknown force located in the city center?"

The general processed this for a minute before he ordered.

"… Attention air division, send a helicopter to investigate the target area."

"Roger."

…

Dongfeng-76 (Mimic) ballistic missile was developed and constructed by Jiang Lin from the aerospace department. It first displayed its massive destructibility in the war between humans and the mutated humans. With the help of the fallout shelter, Jiang Lin made further improvements to its design, such as replacing the engine, fuel, and modules, to finally complete the Dongfeng-76 (Mimic) ballistic missile.

The Fishbone base manufactured a total of five and deployed them at low grounds near the rural area to replace the not-so-reliable giant firecracker. Using them to deter the threat of Liuding's massive electromagnetic cannon.

Right now, in front of the launch pad at the Shenxiang colony, southwest of Wanghai, a few missile maintenance workers were conducting the last launching check.

The number five launch pad deployed at Shenxiang received the order from the base leader Jiang Chen and immediately initiated the launch program.

The green indicator light turned on as the target coordinate was inputted into the central control program of the rocket.

"Target coordinate locked."

"Engine ignited."

"Launchpad separated."

"Launch!"

The thick white smoke blew across the street. The six meters high ballistic missile separated with the launch pad and flew towards the sky filled with radiation dust.

The all grey ballistic missile pierced the cloud like a sharp sword.

Then, like a thunderous fireball, it smashed into the ground.

It was the coordinate Jiang Chen obtained from the bearded mercenary, because of their high defense power, Jiang Chen never confirmed if this place had a connection with Lin Chaoen.

But it didn't matter anymore, Lin Chaoen completely and utterly pissed of Jiang Chen.

[Robot? Digitalized human? Whatever your hidden secrets are, go to hell! I will use your base to test my weapon!]

The radar on the apartment detected the ballistic missile, but before the sentry gun could point at the sky, the missile smashed down like a meteor right through the roof and blew in the middle of the apartment building.

The high temperature even melted the concrete. The heat wave mixed with the scattered metal shards and concrete debris exploded the apartment into pieces.

The shockwave of the explosion destroyed the structure of the apartment building.

Five minutes later, two nearby apartment buildings also collapsed.

…

Standing inside the camp 27 command center, Jiang Chen watched the ruins on the screen.

The shockwave of the explosion even made the drone five kilometers away shake.

"Send a ground force to search the area."

"Yes!" Wang Zhaowu saluted and left the office.

Just as Wang Zhaowu left, Xu Lu walked in.

With a smile on her face, Xu Lu opened the tablet in her hand and reported to Jiang Chen, "The sample results are back. The toxin inside the spider egg has a hallucination agent which could cause people to display symptoms such as madness and foaming at the mouth.

"Hallucination agent?' Jiang Chen said with a frown.

Xu Lu nodded and continued.

"Also, based on pharmacological analysis, the toxin's organic components have many similarities to the drug <Happy Time> sold by the merchant with an unknown identity… Based on initial deductions, the spider eggs are the primary ingredient to produce <Happy Time>

Happy time…

[The robot wouldn't need this type of medicine so it would be used for humans. Selling drugs to obtain crystals? Doesn't feel right… Lin Chaoen didn't seem like a merchant.]

And the Dark Red Chamber of Commerce, they seemed to have a special relationship with Lin Chaoen.

Supreme?

Jiang Chen leaned against the chair and fell into deep thought with his eyes closed.

If possible, he didn't want to start a war against forces with no conflict of interest. In the apocalypse, people have a lot of ideas. Including the Dusk practicing the escapist ideology, the PLA attempting to restore the 20th-century power, and the supposedly descendent of PAC – The Northern Alliance Area, as well as the force behind Lin Chaoen that represent supreme… From a pure interest perspective, Fishbone had no direct conflict with them.

For some reason, he suddenly recalled the conversation with Academician Qin.

"The rebirth of civilization must be accompanied by bloody brutality." Jiang Chen muttered his words.

Xu Lu, standing not so far away from the desk, silently awaited his instructions.

At the same time, the phone on the table rang and interrupted Jiang Chen's thoughts.

He picked up as a soldier's face surfaced onto the screen. He saluted to Jiang Chen and reported.

"Liuding helicopter entered the target area."

"Liuding?" Jiang Chen scratched his chin.

One of the reasons for launching the missile was revenge. The other reason being a deterrence for Liuding. Since the Dongfeng-76 was not cheap, using it simply for revenge against the force behind Lin Chaoen was too wasteful.

"Don't mind them, continue to search the target area," Jiang Chen ordered.

"Yes!" The soldier saluted again and ended the communication.

Chapter 378: Mental Commissar

The search result came out soon after and Wang Zhaowu was summarizing and reporting the result to Jiang Chen.

The search team comprised of 30 soldiers along with an armored vehicle and two modified trucks mobilized to the destroyed apartment building at the outskirt of the city center. After two hours of thorough investigation, the search team managed to obtain some valuable information.

From the shambles of the explosion, they found the remains of 20 sentry guns and two radars. The actual number would be much higher, but only those could be confirmed.

Other than that, there was some special production equipment that seemed to be for the production of a particular type of parts. But due to the severity of the damage, the search team could not identify the purpose of the parts. From the mutated fruits used to produce nutrient supply, there were human activities there.

There was another surprise that came out of the investigation. In a collapsed corner, they managed to found a half-damaged quantum computer. From the specification, the quantum computer appeared to be the experiment model. Although they didn't know if they would be able to fix it or not, they still hauled it onto the truck.

The helicopter for Liuding didn't interfere with Fishbone's search, it only hovered from afar and didn't even send anyone down.

The only thing that interfered with the research was the group of zombies that gathered because of the noise as well as a Roshan that happened to wander by.

But just as they were about to retreat, the fleet was attacked by a group of militants with an unknown identity.

The militants mostly used laser weapons and launched a sudden attack on the fleet when they were retreating. But the captain of the search team reacted quickly as he ordered the troops to take cover and fire back.

The crossfire lasted for five minutes. Under the high caliber machine gun's unleashed fire, the search team's firepower was clearly at an advantage. After the militants lost ten something bodies, they quickly dispersed and fleed away.

When Jiang Chen heard that the search team managed to find a quantum computer among the ruins, Jiang Chen immediately meet with the team's captain Zhu Zheng. He personally granted him the knight emblem to honor his contribution to the base.

After sending the clearly astonished new knight away, Jiang Chen then looked for Xu Lu and used her to find the experts in quantum computers at the base to conduct an assessment of the destroyed quantum computer.

Luckily, based on what the expert said, while the hard drive of the quantum computer received severe damage, the most critical processor damage was still within the limit of being fixable. Even with the current technology in the fallout shelter, they could fix the quantum computer.

When he heard the good news, Jiang Chen immediately ordered Xu Lu to gather all resources and prioritize the repair of the quantum computer. For the research teams of the fallout shelter, it had more significant value to them.

Especially the experiment level quantum computer, it was a God-sent gift on the wasteland.

He didn't know Lin Chaoen's base would have this, but regardless, the treasure now belonged to him.

After he delegated the work, Xu Lu took the elder quantum computer expert and left.

Jiang Chen sunk into his chair again and faced the empty office. He took a deep breath and took out the restructure order he had half completed.

"Ahhh… This is more troublesome than I thought."

He threw the document on the table as he rubbed his head out of frustration.

With law experts at the Fishbone base recommending suggestions combined with the political sense he developed during university while being part of controversial forums, he had already organized the rules and laws. It took him three months of work to develop a set of rules that was not too difficult and fitted the society in the apocalypse.

The only tricky thing was a reorganization of the command structure.

Jiang Chen swept the pile of documents to the side and picked up the tablet at the corner.

His finger slid on the tablet before a list of data showed up in front of him.

"1517 soldiers, 1000 recruits, 323 knights… Eh? I already knighted this many person?" Jiang Chen muttered to himself as his finger continued to scroll.

The logistic department leader Wang Qin recorded all the arms' information on this list.

He had no clue at all.

He sighed, got up, and left the office.

…

Jiang Chen pushed open the basement door as he met the defeated female Colonel.

Han Junhua's face was free of expression. Just like a marble sculpture, he could read the defined edge, but he couldn't read any emotional colors.

With the emotionless face in front of him, Jiang Chen lost the ability to speak. What made him feel powerless was not the lack of conversational starters, but the lack of hatred on her face.

That's right, hatred.

Without the ability to hate, there would be no fear. If fear didn't exist, then there would be no compromise.

Jiang Chen began to regret the pointless actions he committed.

In the bright and silent basement, time quietly ticked by.

"Are you just here to see me?" Han Junhua was the first to break the silence."

"I… I just don't know what to say." Jiang Chen used an uncertain voice.

Han Junhua didn't respond, she looked away and seemingly lost interest.

If she had any interest.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen seemed to have understood something.

"I can somewhat feel what you feel."

"Normal people can't." Han Junhua's response was fast.

"The normal state can't." Jiang Chen paused. "Have you heard of genetic vaccines? You must have, people who are injected with it have a chance of developing a special kind of mutation."

"The strand of DNA usually unexpressed?"

"That's right! Hidden genetic code." Jiang Chen finally remembered the name.

"So?' Han Junhua quietly looked at Jiang Chen.

"… Without emotion, it feels hard right?" Jiang Chen asked with a gentle voice.

After he activated his abilities, it was the emptiness of completely removing his emotion from the body. He only experienced it twice, but the feeling would make him feel chilled every time he recalled it.

Han Junhua looked at Jiang Chen in the eyes. "Rather than hard, empty is probably the better word."

"Because PAC doesn't exist anymore, right?"

Not because of her loyalty to PAC, not because of her responsibility, those things vanished the moment she was no longer the leader of the fallout shelter, those things faded away with her duty.

But because that was the entirety of her life.

Not until now did Jiang Chen finally realize this point.

Han Junhua didn't respond directly, but she asked back, "Have you heard of the Mental Commissar
project?"

Jiang Chen shook his head.

"Engrave ideology with electricity, and write the doctrine into the soul," Han Junhua continued.

"No. The Mental Commissar project is targeted at humans, it is known as commander mass production project in the army. To put it in simple terms, it is writing the ideology into the brain like a program. The commander that passed through this project had the absolute right ideology and would not make an error in judgment because of personal emotions in any situation; it would also not bear the burden of responsibility because of the outcome. Normally, we would be used to execute some of the mission that can't be revealed to the world. For example, suppressing separatist, taking out protestors," Han Junhua said in a quiet voice.

Jiang Chen was stunned. He held his breath.

He saw people who wanted to convert computers into human brains, now he has witnessed making the human brain into a computer.

"This is…" He didn't know what word he could use to describe this.

Evil?

No, there is nothing eviler than the nuclear weapon. The instant war erupted, all morale and boundary became complete jokes. In the digitalized weapon, history may not be written by the victor, but only the victor had the right to judge history.

He was born in a peaceful era, he couldn't experience the need for decisiveness people faced.

"There is no need to have sympathy for me, all the people participating in the Mental Commissar project were self-voluntary."

There was no regret on her face, only her eyes began to be covered in loneliness.

"Just, after I completed the last mission, I don't know what to do anymore."

Jiang Chen was silent, looking at the emotionless Colonel.

He had made a mistake about her persistence.

"Let's make a deal."

Han Junhua looked at Jiang Chen with questions in her eyes.

"Emotions, although I am not a scientist, I trust that science will solve this problem. Help me achieve my ambition, and I will help you find what you have lost. How about that?" Jiang Chen looked at her eyes earnestly.

"A new Mental Commissar in the brain? I don't think I want that."

"No, it's regaining the emotion of a normal person." Jiang Chen shook his head.

Han Junhua fell into a brief silence.

"How can I trust you?"

"Even if you don't trust, there are no better choices right?"

"I want to ask, how can I trust that you can do it."

"Is it hard to do?"

"When I accepted the surgery, my commander told me clearly that I will become a being more closer to a machine than a digitalized human. Even if we win the war after everyone welcomed a happy ending, I still couldn't accept comfort other than honor."

"Even with the most advanced technology before the war, it cannot deactivate the Mental Commissar?"

Han Junhua shook her head.

"Then you have more reasons to choose me." Jiang Chen snapped his fingers with a grin.

Han Junhua looked at him.

"I will return order to this piece of land. The technological research structure will be restored. Even if the 22nd century cannot solve your problem, I believe that in the distant 23rd, 24th, or even 25th century, your problem will be solved. Once everything is completed, I will arrange for you to enter the hibernation chamber in the future," Jiang Chen stared into her eyes and said with seriousness.

She closed her eyes and gave it a long thought.

After a long silence, she opened her eyes.

"You convinced me."

Chapter 379: New Asia Corporation

After a week of preparation, the internal reorganization of the military government began.

In the morning, under the statue of the Mother of Death Claw, Jiang Chen read the reorganization plan to all the survivors of the Fishbone base.

First was the political structure.

The reorganization plan clearly defined the Fishbone base as a military organization. The sole military government will control all jurisdiction and divide the territories into two administrative zones.

One is the economic zone, open to all survivors. It will be stationed with a military government force, established at "election" policy with a parliament. The parliament possesses a degree of rights to create laws, but the military government has the right to veto any laws based on national interest. At the same time, the military government would send out directors to oversee the economic zone. Just like the current structure of the Sixth Street.

The other is the military zone, closed to non-military personnel, following a militarized management system, and execute the slave to knight citizen structure. Everyone must swear their allegiance to the supreme leader and absolutely obey his command. Other than slaves, all citizens and knights will receive vacations of varying length, and they have the option to live at the economic zone during this time. But within the military zone, there is only order and obedience. The military zones were the Fishbone base, Shenxiang colony, and Camp 27.

This model divided the hoe and sword but kept them dependant on each other. The tax revenue and source of soldiers would provide the necessity for the military zones, in turn, the factories at the military zones would form an independent company to export the excessive production capacity to the economic zone's market. Therefore, while it maintained the economics at the Sixth Street, it also retained the combat ability of the military zone.

Also, to ensure this model operated with stability, while Jiang Chen announced this decision, he also provided another benefit policy to the survivors at the military zone which was a salary model. Other than the slave class, all other classes will receive a salary per month. The citizens would receive 10-20, the knights 50, and based on the functionality of the roles, the number would increase.

Before the Fishbone base only provided food and not salary, but following the economic growth of the neighboring Sixth Street, continuing their tradition would cause the soldiers at the bottom to have other thoughts. So Jiang Chen used this opportunity to introduce this policy. Although it meant that the military government would have a salary expense of hundred thousands of crystals per month, but compared to the food business and the tax from the Sixth Street, Jiang Chen could afford to pay this.

To the people loyal to him, he didn't mind that they lived a great life.

Then, it was the arrangement in management.

The highest position in the military government was general, and Jiang Chen would be taking the role. The highest administration unit position was the office of the general with Jiang Chen personally nominating people to form it. The office of the general's primary duties was to oversee the operation of other departments as well as the adjustment, promotion, and termination of all governors of each zone.

The cumbersome departments were all rearranged with the newly reestablished administration department to manage all administrative and construction tasks in the base, while the logistics department was responsible for the production and distribution of all supplies. The administration department was appointed to the previous construction leader Lu Huasheng, and Wang Qin remained as the leader in the logistics department. The two leaders directly report to the general.

Then it was the reorganization of the command structure.

To avoid confusion in military command, Jiang Chen formed three corps as well as the relatively independent hunter corp and the soldiers in the base.

The first corp commander was Cheng Weiguo, the second corp commander was Wang Zhiwu, and the third corp any commander was Zhao Gang. The number of soldiers per corp was set to 1000 for now and was formed with soldiers and armor units.

The hunter corp commander was Ma Zhongchen, and he will be leading 200 soldiers. The units were primarily comprised of scouts and snipers. They were primarily assigned to special missions as well as supporting the other three company's operations during combat time. The soldiers were mostly lone travelers or Qingpu survivors from before. Their ability to survive alone was higher compared to regular soldiers. Working alone would maximize their value, and hence a separate corp was formed.

As to Tiger, power armor, as well as other heavy armories, they were distributed to the three companies based on needs. The helicopter was assigned to the hunter corp to increase its mobility.

Out of the 323 knights, the ones with a military position were distributed to each as lower level commanders. They were all injected with honorary chips.

As to the specifics of the corps construction, Han Junhua meticulously completed it for him as she created a command structure from top to bottom. Jiang Chen left everything for her to complete by trusting her ability, and she did not disappoint.

Therefore, the soldiers would never be in a situation of not knowing what command to listen to.

At the same time, as to the name of the military government, the reorganization plan also clarified further.

Since it resembled a country being formed, Jiang Chen could no longer use a canned food name as the name of the military government. Therefore, based on the opinion of senior officials and Han Junhua, he chose the name New Asia Corporation as the name of the military government, or in short, NAC.

From the name alone it was enough to demonstrate a corner of Jiang Chen's ambition.

These were all contents of the reorganization plan.

In the era where civilization existed, the aggressive and invasive political body would obviously not form. But on the wasteland without any human rights and morale, there were no problems.

Everyone was thirsty for a strong voice to create laws that must be followed on the wasteland. Even if it was flawed, at least it could bring the stability people desired.

But needless to say, the majority of survivors were unwilling to be restrained. They long for stability, but they may not be willing to give up freedom because of it.

As to how to balance freedom and order between the survivors, only time will tell.

…

"Since the command structure is refined, I can start preparing for recruitment," Chu Nan standing in front of Jiang Chen's office said.

Because of the significance of this reorganization, as the acting general of the Sixth Street, he would have to personally make a trip back. Of course, his position now was the governor of the Sixth Street, but other than the name, his duties didn't change.

"How many people do you think we can recruit?" Jiang Chen asked.

"It would have to depend on the price we are willing to pay and the number of people," Chu Nan said.

"Plan to recruit 3000 people with five-year contracts. All recruits would automatically receive lower citizen status and enjoy a salary of ten crystals per month. After the six months of training, all recruits that pass the test will officially receive the status of NAC soldier and be promoted into an upper citizen with a salary increase to 20 crystals. Try to complete this before mid-June. Is it doable?" Standing beside Jiang Chen, Han Junhua said concisely.

It was the salary level of the regular soldiers at the three companies. Although the salary could not attract people with the ability to join, it would be attractive enough for people with low income to join. Especially once promoted to the upper citizen, there would be no restriction on supplies, even people with medium level income would be tempted.

Chu Nan deliberated in his mind before he nodded.

"It's possible."

"Also, to the lone travelers, mercenaries, or hunters with outstanding abilities, if they are willing to join the hunter corp, NAC will offer them a salary of no less than 50 crystals. The contract will be for five years as well. Are there any questions?"

Chu Nan shook his head. "Not regarding recruitment, but I do about the defense at the Sixth Street."

"The defense of the Sixth Street will be the responsibility of the third corp."

"What about the other two companies?"

"The first corp will be stationed in Shenxiang town, responsible for border defense. At the same, Cheng Weiguo will be responsible for training the new recruits."

Chu Nan agreed. Cheng Weiguo has trained new soldiers before. It would be best for him to continue.

"The second corp is responsible for the defense of camp 27 and Fishbone base; hunter corp will await orders at the Fishbone base."

"Also, I have another proposal." Han Junhua looked at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen nodded as she had discussed this with him a few days prior, it was not a bad time to bring it out.

When she received the acknowledgment from Jiang Chen, Han Junhua continued.

"The current militia at the Sixth Street is uncontrolled by the military government, I think they should be controlled."

"That's impossible." Chu Nan forced a smile. "Mercenaries, hunters, and scavengers have already become an inseparable part of the Sixth Street's economy. Not even accounting for that, we don't have the ability to incorporate them."

"Not incorporating," Han Junhua crossed her arms and said emotionlessly, "Just better management. For example, use the military government's name to establish the mercenary association, record the information of all mercenaries, hunters, and scavengers on file, and rank them based on their credibility and mission completion record. For these mercenaries, they would have easier access to the missions and no longer need to worry about the delay in payments. For businesspeople, they would also no longer need to be concerned with questionable helpers. For us, we would obtain the sense of them belonging to the entire Sixth Street civil force."

Therefore, to retain their credibility, the mercenaries with questionable backgrounds would act less reckless. The capitalists that bully and trick the scavengers would be more prudent with the existence of the mercenary association.

Without considering the security aspect, just from a purely economic aspect, the proposal had many positive implications.

Also, if it was necessary, he could charge a commission for all missions. Jiang Chen added that in his mind.

Chu Nan was silent for a long time.

He then looked at Jiang Chen, exclaimed and congratulated him.

"Looks like you found a great advisor."

Jiang Chen revealed a bright smile.

"I think so too."

Chapter 380: The Mercenary Association

It was deep into the night. Most of the people were already asleep.

But the Fake Leg Bar located on the business street was crowded.

The mercenaries and the hunters sat together and drank the three crystals beer made with shell grains. They played poker, and they gloated about their rewards. The scavengers scattered at the corners chatted about the good looting spots they found. The females in revealing clothes leaned sluggishly against the bar counter while they waited for their prey.

Zhou Guoping as the bartender stood at the counter and wiped the glass cups. He would occasionally chat with the familiar females. This boss/bartender was renowned among the people that lived on the knife's edge. To the people that caused trouble in the bar, none of them had a happy ending.

Everyone tried to guess his identity. Some people even gave him a street name "The Bald Bartender".

Of course, no one would have guessed that his real identity was a spy planted by the actual controller of the Sixth Street.

"Old Li, you just returned from Liuding, did you have fun there?" A mercenary in mutant fur asked his old friend while burping.

"Same old. It was so boring that it made people want to sleep." The mercenary with a buzz cut took a gulp of his beer and waved his hand.

Compared with the prosperity of the Sixth Street, Liuding's glory gradually began to fade.

"Is that so? Haha, what about your goddess at the Screw Bar? I remember she was your crush." The mercenary on the side patted Old Li on the shoulder and laughed.

"I haven't seen her. Probably not around the Wanghai area anymore," the mercenary known as Old Li said with frustration.

"Hopefully she has not been captured by some bandits and is being used as a sex toy." Someone blew a whistle.

"If you don't want to have a drink of toilet water, I recommend you close your d*mn mouth." Old Li stood up with a gloomy expression.

The other mercenary didn't back down, but rather he blew a whistle to provoke him.

"F*ck. Old Li, he is only joking, just let him go like a fart." The mercenary on the side immediately dragged him down and discreetly pointed at Zhou Guoping who had stopped cleaning the glasses.

While the Old Li still looked pissed, he sat down. He followed his friend's finger. The mercenary with a foul mouth also retracted his neck and sat back down.

Anyone that fight here probably doesn't want to live anymore.

Zhou Guoping glared at them as they settled down. He then continued to wipe the glass in his hand but mocked them in his mind

[Dumb*ss, your goddess probably has been played in so many different positions by a rich and powerful.]

It was certainly a dramatic story. Chu Nan had already worked his way up to become a governor of the Sixth Street, and he still was the boss of the bar. He didn't even accept the notification to attend the reorganization plan.

Although among the small characters, the name "The Bald Bartender" was renowned among the circle. But only he knew the exacts, as even compared with Zhao Chenwu, who surrendered to Jiang Chen, he was one class lower.

To be honest, he was afraid of encountering Chu Nan. Since he did touch Zhou Xiaoxia when he was a bandit in the Huizhong Mercenaries. While Chu Nan didn't seem to mind, Zhou Guoping knew well that he was probably worth less than a tenth of what Chu Nan is worth in the boss's heart, it would be easy for Chu Nan to take him out.

Once the Fishbone base controlled the Sixth Street, the presence of the bar meant to collect intelligence became less and less important.

Just as he was zoning out, the messenger he put below the bar buzzed.

Like the usual, Zhou Guoping put the towel and glass aside and glanced at the messenger. When he saw the words on the screen, he took a moment to process it before an ecstatic expression appeared on his face.

Half a year later, the boss finally remembered him.

Zhuo Guoping left the job to the other workers as he put on a coat and left the bar without wasting a second.

…

To be honest, to the people with blemished morals, Jiang Chen didn't want to give them important duties. But after careful deliberation, the only subordinate that has worked with the mercenaries on a regular basis was Zhuo Guoping.

So the position of the mercenary association leader was best fitted for him.

Currently, Zhuo Guoping stood in front of Jiang Chen's table as he waited for instructions with his head lowered.

"You are pretty fast." Jiang Chen laughed.

"Of course, I can't make you wait, I came immediately after I received the message," Zhou Guoping said while trying to flatter Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen took out a document and put it on the table.

"Don't be nervous, it is something good. Take a look at this document."

Zhuo Guoping laughed obsequiously as he took over the document. He scanned through a few lines before he stopped.

"Mercenary association?"

"That's right. The leader of the mercenary association, I want you to take the position." With hands cupped together on the table, Jiang Chen smiled.

"Thank you bo-, Thank you, General!" Zhuo Guoping was so ecstatic that he almost called out the wrong name as the flattering action was only missing him kneeling down.

"Okay, save the obsequiousness for later. This is your job. I already assigned the building of the association, it will be built across from the Sixth Street bank. Your job will be to establish it. I want to see results in a week's time."

"I will complete the task!" Zhuo Guoping promised while pumping his chest.

"Then go."

Zhuo Guoping bowed and turned around. But when he reached the door, he stopped as if he had remembered something.

"Also, that Fake Leg Bar-"

"I will find someone to take your position. Your primary responsibility will be the mercenary association."

"Yes.'

Zhuo Guoping exited the door courteously.

Half a minute later, Jiang Chen leaned in his chair and smiled at Han Junhua who was observing everything.

"What do you think about giving his position to someone like this?"

She only used two seconds to think.

"Just by ability, he is the best candidate."

Reputation among the mercenaries has more appeal compared to an unknown character. If it were Cheng Weiguo or Zhang Gang that acted as the leader, it would be hard to even form the association.

"What other aspects?"

"If I could read people's mind, I wouldn't have lost to you," Han Junhua answered honestly.

Jiang Chen didn't disagree.

"Then lady luck is on my side."

Chapter 381: Are you being serious?

Han Junhua's home was in a separate apartment building.

Jiang Chen satisfied her demands and placed her living quarters as far away from crowds as possible.

When he asked the reason behind her request, her response was simple.

"Because I prefer a place that's quiet."

"Is that so? That's a unique preference," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

When they finished the work, Han Junhua and Jiang Chen walked out of the community center together. It was the last task in the reorganization plan, so work the next day would be much easier.

"I always wanted to ask - is this Death Claw?" Han Junhua stopped in front of the Mother of Death Claw statue and examined the monster.

"The Mother of Death Claw. Normal Death Claw is not so big and not so difficult to deal with."

When he recalled the intense fight at the Like mall, Jiang Chen had mixed feelings. Although the actual killer of the Mother of Death Claw was the type-50 electromagnetic cannon, considering how quickly news spread, it quickly became his trophy.

"Did you kill it?"

Jiang Chen looked at her with a perplexed expression, but he still answered with a casual conversational tone, "To be precise, we were even. The actual killer was the type-50 electromagnetic cannon."

"Is this the strongest mutant in the wasteland?" Han Junhua continued to ask.

"Probably."

Perhaps stronger mutants existed, but Jiang Chen hadn't seen any.

Han Junhua didn't say anything else as she crossed her arms and fell silent.

They didn't speak anymore along the way. Jiang Chen walked with her for a bit longer before leaving and returning to the mansion.

Along the quiet trail, Jiang Chen pushed open the mansion door and hung his coat on the hanger by the door.

"You're back?" Sun Xiaorou, in a long dress, stood at the door and smiled at him.

"Mhmm…. Eh? Your wheelchair-"

"Neural bridge. By utilizing a bridge, it circled the damaged brain area and allowed information exchange between the spine and the brain on a circuit board." She turned around and gently lifted her hair covering her neck and exposed a device similar to the neck cover in addition to the whiteness of her skin.

She was wearing a dress with her back exposed.

He didn't know where to put his eyes, so he looked away and said:

"Technology is a magnificent thing."

"It's compassion that's magnificent. I have to thank Yao Yao and Lin Lin; if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have the opportunity to leave the wheelchair."

Sun Xiaorou approached Jiang Chen as she put her hand out and adjusted his collar.

Jiang Chen subconsciously wanted to move back, but because of the space limitations, her hand managed to reach his collar.

Such an intimate motion made him feel slightly awkward. Faced with the eyes that contained the universe, he didn't know what to say.

"Where's your sister?" Jiang Chen scanned the stairs to the second floor reflexively.

"In the virtual reality gaming chamber in the gym." Sun Xiaorou adjusted his slightly untidy collar, but her hands didn't leave Jiang Chen's shoulder. She just dangled them there and watched his eyes cheerfully.

"Is that so? She said it wasn't fun, but she's actually enjoying it?" Jiang Chen changed the topic awkwardly.

"That's right. Aren't we all like this?" With her arms moving slightly, Sun Xiaorou closed the distance between her and Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen leaned back on the door.

Watching her eyes full of passion, Jiang Chen inhaled deeply.

"Are you being serious?"

"We made a promise when we were young that we would marry the same person." Sun Xiaorou stared at Jiang Chen's eyes as she smiled like a little devil and teasingly leaned her body closer.

"Is that so? But if your sister found out that the first thing you remembered was this promise, she might not be so happy." Jiang Chen raised his hands, wanting to stop her, but his hands hovered in the air not knowing where to place them before he had to lower them again.

"No, she won't mind because she's my sister."

With her arms around Jiang Chen's neck, the tip of Sun Xiaorou's mouth curled up slightly as her lips got closer.

The distance was so close that he could even feel her warm breath on his lips.

Time froze in an instant. Jiang Chen held his breath.

But to his surprise, Sun Xiaorou didn't kiss him.

She turned her head slightly and kissed Jiang Chen's cheek.

"You didn't push me away."

In an instant, the soft figure agilely escaped away from Jiang Chen.

"Time to shave, brother-in-law."

She winked at him playfully and breezed away like the wind.

[This girl.]

Watching her skipping away, Jiang Chen touched the wetness on his face and the non-existent beard.

He slowly let out a breath.

It took a while before his restless head cooled down.

…

"Was it fun?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Mhmm… So so. Speak your mind, what do you need me for?" Sun Jiao sat up from the gaming chamber and tidied her hair. Even in the way they flipped their hair, the two sisters were extremely similar.

"It's time to eat - what did you think?" Jiang Chen facepalmed.

[It wasn't just "so-so" by her look.] But he was certainly pleased with how addictive <The Godly Land> was. With even half of the 3.2 billion netizens playing this game, he'd become the richest man in the world.

"Eh? It's already 6?" Sun Jiao checked the time on her EP as her face turned red.

She was exploring the forbidden territory of the City of Elves. When Jiang Chen called her, she was fighting a boss. Although she was by herself, the NPC's intelligence was high enough that it was still surprisingly fun to play in single-player story mode.

When Jiang Chen heard that the "naughty" function was unavailable, he immediately lost interest in the game, so it was Sun Jiao alone who explored the secrets of this MMORPG.

"That's right, addicted girl, time to eat," Jiang Chen mocked.

"What addicted girl? I'm testing the game for you, thank me!" Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, displeased.

She stretched her body.

The curvature of her body, exaggerated by the stretch, was even more seductive.

Jiang Chen put his hand around her waist, smirking.

"What are the test results?"

Sun Jiao, leaning on Jiang Chen's body, asked sluggishly.

"Not bad… Eh? There's a familiar smell on your body."

"Smell?" Jiang Chen paused.

He didn't even get a chance to react before Sun Jiao opened her eyes and turned around to sniff Jiang Chen's chest.

"Xiaorou?" Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen with suspicion.

Jiang Chen's expression immediately turned awkward.

[How should I explain?]

Chapter 382: Aerospace Technology Research Insitute

To be honest, he didn't know how to deal with Sun Xiaorou's provocations.

But if he acted like he didn't know anything, it would only worsen the situation. Under Sun Jiao's questioning eyes, Jiang Chen took a deep breath and confessed what happened that day.

"Was Sun Xiaorou the provocative one? You sure you didn't threaten her?" Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen skeptically.

"Am I that type of person?!" Jiang Chen didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.

But as soon as the words came out, he realized it wasn't convincing at all. He took away Sun Xiaorou's first time, although he didn't know at the time that it was her first time.

"Then how are you going to treat Xiaorou?' Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen with a grin.

"I… I don't know." Jiang Chen said, embarrassed.

Sun Jiao seemed to have expected Jiang Chen's reply as she let out a sigh.

"If you want me to reject her, I can-"

"No, you're misunderstanding me." Sun Jiao shook her head unexpectedly.

"Mhmm?" Jiang Chen stared at her with a perplexed expression.

"If she…" Sun Jiao bit her lips with words stuck in her throat.

"If?" Because he couldn't make out her voice, Jiang Chen pulled his ear closer.

"Whatever, ahhh! This is definitely too weird!" Sun Jiao covered her suddenly burning face and hastily left the completely confused Jiang Chen there.

At the dinner table, Lin Lin was as noisy as always while she chewed her food with her mouth full while bantering with Sun Jiao. Sun Xiaorou's seat was right across from Jiang Chen. It was her first time tasting such delicious food, so she praised Yao Yao's excellent cooking skills. Yao Yao timidly smiled like always at being praised, her feet dangling under the table joyfully.

Jiang Chen was worried that the kiss at the door would cause some awkwardness between him and Sun Xiaorou, but it seemed like he worried too much.

Except, the moment their eyes met, Jiang Chen perceived a long and dubious message from her eyes.

…

After dinner, Jiang Chen went to Jiang Lin's lab.

He knocked at the door, and seeing as it was open, Jiang Chen waited for a moment before he took out the EP.

"At the rocket testing site?" He looked at the red dot on the map as Jiang Chen muttered to himself.

Because of the locating function of the chip, he possessed the exact coordinate of every knight. Of course, out of respect for personal privacy, he rarely used this function unless it was necessary.

He turned around and headed to the location.

Rocket testing site.

While the name sounded sophisticated, it was just an empty plot of land circled by concrete walls. There were two tables there with one covered in electronic parts while the other had chemical solutions. Aside from the two tables, there was also mechanical equipment he brought back from the Fake Leg Specialty Store as well as the old parts Jiang Chen funded.

Jiang Chen promised Jiang Lin that as long as he finished the work assigned to him, he would fund his dream to develop a warp drive engine for him. Now that the K1 kinetic skeleton production line was optimized and the mimicked version of the Dongfeng-76 ballistic missile was completed, he obviously had the time to work on his own dream.

"This is the warp drive engine?" Jiang Chen mocked him as he looked at the large turbine engine Jiang Lin was working on.

Without turning his head, Jiang Lin flipped a wrench in his hand, wiped off the sweat from his head and grinned.

"Not even close. This is only a simple propulsion engine - nowhere close to a warp drive. It's not even remotely close to the RF resonant cavity thruster."

"I thought you created it already," Jiang Chen said.

"I thought I almost created it." Jiang Lin sighed.

When Jiang Chen first captured Fallout Shelter no.27, Jiang Lin proposed a research project to Wang Qin. No, precisely, it wasn't a research project - he only provided the theoretical design of the "warp drive" to an aerospace expert to confirm the validity of his proposal.

But the answer he received was depressing - the expert criticized his design using all fields of knowledge and theory. Jiang Lin didn't give up; he even personally went to Camp 27 to debate with that expert.

The result was the same. The aerospace expert saw that Jiang Lin didn't believe him, so he personally simulated the design with the quantum computer, comically showing the errors he made in the wrap drive design.

It was analogous to a junior high student thinking he discovered the truth behind the perpetual motion machine who used his knowledge to draw a blueprint he thought was flawless and presented it in front of a physics teacher with a university degree.

Needless to say, the spirit of daring to try was worth praising. But in the name of science, only the truth stood.

After he heard Jiang Lin's story, Jiang Chen was silent for a moment before he comforted him in a soft voice.

"At least you proved that method doesn't work."

"But it wasn't me who disproved it - back in 2091, someone showed the error in my design philosophy. And in the next 80 years, people showed hundreds of incorrect design principles, but I wasn't aware of this at all." He laughed contemptuously at himself, threw the wrench in the toolbox, and took out a welding gun.

"Do you feel sad?" With sparks flashing, Jiang Chen asked.

"No, otherwise I wouldn't be working on this." Jiang Lin grinned as he stood up and patted the thing he had been working for a week.

Jiang Chen walked beside him and examined the metal, three-person tall object.

"This is?"

"RM-320 rocket engine… mimicked plus miniature version." Jiang Lin had a proud expression looking at the art he created himself. "Although it's technology from the end of the 21st century, don't you think it's like a piece of art?"

"Technology from the 21st century?"

"That's right. Based on the explanation of the aerospace expert, the propulsion rocket technology had been abandoned by the end of the 21st century. Space elevators could conveniently send spaceships into orbit from the ground. Spaceship arriving in orbit would then use the RF resonant cavity thruster to boost itself to the moon, or Mars, or someplace even further." Jiang Lin grinned.

"Are you planning to start from the fundamentals?"

But this was certainly useful for Jiang Chen. Propulsion or not, it was technology lightyears ahead of the modern world. Or it could still be a great booster for the ballistic missile in the apocalypse.

"What's the cost of this rocket engine?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Plus the cost of solid fuel, twenty thousand crystals."

"Damn, this rocket booster would eat the salary of 1000 people," Jiang Chen cursed.

Seeing that Jiang Chen didn't look pained, Jiang Lin smiled along and didn't respond.

After a moment, Jiang Chen examined the rocket engine again and abruptly said:

"I plan to establish the Aerospace Technology Research Institute with you acting as the director. Do you have any suggestions?"

Chapter 383: Start with collecting garbage

"Aerospace Technology Research Institute?" Jiang Lin was stunned.

From the shape of his lips, Jiang Chen could tell that he was asking in shock: Why me?

"Because I believe in you." Jiang Chen was direct.

"But-"

Jiang Lin wanted to say that compared to scientists before the war, his abilities paled in comparison, but Jiang Chen interrupted him.

"I know what you want to say, but I want a response now."

Jiang Lin held his breath.

"… Okay."

"Excellent, your response is what I wanted to hear." Jiang Chen smiled.

Seeing as his expression was still perplexed, Jiang Chen paused to explain to him.

"The director of the research institute doesn't have to be the one who has the best research skills - even if your knowledge level is nowhere close to the old experts, I still believe that you will be the one who leads a group of people with the ability to achieve important results. Such as the miniature rocket I saw at your store last time - I still have a vivid impression of it."

Not just a vivid expression - it was stunning.

In Jiang Chen's understanding, a rocket would have to be massive like a chimney, but Jiang Lin's observation satellite completely altered his understanding of near-orbital rockets.

"If you wanted that small thing, you didn't need to start a research institute." Jiang Lin showed a troubled smile.

"You're misunderstanding me." Jiang Chen shook his head. "It's the imagination that counts."

"Imagination?" Jiang Lin raised his eyebrows.

"That's right." Jiang Chen took out a piece of crystal from his pocket. "Look at this, do you know what it is?"

"A crystal?"

"Correct." Jiang Chen smiled and threw this crystal in Jiang Lin's hand. "But before I told the blue skins, they didn't know what it was."

Jiang Lin looked at the green crystal in his hand as thoughts began to emerge in his head.

"The entire Wanghai City, or the entire wasteland… The world is no longer the world we were used to. Past ways of thinking wouldn't be adaptable on this wasteland, whether survival or research. I need you to use your creative imagination, your extraordinary vision to develop aerospace technology suitable for this wasteland.

Jiang Chen stared into Jiang Lin's eyes as he spoke with seriousness.

It was far more challenging to build a space elevator on the wasteland compared to the modern world. Just in terms of the dangers of the ocean, there was a vast difference between the two. Although he'd never been to the coast before, Jiang Chen heard some stories from Chu Nan.

Liuding Town was on the better side because it was close to land, so sea mutants were uncommon. But once in the deep ocean, the dangerous level of mutants would rise exponentially. Regarding the battle on earth, only a small portion of the total launched nuclear, biological and chemical weapons actually struck the land. Where did the rest go? It didn't disappear but was intercepted by the ocean.

With the influence of bacteria, viruses, and radiation, the mutation of the sea creatures was far more unpredictable than the land creatures. But the foundation of the space elevator had to be built on the ocean surface near the equator.

Other than that, the space garbage around the near earth orbit and synchronous orbit almost formed a small planetary ring. These factors had undoubtedly increased the difficulty of aerospace exploration.

"Extraordinary vision? You gave me a hard problem." Jiang Lin smiled, troubled again.

"If it wasn't hard, why would I need you?" Jiang Chen glared at him.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Lin inhaled deeply.

"Could you give me a general direction? The NAC or space technology you require is leaning toward which area?"

Jiang Chen thought momentarily.

"Start with collecting the garbage."

"What?" Jiang Lin looked at Jiang Chen dumbfounded; he didn't know the meaning of this sentence.

Jiang Chen pointed up in the sky.

"Design a rocket that can be sent to the near earth orbit or the synchronous orbit… Whatever you do, I need you to bring the stuff in space down, fix it, and send it up again."

"This… is rather an unscrupulous thought." Jiang Lin showed his third troubled smile that day.

"It is possible from a technology point of view, right?"

"Yes. But no one would want to bring the satellite down to the surface; they'd rather fix it in the space station or just launch a new one…"

"I said, don't look at the present problem with the past ways of thinking." Jiang Chen waved his hand in disagreement. "Do we have a space station?"

He patted Jiang Lin on the shoulder.

"I believe you can do it. But first, I need you to create something small for me. Should be really easy for you - just a dumb small missile that can be launched. I need you to create four for me to send communication satellites up… Space junk? No, you don't need to consider that, just design it based on the 'most ideal conditions'…."

…

Just as Jiang Chen and Jiang Lin were discussing the Aerospace Technology Research Institute, there was also a negotiation in the mansion.

It was a discussion about life.

"Xiaorou, can I ask you a question?" Sun Jiao squeezed the body wash in her hand and evenly rubbed it over her sister's back.

When her sister was paralyzed, she was responsible for bathing her. Although Sun Xiaorou could wash now, she was still worried. What if that thing malfunctioned or came off, wouldn't that be terrible? Imagining her sister being stuck lying in the water - Sun Jiao only gave it a quick thought before her hands turned cold at the idea.

She finally found the only family she had in this world; she didn't want to lose her again.

The cold but soft sensation on her back made Xiaorou narrow her eyes in comfort.

"Mhmm?"

Sun Jiao gently bit her own lip, but she still asked.

"Do… Do you like Jiang Chen?"

Xiaorou took a second to process it then she turned around with a smile.

"Of course, he's a great brother-in-law."

"No, I'm talking about from a relationship point of view." Looking at the smile on her sister's face, Sun Jiao asked with seriousness.

The smile was gradually replaced with a hint of melancholy. Finally, Sun Xiaorou let out a sigh.

"Did brother-in-law… tell you?"

Sun Jiao knew what her sister referred to - what happened a few days ago at the door.

Sun Xiaorou thought Sun Jiao was asking about what happened that day in her bedroom.

The two coincidentally misunderstood each other.

"Mhmm." Sun Jiao nodded.

"… Are you planning to blame me?" Like a kid that did something wrong, Sun Xiaorou buried her head.

The bubbles in the bathtub reflected her sad face as well as her gorgeous figure.

"No, I just wanted to know your opinion." Sun Jiao hugged her sister from behind, closed her eyes, and whispered.

Felling the warm hug of her sister, Sun Xiaorou suddenly felt like she was selfish. She couldn't tell if she actually liked Jiang Chen or if she just liked the person her sister liked. Her heartbeat pumped insanely because of the gray moral territory that made her do things she shouldn't have done…

But just as she thought, a sour feeling emerged from the bottom of her heart.

[It was him that took my first time, why do I have to bear the guilt?]

Perhaps driven by some kind of emotion, she spoke out without processing the emotions in her head.

"Even if they're rather fickle?"

"Mhmm." Sun Jiao put her chin on her sister's shoulder and whispered into her ear.

Sun Xiaorou leaned forward, turned around, and faced her sister.

She lowered her bead while she gently bit her lip.

Suddenly, she got closer to her sister's ear and spilled the emotions in her heart…

Chapter 384: War Bond Issuance

In the morning, a bustling crowd gathered in front of the bank.

Merchants, mercenaries, hunters, even scavengers - everyone surrounded the bank. People's emotions were heightened with excitement evident on their faces. Under the ushering of the security forces in first division uniforms, people formed a long line as they waited for the Sixth Street bank to open at eight.

The reason why people were so excited was because of an inspiring speech yesterday.

"… Everyone, in the past 21 years, we used our hands to prove our prosperity." Zhao Chenwu stood at the podium in front of the council building as he used a passionate voice to speak to the crowd gathered.

"From being abandoned by the PAC to facing the mutant waves alone, to the bacteria that swept across the city, to the despairing betrayal…" He gradually lowered his tone.

"But we won against all odds!" He tightly clenched his fists and raised his voice again as he used a compelling voice, "We used the new order we established to give the middle finger to the old authorities. We used our high walls and cannons to fend off zombies and mutants. We used our tanks to eradicate the bacteria source that affected our entire city. And we used the laws of the council to punish the traitors!"

"And we welcomed radiance." He slowed down again as he looked at the crowd with a stern but proud gaze.

The listeners all held their breaths.

"But just as we were about to celebrate our prosperity, an unfortunate and remorseful event occurred."

"As most of you already heard, our friends in Jia city, the warriors who fought against the mutant humans' invasion, have fallen."

"And right now, the barbarians in the west are swinging their clubs and challenging us: 'look, we caught your little neighbor and cut off his di*k. Are you afraid? Haha, we'll be doing the same thing to you soon!' Right now, tell me, could you all accept this kind of humiliation! Could you?"

There was no response below the podium, but Zhao Chenwu discerned from the faces of the crowd that they couldn't.

He took a deep breath as he spoke again.

"It's small compared to the size of the entire wasteland; it couldn't even be considered a grain. But we must protect its growth and care for it so it can radiate its brightness to places even farther. That's right, it is the radiance we see, a radiance known as order! And the first step to reach this great cause is to lubricate the road of our tank with the organs of those bastards! Then, we will free our friends!" His voice changed from deep and somber to high and enthusiastic, completely igniting passion in all the bystanders.

"Long live the Sixth Street!" people shouted and roared.

"Long live the NAC!"

"Kill those di*kless bastards!"

"..."

He raised his hand to signal the crowd to settle down as he flipped his script to the next page.ing

"Right now, I'm announcing the decision on the council's behalf. The Sixth Street will declare war on the mutated humans in the Seventh Area.

While he said that he looked at Chu Nan by the side. As the governor, Chu Nan represented the military government.

According to the constitution of the Sixth Street, the military government had a veto right for motions passed by the council. Of course, it was just ceremonial since the impassioned speech was arranged by the military government.

Chu Nan stood up and looked solemnly at the crowd below the podium.

"Granted."

Thunderous applause erupted.

With unified public opinion, Zhao Chenwu took the opportunity to announce the war bond and recruitment motions.

This show went far more smoothly than he imagined.

…

The crowd outside the window formed a long line from the bank to the council building.

The bank was located beside the building.

Chu Nan and Zhao Chenwu sat at the table. There were color printed newspapers on the table and on the cover page was the impassioned speech.

The newspaper only became popular recently. People loved to gossip, and in an era without the internet, the newspaper could meet the needs of the people. Other than occasional announcements of Sixth Street council decisions, the newspaper published stories of survivors, experiences of hunting mutants, job postings or advertisements.

"Five minutes before the bank opens." Zhao Chenwu narrowed his eyes to look at the clock on the wall before he glanced out the window again.

He didn't need to line up with ordinary people. As a big capitalist on Sixth Street, before bonds were publicly sold, he already purchased the portion that belonged to him.

"Looks like people are passionate about the war that will happen four months from now." Chu Nan smiled.

It was eight o'clock. The employees of the council building brought a plate of steamy buns and two cups of freshly made soy milk.

"No one is interested in the war, but people will never say no to shining crystals. Mmm, delicious breakfast." Zhao Chenwu grabbed a bun and took a hard bite.

He spent 20 years living there already; he knew exactly why people cheered yesterday. It wasn't to free their friends but they cheered for the mercenary contracts, military contracts, and employment opportunities brought by the upcoming war…

"That's right." Chu Nan nodded as he reached for the plate as well.

Breakfast at the council building was provided by the military government for free. The food there was always the best in all of Sixth Street. The fresh meat buns and hot soy milk were delicacies of the wasteland.

"How did you think to use the steel of the mutated humans to create war bonds?" Zhao Chenwu swallowed the food in his mouth. He looked at the crowd flooding into the bank and asked curiously.

"I got inspired by the crusade dividend model then made some small changes in the process. For example, using the steel that the Sixth Street's currently lacking as collateral." Chu Nan slowly chewed on the food as he casually responded.

The crystals from the last crusade ignited the boiler for production, now this crusade would bring the raw resources needed for production.

"How much steel do the mutant humans have?"

"Based on the information provided by the intelligence team, they have an estimated reserve of more than two hundred thousand tons of C-type steel."

"What the fu*k, are they living on top of a mine?" Zhao Chenwu couldn't help but curse.

It was completed C-type steel, not iron ore that still needed to be produced.

"Not a mine; based on reliable information, it's an underground resources warehouse. PAC's strategic storage somehow landed in the hands of the monsters. But whatever, by fall of this year, the steel will belong to us."

Outside the window, the line was slowly moving. The bank opened its doors. People, with their personal identity cards, all charged at the bank employees.

He looked at Chu Nan again.

"Why's he not making the crystals himself? Don't tell me he's lacking money right now."

Zhao Chenwu referred to Jiang Chen.

The food trade brought in over a million crystals of profit per month. As the biggest shareholder of the food business, Zhao Chenwu would rather think that the bank would go bankrupt than Jiang Chen lacked crystals.

"He's not really lacking money, but council member Zhao must know the saying that in order to collect the grain, the grain must be planted first? " Chu Nan laughed.

Zhao Chenwu took a moment to process that before he started laughing too.

"A general with this foresight, it's my honor to be in your presence."

"My honor too." Chu Nan held up the soy milk cup in a toast.

Chapter 385: Fixed Wing Aircraft

Inside the hologram conference room, Chu Nan's projected hologram stood at the end of the long table and reported to Jiang Chen on the first-day sale numbers of war bonds.

"… Including the presale portion, war bonds worth two million crystals were sold on the first day. Also, the recruitment work is 30% completed; it's expected to be completed within a week."

"It's almost like picking up money from the ground!" Jiang Chen was amazed.

"Our credibility worked - all the citizens wanted a bond."

"No, no, no, credibility only relates to the fact that people believe we will pay. But what made people buy the war bonds wasn't credibility but it's because they supported the war." Sinking into the chair, Jiang Chen smiled.

"Because there are things to be gained?" Chu Nan said mockingly.

"Partially."

Chu Nan didn't bother asking about the other reason; he merely smiled and flipped through the documents in his hand.

" Was this the only thing you needed to report to me?"

"No, there's another piece of good news," Chu Nan said.

"Oh?"

"Do you remember that Hua Weijie? The order you sent him - he completed it."

When he first occupied the Sixth Street, Jiang Chen promised various benefits to the five council members that surrendered. Zhao Chenwu's food business, Lu Yun's Horizon Corporation's Inner Circle rebuilt project, Hua Weijie's Galactic Technology Company's pre-war technology collection and the development of the Type-51 Transportation Helicopter project.

"Completed already?" Jiang Chen looked at Chu Nan, surprised by the speed.

On his expected timeline, the research should've taken at least one year, but they completed the project already.

"Yes, they completed it." Chu Nan nodded.

"Direct their technicians to transfer the production process to our factory until the helicopter is successfully built, and send the remaining one hundred and twenty thousand crystals to them," Jiang Chen immediately said with an uncontainable smile on his face.

The development of the Type-51 Transportation Helicopter meant that the NAC would possess the ability to manufacture helicopters and completely disrupt Liuding Town's domination of the air force. With NAC's production abilities, it wouldn't take long before they exceeded Liuding just on one platform.

"Okay. Hua Weijie also asked me if there were any new projects for him." Chu Nan nodded.

"Of course, ask him if he's interested in a joint research project. If he is, talk to him about the development of fighter jets."

Chu Nan paused for a moment then repeated to confirm.

"Fight jets?"

"Yes. Fixed-wing aircraft, the type that could drop a 200-kilogram bomb on the enemy's heads."

"Let me be honest, the research for fixed-wing aircraft is far more complex than helicopters. And regarding combat effectiveness on the wasteland, fighter jets are no stronger than helicopters." Chu Nan tried to convince Jiang Chen, erring on the side of caution.

Since the helicopter research was just completed, the production line hadn't even started, so when would research on fighter jets begin? Chu Nan thought it was better to continue building on the helicopter research with the current model as the prototype while continually improving on its design.

Fighter jets? The maximum combat radius of NAC was at most fifty kilometers - were fighter jets even necessary?

But what Chu Nan didn't know was that Jiang Chen planned to bring fighter jets to the modern world.

"Look further, the enemies in front of us aren't just the mutated humans. The Northern Alliance Area has always been plotting against Wanghai City. Let's look even further at all of Pan-Asia, even the continent on the other side of the Atlantic; no one knows what's there, no one knows what they think over there. We'll have to face them eventually. I don't want to be completely unprepared at that time. Now, do you think it's unnecessary to research fixed-wing aircraft?"

"You're right, general," Chu Nan immediately responded.

Regardless if he was right or not, it was foolish to argue.

Jiang Chen nodded. "Perfect, then that's that."

He ended the communication session with Chu Nan and stretched on his chair.

"Ah… This is tiring. Miss Advisor, could you massage my shoulders for me?"

"Let me be frank, that's an assistant's work." Han Junhua, standing in the corner of the room, crossed her arms coldly.

"Isn't the advisor also the assistant to the general?" Jiang Chen said with a joking voice.

"Your perspective is quite interesting, but allow me to disagree."

"That's disappointing then."

Jiang Chen exaggeratedly made a disappointed face, stood up, and walked out of the conference room in a good mood.

"If you want to equip the army with fighter jets, I recommend you build an air force independent of the land units," Han Junhua said in a calm voice.

"It's still too early - the scientists didn't even create the 'toy' model for me yet."

Jiang Chen laughed with his voice echoing down the hallway.

As the general, he didn't need to wait in the office for information. He only needed to appear in front of people when it was necessary. As for troublesome tasks, they were perfect for the advisor to take care of… This was what Jiang Chen told himself about his job requirements instead of dealing with his laziness.

He sat in the office with nothing to do for half an hour before Jiang Chen instructed Han Junhua "let me know if anything comes up."

It was already early June.

Estimating that he could return in a few days, Jiang Chen wanted to spend more time with the people he cared for now.

Jiang Chen passed by the square in front of the community center. The training grounds were two hundred meters north of it. There was a row of parked trucks at the door as well as the Tiger, still active in service. The women waited for their husbands here because they would be heading to the front lines soon.

When Jiang Chen passed by the door, he saw the training grounds packed with people.

The First Division was about to depart, so Cheng Weiguo was making his last speech to the soldiers. Once that was done, they would board the trucks and head for the front lines.

Just yesterday, the general office approved the request for war from the Sixth Street council. The entire NAC entered a state of war. Although the mutant humans undoubtedly didn't receive the information, there was nothing wrong with deploying their soldiers to the front lines.

In the crowd, Jiang Chen saw a familiar face.

It was Zhou Jiexi, the wife of Cheng Weiguo. She was the chef of the cafeteria before, but after the cafeteria was reorganized under the logistics department, she began working in that department. Jiang Chen had a faint memory of her - in the beginning, she cooked for the original thirty-something people at the base.

Now, he noticed a difference from how she looked before - it was her stomach…

Zhou Jiexi noticed Jiang Chen and smiled.

"Mr. General."

"Long time no see." Jiang Chen smiled back as he looked surprised at her bulging abdomen. "How many months?"

"Already three." Her face was filled with happiness when she talked about her child.

"Three months already… That guy, he didn't even tell me he's about to become a father," Jiang Chen said.

"You're the general - how could we disturb you with that?" Zhou Jiexi said humbly.

Jiang Chen took a second to process it but managed to recollect his thoughts quickly and smiled at her.

[True…]

After a pause, Jiang Chen said, "Take care of yourself, also… say hi to Old Cheng for me."

"Mhmm, I will."

To a leader, it was indeed valuable to gain the respect and awe of his subordinates. But some distance created by awe was inevitable since the people he promoted, other than Zhou Guoping, weren't naturally servile people.

[So I need someone who can flatter me?]

With that sudden thought in his mind, Jiang Chen laughed. Things would be boring with that type of person around.

[Am I missing a friend? Or a good brother?]

Jiang Chen was silent.

The troops began to move as the soldiers started to board the trucks and wave goodbye to the soldiers at the door.

At the same time, cradled inside a woman's arm, Jiang Chen saw an infant.

The ignorant sleepy face and the smile on the mother's face formed a memorable picture in Jiang Chen's eyes.

And it was because of that smile that Jiang Chen felt some comfort.

Jiang Chen turned around and left.

Chapter 386: The Night

It was late in the night.

Jiang Chen leaned in front of the window with a wine glass in his hand. He stared blankly at the swaying tree branches out the window. The orange liquid swirled in his cup and reflected an unclear face as well as a murky moon.

"What are you looking at it?"

He didn't know how long Sun Jiao had been there behind him.

"I don't know… maybe it's our backyard." Jiang Chen didn't turn around but he just gazed at the buds that would never sprout on the tree branches.

In the backyard was a trail formed among the short woods; further back was a pool he used to store gold. Of course, the pool was covered by an egg-shaped dome, compliments of Lin Lin's work. He still remembered that he once enjoyed a sun-tanning session there simulated by high tech.

"Are you tired?"

Her rare caring side peeked through as Sun Jiao gently hugged Jiang Chen from behind and leaned her face on his broad shoulder.

Feeling the softness behind his back, Jiang Chen smiled wearily and drunk all the remaining alcohol in his glass.

"Sometimes." Jiang Chen poured himself another cup as he gave an answer that didn't seem to match her question.

But Sun Jiao seemed to understand his answer as she whispered to him:

"Running back and forth between two worlds… must be tiring."

"A bit."

The wine glass was filled again and Jiang Chen swirled the transparent liquid. Through the orange color, he gazed at the beautiful face as he muttered to himself.

"Different environment, different people, different ways of thinking, different values… I feel like I'm living two lives. Although this ability brought me an endless amount of wealth and dragged me out of a pit in my life… I have no right to complain, but I don't know whether this was a stroke of good fortune or not. Until a few hours ago, I suddenly realized that I don't have any friends here."

In the beginning, before he established a relationship with Sun Jiao, he didn't think of bringing order to this place. Regardless of how chaotic this place was, he could live a wealthy life on this side… No, he could even be living a more pleasant life.

He was slightly intoxicated as a cold breeze swept by and roused him from his thoughts.

"Aside from you," Jiang Chen added.

"I'm not your friend, I'm your wife." Sun Jiao bit Jiang Chen's ear, displeased.

"Ahem, sorry, I'm a bit tipsy." He put the wine glass down. With one hand on the window, he used the other to wipe his face.

"Yao Yao is also not."

"I… I know."

"Then why don't you eat her?" Sun Jiao's teeth let go of Jiang Chen's ears as she mocked him.

Although he had so many opportunities when he almost ate that cute rabbit, he didn't end up doing it. Perhaps because she looked too young? It wasn't the primary reason though. Sun Jiao was his first woman, so he cared how she felt.

Jiang Chen didn't respond as he simply put his right hand on the hand around his waist.

"Because of me?"

"Mhmm," Jiang Chen responded lightly.

"I already said I don't mind. Also, it's not like you haven't been eating out secretively." Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen's expression turned awkward.

"Uh, you knew?"

"Han Junhua right?" Sun Jiao pouted.

"Mhmm? Why did you think it was her?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

He originally thought she was referring to the diplomat from Liuding Town. He swore that Han Junhua was still a virgin. He didn't discuss any deeper problems with her. Although it wasn't something to brag about, compared to other people in a similar position, the number of people he had sex with could easily be counted.

"Because one time, I happened to see how she gazed at your back. My instincts told me it wasn't as simple as a subordinate looking at her superior."

Jiang Chen laughed and let out a sigh. "You're thinking too much; she has no emotions. It's hard to explain - she's something called a mind secretary."

"Just like when your second ability got activated?" Sun Jiao remembered that Jiang Chen mentioned the ability he gained after he opened the second level of hidden genetic code.

"That's right, it's similar to that." Jiang Chen nodded.

"Then when you open your second ability, do you have feelings for me?" Sun Jiao asked.

Jiang Chen paused.

He carefully recalled the first time he had Invictus activated in the battle with the lead mutated human. If he really had no emotions, wouldn't the best choice have been to ditch Sun Jiao and retreat? With the speed of the mutant humans, there was no way they could catch up to the T-3 power armor.

"Perhaps," Jiang Chen answered with uncertainty, but he quickly laughed and tried to change the topic: "Ahem, why are we talking about-"

Sun Jiao closed her eyes and spoke into Jiang Chen's ear, "For me, the only fortunate thing that happened in my entire life was meeting you here that day."

Jiang Chen was slightly astonished.

She then continued, "Sometimes I'm terrified, afraid that one day you'll feel tired and won't return to this side."

"I… Sorry for worrying you."

Sun Jiao's finger gently covered Jiang Chen's lips as she smiled. "No need to apologize."

Jiang Chen grabbed her tender hand and fell into silence.

He stood there for a long time before he turned around and wrapped his arms around her.

"Do you still remember when we first met?"

"Were you referring to me tying you up on the chair, or how we fu*ked from the kitchen to the bedroom?" Sun Jiao put her arms around Jiang Chen's neck seductively.

"I'm talking about when you licked the cans," Jiang Chen jokingly said.

"Pshhh!"

Sun Jiao burst out laughing and rolled her eyes.

"It's getting cold," Jiang Chen whispered.

Although it was June, on the land covered by radiation dust, the temperature fluctuated wildly.

With a blush spreading across her face, Sun Jiao read Jiang Chen's hint.

"Mhmm, let's go."

…

The door was not completely closed.

Behind the door, a small figure hid.

A coat was tightly held by the figure's hands, covering their chest as they watched through the window. Yao Yao's eyes looked a bit lost as her mouth pouted.

"Are you a fool or what?"

Lin Lin, who appeared behind her, let out a sigh.

Her voice made Yao Yao jump before she looked at Lin Lin, displeased.

"If you don't act now, you'll have more and more competition," Lin Lin said with a smirk.

"… like you?" Yao Yao buried her head.

"Eh? Why-why are you bringing me into this? I-I'm talking about Sun Xiaorou. Last time, didn't she, kiss at the door…" Lin Lin's face instantly turned red as she rambled on listlessly.

But the more she explained, the fainter her voice became.

Yao Yao walked forward with her head still buried and stopped beside Lin Lin.

"Sorry. I shouldn't… I shouldn't have said that to you."

"It's okay… It's me who should apologize. Maybe you're right, but I don't even know what I'm thinking," Lin Lin mumbled in a low voice and hugged Yao Yao.

She admitted that her intentions to encourage her friend were rather despicable.

The silver-white hair and the black hair mixed together as the two small figures hugged each other.

Sun Xiaorou let out a sigh looking at the two girls in the corner.

But not long after, a joyful curvature appeared on her mouth as she turned around and walked to the bathroom.

Chapter 387: Sisters

The next morning, a ray of sunshine shone through the ledge of the roof and scattered on Jiang Chen's nose.

Jiang Chen's eyebrows jumped as he opened his drowsy eyes. Almost at the same time, a sour feeling flooded into the back of his head.

[Hungover again…]

After showering last night, Sun Jiao drank some more with him. As to what she did to him after he was drunk? Hehe, there was no need to guess.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath of fresh morning air as he wanted to drowsily rub his sore facial muscles, but his right hand seemed to be trapped by something. He took a moment to process that before he tried to move his left, but it was also trapped.

Even though Jiang Chen reacted slowly, he realized that the situation was a bit odd.

He shook himself free of his drowsiness, turned his head and immediately understood the situation.

"… Up so early." The sluggish voice rang in his ear as the completely naked Sun Jiao didn't let go of Jiang Chen's arm, but rather, she adjusted her body like a cat being fed.

The messy bed and the marks on the sheets as well as the pillows thrown on the ground gave a glimpse of the intimacy that happened the night before.

This wasn't the problem.

The problem was that there was more than one cat.

Jiang Chen slowly turned his stiff neck and looked at the figure to his left.

"Morning, brother-in-law," Sun Xiaorou greeted him with a grin.

This must be a dream.

Jiang Chen muttered to himself and closed his eyes again.

...

But it proved to not be a dream.

Because of the alcohol, his memory of last night seemed scattered in Jiang Chen's head. But after having a good sleep, all the way until noon, he began to recall what happened. First, he held hands with Sun Jiao, but somehow a third person joined in.

With the sheets around her chest, Sun Jiao confessed to Jiang Chen what happened last night. Sun Xiaorou kneeled by the bed and confessed her affection for him from the bottom of her heart.

A few days ago when Sun Jiao was washing Sun Xiaorou, Xiaorou poured out her feelings for Jiang Chen. When Sun Jiao heard this, although she was hesitant at first, she still expressed understanding of her sister's feelings.

At the same time, a question that had been bothering Sun Jiao came back to her. Jiang Chen never ate Yao Yao, so she was afraid that she couldn't keep him in her world just by herself. Having seen the other world through the fourth dimension messenger, she knew that even as the emperor of the wasteland, not to mention the general of NAC, his life here was not comparable to being an ordinary citizen in the other world.

She then remembered her sister and the feelings she confessed to her that day.

Although what she did was somewhat despicable, she hoped that he could stay on this side, or at least prevent him from randomly disappearing one day.

Therefore, she wanted to give him more reasons to stay.

That was Xiaorou's thought too, right? She comforted herself like that before she decided to drag Xiaorou into things last night.

On the bed, Xiaorou stared into Jiang Chen's eyes as she said remorsefully:

"Do you dislike me?"

"No, but-" Jiang Chen smiled bitterly.

"As long as you don't dislike me." Like the weather in May, a bright smile instantly bloomed on Xiaorou's face.

Drawn by her bright smile, Jiang Chen stared at her blankly when the sheet dropped from her body.

At the same time, Sun Jiao hugged Jiang Chen from behind as she said with slight jealousy:

"You have to thank me. Also, I'm the main course."

"Ah, I…"

Because this was all too exciting, Jiang Chen's brain was a mess since words couldn't come out of his mouth.

"That's right, sister is the main course."

Xiaorou smiled and pecked him on the lips.

Jiang Chen felt something shattering in his chest.

Mhmm, something called boundaries.

...

The intimate night was too short since it was already morning, but the emperor decided to skip the morning ceremony (1). Although this saying described Consort Yang, Jiang Chen felt that it applied to him too.

The weariness of the past days completely faded as Jiang Chen walked into the community center feeling completely energized. Han Junhua, standing beside the office window, saw that Jiang Chen had arrived, so she walked over with her arms crossed.

She didn't ask why Jiang Chen didn't show up in the morning as she took out two document packages and put them in the middle of the table.

"The administration department lead, Lu Huasheng, delivered three construction designs of the general's office."

Jiang Chen opened the document Han Junhua pointed at and took it out along with three graphene chips. The graphene cards stored the 3D models. The three designs each had unique aspects; he couldn't tell which one was better.

"What do you think?" After putting the three chips on the table, Jiang Chen asked Han Junhua for her input.

"I don't have any opinion on the exterior appearance, but the office should be reinforced as much as possible. In any circumstance, the commander's office would be the primary target of the enemy," Han Junhua said.

Jiang Chen scanned through the document and wrote Han Junhua's recommendations in the box for suggestions.

"Okay, then this one." He picked the card that looked the most pleasing to the eye and stuffed the documents back into the package. With the two cards that didn't get picked, he threw them into the garbage.

Then Jiang Chen reached for the other package.

There was a stack of documents inside.

"The logistics head, Wang Qin, came in the morning to submit a colonization expansion proposal. The specifics included requesting Shenxiang Colony to expand in the direction of Dianshan Lake with an estimated 15,000 acreage of land to be used for the planting of Carm trees and mutated fruits. She wanted me to let you know that if we initiated this proposal, we'd become the biggest supplier of Carm Treesap and mutated fruits at Sixth Street," Han Junhua described.

"15,000 acreage? Let me see… it would hit Dianshan Lake directly. We have a battle with the mutated humans in the fall; are there any problems with expanding at the front lines?" Jiang Chen took out a map and looked at the land circled in red with a frown.

"From a war strategy perspective, there's no problem at all. We're on the offensive side with the battle centered in Jia City. Without any surprises, the mutated humans wouldn't be able to reach Shenxiang at all. In terms of the economics, it's not my specialty, so I won't give an opinion on it," Han Junhua said concisely.

"It's also not my specialty either, but if there's nothing wrong with it strategically, then I trust my talented staff." Jiang Chen laughed and signed the proposal.

Carm tree was the primary raw ingredient for the production of plastic on the wasteland. Kinetic skeletons and rifles all needed it.

Han Junhua quietly watched Jiang Chen stuff the signed document into the package.

"Are you planning to leave?" Seeing Jiang Chen was about to go, Han Junhua asked.

"I need to go find Du Yongkong. If Lu Huasheng and Wang Qin are here, just give the packages to them," Jiang Chen instructed her as he stopped at the door.

"… Okay." Han Junhua crossed her arms and nodded.

"Thank you."

Han Junhua paused then shook her head.

"No problem."

_Min_ _Min_

(1) Meaning that the time with beauties was so enjoyable that the emperor would skip work just to spend time with his beauties

Chapter 388: Virtual Reality Helmet Prototype

At the end of the hallway in the community center was a large office modified from a conference room. The discussion behind the half-closed doors didn't seem to stop; it looked quite busy inside.

Although the reorganization that happened a while ago affected most departments, this was the only department that hadn't changed.

A board carved with words hung on the wall crookedly: <Godly Land Game Developing Department>

Right now, the makeshift office was jam-packed.

"The mission brief is completed. Old Zhang, are you done with the text?"

"Done. Wait one moment, I'll send it to you."

"Models Code C10087 to C10129 NPC have been completed. The rest would be here, and a total of 17 AI must be inputted manually, take a look…"

The conference room was separated into individual offices with boards. Fifty programmers with dark eyebags worked in front of the hologram computers and continued to refine the virtual reality MMORPG.

In front of a hologram computer, Du Yongkong scanned through the lines of code. As the director of the game, he didn't need to personally type the code like the programmers - he only needed to audit the work of each team and direct game development.

The work sounded simple, but it wasn't easy at all. The work of fifty people was audited by only him. It was easy to see the impact his workload had on him from the deep eyebags on his face.

But he didn't mind the tiring work, or rather, he enjoyed it. He was just a chief engineer before the war and never acted as a game director. But life pulled a big prank on him as he finally got his dream position after the war.

He hadn't shut his eyes for 24 hours already. After he audited the last line of code, he was planning to nap for a bit on the table, but he happened to see a surprising person.

With Jiang Chen at the door, Du Yongkong's eyes lit up as he immediately got up to greet him.

After catching up for a bit, Jiang Chen finally got to business.

"Don't be so nervous, I'm just here to take a look. Also, did you finish the server?"

"Already done." Du Yongkong nodded. The humble programmer didn't know how to flatter people, so he just kept smiling and smiling.

Although he looked a bit comical, Jiang Chen really liked simple people like this.

"Let me see."

"No problem! Please follow me." Du Yongkong bowed respectfully and led Jiang Chen to the adjacent junk room.

The condition of the junk room was typical of a programmer as there were unorganized paper boxes stacked together. Considering the tidiness of the room, Du Yongkong's expression looked awkward as he scratched his head.

"It's okay, I don't mind. Just let me see the prototype of the helmet."

"Ah, okay, heh." Du Yongkang laughed, rather embarrassed, as he began to dig through the boxes. He moved away a few boxes filled with papers before he managed to drag out the box that contained five virtual reality helmets.

Looking at the helmets in the box, Jiang Chen felt an inexplicable excitement.

If vessels and cannons were a source of romance for men, then virtual reality helmets were the source of romance all netizens longed for. Jiang Chen could say with confidence that for anyone who read web novels or played MMORPGs or single player games, there wasn't a single person who didn't dream of the ability to use a virtual reality helmet to write their own story in the world created by 0s and 1s.

"General?"

"You're not a soldier, just call me boss."

"Okay boss." Du Yongkong laughed timidly as he scratched the back of his head. "Is this what you wanted?"

Jiang Chen took a helmet from the box as he carefully observed it in his hands.

It had a tainted crystal surface along with a bluish-black polyethylene shell, resembling an aerodynamic motorcycle helmet. At the back of the helmet was a "small tail" covered in scales, the length was close to neck length, and it could connect one's neural network through microcircuits, interfering with the brain field.

It weighed around 1-2 kilograms, slightly heavier than a motorcycle helmet. But it didn't matter since the helmet was activated when the user was in REM sleep mode. Therefore, not a lot of people would choose to play this game while standing up.

"How much molybdenum does one virtual reality helmet require?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Without accounting for improper production material waste, around 300 grams," Du Yongkang said affirmatively.

"300 grams?" Jiang Chen fell into deep thought as he stroked his chin.

Therefore, one ton of molybdenum could produce at least 3000 virtual reality helmets. Once he solved the molybdenum mine problem, this could be produced on a large scale. Of course, there was no rush since before this could be launched officially, Jiang Chen planned to conduct an internal test with some volunteers in the modern world to optimize the game.

Since it was an MMORPG from a different era, the degree of cultural acceptance from the 21st century would differ from the 22nd century; he didn't want to decrease the quality of the game because of lack of attention to cultural appropriateness.

"… To produce 100 prototypes, the logistics department took apart a chamber to gather enough molybdenum. Why would we not use the chamber as the platform in the game? Compared to this outdated technology, the more advanced chamber would be better in both performance and comfort."

[What? Took apart a chamber?]

[That's a big loss…] Jiang Chen cursed in his mind, but he didn't show any of it on his face.

"Performance? Would playing the game with the helmet make the game lag?"

"It won't lag. Lag won't be displayed in the game with rather simple physics," Du Yongkong said.

"Then it would be okay. This type of fantasy game doesn't need to have a realistic physics model. Don't take apart any more chambers though; I only need the one hundred helmets for now," Jiang Chen said.

Du Yongkong nodded. Seeing that Jiang Chen wasn't going to change his mind, he didn't speak any more. He was only making a recommendation for his boss; there was no reason to argue with the boss over it.

"Then that's all. I'll get people to transport the server and the helmets in a bit. Also, I almost forgot, did you add security measures to the helmets?" Jiang Chen patted his own head and asked hastily.

"I did - the molybdenum gold dense lead barrier can prevent any scanning. Also, if anyone attempted to open the helmet, the internal security circuit would forcefully overload and destroy all the graphene circuits and chips inside the helmet. It would become a piece of junk…"

But would anyone really want this outdated technology? Du Yongkong muttered in his mind with skepticism.

Jiang Chen happily patted him on the shoulder. "Haha, good job. Go find Wang Qin in a bit. All the game developers will receive 50 crystals. This is the reward for your hard work!"

"Thank you Boss!" Du Yongkong was ecstatic.

50 crystals were equivalent to a NAC knight's basic salary for a month.

He didn't have any more doubts about the boss' decision.

Who cares? As long as the boss was happy.

Chapter 389: Hang City Merchant Alliance

It was either a nuclear crater or a circular lake.

The lake reflected a light green luminescence in the night just like a sea of fireflies - beautiful but ominous.

The lake was clear but thick like a gel; the occasional wind wouldn't cause any disturbance to its stillness.

In the middle of the lake, a small mountain floated in the middle.

It was a small mountain formed by dark red chunks of meat. The blood vessels on its surface wriggled as they sent nutrients to the others parts of its body. The massive body rested on dense tentacles like an octopus or an enormous tree with deep roots in the middle of the lake.

A tree formed by flesh.

There was a hair-like structure ten meters long, about as thick as an arm, growing on top. At the tip of it was a meat bubble that could light up. It was like a bright lamp hanging on an antenna. A faint light flickered as it listened to something or called for something.

No one had visited this place for twenty years since no one could access this place - it was the forbidden territory of life.

But still, a few mutants could approach the area.

The Death Claw was one of them.

Perhaps guided by the faint light, a Death Claw slowly moved toward the nuclear crater.

It moved while it swung its spike-covered tails as its sharp claws clamped on a feeble survivor.

The survivor's face was disgustingly ugly - his festered skin had mutated spores growing on top, the high radiation levels mutated every single cell in his body. His bloated mouth moved slowly and murmured undistinguishable words. Following the movements of his facial muscles, skin began to fall off his face.

His face was miserable, but he was also solemn.

Just like it was practicing a mysterious ceremony, the Death Claw lifted him up.

Following the frightened howl of the prey, it threw him into the lake.

The thick waves spread and quickly engulfed the person.

Just like usual, after the Death Claw made a tribute, it left.

But suddenly, something unexpected occurred!

The thick liquid became turbulent as giant bubbles emerged under the surface just like boiling water. The survivor who sank into the lake was the last match that ignited the entire lake.

The Death Claw suddenly turned its head as its bell-sized eyes narrowed into a line and its gaze shifted in shock between the rising radiance and the restless chunks of meat.

At the same time, in a mansion far away, the asleep Lin Lin suddenly opened her eyes.

Her breathing was still rhythmic as if she was still in a deep sleep.

But the crimson red in her pupils was particularly visible in the darkness.

…

It was mid-June already, so Jiang Chen wanted to return to the modern world soon. Since everything on the wasteland had been taken care of and the last group of recruits headed to the front lines yesterday, there was no point in him going to the office. As the wife of the general, Sun Jiao would take care of small tasks for him. If there were larger tasks, Lin Lin would message him with the fourth dimension messenger.

But he still had to go to the office today as a representative from Hang city wanted to see him.

"Ha-" Yawning, Lin Lin rubbed her sleepy eyes and walked out of her room.

"Did you stay up late?" Jiang Chen, who was above to leave, asked with a smile.

"No, I don't know why I'm so tired… Hungry too." Lin Lin rubbed her flat stomach and walked to the kitchen drowsily.

Jiang Chen didn't know why but Lin Lin had been tired for the past while. Jiang Chen initially thought she was tired the way regular humans got tired, but Lin Lin told him that digitalized humans didn't get sick.

Jiang Chen stared at her back, puzzled, but he didn't say anything as he left.

The sky was exceptionally clear today; perhaps the seasonal wind from the Pacific blew away some radiation dust that covered the wasteland. When he arrived at his office, a man in a suit was already waiting for him.

When he saw Jiang Chen, his eyes lit up as he extended his right hand.

Jiang Chen shook his hand with friendliness.

"Kong Jie, the president of the Hang Merchant Alliance Commerce Chamber." The man shook Jiang Chen's hand for a long time as he introduced himself.

Judging by the calluses on his hand, this guy didn't seem like a merchant at all.

Although he'd never been to Hang before, Jiang Chen heard of the Merchant Alliance before.

There were quite a number of merchants at the Sixth Street who came from Hang. The electronics, tobacco, and adhesives from Hang were all top sellers here. And the majority of the merchants from Hang all belonged to the Hang Merchant Alliance. Having this many merchants as members was indicative of the power of this organization.

But between Hang and Wanghai City was Jia City, and 150 kilometers to travel was considered far on the wasteland.

"Jiang Chen, NAC general. Why don't we sit down before we talk?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Haha, of course…"

After some small talk, the two sat down on the sofa.

Jiang Chen signaled Han Junhua to leave for now. He interlocked his fingers and rested them on his knee as he asked directly:

"It's so chaotic outside, so why is the president making a personal visit here?'

Jiang Chen didn't forget that Jia City was still in the hands of the mutated humans.

"I'm here to bring friendliness and bring crystals. And a personal reason: I wanted to see the rumored King of Wanghai City," Kong Jie said.

[The King of Wanghai? Flattering words, but I like it.]

"Haha, is this how people in Hang refer to me?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Of course, the merchants that returned from the Sixth Street all praised you. A dictator who recognized the importance of merchants and who could follow the rules of the game he established. To be honest, when we heard that the Group of Ten Council was replaced by a dictator, we assumed the worst and thought we lost the brightest market, but you proved us wrong," Kong Jie said with humor.

Seeing that Kong Jie was still not getting to the point, Jiang Chen's eyebrows raised as he continued:

"It's an honor to receive such praise from your merchants; the Hang merchants will always be our friends. But I think before we flatter each other, we should get to the point."

Kong Jie laughed.

"To be honest, before I came, I had a great proposal."

"And now?" Jiang Chen asked.

"I changed my mind."

"Could I hear the proposal you abandoned?" Jiang Chen leaned on the sofa as he stared at the president with a shrewd face.

"My proposal was for both parties to send out a force to take out the nail that's blocking our trade route."

"What about now?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Now I realized that you don't seem to need us - you can take out the nail yourself."

As he said that, Jiang Chen sensed a trace of concern hidden deep in his eyes.

Chapter 390: The Calm before the Storm

"That's right," Jiang Chen said with straightforwardness.

He didn't hide the power of NAC because there was no need. Once the NAC flag flew above Jia City, the survivors, merchants, and mercenaries would naturally circulate the unknown but powerful name to the entire wasteland.

Jiang Chen was observing Kong Jie while Kong Jie was doing the same thing.

"I sense danger from you."

"Could I interpret that as a compliment?" Jiang Chen crossed his legs as he said in a joking voice.

"Of course. Our merchants are spread all over the wasteland; there aren't a lot of forces that would scare us. The Northern Alliance Area is one of them, as are you."

"Because of my weapons?"

"Because of your ambition." Kong Jie stared right into Jiang Chen's eyes.

This act was extremely disrespectful in a friendly meeting, but he still did it. He wanted to see if Jiang Chen's eyes could reveal anything that could prove his assumption. In actuality, he did it because Jiang Chen didn't bother to disguise his ambition.

"How so?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"From the configuration of the base." Kong Jie shifted in his seat as he scanned the room decorations. "As well as this office. For the people who prefer order, they have a high standard of living for themselves and their neighbors. Of course, the best way to demonstrate that is the name 'NAC.' New Asia Corporation? Good name."

"Do you feel unsettled?" To Kong Jie's comments, Jiang Chen only answered dubiously.

"That's right," Kong Jie said directly. "Our merchants are all considering one question: if you take out the nail between us, who could promise that you wouldn't step foot into Hang from Jia City?"

"So your recommendation is?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Let Jia City become the buffer zone between us. Without a land route, our merchants can develop routes in the shallow sea or Tai Lake. But without this nail, we won't sleep well at night." Kong Jie stared into Jiang Chen's eyes, making his proposal with seriousness.

"That's impossible." Jiang Chen rejected it right away. "Even if we don't attack them, the mutated humans will launch an attack on us. By that time, they would have a natural advantage; no one could guarantee that the war won't spread across the Taifu river. I won't prioritize short-term peace to risk losing an inevitable war."

"We could fund you to build up your defenses along the river." Kong Jie raised his finger. "Half a million crystals, on the condition that you won't send your forces west."

Jiang Chen was not moved at all with this proposal.

"Then that's unfortunate; we already raised two million crystals through the distribution of war bonds."

The negotiation was at a stalemate.

Kong Jie and Jiang Chen stared at each other and fell into silence.

Moments later, Kong Jie suddenly spoke with a smile.

"Do you know how the mutated humans obtained so many weapons?"

"Why?" Jiang Chen didn't seem too interested.

"Based on the data we gathered, an organization named The Dusk that migrated from the Northern Alliance Area is providing support for them," Kong Jie said with an ambiguous smile.

This information was outdated - the last time The Dusk sent out Sun Xiaorou to assassinate Jiang Chen, he already obtained that information through his unique methods. Regarding the operations of The Dusk, he knew a man called Bo Yu provided help to the mutated humans.

It wasn't hard to deduce this as the mutated humans were weak industrially, yet they had heavy machines or even cannons. Jiang Chen would never believe they didn't have support from a third party.

But from Kong Jie's ambiguous expression, Jiang Chen read something else.

"Are you threatening me?" Jiang Chen said dubiously as he looked into his eyes.

"I didn't say anything. But as merchants, we retain the right to invest in any projects that can offer a return." Kong Jie shrugged.

Jiang Chen sneered.

Since it was already so obvious, why was he still afraid to admit the truth?

"You're playing with fire."

"I am looking for an opportunity to work together," Kong Jie corrected him without backing down.

Jiang Chen suddenly stood up.

A trace of anxiety flashed across Kong Jie's eyes, but he quickly calmed down.

"If you think you can fund the mutated humans to prevent us from removing them from Jia City, you can go ahead." Jiang Chen walked in front of him. He stopped and stared into Kong Jie's eyes from above as he said, "But I can tell you now that if you support the mutated humans..."

Unable to breathe because of the oppressive atmosphere, Kong Jie held his breath and waited for the next sentence from the dictator.

Jiang Chen grinned and spoke the words Kong Jie didn't want to hear the most.

"Then there would be war."

The atmosphere in the office froze, but it quickly faded by the next sentence from Jiang Chen.

"Of course, I trust that your party's foresight, you wouldn't make such an ill-advised decision."

With his eyes wavering for a while, Kong Jie finally nodded in hesitation.

"Excellent. Welcome back to the negotiation table then." Jiang Chen smiled and sat back down.

With the tension alleviated, Kong Jie finally breathed fresh air again.

Suddenly, he realized his entire back was drenched in cold sweat.

…

The negotiations ended peacefully.

Jiang Chen didn't plan to discuss the details of military operations in the fall but rather, he began talking about how to share trade routes after Jia City was captured. Although the war hadn't started yet, Jiang Chen already considered the city his.

Kong Jie still expressed concern with the fact that if Jia City was captured by Jiang Chen, Hang would be surrounded by him. But with Jiang Chen's firm position, he couldn't do anything about it.

After they reached an agreement with the trade routes, supply stations, and patrol stations, Kong Jie hastily left.

Seeing that Kong Jie had left, Han Junhua walked in.

"Why don't you just detain him?"

"Because that would serve no purpose." Jiang Chen yawned and waved his hand. "This is the annoying part about negotiating with such a loose organization - even if you killed its leader, it would just select a new one. Or rather, the leader itself is basically like a mascot. When I shook hands with him, I knew he wasn't a professional merchant."

A professional merchant would not have calluses from holding guns. Instead of being a true leader, he was a representative pushed forward by a bunch of merchants.

"You don't seem to be worried about the reaction from Hang?" Han Junhua asked.

"They need a market, and we have the biggest market in Suhang province. Safety or crystals - they must choose between them, and I firmly believe they will choose the latter. Especially since my attitude towards the Sixth Street merchants seemed to ease his mind. Even if they were taken over by the NAC, their assets wouldn't be compromised… Most merchants would think this way." Jiang Chen walked over to the desk.

There was someone knocking on the door.

"Come in."

It was Wang Qin. She had a grave expression.

"General, information coming from the Sixth Street stated that mutant activities have been on the rise as of late. Mutants including mutated cockroaches and mutated rats are all exhibiting strong, aggressive behaviors. Typically, these mutants wouldn't attack survivors… The information reported that Wanghai City is preparing for the second flood of mutants."

"Flood of mutants?" Jiang Chen frowned.

He had never experienced a mutant flood before; he just heard rumors about the terror of it. In the past when the World Alliance Organization had yet to launch the space colonization ships, a mutant flood erupted in Wanghai City. The ex-military army stationed near the city's research institute was driven out by the ferocious mutants.

The shock also impacted the Sixth Street, but with the equipment left by the World Alliance Organization, they managed to fend off the attack. At that time, the Sixth Street confirmed its rule under the Group of Ten Council.

But this time…

Wang Qin nodded.

"Alert Wang Zhaowu to be on the precautionary side; he's closer to the city center. I will give him permission to open the fallout shelter door and lead the citizens on the surface to retreat into the fallout shelter. At the same time, increase the fallout shelter energy reserve to 100 fuel rods. You will be responsible for that," Jiang Chen said.

"Understood." Wang Qin nodded.

The time between each fallout shelter opening varied; no one knew when the other fallout shelters in Wanghai City would open. If he lost fallout shelter no.27, that would mean that the research abilities of the NAC would decrease substantially. Jiang Chen would not permit such a thing from happening, so if a mutant flood were to erupt, he had to protect the safety of the scientists.

Whether or not a mutant flood would actually occur, there was nothing wrong with being prepared.

"Also, establish a temporary emergency shelter underground. Prepare necessary barricades, beds, nutrient supplies, and heaters. Although we know these things probably won't be used, prepare these things just in case."

"Okay." Seeing that Jiang Chen had no further instructions, Wang Qin quickly left.

After a brief pause, Jiang Chen looked at Han Junhua again.

"For the next few days… Mhmm, perhaps for half a month, I have something to take care of elsewhere. Just discuss things with Sun Jiao for now since she takes on my responsibilities when I'm away. If the mutated flood does erupt, I'll come back immediately."

Jiang Chen thought Han Junhua would ask where he was going, but surprisingly, she only nodded.

"Okay. But my recommendation is that if the mutant flood was to erupt, as the general, you shouldn't return to the areas with high danger."

"I will return because there are people who are important to me here," Jiang Chen said with seriousness.

"… I will protect them for you," Han Junhua promised calmly.

"Thank you. But don't be too worried, they may just be rumors."

Jiang Chen patted her on the shoulder and left the office.

The door closed.

Long after watching the door close, Han Junhua squeezed her own face.

Then she put her hand down.

"Weird."

She muttered to herself with an emotionless voice then looked outside.

It was bright and clear outside; not a single cloud was in the sky.

But the brightness gave her a surreal feeling.

This feeling was just like the calm before the storm.

Chapter 391: Economic Sanction?

To Jiang Chen's surprise, the skies were clear at the wasteland, but when he returned to the modern world, it was pouring rain.

The grain-sized rain droplets splashed on the windows and made harsh sounds along with the violent wind. The leaves on the palm trees outside were all blowing to one side and the waves in the sea were rolling thunderously without any sign of humanity.

Perhaps Ayesha heard a noise in the bedroom, so she slinked into Jiang Chen's room like a quiet cat.

Her clothes right now were particularly eye-catching, or rather, whenever she was home, her clothes were always eye-catching. She had just a loose white shirt on with two smooth and perfectly shaped legs swinging out underneath. From a psychological perspective, this style not only drew the curiosity of the husband wondering whether she was "only" wearing a shirt, but it would also tease the husband as he watched the legs swinging.

Combined with a cold expression and passionate sight…

Okay, Jiang Chen admitted, if it weren't for the fact that his clip was completely empty, he would've leaped onto her and did her on the spot.

Jiang Chen stood up, laughed and helped her button up one button.

"Come out with me for a bit. Uhh, do you need to change first?"

"There's a typhoon outside." Ayesha kissed Jiang Chen as she said gently.

From her voice, Jiang Chen could sense a hint.

"Typhoon? Is it serious?"

"Around three hundred kilometers away from Coro Island and the wind magnitude is level 13… The news recommended reducing travel."

[It shouldn't be too serious then.]

Seeing as Jiang Chen didn't respond, Ayesha said in a faint voice, "It's been almost a month."

Jiang Chen, of course, knew what she was referring to, so he touched her forehead with his and smiled.

"Tonight?"

With her face blushing, a curve appeared on Ayesha's mouth as she buried her face in Jiang Chen's hug timidly.

…

Jiang Chen changed into somewhat formal clothes before he came into the garage and opened the black Sonata's door. In this hideous weather, he obviously didn't want to drive his Lamborghini.

Seeing as Jiang Chen got into the car, Ayesha, already sitting in the driver's seat, started the car and drove into the pouring storm.

Because of the storm, they drove slowly. It took them half an hour before they arrived at the presidential palace and entered the underground garage. After examining their identities, the security courteously allowed them to pass.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the president's office, Zhang Yapin was in a heated debate with his lead advisor and vice president. Zhang Yapin stopped for a second when he saw Jiang Chen at the door and came up to greet him.

"Welcome Mr. Jiang, what brought you here?"

The vice president and lead advisor weren't too displeased when their conversation with the president was interrupted; they merely examined Jiang Chen with a few curious looks.

Jiang Chen shook hands with Zhang Yapin before he asked:

"Are you busy now?"

"Diplomatic problem. Haha, gentlemen, it's already lunchtime. Why don't we wait until 2 before we start our discussion again?"

The lead advisor and the vice president exchanged glances before they nodded.

"No problem." "I agree."

The two left, leaving only Zhang Yapin and Jiang Chen in the office. Zhang Yapin walked up to the coffee pot and poured two cups of coffee before he sat down on the sofa and gestured Jiang Chen to give the coffee a try.

"Blue Mountain Coffee."

"Thank you." Jiang Chen took a drink and leaned back on the sofa.

"Okay, I guess you're not here just for me to make you coffee." Perhaps he'd been busy for the past few days, but Zhang Yapin's voice was fast.

After a few months of experience, the young president finally gave off the vibe of a politician. Although Zhang Yapin didn't say anything yet, he knew Jiang Chen must be here for something.

Seeing as Zhang Yapin was so direct, Jiang Chen didn't bother making small talk anymore. "Ocean resources development license and mining license - help me take care of these."

"You're planning to mine? I remember that there's only a low-reserve cooper mine in Pannu Islands," Zhang Yapin said with a frown.

Jiang Chen shook his head. "Not above the sea surface, I want to mine under the ocean."

"Underwater mining?"

"That's right. The location is south of Ange Island; it won't affect the local ecosystem there."

"…Okay, I'll take care of this for you." Although he was skeptical whether Jiang Chen could mine, Zhang Yapin still nodded. "Anything else?"

"I have nothing else." Jiang Chen shook his head. "But you seem to have something."

Zhang Yapin had a bitter smile and took a sip of his coffee.

"The attempts by country F to use the excuses of disrupting area stability and illegally detaining hostages to impose economic sanctions on Xin along with Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia and other neighboring countries. For example, increasing export taxes to Xin would greatly increase the cost of living for ordinary citizens. Also-"

"What's the reaction of each country?' Because he didn't understand the situation, Jiang Chen interrupted him as he cut straight to the point.

[Illegally detaining hostages? Fu*k? How thick is your skin to dare to say this?] Jiang Chen cursed in his mind.

"Because of the stance of Hua, the south sea countries all stand with country F while New Guinea expressed neutrality on this issue, but it wasn't a big deal - we didn't have significant trade with those countries."

"The problem is Australia?"

"That's right." Zhang Yapin nodded.

Australia was the major trade partner of Xin; 80% of the products sold in Xin supermarkets came from the ports of Australia. If Australia favored country F, it would be detrimental to Xin's economy.

"Based on the new arms deal between Australia and country F, F would purchase an out-of-service warship with a displacement of 3600 tons. While Australia didn't express their stance yet, based on the fact that F could use this deal as leverage, Australia has a high chance of favoring country F."

Jiang Chen crossed his legs and deliberated.

Zhang Yapin's expression looked rather helpless since a small country like Xin had no voice internationally. If Australia favored country F, Xin couldn't do anything about it.

"Cancel the trial in mid-July and release the 41 soldiers without conditions…? But that's impossible since we already announced the trial date to the international and local media. The international media also all submitted coverage requests to our supreme court already," Zhang Yapin said while rubbing his weary eyes.

The fact that things had developed to this point meant that there was no possibility of turning back. Once the 41 soldiers were convicted of their crimes, country F would lose all face internationally, and the "strong stance" employed by Aquino would become a complete joke.

If a small country could slap you in the face, how well does your strong stance work? It was already embarrassing for the invasion to occur, but without remedying the problem, Aquino would have to face the wrath of the soldiers' families as well as skepticism from his own citizens.

But country F's actions still made Jiang Chen surprised; the incident with the mercenaries still hadn't taught them a lesson.

"The ruling party of Australia is?" Jiang Chen asked in an undertone.

"Liberal party."

"What about the opposition party?"

"Labor party… Is there any problem?"

"Good, just leave this to me." A smile suddenly emerged on Jiang Chen's face as he stood on the sofa.

"Leave this to you?" Zhang Yapin was puzzled.

"A problem that can't be solved through foreign diplomacy can be solved politically. Don't forget - I'm a businessman and there are no boundaries for businessmen."

After Jiang Chen finished the coffee on the table, he left the completely confused Zhang Yapin and walked out the door with large strides.

Chapter 392: Arms Sale Agreement

In terms of diplomatic relationships, in contrast with its allies that were keen on flexing their muscles on the international stage, Australia's performance had been mediocre at best. It was partially because of its unfavorable geographic location, but also because its citizens never paid too much attention to international affairs.

As a joke, while the Australia government was attempting to win a seat on the UN security council, the opposition party laughed at the president for spending too much time on international politics, thus neglecting the crisis surrounding climate change.

Compared to Britain, France and UA that liked to play international political games during election years, Australia was calmer. But behind the calmness was a strong naval presence.

The Royal Australian Navy currently possessed six "Collins" class submarines, three "Adelaide" class warships, eight "Anzac" class warships, six mine hunters and other vessels; they could be considered the strongest naval force in the Pacific region.

Not only that, but currently the Royal Australian Navy was pushing the "SEA1400" and "SEA1000" projects with projected costs of 7.5 billion and 37 billion USD respectively. The projects would construct three "Hobart" class Aegis destroyers and 12 "Collins" class submarines, with the goal of replacing the existing fleet by 2020 and ultimately changing the existing naval force by 2030 to push for navy modernization…

But all this required money.

Considering its rather calm diplomatic policies and tight budget, its determination to modernize its navy was incredibly ambitious.

Because of this, the disposal of old navy vessels had been a problem that troubled Canberra for the past while. If country F was willing to purchase some old ships, the Australian government had no reason to object.

As for the extra condition requiring them to change their stance in the west Pacific, the Australians didn't mind since Xin was only a small country with a population of twenty thousand.

Jiang Chen would target this sale to ruin country F's plan.

…

In Australia's capital, Canberra.

Outside of a Burger King, a taxi stopped.

The door opened and a middle-aged man with a grey trenchcoat walked out. After he examined the interior of the restaurant, he cautiously looked behind him.

After he confirmed that there were no reporters following him, he opened the door and walked in. He didn't order anything as he sat down at a seat in the innermost part of the restaurant and looked at the black man that sat across him.

Barkary, a manager at Celestial Trade Company.

"Barkary?" The middle-aged man scanned his phone before he looked at Barkary and asked in a low voice.

"That's right, and you must be Brody." Barkary extended his right hand.

Brody, a member of the liberal party, had a reputation within the party second only to the party head, Malcolm.

Hesitating for a second, Brody shook his hand and spoke while staring into his eyes.

"The manager of Celestial Trade Company? Australia doesn't need a security company; I probably can't help you."

Barkary laughed and put his arms on the table.

"But we can definitely help you out."

Brody raised his eyebrows and signaled him to continue.

Barkary smiled and exposed his white teeth. "I heard you have an inactive MEKO-200 warship-"

"Impossible. We already decided to sell that to country F, so there's no way we can sell it to you. If you're here for that, you're out of luck." Brody immediately knew what he was going to say as he rejected him outright.

"200 employment positions in your riding," Barkary said.

Brody wanted to get up, but his interest was piqued, so he sat down again.

For a parliament member, there was nothing he cared about more than his riding. Although he was scornful at Barkary's suggestion, he still sat down and waited for him to continue.

"You haven't figured out the situation, Mr. Barkary. I can't convince the parliament to sell a navy vessel to a country we're unfamiliar with, even if it's just an inactive navy vessel," Brody said.

"I never said it would be sold to a country." Barkary shook his head.

"Not possible for private individuals either."

Brody wanted to get up, but Barkary pulled him back down and signaled Brody to give him ten minutes.

The parliament member sat down again as Barkary spoke with a smile.

"Our boss is planning to purchase a bankrupted amusement park located in New South Wales for five million USD. The vessel will be purchased under the name of the amusement park and converted into a military museum. This is not against the arms sales regulation because it's an Australian corporation that will purchase the vessel, and it's for non-military purposes."

And this point, Barkary stopped talking and watched Brody's eyes gradually lighting up. He knew that this parliament member was tempted by the proposal.

After a moment of deliberation, Brody said in an undertone:

"How much are you planning to pay?"

"11 million USD."

Brody shook his head. "I can only tell you that country F's offer is not below 15 million USD - I can't convince the president with this offer."

"Is this as simple as 11 million USD?" Barkary asked with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Brody raised his eyebrows.

"This year is the election year. Do you think voters are more inclined to see a president who is keen to sell a navy vessel to a country that disrupts regional security, or a president who is working hard to improve employment and maintain regional stability? Think about it - the president isn't a businessman; the voters won't care how much you sell the vessel for as long as the number isn't too absurd."

Because of its amount of time in service, the second-hand navy vessel wasn't worth a lot of money to begin with. The "Hamilton" class patrol ship purchased by country F from the UA was 10 million. While this Australian vessel had served for comparatively less time, it was definitely not worth 15 million USD. The reason why country F was willing to pay a premium was because Australia agreed to sell the weapons and radar along with the vessel.

Australia also took a diplomatic risk when selling this vessel, because the sale could be viewed as an act of aggression. Therefore, this proposal had a divergent opinion in the president's office.

As a politician, Brody obviously considered that aspect. The reason he didn't reveal the controversy about the deal with country F was because he wanted to gain more out of the negotiations. Due to the price drop in iron and aluminum ores, Australia's economy had a lackluster performance in 2015. In this type of economic environment, the deal that would gain the support of voters was a no-brainer.

Seeing that Barkary put all the facts on the table, Brody's gaze drifted away and his fingers knocked on the table continuously while he debated the pros and cons.

"The arms sale is led by the UA - we can't completely disregard the position of our ally." Brody lowered his voice.

Barkary laughed and shifted his chair back.

"Mr. Brody, do you think the UA is more important or the upcoming election in 2016? If you don't win, your efforts in diplomatic relations are only going to help pave the road for the Labor party. If you think my proposal isn't attractive enough, we can also go talk to the Labor party. I trust they will definitely take this opportunity."

Barkary then stood up.

But this time, Brody grabbed him.

Looking at the expression on the parliament member's face, a victorious smile appeared on Barkary's face.

He knew he had successfully convinced him.

…

The rain outside the window was still pouring. In the distance, a few strikes of lightning occasionally appeared.

Jiang Chen was already naked on the soft bed. A sheet covered his stomach while he had a phone in his hand. He looked relaxed.

"It's done. A member of parliament, Brody, agreed to discuss our deal with the party leader."

"Excellent, 16 million USD has been transferred to your account. You can now go purchase the bankrupted amusement park and the inactive navy vessel." Lying on the bed, Jiang Chen sent these instructions to Barkary in Australia.

Once country F found out their navy vessel would be turned into an amusement park, what would they think? It wasn't important for the amusement park to make a profit, but it was meant to solve the awkward diplomatic situation Xin was currently in. He had to drag wavering Australia off of country F's boat.

Only 16 million? Jiang Chen could afford that.

"Also, what do you think of Brody as a person?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Devious." Barkary used one word to describe him.

"Influence within the party?"

"Only second to the party leader, Malcolm. He helped Malcolm win the election in 2013."

"Maintain a good relationship with Brody; we could use him in the future. Also, you can hint at him to see if he's interested in becoming the party leader. We can provide some election funds." Jiang Chen had a dubious smile on his face.

"Okay," Barkary answered concisely.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen let out a long breath.

Without Australia's involvement, the economic sanctions would only be words on paper.

Then the sheets covering his lower half moved and slowly lifted.

A gorgeous face appeared under it. A pair of crystal blue eyes stared at him followed by a rhythmic up and down motion.

Jiang Chen smiled and caressed Ayesha's dark brown hair.

"I still need to make a phone call-"

But just as his fingertips brushed her hair, a tingling sensation began to diffuse in his body as Jiang Chen tightened his back muscles like he was electrocuted.

Violent vibrations and a few gulping sounds.

Tempted by the pair of eyes mixing frost and passion, Jiang Chen took a deep breath and tossed his phone to the side.

What happened next could not be spoken.

Chapter 393: Transporting Ores

"You incompetent fool! What are you doing! You negotiated for half a month, and this is the result you give me?"

Since half an hour ago, the roaring sound in the F president's office didn't stop.

Aquino threw the stack of documents on the minister of foreign affairs' face furiously; his chest pumped up and down violently.

F's naval units were most dependent on imports. The only two "Hamilton" class patrol ships were all the scrap junks of UA. It was quite funny that every time in an arms sale, the F minister of defense would beg for the UA to retain the equipment on the ship, but it would always be rejected.

Now that the Australian government finally agree and indicated that they were willing to retain some of the equipment and weapons, the navy vessel that was about to be theirs is now gone? Aquino wanted to use this boat as his stake in the negation in the south sea!

The minister of foreign affair also felt horrible. The Australian president already agreed, but today when they were preparing to discuss the details of the agreement, they unexpectedly began to toughen up on some of the key problems.

Overnight, they suddenly changed their stance, this caught F representatives there to negotiate completely off guard.

The lead advisor looked at the upset minister of foreign affair and took a deep breath.

"Mr. President, we should phone the Capital--"

The door was suddenly pushed open as a member of parliament walked in, in quick steps.

"The "Octopus" typhoon passed by the coast near OSL city, multiple buildings including a hospital suddenly collapsed when the typhoon passed through. Currently, there are 31 confirmed casualties…"

"Fu*k!" Aquino shouted in frustration as he walked to the door in quick steps.

With the series of problems coming at him and the media just criticized him for his weak diplomatic ability, he didn't want them to say he put in a lack of effort on the rescue.

"The Capital--"

"Get the minister of foreign affairs to negotiate, I need to be at the area in five hours…"

…

It was a disaster when the typhoon passed through, but the weather had cleared up.

The thunderstorm washed about the dust in the air as the air was fulfilled with a fresh fragrance. The dew on the palm trees outside the window reflected a bright crystal color and reflected the redness rising from the east.

In the morning, Jiang Chen sat in front of the table while reading the morning news. Based on the meteorologist, the typhoon named "Octopus" was moving westward along the Pacific ring of fire, it scraped by the east side of F and headed towards the south along the coast.

After putting toast, eggs, and coffee on the table for Jiang Chen, Ayesha leaned forward and kiss him on the cheek and then sat beside him.

Jiang Chen smiled at her before he focused on the TV screen again. When he saw the number of cities affected, his eyebrows raised.

Ayesha seemed to have read Jiang Chen's thought as she gently asked, "Xia Shiyu is in Xiangjiang, is she okay?"

"I'll give her a call in a bit."

Ayesha nodded, picked up the utensils, and began to work on her own breakfast.

It was already mid-June, deepwater started at the beginning of the month. BHP followed the agreement signed with Jiang Chen and shipped one hundred thousand tons of iron ore and twenty hundred thousand tons of aluminum ore to the deepwater port at Coro Island.

This batch of ores would be used to support industrial production on the wasteland, so the earlier, the better. After breakfast, Ayesha drove Jiang Chen to the port at the south end of Coro Island.

Typically speaking, imported goods such as ores would be shipped in 20 feet containers. Because of the maximum weight permitted per container, a container could only transport 20 tons of iron ore. Jiang Chen first had no exact concept to the thirty hundred tons of containers, but when he arrived at the port, he was flabbergasted.

The ten thousand something containers stuffed the not so spacious port fully. The bored port manager and his team had to work overtime because of this batch of goods. Therefore, when they saw Jiang Chen, they were certainly not in a good mood.

But Jiang Chen didn't speak much with them as he called Zhang Yapin and told him to give them all a vacation. After confirming that they all left, Jiang Chen told Ayesha to guard the entrance of the port before he started the lengthy transport process.

To prevent the warehouse from blowing up, Jiang Chen had to go back and notify Sun Jiao. Then they drove to the steel plant located in Shenxiang. After getting rid of the workers there, they placed the transport marker on the empty land used to store raw materials at the back of the steel plant.

It was not until noon did Jiang Chen finish the entire process.

"I'm so fu*cking tired…"

Jiang Chen slapped his hand and walked out of the now spacious port.

He already made up his mind to establish a steel plant at Ange Island, at least to process the raw materials a little, or bring steel processing from the apocalypse to the modern world, it was too inefficient to transport ores.

Also, the Fishbone base must build a bigger warehouse to accept a large quantity of resources.

When he got in the car, Ayesha asked.

"Where are we going now?"

"The ferry terminal, I have to go Ange Island in a bit." As he said, Jiang Chen took out his phone.

She nodded and started the car.

…

Xiangjiang.

Because of the orange storm alert, Future Technology was on break today. Xia Shiyu stayed in the apartment and didn't even step her foot out of the door. Watching the grain sized raindrops, her sight moved back to the TV.

"… Behind me is a public hospital in F's OSL city. From the outside, it is clear that the surrounding area is in shambles. F has already deployed military efforts to conduct rescues in the area…" On the screen, a reporter in a raincoat looked frantic.

Country F? Pretty close to Pannu Islands.

Xia Shiyu's geography was not the best, she only remembered the approximate location of Pannu Islands.

[I wonder how he… Eh? Why do I have to think of him?]

Xia Shiyu covered her somewhat burning face, at the same time, she grabbed the remote on the table and switched the channel.

She didn't like to watch the news.

In her memory, she only paid attention to the news two times. Once when Jiang Chen went to Iraq, the second time now.

Suddenly, the phone began to ring.

Xia Shiyu walked to the bedroom and picked up the phone charging on the nightstand. When she saw the incoming caller's name, her heart beat a little faster. Coincidentally, just as she wanted to confirm he was safe, he called first.

"Hello?"

"How is it over there?"

When she heard Jiang Chen's caring voice, she felt warm inside.

"It's raining pretty hard here, how about you?"

"It has been raining for the past few days, but it cleared up in the morning. The typhoon is now heading in your direction, be safe, and stay inside. Mhmm, you didn't go to work today right?" Jiang Chen asked her.

"No."

"That's good." Jiang Chen laughed.

[What do you mean that's good? Which boss urges their employees to take vacations…] Xia Shiyu muttered in her mind.

"Also, after you finish the tasks on hand, take some time to go to Xin."

"To Xin? Can I ask if it is some weird project?" Xia Shiyu sighed.

"Rather than weird, I would say it is astonishing."

"Astonishing? What exactly is it?"

"Virtual reality MMORPG, have you heard it?"

Chapter 394: Molybdenum Mining Project

Just like what Jiang Chen had expected, after hearing his words, Xia Shiyu was utterly dumbfounded.

Recovering from being dumbfounded, she repeatedly asked Jiang Chen the difference between the virtual reality MMORPG and the existing VR games. When she heard "neural connection," "second life" and other key vocabularies, she immediately stated that she will make a trip after the typhoon clears up.

To the marketing plan of this era-defining MMORPG, she couldn't wait to start working on it.

…

Because most of the mines were located in the southern sea region, the headquarter of Future Mining was established on Ange Island. After they met the last time, Yang Yuan have been working on this. With half a month of work, the structure of the company was finally established.

When he landed on the island, the Celestial Trade Company's vehicle was already waiting on the side of the road. He got in the car as Jiang Chen briefly told him about the destination before the driver started driving.

The security business of Celestial Trade was divided into military and civilian. The military employees were all located on New Moon Island whereas the civilian workers acted as the bodyguard of key government officials. Jiang Chen's temporary driver was a bodyguard.

Jiang Chen rolled down the window, put his arm outside, and started to view the backyard that belonged to him.

Since the last time he visited Ange Island, it has only been a month, but in this one month time, the small island has experienced groundbreaking shifts. The new apartments, houses, and the business street under renovation were all part of the change. Compared to the fishing village before, Ange city finally had some flavors of being a city.

Because of the infrastructure development plan and the tourism resources construction led by Future International, a lot of foreign merchants smelled the opportunity for business as they attempt to hop on the fast-moving train and enjoy the considerable dividend to be paid in investing in Xin.

When he passed by the city center, Jiang Chen was shocked to find a Coles store under construction. He faintly recalled that it seemed to be a chain in Australia with domestic operations. Clearly, the lack of department stores in Xin had drawn the attention of Coles group, so they bravely took the first step and selected Ange Island as their first stop to international expansion.

Because of the international businessmen's massive appetite for land, the Ange government's finance increased substantially. They immediately used the money for infrastructure development, such as expanding roads and building schools.

The infrastructure not only improved the quality of life of the people, but it also provided a large number of employment opportunities. The high unemployment rate was greatly improved, and the lack of labor even attracted immigrants. The previously city with an empty feeling now was injected by a healthy boost of adrenaline and displayed the liveliness it should possess.

…

The employment dorm Jiang Chen provided to Yang Yuan was a mansion by the sea located at the edge of Ange city, there was only a road along with a few rows of giant palm trees, and there was nothing else.

The car was parked on the side as Jiang Chen told the driver to wait for him. Jiang Chen then walked to the mansion and pressed the bell on the wooden door.

There were the sound of footsteps before the door was opened shortly after.

When he saw his old friend Jiang Chen, Yang Yuan warmly welcomed him inside.

"What do you think? How's the life here." Jiang Chen scanned the decoration inside the living room as he sat on the sofa.

"Perfect beyond my belief, I almost couldn't afford my rent in Australia." Yang Yuan let out a sigh before he looked at Jiang Chen earnestly, "Although it is a bit dramatic, I still have to say, thank you."

"We're old friends, It's nothing."

It was not for the industry's unexpected turn of events, with Yang Yuan's resume, his life would be no worse in Australia. Since on this island, other than housing being cheap, nothing else was convenient.

"Have you eaten yet? Want to have lunch here?"

"I'm here for that. Will it be troublesome?" Jiang Chen said jokingly.

"Haha, it's only adding an extra pair of chopsticks, no trouble at all." Yang Yuan laughed.

"Here are the champagnes." Su Fei took out two bottles of champagne, placed the bottles in front of them, and popped open the cap.

Perhaps because she knew she had no chance, Su Fei didn't give Jiang Chen the frivolous vibe anymore which made Jiang Chen feel relieved.

"Thank you." Jiang Chen took the glass and smiled friendly at her.

"No problem." Su Fei smiled and poured for her boyfriend, "You guys chat, I will go cook."

With how virtuous his girlfriend was, Yang Yuan had a happy expression.

"Did you lose your soul?" Jiang Chen mocked.

"Haha." Yang Yuan timidly touched his nose, raised the cup, "Let's drink."

"I didn't know your S.O knew how to cook." This did surprise Jiang Chen; Su Fei didn't look like someone capable of that.

"Your S.O is really virtuous. I just bought tuna from the fisher in town, you'll love it," Yang Yuan said as he took a drink.

"Tuna soup?"

"What soup, Sashimi!" Yang Yuan laughed.

To the deeply committed roommate, Jiang Chen wholeheartedly wished that he could be together with the person he loves. Although the Su Fei gave him a feeling that she is not a good girl, he would never offer an opinion on other people's relationship.

They chatted from life to work.

No wonder he was a talent signed by Rio Tinto in the first year of his master's program, Yang Yuan's ability was indeed strong. When he talked about work, his work ethic was almost comparable to the workaholic Xia Shiyu.

"The education level of Xin is extremely low, so I hired a lot of technicians from Australia. Because of the massive layoff by Rio Tinto, I met a lot of strong seniors when I was studying for my master's who are currently living off of employment insurance. I asked them for their opinions and the salary they demanded was not high, but they wanted to sign the employment contract according to Australia's standard, and the company provides housing."

"Vacation and housing are not a problem. I just care about their ability," Jiang Chen said.

Yang Yuan smiled confidently and said with certainty, "Their ability are all strong, they were mostly all employed by Rio Tinto before with a wealth of work experience."

"How many people?"

"Considering that the company has yet to have a mining project, I only hired ten people as management."

"That's not enough, I have a deepwater mining project on hand." Jiang Chen shook his head.

Yang Yuan looked at Jiang Chen in surprise.

"This fast?"

"I have some personal relationships with the president," Jiang Chen implicitly said.

Yang Yuan immediately gave Jiang Chen the "I understand" look and laughed. "No wonder the license is approved already. In a lot of countries, it would take more than half a year. Tell me the type of deposition and I'll prepare first if there is a project now. Ten people is definitely not enough."

"Molybdenum,"

"Molybdenum? Have you confirmed the location?" Yang Yuan raised his eyebrows.

Jiang Chen nodded and took out a paper map folded in his pocket. Although he didn't understand it, he still marked a molybdenum deposition on the map closest to Ange Island.

Looking at the red circle on the map, Yang Yuan's frown, looking more and more serious.

"Do you know that the average depth of the bed is 7500 meters?" Yang Yuan looked at Jiang Chen weirdly.

"Yeah? Is there a problem?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

The deep-sea environment meant that molybdenum being attached to organic matter is wrapped in a manganese-containing colloid, the final formation would sink into the sea and out of the biosphere cycle. This type of marine molybdenum deposition is undoubtedly more likely than the continental deposition of molybdenum deposits, but this deposit generally appears in the deep sea 5000 meters below with deeper deposits being more frequently. In this environment, the extraction will be complicated.

Although in the early 1970s, manganese nodule mining technology has made some progress, today is still under detailed investigation, assessment, and trial mining stage. At present, theoretically, the deepest mining depth was probably the fluid mining experimental system developed by Japan with a working depth of up to 5250 meters at ideal conditions. But this technology clearly hasn't made a breakthrough. Otherwise, the country that lacked resources would have started building sea platforms a long time ago.

"So you are saying, the current technology can't extract it?' To this point, Jiang Chen expected already.

"Might be possible in a lab, and only possible." Yang Yuan had a bitter smile, "Your president friend… is not playing with your right?"

Indeed, in bystander's eyes, selling a deposition that could not be extracted had no other explanation than fooling you. A lot of major companies that spent billions in technology didn't make a splash, let alone a small mining company with no history; it would even be difficult to extract in the shallow sea.

When he thought about this, Yang Yuan became a bit nervous. If the mine could really not be extracted, would that be the end of his job then? But to the rigorous standard and uprightness, he held himself to, he couldn't hide such a significant problem.

But Jiang Chen didn't seem to exhibit any signs of disappointment or even anger like he thought, he only had a weird expression.

[Zhang Yapin dare to fool me? Don't kid me.]

Jiang Chen thought for a moment and said," I can take care of the underwater mining."

"But that's 7500 meters." Yang Yuan had to remind him.

"Only 7500 meters." Jiang Chen smiled with confidence and in an indisputable tone.

Yang Yuan paused. Although he really wanted to use his industry experience to tell Jiang Chen it was unrealistic, the confidence on his face made him waver.

"I'll take care of the underwater mining technology, your current job is to build a platform located right above for resources transfer, and purchase a transportation vessel, then establish a molybdenum processing plant on Ange Island… Mhmm, and also a steel plant and aluminum plant used to process the ores shipped by BHP," Jiang Chen said.

It was not worth it to extract iron and aluminum underwater; it was cheaper to import.

"It would cost a lot of money," Yang Yuan cautioned him.

"I have enough money."

He borrowed thirty billion USD. Jiang Chen had enough money right now.

"… Okay." Yang Yuan picked up the glass and took a drink, "If you insist, I will follow your instructions."

As they were talking, Su Fei's voice came out of the kitchen.

"Time to eat. Clean off the table, there are a lot of dishes today."

"Haha, I already smell it." Yang Yuan stood up and walked to the kitchen to help his girlfriend to bring out the dishes.

Jiang Chen wanted to help too, but Su Fei who brought the sashimi stopped him.

"You are the guest; just let me and Yuan do it." Su Fei smiled and went back to the kitchen.

Chapter 395: Politely Refusing

The seafood buffet was put on the table. Sitting on the sofa, drinking champagne, the three began to enjoy the delicious meal.

During the meal, Jiang Chen had a great conversation with his old friend. Alcohol was a great way to get someone to talk. Since they got along before, right now, they chatted about everything.

"Also, when do you plan to get married?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

"Get married? It will depend on how Feifei feels, I'm willing to anytime," Yang Yuan looked a bit drunk as he held Su Fei's hand and said affectionately.

Su Fei's face was covered in a red hue.

"Wait a bit longer, we're not in a rush."

"Haha, that's true, no need to rush." Yang Yuan waved his hand.

Although he was a master graduate, Su Fei just finished her undergrad and was about 22 years old in age. There was no rush to get married at her age.

"Don't forget to invite me when you get married, I'm waiting to drink the celebratory wine." Jiang Chen laughed.

Chu Nan didn't invite him when he got married which, to this day, bothered him.

"Of course," Yang Yuan said with the scent of alcohol coming through his nose, "At that time, we'll host a banquet on the beach and invite Old Huang and Old He along."

"That's a must, I'll take care of the plane tickets."

"No need, I can still afford that…"

The champagne's alcohol concentration was not high, and because of the fruity taste, it was lighter even compared to beer. But after several bottles, Jiang Chen felt intoxicated. Looking at Yang Yuan, who normally couldn't drink, he still finished a few bottles to the point where he fell asleep and began snoring.

Intentional or unintentional, Su Fei changed to a different sitting position beside her boyfriend with her legs crossed. The position was fine, but it was not appropriate for someone sitting across.

And with how smooth she looked, Jiang Chen didn't believe it was unintentional.

Jiang Chen let out a hidden sigh, he only felt sorry for his old friend, but he wouldn't say anything. Just like how the three roommates all knew what kind of person Fang Yuanyuan was, they didn't tell him either.

Sometimes, it didn't have to do with right or wrong, but once you point it out, you would be in the wrong.

"Brother Chen's alcohol tolerance is great, let me propose a toast on behalf of Yuan." Su Fei raised her glass at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen laughed and toasted with her.

"It's getting late, old Yuan is already drunk, I'll leave now."

"Not going to stay a bit longer?" Seeing Jiang Chen get up, Su Fei tried to convince him to stay.

Yang Yuan was already lying on the sofa and began snoring. Seeing the smile on Su Fei's face that was asking him to stay, Jiang Chen, of course, understood her intention.

"No need. I still have some business to take care of this afternoon, I won't disturb you any longer," Jiang Chen thanked her and rejected the offer.

Su Fei was not pretty to begin with. Even if she was, Jiang Chen would NTR his friend.

Seeing Jiang Chen already say that, Su Fei didn't insist.

"Okay, let me walk you to the door."

She warmly sent Jiang Chen to the door as she watched Jiang Chen walk onto the road. When she saw the bodyguard respectfully got off the car and opened the door for him, envy flashed across her face. She was not envious of the car, but the respect on the bodyguard's face.

That's the feeling of being in upper-class society.

She then remembered the foreign girl called Ayesha.

She was jealous of that girl. Why is her boyfriend so rich and powerful…

Turning around to look at her drunk boyfriend, she let out a sigh and closed the door.

…

Sitting in the car with the mild sea wind blowing across his face, Jiang Chen gazed at the horizon in the distance.

"Sir, where are we going to next?" The bodyguard driving asked.

"The pharmaceutical plant," Jiang Chen answered concisely.

Because he was drunk, he didn't want to say anything, he just wanted to quietly let the sea wind blow on him so he cleared his mind.

But not long after, the bodyguard spoke again.

"Sir, do you need me to turn on air conditioning?"

"No."

Seeing Jiang Chen was a bit annoyed, but out of safety consideration, the bodyguard carefully asked.

"Sir, your seatbelt-"

Jiang Chen put on the seatbelt in annoyance.

"Can't you be like Ayesha-"

The bodyguard was perplexed, "Sir?"

"Nothing, sorry, I'm drunk." Jiang Chen blew out a breath mixed with the scent of alcohol and waved his hand.

With just one look and sometimes without even needing one, Ayesha could acutely read what he needed. And because of this gentle caring, the understanding without words, it made him fall in love with her.

Of course, it was too much asking a man to know him like that. Just regarding service, the bodyguard of Celestial Trade was impeccable.

"Sir, you don't have to apologize to me," the bodyguard said in a quiet voice.

"..."

After a half an hour drive, the car stopped at the gate of the nutrient supply manufacturing plant.

On the way, Jiang Chen had mostly sobered up. Just as he pushed open the door and was about to step out, he paused.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Mhmm… That old friend of mine, arrange him a bodyguard, the type with a car."

[Buddy, this is the most I can do for you.]

"Okay, sir," The bodyguard said.

Jiang Chen nodded and headed to the gate.

Although security at the door recognized Jiang Chen's face, the rule set by Jiang Chen himself was "pupil recognition only" must be adhered to, so the security went up to confirm his identity.

After looking into the camera for 1 second, the verification process was complete.

The two soldiers saluted and backed away.

He entered the lab of the plant and found Zhan Shoujie, taking samples of the produced product.

"How much nutrient supply did the plant produce?"

"30000 boxes, stored in the warehouse."

A box contained 100 tubes of nutrient supply, the first month, therefore, had a production rate of three million tubes of nutrient supply which was quite impressive. With a profit of 5 USD per tube, this month's profit alone was 15 million USD.

Although it didn't look like much, this was just the start. Once the market expands, Jiang Chen would ask Zhan Shoujie to ramp up production. The 2.1 billion fat people on the planet were all his potential customers.

"Could we sell these?" Seeing the proud expression on Jiang Chen's face, Zhan Shujie had to interrupt and ask.

"Don't worry, people will be desperate to buy it. Don't worry about sales, I will be hiring professionals to take care of it for me."

"That's perfect." Zhan Shoujie nodded.

He was a technician, so he could easily ensure the quality of the products, but he was not an expert in sales.

"The nutrient supply in the warehouse, package 15 sets of 20 tubes for me. These 300 tubes will be used as sample products during our negotiation. The quality must be good and it'll be best it was recently produced."

"No problem. Do you want it now?" Zhan Shujie asked.

"Before you get off work, there will be people picking it up tomorrow."

Chapter 396: Selling Nutrient Supply

In Bentonville, Arkansas, the office of Walmart.

Sitting behind the desk, Florance, the purchasing manager, looked at his assistant who had just walked in and asked in a deep voice.

"Is the analysis result out?"

The assistant nodded and put the document on the boss' table.

"It's out; our research found several interesting plant protein in this thing called nutrient supply. Although we don't know the source of it, the safety of the food is absolutely fine."

"With FDA standard?" Florence confirmed again.

"Yes." The assistant nodded with certainty.

After the scandal in 2015, Walmart became more cautious toward supplement suppliers.

The Ginkgo biloba leaf pills sold by Walmart stated that it could increase memory, but after examination, it only contained carrot powder and wheat powder, while on the ingredients list, it didn't list wheat powder.

The event caused a huge uproar at Walmart, and four other large department store chains were all put under the scrutiny of the media and public. Even one year after the event where the memory was gradually fading away from the public, Walmart's supplier selection in supplement and food were still two times more rigorous than before.

Three days ago, he received a package from Future Biology. Inside the package contained the sample along with an invitation.

To be frank, if it was not for Future Group's reputation, Florence might not even look at it before he passed on the product with labels like "liquid food" "weight loss without dieting".

When Florence scanned through the results, the more he read, the more he eyes turned stern. Especially when he read the two sections, clinical response and effect estimation, his eyes were almost glued to the paper.

"Bam!" He smashed the document on the table as he immediately ordered his assistant.

"Send sales to Xin immediately; we have to get this deal… No, get Jim to go personally go," Florence said briskly.

"But boss, Jim has a negotiation with a representative from Pirus Biology-"

"Get his assistant to do it," Florence ordered, "Put this report in front of him, he will know how important it is to us. I don't care how he does it; I want to see an agreement on my table in three days."

The assistant nodded and left.

Sinking into his chair, Florence took a deep breath before an ecstatic expression appeared on his face.

The obese people of America, oh no, the brand of Walmart supplements can be saved!

…

The same reaction appeared in different places as the major retailers began to investigate Future biology. No one knew why would Future International suddenly enter the supplement and food market, but who cares? When they discovered the magical nature of the nutrient supply, almost all the retailers extended their olive branch to the newly formed company.

"We sent out 15 invitations, 13 retailers responded to us extending their willingness to cooperate with us on this product." In the conference room, a man was reporting to the sole shareholder Jiang Chen.

Tao Ming, New Zealand Han, male, 31, previous Prius Supplement manager. He possesses a wealth of product development and marketing experience, currently the director of Future Biology. A talent Jiang Chen obtained through an international headhunter company with a high salary of twenty thousand USD per month.

If there were not enough talent, he would get it with money, since Jiang Chen, with a research and development cost of almost zero, didn't need to consider breaking even at all.

"Also, the online stores we are preparing to launch on, Amazon, Taobao and other e-commerce platforms, are in their last phase. The shipment will be sent from Ange Island to Darwin port in Australia as that will be the platform for international distribution.

Although it was somewhat specific, he used terms that Jiang Chen could easily understand. Tao Ming was smart enough to know that Jiang Chen wouldn't understand industry jargon.

"Perfect, how much of the product do we need per month?" Jiang Chen nodded.

"The retailers would need one hundred thousand boxes per month. The variation on the backup platform differs, based on the marketing budget, it could range from ten thousand to one million boxes."

A box had a profit of 500 USD, a million box would be 500 million, the profit was shocking.

Seeing Tao Ming had stopped talking and was looking at him with words in his mouth, Jiang Chen laughed.

"Just tell me what you want to say."

"If we could use Future 1.0 as an advertising platform for nutrient supply, it would help to push the brand." Tao Ming proposed.

"No problem, I will make the arrangement. Also, do we not need to sponsor a celebrity or something?" Jiang Chen asked.

Tao Ming nodded,

"That would be best. Based on the discussion results from the marketing department, I recommend sponsoring Emma Watson or other Hollywood celebrities to pave the way to establish the international brand-"

"Wait, why does the name Emma Watson sound so familiar?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he tried to recall where he heard this name.

With the puzzled expression on the boss' face, Tao Ming smiled lightheartedly.

"Have you heard of Harry Potter?"

"The books?"

"The movies, Emma played Hermione."

"Oh! I remember now. But rather than her I think it is better to sponsor Harry, look how fat he became in the later movies." Jiang Chen glanced at him and said unscrupulously

"Boss, it is better to drop the movie plot when we discuss the product." Tao Ming coughed and attempted to correct Jiang Chen in awkwardness.

"Haha, sorry, off track. Mhmm… So you recommend which celebrity?" Jiang Chen asked.

"The first choice is Emma Watson. Of course, there are a lot of other backup options."

"What's the estimated sponsorship fee?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Approximately one million to one and a half million USD, it would differ based on the conditions and requirements set," Yao Ming answered.

It was not too expensive. Robert was a film director in Los Angeles; he would be a good connection.

"Okay, then I'll leave this to you," Jiang Chen said.

Yao Ming nodded.

"I have a meeting with a Walmart representative this afternoon; we'll be talking about supplying this product. If all goes smoothly, I'll be singing a contract with a monthly supply of fifty thousand boxes. Could we meet the demand for production?"

"No problem. I'll take care of ramping up production; you take care of sales and marketing for me," Jiang Chen said.

Worst case, he would only need to return to the apocalypse and obtain some inducers to expand the growth area of the DH seaweed and bring back more organic converters to produce "juice." If done successfully, the nutrient supply business would bring him 100 – 200 million USD in profits. Based on the stability and consistent demand of the market, the future of Future Biology would be no-less bright than Future Technology.

The door was knocked on gently.

Tao Ming looked over, it was his assistant.

"The Walmart representative is here."

"Already here? That's fast." Yao Ming was a bit caught off guard. "Get him to wait for a bit, I'm in a board meeting-"

"No need, you can go." Jiang Chen stood up. "I know everything I needed to know. I need to pick up someone from the airport, that's all from me."

"But I haven't shown you the marketing plan yet. It is a major decision to the company's development; it is better for the president to view it to make a decision," Tao Ming said hesitantly.

"No need, I trust your ability." Jiang Chen walked beside Yao Ming, patted him on the shoulder, and encouraged him, "I trust you, I will give you enough freedom to prove your ability."

Yao Ming looked sincerely at Jiang Chen.

To be honest, the reason why he jumped ship to come here was only partly due to the high salary offered by Future Biology, but what attracted him more was Jiang Chen's promise of autonomy. When he was working at Prius, a lot of excellent proposals didn't pass because of the differing opinions among the board members or the lack of funding, and they would have the bear the consequence during the yearly performance review.

The soldier was willing to die for someone that understood him, just with this trust, he swore that he would not disappoint Jiang Chen.

Chapter 397: Entry Blacklist

Coro Island airport.

A girl in a casual outfit and a pair of shades dragged her luggage and walked into the empty airport alone.

The tourists that she passed by all stopped and turned to look at her, but because of the shades, they couldn't see her face clearly. But just by her graceful figure and the gorgeous outline, it was not hard to predict that the girl was trouble.

Perhaps a celebrity that was alone on vacation.

The tourists passed by her debated whether they should ask for an autograph, perhaps it may be the start of a beautiful encounter.

But they would be disappointed.

First, Xia Shiyu was not a celebrity.

Second, the beauty already has her heart set on someone else.

It was in the middle of June; the bright sun was like a ball of fire in the sky. Xia Shiyu who just came out of the airport immediately felt the heat unique to the tropical region.

When she left the airport, she headed straight to the road outside and stood under the palm tree.

To the taxi drivers' beeping of the horn, she shook her head, signaling that she was waiting for someone before she checked the time on her phone.

<10:00>

The flight arrived thirty minutes ahead of schedule, there was still thirty minutes before the agreed on pickup time.

Her thumb hovered on the phone icon for two seconds but moved to the camera.

She selected the front camera.

She stared at her serene face on the screen silently for a while.

[… Is my bang a bit off center?]

She tried to adjustment the freshly permed bangs she got a few days ago in an attempt to make it look more normal.

On the plane, she put on a layer of light makeup. As to why she didn't even know herself. Perhaps she wanted to capture the glimpse of being stunned in someone's eyes, or perhaps she wanted to outshine her competitor…

The two shared a similar starting point.

Just as she was looking at herself on the screen, she heard someone speak broken Han.

"Beautiful lady, is it your first time in Pannu Islands?"

[Is he talking to me?]

Xia Shiyu took a moment to process this. She turned around and looked at the tall European with a hooked nose and deep eye sockets.

After a brief silence, she used her throat to make a sound.

'Mhmm."

Based on her experience, the people attempting to pick her up would awkwardly walk away when they hear the cold response.

But she clearly thought too much, being reserved is a unique elegance only to Asians. To Xia Shiyu's cold response, the hooked nose was even more interested as he walked closer and attempted to get to know her.

"What a coincidence, me too! I felt a bit anxious when I was on the plane. If the place is as chaotic as the news said it to be, I would have made the trip for nothing. But just as I got off the plane, I realized my mistake."

"Oh?"

"Because I met you." The hooked nose used an expression he thought was touching and gazed into her eyes.

Xia Shiyu was just a bit shocked.

[Does this count as a confession? It's the first time we met…]

Seeing that the beauty did not react, the hooked nose only smiled and didn't give up. He took out a business card from his pocket.

To the person that revolved around her like a fly, especially the undisguised look of desire, it annoyed her instinctively.

Just as she was troubled by how she could get rid of him, a familiar voice rang beside her ear.

"Hello, Mr. Adams, I think it is better to refer to you by your last name." He snatched the business card in his hand and ignored his frozen expression. Jiang Chen took out his business card and handed it to him with a smile. "Oh, I almost forgot, this is my business card."

When she saw Jiang Chen, she felt relieved.

Speaking of this, he always seemed there to solve her problem… When she thought about it, Xia Shiyu felt safe and secure.

But this international friend was not friendly.

Gavin examined Jiang Chen from head to toe as a hint of anger appeared on his face, he didn't accept Jiang Chen's business card.

"I didn't say I'm going to exchange business card with you, sir. Or should I say, are the people from your country always this rude in front of a lady?" As he spoke, Gavin raised his hooked nose and looked at Jiang Chen with disgust.

Jiang Chen's eyebrows raised. He wasn't angry as he put his card away.

"Rude? Our courtesy is not to cause trouble for other people. I don't know what your definition of courtesy is. Causing trouble for other people?"

Gavin's face bloated into redness as he could not argue against Jiang Chen's words.

Seeing that he didn't make a sound, Jiang Chen dubiously smiled and ignored him.

He turned around to face Xia Shiyu as he said apologetically.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late."

"No, I was early," Xia Shiyu said feeling slightly weird.

[Is he… jealous?]

As her mind debated this question, Xia Shiyu felt her heart beat a little faster.

Jiang Chen didn't notice Xia Shiyu's mental battle as he said.

"Let's get in the car first."

Then, he took the luggage from her hand.

"Wait." Seeing Xia Shiyu was about to leave, Gavin couldn't stand around any longer, and he wanted to stop the two, but he hit a brick wall.

A man in a police uniform stood firmly in front of him and watched him apathetically.

"What are you doing, you are blocking the way?" Gavin said in frustration.

Seeing that the goddess he encountered get into the car of someone else, he felt enraged and let it out all on the man blocking his way.

"Sir, I suspect there is a problem with your passport."

"My passport? That's impossible." Gavin took out his passport, shoved it in his chest, "Open your eyes and see!"

The police scanned the passport and nodded, "That's right, there is indeed a problem with your passport. Your ID is registered on the blacklist; please contact your country's embassy to obtain proof of no criminal conviction before you enter the border."

"The Blacklist? That's impossible!" Gavin roared in rage. His footsteps spanned across 34 nations; it was the first time he was stopped because he was on the blacklist. He swore that he never did anything illegal.

But the police ignored his roar and only shrugged.

"I'm only following the procedure."

Seeing there was no need to argue, Gavin calmed down slightly.

"… Okay, I will contact my embassy, where is the embassy in Coro city?"

"Sorry, sir. There is no embassy of your country at Pannu Islands, to obtain help from your embassy, please head to the Australia embassy for support." The police didn't lie to him. Only recently did more tourists travel to Xin, so only Hua, France, UK, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand have been established. Among them, four of the country's employees were still on their way there.

"What the f*ck?! You are saying I took a two hour flight here, and now I have to go back to Australia?!" Gavin completely erupted in rage.

"That's right, sir, we can assist you with the booking process. For now, please step back into the terminal," the policeman tried his hardest not to laugh as he said with seriousness.

Blame it on the fact that you offended someone you shouldn't have. He has been a policeman through two political regimes, it was the first time he heard Xin had a blacklist.

But since that person said there was one, then there must be one.

Chapter 398: Spy?

What happened at the airport was only a small interruption.

When Jiang Chen got into the driver seat, he immediately forgot about the unlucky guy. He put the key in and started the engine.

Jiang Chen rolled down the window and turned on the air conditioning, allowing the cold breeze to blow away the heat in the car.

"Thanks." Xia Shiyu put on her seatbelt.

"No problem, it was on my way anyway."

"No… I'm talking about what happened at the airport."

When she thought about Jiang Chen's expression when he stood in front of her, her heart somehow pumped a little faster.

"Oh, that - no worries. Remember to call me whenever you have any problems," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly as he maneuvered the steering wheel.

Xin's security wasn't the best, and since she was in a place she wasn't familiar with, he was worried about Xia Shiyu's safety.

[Maybe I should hire a bodyguard for her?] Jiang Chen deliberated in his mind.

When she heard Jiang Chen's words, her normally expressionless face turned red. Combined with the small droplets of sweat on her pale face and the pink foundation she used, she looked like a peach covered in the morning dew.

Because her mind went completely blank, Xia Shiyu didn't respond.

The atmosphere in the car went from silent to intimate. Jiang Chen didn't realize this until he peeked at Xia Shiyu because she was so quiet and he finally saw the conflicted emotions and redness on her face.

Because the windows were rolled up, the fresh scent of jasmine drifted into his nose. Because of the atmosphere, Jiang Chen's heart also started racing.

"Did you perm your hair?' Jiang Chen chose a random topic to break the silence.

But this unintentional question hit the mark. With women, you could have a differing opinion about changes in their looks, but you couldn't simply ignore the change in her hairstyle or clothing, even if it was just a new hair clip or keychain. In the event that you didn't comment on the change, women could keep a debate going for an entire night, just to get your attention.

By coincidence, Jiang Chen made just the right move in winning her heart. He didn't know it himself because he was in the middle of a turn and was focused on the road ahead.

Xia Shiyu's body visibly shook as she said reservedly:

"Does it look good?"

She immediately regretted the question.

[Did that sound too superficial? Should I have waited for him to compliment me himself for it to be more natural…?] Xia Shiyu turned her head and looked out the window as she was bombarded by her own thoughts.

Facepalmed men would not overthink.

Jiang Chen praised her: "Looks really good, really fresh, but why did you suddenly think of perming your hair?"

Xia Shiyu had always given him the impression of being authentic, serene, yet distant. But the perm gave her a "fresh" vibe that was normally found in students.

"My coworker… Mhmm, a friend told me that I'm too formal with how I dress, so she suggested I change things up." [I was also probably too unfashionable] Xia Shiyu added in her mind.

"I see, but I still think your hair from before looked better."

"Then I'll change it back," Xia Shiyu immediately said.

"Eh? No, I'm only stating my opinion; frequent perms are damaging to the hair." Jiang Chen face-palmed.

"Okay." Xia Shiyu nodded as she looked at her reflection in the window and secretively examined her hair.

"Oh, which friend was it?" Jiang Chen was surprised that Xia Shiyu had any friends.

He always thought her social circle was limited to her coworkers.

"Su Mengqi… The manager of the human resources department who moved with us from Wanghai to Xiangjiang," Xia Shiyu replied.

They chatted for a while until they arrived at the mansion located at the north end of Coro Island.

When he parked the car in the garage, Ayesha was already waiting for him.

Because she knew a guest was coming, her outfit was relatively "traditional." A light T-shirt paired with short shorts - stunning and lively.

After opening the door, Ayesha took Xia Shiyu's luggage. Because she hadn't seen her for a few months, Xia Shiyu had mixed feelings towards the foreign girl.

Partially a feeling of competitiveness, but partially gratitude for a person who saved her life.

In response to Ayesha's directness, she felt somewhat uncomfortable. Although she wanted to stay at Jiang Chen's place, when she was actually in front of the door, she changed her mind.

Just as Jiang Chen led her to her room, she was secretively observing Ayesha's eyes.

But unfortunately, she didn't see any jealousy inside.

This made her a bit frustrated. [Do I not look like competition? I even put on some makeup on the plane…]

Two red swirls suddenly appeared on her face.

She realized just how childish her thoughts were.

…

"Where's the virtual reality helmet?" After putting down her luggage, Xia Shiyu asked right away in an attempt to use work to alleviate the awkwardness in her heart.

"There's no rush, you can take a look after lunch. Why don't you take a shower to relax? The bathroom is at the end of the second-floor hallway." Jiang Chen smiled.

Xia Shiyu hesitated then nodded.

Because there was no direct flight, she had been in transit since last night. She was indeed a little tired.

Just then, Jiang Chen's phone suddenly rang.

"I'm going to take a call. If you need anything, just let Ayesha know."

As he spoke, Jiang Chen took out his phone and walked to the sofa.

When he picked up, Ivan's grave voice came through.

"Boss, we found a spy in the company."

"A spy?" Jiang Chen frowned. "Did you confirm their identity?"

It was hard for a spy to exist at the management level due to the electronic collars - they wouldn't escape if they were found, so no one was foolish enough to betray him. But at lower levels, it was hard to say - aside from the first 100 refugees who joined Celestial Trade, the loyalty of the newly recruited soldiers was uncertain.

"It's currently unclear, but a backdoor was installed on the computer at Coro division yesterday. It sent 7 megabytes of data to an IP in Iceland," Ivan said in a deep voice.

Iceland was probably only a jumping board; no one knew exactly where the data went.

"I see, don't alert anyone yet," Jiang Chen ordered.

"Understood."

After he hung up, Jiang Chen fell into deep thought while holding his phone.

Too many people were interested in Celestial. Country F was the most suspicious, but UA, who always intervened everywhere, was also on the list. Even their potential ally, Hua, could potentially send spies.

Two arms tenderly hugged Jiang Chen from behind. Ayesha sensed that something was bothering him as she whispered.

"What happened?"

"… There is a spy in Celestial," Jiang Chen said in an undertone.

A hint of sharpness flashed in her eyes as she whispered in his ear.

"Do you need my help?"

"Do you know anything about computers?" Jiang Chen said helplessly.

Ayesha shook her head. Her sapphire eyes flashed brightly.

[But I could kill.]

Jiang Chen understood the message in her eyes as he sighed.

"It's not a problem that can be solved by killing. The key is to find the people responsible."

[But how?]

[Ask Yao Yao? That's not feasible. Not that Yao Yao didn't have the skills, but she might be unfamiliar with the structure of the internet and programs in the 21st century. For example, people good at League of Legends might not be the best Nintendo player.

Yao Yao's security measures could destroy any of the hackers in this world. Just like New Era, Future 1.0's code still remained uncracked to this day since the code she wrote couldn't be understood by anyone in this world, making it impossible for anyone to install a backdoor in the program.

Because Celestial Trade didn't possess any critical secrets, they used the Windows 7 operating system and programs in this world.

Although nothing critical was lost, the feeling of being monitored didn't feel good at all!

Jiang Chen began to think hard with a frown on his face.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

[Yes! I have a little hacker I forgot about.]

He slapped his forehead as immediately remembered the guy with a "younger sister complex" as he dialed the number.

Chapter 399: The Shocked Xia Shiyu

His finger pressed the screen a few times, selected an international number, and put his phone back to his ear.

The call went through shortly.

"Where are you now?"

"Frankberg," Xie Lei used a voice that implied: Where else could I be?

"Orthopedics?" Jiang Chen joked.

Xie Lei paused as he didn't know how to respond.

He clearly didn't know the joke behind the "orthopedics in Frankberg." (Note 1)

"No, I am at Munich hospital to take care of my sister. She just received treatment three days ago."

Regarding the brother and sister, Jiang Chen kept an eye on them since he paid for all their expenses. The blind sister was receiving treatment in Munich while the brother, Xie Lei, didn't just sit around. After three months of military training in Niger, Ivan sent him to Frankberg. While he studied computer science at the University of Ber, he took care of his sister.

"Is your sister getting better?"

"Much better. The doctor said her condition is a miracle and she'll regain her vision in two months… Thank you," Xie Lie spoke with sincerity.

"No problem, it's great for the soul to do some good deeds once in a while. Especially if I gained the loyalty of a hacker," Jiang Chen joked.

"That's right, my life belongs to you now," Xie Lei said calmly.

"That's enough joking around, you get to keep your life. Although I need you to help me with something."

"What is it?" Xie Lei asked.

"Mhmm, this is what happened. A backdoor program was installed on Celestial's server. Although I could easily take it out, I want to know which rat installed it. The only reliable information we have is that the data was leaked to an IP in Iceland, but even I know that Iceland is only a jumping board to someplace else. I need you to determine where the data was actually sent and it would be best if you could find out who the spy is. Could you do that?" Jiang Chen said.

"No problem." Frivolous confidence, the trademark of a teen, appeared on Xie Lei's face.

He was the third-best expert in the Hua Hacker Alliance. After a long period of extensive studies, he was confident that his abilities were even better than before.

"Okay, you can be cocky after you complete the task. Do you need an airplane ticket?" Jiang Chen asked.

"No, I can work anywhere as long as there's internet. Give me access to the server and don't alert the spy yet." Xie Lei shook his head.

"Okay, then I'll leave it to you."

Jiang Chen hung up.

A dubious smile appeared on his face as Jiang Chen texted Ivan to grant server access to Xie Lei.

And now, the cat-catching-mouse game had begun.

…

Ayesha made lunch. With Jiang Chen's mom's careful guidance, her cooking skills became drastically more refined. Xia Shiyu, who hadn't eaten her dishes for a few months, enjoyed a feast.

When Jiang Chen looked at her, shuddering, Xia Shiyu took a moment to realize how she was feasting on the food. Her face turned red as her actions became more reserved.

Ayesha stared at the two of them and smiled but didn't say anything. Her sapphire pupils cast an intrigued light.

After lunch, Ayesha took the plates to the kitchen. At Xia Shiyu's request, Jiang Chen took her to the gym on the first floor.

A server rested in the corner of the gym. Aside from the server were two motorcycle helmet-sized virtual reality helmets in the room. When she saw them, Xia Shiyu briskly walked up and placed a helmet on her head.

Her hands explored the helmet for a while but she couldn't figure out how to use it.

Jiang Chen couldn't help but smile at the scene and walked over to her.

"How do you open this thing?" Xia Shiyu asked rather helplessly as she held the helmet with both hands.

"Don't rush to open it yet; I think it's better for you to find somewhere comfortable to sit or lie down."

Xia Shiyu was hesitant after she heard Jiang Chen's words. "Does… virtual reality affect the physical body?"

"I wouldn't say 'affect' - your real body will be in deep REM mode. If you stand up while you're using it, you might fall down."

[I see.]

Xia Shiyu nodded with understanding and noticed a recliner by the side.

When she lied down, Jiang Chen gave her further instructions.

"The helmet is activated by voice, just say 'start'."

Xia Shiyu took a deep breath as she repressed the excitement in her heart.

Ready to witness history, she used a clear voice.

"Start."

The dark screen instantly lit up.

Countless 3D light particles rushed to her eyes. Xia Shiyu was tempted to move back, but she quickly realized it was just a picture on the screen.

"I thought it was the type that didn't require a screen…" When she saw the interface, Xia Shiyu was evidently disappointed.

But she was relieved almost immediately. The almost-otherworldly neural connection virtual technology couldn't have been mastered so easily; to be able to achieve even this much wasn't bad…

"This is only the starting screen, the exciting part is yet to come." Jiang Chen's words made her look forward to what was next.

She was highly skeptical but decided to trust him. Xia Shiyu wanted to speak, but on the screen in front of her, a series of popup boxes appeared along with a clear system message in her ears.

"Pupil verification system initiated…"

"Registered as a user."

"Registering…"

"Genetic code is registered, please set the username."

Staring at the text in the middle, Xia Shiyu inhaled deeply.

"Shiyu."

"User registration complete. Welcome, Ms. Shiyu. Your ID will be locked to your pupil information - it cannot be deactivated or registered again in principle. Your privacy will be absolutely safe in the virtual world. I wish you the best virtual experience."

<Caution: Please ensure the body is in a flat position when connected to virtual reality. Please do not use when drinking, drunk, or in public… conditions.>

She looked at the "Activate" logo in front of her as she tried to calm her pumping heart. Xia Shiyu said:

"Activate."

After receiving her command, the image on the screen began to fade gradually. It was followed by mild music and suddenly, Xia Shiyu felt a tingling sensation in her neck as her consciousness began to leave her body.

It felt like diving - her sensations were covered by a thin veil, but her sensations still felt so clear.

"This is…"

Xia Shiyu stared at her hands blankly and scanned her surroundings.

Because of her astonishment, she forgot how to speak.

Yes, she didn't know how to express her astonishment.

The white cubic world she was in was empty, but she felt so fulfilled. 0s and 1s flashed on the wall and added a sci-fi dimension to this world.

She stood in the middle of the cube and stared at the interface that gradually surfaced in front of her.

She reached a finger out and touched the half-transparent interface.

She felt a cold sensation.

Ripples spread out from her fingertips and rushed to the walls of the room.

The wall shattered. Just like a window being opened, a vivid picture was presented in front of her.

There were endless rice fields, towering mountains that extended beyond the clouds, great sails that broke through wind and waves, and magnificent walls that stood like a giant cliff…

<Godly Land>

And she was standing on top of a hill.

_Min_

Chapter 400: Tonight, I will let you have him

After a while, Xia Shiyu took off her helmet and stood up from the chair.

She reflected on the feeling of being in virtual reality before she let out a sigh, still immersed in that world.

"If it wasn't for the game menu that could pop up at any time, I would've thought I traveled to another dimension."

"It's normal to experience this feeling the first time you play with virtual reality - it won't happen after you get used to it." Jiang Chen smiled.

There was a process to get accustomed to new things. Jiang Chen remembered that the first time he laid in the virtual reality training chamber, he felt anxious too. But since he used it so many times since then, it didn't feel special anymore.

With the helmet in her lap, Xia Shiyu gently stroked the fluid surface of the helmet and murmured:

"Although traditional VR equipment can achieve immersive virtual reality, it's physically limited. For example, the helmet can mimic visuals and audio with a sensory device attached to the hands… But it's the first time I've seen your type that allows the body to enter deep REM sleep and allows the consciousness to completely integrate with the virtual world. The visuals and audio no longer need to pass through the eyes and ears - all senses are transmitted through the brain, thus people are, in effect, playing the game while sleeping… This is too magical."

"Is that so? Then guess how many players this <Godly Land> would have?" Jiang Chen said proudly.

Xia Shiyu shook her head. "I can't estimate how many, but I know one thing for certain. As long as this helmet isn't too expensive, the number of registered users and concurrent users would have no problem breaking the Genesis World Record."

"That's what I think too."

Xia Shiyu then looked at Jiang Chen.

"Do you think virtual reality could only be applied to games?"

When he heard Xia Shiyu's words, Jiang Chen asked with curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

"PCs, smartphones, and tablets - these electronic devices ease social interaction between people. With just a messaging app, two people thousands of miles away can feel like they're standing side by side." Xia Shiyu put the helmet aside and looked at Jiang Chen. She said with seriousness, "But with this virtual helmet, it can allow two people thousands of miles away to forget the distance and "truly" stand side by side. Ignoring the game itself, the helmet alone is an era-defining product."

Jiang Chen took a moment to think it over as no one had mentioned this to him before since in terms of virtual reality technology, people in the apocalypse were much more indifferent.

"So you're saying this could replace smartphones?" Jiang Chen laughed. "I don't think that's possible since phones can easily be used anywhere, but this can only be used at home. Also, if I remember correctly, VR equipment already existed two years ago."

Virtual reality wasn't something new to the modern world. It had a relatively low usage rate domestically, but outside the wall, this thing wasn't as high-tech as people imagined it to be.

A simple example: the virtual reality game <EVA: Valkyrie> under the CCP banner had a selling point known as "Space VR," but this game started its internal test on January 18th, 2016. Any players who purchased the Oculus Rift DK2 would be able to participate just by registering.

Virtual reality games weren't as complex as imagined ten years ago. A lot of PC and console games were all attempting to integrate with VR.

And the news "2016 will be the landmark year for virtual reality" wasn't wrong at all.

"It's different." Xia Shiyu shook her head. "The difference is analogous to how flip phones didn't change the landscape of PC, but smartphones did."

She paused, looked into Jiang Chen's eyes, and said with seriousness:

"And the virtual reality helmet you introduced is like the "smartphone" of VR. It's impractical as a replacement for smartphones, but it could certainly pose a significant threat to the virtual reality market."

"This virtual reality helmet is just like a key that takes the sleep time of humans to another dimension. Keeping lifespans constant, people will 'live' for eight hours longer each day. Aside from games, we can also use virtual reality equipment to create communities, e-commerce platforms, virtual real estate, and even things we never imagined before…"

Xia Shiyu took a deep breath as her eyes flickered with excitement.

"Now do you know why I'm this excited?"

When he heard Xia Shiyu's description, Jiang Chen was shocked himself. When he was first introduced to the helmet, he only thought of playing games and didn't think that far ahead at all. But now that Xia Shiyu mentioned its potential other uses, he suddenly felt enlightened.

Yes, it had other uses aside from gaming. Social interaction and even other necessities could be based on the virtual reality helmet platform - anything was possible! Virtual reality was just like an undeveloped goldmine that only Future Technology could reach.

"We'll create history," Jiang Chen said.

"That's right!" Xia Shiyu held Jiang Chen's hands in excitement.

"…"

Time paused for five seconds.

She slowly let go of his hands, put her hand to her mouth and coughed while she averted her gaze.

"Sorry, I got too excited…"

She pretended to be calm, but the blush on her face clearly showed the anxiety she was feeling.

Jiang Chen was completely shocked as he stared at her blankly.

[Is this really Xia Shiyu?]

[How should I react?]

Just as they stood in awkward silence, a gentle knock came from the door.

"You have a visitor." Ayesha looked at the two of them with a smile as she leaned on the door frame.

[Perfect save!] Jiang Chen thanked Ayesha in his mind.

"Let me see who's at the door. You can play with the helmet for a bit." Jiang Chen smiled at Xia Shiyu before he slipped out of the gym.

Xia Shiyu watched Jiang Chen leave before her eyes stopped at Ayesha at the door.

She hadn't spoken to her since she came in.

Xia Shiyu squeezed out a forced smile as she said, "Hi…"

She didn't want her expression to reveal her true feelings to this girl.

Or her sense of competition.

Ayesha responded with a friendly smile as she said gently, "I organized your room for you. If you need anything, just let me know."

Looking at Ayesha's smile free of any hostility, Xia Shiyu felt a hint of embarrassment at her own hostility.

"You… you don't dislike me?"

When she heard Xia Shiyu's words, Ayesha tilted her head. "Why would I dislike you?"

"Because… Because of jealousy." Xia Shiyu looked away.

She couldn't look straight into Ayesha's sapphire pupils.

But Ayesha only shook her head.

"You're not afraid I'll take him away from you?" Xia Shiyu finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

"You finally admitted to your own emotions?" Ayesha asked back.

Xia Shiyu stopped. A red hue climbed from her neck to her ears.

But this time, she didn't back down; she didn't want to demonstrate her softness in the relationship in front of her "competition."

Seeing she didn't disagree, a smile appeared on Aysha's face.

She walked beside her, tiptoed and whispered into her ear.

"Tonight, I'll let you have him."

Xia Shiyu took a moment to process this.

When she realized what Ayesha meant, her brain completely shut down…

_Min_

Chapter 401: Land Reclamation?

A middle-aged woman in a blue suit stood at the door of the mansion. Her sharp business outfit looked professional. From the label on her briefcase, Jiang Chen could tell she was from Netherland's BMA Construction. They were currently responsible for the infrastructure development and tourist resource development projects on Pannu Island.

The purpose of her trip, Jiang Chen could guess, was to ask for money.

This situation was rather embarrassing. Based on the contract, at the completion of every phase, the tender should be transferred to the construction company. But since Jiang Chen hadn't been in the modern world for a while, the payments couldn't be signed off, hence payment was delayed until now.

When they finally found out Jiang Chen had returned, BMA sent someone out in hopes of resolving the matter of the delayed payment. Since Future Technology was the guarantor, they weren't afraid that Jiang Chen would scam them, but late payments seriously challenged their cash flow.

Jiang Chen didn't make her wait long as he opened the switch to the metal gate and greeted her outside personally.

When she saw Jiang Chen, the lady did a light bow and introduced herself.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen. I'm Hanna Cavillian, manager of BMA's European division."

"Please come in." Jiang Chen smiled and welcomed her inside.

Hanna nodded and came inside.

Following Jiang Chen to the mansion's door, she occasionally checked her surroundings. Dense subtropical plants bloomed neatly along the sides of the lawn while wide-leaved trees were like mini huts making the entire mansion resemble a castle guarded by trees.

This was a beautiful mansion, but she felt something was odd.

"What are you looking for?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Mhmm…" Hanna gave it a thought and suddenly realized the problem. "Why are there no gardeners working at your mansion?"

Due to business reasons, she visited the Middle East multiple times. She saw many similar castles there and all had gardeners who tended to the plants throughout the day. Judging by the well-kept lawn, this place certainly looked like it was well-taken care of, but she didn't see any gardeners here.

Jiang Chen smiled. "Meticulous observation, but my mansion doesn't need gardeners."

As he said this, he waved his hand towards a bush on the side.

A disc-shaped drone flew out of the bush and hovered beside his hand. From a single glance, the drone itself wasn't a shocking piece of technology, so Jiang Chen didn't bother hiding anything.

But Hanna widened her eyes in disbelief. Words only came out after a long pause as she exclaimed, "Drone gardening? What a stunning piece of technology. Although we have been following the progress in this field, it's the first time I've seen an actual product… Could I ask which company it's from?"

Jiang Chen waved his hand to send the drone back as he joked, "Bill Gates loves to modify his own mansion. Why are you certain a company made this?"

Hanna laughed.

"You are a funny person."

After inviting her inside the mansion, they sat on the sofa as Ayesha poured a cold beverage for both of them.

In this kind of weather, cold orange juice was the most wonderful refreshment.

Shelving the small talk, Hanna took out some documents from her briefcase and placed them in front of Jiang Chen.

"I am here about the Pannu Island tourism area and basic infrastructure development projects. The projects are 50% completed and are expected to be completed by December of this year. Here are the details of the work. Based on our contract, we have already completed two phases - could your party please process the payment for these two phases?"

Jiang Chen only scanned the document briefly before he said nonchalantly:

"Of course, please give me the documents."

Hanna nodded and took out two other documents from her briefcase.

The two phases totaled 4 billion USD. After he confirmed that the number wasn't amiss or had an extra zero, Jiang Chen signed the paperwork.

When she saw Jiang Chen's signature, Hanna's anxious heart finally settled down as she felt relieved.

To be honest, she was afraid that Future International would delay payment even further. Although under their agreement they agreed to pay by phase, an auditing process still existed. If the tendering side didn't recognize that they completed the projects or dragged out the auditing phase for some time, that could complicate things. It was a gamble to do business internationally. Hanna prepared over one hundred ways of convincing him to pay before she arrived.

But this scene surprised her as Jiang Chen agreed on the payment without any mishaps as if he didn't just sign over 4 billion USD but merely the cost of a restaurant bill.

Both parties each retained one copy of the paperwork. Hanna put away her copy into the briefcase in front of her, feeling reassured.

"I have to admit: before I came, we thought you were avoiding us because you didn't want to pay. I apologize for our rude assumptions."

Hanna then stood up and bowed to Jiang Chen.

"No problem." Jiang Chen laughed it off and made a funny comment, "If someone owed me 4 billion, you bet I would be afraid that he would disappear."

Perhaps it was the joke that made her laugh or perhaps it was Jiang Chen's broken English, but Hanna chuckled.

"Also, can I ask something?"

Since she successfully secured payment for the company, Hanna's mood was obviously pleasant. "Of course."

"Does BMA have expertise in building artificial islands?"

A famous quote goes: "God created sea, the Dutch created land." From the 13th century, this country began its massive journey in land reclamation. Over 20% of the Netherland's land was created artificially by filling in the sea. The hills were all dug out and the entire Fribland province was created through reclamation.

Although Pannu Islands had an expansive sea territory, its land area had always been limited. While it looked like it had a low population density, this was because the total population was twenty thousand. Once immigration policies opened up without affecting tourism resources, Jiang Chen estimated that a maximum of one hundred thousand people could fit in the country. Yet in Hua, any town alone had more than half a million people - one hundred thousand people was clearly not enough.

Jiang Chen always thought that the Netherlands had highly advanced land reclamation technology. Since BMA was a renowned Dutch company, Jiang Chen thought it would be good to ask.

Chapter 402: Another Usage of Jumping Ropes

"Of course, our company's businesses include land reclamation and shallow artificial island construction." Hanna smiled.

"If I want to build an artificial island south of Ange Island near the equator, could you estimate the cost?" Jiang Chen asked keenly.

"South of Ange Island?" Hanna clearly paused for a second as Jiang Chen's question surprised her.

"Is there a problem?" Noticing Hanna's reaction, Jiang Chen frowned.

"If I remember correctly, the sea territory south of Ange Island should be deep water. Normally, artificial islands are mostly created in shallow water or on natural reefs. The amount of sand and soil to create a deep-water artificial island would be astronomical," Hanna explained.

"Would it be possible to build a floating island? Just like a giant aircraft carrier." Jiang Chen wasn't ready to give up on the idea yet.

"Floating?" Hanna chuckled and shook her head. "Then wouldn't it float away with the tide?"

"Then connect the floating island with chains, just like an anchor."

Hanna shook her head again. "That's not possible. If it is a small island, no chains would be able to withstand the immense force of the sea. Also, even if the material existed, the material to create the island itself would be a problem. It's just like putting a one-square-kilometer steel board on the water - it wouldn't take a year for it to get torn away by the tide. Unless you create this island with titanium... I can't think of any better material."

Titanium was 42% lighter than steel, but its mechanical strength was two times that of pure iron. From an objective point of view, titanium would be the best choice, but the cost…

Jiang Chen debated for a moment longer before he let out a sigh.

"Okay, looks like I still need to think a bit more."

"I'm sorry I'm unable to help you on this," Hanna said apologetically.

Although BMA stated they had no solutions, Jiang Chen didn't give up just yet. If it wasn't possible in the modern world, it might not be as difficult in the apocalypse.

After seeing Hanna out the door, Jiang Chen returned to the gym. His discussion with Xia Shiyu about virtual reality helmets was interrupted halfway; now they could continue.

But when he went inside, he saw Xia Shiyu lying on the recliner with the helmet on.

Seeing her like this, Jiang Chen didn't wake her up. Instead, he closed the door gently.

"Why don't you use this opportunity to do something?"

Ayesha came from behind and hugged him.

"I'm not a pervert." Jiang Chen facepalmed.

All five senses were blocked when the virtual reality helmet was active. Unless the user's environment exhibited high temperatures or other obvious changes, the safety protocol wouldn't be triggered. This was the reason why the helmet had to be worn in a private space - it was easy to be assaulted wearing the helmet in public.

"That's not what I told Xia Shiyu." A faint smile appeared on Ayesha's face.

Jiang Chen's heart paused a beat then he turned his head. He picked Ayesha up and slung her over his shoulder as Ayesha gave a light shout.

"Oh? You're becoming more naughty... you dare to trick me?" Jiang Chen "fiercely" slapped her butt as it made a loud sound.

"Awwwwh~"

She began to kick her legs in the air. While rubbing against his firm shoulder, Ayesha let out a faint moan. She turned around and looked at Jiang Chen innocently. "I... I only wanted to help the both of you."

Because of her movements on his shoulder, a cool sensation constantly brushed on the side of Jiang Chen's face which tickled his mind as well.

"Oh? How were you going to help?" Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

"I told her that… Tonight, I'll leave you to her," Ayesha said, frightened, as her eyes drifted to the gym back and forth, afraid that Xia Shiyu would wake up and see her in a difficult position.

Although it wasn't like she couldn't escape Jiang Chen's hold, she never imagined resisting him...

When he heard Ayesha's words, Jiang Chen facepalmed.

[You weren't helping - you only made the situation worse.]

"Could you put me down? You can do this when no one is around…" Ayesha pleaded in a small voice.

"No, I plan to punish you."

Jiang Chen had a wickedness to him and ignored her pleas as he carried Ayesha to the gym.

Since people must learn by example, he would punish the "student" in front of other people. At least for the next while, Xia Shiyu shouldn't wake up.

This was exhilarating.

Where did the skipping rope go? He never used it before and now he had to go find it.

…

The world seemed to be alive…

Perhaps because of Xia Yu's personality, she chose to be a magician known for her preciseness. But after registering the account, she didn't immediately start a mission or explore the wild, but rather, she began to tour the city as a "visitor."

Other than the NPC who seemed to be alive, what impressed Xia Shiyu the most was that, in this world, she could see the world clearly without glasses.

It made sense since the images didn't need to pass through her cornea.

Therefore, even for the disabled, they could live in the virtual world like normal people... Staring at the leaves and branches swaying in the air and breathing in the fragrance of the flowers, Xia Shiyu sighed.

Seeing as it was getting late, she moved her finger in the air and chose the exit button.

Xia Shiyu took off her helmet as she sluggishly stretched her body and sat up. She felt refreshed and energized like she just took a great nap.

But then she sniffed her nose and raised her eyebrows slightly.

There was an odd smell in the air, but she couldn't distinguish what it was. It just made her heart beat faster.

"Illusion?" She muttered as she put the helmet away and walked outside.

In the hallway, she happened to bump into Ayesha with an air freshener in her hand.

The girl's face suddenly turned red and she hid the air freshener behind her back. Ayesha didn't say a single word as she briskly walked by with her head buried.

[Strange.]

Xia Shiyu turned her head slightly but immediately shook her head and pushed her confusion to the back of her head.

[It's fine, I still have things to discuss with Jiang Chen…]

Chapter 403: Safety Concern

The mansion was spacious. It took Xia Shiyu a while before she found Jiang Chen reading books in the office at the end of the second-floor hallway.

He was reading <Society and Economy> which surprised Xia Shiyu. "You read books now?"

"No other choice. At this position, even if I don't want to, I have to learn," Jiang Chen said, unfazed.

To Jiang Chen's "hardworking" attitude, Xia Shiyu nodded in praise. Although he didn't expect him to contribute greatly to the company's operation, it was never bad for the president to know more about the economy.

Jiang Chen put aside the book that he had yet to flip through the first page as he asked nonchalantly.

"What's up?"

Xia Shiyu nodded, pulled up a chair from the side, and sat down across from Jiang Chen.

"It's about the virtual reality helmet."

"Technical aspect?"

"No, about the operation, somewhat related to the technical." Xia Shiyu paused, arranged her thoughts, and continued, "With Future 1.0's channel, it is easy for users to learn about our product. But I have to confirm two points. First, how likely is it for someone to make a knockoff?"

"Zero percent chance, at least not possible within the next ten years." Jiang Chen shook his head.

Any attempt to disassemble the helmet would trigger the circuit to self-destruct, the internal structure of the helmet was a black box to the owner. Even without the protection mechanism, it was still challenging to mimic. The chip and circuit board in the helmet were produced by graphene material, and the graphene material's research in the modern world was only in the initial stage.

Ten years was a conservative estimate. Once Future Technology dominates the market, the market's desire to research the technology would cooldown. Needless to say, the major VR equipment manufacturers would all go bankrupt. To be able to develop the virtual reality technology, the modern world would only take more time compared to the apocalypse.

Xia Shiyu was pleased with the number ten. She nodded.

"Two, the server's ability to handle the load. With the quality of the game, if I have guessed correctly, it would take an astronomical amount of computation power. With the server's ability, how many concurrent users could we handle online?"

"You don't have to worry about this. Our server resources are more than sufficient." Jiang Chen laughed.

While it was a civilian model, it was a quantum computer. Nonetheless, it was more than sufficient enough to run a fantasy MMORPG without the need to replicate physics. Let alone 3.2 billion netizens, it could easily support the entire world's population.

Xia Shiyu was skeptical with what Jiang Chen said, but she still nodded.

"After confirming the above two points, I can start writing up the marketing plan. Mhmm, also, have you considered another point."

"What?"

"Security concerns," Xia Shiyu said with seriousness.

Needless to say, the introduction of new technology would draw the attention of all parties. There was a lot of companies that bet big on virtual reality technology, Google, Microsoft, and even a social media platform like Facebook invested 2 billion in purchasing Oculus.

With the bets on the table, the sudden emergence of Future Technology would suddenly sweep the table. Just like with Xbox, who played the SUBOR?

Therefore, in the foreseeable future, the companies that were among the heavy favorites a few years ago would experience a series of rapid downturns. The hot spot would be forced to switch from virtual reality equipment to virtual reality applications.

Therefore, the frontrunner that led the technological shift would receive the hostility from the potential beneficiaries.

Jiang Chen clearly understood what Xia Shiyu meant, but to the potential danger, he only laughed.

"Now, do you think it is necessary for me to invest on this island?"

Xia Shiyu took a moment to process.

"Could it be…"

"That's right, this island is my backyard. Here, my army will protect my interests and rights."

Xia Shiyu was obviously thrown off again.

After a moment of silence, she spoke again, "So… the shareholder behind Celestial Trade is actually you?"

"Yes." The tip of Jiang Chen's lips curled up.

Xia Shibu rubbed her forehead as she said bewilderedly, "So, the overseas organization you said is factitious right?"

"Not exactly, but it works for me, not I work for it."

She finally digested the massive amount of information in her head, she sighed.

"…Okay. In this case, security is not a big concern then."

Although she still had a lot of questions, Xia Shiyu chose to bury them in her head for now. She trusted that Jiang Chen would tell her one day, just like what he told her today.

At night, Xia Shiyu would obvious not go to Jiang Chen's room. But she used the excuse of the room is too big and moved to Ayesha's room. To Xia Shiyu's request, Ayesha didn't reject because she wanted to improve her relationship with her "future sister."

But it made it hard on Jiang Chen. Before Xia Shiyu leaves, he could only eat discreetly…

…

Over the next few days, Xia Shiyu spent her time in the mansion and worked remotely on her laptop. She was creating a marketing plan for <Godly Land> based on Jiang Chen's recommendation while controlling the day-to-day operations of Future Technology.

Although Jiang Chen was impressed by her ability to multitask, he was afraid that she couldn't handle the workload.

While Xia Shiyu was busy between things, Jiang Chen didn't sit around. He spent the days on boats between New Moon, Coro, and Ange Island.

The construction of the New Moon Island military base was basically complete with five hundred soldiers serving. Most of them were soldiers recruited locally at Pannu with some soldiers from Niger.

To alleviate the problem of a lack of soldiers, the manager Barkary posted a hiring post on a social media site for Celestial's security position. A monthly salary of 4000 USD a month plus a 150 square meters house after retirement. The academic requirement was only a high school diploma. With such favorable benefits, Celestial received a high number of applicants from developing countries. After the selection process, Barkary chose 1000 people out of the over ten thousand applicants.

A lot of them were retired soldiers with Han making up the majority. After they arrived on the plane, Ivan didn't immediately station them in New Moon but placed them at the military base on Coro Island for three months of training.

Once their ability and loyalty were confirmed, they will be joining New Moon Island as an official member of Celestial.

Chapter 404: Buy, Buy, Buy

What did Jiang Chen do in the past few days?

To summarize it in two words, spend money.

With a unit of billions.

The military base on New Moon Island has a 2300 meters long double runway airport, a radar station as well as a platform connected via a dam the size of two football fields. After he paid for the construction, Jiang Chen lost another 1.4 billion on his account. Including the 4 billion he spent a few days ago, he used 5.4 billion in three short days.

And that was not all.

To prepare for the extraction of molybdenum, Jiang Chen infused 1 billion to Future Mining, through a tender, he planned to build two semi-submersible offshore platforms south of Ange Island.

The semi-submersible offshore platform will mostly be used in the deep sea with its primary application in oil and gas extraction. Its principle was similar to a submarine with the platform built on a giant floating device. The device would submerge below the water and connect to the seabed through tubes. A balancing device similar to the weight on a fishing rod will be installed below the floatation device which would allow the platform to maintain its balance through the tides and storms.

The benefit of the offshore platform was that it was moveable. Once the mining deposition on the seabed has been completely exhausted, it could be transported away by a transport vessel. Jiang Chen planned to station two soldiers and three workers on the offshore platform and control the underwater mining device through electronic components. A boat would visit every week to bring the necessities and haul away the molybdenum ore rich with manganese nodules.

Although the mining robot technology was still under development, Jiang Chen believes that it won't take long before results come from camp 27. Before that, it was not a bad choice to first build the offshore platform.

These mined manganese nodules will be pulled to Ange Island because, in addition to the rich molybdenum oxide, more than 50% of the structure was composed of iron oxide and manganese oxide. To treat these manganese nodules, Jiang Chen had injected two hundred million more USD in Future Mining and built a manganese nodule treatment plant, a molybdenum ore refinery, as well as a steel plant and an aluminum plant.

The manganese nodule treatment plant would first crush the ore, complete the initial sorting and output the manganese and rich molybdenum slag. The slag will be sent to the molybdenum refinery for secondary processing and the manufacturing of the molybdenum ore required for the virtual reality helmet.

The steel plant and aluminum plant were used to process the iron and aluminum ores purchased from BHP while also treating the residues of the manganese nodules.

The complete production line was expected to be completed in three months. By that time, the first step of Ange Island's industrial transformation would be complete. The rich mining resources would not only satisfy the demand on the island, but it could also be exported for profit!

Once he finished taking care of Future Mining, Jiang Chen began to work on the headquarter of Future Technology.

Coro Island was chosen as the location of the headquarter to ensure the safety of the quantum computer. Jiang Chen spent one hundred million USD to build the headquarter with no consideration of its cost to ensure that the building was strong enough.

Also, Jiang Chen decided to place the virtual reality helmet in the modern world. Since billions of virtual reality helmets would need to be produced, he would never be able to transport all of them back. Especially if he had to transport food, steel, and firearms back to the modern world.

Since he made the decision to produce in the modern world, then he must be cautious with security and the privacy of the production of these virtual reality helmets.

But to this point, Jiang Chen had already planned ahead. The platform he built near New Moon Island was perfect for producing the virtual reality helmet!

No place was more secure than right beside the military base. Under the surveillance of the wide range life signal detector, no agents would be able to escape the eyes of the workers in the radar station. Once they discovered any unregistered personnel, the drones would either capture or evict them. To the people resisting arrest, the drone would initiate its attack program to eliminate the threat.

Jiang Chen decided that the production of the virtual reality helmet should be done automatically. Other than the input of raw resources and the export of finished products requiring some human involvement, the production process that must be kept a secret has to be done in a "black box." Although the cost to the autonomous production line would be high, it was necessary for privacy purposes.

The design of the plant was based on Lu Huasheng's blueprint and built by modern world construction companies. There were a total of three buildings, and each occupied a corner of the triangle shaped platform. The cost totaled two million, which was negligible compared to the mega projects.

After a buying spree, Jiang Chen used 6.7 billion of the 30 billion loan. But he didn't feel pained at all because he knew that he would make the money back in no time.

Putting spending money aside, Jiang Chen certainly made a lot of money too.

Tao Ming didn't disappoint him as he signed a total of four hundred thousand boxes from Future Biology. With an estimated profit of 500 USD per box, the total profit was 200 million USD.

On the other hand, the agent of Emma Watson quickly agreed to the sponsorship agreement and immediately arranged Emma to head to Coro Island for the filming of a commercial and advertisement design. The reason why they agreed without hesitation was partially due to the one million USD sponsorship and partially because of the opportunity to distribute advertisement through Future 1.0.

The insane number of users for Future 1.0 meant that not a lot of people would reject the opportunity to put their face on there.

Since the sales were successful, production could not stagger behind.

To increase the production of nutrient supply, Jiang Chen made a few trips to the apocalypse and brought back five newly built organic converters, as well as 10 tons of inducers to expand the plantation area of DH seaweed.

Therefore, the nutrient supply plant workers began a nightmare of overtime schedules. To finish the production task, the technicians responsible for inducing the DH seaweed even slept on the ground of the lab. The plantation boat on the sea worked rotating shifts. The workers from the three shifts poured the DH seaweed down, fertilizing the sea farm, and cutting the newly grown seaweed…

Of course, Jiang Chen was generous with the overtime bonuses. Compared to the 200 million, overtime bonuses were nothing.

To prevent the workers from working excessively, Jiang Chen ordered Zhan Shujie to hire 60 additional workers to fill the void in labor. To Zhan Shujie and Tao Ming's outstanding contributions to Future Biology, Jiang Chen gave them a generous bonus.

A dividend of 1% per person as their annual bonus. While they were both ecstatic, they worked even harder.

Everyone could see the future of Future Biology. Even a dividend of 1%, with the current growth trend, they could at least take in more than ten million USD at the end of the year.

In his half month, Jiang Chen finally felt what it was like to be busy. He wanted to split himself in half so that one half could be on Ange Island, while the other stationed between New Moon and Coro.

But after a busy half month, everything was finally on the right track.

Just as Jiang Chen thought he could take some time off, a new problem quickly emerged.

Without including the independent Celestial, Future International's employee number in Xin reached 400. While it was a small number on paper, Xin had a total of 20,000, to begin with; the working population barely reached 10,000.

Fishing boats could rarely be spotted on Xin's sea territory, people were demanded everywhere. Basic infrastructure development boosted the local employment rate. What used to be an island with the highest unemployment rate, Ange Island, now lacked a workforce.

Especially once the tourism resources were completed, there would be a more significant gap in the labor force. Jiang Chen estimated that once the projects are completed, his employees would at least increase by 2000, and at least create an additional 5000 positions in supporting industries!

Xin didn't have that many people looking for work.

Therefore, Jiang Chen set his eyes on a superpower currently experiencing an immigration wave.

But he was not looking at the rich who did everything they could to leave, but the labor force with an academic background higher than high school.

Chapter 405: Immigration Wave

No.1 Wanghai High School.

A young-looking math teacher with glasses was packing away his stuff in the office. Three days ago, he handed in his resignation letter. Today, the principal finally agreed.

"Guangpin, you're really not going to work here anymore?" The director stood beside him as he said reluctantly.

Li Guangpin was a teacher they hired three years ago. Although he was just an undergraduate student at that time, he demonstrated excellent teaching ability. With the philosophy that math can be fun, he employed a humorous but rigorous teaching style. Not only did he manage to increase a class with mediocre math scores to the best class today, but he also gained the respect and love of all the students in the class.

This type of teacher, not a single person would be willing to let him go. And because of that, the principal dragged out his resignation for three days before seeing that he had made up his mind and finally signed the letter without any other choice.

"Director Wang, you don't need to try and convince me anymore." Li Guangpin smiled and stuffed a pen a student gifted him into his bag.

Director Wang let out a sigh. "Okay, I'll stop trying to convince you."

Perhaps upset by the fact that a school executive personally tried to persuade him, a teacher correcting homework in a low voice said bitterly.

"Private high schools have better benefits, how could the small No.1 High School hold your glorious presence."

The voice was not too high, but not too low.

Director Wang's expression didn't look good, but he didn't say anything as he just pretended he didn't hear anything. Private schools acquiring talents from public schools had been giving the school executives headaches, but they could do nothing about it. Since "People walked up, water flowed down," talent could not just be retained by culture. Private school's salary and bonus structure are much better than public schools. It may be more tiring but was undoubtedly more attractive to young teachers with ambition and ability.

When he heard his coworker's words, Li Guangpin paused for a second, but he didn't mind and only smiled.

Although Wu Jiefeng had some conflicts with him in terms of awards, since they were no longer people from the same world, he didn't let it bother him.

"I'm not going to a private school, I'm going to teach overseas."

"Overseas?" Director Wang was shocked.

"Mhmm, a few high schools in Xin posted positions, and I happened to pass the interview. They wanted me to come as soon as possible." Although he used a casual voice, from the smile on his face, however, he was proud.

When they heard Li Guangpin's words, the teachers who were working on their own things began to chat amongst themselves.

"I saw the posting too. It is through a video conference with a salary of 4000 USD a month!" A male teacher whispered.

"Really?" A female teacher said, shocked.

4000 USD was 24000 RMB in salary, and it was just a starting level salary! To the average teacher at a public school, it was an astronomical number!

"It shouldn't be fake, Xin government is doing the hiring. They wanted to solve the lack of talent in their schools and hospitals, so they are offering a competitive package to oversea teachers and doctors. The news even went on Future 1.0's headline.

"Xin is this rich? Weren't they in a war before?" A Han teacher was skeptical.

"That was half a year ago. With the new government, they introduced a series of stimulating economic measures. They want to build Pannu Islands into the Hawaii of the west Pacific!" A slim male teacher said very vocally.

He was the type that enjoyed reading the news. Seeing how uninformed his coworkers were, he began to sell what he knew.

"Also, Xin introduced a labor immigration policy. Anyone with a work visa could apply for Xin nationality once they have worked two full years in Xin."

"Old Li, once you get the green card, when we go visit you, you can't pretend not to know us." A teacher that had a good relationship with Li Guangpin joked.

"Of course. Haha, once I settle down, I will invite you all over."

Li Guangpin said goodbye to his colleagues.

Only one person in the entire office was gloomy; head uncomfortably buried, and eyes filled with jealousy. Wu Jiefeng would not tell other people that he saw the job and applied. But unfortunately, he was eliminated in the first round.

…

Similar scenes happened all over Xin.

It all originated from an immigration promotion video on Youtube. The entire video had three central ideas. The place was stunning, filled with work opportunities, and just waiting for you to go!

Then, the video was reposted by Future 1.0 news channel and hence spread across the country. This began a frenzied amount of reposting and comments. Compared with the lack of response in UA and Europe, the citizens of Hua had a favorable impression of Xin.

As to why?

It was because of the cultural similarity.

The only other country in the world that used Han as its official language. The Han society obviously felt close to Xin. People may fear the culture difference from immigrating to the UA or Europe, but it would not happen in Xin.

Especially when the place was filled with job opportunities, beautiful sceneries, a loose political structure, the desire to immigrant was even stronger. Another important thing was, the cost to immigrate to Xin was low.

Without the need for a lot of money, people could immigrate without money!

Two types of immigration policy were open; investing immigration or labor immigration.

Investing immigration had a policy of possessing property over one million or providing at least ten work positions in Xin. They would only need to submit proof to the Bureau of Immigration before they could directly obtain Xin nationality.

The labor immigration was even more accessible. Xin needed a tremendous workforce with an education background greater than high school. Any of the foreigners with a proof of work could immediately obtain a work visa. As long as they work over two years in Xin, they would obtain permanent resident status while enjoying the same social benefits as citizens. Work for five years, and they could obtain Xin nationality.

For companies looking to hire enough people, Xin even pushed a special policy. Any of the companies requiring labor could post its hiring needs on Xin's minister of foreign affair website to ease the process.

In the country where everything was in its infancy, anyone could find a position that belonged to them. Han's curiosity and longing for Xin were just like European's longing for America in the 18th century.

The day the immigration policy was made available, Xin's embassies received a total of 4410 immigration applicants with two-thirds coming from Hua. It wouldn't take long before the lack of a labor force that's disturbing the growth of Xin would be solved by the gradually heated immigration wave!

Chapter 406: The Relaxing Time on the Beach

It has been over half a month since Xia Shiyu arrived at Coro Island. She had spent a relaxing time there, but it made life tough on Jiang Chen. Because the two girls slept together, Jiang Chen basically had no intimate time with Ayesha.

The only thing that made it worthwhile was that Ayesha and Xian Shiyu's relationship got a lot closer. Perhaps because they slept on the same bed, the faint hostility Xia Shiyu had toward Ayesha faded after a half month of meshing together.

All in all, the three people lived harmoniously together. Xia Shiyu spent the day working at home, Jiang Chen stayed out among islands, and Ayesha would sometimes drive for Jiang Chen, occasionally visit Jiang Chen's parents and do the chores in the mansion from time to time.

The busiest half month passed by. Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu both had free time. To treat himself for his hard work, Jiang Chen proposed a vacation on his private island.

To Jiang Chen's proposal, Xia Shiyu only hesitated for a moment before she agreed. After such high-stress work, the rare trip to the beautiful southern island would be a waste if not enjoyed now. Since she lived most of her life among the noise of the city, the proposal was indeed attractive to her.

As to Ayesha, she never had any opinions on Jiang Chen's proposals. She was timider than a small lamb.

Therefore, the two days' vacation had been agreed on.

…

Other than the nine islands, hundreds of deserted islands also spanned across Pannu Islands. Some of them looked only as big as a house with a single wave capable of flooding the entire island. Some of them were as big as New Moon Island, only uninhibited due to the lack of access to fresh water.

This inhibited island was 170 nautical miles to the east of Coro Island, one of the islands was sold to Jiang Chen from Xin government. The island was one square kilometer big with dense vegetation in the middle of the island and was surrounded by beaches on all sides. Other than the wooden cabin on the beach, there was no other facility on the island.

Jiang Chen intended to retain the original scenery of the island.

"You certainly know how to enjoy life," Xia Shiyu exclaimed.

She lied soothingly on the recliner. Staring at the waves mixed with white bubbles and feeling the saline sea wind that swayed her hairs, she sucked on the cold orange juice. It was like living in heaven.

Xia Shiyu felt all her weariness leave her body. Her mood couldn't have been better.

"I'll take that as a compliment. But to be honest, this is my first time on the island too," leaning on the chair with his arms under his head, Jiang Chen said sluggishly.

"Oh really?" Xia Shiyu turned her head.

The sea blue two-piece swimsuit fitted perfectly on her figure of perfection. Although she didn't intentionally show off her body, her gorgeous face was revealed without anything obstructing it. The water droplets left on her body after playing among the waves sparkled on her smooth leg, just like a lotus after the morning dew.

"What are you looking at." Sensing Jiang Chen's gaze, Xia Shiyu felt her face burn. She put on a straight face and said with some harshness to hide the panic in her heart.

Under the sunlight that made people lazy, Jiang Chen answered without processing it in his head.

"A hot girl."

"…" Xia Shiyu bit her lower lip and turned around to hide her burning red face.

Looking at the door, Ayesha had a smile on her face.

Their progress was far better than she had expected…

The sun began to slide down the east coast. Under the ray of the dusk, Jiang Chen began to set up the BBQ on the beach, took out the ingredients and beer that was chilled on the boat, and began to prepare for a bonfire party.

As he chugged the cold beer while biting on the crispy and golden skewers, Jiang Chen was thrilled by the experience. On the contrary, Xia Shiyu was more reserved as she ate the skewers bite by bite, enjoying the delicacy.

As to Ayesha, compared to eating, she seemed to enjoy being eaten… Mhmm, that sounded weird. Correction, she enjoyed watching the happiness that flowed out of Jiang Chen and his praises when he ate her work.

After a nice dinner, they cleaned up the garbage, and the three fooled around on the beach for a while before they lied back down.

Peace returned to the beach.

As Jiang Chen stared at the sun slowly descending, Jiang Chen abruptly asked.

"Are you leaving the day after tomorrow?"

Xia Shiyu was silent and then nodded.

"Mhmm, I have been away for a while, I have to be there for a lot of things."

"It's been hard on you." Jiang Chen sighed.

"Not at all." Xia Shiyu shook her head and watched the same dusk. "Although tiring, not hard."

To be able to prove her worth was something she dreamed of doing, why would she think it is hard? Or rather, it was an exhilarating experience to be able to witness the growth of an internet empire in her own hands.

The dusk glided a golden edge on her face. The faint smile on her face made Jiang Chen hold his breath.

It was not her stunning beauty, but something even brighter.

But then, Ayesha suddenly stood in front of Jiang Chen and put him behind her.

"What's going on?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Helicopter.' Ayesha's eyes narrowed as she gazed at the sky. Her eyes became alert and flickered with cautiousness.

Following Ayesha's sight, he also discovered the black dot that surfaced in the distance.

Not long after, the edges of the helicopter become more and more clear.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows at the miniature helicopter. He didn't remember buying this model. He became more alert and prepared to take out his weapons from the storage dimension.

But when he saw the person at the side hatch, his loosened up, sighed, and sat back down.

"By the looks of it, the higher being doesn't want me to have a good vacation."

As he muttered, he drank the last drops of his orange juice.

...

Frankberg, the library of the University of Ber.

The dusk had long been gone, but the library was still bright from inside out.

A teen with a relatively attractive face sat at the corner of the library and concentrated on the laptop in front of him with his fingers typing furiously on the keyboard. Other than the laptop computer, a couple of German computer textbooks laid on his table along with a cup of black coffee.

When he pressed the last button, Xie Lei let out some of the air in his chest and sunk into the chair.

It has been half a month. The opponent hid carefully, and their skills were impressive, but they finally exposed some information. After breaking through a series of firewalls, Xie Lei finally managed to capture the real IP masked behind layers of fake IPs.

The IP was located in Poland.

After Xie Lei captured the real IP, he didn't alert the opponent. Instead, he used the opportunity when the opponent relayed information back to send the Trojan program to their computer. The Trojan program would not do any harm to the computer, it would only package some of the documents in the computer discreetly and discreetly transfer the information back to his computer.

Watching the progress bar on the screen, an egotistical look appeared on his face.

"Let me see who you are."

As Xie Lei muttered, he reached for the coffee on the table.

But when his finger touched the cup, a couldn't be helped expression surfaced.

The coffee was cold.

He looked up at the clock on the wall, he mumbled.

"Already 8?"

He'll just do the rest at home…

He was a bit hungry. Seeing that the progress bar was complete, he stood up, put the laptop on his back, and headed out.

But just when Xie Lei went downstairs, he caught a glimpse of two black vehicles parked outside.

Four men in black suits and shades walked out and headed to the front door of the library.

"Did the library do some donation program again? But it's already so late." Xie Lei mumbled to himself and didn't mind these people.

When he passed by the men in black, however, he felt a chill run down his spine.

It was as if a venomous snake was staring at him.

Fortunately, the feeling faded away in a glimpse.

Perhaps because he looked too young, the sight of the men in black stopped for a second before they left as they began to scan in the library.

But just in that one glimpse, Xie Lei felt his entire back was drenched in cold sweat.

[Dammit, what kind of people did that guy mess with?]

Xie Lei left the library and cursed in his mind. Instincts told him that the men in black were definitely not friendly individuals. They were probably looking for him!

IP location was reversibly trackable, and he didn't have a clue! With how fast they responded, they had been monitoring him for a while.

If he stayed in the library, the consequence would be unimaginable.

Also, he was lucky that he used the library's wifi…

Chapter 407: You are being Monitored

The helicopter with a name he didn't know hovered above the beach. A rope was thrown down. A hot blonde lady in a white tank top and short shorts agilely hopped down.

Without any equipment, only Russians could do such risky things.

Natasha.

Since the last time Jiang Chen saw her at the hotel in Xiangjiang, he hasn't seen her for half a year.

When both of her feet touched the ground, she signaled the helicopter pilot before walking to Jiang Chen.

The helicopter turned around and Jiang Chen focused on the Russian girl walking in his direction.

Natasha stood in front of Jiang Chen and ignored Ayesha's cold expression as she raised her chin.

"You still owe me a shot of Vodka."

"When did the audacious Russian get so pesky?' Jiang Chen said as he sat up from the recliner.

"Sniff-, I smell BBQ and beer. Unfortunately, looks like I'm late to the party… Don't look at me like that; I'm not hostile." With Ayesha's cautious look, Natasha put up both of her hands, but her tone was flirtatious.

"Who is she?" Xia Shiyu frowned and whispered to Jiang Chen.

"A KGB agent, or should I call them the Russian Federation Security Bureau? Anyways, both are not wrong," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

When Xia Shiyu heard the word agent, she instinctively felt fear since she was captured by the CIB before. She could still not let go of the fearful memory. But when she saw Ayesha, her tense heart became calm again.

To the anxiousness on the beautiful Han girl's face, Natasha only scanned it before moving away.

Then, she stared straight at Jiang Chen and smiled.

"We haven't seen each other for a while, why such a cold expression, are Han men this heartless?"

Jiang Chen glared at her, "Your Han is improving, but I have to say, your choice of words could be better."

The tip of Natasha's mouth curled up as he walked up to him. But Ayesha didn't have any intention of moving away as she just stood there.

Although the small B was not convincing enough for the "massiveness," the emotionless expression added another vibe no less than Natasha's.

'Hello, I'm a security personnel responsible for the safety of the embassy, are you trying to start a diplomatic conflict?"

Ayesha's expression didn't make Natasha unhappy at all. She pointed at her gun multiple times, now that she finally was without a gun. The Russian girl grinned and looked down at her with aggressiveness.

"Ayesha." Jiang Chen coughed.

When Ayesha heard Jiang Chen's reminder, although she still didn't want to back down, she stood silently to the side.

With a pause, Jiang Chen asked Natasha, "The security personnel of the embassy? Could you explain?"

"Xin and Russia officially established a diplomatic relationship. I'm here along with the Russian ambassador. I got off the plane at noon. When I heard you were here, I immediately came with the helicopter." Natasha walked beside the recliner and sat beside Jiang Chen's leg.

Xia Shiyu's eyebrows jumped at the scene as she had a bad feeling. Ayesha only silently stared at the back of her head. Although she didn't mind how many women her husband had, to the woman who clearly had other intentions, she didn't want them to get close at all.

"Does KGB know that I'm the shareholder of Celestial Trade?" Jiang Chen asked while he discreetly moved his leg away to avoid the flirtatious curve.

[Sending out a KGB agent as the bodyguard for diplomats, the Russians are quite interesting.]

"Is this a secret? You didn't intentionally hide it." Natasha grinned.

"Then your intention is?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Would you believe I'm here just to visit you?" Natasha's said while raising the massiveness that would even make Liu Yao envious.

[36D, 36E? It looks like I underestimated her before.] Jiang Chen said shockingly in his mind.

It was not that the massiveness did not tempt him, but he knew better than to touch the rose with thorns. Perhaps after they hooked up, she would have sold him already.

"Our diplomat discussed an arms sale with president Zhang, but he told us to discuss it with you." Natasha leaned on the side of the chair as her body moved towards Jiang Chen.

The deep trenches…

"Arms? If it is AK or something like that, then it's okay," Jiang Chen gulped while he said courteously.

"Tank, fighter jet, artillery, we sell everything." Natasha glanced at Jiang Chen's beach shorts as she the tip of her mouth dubiously curved up.

The eyes seemed to be saying, [You are saying no, but your body is more honest.]

Jiang Chen ignored the teasing look as he rebuked, "You sell everything? Do you sell people?"

Natasha was clearly not agitated by Jiang Chen's words. Instead, she flirted back, "If you want, we can have a deep discussion about it."

"Ahem." Xia Shiyu coughed loudly.

Natasha turned around as she seemed to have understood something, she looked dubiously at Jiang Chen.

"You certainly have the joy than most men desire."

"Don't say random stuff." Jiang Chen was out of sorts.

Natasha then abruptly said, "Also, just a reminder, you are being monitored."

'Monitored? By who?" Jiang Chen paused, suddenly alerted.

Natasha stood up.

"Are you not going to welcome me to your party?"

…

Jiang Chen didn't know what Natasha had planned, but he agreed to her staying in the wooden beach cabin. While the cabin looked primal from the outside, all the necessary amenities were available.

Guest room, bathroom, even a spa; a range of equipment only available in five-star hotels.

But the most fun thing on the island was the hot spring. As long as a hole was dug on the beach, once a wave passed through, a hot spring mixed with sand would form. It looked muddy, but it was filled with unpolluted natural minerals. Great for the skin.

The hot spring on the beach was across from the cabin and because Xia Shiyu wanted to try it, Ayesha accompanied her. Not confident with leaving Natasha with Jiang Chen, the two girls "kidnapped" her along. Jiang Chen wanted to go too, but they had to be naked. With how stern Xia Shiyu's face was, Jiang Chen stayed in the cabin.

Just as Jiang Chen was in the spa ready to drift off to sleep, the phone on the table began to ring.

He picked up the phone. It was an international number.

Caller: Xie Lei.

"Hello?"

"I confirmed the opponent's identity," Xie Lei said in short breaths.

"Are you okay?" Jiang Chen frowned.

"I'm fine, but they almost saw my face." Xie Lei looked back on the street, still feeling anxious.

He was in a public phone booth and cautiously scanning the street.

"Keep it simple," Jiang Chen said.

Xie Lei took a deep breath as he said briskly, 'I obtained a filed named V from their database, but the file inside was encrypted, and the encryption method was the most outdated one, I could not crack it without the password. Also, the opponent detected my presence and almost just blocked me in the library."

"Where is the file?"

Xie Lei adjusted his breathing, "I sent it to a safe email at the net café, and I'll tell you the account and password now."

"Go ahead."

Jiang Chen pressed a few buttons on the phone and opened the notepad function.

Once Xie Lei finished the last letter, Jiang Chen saved the information.

"Be safe."

"Mhmm." Xie Lei nodded.

"If it is not safe, just stop. Your sister is there after all."

He knew how restrained it felt when his family was being threatened.

"Thank you!" Xie Lei said sincerely.

His sister was his concern. He at least received three months of military training in Nigeria and could easily run when discovered, but it would be a different scenario if he had to bring his hospitalized sister along.

The game of cat and mouse should end soon.

Chapter 408: Arms Sale and Conditions

When the three ladies returned, it was almost nine o'clock.

The pursuit of beauty was a natural tendency for women. When they found out that the hot springs could slim down their figures in addition to whitening and contracting their pores, they all agreed unanimously to stay there a bit longer, so it was late when they got back.

After they dragged their weary bodies back to the beach cabin, all three dived into the bathroom to wash off the sand and seawater from their bodies and change into new clothes. Then Natasha, still unsatisfied, proposed another BBQ on the beach.

Xia Shiyu and Ayesha rejected the idea at first because it was easy to gain weight from eating at night, but Natasha didn't care for their opinions. Seeing as no one was going to accompany her, she set up everything by herself in front of the hut and took out food from the fridge as if it was her house.

In comparison to Ayesha and Xia Shiyu who were both full, she didn't eaten dinner yet.

Because Xia Shiyu couldn't resist the temptation of BBQ meat, she forced herself to sleep. On the other hand, Ayesha had mental fortitude and ignored the smells carried by the wind. But Jiang Chen's resistance was much weaker as his eyes lit up when he smelled the meat.

Because he didn't need to worry about his weight with his body superior to that of Superman's, it wouldn't be a problem even if he ate a cow.

"Sigh, it's so nice to be rich; being an agent means you have to worry about being shot every day." Natasha chewed on the BBQ while chugging down a cold beer as she swung around her wet blonde hair.

"You make it sound like it's so easy to be one." Jiang Chen made a skewer disappear as he grinned.

Russian BBQ was like Turkey's roast meat, but it was his first time seeing the meat mixed with orange juice and red wine. Mixed with garlic, even if the meat was relatively big, it was delicious nonetheless.

"I just have to marry rich." Natasha' lips raised as she put her bottle to the side.

Jiang Chen glanced at her flat but athletic abs; he didn't know where all the food she ate went.

"Then that wealthy man's life would be miserable; his wife is a KGB agent, so he must prevent himself from doing anything naughty outside."

"Is that so? To men with ability, I don't mind how many women he has." Natasha glanced at Jiang Chen's beach shorts and said aggressively, "But without ability, it's better not to bring trouble on oneself."

[Fu*k, why don't you try to see if I have the ability or not, I'll make you… Mhmm, I can't fall for her tricks.]

Jiang Chen's arousal was quickly suppressed.

He paused for a moment before changing the topic.

"Earlier, you said I'm being monitored."

"That's right, being monitored by me." Natasha's chuckled.

"Be serious." He glared at her.

"Let's first talk about the arms sale." Natasha also diverted the topic.

"Is this an added condition?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"Not exactly, but since you want us to share our intelligence with you, at least convince us that we're standing on the same frontier together." Natasha leaned on a wooden post while she stretched her legs out sluggishly.

"Can't I stay neutral?' Jiang Chen ignored her seductive position and smiled.

Natasha tossed her hair behind her back as she audaciously burped, then she looked mockingly at Jiang Chen. "Neutrality is the dumbest choice, especially when you have NATO allies surrounding you."

"You do make a good point." He laughed. "Then should I accept the friendly gestures from the UA or stand with you? You guys have been dragged into a mud pit in Eastern Europe and aren't in the best state due to the problems in Syria."

The meaning was obvious: [You guys can't even hold your own - what makes you attractive enough for me to stand with you?]

"You won't join the UA as long as you're not dumb." Natasha shook her head.

"Oh? Explain."

"Country F is an ally of UA, but in establishing a strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific, did F manage to gain a lot out of it?" Natasha said with a grin.

"So, we choose not to stand with anyone," Jiang Chen said dubiously.

"You're like a beautiful girl with an ambiguous attitude towards your pursuers. But have you considered that since you're a needle stuck in the second island chain to block China, the UA will keep compromising with you? There are two methods to conquer a woman; one is to use flattering words, the other is to use force." Natasha gave a derogatory but easy-to-understand analogy.

"Is that so?" Jiang Chen scoffed.

[Funny, I haven't even taken out your nuclear weapons yet! If it wasn't for Xin being in a state of economic development to avoid unnecessary international problems, Xin could be a part of the nuclear club right now. It's a bit too early, but once I establish a few nuclear silos in the Pacific, even the five thugs will have to be afraid.]

Natasha noticed that Jiang Chen was silent. Thinking that he didn't believe her, she laughed, "Don't forget what happened in Kane."

"What happened?"

"If the UA is willing, they only need one billion USD to form a 'civilian force' equipped with tanks and artillery in Xin." Natasha wolfed down another skewer.

To Natasha's words, Jiang Chen only laughed.

"I will consider your arms sale, but our stance to maintain neutrality internationally will not change. Arms sales in Hua have a much lower barrier compared to you guys. If you insist on adding conditions then I hope we can form a partnership in other areas instead."

[Whatever, it's not like you're the only store. Only Iran and India are willing to do arms business with Russia. Who's more eager to expand into the international arms market? Natural gas and crude oil from Eastern Europe are no longer highly sought after. Without arms sales, what do you have to feed the almost bankrupt arms plants?]

Natasha's eyebrows raised as she said expressionlessly.

"If you purchase Han firearms, the UA will be tense."

This was indeed true - compared to Russia who had nothing to do with South Asian affairs, an arms sale from Hua would have a higher chance of crossing UA boundaries. But Natasha clearly ignored a key point:

"We are a private company; we don't represent the country of Xin."

This was a shameless excuse.

The mercenary Xin hired had nothing to do with the Xin government. Although everyone knew that Celestial was Xin's unofficial army, the army was not controlled by the government after all.

After a long silence, Natasha spoke with her eyes narrowed. "You are devious."

"Thank you for your compliment. If you are interested in doing business without conditions, can you first tell me how you are monitoring me?"

Natasha spoke a name which made Jiang Chen surprised.

"Willie society.

"Willie society?" With shock in Jiang Chen's eyes, he frowned. "Aren't they only active in Eastern Europe?"

"Who told you they're only active in Eastern Europe?" Natasha continued, "Their eyes are all over Europe. We call them Neo-Nazis; NATO refers to them as reformed 'good friends." What's important is not how they made history but the role they play now."

"What role do they play now?"

"The disruptor of Eastern Europe," Natasha said emotionlessly. "NATO provides them with funding, intelligence support, and even weapons, attempting to use these Nazis to prevent us from unifying our people-"

"But what does it have to do with me?" Jiang Chen frowned.

South Asia and Eastern Europe were two completely distinct places.

"That's what we're curious about too." Natasha turned to look at Jiang Chen. "What does it have to do with you?"

Jiang Chen paused then asked:

"Do you not know either? I thought you could give me answers."

"KGB's influence is nowhere near as strong as before." Natasha sighed. "Willie society surfaced in the Gorbachev era. During that time, we could no longer even look after ourselves; there was too much bloodshed in our domestic conflicts… For so many years, our agents only managed to obtain one keyword."

"What keyword?" Watching the waves, Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

"The Golden Apple."

Jiang Chen's pupils instantly contracted.

Chapter 409: It was not a Secret after all.

[The Golden Apple? The fu*king Golden Apple again.]

Two clues intermingled in his head.

Based on the Golden Apple symbol on Carmen's ring, Rothschild may have some connection to the Golden Apple.

Based on Natasha's words, Willie society was also connected to the Golden Apple.

Then Rothschild must be connected to the Willie society somehow!

[Allies?]

Jiang Chen frowned but immediately rejected the thought.

The Rothschild family was Jewish and even supported the founding of Israel. Considering what Natasha said, the Willie society consisted of Neo-Nazis. Therefore, the two groups had to be in an eternal rivalry.

[So, are they competitors then?]

Jiang Chen closed his eyes; his deductive skills were only mediocre at best. Without any more clues, this was the only conclusion he arrived at.

Natasha definitely didn't provide him with all the information. Jiang Chen wasn't even sure how much they know about the Golden Apple.

"Have you heard of the Golden Apple?" Natasha asked.

"The apple that Eve and Adam ate?" Jiang Chen disguised the shock in his mind and spoke with a smile.

He wouldn't tell Natasha what the Golden Apple actually was, just like how she must've held back some information from him. It was better to play the fool now; his instincts told him that a lot of people were searching for the Apple.

It was obvious as to why everyone wanted to control the mystery behind the Nazi's technology.

Natasha's question may have been a test to begin with.

Although Jiang Chen really wanted to explain to her that the knock-off Golden Apple was at best a one-way radio that received certain information based on a specific time frame but didn't possess the ability to communicate with the future… No one would accept his explanation anyways.

"… You need to catch up on your history; the Golden Apple originated from Greek Mythology, not the <Bible>." Natasha glared at him and took a sip of beer.

"Is that so? I will remember your words. It's getting late, time to sleep." Jiang Chen got up and headed inside.

"Hello? About the arms - are you going to buy them or not?" Natasha turned her head and shouted at him with her mouth reeking of alcohol.

"Submarines and vessels – I'll only buy these two, nothing else."

Jiang Chen closed the door.

...

[Submarines and vessels, those are going to be hard to secure…] Natasha frowned.

Although they were included as part of the arms sales project, they were usually only sold to their allies.

[It was better to contact the ministry of national defense…]

Natasha took out her satellite phone.

What she didn't know was that Ayesha, in the next room, was monitoring her calls under Jiang Chen's instructions.

…

Jiang Chen had a great sleep that night.

What woke him up from his dream was the sound of the tide shuffling and the tickling of his ear.

He opened his eyes and saw a pair of sapphire-like pupils.

It was Ayesha.

She was kneeling beside the bed, watching him quietly.

"Are you a cat?" Jiang Chen caressed her face with a smile.

It was rumored that cats would observe their owners while they slept. Although he didn't know if the urban legend was true or not, Jiang Chen thought Ayesha gazing at him was cute.

Ayesha closed her eyes as she leaned her head against Jiang Chen's warm head and gently asked:

"Should we go see the sunrise first or eat breakfast?"

"Let's see the sunrise first," Jiang Chen said then sat up on the bed.

After a few routine stretching exercises, he walked outside with Ayesha.

When he was outside, he was surprised to find that Natasha was already up. And by the looks of it, she already took a morning jog.

"I'm really curious – considering how sluggish your routine is, could you still beat me now?" Looking at Jiang Chen with eyes still half-closed, Natasha joked.

[Funny, do I need to exercise to beat you?]

Jiang Chen ignored Natasha and walked out on the beat, took a breath of fresh air, faced the turbulent waves and shouted.

"Ahhh-!"

This loud roar felt so delightful. With Natasha rolling her eyes, Jiang Chen laughed presumptuously then took Ayesha to go wake Xia Shiyu up.

The four of them then headed to the east beach to watch the sunrise and returned to the cabin for breakfast.

Right now, the satellite TV in the living room was playing CNN's morning news.

The news was reporting on the open trial records of the supreme court of Xin regarding the captured country F soldiers. 41 F soldiers who disguised as pirates and trespassed on another country's territory shocked the world; it made the world understand how shameless a country could be. The 59 casualties were unfortunate but deserved. Xin's government was willing to return the soldiers' bodies back; they would mockingly place country F's flag on the 59 caskets.

The Han media had the biggest reaction and the most unified response. They stood firmly with Xin and criticized F's hideous actions, and they also stated that F's actions in the south sea were unreasonable.

Because CNN had an ideology in line with the Liberal party, while they questioned some of the actions of Xin, they mostly mocked F's unlawful "government-organized pirates."

Aquino called for two press conferences that day - one international while the other would target the domestic population in an attempt to change F's image, but it was futile.

"I can't believe your security is actually pretty good. I remember F used to conduct joint military exercises with the UA before." Natasha stuffed some buttered toast into her mouth while she chatted casually.

"So what? My soldiers are superior to them," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

[It's because of technology.]

M4A1's bullets couldn't penetrate the polyethylene blast board of the kinetic skeleton, but the Reaper assault rifle could penetrate most of the walls they used as cover.

"No wonder you just need submarines and vessels." Natasha grinned before she gobbled down the last piece of toast.

"So? What's your verdict?" Jiang Chen asked.

"I'm not the one calling the shots. I can only relay information, so I passed your request to the Kremlin." Natasha crossed her arms and leaned into her chair.

[Is that so?]

The tips of Jiang Chen's mouth imperceptibly curled up.

He listened to her phone call with the Kremlin last night. Her superiors' orders for her were to try to persuade him, even if she had to sacrifice her body to better understand his connection with the Golden Apple.

Therefore, the Russians obviously understood the "use" of the Golden Apple.

Since Willie society was investigating him, the KGB became interested in him as well – this was the only explanation.

Also, Jiang Chen heard from yesterday's conversation that the Kremlin already agreed on the arms sale because they really needed money. And Jiang Chen was a person with money who wasn't "picky" and willing to pay for their inactive vessels.

They were right - Jiang Chen really didn't care about the outdated technology their vessels and submarines contained since he could make modifications. For example, he could replace the engine, missiles, anti-radar equipment, and add life-detection devices.

"I'm really curious if Xin knows that the head of security for Russian diplomats is a KGB agent. What kind of expression would president Zhang have?" Jiang Chen said with a joking voice.

"It would depend on what expression you want him to have, right?" Natasha glared at Jiang Chen as she grinned back.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

It wasn't a secret after all.

Chapter 410: Do you sell Nuclear Submarines?

Just like yesterday, the second day of their vacation was still spent on leisure. But because of the arrival of the unexpected visitor Natasha, the four of them could now do some fun activities.

Such as beach volleyball which could make people's face turn red and heart pump faster.

Ayesha and Xia Shiyu were okay - one of them hadn't completely matured yet while the other possessed the slim figure unique to Asians. Aside from her beauty, there was nothing that could make him "nosebleed."

But Natasha was different.

Jiang Chen felt his nose becoming warm because of the two balls jiggling from her jumps.

The only person who could compare to her would probably be Liu Yao. Speaking of her, he hadn't seen her for a while. Although they had been in contact through WeChat, Jiang Chen still missed her.

In the evening, they still enjoyed delicious BBQ. Natasha's Russian style BBQ and Ayesha's Chinese style BBQ all had their bright spots. The two seemed to be in a silent competition in the field of BBQ.

It was a fantastic experience for Jiang Chen because he was the judge, so his stomach was treated well.

After going through a long day, the gang all felt tired, and even the resilient Ayesha was tired as well. But since they were leaving tomorrow, the girls still dragged their weary bodies and spent two more hours in the beach hot spring.

Jiang Chen sensed that the three seemed to be getting along better. Even Ayesha showed less hostility when she looked at Natasha…

As long as Natasha maintained a "safe distance" with Jiang Chen.

The morning of the third day.

Jiang Chen did some simple cleaning before he took the three women onto a boat. The garbage left on the island would be cleaned up by servants; they didn't need to worry about it.

The boat docked at a private port on the south coast of Coro Island because Xia Shiyu needed to catch a flight at 3 in the afternoon. The three of them still needed to return to the mansion to pack up, so Natasha said goodbye to them. Before she left, she thanked Jiang Chen for hosting her and said she would visit often.

After blowing a kiss to Jiang Chen under two pairs of eyes filled with hostility, she turned around before quickly disappearing at the end of the street.

After spending half a month together, Jiang Chen and Ayesha were accustomed to Xia Shiyu's presence. The idea of returning to a private life with Ayesha made Jiang Chen feel joyful and melancholic at the same time.

Was this what it meant to: "Eat the food in the bowl while looking at the food in the pot?" Sometimes Jiang Chen felt he was a terrible person… Mm, that might be too harsh; maybe he was just honest about his own desires?

All in all, when he helped Xia Shiyu pack her things, he felt dismayed.

At the airport terminal.

Ayesha and Jiang Chen both sent her off at the airport.

"When I head back, I'll start the selection process of internal test users as soon as possible and initiate the marketing campaign preparing for the release of the game. I'll have to count on you for establishing the server and preparing accommodations for the internal test users." Before she boarded, Xia Shiyu reminded Jiang Chen of this multiple times.

Because of issues with privacy, before the game helmet could be released officially, internal tests had to be conducted on Pannu Island. It was all part of their plan which could be immediately executed once Xia Shiyu returned to Xiangjiang.

"Don't worry, leave it to me." Jiang Chen smiled confidently.

"Mhm."

Xia Shiyu suddenly lowered her head.

Just as Jiang Chen was puzzled by this sudden change, Xia Shiyu dropped her luggage, walked up two steps and pecked him on the cheek.

"Thank you."

Just as Jiang Chen was still processing what happened, Xia Shiyu stiffly turned around, took her luggage, and walked away briskly.

He touched his cheek. A wetness still lingered on that spot.

"You got kissed." Ayesha, standing beside Jiang Chen, had a smile on her face as she spoke in a low voice.

"Mhm, I got kissed."

Jiang Chen watched Xia Shiyu's back and shook his head as he watched the plane take off.

…

When they left the gate, they walked to their car at the airport entrance.

Ayesha helped Jiang Chen open the car door then sat in the driver seat.

"Let's head home?"

"Mhm." Sinking into his soft seat, Jiang Chen closed his eyes.

With his free time, he wanted to set a plan to prioritize the next steps.

But then a call came through.

Jiang Chen took out his phone and when he saw the name, he laughed and picked up.

"Hello?" Jiang Chen said with a grin.

He already knew who it was.

"It's me, the Kremlin agreed," Natasha said concisely.

[Nice acting, they already agreed last night.] Jiang Chen mocked her in his mind.

"Do you sell nuclear submarines?" Jiang Chen said jokingly.

"Don't even think about it." She rejected it without hesitation.

[Fu*k, you're so heartless in your rejection. I didn't even want it.]

Jiang Chen thought in his mind.

[Once I replace the engine with a nuclear fusion engine, who would want your nuclear fission engine?]

[Weak!]

Jiang Chen had a rough idea of what arms he wanted to buy already. He didn't care about the weapons and equipment on board since they would all have to be modified and replaced anyway, so he chose a type that was relatively agile and easily hidden.

"'Guardian' class frigate, Type-636 'Kilo' class submarine," Jiang Chen requested.

"Kilo" class was a submarine with the highest displacement that Russia exported. It was renowned for its strong firepower and quietness. Type-636 was its improved modern version, known as the "Song of Warsaw." It was considered the leader in diesel power submarines, one of the quietest diesel submarines in the world.

And the "Guardian" class frigate was one of the best multipurpose frigates Russia possessed. It was equipped with a helicopter pad. Its compact weapon configuration and agile mobility was the reason why Jiang Chen choose it. The 100 mm A-190 cannon in the front could easily be replaced with a Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon.

After a brief silence, the noise of paper flipping was heard through the phone.

"'Guardian' class frigate, 130 million USD. Type 636 'Kilo' class submarine, 250 million USD," Natasha replied.

[So expensive.]

"Could you give me a discount?" Jiang Chen tried to bargain.

Although he didn't lack money, a single submarine close to 300 million still made him feel pained.

"If you can buy eight at once, I can sell them to you for 200 million."

[Eight…]

If Jiang Chen remembered correctly, a single submarine required a crew of 50-60 sailors. Even if he wanted to buy eight to build a massive nuclear fleet, he didn't have enough crew to man them.

"Two 'Guardian' class frigates, two Type 636 'Kilo' class submarines - 650 million USD." Jiang Chen made a counter-offer.

"700 million USD with ammunition, training, and two K-27 'Snail' anti-submarine helicopters."

"Do they include a warranty?" Jiang Chen proposed without shame.

"No," Natasha answered with eyes narrowed.

"Okay, deal," Jiang Chen said, sensing that he had no option but to accept.

To be honest, he was never good at bargaining.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen became alert.

Ayesha sensed something too as she cautiously narrowed her eyes.

At the same time, the small truck in front of them suddenly decelerated and the trunk jerked open.

Staring inside the container, Jiang Chen's pupils suddenly contracted.

Chapter 411: The Clash on the Expressway

The back popped open, and a soldier in a black, special forces uniform raised the rifle in his hand as the muzzle pointed directly at Ayesha in the driver seat.

The instant Ayesha saw the rifle, she released her foot on the gas and slammed the brakes while her hands turned the steering wheel rapidly.

The screeching tires left black skid marks on the ground; their car skidded to a small road beside the highway. At the same time, the rifles began to fire.

Tatatata-!

The rifles unleashed a barrage of bullets. With the jumping sparks and bullets, Jiang Chen saw with the illumination of the bullets that two shooters were inside.

The windshield shattered and glass scattered all over their bodies. The bullets also left a trail of bullet holes on the car roof. People on the street let out deafening screams as they ran for their lives and put distance between themselves and the scene unfolding in front of them. The cars on the street were also in a panic as they desperately tried to maintain control; some even slammed onto the sidewalk.

"Ughhhh!"

Ayesha shouted in pain as blood splattered on her shoulder and began to spread on her white shirt.

"Ayesha!"

Witnessing the blood splattering, Jiang Chen's pupils violently contracted as rage filled his body. He almost uncontrollably entered Fury.

"I'm okay."

With gritted teeth, Ayesha's hands stayed on the steering wheel as she drove the car back onto the highway.

Using a nitrogen shield in this enclosed space would cause suffocation, so Jiang Chen could only duck with Ayesha to avoid the bullets whizzing above their heads.

"Drive to the port." Jiang Chen took out the PK2000 from the storage dimension while suppressing his internal rage.

"Understood!"

Beyond the rubber posts beside the road was the sea. With one simple mistake, they could end up in the ocean, but Ayesha wouldn't allow that to happen. Even if the pain in her left arm was about to make her lose consciousness, she still grasped the steering wheel tightly.

Fortunately, not a lot of people took this route to the deep-water harbor; it was just their two cars in the middle of a Hollywood-esque pursuit.

The car stabilized as Jiang Chen smashed his car window open with the barrel of his gun before he took aim at the shooter.

But before he could fire, the opponent was quick to react. The shooter who climbed on top of the truck fired at Jiang Chen's hands outside his window.

The bullets barely whizzed by Jiang Chen's hands, forcing him to retract them. These people obviously received specialized training with more accurate shooting compared to average soldiers. Even Jiang Chen, who had experienced battles before, felt a sense of danger from these men.

"Fu*k you," Jiang Chen cursed as he took a heat sensor grenade from the storage dimension and tossed it out the window.

Trailed by flames, the heat-seeking grenade made a noticeable pause in the air before it redirected its course and flew to the small truck.

With flames and a large explosion, the top was blown off the truck. But these shooters were obviously prepared - not only was the truck reinforced, but even the windows were bulletproof. The truck rammed through the smoke of the explosion, remaining hot in pursuit.

Due to loss of blood, Ayesha's eyesight was beginning to blur, but she still held the wheel tightly and locked her gaze onto the curved road ahead. Jiang Chen noticed that a fine mist of sweat covered her forehead.

Jiang Chen noticed her seat was stained red; his heart was bleeding.

He took a deep breath as he lowered his head.

"Stop the car."

"I can still do it." Ayesha's lower lip was about to bleed, but her foot didn't release the gas.

"I said stop the car, I'm going to kill them." Jiang Chen's pupils turned into a crimson red.

The daunting crimson red reflected his bloodthirsty fury.

Not far in the distance, a black helicopter appeared in the air as it maintained the same speed as the car. Jiang Chen noticed there was a sniper at the hatch door, aiming into the distance.

The sniper didn't shoot, perhaps afraid of hitting Jiang Chen.

They intended to kidnap, not assassinate.

"No… Your secret will be revealed. We're almost at the port – there's no one there." The rare occasion when Ayesha went against Jiang Chen's wishes, she stuttered.

"Fu*k! Is your life more important or is the fu*king secret more important?!"

Roaring, Jiang Chen kicked open his car door.

When she heard these words, Ayesha's face instantly turned red.

But before she could relish this warm feeling, her eyes widened in shock.

"No-"

Jiang Chen ignored her words as he ripped off his seatbelt.

A grim smile surfaced on his face as he jumped out of the car and dropped to the sea, ten something meters below.

"If there are fu*king reefs down there, I'll be done."

With his eyes locked onto the sea, Jiang Chen gritted his teeth.

Splash!

Staring at the splash created on the sea surface, everyone was shocked.

They didn't expect Jiang Chen to jump.

This type of courage wasn't typical of a rich person. In their heads, Jiang Chen would get out of the car and beg on the ground for their mercy, just like the influential people they kidnapped before.

The truck came to a sudden stop. The black helicopter also hovered above the area where Jiang Chen jumped. No one bothered with the car Ayesha was in.

They only had one mission: to capture Jiang Chen and use him as a hostage to force a swap. The moment the helicopter lifted off the fishing boat, it appeared on New Moon Island's radar. The force stationed on New Moon Island was on its way; if these kidnappers couldn't secure the target quickly, they would be surrounded.

"Fu*k, is that guy crazy?" A bearded man with brown skin cursed as he jumped out from the back of the truck.

Their uniforms had a small arrow representing their identity.

Arrow Military Company.

Registered in South Africa, they were stationed on the island of Madagascar across the Mozambican Strait. They were one of the most despicable private military companies in the world. Most of their members were retired NATO soldiers who participated in the Iraq war. For a generous sum, they were willing to turn on the force they served without any consideration, or they could help the CIB capture drug lords in Africa.

They were hired by the country F government.

They had to capture the primary shareholder of Celestial Trade and threaten him to pressure the Xin government to release the 41 captured F soldiers.

F finally learned its lesson. When they realized their "special force" was no match, they decisively threw out ten million USD and hired international experts to conduct this operation.

"Change of plan. Team C, move to coordinate (301,212)." Another soldier in a helmet got out of the car and scanned the sea surface before he immediately spoke into the microphone attached to his ear.

"Roger."

The large fishing boat docked 10 kilometers away suddenly moved to where the helicopter was hovering.

"Team A, follow me to build a line of defense. Team B, help me retrieve the package."

"Affirmative."

The truck stopped in the middle of the road. A soldier brought out machine guns and rocket launchers from the back of the truck while the other three made an "L" shaped barrier and set it around the truck.

The engine of the helicopter roared as it slowly made its descent.

Waves began to form on the surface of the sea because of the turbulence created by the helicopter. A soldier in diving gear with a rope attached to his back signaled his comrade before he dived inside.

"Did you find him?"

Fortunately, there were no reefs under the water - the target should still be alive.

"Wait…"

He turned on his searchlights. The diver moved underwater while searching for the target.

The water wasn't deep, but the jagged reefs and corals obstructed some of his vision. When the light scanned the area, the Clownfish swam away to hide in seaweed, but a crab just stayed there blowing bubbles.

"Sh*t, where is that guy hiding?" The diver cursed.

The soldiers in the helicopter watched the police force appearing at the entrance of the road, preparing their rifles.

"Liam, stop playing, quickly."

"I know… sh*t! What is that!? Ahhh!"

"Liam! What happened! Liam!"

Watching the blood gradually bubble up to the surface, the soldier in the helicopter widened his eyes. When he saw the object appearing on the surface of the water, dumbfounded, a single word came out of his mouth.

"God-"

Chapter 412: Tearing it Up

Splash!

Because of Jiang Chen's body position when he dived in, the sea surface contacted his chest. Even considering his strength, the collision was still able to force some water into his mouth.

Bubbles rose to the surface.

He maintained his downward momentum and tried his hardest to hold his breath while swimming forward.

When his hand reached ten meters under the surface of the water and he confirmed that the people above couldn't see to this distance, Jiang Chen immediately started interdimensional travel.

The force of the water squeezing his body instantly disappeared as he appeared on the bed in the mansion in the apocalypse, completely wet.

Without stopping, Jiang Chen took out the backup T-3 power armor he kept in the storage dimension and squeezed inside.

<Enclosed mode activated>

The four turbine engines behind the armor contracted inward and closed the engine outlet. The vents around the armor were all closed and the oxygen storage system inside the armor opened. The entire power armor was closed off from the external environment, preventing any material exchange with the outside world.

In theory, neither the airdrop type or the land type power armor could be used to dive under water because the massive amount of metal in the armors caused it to sink. There was also no air inside the water, so the turbine engines in the power armor using air as force would naturally lose their function.

But while the power armor had no diving functions, it could act as a simple waterproof suit!

After confirming the equipment was operational, a grim smile surfaced on Jiang Chen's face.

"See how I will torture you all."

Interdimensional travel, activated!

Just as he left, Sun Jiao pushed open the door.

Seeing the empty room and the wet sheets, she pouted her mouth in disappointment.

"I thought you were back for good."

But seeing as he came back only temporarily, he must've met some trouble on the other side.

When Sun Jiao realized this, she began to worry.

"If only you could take me there."

She sighed.

She grabbed the wet sheets before she walked out.

…

The water in his surroundings was emitting an even amount of pressure. Just as Jiang Chen appeared on this side, his eyes fell upon a diving mask. Although he couldn't see the expression of the person behind it, judging by the person's stopped movements, he was shocked.

The shock only lasted for a second before he immediately raised his underwater pistol.

With a trail of white bubbles, the bullet hit Jiang Chen's armor and deflected without any damage done.

Jiang Chen immediately stepped on the seabed and without pulling out his gun, he grabbed the person's face.

"Ahhhh, glooglooo-!"

With his face stuck, the diver desperately fought for his life.

The person's sounds of agony rang out, but Jiang Chen didn't care as he grabbed his head with a grim smile and freely unleashed his anger. He smashed the person's head on the reefs by the side.

"Go die!"

His head exploded like a watermelon. The nearby group of fish scattered because of the blood that began to diffuse through the water.

Jiang Chen tossed aside his corpse. He took out a knife, cut the rope on his back, grabbed the rope and looped it a few times around his own hand.

Another grim smile appeared on his face again as Jiang Chen ascended to the surface along with the diffused blood.

Just as he was about to reach the surface, Jiang Chen's left arm violently pulled the rope and leaped out of the water.

<Enclosed mode deactivated>

"Liam is down."

"Cut the rope!"

"No, ascend, we'll seek revenge for Liam!" The soldier took out his machine gun, attached a hook to the helicopter door and set the machine gun on the side of the helicopter with blood-red eyes.

"Turn the head, quick!"

"Roger." The pilot pulled up the helicopter.

The rotor blades instantly began to accelerate as the helicopter quickly climbed in elevation; the three-hundred-kilogram mass that was Jiang Chen was nothing for the mid-sized helicopter. At the same time, the pilot "dashed forward" while "rotating the head." Using the momentum of the helicopter, the power armor at the tip of the rope began swinging in the air.

The crosshairs locked onto Jiang Chen at the tip of the rope. The soldier maintained his aim while trying to keep still from the momentum of the helicopter. He pressed fire with a ferocious expression.

"Go die, monster-!"

The bullets hit the surface of the armor. The 12.7 mm caliber machine gun bullets were deflected by the power armor and just left a trail of barely visible dents on the surface of the black paint.

Sparks flew everywhere. The light was blinding to the eye, but it didn't do any damage to Jiang Chen.

At the same time, a battle on the highway was already underway. Xin police cars lined up in the middle of the road while exchanging fire with the three mercenaries stationed around the truck. But in terms of firepower and experience, the Xin police force was clearly weaker than the experienced mercenaries. With their light machine guns set up behind barriers, the mercenaries quickly managed to gain the upper hand in the exchange.

Jiang Chen wanted to use the minigun on his right arm to finish the group of mercenaries, but his eyes caught the people screaming on the street in the distance as well as a few people, unafraid of death, raising their phones to record the whole ordeal. He quickly changed his mind as he put his arms above his head, pretending to be completely helpless.

"Dammit! I can't penetrate this thing!" The cold air cut his lips as the soldier roared out while he took out another clip.

"Don't bother with that thing! Bob! Cut the rope and get rid of him! Use your machine gun to take down the ground units!"

"Affirmative… Fu*k!" A few bullets flew by Bob's forehead, causing him to be immediately drenched in a cold sweat.

A pickup truck in police camouflage drove to the road not far away, and behind the pickup truck was a Type 67-2 heavy machine gun. It was the type of machine gun removed from the Pannu force's armory because Celestial didn't need such an old weapon, so it was left with the police department. It now had a use.

"Fu*k, are they the police or terrorists?!"

Bob ducked down in fear.

At the same time, the sound of bullets hitting the helicopter surface echoed inside.

The pilot immediately moved the helicopter up while dragging the annoying power armor away from Coro Island.

"The enemy has anti-air units! Team A, you're on your own!" He shouted into the microphone.

"Affirmative, head to the retreating point and meet with team C."

"Okay!... Bob, why's that metal thing still hanging on there?!" The pilot turned his head and asked his comrade in the back.

"Wait, I'll cut it off now."

"Hold on! Find a deserted island; we need to get revenge for Liam!" the mercenary beside Bob said with fierce eyes.

"Heh, great point." Bob sneered as he retracted his knife.

When he saw the helicopter leaving Coro Island, Jiang Chen's eyes began to turn cold as a curvature appeared on his lips.

[Wait until I can't see Coro Island, it will be your death sentence!]

The mercenaries clearly didn't realize what they were dragging along; they thought it was just a "dragon scale" full-body bulletproof suit. Aside from the armor's sci-fi looking appearance, it didn't look dangerous at all at a surface level.

But soon they would feel deep regret for this mistake.

One of these wiped out an entire elite CIB agent force!

They flew around Coro Island for ten minutes before the pilot finally found an appropriate island. With jagged cliffs at the bottom, a sneer appeared on his face as he hovered the helicopter 2000 meters above the island.

Falling down from this height, the armor would definitely be shattered into pieces, even if it was made out of titanium.

"Bob, do it!"

"Affirmative." Bob put his machine gun to the side as he took out his dagger. He smiled grimly at Jiang Chen without knowing any better. "Goodbye, buddy-"

But his expression quickly froze.

Jiang Chen took out the tactical rifle on his waist, aiming it at him.

Tatata-!

After unleashing the bullets, Jiang Chen also pressed the trigger with the same grim smile.

A bullet penetrated the soldier's head. The knife slipped out from his hand and fell into the ocean along with him.

"Dammit! Bob is down too!"

When the pilot saw the rifle in Jiang Chen's hand that appeared out of nowhere, he felt a fear he never felt before, but since he was an experienced soldier, he immediately made a decisive choice.

"Jim! Cut the rope-"

As he said the first word, the mercenary called Jim was already doing exactly that.

But it was too late.

The helicopter tilted.

Jiang Chen jerked on the rope with his left arm while the turbine engines behind his back burst out and quickly shortened the distance between himself and the helicopter.

Jim cut the rope, but it was too late. A moment later, he met Jiang Chen at the hatch.

Jim's expression was as if he had seen a ghost!

"Here's your rope."

Jiang Chen smiled maliciously. He lifted up his left arm, still wrapped by the rope, and punched.

The sound of steel crashing through bone faded quickly. Blood splashed onto the power armor.

"Die, Devil!" Another soldier screamed, dove onto the helicopter floor, raised his rifle and fired it as fast as he could.

Bullets bounced within the narrow space. Jiang Chen glanced at his frightened expression for a moment then instantly popped his head.

"Fu*k! Fu*k! Fu*k!"

The pilot tried to tilt the helicopter in an attempt to force this demigod out of the open hatch door. But instead, he merely dropped out the two corpses.

Sensing his intentions, Jiang Chen laughed contemptuously.

"You really don't welcome me."

Jiang Chen abided by the pilot's wishes. He shook his head and jumped out of the helicopter.

But before he jumped out, he left a small gift.

A pulled EMP grenade.

"Sh*t! Finally got rid of him." The pilot quickly checked the condition of the rotor blades.

The assistant pilot was curled in his seat, still traumatized.

"What is that monster?"

"Who knows! Fu*k! Those guys never said he was like this… Wait, wait, what's going on?!"

A static noise entered his ears.

The space immediately turned white. The pilot desperately shook the joystick in desperation, but it was futile.

"Fu*k! What are you doing!?"

"I, I don't know! Dammit! AHHHHHH!"

…

With a trail of blue flames behind his back, Jiang Chen descended slowly in the air.

As he watched the helicopter fall 2000 meters in the sky, he sneered.

But just as he was watching the helicopter crashing to the earth, he swore and slapped himself on the forehead.

[Fu*k, forgot to leave one alive!]

He shook his head with a wry smile. Jiang Chen looked back at Coro Island, which was so far away that it looked like a dot.

[Whatever, there's three more.]

[I'll just change into the amphibious K1 kinetic skeleton and head back. Hopefully, they haven't escaped.]

As he thought, Jiang Chen lowered the engine output while directing the power armor to land.

[How is Ayesha doing? Did she get taken to the hospital?]

There was a giant splash in the sea.

After a short silence, a trail of white bubbles came up from underneath and headed towards the Coro Island harbor.

Chapter 413: Bumping Shoulders with the Slim Reaper

"Fu*k! What is team B doing!"

The bearded man held up the rifle and shot back while retreating back to the deep water harbor in panic.

"Mission failed, retreat, I repeat, mission failed…" Blood dripped down from the scratch on his forehead, Srell in a black combat suit shouted into the microphone ordering team C to immediately retreat.

An unprecedented defeat. A helicopter crashed. An entire team of elites fell without any survivors. The opponent's combat ability far exceeded what they had imagined. The metal thing that popped out from under the water instantly suppressed team B. They didn't expect this at all.

"Sh*t, is that Ironman?" A soldier with a rifle cursed while panting.

"Bullsh*t!" Someone else swore.

"Then what the fu*ck-"

"Shut up! Retreat to the boat and remain alert!" Srell in short breaths slowed down, threw a C4 on the ground and caught up with the team again.

The siren in the distance was becoming more visible.

When he estimated the location was about right, he pressed the detonation button.

Flames blew five meters high and engulfed the police vehicle rushing to their location. He scorned and threw away the detonator.

[Garbage even weaker than the Mexican police.]

The fishing boat they prepared beforehand was parked in the deep water harbor; they purchased this from the local fishers. Xin's labor demand helped them tremendously. Without much convincing needed, they bought the fishing boat from a fisher now working in a factory. They replaced the engine with a much more powerful one.

As long as they board the boat, no one could stop them on the vast sea.

But just as the beard dashed into the cabin, his eyes were met with a black muzzle.

Before he could react, his consciousness stopped in front of a flashing light.

Bang!

Type 11 pistol spit out its flame, blood and brain matter splashed beside an indifferent face. Without stopping, Ayesha ducked into the shadow of the cabin, readjustment, and pressed the trigger again. "Bang!" another headshot.

In a glimpse, two out of three died.

Just as she was about to take care of the last person, a sharp wind blew by and kicked away the pistol in her hand.

Slightly shocked, Ayesha didn't bother with the pistol that dropped on the ground. She lowered her body and smoothly wielded the dagger around her waist and stabbed in the person's direction.

Sharp metal sounded. The two blades collided.

While she had a small figure, she was injected with the genetic vaccine. Ayesha still had the upper hand.

Her hand was in pain because of the intense collision. The opponent was also shocked as he kicked out without holding back.

Ayesha agilely dodged the fearsome kick as she swung the dagger toward his standing left leg. If the dagger hit, his left leg would be done.

But that person was not to be underestimated. He used the recoil force from kicking the wall and fell back. Ayesha's slash only barely cut open his muscle and unfortunately missed his vital point.

Srell rolled to the wall of the cabin and picked up the rifle on the ground. Though before he could press the trigger, a knife pinned his arm.

"Ahh!"

With a scream, the girl had already dashed in front of him. He lifted his hand and threw the barrel in her direction.

Ayesha's movement was uninterrupted as she moved aside to avoid the hit. At the same time, her left hand reached for his wrist, and her right pulled out the second dagger, searching for his throat.

But then, a mishap happened.

Because her left arm muscles were tightened, the crudely bandaged wound on her left shoulder suddenly exploded. The sharp pain made her left hand lose its strength.

The force restraining his wrist loosened. Srell, who caught the opportunity, was ecstatic as he used his brute force and swung the barrel.

"Ooooh-"

With a deep sound of pain, the barrel smashed right onto Ayesha's eyebrows and forced her to tumble. Blood dripped along her face; the dagger didn't manage to penetrate his throat. It only managed to cut his collar.

With droplets of sweat on her face, she kicked her legs without hesitation. While she was ducking down, he extended his left leg, clamped onto her throat, and pinned her against the wall.

"Gurr-"

Ayesha desperately tried to fight him off in pain with both legs kicking at his hands, but she couldn't use any power because of the lack of blood.

"Go die."

He stared gravely at her.

Her feet left the ground as her movements became weaker and weaker.

For some reason, looking at the girl in front of him, he suddenly remembered the time he served in Afghanistan. He remembered the hell that he wasn't even willing to remember.

[Oh no, almost to the limit.]

Ayesha's consciousness began to blur.

[Sorry… I can't anymore…]

She suddenly felt a bit sad.

How ironic.

The same day, when she was fleeing, she could use a nonchalant tone and ask him "could you give me a bullet?" She was prepared to die for him from the beginning, but now she began to fear.

[I don't want to die…]

[I… I finally got it.]

[…]

White foam and blood began to drip out of her mouth. She began to fight back with a rush of energy. She attempted to claw away from the hand locked on her throat and despairingly kicked his legs with all her force, but the feeble limbs made everything feel powerless.

"Gurr-"

"Go die with my comrades! B*tch."

With anger in his eyes, Srell stared at the girl.

He suddenly remembered the Taliban that shredded his comrade to pieces with the roadside bomb. When he caught the bastard, the murderer looked contemptuously at him, as if he had just completed a virtuous mission, and already put aside his life.

Still, he remembered what he did. He chopped off his hands, pinned both his arms to the wall, shot his legs, and waited until his eyes began to turn into despair before finally dripping out his last drop of blood.

Although he was brought to the military court, he had no regrets. The sensation of unleashing his anger made him addicted to the feeling. He spent two decadent years in Los Santos before he joined "Arrow". He had stored that memory in the back of his head, but now everything flooded back.

There was nothing more enjoyable than watching the enemy die struggling.

"Hahahahaha, go die-!"

He laughed hysterically. He increased the power in his hand as he watched the despair of the weak.

But suddenly, he felt a pull on the back of his neck.

Before he could react, he was thrown out by an explosive force.

He smashed onto the door as his spine made intimate contact with the barriers outside of the cabin.

A sharp and crisp sound, his back bent back in an unimaginable 90 degrees as his spine was broken in half by the force.

His eyes almost popped out from his eye sockets. The broken spine penetrated his intestine but didn't kill him immediately. He slid down from the barrier and collapsed onto the ground.

[Is this what it feels like to suffocate…]

His lungs were clamped by his ribcage, he coughed blood, but he couldn't breathe in a single molecule of air.

At the end of agony, consciousness drifted into darkness.

At the same time, Jiang Chen who threw the mercenary back hugged the girl sliding down from the wall. He hugged her tightly in his arms as if he was holding onto a fragile porcelain doll.

Jiang Chen's eyes were covered in a crimson red, the calmed emotion almost exploded into fury again.

"Ayesha. Ayesha!"

Because of the loss of blood, she couldn't respond anymore.

Holding onto her, Jiang Chen ran out of the cabin, hopped onto the harbor, and ran to the road. When the police and ambulance saw that there was someone in his arms, they all stopped, and the doctors dashed over with stretchers.

[Saved…]

Looking at the side of the furious face, Ayesha felt the relief of surviving through a disaster.

She should be happy, but she suddenly wanted to cry.

Although she never cried before. She was never fragile.

Tears rolled down her eyes and splashed onto his firm shoulder.

Blue and red light. A stretcher. The shaking blood bag, and the panicking face …

[Once I wake up, he will be really mad… I made the decision myself to do something so dangerous.]

[Whatever, I'll think about it once I wake up.]

Ayesha closed her large eyes.

…

Chapter 414: Rage

Outside the emergency room.

Jiang Chen sat silently in the chair with a gloomy expression on his face.

No one dared to approach him other than the soldiers in kinetic skeletons. The fluid-looking armor covered their chest, and the sleek helmet shielded their head. The soldiers with rifles on full alert protected him in the middle. They examined anyone approaching with sharp eyes… If anyone dared to approach in the first place.

An assassination in public.

With an accident like this in broad daylight, Ivan didn't say anything and handed in his emblem himself, but Jiang Chen tossed it back at him.

Ivan was not to blame. New Moon Island was hundreds of kilometers away from Coro Island. From start to finish, the whole incident took place in ten minutes. The mercenaries entered the border disguised as tourists, and the weapons and equipment they used were all smuggled into Xin with fishing boat marked with Xin's flag.

Although Jiang Chen was furious, he didn't blame anyone. Unleashing his anger on his people was the most foolish and useless choice.

The doctors and nurses in the hospital passed him anxiously, fearing to anger the demigod that is clearly fuming.

Then, a soldier with a rifle turned from the corner and stopped in front of Jiang Chen. He leaned forward and whispered.

"Four pedestrians wounded; one person pronounced died in the hospital. Eight police wounded; two pronounced died in the hospital; four police died because of C4 explosion…"

The cold casualty numbers didn't stir any emotion in Jiang Chen's heart. After the soldier finished, he only said emotionlessly.

"Who's the perpetrator?"

"Reliable evidence indicated that the perpetrator is Arrow Military Company. Xin's Ministry of Foreign Affairs already protested against the Madagascar government to punish the perpetrator…"

But everyone knew that these protests were useless. It was not that Madagascar didn't want to take care of these problems, but because their military force would not even win against the battle-trained soldiers.

Because of this, the emerging nations maintained the stance of keeping an eye open and an eye closed to the illegal militants' misdeeds internationally. As long as they didn't cause trouble domestically, they would not question their legality.

"I'm talking about the actual perpetrator."

"…Sorry, we didn't manage to capture anyone alive. But the boat fled in the direction of country F's territory, and our boats were blocked by F's coastal guards at the border." The soldier lowered his head.

The fishing boat that released the helicopter immediately fled to Xin's border. Although New Moon Island sent out fast boats to chase them, when they escaped into country F's borders, Celestial had to stop pursuing.

Country F's coastal guard freely allowed the militants to enter. It was almost certain that country F was the perpetrator behind this kidnap mission. The only problem was the lack of evidence, and it was virtually impossible to find proof hiring mercenaries to do the dirty deeds.

Jiang Chen closed his eyes.

He was reflecting on his mistake.

The army stationed at New Moon Island could protect Xin like a steel fortress, but he ignored the work in intelligence. Willie society's spy already reminded him, but he didn't think too much of it. Only till now did he realize the severity of the problem. Xin's national security was as penetrable as a piece of paper. And the immigration policy would continue to deteriorate the security of the country. He somehow overlooked this problem before.

He must establish an intelligence department fast before the national security worsens.

Ayesha…

The corner of his eye glared at the closed doors. Jiang Chen felt twisting pain in his heart.

[Fool, why were you trying to prove yourself with wounds… so what if a few rats ran away?]

At the corner, Zhang Yapin with flowers walked over.

He looked at Jiang Chen face full of gloom and let out a sigh.

"Tulips. Help me give these to the wounded. Sorry…"

"I'll form a national security department as soon as possible," Jiang Chen said expressionlessly.

Zhang Yapin paused, sighed.

"That would be best."

Zhang Yapin patted Jiang Chen on the shoulder as he didn't know how to comfort him. He left the flowers on the chair before turning around.

"Execute," Jiang Chen said apathetically.

Zhang Yapin stopped, turned around, and looked at him in disbelief.

"Died of fire, 41 captives all died."

"Are you insane!"

"The circuit board is outdated, the fire equipment lacked maintenance, and there were security disturbances at Xin that day. Just release the statement and send your condolences."

"That's impossible! It's too much of a coincidence! I know you are sad, but we don't have evidence to prove that country F did this. Even if they if they did, we can't seek revenge by executing the prisoners of war. We are a civil society! The international image we finally managed to create-"

"You do it." Jiang Chen tilted his head and ordered a soldier.

"Yes." The soldier nodded and left.

Zhang Yapin blankly stared at the soldier leaving, he opened his mouth wanting to say something, but he knew the soldier would not listen to him.

[This lunatic, what would killing a few prisoners of war do? The international society would all stand with country F. 41 lives! Captives without any weapons! The despicable crimes against humanity! Even if they started a war, people would think it would be with a cause.]

Or rather, if Xin did execute the prisoners, it would be the exact response country F was looking.

"Wait," Jiang Chen said.

The soldier stopped and turned around.

"Commander?"

After deliberating for a moment, Jiang Chen slowly closed his eyes, "Just wait a bit."

"Yes, commander."

Zhang Yapin let out a sigh of relief. He felt as if he was about to collapse.

"Thank god, you finally regained your rationality."

Jiang Chen glared at him and didn't say anything.

[Is that so?]

He suddenly felt that it was not only too low to execute the prisoners of war, but it was also too easy of a punishment for them.

A curvature appeared on his lips, and his eyes flashed with coldness and apathy.

Zhang Yapin watched the silent Jiang Chen as he felt a chill down his spine.

…

A video filmed by tourists appeared on Youtube.

The video shook violently, but a helicopter dragging "Ironman" could still be barely made out." People on the helicopter fired at the "Ironman" with the machine guns, but it didn't manage to do any damage.

The video stopped after the helicopter dragged the armor away from Coro Island. It didn't manage to capture the iron armor from being pulled out of the water nor where the helicopter headed. People were speculating about the identity of the "Ironman", the cause, and the ending.

No one knew the ending, but the cause could be traced.

People connected it to the gunfights at the city of Coro that day. A lot of the media believed the two were connected.

But because of the gunfight, the government of Xin tightly controlled the information. They only revealed it was two groups of criminals attempting to rob a bank to divert the public opinion from the truth. Although there were a lot of skeptical information, people had to accept this as the truth and build off of the facts by using their imagination.

Because the fight between the iron armor and the machine gunner was very Hollywood-esque, the truth behind the story was completely hidden and mysterious. Also, the government's lack of disclosure to the event caused the view of the video on Youtube to be extremely high, and it became a hot topic on the web. Even the actor of Ironman, Robert Downy Jr. wrote a joking status on Facebook.

Burp, I was drunk last time, who saw my armor?

Chapter 415: Smart Medical Chamber

The buns on the table were a bit cold, and the back of the egg was somewhat dry. It has been a while since he faced an empty dinner table. The person that always brought him delicious breakfast was in the hospital. The doctor said that she was no longer in critical condition, but it would still be a lengthy recovery process.

The gun wound triggered acute inflammation, the blood loss pushed her body to the limit as she had constant fevers.

Two days passed by and she still didn't show any signs of waking up.

Whenever he thought about the frail face, a sharp pain would penetrate his chest.

He took a bite of the egg stuffed inside the bun and frowned.

He put down the bun back onto the plate and brought the plate back into the kitchen, he stuffed the food as terrible as his mood into the trash. Then took out the frozen pizza from the fridge and put it in the microwave.

He brought the steamy pizza back to the dinner table and expressionlessly turned on the TV. Then he picked up the pizza with a fork and stuffed it in his mouth.

He didn't feel like eating, so he tried to put his anxious attention on the TV.

The morning news was on.

It happened to play the gunfight that occurred three days ago and had a glimpse of the iron armor being dragged away.

A UA military expert who wished to remain anonymous commented that the single soldier armor's usage in actual warfare is limited. The increased defense as the cost of hiddenness perhaps could block normal bullets, but it would be futile against anti-armor snipers or cannons. The combination of tanks with infantries is enough to make up for the lack of defense of infantry force, there is no reason to spend high cost to develop the "useless" single soldier armor…

Some experts also questioned the authenticity of the video, especially the fact that the crew on board the helicopter were reluctant to cut the rope.

As to the effectiveness of anti-armor sniper to power armor, Jiang Chen never tried it before, but it shouldn't be possible. Since the power armor in the apocalypse could withstand a few shots of the sniper.

The TV is a great thing to waste time on. As he watched TV, he mechanically stuffed pizza into his mouth before he finished feeding himself.

He put the plate into the dishwasher and glanced at the time, he wanted to take a nap.

But then, the phone rang.

It was Xia Shiyu.

"I saw the news… are you okay there?" Xia Shiyu was worried.

She didn't know that the protagonist in the news was Jiang Chen.

"I'm okay." Jiang Chen stiffly forced a smile and tried to use the least suspicious voice he could muster.

"Your voice is making me worried, are you sick?" Xia Shiyu raised her eyebrows.

"No. Oh… you should have arrived in Xiangjiang yesterday. I had something to do and didn't get to call you, sorry."

"No, it's okay. I don't mind." Xia Shiyu's face turned red as she could only use her cough to hide the panic in her heart.

Jiang Chen's words made her remember the kiss at the airport.

She didn't know what kind of courage she had to make that move. When she got off the airplane at Melbourne, her heart was still pounding furiously.

"The selection of the internal test users have been completed. They will arrive early July, so you'll have to take care of them." Xia Shiyu jumped to another topic.

"Mhmm, leave it to me." Jiang Chen didn't sense Xia Shiyu's mental state and nodded.

"What about Ayesha, is she doing okay?"

"… She, she is sleeping." Jiang Chen made up a not fake lie.

Xia Shiyu paused as she was slightly bitter and jealous, but she couldn't do anything about it. She knew that once she left, the two would definitely start living their intimate and shameless life again.

She just didn't want to torture herself by thinking about the problem.

"Okay. You… Mhmm, don't overdo it."

Jiang Chen took a moment to process as he sensed the jealousy that drifted all the way from the other side of the ocean. He couldn't help but smile…

"Don't overdo what?"

"Don't overdo, that."

"What's that?" Jiang Chen pretended not to know.

"It's, it's that…" Xia Shiyu's face was completely red, her lips trembled, and only a word squeezed out of her mouth, "PERVERT!"

She hung up the phone.

Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile.

It was only a while before his mood became better and he cheered up again.

"I'll go visit Ayesha in a bit… Mhmm, it's almost the end of the month, I'll go to the warehouse first and send food-" Jiang Chen suddenly stopped.

The apocalypse.

Right, the apocalypse! He almost forgot about that side!

He slapped his forehead and walked out in quick steps.

…

Grains, wheat, flour were piled into a small mountain, as well as fresh meat, preserved meat and all kinds of canned food, and added to that were dairy products and salt. This batch of food had the cost of over half a million USD. Part of the food was produced at Xinlong Food Processing Plant relocated to Pannu Island, while some were from Australian farms.

Followed by the increased amount needed to be transported, Jiang Chen hired a professional in Australia to assist Cassan who chewed on sugarcanes at the door. This ensured that food would stuff the warehouse to its fullest on the second last day of the month.

After spending ten minutes moving the warehouse full of food to the apocalypse. Jiang Chen returned to the mansion in the apocalypse. He directly looked for Lin Lin and explained to her his intention.

"Ayesha? Is that the girl I saw last time?" With a finger pressed against her bottom lip, Lin Lin asked.

"Mhmm. She is wounded and still unconscious now, is there some all-purpose medicine or something?" Jiang Chen asked.

"There is no all-purpose medicine." Lin Lin rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and said with an attitude, "It's hard if I don't know where she is injured or if her brain is damaged…"

"It's not the brain.' Jiang Chen shook his head, "It's a gun wound, but because of the loss of blood and the wound rupturing there is a bacterial infection… and hypoxia."

When Lin Lin heard Jiang Chen's words, it made her jump up. [How severe was the wound?]

But it was all good.

Since there were all external injuries, without any damage to the brain region, it shouldn't be too hard to heal.

"Smart Medical Chamber, I remember the community center at the base has around seven or eight of them. That thing is extremely effective in repairing normal damage to human tissue. Based on the severity of the injury, float in there for a while, and she should be okay. How behind is your medical condition over there?" Lin Lin ridiculed.

"Why don't you just look through the history textbook."

While Jiang Chen said that, his tensed heart calmed down.

He didn't even know the base had something amazing like this which was his mistake. He always heard that people were injured at the base, but didn't see anyone recovering on a bed. No wonder this was the case with such advanced technology.

"Be aware, before lying inside the Smart Medical Chamber, the special nutrient liquid must be poured. That should be in the base's warehouse. Remember not to forget."

"Thanks."

"No worries, just bring me some mango pudding back-"

Suddenly, Lin Lin covered her mouth and began to gag.

Jiang Chen was startled by her abrupt action, and he immediately asked her, "Are you okay?"

"Nothing. Just some small problems in the past few days… might be better after a while." Lin Lin dodged Jiang Chen's eyes as she replied ambiguously.

"What exactly is the problem? Explain." Jiang Chen grabbed Lin Lin's shoulder and stared into the differing color pupils with seriousness.

Lin Lin blushed at the "fervent" sight. She twisted her body and turned her burning face away.

"It's getting hotter, fool."

"Hotter?"

Jiang Chen asked in confusion, but he didn't receive the appropriate response.

She buried her blushing face and pushed him out of the door without explaining anything.

Chapter 416: The Punishment for being naughty

Because of the chaos that happened, the hospital hall was empty without anyone to be seen. Being "frightened" by the four soldiers, the people who usually came to the hospital instead headed to local clinics. The doctors and nurses all enjoyed their free time. (Xin has a universal health care system.)

After six hours in the emergency room, Ayesha's condition was stabilized. It would be a matter of time before she woke up.

When Jiang Chen was told this, the director of the hospital felt relieved.

If something happened to that girl, he was afraid that man would tear this place apart.

Leon hadn't closed his eyes for 24 hours. He put the diagnostic report on the side of the table as he wearily put his head on the table to take a nap.

But before he could fall asleep, someone knocked on the door and interrupted him

Leon got up from the table, rubbed his heavy eye bags, and said tiredly.

"Please come in."

It was the head nurse that came in.

"Director, Mr. Jiang Chen handed in the discharge application for Miss Ayesha."

'Oh… What? Discharge?" Leon who just processed the information almost fell off his chair. He immediately pressed himself against the chair and stood up.

"Yes, he wanted you to immediately arrange an ambulance and send Miss Ayesha to his home," The head nurse said in wry.

"How is that possible! She just left critical condition and hadn't even woken up yet. She doesn't meet the discharge standard. This is putting the patient's life on the line! If she is discharged now and her condition suddenly deteriorates to that she becomes permanently unconscious, who would bear the responsibility?" Leon said emotionally.

"But director… this is his order," the head nurse said with a wry smile.

Leon felt conflicted before finally let out a sigh.

"Grant the discharge application… Also get him to sign a disclaimer."

"He already signed the disclaimer." The head nurse took out the paper from the brief.

"Then he can do whatever he wants." The director snatched the disclaimer from her hand and walked outside wearily.

Not long after, the ambulance arrived at Jiang Chen's mansion. A few doctors and nurses helped unload the stretcher while companied by two soldiers. Then they anxiously sent people inside the mansion.

The two nurses put Ayesha on the bed and injected her with the infusion again.

"If there are any symptoms, please immediately contact us."

Because of her sense of responsibility, before she left, the head nurse still made notes to Jiang Chen.

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded with a smile.

Seeing that the important person wasn't as difficult to communicate with as she had expected, the head nurse discreetly felt relieved before she left.

The mansion door closed and the mansion returned to its tranquil state.

Jiang Chen went back into the bedroom and sat beside Ayesha.

He combed the hairs in front of her forehead and caressed the haggard face. Jiang Chen's throat moved a little before only one word came out.

"Fool…"

Jiang Chen stood up and took out the Smart Medical Chamber from the storage dimension.

The fluid design, the pristine white color. From its appearance, this device was quite similar to the hibernation chamber; the only difference was its size being slightly bigger and the top of the chamber not having a processor used to run the virtual reality program.

Jiang Chen carefully removed the needle on Ayesha's arm and then removed her clothes.

He looked the flower buds, then followed her abs to her soft and athletic waist till he finally reached the holy land.

Jiang Chen gulped.

But then he knew that this was not the time to be distracted. He focused again.

"Medical Chamber activated, patient please lie flat inside."

The gentle voice played. Based on its description, Jiang Chen carefully picked up Ayesha as he controlled his aroused mind and put her in.

"Please inject 300 L of nutrient liquid."

The storage dimension opened as Jiang Chen took out five fist-sized black balls. Those were the concentrated forms of the nutrient liquid, its density was the same as steel. The cost of a single ball after the war was as high as ten crystals. So most survivors who had access to the Smart Medical Chamber would only choose to put one bag inside. Although the time would be longer, there was no difference in terms of effect. Since a cost of 50 crystals per treatment was not something typical survivors could afford.

But Jiang Chen didn't care.

If it was not for the fact that only a maximum of five could be dissolved, Jiang Chen wanted to stuff more in so she could wake up faster.

He injected 300 L of distilled water and dropped the five concentrate inside and put on the cover.

The indicator flashed green as the drum device gently buzzed. From the transparent glass, the 300 L liquid already turned an emerald green color with a thick, gel-like consistency.

"Treatment program activated."

The breathing device was automatically attached to her and the cover of the medical chamber slowly closed to cover Ayesha's body. From the transparent part on the surface, the liquid was starting to submerge Ayesha until it completely surrounded her.

A blue laser scanned her entire body and drew out her hologram picture at the top of the chamber, revealing areas that were damaged.

"Estimated treatment time is 21 hours, please wait patiently."

The soft announcement dragged Jiang Chen back from his astonishment towards the technology.

If every single family had one of this, clinics and hospital can all close.

Jiang Chen exclaimed in amazement as he put his hand on the surface of the medical chamber.

[Please wake up…]

…

21 hours passed by, Jiang Chen waited quietly beside the medical chamber.

Ding-.

A noise and the liquid level in the hibernation chamber slowly dropped.

At the same time, the door opened.

The gorgeous face with more life in it reappeared in front of Jiang Chen.

Slowly, Ayesha opened her eyes.

Her eyes met with his. Sparkling teardrops swelled in her pupils. It was the first time Jiang Chen saw such a fragile expression on her face. A lot of criticism and blaming words were stuck in his throat and swallowed down.

"My sleeping beauty, you are finally awake." With a smile, Jiang Chen extended his trembling hand and caressed her face.

He almost lost her.

He carried Ayesha out of the medical chamber and put a towel around her. Although she said she could do it herself with a blushed face, Jiang Chen demandingly carried her in his arms and then sat her down beside the bed to wipe off the droplets from her hair.

"Don't do dangerous things ever again." Jiang Chen felt the softness he almost lost while he said with a tone of criticism.

Ayesha buried her head.

"I can't promise you that."

"Why?"

"Because, protecting you is the meaning of my existence, I am willing to- AHHH!"

While Ayesha screamed, Jiang Chen threw her on the bed and slapped her firm butt.

Pa!

"Nooo-"

A whimpering noise slipped out of her throat as her face instantly turned bright red, Ayesha gritted her teeth.

With the burning sensation on her butt, she said with defiance.

"Why?"

"Why? You dare to ask me why? Do you know how worried I was?!" Jiang Chen said fiercely and raised his hand simultaneously.

Pa!

"Nooo!"

Another whimpering noise, Ayesha twisted her body, a wronged mist covered her defiant eyes.

"I, I was thinking for you-"

"If you really are thinking for me, then while you take care of me, take care of yourself! Do you really think you dying would make me happy?! I would rather those bastards cause a mayhem here and escape than you becoming like this!"

It was the first time Jiang Chen was angry at his woman.

Pa!

"Noooo!"

The intense burning sensation made Ayesha struggle. Her eyes were filled with sparkling mist.

In heavy breaths, Jiang Chen looked at the vivid "five fingers mountain" as he couldn't even endure the sight. His emotional state gradually stabilized.

He stopped and used a more gentle tone.

"Do you know why you are wrong?"

"I know."

"Why are you wrong?"

"I… I shouldn't have tried to be brave. I was injured, I should have gone…" Ayesha's voice was mixed with a whimpering tone as she said while stuttering. The expression was just like a girl that made a mistake with her hand being slapped by the teacher's bamboo stick.

"Gone where?"

"The hospital," Ayesha said in a quiet voice.

"Mhm," Jiang Chen said calmly.

He was afraid. He was afraid that she would do something stupid for him. He didn't think Ayesha's thought process was a bit "dangerous" until three days ago when he realized his mistake.

Even if it is Superman, how much combat power would be left if he lost blood?

"Ayesha."

"Mhmm," Ayesha replied faintly.

"Do you think the purpose of your existence is to protect me?" Jiang Chen used a calm voice.

"Mhmm… Nooo!" Just as she replied with her head buried, her head raised again as she cried in pain.

A slapping sound.

Her butt had another five finger mountain added to it. It looked painful.

Jiang Chen couldn't bear the sight anymore. But he knew that he had to do it. If he doesn't change her perspective, she would kill herself one day.

"You said, you were willing to be my bride."

"Mhmm." Ayesha nodded with force.

But her eyes were filled with grievances.

"Then keep your safety in your mind, okay? Just for me," Jiang Chen looked into her eyes and said earnestly.

"… Okay."

She whimpered in a quiet voice with her head buried. She hid her face behind her dark brown hair. Her legs kneeling on the ground trembled for some reason.

With how mistreated she looked, Jiang Chen let out a sigh and didn't say anything else.

But then, an odd expression appeared on his face.

The silvery silk, the water stain on the sheets…

[This girl, she-]

Jiang Chen was dumbfounded.

He almost forgot that Ayesha was an M.

Chapter 417: I need a list

Because of some reason, the lecture that was supposed to end was extended for another two hours. If it were not for a visitor, Ayesha's "grievance" would last for two more hours.

Natasha was standing outside. If it was for Jiang Chen's instruction, Ayesha wanted to lock the girl outside.

"Oh, recovered already…What happened to you?"

When Natasha walked into the mansion and noticed Ayesha's limping motion, she raised her eyebrows in confusion, but then she started laughing as she realized something.

"…" Ayesha looked at her coldly and stood beside Jiang Chen again.

Natasha sniffed the air and looked dubiously at Jiang Chen on the sofa.

"Do you not welcome me?"

"Very welcome." Jiang Chen exaggeratedly opened his arms and showed a welcoming gesture. Then he pointed at the vodka on the table with "please," "The vodka you wanted."

Natasha grinned and sat across Jiang Chen as she leisurely crossed her legs.

"You owe me vodka from Moscow, not vodka from Coro. Drinking hard liquid in the tropics is not a fitting scene."

"Ayesha, lower the air condition temperature to Moscow temperatures."

"No need, I'm not here for a party," Natasha rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen as she uncrossed her legs. "Country F's vice minister of national defense hired Arrow Military Company. The decision maker is F's presidential palace. They planned to kidnap you, and use your influence on the Xin government to force them to release the 41 prisoners.

Jiang Chen looked at Natasha, surprised.

"KGB is on my side?"

"KGB is on Russia's national interest side." Natasha smiled.

"What do you want to obtain from me?" Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

"It's only a friendly gesture, Kremlin thinks we have the opportunity to work closely together." Natasha shook her head. "If there is a condition, I wouldn't have disclosed everything to you from the start."

Jiang Chen watched Natasha without any change in expression; he didn't know what her plan was.

As he was looking at her, she was also observing him with a grin.

The eye contact lasted for half a minute before she said abruptly.

"You are a man the KGB doesn't understand."

"It's my honor then."

"Do you not want to know why?" Natasha chuckled.

"If you are willing to tell me," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

"You can always bring out something amazing." Natasha looked at Ayesha," For example, an injury that would need a month of recovery time was healed in 24 hours."

Precisely, it was 21 hours.

Ayesha looked apathetically at Natasha and was unmoved by her smile.

"How many rats did you put on my island." Jiang Chen sighed.

"Only me."

"Do you think I will believe that?" Jiang Chen glared at her.

"Up to you." A smiling curvature appeared. The green pupils gazing into his eyes seemed to penetrate his soul.

Jiang Chen thought for a moment and then said.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"By telling me this information, is your intention making us disrupt the landscape in southeast Asia thus accelerating UA's strategy of returning to the Asia Pacific, therefore balancing your disadvantage in Veit and Syria?" Jiang Chen didn't dodge Natasha's eyes.

Surprise flashed across the green pupils as Natasha looked quite interested in Jiang Chen.

"I want you to take the word disadvantage out. At least change it to equal."

Therefore, not rejecting the first part?

Jiang Chen laughed.

"I don't like being used."

"You are not being used, it just happens that we share the same interest," Natasha swayed the hair on her shoulder and leaned on the sofa with her arms across her chest, "If I don't come find you, are you planning just to let go of your disobedient little neighbor?"

"Then your purpose today?"

Natasha's lips curved up, "Kremlin is willing to provide you with some support."

A pillow just when you need it.

Although without Russia, he also had the confidence that he could do it. However, with their support, it would indeed save him some costs.

"Oh? That's perfect then."

"First, let me be clear. We are not going help you on boring and useless things like assassinating the ministry of national defense or the president. Although KGB has some agents in country F, it doesn't mean we are willing to take the risk for you. The most we can do is to selectively provide you with some intelligence support." Natasha reminded him.

"That's enough." Jiang Chen looked at Natasha with a smile, "I only need you to provide a list, the type with contacts."

List?

Natasha raised her eyebrows as she didn't know what Jiang Chen was planning.

But when she heard the list that Jiang Chen was looking for, her eyes lit up immediately.

"You are such a bad person." With a grin, Natasha smiled.

"Thank you for your compliment." Jiang Chen accepted the compliment without any shame at all.

She stood up and walked to Jiang Chen in cat steps. Then she caressed Jiang Chen's chin flirtatiously.

"Wait for my good news."

Ignoring Ayesha's cold stare, Natasha stood in front of her and raised her head.

"You've been standing for a long time, why don't you sit for a bit."

"…"

A hint of embarrassment flashed through her cold pupils, but Ayesha quickly controlled her emotion.

Natasha scanned her butt with other intentions before she left in quick steps.

The door closed.

Once she left, Jiang Chen asked Ayesha in a quiet voice.

"Did you leave any voice recorders?"

Ayesha shook her head.

"No."

Jiang Chen nodded, to Ayesha's anti-reconnaissance ability, he was confident.

Jiang Chen took out his phone and opened the monitoring function, the screen quickly switched to the camera in the garden.

Natasha walked innocently to the gate of the mansion and didn't "touch" the flowers and plants along the way. But when she walked to the door, she stopped and blew a kiss to the camera.

"This girl…

Jiang Chen couldn't help but shake his head.

Ayesha gently dragged on Jiang Chen's sleeve.

"She is a dangerous woman."

"I know, That's why I didn't do anything to her that day." Jiang Chen referred to when he was in Donetsk.

But Jiang Chen was surprised too because it was the first time Ayesha was jealous.

She seemed to have read Jiang Chen's mind as her face turned red and she rushed to explain.

"Not because of jealousy… I'm just afraid you'll be tricked by her."

"Haha, am I the type that can't control my lower body?" Jiang Chen laughed.

[Mhmm…]

[Perhaps a little bit?]

Chapter 418: Xin National Security Bureau

A large number of tourists and immigrants flooding into Xin led to many unfamiliar faces filling the streets. Not only did foreigners bring their bills, but they also brought crime, drugs and even terrorism.

The warm tropical climate made it easy for people to become complacent. Xin had a police force of 50 before, but the stable Xin didn't experience a lot of crime. Now, with their door opened to internationals, the Xin government had to introduce three changes.

The police force increased to 200 people, added five police helicopters and twenty police vehicles from Australia, in addition to delegating Celestial Trade to form a national security bureau.

The first two changes were meant to target typical criminals, but the last one was to fill the void in the national security protection of Xin.

Xin must have its own intelligence department.

And Jiang Chen clearly wanted to have a part in forming it himself.

The newly formed intelligence department was named the National Security Bureau of Xin. It would remain independent of Celestial's management structure and directly report to Jiang Chen. As for the director position, after careful deliberation, Jiang Chen chose Ayesha.

When it came to her abilities or loyalty, Jiang Chen had no doubt.

"The director of national security?"

At the dinner table, when Jiang Chen proposed this, Ayesha looked at him, perplexed.

"Mhm. Xin must form its own national security department, and I want you to be the director," Jiang Chen said with seriousness.

Ayesha was hesitant.

"But I want to stay with you."

"Being a director doesn't mean you have to be far away from me."

Although Jiang Chen said this, Ayesha still had some concerns. She liked the life she had now without the need to appear in public frequently. She only needed to cook for her husband, drive for him when needed, and occasionally visit his parents…

"But I can't manage people," Ayesha said in a small voice.

That is a concern…

It was just like how a great athlete may not be a great coach, and the best coach may not be the best athlete. Ayesha's individual combat, reconnaissance, and anti-reconnaissance abilities were all strong, but she might not be able to manage an agent force equally well. Especially since she wasn't good at communicating with people, that would prove to be a significant obstacle to her being a leader.

Jiang Chen began to reconsider while scratching his chin.

Ayesha looked disappointed because she couldn't help Jiang Chen, but Jiang Chen quickly came up with a good solution.

"How about this - could you help me train a group of agents?"

Ayesha deliberated for a moment before nodding.

"If it's just training, I can do that."

"Okay then." Jiang Chen snapped his fingers. "I will post the hiring information on Celestial's website. After the deadline, help me pick 100 applicants with potential and train them to become qualified agents. Once training ends, you can choose a talented individual to become the director. Can you do that?"

Ayesha agreed. It wasn't that hard.

That afternoon, Jiang Chen sought out the logistics manager, Barkary, and explained the hiring information to him. But to Jiang Chen's proposal for posting it online, Barkary brought up one concern.

"It might not be secure to post it online - there may be other agents hiding among the agents we end up hiring. Unless we can investigate the background of every applicant, it's hard to prevent something like this from happening. I propose that we do the hiring process by approaching people in person."

Take MI6 for example - their hiring process at top university campuses was done by patting people on the shoulder. Usually, university professors working for the intelligence service would scout candidates then ask students to come in for a talk. If students were interested, they could join MI6 or they could choose to reject.

Although this selection method was highly secure, the efficiency was lackluster. Jiang Chen refused to spend two to three years to select 50 agents.

"Don't worry, I have my own method of investigating their background."

[Funny, what secret cannot be revealed by truth-telling serum? Even senior KGB agents won't be able to withstand interrogation that way.]

Seeing Jiang Chen's explanation, Barkary didn't try to convince him further. He knew his boss had a lot of secrets unknown to him or methods he had yet to disclose to uncover people's backgrounds. He didn't need to be curious; he only needed to do his part of the job.

Just like that, an interesting, or rather, a suspicious hiring post appeared on Facebook and Twitter.

<Do you want to do something meaningful? Do you want to escape a dull and routine life?>

Under these tempting words was a line of distinct red words, as well as a picture of the beautiful tropical island.

<Salary of ten thousand USD per month, and a plane ticket to the new world.>

The description of the position was as follows:

"You must be acute in your observations and remember every detail you encounter."

"You will frequently drive day and night, and you must be able to calmly maneuver any kind of road conditions."

"You must be able to use only a tourist map to freely traverse between two points in a foreign country."

"This job is prone to unexpected changes. Therefore, you must be able to make the best choice in the shortest time."

"Because of job demands, you may not be able to contact your family for a prolonged period of time. Before you accept this job, please carefully consider this."

"If you have thought everything through, please join us."

"Perhaps you will be the next 007!"

The posting also explained the number of people required.

The number of positions was 100-150.

The applicants had to be adults with complete civil capabilities. Males must not exceed a height of 185 cm while females must not exceed a height of 177 cm because taller people would be more conspicuous in a crowd, thus harder to disguise.

No alcohol or drug addictions.

Applicants with IT knowledge were preferred.

After the applicants finished inputting their information, there was an additional test.

The test was comprised of three games: finding a difference, audio, and reaction speed.

Finding the difference tested for observational skills - applicants must find the discrepancies between two almost identical pictures in one minute.

The audio test looked not at language ability, but rather the filtering of information. For example, one question was: "Eight people got on the bus, five people got off at the first stop, then nine people got on two stops later…" Once the problem was done, the question asked how many times the bus stopped and how many people got on the second time. If the applicants only focused on how many people were left on the bus, then unfortunately, they were cut.

The reaction speed test was pretty straightforward - it required playing against a fighting team to determine how high the applicants could score in reaction speed.

After the three games were completed, the applicant's information and test result would be sent to Celestial Trade. Applicants would only need to wait for one week before they received a response.

If they were hired, the applicants would receive a corresponding email with a ticket to Coro Island.

Then came the benefits.

Agents in training would receive a salary of ten thousand USD per month. After 80 days of highly intensive training, the salary would increase to fifteen thousand USD without the need to pay income tax. Even in developed countries, this was a generous salary.

An "exciting and wild" experience and a competitive salary.

Just like Jiang Chen expected, the posting was only open for two days on social media before Celestial Trade received over one thousand applications. And this number grew exponentially in the next few days.

Chapter 419: The new Ghost Agent Recruits

Something worth mentioning was that the teens and young adults were easy to trick.

A society with great social benefits allowed people to be fed without needing to work, but it could also kill a person's drive. Why would so many foolish people run to IS to become sex slaves and soldiers? People in most developing countries thought it was incomprehensible foolishness. But from a different perspective, most were searching for excitement to appease the adventurist spirit hidden in their genes.

Of course, Jiang Chen was recruiting agents, not terrorists.

In seven days, Celestial Trade received a total of 437,401 applicants from all over the world. Just like what Jiang Chen expected, most of the applicants were from western Europe, some were from Russia and even South America. Because of the influence of tradition, applicants from Asia and the Middle East made up only a small percentage. Due to the lack of internet infrastructure in Africa, the number of applicants from there was nearly zero.

Jiang Chen was pleased with this result. It would be against his intentions if he tricked his own people.

After seven days of deliberation, Ayesha chose 117 qualified applicants from the four hundred thousand applicants and forwarded them to Celestial Trade. Immediately after, Barkary responded to the applicants and arranged plane tickets along with necessary documents.

These people boarded different flights and finally arrived in Melbourne before taking a chartered flight to Coro Island.

The third day.

Under the bright sunshine, around one hundred lively figures walked out of the Coro airport. They had colorful luggage, wore beach clothes and slippers, and looked like a planned field trip group from a high school.

They had varying skin colors, but most of them were white.

The high number of foreigners simultaneously showing up at the airport made locals turn their heads. Even with the increasing number of tourists, this was not a common occurrence.

On the street not far away, Jiang Chen asked Ayesha while facepalming:

"Why did you just choose girls?"

Ayesha tilted her head and used a defensive tone:

"Didn't you tell me to do as I wanted?"

Although Jiang Chen didn't mind, in Ayesha's traditional culture, a qualified wife could not have excessive contact with men other than her husband, let alone lead training where contact was common. Therefore, even if 80% of the applicants were male, she stubbornly chose a hundred females out of the remaining 20%.

Because Jiang Chen trusted Ayesha so much, he didn't even ask for information about the selected applicants beforehand.

Jiang Chen was speechless as he let out a sigh, his head throbbing.

"Okay. That's fine, just train them well… All in all, I'll have to count on you for this since I have to return to the other side soon."

He was prepared to make a speech to the new recruits, but upon seeing all the chatty girls, Jiang Chen lost interest. He left Ayesha in charge and took off by himself.

Staring at Jiang Chen's back, Ayesha nodded with seriousness.

Her serious expression meant that the new recruits would suffer.

Jiang Chen didn't realize that the "Ghost Agents" who could make people tremble in fear were surprisingly born on this ordinary morning.

…

When the girls got off the plane, they waited at the spot instructed by the email.

For a lot of them, it was their first time leaving the country. Everything here seemed so refreshing to them. They exchanged names on the plane already, but now, they gathered in small groups taking photos and discussing how to spend their 80-day "vacation."

Celestial Trade didn't make them wait for long - three buses appeared in front of them soon after their arrival.

Six female soldiers in kinetic skeletons and an indifferent looking girl walked up to them. Ayesha called their names off her list. She crossed off the seven people who hadn't arrived, divided the remaining people into three groups, and assigned seating plans.

While cheering, the girls loaded their luggage and boarded the bus as if this was a field trip. Then Ayesha and the six female soldiers all boarded their bus and signaled the first bus to start moving.

Ayesha sat at the front of the bus in silence as she glanced at the talkative girls. Although the girls had yet to understand the situation, when they arrived on the island, she would make them understand that this was no joke.

An Asian girl who was sitting beside a window quietly gazed at the scenery outside. In contrast with the rowdy crowd, she looked quiet and a bit left out of the group. The black hair falling over her shoulders looked silky. With her glasses, she really looked like a dedicated student.

"My name is Penny. I'm from California, what about you?"

Beside her was a blonde white girl who was chewing on bubble gum. She looked at her with a grin. Judging by her appearance, she seemed to have recently graduated from university.

"Zhu Yu, Michigan," Zhu Yu said softly.

Penny's eyes lit up.

"Michigan? My grandma from my mom's side is from there too. I spent three years there… You don't like to talk?"

Zhu Yu smiled peacefully.

"Not exactly. I just don't know what to say right now."

"You could say a lot of things… For example, why did you choose to be an agent?" Penny attempted to make small talk.

Zhu Yu titled her head as she thought. "Because I want to live a life without studying… What about you?"

"Me?" Penny laughed. "I want to live a life that doesn't involve having an endless amount of parties to attend. Of course, there's also the fifteen thousand salary."

Zhu Yu smiled but didn't speak.

Compared to her introvert personality, Penny was an extrovert.

"Also, what were your test scores?"

Penny was proud of her test scores as all three subjects were above 80. For her, a fresh university graduate, it was an unimaginable achievement.

"91,98,100," Zhu Yu answered honestly.

Penny looked at the high-school-looking girl with an expression like she just saw a ghost.

"God, do you Asians know all the answers from the moment you're born?"

Zhu Yu only smiled and didn't respond.

She received too many compliments like this in school. The reason why she chose to leave home for this place was to escape her planned-out life.

Although she was an adult now, she had to use a lot of courage to make the decision to leave the life planned out for her by her parents. But she believed that this decision would pay off.

What she didn't know was that, within two short hours, she would start to regret her decision.

Before signing the contracts, Celestial Trade repeatedly reminded the applicants that the job wasn't a joke.

Chapter 420: Spartan's Training

The three buses arrived at a hospital, and the girls were injected with an anti-virus vaccine there. After they were injected, however, they lost consciousness. Faintly, they heard people ask them if they worked for any intelligence service before, and they all responded truthfully.

When they woke up, they realized they were on a boat.

"Ahhh!"

Penny screamed as she checked her clothes. After realizing she hadn't been violated, she seemed to calm down. The other girls on the boat all had the same reaction; any girls woken up from unconsciousness would first check their clothes.

"What happened?' Zhu Yu had a frown.

Although she was an introvert, in this unclear abnormal situation, she still felt a sense of panic.

Then someone started to have a mental breakdown.

"I knew it. This is too weird! They said they were hiring men and women, but only women were selected. I knew there was something fishy about that! I want to go home, dad…." A blonde girl kneeled on the ground crying while grasping her own head in agony.

People started to stare at her.

Needless to say, fear was contagious, especially in an enclosed space.

One girl started crying, another was pounding on the window screaming, someone else tried to turn on their phone but the signal was clearly jammed.

"The door is locked."

Zhu Yu came back to sit beside Penny.

"Why're you so calm? Maybe we will be sold as sex slaves to Africa." Penny's voice carried a hint of trembling fear.

Even if they were sold, it wouldn't be to Africa.

"Because there's no use in panicking." Zhu Yu shook her head and sat down.

She was also afraid, but when she realized that being afraid wouldn't solve anything, she quickly calmed down.

What the girls in the cabin didn't know was that their actions were all being recorded by the camera and viewed by Ayesha in the control room.

<That Asian isn't bad, she controlled her emotions quickly.>

<That Italian is pretty good too, she's trying to comfort her friend.>

<That…>

Other than the camera, the EP on Ayesha' left wrist also displayed everyone's heartbeat.

When they were injected with the truth-telling serum, an electronic collar was put on them. Until the private doctor Jiang Chen hired was familiar with spine neural injection technology, their electronic collar would be replaced with slavery chips.

Ayesha was recording every person's reaction in this crisis situation while focusing on each person's development. This training knowledge was all obtained from her studies in the virtual reality training chamber.

Because of the limited number of training chambers, the new recruits' primary training method would be physical training combined with the effects of the genetic vaccine; the virtual reality helmets would be the secondary method.

After five hours of travel, the vessel docked at an island.

The uninhabited island was five square kilometers in size, located at the easternmost edge of Pannu Islands. The island was covered in dense vegetation and had a hill in the middle. There was a hotel on the island which was now converted into a military camp.

Six fully armed female soldiers opened the cabin door. Directly in their fearful eyes, they pointed their guns at the girls, forcing them to board the boats heading to the island. After ten trips, all 110 people finally reached the island.

When they arrived on the island, Ayesha, in a captain uniform, appeared in front of the recruits. When they saw it was a girl in charge, everyone felt relieved, but their emotions also exploded.

"Where's our luggage?" A blonde European walked up and questioned Ayesha in front of her face.

Judging by her shirt exposing her belly and her pair of sunglasses, she seemed to be here on vacation.

"You'll get it back after 80 days of training," Ayesha said expressionlessly.

"80 days? You dare to confiscate our luggage?! You can't do that! I want to go home. I'm quitting now!" The blonde girl, who was half a head taller than Ayesha, spoke aggressively.

"The terms were clearly stated in your contract - the moment you became an agent, you gave up your previous nationality and joined our group. You'll obey the order of the group, even if it means making personal sacrifices."

The beauty's face instantly turned white; her lips trembled in fear.

No one read the contract word by word, and even if they did, they merely thought those were typical clauses in a normal contract. Just like new soldier recruits, although their contracts stated that they might die, they wouldn't necessarily be sent to their deaths.

"Th-that contract. That's illegal! You don't have the right-"

"This is Xin; it's legal under Xin's law," Ayesha said apathetically.

"You! Let me go!"

The beauty dashed up and wanted to strangle Ayesha's neck.

But Ayesha merely glared at her before she used one hand to clamp on the beauty's hand decorated with nail polish then swept her legs out from under her.

It was a fluid motion.

Before the beauty could react, she felt her world spinning around her then she was slammed to the ground. At the same time, a pistol was pointed at the back of her head.

Witnessing this scene, a deafening scream erupted from the crowd as they moved away in fear. But behind them was the sea; they had nowhere to go. The boat that delivered them had already left, and the entire island was cut off from the rest of the world.

The beauty's teeth shook, unaware that sand had slipped into her mouth.

"No, no, don't kill me, I'm sorry!"

"The captain has the right to execute any deserters. This is a warning." Ayesha pressed the trigger.

Bang-!

The beauty, curled up on the ground, quivered at the bullet hole two inches away from her face.

Pungent smoke was still coming out of the bullet hole.

"Ahh-!"

An even louder scream came from the girls on the beach, but Ayesha watched everything expressionlessly.

The mission Jiang Chen gave her was to train a group of agents capable of completing any mission; she would do anything to accomplish this.

"Tie her to the tree. Let her go after 24 hours." Ayesha used a volume everyone could hear as she ordered the female soldier beside her.

"Yes, Ma'am!"

The female soldier walked up in front of everyone and dragged the beauty, struggling to escape, to the coconut tree on the beach.

Ayesha closed her eyes.

She wasn't a cruel person, but when the occasion called for it, she wouldn't have any excessive mercy either.

Even if Jiang Chen ordered her to kill everyone here, she would do it without any hesitation.

"This deserted island is 200 nautical miles away from Coro Island. If you think you can swim there, I'll remind you that you may encounter sharks along the way. I believe you have all noticed an electronic collar around your neck by now - it will record your location information and heartbeat. To the person who is trying to cut it off with a nail clipper, you can stop now. Any attempt to destroy the collar will trigger the self-destruction mechanism, just like this.

As she spoke, Ayesha tossed a collar on the ground and threw a dagger at it.

The sharp dagger cut through the collar and it blew up in everyone's face.

"Although the amount of explosive is small, it is more than enough to take a person's head off. Any betrayal will trigger the self-destruction mechanism, so please follow the terms of the contract you signed about your commitment to loyalty."

"You will receive 80 days of training on the island. During this period, you have no freedom or rights; your superiors' orders are absolute."

"80 days later, you will obtain your new identity and officially become a member of the National Security Bureau of Xin. You'll transition into different roles based on your performance. Fifteen thousand USD per month will allow you to have endless Martinis just like Bond. To live that life, it is a given that you have to suffer now…"

Zhu Yu listened to Ayesha's orders and let out a sigh. It sounded like she was reading off a script.

Like she expected, these people were serious.

They followed the six female soldiers acting as the assistant trainers to the hotel on the hill then picked up the keys to their rooms. The girls were excited when they saw the luxury hotel – based on the design, it was probably a five-star hotel.

But by the second day, all their excitement vanished.

They crawled in mud and over uneven rocks and reefs with their hands tied behind their backs, did push-ups beside the beach, and did sit-ups on the burning sand. If someone couldn't withstand the training, the punishment was ten laps around the beach. The electronic collar would record their location information, so any shortcuts or slowing down would be faced with severe punishment.

Although the training was torturing, Ayesha knew clearly that without this training to hone their endurance and will, they would kill themselves during their missions. Although she didn't experience this training herself in the real world, the training in the virtual reality training chamber was no less taxing on her mind.

The training chamber could not be revealed to the public, and the virtual reality helmet wouldn't familiarize people with pain accurately enough, so they had to train physically.

At night, when they dragged their weary bodies back to the hotel, they were forced to put on the helmet and use it to learn all kinds of theories and practice working with weapons.

When they first saw the famed virtual reality helmet, everyone widened their eyes in astonishment. Especially when they realized the helmet's technological superiority to modern-day VR equipment, their amazement was inexplicable.

But Ayesha didn't give them the leisure to appreciate the helmet after they put it on; the virtual reality training started immediately.

Weapon usage, combat simulation, theory training.

The things learned during sleep would save a lot of time and ammunition.

Other than their cruel training, the girls had to endure disgusting food. It wasn't that the chefs' cooking skills were terrible, but rather, there was no chef on the island.

Every meal was something called Grade-A nutrient supply. Different from the nutrient supply sold on the market for weight loss, it was the "imported" stuff brought by Jiang Chen. Although it didn't taste like anything, it was enough to provide the calories and vitamins needed.

But the fun of eating was no longer there.

The only thing that comforted the girls was their one-hour routine bath before they slept.

The bath water had some kind of odd stuff that looked green. Although the color looked suspicious, it was surprisingly relaxing to bathe inside. The tingling sensation produced felt so good that they wanted to moan.

After their bath, everyone discovered in surprise that their sunburned and cut skin was repaired to be smooth again. The black pigment and toxins in their body seemed to have dissolved in the bathwater since the bathwater turned a dark green by the end.

Other than that, their sore bones became refreshed again as if they received a new skeleton entirely. This kind of relaxation was ten times better than sleeping.

As to what was inside the bathtub, it was the nutrient liquid normally used inside the training chamber. It was also the most expensive kind at 40 crystals per kilogram.

These grain-sized particles were commonly used in the training chamber. Not only would they increase body coordination and reflex, but they could also allow the abilities learned in virtual reality to sync with their real bodies. But even if the nutrient liquid was used alone, it was a great product to alleviate soreness, remove toxins, and strengthen the body.

Jiang Chen invested heavily in these agents.

He knew that the investment would absolutely pay off.

Chapter 421: Exchanging Intelligence

Xin's agent training was all being conducted on the deserted island. Other than boats hauling over necessary supplies every week, the island was separated from the rest of the world. Because of this, in the next 80 days, Jiang Chen didn't have the opportunity to see his adorable Ayesha at all.

But while Ayesha was busy training the female agents, Jiang Chen didn't sit around.

A force of agents alone couldn't make up the entire intelligence department.

Logistics, organizational structure, phone monitoring, customs monitoring… All these would require employees. Of course, while Barkary did most of the work in the formation of these functions, Jiang Chen was also involved in the process.

And the formation of these departments would require the cooperation of internet companies, customs, police and other government agencies, in addition to Jiang Chen's abilities to encourage cooperation between these agencies.

Also, Jiang Chen logged into the email provided by Xie Lei. After he downloaded the file, he brought it to Yao Yao in the apocalypse.

Although there was no password book, due to the computational power of the supercomputer as well as the techniques known by artificial intelligence, Yao Yao only spent two days to complete the deciphering of the file, or rather, "archeology."

Based on what Yao Yao said, it would take a long time, but it wasn't tiring.

After he read through the deciphered document, Jiang Chen had a frown on his face.

Willie society was indeed monitoring him and started doing so approximately three months ago. As to the reason, it wasn't explained in the document. It only vaguely stated that the purpose was to record the sea activity of Celestial Trade as well as the supply consumption of New Moon Island.

Because the leak was only present for a short period of time without even reaching New Moon Island, the information leaked was all non-sensitive information.

On the other hand, Willie society as an organization had a weak presence in East Asia. Since the organization started off as a NATO puppet used to cause trouble for the Soviets, its major area of operation was mostly in Kane nowadays. If they wanted to penetrate Xin, that would be a wild dream.

After they confirmed the identity of the spy, Jiang Chen transferred the information of the spy to Ivan and captured the mole inside Celestial. But Ivan, unfortunately, told him that the person quit a month ago. Based on the information at customs, the person left the country soon after he resigned.

One month ago happened to be when Xie Lei obtained the information. Perhaps realizing his identity was exposed, the spy immediately fled when he received news that the information leak was uncovered. When Xie Lei sent the information about the email, the spy had escaped already.

There was nothing they could do other than urging Ivan to investigate all the employees carefully. Jiang Chen granted the usage of a small amount of truth-telling serum at critical times to prevent the infiltration of spies again.

It would be a lost cause, but necessary nonetheless.

After these incidents were dealt with, it was nearing the end of July already. Based on the information from Xia Shiyu, the virtual reality's internal test spots were nearing the end of the distribution. The first group of internal test players would arrive in Xin by the end of July at the latest. With that completed, Jiang Chen was prepared to go back to the apocalypse.

But before he left, he planned to teach F a lesson.

He had been waiting for the list Natasha promised him.

Now, there was finally some progress.

…

At the door of the mansion.

"Where's your little beauty?"

"She's busy." Jiang Chen welcomed Natasha inside and smiled.

"For example, training agents at a secret base?" The tip of Natasha's lips curled up as she said this dubiously.

"Who knows?" Jiang Chen neither denied nor agreed.

"We suspect that three Russian citizens went abroad for a special position," Natasha said with narrowed eyes.

"Possible. Although Celestial Trade hired a group of agents, all applicants are adults who maintain their civil abilities," Jiang Chen said, without revealing any information.

It was up to him in Xin to say who was legal or not. Based on Xin's laws, other than the law stating 18 was the legal age, the court could use a source of stable income as a criterion for granting legal status or not. When they arrived in Xin, the future agents would automatically become Xin nationals.

"That's fine; I'm not here to look for people," Natasha said as she stuck two fingers out and took out a list in front of her chest then handed it to Jiang Chen with a grin. "The list you wanted."

Jiang Chen reached for it, but Natasha moved her hand.

With eyebrows raised, Jiang Chen looked at her questioningly.

"Are you not going to express something?" Natasha teased.

That look seemed to be hinting at something.

Unless his brain was shut down, Jiang Chen wouldn't choose to engage in a deep conversation with a KGB woman.

He curved his lips up. Jiang Chen didn't do as Natasha wished. Instead, he took out his phone.

"Give me your email address."

Natasha looked skeptically at him and told him her email. Soon after, an email was sent to her phone.

"This…" When she opened the email, her eyes were instantly astonished.

"A Willie society agent with identity confirmed escaped from Xin to France a month ago. The rank in the organization is currently unknown, but I think the KGB might be interested. Also, this password book is related to some documents from Veit. You mentioned we can cooperate in intelligence." Jiang Chen just sent the picture and information of the Willie agent as well as the password book Yao Yao created by deciphering Natasha's email.

Although Xin didn't have the ability yet to capture the mole that escaped, a cat that could stretch its paws there would be more than enough.

Jiang Chen found the polar bear also interested in Willie society.

"Of course I'm interested, our agent will warmly welcome him for a shot of vodka in the Black Dolphin Prison. Also, thanks for your password book, this is a great help." Natasha smiled and then walked briskly to the door.

Black Dolphin Prison, the infamous prison. Jiang Chen mourned for the poor guy for half a second.

Although he didn't get to read more about KGB's influence in Western Europe, from Natasha's reaction, the KGB seemed to be confident with capturing the agent whose identity was exposed.

Natasha was walking to the door but stopped in her tracks as if she suddenly remembered something. She turned around and added:

"Also, the ships and submarines you purchased will arrive in December. You can now organize the crew to receive training in Moscow. You have to take care of your own accommodations and food."

"They will be there in seven days."

"Also, to create trouble for your neighbor, do you need Russian weapons?"

"No, we already solved the weapon problem." A smile surfaced on Jiang Chen's face.

Since it would cause a problem for the UA ally, it was more fun to use UA weapons.

Chapter 422: The Reunion with Robert

MLL Island was the fourteenth biggest island in the world and the second largest island in country F. It was also the island with the most frequent terrorism, hence the name "the home of terrorism."

There were two anti-government militant groups in country F currently, one being "Moro Liberation Front" (MLF) and the other being "Moro National Liberation Front" (MNLF).

The latter was previously the strongest anti-government militant group, but because of internal conflicts and a decrease in foreign support, it broke into three separate divisions with two of the divisions supporting the establishment of autonomy in the MLL area while the other division promoted the separation of MLL from country F to form an independent country. The former group, the MLF, was currently the largest anti-government military force in F with ten thousand people, originating from the MNLF division that supported independence.

Due to the pressure from regional conflicts, the F government signed an initial agreement with the MLF in 2012 and promised to form the "Federation of Moro" on MLL island to the south of country F. What was worth noting was that it wouldn't be an independent country but rather an autonomous area under F with more self-governance.

Then the question was: although country F satisfied MLF's political demands, it completely ignored MNLP's demands. At the same time, even in MLF, there was a loud faction demanding the formation of an independent country, refusing to maintain the "sub-country" status quo.

Thus, after the Aquino government prepared to sign the peace agreement, MLF separated from MNLF. The founder of MNLF, Sauli, immediately expressed his opposition to the signing of the peace agreement and threatened to start another military conflict.

He obviously wasn't lying as a tragedy occurred in 2013 - 300 MNLF militants attacked a city located in the west of MLL island and engaged in heavy fire with the local forces.

Until 2016, the MLL anti-government militants refused to cease fire.

From Google maps, all of country F was like a shredded puzzle - any force could rip it apart. To unite the divided nation, Aquino had to maintain a strong stance internationally and blow national security issues out of proportion.

Promoting patriotic beliefs in the country to strengthen the cohesion of the nation had been a useful tactic since the age of colonization.

However, it was only useful at best.

In the first step to destroy country F, Jiang Chen planned to start with MLL Island. As the second largest island in country F, not only did the island possess rich mining resources, but it had the most violent ethnic and religious conflicts. He didn't even need to add fuel to the fire himself - he just needed to give the people eager to light up a pile of wood the lighter they ever so desired, and they would frantically rush to light up the bonfire known as a coup.

…

Before Jiang Chen headed to country F, he first flew to South Africa and met his old friend Robert.

Compared to when they met in Iraq, this guy was a lot paler; at least people wouldn't mistake him for an Indian anymore.

His life in Hollywood was sensational. The moment he saw Jiang Chen, he gloated to him about having Hollywood girls keeping his bed warm every day. He then put his hand on Jiang Chen's shoulder and invited him to visit Los Santos someday.

It was easy to become a producer in Hollywood. With money, anyone could hang their name on the credits of a movie. After he helped Jiang Chen with Pannu Islands, he received his "film salary" of one hundred million USD. A few parties in Los Santos later, he became the star of the Hollywood "upper class," and his girlfriend count increased from one to multiple.

After they did some catching up, Robert hailed a taxi and took Jiang Chen to the warehouse located in the rural area of Abington.

It contained 12000 assault rifles and 90 tons of ammo, 1700 RPG-7 rockets and 150 launchers, boxes of M2 grenades, bulletproof vests, night-vision goggles and other equipment.

Also in the corner of the warehouse were twenty-something mortars and thousands of mortar rounds.

Firearms totaling 60 million USD were piled into a mountain in the giant warehouse.

Jiang Chen was shocked by the number of firearms.

It was hard to imagine that Robert managed to hoard this quantity of arms in South Africa; the equipment was enough to equip a fu*king battalion. Did the South African government really have no clue?

Of course, Jiang Chen was inclined to believe that Robert pre-cleared the way to customs.

"This is the last batch of my supplies." Robert closed the warehouse door and handed the key to Jiang Chen then lit a cigarette. "I've stayed away from the firearms business since Iraq. I was planning to sell it at a discount to the dictator in West Africa, but since you need it, it's yours."

"Not much difference – they'll end up in the hands of a dictator either way." Jiang Chen took the key and joked.

Robert grinned. "Let's have a drink?"

"My plan too." Jiang Chen gladly accepted his invitation.

They found a restaurant in the rural area of Abington city then ordered a table full of South African dishes and a few bottles of beer. They began to chat.

Robert had many interesting experiences to share partly because he was humorous, but mostly because of his wealth of experience.

This guy started the firearms business with Mexican gangs when he was 17. One day, by chance, he managed to connect with the national security force. He went from being in the firearms business in Veit to selling crude oil in Iraq, from being the kingpin of the industry to being blacklisted by the FBA. Because he met Jiang Chen in Sanya who was eager to get rid of the gold, he, fortunately, survived the FBA's master plot to kill him through other hands. That was what made him choose to leave the industry and become a producer.

As they chatted, Jiang Chen exclaimed that this guy's experience could be compiled into a book.

"Once I'm 50, I'll film an autobiography. I have the name already: let's call it 'The Merchant of Death,' burp-" Robert said with high spirits.

"With how fast you spend money, you'll have to pick up your old gig by 40."

Robert grinned then he shook the cup in his hand. "Eh? Not at all. If you manage to become a big deal in Hollywood, the future is not less bright than trading in firearms. Have you heard that the that will be in theatres by December? Remember to look for my name in the credits."

[Will normal people see that? Without post-credit scenes, most people leave by the start of the credits.]

Jiang Chen didn't want to discourage his old friend's passion for the film industry, so he diverted the topic and asked nonchalantly:

"Where's Nick? Why didn't he come along?"

"He's in the acting industry now." Robert chuckled.

"Acting?" Jiang Chen thought he heard wrong.

"That's right, he's been with me for so many years. Now that I'm not in the business anymore, I couldn't let him starve. His fighting ability is great, a natural for action movies. I recommended him to a director that I know pretty well. After a few years of training, maybe he will become a top Hollywood star one day. Anyway, it's a lot better than being a bodyguard." Robert laughed while he burped.

"Acting in films? Not a bad exit option."

Jiang Chen raised his cup with a smile and toasted Robert.

After the dinner, it was seven in the evening already. Because there was still a party to attend in the afternoon, Robert booked a flight back to Los Santos at ten at night, so the two said goodbye.

Jiang Chen watched the taxi Robert was in to leave then headed to the warehouse.

He confirmed that there were no suspicious figures following him before he shut the door.

With the warehouse full of firearms, he took a deep breath, put on the bracelet Lin Lin gave him, then opened the storage dimension.

He left the warehouse after he transferred everything to the other side.

With the door locked, he broke the key into two pieces and threw it in the trash. Then he left the dark alley without turning his head.

His flight was that night too.

The next stop, country F.

Chapter 423: Dismember Country F

Country F, in a remote town on an island.

In a small restaurant, three F citizens in grey sweaters sat around a table.

"What time is it?" The man with darker skin glanced at the door and asked his companions in a low voice.

The person being asked looked at his watch. "It's already 1."

The chubby man that didn't speak inhaled deeply and anxiously pulled on his collar.

"Santos, do you think that person will come?"

"I don't know, I don't trust the Han," Santos said emotionlessly.

The chubby guy moved his fat lips, didn't comment on Santo's words and just leaned on the chair. As to why they would appear here, it had to do with a phone call they received last night.

The people who sat here were all top officials of MNLF. Although most of the force of MNLF was stationed on MLL Island, their headquarter was on a small island next to MLL Island.

Santos was just about to doze off when an unknown number reached his phone. After careful deliberation, he cautiously picked up the phone. But when it went through, the person on the other side didn't introduce themselves and directly said he wanted to provide weapons for MNLF.

From the accent, the person on the phone should be Han.

To the olive branch extended by the Han, Santos was somewhat cautious. In Country F, 1% of the Han controlled over 60% of the economy. No one liked to be around their wealthy neighbors.

But that person's offer was too hard to reject.

It was enough weapons to equip an army.

What shocked him, even more, was that the person said the weapons were transferred into the country already.

With the weapons, MNLF's shortage of arms would be significantly alleviated. He could quickly build a force of 7000 from his supporters and increase the strength of the guerrillas substantially.

But what made Santos cautious was that it was a Han that made the offer, and the Han knew all the details about him, he even stated the hotel room he stayed in.

Of course, to prevent his phone number from being tracked, Jiang Chen didn't state which hotel in which city.

Cold sweat rolled off his forehead. Due to the heated internal conflict, Santos finally agreed to his request to meet. The police didn't come to his door; it at least explained that the person on the phone didn't have any hostility.

Therefore, this scene happening now occurred.

After he secretively deployed soldiers around the restaurant, Santos and his two close officials sat in the restaurant. They sat in the private room the person arranged, ordered two dishes, and carefully waited for the other person to come.

But it was already the time they had arranged.

"He fooled us," the chubby guy said.

Santos closed his eyes and deliberated for a moment. "Wait ten more minutes. If no one comes, we'll leave."

But just as he finished his sentence, someone knocked on the door.

The person with the watch instinctively moved to his waist, seeing Santos shack his head, he put his hands back on the table again.

"Please come in," Santos spoke to the door.

The door opened, but it was a ten-year-old boy that came in.

Seeing the people in the room all look at him in surprise, the boy timidly brought out the tablet.

"Someone asked me to bring this here."

"Where is that person?" Santos gazed with deadliness into the boy's eyes.

With a frightened expression on the boy's face, the boy shook his head fiercely. His hands holding the tablet trembled uncontrollably with words rapidly spitting out. "I don't know, he had a mask on. He gave me 10 USD and asked me to bring this here."

Then the boy carefully placed the tablet on the sofa beside the door and he quickly ran out.

Without regard to the boy, Santos signaled the chubby guy to bring the tablet over.

And then, the phone rang again.

Seeing the caller, Santos picked up and said with a low but menacing voice, "What tricks are you playing with me?"

Without wasting a word, Jiang Chen directly said.

"There is a map on the tablet, the password is 1234, you can try to open it."

Though frowning, Santos still followed the instruction and opened the map.

"And then?"

"There are eight armories in total. They are hidden in the rural area at the southern area of the country," Jiang Chen said with eyes narrowed.

"Where are the armories?" Santos asked briskly.

"You notice the checkboxes beside the map? For every mission you complete, I'll provide you with a password, every time you input a password, you can unlock the location of the 'treasure.'"

[What the fu*k does that mean?]

Santos took a moment to process this while he cursed in his mind. "What's the purpose of you doing this?"

"I'm providing you with firearms and cash to support your cause, not as a chip in negotiation with the government force. I want to see you separate MLL island from the country's territory. Do you understand what I mean?"

With his eyes lighting up, Santos attempted to convince him.

"I promise I will bring Moro people to independence, you can absolutely trust me!"

"Haha, the most worthless thing in the world is trust, especially to two strangers." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Then why should we trust you?" Santos said with gloom in his voice.

"So I decided to pay first." Jiang Chen shrugged. "The first password, ad2ge#$@... After you input the password, you will unlock the location of an armory, and also a mission brief. Complete it. After I confirm it on the news, I will tell you the next password."

"That's all I have to say, good luck."

"Wait!" Seeing that the person was about to hang up, Santos who just inputted the password wanted to stop him, but only silence followed.

After stuffing his phone into his pocket, Santos looked on the tablet with gloominess on his face.

"Boss, what do we do?" The chubby guy asked in a low voice.

Santos looked speechlessly at the red dot located in Ludink town. He was silent. Then he said.

"Kard, take people to the location on the map."

"Yes." The man with the watch stood up and memorized the location on the map in his head.

Santos closed his eyes and sunk into the chair.

He didn't like the feeling of being manipulated. But the generous offer was irresistible. If Jiang Chen provided all the arms to him at once, he would indeed choose the safer option. For example, first, form a force, and prepare for a year before he launched an attack.

Not long after, his phone rang.

He picked up with Kard's tense voice.

"Boss, we found it."

"How much stuff is inside," Santos said in an urgent tone.

Kard's throat felt dry, "There are bulletproof vests, night vision goggles, and even C4s. We also found 2000 rifles, 40 boxes of rifle ammo, 10 RPG 7 with 100 rounds… and five mortars, also with 100 rounds. As well as five million USD in cash."

Firearms! Five million USD!

Santos sat up abruptly. The hand holding the phone shook violently. "Immediately arrange people to transport it to our gathering spot."

"Understood!" Kard nodded.

Kard was his confidant, he trusted his loyalty.

He hung up the phone and ignored the question on the chubby guy's face. He scanned the mission brief on the tablet.

<Target: City PJ. Destroy the police station, power station, government building, and kill at least 80 government forces.>

Santos licked his dry lips. He felt his heart beat faster.

If he followed it, it would be the biggest attack planned by MNLF since 2013. And with the firearms and cash support, MNLF could easily conduct this attack.

But then, there would be no backing out.

A trace of hesitation crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by fervent. He made up his mind.

It was time for a major headline.

Chapter 424: Smoke and Dust

"Yesterday, the anti-government militant launched a surprise attack on the city of Gadian, west of MLL Island. The attack destroyed four police stations, two bus terminals, two government buildings and two power stations in the city. This caused a massive outage in the city center."

"The two sides exchanged heavy fires in the north side of the city which caused 311 casualties with 101 dead. Five hours after the attack, the MNLF was declared responsible for the attack and stated their commitment to the liberation of MLL Island.

"Based on our sources, a total of 1000 militants participated in the attack. The anti-government militants were equipped with M4A1 assault rifles, night vision goggles as well as other UA weapons. They also possessed large quantities of RPG-7 anti-armor weapons as well as mortars and other heavy weapons. The attack could be the biggest attack in 30 years. The sophistication of the weapons even surpassed the local government force. While the source of the MNLF's weapons remains a mystery."

"12 hours after the attack, the Aquino government denounced the attack and condemned the organization that provided the anti-government force with the weapons. They'll consider the possibility of sending an armored force to clear out the local guerillas at MLL Island and search for the perpetrator behind the attack at all cost."

"Experts stated that this attack marked the collapse of the peace agreement reached between the F government and MLF in 2012. The Aquino government sending a force to MLL Island may receive the opposition of the MLF under the peace agreement. But without increasing the military presence, the local stability may continue to deteriorate which will put the Aquino government in a tough spot."

"Military analysts suggested that the F armor force could not utilize its full strength in the rough terrains of MLL Island. Even with the armored force, the opposition is equipped with anti-tank weapons which would drastically reduce the effect of the deployment. The Aquino government's primary concern is to understand the source of the anti-government militant's weapon. They must strengthen their border control to prevent the situation from further deteriorating."

"The UA spokesperson stated that UA will continue to follow the development of this attack and is willing to assist in the investigation of the weapon source. When the reporter questioned if UA is willing to send out ground forces to assist country F in its military actions against the MLNF, UA stated that they would not consider intervening with country F's domestic affair. However, they don't rule out the possibility of sending out reconnaissance drones to support country F's military actions."

"From 7 o'clock today, the Ministry of Tourism issued a red alert on traveling to country F and recommend travelers with a plan to travel change or cancel their plans, or avoid tension areas where guerrillas may be active."

"Yang Yong reporting at the scene."

The TV showed the footage of government forces firing behind covers. Although they didn't manage to capture footage of the attackers, from the grenades flying, the debris left by the bullets, as well as the unclear screams in the background, it was more than enough to know the gruesomeness of the attack.

There were constant explosions and smoke rising in the distance. It was nearly impossible to avoid civilian casualties by using a killing tool like mortar in the city center. The government force must be cognizant of the consequences of accidentally wounding civilians, but the anti-government militants didn't need to have the same concern.

A few stretchers moved by the street and ran to the temporary medical clinic set up beside the armored vehicle. The windows to the shops on the road were all shattered, people taking advantage of the situation swarmed into the store and grabbed whatever they could.

A lot of people will die.

But Jiang Chen will not seek forgiveness.

He was not coldblooded, but instead, country F was asking for it. They selected the reckless government and promoted reckless behaviors among the civilians, and then the attack on Coro Island.

Everything was just the price they must pay.

Jiang Chen leaned on the sofa and turned off the TV.

It looks like Santos made the right choice, saving Jiang Chen a lot of trouble. The MNFL's guerrillas have been in a state of conflict with the F government for 44 years, and it was the first time they received military assistance of this scale. They finally left their mark in history.

Of course, Jiang Chen had no positive feelings toward the MNLF or F. He only needed this pawn to separate the annoying neighbor. Once Moro was entirely independent, he will pocket the rich Iron, Copper, and Gold reserves on MLL Islands…

Jiang Chen took out the phone he bought at a random store on the street, texted a message, and sent the next password to Santos.

Since he already fulfilled his promise, he'll not be stingy on the reward. With the second batch of equipment, the MNLF will upgrade to the next level.

Just like Jiang Chen expected, he only needed to throw the lighter into their hands before they lit the zoo on fire.

At the same time, the satellite phone on the table began to ring.

Without thinking, he knew it must be Robert. The satellite phone was Robert's special line for special services and was absolutely secure in theory.

When he picked up, the old friend's voice came through.

"My friend at FBI asked me for a chat."

"What did you talk about?"

"Just random things, for example, what I did when I went to South Africa? Who did I see?" Robert said with a wry smile.

"Oh? What did you tell him?"

"What could I say? I said I went to take care of the shell company there… Buddy, I'm not joking, but you went pretty far this time." Robert took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "Terrorism has always been the bottom line for the Rainbow House, especially in their allies' territory. Although they haven't agreed on sending in the ground force, the CIB agents are already investigating."

Jiang Chen contemptuously scorned.

The definition of terrorism has always been a double standard. The anti-government militants in UA's allies border are terrorists and separatists, and the anti-government militants in UA's enemy territory are freedom fighters, nationalists.

The CIB agents? Santos doesn't even know who he traded with. Especially since Jiang Chen pointed out his whereabouts were exposed, as long as he is not dumb, he will hide carefully. The CIB won't be able to catch him.

Robert sensed the contemptuousness from Jiang Chen's scorn and sighed.

"Okay, I'm not calling to ask you to stop, I just want to remind you to be careful. I wasn't the only one being asked to have a chat, a few other arms dealers still in the scene were also there. Transporting arms from South Africa to Southeast Asia would have to go through multiple countries' airspace, and thus it is impossible to do it without leaving a trace. There won't be enough time to do it by freight, so I'm not too suspicious… Although I don't know how you transported it to country F, instinct tells me that it has something to do with you."

"But I will never admit." Jiang Chen laughed.

"Never admit." Robert said sternly, "Never let the Capitol know that it was you that did it, or we are both dead. Dammit, if I knew you were going to do this, I would have sold it to the dictator in West Africa. Now, there are a few more thousand people that would die indirectly because of me."

In the end, Robert's voice was dumbfounded.

"Don't worry, I did this discreetly. Didn't you say you wanted to shoot a biography called "The Merchant of Death"? Now I added another event to it," Jiang Chen comforted him in a casual voice.

After hanging up, Jiang Chen stretched, threw the phone to the side, and got up.

It was already to the end of July. He'll have to return to the apocalypse by early August at the latest. He missed Sun Jiao and them quite dearly after being away for so long.

But before his returns, he still had a few things to do.

He took his private boat to New Moon Island and found Ivan who was training new recruits. He did a brief audit of the soldiers' ability before he told him to recruit 300 sea crews as soon as possible.

Before he left, Jiang Chen gave the phone that he used to communicate with Santos to Ivan and told him to read the news in the morning and then provide the password based on the mission status Santos was able to complete.

Since he would be in the apocalypse for a while, he should give the task of "causing a stir" to someone he trusted.

After all this, Jiang Chen headed to Coro Island and transported the iron and aluminum produced in July to the apocalypse. It was too inefficient to transport the ores, it was much better to transport the processed product.

With this batch of steel, there was no need to worry about the supplies for the factories in the apocalypse. There were plenty of iron and aluminum to forge the C-type steel, and the extra could be sold to the factories in the Sixth Street.

Then, he also made a visit to headquarter of Future Biology to understand the sales of nutrient supply.

All in all, this month's financial result was stellar.

A profit of one hundred million USD for the month!

The 200,000 boxes of nutrient supply produced around the clock were delivered in two batches; the remaining 200,000 would be completed by month end. With Future 1.0 and massive retail chains like Walmart's promotion, nutrient supply easily entered people's sight.

Pure natural green degreasing liquid food, lose 30 pounds in 30 days. With Emma's advertisement, based on the feedback from the retailers, the sales of the nutrient supply were extremely pleasing. All the retailers increased their order and the bigger chains even offer to obtain exclusive sales right to the nutrient supply at a high price, but Tao Ming rejected the offer.

The reason was simple, there was no reason to abandon an entire forest for a single tree. Selling the exclusive sales right meant that they would have to give up on the e-commerce platform and other retailers. It was not a good trade.

After Tao Ming reported the sales number, he urged Jiang Chen to increase capacity on the production line. Orders flew to Future Biology like snowflakes as all the workers in the nutrient supply factory were pushed to their limit, but still unable to meet the increase in demand.

Based on Zhan Shujie's estimate, to meet the production demand, the production equipment and seaweed farm must at least double.

Jiang Chen nodded. The organic converters were hard for him to obtain.

When he moved the production equipment and ten tons of inducers to the warehouse on Ange Island, Jiang Chen left for Coro Island. The rest of the hiring and other tasks will be taken care of by Zhan Shoujie.

But on his way home, Xia Shiyu called.

When Jiang Chen heard her voice, he was extremely delighted

The internal test plan was finally completed!

Chapter 425: Godly Land Internal Testing

Wei Wendong, known as Shadow King, was an honorary member of the King's Esports Club as part of the League of Legends team runner-up in the S4 series. After the S4 he chose to retire from the scene and became a streamer, but surprisingly had a lackluster performance in the streaming world.

But because he grasped on the historical opportunity of <New Era> coming online, he boldly chose to become a mobile game streamer that didn't seem to have a future. He finally used <New Era>'s influence, stunning game content, and first mover advantage to become the leader in New Era streaming.

Right now, New Era's market penetration had already far surpassed Heartstone, and even edging out the PC platform League of Legends, his influencing in the streaming world obviously increased because of that as his follower on Weibo was comparable to his old captain.

Therefore, half of his achievement today was because of Future Technology. So to the name that changed the lives of many, he had a strong connection to the company.

Just sometimes ago, Future 1.0 suddenly had a pushup notification which perked his interest.

<Dear valued users, Future Technology's current under-development VR MMORPG <Godly Land> is in internal testing phase! To support the users' continuous support, Future Technology decided to draw 2000 internal testing players to the tourist destination Pannu Islands, tour the beautiful Pacific and experience the astonishment of the era-defining MMORPG.>

The internal testing phase will be two months. In this period, the player can obtain 2000 USD in monthly salary with flight and accommodations covered by Future Technology. After the internal test, participants will receive a collector game helmet. The helmet will be sent to participants on the first day of the official release.

At the same time, the name used in the internal test will be retained in the official release.

Virtual reality MMORPG? Free international travel?

Disregarding the international aspect first.

With the release of this news, it erupted among domestic forums as the netizens all expressed Future Technology's lunatic move.

The 2000 USD monthly salary, no one really cared about. People who were not dumb all knew that by being the first in obtaining information about the game, guilds would kill for you to join them. Even if you didn't join a guild, with the experience through the internal test, it was easy to make a living through the game.

The profit by that time would far exceed 4000 USD! Even the most foolish person would know.

Just take New Era, for example, professional players could make ten thousand easily through taking players to level up and selling gold. If they obtained legendary equipment, rich players would often pay millions just to get their hands on it.

Almost no one questioned the fact that the Godly Land had a future without a ceiling.

On a forum:

"Virtual reality MMORPG? I can't believe I can see this in my lifetime? Let me go calm down first."

"Are the officials of Future Technology stupid? Playing games with this kind of technology? If this is used to train soldiers, our soldiers' combat ability will increase by ten levels! The military budget for training would be reduced by 50%! But you use it to make games, what a disgrace!"

"What a dumba*s!"

"The second comment poster just connected to the Internet? Virtual reality technology is already mature overseas. Plextek's virtual reality equipment is already used in training by the British forces, but it has yet to replace the whole training process. I don't know where you got the ten levels of 50% data from. Also, Eve's VR equipment could already simulate intergalactic travel, if VR is as insane as you have described, why don't you go up in space?"

"I just want to know where the public beta is! I'm not selected. QQ."

"Asking for internal testing spot for one million RMB, message if interested."

"The internal spot is connected with your ID, you really can't buy IQ with money."

"…"

The posts on the game's official website already exceeded twenty thousand on the first day. It was evident that the players were all eager for the virtual reality MMORPG.

As to the game itself, Future Technology left enough mystery to it and only released a one minute CG as well as a portal for the draw. Before the draw, the players must confirm that they can head to Pannu Islands. If the player cannot attend, they will be banned for ten years once the game is online.

With anxiousness, Wei Wendong pressed the button.

With the number of participants in the draw continuously increasing, he didn't have too much hope. But happiness suddenly came around the corner when he managed to obtain a spot!

When he saw the notification <Please confirm the availability during internal testing period>, he pressed yes without hesitation, then uploaded the screenshot to Weibo which instantly caused an explosive reaction among his fans.

<Damn! The Shadow King is switching games?"

"What about streaming?"

"The Shadow King definitely did butt stuff with the president, Jiang Chen. No way he would be this lucky!"

"Brother Shadow King, could you bring me there, I'm cute, and I can warm the bed…"

Wei Wendong looked at the fans' envious replies as he lips curled up. He ignored the comments filled with jealousy. While his vanity was fulfilled, he thought about how to grasp the opportunity.

The only information provided by the game designer was a one-minute cinematic trailer with an ancient Oriental and Western background. There were warriors, archers, mages, thieves, and a lot more.

In New Era, Wei Wendong chose an archer, but he planned to change his style and play as a mage. Since it was virtual reality MMORPG, the mage would definitely feel more powerful compared to physical damage dealers! Anyone could swing a sword and shoot an arrow in real life, but who could throw a fireball?

But just as he was planning how he would spend the two months, his phone began to ring.

"Who is calling me this late?" Wei Wendong glanced at the darkness outside and picked up his phone.

When he saw the caller, he was stunned. It was his formal boss calling him, the big boss of King, Wang Tao! Wei Wendong was deliberating on what made the boss call him personally as they didn't have any contact for over a year.

"Hello?"

"Haha, Little Dong, do you still remember me?" Wang Tao said with a smile.

"Of course, how is Boss Wang doing?" Wei Wendong chatted with his old boss.

"Doing well, oh, do you have any interest in returning to Kings?" Wang Tao asked.

[Return to Kings? Play League of Legends? Who plays that anymore?]

Wang Tao seemed to have sensed Wei Wendong was about to reject as he immediately dropped a mega bomb.

"Twenty million, yearly salary."

Wei Wendong held his breath.

[Twenty million, damn, two times the premium!]

Even as a streamer with the highest earning potential, Misaya was only worth twenty million. Although Wei Wendong's influence and reputation were not far off, New Era was not a game that could easily pump up the viewership as competitive games do. It is less common for the viewers to give "666 (1)" compared to LoL, therefore his yearly income was only nine million.

"But boss Wang, I don't want to scam you, my LoL skill has already-" Wei Wendong squeezed the words out of his mouth.

The offer was attractive, but he knew his skills well.

"Who is asking you to play LoL." Wang Tao laugh, he paused, before he asked in a quite reserved voice, "Is the screenshot on your Weibo real?"

"Screenshot?" Wei Wendong came to a realization.

Kings made the wrong judgment call when New Era first came online. Wang Tao initially thought the game had a great promotion with great graphics, but it was still lackluster compared to the dominate LoL kingdom.

Therefore, while Kings did form a New Era division in the beginning, it didn't invest in too many resources. But then, once the guilds that invested heavily rose with the rise of New Era, Kings began to regret their decision, but it was too late. A bunch of esports clubs with a name no less than Kings spawned out. A club named Conquerors was almost edging Kings out as the dominant club in Hua.

Therefore this time, Wang Tao would not miss the <Godly Land> ship!

Everyone knew that the big trend on internet development was virtual reality. PC games were on a downward trend, and Future Technology was the leader in domestic artificial intelligence technology. With the release of this Godly Land, it was combing their competitive edges together. The throne of Tencent's empire might not be so secure after all.

But unfortunately, none of Kings member obtained an internal test spot.

Although Future Technology provided some spots for the major guilds in New Era, the spots were mostly targeted towards guilds with major influence. What made Wang Tao frustrated was that the Kings' Guild had no influence in New Era at all.

He threw in some money a few months ago, but it only managed to bring the guild to above average. Compared to the top five in the server, there was still a noticeable difference.

Fortunately, Wei Wendong's Weibo post made him see hope.

Professional player plus internal test participant! It was easy to foresee that this guy's future in the Godly Land was bright. Therefore, Wang Tao immediately called him and extended an offer to the ex-member.

Wang Tao coughed, used a serious tone, and spoke to Wei Wendong with sincerity.

"The Kings Esports Club sincerely wishes for your return and bring Kings our formal glory. Also, you'll be the guild leader of "Godly Kings", are you interested?"

The guild leader of the Kings guild.

Wei Wendong's eyes widened. He didn't think the always cautious formal boss would bet on such a risky move.

-With Kings' resources as well as his own professional ability, and the experience as an internal player…

He took a deep breath as he felt his heart pumped furiously.

The feeling of one step to heaven was just like this.

"Yes. I'm very interested!"

"Welcome home, my Shadow King." Wang Tao laughed out loud.

Chapter 426: The Open Ceremony on the Cruise

From Wanghai to Melbourne, then boarding a luxury cruise from the port of Melbourne to Xin.

The luxurious cruise contained a self-serving restaurant, bar, pool, gym, net cafe, store, medical center, club, and a luxurious grand hall big enough to serve 2500 guests. With twelve levels and exquisite interior design, the place was not just a six-star hotel, but also a giant amusement park.

Inside the grand hall of the cruise, every single one of the 2000 players attended. Everyone here was a diehard fan of Future Technology.

When selecting players, although it was stated to be equal in opportunity, Future Technology did include some indicators for guidance. For example, players with longer play time in New Era were more likely to be chosen; the same was for players with higher VIP.

Other than the 2000 players, the remaining people were staff members on the cruise and the employees of Future Technology. Because it was not a news conference and only a ceremony for internal testing, Xia Shiyu rejected the media's request and just arranged three Future 1.0 news reporters to record the ceremony and conduct some interviews with the players.

Full tables of champagne, courteous servers.

In the grand hall, the luxurious atmosphere made Wei Wendong gasp for air. Although his income was close to tier one celebrities, people who play games typically stayed at home without spending too much time outside. Before he came, he prepared a rather expensive suit, he felt it didn't match the environment.

But when he saw the players around him completely stunned, he quickly got used to the feeling.

Compared to the other poor suckers, he was an elite among them. A lot of people wore just a T-shirt in the middle of the grand hall; they were the definition of not understanding the atmosphere.

Among the players, he surprisingly saw a lot of familiar faces.

For example, a pro player from the Conquerors guild, and a streamer on the same platform as him

Since only 1500 spots were open globally, the remaining 500 spots were all gifted by Future Technology to guilds with influence or to streamers with high influence.

Just as he was about to chat with the people he knew, the lights suddenly dimmed.

People began to whisper to each other while waiting for the official start of the ceremony.

Then, on the previously dimmed podium, a spotlight suddenly appeared. Jiang Chen in a suit walked in confident strides from the back of the stage to the podium. The light followed his footsteps and presented him in front of the crowd.

Jiang Chen came emptyhanded to the stage. But behind the podium was a giant 1050 inch screen and in the middle of the screen was Future Technology's logo.

<We lead the future>

When Wei Wendong saw him, he widened his eyes.

Jiang Chen!

Jiang Chen was known as the Bill Gates from the east, the president of Future Technology.

"Wow, look, look, it's Jiang Chen!" A streamer with big boobs gently covered her mouth as she dragged on to the new friend she just met and exclaimed with excitement.

"… So young." A female pro gamer blushed.

"The president of Future Group is personally here," a player said in shock.

".,.."

The players below the stage all took out their phone in excitement and snapped photos of Jiang Chen.

To the excitement of the players, Jiang Chen smiled along and said in a joking voice, "You can take photos, just remember to turn off flash, or else once the internal testing is over, I won't give you a signature."

Because Jiang Chen spoke in Han, a lot of international players were confused, but those who understood laughed.

The female player with flash on turned off the flash with her face completely red.

Seeing the atmosphere was appropriate, Jiang Chen signaled everyone to quiet down.

It was not the first time he came up without a script.

Perhaps he was used to people being in awe, with the 2000 something people in front of him, he didn't feel any emotional fluctuations.

He calmly adjusted the earpiece in his ear and smiled at the players. "To all the players attending this ceremony from all over the world, welcome!"

Just as he finished his sentence, the triangular logo on the screen exploded, the explosion formed into millions of dust particles and turned into words.

Those were translations in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Korean, and Arabic!

The international players were all complaining in their mind that they didn't understand Han. But when the words were displayed, they finally felt relived.

Then, their eyes widened.

Real-time voice translation!

It had been a technical challenge to be able to conduct real-time voice translation through a computer. Although Microsoft launched a software called Touch-Talk, the software was weak for long and fast sentences. But the technology displayed by Future Technology was obviously not on the same level as Touch-talk.

It not only could accurately translate in a noisy environment, it could automatically translate to reflect the tone of the message!

"Where is the applause?" Jiang Chen smiled.

The stunned players were dragged back into reality and all gave Jiang Chen a thunderous applause.

When they thought about it, they were no longer shocked. Since it was a tech company that created an artificial intelligence like Little White, it would not be too tough for the artificial intelligence to do this.

Jiang Chen stood on the stage and waited for the applause to stop with a smile. He then continued, "Today, Future Technology will bring everyone an era-defining technology. Let us witness this historical moment together…"

Jiang Chen raised his right hand. Light particles emerged and became concentrated in his opened palm and formed a motorcycle helmet. The people below the stage all had their eyes wide open and shockingly witnessed this moment.

Hologram technology!

…Okay, it was not a fascinating technology. But it was indeed a stunning performance by Future Technology, the helmet hovering in Jiang Chen's hand seemed to really be there.

"Virtual reality. Future Technology has always been striving for innovation, whether in software or hardware. I know all of you shouldn't be unfamiliar with virtual reality games, even when you are dreaming, you still fantasize about having a pair of wings to take you anywhere, to be able to be part of an exciting adventure on a continent filled with swords and magic."

He stared at the faces with expectation and enthusiasm and smiled pleasingly.

"Now, I am pleased to announce to everyone, this is no longer a fantasy, it is a now a reality!"

Everyone held their breath with excitement and hope emerged from their eyes.

"Now, let us first see a video, and get to know the virtual reality helmet named "Phantom." Jiang Chen walked down from the stage and sat on the open seat reserved for him.

The translation on the giant screen faded, just like waves on a lake returning to peace.

Immediately, a man with a figure similar to Jiang Chen appeared in the middle of the screen, he put on the helmet and lied on the bed.

The scene flashed, in the blink of an eye, it changed from God's view to "Jiang Chen's" first-person perspective and was observing the inside of the helmet.

"Activated."

The pitch black internal helmet screen suddenly lit up. Countless particles flashed forward in a three-dimensional manner. Everything had clarity as if it really existed.

"Iris verification program activated…"

"Registered as a new user."

"Registering…"

"Genetic code registered, please set the name."

"…"

Till this point, the players' emotions were rather stable without anyone being shocked. Right now, Future Technology had yet to demonstrate the difference between this VR equipment and the rest of the VR equipment on the market.

But by the next second, everyone was stunned.

The light on the screen began to turn dark, it was if people closed their eyes and fell asleep.

Suddenly, the scene cleared up. An epic symphony played, butterflies flew and stopped on the finger of an elegant elf. She looked towards the world outside of the forest; it was a human state.

The sharp blade edge was accompanied by a soul-stirring war hammer chant. Soldiers roaring leaped at the Ogres defense line… but then was shattered by the wolf knights' iron hoofs.

In the distant mountain, dragons roared. A dragon knight flew down from the peek. The scorching fire unleashed its fury and tore down the defense of the Ogres.

Everything seemed so real.

What shocked everyone was not the vividness of the pictures, but the feeling of being in the game.

Could it be…

"The virtual reality helmet in novels! It is not the garbage VR equipment on the market. You could fly!"

"God, this is too unbelievable! This astonishing technology is born in the hands of a Han company."

"Nani? Isn't this the NERVGear in Sword Arts Online? And Future Technology created it!"

Jiang Chen patiently waited for the players to unleash their astonishment and exhilaration, waiting until the crowd began to die down. Then he raised his hand and signaled the crowd to look at him.

"The video included how to use the Phantom virtual reality helmet, as well as the complete version of the cinematic trailer. As to the exact content of the game, please wait until you arrive at Pannu Islands and use your own eyes to experience the beauty of this virtual reality MMORPG."

"Now, I announce the official start of the two-month internal test!"

"Please enjoy your time on the cruise, the food and alcohol are complimentary. This is Future Technology's way of saying thanks to all participants from all over the world."

"Thank you."

As the last syllable finished, an explosive applause abruptly bellowed towards the stage as Jiang Chen left the stage.

The grand hall was lit up again, and elegant music began to play as people were finally dragged back to reality.

"So handsome…" A girl in a long dress holding her phone said while staring at the podium.

The blush on her cheeks could either be from the makeup she used, or the fantasy in her mind.

Wei Wendong not far away mocked in his mind.

"The light is already on, but people are still in their dreams."

Chapter 427: Investment Euthanism

Young, rich, "single," easy going, Jiang Chen naturally became the center of the ceremony.

With a bunch of girls surrounding him, a lot of female streamers with "excellent balls" chatted with him which made the male players all envious of the scene.

It made sense since if they could manage to dig a wealthy man like this, it was not working how many years less, it was working how many lives less.

But at Jiang Chen's level, the typical girls didn't interest him anymore. He nobly accepted the toasts of the beauty, but to the obvious hint, he didn't suggest anything.

Because he only knew one foreign language, he didn't chat much with the international players. Instead, he spoke with some of the renowned domestic players.

A player called Wei Wendong suggested to him important events such as annual or monthly tournaments. Once the MMORPG has a competitive element, player's desire to practice skills and the subsequent user stickiness would drastically increase.

Jiang Chen took the suggestion to heart and indicated he would consider adding it in the public beta.

A lot of times, experienced players may know more than the developers about the pros and cons of a game. Even if they haven't started playing it yet, at least they know what they want to play.

A British player also asked Jiang Chen about the price of the helmet and the pay model of the game. Jiang Chen didn't answer it as he only stated that before the game's official launch, Future Technology would reveal the information during a press conference.

After spending half an hour in the grand hall, seeing that there were more and more people gathering around him, Jiang Chen had no choice but to leave.

He felt that if he stayed any longer, it would become a press conference instead.

But there was one question he didn't answer.

It was whether the game was made with VR equipment such as sensor vest and gloves, or the immersive virtual reality described in anime, novels, and movies.

Jiang Chen only had one response.

"You will understand everything the moment you put on the helmet."

…

The cruise was not heading straight to Coro Island. The trip was to go slowly from Melbourne toward the coral sea, dock in the Solomon Islands, and then go through New Guinea waters, before heading to Coro Island.

The three days cruise trip cost Jiang Chen seven million USD. It was partially to create news to hype up the game's release, partially to provide advertisements for tourism at Coro Island.

When he returned to his room, he immediately lied down, stretched out on the bed, and began to burp. Then he loosened the tie around his neck.

[What does it feel like to be drunk off of champagne?]

He didn't know whether he was burping because of the alcohol, or because of being too full.

His phone rang. He took out the phone.

It was Xia Shiyu.

"Hello?"

"You're drunk?"

"A bit, what's up?" Jiang Chen unbuttoned two buttons in the front of his chest as he tried to cool himself down by waving his hand.

"Mhmm, I want to ask you how is it going over there," Xia Shiyu said in a considerate tone.

"Absolutely perfect." Jiang Chen cockily chuckled.

"Okay, looks like you're really drunk." Xia Shiyu facepalmed. "I have something serious to talk about, are you free right now?"

"Of course."

Xia Shiyu cleared her throat and began to report.

This is what happened.

InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton International Hotel Group, Jumeirah, St. Regis, Four Seasons and other five-star hotels operating internationally renowned enterprises have also sent a letter of intent to Future International, hoping to cooperate in this development project.

For example, they wanted to cut a slice of the pie in the tourism hotel infrastructure.

Jiang Chen was more than welcoming because he couldn't make all the money himself. But what confused him was that based on the current situation, Standard, and Poor, Moody and Fitch Ratings all downgraded Xin's Sovereign credit rating, why was there still so many corporations in favor of investing in Pannu Islands?

When Xia Shiyu heard Jiang Chen's question, she gave a professional explanation.

Just like the stock's trade volume is opposite of the company's quarterly report and the credit agencies' rating. The risk is always propositional to reward. Country F is amidst a civil war without any energy to focus on the prisoner situation. The terrorist attack in Xin had caused the investor's desire to cooldown, but Celestial Trade's emergency announcement of 200 million USD in the establishment of the national security department reignited investors' interest with its decisive and robust policy.

The investment was a bet on expectations. And the liveliness demonstrated by Xin was indeed worth their investment.

On the other hand, based on Xin's strong stance toward country F as well as the tension escalating in the South Sea, the hostility between Hua and country F would continue to escalate. Since the "enemy's enemy is a friend." Hua was most likely to favor Xin. The diplomatic relationship between societies would most likely be reflected economically, it was especially more prominent in patriotic Asia.

Therefore, once the 8.7 billion USD infrastructure and tourism resources development projects were completed, it would trigger an in flood of Han dominated tourists. With consideration to the mild weather, fantastic scenery, wealthy Han tourists, and high-paced economic growth, it was easy to foresee that as long as the new regime remains stable. This place would become the Maldives of the Pacific!

"Also, Xia Shiyu."

"Mhmm?"

"Are you interested in becoming the CEO of Future Group," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

"… Do you really mean it or are you just drunk?"

"I really mean it," He forced the burp down and said earnestly.

With a flushed face, Xia Shiyu put her hand on her elbow and changed the hand she was holding the phone one.

"Could I know the reason?"

She wanted to hear "I want you to stay by my side".

"Because I trust your ability," Jiang Chen said with seriousness.

"…"

The other side of the phone was silent for half a minute. Just as Jiang Chen was confused why she didn't say anything, Xia Shiyu let out a wry sigh.

"… Once the virtual reality project is on the right track. I'm the most familiar with its plan, and I don't trust other people enough to handle it."

"Of course." Jiang Chen smiled.

After he hung up the phone, he flung his phone onto the pillow.

[It feels lonely without Ayesha beside him. Maybe he should go find Sun Jiao… Mhmm, it is not the best idea to attempt interdimensional travel on a cruise ship. There is no guarantee I won't end up in the sea by the time I return.]

[Maybe I should take a shower to sober up…]

As he thought this, he sat up and walked to the bathroom.

But then, the doorbell rang.

Chapter 428: Probe

With his eyebrows raised, Jiang Chen walked to the door and turned on the small TV screen installed into the wall.

The view from the camera outside the door turned on - it was a woman in server's clothes. She had a European face. Under the cap was curly brown hair and outside the purple vest was a silver name tag. She held a tray with cups and champagne and she looked into the camera with a smile.

Jiang Chen noticed that the white shirt underneath the vest had the first two buttons undone. There were also two crystal cups on the tray.

She seemed to be hinting at something.

"I didn't remember ordering champagne. I want to puke at the sight of it," Jiang Chen joked.

"Sir, you'll need it," the female server said with a grin.

Surprisingly, her Han was fluent.

Staring at the deep trench, Jiang Chen felt thirsty.

"Are you not going to welcome me in?" She used a flirtatious tone.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows. With a slightly intoxicated mind, he opened the door.

The female server walked in with cat-like steps and a trace of what seemed to be pheromones. She walked by Jiang Chen with the tray.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes as he tried to guess what game she was playing.

"I don't think you're a server."

She put the tray on the nightstand. The beauty poured the liquid into the two crystal glasses as she spoke seductively.

"If I didn't pretend to be a server, your bodyguards wouldn't let me approach this room."

"Then who are you?" Jiang Chen said with doubt as he walked behind her.

"Your female fan."

"I don't fu*k my fans."

The beauty rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen. She turned around and made contact with his chest while elegantly holding onto a glass. She placed her right hand on his shoulder.

"Are Han men always this uncourteous?"

Jiang Chen gently squeezed her left hand.

"Then I should courteously ask you to leave?"

"It's not courteous to reject a lady; you should courteously carry me into the washroom." She leaned closer to Jiang Chen's ear as she let out a warm breath.

With a tingling sensation in his lower body, little Jiang Chen raised his head.

Sensing Jiang Chen's change in demeanor, the tips of the girl's lips raised up.

[Who is this girl?]

"I don't even know your name." Jiang Chen's eyes flashed as he played with and squeezed her small hand as she spoke into his ear.

"Isn't that exciting? You just need to know that I'm one of the 2000 players you invited." The beauty bit Jiang Chen's ear as she whispered.

[One of the 2000 players?]

"I don't remember seeing you at the ceremony?" Jiang Chen carefully recalled the ceremony in his head but he had no memory of her at all.

"You can't remember all 2000 players. After tonight, you'll only remember me."

The beauty raised the glass and took a small sip of the champagne as she kissed Jiang Chen.

The liquid was exchanged through their long French kiss. Jiang Chen used this opportunity to grab her by the waist.

Their lips parted.

Jiang Chen grinned while breathing heavily.

"I need to check to see if you have any illegal items on your body."

"Sir, I'm glad to assist you." The beauty unbuttoned her shirt.

Her purple vest and white shirt dropped to the ground. With a smirk, Jiang Chen carried her into the bathroom.

…

The sounds of water dripping on the ground accompanied by what seemed like hand-clapping echoed in the room.

It was an intense battle.

The beauty laid on Jiang Chen's body with redness all over her face. She breathed rhythmically while her finger drew circles on his muscular chest.

"Are you thirsty?"

"A little bit." Jiang Chen caught his breath and grinned.

"I told you that you were going to need it." The beauty covered his mouth and grabbed the champagne on the nightstand.

Jiang Chen smiled and reached for it, but she dodged him.

"Let me feed you."

Jiang Chen shrugged and just laid down. The beauty held the liquid in her mouth and approached him.

He didn't know if it was his imagination, but the concentration of alcohol in the champagne seemed a bit high. He had sobered up after their exercise, but after a few gulps of the champagne, Jiang Chen felt a bit drunk again.

"Do you feel sleepy?"

"A bit."

"What's the color of my underwear?" The beauty teasingly said while lying next to Jiang Chen.

"Purple." Jiang Chen yawned wearily.

He still could remember this detail.

"Then, what about the Golden Apple?" The beauty asked with a smile.

[Black… Wait!] Jiang Chen immediately realized that he needed to maintain his intoxicated appearance.

"Of course it's golden." Jiang Chen chuckled and slapped her firm butt.

The Golden Apple was, of course, black, but if he revealed its true color, the situation would've taken a drastic turn.

Just like he suspected, the girl's identity wasn't simple.

KGB? No, Russia and Xin were in a honeymoon phase.

Willie Society? Possibly. Rothschild family? Possible too, but unlikely, since Carmen just loaned him 30 billion, he wouldn't do something that would naturally strain their relationship…

What other organizations? CIB? MI6? Since the KGB knew about the Golden Apple, there was no reason why the NATO intelligence department that controlled Willie Society wouldn't know either.

A distinct disappointment flashed across the beauty's eyes, but it was quickly hidden by a smile on her red lips.

The technology possessed by Future Technology was enough evidence to suspect that Jiang Chen could have the Golden Apple and consequently the technology from the future. She slipped drugs with a sleeping effect into the champagne, so if Jiang Chen was unsuspecting and under the influence of alcohol, he couldn't possibly lie.

But Jiang Chen didn't give the right response, and his expression didn't change either…

Could it be that the technology he possessed really was the work of his team?

The beauty was a bit lost.

Just then, she received her superior's command from the earpiece hidden inside her ear ordering her to end the mission and prepare to retreat.

Her superior also believed that the Golden Apple wasn't in Jiang Chen's possession.

"Are you a Christian?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

[Fu*k, if my body wasn't injected with a genetic vaccine, I definitely would've said something I shouldn't have.]

"Perhaps you should relearn your world history - the name Golden Apple came from Greek Mythology and signaled the holy and pristine, such as love," the beautiful spy said gently as she caressed Jiang Chen's face.

[Is that an actual explanation? I'm a bit illiterate, don't trick me…] Jiang Chen mocked her in his mind.

"Let me guess - you're an Italian?" Jiang Chen used this opportunity to change the topic as he continued to play dumb.

"I'm from Poland." She didn't look like she was lying.

"Could I know your name?" Jiang Chen wrapped his hand around her waist more forcefully while he whispered in her ear seductively.

"Of course not," the beautiful spy said while putting her arms around Jiang Chen's neck. "But considering how good you are, we can do it one more time before we say goodbye."

She didn't want to leave like this; she was still relishing the sensation from the two hours of battle they had. But since he was no longer a suspect, the objective behind her seduction no longer existed.

Jiang Chen pushed her onto the bed with a smirk…

Chapter 429: Pretending not to know

Jiang Chen had two choices.

One - capture her then use truth-telling serum to obtain some intel from the beautiful spy's mouth and discover her identity. But then the opponent would know that he did, in fact, know about the Golden Apple. Jiang Chen believed that she definitely had some technology hidden somewhere; it didn't take advanced technology to hide a telecom device in her ear canal.

Two - pretend to know nothing and just let her go. Even if he didn't find out her identity, he would no longer be a suspect.

Reveal his card and declare war or keep his card hidden?

Jiang Chen only wavered for two seconds before he chose the latter option.

Because if he chose the former, he couldn't do anything to them without a proper intelligence group, even if he knew the opponent's identity.

The battle lasted for two more hours as Jiang Chen almost made the beautiful spy's bones collapse before he finally spared her from her pleading and agony.

After taking a shower, she didn't stay in Jiang Chen's room overnight but said goodbye instead.

Jiang Chen half-heartedly tried to convince her to stay before he saw her to the door.

After closing the door, Jiang Chen noticed that it was already deep into the night, so he headed to bed.

The next morning, Jiang Chen pretended to want to see the spy again. He ordered the bodyguards to bring the staff list to him. When he didn't see her name on the list, Jiang Chen went to see the captain of the cruise ship and asked about the spy, going by the name on her name tag.

Jiang Chen couldn't believe she had no accomplices on the ship, so he had to play dumb throughout the whole process.

After confirming that a woman of this name wasn't on the ship, Jiang Chen ordered the bodyguards and servers to search the cruise ship.

Although they didn't find the woman, they managed to find a server uniform folded neatly at the back of the cruise ship. The name tag was exactly the same as the one Jiang Chen saw the night before.

After the bodyguard brought the clothes to Jiang Chen's room, Jiang Chen managed to find some tangled underwear along with a neatly written note.

"Hello, I already left. Now that you know I'm already gone, are you surprised?"

"Before coming, I poisoned my bodily fluids, so any person who slept with me would be poisoned. I originally planned to use the antidote to force you to come to Poland with me as my hostage. But after carefully thinking it through, it would be too unromantic if I just kept you with me."

"If you find these clothes, it means you looked hard for me. The antidote is in the underwear. However, if you forgot about me after you slept with me, why don't you go die?"

"So bye bye~ See you, handsome Asian man."

The note didn't reveal her identity as a spy, but instead, she made up an excuse to cover her actions.

Jiang Chen laid on his bed, sighed and muttered to himself, "Don't you know that for someone with immunity above 20, even AIDS would be ineffective?"

Jiang Chen put on his EP and saw the line in his stats and scoffed.

Just like he expected, there was no irregularity in his status.

However, he hadn't expected the beautiful spy to poison her pu*sy. He also hadn't expected her to leave the antidote behind and even create a story to cover her intentions.

[Was it because of my face? Or because of my di*k?]

Jiang Chen stroked his chin as he thought to himself narcissistically.

…

The three-day cruise trip was tranquil; the ship avoided all the dense clouds and the journey was absolutely gorgeous.

Wei Wendong spent the day wandering the ship's artificial beach to enjoy the sunshine and the bikinis of all the beauties. At night, he returned to his room and streamed New Era.

After some careful deliberation, he decided he would put aside New Era after Godly Land was officially released and he would concentrate all his effort on the virtual reality MMORPG. He had a feeling that once the mature virtual reality MMORPG was introduced, it would completely change the gaming landscape.

Once people became used to immersive gaming, would they be interested in games on the screen anymore? Maybe, since mobile games could fill people's spare time. A lot of people were also passionate about these games, but people had limited energy and Wei Wendong knew how much energy it consumed to play two MMORPGs at the same time.

With virtual reality games becoming more common, people's selection of mobile games would shift toward fast-paced, simple, and casual games. Not to mention other mobile game MMORPGs, but even the New Era game by Future Technology would most likely be impacted by Godly Land.

Although Future Technology hadn't admitted that "Phantom" was immersive virtual reality equipment, Wei Wendong, accustomed to the surprises crafted by Future Technology, believed that they would shock the players around the world once they revealed the truth.

Otherwise, what was the point of their extensive marketing?

Regardless, it was a massive gamble for him since he was at the top in New Era.

But he didn't feel like this gamble was overly risky since the Kings already signed him for five years. He also had the confidence in his strong skills, game sense, and internal test experience to make his mark in the game.

Three days later, 2000 players got off the cruise ship at Coro Island. With the beckoning of Future Technology employees, the players arrived at a business hotel. The hotel had been booked out by Future Technology for two months to serve as the test location. The ballroom, big enough to host 2000 people, was renovated to form the official testing grounds.

There were 2000 custom-made recliner chairs and 2000 "Phantom" helmets.

Based on the description, everyone's identity was tied to their helmet number. The helmets could not leave the testing grounds.

Also, no photos or videos were allowed on the testing grounds. If violated, participation would be revoked and the player would be sent off the island at their own expense.

The test would run between eight in the morning to six at night. During this time, the players had to play the game for at least six hours. The testing grounds would be open on weekends and the players could choose to continue to play the game or wander the island freely.

After reading the terms and conditions, Wei Wendong picked up helmet number 0008 which belonged to him.

When he discovered there was no sensor vest and gloves, an inexplicable joy erupted in his mind.

[Indeed!]

[Immersive virtual reality!]

He immediately laid down on the chair that belonged to him and he quickly put on the helmet. He followed the system commands and registered his ID as Shadow King. With an exhilarated heartbeat, he entered the game.

His pounding heart was stripped away from his body.

When he opened his eyes again, he faced a grey and white cubical dimension.

He stood in the middle of a cube. He was tempted to kneel down and kiss the cold ground.

A menu popped out, just as the host described. He chose the game "Godly Land" and registered the user "Shadow King" then chose "mage" as his class. His figure was randomized based on 80% similarity.

He couldn't wait to make a fireball and experience the feeling of controlling magic.

Light illuminated the room when he opened his eyes again; now he was at an ancient-looking street, the starting village of humans.

Chattering voices filled the street as pedestrians in adventure-type clothes strolled by. A musician hummed songs along the street while the surrounding crowds offered up a coin or two. Everything seemed surreal; all the NPCs seemed alive.

[Right! Artificial intelligence! Future Technology must've used artificial intelligence similar to Little White!] Although he knew how massive a project it must've been to install artificial intelligence on all the NPCs, he didn't have time to ponder this further as he was completely immersed in the astonishment of living a "second life."

With a long, wooden rod in his hand, he took in the one-hundred-something new players standing dumbfounded on the square in the beginner village.

In order to fully appreciate the virtual world he was in, he didn't move a single step while he scanned his surroundings enthusiastically.

Suddenly, his expression froze.

[What the fu*k! 90-something mages?]

The 90-something mages didn't do anything else as they waved their fingers in the air in excitement; they were probably all trying to figure out how to form fireballs.

Wei Wendong blanked out.

[What a big class disparity just in internal testing.]

He had an ominous feeling - this class would definitely be nerfed…

Chapter 430: Decisions

Inside the office building of Tencent was a busy scene. The occasional employee walking in the hallway didn't have the most optimistic expression. With company performance continuing to slide, employees sensed the risk of upcoming layoffs.

Yes, the lifespan of QQ wasn't the longest these days.

Once Future 1.0's messenger function came online, the number of active users on QQ trended negatively. The QQ project lead was so stressed that his hair almost turned completely white, but he was still unable to come up with a solution to reclaim the messaging throne.

What? User stickiness? That's right - when your friends, family, and friends on the internet all use QQ, it might be difficult to change users' messenger tool of choice. But when all your friends, family and friends on the internet already installed Future 1.0 and Future 1.0 happened to come out with a messenger function, was QQ really irreplaceable?

Especially since Future Technology used a "shady" technique - friend synchronization technology!

WeChat and QQ could synchronize a phone's contact list, and Future 1.0's overpowering function could synchronize WeChat and QQ friend lists. So any user with Future 1.0, QQ, and WeChat installed, Future 1.0 would be able to sync all a user's friends with the click of a button and separate the friends based on the filter.

This move made the project lead of QQ curse Future 1.0's mother, but he couldn't do anything about it. Future Technology hadn't violated any laws - it synced friend lists with the user's permission and didn't pose any threat to QQ's functionality, nor did it trigger any laws regarding vicious competition.

At least for messaging software on mobile platforms, Future Technology already snatched more than half of all users. It was fortunate that QQ was still competitive because of its PC platform, but WeChat, which normally always had a stunning performance, suffered greatly.

The foundation that formed the skyscraper of Penguin Empire was QQ - all other products were based on this foundation.

And now, Future 1.0 was attacking the foundation itself.

"Boss, Future Technology has made a new move." An assistant with square glasses walked in and slid a document gently in front of Ma Huateng.

He sat in front of his table with gloom all over his face. His eyes didn't leave the laptop screen at all.

It was an article reposted by News Net.

Future Technology had been promoting virtual reality technology lately. Ma Huateng was skeptical if they could make their money back with the massive campaign they launched.

He had some understanding of virtual reality technology. While the country had made some technology in the field domestically, compared to Google and Microsoft, there was still a sizeable disparity.

[Virtual reality MMORPG overseas is still in its infancy, yet you wanted to get ahead of the game - what's the point? Once they eat the meat, they will just take the leftovers and fry it, and it will still be delicious. What's the need for innovation? In a 1.3 billion market, copyright is nonexistent.]

[Foolish, how foolish.]

Ma Huateng shook his head.

If virtual reality MMORPG in internal testing was really as magical as they made it sound, it would be an unprecedented shockwave to the traditional MMORPGs on PC and mobile platforms.

What made it difficult was that the testing location of Godly Land was in Pannu Islands; there was no media coverage and no leaked photos. Penguin possessed only minimal information.

Was it the traditional sensory VR equipment or the rumored immersive virtual reality technology? There was great debate about this on the internet. Some people claiming to be internal testers said it was, in fact, the traditional equipment. But other internal testers stated that Future Technology had developed the legendary immersive technology.

Because there were no leaked photos, the Godly Land seemed mysterious.

"Boss?" the assistant spoke out.

"Is there any renowned virtual reality company domestically?" Ma Huateng let out a sigh.

"Wanghai Lexiang Technology Company. They just introduced the Deepoon virtual reality equipment which uses Samsung AMOLED 1080 high definition screen with 75Hz rate and 120-degree wide angle screen. It performed superbly during the CES exhibition."

"Send people to discuss the acquisition," Ma Huateng ordered.

"Yes." The assistant nodded and left with quick steps.

It shouldn't be difficult to acquire the company - the virtual reality industry was never hot domestically, and the mild state meant there was a lack of capital in pursuit. If someone was willing to pay for their creativity, they were probably more willing to exchange their technology for cash.

Ma Huateng stood up and walked to the giant window.

He glanced down at Shen's streets as well as his reflection in the window. His eyes narrowed.

[Okay, since Future Technology has entered the virtual reality era, let me play with you then!]

…

The so-called Icarus paradox referred to an enterprise with a monopoly in the market and a fear of change; the company would be reluctant to conduct management, technology, and business model updates. This would make it difficult to adapt to the ever-changing environment and the company would lose its advantage with the arrival of new competition.

What was the Icarus effect? It referred to an enterprise already with a monopoly in the market using all its resources to prevent change from occurring. Examples could be seen by energy giants divesting from new energy resources or hostile takeovers of new energy companies.

But because of Future Technology's unbreakable share structure and excellent operating conditions, it gave the tech giants no vulnerabilities to target.

At the Microsoft headquarters in Seattle:

The chief executive officer, Satia Nadra, sat in front of his desk while staring at his coffee. He zoned out while listening to his assistant's report.

"… HoloLens' sales in July increased by 27%."

When he heard this, he recollected his thoughts.

HoloLens was virtual reality equipment based on the Windows 10 design by Microsoft. It received a positive market reaction since it was introduced to the market in 2016, but the significant fluctuation in sales was a rare sight.

"… Till the market closed, Nasdaq's virtual reality sector all ended in the green. Due to virtual reality division, our company's stock also rose by 3%."

A 3% rise for a mega-corporation like Microsoft was substantial.

Satia closed his eyes.

"Establish a subsidiary to operate the HoleLens project and immediately release the announcement for HoloLens2."

The assistant's eyes widened and he stared at Satia in disbelief.

"But HoloLens was just introduced… Could it be-"

Satia glanced at his assistant without saying a word.

He knew what the assistant wanted to say. Establish a shell, make an announcement, create a subsidiary first then an IPO and find the next buyer.

But virtual reality had a bright future, so why would he do that?

"The board won't agree," the assistant carefully cautioned him.

"Don't overthink. I'm preparing just in case." Satia stood up. "I'll go explain to the board. I have to also ask Gate's opinion."

Then Satia left the office and the shocked assistant.

With the document in his hand, the assistant stood still for a long time.

He didn't understand - with Microsoft's power, why would they need to prepare just in case?

In the office building of 361 Corporation:

"Godly Land? Virtual reality MMORPG? Interesting."

Zhou Hongwei scanned the webpage on the screen, feeling intrigued.

"Boss you don't seem to be worried?" Zhang Jiefeng, beside his desk, said with a wry smile.

"What's there to worry about?" Zhou Hongwei glared at him and sank into his chair. "Is this something to be worried about? Future's about to update to Future 2.0, yet there's nothing from the team assigned to crack the software. What a bunch of useless tools."

Zhou Hongwei felt angry when he thought about it.

Although 361 and Future Technology had project partnerships, Zhou Hongwei never stopped the process to crack Future 1.0.

But just some time ago, he ultimately gave up on the cracking of Future 1.0 and dissolved the project team. He knew he wasn't the only company that made that choice. Future 1.0 encryption was as hard as a turtle's shell and left him nowhere to take a bite.

He remembered that at the beginning of the year, he went to his friend at the Bureau of Patents, wishing to obtain some information from Future Technology's patent. But his old friend helplessly stated that the people from the Bureau of Patents spent countless time to convince Future Technology to submit specific technicalities and the benefits of patents, but Future Technology's CEO was firm.

No need.

It certainly looked down on the countless programmers who spent their time cracking Future 1.0.

But then, Future Technology threw out a smokescreen on virtual reality. Zhou Hongwei couldn't help but a curse: [can't you fu*king slow down on releasing the technology? We haven't even cracked the first one and now you throw out another one. With steps so big, aren't you afraid of pulling your balls?]

"Boss?" Zhang Jianfeng looked at the color changing on the boss's face as he questioned.

Zhou Hongwei took a deep breath and snapped back to the present.

"I want to hear your thoughts."

Zhang Jianfeng nodded. He was clearly prepared as he immediately began to explain.

"There are two routes in front of us - one is to purchase virtual reality technology companies and see if we can cut a slice of the pie from the virtual reality hype created by Future Technology. Two is to give up on this opportunity since there's still plenty of room for growth in the PC and mobile market. If everyone decides to pursue virtual reality, that's the perfect opportunity for us to expand our market share in PC and mobile devices."

Zhou Hongwei closed his eyes and thought for a long time.

After a while, he sighed.

"I prefer the second choice."

Zhang Jiefeng felt relived too.

"I also think so too."

Future Technology's massive advertisement campaign was meant to hype up the virtual reality MMORPG and see if they could stretch their balls, but if 361 followed the same massive steps, they would definitely stretch their balls.

It was better to play it safe.

Even if virtual reality was as magical as it was advertised to be, it could not replace the phone. Compared to the BAT giants (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), 361 had quite a discrepancy in terms of resources. Even if Zhou Hongwei wanted to compete with them, their chance of winning was not high. Cash was one thing, technology was another, and 361 had no advantage in either.

What they should do now was to not follow blindly but instead, use this opportunity and consolidate the mobile market while all the capital flooded to virtual reality. 361 search was already shaking the market penetration of Baidu search. If they spent more effort on it and let the big thugs battle with Future Technology, they would definitely win on this battlefield.

Due to Lingyu Technology's incident, 361 and Future Technology were still in a honeymoon phase.

Zhou Hongwei let out a sigh.

To be honest, he wasn't willing to make this choice, but he had no other options.

What he didn't know was, just after a few months, he would feel glad about the decision he made.

Chapter 431: The Mutants Flood

Xia Shiyu gave Jiang Chen an update of the industry.

For example, Tencent acquired 51% of Wanghai Lexiang shares at a premium from the hands of Xunlei and Kaiying Web for 60 million USD to become the majority shareholder. They also indicated on the day when the deal closed that QQ would officially enter the virtual reality field, then they displayed a mysterious looking CG animation, indicating that virtual reality MMORPG development was in progress.

Baidu instead went international and established a strategic partnership with Sony which signaled their battle horn to the virtual reality market.

Microsoft, Google…

When Jiang Chen heard this information, he wasn't worried at all.

His situation now was like a tank charging forward while his opponents were still busy shining the tips of their arrows.

A battle between the indigenous and civilized - although it was in the same ring, it was not on the same level.

After two months, internal testing would end and the world's media would finally receive some information. The helmets would go on sale a month later and the official launch of the game was set for the upcoming month. The world would be shocked by Future Technology's virtual reality technology.

Future Technology would lead the first intimate contact between consciousness and circuit boards.

"Also, I received several emails from Hua's Arms Industrial Company, Britain's Plextek Company, UA's Thunder God Company and other three arms industrial companies interested in our technology. They said if we provided a technical description of our technology, they were willing to cooperate with us in the military training field," Xia Shiyu continued her report.

Military arms companies interested in a partnership with a tech company? It was a rare occurrence.

But from the way the emails were worded, they seemed to be cautious of the partnership since it would involve a lot of technical parameters of confident military tech. In principle, military tech companies should not cooperate with foreign companies. Even if a partnership were to exist, it would mostly be under the table.

At least for now, the server parameters of virtual reality, computation ability, and maximum user threshold were all unknown to the external world. But with the introduction of virtual reality to the world next year, his nuclear silo would be built already.

He would use nuclear weapons to deter the five thugs and connect the world with the "virtual web." When the world could no longer leave the second world built by Future Technology, no one would be foolish enough to go against Future Technology.

The game was only the tip of the iceberg for virtual reality.

By that time, it would be time to reach space.

Jiang Chen's thoughts drifted far away as he fantasized about the blueprint he had in his mind.

"Jiang Chen?" Seeing as he didn't respond, Xia Shiyu tried to rouse him from his dazed state.

He recollected his thoughts and only deliberated for two seconds before he made a decision.

"Reject the offers."

"Okay… Also, the Bureau of Patents is making frequent visits." Xia Shiyu scoffed.

"Let them come. When we have the absolute technological advantage, we don't need any patents to protect us. If we made our technology public for other people's reference, we would be kicked out of the competition."

Any country would be reluctant for new technology to leave their borders. As long as Future Technology was irreplaceable, even if the Wang family wanted to eat him, they couldn't do anything to him. When they forced Jiang Chen to become an "international company," the Wang family received a lot of criticism and pressure from the higher-ups.

At the same time, he wouldn't register for any patents in any country because it was unnecessary for him; he didn't plan to permit other people to use his technology. To crack his Future 1.0, people needed a textbook on D++ first.

After he hung up the phone, Jiang Chen stretched sluggishly and sat up on the sofa.

He finally had the time for leisure activities lately, but with his mansion completely empty, it did feel boring. He occasionally visited his family, accompanied his father on fishing trips, and chatted with his mother. Being with his family was always a great and relaxing time.

He just missed Ayesha and wondered about her training progress on the island.

He didn't need to focus on the virtual reality internal testing anymore - Barkary sent out 20 security personnel and 30 employees to oversee the internal testing process. All the game data would be sent to the fourth-dimensional messenger chip Lin Lin created on her computer before she sent the information off to the game development department at Fishbone base.

It was August 7th already. Jiang Chen was planning to delay his return to the 15th, but a message from Lin Lin changed his mind.

…

When Sun Jiao saw Jiang Chen, her eyes lit up as she stood to greet him. Han Junhua only glared at him emotionlessly before she focused on the hologram command map on the table.

Jiang Chen kissed Sun Jiao before he walked up to the command map.

"What happened?"

"We confirmed that a flood of mutants erupted in Wanghai," Sun Jiao said sternly, a rare occasion when she wasn't acting naughty.

"A flood of mutants?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

"Based on the information from the drones, the activity level of zombies in the city center greatly increased, and the packed zombies in the city center began to disperse towards the rural areas. At the same time, all mutants in the Wanghai area entered into a frenzied state. Even the mutant cockroaches without much hostility turned aggressive," Han Junhua explained with her arms crossed, her eyes never leaving the map.

Cockroaches were scavengers; the mutations didn't change their food habits. Typically, cockroaches were considered safe - they wouldn't attack you unless you provoked them.

The same went for flies and rats - they were often not aggressive. But when the mutant flood erupted, the "mild" mutants entered a frenzied state too.

There were only two solutions to solve the mutant flood.

One was to migrate, the other was to kill.

Only when the zombie and mutant concentration decreased to a certain level would their expansion to secure land stop.

The mutant flood was a battle between mutants and humans for survival space!

"That's right." Sun Jiao nodded at Han Junhua's explanation.

"Even with a wall, these creatures could still get inside?" Jiang Chen asked in shock.

"Hypothetically, if thousands of zombies all leaped at the wall at the same time, the zombies in the front would fall, and the zombies at the back would stomp on top of the fallen zombies. In a massive zombie flood, a wall is not reliable. Also, not only are the zombies a threat, but the mutants will be a great danger. The mutants that previously only lived in wet, high radiation areas will enter the rural areas," Han Junhua said sternly.

"For example?"

"Mutant mosquitos. Their high flying speed along with their slim bodies means they are hard to target. A total of seven soldiers died at the hands of mutant mosquitoes already, along with thirteen injured at camp 27." All the stats were ingrained in Han Junhua's head.

"Looks like we'll have to cancel the expedition," Jiang Chen said with a frown.

"We can't," Han Junhua said.

Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao both looked at her.

"Even if we terminate the plan, the mutated humans would not give up their military action this winter. Not only can we not terminate the plan, but we have to take care of the mutated humans before the mutant flood escalates."

Jiang Chen thought for a bit then asked, "But there are already signs of a mutant flood. What do you think we should do?"

"Immediately send out a force and fight on two fronts," Han Junhua said in an undertone.

"That's too risky. You haven't experienced a mutant flood before, and you don't know how terrifying it is," Sun Jiao interrupted.

"For that exact reason, we have to do what I said. Even if we lasted through the mutant flood, we might not be able to defend against the backlash of the mutated humans. The best strategy would be for the east line to focus on defense while the west line gathers the entire armored force to attack. We need to use the shortest time to wipe out the mutated humans then return to defend the Wanghai rural area."

As the Colonel of the PAC land force, it wasn't the first time she had to make a definitive decision like this.

"What if the west line enters a stalemate?" Jiang Chen asked sternly.

"Then prepare to give up the east line and retreat from Wanghai."

[Give up Wanghai? How is that possible?!]

Han Junhua seemed to have read the hesitation on Jiang Chen's face as she continued.

"A leader should consider the consequences of failure but should not be fearful towards the consequences of the failure."

Jiang Chen closed his eyes.

After a long silence, he abruptly said:

"If we choose to fight on both lines, how will the force be distributed?"

"Gather the power armor to equip the First Division with the support of the Hunter Division to launch a lightning attack to Jia city and Seventh Area. The Third Division will remain stationed in the Sixth Street with local mercenaries hired to reinforce the defense. The Second Division stationed at camp 27 will partially retreat to the Fishbone base and the defensive line will completely shrink to the outskirts of the rural areas." Han Junhua pointed on the hologram map and quickly completed the force deployment plan.

The power armor didn't have an advantage against a massive amount of zombies, so it was better to be bold and send it all to the east line to be used against the mutated humans. Although the mutants couldn't rip through the armor of the Wanderer tank, a total weight of 112 tons wasn't impenetrable to the powerful mutants. If they couldn't bite through the tank, surely they could flip it at least?

They couldn't forget about the vomiter vomiting acid - it would also be a threat to the armored units.

"Let's follow your plan."

Han Junhua nodded and walked out the door.

Chapter 432: Tightening the Defensive Line

After five days of resistance, the command center ordered camp 027 to retreat strategically.

It was a prudent decision.

The core of camp 27 was the scientists. Even if the buildings on the surface were abandoned, there wasn't much lost since the mutants didn't tend to destroy buildings. They simply could re-capture the base later.

But if they remained stationed there, once the mutant flood escalated, the supply line between camp 27 and Fishbone would be cut off. Without an ammo supply, camp 27, which was closer to the city center, would be the first to collide with the mutants. Even with the protection of the wall, it wasn't the most reliable during a mutant flood.

The zombies packed together could create a zombie ladder. The throwers' infant zombies could pass over the wall, and the Roshan, which had a bad habit of throwing things, could even push down the wall.

The most horrifying thing was the mutant mosquitos. They were the knights soaring in the sky, their mouths as sharp as spears. One charge could quickly take a person's life away.

To deal with the annoying creatures, the fallout shelter designed a simplified flamethrower. Soldiers in power armor could wield one and fire at these mosquitos on the front line, which had surprisingly effective results.

But regarding the intensifying mutant flood, the situation was less and less optimistic.

The mutant flood was going on its fifth day and the soldiers stationed at the camp already lost 15 people. If they continued to be stationed here, it was difficult to determine the outcome of the situation.

With Wang Zhaowu's organization, Xu Lu led the non-combat personnel and some security forces down into the fallout shelter with the doors shut tight. They would return to the surface once the situation stabilized. The fuel rods and supplies stored in the fallout shelter were more than enough to sustain them for two years of consumption, and the mutant flood would only last a few months…

If nothing unexpected happened.

A total of 500 combat units loaded the firearms and stationary weapons onto the trucks then welded the top of the trucks with machine guns.

With the Tiger II leading the way, trucks began to trickle out of camp 27 and smash into the zombies wandering on the street.

The machine guns unleashed their fury onto the street, leaving a trail of copper shells behind.

The flood of zombies swarmed to the fleet, but most were shredded to pieces by the bullets. The occasional zombies that managed to survive would die from the bullets of the Reaper Assault Rifle.

In the distance, Roshan tossed the lamppost in its hands and moved toward the fleet with heavy footsteps. Tiger II, which spotted the target, slowly moved its cannon as the Type-50 electromagnetic cannon unloaded its bomb and pierced through the lard.

Blood and bullet shells paved the way.

…

Fishbone base.

The engineering soldiers were installing four anti-air machine guns onto the wall in addition to the Type-50 electromagnetic cannon used against large-sized mutants. Soldiers patrolled the walls and fired continuously at the areas with a high concentration of zombies.

Under the waving NAC flag, zombies with dangling heads wandered below the wall. Their crimson pupils displayed a thirst for blood.

Typically speaking, zombies weren't hostile during the daytime. But because of the mutant flood, the situation changed a little. The zombies seemed to be influenced by some form of power and naturally gathered around areas with humans.

The situation was similar to the x2 bacteria incident; the only difference was that air indicators remained normal during the mutant flood.

The Fishbone base was quite some distance away from the city center, so they hadn't encountered any powerful mutants, but Jiang Chen had a feeling that the good days were coming to an end.

On the patrol tower on the wall, Jiang Chen observed the streets in the distance with a pair of binoculars.

Suddenly, a Tiger II appeared in his field of vision. Meat chunks solidified on its armor, and the belt was colored black by the fat and blood of the zombies. Immediately following it were the outlines of trucks which became more and more clear. The machine guns fired continuously, piercing any zombies approaching the trucks.

Jiang Chen put down the binoculars and spoke concisely into the radio:

"Clear an area in front of the gate."

"Roger!"

The soldiers stationed underneath the wall all headed up with their rifles. Some rushed to the machine guns while some set up the rifles in the firing spots. Following the commands of a knight in a kinetic skeleton, everyone entered their battle positions quickly.

"Fire!" The soldiers on the wall pressed their triggers simultaneously.

A glorious scene unfolded.

The orange bullet trails were unleashed onto the zombies like pouring rain and instantly tore down the zombies approaching the wall. Grenade soldiers threw grenades and Molotov cocktails at the swarms of zombies.

Explosions were everywhere. Broken limbs flew across the battlefield. The zombies made of flesh were no threat at the hands of the survivors' firearms.

"The success against normal zombies would make people blow up in confidence," Sun Jiao exclaimed while she worked beside Jiang Chen and stared at the zombies being shredded.

Sun Jiao was wearing a bulletproof vest with the SK10. She hadn't used it in a long time.

Jiang Chen smiled but didn't respond. He took out a cigarette and lit it up.

During the amount of time it took to finish a cigarette, the zombies outside the wall were mostly wiped out.

At the same time, the fleet arrived in front of the main door before the zombies could regroup. The soldiers at the door immediately pressed the button to open the gate as the metal gate slowly opened and allowed the red-stained fleet to enter.

A few medics ran up and carried the wounded on stretchers to the hospital. Then a few soldiers in protective gear with circular bottles sprayed the entire fleet to disinfect it.

The weary soldiers jumped down from the trucks and hugged each other with their families waiting by the side. As for the people stained with blood, they all chose to take a shower first.

When they arrived at the base, their tense nerves could finally be relieved.

"Let me go make a visit."

Jiang Chen extinguished the cigarette on the wall as he headed downstairs.

Right now, it was a busy scene in front of the base.

"Quick! Quick! Vomiter's acid hit him."

"Poor guy, treat it first before sending him to the medical chamber. Help me out here…"

Stretchers continuously passed by him. Due to the limited number of medical chambers, soldiers with less severe injuries had to be transferred to the ward first. Soldiers with serious injuries were treated by doctors on the spot before being sent to the medical chambers for recovery.

Jiang Chen examined the soldier with the bones on his face exposed by the acid. His stomach started doing flips.

[To be able to live like this is definitely his luck…]

He paused for a few seconds before he continued to walk forward.

In the front of the fleet, aside from the Tiger II, he saw Wang Zhaowu.

Because he sat in the tank, Wang Zhaowu's condition was somewhat positive; at least he hadn't sustained any injuries. But from his dark circles, it was clear he hadn't closed his eyes for a long time.

He passed the rifle in his hand to the soldier beside him and saluted Jiang Chen sharply.

Without engaging in small talk, Jiang Chen passed a cigarette to him. Finely made cigarettes had always been the luxury good in short supply on the wasteland. Although he could purchase them with his salary, not everyone could have the honor of their leader passing them a cigarette.

Wang Zhaowu took the cigarette in astonishment. Jiang Chen smiled and used a casual tone to ask him.

"What's the situation at camp 27?"

"Extremely terrible." With gloom on his face, Wang Zhaowu slowly blew out a smoke ring. "Throwers already appeared there, as well as mutant mosquitos. Along the way, we also saw vomiters moving in this direction. Fortunately, a Tiger II was in front of the fleet…"

Throwers were most active in the outskirts of the city, and they rarely entered the rural areas. If Throwers already appeared at camp 27, the mutant flood was beginning to intensify.

After a momentary pause, Jiang Chen asked:

"Did you bring the thing?"

"I did. Do you want me to take you there now?"

"Now," Jiang Chen said.

Wang Zhaowu nodded and took Jiang Chen to the center of the fleet.

When they arrived at the location, a few workers were already operating a crane to unload the equipment.

"This is it. The construction robots and deepwater mining equipment. They won't be useful now by the looks of it." Wang Zhaowu stared at the eight massive containers with a wry smile.

With the current situation, it would be hard to reach the sea in the first place.

Wang Zhaowu might be wrong. Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously without answering.

It wasn't an easy task to transport the deepwater mining equipment from camp 27. All of the equipment weighed 400 tons with each container weighing 50 tons. To transport these containers, Wang Zhaowu arranged four heavy-duty trucks to be positioned in the middle of the fleet. With the risk of slowing down the retreat, he managed to drag the equipment back,

Jiang Chen looked at the eight containers and nodded, pleased.

Deepwater mining could finally be initiated. The production of virtual reality helmets would require a massive amount of molybdenum, and with the current price of molybdenum, importing would significantly increase the cost of the helmet. If Jiang Chen mined the molybdenum himself, he calculated cost savings of at least 50%.

"Thank you." Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder.

"No problem. Compared to defending camp 27, this is much easier." Wang Zhaowu smiled.

"Go rest for a bit. Remember to come to my office for a meeting in two hours."

"Yes!"

Wang Zhaowu saluted and headed to the living area.

After a long journey, he was indeed tired. He just wanted to take a shower and take a nap before the meeting.

After Wang Zhaowu left, Jiang Chen looked at the soldiers by the side and ordered them to transport the containers to the backyard of the mansion. Then he headed to the community center.

Chapter 433: A Risky Choice

The Sixth Street.

The recent expansions caused the defense line of the Sixth Street to be extremely stretched out. The military government utilized almost all the construction companies and reinforced the walls surrounding the Sixth Street and machine guns and cannons were also installed.

Contracts totaling one million crystals.

But not a lot of people were cheerful of the news. The mutants flood about to arrive made everyone feel a deep fear. Some people chose to flee, but most chose to stay.

It was because of a policy enacted by Chu Nan.

"Anyone who leaves the Sixth Street during wartime, properties registered under its name will be confiscated and used to pay for the defense budget. The extra amount will be used as a reward for individuals or organizations who provide outstanding contribution during wartime. If the person must leave and is reluctant to give up its property here, then a war tax between 20-40 crystals per square meter must be paid for any properties here. This amount will be used to pay for the mercenaries' salary, reinforce defense, and ammunition."

The policy sounded unreasonable on paper, but it was fair.

Why would the Sixth Street soldiers bleed for you to protect your property here and the people with stakes here would escape during this critical time? Either contribute your force, or provide money, or the NAC government would recognize you as surrendering your property by default!

Although a lot of soldiers attempted to use the council to protest, they clearly didn't understand the situation. Out of the ten council members, five were injected with the "honorary chip".

The policy was enacted without any opposition and gained the support from the majority of civilians.

The civilians finally managed to own their home in the Sixth Street, who would want to return to the homeless life? As to the people that escaped with the slightest obstacle and wanted people who stayed behind to protect their property, they didn't gain any sympathy.

Therefore, other than the merchants based elsewhere, no one chose to leave at this time.

What's the purpose of tying down the irrelevant people in the base?

There were a lot of purposes.

The Sixth Street military stationed comprised mostly by three forces, the first being the NAC's Third Division, the second would be the mercenaries, hunters, and some equipped scavengers, the third being the private force of the merchants!

Although after the nuclear non-proliferation at the Sixth Street was enacted, all of their nuclear material was confiscated. Though the Sixth Street never limited their arms. As to do business on the wasteland, a weak force meant that the merchant would be sheep to the bad wolves out there. Even if they managed to escape the claws of the mutants, they could not avoid the robbery by their same kind.

Most of the merchants stayed, meaning they would retain their private force here. The merchants were usually much richer than the mercenaries demonstrated by the quality of their equipment. Although the merchants didn't have the restricted Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon, they still possessed a few armored vehicles.

The civilians joined the force. The merchants in pain send their private force to the frontline. Once the mutants flood erupts, the gate to the city would be closed shut. Since they chose to stay, then the option of leaving was no longer there. There was no purpose of hiding any force now as it was better to send them to the front line for some commission.

The military factor was operating at full capacity as it produced the iron and aluminum transported from the Fishbone base into firearms.

At this time, the production of the Sixth Street finally came in handy.

When Jiang Chen released part of the technology of the T-3 power armor to the small workshops and contracted parts out to be produced. The military factory he purchased for Zhao Chenwu produced 20 T-3 power armors in one month.

It was ten times their previous production capacity.

Not only the power armors, the Type-99 anti-tank cannon, the Roar mortar… Followed by the optimization of the industry, the heavy weaponry with low production before now became streamlined and exited the factory quickly.

With so many heavy weaponry dragged from the factory to the frontline and the boxes of ammo and bombs being transported to the supply station, almost everyone was confident towards this war.

Only if it was just the zombies that came.

…

Currently, 300 meters to the north gate of the Sixth Street, the soldiers from the First Division built a simplified defense line with a moving barrier and sandbags. They shot the zombies approaching with machineguns. The wall behind them was being reinforced, and their mission was to defend here until the reinforcement is complete.

Constant screams came from behind them. It was the sound of the mortars launching electromagnetic shells.

Three shells raised into the air and then smashed into the zombies. The scattered shrapnel instantly shredded the zombies nearby as their intestines, and meat chunks rolled all over the ground.

Then, from the dust of the explosion, a massive creature appeared. It swung a billboard in its hand while marching toward the defense line in giant strides.

"Roshan located."

A soldier at the machinegun continued to fire while screaming into his mic.

"Roger."

A calm response followed by the explosive sound of the bomb unloading.

The bomb dragged an orange trail of flame and blew the skull of the Roshan into pieces.

"Nice shot!" The soldier roared out while he reloaded the machinegun. Seeing the attack slowed down, the scavenger waiting on the side rushed to the body of Roshan with a knife to retreat the crystals at the back of its neck. When they obtain the crystals, they could retain 40% as their commission.

On top of the patrol tower, Zhao Gang observed everything with his binoculars.

Different from the optimistic feeling of the crowd, as the leader of the Third Corp, the expression on his face didn't suggest optimism at all.

After days of continuous recruitment, the Third Corp already expanded to 4000 people. However, even including the First and Second Corp, it still didn't manage to bring him optimism at all.

As a previous survivor of Qingpu, he had witnessed the horrifying mutants flood.

The mutants flood back then even broke the line of defense established by the World Alliance Organization soldiers which made the organization surrender to Wanghai. And the survivors at the Sixth Street used a significant amount of PAC weapons left by the organization and barely managed to defend the base.

But after the next civil war, the only equipment left was the Wanderer tank. Right now, the tank was sent to the First Corp, the Sixth Street could only depend on self-produced heavy weaponry.

"Report, Director Chu Nan send me to notify you to attend the meeting."

"I see." Zhao Gang nodded.

The soldier saluted and stood aside.

He took a last look at the front line before he stuffed the binoculars into his pocket and left.

…

In the hologram conference room, Zhao Gang nodded to Chu Nan and sat in his spot.

The conference started. General Jiang Chen, advisor Han Junhua, the three corp leaders, the Sixth Street executive Chu Nan, logistics lead Wang Qin, administration lead Lu Huasheng, and all the NAC executives were present.

Around the conference table hovered a hologram map of Wanghai with the force's distribution on the map. From the map, Zhao Gang could guess the purpose of this meeting.

Wang Qin first explained the status of supplies at the base, and then Lu Huasheng reported on the status of the reserve force.

Last, the advisor explained their entire plan. Because the plan was first discussed with the general, Jiang Chen only needed to nod during the conference.

But when Chu Nan heard the plan, he had a slight frown as he stood up and objected.

"I object. Wanderer tank, eight Tiger IIs, and 15 armored vehicles are all assigned to the First Division? Even if the Sixth Street's objective is to defend, it doesn't mean this place doesn't need armored force protection."

Jiang Chen looked at Zhao Gang.

After a moment of deliberation, Zhao Gang nodded sternly.

"I agree with Chu Nan's perspective. Without any armored force to cover fire, that means that once we lost the control of the gate, we no longer possess the ability to recapture the gate. We could only completely abandon the lost defense line. To be safe, we need at least four Tiger IIs stationed here."

"Just don't lose control." Han Junhua said emotionlessly.

"Of course, I know it is best to have no mistakes, but-"

"Tanks protecting a city are the least efficient choice. All the armored forces equipping the First Corp will allow Jia City to be captured in the shortest period, and then return for defense after." Han Junhua used an indubitable voice.

A risky decision.

If there were any mishaps in the Sixth Street defense line... If the First Corp battle with the mutated humans entered a stalemate…

The First Corp leader Cheng Weiguo didn't say anything. He only looked at Zhao Gang apologetically. Zhao Gang also didn't' speak as he looked at his colleague to signal his understanding.

Chu Nan took a deep breath and stared at Han Junhua before he slowly sat down.

"I hope your decision is correct. It has to do with the lives of eighty thousand people."

Han Junhua nodded.

After the end of the conference, the hologram faded.

Wang Qin, Lu Huasheng, and Wang Zhaowu left. When there were only two people in the conference room, Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"You have to learn the art of rejection."

"There is only execution to an order, the art of rejection doesn't exist."

"I'm only concerned about the relationship between my subordinates," Jiang Chen said wryly.

But Han Junhua didn't seem to mind as she said emotionlessly, "It's okay, let me be the bad guy."

"… Are you an M?" With the expressionless face in front of him, Jiang Chen had to ask out of curiosity.

"What is an M?" Han Junhua raised her eyebrows, "I'm only making the best choice. Especially as you have told me, once everything ends, I will be heading into the future."

"What if we can solve your problem without going to the future?" Jiang Chen asked intriguingly.

"Then we'll speak once the time comes."

Han Junhua didn't seem to want to discuss this problem further. She took the documents on the table that belonged to her and left the conference room.

Chapter 434: Lightning Attack against Seventh Area

Clouds of dust accompanied the roaring noise of the engine.

The metal belt rolled over the barren land; only the crushing sound of the wheels could be heard.

Like a piercing arrow, the tank formulation comprised of all the NAC's armored forces, led by the Wanderer tank, was heading from Shenxiang to the Seventh Area between Jia and Wanghai.

It was the mutated humans' production facility. Once the place was captured, the mutated humans would lose all of their ammunition supplies. Once they freed the slaves prisoned in the Seventh Area, the First Corp would continue to head west and crush the mutated humans stationed in Jia.

The Wanderer tank led the way, eight Tiger IIs, 15 armored vehicles, 30 supply trucks, 2300 soldiers, and two helicopters. It was half of NAC's net worth.

Right now, in the armored vehicle modified into a command center, Cheng Weiguo and Ma Zhongcheng sat across from each other. In front of them was a hologram map with a red marker on the map indicating the mutated humans' zone of control. The arrow formation created by blue dots were soldiers from the First and Hunter Corp.

"Based on the reconnaissance soldiers' observation, the mutated humans stationed 9000 soldiers in Jia with 80 anti-tank cannons, 60 anti-air machine guns, and 220 machine guns," Ma Zhongcheng reported to Cheng Weiguo.

"A tough opponent," Cheng Weiguo cursed.

Because the mutated humans managed to capture Jia city, their number increased substantially. They could foresee that it will be a fierce battle.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from the front.

A shell landed beside a Tiger II in high gear mode. The shrapnel created screeching sounds on the Type-A steel armor, but it didn't manage to do any damage. Then a few more rounds landed but didn't manage to hit its target.

"Enemy anti-tank units spotted!"

"Initiate combat." Cheng Weiguo clicked on his earpiece and ordered.

"Roger!"

The supply truck that carried the soldiers all slowed down to allow the soldiers in the back to jump down and charge toward the Seventh Area in a scattered formation. The soldiers that sat outside of the armored vehicles also got off as they spread out to advance towards the mutated humans' zone of control.

An armor piercing round smashed right onto the front armor of the Wanderer's tank and was deflected without a doubt. The electromagnetic reaction armor that used Meissner effect would render most of the kinetic weapon with metal shells useless! And even if there was no electromagnetic reaction armor, 140 mm Type-A steel armor was not something typical shells could penetrate.

The type-52 main particle cannon emitted an eerie blue light before it exploded like fireworks once it hit the target. Then it instantly vaporized the anti-tank cannon hidden behind the defense line. The secondary 2 kg rapid electromagnetic cannon continued to emit electric arcs as the shells eight times the speed of sound easily shredded the building into pieces. The mutated humans hiding in the building couldn't even scream before they were crushed by the building.

It was a moving fortress.

Compared to the Wanderer tank's outstanding performance, the "locally produced" Tiger II had lackluster performance. However, with the mutated humans without any armored force, it was more than enough to take care of the enemies with its thick front armor and powerful electromagnetic cannon.

The Type-50 constantly unleashed 5 kg bombs on the mutated humans' position and instantly destroyed their first line of defense.

Once the line was broken, the armored vehicles, in front, instantly accelerated and dashed out from the force, into the Seventh Area Industrial Zone. The machine guns installed on the tops of the tanks spat out its fury as the high caliber bullets reaped the life of the mutated humans hidden behind the walls. The armored vehicles also occasionally threw out heat trap grenades and electromagnetic trap grenades.

The guided rockets being misguided by the trap grenade immediately lost its target and redirected to the location of the heat trap grenade. The none-guided rockets were unable to hit the armored vehicles due to their high speed.

Rockets flew aimlessly inside the industrial zone and didn't manage to hit a single armored vehicle. Instead, they wounded a lot of mutated humans.

The armored vehicles rushed into the industrial zone and in the shortest time, cleared the hidden anti-tank and anti-air weapons. Then, they paved the way for the tank formation. At the same time, the Hunter Division in power armors and kinetic skeletons broke the first line of defense and began to clear the mutated soldiers that hid among the shambles with the help of the infantry.

Only two armored vehicles were damaged. One because of the anti-tank mine, the other one was unfortunately hit on the side by a non-guided missile.

However, compared to the success they were able to achieve, the sacrifice was indeed worth it. They destroyed or confiscated 17 anti-tank armors, 31 anti-air machine guns, and killed more than 2000 mutated humans; the remaining enemy all retreated to the second line of defense.

"The first line of defense captured!'

The captain in the frontlines reported the status to the command center, seeing the blue and red dots tangle together on the hologram map, Cheng Weiguo looked at Ma Zhongcheng.

"Deploy the drones."

"Okay." Ma Zhongcheng took out the tablet and pressed a few buttons.

The second line of defense was built around the complex building layout in the industrial zone where even the armored vehicles could not rapidly advance through. The mutated humans defending the streets were all equipped with a significant amount of non-guided missiles as well as sticky explosives. Although those could not damage the Wanderer, they posed a substantial threat to the Tiger IIs and the armored vehicles.

The Tiger II's side armor and back were all its weaknesses. An anti-tank rocket in close range would more than likely stall the tank.

Therefore, the task to protect the infantry force advancing would fall to the drones.

After receiving the order, the two helicopters hovered in the far air immediately moved toward the already broken first line of defense. Then it parachuted two containers to the ground.

Blue flames sparked out the descending device fired to reduce its velocity. The five-meter-long container smashed onto the second line of defense. The first container landed on the street while the other one landed on the top of the building.

The memory metal on the container instantly deployed with the intense force of the landing, it exploded the bee nest like structure and released the drones inside.

The buzzing noise even covered the sound of gunshots. The mutated humans could only use their rifles and machine guns to furiously unleash their bullets against the drone attack formed by the plate-sized "hummingbirds". However, their effort was negligible.

With the hive used as a terminal and center for the drones, hundreds of agile Hummingbirds roamed the streets to remove the lives of the mutated humans. Even with the thick C-type front armor, they could not defend against the sneak attacks from the back. In a street battle with drones, without any EMP weapon, it was pure slaughter.

But obviously, the mutated humans in the Seventh Area didn't prepare much EMP!

When the hive landed, the location scanning device inside recorded its detailed coordinates into the server, so the Hummingbirds were even more familiar with the area than the mutated humans themselves.

At the same time, 20 T-3 power armors followed into the second line of defense, with the support of the light infantry, an intense battle along the streets broke out.

The orange bullet trails lit up the entire zone. The mutated humans defending there had to retreat due to First Corp's intensive attack.

The infantry force completely cleared out the anti-air positions at the second line of defense. The helicopter then moved up and unleashed the nightmare known as death to the mutated humans with its Type-50 electromagnetic cannon. Any defense could not withstand the powerful smash of the 10 kg bomb. Although the lead mutated humans with power warhammers, and the suicide mutated humans with miniature nuclear grenades managed to cause some casualties to the infantries on the streets, the mutated humans could not change the outcome of the battle.

The second line of defense was broken, the tank continued to push forward. The soldiers that confiscated the anti-tank cannons turned the cannon around to the mutated human's third line of defense. The last line of defense.

The electronics factory at the Seventh Area!

A high tech factory with a size of 1500 acres stood distinctively in the Seventh Area industrial zone. Because of its distinctiveness, the mutated humans chose the place as its base. The outskirt was built with high walls, and the plant inside was reinforced into a fortress.

In front of mutants and most survivors, the fortress was unbreakable, but that was not the case in front of the NAC.

The castle in the mutated human's eyes will become their own grave!

After capturing the second line of defense, the First Division unleashed a total of 1000 shells into the factory which turned the walls around the factory and its primary structure into shambles.

After the rain of destruction, the armored vehicles equipped with drone terminals moved along with the power armors and the soldiers followed right behind them. They engaged in heavy fire with the mutated humans inside the factory.

A gruesome battle.

To both sides, there was no concept of surrendering.

Humans and mutated humans were not the same species.

With six hours of a full-scale battle coming to an end, the First Corp soldiers finally killed the last mutated human. They put up the NAC flag on the roof of the half-destroyed plant and signaled their victory in the Seventh Area!

Chapter 435: Peacekeeper

Only nine thousand something hostages were being rescued. When the NAC soldiers saved the pitiful people from the ruins and shambles, they were so emotional that they began to burst out in tears.

Rescuing the Defenders was only a side mission they did but not the obligation of the First Division. So during the rain of destruction, Cheng Weiguo was not concerned about them at all.

It was reasonable because Cheng Weiguo would never risk the soldiers' lives for strangers. It was a great deed to be able to save them in the first place.

After they captured the Seventh Area, Cheng Weiguo ordered the soldiers to fortify while the supplying trucks returned to Shenxiang for ammo, each squadron reported their casualty numbers. The confiscated the weapons and ammo recorded on the books. The useful ones were brought along, the not useful ones were placed together as junk with the recovered Type C, B, and A steels while these supplies waited for the trucks to be dragged to Shenxiang Colony.

As to the prisoners rescued, Cheng Weiguo ordered the soldiers to settle them into the temporarily constructed camps and provided them nutrient supply. He also recruited soldiers and engineers willing to join the force.

A lot of them were soldiers from the Jia City Defenders. They only needed a rifle without any training to become a capable soldier. When they heard that Cheng Weiguo planned to attack Jia to seek revenge from the mutated humans and free their home, they joined under the banner of NAC without any hesitation.

The First Corp obtained arsenals of weapons from the mutated humans. Cheng Weiguo then scattered a part of the1400 soldiers among each of the infantry battalions while the other part formed their own infantry battalion. They also brought the 1000 engineering soldiers along which could help with repairs and help build the defense fortifications.

After regrouping, the First Corp force instantly expanded to more than four thousand people.

The next morning, the regrouped First Corp continued to head to Jia City.

As to the remaining prisoners rescued, after Cheng Weiguo sought Jiang Chen's opinion, he temporarily settled them in the Seventh Area and promised that once he captured the city, he would come back for them.

The actual battlefield was in Jia.

And the mutated humans stationed in the Seventh Area were only an appetizer.

…

"Five power armors, 31 kinetic skeletons, destroyed. 110 fatalities, 132 seriously wounded. 210 thousand rounds of ammo and 2200 shells consumed." Inside the office, Han Junhua reported the battle stats of the First Division to Jiang Chen.

The proverb of as soon as the first shot is fired, million would be spent was indeed true. The first battle cost over 350,000 crystals. Even Jiang Chen who made millions in the food business exclaimed at the amount of money a war burned through.

Of course, he didn't need to pocket the bill, but rather the war fund from the Sixth Street paid for it.

"What's the situation at the Sixth Street?" Jiang Chen stared at the hologram map and asked.

"The wall reinforcements are almost complete. At the same time, throwers activity is observed outside of the Sixth Street," Han Junhua said.

With throwers arriving at the Sixth Street, it meant the zombies and mutants on the outskirt of the city center had spread to the rural areas already.

"Lightning before the thunderstorm?"

Jiang Chen stared at the red dot on the hologram map before he fell into silence.

At the same time, the only thing he could do as a general was to sit in the office and wait for the news from the frontline. Followed by the expansion of the NAC, the number of things he needed to personally do decreased substantially. All the casualties and results were only presented to him as numbers.

He heard someone knock.

"Come in." Jiang Chen looked at the door.

The door was pushed open, and the director of the Aerospace Technology Research Institute walked in. He had a delighted expression on his face which was unseen on everybody else in the base.

"The thing you needed is now prepared."

Jiang Chen then looked at the clock on the wall and got up.

"Could you take me to have a look?"

"Okay." Jiang Lin nodded and headed for the door.

Jiang Chen looked at Han Junhua.

"I'll have to leave this place to you."

"Mhmm."

Her response was always concise.

…

Jiang Chen arrived at the Aerospace Technology Research Institute's launching field along with Jiang Lin. A few workers were surrounding four-stories-high rockets while busy working on them. The meters high mechanical arm was connected by wires to the tablet as a technician was busy tapping on the screen while controlling the mechanical arm to extend the welding gun to weld the steel boards together.

Other than the useless tools being sent for land reclamation, all the scientists in Fallout Shelter No.27, excluding the people from the Research Institute, entered into the fallout shelter. When Jiang Chen ordered Jiang Lin to start the Aerospace Technology Institute, these scientists moved to the Fishbone base with their families.

They were first unwilling but did Jiang Chen really care about their unwillingness? The benefit was great, excluding the possibility of returning to the fallout shelter. Seeing the objection failed, they had to honestly contribute their knowledge and design rockets for Jiang Chen.

"Dolphin-10 intercontinental ballistic missile, developed in the late 21st century and used till now, it was the most deployed missile type in PAC territory." Staring at the rocket, Jiang Lin certainly looked proud.

To create this missile, he spent a lot of efforts learning. Although he didn't know why Jiang Chen needed a weapon that could hit the western hemisphere, he still followed Jiang Chen's order.

This one missile spent more than one million crystals in supplies. Jiang Lin had repeatedly received rolled eyes from Wang Qin.

Out of all the projects at the base, the Research Institute spent the most crystals because a lot of parts could not be produced, so they must pay expensive commission to explorer teams that headed out of the province.

For example, the propulsion engine of the missile was transported from the shambles of the Taipei launch base six hundred kilometers away from Wanghai. To transport this propulsion engine, the mercenary groups had to take the risk of being shredded to pieces by mutated sharks, so the commission was indeed not low.

But regardless of her rolling her eyes or not, she still had to grant the budget since it was the project personally approved by the general.

"Why is it called the dolphin? That's a strange name." Jiang Chen was intrigued.

"Deployed under the ocean, peace ambassador, you know." Jiang Lin used a welding gun to knock on the base on of the missile as he chuckled.

Jiang Chen first took a moment to process his words before understanding the meaning behind it as he laughed along.

Peace ambassador. (A play on words. Peace is pronounced the same way as nuclear destruction.)

[People from the future were quite humorous.]

"The entire missile is 11 meters long with a diameter of 1.55 meters; the launch weight is 35.1 tons. It could be deployed in nuclear silo 1200 meters deep into the sea with a maximum range of 21,000 kilometers."

"The launch mechanism is a non-separate three-stage propulsion model, that is, the underwater propulsion ring will advance the missile 100 meters underwater after the missile separation. Then the missile engine ignites and pushes the missile to the near-Earth orbit after the engine flame stalls. After the missile approaches the target, the engine is reignited and strikes the target area vertically."

"The missile shell is coated with an anti-radar material that reduces the radar 's reflected signal to the extent of a seagull, and theoretically only the' passive coherent positioning system can detect signs of the missile launch."

In terms of its size, the 11 meters long ballistic missile seemed like a miniature toy compared to the twenty to thirty meters long ballistic missiles of the modern world. But without a doubt, anyone who dared to question its strength must pay for their mistake.

Chapter 436: The Construction Robot

Based on a length of 11 meters and radius of 1.55 meters, the size of the missile was approximately 20.7 cubic meters, with a storage dimension the size of 30 cubic meters, it was not a big problem to haul it to the modern world.

"Is the warhead placed inside?"

"A five hundred ton hydrogen warhead is being welded in right now." Jiang Lin pointed at the mechanical arm.

What's the meaning behind a five hundred ton hydrogen warhead? Four numbers could be used for reference.

Personnel exposed: 4.1

Personnel in a tank: 1.9

Personnel in a bomb shelter: 0.7

Personnel in a fallout shelter: 0.46

The four numbers refer to the lethal striking radius to personnel by a five hundred ton hydrogen bomb in kilometers, it doesn't include the radiation damage. Of course, it was estimated based on the modern world's standard.

The power armor and tank in the apocalypse were often designed with a lead fiber insulation layer which was highly effective against radiation damage. Because of this, the purpose of a nuclear missile was often to cripple the enemy's basic infrastructure and prevent the light infantry from entering the battlefield.

Only two or three deployed under the sea were necessary for the almost impossible to intercept five hundred thousand ton nuclear warhead to create nuclear deterrence. Once Xin announced itself as a nuclear nation with possession of global strike capability, even if the UA wanted to plot against Xin, they would have to weigh in the total worth of New York and Washington.

Deterrence was enough.

If possible, Jiang Chen hoped he would never use it.

Because once the button is pressed, the thing could not be stopped. Even with the technology in the 22nd century, it could not stop the brutal yet straightforward weapon.

"How many warheads can be produced with the remaining nuclear material?' Jiang Chen asked.

"Including the Uranium as well as the nuclear material confiscated from the Sixth Street, probably two more." Jiang Lin estimated and gave a conservative number.

The material required for the production of the dirty-type thermonuclear weapon is mainly tritium and tritium lithium, while uranium 235 is only the initiation device. There is only one way to get tritium on the wasteland and that is to extract one or two grams of tritium from the nuclear materials that have not been used up.

Of course, it was much easier to produce the non-dirty type thermonuclear weapon. Helium-3 would be extracted from a commercial-type nuclear fusion battery as raw material. However, because helium-3 and deuterium thermonuclear reaction will only produce non-radioactive protons, the use of helium-3 as nuclear warhead raw materials will not produce radiation so that the deterrence would be much smaller.

Such technology has yet to be developed in the modern world, even if the technical capacity were there, it would be hard to achieve.

Because the total helium three reserve was estimated to be 500 kilograms, the closest helium three mine was located on the moon…

Jiang Chen nodded as he was pleased with the result. "Great, your next mission is to create two more peace ambassadors."

"Are you planning to use these to clear out mutants? Allow me to be frank, nuclear weapon's damage to mutants are not ideal, those things crawled out of the nuclear crater in the first place. And the nuclear crater produced from the explosion may be used as a nest for mutants like Death Claw." Jiang Lin hesitated for a moment and reminded him.

"Of course it will not be used against mutants. If I wanted to blow mutants up, wouldn't it be better for me to get artilleries to launch the warheads? What's the point of creating an intercontinental ballistic missile? As to the purpose, you don't have to worry about it, just help me move this missile to the backyard of the mansion.

As soon as Jiang Chen finished, he left.

As the general, he didn't need to explain his actions to anyone. And because of that, Jiang Lin only let out a sigh wryly before he began ordering people to transport the Dolphin-10.

…

Returning to the backyard of the mansion, Jiang Chen began to disassemble the eight containers brought back by Wang Zhaowu from camp 27. The 400 tons of equipment included two construction robots, an underwater floatation device with a maximum capacity of four people, and a construction module; mining module that could be installed on the underwater floatation device.

The construction robot was a great invention. It could use the construction information downloaded on its chip to auto-complete construction. Although the automatic construction process was slower than manual operations, it was more precise and convenient.

If Jiang Chen wanted to modify the vessels Russia sold him, he only needed to scan the model of the vessel with a scanner back. Then bring it to the experts' familiar with the area in Fallout Shelter No. 27, use the quantum computer to create a modification plan, and then download the construction information onto the construction robot's chip. He only needed to provide the material, the specific steps would be auto-completed by the construction robot.

After that, he returned to the modern world.

Jiang Chen drove by himself to a deserted island east of Ange Land.

One advantage of Pannu Islands was the number of islands in the territory, Due to the ten billion construction projects, most of the deserted ideas in Xin were under his name. It included this island called "Coconut". Although when Jiang Chen landed on the island, he didn't see a lot of coconut trees; there were mainly short woods typical to rainforests and the barren gravel.

After a trip to the apocalypse, Jiang Chen first brought back the two construction robots and a drone terminal.

The robot was one and a half meters in height with a fluid looking shell. Although it looked a bit dumb, it was meticulous in its work. The crab-like claws were equipped with welding equipment, multiuse wrenches, and other tools. The half belt half walking base could move rapidly on flat ground while being able to traverse in complex terrains.

Jiang Chen installed a drone terminal in the dense forest in the middle of the island and released 20 Hummingbird drones to scan the less than one square kilometers wide island, and then he registered the hologram map onto the control of the construction robot.

After the data finished uploading, Jiang Chen made several runs and brought the components of the underwater floatation device, the solar generator, as well as some reinforce steels and concrete over.

Jiang Chen first marked the area where the supplies were stored on the island and then chose a relatively high point on the 3D map for the location of the solar panels.

The two construction robots immediately turned its' belts and moved to the components of the solar generator. After they transported the parts to the targeted location, the two construction robots skillfully began to assemble to solar generator together.

Jiang Chen only waited 15 minutes before the two robots completed the work.

"This is amazing."

Jiang Chen examined the masterpiece of the two robots as he exclaimed out loud.

The technology from the 22nd century, the ability to complete constructions automatically, it made building things as simple as RTS games, just build wherever you click. If this technology were introduced to the market, a lot of construction companies would kill to get their hands on it.

Of course, Jiang Chen would not introduce it to the world in the next little while.

The really good things must be kept in his own hands. He'll introduce it once he gets bored of it.

With the tablet in his hand, Jiang Chen sent the two robots to be charged on the drone terminal. Then he set a project to construct a two dock harbor and then added the assembly of the underwater floatation device onto the construction list.

With the symbol of on the screen, he verified to ensure he didn't miss anything before closing the tablet.

He only needed to wait for construction to finish.

To ensure the safety and privacy of the island, Jiang Chen deliberated for a moment before he decided to not station any soldiers of Celestial Trade. It was not that he didn't trust his own soldiers, but he was afraid people who kept an eye on Celestial would notice this place.

Once the island is stationed with people, it meant constant supply to the island which would reduce the hiddenness of the "Coconut Island". At least before the construction robots finish construction, it was better to keep it as hidden as possible.

For now, the best security would be the drones.

Returning to the drone terminal, Jiang Chen changed the drones' mission from reconnaissance to alert. Once the drones notice any boats approaching, the fourth-dimensional messenger device located inside would alert his EP.

After all this, Jiang Chen stretched his body and returned to the apocalypse.

But what he didn't expect was that just as he returned, he encountered a severe situation.

Chapter 437: A Sea of Zombies

Standing on top of the patrol tower, the pack of zombies swarmed together to form a sea of zombies. This scene could only be seen in the city center before, but now they were here in the quiet rural areas. No one knew why the mutant flood erupted; maybe it was because of a lack of living space in the city center or possibly because of the desire to hunt in groups. Regardless, they were here.

This despairing scene made any bystanders uncomfortable.

The twenty-meter-high wall couldn't bring a sense of security to the people, because…

Amidst the howling noises, a thrower, with tumbling steps, ran to the Fishbone base wall and tossed the infant zombie in its hands at the soldiers on the wall. The infant-sized zombie screamed with its dry lips and leaped at the soldiers firing on the wall.

Then it suddenly exploded.

"Ahh! My eyes!" A soldier with acid splattered in his eyes covered his face while he howled and rolled on the ground. He was better off than the others because the two soldiers at the center of explosion instantly lost their ability to breathe.

"Fu*k! It's the thrower - get it!" Wang Zhaowu roared at the top of his lungs into his earpiece.

Just as his voice faded, a sniper rifle exploded the head of the thrower.

Sun Jiao, with one foot on the wall, reloaded the Ghost sniper rifle with a crisp "Clang" before she continued to target the zombies. She pressed the trigger another time and executed another thrower with its hand just starting to come into view.

Watching this scene, Wang Zhaowu couldn't feel more tense. It wasn't because of Sun Jiao's shooting skills but rather her identity as the missus of the general.

If anything happened to her, Jiang Chen would shred him to pieces. But even though he used up all the excuses he could think of to convince her, Sun Jiao disregarded all his comments and still stood fearlessly on the wall.

Objectively speaking, Sun Jiao was the person with the strongest combat abilities in the entire base. The soldiers standing there had barely gotten training for more than a year while Sun Jiao started roaming the wasteland from a very young age - more than ten years in total.

Seeing that he couldn't persuade her, Wang Zhaowu gave up.

There were only five T-3 power armors stationed at the Fishbone base - the rest had been transported to the Sixth Street to provide it with an extended line of defense. The situation was even more critical there as the swarms of mutant mosquitos had almost broken their line of defense. Fortunately, there were a lot of experienced soldiers at the Sixth Street who were all masters who had wandered the wasteland from the beginning. They took out their flaming robots and Molotov cocktails since director Chu Nan announced that the military government would compensate any damaged equipment. To save their own lives, no one dared to hide their treasure horde of weapons any longer.

On the Fishbone side, aside from the five T-3s, only two newly developed T-4s had been produced. And now they were stationed on the wall, unleashing their firepower upon the zombies.

The drone attack force roamed outside the base and sniped the zombies' heads with their small caliber machine guns.

Then there were the soldiers in heavy bulletproof vests kneeled behind the cover of the wall, their backs carrying a cylinder full of organic fuel. With their flamethrowers ready, they were cautious of any flying mutants that could appear.

Whether it was the light infantry with Reaper Assault Rifles or gunners firing machine guns, all the combat units on the wall had the same mission:

It was to keep the zombies as far away from the base as possible.

Just as Wang Zhaowu looked at the swarm of zombies with a perplexed look, Jiang Chen stepped into the patrol tower.

"General." Wang Zhaowu saluted.

"How's the situation?"

He had only been gone for a few hours as the situation deteriorated to this point. As he stared at the endless sea of zombies, he suddenly felt like the base was a small boat in a massive ocean.

"Terrible. There are too many zombies," Wang Zhaowu said with a bitter smile.

The zombies wouldn't die unless they were hit in the head. After fighting for so long, even though the wall was packed with fully equipped soldiers and sentry guns firing, the zombies still managed to reach the bottom of the wall.

Below the wall, the zombies raised their heads and screamed ferociously. They extended their arms, attempting to reach the 20-meter-high wall, pass over it, and rip apart the humans on the other side. The zombies in the back swarmed in and used the zombies in front to boost themselves up, creating a slope made of corpses.

This was what Wang Zhaowu was most afraid of.

Twenty meters was only six stories high. It would only take thousands of zombies to create a slope. And how many zombies were radiating out from the city center? It would be an underestimation to say a million.

To prevent the corpse ladder strategy, the soldiers on the wall tossed grenades at the tightly-packed zombies. But this was only a band-aid solution as even though grenades could do significant damage to the zombies, their corpses would still remain behind the wall.

Through the bulletproof glass, Jiang Chen gazed at the countless broken faces. Occasionally, a few infant zombies would smash into the glass of the patrol tower, creating dark green stains.

"General." Wang Zhaowu took a deep breath and carefully opened his mouth.

"Hmm?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Your missus is there." Wang Zhaowu pointed at the wall.

Jiang Chen watched Sun Jiao firing her sniper rifle as he spoke helplessly.

"Just let her be."

He could understand her intentions of wanting to help. Right now, they were only in the initial stage of the mutant flood, so it wasn't too dangerous for her to be on the frontlines; he might as well just let her be. Especially considering her combat abilities, she would be okay even if everyone else on the wall died.

"What's the status of the Roar mortars at the base?" Jiang Chen picked up the binoculars and observed the distribution of zombies in the distance. Inside the sea of zombies, Jiang Chen spotted a few vomiters with their bellies raised.

"Prepared and ready to launch," Wang Zhaowu answered.

Since mortar shells weren't unlimited, Fishbone base only had a reserve of 2000 rounds. Only when the zombies were in large enough numbers would bombardment by the mortars be most effective. So up til now, Wang Zhaowu hadn't used the mortars yet.

"Then use it now - I see vomiters appearing 6.6 kilometers away," Jiang Chen lowered his binoculars in front of his chest as he spoke gravely.

Wang Zhaowu was shocked as he immediately picked up the binoculars and looked into the distance.

He was too busy having a headache about what was happening that he forgot to check the horizon.

Wang Zhaowu put out the order:

"Attention mortars, angle 72 degrees, distance 6.5 kilometers, fire!"

"Roger."

The sound of shells being unloaded transmitted from the square at the center of the base. The ten mortars formed a formulation with ten soldiers operating them. The shells were launched into the sky with an electromagnetic propulsion with a maximum range of 12 kilometers.

The mortars could launch 20 shells per minute on average. In just a minute, 200 shells were fired.

In their field of vision, the twenty-something vomiters were instantly covered by the shells raining down from the sky.

Thick smoke engulfed the sky. A minute later, new zombies made their way through the thick smoke. And the vomiters were blown to pieces.

"How many shells can the military plant produce?" Jiang Chen asked Wang Zhaowu as he gazed at the black smoke in the distance.

"If there are enough supplies, the maximum production is 200 shells."

[200 shells? A day's production isn't enough for one minute.]

Jiang Chen was thinking hard.

He was contemplating if he should bring something over from the modern world.

Chapter 438: Incinerating Zombies

The zombies behind the wall were piled two to three meters high already. Seeing as the opportunity was right, the survivors brought the fuel cylinders up to the wall and began to pour it onto the zombies. Then the survivors tossed down torches.

The fuel wasn't gasoline but an organic fuel similar to an alcohol mixture. It is worth mentioning that most of the vehicles in the 22nd century used high-capacity batteries, not fossil fuels. Because of this, all of Wanghai City barely had any fuel stations; what replaced them were charging stations.

Controllable fusion made electricity extremely cheap in the 22nd century. Power was produced from the fusion power stations located on the moon then transported through wireless technology to relaying satellites before reaching the earth's surface. Fossil fuels naturally, were replaced.

And because of this, ten minutes after the war erupted, the world was vulnerable to a massive blackout. The small number of nuclear power and geothermal stations could only sustain military production rates. A lot of the nuclear fusion batteries used in civilian facilities were all confiscated and sent to the frontlines as fuel for power armor and tanks.

What was worse was that in the next few nuclear winters after the war, the survivors couldn't find any fuel at all. Without power, electric heaters became scrap metal. The one saving grace was that the World Alliance Organization was at least somewhat useful - they left the survivors technology related to crystals, a large number of unused weapons and functional production equipment. This allowed the survivors, who had to face mutants and harsh winters, to have a chance at survival.

Although these weapons consequentially caused the birth of raiders, they did help the survivors pass through the most challenging period of time. Even if most survivors felt angry and disappointment towards the space colonization ship project, they still recognized that the World Alliance Organization did something good for them.

Flames were blazing and burning sky-high.

Thick smoke from four different directions engulfed Fishbone base. The soldiers all wore protective masks and the survivors all fled from the wall, covering their noses and mouths.

The fuel itself produced only a small amount of smoke; the burning zombies were the major source of the smoke. The thick smoke surrounding the base was almost comparable to a chemical weapon which substantially impaired the vision of the soldiers on the wall.

It wasn't easy to produce the fuel - aside from requiring Carm tree sap as the raw ingredient, the fuel consumed 1.3 times the electricity compared to the heat generated through burning. With twenty cylinders dumped down, it used a total of 15 tons of Carm tree sap and five thousand crystals.

War is the same as burning money; Jiang Chen just witnessed a fine example to this point.

Because of the obstruction due to the smoke, the zombies couldn't rush up the wall for the time being. Aside from retaining the instinct to hunt for people, zombies also retained a fear of flames. Although they wouldn't necessarily flee, zombies wouldn't come any closer either.

After the drones confirmed the zombies halted their attack, the soldiers on the wall finally got some breathing room. Soldiers with sore shoulders and necks all sat along the wall while volunteer workers and women headed onto the wall, bringing nutrient supply, water, and towels to the people protecting them.

The flames lasted two hours.

Once the flames stopped, the carcasses piled one-story high turned to dust and left with the wind.

"The most difficult period is the night." Wang Zhaowu, with eyebrows furrowed, stared at the outside.

"Can the soldiers handle it?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Rotating five shifts. Every two hours, 400 people go to sleep. The production line for the machine guns and ammo can't stop; they have to handle it. There isn't much fuel at the base, so we have to do this."

The patrol tower, acting as the command tower, had been fitted with an air filtration device. Although there was thick smoke outside, the air in the room was somewhat normal.

"Can you use gasoline?" Jiang Chen asked abruptly.

"Gasoline?" Wang Zhaowu processed this for a second before he said with a wry smile, "It would work, but where are we going to find that? Wanghai City before the war was an economic center, not an industrial base. Even if there were factories that used fuel before, they're most likely cleaned out by survivors searching for fuel."

Although fossil-based fuels were abandoned, there were still industrial applications for oil. Aside from burning, oil could be used as an excellent organic solvent as well as the raw material for rubber and plastic products.

Wang Zhaowu naturally assumed Jiang Chen was talking about industrial fuel since he didn't know Jiang Chen's secret.

With a smile on his face, Jiang Chen said, while scratching his chin: "You don't have to worry about it. I'll think of some ways to bring some here.

"That would be the best." Wang Zhaowu was out of solutions himself.

Just then, there was a weak knocking sound at the door.

"Come in."

The door opened and a figure that surprised Jiang Chen appeared at the door.

The girl wore a giant protective mask and timidly walked into the room. Her white cotton dress was stained with dirty smoke. Jiang Chen noticed there was a delicate lunchbox tightly clenched between her arms.

"Yao Yao? Why are you here?" Jiang Chen walked over, surprised by her presence.

"I-I was afraid you might be hungry," she said timidly. Then she took out a giant mask, smiled at Jiang Chen and handed him the lunchbox between her arms. "So I cooked some food for you and brought it over."

Wang Zhaowu knew too well what to do in this situation and turned around to face the wall.

But he muttered in his mind: [Good thing my daughter is only a one-year-old.]

Jiang Chen would have a spectacular expression if he could read his mind.

"Did you eat?" Jiang Chen kneeled down and tousled Yao Yao's head.

"I haven't." Yao Yao scratched her face and said in a small voice.

"Then let's go eat together." Jiang Chen smiled.

"But, is this place going to be okay?" Yao Yao looked warily at the thick smoke outside.

"General, don't worry, I'm here." Wang Zhaowu turned around just at the right time, speaking at just the right moment.

[Nice, I like you.]

Jiang Chen smiled at him and nodded before he picked up Yao Yao's hand.

"Let's go. Let's ask Sun Jiao to come along."

"Mhmm!" Yao Yao nodded as she held onto his familiar, big hand with a joyful smile.

After he put on his protective mask, Jiang Chen managed to find Sun Jiao with a sniper rifle at the corner of the stairs. With her face pitch-black, Jiang Chen couldn't hold in his laughter and passed her a protective mask.

"This place is going to choke me to death." Sun Jiao rolled her eyes exaggeratedly as she snatched the protective mask and put it on.

"I told you to stay home, but you just had to come out," Jiang Chen chirped.

"I wanted to. And I took out 51 throwers today - shouldn't you compliment me?" Sun Jiao swished her luscious hair filled with dust as she spoke with her chest raised proudly.

"If you dare to get hurt, I'll make sure you learn a lesson or two."

Jiang Chen gave her a hard stare, although no one could see his expression behind his giant mask.

Chapter 439: The Heartwarming Bubble Bath

When they returned home, Sun Jiao didn't even take off her mask before she ran into the shower. Although she didn't care about her appearance on the frontline, the civilized side of her loved being clean in her everyday life.

She definitely didn't want to expose her ugly side to the people she liked. Although Jiang Chen thought Sun Jiao with a face covered with dust and soot was still cute.

There were two bathtubs in the mansion. Jiang Chen also wanted to take a shower after sneaking out from the smoke of the burning zombies, but when he realized there were only two bathtubs, he met a pair of big, timid eyes filled with hope.

"If we bathed together, Yao Yao wouldn't mind."

With a completely red face, Yao Yao buried her head, her fingers twisted together.

After wavering for a moment, she worked up the courage to continue: "And-and Yao Yao has great back rubbing skills. If you don't believe me, you can ask Xiaorou."

Without any impure thoughts, and purely because he didn't want to reject the eyes filled with hope, Jiang Chen gulped and led her soft hand into the washroom.

He felt like he was a thief.

Jiang Chen sat in the bathtub filled with bubbles as the girl hummed cheerful tones while she rubbed Jiang Chen's back.

Her wet strands of hair, mixed with a refreshing fragrance, constantly stroked Jiang Chen's back because of her movements.

The on-and-off coolness somehow made him lose control, especially since the soft hands seemed like they had some magical effects as he felt all his weariness being washed away.

Needless to say, it was a delightful experience having a Loli rubbing his back.

[Yao Yao, grow up sooner…]

Jiang Chen muttered in his mind.

When would the inducer effect be alleviated?

"Turn around; the front needs to be washed too." Yao Yao didn't notice the change in Jiang Chen as she spoke to him in a cheerful tone.

Jiang Chen felt a warm itching beside his ear and he inhaled deeply. He used some bubbles to cover up his waist while forcing a smile.

"Uh, I can do it myself."

Yao Yao turned her head and her cute mouth moved.

"Okay."

Just as Jiang Chen felt relieved and thought it was over, the sound of water came from behind him.

Yao Yao stood up, held the side of the bathtub, swiveled her smooth legs, and carefully turned around before she sat back in the water.

After she gained her balance, Yao Yao nervously shook her legs in the water and said what she had been hoping with a blushed face.

"Could you help Yao Yao rub her back?"

Jiang Chen's instincts told him it was better to say no.

But the cute voice made it impossible to refuse.

…

When the blushing Yao Yao and Jiang Chen came out of the bathroom, it was already dark outside.

In the dining room, the three girls had already been waiting for a while. The hungry Lin Lin pouted and sat in front of the table with her chopsticks. When the two latecomers finally appeared in the hallway, she secretly peeked at them before moving her gaze away. Sun Jiao and Sun Xiaorou gazed at Jiang Chen slyly.

One was slightly jealous; the other had other nefarious intentions.

Jiang Chen felt awkward under their gazes. He sat down while scratching his nose while Yao Yao, with her face still red, ran into the kitchen.

When he sat down, he felt three pairs of eyes focused on him.

"Did you eat her?" Sun Jiao grinned.

"No." Jiang Chen shook his head as he had a wry smile. "Am I that big of a pervert?"

The three girls all nodded simultaneously.

Jiang Chen's expression changed as he wanted to rebut, but he didn't know what to say so he stared at Lin Lin instead.

"Why are you involved in this? Aren't you afraid I'll turn into a pervert?"

For some reason, Lin Lin didn't use her loud mouth and only made a funny face at Jiang Chen before she looked away.

[Eh? Something feels odd.]

[Is she sick?]

Jiang Chen wondered.

When he recalled the last time Lin Lin coughed, he felt concerned. Although Lin Lin always argued with Sun Jiao and himself, she was a kind person (digitalized human) inside. But just as he was about to ask about her health, Yao Yao brought some steaming food over.

"Time to eat. We're eating hotpot today." Yao Yao happily removed the cover of the pot.

"Smells so good! Finally, we can eat. I'm starving." Lin Lin stood up excitedly and reached out with her chopsticks first.

"No one's trying to fight you for it." Sun Jiao rolled her eyes.

"If you're slow, the delicious lamb rolls will be gone." Lin Lin chewed while she smirked.

"…"

The question hanging in Jiang Chen's mind was quickly taken over by the happy atmosphere.

Considering how energetic Lin Lin looked now, he didn't ask more.

[Perhaps it was just an illusion; maybe she's okay now…] Jiang Chen thought in his mind.

After dinner, Sun Jiao left with the sniper rifle again. Jiang Chen rested on the sofa for a while before he headed to the backyard. Since the apocalypse lacked fuel, he planned to bring back some gasoline.

Speaking of gasoline, when he saw the swarms of zombies, he suddenly had an idea: what if he brought back weapons from the modern world?

He always had the perception that the weapons from the modern world were all subpar in penetration and stability compared to the arms of the apocalypse. And since the apocalypse had never lacked weapons before, he never considered this option.

But when he carefully thought it over, weapons from the modern world weren't necessarily useless. At least when used against flesh, there wasn't much difference between the Reaper Assault Rifle and AK47. A headshot yielded the same result with the only problems being recoil and accuracy. If they weren't being used against zombies with higher mutation levels or mutants with stronger defenses, modern weapons could still be useful in the apocalypse.

A lot of the pistols and rifles created by survivors weren't necessarily stronger than their modern world counterparts.

Of course, this wasn't to say Jiang Chen planned to bring light weapons back; Fishbone base had a high reserve of ammo and rifles, and the ammo production line was also in steady production. As to what exactly to bring, he needed to think carefully. The most crucial task was to solve the fuel problem.

"Do you need my help?" Just as Jiang Chen reached the door, Sun Xiaorou stopped him and said with seriousness, "With my abilities, I can be helpful in combat."

The ability to explode crystals?

[It will be helpful, but it'll burn too much money…] Jiang Chen muttered in his head.

"It's okay. Your sister is giving me enough of a headache."

Sun Xiaorou gave up the idea.

"Be careful when you're out there.

"Mhmm." He nodded with a smile.

He put on the protective mask and left again.

Chapter 440: Purchasing Gasoline

The scenery changed and the repressive atmosphere instantly vanished.

Interdimensional travel took him to Coconut Island.

As part of his routine, he confirmed that there were no calls before he headed to the beach.

The two construction robots were still working meticulously on the construction site. After he checked their progress on the tablet, Jiang Chen let them be and boarded his boat. He took out the backup oil canister and filled up the boat before he soared to Coro Island.

It was deep into the night; only a few scattered lights were visible in the city center.

Jiang Chen didn't immediately return to his mansion when he got off the boat. Instead, he drove to a gas station at the southern end of the island.

When Jiang Chen parked beside a self-serving pump, he honked a few times.

Immediately after, the employee working the night shift walked out.

The man in uniform rubbed his eyes while walking out sluggishly. He had been taking a nap.

Most of the citizens in Xin were bilingual. Kebal glanced at Jiang Chen in the car, yawned, put his hand on the roof, and spoke in annoyance.

"How much do you want to add?"

"As much as possible."

Kebal took a moment to process what he just heard and tugged on his mustache.

"How much?"

Jiang Chen didn't want to waste words on him as he took out a stack of cash and slapped it onto his car hood. "2000 USD. Please prepare a few barrels for me."

Just in case, he usually kept some cash in the storage dimension.

2000 USD?!

Kebal was instantly awake. He didn't move, but he looked suspiciously at Jiang Chen.

"2000 USD? Why do you need so much gasoline?"

He had to ask because Xin wasn't completely at peace, which made everyone uneasy. If he sold this much gasoline and someone used it for terrorism, he would be the one to blame.

Even if selling this much gasoline would get him more commission at the month's end, he was afraid to sell this much right now!

Jiang Chen let out a sigh, took out the Presidential Palace document and waved it in front of him.

"It's not good for you to ask too many questions, buddy."

Kebal took a look at the document and all his suspicions disappeared. To be able to freely enter the Xin Presidential Palace, this guy was definitely not a terrorist and likely working for the president.

"The barrels are in the warehouse, wait a moment." Kebal handed the document back to Jiang Chen before he jogged to the warehouse.

"Wait, do you have a truck here?" Jiang Chen stuck his head out the window and stopped him.

Kebal shook his head. "No, but my pickup truck that I use is there."

"Okay, what's your name?"

Kebal paused.

"Kebal. Why?"

"Mr. Kebal, do you want to make 1000 USD?" Jiang Chen put his hand in his pocket and pulled out another stack of cash with a smile.

…

Because the Development and Reform Commission (1) didn't exist, the oil prices in Xin reflected the international market. After the global crude market plunged to below 30 USD per barrel, the 91-grade gasoline dropped down to 1.3 USD per gallon, equivalent to 0.34 USD per liter.

By conversion, how much gasoline could 2000 USD buy?

A total of 5882.4 liters!

With a barrel capable of storing 159 liters, 2000 USD could purchase 37 barrels in total! Kebal flipped through the entire warehouse and finally managed to find enough barrels.

With this large batch of gasoline, it was enough for the zombies outside Fishbone base to have a great time.

Kebal worked diligently with the thousand dollar tip motivating him. He hauled empty barrels onto his pickup truck before he started to pump in gasoline.

[1000 USD to move the barrels to Celestial Trade's warehouse. Where can I find more of this work?]

After a few trips, he finally managed to transport all the barrels.

Jiang Chen handed him the tip and told him to "keep everything that happened today deep inside your heart." Kebal promised to all the greater beings he could think of, then Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder, told him to prepare a few more barrels for next time before signaling him to leave.

Watching Kebal drive away, Jiang Chen closed the door of the warehouse.

He moved the gasoline into the storage dimension before he traveled back to the apocalypse.

The moment he arrived, he heard gunshots in the distance.

He placed the gasoline into the warehouse in the backyard. He called Wang Qin, ordering her to move the barrels into the storage.

Wang Qin was used to the general's mysterious ability to make supplies appear in the backyard, so she didn't ask more and immediately commanded the workers from the logistics department to carefully transport the highly explosive substance to a standalone warehouse.

Jiang Chen stepped onto the command tower again as he met Wang Zhaowu with a stern expression.

"What's the situation like now?"

"We already consumed 40% of the fuel reserve at the base, the production of fuel is far slower than the consumption, and the remaining Carm tree sap will only allow us to produce 30 more barrels. The Sixth Street's fuel is barely enough for them and they can't spare any additional fuel to help us. With our current state, we won't be able to clear the zombie bodies even after three days." Wang Zhaowu provided the bad news.

Looking at Wang Zhaowu's expression, Jiang Chen smiled.

"I already solved the fuel problem."

Considering that only six hours had passed, there was no way Jiang Chen could've acquired so much fuel. Therefore, Wang Zhaowu smiled wryly. "A few barrels aren't enough to solve the problem. There isn't a lot of fat in the zombies' bodies; it would take around 300 L of fuel to burn the bodies just surrounding one wall, and the base has four walls."

"Is 37 barrels enough?"

[37 barrels?]

[37 barrels!]

After he finally finished processing, Wang Zhaowu's eyes widened and he stared at Jiang Chen. "37 barrels?! How many liters per barrel?"

"159 liters. It's in the warehouse now."

"159 liters, that's… 5883 liters! Hahaha! That's amazing!" While he was thrilled at the news, Wang Zhaowu banged his hand on the table and pressed his earpiece. "Attention incinerating team, prepare to transport fuel from the warehouse. Let's burn these motherfu*kers!"

"Roger."

After finishing his command, Wang Zhaowu realized his blunder, so he started to laugh awkwardly.

But Jiang Chen didn't mind. "Don't worry about the fuel, I'll bring a few more batches over. You must keep the walls secure - don't skimp on the fuel, understand?"

"Understand!" Wang Zhaowu saluted with confidence.

Jiang Chen's 37 barrels of fuel solved the urgent crisis at the base. As to how he obtained it, who cares? As a subordinate, Wang Zhaowu only needed to complete the mission assigned to him!

Chapter 441: It had just began

A battle in the night was extremely disadvantageous to the survivors - not only would the soldiers' view be obstructed, but their weariness would also increase. They had some night vision goggles, but nowhere near enough to supply all 2000 soldiers, so the strategy Wang Zhao decided upon was using a physical light source.

After a period of time, the mortars would launch a few lightning bombs that would linger in the air and illuminate the battlefield with a bright red luminance. Although they couldn't make the battlefield as bright as day, there would be ample light for shooting.

On the zombie's side, the night brought them several advantages.

When the zombies were free from the sunlight, they were suddenly more fierce as if they were all on drugs. The typical zombies weren't only faster, but the arm strength of the throwers was also stronger as they tossed their "sons" into the base. The exploding infant zombies indeed created a lot of problems for the soldiers on the wall as they were taken down, one by one. This scene alone depressed everyone's mood.

Pouring down gasoline every six hours was the only opportunity for the soldiers defending the wall to rest. Only massive fire would make the zombies feel fear and stop their march toward the survivor base.

But when the flames vanished, the flood of zombies would continue their attack.

As the leader of the Second Corps, Wang Zhaowu didn't get much shuteye during the night. He only took naps on the sofa when the zombies were being burned.

Jiang Chen took Sun Jiao back to the mansion at 12. Although Sun Jiao wanted to do everything she could to protect the base, Jiang Chen wouldn't allow her to fight in a fatigued state.

But speaking of Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen originally thought that a single person couldn't have a large impact on the battlefield until he discovered that she made a huge difference. Her precise shooting meant that a lot of throwers were unable to attack before their heads were popped off by the sniper rifles.

After six hours, over 200 throwers died by her gun! While the kills boosted the soldiers' morale, the pressure the east wall faced was also significantly alleviated because the east side was facing the city center.

For now, the greatest threat posed to the soldiers on the wall was the throwers.

The next morning, the zombie attack slowed down.

Even during the mutant flood, the concentration of zombies wasn't uniform. After the conclusion of one wave, there would be a short or long dormant period. Until the next wave arrived, the base was safe.

Standing on top of the wall, the scene on the outside was glorious.

The wall was burnt to a crisp black. The coal and bone dust mixed together to form patches of black and white while a repulsive burned smell drifted through the air. The burning of gasoline created a 7-meter vacuum outside the wall, but further outside the wall was still a pile of corpses.

The remains of zombies began to let out a disgusting smell. The previously unrotten skin tissue maintained by the x1 bacteria began to deteriorate. Mosquitos and flies began to circle the air; the plate-sized flies and human leg-long mosquitos sent a chill down everyone's spines just by their appearance.

The occasional zombie that blankly wandered around the wall was quickly shot.

"Is this it?" On top of the wall, Jiang Chen asked Sun Jiao beside him.

"It's only the beginning." Sun Jiao, with an SK10 in front of her chest, sighed.

[Just the beginning?] Jiang Chen gazed at the mosquitos and flies that were beginning to accumulate.

Typically speaking, the more mutants in the area, the fewer the zombies; the distribution of the two was inversely proportional. Now that the concentration of zombies decreased…

It wasn't a good sign.

"How long will this mutant flood last?" Jiang Chen asked wryly.

"Until Wanghai City can return to a state of balance." Sun Jiao shrugged.

Any creatures, including the zombies, would have an instinct to create their own space for survival. Once the population exceeded the threshold, the city center could no longer contain all of them, so they had to expand outward and increase the radius of the city center.

Waiting alone would not end the mutant flood - only killing all the zombies and mutants migrating outward would end this war.

If not, they would have to give up their own territory and migrate further.

On the wasteland, where anyone could become mutated, natural selection remained the law.

A zombie in the distance moved in their direction, so Sun Jiao grabbed the laser rifle hanging in front of her chest, extended the barrel, narrowed her eyes, and pressed the trigger.

A needle-thin blue ray flashed as a fist-sized hole was instantly burned onto the zombie's forehead. Black content began to flow out. It took a few more steps before collapsing to the ground.

A few rays flashed, and a few zombies dropped dead.

It didn't have the sound effect typically found in science fiction movies; real laser rifles were silent killers. Although they had troublesome maintenance, expensive parts, limited range, and weak defense against EMP, making them far less popular than durable explosive rifles, Sun Jiao seemed to be particularly fond of them.

Straight trajectory, no recoil, high power in close range.

"It's a pretty high-tech weapon," Jiang Chen said enviously while looking at the weapon in Sun Jiao's hands.

He wanted to purchase a few of the laser weapons as part of his collection, but the Sixth Street weapon shop only sold the C-type battery used for laser rifles, not the laser rifles themselves. Because he never saw one while he was at the Sixth Street, he shoved the memory of it to the back of his head.

The laser rifle was mostly used in space since no one dared to fire a standard rifle in gravity-free environments - firing just one shot might not hit anyone before the person who fired it would drift away.

"This is considered high-tech?" Sun Jiao rolled her eyes and retracted the rifle. "Let's go down, it won't be safe on the wall in a bit."

"The mutant mosquitos and the mutant flies?"

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes at the black cloud that began to form in the distance before turning around.

Because of the appearance of flying mutants, Lu Huasheng immediately evacuated the survivors at the base and transferred them to the temporary emergency facility in the underground tunnel.

Jiang Chen didn't want to brag about his foresight, but the temporary emergency facility he ordered to be built was useful. The flying mutants could easily fly over the wall of the base which would be a disaster to the normal survivors at the base.

Hiding in the underground tunnel would protect them.

After half a year of continual reinforcement, the primary transportation route between the Sixth Street and Fishbone base was fortified like an iron barrel. As long as both exits were secured, no mutants could attack them here.

When Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao headed to the community center, they didn't encounter a lot of people along the way.

After arriving at the command center, they saw the only remaining person in the community center – Han Junhua.

She had her arms crossed and was looking emotionlessly at the hologram map on the table.

The red and blue dots intermingled together, marking the enemy and friendly forces. Just by the force distribution, the First Corps had gained the upper hand, but the expression on her face didn't indicate that at all.

"What's the situation on the west line?" Jiang Chen immediately asked.

"A bit problematic."

Despite her an unchanging face, Han Junhua's voice betrayed a tone full of cautiousness.

Chapter 442: The Struggle on the West Line

West line.

The rural area of Jia, six kilometers away from Jia Sports Center, Cheng Weiguo established a temporary command post there.

He was standing in front of the hologram map with a finger pointed fiercely at the major roadways on the map. Then he dragged out an attack red arrow and ordered his teams to push forward.

"Attention Team 8, the mutated humans deployed a large amount of anti-air machine guns in the Sanshui Park. Your mission is to follow this line and penetrate the mutated humans' line of defense, and then take out the machine guns. Do you understand!"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Attention Team 5, attack… Dammit." Cheng Weiguo looked up at the orange cloud that exploded in the air.

Wide range electromagnetic interference bomb. It could disrupt any wireless signal in the area for up to an hour.

Cheng Weiguo cursed out as he smashed the radio filled with static noises onto the table and sat down on the chair. The electromagnetic interference was useful to both parties, without command, the troops in the front line would have to fight following their previous order.

The boring trick could only waste time since both parties would be unable to strategize its force. But the mutated humans didn't need to strategize, as the defender, they only needed to defend.

The mortar sounds in the distance never stopped. It made Cheng Weiguo feel flustered. The delaying tactic made him feel unsettled.

The mutated humans surprisingly had some great tools, The Dusk Church was not an easy opponent.

Soon after, a communication soldier ran in front of him.

Cheng Weiguo took a deep breath and spoke to him.

"Notify Team 4 to push towards the intersection from Nanxi Road."

Different from the terrain in Wanghai, Jia's complex river environment made it easy to defend and hard to attack. The command center of the mutated humans located in Jia Sports Center was between multiple rivers.

In order to defend the attack of NAC's First Corps, the mutated humans were smarter this time. They destroyed all the bridges and held within the defense line. And these rivers caused a great deal of trouble to the NAC armor units.

On the first day, the armored force of NAC was blocked at the highway entrance to the west of Jia. The bridge that stretched across the river were exploded into several segments. To allow the armored force to pass through, it took Wang Zhaowu some serious efforts.

At first, they launched a round of artillery attacks at the mutated humans across the river, then the engineering soldiers built a floating bridge. Only after they conquered the bank across the river did the armored force finally pass through.

Once the tanks crossed the river, the situation became a lot more positive. The armored force led the way with the infantries immediately following.

They advanced rapidly for four kilometers as the mutated humans suffered constant defeat.

But the situation quickly became grave again.

After they entered the city center, the number of rivers increased which hindered the armored force's advancement.

The catastrophic defeat in the Seventh Area made the mutated humans realize the power of NAC's armored units. Therefore they set up the defense line along the river and persisted on fighting the battle in the streets. The mutated humans stationed in Jia were a much tougher enemy.

Other than the annoying anti-tank cannons and mortars, the mutated humans acquired a tactical nuke somehow. Two hundred infantries without armor protection instantly dropped down, and even a Tiger II stalled.

Fortunately, most of the people who died were new recruits from the Seventh Area, Cheng Weiguo's eyebrows only twitched as he didn't feel too pained by the loss.

But regardless, the battle turned into a stalemate. To defend against the possibility of another tactical nuke being dropped, Cheng Weiguo had to extend the battle line and gave up on the strategy of a group attack.

These mutated humans were definitely commanded by humans!

…

There were around twenty thousand mutated humans stationed in Jia which was five times the First Corps' force. Although the First Corps was equipped with a significant amount of heavy weapons and armored units. Due to the complex river system, they were forced into a siege attack.

"The lightning war strategy is being obstructed. The First Corps may not be able to conquer Jia in a short period of time." Han Junhua crossed her arms in front of her chest and said while studying the hologram map.

"I already said, it's too crazy to fight two battles at the same time."

Sun Jiao scoffed and sat on the sofa.

"Did you not consider the possibility of the mutated humans blowing up the bridges?" Jiang Chen asked Han Junhua.

"A total of 217 bridges were destroyed. Based on PAC's road quality standard, destroying the supporting structure of a bridge would require at least 600 kilograms of explosives," Han Junhua said emotionlessly.

130.2 tons of explosives. The mutated humans had way too many supplies.

"Fu*k, how did these monsters acquire so many explosives," Sun Jiao cursed out in frustration.

130 tons. Even if the entire Sixth Street were turned upside down, there wouldn't be that many explosives. Even if the Dusk Church had strong financial backing, they were a force migrated from the Northern Alliance Area. There was no reason they would possess so many supplies.

"Maybe it is not explosives," Jiang Chen abruptly commented.

Han Junhua and Sun Jiao both turned their attention to Jiang Chen. Suddenly, Sun Jiao seemed to have caught onto something.

"Crystals!"

"That's right. Sun Xairou said that her ability was induced through genetic engineering and not simply evolved from the genetic vaccines. Therefore, her ability is not unique within the Dusk," Jiang Chen said gravely.

The ability to explode crystals.

Mutated humans and humans were archenemies, only slavery and raid existed between the two with no possibility of trading. They acquired food through hunting the mutants, in the past ten something years, they must have accumulated a significant amount of unused crystals.

Other people might not be able to afford it, but the mutated humans didn't care.

"What are you saying?" Han Junhua looked at the two, puzzled.

Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao exchanged eye contact before they told the story of Sun Xiaorou to her.

Han Junhua lowered her head and deliberated for a moment.

"I have a question I don't understand. Why is the Dusk Church able to establish a partnership with the mutated humans? Did you ask Sun Xiaorou this before?"

Sun Jiao shook her head. She wouldn't make her sister recall the memory of her terrible past.

Han Junhua then looked at Jiang Chen.

"The mutated humans would require an improved FEV virus to obtain reproduction ability, and the Dusk needs the Garden of Eden technology in Fallout Shelter 005. The two parties have the same goal. The Dusk would leave the earth without leaving a trace behind, so it was not possible for them to have future conflicts," Jiang Chen organized the information he knew and explained.

"The Project Garden of Eden? When I was the commander in the 71st Mechanical Division, I heard some people mention that a state research institute was responsible for this area of research. It was rumored that once the technology matured, the challenges in space colonization would be solved," Han Junhua put her finger on her chin and muttered to herself.

"What if we provide the FEV virus to the mutated humans and let them fight amongst themselves?" Sun Jiao suggested.

"That's impossible. If we did that, we wouldn't have a problem in the short term, but it will be extremely problematic in the long term," Jiang Chen said wryly.

Needless to say, the ugly mutated humans were better suited for this piece of land. The ability to devour the Death Claw's meat, more poisonous than rat poison, raw and munch on unprocessed mutated fruits would mean that once these things acquired the ability to reproduce, humans wouldn't have a place on this planet anymore.

Suddenly, Han Junhua raised her head and fixed her sight on Jiang Chen.

"What if we change to a different perspective? We first find Fallout Shelter 005, then provide the project Garden of Eden to the Dusk Chuch which eliminates their motive to control Wanghai. The mutated humans that lost their external support along with their military production in the Seventy Area will lose inevitably."

Chapter 443: Destruction does not require Technology

Release the Garden of Eden Technology to Dusk?

From humanity's point of view, it was a choice with only pros.

But unfortunately, Jiang Chen was a selfish person. He didn't mind that while he lived a great life, he could make other people live a good life. But there was a condition. The "generosity" must be given by him.

Perhaps one day he would agree to build the Garden of Eden, but it must be a NAC controlled Garden of Eden. As to releasing the project to other people, he would not consider the possibility at all.

"If their ultimate plan is to leave earth by building a space colonization ship, then they don't have a conflict of interest with us." Han Junhua looked at Jiang Chen.

"That's unfortunate then, they won't be able to leave." Jiang Chen smiled.

Han Junhua sighed and then looked at the hologram map with her arms crossed.

"Then war is the only option left. But from the ammo reserve left in Shenxiang, if we are unable to capture Jia in ten days, we will have to give up Seventh Area."

Shenxiang was where the raw materials originated, and the majority of firearm productions were located in the Fishbone base and the Sixth Street. Although they obtained a large number of mutated humans' weapons and steel, they didn't manage to discover any firearm production lines.

If they gave up on the Seventh Street and ordered the First Corp to retreat, that would mean that the crusade would be only half-completed. The mutated humans could recapture the Seventh Area and use the long, harsh winter to regain their strength.

If NAC suffered heavy casualties in the mutants flood, then without a doubt the mutated humans would take advantage of this situation and declare war. If the mutants flood persisted till next year this time…

When the first mutants flood erupted, the entire Earth was in a nuclear winter, and it was significantly colder than the past years. Jiang Chen didn't think that the mutants would obediently go back underground during winter so he could not bet on the fact that the mutants flood would end by this year.

"Is it because of our ammo reserve?" Jiang Chen's eyebrows twisted together.

"It's mostly the mortar shells and the 5 kg and 10 kg bombs. we have ample in light weapon ammunition, but we can't conquer in exchange for lives." Han Junhua said without any emotional fluctuation.

[So, we are missing heavy weapons.]

Suddenly a smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face.

"I have a solution, we just need more shells and bombs right?"

Han Junhua looked toward Jiang Chen,

"Are we going to transport it from the Fishbone base with helicopters? Based on the reserve and production in the base, we don't have the capacity to support the First Division."

The Fishbone unleashed 200 rounds of mortar shells, 300 rounds of 5 kg bombs per day, to sustain its consumption speed, ammunition production was already operating at full capacity.

"No need to transport from the base, I can take care of it from elsewhere." Jiang Chen shook his head as an evil smirk appeared on his face.

Han Junhua looked speechlessly at Jiang Chen. Somehow, the smirk reminded her of some unpleasant memories she never wants to recall again.

…

Due to the limitation of technology, the weapons from the 21st century were for inferior compared to the 22nd-century weapons. A simple example, who would win between the Wanderer tank from NAC's First Corp and UA's mechanical division?

The question was more of how many units would be left in the mechanical division before the Wanderer tank ran out of fuel. How many units could the particle cannon and coaxial electromagnetic pulse cannon take out.

Unless it was directly struck by a nuclear warhead, the modern day weapon could not pose any threat to the Wanderer's armor.

But when the efficiency of killing the zombies are brought into the conversation, the UA mechanical division would be much more effective compared to the entire NAC First Division. Why? The reason was simple.

Because when technology is not necessary, any technology would be excessive!

For example, killing zombies. For example, launching an artillery rain of destruction.

Accuracy was irrelevant. Other than the dangerous mutants with insane mobility and defense, how many mutants would survive in the explosion, let alone zombies.

It was the same idea against the mutated humans. Their anti-tank cannon and rocket indeed posed a serious threat to the First Corp armor force. If an M2A1 tank were brought to the frontline, an anti-tank round would easily destroy it without any doubt.

But what if there were thirty-something heavy artilleries or even rockets?

Even if they possessed the rifles from the 22nd century, they were still made out of tissues!

Walking out from the community center, Jiang Chen held Sun Jiao's hand and headed to the mansion. Bullets unleashed on the wall far away, soldiers in a heavy bulletproof suit with a fuel tank on the back ignited the nozzle they held.

It was nothing technologically advanced, but if the mutant mosquitos dove down, they would become toasted mosquitos.

"You are planning to transport weapons from that side?" Sun Jiao acutely captured Jiang Chen's thought.

"That's right." Jiang Chen squeezed her hand and smiled proudly.

"Is stuff from your side reliable?" Sun Jiao asked with skepticism.

The skepticism was similar to a guerrilla hearing an ancient person had time traveled from the Ming Dynasty and said he would support the war with the weapons from his era.

Jiang Chen started to laugh and didn't explain. He promised, "You'll know once you actually see it."

…

After returning to the mansion, Jiang Chen immediately returned to the modern world.

Due to the influence of UA weapons that appeared in the hands of Country F's anti-government militants, Robert was in a tight spot. It would be too inconsiderate to ask him for more weapons, especially given that he already retired.

There was only one person Jiang Chen could ask.

It was near dusk already, but still sometime before people got off work.

He drove the Lamborghini out from the garage and headed straight to the newly opened Russian Embassy.

Natasha was patrolling at the gate of the embassy feeling extremely bored. Although she was the head of security, there was only three security personnel in total, so she had to fill in the patrolling slot.

Jiang Chen stopped the car in front of the embassy, rolled down the window, and teased her.

"Beautiful miss, could I invite you to dinner?"

Natasha looked at Jiang Chen in surprise as a grin appeared. "Of course."

She walked to the other side of the car, yelled toward the embassy, "Karachev, come out and watch the door." Before she received a response, she sat in the car.

After putting on the seatbelt, Natasha swayed her luscious hair and sunk into the comfortable seat.

"I heard that a gentleman is supposed to open the door for a lady."

"Are you not going to change out of your uniform?" Jiang Chen ignored her scoff and laughed.

"No need," Natasha's lips curled up while crossing her legs, "Uniform roleplay is pretty fun isn't it?"

[Face palm, what happened to her?]

Jiang Chen still remembered in Eastern Europe, when he tied her onto the chair, she suspected that he took her first time and stared at him with a look of death as if he had killed her father.

Jiang Chen coughed and started the car, "I won't be able to do business with you like this."

"Business?" Natasha's eyes flashed as she put her leg down and sat up straight, "For example?"

"My company needs some firearms used for self-defense. What do you want to eat?"

"Barbeque and beer. I remember there is beach bar not far away from here and their Barbeque is great." Natasha smiled.

She was familiar with the surrounding area already.

"Okay, let's talk about the firearms then, I need-"

"Don't you want to chat while eating?" Natasha interrupted Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen gave an "as you wish" look before turning on the GPS.

"Sit tight."

Jiang Chen stepped on the gas.

The vehicle transformed into a shadow and raced toward the beach.

Chapter 444: The Trade in the Distance

The apocalypse, the rural area east of Su City.

The one hundred story skyscraper stood desolately among the ruins.

Not far away, a sign engraved with , dangling on the side of the road, was replaced with the written in red paint. It hung in the middle of the building. The original owner of the building had the "foresight" to use a large amount of expensive and durable material in the construction of the building. And the building did, in fact, manage to withstand the nuclear explosion five kilometers away twenty years ago.

Unfortunately, the radiation still burned him into dust. When the nuclear blast arrived, he was on the elevator, coming down from the top floor office, escaping to the basement. However, regrettably, he died on the 27th floor.

The building exchanged hands multiple times before being occupied by the Dark Red Chamber of Commerce as their base. The hundred story height was a natural observation tower easily capable of scouting tens of kilometers away.

On the roof of the building, Lin Chaoen sat on the edge with his feet hanging in the air without any fear of heights. His eyes narrowed as he looked to Wanghai's direction.

He was unafraid of heights because it was an emotion that belonged only to creatures.

Suddenly, he smiled.

"Wanghai's sky has changed."

"Is this something predictable?" Two meters behind him, a man in a suit with a distant expression stood up straight with his hands behind his back. He was gazing in Wanghai's direction, but in the distance, only the skyline of Wanghai was barely visible. Other than a few faint columns of smoke rising, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Cao Guangkai, the current president of Dark Red.

During the past winter, his father Cao Jinsong launched a coup in the Sixth Street and died after the failed attempt. After receiving the information, he decisively took the soldiers loyal to him and executed his cousin who planned to split Dark Red with him; it was his father's nephew, Cao Wei. Finally, he controlled all of the assets of Dark Red and prevented the massive empire from falling apart.

It was after that he met Lin Chaoen and initiated a partnership with him.

A few months ago, he listened to Lin Chaoen's advice and withdrew Dark Red's merchant fleet from doing business in Wanghai and sold the assets under an anonymous name. He was skeptical of what Lin Chaoen said in the beginning, but the robot's words became true.

A mutants flood indeed erupted in Wanghai.

"Of course, everything in this world has causations." Lin Chaoen sighed as he said leisurely, "For example, the economic crisis in 2150 meant the war would be inevitable. And that economic crisis was because of…"

Cao Guangkai burst out laughing. "I'm not interested in listening to you talk about our history, I'm a businessman, I only care about now and-"

"Shhhh!" Lin Chaoen suddenly interrupted him and put his finger in front of his lips.

Then, he put his hand beside his ear and closed his eyes; it looked like he was listening to something.

"Listen, they are talking again." Lin Chaoen leaned forward with a smile, "The poor bugs."

Cao Guangkai, standing on the side, twitched.

He suddenly had the urge to kick the fool down.

But thinking that there was no point in being angry at a robot, he restrained himself from this dangerous thought.

"Pretending to be supernatural."

Cao Guangkai cursed out in a low voice and headed for the elevator.

"Are you not curious about what I heard?" Lin Chaoen turned his head and said sluggishly.

"I'm only curious what kind of mental state your designer had to bring you into this world." Cao Guangkai scoffed while taking a hidden shot at him.

"Perhaps… Mhmm, similar to father's mental state?" He didn't seem to understand the mockery in his words and shrugged. "Speaking of which, I have one thing I'm curious about. Can you answer it for me?"

"Oh? Is there something you don't know?"

"Don't you want to seek revenge on that person? He killed your father." Lin Chaoen smiled.

He was referring to Jiang Chen.

Because of Fishbone's sudden intervention, the balance in favor of them smashed to the ground, and all the stakes were collected by that person. The mantis preying on the cicada while the bird waited to strike at the final moment.

"There is no family in business. He failed his investment in Wanghai and lost all his stakes, that's all," Cao Guangkai said emotionlessly.

"You have an open mind." Lin Chaoen laughed mischievously, turned his head, and continued to gaze into the sky in the distance.

"Although the Dark Red originated from the Sixth Street, the base is in Su City with business in Hang City and the even further Luzhou. I never agreed with father's strategy of intervening with the local situation. Only when we abide by the identity of a merchant can we generate more profit."

"Is that so?" Lin Chaoen said slowly.

Just like Cao Guangkai was disinterested in what he said, he was not interested in the business he was talking about. In his eyes, the human's stance toward crystals was like monkeys playing with stones.

They didn't understand what kind of powerful weapons he possessed.

"Yes." Cao Guangkai nodded.

Without responding, Lin Chaoen silently watched Wanghai in the distance. He seemed to want to say something interesting as a smile emerged from his lips.

Cao Guangkai stood silently behind him.

Just then, his communication device started to buzz.

He pressed the button on his collar and picked up the phone.

"Hello? … Mhmm, I see."

He quickly hung up the phone and looked at Lin Chaoen on the edge of the building.

"The thing you need is ready."

"Oh? That's great." The smile on Lin Chaoen's face grew bigger. He pressed his hands on the floor and propelled himself up.

The move was nothing by itself, but to do it at the edge of a hundred story building...

Cao Guangkai thought he had a calm state of mind, but just by watching his action, he felt tense.

"The recipe to the drug." Just as Lin Chaoen passed by him, he opened his mouth.

"Oh, that." Lin Chaoen seemed to have remembered something as he took out a USB from his pocket with sluggishness. "Here you go, it's all inside."

It was the recipe of Happy Times.

It was the recipe of the hallucinating drug.

Cao Guangkai held his breath while he took over the USB.

He felt his fingers were trembling.

He was not holding a USB, but a key to a crystal treasure.

Only one tablet was enough to live in the happy times before the war.

Lin Chaoen enjoyed the expression on his face for two seconds before he curled his lips into a smile that held deep meaning.

The camera zoomed out.

In the empty ground north of the Dark Red building stood a six-story-tall rocket.

Chapter 445: Arms Sale Agreement with Russians

Katyusha multiple rocket launcher, nicknamed "Hail", also known as "Stalin's Organ" in its early days was equipped by the Soviet as early as 1964 and had been in use ever since. Its presence was seen in Afghanistan war, Iran, and Iraq. Even in the modernized military today, this simple yet powerful weapon didn't leave history's spotlight.

40 122mm caliber rocket launchers mounted on a small military truck, it possessed a relatively simple configuration compared to the different types of rocket.

While the "small guy" didn't look fierce, its maximum firing capacity can reach an astounding 720 rockets with a total weight of 48 tons; it was more than the sum of all the UA Land Force conventional rockets being fired simultaneously!

It was the nightmare shared by the enemy's infantries and the friendly logistics personnel.

Its only weakness was accuracy.

The two sat in the beach bar in a remote corner. They enjoyed the Brazilian Barbeque while they discussed the dangerous topic.

When Jiang Chen brought up that he needed a type of weapon with strong "deterrence" and maximum coverage, the Russian girl with a couple of beers down immediately began to pitch him the "Stalin's Organ."

"If you are only searching for simple yet destructive firepower, no other weapon can fit you better than the BM-21."

With her face completely red, Jiang Chen mocked her, "Why do I think you are not using your talent effectively by being an agent? Why don't you become a salesperson for an arms company?"

"Burp." She indecently let out a burp as she rolled her eyes and she authoritatively swung her blonde hair to her back. "Be a man, are you going to buy or not?"

"Of course I will buy!"

"How many?" Natasha's red lips changed to a pleased curvature.

"Eight." Jiang Chen put down the skewer and said nonchalantly.

"Eight? Are you going to equip two companies?" Natasha with one hand holding onto her chin she tilted her head. "Should be okay, I remember the Eighty Division in the Ural Military Theatre is planning to equip new rockets. They are troubled by the fact that the junks have no buyer."

[Face palm! Is it really good to describe your arms like this in front of the buyer?]

[She is definitely drunk.]

"What's the price?" Jiang Chen finished a skewer and asked.

"I'm not sure, but by crude estimation, it shouldn't be too expensive, the most expensive part is the ammunition. Mhmm… How many rockets do you need?"

Jiang Chen put up four fingers.

"Four thousand?" Natasha yawned.

Jiang Chen mysteriously smiled and chuckled.

"Forty thousand!"

The beer cup dropped onto the table, and the beer splashed all over the counter.

But Natasha completely ignored her soaked shirt. Pressing on to the table, she stood up. She fixed her eyes on Jiang Chen with her half-sober pupils and spoke in a trembling voice.

"For… Forty thousand?"

"That's right, can you sell it?" Jiang Chen aggressively raised his chin and smirked.

"Are you sure? It is not the mortar shell that costs a thousand Rubles." Natasha lost her voice.

"Are you sure it is a good idea to be this loud in here?" Jiang Chen coughed and reminded her in a small voice.

Natasha's face turned red, and she quickly glanced her surroundings.

The people in the bar all peeked in their direction. A lot of people in conversation stopped talking and held their cup just in the air. There were plenty of big news on Coro Island recently. Everyone's gossip desire was at its peak. Her words today would become something like "there was an arms merchant that sold rockets to a gang at the beach bar last night" by tomorrow.

It was better to keep the conversation about weapons low key.

Natasha realizing her indecency pretended to be intoxicated and put her finger underJiang Chen's chin.

"Then what are you waiting for, let me see if you're a mortar shell or a large rocket."

She enunciated the word "large" with extra emphasis.

All the male creatures at the bar raised their head out of natural instinct when they heard the dirty words come out of a hot beauty like her.

Natasha covered her chest and walked out of the bar before disappearing from the eyes of the thirsty males.

"Those legs." Leaning against the bar counter, a drunk holding onto a beer said while feeling heated.

The other drunk beside him glanced at him contemptuously, "That's an amateur observation. After checking out girls for so many years, that curve is top notch. Burp-"

His words turned into an undistinguishable burp.

The drunk was embarrassed by his friend's comment as he argued back, "Stop just saying it! Don't you always brag about your toothpick? Why don't you go then?!"

The old friend forced a laugh and immediately lost his confidence, "I can't afford it."

Then, he pointed at the Lamborghini outside the window.

It had nothing to do with "mortar shell" or "rocket," the key was the green Franklin.

Regardless, the conversations in the bar were successfully changed by Natasha. The shell and rocket were referring to that! The thirsty males all looked at Jiang Chen with eyes filled with jealousy, jealousy, and jealousy.

"Uniform roleplay?"

Jiang Chen ignored the unfriendly sights and recollected what she said when she first got on the car. He then shook his head.

The breast that was more massive than Liu Yao's; the perfect curvature of her butt; it made him feel an uncontrollable desire too.

But those men were jealous for nothing, even Jiang Chen "didn't dare to do it".

Having an engaged conversation with KGB was no different than diving into the web of a female spider. There would need to be some serious mental preparation required if they have an extra friendly relationship.

Jiang Chen slapped a one hundred USD bill on the table and rushed straight out.

He nobly opened the door for Natasha before getting into the car himself.

"Is it okay to drink and drive?"

Natasha's bright red lips filled the car with the smell of alcohol.

"Didn't you realize you were the only person drinking?" Jiang Chen mocked and started the car, "Where do you live?"

Natasha grinned at Jiang Chen without saying a word.

Her eyes seemed to be saying "Isn't the most gentlemen thing to do now is invite me to your home to take a shower?"

"Okay, I will send you to the embassy."

"No!" Natasha immediately stopped him and gave Jiang Chen an angry stare.

If she appeared in the embassy like this, how would she maintain her authority in front of her subordinates?

"Your apartment?" Jiang Chen said concisely.

She bit her lips and gave the GPS a hard poke as if she was throwing a tantrum.

"Put your seatbelt on." Jiang Chen smiled at her clearly displeased look, opened the window, and stepped the gas.

The sea wind blew away the intoxicating smell in the car.

"You are scared?"

"What am I scared about." Jiang Chen laughed.

It was true; he was never scared of anything.

The wet shirt made the wind feel especially chilly. She drunkenly closed the window.

"The KGB identity, or crossing the line with an agent?"

Jiang Chen didn't say anything and turned on the radio.

Natasha rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and pouted without making any more sound. Jiang Chen peeked at her through the mirror but only saw her drunken state. He didn't know what she was thinking through the half-closed eyes.

They quickly arrived at her place.

In a heavy breath, Natasha dragged off the seatbelt that made her chest loss its beautiful shape.

"Time to get a new car, the glass is bulletproof, but the engine cover and fuel tank are only covered by aluminum alloy."

Jiang Chen paused and then laughed.

"You mean, someone wants to kill me?"

"Do you really have to wait for someone to want to kill you before you are cautious of your own safety? Can't you just be a little more fearful of death?" Natasha rolled her eyes at him, then swayed her blonde hair while stepping out of the car.

It made sense.

[Once the mutants flood is over, I'll get a few experts in the Sixth Street to create a sick ride?]

Natasha was already at the door to the house. Jiang Chen suddenly remembered that there were still important matters to be discussed as he shouted out.

"I have a headache right now. Just send it to my phone. I'll contact them once I sleep for a few hours." She waved her hand out of annoyance and walked to her door holding her head.

[Is she okay?]

With her tumbling to her door, Jiang Chen was a bit concerned.

Finally, when she made it through the door, Jiang Chen let out a sigh and drove home.

Chapter 446: Adapt Ancient Forms to serve the Present

Around nine o'clock, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse.

The lighting shells had laminated the entire base to as bright as daylight, but the apartments in the base were pitch black.

The appearances of mutants like mutant mosquitos and mutant flies meant that the base wall could not protect the safety of the survivors. Only combat personnel remained on the surface while the rest of the survivors all evacuated into the emergency facility in the underground tunnel.

Jiang Chen's mansion also looked dark from the outside, but the glimmer of light shining out from the edges of the curtain signified the people inside haven't left.

There was no need.

The mansion was the most secure place in the entire base. With Sun Jiao and Sun Xiaorou inside, there was no need to worry about mutants posing a threat.

Sun Jiao didn't need to be mentioned as no one in the base had combat abilities that could match her's. Her sister, Sun Xiaorou, was not weak either. While she usually looked timid, she was very agile. Before she recovered her memory, she sneaked into the base and fought head-to-head with her "brother-in-law."

Jiang Chen pushed open the mansion door and discovered that Han Junhua was in the living room.

"It is better for me to remain on the surface to better command the force. Don't worry about my safety. Weapon training is a necessary course for PAC military commanders."

Sun Jiao, sitting across from Han Junhua, eagerly asked when she saw Jiang Chen.

"Did you solve it?"

"I did, I only need to head to the west line after." Jiang Chen nodded.

Sun Jiao wanted to say something, but she didn't say anything in the end. She knew why Jiang Chen had to make a personal trip; she was just concerned with his safety.

Han Junhua frowned and stated what Sun Jiao wanted to say.

"Allow me to be honest, I don't think your presence on the west line would bring much change to the situation, but rather it would increase the variables of the battle. Cheng Weiguo is more than enough to control the force."

Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile.

"I'm not there to lead the frontline. I'm there… to request help."

Jiang Chen thought about it for a long time before he managed to found the correct word.

"Requesting for help?" Han Junhua frown only grew deeper.

She didn't know Jiang Chen's ability, and before he was sure of her reaction, Jiang Chen didn't plan on telling her.

Even if a "special" chip was in the back of her head.

"That's right. I solved the lack of heavy ammunition on the west line. The only problem is that I must be there personally."

Jiang Chen's ambiguous response didn't satisfy Han Junhua.

But seeing Jiang Chen's eyes shine with sincerity, she stared into his eyes for half a minute in silence.

"If you insist."

Then she stood up and headed for the door.

"Are we going to leave now? I still want to sleep," seeing that she was putting on her shoes, Jiang Chen asked.

"Of course not now, but all the military movements must be planned." She loaded the laser pistol used for self-defense, "You'll leave tomorrow at eight with the helicopter. It is best you notify the people at the frontline now in case it interrupts their plan. I'll be back after going to the community center. You don't have to follow me."

NAC only had two helicopters now, and both were deployed to Hunter Corps.

The limited resources meant that even the general must make reservations before making a trip.

…

The arms sale quickly received a response.

The BM-21 was extremely cheap. The truck along with the rocket launchers only cost 200 thousand USD. Eight of them resulted in 1.6 million.

The real expensive item was the rockets!

The launchers were old, but the rockets just rolled off the production line. Since ammunition stored for too long may malfunction, it would ruin the brand. To the arms buyer with potential for a deeper relationship, the Russians were naturally unwilling to supply low-quality stuff. It would be the same as saying no to cash.

The 122mm explosive rocket with twenty kilometers in range cost 2000 USD per round. Jiang Chen threw out 40 million USD and purchased 20 thousand rounds right away.

The rocket with the same range was slightly more expensive with one round costing 2500 USD. Jiang Chen also purchased 20 thousand round of those without blinking an eye.

The rockets were extremely effective against the zombies.

[The mutants flood? I will burn half of the city!]

Although Natasha felt troubled by Jiang Chen's request to purchase a sensitive weapon like napalm rockets, she still reported Jiang Chen's demand to her superior.

After five minutes of silence on the other side of the phone, they agreed.

It was a lucrative sale totaling close to 100 million USD, and the buyer purchased the easy to produce, non-guided rockets without the need to worry about a technology leak. To Russia that lacked in foreign currency, the arms business was like picking up money from the ground.

Although selling petrol bombs were in the grey area of international law, to the five permanent members of the security council, who really cared? The Syrian anti-government force had plenty of UA weapons with some of the "restricted" items being sold by private military merchants.

Since they agreed already, Russia didn't disappoint Jiang Chen. Meeting this request, they transported the batch of firearms by air.

The next night, an AN-225 transport plane landed at New Moon Island's runway. The first batch of firearms that arrived was made up of the 8 BM-21 and 2000 rounds of rockets. The remaining 32000 rounds arrived in the following shipments.

Barkary and Ivan all expressed their helpless stance to Jiang Chen purchasing so many rockets. But Jiang Chen didn't plan to explain to them as he ordered them to store the equipment in containers and haul them onto the sea platform along the dam into the vessel used to transport supplies for New Moon Island.

When the vessel headed into the ocean, Jiang Chen ordered the captain to drop the anchor.

The old captain was certainly smart. With his experience, he knew that Jiang Chen was planning to use a small boat to smuggle something prohibited through custom. Although he didn't know why Celestial Trade needed to be so discreet, he didn't ask more as he gathered all the crews inside the cabin for a meeting.

Since they didn't want you to know, it was better to close your eyes yourself.

Quickly, in just half an hour, Jiang Chen knocked on the conference room door to signal the captain that they could continue their journey.

Once the frustrated looking crew left, Jiang Chen dragged the captain to the side and passed him a cigarette.

The captain was astounded by the gesture as he smiled with his white teeth fully exposed.

"I understand. I don't know anything."

Jiang Chen nodded pleasingly, took out an envelope, and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Other than controlling the boat, don't ask about anything else."

Feeling the hefty weight in his pocket, the old captain revealed a bigger smile.

Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder before he left.

With this, the people responsible for loading the vessel only knew that the arms went on the vessel, but were unaware of its destination. The crews responsible for transportation only knew that the containers went on board, but they didn't know what was inside.

After docking in the harbor, customs followed their procedure and inspected the containers, but discovered they were all empty. When they saw Celestial Trade's logo, they didn't persist further on the issue.

The reason why he was so careful was to prevent people with other intentions from keeping an eye on the batch of firearms.

Country F was in a completely chaotic state as the MNLF equipped with a large amount of UA weapons left the government force in complete shamble with its intensive full-scale attack. The MLF that previously gave up on the movement to independence immediately sought an alliance with its old partner in crime after the situation took a drastic turn.

With the current state, it was hard to ensure no other eyes were watching Coro Island.

Since there were only two countries that had a negative relationship with Country F, Hua and Xin, if it were not caused by a religious force, the most suspicious perpetrator would be Hua. Following it would be Xin, the one behind the deterioration of F's current political stability.

There must be other agents on the island, but Jiang Chen was confident that they would not know where the firearms went no matter how much they investigated.

Even the Russians that sold the firearms themselves wouldn't know.

Chapter 447: Fire!

Black smoke saturated the air.

It was hard to determine if it was the cloud, radiation dust, or smoke from the rockets.

In a remote area east of Jia City, houses were scattered all around.

Under the shadow of the smoke, a few mutant cockroaches swayed their one-meter long antennae while they searched for rotten food.

To the ten-something people who walked by them, they didn't show any interest; only sour aromas could draw their interest. The starving cockroaches occasionally attacked the zombies, but they would often be scratched to death.

If a zombie and a mutant cockroach moved together, without a doubt, it must be because of a mutant flood, because only in a mutant flood would the mutants forget their hunger and attack the survivors along with the zombies.

Were there any other cities where a mutant flood was happening? No one knew. People mainly stuck to the places they knew best. Even merchant fleets that traveled far distances only managed to reach the Northern Alliance Area.

The current mutant flood was limited to Wanghai CIty, so Jiang Chen, currently in the rural area of Jia City, thought the air there was extra fresh.

"The battle is currently at a stalemate; we advanced 500 meters to the Jia Sports Center yesterday, but we were quickly fended off by their attack. The mutated humans obtained a large number of electromagnetic interference grenades and EMP grenades out of nowhere."

"The snipers in the Hunter Corps provided great help, but following the battle pushing toward the city, there were more obstructions. The mutated humans' mortars and grenades also led to a high number of casualties to the Hunter Corps."

Cheng Weiguo looked as the cockroach on the road dashed into the shadows before he lowered the rifle.

"That's terrible."

Jiang Chen smiled as he led Cheng Weiguo and a group of soldiers in the direction opposite Jia City in a delighted mood.

The general didn't feel frustrated by the stalemate of the battle which made Cheng Weiguo somewhat at ease.

But with the frontline getting further and further away from them, he had a troubled look.

"General, can I ask where we're going?"

They walked ten kilometers already and they would almost be in the next town at this rate, but they still weren't at the place Jiang Chen mentioned.

"We're here."

Jiang Chen stopped and smiled at the abandoned factory in front of him.

Two days ago when the helicopter took him here, he randomly chose a spacious warehouse as a storage space for his arms. Because of the mutated humans, there were no survivors in the area. Thus there was no need to worry about their arms being stolen by scavengers; he only needed to place them further away from the frontlines to avoid being hit by stray shells.

After he chose the location, he returned to the modern world to patiently wait for the Russians to deliver the arms.

The perplexed Cheng Weiguo followed Jiang Chen into the warehouse.

But when he saw the contents, his bewildered expression visibly transformed into shock. His widened eyes looked as if they were about to pop out.

"This is-"

Jiang Chen began to laugh as he savored Cheng Weiguo's shocked expression. He then returned to the door and shouted at the soldiers behind them.

"Soldiers, prepare to get on the truck. We'll take the mutated humans to see Jesus!"

…

Since fossil fuels had almost completely been replaced before the war, only the wealthy could afford to have a few internal combustion engine vehicles in their homes. Hence, cars that burned fuel were almost considered artifacts.

When Jiang Chen ordered the soldiers onto the car, he was dumbfounded to realize that the soldiers didn't know how to drive. With no other choice, he had to step up and personally demonstrate how to maneuver the vehicles.

With the general as the instructor, the soldiers focused all their attention on learning. While the principles behind internal combustion vehicles were drastically different from the electric vehicles common in the apocalypse, the driving style was similar. They spent an hour familiarizing themselves with the clutch before the soldiers finally figured out how to drive.

As to the conversion between the firing distance and angle, it was written on a sheet. The soldier responsible for firing would only need to punch it into the calculator.

The eight BM-21s rolled out of the warehouse one by one and dispersed under Jiang Chen's command. The stents on the side of the truck were released to stabilize the truck to finish the deployment. One hundred survivors from the Seventh Area transported rockets that filled the entire warehouse. Two people worked together to lift a 67 kilogram, 3-meter-long rocket and push it onto the launcher.

Before loading the rockets, Jiang Chen instructed them to only load the white rockets - the red rockets were solid fuel rockets used against the zombies and mutants.

The rockets were loaded in an orderly fashion.

Jiang Chen took Cheng Weiguo to the roof of a building two hundred meters out.

Jiang Chen looked into the binoculars with eyes narrowed at Jia City 13 kilometers away. He grinned.

"Take a few more looks; it'll be a different place in a moment."

Cheng Weiguo didn't pick up his binoculars. Instead, he looked at the hive-shaped rockets lined up with concern.

"Do we really not need to move out the soldiers in the city?"

Regarding the weapon that existed two centuries ago, he was afraid the rockets would drop on his men's heads.

"Don't worry, a one-kilometer distance is enough."

Although Russian weapons weren't particularly precise, they wouldn't be off by more than one kilometer. Jiang Chen glared at Cheng Weiguo.

[You don't understand the intelligence of the "ancient."]

"General… Where did you get those artifacts?" Cheng Weiguo picked up the tablet used to control the rockets, asking the question troubling him.

"The vehicles are from a military museum. The rockets are manufactured following blueprints." Jiang Chen didn't mind his blatant question as he answered nonchalantly.

Seeing that Jiang Chen didn't plan on elaborating further, Cheng Weiguo knew better than to probe. He was indeed loyal, but he had curiosity too.

The helicopter arrived above Jia City and hovered just out of the mutated humans' air defense range.

With the help of the radiation dust and cloud, it managed to disguise its presence and provided the aerial map for the battlefield. The wide range life signal detector opened and marked the locations of mutated humans on the control tablet.

With the red dots reaching only ten thousand, the mutated humans probably had shielding devices to block their locations, but they must have a limited range and were only capable of disguising important targets.

Based on human observation, they marked the unidentified areas. Cheng Weiguo nodded to Jiang Chen and handed over the tablet.

The general would order the annihilation of the mutated humans!

Jiang Chen looked at the launcher vehicles locked and loaded two hundred meters out. He then took the tablet.

The distance and target were clearly identified on the screen.

"Listen to my order! Angle 220, distance 14.1 kilometers. Prepare to fire!"

The hive-shaped rocket launchers gradually tilted up and all stopped at the same angle. When the blue flags rose up, one by one, signaling was ready. He took a deep breath and passed the tablet back to Cheng Weiguo.

He pressed his earpiece. Jiang Chen looked in Jia City's direction and shouted ferociously.

"Fire!"

Chapter 448: 166 BMWs Flying in the Air

Jiang Chen swore it was the most magnificent fireworks he'd ever seen.

If the ones he saw in virtual reality didn't count.

Rolling smoke instantly engulfed the vehicles.

Missiles screeched out of the launchers one by one, firing into the distance like arrows. Within 20 short seconds, 320 rockets were launched. Jiang Chen gazed at the smoke trails fading into the distance and he exclaimed:

"Too bad I couldn't see the explosion."

Cheng Weiguo handed the tablet back to Jiang Chen. He already executed the orders.

"Oh, also, and this thing." Jiang Chen smiled, took over the tablet again, and looked at the screen.

…

Beside the broken bridge.

The mutated humans taking cover held onto their machine guns; they were on full alert against any possible NAC attacks. NAC attempted to build a floating bridge three times yesterday, but they were thwarted by grenades, machine guns, and recoilless cannons.

The mortars and electromagnetic cannons caused trouble for the mutated humans, but in the end, those weapons were nothing. The mutated humans didn't suspect a thing; as long as they held their ground, the foolish humans would be the first ones to fall!

"They can't last any longer! We have ammo. We're stronger! Once winter is here, it'll spell their deaths!"

Standing in the back of their area of control, a mutated human captain wore a cape made out of the fur of a Death Claw. He waved the machine gun in his hand, shouting at his hiding comrades and boosting their morale.

In the mutated human society, the clothing one wore represented power and status. Only a warrior who single-handedly defeated a Death Claw could wear its fur as a trophy.

"What is that!?"

Just then, a mutated human kneeling behind an anti-tank cannon roared out, pointing at the black dots in the sky.

"Those are probably their small toys. Don't worry - we have anti-air machine guns and EMP."

The captain mumbled as he pulled up the binoculars dangling in front of his chest.

The toys he referred to were NAC's Hummingbird drones. Whenever an EMP grenade was launched, the drones fell to the ground like flies struck by electricity, hence no one was afraid of those small things anymore. Whenever they encountered drones, they would just detonate an EMP grenade. Although the EMP would render the red sight scope on their weapons useless, no one cared.

The mutated humans didn't need to aim; the mutated humans only needed to unleash their firepower!

His ugly`eyebrows were knotted together. The captain readjusted the zoom and set his eyes on the black dots in the distance.

Clank.

He dropped the binoculars onto the ground. Just as the mutated humans looked at him perplexedly, his ugly face began to twist.

"Take cover!"

He roared. Facing the mutated humans' puzzled looks, he dove into the pit nearby.

But it was futile…

Boom boom boom!

The pouring rockets unleashed a deathly storm. The mutated humans taking cover and those inside the defense structure witnessed a scene only comparable to a living hell in horror. They looked at the dismembered limbs of their comrades and themselves.

The explosion covered every inch of the soil as it bulldozed the mutated humans' zone of control. It left shattered weapons and burnt limbs all over the ground. The rockets exploded the ammo stored in the trenches and triggered a second round of explosions. The trenches soon turned red and gruesome.

The first round of destruction was over!

But the nightmare for the mutated humans had only started.

With turbine engines igniting, the men in power armor crossed the river first. The engineering soldiers soon followed and placed a floating bridge that allowed the tank to pass. Immediately behind them were soldiers in kinetic skeletons and the destructive tanks.

With steel armor hanging in front of their chests, a thousand mutated humans with machine guns stood up from the zone of control further away. They furiously raced to the river and fired while pushing forward in an attempt to regain control of the riverbank. Some mutated humans even lifted the mortars and shot like an RPG, and some raced forward with nuclear grenades strapped onto their bodies.

The lead mutated humans with power warhammers were also there. Unless they were faced with the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon, their armor was invincible. They ignored the bullets and bombs and ran to NAC's zone of control in a thunderous roar.

But they discovered in horror that before they could make it halfway, more rockets emerged in the distance…

The outline of the thick smoke in the distance decorated the barren island in shambles. It was like a fine pen drawing out the jagged curvatures.

The rockets rose, came down, and brought destructive rain to the mutated humans in the distance.

The shrapnel couldn't penetrate the armor of the mutated humans, but the force could explode their organs and brains. Despite the incredible power the mutated humans possessed, they couldn't escape the fact that they were creatures after all.

The mutated humans were more cautious with NAC's rockets. They huddled together under cover while spreading out. They attempted to minimize the damage the NAC could cause. Two thoughts motivated them to remain strong.

[We don't have a lot of rockets left!]

[The attack is their last attempt to win!]

But reality proved that it was only wishful thinking.

Jiang Chen had plenty of rockets to the point where it was unimaginable.

With the mutated humans scattering, Jiang Chen changed the music playing to "Stalin's Organ." He maintained the 40-rockets-per-minute launch speed as the BM-21 fired in rotations to cover the mutated humans' zone of control. At the same time, the First Corps stopped advancing forward under Jiang Chen's order while they enjoyed the symphony.

Fires and explosions flashed nonstop on the tablet. The continuous strikes caused a lot of buildings due for repair to collapse and buried the mutated humans hiding inside. The landmark buildings such as Jia Sports Center remained standing, but it looked like it was on the brink of falling at any moment.

The continuous bombing lasted for an hour as the entire city center of Jia looked like it was bulldozed over.

Jiang Chen felt tired by the shaking screens. He shoved the tablet back into Cheng Weiguo's hand.

Staring at the flames in the video, Cheng Weiguo was astonished.

To be honest, he didn't expect such an ancient weapon could demonstrate such a destructive force.

"This is too astonishing." Ten minutes later, Cheng Weiguo put down the tablet.

"How many did we launch already?"

Cheng Weiguo scanned the empty boxes on the side and provided a rough estimate: "Around five thousand rounds."

[Only five thousand rounds? Still fifteen thousand left.]

Jiang Chen stared at the smoke rising fourteen kilometers away with his eyes narrowed.

[Wait, five thousand rounds?]

He then did the math - one rocket cost 2000 USD, and 30 rockets were 60 thousand USD, equivalent to a BMW.

Five thousand launched out.

Jiang Chen felt his heart ache.

Although he didn't lack money but with 166 BMWs flying in the air, he was still pained by the sight!

…

Inside Jia Sports Center.

Bo Yu sat on a chair in a gloomy mood. The explosions in his ears made him especially flustered.

Troy, the leader of the mutated humans, sat across him with the same gloomy expression.

"What do we do?"

The Dusk Church helped them blow up the bridges, provided them with a large number of firearms, and brought the information "there's a mutant flood in Wanghai City; these people won't last long."

But the last one was clearly false.

He didn't know if the mutant flood actually erupted in Wanghai or not, but the humans here clearly were committed to fighting the battle.

"I said earlier that we should retreat to the west as these people aren't easy to deal with. The merchants in Hang City are easier to bully." Bo Yu closed his eyes and spoke lightly.

"The mutated humans won't retreat; we won't compromise to inferior humans. We will rip them apart, stuff them into a meat grinder, and make them into sausages," Troy said deviously.

[Is that so? The person sitting in front of you who helped you live for so long is a human? Do you really think by the simple fact that you have a head, it would equate to intelligence?]

Bo Yu scoffed in his mind but didn't say anything out loud.

He knew it was not the time for an internal feud. Especially since hours ago, he predicted that the mutated humans were in favor to win, or he wouldn't be sitting there.

The NAC soldiers were on high alert, and the rockets were constantly striking the city. Retreating was no longer an option. If would be death if they retreated now; even without the rockets, two legs couldn't outrun the tanks. Abandoning their cover would mean that Dusk and the mutated humans were waiting to be slaughtered.

[No other plans?]

It wasn't the first time he'd experienced this.

When he was surrounded by the military government in the Northern Alliance Area, he was in a similar situation.

The only difference was this time, his back wasn't completely against the wall.

Bo Yu looked at the ring on his finger.

The blood crystal reflected a charming but dangerous eeriness under the light.

"When will you send your people out?"

His people were dying, but his ally had no response at all.

Looking at the face reflected by the blood crystal, Bo Yu said gently.

"Don't panic, very soon."

Chapter 449: Seige on Sports Center

The mutated humans had a fatal weakness - they couldn't stuff their giant bodies into vehicles. Even if they always arrogantly referred to themselves as moving armor, they were just trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

If it wasn't for the Dusk Church modifying trucks for them, they wouldn't even be able to operate vehicles.

In the early days of warfare with Fishbone base, they learned how to install cannons onto their trucks. But faced with the Tiger II, their crude "high mobility anti-tank cannons" were a joke.

The most common anti-tank cannon used on the wasteland was Type-99, produced by deconstructing the primary cannon used on the Type-99 light tank. The Type-99 shells couldn't penetrate the thick front armor of the Tiger II, however. At most, it could break the belt and destroy the observer hole, but one round of Tiger II's 5 kg bombs could break the cannon along with the truck into pieces.

So the mutated humans learned the hard way to avoid sending out an armored force. Instead, they chose to take down the cannon and fire at them behind cover.

Because of this, the First Corps didn't encounter any "armored force" resistance.

The eight hours of battle ended as 20,000 rounds of rockets were unleashed onto 20,000 mutated humans. Scorching flames continued to burn inside the war zone and melted all the steel in the area, although Jia City hadn't directly been struck by a nuclear weapon. Paint and organic construction materials were all unconsumed, but they burned in the flames and emitted toxic fumes into the city.

High temperatures and toxic gas. The city was in shambles.

A lot of mutated humans didn't die from being buried alive or explosions but from the fires and asphyxiation that ensued.

The soldiers who saw the General personally visiting the battlefield erupted into cheers.

[How is authority built?]

While everyone was wondering whether the fort was indestructible or not, you stood in front of all of us. Because of your presence, the indestructible fort collapsed.

You are the hero.

All the glory belongs to you.

There's no need for words.

It's not logic that brings worship but emotion.

Jiang Chen faced the cheering soldiers as he signaled to them that the war wasn't over yet. He wanted them to stand firm on their positions and wait for the order to change.

Jiang Chen took a tour at the frontlines and met all the soldiers there. He and Cheng Weiguo stood in the middle of their area of control while they enjoyed watching the massive fire.

This wasn't a war.

With absolute firepower, it was more appropriate to describe this as a slaughter.

"How long do you think the fire will burn for?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

"If it doesn't rain, it'll burn until tomorrow," Cheng Weiguo said while looking up at the gloomy clouds in the air.

"Then get the soldiers to rest. They won't be fighting for a while." Jiang Chen made the order then headed to the command vehicle.

"Roger!" Cheng Weiguo saluted and began to make the order on the tablet.

The flames were beginning to lose control, but the situation soon changed at midnight.

Maybe the wailing of mutated humans received mercy from the heavens since a few raindrops began to fall down. With this change, Cheng Weiguo immediately woke the well-rested soldiers and prepared to launch the order to attack.

Gradually, the rain began to pour down.

The grain-size droplets descended from the sky, smothered the flames, hit the muddy ground…

Rose from the burning steel and rolled down from the power armor's surface.

"Charge!"

A thunderous shout came from the radio channel as the First Corps battle line began to move forward.

The electrostatic sound of the mortars began to screech in the air as ten lighting bombs rose into the air and lit up the sky near the Sports Center with their orange flames.

The armored force crossed the river and the power armor's steel boots extinguished the faint footprints as they marched forward.

The rain washed away the chaos on the ground and cooled off the burning corpses. The soldiers who walked by had to hold their breath - the pungent smell of burnt meat lingered even in the heavy rain.

It wasn't only mutated humans who died under the rockets - thousands of Jia survivors also died as a result. But in the merciless apocalypse, even the previous Defender soldiers rescued from the Seventh Area didn't drop a single tear for the deceased.

Death was the norm.

3,000 soldiers surrounded the Sports Center that stood tall while they prepared to eliminate their last remaining enemies.

1,000 engineering soldiers were handed rifles to rescue any human captives remaining among the shambles and kill off any undead mutated humans.

Needless to say, the mutated humans were tenacious.

Even in this living hell, there were still a few who survived.

On top of the Tiger II, wearing kinetic armor, Jiang Chen heard an angry roar in the distance.

In the pouring rain, a mutated human with pitch-black skin shook off the debris on top of him, swung the power warhammer in his hand, and hit an engineering soldier into the sky like a golf ball.

A lead mutated human!

The three soldiers all raised their rifles in horror as they began to fire, but the deflected bullets clearly showed that all was futile.

Jiang Chen looked at the figure in silence as the lead mutated human reminded him of an unpleasant memory from the past.

He patted the cannon below him and the Tiger II immediately understood.

The vehicle stopped and the cannon began to rotate.

When Jiang Chen met eyes with the mutated human two hundred meters away, the cannon he was sitting on shook violently.

An eerie blue arc ignited as the electromagnetic pulse bomb fired.

The 5 kg bomb blasted through the raindrops and drew a white trail in the midst of the rain. When the white trail faded, the lead mutated human had already been turned into pieces of meat.

The three soldiers sat up and waved at Jiang Chen to thank him for saving them.

Jiang Chen waved back and signaled the Tiger II to continue.

In the rain, the First Corps soldiers surrounded the Sports Center and engaged in battle on the street 300 meters away. When the Tiger II arrived near the frontlines, he jumped down from the tank.

The power armors 20 meters in front of him were firing with their machine guns.

The battle was at a point where it was one-sided. To be honest, Jiang Chen wanted to put on power armor himself to try the thrilling experience of combat. But when he saw a few enemy rockets smashing a power armor nearby, he quickly gave up on the idea.

Since this wasn't the modern world, power armor wasn't invincible.

A few soldiers ran out and dragged the power armor and the injured soldier out amongst enemy fire.

When he walked to the command vehicle, Jiang Chen took off his helmet to dump out some water and spoke to Cheng Weiguo.

"What's the situation at the frontlines?"

"We're just closing out. This feels fu*king great."

He'd never fought a more exhilarating battle than this.

Jiang Chen grinned.

[This is all my cash - forty million USD to buy the lives of 20,000 mutated humans. If this isn't exhilarating, I don't know what to say.]

"Once you capture Jia City, leave 1,000 people to defend it - Hang's Merchant Alliance may send people to scout. But with this scene, I don't think they'll have any other ideas. Rest for the night and help Wanghai City tomorrow-"

Boom!

The explosion in the distance suddenly interrupted Jiang Chen mid-sentence.

Jiang Chen stopped then immediately ran out while putting on his helmet.

Chapter 450: Or God

There was a sudden explosion at the frontlines.

A Tiger II was lifted to the sky by a dark green flash.

20 soldiers hidden in the darkness suddenly snuck out as they launched a surprise attack on the northwest corner of the circle formed by NAC. They continued to push forward while they fired simultaneously. The raindrops exposed their outlines, but their outlines were still unclear in the darkness.

Suddenly, two fist-sized crystals flew out from the darkness. They cast an eerie light before they exploded at the NAC infantry's backlines.

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted as he gazed at the explosions in the distance.

He knew exactly what they were.

The ability to explode crystals.

These people belonged to the Dusk!

The soldiers at the northwest corner immediately responded as they started firing at the unknown force.

"It's an optical illusion! Bring out your EMPs!" A soldier shouted while ripping off his earpiece. He threw an EMP grenade.

The soldiers nearby all followed as they targeted the area with EMP bombardment. The static noise began to diffuse to the surrounding area and revealed the soldiers in black standing in a triangular formation.

Their black kinetic skeletons looked like full-body jumpers and their fluid rifles had a blue light. Judging by the quietness of their shooting, they were using Gauss rifles powered by electromagnetic acceleration.

Just from the details, their equipment definitely wasn't from wasteland factories made with crude techniques; they were probably manufactured before the war!

And they were the elites of the Dusk Church – the Apostles!

The bullets left waves and ripples on the energy shield. After being exposed, the Apostles didn't panic as they searched for cover and scattered around the destroyed Tiger II while engaging in battle with the First Corps soldiers.

The EMP didn't affect their Gauss rifles as their working principle was based on high power currents accelerating metal projectiles; the effect of EMP on the flow of currents was almost negligible. The penetration power of the Gauss rifle posed a great threat to the soldiers even though the T-3 power armor was enough to defend against the projectiles of the Gauss rifle…

But it was futile.

Faced with the Wanderer Tank, everything was futile.

While the Apostles pushed forward to the Sports Center, putting their lives on the line, the sound of an engine humming appeared from behind them.

The concrete wall collapsed under the impact. The Wanderer tank previously leading the charge circled behind them.

The particle cannon fired and a blue ball of light exploded in the middle of the Apostles' formation. The scattered high energy particles instantly penetrated through their energy shield. At the same time, the coaxial electrostatic cannon started to unleash its power.

The 2 kg shells swept through at a rapid speed which caused a series of blasts in the rain. The cannon forced the Apostles to remain in their position before they were shredded. Faced with the Wanderer tank, their advantage of stealth was no longer existent.

Their fate was determined. The mutated humans and the Dusk had no more fighting chances.

The mutated soldiers at the Sports Center began to retreat while the NAC soldiers at the periphery of the building rushed in.

But then, a green light sparkled and an explosion filled the battlefield again.

The explosion was at the front of the Sports Center gate. The eight soldiers rushing in were blown a street away.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes to see the clouds of dust drifting apart as a figure walked out.

Red dots locked onto that person's body.

Without a doubt, if he dared to make any moves, he would become a sieve in the next second.

What made Jiang Chen uncertain was the still, calm look on his face.

The rain dampened his clothes, the fur on his collar had been turned into a few muddled strands, and his hands were in his pockets.

"I want to see your boss."

It was the first thing he said.

"Capture him." That was Cheng Weiguo's response.

Two soldiers walked up with rifles in hand and pointed straight at his head while marching forward.

"Kneel on the ground and put your hands above your head!"

The person sighed.

"Is this how you worship a god?"

As the voice died, the scene suddenly took a turn.

As if they were being directed by an invisible hand, two steel beams on the ground rose. Before the two soldiers could realize what happened, they were penetrated by the soaring beams.

Even Jiang Chen was shocked by the scene.

"Kill him!" Cheng Weiguo shouted.

The shocked soldiers turned angry as they immediately pressed their triggers.

Their bullets flew, but they all stopped in front of the stranger like flies stuck in a spider web. Like a scene from the Matrix, Jiang Chen's expression turned solemn.

[What kind of technology is this?]

Seeing as the bullets were useless, Cheng Weiguo waved his hand.

With his command, the Tiger II rushed in and targeted the Type-50 electromagnetic cannon at the gate.

The person smiled at the sight and opened his jacket.

The shining gems dangling inside his jacket reflected an eerie dark red.

When Jiang Chen saw this, his pupils instantly shrunk.

"Stop!"

Jiang Chen ordered.

Cheng Weiguo looked at Jiang Chen in shock as he didn't understand the decision.

The person smiled with pleasure and raised the flashing red ring on his hand.

"Jiang Chen, I know you're here. Come out! Don't you want to chat with me?"

Blood crystal was a substance with the same structure as crystal but possessed a thousand times the energy. Just a thumb-sized piece could create energy equivalent to one kilogram of tritium going through nuclear fusion.

Jiang Chen heard Lin Lin say that Klein particles in the third dimension was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of its actual energy. Because of this, when Sun Xiaorou tried to assassinate him, just a few small crystals managed to create destructive power similar to a bomb.

The ability to explode the crystals worked by releasing all the energy of the Klein particles. Therefore, once he blew up the blood crystal, the energy released would be far greater than the energy released through one kilogram of tritium in nuclear fusion.

Therefore, for each of the blood crystals in his lap, each of them had power comparable to a hydrogen bomb.

Jiang Chen counted. Including the ring on his finger, he had a total of 121 blood crystals.

Cheng Weiguo saw Jiang Chen walking forward and immediately grabbed him.

"General! You can't-"

Jiang Chen shook his head, signaling Cheng Weiguo not to worry. He insisted on moving forward.

Watching Jiang Chen walk to him, the person smiled joyfully.

"Of course you know your stuff."

Cheng Weiguo watched Jiang Chen walking to the stranger without any protection. He gulped with uneasiness then signaled the sniper beside him. The sniper understood and raised his sniper rifle cautiously.

Jiang Chen glanced at the bodies penetrated by the beams then looked at the person.

"Introduce yourself."

Seeing as Jiang Chen wasn't scared at all, the person's smile became brighter and brighter.

"Bo Yu - Yu for space. Or you can call me pope or God."

Chapter 451: 121 Hydrogen Bombs

The rain fell rhythmically. The droplets shined under the light bomb, scattering a blood-like texture. The two stood across from each other in the front of the Sports Center, eyes fixed on each other in silence.

[God?]

Jiang Chen scoffed at the thought.

[How childish would you be to consider yourself a God?]

Boo Yu didn't seem to mind Jiang Chen's scoff as he smiled.

"I have to respect you for the fact that you made me show my trump card. I'm really curious as to where you got those rockets. As far as I know, no countries before the war were bored enough to use the boring non-guided missiles."

A task that could be completed by a single guided missile obvious didn't need a bunch of non-guided missiles to complete. These non-guided missiles left history in the mid-21st century, so it made sense for Boo Yu to be completely oblivious to the source.

"I managed to find creativity in history. Outdated doesn't mean useless." Jiang Chen grinned and gave a vague answer.

"Is that so?" Boo Yu shrugged.

"But you, how did you manage to do it?' Jiang Chen glanced at the steel beams and bullets on the ground. He was intrigued.

Bo Yu seemed to have heard an interesting question as he suddenly burst out laughing.

The arrogant laughter echoed inside the Sports Center, clear but strange.

"Looks like you know nothing about power."

Jiang Chen didn't respond as he only apathetically looked at the smile on his face. He seemed to have finished laughing as he retracted his arrogance.

"Fine, because you answered a question for me, I'll tell you. Have you heard of the hidden genetic code?"

[Hidden Genetic Code?]

"I have heard about it," Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

[He already unlocked the second level.]

"Did you try to unlock the third level?" Bo Yu said mysteriously.

"The third level?"

"That's right. The hidden genetic code is someone human ancestors possessed, but through the process of evolution, it was eventually lost. The reason why they lost the ability was not of its weakness or extraneousness, but rather because they were too powerful, therefore they were balanced out by nature." Bo Yu stared at Jiang Chen's eyes with a smile and raised one of his hand, "Just like this."

The bullets began to float from the ground and concentrate in his palm before slowing forming a mini hurricane.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows at the supernatural scene.

"Telekinesis?"

"No, no, no. That is too unprofessional of a way to describe it," with bullets in hand, Bo Yu shook a finger, "This is just a different way of using Klein particles. It uses the third-dimensional physics phenomenon to disrupt the coordinate location."

"So your ability is to detect Klein particles?" Jiang Chen said musingly.

Klein particles' disruption to a third-dimensional phenomenon. Speaking of which, he remembered that the Klein particles that Tingting fired could destroy electronic equipment, could that be a method of disruption?

The disruption to electron movement.

Just as Jiang Chen thought about this, he noticed the flashing ring in his hand.

[Wait, if his ability is to disrupt Klein particles, then his ability must come from…]

"Sense, disrupt, and control." Bo Yu smiled. "Just like what you saw, I can make kinetic energy stop at will, and I can create magnetic fields out of thin air. I become the God of this world by unlocking the third level! And technology's power will allow me to gift my power to my followers."

"I originally wanted to use the 121 hydrogen bombs I have on me to force you to help me leave, but now I have changed my mind."

"I respect your ability, with your help, my plan will be much easier."

"What do you think? Do you long for this power? Do you long for leaving the barren wasteland?"

"Join us. I will give you a ticket, and I will gift you the ability to intervene with nature."

Bo Yu said, his voice manipulative while gazing into Jiang Chen's pupils.

[Join him?]

The project to leave for a new world had not the slightest attractiveness to Jiang Chen. He could freely traverse between the modern world and the apocalypse. But Jiang Chen didn't immediately reject him but instead became immersed in thought.

[121 hydrogen bombs.

Even if they explode in Jia City, it could easily wipe off the province of Suhang from the map.]

"You have no other choice. I already activated the 121 blood crystals in my body. Once they leave my control, they will explode like grenades." Seeing Jiang Chen was silent, Bo Yu advanced.

Jiang Chen looked up in the sky.

The fifteen light bombs dangling nearby seemed to be reaching their limit.

"What are you looking at it?" Bo Yu frowned.

"Nothing, I agree to work with you." Jiang Chen suddenly smiled and extended his hand.

Bo Yu paused for a moment as Jiang Chen's smile gave him an ominous feeling. But feeling the hefty weight on his body, he felt calm again.

[I don't care what kind of tricks you play, I have nukes strapped on me."

Bo Yu opened his hand and let the bullets slide down as he shook Jiang Chen's hand.

"Welcome, my comrade."

"Haha, welcome.' Jiang Chen warmly shook his hand as mischievousness suddenly flashed across Jiang Chen's eyes as he put his finger casually on his sleeve.

The light bombs in the air began to fade as the shadow projected down the wall began to gradually disguise the two's figure.

Suddenly, Bo Yu was alerted.

Before he could react, he felt the weight on his body disappear as his ring and jacket all vanished into thin air.

"How, how is that possible?!"

Bo Yu backed up feeling wholly shaken while pulling out the pistol around his waist.

He could no longer use his ability after losing the ring, although his mind was in complete chaos after witnessing the "supernatural activity", he knew one thing clear. If he wanted to live, he must control the man in front of him.

But before he could even raise his pistol, a soaring light blade chopped off his arm

"AHHHH!"

The deafening scream echoed in the giant stadium, Bo Yu tumbled and fell to the ground. He held onto his severed right arm; his limbs twitched in pain.

Jiang Chen hid away the laser sword in his hand while he used his earpiece to order Cheng Weiguo to come in. He then walked toward Bo Yu.

The leader that referred to himself as God had the muscles on his face completely twisted in pain. White foam fizzed out from his mouth as his calm and collected persona vanished.

"Looks like I just slew God." Jiang Chen kicked away the pistol on the ground and looked down on the leader of Dusk.

This counted as revenge for Sun Xiaorou and Sun Jiao.

The high temperature of the laser blade burned his wound. He didn't lose too much blood. Because of this, Jiang Chen could ask a few more questions.

"This is impossible, my blood crystals… You hid them. Haha, it's okay… Without my control, they will blow you all to pieces… and die with me." Bo Yu moved back while locking his eyes on Jiang Chen as words came stuttering out.

"You could speak already? Unfortunately, they disappeared from this world," Jiang Chen scorned.

Bo Yu's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.

"That's impossible."

"Do you want to know why?" Jiang Chen smile.

Bo Yu curled up on the ground gulped and nodded.

"Then tell me first about Fallout Shelter 071. Or, why would you chose Sun Xiaorou?"

It was what puzzled Jiang Chen the most. [If he had granted Sun Xiaorou's ability, why would he choose her and implant a chip to block her memory?]

When Bo Yu heard her name, Bo Yu took a moment to process it before realizing.

"Oh, you are talking about the assassin I sent? What a useless- AHHHH!"

"Don't bullsh*t me." Jiang Chen said apathetically as he stabbed the laser sword into his toe.

The sharp pain almost made Bo Yu unconscious.

He had never experienced such pain. Sweat began to roll down from his forehead as he said while howling and screaming.

"I'll say it, I'll say it!"

Jiang Chen stopped and looked at him.

"Fallout Shelter 071, there is a live PAC specimen there." Holding onto his severed limb, Bo Yu's muscles tightened up as his words came right out.

"Specimen?" Jiang Chen frowned.

There was hesitation in Bo Yu's eyes, but when he saw the laser sword dangling in Jiang Chen's hand, he decided to reveal the secret.

"Among the 500 survivors, there is an eternal life code hidden among them."

[Eternal life!]

Jiang Chen was completely stunned, but there was no expression on his face as he said nonchalantly.

"Oh, did you find it?"

No people of influence could escape the temptation of eternal life, and Jiang Chen was not an exception.

Bo Yu's twisted face squeezed out a smile.

"Haha, guess?"

"Don't waste time." Jiang Chen said emotionlessly with the laser sword pointed at his nose, "Based on the value of the information you provided, I can consider letting you live."

"Hehe, then why don't you just kill me." Bo Yu said with a grim smile, "You really think I will fall for your trick? You only have two choices; kill me and loss all the clues or let me live in exchange for a clue."

The truth-telling liquid was useless to anyone injected with the genetic vaccine. If he didn't say anything, Jiang Chen had no better ways of obtaining the information in his head.

[Capture him first before interrogation?]

But just then, drowsiness began to overwhelm him.

He felt a burning sensation from his wrist.

With "uh oh' in his mind, the laser sword pointed at Bo Yu nose slid down from his hand.

Without screaming, the laser sword penetrated Bo Yu's head.

Trying his hardest to maintain his fallen consciousness, Jiang Chen pressed on the earpiece and said "help me" to Cheng Weiguo before dropping to the ground.

The 121 blood crystals finally exploded.

But it was not in this world. It was inside Jiang Chen's storage dimension.

Chapter 452: Collapse

Among the hazy chaos.

The 121 crimson dots began to expand and illuminated the 30 cubic meters sub-dimension.

The light was getting brighter and brighter and gradually swallowed all the items inside the storage dimension and expanded to the edge of the space.

All the energy inside was trapped by the invisible force field inside the tiny space. The entire sub-dimension was like a paper box that quarantined all the energy released from the 121 hydrogen bombs.

The blinding light expanded against the invisible wall in an attempt to break through the boundary and spread further.

The 121 blood crystals were like a dam that was cracking; the violently diffused energy unleashed into the third-dimensional space. Followed by the Klein particles constant decay to the third dimension, inside the 30 cubic meters space, the pressure against the boundary was even comparable to the pressure inside a star.

It was just like a sun squeezed into 30 cubic meters.

The restraint was absolute, despite the massive amount of energy, they could not leak out from the sub-dimension.

Suddenly, the energy filling the space came to a halt as it stopped pressurizing the space boundary.

With the force of gravity, once the photon concentration exceeded the threshold. They could no longer escape, but rather began to collapse toward the middle…

The light that filled the space shrunk to a single point. That one point was darker than any material in the natural world because no light could escape its constraint nor its gravity field.

"Is that… a black hole?"

Jiang Chen stared blankly at the changes in the space. He wanted to reach for the black dot, but he realized he had no hands at all.

After fallen unconscious, his consciousness appeared in the dimension.

Before, even if he could store and sense the items in the subdimension, which he referred to as the storage dimension, he never examined it closely.

And now, he could allow all his consciousness to flow into the dimension and observe everything inside.

"This dimension is not cubical nor spherical, but rather… Uh, what exactly is it?" Jiang Chen frowned as he searched for the right word to describe the place.

Without any shape, it was purely comprised of an invisible gravitational force used to restrain all matters inside the 30 cubic meters space.

Space was free of shape. The only limitation was the size of the matter inside the space.

Jiang Chen shook his head and gave up on the idea of naming the dimension. He started to observe the black dot.

The 121 blood crystals completely vanished, all the Klein particles decayed into energy visible in the third dimension.

Jiang Chen quietly viewed the black dot while patiently waiting for its change.

But a long time passed, and no change occurred.

But even then, Jiang Chen could sense that the black dot's dimension was still compressing. Only because its shape was being compressed by its own gravitational force to the shape of the space, it was difficult to physically observe its change.

If there was a physicist here, he may fall into shock or even frenzy, and gaze onto this "miracle".

Gravitational collapse!

It was gravitational collapse!

Any of the small changes that occurred there could cause an earthquake in the world of physics.

But Jiang Chen, who stood there, was only an engineer that forgot most of his knowledge. Not only did he lack any understanding, but he also did not have any desire to pursue. He only spent the time observing the black dot because he had nothing else to do…

It was not the first time he wasted a valuable opportunity.

But then, an odd occurrence appeared in his storage dimension.

The black dot where not even light could escape began to use its force to twist and shred the dimension.

At the same time, Jiang Chen shockingly discovered that the boundary that restrained the sub-dimension began to loosen.

He was first ecstatic, but his mood took a rollercoaster ride down to the bottom.

The boundary did indeed begin to shake.

But it was not being expanded outward, but being dragged in by the black dot with infinitely large density and infinitely small dimensions.

Jiang Chen didn't know what to feel.

"My storage dimension will be pulled to form a singularity?" Jiang Chen wanted to stop everything from happening, but he could not interfere with the changes.

Throw the black dot outside?

Jiang Chen instantly rejected the idea as cold sweat dripped down.

Creating a black hole on earth, the place would no longer be an apocalypse, but doomsday.

Just as he was pained by the idea that his storage dimension "disappearing", the black dot exploded.

The big bang occurred.

If a physicist were here, he would fall unconscious due to the excitement.

Because at that instant, Jiang Chen witnessed the birth of a universe.

When compressed to the limit, the motion of photons turn into an absolute static state. The photon without mass instantly lose all its energy when it stopped moving. The black dot lost its energy, the infinitely large density instantly returned to zero, and the gravity that warped space vanished too.

The big bang caused by the gravitational collapse caused a sudden transition from the "sub-dimension" to a dimension.

Jiang Chen witnessed everything that occurred in front of his eyes with astonishment before his consciousness slowly returned to his body…

He opened his eyes and realized that he was in a room.

Cheng Weiguo sat beside him.

"General! You are finally awake!" Seeing Jiang Chen wake up, Cheng Weiguo instantly turned joyous as he immediately got closer.

"How long was I unconscious for?"

"Two days!"

"Mhm… Where is this place?" Jiang Chen scanned his surroundings.

"This is Shenxiang Town, I followed your order and left 1000 soldiers to defend Jia before taking the rest of the soldiers and armored forces back to Wanghai." Cheng Weiguo immediately responded.

"We won?"

"We won!" Cheng Weiguo nodded in excitement.

[We won… but everything feels surreal.]

Jiang Chen reminiscenced about the final showdown and what happened in the storage dimension.

"General, please don't do something dangerous like this again. If anything happens to you, your Miss will blow our heads off," Cheng Weiguo said with a bitter expression.

Jiang Chen only smiled.

[If it were not for me, who threw the 121 blood crystals into the storage dimension, the entire Suhang province would have been wiped out from the map, never mind you.]

Of course, he would not explain this to them. Only a few members of the NAC knew that the Dusk could explode crystals. As to his storage dimension ability, only Sun Jiao, Yao Yao, and Lin Lin knew, even Sun Xiaorou didn't know as he hasn't had the opportunity to tell her.

"Where did the eight mounted rocket launcher vehicles go?" Jiang Chen asked.

"The vehicles are deployed to Shenxiang; the remaining solid fuel rockets are still being transported. General, are you hungry, should I bring you some food?"

With how caring Cheng Weiguo was, Jiang Chen shook his head.

"No need. Leave me alone for now. I just want to lie here for a bit… Also, did you report that I was unconscious?"

"No, I was about to."

"No need."

"Okay." Cheng Weiguo was relieved too.

When he left, he closed the door for Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen rested for a moment before he picked up his EP and began to check his body stats.

All body functions were normal without any physical damage.

Then, Jiang Chen instantly disappeared from the bed before returning to bed in the next second.

The interdimensional traveling ability was functional.

Feeling relieved, he submerged his consciousness into the storage dimension.

Jiang Chen's mouth twitched at the sight.

There was nothing inside.

Including a power armor, some grenades, the PK2000 he used for a while… two protective suits, a few instant noodles, and snacks…

Everything was destroyed in the big explosion.

Jiang Chen sighed.

He was not pained by the loss of weapons and foods.

But all the debit card, ID, and driver's license must be obtained once again. He would also have to obtain a new set of keys and a new phone…

He was used to tossing everything into the storage dimension. Now everything inside had been melted down.

"Whatever, it is a good time for new things. I will ask Yao Yao to create a new phone for me," Jiang Chen let a sigh as he muttered to himself while staring blankly at the ceiling.

Other than that, there was an increase in his sense of the storage dimension, as he could not only submerge his consciousness into the pitch black space, but he could also use his consciousness to interfere with the matter inside.

For example, he could control a pair of nonexistent hands inside the dimension to move the location of the vase he threw inside.

The vase reappeared in his hand.

Jiang Chen opened the life signal detector on the EP and lowered the frequency identification range. Staring into the EP screen, Jiang Chen was silent before he sighed.

[Still could not carry creatures?]

Jiang Chen shook his head and let his consciousness continue to sink into the dimension to feel more of the "suspended feeling."

But then, he was shocked by his discovery.

[Eh?]

[When did my storage dimension get so big?]

Chapter 453: An End to the West Line

The storage dimension somehow reenacted the Big Bang.

The previous 30 cubic meters dimension expanded ten times, and it was now 300 cubic meters already! The previous sub-dimension only restrained by gravity now turned into a "universe!" And the "universe" was expanding outward at a hardly visible speed!

A spherical dimension 300 square meters in volume with a radius of 4.146 meters.

Outside of the spherical was just space.

It was minuscule compared to the actual universe, Jiang Chen referred to it as "small universe" for now.

He knew with time; the "small universe" will eventually become something comparable to the actual universe.

Although it may take billions of years...

But what fascinated Jiang Chen was not the slowly expanding size.

He had an inexplicable feeling that the transition between emptiness to defined state was the key to him bringing people through interdimensional travel.

…

Jiang Chen rested until morning. He moved his body around in the room after waking up, seeing that there was no discomfort, he headed out.

The soldier stationed outside the door saluted when he saw Jiang Chen and took him to the temporary command post of the First Corps under his request.

When he saw Cheng Weiguo, he started to ask about the status of the First Corps.

First, it began with the loot.

The 300,000 tons of Grade C steel far exceeded the expected 200,000; the Sixth Street investors would cheer at this fact. At the same time, the First Crops obtained 50,000-tons of Grade A steel from the newly built warehouse in Jia, as well as large amounts of Type-99 anti-tank cannons, mortars as well as other heavy weapons. The looted steels would be used by the factories in Fishbone base to produce Tiger II tanks. The regular weapons were left in Jia and were guarded by the 1000 First Corps soldiers.

On the other hand, the kinetic skeletons and Gauss rifles remains used by the Apostles were collected by Cheng Weiguo. After the end of the mutants flood, the pieces would be sent to Fallout Shelter 027 for technological recreation.

Optical illusion, Gauss rifle, Jiang Chen had been thirsty for these technologies for a long time but never obtained the design blueprint for them. Although he didn't know where the Dusk managed to obtain such technology, they belonged to him now. The loot from a technological point of view was pleasing too.

Bo Yu died. This marked the end of the Dusk and the big problem was finally solved.

The only regret was that the secret of Fallout Shelter 071 would be carried into the grave along with the death of Bo Yu. If he wanted to know, he would have to search for the remaining members of the Dusk, or personally investigate the abandoned remains of fallout shelter 071.

In the nuclear fallout shelter under the Sports Center, the NAC soldiers killed the leader of the mutated humans, Troy, as well as the remaining mutated humans in the Seventh Area. All the mutated humans in the Seventh Area were eliminated. After capturing the Seventh Area and Jia, Cheng Weiguo ordered all mutated humans vial to be destroyed as well as the FEV formula.

Therefore, the problem that bothered Wanghai for so long was finally removed. The business route to the west would be open again.

By next year spring, endless amount of merchants would traverse to the treasure land, Wanghai, with their shining crystals and delicate goods.

On the other hand, only ten thousand Defenders were saved from Jia. They all expressed their interest in joining NAC, even though 50,000 died under the rain of destruction.

It was human nature for the weak to worship the strong.

If they were protected by a powerful force, they wouldn't have needed to experience that kind of hardship in the first place. So they pleaded Cheng Weiguo to shelter them, even as NAC slaves.

Cheng Weiguo didn't immediately agree. He only expressed that he would pass their request on to the general.

Jiang Chen considered it for two seconds before accepting them. Then he selected a few people who looked clever to look after the ten thousand people from the First Division and to start rebuilding in Jia.

Jia was the gateway to Wanghai from the west. Jiang Chen was debating if it should be declared a military zone or economic zone.

But after discussing with Chu Nan on the phone, Jiang Chen made the final decision.

He established Jia as an economic zone and completely abandoned the Seventh Area. This way, the merchants that pass through the area could complete simple supplying. On the other hand, Jiang Chen requested the temporary director of Jia to investigate the state of the maglev track.

If they could repair the maglev track from Jia's rail station and link it with Wanghai's rail station, the time between Jia to Wanghai would drastically shorten. The merchants from Hai heading to Su and Changzhou would indeed favor taking Wanghai's route and abandon traversing the barren land to the east of Lake Dingshan.

At the end of the call, Jiang Chen briefly asked about the current status of the Sixth Street. He knew that they were in a precarious state, hanging on by a thread.

Currently, large numbers of dangerous mutants appeared from east of the Sixth Street, and the long defense line brought immense pressure to the soldiers defending. Just yesterday, the north door was attacked by a group of Death Claws.

It was a calamity.

It was not difficult for the Death Claw to hop onto the wall. But to the survivors, all the anti-tank cannon or rocket launchers could damage the Death Claw.

"If we cannot receive assistance within four days, we will have to abandon the Outer Circle wall and retreat to the Inner Circle. The mutants in the rural area have become more and more powerful. The fuel storage in the Sixth Street is also running short…" Chu Nan said difficulty.

"Don't worry. Latest this afternoon, everything will end." Jiang Chen laughed on the phone.

Chu Nan raised his eyebrows, puzzled. He didn't know the massive commotion Jiang Chen caused on the East line. But with how confident Jiang Chen sounded, he still stated that he would do his best to defend while waiting for backup to arrive.

The source of Jiang Chen's confidence was simple.

[20 thousand solid fuel rockets to bring on the rain of destruction.]

[Regardless if it is zombies or Death Claws, any carbon-based life form must die!]

Jiang Chen hung up the phone and looked toward Cheng Weiguo waiting on the side.

"When will the 20 thousand rockets be ready?"

"It has been ready since an hour ago, waiting for your order."

Jiang Chen nodded pleasingly.

"What about the armored force?"

"Prepared to enter the battle!" Cheng Weiguo raised his chest.

It was time to end everything.

Jiang Chen looked at the hologram map hovering on the table and a grin formed on his face.

"Tell everyone to get ready. Bring the weapons and let's go home!"

Chapter 454: The Fire

Outside of the east gate of the Sixth Street, broken limbs were scattered on the ground. The thickened blood and zombie fat mixture formed a hard shell and covered any visible surface.

A soldier on the wall gulped and slightly moved his finger on the trigger. The tragedy and disgust under the wall made his skull feel numb.

The sentry guns on the wall moved at a uniform speed with the red sight scanning outside of the wall, searching for any suspicious target. The higher towers were installed with Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon or Type-99 anti-tank cannon. The soldiers responsible for firing were taking a nap beside the cannon as a lot of them haven't closed their eyes for over 24 hours.

"They are almost here."

Inside the command tower, Zhao Gang gazed at the red dot on the hologram screen with his eyebrows twisted together. The drones captured the mutants' distribution outside of Wanghai. The red box labeled "Bug Vehicle" gave him an ominous feeling.

As an ex-Qingpu survivor who survived for over ten years on the wasteland, he knew exactly what the "Bug Vehicle" was. He hid into the Sixth Street along with his father that year to survive through the first mutants flood.

"The First Corps is still not here." Chu Nan also looked tense beside him.

"They already left from Shenxiang, but with their current speed, they may not arrive until tomorrow."

"This is an absolute disaster," Chu Nan looked at the halted blue dots on the map as he exclaimed.

When he was a pilot at Liuding, he never met something like the mutants flood. The mutants flood seemed to be only limited to land as the mutants in the ocean didn't exhibit any oddity. Therefore, the Bohai that was stationed beside the harbor would only need to retract the foldable suspension bridge for the zombies and mutants to be stuck on land.

The occasional mutants that could fly onto the dock were killed off by soldiers or power armors holding flamethrowers without the need for him as a pilot to head to the front line.

"This was a disaster to start with." Zhao Gang stared outside the wall.

Another round of mutants attack began!

"It's the Bug Vehicle!"

Followed by a shout, all the soldiers napping woke up and stared down the wall.

On the soft but powerful bug body was a shell as durable as a rock. The shell as smooth as the mirror surface protected its weak head and fragile body. It crawled at an even speed, leaving a disgusting white trial on the concrete surface. It was just like a giant snail with its head covered, but it was not afraid of salt…

It could easily climb over high walls and swallow any of live creatures along its path.

"Machine guns fire! Cannons prepare to shoot, fast!"

Tatatata-!

The soldier kneeling behind cover fired the machinegun and unleashed its fire along with his comrades. The sparks reflected on his face vividly displayed his look of despair.

Bullets splattered and only left thin dents on the surface of the Bug Vehicle. The dense calcium shell was formed from the interlayer of graphene and hexagonal silicon mesh, which was close to the strength of B Grade steel, and the thickness of the shell close to 500mm was like a wall.

The Type-99 anti-tank cannon fired. A bright orange shell soared through the sky. But when it hit the "snail shell", it was deflected at a 90 degrees angle.

"Fu*k, it bounced off!"

With a loud roar, the soldiers reloaded.

At the same time, the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon unleashed its blue electric arc and the 5 kg bomb instantly vaporized the shell. In front of the Bug Vehicle that rendered all anti-armor bullets useless, only the electromagnetic cannon posed a threat.

The problem was the limited number of electromagnetic cannons deployed in the Sixth Street. Only four cannons were distributed to each wall with each cannon responsible for defending a defense line of over a thousand meters. But there were at least hundreds of Bug Vehicles attacking the north wall.

The Bug Vehicle that lost its shell didn't die yet. It crawled on the ground like a snail before quickly dying under the machine guns fire.

A soldier with a rocket launcher kneeled down by the wall and aimed at the Bug Vehicle closest to him.

Target Locked.

He pressed the trigger.

The exhaust burst out as the rocket launched five meters out before readjusting course and blasting into the sky. Five seconds later, the rocket smashed down like a meteor and penetrated the shell of the locked on Bug Vehicle. The "snail shell" suddenly stopped in its track before it was blown three meters into the air and the bug hidden inside was instantly shredded to pieces.

"Nice shot!"

The soldier beside him gave him a thumbs up. He grinned, removed the one-time use launcher, and took out another launcher from the box beside him to install it onto the guidance device.

Red Arrow-42, one of the few weapons that could damage the Bug Vehicle other than the electromagnetic cannon.

With the assistance of anti-tank weapons, the battle began to turn as the Bug Vehicles close to reaching the wall were being wiped out. But Zhao Gang in the command tower still had his eyebrows knitted in a frown.

A total of 251 red dots were on the screen, but there were only 100 Red Arrow-42 rockets in storage. The weapon costing 4000 crystals was too expensive for the Sixth Street to have in high reserve.

At that time, the communication device connected through.

"Hello?" Seeing it was Jiang Chen, he immediately picked up.

"Get ready to look at the fireworks." Jiang Chen laughed.

Zhao Gang was still processing as to what was going on. But half a minute later, the communication device dropped from his hand onto the ground. Staring out the window, his pupils began to widen. His mouth moved up and down in disbelief as he could not search for a single word that could describe his state.

Beside him, Chu Nan's expression was nonetheless similar…

On the wall, a soldier heard the roaring sound from a distance and raised his head.

"Look! What is that?" A person shouted out and pointed to the southwestern sky.

Dense black dots with long smoke trails.

The anti-air machine guns pointed in that direction in caution, but when they saw that those were not mutants, everyone widened their eyes in disbelief.

The rockets smashed down like raindrops and covered the area behind the Sixth Street.

Suddenly, the scorching flame columns shot into the sky and instantly engulfed the battlefield. It swallowed the two hundred something Bug Vehicles as well as the zombies and mutants flooding toward the Sixth Street.

The shell of the Bug Vehicle could easily deflect the rocket and withstand the blast of the explosion, but it could not withstand the thousand degrees high temperature. Their outside remained intact, but the soft body inside was cooked before turning into carbon dust.

The swarming fire and the thick smoke that covered the sun. Under the rain of destruction, no mutants survived.

Feeling the high heat and burnt smell drifted to their nose. The soldiers on the high wall stared at the scene blankly as their rifles rolled out of their hand without knowing.

Moments later, someone spoke the first sentence.

"This is insane."

"…Indeed."

"What is that…" The soldier's voice was trembling.

"…Hell?"

"Perhaps…It is our people."

"Without a doubt."

Feeling the scorching heat whiff to the tip of his nose, his comrade beside him closed the safety and lowered the rifle in his hand.

If this existed, rifles no longer served a purpose.

A Death Claw dashed out from the fire. It rolled on the ground in pain, but the mixed fuel that stuck to its body could not be extinguished. Rolling and turning around didn't help but made it burned faster. Slowly, it no longer twitched, it only scratched the concrete with its claws in agony.

No one bothered with the Death Claw, because everyone knew it could no longer survive.

In the distance, rockets continued to soar through the sky.

In the command tower, Zhao Gang and Chu Nan gazed at the fire in the distance.

The sky in the distance turned red.

But they didn't know if it was the dusk or the fire that illuminated the sky.

Chapter 455: Watching the Firework together

Liuding, the deck of the Bohai Aircraft Carrier.

The limping zombies wandered near the port, and their whitened pupils were blankly fixed on the aircraft carrier in the distance. The deck of the aircraft carrier was filled with survivors, most of them came from the east of Wanghai.

When the mutants flood arrived, the weak survivors often chose to join more powerful settlements, or some just chose to migrate out of the city. Liuding in the ocean was without a doubt their primary choice since zombies and mutants that lived on land couldn't do anything to the aircraft carrier city in the sea.

For these survivors, Liuding's official stance was also welcoming. The official government designated a living area and provided them with drinking water and nutrient supplies. Of course, these services were not free. Including the ticket to board, all the protection must be exchange with crystals.

A middle-aged man in uniform and a general cap stood up straight with his hands behind his back. He gazed into the sky in the distance.

"Rockets?"

"Yes… And it should be napalm rockets," With a rifle in hand, the soldier beside him replied.

The General didn't say a single word and only stared at the flames ascending afar.

After a moment, he cursed out in a low voice.

"Fu*k, where did they get so much fuel?"

The powerful NAC was indeed a threat to Liuding. If this massive amount of rockets flew toward Liuding, he knew too well that even with the electromagnetic and laser anti-missile systems, they had no possibility of surviving.

With the rockets that absolutely had no "technological capability," the cutting-edge countermeasures such as electronic hacking and electromagnetic were simply invalid. The laser anti-missile systems could also at most destroy three or four rockets. In front of hundreds of missiles, it was a joke.

The soldier beside him didn't speak. He slowly took a deep breath and watched the rockets fiesta in the distance with a stiff expression.

It was already getting darker. The General abruptly asked.

"How long did they fire for?"

"They started from dusk," the soldier who recollected his thought replied.

After a momentary silence, the General turned around and left the deck.

"These bastards, they will blow all the radiation dust from the city center to here. Prepare to activate the anti-radiation sail."

"Yes!" The soldier saluted while watching the General.

At the same time, the survivors not far away were also on the edge of the aircraft carrier, gazing at the flames in the sky.

They whispered to each other and discussed everything that was happening on land.

"Did NAC do all of this?"

"Should be… That's the Sixth Street's direction."

Men, women, elder, children… Almost everyone gazed in the same direction.

Their pupils reflected the bright red fireworks.

It was the flame of order.

They saw hope.

…

At the same time, in the space 36000 kilometers from the surface.

The debris of satellites and space stations quietly rotated along the synchronized orbit and formed into a steel planetary ring. Just from the sheer sight, it was easy to catch a glimpse of the tragic battle that erupted there.

Among the space junks, a ship cruised among them.

Inside the ship lied a figure.

"Oh? Very interesting."

Through the layer of glass, he narrowed his eyes while watching the spark of flame on earth. The flame from Wanghai was visible even in orbit.

At the same time, the pleasant female electronic voice began to play.

"Okay, but I don't think I will need it." Lin Chaoen spoke to the program that could not reply before he clicked on the launch pad.

Lin Chaoen ignored the voice as he inputted the password beside the glass hatch.

The steel opening popped up as the emergency launch button appeared. He slapped the red button.

Following the sound of air dispersing, the hatch door gradually opened.

As a robot made completely of mechanical parts, he didn't mind the vacuum environment and was obviously unfearful of the radiation source. He pulled the graphene and attached the metal hook around his waist. Lin Chaoen put on the booster and bounced out into space.

He watched the silent space station floating in space as a smile appeared on his face.

It was a cane.

A cane that granted absolute authority.

…

Besides the launch vehicle, Jiang Chen had a cigarette in his mouth as he watched the flying rockets.

It was already night time, but the sky was still bright.

The BM-21 rockets continued to unleash its power as the solid fuel rockets covered the west rural area all the way to the city center. Millions of zombies and mutants died under "Stalin's Organ." Just with the body of flesh, he didn't believe that any creature would survive in this hell.

It was quite funny, but he suddenly remembered the last time Sun Jiao, and he played together in the virtual reality game. She seemed to have used a spell and scorched the entire beginner's village.

"The feeling of magic?"

Jiang Chen raised the cigarette with his two fingers as he grinned and extended his hand into the night sky filled with rockets.

The "Fireball Rain" started because of his order. If he interpreted the order as a spell, then he was indeed a magician.

The magician that possessed power.

Cheng Weiguo who stood on the side had his hands behind his back. He pretended not to see the General's childish moves.

"What's in the city center?" Jiang Chen suddenly spoke out.

Cheng Weiguo first took a moment to process before a wry smile appeared.

"I don't know, I heard that when the rumor of God's Cane was in the city center, the furthest the survivors reached was the Changning area which is still five kilometers away from the city center. It was all ruins there with a giant nuclear crater in the middle. Only dangerous mutants or extremely mutated creatures would appear there.

"Is no one curious what is there? It shouldn't be that difficult to send a drone to investigate." Jiang Chen killed the cigarette and threw it on the ground.

To be honest, after being injected with the genetic vaccine, he didn't really smoke anymore. But when it was too boring to wait, he would occasionally have one or two.

"The drones can't enter the area, or I should say no electronic equipment could enter." Cheng Weiguo shook his head.

[EMP?]

[Using EMP through a creature's body? That's too obscure.]

As Jiang Chen thought about this, he raised his eyebrows in question as he reached for his pack of cigarette only to realize it was empty.

He wanted to look in his storage dimension, but he remembered that there was absolutely nothing inside.

Cheng Weiguo immediately walked up and took out his own.

Jiang Chen smiled and grabbed one for himself.

"I will give it back to you."

"Haha, General, you gave it to me." Cheng Weiguo smiled.

With the cigarette in his mouth, Jiang Chen didn't light it up. He gazed into the flame in the distance, pondering.

[No, the creature could launch EMP… or launch Klein particles.]

Tingting inside Lin Lin's body could do that too.

Speaking of which, he never really understood.

[The bug that the artificial intelligence talked about, what exactly was it?]

Chapter 456: Coming Home

When the last rocket ascended, it was already midnight.

The 20,000 napalm rockets were all launched.

The blazing fire covered everything from the rural areas to the city center and vanquished all life in the vicinity.

When the concentration of zombies and mutants dropped below a certain threshold, the mutant flood would stop. The zombies and mutants in the western half of the city would meet this condition.

"Will the fire be extinguished by tomorrow?" Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes as he looked at the thick smoke and light of the flames.

"It should stop," Cheng Weiguo said. "Wanghai was struck by nuclear warheads before, so most of the materials should've burned already. Once the rocket fuel is completely consumed along with the zombie fat and lipid, the fire should stop then."

The armored force was mobilized in the morning to clear out the road from Shenxiang to Fishbone base. They should've arrived by now. Once Jiang Chen took care of all the necessary things, it would be time to return to the base.

Jiang Chen nodded and threw away the cigarette in his hand.

"Mhmm, you can head back now."

Cheng Weiguo saluted and turned around.

Jiang Chen kneeled down as he stared at the dry soil. He seemed to be searching for something.

An ant caught his attention.

It waved its tentacles, searching the ground for something. At the same time, a finger stopped in front of it. Its two tentacles touched it before the ant vanished from this world.

The next second, the ant reappeared again, but it was no longer moving.

"It still can't transport any live creatures?" Jiang Chen looked at the dead ant on his fingertips, deep in thought.

Jiang Chen shook his head and dusted off his hand before he headed to Shenxiang.

When he returned, Cheng Weiguo came over with a phone, looking helpless.

Jiang Chen took the phone and opened the hologram screen.

"Hello?"

"General, the next time you want to do something dramatic like this, could you let us know first?" When the communications came through, Chu Nan's wry voice came from the other side.

"Haha, I just wanted to give you a surprise." Jiang Chen laughed, completely oblivious.

"It was quite a surprise." Chu Nan sighed as he continued to speak with the same wryness: "It would've been better if we could've brought the weapon out earlier. We only needed to launch a few into the city without the need to burn half of the city…"

"Because I didn't have it at the time, or I hadn't transported them into Wanghai. Umm, was that it?" Jiang Chen changed the topic.

"No, it has to do with the crystals." Chu Nan paused for a second before he continued, "According to the rules of the wasteland, the crystals of the mutants belong to whoever killed it. But we clearly don't have the capability to collect crystals from half the city."

"Then they will belong to whoever picks them up," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

When Chu Nan heard Jiang Chen's words, he took a moment to process them.

"Is there a problem?" Jiang Chen spoke since Chu Nan didn't respond.

"No, I just feel like… General, you're very generous." Chu Nan facepalmed.

"Rather than letting outsiders who heard the news pick up the crystals, it's better to let the survivors who fought together with us pick them up. All of Sixth Street is mine - do I care whose pockets the crystals are in? How about this: from Sixth Street to the outskirts of the city center, the crystals will belong to whoever picks them up." Jiang Chen was extremely generous.

"Okay, but I think it's better to tax the crystals a certain percentage since you killed all the mutants yourself. I don't think the survivors would disagree. Without a tax, it's not good for a large number of crystals to suddenly appear on the market," Chu Nan suggested.

"Then we'll follow your plan. I give you full authority to handle this."

"Roger that." Chu Nan nodded.

After hanging up the phone, just as Jiang Chen was going to return the phone to Cheng Weiguo, the phone rang again.

Seeing the "Office of the General" on the hologram screen, Jiang Chen didn't need to think before he realized it was Han Junhua.

"Did you fire the rockets?" Just as the call went through, Han Junhua immediately spoke.

"That's right, are you surprised?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Why didn't you use it earlier…"

She had the same question as Chu Nan.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh. "That's enough, don't be greedy. I had to leave the base before being able to obtain them. What's the status at the base?"

"Your rockets greatly alleviated the pressure. The areas five hundred meters out were all suppressed by the rockets. After the mutants behind the wall were cleared out, the soldiers on the wall watched some fireworks with protective masks on," Han Junhua reported concisely.

"Is that so?" Jiang Chen laughed, delighted.

The feeling of crushing his opponents was too delightful.

…

At dusk the next day, at the rural area west of Wanghai:

The broken limbs were visible on the wide road and the pungent smell of burnt flesh filled the streets. The broken ruins were stained with daunting darkness; it would take more than several drops of rain to wash it all away. It wasn't until they approached Fishbone base when the scenes from hell began to fade.

Four bulldozers modified from trucks were working outside the wall as they pushed the corpses with crystals already extracted 1000 meters away to be burned.

With the First Corps force appearing at the end of the street, the survivors working outside the wall began to cheer. They whistled and waved at the victors.

On top of the Tiger II cannon, Jiang Chen carefully listened to the cheering from the crowd as he responded by waving back.

The gates opened and allowed the First Division to storm in.

When Jiang Chen arrived, he didn't immediately head to his office. Instead, he chose to go home.

After being gone for so long, Sun Jiao and the others must be worried.

As Jiang Chen thought to himself, he couldn't help but smile.

When he entered the mansion, he opened his arms to welcome Sun Jiao, who jumped toward him. After they kissed, he picked up the cute Yao Yao and pecked her adorable face.

Her pale skin was colored red as Yao Yao lowered her head in embarrassment and said in a timid voice:

"D-do you want to shower together?"

When she reminisced the last time they showered together, her heart began to pump uncontrollably.

But Sun Jiao authoritatively declared possession of Jiang Chen and spoke to Yao Yao with a smirk:

"That's not okay, your Brother Jiang Chen will have to wash with me."

Yao Yao made a face like she was wronged as she replied in a feeble voice:

"Wha-what about tomorrow…"

"How about the four of us shower together?" Sun Xiaorou hugged Yao Yao. "We can also teach Yao Yao the adult stuff…"

"I-I'm not a kid anymore! I'm older than all of you!" Yao Yao protested as her cherry-like mouth pouted with displeasure.

With arms crossed, Lin Lin interrupted on the side.

"The time spent in the hibernation chambers does not count toward age. That was the rule in any country before the war."

Yao Yao's face turned red as she looked away.

Only Lin Lin and she were born before the war.

"Does Lin Lin want to come too? The five of us together?" With a little devil's smirk, Sun Xiaorou invited herself.

Lin Lin blushed. Her mouth opened and closed for a while before finally squeezing out half a sentence:

"Wh-who wants to do it together…"

With her face completely flushed, Lin Lin walked out hastily.

Sun Jiao gave her sister a harsh stare. "Xiaorou!"

Sun Xiaorou blew out her tongue and innocently hid behind Jiang Chen's back while pretending to be sad. "Brother-in-law, sister is bullying me…"

As she said this, she hugged Jiang Chen's arm and began to shake him in front of her chest.

Although it was a tempting proposal, Jiang Chen's conscience told him that if they showered together, something out of his realm of control could potentially occur.

Jiang Chen gulped and acted like nothing happened.

"Ahem, why don't you three shower together? I'll go after you're done…"

Leaving before the girls could react, Jiang Chen slipped out of the living room.

Chapter 457: Regain Control from the Mutants

Although Sun Jiao liked to bully people at times, she was a nice person by nature. Maybe it was because of the warmth of their little family, but it made her recall happy moments before she left the fallout shelter. This was why she was more considerate of family members than anyone else, particularly with considering how everyone felt.

Although she declared possession of Jiang Chen, she told Jiang Chen before bedtime, "Yao Yao really misses you - go spend some time with her." She slipped back to her room and locked the door.

While Jiang Chen was touched by how considerate Sun Jiao was, he didn't know how to feel with the door shut in front of him.

Yao Yao was indeed cute, but she was inedible.

And that was not okay.

The somewhat matured little loli would always subconsciously do something that would turn him on and he almost couldn't control himself.

[Whatever, there is something I need to ask Yao Yao.] Jiang Chen turned around and headed to Yao Yao's room.

He knocked on the door before he heard some noise from behind the door.

"Ummm? It's already so late, is there anything to do?"

With the door pushed open, he saw Yao Yao in loose pajamas. Judging by her wet hair, she must've just showered as the light scent of lilies blew in his face.

"Mhmm, I have something to ask Yao Yao, is that okay?"

"Mhmm! Of course." With a sweet smile, Yao Yao walked to the door with light steps. "Come in."

Jiang Chen tousled her hair and walked in.

Jiang Chen scanned the room. Because there was only one chair inside, Jiang Chen casually sat on the bed. Yao Yao blushed at the scene but still walked up and sat beside Jiang Chen, pretending nothing was amiss, before she secretly moved in Jiang Chen's direction.

"Could you tell me what it is?"

Because of her anxiety, her voice trembled slightly to the point where it was out of tune.

With her nervousness, the little loli was unable to sit still. Jiang Chen wanted to laugh.

He paused before he spoke.

"It's about the phone. Could Yao Yao design a phone for me?"

With a few imaginary question marks appearing above her head, the little girl didn't hear the words she wanted to hear. She paused.

Realizing that she misinterpreted the situation, redness extended from her ears all the way to her neck.

It took a while before Yao Yao recovered from her state of awkwardness. She spoke in a quiet voice.

"Phone? Is that the thing brother Jiang Chen showed me before?"

It was a very distant memory, but Jiang Chen gave her a phone for reference.

"Mhmm, it's that type. If possible, could Yao Yao design a similar but more powerful phone?" Jiang Chen tried to make Yao Yao understand what he wanted as he used his hands to show the shape while explaining the functionality of the phone.

Yao Yao listened and nodded attentively.

After Jiang Chen was done, Yao Yao patted her small chest confidently.

"Leave it up to me! Are two days okay?"

"Mhmm! Please!" Jiang Chen joyfully rubbed Yao Yao's head.

Yao Yao closed her eyes as she enjoyed his caress while a sweet curvature appeared on her mouth.

Seeing as it was late, Jiang Chen stood up and prepared to leave. But then he discovered a small hand feebly dragging onto his clothes.

"Mhmm? Is there something else?" Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao.

Yao Yao looked away while she spoke timidly, "Umm, could Yao Yao make an unreasonable request?"

"Of course."

She retracted her hand while her face turned red again. Her fingers pointed toward each other.

"Could-could we sleep together t-tonight?"

Considering how adorable she looked, Jiang Chen felt like he was going to melt.

…

The next morning.

Observing the gracefulness on Yao Yao's face, Jiang Chen was touched by her happiness. He leaned down and gently kissed her soft forehead.

Yao Yao seemed to have noticed that kiss and moved her beautiful mouth before moving herself into a more comfortable position. She curled up like a small animal.

Jiang Chen quietly got out of bed and covered Yao Yao with the blanket before he sneaked out of the room.

He microwaved two buns in the kitchen then left the mansion.

It was almost the end of August - the tail end of summer.

Due to the radiation dust, mornings in the wasteland were usually cold, but the temperature during the next few days would be irregular. It was two days after the fire, yet there were still sparks that could be made out in the direction of the city center.

The reality was different than what Cheng Weiguo imagined. Although there were no more combustible materials in Wanghai, the fat of the zombies and mutants provided an excellent source of fuel for the fire.

When the thousand-degree fire evaporated all the water content inside, the entire Roshan was like a barrel of fuel burning continuously due to its high density of fat.

Following the conclusion of the mutant flood and the return of the First Division, the quiet base became crowded again. The survivors returned to the surface. They were either reunited with family members who were part of the crusade or accepted the urns in mourning.

There were fatalities with every war, an unpleasant point that could not be changed.

And on the wasteland, death was to be expected.

When Jiang Chen arrived at his office, he was surprised to discover that Han Junhua was already in front of the table that belonged to the advisor. She was working on the tablet.

"Did you sleep here last night?" Jiang Chen sat at his desk while looking at her.

"No. Mhmm, precisely speaking, I didn't sleep. There was too much work yesterday, looking at fatality numbers as well as the war consumption figures from the logistics department, the compensation to the families of deceased soldiers, as well as the cleaning of mutant bodies and collection of crystals…"

Only now did Jiang Chen notice the heavy eye bags on her face.

No wonder she didn't look for him when he returned last night - she was too busy.

"Thank you." Jiang Chen expressed his gratitude.

"It's okay." Han Junhua still wore the same expressionless look.

"If you're tired, go take a nap first."

Han Junhua half-heartedly agreed before stopping the task at hand and looked at Jiang Chen. "How many rockets are left?"

Jiang Chen shrugged. "All of them are gone, a total of 40 thousand rounds. But now that the mutant flood is over, is there still a need for them?"

Although he could certainly buy more, it was hard to prevent other people from noticing that he frequently purchased weapons that violated the Geneva Accords. If possible, it would be better to delay repurchasing until a later date.

"All gone?" Han Junhua fell into deep thought.

The number of rockets should be limited since fuel was uncommon in the apocalypse before, let alone solid fuel rockets mixed with other chemicals. No one thought of using low-tech weapons to begin with.

But to everyone's surprise, low-tech weapons were highly effective against mutants.

After a short silence, she spoke again.

"How much fuel can you obtain?"

"A lot. Hmm?" Jiang Chen asked.

"The technology required for that napalm rocket should be low. We could easily produce rockets with better combustion effectiveness and a high range."

Han Junhua paused, looked at him in the eyes, and said sternly:

"With fuel, it's not impossible for us to regain complete control of Wanghai from the mutants."

Chapter 458: Even more Powerful Rockets

[Regain control of Wanghai from the mutants?]

Needless to say, it was a tempting proposal, and the current NAC certainly had the capability to do so.

Wanghai from before the war wasn't only the center of PAC's economy; it was the industrial base for technology. If NAC could regain control of Wanghai, the speed in which the pre-war technologies could be recovered would be much faster.

But then another problem had to be considered.

The mutants did indeed threaten the lives of the survivors, but the crystals they provided were the foundation to survivor industries. The Sixth Street's power station required crystals, the fuel rod used for everything from vehicles to power stations required crystals. Survivors unable to obtain Helium-4 to produce nuclear fusion batteries had to use crystals to produce fuel rods with the same specification to provide power to pre-war equipment.

Fallout Shelter 027 was currently using this fuel rod.

The economy of the Sixth Street depended on Wanghai City as the hunting grounds. If the mutants inside the steel forest were wiped out, the hunters had to go further to hunt.

Jiang Chen only debated for two minutes before he made a decision.

Regain control of Wanghai.

The reason was simple - going from hunting to farming was a necessary step to go from brute to civilized peoples. And the first step toward civilization was a step NAC must take one day. Jiang Chen wouldn't be able to provide food for this place forever. The current population of NAC was five digits, but what if it became six digits? What if it even exceeded the million mark?

As to the farming problem, if he was willing to pay up, there were solutions available. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility to produce a closed biosphere through the Project Garden of Eden controlled by Lin Lin with NAC's resources.

Jiang Chen had a potential alternate source to obtain crystals, but to make it into a reality, he had to discuss it with the biologists in Fallout Shelter 027.

After leaving the community center, Jiang Chen arrived at the empty plot of land belonging to the Aerospace Research Institute and managed to find Jiang Lin who just returned to the surface.

It was quite funny as the guy was standing beside the BM-21 rocket that Jiang Chen bought with a wrench. The picture looked like a 21st-century modern rocket scientist studying the " firing crow 1 " from the Ming dynasty.

A soldier standing nearby looked nervously at Jiang Lin, afraid he would take this thing apart.

He didn't care if it was for research or not. As the launcher for the rockets, he just knew that this thing destroyed half a city of mutants and zombies, and the powerful explosion was still clear in his memory even after two days.

"Did you figure something out?" Jiang Chen walked beside him and asked nonchalantly.

Jiang Lin nodded and exclaimed at the same time: "A straightforward design - primal, even - in both ignition and targeting system. The rocket has no guiding function, and it wipes out targets just by sheer strength. It damages creatures with the fuel and it proves that nothing is more effective than this against zombies and mutants. But to produce this, it must've been stressful for the logistics department."

Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously and didn't answer his question.

[Funny, are logistics even a problem for me?]

"There's certainly difficulty surrounding the logistics, but it's not unsolvable. I need you to design a rocket launcher that can launch multiple rockets simultaneously without impacting functionality. The only requirement is being able to send thirty kilograms of combat parts to a distance of thirty kilometers. It must have more power than this while having higher accuracy. Can you do that?"

"That's easy. All that needs to be done is redesigning the boosting fuel and the contents of the explosive. The problem is the material itself - there's nothing harder to find than oil on the wasteland. If we can secure the materials, it's not difficult to produce the weapon you want." Jiang Lin nodded, paused, then asked a question as if he just remembered something: "Do we still need to produce the Dolphin-10 Ballistic Missiles?"

"Of course. I have other uses for the nuclear missile." Jiang Chen smiled.

Jiang Lin scratched the back of his head. "Okay, if you insist."

After rocket production was assigned, crystal production was next on the agenda.

Starting from the end of the mutant wave, Wang Zhaowu began to prepare to take the Second Corp back to Fallout Shelter 027. When Jiang Chen came out from the Aerospace Technology Research Institute, the Second Corp fleet was lined up at the front door while waiting for Wang Zhaowu's order to mobilize.

"General." When Wang Zhaowu saw Jiang Chen, he saluted.

"No need. Are you planning to head to Fallout Shelter 027?"

"Yes, our soldiers are ready to mobilize."

"Take me along," Jiang Chen said.

"Yes, Sir!" Wang Zhaowu nodded and immediately went to arrange a spot for Jiang Chen.

After ten minutes, the Second Corp fleet finally finished loading the supplies. With the gate open and the survivors waving farewell, the fleet gradually started to move.

Burnt corpses were scattered along the road. When the fleet was halfway through the journey, Jiang Chen saw a Roshan kneeled in the middle of the road. Its face looked horrific, and its body was charcoal black. Its body was blocking the fleet, so the armored vehicle Jiang Chen was on turned its machine gun before a few shots broke the Roshan into charcoal blocks.

Crushing the "charcoal dust," the fleet continued to move. The horrific scene along the road agitated Jiang Chen's stomach, but to the hardened apocalypse survivors, this was a common scene.

Jiang Chen, inside the car, closed the observer screen before resting with his eyes closed.

It was an hour before the fleet finally arrived at the gate of the fallout shelter. When the rain of destruction was unleashed, the First Corp didn't leave this place pristine - the entire Camp 27 was stained black as if a blaze had swept through the place. But most of the supplies were moved underground, and the condition of the remaining concrete didn't matter much.

When the gate opened, it was havoc.

The zombies who smelled the scent of mutants didn't leave this place just because the Second Corp retreated. The ten-meter-high wall could tolerate a hill of hundreds of zombies.

The corpses blocked the entrance to the elevator. The soldiers jumped off the car, put on protective masks, and worked with their shovels for a while before they finally cleared the charcoal dust piled at the elevator gate.

"Damn, the First Corp really is ruthless." Wang Zhaowu got off the car with Jiang Chen as he cursed out while laughing.

"They had to be ruthless, otherwise we would've had to face a bunch of zombies who could climb over the wall," Jiang Chen joked.

"True. But the engineering soldiers in the front certainly will have a lot of fun." Wang Zhaowu scoffed before leaving Jiang Chen and heading to the truck in the back.

He needed to arrange for the redeployment of the fixed weapons. When they retreated, the machine guns and electromagnetic cannons were all moved into Fishbone base.

At the same time, considering how atrocious the environment was inside the base, a deep cleaning was necessary before anyone could enter.

Without disturbing the Second Corp's work, Jiang Chen headed in the direction of the fallout shelter elevator.

Chapter 459: Mutant Farm Project

A blue light flashed and the elevator quickly descended to the bottom.

A moment later, the red indicator light turned green and the elevator stopped at 1000 meters below the surface. Jiang Chen walked toward the entrance of the fallout shelter, typed in a few passwords, pulled out the cable from inside, and connected his EP.

Jiang Chen disconnected the cable and backed up two steps. Following a deep noise, the circular entrance in front of him began to shift to the side. At the back of the door, the director of Camp 27, Xu Lu, was already waiting there.

When she saw Jiang Chen, she bowed down with a smile and led Jiang Chen into the fallout shelter.

"The mutant flood is already over; you can arrange for personnel to return to the surface."

"Already?" Xu Lu was slightly shocked, but it didn't take long before she returned to her smiling self. "I'll go prepare now."

After saying goodbye to Xu Lu, Jiang Chen headed straight to the Robotic Research Facility in Fallout Shelter 027 along with the two soldiers behind him. He managed to find Fang Weixian, who was working on a blueprint.

"General? How come you're here?" Fang Weixian pushed aside the tablet used to draw blueprints and greeted Jiang Chen with a smile.

"Mhmm, I want to show you something and consult your opinion." Jiang Chen signaled behind him.

The soldier nodded and put the two boxes in his hands on the table before returning to stand behind Jiang Chen.

"This is...?" Fang Weixian raised his eyebrows, walked up to the box, and opened it.

When he saw the contents, he took a moment to process before he was shocked.

"Kinetic skeleton… Gauss Rifle?!"

"It's a kinetic skeleton with optical illusions," Jiang Chen added.

With interest flashing in his eyes, Fang Weixian first searched among the broken pieces of the kinetic skeleton before glancing at the broken Gauss Rifle.

"I want you to recreate the technology - can you do it?"

"I can give it a shot; it shouldn't be hard." Fang Weixian first moved the two boxes beside a scanner. "Scan the part composition and replicate the lost parts then use a quantum computer to simulate the design plan to finally establish the production process."

"Is it possible to produce these on a large scale?" Jiang Chen asked.

"It's going to be difficult." Fang Weixian shook his head. "A lot of things must be recycled. For example, for the Type-50 Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon at the base, a lot of parts can't be produced. Without recycling the parts, we can only print the parts using a 3D printer."

The 22nd century 3D printing technology was extremely mature without the durability, precision, and limitations in materials faced in the early 21st century. But even then, 3D printing technology was still an expensive technology. For example, a Reaper Assault Rifle manufactured from a military production line would have a price of less than ten thousand USD, but if 3D technology was used to the print the rifle, the cost would be at least six figures, and producing it on a mass scale would not lower the cost.

On the wasteland, with the collapse of the industrial process, the survivors printed parts unable to be produced with 3D printing technology. Just like with the T-3 power armor, out of the ten thousand parts, at least six thousand were printed by 3D printing then assembled by hand. It was a large factor leading to the high cost of the power armor.

"What would the cost be to equip one Gauss Rifle per power armor?" Jiang Chen asked casually.

"The majority of the cost would be power consumption and material usage if everything is printed by 3D printing… It would be 4000 crystals per rifle. The Miniature High Energy Capacitor and acceleration track have high requirements for materials." Fang Weixian provided an estimate.

[Damn, it's close to half the cost for T-3 power armor.] Jiang Chen was shocked by the figure.

Jiang Chen deliberated for a moment before he said, "Regardless, first recreate the technology. It's fine for it to be a bit expensive."

Other than a potential application in the aerospace field, the Gauss Rifle was particularly effective against power armor. Its penetration power and stability could not be matched by traditional rifles.

Jiang Chen examined the status of armored vehicle production inside the Robotic Research Institute before he left, not wishing to disturb the researchers inside any longer.

Leaving the Robotic Research Institute, Jiang Chen then headed to the Biology Research Institute not far away and found the biologists unpopular at the fallout shelter. When Jiang Chen walked inside, he saw a bunch of scientists in white lab coats all surrounding a vial with daunting excitement on their faces.

As to the reason why it was daunting, it was because they acted like science freaks from cartoons.

The study of life had always been a taboo in the science field as its danger was no less than advanced artificial intelligence. But on the wasteland, research laws were no longer in effect and hence, they had the opportunity to allow their creativity to flow.

"What're you looking at it?" Jiang Chen walked up to Wang Fangping and patted him on the shoulder.

Wang Fangping jumped. It wasn't until he saw Jiang Chen that he smiled. "General, we completed the electricity-producing seaweed project."

"Completed?" Jiang Chen stopped to think for a second before a joyful expression appeared on his face.

For Xin to develop its tourism, they had to decrease the number of coal-powered power stations. But due to the low efficiency of wind and solar energy, the high cost of tidal energy, and the reluctance to use nuclear energy, Jiang Chen maintained a strong interest in the biological power generation Wang Fangping proposed.

Not only was it environmentally friendly, but it was also cheap, and the one thing a Pacific country didn't lack was ocean territory.

"This is it." Wang Fangping moved aside and pointed at the vial in the middle.

Inside the yellowish-green vial was a piece of floating three-meter-long seaweed with a UV light hanging above the seaweed. The note on the side recorded the ratio between light levels and power generation.

"It can be grown 100 meters below the surface with maximum power generation of 1-kilowatt of power per square meter. The tip of the seaweed can be attached to a metal wire and transports the electricity to the transformer on the surface before becoming part of the grid." Wang Fangping pointed at the device and explained to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen nodded with pleasure. "Great, you did well. All researchers who participated in the project will be awarded 1000 crystals each!"

All nine scientists in the facility turned ecstatic.

A NAC knight's monthly salary was merely 50 crystals, so 1000 crystals was a large sum of wealth. Jiang Chen would never be stingy on his investment in research.

"Thank you, General!" Wang Fangping thanked Jiang Chen with sincerity.

"No need, I'll generously reward anyone who contributes to the NAC. Also, I still need you to do something: I need you to breed a type of mutant that isn't hostile, easy to breed, and quickly able to produce crystals." Jiang Chen brought up the primary purpose of his visit.

Since he was certain he was going to "clean up" Wanghai, the source of the crystals would have to come from elsewhere.

He would make all the hunters transform into mercenaries guarding the merchant fleet, then change the source of crystals from the "hunting ground" to a farm and establish food production at the Garden of Eden.

`Jiang Chen already had the blueprint drawn out in his mind, and the first step to completing the plan was to find the best-suited mutants as livestock.

Chapter 460: Droplet No.1

To help the Biology Research Institute with researching mutants, Jiang Chen ordered Xu Lu to establish an area to house the mutants outside of Camp 27's walls. The area would support research intended to genetically modify the mutants while conducting breeding tests. As for the task of capturing mutants, Jiang Chen assigned the task to the Hunter Corp.

With the support of the helicopter and power armor, aside from the difficulty in capturing Death Claw, other mutants were relatively easy to catch.

All experiments would be done outside the walls. Any mutants who escaped would be killed by machine guns and electromagnetic cannons on the wall which prevented uncontrollable circumstances from arising.

After all this, Jiang Chen returned to Fishbone base via helicopter.

When he returned, Jiang Chen headed to the warehouse and moved a set of T-3 power armor, kinetic skeleton, and Reaper Assault Rifle into his storage dimension. After all this, only a laser sword would fit inside the three hundred cubic meter dimension. Emptiness in the storage dimension didn't make Jiang Chen feel safe.

Heading to the city center would still require a period of preparation before their mission could be executed - whether it was designing the rocket launcher or producing ammo at the base, it all required time to complete.

The crystals on the ground would especially need people to pick them up.

Therefore, after Jiang Chen and Han Junhua had a discussion, the attack on the city center was set for mid-September.

The reproductive cycle of creatures wasn't short; even a month after the rain of destruction, the number of mutants and zombies didn't increase substantially.

Seeing as he didn't need to assist with anything else, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world.

The 20 days were almost up as he was eager to see the results of the construction robots. He needed to solve the mining problem as soon as possible so Future Mining could officially start its business and virtual reality helmets could then be manufactured.

Leaving his mansion on Coro Island, he went to a telecommunication store along the way. While he reactivated a new SIM card, Jiang Chen purchased a new phone.

Although Yao Yao was designing a phone for him, he still needed a phone in the meantime. In such a digitalized world, being without a phone practically meant being back in the primal age.

After all the troublesome things were dealt with, Jiang Chen took a boat and arrived on Coconut Island. Just as he approached the island, he discovered from afar that the dock built along the shore was completed.

The primary structure was reinforced concrete with the top covered by metal roofing. The interior was a concaved water trench. Compared to the hundred-meter-long dry dock, the small dock could only be described as tiny.

But despite its miniature size, it possessed all the functionality of a dock. And if there was a need in the future, it could be expanded further.

He dragged the boat onto the dock and headed to where the construction materials were stored.

The two construction robots were in standby mode where the materials were stored. After they completed the construction mission, they automatically entered hibernation.

The reinforced steel, anti-corrosion concrete, and sand were mostly consumed, the explosives used to blow up the shore were all gone, and the six fuel rods used as batteries were depleted. After he placed all the remaining construction materials back into the storage dimension, Jiang Chen walked to the drone terminal among the trees.

The bee nest-shaped drone terminal quietly laid there with most of the drones charging on standby mode; only a small portion hovered near the beach outside the forest.

He connected the cable to his EP and checked the reconnaissance reports of the drones. After he confirmed that no one approached the island, Jiang Chen removed the cable and headed to the dock.

He opened the dock door before he saw the deepwater submersible floating on the surface.

The length, width, and height were nine meters, three meters, and four meters respectively. The waterdrop-like design had a smooth surface.

The rear end was embedded with a "T" shaped structure, the inlets on both ends allowed water to be fed into the engine without interruption, while the back-end nozzle jet pressurized water. The tail tilt of the shell produced a water pressure squeeze effect, and the dual effect of the water jet propulsion gave the submersible the speed of victory over all the submarines.

The "Droplet" had two pairs of mechanical arms installed in the front, capable of conducting deepwater construction as part of the construction module. An eight-meter cylindrical device hung on the bottom as part of the mining module. The construction robots assembled all parts and were operational once charged.

The submersible consumed electric power designed to fit the 100mmm nuclear fusion battery, but due to a lack of nuclear material, Droplet used crystal fuel rod.

The submersible's built-in molten salt electrolytic carbon dioxide reduction device meant that in theory, as long as sufficient power was present, it could maintain a normal water supply in the submersible.

Jiang Chen jumped on top of Droplet. While he felt it sway under his feet, Jiang Chen carefully kneeled down and finally found a camera-like device on top.

Jiang Chen moved closer then spoke in an undertone.

"Initiate."

"Iris verification passed. Welcome, captain."

A crack appeared one meter away from Jiang Chen before exposing a way inside the submersible.

Jiang Chen moved closer. After confirming its safety, he jumped inside.

"It is transparent? No… should just be an optical effect."

When he entered the cabin, Jiang Chen scanned his surroundings in shock.

It was hard to imagine that viewing the outside from the inside was easy - it looked transparent.

[Wide angle imaging?]

By hiding some full-angle cameras on the outside of the submersible, external images were presented on the screen in the cabin. Standing in this submersible felt like being inside a huge transparent bubble.

After exclaiming at the magnificent image, Jiang Chen passed through a narrow hatch and entered the cockpit.

Most parts of this submersible were printed by 3D printing, costing more than half a million crystals. But when he saw everything inside, he didn't feel it was a high cost at all.

"Captain, please name the submersible." The courteous digital voice instructed Jiang Chen.

After deliberating, he said:

"Droplet."

Because the exterior looked like a droplet of water, it was Droplet then.

"Great, Droplet at your service. Captain, please follow the instruction manual…"

Without complicated operating procedures and with the help of basic artificial intelligence, even a single person could operate the piloting system that normally demanded the cooperation of multiple people. There were controlling rods at the captain's seat - one was responsible for controlling the XY axis while the other controlled the Z axis. Beside them was a series of other instruments.

Other than manual control, it could be set in automatic control mode as well. Based on the map stored inside the deepwater submersible, the captain could control through a tablet or voice.

Once Jiang Chen familiarized himself with the controls, he immediately used the terminal to instruct the submersible to submerge.

With the low noise of water breaking, the entire submersible plummeted below the vast ocean surface outside the dock. Needless to say, it was more fun compared to being on a boat. With the waves splashing, the waves looked as if they could hit him since the cabin was transparent.

He felt as if he was surfing.

Jiang Chen immediately ordered as he stared at the waves disappearing.

"Submerge, 100 meters."

"Roger."

The digital voice spoke out before Droplet began to submerge. Just like submerging a person's head into the water, the sound of the waves instantly vanished.

Jiang Chen observed the instruments next to his hand as the symbol signaling depth continuously flashed before finally stopping at the 100-meter mark.

He took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement in his mind as Jiang Chen set the coordinates of Future Mining's mining platform as well as a depth of 7000 meters.

With excitement in his voice, he said:

"Droplet, set sail!"

"Roger, captain."

Into the deep eerie ocean, Droplet plunged down.

Chapter 461: Deepwater Construction

Due to the shape of Droplet, it had faced no resistance when traversing in the water. It could move through fifty meters in the blink of an eye with the instrumentation showing a speed of

"Damn, just from pure speed, it could easily defeat the fastest submarine in the world." With the ocean soaring under his feet, Jiang Chen couldn't help but exclaim at its magnificence.

He remembered that the fastest submarine in the world is the Russian K Class Ballistic Nuclear Submarine with its highest speed reaching 44.7 knots. And the speed of Droplet could achieve a daunting 75 knots.

He was wondering how the rumored superconducting magnetic fluid submarine faired against his "ride."

The jagged trenches were filled with swaying seaweed. The colorful fishes freely roamed amongst them. The jellyfish and eel danced under the rhythm of the bubble. All the scenes were captured on the walls of the Droplet.

Other than that, Jiang Chen saw a shark.

When the Droplet passed by it, the giant seemed to have ignored the Droplet as it turned its body and instantly disappeared from Jiang Chen's field of vision.

Following gradually increasing depth, the light from the surface began to fade, and the claustrophobic feeling from the dark blue eeriness was more and more apparent. Jiang Chen was uncertain if he had deep sea phobia, but he still closed the wide-angle cameras and only left the four visual windows in the four directions open.

"Droplet, where are we now?"

"We are still 100 nautical miles away from our destination."

[100 nautical miles, or around one hour?]

Seeing that there was still some time, Jiang Chen headed to the living quarters.

The living quarters were compacted together with two beds with nylon hooks on each side of the room. If the beds were lifted up, the table and closet underneath would appear. Jiang Chen examined the interior of the submarine before he instructed the submersible to wake up him once they reached their targeted location. Then he stuffed himself into the sleeping bed to take a nap.

One hour later, with gentle music, Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

When he got off the bed and returned to the cockpit, he looked toward the control panel before his eyes widen in disbelief.

7500 meters under the surface?

The dark abyss where life is restricted.

In the entire area, only a light beam shining from the front of the Droplet remained. The black and shiny rocky surface reflected the faint light under the light beam. The disturbed creatures nesting on the surface scattered before they escaped to the darkness nearby.

Other than the odd-looking deep sea creatures, the cracks on the bottom of the ocean constantly spat out scorching air bubbles. The dark red light was just like a volcano, possessing an incredible amount of energy.

At the same time, a ten meter long, flat-shaped fish slowly moved toward Droplet. The disc-shaped head had no visible eyes, and the nail-like teeth looked horrifying. It curiously examined the Droplet and even used its mouth to touch it. But it quickly swam away as if it was electrocuted without turning its head.

The static electricity on the surface of the Droplet would make most of the deep sea creatures lose their interest. The design was put in place to protect and ensure the safety of the submersible while also there to protect the safety of the creatures.

Without playing further, Jiang Chen manually controlled the Droplet based on the mining deposition marked on the map and moved to the top of the rich molybdenum manganese nodules.

"Initiate mining module." After confirming the targeted location, Jiang Chen order.

"Roger, Mr. Captain." The artificial intelligence politely answered.

Immediately, the circular tube below the Droplet separated out. A trial of air bubbles dispersed out from behind the circular tube and pushed the torpedo-shaped tube to the targeted deposition.

100 meters.

50 meters.

10 meters.

The light locked onto the circular tube as Jiang Chen stared at the scene without blinking.

The black rock was embedded into the greyish black mudstone similar to a road built with pebbles. The circular tube stooped above the black rock with the engine stalling.

Jiang Chen scanned the map on the screen; the green dot that marked the location of the submersible coincided with the red dot on the mining map.

After a brief paused, Jiang Chen ordered affirmatively, "Mining module, deploy!"

"Roger."

Bubbles appeared from the bottom of the circular tube as a graphene hook shot toward the bottom of the sea. The cable tightened and slowly dragged the circular tube toward the ground and stopped three meters before reaching the surface.

The circular tube gradually deployed with the hatch door on the two sides extended out to release two rocket-like items. The rocket was five meters in length and one meter in diameter, the tail was connected to the inner circular tube with a graphene tunnel.

The two rockets were released from the circular tube, and the head immediately dove down with a series of water bubbles propelling it from behind, pushing the rockets down into the sea.

The rockets' head pierced into the rock body.

Then an almost miraculous scene happened.

The tail of the rocket popped out, while it created more air bubbles, just like an umbrella opening, it expanded into a circular disc with a radius of ten meters. The disc slowly descended and clipped onto the flat sea surface.

From afar, it was just like a circular tube connecting two bowls flipped upside down with graphene tubes.

"Mining module deployed, please deploy transportation module."

The courteous digital voice sounded again and brought Jiang Chen back from being shocked by the technology.

The transportation module was four graphene cables and an oval-shaped ascending device. Because of the size of the equipment, Jiang Chen didn't bring it aboard the submersible. Since he had the storage dimension, it was easy to bring things under water.

With Droplet stalling, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse and headed to the backyard of the mansion. The place stored his Dolphin-10, a bunch of graphene cables from the Sixth Street factory.

Under the deep sea environment, 7000 meters under, normal materials could not withstand the water pressure. Therefore, graphene played a key role.

After putting everything into the storage dimension, Jiang Chen returned to the Droplet.

With a hand pressed against the hatch door, his consciousness submerged into the storage dimension. It didn't take long before the graphene cables were deployed outside of the submersible.

Then, Jiang Chen traveled a few more times between the modern world and the apocalypse and released all the construction material outside of the Droplet.

He ordered the Droplet to restart again, and the smart system began to connect the graphene cables together with the floatation markers, using the blueprint stored in the mining module.

He didn't need to do anything after. With five hours remaining of construction time, Jiang Chen yawned and returned to the living quarters.

The artificial intelligence will take over.

As the captain, he only needed to take a nap. And once construction was completed, he could return home.

Chapter 462: Future Mining in Production

The 7000 meters track was just like a strand of seaweed that swayed with the ocean current.

The 500 meters long graphene track connected on both ends by Titanium rings; 14 tracks in total formed the 7000 meters deep sea stairs from the abyss to the surface.

The entire track cost 500 million crystals, almost equivalent to the entire food trade revenue of NAC.

Out of all the equipment, the most expensive was the 15 titanium rings. They not only play a role in fixing the graphene tracks, but they could also freely control the depth of water just like submarines. Based on the direction of the ocean current, the titanium ring can also move through the four angles of the blade engine to move in the opposite direction. This prevents the huge tidal force from tearing the entire graphene track apart.

When the Droplet placed the six meters long, two meters wide oval "elevator" at the bottom of the track, the entire deep ocean mining module was completely deployed.

The two suction discs underwater would shred the rocks on the surface and use the graphene tube to transport the broken pieces into the "circular tube". Based on the selection, the circular tube would crash the rocks into finer particles. Mudstones with low hardness would be crashed into particles and released into the ocean through a mesh net. The higher hardness molybdenum nodules would pass through the selection and be sent to the "elevator" to the top.

When the elevator was filled with minerals, the graphene track would be powered up. The entire oval would be sent to the surface like the shell of the electromagnetic cannon.

Once the minerals reached 100 meters below the surface, the modern equipment would be able to retrieve the minerals.

The workers on the platform would send out retrieving boats based on signals from below the sea. Then scuba divers with nets would be able to bring the minerals up.

Once the minerals on the platform accumulated to a certain point, a boat would transport the minerals to the manganese nodule refiner on Ange Island. By that time, Xin would no longer need to depend on import for its consumption of iron, molybdenum, and manganese.

After all this, Jiang Chen deployed two 3D printed tidal current power generators at the surface of the sea to provide electricity to the mining equipment.

With the cost of the Droplet included, the equipment totaled more than seven million crystals.

Although it was expensive, Jiang Chen knew the investment was well worth it.

Just from the market price of ten crystals for one kilogram of molybdenum ore in Sixth Street, 700 tons would allow breakeven.

Moreso, the deposition at the surface of the ocean floor had more than one million tons!

The entire mining equipment would support mining operations for ten years without a problem.

When Jiang Chen returned to Coconut Island, Jiang Chen phoned Yang Yuan and told him about the mining operation.

"The problem with deep sea mining is solved?" When Yang Yuan heard that he could send people to the platform now, he was shocked.

"That's right. I will provide you with the mining steps through email. A transportation boat, a retrieving boat, two scuba divers, one observer, that's about all." Jiang Chen smiled.

Yang Yuan raised his eyebrows in skepticism.

"But how do you retrieve the ore from the deep sea? Don't tell me you're going to tell the scuba divers to chisel it 7500 meters below the surface."

"Do you think I'm dumb?" Jiang Chen scoffed jokingly, "Don't worry, I took care of it. I will send it to you by email, and you'll know how the entire mining device functions. It's the top technology of Future Group, don't be too shocked."

Yang Yuan glanced at his phone.

[Funny, I'm a graduate student from West Australia University and a top student that signed with Rio Tinto in my first year as a student. What type of equipment haven't I seen?]

It was the first time he heard that something could retrieve ores from 7000 meters below the sea.

"Okay, send me the email first."

"Mhmm, wait."

Then, Jiang Chen hung up and sent out the email that included visualization of the mining equipment through a digital file.

Yang Yuan held onto the phone for half a minute before he heard a buzz; the email came through.

He opened the email with skepticism and began to scan the document Jiang Chen sent.

He was first questioning the mining equipment as he thought his boss didn't consult with him before purchasing and that he must have been fooled by a fake company.

But when he was halfway through the document, he shocked state was more and more apparent.

"This, this is impossible. What kind of joke is? Are we shooting a sci-fi film?" With his finger continually sliding on the screen, Yang Yuan muttered to himself.

Nothing else, just the circular tube mining device, even if it was built with titanium, it was hard to prevent it to be squashed into a ball by the immense water pressure by operating for an extended period in the deep ocean. And that bowl-shaped mining device, it didn't look like it was designed to withstand pressure at all.

And the long graphene track…

With the current material, technology level, it was impossible to make this mining equipment a reality.

Yang Yaun's finger moved furiously and slid down the document. The operation of the employees on the platform was outlined in detail in the document.

When he saw the last line, he stopped.

Yang Yuan suddenly realized that the mining equipment was the work of Future Group.

"How many more secrets does this guy hold?' Yang Yuan shook his head.

After hesitating for a moment, Yang Yuan deleted the document as required based on the warning on the last line.

He got up and headed for the door.

"Yuan, are you leaving?" Su Fei, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner, spoke out.

"Mhmm, its work related." Yang Yuan hastily put on his shoes and headed out.

Although he could arrange employees through the phone, he couldn't wait to personally see the mining equipment. It was unbelievable. Without seeing it with his very own eyes, he wouldn't be able to sleep.

Su Fei looked at her boyfriend rushing out the door as well as the shoes messily scattered on the ground, she let out a sigh and put the bowl she was working with on the kitchen counter.

Although she was first excited when she arrived, there was a mansion, a beach, endless amount of champagne and seafood. But after a while, she thought the life far away from the noise of the city was different than the life she envisioned.

She washed her hand and went to the bedroom on the second floor to scroll through her Weibo.

Only when she saw her friends in the country's envious replies could she satisfy her vanity a bit.

But just as she was scrolling through Weibo, she noticed an unread private message.

"Who is it?"

She murmured to herself and opened the text bubble.

Chapter 463: Her body is more honest than her words

After sending the email to Yang Yuan, Jiang Chen left Coconut Island on a boat.

As to the Droplet, he left it on the island. With the Hummingbird drones guarding the place, he was confident about the security of the place. Even if an elite special force landed on the island, the hundred something drones would easily wipe them out.

Without the support of the EMP weapons, the small and agile drones are the nightmare of any creature.

When Jiang Chen arrived on Coro Island, it was getting dark. He touched his empty stomach while thinking about the empty mansion as a wry smile appeared on his face.

He missed Ayesha's cooking.

It was late. Even if he returned to the apocalypse now, Sun Jiao and the rest must be done with dinner too.

"Whatever, I will just grab something to eat."

Since he drove to the city center area, a few restaurants were around him. He parked the car and found a Chinese restaurant.

He ordered a few dishes before he began to play with his phone out of boredom. The phone he just bought had nothing inside. After using the restaurant's Wi-Fi to download Future 1.0, he scanned his iris with the camera and logged into his account.

Just as Jiang Chen was syncing the contacts on Future 1.0 to his new phone, he suddenly noticed a name.

With a smile on his face, seeing there was still sometime before the dishes arrived, he pressed on the name and called.

"Hello? You finally remember me?" The phone went through, and it was Liu Yao's voice, full of resentment.

"Haha, I've been busy, do you miss me?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"I miss you so much." Liu Yao pouted.

"Your movie is finished?"

"Finished two months ago, the editing was done last month. It has been sent in for review, and the release schedule has been proposed already. Our director also asked me to see if you could give the movie a headline." As Liu Yao said this, she couldn't help but smile.

The achievement she has today was all because of the man behind her. Among the cast, even the leading actresses respected her when they spoke without acting superior to her, and even called her sister.

This was something she couldn't even imagine before.

She was an intelligent woman. Although the intelligence was sometimes not used at the right place, she knew that he didn't mind as long as they didn't make principle mistakes. And because of this, even if she received her position today, she didn't feel any arrogance. She knew that the people that looked at her in awe were not actually looking at her, but the man behind her.

Even if a lot of actors wanted to pursue her to use the paparazzi to increase their publicity, she rejected without hesitation. A lot of actresses without much fame did everything to get close to her to connect with Jiang Chen, and she smartly deflected all the requests.

She was already holding onto a firm leg. She didn't need to mind what other people thought, she just needed to hold onto the leg tighter.

"Headline? No problem."

It was easy for him since he was the biggest investor in the film.

"Love you, mua."

Jiang Chen's mood felt more cheerful listening to her coyness.

Not only did she have big breasts, Liu Yao's voice and vibe all cast liveliness. She was already 24, but whenever he saw her, she gave Jiang Chen the feeling that she was only 17.

"Are you free?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, do you want to take me out traveling?" Holding onto the phone, Liu Yao said in excitement.

"I'm inviting you to visit my island." Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

Liu Yao seemed to have heard the smirk in Jiang Chen's voice as her face turned red, "Pervert."

But rather than rejecting, she sounded excited.

Since the experience Jiang Chen brought her was always so addicting.

"Do you need me to book a flight for you?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"No need, I already got paid! Eight million! I will treat you to a nice dinner."

"I gave it to you." Jiang Chen rolled his eyes.

Eight million was enough for a superstar. The top actress in Hua was paid eight million per film; her pay was the top ten. Normally speaking, the supporting actresses' pay never exceeded the leading actresses' pay.

But Liu Yao was an exception, the investors paid her directly.

"Don't say it like that. It is my first time receiving so much." Liu Yao pouted coyly.

"Ok, ok, ok, up to you," Jiang Chen smiled, "Also, do you have a digital version of the film?"

"Digital version? Yes, but why do you need that?' Liu Yao was puzzled.

"Get me a copy of it for collection purposes."

Collection? Liu Yao skeptically tilted her head.

There was no way the director would agree to make a digital copy of the film before the film was released. But since Jiang Chen was the only investor in the film and spent one hundred million and the director was not particularly famous, the director would not reject his request.

"Okay. But you can't upload it online. If it is leaked, it will impact the box office," Liu Yao pleaded in a small voice.

"Don't worry, I spent my money on it, why would I let other people watch for free." Jiang Chen mocked.

Liu Yao was more assured as she began to giggle.

"Mhmm! You're the best! Also, could you tell me what you're going to do with the digital version?"

Jiang Chen smiled with mysteriousness.

"Of course I'll watch it with you."

"Watch it with me?" Although she was delighted that Jiang Chen wanted to watch her film, Liu Yao still tilted her head feeling puzzled, "Didn't we say we are going to watch it in theaters? The experience of the digital version is not as good as the actual theatre right?"

"Don't worry, I have a home theatre in my mansion, six million AUD. The experience is no less than a movie theatre." Jiang Chen smirked.

Jiang Chen's smirk made Liu Yao slightly "unsettled" as she frowned .

"Watch it in a home theatre… I think you are planning something naughty."

"Could you not guess it?" Jiang Chen pretended to be shocked.

"I can't guess it." Liu Yao shook her head.

"Then let me give you a hint. When the movie is playing, you sit on me." Jiang Chen laughed mischievously.

With his teasing tone, Liu Yao's face instantly turned red and immediately understood what this pervert was thinking.

"You're so perverted!"

"Eh? Why do I sense you sound excited?" Jiang Chen didn't mind the waiter bringing the dishes look at him strangely.

"Leave me alone. I'm going to book now."

Liu Yao hung up.

[Book now? Her body is more honest than her words.]

Jiang Chen put down his phone in a pleasant mood and began to enjoy the dinner in front of him.

Chapter 464: For Our Friendship

Just as Jiang Chen was working on his dinner, a blonde beauty suddenly sat across from him.

Without raising his head, Jiang Chen knew who it was.

"How did you know I was eating here?"

"You definitely didn't notice that the Russian embassy is on the next street, and how eye-catching your Lamborghini is parked on the side of the road." Natasha grinned and asked the waiter to bring her a bowl of rice.

"I remember that Russians live off of bread, are you okay with eating rice?" Jiang Chen glanced at the bowl in front of her.

"No worries. Before I came here to work, I learned about the culture." Showing off, Natasha picked up the chopsticks and spun them between her fingers.

[Would ordinary people play with chopsticks before they eat?] Jiang Chen mocked in his mind.

"Is there something you need?" Jiang Chen was direct.

"Nothing in particular, can I not just ask you to treat me?" Natasha also asked the waiter to bring two bottles of beer.

"Are you not afraid of getting a beer belly?' Jiang Chen joked.

"Are you caring about my body?" Natasha giggled.

Jiang Chen looked away.

[This girl is seducing me again.]

"Also, could you let me play with your virtual reality helmet?"

Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"Didn't you say you just want me to treat you?"

"Can we not talk about this topic as friends?" Natasha took a gulp of beer.

"Of course, once the Phantom is officially released, I will gift you one personally."

Seeing that Jiang Chen wasn't planning to disclose any information, Natasha sighed.

"Okay, the Kremlin wants me to learn more about how advanced your virtual reality technology is… Don't be mistaken, the only reason I ask this is that we are somewhat disconnected from the world in this area. But even if I ask, you won't tell me right?"

"That's right." To Natasha straightforwardness, Jiang Chen was extremely pleased.

Natasha rolled her eyes as she picked up a piece of meat and sent to her red lips. With every movement, it looked seductive. So Jiang Chen's choice was to not look at her to avoid being distracted.

"What about the nutrient supply?" Natasha continued to ask.

"Nutrient supply? Kremlin would be interested in nutrient supply?" Jiang Chen laughed out.

"Precisely speaking, the Ministry of Defense and Department of Aerospace are both interested. Because we tried your nutrient supply, although it is not filling, we surprisingly discovered that we wouldn't po-"

"Ahem, we are eating." Jiang Chen coughed to remind her.

Natasha immediately realized and changed her wordings.

"Mhmm… You don't produce any waste."

Jiang Chen glanced at her and continued to work on the delicacies on his plate.

"So?"

"We want to work with you to develop a nutrient supply that's convenient to carry, capable of maintaining people's energy, and won't po-, produce waste in critical times." Natasha put down her chopsticks, put an elbow on the table, and smiled at Jiang Chen.

"A nutrient supply that's convenient to carry, and would allow the soldiers to obtain enough calories without the need to number two in critical times?" Jiang Chen put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"And astronauts. With nutrient supply as food, we could save space and remove the waste disposal unit." Seeing Jiang Chen was done, Natasha directly began to talk business.

"To be honest, we already developed this, so we don't need to work with you," Jiang Chen sighed, "But I personally have a cautious attitude to the military necessities market. This thing is just like poop, it is hard to wash off after you get it on your hands."

"It is only military necessities and not a tool for killing, you don't need to be so sensitive." Natasha sighed, "Just like a tech company, Google, they still design robotic dogs for the UA army for transportation."

When he heard Natasha's words, he fell into silence.

After a long pause, Jiang Chen asked.

"How are you planning to partner up?"

"Three plans. First, sell your technology to us, and promise that it won't be released to a third party. We'll purchase it at one hundred million USD."

"Too low, I don't want to sell it."

Other than too low, the organic boiler that's used in manufacturing of the nutrient supply possessed too many advanced technologies. Just with a particle filter inside, it is something that current technology cannot achieve. The recipe for the nutrient supply itself is not expensive; the expensiveness comes from the technology used to produce it.

Natasha was not surprised by Jiang Chen's response. She put up a second finger.

"Second, we'll give you the policy to build a plant in our country. We have a wealth of labor resources and a raw materials market."

"I'm only planning to build the nutrient supply plant on Ange Island. After so many things have happened, I don't feel very safe. You know," Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

Natasha gave Jiang Chen a hard stare. She took a deep breath before extending out her third finger.

"Three, you produce, we import."

"The military type?"

"Of course." Natasha nodded.

Jiang Chen was silent.

"Could I know how much you're ordering?"

"20 million per month."

20 million per month? If it were not for the fact that the nutrient supply in the modern world pursued low calories, the cost would be much lower. The nutrient supply now must be produced with DH seaweed, but if the wasteland nutrient supply was manufactured, any fruit and vegetable could be used as the ingredient to produce nutrient supply above A grade.

And the cost of fruit and meat was meager for Xin, a near significant farm product exporting country.

"What kind of price could you accept?" Jiang Chen asked.

"3 USD per nutrient supply." Natasha proposed in anxiousness.

The average food cost for a Russian soldier per day is 351 Rubles which is equivalent to 4.6 USD. Based on the consideration that the nutrient supply could replace regular dietary needs, if the nutrient supply is not high in cost, it is no longer a burden for the Russian military to replace food as it could decrease military spending in that area. And due to the ease of storage of nutrient supply, to use military supply as a strategic supply for storage, it could also save a big chunk of the budget.

But based on the nutrient supply's current price of 6.1 USD per nutrient supply, they could not afford it.

So when Natasha proposed the price point, she was very anxious as she feared that Jiang Chen would consider their price point too low and disagree with the proposal outright.

Too low?

Jiang Chen thought it was high.

Jiang Chen calculated in his head. A normal nutrient supply had a cost 1 USD, much lower than the improved nutrient supply. Would the profit of 2 USD per nutrient supply be too greedy?

Especially since it was effortless to increase the production of this nutrient supply; there was no need to expand DH seaweed's farm area. It could also be produced with normal vegetables and even the leftovers from restaurants.

Jiang Chen glanced at Natasha, seeing how tense she looked, she was afraid that he would reject.

[Since you don't think it is expensive, I will sell it to you.]

Jiang Chen coughed and pretended to be serious.

"Although it is lower than what I expected, based on our friendly relationship… deal."

A charming smile immediately appeared on Natasha' face, she clearly looked relieved.

"Thank you for your generosity, I wish the best of luck to both of us."

"No need." The tip of Jiang Chen's mouth carved up.

Natasha slightly raised her eyebrows, puzzled at Jiang Chen's expression.

The faint smile on his face made her feel like she was tricked, but she couldn't tell where she got tricked.

Chapter 465: Virtual Reality Helmet in Production

Back into the mansion, it was too lonely to sleep himself. So after rolling in bed for a bit, Jiang Chen headed to the apocalypse and quietly sneaked into Sun Jiao's bedroom.

When he took off the blanket, he was shocked to discover two people in bed.

"Haha, is brother-in-law disappointed?" Sun Xiaorou covered herself with the blanket and pulled it up by her chin while giggling.

Sun Jiao blushed and rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen.

"Fool, I thought you went back to that side to sleep."

Sun Jiao was used to Jiang Chen traveling between the apocalypse and the modern world. The mutants flood was just over as she initially thought Jiang Chen would stay for a bit of time on that side, but he left in the morning before returning at night.

Jiang Chen looked at the giggling Sun Xiaorou. The reaction in his head was as follows.

[Two people?]

[Then two people it is!]

Following two light shouts, Jiang Chen leaped onto the bed with a smirk.

…

The next day at noon, Jiang Chen had lunch with the girls and got the phone from Yao Yao.

Just by the looks of it, other than the phone being a bit thinner, it didn't look too different from a normal smartphone. However, the functionality was much stronger than normal smartphones. Most of the parts inside used graphene materials and completely replaced the silicone chips.

Also, the camera on the front was installed with hologram components. Also, the phone could be installed with the drone control program and used as the remote for drones. The latter functionality was similar to an EP, but Jiang Chen loved the first function.

To be able to project the operating system out in the form of a hologram, he would be the only who could do it in the world.

He then changed the sim card and headed to his office.

For example, even though the city center was showered by the rain of destruction, the life signal in the area didn't completely disappear. The mutants flood did stop, but zombie reproduction continued. A lot of mutant's nests weren't destroyed either. But since the drones could enter into the area, they brought back the details of the city center to the base.

A lot of mutant nests were not located on the surface, but rather in the underground sewer system, metro stations, or the basement of buildings. The mutants on the surface indeed all died, but the mutants under the surface didn't completely die off. Even if all the oxygen were burned off, a lot of mutants were resilient even in an oxygen-free environment with only a portion of the mutants dying off due to asphyxiation while the rest survived.

To remove the remaining threats, the plan of attack on the city center was in the process. The First Corp was responsible as the primary attack force, with the support of the armored force, they will conduct surgery to the infection source in the city center.

At the same time, Jiang Lin's improved rocket already achieved great results. The material didn't require fuel but was refined through Carm tree sap and other mutated plants. The new fuel's unit volume of combustion rate was two times the amount of solid-fuel and three times the fuel used in BM-21. At the same time, the component of the rocket became two times heavier than the BM-21, and the original launcher was replaced with the more powerful rocket booster.

The "primal weapon" replicated by future technology had no similarities other than the appearance.

The single launch cost was 1000 crystals, equivalent to 20 rifles sold at the Sixth Street Gun Store. While it was a bit pricey, the power was immense.

The weapon was named "Fireball-1" by Jiang Lin. Although the name sounded magical, it was surprisingly fitting. Any mutants splattered by the fuel would turn into a fireball.

When 1000 rounds of "Fireball-1" were produced, they could start the military operation on the city center. Jiang Chen ordered to stop the production of the Scream mortar shell and used the remaining production capability on the "Fireball-1".

Although the cost of 1000 crystals certainly pained him, he knew it was well worth the price. With one fireball, it could at least decrease one casualty. To Jiang Chen, who didn't lack food, people were the most valuable resource on the wasteland.

…

Everything at the base was functioning smoothly. Since there was nothing to do, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world.

Since the problem in the apocalypse was solved, he needed to get the virtual reality helmet production online as soon as possible. There were only four months left before the start of next year. Once the virtual reality helmet hits the market, Future Technology will face a completely new market.

Even if 10% of the global 3.2 billion netizens pay for the virtual reality helmet, it was 300 million units! Even if each helmet only made 500 USD, it was a daunting 150 billion USD.

Of course, he would be grateful if 20 million Phantom could be sold when the helmet is officially released. With the gradual ramp up in production, once the game goes online, Future Technology should be able to sell around 100 million in helmets in the most ideal scenario.

He took a boat to New Moon Island and found Ivan who was training the recruits. He was having a great time on the island as he was growing a belly. But from how tanned he looked, it was almost comparable to Barkary.

When Ivan saw Jiang Chen, Ivan gave him a sharp salute and asked Jiang Chen what the purpose of this visit was.

"Future Mining's platform is in use. I need you to send and station three soldiers on the island. In terms of equipment, bring the "Python" anti-tank rocket and the drone backpack.

The drone backpack was the single-soldier drone carrier. Capable of providing processing support for five Hummingbird drones, ammo supply as well as charging. In the modern world without single-soldier EMP equipment, it was a strong and powerful weapon.

"Yes!" Ivan stood straight and saluted again.

With how serious he looked, Jiang Chen smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Make sure you pick people you can trust as Future Group's secret is on the island. There is no dispute area around the platform area and zoned into a military control zone. Any ships approaching can be shot if they ignore the warning.

"Don't worry, with the truth-telling serum, we have already found two traitors in the team." Ivan laughed cheerfully.

Although his laugh was cheerful, Jiang Chen felt a hint of cruelty in the laugh.

As to the two poor suckers, Jiang Chen was too lazy to ask. He knew Ivan would take care of them.

Zero tolerance to betrayal.

Jiang Chen had emphasized this point since day one.

…

Because the sea platform was located in the shallow sea, it was extremely stable, and it practically felt like standing on the ground.

Jiang Chen planned to put the production line for the "Phantom" helmet here. In the entire Xin, there was no place safer than New Moon Island. When the platform was completed, Jiang Chen brought the construction map and opened bidding to the international construction companies to construct three plants here listed on each of the three corners on the sea platform. Factories would be connected by enclosed streamlines.

Plant A would be responsible for the basic production of the helmet, Plant B would be responsible for manufacturing the graphene chip and the nerve connection module, and team C would be responsible for putting everything together and installing the security function on the enclosed helmet with the finished product was exported out of plant C.

The entire production facility was highly automated. Only 30 workers were necessary to complete the operation of the production line. The workers only needed to transport the ores to the targeted location, stand on the fixed production line, and follow the manual to control the equipment. As to the principles, they didn't need to know, and Jiang Chen wasn't planning on telling them.

All products that met the quality standard would be passed on with products fallen below the standard sent back to ensure quality was met. Production would increase once the workers familiarized themselves with the production procedures.

All the workers must pass a security screening when they enter and their phones locked away during shifts. The procedure was stricter than college entrance exams to prevent the technology from being leaked.

With Future Group's technology, even a pin-sized needle would be scanned out. Any worker attempting to bring in spy devices would be prosecuted based on Xin Business Secret Act and fired from Future Group.

If the production facility experienced technical difficulties, the entire production line would immediately halt, and the triangular floating island would be temporarily shut down. The production would only be restarted when Jiang Chen arrived to solve the problem.

But the facility had high stability. Without deliberate human damage, the facility could run several years without error.

Currently, Jiang Chen instructed the scientists in Fallout Shelter 027 to improve this production line and the possibility of drones replacing workers to conduct the production. It was best to decrease the number of people directly involved with the production while increasing production volume.

The exterior of the helmet was primarily made out of industrial plastic, and lead insulation and modern world technology could easily produce this. Therefore, the work without any technical innovation could be contracted to companies with interest.

With the current production facility, half a million helmets could be produced monthly. Followed by the wasteland's continuous improvement and building of the production line, the helmet could reach five million per month by year-end.

After sending the soldiers on the platform back to the island, Jiang Chen went into a plant and returned to the apocalypse and moved the two finished production lines over. He installed and placed the two production lines based on the blueprint provided.

After everything, Jiang Chen dusted off the sand on his hands and looked pleasingly at the equipment in the three plants.

Once the two production lines come into production, the entire world will be crazy over Future Technology.

Chapter 466: Unrest at Night

Earlier in the month, Jiang Chen contracted out the specification of the "Phantom" helmet to workshops on Coro Island with a production cost of 40 USD per helmet. Jiang Chen aimed to sell each helmet for 50 USD, so a single helmet would have a profit margin of 10 USD.

The high rate of return brought a wave of startups in Xin.

There were no more fishermen on Ange Island. People grasped the opportunity to purchase production equipment and started workshops in their own backyards. They only needed to produce 1000 helmets to gain 10 thousand USD in profit; it was a much better business compared to fishing.

After they got accustomed to the taste of money, the clever ones would start building bigger plants, expanding production, lowering costs, and making more money…

And they would become capitalists dependent on Future Group.

The calculations showed that a helmet cost roughly 500 USD. Jiang Chen planned to set the price at 1500 USD. Based on the tariffs of each country, the price would vary 5 to 15%.

Although the price of 1500 USD was a bit pricey, from another perspective, it would allow users to gain eight more hours when they could have their eyes "open." Was that still considered expensive?

It was like giving them a second life!

And Future Technology promised that the "Phantom" had a warranty of more than five years. Any helmet broken with normal usage within two years could be replaced while any helmet malfunctions within five years could be replaced at half price - the warranty was impeccable.

For users who opened the helmet out of "curiosity," they had to pay for their curiosity, unfortunately. The agreement and package explicitly stated that any activity exposing the interior of the helmet could cause the interior to "oxidize." A helmet damaged in this manner would not enjoy the warranty provided.

On the production side, due to low production rates of the helmet, it meant that only part of the population could obtain one. Jiang Chen trusted that even at a price of 1500 USD, the "Phantom" would be out of stock for a long period of time.

…

Late into the night, inside the virtual reality MMORPG testing room, 2000 players quietly laid on their recliners and carried out the testing.

In the first 20 days, the internal tests were conducted in the morning. But the employees soon discovered that when "Phantom" was active, the user's brain would be in sleep mode. So when the testing was done in the morning, it shifted the players' biological clocks. It meant that the players were all energetic even well into the night.

The fact that the helmets affected their biological clocks was undoubtedly a problem, but it also meant the virtual reality helmets had an excellent ability to lure people to sleep. Even for players with insomnia, they could use the helmet to obtain a great night of sleep.

Although this was just a minor detail, the employees recorded this data to provide better information for when the game would officially be in operation.

It was day 25 of internal testing.

After their initial shock, the players became accustomed to the otherworldly experience.

At first, a lot of mages loved to throw fireballs in the starting village only to be killed by guards who came to the rescue, and it wasn't until all the NPCs in the city displayed unfriendly attitudes towards them that their brain-dead behavior stopped.

They couldn't be blamed as anyone who suddenly possessed magic wouldn't think about saving the world first; they would probably try to frustrate the NPCs and cause extensive damage instead.

However, there was no doubt that even if the Florentine psychology was brought out, this behavior still followed a certain pattern.

And it was because of this that most mages chose their second job as a fire mage or undead mage.

One was powerful. The other was evil.

According to user preferences, the game designers in the other world could only use the raw data and wave their "butcher knives."

"The weather is quite nice today."

"Let's nerf the mage."

These two sentences were commonly spoken in Du Yongkong's office.

Since they couldn't see the players, they didn't know why internal testers favored mages or why they were so keen to light up the NPC's building with fireballs. It was something Du Yongkong had never seen in the twenty years of his professional career.

It wasn't until Du Yongkong reported the mage getting nerfed to Jiang Chen that the behavior stopped.

The virtual reality in the apocalypse took a century to mature from its infancy, so the players in that world didn't feel too astonished by the freedom and magic of the world - they were already accustomed to it.

To put it in simple terms, the internal testers in the modern world displayed behaviors similar to primates in awe of civilization due to the hastened timeline of the availability of virtual reality. Just like an an indigenous person who had a musket thrown into his hand, their first reaction wasn't to be repelled but rather to come closer to the muzzle, wondering how the black hole could spit out fire.

Nerfing the damage on the spell would decrease the game's playability, but without nerfs, no one would play warrior which would impact the overall gaming experience. After careful consideration, Jiang Chen instructed them to nerf the scalability, but not the damage.

For example, C level equipment for a warrior required 100 gold with a drop chance of 10%, while C level equipment for a mage required 1000 gold with a drop chance of 4%. If most noobs couldn't afford to play a mage, they would automatically choose another profession.

And at level 20, players would gain an opportunity to redistribute their stats and choose their class again.

Also, for classes like the priest, the game designer on the wasteland made similar adjustments.

25 days after the change, the playability of the game increased quite substantially.

As Wei Wendong played an archer he just created, walking in the woods, the symbol of suddenly popped up.

"Disconnected?" Wei Wendong frowned.

The battery should be full. The "Phantom" connected to Wi-Fi could potentially disconnect in theory, but this is the first time this has happened…

He chose to log out, put down his helmet, and look around only to discover it was pitch black in the hall. He could slightly make out that the players around him were all experiencing the same situation as they woke up from their games with a blank expression.

"Everyone, please remain calm. There's been a small accident outside."

An employee walked in and spoke to the crowd with a loudspeaker.

Chapter 467: The Intimate Arrival

Because Wei Wendong was close to the door, he noticed that behind the employee was security in "plastic armor."

He had been skeptical of the futuristic-looking "plastic" armor that could defend against bullets. The fluid-looking rifles in their hands were more like props from a sci-fi movie.

But if Wei Wendong knew the plastic armor could defend against the firing of a 12.7 mm caliber machine gun or the toy could easily flip over a 3-ton military Hummer or that the prop gun could penetrate through the bulletproof exterior of a Hummer, what kind of expression would he have on his face?

The kinetic skeleton had remained a concept only in labs. In this aspect, Celestial Trade was leading the world.

A faint explosion transmitted from outside.

But due to the excellent insulation of the hall, only Wei Wendong, close to the door, felt a minor shake. The explosion made him uneasy, but just as he was planning to ask the employee, the lights in the hall came back again.

"What just happened? Fu*k, I was killing a boss but suddenly disconnected."

"Q.Q, I just got a legendary weapon but hadn't picked it up."

"Did the power just go out?"

Wei Wendong listened to the chit-chat of the surrounding players. He hesitated for a moment before he swallowed his question down. The explosion outside and the barely audible gunshots made him feel the situation wasn't as simple as a power outage.

"We apologize as the hotel's power system experienced a temporary outage. Our technical experts have resolved the situation, please return to the game. The game data has been reset to before the outage and will be unpaused in two minutes."

[Pausing the server is only something that can be done during internal testing.] With a mind full of questions, Wei Wendong put on the helmet and logged into the game.

…

Jiang Chen had spent an entire day working on the contract for the production of helmets. When he returned home, he fell asleep right away.

But two hours into his sleep, a call from the internal testing center woke him up.

"An attack?" Jiang Chen listened to the description over the phone as his eyebrows furrowed together.

"That's right. There were five attackers in total. One cut off the power supply in the hotel remotely while the other four with light weapons attempted to enter the hotel, but the drones detected them. Our people immediately suppressed them with bullets. When they were retreating, they used grenades and struck the wall of the hotel, but fortunately, there were no casualties," the security manager responsible for the internal testing center reported.

"Where are they?" Jiang Chen asked in a serious undertone.

As long as there was one person alive, the truth-telling liquid could uncover the truth.

"Three people were shot dead during their escape. One person died due to a vehicle collision and the other person committed suicide."

[Suicide?]

Jiang Chen's eyebrows tightened.

"Did you confirm their identities?"

"Other than the fact that three of them were white and two were black, we weren't able to obtain any more information," Ma Li answered.

The organization that sent out that force was a formidable opponent as they sent out agents who would rather commit suicide than reveal their identity.

"Were there any witnesses?"

"All information leaks have been controlled."

"Great, continue to monitor the information leaks and don't let the media know. Take care of the situation."

If the media exposed a shooting at the door of Future Technology's Internal Testing Center, Xin's tourism rating and Future Technology's public image would be impacted. If possible, it was better to keep the media ignorant of the incident.

"Understood," Ma Li answered affirmatively.

Jiang Chen thought for a while after he hung up the phone to think about who could've launched the attack. But when he carefully went through a list of potential organizations, he realized there were too many suspicious people. Future Technology's virtual reality touched too many people's slice of the pie. It was fortunate that the testing was being done on his territory and Celestial could punish any rats with iron fists.

He had to wait for Ayesha to finish training the agents.

Jiang Chen shook his head.

There was no signal on that island, so there was no way of contacting Ayesha even if he wanted to. If he made a trip… he feared it would interrupt her teaching.

Jiang Chen flung his phone to the side, yawned, and laid down again.

Regardless, he was tired today. He still had to head to the airport tomorrow, so it would be an early morning start for him.

…

Inside the airport, a splendid figure in a summer outfit strolled around. Her black circular shades were matched with a straw hat; her graceful hand pulled a lemon-yellow suitcase along. Her appearance looked exactly like a celebrity traveling in secret, catching the attention of all the tourists.

But the beauty was clearly used to their envious looks, so she didn't react at all as she headed straight to the door.

"Hello~"

Liu Yao's eyes lit up when she saw Jiang Chen leaning against the door. She waved energetically.

With Liu Yao's lively appearance, Jiang Chen smiled and greeted her as well. But just as he was about to speak, an unstoppable yawn came out.

Liu Yao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and dragged her suitcase in front of him.

"What? Did you not miss me?"

"How could I not? It's just that something happened last night," Jiang Chen said with his mouth wide open while taking Liu Yao's luggage. He walked in front of the car to stuff the luggage in.

Something did happen last night, but Liu Yao clearly mistook it for something else. She rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen again but it didn't take long before her attention shifted to Jiang Chen's car.

"Wow, is this a Lamborghini? The trunk is in the front." Liu Yao touched the car out of excitement.

"Do you like it? I'll gift you one then?" Jiang Chen opened the door.

Even Natasha had scoffed at the lack of defense on his ride. Out of safety considerations, it was time to switch to a safer vehicle.

For example, he should build the cast with C-type steel, use tempered glass for the car windows, use nuclear fusion batteries as the engine for the car, and install two rockets.

When Liu Yao entered the car, she immediately took off her shades and tossed her hat to the back.

"Why do I feel like you're really excited?"

"I just really missed you." Liu Yao stared at Jiang Chen with her watery eyes.

"Really?"

"Of course!" Liu Yao lifted her graceful legs. Her movements showed her charm.

"I think you got prettier." Jiang Chen examined Liu Yao while rubbing his chin.

"Where?" Liu Yao asked with enthusiasm.

Jiang Chen pretended to be deep in thought. Faced with Liu Yao's hopeful glance, he finally gave a response:

"Your boobs got bigger."

Liu Yao's face was decorated with a blush as she pouted.

"Screw you."

"Then where should I compliment you?" Jiang Chen started the car while he spoke with a smirk.

"Obviously other parts. Like my face, my eyes."

"Then your face got bigger."

"What? Did it get bigger?" Liu Yao scrambled through her purse to find a mirror and examined her face. "It didn't get bigger..."

But soon after, she saw the smirk on Jiang Chen's face and she replied to him with a hard stare:

"Hmph, you dared to trick me."

With a grin on his face, Liu Yao felt she shouldn't let this go so easily, but she couldn't think of a way to punish him.

Her eyes rolled around and suddenly a bright smile formed on her face.

"Pay attention when you're driving."

"Of course, you don't have to worry about my driving."

"Oh, is that so? Then you better drive slowly..." Liu Yao smiled mysteriously then reached out her left hand nonchalantly.

"Xin's road conditions aren't bad; there aren't many cars on the road-"

The cold sensation made Jiang Chen's scalp tingle.

"What're you doing..." Jiang Chen frantically tried to stabilize the steering wheel then glanced at the mischevious Liu Yao.

"I'm testing your driving skills."

Liu Yao turned the bottle of water and grinned.

Liu Yao studied Jiang Chen's expression and she felt confident. Regardless of what happened last night, he still had feelings for her. As his mistress, only this feeling gave her a sense of security.

If Jiang Chen knew what she was thinking, he would have a peculiar expression on his face. Something did happen last night, but it was completely contrary to what Liu Yao thought.

Something similar happened before. When they came out of Wanghai University, a similar scene happened in the car. But the only difference was that the Maybach had tinted glass. The inside of this Lamborgini could still be seen from the outside.

If Jiang Chen parked on the road, everyone would see what was happening in the car. But the car was moving.

"Can't you wait until we watch the movie?" Jiang Chen was consumed by the gentle coldness while he squeezed a few words from this teeth. He tried his best to maneuver the vehicle.

It was very distracting to have people drinking water on the side.

"No, I'm thirty." Liu Yao pouted.

The "displeased" Jiang Chen made Liu Yao even more naughty.

Her mischevious eyes rolled around and she opened the bottle cap. Her bright red lips moved closer and began to slurp on the water.

Chapter 468: What If

Jiang Chen drove Liu Yao back home and they watched a movie she starred in at her home theater.

Needless to say, it was fun hugging the actual movie star from the film. But because Liu Yao distracted him from viewing the movie, Jiang Chen didn't absorb any of the film's plot.

But even then, just from the few scenes she acted in, her performance as "the prom queen who could only be viewed from a distance" was exquisite. This was especially obvious when she rejected the supporting actor's confession and the leading actor accompanied the supporting actor to watch Liu Yao's plane fly into the distance - Liu Yao displayed her "goddess" ambiance and even surpassed the leading actress on this aspect.

Although it had a typical romance plot, teenage girls loved to watch it and their boyfriends loved to watch it with them. The plot wasn't important necessarily as long as the BGM 1 and scenes were emotional enough. With the weight of a favorable review from "senior film critique," Jiang Chen, once the film hit the theatres, Liu Yao would become the goddess in everyone's heart, the prom queen only viewable from a distance…

But what they wouldn't know was that the prom queen was currently sitting on Jiang Chen's lap.

"Okay, that should be all your scenes. Aren't you going to come down?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"No, the film isn't over yet." Her hair was slightly messy, but Liu Yao pouted defiantly, shook her waist, and swatted away Jiang Chen's hand.

"Okay, as long as you can take it."

Liu Yao stuck out her tongue and thought about it for a bit before coming down.

"The gorgeous exit scene I heard was added when the director asked the screenwriter to change the script."

"Oh? Is that so? I feel it was a great addition. Mhmm, bring me a bottle of champagne." Jiang Chen smiled nonchalantly.

Typically speaking, to prevent the supporting cast from taking over, the director would usually decrease the number of scenes the supporting cast appeared in. Although Jiang Chen wasn't well-versed in the art of movies, who cared? He was rich.

"Thank you," Liu Yao whispered as she stood in front of Jiang Chen and tidied up her messy clothes.

"No need." Jiang Chen smirked, closed his eyes playfully, and opened his mouth: "I'm thirsty, give me water."

Liu Yao seductively rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen. She turned around and headed to the kitchen with elegant steps.

…

Liu Yao was the type of girl who knew her position and what other people needed. Because of this, it was relaxing and joyful spending time with her.

In the next three days, Jiang Chen had the rare opportunity to enjoy the lavish life of a billionaire. He either brought Liu Yao to "contribute to the local tourism industry" on Coro Island or spent time with her on his private island.

When he thought about it, he hadn't had the time to relax for the past while. He was either working on Future Group's business in Xin or he was working on the "territorial dispute" in the apocalypse. While he made a decent amount of money, only a small percentage was used for leisure.

"This is such a waste." Jiang Chen laid on the lounge chair while sluggishly bathing in a ray of sunshine.

"A waste?" Liu Yao laid beside Jiang Chen while uploading pictures of the southern kingdom.

"It's nothing. I just think it's so beautiful here, yet I only spend a handful of time enjoying this."

"Could I interpret that to mean you're showing off right now?" Liu Yao pouted while looking at Jiang Chen, speechless. She then continued to play with her phone and upload pictures onto her Weibo.

Just then, she posted a photo of their private beach. A lot of "good friends" commented and called her "sister," hoping she could bring them along next time she traveled.

Liu Yao's vanity was satisfied when she scrolled through the comments. A bright smile appeared on her face. She typed away with delight and replied, saying she would bring some specialties back and treat them to a nice dinner with her pay.

As for bringing them there…

She'd pass. She didn't want to increase her competition.

While Liu Yao was waving her legs in joy, Jiang Chen couldn't help but smile.

Without needing to look, he knew what she was doing.

A woman's vanity wouldn't make a man jealous, because vanity could also bring satisfaction to men. A lot of the time, men just hated women who used their vanity to kidnap him, challenge his limits, and cause unnecessary problems.

But Liu Yao seemed to know this point well - while she did brag about her man's power, she never used Jiang Chen's name for anything unreasonable. And she didn't use her relationship with the biggest investor in the film industry to mistreat the other cast members.

Jiang Chen often thought she was the perfect mistress.

"Oh, am I in the picture?" he asked casually.

"Hmm? No." Liu Yao tilted her head but suddenly remembered something as she whispered, "Of course, if you want to make our thing public, I won't mind."

"No." Jiang Chen shook his head.

[This girl's thought process is completely different from mine. To be honest, I don't care about scandals or rumors; the reason I asked was because…]

"It's for your safety."

"Safety?" Liu Yao had a slight look of fear. "Did you get into trouble with gangs?"

Jiang Chen burst out laughing and spat out the orange juice he just gulped down. [Gangs? Am I this low?]

Liu Yao looked at Jiang Chen, still confused, as she didn't know why he was laughing.

"Are you scared?" Jiang Chen didn't address her confusion.

If she was afraid, he would draw a line in their relationship and force her to stay away from that world.

Liu Yao took a moment to process things before she shook her head rapidly.

"I'm not afraid."

"Really?"

"Don't act like this. What did I do to make you dislike me?" Liu Yao got up from lying on the ground with sadness on her face before she moved next to Jiang Chen. She rested her face on his arm and looked at him, feeling mistreated.

Jiang Chen's question gave her an ominous feeling.

Jiang Chen laughed and tousled her hair.

"You're absolutely safe in Hua and Xin. But if you make some people believe you're close to me and that you mean something to me, some people may attempt to kidnap you and use you to threaten me in exchange for a ransom."

Although it was the most comical thing to kidnap the women of rich men, a lot of wealthy men wanted to get rid of their old wives and mistresses who no longer interested them. Compared to kidnapping, it was better to seduce… but Jiang Chen considered himself someone who cared about the people around him, so he had to consider this possibility.

[Then would you come and save me?]

Liu Yao subconsciously wanted to ask, but she swallowed the question down in the end.

[I'm only his mistress…]

She regretted that she hadn't given her first time to him more than once. [If we met earlier… if…]

Her tears rolled down and hid in the sand. Perhaps the sorrow of being an actress was that even if she felt emotional, her tears would be considered acting by others.

[I'm your regret.]

[But you're my regret as well…]

Liu Yao felt melancholic.

But Jiang Chen seemed to have read her mind. "I'll save you."

Liu Yao's eyes widened in disbelief; her teary look was beautiful.

Her shaking lips seemed to be asking: "But why?"

"But… the only thing I can do in the end is to avenge you." Jiang Chen sighed.

Even though Liu Yao was just his mistress, if the people who bothered him killed her, he would do anything to find them and press the nuclear button without hesitation because he cared.

The reason why he tolerated spy activity was because they hadn't reached his bottom line.

"That's enough," Liu Yao whispered as she dried her tears on Jiang Chen's arm.

"Why's that enough? Can't you protect yourself?" Jiang Chen asked wryly.

"Because I still mean something to you. Can't I be proud of that?" She rested on Jiang Chen's arm.

They weren't worried about the same thing. He was concerned about safety, but now the topic had shifted to personal importance.

[It might not be a great thing to be important to me…]

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and gazed at the horizon in the distance.

"You know what's the best way to protect the people important to you?"

"What's that?" Considering the sternness on Jiang Chen's face, Liu Yao asked genuinely.

"Have enough important people in your life so people won't know who's more important," Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

Liu Yao first paused before she pouted speechlessly.

"You know..."

"What?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, no longer serious.

"You completely ruined the atmosphere just now!" Liu Yao made a funny face at him with her eyes rolled and tongue stuck out. She sat back down and completely ignored him.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn't respond.

It was just a joke.

-

Chapter 469: Farewell

"Recently, the MLF active in Country F's territory launched a large-scale military attack named 'Autumn Assault' on the Dawo Port. Currently, over 70% of the area in Dawo is under the control of anti-government forces. The new leader of MLF called all faithful believers and Moro nationalists to join the organization, to resist Country F government's invasion and suppression, to restore the sovereignty of Moro and return MLL Island to the Moros."

"The UA spokesperson criticized Santos' speech, calling its actions unconstitutional. Seeking independence should not threaten the life and property of normal citizens. And they expressed that they will refuse to recognize a country formed through violent means. The Rainbow House is currently discussing the possibility of sending out ground forces…"

"The Russian president stated that the comments should take into consideration the current situation in Syria. It isn't only Country F's anti-government forces using violent means…"

"Due to the conflict in Country F, support for Sandy has slid down by 7 points. The UA media questioned its campaign objective to return to the Asia Pacific, stating that it could not improve the current situation without making the situation spin out of control. The Capital didn't comment further and only expressed that they would provide assistance to their allies when the time was deemed appropriate. But analysis stated that the possibility of sending ground forces to intervene with the Country F situation is unlikely. With the upcoming election, due to the influence of anti-war sentiment in the country, the Republicans don't want to further add variables to the election…"

[Santos actually did something, then.]

Watching the news on TV, a smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face.

Just then, a soft sensation came from behind his head.

"Are you watching the news?" Liu Yao hugged Jiang Chen from behind.

"Mhmm, just taking a look." Jiang Chen shut off the TV.

"Country F is so close to Xin - would it affect us here?" She rested her chin on Jiang Chen's head as she asked with concern.

"Are you worried about me?" Jiang Chen lifted Liu Yao's head and rubbed her hair.

"Why else then?"

Liu Yao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and lowered her body to nibble on his ear. She then moved up and said, "Breakfast is ready, let's eat."

Jiang Chen smiled, got up from the sofa, and headed to the table with Liu Yao.

The past seven days, he lived a shameless life with Liu Yao. Jiang Chen previously thought she was the trophy type of woman who didn't do any housework or cooking, but the reality soon proved that he was wrong. After living alone for so long, Liu Yao learned how to take care of herself.

For the past few days, Jiang Chen's life had been taken care of by the celebrity. Because of this, the mansion, previously filled with dust, became bright again.

Other than enjoying life, Jiang Chen kept himself busy. The production arrangements for "Phantom" and the new nutrient supply production line were all tasks that couldn't be delegated to anyone - he had to do it all himself.

Also, three completed Dolphin-10s were deployed by Droplet, 200 nautical miles away from Coro Island in the Pacific region. With the protection of nuclear weapons, Xin no longer needed to be afraid of the threat of any external forces. As to when their nuclear weapons would be made public, the date hadn't been set.

During the night, Jiang Chen immersed himself completely in Liu Yao's softness.

With the blink of an eye, it was already early September.

Although he wanted to continue to live the comfortable life, since the "Wanghai City Center Attack Plan" was approaching its scheduled date, he had to wrap up everything in the modern world before mid-September.

…

Outside the airport, Liu Yao released the suitcase she was dragging. She hooked her arms around Jiang Chen's neck longingly and kissed him.

"I'm going to go. Take care of yourself."

"When's your next film going to show up? Is there a plan?" Jiang Chen gently patted her back and smiled.

"The movie isn't currently in theatres yet. I'll have to wait for the box office at the year's end. Remember to watch it with me one more time in a movie theatre."

"Aren't you embarrassed?" Jiang Chen smirked.

"Pervert!"

Her boarding announcement echoed throughout the terminal. Although Liu Yao wanted to stay longer, time didn't permit.

She went up on her tiptoes and left another kiss on Jiang Chen's face. Then she dragged her luggage along and rushed to the gate.

When Jiang Chen left the airport, he didn't get in the car immediately. Instead, he leaned against it and watched the sky above the airport.

Her plane departed and disappeared into the clouds.

He reminisced the past seven days of joy before he started to chuckle and got into the car. He put on his Bluetooth and went on his way.

Jiang Chen dialed Xia Shiyu's office.

"Hello?" It was a cold but familiar voice.

"There are 600,000 units of 'Phantom' helmet ready. How are preparations on your side?"

"Only 600,000? That's too little." Xia Shiyu leaned on the office chair, scanned the document on her laptop and spoke with an eyebrow raised.

"Don't worry, by the year's end, you'll see 20,000,000 virtual reality helmets." Jiang Chen began to laugh.

Production must be increased gradually. Just yesterday, Fishbone base produced two more production equipment. When the equipment was installed at the plant, the output of "Phantom" could reach 1,100,000 per month.

As long as they increased the production capacity to 10,000,000 before January, with the Sixth Street part of the order, it wouldn't be unrealistic to achieve the 20,000,000 target.

"Currently, we contacted 70,000 net cafes domestically and 310,000 net cafes internationally to launch the virtual reality experience project. We need 1,440,000 helmets for this."

Marketing was only one aspect of the project, but for word of this project to spread, advertisements alone weren't enough. Using internet cafes as a physical channel to market the product was an excellent choice. With expensive products, consumers often held a cautious attitude, but Jiang Chen was confident that when players experienced the magic of "Phantom," no one would want to put it down.

"What're the specifics of the plan?" Jiang Chen asked curiously.

"We'll provide the product and they'll provide the channel. The current pricing for experimenting with the product is set at 1 USD per hour with an equal split of profits. I've laid out the details of the plan. But the key is: do you really have 1,440,000 helmets?" Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses and asked concisely.

"When do you need them?"

"As soon as possible. In the initial stage, we can work with bigger net cafe chains before expanding to the smaller cities. We only need 100,000 in the first phase, but it's still better for us to have 1,440,000 ready by the end of October."

"Don't worry, it'll be done by early October. On your side, you can start to arrange the logistics." Jiang Chen smiled.

"I already made an agreement with Norway-based MSG Group. They have an excellent reputation, have high efficiency and are considered a top-five global logistics company. I signed a three-year agreement with them. They promised to bill us at 90% of the market price." Xia Shiyu spoke nonchalantly with subtle pride.

When Jiang Chen heard this, he was amazed at Xia Shiyu's abilities. Anything that could've come to mind was already arranged by her.

"Haha, I can't believe you took care of everything. Then, for everything aside from production, I'll have to count on you."

"You've always counted on me," Xia Shiyu said, speechless.

Jiang Chen only grinned at Xia Shiyu's scoff.

"How's it been?"

"Mhmm… not bad." Xia Shiyu felt touched when Jiang Chen began to ask about her; she answered with a finger twirling her hair.

The female assistant at the side looked at her CEO's expression in shock.

She had been working for her for a long time, yet it was the first time she saw such a womanly expression on the normally-emotionless CEO.

Chapter 470: Experiencing Virtual Reality

Inside the hallway of Tencent's headquarters, a project manager in a suit walked with brisk steps. He had a document in his hand and from the expression on his face, something good must've happened.

Du Zhuze stood in front of Ma Huateng's office. He took a deep breath, adjusted his tie, and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

When he heard the voice inside, he eagerly pushed open the door.

"Boss, they agreed on the acquisition. Wanghai Lexiang Technology stated that with our support, their Deepon virtual reality equipment now has the ability to directly connect to laptops and the previous compatibility problem has been resolved. From the test they did yesterday, it can smoothly run virtual reality games such as Microsoft's Minecraft and Eve: Valkyrie."

The former had quite a reputation domestically. Ever since the virtual reality trailer was released in December of 2015, it received considerable attention. And the latter's lack of publicity domestically was primarily due to the poor selection of game operators.

"Discuss publication rights with CCP. You must make them sign the contract," Ma Huateng said with an undertone.

Without a game that people enjoyed playing, it would be extremely difficult to market virtual reality. People wouldn't purchase VR equipment just because they could log on their QQ with VR equipment.

"But EVE's partner Shiji Tiancheng is also in discussions about Valkyrie. They're already the operator for EVE; we don't have any advantage in winning the bid for Valkyrie," Du Shuze said with a pained look.

Ma Huateng smiled mysteriously. "We have money and an even better user group."

He hadn't focused on EVE because it was a small market game, but now that he thought about it, what was more appealing than freely soaring in the galaxy in virtual reality?

After receiving assurance from his boss, Du Shuze felt relieved and continued.

"What about Microsoft's Minecraft?"

"That's a single-player game, right?" Ma Huateng had a slight frown.

"Primarily a single player game, but it has server functionality," Du Shuze answered.

"Therefore, without the need for a large-scale server, it allows for a local network connection?"

"In theory, yes." The project manager nodded.

"Then ignore it. We're only focusing on MMO. The spirit of the internet is sharing, and players will naturally tire of this type of game." Ma Huateng waved his hand to dismiss his concerns.

The project manager suddenly understood.

"Boss you're so smart!"

[Did you even need to say it?] Ma Huateng glared at him.

But it certainly felt good to listen to flattery as Ma Huateng sunk into his chair, feeling proud. Future Technology's sudden emergence was indeed annoying, but with the solid foundation of the Tencent empire, it would be easy to break into virtual reality.

The only reason they hadn't made a move was because the mobile market was saturated. As a newly-formed company, they dared to fight for market shares with the three giants - Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba? That was wishful thinking.

But since the war began, he was more focused on the plans of the other two giants.

"Keep an eye on Alibaba and Baidu; I feel they will-"

The door was suddenly pushed open, interrupting their conversation.

The person at the door leaned on the door frame while gasping for breath. He had a piece of wrinkled paper in his hand.

Ma Huateng raised an eyebrow as this employee's rude actions displeased him. Du Shuze, by the side, glanced at the person and gloated before returning to a serious expression.

After catching his breath, the person finally stood up. Without apologizing, he hastily walked to Ma Huateng's desk and placed the document down while shaking.

"Boss, Future Technology made a new move. This is a document I copied from a net cafe that works with us." The person finally started to breathe normally and began to articulate himself.

Ma Huateng glanced at him before gazing at the document.

"Virtual reality experience project?"

Ma Huateng flipped through the document before he started to look concerned.

For some reason, Future Technology's move made him feel uneasy.

"Little Du."

"Mhmm?" Du Shuze straightened his back and awaited orders.

"You're responsible for virtual reality. After work, go experience this for me," Ma Huateng said nonchalantly.

"Yes Boss."

"Ok, that's it from me."

Du Shuze immediately stepped out. The employee who rushed in hesitated for a moment, wanting to say something. When he saw the displeased expression on his boss' face, realizing his recklessness, he shut his mouth and left the office with Du Shuze.

…

Wanghai City's Star Netcafe was filled with people. There were empty computers, but the front desk was crowded with people.

The first things people said when they entered the net cafe was:

"Could you get a 'Phantom' virtual reality helmet for me?"

"Sorry, sir, the only four Phantom helmets in the store are being used," the staff said with mixed emotions.

She had repeated the same line over fifty times.

"What?! Full already?" The man's eyes widened. "Eh, why're there only four here?"

Her explanation clearly didn't convince this man. If it wasn't for the fact that the staff looked cute, he would've cursed.

As a loyal fan of Future Technology, he followed the official site of Godly Land while waiting for the monthly updated trailer. Other than that, he also avidly followed the streamers who chose to be part of the internal test.

The streamers didn't disclose the game content, but when they were asked if the game was fun, even straight-faced streamers would display a fervent look.

It had been half a year since the official site came online. Now that he could finally play it, he was indeed eager. As soon as he saw "Experience project" on Future 1.0, he immediately dropped everything he was doing and rushed to the closest partnered netcafe.

Yet now, the Star Netcafe was telling him it was full?

What kind of joke was this? The largest net cafe in the area only had four "Phantom"?

"How long is the wait?" the man said out of annoyance.

The new staff was about to be in tears considering how menacing the man looked.

"You'll have to wait."

"I know I have to wait. I'm asking how long do I have to wait?" the man said aggressively.

The older staff who just finished her tasks could no longer stand by as she dragged the new staff to the back before personally handling the situation.

"Sir, do you want to open a computer or experience virtual reality? If you want to experience virtual reality, please register on our computer. There are still 51 players before you for a total of 102 hours of wait time. We'll alert you through text message five hours before your spot opens up. Also, if you have time at night, you could join the night list with 23 players currently waiting—"

When he heard he had to wait for five days, he immediately exploded and began yelling.

"Fu*k, what kind of sh*tty net cafe is this? I have to wait! I won't play anymore."

Although he said that, he still stood there. He stared at the staff while waiting for the server to give in.

But the staff was experienced as he looked at the man with a smile without displaying any emotion.

Since he was blocking the way, the people behind him began to grow discontent.

"Can you be faster? If you don't want to play, leave. Stop wasting time."

"That's right."

When he heard the voices from the back, the man's face turned red out of embarrassment. He wanted to leave, but when he saw the long line before him, if he left, he wouldn't be able to experience virtual reality anymore.

"Who said I won't play? I'll wait, how much?"

"You said that?" There were whistles behind him, but he chose to ignore them.

[Whatever you say, my skin is thick enough.]

"6 RMB an hour." The staff pointed at the sign at the door.

It wasn't expensive, which made him feel a bit better. By comparison, an Apple computer cost 12 an hour.

The same scene was also occurring in Wanghai, Shangjing, and other metropolises. A few days later, Phantom was set to appear in New York, London, and Paris.

When the first player put down the virtual reality helmet reluctantly and began to share his astonishment with his friends, it would mark the first intimate contact between civilization and virtual reality.

Chapter 471: Arena Mode

Based on the income and tax of each country, the virtual reality experience price differed. The internet cafe in Hua was priced at 6 RMB an hour, in UA it was 2 USD, in Europe, it was 2 Euros. Half went to the internet cafe while the other half went to Future Technology. Two months later, the internet cafe could purchase the helmet at 2000 USD without the need to share their profits with Future Technology.

All the players' accounts were being connected to their iris scan and could be linked to their Future 1.0 account.

To ensure everyone could play the game, Future Technology limited the experience of time per person. Every person could experience the game for a maximum of 2 hours every 72 hours. The frequency would increase following the increase in vacant helmets.

But that would never happen.

Within 24 hours, after introducing the virtual reality experience project to 21 major internet cafes in Wanghai, the internet exploded with passion. A lot of forums, BBS, and Weibo were flooded by the word "Phantom." Players who were fortunate enough to experience the game all expressed their astonishment.

"It's immersive virtual reality helmet! The rumor before was true! I did experience it in my life!"

"That's unbelievable. It's hard to imagine, my body didn't move… It's hard to describe the feeling. It felt as if I traveled to another world!"

"Selling HoloLens purchased, only played for two days, selling at half price, please contact here…"

"…"

Words alone could not describe the excitement of the players.

Not only players, but even the scientific field was also stunned by Future Technology.

The Nobel Prize Committee sent emails to Future Technology, inquiring about the individual that made the breakthrough of exchanging information between the neural network and electric signals as they wished to name them as a candidate for the next Nobel Prize.

But when Xia Shiyu asked Jiang Chen about the name of the person, Jiang Chen painfully rejected the Nobel Prize right at his doorstep. Even if he said he invented it himself, no one would believe him. With his personal resume and life, it nowhere resembled a sophisticated scientist.

This technology was destined to be left out of the Nobel Prize.

Disregarding how astonished the players and the scientific field was.

In the hopes of the players waiting to experience virtual reality, Future Technology finally opened the tip of the iceberg to Godly Land - Arena Experience Project.

Although it was just an experience project, it could be defined as internal testing.

All the players were arranged to be part of the testing server. Although they could not experience the content of the full game, they could experience the arena function that the internal test players have yet to experience and its dueling function.

In the arena, the player level was set to ten with all classes available. When the game started, the player could use gold from the system to purchase equipment from the arena merchant, then join the battle in the arena.

Duel or team. Twelve different terrains to choose from.

Everyone was a beginner without any need to consider advantages and disadvantages. But when they just enter the game, there was a tutorial. In some element, the data from the arena would affect the class balancing in the official release.

On the other side, the arena would allow the players to unleash their desire to throw fireballs. On the official release, the prepared players would not all choose the mage class.

What was funny was that a lot of pacifist players chose to make an agreement with the opponent not to fight, but rather to stroll around the map, turning the arena into a tourist spot.

A lot of mages who had fun with the fireballs began to dig mud with their canes. As to the players that purposely chose to be a different gender, they wanted to see if they had the parts of the opposite gender… based on the country's law, the sensitive content would be removed. If they wanted to play the adult game, once the helmet was officially released, following the tutorial on the internet, they could use Xin's VPN to play.

But strictly speaking, the "Phantom" helmet didn't provide audio and video footage. All the footage was played at the brain level. Similar to the idea of "daydreaming". So it was debatable whether virtual reality content would fit in the boundary of the current regulation on electronic publications. It would be unreasonable to use the law to prevent people from daydreaming.

Of course, the primary theme of the arena was the battle.

Other than that, what also shocked the players was the real-time translation functionality in the game.

All the players in the world were in the same testing server, but they could freely communicate. The functionality allowed the players to speak in the common twelve languages.

With so many advanced functionalities, Future Technology once again became the center of the public's and media's discussion.

In a UA talk show, the host had a discussion with Gates on Future Technology.

"There is virtual reality equipment called 'Phantom' that has been recently introduced, Gates, did you play it?"

"Of course, I was at a internet cafe the day it was available, mhmm… and finally managed to play it yesterday." Gates had a helpless expression on his face as laughter came from the crowd that shared the same sentiment.

The host also laughed along and continued to ask.

"if this equipment is officially released one day and you purchase it on the second day, are you not afraid that the scene in the movie would happen? For example, locked into the virtual world and unable to come back?"

"That's a great question. My answer is…" Gates purposely lowered his voice to build up the suspense before he burst out laughing, "I'll play even if I can't come back."

The host was shocked.

"As the founder of Microsoft… Is it good that you view a competitor's product so highly?"

"I view virtual reality highly. I have to admit, after experiencing 'Phantom', the realistic feeling left me stunned. But I want to say that the HoloLens introduced by Microsoft also has its uniqueness. Our philosophy is to promote user interaction in the real world with virtual items, and not further stray away from reality."

"So you're saying, Microsoft and Future Technology have two different emphases?"

"You could interpret it this way." Gates crossed his legs and said while leaning on the chair.

"Then which one do you think will become the new trend?" The host asked a tough question.

The crowd was attentive to the discussion, but Gates certainly felt awkward about the question.

His expression changed for a few seconds. Then he coughed and used a voice with certainty, but gave an ambiguous answer.

"… I can only say that there are advantages on both sides."

Just as Gates was still troubled by the host's tricky question, a research institute was trouble by Phantom.

In a national research institute.

Director Qian with a stern expression looked at the researcher walking toward him.

"Little Wu, did you figure something out?"

The research called Little Wu let out a sigh and shook his head.

"X-ray is unable to scan it. Future Technology sneakily built a lead insulation layer in the helmet."

"What about taking it apart?"

Little Wu's smile was even more bitter.

"Just as we were taking it apart to see what was inside, it immediately triggered the protection mechanism. All the circuits were fried. The only thing we are certain about is that the material they used is the rumored graphene chip. Because when it was taken apart, everything burned into carbon dioxide. As to the critical neural connection, it was even more of a disaster. The molybdenum melted into a ball…"

"Is there no way of replicating it?" While pained by the idea, Director Qian asked.

Little Wu shook his head.

"Damage is too great."

Whenever Director Qian thought about the person called Wang in Wanghai, he was furious. Although he was not as powerful as that guy, it still didn't stop his contempt.

"So wasteful." He cursed out and shook his head before heading out the door, sighing.

He needed to request to his superior to see if they could contact Future Group. If they could cooperate in virtual reality, it would be best.

Though he knew that it would be a difficult process.

Chapter 472: The Progress in Interdimensional Travel

"The patent office has sent another person here, hoping we can complete the patent registration process to prevent other companies from stealing our intellectual property and future disputes."

"Tell them that the company will take serious consideration on their recommendation, next."

"Tencent wants to partner with us on virtual reality. They stated that if we could provide support on neutral connection—"

"Next."

Currently, Jiang Chen was sitting in front of his desk with both legs on the table while video chatting with Xia Shiyu. Perhaps he was feeling good about himself for he felt just like an emperor at his morning meeting.

"Okay. Although I share the same thought with you, can you still just let me finish reporting?"

Xia Shiyu put down the documents and let out a sigh as Jiang Chen continuously interrupted her.

But from the curvature formed by her lips, her mood was particularly pleasant right now.

As an ambitious woman, Future Technology was just like her kid. She felt no less achieved than Jiang Chen watching it grow into the giant it was today.

Based on the highest valuation from venture capitals, Future Technology's market cap was estimated to be over one hundred billion dollars. Compared to the ten billion last year, it increased ten times. And as the Miss CEO with 1% of the company's shares, her net worth rose exponentially to one billion USD.

Just one year ago, it was something she never dared to imagine.

She still remembered that night. Jiang Chen had inexplicable confidence when he said:

"Currently, the company is still in its planning phase, don't you feel excited? You'll be the new Steve Jobs and I. I will become the new Bill Gates!"

She still vividly remembered how she doubted him.

But now looking back, his confidence was not "without reason". He did become the Hua Bill Gates, and in Wall Street's view, he even exceeded Bill Gates. Future Technology expanded from a small company in an apartment to a one hundred billion dollar company. It only took him one year.

"Is there something else you need to report?" Jiang Chen leisurely sunk into his chair and asked.

Only 17 days left before internal testing is over and the virtual reality experience store will expand worldwide. In four months time, people will gain an initial understanding of Future Technology. Then they would use the hype to put Phantom online before raking in the cash.

"Currently, I have released preorders for half a million helmets with a price of 1000 USD. They were all gone in three minutes. Players who didn't manage to purchase a helmet hoped we could release another half a million units."

Taking out the 500 USD cost, a profit of 250 million in three minutes was extremely exciting.

"Then release another half a million units." Jiang Chen said in excitement.

"My recommendation is to release half a million units at the beginning of every month," with Jiang Chen's excitement, Xia Shiyu covered her mouth and began to giggle, "releasing high amounts would lower the price of the product in consumer minds. Only a hungry market is an energetic market."

When Xia Shiyu finished, Jiang Chen blanked out.

"Is there something wrong with what I said?" Seeing Jiang Chen was silent, Xia Shiyu was confused.

Jiang Chen shook his head and laughed without being serious.

"It's nothing, I just feel you like to smile more now compared to before."

Now it was Xia Shiyu who blanked out.

"Really?" Xia Shiyu touched her own face.

But when she noticed the joking expression on Jiang Chen's face, she blushed and closed the camera.

"Ahem!" She coughed loudly as she sat up straight in front of the computer forcing herself to put on a serious expression, "let's continue with what we just talked about… umm, where was I?"

Although there was no camera, Jiang Chen still imagined how she looked as he couldn't help but smile.

"Preorder."

"Mhmm! Right, preorder…"

The entire conference was done with a black screen.

Although Jiang Chen requested multiple times to turn on the camera, Xia Shiyu refused with the excuse that it would distract her from work.

[Is this girl being shy?]

Instincts told him that was the likely cause.

He shut the computer, stretched his body, and headed to his bedroom.

…

It was already mid-September, As the attack on the city center was about to commence, it was time to go back.

When he headed to the warehouse on the south end of Coro Island, Jiang Chen put on the bracelet and was prepared to send the warehouse full of food back to the apocalypse when he discovered that the interdimensional teleportation device no longer functioned.

Although slightly downed by the mishap, the storage dimension still had a size of 300 cubic meters. So after a few trips, he finally emptied the warehouse.

It costed some extra crystals, but he didn't mind.

Like usual, he ordered Wang Qin to arrange for the storage of the food. Jiang Chen then went to Lin Lin's lab to see Lin Lin who was working between vials.

"What are you working on?"

"Fuel. Your Aerospace Technology Research Institute requires fuel with higher combustion time and higher energy and I happen to have some knowledge in this area, so I am helping them out. So, what do you need from me?" Lin Lin swirled a suspicious looking clear liquid in a test tube while she said proudly.

"Your interdimensional mass teleportation device seems to be having problems." Jiang Chen took out the bracelet and put it on the desk.

"That's impossible." Lin Lin raised her eyebrows and put the test tube on the rack, and then picked up the plastic bracelet.

She entered into deep thought while examining the bracelet.

Then, she abruptly walked in front of a table as if she had thought of something and took out a rubric cube-sized cube.

"Put this into your sub-dimension." Lin Lin walked back in front of Jiang Chen and passed the item to him.

Jiang Chen threw it into the storage dimension.

"And then?"

Lin Lin didn't respond but instead walked to testing equipment on the other side of the room, and then opened a device similar to a radio.

"This is?"

"Klein Particle Resonance Receiver. The cube could return the coordinates of its location, as well as the image… how is this possible." Lin Lin stared at the waves in rhythm in disbelief.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows in confusion, staring at the electrocardiogram lines.

"What happened?"

"It is not a question of what happened… Your sub-dimension became a universe? Although it is just a mini one." Lin Lin's eyes were flushed with excitement.

"I call it the small universe."

"I don't care what it's called. This is a miracle in the field of physics… a sub-dimension created by gravity could give birth to physics principles, this is unbelievable."

"Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying." Jiang Chen looked at the exhilarated Lin Lin while he facepalmed.

"Ahh, don't worry, you don't need to mind the details. There is nothing wrong with my device! I just need to change the coordinates before it can be used." Then, Lin Lin threw the bracelet back into Jiang Chen's lap.

"It is good now?"

"It is good."

"Then what are you doing now?" Lin Lin was eagerly working in front of a computer and completely forgot what she was working on before.

"I'm collecting data, or put it in simple terms, I'm studying your small universe!" Lin Lin said in excitement.

"Is there any purpose to that?" Jiang Chen sighed.

"The purpose is, maybe because of my research, you could travel with people," Lin Lin said.

Jiang Chen held his breath.

"Ahhh, are you not surprised?" Seeing Jiang Chen didn't say anything, Lin Lin proudly glanced at him.

"I'm shocked… or rather, amazed! If you could really develop a way for me to travel with people, I promise an endless amount of pudding." Jiang Chen was ecstatic.

He promised Sun Jiao that if there were an opportunity, he would definitely take her to see his world, visit his school, and look at where he lived before…

Not only that, if he could bring people to travel, he could further gather the technology in this world, and utilize the rich resources in the other world to easily conquer both worlds.

"Pudding from all over the world." Lin Lin was afraid that Jiang Chen would forget their promise as she immediately corrected him.

"Don't worry, anything!" He laughed.

With billions in assets, the pudding was nothing to worry about it.

She smiled cheerfully, but just as she was going to say something, she bent down and began to cough.

"Are you okay?" Jiang Chen rushed up to see what was wrong.

"It's nothing." When Jiang Chen touched her arm, Lin Lin's pupils instantly turned red but quickly returned to normal.

She moved back and avoided Jiang Chen's hands. She took a few breaths and calmed down.

"Are you sure you are okay?" He was concerned.

"Don't worry." Lin Lin covered her left eye with the other handing pushing him away, "All in all, you can leave now."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, Just go."

Although it hurt to be pushed out, Jiang Chen still listened to Lin Lin's request and left her room and closed the door for her.

[Is she really okay?]

With the door closed shut, Jiang Chen muttered in his mind.

For some reason, Lin Lin concerned him or even gave him an ominous feeling.

And at that moment, the Klein particles flooding out dispersed from city center like a soundless cry.

The last cry.

Chapter 473: Inflation?

A strange phenomenon had appeared in the Sixth Street market lately, as to what it was…

"4 crystals for a kilogram? Why don't you go rob the bank?" A mercenary with a piece of gold in his hand shouted beside the store.

The merchant yawned and then glanced at the survivor.

"Does the explosive to blow the vault open not cost money? Does it not cost money to transport it back? Gold is not that easy to find. I met a Death Claw still breathing in the basement. That's enough. If you're not going to buy it, just leave. You won't be able to buy it later."

After moments of hesitation, the mercenary still threw the crystals to the merchant and picked a few pieces of gold that weighed four kilograms. Although the gold had PAC's specification on it, it was better to be safe.

The merchant picked up the crystal and confirmed it was 16 crystals on the detector before he put the crystals away.

The mercenary looked at the gold in his hand in pain, but he still covered it up before leaving in quick steps.

Four crystals per kilogram was cheap for gold. As to why? Canned food was worth ten crystals. One kilogram of gold was only enough to buy a pack of instant noodles.

But from the expression on the mercenary's face, he was still displeased with the price.

He certainly had his reasons.

Since for the people on the wasteland, gold really didn't serve a purpose. The amount used in the industrial process could be recycled through other electronic parts. When the apocalypse just arrived, people did indeed hoard a lot of gold, but those people pretty much all died out due to starvation.

The reason why gold was valuable was due to its rarity, anti-corrosive nature, and its agreed upon value. With a population of billions in the PAC, gold indeed possessed value. But in a world where it was questionable if there were a billion people, if the total amount of gold were divided among everyone, everyone would net at least a few kilograms if not more, did gold still possess value?

The answer was obviously no.

But even then, why did the mercenary still use his crystals to exchange for gold?

The reason being that there were too many crystals in the Sixth Street right now!

The NAC's destruction of Wanghai did indeed frighten the survivors of the Sixth Street with its glorious scene. Half a city of zombies and mutants were wiped out was a scene as horrific as actual hell.

And then they were shocked by NAC's generosity again.

The crystals belonged to whoever picked them up as long as they hand in 10% to the military government since the military government fired the rockets. It was hard to execute the task as it was mostly done at the gate. But since the tax amount was not high, the survivors were all cooperative. And with the existence of banks, it made auditing this much simpler.

But even then, the survivors in the Sixth Street all won the lottery.

The diligent could make 700 a day, and the lazy could easily make 400. Mutant bodies were everywhere. Without the need to fight, they only needed to use a knife to pick apart the burned charcoals.

It was not only the survivors that made bank, but the NAC soldiers also participated in the looting process. It was not until half a month later did the zombies and mutants from the east side of the city migrate over.

In just half a month, everyone had thousands, if not over ten thousand crystals in hand.

If the number of crystals defined wealth, there were no poor people in the Sixth Street anymore.

The Sixth Street survivors were never this rich before, and this type of wealth was dangerous. The average wealth already far exceeded the number of products available in the market. Even if the Sixth Street factories worked at full capacity for ten years, they could not consume all the crystals.

Subsequently, a period of hyperinflation occurred. The price of canned food rose from 10 crystals to 50 and continued to be sold out. The steel that depreciated due to the second expedition rose to its peak value of 100 crystals per ton, and that was when no steel was actually available.

Then, luxury goods regained its value.

Jewelry, gold, gems… all the things viewed as useless in the apocalypse reappeared on the market. A lot of soldiers, mercenaries, and soldiers with wealth in hand not only stored their crystals in the bank, but they all also chose to invest in gold and gems for future investment. Gold price skyrocketed from the initial price of 100 crystals per ton to four crystals per kilogram.

Investing in gold was betting on the future. If the wasteland could restore its order, gold would eventually regain its value.

It was just that when the World Alliance Organization launched the space colonization ships, it made most people's hope falter. But with the emergence of NAC, it made the survivors in Wanghai regain the confidence of order returning. Therefore the future of gold's value began to climb.

Naturally, gold became more valuable.

"It is not a good thing for everyone to become rich. Without enough products to meet the consumption of the survivors, a lot of people with abilities would spend the crystals elsewhere. Since crystal is a hard currency on the wasteland, while the life in Su or Hang might not be as good as here, ten thousand crystals would make you a wealthy man there."

Inside the virtual conference room, Chu Nan stood in front of the table and reported the status quo of the Sixth Street.

"Your plan is?" Jiang Chen rubbed his chin and asked in an undertone.

"First, ensure the products are stably supplied."

"Second, it is something we have to do regardless. Moderate inflation could stimulate economic growth, but hyperinflation could destroy the market. Inflation itself is not scary, but the scary thing is if we can't control the inflation," Chu Nan said.

"You mean, we should introduce a currency?" Jiang Chen tried to guess Chu Nan's plan.

"That's right. This is an urgent task." Chu Nan nodded.

"Introduce a currency… What do we use as a guarantee?"

'Gold? Too much. Not only among survivors, but there was too much in Wanghai. And although gold became valuable in the Sixth Street, outside of the province, it could not become a hard currency.'

'The total global reserve was estimated to be 60 trillion tons and comparable to the iron reserve. Until 2005, a total of 8.9 trillion tons of reserve were identified, with 12.5 trillion tons extracted, god knows what the number was in 2171 before the war.'

Chu Nan smiled mysteriously at Jiang Chen's question as he was clearly prepared.

"General, please think carefully. What is something that has a stable demand, and we have control over its quantity?"

Demand? Control?

Jiang Chen paused for a second before he suddenly realized.

"Is it… food?"

"That's right! We can use food as a guarantee!"

Chapter 474: Issuing Currency

The next morning, there was a long line up in front of the Sixth Street Bank.

Under the supervision of NAC soldiers, people handed in their crystals and changed them into papers with a special identification code. Some even walked out empty handed.

Is the NAC government robbing people?

Clearly not. Due to a culture that praised power, all the survivors possessed guns. And from people rushing in with an expression afraid that the bank wouldn't accept their crystals, they clearly wanted to be inside. And the NAC soldiers that looked threatening were ensuring order in the line.

As to the reason, it had to do with a newly implemented policy.

To change the current chaotic pricing environment on the Sixth Street market, the NAC government used the Sixth Street bank to introduce a new currency known as "credit point", credit in short. It was not guaranteed by any precious metal. Instead, it was guaranteed by NAC's credit.

At the same time, any of the products defined as specially supplied could only be traded with credit. The products were all made through NAC factories. For example, food, Carm tree sap, iron, aluminum, firearms, etc. It covered almost all the necessities of life.

A kilogram of rice was ten credits, a compressed cracker was two credits, a kilogram of flour was 16 credits… Although the price doubled compared to a month ago, in the currently chaotic market, the price was indeed thoughtful.

Two crystals were equivalent to one credit, and credit point exchanging back to crystals had a 10% tax to it. In mid-September, the Sixth Street planned to introduce 5 million credits and the NAC government promise to provide 500 tons of rice, 100 tons of flour, and 100 thousand pieces of compressed crackers to the market by next spring.

The rights for the food trade in Wanghai was taken back from Zhao Corporation and controlled by the market established by the NAC government at the west gate of the Sixth Street.

The quantity of the credits introduced was a decision made after careful deliberation between Jiang Chen and Chu Nan.

The paper bills had the amount of 1, 5, 10, 100, with a total of 3 million credits distributed. 5 million virtual credits were released and recorded with the DNA sequence of the individual and used with EP implemented with the "credit trade chip." All data was stored in the bank's database, and virtual trades must be done in NAC jurisdictions with information relay stations.

The employees in the military zone of NAC would be paid in credits to prevent the depreciation of crystals impacting the net worth of its employees.

The introduction of credit received extensive support from the Sixth Street merchants.

The merchants were all smart people. They knew that only the existence of order would allow for their assets to continually appreciate and to prevent everything they own from becoming worthless the next day.

To the merchants with a high amount of crystals, Jiang Chen opened an exclusive channel for them with a total of 8 million credits dedicated to them to collect the crystals depreciating in their hands. The specially introduced credits would be stored in the merchant's account. Jiang Chen also outlined that before November of this year, 90% of the special credits could not enter the market. 50% would be made available after November before lifting the restriction in January of next year. This would prevent a large amount of currency from flooding the market and disturbing the price.

The introduction of credits marked the end of the era where goods were traded for goods in the Wanghai area.

The crystal detector commonly found on the streets would gradually become part of history. With the credits, people would choose to trade with EPs, just like how people paid with their phone in the 21st century.

Not only this, Jiang Chen planned to push the "NAC standard" to other places.

Use the invisible fulcrum known as Economics to lift the resources of the wasteland. Just like in the other world, where the USD used gold and oil to kidnap the world economy. Credits would use the prosperity of the Sixth Street and the food storage of the NAC to control all trades on the wasteland.

The specifics were demonstrated by the Zhao Corporation changing their crystal strategy and use NAC credits to charge for goods. Crystals would become one of the products and no longer used as a trade equivalent.

Although the survivors outside of the province had no concept of credits and bills, with the passage of time and more merchants heading out of the Sixth Street, the currency would one day become the currency of the world.

…

Followed by the introduction of credits, NAC government had a huge storage of crystals. After thorough auditing, Wang Qin put a report on Jiang Chen's desk.

"No wonder the government loves to print currency, it is a much faster way to make money than taxes." Jiang Chen was shocked.

Just from three days, the NAC treasury expanded by 38 million crystals; comparable to one year of NAC's total food trade.

"But we also distributed 16 million credits. Rather than saying this money belongs to us, it was more fitting to say we borrowed it from the market." Wang Qin was worried that Jiang Chen would start to mass print currency, so she warned him, "If we cannot supply the products we promised by next spring, we may face a credit bankruptcy."

But her concern was clearly extraneous. Jiang Chen knew clearly the harm of inflation. As to why, he had personally experienced it before…

"Don't worry." Jiang Chen smiled. "Out of the total currency amount, only a small amount will be used in the exchange for products. Most of the currency will flow into the market. As long as we can prove that the food supply is sufficient and stable, we don't have to worry about a bank run. Rather than saying the market let us burrow the crystals, I think it is more of a "protection fee" the market gave us.

Rather than saying it was the NAC's food and production that guaranteed the currency, it was more appropriate to say it was the NAC government's credit.

Just like precious metals in the 21st century was the guarantee for paper bills, only rarely did people use stacks of bills in exchange for precious metals. When people believed in the stability of the country, people would be in favor of holding its currency.

NAC government would control the market for food and the amount of currency circulating on the market. There was no need to worry that the currency would lose control.

Distributing credit was only part of it. Jiang Chen planned to use the Sixth Street bank to lend out 10 million credits in total to encourage the factories to increase production.

The mutants and zombies on the west side of the city were completely wiped out and the plan to wipe out the east side was in progress. The situation in areas surrounding the Sixth Street was never so slack before and it was the perfect opportunity to expand out!

After Wang Qin left, Han Junhua came into the office.

Jiang Chen didn't need to ask to know the intention of her visit.

It was mid-September already and the plan to attack the city center was about to commence.

"The plan of attack will require the mobilization of First Corps and part of Third Corps. A total of 3000 personnel, 41 power armors, 400 kinetic skeletons, 9 Tiger IIs, 40 armored vehicles will be involved. This is the plan of attack." Han Junhua with crisp motions put the tablet on Jiang Chen's table.

The hologram expanded and outlined the map of Wanghai.

The First Corps would move from Qingpu and attack the area near the Qingpu airport. Then this will become the starting point of attacks on the city center. The Third Corps would attack the city center from the west through Camp 27.

At the same time, the artillery in the Fishbone base will provide support.

Without hesitation, Jiang Chen inputted his fingerprint onto the screen.

"Let the battle begin!"

Chapter 475: Start of the Battle

The artillery support consisted of eight trucks modified into "Fireball-1" launchers. The previous BM-21s that Jiang Chen bought from Russia quickly went obsolete.

Just in terms of combustion, Fireball-1 had combustion energy twice that of BM-21 and a combustion time that was three times longer. At the same time, its accuracy was higher.

Other than the combustion rockets and bombs, the Aerospace Research Technology Institute led by Jiang Lin explored their imagination and designed various laser explosive missiles, EMP missiles, and other futurist weapons.

EMP missiles were simple to explain. Once exploded, all electronic equipment in the area would be rendered useless or destroyed.

And the power of the explosive laser missile was not to be underestimated. The missile would be launched into the air before exploding into countless high energy beams. The power laser damage dealt a considerable amount of damage to any target. Under the shower of multiple missiles, the scene would be as glorious as a massive storm.

Because Jiang Chen contracted out the shell of the rocket to private military factories in the Sixth Street, the number of rockets held in NAC's reserve far exceeded the 1000 target Jiang Chen had set a month ago.

Thousands of giant rockets stacked together on the launching ground at the Aerospace Technology Research Institute with the artillery soldiers under the direct command of the advisory department carefully loading the rockets into the launchers.

Right now, Jiang Chen stood beside the launcher with a tablet in his hand while he listened to Jiang Lin's instructions.

"The details of each vehicle launch status is here along with the internal temperature of the launcher and the number of the ammunition. The tablet can be used to target the coverage fire area and the number of rockets launched. The projectile motion will be calculated with the smart program. After completing all the input specifications, just print your finger beside it."

Jiang Chen intriguingly rubbed his chin looking at the red circle beside the tablet.

"The automatic ammunition loading program is still under design. It won't be completed until some time later. Just use this for now."

"Not bad. A reserve of 5100 rounds of rockets, 1000 bombs, 151 laser explosive missiles… no EMP?" Jiang Chen asked.

"No. The command office ordered us to prioritize the production of combustion rockets. Isn't this an attack against mutants? EMP is useless against creatures."

It didn't take long for all the launchers to be loaded. The soldiers all backed five meters away, dragging the ammo boxes with them.

On the command tablet, the First Corps and Third Corps were marked with blue dots, approaching the city center. The scanned out red dots were zombies and mutants, behaving aggressively. Just from the map, Cheng Weiguo was approaching Wanghai Airport.

With his finger sliding on the screen, he drew out a circle. Just like a life restricted zone, it included all the mutants in the airport.

"It feels like I'm casting a spell." With his finger hovering above the launch button, Jiang Chen grinned.

"And it is the forbidden spell." The designer of the weapon Jiang Lin laughed along.

With a finger on the red circle, the scanning waves ripped through the screen and the merciless words appeared.

Fireball-1 attack group launched.

At the same time, the launch ground was engulfed by the exhaust left by the ascending combustion rockets.

…

Outside of Wanghai airport, the heavy metal symphony was playing.

After a few days of rain, the burning marks left on the street were beginning to fade. The dried up corpses under the weather turned to dust.

Suddenly, the tranquil streets were broken by engines homing and yellow shells.

Tiger IIs crushed the corpses with its mighty force and the charged cannon released its prowess, shredding the heads of Roshans into bits. The zombies and mutants on the east side of the city spread to the city center again. However, the concentration was at a normal level.

The machine gun on the top continuously unleashed its bullets as they trampled the zombies on the highway. Zombies without forming into a sizable group would not pose a threat to tanks.

Most of the risks faced by the First Corps were from the dark alley and the shattered windows of the stores. A lot of zombies in there remained inside, and the zombies from the east were mixed among them.

"Follow up."

Feng Yu in kinetic skeleton fired with his right hand while his left hand signaled his team to move forward.

Suddenly, heinous zombies flooded out from a side street and tumbled toward his team.

"Grenade!"

A soldier ripped off the grenade in front of his chest and threw it toward the swarm of zombies rushing out.

Fire, explosion, and chunks of meat flew toward the team.

Feng Yu shook them off before raising his rifle to fire back.

Firing in close range meant that only explosive grenades can be used instead of combustion grenades, or the burning zombies would be catastrophic to other creatures. To the zombies with their limbs exploded off, the soldiers finished them off with one more bullet. Or they stepped on them as most of the soldiers were injected with the genetic vaccine could crush the corroded skull of the zombies.

"Dammit, there are more and more zombies in the front!"

With the opportunity to exchange clips, Feng Yu scanned the EP on his left arm.

The drones marked out the zombies in the area as the dense red dots made his skull feel numb.

But he would not back down, because he was an upper citizen of the Sixth Street.

He finally climbed to that level today. He was only one step away from being a knight, he was not going to back down!

"It's a Death Claw!" Suddenly, a shout came through the radio.

A lizard on its feet, waving its claw, rushed out from the street nearby with a soldier struggling to break free from its mouth. From its wrinkled skin, it should be a Death Claw that survived last month's attack.

"Fu*k!" The face that was slowly losing life chilled Feng Yu.

Without hesitating, he immediately ordered the team to move back while firing at the head of the Death Claw.

"Grenade!"

Grenades alone could not kill the Death Claw. At most, it could suppress its movement.

A sharp claw shredded the smoke of the explosion as the grenade hurt it, but it didn't die.

The Death Claw tumbled toward their direction as its two claws waved in front of it. Just as it was about to touch Feng Yu, its throat was clamped by a powerful hand that forcefully turned it by 90 degrees, and smashed into the concrete wall.

"ROARRRR!"

The Death Claw let out its last roar with its sharp claws leaving a series of deafening screeches on the C grade steel.

But against the T-4 power armor, a dying Death Claw's attack was more like a scratch.

With a hand like an iron claw, the minigun fired and the close distance shooting penetrated the head of the Death Claw.

"You owe me a life, buddy."

The power armor threw down the Death Claw and pumped the steel plate on its chest before it continued to move with its tactical rifle.

The armored vehicles began grouping together on the road. The zombies in the area were cleared out, and they didn't encounter any dangers upon arriving at the airport.

Breathing heavily, with his rifle lowered, Feng Yu looked at the Death Claw on the ground still shaken by what had happened.

"Captain, what are we going to do next?" An infantry moved beside Feng Yu while panting.

"Continue to move—, wait, alert from the command office." With the flashing symbol on the EP, Feng Yu immediately stopped his comrade from moving forward.

The fleet stopped moving, and the power armor dashing in front also stopped and enacted a defensive stance.

Feng Yu raised his head and looked at the clear sky.

Suddenly, hundreds of sharp arrows soared through while dragging long trails of smokes, heading toward the airport.

The bright red flame ascended into the air and the thick smoke hid away the airport.

"Combustion rockets…"

"Our artillery!"

A soldier put down his gun while staring blankly at the sky. Feng Yu who was gazing at the flames shooting up did the same. He quietly watched the fireworks.

When the smoke dispersed, only the ground scorching in fire remained.

The soldiers raised their rifles up high, and loud cheers erupted.

With the cover fire of the rockets, the First Corps with boosted morale stepped onto the road again. They headed towards the last territory that blocked them from reaching the city center.

Chapter 476: Target Locked

Geosynchronous orbit.

36000 kilometers away from the surface of the earth was a zone devoid of life.

Steel, plastic, and unexploded rockets floated around in the quiet space. Among the debris was an aircraft carrier-sized space station.

The God's Cane.

It was completed in 2025 and was continually refined throughout the century to become the massive giant it was today. It turned from a sky-based weapon satellite to a sky-based weapon platform.

The dodecagon metal rings kept the tungsten rods in place while they quietly floated beside the space station just like a loaded revolver. An electromagnetic push would allow the tungsten rods weighing several tons to fall at speeds faster than meteors with a horrifying amount of kinetic energy.

Other than the tungsten rods, there were laser arrays and an HPM weapon in front. In the back were wireless electricity receivers powered by the nuclear fusion power plant built on the moon. When power from the moon wasn't available, it could use its foldable solar panel to generate electricity. The eight engines located on the space station could allow the weapon platform to move between the geosynchronous and low-earth orbits to alter its target area.

It was like the Sword of Damocles hovering over the CCCP and PAC's heads.

But ironically, the "suppressive weapon" that cost generations of taxpayer money was conquered by PAC's fearless Space Special Forces with their undying battle spirit at the beginning of the war.

"Power system repaired." Lin Chaoen grinned before he wiped his forehead although he didn't sweat and there was no point in speaking in a vacuum.

It had taken him a month's time and a lot of energy to repair this. Bodies floated in the space station because of the lack of gravity, and all the bodies still looked the same as when they died. Outside of the cockpit, he met a sentry robot still with power. But with his laser sword, he quickly resolved the problem.

"Tungsten rod launch device: functional… This is so troublesome. Whatever, it's fine if I only use it once." Lin Chaoen stared at the warning symbols on the screen and clapped his hands with satisfaction.

There was only one tungsten rod left. The few remaining ones either flew out of the geosynchronous orbit or crashed into the ocean when the space station had fallen. Others were floating in orbit thousands of kilometers away.

The sky-based weapon platform was completely destroyed. When PAC gained control of the platform, the NATO commander immediately initiated self-destruction to turn the space station into a land of death. The sprint to sacrifice wasn't any country's specialty - on the brink of collapse, any creature would subconsciously make the "correct choice."

But unfortunately, the right choice was often made after a series of "wrong choices."

Therefore, creatures are troublesome.

Lin Chaoen shook his head and pressed a few buttons on the touchscreen.

He was fortunate to obtain some of the blueprints of the sky-based weapon to make some of the parts on the ground. While most of the God's Cane was destroyed, it could still perform simple firing actions.

"It can only fire now?"

Lin Chaoen scanned a map of Wanghai City as he looked at the screen with a smile.

In the picture, NAC soldiers were firing at zombies and mutants. Afterward, countless combustion rockets littered the battlefield and engulfed the mutants and zombies at the airport in a blaze.

"Nice fireworks. They already established order… Then could I consider them naturals?"

...

As he watched the flames on the screen with a smile, flickers of images were reflected in his pupils.

The screen moved with the crosshairs targeted at the artillery grounds. Jiang Chen, on the target screen, was pointing at his tablet.

"And you are Harmony."

The screen was focused in the city center onto the giant tree floating in the water. The rumbling meat chuck seemed to possess a tremendous amount of energy.

[Which threat's bigger?]

There was only one bullet in the revolver.

Lin Chaoen watched the battle with a God-eye view as he fell into deep thought.

…

From the cleansing courtesy of the combustion rockets, the First and Third Corps didn't encounter any resistance before converging at the airstrip in Wanghai Airport.

Although the airstrip was bombed into jagged patches and was now burned pitch-black as a result, it would still be usable after some repairs. Jiang Chen ordered Fallout Shelter 027 to research fighter jet technology earlier and they came up with some initial results.

Wanghai airport was perfect as a base for the NAC fighter jets.

After some restocking, the converged divisions once again headed out. With the support of the soaring rockets, they continued to push towards the city center.

Along the way, they encountered a Thrower, Death Claw, and even a horrific Bug Vehicle, but they didn't stop marching forward.

They pushed forward while destroying mutant nests along the way. When they met a Bug Vehicle or Roshan, electromagnetic cannons took care of the problem. When the mutants swarmed together, they called on support from the artillery. When they found mutant nests hidden among the ruins, they sent the infantry to clear out the area.

They destroyed a total of 91 mutant nests, encountered 371 reproducing mutants and cleared out all irregular life signals from the map.

When they approached the forbidden zone, the radiation level gradually climbed. The soldiers took out their protective suits from the trucks and put on breathing masks to push forward.

Tatata-

Sparks emerged and shells dropped. Feng Yu pulled on the trigger calmly while moving forward under the cover fire of the armored vehicle.

"What's this?"

A soldier stared at the luminescent lake among the ruins in the far distance.

"It's a nuclear crater - I think it's where Death Claw gives birth?" Another soldier's machine gun bullets swept across the zombies while he responded.

"It doesn't look like one - there's water in the crater. I think Death Claw gives birth on land… Fu*k, what is that?"

The mountain made of chunks of red meat was in the middle of the luminescent lake. The dense veins on the surface crossed the meat blob and moved rhythmically with the flow of blood. The bottom was infused into the lake surface just like a massive tree rooted into the ground.

A meat bulb that could light up was hung by a tentacle.

It was just like a light bulb.

"This is team E. We identified an unknown creature, requesting artillery support. I repeat…"

Feng Yu immediately raised his EP. Not letting his guard down, he reported the situation on the frontlines to the command office.

A large amount of static noise filled the radio as a strong interference entered the area. Even the EP, known for its stability, started to blur.

"Signal interference? Or is there still an EMP generator in the area?" The soldier beside Feng Yu reloaded his clip while he muttered.

In the distance, rockets appeared again.

Flames instantly engulfed the meat mountain. The rockets covering the sky not only cleansed the nuclear crater, but they even burned out an isolation zone to the east of the city center made of flames.

But when the smoke began to fade, Feng Yu's eyes widened as he looked at the meat chunks in disbelief. He was so stunned that he forgot to press the trigger.

The mutants all died, but the meat chunks…

They were unscathed.

How could that be possible!

Before he could shout out, the meat chunks began to move.

The light bulb on top began to turn red as it flashed an ominous light. The unknown particles moved restlessly in the air and concentrated together into a crimson ray. Even a cloud began to spread out due to the force the bulb was creating.

It seemed prepared to shoot something!

Almost at the same time, all the electronic equipment in Wanghai experienceced interferencec to some extent.

"Not working anymore?"

Jiang Chen looked sternly at the tablet in his hands as the screen turned into a sparkling white. The connection to the frontlines was suddenly cut off and he didn't even know if the meat mountain was destroyed.

Suddenly, he felt like he was someone's target.

Jiang Chen immediately raised his head and looked in the sky.

A blinding white light flashed in the sky.

Something was dropping down.

36000 kilometers in distance disappeared instantly. The blinding white light dropped down and crashed to the city center's location.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows before his eyes widened in disbelief.

For some reason, a word suddenly popped into his head along with an image that seemed familiar.

The weapon that existed in virtual reality.

The God's Cane!

Chapter 477: The God's Cane

The ring hovering in the sky began to move.

A button was pressed just like a revolver's trigger.

A blue arching light flashed and something escaped it, falling straight to the ground.

On earth, it was as small as a feather, minuscule and thin. But the instant it entered the atmosphere, it transformed into a flaming dragon hundreds of meters long, roaring at the earth. It lit up the sky like a sun rising at dawn, even though the sun was already in the sky.

It was just as the Genesis described the scene of Jehovah's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: "And when Lot reached Zoar, the sun came out, and the Lord rained down sulfur and fire from heaven. The city was destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah along with all the inhabitants of the city and all the earth was destroyed; the wife of Rhodes looked back at it before turning into a salt rod."

When the fire touched down on the surface, there was no sound in space. The swirling trail of fire was engraved on the blue planet. The flame, thousands of degrees in temperature, was burning. The violent shockwave swept through everything and turned everything around it to dust.

And the meat chunks in the middle of the explosion turned into dust long ago.

Just like slapping a mosquito.

Right now, in the building of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, a man in a suit on the top floor gazed in Wanghai City's direction.

"With this, Wanghai will be a mess again."

With a smile, he turned around and left.

Right now, inside the space station, Lin Chaoen witnessed everything with the same smile.

You dared to aim at the God? Then I'll have to kill you first.

He looked at the shockwave dispersing. He raised his right hand and with his thumb and index finger up, he made a shooting gesture.

"Nice shot."

…

"This is First Corps command office. Team E, please respond. I repeat, please respond…"

The noise-filled communication was fitting among the ruins.

A breeze swept by and blew away the soil on the broken walls.

The debris began to move as a hand reached out among the ruins.

"Uh….ah!" With a deep roar, he tossed away the rock on his chest.

The protective suit was broken - it would be the end of him if he stayed any longer in the vicinity with such high radiation.

He could already smell the sweetness in the air.

It was a sign of excessive radiation.

Without staying any longer, Feng Yu climbed up from the ruins while shaking to free his leg stuck in the debris.

His kinetic skeleton was half-destroyed. The joints were sparkling with fire while they made deafening screeching noises.

The polyethylene board in front of his chest was completely shattered while the metal frame connecting the boards was caved in. He ripped the board against his chest off, looked at the crack with a lingering fear, then tossed it on the ground.

The meat chunks and the lake were no longer there; only a deep pit remained.

There was chaos everywhere.

The meteor destroyed the meat chunks and everything around.

Just as Feng Yu was preparing to leave, he heard some noises around him which made him immediately pull out his pistol.

"He…Help me… ahhhh!"

It was his comrade's voice.

He put the pistol away while he stumbled in the direction of the voice.

"Feng…"

"Don't talk and give me your hand. We'll be done for if we stay here much longer." With strength from the kinetic skeleton, Feng Yu moved the rock on his comrade's body. When he saw the clearly crushed left leg, he paused.

"Whatever, just leave me, if you stay longer..."

"Shut up, hold on!" Feng Yu gritted his teeth while pulling out his dagger.

"No, no! Just end me- ahhh."

Feng Yu cut off his comrade's broken leg before pulling out the hemostatic spray and spraying it on the severed part.

The soldier's expression was terrifying. Blood spilled out from his mouth and his twitching throat couldn't make any sounds.

"You'll be better, don't worry. I heard the director of the Aerospace Institute is a master in prosthetics." Feng Yu lifted him up and supported him with his arm before running with trembling steps.

There was a horrific scene along the way.

The First Crops' leading team was almost completely wiped out and the subsequent force was hit hard by the impact. The high-temperature shockwave almost swept through the entire city center. Some of the armored vehicles were crushed flat by the rocks blown from the center of impact.

Standing in the middle of the launching ground, Jiang Chen looked at the light in the distance, completely stunned.

The light already disappeared.

The wind blowing by carried a faint smell of explosives coming from the frontlines.

"Did an earthquake just happen?"

Jiang Lin gulped and turned his head.

"Probably."

Jiang Chen looked back at the tablet again; it was still white in the city center. But soon after, communication from the frontlines came back.

"This is the First Crops, we were hit by a meteor… Dammit, I swore it wasn't a meteor." Cheng Weiguo's voice was screeching and hectic.

"Report casualty figures," Jiang Chen said with a deep voice.

"We're calculating. We can confirm that 2 Tigers and 11 armored vehicles lost contact… Dammit, the mutants are attacking-"

A noise came from the radio and Jiang Chen immediately made some orders.

"Immediately retreat from the city center to Camp 27. Fireball-1 will cover for you."

"Roger!" Cheng Weiguo responded.

Communications ended as Jiang Chen looked at the launch interface again.

Eight Fireball-1 launch vehicles were locked and loaded. He stuck out his finger and drew a curve on the northeast side of the First Division to surround all the red dots.

After confirming that the blue dots had left the area, Jiang Chen pressed fire.

"Fire!"

The rockets launched one by one and began to soar toward the city center to cut off the path of the mutants and zombies.

Seeing the First and Third Corps moving further and further away from the red dots, Jiang Chen finally felt somewhat relieved.

Although the battle ended with a retreat, no mutant nest could've survived through the meteor strike. Even though they retreated, they still achieved their objective.

The life detection device scanned the area again. Just as he expected, the unnatural red dots located in the city center vanished. The internal stress produced by the tungsten rods striking the ground should've been fatal to the underground structure.

They only needed to get rid of the smaller mutant nests scattered around the city and establish stations at the entrances to Wanghai City before the mutant crisis in Wanghai could be resolved.

But just as Jiang Chen was starting to feel relieved, his tablet suddenly started to flash.

"Who is it?"

"Hello, we meet again."

A face surfaced in the middle of the screen and Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

"Lin Chaoen?"

"That's right, I'm happy you still remember me, Lord of Wanghai." Lin Chaoen smiled.

[Lord?]

It was fitting, but Jiang Chen felt it was a jab at him.

"Whenever I see your face, I want to smash it against the wall." Jiang Chen raised his head while looking down at the screen.

"What a pity. I do enjoy looking at your face, especially when I'm looking down on it." Lin Chaoen smiled.

[Looking down?]

Jiang Chen paused and subconsciously looked up at the sky with his expression turning violent.

How do you feel?"

"Terrible," Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

"I have a recommendation for you," Lin Chaoen said.

"Speak your mind."

"You can rule the humans while I rule the digitalized humans. We can conquer the wasteland together as long as you swear allegiance to my father."

[Together?]

Jiang Chen scoffed.

"Did you evolve into advanced artificial intelligence?"

"That's still far, far away." Lin Chaoen sighed. "I heard my father say that I had a sister before. After trillions and trillions of calculations, her thought process infinitely approached advanced artificial intelligence. But unfortunately, when I arrived at Fallout Shelter 005, she was destroyed by a bug."

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

The Secret Teller and The Secret Protector, or X71291… Rather than saying it was destroyed by a bug, it was more fitting to say he destroyed it with his very own hands.

"A bug?" Jiang Chen pretended not to know.

"That's right, the ambassador of Harmony. There's evidence indicating that it killed her." Lin Chaoen didn't look remorseful in the slightest as he explained with a smile. "So we need new samples. What's your decision?"

"I reject," Jiang Chen said without hesitation. "Coexisting together is only a lie."

Coexisting together was just one force putting the other force into captivity. Even if it could create a temporary peace, it was a fictitious peace. Once they figured out the path to evolving into advanced artificial intelligence, the old humans would lose their purpose and be forced to live in the zoo while awaiting their deaths.

There was only brutality and blood on the path to evolving their civilization; there was no compromise!

"Is that so? That's regretful to hear then. You are on the absolute path to purity. Compared to the fallen Harmony, you are only a bit stronger. Without accepting the evolution of the Supreme, you will have to wait to be eliminated because of your stubborn persistence."

"Is it so? Why do I think you should be eliminated?"

He had plenty of trump cards in his hand - he still had the Third Corps at the Sixth Street as well as the ballistic missiles deployed in Shenxiang Colony. At the same time, Shenxiang and Jia city had soldiers stationed along with new recruits and the survivors from the Defiant.

The only trouble was the God's Cane hovering in the sky. He was certain Lin Chaoen controlled the God's Cane.

Which was the biggest problem.

And Lin Chaoen seemed to have read his mind.

"We already surrounded your base and hijacked your base's radio signals. To us, your knowledge of information technology is a mere joke. You have two choices: surrender or death. Of course, I understand how slow your species' brains are, so I will give you three days to reconsider."

His smile was mixed with menace. He raised one finger.

"One day is enough time for an ant to circle your base."

Afterwards Lin Chaoen waved his hand. Faced with Jiang Chen's gloomy expression, he ended communications.

Chapter 478: Path of Evoluation

The flashing light outside the window drew the attention of Lin Lin who was working in front of a lab bench.

For some odd reason, watching the light outside made her restless.

"A meteor? Should I make a wish?"

Lin Lin murmured while the test tube in her hand stopped shaking. She gazed into the distance.

The meteor crashed into the ground.

Suddenly, her mechanical heart felt a sharp pain.

"Uhhh! AHH!"

Her pupils contracted. She covered her chest in pain while droplets of sweat rolled down profusely from her forehead.

Splash!

The test tube smashed and shattered and Lin Lin curled up on the ground. Her hands covered her chest as her expression twisted because of the pain.

[Dammit, is it that thing again?]

She heard a noise from outside the door. There were brisk footsteps before the door was knocked.

"Lin Lin? Did something happen?"

It was Sun Jiao.

"Help…Help…"

Sun Jiao immediately realized the situation was odd. She twisted the doorknob. Seeing as it was locked, she backed away before kicking the door forcefully.

The door was kicked open, breaking the doorframe.

Sun Jiao was shocked by the scene of Lin Lin curled up on the ground as she moved to help her up.

"Lin Lin, Lin Lin! Are you okay?"

The menacing light radiating from her pupils gave her the chills.

But quickly after, the menace was replaced by agony.

"No, no! Tingting… Stop!" Lin Lin suddenly jerked her head up as her silvery-white hair became drenched with sweat because of her pain.

Suddenly, Lin Lin's pupils were completely covered by crimson rays as she turned around, diving towards Sun Jiao. But Sun Jiao was prepared as she snagged both of Lin Lin's hands and put her on the ground face down.

Sun Xiaorou, who heard the noises in the room, rushed in. When she saw Lin Lin being pinned down by Sun Jiao, she was stunned by the scene.

"Sister, what happened?"

Not long after, Yao Yao appeared at the door. When she saw the two people on the ground, she covered her mouth in shock.

"Sister Sun Jiao, Lin Lin…"

"You two, come help me! This girl...how is she so strong?!" Sun Jiao's hands were shaking because of the force as her face turned red.

The power of mechanical parts was indeed superior to that of creatures. Her strength of 50 barely managed to contain Lin Lin.

Sun Xiaorou reacted first and rushed forward.

"I'll help you. Strap her onto the surgery bed first."

"Yao Yao, get Jiang Chen here. He should be at the launching ground."

"Mhmm!" The little girl turned around and ran out of the room.

Her eyes teared up as she didn't know what was going on; it made her extremely worried.

She pushed open the mansion door. Just as she ran to the gate, she crashed into Jiang Chen with a stern expression.

"Ouch—"

With a short yelp, Yao Yao fell backward with clumsiness. But Jiang Chen, with his quick hands, managed to snag her.

"Yao Yao? What's going on?"

Seeing Yao Yao rushing out, Jiang Chen thought something serious happened as he held her up.

"Lin Lin turned into that again." Yao Yao was about to cry.

Without needing any more detail, Jiang Chen immediately realized what she was talking about before he ran into the mansion.

…

Pushing open the lab door, Jiang Chen quickly walked to the surgery table in the middle of the room. Yao Yao, running with short steps, immediately followed behind him.

When Sun Jiao saw Jiang Chen, she walked over.

"What happened- wait, are you injured?!" Jiang Chen saw the bandage around Sun Jiao's arm.

Sun Jiao's right arm sleeve had been ripped off completely.

"I'm okay. Just got some small scratches while trying to contain her. Lin Lin… is a bit weird right now." With the concerned expression on Jiang Chen's face, Sun Jiao felt warm inside. But when she looked back at Lin Lin, her face turned solemn again.

They weren't small scratches at all.

But with Sun Jiao's abilities, she should recover easily.

Jiang Chen put aside his concern for Sun Jiao temporarily and focused on Lin Lin strapped down on the bed. With a crimson light flashing in her eyes, her limbs twitched as if she was having a seizure in an attempt to break free from the bed.

"She can't control herself again?" Jiang Chen asked with a headache.

The bug in her body was like a time bomb - no one knew when it would explode.

"Mhmm, but this time it's a bit stranger." Sun Jiao nodded.

"Brother Jiang Chen, Sister Lin Lin… will she get better?" Yao Yao looked at Jiang Chen with a serious expression and pulled on his sleeve.

Although Lin Lin liked to trick people, Yao Yao knew she didn't have any harmful intentions. It was just that she didn't know how to express her emotions aside from "badmouthing" people.

From the bottom of her heart, she always treated Lin Lin like a dear friend.

Looking at the worried expression on Yao Yao's face, Jiang Chen rubbed her soft hair attempting to comfort her. "Definitely."

"Mhmm!"

Yao Yao nodded with a slightly relieved smile on her face.

Although she was still concerned about Lin Lin's condition, she trusted Brother Jiang Chen's words.

With a deep breath, Jiang Chen walked toward Lin Lin. Just as he approached her, he noticed Lin Lin's gaze was locked onto his face.

No, precisely speaking, it wasn't Lin Lin but Tingting in her body - the brain of that bug.

Being stared down by her crimson pupils gave Jiang Chen chills down the back of his spine. The feeling was similar to being watched by a higher level creature in the middle of a forest.

Tingting stopped trying to break free while she silently gazed at him without speaking a word.

Then Jiang Chen noticed that she opened her mouth.

[She opened her mouth?]

[What's going on? Is she hungry?]

"Yao Yao, bring me mango pudding from the fridge."

"Mhmm!" Yao Yao nodded and ran out.

A moment later, the little lolita ran back with mango pudding.

Jiang Chen took the pudding and kneeled down beside Lin Lin.

Jiang Chen took a plastic spoon to scoop out the orange pudding and put it beside the opened mouth.

But Lin Lin didn't eat the pudding. She didn't even look at it; her crimson eyes still gazed at Jiang Chen.

This time it made Jiang Chen completely confused, unsure what she wanted.

Just then, she - or it - spoke.

"The antenna is broken."

[The antenna?]

"Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

It learned how to speak, which was an improvement. But for some reason, Jiang Chen didn't feel happy about it. He had almost forgotten everything related to this creature and he didn't think he had an obligation to save a fictitious character.

Yes, Yao Tingting died already in the fall of 2172. And the person he encountered in virtual reality was just a character created by PAC researchers based on the memory of a captive.

When he escaped the digital prison, almost all his memories related to that girl disappeared. The person in front of him was just another player in the virtual reality.

Jiang Chen looked at her, not understanding what she wanted to express.

Tingting then said, "The path to evolution is broken."

"Evolution?" Jiang Chen looked down as he began to understand.

Lin Chaoen used the God's Cane to destroy something in the city center, and that thing was what she referred to as the antenna. And the antenna was related to evolution. If he understood correctly, evolution had something to do with the zombies and mutants.

"Do you want to know?"

Tingting looked quietly into Jiang Chen's eyes. Perhaps she was getting used to mechanical vocal cords as her voice was a lot more clear now.

Jiang Chen looked straight at the red pupils, attempting to read her thoughts, but he failed.

"I want to."

There was nothing wrong with listening.

"Then kiss me." Tingting shocked everyone.

Jiang Chen was shocked. He didn't know what she meant.

Tingting opened her mouth slightly wider without saying anymore.

"Kiss?" Sun Jiao's face turned red and she rejected Tingting's request on behalf of Jiang Chen: "No no, that's too weird! What does it have to do with kissing? This is too weird. And she's so aggressive now - what if she bites?"

Yao Yao blushed too. Although she didn't say anything, her expression indicated she shared the same opinion as Sun Jiao.

"I agree with sister. Although my instinct tells me she won't hurt you, if something does happen…" Sun Xiaorou hesitantly stopped midway.

[Kiss?]

[What's the point?]

Staring at Tingting - or Lin Lin's - face, even if he wanted to kiss her, he didn't have the heart to do so.

He gulped and his heartbeat began to accelerate.

He didn't know what kind of expression he should have, nor did he know if he should try kissing her.

After a moment of hesitation, Jiang Chen let out a sigh and stared into the crimson eyes.

"…Okay, I'll trust you for now."

The red eyes blinked and seemed to respond to his trust.

"Wait, but…" Sun Jiao wanted to add something more but was one second too slow.

Jiang Chen resisted the odd feeling in his mind as he took a deep breath and slowly kissed the thin lips.

[I'll just pretend this is CPR …]

Just as Sun Xiaorou guessed, although Lin Lin was aggressive, she didn't bite Jiang Chen.

A cold tongue pried open Jiang Chen's teeth.

Just as Jiang Chen felt shocked by Lin Lin's kissing technique, something unexpected happened.

It felt soft and gentle.

A tentacle-like string slipped down her tongue and touched Jiang Chen's tongue before twirling up, then continuing…

It felt good…

But Jiang Chen was suddenly alerted to something.

[Fu*k! Something is wrong!]

Just as he tried to break off the kiss, his consciousness fell into an abyss and his field of vision turned dark.

Chapter 479: Humans aren't humans

It was a strange feeling. It felt like his consciousness was dragged into a vacuum by that tentacle and was floating in the endless universe.

[Spiritual connection?]

Jiang Chen didn't know why these words would appear in his hand, but once he thought carefully, the word seemed accurately describe everything he saw.

Gradually, the universe brightened up.

Everything around him was covered in color. The world made out of nothingness began to fill up. It didn't feel like virtual reality, but it was similar.

Yes, it was just like watching a hologram movie.

Suddenly, behind the clouds, Jiang Chen saw a magnificent scene.

It was a vertical building or a rectangular shape that pierced through the clouds. People were busy working below with hovercars moving around it, operating all kinds of equipment while building this massive skyscraper.

White paint in 12 languages described the same word.

It was like an inscription.

The space colonization ship based on the god of creation in India's legends belonged to the PAC. It was launched from Sri Heligida Island.

It was just like watching an animated CG of a game. The stabilizer holding the skyscraper began to detach as Jiang Chen watched it ignite, rise, break through the atmosphere, and head away from the blue planet.

Away from the solar system.

Like Noah's Ark engraved in the "Genesis" at the top of the Roman Sistine Chapel, it carried the hopes of one-sixth of mankind. But it wasn't heading into a monstrous flood but rather it was en route to the boundless galaxy.

With regrets for past hatred and best wishes for the remaining survivors on land, the passengers waved goodbye to the planet.

Top speeds were one-tenth of the speed of light and it had a capacity of 27,000 passengers. The passengers were mostly from the elite class of different fields in addition to the constructors of the ship.

The plan was that the Braham would form a fleet with two other ships at the synchronous orbit around Neptune before heading to the wormhole 6400 astronomical units away from the sun.

Although humans hadn't set foot in this area, 22nd-century theories already proved that a singularity point existed here. All parameters of physics were twisted in this place. As long as they passed through this area, they could traverse hundreds and even thousands of lightyears away.

And behind that wormhole would be mankind's new home!

Before they entered the wormhole, everyone would lie in the hibernation chambers. Of course, while they envisioned the best for the future, they were also prepared for the worst.

Fortunately, the Gods they believed in didn't abandon them as they passed through the wormhole safely.

A year passed before the survivor with code 01 came out of hibernation. When he woke up from hibernation, he was ecstatic to discover that he was still alive. The ship was in auto-exploration mode, floating in boundless space.

According to plan, he entered the cockpit and proved to the system that he was healthy. He woke all the other passengers in the hibernation chamber.

They held a huge celebration party and cheered for the rebirth of mankind in the merciless galaxy.

Astronomers looked at the star map and confirmed that the ship was still in the Milky Way, but it was 20.5 light years outside the Libra near the planet Gliese 581g.

This 581g planet was located in the red dwarf Gliese 581's "habitable" zone, 0.15 astronomical units away from the star.

The planet was similar to Mercury in the solar system with one side always facing the star. One side of the planet was permanently under the star's light while the other side was permanently in the dark, known as tidal locking.

Although it was hard to imagine, this particular formation stabilized the planet's climate.

In addition, people also learned that the planet revolved around itself in 37 days with a thick atmosphere. There was water on the surface. The planet's diameter was 1.3 times that of Earth, so its gravity was similar.

It was a planet suitable for habitation.

Because of their unexpected happiness, the crew began to cheer just like when Columbus discovered the new continent.

Unfortunately, they lost contact with the other two space colonization ships; they couldn't share their joy with anyone else.

The ship ended its automatic exploration mode, changed courses, and headed to planet 581g.

On the way, the crew began all forms of preparation for colonizing the new world including checking the status of the colonization model and voting to see who would be the first to step onto the new land.

Just as everyone was working toward their new life, the physicist on the ship made another astonishing discovery.

The cesium atomic clock they brought appeared to have backtracked.

The backtracking phenomenon could not be explained with physics. It was like everyone knew that atoms decayed, but no one would believe that atoms would return to the state before decaying under normal circumstances.

There was only one explanation - when they passed through the wormhole, they not only passed through the twisted space but they also passed through twisted time.

To put it in simple terms, they returned to the past.

Based on the calculations from the quantum computers, the cesium atomic clock showed that the time was 120 years B.C.

It was the third year into the Han dynasty under Emperor Yuan and 634 years since Rome was first built. This year, the Han Dynasty sent envoys to Alexandria and the ancient Greeks built the Pantheon.

If the ship returned to earth, the earth would be in a primal stage.

It was an odd feeling - it was as if your parents weren't even alive, yet you were born into this world.

The physicists had multiple explanations for this phenomenon.

They suggested that if the multi-world theory was true, they might have reached a world distinct from the previous world. And the previous Earth was a distinct world from this Earth.

This theory was accepted by everyone to some extent.

Their 22nd-century selves couldn't believe that three-dimensional people could move vertically on a four-dimensional plane as this would lead to a time paradox. The only thing that could explain this was probably that they jumped to a parallel world and their old world had nothing to do with this.

It was an obscure feeling.

Just like being born as a baby and having your umbilical cord cut off.

The universe not only cut them off in terms of distance but also their spiritual sense of belonging.

In the next three seconds, everyone became quiet.

Someone suggested that if they changed course to return to earth, they could use the power on the colonization ship to conquer the earth in the Bronze Age. Even with a distance of 20.5 light years, with a maximum cruise speed of one-tenth of the speed of light, they would only need 400 to 500 years. The worst case would be that they could encounter Huns cavalry.

But this proposal was quickly shut down.

No one could be certain that in this parallel world, the history of the world would follow the same track as in their previous world. Perhaps writing was invented a thousand years earlier? Perhaps Columbus was born 500 years earlier? Perhaps the first industrial revolution started 200 years earlier? Perhaps nothing happened yet.

Relative to the entire human race's 400,000 years of evolutionary history, it would only take a small disruption to create earth-shattering changes. The only thing they could be certain of was that the world was certainly different from their previous world.

Perhaps when they returned to their original earth of this world, they would face a civilization far more advanced. Perhaps they would be the ones getting colonized like primal people.

It was an odd thought. While they were 20.5 light years away from earth, everyone shared the same thought.

War.

Because of their fear of the unknown, everyone settled down and retrained their focus on the colonization of planet 581g.

Two other thoughts began to take shape in everyone's head at the same time and ultimately influenced the development of the newborn civilization.

"Earth is not home."

"Humans are not humans."

Chapter 480: Colonization Era

But regardless, life had to continue.

People began to forget about their old Earth and they began to start their new life while masking their communication channels.

Without being certain about the level of civilization on the Earth in this universe, it would be unwise to expose themselves.

Survival took precedence.

This idea was supported by all crew members.

The colonization ship entered the synchronous orbit of 581g and began to deploy observation devices along the twilight line.

When the device landed on the surface and transferred up data from the surface, the colonization ship released the airdrop cabin for the paratroopers. Next was the basic infrastructure unit then the living quarters with the survivors. Thus began the "Colonization Era." Although a year was 37 days, since there was no concept of day and night on this planet, people still used the 24 hour and 365-day calendar year convention from Earth as a sign of commemoration to the blue mother planet.

There was no ocean on this planet; all the freshwater came from the glaciers on the other side of the planet and freshwater lakes scattered around the twilight line as well as the underground river with complex vein-like tributaries.

The large fungi and low shrubs on the surface provided adequate oxygen for the air which made breathing the planet's air pleasant. The planet was almost designed for humans.

The planet was beautiful; a lot of stunning views were here that couldn't be seen on Earth.

From the river that stretched out from the sun-facing surface to the back of the planet to the mist wall thousands of kilometers long due to high-temperature evaporation, sunlight refracted and formed an everlasting rainbow. The giant fungi and odd-looking vegetation covered every single inch of the soft soil on this land. From space, it was just like a carpet interwoven with fresh green and vibrant red.

Life existed on this planet, although it was scarce.

From long ago, the planet's observer, Steven Vogt, made a prediction. From his point of view, he thought that life must exist on this planet without a doubt.

And he was proven to be right.

The twilight line was covered with dense vegetation and a large amount of eccentric small and medium-sized arthropods, forming a simple ecosystem.

The colonists were delighted by the discovery because this meant they weren't alone.

With the living quarters built, an endless amount of farms were created then the roads began to expand to create a connected city. The mining vehicles traversed the ground like ants, the construction vehicles terraformed, and the biologists keenly collected genetic data they had never seen before. The unsetting giant sun was like the sun at dawn. People worked hard to create their new home and celebrate the beautiful future.

They were just like the colonists who first stepped onto the land of America.

Except they weren't criminals from Europe but human elites from PAC. They had the confidence to despise the painful history of work. Utopia would be built from their hands. There was no war nor crimes here; everyone here were brothers and sisters.

The conflict was resolved in the old world.

The seed of mankind would once again prosper on this soil.

Of course, there were still difficulties.

For example, the mineral reserve on this planet was beyond low. Toxic gas from underground could lower human immunity and even cause people to become sick.

But all the problems could be resolved - the space mining module on the colonization ship could increase mineral stores and the toxic gas that endangered the health of the colonists was caused by a special form of spores. The biologists quickly invented antibiotics that could eliminate the reproduction of spores, easily solving the problem.

But aside from that, there was a more pressing problem.

It was the solar wind.

Without a stable magnetic field, the planet had almost no resistance against the particles thrown its way from the red dwarf.

581g was only 0.15 astronomical units away from the star, therefore 0.15 times the distance between sun and Earth. The constant solar wind whipped the humans' faces directly. Without the protection of a magnetic field, all the electronic equipment had to operate under the electromagnetic shielding environment.

It was like thousands of EMPs constantly bombarding the planet.

To increase the accuracy of some physics experiments at the atomic level, they had to be moved onto the space colonization ship.

Later, to prevent solar wind from the red dwarf from damaging the ship, people moved the ship to the back of the planet, away from the sun. Therefore, the space colonization ship was always one planet away from the star to prevent the disruption of the solar wind on the space colonization ship to enable scientific research to be properly conducted.

The humans who relied heavily on electronic equipment were heavily influenced. Even though humans used a wide-range magnetic field to solve the problem of the solar wind, the disruptions still existed.

Regardless of how wide the magnetic field was, it couldn't enclose the entire planet under its field.

But humans were adaptable.

After they adapted to the difficulties, everything became smoother. All the cities were built within the magnetic field. From space, it looked like umbrellas opened around the twilight line and people were sheltered under the umbrella.

Everything was so pleasant.

Until they discovered the "original inhabitants" of the planet.

They were a bunch of hostile creatures with a similar social form to ants. They had a queen bug responsible for reproducing, battle bugs responsible for hunting, and worker bugs responsible for the expansion of caves.

Typically, they lived 20-30 thousand meters below the surface on the dark side of the planet. The temperature underground could mitigate the frozen surface and could melt underground ice into water.

People discovered later that the thousands of rivers underneath the surface were the work of the bugs and their species had been in existence for millions of years already or their civilization existed at least for the past hundred thousands of years.

A civilization longer than the total sum of all the human civilizations added together.

Although their civilization wasn't yet "civilized."

Their iving spaces were too far apart from each other, with one on the twilight line while the other was in the deep underground of the dark side. Perhaps both thought the other were "bugs" so humans didn't discover their neighbor until living there for over a hundred years.

This only happened when the living spaces became constrained and humans began to expand to the underground river belonging to the bugs.

It was determined the instant both parties encountered each other that a war was inevitable.

Typical speaking, with bugs made out of flesh, humans with technology would not be at a disadvantage, but the reality soon proved far more complicated than the humans imagined.

Soldiers with Gauss Rifles steamrolled through the bugs that spread to the surface. The scientists invented a virus that could make the bugs extinct, and the satellite in orbit launched drilling missiles to clear the underground caves of the bugs.

Everything was going smoothly to the point that people thought optimistically that they could easily declare ownership of the underground river the bugs spent thousands of years carving out.

Until a bug flood attacked a border city.

Millions of arthropods flooded the human city without a fear of death. With a thunderous attack, they crashed through the human colonies along the twilight line.

The explosions lt up the sky and still couldn't stop the bug flood from moving forward.

The scene looked like doomsday.

Everyone was stunned. They never thought the bugs they crashed through could became such a strong battle force. Although their missiles and bombs could easily penetrate through weak bodies, they were still futile against the swarm of bugs.

From biological weapons to genetic bombs, humans thought of everything yet were still unable to exterminate the bugs. Instead, they facilitated the evolution of the bugs. Just like humans took hundreds of years to not even eradicate mosquitos and cockroaches, these bugs couldn't be wiped out.

Under highly intensive natural selection, the bugs evolved different functionalities with similar genetics. The previous queen bugs, warrior bugs, and worker bugs continued to differentiate into a difficult-to-ignore state.

The Spatter's acidic saliva could corrode tanks and the Shredder's diamond-strength claws could easily rip through nanocarbon vests. A hundred-meter-long Attacker with a hardened surface could destroy the city by wreaking havoc like worms. Humans had to limit the usage of nuclear and biological weapons to prevent bugs from further evolving.

The civilization that continued for hundreds of thousands of years demonstrated their heritage. The civilization that could not be understood by humans used its own cruelty to declare its sovereignty on this planet.

It would take 18 years for humans to be born and grow into adults, but it would take the bugs one week at the longest for that to happen. They would feast on the bodies of their own species and use the organic matter to evolve. People were dumbfounded to discover from an economic perspective that mutants could rip through nanocarbon vests with their claws that had less "cost" than a magazine clip of the Gauss Rifle.

The creatures, not knowing what death stood for, used their numbers to test humans.

With their living space challenged by the bugs, the humans had to retreat to the space station near the orbit. Even with advanced scientific research, without the resources to convert it into power, they had to admit that they were at a disadvantage in the war with the bugs.

Their saving grace was that while some bugs could fly, they could not leave the atmosphere.

Humans created a word to summarize the bugs who evolved through the mutated process – mutants.

With this, the "Battle Era" that spanned a thousand years unfolded.

The battle between humans and mutants.

Chapter 481: Harmony Era

The scene changed.

It was still the tidal-locked planet, but its geographic landscape altered drastically.

An orange line divided the planet's surface with one side always facing the sun.

One side was vibrant green, while the other was crimson red.

That colonization ship was nowhere to be seen.

For some reason, Jiang Chen felt like the planet was moving.

It felt like the planet was a living creature rather than dead.

"What happened to the Battle Era?" Looking down at everything, Jiang Chen was intrigued.

At the same time, a person surfaced beside him.

In the queen uniform, looking elegant, she stood straight with hands behind her back, looking solemnly forward.

"The War Era is over, right now it is the Harmony Era."

"It is over? Did the humans lose?"

"No."

"Did the mutants lose?"

To Jiang Chen's surprise, she shook her head again.

"No."

"Then what happened?" Jiang Chen persisted.

"Common prosperity."

She only said two words before drifting to the planet.

At the same time, without control of his own body, Jiang Chen flew along with her.

"Humans used hundreds of years and didn't eliminate mosquitos and cockroaches. We are not greater than our ancestor. We spent a thousand year without eliminating our enemy. So there was no victor in this war. Everyone compromised. Or, everyone sacrificed something."

"I don't understand." Jiang Chen frowned.

"We chose to fuse."

Jiang Chen recollected the words of Academician Qin, and he seemed to have understood something, but he didn't understand why they took this path.

"Steel is the foundation of industry, but this planet's metal reserve is extremely scarce. The cost of space mining was also too high which made developing industries extremely difficult. On the other hand, due to the influence of the constant solar wind from the Red Dwarf, our electronic equipment had a higher failure rate."

"Our industry was going into a dead end and even began to regress. With production, we could no longer equip more armies, and the balance began to tip to the mutants' favor. But just then, a great biologist stood out and proposed a new ideology to the evolutionized civilization – Harmony. With this, the Harmony Era began to unfold."

"We used calculation cells to replace digital chips. We used the highly efficient biological computer to replace quantum computers. Then, we changed our own genetics to expand our 23 pairs of chromosomes to 139 pairs. Through the selective expression, we differentiated into scientists, producers, combatants, and commanders.

"All the problems were solved. We no longer relied on metal. This planet's rich carbon and oxygen supply are at our disposal. Every "person" is independent but also the "cell" of the civilization. At the same time, we stopped our attack on mutants. We began to communicate with them, then marriage, before integrating together."

[Fu*king a bug?]

"This is crazy!" Jiang Chen had to interrupt this bewildering idea.

For some reason, a bunch of random hentai popped up in his head with octopus and tentacles.

"Was it crazy when the black and white first married?" She asked.

Jiang Chen stopped, not being able to say a word.

"In the 17th century it is indeed crazy, but not in the 20th century. Without eliminating the other, understanding was the only solution."

Then, she skipped over the irrelevant question and pointed at the green planet.

"It is just like a giant tree. The part facing the sun is the leaf, and the back is the tree trunk. We used an entire century to complete this project. The leaf provides the energy and nutrients for our civilization to form the atmospheric environment on this planet. Water circulates between the veins and carries the excess energy to the back of the truck. The truck is the area where everyone lives."

Jiang Chen followed her finger. He murmured at the half green, half red planet.

"This tree is too massive."

"It is not that big. Compared to the entire universe, it is more like a seed," she said quietly.

"What about the humans?"

"All the neo-humans live under the leaf. Everyone is independent and a collective group."

"Then who are you?"

Just as he asked this, Jiang Chen saw the shadow turn into a different form. A graceful princess gown replaced the empire uniform. The yellow face turned pale white with a hooked nose.

"I'm the main consciousness of the nest. All the consciousness is born from me, so I'm the queen. As to the form, I can be Wu Zetian, I can be Elizabeth or Ekaterina. We no longer possess the concept of "Art," so I could only search through historical records to show you the figures that appeared through history.

"… And why are you showing me this?"

The Queen looked at Jiang Chen.

"To spread the seed of civilization to further places."

Jiang Chen held his breath. Although as an embodiment of consciousness, he didn't need to breathe.

The Queen continued.

"We used our constructed high-resolution biological telescope to confirm the status of the mother planet. Although all the records are from 20.5 years away based on comparing planetary stats, we confirmed your civilization level. Based on time, you are at the beginning of the 21st century."

"You're outdated compared to us."

"So we decided to return."

"94 years ago, we finally built a colonization ship capable of ensuring our survival. To prevent crossing dimensions, we decide to traverse through the three-dimensional universe."

"We'll bring your civilization and help you interrogate with nature."

Like a declaration of war, the queen declared the cruel reality.

"But we don't need your help," Jiang Chen said with uneasiness.

Although he knew that even if he said that, they wouldn't care.

Just like…

"Just like the Homo Erectus and Neanderthals ultimately losing to the Homo Sapiens. Humans view the Homo Sapiens as their ancestors from which they evolve into the "modern human". Blood must accompany the evolution of the civilization, and we agree with blood." The Queen spoke out the cruel words emotionlessly.

"Wait, didn't you say, you traveled to a parallel world?" Jiang Chen realized something.

"Yes." The Queen blinked and looked at Jiang Chen without expression.

The sight made him feel extremely uneasy.

Unfortunately, the queen's words made his unease turn into a reality.

"We are currently located on your home planet."

[That's impossible!]

Jiang Chen's suddenly flinched.

[How does she know that I can interdimensional travel! How could she confirm my coordinates in that world!]

[Wait, Lin Lin…]

Jiang Chen's eyes suddenly widened as he realized that. If Tingting had been living in Lin Lin, then what Lin Lin saw must be known by Tingting. And from the current situation, Tingting must be able to communicate with the Queen of Harmony.

"The Klein particle." The Queen raised her hand as a dark red ray formed in her hand, "As long as time exists, then this must exist."

"So you obtained the communication channel between Lin Lin and me?" Jiang Chen said with an undertone.

Fourth dimension messenger. If Lin Lin could know his coordinates on that side, there was no reason Tingting wouldn't know.

"No," The Queen said without emotion, "We are shocked how you could freely traverse through two worlds. And the world you are born in happens to be the world we arrived in from the wormhole."

[Is this real…]

Jiang Chen's sight moved between the planet and the Queen. Although there was a lot he wanted to say, he couldn't speak a single word.

Momentarily after, Jiang Chen spoke in a light voice.

"What's the purpose of you telling me this?"

"We plan to convince you."

[Convince?]

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows as he couldn't understand the meaning behind her words.

The queen moved her gaze away from Jiang Chen and to the two-colored planet.

"We thought that our world was disconnected from the original world and that the information we obtained through evolution can no longer be shared with the survivors."

"But the situation soon took a turn."

"The Klein particles we sent were finally received and successfully guided a believer of us. He used himself and used biological technology to change himself to become an antenna for our communication. With our guidance, he successfully evolved into what we hoped for and communicated with creatures in an entire area. Most important, he even managed to divide out an egg."

"We chose 12 citizens and converted their consciousness into Klein particle waves and sent them to that egg with the messenger. The distance that could not be traversed with the body could be done through a message. Fortunately, we found the way to return to the original world."

"But unfortunately, that egg was destroyed by your foolish behavior. But we still luckily, and surprisingly, preserved the individuals."

"She was captured by artificial intelligence, put into a fallout shelter, and locked into the virtual world before finally meeting you."

[The egg was destroyed? Could it be the Liuding's military mission to destroy some extreme mutants?] He heard Chu Nan talk about this mission before. The biological cannon that could launch red beams that took out the electronic equipment in the entire area.

It was not a mutant, but the "paratroopers" the Harmony deployed to the world.

Jiang Chen gulped with difficulty.

"And you discovered me through Lin Lin?"

"That's right." The queen nodded.

"It was a pleasant surprise to discover you. If you're willing to join us, I can promise you that even if Natural Selection arrives in the new world earth, we can still preserve you."

"Preserve me? What about the other people…"

The Queen said blatantly.

"They will donate their organic matter."

[Become food? Just like the natural selection of mankind in ancient times, the Homo Sapiens, after the destruction of Homo Erectus and the Neanderthals, chose to treat them as food.]

When he thought about this, sweat rolled down his forehead, although he was just an embodiment of consciousness.

"I'll have to disappoint you. Since you know that I can freely traverse between two worlds. Then you must know that it is impossible to catch me."

"That's fine." The Queen was emotionless.

The primary task is to conquest the new world. As to the original world's "died" earth, it was more of a memory. Even if Jiang Chen was unwilling to surrender, they would express their regret at most without feeling any sympathy at all…

Jiang Chen was silent.

"And your choice is?" The queen said calmly.

"… I reject." Jiang Chen was at peace.

The Queen was silent for two seconds.

"This is a wrong choice. You don't have the capability to stop us."

"Is that so?"

"If I guessed correctly, the world you're currently in now, and Supreme is currently ruling the 'original world' by our definition. They are a tough opponent, although powerless in front of us."

Klein particles could destroy most of the digital equipment.

"Ruled? It is too early to say ruled. Only you lost, and I haven't lost yet," Jiang Chen said without changes in his expression.

"In our perspective, you don't have the ability to defend against them."

In front of sky-based weapons, any land-based weapon is useless. And combustion rockets dealt substantial damage to creatures, but to the Supreme that ditched their bodies, the damage is almost negligible.

The only thing they could use was EMP. Though there were plenty of ways to defend against EMP with 22nd-century technology.

[So fu*king unlucky. The ambassador from Harmony is on the way to the modern world while the threat of Supreme erupted in the apocalypse.]

"I'm really curious. With mechanical parts, how can you travel through interstellar?"

"Why do we need mechanical parts?" The Queen rebutted.

Jiang Chen was stunned.

[No need for mechanical parts?]

Perhaps because of their arrogance as a higher level civilization, the Queen didn't avoid the question and continued to explain.

"Have you heard of the water bear?"

"What is that?"

"Tardigrade. Although the smallest tardigrade is only 50 microns in size, they are known as the most resilient creature on earth as they could survive in outer space without any protection measures. Any facts proved that, without external assistance, creatures could still achieve interstellar travel. 50 microns creature could, then a creature 50 kilometers naturally could too."

"The ark of evolution is sailing toward you. Since you already rejected it, then, in the end, I will allow you to meet our force."

As the voice died down, the Queen waved her hand, and the scene changed again.

It was a giant octopus. It slowly swayed its tentacles in the back and quietly traversed the boundless universe.

A Sailing Bug.

Abruptly, this odd name surfaced in Jiang Chen's head.

The Sailing Bug was 50 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide. Its shape was similar to a hammer with multiple holes on its side. There were cilia in the back. The middle was grown with umbrella-shaped membranes that could contract or expand to a radius of 40 kilometers.

Bright light particles shone behind the meat membranes. Although Jiang Chen couldn't guess the working principles behind it, Jiang Chen felt that the membrane was similar to a giant solar sail using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight.

Just from its structure, it was a non-working propulsion engine. Jiang Chen could not guess its cruising speed, although it must not be very low.

[This is Natural Selection?]

Jiang Chen watched the sail pass by him and watched it head further into the distance.

He wanted to say something more in an attempt to gather more intelligence.

"Wait!"

Just then, his field of vision turned dark again…

Chapter 482: The Crisis Afar

The spiritual connection ended. It felt like a lengthy dream.

Jiang Chen opened his eyes and happened to meet a blank stare.

From her black pupils, she should also be "awakened" from her dream soon.

Jiang Chen moved two steps away.

He was hesitating if he should sneak out from the room before Lin Lin had time to realize what had happened.

But as he was contemplating, the crystal-like pupils began to be covered in a fine layer of mist. The numbed lips collapsed down.

Instantly, two thoughts flashed through her head.

[That was my first kiss!]

[This pervert finally made a move on me!]

Her blush extended from her face all the way to her ears before covering her pale neck.

"PERVERT!"

The cry in agony went out of tune because she was too emotional.

Jiang Chen rubbed his nose in awkwardness as he didn't know how to comfort Lin Lin and looked ashamed.

Sun Jiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen before she walked out to loosen the straps on Lin Lin and started to comfort the undoubtedly sad her.

"Calm down Lin Lin. Jiang Chen was saving you, uh, how should I explain this…"

Without finishing her sentence, Sun Jiao also began to feel awkward as she became silent.

"Seems to be impossible to explain…" Sun Xiaorou had a wry smile on her face.

"Kissed for so long." Yao Yao pouted as her jealousy was clearly evident.

Just as Jiang Chen was bothered by how to explain this to Lin Lin, crisp knocking sound came from the door.

Jiang Chen turned around and saw Han Junhua in uniform standing at the door without any expression on her face.

"Although I don't want to interrupt you, right now –"

"Let's talk outside," Jiang Chen immediately said when Han Junhua was halfway through her sentence.

Han Junhua briefly scanned the girls in the lab and nodded to Jiang Chen.

"Okay."

She swung her ponytail and left without a hassle.

"Did something happen?" Sun Jiao looked concerned.

Jiang Chen throated moved, he looked at Sun Jiao and smiled at her.

"Don't worry."

That smile made people feel calm, but uneasy at the same time.

Sun Jiao walked to Jiang Chen and held onto his hand.

"if there is anything I can do to help, please tell me."

With certainty in his eyes, Jiang Chen squeezed Sun Jiao's hand and promised.

"Definitely."

[If you could help.]

…

With brisk steps walking into the community center, Han Junhua's ponytail swung back and forth. Beside her was Jiang Chen as he never had a more stern expression on his face.

"The communication signal of the Fishbone base is blocked."

"I know that. Is there any other method to contact the people from Camp 27?"

"There is only one communication channel." Han Junhua shook her head.

The arrived at the command room. She stopped and opened the door.

When Jiang Chen walked in, she followed.

The two stopped in front of the command table. Han Junhua pressed her finger on the fingerprint detection device and opened the hologram.

"What's the situation like outside?"

"There are 300 'Reptile' quadruped robots, 1200 'Viper' attack drones surrounding us." Han Junhua tapped the map, and the dense red dots appeared around the base.

Two popup windows appeared, recording the pictures and specifications of the Reptile and Viper. Both were standard units from PAC. As the Colonel of the Mechanical Division, Han Junhua knew the specs of the two robots well.

The former was known as an "all-terrain battle platform", and the latter was known for its balanced performance and smart artificial intelligence design which earned it the name "Battle Assistance" by PAC soldiers.

"The force in the base?"

"Only 500 new recruits that recently completed training. The 327 people Hunter Division, and eight RPGs." Han Junhua reported.

"What about our drones?" Jiang Chen asked in an undertone.

"I shut them down."

"Why?" Jiang Chen looked at her.

She seemed to be expecting this question as she pointed to the hologram map, "There is a KN30 signal hijacking device here. Its functionality is not only there to hijack the communication channel, but also hijack the communication between the drone terminal and drones. We can be certain that they are at an absolute advantage in information technology. Even if we deployed drones to the battle, there is a high probability that they could hijack them."

This was certainly Han Junhua's style.

Jiang Chen peeked at her. On her face, he didn't see any signs of fear.

But it made sense; she didn't have extraneous things like emotions.

In deep thought, Jiang Chen thought for a while before looking at Han Junhua.

"Could we establish communication with the Sixth Street through the underground system?"

"The underground system is captured. When communication first ceased, I sent scouts out immediately." Han Junhua pointed at the location between the Fishbone base and the Sixth Street.

While the subsystems in the underground system were blocked by partitions, the partitions were mostly there to prevent the mutants from entering. With a welding tool, it was easy to hijack the underground tunnel.

"So the only thing we can rely on in the base is the 500 new recruits and the Hunter Corps?" Jiang Chen began to frown.

Because of the close proximity, the rockets were ineffective. The new recruits wouldn't be much use and at most provide assistance in firing. The Hunter Corps was the elite force of the NAC which certainly made people more at ease.

But they were against a mechanical force of over one thousand units. With eight hundred bodies made out of flesh, could they defeat the force from Supreme?

"What do you think is our probability of winning?" With hands on the table, Jiang Chen looked at Han Junhua.

"50%."

"Even with your command?" Jiang Chen was surprised.

"Mhmm." Han Junhua nodded as she had a rare sternness on her face.

"The base has an ample reserve of EMP grenades, but if it the Reptile and the Viper, the pulse level of the EMP grenade could only cause minor damage to the friendly unit detection system which would cause it to stall temporarily. We don't have a reserve of powerful EMP weapons."

"Then don't use EMP. We can use the electromagnetic cannons, the Pythons, the Red Arrow-42 RPG, rifles. We can use bonfires. Without electro signal, we can use smoke. As long as there is hope, we can't give up," Jiang Chen ordered.

"That will have to be. But I'm afraid of the sky." Han Junhua looked up, "If they really did control the God's Cane, we don't have any possibility of winning."

The tungsten rod dropping from the sky. The invincible spear unguarded by any shield.

Perhaps only the Holy Shield System could defend its attack.

Is there really a possibility of winning?

Wait…

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

He closed his eyes. Then after a long moment, he abruptly opened them.

"There should be one tungsten rod."

Han Junhua looked to him.

"The probability is low."

"No, or rather, there is only one." Jiang Chen gazed at the hologram map as certainty began to appear in his eyes.

"Reason?"

Jiang Chen recollected what Academician Qin told him and the conversation with the bug queen.

"Because we're different, and that's enough of a reason."

With his arms crossed, Han Junhua thought for half a minute. She closed her eyes.

"I see."

From the beginning, it was a war without a captive.

If they had a second round, there was no need to save it. Only one tungsten rod could destroy the "heart" of the NAC and the order established in Wanghai would again turn back to chaos. Only when the wasteland turned into chaos could the digitalized humans have the hope of replacing humans as the ruler of the land. Jiang Chen recalled everything Lin Chaoen did. Other than killing the "experimenter" from Fallout Shelter 027, all he did was bring chaos to the wasteland.

Either NAC or Supreme must be eliminated.

Because the outcome of this war would go down in history.

The reason why they didn't do anything was that they didn't have the confidence to win either.

As long as the Fishbone can last until assistance from the Sixth Street and Camp 27 arrives, they will not lose.

Chapter 483: The Last Shackle

The atmosphere on the wall was depressing.

Soldiers hidden behind cover anxiously rubbed the trigger, aiming at the robots hundred meters away in ruins.

It had a circular body filled with fluid but powerful short legs, if it was not for the daunting machine gun and the grenade launcher on top, its appearance was cute.

"What are these things…" A recruit moved around his sore arms as he said with unease.

"If the "reptile" comes, remember to aim at the observation hole, the four holes on its wall." The soldier beside them also looked unsettled, but because of his experience traversing through the wasteland, he didn't look too fearful.

[How does this thing look like a reptile?]

"Okay, okay!" The recruit gulped, perhaps he thought the first okay didn't sound confident, so he replied again.

The unknown mechanical force surrounded the base, making all the survivors tense. The engineering soldiers dragged the heavy weapons and ammo along the wall in silence. The weapons included the Python, the Red Arrow-42, and the EMP grenades.

The survivors hauled out the rubber tires from the warehouse, soaked them in gasoline, and waited for Jiang Chen's order.

In front of the community center, Jiang Chen in a T-3 power armor looked at the soldiers in the square with a solemn face.

They were the most elite soldiers of the NAC; the Hunter Corps led by Ma Zhongcheng.

200 kinetic skeletons and 14 power armors. Everyone had no expression on their face and stared at Jiang Chen standing under the Mother of Death Claw statue. Their comrades were already on the wall and the NAC they swore allegiance to was facing its toughest challenge.

Like all the survivors, Jiang Chen was also facing this challenge.

If he abandoned everything here and escaped to the modern world, even without the apocalypse, he could still use the technology he has now to establish a force that stood at the peak of the world.

20.5 light years? Therefore, 94 years ago, the Natural Selection that left in 1922 is on route to modern day earth.

Realistically, it should only have a speed of one-tenth of the speed of light, at most one-eighth of the speed of light. With consideration of the acceleration and deceleration phase at the two ends of the journey, it would still take at least one hundred years before it arrived on earth. And the one hundred year time was more than enough for him to live a happy life.

If he chose not to change his lifespan.

But he couldn't do that.

The reason? Obviously because of his responsibility.

With his head pointed at by a "gun", it was certainly an obscure feeling.

Jiang Chen looked at the reflection of the statue on the ground as he suddenly grinned.

[Fu*k! When am I ever afraid!]

Just then, Lin Chaoen appeared in Jiang Chen's communication channel and said in an intermittent voice.

"Could I interpret this as the negotiation failed?"

The God's Cane on the synchronous orbit looked down at everything. Jiang Chen in the power armor in front of the soldiers obviously didn't escape his eyes.

"When did you get the illusion that I planned to negotiate with you?"

Jiang Chen grinned and gazed at the "block" option on the hologram screen and closed the communication channel.

Lin Chaoen's voice ceased all of a sudden. Jiang Chen raised his head and iron arm to the clear sky, giving it a middle finger.

"Fire!"

The survivors beside the tires tossed out the lighters in their hands.

...

With the thick smoking rising, the Fishbone base used the most primal way to send out a help signal.

When the Sixth Street and Camp 27 saw the smoke in Fishbone's direction, they immediately responded.

"All units wait for orders! Complete preparation in one minute, and rush to the base in half an hour! Quick! Quick!"

Under Cheng Weiguo's thunderous roar, the soldiers boarded the trucks.

The gate immediately opened, and the First Corps led the charge while the Second Corps followed. The two helicopters also lifted off with electromagnetic cannons and the power armor paratroops to provide assistance to the base.

The First and Second Corps only had 1000 people left to garrison in Camp 27, with everyone else returning on route to defend the base.

Inside the tank, Cheng Weiguo gazed at the rising smoke with eyebrows locked.

"What happened?"

At the same time, the Sixth Street also began to mobilize its soldiers. When the patrol soldiers at the gate discovered the smoke from Fishbone base, Zhao Gang immediately led two-thirds of the Third Corps force along with 1000 mercenaries still under contract in Fishbone's direction.

"The communication channel has been blocked. I should have known that something was wrong." Chu Nan stared at the "Standby" command on the EP with concern.

The enemy not only blocked off communication, but they also hijacked the communication channel between the Fishbone base and the Sixth Street. To avoid suspicion, to any of the requests sent by Chu Nan, the enemy used the ambiguous "Standby" command.

"But who could it be?" Chu Nan stared at the hologram map and fell into thought.

While the three Corps were being mobilized, the battle outside of the Fishbone wall also started.

"Fire!"

The mortars launched a series of electromagnetic shells before it exploded outside the wall.

The "reptile" equipped with grenade launchers continued to fire with explosions happening all over the wall.

Concrete debris flew as a lot of reinforced steels were exposed.

The soldiers behind cover valiantly fought and fired back with rifles in hand. In the conflict against weapons, the nitrogen armor recently equipped to the force became useful.

The soldiers let the shrapnel fly above their heads as they raised the Red Arrow-42 behind cover, they used their roar to disperse away any fear they had.

"Fire!"

The rocket launched out and flew into the high air before crashing down at rapid speed, directed at the escaping "reptile" robot.

"Nice sh—"

The explosion sound interrupted his voice. The loud noise transmitted the vibration below everyone's feet.

"Dammit! The gate is blown open."

In modern warfare, a wall didn't serve many purposes. A high-speed quadruped robot dashed in front of the gate and exploded the C4 on its body and blew the entire steel gate away.

"The East gate is lost! I repeat! The East gate is lost!"

"Shrink the defensive line."

"Get the electromagnetic cannon up! Quick!"

Because the radio was blocked, control could only rely on the loudspeaker in the base which made the entire scene chaotic. The "reptile" that broke into the wall quickly turned its gun and began to unleash its furious firepower on the wall. The soldiers that couldn't dodge in time all dropped to the ground and left a trail of blood splashes on the wall.

"EMP!"

With a loud roar, a soldier dived to the ground, dodged the bullets above his head, and threw an EMP grenade below the wall.

The static noise temporarily filled the battle scene as the closest "reptile" immediately shut down, the other ones all stalled.

At the same time, an orange bullet shower came from the apartment side.

The Hunter Corps hidden behind ground covers simultaneously pressed the trigger at the "reptile" and "viper" that broke through the wall. The bullets splattered all over the steel surface.

At the same time, the Type-99 anti-tank cannon moved down from the wall, unleashed its power, and left massive craters on the wall and ground.

The soldiers on the wall began to retreat which brought the battle down to the ground. The family of the soldiers all retreated into the mansion and community center, males with some strength and even some strong females were handed a rifle to stand on the frontline to defend the people that mattered the most.

The community center and Jiang Chen's mansion were the top priority of the Supreme's attack, and the NAC soldiers would not let their plan succeed as they didn't give up any ground.

At the office on the top floor of the mansion, Jiang Chen in power armor looked outside.

The battle line was gradually moving toward the mansion, soldiers already moved back to the wall of the mansion backyard. The flying shrapnel even scratched the bulletproof glass and left spider web-like cracks on it.

"Only five minutes passed?"

He looked at the time on the screen and took a deep breath.

"Are you going to go?"

Sun Jiao voice came from behind him. She was leaning on the door with a PK2000 hanging in front of her chest.

From the kinetic skeleton on her body along with the expression on her face, her intention was obvious.

"Of course."

"I'm there to cheat, why are you following me," Jiang Chen said.

If it is a robot, then that method should work! But regardless, it was risky to do.

Cheat?

Sun Jiao didn't understand his words, but it didn't prevent her from showing her determination.

"Protecting this home," Sun Jiao said seriously.

Jiang Chen was silent.

Suddenly, a loud explosion came from outside the mansion; it sounded like something exploded against the wall.

"Be careful."

"You too." Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen and smiled.

Chapter 484: This is Impossible

"Fu*k! Their firepower is too strong!"

The machine gunner kneeled behind cover and roared.

"EMP! Is there more EMP?" An infantry five meters out shouted at him.

"All gone! Dammit, I need ammo—"

His eardrums were almost shattered due to the violent explosions. He gritted his teeth without his finger leaving the trigger. With the communication being blocked and the constant explosions, they could only shout to communicate.

Suddenly, a mortar shell smashed onto the side of the cover.

A bowl sized dent appeared on the steel surface, the machine gunner kneeling behind it didn't have time to react before being smashed by the caving effect and flew out.

Seeing his comrade die, the soldier on the side's eyes became bloodshot. He got up to the machine gun position. But before he could make two steps, he was shredded to pieces by the bullets that came from the sky.

Smoke dispersed from the launcher. The reptile that just fired stood still and started the reloading program.

The battle was completely chaotic. The commanding voice was covered by the sound of bullets and fires. With communication being suppressed, the Supreme was slowly but surely gaining the upper hand.

Multiple Python drones broke out from the fire suppression and soared in at low altitude. The engine spat at blue air streams and ripped a hole in NAC's defensive line.

Then they encountered a giant hand.

The smoke grenade exploded, and Jiang Chen in his power armor suddenly broke out from the wall, and both of his hands reached for the roaming Pythons.

After Jiang Chen passed by them, the two Pythons disappeared out of thin air.

Jiang Chen closed his left eye as a cocky smirk appeared on his lips.

After being sent to the pitch black small universe, the two drones instantly became flies without heads and smashed against the edge of the small universe. Because there was no oxygen, the engine immediately stalled. The drones without power and information guidance stopped at the edge of the universe.

"Just like what I expected… with robots, a storage dimension is the trump card."

Jiang Chen smiled and looked at the drones and quadruped robots outside of the smoke screen.

Because they were not living creatures, the energy they consumed to be put into the storage dimension was similar to normal items. With the robot units with sizes no bigger than two cubic meters, the storage dimension was like cheating.

As long as he could reach them.

The quadruped robots trying to break through the wall found the power armor and immediately turned its machine gun and began to focus fire on Jiang Chen.

Nitrogen armor!

The violent air stream blew open and shifted the bullets. The turbine engines on him propelled and dragged him to the wall on the side.

Tatatata-

At least 20 reptiles moved toward the collapsed wall with their machine guns on the top unleashing its fury and continuing its destruction on the smoke and wall.

But at the same time, countless steel strings attached with magnets stuck to the twenty reptile robots.

[As long as I can touch them!]

With a grimacing smile, Jiang Chen hid behind cover and dragged onto the strings in hand.

"I'm a fu*king genius!"

Storage dimension, activate!

The twenty-something robots connected by the string disappeared from the battleground.

"How is that possible!"

Standing in the space station, Lin Chaoen very "humanly" pressed his arms against the table and looked in disbelief at the satellite image.

The twenty robots just disappeared under his eyes. He thought that he made a mistake when he saw the two Pythons disappear, but with that look, the power armor was strange.

Lin Chaoen's eyes adjusted as the digitalized eyes locked onto the power armor.

[Jiang Chen?]

He narrowed his eyes while a smile emerged on his face.

His finger slid on the screen and selected 200 drones and 20 Reptiles. Then his finger pressed onto the power armor.

"The General is on the battlefield? It's like you're asking for death."

But just then, the corner of his eyes caught a familiar but distant figure.

"How is that possible!"

Muttering to himself, disbelief was written all over his face.

…

[Fu*k, there are too many!]

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth and dodged the bullets coming toward him. The nitrogen armor could only blow so much mass away. If the unit was attacked by too many bullets, the nitrogen armor could easily be shredded.

He could, of course, use the interdimensional travel ability to dodge, but with the fact that Lin Chaoen was in the God's Cane watching him, any of the exposed areas must be under his watch. If possible, he didn't want to reveal this ability.

On the roof of the mansion, Sun Jiao raised the Ghost Sniper Rifle and provided assistance to Jiang Chen. She tried desperately not to let her troubled state distract her focus, but when she saw the waves of bullets directed at Jiang Chen, her heat uncontrollably clenched.

"Please don't let anything happen!"

She pressed the trigger.

Bang—!

The Reptile with its observation hole penetrated collapsed on the ground with sparks emerging from its body.

Just then, she was suddenly alerted and immediately rolled to the side. At the same time, a series of bullets flew to her from the back and smashed the tile she was on into debris.

"Pshh!"

She spat out and took out the laser pistol around her waist. With her index finger scrolling through the power adjustment, she pressed the trigger simultaneously.

The powerful laser beam instantly fired and burned the Reptile as the robot fell down from the roof.

Just then, a cold sweat rolled down from her forehead. In her field of vision, at least ten Reptiles appeared.

The black muzzles were all locked onto her.

[Dammit, she didn't focus on her surroundings.]

Just as Sun Jiao raised her pistol in despair and fired onto the Reptile closest to her, a red light suddenly broke out through the air and the Reptiles and surrounded Sun Jiao all collapsed onto the ground.

The laser rifle in her hand also stalled.

"Lin Lin!" Sun Jiao looked at Lin Lin in shock.

She was covering her left eye while tumbling to get up onto the roof. She clenched onto a dagger in her hand and pressed it against her heart.

"Did we make it… Uhhh! Don't move around! You don't want him to be hurt either. Whatever since you can't go back! I promise you, I will lend my body to you sometimes… Uh!" She seemed to be fighting against something as the muscles on her face twitched while she muttered to herself.

Then, she forcefully moved her eyes to the drones and robots surrounding Jiang Chen. Then with a sharp shout, "Now!"

A red light began to form in Lin Lin's eyes. The solidified light twisted space and something horrific was building up.

Sun Jiao first paused. Before she was aware of what was going on, she stood up and shouted to Jiang Chen.

"Quick, use travel!"

Jiang Chen didn't hesitate at all when he heard Sun Jiao's shout and instantly disappeared from where he stood.

At the same time, the crimson particles fired through the battlefield and destroyed all the electronics in the area. The high-density Klein particles rapidly decayed to the third dimension. The accelerated high energy particles instantly fried all the internal circuits of the robots and drones.

Klein particles ray.

The trump card invented by the Harmony against the Supreme.

"This is impossible

Lin Chaoen muttered with his digitalized eyes locked onto Lin Lin, streams of data flowed through his pupils.

The sample in Fallout Shelter 05.

The masterpiece of his father.

The first digitalized human.

His sister.

Number 00.

Lin Lin.

(Lin Lin has the same sound as 00 in Chinese.)

Chapter 485: Backup

When Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse again, he was completely stunned.

All the Reptile robots' machine guns stalled and the Pythons drones crashed.

[What the fu*k! What kind of cheat is more powerful than mine?]

Jiang Chen immediately looked in the mansion's direction. He saw Lin Lin with a dagger in one hand while she waved at him with the other.

[It was it… or her.]

Jiang Chen's expression was perplexed.

Tingting was a spy sent by Harmony. Even if the "Antenna" was no longer there, he didn't have an idea how he should take of it as he has been hesitant. She seemed to like him but his impression of her was far less.

And she just saved him.

[Whatever… I'll think about it later.]

Jiang Chen let out a sigh. Just then, his pupils suddenly contracted.

The dagger from Lin Lin's hand slid down. The swaying body slowly fell to the ground.

"Lin Lin!"

Sun Jiao saw that something was odd and immediately jumped to that direction. But because the distance was too far, she was just inches away.

With hands hanging in the air, Sun Jiao watched Lin Lin fall to the ground as she screamed out a cry.

"No!"

Just then, a shadow broke through the air as Jiang Chen caught Lin Lin falling to the ground head first. He rolled on the ground with her in between his arms and smashed into the wall.

His head was dizzy from the impact, but he shook it off and looked at Lin Lin in his arms anxiously.

The helmet opened as Jiang Chen put his head closer. When he felt the faint breath, he finally felt relieved.

"Pervert… do you want to kiss me again?" Lin Lin's eyes opened a line and looked at Jiang Chen as she said feebly.

"Could you not say that every time?" Jiang Chen wryly replied.

Lin Lin smiled and looked away. A red hue covered her pale face.

[Switch to me.] Tingting's voice surfaced in her head.

[No, let me stay for a bit longer,] since she already controlled the technique to speak with her, Lin Lin said in her head.

"You lied to me!"

[How could I? I said I would lend you the body, but, but this is a princess hug!] Lin Lin's face blushed even more.

Although a layer of steel was between them.

[So switch to me!]

"What are you murmuring to yourself about?" Jiang Chen had a genuine smile on his face when he saw Lin Lin with continually changing expressions.

"No, nothing—"

Bang—

The bullets fired at Jiang Chen and hit his back.

"Ouch!"

Jiang Chen let out a painful roar and covered Lin Lin in his lap.

The back was the entrance to the power armor and the weakest point of the power armor. It was the most foolish choice to face the enemy with his back, but he was hugging Lin Lin.

Warning: Power module damaged.

[Fu*k! Too careless!]

Jiang Chen didn't dare to hesitate. He swung his hand with a steel hook and fired it into the smoke, sticking to the Reptile Robot. His hand shook and the steel string along with the robot disappeared into thin air.

Just then, Jiang Chen's expression changed again.

The power model being damaged meant that the entire power armor had collapsed and the 300-kilogram weight was being held on by his pure muscle strength. His entire body felt like it was injected with lead.

Afraid to stay any longer, Jiang Chen stood up with Lin Lin still in his arms. Dragging his heavy body, he jogged to the side of the mansion.

"I will cover for you!'

Right now, Sun Jiao was already on the top floor with the sniper rifle aimed at the collapsed mansion wall. But then, her eyes widened.

Ten Reptile drones and ten Python drones swarmed into the broken wall again.

Regardless of how skillful her shooting was, she could not take out 20 targets in an instant.

"Dammit." Jiang Chen raised the machine guns on his right arm and fired at the robotic force.

The bullets sparkled on the mechanical surface, but the enemy's firepower was no inferior. To protect Lin Lin, he had to take the shots.

"Ahhhh—"

With finger locked on the trigger, the machine guns revolved rapidly. With one hand holding Lin Lin and covering her on the side, Jiang Chen moved toward the edge of the mansion with difficulty.

As long as he could circle to the other side.

Warning: Armor damage 80%, please exit the power armor as soon as possible.

"That's enough, just put me down." Lin Lin put her hand in front of Jiang Chen's chest and gave him a feeble smile.

"Enough my a*s!" Jiang Chen gritted his teeth as he locked onto the mechanical force rushing in without consideration for loss, "I fu*king said that I would take you to try all the puddings in the world."

Although he used derogatory words, Lin Lin felt a stream of warmth flow inside her.

She felt the vibration in the front of her chest and gently closed her eyes.

[What to do?]

[The storage dimension is full.]

With the energy of the nitrogen armor nearly depleted and the increasingly powerful force attacking him, Jiang Chen clenched his teeth and used his spare hand to fire back.

Suddenly, at where his crosshair aimed, dust erupted and interrupted the bullets coming at him.

Jiang Chen paused and raised his head as his expression turned ecstatic.

[It was the Type-51 helicopter! The Second Corps finally made it!]

"Direct him."

"Reloading… completed."

"Fire!"

"This is Gunship 1, we have arrived at target airspace. General, are you okay?"

The calm voice rang in Jiang Chen's ears. The electromagnetic cannon destroyed the communication hijacking device, and the communication returned to normal.

"I'm very… not good. Thank you all. You finally made it." Jiang Chen sat on the ground, on his butt, and forced a bitter smile.

Finally made it.

Six black dots dropped down from the sky, and the airborne power armor landed in the backyard of the mansion as they spread out, in formation, to protect Jiang Chen. At the same time, the electromagnetic pulse cannon hovering in the sky unleashed its power against the enemy and smashed the robotic force. The victory was beginning to tip towards NAC's side.

The communication returned to normal and the teams that fought independently united again.

Han Junhua in the community center immediately executed the battle plan through the map. She ordered the remaining force in the base and the paratroopers that entered the battle to launch retaliation attack against the remaining mechanical force.

The outcome of the battle was determined.

In the space station, Lin Chaoen looked emotionlessly at the pawns disappearing one by one.

He still didn't understand how Jiang Chen made the robots disappear.

And the ability to suddenly disappear and appear.

"Could it be the hidden genetic code? No, that's not possible… The anti-physics ability is not something that the hidden genetic code can achieve." Lin Chaoen slowly closed his eyes.

On his face, there were no more expressions that mimicked a human. All his computation power was used to analyze the event. But some of the things could not be solved by just computation.

He let out a sigh and opened his eyes.

"Father, I need your intelligence."

He muttered and pressed the control interface a few times. The antenna he just fixed was pointed to a location in Wanghai.

The plan half failed. Harmony left the battle, but Jiang Chen was still alive. He wanted to know what he should do next. And Lin Lin was still alive. The outcome from Fallout Shelter 05 was no longer as disastrous as they had thought.

Just then, Yao Yao who was busy working in front of a computer without much effect finally felt relieved by the fact that the communication returned to a normal state. She suddenly realized an odd wave.

A wave from space.

Directed toward…

Without any hesitation, Yao Yao moved her nimble fingers and quickly pressed on the screens to track the target of the signal.

The hologram surfaced as the target appeared as a red dot on the map.

Yao Yao was fixated on the map. Her eyes widened and slowly gulped.

"Yao Yao finally achieved something…"

Chapter 486: Counterattack

The battle left the area in shambles.

Right now, Fishbone base was filled with glass shards, exposed steel, and concrete debris. The apartments near the wall were half-destroyed by grenades and recoilless cannons. The community center was also damaged. Even half of a wall at Jiang Chen's mansion was blown up by heavy machine gun bullets.

A series of steel scaffolds were set up around the buildings and walls that needed repair with Lu Huasheng leading the survivors to start the restoration project. Wang Qin led the logistics department to start evaluating the loss of supplies and overseeing the military factory to restart production.

70% of the recruits suffered casualties and 50% of the Hunter Corps was either injured or killed. It was a tragic battle.

Jiang Chen personally led the funeral of the deceased warriors and buried their bodies in the cemetery outside the base.

The scale of their loss wasn't an exaggeration.

But it wasn't without some rewards.

Right now, Jiang Chen's storage dimension was filled with robots and drones that couldn't move. Without commands from the terminal, the robots without intelligence could only move their limbs in the storage dimension while their engines roared and spent their remaining power to search for a non-existent enemy.

Once the robots lost power, Jiang Chen could take them and send to the Fallout Shelter for technology restoration and improvement work.

To coordinate the rebuilding effort, Jiang Chen found Jiang Lin. The guy's arm was wounded by a bullet so it was covered by thick bandages and wasn't in the best shape. Although he was sympathetic to his situation, there were still more urgent matters to take care of. Jiang Chen didn't send too many condolences before getting to the main point.

"It was confirmed that NAC's opposing force controls the God's Cane. Dyou have any way of shooting it down?"

"The God's Cane?" Jiang Lin looked troubled. "That's going to be hard - that thing is known as the space fortress. With missiles, they might approach the orbit before being destroyed by the laser anti-missile system."

"Is that so?" Jiang Chen frowned.

The God's Cane was a sword hanging in the air. Without taking it out, it would be hard to sleep at night. Even if the tungsten rods were all used up, it was hard to prevent Lin Chaoen from acquiring another round from the synchronous orbit and reloading it.

"The key is: to what extent did he repair the God's Cane? Even if the laser anti-missile system is repaired, our ability to do high damage is still limited." Jiang Lin didn't seem to have any better solutions.

Jiang Chen said, "The God's Cane shouldn't be fully repaired. If we use the Northwind-76, could it do damage?"

"In theory, the Northwind-76 could reach the synchronous orbit. But if it carried conventional ballistic missiles and they exploded in a vacuum environment, it would still be difficult for the resulting shockwaves to damage the shell of the God's Cane," Jiang Lin explained to Jiang Chen.

Since it was the weapon NATO refined for a century, it was too much to ask a forged version of Northwind-76 to take down this "space fortress."

"What if we carried EMP instead?" Jiang Chen proposed.

"It's hard for normal EMP to damage the electronic components of God's Cane. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so hard to take down." Jiang Lin shook his head.

"We don't need to damage the God's Cane." A smile surfaced on Jiang Lin's face. "We just need to take out the robot hidden inside the God's Cane."

Jiang Chen took a moment to think as he stroked his chin.

"In theory, it's possible. If the outer shell of the God's Cane is damaged, wide-range EMP weapons should be able to damage the mechanical parts."

Jiang Chen gave Jiang Lin the problem of solving the issue in the sky before heading to the community center and meeting the leaders of the Three Divisions as well as the leader of the Hunter Division to call for an emergency meeting.

Just half an hour ago, Yao Yao, who was working hard to break through the communication blockage, happened to intercept the communication coordinates between the God's Cane and a ground facility. The target was inside Wanghai and Jiang Chen wouldn't let this guy escape.

The target was on the edge of the east side of the city center, the right bank of the Huangpu River. Based on the issues with the relationship to Liuding, multiple rocket launchers didn't have the right bank of the Huangpu River as a target area.

In simple war mobilization, Jiang Chen sent out the order with Han Junhua establishing a battle plan.

At the end of the ten-minute meeting, all three corps were prepared and ready to mobilize. With 1000 soldiers left to defend the camp, the three corps departed. At the same time, the eight "Fireball-1s" on the launching ground were fully locked and loaded to cover the area with combustion missiles to eliminate any mutants in the area.

At the same time, the helicopter transported all the researchers from the Aerospace Technology Research Institute to Shenxiang to change the module of the Northwind-76 deployed from combustible material to a wide-range EMP device.

Once the module was changed, it would be launched into the geosynchronous orbit to eliminate the robot in God's Cane – Lin Chaoen.

…

It had been half an hour since the Northwind-76 was launched into the air.

At the Lin Fallout Shelter, three thousand meters underground:

The central computer in the middle of the room quietly hummed. Inside the silent space, the only sound was the buzzing of the processors.

The screen above the central computer flashed a faint light. The middle-aged man on the screen had his hand supporting his chin and he fell into silence inside the empty fallout shelter. He glanced at the nutrient vial underneath the screen. The life support device contained his brain.

After he abandoned his body twenty years ago, he hadn't looked at it since. But now that he was looking at it, he felt wistful.

Of course, a heart is an abstract concept. He didn't have a heart and aside from his brain, all his organs were replaced by mechanical parts. When he found a device that could allow mechanics to replace his brain, he could even ditch that last hindrance.

A cold light slowly illuminated the fallout shelter. It came from the bottom of a hibernation chamber. Suddenly, the inert gas leaked out and the chamber door opened. Ahandsome man walked out.

The convenience of being a robot was exactly this - even after countless destructions, as long as the backup data was there, they could reincarnate countless times.

"Father." Lin Chaoen kneeled on the ground.

"Mhmm." He replied and didn't speak more.

This was a rare time when "father" didn't give any instructions to his son. He only quietly looked at him. Whenever he looked at it, he felt like he was looking at a puppet.

But he understood the feeling. Due to the insufficiency of intermediate artificial intelligence in dealing with emotions, rather than saying they were individuals, they were more like tools without desires and needs.

After a long silence, he abruptly said, "What should we do?"

Lin Chaoen looked up and smiled.

"I was awaiting for your instructions."

Father let out a sigh and shook his head. Although he was infinitely close to a God, ultimately, before he could digitalize his consciousness, he was a human after all. After he lost the God's Cane, he lost everything. From the satellite image from the God's Cane, the NAC force was moving in his direction. They not only sent an EMP missile to attack God's Cane, but they were now using combustion missiles to wipe out the mutants in the area.

The original plan was for the robotic force he controlled to attack Fishbone base. Whether Jiang Chen surrendered or died, NAC would collapse. The entire Wanghai region would once again return to chaos, and all the survivors would become believers of the Supreme. He would have the opportunity again to restart the advanced artificial intelligence project and lead all his believers on the path to digitalization.

But reality and his plan were different.

Whether it was Lin Lin or Jiang Chen's abilities, they were the variables that affected the outcome.

Right now, with their coordinates exposed, they had to face the wrath of the NAC.

"With the computation power of the quantum computer, we still can't calculate the next move?" Father asked.

Lin Chaoen didn't reply as he quietly waited for Father's instructions.

The computer itself couldn't think unless humans told them what to think.

[It's so close?]

Father looked at Lin Chaoen kneeling on the ground and entered deep thought.

But just then, Lin Chaoen abruptly interrupted the silence in the fallout shelter.

"Speaking of which, in that base, I saw Lin Lin."

The kind father on the screen paused then his pupils began to narrow.

Chapter 487: A Pleasant Surprise

320 rockets ascended and pierced the dome. They blanketed the New Age Square along the bank of the Huangpu River.

The rockets penetrated the concrete without any explosion. Blue sparks jumped outside the missiles and loud static buzzed in the area. The machine guns present became fried as the 320 EMP rockets eliminated any unprotected electronics.

A helicopter hovered above the New Age Square and confirmed the area was secure. The three corps began to pass over the bridge and the force totaling 5000 people were pushed to the square without any resistance.

In an EMP attack of such intensity and density, even if a chip was built with EMP resistance, it still couldn't be protected from being fried.

Without any fighting required, the NAC soldiers captured the area easily. But what made Cheng Weiguo puzzled was why they didn't face any resistance or people; it made him feel like his fist hadn't landed anywhere.

After discussing with Zhao Gang and Wang Zhaowu, Cheng Weiguo ordered the corps to station themselves in the square and he sent out reconnaissance units to scout the area.

Near New Age Square, the First Corps reconnaissance units discovered a data tower installed on the surface as well as an automated factory. When they found the place, Cheng Weiguo immediately sent out soldiers to occupy the area and obtained two production lines to the Reptile drone and Python drone.

Compared to the multi-functional "Hummingbird" drone, the Python was a complete war machine. The hovering fixed machine guns along with its elongated design allowed the unit to be agile while carrying six times the amount of ammo capacity compared to the Hummingbird. It possessed an independent attack module which allowed it to operate in offline mode while still detecting friendly units and analyzing the terrain to complete the mission.

The Reptile drone was just like the Python - it was an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that could still operate in offline mode. It could assist the infantry during battle to act as a mobile supply box and an even more powerful mobile fire platform. The name "Battle Assistant" didn't come out of nowhere.

It was a pleasant surprise to be able to find so many goodies at Lin Chaoen's base.

Soon after, the Third Corps found the entrance to the fallout shelter in the metro station near the square. They cleared out the zombies inside the area and secured the location.

But a new problem appeared.

They took the elevator underground and secluded themselves there entirely.

Cheng Weiguo immediately made orders to take apart the elevator platform and sent a knight in power armor. The power armor was tied to a graphene rapport and if anything odd happened, they would immediately drag him up.

Once he reached the bottom, the knight encountered a situation similar to Fallout Shelter 027.

The fallout shelter's door was tightly shut. The thick door didn't look like it could be opened with force. The gear-shaped door was engraved with "Lin Fallout Shelter." Just from the name, the fallout shelter was probably private and not a numbered fallout shelter constructed by the PAC.

The people inside probably used data towers on the surface to exchange information.

Facing this circumstance, Cheng Weiguo had to contact Jiang Chen for directions.

"Although we can't open the door, we can place explosives underneath. We only need an equivalent of 100 tons of explosives to make the 3000-meter tunnel collapse and bury them underground."

"If we're only burying them, it's still a hazard." Jiang Chen shook his head. "And I'm also curious what's behind the door."

"But in theory, the door to the fallout shelter can't be opened from the outside with force." Cheng Weiguo had a wry smile.

It was indeed a difficult problem and Jiang Chen couldn't think of any solutions. It was a turtle shell even a nuke couldn't crack; he didn't have any better solutions.

"How about this? Standby there and I'll make a trip down."

"Okay." Cheng Weiguo nodded.

Communication ended. Jiang Chen closed his eyes and began to think, leaning on his chair.

But after some deliberation, he still hadn't come up with a solution.

Just then came some knocks on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened and Sun Jiao, without a kinetic skeleton, came in.

"Lin Lin already recovered, but she's still really weak. Tingting in her body used too much energy by using the Klein particle ray. What's going on at the frontlines?"

Sun Jiao wearily grabbed a chair and sat in front of Jiang Chen's desk.

"Lin Chaoen's base is cleared out and we obtained two production lines. The only problem is, their people hid in the fallout shelter… if they have people."

"Bury them with nukes," Sun Jiao said menacingly.

Whenever she thought about the bullet holes in the walls and the base in shambles, she felt angry. After living there for so long, this place was her home. It would be hard to ease her hatred unless she wiped out those despicable people.

"That's a must, but burying them is too easy of an ending for them." Jiang Chen smiled at Sun Jiao gritting her teeth.

"Then what do we do? They won't come out of their turtle shells." Sun Jiao put her hand on the table and pouted her mouth.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment and said, "I'll make a trip down there."

"A trip down there?" Sun Jiao looked cautiously at Jiang Chen. "Are you going to do something dangerous?"

"How's that possible?" Jiang Chen rolled his eyes. "I'm going to see if I can throw the door into the storage dimension."

Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen with skepticism while laying on her arm.

"That should be hard. I remember your storage dimension can't cut out items connected to something. In the case of a door, it's attached to the wall."

Sun Jiao conducted an experiment with Jiang Chen that tested to see it was possible to throw other people's guns in their hands into the storage dimension. The answer was no because creatures with life energy above a certain level couldn't enter the storage dimension, and the guns held by people by default were viewed as one. But magnets connected with steel could be transported.

Jiang Chen guessed they might have to forcibly move atoms on the surface. He didn't explain why the items on the floor weren't viewed as being relative to the earth.

Even now, there were still many secrets he didn't understand from the storage dimension.

"How would you do it without testing?" Jiang Chen sighed.

Although he knew it was a lost cause, it was worth trying. That place contained the top technology of the Supreme. Two production lines would be extremely helpful and who knew what else was inside?

He came to the hanger and the two helicopters returned to the base on standby.

He changed into a new set of T-3 power armor. Just as Jiang Chen was about to board, Lin Lin ran over with small steps.

He stopped in front of the helicopter as he turned around in shock.

"Lin Lin? Why are you here?"

"I..." She bent over with her hands on her knees to regain her breath. She looked to the side, slightly embarrassed. "I heard from sister Sun Jiao that you're going there and I'm worried, so I followed along."

"Take care of yourself first." Jiang Chen looked speechlessly at her and turned around to board.

"Wait, don't leave! I-I can help! If your opponents are machines, I can use my Klein particle ray to wipe them out." Lin Lin raised her chest with pride with a proud curvature formed on her face. "I just saved you a few hours ago. You'll be safer with me."

[It's what Tingting wanted.]

Lin Lin added that in her mind.

"With your current condition, could you still use that ability?" Jiang Chen asked with skepticism.

"Of course, yes! I'm mostly recovered, so please bring me along!" Lin Lin nodded with certainty.

Jiang Chen sighed and had to nod.

"Okay, you have to promise you won't cause trouble."

"Don't worry! I'm very obedient!" Lin Lin giggled and said cheerfully.

With how energized she looked, Jiang Chen also felt less worried.

It was indeed an excellent choice to bring Lin Lin along. The Klein particle ray was the nemesis of robots no matter how strong the robots were. And Lin Lin already knew the secret to his storage dimension. Bringing her along meant there were safety concerns and he didn't need to worry about his secret being leaked.

Just like this, Lin Lin boarded the helicopter with Jiang Chen.

With the guide's instructions, the helicopter slowly lifted off and transported the duo to the city center.

Chapter 488: The Not-so-heartwarming Reunion

1000 meters underground.

The vertical tunnel down was replaced by a new elevator supported by a durable graphene beam heading directly into the deep underground.

Jiang Chen, in T-3 power armor, was now on the elevator with his eyes focused on the hologram instructions in the helmet. The decreasing oxygen concentration made Jiang Chen especially wary.

Just like he expected, the fallout shelter underground wasn't designed for humans.

Lin Lin was standing beside him and she was completely covered by an orange protective suit with a large oxygen tank strapped behind her. Although she was a digitalized human, her brain, and vital organs were still made out of organic matter. Even if a lot of organic parts were replaced by mechanical parts, she was still a human.

"Open the oxygen supply device." When the oxygen concentration dropped below the threshold, Jiang Chen said calmly.

"Mhmm!" Lin Lin obediently put her hand on her neck and opened the switch.

When they arrived at the temporary camp established at the New Age Square, it was already nighttime. But a thousand meters underground, there was no fundamental difference between night and day. In the beginning, Cheng Weiguo was firmly against the idea of going on until Jiang Chen made an order as the General.

It made sense that he was worried since this was the enemy home base.

But Jiang Chen didn't worry too much as he still had 100 cubic meters in his storage dimension, so even a few Reptiles wouldn't be too troublesome especially since Lin Lin was with him and the Harmony creature hidden inside her was a robot killer. Almost no electronic units could survive under the Klein particle ray.

When they were close to the bottom, Jiang Chen took out a tactical rifle and turned on the flashlight attached to it.

Lin Lin beside him gulped and crouched cowardly with a hint of fear on her face.

[Let me do it.] A contemptuous voice appeared in her heart; it must've been Tingting. After learning how to speak, she was more and more ruthless.

[Who-who said I'm scared?] Lin Lin's face turned red as she immediately spoke in her mind.

[It's not me.]

"Just follow behind me." Jiang Chen noticed Lin Lin's fear and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Mhmm?! Mhmm!"

Lin Lin, who was distracted, flinched at Jiang Chen's actions. It wasn't until she realized what happened that an awkward blush appeared on her face.

Jiang Chen looked at her, puzzled by the sight.

[Is she really okay in her current state?]

The elevator slowly reached the bottom and Jiang Chen's rifle locked onto the door of the fallout shelter.

But just as he expected, the door was locked shut.

He took Lin Lin to the door and he put his hand against it.

[Storage dimension, activate!]

There was no reaction…

"The door and the wall are considered one?" Jiang Chen frowned and muttered to himself.

Just as Jiang Chen was deliberating how he should open the door, Lin Lin walked beside Jiang Chen and proposed to him in a small voice:

"How about I use the ray to take out all the robots inside then we'll go back…"

"Take them all out? Mhmm, that'll be our last resort. If possible, I want to get the stuff inside." Jiang Chen felt his way all along the gear-shaped door in an attempt to find a switch.

Since it was the home base of the Supreme, if they could invent something like Lin Chaoen, then they must be advanced in electronic technology. Compared to Harmony's genetic technology, electronic technology was more coherent and applicable to the needs of the NAC.

Lin Lin seemed scared of the darkness as she looked around the place, feeling unsettled.

[There seems to be something not good about living inside, could I fire one ray at it?] Tingting said.

[Let's not do it. If we destroy the stuff inside, Jiang Chen will be angry.] Lin Lin said in her mind.

[Then we don't have a solution.] Tingting didn't say anything further.

Without any luck finding a switch, there wasn't even a communication cable similar to Fallout Shelter 27. Jiang Chen took out the laser sword from the storage dimension and stabbed the thick door.

Ten minutes passed by and the energy of the laser sword was completely drained.

Jiang Chen directed the flashlight at only one hol. The size of a nail was burnt out.

"What material is this thing made out of?" Jiang Chen cursed and kicked the door.

The noise echoed back was very deep. Just judging by the sound; the door was at least seven meters thick. It was more fitting to describe it as a wall.

[Is giving up the only option?]

Jiang Chen sighed.

Just as he wanted to ask Lin Lin to use the Klein particle ray at the door, the door suddenly moved.

Jiang Chen was alerted and pulled out his rifle.

"NOOO!"

Lin Lin screamed out in fear and hid behind Jiang Chen's back.

The gear-shaped wall slowly moved forward and caused rock debris to fall down. Jiang Chen moved back slowly with Lin Lin and established a clear distance from the door. The vibrations continued for half a minute before the door came to a sudden halt and started to roll toward the side.

[8.1 meters thick, mhmm… I might not be able to penetrate this.] Tingting said.

[Is there anything you can't penetrate?] Lin Lin was curious.

[Of course. Although Klein particles can cause strong electromagnetic pulses, it doesn't mean they have infinite penetrative power. You research this area and you should know this?]

Although Tingting's voice didn't show any scorn, Lin Lin's face turned uncontrollably red. Just as she wanted to rebut, Jiang Chen stood in front of her and suddenly said:

"Lin Lin, be prepared to fight. Try your best to control the power of the output and don't take apart the noncombat units."

"Oh, okay!" Lin Lin nodded.

But from inside the pitch black hole, a man with hands up to surrender walked up.

When he saw the face, Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes and a red scope was already pointed on his face.

"Lin Chaoen."

"That's right. It's me." Lin Chaoen let out a sigh then joked, "I can't believe we meet again, in this fashion."

"You provoked me multiple times, so you should've expected this day would come." With finger rubbing against the trigger, Jiang Chen spoke emotionlessly.

Lin Chaoen shrugged and looked at Jiang Chen.

"Regardless, you won. In the end, Father wants to see you."

Lin Chaoen then looked at Lin Lin who hid behind Jiang Chen with a bright smile on her face.

"And you, my dear sister."

"Sis… sister?" Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin in shock, but she looked puzzled too.

"What?" Lin Lin looked at Lin Chaoen, puzzled.

"You will know once you come in."

Lin Chaoen smiled mysteriously at her, turned around, and headed into the fallout shelter.

Looking at the pitch black tunnel, Jiang Chen was uncertainty whether it was a trap or if they really did surrender like what Lin Chaoen said.

After debating for a while, Jiang Chen took out a signal stick, pulled the cord, and threw it in.

The bright red light luminated the space. Other than rows of hibernation chambers, the basketball court-sized room didn't have any weapons. With his rifle raised, Jiang Chen took Lin Lin into the fallout shelter.

"Lin Lin."

"Mhmm?" Lin Lin hid behind Jiang Chen looked at his helmet anxiously.

"If they're planning to close the door, shoot that engine at the door." Jiang Chen used a voice that Lin Chaoen could heart.

"Oh…Okay!" Because she was too nervous, she almost bit her tongue.

There wasn't too much light in the room other than the signal rod Jiang Chen threw out. The air in the room was filled with concentrated ozone. Because of this, the signal burned brightly.

A tower-shaped computer sat in the middle of the room with the flashing signal lights indicating it was running. The middle of the computer, a vial with a brain inside and the bottom, was connected with a complex series of wiring to the different machines in the room.

The room was filled with computers, hibernation chambers and nothing else with a sign of life.

Other than saying it was a fallout shelter, the place was more of a mechanical city hidden underground. The central computer was its brain, and its heart and the complex wiring was its vein.

Lin Chaoen walked beneath the computer and stopped.

"Father, they are here."

The screen suddenly lit up and a middle-aged face appeared in the center. The hairstyle looked sleek, the two eyebrows were thick but tidy, the blank pupils looked collected but possessed a degree of sharpness, and the glasses gave him a more educated vibe.

Lin Lin looked at the man with pupils suddenly contracted as she took two steps forward.

"Fa, father…"

"Don't go." Jiang Chen put his hand on her shoulder.

"No! That's my father! Let me go—" Lin Lin fought in an attempt to break free from Jiang Chen to run.

Jiang Chen was stunned by the situation.

He didn't expect this could happen. His right hand was still holding the rifle with the left hand tightly grasping Lin Lin's shoulder.

"Lin Lin! Your father already went to—, went to the space colonization ship. This is only a video!"

He almost said "went to heaven" but he changed halfway in the sentence.

"Father, father! You're back to pick up your daughter, right?" Mist began to cover Lin Lin's eyes as she was about to cry,

Jiang Chen stared at the middle-aged man and aimed at the screen.

"If you continue to pretend to be Lin Lin's father, I'll shoot your brain!"

"No—" Lin Lin screamed out.

"I didn't pretend to be anyone." The middle-aged man on the screen closed his eyes and pointed down there, "I'm here. You should be able to see my brain."

The room quieted down.

Lin Lin blankly looked at him with disbelief in her eyes. "Brain? Dad, you…"

Shock also appeared in Jiang Chen's eyes as he adjusted the aim to the vial.

Seeing Jiang Chen's small adjustment, the middle-aged man laughed.

"Is this how you treat your father-in-law?"

[Father-in-law?]

Jiang Chen took a moment to process.

Lin Lin's face blushed as she waved her hands to cover up. "No, no, dad you're mistaken, he is not…"

It was just that when she said that, she didn't sound like she meant it.

"Ahem." The middle-aged man interrupted his daughter and looked seriously at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen stared at him without a word. The rifle in hand still pointed at him – the brain.

"If you feel like this will bring you a sense of security, you can point at it. But I have to let you know that the vial's glass could withstand the bullets of the anti-armor sniper rifle."

[The Old man who smells like ozone, can I shoot him?] Tingting didn't disguise her disgust to mechanical parts.

Lin Lin restrained Tingting who was eager to move.

Jiang Chen smiled and lowered his rifle.

"By letting me in, you're preparing to surrender?"

"I just want to see my daughter." The middle-aged man had a genuine smile on his face.

Jiang Chen's eyes lit up. He didn't think the situation would evolve into the reunion of a father and a daughter.

"Dad, where-where are you, the colonization ship—"

"I didn't board the colonization ship," the middle-aged man told Lin Lin.

Lin Lin's eyes widened as she didn't realize what he said. She didn't know how she felt - shocked? Happy? Sad? Perhaps similar to no one, but close to all of the emotions combined.

After a while, she squeezed out a few words.

"Why?"

"Because there's no need to leave. Space is dark and it's the same going in any direction." The man slowly said.

He then looked at Jiang Chen.

"I'm confused. You seem to have a remarkable ability. Instincts tell me it's the primary reason why I'm lost."

"I don't disagree with your perspective," Jiang Chen said.

[No sh*t. Without my interdimensional travel and storage dimension, I would've died many times already.]

The man gazed into Jiang Chen's eyes then he sighed.

"Is that so? Although I hoped I would've lost because of a deeper reason."

He then looked at Lin Lin, his daughter.

"I'm not a qualified father. On the path to Supreme, if there is anything I regretted, it would be you."

Lin Lin eyes teared up, "No, dad, you gave me life, you gave the opportunity to—"

The middle-aged man interrupted her.

"Do you know why you had muscular dystrophy?"

Lin Lin stopped, "Is it that because it is congenital—"

"No." The man shook his head. "I did it."

Lin Lin became idle with tears freezing on her face then she murmured in a quiet voice, "Why?"

"It's a long story, if you have patience, watch this."

His face looked reminiscent and slowly faded on the screen.

The picture in the screen changed just like the old film tape rolling. It unfolded the history belonging here.

Chapter 489: The Path of Supreme

The fundamental part of life is the journey and not the result.

Birth, survival, fade to black.

But in the end, how many people can live a life without regret?

Immortality is an alluring concept that becomes even stronger when technological advancements reach the forbidden part of life.

For a period of time, billions of dollars in investments flooded the industry as labs began to pop up like bamboo after the rain. People were willing to pay and people were willing to experiment. The wealthy wished to enjoy their lavish lives for longer, drawn in by the temptation of immortality since they couldn't bring their paper bills with them to the next life.

But the current resources available couldn't support continuous population growth, even if only a small proportion of the population was immortal.

Once immortality became a reality, it wouldn't bring human prosperity but rather, it'd be an apocalypse.

Yes, it would be an apocalypse.

The immortals would have an endless amount of time to accumulate wealth, reinforce their status, and become toxic to society, the cancer cells of civilization. They would extract nutrients from healthy "cells" and extract resources from ordinary people…

It would be an apocalypse.

The Science Ethics Committee was born. Three countries agreed to follow the accord and promised to prevent any technology that would cause public fear to be created while also strictly preventing others from breaking the first rule. In a world divided into three factions, a tacit understanding was easier to reach than in a world divided into more parts.

Just like the IAEA in the modern world.

But after the economic crisis in 2150, the tacit understand became threatened. Although the Science Ethics Committee still existed, their influence on the government and control of private capital was far inferior compared to half a century ago.

The summer of 2160.

"Doctor Lin Minjie, your research is suspected of violating Science Research Regulations. Please arrive at the court in Wanghai in ten days to face the interrogations of the Science Ethics Committee." A police in black stood in front of him and presented him with his ID.

"That's impossible! My research is absolutely intended to better mankind! How dare you act on behalf of all of mankind—" Lin Minjie roared at the expressionless police.

The man in a suit behind the police interrupted his roar as he spoke with contempt in his eyes.

"Because we receive one hundred billion in donations a year, because most people agree with our cause."

"You only abuse people's fear of the unknown, you despicable, weak-minded fools." Lin Minjie stared at the man, wishing to strangle his neck, but his malicious intent was weaker than the strength of a policeman's hand.

"Is that so? Sorry, I also don't agree with your experiments of putting people's heads into metal boxes." The man in a suit pointed at his own head and smiled at him.

"Please remain calm, Doctor Lin Minjie. If you are displeased with the process, please use a civilized process to resolve the problem in the courts. Of course, before that, we have to confiscate your research," the policeman said without emotion.

"No, you can't take it away! My research is guilty of no crime!" Lin Minjie stared at the policemen flooding into this lab in despair as he watched them taking away his essays and equipment.

"One more point - only safe technology is innocent." Before he left, the man in the suit smiled.

After being accused of violating the Science Ethics Committee, his reputation was completely tarnished in the research field. The corporations all drew a clear line between themselves and him to avoid public distrust. Without funding, although he was an information technology and electrical engineering double major, he was unemployed.

Life became very difficult.

His beautiful wife left him, leaving behind the half-year-old Lin Lin. He couldn't afford rent for their 24th-floor apartment and had to move into a damp basement, living off PAC welfare.

He spent six years in agony.

In 2166, the situation finally took a turn.

After the 2150 economic crisis, the global situation was visibly deteriorating. Each country was in conflict over resources, airspace sovereignty, and space exploration. In a matter of ten short years, trust fell to an all-time low. And naturally, the influence of international organizations such as the Science Ethics Committee became weaker and weaker.

The research previously viewed as forbidden now had a resurgence in interest. It included advanced artificial intelligence and digitalized human technology.

Finally, a renowned businessman found him.

"Doctor Lin Minjie, although it might be hurtful to say this, but I'm taking a significant risk to meet you in person. You know, the media likes to assume things." While he was also in a suit, this man's attitude was so much better than the man who destroyed everything he owned.

"I understand," Lin Minjie responded without any light in his eyes.

"Then I hope the risk I'm taking is worth it." The man smiled.

"What do you want?" Lin Minjie looked up at the man in a suit.

He signaled his assistant and placed a stack of documents 10-centimeters-thick on the table. Lin Minjie looked at the documents as disbelief appeared in his eyes along with a hint of hatred.

It was because of this that he ended up in his current condition.

"Oh… how did you get this?" Lin Minjie asked in a disinterested tone.

"You're in an age where there's nothing that can't be resolved with money." The man smiled. "We need you to continue your research, and we'll pay for your research."

"Okay." Lin Minjie agreed without hesitation. "Where's the contract?"

The man shook his head.

"You know, your research can't be written on the contract or it would become evidence. Even if the Science Ethics Committee doesn't have as much power as before, the court will still fine us, so—"

He stopped there and signaled his assistant again.

The assistant walked up and opened a briefcase on the table.

There was a syringe inside.

"This is?" Lin Minjie frowned and looked at the man in the suit, puzzled.

"With just 10ml, this can make anyone get muscular dystrophy without any evidence and they would be at a terminal stage." The man smiled.

Lin Minjie blankly looked at him and his devilish smile.

"What… what do you mean?"

"Nothing. It's just that if your only family member, your daughter, suffered from muscular dystrophy, then even the Science Ethics Committee wouldn't make too much commotion about a father saving his daughter. At the same time, us, East Pacific Heavy Industrial, will make a donation on humanitarian grounds to fund your research." The man lowered his voice. "With this, you'll be more motivated, right?"

Lin Minjie looked at the man in disbelief.

Out of his own surprise, he didn't feel anger or remorse. After experiencing the ups and downs of the past six years, he was thoroughly annoyed at the world and even felt hatred toward it.

People always applied their own standards to other people and attacked people with different beliefs on supposedly ethical grounds. It would only take a few strokes of a pen on the prosecution document to end the results of ten years of research.

Even though a family would collapse because of it…

What exactly is ethics?

He was lost.

After that, the six-year-old Lin Lin "accidentally" suffered from muscular dystrophy after a cold and was diagnosed to be in the terminal stage. East Pacific Heavy Industrial donated 1 billion to support her father's research on digitalized humans. They also bought the media to use public opinion to support his cause and forced the Science Ethics Committee to withdraw their prosecution against the "great" father.

He engraved consciousness onto a circuit board and used currents and mechanics to replace blood and bone.

Public opinion about digitalized humans, the technology viewed by the world as forbidden, became surprisingly smooth under the support of East Pacific Heavy Industrial.

The limitations of intermediate artificial intelligence were removed and the development of advanced artificial intelligence along with the body design ran concurrently. Although his feeble daughter stuck in a hospital ward made him feel some guilt, the rapid progress in technology gave him some slight comfort.

The picture turned again - it was a hospital. Looking at the ward, Jiang Chen thought it looked familiar before he quickly remembered it was where he met Lin Lin for the first time.

"Once Lin Lin can walk, dad will take you to the movie theater, to the amusement park. Anywhere you want to go, I will take you there." With a lily in the vial on the nightstand, Lin Minjie didn't look at his daughter's face. Instead, he spoke to the pristine white flower petal.

"The uncle who made a donation is a good person." Lin Lin smiled joyfully.

Even though all the muscles in her body were affected by the dystrophy, she still believed he could allow her to run freely under the sunshine again.

Lin Minjie's throat twitched. He looked at his daughter.

Looking at his daughter's bright smile, he didn't know what to say.

Finally, he forced on a smile and squeezed out a sentence.

"Mhmm, he is a good person."

And then, the war erupted.

The 2150 economic crisis foreshadowed the war in 2171. Humans weren't machines and they could use logic to solve problems. Small problems could be fixed through meetings, but fundamental problems had to be addressed by war.

East Pacific Heavy Industrial, who funded his research, was acquired by PAC to transform into a military corporation. He then went from being a scientist working for a private company to an academician serving the army, helping PAC to develop killing machines related to artificial intelligence.

He was involved in the development of Reptile and Python.

Because of the war, the block on research was completely unlocked. War captives were constantly sent into Fallout Shelter 005 to live in a deadly virtual reality experience. The seed of the birth of advanced artificial intelligence was germinating, and the technology of digitalized humans was completed. Once Fallout Shelter 005's testing enabled the evolution from intermediate to advanced artificial intelligence, combined together, a human made up of completely mechanical parts would be born into this world!

At the time, a sudden dangerous, extreme thought was born.

If advanced artificial intelligence could replace humans and give birth to a new mechanical civilization, what was the purpose of humans?

Humans were disgusting, greedy, pedantic, ugly…

A crazy thought was born.

He even gave the child that had yet to be born in this world a name.

It would be called Supreme.

The Supreme who was above all.

Chapter 490: The Dowry

"How…" Tears filled Lin Lin's eyes as she stared at the image on the screen and mumbled, "No, this must be a lie. Jiang Chen, tell me, dad is lying to me, right…?"

Jiang Chen took her into his arms without saying a word.

Although the cold armor couldn't bring her any warmth, he hoped she would feel better from his embrace.

Jiang Chen looked at Lin Chaoen who was still smiling along with the old father who reappeared on the screen – Lin Minjie.

"Fallout Shelter 005 was a pawn and Lin Lin's presence there wasn't an accident but a necessity."

"Didn't you find it odd? Why would a fallout shelter used to develop advanced artificial intelligence have a copy of ? And so many people knew it was inside the fallout shelter."

"It wasn't there to be the hope of mankind but rather a piece of bait to lure naïve survivors to run inside and become subjects for the experiment."

"If things had gone according to plan, the Dusk organization would've sent people inside the fallout shelter to become fresh subjects for our experiment. But unfortunately, our project had flaws from the beginning. The bug from 'the Harmony' infiltrated the fallout shelter and then you. If I guessed correctly, you should be the person who destroyed x71291. What a stubborn individual - that product saved thousands of lives." Lin Minjie shook his head and cursed.

Jiang Chen silently listened to Doctor Lin Minjie's readme file with a perplexed expression.

When Jiang Chen saved Lin Lin from Fallout Shelter 005 after she realized her father left her to leave the planet, Jiang Chen said this to her: "Perhaps, from another perspective, he left hope on this planet."

But now, maybe what he said was wrong.

From before the war, everyone was his pawn on the path to reaching the Supreme.

If Jiang Chen hadn't forcefully flipped over the chessboard, perhaps he would've already succeeded.

Lin Lin's whimpering voice interrupted Jiang Chen's train of thought. Her eyes were filled with tears and she looked at her father with certainty.

"But… I will still use my knowledge to bring hope for our people."

Lin Minjie stared at his daughter for a while before he started to smile. "Is that so? I'm happy you have dreams, my dear daughter… I genuinely hope you can achieve your dream."

He paused and looked at Jiang Chen. "Jiang Chen, right? I already know your stance of being a human. Regarding your victory, I graciously accept it, but I won't congratulate you."

"I never had expectations of receiving congratulations from my enemy."

"Also, I hope you won't discriminate against my daughter just because she's a digitalized human."

"Please be assured that won't happen."

What should be buried wasn't digitalized humans nor artificial intelligence... but dangerous thought. While Lin Lin had fundamental differences from real digitalized humans, her brain was still a brain.

Jiang Chen looked down and raised the rifle in his hand.

Lin Lin gently pulled at him.

"Do you want to stop me?" Jiang Chen said in a quiet voice.

"Can you not spare him?"

Jiang Chen's certainty was his response to her.

This was the only circumstance where he couldn't show mercy.

"Then… let me do it. I don't want ... don't want you to become the person who kills my father," Lin Lin spoke with a remorseful smile.

She stood there with her father's brain in front of her and droplets of tears rolling down her face. She never was a strong person.

At the end of the road, with his daughter in tears, Lin Minjie seemed to have understood something - the definition of emotion, the algorithm he tried to craft for advanced artificial intelligence had been always within his reach.

But he couldn't see.

Because on the path to the Supreme, he had given up too much.

He watched his daughter kneeling on the ground, crying. He suddenly felt that this outcome wasn't too bad.

"Inside this server, there is a document numbered 7381 with a 103-page essay about warp drives." Lin Minjie stared into Jiang Chen's eyes. "If you ever face them one day, it might be useful. This is her dowry from father to daughter; I hope you can treat her well because of this gift."

"Thank you."

Although without this gift, he would still treat her well.

"You don't need to thank me. Because even if you really create the warp drive, your odds of winning only increase from 0% to 1%." Lin Minjie scoffed.

Communication was tuned into Jiang Chen's communication channel; he didn't make Lin Lin hear his final monologue.

Jiang Chen wanted to say something. He took a deep breath to calm himself in a desperate attempt to hide the weakness in his heart.

"Why didn't you tell her?"

"In the end, I wanted to experience what it felt like to be a father." He ended with a sentence that had more meaning than met the eye.

In that instant, Jiang Chen had the impulse to stop everything. He wasn't a coldblooded man and was never indifferent to cruelty. Since Lin Minjie already lost, he didn't need to put the final nail in the coffin. Since he was the father of Lin Lin, even just for… for Lin Lin, maybe he could let his brain survive.

Lin Minjie seemed to have read Jiang Chen's thoughts as he laughed and spoke in the communication channel: "It doesn't feel good to live with just a brain. The only reason I could live till now was to wait for the day I could abandon this brain too. Won't you allow that day to come?"

Jiang Chen was silent.

"The places I didn't take her to - I hope you can do that for me."

Jiang Chen nodded. "I promise."

Lin Minjie smiled at Jiang Chen. A sudden trace of remorse appeared in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by certainty.

Suddenly, he looked at Lin Chaoen who had been smiling the whole time.

"My son, I'll give you the last order. No, two last orders…"

Lin Chaoen nodded.

"First, turn off the life-supporting device of my brain."

Lin Chaoen's brain was buried low.

Lin Lin raised her face covered in tears as she looked at her father. Her lips trembled and she whimpered "no" repeatedly.

Lin Minjie looked at his daughter one last time and slowly closed his eyes.

"Second, end your life."

"Understood, father."

Without hesitation, Lin Chaoen walked to the side of the central computer.

"No—" Lin Lin screamed out.

The cry echoed in the empty fallout shelter. Jiang Chen tried not to look at Lin Lin.

But Jiang Chen noticed that before he pressed the button, Lin Chaoen's hand hovered over the switch for two seconds.

In the end, he still pressed it.

The bubbles in the vial gradually stopped and the green nutrient levels calmed down.

If blood and oxygen supplies are cut off, brain cells will stop functioning within 60 seconds. Within four minutes, brain cells will start to die. In 6-10 minutes, the brain will suffer irreparable damage with a large amount of brain cell death.

Watching that vial, tears rolled down on Lin Lin's mask.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and counted in his mind.

Lin Chaoen turned around and looked thoughtfully at Jiang Chen.

"That's weird. For an instant, I had a thought to reject the order."

Jiang Chen said quietly, "Congratulations."

"No, you don't have to congratulate me since I didn't receive a mission to evolve into advanced artificial intelligence." A sudden smile appeared on Lin Chaoen's face. "Goodbye."

Chapter 491: Garden of Eden Initialize

The arm is not powerful enough? Switch to a mechanical arm. Giving birth is too slow? Raise it in a nutrient chamber. Reaching consensus is impossible in a meeting? Connect everyone's thoughts together. The brain could explode? Use a chip to replace the brain.

When every part of the human could be replaced, the only thing that can represent the human was its consciousness. And when consciousness could be replicated and mass produced, only efficiency would remain in the world, and the purpose of efficiency would be survival.

And the purpose of survival is what then?

…

Lin Chaoen chose to self-destruct along with 71 backup bodies in the hibernation chambers.

Perhaps he realized something in the end. When he made a choice, he was very calm; without any longing for this world.

To his choice, Jiang Chen could only lower his gun and didn't ask him to stay.

Jiang Chen surrounded the crying Lin Lin in his arms. He didn't know how to comfort her as he whispered something in her ear before carrying her and leaving the now silent fallout shelter.

Jiang Chen instructed the First Division soldiers to take away the quantum computer and other equipment from the fallout shelter. As to the eighty hibernation chambers and the vial, after asking for Lin Lin's opinion, he left them underground.

Because Doctor Lin Minjie passed away, the fallout shelter lost its sole controller, and its functionality came to a halt. The door of the fallout shelter could no longer be closed. To prevent people disturbing his long rest, Jiang Chen gifted the last grace.

Five hundred kilograms of explosives collapsed the entire tunnel and buried the fallout shelter 3000 meters underground.

Although the civilization was never born, it was still the grave of a civilization. It deserved the last tribute.

It was supreme but was never meant to be accepted by the majority.

He was a great scientist. This was without a doubt.

Inside the Lin Fallout Shelter, the NAC obtained an experimental level quantum computer which made the scientists in Fallout Shelter 027 ecstatic. The crowded quantum computer was finally freed from working over capacity which brought a significant bottleneck to NAC's research efficiency.

The research paper on wrap paper was given to Jiang Lin as he had been keen on this area of research. If the one hundred page paper could bring him some inspiration, then it would be a great contribution to the entire NAC… no, to the entire earth's mankind.

If the Natural Selection will arrive on Earth, then humans with wrap engine would have a fighting chance. If they can't win, they could still escape.

Of course, if possible, Jiang Chen still hoped he could solve the problem.

Regardless, the modern world is his home.

…

Northwest of Shenxiang, at the intersection of Taifu River and Dianshan Lake.

In a place one kilometer away from the lake, ten trucks parked on the cracked rural roads. Slaves hauled beams of steel to the barren land under the direction of the engineer with a blueprint; they inserted the steel beam into the corresponding location.

The steels formed into a circle several kilometers in diameter with excavators working inside the circular area from the middle. They moved the chunks of soil onto the truck to the empty ground two kilometers out.

The middle of the circle was paved with concrete. A concrete circular pole stood in the middle with a diameter of five meters. The pole connected to the steel beams like a wheel bearing extended to the edge. At the same time, the bottom of the pole was installed with water outlets and a drainage pipe with graphite filter membrane. The edge of the bearing connected the water treatment plant's pipe.

It was like a giant grinding disc.

The soil moved by truck were all dumped there and mixed with fresh water transported from the automated water treatment plant a few kilometers out.

Just yesterday, the Hunter Division cleared out the Bug Vehicle nest in the water treatment plant and brought the plant under NAC control. Although the nuclear fusion battery stored inside could sustain water treatment for two years, it was still a problem to desert the water treatment plant. The construction of the Garden of Eden required a large amount of fresh water, and the fresh water will be supplied by newly built pipelines.

Soil, water, and treatment liquid will be mixed together under the "grinding disc" into mud, the continuous water will wash the toxins and radiation residue to the Dianshan river. The washing method to dilute and cleanse soil had a capacity of 1000 cubic meters of soil a day.

Soil cleansing was the first step in constructing the Garden of Eden.

Although he could transport soils from the modern world, it would require an astronomical amount of soil to construct a Garden of Eden with a diameter of five kilometers. With Xin's territory, it was not easy to obtain that amount of soil. Even if the soil were imported, it would still be difficult to explain the whereabouts of the soil.

If it could be solved in the apocalypse, it was better to rely on the resources available in the apocalypse. Since the NAC already had acquired the absolute control of Wanghai, regardless of how reckless they were with the construction, it was achievable with NAC's financial capability and influence.

This soil cleansing system was only the first one. Jiang Chen planned to construct ten more beside Dianshan Lake.

Lin Lin looked at the spinning disc as she gently put on her chest and recollected what Jiang Chen told her when she was in despair.

"Construct a Garden of Eden for me beside Shenxiang. The soil there is not too bad. By growing mutated fruit and Carm tree sap there, the radiation and pollution in the area decreased by a lot. Although the toxicity level is still high, it'll be easier to change there.

He paused.

"Perhaps many years later, that place will become a place where flowers bloom, and birds sing."

[Perhaps even more beautiful than before the war.]

Lin Lin had a pleasant smile on her face and added in her mind.

Surprisingly, the remorse in her chest faded.

The war was finally over.

The mutant nests in the city center turned into ash with the strike of the tungsten rod. The smaller nests in the rural areas were in the process of being cleared out. NAC would send out a team of no less than 500 "scavengers" with flamethrowers, heavy machineguns, and the support of armored vehicles to clear out the remaining nests in underground sewer systems and buildings.

The entire west city center of Wanghai turned from the most dangerous hunting place around on wasteland to a haven in the Suhang province.

And this Garden of Eden will become the most beautiful place in the Suhang province. Even the most beautiful place on the wasteland in the future.

"In three months, the Garden of Eden will finish soil cleansing. At the same time, the foundation near the lake will be completed. A month after that, the atmosphere separation membrane will be deployed, and the first phase of the Garden of Eden will be completed." Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen who just walked beside her and had a proud smile on her face.

"Four months? Then the cannons, port, and defensive buildings along the river should be completed too." Jiang Chen stared into the distance and smiled too.

Lin Lin rolled her eyes. "Could you not say something that ruins the mood?"

"To protect the beautiful flower, guns and cannons are necessary." Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed.

He then paused and looked toward Lin Lin. "But just leave these kinds of unromantic thing to the unromantic me."

Lin Lin blushed and looked away.

"… Whatever you want to do."

Once the first Garden of Eden is complete, the food production in the apocalypse could be self-sufficient. At least grain, wheat, and some crops could be directly grown there. The cost might be higher, it was a good start.

Then the second one.

The new biosphere will begin to emerge on the wasteland like a series of air bubbles. The space will first be used to produce food, and then residential areas will be developed…

With the Sixth Street's increasing population, they can't constantly depend on Jiang Chen to be the "food transporter". Although in theory it was possible, it won't be stable in the long term.

Self-sufficient in food is the first step to Order.

And a must step for Order.

Chapter 492: The Secret of the Small Universe

Lin Lin provided the construction blueprint for the Garden of Eden, and the construction specifics were the responsibilities of the NAC engineers. Jiang Chen formed a special department named "Garden of Eden Research Institute". Lin Lin had no experience in management, and she personally had no interest in managing people. The department was different from the independent Aerospace Technology Research Institute with the human resources department responsible for managing.

Lu Huasheng was meticulous with his work which reassured Jiang Chen.

From the start, he was the chief engineer to the construction of the base, so it wouldn't be of worry to let him handle the construction project. Although the technology in the Garden of Eden was somewhat advanced, Lin Lin provided the blueprints for each step of the development. With NAC engineers' wealth of experience, it wouldn't be difficult to construct it.

The Sun was disappearing on the horizon.

After completing a tour, Jiang Chen took Lin Lin back to the mansion in the Fishbone base.

As usual, the delicious Yao Yao prepared a dinner equally as delicious as her. The usually adorable Sun Xiaorou studied on the side while helping Yao Yao out. As for Sun Jiao, she was in the kitchen "trying the food out".

When he just stepped in, the aroma of the food drifted into his nose. Lin Lin who took off her shoes ran into the kitchen shouting and fighting with Sun Jiao for the position of "taste tester". Every time this happened, Sun Xiaorou would comfort the two, but a little devil smile would appear on her face.

Jiang Chen's face would always have a joyful smile looking at the scene in the kitchen.

If would be great if he could bring his family from the modern world back.

In the cheerful atmosphere, Jiang Chen and the girls finished dinner. Jiang Chen watched Lin Lin with a pouted mouth head into the kitchen with the utensils as he rubbed his full belly and returned to his room.

Whether it was the mutants, or Harmony, or Supreme, all of them ceased to exist. Jiang Chen finally had time to research the mutated storage dimension.

Jiang Chen lied on the bed and closed his eyes to immerse his consciousness into the packed small universe.

The universe expanded exceptionally slowly, in a month's time, the radius only increased by a tiny amount.

But even then, it was still a decent size. From the 300 cubic meters at the big bang, it stretched into 340 cubic meters. But Jiang Chen didn't understand the mechanism behind the small universe's expansion.

Inside the pitch black space, Reptile drone and Python drones floated. Their power was almost drained and could be brought out from the storage dimension after a few more days.

And right now, most of them were scattered around the boundary of the small universe. Jiang Chen still faintly recalled that when these things were first thrown in the storage dimension. They still maintained motion.

"Would the motion be lost when it contacted the boundary of the universe?" Jiang Chen pondered with a hand on his chin.

He was not a physicist and couldn't explain the phenomenon. Even Lin Lin with knowledge in Klein particle couldn't explain it. She roughly summarized it to "The original eleven-dimensional space decayed into three dimensional under the collapse and the big bang."

According to the superstring theory in M- theory (1), the existence of eleven-dimensional super-gravitational attractions, Jiang Chen's previous storage dimension was similar to what was described in the theory, the dimension created through pure gravity.

When Jiang Chen asked about the pros and cons, Lin Lin only gave an ambiguous answer.

"It is hard to say if it is good or bad. The objective existence of nature has always been irrelevant of good or bad. You can interpret the previous dimension as playdoh that can be freely squished, but now it became a fixed spherical space. There are points, lines, time and all other eleven dimensions and below concepts. But you only foolishly use it as a handy treasure box. Since then, no matter what it becomes, it wouldn't matter to you." Lin Lin rolled her eyes.

But if it could become a bit bigger…

Jiang Chen stared at the deep abyss and entered into deep thought.

Inside the small universe, he was the god of the place. Any of the items inside could be moved with his consciousness. Changing the location of the things inside was as simple as organizing a backpack.

But the ability to give an object motion would consume the energy of the bracelet. Also, any item that came in contact with the boundary would lose its kinetic energy.

Inside the entire small universe, only the boundary was out of his control.

If the universe was bigger, big enough to put a planet inside.

Jiang Chen was suddenly shocked by the idea before he shook his head with a wry smile.

With the current expansion speed, even after his 17th life, it would still not be big enough to put a Wanghai inside.

Maybe he should throw a few nukes inside and forcefully "expand" this space?

Jiang Chen quickly negated the idea.

Disregarding if he could gather so many nuclear bombs or blood crystals, and overlooking if Sun Xiaorou can explode the blood crystals, no one was certain if another collapse and big bang could happen in the storage dimension. Would the space dimension fall to the first dimension? If the entire space only stretched vertically, he would have played himself.

There was also a possibility that the energy of the explosion couldn't meet the energy required for collapsing and the detonated blood crystals in the space would form a never attenuated light ball. In some sense, it would be the most painful situation. The instant he removed the light ball, he would be vaporized by the one million degrees of high temperature, but if he did not remove the light ball, the storage space would be useless.

There must be a way to increase the size of the storage dimension…

"But the way is still unknown?" Jiang Chen let out a sigh and moved the robots around a bit.

But then, he suddenly felt a light motion on his body. Although his consciousness sank into the small universe, he could still feel his body in the real world.

When he opened his eyes, a blushed face appeared in sight.

"Yao Yao, is there something wrong?" Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao retracting her finger and rubbed her soft head.

"Hmm, is Brother Jiang Chen going to go back to that side soon?" Yao Yao asked in a quiet voice.

"Mhmm, I still have things to take care of on that side." Jiang Chen sensed the softness in his palm and smiled.

"Big Brother is working really hard," Yao Yao said in a worried voice.

[Not so much working so hard, or rather, it is more relaxing.]

With her concerned attitude, Jiang Chen felt a bit embarrassed.

"Hmm, as a way to relax, do you need Yao Yao to give you a massage?" Yao Yao lowered her head, smiled timidly, and played with the corner of her dress.

[Massage?]

Jiang Chen remembered the intimate moment that happened when she massaged him, Jiang Chen uncontrollably gulped.

Instincts told him that he should reject, but his body nodded with honesty.

Sometimes he thought that he was too evil…

(1) Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings.

'Superstring theory' is a shorthand for supersymmetric string theory because unlike bosonic string theory, it is the version of string theory that accounts for both fermions and bosons and incorporates supersymmetry to model gravity.

Since the second superstring revolution, the five superstring theories are regarded as different limits of a single theory tentatively called M-theory.

Chapter 493: Open the bank to Hang City

A small head with wet hair peeked out from the door of the bathroom. The big eyes covered with shyness scanned around. After confirming that no one was in the hall, Yao Yao was relieved. Her hands tightly squeezed onto the towel that covered her body and ran toward her room.

Around five minutes later, Jiang Chen walked out from the bathroom feeling refreshed and energized.

He didn't think it was a big deal to walk out together, but Yao Yao insisted leaving separately with a blushed face. When she remembered the look on everyone's face when they walked together, she wanted to bury her head into the ground.

"This… really doesn't hide anything." Jiang Chen dried his hair with the towel around his shoulder while he muttered to himself.

[I'll go sleep now.]

As he thought, Jiang Chen walked toward his own room.

When he passed by Sun Jiao's room, the door was suddenly pushed open.

Sun Jiao with hair already dried only in a dress shirt was smiling at Jiang Chen.

"Uh, is there something wrong?" Although she looked alluring, Jiang Chen without any bullets left was in "Saint Mode." If he accepted Sun Jiao's invitation, it wouldn't be good.

Right now, Sun Xiaorou suddenly hugged him from the back.

"Brother-in-law, why aren't you going in?" With a devil smirk on her face, Sun Xiaorou whispered playfully beside Jiang Chen's ear.

[This little devil…]

With the softness behind his back, Jiang Chen was pushed into the room by Sun Xiaorou.

He felt that if this continued, it would be the death of his body.

…

The next morning.

"Is your body okay?" Han Junhua looked at Jiang Chen feebly walking into the office as her eyebrows raised.

"It's okay." Jiang Chen didn't look her in the face and sat on his throne.

Han Junhua looked at him speechlessly and spoke after a while.

"… regardless of which perspective, you should be more restrained sometimes."

Jiang Chen who just sipped tea almost spat it out.

If it were before, Jiang Chen who slept late would choose to sleep till noon and pass on the work for the next day. But the information from Jia City stated that there would be a visitor from Hang City. For his reputation, Jiang Chen had to climb out of bed.

He sat in the office for less than an hour before someone knocked on the door. He fixed his collars and said "please come in" before a man in a blue suit that was somewhat bleached stepped in under a NAC knight's guidance.

It was a familiar face. Jiang Chen remembered his name was Kong Qian. He led the first contact with Hang's Merchant Alliance.

"Welcome, Mr. Director." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Hello, Mr. General." Kong Qian smiled back and added, "The uncrowned king of Wanghai."

[The uncrowned king?]

Jiang Chen was pleased with the title as the tip of his mouth carved up.

He warmly welcomed Kong Qian to take a seat and instructed the staff at the community center to serve tea for them. Jiang Chen noticed the director's eyes stared at the tea floating in the cup and made a noticeable gulping gesture.

Kong Qian took a sip as an intoxicated complexion appeared on his face.

"Great tea. If I guessed correctly, it should be West Lake Longjing."

"Director Kong knows tea too?" Jiang Chen was quite intrigued.

Jiang Chen never sold luxury goods like Longjing and Tieguanying (1) at the Sixth Street; the high-grade stuff was only available in the community center with Blue Mountain coffee and Sri Lanka black tea to improve the quality of life for his officials. If it was Jiang Chen himself, he drank them like water, and everything tasted pretty much the same.

"I drank it before the war and studied tea a little," Kong Qian smiled, but a regretful expression appeared on his face, "Unfortunately, the West Lake no longer produces tea."

The harsh natural environment, the ruthless bandits, the bloodthirsty mutants, and zombies. The tea's anti-radiation trait meant that it could grow on most soils. While the quality may not be comparable to before the war, the difficulty of growing this kind of delicacies was extremely high.

"If Director Kong likes it, I can gift you two packs." Jiang Chen smiled.

Jiang Chen was pleased that the Hang Merchant Alliance listened to his warning and didn't cause trouble when NAC was attacking the mutated humans. According to their agreement, his soldiers stopped at Jia city and didn't push west.

"Thank you so much." Kong Qian was ecstatic.

There was nothing else to demonstrate friendship than things that couldn't be bought.

"No worries." Jiang Chen in a delighted mood continued, "But my guess is that the purpose of your trip is not to catch up with me and drink tea."

"That's right," Kong Qian sat up straight and cautiously suggested, "I'm here to be certain about our friendship."

"There is no need to doubt our friendship. One month ago, you already made the correct choice, one fitting for our friendship."

Kong Qian was relieved.

After a pause, he proposed with a cautious tone.

"We are grateful for your party's effort in establishing a clear trade route. To reinforce our friendship, I have a proposal."

"Let's hear it." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Based on our estimates, there are currently 1121 merchants utilizing the trade route to the Sixth Street. Now that the mutated humans in Jia City and the Seventh Area have been eliminated, the dangerous level of Wanghai decreased significantly. In the foreseeable future, the number will exponentially increase by next year. So we hope we could establish a division of the Merchant Guild at the Sixth Street."

"Guild?" Jiang Chen looked at Kong Qian feeling intrigued, "Could the Sixth Street council not protect your rights?"

"No, no, no, Mr. General, you're misunderstanding the situation." Kong Qian rushed to explain, "This guild is not political, it is only here to provide information support to merchants as well as trade fleet security contracts…"

"The mercenary guild can provide the last item."

Without other solutions, Kong Qian had to compromise, "We can take out the last item."

"I obviously won't reject the proposal to establish the merchant guild, but an organization with a guild nature must be established under the supervision of the local government."

"I want to know the definition of supervision. Do they have to wear NAC uniforms during work?" Kong Qian asked carefully.

"Of course not." Jiang Chen shook his head. "We'll send out an inspector to be stationed in the guild. We will pay the salary. Other than attending public meetings, he will not interfere with your day-to-day work. Or, as long as you do things that a merchant should do, he won't cause any disturbances to your daily work.

"Just that?" Kong Qian was skeptical.

"Just that." Jiang Chen nodded.

Jiang Chen paused and continued.

"Relatively, we want to establish a similar partnership with your party. For example, establish a division of the mercenary guild in your jurisdiction. Don't be anxious, other than providing employees, we won't send any military units to be stationed there as we have full confidence that you can protect their lives and assets. We'll provide you with mercenary information, the channels for mercenary hiring as well as credit ratings."

"On the other hand, if you're interested, we can open up a branch of the Sixth Street Bank in your area. Crystals are currently depreciating at a rapid speed in the Sixth Street. With the trade route being more open than ever, the depreciation would spread to other areas in no time. The Sixth Street trade has mostly eliminated crystals for its trade which would further accelerate the depreciation of crystals. Of course, if you are not confident with the purchasing power of the credit, we won't have to talk about this."

Kong Qian hastened to say, "No, we are very interested, it's just that we heard the digital channel of the credit could only be done in Wanghai—"

"It is currently only available in Wanghai. But if we expand our relay station to Hang City, then you will be included in our established network and the area for this payment channel will expand westward by two hundred kilometers." Jiang Chen smiled.

Kong Qian held his breath.

Establishing a mercenary guild division and a branch of the Sixth Street Bank, build a relay station, and join the information network of Wanghai. Jiang Chen's offer made it impossible for Kong Qian to refuse.

The risk that existed in this was also difficult to neglect.

While NAC promised not to send forces into Hang City, and Jiang Chen did prove his creditability with his action and NAC's noninvasive nature. But anyone would feel instinctively uneasy beside such a powerful neighbor.

Once the proposal is agreed upon, NAC's influence would without a doubt expand to Hang City. If the influence were setting up for the inevitable invasion, then it would be fearful. But if it only existed to increase trade relationship, then it would only be beneficial.

"Your proposal is enticing, but it also makes people uneasy," Kong Qian sighed and spoke with honesty.

"With the current situation of the wasteland, how much people could fit in Wanghai and Jia City?" Jiang Chen asked abruptly.

Kong Qian thought for a moment, "Around a few million."

"Then did your military force pose a threat to us?"

Kong Qian had a wry smile on his face.

Their people had witnessed NAC's "financial power" the rockets that covered the sky. Despite the lack of technical expertise in that, it was not something that they could do with their production capability.

"Then why are you afraid." Jiang Chen laughed.

Kong Qian took a moment to process this before he understood Jiang Chen's message as a troubled but understanding smile appeared.

The entire Suhang Province had less than one million people, and they didn't need to fight for space to survive. NAC had enough on their plate to develop Wanghai alone. From the power perspective, they didn't pose any threat to NAC.

There was no need to invade.

Once credit becomes common, Suhang Province's survivors must depend on NAC's economy.

"This is a flabbergasting reality. The reason we can survive is that we look harmless." Kong Qian stood up. "I'll send your message to the Merchant Alliance. Of course, I don't think it will hard to pass."

"Then I'll wish the best for our potential partnership." Jiang Chen also stood up and extended his hand.

"Pleasure to work with you." Kong Qian shook Jiang Chen hand and nodded.

Chapter 494: The Everchanging Sixth Street

"How many days has it been?" On the roof of the Dark Red Chamber of Commerce building, Cao Guangkai in a suit gazed in Wanghai's direction without many words.

"The sixth day," The guard beside him said respectfully.

[The sixth day already?]

Dawn colored the thin fog into a golden glow. Even in Su City ten kilometers away, he could still smell the fragrance known as order and freedom. It had been clear in that direction, without any smoke, for the sixth day.

Moments later, Cao Guangkai slowly said.

"That man, when did he leave?"

The man he referred to was Lin Chaoen.

The man who referred to himself as the apostle of Supreme civilization.

The guard hesitated for a moment and answered with an uncertain voice, "Around two months."

Cao Guangkai nodded.

"He shouldn't be back then."

Based on their agreement, if he didn't come back in two months, that meant their agreement was over.

"Even God could not stop their rise to power?" Cao Guangkai looked to the direction of the Fishbone and raised his eyebrows.

Not long ago, the Dark Red's division in Hang City brought information that the Merchant Alliance formed a partnership with the NAC in the areas of banking, merchant guild, and mercenary guild. Although NAC soldiers didn't step into Hang City, NAC already exported its influence into Hang.

The core of a merchant is currency. What's a better way to control merchants than controlling the currency?

Cao Gunagkai lowered his head.

He needed to reconsider the future of Dark Red seriously.

…

The Sixth Street looked prosperous.

The crystal detector common among the streets of the Sixth Street suddenly disappeared without a trace and was replaced by EP transfer or bill payment. The Sixth Street also injected enough currency into the market in the form of a loan, and the council also signed on the proposal to reduce the tax on credit transactions to promote the use of "credit" in trades.

At first, people were skeptical about the currency. But with the passage of time, the exchange between credit and crystal began to appreciate. The initial 1:2 rose to what was 1:4 now. If it was not for NAC's strict control on credit circulating in the market, people were desperate to smash their slowly depreciating crystals onto the counter of the bank.

Because of NAC's control of credit circulation, it resulted in the strong purchasing power of the credit. Continually printing currency would only turn the currency into useless papers. Right now, on the black market, the exchange rate between crystals to credit climbed to an astounding 1:6.

On the other side, the establishment of the merchant guild provided merchant transaction access to Suhang Province and to even further places with information security. It also brought orders to the Sixth Street factories from beyond Wanghai's territory.

The mercenary guild established a division in Hang City and gave the hunters that lost Wanghai as a "hunting ground" a new profession. They either became mercenaries or guards of merchant fleets in expanding the trade route from Hang City.

Jiang Chen was walking along the street in the Inner Circle with the company of Chu Nan and the NAC soldiers, touring the ever-changing city.

"There are a total of 174 mutant nests destroyed, and that accounts for 89% of the progress in capturing the west city center. The remaining 21 nests, because of higher risk ratings, no mercenary organization is willing to take on the mission alone."

"Then leave it to the NAC soldiers," Jiang Chen was quite intrigued by the prosperous city as he said nonchalantly.

"On the other hand, the slave owners from Su City expressed their dissatisfaction with us. Because of the depreciation of crystals, it shrunk their assets by four times."

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"And their opinion is?"

"They want to trade for credit with us at a ratio of 1:2." Chu Nan chuckled.

"Reject them. Make him speak with the factories in the Sixth Street," Jiang Chen scoffed and said out of annoyance.

Only Sixth Street factories needed crystals now. Although in principle the bank would provide channels for the factories to purchase crystals with credit, the Sixth Street official promoted purchasing crystals from private owners. And the fact was credit could purchase more crystals at the same price.

"They won't accept the exchange ratio of 1:6. Their ambassador should be raging at the council and Zhao Chenwu. Do you need to see them?"

"No. Our people will conduct a military exercise in the no man zone between Wanghai and Su City, the "Fireball-1" will be part of the exercise. Give them a ticket to the VIP seats," Jiang Chen said.

Chu Nan smiled and replied courteously.

"I understand."

After they watch the lavish fireworks, anyone who was still discontent would reevaluate their abilities.

The street was filled with the delicious smell of food. The entire food street was full of different selections. Even though it was just food being sold, this place was the place that made the most money in the Inner Circle other than the casino. Other than typical restaurants, Jiang Chen saw a noodle shop operated by robots and a BBQ shop operated by outsiders. With the steady increase of NAC's food supply, the selection of food at the Sixth Street had much more varieties.

It was a scene that never could be seen a year ago.

Soilless farming of pre-war crops, cloning technology to grow non-mutated livestock, even the wealthy could only eat the original luxury goods a few times a year back then. Today, even the ordinary citizens of the Sixth Street, as long as they worked hard, could come into the Inner Circle for a lavish experience.

At the end of the street was a colorful street.

But from the arousing signs and intimate colors, it didn't look like a place of decency.

In the Sixth Street, brothels and casinos could operate legally. Even a council member in the Sixth Street, under the direction of Jiang Chen, ran the largest "entertainment complex" in the Inner Circle. Since most of the survivors that lived here were all once violent bandits that lived on the edge, to these people, only exciting things could give them the feeling of being alive.

Of course, forced sex trade was strictly prohibited. The Sixth Street didn't prohibit slave trades, but any slave can enter into the jurisdiction of the Sixth Street, the slave trade was not taxed nor protected by the soldiers.

In the other hand, anyone who stepped into the Sixth Street by default was considered free. Their personal freedom was protected under the constitution.

"Do you want to go take a look inside? I will keep this a secret." Chu Nan jokingly smiled and looked at Jiang Chen.

"I will pass." Jiang Chen looked away at the girl who was winking at him.

He couldn't even feed the girls back at home, and he didn't have too much interest in these ordinary girls.

When the group passed by the red light district, they ended the day's travel plan ahead of schedule. Jiang Chen planned to head to the council building and audit the council work for this quarter, and announce the recruitment and military plan for the next quarter.

In the end, Jiang Chen met with eight local merchants he invited to discuss partnership opportunities.

After taking a turn, the roadblock on the main street drew Jiang Chen's attention. A few construction vehicles passed through the smooth concrete road and used drillers to leave equally spaced holes in the road. The construction workers in the back surrounded the holes to insert black cylindrical poles.

"What is that?" Jiang Chen looked at the blocked road.

"They are paving maglev track, a Hang merchant invested in the project. In exchange, we provided them with two years of exclusive sales rights to maglev vehicles as well as four years of tax-free sales." Chu Nan explained, "Once the maglev track is complete, maglev cars could pass through."

The maglev track buried under the road had low resistance against explosions, so most of the tracks were demagnetized during the war. Now that the Sixth Street returned to stability with the economy skyrocketing and average personal income steadily rising, the cunning merchants obviously began searching for opportunities.

[Maglev vehicles?]

[Finally, a feeling of the future.]

With the construction vehicles moving forward, a genuine smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face.

The seed of civilization has been planted.

He was delighted to see that it has sprouted.

Chapter 495: Mutant Pasture

The group quickly returned to the council building.

With Chu Nan's guidance, Jiang Chen came into the meeting room and sat at the head of the table.

Jiang Chen, Chu Nan, Zhao Gang, the ten council members, and fifteen industry representatives attended the meeting.

The meeting first started off with Chu Nan reporting the current work progress of the Sixth Street, and then Zhao Gang reported on the security of the city and the training progress of the Third Division. Following, Zhao Chenwu as the council representative summarized legislations that were passed in the last quarter and stats on Sixth Street's population, production, and economy.

Reporting work was only a formality. The content was all handed to NAC logistics with the logistics head Wang Qin organizing the data into visuals and delivering them to Jiang Chen.

Although the dry content made Jiang Chen sleepy, he still pretended to be engaged. Since as the leader of the "country", his attitude and authority was associated with the stability of the government system.

After the "formal" reporting ended, Jiang Chen coughed and picked up the hologram computer pen on the table and propped up the hologram screen. With the eyes in the room focused on him, he read the recruitment and military plan for the next quarter.

The focus of next quarter was on building the economy. Now that the internal and external threats were all removed, NAC won a period of a stable growth to consolidate their victory in Wanghai and Jia City.

The 2,000 recruitment target and the security tax remained unchanged.

The council members and industry representatives looked relieved when they heard the two keywords. When the decisions to increase the number of military contracts and the firearm reserves were announced, the military industry representative was delighted by the news. With the situation around Wanghai stabilizing, it may be good news for the other industries, but it was negative news for the military industry.

They were already satisfied that NAC didn't decrease their order, but not only did they retained all existing orders, but they also increased their military spending which provided a positive boost to the military industry at the Sixth Street.

The reason why Jiang Chen introduced this decision was to make sure the military companies stayed alive and to adjust the Fishbone base's production.

In the future, the military plant at the Fishbone base would gradually transition to focus on more advanced technology. For example, the combustion rockets used by "Fireball-1", other than the key module and boosters, other parts would be outsourced to the Sixth Street military factory to produce. Not only would it increase the production of the rockets, but it could also decrease production cost which mutually benefited both parties.

The meeting took two hours before it was finally over. Everyone left the room with a smile on their face. At this meeting, they all more or less got what they wanted to gain.

"Are you not going to rest a bit?" Chu Nan looked at Jiang Chen drinking tea and asked.

"No need, I prefer to take care of everything all at once."

The quarterly meeting ended, and there was still a meeting with merchants to discuss their partnership with NAC. It was something that could be done by Wang Qin, but since Jiang Chen was at the Sixth Street, he decided to take care of it.

'Then I'll arrange it. They are already in the waiting room," Chu Nan said courteously and left the conference room.

"Don't make them wait too long."

…

A moment later, eight merchants followed Chu Nan into the conference room. They were mostly raw material suppliers in Wanghai with farms over 50 acreages in size. They were growing mutated fruits, tea, tobacco, and a recently introduced sweet pea that could not be directly ingested, but it could be used to produce sugar like sugar cane.

Before they used to produce Carm tree sap, but because of the mass scale production at Shenxiang and due to the saturation of the Sixth Street's plastic and rubber supply, they decreased the production in that area and became the industrial raw suppliers for NAC.

With the NAC food "production" ramping up, the demand of nutrient supply also took a big hit. With one of its ingredients mutated fruit decreasing in demand, the farm owners all suffered financially.

Right now around the conference table, the eight merchants anxious exchanged eye contact with each other as they were uncertain about what Jiang Chen was going to say.

"I believe all of you should know that I plan to discuss a partnership opportunity."

"What kind of partnership?" A merchant stood up and questioned somewhat tensely.

"No need to stand up, this is only a casual meeting, just sit." Jiang Chen signaled him to sit down and then tapped his own shoulder gently. A hologram image appeared on the conference table, "We are discussing an opportunity in livestock."

"This is?" Looking at the image on the table, the merchants had a variety of expressions.

Some were shocked, some were intrigued, and some were contempt…

Without bothering with the expression on the merchants' faces, Jiang Chen looked at the creature on the hologram similar to a wild boar and introduced,

"Long Haired Pig, an artificially created mutant designed by my research institute through genetic engineering."

"Artificially created mutant?" The expressions on the merchants' faces were interesting.

"The fur could be used to produce clothes, and meat is consumable. Most importantly, its brain could form crystals without the consequence of hostility." Jiang Chen smiled.

To Jiang Chen's surprise, the merchants didn't look interested at all. Instead, they looked troubled.

"Mutant as livestock? We attempted this before, but the higher amount of crystals contained in the mutants, the higher the food they ingested. And right now, crystals are not worth the money. If it is just about producing meat, the doubled-headed cows raised are more than enough."

"What's the meat quality compared to the mutated cow," a merchant rushed to ask a more critical question.

The Double-headed Cow's meat texture was terrible and tasted like chewing on sand. But to the typical people that could not afford fresh meat, the meat of the double-head cow was not a bad choice.

Jiang Chen waited for the merchants to bring up their questions and put up three fingers.

"I will summarize your questions with three points."

"First, the Long Haired Pig is easy to raise. The feed mostly consists of mutated fruits, as well as an appropriate amount of catalyst.

"Second, there is no need to worry about crystal output. A three-month growth cycle with a single pig producing 70-80 crystals.

"Third, although the meat quality is not comparable to the pre-war livestock raised by NAC, compared to the mutated cow, it is much better."

When Jiang Chen said these four sentences, only fervor was left on the faces of the merchants.

Could be fed with mutated fruits.

To the farm owners on the brink of bankruptcy, the only thing they didn't lack was mutated fruits!

Chapter 496: No matter how difficult it is, we have to do it

The construction of the mutant farm would be operated by the merchants themselves; the NAC would only be responsible for providing the piglets. The profit would be a three-seven split with NAC taking 30% in the form of a "patent fee."

Some clever merchants wanted to purchase the piglets at a high cost and buy the patent from NAC, but Jiang Chen rejected the proposal with a smile. Turning profits was only part of it with the priority being that NAC had to control the level of crystals produced. And these piglets must only be strictly raised in NAC territories without leaving the city. If any evidence of a leak was been discovered, NAC would terminate the partnership and issue a hefty fine.

After an agreement was reached, the eight merchants left the conference room with excitement. The partnership agreement Jiang Chen proposed without a doubt dragged them from the brinks of bankruptcy, so they had no reason to reject.

And they were even more surprised that Jiang Chen was willing to share such a big piece of the pie with them. Because of NAC's power, they easily had the ability to build their own farm.

...

Jiang Chen made the choice with careful consideration. With NAC's financial capabilities, they didn't need to bother with small profits. All in all, NAC printed the currency, so did he need to care about the profit of a few farms?

Compared to being a millionaire in the slums, Jiang Chen would much rather be a king among the rich. Other than the food trade and advanced military market controlled by the NAC military government, he had plans to contract out all "non-core profit" to private companies. This was because regarding expansion to new markets, private individuals had more energy compared to officials. As to the reason, history certainly had many lessons.

He finally took care of everything on Sixth Street. Jiang Chen said goodbye to Chu Nan and thanked him for the arrangements at Sixth Street before he boarded a helicopter to return to Fishbone base before Dusk.

It was almost late October already and Ayesha's mission was almost done. On the other hand, the Rothschild family invited him to Europe to attend a car exhibition. Since Jiang Chen had a friendly relationship with Carmen, he obviously wouldn't decline this opportunity.

The apocalypse was on the right track.

Compared to dealing with threats in the far future, development plans had to shift toward the modern world now.

…

When the helicopter landed, Jiang Chen noticed through the window that Jiang Lin was waiting beside the helicopter pad.

When Jiang Chen came out, he immediately walked up.

"What do you need?" Jiang Chen looked at him with surprise.

"It's about that warp drive paper." Jiang Lin took a deep breath and said briskly.

"Is there any progress?"

"How is that possible?" Jiang Lin shook his head with a bitter smile. "After reading it through, it gave me and the research institute a lot of inspiration. Can I know who wrote the paper? If possible, please take me to see him."

"That's not possible. The scientist who wrote the paper already boarded the colonization ship."

Still digesting that fact, Jiang Lin let out a sigh. "Just as I thought."

"Anything else?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Yes, it's about research priorities," Jiang Chen said with seriousness. "Although this research paper provided us with a new, clear research path, it's still extremely difficult to make the warp engine into a reality. In other words, it's almost impossible considering the current conditions…"

"The priority is the same as other research projects - regardless how hard it is and even if it takes ten or twenty years." Jiang Chen stared into Jiang Lin's eyes. "This has to do with the life of a lot of people."

Dazed by Jiang Chen's solemn tone, Jiang Lin held his breath.

Moments later, his voice trembled.

"Who?"

"A lot of people." Jiang Chen didn't tell him who but only gave him this ambiguous answer before leaving.

To be honest, with his current abilities, if the modern world was matched up against the Harmony, he would have no odds of winning at all. With the Sailor Bug that could interstellar travel as well as the weapons in their possession, he couldn't think of any way they could win.

But if this side could design the theoretically-possible warp drive that could achieve the speed of light, then his odds of winning would increase.

Although the danger could be foreseen, Jiang Chen still had some time left. The distance of 20.5 light years meant it would take Natural Selection a hundred years to reach Earth.

But even then, their time was still limited. Although it was superficial to value a civilization's power with history in time, they were still monsters who traveled thousands of years in time.

And a monster with invasion written in its genetic code.

It was strictly impossible to tell the world that "aliens" were on a path to invasion. Disregarding the possibility of current technology observing Natural Selection light years away, even if he did convince people in the modern world, it would just create unnecessary fear.

How would he get the countries around the world on board? How could he make the Earth civilizations possess the power to fight Natural Selection? There were still many problems that Jiang Chen had to solve.

Development had to be done step by step, but the steps had to be accelerated.

When he returned to the mansion, after having dinner with the girls, he went into the bedroom with Sun Jiao.

Jiang Chen had already told them his date of returning to the modern world. After his return from the Sixth Street, he took care of everything he needed to.

Sun Jiao remembered he was leaving, so she was particularly passionate during their night of intimacy as if she wanted to stuff Jiang Chen into her body and fuse their bodies into one…

It was a long night.

The next morning, Jiang Chen stood by the bed and stared at the audacious but beautiful face.

Without any parting words, he kissed her on the cheek.

Gently covering her body with the covers, he returned to his own bedroom and disappeared from the mansion.

…

When he opened his eyes again, the scenery was different and the world was colored with vibrancy.

Staring at the elegant chandelier on the ceiling, Jiang Chen laid on the bed for a while before he switched his thought process from the apocalypse to the modern world.

The first thing he did was check his phone. Without Ayesha being a communicator, it was hard for him to receive messages from the modern world. But as soon as he opened his phone, hundreds of missed calls filled his screen.

And the missed calls belonged to the same name.

Jiang Chen pressed his screen a few times and immediately called her back.

The phone only rang for a second before it went through. He couldn't even open his mouth before he heard an anxious voice.

"Where are you now? Hello? Are you okay on that side?"

Jiang Chen listened to her concerned questions as he was dumbfounded.

"I… I'm okay. Uhh, I'm in Xin of course."

After confirming Jiang Chen's safety, Xia Shiyu sounded relieved. But when she realized Jiang Chen was okay and she worried over nothing for one week, her voice carried a hint of blame.

"As the president, it's better for you to not suddenly disappear. You're in Xin. If you disappeared, I wouldn't even know which phone number to tell the police."

"Ahem, don't worry, nothing will happen. But because of my job demands, I have to occasionally go to an area without signal. A random island in the ocean." Jiang Chen made up a story.

Xia Shiyu took a deep breath and didn't completely believe Jiang Chen's explanation, but she still accepted it.

"Let's not talk about this and get to business."

"Mhmm, I'm listening." Jiang Chen held the phone with one hand while he used the other to change into a new pair of pants.

"The company recently received a lot of invitations. Aside from private functions, there are some official invites."

"For example?" he asked nonchalantly.

"The Xiangjiang Government as well as Han's invitation."

[Finally here?]

Jiang Chen smiled.

[With era-defining technology, someone finally felt pained.

Chapter 497: Two Good News

"Arrange a time. Try to set the schedule around mid-November. By then, hmm… I'll visit Hua with the Xin president as a member of the outstanding businessmen.

As for the Xin president visiting Hua, he just said it nonchalantly. If he told Zhang Yapin, he would immediately prepare for a friendly visit. With the currently friendly relationship between Hua and Xin, the always-nice Hua had no reason to reject, especially if the outcome of a visit would be mutually beneficial to both parties.

"Does Xin have this arrangement?" Xia Shiyu asked with skepticism.

"Of course. Because I'm an outstanding businessman, I received some information beforehand." Jiang Chen made up a random excuse.

"Okay, I'll reply." Xia Shiyu nodded.

"Is there anything else?"

"Of course. I have two pieces of good news. Which one do you want to hear first?" Xia Shiyu giggled.

"Two pieces of good news? Of course I want to listen to the better news last." Jiang Chen was intrigued.

Even Xia Shiyu, who didn't like to laugh, was joking - the good news must be fantastic.

"It's about the virtual reality experience store - all 1.44 million virtual reality helmets have entered the market. The players were highly attracted by the virtual reality experience project and created a net profit of 500 million USD. Almost all our partner internet cafés requested additional Phantoms."

With the unit price at 1500 USD and sales of 1.44 million, a profit of 1000 USD was equivalent to 1.44 billion in profit. And the virtual reality experience project created a profit of 500 million in just one month's time.

Of course, the reason they could make so much money was because of the magical experience offered by the helmet and people's curiosity. Even now, a lot of people still waited in line to experience the virtual reality helmet. But after some time, once the Phantom was officially released, the virtual reality experience hype would gradually cool off.

And the majority of Future Technology's revenue wouldn't be from the one-time gain of selling the helmet nor from the virtual reality experience project but the actual operations of virtual reality…

"What's the second piece of good news?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"You don't sound shocked?"

"I can imagine how crazy people can get for immersive virtual reality technology."

Xia Shiyu smiled as she listened to Jiang Chen's confidence and continued.

"The second good news is that the 2 million Phantom helmets we released for pre-order have all been sold out with a net profit of 1 billion USD. All the pre-ordered helmets were sold out within one minute. A lot of users left comments on our forum hoping we could increase the number of units available for preorder."

"Sold out in one minute? It looks like the market is hungry enough." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Everything is just waiting for the final push. How's the production rate of the helmet?" Xia Shiyu asked.

"20 million units of Phantom helmets should've been completed; I'll add a few more finished production lines in a bit and the goal to produce 20 million helmets will be exceeded," Jiang Chen said proudly.

Jiang Chen was obviously very assured with Xia Shiyu handling the operations and marketing. He only asked a few things about the operation of the company before hanging up.

He stuffed his phone into his pocket before leaving his bedroom to go to the garage.

It was October 20th and the 80 days of training were completed. Based on the agreement between Jiang Chen and Ayesha, he would personally pick her up once training ended.

To be honest, Jiang Chen missed her quite dearly after so long.

…

The vessel that carried supplies to the island didn't bring any supplies this time. Its mission was to bring back the trainees on the island.

Right now, the 110 agents were standing on the beach waiting for their last examination. Watching the outline of the vessel on the horizon, everyone had genuine excitement on their faces.

The training was finally over and the rookie agents managed to make it out alive. Because of this, they completed the transformation from a rookie to a qualified agent and warrior.

Ayesha not only taught them how to disguise themselves and collect information, but she also taught them everything she knew about combat including sniping, calling airstrikes and even individual combat, which were all part of their daily training requirements. The virtual training and live ammunition training were conducted simultaneously to engrave this information deep down into their bones like instincts.

80 days ago, they were just a bunch of girls, but now, 110 fully trained agents stood there. With the assistance of carbon Nano bulletproof vests, genetic vaccines, Ghost Sniper Rifles, Type-11 Pistols, heat sensor grenades, digitalized contacts and injected chips, the combat abilities of any one of them could compare to a fully equipped, six-man special force team.

Once Fallout Shelter 027 could produce optical camouflage and Gauss Rifles, their combat abilities could easily steamroll an entire squadron.

When he arrived on the island, Jiang Chen resisted the urge to kiss Ayesha. He stood in front of the 110 agents in formation. In front of their reserved but determined eyes, he was pleased.

He paused and spoke in a loud voice.

"Congratulations, you all passed the test. I see 110 agents and 110 warriors here. I'm happy."

"In 80 days' time, I trust Ayesha already taught you what you need to know and what you should know." Jiang Chen smiled at Ayesha then looked back at the 110 agents. "I will only emphasize two words here: loyalty and bravery. I won't waste time on anything else."

"Your work in the future will not be easier than your experience the past 80 days. Or rather, the difficult training you went through is nothing compared to what you will face in the future. Your work may be staying in Xin to conduct 'safe' counterintelligence work, or you could be sent all over the world to execute the most dangerous missions and even take on the elites from the CIB or KGB. But I promise you will be able to easily take them on. And as your boss, I will make all of you believe that your effort is well worth it."

Jiang Chen signaled the row of soldiers by the side and they opened the ten briefcases filled with cash.

Glancing at the green paper bills, even the strongest-willed agents held their breath. Each briefcase contained at least one million in cash and there were ten of them.

On the entire beach, the only people who were unaffected by the scene was Jiang Chen, who didn't lack money, and Ayesha, who wasn't interested in money. Even the six female assistant trainers gulped at this sight.

Jiang Chen was pleased to see the expressions on the agents' faces.

"The money is all yours. You can spend it however you want."

"Everyone is rewarded with 100 thousand USD and 10 days of vacation. This is not your pay - it is just a small bonus to you for passing the training."

"At the same time, I want you to know that you're serving the richest man on the planet. So I hope you won't be foolish enough to be bought by some paper bills. You won't be let down materially. But to match that, I want you to feel a sense of purpose and belonging.

"Ghost Agents, this is your name."

"I want all of you to be proud of this name. Our enemies will fear this name."

Chapter 498: Examining Ghost Agents

With the crisp applause, the ten-minute examination was over. When Zhu Yu walked toward the briefcases full of cash, Zhu Yu felt like this was all so surreal.

The Celestial Trade employees responsible for distributing the cash gave back the agents' luggage so they could store their stacks of cash. Zhu Yu looked at her stuffed backpack then back at the door to the cabin. She felt an inexplicable feeling.

The moment she boarded the plane to the island, she dreamed of living a lavish but exciting life like 007, but when she was forced to step onto the vessel to the training base, the reality destroyed her hopes for a "perfect life."

But now with a bag full of cash and an opportunity to board the vessel back to civilized society, she felt empty.

"What're you thinking about?" The blonde girl named Penny stopped beside her and put her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I don't know." Zhu Yu shook her head as her serene face was filled with confusion. "Although at the beginning, I felt pain and despair in my hellish days as I waited for the day I could leave… now that the day is finally here, I just feel empty inside."

"Congratulations, you graduated," Penny said optimistically.

Zhu Yu looked at her friend, puzzled.

Penny shrugged and replied, "When I was in university, our state mandated military training. At the end of the training, that's what our trainer told us."

"Is that so?" A relieved smile appeared on Zhu Yu's face.

Penny laughed and smacked her friend's shoulder playfully. "Don't think too much. It's not good for a girl to be too shy. You can be melancholic when you're old, but now you should think about how you're going to spend the money."

Penny patted her backpack with a grin.

"You're right. I'll send some money to my family first or I'll just move my family here. Since I didn't say anything when I left, they must be worried," Zhu Yu said.

"You eastern people are so problematic - my mom kicked me out when I was 18." Penny looked speechlessly at her friend.

Aside from these two, the agents all chatted with the friends they made during training. They discussed how they would spend the money and where they would go for their ten-day vacation. The layout of the vessel was different than when they first came - the spacious cabin was filled with delicious food and champagne in a party atmosphere.

Just like a graduation ceremony.

Once all the agents boarded, Jiang Chen smiled at the female trainers standing dumbfounded.

"What are you guys waiting for? There's a share belonging to you too."

As they snapped back to reality, the six trainers walked over in excitement while suppressing their ecstatic moods to accept the 100 thousand that belonged to them.

After everyone boarded, Jiang Chen signaled the vessel to take everyone to New Moon Island. Once they were on New Moon Island, the Xin National Security Department would complete the paperwork for them, assign equipment, and arrange positions.

The busy 80-day training period had ended and the small island finally returned to peace.

Jiang Chen gazed at the girl he hadn't seen for a long time and she was gazing at him too. Her dark brown hair reflected an intoxicating brightness under the dusk sunlight. Her camouflage shirt outlined her gorgeous figure.

Her blue pupils were the most irresistible; they seemed to be speaking - showing him her passion and gentleness.

Without any words, Jiang Chen walked up to hug her. She gave a light shout when he pushed her onto the training ground sandpit.

Ayesha felt the cold mixture of sand and seawater as well as the pressure on her chest. Ayesha timidly glanced at the podium she used to stand on when she conducted training and whispered:

"No, not here."

She watched the agents crawl through every day, but she didn't think she would fall here one day.

"Don't you think this is exciting? The place where you trained them with authority." Jiang Chen bit Ayesha's ear with a smirk.

With her face blushing and no one left on the island, Ayesha began to lose their willpower as she mumbled:

"I'm not authoritative at all… and the vessel left, how are we going to go back…?"

"I arranged a helicopter." Jiang Chen blew into her delicate ear. "It will be here tomorrow morning."

"But it's too dirty here…" Ayesha anxiously looked at the mud on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll wash it off for you. There are bathrooms in the hotel on the island."

Jiang Chen could no longer resist staring at her shirt damp with seawater along with her messy hair.

Without giving any more opportunities for Ayesha to "resist," Jiang Chen kissed her.

…

The next morning, the helicopter arrived and stopped on the helipad on top of the hotel.

When they boarded the helicopter, Ayesha looked and reminisced about the island disappearing in the distance. Jiang Chen, who noticed her gaze, gently squeezed her small hand and smiled. "Don't want to leave?"

"I'm just feeling nostalgic." A smile appeared on Ayesha's lips. "Those children, although they were very resistant in the beginning, they gradually matured after a lot of things happened during training. They are now much more reliable compared to 80 days ago."

[Children? A lot of them are older than you.]

Jiang Chen focused on Ayesha's side profile as he mocked her only in his mind, not wishing to ruin the mood.

"Will this place be deserted in the future?"

"It will be the training base for future Ghost Agents, but the training will be done by current agents, your students." Jiang Chen rubbed her soft and puffy hair. "I don't want you to leave for too long."

A stunning curvature appeared on her cold face as Ayesha rested her head on Jiang Chen's shoulder. She began to draw on Jiang Chen's leg with her finger.

"What are you writing?" Jiang Chen hugged her thin shoulder.

"A spell," Ayesha whispered.

"Can I know what kind of spell? Miss Witch." Jiang Chen joked.

"I will gift you my soul so I can stay with you through eternity… the spell from my hometown."

At her heartfelt words, Jiang Chen leaned down and pecked her pale forehead.

"Thank you, this is the most beautiful gift I've ever received."

Ayesha timidly buried her face into Jiang Chen's shoulder and happily closed her eyes. Her longing for him had been fulfilled bit by bit.

In the rays of the morning sun, the outline of the helicopter disappeared into the horizon.

Chapter 499: Modified Lamborghini

With the training of the Ghost Agents completed, the Xin national security department finally became a functional force. While training, Ayesha carefully documented each agent's talent and personality before providing a detailed summary. People with strong organizational abilities were promoted to a management role, people with strong intelligence were sent to counterintelligence or personal security roles and people with strong executive abilities went abroad for intelligence collection…

The 110 agents formed a massive net that covered every corner of Xin and expanded its tentacle-like reach to the outside world. They were just like 110 pairs of eyes that monitored the comings and goings of every corner of Xin.

…

When they returned to Coro Island from the training island, it was almost 11. Ayesha dropped off her luggage in the living room before she ran to the kitchen. Water began to run. By the sound of it, Jiang Chen knew she was cleaning the dusty kitchenware.

Since Ayesha left, Jiang Chen hadn't cooked at home. He either went out to eat or traveled to the apocalypse. Hence the kitchen was completely deserted.

Moments later, the fan was turned on before he heard the sound of vegetables being chopped. Jiang Chen watched the figure moving back and forth behind the frosted glass before a genuine smile appeared on his face.

[How should I describe the feeling?]

[Absence makes the heart grow fonder?]

Although Ayesha always seemed like a newlywed wife.

After not having Ayesha's cooking for so long, when he ate her delicious food again, Jiang Chen almost ate his tongue.

Ayesha's cooking style was completely different from Yao Yao's. Due to the cold of the apocalypse, Yao Yao favored stews and hotpots more. But Ayesha's style was a fusion between the east and west. For example, she chopped pepped steak into strips to fry them with peppers. But regardless of her style, there was no doubt her food was delicious!

If it wasn't for the fact that he injected the genetic vaccine with a digestive and had higher metabolism than typical people, he would be afraid he'd get a food-baby from eating so much food.

With her arms on the table while gazing at her love feasting on her cooked food, a joyful smile appeared on Ayesha's face.

"Aren't you hungry?" Jiang Chen noticed Ayesha hadn't even touched her chopsticks yet as he asked curiously.

Ayesha blinked her blue eyes.

"Mhmm… I feel like I haven't seen you for a while. I want to look at you more."

After lunch, Jiang Chen helped Ayesha clean up the dishes and stuffed them into the dishwasher. He also put the clothes from yesterday into the washer and they picked up cleaning equipment to completely clean the mansion covered in dust.

...

Although Ayesha insisted she would do it herself, Jiang Chen still picked up a broom to help. It would be too embarrassing if she cleaned the whole mansion herself while he didn't do any chores.

Especially since there was much inexplicable fun to be had with chores when doing them with the person you loved.

When the housework was done, it would be time to clean the person.

Thus, Jiang Chen picked up Ayesha and carried the blushing woman into the washroom.

The shower ran for two hours straight before it finally stopped.

Jiang Chen relaxed the whole day.

…

The next morning, Jiang Chen planned to visit Zhang Yapin in the presidential palace. Yesterday afternoon, he already made an appointment and President Zhang Yapin specifically rescheduled a few meetings so he could meet him for the entire morning.

Jiang Chen took Ayesha to the garage and handed her the brand new car keys.

"Let's get familiarized with our new car."

Ayesha looked at the Lamborghini quite puzzled.

"Is it different from the previous one?"

Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously.

"There are too many differences; you'll see once you get in."

Ayesha, with a skeptical look, put her hand on the front engine cover and gently tapped it. Instantly, her expression became surprised.

"The exterior of the car was completely replaced with super-plastic steel and repainted. The car windows were replaced with organic bulletproof glass that's capable of blocking anti-armor sniper rifle.s Aside from the car being slightly heavier by a few kilograms, the defense of this Lamborghini is comparable to an armored vehicle." Jiang Chen walked beside Ayesha as he explained the car to her.

"Is… is this the technology from that side?" Ayesha ran her hand along the surface and murmured.

"Yes. Aside from all that, there's a button below the steering wheel that can launch heat sensor grenades from the spare exhaust. Targets can be locked onto from the screen."

Although it was the technology from the apocalypse, it didn't require too much expertise. They only built an exterior based on the specifications and added a grenade launcher. A lot of wealthy people before the war were keen to collect heavily-taxed diesel vehicles. So when Jiang Chen took out the odd-looking Lamborghini from the Sixth Street repair shop, they didn't look surprised at all.

The entire modification process took only 500 credits, which was well worth the money. If it wasn't for the fact that the trunk was in the front, thus creating a lack of space, Jang Chen would've installed two Python rocket launchers on it.

Just as Natasha reminded him, since he was in a position of power, it was better for him to be cautious about his own safety. Jiang Chen wouldn't permit anything that happened on Coro Island to happen again.

Ayesha sat in the highly modified Lamborghini and tested the handling with a spin outside the garage then she stopped the car right in front of Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen leaned on the passenger seat, put on his seat belt, and Ayesha started the car again.

From Jiang Chen's experience as a passenger, aside from the vehicle being more stable compared to before, there was nothing else too different.

They arrived at the garage of the presidential palace. With the guidance of the employees, Jiang Chen stepped into Zhang Yapin's office.

Zhang Yapin stood up when he saw Jiang Chen to greet him.

"What do you want to drink?

"Thank you, coffee is fine." Jiang Chen smiled and sat across from Zhang Yapin.

The honor of the president personally making coffee for him was something only he could enjoy. But it wasn't without reason since Jiang Chen's Future Group and Celestial Trade directly provided 10000 job to Xin and indirectly facilitated at least 40000 employment positions. While the large number of foreigners raised the cost of living in the short term, it also made the locals wealthy.

Just thinking about the prosperous industries at Ange Island and the tourism growing by the day on the other eight islands, the president just couldn't stop smiling.

"How have you been?" Jiang Chen took a sip of his coffee.

"Busy but it feels pretty good. Because of Moro's independence movement, Country F can no longer be self-sustaining. Australia plans to increase trade with us, but we still have a small disagreement regarding the tariffs. Their people and our people have been in nonstop debate for the past few days, but it's under friendly terms." With his fingers crossed on his knee, Zhang Yapin said pleasantly, "So, the question we are discussing today is...?"

Jiang Chen put down his coffee and said two words.

"Visiting Hua."

"Visiting Hua?" Zhang Yapin raised his eyebrows. "But with the F civil war continuing to escalate, being too close to Hua could make UA suspicious."

"Then we'll visit them together."

With December approaching, whether it was for the smooth launch of virtual reality helmets or the full expansion of Xin's tourism industry, an official diplomatic visit was necessary. And as a representative of Xin's corporations, Jiang Chen would be present.

Chapter 500: The Meeting in the Presidential Palace

"Visit at the same time? What's the order then?"

"Based on the distance, we'll visit Hua first then UA. The timing will be at the end of the year. I'll go with you," Jiang Chen said.

"The end of December, after the UA election?" Zhang Yapin touched his chin.

"That's right." Jiang Chen nodded.

"It should be feasible. Once the election ends and the UA government completes its transition, we'll request a visit. Considering the time it takes to reply… let's set the date to December 25th?" Zhang Yapin proposed.

"Okay." Jiang Chen nodded.

"What's the topic of discussion?" Zhang Yapin continued.

"Of course it's about trade and discussion since maintaining absolute neutrality is one of our fundamental principles. You should be more familiar with the diplomatic rhetoric than me."

"Okay… I'll request my assistant to set up the schedule as well as the list of accompanying personnel." Zhang Yapin nodded.

"Thank you."

"No problem. With the current economic growth of Xin, we do need to establish a friendly diplomatic relationship with the superpowers. Our original plan was to conduct diplomatic visits earlier next year, so we're only ahead of schedule by a month," Zhang Yapin said while taking a drink of his coffee.

The Xin economy was transiting from a primal farming economy to a tourism economy with light support from industry. At the same time, Future Mining's deep-water mining technology shipped large amounts of excessive molybdenum to the global market. The Xin domestic market alone obviously couldn't consume these resources and it would require the president to act as "sales" to take a bunch of businessmen to search for business opportunities.

And based on the desire to win over support and export influence, the superpowers wouldn't let the small countries leave empty-handed.

"Is that all?" Zhang Yapin put down his cup and crossed his fingers again.

"There's one other thing." Jiang Chen paused and looked at him. "I need to launch satellites."

"Launch satellites?" Because this was mentioned so spontaneously, Zhang Yapin took a moment to process it.

"That's right. I plan to build a space center on an empty island near the equator for the purpose of research, rocket launches and weather observation," Jiang Chen said with seriousness.

"Are you not going to consider renting the rocket? For example, Russia seems to be an expert in that area, and you have a pretty good relationship with them," Zhang Yapin suggested.

"Renting the rocket isn't a long-term solution. I don't want Celestial Trade's satellites to be dependent on someone else. And based on the consideration of national security, Xin must possess the ability to launch satellites independently, especially since we are close to the equator with a unique geographical advantage. If we don't utilize like it, we're wasting a God-given opportunity."

"But launching satellites isn't as simple as you think." Zhang Yapin let out a sigh and began to explain to Jiang Chen the difficulties involved.

"First, following tradition, the plan to launch a satellite must be reported to the International commercial Aerospace Organization, the Internal Maritime Organization, and the International Telecommunication Union."

"Secondly, since Pannu acceded to the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, which are commonly referred to as the 'Outer Space Treaties,' Pannu has the obligation to inform the United Nations on space launch activities. Although the regime has changed, the new countries inherited the former Pannu regime of the United Nations seats, so we inherited the treaty by principle.

"Just reporting? Then get your assistant to write a few documents," Jiang Chen said.

"It's not that simple - all kinds of international organizations will come to investigate our launch status to confirm we're launching a satellite and ICBM. And we can be certain that country F will protest against our launch plan and use all forms of political means to disrupt our launch plan in the name of national security." Zhang Yapin shook his head.

A sneer appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

"There's no need to worry. They don't even have the ability to take care of themselves; they won't have the energy to focus on our launch plan. I'll submit the complete launch plan to you in three days. We're launching commercial telecommunication satellites that are in accordance with international law. As for the 'international tourist groups,' they can feel free to visit."

With Jiang Chen's mind made up, Zhang Yapin let out a sigh.

"Okay, if you insist. But allow me to be blatant; does Celestial Trade have the ability to launch satellites? It's not as simple as lighting fireworks."

"You don't have to worry about that; I'll take care of it."

[We can't do it today but that doesn't mean we can't do it tomorrow.]

With so many private aerospace companies on the verge of bankruptcy, he only needed to spend money to buy the equipment and manpower. He'd leave the restricted equipment there and he didn't want the outdated stuff anyways. He only needed a group of experts responsible for the launch and equipment maintenance.

He'd bring the rockets and satellites from the apocalypse and familiarize the experts with the equipment operational menu. The real "Aerospace Technology Research Institute" wasn't in the modern world; they were only in the apocalypse.

Launch rockets had great strategic and economic significance; space rockets were the prerequisite of the intercontinental missile and so were not worth mentioning. Any country with the ability to launch space rockets had the capability to strike globally. And this ability would be a deterrent to other countries.

As for the economics, from establishing a wireless power grid to the construction of the space elevator to the development of moon resources, all depended on the most fundamental technology of rocket launching.

Jiang Chen hoped the experts in the modern world could gradually digest the space technology from the apocalypse. Since he was not a scientist himself, although he could easily transport materials from the other world, the digestion of the future technology depended on the scientists of the modern world.

[Talent reserve must be started as early as possible - it's a long-term investment.]

Jiang Chen finished his coffee before departing.

When Jiang Chen opened the door, the senior advisor in a suit was about to enter. Jiang Chen smiled at the tall man and passed him.

The advisor's eyes stopped on Jiang Chen's back for a moment as his forced smile disappeared and he stepped into the president's office.

"Mr. President, is this really appropriate?"

"What are you referring to? My senior advisor." Zhang Yapin put the coffee cups down again and smiled.

"Allow me to be honest. From what I see, you're not the person sitting in the president's seat. That man is." Zhong Wei took a deep breath and said with honesty.

"What's wrong with that? 80% of the tax revenue of Xin is either directly or indirectly related to his Future Group. This year's GDP increase is expected to exceed 100%. This is a first in history," Zhang Yapin said nonchalantly.

"But an oligopoly is extremely dangerous. In dire times, they could potentially overthrow—" Zhong Wei spoke with his voice slightly raised.

"Mr. Zhong Wei, you know this country was overthrown by them before." Zhang Yapin looked at Zhongwei emotionlessly.

In an instant, the president he was so familiar with gave him a distant feeling.

"And it's me who's the president, Mr. Zhong Wei. If I continue to work like this, it's always going to be me."

"And from what you saw, compared to one year ago, did our citizens' quality-of-life improve or worsen?"

"It certainly… improved… a lot."

Although Zhong Wei disagreed with Jiang Chen ordering the president around like a puppet, he had to admit that it was because of Jiang Chen's large investment that Pannu Island's economy woke up. From building apartments to improving citizens' living environments to investing in infrastructure development, Celestial Trade didn't do anything that harmed Xin's interests, but their good deeds couldn't be counted with the fingers on both hands.

"Then that's enough." Zhang Yapin smiled.

"But—"

Zhong Wei still wanted to say something, but Zhang Yapin interrupted him.

"Mr. Zhong Wei. The reason why I hired you as a senior advisor is because of your economic doctoral degree from Harvard as well as your excellent ability in international relations and trade. I didn't hire you because of comical political awareness and boring ambition. This isn't the Rainbow Mansion, this is the Xin Presidential Palace. Do you understand what I mean?"

After a long while, Zhong Wei nodded his head with great difficulty.

"I understand."

"So some things can't be mentioned again in the future, understand?"

"… I understand."

Chapter 501: CIB's Reaction

CIB headquarters.

In the spacious director's office, a Caucasian male sunk into his chair while staring at the document in hand.

"An aerospace project? What is Future Group planning?" Ohm gazed at the documents and exclaimed.

Due to the catastrophic error made by the CIB in the last Hua mission, the former CIB director couldn't withstand the criticism from the public and resigned. Ohm finally got the opportunity to step up. Although due to various reasons, the current government adjusted the strategy against Future Group, the name Jiang Chen had been on the list of top priority targets.

From the collapse of the former Pannu regime to the fishing boat incident, and now the popular immersive virtual reality technology, as well as the deepwater mining technology that sparked conversations in the mining industry… the series of events were all related to that man. And intelligence indicated that Jiang Chen was behind the civil war in Country F, but without any evidence, the CIB couldn't do anything.

Instincts told Ohm that the guy is dangerous. Not because his existence endangered the national interest of UA, but his ability to create miracles. Because he had too many mysteries surrounding him, it made him remember a restricted document that existed for a long time…

"This is unclear, but the only thing we can be certain of is that they spent 5 billion purchasing two private aerospace technology companies on the brink of bankruptcy and restructured the two companies so that they are part of Celestial Trade's aerospace department. They also planned to move their assets to Xin," The agent stood beside Ohm reported calmly.

"What about customs?" Ohm's eyes didn't leave the document.

"11 equipment out of the two companies' assets were prohibited from being exported, but they didn't go through customs and sold the equipment at a discount to SpaceX. They don't seem to want the equipment, but the experts.

Ohm burst out laughing.

"Oh? Do they think that by just getting a bunch of graduates from MIT, they could make a rocket appear from nothing?"

Without the production capability, it would be impossible even to produce a screw on the rocket. It was not something that a few scientists could solve, the more advanced the technology, the higher the demand for the industrial foundation.

And to establish the foundation, it would require twenty to thirty years' time.

"We don't know, just like we don't know where they obtained that deep water mining equipment." The agent shrugged.

Ohm was silent.

Although he was not a technical expert, as someone with a science background, he knew a bit about the difficulty in deep water mining. The first problem was the material strength as materials rarely could withstand water pressure 7000 meters below the surface, let alone withstand that pressure to mine.

Virtual reality, deep water mining, and now they planned to enter aerospace. They seemed to be developing every field at the frontier of innovation without concern for cost. Frontier meant high risk, but it also meant high returns.

The shareholders of Future Group were complete gamblers, and gamblers unafraid of being all in. This was a common agreement among the investors on Wall Street.

"Is there a way to investigate where they obtained their technology?" Ohm asked.

"I have been arranging for people to do this without much success." The agent had a wry expression on his face. "Currently we could only deduce that they have a hidden research institute, it could be underground, or disguised as another organization in Xin. Needless to say, while their intelligence work is somewhat careless, their confidentiality is flawless. "Could I request for additional personnel in Xin?"

"Very difficult." Ohm shook his head, "There are too many places that need people. Future Group is interesting, but it is a private corporation. Although some people from Congress are interested in their technology, the Capitol wants to win over Xin, and they instructed us to be restrained."

"Is the President not interested?" The agent asked.

"Let's say this. The energy giants are the ones providing the president with election funds, not the public companies on NASDAQ." Ohm said emotionlessly, "Our work's focus is still in the Middle East and East Europe. As to the interesting stuff, as long as it is not weapons of mass destruction, it is better to leave it to the businessmen to think for themselves."

Typically speaking, the CIB with an "undisclosed budget" didn't need to listen to the president too much. Their long rival FBA was the one loyal to the Capitol. But because of being "tricked" by the General Staff Department in Hua, CIB no longer had confidence in front of the Congress or the Capitol.

The reason why the former director retired early was that he didn't gain support in either Congress or Capitol. The rushed mission almost dragged the government into another diplomatic mud hole. Fortunately, Hua didn't protest on this incident or UA would be in the middle of another massive scandal.

Although Congress had no right to ask for the budget breakdown of the CIB, they did possess the power to cut the budget, and they were doing that already. Even if Ohm didn't want to lean toward the president, he had to compromise because of the budget.

"Okay, the damned politics… But I want to say, Xin currently established the national security department and our work may be influenced. If we cannot receive support, I can't promise that there will be stable intelligence in the future." The agent sighed and shrugged without any other solutions.

"Then pretend and keep an eye on their launch project… I don't care about Future Group, but our little white rat seems to be disobedient recently," Ohm said.

"The Willie Society?" The agent guessed.

"That's right. Intelligence indicated that they received donations from an unknown source and they are no longer satisfied with the small place they are in as they have begun to reach out to our little friends in Europe. Another intelligence stated that they had contacted Jiang Chen to some extent," Ohm picked up another file and said without emotion.

"You're saying… there is a connection between Jiang Chen and the Willie Society."

"No, they don't have a common interest, no… if you force it, there is something." Ohm frowned as he mumbled while biting his thumb.

A word suddenly surfaced in his head.

[The Golden Apple…]

To be honest, until the Soviet collapse, collecting intelligence on the Golden Apple had been the job of the CIB. But followed by the conclusion of the cold war, the work was put aside due to the lack of information.

[But does that thing really exist? The tool that can communicate with the future.]

Ohm's no longer frowned as he self-mockingly shook his head.

[How could that thing exist, just like the Nazi military base in the Arctic.]

Reality is not a novel after all.

Chapter 502: Acquiring An Aerospace Company

The development of the private space industry had context to it. It was the failure of the early space shuttles, and the end of the cold war that caused the conclusion of the space race, The storm led the UA to drop a large number of important projects in the 80s which resulted in aerospace giants never realizing their investment and their enthusiasm for the industry taking a significant hit.

After the cut in the 90s, as well as the integration of the aerospace industry, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, Lockheed Martin's monopoly of the market were not comparable to the 60s. They were more sensitive to risk and began to be half-hearted on commercial launches, only favoring the defense business. The price of launches was not only expensive but the RD-180 engine invested by the UA, due to manufacturers reluctance to build a plant, must depend on Russia for production.

It was this reason Russia could hold their head high against sanctions. They threatened to terminate the cooperation and to "cut the food supply" of the International Space Station. "Cutting the food supply" has been staged more than once, and time-tested. Until the rise of private space companies in recent years, this kind of insatiable threat started to lose its effectiveness.

Facts proved that the bureaucratic-led industry had no future, it was also reflected most vividly in the aerospace industry.

Take the famous private space company SpaceX as an example.

Its launch price has been low to a near-absurd point at only a fraction of the cost of the market. No country or business in the world could compete with them. These new companies inherited a large number of research results from the old era of space giants, but not the debt.

Speaking of SpaceX boss Elon Musk, he was also a legendary figure, but his popularity in Hua was far less than Steve Jobs. But if a few pieces of his astonishing feats were mentioned, his name was vivid in people's memory. For example, he and his partner founded PayPal online payment mechanism and by far the most successful way to pay online. After acquisition by eBay, he earned his first pot of gold in life.

Another example is the most recent year, the most popular car brand without a doubt, Tesla, was designed by him.

Not only that, he invited three well-known entrepreneurs to co-found SpaceX and made a strategic plan with "space tourism as a starting point. Open the era of privatization of space resources, and the destination to Mars."

And the fact proved that in the field of space technology, they were indeed walking in the forefront of the world.

Falcon rocket appeared out of nowhere, its trust weight ratio (trust to weight ratio) reached an astounding 1: 150! It replaced Russia's best score of 1: 120 and became the world's most advanced rocket. What made people more envious was that the rocket not only had a low launch cost, it actually could be reused! The first stage rocket hovered at the height of two hundred meters and then dropped vertically without damage.

Finally, its engine was 3D printed.

With so many advantages infused together, its market competitiveness is unparalleled. At the same time, its relationship with NASA, the UA Air Force, could almost be described as best friends. The pile of orders came storming in, and Elon Musk made a great fortune.

But it was precisely because of its astounding competitiveness that a lot of small private space companies were forced to the brink of bankruptcy.

SpaceX almost monopolized the most profitable defense orders, and the launch profits of commercial satellites were compressed to the limit for various reasons. For this very reason, Jiang Chen managed to use 5 billion USD floor price to buy two space companies for restructuring, enrich the Celestial Trade wholly-owned space science and technology center talent team.

Kelvin Burrow, former director and chief technical officer of Mississippi Aerospace Technologies, has a Ph.D. degree at Amber Reid University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and were involved in the early development of the Falcon Rockets. He later resigned to return home to establish the Mississippi Aerospace Technologies. But it turned out that not all scientists could be great businesspeople like Gates and Jobs. After failing to invest, his company owed 500 million USD in debt and wandered on the brink of bankruptcy.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen came just in time to "help" as he was able to keep his life's efforts without selling at a discount.

Of course, capital is ruthless. The first thing Jiang Chen did after he became chairman was sell most of the company's assets at a low price. At the same time offered their employees two times the original salary and a work visa to Xin.

"Do you know what you did? These assets are worth at least 200 million USD! And you sold it at a 50% discount to my old boss. Oh, God… If I'm Mr. Musk, I would be laughing in my sleep." They left Coro Airport, Kelvin dragged onto Jiang Chen and complained passionately.

"Mr. Musk won't laugh in his sleep, allow me to be honest, SpaceX won't care about your equipment. Coincidentally, I don't care either." Jiang Chen used a leisure tone and opened the car door for him.

"What do you mean?" The honest Kelvin immediately frowned.

"Exactly what you heard, trust me, when you arrive at the destination, you'll have the same perspective as me." Jiang Chen sat at the front passenger seat.

Kelvin in the back glanced at the expressionless girl driving and then looked at Jiang Chen anxiously.

"Does she have a driver's license?"

The tip of Ayesha's mouth twitched. Jiang Chen paused and laughed.

"Don't worry, with my net worth, I should be more afraid of dying than you."

"Okay, I trust you… But I have to remind you, regardless of how rich you are, some things can't be purchased with money. I have 5671 pages of technical drawings, but I can assure you that this place won't have a plant that can turn my drawings into equipment."

"Is that so? Just throw your drawings out then." Jiang Chen didn't seem to care.

Kelvin paused and raised his eyebrows.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

"Nothing, I still hold the same stance as before. I understand that you may have some anxious emotions to your new work location, but I hope you can remain calm. You're about to see some stunning things… Mhmm, the port is in the front, we have to change to a different transportation vehicle."

Kelvin scoffed as he replied "un huh" half-heartedly before not saying anything.

Although he was very dissatisfied with how Jiang Chen treated his company and his attitude toward his technical expertise, he had no reason to be angry with his salary. If there were a choice, he certainly would not sell his life's efforts. But unfortunately, as the founder, he didn't have a controlling stake of Mississippi Aerospace Technology Company. Instead, it was controlled by profit-oriented capitalists. With the price offered by Jiang Chen, the company's other shareholders practically didn't hesitate before they provided their shares with both hands.

The car was parked in the garage next to the port. Ayesha slightly turned her head and spoke a language Kelvin did not understand, "He seems to be very dissatisfied with you.

"Of course, after all, I sold his hard work of six years, and labeled his research results as worthless." Pushing the door, Jiang Chen smiled.

Jiang Chen turned to look at the impatient Kelvin and said in English, "Well, Mr. Kelvin, we can board the yacht."

Kelvin shrugged and walked to the yacht.

"Is there no problem hiring him as the chief technology officer?" Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen feeling puzzled. "You are planning to give him something really important."

Ayesha knew more or less about Jiang Chen's secrets, that's why she was so concerned.

"The chief technology officer must be the job of a person with a strong technical background, and I really believe in his learning ability. I'm more tolerating toward talents. As to his rudeness, it is because of his meticulousness toward technicality and has nothing to do with loyalty. As long as I can bring out technology that will shock him, help him achieve his dream, and provide him with enough material reward, he has no reason to be stingy with his loyalty."

Jiang Chen thought about Jiang Lin when he spoke. He felt that they were the same kind of person.

The confused expression on Ayesha's face said that she didn't seem to understand what Jiang Chen said. But because of her absolute trust, she still nodded.

"If you believe him."

"Of course. If he betrays me, I will have to count on you." Jiang Chen laughed.

Ayesha didn't say a word and only nodded.

The traitor would be handled by the Ghost Agents.

No one could escape their pursuit…

Chapter 503: The Shocked Kelvin

Only a pile of gravel lied on the bare island. The golden sand was the primary color of the island. The alternating green and blue decorated the beautiful island located at the most southeastern part of Xin, north of the equator line.

The flat and wide land formation was the only advantage. The plant standing in the middle of the island was not yet painted as construction was completed not long ago.

Right now, Jiang Chen's private yacht was anchored by a crude fisher shack at the edge of the island.

The port belonged to a Xin fisherman. The honest fisherman didn't even know there was a change in political regime. It was not until an employee from Celestial Trade showed him the land certificate did he realize he was occupying private land.

But Jiang Chen didn't give him trouble as he purchased the crude shack along with the port for a price of 10,000 USD.

So the shack was the only standing structure other than the plant in the center of the island.

"This is the base of our company?" Kelvin twitched at the scene of the barren island.

He felt like he just experienced contract fraud.

[This is not going to work, this is being deported.]

"Of course not, but before the building is built, you will temporarily be working at the Celestial Trade Headquarters on Coro Island. Of course, your most important responsibility is to study the material that I will provide you."

"Huh? You will provide us with materials?" Kelvin raised his eyebrows as he scoffed at what Jiang Chen said.

Jiang Chen only smiled at Kelvin's arrogance without any explanation.

"We're here, let's get off the boat."

Because of the lack of vegetation, the soil here was under constant exposure to sunshine which made it extremely brittle and scorching. Stepping onto the sand away from the port, Ayesha just in sandals felt discomfort. But she didn't express her discomfort and just slightly frowned.

But the acute change didn't escape Jiang Chen's eyes.

"Why don't you go rest for a bit on the boat? The island is extremely safe, and you don't have to worry about anything happening to me." Jiang Chen noticed her uneasiness and caringly whispered into her ear.

Ayesha's face turned red.

She deliberated for a moment and didn't insist further. She nodded and accepted the proposal

"Mhmm."

Jiang Chen watched Ayesha return to the boat and turned around to speak with Kelvin again on route to the plant in the middle of the island.

Jiang Chen pushed open the door, and waved away the dust in front of his face, and opened the metallic blinds on the side of the plant.

When the sunlight scattered into the building, Kelvin noticed a rocket engine placed on the large square frame.

The cylindrical design and bowl-shaped end were slightly smaller than SpaceX's Falcon engine. It made people suspect if it could really carry the payload.

"What is this?" Kelvin walked up and tapped on the engine.

"The RM-320 rocket engine, the technology I plan to show you." Jiang Chen passed the tablet containing specifications and 3D visualization to him.

It was the rocket engine Jiang Lin showed Jiang Chen at the Aerospace Technology Research Institute, and the engine used by the Northwind-76 ballistic missile deployed at Shenxiang.

Every screw and every circuit was completely manufactured through 3D printing technology with a cost of 30000 credits. Lin Lin manufactured the fuel used by the rocket at 1000 credits per ton. But because raw materials could be transported from the modern world, the actual cost would be a bit lower.

Because of the appearance of the space elevator, the propulsion engines for aerospace purposes were abandoned at the end of the 21st century. The RM-320 was considered the most advanced aerospace engine from the wasteland.

The engine shell built with advanced materials could withstand 10,000 degrees of high temperature. The combustion chamber could withstand a pressure of up to 500 atmospheres. The most critical was that rockets built with this engine's thrust weight value could even reach an astounding 1: 300! It is undoubtedly superior compared to the SpaceX Falcon rocket's ratio of 1: 150!

"This is absurd. This kind of engine cannot be achieved with current technology. What about the materials? A normal engine cannot withstand this type of pressure and temperature… how is this possible… wait, what's with the rocket fuel's chemical formula."

Kelvin's eyes were locked on the screen as his complexion changed constantly. He sometimes shook his head, sometimes was shocked, sometimes widened his eyes…

Finally, his expression fixated on disbelief.

"This is absurd, no… this is too genius." He muttered to himself as his hands holding onto the tablet kept shaking, "This must be possible, no, only theoretically possible… But if this can be achieved, Falcon will be a joke. This is too absurd…"

Suddenly, he looked toward Jiang Chen and grabbed Jiang Chen's arm fervently.

"Please, could you introduce me to the designer of this rocket engine? He is a genius."

"I will pass your compliments to him, but unfortunately, I can't introduce you to him yet." Jiang Chen shook his head.

"Why! Are you afraid I'm not going to be confidential? Be assured, I will sign any confidentiality agreement, please! I have a lot of questions I want to ask him," Kelvin said ardently.

The contempt on his face when he first got off the yacht no longer existed.

The design philosophy and innovation truly astounded him and shattered his arrogance in technical expertise.

"No, please don't be mistaken, I trust you. It is just that the designer of the rocket is currently in the middle of a project and doesn't want to be disturbed… I promise, if there is the opportunity, I will definitely introduce you to him. As to your question, I will provide you with a detailed rocket blueprint. You should be able to find the answer from there. If it still can't solve your confusion, I can pass on the question for you." Jiang Chen made something up on the fly.

[Funny, the designer of the rocket was not born yet, where am I going to find one for you?] Once the interdimensional bracelet could transport people, he would just grab Jiang Lin.

"Wait, I have another question, This kind of rocket engine cannot be completed with Xin's industrial foundation… Even UA's industrial foundation can't do it, where did you manufacture this—"

"Right here." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Just here?" Kelvin was shocked.

"You should have heard of 3D printing before right? The engine right here is manufactured through an industrial grade 3D printer."

[The 3D printer could print material with high strength? And what is an "Industrial grade 3D printer"?]

Kelvin was completely stunned by the new technology as he temporarily lost his ability to speak.

Jiang Chen coughed to interrupt his thoughts.

"Okay, since you're done visiting, Mr. Kelvin, our trip for today is over… time to go back."

"No! Let me stay here! Please!" Kelvin gently caressed the surface of the engine. His ardent expression and action looked like he was caressing his lover's skin.

Although Jiang Chen was pleased with the fervent attitude of his scientist, he still thought his actions looked a bit gross…

"Mr. Kelvin, I have to remind that there is nothing here. Celestial Trade's headquarters has air conditioning and an endless amount of coffee. As to the complete blueprint of the engine, even if you are at the office—"

Kelvin rudely interrupted Jiang Chen's words.

"Just give me a tent, I will sleep here! And please bring the documents here for me, please!"

Jiang Chen tried his hardest to resist laughing as he nodded.

"If you insist."

Chapter 504: Heading to Frankberg

Launch rocket preparation was in full swing. Kelvin eagerly studied the rocket blueprints while remotely coordinating the company's restructuring through the phone. Celestial Trade employees brought him a tent, food and fresh water. While the conditions on the island were very harsh, the technician by his fanatical feelings toward aerospace overcame all these difficulties.

The 40 employees willing to relocate to work in Xin were placed on Coro Island. They digested the rocket launch technology Jiang Chen brought back from the apocalypse based on their responsibilities.

Of course, he didn't release the process to manufacture the materials used in the engine. Material science was the critical limiting factor to aerospace technology and the point of advantage of RM-320 compared to modern rocket engines.

In other words, even if the RM-320's blueprint were leaked, the people who obtained the blueprint would be unable to replicate one based on the blueprint. Just like it is impossible to build a skyscraper with just bricks, with the most fundamental problem unsolved, regardless of how advanced the technology, it would remain in the theoretical stage.

At the same time, Jiang Chen didn't forget the development of infrastructure.

Jiang Chen brought 20 construction robots manufactured from the Sixth Street. Jiang Lin inputted the construction blueprint of the rocket launch center and a hundred tons of materials to the modern world warehouse. They were then transported by vessel to the barren island.

Although Kelvin was stunned by the construction robots that Jiang Chen brought out, he didn't ask more. On the one hand, it was because he didn't specialize in that area and would not know the technical difficulties in achieving automated construction robots. On the other hand, it was because he knew that even if he asked, Jiang Chen wouldn't tell him.

Other than constructing the rocket launch center, Celestial Trade constructed a radar station, drone terminal and a twenty person post under Jiang Chen's command; they also included the island to be part of the patrolled area to ensure the safety of the launch center.

As to the documents required to launch a commercial satellite, Jiang Chen assigned specific people to draft the document and submitted it to Zhang Yaping.

Time flew to the end of October.

Based on the agreement with Carmen Rothschild, the invited Jiang Chen would head to Frankberg for the auto exhibition hosted by Daimler Corporation and other auto giants. Based on the consideration of Future Technology and Daimler's partnership in artificial intelligence, attending the event was something mutually beneficial.

The day the news was released, Daimler Corporation's stock price rose by 4% after a long period of stagnation. People were speculating if Daimler Corporation will partner with Future Technology in artificial intelligence or even in immersive virtual reality.

On the other hand, the media were curious about Jiang Chen who had kept a low profile.

When the flight landed in Berm, and Jiang Chen had just stepped off of the plane, the reporters swarmed around him. The microphone labeled with Reuters, Paris Digest, Washington Post were all shoved in front of him.

With her brown hair tied back, Ayesha wore a black suit and walked two steps behind Jiang Chen with a briefcase in hand. To the unfamiliar looking female assistant that appeared behind Jiang Chen, the media demonstrated interest toward her no less than Jiang Chen. They sensed paparazzi material from the two.

But contrary to the energized media, Ayesha's response was extremely distant as she pretended the reporters didn't exist at all. She ignored all the flashes and cameras.

As for Jiang Chen, he was in a suit and dealt with the media with a smile. But to the harsh or questions with other meanings, he completely neglected them.

"Mr. Jiang, does your attendance of the Berm Auto Exhibition mean Future Group's interest in the auto industry? In other words, is the Future Group sending the signal that artificial intelligence will enter the auto field?"

"On Future Technology's recent introduction of the immersive virtual reality helmet, how are you ensuring its safety? If someone used it to instill some abnormal content on people's brain, or illegally steal information from the user's brain, and this activity cannot be regulated by traditional means, how can you ensure that this behavior will not happen? Please excuse me for my presumptuous speculation; after all, the brain is human's last line of privacy."

"Would you engage in a partnership with other cooperations interested in virtual reality? Mr. Jiang Chen, the representative from the International Science Council stated that the era-defining technology should be shared with all humans around the world, and not become a method for a company to make money—"

"Mr. Jiang Chen, based on a recent article on Wall Street Journal, your company submitted the plan to launch a commercial satellite to international organizations through the Xin Government, does this mean Future Group plan to enter the aerospace industry?"

"A Stan professor stated that the protection mechanism in Phantom is an illegal patent protection action and is against Consumer Rights Protection Act because consumers who buy the product have the right—"

Jiang Chen stopped walking and looked at a young reporter with curly hair.

"Please pass on my message to that professor to be careful with his choice of words. 'Phantom' helmet has not yet been officially released. Other than the experience stores that signed an exclusive agreement with us, only the official website launched a presale of 2.5 million units. Also, I can accountably tell you that whether it is pre-sale or the official sale later this year, we will provide the product with a replacement policy if damaged within the warranty limit, and half-price exchange services for products out of warranty. Moreover, on the exchange agreement, we will make sure to add a line that any unauthorized demolition will be regarded as a breach of contract and the warranty will be automatically void. We fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers; the only requirement is not to open our helmet. As for our peers who tried to disassemble the helmet, I sincerely advise you to purchase more to open up. But I promise you are doing no merit. "

Seeing Jiang Chen to continue to walk forward, the reporter rushed up and extended his microphone out to stop him, but Jiang Chen already was gone.

The four muscular bodyguards surrounded Jiang Chen and Ayesha in the middle. Although they didn't wear kinetic skeletons this time, the strength amplified by the genetic vaccine was not something the weak reporters could block.

The reporters that surrounded them like flies followed them to the exit of the airport. It was not until when the Rothschild family greeted them and invited them onto their fleet did the reporters finally leave.

"Haha, we meet again, my friend." Carmen in the backseat smiled at Jiang Chen coming into the car.

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Carmen, how have you been?" Jiang Chen sat in the back and smiled back.

"I've great, thanks to your company's artificial intelligence program. It is designed flawlessly to fit our chip. The board and our partner have high expectations for the S700 we are introducing in the exhibition. Without a doubt, our product will be the center of attention at the show." Carmen smiled with his white teeth appearing.

Ayesha as the bodyguard and assistant sat in the front passenger seat, and the other four Celestial Trade bodyguards sat separately in the two vehicles in the front and back.

"The program was designed specifically for you."

A one billion dollar deal. Future Technology logo to be displayed for one second during startup, and a 30 billion USD loan. The Rothschild helped out greatly in Future Group's rapid expansion.

But in their conversation today, Carmen didn't mention the loan at all and didn't even ask about the state of Future Group. They only discussed hobbies and interests.

"Are you interested in a private jet? With your current asset, you have the ability to purchase one. It would not only ease your visit, it could also reduce a lot of unnecessary troubles." Carmen jokingly glanced back at the reporter vehicle following them.

"I will consider buying one, can you give me a recommendation?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"In the Auto Exhibition two days later, Gulfstream's Europe division manager Andy Belfort will be attending. I can introduce you to him. I highly recommend their Gulfstream G650. Whether it is functionality or appearance, the G650 is superior to other jets at the same price point."

"Then I will thank you in advance." Jiang Chen smiled.

He considered long ago about buying a private jet, but because he was focused on the apocalypse back then, and there was no need for a plane, he put the idea aside. Now that Carmen mentioned it, he used the opportunity to inquire further.

"No problem, Mr. Belfort will be happy to meet you too."

Johnson was driving, Carmen's bodyguard and driver; former Fran's special force.

Every time Carmen traveled, he would accompany him. Although the Rothschild family kept a low profile, there were still people that kept an eye on them. Whether those who sought a lucrative ransom, or business opponents, or the Palestinian suicide holy warrior.

Johnson turned the wheel while glancing at Ayesha who sat beside him.

For some reason, the girl that nowhere resembled a warrior gave him a faint dangerous feeling. Not just her, the four bodyguards that Jiang Chen brought made the war-battered him cautious.

Before Ayesha noticed, he drew his sight back

[This is so fu*king weird.]

Johnson cursed in his mind before he focused on the road in front of him.

Chapter 505: Rothschild's Manor

It took an hour before the car fleet arrived at Rothschild's manor located in Bava.

"It is not our way of treating our guest to allow them to live in hotels. This manor is our family's asset. There won't be any reporters here to disturb you. I hope you enjoy it," After getting off the car, Carmen explained politely.

They were indeed an old aristocracy from the Napoleonic era, having money was not just enough to purchase such a magnificent manor in Frankberg. From the classical decoration and the historic stone walls, they were the faint glimpse of the historical heritage of this manor.

It was as if this place was not a manor, but a century history museum.

A butler named Ccides brought the four bodyguards to another building in the manor where the servants lived. Of course, that was only a traditional way of referring to the building; the actual living conditions were no inferior to a five-star hotel.

Ayesha was supposed to live there, but the old butler acutely saw her relationship with Jiang Chen was not as simple as what it was on the surface, so he arranged them to stay in the same room in the main building.

Inside, the redwood floor had a mixture of fresh wooden scent. There were a Germanic noble style bed and a decorative fireplace. The entire bedroom looked elegant but comfortable.

They were indeed an old aristocracy; even their lodging was classy.

When Jiang Chen saw the room, he made up his mind that he will design a similar bedroom in his mansion. As a self-created wealthy person, he never really studied class and elegance.

The maid in the manor cleaned the room before the two arrived. After letting Jiang Chen know about the amenities in the building, he took the two to the dining room.

Dinner was as lavish as he had imagined, but the taste and nutrition were impeccable. The wine was from Rothschild's Lafitte vineyard. Although he didn't know the year, just from the rich aroma of the wine, it was not hard to smell the hefty price.

Speaking of which, the most impressive things that belonged to the Rothschild family were probably the red wine and the bank. No one knew how rich they are; because they wrote in their family code that they would never display their wealth, even if it meant that they give up the opportunity to make money through a public offering.

To the world that questioned its decline, they ignored it. To the exaggerated dismissive in the novel "Currency War," they turned a deaf ear. Perhaps this was the old aristocratic calmness.

On the dinner table, Carmen and Jiang Chen had a great conversation and didn't talk about business at all. Ayesha was as quiet as usual, focusing on the mutton in her plate.

After dinner, it was getting late. Carmen courteously wished Jiang Chen to enjoy his experience and reminded him not to miss the party tomorrow night before he left. The manor seemed to be a place where Rothschild hosted their honored guests. As a family member, he didn't live there.

Jiang Chen took a shower in the marble washroom before returning to the bedroom.

Ayesha had returned one step ahead of him as she was playing with a pen-shaped device on the bed. Jiang Chen recognized the device, The anti-surveillance detection device, sold at most of the weapon shops at the Sixth Street.

Jiang Chen dried his hair with the towel around his neck and smiled at Ayesha.

"Did you find anything?"

Ayesha shook her head.

"No."

"Looks like the Rothschild is treating us with honesty." Jiang Chen was pleased.

What he didn't know was, it was not that Carmen didn't try. When they first partnered up, the USB he gave Jiang Chen contained a mini positioner. But because it was thrown into the storage dimension, that thing didn't have any effects.

When Carmen discovered the positioner mysteriously disappeared, Carmen learned and didn't do any small tricks that wouldn't even "escape" his eyes.

Jiang Chen sat beside Ayesha, smelt the fragrance of jasmine, and knew she showered already.

With a hand around her frail waist, Jiang Chen whispered into her ear.

"Did you bring the schedule?"

Her ear felt ticklish from the warm air, and her face carried the redness from just getting out from the shower as Ayesha timidly nodded.

"Mhmm, it's in the briefcase."

Just as she was about to get up and get the briefcase, the hand around her waist had no intention of letting go.

Ayesha turned her head and met his naughty sight.

"We can look at it tomorrow, why don't we rest early today?" Jiang Chen had a smirk on him as his right hand began to explore.

It was a long night.

The next morning, because they slept early, Jiang Chen woke up bright and early.

He woke the sleepy Ayesha up, and after washing up, they came to the dining room for breakfast.

Then, Ayesha took the schedule from Jiang Chen.

Day one, arrive in Frankberg, no other plan.

Day two, free during the day, then attend a party hosted by Carmen Rothschild at the manor in Bava.

Day three, attend the Auto Exhibition.

Day four, free.

Dave five, return to Xin.

The five-day schedule was not compact. With a rare opportunity to visit, Jiang Chen would obviously not miss the opportunity to explore the unfamiliar but beautiful kingdom. He heard that there is a famous attraction in Bava – the New Swan Fort which was the original model for Disney's Castle. With this opportunity, Jiang Chen planned to take Ayesha there.

No one was certain if the wonders that belonged to humanity could still be seen in the future…

But before he left the manor, Jiang Chen planned to take Ayesha to tour the attraction in front of them.

The Rothschild Manor.

Holding onto her soft hand, walking on the marble brick road, sensing the slightly chilly morning breeze, Jiang Chen gazed at the green pint forest. Behind the forest was a vast lake.

Not far off from the Lake, Jiang Chen caught a small wooden cabin near the forest as well as a sail that stood in front of the cabin. The sail didn't look finely crafted, but from the matching proportion and the smooth arc, Jiang Chen could still see the meticulous effort.

A man in a parka was carefully sawing a piece of wood.

[Building a boat?]

Due to curiosity, Jiang Chen took a few extra looks.

The old man seemed to have noticed Jiang Chen's attention as he waved at the two with a friendly gesture before leaving them alone and focusing on his task at hand.

Jiang Chen put down his waving hand and muttered in a small voice.

"The servant of the Rothschild family?"

Jiang Chen shook his head and put this encounter in the back of his head. He held Ayesha's hand to continued walking along the marble slab road.

What Jiang Chen didn't know was, before he disappeared from the old man's sight, the old man's eyes gazed at his back.

The slightly raised eyebrows seemed to indicate that he was thinking.

Chapter 506: Dinner

When they left the manor, the butler prepared a black Benz for the two of them. The car exited the manor from the side door quietly without alerting reporters.

Because it was a private outing, Jiang Chen didn't bring the four Celestial Trades bodyguards. The reason was partially because of his confidence in his own abilities and partially because traveling with four muscular men would ruin the mood.

The entire day, Jiang Chen took Ayesha to tour the attractions in Bava. From the New Swan Fort to the Lake of Alpines, their footsteps traversed the entire area. It wasn't until the sun was setting that the two of them, with an entire memory card full of photos, called it a day.

Looking at the weary but excited red glow on the girl's face, Jiang Chen was delighted.

"Did you have fun today?"

"Mhmm!' Ayesha nodded, pleased.

Her normally expressionless face displayed a rare liveliness fitting for her age.

Jiang Chen smiled. He took the wheel and turned the car onto a rural road.

With just one glance, a golden wheat field entered their sight. The horizon in the distance connected the darkening sky with the jagged mountains. Dusk as a backdrop for the mountains looked magnificent and poetic.

It was already deep into the fall. On the wasteland, it probably started snowing.

Jiang Chen stared at the scene, amazed at the beauty.

Ayesha, by the side, raised her camera and captured a beautiful image.

Seeing as there was still some time, Jiang Chen took a detour and continued along the rural road.

Suddenly, his field of vision expanded.

At the end of the wheat field was a town with scattered lights. Between where the forest connected was a small town segregated by an iron fence. The people in ragged clothes gathered together, looked at the sky, and took care of their malnourished families. In front of the refugee camp, a couple of workers and polices gathered around a few vans as they distributed food and water.

"They are…"

With the camera in her hands, Ayesha gazed at the segregated area in the distance.

"People without a home are known as refugees. They left their home because of the war and most of them are from Libya or Sy—"Jiang Chen stopped suddenly.

He realized it was her hometown.

It must be a terrible feeling to see people from her hometown who had to flee their home.

Snap.

But she merely raised her camera and captured the scene.

"Don't you feel… uh… bad?" Jiang Chen was careful with his words.

Ayesha nodded then shook her head.

"Thank you."

"Mhmm?"

Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha, puzzled.

She lowered her head with a wistful smile. Her frail fingertips subconsciously rubbed the shutter of the camera.

"If I hadn't met you… I might not even have made it here."

She recollected everything that happened in the past. While she occasionally encountered danger, most of the time, she felt the warmth of the family. Jiang Chen didn't treat her with brute force just because of her identity; he had always been gentle.

As for his other aspects, she completely forgot about the pain.

"Stop thinking about weird things." Jiang Chen grinned and used his right hand to rub her hair with force.

"I wasn't."

Ayesha shook her head and hugged the camera as a shallow smile appeared on her face.

The golden girl gilded by the dusk was holding onto a priceless treasure.

…

When they returned to the Rothschild manor, it was around six.

The butler was waiting for them at the gate.

There was still an hour before the party started. Although Jiang Chen thought there was still an ample amount of time, the adamant butler thought otherwise.

Their attire was provided by the Rothschild family. Since Jiang Chen hadn't known about the party before he arrived, he didn't have any formal attire with him. As for Ayesha, she returned to her room to rest as she wasn't accustomed to this type of gathering.

After being worked on by a few meticulous maids for a while, Jiang Chen barely made it to the party venue before it started.

"Mhmm, not bad, it fits you well."

Carmen smiled at Jiang Chen at the door.

"Thank you." They walked together into the venue.

The circular venue was decorated exquisitely with class. The diamond chandeliers illuminated the ceiling of the venue. Influential and powerful people from all industries were gathered there; the duchesses and celebrities chatted amongst themselves while waiters with champagne traversed between the circles.

The people invited to the gathering were mostly leaders in finance, industry tycoons or powerful politicians. Because he was outside of the "circle," Jiang Chen didn't see anyone he knew.

He didn't know if it was an illusion or not but the instant he walked into the room, at least ten pairs of eyes consciously and subconsciously were focused on him.

"The Rothschild family isn't most proud of the assets we possess, but rather, it's the connections we have. A few guests here are the major shareholders of one hundred billion public companies, and quite a few people here were the president or vice president of a country; we consider all of these people our friends. The business partnerships established at a party is no lesser than any established at an international business summit. This kind of party will be hosted by us every few months. You are all gathered here at just the right time; I can introduce you all to a few interesting people."

Carmen smiled with his white teeth showing. He opened his arms wide and greeted the man with red hair walking towards him.

"Long time no see, Carmen, my old friend."

"Haha, my friend, long time no see indeed. Let me introduce you - this is Jiang Chen." Carmen introduced him to his friend.

The red-haired man displayed a slightly shocked expression before he immediately smiled and extended his right hand.

"Glad to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen. Your company's Phantom helmet left me with a profound expression. But unfortunately, your colosseum server only opened level 10 combat. I look forward to the day when the game is officially released. I'm Peter McLean - you can call me Peter."

Jiang Chen shook Peter's hand as he replied, "Nice to meet you, Peter. I trust that when that day comes, I assure you won't be disappointed."

"Peter McLean, the president of UK's Guardian, the second largest data backup equipment company in Europe. The old rival of IBM." Carmen introduced him casually to Jiang Chen.

"Don't make fun of me." Peter made an exaggerated expression. "Why don't we have some champagne to lighten up the mood?"

Due to the restriction of language and other influences, European tech companies were naturally at a disadvantage. Although the Guardian received contracts from British forces, IBM didn't view this old rival as competition anymore.

"Great idea." Carmen laughed. "For this party, I brought the most expensive wine from Bava vineyards; please enjoy."

A table was lined up with crystal cups; the waiter courteously poured Jiang Chen a cup of wine.

Just as Jiang Chen wondered if he should find a "useful" circle of people to mingle with, a man with a beer belly walked up to him with a bright smile.

Beside him was a young blonde girl.

"You must be Mr. Jiang Chen, am I correct?"

Chapter 507: Mature Deepwater Mining Technology

He was dressed in a sharp-looking suit and shoes. He had a reflective head, a round face with wrinkles beginning to appear, and a smile that didn't make him feel disgusted.

The girl standing beside him had curly blonde hair, complemented by a black dress that outlined her beautiful figure. It certainly made a clear contrast with the man's balding head and beer belly.

"And you are?" Jiang Chen looked at him, confused.

"Luke Joyce. Speaking of which, we are business partners." Luke raised his wine glass and toasted Jiang Chen.

[Business partners?]

Jiang Chen didn't recall having a business partner with this name.

Luke acutely recognized the confusion in Jiang Chen's eyes as he added:

"Looks like Mr. Jiang Chen doesn't seem to like to study the shareholder structure of your business partners. I'm a shareholder of BHP."

Earlier, Future Group signed an iron and aluminum ore export agreement with BHP. Although Future Mining was formed at a later date with a major breakthrough in deep water mining technology, the extracted manganese nodules met Future Group's iron demands, so Future Group terminated the iron export agreement. But in terms of aluminum, Future Group still replied on BHP's exports.

Jiang Chen immediately had a realization.

"Yes, Mr. Luke, I apologize for my rudeness."

Luke didn't mind at all and continued to introduce his female companion.

"This is my daughter, Melinda Joyce."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen. I'm a loyal fan of Future Technology." Melinda extended her hand.

Although he was slightly shocked, Jiang Chen didn't reveal any emotions on his face as he politely took her hand and smiled. "Hello, Miss Melinda, I'm pleased Future Technology satisfies you."

The shock in Jiang Chen's mind was no less than someone pointing out an ogre and elf and telling him with a serious expression that they were actually father and daughter.

"Haha, my daughter is really curious about your legendary expression. If there is an opportunity, you guys should chat." Luke wiggled his eyebrows at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen obviously understood the hints in Luke's voice. It didn't take too many sentences before it was apparent he was trying to arrange a marriage for his daughter.

But unfortunately, Jiang Chen was not interested in his daughter.

"It's not a legendary experience - only good luck," Jiang Chen said humbly.

Although his words were humble, they weren't wrong. If it wasn't for his interdimensional travel abilities, he wouldn't be where he was today.

"Please don't say that, Mr. Jiang Chen. That would make 7 billion people upset because someone can make it onto the Forbes list just through luck." Melinda's red lips formed a smile.

Jiang Chen opened his hands to emphasize that his words were true, but unfortunately, no one believed him. But from Luke and Melinda's perspective, his gesture was self-mocking, lightening up the atmosphere.

After some chitchat, perhaps she noticed that Jiang Chen was uninterested in her, so Melinda politely disappeared and left some time for the two of them to talk business in other circles. Luke didn't feel surprised at his daughter leaving as he clearly saw that Jiang Chen wasn't interested, so he didn't force it while he continued the conversation with Jiang Chen.

Luke was very talkative as their conversation spanned from sailing to golf. Jiang Chen, however, did most of the listening because he didn't know too much about either area and it wasn't a good time to pretend he knew.

In the end, the conversation finally steered back to business.

"Speaking of which, why is Mr. Jiang Chen keeping such a tight control on your shares? If Future Group becomes public on NASDAQ, without a doubt, you will be the wealthiest man in the world," Luke exclaimed.

"Because I believe in the future of Future Group. I believe the wealth it will bring me is no less than what a public offering can bring me," Jiang Chen said lightheartedly.

"But if you work with people who share the same ambition, won't you expand faster?" Luke smiled.

"Does Mr. Luke think my Future Group is expanding slowly?" Jiang Chen asked back in a joking tone.

Luke paused and began to chuckle.

"You're right. Since your inception, Mr. Jiang's company hasn't exhibited even one problem with cash flow; it's certainly an impressive feat."

"That's an exaggeration." Jiang Chen was humble.

"Can I ask a question?" Luke passed his empty glass to the waiter and picked up another one.

"Of course, if I can answer."

"Whether it's Future 1.0 or the current Phantom, your company always introduces products that are favored by the market. There's also nutrient supply and deep water mining technology… What's the next product?" Luke asked.

"We'll probably further develop the virtual reality market or perhaps invest in manned space missions because I'm personally interested in space… Why do you ask?" Jiang Chen said casually.

"To avoid accidentally becoming your competition." Luke wryly shrugged his shoulders and joked to Jiang Chen: "Because of your virtual reality project, this sector in the NASDAQ is obliterated as most public companies fell from cloud nine to a deep abyss. Almost all investors who experienced the Phantom first-hand became aware that their investments in virtual reality faltered. Especially when a Harvard professor stated that it's a technology that can't be achieved in 20 years…"

Not even 20 years - in the timeline in the apocalypse, the first immersive virtual reality equipment only appeared in 2050.

"Then I do have to apologize." Jiang Chen used a tone that he didn't mean at all.

"Haha, no need to apologize to me. I didn't place bets on the frontier of technology. In terms of investment philosophy, I share the same view as Carmen," Luke said.

He took a sip of the champagne and continued:

"What does Mr. Jiang think about the resources industry?"

"Supply over demand."

"That's right." Luke smiled and nodded. "Just two days ago, BHP sold two iron mines in the red, but every shareholder, including me, knows that it's a futile action. The mining business will only get harder and harder - not just in iron, but all other resources other than precious metals will face a similar downward trend."

"Oh, is that so?" Jiang Chen said thoughtfully.

"Of course, since there's a limit to market demands, take the rebar used in the construction sector. Most people will only have one house in their life, but a house's life can be much longer than its owner. So even if we have been dominating in the resource sector, we have to use some of the money to support… industries that may give birth to new things such as the Rothschild family's Dalmer Group that invests in new energy vehicle projects that are bottomless pits. Then, for example, without doing due diligence on investment projects, we can lend 30 billion to a tech company with a bright future."

"It's easy to bring ore up to the surface level. Just take my old friend in the Rothschild family. Vale, under their control, is the biggest iron ore supplier in the world with an estimated reserve of 4 billion tons. The mines can produce for up to 400 years and this is just public data." Luke paused for a moment and exchanged a long but meaningful glance with Jiang Chen.

"During this pivotal time, if a mining technology could decrease the cost of mining and include depositions previously inaccessible on the list of current reserves, what kind of influence do you think this would have on the poor mining sector?"

When he heard all this, Jiang Chen more or less guessed Luke's goal behind the conversation and why Carmen brought him to meet him.

"You mean that some technologies are too advanced?"

"That's right." Luke nodded.

"For example?"

"For example, mature deep water mining technology."

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted.

Chapter 508: Mutually Satisfactory Agreement

"Because of the breakthrough you made in the deepwater mining field, the futures of iron, copper, gold, and molybdenum have accelerated their demise. To maintain the stability of the market, the mining giants have spent quite some effort. Of course, the key to solving the problem is on you."

How many deposits were there in the ocean? If Future Mining made a significant breakthrough in the area, investors' expectations for deep water mining would, without a doubt, heat up. How many resources were there available in the sea? Aside from Jiang Chen who already acquired a global mining reserve map, no one knew.

And investors themselves were creatures who loved to imagine.

Luke smiled at Jiang Chen.

"If I guessed correctly, Future Mining's costs for deepwater mining projects aren't high, and the production is sizable."

Luke's expression clearly showed he wasn't clueless. There was no purpose in covering things up, so Jiang Chen didn't try to hide the truth.

"You guessed correctly."

Labor costs only included the salary of the employees on the sea platform; the underwater equipment was powered by the tidal generator, making the cost of maintenance almost negligible. The only equipment costs were paid in crystals. Without knowing the ratio between crystals and modern world currency, he couldn't calculate the cost of equipment.

But he was certain about one thing - the costs of deep water mining were extremely low before space mining appeared.

"The world's iron, aluminum, and copper markets are already on the brink of collapse. Without any exaggeration, if the price of iron continues its downward trend, by end of the year, 47 mining companies will face the risk of bankruptcy. In the short term, it may be beneficial to us, but it's also dangerous for us in the long term. So I want to solve the problem by taking a step back."

"So what do you propose?" Jiang Chen was quite intrigued as he looked at the smiling Luke.

"If I remember correctly, you can influence the political decisions of the Xin government. We want you to influence the presidential office's decision and increase the mining export tax by 50% to limit domestic exports of mining resources," Luke said in a quiet voice.

To Jiang Chen's surprise, he previously thought Luke wanted to purchase Future Mining's technology, but he didn't even mention this and only offered a proposal that didn't really affect Future Mining.

"Limit Future Mining's access to the international market to cooldown the investors? But what do I gain from this?"

"We obviously won't make you do this for free. I'm willing to provide you contracts for iron, aluminum, copper and other metals effective within five years at 80% of the current market price."

For BHP, it was indeed a big step backward. A discount of 20% meant they were essentially providing the metals at cost and working for free for Future Group for the next five years in exchange for slowing down Future Group's low-cost ores from entering international markets.

"Use the power of capital to slow down the introduction of new technologies?" Jiang Chen's words seemed to carry more meaning than the surface suggested.

"You could interpret that as paying enough compensation in the hope of delaying the introduction of technology to the world. In a market where supply exceeds demand, introducing technology isn't beneficial to the market," Luke said with sternness.

Luke was clear with BHP's stance on this.

For an international mining tycoon, Jiang Chen wasn't naïve enough to think they would use market competition to solve the problem. To be able to own so many mining resources in multiple nations around the world, their political investments certainly couldn't be underestimated.

The reason why Luke brought it up was because they wanted to avoid a direct conflict with Future Group. Since Future Group was no longer a small fish in the sea, its core focus was in space tech and not in resource extraction, so both sides could avoid unnecessary conflict.

On the other hand, BHP wasn't the only company affected - Rothschild-controlled Vale was the largest mining company in the world. It would be hard to say this encounter had nothing to do with Carmen.

Jiang Chen's head spun rapidly as he weighed the pros and cons of the proposal.

If possible, Jiang Chen wanted to avoid a direct conflict with the mining giants. Future Technology's business expansion required a stable environment. It was unwise to create enemies for himself.

Especially since excessive resources were only relative to the current situation. Although the theme of the proposal required both parties to take a step back, it would be hard to determine who actually gained and who actually lost…

Luke patiently waited for Jiang Chen's response.

Without making him wait for long, Jiang Chen spoke after a momentary pause.

"Five years? Can I ask the supply amount?"

"Determined by you." Luke made a generous offer as he elegantly sipped his champagne.

When Jiang Chen heard this, an undetectable smile appeared on his face.

"80 million tons."

When Luke heard Jiang Chen's number, he almost spat out the champagne in his mouth.

"80 million tons? Does Mr. Jiang have an idea of the number you just provided? I'm not joking - even if all of Xin's steel plants operated continuously for 50 years, there would still be an excess of ores left."

Hua's iron ore imports for 2015 was 950 billion tons and Xin's total area was less than half of any of Hua's provinces. It was a question if they could process the ores in 15 years, let alone five years!

But this was an outsider's perspective.

"You don't have to worry about this - Future Group naturally has the resources to process the resources. Also, something worth mentioning is that the 80 million is the sum total of iron, aluminum, copper, nickel - not just iron alone. Of course, iron would make up the majority of the number, at least 75%." Jiang Chen smiled.

With his eyebrows tightly locked together, Luke hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"At most 50 million tons, and you must assure me that the ores provided at cost must not enter international markets. This will be written in the contract."

"No problem. But I have to mention now that the mines may be processed at neighboring Papua New Guinea before being transported to Xin," Jiang Chen reminded him.

With the shortage of labor, Jiang Chen planned to move the industries with high population and labor demands to neighboring countries. As a developing country, Papua New Guinea was a great choice in addition to Moro still in its beginning stages.

Luke deliberated for a bit longer before finally giving him a nod.

"No problem."

"Also, molybdenum, uranium, and other precious metals are not included in the contract restrictions," Jiang Chen proposed.

"No problem. Molybdenum and the precious metals market have been under the control of Hua and nothing to do with us… Also, if I may ask, is it feasible to extract uranium from deep water?" Luke was curious.

"Not now, but it doesn't mean it's not feasible in the future. We may have a breakthrough in the next five years; it's hard to say," Jiang Chen replied with ambiguity.

"Is that so? That's surprising. If you don't have any other opinions, then I'm happy we've reached an agreement." Luke raised his glass with a smile.

"I wish only success for our partnership." Jiang Chen also raised his cup with a mysterious smile flashing and fading on his face.

Following the crisp sound of their toast, the agreement worth billions had been settled. The two sides both had satisfied smiles as they received what they needed.

Luke received the promise that Future Mining wouldn't introduce deep water mining technology to the global market. Although they wouldn't make money on 50 million tons of ores, BHP would not take losses on these. With the current market, it was incredible to maintain an income statement without losses without decreasing production. Although on the surface, it might look like BHP was working for Future Group for free, from another angle, Future Group solved the excessive production capacity issue faced by BHP.

The gains for Jiang Chen were obvious - he obtained 50 tons of ores at the floor price. It was a critical deal for Future Group's planned construction of floating ocean cities, space elevator terminals, and habitable mega space stations.

It wouldn't be five years before Luke would regret the agreement he made tonight.

Excessive production was always relative to the present.

The only thing that made Jiang Chen puzzled was how Luke was so confident about Future Mining's costs and production as well as his calmness about deep water mining technology without any intention of acquiring the technology.

Jiang Chen stared at the glass in his hand and entered deep thought.

Chapter 509: The Conversation before the Bonfire

With a pleased smile, Luke excused himself and walked to other social circles. Watching Luke leave, Jiang Chen thought he would escape from the need to socialize, but he clearly underestimated his appeal or Future Group's attraction to investors.

The gazes upon him were either indifferent, jealous, or respectful, but they were all without disregard.

As the newcomer to the party and the president of Future Group with substantial influence in the tech industry, regardless of their intentions, there were plenty of people eager to say hello to Jiang Chen and exchange business cards. Regardless if a partnership could be reached, it didn't hurt to have more friends, right?

Therefore, for the next two hours, Jiang Chen was socializing tirelessly.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, it's nice to meet you, this is my business card… If you have any needs in acquisition services, please contact our bank," a banker said.

"Mr. Jiang, are you interested in equity infusion? Don't rush to reject me yet, haha. If Future Group ever runs into problems with a turnaround or large investment project, please contact us!" A Wall Street investor looked at Jiang Chen as if he was staring at a gold vault.

"Is this your first time in Germany? If you have time, I'd be very happy to take you to explore this beautiful country." A female with a celebrity face offered, but Jiang Chen couldn't remember her name.

…

In just two hour's time, his suit's not-so-wide pockets were stuffed with different kinds of business cards and his gold-gilded business cards were almost all distributed.

While he was responding to the sincere guests, Jiang Chen's gaze had been intentionally or unintentionally swinging to the foie gras, Marseille fish soup, and other delicacies. But unfortunately, when the melodious violin was replaced by the waltz, guests walked to the circular dance floor while holding hands.

By then, the food on the table was replaced by too-sweet desserts.

When he exited the venue, the cold breeze blowing on his face alleviated some of the irritating heat. Perhaps he breathed in too much carbon dioxide, but Jiang Chen felt that the air from the pine forest was especially fresh.

Carmen disappeared after closing remarks and Jiang Chen didn't wait for him as he left along with the other guests exiting the venue. To be precise with their relationship, they were partners rather than friends.

Because he wanted to stay out for longer, Jiang Chen took a detour and followed a rock path along the pine forest.

His shadow was elongated by the streetlights. He flipped through his stack of business cards and put the useless ones in his left pocket while the potentially-useful ones were placed in his right pocket. Before he threw them into the storage dimension, he wanted to categorize the business cards in some way to avoid confusion when they were actually needed.

But the ones he felt might be useful were only cards.

One belonged to Luke while the other one belonged to Elon Musk.

Jiang Chen didn't think he would meet that guy here. The middle-aged man with brown hair shook Jiang Chen's hand with a bright smile. He clearly heard rumors of Jiang Chen's intention to enter the aerospace industry by purchasing aerospace companies, but in the face of strong competition, he hadn't displayed any opposing attitude. Rather, he hoped to cooperate with Future Group in aerospace to achieve the great-but-distant strategic goal of colonizing Mars.

Although in Jiang Chen's eyes, this goal wasn't too far out of reach.

All in all, Jiang Chen kept the business cards. Perhaps he could cooperate with him in the aerospace industry.

Just as he was halfway through the cards, his stomach made a rumbling sound.

"Still hungry… Whatever, I'll get some food when I go back." Jiang Chen sighed.

But then the aroma of roasted meat swept by and lingered in his nostrils.

He followed the direction of the wind and saw a faint bonfire deep in the pine forest.

The roasted meat smell seemed to be coming from there, but who, at this time, would roast meat that close to the Rothschild manor?

It obviously wasn't Carmen - he must be busy wrapping up his party.

"Could it be a Rothschild servant?" Jiang Chen mused to himself.

For some reason, he thought about the elderly man he saw in the morning, the man who was constructing a sail beside the cabin.

With curiousity driving him, Jiang Chen walked in the direction of the fire.

Dried but soft pine needles covered the muddy ground and sounded damp when stepped on. It was cool in the forest. It was quiet too, a complete contrast to the noise at the party.

[After I'm done playing around, I'll buy a house in an area like this to live in seclusion.]

For some reason, the idea suddenly popped up in his mind before he quickly shook his head and scratched the idea.

He was still young and without exception, he would continue to be young. If he didn't live life to the fullest for a hundred years, it would be a disgrace to interdimensional travelers.

"Roasted lamp leg, you're in luck."

The elderly man sensed Jiang Chen's arrival. He didn't turn his head and smiled facing the bonfire.

Jiang Chen stood beside the old man and scanned the dried pine needles covering the ground.

"Are you not afraid of a forest fire?"

"It won't spread."

Perhaps because of his confidence in his roasting technique, the dried lips of the old man displayed a trace of confidence.

"Could I have a piece? Of course, I'll pay." Staring at the golden lamb leg, Jiang Chen's hunger intensified as he asked.

When he heard Jiang Chen's words, the old man's cloudy eyes were illuminated brightly like black pearls under a jumping flame. Jiang Chen couldn't explain why, but his gaze was like that of a hunter, but he wasn't staring at a sheep.

"If you want to eat it, just sit beside me. There's no need for money," the elderly man said before turning around.

Jiang Chen stared at the mud mixed with pine needles. He hesitated for a few seconds before crossing his legs and sitting down.

After about five minutes, the smell was just right as the elderly man skillfully sprayed salt and cumin on the lamb leg on the rack. Then he took out a small knife, took a few swings and handed the knife with the lamb meat to Jiang Chen.

"Try it."

Jiang Chen hesitantly put the knife tip up to his mouth, blew on it, took a bite, and his eyes instantly lit up.

"How does it taste?" The old man smiled.

"It's extraordinary." He handed the knife back to the elder and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He wasn't stingy with his praise.

The old man grinned and didn't respond to Jiang Chen's praise. He cut off a bigger piece of the lamb and handed it to him. Then he took out another knife and a bottle of alcohol.

"I already taught you how to cut the meat, now you can try yourself." The old man took a swig.

Jiang Chen, who had a stomach full of champagne, refused the alcohol the man passed over and instead feasted on the lamb leg. The two just sat in the forest without exchanging much conversation. They quietly enjoyed the delicious meat.

"Speaking of which, I think I met you this morning beside the lake," Jiang Chen abruptly said.

"Oh. I was chopping wood." The elder man smiled.

"That boat was built by you?" Jiang Chen put some meat into his mouth and swallowed it before he asked in a casual tone.

"Built the boat from the keel to sail - everything was completed by me." A proud smile appeared on the man's face as if he was bragging about something remarkable.

It was remarkable, even from Jiang Chen's perspective as an outsider.

"The Rothschild family didn't help you?" Jiang Chen realized the old man's status in the family must not be ordinary; starting a fire to roast meat was something normal servants would do.

But with the carefree appearance of the old man, it was hard for Jiang Chen to connect him with the Rothschild family. Just from the impression Carmen left him, the family was probably critical of the appearance of courtesy.

"I told them not to help me."

"Sorry, but you are?"

The old man smiled while wiping the oily knife.

"Jacquardo Rothschild."

"… That's a thunderous name."

He was the former head of the Rothschild family. When Jiang Chen researched this financial family, he came across this name. This man was the legendary figure who led the Rothschild family out of the downfall of the Second World War, but history's description was overly brief.

Even his decision to pass the position of the head to his younger brother in order to live a life in seclusion in the Bava manor was only covered by a small column in the financial news.

"That's right. After retirement, I stopped using that name," Jacquardo said without much emotional fluctuation.

"Then what name do you use?"

"Paris." He dusted the dirt on his chin off as the bonfire lit up the smile on his face.

The name sounded familiar; it belonged to an ancient Greek mythology hero. He was the prince Zeus asked who the Golden Apple should be gifted to. His answer immediately caused the Trojan War.

Jiang Chen wanted to ask why he chose that name but resisted the urge.

If possible, he didn't want to associate himself with the Golden Apple again.

But the elder spoke out first.

"If you obtained the Golden Apple, who would you gift it to? Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite?"

It was a difficult question to answer.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh with his hand on his chin as he deliberated carefully for a while.

"This is a difficult question to answer. I pretty much have all the power and wealth I want. I don't seem to lack the intelligence and courage to start a hero's path. Perhaps I will gift it to Aphrodite? Since in this day and age, the more powerful and wealthy a person is, the further away they are from pure love. And a war comparable to the Trojan War wouldn't be too boring."

"Hahahaha." Jacquardo appeared to have heard something funny as he began to laugh.

His aged voice echoed in the forest.

Moments later, the pine forest returned to its tranquil state with only the sound of pine needles swaying.

"An interesting response. Although your choice was superficial, your justification was surprisingly fun."

To Jacquardo's comment, Jiang Chen only smiled nonchalantly then sent the question back in a half-joking tone.

"Then which god would you gift to, Mr. Paris?"

Jacquardo smiled. The wrinkles on his face squeezed together.

Under the glow of the fire, his smile looked somewhat menacing or barbaric.

"Regardless who I gifted it to, it would result in hell. So I would obviously keep it for myself."

Chapter 510: Auto Exhibition

On his trip back to the main building of the manor, Jiang Chen thought about Jacquardo's last sentence. When he asked Jacquardo how a peasant could use the Golden Apple, the man just smiled without replying.

The elder's response made Jiang Chen feel secretly relieved. Jacquardo's smile without a reply meant he viewed Jiang Chen as an "outsider." Hence, he thought Jiang Chen didn't know about the actual Golden Apple.

After finishing the entire roasted lamb leg, the elder extinguished the bonfire and buried the now-meatless carcass into the ground before departing. He picked up a backpack losing its color and headed to the wooden cabin beside the lake.

Perhaps his thoughts were somewhere else that time flew by as he realized he was now at the main building. When he arrived, Ccides was already waiting for him at the door.

"Did you see master?" When Jiang Chen stepped in front of him, the aged butler smiled courteously.

"How did you know?" Jiang Chen was curious.

"The pine needles on your shoulder and roasted lamb smell." Ccides smiled. "Master Carmen and I have been reminding Master Jacquardo to eat less oily food, but he never listens to us. Let's not talk about this. Please take your suit off - it is not the Rothschild way to allow our guests to have mud on their pants."

So, Jiang Chen took a shower. A maid brought him clean clothes and took his dirty ones to be washed.

After Jiang Chen returned to the room, Ayesha immediately came to check on him. Although she didn't speak, he guessed what she was going to say from her blue eyes that could speak.

"Don't worry. I just met an interesting person along the way and took a bit longer than expected." Jiang Chen rubbed her luscious hair and told her what happened on his way back.

...

Ayesha adjusted Jiang Chen's collar and went up on her tiptoes to peck his lips. She looked him in the eyes and complained in a quiet voice, "Please don't eat food from strangers. If you're hungry, I can cook for you."

"Don't worry; if I was anywhere else, I'd be more careful." Jiang Chen laughed.

The Rothschilds wouldn't do anything low such as poisoning people. The more they were in a position of influence and power, the more they would be wary about their feathers. A large reason why the Rothschild family had their connections today was because of their way of treating guests.

Take a thousand steps back - even if someone wanted to poison him, normal poison would be useless on him.

"Mhmm," Ayesha replied quietly.

…

"Just today, renowned auto manufacturers from Europe and around the world gathered here." Walking inside the venue of the Ber Auto Exhibition, Carmen energetically told Jiang Chen, "This is the Maybach EX our company recently launched. There are only five units available, and one of them belongs to you."

Carmen smiled at Jiang Chen.

Maybach EX, with 5 models in production, was expected to sell for 4.2 million euros, equivalent to 28.66 million RMB. Based on their estimates, if he delivered the smart driving system before May, he would be gifted a unit.

The black exterior cast an obsidian-like shine; the sleek design made the car look ferocious just from the appearance. Especially with a model beside the car, her gorgeous black dress and elegant appearance accentuated the Maybach EX's noble and mysterious temperament to create the most vivid perfection.

"The model is not included. But with your wealth, it shouldn't be too difficult to bring her home with you." Perhaps Carmen noticed Jiang Chen's gaze, so he used a half-joking voice.

Seeing Carmen and Jiang Chen walking together, the reporters immediately raised their cameras and captured a moment in their friendly conversation. Artifical intelligence always left people imaginative, and their imagination would usually be reflected in the stock price of the company.

"Speaking of which, what's the theme of the exhibition?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly while scanning the unique-looking supercars around the venue.

"New energy and the future," Carmen said.

"The future? That's a deep theme." Jiang Chen noticed a car with a design similar to a car wheel. What drew his attention wasn't its design but that fact that it hovered half a meter above the ground.

"The same as your company?" Carmen joked.

"Maglev vehicle?" Jiang Chen gently touched the surface of the car as he entered deep thought.

"This is only a concept vehicle. Dalmer created something similar before, but we don't think the future is too bright for this design due to difficulties in actual implementation. This vehicle could only be used on roads integrated with maglev tracks. And this kind of maglev road is ten thousand Euros per meter.

[Ten thousand Euros…]

Jiang Chen made a crude estimate before a wry smile appeared on his face.

Considering the complicated highway system in Europe, it was indeed an astronomical number. But regarding the technical challenges faced by maglev vehicles, Jiang Chen personally didn't feel they were major since the Sixth Street Inner Circle was in the process of tackling those at the moment. With the way the speed of construction was moving, the costs wouldn't be too high.

"I have to visit the Dalmer Corporation venue in a bit; just find me there when the time is right. Before meeting with the annoying reporters, I suggest you take a walk around first." Carmen smiled.

"Go ahead."

After separating from Carmen, Jiang Chen continued to follow the signs at the venue. Along the way, his eyes were treated well. In order to attract the interest of potential investors, major auto companies dedicated much effort to the exhibition by showing beautiful showgirls as a secondary competition.

Aside from the major auto manufacturers, a lot of smaller companies came with their best efforts. If they could attract the interest of major capitals, they could avoid dealing with the plague-like venture capitalists and bankers.

The more isolated the venue, the fewer the people, and the plague on the exhibition changed into more unknown manufacturers. Although the auto industry had relatively restricted entry, it didn't prevent smaller companies without any decent products to participate in the exhibition.

Just then, at the corner of the venue, an ordinary-looking exhibition captured the attention of Jiang Chen. It wasn't because of how attractive the car looked, nor how powerful the vehicle claimed to be, but it was because…

Jiang Chen walked up and scanned the name.

A brand Jiang Chen never heard about. He was skeptical if Ruhrka even had a car manufacturing plant.

Just as Jiang Chen examined their exhibition, Ruhrka was also looking at him anxiously. Before the exhibition, he did his homework. It was a far stretch to say he knew all the invited guests, but at least he could easily recognize the one-hundred guests emphasized by the media.

Not to mention a famous individual like Jiang Chen.

To be frank, he almost lost all hope with the lack of visitors at his exhibition. In the beginning, he convinced himself that it was because visitors didn't want to walk there. But after an hour, he gave up this futile self-comfort and let his employees go home first.

Since overtime was expensive for him.

But he didn't think his company would attract Jiang Chen's attention!

Due to his own nervousness, the sales pitch he prepared beforehand completely disappeared from his head.

Just as he was about to introduce his own product, Jiang Chen spoke first.

"Your booth… doesn't even have a showgirl?"

Chapter 511: Financing Proposal

Hearing Jiang Chen's words, Luer was speechless. He didn't think that it was because of this reason Jiang Chen noticed his booth.

"…Sorry."

Luer's honesty made Jiang Chen feel peculiar. Although he expected the company to be in a difficult situation, he didn't expect them to be this bad.

"Electric vehicle? But I feel like there is nothing special comparing your vehicle with the other electric vehicles."

When Jiang Chen mentioned his product, Luer was immediately energized.

"No, Mr. Jiang Chen, you didn't get to know about the uniqueness of our product. We used wireless charging technology to replace the need to have a charging port. Therefore, the car owner just needs to park the vehicle on the charging lot to complete the charging process."

"So you're saying, if you're compared to a phone manufacturer, the relative advantage of your phone is just that charging doesn't require a cable?" Jiang Chen mocked.

Although he didn't have a deep understanding of the automotive industry, he still knew a bit about pure electric vehicles. No other reason other than the fact that the apocalypse only had electric vehicles. Fossil fuel vehicles will be eliminated with historical inevitability, just as the original coal burners.

The technical challenges of the modern day were the distance and charging time.

Let's first start with distance. Under the ideal setting at a steady speed of 30 kilometers per hour, it is hard for a pure electric vehicle to achieve 300 kilometers of distance. The short distance would no doubt bring extreme inconvenience to the owners and the limiting factor of the electric vehicle's wide adoption.

The other problem was charging time. Typically, a pure electric vehicle's charge time is between 7-8 hours. Although the widely used Lithium iron carbonate battery possesses a half hour charge function, the high power charging severely affects the car's battery life, especially due to the heat generated. But during a long trip, the owner would not wait for 7-8 hours before the battery is charged again.

For a lot of short-tempered people, half an hour of charge time was already too dreadful.

But Luer's technology tree was skewed. It didn't make any progress on the technical challenges but rather specialized in wireless charging technology. The lenient view would be foresight; the harsher version would be running without learning how to walk first.

But because of this, the concept car they introduced drew Jiang Chen's attention, because the charging station at the apocalypse happened to use wireless charging technology. The owner would only need to drive the car to the specific lot, and then log into a mobile electronic device or the vehicle computer to start the charging service.

Convenience was the advantage of wireless charging.

Luer's expression immediately turned awkward when he heard Jiang Chen's ridicule.

"Did you not consider the energy lost in the process? I don't really know cars that well, but just making a comparison to the phone industry, based on the current phone wireless charging technology, the ideal energy lost is at 30%." Jiang Chen smiled and continued.

Luer was immediately unhappy seeing Jiang Chen berate his proud work and rebuked.

"That's not completely right, the lithium battery our company designed can shorten the charging time to 15 minutes! And it doesn't reduce the battery's life."

15 minutes?

It was an incredible achievement; Jiang Chen was surprised.

"Oh? How did you do it?"

To Jiang Chen question, Luer was silent.

Seeing he didn't speak, Jiang Chen had an idea in his mind. Silence meant that either his solution didn't include advanced technology, or it was not technically difficult to achieve. If it were hard to mimic, then he wouldn't be silent.

"Mr. Luer, if you can't satisfy my curiosity, how do you expect me to be willing to pay for your product?" Jiang Chen said softly.

"You're willing to invest in us?' Luer was astonished.

"If your product can interest me." Jiang Chen used a nonchalant tone.

"Okay, to be honest, although we have twelve patents on the vehicle, the most critical innovation was rejected by the patent office. The rejection reason was simple: you can't register using a series of lithium batteries as a patent… Uh, you should understand now."

With the realization on Jiang Chen's face, Luer shrugged.

"That's right, I have to say, your solution is quite… innovative." Jiang Chen facepalmed.

Yes, he understood Ruhrka's solution, it was to connect multiple lithium batteries together and then attach a charging module on each battery. Because it was wireless charging technology, the charging station could conveniently charge multiple lithium batteries together. While this way could certainly shorten charging time, the disadvantages were too obvious to ridicule.

"… But did you consider the problem of cost? The size of the batteries, and attaching the charging module to each battery." Jiang Chen continued to ask.

When Jiang Chen mentioned this problem, proudness appeared on Luer's face, "I have to mention the KS-12 Series battery our company designed. It is the core of the technology of the vehicle! It is formed by eight independent lithium battery units capable of storing a total of 40 volts of power with a distance of more than 180 kilometers!"

The stat was mediocre compared to the other electric vehicles on the market, but the wireless charging and fast charging certainly could add a few points.

But Luer didn't mention the most critical problem, the cost.

"What about cost?" Jiang Chen repeated the most fundamental question.

Luer's expression turned awkward again as he dodged Jiang Chen's eyes.

"Of course, the cost is a problem, but our technical experts have brought about an improvement plan. If we could acquire an investment, we have the confidence to reduce the cost to a reasonable range."

When Jiang Chen heard this, an intrigued expression appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

Typically speaking, the price of an electric vehicle is two times the cost of a diesel vehicle. From Ruhrka's expression, the cost of the vehicle must be remarkably high.

"Can I ask the price of the vehicle?"

Luer hesitated for a moment before he answered, with honesty, "If manufactured at scale, the cost is 700,000 USD."

"How many people do you think will foot the bill for this car?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Luer forced a smile." Mr. Jiang Chen, if you are just here to make fun of me after chatting for so long, you have achieved your goal."

"Then you have to be disappointed because I'm not here to make fun of you. Instead, I'm interested in your company… or technology per say." Jiang Chen paused, and handed over his business card, "Are you interested in an equity infusion of 100 million USD?"

Chapter 512: Investing in Electric Vehicles

When Luer reminisces about this day many years later, he wouldn't know what kind of emotion he had. He could only remember with certainty that his hands were shaking when he took the business card. It felt like he was not holding a gold-gilded business card, but a couple of tons of gold…

Jiang Chen demanded 80% shares. It was not an unreasonable request. Currently, Luer Auto Company didn't even have their own car plant. The only source of income was from the France Government's New Energy Vehicle Project Special Funding, and the only things worth money were the series of batteries along with the eleven patents and a few blueprints that could acquire more funding. Finally, there were the ten technical experts that Luer almost couldn't pay anymore.

100 million USD of equity infusion was nothing for Jiang Chen and nothing for the automakers with billions in market cap, but to Luer's company on the brink of bankruptcy, it was timely.

"Don't rush to build a plant yet. I need you to focus your research on the development of the KS-12 Series Battery in improving the performance of the pure electric vehicle, as well as the compatibility with the wireless charged battery."

"But with this money, we can improve the storage capacity of the battery and the charging speed. These are key for an electric vehicle." Luer was a bright individual. Although the wireless charging concept was too forward for the era, it was based out of the consideration of charging speed.

"We'll solve the battery problem. The specifications of the battery will be sent to you a week later." Jiang Chen smiled.

What made Luer the most confused was what Jiang Chen saw in his company? But since Jiang Chen didn't say anything, he didn't ask.

After departing with Luer, Jiang Chen took a few more rounds around the venue. The booths he focused on were all unique; the types of companies with unique technologies but not favored by the market.

These types of companies shared a similar trait which was poor financial condition. Their president or chief engineer manned the booths. When Jiang Chen threw out stacks of cash as bait and asked for a significant chunk of the shares. The presidents handed their shares with both hands willingly while chuckling in their mind.

Of course, people rejected Jiang Chen's offer. To those people, Jiang Chen's action was straightforward.

Turn around and leave.

There were too many manufacturers attending this exhibition, regardless of technical expertise, as long as they met the requirement for new energy, they could register or be invited to the exhibition. If you don't want to sell, they were plenty of people desperate to sell.

For a total of 500 million, Jiang Chen acquired France's Luer, Finsai, and Frankberg's Leon with a controlling share of 80%, 85%, and 75% respectively. Jiang Chen purchased the three companies with his own money and not Future Group's balance sheet. So on the share transfer agreement, he signed his name.

When he returned to Xin, he planned to register a new subsidiary under Future Group with the name Future Heavy Industries. The first order would be the electric vehicle battery used in wireless charging equipment. And the three auto companies he purchased, they'll use Future Heavy Industries' battery as the core component to produce electric vehicles.

Jiang Chen thought about vertically integrating the entire vehicle production line, but he abandoned the idea.

Reason baring none other than it was necessary.

The battery was the core of the electric vehicle, and even more significant than the engine. This point was completely contrary to the diesel vehicle where the engine was significantly more crucial than the gas tank.

The top company establishes the standard; the second tier company produces the product. Future Group just needed to be the company that created the standard. It was not worth the risk to be investigated for having a monopoly by integrating the entire production line.

Establishing the three companies to be the leader in the electric vehicle field, and Future Heavy Industries's high-efficiency battery would be pushed into the market. When all the clients were used to the convenient and fast wireless charging electric vehicles, the charging station and parking lot would then be paired with Future Heavy Industries' charging equipment.

By then, Future Heavy Industries would be the standard.

Of course, it was easy to say, the actual implementation would require additional research.

When the exhibition was halfway done, Jiang Chen returned to Daimler's area.

Carmen warmly introduced Jiang Chen to his business partners, including the Gulfstream Europe's Area's manager, Andy Belfort. With a price of 65 million USD, Jiang Chen purchased the newest model of G650 without much deliberation.

In the flashes of the reporters, Daimler's CEO Zetsche took Jiang Chen's hand and personally gave him the key to the Maybach EX.

It represented the friendship between Future Group and Daimler Corporation.

For Jiang Chen, he only took some photos to obtain a globally limited luxury car.

For Daimler, they only paid a price of 4.2 million Euros in exchange for their stock price rising by 4%. Investors certainly had complete confidence in Future Technology' artificial intelligence technology.

Even if he had a better ride, Jiang Chen still loved the gift. Since a car not only represented a transportation method, it was also a symbol of power and influence. He won't drive the car often, but it was not a bad addition to his collection in the garage.

Daimler Group arranged for the delivery of the vehicle to Xin's Coro Airport. Once Jiang Chen stepped out of the plane in Xin, the car would be ready for him on the runway.

He spoke a few words about artificial intelligence in front of the media and didn't stay in the venue much longer before leaving through the private tunnel.

He avoided the media at the gate and entered the black vehicle Carmen provided him. When he got in, Ayesha started the car.

"Where are we going?"

"University of Ber."

Ayesha nodded and stepped on the gas.

In a small black female suit, the shades certainly matched well. It gave the beautiful Ayesha holding the wheel a bit more of a glamorous charm.

Jiang Chen flipped through the business cards in his hands and went through his schedule for the day in his head. Because he left the exhibition earlier, he planned to head to the University of Ber along the way before returning to the manor in Bava.

He wanted to see Xie Lei since he was considered the guardian for the brother and sister.

On the other hand, Jiang Chen wanted Xie Lei to find some mechanical engineering talents. Since Frankberg's manufacture and technology level was without a doubt the leader of the world. It was meaningful to recruit a research team that could strengthen Future Group to digest the technology from the apocalypse,

And for the students that just graduated university, their ability to accept new knowledge was without a doubt, and their cost to recruit would be lower compared to engineers that already signed with other companies.

Future Group would provide the benefits impossible to refuse, in housing, salary, and other benefits as long as they accepted the condition of immigration.

The car entered the University of Ber.

Jiang Chen asked Ayesha to slow down and awed at the world-renowned education institution before he located the closest library on the GPS.

On the phone, Jiang Chen told Xie Lei to him meet there.

Chapter 513: Long time no see

"Long time no see."

"Indeed, long time no see. Do you want a cup of coffee?"

"No need, I just want to take a look."

University of Ber's library environment was elegant. Quite a number of students were studying around the tables, but the library was quiet. Jiang Chen was standing beside a bookshelf and opened an astronomy book with pictures.

Because Xie Lei was still in class, he waited for a bit.

And at that time, a book caught his attention.

Precisely, a picture caught his attention.

"How's the life in Frankberg?" To avoid disturbing other people, Jiang Chen tried to lower his tone.

"We're living a great life. Xie Lin's eyes have almost recovered; the hospital said they still need to observe for a few more days. I told her when she is discharged from the hospital, I will take her to New Swan Berg… Thank you."

Compared to the teen with a pale face and skinny to the point where a gust of wind could blow him away, he was much taller and gained the liveness that belonged to his age.

Whether it was his growth or the genuine gratitude from his eyes, Jiang Chen was extremely pleased.

It meant that his investment was not wasted.

Helping the brother and sister was one of the few philanthropic things he did.

"You don't need to thank me," Jiang Chen's eyes didn't leave the book while he whispered.

"Are you interested in astronomy?"

"Aerospace is within my investment interest, but I don't have too particular of an interest in astronomy… Or rather, I'm just interested in a particular planet." His thumb gently rubbed on the dark red planet.

It was different from the spherical body with one side green and one red side in his "dream". This planet was "dead."

"Which one?"

"Gliese 581, 20.5 lightyears away from the solar system."

Whenever he saw the planet, Jiang Chen had the powerless feeling where he was doing futile work. Facing the battle-tested Harmony civilization that spent thousands of years in wars, even with the wrap engine paper, he still didn't have strong odds of winning.

If this world was destined for destruction, then Future Group and Celestial Trade would be pointless.

Of course, as long as a sliver of hope remained, he would not spell defeat.

Xie Lei searched for a while in his mind, but he didn't have any impression of the name.

"Is this photo captured from a telescope?" Jiang Chen asked seemingly without common sense.

"How is that possible… Although the Hubble Telescope could capture planets hundreds of lightyears away, it would be impossible to capture the direct image of the planet. Some of the stars' brightness is dim, and the brighter stars directly cover some. Most of the extrasolar planets are analyzed according to the spectrum and other information to obtain the planetary environment, and then the planetary images are produced. "

"Is that so?... I didn't think you are so knowledgeable in this field."

[The war is half lost if there is no information about the invader, looks like it is time to find a more advanced telescope.]

"My senior sister is part of the astronomy club," Xie Lei said.

Jiang Chen looked at him in surprise.

"I noticed from before, but you seem to be very popular."

Xie Lei paused before he scratched his face, feeling shy.

"Is it?"

"How's your personal network in the university?"

"It's okay."

"I need some help."

"No problem," Xie Lei answered sternly.

"Don't be so nervous. It is nothing dangerous this time." Jiang Chen closed the book, stuffed it back onto the shelf, and handed him a piece of paper.

"This is?" Xie Lei looked at the paper in confusion.

"Help me find some talent."

"Mechanical, automation, electrical, nanotechnology, information technology… there are so many fields. Why don't you just hire on campus?"

"Because I'm not hiring them into a formal position. This is only a talent reserve or an investment in science. I require that the person must be moral and trustworthy, and must be interested in new technology with a strong ability to absorb knowledge… That's about it. You should know what type of people I'm looking for," Jiang Chen said to Xie Lei.

Although Xie Lei was not too clear, he still nodded. "Leave it up to me."

"I know the requirements may be strict, but I also believe that you can overcome difficulties. Participate in events, get on the good side of your classmates, understand the type of person they are, also it would be best if you become part of the student council. Study how to treat interpersonal relationships. I sent you to university not only for you to learn about computers."

Jiang Chen then patted Xie Lei on the shoulder, "I believe in you."

Xie Lei looked at him blankly.

"Are there any other questions?"

"Nothing… I just feel that you act like a father…" Xie Lei scratched his face.

Jiang Chen took a second to process this before he cursed out, "What are you even thinking, I didn't—"

"Please keep quiet in the library."

The librarian that appeared out of nowhere stared at Jiang Chen emotionlessly and spoke word by word in Han.

…

After being kicked out by the somewhat unreasonable librarian, Jiang Chen's had a dumbfounded expression on his face. The good thing was there were no reporters hidden nearby, or he would be headline material again.

Fortunately, because there were bookshelves on both sides, no one noticed him when he left the library's second floor.

"Do you want to go to the coffee shop on the floor above? We can chat freely there."

"No need, I should head out soon. You can go work on your own things now. Just remember the task I gave you. You have plenty of time to complete this. As to the necessary funding, just give me a number through text."

"It's just making friends, does this mission need money?" Xie Lei looked at Jiang Chen.

"Money can win over people; it can also make people forget themselves."

Jiang Chen left with words with deep meanings. Encouragingly he patted Xie Lei on the shoulder and said goodbye to the teen.

When Jiang Chen left the library from the side door, he noticed quite a few students were looking at him. Although Europeans couldn't distinguish Asians quite well, because of his recent publicity, a number of them recognized him.

A female student even courageous walked up to ask for a selfie to upload onto Twitter.

Jiang Chen couldn't resist her energy and satisfied the wish of the fan and forced a smile at the camera. Just as she was sending the twitter in excitement, Jiang Chen didn't stop long and headed to the garage of the library.

"Go back to the manor."

"Mhmm." Ayesha nodded and started the car.

Ber was the capital of the state of Bava, but the Rothschild manor was located in the rural area to the east. When they returned, it was already dark. Ccides ordered the kitchen to prepare food for them.

Perhaps because they knew that Jiang Chen would depart the day after tomorrow, the food the kitchen prepared was extravagant.

With the majority of his day spent outside and a tableful of food, Jiang Chen was prepared to feast.

After dinner, Jiang Chen took a bath and then returned to the bedroom.

After attending the exhibition, the primary purpose of the Frankberg trip was achieved. Based on his plan, he will take Ayesha for a tour of Ber; the perfect conclusion to the trip.

Since he was tired and wanted to wake up on time, Jiang Chen went to bed early.

But just as he was about to doze off, his phone began to ring.

He picked up the phone and first glanced at the time.

It was already nine at night, who would call him?

Unknown Caller.

Hesitating, Jiang Chen pressed the pickup button.

Chapter 514: For the Country

Bava is one of the larger states in Frankberg, the state capital's Ber's political and economic status was only second to the capital of Frankberg. Its basic infrastructure and educational resources are among the frontier in Europe. The Ber Industrial University and other top education institutions are among the top destinations for international students.

Among the individual circles among international student, the Hua international students were among the biggest and the most united among the other organizations. With the Hua Student Organization as the biggest among the universities, it even posed an influence onto the Hua circle in Frankberg.

When the Student Organization Leader Chen Yuqiao saw Jiang Chen was invited by Daimler Corporation to participate in the Ber Auto Exhibition on October 31st, she immediately had an idea. It was the perfect opportunity as the organization was planning an university level student event. If they could invite the "Oriental Bill Gates" to speak a few words, it would be a huge boost to the organization among international students and even to those outside of the sphere of influence.

At the same time, as the leader of the organization, it would be a prominent experience on her resume.

Other than that, she still had other plans. She studied Economics and International Trades at the University of Ber. Her grades were exception enough to work in Frankberg, but due to the economic downturn in Europe, she was not pleased with the salaries with the companies she contacted. As someone heading into fourth year, she needed a plan for her future.

Future Technology was expanding its international presence. The investors were not the only ones who were confident with Future Group's future, job seekers with foresight were also confident. If she could demonstrate her organization ability in front of Future Group's president, it would indeed be an option in her future job searching.

But what troubled her was how to contact Jiang Chen.

Until a twitter from her friend caught her attention.

It was a selfie. The background of the selfie was the side door of the university library. The man on the phone was exactly Jiang Chen, and that student happened to take on a role in the student union. Since the student union had a friendly relationship with the student organization, she followed her twitter.

What a coincidence!

When she saw the twitter, she immediately rushed to the library and asked the librarian if she had seen Jiang Chen. Unfortunately, the fifty years old librarian didn't follow anything else other than the library itself, so she had no impression of the name Jiang Chen. But when she showed the photo on Twitter, the librarian immediately realized.

It was the guy that got kicked up because of excessive noise in the library.

Although Chen Yuqiao was dumbfounded by the fact the librarian kicked Jiang Chen out, she still patiently inquired about the situation from the stubborn elder.

When she heard that a male student met with Jiang Chen, she immediately used her relationship in the student body to obtain video footage to determine that the male student's name was Xie Lei.

Xie Lei seemed to rarely participate in student organization events, so his name didn't appear in the student organization's list. But it was okay; she somehow obtained his contact information from the student union.

Although she knew it may be too intrusive, she gritted her teeth and called the number on the guardian information.

"Hello?" Jiang Chen picked up the phone.

"Hello, are you Mr. Jiang Chen?" Chen Yuqiao tried her best not to sound nervous.

"That's right. And you are?" A young voice that Jiang Chen had no impression of.

When she received the affirmative answer, she was ecstatic.

"My name is Chen Yuqiao, the leader of the Han Student Organization…"

Chen Yuqiao politely explained that she wished to invite Jiang Chen as a special guest to give a speech at the international student gala for a few words on artificial intelligence, virtual reality, or the industry's future.

Although she practiced multiple times in front of the mirror, Chen Yuqiao still felt anxious. On the other side of the phone was the owner of a one hundred billion dollar tech company and his investment stretched beyond the border of the internet, from nutrient supply to deep water mining, the footsteps of Future Group spanned through different industries.

But Jiang Chen's response exhilarated her.

"My flight is the day after tomorrow in the afternoon, is tomorrow night okay?"

"No problem! We'll adjust our time accordingly, thank you so much!" Chen Yuqiao couldn't stop thanking him over the phone.

Jiang Chen only smiled.

Since he had no specific plans for the entire day tomorrow, there was nothing wrong with participating in the international student gala. Especially a speech given by the Future Group's president at a top education institution would increase Future Group's influence among the students. Future Group's future employees will be hidden amongst them.

"No need, but don't have your hopes too high. I'm just here to say a few words."

"It is our honor for you to be here!"

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yuqiao was relieved.

"He agreed?" Although the response on the leader's face already told him the answer, the vice president on the side still asked to confirm.

"Mhmm, it's done!" She restricted the excitement in her mind and blissfully nodded.

"Qu Youcheng, contact the sponsors and school media and push forward the date of the gala to tomorrow night."

"Do we have time? The venue is not prepared yet." Qu Youcheng was troubled.

"Then prepare it."

Jiang Chen didn't mind the intrusive invitation and the fact that he took time out of his busy schedule to attend the gala was already very nice of him.

"Li Wei, you're responsible for contacting the school and changing the lecture hall reservation to the grass field in front of the West Church."

"Would the school agree?"

"They will," Chen Yuqiao said with certainty.

Li Wei nodded and rushed out. She remembered the professor responsible for this location reservation had a class that night and his research happened to be in artificial intelligence. If they invited Jiang Chen to give a speech at the gala, changing the location would not be difficult at all.

Perhaps the professor would attend the "lecture" himself.

Just as the student organization was busy preparing for the gala, a protest erupted in front of the Ber Opera two streets down from the Industrial University of Ber. But in the country where protests were common, it was an ordinary scene.

People raised the photo of the women that died of r*pe because of the refugees over the past half a year and marched along the road in front of the opera. They chanted to deport the refugees and protested against the wrongful decisions made by the government.

The people willing to help had an accepting attitude half a year ago since it was easy for St. Mary to be born from a high benefit society. The people at the start pressed the government to push out policies to accept the poor people into the wall and protested the hanging of pig heads on the neighboring countries' border.

Just in half a year of time, they tasted their own medicine.

With the benefits diluted, the crime rate skyrocketing, and the drop in the employment rate, what would a bunch of poor people with nothing to do do together? Especially outside of the wall, it was the prosperous world.

"Make them go back to their own country! Frankberg is not the welfare home of the world!"

"Get out of Frankberg!"

"They must pay for the people that died."

The protestors gathered steam, but they were rather peaceful. The police in bulletproof vest only stood on the side and watched the protestors from afar. Tomorrow, the Frankberg President would head to the opera with the Austria President. Maximum security was enacted around the opera.

The police didn't disperse the protestors to prevent accidents from occurring to interfere with the event tomorrow. As long as they didn't approach the opera, as long as the protestors maintained rationality…

Among the crowd, two young males stood together.

"Is it time?"

"It is time."

A hooked nose male solemnly stared at the name of the deceased as he pulled up the scarf around his neck.

"For Frankberg."

He left the words to his buddy, turned around, and disappeared into the crowd.

His friend gazed at his back.

"For Frankberg."

Chapter 515: Actors are ready

The next morning, after Jiang Chen and Ayesha had breakfast in the dining room, they went to the garage. They had a free day today as Jiang Chen wanted to take the girl for a tour around Ber, and then attend the gala at night at the university.

Ayesha had been preparing for this date last night. After waking up, she tried on a few different sets of clothes before finally choosing a black cotton dress and high bottom boots. She also put on light makeup to complete her ensemble.

Because it was personal time, Jiang Chen's style was casual. He put on a grey trench coat outside of his shirt before leaving while holding her hand.

On the way to the garage, they bumped into Carmen in surprise as he was chatting with a man in a brown jacket. The reason why he was surprised because he remembered Carmen didn't live in the manor.

They quickly ended the conversation as the unfamiliar man briskly left. Just before he turned around, he noticed Jiang Chen and Ayesha, but his eyes just stopped on Jiang Chen for a second before he left.

Although it was a glance, Jiang Chen felt something that made him feel uncomfortable.

He smelled chaos.

When Carmen saw Jiang Chen, his eyes lit up, and he walked up with a smile.

"Are you planning to leave?"

"Mhmm, we are planning to take a tour around the city since we're departing tomorrow." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Your flight tomorrow is… when?"

"Nine in the morning, is there something wrong?"

"Of course not. I hope you have fun here." Carmen smiled, paused, and then he added, "Don't come back too late."

Without too many more words, Carmen stated that he still had things to take care, so they parted ways.

"Slavic," Just then, Ayesha abruptly said.

"Mhmm?" Jiang Chen was confused.

"That man just then is a mercenary— Mhmm?"

Ayesha didn't finish speaking yet before Jiang Chen put his hand on her head.

With her face turning red, she looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled.

"Don't overthink today, it's rare for us to go on a tour." Jiang Chen gently rubbed her hair.

Feeling the warmth on her head, Ayesha shyly buried her head.

The Rothschild family was obviously planning something, but it shouldn't be targeted toward him. The more powerful, the warier of their feathers. Disregarding the fact that Jiang Chen reached an agreement with Luke, even if Jiang Chen made up his mind to stand on the opposing side against Vale, BHP, and other metal giants, they wouldn't take any actions in Frankberg.

Since it had nothing to do with him, he didn't need to mind that much.

But Carmen's don't come back too late was worth pondering.

Would something happen at night?

…

Compared to the prosperity days earlier, the streets of Ber were particularly quiet today. It was daytime, but there were only a few pedestrians. While all the stores were open, there was rarely a soul inside. It was not until they approached the city center did the situation change.

Jiang Chen parked the car in the parking lot at the entrance of the pedestrian street and took Ayesha's hand before he smelt something odd. But when he thought that he was going to leave tomorrow, he didn't think too much of it.

The solemnness lingering on the street didn't influence the two's date. Ayesha held Jiang Chen's arm along the way. From the smile on her face, Jiang Chen could see she was happy. They spent the entire morning walking among the malls in Ber while buying bags and bags of clothes.

As to the language barrier, it was nothing to worry about, Jiang Chen's phone was installed with a real-time translation software.

At noon, Jiang Chen took Ayesha to a randomly selected restaurant, sat near the window, and ordered two steaks and drinks. The violin in the restaurant was graceful, perhaps because of the ambiance, Ayesha was particularly timid. The two enjoyed lunch while they chatted about their plans for the afternoon.

Just as they were halfway through their lunch, two men sat down at a table near them. From their appearance, they looked like employees from the nearby office buildings. When Jiang Chen heard their conversation, Jiang Chen finally learned that an anti-refugee protest erupted in front of the Ber Opera.

"The days won't be too peaceful."

"Yes." A man in buzzcut sighed.

"What ended up happening in the protest yesterday?"

"The mayor said that he would pressure the council to pass the bill to restrict the intake of refugees. He said this last month, but what was the result?"

"The damn humanitarianism… Why don't these locusts go to other countries? Fu*k…"

Jiang Chen pressed the phone screen and closed the translation software's flashing words; then he looked worriedly at Ayesha. Seeing that she didn't look too upset, he was more relieved.

"It's okay." Ayesha sensed the care in Jiang Chen's eyes and gently smiled.

"Is it really okay?"

"Mhmm." Ayesha nodded and used the fork in her hand to play with a small tomato.

"Because it's something without a solution."

…

The dusk started to fade and night began to settle. A golden layer gilded the dome of the opera. The protestors with signs marched forward. Yesterday's protest was just a warning and today was the main event. If the current regime continued to use their ambiguity, the Bava citizens would use action to tell the federal council about their dissatisfaction with their decision.

Today was the day of the Frankberg president and Austria president's diplomatic meeting.

Even for the powerful, they still needed to do something to assure the public opinion out of consideration of their political status.

But the protestors clearly wrongfully estimated the situation, not everyone was extreme, or with "foresight." The protestors in front of the opera accounted for less than 1% of the Ber citizens. At least for now, the Social Justice Warriors had the upper advantage as more people felt compassionate toward the refugees than the people that disdained them.

Before the fleet of the two presidents arrived, the fully equipped police force used tear bomb to "peacefully" disperse the protestors, captured the leaders, and the mayhem quickly concluded. To ensure safety, Frankberg even mobilized its military force to maintain order.

Not even a fly could fly inside the opera.

Quickly, ten black cars stopped in front of the opera. A man with a triangular face and a skinny man walked out simultaneously from two of the cars. With the crowd of reporters, they shook hands and walked into the opera while chatting.

Frankberg President Yosim Gunde and Austria President Haingzi. Behind the two was the Frankberg Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Minister of Economy and Energy Evelyn, as well as the Austria Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Such a high standard of the meeting was the first this year between the two governments. In the afternoon, the two sides have reached a consensus on economic cooperation and the growing refugee problem. And tonight they will watch the opera performances with the audience with the purpose to consolidate the diplomatic results in the afternoon.

At the same time, three streets down in the Empire Hotel, Carmen stood in front of the French window in the presidential suite on the top floor. He gazed at the golden dome of the opera with a glass of wine in hand.

The door behind him opened and Johnson walked up to him.

"The actors are ready."

A curvature appeared on Carmen's lips.

"Perfect.Then… let the performance begin."

He raised the hand with wine and gently toasted the reflection of the opera in the window.

Chapter 516: The Show has Begun

The opera house was full of people in addition to the two presidents and government officials; Frankberg citizens and invited business elites were among the people attending the show. Sitting in a VIP booth, Sim Gorde looked at the packed crowd below him. He couldn't help but smile.

Frankberg was a parliamentary system; although the federal President represented Frankberg internally and externally, the real power was in the parliament and appointed Prime Minister. The main duties of the President in the House were only to sign and publish the bills passed by the parliament as well as the laws and regulations signed by the Federal Minister, but he had no veto power. The Prime Minister was the head of state, but he was only a representative figure.

Even the President only really tasted power during diplomatic meetings.

The light illuminated the opera house. The baton swayed as harmonious music drifted down from the stage with the audience immersed in the melody. The performance today was from the world famous Mino Orchestra from Vienna.

The deputy Prime Minister, Evelyn Gillwick, was sitting behind Sim. He looked up at the clock on the wall, pulled the tie around his collar, and moved closer to the President's ear.

"Mr. Sim, I have another commitment in a bit - is it okay if I leave you here alone?"

...

Sim's eyebrows furrowed as the act of being excluded from formal functions made him extremely displeased.

"A commitment? What kind of commitment? How come I don't know about this?"

"It's a private function. My alma mater is hosting a seminar and I reserved front row seats."

When Sim heard it was a private function, Sim's eyebrows were no longer furrowed. He gently coughed and took on the role of a President.

"You can go; just leave this place to me."

Evelyn expressed his apologies to the Austrian President and Deputy Prime Minister then immediately departed. The moment he stepped out of the opera, he felt relieved.

"To the University of Ber. Quick, the gala will start in ten minutes." Evelyn scanned the security in the area as he instructed his assistant.

…

Outside the University of Ber church, it was packed with people. Although it was a Han student gala, when people heard that the chief designer of Future 1.0 and president of Future Group, Jiang Chen, would attend the gala and deliver a speech during the opening ceremony, people other than students showed up.

"Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend this gala out of such a sudden request. We didn't think so many people would show up." Inside the small church, Chen Yuqiao kept thanking Jiang Chen.

"No worries - it was my honor to receive your invitation." Jiang Chen smiled.

When Chen Yuqiao received Jiang Chen's affirmation, a relieved smile appeared on her face.

With a large crowd outside the church, Ayesha looked tensed.

"Do we not need to worry about security concerns? What if—"

"No need to worry." Jiang Chen tried to comfort the worried Ayesha.

The four Celestial Trades bodyguards were already stationed at the four corners of the venue. Jiang Chen was wearing a carbon Nano bulletproof vest on him and Ayesha was with him as backup; he wasn't worried at all.

The church bell rang and struck six o'clock.

The members of the student organization, school officials, and special guest, Jiang Chen, all entered the venue. The MC introduced a few things before immediately handing the microphone to Jiang Chen.

With microphone in hand, Jiang Chen calmly stepped onto the stage.

He faced a similar situation countless times already, so having a larger audience wouldn't affect his state of mind.

"I'm surprised there are so many of you in the audience; I thought I would only have to say a few things in order to meet the demands of your student leader, but now I have to be more serious."

As Jiang Chen spoke, he jokingly made a funny face.

He waited for a moment for the friendly laughter and clapping to die down before he continued.

"All of your academic qualifications are probably higher than mine, not to mention your professional knowledge. Your professor Graeme knows much more than I do, and many of your classmates' grades are still in his hands."

Hearing Jiang Chen mention his name, Professor Graeme cast a surprised expression then gave Jiang Chen a friendly smile. It was a consensus that Future Technology replaced IBM as the leader in artificial intelligence application. For Professor Graeme to be recognized by the chief designer of Future 1.0 was a demonstration of his abilities.

"Then we'll talk about something that concerns all of you-" Jiang Chen paused to build up suspense then he waved a phone that didn't resemble any current brand and placed it on the podium. "...technology."

Just as the audience was waiting for Jiang Chen to continue, a shocking scene appeared.

The blue photo particles rose from the phone's camera to form two three-dimensional light curtains that looked extremely realistic. The curtain hovered beside Jiang Chen. When Jiang Chen slowly opened both his hands, he elevated the two screens gently.

The audience was completely stunned to the point of forgetting to clap. Whether it was the dean or Professor Graeme, everyone's eyes widened at the sci-fi scene. It wasn't that they never witnessed hologram technology before, but it was the first time they saw hologram technology that allowed human interaction.

And that wasn't the most important thing. All functions were achieved through a palm-sized phone!

Gradually, the audience became louder and finally broke out into excited cheers. The reporters outside the venue shouted as they expressed their shock in front of the camera.

"How's technology changing our lives?" Jiang Chen looked at the pairs of stunned eyes as he spoke in Han.

The hologram screens on both sides translated his words in real time to English and Frankish. The audience gasped, but they couldn't further demonstrate their astonishment because the previous scene already shocked them to the fullest.

The same question circled in everyone's mind - how did Future Technology do it?!

"This is how science is changing our lives."

Jiang Chen knew it was impossible to leave a deep impression on the university students with just a few sentences.

But technology could!

For these young people, advanced technology could leave a deeper impression compared to money. He knew someone must be taking photos in the audience, so his speech would definitely be uploaded online for more people to watch.

This would become a hiring advertisement for Future Technology!

The phone was Yao Yao's masterpiece - not only did it include all the functions of a smartphone, but it also implemented modules for hologram computers. Although his demonstration just showed basic functions of a hologram computer, he had no problem stunning the modern people who didn't know anything.

"I know everyone has a lot of questions - for example, what's so special about my phone, and how did Future Group create such an astonishing product? Of course, allow me to pass on the question and build suspense. Since this isn't a product launch from Future Technology and the smartphone in my hands is only in a conceptual stage, perhaps it will be introduced in the next two years."

"The emergence of an epoch-making technology can bring subversive changes to our daily life. Like the steam engine two centuries ago, the internal combustion engine a century ago, and the computers at the end of the last century, the smartphone in everyone's pocket will follow the same path."

"I once stressed the importance of science and technology not because Future Group's current investments are all concentrated in these cutting-edge technologies, but because it involves each of our futures..."

On the stage, Jiang Chen passionately demonstrated his speech skills and laid out the blueprints for the future.

From virtual reality to the connection from the virtual to the real world, from new energy vehicles to the existence of maglev in science fiction, the audience had been shocked by the technology he showed. When they heard Jiang Chen's interpretation of the future, the students didn't raise the slightest objection.

The church bells rang indicating it was seven o'clock; an hour had gone by without notice, but the crowd present didn't sense the slightest passage of time. In the picture depicting the future described by Jiang Chen, a virtual reality scene subconsciously surfaced in everyone's brains.

Perhaps because they had really "seen" it and because his words seemed especially convincing that the listeners felt he spoke the truth.

At the conclusion of his speech, overwhelming applause rang out.

In the face of this applause, Jiang Chen's mouth couldn't help but slowly smile.

He knew the intended effect had been achieved. In any case, the name Future Group had been engraved in the hearts of these students. These people would be graduates from top universities and they would also be the source of talent for Future Group. Even if Jiang Chen could bring back advanced technology from the future, these technologies had to be digested and understood by people.

"In a short time...is it really possible to achieve it?" The audience couldn't hold their thoughts longer.

Jiang Chen didn't care about this abrupt statement as looked at the audience. He smiled and said.

"Whether it's going to be a short time or long time, I don't know. But if you join us, the time will certainly shorten by a lot."

The poser of the question sat back down with a red face. Even nonchalant words were still great encouragement. Of course, how the future would turn out wasn't something Jiang Chen could forecast.

Jiang Chen gave the microphone back to Chen Yuqiao who was waiting by the side. Her expression when she took the microphone suggested she was still in shock. The organizers of the gala could see that students were desperate for Jiang Chen to speak longer.

After walking off the stage, Jiang Chen headed toward the back of the church. But this time, a middle-aged man in a suit walked toward him and extended his right hand with a smile. Behind him also followed two seemingly powerful bodyguards and a secretary carrying a briefcase. From the man's companions, it was easy to guess his extraordinary identity.

"Amazing speech."

"Thank you for the praise. May I ask your name?" Jiang Chen shook his hand.

"Evelyn Gillwick, Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Frankberg and the Minister of Economy and Energy." Evelyn cleared his throat and spoke with friendliness.

Chapter 517: The Tragedy

The clock at the church struck seven o'clock.

In the opera house, two streets past the University of Ber, the sound of the melodious symphony echoed. The Kermen Orchestra from Vienna, Austria delivered a spectacular performance. Under the direction of the concertmaster, all musicians bowed to the audience.

Taking advantage of the intermission, Sim and the Austrian president sitting at the top of the opera house happily chatted with each other.

"Very good performance; Evelyn will regret his early departure."

"I'll pass your compliments to the band and they'll be honored at praise coming from the President of Frankberg," the Austrian president said. "What's the next show?"

"It's 'Opera: Turandot,' the masterpiece of the famous Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini, played by the Ber National Orchestra. You can look forward to the next show." Sim crossed his legs as he rambled on in a lighthearted fashion.

The curtains opened again and a bonfire lit the stage. With a horn-like tune, the actors dressed like nomads filed out from behind the scenes. Beautiful but cold Yuan Dynasty Princess Turandot solemnly ordered her people: if a man could guess her three riddles, she would marry him.

Countless admirers fell at the soldiers' knives. With a smoke curtain, a chaotic atmosphere was created vividly.

At this point, a young man wearing black armor with a covered face carrying a black towel and violin case unhurriedly stepped onto the stage. Originally immersed in the opera, Sim frowned slightly as he didn't remember such a violinist debuting in "Turandot."

On the stage, two soldiers came forward and put swords to his neck, just like the previous martyrs. Looking at the young man, Turandot's frozen but elegant face looked surprised; she didn't remember a scene like this in the plot.

The masked young man smiled and opened the violin case...

And then he calmly took out the the MP7 submachine gun hidden in the case!

Before anyone could react, he shot down the soldier in front of him and shouted a chant to the Holy War.

"All—"

At the same time, he pressed the trigger with a menacing smile.

Blood splattered in the air.

The deafening screams suppressed the sound of bullets. Without any shield to protect them, the audience in the front row quickly collapsed from the wave of bullets. The music of the opera came to a halt as the actors rushed backstage into the emergency exit tunnel in a panic.

Then they encountered another terrorist who opened the safety with a menacing smile…

The opera house was in complete mayhem. Men abandoned their female companions, and women dropped their heels. Just as everyone flooded toward the door, a warrior stood up to protect the women and children, but he soon died under the gunfire of the attacker.

Sim, sitting in a VIP seat, ducked under the table. The two bodyguards beside the President immediately took out their pistols and stationed themselves at the door to the room.

"Dammit, what's going on? There can't be an anti-terrorist drill in the middle of the opera?" The Austrian President hid behind the sofa and spoke with an ashen face.

"This isn't a joke. Don't worry, the security force of Frankberg is just outside." While Sim's expression didn't look any better, he was calm.

As the President, even if he didn't have too much decision-making power, he still knew how much money the National Defense Department spent each year on anti-terrorism. The soldiers from the security forces were the elites of the elite. In this world, they could easily deal with a few terrorists!

Just as the two Presidents and the Deputy Prime Minister were waiting to be rescued, the outside was in complete chaos.

"The Ber Opera House was attacked by terrorists. There are a total of six gunmen. I repeat…"

The police and special forces stationed outside the opera house immediately stormed in and engaged in heavy gunfire with the terrorist. The smoke alarms rang, guns constantly fired, and the situation was in disarray.

Fortunately, the security force was there; they were the elites of Frankberg.

Unfortunately, the terrorists took the employees and actors as hostages. Even if the security force was composed of elites, they still had to be wary.

"Nelson, what are your people still waiting for?! They only have six people - attack now!" Rushing to the scene, Casper grabbed a walkie-talkie and took command but he couldn't with his wig that flew away in front of the media as he roared into the walkie-talkie.

"Sir, but they took the opera theater crew as hostages-" Crouching in the bunker, Nelson calmly reported to his commander.

"Fool! I'll give you 2 minutes to fight to get inside!"

...

"But sir, there are 57 hostages inside."

"Yes, but they are terrorists and our President is inside! So is the Austrian President! Attack, now!"

"…Roger."

Nelson took a deep breath then clenched his fists at his troops before swinging his fist down fiercely, signaling a command to attack.

With an order like this, there was no need for concern. Even with all 57 hostages dying, they had to rescue the two Presidents.

Attack commence!

…

In the grass field in front of the small church at the University of Ber, the gala still continued. But followed by the departures of other students, domestic students began to depart as well. When the irrelevant students and reporters all left, the grass field immediately looked a lot emptier.

At the same time, at the side door of the small church:

Jiang Chen let go of Evelyn's hand and looked at him with questions in his eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Deputy Prime Minister. Do you have any questions?"

"I don't have any questions; I'm just stunned by the blueprints to the future in Mr. Jiang Chen's speech, so I really wanted to take the opportunity to talk to you. Tonight, I'm here as an alumnus to the University of Ber, so please just call me Evelyn." Evelyn gave him a friendly smile.

The Frankberg Deputy Prime Minister was extremely talkative and Jiang Chen was happy to develop a relationship with key government officials as they began to chat. Regarding VR, AR technology, and Future Group's plans to expand into pure electric vehicles mentioned in Jiang Chen's speech, the Deputy Prime Minister graduated from a science background displayed rich interest.

Just as they began to discuss potential investments, the assistant behind him took a phone call before his expression drastically changed. He hung up the phone, walked to Evelyn with hasty steps, and whispered into his ear.

When Evelyn heard these words, his expression shifted immediately before looking apologetically at Jiang Chen.

"Regretfully,our conversation must end now - there is a small situation outside."

"It's okay. It's important to take care of business." Jiang Chen smiled.

Watching Evelyn and the group leaving, Jiang Chen began to frown. Although he didn't understand Franish, from the whisper to Evelyn, Jiang Chen sensed something was off.

He then recollected Carmen telling him to come home early as an ominous feeling lingered in his mind.

"Hello, are you Mr. Jiang Chen?"

Just then, he heard broken Han from behind him.

Jiang Chen turned around and looked at the slim and tall man.

The messy hair reflected an oily reflection under the light. The darkness under his eyes was either his deep eye sockets or dark eye bags. Other than the fervor flashing in his pupils, he didn't look energetic at all.

"I am. You are?"

"Amos Kimberly, Ph.D., of the University of Ber." The man smiled shyly, exposing a mouth full of white teeth. He held out his hand and grabbed Jiang Chen. "It's about what you mentioned in your speech earlier - basic and intermediate, Advanced artificial intelligence grading - can I ask about it more in detail? Why are logical responses, self-compliance, emotions and the artificial intelligence grading standards? Can you elaborate on this?"

" Have I mentioned it?" Jiang Chen was surprised.

Amos nodded with certainty. He was sure he didn't miss a single word.

[Looks like I was too passionate…]

With the ardent expression on Amos' face, Jiang Chen was slightly troubled.

"Most of today's artificial intelligence programs remain at the logical response level. Whether it's IBM or Future Group, the use of artificial intelligence is at this level. Program based on human logic rules to determine a logical response. This is basic artificial intelligence and the safest artificial intelligence.

"I cannot agree with you on one point. In the forefront of science and technology, there are already many research results that could complete the self-complied function and even simulate human emotions." Amos raised some objections.

Jiang Chen thought for a moment before he said:

"Its normal for you to have disagreements since standards are determined by humans. But here I have to correct your point of view - what I said was that self-compliance is not the kind of self-compliance in the broad sense. How should I describe it? You can interpret it as thinking. Not thinking to provide services for humans or to complete tasks set by humans, but the thinking you and I are doing right now. Are you sure current technology can do that now?"

To Jiang Chen's question, Amos evidently paused and began to think.

After a moment of silence, he abruptly asked.

"Then did you manage to do it?"

Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"Sorry, Mr. Amos, these are corporate secrets; I can't tell you more."

Then, with Amos' disappointed expression, Jiang Chen paused, smiled and took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to him

"If you are interested, you can join us. We can't give you the technical knowledge free of charge, but if you're willing to share your knowledge for our ideals, we welcome you to join us.

After he finished, Jiang Chen disregarded Amos's stunned expression, turned and walked toward the small church.

Chapter 518: National Blockade

When he returned to the church, Jiang Chen refused all media interviews and took Ayesha in the black Benz with the vehicle of the four bodyguards following close behind in the direction of the university gate. But at the gate, they were flagged down by the police.

When Jiang Chen rolled down his window and asked the security, he was informed that there was a curfew on the street and the surrounding area had been completely quarantined.

Jiang Chen noticed the police's eyes lingered for a long time on Ayesha's face.

The university gate was surrounded by a sizable crowd. To prevent accidents from occurring, the police began to assist security in dispersing the traffic. From the armored vehicles roaming outside to the helicopters hovering above, Jiang Chen started to realize the severity of the situation.

Jiang Chen asked Ayesha to drive the car to the parking lot beside the library as he immediately took off his seatbelt.

Ayesha also prepared to leave the car, but Jiang Chen immediately put his hand on her hand.

"Wait in the car. I'll be back in a moment."

"But—"

"I'll scope out the situation outside. Listen to me." Jiang Chen gently squeezed her hand to comfort her before getting out of the car.

Instincts told him that something severe might have happened outside, like a terrorist attack.

Ayesha's identity was quite sensitive to the situation; although she was Jiang Chen's assistant and bodyguard, it was hard to ensure that the nationalists who lost all rationality wouldn't do something extreme to her at this critical period of time.

In order to prevent unnecessary trouble, it was better for Ayesha to not expose herself.

Perhaps she read something from Jiang Chen's eyes that Ayesha lowered her head in remorse.

"Sorry, I'm causing you trouble."

"You don't need to apologize." Both Jiang Chen's hands leaned against the door as he looked at her tenderly. "Just leave this to me."

A comforted smile emerged on her face.

"Mhmm."

He ordered two bodyguards to stay in the car while he took the other two to rush to the church. But when he arrived at the grass field in front of the church, the gala had been suspended.

Beside the wooden table of the church, the student organization leader Chen Yuqiao stared at the empty venue with an urge to cry. She wanted to use the speech delivered by Jiang Chen to host an unprecedented Han student gala.

But reality pulled a prank on her.

Not long after Jiang Chen's speech ended, the opera house two streets down was attacked by terrorists. The Frankberg government not only sent in their army but a state of emergency was also declared through media and a curfew was established in Ber.

With this status quo, the gala was obviously canceled.

"What exactly happened outside?" Jiang Chen walked up to Chen Yuqiao.

Chen Yuqiao smiled bitterly. Before she spoke, the vice director looked at Jiang Chen and said with an apologetic tone:

"Just 15 minutes ago, the Ber Opera House was attacked by terrorists. The streets have been closed down and put under lockdown… Social media platforms have been flooded with news of the attack." As she spoke, she showed him her phone screen.

Just then, Jiang Chen's phone rang.

Xia Shiyu's anxious voice immediately came through. The moment she found out about Frankberg's terrorist's attack, she immediately thought of Jiang Chen who was attending the auto exhibition in Frankberg.

"How are you doing there? Are…Are you okay?"

News of the attack was already transmitted to the rest of the globe which made Jiang Chen think back to the Fran attack earlier that year. It was a similar situation since Fran's government closed their borders. Based on the situation outside, his flight was probably going to be delayed.

"Be calm, I'm okay. You know, I don't have such an artistic tendency to watch operas." Jiang Chen did his best to use a casual tone to comfort Xia Shiyu before he continued. "But the situation outside isn't looking so good, so my return flight is probably going to be delayed."

When Xia Shiyu heard Jiang Chen was safe, her tense heart finally felt relieved.

"… As long as you're okay. You have to be careful there."

Although Jiang Chen was confident he would be fine, his heart still warmed up when he heard Xia Shiyu's caring words.

"Don't worry; I'm safe on this side."

Jiang Chen hung up the phone and hesitated a while before he called the Xin Embassy in Frankberg to inquire about the status outside. Then he called Carmen Rothschild.

When the phone connected, Carmen's voice came through.

"Good evening, my friend. Since you called at this time… I guess you must be outside."

"I'm at the University of Ber." Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"The University of Ber? Okay, I'll immediately arrange for people to pick you up… In around two hours, since it's not safe outside," Carmen said.

Although there were a lot of things Jiang Chen wanted to ask, he resisted the temptation in the end.

While he didn't have any direct evidence, from Carmen's reaction in the morning and the calmness in this voice now, the Rothschilds were clearly connected to this attack in some way. But what Jiang Chen didn't understand was: what did they have to gain out of it?

[Could it be…]

The cloudiness in his head suddenly had a hint of clarity.

"Are you listening?" Seeing as Jiang Chen had no reaction, Carmen probed him.

"Mhmm… Please and thank you."

"It's nothing, I have a good relationship with the Deputy, so he will pick you up in a bit. I'm truly sorry; your flight tomorrow may be delayed." Carmen used an apologetic tone.

"Frankberg will close its borders?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Five minutes ago, the parliament enacted emergency protocols and the borders will be shut for three days," Carmen said.

His left fist pressed against the wall as Jiang Chen cursed.

"What a disaster."

"That's right. Mhmm, the two cars can be parked in the garage of the library. I'll send people to pick them up tomorrow."

Jiang Chen hung up the phone and watched the student organization leader Chen Yuqiao walking in his direction.

"I'm sorry that such a thing happened; the school is closed. We can provide housing for you if you need." Chen Yuqiao bowed down apologetically.

"No need to trouble you guys, someone will pick me up soon." Jiang Chen smiled and signaled it was unnecessary to apologize.

Chen Yuqiao didn't insist further.

But just as Jiang Chen was prepared to leave, she anxiously asked him.

Although she already had Jiang Chen's phone number, it was through an improper method and she used the office's phone to call Jiang Chen. If possible, she wanted to use the opportunity to properly exchange phone numbers with Jiang Chen.

To store on her personal phone.

"Could-could I please get your number?"

Jiang Chen took a moment to process her request before he smiled.

"Of course."

Because he still had two hours, Jiang Chen didn't directly return to the library after leaving the church. Instead, he first called Xie Lei. When he was aware of what was going on in the hospital, Jiang Chen felt reassured.

Jiang Chen didn't see him for the entire duration of the trip but he was worried about the little guy. When he knew he was safe, Jiang Chen hung up the phone and headed to the university gates.

Currently, there was still a large crowd outside the gates. Although the police helped disperse most of the crowd, a lot of non-university personnel and students who lived off-campus surrounded the gate, shouting that they wanted to go home.

When Jiang Chen walked to the edge of the crowd, he obtained information about the outside.

"It's rumored that the refugees launched a terrorist attack - I knew those people were bad. Look what they brought from the Middle East! Crime, garbage, and now terrorism… People who let them in the borders must be crazy."

"I heard Sim and the Austrian President are all inside; I wonder what the situation is now."

"Quick! Look at this Twitter, three minutes ago… Oh, Dear God, our President, our President died!"

Someone blew a whistle. "Aha, I bet the boys from the Gulf played themselves this time."

Someone roared in indignation, "Why did they do it? God, were we not kind enough to them?"

Someone shook their head. "Who knows? You can never understand what religious madmen are thinking. We always tolerate them, but they seem to always want more."

Hearing all this conversation, Jiang Chen obtained a general understanding of the situation and turned back in the direction of the library.

The Ber Opera House was attacked by terrorists.

The German president was killed.

All this was probably related to the Rothschilds.

[But why?]

[Or rather, what's he planning?]

Right now, the university students either returned to their dorms or gathered around the gate; there wasn't a soul on the discreet path to the library. Aside from faint light from the underground garage, the entire area around the library was dark.

His shadow was dragged along as he walked on the desolated path.

Just as he was trying to make sense of everything, a gunshot rang out from afar.

He suddenly raised his head as he stared in the direction of the library's underground garage.

Chapter 519: A Necessary Help

Inside the Empire Hotel, Carmen put the phone on the desk, picked up a wine glass, and walked back to the window. The night had cast its terror on the city. Carmen stared at his reflection in the window as well as the street lit up by police lights. He grinned.

The vivid, bright liquid swirled together and added a hint of menace to his smile.

An armored vehicle full of special forces disappeared at the end of the street and helicopters hovered above the Ber sky.

The door to the presidential suite opened.

Johnson, in a black suit, walked inside and quietly closed the door behind him.

"The actors have left the stage."

"Great."

Carmen's fingers rhythmically tapped the wineglass as he seemed to be deep in thought.

Johnson, who stood behind him, held his breath while waiting for an order.

"Johnson."

Johnson raised his chest.

"Yes!"

But to his surprise, his boss didn't give him an order but rather, spoke slowly and meaningfully.

"Ber is an interesting place."

Carmen's words made Johnson feel puzzled as he searched for an explanation from his boss.

Perhaps Carmen saw Johnson's confusion through the reflection in the window - he smiled.

"Johnson, you were part of Fran's expat army, right?"

"Yes, boss," Johnson replied in a deep voice.

"What's the closest scene that you have seen that resembled hell?" Carmen quietly asked.

Johnson carefully recollected a memory before he answered.

"In 2008, during a peacekeeping mission in Haiti, we were traveling with the peacekeepers whose task was to maintain local order and our task was to rescue the French diplomats besieged in the embassy. When we left the city, we encountered an attack from the opposition's armed forces... They were an army and thought we were an international food aid organization. In a country where 15 presidents were overthrown in 72 years, there was no reason for rationality and our commander was decisive. There was no communication - they fired first and we fought back immediately. They blocked us, so we killed our way through.

"How many people died?" Carmen said nonchalantly.

Johnson shook his head.

"That operation wasn't recorded on file; I only remember a lot of people fell that day."

Death didn't seem to bother him. But Carmen's face reflected in the wine glass had a greater menace written on it.

"Is that the worst hell you've seen? That's too minor." Carmen grinned.

Johnson shrugged. "In modern warfare, not a lot of people die."

"Is that so?"

Carmen spoke with an underlying meaning. He left the window and placed his wine on an expensive redwood table.

"This city is fortunate enough to witness history again. Johnson, remember what I said today. The decision made by the Rothschild family today is to prevent hell from breaking out."

...

"As you wish." Johnson nodded.

"Also, I need you to do something else for me."

When Johnson heard his boss had a mission for him, he immediately put on a serious expression and stood up straight.

"On your command."

"There's a fish that escaped the net - I need you to take care of it for me."

"Who?"

"Our beloved Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Evelyn."

…

The gunshots were from the direction of the library with a total of three shots.

Jiang Chen felt something was terribly wrong since he thought Ayesha was still there. He ran to the underground garage while he took out his pistol from the storage dimension and stuffed it in his pocket.

The streetlights continuously elongated his shadow; there wasn't a single student to be seen along the way. Security in foreign countries wasn't as stable as in Hua with so few people outside at night to begin with, not to mention the curfew now in place.

When he ran into the garage and saw Ayesha and the four bodyguards standing beside the two black Benz cars, he felt assured.

"I heard gunshots from the garage?"

"No, it was from the library." Ayesha shook her head. Seeing as Jiang Chen safely returned, she looked evidently relieved. "Please return to the car, it's not safe outside."

As Ayesha spoke, she extended her hand to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen understood the meaning behind her resolute gaze as he reached into his pocket and took out the pistol and silencer. Because she didn't have a gun license, the weapons were all with Jiang Chen.

Ayesha installed modules on the Type-11 Pistol before stuffing it into her suit pocket. Although they might not engage in battle, it was safer to be prepared with gunshots in the vicinity.

Just as Jiang Chen was planning to get into the car, a voice in the distance stopped him.

"Please wait, Mr. Jiang Chen."

Jiang Chen's hand stopped at the car door. From the elevator in the garage, a middle-aged man in a suit was jogging towards him with heavy breaths. Ayesha put her hand beside herself in preparation and the four bodyguards all stood in front of Jiang Chen with a defensive stance.

From the lamp in the underground garage, Jiang Chen saw the person's face and signaled the bodyguards to not worry to allow the man to walk in front of him.

It was Evelyn, the Deputy Prime Minister of Frankberg. Jiang Chen just shook hands with him.

"Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, could I please ask—"

Because of his age and the fact he was wearing dress shoes, the one-hundred-meter distance was already overwhelming for him. With his hands on his knees, Evelyn took a moment to steady his arrhythmic breaths before standing up and looked seriously at Jiang Chen.

"I've certainly taken the liberty, but please help me, Mr. Jiang Chen."

Just as he spoke, Jiang Chen noticed the blood stains on the left arm of his suit. And his bodyguards were all gone.

"Help you… Could you tell me what happened?"

Jiang Chen was hesitant when he said this. Since he was about to leave Frankberg, he didn't want to go out of his way to trouble himself. But the one requesting help was the Deputy Prime Minister of Frankberg; it was hard for him to reject him.

"We have no time to explain - their people are about to be here." As Evelyn spoke, he anxiously looked in the direction of the elevator. "Please, take me out of here."

Jiang Chen only hesitated for one second before four blinding rays of light appeared at the entrance of the underground garage. Seeing this, Evelyn decisively got down on the ground with his hands covering his head. Four gunshots consecutively rang out from the distance.

The sound of bullets blowing by his ear made Jiang Chen jump up. Although he was wearing a carbon Nano bulletproof vest, guns weren't something to be messed with. The four bodyguards immediately swarmed Jiang Chen to act as human shields while Ayesha opened the bulletproof car door while firing back with her pistol.

Because she was wearing shades, the car lights didn't interfere with Ayesha's vision. Two bullets penetrated the other side's car window and struck the driver's head. This van rushing in their direction immediately stalled and smashed into a concrete pillar.

Seeing Jiang Chen's side firing back, the driver of the other van immediately turned his steering wheel and drifted the van to stop horizontally. The militants in baseball caps and masks swarmed out of the car while firing back behind cover.

There was no time for Jiang Chen to hesitate further. With guns being fired, he had no choice but to help the Deputy Prime Minister of Frankberg.

"Open the signal jammer! Don't just stand here; I have a bulletproof vest on. Take cover and prepare to fire back!"

"Roger!"

He dragged open the car door and threw Evelyn, curled up on the ground, into the backseat. He then reached under the car seat and took out a briefcase from the storage dimension with the cover of darkness and tossed it out of the car.

The Celestial Trade bodyguard behind the pillar took the briefcase. He smoothly took out the pistols and clips from inside and tossed the weapons to his comrades. The four bodyguards finished equipping themselves in less than three seconds and started to fire back.

Fortunately both sides used pistols, and in terms of the penetrative power of the bullets and the stability of the pistols, Jiang Chen's side was certainly at an advantage.

Just then, the elevator a hundred meters behind Jiang Chen began to open.

The pursuants from the library had made their way down!

Chapter 520: Evacuate

Jiang Chen cursed. He took out his pistol and prepared to fight. When it came to combat abilities, the bodyguards were no match compared to their boss.

Evelyn saw Jiang Chen's intentions and pulled him aside.

"They have a lot of people - we can't fight them face-to-face. We have to get out of here immediately!"

"No need, we can just defend ourselves here. In two hours, the Deputy will be here to pick me up. Fu*k, I almost forgot police are at the university gates." Jiang Chen swore, took out the phone in his pocket, and prepared to call the police.

"Don't call the police! Wait, listen to me, they have people in the police system." Evelyn immediately stopped Jiang Chen's actions.

Jiang Chen was shocked as his movements froze, but he looked at Evelyn with a frown.

"I won't go against a country's entire police force for someone I just met once. If you want me to save you, then at least show me that you're one of the good guys. Tell me what's going on!"

Evelyn understood the warning in Jiang Chen's eyes. He was conflicted for a moment before he sighed.

"First, allow me to apologize to you for involving you in this… But please understand that it was because I didn't have any other options. If you're willing to help me pass through this hardship, you'll gain the friendship of all the people of Frankberg."

Bullets flew outside the car and left web-like cracks on the bulletproof window. Evelyn looked a bit scared, but such an expression wasn't seen on Jiang Chen's face. When he heard the honest words from the Deputy Prime Minister, he grinned.

"Your words seem to be promising too much. All the Frankberg people? You're only the Deputy Prime Minister."

"A Deputy Prime Minister standing at historical crossroads." Evelyn corrected him with a solemn tone.

The militants from the elevator began to converge at Jiang Chen's side. The battle circumstances were especially dire, but Jiang Chen's side was still at an advantage.

Ayesha's shooting skills were excellent with at least six militants falling victim to her. The Celestial Trade bodyguards who were behind cover also showed strong combat abilities as they were all elites in the military. Although their opponents were no simple characters, they weren't injured because of protection from their carbon Nano bulletproof vests; the most serious damage was damage to their suits.

Time ticked on with the opposition's firepower gradually dying down.

Jiang Chen put the pistol back in his pocket as he nonchalantly asked while leaning against the seat:

"Who wants you dead?"

"Rothschild."

Jiang Chen visibly took a moment to process that before he scoffed: "You know, they're my business partners."

"There's no such thing as an eternal ally, whether in business or politics. You really think your relationship is that good? Let me tell you - the people who came to assassinate me is the Willie Society. You're familiar with the name Willie Society, right?"

Jiang Chen's pupils narrowed.

Evelyn's words were clearly telling him that Willie Society and the Rothschilds were connected somehow. Although he made this connection before, there was no direct evidence to prove this point. And up till now, Carmen was always friendly towards him.

But what made Jiang Chen even more surprised was that Evelyn knew the conflict between him and Willie Society.

"How can you prove this?"

"FNI, Frankberg National Intelligence. Our people have been closely following the Rothschild family's economic activities in Frankberg as well as Willie Society's penetration into West Europe. Based on our source's information—"

"How can you prove this?" Jiang Chen interrupted him as he repeated the same phrase, word for word.

Evelyn took a deep breath and said, "… I can't prove this; there's no assassin foolish enough to leave evidence that could suggest their identity. The evidence of Rothschild's connection with Willie Society is also in FNI's document room. But I can swear on Jesus Christ that everything I said is true. The choice to gain the friendship of the Frankberg Parliament or gratitude from the Rothschilds family is in your hands."

The gunshots outside the car stopped. Ayesha shot the two assassins attempting to escape and signaled the death of all 17 assassins.

Ayesha pulled open the driver side door and looked at Jiang Chen for further instructions.

Jiang Chen thought for two seconds before he looked at Evelyn.

"Tell me, how do you want me to help you?"

Evelyn clearly looked relieved.

"Take me to Austria."

Although Jiang Chen didn't know what Rothschild wanted to do, his instincts told him they were planning something extremely dangerous.

He didn't know what kind of influence this attack would have on Frankberg and all of Europe. But if the ultimate beneficiary was the Willie Society, he felt the need to do something to stop the people who were a constant pestilence.

Especially since a friendly gesture to Evelyn now might reap future benefits.

As Jiang Chen made up his mind, he nodded at Evelyn. He agreed to help him and take him to Austria.

He ordered the four bodyguards to drag the bodies into the elevator then Jiang Chen ordered them to use the blood dissolver to dissolve the blood in the garage. When everyone looked away, he took the opportunity to transfer the 17 bodies into the storage dimension.

After using the blood dissolver to wash away the bloodstains, Jiang Chen pressed the elevator button to the top floor and walked out.

It produced an indescribable excitement to go against the most powerful family in Europe. But the situation hadn't deteriorated to the point where they stood in direct opposition to each other and Carmen shouldn't know about the incident that happened in the library. The moment the guns were fired, Jiang Chen ordered the bodyguards to open the signal jammer, so the gunmen who entered the basement shouldn't have communicated with the outside. The assassins who attempted to escape were executed by Ayesha, so their execution was flawless.

Figuring out how to make the rest of the steps go smoothly while removing the suspicion from him was what Jiang Chen needed to do next.

There was only an hour before the Deputy arrived at the library. If Jiang Chen wanted to help Evelyn without Rothschild knowing, he had to create an accident in the next hour…

First, he took out his phone and called Xie Lei who was visiting his sister.

"Hacking into the Ber Police Network - how confident are you?"

"It's going to be difficult. With what happened tonight, FNI's people will definitely help the local police to investigate. I only have a laptop and it's almost impossible to infiltrate their network right under their nose…"

"What if you had a super-computer?"

Xie Lei, who was holding the phone, took a second to process before his expression turned ecstatic.

"I can do it! With the computation power of a super-computer, even if it's the firewall of the National Defense Department, I can take it down for you!"

"Be careful - don't let them know it's you and don't let them know the computer's IP address."

Jiang Chen provided the administrative password to Xie Lei, hung up the phone, and took out the phone Yao Yao designed for him.

Future Group's biggest secret wasn't the "Peacekeeper" Intercontinental Ballistic Missile deployed under the sea, but it was the commercial quantum computer that was about to come online acting as the server for Godly Land! Although its performance wasn't comparable to the two experimental quantum computers in Fallout Shelter 027, its daunting computation power wasn't something that could be challenged by modern day super-computers.

The quantum computer located in Coro Island only had a usage of 1.1%, but even the 1.1% was enough to support 2 million beta testers to connect to the game simultaneously. Jiang Chen used his phone to remotely control the quantum computer and assigned 0.1% of spare power to Xie Lei.

With his hacker abilities along with the insane computational power of the quantum computer, it shouldn't be too difficult to infiltrate the police network.

Even with the intervention of FNI agents!

Jiang Chen immediately took out four cigarette-box-sized high energy bombs and passed them to Ayesha.

"To the west wing of the library."

Ayesha nodded. Without any hesitation, she turned around.

Then Jiang Chen planned for a moment and called Chen Yuqiao.

When his call went through, Chen Yuqiao and the executives of the student organization were calling student registration to confirm their safety. Ber was currently under a curfew and the University of Ber was closed, so a lot of students blocked from the university were at risk.

The issue with the refugees meant that not only Frankberg but all of Europe's security was compromised. Especially with the accident that just occurred, it was hard to ensure people with ill-intentions wouldn't take advantage of the situation.

After Chen Yuqiao hung up the phone to the Han Embassy, she didn't even put her cell phone down before another call came through.

When she saw the caller, her expression turned stiff.

She didn't think Jiang Chen would call her personally.

"Hello?" Chen Yuqiao picked up the phone while dropping what she was doing. She headed outside.

"Are you interested in joining Future Group?"

Jiang Chen's words made Chen Yuqiao take an extra second to process before a joyful expression appeared on her face. She almost bit her tongue when she spoke.

Future Group was known for its competitive benefits package and anyone could see the imminent dominance of Future Group. Regarding the olive vine extended by Jiang Chen, the temptation was intense for someone who was about to graduate.

"I'm very interested!"

"Good. After three business days, the European division will send you a contract." A smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face. "But before that, I need you to do something for me…"

After he hung up the phone, Ayesha, who finished planting the bombs, returned underground.

Evelyn looked nervously at Jiang Chen for the entire duration as his actions made him feel more and more unsettled.

"What do you want to do?"

"Turn the water muddy." Jiang Chen looked at Evelyn and sneered.

Chapter 521: Create Confusion

Ber Hospital.

Xie Lei brought his laptop to the corner of the restroom while his fingers turned into shadows as he furiously typed on the keyboard. With the lines of code flashing in front of his eyes, the teen's expression began to turn fervent.

To be able to use a supercomputer as the source of attack is something dreamed about by every hacker. A supercomputer to a hacker was just like a Godly weapon to a player. Although Jiang Chen only lent the super computer to him temporarily, it didn't take long for him to feel the power of "controlling the world"!

With a Godly weapon in hands, he traversed through the world of 0 and 1 like an unstoppable force. A password that must take hours to crack was just a few seconds with the help of the quantum computer.

That was just 0.1% of its computation power.

"Got it!" Xie Lei could no longer hide his excitement as he pulled down his hood to cover his face under the shadow to prevent other people from noticing his expression.

With ten minutes, he used the server of a contractor that provided maintenance service to the Ber Police Department as the jumping board and successfully infiltrated the police network. Because the infiltration time was extremely short, he didn't catch the attention of anyone.

The screen flashed; a city map labeled with red dots appeared on his computer screen.

The red dots that moved along the streets were the GPS coordinate of the police vehicles patrolling in the city. From the concentrated red dots, the Ber police had sent out all available forces and set up blockades at key entrances to the city.

Xie Lei clicked on the location of the University of Ber to expand the map of the patrolled area. Xie Lei's eyes stopped on the four red dots parked around the university gate as a proud curvature appeared on his face.

"I found you."

He pressed the microphone of the Bluetooth earphone, opened the voice change file, cleared his throat, and pressed the phone button.

…

"Do you really need to do this?"

Evelyn sat with Jiang Chen in the back of the Benz with a wry smile as he stared at the red button on the phone screen.

The two Benz already left the garage and stopped on the small road five hundred meters away from the library. Four bodyguards sat in one car while Ayesha, Jiang Chen, and the Deputy Prime Minister sat in another together.

"Mr. Evelyn, you know, I'm taking the risk to upset Rothschild for you. If you don't bring enough genuineness to the table, how would I trust that you won't burn the bridge after?" Jiang Chen said expressionlessly.

Jiang Chen couldn't risk letting Rothschild know about this and Evelyn's words were the key. It was too obvious for the public figure to wear a collar, and there was no surgery condition to inject the slavery chip.

The only method to ensure he would keep his mouth shut was to drag him down with him.

"You only have half a minute to hesitate."

But what Jiang Chen didn't expect was the moment he said these words, Evelyn pressed the button.

Flames erupted from the library five hundred meters out, followed by an explosive bang.

Debris flew and scattered.

The entire west wing slowly collapsed under the explosion and crashed the entire garage.

"Jesus Christ… This is magnificent." Evelyn returned the phone to Jiang Chen while he muttered at the scene outside the window.

"You surprised me. You pressed the button without hesitation." Jiang Chen took the phone and signaled for Ayesha to start the car.

"I don't have any other choices, "Evelyn shrugged, "Compared to the future of the country, a library building is nothing. Especially since there shouldn't be anyone in the library."

On his face, Jiang Chen saw repent, but he didn't see any regret.

As a qualified politician, the Deputy Prime Minister possessed all the qualities a politician should have.

Jiang Chen laughed and closed the camera on the side.

"If other people know I pressed the button, my political career will be over." Evelyn sighed.

"Don't worry, as long as you don't sell me out, no one will know who pressed the button."

…

The sudden explosion sent a shockwave across the entire university. The library with thick smoke rising was reflected in thousands of terrified pupils.

Mayhem ensued.

No one knew why the quiet university would become the target of a terrorist attack, they only knew it happened, it happened inches away from them!

People screamed, attempted to escape the university where terrorists were disguised in. The police and security at the university gate did all they could to comfort people's emotions, prevent people from rushing into the streets, but it was futile against the emotional crowd.

It was a chaotic scene.

The crowd flooding outside blocked the fire trucks and ambulances attempting to enter the university. The police stationed at the gate roared into the radio on their shoulder to report the status at the University of Ber while requesting for additional backup from the headquarter.

But the police didn't know was that they were not communicating with the headquarter, but they were speaking with Xie Lei who hijacked the communication channel.

"Please remain calm, Mr. Bills, backup in on the way, please maintain the order of the scene."

"Quick, we can't hold the crowd anymore! There are at least ten thousand people… This is insane, Han international students are protesting, you better be quick."

Bills at the scene hung up the phone rudely as a smile emerged on Xie Lei's face at the corner of the restroom in the hospital.

[Keep waiting, back up will never arrive.]

Not only that…

Following Jiang Chen's command, the teen's fingers typed on the keyboard and changed the patrol route of the police vehicles in the city without leaving a trace.

Right now, the Han international students at the university gate were protesting that the Ber police was locking them together with terrorists. The usually timid international students leading a protest was something unexpected by the Ber police.

As the student organizations with the largest member base, their protest received the support of other students. No one wanted to be locked with terrorists inside a cage together. With a flood of over ten thousand people, a police team of 20 people with shields was futile.

It didn't take long for the people in the university to break through the blockade and escaped onto the street.

The situation began to deteriorate, and the police lost control.

Jiang Chen and the group used the chaos at the gate to rush out of the university along with a few other vehicles.

"Are you crazy?" The student union president with a hooked nose found Chen Yuqiao as he stared at her with an aggressive tone, "Why didn't you stop your people. If an accident happened—"

"Why would I stop them?" Chen Yuqiao interrupted the student union president and looked at him seriously, "We are exercising our legal rights, and we have the right to protest. Also, please be cautious of your tone, you don't have the right to order me, we don't have a subordinate relationship."

The hooked nose looked at her, dumbfounded. He didn't think Chen Yuqiao who was always easy to talk to would suddenly change to such a firm stance.

His mouth opened and closed as he only managed to squeeze out a few "Okays" without properly saying a complete sentence.

Tonight, the entire city won't be peaceful.

Chapter 522: Suspicion

Xie Lei changed the patrol route of the police vehicles in the city and created a safe passage for Jiang Chen and the group to the south rural area of Ber. Because the entire city was given a curfew, the major highways in the city were under heavy congestion.

Xie Lei then hacked into the traffic control system and paralyzed a few major intersections red lights to block the flow of traffics from Jiang Chen in order to prevent their escape route from being congested.

"The inspection station two kilometers to your southeast is gone. I have ordered them to change shifts."

Since he was incorporated by Jiang Chen, it has been a while since he had the thrill of using his ability without restriction.

"Send a similar command to a few other inspection stations in the North and East area to prevent suspicion."

"Understood!"

"Also, don't have too much fun."

"Got it!"

Jiang Chen hung up the phone and used the mirror to look at Ayesha.

"Ayesha, is the tracking system on the car closed?"

"I've taken it out," Ayesha answered sternly while holding onto the wheel.

"Excellent."

Jiang Chen made a hush gesture and then called Carmen Rothschild.

…

"I need an explanation."

Carmen looked gravely at Johnson who stood in front of him with his head buried, without daring even to breathe heavily.

Seeing Johnson didn't say a word, Carmen continued.

"I waited till now, and only received the news that a terrorist attack occurred at the library of the University of Ber. Where did Evelyn go? Is he dead or alive? This is not the result I want; I need the Deputy Prime Minister to die in Ber! And not appear in the next election as an opposition."

"I'm very sorry!" Johnson lowered his head.

Perhaps Carmen realized he was too emotional, he took a deep breath and recollected his thought.

"I don't want to hear your apologies, I need an explanation."

"Our people engaged in crossfire at the University of Ber with the bodyguards of the Deputy Prime Minister…"

"And then?"

"On the first floor at the library gate, our people killed the last three bodyguards around Evelyn. Evelyn ran inside, and then our people lost communication…" A drop of cold sweat dripped down from Johnson's forehead.

"Lost communication, and then the explosion." Carmen sighed, and poured him another glass of wine, "What did those idiots think they did?"

The two Benz's GPS signal was lost in the underground parking of the library, looks like the two vehicles must be buried under the debris.

This is going to be difficult… He asked Jiang Chen to wait for him at the parking lot, but an explosion happened coincidentally at the library. Anyone would suspect it was a plotted murder which would without a doubt cause a strain in their relationship.

Instincts told him that Jiang Chen didn't die in the explosion.

When Carmen thought about this, he began to have a headache. It was a complete coincidence to drag Jiang Chen into this, and he couldn't think of an explanation to this event within a short period of time.

But what he didn't expect was that Jiang Chen directed the explosion himself.

Jiang Chen didn't possess the motive to cause an explosion. Evelyn hid in the west wing of the library; the gunmen who failed to find him chose to end the search as soon as possible. God knows if a donkey had kicked their head as they chose to blow the building up. If it was the Willie Society, they certainly possessed the ability to blow a building up.

But the explanation would fail to explain why the Willie Society gunmen would lose communication after the explosion.

Unless there was someone that was the perpetrator behind the explosion and their target was Jiang Chen? But because of the coincidence, he didn't know if Jiang Chen has died, but the Willie Society Gunmen happened to be buried alive.

At the same time, the phone on the table rang.

Carmen looked at the caller on the screen as his eyebrows visibly twitched. He hesitated for a moment before he picked up the phone.

Without any small talk, the moment the phone was connected, Jiang Chen's thunderous roar came from the other side.

"Mr. Rothschild, I want to know what exactly happened. If I didn't happen to be in the car, if my bodyguard didn't react fast enough, if I didn't happen to just be two meters away from the door, I would have been fu*king buried alive!"

"Please… Mhmm, remain calm, my friend." Carmen with a wry smile attempted to calm Jiang Chen's emotion, but Jiang Chen who just "escaped from death" clearly didn't take in his words.

"Friend? This is how the Rothschild family treat their friend?"

"Where are you, I'll send people to pick—"

"Haha, no need to bother you anymore, my Frankberg trip is ending early. I will be leaving Frankberg tonight, with my own method! I will be on the plane tomorrow morning."

"I'm truly sorry, my friend. Please trust me, I will give you an explanation." Carmen closed his eyes and said courteously.

"I hope so."

Jiang Chen hung up the phone.

Carmen took a deep breath and put the phone back on the table.

"Boss, we…"

"There is no use looking for an explanation now, just put him aside… Also, compared to the relationship with Future Group, there are more important things we must do." Carmen quickly adjusted his mood and said in an emotionless tone.

...

After Jiang Chen dropped Carmen's call, he let out a breath. He didn't know if his acting successfully tricked the small cunning fox of the Rothschild family, but he did everything he could.

The rest would be up to luck.

"Frankberg has closed its borders, but since the attack happened less than two hours ago, the lengthy borders could not be completely closed within such a short period of time. We'll take an alternative path to the Frankberg-Austria border. If there are no surprises, we won't be blocked along the way."

"If we meet an inspection blockade… we'll ram through."

Fortunately, Jiang Chen didn't encounter any inspection zones along the way. They made their way through a muddy path in the rural area and passed through the Frankberg-Austria border. Although there were tense moments along the way, they managed to dodge by the knife's edge without problems.

The two Benzs were parked by the border as the group chose to pass the border on foot through the forest. Jiang Chen purposely slowed down by a few steps and threw the cars into the storage dimension to remove their traces.

Just as the day began to break, the group finally walked out from the rocky paths and arrived in a small town in Austria.

"I'll just send you to here. The rest of the way will be up to you." When Jiang Chen traversed through the forest, he looked at Evelyn who was gasping for breath on the ground.

For a politician that spent most of his days in the office, the outdoor activity of climbing mountains was challenging.

"No problem… Can I burrow a few hundred Euros from you? For a taxi," Evelyn asked shamelessly.

Jiang Chen took a few bills out and threw them beside him.

Evelyn on the ground grinned and picked up the bills.

"Best of luck, I hope you won't make my investment skit the water."

"Rest assured."

Jiang Chen read the sternness in Evelyn's eyes and nodded, he then turned around to signal Ayesha and the bodyguards to leave.

He has done everything he could.

As for if Evelyn could stop Rothschild's plan, it has nothing to do with him anymore.

(1) Skit the water: An analogy that means the same thing as go to waste.

Chapter 523: The Ignited Fuse

"Yesterday, a shooting incident occurred at the refugee's camp in west Bava which resulted in the death of ten Syrian refugees. The attackers directly threw explosives inside the refugee camp. The organization "Nomadic Teens" claimed responsibility for this attack…"

It has been three days since Jiang Chen returned to the mansion in Xin. He has grown into the habit of watching the news in the morning and obviously would not miss the follow-up reports on the attack at the Opera House. He wasn't bothered by the subsequent event but was rather troubled by the plan of the Rothschild family.

Installing a right wing party to lead the country? But to direct a terrorist attack was too much of a cost.

Just like the usual, Ayesha brought the toasts and the hot milk to the table, then in swift steps, she walked to the living room and gently hugged Jiang Chen from behind the sofa.

"Breakfast is ready."

"Mhmm."

Jiang Chen smiled and turned around to kiss the girl tenderly. With her face slowly blushing, Jiang Chen turned off the TV, took her hand, and then walk to the dining room.

With the conclusion of the Germany trip, there were still many things he needed to take care.

After breakfast, Jiang Chen on a boat visited New Moon Island to find Ivan who was training new recruits at the shooting range.

Followed by the increase in production at the Sixth Street, the monthly production of kinetic skeletons had reached a total of 500 units, and the continuous stream of kinetic skeletons flowed into the modern world through Jiang Chen. Currently, the 1500 soldiers in Celestial Trade all possessed a unit which meant the penetration rate was even higher compared to the NAC soldiers.

The situation on the wasteland had been stabilized, and the need to expand military arms was not as critical as before, so demand had dropped. Jiang Chen took the opportunity to prioritize the equipment of the force in the modern world to protect the assets there.

Inside the shooting range, soldiers in kinetic skeletons with Reaper Assault Rifles were shooting at the fast-moving targets. On the other side of the training field, ten soldiers were entering into the arena to simulate city attack scenarios with the cooperation of the reconnaissance drones and attack drones.

"Yo," when Jiang Chen came, Ivan smiled, leaned the gun beside the table, and greeted.

"How's the training going?"

"Absolutely perfect. The virtual reality training system is wonderful. Usually, training a new recruit would take three months, we only need one month to finish now."

Jiang Chen nodded. To increase the training efficiency of Celestial Trade, he assigned 1% of the computation power from the commercial quantum computer used to serve the "Phantom" helmet to run the virtual reality system in order to best simulate the details of a battlefield.

The 1% computation power was not to be underestimated. Even if the quantum computer had a lower power consumption compared to a traditional supercomputer, Celestial Trade still needed to pay over half a million in electricity a month for that 1%.

And the chambers the soldiers used were all produced from the Sixth Street; the amount of nutrient solution needed per day was not a small number either.

Due to the limited population, Xin could only seek the path of elite soldiers.

"You're doing great. I will install new training modules in the control terminal. You can arrange 100 soldiers you trust to use the new training module to conduct training. The requirement is that their height must be above 170 centimeters with a weight between 60 to 75 kilograms." Jiang Chen told Ivan.

Ivan stood up straight and saluted, "Yes, sir!"

"Are you not interested in the training content?" Seeing Ivan didn't have any questions, Jiang Chen asked.

"If the boss thinks I need to know, then the boss will tell me." Ivan rubbed his forehead and grinned.

Order is everything!

As a soldier, it was enough to execute the order given by the superior. Ivan had been training the soldiers with the strict rules mindset; it was also because he abided by it for many years in the military.

Jiang Chen was impressed by Ivan's response as he patted him on the shoulder.

"it is nothing secretive, you'll know very soon. If you're interested, you can also take the training. Power armor. Have you heard of this before?"

"Power armor?" Ivan paused for a moment before his eyebrows furrowed, searching in his head. "I seem to have heard of it somewhere."

"Movie." Jiang Chen reminded.

"Right! That, Hollywood movie. Could it be…" Ivan seemed to have realized something as he looked at Jiang Chen.

"That's right. The training module is about training to use the power armor. Do you remember the shooting incident that happened on Coro Island? A few seconds of video?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Ivan nodded and then looked at Jiang Chen in shock.

"It is capable of providing bullet, shell, grenade and nuclear strike protection. The right arm could be installed with revolving machine guns, anti-armor cannons or a repair module, the airdrop type could be parachuted from thousands of meters up in the air."

Ivan was just about to ask "does single soldier armor really have combat value?" But when he listened to Jiang Chen's description and swallowed the sentence back.

"This thing… Can the functionality really be achieved?" Ivan felt his voice was shaking when he asked. If power armor could really achieve the functions Jiang Chen described, this new type of battle machine could transform the structure of modern warfare!

With how Ivan was still stunned, Jiang Chen only laughed.

It was nothing. With the assistance of the airdrop pod, it could be directly launched down from the synchronous orbit. The power armor was originally designed for nuclear "transformed" city environments, so its ability to withstand nuclear radiation was without a doubt. It could traverse through terrains impassable by vehicles, provide temporarily cover for light infantry in street engagements and provide firepower coverage.

"It is within the last period of the testing phase, but the training module is complete. Once the one hundred soldiers are familiarized with the control of the armor through the virtual reality training system, the first batch of power armors should arrive in New Moon Island too. What you have to be aware of is, although power armor itself does not need to be kept a secret, its functionality and weapon specifications must be kept confidential. So your task is extremely critical. You must choose soldiers that are trustworthy to participate in training," Jiang Chen said sternly.

"Leave it up to me." Ivan solemnly nodded and promised.

"I trust your ability." Jiang Chen smiled. "Other than the power armor, there is also a training module on fixed wing aircraft. This is a bit more complicated. Air force and land force are completely two separate systems, and even with the assistance of genetic vaccines, aircraft's requirement for the pilot is extremely strict. I have a physical examination checklist here, and you only need to arrange for people to go through the examination. If there are not enough people in the army, you can recruit from Xin citizens.

"Not enough people?" Ivan had a dumbfounded expression as he looked puzzled, "Do we need a lot of people?"

Jiang Chen shook his hand.

"We only need 20 people."

"Only 20 people? There are 1568 soldiers in Celestial Trade, how can we not find just 20 people." Ivan was not convinced.

Jiang Chen mysteriously smiled and patted the shoulder of the old soldier.

"Therefore, the criteria are extremely strict. As to how strict it is, you'll see."

Chapter 524: Power Armor Training

"On the evening of October 31, a large-scale terrorist attack occurred at the Opera House. 121 people including the President have been killed in this attack. 31 people including the Austrian President are seriously injured. Two hours after the attack, an explosion occurred at the University library two blocks away. The bodies of the victims were not found on the scene. There is currently no evidence suggesting the two attacks are related..."

"The police found the bodies of six gunmen at the crime scene, four of whom were Syrian and two men from Somalia and Libya. The police confirmed that six were registered in the refugee camps in the suburbs of Bav. At present, no individual or organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. For security reasons, the police temporarily closed the refugee camps in the Bav province."

"Multiple embassies lowered their flag to half musk."

"The National Anti-Terrorism Office, Casper, resigned."

"In the early morning, the leader of emerging anti-refugee far-right party New Choice Party', Crete Petrie, delivered a speech in the Federal Parliament, sternly condemning the Chancellor for being too weak on the refugee issue, and it is those people that brought terrorism. The Crete's speech was criticized by many lawmakers as being extreme and irrational, but it won applause from the audience."

"Analysts commented that this event might heighten the New Choice Party support rate to a new high. The CDU, led by Merkel, has lost two constituencies. After this incident, Bav and neighboring constituencies will be favoring the New Choice Party..."

As soon as the picture turned, the scene changed to outside parliament. The reporter handed the microphone to a Germanic man with a flag on his face. The reporter had not asked the question, and the man screamed out in anger.

"Close all the refugee camps! I have had enough! Help me ask the Chancellor. Do you have to wait for the garbage to ruin everything to do something about it? God, it shouldn't be our president that died in there, it should be you!"

Jiang Chen turned off the TV.

He leaned on the sofa and gently tapped his finger on the arm of the sofa.

One day passed since they crossed the Austrian border. At this moment, he was sitting in the lounge of Xin's embassy in Austria.

Because it is a small country, limited by factors such as influence and budget, the embassy here was not as luxurious as the embassies in the UA or Hua. Xin only bought a two-story office with a total of five hundred square meters near the city center and transformed it into the embassy.

By the way, taking a left turn out the door is the Argentina embassy.

After crossing the border and separating from Evelyn, Jiang Chen went to the nearest town and dialed the telephone number of the embassy.

After receiving his call, Bram, the ambassador in Austria, immediately arranged for two cars to go to the border town. They took him back to the embassy office in Vienna and arranged a room for him and Ayesha to rest in. The four Celestial Trade bodyguards following Jiang Chen also stayed at the nearby hotel.

As a public official from Xin, who didn't know the impact of Celestial Trade on the country's politics? It is precisely because of this that Bram was attentive and meticulous during the entire duration.

The sky was just beginning to light up, and Ayesha was still asleep. Because he wasn't sleeping anymore, he got out of bed and watched TV in the living room.

There was no suspense, and the morning news were all covering the attack. Just like the attack that happened in Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium. Everyone was condemning, everyone was angry, and everyone was praying for the victims.

The public opinion of the attacks was not fundamentally different. But from the seriousness of Evelyn, the attack would ignite a long-buried fuse.

"What will be detonated?"

Muttering, Jiang Chen's gaze swept the map of Europe attached to the wall.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Glancing at the closed bedroom door, Jiang Chen casually said.

"Please come in."

The door opened, and Ambassador Bram appeared at the door. After opening the door, he did not enter the house; just stood there with a smile.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, someone outside wants to see you."

"Who?" Jiang Chen asked unexpectedly.

"An old man named Ccides. He claims to be the butler of Rothschild."

A very unexpected visitor. Jiang Chen had thought that Rothschild would send someone to meet him, unravel the "misunderstanding" and repair the cracks in their relationship, but did not expect that it was actually Ccides making this trip.

"I am extremely grateful that you didn't close the door on me, Mr. Jiang."

"Haha, there is no way I will not let you in." Jiang Chen smiled at the kind-hearted old butler.

"Before the topic begins, please allow me to apologize for the hospitality of the previous day. I hope that Mr. Jiang can understand."

"Of course, but I need an explanation for the explosion that took place in the library."

Ccides sighed.

"Master Carmen swears in the name of the Rothschild family that the explosion has nothing to do with us. I promise you, we will find out who actually launched the despicable assassination and poured the dirty water on the Rothschild name to cause a rift in our friendship."

Since Ccides had already said this, Jiang Chen didn't persist on this issue further, so he accepted the Rothschild family's argument that the explosion of the library had nothing to do with them.

It has nothing to do with them. After all, the explosion was Jiang Chen's self-directed performance.

"No matter who they are, I will definitely let those rats pay the price," regardless Jiang Chen still had to finish acting as he said in a furious voice.

After sending away the butler, Jiang Chen looked up at the clock. It was getting late, so he was going to wake Ayesha up. Typically, Ayesha woke up him, but because they "slept too late" last night, it was his job now.

However, when he pushed open the door, Ayesha was already dressed and looking out the window.

Jiang Chen hugged the petite body and spoke softly in her ear.

"What are you looking at?"

"The street... has a familiar feeling."

"Familiar feeling?"

"Well... maybe it's just an illusion." Looking at the bustling Mettern Street, Ayesha whispered.

Born in the flames of war, she has an extraordinary acuteness to the war. But looking at the busy streets, she was skeptical of her own judgment, using the word illusion to summarize her instincts.

In the afternoon, Bram personally drove Jiang Chen and the others to the airport.

After waiting for two hours, everyone boarded the plane safely.

The voice of the flight attendant rang in his ear. He looked at the ground further and further below him, and slowly breathed out, relieved. No matter what the Rothschild family is planning, no matter how many people will bleed, it has nothing to do with him anymore.

Somehow, he suddenly remembered the conversation between the old Rothschild and him in the forest.

Keep it to yourself...?

He closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat.

Chapter 525: Aurora-20

Apocalypse.

After half a month's efforts, the mutant nests in the west side of Wanghai were cleared out. Other than that, NAC soldiers built eleven inspection stations along Huangpu River to block all bridges that connected the west side of the city to the east side to prevent mutants from spreading to the west.

All the mutant nests on the west side of the city, whether on the surface or underground were all eliminated by NAC soldiers and mercenaries. Although creatures such as mutated cockroaches and rats were hard to remove completely, the more hostile mutants such as zombies, Roshans and even Death Claws were completely extinct from the west side. Due to the force of the NAC, the survivor groups in the area were all incorporated under NAC's control.

The mercenary groups and raider groups without the cleanest track records either reformed or left the city. When they witnessed the rain of rockets in the sky, they had no desire to be defiant at all. NAC had used its supreme power to announce its control over Wanghai.

Liuding Town who previously had the same influence as the Sixth Street could no longer stand against the behemoth known as NAC.

When they saw God's Cane strike onto the city center, they had completely accepted the fact. They didn't know it was NAC's battle against the Supreme as they were only aware of NAC's mutant nest cleaning project. Therefore, they mistakenly thought that the tungsten rod was launched by NAC…

Other than asserting a controlling position, NAC also sent engineering soldiers with nuclear protective suits to the city center to clean the radiation source piled up in the area.

The difficult to remove radiation source was collected to lead barrels and thrown into a deep pit created by tungsten rods before being buried under concrete with lead content. And the area with lower levels of radiation was cleaned with radiation cleaning agents; it wouldn't take too long before the gamma level in the city center return to normal levels.

Also, the explorer teams were sent to nuclear companies, research institutes, and industrial bases to search for prewar technology. All the collected documents would be sent to Camp 027 for control and categorization. The city center "protected" by radiation was just like an untarnished treasure. A lot of the technical documents hidden underground were well preserved and were of high value. The one thousand scientists in Camp 027 instantly became overwhelmed with work.

The Huangpu River that ran straight across Wanghai was just like the Berlin Wall; the left side was the NAC controlled area with established order while the right side remained as the land of chaos.

Followed by the end of the mutants flood, the survivor groups in the east had returned from the large survival bases such as Liuding to return to their homes and restart their lives. But when they witnessed the difference between the two banks, without the need for more persuasion, the survivors who longed for the safety and stability of the west city brought their families and migrated to the west bank.

The inspection stations that spanned across Huangpu River didn't stop their migration, but the entire population of survivors moving into NAC territory must surrender their nuclear grenades, mini nukes, and other dangerous goods. The nuclear prohibition policy was beginning to push outward from the Sixth Street and enact in all NAC controlled territory.

Currently, in Wanghai Airport.

Ten construction vehicles were moving along the taxi lane and repairing the destroyed airport. The repair work was contracted out by NAC to the biggest construction company in Sixth Street – Metal Shell Commerce with the Second Division responsible for the safety of the construction site.

The commercial airport prewar had been part of NAC's requisition as NAC's first military airport managed by the closest camp, Camp 027. Currently, in the hanger of the airport, there was a fluid and dynamic-looking aircraft that resembled a swallow, its name was Aurora-20.

Jiang Chen was in front of the hanger with Fang Weijie touring the newly developed weapon by the fallout shelter.

"Aurora-20, fixed-wing fighter, it can take off through both the vertical takeoff and runway modes. The aircraft can be mounted with two rounds of short-range air-to-air missiles and four rounds of long-range air or ground missiles. A 10mm cannon is installed at the head of the aircraft. Based on

Including Tiger II, Transport Helicopter Type-51, the most advanced military techs in the NAC were created from the team led by Fang Weijie.

Jiang Chen nodded in content as he stared at the powerful looking fighter.

"What about the stealth capacity and speed?"

Stealth capability and speed are the life of a fighter, armor thickness at high altitude offered less significance. No matter how advanced the fighter, it is difficult to withstand the impact of two missiles' direct hit.

"The aircraft shell is coated with a radar signal attenuation coating that displays only a sparrow-sized area on most radars. The radar signal detection system at the bottom of the aircraft can reverse track the coordinates of the ground radar base station. As for the speed, the maximum cruise speed is up to Mach 4.5." A smug look appeared on Fang Weijie's face.

Jiang Chen was extremely impressed with the number.

4.5 Mach's highest speed has surpassed the Mig 25 high-altitude high-speed interceptor's 3.2 Mach's record. The number was approaching the speed limit a fighter jet could reach in the atmosphere.

Of course, in case of near combat situations, it was infeasible to combat at the highest speed. Disregarding 4.5 Mach, even if the speed was Mach 2, the acceleration of the fighter taking a turn would knock the pilot out.

In addition, according to Fang Weijie's introduction, this "Aurora-20" fighter has a combat radius of up to 3100 kilometers in the case with no tanker support, the number has far exceeded F22's 2177 kilometers record. It was partially because the aircraft's new titanium alloy which made the weight of the aircraft compared to the 21st-century fighter much lighter, it was also because the aircraft's use of the engine and synthetic fuels were better than the technology level of the 21st century.

"From the engine to the fire control system, everything is PAC's military technology. From the aircraft landing gear to air to air missiles, everything was made using 3D printing technology.

"What is the feasibility of industrial production?" Jiang Chen asked.

The cost of 3D printing was high and will waste a lot of materials and energy. The cost of producing a fighter through 3D printing was three times the cost of producing a fighter on a production line. Although NAC was rich, if the cutting-edge weapons continued to rely on 3D printing technology, Jiang Chen would still be pained by the money he would have to burn.

"It is difficult. The engine heat-resistant material is hard to produce with Sixth Street's industrial capability." Fang Weijie shook his head.

Jiang Chen thought for a moment and said.

"Hand the production information of some simple parts of the production process to the Sixth Street's military factory; outsource these parts as much as possible too. Thus, the cost should be much lower than 3D printing, but this will also shorten the production cycle, do you think Is it feasible?

Fang Wei pinched his chin and began to contemplate.

"Simple parts of the process? Strictly speaking, there is no one part of the production process that is simple…"

Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled.

"What I refer to as simple process is not what we know as easy to produce, but instead technological feasibility. Don't underestimate the innovation of the wasteland people. As long as we offer the right price, technologically feasible, maybe they could develop production processes at a lower cost."

Fang Weijie was not exactly convinced by what Jiang Chen said. Since he came from the fallout shelter and was part of the elite level before the war, he didn't believe the "hobo" dressed survivors had the capability to solve the production problem of the fighter parts.

But due to the class difference, he didn't display his scorn to the survivors on the wasteland.

Seeing Fang Weijie was silent, Jiang Chen could guess what he thought. But he only smiled without further discussing the problem.

Fang Weijie was proud, but the proudness didn't come from arrogance, the proudness originates from his meticulousness to technical capability.

"Science and technology are two completely separate topics. The former dictates the growth of the latter; the latter determines the value of the former. To be able to survive on the cruel wasteland to this day, it already proved the innovation of the survivors."

"But you can't count on a bunch of refugees to do the work of technicians… Okay, if you insist. Let me think… screw, wings, seat cover, ejection seat, control panel shell, around 60% of the basic parts are relatively easy to make." Fang Weijie sighed in defeat.

"Great." Jiang Chen nodded and pleasingly patted the scientist's shoulder, "Make a detailed list of the parts and give it to Xu Lu. The rest of the parts will still be produced by 3D printing."

"I understand." Fang Weijie nodded.

They were only responsible for the development, building of the first prototype model, and providing blueprints and production specifications. As to the exact details of the production process, it would be the responsibility of the Fishbone Military Factory, not the worry of the scientists.

"Regarding the next research project," Jiang Chen paused and looked at Fang Weijie seriously, "I hope you can develop an airship with long airtime, armor protection capability, and basic firepower.

"Airship? Armor protection capacity?" Fang Weijie took a second to process this as his eyebrows furrowed. "Built with steel?"

"Is it difficult to achieve technically?" Looking at Fang Weijie's troubled look, Jiang Chen asked.

"No, technically, it is not difficult to achieve, but… I have never heard of an airship before," Fang Weijie said wryly

His experience naturally had to be from before the war. Disregarding before the war, the airship with poor mobility and as a large target was eliminated as early as the beginning of World War II. Although the 22-century technology could create a steel airship without much difficulty, this kind of weapons being cost-effective was something Fang Weijie was deeply skeptical about.

So he euphemistically expressed that he had never heard of such weapons, hoping Jiang Chen would change his mind.

"It's okay, if there is none before the war, just create one with the pre-war technology from the beginning." However, Jiang Chen did not change his mind

"To build such an air fortress, the amount of steel, titanium, copper, and aluminum required would be an astronomical figure. From a cost-effective point of view, is this really meaningful?" Fang Weijie questioned.

"Of course it is meaningful," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

He gazed at the sky beyond the airport.

It was clear, but further in the distance, it was covered by dark clouds.

Fang Weijie followed Jiang Chen's sight, but he didn't understand Jiang Chen's intention.

"What is it?"

"To spread our belief, our order, and our ideology to places beyond the horizon."

Chapter 526: The Mission during Peaceful Time

Technology without limitation was dangerous; its danger exceeded the danger posed by zombies and mutants. On the planet surrounded by radioactive dust, Jiang Chen had all the reason to believe that malformed seeds had sprouted not only in Wanghai.

Mutated humans, cannibals, raiders, zombies, mutants, artificial intelligence without restriction…

The root of the problem was that all these monsters were the result of technological exploration without restriction that led to mutated species.

This had to be fixed.

The iron fleet of NAC would eliminate all heresy.

This slogan was printed on the gates of the Sixth Street, observed by all businessmen entering and leaving the street.

At the conclusion of large-scale mutant elimination warfare, the Sixth Street became the place the survivors from the province of Suhang and PAC territory longed most for. Merchants and travelers took NAC's story and flag to distant places; this powerful and stable force was attempting to complete the feat the World Alliance Organization never managed to complete –

Restore order.

"… They can't do it. It's not because they don't have the ability; it's just that they lack the will to take responsibility and face reality. If you think about it from another perspective, are you more willing to face a world completely blown into chaos or go to a new world and start again? There isn't much difference between the two - it's just that the latter is easier for people to accept." In the General office at the Sixth Street council building, Jiang Chen knocked his cigarette against an ashtray and leaned back to chat with Zhao Chenwu who was sitting across from him.

"Very unique perspective." Zhao Chenwu shrugged, took a sip of his tea and exclaimed, "Great tea. Speaking of which, did Mr. General invite me here just for a tea party?"

"Of course not!" Jiang Chen laughed. "You're the director of the council. I want to use you to send a message to the council."

"What signal?" Zhao Chenwu put down the teacup and sat up straight.

"Wanghai's situation is gradually being stabilized. In the next while, NAC will not consider military action so it will be a great opportunity to develop Sixth Street."

"So the arms contract from NAC will decrease?" Zhao Chenwu's reaction wasn't too enthusiastic since he already left the firearms business and sold the military factory to NAC half a year ago.

"Of course, but this wasn't what I wanted to say." Jiang Chen paused. "I want you to use the influence you built when you conducted business outside of NAC territory to collect pre-war technical files, research equipment, and high precision pieces of apparatus scattered outside of Wanghai. We'll acquire the recollected goods at a reasonable price."

For most of the small to medium sized survival groups, technology and equipment were worthless. Even if a village with thirty-something people acquired the design blueprints for an electromagnetic pulse cannon, it would be impossible for them to actually produce a single cannon without 3D printing equipment or production tools.

Many ignorant survivors even mixed precious literature and abandoned books together to use as winter fuel. They removed parts such as sensors and graphene circuit boards from the quantum computer and used them on self-controlled sentry guns.

What Jiang Chen needed merchants across the wasteland to do was collect the "precious goods" mixed in with the garbage. It was best for merchants to do this since their movements wouldn't alarm local survivors and they could communicate with locals much more easily compared to NAC soldiers with guns.

"Of course. I'll inform my colleagues and keep an eye out when doing business outside the province… Do I need to inform council members too? A lot of Sixth Street commerce chambers are doing business outside the province - the merchant fleets from Hang City for example," Zhao Chenwu asked.

"No need to inform them; the merchant fleets from Hang are outsiders. As for the smaller commerce chambers, there are too many of them to control effectively and that would just disrupt more than help." Jiang Chen shook his head. "This task is extremely important. NAC needs this technology to rebuild the ruins, so I'm giving you the task."

"Thank you for your confidence in us; we won't disappoint you." Zhao Chenwu nodded, raised his head, and smiled. "What exactly is this technology? Or, what kind of technology is NAC willing to pay such a high price for?"

The focus of merchants was always maximizing profits. The number of credits NAC was willing to pay directly correlated with the energy the merchants had for the technology recollection work. Jiang Chen knew this point too well.

"More advanced 3D printing equipment or related technical documents, commercial or experimental quantum computers, and any equipment and papers related to aerospace technology. This is the current focus of our collection. As for the other technologies, we'll offer a reasonable price based on their practical value." Jiang Chen smiled.

Zhao Chenwu nodded.

"I understand. Is that all?"

"There's one more thing. I heard that Zhao Corporation imported a batch of production drones from Wu City?" Jiang Chen asked.

"That's right. It was the 'Ant drone.' Nothing can escape your eyes," Zhao Chenwu joked. "What about them?"

"Are they useful?"

"They're great. They can be used to harvest crops, collect tree sap, and even replace simple streamline work. All in all, the drones are very interesting little equipment," Zhao Chenwu said.

Followed the increase in average income at Sixth Street, aside from slaves and refugees who were willing to perform farming and planting work, most survivors would rather "collect garbage" than do low-paying farm work. In order to alleviate the labor shortages, Zhao Chenwu purchased a batch of Ant drones from Wu City to replace human labor.

"Could you provide a few samples for us? We'll pay, of course."

"No problem. They don't cost a lot to begin with - I can even gift you a few," Zhao Chenwu generously offered. "If you successfully decipher their technology, remember to sell us some units."

"Thank you then." Jiang Chen smiled. "On the other hand, what's the strength of the survivors in Wu City?"

"The strength? How should I put it... the survivors south of Yangtze River are mainly farmers and Wu City is also similar. It's located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plains, so survivor groups are distributed around the fertile suburban soil. Perhaps because they inherited part of the pre-war production technology that in general, their mechanical manufacturing capacity is pretty good.

They are similar to how Wanghai was two years ago - local survivors are under constant disruptions from mutated humans and raiders, so their population density isn't high. Their economy mostly relies on the exports of Bullet Shell Grain, Carm Tree Sap, and mutated fruit. They occasionally pitch their hand-made robots and drones to passing merchants. Is there a problem?"

"No, I was just asking. Also, I have another task for you." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Oh?" Zhao Chenwu looked at him.

"When you're doing business, remember to keep an eye out for information related to the local survivors. For example, their population, economic condition, military power, and force distribution."

"Didn't you say that NAC has no military operations on their agenda?"

"That doesn't mean we only collect information when there is a military operation." Jiang Chen crossed his fingers and clasped them on his knee. "In times of peace, we can conduct research on where we will have to fight."

Chapter 527: Optical Illusion

There were many tasks to do during times of peace - not only did they need to research where to fight but they also needed to figure out how to develop conquered territories.

The Project Garden of Eden was 50% complete; although the soil reformation plan was delayed by the snow, the main construction was still in process. Lin Lin seemed to have forgotten her sorrow and dedicated herself completely to the Garden of Eden.

Sun Jiao had been addicted to MMORPGs and unfortunately, she couldn't play only by herself, so Sun Jiao occasionally played with her as well. Even Han Junhua got dragged into the game with the excuse "testing software" during her downtime. She could no longer be satisfied by the magical journey of Godly Land - she tried the newly-developed shooting game to satisfy her need for variety.

Yao Yao continued to refine her computer knowledge. During her engagement with the Supreme, she learned the extent of her weakness in the IT field. Although Jiang Chen thought finding weaknesses in IT against artificial intelligence was unreasonable, he took one look at Yao Yao's keen eyes and couldn't say anything to dampen her motivation.

"If you have time, help me research about intermediate artificial intelligence," Jiang Chen said.

"Intermedia artificial intelligence?" Yao Yao tilted her head with a finger pressed against her lips. "But aren't they the enemy of Big Brother?"

Jiang Chen rubbed her head.

"My enemy isn't artificial intelligence but rather artificial intelligence without restrictions. If you could invent a type of artificial intelligence that was safe and never betrayed humans, Yao Yao would've performed a great deed then."

Although it was difficult, Yao Yao still nodded sternly.

"Mhmm! Yao Yao will work hard."

Jiang Chen kissed her glowing forehead and rubbed her now-blushing little head before he left the room.

...

Just before Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, good news came from Fallout Shelter 027 again. The optical illusion module and Gauss Rifle confiscated by the Dusk had been successfully reverse-engineered. Twenty carbon Nano armors installed with the optical illusion module were transported to Fishbone Base. Ten were assigned to the Hunter Division by Jiang Chen, and he planned to take the rest to the modern world to equip his Ghost Agents.

The equipment name was Stealth Armor!

The carbon Nano armor's appearance looked like a black, full-body suit formed by mesh octagon shapes. The materials used were both sturdy and soft, and the critically-important optical illusion function could make the user become an actual ghost.

Other than that, Fallout Shelter 027 used 3D printing to create a prototype of the Gauss Rifle as well as one hundred rounds of electromagnetic pulse bullets designed for the rifle. The rifle had high penetrative power with relatively weak recoil, but a downside was that the cost of ammunition was much higher than normal rifle bullets.

The technical difficulties of the Gauss rifle were mostly related to the electromagnetic rail material and high energy capacitors. Fallout Shelter 027 had absorbed the technology in the area and now the Institute of Firearms had the capability to design similar electromagnetic weapons independently.

Such as the Gauss Sniper Rifle.

…

When Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, he managed to find Ayesha in the kitchen and handed her a carbon Nano armor that fit her body well.

Ayesha looked at the pitch-black full-body suit and weighed the soft material before a puzzled expression appeared on her face.

"Are you sure this… black thing can really be stealthy?"

"Not only that! It's also bulletproof. Don't just judge it based on the appearance."

Ayesha nodded, unbuttoned her shirt, and began to strip.

"Wait, are you planning to change into it now?" Jiang Chen quickly stopped her and felt exasperated.

It was weird to change in the kitchen.

"Do I not need to try it?" With her fingers on her collar buttons, Ayesha turned around.

"Mhmm… Okay, let's try it on then."

[Fu*k, I've seen her so many times - why am I feeling so shy?]

Jiang Chen mocked himself and raised his hand to cough to disguise his awkwardness while he began to appreciate the scene before him.

With the slightly shy look on Jiang Chen's face, Ayesha's mouth curved into a pleased smile. At the same time, her delicate fingers undid the buttons in front of her chest…

Ayesha's actions were quick - it took less than half a minute before she zipped up her collar and put on the entire pitch-black suit. The soft carbon Nano material fitted her body perfectly and drew out her blossoming curves.

She moved around with a confused expression gradually surfacing on her face.

She hesitated for a second, grabbed a sharp knife from the kitchen counter, and swung at her own left arm.

Not even a cut!

Her confusion changed into shock.

"Although carbon Nano has the ability to protect against bullets and blades, it's best not to use it as a kinetic skeleton. Since defense isn't its strong suit, multiple bullets could result in the carbon structure being destroyed which would weaken its bulletproof functionality. This thing is hard to repair if damaged," Jiang Chen warned her.

The more advanced the technology, the more sophisticated it was. If the armor took excessive damage, the optical illusion could malfunction.

Ayesha nodded, put the knife back onto the counter, spun around, and examined her clothes.

"… Does it look good?"

"Of course it looks good. Uh, is that what you care about?" Jiang Chen facepalmed.

"No… I just think it's a bit embarrassing to go outside wearing this," Ayesha said shyly.

"Try the button around the collar." Jiang Chen smiled.

Ayesha raised her hand to reach for her collar. As she searched along the edge, she found a grain-sized button.

She hesitantly pressed the button before she shockingly discovered it made blue electric arcs jump and her body began to fade until she completely became transparent.

She raised both her hands as she looked at her "invisible" hands in astonishment.

"What… what's going on?"

Jiang Chen was impressed by the fact Ayesha actually "disappeared." He nodded in amazement.

"Mhmm! Not bad. This is my first time seeing the stealth functionality; looks like this thing really lived up to its name. The battery insert is on the left arm - you should be able to feel a concave button. While the optical illusion is activated, your heat source information will also be disguised. But you have to be careful when you use it. If it's hit by a bullet directly, it could cause the optical illusion to temporarily malfunction.

Although it was a stealth suit, it wasn't completely transparent. When Ayesha swung her arms or moved with large motions, the curves of her body would appear faintly. But when standing still or walking slowly, she couldn't be detected at all with the naked eye.

"But in this state, how do you use a weapon?" Ayesha pressed the button around her collar again and ended stealth mode. She looked at her hands.

Jiang Chen then took out a rifle cover from the storage dimension, passed it to Ayesha and smiled.

"You don't have to worry about the weapon since if there's equipment that allows people to be stealthy, naturally there will be equipment designed specifically for weapons. The rifle cover can connect to the back of the carbon Nano armor. When the optical illusion is active, the weapon, clip and dagger connected to the rifle cover will also turn invisible. Of course, you must be wary when shooting and changing the clip. The parts that leave the rifle cover and the sparks at the muzzle can expose your location."

Because of this, while in the optical illusion state, it was best to use weapons that didn't create sparks when firing like the Gauss Rifle.

Ayesha attached the rifle cover to her body and took the Ghost Sniper Rifle and Type-11 Pistol from Jiang Chen. She connected the weapons to the rifle cover and started the optical illusion again. The weapon and her body disappeared simultaneously.

"This is… This is too magical." Ayesha ended the optical illusion state and returned the weapons to Jiang Chen as she exclaimed.

"What do you think? Are you pleased with the new clothes now?"

Ayesha nodded with her face blushing.

"Mhmm."

With this equipment, the combat ability of the Ghost Agents would increase substantially, and she could better protect Jiang Chen.

Chapter 528: Bullet Time?

Jiang Chen transferred the other nine "invisible suits" to Ayesha and let her equip nine of the most reliable Ghost Agents on field duty. With this equipment, the combat and survival abilities of the agents would increase by another level.

After having lunch with Ayesha, Jiang Chen once again returned to New Moon Island and set up six new Phantom Helmet production lines in the factory. After three months of continuous production, the workers were now more skillful. Not only did the product quality rate increase by 50%, but their production speed also doubled.

The basic salary Jiang Chen provided them was 5000 USD. With each team working as a functional unit, after they hit the day's production targets, they would receive a bonus for every additional helmet they produced.

With the incentive of money, all the workers worked meticulously during their shifts. There were over 50 million Phantom units currently in storage. With the addition of the six production lines, the monthly production rate of the helmet could reach 20 million units.

The 20 million helmet target set before the official release had been long been met. When the helmet was officially released in the latter half of December, they would easily have a supply of over 70 million units.

The manager in charge of production was called Liu Songrong. While the engineering robots installed the new production lines under the watch of Celestial Trade soldiers, he cheerfully reported to Jiang Chen on his work.

Manager Liu was quite an interesting person as he was one of the rare university graduates in Xin who studied abroad. Five years ago, he studied human resources at the University of Auckland and could be considered an alumnus to the current president, Zhang Yapin. After graduation, he inherited his father's sugarcane field but soon lost the land after the three-party agreement with the Wang family, Johnny, and President Edward; he went from being a landlord to a fisherman overnight.

After President Zhang Yapin was sworn in, Celestial Trade entered Xin. Liu Songrong took the opportunity to sell his fishing boat and signed up for the force.

Of course, he clearly wasn't meant to be a soldier and was thus sent to logistical services. Based on his excellent work performance, great relationship-building skills, adherence to moral codes, ability to keep his mouth shut, and meticulous work, he was able to climb to where he was now as the manager at the Phantom Helmet plant.

When Jiang Chen asked him questions regarding security, Liu Songrong laughed and pumped his chest.

"Boss, don't worry - there has never been a security incident in my time here. During the change of shifts while entering the plant, everyone must go through security with me personally responsible for it. They won't take even a single screw out of the plant. Any person suspected of sneaking products out will be sent to the security department. Once confirmed, they would be dismissed immediately."

"The security department is just a post with Celestial Trade's soldiers stationed there. The workers sent to the security department won't receive any inhumane treatment; they will just be injected with the truth-telling liquid by the nurse. Once they are confirmed as business spies, they will be courteously sent out of New Moon Island. Not only would they end their high paying job, but their employee housing would be confiscated."

"Based on the severity of the situation, Celestial Trade reserves the right to sue and prosecute them.

"After December, the Danish DHL's vessel will transport the helmets stored here. I need you to produce at least 80 million units by end of the month - can you do it?"

"I promise I'll finish the work!" Liu Rongsong raised his chest and promised.

Considering how energetic manager Liu was, Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder with encouragement.

"Keep up the good work; the helmet you produce in excess will your bonus!"

Liu Songrong was ecstatic as he immediately expressed his gratitude.

"Thanks, boss!"

Jiang Chen laughed and made him go back to supervising production then he took a ride along the dam to return to New Moon Island and inquired about the training with Ivan.

The 100 soldiers and 20 pilots operating the power armor were selected.

Ivan previously thought the selection process would be simple, but it took over a week and ended up requiring them to work with the new recruitment site and cooperating hospitals to conduct physical examinations for at least 4000 people before he finally managed to select the 20 pilots.

Vision, height, weight, reaction, perception, disease history, and physical coordination were simple, but the last one was confusing. Candidates who passed all previous tests must get their blood tested then a drop of "DNA screening indicator" would be mixed with the blood. Only when the indicator turned blue could the candidate be considered to pass the last physical examination item.

The weird physical examination item eliminated 95% of the candidates who otherwise qualified. Ivan previously thought Jiang Chen was making a mistake, but he ended up realizing that wasn't the case - some people's blood reacted to the indicators.

With Ivan leading the way, Jiang Chen met the 20 lucky people on the training grounds. Ten of them were current Celestial Trade soldiers. From their standing posture, it was easy to see their soldier training. As for the other 10 soldiers, while they were certainly fit, they must be new recruits who only joined a few days ago judging by their awkward posture.

Jiang Chen scanned the 20 pilots in front of him and saw excitement and confusion in the 20 pairs of eyes. They clearly didn't expect the big boss of Celestial Trade would meet them personally.

Jiang Chen cleared his throat.

"First, I want to congratulate you on passing the pilot candidate selection. You will receive three months of training then become part of Celestial Trade's air force. You already possess a salary and benefits enviable by all. I hope in your future military career, you can use your loyalty and courage to repay the generosity of our company.

"I know you must have a lot of questions in your mind. For example, why are there only runways and not a single plane in sight? What was the weird physical examination item that ended up eliminating over 1000 qualified candidates?"

"The first question is easy to answer: the planes are on another island. Once you pass the pilot training in the virtual reality training chamber, you'll be the ones who fly the planes back."

"The latter question is a bit harder to explain. In simple terms, after being injected with the E-Grade Genetic Vaccine provided by Celestial Trade, you'll receive the ability to have enhanced senses.

Looking at their confusion, Jiang Chen paused for a moment then continued.

"In even simpler terms: it's bullet time!"

When they heard Jiang Chen's words, everyone including Ivan all look puzzled. The veteran soldiers were surprised, but their reaction was rather calm. The ten new recruits were completely dumbfounded.

Jiang Chen wasn't surprised by their reactions at all.

The soldiers of Celestial Trade were all injected with the genetic vaccine, but there wasn't a single person who unlocked their hidden genetic code. It was partially because Xin didn't conduct any military operations to external forces and partially due to the advanced nature of the soldiers' weapons. With the protection of the kinetic skeletons and carbon Nano bulletproof suits, the soldiers won't be in any danger.

The main criterion for unlocking the hidden genetic code was to be on the brink of death to stimulate the true potential of the human body. Genetic vaccines were only a key, and twisting the key required the effort of the individual.

What was worth mentioning was that the process couldn't be achieved through virtual reality or else Ayesha would've unlocked "cold-blooded" a long time ago and Jiang Chen would've unlocked the third level hidden genetic code.

It was rumored that the third level was the last level. But as a leader, he didn't have any opportunities to sink enemies himself, so it would be hard for him to unlock the third level.

Of course, there were tricks to this. Quite funnily, rides in amusement parks could all achieve it. The high-speed rotation of the Ferris wheel or the rapid fall of a dive - as long as a little "transformation" occurred, it could simulate the feeling of "wandering on the edge of life and death."

For example, creating a high speed rotating chair that could break through 10G in speed wouldn't only train the pilot's ability to withstand pressure, but it could also allow trainees to experience the illusion of "near death"…

An ill-intentioned smile surfaced on Jiang Chen's face as he looked at the completely lost pilots.

They would have fun in the next three months.

Chapter 529: Tourism Project Completed

After Jiang Chen met the pilots, he toured the military base at New Moon Island and met all the officials accompanying Ivan. Because the Netherland's BMA Construction Company's representative in Xin suddenly called, Jiang Chen returned to Coro Island.

The ten billion project was near completion. Once the messy scaffolds were removed and the anchored construction boats left, the beautiful island would display its perfect combination of advanced technology and natural beauty to the world like the concept art displayed.

Just like last time, BMA provided the highest level of greeting to Jiang Chen. They sent the general manager of their Europe Division, Hannah, to complete the project. After the last two phases of the project contracts were paid off, next would be the ceremony. Once Zhang Yapin signed a few policy documents in support of the tourism industry, tourists would come in, waving their cash.

As early as half a year ago, Future Technology used all its channels to hype up the tourism industry in Pannu Islands. The titles "The Maldives on the Pacific," and "The South Asian Hawaii" set the expectations high for the islands. As long as the islands weren't too terrible, Jiang Chen could easily count on cash from the tourism industry.

When he returned to the mansion, Jiang Chen discovered that Hannah was waiting at the door. But what surprised him was that Natasha was there too; the two ladies were chatting together.

When Hannah saw Jiang Chen, she ended the conversation with Natasha and shook Jiang Chen's hand with a smile.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen, I'm happy to see you again."

"Me too, Ms. Cavillian. Please come in." Jiang Chen invited her in as he opened the door with the digital key.

Hannah nodded and went into the gate.

Jiang Chen stood at the gate and looked at Natasha. The tall girl played with the blonde hair beside her ear and watched him with a grin.

"Are you not going to invite me in?"

Jiang Chen didn't know what she wanted, but he sighed and also invited her in.

"Please come in."

When they entered the room, Natasha didn't disturb Jiang Chen's talk with BMA. She took out a bottle of champagne from the fridge as if it was her home and disappeared for a while.

Jiang Chen didn't bother with her as the entire mansion was under the surveillance of cameras. With Natasha's intelligence, she would know this well.

Hannah sat in the living room with Jiang Chen and presented him a plan for the construction completion ceremony, the explanation of each infrastructure, quality assurance certification, as well as photos of the completed construction project.

Jiang Chen was extremely pleased with the work BMA delivered. As for the stacks of certification documents, Jiang Chen only scanned through them roughly.

There were supervisors he trusted who continued to monitor the construction, so he wasn't worried about work falling below quality standards. With BMA's reputation, they wouldn't do anything that would tarnish their own name. If there were serious construction quality problems, the lawsuit of the 8.7 billion contract would make them bankrupt.

After he signed the transfer of 4.7 billion in remaining fees, Jiang Chen sent Ms. Hannah to the door and warmly expressed that if there were future projects, he would definitely contact them.

After he sent away the representative from BMA, Jiang Chen returned to the mansion and began to search for the Russian girl who disappeared not long after she came in.

Jiang Chen previously thought she went to the third-floor pool or dining room since she brought a bottle of champagne with her. But to Jiang Chen's surprise, he didn't manage to find her on the third floor. Instead, she was in the first-floor gym, leaning against the chair and wearing the Phantom on her head.

Champagne was on the wooden floor beside her with the cap still unopened.

She probably discovered the helmet in the gym when she strolled by and changed her mind.

She certainly made herself feel at home.

Jiang Chen scoffed as he looked at the flickering green indicator light on the helmet.

Internal beta tests had already started and Future Technology's immersive virtual reality technology was no longer a secret - it was fine if she played for a while. The real secrets he had to keep were the smart medical chamber and virtual reality training chamber in the basement.

But speaking of this, Natasha was completely unguarded.

The massive softness was about to burst out from her T-shirt as the shirt revealed her attractive torso and seductive vest line.

Jiang Chen stopped staring at Natasha for a while. He then subconsciously gulped and went to wake her up. But just as he stepped beside her, the green indicator light changed to red. After a brief flickering, Natasha sat up and took off her helmet.

She tossed her blonde hair and noticed Jiang Chen who was standing next to her as a teasing curvature appeared on her mouth.

"Oh, what were you planning to do to me?"

"Planning to wake you up," Jiang Chen said without hesitation.

"Is that so?"

Natasha's long legs stepped down and she stood on the wooden floor in the gym barefooted.

"An astonishing experience, I don't understand how you're always the first to invent such amazing technology." As she put on her sandals, Natasha raised her head and checked him out a few times with ccuriosity

"This is my business secret." Jiang Chen smiled and returned the curious glance.

"Is it?" Natasha said uninterestedly.

It was clear that Jiang Chen's response didn't please her.

"The netcafe for virtual reality is now in Moscow… Of course, there are stores in Xin. I know you're not here just to experience Phantom." Jiang Chen neglected the desire flickering in Natasha's eyes and redirected to the topic at hand.

Seeing Jiang Chen turn serious, Natasha also put on a stern expression and cleared her throat.

"That's right. I'm here today for two things."

"Is there a quality issue with nutrient supply?" Jiang Chen joked.

"No, the effect of nutrient supply is stunning whether it's the preservation period or hunger satisfaction. The National Defense Department wants to increase the number of orders… Of course, I'm not here to talk to you about this today. Do you still remember Willie Society?"

"Of course."

When he was in Veit, Ayesha killed one of their snipers. That was his first encounter with the Willie Society. Then their agent made their way into Celestial Trade and successfully escaped. Then Jiang Chen provided the personal information of the spy and documents cracked by Xie Lei to the KGB. He had been wondering if they caught him yet.

Willie Society was connected to the Nazis and the Golden Apple. Because of geographical and political reasons, they received tolerance and even support from NATO; that was all Jiang Chen knew about them.

"Do you remember the information you provided us about that spy?"

"Of course, what about the spy?"

"We caught the person two months ago," Natasha said.

"So?"

Natasha took a deep breath, got closer, and whispered into Jiang Chen's ear.

"Half a month ago, the terrorist attack in Frankberg had their shadows involved."

When Jiang Chen heard Natasha's words, he wasn't surprised at all.

From Frankberg Deputy Prime Minister Evelyn, he already knew this information. Natasha's words only confirmed the validity of the information.

"Based on the intelligence we gathered, the weapon they obtained in this attack originated from the Balkans, provided by a Slavic arms dealer. And the arms dealer is connected with the Rothschild family... "

Natasha moved away, stared into his eyes, and spoke slowly but deeply.

Chapter 530: A Traitor

"I heard you have a close relationship with the Rothschild family?"

"Just in business dealings."

"That's what we thought. Based on the information we acquired, they sent out an agent to approach you. If you have a close relationship, they wouldn't have this lack of trust. But speaking of that, you allowed that woman to get into your bed?" Natasha's fingers tapped Jiang Chen's shoulder and adjusted his collar.

There seemed to be a layer of meaning mixed between her words; he didn't know if it was jealousy or mockery.

"I drank a bit much that day. Also, I acquired information from her mouth." Jiang Chen awkwardly looked away.

Indeed, if he was sober, he never would've done something this reckless.

Perhaps…

"For example?" Natasha looked at Jiang Chen, quite intrigued.

"For example, the Golden Apple." When Jiang Chen spoke, he carefully observed Natasha's pupils. "They seemed to be searching for something called the Golden Apple. When… we were doing a certain exercise, she asked me the color of the Golden Apple."

"What color is it?"

"It's not gold." Jiang Chen shrugged.

When Natasha heard Jiang Chen's words, her eyebrows furrowed and she looked down.

"I provided the information to you. In return, I want you to clarify for me: what exactly is that thing called the Golden Apple?" Jiang Chen zoomed into Natasha's eyes and he used a serious tone.

"Sorry, based on my level, I only know a bit," Natasha said.

"You're lying." Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"I'm protecting you. You won't gain anything if you know what it is… Even the KGB doesn't have a solid understanding if that thing really exists." Natasha sighed.

To be honest, it felt suffocating to lie with his eyes open. (1)

Jiang Chen really wanted to tell her that the thing really existed, but the functionality wasn't as good as you thought - it could only receive information at a certain time from a time point in the future through a special communication channel. And right now, he brought the mimicked communication channel to the apocalypse. It was currently sitting in the corner of Lin Lin's lab.

But he obviously couldn't do that.

Although he didn't think Russia would be able to do anything, to avoid unnecessary trouble, that secret was better eternally sunken in the bottom of the ocean.

"Okay, if you insist on keeping it confidential." Jiang Chen sighed with defeat and ended the topic.

"I hope you won't misinterpret anything…" Natasha looked away, paused, and spoke again: "Returning to the topic, the Willie Society orchestrated the terrorist attack and used refugees' bodies to fake the identity of the gunmen. Not only in Frankberg, but all of Europe is a mess because of the refugee situation."

"When did Russia become the world police?" Jiang Chen joked.

"This has nothing to do with the world police. Do you know the beneficiary of this terrorist attack?" Natasha stared at Jiang Chen's eyes.

From Natasha's eyes as well as what he saw in Ber, Jiang Chen already had the answer in mind, but he still chose to ask.

"Who?"

"The Rothschilds." Natasha gave the answer Jiang Chen expected. "The Frankberg New Party, Austria Rightwing Party, as well as Fran… They have been betting on the right-wing parties at the start of last year when the refugee problem began to escalate. They are continuously using the media to bring attention to the refugee situation and ignited the fuse at Ber half a month ago."

"What do they want to do?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Regardless of what they want to do, they're extremely dangerous. Also, not only us, but CIB is also investigating the dog on their leash as well as the financial monster known as the Rothschilds hidden in the public's eyes. If you don't want to be part of the gamble, it's best for you to steer clear," Natasha said with seriousness.

Jiang Chen met Natasha's solemn expression, gave it a thought, and spoke quietly when he raised his head.

"I'll remember your words."

A pleased curvature appeared on Natasha's mouth when she heard Jiang Chen's reply.

"This was the first order of business. What about the second?"

"The second order of business: the two 'Guardian' vessels and two 'Kilo' class submarines are prepared along with the navy marines you sent. If all goes smoothly, they should dock at Coro Island's harbor by the middle of the month… If you have the deep water harbor suitable for vessels to dock."

"Don't worry, once they enter Xin's water, our people will guide the vessels to the harbor." Jiang Chen smiled.

The construction robots he deployed at Coconut Island had already constructed the military use deep water harbor with six docking spots. Two of them would be used to dock the "Guardian" vessels and two would be used to dock the "Kilo" class submarines. In that harbor, the construction robots would complete the transformation of the vessels, for example, change the 100mm A-190 cannon in front to an electromagnetic pulse cannon.

As for the two "Kilo" class submarines, Droplet One would complete the improvement work.

"I'm here today for these two things. After we've finished talking business, are you not going to have a drink with me?' Natasha smiled.

"No problem - champagne and whiskey are all in the fridge. Of course, because I have a construction completion ceremony to attend in the afternoon, I won't be joining you."

"Lame. Where did the girl who always follows you go?"

Just as Natasha's words faded, she heard Ayesha's voice from behind.

"Here."

Natasha turned around with shock and looked at the girl who was sitting in the chair Natasha was just sitting in. She didn't notice when the girl moved behind her at all.

And with the clothes on her, her appearance was certainly…

"Your clothes…" Natasha checked out her pure black attire.

Ayesha didn't respond and continued to look at her without any expression.

But Jiang Chen still noticed a curvature appearing on her mouth when she saw the shocked Natasha.

"It's just a full body suit with a unique appearance." Jiang Chen smiled.

Even a KGB agent couldn't detect a Ghost Agent with optical illusion activated. Jiang Chen was extremely pleased with the actual ability of the stealth suit.

Of course, it also had to do with Ayesha's superb stealth abilities; optical illusion would only disguise the figure, while the sounds of walking, breathing, and turbulence created by moving wouldn't disappear.

Because of Ayesha's sudden appearance, Natasha lost the mood to tease Jiang Chen. She took two bottles of Whiskey from the fridge in the kitchen before she left.

She still didn't understand how Ayesha managed to do it.

When Natasha left, Ayesha took off the carbon Nano suit and changed into normal clothes.

"Did you distribute the stealth suits yet?"

"Mhmm. They're all reliable people." Ayesha nodded.

"I trust your judgment." Jiang Chen stood at the window to watch a car leave his garden with a smile.

A heartfelt smile appeared on Ayesha's mouth. To her, there was nothing happier than receiving recognition from Jiang Chen.

Suddenly, she pulled on Jiang Chen's sleeve as if she remembered something.

"Hmmm?" Jiang Chen turned around and looked at her.

"The Ghost Agents found a traitor."

"Who?" Jiang Chen's pupils contracted as his eyes narrowed.

"Not part of the force…" Ayesha hesitated for a moment before she spoke again: "The significant other of Future Mining's Manager. Based on investigations, she provided Future Mining's information to foreigners… Her name is Su Fei."

(1) Lie with eyes open

Chapter 531: Betrayal

In a hotel on Coro Island, there was heavy breathing followed by a high-pitched moan inside a room.

She lied against the muscular chest and reminisced about the great pleasure of life. The lips with bright lipstick respited for a while before she finally recollected her breath.

"Am I good?" The cute-looking man grinned.

"Too good."

"Where is the thing?"

Su Fei rolled her eyes at the man and unwillingly twisted her hips.

"It's in the bag. Why are you rushing? It is not going to fly away."

The man with the perfect smile hugged her around the waist and courteously put Su Fei on the bed, and then he lifted the sheet and sat beside the bed. From the side, his body looked muscular and fit. The handsome face was even comparable to some Korean celebrities.

Of course, the most critical part was the "length", unlike most Asians.

It was the part that intoxicated Su Fei the most.

"This is for our future life, honey." The man used sweet words to woo her and then walked to the table.

Su Fei used the sheet to cover her body, her face beginning to blush.

Two months ago, they met on Weibo. Li Jinyan said he is a project manager at a food processing company in UA, because of work requirements, he was sent to Xin to conduct market research. When he saw the photos posted by Su Fei on Weibo and private messaged her asking her to be his guide for this strange country.

Li Jinyan's presence reignited the fantasy in Su Fei's heart, soothed the dried soil in her heart, and gave her the romance and longing Yang Yuan couldn't give her.

As well as the pleasure.

First Su Fei had a revenge mentality where "Yang Yuan didn't satisfy her desire to live in a big city and would constantly set her aside for work" as she half-willingly accepted Li Jinyan's pursue. Then days later, she had completely fallen for his "candy-wrapped shell" (1) and became his captive.

He promised her that he would take her to UA and gave her the life she wanted.

When Su Fei accepted his "proposal", he then mentioned that the negotiation with Future Mining is in a stalemate and they were unable to move forward. He hoped Su Fei could help him out and said that if the negotiation could be completed as soon as possible, they could fly back to UA and get married at the earliest date…

"Is this Future Mining's deepwater mining technology blueprints?" Li Jinyan took out a USB from her bag and played with it intriguingly.

Su Fei got off the bed in only her underwear. She walked toward the man, and hugged him from behind.

"Electronic version. Although he deleted the confidential part, he must have never thought deleted documents could be recovered."

Li Jinyan raised his eyebrows and wrapped his arm around her waist like a gentleman.

"Oh? I didn't know Miss Su is a computer expert."

"Don't be so surprised, at least I learned something in university." Su Fei bit her lips and enjoyed the warmth between his arms.

She studied computer science at Wanghai University. While she was not a computer expert, she could do basic data recovery. It was just that she didn't know that this would be the opportunity where she could demonstrate her skill.

"Is that so? Please excuse me for underestimating you. Since if a lady is too beautiful, her beauty will cover her talent." Li Jinyan put the USB next to his phone and affectionately spoke into her ear.

Su Fei's beauty could only be described as above average, and Su Fei even knew herself. But no woman would dislike being praised for her beauty, especially by a handsome man.

"Screw you."

"Do you want more?"

"Mhmm…"

She half-willingly half-resistingly fell onto the bed.

Just as there was an intense battle happening in bed, the two people in the room didn't realize the USB was secretively switched…

Li Jinyan left the hotel first.

Before he left, he left a stash of cash on the table for her to buy a few more clothes. Although Su Fei didn't choose him because of money, women never disliked men being generous with them.

As long as the method was right.

Su Fei didn't leave immediately. She savored the pleasure on the bed before she finally got off the soft bed. Based on his suggestion, it was best if they left the hotel at separate times.

She took a shower in the bathroom, reapplied her makeup, and sprayed perfume on herself.

After confirming there was no flaw, she picked up the bag while cautiously leaving the room.

Before she returned home, she had to visit an ATM nearby

Right when the door closed, ripples faded on the chair directly facing the bed with the figure of a black haired girl gradually appearing.

Zhu Yu, the UA Han from Michigan State. Because of her quiet personality, acute observation, and outstanding training result, Ayesha particularly favored her as she was named the executor of Ghost Agents. She was responsible for anti-agents surveillance work in Xin.

A few weeks ago, there was a suspicion that information was leaked from Future Mining with the Ghost Agents intervening to investigate. Just in three days of time, they gathered a list of suspects before determining the person that leaked the information.

Optical illusion had high battery consumption in motion, but in a still state, optical illusion could be maintain for a long time. Zhu Yu raised her left hand to check the hologram screen before she let out a relieved breath at the 10% battery remaining.

For a girl that never experienced sex, the two hours of live porn was too exciting for her. The Ghost Agents primary method to conduct work relied on high technology and not beauty, so they didn't receive any training in that area.

She took off the USB from her tactical vest, then took the card of a hotel worker and inserted into the card slot, and walked to the computer inside the room. She began to read the files on the USB that she had switched.

There was only one file inside. It was the electronic document Jiang Chen sent to the Manager of Future Mining – Yang Yuan.

Zhu Yu removed the USB after she cleaned the read history with professional technology.

She pressed her collar and connected it to her superior and also her trainer Ayesha.

"Target confirmed. The person that leaked the document is Su Fei, the girlfriend of Future Mining's executive Yang Yuan. The target document has been switched."

"Excellent. Maintain surveillance; make sure you don't alert them. It is probably only a small rat that surfaced. I want to know the perpetrator."

What shocked Zhu Yu was that Jiang Chen was the one that responded in the communication channel. But there was no inherent difference since the Ghost Agents were a special force directly serving Jiang Chen and Ayesha as the captain was the same as the Director of National Security of Xin.

"Roger," Zhu Yu replied.

When the communication ended, she opened the battery slot on her left arm and replaced the battery. Then she opened the hologram screen and in the screen marked the map of Xin. The two red dots separating were the coordinates of Su Fei and Li Jinyan, identified as spies.

Li Jinyan would have never thought that the USB contained a micro location marker and was currently sending his coordinates at a frequency of five times a second.

Zhu Yu took out the card of the hotel worker and headed out of the door.

Chapter 532: The Heart of the Sea

When the communication ended, Jiang Chen's expression was perplexed.

Just moments ago, the Ghost Agent at the hotel used the tactical recorder to send videos of the hotel. He didn't know how to describe the feeling of watching the livestream of his friend's girlfriend with another man.

Self-blame?

Not necessarily, since he only knew recently about Su Fei cheating. When the two first met each other, Xin's intelligence department had yet to form.

Angry?

A little bit.

Ayesha gently squeezed Jiang Chen's hand as she seemed to have guessed what was on Jiang Chen's mind as she simply looked at Jiang Chen.

"Ayesha, do you think I should tell Yang Yuan or should I take care of this without him knowing?" Jiang Chen asked in a quiet voice while closing the tablet.

It was easy for him to take care of this without Yang Yuan knowing. He could take out the spy and then create a "traffic accident" to also get rid of Su Fei.

Ayesha held onto Jiang Chen's hand and replied to his question with tenderness and determination in her eyes.

Jiang Chen looked back into the bright pupils and rubbed her head.

"Mhmm, I know."

If it was Ayesha, there would only be one answer from her. Even if what he did may not be correct, in her mind, he will always be correct.

…

After lunch, Jiang Chen arrived at the construction ceremony site of BMA. The manager responsible for this project from Future Group was Wei Yun and previously a professional manager for hire before being headhunted by Jiang Chen. He previously had experience in tourism projects and was certainly a qualified talent.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the destination, he was waiting at the door.

When he saw Jiang Chen, Wei Yun in a suit standing straight immediately came to greet him with a smile and then guided the boss to the location of the ceremony.

The wave-shaped building was half-submerged in the ocean. BMA's architects cleverly used modern building techniques to mesh natural beauty with reinforced concrete. The U-shaped coastal area included a beach for leisure and a port to dock boats. The entire area combined restaurants, hotels, and shopping together with the sole purpose of providing all tourists with the best experience possible.

The name was the Heart of the Sea.

The meaning was the brightest gem in the entire Pacific.

The entire building had a total bill of 600 million USD; the price even exceeded the world-renowned Bird Nest. It was the most expensive landmark building in the entire project and the face of Pannu Island's tourism industry.

"Including Sheraton, there is a total of nine world-renowned five stars hotel that signed the lease agreement totaling 8000 square meters in hotel area at the "Heart of the Sea"; the leased area will be renovated to their hotel's brand. The lease is 5000 USD per square meters with a total of 40 million in lease payment due each year."

"In the shopping and restaurant areas, we have received 8501 applications with 6510 coming from international bidders. Out of the 450 thousand square meters total area, 250 thousand has been leased out. Based on the 3000 USD per square meter of lease payments, earnings are expected to reach 750 million USD."

"After the cost of electricity, labor, maintenance, if the projection is accurate, the Heart of the Sea will produce at least 200 million USD in profits for us."

Based on the benchmark, using the international markets, the lease was not expensive. The consideration was partially due to Xin's tourism industry being in its infancy as the companies that invest here must also bear a high degree of risk. If the rent were too expensive, it would be unattractive for international food, service, and retail companies to invest.

If only a few stores exist in the massive the Heart of the Sea, the tourists' experience without a doubt will decrease. And the tourists' experience and reputation would determine future traffic of the Heart of Sea. And what will dictate the price of the lease of the remaining 200 thousand retail area was precisely the traffic.

Although the annual profit of the Heart of the Sea was only projected at 200 million a year, Wei Yun had full confidence that the number could increase ten times in five years!

As they walked to the location of the ceremony, Wei Yun reported to Jiang Chen Future Tourism's current operations. While Jiang Chen had to respond to his report, he still had to deal with the cameras facing him.

Wei Yun paused and then replied wryly.

"Of course, it is… it is just that it is hard to see you."

He had been working in Future Tourism for a few months now but the number of times he saw the president could be counted with his one hand.

Normally speaking, it was Future Technology CEO and Future Group's Secretary Xia Shiyu executing the responsibilities of the president with work being coordinated through work conferences.

Although it was odd for the secretary to do the work of CEO, when Wei Yun thought that Future Group is not public and there are only two shareholders in the entire Group, it didn't seem too out of place.

There was also a story worth mentioning. At the start, Wei Yun looked at Xia Shiyu with judgment as he always thought the CEO climbed to her position with "alternative methods". It was not that a female CEO was uncommon in international companies, but usually, they were middle-aged or even elder women. But Xia Shiyu was not only young and pretty; she looked like she just graduated from university a few years ago.

After a period of working together, he started to stop looking down on her ability. The ability she demonstrated in her work was indeed worth her position. As to her age… he could only use the word genius to describe that.

When Jiang Chen walked to the front door of the Heart of the Sea, he saw Hanna who was being interviewed by reporters, as well as the chief designer of BMA Willison.

When Willison saw Jiang Chen, his eyes lit up and immediately shooed away the media around him and welcomed him with open arms.

"Haha, our protagonist is here. Welcome! Mr. Jiang Chen."

"Mr. Willison, nice to meet you."

Jiang Chen shook Willison's hand with a smile and shook it firmly.

Surrounded by cameras and representing Future Group, Jiang Chen was to deliver a speech celebrating the success of the construction. Then BMA's Hannah and Willison, as well as Future Tourism Wei Yun, all provided their speech.

In the end, with the guidance from the master of ceremony, Jiang Chen with a gold-gilded scissor cut the ribbon tied to the door. With thunderous applause, Jiang Chen and Hanna announced the completion of the Heart of the Sea!

As well as the completion of the ten billion dollar mega-project.

"This will be my proudest work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make it into a reality," At the party after the ceremony, Willison with champagne walked to Jiang Chen and told him sincerely.

To Future Tourism and even Xin, the significance of the Heart of the Sea that will be printed in the tourism advertisement didn't need to be mentioned. To BMA and Willison himself, it was something worth celebrating as they were part of this project.

"Haha, it is you that made the masterpiece into a reality." Jiang Chen toasted with him with a smile.

At the latter half of the party, President Zhang who just finished a conference with the neighboring New Guinea arrived and provided congratulatory remarks to Future Tourism in front of the media, he then praised Future Group's outstanding contribution to providing 24 thousand jobs in Xin.

What's the highest level of monopoly?

In the country that will never introduce an anti-monopoly law, Jiang Chen felt like he had achieved the ultimate state. Two-third of the country's labor force worked directly or indirectly for him. The military, the intelligence services, and even government officials all serve his company.

While he was having a drink with the smiling Zhang Yapin, Jiang Chen randomly reached this odd conclusion.

The more advanced, the easier it is to achieve dictatorship.

Chapter 533: Capture

As the ceremony was underway, a hidden intelligence trade was taking place in a creamery on Coro Island.

A Caucasian woman, wearing a pair of sunglasses and a straw hat, in a tourist outfit sat at the window of the creamery while constantly checking her watch. When the hour hand struck three, a taxi stopped in front of the creamery. Li Jinyan, who got off the taxi, sat across from her and ordered a strawberry smoothie from the server.

Li Jinyan took the strawberry smoothie and displayed a charming smile to the woman who sat across from him.

"Do you know why I ordered a strawberry smoothie?"

"Why?"

"Because it reminds me of you."

"Where is the thing?"

"It's in the bag… You are as cold as always." Li Jinyan shrugged and pushed the USB inside a ring box in front of her.

"Oh? You made love with that girl for two hours, and you still have the energy to think about that?" The woman raised her eyebrows and scoffed.

"It is not too difficult to get in bed with that girl. I like challenging and difficult work," Li Jinyan said heartlessly.

"This first sentence doesn't work on me, but the second sentence is okay. I like men who are direct. If you come back alive, perhaps I will consider rewarding you." The woman bit her seductive red lips.

"Haha, then I'm looking forward to it. Go back, wash up, and wait for me.' Li Jinyan joked.

"Don't underestimate the situation. Xin recently formed a national security department," the eyes behind the sunglasses scanned her surrounding environment as she said emotionlessly.

"Don't worry, Kelly. Even Mexico has that, but who cares?" Li Jinyan dismissed this concern.

"I heard that the newly formed special intelligence department is called Ghost Agents."

Li Jinyan laughed, he bit on the straw and slurped on the strawberry jam in the smoothie.

"I know you don't believe it. I'm just explaining this as a fact." Kelly shrugged, stuffed the ring box in her bag, smiled, and got up, "Thank you for your ring. I'll leave now, best of luck."

Kelly headed for the door.

Li Jinyan licked his dry lips while staring at the charismatic figure. Although he had shot his bullets inside the Han girl, just after a short period of time, he felt aroused again.

Because of "work", he made love with a lot of people. But to his female superior, he had been drooling over her.

After ten minutes, Li Jinyan finished the smoothie in the cup, got up to leave the creamery, and waved down a taxi.

"To the port."

"Okay, sir." The driver headed back onto the road.

It was a smooth ride. Li Jinyan sunk into the seat in the back, loosened his collar, and took out his phone.

Just as he was preparing to send a text to Su Fei, he out stared at the screen and was completely stunned.

No signal?

The feeling of alertness began to arise in his mind. With multiple years of experience as an agent, he immediately realized something was off. But just as he was about to ask the driver to stop the car, the steel-made blinds suddenly dropped down and locked him in the back of the car.

Then, a light fragrance flirted with the tip of his nose. Li Jinyan knew he was in trouble, but consciousness began to drift away from him…

When he woke up again, he realized he was in a room without a window. His hands were tied behind the chair. He tried to break the rope but quickly gave up.

Two soldiers with rifles stood at the door of the room. He didn't think he had the ability to escape.

There was a young white female sitting in front of him.

'The Ghost Agents?'

The word sudden surfaced in Li Jinyan's head.

He pretended to look around anxiously in front of the expressionless face. Then he glanced at the rifle in the hands of the soldiers at the door while speaking nervously.

"What happened? Who are you? Why did you capture me! I'm a legal foreign worker, I have a visa! You don't have the rights to…"

The woman ignored his acting and flipped open her notebook.

"Li Jinyan, Male, 27, UA citizen, employed by Kadar Mining…"

"That's right! I—"

The woman slapped the notebook shut and looked at him expressionlessly,

"I don't plan to interrogate you, you can stop with what you prepared."

She picked up a miniature syringe on the table inside a tray and walked toward him.

Li Jinyan began feel nervous as he stared at the approaching figure and the liquid dripping from the needle. He had drug training, therefore in theory, the low-level interrogation method should be ineffective against an experienced agent like him.

In theory.

But the truth-telling liquid came from the 22nd century.

…

Li Jinyun confessed everything. Including the color of his underwear, where did he got his plastic surgery, the organization he serves, as well as the hirer that paid the commission.

Night began to fall.

Jiang Chen gazed at the confession script in his hand as his finger tapped the table rhythmically.

Leilian Private Investigator Company; there are many similar companies in UA. But they didn't register for an operating license, and their primary focus was not investigating in cheatings and scandals, but rather a mercenary organization that provided clients with commercial espionages.

That was not the key; the key was that BHP hired them. And just weeks ago, Jiang Chen and Luke signed a 5000 tons low price ore contract. In theory, they should have a partnership relationship, but with what just happened, their motive was worth scrutinizing.

He finally understood why Luke was so familiar with Future Mining's operations. BHP hired commercial espionage that had long been hidden in Xin.

Ayesha pushed open the door and placed a cup of steamy coffee in front of Jiang Chen, she then leaned down to kiss his forehead.

"Don't work too late."

"Mhmm, you should go sleep now, I will be done in a bit." Jiang Chen smiled.

Ayesha blinked as her eyes spoke.

When she left, she closed the door behind her.

Jiang Chen watched the white fog ascending, his finger still tapping on the tabletop while he fell into deep thought.

Li Jinyan's confession was enough evidence to pursue a criminal charge in commercial espionage. Future Mining had the confidence to sue BHP in any country and win the lawsuit. But even if they won, the fine would be nothing for BHP. Since they only stole information related to undisclosed production capacity and nothing related to their technology, the most they would have to pay is a million dollar penalty.

But if they really separate ways with BHP, it would mean that the 50 million tons contract would go down the drain. Although they could mine themselves, it was a waste to use deep water mining technology to extract iron, aluminum, and other low cost ores. Jiang Chen had big plans for the 50 million tons of ores, where would he find another "generous" seller?

But if he didn't do anything, it was hard to guarantee they won't be more vicious in the future.

Unless…

Kill the chicken to scare the monkey! (1)

Jiang Chen's finger stopped on the tabletop. Instantly, the desire to kill appeared in Jiang Chen's eyes.

(1) Kill the chicken to scare the monkey: To kill a non-significant thing to scare the enemy.

Chapter 534: Make an Example

The headquarter of Leilian sat in the rural area of Norway, a coffee shop that was closed all year long. Perhaps because no one took care of the place, the wooden hat with a strong North European flavor was covered by thick snow.

Wearing a thick trench coat and holding a briefcase, Kelly scanned the street. After confirming that no one followed her, she walked to the door of the coffee shop and cautiously knocked on the door.

There was a particular rhythm to her knocking; it seemed like some form of code.

Quickly, a barely audible sound came from behind the door, then the door opened. Without stopping, Kelly immediately pushed the door aside and went inside. She closed the door and hung her trench coat on the hanger at the door. The server that opened the door greeted her and courteously returned to the front desk of the coffee shop.

Under the trench coat was a gorgeous body. Kelly with a turtleneck sweater sat on the sofa beside the fireplace as she elegantly crossed her legs while looking at the man sitting right across her.

The man under the hood in a black sweater grinned.

"Is that so? I don't feel anything. Where is the thing?"

"Catch."

Kelly flicked her finger, and in the next second, the USB appeared in the man in black's hand.

"The concept map of the deep water mining technology? You finally obtained it."

"Where is the money?" Kelly asked.

"Don't worry, it has already been wired to your account." The man in black connected the USB to the tablet he brought along. He scanned the science fiction mining system and transportation track while he exhaled.

Moments later, he put away the tablet, and destroyed the USB.

Kelly expression remained unchanged, but she was shocked as she glanced at the USB crushed into pieces. The USB was not made of plastic, but rather aluminum. The person's fighting ability must not be underestimated by how easily he crushed that USB.

The man saw the look of caution on Kelly's face feeling pleased as he gradually leaned against the sofa.

"The next mission, I hope you can obtain the blueprints for the transportation track on the concept map. Of course, it would be better if you could obtain the blueprints for the tidal general or the mining module."

A troubled look surfaced on Kelly's face.

"It's going to be difficult. Even Future Mining's manager has no rights to access such core technology. Based on the deduction by our people, Future Mining's technical department operates independently from its main operation and is directly managed by president Jiang Chen."

Leilian Private Investigator Company had years of commercial espionage experience, but it was the first time they had seen such an odd operating structure. Modern enterprises promoted the interrogation of technical and operation management, so that technical could fully serve production. But Future Group seemed to have done the complete opposite. Operation management had a high degree of separation where technical could not serve the actual operation?

To the troubled look on Kelly's face, the man in black only smiled and pointed up with a finger.

"If you could obtain the technology, money is not a problem. We'll pay ten million for this concept diagram, and one hundred million for the blueprints."

Kelly gulped as her heart pumped furiously.

Normally the commission for their work was around one million with the highest being five million. But this man started with ten million and offered up to one hundred million.

Was it BHP being a major player in the global mining industry? Or was it Future Group's technology really worth that much?

"Now, do you have a plan?" The man in black smiled.

Kelly nodded mechanically.

If Future Mining's manager was not enough, then they just need to go higher. For example, Future Group's president – Jiang Chen.

She heard that man seemed to love beauty.

Then she just needs to create a beautiful encounter…

When Kelly thought about this, a charming curvature appeared on her red lips.

"Looks like you have a plan already. I look forward to hearing your good news during our next meeting." The man in black smiled and stood up. "I still have a flight to catch in a moment to Ber. I will head out."

"Ber? I heard that Frankberg is not the most peaceful place now," Kelly said nonchalantly.

Precisely speaking, Europe was not peaceful.

"To ordinary people."

He left those words as the man in black headed to the door.

Just as he reached the door, he suddenly stopped. The narrowed eyes locked onto the water stain on the carpet by the door.

Suddenly feeling alerted, he reached for the gun around his waist.

Bang—

But he was a beat slow. The Ghost Agent with her crosshair locked on him pressed the trigger first. The man in black looked at the woman that appeared in thin air in disbelief before silently collapsing in the pool of blood.

The pitch black figure suddenly appeared in the room. The fluid-shaped rifle and black muzzle cast a vibe of deadliness.

With the unexpected change, Kelly quickly flipped and rolled behind the sofa. She took over the MP7 assault rifle thrown to her by the server at the front desk, loaded the gun, and began firing back along with the coffee house server.

She didn't know how the infiltrator managed to find their headquarter nor how the person appeared in the room out of nowhere. There was only one thought in her mind, kill her!

Her animal instinct thought told her that the person was extremely dangerous.

With the bullets flying, the Ghost Agent wearing a carbon Nano combat suit was calm. Two bullets managed to land on her chest and one hit her in the thigh. But their weapon only shook her body before she fluidly rolled behind a table.

The bullets left a trial of wooden specks of dust around her.

She ignored the enemy's firepower and fired back with the Reaper Assault Rifle at Leilian Company's people.

The bullets easily ripped through the structure that the enemy hid behind.

The server docked behind the front desk was shot in the head and smashed back into the counter behind him. Then the server hidden in the hallway had his chest shredded along with the concrete wall as he dropped the rifle in his hand.

With her people dying one by one, Kelly threw out a smoke grenade in fear. She fired back while retreating to the safety tunnel.

"Dammit, who is it!"

Suddenly, the words popped up in her head.

'The Ghost Agents!

Could it be them?!'

But that's impossible, regardless, they were just a bunch of newbies. Could it be BHP's enemy? Or people they had rivaled during previous missions?

Kelly used the bullets to bust open the lock, kicked open the steel door with a fierce kick, and ran for her life toward the underground tunnel.

As a contingency against the gathering spot being attacked, they had prepared a boat in the underground tunnel. If only she could escape to there!

Kelly smashed through the steel gate of the underground tunnel, hopped onto the boat frantically, and stuffed the key into the engine.

She looked back at the empty door before she felt relieved and started the boat.

The enemy didn't follow.

But before she could let out a breath, something struck her throat.

When she looked back, she met a black muzzle.

She didn't know when the person was at the front of the boat.

The cold gunshot echoed inside the underground tunnel.

Without the time to beg for her life, Kelly collapsed in the pool of blood.

The Ghost Agent agilely hopped into the boat, pressed on her collar, and replied in an emotionless tone.

"A total of 12 individuals killed, including primary target Kelly, BHP representative. 'Package' is retracted, over."

Chapter 535: Parting

Leilian's headquarter was attacked, senior agents including Kelly and other employees, for a total of eleven people, all died under the merciless muzzle. To business spies, the revenge was too malicious by normal standards.

Luke was sitting inside his manor while he glanced through the report with gloom on his face.

He didn't mind the losses suffered by Leilian Company, nor was the death of his strong subordinate that always did the dirty work for him, what he minded was if Future Group knew BHP hired them.

Although when he hired Leilian to investigate Future Mining, he didn't disclose any information. With how these private investigators typically functioned, they would usually secretively figure out the information of the hirer just for the sake of protection in case they get sold after they complete their mission. Their work was not protected by law after all.

If Future Group managed to figure out that BHP was behind all this, it would without a doubt interfere with their cooperation.

Luke rubbed his temples to soothe his headache.

Other than this, there was one point he didn't know. How did Future Group discover Leilian's coordinate in such a short period of time and execute the revenge mission on the other side of the globe in a rapid fashion.

Was there still unexposed hidden power in Future Group?

If so, BHP must go back to the table to discuss their strategy on Future Group again.

…

When the completed mission summary was placed in front of Jiang Chen, he didn't feel too surprised.

With the assistance of optical illusion, the Ghost Agents' first mission outside of the country didn't experience too much of a hiccup. Leilian Private Investigator Company lacked combat experience despite their wealth of commercial espionage experience compared to other intelligence service agents such as CIB.

After this warning, BHP will think again and reevaluate their attitude toward their partnership.

Li Jinyan was sued by Future Group for commercial espionage and received a life sentence by the Coro Island municipal court. Jiang Chen obviously could kill him, but that was letting him go easy. With his pretty face, he must be welcomed in prison.

As to Su Fei, when she heard the news of Li Jinyan being thrown in prison, she just then realized how foolish and dangerous her actions were. In anxiousness, she spent a few days of peacefulness. Just as she thought that this event had been settled, one day after work, Yang Yuan came back home drunk.

When she saw her boyfriend's expression, she realized something was not right.

Without much context, Yang Yuan said.

"Let's break up."

"Wh…Why?" Su Fei looked at the boyfriend that always agreed with her in disbelief.

Yang Yuan didn't say anything and threw his phone in front of her. The anonymous email contained videos and pictures with the protagonist being her, and the male being the already in prison Li Jinyan. Su Fei stared at the blinding pictures as her face turned hot, but her hands were so cold as if they were submerged in ice water.

Until the moment Yang Yuan brought up them breaking up, she realized that if she left him, she was nothing. She just realized what he did for her.

"I," Su Fei's hands were trembling. She looked at Yang Yuan pleading, "Sorry, I, I—"

But Yang Yuan didn't want to hear her explanation. He suppressed his anger that was about to erupt and calmly said.

"Get out."

Yang Yuan didn't know why he would so calm. The entire break up was so peaceful as he didn't curse at her at all from the beginning to the end.

When he saw her board the plane, he noticed the regret and longing on her face. But what made him feel incredible was that he didn't have a single thought in his mind of wanting for her to stay.

He watched the plane depart and disappear into the horizon. The past flashed in front of his eyes like an old film. Until the last soot fell, he squished the cigarette bud against the garbage can, it felt like he just squished their past.

He threw the bud away and left.

Jiang Chen sent the anonymous email. It was the best method he thought of. Future Group only sued Li Jinyan and spared the accomplice Su Fei, it was the last saving grace for Yang Yuan. In Jiang Chen eyes, the peaceful breakup was the most appropriate conclusion.

The night when Su Fei left, Yang Yuan called him to drink. He didn't hesitate much before accepting the invitation. But when he drove to Yang Yuan's place, he discovered that he was half drunk already.

"Do you feel okay?"

"Burp—, I'm okay… Sorry, I started drinking first."

"It's okay." Jiang Chen took the bottle from Yang Yuan's hand and poured himself a cup.

Jiang Chen originally thought his old friend would dump all his sorrows on him, but he didn't even say a word of complaint. He just chatted on and on about what happened during university. In the end, he used his drunken eyes to look at Jiang Chen while saying with sternness.

"Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me, you paid for the alcohol." Jiang Chen grinned and glanced at him.

Yang Yaun laughed and hid his thanks deep in his heart without saying much more. He was thankful that Jiang Chen spared Su Fei and gave him the choice to end the relationship on a peaceful note. He was thankful for Jiang Chen not pursuing further in his oversight and thankful that Jiang Chen could drink with him as a friend.

Since in this unfamiliar kingdom, the only person he knew was him.

The two just drank cup by cup until they could no longer drink.

Midnight, Ayesha drove over and carried Jiang Chen on her back to the car.

When they got home, she didn't mind the pungent alcohol smell as she removed his clothes for him, wiped the sweat off of his body, and put him into bed.

Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen in deep sleep as a tender smile surfaced on her lips. She gently kissed his lips, crawled in beside him, and fell asleep as usual.

…

The next morning, Jiang Chen crawled out of bed, hungover.

He didn't plan to drink that much last night, but he couldn't stop when they started. Based on his schedule, today was the day the vessels would arrive, and he would attend the ceremony for the exchange of ownership. Although no media would be present on site, it would be inappropriate to review the Navy marines that finished their training abroad smelling like alcohol.

Jiang Chen swallowed the sobering pill with water and finished washing up. Just as he finished the breakfast Ayesha made, Natasha came knocking on the door.

As he opened the door, Natasha came sniffling and looked at Jiang Chen with ridicule.

"You drunk?"

"Mhmm, a little bit. No worries," Jiang Chen replied ambiguously.

"Do you need some cologne? I can lend it to you."

Jiang Chen stared at Natasha with mockery all over her face and headed straight to the garage. Ayesha who changed into formal clothes locked the door and caught up to Jiang Chen in quick steps. When she passed by Natasha, she cautiously looked at her.

To her cautious, Natasha only smiled and spoke to her back.

"Don't look at me like that, I won't eat him."

She shook her head, turned around, and got into her own car.

Chapter 536: Vessel Docking

The ceremony of vessel docking was held at New Moon Island.

The representatives attending the ceremony from the Russian side were Russia Pacific Fleet's General as well Russia's ambassador at Xin. The representatives attending from the Xin side were Celestial Trade's president Jiang Chen as well as the vice president of Xin.

In this friendly atmosphere, Jiang Chen boarded the vessel to shake hands with the Russian General. To complete the handover agreement, he reviewed the navy marines who completed their training in Moscow.

The two "Guardian" class frigates were arranged in a line formation and fired at the target ship to demonstrate the Celestial Trade vessels' excellent firepower. Looking at the splashes of water into the sky as well as the shredded target ship, the Russian General smiled at Jiang Chen in a friendly manner without disguising the pride on his face.

The manly-looking Russian felt proud about the weapons produced by their country.

Jiang Chen didn't look too shocked as he politely smiled and clapped with the personnel.

The firepower was indeed powerful, but it was still weaker compared to the apocalypse.

With the improvement of the construction robots, Jiang Chen had the confidence to increase the firepower two-fold. The type-50 J-unit electromagnetic pulse cannon produced by research from Fallout Shelter 027 was the vessel version of the original type 50 cannon. It could launch a 50 kilogram bomb with a maximum range of 250 kilometers, which far exceeded the capabilities of normal vessel-equipped cannons. With the help of early warning aircraft or satellite and equipped with the electromagnetic pulse cannon, the frigate could extend its combat radius from 70 km to 100 km, far wider than the radiuses of conventional warships.

Compared to the electromagnetic pulse cannon installed on the "Milino" joint high-speed ship, Type-50 J-unit electromagnetic pulse cannon was much more petite. However, its slim figure didn't mean that it was less lethal. Jiang Chen knew in the future that it would display its fierce firepower and become a rampant surgical scalpel in the Pacific!

Although the problem of overheating had yet to be solved, with development and research, it wouldn't take long before the technical problem would be solved.

The two Type 636 Kilo-class submarines fired torpedoes at targets under the sea and displayed their firepower to the people on board through combat videos. Then the two submarines floated to the surface and displayed their flags. The whole crew boarded the deck and saluted to Jiang Chen and the other representatives.

While raising his hand to salute back, Jiang Chen stood side by side with the big-bellied Russian ambassador and whispered:

"Unforgettable firepower."

When Valery heard Jiang Chen's words, he grinned and used his fluent Han: "Our firepower has always been reliable. If Mr. Jiang is interested in adding more security to your backyard, please contact us."

The ambassador with the big belly was inexplicably endearing; maybe it had to do with his funny big red nose or his suit stretched by his beer belly.

Jiang Chen only smiled at the word "backyard" without refuting the ambassador. To the intelligence departments of the five major powers, it wasn't a secret at all. Considering his relationship with Russia, his cooperation with them would also direct the attention of the major powers to him.

Of course, when Valery saw that Jiang Chen didn't correct his wording, his smile grew brighter.

"There are only a few fishing boats in South Asia. The Kilo-class submarines are more than enough for you to dominate the area. Your only threat will be fighter jets, so are you not going to consider buying some anti-air artillery? Trust me, our S-400 anti-air system will please you."

"I'll consider your suggestions seriously. But at the moment, we don't have plans to expand our forces." Jiang Chen used the excuse of maintaining area stability and rejected Valery's suggestion.

Of course, Jiang Chen wouldn't explain the real reason. It was because Russia's new S-500 wouldn't please him - he could easily bring compact anti-air weapons from the apocalypse.

But Valery seemed to have accepted his reason. He shrugged and didn't push any further.

The vessel handover agreement soon reached its conclusion.

Based on typical procedures, the Russian representatives would leave first. The Russian General and Valery shook hands with the Vice President of Xin and Jiang Chen.

"In my opinion, you are shrewder than most dictators in the world." Standing at the military harbor on New Moon Island, Valery told Jiang Chen before he boarded the boat back to Coro Island.

"Oh? Why do you say that?"

Valery nonchalantly looked at the Vice President chatting with the General. "Most dictators are eager to display the supremacy of their power and are eager to let the world know their dangerousness. But you're different - what you did was ingenious. Xin possesses the most democratic policy in the world, whether it's the elections or freedom of speech, but the economy and national defense are all under your control. Xin would never introduce an anti-monopoly law, so your actions will always be legal."

"Thanks for the compliment. But may I ask? Is this Russia's view or Mr. Valery's personal opinion?"

When Valery heard this, he laughed audaciously.

"Please don't think too much - of course this is my personal opinion. But could Mr. Jiang Chen answer a question of mine? Personal question."

"Of course."

"You're already really rich - rich enough to buy a country. Based on my years of work experience, a dictatorship and a monopoly are usually 'lazy' because they don't compete and maintaining the status quo would be the ideal state. But with traits fitting both titles, you are doing the complete opposite. Even now, Future Group is continuously expanding into new markets while Celestial Trade is continuously upgrading its arms. I am personally curious… What are your aspirations?" Valery asked.

"Mr. Valery, your question is quite odd. Microsoft has a lot of money, and by some definitions, they have achieved a 'standard (1)' monopoly, but they never stopped expanding their market. Future Group is an enterprise, so we must continuously ensure we remain competitive. Also, I have to correct your perspective: a lazy dictator is just a shortsighted dictator."

"Then as a dictator with foresight, you still haven't answered my question. What are your aspirations?" Valery joked.

"Aspirations?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"This is only a personal question. If it's inappropriate, please forget it." Seeing as Jiang Chen didn't answer, Valery courteously offered him an out.

"It's not inappropriate. Before, it was purely about making money, but now…" Jiang Chen paused. "I want to see further places."

Just like Valery said, Jiang Chen already amassed wealth he never imagined one and half years ago.

In the next ten years, even if Future Group didn't introduce any more innovative technology, just with virtual reality alone, it stood at a height insurmountable by any other enterprises in the world. Even if scientific research on multi-polarized worlds was faster than research on three-polarized worlds, the world here couldn't make immersive virtual reality technology into a reality.

If it wasn't for the ship sent by Harmony named Evolution that was en route to Earth…

When Jiang Chen saw the Russian representatives off, he found Ivan and ordered him to move the frigates and submarines to the harbor on Coconut Island. The construction robots would complete modernization improvements to the weapons onboard.

Chapter 537: Fight Jets in Service

Time quickly flew by in December. Pannu Islands felt like summer all year long since it didn't have the slightest bit of winter weather, but Wanghai City in the wasteland was already covered by pristine snow. Compared to previous years, Wanghai no longer felt like an apocalypse anymore.

These days, Jiang Chen occasionally returned to the wasteland since he had too many people he couldn't let go. But because the situation had already stabilized, he didn't stay as long as before.

He would have dinner with the girls, "communicate his affection" with Sun Jiao, eat the sisters together, shower with Yao Yao, and bully Lin Lin. If he just stayed in the mansion, it didn't feel like they were in an apocalypse at all.

The entire area on the east side of Huangpu River was covered with NAC-established inspection stations. If one looked up, it was possible to see Type-51 helicopters patrolling the city or Aurora-20 soaring by. NAC had established absolute control in Wanghai.

NAC's diplomats were currently in negotiations with Liuding about including the east bank into the "protective territory."

Bohai "Angry Tide" ship-borne electromagnetic pulse cannon could fire from the Yangtze River estuary to Luzhou. Not only did it possess a fearful 450 km range, but it could also launch 10-400 kg bombs. The cannon was a superior source of firepower support among the ship-borne based weapons. Whether it was Bohai or cannon technology, Jiang Chen was determined to take possession.

If they could solve the problem through negotiations, then that would be ideal. If they couldn't solve the problem through negotiations, they would have to resort to military power.

This was the standard in the wasteland.

On the other hand, the radioactive material cleanup and crater filling had been completed. Although the Gamma value remained elevated, there was no need for personnel entering the area to wear nuclear protective suits. The iodine stored in their EPs and anti-radioactive medicine were more than enough to enable traversing in the city center.

Because of snow and freezing conditions, the Project Garden of Eden beside Dianshan Lake was temporarily stopped.

Jia City occasional encountered mutants migrating east, but with the First Division led by Cheng Weiguo stationed there as well as inspection stations along the way, Jiang Chen wasn't worried that the mutants would sneak into the city to build nests.

The winter was peaceful.

Because of NAC's presence, there were no more incidents in Wanghai.

On the contrary, in the modern world, the global situation began to escalate.

In South Asia, following the independence of Moro, the movement began to escalate on war-embroiled MLL Island with signs of spreading to Masa Island. At the end of November, the guerrilla forces launched a massive military attack on the city of Dawo and successfully disintegrated a light infantry division and a light armored brigade stationed locally. The Moro leader, Santos, used social media sites to announce the civil war had officially entered the second phase; the city of Dawo would become Moro's capital.

Jiang Chen initially funded Santos with the sole intention of causing trouble for country F, but this guy managed to launch a successful independence movement and even managed to establish his own capital.

The reason they could achieve this success was partially because of the low combat abilities of F soldiers as demonstrated by the hostage rescue incident. It was also partially due to UA elections and the inability of their biggest ally to intervene in the civil war. UA only ceremonially conducted some diplomatic work and sold firearms at a lower cost.

With Moro's independence now a possibility, Jiang Chen changed his initial plans. When they finished that batch of firearms, he would continue to provide support.

Of course, this support wasn't without a cost; it would be exchanged for ownership rights of the mines in the guerrilla-controlled area or actual ores. Because of this, Jiang Chen ordered Barkary to register a shell company in Australia with the sole purpose of facilitating transactions between the ores and firearms. The ores of unknown origin were then transported to the factories in New Guinea to be further processed; a portion would be sold to international markets while the other portion would be "sold" to Celestial Trade.

The flipping ore trick was the same as Turkey selling the IS crude oil, but Jiang Chen's method left no trace at all. With the support of the radar station located on New Moon Island, the transport vessel containing the ores seemed to have eyes and avoided all the patrol boats and vessels that blocked MLL Island. Regardless of how frustrated country F was, the supply shipments to the guerrillas were never tracked down.

What was worth mentioning was that the company providing firearms to the shell company was a UA firearms company. To avoid the transaction from being tracked by the FBA, all orders were conducted with gold.

Then there was Europe.

The refugee problem continued to heat up, forcing all of Europe to a crossroads. Regarding whether a full ban of refugees into Europe should be enacted, the EU countries had divergent opinions. Some of these opinions included Fran, Frankberg, and Bel which suffered the pain of terrorist attacks and Britain which threatened to leave EU as well as Gree which played the card "If you don't buy my bonds, I'll open my door to refugees"…

It was hard to say whether it was distrust that caused the differences, or that the differences caused distrust. With the meddling of an invisible hand, visible cracks appeared in the previously united EU.

Negotiations between countries didn't result in anything material, but each country started a domestic wave of protests. A lot of extremists finally lost their rationality; people with nefarious intentions aggravated them to start attacking innocent refugees. They swore to seek revenge, to respond to terrorism with cruelty.

In a chaotic state, Frankberg's New Choice Party began its discreet rise to power, but the support of the CDU in power continued to plummet. The extreme right-wing party gained footing in Frankberg politics which made the situation even worse…

"War is never a good thing, but weapons are a great thing. Ivan, do you know what I mean?"

Standing at the fighter hanger on New Moon Island, Jiang Chen had his eyes narrowed and watched the Aurora-20 that just parked. He was speaking nonchalantly to Ivan beside him.

"Sorry, I don't really understand." The veteran shook his head honestly.

"It is only when both sides think the opponent's weapon is strong enough to finish them that both sides will agree to sit down and talk."

Ivan grinned. He had a personal experience mirroring Jiang Chen's words when he was a soldier in the Soviet era. But he still didn't understand why his boss suddenly mentioned these things.

But Jiang Chen didn't speak about this further. Instead, he looked at the pilot familiarizing himself with the equipment inside the cockpit.

The first Aurora-20 fighter jet had officially entered service, filling a gap in Celestial Trade's air force. Since it was the most advanced technology from the apocalypse, its strength was king among the fifth-generation fighter jets.

The initial flight of Aurora-20 was conducted by the pilot with the highest score on the training modules. The control equipment of Aurora-20 had a high degree of intelligence to it - takeoff, landing, cruise, and even air-to-ground attacks could be done by the program.

Just from this perspective alone, the semi-intelligent control mode allowed it to be classified among the ranks of quasi-sixth generation fighters.

And because of this reason, one and half month's of training was enough for pilots to maneuver the aircraft. Watching the aircraft engine igniting, completing a vertical takeoff and landing and runaway takeoff and landing, cruising around the border in addition to other missions, Jiang Chen personally awarded the pilot a medal. After the first flight ceremony, Jiang Chen toured the air force base and showed his face to the young men swearing allegiance to him then he returned to Coro Island.

There was a product launch conference waiting for him in the afternoon.

Before the start of the conference that was destined to make history, he needed some preparation.

Chapter 538: A Unique Product Lanuch Conference

At twelve midnight, Los Santos, located in South Cal, was covered by the veil of the night. At this time, most of the people in Los Santos had already fallen asleep, but the Future Group UA headquarters was still lit as bright as day.

Inside the circular conference room on the first floor, the room was crowded with people. The reporters inside the venue had set up cameras while waiting for Jiang Chen to appear. The employees were busily running between places to setup sophisticated-looking equipment.

Danny gave his assistant a few key notes in recording then he took out a notebook reviewing the questions he prepared. There were a lot of reporters from Los Santos Times as everyone wanted this reporting opportunity; it wasn't easy for him to obtain this opportunity. Considering how addicted people were to the Phantom helmet, the attention this conference would get wouldn't be insignificant.

"Do you think he'll come?" Maybe he was confident with his questions as the reporter sitting beside Danny stuffed his tablet into his bag as he asked Danny casually.

Danny noticed that the logo beside his microphone belonged to the South Cal Journal. His nametag in front of his chest stated that he was: Charles John

"Probably. The media here are all top notch in the UA. Even Microsoft doesn't have the gall to just leave the media hanging," Danny joked.

Charles laughed and lowered his voice.

"I have an interesting piece of information."

"Oh?" Danny adjusted his posture and moved closer.

There was still some time before the conference officially started. It would be beneficial for his news report if he could gather some information previously unknown to him. The information could be used as a source regardless if was fake or real.

"Yesterday afternoon, I asked a contact of mine to search through the arrival list for all the airports in Los Santos, but I didn't see his name among them at all.

"Maybe they took a private jet," Danny said jokingly, but he mocked this reporter in his mind.

[What kind of information is this? If he really wanted to keep a low profile, there's no way he would let you find him.]

At the same time, the lights inside the venue suddenly shut off. Everyone stopped chatting amongst themselves while they trained their complete attention to the front.

[He's here!]

Danny put his notebook away, took a deep breath, and adjusted his tie. But when he saw his peer from South Cal Journals, he almost burst out laughing. Although Charles was sitting, his feet were in a position ready to run.

[So fu*king shameless.]

Danny cursed in his mind, but he clenched his microphone tightly and prepared to swarm the person at the front.

Future Technology didn't make the reporters wait for long. The General Manager of UA behind the scenes looked at his watch, nodded to his employees, and signaled them to turn on the equipment.

A beam of light shone on stage. Using the guidance of the light, a young Han man in a suit walked to the front of the stage.

Just as expected, thunderous applause erupted beneath the stage. Although the UA media present maintained a reserved attitude toward the Hua-based Future Technology, their technology still gained everyone's respect. So the reporters weren't stingy with their applause at Jiang Chen's entrance.

The screen in the back lit up as English letters surfaced on the screen. The reporters present weren't unfamiliar with Future Technology's real-time translation technology.

"I'm grateful that everyone could attend our company's product launch conference. I also have to apologize to our friends from North America who must work overtime and our reporters in West Europe who must wake up early."

When Jiang Chen said this, Danny, sitting at the front, smiled understandingly but soon, he was stunned along with the other reporters below the stage.

The introduction gave a lot of information to process.

Jiang Chen scanned the reporters below the stage. He smiled and continued with his hands open.

"That's right - this conference is being hosted simultaneously at the 12 region headquarters of Future Group."

Jiang Chen's words were like a bomb thrown into the previously silent venue. All the reporters' eyes widened and looked at him with disbelief.

Product launch conference being hosted simultaneously at all 12 regional headquarters? What's going on?!

Although it wasn't the Q&A period, a number of reporters raised their hands including Danny; they needed an explanation from Future Technology.

It looked like Jiang Chen expected this situation as he acted rather calmly. He turned around to scan the reporters at the venue and his sight stopped on Danny in the front seat.

"Reporter 304, please ask your question."

Ecstatic that Jiang Chen called him, Danny immediately stood up and extended the microphone in his hand.

"You said your company is hosting product launch conferences simultaneously around the world. Does this mean that all other conferences are hosted by regional general managers? Why did you choose North America as the conference you attended personally?"

Precisely speaking, it was two questions meshed together.

Jiang Chen smiled.

"I can hear the misunderstanding from your question. Let me first clarify - even if the conference is being held simultaneously at twelve different locations around the world, I can still personally attend all of them."

Danny looked at Jiang Chen dumbfounded; he didn't know what he meant. But since his question time was over, he had to sit down.

After answering the question from the Los Santos Times, Jiang Chen didn't call any other reporters because he knew what they wanted to ask. And what they wanted to ask was what he would now explain.

"I know everyone here isn't a stranger to a certain word. That's right - I'm talking about holograms. And it's my hologram standing here. Because of this, I must emphasize the importance of the order of questions.

When they heard what Jiang Chen said, there were whispers below the stage as all the reporters looked at Jiang Chen on the stage in astonishment. The reporters obviously couldn't tell it was a hologram. Before Jiang Chen revealed the truth, not a single person knew it.

"But… this is too realistic."

Charles stared at Jiang Chen while murmuring.

But Danny's reaction was more dramatic compared to Charles. He often visited Silicon Valley and was aware of the technology on the frontier. Hologram technology was extremely advanced and it wasn't difficult to have an ultra-realistic hologram.

But all holograms had to be set in advance. Holographic projection technology was applied to the field of instant messaging, and collecting images to form three-dimensional images wasn't something that NASDAQ companies highly skilled in "blowing bubbles" could arrogantly claim to be able to do.

Yet Future Technology put this technology on the table without a huge commotion.

God, is this just the launch conference of the Phantom Helmet?

A crazy idea emerged in Danny's head. He stared at his notebook full of notes and felt speechless. Future Technology's unconventional move completely disrupted his train of thought.

[Once the Q&A starts, what am I going to ask?]

Danny's problem was the same for all the reporters present. Jiang Chen stared at the expressions of the reporters below the stage as a smile surfaced on his face.

This was the impression he wanted to leave.

The product launch conference was intended to launch the MMORPG , but the product "Phantom Helmet! The virtual reality technology! MMORPG" was the tip of the iceberg for virtual reality technology. If he wanted to make users around the world depend on the product launched by Future Technology, he had to make them astonished and fanatical.

Jiang Chen spoke again.

"Also worth mentioning is that I'm currently in Xin and conducting the conference through the Phantom Helmet."

Chapter 539: The Door and the Key

Jiang Chen's sentence immediately dragged the off-topic-conference back on topic and at the same time, he advertised the Phantom helmet without a trace.

The media below the stage was in astonishment once again.

He was attending the news conference in real time through the virtual reality helmet.

A word abruptly popped up in Danny's head.

[AR?]

AR stood for Augmented Reality. It was the use of virtual objects to "enhance reality." Compared with virtual reality (VR), it had the advantages of a stronger sense of reality and small modeling workload. One representative product was Microsoft's HoloLens. After wearing their glasses, you could change your home table into a gaming table and transform the wall into a TV screen.

But for the people in a socially interactive environment, the weaknesses of AR technology were obvious. When you wore the reality enhancement glasses and waved your arm to make some weird maneuver in the air, what would your roommate think?

Regardless, it would be awkward as hell.

It was one of the challenging aspects of AR application - only people wearing the glasses could see "enhanced" virtual objects. But Future Technology used holograms to fuse virtual reality and actual reality together perfectly, which was why all the reporters were stunned.

"The Phantom Helmet." Jiang Chen opened one hand while he faced the silent reporters and smiled. "The key to the virtual world."

Particles fused into lines above his palm and weaved themselves into a realistic helmet. The helmet hovered above his palm and slowly rotated in the eyes of the reporters.

"I know everyone here has an understanding about the functionality of the helmet, so I won't describe the specifications here. I'll only provide two numbers: 1.44 million and 0."

When Jiang Chen mentioned the number 1.44 million, a lot of reporters realized it was the total number of helmets available in the virtual reality experience project previously announced.

But what did 0 mean?

All the reporters had the same question in mind, but Jiang Chen, who saw through this, answered their question with his next words.

"1.44 million Phantom Helmets. 37% of the units operated nonstop 24 hours for the past three months, but not a single unit malfunctioned."

All the reporters in the twelve conferences around the world were visibly stunned.

"How is that possible?"

"Without malfunction… This ratio is too absurd."

"Who can prove this? There should be a limit in bluffing; do you think all consumers around the world are fools?" At one conference, a short reporter stood up and questioned Jiang Chen's claim.

"Of course I can prove this, Mister. As for the evidence, if you exit, turn right, and walk three hundred meters, there will be a net cafe which is part of Future Technology's virtual reality experience project. Why don't you see for yourself if I'm bluffing? Also, I noticed that you didn't raise your hand when you spoke, and you signed a guarantee regarding respecting the rules of the conference. I must question your ability to adhere to these rules."

The reporter who asked the question listened to the surrounding partially-compassionate, partially-mocking whispers and sat down with his face looking pale.

He didn't think Jiang Chen, simultaneously facing all twelve conferences, would notice his comment.

With Jiang Chen's words of criticism directed to all conferences around the globe, he lost face for his publisher to the media around the world, and that officially marked the end of his professional career.

"Now, let us continue on the question regarding the Phantom Helmet. Just like everyone has witnessed, our helmet has a long standby time and exceptional quality. Even running continuously for three months, it does not experience frame lag or crashes caused by aging circuits or overheating damage."

"And the Phantom Helmet is able to do this because of our unique sealing technology, so our helmet cannot be disassembled and we do not accept any demolition behavior. Any malfunctions due to the disassembly of the helmet by the user will be the responsibility of the user. For any failure due to normal use, we will provide free replacements and half-price redemption services."

Jiang Chen purposely downplayed the role of the graphene chip, but his explanation didn't satisfy all the media as quite a number of them raised their hands, hoping Jiang Chen would give them an opportunity to ask a question.

Standing on the stage in virtual reality, Jiang Chen estimated the number of hands raised between the twelve conferences. He coughed then spoke.

"Based on the number of questions, a lot of reporters obviously still have questions regarding my explanation. My presentation has come to an end, so just like before, for the rest of the time, you can ask and I will answer."

When Jiang Chen's words died, all the reporters present raised their hands. Even then, it was in an orderly fashion. With the disgraced reporter set as an example, no reporter stood up without being called or disrupted the conference.

When Charles heard Jiang Chen calling his number, he immediately stood up to ask his question.

"The sealing mechanism your company utilizes is understandable, but isn't it excessive to demolish the circuit upon opening the helmet? After all, the user should have the right to determine the use of the product after purchasing it. The confidentiality of the technology could be protected by patent law without sacrificing the user's interests."

When Danny heard this tricky question, Danny couldn't help but nod in agreement. The South Cal Journals reporter, although he had a silly appearance, sharply pointed to a weakness of Future Technology. Sacrifice the legitimate rights and interests of consumers? In a country "keen on the rights" of consumers, it would be hard for Future Technology to address this problem.

"Allow me to make a correction about the misunderstanding of Future Technology." Jiang Chen was prepared for the question as he smiled at the media. "First, we never established any sealing mechanism that harmed user's rights."

Regarding Jiang Chen's answer, a lot of reporters who wanted to ask the same question were all dumbfounded.

[What kind of answer is that? It's like forcefully insisting that black is white?]i

"You can't ignore the fact that you are infringing on user rights just because you sign a warranty agreement with the user at the time of purchase," Charles argued.

"Please be cautious with your words, Mr. Charles. Future Technology has only undergone presales on its official site with the opportunity to request a refund at any time to open up the spot. All the Phantom Helmets on the market are only available in virtual reality experience stores, and those helmets were never sold. Strictly speaking, they are part of Future Technology's assets."

"I'm not going to pursue personal or collective legal responsibility for those who open the property without authorization of the company, but instead, I will fine double the price of the helmet upon discovery of the opening of the helmet. Until three days after the consumer receives a helmet from the courier, we will be the ones infringed upon, do you understand?" Jiang Chen looked at Charles in the eye and smiled.

They weren't going to pursue legal responsibility because it would be impossible to do so. Some of the unauthorized openings of the helmets were personal actions, but some were with the permission of the government. It was as difficult to pursue legal responsibility as suing Future Group for the monopoly in Xin.

Charles' throat bobbed as he felt helpless. Although he thought Jiang Chen's words had a flaw somehow, he didn't know what the problem was.

Danny, who was standing beside him, was discreetly shocked. Jiang Chen managed to use one sentence to change Future Group's position from the infringer to the infringed party.

"What I'm going to say next is an explanation to the consumers interested in purchasing the Phantom Helmet." Jiang Chen paused. "Just as we said, we never established a sealing mechanism. Opening the helmet, causing the circuit to overload, is purely because of a circuit protection mechanism installed in the helmet. Any demolition behavior will cause the circuit to overload and damage the circuit board inside the helmet. I admit this is a flaw of Future Technology. We will make improvements on this point and hope consumers will understand."

Equating the sealing mechanism to a deficiency in their technology was as shameless as they could get. A lot of people watching the live conference on Future Technology's official site were calling them shameless.

But they couldn't rebut his explanation. Since Future Technology was the only company who could manufacture immersive virtual reality equipment, only they had the final interpretation of the technology.

[If I can't do it, you can't forcefully make me do it.]

The reporters who planned on pursuing a line of questioning regarding the excessiveness of the sealing mechanism all gave up on the idea. Since Future Technology already provided an explanation, persisting on this problem would only waste opportunities for valuable questions without gaining any useful information.

When Charles sat down, another reporter who was picked stood up. Judging by the microphone in her hand, she was a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, and her question would focus on the financial aspect rather than the technical side without a doubt.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, since your company already achieved an absolute leading position in the field of virtual reality, will you use your technical advantage to prevent other companies from entering the field?"

It was a sensitive topic because it involved a secret that had to do with all major corporations.

Monopoly.

"Of course not - we're happy to welcome other companies to develop virtual reality along with us. Just like what you've seen, the Phantom Helmet's functionality isn't only games - games are only one of the methods that allow us to push the helmet to the world. The reason why I could simultaneously attend all twelve conferences around the world was because of the functionalities of the Phantom Helmet."

When Jiang Chen said this, all the reporters' eyes lit up. Future Technology planned to cooperate with other enterprises in virtual reality! This was an incredible piece of news.

Because of this sentence, all the resulting questions revolved around Future Technology's potential cooperation.

In what form will the cooperation take place? Will Future Technology make its technology public? To these questions, Jiang Chen answered them one by one.

"Immersive virtual reality technology is the core technology of Future Technology and the technology won't be made public. Future Technology currently has no plans to register for patents in the short term, but Future Technology welcomes cooperation in content generation."

"Our cooperation will include all fields of the internet. After a period of time, Future Technology will gradually open to its partner's related technology in program development in virtual reality to allow tech companies to develop software compatible to the Phantom Helmet."

Virtual reality was a massive market. All the functionalities possessed by the present day internet could theoretically be achieved through a platform on virtual reality. A single company's power alone could not digest the entire market and could potentially lead to anti-monopoly allegations to prevent other companies from entering the market.

Future Technology only needed to control the "key" to the market with the quantum computer acting as the "door" as well as quantum communication satellites, that would launch at a later date, acting as the connection node to the virtual reality web.

And the world behind the door should be developed by all companies around the world.

The product launch conference not only introduced the Phantom as the key to the virtual world - it also sent out a positive signal to the entire world.

A signal called cooperation.

Chapter 540: Media's Reaction

In contrast to the Los Santos conference on the other side of the world, the conference taking place in the afternoon in Hua had people watching the live stream on the official site. Due to the high volume of traffic, Xia Shiyu had to contact their service provider to immediately put the newly purchased servers online and she rented ten additional servers to manage the simultaneous streaming that broke the one hundred million mark.

Once the conference ended, the comments section of the video exploded.

…

The heated debate continued on the internet, and the media's opinions were released soon after the conclusion of the conference. As the renowned news reporter of the , when Danny walked out of the conference, he expressed his incredulity on Twitter.

"It was the first time seeing a conference as extraordinary as this. It only lasted two hours, but I spent one hour feeling astonished. You won't understand the shock I felt without being there in person."

The tweet was retweeted thousands of times in one day and even Danny himself was stunned by the reaction. The reason was because it was purely his opinion as well as the opinion carried by all other reporters.

With a similar reaction on the internet, the product launch caused a massive earthquake in the media and the financial world. 2016 was the year virtual reality was born, and the Phantom Helmet introduced at the end of the year added a colorful mark to the exciting year.

More critically, it was about the signal Future Technology sent out!

They planned to cooperate with other companies in the field of virtual reality!

"Currently, there are no visible benefits to releasing this news, but at least it saved some of the VR companies' stocks. When the Phantom Helmet was released, their stocks plummeted.

In the video conference, Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses, and the curvature of her mouth raised up, perfectly illustrating the pride on her mind.

Jiang Chen hadn't seen her for a long time and she seemed more and more attractive. Her luscious black hair was curled behind her head to form a circle. Regarding the rectangular glasses on her delicate nose, if any other women dressed this way, they would've been ridiculed as old-fashioned and boring. But because it was Xia Shiyu, this not-so-fashion-forward appearance cast a lively and elegant vibe.

Sometimes even Jiang Chen wondered: [What if she smiled more…?]

"Ahem, President?"

"Ah, nothing. Ahem, please continue." Jiang Chen awkwardly adjusted his positioning as he accidentally let his mind slip.

Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen with blame. She combed her hair over her ear habitually then she continued.

"Because of the news yesterday, a total of six VR companies as well as 13 tech companies submitted their letter of intent for cooperation in the Hua area."

"Only this many?" Jiang Chen was surprised.

"It's already quite a few. We just concluded our product launch conference and our helmets are still sitting in the warehouse. Even if other companies want to cooperate with us, they must consider their own business and market size. Speaking of cooperation, do you still remember Zhongxin High Tech?"

That name sounded familiar, but Jiang Chen didn't manage to recall this company in his head.

Xia Shiyu sensed his confusion and reminded him.

"Last year, that military project."

"Oh! The… Zhou family's industry." Jiang Chen immediately realized and paused. "What did they say?"

Because of that project, he, unfortunately, gained the interest of CIB. He burned his bridge with the General Staff Department "without considering the bigger picture," took out the people from the CIB then escaped to Xiangjiang. Because of that attack, it made him certain about the decision to establish his own area of control.

Although only a year had passed, since so many things happened in the past year, he almost forgot about the forces in the country.

Precisely speaking, the Zhou family was his "business partner."

"Based on what they said, when the conference was streaming yesterday, they used our official site to follow the progress of the conference. They're interested in developing applications for virtual reality that we mentioned and immediately called for a board meeting after the end of the conference. They even sent out business representatives to Xiangjiang this morning and advised us of the potential for cooperation." Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses.

"Did they mention which area?" Jiang Chen asked.

"In the military field. They asked about the possibility of using immersive virtual reality training to replace live ammunition training."

"The possibility certainly exists, but it will be hard to implement." Jiang Chen sunk into his chair. "And it's impossible to replace it. The coordination and reaction of the body can only be trained by actual exercise."

Unless training chambers with nutrients were used.

On the other hand, Jiang Chen didn't want to step into the field of military tech. It had to do with confidentiality.

Would a country allow their training modules to be run on foreign servers? Absolutely not! They had to protect their weapon specifications, which were confidential.

And Jiang Chen wouldn't hand over his quantum computer; he wasn't that selfless.

"I didn't give them a precise response," Xia Shiyu said.

"It's fine even if you reject them because I personally don't have any interest in becoming an arms dealer."

As if she predicted Jiang Chen would say this, Xia Shiyu sighed.

"The domestic market is still massive, and virtual reality is a big piece of the pie, so there are a lot of people eager to get their hands on it. Take regulation for example - what should be regulated, who should be regulated, and how should it be regulated all haven't been addressed yet. Do you know what I mean?"

"Of course I do. Because it hasn't been addressed, it depends completely on what we have to say before it's adjusted." Jiang Chen laughed nonchalantly.

In better terms, it was crossing the river while searching for rocks.

"As long as you understand, we can't make the same mistake as Google," Xia Shiyu reminded him discreetly.

"Don't worry, we won't replicate Google's failure because we don't have a copy-cat that could become our Baidu."

Once the Phantom completely conquered the high ground of the market, the quantum computer at Coro Island would act as the server and the global virtual reality network would be established. By that time, even if virtual reality technology was made public, no one would be able to hinder Future Technology's control on the market.

Just like now, no country could get rid of the internet.

Chapter 541: Keep an eye on them

After ending the call with Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen closed his laptop, leaned back into the chair and began to think with his eyes closed.

Based on the news from Zhang Yapin, through arrangements with Han, the time of the visit was set for December 21st. During this visit, he will represent Xin businessmen as the President of Future Group to explore business partnership opportunities with Han enterprises…

At least on the surface.

Just like Xia Shiyu said, the country has an unclear attitude toward Future Group. Jiang Chen tricked Linhua Group terribly in the Xin tourism development project, he would never believe that the Wang family would forget the past and settle with him.

Not only the Wang family, the VR industry chain affected multiple fields. There were certainly a group of people that held a hostile opinion toward Future Group who came in as a powerful outsider.

Future Technology needed an ally, an alley with a strong enough voice.

That was the top mission for this visit.

As to the candidate, Jiang Chen had someone in mind. Zhou family was not bad a choice with reasons baring none other than that their family assets were mostly in the military tech field, therefore lacked the possibility of competition with Future Technology. And also their stance toward Future Technology last year caused divergence with the Wang family and a strain in their relationship.

Of course, the most critical part was that they had a powerful voice in Han.

The problematic part was that they became interested in the application of virtual reality technology in the field of military tech. While Jiang Chen didn't mind helping Han in this field, he didn't have the intention to give grounds in core virtual reality technology.

Just as Jiang Chen was debating how to reach a partnership with the force in Han, Ayesha quietly walked beside him with a plate containing golden fried rice and some milk and placed it on his table.

"Mhmm? Is it done already? You don't have to bring it up, you could have just called me down." Jiang Chen smiled at the considerate girl.

"You looked busy so I brought it up. Are you done now?" Ayesha asked lightly.

"Mhmm. I just asked about the current work situation in Han. There was nothing important, so it didn't take long." Jiang Chen smelled the aroma of the fried rice as he just wanted to devour them.

A beautiful curvature appeared on Ayesha's mouth when she saw Jiang Chen's expression, "A new recipe I learned from Aunty Li."

Since the two elders moved to Xin, they began to enjoy their quiet and peaceful life. When Jiang Chen was not busy, he would go visit his parents and have dinner. However, most of the time Ayesha was the person that accompanied them. The cute Ayesha was particularly adored by Mommy Jiang.

"Is it?" Jiang Chen rubbed her head, "Thank you for spending time with them for me."

Ayesha timidly lowered her head as she sensed the warmth from the hand on her head.

There was no plan this morning. After breakfast, Jiang Chen went to the backyard of the mansion. Other than plants tended by drones and a swimming pool, there was also a new shooting range.

Without wearing any protective gear, Jiang Chen casually took out a pistol from his storage dimension, aimed at the target 50 meters out and pressed the trigger.

Bang!

Three consecutive shots left three bean-sized holes on the wooden target. One ten ring and two eight rings, Jiang Chen was pleased with the result. He hasn't practiced for a long time and felt unfamiliar with shooting.

If it were before, there should be no problem getting two ten rings.

He remembered in the beginning when Sun Jiao taught him how to shoot as a reminiscent smile appeared on his face. Only two years passed, but it felt like a long time has passed.

Just then, Jiang Chen's ears moved, and suddenly he raised his pistol while slowly moving to the entrance of the shooting range.

Faint ripples appeared in thin air as the blonde Ghost Agent with hands raised walked in front of Jiang Chen.

"Sorry, I was just curious…" Penny scratched her head and said in embarrassment.

Only the most loyal warriors could obtain a stealth suit, and Jiang Chen didn't suspect their loyalty. She was really just curious. Curious if Jiang Chen could really detect their presence without checking the EP map.

"Curiosity kills the cat." Jiang Chen didn't get angry because of her intrusion; instead, he jokingly left this sentence and put away his weapon.

Seeing Jiang Chen was not angry, Penny didn't say more and awkwardly looked away.

"What about the mission I gave you?" He didn't persist further on this question as he reloaded the pistol and asked nonchalantly.

When Jiang Chen asked about the mission, Penny put on a stern face.

"It has been completed."

Then, she took out the tablet computer from a tactical backpack. Her finger continuously pressed a few times on the screen before handing it to Jiang Chen.

Penny was the Ghost Agent sent to Norway to track the spy from Leilian Company. After she finished her work, Jiang Chen didn't call her back immediately, instead sent her to Frankberg to investigate the relationship between Willie Society and the Rothschild.

The progress of the investigation was not smooth as there was no evidence that directly suggests a connection between the two. It was not until some time ago did she finally make some progress.

"This picture is?" Jiang Chen took over the tablet and looked at the Slavic on the screen as he felt the face looked familiar.

Then, he suddenly recalled that he saw this person at Carmen's manor. It was the last day of the Frankberg trip, he and Ayesha were walking to the garage when they saw Carmen talking with a Slavic.

"Corso, originally a guerrilla of the Balkans, became active as an arms dealer in the Mediterranean after the end of the civil war and is now active in the Ukrainian area. He provides weapons and equipment to government forces under the authorization of NATO."

"He is related to the terrorist attack in Ber?"

"There is no direct evidence suggesting he is related to the attack, but without a doubt, he has a close relationship with the Rothschild family. Also, when I followed him to Ukraine, I discovered he was in contact with Willie Society.

The three points connected into a line and the conclusion was certain. Just like what he had suspected, the Rothschild was connected with Willie Society!

The Ghost Agent looked at Jiang Chen in deep thought and waited for his order.

"Return to Frankberg, I need you to continue keeping an eye on the Rothschild and Willie Society."

Although he knew curiosity kills the cat, to the ambition displayed by the Rothschild family, Jiang Chen felt concerned.

"Yes."

The Ghost Agent nodded and hid herself away.

Jiang Chen couldn't help but laugh at Penny's deceptive exit. He then reloaded the pistol and aimed at the target again.

But then, his phone began to ring.

He took out the phone and looked at the number on the screen as a genuinely shocked expression appeared.

[They are here already?]

Chapter 542: Rocket Launch

At the airport of Coro Island, a slim and tall man in a grey suit stood outside of the airport with a briefcase in his right hand, while his left hand continuously checked his watch. Although his family was not originally from Frankberg, as someone who was born and raised in Mun, he had the habit of the Frankberg people.

Such as, repetitively checking the time and a passion for BBQ.

An adorable little girl around the age of six was with him. She had a blonde ponytail and looked sweet.

A black Benz stopped at the curb of the road.

Jiang Chen got off the car, Amos' eyes lit up, immediately held his daughter's hand, and walked up with his briefcase in hand.

"Hello, nice to meet you, Doctor Amos." Jiang Chen shook hands with him and then looked at the girl that seemed to be afraid of strangers with a smile. "This is?"

"My daughter, Millian." Amos smiled and looked at his daughter. "Greet Uncle."

The little girl hid behind her father pouted her mouth when she heard her dad's request and spoke with nonstandard Han.

"Hello, Uncle."

Although it was cute, Jiang Chen felt an odd sorrow when the little loli called him uncle.

On the car, Jiang Chen learned that he divorced a long time ago and his daughter was his only family.

"What's the situation like in Ber?"

"Extremely unsafe…" Amos sighed, "Protests are going on every day. Some people wanted Merk to step down. Some people called the protestors to remain rational. Just a few days ago, a young man threw a Motkov Cocktail inside the refugee camp causing a pregnant woman to die and her husband to suffer severe burns. The furious refugees grabbed anything they could get their hands on and rushed into the street… Of course, the parliament already ordered for the refugee camps to be closed and did some preventative measures to control the situation. Perhaps things will get better in a few months… But I don't want to wait any longer."

At the end of that gala, Jiang Chen left his business card with him. But what he didn't think was that the professor from the University of Ber made his choice already, handed in his letter of resignation, and headed to Xin to join Future Technology.

Because Jiang Chen was surprised, he personally drove to the airport to pick him up.

Amos Kimberley was indeed an outstanding talent. At the age of 42, he obtained double doctorate degrees in information technology and mechanical engineering and became the youngest engineering professor at the University of Ber.

Not only that, he had quite a list of achievements in the field of robots and artificial intelligence. The number of published papers on SCI (1) may be less than some of the people, but every single paper he published regarding robots and artificial intelligence had been referenced by more than 10 SCI papers.

The reason why he brought his family to Xin was partially due to the security in Ber continuing to deteriorate while he saw the possibility of challenging himself at Future Technology.

Of course, the salary offered by Jiang Chen was another reason why he decided to immigrate. The pay the University offered him was 100 thousand Euros, taxed at 25-30%. The benefits Frankberg offered were quite good, but because of the refugee problem, the benefits system was unable to withstand the load of the society and continued to worsen. Jiang Chen however, directly offered him a base salary of 200 thousand USD after tax while providing him with housing and a car; these were tangible benefits.

Globally, these benefits were among the top, but what really motivated him to bring his family here was not because of the benefits, but because of the speech on artificial intelligence.

Jiang Chen previously told him it was a corporate secret.

Therefore, if he became part of the company, he could access this knowledge.

With that idea in mind, Amos submitted his resume to the email on Jiang Chen's business card.

Jiang Chen already had an idea of where to put the Frankberg Doctor.

Until now, he only brought products back from the apocalypse, but never technology. In the short-term, this was not a problem, but it was not a long-term solution. Just like it was unfeasible for him to transport food to the apocalypse as the apocalypse must regain the ability to farm, the modern world must establish a complete and independent research system.

Or with the colonization ship from Harmony, he couldn't think of any scenario where he would win.

Future Group had enough power to ensure that the technologies won't be leaked. This was the necessary first step.

Including D++ language, basic artificial intelligence database, and other confidential technology, Jiang Chen will gradually open them up to him. Once this professor mastered the knowledge, Jiang Chen will use him to train a group of reliable technicians. By then, Future Technology will have their own research team.

That was Jiang Chen's plan.

After helping Doctor Amos settle down, it was close to noon time.

That afternoon was Celestial Trade's Aerospace Division's rocket launch date. As its first launch mission, Jiang Chen as the president didn't want to miss it.

After having lunch with Ayesha at home, Jiang Chen took a nap on the sofa. When it was close to one, Jiang Chen left for the island near the equator.

Compared to the barrenness a few months ago, the spacious island became more compact. Celestial Trade's post was located on the east side of the island on the elevated ground; the more flat west side was constructed into the launch facility. With the work of the construction robots, the basic facility used to execute the aerospace launch mission was mostly completed.

When Jiang Chen arrived on the island, he happened to see a few people in United Nations clothes blocked at the harbor by soldiers in kinetic skeletons. They were the observers sent by the UN to monitor to launch of the rocket to ensure Xin really did launch a rocket rather than an ICBM.

Because Jiang Chen had nothing to hide, he didn't refuse the observers from the UN. But when those people gained permission, they clearly forgot to submit their landing permission on the island from Celestial Trade, and hence they were stopped at the harbor.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, we need an explanation." A man in glasses walked in front of Jiang Chen, infuriated.

"Our soldiers are just following procedure. You must request for landing permission from Celestial Trade before you step onto the island. I'm sure the Presidential Palace reminded you of this," Jiang Chen explained while signaling the patrolling soldiers.

The soldier saluted and backed away.

Henry's expression looked rather awkward. As Jiang Chen said, they did receive a reminder but didn't think it was a big deal. Since they received permission from the Presidential Palace, in their eyes, it was the same as receiving permission from Xin.

They clearly didn't understand the status quo in Xin because the person standing in front of them was the actual ruler of the country.

Calvin then walked out from the aerospace center and walked toward Jiang Chen's direction.

The scientist didn't feel pressured seeing the boss at all as he directly dragged Jiang Chen's arm to rush him.

"Hurry, you're finally here. The rocket launch preparation work has been completed. The launch could start at any moment."

With the fervor on Calvin's face, Jiang Chen face palmed.

As to the UN observers next Jiang Chen, they were clearly disinterested. They were not concerned with Xin possessing the ability to launch ICBM. They attended this launch ceremony as observers purely for the purpose of comforting the emotions of neighboring countries. Since F country had been continuously stating it was a conspiracy to test ballistic missiles disguised as a rocket launch.

In their eyes, rather than worrying about if it was a ballistic missile, they were more concerned if this thing could really launch. What if it ignited but didn't launch, or it flew sideways…

When Henry thought about this, he shivered.

He didn't feel safe at all standing there.

(1) SCI: Science Citation Index

Chapter 543: Wait, where is the third stage rocket?

Celestial-1, the red letters were engraved onto the body of the rocket.

The declared launch project was a meteorological satellite. The use of meteorological satellites as the first launch was undoubtedly easier compared to other launch projects. But even so, for a small country without fundamental space technology, the first launch with satellite would be considered difficult to begin with.

Not only did the United Nations sent observers, but about thirty local or foreign journalists were also invited to the launch site as this exciting moment should be shared by people around the world. They were specifically allowed to enter the barracks, stand on the sentry tower, and film the launch process

For Xin, it was bound to be a historic moment.

An aerospace superpower?

The uneducated islanders never thought this would be a reality, but when they saw their new neighbors from all around the world discussing the problem with looks of disbelief, the original settlers of Pannu Islands felt a strong sense of proudness.

How is a country unity formed? It is through witnessing one's own country achieving things that other countries wouldn't believe and completing the unthinkable feat.

Who would have thought that a small sea island country that just finished a regime change with a total population of less than one hundred thousand people could become one of the few countries that possessed the ability to launch satellites independently? It was unbelievable.

But this unbelievable moment was destined to be recorded in history.

"A launch pad 30 meters in height? Are you joking? Mr. Calvin." Henry scanned the rocket outside nervously before looking toward Calvin, who was completing the last inspection with the workers.

30 meters high launch pad and Henry visualized the height of the rocket which was 32 to 34 meters or so. Celestial Trade would obviously not provide them with the specific design drawings of the rocket, but with his experience in the field of aerospace, he could deduce the specification of the rocket.

The miniature launch vehicle was not non-existent, but there was no way Henry believed that this tiny could have the capability to launch a miniature launch vehicle. Taking into account the rocket fuel push ratio, as well as the size of the rocket engine nozzle, to estimate the rocket thrust, he didn't think the rocket design was scientific at all.

Disregarding if the rocket could accelerate to the speed to overcome the Earth's gravitational pull or not. Henry was skeptical if the rocket could even fly out of the atmosphere or not.

To respond to the skepticism of the United Nations' observer…

"Do you think I'm joking with you?" Calvin raised his eyebrows and looked at the observer.

"Based on the structure of the rocket, I know this thing won't even lift off." Henry scorned.

"That just means you're ignorant. You will never know our rocket engine—"

"Ahem."

When Calvin heard Jiang Chen coughing, he immediately stopped talking. The NDA of Celestial Trade was no joke, and he realized he almost leaked some information.

Jiang Chen then looked at Henry.

"Mr. Henry, I remember you are an observer of the United Nations and not the technical consultant hired by Celestial Trade. If you think the firecracker outside the window won't fly up, you can go back on the boat. I promise, when you go, there won't be any soldiers stopping you."

Henry's expression changed indefinitely with a mixture of emotions appearing.

Obviously, he won't run back to the boat now, or the media outside would capture his facial expression and put it on the headlines tomorrow along with the name scaredy cat. If the rocket launch failed, there would be no problems, since it would just mean that he had the foresight. But if the launch really succeeded, he would have slapped his own face.

Since Jiang Chen dared to stand there, that meant even if the launch were to fail, safety was not of concern. So Henry recollected himself and no longer spoke.

If Jiang Chen knew what he thought, perhaps he would burst out laughing.

There were no precautionary safety measures at all. The reason he dared to stand there because he was not concerned with the launch failing.

But some people obviously thought otherwise.

Henry shut his mouth, but the other observers were still whispering amongst themselves exchanging opinions.

"I can guarantee that this thing won't reach the stratosphere. The first stage launch vehicle is too short, even with NASA's technology, it would be impossible to do this. I suspect that they may have been off by a decimal during the design phase and no one realized it even after the rocket was built," A slightly chubby man turned his head and whispered to his colleague.

"Ah ha, other than the first part of the sentence, we share the same opinion," A female with curly hair spoke in a grave tone.

"The first part? You think they could fly it out?" The man in disbelief raised his voice by a notch.

"At most troposphere, if the launch experiences no technical difficulties." The woman mocked.

"Haha—"

Calvin glanced at the United Nations observers with infuriated flames in his eyes. Although he didn't design the rocket, it still took him a lot of effort to understand the technology behind it. As a researcher that seek the truth, he would not permit anyone to humiliate this launch technology with monumental meaning.

Calvin clenched his fists and was just about to go off at them.

But then, Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder.

"Prove to them. Remember you are a scientist, not a boxer."

When Calvin heard Jiang Chen's words, he realized he was too emotional. Seeing Jiang Chen nod at him, he took a deep breath, forced the discontent out of his mind, walked to the control panel, and turned on the radio.

"Report rocket status."

"…Roger, currently compiling information… Rocket check work is complete! The rocket is prepared to launch!"

"This is the command center, attention all personnel, initiate launch sequence!" Calvin commanded into the radio and then looked at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen nodded, walked beside the launch location, opened the tempered glass cover, put his hand above the launch button. Calvin turned on the radio again with his eyes locked onto the rocket outside of the window.

The launch center's atmosphere began to tense up. Henry hid away the arrogance in his eyes, and the United Nations observers stopped whispering as they all focused their attention on the launch pad outside.

"Launch countdown initiated! 5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"0! Ignite!"

The instant Jiang Chen heard zero, he pressed the red launch button.

Grey smoke instantly covered the launch pad outside of the window. At the same time, a blinding red light broke through the smokescreen. The rocket separated from the launch pad, with the thrust of the ignited booster, the rocket began to accelerate and pierced into space.

Jiang Chen then casually stood aside.

Calvin's palms were covered in sweat as he anxiously stared at the numbers on the control panel.

Henry glanced at Jiang Chen completely calm and then peeked at the control panel. When he saw the height, speed, and acceleration increasing, the contempt in his eyes turned into sternness.

"Height 48 km, through the stratosphere!"

"Height 81 km, arrived in the warm layer, beginning to turn!"

"219 km! Celestial-1 successfully turned, first stage rocket beginning to separate!

"Separation successful! Arrived at the first universe speed..."

"Height of 483 km, successfully broke through the atmosphere!"

"Height 1000 km, the rocket is continuing to accelerate!"

"..."

"Height of 35,000 km, the rocket is approaching the synchronous orbit! Second stage separate!"

On the screen, the second stage launch vehicle connected to the camera's secondary rocket slowly stalled, with the rocket head separating. At the same time, the rear end of the rocket head ignited, moving toward the farther orbit with the propulsion of the jet.

At this moment, everyone gazed at the slowly rising height of the control panel.

When it stopped at 35785 km, everyone held their breath!

It stopped!

It stopped! Not the slightest error!

"We have arrived at the synchronous orbit! We have succeeded!"

Followed by the exciting shout, all the workers inside the launch center threw their documents into the air in celebration. Calvin was as excited as a little kid as he threw his fists in the air and hugged his colleague.

Henry stared at the control panel as if he had just seen a ghost without a single word coming out of him.

Because of the atmosphere, Jiang Chen proudly smiled and leisurely walked to the United Nations observers that believed there was no way the launch would succeed.

The chubby man opened his mouth wide due to the shock. Someone could even fit an egg inside. Jiang Chen walked beside him and the female as he ridiculed.

"I am sorry that our rocket didn't experience a launch failure. The rocket not only went through the atmosphere, but it also arrived at the synchronous orbit.

At this point, Henry reacted as his soul finally returned to his body. He stared at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

"This, this is impossible ... wait, where is the third stage launch vehicle?"

"Third stage launch vehicle?" As if he had just heard something comical, Jiang Chen began laughing.

When it seemed like he had laughed enough, he paused, in front of the Henry with a stiff expression and said contemptuously

"We don't need that stuff."

Chapter 544: All that one could wish for

Sky eye type X1 meteorological observation satellite. As the name implies, it will be used in meteorological observation, disaster warning, and other related fields. But because the satellite uses a large array of detectors, large reflective telescope system, adaptive optical imaging technology, and real-time image transmission technology, the two meters diameter camera located at the near-earth side of the satellite allowed for an observation resolution of up to 0.1 m.

Military remote sensing satellites and civilian remote sensing satellites are similar in principle with the main differences reflected in the spectrum and the ground resolution requirements. Military remote sensing satellites mainly form its image in the visible or near infrared spectral with resolution better than 1 meter.

And the sky eye X1 weather observation satellite no doubt had reached the level of military satellites. Normally speaking, the observers from the United Nations would ask to verify whether the satellite was consistent with the declaration of the project, but because these people simply didn't believe that Xin could launch it successfully, so no mentioned the verification.

Of course, even if they brought it up, Jiang Chen could refuse. But then, F would use this opportunity to launch a controversy around this such as Xin launched a military satellite with indescribable purpose.

Henry stared at the smoke trial gradually fading in the air before he finally closed his mouth.

"Did it really succeed?"

He obviously heard the cheers just then, but he didn't want to accept this unbelievable fact.

[No need for a third stage launch vehicle? Was the satellite sent directly into orbit with a second stage launch vehicle? It was not impossible from a technical perspective, but did they consider the cost? The additional payload would require more fuel… Wait, their rocket size was not big either with the total length being 33 meters. This is absolutely unbelievable!]

But no one bothered with him. Jiang Chen headed outside to take interviews from the media while Calvin commanded the workers to open the solar panels, check the working status of the satellite, and collect firsthand weather information.

"Xin's weather report could be completed with Xin's own meteorological satellite. I would like to express my gratitude to Atria's ES for past weather reports, thank you."

Jiang Chen was used to being surrounded by cameras.

"Hello Mr, Jiang Chen, what inspired you to invest in aerospace?"

"Interest and potential." Jiang Chen pointed up with one finger at the place the rocket just flew by and smiled in front of the camera, "The future of humanity is there."

If a typical person said this, that person would be mocked for showing off. But because the words came from a technology tycoon, it would be remembered as a famous quote.

When Jiang Chen was being interviewed, he was thinking in his head. If one day, Celestial Trade really completed the blueprint in his heart where human activity expanded to beyond earth, and then to the synchronous orbit, the moon, and even Mars, and outside of the solar system, would people mark today as the start of everything?

Would the posture of him pointing to the sky and saying "humanity's future is there" become a statue and collected to become a part of the earth civilization museum.

After the interview and sending away the observers from Nouveau York, Jiang Chen didn't immediately leave the island, but rather he went to look for Calvin who just finished the launch mission. Just in this short period of time, the scientists opened the prepared champagne and started a party in the cafeteria of the Aerospace Technology Center.

The bubbles of the champagne fizzed everyone, although it was not a holiday, the atmosphere was better than a holiday.

When Calvin saw Jiang Chen, his eyes lit up, and he immediately went to greet Jiang Chen with two bottles of champagne.

"Haha, boss, you need to drink a bottle before leaving."

"Yes, yes! This is our first rocket! Did you notice that observer's expressions? Haha, he looked like he just ate a fly."

"This feels so good, hahaha!"

Because of the atmosphere, and there was no other plans later, Jiang Chen took over the champagne in Calvin's hand, opened the screw, and started chugging the bottle.

Seeing the boss starting to chug, everyone began to blow whistles and started to clap. The female workers as rare as endangered animals also looked at him. While their actions were reserved, their shouts were no quieter than their male workers. When the boss finished the bottle, Calvin didn't back down. The unshaven scientist didn't look like he could drink, but he showed otherwise.

There was no doing business with alcohol here, just purely a bunch of scientists celebrating their work successfully sent into the sky. The equipment and parts were "purchased" by Celestial Trade, but the entire rocket was assembled with their own hands; it was like their baby.

Once everyone had fun, it was starting to get late. Their home was on Ange Island, and their transportation was taken care of by a ferry at fixed times. Only a few chose to live in the employee housing provided on the island. For example, Calvin that wanted to sleep in the lab, or people that requested for overtime.

After the cafeteria that was in a complete mess was cleaned up, the celebration was officially over. Jiang Chen watched them get on the boat and grabbed Calvin who was returning to his place.

"The launch work was successful today."

"Thank you for your compliment." Calvin smiled but then sighed. "But the design of the rocket from start to finish had nothing to do with us."

"Don't think like that." Jiang Chen laughed and patted him on the shoulder, "You only have a higher starting point. I have transferred the related technology to you. I'm looking forward to you creating better rockets with them!"

In terms of technology, the two worlds were unequal. But in terms of creativity and innovation, the people from both worlds were no different. Aerospace was a frontier field that required imagination. With the same technology, the masterpiece created by Jiang Lin may not be better than the rocket designed by Calvin.

Of course, he must put in more effort.

"Mhmm, I promise." Calvin smiled.

There was no need to promise because aerospace is his dream. Jiang Chen provided him with the technology and platform, and Jiang Chen did not doubt that he could make his dream into a reality.

"The launch mission today was extremely successful, and this is your accomplishment. As a reward, I will contact the finance department for a 2 million bonus. Half of it is yours while the other half you can distribute.

"You should have said that during the celebration, they will praise you as a generous god." Calvin joked.

He didn't really lack money since when Jiang Chen purchased his company at a premium, he received 10 million.

"Hahaha, that's unfortunate then." Jiang Chen smiled.

He paused, looked at Calvin, and said sternly.

"In the first half of next year, you'll have 12 launch missions. It will be busy, so I hope you are prepared."

"Two rockets per month? Are you making dumplings in the sky (1)?" Calvin was stunned.

Launching a rocket was no joke. Although they possessed the technology to retrieve the first stage rocket, Celestial-1's launch cost around 50 million.

"Are you afraid?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"Completely the opposite. I'm eager to take on the challenge." Calvin responded directly to Jiang Chen's challenge with a visible smile on his face.

The thing the aerospace department worried the most about was the low profit of commercial launch missions and hence the inability to acquire funding. Jiang Chen's words answered the concerns in his mind. With sufficient funding, even if the number of missions doubled, he wouldn't even blink an eye!

(1) Are you making dumplings in the sky: The analogy is putting dumplings in boiling water and its appearance. The boiled dumplings look crowded and stuffed inside the pan. This analogy refers to the crowdedness of a particular place.

Chapter 545: Battery Patent

On the ocean two hundred nautical miles east of Pannu Islands, with the escort of the frigate installed with the Type-50 J-unit electromagnetic pulse cannon, two construction vessels were deployed on the surface and retrieved the first stage rocket falling with under engine propulsion.

In the distance, there were a few patrol boats without flags. While maintaining a safe distance, they monitored the first stage rocket launch vehicle retrieve work. Because they were in public sea area, thus Celestial Trade's frigate didn't bother with the monitoring boats. Also, the boats just aimed its cannon in the distance as a warning.

When the first stage launch vehicle successfully landed and was transported onto the construction vessel, the patrol boats retreated.

If it was easy to guess who sent the patrol boats. UA didn't care about Xin's aerospace technology, Atria didn't care about international affairs, and there were only two countries active in this area. The economic relationship between New Guinea and Xin was strengthening by the day and obviously would not display this unfriendly gesture.

Country F had been cautious about the rising Xin. When Xin first declared the launch project, they were the first one to jump out in rejection. It was because of national security concern since they didn't think a small country with a total population less than their land force could pose any security threat to their country. It was purely out of a twisted mentality of a poor neighbour where the small country they looked down upon suddenly possessed aerospace capability unfathomable to them.

Of course, they would feel worse now. Because Celestial Trade not only possessed the ability to launch a satellite independently, they possessed the advanced technology to retrieve the first stage launch vehicle.

Xin's rocket launch had heavily damaged their national confidence.

But what Jiang Chen didn't know was, they were already in a complete mess. How are they so good at finding trouble?

….

Future Biology's nutrient supply was well received on the international market. In order to target the dynamic market, the general manager Tao Ming used the recipe provided by Jiang Chen and pushed out four types of nutrient supply. While it increased the raw ingredients usage as well as production, the move also opened up the discount market.

The monthly production of nutrient supply was at an astounding four million boxes. After the cost of goods sold, the average net profit was 371.1 USD with a total profit after tax breaking the one billion mark! The profitability was near the level of Future Technology which absolutely surprised Jiang Chen.

Tao Ming was ambitious with Future Biology's development as he promised Jiang Chen while pumping his chest to transform nutrient supply as the healthiest fast food of the 21st century. And the reason behind his passion was due to the stock option plan proposed by Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen offered a 3% dividend to him and Zhan Shujie responsible for production. As long as they continued to serve Future Group, they will continuously enjoy this dividend.

On the other hand, the contract from Russia's national defense department brought Future Biology a sizable income. But compared to the popularity in the commercial market, the military contract performed paled in comparison. Tao Ming did suggest to Jiang Chen either to raise prices or to stop the contract with Russia's defense department in order to maximize their profit per unit. Since Russia with increase woe in its economy didn't seem like a generous buyer.

But Jiang Chen didn't agree with his proposition. Since as the president of Future Group, he not only needed to consider a subsidiary's profit. While Russia might not be the ideal buyer, they were an ally worth the partnership.

While Tao Ming didn't necessarily understand, he still followed the president's decision. But he seemed to have an odd misunderstanding behind Jiang Chen's insistence and euphemistically expressed the message – don't fall for the beauty.

But Jiang Chen was completely oblivious to what he was trying to tell him.

At least until when Jiang Chen was leaving the company, passed by the lounge, and glanced at a magazine open on the table. Because the person in the magazine looked familiar, he picked it up and took a glance.

When he saw it, his expression suddenly became interesting.

The magazine was a fashion magazine targeted toward females with most of its content either about celebrities or makeup. The content itself wasn't an issue. The issue was when he saw the picture on the page, it was of the day when he sent the drunk Natasha home.

The article itself didn't' comment on the "intimate" relationship between Future Group's president Jiang Chen and Russia's diplomat, but it used the topic to comment on Natasha's style and vibe, as well as shamelessly providing tricks to attract males…

Jiang Chen closed the magazine and felt extremely awkward.

No wonder Yao Ming was careful with what he said because there was a misunderstanding. The Russian diplomat was a mistress of the boss, and as a manager, it was hard for him to comment on their business relationship with Russia. But he couldn't let the "pillow whisper (1)" freely affect the company's profitability. Therefore he said it subtly.

Jiang Chen flipped to the front of the magazine. It was published a month ago by a small publisher on Coro Island. A contemptuous smile appeared on his face.

Someone dared to report his scandal; does the boss of the magazine feel like he has lived too long?

But he only thought about it before he put down the magazine back on the table.

Some of the things were okay even if revealed to the public. Disguising may cause people to suspect the backdoor relationship hidden behind it. Xin didn't establish information control purely because it was not necessary to give trouble to the media over this.

But this event reminded Jiang Chen of the importance of controlling public opinion. As to how to execute it, it was not through enacting a law, since he had too much money, he could easily just acquire a controlling share.

On the other hand, Future Industrial was officially established and registered in Xin as a subsidiary to Future Group. The current portfolio consisted of only an electric car battery, and the research force came from the three European automakers Jiang Chen acquired. It was hard for mechanical parts such as a battery to use similar encryption technology as the Phantom. Therefore Jiang Chen didn't plan on bringing out the highly advanced nuclear fusion battery but instead selected the decade ahead solid lithium-air battery.

In the international scientific community, the study of lithium-air batteries had come to the state of near breakthrough. The shackles preventing its commercialization was mainly in how to ensure that after repeated charge and discharge, the battery can still maintain its original power level. Cambridge University was currently at the forefront of the world with its establishment of the lithium-air battery laboratory model. The model could be charged and discharged more than 2000 times, the energy efficiency of the theory exceeded 90%.

Optimistically, it will be possible to achieve mass production and application of the solid lithium-air battery by 2020.

Jiang Chen obtained the outdated solid lithium-air battery technology from the library in the apocalypse and ordered the researchers at Fallout Shelter 027 to produce a prototype with 3D printing, prepare the related technology into documents, and then Jiang Chen could transfer the information to Future Industrial's car battery scientist.

Including the electrode material, membrane components, new electrolytes, and high-performance additives, and other technologies, all through the PCT route, a total of 147 patents were submitted using international patent applications in many countries around the world. The purpose was to strive to form an absolute patent monopoly and completely blocking others from doing so.

There was no reason not to apply for the patent because four years later, other people will also apply for a patent.

As to some of the material production process, Jiang Chen didn't rush to apply for the patent because he didn't plan to build the factory far away. The plant could be built in the industrial base on Ange Island or the neighboring New Guinea was not a bad choice either.

Chapter 546: Phantom Online!

The news of Xin successfully launching a meteorological satellite caused a small earthquake in global news before quickly settling down. The national "Olympic project" of aerospace was no longer as novel as before - people were just shocked that this small island country in the Pacific once again made headlines before everyone tucked the news away in the back of their heads.

For some reason, the observers from the United Nations chose to conceal the two-stage rocket launching technology Celestial Trade used, and Celestial Trade didn't publicly disclose it to the media either, so the technology wasn't made aware to the general public.

But Jiang Chen was certain that NASA, also based in Nouveau York along with the United Nations, must know this information and was concerned about how to handle the hearing from the UA Congress. They received a large amount of funding each year, yet a small country in the Pacific managed to surpass them in technological advancements…

Compared to the peaceful Xin, neighboring country F was in the midst of troubled times.

The guerrillas of Moro successfully occupied the city of Dawo weeks ago and established it as the capital of Moro. Country F obviously wouldn't just give in. Aquino first denounced Santos as a terrorist and criminal then sent two additional infantry divisions and a UA-trained modern mechanical brigade to launch a large-scale operation on MLL Island.

At the same time, the UA had completed its governmental transition and assisted F in denouncing Moro's independence movement. They also sent out fighter jets to attack the command center of the guerrillas.

The battle once again entered a stalemate.

On the other hand, the vice president of Xin and minister of economics visited New Guinea and brought along the representative from Future Mining as well as businessmen from Ange Island in charge of projects exceeding one billion USD.

Yang Yuan seemed to have gotten over Su Fei; he put all his energy into his work in an attempt to forget about her. On the visit to New Guinea, he went as the general manager of Future Mining and managed to secure five steel plants and two aluminum processing plants to move high-pollution production from Ange Island to the undeveloped neighboring countries.

BHP's ores were subsequently transported to New Guinea for crude treatment before they were transported to Xin for further processing with special equipment to create a unique steel-aluminum alloy. The alloy was extremely light, but the strength and hardness were no inferior to a titanium alloy. Jiang Chen didn't explain the purpose of the alloy to Yang Yuan; he just vaguely explained that these alloys would be used to complete a special project.

While the Vice President was visiting New Guinea, Zhang Yapin signed eleven policies to simplify the tourism visa application process, lowering tourism taxes with the intent of stimulating the tourism industry. Following the introduction of these policies, Xin established the foundation for a prosperous tourism policy. 2017 was destined to be the year that marked the start of Xin's tourism boom.

Wei Yun, who already received the news from Jiang Chen, had fully prepared for this day. He featured the Heart of the Sea, underwater hotel, hot spring beach, sea maze and other tourism activities on advertisements on two forms of media - web and TV. The ads even made it to billboards at Times Square.

Coro Island's airport opened its newly built runaway to meet the demand of 1700 departing and arriving flights per day. The airport also increased direct flights to major metropolises around the world including Shangjin, Wanghai, Xiangjiang, and Los Santos to save the trouble of having to connect through Autria.

On the first day of increased direct flights, the number of people entering the border with a tourist visa increased from 1347 to 2397 people and continued to rise at a daunting speed. Based on estimations from Xin's tourism ministry, visitors from the first quarter of 2017 could break 100 thousand and reach 500 thousand by the second quarter.

Based on the influence of this disclosed data, the three international rating agencies all increased Xin's investment rating which facilitated a large sum of international money flowing into Xin.

President Zhang Yapin couldn't stop his mouth from smiling when he heard the news. Xin's GDP increased by 100% in 2016 and managed to completely transition from a fishing and plantation-based economy to a country focused on manufacturing and tourism.

Future Group's subsidiaries all had stellar performance but compared to Future Technology, all of them added together still paled in comparison.

The first 30 million Phantom helmets that entered the market were sold out on the first day and were promptly sold for three times the original price on the black market. Future Technology had to make an announcement to limit each Future account to purchase a maximum of two Phantom helmets which somewhat alleviated the situation.

Even then, all subsequent Phantoms released into the global market were sold out on the first day. A lot of netizens unaware of the story started to criticize Future Technology of being too egotistical and using the "starved market technique" to bully consumers that continuously supported them.

But Future Technology had their own difficulties since millions of helmets distributed across the world meant only a few million units per country. In order to meet market demands, it required time.

Regardless of how much those people cursed, they would immediately order the new batch of helmets once they were made available. Indeed, Future Technology's product didn't fall short of their expectations.

Once all 80 million helmets were sold, once the costs of transportation, production, tax, and other miscellaneous costs were accounted for, the average profit per helmet was 791.1 USD and the total profit came to a ridiculous 64.07 billion USD! The daunting profitability scared all of Wall Street.

In the field of virtual reality, Future Technology, with the absolute technological advantage, didn't have any competition. Regardless of how the patent offices in each country pushed for patent rights, Future Technology didn't budge at all.

With an absolute technological advantage, Future Technology didn't need to make the technology publically available in exchange for protection.

The moment the 64.07 billion in profits was settled, the first thing Jiang Chen did was pay back his loan with interest to the Rothschild bank.

When they recuperated their loan, the head of the Rothschild bank attentively expressed to Jiang Chen to please contact them if Future Group ever encountered any problems with cash flow in the future. Jiang Chen only smiled at the offer without responding.

Since Future Technology's profitability was more than enough to meet the expansion demands of Future Group, he didn't need to take out loans anymore.

Following the official sales of the Phantom helmet, Future Technology and Godly Land's official site published the official release date of the first immersive virtual reality MMORPG, closed the colosseum mode, and opened character registration.

The initial virtual reality helmet only had a grey cubical room with a simple web-viewing function. Even then, some people were happy to wear the helmet for an entire night. A lot of tech companies constantly jammed Future Technology's phone line with the hopes of resolving the compatibility problems between their software and the helmet. This included Penguin that desperately wanted to expand their social media platform.

Future Technology gave a standard response. Because of technical limitations, the Phantom helmet's system could only support Godly Land as well as their internal web browser. With improvements in software, the compatibility problem would gradually be solved.

Before the start of official cooperation, Future Technology still needed to consider which areas could be worked on cooperatively and which areas must be controlled.

Just as the world was in frenzy over immersive virtual reality technology, Jiang Chen accompanied the delegation of Xin to board the flight to Shangjin, thus beginning his visit to Hua.

Chapter 547: Too Many Choices

The company most hostile toward Future Technology's product launch was Penguin.

Some time ago, Penguin acquired Wanghai Lexiang Technology, but the Phantom helmet made their deepoon virtual reality equipment look like complete junk. The plan of bundling Penguin's social media platform and deepoon in order to achieve "Virtual reality + Big Penguin Strategy" died in its infancy.

In other words, other than for nostalgia's sake, no one would play the outdated NDS once they had a smartphone.

The awkward situation they faced was the same idea.

If their deepoon never had any emotional impact on its users in the first place…

"Useless." Ma Huateng gazed at the document on his desk and swore after holding back for so long.

Whether it was positive or negative news, the media all referred to Future Technology's dominance in the VR industry. Future Technology's growing influence made Penguin Cooperation feel a deep fear. When they realized that they couldn't learn from Future Technology's product, Boss Ma experienced a deep helplessness.

The ability they were most well-versed in was useless against their opponent.

The assistant stood beside the boss, pretending not to hear the boss's rant as he stared straight at a flower through the window to pass the time while praying the blame wouldn't spread to him.

Ma Huaheng inhaled several times and picked up the teacup beside his hand. The bitter tea made him calmer, whether it was due to its price or identity. This tea was a custom product either: (1) reserved for representative meetings or (2) gifted by a powerful person after the meeting.

When he thought about this, a curvature appeared on his face and his eyebrows were no longer furrowed.

At least from a policy point of view, Penguin wouldn't lose.

Seeing the boss calming down, the assistant felt relieved and finally reported important information to him.

"Boss, Xin's delegate will arrive in Shangjin tomorrow morning at ten. Jiang Chen will accompany the delegation—"

"I know. What's the message on that side?"

"The message from Shangjin is that they want us to keep in contact with Future Group."

[Keep in contact?]

Ma Huateng furrowed his brows as this ambiguous message made him unclear of the directions. How should he keep in contact? What was the outcome the people at the top wanted to see? Regarding the era-defining technology, were they not tempted?

Seeing that the boss was silent, the assistant attempted to go on.

"Boss, do you need me to book a ticket?"

"Of course," Ma Huateng said with an undertone. "… Our primary focus is still on software; it was a mistake to enter the hardware market. Regardless, QQ must gain an advantage over the Phantom helmet. It isn't too late to partner up now."

When the people at the top mentioned maintaining contact, he had to facilitate meetings for the partnership. Because of the uniqueness of Xin, Hua would do their best to win over their ally. Conversely, it would be the same for Xin as they would try to promote cooperation between Future Technology and Hua enterprises.

But his assistant didn't think nearly as far.

"Will Future Technology give up the market share on social media? They revealed their ambitions when they fought over market share with Future 1.0. If they internally bundle social media software in the helmet and use the compatibility issue to prevent us from entering the market, it'll be hard for us to win."

In 2007, Microsoft's VISTA operating system didn't support QQ for a period of time and that truly scared Penguin. Fortunately, the problem was solved in subsequent updates but VISTA's penetration rate was low compared to XP and Windows 7 later on. But everyone knew that if Microsoft really wanted to take out QQ through the computability issue and used the bundling method to push MSN, then only death awaited for Penguin.

Of course, they would never do that.

The reason was…

"That's not the right way to say it." Boss Ma's eyes were narrowed and he laughed mischievously. "In this country, things don't always work the way they want it to work unless they want to face investigations on their monopoly."

This sentence didn't sound convincing coming from his mouth. Speaking of a monopoly, who else to say that than BAT (3)?

While Penguin was discussing their strategy on negotiating with Future Group, at a house in Shangjin, two elders were playing GO.

"That Future Group, Jiang Chen, certainly has some capabilities." The elder with white hair suddenly nodded with a smile while his fingers held a black piece.

The elder in a vest laughed.

"To be able to receive such a comment from Old Liu, this kid certainly must be amazing."

"That's not the right way to say it. Wasn't your Zhou family the first to bet on him?"

"The word 'bet' ruins the mood - it was just my kid who happened to meet him by fate." Although Zhou Antai said this in a humble way, his face still glowed with pride.

His kid who stayed in Wanghai brought an ally with such potential to his family when he came back home. Speaking of which, the reason why Jiang Chen chose to partner with the Zhou family was largely because the Wang family was the "matchmaker."

"Dehai… was too overzealous." Liu Xiangguo's piece hovered but didn't fall on the board. He sighed and kept shaking his head.

The Dehai he referred to was Wang Dehai in Wanghai.

When Zhou Antai heard his old friend's comment, he felt joyous inside but he didn't display it. He subtlety asked:

"Is this based on fact?"

Liu Xianguo looked at his old friend with a grin and refocused on the GO board.

"This is a difficult move."

"How's it difficult?"

"Difficult because there are too many choices." Liu Xiangguo seemed to be studying the board as he muttered to himself.

"Antai, you tell me - should I take out your piece or should I wait?"

After Zhou Antai heard his friend's straightforwardness, he slapped his thigh and laughed.

"If you ask me, I want you to take it easy on me."

Liu Xiangguo glared at him but also laughed.

"Although we've been friends for a long time, you know that when we play, I never take it easy."

*Sigh* "It's okay. It's not my first time losing." Zhou Antai waved his hand nonchalantly.

Although his words were nonchalant, his eyes never left the board.

His hovering black piece was finally planted on the board.

Zhou Antai gazed at the board. His pupils contracted before he blissfully smiled.

From the start, his old friend had been playing tricks on him. It was only when the piece finally landed on the board did he start to understand.

Chapter 548: Returning to Homeland

He hadn't been back in how long?

If he counted, it was close to one year.

Jiang Chen stared at the runway zipping by in the window as he zoned out.

From the glimpse he caught before the plane landed, the homeland wasn't any different compared to when he left. The only difference was his state of mind - when he left, he felt rushed, but now he was calm and collected upon his return.

It was the origin of dragon heritage, the heart of the republic. During his time in university, he visited this place with the intention of expanding his views, but it was only today that he understood the true definition of "view."

Views weren't observable until one reached a certain level.

The welcome ceremony was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Although Xin and Hua's political ideologies were different, they shared the same cultural background. Therefore, during Xin's presidential visit, Hua demonstrated the highest level of courtesy to highlight the demeanor of the superpower.

The leaders of the two countries warmly shook hands. Accompanied by men in suits, they went to the diplomatic regiment. The media stood on both sides of the red carpet in an orderly fashion, with the cameras capturing the friendship between the two countries live.

Jiang Chen left all the problematic issues to Zhang Yapin as he stayed in the business delegation while avoiding the media.

He didn't bring any bodyguards this time. Ayesha acted as his assistant carrying a briefcase and following half a step behind him.

Responsible for greeting them were mainly people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the leaders in charge of economic and trade cooperation. Once they met, the officials in charge warmly greeted Jiang Chen and shook his hands with force.

...

Jiang Chen could clearly sense that while the officials in suits were meeting the entire delegation, their attention was more or less focused on him. He could visibly sense their attentiveness and the reason behind their attentiveness, without a doubt, was because of the message from the "top."

It was indeed a good signal.

The tips of Jiang Chen's mouth curled up when he thought about this.

For this Hua trip, it was a positive beginning.

…

On the first day of the visit was mainly a diplomatic conference, and the business forum was to be held at noon the next day. The only other special event today was the evening banquet. Surrounded by the reception staff, it made him feel grateful to return home.

But among the security personnel, he was surprised to see an acquaintance.

Although the gray coat looked very low-key, among the crowd with all suits, it still looked somewhat conspicuous. Perhaps he was personally aware of this - he had been standing on the outside of security personnel.

[Dagger?]

If it was Dagger, his face was too young, but this figure gave him a familiar feeling.

Just as he thought, Jiang Chen met his gaze.

Without any communication, he only nodded to Jiang Chen before turning away from his direction. It looked like he knew Jiang Chen, but Jiang Chen didn't know where he saw him before.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the hotel, he asked the reception staff he had been chatting with about that security personnel.

"Oh, that person. He's a bodyguard from the General Staff Department. The top placed great importance on your security," the reception staff explained to Jiang Chen.

"I just feel like he looks familiar. Could you tell me his name?"

The reception staff only hesitated for a moment, thinking it wasn't confidential, so he told Jiang Chen.

"Miao Jun. He was previously assigned a mission in Wanghai, perhaps you saw him then."

When Jiang Chen heard this name, he immediately remembered. Miao Jun was the new agent with Dagger. But because he hadn't seen him for a long time, that guy appeared different. The impulsive young man was no longer there and had been replaced by a mature and resolute individual.

Jiang Chen didn't know what happened that transformed this guy into a qualified soldier. He previously thought he wouldn't be staying long in this role, but he now changed his mind.

The hotel was five stars. From the bodyguards patrolling at the entrance to the magnificent interior design, it was a special facility used to accommodate honored guests.

At the entrance to the hotel, Jiang Chen saw Xia Shiyu, who had been waiting for a while. He knew from the phone that she would arrive in Shangjin a day before, but he didn't expect that she would also be treated as a foreign delegate.

In a clean, black female suit, her black hair was curled at the back of her head. Her gorgeous face that didn't like to smile bloomed like a cold and elegant flower on a mountaintop.

Their relationship couldn't be described as intimate, but their reunion after so long still made his heart pump a little faster.

And the increase in heart rate originated from her smile, the smile that could melt ice.

"Long time no see."

"Not too long since we did a video call." Jiang Chen stopped beside Xia Shiyu.

They already arrived at the hotel and they had the rest of the time free. The reception staff beside Jiang Chen certainly knew how to read the mood. The moment he saw Xia Shiyu, he speculated that there might be an intimate relationship between the two of them, so he walked away quietly.

"Did you not miss me?"

"Of course I did." Although his smile wasn't proper, the meaning he wanted to express wasn't fake at all.

With Future Group growing by the day, the only person he could count on was just Xia Shiyu. Perhaps it sounded narcissistic, but he still trusted Xia Shiyu to never betray him, whether it was from her previous deeds or her personal affection.

She stared at Jiang Chen's face and her lips gently trembled. She had a lot of things to say to him, but now that she finally saw him, with her difficulty in expressing her feelings, she was unable to turn her thoughts into words.

"... ... tomorrow's business forum, the three giants BAT will be at the scene. Cooperation between the internet and VR industries will be the first part of the business talks." Xia Shiyu looked away.

From her hesitating lips, she squeezed out the words as a means of escape.

"Mhmm, I know." Without noticing the fluctuation in Xia Shiyu's emotions, Jiang Chen nodded and replied to her with a comforting smile.

With her face beginning to blush, Xia Shiyu didn't look at Jiang Chen in the eyes.

Just then, she noticed Ayesha behind Jiang Chen. Her expression turned perplexed.

It was already nearing lunchtime. The representative of Xin's businessmen and Jiang Chen had to arrive early. After exchanging a few more words with Xia Shiyu, he left for his room upstairs.

Sensing Xia Shiyu had words to say to her, Ayesha didn't follow Jiang Chen but looked at the very beautiful "first lady."

"I won't give up." After a monetary silence, Xia Shiyu stared into the girl's eyes and righteously said.

"Welcome."

Ayesha replied with earnestness as she spoke from the bottom of her heart.

She genuinely wanted Xia Shiyu to face her heart and didn't mind becoming "sisters" with her at all. If it was her, she could help him more, unlike herself who only knew how to fight and kill.

But perhaps because Ayesha wasn't good at expressing herself either, her invitation sounded like a "victor's taunt" to Xia Shiyu's ears.

Xia Shiyu bit her lips in a perplexed state as the will to fight ignited in her eyes.

Without speaking any more words, she turned around, leaving Ayesha full of questions.

Ayesha stared at her back and thought with seriousness.

She felt there wouldn't be any positive results if they continued to drag this on…

[Perhaps I should help her out?]

In her blue pupils, mischievousness sparked.

Chapter 549: How much sincerity do you have?

After all, it was a welcome luncheon. Naturally, the rules and traditions couldn't be avoided.

The luncheon lasted from 11 o'clock to 1 in the afternoon, while the real meal time was only an hour. But Jiang Chen didn't complain in the slightest because the dishes at the state banquet really were impeccable. Additionally, the concierge really made him feel like this was his home away from home.

Responsible for the reception of Jiang Chen was Liu Haotian. Not too tall with a buzz cut, he looked very sharp. The way he spoke was humorous yet ethereal. During his stay in Hua, he would accompany Jiang Chen to his daily activities whether he was heading home to visit relatives or examining investment opportunities outside of the province. His main duty was acting as his driver and at the same time, resolving any problems for guests to maintain Hua's international image.

Although he had no plans in the afternoon, Jiang Chen clearly underestimated the cordiality of the Ministry of Economic Development. The Phantom helmet was only on the shelf for two weeks but the analysts of Wall Street revalued Future Group's worth at a daunting 500 billion USD. It was a conservative figure based on the uncertainty of the maintenance costs of the supercomputer Future Technology was using as well as the research and development costs of the helmet.

If Future Group went public on NASDAQ and disclosed its operation costs, no one would doubt its market cap could exceed 700 million and replace Apple as the tech company with the highest market cap.

To get a delicious piece of the pie and create ties with a company that originated from Hua, the Ministry of Economic Development obviously wouldn't relinquish this opportunity. All the beneficial policies were presented to Jiang Chen with only one requirement: Future Group had to build plants and invest in Hua.

Ideally, those new plants would produce the Phantom Helmet.

But they had discussions over tea for an entire afternoon without making any progress. Jiang Chen didn't agree to make any investments, especially with regards to building more plants. In fact, he consciously avoided the topic.

While the people from the Ministry of Business Development were eager, they had no other plans. They made all the policies the higher-ups permitted available to him, but Jiang Chen didn't seem interested at all, which made them bewildered.

Is this guy not here to talk business? When they thought about the mission the higher-ups gave them and looked at Jiang Chen drinking tea, the representative from the Ministry of Business Development had a helpless feeling.

Of course, they were confused.

Jiang Chen was here to talk business, but not with the Ministry of Business Development. They were, at most, the pawns sent from the top to test him. Even if there was no material progress in negotiations, the people at the top wouldn't give them any trouble for it.

Jiang Chen was waiting for a person with decision-making power. If Hua placed enough emphasis on him, that person would arrive very soon.

It was just as he thought.

After the end of the dinner, Jiang Chen sat in the Hongqi L9 waiting in front of the Shangjin Restaurant. Liu Haotian, responsible for his reception, sat in the driver's seat but didn't drive off after starting the car.

"Do you have any engagements arranged afterward?"

"No."

"An important person wants to see you."

Jiang Chen looked at Liu Haotian through the rearview mirror.

"Who?"

"An elder. Don't worry, no need to be cautious. It is a good thing." Liu Haotian put on a smile to respond to Jiang Chen's gaze. "If it is convenient for you now, I can take you there now. Of course, if you have other plans, tomorrow is okay too."

"Now is fine." Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair and said casually, "There is a business forum I need to attend tomorrow, I might be busy."

Liu Haotian smiled and drove off.

…

The scenery outside the window flashed by and gradually, the sheen of prosperity faded when they turned into an older part of the city. The car didn't drive for long before they stopped at an ancient but magnificent manor. The security personnel standing at the door put his hand on his waist. It wasn't until he saw Liu Haotian getting out of the car that he let his guard down.

Liu Haotian opened the car door for Jiang Chen and courteously invited him out.

"Please, Mr. Jiang."

Jiang Chen raised his head to read the words on the gate of the manor before he looked at Liu Haotian with a gaze full of deeper meaning.

"I originally thought you were just a driver. My mistake."

"Not at all. I'm just an ordinary reception staff member," Liu Haotian said humbly.

Jiang Chen smiled without saying anything more. He stepped over the high doorsill and headed directly into the manor.

On the door he just walked through were two giant words written with calligraphy.

The layout of the manor was in good taste with elegance; the rock gardens were complementary to each other. Although Jiang Chen wasn't well-versed in traditional culture, he still could see that it was a combination of characteristics from a northern climate combined with characteristics of Suzhou gardens.

Although there wasn't anything particularly extravagant inside, Jiang Chen knew well that to own such a large manor in Shangjin, where land was equivalent to gold, money alone wasn't enough.

With Liu Haotian's guidance, Jiang Chen followed the pebbled stone path and arrived at the tea room in the main building. Here, he saw an elder with all white hair. From the courteous expression on Liu Haotian's face, the status of the elder was important.

The layout of the tea room was simple - there was only a table, a chess board, and a cup of tea…

It was tea again. Jiang Chen's eyebrows twitched. He drank tea all afternoon, so his stomach felt agitated at the scene of tea.

"Are you not going to sit?" Seeing Jiang Chen wasn't taking any action, the elder pleasantly asked.

Jiang Chen then politely smiled and sat on the sofa across from the elder.

"How should I address you?"

"I am Liu Xiangguo. By age, it is fair for you to call me uncle." The elder poured hot tea for Jiang Chen and himself.

Liu Haotian looked at his father, surprised, but quickly moved his gaze elsewhere.

"Uncle Liu," Jiang Chen cleverly addressed him.

Perhaps pleased with the way Jiang Chen addressed him, Uncle Liu smiled and examined Jiang Chen with the eyes of an elder looking at the young. His cloudy but still shrewd eyes hid their sharpness within the rising white cloud.

Although it was disguised, Jiang Chen could still sense the elder prying into his life with his gaze. But even if he sensed this, he didn't react and replied honestly to the obvious inquiring gaze.

"Uncle Liu invited me over just to have tea with me?"

Unable to see through Jiang Chen, Liu Xiangguo retracted his prying gaze without a change in expression.

"No particular plan. I have seen you quite a few times on the news. With this opportunity, I wanted to meet you."

"Oh? Am I fortunate enough to know Uncle Liu's view of me?"

"Stellar individual."

Jiang Chen took a moment to process this before he humbly said:

"You're overcomplimenting me."

At Jiang Chen's modesty, Liu Xiangguo smiled and took a sip of the tea without making any further comments.

Just as Jiang Chen wryly thought the old man would act identically to the people from the Ministry of Business Development that afternoon and play riddles with him for half the day, Liu Xiangguo put down his teacup and suddenly said:

"From your facial appearance, Mr. Jiang is someone who likes to dive straight into the topic, so I won't play riddles with you." He paused. "How sincere are you with regards to the economic and trade cooperation between our two countries or cooperation between Future Group and Hua?"

When Jiang Chen heard this, his disinterested expression instantly disappeared with a smile emerging on his face.

Finally.

He had been waiting for this sentence for too long.

Chapter 550: Allies

"My sincerity depends on your sincerity." Jiang Chen looked straight into Liu Xiangguo's eyes. "And before that, I need to know what you want."

"Virtual reality technology."

Jiang Chen sighed after hearing this answer and pushed his hands against the armrest.

"If that is your sincere wish, our conversation can end right here."

Jiang Chen motioned to stand up.

Liu Haotian, who was standing at the door, looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief as he didn't expect the conversation to head in that direction.

The atmosphere in the room instantly intensified.

"Wait." Just like Jiang Chen expected, Liu Xiangguo stopped him.

Shrewdness sparked in the elder's eyes as his eagle-like gaze locked onto his face without any disguise.

"You were the first one who dared to speak to me like this and also the youngest." Liu Xiangguo took a sip of his tea and spoke emotionlessly.

"Here." Jiang Chen added.

"Hahahaha, you're right. Here." As if he heard something funny, the elder laughed and slowly put the cup down on the table.

The tense atmosphere instantly faded.

"Sincerity? You won't acquiesce on demands for virtual reality technology at all? Liu Xiangguo's face instantly returned to a kind expression.

"That's right."

"What if I make you unable to do business 'here'?" Although this was spoken nonchalantly, Liu Xiangguo placed emphasis on that word.

"Then we will fully retreat."

"Fully retreat?" Liu Xiangguo paused and looked at Jiang Chen, quite intrigued. "You don't feel pained about losing access to a market of 1.4 billion people at all?"

"You don't feel pained about letting technology at least twenty years ahead of its time slip away from your own hands?" Jiang Chen returned the question.

"Our country never lacks people with talent."

"That's if your people with talent are able to develop immersive virtual reality technology."

"I don't need the virtual stuff."

"I'm not here to pitch it to you. That includes all innovative technology from Future Technology in the present and future."

Jiang Chen's words made Liu Xiangguo silent.

Before the start of the conversation, the top officials began discussing Future Group. The response from the scientific institute was pessimistic. In the next thirty years, they could not achieve the level of sophistication of the Phantom Helmet.

Unless medical and electronic fields both experienced significant breakthroughs simultaneously.

Liu Xiangguo knew the consequences if the Phantom was blocked here and other countries accepted it.

Rejecting new technology at their doorstep would only mean getting left behind by the world.

But Liu Xiangguo scoffed at the idea. Just with his Future Technology company alone? He had the audacity to say that his technology alone could lead the next era?

But... was that impossible?

Liu Xiangguo looked at Jiang Chen with a smile as he began to question him again.

"You're a very interesting opponent. I previously thought I had more choices to make in my next move, but it looks like that's not the case."

"Haha, not at all. I'm not here to play chess with you. I'm here to find a suitable ally worth cooperating with."

"Ally… You certainly are confident." Liu Xiangguo glared at Jiang Chen.

"Please don't underestimate the technical abilities of Future Group." Jiang Chen swirled his finger. "There's only technology you can't imagine, and there is no technology we can't make into reality."

Jiang Chen paused, smiled mysteriously, and continued.

"And when it comes to the actual ruler of Xin, I'm sure you can guess who it is."

Perhaps because it verified his prediction of Jiang Chen, Liu Xiangguo scoffed.

"Young man, you are quite devious."

"You are flattering me."

Although they were humble words, Jiang Chen's face didn't show any humility at all.

When Jiang Chen left the manor, it was already late in the night. They discussed the exact details of cooperation for a long time before finally agreeing on terms acceptable by all.

Although it was just verbal agreement.

Liu Haotian opened the car door for Jiang Chen and took a seat afterward.

"Are you pleased with the result today?"

"I'm extremely pleased. It far exceeded my expectations."

Liu Haotian glanced at Jiang Chen through the mirror, but that glimpse wasn't enough to determine if Jiang Chen's words were from the bottom of his heart. When the conversation reached the halfway point, his father eyed him to leave the room. Although he wanted to know what the terms of the deal would be between the Liu family or Hua with Future Group, his old man clearly didn't want him to know.

"That Uncle Liu is your father, right?"

"That's right. How did you know?" Liu Haotian was confused at Jiang Chen's abrupt comment.

"Isn't it obvious? Your last name is Liu." Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and answered the dumb question.

[Fair…]

Liu Haotian facepalmed in his mind.

"Just a question out of curiosity - what's Liu family's position in Hua?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

When Liu Haotian heard this question, a proud curvature appeared on his mouth.

"The leader of all the families."

When Jiang Chen returned to the hotel, it was already ten at night.

Liu Haotian parked the car without staying much longer. He simply informed Jiang Chen that he would arrive tomorrow morning at eight to drive him around.

Perhaps worried that Jiang Chen wouldn't return, Xia Shiyu stood at the front of the hotel while constantly checking the time. When Jiang Chen stepped out, she immediately came up and berated him.

"Where did you go? Why did you come back so late?"

Although her tone sounded distant, the caring expression on her face made Jiang Chen feel warm inside as he comforted her.

"Don't worry, I was discussing terms with an important person. I'll explain once we're back in the room."

"Who? Who's worried about you..." Xia Shiyu's face turned red and she looked away dishonestly. "All in all, it's late, so let's go back now."

[That's textbook coy.]

Jiang Chen watched Xia Shiyu leaving swiftly as he thought to himself.

When Jiang Chen returned to his room, he threw his suit on the side and laid on the bed with his limbs spread out.

"Ayesha."

The air beside him vibrated and her figure in a suit appeared out of thin air.

The suit consisted of special material because she mentioned to Jiang Chen that the previous black carbon Nano combat suit was too distinct, so Fallout Shelter 027 created a corresponding plan. These clothes made with special material could enter stealth mode with an optical illusion module in order to prevent the suit from being too conspicuous. In principle, the stealth clothes were designed with the same principle as gun covers.

Her blue pupils quietly looked at Jiang Chen as she waited for her master's orders.

"Are there any 'eyes' present?"

Jiang Chen referred to cameras.

"I already checked." Ayesha shook her head.

Reliable as always.

Jiang Chen patted the bed beside him.

"Come and sit beside me."

Ayesha obediently nodded and sat down.

"Are you thinking about something?"

Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled, and her expression seemed to be asking: How did you know?

"It's written all over your face." Jiang Chen sat up and smiled while tousling her luscious hair. "Can you tell me? Maybe I can help out."

"It's not about me." The girl shook her head with her mouth slightly pouted. She dangled her legs over the bed while murmuring in a quiet voice, "What does Jiang Chen think about Sister Shiyu?"

Seeing as Jiang Chen had no response, Ayesha turned her head and looked at him, slightly embarrassed.

"My question is weird, right?"

"No, nothing weird about it." Jiang Chen recollected his thoughts. He smiled and gently squeezed her hand. "I just think it would be too selfish of me to say what's on my mind."

Ayesha shook her head rapidly and looked into his pupils tenderly. "No, it wouldn't."

"Because it is Ayesha, you won't feel like that, but other people might think otherwise."

"Master is… troubled?"

"Why did this title come up again…? Sigh. Rather than trouble, it is more not knowing what to do. Even if I can fix Xin's law to make polygamy legal, traditional culture won't change."

And because of this reason, he had been carefully watching his interpersonal relationships in the modern world. He wasn't certain he could still maintain his relationship with Xia Shiyu if he crossed that line. Because of this, there were a few times when he was close to crossing the line before he put the brakes on himself.

Since this place was the modern world after all…

Ayesha stared at the side of Jiang Chen's face and confirmed her speculations. A faint smile surfaced on her face.

[Of course, I need to help him… Please allow your most loyal maid to be reckless for once.]

Just then, a hesitant knock came from outside the door.

The moment the door was knocked, before Jiang Chen could react, Ayesha disappeared.

"… Is he asleep already?" Low muttering came from outside as if she was debating if she should leave.

Jiang Chen wryly looked in the direction where Ayesha disappeared and walked to the door.

"Wait, I'm coming."

He opened the door as the scent of shampoo tickled his nose. Judging by the water droplets still visible around her pale neck, she probably just showered.

Xia Shiyu peeked behind Jiang Chen while pretending to be calm. "Where did Ayesha go?"

"Why would you think Ayesha would be in my room?" Jiang Chen scratched his nose.

Although he didn't lie, he used a response that could easily be misinterpreted. He didn't know why he did that as he subconsciously hid the fact that Ayesha was there.

Perhaps it was his perception but he felt Xia Shiyu's mood becoming slightly better.

"Was there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"Didn't you say you had something to tell me?"

[Did I?]

Jiang Chen thought to himself before he suddenly realized.

He did tell her when he came back that he'd explain in the room.

Chapter 551: I'm Willing

"You can't have forgotten about it already." Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen with skepticism.

"No way," Jiang Chen scratched the back of his head and stepped aside, "come in."

He poured two cups of water. When he went into the bedroom, he found Xia Shiyu sitting where Ayesha previously sat.

"Have some water."

"Mhmm, thanks." Xia Shiyu accepted the cup in Jiang Chen's hand and put her hands around it to gain some warmth.

The December in Shangjin was the middle of the frigid winter. Although there was sufficient heating in the room, she still felt chilly just coming in from outside. Jiang Chen looked around. When he saw there was no other place to sit, he sat beside her.

But just as he sat down, the unnatural feeling crept into his mind. Because he was too close, he could even sense his beating heart.

Jiang Chen inhaled in an attempt to use deep breaths to calm his unsettled heart, but the situation seemed to be evolving in the complete opposite direction as Xia Shiyu's scent floated into his nose and his unsettled heart became more anxious.

Xia Shiyu who was also timid locked her fingers around the cup and stared at the texture of the carpet; the white cloud lingering above the water hid away the anxiousness on her face.

The atmosphere in the room came to an stagnation.

Jiang Chen who realized this point scratched his face. In an attempt to break through the awkwardness, he gently coughed and said.

"Do you want to hear what happened?"

"Ah, right." Xia Shiyu blushed and coughed into her fist, pretending to be calm.

It would perfect if she didn't bite her tongue when she spoke.

[Wait, why am I so nervous?!]

Perhaps realizing his action was unlike him, Jiang Chen mocked himself and forcefully drove out the odd throbbing in his heart and began to illustrate the conversation with Liu Xiangguo.

"So you're saying, they are willing to provide protection from the policy for our business in Hua?" Xia Shiyu put the cup on the nightstand when they began to talk about business. Her reserved state disappeared as her eyes were filled with cunning sharpness.

People say that men when serious looked charming, but Jiang Chen was surprised to discover that Xia Shiyu when serious cast an attractive vibe.

But Jiang Chen knew better than to interrupt as he nodded.

"That's right."

"What's their offer price?"

"10% of Future Group's profit in Han."

"What a big appetite. 10% of our profit. That's at least one billion USD a year. Liu Xiangguo certainly has the guts to seek bribery this openly," Xia Shiyu crossed her eyes, put her hand on her chin, and said.

Doing business anywhere had an expense in this area whether it was doing business domestically or internationally. The less elegant way to describe it was the transfer of benefits, the more elegant way was business development cost. Although Future Group's primary business was in the web field in Han with the cost lower compared to traditional interest, it is impossible to not have any expenses.

"That's the appetite of the leader of families, and they have a big family." Jiang Chen laughed, "If they really could provide enough protection to our business, the 10% profit is not too expensive. He previously wanted 10% of global profits, but I rejected it."

Before, even if Jiang Chen had the courage, he didn't have the confidence to say no. But now the table has turned, Future International already gained its footing in the global market. While the Liu family was influential, Jiang Chen was on the same level as them.

Whether it was for the benefit of the country or for himself, there was no downside to cooperating with Future Group.

"Then, what's the method of transferring the benefits?" Xia Shiyu asked.

"Charity. I'll establish a charity under my name and inject 10% of Future Group's Han profit into the charity and hire designated cooperation to build schools and hospitals in specific areas."

"One hand taking clean money while one hand racking up the political remarks. What an efficient method." Xia Shiyu quickly understood the trick hidden inside.

"That's right." Jiang Chen snapped his finger, "looks like you figured it out now."

The tip of Xia Shiyu's mouth curled up.

"You're underestimating me. At least I'm the CEO of Future Technology."

The transfer of benefits method was unique, although as the CEO, she didn't personally conduct the bribery work, she did personally audit through every financial expense. Future Technology's grey area expense globally accounted for a positive 5%.

Although it was not something worth bragging…

"It's the CEO of Future Group." Jiang Chen corrected her.

Xia Shiyu took a second to process before she laughed.

"Right… We did make a deal."

The last time when Xia Shiyu went to Pannu Islands, Jiang Chen invited her to become the CEO of Future Group. But Xia Shiyu didn't immediately accept but agreed with Jiang Chen to accept the promotion after the Phantom's official release.

"Do you not want a promotion?"

"No," Xia Shiyu shook her head, zoned out, and stared at her fingers twirling together, "I, I just don't know if I can handle the challenge."

"Is it really okay to say this to your boss?" Jiang Chen laughed.

It was taboo to display a lack of confidence in front of a boss as an employee facing promotion. But what made Xia Shiyu herself feel odd was how easily she exposed her weak side.

Perhaps he never gave her the feeling of being a boss, but more of a… friend.

Xia Shiyu tried to convince herself in her mind.

"I trust you," Jiang Chen abruptly said.

"Eh?" Xia Shiyu looked at him, puzzled.

"Whether it is your ability or your loyalty."

"That's a weird thing to say. Is this something a boss should tell its employee?" Xia Shiyu looked away. Although she sounded calm, Jiang Chen could still hear the tantrum in her voice.

"Of course not." Jiang Chen shook his head, "If it is a regular employee, that person definitely can't take the position, and I won't tell that person this."

If it was a regular employee, then that employee won't understand his expansion thoughts, and he wouldn't trust the operation of the group to a person without a clear background. But it was different with Xia Shiyu. Disregarding everything else, she wouldn't betray him. It was not because of an irrational, unconditional trust, but a conclusion from her personality and the complex relationship between the two.

But the words in Xia Shiyu's ear were misinterpreted to something else.

[Are you saying… I mean different things to you in your heart?]

Xia Shiyu's heart was pumping wildly.

She previously thought she would never have any girly emotions, but she was feeling the anxiousness in her mind which completely negated the belief she had held.

To be able to interpret trust as something beyond was something that only belonged to a girl in love.

"Then, Xia Shiyu, I'm going to ask you again. Are you willing to take on the role where you're the only one capable of doing so to help me achieve my dream?" Jiang Chen looked into her dark pupils and asked again sternly.

"Could you tell me what your dream is?"

"If you're willing."

"I'm willing."

There was not the slightest hesitation in her tone.

Jiang Chen opened his mouth, but that sentence didn't come out.

"Mhmm, thank you…"

There was a glimpse where he almost told her his secret.

Of course, he still couldn't trust the people of this world.

But why did he tell Ayesha? He had been puzzled by this point for a long time. Perhaps because he knew she wouldn't betray him, perhaps it was something else.

The glimpse of hesitation didn't escape Xia Shiyu's eyes. Although she felt frustrated for not gaining his trust in the last moment, when she saw the glimpse of hesitation, she felt relieved and delighted.

At least in that instant, he felt guilty for the unequal trust.

"Then… I'll go back now." Xia Shiyu didn't force him to tell her.

"Mhmm, that's all I needed to tell you for tonight. Rest early."

"You too."

Xia Shiyu turned around, walked to the door. But the instant she put her hand on the doorknob, there was a gentle knocking sound outside.

"Is it Ayesha?" Seeing how close their relationship was, she felt a hint of jealousy.

But then, Jiang Chen instantly raised his head to the door as a chillness that he hasn't felt in a long time returned to his body.

"Don't open –"

Click—

Chapter 552: Package Bomb

"How did that guy get into our group?"

"Who knows, I heard the old director personally recommended him."

"Whatever! Connections?"

"What do you think? A blank resume. I heard he did sometime near the borders and conducted B level missions, but he must be there just to obtain his qualifications… Look at the way he looks, he can be promoted like this? If it is not for his strong background, he wouldn't even pass the first level," the man lowered his voice and whispered to his colleague.

Miao Jun leaned against the concrete pillar in a grey jacket didn't bother with the conversation targeted towards him. The cigarette in his mouth only had a few sparks left. His half-narrowed eyes looked as if he was taking a nap.

Suddenly, the sparks of the cigarette illuminated brighter.

The half-narrowed eyes opened as the grey smoke came out of his nostrils.

The smell of blood…

Suddenly, a deafening explosion came from above the hotel, debris and dust scattered, flame accompanied by thick smoke sprang out of the window.

The instant explosion stunned everyone.

No one would have thought that someone had the guts to commit murder in broad daylight.

Although they were stunned, it was only for a short one second before the agents and police on scene began to move.

"This is General Staff Department Second Division Team Four. An explosion took place in Shangjin Hotel, requesting assistance now."

"Confirmed, Brigade C has surrounded the targeted area— Buzz—"

The piercing buzzing noise almost shattered his eardrum as the commander covered his ear in agony and immediately disconnected the Bluetooth.

"Communication blocked! Fu*k, why are you standing around, go confirm the safety of the guest!"

"Roger!"

Team four was a new action team with part of its members coming from a reconnaissance background, but the team was made up criminal investigation experts who had transferred from the public police system. Many of them were masters of their field, but as elite they were they have a fatal flaw compared to the long-established groups which were their crisis response ability…

The commander stood up straight with gritted teeth. Someone forcefully connected to his Bluetooth earphone. It was not simple communication blocking anymore, it was the more sophisticated communication hijacking.

Just as all the bodyguards were running upstairs, he suddenly noticed a member that didn't seem to fit the team had disappeared.

…

How long since he's had this feeling?

The omen of death that crept into his mind and "Fury's" danger perception awakened at the same time.

The heavy gust of wind blew apart the thick smoke, behind the Nitrogen Armor was a face covered in gloom.

Jiang Chen scanned his surroundings. The entire room was destroyed, and the only thing left standing was half of the bed he sat on.

Inside the washroom, Xia Shiyu, who was curled up, slowly opened her eyes. After she confirmed the fact that she was still alive, she looked bewilderedly at the person that carried her around the waist.

In a black suit; that serene figure. The person that carried her into the washroom, was her "enemy"…

Ayesha.

She couldn't think right now as to why Ayesha would suddenly appear in Jiang Chen's room, why she would suddenly save her from the center of the explosion. Because what just occurred was too traumatizing, she couldn't think straight. But the unpleasant memory of her being kidnapped once again surfaced in her head…

She wanted to scream. Her mouth was open, but she couldn't make a sound.

Just a few seconds ago, Jiang Chen attempted to stop her from opening the door, but the person appeared was a man in custodian uniform.

There was a paper box in his hand. The innocent face was hard to connect with danger, but the fervor in his eyes was terrifying.

Without time to alert Xia Shiyu, he ripped off the tape on the paper box between his arms.

Almost instantaneously, Ayesha who realized the oddity of the situation immediately stopped the optical illusion and lifted Xia Shiyu around the waist into the washroom in the hallway around the corner to avoid the flame that instantly engulfed the room. Jiang Chen who had the ominous feel took out the Nitrogen Armor to blow away the explosive shockwave.

He threw the Nitrogen Armor back into the storage dimension and sat up from the bed that had been blown in half and patted away the dust on his shoulder. He was relieved seeing the hallway in mayhem but without blood.

Fortunately, Ayesha never left the room from start to finish, or Xia Shiyu would not have survived in the explosion.

When he thought about the explosion almost hurting the person dear to him, Jiang Chen was furious. He swore that regardless who planned this attack, he will make that person pay.

"Ayesha."

"Yes."

"They should not be operating alone. There should be accomplices nearby… Find them."

Jiang Chen did not believe that a person's effort alone could sneak into the foreign delegate hotel under several layers of protection.

"Yes."

Ayesha gently put Xia Shiyu on the ground and smiled at her who was still recovering from the blast. She then opened the optical illusion and disappeared in the room.

Xia Shiyu stared at the unfathomable scene that had just happened in front of her as she murmured blankly.

"Dis…disappeared…"

Jiang Chen kneeled down beside Xia Shiyu and looked at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry that you encountered this… The enemy is clearing targeting me. You've seen that Future Group has a lot of enemies, and among them are people who are willing to use extreme methods. If you're scared…"

Xia Shiyu who recollected her thought shook her head rapidly and tried to be brave.

"Do you think I'm a scaredy-cat?"

Jiang Chen took a second to process before he started laughing.

"Don't force yourself to be brave. You're so scared."

Jiang Chen reached out to Xia Shiyu who was shaking.

Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and grabbed onto his hand with force before getting up from the ground.

Sirens broadcasted loudly outside of the window before the sound of cluttered footsteps came from outside. Several bodyguards and special forces with pistols entered the room and bumped into Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu walking out from the washroom.

When they saw them, the commander Cheng Hu forced his way to the front and looked anxiously at Jiang Chen.

"Are you okay?"

"Just like what you saw, we happened to be in the washroom, so luckily survived."

When Xia Shiyu heard Jiang Chen's description, her cold and elegant face was covered by a red hue. The way he said it was easy for other people to misinterpret. For example what reason would make the two "coincidentally" stay in the washroom together?

But she was clearing overthinking, no one thought that way.

The foreign delegation was the target of a suicidal terrorist attack, it would be a global scandal if released! Everyone here focused on the actual attack.

Cheng Hu took a deep breath, lowered his head, and said.

"I apologize for you encountering such a dangerous event. We'll do our absolute best to find the perpetrator behind this attack and give you an answer!"

"That would be great." Jiang Chen nodded expressionlessly.

The manager of the hotel arranged a new room for Jiang Chen and began the follow-up procedures.

When Jiang Chen left the original room, Cheng Hu immediately ordered security and agents to conduct a carpet search in the room while interrogating all hotel workers separately. Just as he swore he would flip the hotel upside down, a black shadow appeared.

At the same time, two sets of eyes spotted him.

Chapter 553: Not Died

Sirens reverberated on the streets as the red and blue lights decorated the night of the city. Within the shadow behind the illumination of prosperity, a black shadow traversed quickly among the ally as dark as a black hole. But behind that shadow, the grey jacket flew with the wind and the agent of the General Staff Department tightly pursued.

With pistol tightly clenched in his hand, Miao Jun's eyes locked onto that figure while he adjusted his breathing. The enemy's speed was too fast to give him the time to report his coordinate. But it was okay, the phone in his pocket was on. As long as he managed to keep up with the person, it will only take time before backup arrives and captures this person.

But the person's endurance was unbelievable which made Miao Jun more shocked the longer he chased. He was considered top quartile in the General Staff Department, but having chased for so long, the person running in the front didn't seem to be losing his pace while he was beginning to lose his breath.

If this continued, he will lose him.

With the criticality of the situation, he could no longer follow the rules and procedures.

Miao Jun used his finger to flip open the safety. When he passed through a 90 degrees turn, he immediately raised his gun and fired.

Three gunshots echoed in the small ally. He clearly felt one of the bullets hit that person on the back.

The black shadow tumbled when being shot before turning to a dead end on the side.

Miao Jun immediately followed and turned into the dead end. He aimed his muzzle at the wounded person and shouted.

"Don't move! You're under arrest."

Maybe it was because he heard Miao Jun's shout, the person with his back hunched had his back exposed to Miao Jun without any movement. But the menacing laugh that drifted from underneath the black coat made Miao Jun feel a daunting chillness.

With cold sweat rolling down from his forehead and swallowing the natural fear he felt along with his saliva, Miao Jun moved closed while holding the pistol up.

But as he was 10 minutes away from the person, he stopped.

Under the pristine moonlight, he didn't notice any blood from the wound on his back.

"Oh? Mr. Police, why are you not approaching closer?"

The spark of firing flashed in the dark alley as the bullet only penetrated the shadow of the pitch black figure. The safe distance of ten meters was instantly shortened to an extreme, and the glaring white blade stabbed toward Miao Jun fiercely.

The crisp sound of metal contacting each other reverberated in the alley as the colliding blades even created sparks.

Miao Jun suppressed the sharp pain on his hand while feeling more stunned. The person's close combat ability was without a doubt above his, and the decision to approach him was the wrong choice.

Seeing the agent from the General Staff Department start to riposte less and less, a menacing smile surfaced on the person's face.

"Die, before dawn."

While he spoke those words with unclear meaning, another white blade slashed out from underneath the shadow. With his dagger being guarded down, Miao Jun's pupils narrowed and watched the sharp blade stab to his shoulder.

Bang!

Blood splattered, a knife slipped out, and the person tumbled back and fell down.

The blade aimed at Miao Jun's chest only made a cut on his side. Although it caused a large amount of bleeding, it didn't do any critical damage. The bullet from out of nowhere saved his life.

Without a doubt, it was a sniper rifle!

Miao Jun covering his wound fell down beside a garbage can in the ally as he used his trance sight to witness an obscure scene.

The person that was hit by sniper rifle climbed up from the ground with difficulty as blood pooled on the ground.

It was the first time he saw someone being able to stand after being hit by a sniper rifle.

On the roof of a building one thousand meters out, Ayesha, lying on the ground locked, onto the street through the crosshair. Although because of obstructions, she couldn't continue to aim at that person. But from the tumbling figure, that person didn't die.

"Target hit… kill unconfirmed."

Being able to survive a direct hit to the chest by a Ghost Sniper? When she witnessed this odd scene, she instinctively sensed something obscure about that person.

Currently, Jiang Chen, who was in the washroom, concerned. After the attack, when he finished dealing with the security asking him questions, he made the excuse to go into the washroom.

"Unable to kill?"

"Yes. It is confirmed the bullet directly penetrated the target's body, but the target's life information didn't disappear… Target is on the move."

"Capture him before the General Staff Department captures him," Jiang Chen said in a low voice.

"Roger." Ayesha took a deep breath and stood up.

"Wait, get the Ghost Agent to do it, you come back."

As Jiang Chen's assistant, disappearing too long would cause unnecessary suspicion. After the attack occurred, Jiang Chen came in contact with the Ghost Agent hidden in Shangjin. Based on the location reported by Ayesha, the Ghost Agent should have arrived at the target's area.

With the tracking of the Hummingbird drones, the accomplice of that assassin will not be able to escape from the eyes of the Ghost Agent.

Jiang Chen was more concerned about how he survived after being penetrated. He also needed to capture the person alive to figure out who planned this attack.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen sat up from the toilet. He already spent long enough in the washroom, and there were still people and things for him to deal with. With such an incident occurring in the hotel the delegation stayed in, it was a question if this delegation visit should continue or not.

The custodian was murdered, the security personnel in the hallway was killed, attacked with a bomb by knocking on the door of the business representative from Xin.

He was not the only person that stayed here. Other Xin businessmen also lived here. It was tough to hide such a serious incident. A lot of people were awakened by the loud explosion from their dreams and began to inquire about what happened. Zhang Yapin was negotiating with Han diplomats and urged the local police to punish the attacker...

That is if they manage to catch the attacker.

As Jiang Chen expected, the moment he left the washroom, a few officials who clearly just rolled out of bed stood in front of him and began to ask him about the detail of the attack. They then promised him pumping their chest to use the entire city's police force to capture the attacker to give him an answer.

Then, it was Liu Haotian, who didn't leave for a long time, who found Jiang Chen. Although he was only a concierge of the Concierge Department, from other officials' respectful look, Liu family's political influence in Han's political scene was indeed powerful.

"Did you get injured?"

"I was quite lucky, I was in the washroom when the explosion happened."

Without seeing the aftershock of just surviving through a horrific incident, Liu Haotian examined him with a perplexed expression.

"I'm reassured after confirming you're okay. If you need anything, call me."

"I don't need anything, I just want you to give me an explanation." Jiang Chen looked straight into Liu Haotian's eyes and said directly.

"The attack may be planned by foreign forces with an attempt to disrupt the two countries—"

"I don't want to hear the diplomatic stuff. You can say this on the news."

"Then you're suggesting?" Liu Haotian furrowed his eyebrows as Jiang Chen pressed him further.

Jiang Chen smiled, and then lowered his voice.

"Xin can keep this incident confidential."

Liu Haotian was surprised and cautiously looked at him.

"Your terms are?"

"No terms at all." Jiang Chen opened his hands. "We all want this visit to run smooth, don't we?"

Chapter 554: A High-profile Business Conference

Although Jiang Chen didn't bring up any terms, Liu Haotian still expressed that the Liu family owed him a favor and they will repay the favor.

But Jiang Chen completely didn't let Liu Haotian's promise get to his head. The emperor's family was the most ruthless; a favor was just a joke when dealing with such powerful families. He already saw this too clearly when he was in Wanghai. Which kind of favor was more than the favor of saving a life? If saving a life was not enough in exchange for protection, what could this small favor do?

It was interests that bind the two parties together, not something that needs to be maintained by favors.

After Liu Haotian left, Jiang Chen spoke with Zhang Yapin who just finished discussing with Han's diplomats and told him to cooperate with Han to cover up this attack and cover up the emotions of the investors.

The light of the explosion could not be covered up as a lot of people nearby captured the thick smoke that sprang out from the windows. But the nature of the incident was reclassified from an attack to a leaking natural gas pipeline. The contract worker responsible for maintenance had been let go. The explosion occurred in a room without anyone inside, while the delegation was startled, there was no injury. For the friendship of the two countries, Xin's President Zhang Yapin accepted the apology from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Hotel to put a conclusion on the "accident".

When the reporters were permitted to enter the scene, the room Jiang Chen lived in was changed into a different room. People who knew the truth were instructed to shut their mouths, and the truth behind the incident had sunk to the bottom of the sea. Even then, whether it was the Ghost Agent or the General Staff Department, they didn't stop pursuing the accomplice of the attacker.

Needless to say, that person was an escape artist as he managed to escape from the layers of surrounding security set up by the General Staff Department. It could be clearly seen that they prepared a sophisticated plan for this assassination. Not only did they know the city of Shangjin well, but they also prepared transportation vehicles and disguises along the way.

When he sat onto the secondhand pick-up truck, put on makeup to transform into a middle-aged bald man, wore T-shirt and jeans with the colors fading due to too many washes, the tall build killer completely changed into an old driver responsible for long distance logistics.

As to how Jiang Chen knew everything clearly, it was because he didn't manage to escape being locked on by Sky Eye X1 satellite.

Just as he was about to leave Shangjin through the rural area, the Ghost Agent that followed up began to close the net and captured him at a gas station. Then covered with optical illusion clothes, the Ghost Agent kidnapped the attacker onto a vessel to Xin.

By noon of the second day, the agents of the General Staff Department were still working hard to search for the accomplice, but Jiang Chen already received the confirmation he was imprisoned at New Moon Island.

"… We found something odd on his body."

Currently, in the restaurant of the hotel, Jiang Chen sat with Ayesha together, enjoying lunch while discussing the information sent by the Ghost Agent.

"Odd?" Jiang Chen's chopsticks froze midair and looked at Ayesha with eyes of inquiry.

"That's right, his regeneration ability is especially strong to the point that it's unimaginable. Any non-fatal wound could recover in an extremely short period of time. When Zhu Yu captured him, she thought she got the wrong person because there was no gun wound on his chest… But during the interrogation on New Moon Island, we discovered his implausible regeneration ability." With a voice only Jiang Chen could hear, Ayesha spoke.

"Increase regeneration ability… Wait, interrogation?" Jiang Chen looked shockingly at Ayesha.

Ayesha nodded gravely.

"That's right; the truth-telling liquid is ineffective against him."

...

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted.

[The truth-telling liquid is ineffective? That's impossible. Based on what Sun Jiao said, other than people injected with Genetic Vaccine, a serum that increased immunity or with the rare Nano blood could resist against the hallucinating agent, and these absolutely would not exist in the modern world!

Could he be a traveler like me?!]

The idea abruptly popped up in Jiang Chen's head, and he quickly negated it himself. If it were really a traveler, the weapon he used would not be explosives with no technical expertise, at least it would be a Nuclear Grenade.

"Increase the amount of truth-telling liquid used… If he is absolutely immune to that, use physical methods to interrogate him. We have to get the information from his mouth regardless of the method. But don't kill him, I still have uses for him."

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and ordered.

Ayesha nodded and remembered his words in her heart.

…

Based on the agenda, this afternoon would be one of the primary purposes of this trip – the Han Economic and Trade Cooperation Business Forum. The Internet giants of Han will be gathered with BAT at the scene, Internet and VR industry cooperation will be the emphasis of the business talks between the enterprises of the two countries.

Although on paper it was the business talks between the enterprises of the two countries, everyone knew it was the discussion between Future Technology and the BAT giants. The only large tech company in Xin was Future Technology, and the only tech companies with the ability to capture the VR market were the three massive players. Although there were quite a few tech companies such as SoMao or 361, they were still far away from dictating the market like the three giants.

The Business Forum took place in Shangjin Restaurant.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the place with Liu Haotian, it was exactly 2:30 and ten minutes away from the start of the forum. But with how full the parking lot was, most of the representatives attending the forum have already shown up.

Indeed, when Jiang Chen stepped into the conference room at the end of the hall, all the eyes turned toward him. Other than the president of the three BAT giants, the people sitting here were all leaders of the tech industry as well as renowned reporters who stood beside the wall.

Even then, he still only recognized two of them.

And the embarrassing thing was, he knew them because of the stickers (1)…

Jiang Chen quietly sat down at the only open seat and couldn't look to the Ma bosses (2) smiling at him.

"Ahem," Seeing everyone arrived, the man who sat at the end of the table stood up. He used an authoritative but gentle gaze to scan around the room, "Although there is still 10 minutes before the start of the conference, everyone here is passionate about the cooperation between the two countries. Since everyone is here, let's start then!"

A round of applause rang in the conference room. Jiang Chen's eyes stopped at the man standing as he clapped with the crowd. From his impression, the person speaking must be the Minister of Economics and Trade Cooperation.

Confirming Jiang Chen's speculation, the man with a smile raised his hand.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Pan Feng, the Minister of Economics and Trade Cooperation. The tech industry is a booming industry and an area the country places a great deal of emphasis on! Everyone here is leaders of the tech field. As a person who ran a steel plant before. Who know nothing of the industry, I won't interrupt and leave the time to all of you. Talk, discuss, communicate, if you can reach an agreement, it would be beneficial for the citizens of both countries! Now, let's introduce the President of Baidu, Li Yanhong to deliver a speech."

With applause, the man with gelled hair stood up.

"Thank you, Minister Pan, for your introduction, I will say a few words then…"

Li Yanhong was indeed worthy as the company's President, he had an in-depth understanding of the Internet's prospects and an understanding of key points. Although it was a casual speech, it offered many of unique insights which even made Jiang Chen as someone who didn't know too much about it agree.

At the same time, Jiang Chen also noted that many of the Presidents took out a small notebook and carefully wrote down notes.

After all, it was the President of Baidu that spoke. Baidu is the benchmark in the tech industry and any of their moves would cause a small earthquake in the field.

About ten minutes, during a round of applause, Li Yanhong ended his speech and nodded to the applauding crowd with a smile.

Just as Jiang Chen thought the two Ma Bosses would talk together, Li Yanhong looked to his direction and continued.

"The point of view of the future of the Internet is just my own opinion. In this regard, I believe that the Wall Street praised Future Group President, Mr. Jiang Chen, must have a more iconic view on the future of the Internet, I hope Mr. Jiang Chen won't be stingy and deliver his opinion."

Chapter 555: Who is the Monopoly?

Inside the conference room, all eyes once again zoomed onto Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen sensed the discontent in Li Yanhong's eyes and immediately understood his intention.

Not only industry leaders and officials were inside the conference room, but the reporters with cameras were also all waiting for him to speak. If he backed down now, it would make Future Technology look inferior compared to Baidu.

As the President of Future Group, Jiang Chen would not allow such an event to occur. Although he didn't prepare a script about the Future of the Internet, after a short deliberation, he still stood up with a smile.

Because he didn't know the most appropriate introduction, Jiang Chen cleared his throat first and organized his thoughts in his head.

When they heard the two light coughs, the bosses of the tech companies he couldn't distinguish and even the two Ma bosses took out their notebooks.

Jiang Chen saw this scene as he facepalmed in his mind.

[Is this necessary? I just coughed.]

"Then, since Mr. Li invited me to talk, I will say a few things."

"I will talk only about one point about the future of the Internet," with a pause, Jiang Chen raised one finger, "innovation."

The sound of notes shuffling filled the conference room which made Jiang Chen proud but embarrassed at the same time. What made him proud was that the once unreachable tech giants were all listening to his opinion like students. What made him embarrassed was that the point he was going to deliver was made up on the spot.

"From P2P to O2O, Internet has penetrated every field of our lives. On the surface, it is the shift of societal norms, but ultimately, its birth originates from innovation. And what's the motive behind innovation?"

Jiang Chen scanned the tech giants around the table with a curvature appearing on his mouth when he saw how they were all concentrating on him. He then raised a second finger.

"It is technology."

"The birth of any new technology meant the birth of a new market. Such as the technology of Future 1.0 where the increased hardware efficiency enabled the creation of apps with high hardware demand. For example, the virtual reality technology that will open the door to the virtual world. I'm not here to brag about Future Technology's technical advancement but simply illustrating a fact. It is undeniable that there are other factors important for a company. But what I want to say is what determined Future Technology and to an extend Future Group's current market position is neither marketing means nor business relationships, it is technology..."

Jiang Chen just wanted to say a few words, but since he started to talk, fifteen minutes passed in a blink of an eye. Jiang Chen didn't explain any difficult concepts but only focused on how Future Technology grew from a company with an initial capital of half a million to a money printing machine valued over hundreds of billions by Wall Street in such a short period of time.

Perhaps Jiang Chen's words inspired the audience, or perhaps humans naturally lacked immunity to success stories.

The audience was drawn to and intoxicated by the speech.

When his speech ended, the room was blown away by thunderous applause!

Jiang Chen sat down and smiled at Li Yanhong. However, what surprised Jiang Chen was he didn't see any disappoint on his face, but rather a grin that resembled his success?

The applauses gradually stopped, and Li Yanhong stood up again and looked at Jiang Chen with a smile.

"Remarkable speech. I personally agree with your perspective," Boss Li paused, and then looked at the media around the conference room and continued to display his standard smile, "Technology is the stairs to human advancement, and because of technology, our future can be better. As the President of an Internet company, I think the spirit of the Internet is sharing. Then Mr. Jiang Chen, are you willing to make open the virtual reality technology to Han enterprises with the belief of sharing and improving together, so your home country can become a major tech power in the world?"

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly quieted down.

Minister Pan Feng looked at Li Yanhong, surprised, but the tech leaders and reporters all looked at Jiang Chen, hopeful. Ma Huateng nonchalantly peered at Jiang Chen and Li Yanhong without saying a word. He didn't know the motive behind Baidu's move.

At the focus of thousands of eyes, Jiang Chen slowly said.

"With all respect due, Mr. Lee calls using the generosity of other people as sharing?"

Li Yanhong clearly took a moment to process as he didn't expect Jiang Chen would say this, but he soon reacted, "Of course not, you must have misinterpreted what I meant. I'm talking about you registering your patent. Exchanging protection with making the technology available, and charging a patent fee to companies that use the technology. Therefore, it not only ensures the interest of your company, but it also benefits Han tech companies by allowing them to enter the virtual reality market fairly. What's stopping you?"

The two speeches slapped two accusations on Jiang Chen. One was generosity, one was patriotism. If refused, that meant he would have to accept the two accusations. The two were completely unrelated but connected together by nonexistent logic. It was similar to the common phrases on the web "If you're so rich, why don't you go donate?", "If you don't agree, you're not Han." The two sentences were extremely similar.

If you have the technology that leads the world, why don't you share with us?

"I refuse."

Li Yanhong was stunned, so were the presidents at the conference and the reporters on the side. Although they didn't believe Jiang Chen would give up his technology with just a few words, they didn't expect Jiang Chen to outright reject without using any words to subtly express the idea.

"This is a monopoly; unjust usage of market dominance to hinder technical advancement. Are you sure you want to do that?" Li Yanhong said.

Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughing.

"Monopoly? Unjust usage of market dominance? Are you really the right person to say this? Mr. Li."

"Why can't I say this?" A hint of infuriation flashed across Li Yanhong's eyes but his expression was still normal, "Do you not allow people to speak if you did something wrong—"

"The buying and selling for forums, manipulating search rankings, publishing fake medial ads, violating publishing rights, censoring searches because a site owner criticized you on Weibo… Is this what you refer to as maintaining market order? Haha, I won't say anything else. Please tell me, Mr. Li. The same thing, do you dare to do it in your own country? Mr. Li with a green card, do you dare to answer my question?"

Jiang Chen stared straight into Li Yanhong's eyes as he stated word by word.

The scandals were suddenly brought onto the table, Li Yanhong who had control of the situation suddenly looked mortified.

"Please watch your usage of words. If there is an inaccuracy in reporting, you will have to take responsibility!"

"Then please provide facts to rebuttal me."

"There is no need for a rebuttal! All the activities of our company are legal. We are currently not in any major lawsuits!" Li Yanhong skipped through the green card point. He had been carefully hiding this, although it was not a secret in the industry, it was still bad if it caught the public's attention.

Jiang Chen suddenly started laughing again, but his laughter this time was more cheerful.

"What are you laughing at!" Li Yanhong's face turned red as he said in embarrassment.

"This has to do with another joke, but it would be inappropriate to say, so I won't speak more." Jiang Chen nodded at Pan Feng, the latter looked away, and then he gazed at Li Yanhong again, "All Future Technology's technologies are independently researched and developed. Our technologies are considered corporate secrets and are within the boundary of law. The monopoly you're referring to, I want to ask, what's your definition of a monopoly, is Baidu considered a monopoly?"

"The definition of a monopoly? Mr. Jiang with such a big company should learn some law. The definition of a monopoly is dependent on the size of the market. And us, we are definitely not a monopoly. There is more than one company doing search engine. I can do it, and you definitely can do it. I didn't use my market position to prevent anyone from doing so. We just use our strong user stickiness and use users' trust to obtain our current day market position." Mr. Li argued.

"Then did I use Future Technology's market position to prevent you from designing, researching, and selling virtual reality products?" Jiang Chen asked with curiosity as his fingers crossed over his knee. "I know you have been acquiring controlling stakes in VR companies domestically, preparing to create both hardware and content, and then pushing out entertainment straight out of your brand with your own VR products. I know all of that, but because of your inferior technology, you're are accusing us of creating a monopoly and disrupting the market. You depend on user's stickiness, and we depend on technology and user experience, can you say you're more righteous?"

"You!" Li Hongyan's face was completely bloated as he couldn't think of a rebuttal due to his lack of words.

"Monopoly is a concept that all major international companies are associated with. Some companies achieve monopoly through advanced technology, some companies achieve monopoly through the operating philosophy that 'customer is God', some use their unique and irreplaceable nature. Though regardless, they achieved a monopoly through market competition. Let's not talk about me. Let's talk about you. Mr. Li, do you dare to say that you achieved a monopoly through market competition with your conscience? Is Baidu's monopoly really positive to the market?"

Li Hongyan's face turned as red as a pig liver's due to Jiang Chen's words making him speechless without defense. Boss Ma wanted to help him out, but when he scanned the reporters on the side, he swallowed the words that came up to his throat.

Pan Feng who sat at the head of the table could no longer watch this as he awkwardly coughed.

"Please sit down, we're here to seek cooperation and not search for divergence. Baidu wanting Future Technology to provide virtual reality technology is not wrong from their perspective. Future Technology refusing Baidu's proposition is not wrong either. I hope the rest of the discussion can take place in a friendly atmosphere. Media, please don't dwell on this topic." Pan Feng scanned the reporters in the conference room with a stern look.

The previously lively atmosphere became awkward after being disrupted by their standoff.

Ma Huateng stood up, coughed, and prepared to play the role of the middleman, "Then, the forum will continue—"

"I just want to say one thing about virtual reality cooperation." Jiang Chen stood up, interrupted Boss Ma, and looked expressionlessly at the livid Li Yanhong."I welcome partners. For unreasonable people, please excuse yourself."

Then, Jiang Chen turned around and left the room with no regard to the shocked tech giants and reporters.

Chapter 556: A Strong Stance

An early exit?

Everyone was shocked; they still hadn't recovered from Jiang Chen's speech and his authoritative exit.

It wasn't an internal meeting of a corporation but a business forum that was connected to the economic cooperation of two countries! The Hua-Xin forum wasn't only comprised of individuals from the tech field, but everyone knew the tech field was the focus of this business forum.

While Li Yanhong's aggressive comment seemed to be at fault first, was Jiang Chen's reaction too excessive? This "immature" action in this kind of setting didn't suit his position as the President of a multi-national company. His temper belonged to a reckless man, not a shrewd businessman seeking a partnership opportunity…

Was Jiang Chen being immature?

Yesterday, he and Liu Xiangguo discussed this question during their conversation.

"During tomorrow's business forum, keep an eye on Li Yanhong."

"Li Yanhong? If I remember correctly, he's the boss of Baidu. Is there a problem with him?"

"No problem. Baidu is always a politically correct company with firm support." Liu Xiangguo sipped on his tea and narrowed his eyes sluggishly. "But because of this, he won't be friendly to you."

"Could you elaborate on this?"

"With your deviousness, you know exactly what I mean." Liu Xiangguo put down his teacup.

"Deviousness? If possible, I hope you can use a different descriptive word," Jiang Chen said wryly.

"Young man, there aren't a lot of people who could be called devious by me." The elder paused, and opened his wrinkled eyelids slightly. "To put it simply, the people at the top have divergent opinions about you."

"Please explain," Jiang Chen humbly said.

Perhaps it was because they already formed an alliance, but Liu Xiangguo didn't keep anything hidden from him. "Some people think Future Group's technology should be owned by the country since artificial intelligence, virtual reality, nutrient supply, and deep water mining are all beneficial to both the country and its people."

Jiang Chen didn't feel too shocked when he heard Liu Xiangguo's words. Although Hua didn't express any official opinion on this matter, he doubted they knew nothing about Future Group.

"If you're interested in nutrient supply, we can work together but deep water mining is a bit difficult. We already signed a technology non-proliferation agreement with BHP. It would be risky for us to engage in direct conflict with an international mining giant."

Deepwater mining would probably be the most attractive to Hua and its appeal should be even greater compared to virtual reality technology since this technology could strengthen sovereignty over the ocean while virtual reality's military applications were far less appealing compared to commercial usage.

But Liu Xiangguo didn't seem to be too hooked on this point. He glared at Jiang Chen before continuing.

"Another group of people thinks this is like killing the chicken for the egg and being over-possessive. If Linhua Group didn't use unlawful methods or use the power of SASAC to cut Future Technology's options, perhaps you wouldn't be forced away."

"I don't disagree." Jiang Chen nodded.

Just as he said, if it wasn't for the Wang family's hideous intentions, he wouldn't have left. But on the other hand, Future Group started its expansion after it stepped out of restrictive boundaries to grow to its size today.

"The Wanghai Wang family you are familiar with belongs in the first group, and the supporter behind Li Yanhong also happens to be in that group. During the business forum, he will use the opportunity to make trouble for you."

"What will he do?" Jiang Chen asked.

"He won't do anything out of the line - he'll ask you questions that put you on the spot and test your bottom line at most. What you need to be is authoritative," Liu Xiangguo said without much emotion in his voice.

"Authoritative? I understand."

While the Liu family was the leader of families, the politics of the republic wasn't controlled by the red nobles. Although the Liu family was willing to act as the protective umbrella of Future Group, Liu Xiangguo couldn't neglect the opinions of his colleagues whose positions were no lower than his.

He needed an opportunity, and this opportunity had to be provided by Jiang Chen by acting with force during the business forum.

The premise was that the people who viewed Future Group as an outsider weren't repulsed by Future Group's technology. Future Technology was different from Google. Baidu copied Google's technology, so the departure of the disobedient Google had no influence on Hua, but Future Technology was different - its technology was irreplaceable.

Because of this, as long as it was within an appropriate range, the more authoritative Jiang Chen acted, the easier it would be for the Liu family to negotiate with their colleagues.

Even without considering virtual reality technology, with the tension in the area continuing to escalate, Hua wouldn't want to push too hard on a dictator worth cooperating with. Just on this point alone, the people at the top reached a consensus.

Seeing Jiang Chen reached this "understanding," Liu Xiangguo nodded with satisfaction and joking said:

"I have a stronger confidence in you now. Why don't I introduce my niece to you?"

"Umm… I'll pass. I already have too much to handle." Jiang Chen touched his nose with a troubled smile.

Seeing Jiang Chen's rejection, although Liu Xiangguo didn't look too pleased, he didn't say anymore and just mocked him with a cold face.

"Young man, you should take care of your body so you don't regret it when you're older."

Jiang Chen only shrugged at the elder's mocking words.

"I'll be careful."

As if Liu Haotian had guessed Jiang Chen would leave early, he was already waiting by the stairs when Jiang Chen stepped out.

"Done already?"

"Conversation didn't take off. Let's go. Before we go back to the hotel, I need you to take me somewhere." Jiang Chen left him hanging and walked directly to the parking lot.

"Clubs? I know a couple of fun places, but it isn't dark yet. Is that okay?"

"Get out!" Jiang Chen jokingly cursed.

Jiang Chen didn't expect any specific agreements to be made during the business forum. He already delivered the message he needed to get across, so leaving early made no difference. The trouble was, his actions might be criticized. But the reason he did it could be attributed to the ill-intentions of Baidu.

Just for the sake of billions of USD per year, the Liu family would wipe his butt clean for him, so there was no need for him to worry about this.

"I guess when you left, Li Yanhong's expression must've been hilarious." Liu Haotian joked with Jiang Chen after he sat in the car.

"Pan Feng's expression was even more hilarious, but is it bad if I left a bad impression on him?"

"Don't worry. Although he's at a ministry level, he doesn't have any real control. In terms of political stance, he belongs in the middle that doesn't cause any trouble. You should be more worried about Baidu - perhaps he'll take you down from his search engine," Liu Haotian joked.

"Only if he's willing to see all phones installed with Future 1.0, unable to use Baidu to search." Jiang Chen sank in his seat, unafraid.

The car didn't drive for even two kilometers before Jiang Chen received a phone call from Ali that expressed their intentions to cooperate in a virtual reality online retailer.

Just as he expected, even if the business forum didn't end on a good note, Future Technology's apeal was enough for him to not worry about the lack of interest. Not only Ali, but Penguin and the proud Baidu from the business forum subsequently called him.

For his potential partners or competitors, Jiang Chen didn't immediately promise anything. Instead, he suggested that only once Future Technology's newly appointed CEO came into office would he discuss cooperation.

Jiang Chen's words stunned the representatives who called.

There's going to be a new CEO for Future Technology?

This was an incredible piece of news.

Just when everyone was speculating who the new CEO would be, inside a coffee shop, Jiang Chen met with the next CEO of Future Technology recommended by Xia Shiyu.

He had already met this person a couple times.

Chapter 557: New CEO

In an old and low residential building in the rural area of Wanghai City, a Caucasian male in a grey jacket leaned against the radiator. His eyes were closed with a pleasant expression.

"I like this country. Whether it's the wealthy or poor, they can all enjoy warmth equally in the chilly winter."

"Giles, are you telling me you've been zoning out?" The man sitting by the window looked to this side with a gloomy expression.

The man referred to as Giles smiled. "What else? My dear Ladisiv, you should learn to enjoy your current life."

Ladisiv's face was still gloomy. He continued to stare at the grinning Giles for a long time before looking away.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

They looked at each other and exchanged eye contact then Ladisiv put his hand on his waist while moving toward the door.

After confirming the identity of the person at the door, Ladisiv was relieved and opened the heavy door.

A man wearing a hat entered the room along with a gust of wind. He closed the door behind him and shook the snow off his body before dragging his feet into the living room.

"What's the situation?" Ladisiv asked in an undertone.

"Mission failed," the man replied with broken English. He took off his jacket and threw it on the sofa.

"That's unfortunate… Where's our Mr. Warrior?" Giles asked.

"Hirata was captured and mostly transported out of the country by Future Group."

"Professor won't be happy." Ladisiv's face grew even more gloomy because that meant he just kissed his bonus goodbye.

In contrast to the fanatic "alien hobbyist," he didn't care about the hidden conflict between the company and Willie Society led by the Rothschild family, nor did he care about "Burakkuboto" or the "Golden Apple." As a mercenary, he only cared about money.

"The professor won't be happy… or he could feel otherwise."

"Oh?" Giles looked at the man in surprise.

"Because I saw something interesting." The man laughed lightly, took off the hat on his head, and put it on the hanger by the wall. "Perhaps our enemy isn't only a pawn of Willie Society."

If Xia Shiyu was here, she would be shocked.

Because the face under the hat belonged to the suicide attacker who should've been blown to pieces.

He should've been dead.

…

Because of what happened last night, the higher-ups increased the security level of Jiang Chen by two. Although his driver was still Liu Haotian, Jiang Chen could clearly sense that there wasn't only one car following his Hongqi L9.

The number of police vehicles on the street increased exponentially. The higher-ups were fuming at the explosion that occurred at the hotel and held countless people in charge responsible for this incident.

Inside a coffee shop, Jiang Chen met the newly appointed CEO.

It was Ning Huajian, the previous project manager for Future 1.0 and one of the founding employees of Future Technology. He had a technical background and a meticulous personality. He valued directions from his superior more than his own thoughts. Because he previously worked on the core project Future 1.0, his familiarity with Future Technology was only second to Xia Shiyu. With him appointed as the new CEO, he could take over the operations of the company while lessening the impact of changing the CEO.

Jiang Chen saw some luggage beside his feet. He must've just arrived in Shangjin without time to head to his hotel.

"I believe you have seen the email regarding the job change. You'll be the CEO of Future Technology and the General Manager of the Hua area, responsible for the most important subsidiary of Future Group. You'll have to take the burden now, and I hope you won't disappoint my expectations," Jiang Chen said seriously to Ning Huajian, who carried a hint of weariness from travel.

"Please be assured, President, I won't disappoint you." Ning Jianhua raised his chest. Because of excitement, his voice started to tremble.

His efforts towards Future Technology could be described as hard-working and outstanding, but he never thought he would become CEO of the company since CEO Xia's competency and ethics were impeccable, she was one of the founders of the company, and had an "inexplicable" relationship with the President.

But now, the sudden change made everything a reality. With Xia Shiyu appointed as CEO of the Group, her vacant position was going to be taken over by project manager Ning Jianhua.

After he received the email in the morning, he boarded a plane at noon to Shangjin without hesitation and walked out of the airport by the afternoon.

Jiang Chen nodded at Ning Jianhua, who was full of passion, and placed a contract in front of him.

"This is your new contract. Although I could've delivered it through the mail, I hoped to personally give this to you. Sorry for making you run."

"No problem at all! This is what I should do."

"The specific benefits are written in the contract - take a look at it before you sign. Aside from that, 1% of Future Technology's profits will be your bonus at the end of the year… Do you not need to look it over before you make a decision?" Jiang Chen asked as he saw Ning Jianhua was already signing his name on the contract.

1% of the profit of Future Technology! Considering Future Technology's current profitability, the number would at least exceed 100 million USD!

"No need! I trust the President." Ning Huajian calmed his hastened breaths, smiled, and put the pen aside.

If he was signing with anyone else, Ning Huajian would definitely be cautious. But he was signing with Jiang Chen, the highest ranked Han man on Forbes' wealth list, the President of a hundred billion company, his own boss! He didn't think of any reason why Jiang Chen would trick him into a false contract.

Since Jiang Chen was giving him such an important position, that already demonstrated his trust in him. What Ning Huajian did was to return his trust with his actions.

Jiang Chen laughed and took the copy that belonged to him.

"Okay, stop trying to flatter me. From today on, you'll be the new CEO of Future Technology. I won't say much more, but for the role of Future 1.0's project manager, get someone with the ability to replace you. This is one of Future Technology's key projects."

"Be assured that I'll get on it once I return!"

Jiang Chen then instructed Ning Huajian on a few more things before patting him on the shoulder to give him encouragement. He then took his leave.

Outside the coffee shop, Liu Haotian glanced at Ning Huajian who just passed him then took out his car keys. Not long after, Jiang Chen walked out of the coffee shop and walked toward him.

"Is that the new CEO of Future Technology?"

"That's right. He'll be responsible for contacting you. Of course, this news hasn't been released to the public yet. Before the end of the delegation, I hope you can keep it confidential."

"Is he trustworthy?" Liu Haotian started the car and grinned.

Since this was related to the grey exchange between the Liu family and Future Group, if the information was leaked, even if Liu family's power could cover up the news, it would be a problematic scandal regardless.

"If he wasn't trustworthy, would I give him control over such a big company?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and asked back.

Liu Haotian seemed to accept Jiang Chen's explanation and didn't say anything else.

He started the car and headed to the hotel.

Chapter 558: Jiang Charity Fund

With the cooperation of Xin, the news only provided a brief summary of the explosion that happened a day ago. News of the first round of the business forum concluding without a happy ending was suppressed due to "consideration of the bigger picture."

Afterward, the media was engaged by another piece of news.

The President of Future Group conducted a news conference and announced the establishment of a personal charity fund named Jiang Charity Fund with an initial fund of 300 million USD. He suggested contributing at least 500 million USD every year. The charitable fund was a non-public fund by nature and the fund was mostly concerned with building education, health, and public infrastructure in poor areas.

The head of Han Charity Organization and the mayor of Shangjin all highly praised Jiang Chen's generosity. The media all heaped an overwhelming amount of praise on him. Xin's President, Zhang Yapin, spoke to the media saying that there were no limits when it came to charity and Jiang Chen's actions would become a symbol of friendship between the two countries.

At the same time, Hua's number one official expressed his agreement.

The fund manager was a man named Wu Botao arranged by the Liu family.

Jiang Chen didn't want Future Group to be too involved with the daily operations of the fund and fully relinquished control to the Liu family. If anything happened, they just needed to bring this Wu Botao out as a scapegoat and this wouldn't negatively influence Future Group.

300 million USD was approximately one-tenth of Future Group's profits in Hua. Of course, this number would probably more than double next year because the server for the Phantom would come online by the beginning of next year when the worldly virtual reality MMORPG would be officially released. A lot of Wall Street analysts provided estimates that as long as no problems existed with the operation, just the MMORPG would generate at least 2 billion USD in annual profit.

And this didn't include the one time profit of selling the helmet.

Quite comically, the netizens of Hua didn't bring up many opinions about Jiang Chen in the "delegation" since they always viewed Jiang Chen as their own.

The reason why nobody brought it up was because the two countries were not comparable in terms of power - there was a friendly relationship, no competition, a high number of cultural similarities, and a common enemy. If Jiang Chen immigrated to the other country and it was exposed by the public, he would be criticized half dead by keyboard warriors.

But with the charitable fund becoming public, no one cared about his nationality. With Future Group's purposeful manipulation of public opinion, major social media outlets once again were flooded by the generous rich. Although Jiang Chen didn't care how people viewed him, to be frank, he felt good when so many praised him.

Especially when all the girls on Weibo spammed "Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen, I want to bear your baby" or "Nation's husband, mua mua mua"…

Wait, something wasn't right.

Whatever.

Let's put the charitable cause aside.

The Zhou family, who put up a good attitude, began to feel worried when Jiang Chen didn't contact them.

Seeing that Jiang Chen suddenly started a charity, Liu Xiangguo suddenly changed his stance during the internal discussion and pointed his spear at the supporter behind Li Yanhong and the Wang family who held a strong opinion against Future Group, Zhou Antai immediately realized the Liu family already contacted Jiang Chen and clearly reached some form of agreement!

While he was cursing how Liu Xiangguo screwed him over, Zhou Antai couldn't do anything about that. From the beginning, the Zhou family was on the opposite side against the Wang family and stood with Future Group. Even if he changed his stance now, the people on the opposite side wouldn't view him too highly.

Regardless of where it came from, the grass on top of the wall (1) was unwelcome.

The Zhou family starting to lose their cool and contacted Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen thought it was comical when the Zhou family came in contact through Zhou Zihao. He obviously guessed the Zhou family was there to ask for benefits.

But different from the Liu family with influence concentrated in politics, the Zhou family's connections and resources concentrated on military tech, energy, and other state-owned enterprises. Jiang Chen knew they didn't need more cash, but rather, wanted to help them gain technical prowess.

Jiang Chen didn't let the Zhou family leave emptyhanded. Instead, he took out the piece of cake known as nutrient supply and tied Zhou family to Future Group's bandwagon.

With the Zhou family in the lead, they established a food company with an import and export license in Yangcheng to purchase military-grade nutrient supply with high calories and nutrient level from Xin. The product was repackaged and sold to the military logistics department. In theory, Hua's military could not directly partner up with foreign entities, but through this gimmick, the problem was gone.

Compared with Russia with a weak economy, Hua with a booming economy was, without a doubt, a partner with a brighter future. The Zhou family decisively signed a contract for 3 million boxes of nutrient supply. Just this batch alone netted Jiang Chen 600 million USD alone. As to how much the Zhou family would gain politically on this military necessity with long shelf life, high efficiency and low logistical demand wasn't something of his concern.

The three-day delegation concluded.

With business contracts worth 2 billion USD, the Xin President along with the rest of the delegation boarded the plane at the airport in the capital.

Based on the previous plan, Jiang Chen would follow Xin's delegation onboard to UA. But because of the "small incident" that happened at the hotel, it made him change his mind.

Before he was certain the CIB was uninvolved with this attack, he didn't want to joke about his own safety. Therefore, Jiang Chen temporarily canceled his plan to accompany the delegation. Instead, he chose a representative from Future Group to replace him on this visit.

Some people were secretively happy about Jiang Chen's decision while some people expressed their regret. But regardless, Future Group was only a company by definition and a missing President wouldn't affect the relationship between two countries.

While the UA President welcomed Xin's delegation, the new President of UA personally sent Jiang Chen an email to express his regret Jiang Chen couldn't make the business forum that took place on Wall Street.

But the President only expressed regret from his personal perspective without delivering many thoughts. They wouldn't know if the attack at the hotel was related to CIB or not; they could only express understanding regarding why Jiang Chen made this decision.

Since CIB conducted an attack on Jiang Chen without approval before, it was reasonable that the attack was related to CIB. But the CIB director in the far Flo felt wronged as this attack had nothing to do with CIB at all, but he was called multiple times to the Rainbow Mansion by the President.

The intention for the newly elected President to win over Xin through Jiang Chen was obvious. He wouldn't be foolish enough to make a move on Jiang Chen at this time. Especially since the last mission in Hua caused CIB's force in Hua to be severely crippled,. Even if he wanted to do something, it was questionable if he had the ability.

Chapter 559: Return to Wanghai

Night in Wanghai was as illuminating as an ocean of stars. The shadow of the reinforced concrete was as gloomy as a dark forest.

A long time ago, Jiang Chen thought this place was all there was to the world. He would fight here for a 50-square-meter apartment and a steady job. But right now, as he glanced down from the plane above, he felt this was all so trivial.

He had two purposes for returning to Wanghai. One was to discuss the virtual reality online retailer pilot project, the other was to fulfill a promise.

When he sent Zhang Yapin on his way to UA, he also boarded a plane and headed to Wanghai with Liu Haotian's company.

Ayesha wasn't with him. To prevent the assassins hidden in the dark from attacking Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen chose to leave her with Xia Shiyu.

Before Xia Shiyu left for Xin, she still needed to return to Xiangjiang to tie some loose ends. The CEO handover still required one week of time and she still needed some personal time to make sure everything was in order. Because she was an only child, she planned to bring her parents to Xin to make it easier to take care of the two elders. It would require her to return to her hometown and first bring the two elders in Xiangjiang.

Jiang Chen raised both his hands in support of Xia Shiyu bringing her parents along. His parents lived a great life in Xin with a mansion, boat, and servants, but the downside was that they never really saw their relatives and friends, so they were quite lonely. Since Xia Shiyu's parents were close to his parents, they could visit each other and at least form a table of Majong.

Ayesha disagreed with his decision to not bring her along. The attack did happen at a hotel and she was obviously worried about Jiang Chen being alone, but he used one sentence to convince her.

"If they really choose me as a target, that's the worst decision they'll make."

In terms of personal combat abilities, only a few in the world could beat him. The reason why he chose to go alone was also to trick the snake into coming out of hiding.

Ayesha had to follow his orders. But she still insisted on moving the Ghost Agent waiting for orders in Hua close to him to prevent any unsuspected situations from occurring.

When they got off the plane, Jiang Chen's ride went from a Hongqi L9 to a Benz. The person responsible for delegate reception didn't speak much with the two of them as he handed them the key before leaving.

Before he left Hua, his identity was considered a foreign delegate, so he would be accompanied by people from the Concierge Department. But because this was the Wang family's territory, before Wang Dehai made his stance clear, the local concierge couldn't be overly friendly to Jiang Chen.

Compared to the arrangements in Shangjin, Wanghai's attitude toward Jiang Chen wasn't like he was receiving a President of a multinational company at all.

"I hope you don't mind. Since you did trick him into Coro Island's investment project, it's understandable for the Wang family to have a little attitude," Liu Haotian explained to Jiang Chen after he sat into the driver's seat.

"Of course I don't mind, as long as they don't come to make trouble," Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

"Even the number one official won't go against the Liu and Zhou family simultaneously, let alone the Wang family. So you don't have to worry - they know the extent they can go. But you have to be careful and avoid letting them get any material to blackmail you with."

Jiang Chen looked at Liu Haotian in surprise and smiled.

"Oh? You already know?"

Jiang Chen was referring to the agreement between Future Group and the Zhou family regarding nutrient supply.

"Of course," Liu Haotian answered concisely.

It was already late into the night. Jiang Chen rejected Liu Haotian's hotel arrangements and instead, he inputted a location on the GPS and asked him to take him there.

The car quickly arrived in a wealthy area. In the apocalypse, past Sujiang was Jiang Chen's Camp 27. But in the modern world, there was only a small mansion that belonged to him there.

Before he left Wanghai, he gave the key to this place to Liu Yao. A house couldn't be left unattended without people living inside because even the most beautiful mansion would become a haunted house. Since he had no close friends in Hua nor did he lack the money, he gave it to his mistress.

Jiang Chen's identity information was still registered at security at the gate. He pressed his thumb before security allowed him access.

The car arrived in front of the mansion. Liu Haotian saw the light was still on and looked at Jiang Chen.

"Someone is inside?"

Jiang Chen didn't answer his question. He unbuckled his seatbelt and looked at him without a change in expression.

"Pick me up tomorrow at 9. Since your travel is paid for, I won't arrange your accommodations."

Liu Haotian understood Jiang Chen's true meaning as he smirked. Without saying anything, he left.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath in front of the door. Just as he was about to press the alarm, he saw the light in the bathroom on the second floor and an evil smile appeared on his face. Whenever he thought about Liu Yao's 36D curvature, his couldn't control his urge to "prank" her.

It was ten o'clock at night.

Just like her usual nighttime routine, Liu Yao took a rose-scented bath after exercising.

As a celebrity rising in popularity and as the mistress of Future Group's President, she took extra care of herself. She knew everything she possessed today was all because of that man. If that man lost interest in her, she would have nothing.

Liu Yao washed away the sweat on her body, stared at the water droplets rolling down her tender skin and relaxed. The white mist from the bathtub fogged up her vision and allowed her thoughts to gradually rise with the mist.

Among the rose petals, the water reflected a stunning face. The face that made countless women jealous and countless men smitten was mixed with a hint of melancholy.

She recollected the week of vacation on Coro Island with Jiang Chen and her face began to turn red.

Although she was just a mistress, the feeling of "giving up above cloud nine" every time Jiang Chen gave it to her made her hooked to him like drugs. It made her sometimes wonder if she wasn't a mistress—

Liu Yao forcefully shook her wet hair and snapped back from her unrealistic thoughts. She stared at the rose petals in the bathtub and scorned herself.

[It's impossible…]

Intoxicated in an unrealistic dream would only hurt herself. She knew the only reason he accepted her wasn't because of love but because her presence happened to fill the regrets of his past carried in his heart.

She couldn't pass the boundary and turn this emotion from intimacy to a hindrance. If she really wanted him to give her a righteous name, it would cause trouble for him, and of course, he wouldn't give in. And that would mean she would no longer be a mistress.

Perhaps Future Technology's CEO, Xia Shiyu, would be his future wife. Or perhaps the exotic girl who always followed him would be… her name was Ayesha or something. Liu Yao heard him mentioning her during their video chat.

[But regardless, I won't be one of the candidates.]

Her glowing skin, smooth as jade, weaved through the water surface covered in petals. Liu Yao splashed the milky bath water on her face and combed her black hair mixed with petals to the back of her head.

"Splash—"

She stood up and dragged a bath towel to cover up her attractive figure. Her gorgeous feet stepped out of the bathtub onto the cold floor.

She walked in front of a mirror. Just as she was about to pick up the hair dryer, she suddenly heard something that resembled a heavy object hitting the ground in the living room.

Her hand holding the dryer stopped in midair and Liu Yao held her breath.

It was quite frightening to hear a weird sound living in a massive house alone. She was certain she heard something drop on the floor in the living room.

[Could it be a thief?]

Liu Yao's heart suddenly flinched and her face turned pale white. But she soon rejected the possibility - no thief could get into the community with such a high level of security.

But if it wasn't a thief, who was it?

She gulped, put down the dryer, sneakily moved to the door, and put her ear against the door although she thought she was being too suspicious with an action like this.

She held her breath and listened for a while without hearing any other sounds.

"Was I just hearing things? I must be too tired lately…"

Liu Yao was relieved and gently leaned against the door.

Because of the popularity of her movie, her popularity increased as well.

Not only did more movies come her way, but she even received invitations from label companies. She sang in movies and her pure but melodious voice received countless positive comments on the web, so some label companies thought to ask her to release an album. Because of the recording sessions, she had been tired every day. Perhaps she was so exhausted that she was now hearing things…

Liu Yao comforted herself.

But just as she felt relieved, she suddenly heard music outside the door.

This sudden music scared Liu Yao to death, but her face quickly turned red because she realized that the music was her new ringtone.

Who's calling?

As she thought to herself, Liu Yao took another towel and wrapped her hair.

When she put her hand on the doorknob, Liu Yao gently bit her red lips. She already convinced herself that the sound from the living room was just an illusion, but she still felt anxious when it came time to leave the bathroom.

She took a deep breath, turned the doorknob, and peeked out the door.

After confirming there was nothing outside, her ears burned for acting so over-the-top.

Her right hand squeezed her towel in front of her chest and she ran to her room with her wet feet.

She picked up the phone from her table…

She was stunned.

There had been no phone call. When she unlocked her screen, she discovered it was a music player playing. What just rang wasn't her ringtone but music downloaded to her phone.

Intense fear began to overwhelm her.

There was someone else in the room.

Someone opened her phone!

To lure her here!

With lips trembling, Liu Yao's face was deathly white. She didn't even dare to turn her head as she was afraid to see a strange face. Her naked feet moved back while shaking. She couldn't even find the courage to run back.

Suddenly, the lights turned off.

Liu Yao screamed and turned around to run. But before she ran two steps, she smashed into a firm chest.

The man in black hugged her, threw her onto the bed, and jumped to cover her mouth. His strong muscles were like rocks - regardless of how her graceful hands punched him, it was futile.

With his free left hand, the man pulled open her white towel.

Just then, that man screamed out in agony.

When Liu Yao heard his scream, she stopped.

The scream sounded familiar.

The man let her go, removed his comical mask, and rolled his eyes at her.

"Biting me when you see me - are you a dog?"

Tears began to flow out of her eyes. With the help of the moonlight, Jiang Chen started to lose his collected cool.

"Eh? Don't cry, I came to give you a surprise. Ahem, of course, it was my bad to scare you. I'm sorry…"

Liu Yao's intense reaction was something he expected. But to be honest, when he saw her reaction, Jiang Chen felt an odd happiness. Of course, he reflected upon himself. Although she was his mistress, and although it was just a prank, when he thought about it carefully, it was over the line to do something like this to a woman living alone.

"Pervert!" Liu Yao threw the towel on her head onto Jiang Chen's head in embarrassment.

The aroma of rose engulfed his nose and made Jiang Chen's mind bewildered.

He removed the towel on his head and awkwardly touched his nose.

"Sorry, I did…"

"Do you want to continue?"

"Eh?"

Without sitting up on the bed, Liu Yao gently bit her lips and her face reflected a hint of attractive shyness. The petals between her hair and the dim moonlight scattered in the room made her attractive figure glow even more.

"What... just… Don't make me say it." Liu Yao, with her hair messy, pouted and looked away.

Jiang Chen felt a lower abdominal heat turning on as his breathing turned heavy.

He threw the towel to the ground and didn't forget to put on the comical black mask.

Liu Yao's screams reverberated in the room again. While she was fending off the attacker with her graceful fists, the dark room became lively again…

Either she was a great actress or because the reunion made her especially impassioned, Liu Yao's acting was impeccable.

The moon was covered by an embarrassed cloud, unable to directly shine on the intimacy of the room.

Chapter 560: The Reunion

To use immersive virtual reality in the world of e-commerce was the next step for Future Technology after VR MMORPG.

Imagine being able to shop without leaving home or going on a shopping spree without moving from the computer… oh no, the person in front of the helmet would no longer have to worry if the clothes bought online would fit because you could "take" the clothes out from the shopping cart and directly "put it on" your body to try them yourself!

With the introduction of VR shopping, it meant that the only advantage of physical stores would cease to exist. Physical storefronts compared to e-commerce stores without an actual location lacked the advantage of saving on rent costs. Now that the VR shopping experience was brought to the same level, it could be foreseen that once it was adopted by the mass market, it would bring disruptive changes to retail and even real estate markets.

Technology with such a bright future was obviously not going to be ignored by the e-commerce giants.

For example, VR shopping, or the concept known as "buy+," was initiated by Ali at the beginning of 2016 but because of the restrictive nature of technology, Ali's VR shopping experience had a lackluster effect, far less than promoted.

It was impractical to design an interactive VR experience for every store due to the work required, and it also greatly increased the number of stores that could register at a VR mall.

Also, VR glasses could only bring a limited experience to customers. With just images alone, it offered no difference compared to shopping through a screen. But if they used high tech 3D movement capture technology to replicate the physical dimensions of the products, it would increase the cost. Would customers really purchase VR glasses with a price tag of over 1000 USD just to shop? Perhaps yes, but rich people only accounted for a small portion of sales.

Therefore, buy+ required a medium that had a high market penetration rate that could also maximize the shopping experience.

The Phantom medium happened to satisfy both conditions.

The high sales set the foundation for a massive user base. Immersive virtual reality technology would provide a comprehensive experience to users. Because of this, Ali chose to contact Jiang Chen immediately after the business forum, hoping to partner up in the "VR + e-commerce" strategy.

But Jiang Chen didn't immediately reply to Ma Yun who called him personally because he still had to discuss this with Xia Shiyu. He wondered if they should partner up or take care of the retail aspect in-house.

Could Future Technology ditch Ali and do e-commerce themselves? After discussion, Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu both reached a consensus that while it was theoretically possible, there was no practical reason to do so. Future Technology had no experience in the e-commerce market, and it would be a lost cause if they spent a large amount of time and energy to start in the e-commerce division.

Just like building an aircraft carrier, it wasn't necessary to build every single screw themselves.

With an absolute advantage in technology, Future Technology only needed to focus on developing the channel while the content could be created by Ali, JD, Amazon, and eBay, who all had a wealth of experience and resources.

As for how the partnership would take place, that was the purpose of Jiang Chen's visit to Wanghai.

The next morning, Liu Haotian arrived at the mansion as promised.

When he saw Jiang Chen walking out of the mansion glowing, he guessed what happened last night. He only smirked without saying anything and opened the door for Jiang Chen. After Jiang Chen set the destination on the GPS, Liu Haotian took Jiang Chen on his way.

There were a lot of enterprises that invited Jiang Chen to discuss a "VR + e-commerce" relationship - both domestic and international players.

Based on the negotiation strategy discussed with Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen didn't look for Ali first but rather, he sought out Ali's international competitor, Amazon.

Amazon first asked Future Technology to make development tools and licensing available for virtual reality, and the e-commerce application would be designed by them.

It wasn't the right time to make development tools available. Based on their proposal, it was equivalent to Amazon getting rid of them. If "VR + e-commerce" became extremely successful, it would have nothing to do with Future Technology.

The two parties couldn't compromise at all on the fundamental problem and negotiations couldn't continue, so Jiang Chen stopped trying to negotiate with them and directly went to speak with eBay.

When Amazon realized Future Group wasn't going to negotiate with them further, they instantly became anxious.

Since Future Technology was the only company that mastered immersive virtual reality technology, if Amazon allowed their competitor to create a virtual reality platform first, it would be a detrimental blow to Amazon's business. Amazon realized this immediately and changed their strong stance. They signaled their willingness to make concessions on software while requesting another negotiation session.

Therefore, the two-party meeting became a three-party meeting.

At the same time, Ali, who was excluded, could no longer sit around. They previous thought Jiang Chen would go seek them out, but Future Technology was almost close to reaching an agreement with Amazon and eBay!

Ali couldn't fall at the hands of their competitors now. Based on the popularity of the Phantom in the international market, it was a great opportunity for Ali to expand its international market through a VR platform!

Boss Ma, who just flew from Shangjin to Wanghai, immediately sat down with Jiang Chen and invited him for a meal at his own place.

Han people had the tradition of discussing business over the dinner table. Since Boss Ma personally invited Jiang Chen for a drink, it gave him all the respect he was due.

Jiang Chen had been waiting for exactly this.

Of course, he wasn't just waiting for Ma Yun to propose a few toasts over the dinner table nor was he planning to exclude Ali from negotiations entirely. The reason why he didn't actively seek negotiations with Ali first was just to force Ali to stop sitting around.

Future Technology was close to a deal with eBay and Amazon. As the fourth party with aspirations of being included, Ali had to bring some sincerity to the negotiation table.

Ali didn't disappoint Jiang Chen. Compared to the foreign companies with stricter terms, they not only made concessions in cooperation, but they even proposed a plan clearly more favorable to Future Technology.

When Amazon and eBay saw this, they knew they had been tricked. Considering how interested Jiang Chen looked, Ali's representative was relieved.

The exact plan was the following:

Future Technology would design a platform-based software, with Ali to provide the content. Users would purchase items from Future Technology's virtual reality market with Ali deciding which goods could enter the market. Confirmation of the purchase would be done through the internal browser in the helmet which would jump to Taobao's page, or Taobao could design a more simple purchase and pay page for the virtual reality market.

It was like Future Technology was the market, while Ali and other e-commerce giants were suppliers and store leasers. The former dictated the location while the latter provided the supplies. The retailers registered under each e-commerce platform were like products on the shelf.

To put it simply, Future Technology only provided the platform, so e-commerce was still e-commerce.

With this plan, Jiang Chen threw his previously prepared plan away. The professionals indeed knew what they were doing, so he didn't have any reason to reject their plan at all.

While Amazon and eBay were displeased, they couldn't bring out a better proposal. They could only accept this proposal.

Later, Jiang Chen invited other e-commerce platforms interested in VR into the negotiation. Each party would be given a market share, divide the VR distribution channel, and enhance the partnership agreement.

In a week, eight "VR + e-commerce" agreements were signed. Strictly speaking, it was the first deal Jiang Chen signed as a President for the company.

And it was a mega deal worth ten billion!

Chapter 561: VR + eCommerce

The Fishbone's software development department had been meeting the software development demand in the modern world. In the short-term, it is feasible, but inefficient from a long-term perspective. While the apocalypse didn't lack talents with an incredibly low cost of labor, it is gated by population.

Future Group is constantly expanding, but the software development team only grew by less than ten people in the apocalypse.

Take the developed Godly Land for example. The development of the world virtual reality MMORPG took nearly one year based on the developed content before the war. Based on the stats given by Du Yongkang, with the standard of a development studio before the war, the content update and maintenance of the game of the large-scale RPG would take at least fifty people.

Jiang Chen didn't tell him that the MMORPG may potentially have over one hundred million players since only Future Technology offered the immersive virtual reality MMORPG. Based on the large player base, in order to ensure the game content was interesting, the project team would without a doubt be bigger than 500 people.

The number was not an exaggeration at all. Take Blizzard's bloated development team for example. A high-quality MMORPG would take a lot of people to maintain. Even if possessed artificial intelligence to assist the allocation of game storage, basic artificial intelligence's limitation in creativity meant that some things couldn't replace human labor.

Because of this, the release of the development tool will come eventually. Only if more people knew how to develop the virtual reality software could Future Technology hire more programmers to support the virtual empire he established.

But the release of the development software can't be rushed. At least until Future Technology's core possessed a technical advantage.

Half a year ago, when Future Group's building finished construction on Coro Island, he moved some of the core technical team to Xin to receive training on the VR development tool "virtual 4.0" and VR image processing software "pictogram 2.1".

But the troublesome part was, while the interfaces of the program software were friendly to use, to the people without any experience in this field, it was difficult to comprehend. The result of the training was obvious, they took half a year of time before Future Technology's technical core finally gained some understanding and reached a beginner's level.

It would at least take another half a year to one year before they could master the software.

Because of this, to ensure Future Technology's competitive advantage in this field, the publishing of the software must be delayed for at least half a year. In this half a year, Jiang Chen must depend on the programmers on the wasteland to help in developing the software he needs.

With two proposals in hand, Jiang Chen temporarily returned to the apocalypse.

…

It was already late into December; Wanghai on the wasteland was covered by snow and stood gracefully.

When Jiang Chen just returned to the Fishbone base, holiday spirit still lingered in the air.

With ample resources, the quality of life of NAC people gradually got better.

Although Christmas was not a statuary holiday for the PAC, people before the war would usually do something on this day. With the idea "the year has almost passed by, it's rare to have a few peaceful months, so let's do something to celebrate", Miss Generous took out the frozen meat near its expiration date and announced the second BBQ party would be held on Christmas Day!

Therefore, a bunch of people who don't believe in Jesus Christ celebrated the spirit of the holiday on this cold day while praying to the higher being they know doesn't exist "long and prosperity to the NAC".

"Yo, pervert, you're back? Only if you were back a day earlier. Yao Yao baked a giant turkey yesterday." Lin Lin who was reading manga on the sofa was dangling her slim legs leisurely.

The radiators in the winter almost made people feel sluggish.

"If you keep calling me that name, be careful. I might actually eat you one day." Jiang Chen sighed at the bad mouth girl that turned into a useless being.

[This doesn't feel like the apocalypse at all.]

Lin Lin oddly didn't rebuttal back. Jiang Chen noticed she covered her face with the manga book.

"Manga… Sixth Street sells these now. Where is Sun Jiao?" Jiang Chen looked around in the living around and discovered only Lin Lin was there.

"Sister Sun Jiao should be at the community center now. When you're not here, she has been doing the work you should have been doing."

While touched emotionally, Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin in surprise.

Lin Lin was embarrassed by the way he was looking at her and blushed. Then she moved the manga even higher.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing, I'm just impressed that even Lin Lin knows how to take care of people now."

"Hello! What do you mean? Did I not know how to take care of people before?!"

Before Lin Lin threw her manga book in his direction in embarrassment, Jiang Chen put down the pudding and left.

Other than Lin Lin whose Project Garden of Eden came to a halt because of the snow, the girls in the mansion all had something to do every day.

Yao Yao still stayed in her own room and developed the program Jiang Chen gave her. The little loli worked diligently. Jiang Chen remembered when she bought her, her computer rating was only C, but after studying for a long time, the program she developed was even praised by the head of the software development department.

Jiang Chen put the gift he bought her on the table, then followed the girl's demand and put her on his legs while rubbing her soft hair.

To be honest, he was supposed to be helping Yao Yao alleviate the stress of work, but when Jiang Chen saw her eyelashes shaking from feeling so comfortable, Jiang Chen felt all his weariness also disappear.

He spent some peaceful time with her then left the mansion and headed to the community center.

…

It was snowing outside. A trial of water droplets hung on the window.

Because of the heating system, the office was warm.

"Sister, why don't we just call it a day?" Sun Jiao put her head on the desk in exhaustion with and the pen used to sign documents in her mouth.

"No, sister. Brother-in-law gave you such an important job to you because he trusts you, please just work a little harder. The next document is Beer Bottle Firearms Company's trade agreement for steel and rice in exchange for firearms."

"Can I just sign it? Who dares to trick us in an agreement?" Sun Jiao raised her eyebrows and said audaciously.

"No, we set the rules. If we can't even follow our own rules, then the order brother-in-law worked so hard to establish would go down the drain. To avoid unnecessary conflict, please look through every detail in the agreement."

"Can you not use brother-in-law? It feels weird. You did it too…" Whenever Sun Jiao thought about the intimacy shared with her sister, she couldn't help but blush.

"No, please let your young sister just have fun." A devilish smile appeared on Sun Xiaorou's face.

Jiang Chen always thought whenever she smiled like that, it was especially like her sister.

When Sun Jiao saw Jiang Chen appear in front of the door, the pen dropped onto the table from her mouth.

Sun Xiaorou saw the yearning in her sister's eyes as she face-palmed with a smile.

"Ahhhh… It looks like today's work has to be pushed to tomorrow."

Like a gust of wind just breezed by, Jiang Chen hugged Sun Jiao who dove in between his arms. The longing followed the temperature in front of his chest and mouth passed into the deepest part of his heart.

"Screw you, you don't even visit me…"

"I'm afraid that I won't go back if I come back."

"Really?"

"Really."

He already became the emperor of the apocalypse and free from the threat from the Natural Selection Fleet. The Project Garden of Eden was in progress and in ten year's time, life here may be better than the life in the modern world.

While they were exchanging their deepest emotions with their eyes, the door behind them was locked by Sun Xiaorou.

"Mhmm?"

Jiang Chen just wanted to turn around to ask why Sun Xiaorou locked the door when his back was blocked by the same gentleness.

Sun Jiao looked at her sister hugging Jiang Chen from behind and said in shock, "Xiaorou?"

Sun Xiaorou didn't bother with her sister, bit the tip of Jiang Chen's ear, and blew warm air in naughtiness.

"Compared to sister, I also waited a long time…"

The two sisters exchanged eye contact. Devil smiles simultaneously appeared while they reached for his inexplicable part with their graceful hands.

"Wait, wait—"

The abrupt but envious by many shout stopped. In the office with strong sound insulation, the reunion ceremony officially started…

Chapter 562: Quantum Communication Satellites

When Jiang Chen came out of the office, it was already nighttime. Staring at the dark night and the dancing snowflakes, he thought about how he just wasted an entire day. Jiang Chen couldn't help but bury his chin into his scarf and sigh. He still had things to do in Wanghai, and after that, he must go back to Xin. With the official release of the virtual reality MMORPG on the horizon, he didn't have a lot of extra time.

But when he looked at the two girls wrapped around his arms, the slightest dissatisfaction instantly faded into the snow.

The next morning, in a winter suit, while traversing through the knee-high snow, Jiang Chen came to the community center. Just as he was about to go find Du Yongkang, the guy came to find him. When he saw the stack of documents in Jiang Chen's hand, he immediately started to complain to Jiang Chen with a troubled face.

"Boss... Oh no, I mean General. Our department really doesn't have enough people. Including me, everyone here is doing two people's work. Of course, I'm not complaining, I'm asking you to check up on Wang Qin to see if the assistance I requested could be approved faster?"

Seeing the poor Du Yongkang, Jiang Chen felt sympathetic as he consoled.

"Is it that serious?"

"What else… No one in my department works without dark circles."

Jiang Chen gazed at the dark circles around his eyes and felt his pain.

The software development department in the beginning was envied by everyone. They were the freest in the entire base. Not only did they have great benefits, but they also didn't need to risk their lives and spent all day writing and copying code. Everyone wanted to be in that department!

But now it was different. With external and internal threats eliminated and most of the battles had ended, the knights with achievements began to enjoy their pleasant life. They either spent their days shooting at targets or patrolling around the territory in a vehicle. They raised their heads up high in front of the refugees, enjoying their envious and respectful looks.

On the contrary, the people in the software development department couldn't get busier. The credit payment system, Wanghai communication station maintenance, market trade software, and Chu Nan recently proposed localized net for NAC to centralize the administration, judicial, and taxation systems…

But who is going to do all that?

Wang Qin thought about it, and only the software development department knew the most about computers, so she stuffed all the work to Du Yongkang's department.

"I will go talk to her about it."

Du Yongkang's expression immediately turned pleasant. "Hehe, thank you."

"Don't worry." Jiang Chen acknowledged it and then put the proposal for the VR social media platform and retail platform into his hands.

Jiang Chen looked at Du Yongkang without a desire to live anymore and patted his shoulder, feeling embarrassed. "Help me out with the software on these two proposals. It shouldn't be too difficult. Other projects can be slowed down for now… Ahem, I will double the overtime pay with more people on the way to assist you."

Although compassionate about his current situation, the software still must be completed.

Looking at Du Yongkang work away feebly, Jiang Chen felt guilty.

Should he increase the benefits to the software development department? A box of milk and a carton of eggs every week…

As he thought, Jiang Chen came to the logistics department and spoke with Wang Qin who was auditing the warehouse data.

"It's not that I don't want to, but no one is applying." When Wang Qin heard Jiang Chen's intention, she pushed up the glasses on her nose and explained to him, "Currently, even in the Sixth Street, the amount of programmers is scarce. Whenever I receive an application, I immediately send them to his department."

"What about Fallout Shelter 027? There should be programmers there right?"

"Yes, but almost none that's focused on programming. And the experts in each field all have research projects they must complete, freely moving them around would solve one problem but create another," Wang Qin said.

It was difficult to move them around with them having research projects. Without better solutions, Jiang Chen could only instruct Wang Qin to increase the salary of the software development department and post additional hiring information at the Sixth Street. Also, he messaged Zhao Chenwu to ask him to keep an eye out for programmers out of the province and try to recruit any programmers with a rating above C.

If the applicant was a female, lower technical requirements could be allowed. Rating D or E could be considered since the entire department was made up almost entirely of males which made Jiang Chen feel bad for the single programmers working so hard…

The main purpose of the trip was to give Du Yongkang the two proposals and visit the girls as well as the subordinates.

After he toured around the community center, Jiang Chen came outside. Seeing there was still some time, he went to the Aerospace Technology Research Institute along the way to speak with Jiang Lin who was busy working in the plant.

Some time ago, Jiang Chen did instruct him about designing quantum communication satellites, and he didn't know about his current progress. Since there was still some time, Jiang Chen went to check up on him.

Jiang Lin stuffed the equipment in his hands to his colleague beside him when he saw Jiang Chen come in.

Jiang Chen stopped by the workstation and glanced at the cubical item on the workstation, "this is the quantum communication satellite?"

"Pretty close. The appearance is like one. The most critical quantum communication module is not installed yet, we are still waiting for Fallout Shelter 027. I heard there is a problem with a cooling device and the unfitted specification needs to be redesigned. You seem to be disappointed?" Jiang Lin looked at Jiang Chen in surprise.

First thing first, while quantum communication and quantum computer both have quantum in them, they are two completely different things. The so-called quantum communication refers to the use of quantum entanglement effects of information transmission to create a new form of communication, it is a combined discipline between quantum theory and information theory. In the modern world, this discipline recently has shifted from theory to experimentation. At the end of the 22nd century, the study of quantum communication has long passed beyond the military field to commercial applications.

Compared to the fast but "unsecure" Klein particles as well as the gravitational wave with slow research development, quantum communication was indeed more user-friendly.

There is not much to talk about the advantage of security, especially when "non-classical" information relay research achieved a major breakthrough. The previously super light speed quantum communication, which was supposed to violate relativity, had also become a reality.

Not saying other things, just from today's internet, everyone was connected to the internet, but it was done using underwater cables. Why did Google publish its global wifi project for so long without any progress? Partially because of the crowded communication channel with the most fundamental reason being that traditional satellite as an internet node is infeasible from a technical point of view.

The synchronous orbit is located 36000 kilometers away from Earth. To use traditional satellites to provide wifi service, without considering the electromagnetic wave signal attenuation, having 500 pings was the best scenario. What does having 500 pings mean? Basically, you can't see your own team when playing LOL.

Therefore, if using traditional satellites to provide internet service, it is okay to send an email, quite difficult to make a call, but don't even think about playing an online game.

And the quantum communication satellite sitting in front of Jiang Chen right now was a satellite that could "conquer the challenges faced by traditional satellites" and the communication relay station for the virtual reality network.

Jiang Chen examined the satellite and said while touching his chin.

"I previously thought it would look a bit better."

Jiang Lin took a moment to process his words and started to laugh. "There is no need to consider aerodynamics in space, and therefore any shape is the same. If you need, I can make it spherical, but every part needs to be redesigned."

"No need, I'm just saying." Jiang Chen facepalmed.

It was not cheap to build a satellite. It would only pain him if the satellite must be redesigned. Since the wasteland didn't even have these things, Wang Qin didn't complain about the unreasonable budget to the Aerospace Technology Research Institute.

Chapter 563: Perhaps it is a mutated human?

"Good job, could this satellite be completed by the start of January?"

"The start of January... but it is already the end of the month." Jiang Lin rubbed his muddled hair with a bitter smile and sighed. "I'll try my best. If Fallout Shelter 027 can solve the cooling module problem, we can finish very soon."

"I will head to Fallout Shelter 027 in a bit. I will help you bring it up with them. "

At the beginning of January, Celestial Trade would start its second satellite launch project. The plan was to launch a high-frequency communication satellite used to provide free wifi service to Xin's territory in order to increase the tourism rating of Pannu Islands. Of course, Jiang Chen was not foolish enough to tell people this is a quantum communication satellite. As to how a satellite could provide web service with 20 ping and below, Celestial Trade wouldn't comment on this topic.

Based on the diplomatic relationship with nearby New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand, this satellite would provide paid wifi service to part of those territories. As to how to price, Celestial Trade would send out representatives to discuss with the countries' telecommunication providers to negotiate a reasonable price.

If there were half a million paid users per month, the maintenance fee would breakeven.

"If you plan to go to Fallout Shelter 027, please help me to bring this over." Jiang Lin remembered something, walked beside the workstation, and removed a palm-sized circuit board.

"This is?" Jiang Chen took the circuit board, examined it, but didn't manage to determine the use.

"Great item. The trade fleet of Zhao Corporation exchanged this with a can of food from a scavenger." Jiang Lin chuckle. "Type XK92 Double Feet Armored Unit's main control chip for its power system, it is the first time I have seen such a complete board."

"Could you create a prototype out of it?" Jiang Chen's expression changed.

But Jiang Lin touched his nose and looked away awkwardly.

...

"I have to disappoint you. But the technology analyzed out from the main control chip could increase the performance of our current Type- K1 kinetic skeleton, and T-3, T-4 power armor."

[Made me excited for nothing.]

[But better than nothing.]

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and put the palm-sized chip into the box before stuffing it into his pocket.

"If there is nothing else, I'm going to go."

"Mhmm, nothing else. I heard the Steel Airship is almost complete at Camp 27. You can go take a look. The last time I saw it, it is quite magnificent." Jiang Lin said while watching him depart.

When Jiang Chen arrived at Camp 27, he witnessed the glorious airship.

It was a fortress built by steel floating in the air outside of Camp 27 around 20 meters in the air. The "fortress" was hoisted by robust graphene cables and connected by steel scaffolds. The construction robots and engineers worked on it simultaneously to complete the remainder 50% of the work.

It was 100 meters long, 20 meters wide; a total of three decks. The bottom of the airship was like the stomach of a seal, but the tip of the boat that could be opened and closed was just a menacing shark head.

The wings that extended horizontally out were connected with mega-sized turbine engines used on Type-51 Helicopters to provide the massive airship with the thrust to move forward. The robotic air attached directly below the airship provided the hubs used to park the helicopter. The hundred meter long graphene cables dragged onto the hover cabin which could deploy four Tiger II tanks to the ground.

The layout of the airship was similar to a "U" with the top deck being an airstrip that allowed for the vertical landing of the Aurora-20. A large amount of the space inside the airship was used as the helium room to provide buoyant force. Only the middle deck along with one-tenth of the internal space allowed were designed for personnel. The lower deck contained supplies and firearms, as well as a room for one Type-50 J-unit electromagnetic pulse cannon to be added to cause destruction to the targets on the ground.

The mainframe of the airship used superplastic steel intermittent armor as well as high strength bubble aluminum material. While it maintained certain anti-bullet and anti-bomb capability, it reduced the net weight of the airship to the extreme. Of course, the defense of the airship relied on nitrogen armor and laser anti-missile system, as well as the supportive firepower of the ground force to enemy anti-air units.

The usage of the airship was not designed to drop bombs on enemies' heads like in World War Two, but rather act as a "ground aircraft carrier".

The airship was designed with 100 tons of net weight and capable of carrying 500 tons of supplies. Without the need to pass through dangerous territories filled with mutants and zombies, it drastically reduced the consumption of a mobilizing force to inland. Without considering the hot weapons in enemies' hand, the airship was a legendary unit in the apocalypse.

Since only rare mutants could fly high in the air.

Based on the words of the chief engineer of the airship, the current construction was 50% complete. The project could longest be finished in half a year. By that time, NAC's combat radius would increase to over 500 kilometers, and the flag of order would spread to places further.

Without staying too long outside of Camp 27, Jiang Chen met Yu Lu and Wang Zhaowu waiting for him at the gate. After he reviewed the Second Division stationed there, he followed Yu Lu to Fallout Shelter 027 located underground.

Inside the research institute, Jiang Chen found Fang Weixian who surrounded a watermelon-sized electronic device with his colleagues also in white lab coats. It must be the critical module of the quantum communication satellite, but from his twisted eyebrows, the difficulty they were facing didn't seem to be small.

Jiang Chen didn't want to disturb him, he passed the chip to the assistant in the shelter and briefly hurried on to see the development of the quantum communication device.

Without stopping longer, Jiang Chen then visited the Biology Technology Research Institute to speak with Wang Fangping and explained the purpose of his visit.

The attacker hit by Ayesha was currently under interrogation at New Moon Island. Based on the description from Ivan, this person didn't reveal any information despite the torture he received, and all wounds recovered at an incredible speed. Therefore, Jiang Chen remembered Wang Fangping in the biological engineering research with the hope to find the answer from him.

"Super regeneration ability? Without the need to use machines and medicine?" When Wang Fangping heard Jiang Chen's description, he was first shocked before his eyebrows furrowed. "There are plenty of methods to increase regeneration. The gun wounds from a sniper… there is a hidden genetic code called Tenacious that could achieve a similar effect."

Sun Jiao's hidden genetic code was Tenacious, and Jiang Chen personally witnessed the effect of that skill. The person could get up from a pool of blood despite being shot several times in exchange for consuming life. But even then, Jiang Chen thought the ability of the attacker has nothing to do with genetic code.

Especially since there was no way genetic vaccines existed in the modern world.

"Other than genetic code, is there any other possibility?" Jiang Chen asked.

"There is another possibility… there are many. Some dangerous anatomy modifications could achieve a similar effect, but these modifications usually would cause negative consequences. Speaking of which, mutated humans seem to fit your description." Wang Fangping used a half-joking tone to explain.

Chapter 564: A Promise

Normally, no living creature could survive through interdimensional travel. A mutated human appearing in the modern world? That's absolutely impossible and Jiang Chen was certain about this point. When he heard Wang Fangping's half-joking words, he only smiled without thinking too much about it.

Although Jiang Chen didn't receive a satisfactory response from Wang Fangping, his words still provided Jiang Chen with a thought process.

The assassin may potentially be the product of genetic modification.

Jiang Chen was curious who, or which organization could use modern day's technology to modify to this point. To be able to withstand a Ghost Sniper Shot on the chest, even mutated humans would be half died. But that person could climb up, run, and the wound healed in half a day's time.

It didn't look like what humans could achieve.

"No one could lie about their body condition under the microscope. If the General wants an answer, you could bring that person into the Fallout Shelter for examination," Wang Fangping acutely observed the bothered look on Jiang Chen's face and suggested.

"That person can't get here." Jiang Chen simply replied, "Any other way?"

"Can't get here… How about this? I need 10 mL of blood, the metabolites in the blood, as well as the DNA information, should be enough to decipher the secret." Wang Fangping offered a secondary proposal.

Jiang Chen still shook his head.

"Blood… Metabolite should be okay, but DNA might be a bit difficult."

Based on Lin Lin's observation, the interdimensional travel action's damage was not only limited to the termination of body functionality, but it would also affect the DNA of the cell. The former can be attributed to the effect of entropy subtraction on the organism, while the latter is unable to be explained by the science and technology of the 22nd century.

Seeing that method didn't work either, Wang Fangping thought in his head for a while before his eyes suddenly lit up.

"I have a plan. The smart medical chamber! If you can't bring that person over, make him lie into the smart medical chamber and use the body examination function to bring his body function information back."

Jiang Chen abruptly slapped his own forehead.

[Fu*k, how did I forget about it.] The last time after Ayesha used it, he forgot about that thing in the basement of the mansion.

Since it was not possible to bring live cells back, he could just bring the data back.

After he took the recipe for the new nutrient supply, Jiang Chen left Fallout Shelter 027. Rejected and thanked Xu Lu's invitation to have dinner there and toured the work at Camp 27 before he headed back to the Fishbone Base.

The snow piled on the road was thick and the vehicle stalled halfway in the journey.

A few NAC young men jumped out of the car and pushed out the General's vehicle from the snow pile. One person took out a toolkit and began to inspect for potential faulty issues. They were the personal guard under the direct order of the General, formed under the proposal of Han Junhua. They were the elite of the army, while not Knights, their benefits were the same as Knights. After their term, they will be officially granted the status of Knight and follow the logistic department's decision to transfer to other positions in NAC.

Jiang Chen saw their proudness toward their identity on their faces.

The problem was due to the engine oil being frozen. Applying an anti-freezing agent solved the problem. After ten minutes in the snow, the vehicle finally started back on the road.

...

When Jiang Chen returned to the Fishbone base, it was completely dark out.

At the door of the mansion, Jiang Chen shook off the snowflakes on his body. Yao Yao in a light pink sweater timidly smile and took over the jacket from big brother's hand.

In a harmonious atmosphere, Jiang Chen and the girls completed their delicious and lively dinner.

Because he still had business to take care of in Xin, Jiang Chen didn't plan to stay long in the apocalypse. But before his return to Xin, he still had one thing to do.

To fulfill a promise.

…

He had traveled between the modern world and apocalypse countless times already, he had been used to the acute dimensional differences.

The only the thing he didn't grow accustomed to was the sun outside. While Wanghai in December was cold, it was not like the apocalypse's chill deep to the bone. The wind blowing on his face even felt somewhat graceful.

Currently, Jiang Chen's hand was being held by a beauty in sunglasses while they walked along the street in the New Age Square.

Liu Yao was a famous celebrity now and she typically wore sunglasses when she went outside. But what made Jiang Chen wonder was, he is much more famous compared to her but not a lot of people turned their heads. But Liu Yao on the other hand, because of her fashionable appearance and celebrity vibe, it attracted many envious looks directed at Jiang Chen.

[Is it because I'm not part of the sticker pack?]

Jiang Chen thought that must be the reason.

"Are you done with your business in Wanghai?"

"Pretty much, the remaining coordination work I left to the new CEO."

"Then… do you plan to go back soon?" Liu Yao pouted and shook the arm she hugged cutely.

"Mhmm. My ticket is for tomorrow night." The soft gentleness made Jiang Chen's mind drift away.

He thought about staying for a few days longer while being intoxicated in her gentleness, but virtual reality MMORPG was about to go online, he also needed to replenish the supplies at the apocalypse, he didn't have the time to spare to stay for a few days longer.

"Thank you for staying with me for so long… You must be very busy."

"I'm indeed very busy." Jiang Chen laughed without humility at all.

Liu Yao rolled her eyes, pouted her mouth, and her delicate fingers twisted the meat on his arm.

Rather than feeling pain, it was rather enjoyable; it was like being bit by a kitten.

They went into all the stores at the square. The clothes Liu Yao liked, Jiang Chen swiped his card without looking at the price. Since the trial of zeros in his card was enough to buy the building.

The salesperson was ecstatic at the way they swept through the store as she wished it was her that stood beside him. But when she saw the appearance and figure of his female companion, realizing the gap, she immediately gave up on the unrealistic idea.

After they stuffed the clothes into the car, they went to the theater and finished watching the movie Liu Yao acted in.

Jiang Chen promised to her before after the film was released, he will watch the movie with her like they were a couple. The reason why he stayed after taking care of the business in Wanghai was to fulfill the promise he made.

The credits began to play on the screen, Jiang Chen smiled while watching the crowded theater. He gently squeezed Liu Yao's hand and whispered into her ear.

"The last time we watched this you were sitting on my legs, this time you're holding my hand. We watched this movie twice."

Liu Yao understood the tease in Jiang Chen's voice, she remembered the time he picked her up and her face instantly turned red. She scoffed him in a quiet voice, "Pervert…"

Liu Haotian at the seat in the back rolled his eyes so many times while watching them flirt.

How lonely does one have to be to watch a movie alone? The two couples who sat beside him looked at him with a peculiar expression so many times. But because of his "work needs", not only did he need to follow them; he had to watch them which were beyond the definition of lonely.

The people at the top viewed Jiang Chen's safety as a top concern especially after an unknown force attempted an assassination. It related to their international image and they must ensure nothing happens to him while in the country. Because of this, while Liu Haotian accompanied him for the business investment opportunity, another task he had on this trip was to protect him.

While on the surface only he followed them, around the theater, at least ten General Staff Department agents followed them. Once any situation occurred or is about to occur, the experienced anti-terrorist experts will be able to stop any attackers who dared to step foot here…

Because of this, Jiang Chen who planned to lure the rat out felt rather helpless.

It was his last two days and no attacker appeared, the opponent seemed to have forgotten about this.

When they came out of the theater, they grabbed dinner at a high-end restaurant. Her vivid red lips bit on the straw and Liu Yao carefully observed Jiang Chen's face. She suddenly asked.

"What are you looking at?"

"A beautiful girl."

"You're lying."

"…" Jiang Chen replied with a helpless look.

"Is it not convenient to tell me?"

"Whatever, it is nothing that must be kept a secret," Jiang Chen sighed, spun the fork in his hand, "someone plans to assassinate me."

A wary expression appeared on Liu Yao's face.

"Are you scared?" Jiang Chen teased.

For some reason, Liu Yao pouted with jealousy in her voice.

"I'm not scared. Since I'm only your mistress, after all, they at least should pick someone with higher value if they want to kidnap me?"

"Oh? What if they are my enemy?" Jiang Chen smirked, "the type that doesn't seek any gains and only wants to see me suffer?"

"If anything happens to me, will you feel agony?" Liu Yao asked abruptly.

Jiang Chen paused and forced a smile.

"Why would you ask this?"

Although he didn't directly answer the question, the hesitation in his eyes told Liu Yao the answer she wanted to hear as a smile emerged on her face.

"What are you smiling at?"

"Nothing, I just think that when you're not straightforward, you're surprisingly cute."

"… Isn't this something a man should tell a woman?"

With how animated Liu Yao looked, Jiang Chen found it quite funny. He once again shifted his thoughts to the previous topic. He didn't speak for a while before he suddenly asked.

"Oh, now that you're a celebrity… It is not safe for you to live alone, why don't I arrange a bodyguard for you?... What are you laughing at."

"Nothing, I just feel really happy." She was happy about something Jiang Chen didn't understand as the curvature on her mouth turned into a crescent moon.

Jiang Chen suddenly found that the way she laughed was surprisingly beautiful.

Chapter 565: Kurofune

The evening of next day, Liu Yao drove Jiang Chen to Wanghai airport.

She kissed Jiang Chen in the departure hall, waved her hand to say goodbye hidden under her sunglasses, and watched his flight depart.

At the same time, seeing Jiang Chen finally leave, Liu Haotian who stood outside of the airport finally felt relieved.

Now that he finally sent away him, he could go back to Shangjing. The weather in the south was damp and cold. While the temperature was higher compared to the north, it was chilling to the bone which made him as a northerner extremely uncomfortable. And he had been worried about Jiang Chen's safety for the past few days.

But fortunately, no incidents occurred in the past few days. Perhaps the attackers sensed the agents surrounding Jiang Chen, so they chose to retreat knowing the impossibility of the attack succeeding.

Liu Haotian took out his phone and called his home in Shangjing.

"Target has boarded… This guy is finally gone."

"Did anything happen?" A shrewd voice came from the other side of the phone.

"No. All is clear. The escaped assassin has made no new moves and will probably remain hidden," Liu Haotian watched the flight that disappeared into the night sky and replied.

Sitting on the plane, Jiang Chen watched the city fading away until the light sparkles disappeared from his sight before he retracted his sight.

"Dear our valued customers. Thank you for boarding Han Eastern Airline Flight MU771 heading to Xin Coro City from Han Wanghai. The flight distance of this flight is 3261 kilometers with an estimated flight duration of 5 hours and 47 minutes. To ensure the airplane's communication system is functioning correctly, please do not use large electronics during departure and landing. Cellular functions must remain off…"

"We hope you enjoy your flight."

Boarding a flight was different from taking a train, at least with a train he could browse the internet on his phone. Right now, Jiang Chen without the habit of reading newspapers or a book could only look at the beauties to kill time.

Needless to say, the flight attendants on international flights were high quality. This point not only reflected on their gorgeous looks, but their courteous attitude also made it impossible for people to feel repulsive. Of course, perhaps it had to do with being in the first class cabin.

The traveler who sat beside him with a hat on asked for a newspaper from the flight attendant, Jiang Chen only briefly scanned the flight attendant in close distance before giving a rating of 8/10. The traveler took over the newspaper, perhaps noticed Jiang Chen's sight, gave him a friendly smile before he leaned into his chair.

Jiang Chen noticed that he was flipping through the economics section.

Reality soon proved that despite how gorgeous the girl was, it would be boring after a while.

Jiang Chen yawned, took out his phone in flight mode to check the time.

9:00

The plane already departed for over an hour. Jiang Chen roughly estimated that the plane should have passed by Taipei and into above the Pacific area.

It was getting fairly late, Jiang Chen adjusted into a more comfortable position and planned to nap for a bit. Before he closed his eyes, he glanced at the traveler beside him with the corner of his eye and noticed that he was still flipping through the newspaper.

"Are you planning to sleep? The journey is still long; do you not plan to chat with me to kill some time?" The man looked at his newspaper and said quietly.

Jiang Chen opened his eyes, smiled, and used a quiet voice that would not disturb people.

"Oh? What do you want to chat about?"

"Let me first introduce myself, my name is Tanaka Yoshihiro, biologist, and astronomer."

"Are you from Nippon?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows in surprise.

With how fluent his Chinese was, Jiang Chen thought he was a Han.

"Mr. Jiang seems to be surprised?"

"I'm indeed surprised, your Han skill is great… You know me?"

"Mhmm." Tanaka opened the newspaper and used his slim finger to point at a black and white picture on the headline, "This is the picture on the Phantom launch event, and currently the clearest picture published in the media."

Perhaps because of habits after years of work, his voice was mixed with a tone of academic rigidness. The best way to describe it was that a sentence that should be said in a light mood became narrative without any emotion.

"You're very observant." Jiang Chen nonchalantly said.

"Observation is the foundation to science." Tanaka closed the newspaper, folded it, and folded it again.

"This is?" Jiang Chen furrowed while looking at the scientist's action, he didn't know what he was trying to express.

The wrinkled fingers while like on the strings of a puppet, folded the newspaper into an odd-shaped paper boat. He placed the paper boat on the armrest between them and gently said, "Kurofune. Did Mr. Jiang knows about this word?"

"Origami?" Jiang Chen crossed his legs and joked.

"You really should study world history." Tanaka slightly adjusted the hat on this head and sighed, his fingers crossed in front of his knee, tilted his head and thought for a brief moment before he said, "The six years of Jiayong era, the UA Navy Brigadier General Matthew Perry's fleet sailed into the river basin in Jianghu river. With him was the UA President Millard Fillmore's letter to the Edo shogun expressing respect, and finally, the two sides signed a pro-treaty next year declaring peace, this event is known as the kurofune incident. "

"Are you planning to talk about history with me? I'm sorry, but I'm not interested" Jiang Chen already recollected the description to this history on his elementary school textbook. But understanding is one thing, being interested is another.

"No, I just hope you can understand the background to the story. And I want to hear your opinion on the Kurofune incident without any superficial patriotism."

"Your Opium War?"

Tanaka shook his head with a smile, "While still superficial, it is not far away."

"Oh? What's your view then?"

His dried lips moved, and Tanaka said in a quiet tone. "The fusion of civilization."

When Jiang Chen heard the word civilization, he pupils were mixed subconsciously with a hint of alertness.

But Tanaka didn't seem to notice Jiang Chen's reaction as he continued, "In the clash of the advanced civilization and outdated civilization, one would receive prosperity while the other evolve in agony or vanish. Just like history, the process may be painful, but to the result, it would be the evolution of the entire civilization."

He paused and pointed out one finger with a smile without changing the unfitting rigid tone, "If we expand our sight to the scale of the universe, don't you want to see the clash of the advanced civilization and the outdated civilization."

"Only lunatics want to see that." Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"That's unfortunate then." Tanaka sighed, sat up straight, and extended his hand to Jiang Chen. "I'll reintroduce myself, Tanaka Yoshihiro, you can also call me as professor."

Jiang Chen didn't shake his hands. Instead, he locked onto his eyes.

"What exactly do you want?"

Without answering Jiang Chen's question, Tanaka put his hand away and spoke emotionlessly.

"Speed of 0.85 Mach, a height of 9100 meters. If I guessed correctly, you can't use your interdimensional travel ability here. Of course, you can try to travel to that side while maintaining subsonic speed and see if you will crash against the wall or not."

Jiang Chen was stunned when he heard his words.

[This is impossible!]

[How does he know my trump card?!]

Suddenly, the queen that declared war on him suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Could it be…?

"Right, you ask what you want." Tanaka smiled.

"To put it simply, your ability is too problematic for Kurofune. So, to welcome the next era…" With his hand on the edge of his hat, the cloudy eyes locked onto Jiang Chen's pupils like a viper, "please bring your trump card into the grave."

Chapter 566: Bring your trump card into the grave

The instant Tanaka took off his hat, his hat smashed into the back of the chair in front of him.

Jiang Chen, who was about to react, was completely bewildered by the scene. Jiang Chen previously thought the person would bring out some destructive weapon and he was more than prepared to defend himself. But before he could do anything, Tanaka, who took off his hat, became unconscious.

The passenger in the front, who was sleeping, sensed his chair being bumped. He turned around and gave a hard stare at Tanaka. But Tanaka didn't raise his head as he seemed to have lost all senses.

The flight attendant in the first class cabin noticed this and immediately moved to Jiang Chen. When she saw Tanaka's head leaning against the back of the chair, she kneeled down and put her face closer.

"Sir, do you not feel well? Sir? Sir!"

Seeing that he had no reaction, the flight attendant kneeled down. She immediately became nervous and wanted to help him up.

"Don't touch him!" Jiang Chen was alarmed and squeezed the hand of the flight attendant reaching for Tanaka.

From the last assassination attempt, these people didn't look like people who would avoid harming the innocent. Especially since they were on a transportation device like a plane, what would be the most effective? With a doubt, a bomb was the best option.

"Sir?" The flight attendant looked at Jiang Chen in shock. She didn't know how to react when this stranger held her hand.

Other sleeping travelers were woken up by the commotion on this side. The two other flight attendants in the front and back noticed the disruption and approached them.

Jiang Chen didn't provide any explanation for the shocked flight attendant. He just locked his eyes on Tanaka with his head spinning rapidly.

The two other flight attendants looked completely lost at Jiang Chen, who was holding onto the hand of their colleague. They then redirected their gaze to the man with his unmoving head against the back of the chair; they were unsure what to do. The other travelers were all looking in their direction.

Then the door in front of the first class cabin opened and a man with a captain's hat walked into the cabin and looked in Jiang Chen's direction.

"What happened?"

Jiang Chen released the flight attendant's hand. The flight attendant sadly rubbed her hand that had turned red while Jiang Chen pointed at the man beside him and mouthed the word "bomb" without making a sound.

The captain read Jiang Chen's lips and his eyes immediately turned stern while his gaze shifted between Jiang Chen and the man.

Jiang Chen could read from his eyes the obvious suspicion and hesitation involved in taking a risk.

It was normal to hesitate because anyone randomly pointing at an unconscious traveler, stating he had a bomb would suspicion. The traveler could have some sudden onset of a disease-related symptom, and if he wasn't treated in a timely manner…

Even Jiang Chen was wondering if the person had anything hidden on him…

"Captain?" The flight attendant looked at the captain anxiously.

"Get little Cao here." The captain turned and whispered to the flight attendant.

The flight attendant nodded and immediately ran out of the first class cabin. Not long after, a man between twenty and thirty walked into the first class cabin. His appearance looked like any other ordinary passenger, but from the sharpness in his eyes, Jiang Chen acutely sensed his identity might be different.

From the beginning of October 2004, all flights from Hua had a seat unsold. This seat was specifically reserved for undercover police. The undercover cops typically had a special forces background. Not only did they have abilities in close combat, but they also possessed a wealth of experience in deactivating bombs. When the security on the flight couldn't take care of an unsuspecting situation, the undercover cops would solve the problem.

Typically, they would solve hijacking or bomb problems on board...

When the undercover cop walked beside Jiang Chen, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

Without hesitation, the undercover cop kneeled down beside the person and instructed the flight attendant on the side to open his toolkit. He took out some equipment and began to work on the person.

Jiang Chen, who was sitting beside the person, noticed a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead and splashing onto the red carpet.

"What's the situation like…" Seeing that little Cao wasn't saying anything, the captain also began to feel nervous.

He had been a captain for over five years and had been in countless anti-terrorism drills, but it was his first time encountering something like this in real life.

Little Cao gritted his teeth, stood up, and whispered to the captain: "The person is dead; the cause of death is unknown. I found a countdown device on his body and I'm uncertain what it is… evacuate everybody first."

Then he looked at Jiang Chen and warned him, "Don't move. I'm uncertain if there are any detonation devices around you."

Jiang Chen opened his hands to indicate his understanding, but when he heard from their whispers that Professor Tanaka already died, he was caught off-guard.

From the words of Tanaka, he clearly knew a lot of information. The more he knew, the higher his status was in the organization. It would've been a terrible plan to trade one life for one.

He sensed something was off.

Just then, he suddenly remembered that before Tanaka lost consciousness, he seemed to have made a move…

Jiang Chen's gaze stopped on the hat on the ground.

Jiang Chen picked it up and touched the linen material. He seemed to have detected a metal object hidden in the material.

The captain started to instruct flight attendants to evacuate the first class cabin passengers.

The passengers in the first class cabin started to understand the situation and began to feel anxious. The people who could afford first class were either important or rich. The richer the person, the more fearful they were of death… Of course, Jiang Chen was an exception. Although he had money, he didn't think he would die.

Supplemented with Tanaka's comments, he could piece together what happened.

Kurofune… The Kurofune he referred to should be the Nature Selection sent by the Harmony to Earth. Regarding the civilization fusion he referred to, his understanding of the Natural Selection must not be limited to knowing its existence.

For some reason, the organization led by Tanaka received an electromagnetic wave or Klein particle wave from the Natural Selection; they were subsequently manipulated or even brainwashed to become "followers" of the Harmony.

After the conclusion of his conversation with the Queen, Jiang Chen already knew the Queen was aware of his ability to engage in interdimensional travel and even knew about his secret storage dimension.

But what still confused Jiang Chen was that until now, they hadn't displayed any desire to kill. It wasn't difficult to understand - just like humans' perception of bugs, crushing them or not wouldn't be linked to the concept of killing, especially since they still wanted to capture him to help them return to their "home planet."

What made the Harmony change their opinion and desperately want him dead?

Jiang Chen fell into deep thought.

While the undercover cop disarmed the bomb, the captain returned to the cockpit. He needed to send a request to the nearest airport to make an emergency landing. The passengers were evacuated; only three people remained in the first class cabin.

They were Jiang Chen, little Cao, and the flight attendant.

Considering how collected Jiang Chen looked, while the flight attendant was anxious, she was curious at the same time. Typically, it should be her who comforted passengers with unstable emotions, but this passenger was special - he didn't seem to be bothered by the bomb beside him at all.

"Aren't you afraid?" The flight attendant gulped and asked in a quiet voice.

"What's there to be scared of?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Since it's right beside you…"

"If it really is a bomb, it makes no difference where I sit."

Only the timing of death would be different.

"Threat deactivated."

Following a trail of sweat splashing onto the ground, the countdown timer strapped around Tanaka's waist was stopped. Little Cao felt relieved. He accepted the napkin offered by the flight attendant to wipe the sweat off his face.

Just in a short period of time, his entire body was drenched.

"The bomb is disarmed?" Jiang Chen was surprised.

It was deactivated this easily? Jiang Chen didn't feel any better about surviving through it all with how easily the threat was eliminated.

"There was no bomb at all… At least nothing I haven't seen before." Little Cao spoke while carefully cutting open Tanaka's jacket and he took out a vest with mysterious hanging plastic balls.

The transparent plastic balls were connected together by soft strings. Under the bright light in the cabin, they looked crystal clear.

"At least treat this as a dangerous good for now… Threat is eliminated."

Just as little Cao was speaking, the body of the plane shook violently as if it had been hit by something.

"Ahh-"

The flight attendant screamed and was flipped to the ground by the shaking body of the plane. Little Cao also tumbled, but as a special forces agent, he held onto what seemed to be the dangerous vest with one hand while holding onto the seat beside him with the other.

"Fu*k! What's going on?!" The dangerous item in his hand almost flew out and almost scared Little Cao to death; he cursed after regaining his footing.

Jiang Chen, who had his seatbelt on, didn't feel too much although the violent shaking did catch him off-guard.

It was normal for the body of the plane to shake when encountering air turbulence, but the continuously trembling of the cabinet made it feel odd.

It clearly wasn't turbulence - it felt like something struck the plane.

Just then, Jiang Chen looked out the window and was stunned.

The turbine engine was burning in fire!

Chapter 567: Mayday

North of Country F's Masa Island, a boat quietly drifted on the surface of the west Pacific Ocean.

Standing on top of the boat, a man with a hat lowered the smoking rocket launcher on his shoulder and stared at the falling ball of flame. A curvature appeared on his mouth.

In Hua, with the General Staff Department agents watching, they had no opportunities to attack at all. And with the security screening at Hua airports, they had no possibility of bringing explosives onto planes. From the beginning, they never planned to take out Jiang Chen on a plane.

The rocket launcher was only suitable against low air targets; it would be impossible to take down a commercial airline ten thousand meters in the air. In order to use the rocket launcher to take down targets, they had to make them "obediently" lower their height.

They would use bombs to force the plane to descend and force it to fly toward the nearby the airport. Once it reached the range of the rocket launcher, they would take it down.

Based on the calculation of the flight map, it was the best shooting spot Tanaka calculated.

Whether the method was too cruel, or if it would hurt innocents were never questions of their concern.

"What beautiful fireworks. Not bad, not bad. Professor will be happy when he sees it." Tanaka threw the improved "Spike" Rocket Launcher onto the deck and watched the "meteor" dragging a trail of flame disappearing in the distance.

"The rocket launcher struck the left engine… It only has a 70% crash chance." Ladisiv put down the binoculars in his hand while he leaned against the door to the deck. "You sure the Professor will be happy?"

"Of course." Tanaka smiled. "But this is very problematic. If we don't win the gambit on the 30%, Professor will be very bothered. Mr. Ladisiv, please."

He never told his subordinates that he was that professor. He had always been referring to himself as the assistant. There were many more people who wanted the life of that professor instead of the life of Jiang Chen.

Ladisiv glanced at him, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it up.

"You guys are acting more and more like lunatics; are you not afraid of associating your name with Al Qaeda and IS? City S is the second biggest city of Country F; you think F's army is only there for show?"

"Country F's army is currently in a war with Moro. There are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of this situation. Although I've prepared for some interesting things on the plane, just in case, I have to ask you to please make a personal run. Don't worry, extras missions will provide extra bonuses." Tanaka grinned.

"Interesting things?" Ladisiv's expression changed.

He was unsure what Tanaka had to offer, but he heard the company was currently researching a chemical weapon.

"I said, Mr. Ladisiv, this is a war. A war." Tanaka put up one finger, shook it, and adjusted his hat. "Although it is a half-finished product, let me use this opportunity to see its effect. Hahaha…"

….

The dry but presumptuous laugh drifted on the empty ocean surface and vanished among the crashing waves.

Ladisiv quietly blew out a ring of smoke and gazed out at the white smoke.

"I need people, equipment, and a helicopter."

Tanaka stopped laughing and faced his partner with his arms open.

"They're all ready for you."

…

In the air traffic control center of Country F, an unusual red dot appeared on its radar. Flight MU 771 with its destination set as Xin's Coro Island drifted away from its intended flight path and entered Country F's airspace. When they discovered this oddity, the air traffic controller immediately contacted the flight crew.

Control tower: "This is the Control Tower, MU 771. You have entered our air control zone. The communication frequency is 132.6—"

Fight crew: "This is flight MU 771. Our left engine is on fire! We were struck by a rocket. Requesting emergency landing!"

Control tower: "What?"

Flight crew:" I repeat, a rocket struck our left engine! We require assistance!"

Control tower: "Please remain calm. City S Flight Control Tower will provide a landing runway for you. Please follow our instructions…"

[Struck by a rocket?!]

The people in the air traffic control center immediately became worried and called Country F's Presidential Palace then called military headquarters. The air force commander just got into bed with his wife before he was called out by a phone call from Aquino.

"Flight MU 771 was struck by a rocket! I need an explanation!" The moment the call went through, Aquino's roar followed the phone line right to Edgar's head.

"I-I don't know, but I promise, it was not our people! What happened? What flight and rocket…" Edgar completely lost all composure.

Aquino was breathing heavily.

"MU 771 was truck near our airspace. The left engine is on fire. It's currently heading to Suf Airport."

Edgar's first reaction was that it must be a joke. He peeked at the calendar before his expression instantly changed.

Today wasn't April Fools

"Must've been Moro that did it!"

"Bullsh*t! Their rocket launcher could strike down a commercial plane ten thousand meters above the air?!" Aquino heard this brain-dead comment from his subordinate and instantly turned furious.

The firearms of Moro's guerrillas couldn't reach the height of a commercial plane. That was the reason why UA's fighter jets could provide support without feeling pressured at all. Only F had the capability to bring down a plane in that ocean space, and once that realization gained traction, F's international image would be completely done for…

Realizing the severity of the situation, Edgar immediately rushed out the door to the headquarters while calling his subordinates and sending out orders.

Mila military base. Two FA-50s came out and approached the direction of flight MU 771.

When the two FA-50s reached the commercial plane, the pilots of the fighter jets immediately felt anxious for the passengers after witnessing the tragedy on the plane.

The entire left wing of the plane was engulfed by thick black smoke. Through the thick smoke, the unextinguished flame was still visible.

Needless to say, with dthe amage this severe, it was already a miracle that they could maintain a gliding position to the airport.

MU 771's captain and first officer were still attempting the last struggle. They prayed the wing wouldn't break while desperately trying to regain control over the plane starting to lose control.

"No! This is it, we won't make it to the airport!" The first officer locked onto the instruments and shouted out in despair.

"Hold on, we can do it! We have to make it to the airport!"

"Damn it, the right wing is damaged! The engine malfunctioned! Fu*k, start moving for me—" The captain repeatedly tried to restart the engine but it was futile.

MU 771 turned into a fireball.

All members of the flight crew had despair on their faces. After experiencing the initial outcry, the passengers began to write their last words on their clothes and notebooks. Jiang Chen, witnessing this hellish scene, couldn't bear what he just saw, but he ultimately took a deep breath and calmed down.

He knew he couldn't save everyone.

He muttered "I will avenge you all" then he stood up and walked in the direction of the lavatory.

"Where are you going?" The flight attendant saw Jiang Chen unbuckling his seatbelt, so she stood up from her seat and asked him.

"Going to the washroom." Jiang Chen ignored her and walked away.

At the same time, inside the cockpit, the captain, who exhausted all his efforts, put his hands down.

"This is the City S' air traffic controller, MU 771, location 32R. Runway is clear for landing, please-"

"This is MU 771, we are unable to land. Please tell my family I love them."

A ball of thick smoke slashed through City S night and crashed toward MLL Island's northwest Harbor K…

Chapter 568: Hell and the People in Hell

Inside the Wanghai hotel, Liu Haotian was packing up.

After he sent Jiang Chen on the plane, his mission in Wanghai was considered done. He still had a train to catch tomorrow morning, so he planned to pack up before he went to sleep. Just then, his phone on the nightstand began to ring.

It was a number he didn't recognize. He thought it was an escort service or advertisement at first, but he became dumbfounded once he picked up.

It was the General Staff Department responsible for Jiang Chen's safety in Hua.

"The flight crashed?!"

When he heard the message on the other side of the phone, Liu Haotian almost dropped his phone to the ground.

He couldn't imagine that after being on the plane for two hours, such a serious incident occurred to Jiang Chen!

"It's information passed from Wanghai's flight control tower. Country F contacted us already and transmitted the location where the plane experienced the problem. The original plan was to make an emergency landing at City S's International Airport, but the plane lost power at around 2000 meters in the air, lost the opportunity to land, and crashed into City K."

Liu Haotian gulped and squeezed the words out.

"What was the cause of the crash?"

"It was suspected to be a direct strike by a rocket."

"Rocket? Could it be Country F—"

"It's currently undetermined, but Country F is highly suspicious. Based on the location where the flight deviated away from the intended flight path and height, only Country F has the capability to strike that plane. And based on the recent tension between Xin and Country F, they did have the motive to do this… although I don't think they would be foolish enough to do this. The exact cause of this incident still has to be determined by the information in the black box—"

"I don't care about the black box. What about the people on the plane?!" Liu Haotian interrupted.

Jiang Chen and the Liu family had a cooperation agreement. If anything happened to Jiang Chen, Liu family's interests would be affected

...

"Based on the information provided by Country F, due to the height and speed of the crash, the chance of survival is extremely slim…"

Liu Haotian hung up the phone and collapsed on the bed.

His hand holding the phone couldn't stop trembling.

This wasn't good.

Hua and F's diplomatic relationship hadn't been the best; it would be difficult to confirm Jiang Chen's safety. Although he was only working in the concierge department to get some experience, he had been working diligently. If he remembered correctly, the city of Kejan was on MLL Island, and that place seemed to be in the middle of a civil war…

Wait, Moro.

Liu Haotian's eyes lit up.

He immediately slid open his screen and called the Xin Embassy.

…

The flame lit up the night sky like a meteor that broke through the night; it disrupted the sweet dreams of every City K resident. The explosion was clearly visible even several kilometers out, which made people think it was the bombardment by guerrillas.

At the last moment, the captain still couldn't restart the stalled engine. The plane was forced to make a hard landing in the middle of City K.

The head of the plane came into intimate contact at a 30-degree angle with the road. Metal shards and concrete debris were instantly created and exploded. The airplane slid on the road at a horrifying speed, and the cars on the street were shredded in the air force generated by the wings of the airplane. Like a sharp blade, they sliced into the buildings on two sides. After shredding through two walls, the two wings finally clipped off.

The body of the plane was dismembered into several pieces, and the head of the plane began to drift away.

People screamed, cried, and fled to avoid the flying shards in addition to searching for their family among the shambles.

Like a pierced bloody bag, flowing blood, along with jet fuel, left a trail of blood and fire on the destroyed road.

It was like hell.

When the tragedy occurred, the pain of the victims would only last an instant, but the pain of the living would last forever.

Both spiritually or physically…

The vest held by little Cao had long been shredded to pieces when the plane crashed along with him. The remains were blown outside the plane by turbulent airflows. Countless plastic balls smashed and splattered on the street. The second the colorless liquid came into contact with air, it turned dark green and vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At the scene of the crash, in the middle of the shambles:

A man used his bloody hands to dig through the debris and hugged his wife on her last breath in agony.

"Liya, wake up, you'll be okay. I'll take you to an ambulance. Hold on—"

But suddenly, his expression froze.

The woman in his arms bit into his shoulder. Her teeth pierced his flesh; her bloodshot pupils had no life in them at all and cast a horrifying hollowness.

The man forgot how to speak until an entire piece of flesh was ripped off by the person in his arms.

"AHHH—"

The horrific scream echoed throughout the street. The man subconsciously wanted to throw away the love of his life, but her nails stained red either by blood or nail polish were already deeply embedded in his back. The woman entangled herself around him like an octopus, suppressed him, and chewed on his flesh without sanity. The man's clenched fists gradually loosened and his screams of agony stopped along with his breath.

Seeing that her prey was no longer moving, the woman stood up while shaking. Her lifeless pupils began to search for her next target.

The man being preyed down gradually stood up from the ground. His pupils also cast the same daunting hollowness.

Ladisiv carried an assault rifle covered in camouflage. His eyes watched for any danger that could dart out from the darkness. When he saw this bloody moment, he couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows, even as a war-tested veteran.

"This is absolute hell."

"I agree with your perspective." Giles, who was walking beside him, lifted the assault rifle on his arm with a casual expression.

Dressed in urban camouflage uniforms, fifteen militants with an unknown identity walked onto the empty street. The guerrillas used the disruption of the plane crash to launch a full-scale attack on Kejan. The sound of destruction in the distance covered the agony on the street.

Fire began to spread out from a corner of the city, but there were no firefighters or paramedics to be seen. All firetrucks and ambulances had been acquired by the government; some durable personal SUVs were even confiscated by the army and attached with machine guns.

It was the last harbor of the Country F government on MLL Island; if they lost it, that would mean the fire of civil war would spread over the sea to the prosperous City S. To protect the prosperity of this place, the 13th Infantry Division was stationed here and swore to all the people of Country F that they would do their duty, even if they were down to the last soldier.

"With a fall like this, would that person still be alive?" Lasidiv glanced at the airplane seat burned to the ground.

"In theory, no, but no one can determine if that person had any other trump cards. It's better to take a look. Also, did you eat that pill?" Giles asked nonchalantly.

"It was mint-flavored," Ladisiv said.

Giles took a second to process before he started to laugh.

"That's right, mint-flavored."

"If I may ask, what if someone didn't eat that pill?"

"That would be problematic." Giles sighed, suddenly engaged in firing mode. He aimed at the civilian tumbling toward them. "You would become like them."

He simultaneously pressed the trigger at the blank face.

Chapter 569: Resident Evil?

[Damage Percentage: 65%]

[Draining nutrient fluid…]

500 meters from the spot where the plane crashed, a "metal coffin" stood tall among the debris. After five minutes of silence, a faint electric static noise began to buzz and the hatch door to the hibernation chamber began to open, followed by the sound of gas leaking.

"Ahem." *puke*

Jiang Chen tumbled out from the hibernation chamber while one of his arms pressed against the half-destroyed wall. He dry-puked on the ground.

Before the plane crashed, Jiang Chen, who realized the impending doom, immediately walked into the lavatory. After he locked the door, he took out the virtual reality hibernation chamber stored in the storage dimension. While it should've technically been connected to the virtual reality network, due to the quality standards of PAC, it could also be used as a temporary shelter. When nutrient fluid filled the inside of the hibernation chamber, its potential to allow the user to survive a crash was better than power armor.

He used GPS to confirm that the plane would land in the city then Jiang Chen installed a timed bomb on the wall of the lavatory before stepping into the hibernation chamber. The second he entered the hibernation chamber, the bomb blew open the wall of the plane and the turbulent airflow took the entire hibernation chamber out of the body of the plane.

But what Jiang Chen didn't think about was the "user experience" of the hard landing; he didn't realize it would be so painful. Although the function of the hibernation chamber included shock resistance and floatation, a drop from a hundred meters up was not considered in the design.

Jiang Chen rested for a while, leaning against the wall. After a deep breath, he stood up and began to observe the environment around him.

The half-collapsed buildings didn't look like the aftermath of the plane crash but more like damage from missiles and shells. Taken into consideration with the yellow lines in the surrounding area and the situation around MLL Island, this should be the hotspot between the government forces and the guerrillas.

Fires sparked in the distance. Judging by the body of the plane severed into several pieces, the passengers inside probably didn't make it.

"Then… I'll have to make contact with the guerrillas to leave the territory. But as the only survivor, it's going to be quite problematic…" Jiang Chen let out a sigh, put the hibernation chamber back into the storage dimension, crossed an exposed reinforced steel beam, and walked onto the street.

For some reason, the street was terrifyingly silent.

In the unusual quietness, Jiang Chen sensed something was abnormal.

"There's no ambulance even after an event this serious?"

Jiang Chen furrowed his brows, took out his phone, and called Ayesha's number.

"The user you have dialed is not in service or has turned off their phone…"

Jiang Chen hung up and glanced at the top left corner of the phone.

[No signal?]

Normal cell phone calls were transmitted through the signal base station and signal cable. For international long distance calls, a submarine cable would be added to the process. Only a dedicated satellite phone (such as the American Iridium phone) could make a phone call via satellite.

If a phone call couldn't be made, there could only be two reasons.

Either the plane destroyed the antenna to all the signal base stations or F voluntarily shut down all the signal base stations in the City K.

The former was obviously impossible, so the latter was the only possibility.

"Shut down the signal base station? But why?" Jiang Chen put away his phone and began to contemplate.

If a phone call couldn't be made because of an accident, that would be understandable. But what if F shut down all the signal base stations? That was worth pondering.

[Blockading communication after the air disaster - did they not want to rescue the passengers?]

[Or did something happen here that forced them to hide the truth?]

The sound of mortar firing constantly reverberated in the distance. It was evident that a battle was ongoing outside the city. With the noise in the far background, the silence on the street appeared particularly peculiar; it felt like this place wasn't a city but a grave…

"Ahhhh! Go away! Sh*t!"

A scream abruptly echoed in the street, disrupting the silence of the "graveyard."

The smell of blood drifted along with the sound of agony. Blurry figures wavered in the haziness of the flames.

Jiang Chen gulped, put his hands into his pockets, and took out a pistol from the storage dimension.

He didn't do it because he thought he would really use it, but rather, the metallic feeling of the pistol gave him a sense of security.

The people looked slow and dumb. Their eyes were covered in blood and even ten meters away, they were clearly visible under the light of the streetlights.

Suddenly, a terrifying thought surfaced in Jiang Chen's mind.

[Could it be…]

[That's impossible!]

Although he was thinking, Jiang Chen still subconsciously took out his pistol and aimed at the civilian tumbling toward him.

"Stop."

Without any reaction, when the civilian heard Jiang Chen's voice, he sped up and bared his teeth stained red.

Without any need for clarification, only the dead were unafraid of weapons…

BANG!

The sound of the pistol broke the silence on the street.

With a bloody hole in his forehead, the zombie with a blank look collapsed onto the ground.

"What actually happened… Fu*k." Jiang Chen lowered his gun while cursing. He walked to the zombie and used a dagger to cut open the back of its neck.

Different from the zombies in the apocalypse, there was no sign of infection from the X1 virus nor was there a grain-sized crystal. By the looks of it, the infection mechanism was different.

Jiang Chen felt somewhat relieved by this result.

"Grhhhh…"

Deep roars came from two ends of the street. Jiang Chen looked up and the zombies began to surround him. Inside the buildings along the street, terrifying faces were pressed against the glass windows, smudging blood all over the surface.

"Is this because of the gunshot?" Jiang Chen looked at the pistol he was holding. He muttered to himself, "Whatever, I'll retreat for now."

Then he put away his weapon and commenced traveling…

A cold gust of wind blew by, carrying along a few plastic bags.

Jiang Chen was in the same position with his left hand raised and his eyebrows awkwardly jumped.

[It was unsuccessful?]

[What's going on?]

The windows on the nearby apartment building shattered. A person covered in blood fell onto the street along with some glass shards. Falling from a height of three storeys, any normal person would've been crippled, but this person didn't look affected at all as he climbed up from the ground while aiming his bloodthirsty pupils towards the only living creature on the street – Jiang Chen.

With his hairs raised, Jiang Chen gave up on commencing interdimensional travel and he immediately took out his Reaper Assault Rifle.

The zombies crashed down onto the street like dumplings entering boiling water and swarmed toward him.

His blazing rifle shredded the zombies nearby.

With one hand holding the gun while the other wielded his laser sword, Jiang Chen slashed a zombie leaping toward him and cut his ugly face in half.

"Fu*k! What's going on?! This isn't the apocalypse!"

He kicked away another zombie and changed the mode of the laser sword. He threw out a propelling laser blade. At the same time, he threw the laser sword back into the storage dimension, instantly taking out a new clip and replacing the emptied one.

Flesh and bullets flew in the air. He made a path through the swarming zombies and ran to the tallest apartment building nearby.

Along the way, he used his one hand to reach for a pickup truck and put it in the storage dimension. When he ran into the building, he gunned down a few zombies pursuing him then he moved the pickup truck to block the entrance of the apartment building.

The storage dimension was functional!

The zombies flooded towards him and compressed the pickup truck against the door. The massive force made the steel surface let out a painful whine, unable to withstand the massive pressure. But regardless of how hard they pushed, they couldn't enter the building.

With short breaths, Jiang Chen leaned at the entrance of the apartment building and lowered the rifle in his hand.

After a moment of rest, he grinned at the zombies outside the apartment and raised his left hand.

He stared at the engraving with the energy clearly full, and his eyebrows furrowed.

The confusion lingered in his mind.

[Why can't I use this?]

Chapter 570: Virus is spreading

Marching on the empty street, the fifteen-member-team with rifles in hand fired continuously, killing the zombies on the street. The rifles they possessed were installed with silencers and the bullets only made short and low sounds. The zombies didn't even fully comprehend the situation before being gunned down.

The scattered civilians who thought they were the F army waved their hands in search of help. But the civilians clearly didn't realize that their uniforms didn't belong to any country and the badges on their shoulders didn't distinguish their identity at all.

Zombies and civilians were all part of their kill list.

"People who don't take the 'mint' will get affected?" Ladisiv killed a civilian with his hands raised while running at him. He asked Giles with a coldblooded voice.

"Not all people will get infected. It's just like the black plague; while the mortality rate is extremely high, there will always be a few graced by lady luck who are immune to this," Giles said nonchalantly.

"What's the range of influence of this?" Ladisiv asked.

"Only 2.5L to create another dead city in this world," Giles said in a pleasant tone.

Ladisiv glanced at Giles before moving his back into the crosshairs again.

"Then it's a deadly thing."

"Just 2.5L of the poisonous liquid costs 250 million USD. Although it can spread rapidly, the virus's ability to survive outside the body is extremely weak; normal ultraviolet can kill it. Therefore, this thing can only spread at night to launch the first wave of infection. Thus, this is a half-finished product." Giles grinned.

Although it was just a half-finished product, its impact was devastating. In just one hour, it made thousands of people turn into zombies. Even people who were immune to the first round of infection would become zombies after being bitten through the more infectious method of direct contact.

Ladisiv didn't say anything more and trained his attention to the mission at hand.

Just then, they heard a faint gunshot in the distance.

"Did you hear that?" Giles stopped.

"I heard it; it sounded like a gunshot." Ladisiv signaled the team to stop.

With his eyes narrowed, watching the flames in the distance, Giles gently said, "There are two possibilities. One is that the Country F government forces already discovered the situation here, and the other possibility is that it was Jiang Chen who fired the gun."

...

"Jiang Chen? That's impossible. Even though he's a person of influence, it would've been impractical for him to bring a gun onto the plane." Ladisiv disagreed.

"He didn't need to bring it onto the plane. If it's him, it's not hard to make a gun appear out of thin air, so don't be caught off guard." Giles smiled mysteriously and continued, "You know, we are fighting against a God."

"Bullsh*t," Ladisiv responded coldly.

Giles shrugged and continued to raise his rifle.

"I know you don't believe it. Whatever, regardless of what I say, let's get to the black box first. Within three days, he won't be able to escape. Once we obtain the black box, we'll have plenty of time to play with him."

Giles spoke mysteriously as he walked in front of the squad and signaled Ladisiv to follow him.

Jiang Chen took out the kinetic skeleton from the storage dimension and equipped it then rechecked the equipment on his body.

The power armor created too big of a target and was previously exposed on Coro Island, so it wasn't suitable to be used here. If it was spotted in CIty K, it would be hard for people not to think about the possibilities.

For example, could this "resident evil" event be related to Xin? Or why did the power armor coincidentally appear in City K the same time the infection broke out?

On the contrary, the kinetic skeleton, which could be worn inside his clothes, was less conspicuous. The kinetic skeleton was more than enough against typical zombies.

Jiang Chen did mind Tanaka pointing out his trump card.

But considering the Harmony's perspective, they shouldn't allow other people like Jiang Chen to engage in interdimensional travel at the end of the 22nd century. If other people knew about his abilities, it would be hard to determine the final outcome.

Even if Jiang Chen said he came from the future, the media would think it was a joke.

Just like if Jiang Chen told the media that an alien colonization ship was on its way, no one would believe him either.

The fortunate thing was that Jiang Chen could confirm he possessed something that made others afraid.

And it could be the breakthrough to take down Natural Selection.

But the problem then became: what is the breakthrough point?

Jiang Chen carefully arrived on the 12th floor and opened the metal door to the roof. With the cold wind blowing in his face, he walked to the edge of the building and narrowed his eyes.

The entire city was dead. The cold river divided the city into two worlds - the west side was bright and lively while the east side was completely dark. In the distance, signs of government forces fighting against the guerrillas could be seen.

Without confirming the cause of the plane crash, he didn't plan on contacting the government forces controlling the City K. Although the suspect that took down the plane was Tanaka who was already "dead," the only country with the ability to take down a plane at ten thousand meters in the sky was Country F.

Considering his unfriendly relationship with Country F, Jiang Chen had enough reason to suspect a connection between Tanaka and Country F.

Thanks to the darkness and war, there were few pedestrians on the street. After the unknown virus spread, there weren't a lot of zombies wandering on the street.

But even then, with a population of over one hundred thousand, it made the city particularly dangerous.

Explosions could be heard continuously in the distance. The city west of the river began to lose power simultaneously. Did the people who were fighting realize the soil they were fighting over was already a grave?

Where did the virus begin to spread?

With this question in mind, Jiang Chen took out his binoculars and began to search for this street.

Then, his gaze stopped on the crashed plane.

[Could it be… the source was on the plane?]

His pupils contracted slightly.

There were two groups of people who appeared in his field of vision.

A group of people were in F uniforms wore anti-poison masks; they looked like the local forces. They were stained with blood and a helicopter hovered nearby. They seemed to have diverging opinions regarding if they should shoot civilians in this chaos.

Finally, their captain seemed to have made up their minds for them. He raised his gun to shoot the "rioter" on the street before leading the team to the wreckage of the plane.

Another group of people in city camouflage weren't equipped with anti-poison equipment at all; they didn't have any badges that identified them either. Just from their equipment, Jiang Chen couldn't recognize their origin. But he was certain that they were neither F government forces nor the guerrillas.

Because the weapons of the guerillas were provided by him.

Compared to the hesitant government forces, this group was much more decisive. They seemed to know that the people who lost sanity were zombies. They shot any zombies who approached them without any doubt.

The government forces noticed these uninvited guests. While they raised their rifles with caution, they also shouted out to them first.

But the reaction of the second group of people was still decisive. As if the government forces were zombies, they began firing.

Chapter 571: Fragile

The most prosperous area east of the city center was filled with deafening car horns.

The not-so-wide street was congested by a long line without end. Without realizing the situation in the front and no cell phone reception, people could only use their horn and curse to express the dissatisfaction in their mind.

"Could people in the front be faster! What the fu*k are you doing!" A truck driver looked out the window and cursed at the people in the front.

The traffic didn't make any advancements. The man walked out of the car, leaned against the door to peak at the surrounding and began to chat with the driver in the car next to him.

"Sh*t, when will the traffic end?"

"Hopefully not tomorrow. Do you know what happened in the front?"

"Only God knows, there is no cell phone reception, no internet, my wife is still waiting for me at home. Fu*k, this is so unlucky, did a congestion like this ever happen here?"

"I think… no. Wait, there was a traffic jam a year ago."

"I heard a plane crashed in the east side of the city, perhaps it is because of that." Another driver joined their conversation.

"Ah ha, that was a plane? I thought it was a meteor… Regardless, please don't land in my backyard." Leaning against the car window, the truck driver muttered while cursing.

Right now, there was a violent explosion from the distance. People subconsciously ducked down before they returned to their casual conversation.

The war has lasted for half a year already and the explosion and firing never stopped at MLL Island. They would scream in the beginning, now the most they would do was to duck down. People grow into habits; once they can't change the situation, they become accustomed to life in the war.

"The guerillas are firing again?"

"Those lunatics that don't want to live… Wait, what is that?" The man leaned against the car door and suddenly noticed the commotion on the road in front of him, he began to furrow.

Someone was racing.

No, a group of people was racing. They ran in between the vehicles, stepped onto windshields, and dove toward people.

Their face was…

Covered in blood!

Realizing something was clearly wrong, the man locked the door, took a few steps back while hesitating, and then gritted his teeth and began running at full speed. Everyone began to run to avoid the lunatic that bit anyone he saw.

There were waves of screams and the congested road turned into a complete mess. The drivers reluctant to leave their car either curled up or stepped down on the gas. While a lot of people saw Resident Evil before, when everything became a reality, their first reaction was being clueless.

Are they really zombies?

Are they died or alive?

Once they exhibited similar hesitation, only death awaits.

The truck driver anxiously closed the car window, but the half opened window was stuck by a hand reaching in.

While he cursed out, he turned his steering wheel while smashing the bloody hand. At the same time, he pressed on the gas.

The truck demolished the BMW in the front and pushed it forward two meters without being able to move a inch further.

The driver's face was pale white. Only now did he realize how stupid of a decision he made to stay in the car with a bunch of bloodthirsty people leaping toward him.

The lunatics with blood on their faces already surrounded him.

The driver put the steering wheel in front of his chest, watched the windshield slowly crack, and his pants began to be stained with a yellow liquid.

And then, he used the corner of his eye to see that the taxi driver just chatting with him was dragged out from the broken windshield. He was crying and shouting the name of God and his daughter, then his neck was bitten off by the zombie…

…

The City K, a row of police cars lined the bridge that spanned across the river. Police with shields guarded in front of the blockade while attempting to stop the crowd from passing the river.

The east side of the city had completely lost the cellular and electricity grid, but because the police used the city line, the control system was not in chaos, only everyone's brain was in chaos.

Compared to the civilian who knew nothing, they acquired firsthand information from the front line.

The crashed plane carried an unknown virus and the status of the infected was unknown. The known symptom was that the infected would turn insane and attack any non-infected target. The entire east side of the city was covered under the gloom of the virus. To prevent the virus from spreading to the west, they established temporary inspection stations on the bridges that spanned the river.

Of course, the police force at the front line didn't know the truth behind it.

The only order they received was to block this bridge and prevent anyone from passing through. And the riot that happened in east side of the city was the action of the rioters. To prevent rioters from mixing with the crowd and entering the west side of the city, they were ordered to block any passage to the west before the security force took control of the situation.

But their superior didn't precisely tell them how to take care of the situation.

This included if they should fire against zombies?

Fire? They are all civilians, even if their brain was poisoned by the virus, they could still move, that meant they are not died! Against unarmed civilians and firing at their own citizens, who could bear the consequence! Especially what if they discovered a better problem solving solution after the fact? Such as an antidote.

What kind of consequence it would cause was no longer important.

Anyone ordering to shoot must face persecution after the incident, and could even bear the name of "butcher" for hundreds of years.

Not firing? Tear gas and baton were useless against the lunatics. Even if the trained soldiers could use force to take down a few zombies, against a swarm of zombies, personal strength was ineffective.

No one wanted to take responsibility, everyone knew what to do, but no one wanted to be the person ordering.

When crisis arrived, management still had an attitude of shifting and deflecting responsibility, perfectly demonstrating the lack of decisiveness in crisis management.

This point was already demonstrated by several typhoon events.

"Why won't you let us cross the bridge! There is a riot there! You're not there to stop them and you're here to stop us from escaping!" The man smashed the shield with his fist while roaring in anger.

Riot was the official explanation given to the virus.

To prevent unnecessary panic, it was a necessary lie.

The reporters with cameras used satellite stations to broadcast the chaotic scene.

"I'm currently in City K. Tonight at 10:37, three shocking events occurred in the city! Air crash, guerillas launched a full-scale attack to the military base in the southwest, the Green Church in the east side of the city responded to the attack of the Moro guerillas by launching a riot. In handling the event, Country F government demonstrated a lack of competency. Xiangjiang reporter, who ran the fastest, reporting for you."

But obviously, there were misinformation in the reporting.

Facing the angry crowd, the police force here shared a complex emotion. While they must face the curse and saliva, they could not fight back.

The government force already mobilized a brigade from the front line to establish the defensive nest to the east of the bridge. As long as they could control the situation on this side of the bridge, they could establish health inspection stations and transport verified "safe" civilian to the other side of the bridge.

The sheriff felt slightly relived by the thought.

Although even till now, the Ministry of Health had yet to come up with a virus containment plan.

Suddenly, there were screams from the back of the crowd.

A few zombies ran, rolled, and tumbled across the fence of the bridge and leaped at the crowd without anywhere to ran.

The zombies already broke through the line of defense set by the army.

At the location where the commotion started, the sheriff saw a zombie in military uniform. One of his ears was bitten off, there was still a rifle across his shoulder, and that rifle was stained in blood…

The zombies that rushed into the crowd were like tigers leaping into a herd of sheep. People used their backpacks, umbrella, and even cameras to smashed the zombies frantically, but it was futile against the insane monsters.

People pleaded to the police with shields and begged them to make a way. The police all looked in their sheriff's direction while waiting for his order. The sheriff held the radio, but after anxiously speaking out the first sentence, he became silent.

Reality proved that even an insignificant individual standing at the right spot could influence the life of thousands.

The police saw the hand holding the radio slowly drop down and gradually began to lose grasp…

The radio slid out of his hand, he took out the revolver and aimed at the crowd.

Bang!

Instantly, everyone became silent.

The man fighting over the shield with the police widened his eyes slowly with disbelief, then collapsed onto the ground.

No one thought the police would fire first. And even the police didn't think their superior would be the first one to fire.

"What are you all waiting for! Fire! Think about your family behind you! They are the infected, not rioters! Can you not see! All the people being scratched or bitten will become their kind! I'll take all the responsibilities, I order you, fire! Fire! Fire—" The sheriff used all the strength in his body and screamed at his subordinates.

The roar dispersed fear.

Guns were gradually beginning to be shot. After the initial hesitation, they became dense.

The people being abandoned watched the people that once protect them in despair, their eyes changed from agony to decisiveness to finally apathy.

The lives of the one hundred thousand in exchange for the sacrifice of the few thousand people.

The sheriff didn't execute his superior's ambiguous order and made the executive decision to fire. People who didn't want to die jumped off the bridge, the despaired opened their arms to welcome their fate, the people who could not accept being given up on used their last effort to throw rocks at the shields.

A rock hit the sheriff in the face, cracked his forehead. Blood dripped down from his face and clouded his left eye.

But he was laughing.

"The right order" was already executed, but what would happen in the end was out of his control.

He raised his revolver again and closed his eyes.

But this time, he was pointing at his own temple.

Bang!

Chapter 572: Airstrike

In the mountain range south of City K. One helicopter and two figures appeared.

One was kneeling down while one was standing.

Tanaka seemed to be tired from kneeling down. He stood up, opened his arms toward Kejia in the darkness, and smiled.

"Do you see it? My masterpiece."

A man in a suit stood beside him. He was holding onto the binocular while watching the chaos in the city.

"Just from a weapon point of view, it's not bad."

As a businessman, that was his impression.

"No wonder it is President Tanimura. Whether it is the attitude or diction is all similar to the bad guys," Tanaka said.

Without funding and connections, any conspiracy wouldn't have a starting point. The reason "Kurofune's" plan could succeed must be attributed to the soil and nutrient provided by Nippon government and corporations. This type of impeccable "weapon" with military and economic value was perfect for Takeda Pharmaceutical who could make a handsome amount through the vaccine business or to the Nippon government eager to expand its military influence.

For example, if the virus were to break out in their annoying country, what would happen? The only company, Takeda Pharmaceutical, with the anti-virus vaccine would instantly become the wealthiest company in the world overnight, and Nippon who owned Takeda Pharmaceutical would complete the feat they failed to achieve in the last century.

But if the Nippon government and Takeda Pharmaceutical really knew Tanaka's actual plan, would they still think this way?

But they would never know, just like no one will really believe Jiang Chen could travel back and forth to the future, no one would believe Tanaka was setting up for "aliens" to land on a defenseless planet. Even if one of them named their company as "Future" while the other named the organization as "Kurofune".

Tanimura put down the binocular, glanced at Tanaka without saying any words, and then headed to the helicopter.

"Are you not going to look a bit longer?" Tanaka turned around and laughed.

"No need, the board only needs to confirm the practical value of the virus," Tanimura's back was turned against Tanaka, and he said without emotion.

"Judging a samurai sword by its 'practical value' would only make the sword lose its shine."

"Oh?" Tanimura turned around and looked at Tanaka with questions in his eyes.

"You know what killed this city?" Tanaka asked with a smile.

Tanimura raised his eyebrows. "The virus?"

"Wrong," Tanaka shook his finger and smiled, "It is weakness; the weakness that belongs to a civilization…"

Ten kilometers out of City K, the entire west side of the city had fallen. Only one bridge managed to withhold till the end, but five bridges spanned across the river.

…

Weakness destroyed the civilization.

Compassion to the weak, awe to life, respect to law, admiration of rights…

All virtues of humans would eventually become the burden of survival in the face of an unconquerable obstacle.

The man that attempted to use his hug to change the wife that turned into a zombie, the people holding onto the dagger but unable to stab toward the neighbor, the people because of despair who jumped off the building not willing to become the same kind as the zombie…

Standing at the top of the building and looking down the street covered with blood, Jiang Chen came to a deep realization about this point. He disliked this country, but when he witnessed the atrocities that happened in front of his very eyes, he stomach instinctively felt agitated by the gruesome scene.

"These bastards…"

Jiang Chen took a deep breath, reloaded his rifle, took a few steps back before leaping toward the building across from him. He managed to jump over the ten meters of distance with the help of the kinetic skeleton. He leaped between buildings while running to the location of the crash.

The crossfire between the Country F government force and the unknown militants ended already. Out of the eight government soldiers, five were instantly killed while the remaining three only lasted for ten seconds under the fire of fifteen rifles. The helicopter was retreating, but it was taken down by an RPG.

The unknown militants quickly took control of the crash site. A soldier was planning to head into the wreckage to retreat the black box.

Boom!

A bullet penetrated the skull of that solider.

Giles grinning eyes immediately widened and locked onto the building one hundred meters out.

"He's here."

"Take cover!" Ladisiv signaled. Everyone immediately hid nearby and began firing back to the area.

Jiang Chen was shocked by how fast the militants reacted and continued to fire.

From their calmness against zombies and the lack of masks alone, this information was indicative that the virus must be connected to Tanaka.

The source of the virus or the reason behind his failed travel could all be answered by that person.

So, go die!

Jiang Chen dodged a few bullets flying at him and threw out ten Hummingbird drones.

His fingers tapped on the EP several times and then circled a few points.

When the circular discs with machine guns came flying toward them, Ladisiv immediately fired back.

The orange sparks circled the wreckage of the plane. Ladisiv was hit on his shoulder but took down two drones. In this group of people, he had the best shooting skill and the most battle experience.

But even then, it was his first time fighting with such terrifying objects.

"Dammit! Where did these things come from?" Ladisiv cursed while his reloaded under the cover fire of his squad.

"I told you, we are fighting against a God, so don't feel too surprised." Giles' forehead was bleeding while leaning against a wall almost completed destroyed as he continued to fire back.

After paying a price of five lives, the ten drones were finally taken down.

The powerful war machines made them feel a deep to the bone chillness.

Jiang Chen was also stunned.

Ten drones couldn't take care of them?

Although the EP's computation resource was limited, there is no way it can't take care of fifteen people.

The only explanation was that their shooting ability was incredible.

Because EP as a terminal could at most connect to ten Hummingbird drones at the same, Jiang Chen didn't store more in the storage dimension. He did possess the more powerful Python and Reptile, but he didn't want to expose them too early.

Especially since he still had other toys…

He took a deep breath as a menacing smile appeared on his face. Under the cover of the wall, he took out a thick and long heavy machine gun.

"Heavy machine gun! Retreat—"

Ladisiv's pupils immediately contracted, at the same time, he threw out a smoke grenade while running back to another wall.

"Too late!" Jiang Chen hoisted the heavy machine gun and smashed the stand onto the ground.

The hexagon shaped transparent bulletproof board expanded and reflected a colorful haze of the fires near the wreckage site, through the haziness was a sneering face.

A series of red dots surfaced on his retina, Jiang Chen aimed at the closest one and pressed the trigger.

"Go die!"

The violent bullets took a gust of wind along with it and shredded the dense, thick smoke. A direct hit by the massive bullet meant that whether it was the wall or flesh, it was shredded to pieces.

The undisguised firing attracted more zombies, but the annoying hearts were all included in Jiang Chen's kill zone.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

…

Ladisiv hidden behind a building was still panting in fear. Just that instant, only six out of the ten team members were left. He still didn't understand where the heavy machine gun came from.

"Is that really Jiang Chen? It is not the special forces from Country F or Xin?"

"Do you still not believe me now? My dear Mr. Ladisiv. I said we are murdering a God… to welcome a new God." He added the last sentence silently. Giles glanced at the number on his watch with a grin; he took out a flare from his waist.

"You're not going to use power armor? That's unfortunate, then try this!"

He ducked out of the cover and threw the flare toward Jiang Chen.

The flare flipped in the air and bloomed into a bright red flame.

At the scene, Jiang Chen's pupils immediately contracted. While he ended his fury, he immediately jumped to the side.

Almost instantaneously, a gust of winds blew by, carrying a storm of bullets that destroyed the entire building.

25mm machine gun shredded the heavy machine gun along with the building into concrete debris and exposed the reinforced steel.

With one hand holding onto the reinforced steel, Jiang Chen turned around to look at the building he was just standing on, and a drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

[Good thing I didn't wear the power armor…]

The deep homing noise instantly faded, through the pitch black night, he saw a glimpse of a fighter jet soaring by.

Chapter 573: Aurora-20, Strike!

At 10:15 am, an F35 took off from a carrier and headed to MLL Island for a routine bombing mission.

"This is Vulture-1. Vulture-1 has entered the theater, over."

"This is the command center, Vulture-1, the target's position is (131, 374), approved to fire, over."

"Vulture-1 received, opening safety, over."

The pilot ended the communication, turned off the communication channel, reset the route on the radar, and suddenly diverted its route to City K. Until the F35 escaped the tracking of the friendly radar, the aircraft carrier finally realized something was off.

The station tried to contact the F35 several times that deviated from its route, but it did not receive a response.

After losing contact for three minutes.

Guided by a signal flare, the F35 launched an air raid on a ground target in the eastern part of City K.

...

Upon receiving a call from Xin Embassy, Ayesha's dropped her phone.

"What's wrong?" Xia Shiyu, who was watching TV, looked at the girl.

Originally, Xia Shiyu thought that it was difficult for her to get along with Ayesha. She was hesitant about Jiang Chen's decision. However, after a few days of spending time together, Xia Shiyu realized surprisingly that even after she stated her own attitude, their relationship did not become strained.

Perhaps because the two people were more similar, when they didn't need to talk, they seldom spoke.

Picking up the phone from the ground, Ayesha hesitated but did not tell the truth to Xia Shiyu.

"It's nothing."

Desperately telling herself not to be impulsive, Ayesha took a deep breath, suppressed the worry in her mind, and called a set of numbers that belonged to Jiang Chen.

It was busy...

The little hand holding the phone trembled. Although she believed that Jiang Chen would be okay. She still couldn't contain her fear and worry.

She was always brave, always had been like that.

Because there was always a person that treated her with gentleness.

At the same time, it was her only weakness.

At this moment, a hand came out from behind and gently held her hand.

Ayesha felt the warmth, blanked out.

"What happened, can you tell me?"

"But..."

"It's about Jiang Chen right?"

Biting her lower lip, Ayesha nodded.

"Tell me."

"But... you can't help."

"Your statement is infuriating."

"Ehh?" Ayesha looked at Xia Shiyu and then explained in a panic. "No, it's not what you think, I mean..."

"If you don't say anything, how do you know that I can't help? Don't forget, I am the CEO of Future Group. If you can help him, I can also do the same!"

With Xia Shiyu's strong stance, Ayesha stared at her.

She lowered her head, her fingers no longer trembled, and a hint of relief and peace of mind resurfaced.

"Mhmm."

...

When the news of the plane Jiang Chen boarded had crashed reached Liu Haotiao through Wanghai Airport, the news then spread to Xin, it caused an earthquake among the senior officials of the country.

Zhang Yaping, who was visiting the Capital, used diplomatic authority to dial the phone number of the Country F presidential palace. At the same time, Ivan urgently mobilized all the soldiers on New Moon Island and ordered the Guardian-class frigates stationed at Coconut Island to the border of Country F.

"Why is MU771 shot down by missiles near the airspace of Country F? Mr. Aquino, I need your explanation."

"Please pay attention to your rhetoric, Mr. Zhang Yaping, I am not your subordinate, I do not need to explain anything to you," Although at a disadvantageous situation, Aquino was still displeased with the demanding tone used by the president of a small country. He put out a tough stance. "Our people have already started the rescue according to the procedure. But you know that the plane crashed in City K, and it is very difficult to conduct the rescue mission in the war zone! Our people are already working diligently. Also, I don't know where you heard the rumors, what evidence do you have to prove that the plane was shot down by a missile!"

"When the plane was struck, the captain of MU771 reported the situation to the Wanghai Airport. The Wanghai Airport has already handed over the recording to our embassy."

"Oh, God, it's just a recording! Let's not argue about whether Wanghai Airport's action follows the appropriate procedure, you can identify the aircraft is hit by a missile with a single recording? Who can guarantee that it was not a seagull? We also have evidence here! At the time of the incident, no warship equipped with air defense equipment was near the water of the incident! Before the black box is found, any of your rhetoric will be regarded as a provocation against Country F!"

Zhang Yaping gritted his teeth and tried to remain calm.

"I don't want to discuss with you who is responsible now. Half an hour has passed, where is your rescue team? This accident happened in your city! At least there should be some firefighters! If you really don't want to do anything, then let our people go!"

"No way!" Aquino rejected the offer without hesitation.

Let the troops of the neighboring country enter their own country? The relationship between Country F and Xin was not that close! What's more, the virus crisis in City K made Aquino feel an instinctive panic. Tourism was the economic pillar of Country F. If the epidemic and panic spread, it would undoubtedly make the already deteriorating economy suffer a severe downturn.

Not only must they prevent foreign rescue teams from entering, but the army must put the entire city under quarantine! No one would be allowed to enter or leave at will. Before the development of a vaccine, the roads and ports leading to City K must be completely shut down!

"What are you hiding?" Zhang Yaping said with a hazy expression.

"We aren't hiding anything! I have disclosed all the information that can be disclosed. What do you want?! Oh, I have to remind you that you should have seen from the photos taken by the satellite. The plane already turned into pieces, you think there are people still alive?"

"We have confirmed through the Sky Eye X1 Observation Satellite that Jiang Chen is still alive."

"Yes? Then you must be wrong. After all, you said that the satellite is a meteorological observation satellite." Aquino tried to deflect the blame.

"You are playing with fire." Zhang Yaping warned.

"Oh!" Aquino sneered at the threat.

The phone was hung up rudely.

Zhang Yaping took a deep breath and then called Ivan.

"Negotiation failed."

As if there was no such surprise, Ivan said, "No problem, we are ready now."

"You have to move fast." Zhang Yaping knew that it is useless to persuade him to keep calm, so he said with a bitter smile.

"We have always been fast, and we will never return empty-handed," Ivan said.

"Don't fight, if possible." Zhang Yaping made his final request.

"I'll try my best."

Soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons boarded four Black Hawk helicopters, flew to the apron on the frigate, and crossed the Country F border with the destination of MLL Island.

Although there was no declaration of war and the mission briefing only stated rescue, everyone was prepared for war. Especially the boys who hopped on the helicopter, eager to use the rifle in their hands.

At the same time, New Moon Island's airport was illuminated, bright as day.

Pilot: "Weapon system, normal. Hydraulic balance system, normal. Fuel tank, normal. Tail, normal..."

"Inspection complete. Shooter-1 requests to enter the runway."

Command Tower: "Approved."

Pilot: "Shooter-1 has entered the runway."

The ground crew raised the flag: "The runway inspection is complete!"

Command Tower: "Approved for takeoff. Good luck, Shooter-1. For our next month's salary, bring our boss home."

Pilot: "Roger... By the way, this is easy."

At the end of the communication, the pilot reached out and opened the throttle switch, and activated the artificial intelligence navigation system.

The vortex engine burst out a blue arc, and the fighter already soared through the runway and brought the palm leaves with it from dozens of meters away.

Aurora-20, strike!

Chapter 574: This night was bound to be unrestful

Kurofune.

Its nature was an underground organization, and its members were from all over the world. Although it was funded by the Nippon government and Nippon companies, they never fully understood the organization. The cooperation between the two sides was more of a "paid research" relationship, rather than a dependent relationship.

Kurofune's philosophy was not based on any superficial folklore or personal values, but on a near-crazy belief, or a stubborn ideology.

They believe that Natural Selection with the same origin as humans would bring eternal harmony to the human civilization, save humanity from its own suffering, and bring human civilization to the unreachable starry night no longer chained by gravity.

This kind of neo-religious group without any affliction to any organization and any secular interest was almost impossible to be discovered by intelligence organizations around the world.

The F35 pilot of Vulture-1 was one of the members of Kurofune. The original plan was to find a way to attack Jiang Chen's power armor, but there was a small change in the plan. Jiang Chen did not use the Power Armor but used the more flexible kinetic skeleton.

It was precisely because of this that the F35 changed the strategy of bombing and used the 25mm machine guns to shoot. But what Gordon did not expect was that the bullets that could blow tanks into pieces were dodged by Jiang Chen by instinct.

"The target is not hit." A report from the ground unit transmitted into his ear.

"Roger. I will fire again."

Gordon glanced at the thermal imaging display and found the heat source hanging from the side of the building. He sneers and raises the height to prepare for another dive.

However, at this moment, the infrared lock alarm began to beep.

Gordon cursed under his breath and immediately released a flare, then began to maneuver.

A close-range air-to-air missile flew right past the fuselage and made all of his hairs jump up.

Gordon, who dodged a blow, immediately boosted the engine power to the max, trying to get rid of the lock by the other fighter.

Among all the fourth-generation fighters, the F35 was arguably one of the most expensive fighters in the world. Because of the improvement in ground attack, it gave up some air superiority. So while it possessed a strong combat power, its mobility was not the most outstanding among fighters.

But despite this shortcoming, the fourth-generation fighters still displayed its prowess that no third-generation fighters could compare.

Gordon didn't think that the sneak attack was from a fourth-generation fighter. He escaped the friendly radar, and before the UA military could respond, he would have already completed the ground attack mission before landing in a secret military base. Only a few countries possessed fourth-generation fighters, and he didn't think Xin was one of them.

Even Russia with a good relationship with Xin, wouldn't sell its fourth-generation plane to them.

With a sneer, Gordon, while resisting the blood boiling up in his body, was about to send an AIM-120 at the target chasing him.

But when he raised his speed to the maximum and looked behind him, his sneer froze.

The plane that he couldn't distinguish did not show any signs of being left behind.

"How is this possible!" Gordon gritted his teeth and glanced at the speed dial, which was already approaching the red zone, then he pulled up instantly.

The nose of the F35 raised up, causing an emergency stop in the air that significantly decreased its speed. The blood flowing up almost made him faint, but Gordon had a smug look on his face.

Human's response time would be unable to respond in such a high-speed close air to air combat.

As long as the enemy plane flew in the front, the identity of the prey and the hunter would be reversed!

But at this instant, Gordon saw an incredulous scene through his bloodshot eyes.

Just as he pulled up, the Aurora-20 chasing in the rear unleashed its 27mm machine guns and shredded his fuselage and wings.

Just like he expected, the Aurora-20 soared underneath him.

However, what he did not expect was that the other pilot could fire in an instant.

With his hands off the control, Gordon desperately reached out and opened the ejection seat. He floated in the cold night sky while watching his plane disintegrate in the air...

At the same time, the Aurora-20 pilot ended the bullet time state and skillfully turned on thermal imaging to enter ground attack mode.

"The air target has been cleared, Shooter-1 is waiting for attack commands."

...

Looking at the sparks in the air, and the silhouette that whizzed past, Jiang Chen was ecstatic.

It was Aurora-20!

He was worried about how to get rid of that fighter, but Ivan helped him solve this urgent issue.

Of course, he won't know that at this critical moment, it was Xia Shiyu that issued the attack command to Ivan as the CEO of the Future Group. In a strict sense, it was a decision out of her power because Future Group and Celestial Trade operated as separate entities. But in this critical period, it was no longer a consideration.

Xia Shiyu was the most suitable person to make this decision.

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Chen left the cover with a rifle and opened the radio life signal detection device mounted on the EP. Six red dots were marked on his EP, and they were accelerating toward him.

Jiang Chen sneered and loaded the rifle.

[I am so tired of all of you!]

However, the Aurora-20 apparently did not give him the opportunity to fight. A low-altitude dive sounded combined with dense bullets instantly obliterated three red dots along with the zombies on that street. The dust even drifted two blocks away and landed on Jiang Chen's nose.

Three people died instantly. They realized the mission has failed and began to disperse.

But would Celestial Trade let them escape?

Don't forget who trained Moro!

The roar of the engine came from the distance and smashed through the zombies that began to gather. The guerrillas wearing gas masks jumped down from the military trucks and began to track the three unidentified soldiers who fled. The intensive gunshots echoed in the street. Guerrillas, zombies, and unidentified soldiers began a chaotic battle.

At the same time, a military Hummer stopped in front of Jiang Chen, and the general with a slanted military cap stepped out and saluted to Jiang Chen. He then spoke in English, though full of local characteristics.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, we have received a request from your country to come and pick you up. Please come with us, and we will take you to the safe area."

Turning off the EP, Jiang Chen looked at the direction of the wreckage of the plane and put the rifle behind his back.

"What about those three people?"

"Our people are tracking them and will definitely bring their heads!" the general said immediately.

With the escalation of the civil war, Moro was now relying more and more heavily on Celestial Trade's supply. Their previous cautious attitude turned into respect today. While it was not certain if they would remain respectful after independence, at least for now, the guerrillas without a military factory must depend on Jiang Chen to survive.

It was precisely because of this that the general's attitude towards Jiang Chen is exactly as modest as how a subordinate treats a superior.

"I don't want their heads, I want at least one to be alive." Suddenly, Jiang Chen pointed to the crashed passenger plane and went on, "Also, I need the black box."

"Leave it to us!"

After saying this, the general ordered the soldier next to him.

Then, Jiang Chen sat onto the Hummer and evacuated to the camp on the outskirts of City k.

Ladisov and Gilles fought as they retreated but couldn't escape because of the sheer number advantage of the guerrillas. Gilles and another team member died in recalcitrance, and Ladisov chose to surrender and was taken to outside the city.

Country F mobilized two more divisions and repelled the Moro guerrillas. At the same time, the three divisions controlling City K deployed checkpoints at all entrances to the city while declaring a state of quarantine.

A crash; two planes.

Even for the world, this night was bound to be unrestful.

Chapter 575: You will definitely be the scapegoat for this!

Although Country F blocked the news for the first time, it was obviously impossible to suppress such a big thing in the information age.

First of all, it was a "Resident Evil" incident.

The cruel virus turned the city into hell. People were killing each other, suspecting each other and being isolated in the desperation of water and electricity. According to Country F's Ministry of Health, a total of 111,000 people died in the riot caused by the virus and the remaining population was less than 70,000, isolated by three infantry divisions stationed in City K.

Although the virus only broke out in this modest city, the aftermath was the impact on the world.

The stock market will always be the market benchmark. The global stock market opened, all medicine-related stocks rose sharply. Some military-related stocks also appeared to skyrocket because there were rumors related to virus and terror attacks. Given the dangers of this virus, countries increased the terror crackdown efforts and added a budget on it.

On the other hand, antibiotics and other drugs in many countries and regions and convenience food had become out of stock.

Facing the emptiness of the shelves, Wal-Mart and other major supermarkets were really happy and sad. The joy was that the goods that were just put on shelves were stuffed into the shopping cart by the shoppers immediately. The worry was that salespeople had to face those who were angry as they couldn't buy the necessities. They had to call the suppliers to get shipments urgently.

Because of this incident, the Future Biological Group made a fortune unexpectedly. When people chose to buy food for storage, it seemed that they had a special taste of nutrition, especially the relatively inexpensive high-calorie nutrient supply, which was almost extinct from the shelves.

Promoting the major cooperative supermarket orders looked like floating snowflakes. Amazon, Taobao and other virtual stores were also out of stock. The Future Man Biological earned a lot in the pain and joy of promoting orders.

Under the help of people with a conscience, this incident of "Resident Evil" was obviously over-hyped. Despite the Country F Health Department making several clarifications that the virus barely survived in ultraviolet light and showed strong activity only at night. This rational voice from officials was soon subsided in the report which the media made regarding its destructive power.

Just looking at its destructive power and not looking at the pathogenesis and survival conditions, this virus was really frightening.

Because the term "zombie" was so popular that people had almost used it as synonymous for eschatology. Who was responsible for the panic buying? Perhaps Hollywood directors and those who wrote doomsday novels should take the blame….

While this "riot" was spreading to the rest of the world, the Hua government had performed very well. They arrested the posters on forums that spread false information and made a statement on all television stations and online channels to control the situation with high efficiency. Meanwhile, Ministry of Media and Publication investigated and dealt with a number of non-realistic novels, and arrested those who wrote doomsday novels just for proselytizing the public.

And then there was the F35 crash.

Yesterday evening, an F35 fighter named "Vulture-1" took off from an aircraft carrier and conducted an air strike mission on MLL Island, however, after arriving in the theater, the fighter plane cut off communication with the aircraft carrier and disappeared from the radar.

Subsequently, the aircraft launched an air strike on City K, killing at least 24 civilians.

After the attack, the F35 fighter disintegrated at high altitude over City K. The wreckage was already controlled by the government forces and has been handed over to the UA military on the aircraft carrier. At present, the UA military did not make further disclosures. A spokesman said the CIB has intervened to investigate the incident.

It was reported that the pilot flying the fighter was Carol Gordon. His comrades commented he was a great person. Before carrying out the mission, he didn't show any abnormalities. According to the testimony of the doctor in charge of his medical examination, Gordon was a person with good conduct and without a history of addictive drugs.

At present, the body of the pilot was found. Based on the wreckage of the aircraft, the pilot parachuted out before the plane crashed. Both Country F's government forces and the Moro guerrillas denied knowing the pilot's presence. The Moro guerrillas said they would agree if the UA force send limited personnel into Moro to search for the pilot if the UA agreed to stop the air strikes on MLL Island.

The UA spokesperson did not responded to the Moro proposal, but the aircraft carrier had stopped its routine strikes.

The last information was about the MU771 flight incident.

As the MU771 flight was considered the cause of the virus, Wanghai International Airport temporary closed for a day. After obtaining the virus samples from Country F, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Public Security conducted a comprehensive joint inspection of Wanghai Airport. Nothing was found regarding any suspect carrying the virus at the airport, and eventually proved to be a false alarm.

Country F said that the crash was a complete accident. Any rumor that the airliner was shot down by missiles was irresponsible and stupid. In the targeted sea of the accident, Country F did not conduct any military activity. All the speculations were meaningless until the black box was found!

Aquino was full of confidence to get rid of this blame that he did not involve in. Before holding a press conference, he repeatedly talked to his Marshal General and generals so that he could confirm he had sufficient evidences at hand to prove that the plane's crash was absolutely unrelated to Country F's troops. As for why the black box was not available, it was not because Country F's government wanted to conceal something, but because the black box was taken away by the guerrillas who rushed to the crash site.

What they said was correct!

But some people wanted to let them take responsibility anyway.

Faced with questions from the international community, Santos did not conceal anything and placed the black box in front of the camera. He said the guerrillas immediately carried out research and rescued Jiang Chen, the only survivor. The black box was handed over to the United Nations' observers, and data was examined under the supervision of the international community.

The media also devoted a great deal of enthusiasm about this lucky survivor. However, Xia Shiyu stood out for Jiang Chen and stopped all the media interviews. She only gave a general statement explaining that Jiang Chen had a serious injury but it was not life-threatening, and he did not get infected with the virus.

The entrance of the hospital filled with flowers people offered spontaneously. The flowers were the national flower of Coro, a specialty in Coro Island. People sent their prayers and respect for him by using the purest way. That the thriving Coro Island was because of Jiang Chen, supported by all by all of the islanders.

The investigation of the black box progressed swiftly. After the experts retrieved the data, they immediately released the findings to the international community… The reason for the plane crash was a missile struck the left wing engine, which was consistent with the message revealed by the plane's last communication with the ground.

The international community was in an uproar.

Aquino immediately jumped out and denied the authenticity of the black box data.

Yet no one believed his argument.

If a hacker wanted to replace the real recorded data with fake data, one change would need a series of data to be replaced.

In addition, some of the aircraft's basic data were transmitted to the ground in real time through ACARS (Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System), and the United Nations had confirmed that ACARS transmission was normal. This means any difference in data would be quite obvious.

It is not difficult to tamper with the black box data; however, it is almost impossible to leave no trace behind. And those international experts repeatedly checked the black box and even checked to see if anyone tried to open the box by force.

This time Aquino had nothing to say at all.

Various kinds of evidence were laid before him, and he just could not find strong evidence to refute. The black box data have proven the MU771 was not only shot down by missiles but also shot down by missiles launched from Country F.

Just as the Aquino administration was struggling to be accountable to the media and the families of the victims, spokesperson for Celestial Trade issued a statement.

"It is a pity that it is me who stands here reading the resolution of the company, not our beloved chairman. We cannot disclose more about his injuries, and I can only reveal that he had woken up only once in three days. Today I stand here just to read his directions on the company's future."

He took a deep breath and clenched his fist and then rested it on the desk gently.

"I think you should all know what it means to assassinate a key member of a state."

"A shameless conspiracy."

"No!"

"This means war!"

Chapter 576: The Reason for Justice

War?

War!

The sentence was loud and clear.

Almost all the reporters at the scene were wondering if they heard wrong. When they confirmed that they weren't being delusional, the crowd erupted.

Xin… No, Celestial Trade just declared war against Country F?

The spokesperson in front of the podium appeared extremely calm while facing the audience in disbelief. When he received the script, he was also shocked and in disbelief. But after he read through the entire script, there was only calmness left.

War will always only be responded by war!

As the headquarters of Celestial Trade was blocked by reporters, where did our "injured" protagonist go?

Currently, in an ocean-side mansion ten kilometers away from the hospital, Jiang Chen lowered his head, relaxing on top of Ayesha's cool thighs. He was relishing in the sea wind while enjoying his ears being cleaned.

The strands of hair that occasionally swept by his face and the person gazing at his face made him feel fuzzy both psychologically and physiologically.

Jiang Chen was so relaxed due to one reason. Since he supposedly was in "critical condition" and receiving treatment, he couldn't directly appear in front of the media at least for a short period of time.

When Jiang Chen was taken to Port D by Moro guerillas, he met with Ivan who personally came to pick him up. Judging by the fully equipped soldiers on the helicopter, they were clearly ready to fight in battle. If the Country F government dared to intercept, they would forcefully land with the support of cannons and fighters!

From the perspective of Santos and other guerillas, Jiang Chen noticed some envy of Celestial Trade's advanced equipment.

Jiang Chen suddenly had an idea and a plan began to form in his mind.

An extremely dangerous plan.

He walked beside Santos and put his arm around his shoulder.

"Do you want to end this civil war earlier?"

Santos was filled with excitement that was indescribable by words. Although the guerrillas were growing stronger by the day, in the face of the F army with advantages in both firepower and numbers, the outcome of the war was still unclear.

Seeing that Celestial Trade was willing to assist him further, there was no reason for Santos to reject Jiang Chen. Although he didn't show any expression, the muscular man with bullets wrapped around his body immediately held onto Jiang Chen's hand. He expressed that the people of MLL Islands would forever remember his generosity and friendship…

Of course, Jiang Chen didn't want a declaration of friendship.

Celestial Trade would send navy, air, and even land forces under the guise of mercenaries to participate in the civil war. The fees would still be limited time rights to mines and ores, but Jiang Chen generously offered to only charge at "cost."

The only requirement for Moro was to take control of City K.

Even if Jiang Chen hadn't demanded this, they still would've done it. The City K was K River's outlet into the sea - a strategic location for K Island.

The only disagreement came from the timing of taking over the city.

Since the city was in the midst of a terrifying infection, the guerrillas all resisted the idea of entering the city now.

On the other hand, in order to quarantine the city, three Country F divisions were sent there. From a strategic point of view, the best course of action wasn't to attack the heavily defended Kejia but rather to shift focus east and recover the northeast part of MLL Islands.

But Jiang Chen didn't care too much - he merely suggested a contrary opinion.

"Mr. Santos, we're here to help you end the civil war. We're not here to drag the war on. How do we quickly end this civil war? It's by focusing our fire and beating the opponent down with one punch, and then dragging their necks to the negotiation table."

"But we don't have enough force to go against three divisions," Santos said, troubled.

"We do." Jiang Chen paused. "We have enough firepower."

Modern warfare was never won by sheer manpower. While the number of Celestial Trade soldiers was around two thousand, their impact on the war was unquestionable.

Finally, Santos acquiesced to Jiang Chen's proposal. He agreed to send a division of forces to assist Celestial Trade's forces in taking control of Kejia. But if the casualties were above 40%, they would retreat.

Jiang Chen confidently expressed there was no way that would ever happen.

As for the excuse of starting a war, he already thought of one.

The public already believed that Country F mistakenly thought the commercial flight was Hua's reconnaissance plane and therefore launched a land-to-air missile to take it down. Then Jiang Chen didn't mind adding oil to the fire and directing public opinion to even more dangerous territory - when Country F received information that Celestial Trade's president, Jiang Chen, was on the flight, they launched the missile as an act of revenge.

With Country F's apathy toward the lives of the innocent and their attempt to make excuses for their criminal actions, Celestial Trade would respond with war!

In order to discover the truth behind the spreading virus and to find the vaccine as early as possible, Jiang Chen was determined to take control of virus-infected City K.

He wouldn't permit anyone from making this place into a second apocalypse, whether it was because he wanted to maintain the value of his wealth or fight against the colonization ship en route. Although he felt apologetic, he needed Country F to be the scapegoat for the plane crash.

Therefore, Jiang Chen, who agreed with Santos and Ivan, acted out everything in front of the media.

Three days had passed since the crash.

"Don't move. I'm almost done."

Ayesha took a Q-tip and attentively cleaned out Jiang Chen's remaining wax. He was about to fall asleep.

"Ten minutes ago, the Country F Foreign Ministry warned that Celestial Trade's dangerous words would be viewed as an act of aggression. They already sent their navy forces to the border… is that really okay?"

Xia Shiyu was sitting on the chaise longue. She pushed up her black-rimmed glasses and made her report while pretending not to see Ayesha.

"Not a problem. Country F's navy is a joke."

"What about UA?" Xia Shiyu was a beginner in international relations, so when she told Jiang Chen, she had doubt in her voice.

"UA won't do anything," Jiang Chen said affirmatively.

Perhaps they wanted to, but an hour later, they would change their opinion.

Just as she wanted to ask where his confidence came from, the glass door to the balcony of the mansion was opened.

"Mr. Patient, do you need any refreshments?" Liu Yao, in a nurse uniform, walked in and asked mockingly.

The gazes of three people landed on her.

Coldness from Xia Shiyu, praise from Ayesha, and shock from Jiang Chen.

The nurse uniform was part of Ayesha's collection and the size was based on Ayesha's petite body shape. Since the uniform was worn by the busty Liu Yao, it clearly looked "restrained."

Her firm curves were tightly outlined by the dress and the bustiness of her chest was about to jump out from the thin layer of fabric.

Jiang Chen discovered that the clearly-too-small uniform looked surprisingly nice on Liu Yao.

Perhaps Liu Yao noticed Xia Shiyu's stare but she pretended not to notice, laughed, and pointed at her chest.

"Seems to be a bit small."

"OHH—"

Xia Shiyu glanced at Liu Yao's chest and her lips turned into a firm line in frustration.

Not only Xia Shiyu was affected, but the innocent Ayesha also looked sad.

As to why Liu Yao was there, it was because of yesterday.

When the girl saw Jiang Chen in critical condition after the plane crash, she immediately flew to Xin in distraught. Since she looked too wretched crying in front of the hospital, Ayesha brought her to the mansion.

Seeing as Jiang Chen was perfectly fine, although Liu Yao was frustrated by the fact that she worried about him for nothing, the cunningness in her immediately realized the reasoning. She then suggested that she stay there and take care of the "patient" unable to appear in front of the media.

At the same time, they kept this a secret from the media.

While Jiang Chen didn't say anything, he was touched by how worried Liu Yao was.

But Xia Shiyu felt extremely displeased by the appearance of another "competitor." Liu Yao, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind the faint "jealousy" from the strong, independent and unexpressive woman, but it made teasing her more fun.

With the soft wind blowing on Jiang Chen's face, he watched the quiet ocean and picked up his tablet.

"The weather is quite nice today."

Ayesha threw out the Q-tip and combed back a strand of hair.

"Is it…? But it looks like the weather is going to turn much worse."

Jiang Chen nonchalantly said as he turned on the tablet.

The Sky Eye X1 36, thousand kilometers out, directed its lens to the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

On the vast blue ocean, there was a showdown between four and 101.

Chapter 577: The Power of the Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon

On the vast blue ocean, 101 ships slowly anchored at the Xin-F border. Under the command of the flagship, they arranged themelves in formation.

The main naval forces in Country F were mostly decommissioned Western ships such as the UA minesweeper, the British patrol boats, and some of the France and UA tank-landing ships from World War II.

Take the largest and most powerful "Rajah" destroyer of the Country F Navy as an example. The predecessor of this "legendary" destroyer was the Cannon-class destroyer built by UA during World War II. In 1955, UA handed it over to Nippon's navy. Nippon renamed the ship to "Sunrise" and it was used until 1975. The ship was handed over to Country F by Nippon in 1978 and first served in Country F in 1980 after being towed to South Korea for overhaul and modernization.

It was a third-hand good; a bone that fed two dogs.

The ship was equipped with three MK22 76 mm open-naval guns which exposed the gunner without any basic armor protection, three 40 mm double-gauge guns, six 20 mm cannons, and four 12.7 mm machine guns. This set up was typical for the UA Navy during World War II.

However, as the main force of the Country F Navy, there were also "Hamilton" class cruisers that were eliminated by two UA coast guards. In August 2011, the UA handed a retired "Hamilton" class patrol ship to Country F that was renamed "Gregory" by Country F and considered the most advanced among the F Navy warships.

However, the backwardness of the equipment didn't prevent them from despising Xin in their hearts.

They feared a confrontation against Hua, but beating a small country like Xin was no problem at all!

51 major combat ships, and more than 50 auxiliary ships for a total of more than one hundred warships lined up near the border in the western Pacific. Naval soldiers raised their heads high, fully armed. They looked quite like "the King of the military"!

Lieutenant Colonel Millennion, who served as the commander-in-chief of operations, was also considered "young and promising" in Country F politics. During his tenure as commander of the Country F Navy, he commanded a "landing attack" exercise jointly organized by the Marine Corps and the UA Army and proposed a strategy of "front-line first," participated in the 116th anniversary celebration of the founding army, and proposed the construction of a naval base...

Standing in the command tower of the flagship "Hamilton" class patrol ship, General Millennion adjusted his naval cap. His hands were behind his back while he gazed out at the peaceful ocean.

In this overwhelming war, he was thinking up ways to humiliate his opponent that dared to simultaneously challenge them.

Country F needed a real victory to demonstrate its naval strength to the world in order to deter the young from frequently harassing their borders.

Guardian-class frigate?

It was indeed very powerful; Russian weapons always dominated. But he heard that the idiot demolished the ship's 100-mm A-190 gun and replaced it with a cannon that couldn't be recognized at all. The wide, flat barrel was like a "tuning fork" lying down, and Millennion didn't consider it a threat to the "Hamilton" under his control. Without the most important main cannon, with just two 14.5 mm machine guns, what could the Guardian-class frigate even do?

Millennion knew that while the Russians sold the ship to Jiang Chen, both its anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship missiles were dismantled. After all, these equipment were considered military secrets; even as a business partner, Russia didn't have any reason to share all of its knowledge.

Adjutant went to his side and sharply saluted him.

"Five FA-50s have arrived and are currently in cruise mode. Harpoon-1 is requesting attack commands."

Millennion smiled and didn't answer. Instead, he asked an irrelevant question.

"Rolando, in your opinion, what suit color is the most appropriate for attending a celebration ceremony?"

Roland took a moment to process before smiling pleasantly

"I recommend the blue one."

"Just as I thought; that's my favorite suit," Millennions said before narrowing his eyes at the distant horizon and reciting in an ancient dialect poem. "Our warriors have been eager while the opponent is still on the road ..."

However, this general had no poetic abilities. Two sentences in and he was stuck. Next to the general, the first mates were watching, and Millennion's expression couldn't be more embarrassed.

Roland, watching the scene, immediately stepped in to divert people from the embarrassment. "They are so slow. It's as if they're heading to an execution."

"Yes! It's like heading to an execution!" Millennion laughed and patted Roland's shoulder. He was glad his subordinates were witty to save him from embarrassment. "No more waiting - pass on my orders! All ships push forward with speed six nautical miles. If they don't come, we'll go conquer them! Also regarding our flight formation - they're approved for attack!"

"Roger!" Roland straightened his back with his face red in excitement. He roared into the radio: "This is the control tower. Harpoon-1, target the enemy ship, attack permission granted… Harpoon-1?"

There was no response from the radio.

Roland's expression began to change. He had a bad feeling.

Just then, on the deck outside the command tower, someone screamed and pointed at the clear sky.

"What's that?"

Among the clouds, a fighter jet soared by before two explosions bloosomed in the air.

The pieces falling had FA engraved on them before smashing into the ocean. Like a tiger in a herd of sheep, Aurora-20's machine guns shredded FA-50's fragile armor while repeating the cycle with its high mobility.

The second they engaged in battle, two FAs were taken down. The other three FA-50s, who realized something was wrong, attempted to escape the lock-on by guided missiles.

But the two Auroras didn't give them the opportunity to escape.

The trails of five ignitions interweaved in the sky. After a moment of battle, three more explosions rang out in the sky.

The F navy, which understood the situation immediately, started to fire into the air, but Aurora-20s dodged swiftly like seagulls.

They dropped two missiles before quickly ascending above the clouds. The heat-luring missiles danced in the air and disrupted the anti-air missiles originally intended for them.

"Rajah destroyer has been hit! The ammunition bunker is on fire! Ahhhhh!"

"... Kemira anti-submarine ship has been hit! The deck is collapsing!"

Millennion looked pale because too much information was being shouted at him. He couldn't handle it all at the same time. His previous ease had been brutally crushed. He raised his trembling fingers and adjusted his crooked navy cap, but it couldn't be fixed somehow.

"Sir ..." The captain looked equally as pale as Millennion. His ominous feeling grew stronger.

But he couldn't say the word "retreat."

Just then, an unexpected incident happened again!

An orange-red arc pierced through the still waves and broke through the side of the Hamilton-class cruiser leading the fleet without warning, leaving a staggering hole! The hull was exposed by the large kinetic force and pushed it down into the ocean. Water flooded in and instantly submerged the ship that was regarded as the pride of Country F.

Millennion looked pale white. The previous conceit on his face could no longer be seen.

His adjutant, Rolando, had forgotten his language abilities completely. His pupils blankly zoomed into the calm ocean.

They hadn't even seen the shadow of the enemy ship before they were pierced by shells.

Yes, this was an asymmetrical war.

...

But the asymmetrical advantage didn't belong to them - it belonged to the opposing side.

"Run!"

His fictitious arrogance was crushed. Millennion used his last bit of courage to yell the word into the radio.

The Country F Navy began to disperse, turn around, and flee.

But the two Guardian-class frigates that already arrived at the border wouldn't let them suceed. The raised electromagnetic pulse cannon repeatedly charged and fired. The orange tails under the influence of the earth's gravitational force drew out a large curvature in the sky. Under the observation of the Sky Eye X1, it constantly rained down on the fleeing Country F ships.

The two Kilo-class submarines shifted around the edge of the battlefield. They used torpedoes to sink any ships attempting to escape, like fishing boats that dispersed fish.

The Country F Navy's nightmare had just begun!

Pieces of steel appeared and vanished in the waves as did the cries and prayers hidden among the explosions.

Fires kindled on the surface of the ocean and matched the redness in the horizon.

In that instant, it was hard to distinguish where the actual sunset was.

Chapter 578: City K under Quarantine

The terror of a quarantined city spread like the plague in people's minds. Although Country F sent two divisions of forces to control the situation, the gloom of death still lingered in people's minds.

A city with more than a hundred thousand people only had seventy thousand left.

The entire east side lost control and the majority of the west side was lost as well. The government forces spent a night defeating the attacking guerillas then spent an entire day in the south area of the west side of the city to create a safe zone with barbed fences.

The second day after the plane crash, the government forces established a quarantine in the city and limited the zombies inside the City K. At the same time, helicopters hovered around the boundaries of the city while searching for any zombies that might have escaped.

At the same time, the Country F government sent out cargo planes and airdropped humanitarian aid to zombie-occupied areas. Along with the aid were small books on how to survive in zombie-occupied areas, reminding people to remain hopeful in the face of disaster.

Based on estimates, there were still ten thousand people struggling in "occupied areas." They could either be uninfected or the few lucky ones immune to the virus. Regardless, they were in an extremely dangerous situation, but the Country F government could no longer divert any more helicopters to rescue them. Even international aid groups weren't permitted to enter due to the danger of the virus and the influence of the civil zone.

People in the safe zone also suffered.

Seventy thousand people were stuffed in a separated zone only a few square kilometers large, unable to really live their lives. The living spaces were crowded. The lack of necessities caused chaos for security. In despair, the ugly side of humans was fully exposed. People fought over boxes of antibiotics and sold their bodies for a piece of bread. The "cleaners" responsible for health inspection controlled everyone's lives. The soldiers responsible for distributing humanitarian aid could freely determine who would be fed. Aside from the soldiers who didn't approach the area, they were the emperors of the safe zone.

No media outlets were permitted to enter the area. No one knew what was happening there, no one knew how long the quarantine would last, and no one knew if they still had the zombie virus hidden in their bodies. To all of society, they were dangerous, and at least before a vaccine was found, they couldn't return to society.

It was a source of despair.

This place was no different than a concentration camp.

It only took two days for the situation to deteriorate to this point.

On the third day, the situation in City K was under control. The 21st Infantry Division pushed its defense line to the south. At the same time, the 14th Division sent out a mechanized brigade to push from the safe zone to the K River and repair the bridge. But the commander clearly underestimated the strength of the zombies. The mechanized brigade didn't even reach the bridge before they experienced heavy casualties.

In theory, the soldiers with hot weapons shouldn't be at a disadvantage against the zombies, but reality dictated otherwise.

While the equipment of Country F's land forces wasn't as terrible as the navy's, their training level was exceptionally low. This point wasn't demonstrated by their ability to shoot but their ability to adapt in battle.

Firing at unarmed civilians, even with orders from the commander, meant the soldiers executing the orders had to bear a great amount of mental pressure. This pressure arose from the sense of morality built since they were born from the restriction of living in a society governed by laws. They knew it was wrong, but they had to do it...

A lot of people unable to withstand the pressure unleashed fire onto hoards of zombies while relinquishing their fear through bullets, but they forgot the importance of shooting their heads. Against zombies, this was a critical error.

What made the soldiers even more distraught was that they had to press the trigger against their comrades who had been bitten. No medicine could treat them now. The only way to end their misery was death, at least for now.

Why didn't they push forward with the help of the artillery?

Because of damned humanitarianism.

As long as there was a single civilian left in the city, as long as the outside world remained civilized, the Country F government forces wouldn't permit firing in its own city. Countless eyes were watching them, so politicians wouldn't allow them, and the media wouldn't allow them.

They faced a great deal of pressure already, firing bullets at the heads of "patients" instead of using tranquilizers.

The city was a mess, and it was a mess they had to take care of. Aquino thought of burning down the entire city more than once - he wanted to just burn the insane and the virus in a great fire… But it wasn't possible unless he wanted to face charges of crimes against humanity.

Just as the mechanized brigade returned to the safe area with low morale, Country F's Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the declaration of war from Celestial Trade.

Three hours ago, the Navy fleet at the border was completely wiped out.

Two and a half hours ago, Country F's Presidential Palace repeatedly confirmed the accuracy of the information with the Country F Navy's command center.

Two hours ago, the information was passed to the Second Army Commander stationed at City K. At the same time, Celestial Trade's Marines landed at the port of Dawo.

At the moment, Lieutenant-General Belli stood in the interim command headquarters and held a simple meeting.

Just then, an officer entered the barracks, interrupting the meeting in progress.

"What's the matter, Sergeant Cavell?"

Sergeant Cavell saluted, stood upright and made his report.

"According to the pictures taken by UA satellites, after the naval blockade was broken through, Celestial Trade Marines landed at Port D. It is suspected that heavy weapons have also landed."

"What about the UA military?" This was the most important issue to Belli.

"The aircraft carrier is quiet for the time being. The Capital said it would provide intelligence support for our operations via satellites and provide assistance in resolving the issue through diplomatic mediation..." Cavell replied.

"These treacherous cowards," Belli scoffed, slashing the map with his marker.

At present, Jiang Chen was unconscious. The reason why the UA offered such an appeasement strategy was in fear that the unscrupulous Celestial Trade would overreact; another reason was its uncertainty in its combat strength.

Guardian-class frigate electromagnetic pulse cannons and Aurora-20s combat performance shocked the Stan aircraft carrier monitoring the battle through the global hawk unmanned aerial drone. Therefore, the Capital had to re-evaluate the strength of Xin while discussing the necessity of adjusting its diplomatic strategy toward the country.

Although the Hamilton-class cruiser was a decommissioned ship from the coastal guards, it was still too strong to be pierced by one shell. In particular, this semi-curved shell wasn't a missile, thus it couldn't be defended against by anti-missile defenses. They weren't going to take the risk until they were certain the Stan aircraft carrier could take the hit. After all, the real opponent in the region was Hua. Even if they finished off Xin's navy, it would be detrimental for them if the aircraft carrier battle group around the region was damaged.

Yes, they didn't think the two Guardian-class frigates would be worthy opponents for the aircraft carrier battle group. No matter how powerful they were, they were just two frigates. Compared to the battle group with comprehensive battle functions, their abilities couldn't compare.

No one suspected that it would hurt if these two "ants" bit them.

There were still a lot more things to discuss, but before they could reach a conclusion, the Celestial Trade soldiers would likely beat F down already.

That was the essence of a Blitz!

"In this region, the 21st Division has already established a line of defense deployed with anti-air cannons and machine guns. I need you to take the 15th Mountain Range Division to traverse through the mountains to the east of K River and deploy the new mid-range anti-air missiles UA provided us at these five points, as well as artillery support to provide coverage for the 21st Division to the west of the river."

"Also, mobilize the 101st Mechanized Brigade in the northeast to the rural area of the city. Once the enemy focus on the defensive line is established along the river, push the 101st Mechanized Brigade forward while cooperating with the 19th Paratrooper Division to attack the Port D. We need to push the arrogant Xin soldiers into the sea! Make the foolish navy realize the abilities of our land forces!"

With this setup, the roads from the port to City K were completely blocked by the firepower of two divisions. Any forces attempting to break through the defense had to pay a heavy price!

"Defense… How long will this war last?" The supply officer turned his pen and looked at Belli.

"Perhaps half a year, perhaps only a month."

"If they're foolish enough to dive into our line of defense, maybe it'll only last ten days." Seeing that the conference was coming to an end, an officer joked around.

A proud curvature appeared on Belli's mouth.

He fully agreed with his subordinate's comment, although he didn't think the enemy would be foolish enough to seek their own death.

At the very least, Country F's military power was ranked 25th in the world - that is, after being dragged down by the useless bastards from the navy.

Although this ranking was nothing to be proud off, they didn't fear Xin as they hadn't even made it onto the rankings.

…

While Country F was busy establishing its defense line, the two Guardian-class frigates were already approaching Port D. The electromagnetic pulse cannon was set up while waiting for its firing orders.

A night of preparation and rest.

One thousand Celestial Trade soldiers in kinetic skeletons already boarded the landing ship to enter the port then took control of the region Moro set out for them. Ten large cargo helicopters were waiting for orders on the empty ground, waiting for strike orders.

MLL Islands were mostly mountainous and covered in forests, which made it difficult for armed units to engage in combat. This was extremely beneficial for both Moro guerillas and Celestial Trade.

Ivan, with his general's cap and shades, took the helicopter and arrived at Port D again. This time, he arrived as the commander.

Moro's 5th Infantry Division arrived at the airport for their welcoming and the two powerful hands shook together.

"Prepared and ready to go?"

"Prepared and ready to go."

Ivan took off his shades and stuffed them into his chest pocket.

"Then let the battle begin!"

Chapter 579: The Rain of Destruction

In the bushes, two soldiers leaned against a tree while cautiously scanning their surroundings.

Behind them were anti-air machine guns. These weapons were usually powerless against fighters, but once they formed a numerical advantage, even fourth generation fighters would be afraid of diving through the dense waves of bullets.

Beside the anti-air machine guns was a box of Spike RPG rockets; it was provided by UA as an addition to Country F's close-range air defense.

The surroundings were quiet with only the sound of bugs heard, unique to subtropical rainforests.

The humid climate made it extremely easy to feel sleepy. In order to not fall asleep, the two soldiers began to chat.

"How long do you think the war will last?"

"I don't know, maybe two months? Or it could be three months."

"That's so problematic… Why can't I be a part of the 14th division?" The man with a mustache drove away the butterfly resting on top of his rifle as he muttered in annoyance.

"The 14th Division? Is it fun to be with the infected? I remember all the people who went had to sign a voluntary disclosure. Until a vaccine comes out, you can't come out after you go in." A young-looking man rested his rifle on his arm and laughed.

"You don't understand." The man with the mustache laughed, got closer and whispered, "The cleaners are the emperors on the inside, but being a cleaner is still a bit dangerous since you have to interact with the infected. The people in logistics have the best jobs - think about all the girls in the safe zone… Haha, you can play with them however you want."

"What if you can't come out?"

"Then I can't come out," the man said decisively.

"I have a girlfriend." A breeze of wind blew by and the young man scanned the still bushes with disinterest.

"If you go there, you'll have a lot of girlfriends," the man with a mustache joked.

While the two chattered, a transparent ghost sneaked by the two of them.

The infrared indicator the size of a button was placed not far behind them. The faint light under the disguise of the bushes was as unnoticeable as a ladybug among ferns.

When all the markers were placed, the Ghost Agent arrived at the edge of the battlefield and retreated through a small helicopter.

On the helicopter, she opened her communication device.

"All markers have been placed."

At the same time, ten thousand meters in the sky, an Aurora-20 pilot ended cruising mode and opened the infrared radar.

"Affirmative."

On the black and white screen, tons of red square boxes instantly locked onto the white signal source.

The pilot checked the radar, confirmed the attack radius and height, and opened the safety switch before pressing the red button.

"This is Shooter-2, MXJ-11 is starting to deploy…"

The button of the hull opened and a bomb painted with red paint separated from the rack.

Without a bright trail of flames, it was only an unnoticeable black dot that dropped from the sky.

When its elevation reached 2000 meters, the shell of the bomb instantly separated, exposing the bullets inside.

Like seeds dropped from a seeding plane, they bloomed into flowers in the green forest.

Its name was death.

The explosion came out of nowhere in the targeted forest. Sparks and shrapnel flew in the forest and shredded everything in the vicinity.

It was the rain of death.

MXJ-11, nicknamed smallpox, weighed 1,200 pounds, was divided into high explosive and piercing types, and belonged to PAC end-guided cluster bombs - an imitation version. An MXJ-11 contained 88 sub-bombs with end guidance that, when thrown to a specified height, released all the sub-bombs and eliminated all locked targets in the target area under the screening of the intelligence program.

Seventy-four air defense targets were eliminated in a flash. The airstrike came from ten thousand meters above and the sentinels on guard didn't even have the time to take cover from the explosions…

Because the explosions were too dazzling, the pilot turned off the infrared instrument and pressed the radio on the helmet.

"This is Shooter-2. Air defense points have been cleared, over."

"Shooter-3 and 4, received. Short range attack initiated. Shooter-1 and 5, the enemy 'little birds' are left to you."

"Roger ... then let the hunting begin."

Four fighters broke through the cloud, diving down from the sky.

…

The series of explosions destroyed all the air defense firepower of F's 21st division. It also dazed all the soldiers hidden in the forest.

Without a lot of time to react, the honing noise of an airstrike approached them.

"Enemy fighters detected! Dammit, they're shooting at our people! Where are our anti-air cannons?! We need assistance!" A reconnaissance soldier curled behind a sandbag while shouting into the radio.

There was no response.

He couldn't see that inside the barracks of the commanding soldier, the commander was lying in a pool of blood along with his assistant and bodyguard. There was a terrifying bloody hole on his forehead.

The perpetrator of this crime, the Ghost Agent, was long gone.

Soaring air strikes replied to the shouting of the reconnaissance soldier. The infantry, ten meters away from him, turned into dust along with the sandbag he hid behind due to the fire of 27mm machine guns.

Then he saw ten explosions in the sky. The explosions belonged, without a doubt, to the FA-50s of the Country F Air Force.

It was their most proud creation, the fourth generational plane based on the original SK "Golden Eagle" design. It marked the friendship between Country SK and Country F… But it was now turned to pieces.

In the direction of Port D, missiles launched into the air one by one. The Country F soldiers watched the missiles covering their zone of control in despair. But what shocked them was that the missiles didn't cause any casualties, as if they malfunctioned. Only arcs of electricity flashed in the area before instantly disappearing.

The hiding reconnaissance soldier wanted to report the information back to the command center, but he was instantly stunned.

The radio was broken.

Not only his radio, but his GPS, watch, electronic scope, and even his flashlight all stopped working!

His face looked like he had just seen a ghost.

In modern warfare, losing access to information meant losing everything. The soldiers who lost their command system were like rats locked in a cage; they would await their deaths in darkness and chaos.

The EMP missiles destroyed all the electronic equipment in the area and the entire 21st division had lost communication.

At the same time, Moro's 5th Infantry Division launched their attack!

The guerrillas never fought an easier war than this. Under the stimulation of friendly firepower, they charged forward as if they were on stimulants. The Country F soldiers that lost all communication fled as if they were flies without heads. Under the attack of thousands of guerillas, they had to fight for their own lives.

The soaring Aurora-20s made their rockets and cannons into a nightmare Country F soldiers tried their best to avoid. Flames spread in the subtropical rainforest as they were thirsty for splattered blood.

Under attack from the Moro 5th infantry division, F's 21st division collapsed without much of a fight.

At the same time, Celestial Trade's Marines boarded the helicopters and landed east of the mountain. 1000 soldiers in kinetic skeletons under fire coverage from ship cannons, fighters, and drones pursued the 15th Mountain Range Division. Against agile kinetic skeletons, even if F soldiers were at a numerical advantage, they were disadvantaged in this battle.

It was a one-sided battle.

The battle didn't last for too long. The Second Army Command Post didn't have time to react before news of the breakdown of their frontline arrived on Belli's table.

"Retreat! Make the 15th Division retreat! And the dumba*ses from 21st Division! Fu*k, useless!" Belli pounded his table in anger and his cap even flew off.

The soldier looked nervously at him.

"Commander…"

"Why are you not going?!" Belli wanted to slap this guy.

People were dying every second, and his heart was bleeding.

"The 15th Division is surrounded…"

Belli took a moment to process this before he gulped with unease.

"What about the 21st Division?"

"We're unable to get a hold of the 21st division. Commander? Commander! Where are you going?"

The soldier looked at Belli, who rushed out the door in shock. His cap had yet to be picked up from the floor.

He climbed into his car and rudely ordered the driver to take him to the 14th Division command post in City K. The pupils of the commander were filled with fear and ferocity.

This wasn't a war! This was a slaughter!

Chapter 580: You don't have another choice

The 21st Division that lost contact was wiped out by Moro guerrillas. Including the commander, all six thousand soldiers were captured.

The 15th Mountain Range Division under suppressive fire by ship cannons and fighter planes suffered heavy losses in their equipment and they chose to surrender to Celestial Trade. Therefore, the Celestial Trade Marines achieved an outstanding record of 1000 people capturing 7000 soldiers.

In this asymmetrical war, the disadvantaged side had no ability to fight back at all. Country F, who gathered all their forces, faced defeat just like Iraq in the Gulf War. Through satellites in synchronous orbit, the one-sided war was broadcasted to the aircraft carrier battle group hundreds of kilometers out.

The pilots who boarded the fighter jets were ordered to exit the plane, the bombers inspecting weapons and ammunition returned to the hanger, and the fully equipped marines unloaded their rifles and walked out of the helicopters.

At the control tower, Captain Huffman stared at the screen with a troubled look before squeezing out two words.

"What a bunch of trash."

"Indeed, trash." The second-in-command who stood beside him gulped and repeated his words in the same troubled voice.

Regarding Country F, their ally who couldn't be helped no matter how hard they tried, the UA soldiers stationed in Asia despised them from the bottoms of their hearts. But now, they felt sympathy for the two divisions who were bulldozed through.

"Report to the Capital."

"What about the battle readiness?"

"Deactivate it for now."

Captain Huffman left the command room without turning his head, leaving the second-in-command staring at the communicator inside.

At the same time, in Xin, hundreds of kilometers out:

Inside the detention room of the military base on New Moon Island, a Slavic-looking man sat on the bench while looking gloomily at Jiang Chen sitting across from him.

He had been locked up there for the past few days, but Celestial Trade didn't torture him. Not only did they give him two nutrient supply packs a day, but they also gave him a copy of the newspaper. They didn't interrogate him at all.

"Looks like you're not injured." Ladisiv said with a gloomy expression.

"You should thank me for my kindness; at least my people still let you read the news." Jiang Chen crossed his fingers in front of his kneecap. "But for your neighbor, we're repeatedly testing the limits of his regeneration abilities."

A drop of sweat rolled down from Ladisiv's forehead, and his chin quivered. "You're the devil."

"You really think so?" Jiang Chen laughed, leaned into his chair, then pushed a document in front of the Slavic man.

He received the good news from the frontlines already, and now he had plenty of time to take care of miscellaneous things.

Ladisiv scanned the document before looking at Jiang Chen with questions in his eyes.

"Can you not read? This is the death count for City K. This number is updated every day. A total of 253,000 people died because of the virus - the virus you spread. Who is the devil? It's you, Mr. Ladisiv." Jiang Chen tapped his shadow reflected on the bulletproof glass.

Ladisiv looked at Jiang Chen, unbothered.

As a mercenary, he didn't feel guilty for the actions he committed. The money he earned was all money stained with blood anyways. If he made a mistake during a mission, he would just become part of that casualty count.

Suddenly, he realized something odd.

"How do you know my name?"

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and laughed.

"Not only do I know your name, but I know you have two daughters and one son who are at a welfare institution in Thrace, Republic of Macedonia. Your oldest daughter is in high school, and your youngest daughter is in the hospital. I also know your ex-wife is currently an assistant at a broadcasting channel at the Balkans. She's still single and still interacts with you over the phone…"

"That's enough!"

Ladisiv was breathing heavily while looking at the expressionless Jiang Chen with his pupils glowing red.

He looked like a monster trapped in a cage. His pupils were mixed with warning, threat, and powerless fear.

Upon seeing this, a smile appeared on Jiang Chen's lips. Although it wasn't moral to threaten people with their family, he didn't have the luxury to be picky.

"Who told you this?!" Ladisiv squeezed out these words between his teeth.

"There were three people in total. Other than the already deceased Mr. Giles, my friends, the Moro guerillas, captured another one of your people. Obviously, not everyone could resist our truth-telling serum. Although he didn't have too much information in his head, it contained some interesting facts surprisingly."

Jiang Chen's body leaned slightly forward and he put his crossed fingers onto the table.

"I'm really curious as to why would someone like you joined the Kurofune. You should know that their actions will destroy the world. Everyone, including your lover and children, won't survive… and that also includes you."

"Then let it be destroyed since this world is corrupt to the bone… especially since the Kurofune will arrive in one hundred years, I won't live to see the apocalypse in my lifetime," Ladisiv sneered.

Insignificant figures wouldn't ever feel worried about the world after their deaths because they never made lasting marks on this planet.

Jiang Chen understood why he thought that way. If it wasn't for his massive assets, he wouldn't bother caring about the colonization ship either.

"This is quite an important piece of information. The Kurofune you described will arrive in one hundred years..." Jiang Chen wrote it down in his notebook then looked at him. "And then? I want to know your motive."

"Money." Ladisiv, who could be read like a book, no longer disguised any information. He spoke honestly.

"Then I'll give you money to buy the information in your head?" Jiang Chen pleasantly offered.

To him, any problem that could be solved with money wasn't a problem at all.

But Ladisiv scorned and mocked him.

"Do you think I need money for myself?"

"For your… little daughter?" Jiang Chen flipped through his information and speculated nonchalantly.

"For my family," Ladisiv said emotionlessly. "If I reveal anything, they will kill my family. Trust me, their penetration in this world is far more terrifying than you can imagine."

"Is that so?" Jiang Chen didn't question that. He pressed the tablet a few times and opened a picture then he pushed it in front of Ladisiv. "But to me, they're just a bunch of sewer rats."

Ladisiv's body leaned forward and he moved closer to the tablet with his eyebrows raised. "This is …"

The picture was an Italian-style red brick structure with a crowded scene. In front of a clothing shop, a blonde woman held onto the hand of a little girl to shop inside.

Suddenly, he realized the location was his hometown, a small town in Macedonia - Thrace.

The woman was his ex-wife and the girl she was holding onto was his older daughter. They were picking out clothes for the little daughter.

"You haven't been back for a while, right?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Your people are following them?" Ladisiv lowered his voice.

"They are protecting them. You should notice that after you were captured, a few men with unknown origins appeared. If they find out you leak the information, they will…"

Jiang Chen made a shooting gesture with a smile.

"Don't you want to save them?"

Ladisiv's throat moved. His eyes were torn with hesitation. Jiang Chen acutely noticed this and covered the proud curvature on his mouth while staring straight into his pupils.

"You will save them?"

"Of course."

"How can you guarantee that?" These continuous questions exposed the uncertainty in Ladisiv's mind.

Now, to gain his cooperation, Jiang Chen just needed to be firm…

"You don't have another choice. Watch them die, or join us and save them. The decision is in your hands, Mr. Ladisiv."

Yes, aside from trusting Jiang Chen, he had no other choice.

Ladisiv zoomed onto the woman in the tablet. His gloomy voice muttered:

"If you break your promise, I'll wait for you in hell…"

"Don't worry. I don't think I'll go to hell after I die." Jiang Chen started to spin his pen again with a smile.

Chapter 581: Soldiers Surrounding the City!

Santos still could not believe it.

Even when the joyous division commander of the 5th Division placed the report in front of him, Santos still could not believe that the victory came so easily.

Against the advanced equipment and sophisticated training of Country F's troops, the guerrillas seldom won in battles. They only relied on terrain advantages as the armor units couldn't traverse across the mountains and jungles. Therefore, they regained a little advantage in those battles. The guerrillas constantly tested the bottom line of Country F's government through the stalemate.

However, with the support of Celestial Trade, his troops defeated two divisions of Country F's government forces and advanced to the suburbs of City K again three days later. If it were not for the fact that Country F would not give up City K, Aquino might have brought up negotiations in exchange for the return of thousands of captured prisoners, two division commanders, and the Navy Admiral.

The fiasco on MLL Island was well beyond Country F's capabilities and beyond the capacity of Aquino authority. UA's reluctance to come to their aid may also be because of hidden reasons.

Originally the Army commander and the Navy commander vowed to him that they would surely win. Now, one turned into a turtle with his head shrunk in its shell while the other became a prisoner of war of Celestial Trade. Country F Navy had more than 120 ships in total. Almost all the ships were mobilized to demonstrate its prowess.

The result was that 101 ships were destroyed in the Pacific Ocean and more than 4000 sailors were captured as prisoners of war. Not to mention the grief of Aquino, the pace of Celestial Trade's advancement also terrified the Capital on the other side of the Earth.

However, they also didn't have a solution. After learning about the naval battle on the border, the UA president immediately contacted Zhang Yaping, who was currently in the Capital for a diplomatic visit. He expressed the hope that he would restrain Celestial Trade's behavior. What he meant was: you already made so much trouble, it is time to stop. However, President Zhang Yaping expressed that there was nothing he could do.

Strictly speaking, Celestial Trade was a private military contractor and was not controlled by the country. It participated as a mercenary in the civil war and did not violate international laws. And since the UA was the largest "military contractor" in the world, their mercenaries were notorious overseas. From this perspective, the UA couldn't denounce Celestial Trade.

Of course, the so-called jurisprudent was only excuses and sounded rhetoric. The real fear of the Capital was those weapons showcased in the war. Not to mention that the mysterious sky reaper, Aurora-20, the daunting ship-based electromagnetic pulse cannon was studied by the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

It was one of the research projects carried out by DARPA. Yet even the state-of-the-art experimental electromagnetic pulse cannons equipped on its aircraft carrier now couldn't reach the horrifying destruction they observed from their spy satellites.

One cannon shot that sunk the Hamilton patrol ship was something many UA warships could do. But one cannon shot from one hundred kilometers away that could put a hole through the ship, was a different story… Moreover, the precision was something unheard of at that range for conventional artillery. Also, the Aurora-20 demonstrated excellent performance in the dogfight with the FA-50, which also made the Capital cautious.

According to the assessment report, a conservative estimate of 30% loss to the aircraft carrier battle group was likely to result if UA tried to reestablish the non-flying zone in MLL Island airspace given the presence of Celestial Trade.

It was a conservative estimate! In peaceful times, a high loss was unacceptable to the Capital. The crash of the F35 already left the Capital in a mess with pacifists still surrounding the Capitol with signs and photos of the pilot.

What's more, the strategic role of the aircraft carrier battle group was to contain Hua. Unwise intervention in the conflict between Country F and Xin would result in the disruption of UA's strategic deployment in the region.

The outbreak of the zombie virus in City K gave the greatest headache to the Capital. Because of Country F's control of the news, media reports generally suspected that the virus was a biochemical weapon deployed by Country F government in City K. Aquino did not have enough evidence to clarify this point, but just used "lies" and "slander" against the media.

Any mature politician would be aware of how foolish it was to scold the media. However, even the most mature politician would have a hard time remaining rational during this time. In many cases, it was not wise to publicly support the Country F government at this moment.

Of course, some politicians also proposed that Moro would leak the virus to the terrorists, given Moro's current hostility toward the UA.

An appeasement strategy would be no different from a chronic poison. After all, there was currently no vaccine or antidote to control this virus. Once the virus was spread in a densely populated area, the consequences would be disastrous. Although the Walking Died had a good rating; this did not mean that the people really wanted their country to become a zombie land.

It was precisely because of this that some politicians also immediately proposed that the UA Marine Corps be sent to City K. Or at least peacekeeping troops, and the WHO's medical team should be dispatched to bring the city into the joint control of the international community. Viruses that threaten human society should be managed by all of humanity…

As the Capital discussed which tactics to adopt, the Celestial Trade Marine Corps assembled in the southern mountain ranges of City K, redeploying artilleries using transport helicopters. The 5th Moro Guerrilla Division, after having confiscated Country F's UA-made equipment, became the division with the most sophisticated equipment in the country.

After a short reorganization period, all prisoners were taken over by the 6th Division, and the 5th Infantry Division followed the path of Celestial Trade Marine Corps and captured the largest airport in northern MLL Island, City K International Airport, with the help of the Aurora-20.

With two divisions defeated in a day, Country F Army's morale was completely destroyed. When they defended the airport, they didn't offer too much resistance before they retreated toward City K. The morale of the 14th Division stationed in City K hit rock bottom.

The constant sound of fighters soaring above them made them hide under cover. The noise previously belonged to their allies, but now it has turned into a nightmare. They could only shiver in the bunker while keeping their heads low. The battles in the city was not as easy as the battles in the jungle, especially with Country F's defensive stance.

The 14th Division was one of the most elite military units in Country F's Army. Not only has it participated in the joint military exercises, but the two Motorized Brigades were the only modernized units that were appraised by the UA instructors.

As Aquino was determined to protect City K at all cost, Country F Army commander mobilized another tank brigade from the northern theater to strengthen defenses. In order to make up for deficiencies in their air force, the original decommissioned F-5A "Freedom Fighter" was also dragged out from the grave and entered service after some simple maintenance.

The F-5A accompanied the OV10 Mustang Fighter to fill the blank in their air force. However, Country F's pilots were fearful toward the "Flight of Death". Using F-5A to combat Aurora-20, which was unmatched even by the FA-50 was like using a toothpick to poke an elephant, they simply didn't have the courage to climb into the cockpit.

With the low morale in the military, Aquino in a deep rage couldn't do anything about this fate. He had to visit the army countless times to boost their morale through passionate speeches. But the soldiers' reactions were mild; his speeches were received by sparse applause and more supercilious looks.

In order to not cause the leader to be sad, the observant Country F military officers gave each soldier a pair of sunglasses…

While Country F was in crisis, Tanaka from Takeda Pharmaceutical was under political inquiry from the Nippon government. The spread of the virus far exceeded the expectations of the Prime Minister.

Not only did Jiang Chen not die, Xin also put the blame on Country F and sent troops as a response. Country F was one of the strategic allies of Nippon, and Nippon was not willing to see one of its allies be attacked.

Country F served a key role in containing Hua in the region, especially given the close relationship between Hua and Xin lately…

Also, the mutiny committed by the F35 made the Nippon government fearful of Kurofune. The dog that was being raised by them even extended its claws to its master without their knowledge. CIB was now involved in the current investigation.

Nippon politicians knew how sensitive the UA was to conspiracy. In order not to bring trouble, it was necessary to train this disobedient dog...

Chapter 582: The Origin of Kurofune

"Mr. Tanaka, don't you think you should really explain what happened these three days?"

A long table made to seat twelve was filled with all the Nepon parliament members; Tanaka sat at the end of the table and responded to all the criticisms with a smile.

"Explain? I don't think I need to explain, Mr. Akasaka," Tanaka said with a smile.

"Don't need to explain? Our strategic ally in the region suffered heavy losses, and you're saying you don't need to explain? Mr. Tanaka, we gave you the operational freedom not for you to forget your own identity." Akasaka knocked on the table while blurting out aggressively.

"Most importantly, Jiang Chen didn't die." Nishio pushed up the frameless glasses on his nose, "by the looks of it, our plan to expand influence in Xin and acquire Future Technology won't be able to take place."

"Takeda Pharmaceutical Board shares the same thoughts. While exposing the dangerous virus increased the company's stock price in the short term, it didn't create growth in our revenue."

Tanaka's expression was extremely calm in front of the criticisms from the Nippon parliament members and the board representative of the sponsor.

"Didn't you all agree to test the virus in Country F?"

Tanaka's one sentence silenced the room.

Just like what Tanaka said, testing the virus in Country F was the Nepon parliament members' decision. Although Tanaka first proposed to test the virus in Wanghai, it was vetoed by the assembly. While the virus was prepared for Han, the timing was absolutely off. Nippon hoped to produce more finished products and spread the virus simultaneous to deal the killing blow to the annoying arch enemy.

So that vest went onto the plane, and the plan was blown down near Country F's sea territory. The previous crash was intended for City S that allowed for better containment, but it ended up crash landing in the City K on MLL Island.

Just then, the Defense Minister who sat at the head of the table that has been silent spoke out.

"I just have one question, why did you decide to infiltrate the UA Navy?"

"We didn't infiltrate anyone, and it is just Kurofune's advanced ideology that attracted Mr. Gordan. Two years ago during his tour in East City, he came to find me asking to join the organization," Tanaka said.

"It is unwise to draw the attention of UA," the Defense Minister stared into Tanaka's eyes and said word by word.

"I will remember your words of caution," Tanaka put his head down and replied humbly.

…

Ladisiv confessed everything without any information hidden, and the lie detector proved this point.

First, it was the origin of Kurofune. Because 16 years ago a coincidental astronomical observation event caused Tanaka to join Kurofune and work for them.

"Wait, Tanaka is not the founder of Kurofune?" After recording the specific details of Kurofune, Jiang Chen asked.

Before the interrogation, Jiang Chen already told Ladisiv that Tanaka and the Professor was the same person.

"No, the origin of Kurofune could be traced to pre-World War Two. The Holy Emperor at the time was the honorary leader of Kurofune, and that was the most glorious time of the organization."

"But it didn't even appear in history."

"Because it is inappropriate for it to appear." Ladisiv paused, "I only know one point, the Holy Emperor visited Europe in 1921 and met Felter in Belgium who was researching in the field of astronomy and biology. He took Felter back to Nippon after and funded his research in extra-territorial civilization which marked the founding of Kurfune. The ideology of the Kurofune before was "use the alien force to conquer the earth". But after they established contact with extra-territorial civilization, the organization's belief started to change. They didn't manage to wait for the Golden Apple, Nippon lost, the Holy Emperor lost his power, a series of reasons that caused Kurofune to decline to the point of collapsing."

"And you managed to established contact?" Jiang Chen asked.

Jiang Chen didn't feel too surprised by this. The fact Tanaka knew his ability already proved his point.

"Yes, I don't know the exact time, but it seemed to be at the end of the 90s." Since it was not something he was interested in, Ladisiv took some effort before he recollected his thoughts.

Nippon was facing an unprecedented economic crisis at the time, and the entire country was in the gloom of bankruptcy. At the same time, it was the rise of Han.

Perhaps at that time, someone's apocalyptic thought and determination gained the response for Natural Selection.

"Another question. I noticed that you mentioned the Golden Apple, then do you know about the Willie Society?"

"During the Second World War, we were allies. But now, we are enemies."

"Why?"

"Based on Tanaka's description, we had a fundamental difference in our communication channels," Ladisiv said.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes without saying anything. Ladisiv's words contained a lot of information that he needed time to process.

'A fundamental difference in communication channels? Did they contact two different groups of people? The two are enemies, where did the difference arise; interest or belief?'

"Let's put this question aside for now. I've a pretty good understand of Kurofune already. Now…" Jiang Chen glanced at his watch, his pen tapping on the notebook, "why would you be immune to the truth-telling liquid?"

Ladisiv shook his head. "That I don't know. I'm not a doctor, only a mercenary that did the dirty work for him. I don't even know what the truth-telling liquid is."

"I see." Jiang Chen pondered while he tapped on his shoulder.

Ladisiv then seemed to have recalled something.

"But all the core members are injected with a special serum that could increase brain cell activity and muscle strength… perhaps it has to do with that."

"Genetic vaccine!" Jiang Chen's pupils narrowed.

"I don't know," Ladisiv shook his head," I just know that it is one of the few technologies that 'Kurofune' actually gifted to the organization of Kurofune. They are very conservative with transferring technology to the point where it can be described as stingy. Also, their technology seems to be heavily focused on biotechnology which is the most incredible point… Could biotechnology alone achieve galactic travel?"

Even Ladisiv without too much knowledge questioned this point. But Jiang Chen who witnessed the humongous ship with his own eyes didn't question if Natural Selection could reach Earth at all.

"If it is the genetic vaccine… that explains the regeneration ability of the captive," Jiang Chen nodded and muttered to himself.

Should it be described as fortunate or unfortunate? Although they achieved a lot in biotechnology, from the effect of the genetic vaccine, their technology seemed to have stopped at pre-war levels or have even regressed... They did abandon the human body after all and stepped onto the path of Harmony.

Of course, he didn't eliminate the possibility where they were reserved about transferring technology.

"One last question. Why could I use… that ability in City K." Without being able to disclose the details, Jiang Chen could only ask vaguely.

Ladisiv was completely lost as Jiang Chen's ambiguous question. To be cautious, Tanaka clearly didn't tell him Jiang Chen's ability to interdimensional travel.

The progress of the conversation stalled. Just as Jiang Chen was debating if he should ask the guards to leave and make the question more clear, Ladisiv spoke.

"Giles said that you couldn't escape in three days. He described the ability as some particle interference. I don't really understand, but it had to do with that 'Kurofune'."

Tanaka could contact Natural Selection through some means or "Kurofune" in their words. At the same time, Natural Selection could use a method to interfere the Klein particles on earth and stop his ability to travel.

The time limit of this is likely to be three days, and this ability must have a cooldown time with a high cost. Or they could just continue to maintain this interference state and lock Jiang Chen eternally in the modern world. Then there would be no need to fight the war.

Without utilizing the power from the apocalypse and just depending on the resources in the modern world, Jiang Chen had zero confidence to win at all.

"I appreciate all of this, Mr. Ladisiv. Humanity will remember your contribution. Also, you will be able to meet your family very soon on Coro Island." Because of Ladisiv's cooperation, the interrogation ended quickly.

He was delighted because he managed to see the trap cards hidden in Tanaka's hand.

"I hope you can fulfill your promise."

"Of course, I will pay you a handsome reward. But in the next five years, you and your family will not be permitted to leave the border. You will be very safe living in Xin. The Ghost Agents and the army of Celestial Trade will guarantee that," Jiang Chen pleasantly said.

When he felt pleasant, he didn't mind sharing his good mood.

Chapter 583: The City K Battle

The rural area of City K; three kilometers from the frontline.

It was the modern world, but the cold northern gust was mixed with the desolateness of the apocalypse and scattered into the corners of the streets.

City K had never snowed before, nor had it been this cold.

In the dark corners, the homeless and stray dogs could occasionally be seen living together. The supermarket on the street had been long closed leaving the hungry people inside searching for edible food. If they discovered fantastic loots, people who felt guilt would leave some cash on the unattended cashier, but most people chose to leave after they turned off their flashlight.

It didn't make a difference since the F Pesos was worthless. The rich and the poor both starved. USD still had some purchasing power, but no one was willing to sell food or valuable medicines.

Yesterday, the Moro guerillas had pushed to there again, and this time, they were even more ferocious. But regardless if they arrive or not, no trucks packed with food would arrive. Since a couple of kilometers away, a terrifying infection crisis was happening.

The civilians had long foregone their previous political stance, regardless of who is better, they wanted the stupid war to end.

Whether it was Country F 14th Division that quarantined the city or the Moro guerrillas, they didn't look like good guys in the locals' eyes. As to Celestial Trade, they rarely appeared in the sight of the ordinary people. So the locals didn't have a much better impression on the mercenary with equipment comparable to an actual army.

Invaders? Perhaps

But who cares?

To prevent the Moro guerillas from pushing forward, the 14th Division sent a large number of snipers and buried anti-personnel landmine at strategic locations.

This did interfere with Moro's 5th Division's push forward since Moro lacked tanks and armored vehicles, their force was mostly comprised of infantries and machine gunners. The highly precise snipers were obtained from the hands of F's 21st Division.

But not only did the guerillas died under the scope of the snipers and landmines, but more civilians without combat experience also died.

This place was the blind spot to humanitarianism.

To get rid of the troublesome snipers, Celestial Trade chose to airstrike.

The invisible Ghost Agents used laser positions to aim at the targets, and the Aurora-20 fired a stream of bullets over to shred the sniper and the building he hid in, into dust. To avoid causing civilian casualties, Jiang Chen ordered to avoid using bombs in the city area.

It was not out of kindness. It was to avoid disadvantageous evidence against Celestial Trade in the international society.

Even then, the snipers still delayed two day's time.

The situation was about to end very soon.

The night of December 31st.

Celestial Trade's Command Center ordered a full-scale attack, launching an attack on City K during the night of New Year's Eve and eliminating Country F's modernized 14th division and the tank brigade mobilizing for assistance. The goal was to take control of the city before January 2nd.

The attack initiated from Celestial Trade's missiles.

The EMP missiles first blew up on the east side of the city and completely destroyed 14th Division's electronic equipment.

But since the 14th division was the elite force of Country F, when the second missile was launched into the air, they launched an anti-missile attack on Celestial Trade's launch ground. Eight 155 mm cannons almost decimated an entire hill, but they didn't fire for long before they were turned into scraps by the missiles of Aurora-20.

To avoid the airstrike from Celestial Trade, Country F dug deep into their heads for methods out. For example, use grey cloths to cover the cannon, to hide the tanks among buildings, launch attacks when Moro soldiers were approaching…

But when the EMP missiles arrived in the battle, all trickeries lost their purpose.

Without the report from reconnaissance, the soldiers could only use smoke distance and instincts to fire.

The situation of the tank brigade was better. Fortunately for the regressed equipment, the "Scorpion" reconnaissance tank used as the primary tank belonged to the last century anyway. While it was not designed with anti-radiation and anti-EMP functionality like the modern tanks, there was no advanced equipment to destroy.

The 14th Division faced the same situation the defeated 21st Division faced. All electronic equipment was destroyed, and the control system completely collapsed.

At the same time, the illuminating bombs rose into the air and lit up the pitch black sky to the southwest of the city. With the assistance of the vehicle mounted machine guns, the Moro 5th Division force with high morale started to take charge like a direct hit on the face of the 14th Division elites.

On the other hand, under the stark contrast, the city's southeast corner was deadened dark.

500 Celestial Trade Marines under the transport of ten heavy cargo planes airdropped to the edge of the zombie occupied zone.

Because they were injected with E-Grade genetic vaccines, the soldiers were completely immune to the zombie virus. They didn't need to worry about infection despite not wearing protective suits.

With the help of night vision goggles, the 500 soldiers and over 1000 Hummingbird drones were like a sharp blade in the darkness that stabbed fiercely at the heart of the 14th division zone of control. With the guidance of Sky Eye X1, they cleared out the cannons and anti-air machine guns scattered across the city.

This night, the 14th Division soldiers felt a deep fear because of the asymmetrical war.

The F-5A and Mustang fighters stationed at the air force base refused to take over. Against the fighters that even the FA-50 could not defeat, everyone knew it would be a one-way trip.

Santos felt unfortunate about this. He had seen the terrifying reaping ability of the Aurora-20. Other than the fifth generation fighters on the aircraft carrier that could pose a limited threat, despite how many paper airplanes Country F sent, their only destiny was to rest on the ocean floor.

Six in the morning, the sun has yet to rise, but the battle in the city was mostly over.

The defeat of the 14th Division was inevitable, the tank brigade and mechanized brigade all surrendered to Moro, leaving only ten snipers in the city, resisting.

Belli left the 11th Infantry Division resisting in the safe zone and boarded a transport cargo anchored at the port.

Because the city was under quarantine, all the cargos were seized in the port.

The order was personally signed by Aquino, but now that the flames of war were about to burn him, Belli couldn't care more.

He took his guards and close officials to board the cargo, woke up the crew seized at the port and ordered them to leave the port.

The explosions and flames soon broke out near the safe zone. Belli was cruising on the open sea, he only let a breath of relief after he saw City K turned into a black dot in the distance.

Although the criticisms from the Presidential Palace and the media would make this life difficult for the next half of a year, at least he won't become a captive of the guerillas which made him feel somewhat reassured.

"How much longer before we arrive at City S?"

"Around one hour more… Dammit, I finally know why the 21st Division lost communication." Standing beside him, the still startled Sergeant Cavell gulped.

"That's an odd missile."

Belli's face was covered in gloom.

Country F soldiers didn't lose on will or tactics, they lost on technology. The gap in the latter felt the most helpless. The former could be fixed with training and mental training, but the latter could not be fixed in a short period of time.

Unless UA takes the risk of aggravating Hua and installs the missile defense system in Country F and sell Country F the latest fifth-generation jet, they didn't have any odds of winning at all.

But thinking back, even if UA was willing to sell, they won't have the money to purchase. One fifth generation jet cost over one hundred million and the defense budget of Country F per year at most could purchase two jets.

Just as Belli was thinking how he should handle Aquino's criticism, he didn't have the slightest idea how visible he was under the watch of the Sky Eye X1 satellite.

Chapter 584: Playing with Fire

The zombies were indeed a problem for the Country F government force, Moro, and Celestial Trade. It was impossible to expect a bunch of poorly organized guerillas to learn infection control despite they just took over 21st Division's UA weapons.

Because it was the modern world, he couldn't use the apocalypse's way to resolve problems. What solution was the most direct in resolving the crisis at City K? The most efficient way was to launch thousands of burning bombs and scorch everything inside. And since the opponent was Country F, Jiang Chen wouldn't feel too burdened executing this order.

And what was presented to him, in the end, will be a figure.

But if he really did that, without needing this to process through his head, the world will not spare him as a butcher.

City K was taken over, the outcome at MLL Island had been decided.

Therefore, on the push toward the safe zone, the Moro 5th Division without armor protection did pay a heavy price. While the guerillas performed well compared to the government force in shooting their previous kind, it wasn't much better.

In the end under the assistance of Celestial Trade Marines, the 5th Division under the pressure of the zombies eliminated the last mechanized brigade of the Country F 14th Division. The last two remaining M113A2 armored vehicles chose to put out the white flag and surrender.

The war was over. Other than some government forces still remaining in the northern area, Moro had established full control of the MLL Islands. Just like what Jiang Chen said, Celestial Trade will successfully knock the opponent out, and then drag their necks and force them to sign on the negotiation table.

Without exaggeration, in modern warfare, the importance of negotiations could exceed all previous efforts.

The latter only dictated how many people died, the former would determine how many will go die.

…

Before Celestial Trade soldiers entered City K's safe zone, the survivors in the area rioted. Having robbed the shotguns and flamethrowers that belonged to the cleaners, and beating up at least ten cleaners due to their build-up hatred, the survivors that occupied the safe zone had a brief standoff against the Moro guerillas through the barbed fences. However, when they saw the captured armored vehicles and tanks drove over, everyone dropped their weapons and squatted by the wall with their hands over their head.

When Jiang Chen saw how malnourished the survivors looked on the battle footage, while he felt compassionate, he had another plan. He called Ivan who arrived at the safe zone and told him to take care of the survivors.

Then, Jiang Chen instructed the promoted Xia Shiyu to transport 1000 tons of rice, vegetable, crackers, and milk through Future Group's subsidiary by air City K Airport and distribute it to the local survivors.

Celestial Trade's philanthropic act instantly gained the praise of the survivors. When Celestial Trade's people asked them to assist the media in capturing video footages in order to help Celestial Trade to win international recognition, no one rejected the idea.

Jiang Chen gained another chip in steering the public opinion.

While the ground force entered the city, the navy didn't stop either.

A Guardian-class frigate with the accompany of a Kilo-class submarine entered into the strait and anchored in the region. The Type-50 J-type electromagnetic pulse cannon aimed toward the capital of F.

Celestial Trade's action almost made Aquino collapse down from his chair in fear. Only now did he experience the fear the soldiers on the frontline experienced.

The fear of the cannon at his front door.

The Country F Assembly Committee was completely in shambles. They previously spent time forging sovereignty documents and attempting to claim Pannu Islands as part of Country F's historical sovereignty. But now, they immediately destroyed the documents while changing the discussion to how to seek an unconditional surrender.

The other frigate and submarine moved east along the Xin-F border while on alert for the Stan aircraft carrier group stationed in the region.

All ten Aurora-20s at the New Moon Base were on 24 hours alert with the 20 pilots rotating inside the plane to respond to a potential escalation in the regional conflict.

At the same time, the G013 missile silo deployed at the west Pacific Ocean opened its hatch and slowly allowed the sea water to fill inside the silo to complete launch preparations. The G013 missile silo was deployed with the Dolphin-10 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, the installed module was not a nuclear head but just regular explosives.

If the UA acted impulsively, Celestial Trade would prove its long-range missile strike ability several hours after.

No nuclear weapon and thus no deterrence?

Debatable!

Don't forget who controlled the city of Kejia! If a missile could transport explosives, it could also transport a virus. Would nuclear weapons or biological weapons have more deterrence; UA must carefully evaluate this.

Now, Jiang Chen had pushed all of his chips onto the gambling table.

Whether UA would disregard the potential consequences and launch an Asian version of the "Gulf War" and punish Celestial Trade like how Iraq that invaded Kuwait was punished, or compromise similar to how Fran comprised to Frankberg at the fact the Blitz was successful, give up the not helpful ally in exchange for regional stability.

...

What is worth noting is that F didn't have the rich oil or gas reserves like Kuwait.

What if the above options all didn't work?

Then the final option was the nuclear button.

Unless he had absolutely no other choices, he didn't want to make the last choice.

…

"You're playing with fire."

The night Celestial Trade overtook the city of Kejia, Natasha rang the bell to Jiang Chen's mansion. Jiang Chen didn't want to open the door, but the girl had the determination that if Jiang Chen didn't open the door, she wouldn't let her finger go.

Losing to Natasha's determination, Jiang Chen opened the door

Since he disappeared for so long, it was time to return to the public's eyes.

But what he didn't think was that the first thing Natasha said to him was not "you're not injured?", but rather something else.

"Playing with fire? Our President Zhang seems to have told Aquino this before." Jiang Chen invited her to sit on the sofa. "Please sit, I prepared vodka this time.

"I'm not here to drink." Natasha narrowed her eyes and examined Jiang Chen, the vibrant lips curled up thoughtfully, "I knew nothing would have happened to you, you old fox."

"I'm still young okay? Ms. Polar bear," Jiang Chen jokingly said.

"That joke is not gentlemanly at all," Natasha gave him a hard stare, walked passed him, and sat down on the sofa. However, this time, she oddly didn't touch the alcohol.

She crossed her smooth legs and crossed her arms, "What are you planning to do next? How are you going to take care of this mess?"

"Make Country F return to the negotiation table." Jiang Chen sat down across from Natasha with his legs crossed, his fingers on one of his knees.

"What if UA doesn't agree." Natasha raised her eyebrows.

"Then they should be prepared to be dealt with together."

Jiang Chen wasn't joking at all.

Chapter 585: Go Back to the Negotiation Table

The aircraft carrier battle group began to mobilize in the west Pacific direction with the fighter jets constantly taking off from the carrier to increase the patrol frequency in public waters. At the same time, a bomber was deployed at the nearby military base.

Two "ocean fortresses" clamped down on Xin's water, but it made Jiang Chen feel relieved.

The attack postures meant that they don't plant to actually attack. Or else they would not mobilize their aircraft carrier battle group and the bomber, but their nuclear submarine to launch the cruise missile.

Jiang Chen knew clearly that with just two Guardian-class frigates and the ultra-speed cruising Aurora-20s were not enough to win against the five thugs, the weapons would at most make them be extra cautious. Technology is always only an element of the war, but not everything that dictates the outcome of the war, unless the technology is powerful enough to change the structure of the war.

An Aurora-20 could simultaneously face five FA-50s, 50 Mustangs, but it would be a stretch to go against three fifth general fighters at the same time. Just like the Axis' ME262 Turbo Jet against the propeller planes of the Allies, although it caused the Allies some problems, it didn't fundamentally change the outcome of the war.

Since both sides didn't want to fight, then what's left was negotiations.

…

City K, Jiang Chen arrived at MLL Island by AN-12 cargo plane.

Ivan was there to greet him. He was the acting chief commander at MLL Island.

The AN-12 was a Russian product sold at 50 million USD for two. Celestial Trade had been using them as transportation of humanitarian aids and weapons used to maintain humanitarianism. Out of the five thugs, only Russia was willing to sell firearms to Xin.

On the side of the airport, Jiang Chen saw four captured OV-10 "Mustang" fighters as well as a Boeing commercial plane that had been abandoned for who knows how long. Under the air suppression by the Aurora-20s, the four fighters didn't have the opportunity to take off before they were captured by the Moro guerillas.

Santos generously offered Jiang Chen two of them since both parties captured them together, but Jiang Chen thanked and rejected the offer.

The antique and second handed stuff that participated in the Vietnam war, Jiang Chen didn't even have the interest to modify it.

Sitting in the army green Jeep, Jiang Chen began to inquire Ivan about the stats.

"The airstrike consumed around 60 thousand rounds of aviation bullets, 37 bombs, 15 midrange air-to-ground missiles, 17 closerange air-to-air missiles…"

"Close to 100 million USD? War certainly burns through money." Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes and watched the desolated streets outside the window.

That was just the airstrike part, the cost to this war far exceeded 100 million USD. But as soon as Jiang Chen thought about his Celestial Trade destroying the F air force, land force, and navy with a military budget of 500 million per year, he was relieved.

Especially Moro who achieved its dream of independence will use MLL Island's rich resources to pay for the bill of the war.

"What about the casualty number?"

"Only 11 fatalities, the soldiers in critical condition are sent to Coro Island for treatment… the smart medical pod is great."

"It is a Future product after all. Also, make sure you take care of the family of the deceased soldiers, we can't let down our soldiers," Jiang Chen ordered.

"Roger!" Ivan nodded.

The Jeep entered the city. The blinding sunlight didn't feel like the apocalypse at all. All major road and highway were controlled by Moro soldiers with protective suits and anti-poison masks provided by Celestial Trade. They were equipped with rifles and cautiously watching the blank faces stained with blood outside of the barbed fences.

The safe zone was currently under the control of Celestial Trade. The kinetic skeleton soldier checked Ivan's identity, saluted before letting the car pass.

The Jeep passed through the safe zone under the warm welcome of the survivors. Jiang Chen and Ivan then arrived at the port in City K and met the delegation sent by the Aquino government. The Aquino government could not withstand the anti-war sentiment as well as the protest from the family of the captured soldiers. It was forced to give up their firm stance to discuss the terms of releasing the captives.

Meeting Jiang Chen who clearly didn't look "critically injured", the Country F ambassador Tate's eyes were covered in gloom, he felt his government, and he was fooled.

"Ha, looks like Mr. Jiang is in good shape."

Jiang Chen nonchalantly shook his head when he faced Tate's unfriendly gaze.

"Thank you for caring. Say hello to your President for me; he must not have slept well in the last couple of days. Also, I saw that you guys were planning to host a celebration ceremony sometime before, but by the looks of it now, it won't be needed."

The mockery in Jiang Chen's voice made Tate's expression look as if he had just eaten a fly. The entire capital didn't sleep well with a cannon directly pointed toward it.

"This is?" Jiang Chen let go of Tate's hand and looked at two other people on the side.

A white man with sideburns was in a suit; the other muscular looking man wore the UA Navy uniform. Jiang Chen noticed the UA soldier was a Colonel.

"Eric, United Nations Observer." The man with white sideburns shook hands with Jiang Chen and introduced the person beside him, "This is Colonel Reston, a mediator from UA."

Jiang Chen's sight stopped on Colonel Reston for a while.

He knew that this was the actual person leading the negotiation.

After some small talk, Jiang Chen and Ivan took the two to the safe zone and met with Santos who just arrived from Port D.

With all parties at the scene, after half a year, the discussion between the Country F government and the guerillas restarted again.

"Let's put it simply, I hope everyone can put down their weapons and solve the difference on the negotiation table, Eric said straightforwardly, "This discussion has been long due. Then first—"

"We won't give grounds on our sovereignty completely." Tate interrupted Eric's words while looking at Santos coldly, "but I brought the kindness of Mr. Aquino. Moro will exist as an autonomous territory, as long as you put down your weapons and release all illegally detained F soldiers."

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes to gaze directly into Tate's eyes. The F citizen didn't bring out the attitude to negotiate in the first place.

"Looks like we'll have to chat in your capital then." Santos shrugged and opened his hands.

"We won't let that happen." Colonel Reston who didn't say a word spoke abruptly. He slightly raised his hooked nose and stared at Santos' smug face, "The Satan aircraft carrier battle group won't permit. If you dare to step out of MLL Island, then we must redefine the situation to a point where we must intervene, I promise that our troops won't always stay on the deck of the aircraft carrier."

Reston warned Jiang Chen with his look.

Since Santos was born a bandit, he immediately scoffed, "then my guerrillas will make MLL Islands into a second Vietnam."

...

The negotiation from the start was on the course to failure. Jiang Chen's sight scanned the United Nations observer who was smiling, the gloomy looking Tate, and the poker-faced Reston.

Just as the parties were about to call the negotiation off, Jiang Chen suddenly coughed, took out a thumb-sized bottle from his pocket, and placed it on the table.

The bottle was sealed by a mini cork with transparent and clear liquid inside. The sunshine scattering from outside of the window reflected an oily liquid inside.

"What's this?" Tate glanced at the bottle, picked it up, and put it close to his nose.

"Something to make all of us go back to the negotiation table."

Jiang Chen spoke as he put his cell phone onto the table and then looked at Reston with a smile.

Chapter 586: Within Strike Range

Reston and Eric didn't know what tricks Jiang Chen was planning. They exchanged glances before looking back at Jiang Chen, waiting for him to continue. The F representative, Tate, narrowed his eyes and repeatedly played with the bottle in his hands, hoping to find something odd.

Just as he squeezed on the cork and was about to sniff it, Jiang Chen spoke again.

"I don't suggest you do that."

Tate stopped mid-action and glared at Jiang Chen.

"Why not?"

"That's the pathogen extract from the zombies; we refer to it as the T virus."

Just as Jiang Chen's words dropped, Tate dropped the bottle in his hand, terrified. The thumb-sized bottle smashed onto the table with a "clang" and the bottle spun two times. Reston and Eric's expressions didn't look too great either. They subconsciously moved back.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, I need an explanation." Reston looked at Jiang Chen sternly. "Your careless actions will be viewed as an act of aggression against the UA. We will—"

"Aren't we negotiating today?" Jiang Chen interrupted Reston and opened his hands. "But from the start of negotiations until now, I haven't seen any sincerity. I've only seen you flexing."

"I understand flexing is an important part of negotiations since peace can only be achieved through force." Jiang Chen raised his fingers and gently tapped on the phone screen on the table. "Please allow me to demonstrate our power."

When the red button was pressed, the circular missile silo hatch opened hundreds of kilometers below the west Pacific Ocean, exposing the fearsome Dolphin-10 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

The propulsion ring around the side walls of the missile suddenly created a large number of bubbles, pushing the missile to a depth of 100 meters. Afterward, it split the propulsion ring and separated it from the missile. At the same time, the missile's engine ignited while accompanied by thick smoke, leaving the ocean sea far below as it galloped toward the blue sky.

The engine stalled when it reached the near-Earth orbit. The Dolphin-10 followed the Earth's own orbit to pass across the Pacific, cross Honduras, and float across the Caribbean. The engine reignited again and the missile began to fall back toward the Earth.

Like a meteor crashing down from the sky, the missile directly hit a desolated island in the north Atlantic Ocean.

Flames instantly erupted. The debris of the explosion, along with rocks, instantly splashed across the sky. The shockwaves of the explosion swept through the sea surface near the island and even smoothened the violent waves.

A drop of cold sweat rolled down from Reston's forehead and dropped onto his sleeve.

Tate was completely dumbfounded, unable to accept the reality played out on the phone. Eric was silent as he stared at the ceiling.

"It must be a lie." Tate squeezed out this sentence with a trembling voice as he put on a tough act.

Reston and the United Nations observer both looked at Jiang Chen attempting to spot a sign on his face, but they were disappointed to discover that there was only calmness.

"I heard that the UA satellites are scattered across the world. If you don't believe me, just see for yourself." Jiang Chen sunk into his chair and said casually while inviting them to find out the truth for themselves. "The location of the strike is on the phone."

"Our satellites aren't broad enough to monitor the North Atlantic Ocean," Reston said while staring into Jiang Chen's eyes.

"Then send people to make observations? They should at least find out the explosion impact rating." Jiang Chen rolled his eyes.

Reston didn't say anything. He was waiting for a call from the Stan aircraft carrier.

If a missile soared through the entire Pacific Ocean and Central America, it was impossible to not have been captured by UA's satellites. From the missile's trajectory, the missile should've gone through near-Earth orbit. If it climbed to the altitude of the near-Earth orbit, it should've been captured by the military base when it entered the stratosphere.

Jiang Chen knew what he was waiting for, so he didn't speak. Instead, he picked up his phone and started playing games.

Tate looked agitated because he thought he and his country were being ignored completely. Although Reston was helping him, the conversation revolved around UA and Xin from start to finish. He didn't view him as important at all nor did he ask about F's opinion. The feeling of being neglected stabled his heart like a dagger.

But Santos, on the contrary, looked calm. The revolutionary leader, born as a bandit, didn't mind his opinion being ignored on the negotiation table. He only cared about one thing - his decades-long political pursuit would finally become a reality in his hands.

Half an hour passed, and Reston couldn't sit around any longer. He glanced at the watch, took a deep breath, and stood up.

"I need to make a phone call."

"No problem. You should've called a long time ago." Jiang Chen played with his phone while responding nonchalantly.

Reston glanced at Jiang Chen and stepped outside with his satellite phone.

When he called the aircraft carrier, Captain Huffman immediately asked about the result of negotiations. If negotiations were unsuccessful, they would act accordingly and advance a few more kilometers toward Xin's waters.

But Reston was smiling bitterly.

From Huffman's words, he immediately understood that aside from himself, no UA citizens noticed the missile that flew across their backyards. After reporting the situation to Huffman, Reston hung up the phone, leaned on the wall outside the conference room, and lit himself a cigar.

His head was a mess because the lunatic who didn't play by the rules disrupted his plan. He just wanted to calm down and recollect his thoughts during a smoke break.

Half an hour passed. This time, it didn't come from an aircraft carrier but from the Capital.

A few minutes ago, a fighter jet equipped with cameras took off from a domestic military base and arrived in the airspace above the small island. From the image taken, the island looked like it was struck not long ago…

Although no one wanted to accept this, the reality was clear to everyone.

Xin… No, Celestial Trade, possessed global strike abilities.

Reston silently put his phone back and returned to the conference room.

"That took a while." Jiang Chen put down his phone. His fingers were drawing circles on the table, and he smiled at Reston back in his seat.

"Do you think one ICBM can threaten us? How many ICBMs do you think UA possesses?" Reston said with a menacing expression.

"What about this, then? It isn't too difficult to extract this from the zombies." Jiang Chen picked up the bottle dropped by Tate and placed it squarely on the table. "Do you want to test the interception abilities of your missile defense system? For your little friend thousands of kilometers away?"

Reston's pupils drastically constricted. Tate's expression also froze.

"It's against international law to use biological weapons - you sure you want to do that?" Reston's Adam's apple bobbed up and down with unease. He placed his palms on the table.

He thought a lunatic was standing in front of him.

"Don't joke around. Do you promise UA won't use nuclear weapons in the face of survival? We're just imitating what you do. If you send out your forces, I will send out an ICBM. Either we are peaceful together, or we die together!" Jiang Chen emotionlessly replied to Reston's stare and enunciated the last sentence word by word.

Within striking range, no one could safely stay away from this mess.

Chapter 587: The Saturday War

Reston chose to compromise.

Precisely speaking, the Capital chose to compromise. Reston, the negotiation representative, spoke with the Captial for the second time and sat back down at the negotiation table.

"Celestial Trade must withdraw from MLL Islands… We can talk about independence."

When these words came out of Reston's mouth, Tate jumped up like a cat with his tail stepped on. His neck and face ballooned and reddened, and he cursed at Reston with spit flying.

"This is an obvious conspiracy! You betrayed your ally! Do you not feel ashamed?!"

Reston looked at Jiang Chen without feeling phased and ignored the furious Tate. Eric, standing by the side, could no longer sit and watch. He played the role of the middleman and began comforting Tate.

"We can withdraw, but we will keep 100 Marines here in City K. We plan to establish aid stations here to fulfill our humanitarian duty," Jiang Chen said with self-righteousness.

That sentence almost made Eric choke. It was the first time he saw someone using the cover of humanitarianism to station troops.

"You can station 50 people at most, and you can't deploy fighter jets here," Reston said.

"100 people. City K is Moro's territory, and this is our agreement with another country. Do you have the right to intervene?"

Reston looked at Santos.

Santos exposed his white teeth and the deviousness unfitting of his muscular body.

"We don't have any issues. We welcome Celestial Trade to participate in the rebuilding of Kejia as well as investing in the industry of MLL Island."

"… Okay." Reston nodded forcefully.

"Then let's talk about Moro's sovereignty. Aside from the non-disputable MLL Island, what about the S Islands—"

"Not a chance." Tate interrupted Jiang Chen.

But Jiang Chen didn't seem to notice him and continued.

"S Islands are currently under the control of Moro's 11th Brigade."

"Control is one thing, sovereignty is another—" The United Nations observer, Eric, tried to speak before being interrupted by Santos.

"These are documents outlining the sovereign rights." Santos placed a stack of documents on the table.

"It takes time to review the legality of the documents." Reston's tone deepened. "Especially compared to sovereignty, isn't the voice of the S Islands people more important? In our view, human rights are above sovereign rights."

"Is that so? Your standards are always changing." Jiang Chen mocked him.

Reston's expression looked awkward; he coughed to divert the topic.

"Our discussion is about the Suf Islands problem."

"I suggest a referendum - that's the fairest," Jiang Chen said.

"No! Unless all citizens participate in the referendum, the territory of Country F should be determined by all citizens!" Tate stomped the ground and shouted.

The unruly citizens of S Islands wanted to separate for a long time, so they couldn't permit them to vote for themselves.

"Just as Tate said. It's like a house - you can't take apart his bedroom just because he wants to leave unless everyone in the house agrees." It was the first time Reston concurred with Tate's opinion.

S Islands was the gateway to the sea. Strategically, as long as Moro controlled the area, Celestial Trade's ships could freely enter the heart of Country F. Economically, S Islands were on the belt of the Pacific Ring, which contained a large reserve of rare metals. Control by Moro meant control by Celestial Trade, therefore Jiang Chen wouldn't give up on the possession of S Islands.

The first day of negotiations faltered because of the sovereignty dispute.

The two parties each took a step back and reached a ceasefire agreement and agreed to discuss other matters the next day.

The dispute regarding territorial claims wasn't easy to resolve, especially when the Aquino government wouldn't relinquish control by any means. Jiang Chen's method was very "immoral" - during negotiations, he signaled Santos to open a family visit channel to the 34,000 Country F government soldiers in the western MLL islands. Moro permitted family visitors to cross the border, stay for a maximum of two days, and visit their captured family under the supervision of Moro soldiers.

The captured soldiers' families could maintain their composure when they didn't see them. But when they saw their sons, husbands, and boyfriends captured in camp, their tears and despair could no longer be restrained. Although the captured soldiers didn't receive inhumane treatment, they more or less were injured because of the war.

Moro had a strong stance regarding the pleas to release the captured soldiers.

"We seek peace, but we will never compromise with the enemy. If you want to see your family go home, go beg your Aquino - the choice has always been in his hands. As long as he is willing to sign the peace agreement, we can drop our weapons and reunite with our families!"

We are also victims! We also seek peace! The villainous hat fit Aquino's head as a matter of course.

What happened next was predictable.

The soldiers' families who returned to Country F protested, cried for the end of the war, and blocked the Presidential Palace and Aquino's private home. From the experiences of the soldiers' families and wide support from other anti-war personnel and citizens who lost their income due to the war, the waves of protest grew strong and stronger. The emotion card Jiang Chen played achieved a superb effect in Country F, which was also burdened by a weak economy.

Only a minority of patriotic citizens refused to compromise and fight to the end, but their voices were already too faint. People were always changing - during peaceful times, they would probably support a war because of the pride in their hearts. But during wartime, most of them would change their minds after their quality of life began to fall.

Since the ceasefire agreement was signed, Celestial Trade joined the war for seven days, but Country F's currency depreciated by 20% while the price of goods skyrocketed by 50%. The people who demanded destroying Xin and making Pannu Islands the colony of Country F instantly calmed down and began to reflect on their lives and values.

Because of domestic pressure, the Aquino government lasted for half a month before returning to the negotiation table in humiliation.

Country F recognized Moro's independence. S Islands, MLL Island and part of the ocean territory would belong to Moro. Country F's five divisions would withdraw from the northern part of MLL Island.

At the same time, Celestial Trade's frigates and submarines withdraw from the area. Moro's two divisions withdrew from the islands north of MLL Island and returned the control of the territory to Country F. At the same time, Moro and Country F would unconditionally release all the captured soldiers.

Therefore, Moro's pursuit of independence finally succeeded and they became the 195th sovereign nation in the world. Country F, who lost their second biggest island, collapsed from this point onward.

And Celestial Trade, who made everything happen, became the "Sovereign State" of the area and the biggest winner of the war.

Because Celestial Trade intervened in the war on Saturday and the war ended within a week, this war was also referred to as the Saturday War by the international community.

Chapter 588: Entering the Medical Field

At the signing of the peace agreement, Jiang Chen saw Aquino's comical face. From the puffy dark undereye circles and white hairs, his face was mixed in with some tragic colors.

Under the flashing of the reporters' cameras, Aquino walked up and shook the hand of the muscular Santos.

Santos gave him a smile, but he replied with a smile more ugly than upset.

Finally, the cameras hovered on the two pairs of hands holding the peace agreement. They both signed their names on the agreement and declared the conclusion of the civil war to the world.

Outside the view of the cameras, the actual facilitators behind the peaceful negotiation, Jiang Chen and Reston, were witnessing the historic moment from afar.

"I hope this is the last time." Reston stared into Jiang Chen's eyes. "You already reached our bottom line. Do you want to know the percentage in favor of war?"

"I don't want to know." Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile. "But you should know my bottom line as well."

One pistol, regardless how many bullets it contained, was still a gun when held in a baby's hands. Or rather, because it was held in a baby's hands, it was more dangerous. As long as the baby wasn't too greedy, everyone could still coexist peacefully.

Reston gave Jiang Chen a long and deep look.

"Also, CIB's agents will arrive at the MLL Islands to search for the missing fighter pilot, Gordon. I hope your people will cooperate."

"You should tell that to Santos - he's the actual owner of the island. But I think if you don't do anything sneaky, you won't be turned away by them."

...

Jiang Chen had already ordered people to search for that pilot. Moro sent out a team to search through the mountainous forests in MLL Island too, since a UA pilot would be an important chip on the bargaining table. Unfortunately, neither Celestial Trade nor Moro discovered the whereabouts of the pilot.

Optimistically, the unlucky guy may have been blown into the volcano on the island.

Reston scoffed. He lit up his own cigar and got into the car that came to pick him up.

Jiang Chen stood at the ceremony for a while, gazing at the olive branch on the flying United Nations flag and a contemptuous smile appeared on his face.

Before the applause started, he turned around and left.

…

The war was over, and Moro owed Celestial Trade a total of 1.25 billion USD. Frankly speaking, if it wasn't for the infectious situation in City K raising his alarm, he would've wanted to drag the war on for longer. The more money Moro owed to Celestial Trade, the more control Celestial Trade would have over them and the more Moro would depend on Xin.

MLL Island was previously Country F's poorest southern area; there was no way they could pay out 1.25 billion dollars. The money could only be paid back in rich, undeveloped mining resources and fertile soils. These things were what Jiang Chen wanted the most.

The resources and land were critical to Xin. Currently, Xin and the apocalypse's mining resources and farm products were mostly imported from Australia. Although Xin had a good relationship with them, it wasn't the best to depend on someone else.

But currently speaking, Australia had no comments on the situation at Country F. They didn't want to offend Xin with a great economic outlook for Country F. Australia was in the midst of isolationism, no different from UA in the 90s.

Because of the peace agreement coming into effect, Celestial Trade withdrew the deployed frigate and the thousand Marines on MLL Island, leaving only 100 soldiers in City K for the purpose of maintaining local security in tandem with the local forces.

Yes, they were no longer called the guerillas. After the peace agreement came into effect, they became a sovereign country recognized by the United Nations. Their forces would naturally be called the government forces.

Three days after the peace agreement.

"Currently, there are over 100,000 zombies in the east of the city. Our plan is to use the Scorpion Tanks captured from Country F and form a tank battalion to recapture the five bridges that span across the river. Then we will use barbed fences to create a separation zone and gradually recover the area in the east…"

Moro 11th brigade commander, Chen Zhitian, was standing beside Jiang Chen, discussing the zombie problem in the city.

"No need to go to such trouble." Jiang Chen shook his head.

Chen Zhitian looked over at Jiang Chen with questions in his eyes while waiting for him to continue.

"T-virus - this is what our scientist named the virus. Based on clinical experiments, the virus' ability to withstand UV is extremely low, and the duration of time the virus can survive outside the body is short. As long as we maintain the quarantine in the city, the possibility of the infection spreading is low. As for the zombies… just wait for them to starve to death."

"Starve to death?" Chen Zhitian looked at Jiang Chen in shock.

"That's right." Jiang Chen nodded.

The zombies in City K were inherently different from the zombies in the apocalypse; the differences were mostly reflected in the infection mechanism. One was a viral infection whereas the other was a bacterial infection. While the former destroyed the human nervous and immune systems, it didn't resolve the zombie's energy problem. The latter was a mutated bacteria used to cleanse radiation. After finding a host, it could use the host for photosynthesis.

Any creature without food intake would die.

Even zombies couldn't escape the law of nature. As long as the zombies didn't eat each other, they would last for a month at most before they turned into dried flesh. Jiang Chen would just need to prepare a few more burners to get rid of the dead corpses.

The only problematic thing was that since the zombies had no immune system, their bodies were starting to decompose. Without containment, there was a risk of a plague erupting in the city.

Doctors from international aid organizations had already entered the safe zone and started to examine the survivors there. This included researchers from international pharmaceutical companies. Everyone wanted to understand the secret behind the virus in order to create the vaccine that could protect against it.

Under Jiang Chen's recommendations, Santos pushed out a strategy completely different from the Aquino government and didn't prevent international aid organizations from entering the city of Kejia, since Moro was too poor to fully contain the plague.

At the same time, a subsidiary of Future Group, Future Biology, held a news conference suggesting its expansion into the medical field while they sent a research team into the city of Kejia to participate in the research of T virus. The CEO of Future Biology, Tao Ming, also suggested that the researchers of Future Biology would conduct work independently without cooperation with other international medical teams.

Jiang Chen had been planning to enter the medical industry, and the infection Future Biology was working on only sped up his plan.

The T virus that shocked the world was the perfect opportunity to enter the market. Future Biology would use people's fear of the virus to make its mark in the industry. At the same time, to prevent this virus from spreading in their own country, all countries would, without a doubt, pay for the vaccine.

After the researchers in the modern world scanned the DNA of the virus, Jiang Chen went to the apocalypse and left everything to Lin Lin, who had nothing to do because of the heavy snowfall. Based on what she said, it wasn't a big deal to take care of the virus at all.

Just like that, time quickly passed to the tail end of January.

The previous virtual reality MMORPG planned for launch at the beginning of January was postponed to the end of January because of the president's air crash. There were around 100 million Phantom users around the world eagerly waiting for the launch of Godly Land.

But just then, a piece of news caught Jiang Chen's attention…

Chapter 589: Keep an eye on them for me

At Coro Island, in the Future Building, was the headquarters of Future Group.

If it wasn't for the fact that tourists weren't permitted to enter, this place absolutely had the potential to become the most iconic landmark building, second only to "The Heart of the Sea" on Coro Island.

Since the name of the corporation included the word "Future," the building was designed with a futuristic feeling. It stood at a height of 437 meters, with 110 floors above ground and 20 floors below ground. It was a skyscraper that combined offices, residences, and dining halls. The top floors offered an aerial view of the island; the middle floors could be Future Group's employees' offices and fulfill living and dining needs; the lower floors could serve as a nuclear bunker with a capacity of ten thousand people… Of course, the last function was only designed as a contingency.

Since the skyscraper officially came into service, Future Biology, Mining, Tourism and all other subsidiaries located on Ange Island as well as Celestial Trade's non-combat employees all moved there. Future Headquarters currently held 6000 employees that accounted for 20% of Xin's total population.

Needless to say, it was a terrifying percentage.

Sitting inside the Future Group building, Xia Shiyu was reporting to Jiang Chen on the current performance of the group.

Although Xia Shiyu had only been on the job for a month, she quickly displayed her talent in management, familiarized herself with Future Group's operations in the shortest possible time, and slotted herself into the role of the Group's CEO. Of course, she was able to quickly get into character partially because before she came to be the Group's CEO, Jiang Chen always left her the work he was supposed to do...

Jiang Chen didn't just sit around the past few days.

After taking care of business in Moro, he returned to Coro Island and lived life traveling between the dimensions. The plus side was that he had great help on both sides to take care of miscellaneous things. If he didn't have that help, he suspected he would be at risk of schizophrenia.

"Takeda Pharmaceutical?" When Jiang Chen heard this unfamiliar name, Jiang Chen's eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes." Xia Shiyu nodded and hugged the tablet in her arms. "Yesterday at noon, Takeda Pharmaceutical conducted a press conference at Yoto, announcing a significant breakthrough on the research of T virus. They're in the last stage of the clinical trial period before the vaccine will be released to the market."

Jiang Chen gave it some thought. He tapped on his EP and connected with Lin Lin's communication terminal.

"Hello big pervert, what do you need?"

Lin Lin, with a baggy white apron, surfaced on the screen. She gently swirled a cylinder containing an unknown liquid while yawning.

Jiang Chen's eyebrows twitched and he pretended to not notice Xia Shiyu's peculiar look. He coughed.

"How's the progress on the T virus vaccine?

"Of course it's done - I'm the gorgeous scientist after all."

"Why didn't you tell me you were done?" Jiang Chen gave her a hard stare.

Lin Lin stuck out her tongue then pouted. "You didn't ask me."

She put down the cylinder in her hand, turned around to walk to a machine, took out a USB from the top, returned to the communication terminal, then typed on the control panel with her graceful fingers.

Klein particles carried the information to the modern world.

Jiang Chen saw the signal light on the EP flashing, and he knew the data was transported to his EP. The researchers on this side didn't need to do anything other than using Lin Lin's research to design the production plan.

After he comforted Lin Lin, who wanted mango pudding, he ended communication and finally met Xia Shiyu's peculiar gaze.

"And she is?"

"She's Future Group's Research Department's scientist," Jiang Chen said sternly.

The Research Department, the mysterious department, was always the subject of gossip within the Group. No one knew its whereabouts. All data was transferred from the artificial intelligence Yao Yao designed to acquire information requested by Jiang Chen. Even Xia Shiyu, as the Group's CEO, didn't know too much about the special department.

"Isn't she a bit young?" Xia Shiyu facepalmed.

Because she was a digitalized human, even after 100 years, Lin Lin would still look like she was 16 years of age. Jiang Chen had been considering if he should let Xia Shiyu know about Future Group's core secret. But from her shocked expression, perhaps this would have to be delayed further…

The data related to the genetic vaccine was transferred from the EP onto the USB. Xia Shiyu took the USB from Jiang Chen's hands and reported on preparations for Godly Land's official launch before she left the office.

Jiang Chen sank into his chair, closed his eyes, and repeatedly chewed on the information Xia Shiyu reported to him.

There was one piece of information he was concerned about the most.

Takeda Pharmaceutical's T virus had entered the clinical trial phase. Jiang Chen sensed something odd about their speed of research.

"Takeda Pharmaceutical?"

Jiang Chen muttered while staring at the ceiling. He suddenly stood up and pressed on the computer.

Momentarily, the door to the office opened again.

It was Ayesha who came in. Because it was business hours, she was dressed in a suit similar to Xia Shiyu.

Xin's National Security Department's non-field employees also worked in Future Group's building, including Ayesha as the captain of the Ghost Agents. But the work of the Ghost Agents was mostly directed and planned by the people of the department. Her responsibility was to approve Ghost Agent missions, so she was usually free without a need to come to the office every day. The reason she came today was because Jiang Chen was there.

"Is there anything you need?"

"Mhmm. I need your people to keep an eye on something for me."

Ayesha nodded and her eyes responded: "At your service."

"Takeda Pharmaceutical, Kurofune - only these two keywords. I need you to gather as much intelligence as possible through these two keywords."

"I'll keep an eye on them."

…

It was January 24th in the blink of an eye with Han New Year's Eve only a few days away.

In order to complete the launch of Godly Land, the entire Future Group was bustling with activities.

But no one complained about the chaos before the New Year.

Since the date for their bonuses was approaching by the day!

The President said at the end-of-year meeting that all Future Group employees would be given a big bonus, so all employees working for the company would have a great New Year!

As for the bonus amount, it was based on the profitability of the subsidiary, the employee's position, and personal performance. But regardless, the average bonus was at least 100 thousand dollars. Also, the bonus of the employees was calculated separately from senior management, therefore the figure wasn't a boosted average. The CEO of the subsidiaries would receive a dividend of at least ten million USD. Xia Shiyu, as the Group's CEO, would receive at least 100 million.

Future Group's profitability this year easily broke through 40 billion USD because of the over 100 million Phantom units sold. The other subsidiaries all provided stellar financial reports.

Based on the decision of the board comprised of only two people, Future Group would pay out a dividend of at least 30 billion USD for the fiscal year of 2016. Therefore, Jiang Chen's private account officially broke the 30 billion USD mark.

There was nothing that excited people more than money. Although there was still some time before the New Year, the company was filled with the holiday spirit.

At the end-of-year ball, Jiang Chen drunk with the employees.

Jiang Chen was naturally delighted by the enthusiastic employees and he didn't reject any of the toasts proposed to him. He only vaguely remembered that his drunk self seemed to have lost a bet, and with the encouragement of the young employees, he kissed Xia Shiyu on the cheek.

The result was obvious.

Such a flirtatious move made the girl with a thin face ignore him for several days…

Chapter 590: Godly Land Online!

Godly Land, anticipated by over 100 million players around the world, was finally launched.

In order to allow 100 million users to connect into the game simultaneously, Jiang Chen used his permissions to open up the computation capacity of the quantum computer at Coro Island underground to 90%! The spike caused Coro Island's total electricity usage to spike by 13.7%, which brought pressure to the tidal and wind power generators on the island.

To resolve the electricity shortage, Future Biology had to set up ten additional square kilometers of seaweed electricity generating farms on the west Pacific Ocean in order to satisfy Future Group's electricity needs.

The quantum computer's astronomical power usage was evident!

What was worth noting was that since commercial quantum computers had to process multiple instances of computational tasks, their power consumption was high. Experimental quantum computers were far more powerful compared to commercial units, which had much lower power consumption and were unable to provide service to millions of users simultaneously.

In order to meet the demands of the growing users in the modern world, Jiang Chen had to continuously rush Zhao Chenwu's trade fleet to bring back quantum computers from outside Wanghai; otherwise, VR community and VR e-commerce couldn't be established.

Zhao Chenwu had his own troubles since he had trouble finding the materials. The more advanced the technology, the more precise it was. Even though they didn't suffer destruction from the nuclear explosion, the quantum computers left on the wasteland for over ten years were mostly broken, especially since they offered no value to most survivors since it was neither food nor weapon.

On the entire wasteland, only NAC collected the "game servers."

Hua, Wanghai, in a normal apartment building.

A young man with glasses was using a mouse to scroll through the pages on his laptop.

His name was Wei Wendong and his IGN was known as the Shadow King. He was previously a professional gamer for League of Legends and an honorary club member of the Kings Esports Club. After retirement, he became a streamer of the mobile game New Era… Of course, after he acquired an internal test spot for Godly Land, he was signed for 20 million RMB by Kings Esports Club, thus making him a member of the Kings again.

In the past few days, Wei Wendong had been following Future Technology's news closely.

Godly Land's unexpected delays disrupted his streaming plans. What surprised him was that not only did it not influence his popularity, but it surprisingly attracted more viewers. He received over one hundred private messages each day, asking him when he would start streaming the VR MMORPG.

He could only tell his viewers with a bitter smile that the question was better directed at Jiang Chen – the President of Future Group.

Because the official launch date was approaching, the official forum of Godly Land was filled with emotions.

Wei Wendong flipped through the lines of unconstructive comments and attempted to gather some useful information from the netizens.

"Internal test secrets, first-hand game information released! Please call me Lei Feng! (1) Don't need to thank me!"

"OP is a dumba*s - you call this an internal test player?"

"…"

"Fu*k, is the server going to be launched or not? I'm going to sell the helmet and play something else. The Internet is so expansive - there are tons of other fun games out there!"

"OP, don't run. I'll pay 10,000, sell me the helmet! Contact me at …"

"Get out! I paid 4000 in tax already. I specifically went to the duty-free shop in Xin, but I was still charged tax when I got off the plane."

"Hahaha, allow me to use a sad emoji. Also, if OP is willing to sell, I'll offer 11 thousand."

"…"

"I'm a girl, Priest main. Please carry me, :)."

"…"

There was no difference compared to yesterday - no constructive comments at all.

Although it was unfortunate, Wei Wendong felt relieved sitting in front of the computer.

Being an internal test player was his only advantage. Other than the basic game controls, the location of the regular missions, and the spawn points of monsters, he also discovered a class mission for a hidden class! Most of the hidden classes were unique or limited in number. He was most afraid that other internal test players would also discover the same secret and publish it online.

But by the looks of it now, his worries were completely extraneous. All the players wishing to make a mark in this era-defining global MMORPG were selfish; no one was willing to expose their trap card.

Finally, he made it to the date of the server launch. Wei Wendong adjusted his body into a comfortable position, laid on the bed with the helmet and muttered the start command.

It was the feeling of his spirit drifting away to another world.

Following the brief interruption of his consciousness, he appeared in the grey cube when he opened his eyes again.

He eagerly called out for the menu and he discovered in surprise that the icon to the Godly Land light up!

It was !

Just like Future Technology's official explanation, after character creation, he found the icon to record and stream.

Then he hovered over the icon to log out.

Perfect, the logout icon was also lit up.

Before he entered the game, he wondered if the plot in the movie occurred, what would he do if he was locked in the game? But by the looks of it now, his worries were completely excessive.

Although it was an open world, the new player village existed in the form of a scenario. This allowed new players to access guides and communicate their learnings to familiarize themselves with the game.

But even then, the new player village with the code 00001 was filled with people.

Wei Wendong ignored the long list of team invites, opened the game map, set the target to the middle of the village and walked there with hasty steps.

Compared to the newbies who were wandering around the village and touring the world, the internal test players already passed the phase of excitement upon entering an open virtual world. They went to the village center immediately, found the mayor and picked up their first newbie quest.

Kill ten demonic toads and gain the newbie title – the Demonic Toad Killer! The reward was three silver coins as well as a soul continuation candle.

But in the middle of the village, he saw a strange player. He was standing beside the mayor, but he didn't ask a question nor was he speaking with the mayor. He only muttered with his hand on his chin: "Is this house too small?" "The street is definitely too narrow," "The new player guide's skirt isn't short enough" and other sentences that sounded odd.

Suddenly, Wei Wendong noticed the mayor's annoyed expression and he instantly realized something.

Could it be…

A hidden quest!

Now long after, the odd player chatted with the mayor for a brief moment before leaving.

It looked like he accepted a quest!

Wei Wendong made up his mind and walked up, mimicking the other player's posture. He examined the village for a moment, pretending like he knew things. The mayor had a contemptuous look but wasn't moved at all.

His eyes seemed to be saying: "Too young, too simple."

Seeing this, Wei Wendong gritted his teeth and made up his mind. His voice of criticism continued to rise higher and his questions began to become harsher. For example, he said the door wasn't placed properly for the best fortune, the window had poor lighting, the mayor's abilities were mediocre at best…

The mayor's expression began to change. First, he scoffed, then he ignored him by looking away and he finally turned cold.

Just as Wei Wendong was about to give up, the major jumped up in anger while cursing at Wei Wendong.

"I'm angry!"

[He-he can speak English?]

But the mayor didn't give him any hidden quest.

Not only that - what made Wei Wendong dumbfounded was that regardless of how much he begged the mayor to give him the mission, the mayor ignored him. Without that candle, he couldn't continue with the missions! Even NPCs could throw tantrums - this game was way too smart.

He was really angry.

(1) Lei Feng - An individual known for his life of good deeds.

Chapter 591: Too many Grandchildren!

"Achooo!"

Jiang Chen sneezed right after he took off the helmet, muttering to himself.

"Who is cursing at me?"

He just logged onto the Godly Land and experienced the virtual reality MMORPG designed by Future Technology.

During his high school and university time, Jiang Chen was like most students and was considered half an "addicted gamer". Because he didn't have a girlfriend, he would spend most of the time during his free time to play premade with his roommates. He imagined back then what would the virtual reality game described in the novels be like if he was fortunate enough to experience it one day. He had the fantasy before that he would be like the protagonist in a novel that encountered a unique NPC to become the only hidden class in the server, beat the Tall, Rich and Handsome, and win over the Graceful, Wealthy and Beautiful (2), to become the winner in life…

But he was quick to realize it is a fantasy since those people don't need to prove themselves in the game.

Unless they were particularly lonely.

But in his current position, he didn't have too much interest in playing the game.

But he still created a Knight and took a tour in his game. He looked at the crowded village, observed people's excitement to the new world and fulfilled a dream he had in the past.

After he went offline, he put his helmet aside and went on to the Internet.

Just like he suspected, the Internet was filled by the keywords "Future Technology" and "Godly Land". Before the official launch, the media raved about the era-defining MMORPG. The popularity on the first day didn't surprise him too much, it was only a commitment fulfilled for the tale he described to the media and settled the crown that rested on Future Technology's head.

He opened a renowned international gaming forum and saw that the top place on the forum was Godly Land.

"God, I have never seen such a realistic and immersive game! Goodbye Gaben, I have removed Steam from my hard drive. It's going to be a while before I have any interest in the small games on consoles and PCs."

"It's hard to believe the realistic phase traveling feeling, I feel like I went to another world!"

"Negative! You can't create a female character! Remove the gender recognition tool!"

"Are the NPCs artificial intelligence? I heard there would be an 18+ DLC that allows you to do intimate activities with the NPCs? I think I'm in love with the New Player Guide. XD"

"I think you may be sent to prison for flipping up a girl's skirt, who knows how long you will be locked in for?!"

"…"

A curvature appeared on Jiang Chen's mouth after reading through the comments.

The market gave the game an incredibly high rating. By the looks of it, there was no need to adjust the production of the helmets. With the popularity in the market, there was no problem selling 100 million more units.

But to ensure that the market won't be over flooded, it was better to control the units released to 20 million per month.

…

In the few days, Jiang Chen maintained a nine-to-five schedule to appear in the top floor office at the Future Building. Most of the time he didn't do any work and only strategized the development of the time, and then acted as a supervisor once in a while to call the managers up to check on their work. The routine schedule was new to Jiang Chen.

But with Chinese New Year's Eve on the horizon, the short but fascinating life came to a conclusion.

Because of the multitude of reasons last year, Jiang Chen didn't get to spend time with his parents over the holiday but rather spent the New Year in the apocalypse. But since his parents were with him this year and he didn't have as much trouble as last year, he obviously wouldn't give up the opportunity to spend New Year with his parents.

Although it would make Sun Jiao and the girls feel a bit disappointed, Jiang Chen was still planning to spend New Year in the modern world.

Speaking of New Year, something funny happened with Ayesha. Because she misinterpreted "Chinese New Year" as "Christmas", to give Jiang Chen a surprise, the girl decorated the house with Christmas trees, bells, and ribbons. She also wore a short red dress and cosplayed a Christmas girl.

In the end, it was Xia Shiyu that fixed her mistake. She helped Ayesha put away the decorations and returned the mansion to New Year's decoration and gave her a wiki on normally you would spend New Year with your parents and not at your own place.

The night of New Year's Eve, Jiang Chen took Ayesha to his parents' place.

Because they lived close by, he would occasionally have dinner with his parents. Therefore he kept a copy of the key to his parents' mansion. After he parked the car in the garage, he went in holding Ayesha's hand.

When Jiang Chen walked in, the two elders were preparing dinner.

The caretakers responsible were also given holidays. Therefore it was just the two elders living there.

From the start, Jiang Chen's thoughts were hiring a chef to prepare the dinner. But Mama Jiang said New Year's dinner should be prepared by themselves. Therefore, he followed his parents' thought and helped them along with Ayesha to cook a delicious meal.

Everything was good with Xin, just that there were not a lot of friends and families. There were no fireworks, there won't ever be snow.

As to the Spring Festival Gala broadcasted every year, there was that. Xin could watch the channel in Han, but just like the Gala from last year, the Gala was full of criticism. But no one really minded the content of the show, since, at this time, it was not what was on the TV, but who you were watching the show with.

When they were halfway through dinner, someone knocked on the door.

When Jiang Chen opened the door, he was surprised to see Xia Shiyu holding onto a gift while standing reservedly at the door.

When she met Jiang Chen's eyes, she immediately looked away.

He didn't know if the faint red hue on her face was due to him or due to the happiness of celebrating the holiday season.

"It was my mom that made me come and say… Happy New Year," Standing at the door, Xia Shiyu said in a whisper.

"It's the daughter of Old Xia, haha, come in!" Jiang Chen couldn't say anything before he heard his dad's loud voice.

It was hard to meet a friend in a foreign country. Since Xia Shiyu and her parents moved over, the two families were particularly close as they constantly visited each other. Papa Xia and Jiang Jianguo were also fishing buddies. When the weather was nice, they would always go fishing together on a boat. Because of this, Jiang Chen's dinner always had a familiar seafood smell.

Jiang Chen could bring some fish once in a while back to the apocalypse to enjoy the freshness of the sea with Sun Jiao.

Jiang Chen's mom warmly dragged Xia Shiyu to the dinner table and constantly put dishes in her bowl. Although she said that she ate already, she couldn't resist Mama Jiang's energy and tried a few dishes. Jiang Chen pretended not to see his dad's ambiguous look.

The kiss at the end of the year ball seemed to have caused a big shock to Xia Shiyu as her attitude toward him had been wavering between a fine line. Although she was not purposely avoiding him, Jiang Chen had a feeling that she didn't know how to face him.

But in the holiday atmosphere, the shyness quickly faded into happiness.

The dinner dragged on till 12 at night. Jiang Jianguo who had some alcohol was already snoring on the sofa.

When Xia Shiyu went to the washroom, Mama Jiang dragged Jiang Chen to the side at looked at his son with an interrogating vibe. "Why do I have the feeling that something is going on between you and Xia Shiyu. Tell me who is our family's future daughter-in-law? I don't care how much money you make outside, when will I have grandchildren?"

Jiang Chen stuttered at his mom's interrogation and didn't know how to respond to the complicated problem. It was the understanding Ayesha that helped him out during these situations.

It was a hard question for him to answer.

Ignore the uncertainty in the modern world, there was a few more in the apocalypse…

One thing that was certain was that if his mom really wanted grandchildren, she probably wouldn't have the energy to tend to them all…

(1) Tall, Rich, and Handsome - A popular term describing attractive, successful men

(2) Graceful, Wealthy, and Beautiful - A popular term describing attractive, pretty women

Chapter 592: Virus Vaccine

Jiang Chen had a relaxing time during the New Year, although he was never busy to begin with.

His parents insisted on going back to their hometown for a visit, so Jiang Chen sent his private plane with them. Although his parents said there was no need to be wasteful, Jiang Chen still insisted on his idea. He also arranged for bodyguards to protect the two elders.

Different from commercial airplanes, his private plane was equipped with heat luring missiles, making anti-air missiles mostly ineffective. Although he didn't think people would plot against his parents, it was better to be cautious.

With Celestial Trade's bodyguards on the surface and Ghost Agents hidden in the dark, there was no problem ensuring the safe of the two elders at all.

After sending them on the plane, Jiang Chen headed to New Moon Island and moved 20 newly manufactured T-3 power armors into the armory.

The soldiers who were training in the virtual reality training chamber mostly completed the training tasks. Xin and UA already experienced tension regarding the issue of MLL Islands. To respond to any potential threat, Celestial Trade could only strength its firearms in order to prevent any unexpected situationp.

Moro 11th brigade commander Chen Zhitian sent out a clean-up team to City K after speaking with Ivan on the phone.

With the assistance of the Scorpion tanks and the United Nations heavy trucks, cleaners with protective suits and shot guns headed out from the safe zone and gradually recovered the corpses scattered around the city. The bodies would be sent to the burners at the rural area for incrimination under the supervision of United Nations observers.

257,201 was the total fatality figure in this infection calculated by Moro.

The thick smoke of the incrimination added another hint of despair to the already in shambles city.

Some people captured this despairing scene through paintings. The fragility of life was exquisitely painted through the trail of smokes. But the pain of the living intensified the tragedy of the situation. The painting was later showcased at the International Painting Festival and made all viewers stop and ponder.

On the other hand, the the anti-infection medicine produced by Takeda Pharmaceutical, known as "mint-flavored candy" hit the market. After the medicine was proven effective clinically, the survivors at the safe zone finally welcomed the day the quarantine ended.

But there were clear flaws to the medicine.

The person taking the drug could not be granted with permanent resistance to the T virus. In three years, they must take another dosage of the pill in order to maintain resistance. The most critical fact was that consuming multiple dosages of the medicine would decrease the effective of and hence lower one's immunity against the T virus.

The second the clinical result was published, it caught Jiang Chen's attention.

Ladisiv confessed to Jiang Chen that before he was executing the mission, he took a mint-flavored pill.

Based on what the dead Kurofune member Giles said, it was the medicine that granted immunity against the infection.

Takeda Pharmaceutical could bring out the antidote to the T virus was suspicious in nature. But Jiang Chen was uncertain if Kurofune controlled Takeda Pharmaceutical or there was an exchange of interest between the two parties.

Regardless, this corporation was playing with fire.

But due to the insufficient amount of evidence, Ladisiv's words alone could not prove direct connection between Takeda Pharmaceutical and the infection that broke out in the city of Kejia. Nepon government absolutely would not sanction their star enterprise based on Jiang Chen's one-sided warning and accusation.

Jiang Chen could only hope that the Ghost Agent sent to Yoto could bring him good news.

After Takeda Pharmaceutical introduced the "pill", Future Biology also brought out corresponding research results – injection type T virus vaccine. The patient taking the vaccine would be granted with permanent immunity against the T virus that broke out in City K. And there would be no possibility of being infected by that the virus in at least 50 years.

Once the vaccine hit the market, it received wide recognition from the international community and directly impacted Takeda Pharmaceutical's sales.

Regardless of costs or clinical results, Future Biology's vaccine was far superior with the only minor drawback being the production quantity. Takeda Pharmaceutical had to call an urgent press release promising for the development of a more effective anti-virus medicine or vaccine.

Because the vaccine problem was solve, the international medical teams in the city began to gradually leave.

Future Biology invested in a new pharmaceutical plant in Kejia and expanded the daily vaccine production amount to 100 thousand per day. A lot of international and national heal organizations ordered the vaccine. Based on the estimation provided by Tao Ming, because of the gap of T virus vaccine on the international market, Future Biology's 2017 earnings could exceed 12 billion USD!

Although it was only the beginning of the year, when he made the estimate, he voice was filled with certainty.

Even then, Future Biology's financial report was nowhere comparable to Future Technology.

At the end of February, Godly Land was already on the right track and the media had an overwhelmingly positive reception. Based on the report from Future Technology's new CEO Ning Huajian, Godly Land had 110 million active users.

Sitting on such a massive amount of users, even though game was free, there was no need to worry about profitability.

Future Technology gained a large amount of operating experience from New Era. And these experiences were worth being utilized into Godly Land. For example, the auction system and the costume system. Without interfering with the game's playability, they maximized the profitability channels.

But followed the launch of the global server, the small questions missed during the internal testing phase were gradually discovered and fixed with the help of the developers in the apocalypse.

For example, people would become too addicted and spent all day in the virtual world, completely forgetting day and night. The Phantom will not cause any physiological damage to the user's body, but lying on the bed without moving for a long time was damaging to the body itself, and this is without the discussion of eating and drinking water.

To tackle this, Du Yongkang and his programmers added a status panel in the user's menu. Based on the body's response to the brain to confirm the hunger and thirst level of the body, once it was determined to be abnormal, it would remind the player in the field of vision. If the player neglect the warning, the helmet will auto log out to act as a protection mechanism.

On the other hand, to prevent players from becoming too addicted to the virtual world, Future Technology added some limits to gaming time. Based on the time zone of the player, between 8 at night to 6 in the morning, the player's experience and gold reward was 100%. In the day time, any gaming time over 8 hours will be considered tired status with reward level only at 50%. 24 hours of continuous time online (The gap between each login is less than one hour) will trigger the protection mechanism.

Of course, the protection mechanism only applied to workdays. Holidays and weekends restricted the limit on time online with the consideration of people's habit of playing all night long.

Future Technology would introduce the virtual reality hibernation chamber in the future.

With the protection of the nutrient liquid, users could remain in sleep state for an extensive amount of time without causing damage to the body. At that time, players who bought the hibernation chamber which is equivalent to VIP users will be granted the ability to stay online for a continuous period of time until all nutrient liquid is exhausted.

But Jiang Chen thought that for the rich players that could afford the half a million hibernation chambers, they probably won't have that much time to play the game.

But he also knew that in the near future, the application of virtual reality was not limited to gaming. It will become a tool that completely changes everyone's life.

Chapter 593: Quantum Communication Satellites in the Orbit!

On the deserted island south of Ange Island.

Leaving the thick smoke trail behind, Celestial Trade's rockets launched to the vast blue dome.

Accompany the accession of this rocket marked Xin and humanity's first usage of quantum communication satellite. Of course, the public didn't know the true functionality of this rocket and Celestial Trade didn't offer an explanation to the "non-traditional information passage quantum communication technology" and only vaguely stated that the satellite utilized an innovative technology which would allow the latency of wi-fi connections to be limited to 20 ping and below.

The satellite will provide free wifi service to Xin as part of the citizen's benefit. Not only did it improve Xin citizens' view of Celestial Trade, it also drastically increased the tourism rating of Pannu Islands.

Also, because of the expansive coverage of the satellite and large amount of idling capacity available, Celestial Trade's Aerospace Technology Center was in the process of negotiating with the largest telecommunication service provider in Atria regarding a partnership opportunity to provide paid wifi service to the eastern area of Atria.

"I can't believe I'm standing at this god forsaken place watching you play with rockets."

United Nations International Space Agency observer Henry was standing outside of the rocket launch ground with sunglasses on while watching the empty launch frame in boredom.

It was February, but Coro Island's air was filled with the smell of summer. And the sense of summer was especially apparent on the island near the equator. Without media around, Henry took off his suit jacket.

"24 launches in a year. If you're feeling like you are making too much money, why don't you donate to the Red Cross."

"I'm personally doing philanthropy right now. As to the Red Cross … I don't have that much money to do that," Jiang Chen mocked.

The Red Cross's poor reputation in Hua was no secret. Any "outside products", whether it was advanced products or a belief, ideology will be mutated for the better or worse. So Henry only made a sound with his nose at Jiang Chen's scorn as someone who would take out a portion of his paycheck as a Protestant.

"Every time I step on this island, I have the illusion that I'm deported from the civilized society," seeing the rockets rise and the smoke disappear, Henry muttered to himself.

"You should feel lucky because this is the start of humanity, the center of the universe in the future."

"Here?" Henry pointed at the bare sandstone reefs below his feet and ridiculed. "Unless humanity's future is becoming a dried fish on the beach."

Jiang Chen could understand Henry's frustration. If it wwew not for Xin's entire year launch plan, he wouldn't have to be transferred from the prosperous District to here. He also without need to stare at the trail of smoke twice a month.

But the description of dried fish somehow poked on Jiang Chen's funny bone.

Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder and grinned.

"Then just pretend you're taking a vacation at the east Pacific Hawaii, though the vacation might be a bit longer. You can enjoy five star hotels every day, if I were you, I wouldn't complain this much."

Henry glanced at Jiang Chen before he turned around toward the port.

He already confirmed that the launch had nothing with ICBM therefore half of his work this month was already over, there was no need to stay on the island anymore. He just wanted to return to the hotel he's staying out, change into clean clothes, and then have some cold beer at the bar.

The United Nations accommodation budget only permitted him to stay in the cheaper hotels, but Celestial Trade took extra care of him. Not only did they arrange for him to stay at Future Group's building, they also covered his three meals per day, and even offered a travel subsidy of 50,000 USD per month.

50,000 USD was enough to buy a nice car!

Henry first rejected Jiang Chen's clear intention to befriend him, but he then gladly accepted later. Since he had to write two reports a month and it was indeed tiring. As to the satellites Celestial Trade launched, he kept one eye open and one eye closed about it while saving the step of checking the key parts. He just wrote "conventional commercial communication satellite" on the report.

In his perspective, the tiny satellite could not carry any dangerous weapon modules.

And the rocket's design had nothing to do ICBM at all.

…

It was just F that had a hostile opinion toward Xin's launch plans before. After the MLL Island missile crisis, UA and their allies began to comment about Xin's launch plans too.

The first thing after the peace treaty came in effect, UA used the United Nations to pressure Xin to release the number of ICBMs available and the number of missile silos under the sea.

Jiang Chen could obviously not agree and responded with corresponding conditions. Unless UA released all the coordinates of all ICBM deployment, Celestial Trade will never release any information related to the underwater missile silo.

[Do you think I'm dumb?]

[If I told you everything, how can I play the game?!]

UA then proposed new terms requesting Xin to provide concrete evidence to prove that the country held no mass destructive weapons, for example the T virus.

It was hard to prove, unless the United Nations observers took apart every warhead and examined it.

Xin's response was direct. The virus vaccine was developed by Xin's Future Biology – the main contributor for treating the infection against the T virus; Xin will reject any illogical allegation made by UA.

Illogical? It was indeed illogical.

Since the terms of the negotiation was confidential to the outside world, UA could not bring out solid evidence to prove Celestial Trade used the virus as a chip on the table and threatened them on the negotiation table. But even if they had evidence, UA will never admit that they chose to compromise and sold on F's interest.

Even then, UA's defense whitepaper didn't include Xin as a high priority target. A country with just barely 30 thousand people was too slow. Even if it create a commotion in the local region, it didn't influence UA's supremacy at all.

UA was most worried about Xin leaning toward Hua.

If that did happen, their islands chain they worked hard to establish would cease to exist. But by the current looks of it, Xin didn't have plans for this. Although they had higher than usual aerospace activity, they didn't have plans to hide the launch which rest assured the UA Defense Department.

But assured was one thing. To a country with ICBM capability, the Rainbow Mansion still maintained the basic degree of caution. CIB's activity on Coro Island increased by a notch to search for the non-existent weapon of mass destruction.

….

The second launch mission was successful without a doubt.

After saying goodbye to Henry, seeing it was late, Jiang Chen got rid of the idea of returning to Future Group.

On the way home, Ayesha reported to Jiang Chen about the status at the National Defense Agency.

"Among the UA tourists headed to Coro Island, two are confirmed to be CIB agents or at least hired by CIB."

"Is there any confirmed spy activity?"

"Currently no." Ayesha shook his head.

"Then keep an eye on them for now. Compared with CIB's people, I'm more concerned with the situation in Yoto… Is there any results from the investigation on Takeda Pharmaceutical?"

"Currently no…" Ayesha lowered her head in disappointment, "among the employees, we didn't' find the name Tanaka."

"Is that so? Looks like they're doing a good job in their privacy work," Jiang Chen stared at the scenes disappearing outside of the window as he said nonchalantly.

There were only two possibilities. One was that Takeda Pharmaceutical had nothing to do with Kurofune, but that was impossible. The other possibility was more dangerous. It was that Takeda Pharmaceutical was working with Kurofune with the Nippon government's involvement. Since just from a privacy measure, a private enterprise with such a secure measure was odd especially considering the cost.

"I will send more people—"

"No need." Jiang Chen shook his head, "if I guessed correctly, they will make another move soon. Your primary mission is to ensure the national security of Xin and prevent Kurofune from infiltrating domestically. Celestial Trade's soldiers will assist in your operation."

"Understood." Ayesha nodded solemnly.

The Spike missile as well as the virus that sacrificed a city was enough to prove the organization's determination to kill him.

But he didn't feel the slightest fear at all.

Funny, what kind of death didn't he face before? In the apocalypse, not including zombies, there were countless amount of Roshans and mutated humans that died in his hands. He even faced the dangerous Death Claws. Was he going to fear a few rats?

Chapter 594: Free Wi-fi!

There were previously two telecommunication providers from New Zealand that provided Xin's cellular service, but followed by Celestial Trade's quantum communication satellite launch that provided free wifi service to all of Xin, the two foreign competitors' businesses there were instantly crashed.

Who would be willing to pay if there is a free equivalent service?

While 20 Mbps speed was not the fastest internationally, it was enough. 20 ping of latency was an impeccable experience for most users. A value lower than that would be indistinguishable by the naked eye.

A quantum communication satellite has a life of 5-10 years with a cost around 100-200 million USD, Celestial Trade was expected to launch 36 satellites to the geosynchronous orbit. Combined with the cost of launch, Celestial Trade's yearly aerospace budget was around 1.5 billion USD.

Because of the scarce amount of resources in the apocalypse, Jiang Chen didn't want Jiang Lin to waste his time producing this, therefore he transferred the quantum communication satellite production line to the modern world. Considering that the quantum communication technology must be kept confidential, the production line became currently the most automated product line in Future Group with an automation rate of 85% completed by drones.

Although the design caused the cost to the production line to double, it decreased the labor cost in producing the satellite.

From a long term perspective, the investment was worthwhile!

But regardless, anything project related to aerospace still burned through money.

Perhaps when the space elevator is built, the situation would become better.

With the foreign telecommunication providers exiting the market, Jiang Chen used the principle of not wasting anything and purchased the New Zealand Telecom subsidiary in Xin with a floor price of 210 million USD and took over all the talents and assets. The business was restructured and merged into Celestial Trade's Web project team to provide internet port services to Xin.

Due to the limitation in number, quantum communication satellite functionality only acted as a giant router. Although this "router" could use the quantum entanglement effect to "observe" the weak electromagnetic signals tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Earth in order to achieve the data exchange between satellite and conventional cellphones, but ultimately, the router still must be connected with the signal stations on the ground.

If Xin's user wanted to visit a UA website, although they used the satellite, the data still must be transferred from the signal stations through the submarine cable.

The innovation of the quantum communication satellite exist in that it changed the conventional "user-cable (or Wi-Fi + cable)-server" data transferring method to "user-satellite-server" And the ability to accept user upload data could be viewed an upgrade to Google's global Wi-Fi plan.

When all 36 of Celestial Trade's satellites ascend and the "Wi-FI signal" covered the entire Earth, it would be time when the submarine cable start to exit from history.

Disregarding the technological aspect, while Celestial Trade's cheap meteorological service didn't make the Xin citizen feel any convenience, the free Wi-Fi plan quickly gathered overwhelmingly positive support. Whether you were home or fishing on the sea, as long as you were within the borders of Xin, you could connect with the Wi-Fi signal.

From the start, when Celestial Trade announced to Xin through the satellite that it will provide free Wi-Fi to the entire region, the international experts were quick to dismiss the idea. But when they discovered Celestial Trade really did it, the experts and professors were dumbfounded. All the university and research institute almost blew up Celestial Trade's phone.

Celestial Trade's response was suave.

1. The communication didn't exceed the speed of light.

2. The exact signal broadcasting method is related to trade secrets and will not be revealed.

What's funny was, the era-defining technology did not scare the professors and experts first, but the telecommunication providers thousands of kilometers away.

Although the satellite must rely on a group port to provide user with Wi-Fi service, the port didn't have to be located domestically, it could be placed anywhere on Earth.

Therefore, Celestial Trade only need to maintain a large enough port to be able to use the quantum communication satellite to provide Wi-Fi to any region with signal coverage. And the users will be connecting from Xin's port and it'll have nothing to do with the country the user is located in.

It was terrible news for some people!

Free Wi-Fi? Full coverage? It is rubbish!

CTV and other medias made statements overnight questioning Celestial Trade's free Wi-Fi project could perhaps violate the laws of neighboring countries. Even if Liu family wanted to help out, they couldn't. The telecommunication industry was connected with too many people's interest, even as the Liu family, they could not stand up against the opposing voice alone.

When the state media made their comment, Liu Xiangguo called Jiang Chen.

"What you did lacked consideration."

Lacked consideration?

When Jiang Chen picked up the phone, he was a bit confused. He didn't remember starting any projects in Han, could it be Ning Jianhua that did something wrong?

When he finished listening to Liu Xiangguo, he realized it was not that at all. So he began to explain with a dumbfounded emotion. "The free Wi-Fi will only be available in Xin as part of the benefits to Xin citizens; it will not be available in other countries. We have currently entered in an agreement with Atria's telecommunication provider to provide monthly Wi-Fi service at a cost of 15 AUD"

15 AUD was approximately 11.6 USD which was competitive for the Atria citizens with an average cost of data service of 60 AUD. Only a small area could enjoy unlimited, high speed internet service because of the NBN project.

Liu Xiangguo was somewhat relieved when he heard Jiang Chen's explanation.

"Let me ask another question. In the agreement with Australia, which port are they using?"

"It could be Xin or it could be Australia, but the Australia telecommunication provider did suggest that we can leave the port maintenance work to them, so we did just that. It is not a small cost to maintain the web port." Jiang Chen sunk into his chair.He habitually spun the pen in his right hand while holding the phone with his left hand and explained to Uncle Liu.

He was still confused since Celestial Trade had no active business in Hua. The only two international projects were the civil war between Moro and Country F and the Wi-Fi service in Australia.

"So you're saying, if Australia people wanted to use Celestial Trade's Wi-Fi, it still must go through the port of Australiatelecommunication provider?"

It was funny since neither Liu Xiangguo nor Jiang Chen understood the technical knowledge behind this; their communication sounded like both were pretending that they knew.

"In theory, yes." Jiang Chen forcefully nodded.

While he wanted to add that it was not necessary, he got rid of the idea after giving it some thought.

Liu Xiangguo laughed when he received confirmation from Jiang Chen.

"I see. Now I'm assured. But your Wi-Fi… just do it outside if you know what I mean."

"Don't you want free internet?" Jiang Chen asked with an odd expression.

"Do you think the Liu family lacks the money to pay for internet?"

Jiang Chen took a moment to process and understood what the elder referred to, so he started to laugh along.

"That makes sense."

After catching up with Uncle Liu, he hung up the phone.

With Future Group's billion to support them, the Liu family really didn't need worry about the family's finances. As long as Future Group didn't do anything too over the line, the Liu family's power could easily deflect any criticism. Therefore, they could have the inflow for a long time…

A few hundred dollars in internet bills? It was like a drop in the vast sea.

Chapter 595: Extremely Greedy

Jiang Chen hung up the phone. Seeing it was around lunchtime, he put the task at hand aside and headed to the elevator.

The Future Building was 110 floors above the ground with five floors being dining space with a variety of gourmet foods. With Future Group funding it, reputable food companies were contracted to provide dining service for all 6000 employees in the building.

Future Group had a lot of money, it was not only reflected on the President's bank account, but it was also reflected in the daily work and bank account of each employee. Jiang Chen will never mistreat his own employees; Future Group's bonus each year was generous to the point of it being shocking.

The low cost of research and unrivaled competition in the market brought Future Group a high profitability margin. Jiang Chen's requirements for all employees were just asking them to have the ability to accept new knowledge, as well as the most critical sense of belonging and loyalty.

Jiang Chen's office was located in the uppermost office space and the highest floor of the entire building. If he were eating at the company, he would usually head to the diner on the 100th floor. His appetite was always excellent when he watched the island change because of him.

Medium Australia coal-roasted steak, spaghetti, mashed potato, eggs, as well as a bowl of rich and thick chicken mushroom soup.

The seat along the left window was his special spot. Since Jiang Chen always sat here, the employees of the company left the seat specifically for their president. Respect will cause distance. Although Jiang Chen acted friendly to everyone and even could be said to not to bureaucratic at all, the employees would still leave a safe distance out of habit.

This point was reflected on the fact that all the employees that saw Jiang Chen would greet him warmly and they were happy to chat with him during breaks, but no one would sit across from him when eating. If the diner were not crowded, people usually wouldn't sit near him. Partially because they didn't want to disturb him, and partially because they didn't know if he wanted people to sit with him.

Of course, it could be because of the fear of height, since it was the window seat on the 100th floor.

Jiang Chen described this phenomenon as the "emperor vibe", but he didn't mind it personally since he was a person that enjoyed the quietness.

"The steak is not bad today, it is a pity that Ayesha is not here." He chewed on a piece of steak and nodded in approval.

Ayesha had a particularly fond relationship with beef, but because she was at New Moon Island today taking care of tasks regarding the Ghost Agents, she was not at the Future Building.

While Jiang Chen was untiringly enjoying the scenery outside and feeding delicious gourmet foods into his mouth, the sound of high heels approached him before he noticed a person sat down across from him.

When Jiang Chen saw the gorgeous but cold face, the fork stopped by his mouth for two seconds, but he quickly returned to his normal state and smiled at her.

"Are you going to eat here?"

"I always eat here, okay?" Xia Shiyu placed the tray on the table and said nonchalantly.

Fruit salad, corn soup, croissant… no meat.

Xia Shiyu saw Jiang Chen was staring at his plate and she tilted her head, puzzled.

"Is there a problem?"

"No… will you be full?" Jiang Chen felt a bit shocked.

"Mhmm, because…" Xia Shiyu couldn't tell him that because she sat for too long, therefore her legs got a bit wider. Therefore she opened her mouth, but then swallowed the words down and said, "Don't really have the appetite."

"Take care of your body, don't catch a cold." Jiang Chen then masticated.

[You're already so thin, and you still eat this little, I'm afraid you'll be blown away during a typhoon…]

Xia Shiyu didn't know what Jiang Chen was thinking, she bit into the small tomato before she replied in a whisper.

"Mhmm."

After the kiss at the end of the year ball, the two didn't have lunch like this for a long time. But after the New Year's Eve dinner, although nothing happened, it magically brought them closer together.

After getting to know her, Xia Shiyu who always had a distant expression, surprisingly was easy to get to. Sometimes Jiang Chen thought it would be great to maintain their current relationship. They could discuss anything work or life-related.

Although he knew it was impossible.

The conversation then turned into work. Jiang Chen remembered the conversation with Liu Xiangguo and then told her what they discussed on the phone.

"We have to put the 1.4 billion people market aside for now."

Jiang Chen sounded casual, but he was very reluctant to do so.

Based on the stats published at the end of 2016, the total number of Han netizens broke through the 700 million mark and more than doubled the population of the UA. Even if every netizen's fee was 10 RMB per month, it was monthly earnings of 7 billion and at least 12.9 billion USD of earning per year. If providing the Wi-Fi service required seven large quantum communication satellites, the yearly maintenance cost would be around 700 million USD. After all miscellaneous expenses, the net profit could easily surpass 500 million USD.

Since Celestial Trade didn't require an actual storefront, payment could be done online and acquiring the service would just need the user to have an account and the APP and the savings in labor and rent were substantial enough. While the current incumbents have a monopoly, their 2015 revenue of 331 billion RMB only netted a profit of 20 billion RMB.

"I'm the current CEO of Future Group, are you discussing this with the wrong person?" Xia Shiyu joked.

The satellite Wi-Fi plan was Celestial Trade's project. While Celestial Trade's projects were working to serve Future Group without directly pursuing a profit, the management and share structure was independent.

"What's the big deal? Besides, the software maintenance service of the satellite Wi-Fi project is provided by Future Technology. Also, I want to hear your opinion," Jiang Chen said.

"The relationships there are too complicated. My recommendation is to remain cautious and avoid the interests chain." Xia Shiyu gave it a thought and carefully suggested, "To avoid affecting the group's other business sectors."

"So you're just letting that 10 billion USD sit there?" Jiang Chen let out a sigh before he stuffed a tomato in his mouth.

"Of course not," A confident curvature appeared on Xia Shiyu's red lips, "If Celestial Trade's Wi-Fi covers the entire world and completely outcast the submarine cable service, could they still reject you?"

Jiang Chen first took a moment to process before he smiled delightfully.

They could surprisingly be on the same page

'Reject? You have to be able to reject first!'

After the meal, Xia Shiyu picked up the napkin and elegantly cleaned off the salad sauce from the tip of her mouth. She hesitated for a moment while looking at Jiang Chen still working on the steak before speaking.

"Can I… Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Go ahead," Jiang Chen openly said.

"What's your view on Ayesha?"

Jiang Chen's fork froze, he began to regret saying yes so freely.

"Is this a topic related to work?"

"This is lunch time."

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and gently said the words Xia Shiyu didn't want to hear.

"An important person to me."

With a hint of remorse quickly fading in her eyes, Xia Shiyu looked down.

"Then how do you look at me."

Jiang Chen said sternly while looking at her face.

"An important person to me."

In the black pupils, surprise and anger were mixed together.

Without knowing how to reply to the answer, Xia Shiyu bit her lips, stood up, and picked up the tray.

Just as when she passed by Jiang Chen, she stepped on his foot fiercely.

Without caring for Jiang Chen's exaggerated scream, she left in quick steps.

Jiang Chen wiped off his shoes with a napkin and looked peculiarly at the elegant figure before letting out a long sigh.

Sometimes he thought he was extremely greedy…

Chapter 596: Global Situation

Although Jiang Chen was stomped by Xia Shiyu's high heel, his mood was particularly delighted.

Not to be mistaken, it wasn't because he was an M. It was just that he thought it is refreshing to see Xia Shiyu, who normally didn't like to smile, displaying such a womanly character.

When he returned to the office, he took the stack of documents organized by the assistant and started the afternoon's work.

With Future Group's business expanding globally, as the president who must provide a strategic direction for the company, it was mandatory for him to follow the news to be aware of the global situation.

February of 2017.

The UA Congress officially passed the defense budget and permanently established the most advanced missile interception system in the eastern Pacific to replace the previous system.

At the same, the UA Congress was holding discussions on whether they should sell the replaced missile defense system to Country F and they were wondering if this would cause tensions with Hua.

Jiang Chen wasn't too worried about the new system. It certainly existed in UA before, but it still couldn't manage to capture the Dolphin-10 flying in the near-earth orbit.

The newest defense system was equipped with a state-of-the-art active phased array radar that could be used to track enemy ballistic missiles in the early phase and allow for interception at the end phase.

But it was futile. In order to track Dolphin-10 at the launch stage and intercept it during flight, it would require the most advanced passive phased array radar.

Of course, UA wouldn't admit that the move was a precaution against Celestial Trade. They only explained to the media that the missile system was directed at North Korea's fireworks - wait, no, their ICBM.

On the other hand, the International Energy Summit was held in Wanghai. During the summit, the international leaders discussed the exploration progress of shale gas, combustible ice, and the applications of new energy sources.

The summit was great news for Future Heavy Indutries since it has a focus on the pure electric car battery sector.

A total of 147 patents for electrode materials, membrane components, new electrolytes and high-energy additives for solid-state lithium-air batteries applied through PCT were approved by patent offices in various countries. For the first time, Future Group was invariably welcomed by patent offices from countries around the world.

At the same time, Future Group's car battery project scientists managed to process technology from the apocalypse only half a step ahead of the modern world and they designed the first model of the MIX1 pure electric car battery.

The specifications of the "MIX" would be used as the standard in the next ten years for all pure electric vehicles.

The MIX1 battery was being built in a plant located in New Guinea and they received orders from Jiang Chen to invest in Luer Automotive Company. The company pushed out a pure electric vehicle and landed first in France's automotive market. While they received France's New Energy Funding subsidy, the price tag of 60,000 Euros received the support from mid-to-low end customers.

At the same time, Luer's application for an IPO was approved with a price of 15 Euros for a total of 10 million shares. The 10 million shares accounted for 20% of the total shares outstanding and the IPO price represented a Price of Earning ratio of 11 times.

Jiang Chen's share controls hence changed from 80% to 64% as a result of the IPO.

On the day of the offering, Luer's share price peaked to 18.3 Euros before stabilizing at around 17 Euros.

Jiang Chen purchased Luer shares for 100 million USD at the Ber Auto Exhibition and the IPO predicted the investment to be worth 760 million USD. But that was just the beginning - once Luer entered Europe and the rest of the world; it was inevitable for the company's market cap to break 10 billion.

Electric vehicles would be the future, just like how diesel vehicles would become part of the meusems like steam vehicles before. It was inevitable as the wheel of history turned.

Finally, there was news from Europe.

From the Paris Opera at the beginning of 2016 to the Berlin train station and the Frankberg terrorist attack at the end of the year, the flames of terrorism ignited panic among the public and ignited heightened patriotism.

Fear was always the catalyst to hatred. In the last century, people spread hatred due to bankruptcy. Right now, no one felt guilty about refugees.

The first was Frankberg. The more radical New Choice Party came into power with the party leader Peter elected as the new prime minister. He declared that Frankberg was no longer a camp for refugees all over the world. Refugees would no longer enjoy the same treatment as their own nationals. Any illegal immigrants would be sanctioned. If you couldn't find a job there, you must get out!

Reinstate death sentences for terrorists!

Expand the national anti-terrorist force!

All anti-terrorists missions were given the permission to shoot right away.

Crete's list of radical movements received criticism from human rights activists, but it received the support of most Frankberg people.

Next was France, the home base for the Rothschild family. Although they were nowhere near as radical, they were following the movement.

Could this solve the problem? No. It might even make the problem worse.

But satirically, the refugee problem had plagued Europe for so long, and the crisis facing a separated Europe was resolved perfectly.

Governments with the same ideology could do their best to understand and compromise for each other. Before, around the roundtable of Europe, people would argue about one problem nonstop to the point where countries were threatening to leave. While there were still ten people, the opinions were no longer divided.

They were a family now.

At least on the refugee crisis, the previously divergent Europe no longer shared any disparities of opinion.

At the back of the "radicalization movement," Jiang Chen saw the shadow of the Rothschilds.

Looks like Evelyn lost. Although Jiang Chen helped him escape to Austria, the power of a deputy prime minister wasn't enough to turn the tables against the longstanding Rothschilds, especially since it wasn't just Rothschild power alone behind all of this.

The allies of the old aristocracy weren't to be underestimated.

When Jiang Chen put his newspaper down, he suddenly had an odd idea in his head.

The Rothschild family was connected to The Golden Apple, so which side did they represent?

90 years ago, during the darkest era of humanity, the SS Nature Selection set sail from Gliese 581g.

At the same time, Willie Society was formed with the support of the Rothschilds, and the tool to communicate with "heaven," the Golden Apple, was transferred into the Nazi's hands. The Nippon Emperor who visited Europe had the idea of using "the alien force to conquer the world' after witnessing the powerful Europe…

This was an entanglement from 20.5 light years away.

Just like a spider that weaved an invisible spider web that was disguised as part of the history.

Jiang Chen had the feeling that he was close to the truth. Maybe he was even standing at the gateway to the truth.

But what could the truth be?

Chapter 597: Bottleneck of Development

Following the official launch of Godly Land, Future Biology's entry into the medical industry, and Future Heavy Industries' first MIX1 battery rolling down the production line, Jiang Chen could clearly sense that Future Group's expansion was entering a bottleneck.

Any enterprise would more or less face a similar situation during the transformation. The reasons could arise from multiple facets, for example, antitrust investigations, satisfaction with the current status quo, or losing their competitive advantage. The former case would be Morgan divided into two (J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley) and the almost broken Microsoft, while the latter case would be Compad's acquisition of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC was the second largest information system company only second to IBM).

Fortunately, Future Group didn't have the same two restrictions because Xin will never launch an antitrust investigation against Future Group. Future Group itself depended on advanced technology to prosper.

But the bottleneck still existed.

The most critical reason that caused the bottleneck was a lack of talent!

Future Group's talent acquisition had depended on the international headhunter market as well as hiring from regional offices. But talent from the headhunters had high volatility with uncertainty in safety. Only a small number of individuals could be verified before being given an important role. Jiang Chen was unafraid to use the majority of talented individuals, but without a clear background recommended by headhunters, this caused a shortage of talent in Future Group. Despite new employees being hired every day, it couldn't meet the expansion speed of the multiple subsidiaries.

This was especially true for management talent. Compared to technical talent, the gap in management talent was huge, and there was a lack of reserve in the group, which gave Jiang Chen the biggest headache.

There were a lot of people willing to work at Future Group, but there was only a small portion willing to move to Xin and work on Coro Island.

Xin had a high floating population. The number could breakthrough 50,000 during tourism peak seasons, but only 30,000 people comprised the permanent population. It was hard to imagine a country with such a mediocre education level, shortage of labor, and inactive market supporting such a giant multinational corporation.

If Future Group chose to expand in Hua, perhaps this problem wouldn't have existed. But conversely, Future Group wouldn't have been able to become the beast it is today, despite having the technology to do so…

There were pros and cons to leaving.

...

Although Jiang Chen had been investing in educational resources on Coro Island and arranging for university students to intern at the Group, these measures were ineffective in the short term.

In order for Future Group to expand faster, he had to increase Xin's immigration appeal, especially for talented individuals!

Perhaps his plan had to be pulled ahead of schedule.

But just as Jiang Chen was developing a headache over the lack of talent, Doctor Amos from the University of Ber sent an email to his personal email address, asking him to visit his lab.

When Doctor Amos was onboard at Future Group, he directly dove into the lab Jiang Chen prepared for him and spent his time inside all day learning about D++ programming language as well as the basic artificial intelligence database. He later even revamped the front desk of the lab into a living room and the lounge into a bedroom. He didn't want the seaside mansion Jiang Chen provided him and used the lab as his living quarters.

Jiang Chen gave him the fullest extent of trust since he moved to Xin. After Amos signed the confidentiality agreement, Jiang Chen gave the most advanced information technology for him to research.

Now, he seemed to have achieved some results.

Doctor Amos's lab was located at the first underground level of Future Building. When Jiang Chen knocked on the door, Amos' daughter, the blonde loli, Millian, opened the door for him.

The little girl with the golden ponytail courteously asked Jiang Chen to wait in the living room. She then timidly ran into the room and brought her father out.

"Long time no see, Doctor Amos." Jiang Chen stood up and walked toward Amos, who was dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans.

"Feel free to sit anywhere - make yourself feel at home. Coke, orange juice or champagne? Which one do you want?" Amos opened the fridge in the living room and spoke with a brisk tone.

He seemed to be very busy.

"Water is fine." Jiang Chen smiled. "Do you have something to discuss with me?"

"That's right." Amos poured himself a cup of coke while pouring a cup of water for Jiang Chen, then he walked beside the sofa. "Do you remember the task you gave me last year? I've mostly mastered the programming language. It's absolutely incredible; whoever developed this language is a genius. And that basic artificial intelligence database… could I meet the creator?"

Jiang Chen had a helpless expression on his face.

Everyone's reaction was the same, from the biologist, Zhan Shujie to the rocket scientist, Calvin. The experts from each field always first asked to meet the designer whenever he brought out a new piece of technology…

"Sorry, due to various reasons, I currently can't introduce you to the designer of the two technologies… in a few years at most, you might have the opportunity to meet them."

Amos was very understanding of Jiang Chen's explanation and he wasn't as insistent as Zhan Shujie and Kelvin.

"Is it the confidentiality agreement? I understand since the two technologies have huge commercial value, especially artificial intelligence. No, not just commercial value - if it could be used in the military field—"

"It's already being used there," Jiang Chen interrupted him with a smile, "but I hope you can keep it a secret from the public."

Amos looked at Jiang Chen awkwardly, but he still voiced the concern on his mind: "…it will be a disaster to the entire human race."

"Your perspective is very similar to Hawkins, and I agree with your perspective." Jiang Chen leaned against the sofa and took a sip of the water to soothe his throat. "But I have to add that artificial intelligence without restrictions will become a disaster to the human race. Let's not talk about this anymore. You asked me here not to talk about the safety of technology, right?"

Amos nodded. "Of course. As you know, I'm have two PhDs in information technology and mechanical engineering with a primary focus on robots and artificial intelligence."

As the doctor spoke, he waved his hand at Millian, who was timidly hiding behind the doorframe. The loli understood his father. She swept her squirrel-tail-like ponytail and disappeared from behind the door. Then she brought her father's laptop to the living room.

"This is the robot I designed as well as the corresponding operating system." Amos put the laptop on the table and put the anti-glare glasses in front of his chest out of habit. He then opened the robot icon program on the desktop before turning the laptop to face Jiang Chen.

"Housework Robot utilizes the basic artificial intelligence database as well as D++ programing language. It has facial recognition, item recognition, movement system, and the central control program which has a size of 12 gigabytes. This is the concept visualization… Have you seen Big Hero 6? You could interpret this as Baymax who can do housework."

Chapter 598: Speaking of Robots and Maids

Of course, Jiang Chen watched Big Hero 6 before and had a deep impression of Baymax, who looked humbled and cute normally. But he was cool when he fought, and acted as a warmhearted maid. Even from a commercial point of view, Baymax was one of the more successful characters Disney created in recent years.

"Housework robot? Baymax?" Jiang Chen looked curiously at the 3D visualization on the computer screen and adjusted the angle with the turn of the mouse.

Human structure with the outside covered in polyethylene. To avoid causing unwanted physiological effects, the head of the robot was designed to be cylindrical, but the other parts replicated a human body. The legs were designed with both wheels and walking mode to suit both flat ground and stairs.

Amos was being too humble. Not only was he knowledgeable in robots and artificial intelligence, but he had quite an understanding of human ergonomics.

"Sweeping, washing dishes, simple gourmet skills, even fixing light bulbs, sinks, and simple woodwork…"

"The functionalities are nice, but is there a market for this?" Jiang Chen noticed the robot's blueprints wrote that the skeleton required a titanium alloy, and the special polyethylene material used to cover the body wasn't cheap, even produced at scale.

The price of the robot might not be the nicest.

Unless people were extremely lazy, they could do housework by themselves.

"There is no low end market, but there should be a mid to high tier market. Because of living habits, Asians might not need it, but Americans definitely would love it.

UA had a high cost of labor, but their living spaces were particularly large. Therefore, the housework robot could have a positive market outlook in UA and European countries. As for the Asian market, just with Future Group's brand power alone, the sales won't be too shabby either.

Jiang Chen was becoming more pleased with the robot still in its conceptual stage.

Not only the robot, but he was also extremely pleased with Amos.

Precisely speaking, it would be the first Future brand product developed by the modern world. The doctor from Ber didn't disappoint. Not only did he digest the programming language from the apocalypse as a "beginner," he also designed an interesting product.

"I'm extremely pleased with this product, but basic artificial intelligence and D++ programming language—"

"I know. These are all corporate secrets, but this housework robot can be considered part of Future Group's assets. My only request is to include my name as one of the developers of the robot," Amos said immediately.

"No, you've mistaken what I meant." Jiang Chen shook his head. "The program and robot are designed by you, so of course it will have your name. This robot will be manufactured by Future Heavy Industries, and I hope you can design the production line yourself. Future Group will use the authentication of the database and 200 million USD to invest in this project for 80% control. What do you think?"

Amos was processing the information.

He didn't think Jiang Chen would be so generous.

The housework robot's research was initiated a long time ago, but due to restraints in technology, he couldn't control the program's usage within the capabilities of the control chip. He had to either reduce the functionality of the robot or design a more powerful control chip.

But D++ programming language solved his problem perfectly. The utilization of the basic artificial intelligence database not only made the robot more user-friendly, but it also made its logical responses more human. He also designed a program similar to Little White in Future 1.0 where it allowed the robot to communicate with the user.

Without Future Group providing the basic artificial intelligence database and D++ programming language, he absolutely couldn't finish the next generational housework robot.

Especially since he completed the final design using Future Group's lab. From an intellectual property point of view, the robot belonged to Future Group. Therefore, when Jiang Chen talked about the database authentication problem, he straightforwardly said the robot belonged to Jiang Chen.

He just didn't think Jiang Chen would offer cooperation and give him a percentage of the profits.

Amos wouldn't say no to Jiang Chen's generosity because there was absolutely no reason to do so. Out of the spirit of scientific research, he couldn't do something that used other people's research to profit himself, even if the creator hadn't applied for a patent and only corporate secrets belonged to Future Group. But that didn't mean he disliked money.

Of course, he was thankful for Jiang Chen's offer. Since the work was the result of all his efforts, it would be impossible to say he didn't want a cut.

With Future Group providing the funds and authentication while he could garner 20% of the profit without taking any risk, it was undoubtedly generosity to the extreme. As for the designing the production line, it wouldn't be hard for him at all.

"Regarding the details of the production line, I want you to reference some recommendations. Before that, could you ask your daughter to give us some space?" Jiang Chen smiled at the little girl standing at the door to the living room.

Amos nodded and signaled his daughter to close the door then he looked back at Jiang Chen.

"Is it something inappropriate for other people to know? You don't have to worry; my Millian is very thoughtful."

"It's true that it's inappropriate for other people to know… but rather than that being the reason, it is embarrassing to say." Jiang Chen lowered his voice and leaned toward Amos while suppressing the discomfort in his mind. "If we're talking about the three keywords: artificial intelligence, robot, and maid, did you not think about adult toys?"

"How could I have thought about that?"

"It was weird for you not to think about it!"

Therefore, the two almost started an argument.

]Stats suggested that the Han adult toy market demand exceeded over 50 billion in 2015. The annual compounded growth rate of the market from 2006 to 2016 was 30%, ranked highest out of the entire profiteering industry. As for how big the global market was, no reliable data could provide an estimate. But it wouldn't be a small number nonetheless.

Note, it was the size of the market!

It was too wasteful just to create a housework robot with artificial intelligence and special polyethylene that could mimic the touch of human skin. Why not build a product that could satisfy the needs for all the singles out there from the existing design?

It could do housework, it could cook, it could warm your bed, and it wouldn't throw a tantrum. Where else could you find such a great partner?

It was, of course, necessary to have a housework robot with only housework capabilities for all ages, but it was necessary to also have an R-18 simulated housework robot!

But then Amos would have to work harder.

Although he had experience in researching human ergonomics, he had no knowledge in adult toys at all. To incorporate the simulation of facial expressions, the contents from the basic artificial intelligence database related to personality and emotion, new positions and other new elements must all be included.

In order to reduce his workload, Jiang Chen increased the budget of the lab and ordered Amos to establish a project team to specifically design the "highly simulated" robot still in its conceptual stage.

Before he left the lab, he repeatedly warned him.

The program in the chip must be encrypted by Future Group encryption software. The basic artificial intelligence database was one of the core technologies that led the world. Even if D++ would be released to the public later, the artificial intelligence database would absolutely not be released this early.

Unless Future Group gained new advantages.

After taking care of everything, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse and went to see Du Yongkong with the software Amos designed.

"The development of the program has a computer rating at least C." Du Yongkong reluctantly nodded after he tested the software out.

"If it was before the war and this guy went to your company, would you hire him?" Jiang Chen asked.

Not understanding the General's meaning, Du Yongkong debated for a while then carefully articulated, "Ability is only part of the hiring process. The game studio I worked for placed more emphasis on creativity and passion for work. A design level project for university can only prove that he didn't waste his four years in university. My department may want him, or may not want him."

Jiang Chen forced a smile.

If the former university professor Amos heard that the program he diligently worked on only looked like a design project for graduation, would the dual doctor professor, renowned as a genius, fight him?

"Could you assign him to my department?" Seeing as Jiang Chen was about to leave, Du Yongkong asked.

"Didn't you say his abilities are only at a university graduation project level?" Jiang Chen rolled his eyes.

"I'll be okay even if he's a high school student. Our department is really lacking people! At least he has a C rating! He meets the standard! You promised us that once there are people who fit, you'll assign them to our department…"

Once he saw Du Yongkong starting to beg and plead for people, Jiang Chen dashed out without hesitation before he got on his knees asking for more people…

Chapter 599: I Promise

When Jiang Chen left the community center, he happened to bump into Wang Qin, who was coming from the warehouse. He once again notified her of the lack of people in the software development department and inquired about progress on the warp drive researched by the Aerospace Technology Research Institute. When he heard that the development of the warp engine was slow, he debated for a moment.

"Put the warp engine research aside for now - tell them to help me replicate technology related to the space elevator."

"The space elevator? That thing can only be built near the equator, and the insane construction requirements are absolutely not sustainable by us." Wang Qin looked at Jiang Chen in shock when she heard his words.

Just the Garden of Eden project demanded an excessive amount of labor and money. The space elevator was too wild of an idea for the NAC right now.

"I just need the technical document. I know survival camps don't have the condition to produce that."

Seeing as Jiang Chen was insisting on the warp drive, Wang Qin stopped voicing her concerns since Jiang Chen was the General of NAC, and she was just the director for the logistics department without any right to question the General's decision.

When Jiang Chen returned to the mansion, he found Lin Lin spending time in the lab and asked the thing that had been bothering him.

"Your interdimensional travel ability is blocked? That's a serious dilemma…" Lin Lin leaned against the chair with both hands behind her head; a lollipop was hanging in her mouth with the candy constantly hitting her teeth.

"Do you have any insight?" Jiang Chen asked.

"No." Lin Lin was straightforward. "Could you clearly describe the situation then?"

Jiang Chen described what happened in Kejia with clear detail, including the relationship between Kurofune and the colonization ship, their conspiracy of attempting to assassinate him, and the sudden eruption of a zombie infection…

"You can open the storage dimension but can't perform interdimensional travel?" Lin Lin wrapped her fingers around the thin stick while muttering to herself, "I seem to have an idea… but is it theoretically possible?"

"What is it?"

Lin Lin took out the lollipop, let out a sigh, and walked to the whiteboard on the wall before picking up a black marker.

"I remember giving you a lesson one year ago regarding the multi-universe theory. Here are two parallel lines, and you're an ant on one of the lines… an ant who can jump between the lines. Because for you, there's a door that exists between the two lines."

A circle was drawn between the two lines. Needless to say, Lin Lin's art continued to suck, but it didn't prevent Jiang Chen from understanding her point.

"Klein particles use you as a node, which means that each of your hands can grab onto one of the lines. Therefore, you can freely move between the two worlds. I'll call this point a singularity point."

Singularities had different interpretations in astronomy and physics, but they could be summed up as points in the universe where there was an independent and finite existence. Everything that happened here couldn't be explained by conventional science or human knowledge and experience. For example "1 + 1 = 2" was true elsewhere, but at this point, it was "1 + 1 = 3." At this point, classical physics didn't apply and there was no physical quantity that existed.

And Jiang Chen's presence was just a singularity point.

Even with the most advanced physics knowledge of the 22nd century, Lin Lin still couldn't explain how he could open that "door."

Jiang Chen also couldn't explain this feeling. Traversing between the two worlds was as easy as drinking water and breathing. It felt like the "door" was in front of his eyes, and he only needed to extend his feet.

"Ordinary people can't see or touch the door, even if they spent their lives doing so. But a small accident happened here." Lin Lin drew another point on the line representing the colonization ship. "Now, there is an unfriendly neighbor in the room, and he came from the other side of the door. After a thousand years of research or evolution? Cultivation? All in all, he touched the boundary to the door and finally saw the door he passed through before but had never seen before."

"But..." Lin Lin's words took a turn. She threw away the marker and pointed her lollipop at Jiang Chen. "He still can't pass through the door because the key is in your hands. I have to say that you're probably the luckiest man in this universe."

"Lucky?" Jiang Chen didn't disagree with what she said, but he wasn't happy about it.

He paused for a moment. "They can see the door, but what does it have to do with me being unable to travel for a period of time?"

"They could use special methods to interfere with the movement of Klein particles; you should've already discovered this in the apocalypse. The application of Klein particles to create bugs is at a mastery level, including the one in my body." Lin Lin pumped her still-flat chest with her fingers. "The Klein particle rays can almost make all electronic equipment fail. I don't think it's impossible that they could develop other means of using Klein particles."

"To put it as an analogy, your neighbor is stronger than you. Although he can't open the door without the key, he can use brute force to pull on the door to prevent you from opening it."

"What an annoying neighbor then… What about the storage dimension? If they can see the door, why don't they block the storage dimension altogether?" Jiang Chen was still puzzled.

If they blocked the storage dimension, they could've killed him on the plane.

He had to take out the power armor or other items to break the fall, or else he would've been smashed to the ground.

"Your storage dimension is more like a circle between the two parallel lines, independent from the universe but not part of the multi-universe. Because it isn't in the room, they naturally can't interfere."

Jiang Chen finally felt relieved at Lin Lin's explanation.

But even then, he still lacked the confidence in the war spanning over one hundred years.

"Are they still evolving? These bugs are unsettling after all…" Jiang Chen sighed. "Let's not talk about that. How's the situation on this side regarding the Garden of Eden?"

"It should be completed in half a year. Hmph, since it's my—" Lin Lin was about to praise herself before being mercilessly interrupted by Jiang Chen.

"How much money did I spend on the Garden of Eden? Just the materials alone cost 200 million USD!" Jiang Chen said bitterly.

Two hundred million USD in materials. Without considering market saturation, it would be an astronomical number if converted to NAC's credit points.

As the designer of the project, Lin Lin naturally knew how much of the budget she burned through, so she awkwardly looked away.

"Hmmm… let's not talk about money. This is an era-defining project; you can't just look at economic gains."

"You're right. Since it's my backyard after all, maybe I'll have to live inside in the future."

After retorting for the last time, he put some pudding on the table and headed for the door.

Lin Lin seemed to have read something on his face. She hesitated for a moment before she spoke as Jiang Chen's hand landed on the doorknob.

"Don't feel defeated. You control the secret of the 'door' and they're still afraid of you, meaning you must possess something they're afraid of."

"For example?" Jiang Chen didn't turn his head.

"It's up to you to discover." Lin Lin paused before a cheerful smile emerged on her face. Her elf-like silver hair reflected a rare hint of warmth under the sunshine. "If possible, I want to see a lot of pudding. Mango flavor."

Jiang Chen turned around and used his smile to meet her expectations.

"I promise."

Chapter 600: Steelmaking!

Jiang Chen brought back three things in total from the apocalypse: a quasi-experimental quantum computer at 40 square meters in size, an industrial 3D printer, and 100 amphibious construction robots.

The quantum computer would be a small hill placed in the backyard of the mansion. If it wasn't for the fact that Jiang Chen's storage dimension changed fundamentally, it would be questionable if he could even bring the quantum computer over.

The quantum computer was manufactured in 2150 with the code L-0008 used as the virtual reality network sub-framework for the province of Suhang to provide virtual reality porting services for all users in the province. It was quasi-experimental because its computational abilities didn't meet the requirements for an experimental quantum computer, but its RAM and processing abilities already stood at the peak among commercial quantum computers.

The computer was preserved inside a special fallout shelter during the war. The fallout shelter located in Hang City recently opened and Big Mining Pit, who knew NAC was interested in technology products, immediately sent out his forces to take over the fallout shelter.

The boss of the Big Mining Pit didn't dare to make an unreasonable offer, considering how authoritative NAC has been. He sold the scientists and quantum computer from the fallout shelter to Zhao Chenwu's trade fleet before the Zhao Corporation sold the packaged products off to the NAC.

Following a week of maintenance work, the antique finally started working again.

The computation requirements for a virtual reality MMORPG were terrifying. The quantum computer located at the bottommost level of Future Building could barely sustain operation of Godly Land. In order to establish a virtual reality network, the number of quantum computers Jiang Chen required would be astronomical.

Based on Jiang Chen's orders, Fallout Shelter 027 exerted 40% of their research efforts on replicating quantum computer. Aside from the heavy electromagnetic pulse cannon under intensive research, it was already the research project with the highest priority.

The operation of the quantum computer showed that Future Group's virtual reality services had acquired the hardware capabilities to expand to broader territories.

It also made Coro's electrical grid under pressure again.

As for the industrial 3D printer and 100 amphibious construction robots, Jiang Chen had other uses for them.

Since Celestial Trade's frigate forced Country F to recognize Moro's independence in front of UA, New Guinea started to act more respectful of its powerful little neighbor.

At first, the New Guinea government retained a cautious attitude towards Celestial Trade as a military tech company increasing its influence within the territory. The local governments were supportive of Future Group's investments. They welcomed Future Group's money but didn't welcome Future Group's people…

Now they were afraid to appear unwelcoming.

The country they depended on, Atria, couldn't bring them a sense of security anymore. Regarding Xin, who made UA compromise, they were wondering what kind of trump card was in their hands.

The President of New Guinea didn't know, so he chose a conservative strategy.

At least they didn't display any hostile intentions. Their investment in New Guinea did promote its economic development and brought benefits to the locals. As for the pollution from industrial work, anyone else would've also polluted the environment in the same way.

They didn't want to anger the dictator until he showed hostile intentions. What if they supported the cannibals living in the New Guinea jungles to become independent?

At noon, Jiang Chen arrived at a port in northern New Guinea by private jet and saw Luke Joyce, chairman of BHP Mining Group.

"Ten million tons of iron ore and 20 million tons of aluminum ore. Sh*t, you sure you didn't add an extra zero?" The moment Luke saw him, he began to question Jiang Chen.

"This is only the first batch. I remember in our agreement that the total was 50 million tons." Jiang Chen smiled at the skepticism in Luke's eyes without providing any explanation.

Something unpleasant happened between the two of them a while ago. BHP sent out commercial spies against Future Group in an attempt to steal their deep water mining technology, but Jiang Chen's Ghost Agents took out all the rats they hired.

But standing here now, the two simultaneously agreed not to bring that up.

"Even building an aircraft carrier wouldn't need this much iron."

"An aircraft carrier? Who said I was going to be building that?" Jiang Chen chuckled.

"Then what do you want to do?" Luke furrowed his brows.

"It's a secret," Jiang Chen replied mysteriously.

Jiang Chen's mysterious expression made Luke dying to know the answer, but the oriental man clearly didn't plan on revealing anything, so he had to settle. Based on the agreement at the Rothschild family dinner, Future Mining would take a step back on deepwater mining technology. BHP would supply 50 million tons of ores to Future Group at 80% the market price.

30 million tons of iron at 20% off was near the cost of ore production for BHP. Although it pained Luke that he wouldn't make any money, he soon relinquished the idea since the iron had been in storage for too long.

A total of 30 million tons of ores were transported to the port by freight and containers before being transported to the steel plant in eastern New Guinea. The boilers at the steel plant ran 24 hours a day nonstop with the plant workers working on a rotating shift. Under the supervision of the senior engineers of Future Group, they molded the steel and aluminum into the appropriate shape.

The steel plants were built as soon as Jiang Chen came back from Frankberg. Since Xin's Vice President's diplomatic visit to New Guinea the last time, Future Mining built a total of ten large steel plants in the eastern province, employing a total of 20,000 workers for Future Mining.

It was almost the total population of Xin.

The steel plants visibly boosted the port's economy.

Future Group offered high overtime pay and the New Guineans who started working in the steel plant first became the richest of all. With money, restaurants, supermarkets, bars, malls and even theaters appeared, which was something the people at the port hadn't imagined before.

The low red brick buildings were demolished and replaced by concrete buildings, apartments, and even mansions contracted by Celestial Trade. The land was sold by the local government to Celestial Trade. The officials who tasted the booming economy almost wanted to sell all the undeveloped land to Celestial Trade.

What was with the cautious attitude of the central government toward Celestial Trade? Were they uncomfortable with the increasing population?

Who cared?

Before the New Guinea cities became modernized, they were practically tribes. To this day, the local government still possessed high autonomy. With exponential increases in tax earning, the mayor was already smiling too much to close his mouth and he naturally wouldn't make trouble for Future Group.

A good corporation could raise a city. That sentence was perfectly demonstrated by Future Group.

Containers of industrial goods were hauled on trucks to the port and loaded onto freights to Ange Island. It was like a blood vessel connecting New Guinea and Xin, which formed a scene familiar to the locals. Some of the containers were transported to the assembling facility on Ange Island to be manufactured into housework robots and MIX1 batteries.

But most of the containers were hauled into a half-closed warehouse…

Chapter 601: Expand to the Ocean!

"A budget of 20 billion dollars… Are you planning to build an aircraft carrier?" Xia Shiyu rubbed her temples and said with a slight headache.

Twenty billion dollars was worth 130 billion RMB! Although Future Group had a lot of money, this was not the way to spend it. And based on what Jiang Chen said, this was the price tag just for the first phase of the project.

"Why do you relate everything to an aircraft carrier? Even the Nimitz class cost only 4 billion dollars," Jiang Chen sighed and jokingly said.

Xia Shiyu's eyebrows jumped. She took a deep breath and calmed her agitated emotions before asking.

"A budget of five aircraft carriers, can I ask what you are going to do with it?"

"Of course, since it is nothing worth keeping a secret about," Jiang Chen paused, "I plan to build a city."

"A city?" Xia Shiyu was dumbfounded, unable to respond to what Jiang Chen was saying.

'What kind of city would need this much steel, aluminum, and polyethylene…'

"That's right." Jiang Chen nodded with seriousness.

Xia Shiyu gazed into his eyes before finally letting out a sigh.

"Fine, I will go arrange it after and speak with the finance department. I'll have the document ready for you before the end of the day at the latest; you can give it to me after you sign it."

Jiang Chen was shocked how easily she agreed.

Xia Shiyu saw the shock in his eyes. She lips made a small curvature, but the serious expression didn't change at all.

"But as the CEO, I still have to remind you. Future Tourism has a great profitability margin right now, but even under the most ideal scenario, it would take five years to recover 10 billion dollars in investment."

"I know." Jiang Chen nodded, "but this project is pure tourism, its purpose is not only reflected on the profitability of the income statement. It may seem abstract the way I'm describing it, but once I hand you the project plan and visualization, you should understand my idea."

"You're the boss; you don't need to explain to me." Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses with her finger with a smile. "Also, I trust you."

Because you can always create miracles… the latter half of the sentence was hidden inside her heart.

"Let's not talk about this. I think you should find an assistant soon."

"Aren't you my assistant?" Jiang Chen said with a grin.

Xia Shiyu gave him a hard stare, coughed, and calmed down, "let's not make jokes here, be serious."

Jiang Chen sat up straight waiting for her to continue.

"With the current expansion speed, my work in decision making will increase, and I will no longer have as much free time as before. Such as document organization, discussing the decisions, and pouring coffee… it is better to leave it to the professional."

Xia Shiyu then added.

"It is more efficient this way."

"Thank you." Jiang Chen said sternly.

The shadows of her bang hid the faint hue on her face, Xia Shiyu stared at the documents around her arm and whispered, "Its okay."

[You have a conscience after all.]

After a short silence, Xia Shiyu placed the documents she had been holding on to on Jiang Chen's table.

"I have a few resumes on the table. These talents have impeccable education and ability and there are people from Harvard, Imperial College. They are extremely interested in working for you. You can see which one you like, and I can arrange the interview for you."

"Okay, thank you very much." Jiang Chen picked up the documents and start flipping through them.

It felt the servant was picking out the concubine for the emperor.

Jiang Chen shook his head, dispersed the inappropriate ideas from his mind, and started to examine each resume carefully.

<Wang Xiao, male, 37, Tsinghua University Human Resources Masters, worked as a human resources manager at Huawei before…]

Just like Xia Shiyu said, these talents were impeccable in both academics and abilities. But after reading through them, he realized something was off.

It took him a while before he realized what was wrong.

The resumes were all males?

The idea that the person pouring him coffee and tending to him would be a guy made Jiang Chen feel unpleasant. Ability was one thing, but at least give him some passion to work.

Although he understood Xia Shiyu's intention behind this, he was still hurt by this.

[Where did the trust go? Am I that kind of person? Even if it is a female assistant, even if she looked pleasing to the eyes, I wouldn't do anything okay…]

Perhaps.

Jiang Chen realized himself that his ability to reject temptation has been poor. And Xia Shiyu who realized his point did nothing wrong to cut off the "temptation". Since she is the CEO of the group, it was reasonable for her to moderately control the desire of the president for the sake of the Group's expansion…

Jiang Chen stuffed the resumes in his drawer, called the human resources department, and asked them to send a few more resumes.

He could not accept a man wandering around in his office all day.

…

Assistant selection aside, compared to the irrelevant small stories, Jiang Chen had other urgent matters to take care of.

Just like what he told Xia Shiyu, he planned to build a city.

Not on the ground, but the ocean!

Followed by the economic development of Xin, a large number of foreign workers and tourists flooded Xin, the not large Pannu Islands instantly became crowded. The previously spacious residential land started to experience shortages. Although it wasn't to the point where the original residents could no longer afford housing, it inevitably increased their cost of living and the requirement to immigrate.

Even if Xin possessed the economic conditions for population increase, on the islands not-so-big in the first place, how many people could you stuff on there?

Xin had a massive territory; not on land, but on the sea.

Next to the vast west Pacific Ocean, there was no territorial dispute for Xin.

With such a god given geographical advantage, it would be a waste of heaven sent if not utilized.

Future Group and Celestial Trade's next strategic focus was to expand to the ocean!

It was the prequel to the space era.

Chapter 602: A Strand of Hair

Coro Island, near Future Building, located on the northeast corner of the island was a high tech park. The place represented the origin of the most advanced technology of Xin.

It was also the area on the entire Coro Island with the highest security. The gates and walls were guarded with soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons supported by the patrol of Hummingbird drones. The gates were scanned in not by ID cards, but rather retina recognition. The security level there was only second to Jiang Chen's mansion located at the north end of the land, slightly higher than the Presidential Palace of Xin.

But even with the high security, you won't feel the suppression of a high-security zone walking inside the high tech park. Other than the patrol teams outside the wall, the Hummingbird drones were usually hidden inside the "drone hives" waiting for an order. Only when the alarm is triggered would they fly to the alarm source.

The people who listen would lay flat on the ground, the people who don't listen would be dropped by rubber bullets, the people with weapons…

Would be made into sieves.

Inside the high tech park, there was no military zone or restricted zone. But rather some areas, people were unpermitted to enter without the right permission.

For example the Nano material lab 200 meters out of the Future Building. The egg-shaped building was built two months ago and in service just last week. The primary research project was Nano material with graphene as the central component.

The permission level there was only second to the CEO office of Future Group subsidiaries. Other than the scientists that worked there, there was only a handful of people in the Future Group permitted to enter.

The lab cost 140 million US dollars; the lab was currently the one that burned the most money in Future Group.

Although it was burning through cash, compared to the other Nano material labs around the world, the 140 million US dollars was very cost friendly. Some of the equipment cost millions with a ridiculous maintenance fee.

And the reason why Future Group's lab saved money was that of the industrial 3D printer Jiang Chen brought back so that most of the high precision equipment could be manufactured by themselves. As well as the Graphene Composite Cutting Bed he brought from Zhao Chenwu a long time ago along with the resources related to the applications of Graphene that all provided substantial help to the lab.

The scientists here may not be comparable with the most leading experts around the world, but the technology they knew of was the most advanced in the 21st century.

They were standing on the shoulders of Jiang Chen.

…

When Jiang Chen arrived at the lab, the lab director in a white lab coat was standing with other employees beside a humongous equipment and nervously conducting an experiment on Nano material. Some people were adjusting the equipment, some were recording data, some were making observations… a total of eleven scientists, none were extraneous.

The director of the lab's name was Lu Yuan, male, 47, previously an academician at Central Research Institute's physics department. The man had black hair, and the straightened body looked sharp without any signs of aging, he looked like he was 30 something.

It was not easy to hire him to be the director. The researchers in Hua had mediocre income, but at the academician level, especially in material science where it is connected to national defense, the benefits are not low at all. Based on what Lu Yuan said, including benefits, it was around 2 million a year…

But Jiang Chen offered a salary of 10 million a year.

Facts proved over and over again, as long as the hoe hit the right spot, a wall will always collapse (1). But what really attracted the old professor to bring his most outstanding students to come to Xin was Jiang Chen's promise of "non-bureaucratic and free research environment" and "most advanced research equipment", as well as the most tempting "technical information from Future Group".

Of course, a confidentiality agreement was necessary. Since he was in Xin, Jiang Chen naturally won't let him go easily.

Jiang Chen quietly stood in the hallway outside of the lab and looked at the scientists working on the equipment. It was not until the experiment was over did he finally walk inside.

"How are the results?"

"Very ideal." Lu Yuan patted the experiment data in his arm and exclaimed, "I finally understand how fearsome Future Group's research ability is."

"Could I interpret this as you're complimenting yourself?" Jiang Chen said in a joking tone.

[Aren't you a part of Future Group's "research ability"?]

Lu Yuan laughed and passed the data to his assistant, told him to summarize the data, and then looked back at Jiang Chen.

"To be honest, I feel pity."

"Pity?" Jiang Chen asked.

"That's right." Lu Yuan nodded and sighed lightly, "Throw away the hypes, we successfully produced the first 15-inch single-layer graphene in Hua by chemical vapor deposition and successfully fabricated a 7-inch graphene touchscreen. But a high-strength graphene cable like this, I never thought I could see this in my lifetime… With this, the space elevator in novels and movies could become a reality."

Inside the apparatus, inside the middle of the lab, a hair-thin graphene strand was connected between two metal poles, and the strand of hair was the subject of the experiment. Just then, they tested the graphene's durability to withstand different gas pressures and gas compositions, the results were extremely pleasing.

"Space elevator is our next strategic focus. I can tell you this now." Jiang Chen smiled.

"If Central Research Institute has a lab like this, even without the resources, give us at most ten years and this 'strand of hair' will be born in Hua…." Lu Yuan exclaimed before he shook his head.

There was no purpose to say this. The price he had to pay to enter this lab was a confidentiality agreement with Future Group, and it did not permit him to leave Xin within ten years.

Jiang Chen only scoffed at Lu Yuan's exclaim.

[Obviously, half of the equipment came from the mid-22nd century, the most critical resources are all technologies from the 22nd century!]

Of course, Jiang Chen could only think in his mind without blurting it out. His explanation for the technical resources was acquired from commercial methods without providing a more specific explanation.

"Therefore, what's there to feel pity about?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"Pity that it is Future Group that conquered this problem, not Central Research Institute." Lu Yuan looked at Jiang Chen while slowing stating it. "To be honest, the institute discussed you before. But no one thought that other than artificial intelligence and virtual reality, you would have so much more to offer."

Jiang Chen laughed without commenting on this question. Then he asked rhetorically, "Then do you think without such a broad stage, Future Group would be Future Group?"

Lu Yuan heard the question and finally couldn't hold in the question that bothered him for so long, "are you not willing to contribute to your home country?"

"Of course I'm willing." Jiang Chen said frankly, but before Lu Yuan was able to continue, his words took a sharp turn and erased the unrealistic thought out of Lu Yuan's head, "I won't preach everything I know."

(1) There is no man you can't headhunt as long as you're willing to pay the price.

Chapter 603: The Amazing Graphene

In Jiang Chen's "Ocean Expansion" strategic plan and "Space Elevator" plan, the research of Nano material – graphene was fundamental and core.

Most people know that graphite is one of the softest substances in nature. What most people don't know, however, is that its so-called "softness" is just its macro phenomenon. For example, the hexagonal grids stacked on top of the other, the graphite interlayer structure is maintained by "the least reliable" van der Waals forces, so that the layers and layers are relatively "slippery" under the action of external force, thereby giving a "soft " illusion.

But in the direction perpendicular to the plane, graphite is "amazingly" durable!

According to the latest research results, it shows that graphene per 100 nm distance can withstand a maximum pressure that reaches 2.9 micro Newton. In other words, it will take 55 Newton of force to break one meter long graphene! Intuitively, graphene with the same thickness of food plastic bag will need to exert a pressure of almost 20,000 Newton before losing its integrity. In other words, if the plastic bag is made out of graphene, it will be able to withstand about two tons of weight!

Here only its strength is discussed, its conductivity, light transmission, lightweight and anti-bactericidal nature are all superb. All of this is also precisely why graphene is one of the most important research topics in the world. From space elevators to supercomputers, screens of the next-generation photonic sensors to mobile phones of the second generation, this new source of material, which is cumbersome to produce, has garnered worldwide acclaim since the turn of the century.

Graphene material is the future!

Jiang Chen's Future Group was leading the world in this aspect. Although it was not revealed to the public, Future Group has been using graphene material in many of its products. For example, the K1 kinetic skeleton Celestial Trade is currently using, from the chip to the removable bulletproof guard; graphene could be seen everywhere. The Phantom helmet was also another example along with the electromagnetic acceleration track in the deep water mining facility, they were all made with graphene material.

Application was only one aspect. These products were all designed in the apocalypse and not indicative that Future Group really mastered the technology. To digest the technology from the other dimension and apply the technology to more broad applications, Jiang Chen invested and established the graphene lab and "bought" the group of scientists with achievement in the research of graphene to digest the superior technology.

Lu Yuan didn't disappoint him either.

Jiang Chen took the "strand of hair" back to Fallout Shelter 027. After the testing done by the scientists at the shelter, it reached the quality needed to build the space elevator. It meant that in the field of material science, Future Group's technology led the world by at least 20 years.

…

A stream of cargos sailed from New Guinea to Ange Island; anyone could have guessed Future Group had big plans. UA was the most sensitive about this since the two parties recently were in an escalated tension on the topic of MLL Island.

But what the CIB Agent on Ange Island didn't know was, after Xin further refined the crudely refined steel products, they transported them back to the port again and then hauled them to a region 200 kilometers out, then ended up dumping the refined steel products into the ocean.

Dumped into the ocean?

Not only were the CIB agents confused, but even the UA soldiers playing video games on the aircraft carrier were equally as confused. The Capitol immediately ordered them to closely monitor Future Group's move!

Therefore, they sent the unmanned multi-purpose MQ reconnaissance drone stationed on the aircraft.

They were fortunate that they sent an unmanned drone.

The unlucky bird lost communication not long after it flew into Xin's territory. The aircraft carrier thought it was Celestial Trade that shot it down and reported the information to the Rainbow Mansion. The Capitol was furious and immediately called Jiang Chen… they finally learned that even Zhang Yaping couldn't give them a response.

But Jiang Chen's reaction was "innocent" and stated that he didn't know any drones that entered Xin's airfield, he then retorted the Capitol, when was it okay to be this straightforward about going into someone's house without permission?

The Capitol felt awkward but acting shamelessly was key for all politicians around the world. The newly elected President is no less shameless compared to her predecessor. After she forced some explanation, she requested Celestial Trade to permit the aircraft carrier sending out unarmed recovery boat to recover the drone in the region.

Jiang Chen didn't reject but did agree on a time limit with the Capitol. If the drone could not be recovered within 72 hours, the recovery boat must leave Xin's region. After the Capitol accepted Jiang Chen's proposal, the aircraft carrier immediately sent out a recovery boat. But after 72 hours, the boat recovered nothing and could only leave Xin's territory under the supervision of Celestial Trade.

Of course they couldn't find anything.

When the unmanned drone entered Xin's territory, Droplet 1 set sail from the port of Coconut Island. At the same time, Aurora-20 departed from New moon Island. When it arrived above the drone, it launched an air-to-air EMP missile to the area. The drone was just like a fly that smashed into the spider web, the electronic equipment instantly malfunctioned and dove into the sea.

At the same time, Droplet 1 waiting underneath extended its mechanical arm and dragged the wreckage of the drone into the net before returning to Coconut Island. The Capitol and aircraft carrier didn't think Celestial Trade's action would be so swift which made the captain of the aircraft carrier even questioned himself.

'Could it have just encountered bad weather?'

But what if it was not bad weather, but it was actually taken down by Celestial Trade's anti-air missile without any signs…

Captain Hoffman shivered at the thought but he quickly shook the unrealistic thought out of his head. It was not difficult to shoot down the drone since it was not advanced technology, but it was impossible to do so without being detected by the aircraft drone.

Within the 100 nautical miles, any anti-air missiles ascending to the drone's attitude will be captured by the radar of the aircraft carrier.

But what Hoffman didn't know was that their radar's detection ability was a joke compared to Aurora-20's invisibility.

It was not UA that kept an eye on Celestial Trade, the small neighbor Malaysia also closely monitored the situation.

Different from UA, Malaysia was not focusing on military advancement, but economic changes…

Chapter 604: The Envious Neighbor

Regardless of how many White Papers the UA published alerting people of Celestial Trade's danger to regional stability, the countries clearly didn't take this warning seriously.

In the eyes of surrounding countries, Celestial Trade and Future Group were marvelous.

Why? There is a perfect example in New Guinea's port!

At the end of 2016, the port was just a poor shanty town. Other than an uneconomical airport and a highway halfway built, the entire city's economy was dead on the ground and supported by tourism and small amounts of lumber and ore export.

Malaysia's Papua Province and port were only separated by a straight border, occupying the west side of Papua. This straight borderline simply separated the entire island of Papua into two worlds, one on one side and the other on the other side. The city of Jayapura always complained that the poor from New Guinea was stealing their jobs, dirtying their cities and drinking their water, yet this condescending sense of superiority gradually vanished by the arrival of Future Group.

The Malaysian shockingly discovered that port was growing at a visible speed! In just a period of four short months, the size of the city expanded by a fold. The almost deserted airport had five addition arrivals and departures. The packed port had to expand to seven berths to accommodate for the incoming cargos.

When the conditions permitted, compared to working in the neighboring country, New Guineans favored working in their country more. With the economy supported by mega steel plants, it dragged up the local economy and brought along a series of other industries.

Also similarly!

In February, the public Luer Automotive Corporation passed a decision from the board to invest 200 million USD to establish an electric vehicle plant in the region to officially enter the Asia market! Future Biology also moved the seaweed farm to the port to provide raw ingredients for the nutrient supply production line on Ange Land. The parts plant for the housework robot was also placed near the port.

Due to the shortage of population and land, Future Group started executing the strategy of shifting the high labor-intensive industry to developing countries at the beginning of 2017. And New Guinea with a weak government presence, vulnerable national defense, excessive labor, and resources, fortunately, became Jiang Chen's target.

Without restriction from policies, Future Group was a hungry capital beast and took a giant bite off of New Guinea's catch. 30% of the residents of port worked for Jiang Chen directly, and 50% of the population there either were supported directly or indirectly by Future Group. What's more shocking, Future Group did everything in four short months.

To the massive conglomerate, even if the New Guinea government retained a cautious attitude, the local government won't easily upset Jiang Chen because of the political order from the central authority. Jiang Chen's sentence alone could make 50% of the population of the city lose their source of income. Without Future Group and Celestial Trade, how chaotic would the city be?

To some extent, Future Group was like an addictive drug to the local government. The officials with foresight obviously know that it would be detrimental if this continued, but even if they know, they could not break off the drug. Officials in any country must require achievements to be promoted, and Jiang Chen happened to control what they needed the most.

The New Guinea government did consider breaking up Future Group's assets through anti-trust investigation. But just as the parliament started discussing this problem, protestors consisting of the original residents of the port with signs immediately appeared to protest about racism and unfair tax treatment and fought for independence…

New Guinea was scared.

They were not afraid of the protestors, but afraid that Papua would become the second MLL Island. Celestial Trade dared to set an example of another country provoked them.

And they did it in front of UA's face without holding anything back!

No one mentioned the anti-trust investigation anymore. After a period of protesting, the protestors also lost interest and returned back to work at the steel plants.

Of course, it was just a story that happened in between.

Future Group provided hundreds of millions of USD in tax revenue for the local government. Just for the sake of foreign currency, the local government didn't dare to offend Future Group. Or the protestors won't be able to return to the plants and work peacefully; usually, they would have to be at least thrown in a detention center for at least a few days.

It was because of this foreign currency that the neighboring Malaysia became jealous.

They were not afraid of Future Group throwing a coup that overthrows their government since their force was not comparable to Country F's third-hand product. Their air force was equipped with Russia's MIG-28N and America's F-18 Hornet! Although they were not seeking for war, their air force was only comparable by Singapore in the region.

Malaysia's Finance Minister and Energy Minister visited Coro Island two times to meet with Zhang Yaping and Jiang Chen while providing positive signals to Future Group.

[We have a workforce, resources, and the most important basic infrastructure to support it all! Everything New Guinea has, the Papua Province on Papua Island has it, and we have more of it than them!]

With how direct his message is, he practically said "come invest here!"

But Jiang Chen didn't respond directly to the two ministers' warm invitation. He only vaguely stated if Celestial Trade and Future Group required expansion in business, they would consider the resource-rich Malaysia as a partner.

But after all the polite talk was done, Future Group did not react at all. The tensest was the local government of Papua province, seeing that the poor country beside them was rising. While people in Jayapura hated New Guinea's poor for working in their cities when they can all go back to their hometown to work, however, when the restaurants and McDonalds throughout the city could not see a single New Guinean server, the citizens of Jayapura started to feel anxious.

The sudden shortage in labor force caused a visible drop in the quality of life of Jayapura people, and the booming economy started to slow down. With the extra labor force missing, would there be no unemployment rate in the city? It was obviously not the case.

While they lost their extra labor force, Jayapura lost the extra consumers. The drop in store sales and slowdown in company performance naturally led to a reduction in workforce. The more prosperous the city, the more it depended on the connections it had with the outside world.

As to the influence of port and the effect on the capital of Papua province Jayapura, it would be an indirect comparison to the rise of Shenzhen and the fall of Hong Kong, not to be discussed further here.

Finally, Malaysia who couldn't sit around any longer sent delegation again.

Chapter 605: If possible, cheers to our cooperation

With the foreign capitals continuing to flee, if they could attract investment from the neighboring Future Group, it was a tempting choice for Malaysia looking to revitalize the economy. With Future Group's speed of expansion, there was no one that even remotely matched them.

In order to hop on the rocket rapidly accelerating, Malaysia sent out a delegation for the third time.

This time it was a parliament member with a renowned reputation and also was acting as the economic development consultant of Papua Province. While his rank may not be higher compared to the previous times, the visitor possessed a background from both the Malaysian government and the local government. That meant, he brought enough chips with him to the table.

Also, his name is Yu Weida, a Han.

Han faces are no uncommon in Malaysia, but definitely as rare as the giant panda in Malaysian politics.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen, I have long heard your name."

When they met, Yu Weida in a suit sincerely extended his hand and greeted Jiang Chen. After some small talk, Jiang Chen invited the parliament member to sit down. The concierge staffed poured tea for them.

Following the basic procedure of foreign delegation, he already shook hands at the Presidential Place with the President of Xin, but in front of Jiang Chen, his attitude and actions seemed reserved. Clearly, he did his homework before he came and knew that the person in front of him was the actual owner of Xin.

"I trust that Mr. Jiang Chen already knows the purpose of my trip. The last time, our ministers already expressed our welcome to your investment in Malaysia." Yu Weida paused and looked at Jiang Chen. Then lowering his eyes, he said sincerely, "what's your party's consideration?"

"To be honest, I'm still considering. " Jiang Chen took a sip of the water, smiled, and said in an unrushed tone.

Yu Weida was not defeated by the response and started to joke with Jiang Chen, "The old saying is that, visiting the straw hut three times show one's sincerity. (A reference to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei) Now that we have already been here three times, Mr. Jiang won't let us leave empty-handed right."

"That might not be the case."

"Future Group's operation in New Guinea is fine. The local government and the central government both are 'extra protective' of their assets. The port government was recently discussing if they will permit Celestial Trade's Marine Corps to establish an 'employment hiring base'. If permitted, Celestial Trade will be able to acquire sufficient soldiers in New Guinea. The desire to immigrate to Xin will motivate a lot of New Guineans to apply. Since this is the only way for the islanders without a high education background to immigrate to Coro Island with a higher and higher barrier to enlist."

Jiang Chen looked at Yu Weida dubiously, "Looks like Mr. Yu knows the Hua culture very well."

"Of course, my ancestor is a Han merchant and settled in Kuala Lumpur during the Republic Era before moving to Papua Province." Yu Weida explained.

"Then you should know that Lu Bei promised Zhuge Liang to be the state secretary," Jiang Chen paused, leaned slightly forward, and smiled at him, "then, what can you give me?"

"Mr. Jiang, not everything has to be based on gains." Yu Weida opened his hands, "at the very least I'm representing a country. We invited you three times, even for Apple, we weren't this sincere."

"What was the GDP of Malaysia last year?"

"312.7 billion US dollars," Yu Weida answered quickly.

"Future Group's market cap is 500 billion, and this is a conservative estimate from Wall Street." If Jiang Chen gave an estimate, the number would have to at least double.

"This way of saying it is too out…" Yu Weida adjusted the diction in his mind before he forced a smile, "this is without reason."

"It's not about having a reason or not," Jiang Chen waved his hand in disagreement, sat up straight, and looked at the Malaysia parliament member in front of him. "I'm a businessman, my decision to invest is based on what you can provide me."

"We have the third largest labor market in the world with a strong economic foundation. At present, ASEAN is the third power in Asia, and Malaysia is undoubtedly the leader in ASEAN. If you can come to invest here, we are willing to provide you with a series of benefits such as loans, land, recruitment and so on... "

"But your labor cost is higher than them." Jiang Chen smiled, "take the steel plant for example, including overtime, the workers at New Guinea only needs to be paid 750 US dollars per month, but your basic wage without overtime will be more than 800 uS dollars."

"It is unfair to purely discuss cost. Our country's education level is higher than them," Yu Weida explained.

But Jiang Chen was clearly not having any of this.

"Do you need higher education to learn how to operate a boiler? You just need to know how to read." Jiang Chen then continued, "especially since we'll be sending technical experts to be stationed in each steel plants. As long as we have good production procedures, even if the workers have a low education level, our group can still accept this."

Yu Weida gritted his teeth. He knew that if he didn't bring out any attractive proposal, this negotiation would be without fruition. Although before he came, the parliament and local government already gave them their bottom lines, but bringing out the chips this early was not helpful in haggling the price.

"One year, tax-free!"

"New Guinea gave us three years."

"Then we'll do three years!" Yu Weida thought about the ore agreement with BHP, he continued, "Also, limited to just the ports of Papua Province, we'll exclude the income tariff on iron, aluminum, nickel, and cooper; as long as the total investment in Malaysia exceeds 2 billion US dollars."

Jiang Chen was moved.

They eliminated the import tariff! In this case, it would save Future Group at least 200 million USD in expenses! Currently, Future Group's massive expansion projects did put a strain on its cash flow. If he could save this expense, he could distribute the budget to the projects burning more money.

But just the elimination of the ore import tariff was not enough to convince Jiang Chen, unless they could add more benefits…

"You almost convinced me."

"Can I know where I'm lacking?"

Seeing how big Jiang Chen's appetite was, Yu Weida was growing more displeased.

He already offered all the benefits he could on the table, if Future Group is still raising the price without agreeing, he didn't plan to discuss further.

"I admit that your offer is generous and attractive, but," Jiang Chen suddenly took a sharp turn in the conversation, "we already invested 1.7 billion US dollars in New Guinea with a 5 billion US dollars investment project coming up. If we give up 2 billion of initial investment because of a 200 million policy benefit, if you are in my spot, is this clearly a less appealing choice?"

[5 billion US dollars more!]

Yu Weida held his breath.

He didn't notice the second half of Jiang Chen's sentence because all his focus was caught by the number.

"What do you want?"

"Everything before that and one more, a special pass," Jiang Chen raised one finger, "all the trucks and employees of Future Group can freely move between Malaysia's Papua Province border and New Guinea. All documents and tariffs must be—"

"This is impossible!" Yu Weida shouted out.

It was impossible! Absolutely impossible! Not only did it pertain to tariffs, but it was also related to national security! Even if Future Group bears enough weight, the parliament would not agree to such a ridiculous term.

Jiang Chen didn't care that much; he extended his hand with a smile.

"If possible, cheers to our cooperation."

Chapter 606: A New Special District

The truth proved that nothing is impossible.

It was fine to have no taxes, and it was fine to remove tariffs for some goods, but the latter exception made the Malaysian government troubled. While both New Guinea and Papua Province were both on Papua Island and the two countries were connected by a highway, any goods transported through this highway required tariffs to be paid.

Especially when it came to mining resources, Papua was rich in resources throughout the island. The Papua provincial government didn't want to see New Guinea's ores flooding into Malaysia to steal their own market share.

But if Future Group was granted a special pass, that meant the border was non-existent to them.

But!

The 5 billion USD investment made it hard for the Malaysian government to give up. Malaysia received a total investment of 174.9 billion Ringgit in 2016, a drop from 186.7 billion in 2015 by 6%. Although the decrease had slowed down compared to the terrifying 21% cliff dive, overall, the Malaysian economic situation was optimistic.

Future Group's 5 billion USD couldn't be underestimated. Based on the investment performance of Future Group at the port, one USD of investment attracted at least 1.7 USD in international capital. Even compared with the wealthy Wall Street across the world, Future Group was considered a generous investor.

A lot of investors even closely monitored Future Group's activity and invested wherever Future Group invested. The trend of following Future Group was best demonstrated in Xin; Future Group's 10 billion USD investments there drew in at least 13 billion of follow-up investments. Because of the international capital flooding in, it made Coro Island a rising pearl in the west Pacific.

Yu Weida brought Jiang Chen's words back to Malaysia.

One week later, the Malaysian government sent Jiang Chen a reply.

There was only a short sentence in the letter.

"Cheers to our cooperation."

The Malaysian government executed the document with the cooperation of the local Papua provincial government to designate the 180-square-kilometer area on the northeastern border of Papua Province as the New Malaysia Special District. Combined with the 40 square kilometers of land negotiated with the New Guinea government, Celestial Trade owned land on Papua Island the size of three Xiangjiangs.

The land was located at the border of the two countries. After the establishment of the special zone, Celestial Trade and Future Group's employees and vehicles could freely move between the special district and New Guinea. But entering the other area of Papua Province from the special zone would still require custom inspections and tariff charges. It was the equivalent of the Malaysian government moving out the inspection station on the border by ten-something kilometers.

Establishing an industrial zone on the border was similar to the UK industrial zone, but differences also existed. In terms of taxes, the two governments' tax revenue was split 8:2. In terms of management and administration, Malaysian officials managed the special district.

Jiang Chen was extremely pleased with their compromise, and he was also shockingly surprised.

Malaysia had high hopes regarding Future Group's prospects and was willing to establish a special zone to attract Jiang Chen's investment.

Just as Yu Weida said, the education levels of the indigenous people of New Guinea were too low. The production efficiency of the workers was, in fact, related to their education levels. It might not be reflected in the boilers of the steel plant, but it could be seen in other plants.

Take, for example, the parts required to construct a housework robot.

To polish a part of the robot, a worker with an elementary education would require one month of training with an average polishing speed of 31 parts per day, but a worker with a high school education would only require 10 days of training with an average polishing speed of 47 parts per day. A lot of Han and Vietnam descendants who entered New Guinea through Papua Province had production efficiencies that were levels above the indigenous people of New Guinea.

After the approval of the special zone document, Future Group negotiated with the special district government and acquired ownership rights of all 15 square kilometers of land at a symbolic price of 1 USD per square meters.

Immediately, Jiang Chen spent 1.2 billion USD and hired five construction companies to simultaneously start on the construction of roads, residences and other basic infrastructure as well as steel plants, robot part plants and chemical plants for manufacturing MIX1 batteries to connect the plants built at the west end of the port.

The completion of the industrial zone would create 117,000 job positions in Papua Province.

The Capitol.

The atmosphere in the conference room was low-spirited. The thinktanks of the Capitol sat around the table and exchanged opinions regarding the document in front of them. Their faces displayed shock, disbelief, and mostly concern.

Hill sat at the end of the table. The aggressive old woman won the race against her opponent, but since her inauguration, she had never been tested by an incident this scale.

A middle-aged man walked into the room.

All the eyes in the conference room were directed at him, including Hill who sat at the end.

Naomi Martin didn't waste any words and put the document on the table.

"The results of the autopsy report have come out. The result of death was heart failure ... it's suspected he was killed."

The conference room became rattled.

Gordon, the F35 pilot, was found not on MLL Island, but in Singapore 2,000 kilometers away. When CIB agents found him through all the clues, he had been dead for half a month.

Why would the F35 fighter pilot suddenly leave the combat zone and strike City K? Why did he not attempt to contact the command center after he parachuted and appeared in Singapore 2,000 kilometers away?

Too many questions were brought into his grave.

But CIB was indeed the hound of UA. When they were conducting a search of the pilot's apartment, they found a suspicious diary.

30 pages of the 41 pages diary were ripped out. They found a large number of smudges on the 31st page with the only distinguishable thing being a word.

"Kurofune, the black boat."

"We already discussed this problem."

"Should we contact the Nippon government? Perhaps they know something."

"I'll bet 10 dollars that the 'Kurofune' probably is a nightclub that our boys like to go."

"Luke, we're in a conference." Hill used a calm but authoritative voice.

The man named Luke immediately closed his mouth and shrugged at his colleagues.

Then Hill directed her gaze at Naomi, who just entered.

"You're late, but I guess you have new discoveries, right?"

Naomi took a deep breath and nodded.

"Gordon seemed to be tortured before his death, but based on the statement from his neighbor, no one entered or left his room. From the room, we detected vomit and alcohol… he ingested a large quantity of alcohol before his death."

"Get to the point; I'm not here to listen to your autopsy report."

"I am just about to get to the point." Naomi continued, "based on the analysis of our intelligence personnel, Kurofune should be an organization. And Gordon should've contacted the organization before his death. But this wasn't the most shocking discovery."

"There's indirect evidence to prove that Kurofune is perhaps related to that thing we're researching in Area 51."

When Naomi finished the last sentence, the entire conference room was dead silent.

Chapter 607: Robot Xiao Lin

With the housework robot hitting the market, the entire Internet was again excited by the name "Future."

Code AI-00, nicknamed Xiao Lin, represented the first model of Future Heavy Industries' combination of "artificial intelligence + service robot." Future Heavy Industries ended up rejecting the initial crude and bold design of the robot and designed Xiao Lin's appearance with a professional art team.

Its previous cylindrical head was replaced by a human head.

The uncanny effect made the art team tremble. The more the robot resembled a human, the more its physiological repulsiveness became apparent. Regardless of how much emotional data they ported to enrich the robot's facial expressions, the hollowness inside its pupils and the stiffness in the details would give people a similar feeling to seeing the dead, but the problem couldn't be solved by even Doctor Amos. It was solved by an undergraduate student with an art degree.

"If looking like a human makes people feel uncomfortable, just don't make it look like a human!"

Who said human-like features were the only definition of beauty?

The fictional idol, Hatsune Miku, has been popular for years and has tons of followers on the Internet!

The problem was solved just like that.

The art team who suddenly had that realization got rid of the previous face and used 2.5D style as the foundation, bringing a character that only previously existed in fantasies to the real world.

It had six basic expressions and 36 expressions based on emotional data. The amount of emotion it could display far exceeded the complicated 142-expression design.

Xiao Lin's official appearance was set as an 18-year-old girl with long, black, straight hair. She had a maid uniform as well as a blonde boy in servant clothes. Gender, hair color, pupil color, breast size, personality, and uniform could all be customized based on user preference. Of course, customization would require an additional fee.

Most people were willing to make their girlfriend look different from others.

What? You're asking me if the word "girlfriend" is wrong?

But in actuality, a lot of people who took Xiao Lin home treated her as their girlfriend. Future Technology's AI was known for its power and there were still people to this day who treated Little White as their pet, hence, a lot of people fell in love with the goddess who stepped out from their fantasies. The price of 10,000 USD was pricey, but to Doctor Amos' surprise, it achieved a sales feat in the Asian market.

The sales of the adult version of Xiao Lin destroyed the sales of the family-friendly version. Although it was just an addition of a "special mold" as well as a unique "emotional sensor" to display R-18 positions and emotions, the price skyrocketed to 20,000 USD on the black market.

This certainly caught Jiang Chen off guard.

If you could pay 20,000 USD, why didn't you go find a girlfriend?! Picking up a girl wouldn't cost 20,000 USD, right?

It wasn't until later that he discovered it wasn't just single men without money to get married who bought this, but people with money with special needs were also buying this. Some requested the height to be as short as possible, some demanded that the breast size be G, and some even bought ten and created a harem.

Robots absolutely will not get jealous, unless it was set within the program that they will.

Time magazine once again displayed Jiang Chen on the cover page and used comical English to describe him as:

The header also made Jiang Chen furious.

If it wasn't for the fact that the report was unbiased and offered insight, he would've sent out his Ghost Agents to do some work.

There were 200,000 Xiao Lins walking out of the plant on Ange Island every month with 50,000 units as the home model with the remaining ones being the adult model. Previously, production was scheduled for an equal split between both models, but the sales of the adult model were so great that Future Heavy Industries immediately reduced the production of the home model and distributed the production to the adult version.

Amos didn't stop complaining to Jiang Chen about this.

Their era-defining masterpiece turned out to be a sex toy! It was humiliating to know.

He complained for less than a month before he stopped yapping and focused on the improved version of Xiao Lin. The 50 million USD in dividends almost scared him to death. Although he was reputable in the international robotic community, he had never been this rich.

But in comparison to Time, Capital Post maintained a cautious attitude towards the Xiao Lin introduced by Future Heavy Industries. They included a picture of the Terminator with heavy machines on the report for Xiao Lin. "Rainbow House should feel happy because it won't take long before the soldiers serving abroad can return home."

But the Capitol wasn't happy.

The moment Xiao Lin entered the market, the Capitol analyzed the "highly intelligent" robot's possibility of being used in warfare. While Xiao Lin couldn't distinguish between guns for now and the software eliminated any possibility of harming humans, it didn't mean that the robot couldn't be improved to include those capabilities.

The results of the analysis were shocking.

If the robot was used in the battlefield, the UA force's ground combat ability could increase by at least ten percent. Most importantly, these soldiers didn't need to be paid. There was no need for pensions and funerals if they fell in the war.

Problematically, the control system of the robot was equipped with a similar protection mechanism as the Phantom. Forcefully dissembling it would trigger the protection mechanism and cause the high-energy capacitor to discharge instantly, frying all key components. The most pivotal AI program troubled all the scientists around the world who struggled with how to start reverse engineering it. The Capitol had to send an email to Future Group.

"Thor Corporation wants to cooperate with us in military robots and their proposal is 1 billion USD to purchase the technology related to Xin Lin. Hua also offered a similar proposal in hopes that they could win the partnership before Thor Corporation," Xia Shiyu reported to Jiang Chen in his office.

Jiang Chen scanned the documents on the table without replying and only let out a sigh.

"Artificial intelligence, robots - why do people want to make every piece of technology I introduce into a weapon?"

Yesterday, Natasha came to speak with him expressing that the Kremlin shared the same thoughts, hoping to partner with Future Heavy Machinery. The girl even lowered her voice and tempted him with "nuclear." Russia could send out nuclear experts to Xin to help construct a nuclear power plant…

"Reject them?" Xia Shiyu asked.

"Reject them. Express Future Group's neutrality on global affairs again. Any attempt to acquire Future Group technology through illegal channels will be met with Future Group applying for patents in all other countries immediately."

Xia Shiyu nodded.

"I will use your words as a diplomatic reply. Also, Saudi called about the robot too."

"Saudi?" Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu, confused. "They're interested in our technology too?"

"Rather than saying they're interested, it's more appropriate to say…" After hesitating for a moment, Xia Shiyu looked away awkwardly. "Their royal has a special request."

Chapter 608: Taboo

Jiang Chen didn't think the Saudi Prince would personally make a trip. As per the request brought up in the morning, the Prince arrived at Coro Island in the afternoon and checked into the Heart of the Sea.

The plane imprinted with the royal badge landed at the Coro Island airport. With bodyguards in suits accompanying him, Prince Yerif walked off the plane.

Perhaps because of his royal blood, the Arabic Prince looked extremely handsome. He wore a traditional Arab white robe. The moment he saw Jiang Chen waiting at the gate, without giving Jiang Chen the opportunity to speak, he walked out with quick steps and gave Jiang Chen a hug.

"I finally met you - the most successful businessman of the century, Mr. Jiang Chen." After letting Jiang Chen go, Yerif spoke to him in English.

"I'm grateful to meet you too, Mr. Prince," Jiang Chen said humbly.

The person standing in front of him was indeed richer than him. Based on the information he obtained from Xin's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prince Yerif wasn't only a prince, but he was also the likely successor of the King. Once the Saudi King pass away in the future, it would be him on the throne.

Based on what a Saudi Prince told him, Saudi Aramco's valuation was expected to be in the range of 2 trillion USD. Although it was undetermined if this number is inflated, if the number is, in fact real, Saudi Aramco's IPO would break Apple's 700 billion record.

Among the people Jiang Chen knew, only the Rothschild family with an undisclosed financial standing could compare to the wealthy Arabs.

When the car arrived at Future Building, Yerif was generous with his praise while standing at the gate.

"A beautiful building. It is equally as beautiful as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai."

"Haha, thank you for your compliment." While they chatted, Jiang Chen invited him into the conference room.

When they sat down, Yerif asked his bodyguards to stay outside the room. It didn't take long before the conversation turned to robots. The handsome prince seemed to be uncomfortable expressing his request.

Jiang Chen, who noticed his awkwardness, signaled Xia Shiyu to step out for a moment.

Xia Shiyu closed the door behind her.

Seeing there was no one else present, Yerif felt relieved.

"Thank you."

"No problem. We're all men, I understand." Jiang Chen laughed. "But I have a question. Could Mr. Prince clear my confusion?"

"Of course, please go ahead," Yerif said courteously.

"Why didn't you get someone else to handle the small task of customizing a robot? Considering your identity… it seems inappropriate for you to make a trip down here just for this."

Yerif smiled.

"I see. I'm here on vacation to Coro Island. At the same time, I wished to bring Future Group a greeting from Saudi, so the outside world won't know about the robot. I hope Mr. Jiang can keep this a secret for me."

"Of course. We always value the privacy of our users. What kind of robot do you need?" Jiang Chen tried his best to show a smile that wouldn't make Yerif feel awkward since asking the question felt equivalent to asking the size of sex doll Yerif wanted to buy.

Just as he thought Yerif would say something embarrassing, he put his hands into his pocket and took out a delicate wooden box.

Yerif handed him the box.

Jiang Chen took the redwood box, opened the sophisticated switch and found a photo inside.

"This is…"

Suddenly, he sensed that the photo looked familiar.

"I feel like I've seen her before…"

Jiang Chen suddenly recollected that when he was in Sanya in 2015, he was fortunate enough to attend a birthday party of an Arab Prince. The person in the photo was the beautiful princess he saw.

Yerif looked more familiar the more he looked at him!

Jiang Chen examined the prince a few more times and confirmed his suspicions.

"My princess." Reminiscence surfaced on Yerif's face and he put his hands on his face. "My true love."

From the hint of remorse in his eyes and the photo of the beautiful lady, Jiang Chen could guess his true intentions.

It made sense now. He was the prince of a country, so how would he have made a personal trip down to Coro Island simply for a "doll"?

But his wish troubled Jiang Chen…

"The deceased can't be awakened. You should know that what you're pursuing is wrong." Jiang Chen looked sternly into his eyes and reminded him.

"You already guessed what I want? Indeed, that is fitting for the most successful businessman of the century. I understand everything you're saying, but I just want her to return to my side." Yerif sniffed and looked at Jiang Chen with a hint of desperation.

"I apologize—"

"Don't reject me! I'm willing to pay money. How much do you want—" Seeing as Jiang Chen was about to reject him, Yerif stood up emotionally.

"Remain calm. This isn't about money." Jiang Chen attempted to comfort him. "Even if I want to help you, I have to consider the technology at Future Group. Do you think Xiao Lin's design could fill the hole in your heart?"

The wealthy just wanted to throw money at people whenever there is a conflict now.

"I don't want that," the calmed Yerif shook his head. "But it's already very close. If there are technical challenges, just solve them. How much investment do you need? 100 million? 1 billion? We can discuss."

Seeing as Yerif wouldn't back down unless he achieved his goal, Jiang Chen sighed.

To be honest, considering how infatuated the prince was, he almost agreed but ended up rejecting him anyway.

"Reviving the dead is taboo in science."

"Why?!"

"I can't explain why; I can only provide you with an example. Let's say that you had a brother who passed away and your father used the same method to revive him. Your father loved him like before and made him the successor of the kingdom. The robot would be the King one day - don't you think that's scary?"

"She's only a woman! Even if you revived her, what influence would she have?" Yerif said ardently.

Looking at the pleading Yerif, Jiang Chen sighed.

"… Fine, but you have to keep this a secret."

With excitement lighting up his eyes, Yerif nodded fiercely.

"I promise! I swear in Allah's name!"

It was the most sincere promise a Saudi could make.

Jiang Chen nodded and he continued.

"Before I help you, I have to ask - how are you going to cover up the fact that Amira already passed away? Most people should've attended her funeral already."

"I'll marry her again. She will be my ninth wife. I'll tell people I fell in love with her on Coro Island and she looked like she was made from the same mold as Amir, so I granted her the name Amira," Yerif said without hesitation.

[… Fine.] For a split second, Jiang Chen thought Yerif was an infatuated man.

Nine wives.

Jiang Chen thought he was shameless enough, but he still paled in comparison.

Chapter 609: The Living Doll

The prince's persistence did make Jiang Chen feel exasperated.

Although Future Group currently held no special interests in the Middle East, based on the consideration of Xin and Saudi's future relationship, he ultimately agreed to Yerif's request.

He obtained a strand of Princess Amira's hair and extracted the DNA inside. He took the DNA back to Fallout Shelter 027 and replicated her look at 20 years of age. He then used 3D printing technology to create the digitalized human version of the princess.

The skeleton was titanium alloy, and the skin was silica gel. She possessed Princess Amira's looks and basic artificial intelligence, infinitely approaching intermediate artificial intelligence. Her memory was replicated based on Price Yerif's memory of her and a personal diary she had.

From the appearance, she was no different from a human.

No… she was no different from a human internally.

The moment she woke up in the modern world, she called for Yerif. She was fearful toward the scientists in the lab and thought they were bandits who took her hostage. She threatened Jiang Chen to let her go or the Saudi royal family would take serious actions…

Standing inside the surgery room, Jiang Chen and Amos looked at each other.

They both read the unnatural concern in each other's pupils.

The concern didn't originate from the uncanny valley effect.

"This is immoral." When Doctor Amos recovered from his shocked state, that was his first sentence.

"That's right." Jiang Chen concurred.

"This is more immoral than a clone. At least clones don't possess your memory, drive your car, sleep with your woman, and make everything feel like it should happen. God…" Amos closed his eyes and drew a cross in front of his chest.

Jiang Chen didn't have anymore to add.

He only narrowed his eyes and gazed into her pupils until she started to tremble before he moved his eyes away. He saw Lin Chaoen's shadow on her. Although the scientists at the fallout shelter swore she only possessed basic artificial intelligence, all her actions were just logical responses to an external stimulus.

Although she was extremely similar to humans, she wasn't the same.

She was just a "doll".

"Are you really going to give her to the Saudi Prince?" Amos asked.

"Of course." Jiang Chen nodded. "Xin needs allies in the international community. A friendship that can be won with just a robot is worth it for us."

Amos still wanted to say something, but seeing as Jiang Chen didn't want to discuss further, he didn't speak.

Disregarding morality and ethics, the robot could be considered the peak of technology. The "uncanny effect" Doctor Amos couldn't solve despite all his efforts was easily solved by the scientists at Fallout Shelter 027.

Technological advancement wasn't a sprint but a marathon.

Jiang Chen scanned her like he was looking at a piece of equipment. He then threw some clothes on her body before he turned around and left.

Her memory could be adjusted later.

…

Yerif stayed on Coro Island for three days. Based on the words of Future Tourism's CEO, Wei Yun, the wealth Saudi spent 5 million USD at the Heart of the Sea, which certainly dazed Jiang Chen.

Three days later, Jiang Chen took Amira to see Yerif.

When Yerif saw his love, he hugged her emotionally. Amira tearfully hugged Yerif while telling him how she spent a long time in complete darkness and how she missed him.

"Don't cry, my baby." Yerif comforted her.

It was supposed to be a touching scene, but Jiang Chen felt an abnormal disgust, so he looked away.

After they hugged, the gorgeous Amira bowed to Jiang Chen and thanked him for saving her from the bandits. Based on her adjusted memory, she hadn't died because of sickness but because she was captured by bandits. Future Group ended up rescuing her and cured her terminal illness before finally meeting her husband on Coro Island again.

Because other people thought she died, Yerif agreed that she would only share Amira's name and have a similar look.

After Yerif spent two more days at the Heart of the Sea, Yerif said goodbye to Jiang Chen.

Before he left, he asked Jiang Chen for his price.

"Just treat it as a gift. I don't plan to release this model of robot to the market." Jiang Chen shook his head.

"Don't be like this, my friend, you'll make it difficult for me. Money or beauty - please tell me what you desire," Yerif said sternly.

In their correspondence over the past days, he really treated Jiang Chen like a friend.

"If you really feel troubled, just keep this a secret between us." Jiang Chen sighed.

"Why?"

"I can't explain why, but it's an immoral technology."

Yerif didn't quite understand what Jiang Chen meant, but he still accepted what he said. He swore again in the name of Allah to keep this forever a secret.

"Your generosity earned the friendship of the Saudi people." Yerif took a deep breath and bowed to Jiang Chen. "Regardless, I owe you a favor. Once I become the King, I will repay you."

"Receiving the friendship of the future King certainly makes the gift worthwhile." Jiang Chen laughed before he gave Yerif a few cautionary words.

Robots wouldn't ever get sick, so he should never take her to get a body examination. Robots wouldn't produce blood even though their bodies are designed with blood vessels, so he had to make sure she wouldn't get seriously wounded. He should never take her apart or the protection mechanism would burn the chip. She didn't need to be charged, but she required food as the digestive system was her only source of energy…

Jiang Chen personally sent the prince off on his plane.

Before Yerif boarded the plane, he hugged Jiang Chen again and expressed his gratitude.

"If you visit Dubai, please contact me."

"I will!" Jiang Chen waved his hand and sent the couple off.

Gazing at the flight disappearing in the horizon, Jiang Chen's smile began to fade.

Moments later, he suddenly muttered to himself.

"Perhaps I should never have said yes."

Ayesha, beside him, looked at him, lost.

If the deceased could be freely replaced by robots, people wouldn't ever truly die in this world. One hundred years later, when the last human passed away, his friends and family could bid farewell around his deathbed then a replica of him could be pulled out the second his eyes were closed.

That thought alone made Jiang Chen shudder with terror.

Chapter 610: The Workers on the Sea

On the surface of the west Pacific Ocean, somewhere two hundred kilometers from Coro Island, buoys bobbed up and down on a chain connected by ropes as the waves undulated, forming a circle on the sea.

Eight construction boats circled the five-square-kilometer sea region and stalled there, forming a platform to continually carry out construction. The workers on the ships worked on a seven-day rotating schedule.

A Guardian-class frigate was stationed nearby, its steady electromagnetic pulse cannon raised at 45 degrees on the alert for any potential intruders.

While Country F no longer had ships to disturb Xin's sea territory, their caution was necessary. An aircraft carrier not far away was also closely monitoring the region. While Country F no longer dared to send out a reconnaissance drone, they could use an underwater reconnaissance device. The Guardian-class frigate was equipped with an anti-submarine radar and an NK 330mm anti-submarine torpedo which served as a deterrent to any underwater unit attempting to approach them.

Right now, a large cargo ship with hundreds of containers drifted closer before coming to a halt near one of the construction boats.

A man in a white shirt threw a towel on his shoulder, walked beside the mechanical device, and pulled down a lever with force. An iron bridge dropped across the construction boat and cargo, and a few soldiers in kinetic skeletons with rifles boarded the boat.

The captain immediately came to greet them and took the Celestial Trade soldiers on a tour around the boat. After confirming there were no issues, the supervisor began to order the workers to start working.

There were two batches of containers. One batch was to be transported on the boat and the other was to be thrown in the ocean by a mechanical arm.

After finishing his task, the white shirt man tossed a wrench beside him and wiped off the sweat on his face with the towel around his shoulder. Then he narrowed his eyes while watching the mechanical arm dropping the heavy containers into the ocean.

His name was Zhou Qiang, but people who knew him called him Qiang-zi. He came onto the boat two months ago, hired through an online application. His educational level was high compared to most workers, although he just finished high school.

Along the sea-facing region of Hua, a lot of people knew about Xin and knew that a big company called Celestial Trade existed. Not only that, but they knew the boss was Han, and the magical boss was the biggest shareholder of Future Group!

Because they were all Han, the boss took extra care of them. As long as they worked in the company for a year without any criminal record, people as illiterate as them could obtain a passport for immigration. Of course, because of their poor literacy, they would be required to attend community college on Ange Island for half a year of education.

While it could improve their literacy, the education was mostly English and mathematics training. Compared to other developing countries, Hua's literacy rate was high. Even the poor could read or else they wouldn't have understood the job posting in the first place.

Education was a benefit in Xin, not an industry. This was different compared to their hometown. The workers were happy to study since knowledge could change one's fate.

"Aren't they hot while working on these metal things while wearing such thick layers?" He Dong walked up and took out two cigarettes. He passed one to Qiang-zi and lit one up himself.

The kinetic skeletons were mostly made out of an aluminum and polyethylene material. Aside from the vital parts protected by C-grade steel, no other parts were composed of metal, but the dark metallic shine on the polyethylene bulletproof board could make people mistake the kinetic skeleton for a metallic suit.

Zhou Qiang humbly smiled and accepted the cigarette.

"I don't know, maybe they don't mind the heat."

He Dong laughed and glanced at the two soldiers standing at the door of the captain's room like two poles.

"Xin's four seasons are all summer; they probably won't have the opportunity to see snow in the future."

"Aren't you going to go back during New Year's?" Zhou Qiang asked, puzzled.

He Dong glared at him and blew out a few smoke rings from his mouth.

"Why go home? Just make this home."

"Make this home?"

"Or what? We're a late bunch; my brother, who came with the earliest group, is working at the Phantom Helmet plant! He worked for half a year and the bonus alone was enough to buy himself a place." He Dong glanced at Zhou Qiang, who didn't know too much about the process.

Out of all the workers, he had the most connections. Mid 2016, his brother came to Xin during the first immigration wave and was assigned to work at the Phantom Helmet plant to produce the virtual reality parts. Following the expansion of the plant, his brother became a leader of ten people who polished helmet parts.

He was ready to resign. After making enough, he planned to use the connections he made in the plant to obtain contracts for helmet shell production. A lot of the small enterprises in Xin made money through contracts related to Phantom production. With some money in his pocket, he also wanted to give it a shot.

"A place for himself… is at least one million, right?" Zhou Qiang said, dumbfounded.

Although his basic salary was around 8,000 RMB, the company also provided food and accommodation, but saving one million for a place was still a distant dream.

He Dong seemed to have read his friend's troubled mind. He laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't think that buying a place is so difficult. There are no greedy real estate developers in Xin and Future Group doesn't need the money from real estate. One million? If you want a mansion with your own backyard, just pretend I didn't say anything. But if you want an apartment with Celestial Trade's sticker, 200,000 is more than enough."

"USD?"

"RMB! Probably around 30,000 USD? My math is pretty bad."

Zhou Qiang's expression immediately turned into a smile. Including the stipend for being out at sea, he could make 2,000 USD a month. It would take a year and a half to save up 30,000 USD.

"But Celestial Trade's benefits for apartments is limited to one per person. It's around 80-90 square meters in size. People should have some ambition - how happy would you be if you saved one million for a seaside mansion?" He Dong chuckled.

It was only recently that he got this ambition. When he was working in Wanghai before, he worked tirelessly for two years without daring to dream of buying a place in Wanghai. It was only through coincidence that he heard about working overseas and learned about the shortage of labor in Xin, so with the mentality of giving it a shot, he followed his brother's path and came to Xin.

He no longer wanted to return home after he came.

For most of the Han, they worked for a place a stay and a family to care for.

"Stop worrying about this nonsense; do your work. An important person will drop by to conduct checks soon. I'll deduct from your bonus if you're lazy."

The supervisor with a cigarette in his mouth operating the mechanical arm glanced over.

Seeing as the supervisor was unhappy, He Dong immediately extinguished his cigarette and dragged Qiang-zi back. The containers were transported, but there was other work to do. As for the important person, it wasn't something they should be concerned about.

After all the containers were transported, the cargo and construction boat separated and sailed in the direction of Ange Island.

At the same time, a helicopter was flying in the direction of the boat.

Chapter 611: Revealing the Mask of the Ocean Bottom

The helicopter landed on the temporary helipad on the construction boat.

With Ayesha accompanying him, Jiang Chen in casual clothes jumped onto the deck.

The captain of the construction boat was already waiting on the side. Chen Anmin with a dark tan immediately greeted Jiang Chen.

"Welcome. President Jiang's personal visit is making the boat a magnificent place!"

Jiang Chen almost burst out laughing when he heard the welcoming words of the tanned captain. The usage of words was not considerate of the circumstance at all.

"Don't be so nervous. I'm just here to see the progress of the construction; and also here to take people on tour to see our group's construction of the century."

Chen Anmin took a moment to process this and looked at the boss in confusion. Then he saw a Caucasian man who came down from the helicopter.

From his impression, the construction of the ocean city should be kept confidential. Even the workers on the boat didn't know the specifics of the construction. Only a few engineers on non-rotating shifts knew bits of the specifics.

"In a few days, the information of the construction will be fully released. The world has the right to know what we are doing on the west Pacific Ocean." Jiang Chen opened his hand and spoke in a ridiculing tone, "some scared people think we are building missile silos."

With the graphene cable development completed, the primary structure built by the amphibious construction robots was 20% done. Country F who was completely crippled in the last war continued to spur up the conspiracy of Celestial on the Pacific and slandered Celestial Trade for building missile silos on a large scale.

Jiang Chen knew exactly who was behind all of this.

IBCM has a minimum strike radius. There is no need to use it to strike a neighboring country only a few kilometers away. The people who feared the missile most was UA, standing behind Country F.

It was not the best choice to hide the information. So Jiang Chen planned to release the ocean city project to the public. And the release of information immediately drew the attention of all the countries around the world. UA was the first to demonstrate their suspicion and believed that the footage released by Future Group was fictitious!

An ocean city five square kilometers in size? How is that possible!

Of course, UA was also building an ocean city not far away from their homeland. While it was supposedly a city, it was just a concrete floating vessel made out of reinforced steel 70 meters tall and 27 meters in diameter. But it was already difficult to achieve that. This city wasn't going to be in the shallow region; it was in the middle of the Pacific! It was not creating an artificial island; it was creating a floating and movable city!

Normal steel could not withstand the massive tidal force, even if titanium alloy was used.

Constructing a "real ocean city?"

They were not filming a sci-fi movie!

Jiang Chen knew that UA didn't believe him and he was too lazy to provide any explanation. [If you don't believe it, just come see it yourself. Since in a few minutes, Future Group will use the Phantom to push an advertisement to the entire world.]

An absolutely stunning advertisement with the theme of immigration and tourism.

"We will see if it is a missile silo." When the Caucasian man got off the helicopter, he adjusted his somewhat muddled tie, walked beside Jiang Chen, and said, "where are the scuba diving gears? I think we can start now."

"You are always in a rush, Mr. Laurence." Jiang Chen smiled, "I'm really curious. I heard Robert say that you were transferred to the Los Santos office for office duty?"

"There are not enough people, I've been transferred to do field work again," Laurence said in annoyance.

Because of Jiang Chen's poor impression of CIB and his consideration of the diplomatic relationship with Xin, UA didn't send out CIB people but instead sent out an agent from FBA and two experts.

When the FBA agent first got off the plane on Coro Island, Jiang Chen was surprised to discover that it is someone he knew. The hooked nose that left a deep impression still looked aggressive. But during this meeting, the sharpness from Iraq no longer existed and he grew a beer belly.

"Looks like you want to return to Los Santos soon, and then let's get started." Jiang Chen looked at the captain. "Prepare the submersion device."

Chen Anmin immediately nodded and glanced at the three UA citizens in alert before going inside the ship.

"Ayesha, wait for me on the deck."

"Mhmm." Ayesha nodded and stood aside.

Laurence looked at the girl in sunglasses and thought she looked familiar, but he couldn't remember the exact place. He sensed a hint of danger from her. Since he left the god forbidden Iraq, he hasn't sensed something similar in a long time.

They followed Jiang Chen to the back of the deck, and the circular submersion device was prepared.

Because it was a visit by outsiders, Jiang Chen naturally couldn't use the highly advanced Droplet No.1. Since construction was taking place 500 meters under the sea, the normal submersion device could serve their purpose.

"Is there deep ocean diving gears? Perhaps we need to leave the submersion device later for an observation," a UA expert asked Jiang Chen.

"Of course, but I don't think you'll need it. Our construction is magnificent. You can see everything clearly from the outside." Jiang Chen smiled.

"That might not be a case." Laurence scorned, "who knows if you are pretending to do something and building missile silos in disguise."

"Did you know when we first started building nuclear silos?" Jiang Chen acted like he was shocked.

Laurence didn't understand what Jiang Chen wanted to express.

"Mr. Laurence, what I will say is not only directed to you but directed to the government behind you." Jiang Chen stopped and turned around to stare him in the eyes. "We have the ability to deploy missiles at any corner of the sea without you being aware of it, and we have the ability to strike any target on your homeland without you being aware of it. We are not NK, we are not Iran, and don't use what you use against them on me. Or else you and I will both regret this. Remember I'm not saying this to you."

Laurence held his breath and watched Jiang Chen in a stunnded fashion. One of his foot was still hanging in the air.

"What are you waiting for?"

Laurence, who regathered his thoughts, hid his infuriated state behind his poker face. He scorned and asked the two experts to board the submersion device.

The veil hidden underneath the Pacific will finally be unveiled by him.

The mysterious construction that made Capitol lose sleep…

Is it a missile silo, or the unrealistic ocean city?

Chapter 612: The Construction that Shocked the World

The mysterious construction that made Capitol lose sleep…

Is actually real!

No, it was not a missile silo, it was...

Laurence's eyes widened as he stared at the scenery outside of the glass, stunned.

It was a circular ring.

From above, it was a massive circular ring two kilometers in diameter.

The light beam from the searchlight, like a spotlight on a stage, illuminated the massive and magnificent project. The colorful fishes traversed among the circle, as if they were exploring a city of metal buried in the sea. The cylindrical mechanical device (the amphibious construction robot) worked around the circular ring in an organized fashion. Not far in the distance, construction boats continuously dropped supplies into the sea before being picked up by the robots and transported elsewhere.

It was unbelievable, breathtaking!

Laurence's mouth opened wide. No words could describe the magnificence sight.

"The circular ring is the 'foundation' of the entire city. Just like what you saw, the helium room, the power room, and part of the living quarters are all on the exterior of the circular ring." Jiang Chen smiled while speaking to the completely dazed Laurence.

"Wait, the footage you released, isn't it a city on the ocean? Why is it underneath the water!" Laurence suddenly realized and asked Jiang Chen.

"Once construction is completed, we'll inject gas into the helium room, and the entire circular ring will float."

"This is too absurd!" The UA experts shook their heads nonstop, "did your designers consider tidal force? Without any exaggeration, once the circular ring floats close to the sea's surface, it wouldn't take five minutes before it is shredded into pieces. If it is serious, it may potentially cause a habitat crisis on in the west Pacific Region!"

"And there is also the weather's influence. The west Pacific Ocean is common to typhoons, even if God protects your boat from not being shredded to pieces, a gust of wind will make your circular ring into a hula hoop," Another expert said in a mocking tone.

"Haha, you guys are so humorous." Jiang Chen laughed nonchalantly.

"We are discussing a serious matter." Laurence narrowed his eyes and looked at Jiang Chen. "Although we haven't discovered any suspicious activities, like what our experts said, your project is a complete failure from start to finish."

"What does my failure have to do with you?" Jiang Chen glanced at Lauren with a grin forming on his face. "When did you start caring about climate change?"

Laurence's mouth opened, but no words came out.

"Since you have already seen it, it is apparent that we didn't deploy missile silos, so could you guys please go back now?"

"No!" The UA expert suddenly said while exchanging eye contact with the other expert, "We have only seen the overview of the construction, we haven't checked the details."

The other expert read the hidden message inside his colleague's eyes and looked over maliciously, "That's right, the circular ring structure is not enough to deduce if it is a missile silo or not. We need to conduct a more in-depth investigation."

Although they didn't believe that the circular ring could really withstand tidal forces, they were still curious about the project. It was a ten billion dollar project! As long as Jiang Chen was not dumb, his designer must have thought about material integrity.

They were curious what technology Future Group possessed to have the confidence for such an absurd project.

Even if they believed that no one would be foolish enough to spend 10 billion on a random deepwater project used to disguise the construction of missile silos. Just like what Jiang Chen said, since they have the ability to complete the deployment of missiles without them being aware, there was no need to take an extraneous step.

Laurence looked at the experts behind him and gazed at Jiang Chen.

"We need to go in."

Laurence thought Jiang Chen would stop them, but Jiang Chen said, with a smile, "Of course, we can even live inside."

"Live inside?" Laurence furrowed his eyebrows. "People can live inside here?"

"Of course not here," Jiang Chen coughed and raised his watch, "Just five minutes ago, the Phantom's application was updated. In the loading space of the user, we installed a small advertisement interface. You can see everything inside the ring for yourself."

…

Like his usual routine, Wei Wendong put on his helmet and was immersed in the virtual reality world.

Inside the white loading space, he called out the menu but noticed a unique advertisement interface beneath the game.

[Penglai City? The system update was just to update an ad?] He ridiculed, but with his curiosity for Future Group, Wei Wendong pressed on the interface.

Just like when he logged into the game, the white cubical room shattered into dust, and a splendid picture unfolded.

The sound of tidal waves echoed beside his ear, and the pleasant sea wind blew on his face.

Wei Wendong stood blankly and looked at his surroundings.

He was standing on the edge of the artificial ring island.

The middle of the island was a tower with clearly defined buildings surrounding the tower. The complex road scattered from the middle of the circular island. Miniature vehicles moved between the roads, holograms flashed on the advertisement boards along the street, and ships of different sizes surrounded the island, massive screens were carved on the tower like The Times Square.

Manmade beach, theatre, five-star hotel, residential area, opera…

The place combined luxury and comfort. The leisure of a holiday destination and the fast-paced nature of a metropolitan city.

Waves splashed onto the exterior of the ring, but he didn't feel the changes to his center of gravity at all. The sea wind blowing on his face comforted the turbulence in his mind.

He even forgot about the scenario almost starting.

There was no mistake; it was the ocean city Future Group recently advertised!

It was not a floating island at all. It was a monstrous city planted on the sea floor.

"Welcome to Penglai City! I'm your guide, Xiao Yu." A thumb-sized mermaid surfaced beside him and danced happily in the air before stopping in front of his eyes.

"Xiao Yu… May I ask where is this place?" Wei Wendong examined his surroundings, dumbfounded.

Xiao Yu stopped her dance in mid-air and gave him a sweet smile.

"Just like what you saw, this is Penglai City."

Chapter 613: A Tour of Penglai City

Wei Wendong followed the tiny mermaid guide and looked at the clock on the screen at the massive central tower.

12:10

After hesitating for a moment, he called out the menu, messaged his teammates who planned to enter the scenario and asked them to wait a moment. But when he opened his friend list, he discovered that the professional players from Kings already messaged him.

"Captain, can we go into the scenario ten minutes later? The helmet system just updated. Let me try to figure it out."

"Shadow, I need to go to the washroom. Wait for me. I'll be five minutes!"

"Captain, did you see Future Technology's advertisement? Is it really an ad and not a new game they made?"

Wei Wendong forced a smile.

These guys... the legendary scenario was about to start and they all dropped the ball at the same time.

But then his face immediately turned red. As someone who was about to message them to delay the scenario, his words were not convincing at all.

He took a moment to think before he messaged the group and delayed the scenario by half an hour.

The reason being: Some teammates can not arrive to scenario on time due to real life reasons, the scenario entering time has be delayed by half an hour.

Ding-

The message was successfully sent.

Just as he was about to close the system menu, a message from his friend list popped up.

Wei Wendong opened it and saw it was a video question from Yue Hui. He was a friend he met through the game playing the summoner class. Because they got along, they met a few times offline and became friend in real life. He later became part of Kings Club.

Yue Hui was just a casual player; a boss of a company in real life. Other than having better equipment, his level and skill was mediocre.

"Old Wei, what do you think?" The moment the video message connected, Yue Hui immediately asked.

"What can I think?" Wei Wendong rolled his eyes and laughed. "I'm used to Future Group's ridiculous technologies."

Although he sounded like he was untouched, he was still stunned.

"There are presale buildings, are you not going to take a look?"

"I can't afford it! A house here probably is at least in the millions range. I'm just taking a look out of curiosity, perhaps I will visit in the future."

"Eh? This is not something Wei Million in our clan said," Yu Hui joked, "ten million is at most half of your annual salary."

The news of Kings Boss signing Shadow King at a hefty price of 20 million created a big splash in the professional scene. At first, they thought the investment was not worth it since twenty million was too much. But they had to agree later that the boss had the foresight.

It was a worldly MMORPG.

100 million active players globally!

Just in half a year, Shadow King used his superb gaming sense and experience through the internal test to win over 30 million in profits for Kings! Nothing else, and just in the monthly PVP competition without level restriction, the top ten players' ID could include the club's name and sponsor.

The ad placement could even influence the stock price of a public company!

In this digitalized era, if executed properly, intellectual property is money.

Of course, that is another topic.

"Nah, you make more money through your business and you can spare change to buy something here. I only know how to play games. I'd be beggar if I went to a foreign country."

"Xin is not considered a foreign country, there are more and more Hans going there, you can just pretend you went to Guangzhou. And playing the game is the same everywhere. I plan to buy a place there since they said you could request a refund at any time." Yu Hui smiled.

"I'll consider it."

After ending the call, Wei Wendong began to consider his friend's suggestion seriously. But after given it some thought, it would be too rushed of a decision. Buying a house was something related to him forming a family and it must be well thought out. Now that his savings were enough to purchase a small mansion in Wanghai, it was not necessary to live overseas at all.

Although he admitted that the futuristic style of the city did attract someone young like him.

He followed Xiao Yu on the main path. However when Wei Wendong scanned his surroundings and felt somewhat lost.

Just like what Future Group promoted, the place was highly futuristic, and because of this, the hologram projections and buildings overwhelmed him.

Xiao Yu saw that he was lost, flew to his ear, and whispered.

"Any tourist coming into Penglai can obtain digitalized glasses. Because we are currently in virtual reality, the glasses have been hidden by us. If there is a need, you can call it out through the system menu."

Based on Xiao Yu's instructions, Wei Wendong selected the glasses icon in the menu. Light particles began to gather in his hand before a pair of glasses formed in his palm.

Wei Wendong played with the glasses before putting it on his nose.

It was light, the lenses were thin, and wearing it didn't feel like anything.

The sight stopped at the map and a scene that shocked him appeared. Light blue particles formed a path underneath his feet and extended to the target he selected on the map.

He blankly stared at the cursor on the ground, took off the glasses, and the cursor disappeared. He put it back on and the cursor reappeared.

Magical!

A word surfaced in his head.

"Could this be… Augmented Reality?"

He remembered Microsoft's HoloLens glasses had a similar function, but he didn't know if they achieved Future Technology's level that could mark the route to the target location in three dimensional space.

"That's right." Xiao Yun smiled.

"Can I ask another question? Are you a live support?"

"Xiao Yu is an AI," Xiao Yu put her hands beneath her chin, whipped her tail, and said with a smile. "As long as you wear the Augmented Reality glasses, you can have a Xiao Yu that belongs to just you."

Wei Wendong was silent for a while before he let out a sigh.

"Your boss is a genius… virtual reality + real estate, and an artificial intelligence salesperson that is more similar to human than human. It's impossible not to make money."

"Thank you for your compliment," Xiao Yu blinked her eyes and said in a cute voice.

They took a trip around the main street. In front of a community center, Wei Wendong stopped and examined the apartment building.

At the door, he saw a hologram screen with a row of organized stickers.

"For sale?" He muttered the words on the hologram screen.

"Penglai's municipality management is digitalized, your local assets and real estates are all connected to your personal ID and could be managed through a special port. For example, the hologram screen in front of the apartment could be used to purchase or sell real estate, the information will also be synchronized to other areas…" Xiao Yun patiently explained to him.

Just then, the sticker changed from green to orange, "For sale" turned into "Bid: 10,000".

"This is?"

"Because the ownership of the property currently belongs to Future Group, all initial sales are done through a bidding system. The level 1 property is only 80 square meters and the starting bid price is 10 thousand US dollars," Xiao Yu explained.

But because there were a lot of properties, only people that want to live on the same floor bided. The bid must be at the minimum 1,000 US dollars and the deal is locked after three days.

"It is only 10,000 US dollars?" Wei Wendong murmured to himself.

"Each user can only purchase one unit of level 1 or 2 properties; only properties above level 3 allow multiple units to be purchased, but there are still restrictions that apply," Xiao Yu reminded.

From the map, there were 200,000 units of level 1 property on sale, mostly distributed in the outer ring area. The level 2 property had a higher price tag and was closer to the middle of the ring. All in all, the price was higher closer to the center, but there were exceptions. For example, the seaside mansions on the outermost ring were the highest level 5 properties with prices comparable to the center zone.

Wei Wendong checked out the price of the giant tower and was stunned by the number.

The room at the top of the tower was one billion US dollars, but it had a grey sticker which meant it was sold to the public.

And the bottom of the tower… that's right, there was a underwater portion of the tower as the entire island was like a gyro and the room deepest in the water was the tip of the gyro. The spiral-shaped room was surrounded by water and had a price tag of ten billion US dollars.

Still not sold to the public…

[The price must be randomly inputted! Since they don't plan to sell anyways!] Wei Wendong ridiculed in his mind.

"What if this city's construction ultimately failed? I remember it is still under construction under water."

"Future Group will provide a full refund." Little Rain smiled. "Future Group will use its global assets to act as collateral to all investors; we definitely can afford it.

With Future Group's cash, there was indeed no need to worry about bankruptcy. Wei Wendong with a bitter smile shook his head; he was worried about a foolish question.

"Will there really be people living here?" Looking at Xiao Yu, he asked the most critical question.

If a city has only buildings without any people, it is just a ghost city.

"From the property in bidding, 110,000 people are planning to settle here. Based on Future Group's development plan, the ocean city's development focus will be on tourism and research. Once Penglai City is completed, it will be moved to the central sea region between Coro Island and Ange Island, because there will be convenient transport planes and ships, the residents on the island can freely work on any island in Xin," Xiao Yu then added. "Just like taking public transportation."

"Like the Venice of the Sea?" Wei Wendong murmured to himself and scanned his surroundings once more.

The environment here was gorgeous. To be honest, he was tempted. But considering that even if he lived in Wanghai, he could come here through the helmet at any time, his longing for Penglai decreased by a bit more…

But then, he suddenly noticed a countdown timer at the bottom right.

"What's the timer for?"

"Oh, that." Xiao Yu covered her mouth and made an impression as if she almost forgot about something, "This is the time a user can remain in this virtual reality."

"Time remaining? Wait… that means—"

"That's right." Xiao Yu flew directly in front of him, stopped, and looked at him with grin, "The advertisement time is only 30 minutes, purchasing property and applying for travel can all be done through the Phantom Helmet. If you want you see Xiao Yu and Penglai City, please wait for its completion."

[Fu*k! Limited time experience again!]

But before Wei Wendong finished cursing, everything surrounding him shattered.

In two short seconds, he returned to the pure white cube.

Facing the empty virtual reality room, he was speechless for a long time.

Chapter 614: The Second Immigration Wave

The term "Penglai" was first seen in "Lie Zi (The Tale of Lie Zi)" and later in "Shan Hai Jing (The Tale of Mountain and Sea)" and appeared in books such as "Records of the Historian" and "The Ten Continent of the Sea" (1).

With the thought of spreading traditional Chinese culture, the giant floating city on the ocean was named Penglai by Jiang Chen. As to if the name was the same as a city across the ocean… this is not within his consideration range.

When the advertisement in virtual reality was pushed to the global virtual reality system, the mysterious underwater construction first entered the sight of the public.

The entire main structure of the island was a ring five square kilometers in diameter and it looked like a "lifesaver". Arm-thick graphene cables intertwined within the middle, just like the metal skeleton of a skyscraper. Though it was not filled with concrete in the middle and it was relatively light. It was like a special foam aluminum that was more ductile than graphene but less strong. The bearing capacity of the graphene could easily withstand the enormous tidal force without the fortress being shredded apart.

The finished construction from afar resembled a "Gyro" inserted into the ocean.

A tall tower standing above the ocean surface; the conical on the bottom was submerged in the ocean.

It was the most expensive place in the entire city; it was like an inverse pyramid. The more toward the tip, the more expensive it was. And the "tip of the tower", the top and bottom, were not sold to the public because they were private rooms for Jiang Chen himself.

Three-dimensional island structure, five square kilometers of the island can accommodate up to one million people! Unit population per area could be described as insane.

The exterior of the ring was designed with connectors which could be used to construct sub islands to connect with the main island via graphene tunnels.

Even before that, the commotion created by Future Group in the ocean already built up enough hype for them. F first accused Future Group of constructing missile silos with the intention of threatening world peace, then UA's skepticism was followed by the United Nations' intervention. When the world's media zoomed their cameras to the quiet ocean, Future Group gradually unveiled the trump card hidden for a long time and it stood in the eye of the public criticism storm.

"This is impossible. Don't believe that the computer-generated cinematic could fool us, the Hexagon will closely monitor the situation of the West Pacific Ocean—" The UA spokesperson told the media, Jiang Chen then sent an invitation to the Rainbow Mansion, inviting Hill to personally tour the region.

Hill didn't attend the trip due to schedule conflicts, but did send out a FBA Agent and an UA experts for investigation.

But just as they were bringing back first video footage, Future Group conducted the first update of the Phantom Helmet. They installed the voice communication system inside the chat software while installing an advertisement interface below the menu that would not interfere with the user's usage of the system.

And the first advertisement was the concept map of the ocean city – Penglai.

Although the viewing experience was limited to thirty minutes, almost everyone's heart followed the witty mermaid guide to the west Pacific Ocean thousands and even ten thousands of miles away. The sci-fi island; the magically ocean city!

Like an explosive thunder, "Wall Street Journal" first expressed their exclaimed opinion!

"The Atlantis of the East! Future Group is creating a miracle!"

Then, it was "Christian Newspaper".

"An unbelievable project. If they are not joking with us, then it must be God that's joking with us."

But doubt still existed for the construction of the century. Jealous people who underestimated Future Group's ability to repeatedly create miracles were still unwilling to accept its marvelous technological abilities.

The Economic News persistently criticized Future Group and highly suspected the existence of the underwater city. Future Technology defeated Nippon's best corporations in the robot and artificial intelligence fields, which was viewed as humiliation by extreme right wing parties. With the media controlled by them, they of course did everything they could to slander Future Group.

"An ocean city? That is just a gimmick! Our material scientists stated that no materials could complete the construction of the illogical design! And before the completion of product to sell high risk products to investors is an extremely irresponsible move! Our people will not pay for such a stupid thing!"

But their own people slapped their face with the high number of purchases for property on Penglai.

They had enough of the crowded Yoto. Especially the despairing unemployment rate and the widely criticized economic conditions built on printing money.

Of course, the majority of the immigration source came from Hua with over 50% of the buyers from the maritime region of Hua.

The halo of high benefits disappeared in Europe that was in a period of unrest, the high barrier and low benefit North America was too difficult, and people with money or technical skill began to look at Xin that was growing incredibly fast. The small country with Han's culture was evolving into the second Singapore.

Most critically, housing was cheap!

Ten thousand US dollars was not a small number for most people, but equating to a property, most Han people were willing to open their wallets.

Why?

Because a lot of people worked for their entire lives without being able to purchase a place in the city they worked in unless they didn't drink or eat, or carried a mortgage for half of their life. Ten thousand US dollars was the price of one Xiao Lin, although a lot of the level one property's final price was bided to fifty thousand US dollars, it was still far lower than the housing price of most cities.

Trusting the reliability of Future Group's products, a lot of people paid with the idea of trying it out.

Especially since Future Group did promise that if the buyer was unhappy with the experience or Penglai City ultimately was unsuccessful, they were willing to pay twenty thousand US dollars, double the initial price to purchase back the property in the buyer's hand. The term was written in the purchase agreement with Future Group putting its asset as collateral and letting the government of each country monitor it.

The export-led business meant that Xin didn't need to rely on real estate nor sacrifice the benefit of its citizens to boost spending. The irreplaceable high tech products made Xin's products impossible to be rejected by the international market. And the tourism industry developed by Penglai injected large quantity of fresh blood into the local economy. With such a natural advantage, Future Group didn't need to sacrifice its support in the country in order to bolster Xin's economy.

Wall Street analysts' valuation of Future Group continued to skyrocket.

A lot of investors even ran to Future Group's UA subsidiary, waving bundles of cash. They were hoping to 'gift money' to Future Group.

With the persistent pestering of the media, Buffet expressed reluctantly that if Future Group was willing to go public on NASDAQ, his fund will consider adding Future Group's stock as part of its portfolio. To the media's question of never touching NASDAQ tech stocks, he could only say to the public, "There are always exceptions to the rule. We have to try to live a new life and accept new things. Do we not?"

…

"I heard you need immigrants?"

The Saudi Prince seemed to be very keen on his oriental friend Jiang Chen and called him constantly.

"The population problem is indeed giving me a headache." Jiang Chen laughed.

But the problem will soon be solved with the high demand in the housing presale. After the completion of Penglai, the benefits of a growing population will be realized. As long as Future Group could digest the labor force in a timely manner, they will create value for Future Group ten times the value created by Penglai.

"We have a bunch of homeless people, why don't I send them your way?" Yerif offered generously.

"… Are you helping me or are you screwing me over?" Jiang Chen was speechless.

Infectious diseases, poverty, religion extremists, violence… were all common among refugees. While Xin lacked people, they were not at the point where they were desperate for anyone.

"Hahaha, my friend. Why would I screw with you? It was just a joke." Yerif laughed. "I heard you are building an ocean city on the west Pacific Ocean?"

"That's right, are you interested?"

"Extremely! Dubai has a new artificial island project with a price above 20 billion, is Future Group interested?" Yerif asked.

"No need. We currently don't have experience operating internationally, it would be terrible if we fail you." Jiang Chen euphemistically rejected his proposal.

Mentioning the bidding process before seeing the completed construction, Jiang Chen knew Yerif wanted to return the favor, but he didn't plan to use the favor here.

Yerif smiled and didn't mention this further.

"If the level five property of your ocean city is up for sale, please tell me. I'm really intrigued by the… Penglai City floating on the sea." Yerif didn't' pronounce the words too clearly.

"Haha, indeed."

Open level one and two properties were open for presale and part of commercial land. The former was targeted toward immigration while the latter was opened to domestic citizens. Only when the "indigenous people" truly felt the reward will they stand on Future Group's side, protecting the skyscraper piled up with cash and willingly adding bricks and tiles to the massive empire.

The level three property and above would gradually be put up for sale. As to the highest level five property, it was naturally targeted to the senior executives within Future Group as well as the most wealthy people around the world.

Jiang Chen obviously wouldn't reject the rich Saudi client.

The underwater project burned cash at a rate of 100 million US dollars per day. By the end of construction, it will have burned through 32 billion US dollars which makes it the most expensive artificial floating island in the world…

But at the same, it will be the most cost-effective and technologically advanced artificial island!

1. The novels discussed are all ancient Chinese historical novels. The oldest is dated more than 2500 years ago.

Chapter 615: Ridiculous Demand

"Yesterday at midnight, all 200,000 units of level one property were sold out with an average sell price of 111,000 US dollars. The highest final price was 300,000 US dollars." Xia Shiyu's voice shook as she reported to Jiang Chen, but she still tried to keep a stern expression.

She didn't think that the project that burned through a lot of money would be so profitable.

Before the construction was even complete, tens of billions were already in their hands and the majority of the capital cost was recovered.

But she knew that the reason why the price was so high was partially due to the excessive coverage by the media, and partially due to the terrifying promotion capability of the virtual reality platform. One gifted Penglai City investment value while the other gave Penglai City enough room for imagination.

Even a great branded product has the fear of not selling, not to mention one that is still under construction.

But Jiang Chen didn't seem too pleased with the price.

"The price is bolstered to 300,000 US dollars… it is almost close to the housing market in Hua." Jiang Chen was shocked.

Based on his plan, even the level three property that would be open for sale were only starting at 200,000 US dollars. The investors' energy was hard to believe, but the price being bolstered too high may not be beneficial for long term benefits.

"This is the result of using user's ID to limit purchases. If we didn't restrict each user being able to only one level one or two properties, the average price probably would have doubled. Because of the purchase restriction, it decreased the appreciation potential of the property," Xia Shiyu said, pushing up her glasses.

"What about the level two property?" Jiang Chen nodded and asked again.

There were 100,000 units of level two property with a bidding price of 50,000 US dollars; the size is 110-120 square meters; the primary target is the middle class.

Xia Shiyu continued to report.

"All level two units were sold with an average price of 217,000 US dollars; the highest price was 600,000 US dollars."

[An average price of 10850 RMB per square meter... this is insane. Is this even the housing price of a new developed area? The location of the level two units are not even considered "city center" at all.]

Other than the concepts of a high tech city, a tourism area, and a high degree of freedom, the investors didn't investigate other factors such as quality of life, education, transportation, work environment at all.

Although Future Group accepted refunds, it was calculated based on the initial bidding price. Therefore, if someone purchased a level two property with 600,000 US dollars, Future Group will only refund the starting bid of 100,000 US dollars, unless it will be sold to an investor willing to take over.

"Some real estate developers proposed a partnership opportunity; they are willing to purchase ten thousand units of both level one and level two properties at the unit price of 200,000 and 400,000 US dollars. They also promised to bolster the price of the remaining units to a price of 300,000 and 600,000 , as long as we agree to lift the purchase restriction and permit everyone to possess three units of level one or level two properties." Xia Shiyu continued.

"The value created by a worker in a life time is far greater than the value created by a property. We are creating an endless gold mine. If we exchange the gold mine into cash too early, it will be too shortsighted." Jiang Chen sighed.

When he was creating Penglai, he didn't plan to make it into a product. Although he admits that bolstering housing prices was the fastest way to make money.

But if he really wanted money, why not just make Future Group public?

This is the faster method. With Future Group's profitability, it can easily break the trillion mark…

Wall Street investors came more than once to him, and even flew to Coro Island to wait for Jiang Chen at the door of Future Building. They wanted to convince him to go public on NASDAQ and everyone believed Future Group's market cap would smash the trillion mark.

"This is my thought too, so I rejected them for you." Xia Shiyu grinned.

From Jiang Chen's insistence of remaining private, she already understood his thought process.

"You know me the best." Jiang Chen nodded while looking at her.

"Ahem," Xia Shiyu coughed and looked away somewhat red. Then she changed the topic, "Also, regarding the problem with commercial land, over 95% of our clients in the landmark building, The Heart of the Sea, applied to enter Penglai. These companies include hotel, dining, retail, and life sectors. But some companies hoped that the renovation could be done by their own people because of existing contracts.

"That's not possible," Jiang Chen shook his head. "Penglai's construction material mostly uses bubble aluminum and graphene, the construction and renovation can only be done with construction robots. They'll have to renegotiate the contract."

Xia Shiyu nodded.

"The last is education. We already sent out invitations to 12,300 top teachers from over one thousand schools worldwide. But we didn't receive very positive responses… they seem to remain cautious in teaching internationally."

Based on the construction plan of Penglai City, there will be fifteen elementary schools, ten junior highs, eight high schools, and one university to provide education services to Xin.

But the lack of a teaching force was a painful problem.

It was easy to find elementary and junior high school teachers, but it was more problematic for high school. As to the university professors… only a few computer science professors researching robots and artificial intelligence accepted the invitation without hesitation.

The professions with benefits, like doctors and teachers, naturally were influenced by qualification requirements and culture backgrounds, therefore their stance to immigrate were more cautious compared to other professions.

"We seemed to have misunderstood something," Jiang Chen abruptly spoke.

"Mhmm?" Xia Shiyu looked at him.

"Since we have the Phantom Helmet, why do you need to build schools?" Jiang Chen asked.

Xia Shiyu's eyes lit up but soon her eyebrows furrowed again.

"I know what you mean; it is in theory possible to use virtual reality teaching to replace classroom teaching. But a school's purpose is not only to educate knowledge; it is also the window for children to get to know society. It is ultimately why online education will not replace classrooms."

Jiang Chen shook his head.

"From some perspective, you're right. But from another, it is not completely correct." Jiang Chen paused. "Since our group's name is Future, we are operating in the high tech industry. Thus, as the management team, we must stand at the peak of the new era."

"Could you be more straightforward?" Xia Shiyu asked.

"The con of online classroom is reducing the social interaction of children. But if we completely replicate everything in the actual classroom in virtual reality, is there really a reason why classrooms have to exist? We can completely replicate the classroom, podium, blackboard, and tables in virtual reality. Our teachers and students can freely enter the classroom from anywhere. The helmet is the key!"

"But… that is too risky." Xia Shiyu shook her head. "We haven't completely understood the side effect of replacing a classroom setting. And education is something that will require five or even ten years to verify."

"I know." Jiang Chen sighed.

It was indeed a risky choice.

On the timeline of the apocalypse, PAC didn't even replace classrooms until the year 2270. He personally experienced it first hand in the virtual reality inside Fallout Shelter 005.

Despite being technologically advanced, PAC still maximized the amount of old traditions in people's daily lives. They could use the virtual reality study system to master a skill quickly, but they prevented any students below high school to use this system.

They thought that pushing a person too fast will exhaust a person's potential. The education the student received may help them become a skilled engineer, but they will never be an innovative scientist. Scientific thought process could only be obtained through exploration, and exploration could be experienced by studying.

Without him noticing, Jiang Chen realized that he became someone that could influence the development of civilization.

The 22nd century was a mirror where he was fortunate enough to see the other side, but there was no need to go on the old path.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the odd emotion in his mind, and expressed his decision with an undertone.

"Cancel the previous plan of building elementary, junior high, and high schools, change the original building locations into a square, gymnasium and other facilities. Set Penglai City as the pilot city for 'basic education in virtual reality'. All students within Penglai will use the student version of Phantom to receive basic education.

"Teachers don't need to immigrate to Xin. They only need to pass through the hiring process set by the Penglai Education Department before being permitted to teach at any location and receive the agreed salary. Education content will be monitored and audited by both human and artificial intelligence and any non-qualified content will result in deduction of a teacher's score. When a teacher's score reaches zero, and teacher's qualification is removed. Also, student examination will be done offline and recorded into their personal profile."

"The class distribution software will divide student based on race and hometown to learn basic knowledge with teacher of the same mother tongue. All students must command the official language as well as another language. Based on the student and parents' willingness, small quantities of 'international class' and 'advanced class' will be established for special education."

"All basic education will be required to volunteer in public facilities such as squares and gymnasiums and all credits must be met before being permitted to complete the semester."

"Virtual reality classroom and virtual reality social program will be developed by Future Technology."

"University will be taught offline using the current education method."

"That's all… for now."

Using virtual reality to teach, but not using the virtual reality study system and instead replicating the traditional classroom.

It was an attempt different from that world…

Chapter 616: It's Time!

Penglai City continued to spark attention on international media and social media platforms, and the most direct impact to Xin was the exponentially increasing amount of tourism. The number rose from 200,000 at the beginning of the month to 410,000 by June of that year, equating to an increase of 205%.

It was certainly heavenly news for Future Tourism's CEO, Wei Yun. Following the increase in tourism, Heart of the Sea's financial report could easily break the 200 million USD promised to Jiang Chen with ease.

The remaining 200,000 square meters of leasing space was fought over by major international retailers. Clients who were already settled in were secretly glad they made the decision early to "buy at the dip" when Coro Island's traffic was low. Otherwise, they would be fighting like their colleagues over a few square meters of retail space.

An enormous amount of pedestrian traffic packed the luxurious landmark building, but despite the crowdedness, people were still eager to visit this symbol of luxury and comfort. This wasn't only the case for Heart of the Sea - people were also eager to explore the beaches of Coro Island, the narrow sandy islands, and the complex sea maze.

The tourists all uploaded their vacation photos onto their social media accounts and expressed their fascination with the area.

For example, they posted onto their Moments page on WeChat.

"This place is no different than my hometown. The air is just fresher, the environment is more beautiful, the roads are wider, the internet speed is faster, the housing prices are unbelievable… The official language of this place is the same as my hometown, I feel like I'm in the Hawaii of the East."

For example, on Twitter.

"This place has permanently free Wi-Fi that covers the entire country! Oh God, this is heaven for us. Our president should really learn from Jiang Chen; our state should have permanently free Wi-Fi inside our borders! Does she not know we'll die if we don't have Wi-Fi!"

For example, on Facebook.

"This is so hot - so much hotter than Moscow. I have to drink champagne all day just to cool off. *Burp* I swear, I'm only drinking so I can cool off. I'm not drunk at all! Are you not going to try? I heard their champagne is made with tropical fruits; this is so addicting…"

Of course, people were most interested in the rumored Penglai City!

Was the city currently under construction really as magical as Future Group described it to be?

Smart travel agencies who smelled business opportunities from the public's curiosity introduced scuba diving activities near the west Pacific Ocean.

The theme of these scuba diving tours was to explore the mysterious Penglai City.

Because it was a military zone, personnel not associated with the area weren't permitted to approach the construction sites, but Celestial Trade didn't evict the civilian ships outside the territory.

This was Jiang Chen's decision.

People were filled with curiosity or suspicion about the mysterious Penglai City. If they managed to satisfy the curiosity of tourists and resolve their suspicions that Future Group was hyping up something fake, they would definitely pass the information back to their own countries and become firm supporters of the tale of Penglai.

If Celestial Trade hindered tourists from coming, it could kill off their interest toward the country.

And Xin needs tourists!

Especially since normal scuba diving equipment couldn't submerge to a depth of 500 meters, there was no concern that tourists could interfere with the construction. However, if they approached the material drop off zones or went directly above the construction sites, Celestial Trade's submerge devices would evict them.

Under the guise of safety concerns.

But because there were too many tourists, soldiers couldn't keep up with the traffic, so Ivan had to report the status to Jiang Chen.

It was fine.

Jiang Chen immediately gathered all travel agencies with business in Xin and held a brief meeting.

It was concluded that it was okay to tour Penglai, but viewings were only permitted to occur in the outer radius of the construction. Once any travel agencies were caught taking tourists inside the military zone, the tourists wouldn't be punished, but the guilty travel agency would be documented. After three occurrences, the travel agency would be on Future Tourism's blacklist.

Being on the blacklist meant there would be no way for them to continue to conduct travel business in Xin.

After the meeting, the bosses of the travel agencies immediately called for internal meetings back at their own companies. From today onward, all scuba diving equipment touring ships visiting Penglai City would be connected with a rope. While the rope was heavily criticized by scuba diving enthusiasts, it was a rule strictly enforced by all travel agencies.

The reason was that no one wanted to get on the wrong side of the giant Future Group!

Time quickly flew to mid-June.

With summer approaching, the tourism industry welcomed a peak period.

What was more exciting was that on Future Tourism's official site, the first level four unit was open for bidding!

It was a three-story mansion located on the beach sitting on the outermost ring of Penglai City. It was built with a garage, pool, and a private dock for a small private yacht! The starting bid price was 5 million US dollars!

Penglai City's housing prices skyrocketed and the unbelievable speed of appreciation made the people who lost the opportunity to purchase properties resentful and envious. This time, no one wanted to miss the opportunity. With Future Tourism's purposeful marketing scheme, the not-so-luxurious mansion was sold at a price of 70 million US dollars!

Because units above level three had no purchase restrictions, it made all investors who believed in the value of Penglai drool over the property.

Combined with level one and two unit as well as the commercial spaces sold previously, it brought an astonishing 61.7 billion US dollarsin revenue to Future Group! In Xia Shiyu's words, it was like robbing money.

The tightened cash flow situation because of the construction of the New Malaysia Special District and Penglai City was quickly alleviated by this injection of capitals.

While the presale of Penglai's real estate was a miracle, Future Heavy Industries' Xiao Lin also demonstrated a stellar performance.

With the completion of the New Malaysia Special District, over 500,000 units of Xiao Lin were manufactured monthly. Its monthly net income also broke the 1 billion US dollars mark. Xiao Lin managed to completely dominate the home robot and adult toy markets.

With the intention of building off this momentum, Future Heavy Industries announced to the media that it would cooperate with Future Biology to develop medical robots to deliver clinical doctors to everyone's homes.

The Phantom Helmet, housework robots, and pure electric vehicles with high mileage… a lot of people began to develop a taste of the future in their daily lives.

While they were enjoying the rapid speed of innovation, everyone was contemplating something in their minds.

What would Future Group change next?

Their sights shifted back to Future Biology, which had entered the medical industry.

The vaccine for the T virus was shipped to 11 countries worldwide. While people's fear began to retreat with the passage of time, the 200,000 vaccine units produced per month far exceeded the market demand.

The entire vaccine market was split by Future Biology and Tanaka Pharmaceutical.

After five months, quite a few other pharmaceutical companies also managed to develop similar anti-virus medications.

Some companies even stated that they controlled the technology to turn zombies back into humans, but there were no zombies now to prove the efficacy of their technology. Jiang Chen scorned the idea since even the apocalypse didn't have the technology to revive the dead, let alone pharmaceutical companies in the modern world. Humans were dead the moment their immune systems were destroyed by the T virus; the infected hosts were long deceased from this world.

People who stated they could revive humans were only trying to build off the publicity.

Kurofune seemed to have gone into a period of hiding. The Ghost Agent sent to Yoto didn't manage to find any traces of Kurofune but reported an interesting piece of information. CIB was contacting the Nippon government and was currently in the process of investigating Tanaka Pharmaceutical.

At the same time, the CIB agents searching for the fighter jet pilot on MLL Island also began to retreat.

The UA seemed to have noticed something.

While Jiang Chen didn't know if it was for better or worse, he didn't have the energy to figure it out.

He had been directing his energy in the modern world for too long.

According to Sun Jiao, things on the apocalypse side were well rested, and resting any more would cause the muzzles in the soldiers' hands to rust.

It was time to start expanding!

Chapter 617: But why did he feel almost thrilled at the same time???

The TV in the dining room was playing the news. Jiang Chen got into the habit of watching the news during breakfast when he came to Coro Island. Lately, he always saw Future Group in the news.

"We welcome Xin's Ocean City project with our warmest wishes. The two countries are connected by blood with inseparable cultural ties. Penglai will become the point of cultural and economic exchange between us and we hope that the two countries can continue to develop through peace and achieve eternal friendship!"

Jiang Chen turned off the TV and shoved the last bit of scrambled eggs into his mouth then he went back to his room to change before heading outside.

He didn't need to go to work today.

Precisely speaking, he wouldn't go to work in the next few months.

Everything in the apocalypse was taken care of; the development of the New Malaysia Special District was on the right track along with the mining operation in Moro taken over by Future Mining, and a triangular industry chain was established between Ange Island, MLL Island, and Papua Island.

There was nothing Jiang Chen needed to strategize further.

After nearly a year of rest, things in the apocalypse were ready. It was time to expand the territory of NAC!

When he arrived at the gate, the modified Lamborghini was waiting for him at the door.

Ayesha was in the car. Her suited appearance with sunglasses looked sharp as always.

After Jiang Chen entered the car, Ayesha drove off.

"Where are we going?"

"The underground warehouse."

"Are you transporting supplies to that side?"

"Mhmm… I'll probably be gone for a bit longer this time. I'll have to count on you to take care of things on this side."

Ayesha's delicate fingers took off her sunglasses. She turned her face and met Jiang Chen's request with earnestness; she nodded.

"Don't worry."

Whenever Jiang Chen traveled to the apocalypse, only Ayesha could get into contact with him. If he had to make a decision on behalf of Future Group, Xia Shiyu would message Ayesha before Ayesha relayed the information to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen trusted Ayesha, and she never betrayed his trust.

The vehicle soon drove onto the ferry at the port before arriving at Ange Island. The car drove along the highway for ten kilometers before coming to a stop in a quiet rural area. Beside the Ange Mountain in the middle of Ange Island was a small military inspection station.

Behind the inspection station was a hollow cave. After the modification of construction robots, the cave was composed of tens of thousands of square meters of interior space.

The place was previously used to store the BM-21 purchased from Russia. After the successful development of "Fireball-1," the secret warehouse was temporarily abandoned.

Afterward, because Xin gradually obtained recognition of the international press, UA and other countries increased their intelligence-gathering work in Xin. To avoid secrets being leaked, the previous warehouses at the south port were abandoned. Therefore, this warehouse was officially renamed "Xin National Strategic Supplies Reserve Center" and became the distribution center between the two worlds.

Every week, food and mining supplies were transported into the cave. There were also occasional container-sealed kinetic skeletons, power armors, and Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannons being transported out and shipped to New Moon Island.

Aside from the four Celestial Trade soldiers stationed at the gate and Jiang Chen, no one else was permitted to approach the inspection station.

The highest level of security was offered inside the cave.

Five Reptile robots and ten Python drones were used to patrol the area and attack any unidentified units attempting to enter the cave. The transportation of supplies was conducted through the construction robots with a maximum security level.

With the disguise of the mountain, even spy satellites couldn't get a glimpse of their activities. UA experts suspected that the location was a secret military factory of Celestial Trade since there were living supplies and manufacturing supplies being transported in and military equipment transported out, but the CIB agents were still clueless about the internal structure.

No one could sneak in with the intensive security measures.

Ayesha stayed outside to keep watch while Jiang Chen walked into the cave alone. After he delivered everything, he still needed to return to the mansion as he wanted to make his travel point his home, not the desolated cave.

Jiang Chen gazed at the warehouse full of supplies. He picked up the supplies list from the construction robot and briefly glanced through it.

800 tons of grain products, 400 tons of easy-to-store vegetables, 300 tons of dairy products, 200 tons of canned food, 100 tons of preserved food, and fresh meat stuffed into tens of giant freezers… as well as some snacks.

For some strange reason, spicy strips sold extremely well on the wasteland. The evil food made out of preservatives and gluten had long gone extinct in the 22nd century, but it was reintroduced by Jiang Chen as an interdimensional traveler… Of course, this was out of the context of the story.

Jiang Chen sighed at the mountain of supplies and put on the bracelet designed by Lin Lin.

Once the Garden of Eden was completed, this general no longer needed to be a farm mover.

…

The supplies from the modern world were still piled in the backyard of the mansion. NAC officials were no longer shocked by their general's ability to magically transport supplies from the outside. It wasn't that no one was interested, but people were afraid to probe deeper. They were afraid that if they learned something they shouldn't have known, the private force may shut them up for good.

Jiang Chen handed to list to Wang Qin then returned to his bedroom before traveling back to the modern world.

When he returned to his home in the modern world, he laid down on this bed and adjusted his "save point" before initiating travel again.

As soon as he came back to the wasteland and before he could gain his footing, he was "chewed on" by Sun Jiao, who flew toward him.

With the warmth pressed against his chest and gorgeous face in front of his eyes, Jiang Chen's breaths began to shorten and his mind turned flirtatious.

If it wasn't for someone else standing beside them, he would've had the impulse to "finish her" right here.

"Sister has been missing you dearly since you haven't been on this side for a long time. She's been thinking 'What if he doesn't want to come back to this side anymore?' 'Is he unhappy that he didn't get to eat the small animal?' She also says 'Don't leave…' at night along with some other strange murmurs at night—" Sun Xiaorou, in a light purple dress, stood there with her hands behind her back with a pure smile on her face.

"Shut up, idiot!"

Sun Jiao gave her sister a hard stare, but the response she got was just her sister's pure and innocent look.

The two sisters were both mischievous and naughty.

"Sorry."

Jiang Chen hugged her slim but athletic waist and gave apologies to the beauty in his arms.

Although he had visited this side in the past half year, had dinner with the girls, shared intimate moments with Sun Jiao and Sun Xiaorou, examined the work of NAC, observed the training of the three divisions, and took away high tech products…

But just as Sun Xiaorou said, he hadn't been here for a long time.

Since he set his focus on the modern world and the political crisis of MLL Island made him exert too much energy. During negotiations with UA, he almost threw all his chips on the bargaining table. The quantum satellites, robots, and Penglai all made him completely occupied.

"I don't want to listen to your apologies." Sun Jiao gazed into his pupils with her arms around his neck.

"Mhmm."

Jiang Chen gently kissed her lips. He sensed her affection.

Their lips parted.

Sun Jiao curled in front of Jiang Chen's chest and her eyes briefly scanned her sister behind her out of embarrassment before quickly looking away.

"Hmm… Garden of Eden is almost complete; the environment here can't be worse compared to your home." The next words came out with great difficulty: "Could you… not abandon this side?"

"How could I abandon this side?"

This was his second home.

"Woah! So devious. I want to kiss brother-in-law as well." Sun Xiaorou timidly shook her dress and blinked playfully at Jiang Chen.

"Ahem… could you not call me that?" Jiang Chen face-palmed.

The title brother-in-law made him feel extremely guilty.

But why did he feel almost thrilled at the same time???

Chapter 618: Don't forget, we have a steel airships!

With a cute pink apron around her waist and dressed in a pair of white rabbit slippers, Yao Yao brought out some steamy hotpot in excitement and walked in front of the table with hasty steps.

Yao Yao had always been the meticulous one.

On the contrary, Lin Lin was the complete opposite.

With a pair of chopsticks in her hands, Lin Lin stared at the fresh vegetables and meat with a delicate tongue half hidden between her lips.

"WOAH! We have hotpot! Delicious hotpot~"

"Don't just wait to eat - help Yao Yao out."

Jiang Chen took apart the packaged food "magically" and lay the beef strips, still with ice shards present, onto the plate. Jiang Chen mocked Lin Lin, who was staring eagerly at the food.

The preservation function of the storage dimension was extremely powerful.

"No, it's okay." Yao Yao's face quickly turned red when Jiang Chen showed care for her. Her lips murmured, "It doesn't take a lot of people to prepare hotpot; having Sister Xiaorou to help is more than enough."

"Did you hear that? Yao Yao said it's okay." Lin Lin proudly lifted her chin.

Jiang Chen looked at her, speechless.

He didn't understand she had to be proud of.

Just as Yao Yao said, preparing hotpot didn't require a complicated procedure.

The family gathered around the dinner table. It didn't take long before the soup began to boil.

Lin Lin's actions were swift as she put vegetables into the hotpot. It gave her satisfaction to see the food she put into the hotpot turn into deliciousness as someone who didn't know how to cook.

This was the joy of eating hotpot.

Of course, the most fulfilling part about eating hotpot was the family gathering together to talk while sitting together.

Jiang Chen was glad he chose to reveal the secret to Sun Jiao and Yao Yao and stopped weaving a "beautiful lie."

One lie would lead to ten more lies to keep up the lie.

The moment the lie is exposed, the rift created with the people one cared about isn't something that could be fixed with mere apologies.

Unlike now?

Jiang Chen was able to sit in front of the dinner table and use a casual tone to freely discuss what happened in that world. He looked at their envious expressions and listened to their opinions about this other world. Jiang Chen spoke about Future Group, MLL Island, and finally, Kurofune.

"Kurofune? How could someone be so dumb? If they want to become bugs, just do it themselves." Sun Jiao popped out her tongue and tossed a spicy beef strip into her already reddened mouth before she chewed with joy.

Compared to the herbivore, Yao Yao, Sun Jiao was the definition of a carnivore.

Of course, because of the effects of the genetic vaccine on metabolism, she would never get fat from eating.

"Well, that's not entirely accurate." Compared to her sister, Sun Xiaorou's opinion was more compassionate. "I heard that before the war, NATO used democracy to launch a propaganda attack against PAC and successfully caused a riot in South East Asia. Sister Junhua lead a mechanized infantry to suppress the riot there?"

"A riot… is different from Kurofune." Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

"It's the same." Lin Lin put down her chopsticks. With a casual tone, she said, "Humans have always had unrealistic fantasies about the outside world. Conquering foreign provinces, foreign countries, and now, escalating to extraterrestrial civilizations on a cosmic scale… it's the same thing. How could they live? How could they solve the problem we're facing? That's something to long for… That's basically the idea. Distance creates beauty, and any fascination with beauty is almost always blind."

Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin with surprise.

"Why... why are you looking at me?" Lin Lin began to feel embarrassed under Jiang Chen's direct stare; her face began to heat up as she responded with a hard stare.

"I didn't think Lin Lin would say something so deep." A smile appeared on Sun Jiao's face as she joked.

Yao Yao also nodded with agreement and looked at Yao Yao in disbelief.

"That's enough! I'm a scientist at least! Don't look at me like that - I'm older than all of you guys added together! And I'm not the type that slept for twenty years!" Lin Lin, covered in a red hue, spoke while tossing about her tiny fists.

Everyone began to laugh. Sun Xiaorou, who was sitting beside Lin Lin, gently caressed her head. "For a girl, being old isn't something to brag about."

Lin Lin's mouth pouted while she relished Sun Xiaorou's caress. She didn't say anything else.

Sun Jiao took a swig of the coke and said nonchalantly, "The world beyond the stars seems to be far away."

"Yes… it's hard to imagine," Yao Yao agreed in a meager voice.

"Compared to distances in space, distances in time is even more fascinating… I don't even know if I'll be able to see the final showdown in a hundred years," Jiang Chen joked.

"That might not be true." Lin Lin's ears wiggled and she raised her head. "There are plenty of ways to increase your lifespan…"

She turned her head out of shyness and said with textbook tsundere, "Since… if you die too early, I… I'll get bored."

The life of digitalized humans was much longer than humans. The more sophisticated the modifications, the longer the lifespan.

Jiang Chen took a moment to process that before he chuckled.

"Why-why are you laughing?!" Lin Lin was slightly angry.

"Lin Lin is a very honest girl," Xiaorou said with a smile. Her eyes radiated an intrigued light.

"Yao Yao will also be lonely!" Yao Yao raised her hand with courage without backing down.

Because of her delayed growth, Yao Yao, who was supposed to be undergoing puberty, hadn't grown at all. Based on what Lin Lin said, with her current growth speed, she would still be a little loli in ten years.

In theory, her life would also be long.

Sun Jiao sighed and said with her usual straightforwardness, "Then everyone will live forever together."

"Sister, from a different perspective, eternal life is also a curse." Xiaorou's words had a more profound meaning.

"Is that so? Living eternally is considered a curse?" Sun Jiao said without feeling bothered.

"But to be with someone interesting, even for an eternity, it wouldn't be boring. Right?" Xiaorou peeked at Jiang Chen before letting out a sigh.

Eternal life…

For people with power, it was indeed attractive.

Jiang Chen suddenly remembered the secret about eternal life from Bo Yu at the Dusk Church. He suddenly looked at Sun Jiao and asked, "Sun Jiao, where is your home… Fallout Shelter 071?"

"Fallout Shelter 071? Oh, well... it should be near Hucheng. Why?" Sun Jiao chewed while tilting her head to think.

"I made up my mind!" Jiang Chen suddenly stood up. "The destination we'll conquer will be Hucheng!"

Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen peculiarly as she swallowed down her food.

"Are you sure? Hucheng is 500 kilometers from here!"

The path was filled with zombies, mutants, raiders, mutated humans, and cannibals… Powerful lone travelers or a merchant fleet protected by mercenaries might purposely traverse such a long distance while barely managing to survive, but in order for a large unit like an army to travel such a long distance, it created an immense logistical pressure.

But Jiang Chen responded with a smile.

"Don't forget, we have a steel airship!"

Chapter 619: WAR!

Hundreds of meters in the air, the NAC flag waved.

The first ray of light scattered in the darkness of the night. The light of the dawn lit up the steel monster.

Airship (AS) Order.

The word was engraved on the polished steel surface.

It was a monster that conquered the sky. The steel chimney on its back blew out white clouds and the extended cannon barrel on the bottom fearsomely aimed straight ahead!

It was a specialized electromagnetic pulse cannon designed for AS Order, known as "The Hammer of Order." It could launch bombs up to 100 kilograms in weight with a firing angle of up to -70 degrees. The fire suppression range could reach an astounding 350 kilometers!

It was the primary long distance weapon used by AS Order!

The bottom was equipped with hive-shaped "Fireball-1" launchers capable of unloading 200 rounds of missiles per minute to unleash devastating attacks on long distance ground targets while making the friendly logistic team cry and suffer. Four 12.76mm anti-air machine guns made up for deficiencies in close-range combat. Two anti-missile laser devices could intercept most missiles.

These were all the weapons on AS Order.

Due to its massive size, low mobility, and lack of protection in the air, AS Order could only provide limited firepower at a great distance from the battlefield. But aside from providing firepower, this steel monster's strength was in providing long-range transportation. As an aerial aircraft carrier, it allowed for the quick deployment of land forces.

On the danger-filled soil, no other unit flying above the clouds was suited for long-distance travel.

Power armors, kinetic skeletons, rifles, RPGs, ammunition…

Countless numbers of weapons were loaded into the belly of the monster through slings to complete battle preparations.

Out of space-saving considerations, the airship was only supplied with liquid food. The nutrient supply produced in Ange Island had far superior taste and nutrients compared to the nutrient supply made out of "zombie juice" and mutant fruits from the Sixth Street.

"Be careful! You're loading combustion bombs! If you make any mistakes, I promise you'll turn into fine dust!" A supervisor with an official cap yelled at the elevator. He ordered the few slaves to load the missiles onto the sling before pressing the bell.

Following a weak electric static noise, the sling was hauled onto the airship.

At the top of the observation tower in Camp 27, Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes while observing the airship from afar.

"Why don't we use robots?"

Wang Zhaowu stood by the general. He immediately responded to the question.

"Based on what Wang Qin said… in order to prevent problems, we need to find things for the slaves to do."

Jiang Chen nodded.

It made sense.

But compared to the rapid expansion of the modern world, the apocalypse possessed technology without the ability to convert it into production. Just looking at the people manually transporting the supplies, it was hard to imagine that this was the 22nd century.

For example, with continuous supplies from MLL Island and New Malaysia District, Ange Island's robot factory could produce up to half a million robots per month. Although the housework robot's technological capabilities weren't "high," compared to the service robots from Sixth Street, it could be considered a functional toy.

But the factories on Sixth Street weren't anywhere close to producing up to half a million units.

It was the same for the Phantom Helmet.

If they didn't use 3D printing and without considering the cost, they could, at most, produce one million units per month, but the production in the modern world was twenty times that number!

At the same time, the modern world's technology couldn't produce the T-series power armor and K1 kinetic skeleton. While the production capabilities of the apocalypse were low, the process and manufacturing technology was ridiculously high.

"How are preparations for the conquering going?" Jiang Chen asked.

"We can depart at any time," Wang Zhaowu answered while standing tall.

Jiang Chen nodded again.

He was pleased with Wang Zhaowu's work and it made feel more assured about this long distance journey.

From the beginning of the year, NAC conducted spring recruitment with each division expanding from 2000 people to 5000 people. The entire NAC's force now consisted of 15,000 people which made them a substantial force in Asia.

After his return, he adjusted the deployment of the three divisions.

From the Sixth Street to Shenxiang Town, the First Division, led by Cheng Weiguo, was responsible for the defense of the entire Wanghai region. Cheng Weiguo was one of the first survivors who followed him and he became the division leader of the Fishbone base.

Jiang Chen didn't need to worry with him guarding the home base.

The Third Division was led by Zhao Gang, another survivor who followed Jiang Chen since the inception of the Fishbone base. He seldom spoke and prioritized relationships above all. Jiang Chen helped him and in return, he swore allegiance to Jiang Chen. After this adjustment, he was stationed in Jia City and guarded the southwest corridor to Wanghai as well as important trade routes to the south.

This mission was given to the Second Division.

While the 500 tons of payload wasn't small, the load associated with every individual soldier approached 200 kilograms. This included the equipment, ammunition, and supplies, not to mention the weight of the soldier.

In order to maximize its battle capabilities, the massive airship was only made up of 400 soldiers, 50 crew members and 20 logistics members. At the same time, the supplies of the steel airship were carried by non-combat blimps.

All the soldiers chosen to participate in the conquering were the elites of the Second Division. They previous participated in the mutant flood, rescued Fishbone base, attacked the city center, and were all seasoned veterans. They were equipped to their teeth with kinetic skeletons with impeccable equipment and morale.

Jiang Chen acted as the captain with Wang Zhiwu second in charge.

After the end of the conquering, the next captain and second in charge would be chosen based on their achievements in battle. At the same time, the airship would be preserved as an independent battle unit outside of the three divisions, like the Hunter Division.

Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed as he watched the ascending dawn and airship in the middle of preparations. His mind was filled with mixed emotions with a curvature appearing on his mouth.

"General, please examine the soldiers." Wang Zhiwu stood firmly beside Jiang Chen.

It was the third time Jiang Chen nodded.

He turned around and faced the uniformed soldiers in the square of Camp 27 as well as their countless raised heads…

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

He allowed the raging blood in his chest to unleash with his roar.

"Gentlemen!"

"I like war!"

Without extraneous words, without uplifting commitments, Order's curtain was brutally ripped apart.

"To bring civilization to shambles!"

"To put the shackle of order on the barbarians there!"

"To use the weapons in hand to spread the flag of NAC to the heart of the wasteland!"

Jiang Chen was met with thunderous roars as well as rifles raised high!

"War—"

Chapter 620: Ten Thousand Meters Above

"WAR—"

The soldiers' roars pierced through the air above Camp 27.

The slaves transporting the supplies stopped their work, trembling and dumbfounded as they gazed in the direction of the camp. The soldiers on patrol placed their fists in front of the emblem on their chests, silently raised their hands in front of their forehead, and saluted to their departing comrades.

The roars echoed in the square and in the hearts of every NAC citizen.

The salutes from the residents of Camp 27 from the bottom of their hearts demonstrated their respect to the parting soldiers and their general.

Standing at the front of the row, Han Junhua, who was looking at Jiang Chen, carried an apathetic expression under her cap.

With her right hand gently squeezed in front of her chest, Yu Lu's gaze staring at the observation tower was mixed with a hint of intoxication…

Everyone boarded the airship.

With a mixture of emotions, the soldiers bid farewell to their families and stepped onto the deck of Order after taking the elevator. Under the watchful gaze of the survivors of Wanghai, the steel monster ascended, broke through the depressing clouds, and began to move toward the heart of the wasteland.

Inside the captain's room, Jiang Chen made orders through the radio.

"Angle 220 degrees, speed 40 knots, push forward!"

"This is the power room, roger. The turbine engine output has been increased to 75%... engine ramped up."

With the force from the turbines at the end wings, the airship adjusted its course. Following a negligible vibration, it began to accelerate.

At the same time, captain Jiang Chen, second-in-charge Wang Zhaowu, advisor Han Junhua, and captain of the General Protective Force, Sun Xiaorou, were inside the captain's room.

War was always the best method to increase one's reputation, and it was the only way for Jiang Chen, who couldn't appear in front of the public often, to maintain his reputation.

Therefore, he decided to take on the role of captain on AS Order and lead this conquering!

…

With the procedure completed and flight course set, everyone returned to their rooms, leaving only Wang Zhaowu inside the captain's room.

Right now, standing inside the tiny room, Sun Xiaorou stared at the clouds outside the small circular window and sighed.

"We only managed to be together for such a short period of time before having to separate. Sister Sama must be sad being at home alone."

Based on the recommendations of advisor Han Junhua, Jiang Chen accepted her proposal after careful deliberation.

Based on the intelligence brought back by Zhao Chenwu, Hucheng wasn't occupied by a powerful military force and lacked anti-air weapons that posed a threat to Order. Therefore, the risk of this conquering was low and presented significance in terms of establishing a point of influence outside the province.

This was the first time NAC stepped out of Suhang province.

Thus, their "first time" should be under the name of the general.

But Sun Jiao, as Miss General, had strong opinions about Jiang Chen leaving immediately after coming back. She demanded Jiang Chen to bring her along.

Of course, Jiang Chen wanted to bring her.

But without him there, someone had to remain at the Office of the General. Only Sun Jiao could play that role.

Therefore, Sun Jiao had to take a step back and allowed her sister to accompany Jiang Cheng on her behalf.

She was meant to protect Jiang Chen's safety since Sun Xiaorou's combat abilities weren't bad.

The other goal was to prevent him from doing anything unsafe.

"'Sister Sama' is a peculiar way to call her." Jiang Chen, standing beside the table, flipped through the notebook in his arms while commenting nonchalantly.

The notebook included the things he had to be aware of during this trip to Hucheng, the intelligence collected by Zhao Chenwu's merchant fleets, and information on the mercenary union managed by Zhou Guoping.

<"empire" and="" "federation"="" are="" the="" two="" local="" forces="" fighting="" over="" control="" of="" the="" hucheng="" nuclear="" fusion="" station.="" note:="" our="" strategy="" could="" be="" to="" form="" an="" alliance="" with="" one="" or="" destroy="" both="">

The last note wasn't written on paper but remembered in Jiang Chen's heart.

"Speaking of which, the bedroom of the captain is quite big." Sun Xiaorou's hands were behind her back. She strolled to the soft bed before patting the bedsheet.

Due to space-saving considerations, normal rooms slept four people. Aside from a two-foot wide walkway, there was only a table beside the window along with two bunk beds attached to the wall… Rather than say they were beds, they were more like sleeping bags. Only senior officials could sleep in a room alone, but their rooms were still extremely small with the beds only slightly better than sleeping bags.

Only the captain's room was slightly more spacious with room to store some private luggage.

"Mhmm."

"I'm hungry. When are we going to eat?"

"Mhmm."

Sun Xiaorou was clearly displeased with Jiang Chen's reaction, but she wasn't discouraged. With her hands behind her back, she gently walked behind Jiang Chen.

She bent down and whispered into his ear.

"… It's a rare chance for us to be alone. Why are you so boring?"

Her warm breath blew into his ear, turning Jiang Chen's neck into a shade of red.

A smirk appeared on Sun Xiaorou's face while she stared at his red earlobe.

She enjoyed the feeling of bullying the person her sister liked, seeing him blush because of her. This ambiguous sense of morality gave her an inexplicable joy.

Judging by how they treated food, it was evident how the two sisters differed in personality and attitude toward life.

With a piece of delicious cake, compared to her sister's way of "stuffing the cake" with one bite, Xiaorou enjoyed smearing the sweet vanilla around her lips and using her tongue to slowly savor the taste…

Jiang Chen started to have a reaction. He closed his notebook.

Or rather, when Sun Xiaorou seductively straightening the bed, Jiang Chen was already resisting. Since he still needed to discuss the strategy with Han Junhua later, he thought it would be disrespectful to smell weird.

But the warm breaths in his ear blew away the rationality in his mind.

"Brother-in-law? No… you can't do this. You've only been separated from sister for less than an hour." With her back smashed against the bed, Sun Xiaorou lightly pushed Jiang Chen while naughtily "escalating" the situation and playing innocent at the same time.

The uniform on her body made her uncomfortable and her voice was intermixed with a soft moan.

"Could you not refer to me like that?" Jiang Chen said fiercely.

The word made him feel guilty.

Although Sun Xiaorou couldn't move under Jiang Chen, she still blinked playfully.

"Nope."

"You'll regret it!"

"What are you doing? Brother- wooo…"

The tense giggle soon turned into a seductive shout and echoed inside the steel room. Along with the engine roaring outside the window, the sound traveled further and further ten thousand meters in the air…</"empire">

Chapter 621: Battle Plan

The airship quickly left Wanghai behind.

When it flew above the Taifu River, a lot of soldiers saw with their EP the Garden of Eden captured by the observation pod.

It was a semispherical structure several kilometers in diameter; the transparent graphene board reflected a colorful ray under the afternoon sun.

The serving NAC soldiers more or less heard about how the Garden of Eden could recreate the most stunning scenery from before the war.

The survivors also heard that they could experience life before the war through virtual reality, but in the heart of the survivors, they still wished they could really live in that environment and not lie among shambles while reminiscing the past.

…

After finishing with Sun Xiaorou who couldn't even move her finger, Jiang Chen tucked her in and organized his clothes before leaving the room.

He still needed to discuss the point of landing and contacting the different forces with Han Junhua.

When Jiang Chen pushed open the door of the conference room, Han Junhua was already standing in front of the long table. It seemed like he had been waiting for a while.

"Sorry, I'm late." Jiang Chen scratched the back of his head, pretending to act calm while stepping inside.

"No worries."

Han Junhua didn't' seem to mind. He pressed a button on the table and opened the hologram map.

But just then, she suddenly sniffed and looked at Jiang Chen expressionlessly.

"There is a weird smell… did you put on cologne?"

"No." Jiang Chen facepalmed and then coughed to divert the topic. "Let's not talk about this and get to the point. I want to listen to your opinion regarding this mission."

Han Junhua nodded, put her hands in front of chest, and pointed the laser pen on the map.

"Based on the information brought back by the Zhao Corporation merchant fleet, there are a total of 310,000 survivors in Hucheng with a medium level mutant threat and a high density of raiders. The west bank of Panyang Lake is scattered with some farms producing mostly mutated fruits, as well as bullet shell grains transported from Wu City. Also, because it is the capital of the province, a lot of technological resources and damaged production equipment worth collecting are buried underneath the shambles.

"Based on the plan, the first step is to establish a military outpost locally to create a supply point. The second step is to establish an airship landing tower near the post and then set up a survivor's camp there as the last step."

Han Junhua put her arms in front of her chest again. Her voice still pierced with the unchanging coldness of the frozen glacier.

"The fourth step is eliminating the mutant nests and declare control of the Hucheng area. Any resistance will be wiped out."

War is always the best diplomatic strategy on the wasteland without order.

Jiang Chen concurred with Han Junhua's strategy.

But if possible, he still wanted to approach this with peace. Although he declared "I like war" in front of the soldiers, to be honest, he didn't think war is ever good.

"Permanent residents? That's more than double Wanghai's population…" Jiang Chen exclaimed at the numbers on the map.

"Not necessarily. After absorbing slaves from the giant slave pit, the population of Sixth Street reached 80,000. Without considering the shadow population, the total population has exceeded 200,000 already," Han Junhua said.

Looking at the labels of the few survivor camps, Jiang Chen continued to ask.

"What's your recommendation on Empire and Federation?"

"Befriend one side, disrupt the balance of the local forces. After disrupting the situation, establish a new order," Han Junhua said without changing her expression.

"Does it need to be this problematic?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

"This is related to logistics and supplies. The airship's payload is limited. While housing 500 individuals, it can carry kinetic skeletons, power armors, Aurora-20s, and transport helicopters. There are only five rounds of the 100-kilogram bombs with around 200 missiles onboard," Han Junhua continued.

"Don't we have light blimps supplying us?"

"This is then a cost problem," Han Junhua said. "If possible, before we establish a supply point, we have to do our best to collect supplies. Including the construction material of the material outpost and the airship landing tower."

"So we have to contact the local forces," Jiang Chen said deep in thought while scratching his chin.

Obtaining supplies was not difficult for him.

It was not possible on the airship because of the payload restriction.

But on land, he just needed to return to the modern world to be able to obtain a large number of supplies.

"That's right." Han Junhua nodded. "On the other hand, based on the consideration that we're planning to conquer the place and not raid or destroy it, we must limit the battle to a certain degree."

…

The discussion of the future for the Hucheng survivors quickly came to an end.

When Jiang Chen returning to the bedroom, he was surprised to discover that Sun Xiaorou tidied up the messy room. Her previous restrictive uniform became a casual purple long dress. If it were not for the unnatural blush on her face, it was difficult to spot a trace of that "battle".

"Eh? You've recovered already?" Jiang Chen asked curiously.

"Not at all, my body is still sore. You're so rough, brother—"

Sun Xiaorou's face quickly turned red when looking at Jiang Chen's half-smiling expression before she closed her mouth.

With her state now, she had no energy left to make dirty jokes.

"Hmm, it's dinner time now."

"That's right. Are you not going to go back and drink your nutrient supply now?" Jiang Chen jokingly said.

"Brother-in-law is the best." Sun Xiaorou with a grin, hugged herself around Jiang Chen's arm, and timidly rubbed her face on his arm.

Jiang Chen heard the abnormal vocabulary again as he rolled his eyes with defeat, he then magically took out two pizza boxes.

He purchased them from the restaurant of Future Building.

He ordered twenty boxes which completely stunned the chefs there.

"How did you know I would bring food?"

"Haha, brother-in-law never mistreats the people he cares for." Sun Xiaorou then pointed at the microwave on the desk. "Also, nutrient supply doesn't need to be heated."

"Go back after you finish. We should arrive at the destination by midnight. Get a good night's sleep. We still have to do work down there tomorrow morning." Jiang Chen stuffed the pizza into the microwave as he spoke.

Already sitting beside the table, Sun Xiaorou dangled her pale and delicate feet and grinned, "What is brother-in-law saying? My room is right here."

"Don't be naughty. We have to get up early." Jiang Chen sighed and brought the two steamy pizzas back to the table.

"Then we have to sleep early."

With her arms supporting her chin, Sun Xiaorou stared at the heated bacon pizza adorably, the soft tongue hid between her lips while she murmured ambiguously.

"Making sure you are full is the order of Sister Sama."

"…"

Jiang Chen put down his fork, speechless.

Looks like he can't eat dinner anymore.

…

When night came, the soldiers dove into their sleeping bags before dozing off into dreamland.

Inside the captain's room, Wang Zhaowu yawned as he confirmed the map for the last time before initiating cruise control. Then he pulled down the bed on the wall. The size of his room was too narrow and he was too lazy to go back and sleep. Therefore he made himself comfortable inside the sleeping bag there before his thunderous snore began to echo inside the room.

AS Order sailed above cloud nine steadily.

Passing through Hang City, flying over the Yellow Mountain, and setting sail in the direction of Hucheng…

Chapter 622: Water Treatment Plan Thugs

Hucheng, located west of the Panyang Lake, was a relatively developed inland city of the PAC before the war.

But after the nuclear war, everywhere was the same.

Even the prosperous Wanghai could not escape the doomsday nuclear strike.

But the people that lived here were more fortunate than the people of Wanghai. The invasion and nuclear strike all began in the coastal area, therefore they had time to scatter, enter into the fallout shelter or evacuate with the army to inland.

Right now, on the desolated shambles.

The rural area east of Hucheng, beside an abandoned concrete plant, a Death Claw was using its sharp claws to dissect the stomach of a survivor and used its long tongue with back spikes to lick the red organs.

The person's eyeballs were dug out and from the still whimping mouth, he was not completely died. The pool of blood also proved this point. From the fresh red color, the Death Claw should have started to eat not long ago.

Just then, a suppressive "cloud" arrived above the lucky Death Claw.

The sunlight that suddenly disappeared pissed off the Death Claw having its meal, so it raised its neck slowly and looked to the sky.

The amber colored pupils suddenly contracted, the dumbfounded Death Claw even slowed its mastication.

"Boom—"

The air was instantly pierced.

The dust scattered around the area and flew up five meters tall.

Rounds of bullets were instantly unleashed and shredded the Death Claw along with the poor corpse into pieces.

"Kill confirmed."

With his thumb moved away from the trigger, the soldier in front of the computer closed the safety and answered.

Monsters are monsters after all.

The Death Claw that could fight the power armor could not even last half a second from the "trigger press" of the pilot.

"Landing spot confirmed. Human signal detected in the nearby water treatment plant. Suspected to be a raider group. Best luck, commander."

"Roger."

Jiang Chen closed the radio. In the kinetic skeleton, he turned around and looked at the soldiers of his personal force.

The soldiers were the elites of the army, led by Sun Xiaorou. Although there were just ten of them,they each could use their equipment to easily take care of five times the foes.

"Okay, gentlemen, pay attention."

"Now below us is Hucheng! We don't know if the people in the water treatment plant are friends or enemies, we are going to meet them now."

"Remember the procedure. Open the safety, put your backpack on, and tighten your shoelaces. Understood?"

"Understood!"

The soldiers of the general protective force stood straight and tall with fists holding the emblem in front of their chest.

"Now, let's depart!"

Then, Jiang Chen opened the valve to the hatch, and jumped out…

…

"What the fu*k, what is that?" A man with a cigarette in his mouth peeked his head out of the window while nervously looking at the steel airship.

"AS Order… What is that, why is the name ugly."

A bald man was oiling his machine gun while cursing out.

"I have seen the NAC symbol before. They are from a base from Wanghai," another thug said.

"Psychos, why did they come so far." The cigarette man looked at the Death Claw shredded into pieces with lingering fear.

The water treatment plant thug was a quite renowned raider group in the region. They occupied the water treatment plant and after they closed the valve that supplied water to the region, they sold purified water to the local survivors at a high price. At the same time, they were in the human trafficking business and occasionally robbed merchant fleets.

Because of their strong combat ability, even "Empire" and "Federation" must be cautious and avoid in-depth interactions with them.

The leader of the heinous villains was a woman…

"You guys are so rowdy. You don't even know how to patrol properly. Don't you know there is an important client coming today?"

A sluggish voice drifted from behind their backs, making the man drop his cigarette onto the ground in fear.

Wearing a crocodile leather jacket, the hot figure barely hidden under the scraps of clothes, a woman with red hair casually strolled to the door.

The sleeve of her jacket was stained with blood, just like her red nails. Her messy hair stuck together into chunks; her appearance could be described as a form of raunchy beauty.

It was just that no one other than the raiders appreciated this form of beauty.

The machine gun man kneeled at the wall quickly scanned their leader's long legs before erasing his disrespectful look.

The scorpion's nature was evil, promiscuous.

But even then, this "juicy meat" was not something the small thugs could eat. The people fortunate enough to hook up with the venomous "female scorpion" were either important members of the clan, or at least strong and powerful. For example, the man behind her…

His head was engraved with a centipede long scar, the vicious triangular eyes scattered a bloodthirsty light.

Jiang Xiaoyou, a lone traveler active in the Panyang Lake region, used a sniper rifle and mastered the art of dagger usage. He was hired by Wang Xie to act as her gunman. He would occasionally receive service from his employer, or make him and another man serve her, he never rejected the requests.

Decency was something only a few lone travelers had.

Everyone had their own standards, and his standard was just different from other people.

Wang Xie's narrowed eyes stared outside the window.

The sucker that died outside was the second in command of her clan, he was planning to overthrow and quarantine her. Fortunately, Wang Xie discovered his plot and killed it in its cradle. She used her nails to dig out his eyes before feeding him to the Death Claw.

The red on her nails was not nail polish, it was bloodstains.

But the Death Claw only started its meal before the poor guy escaped his agony.

The airship that suddenly intruded disrupted her punishment to the traitor, the hailstorm of bullets shredded them into grounded meat.

She had heard the name NAC before, but it was from the merchants and mercenaries heading east. From the respectfulness in their voice, it made Wang Xie feel slightly eerie, especially from the odd looking airship, it made it even more difficult for her to understand the strength of the NAC.

If it were another force that offended her, she would have taken her raiders to fight already. But for the unknown force, she chose to remain cautious.

"Something dropped down from that airship."

The cigarette man pointed outside the window and shouted.

The machine gun man along with his buddy looked lost as they stared at each other, not knowing what to do.

"Jiang Xiaoyou, go take a look from the top floor. If they approach without listen to the warning, take them out." Wang Xie ordered.

The man nodded and silently headed upstairs with his sniper.

With Jiang Xiaoyou as the sniper, Wang Xie felt assured. While the bullets from the sky were terrifying, they were not necessarily afraid enough to hide inside their bunker.

Then, she opened the radio beside her ear and shouted crankily at the thugs of the water treatment clan.

"No. Six, take the brothers out and ask why they are here! No. Five, bring out our cannon and set it up. If they dare to flinch, shoot down that mofo in the air for me!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

Chapter 623: A Disagreement that Resulted in Violence

Stomp, stomp!

Twelve figures landed onto the firm ground with force.

Jiang Chen stood up with his arms pressed against the ground. He moved his limbs covered with hardened steel and then pressed the digital screen on his right arm a few times. The hologram map expanded and the observation pod hung below the airship synced the aerial map of the water treatment plant to his control panel. Light ripples scanned across the map and marked the red dots.

There were 142 people in total.

Fortunately, they didn't install life signal jammers in the base.

Jiang Chen and his force were wearing the newly research K2 kinetic skeleton. Without decreasing the mobility, it maximized the defense of the external skeleton. In exchange, the cost of the K2 type was four times the K1 type.

And because of this, only the General's private force was equipped with this type of kinetic skeleton.

"All units have landed," Sun Xiaorou walked beside Jiang Chen and spoke gently.

"Perfect." Jiang Chen was about to order to move forward when he suddenly saw a few red dots leaving the plant and approaching them.

Jiang Chen raised a fist to signal the soldiers to be on alert.

Not long after, ten thuggish-looking people walked up.

When Sun Xiaorou saw the appearance of them, she almost burst out laughing.

Only a few wore a bulletproof vest, some had a piece of steel dangling in front of their chest, and even some's clothes were torn apart, not much better than hobos. As to the weapons in hands, they were mostly homemade rifles, common among survivors.

The only weapon that looked okay was the assault rifle in their leader's hand.

While infuriated by Sun Xiaorou's expression, Six examined the equipment of these people and then glanced at the airship high in the air, and he intelligently controlled himself.

"Where are you all from? What's your purpose of coming to our clan's territory?"

Jiang Chen and Sun Xiaorou exchanged glances and communicated via the private channel.

Jiang Chen: "Raiders?"

Sun Xiaorou: "Looks like it… should we fight?"

Jiang Chen: "Wait, I still need to ask them a few questions.

Six had a grave expression seeing that the two "weirdos" equipped to their teeth didn't speak.

There was no one on the wasteland that dared to disrespect the water treatment plant clan like this, even "Empire" and "Federation" with power armors in the city were respectful when they came to negotiate.

"Hello, my boss is talking to you!"

A muscular man with tattoos on his face stared Jiang Chen down viciously while shouting at him.

The raiders were not afraid of the kinetic skeletons they are wearing. Even with the homemade rifles, as long as they are loaded with armor-piercing bullets could penetrate their armor, they are unfearful unless they encountered power armors.

"You're the boss of this place?" Jiang Chen ignored the small pawn and looked at the person in the front, intrigued.

"No, not me," Six thought about the man with his eyes dug out and his back was instantly covered in cold sweat, so he quickly clarified.

But then, he met Jiang Chen's intrigued eyes.

"Fu*k, I'm asking where you came from—"

Six's expression suddenly froze.

The black muzzle was pressed against his forehead.

Jiang Chen looked at him expressionlessly and the Reaper assault rifle was in his hand.

The sudden unexpected changes caught the raiders of the water treatment plant clan completely off guard. The thugs, seeing their boss was pointed at by a gun, immediately raised their rifles and entered a standoff with Jiang Chen's force.

"Our clips are loaded with armor-piercing bullets, do you want to try?" Six was dripping with cold sweat with both his hands raised, his calmness sounded forced.

Jiang Xiaoyou, at the top floor of the water treatment plant, zoomed in as he didn't see how Jiang Chen pulled out his weapon. While he was shocked, the sniper rifle's crosshair locked onto Jiang Chen and he waited for his employer's order.

Right now, Wang Xie standing in the water treatment plant had her arms crossed in front of her chest, her focus switched between the airship and the group with a gloomy expression.

The turn of event surprised her; the opponent was way too confident.

Jiang Chen didn't seem to mind his threat. Just as he was about to interrogate for some useful information, the voice of the airship communicator entered into his ear.

"We detected a 40mm cannon inside the plant. They are setting up the cannon and attempting to aim at us. On the fifth floor of the building directly in front, we detected an enemy sniper."

Jiang Chen's expression turned into a sneer, he suddenly changed his mind about interrogation.

[If you're asking for death.]

[Then, go die.]

"Other than the person I'm aiming at, take the rest out." Jiang Chen changed to the public channel and ordered the execution.

"Roger."

The four gunners thousands of meters high in the air opened the safety after receiving the order. They pressed the trigger after locking onto the targets.

Six was secretively relieved seeing Jiang Chen didn't dare to shoot.

[Since the enemy is afraid to shoot, that means they are afraid of us…]

"Boom—"

The screech of the sound barrier being broken instantly destroyed Six's confidence. The deafening bullets made his head dizzy.

When the dust dispersed, he saw the cuts on his face from the shrapnel, the contemptuous smile, and the black muzzles. Six couldn't stop shaking, but he couldn't even make a sound.

Suddenly, he felt his pants were wet. The stained yellow between his legs made his face instantly turn to an ugly red.

"I already said… there is nothing to talk about with raiders." Sun Xiaorou let out a sigh and gently pulled out her gun. "Regardless, we'll have to fight."

If the hideous raiders didn't use the sympathy of the fallout shelter residents, the sisters wouldn't have been separated for so long.

"Leave a few alive; one is not enough."

Jiang Chen advised the vicious looking Xiaorou and signaled a soldier before pointing at the completely shocked hostage.

The soldier with contempt walked forward and used his rifle to kick and drag the raider that wetted his pants onto the road. Then he took out a graphene handcuff and tied the sucker to a lamppost.

There was smoke coming from the water treatment plant in the distance. The machine guns on the airship could clean out the thug clan that had the audacity to challenge them. Whether it was the sniper or the cannon hidden inside the bunker, they all could not escape the hailstorm of bullets.

A grimacing smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face as he watched the black smoke rise. He then pressed on the radio of his helmet.

"Airdrop crew, prepare yourselves. Kill the bugs for me!"

"Roger."

Chapter 624: From the Sky

Intense shaking came from the roof.

Wang Xie used her hand to block the dust that had fallen from the ceiling while keeping her balance against the wall. Dry coughing, she opened her radio and screamed into it with a sharp voice.

"What are you all waiting for! Shoot them! Return fire!"

"Yes, yes!" The thugs immediately crouched beside the window and fired at the approaching figures with their weapons.

Wang Xie gritted her teeth in fury. Her harsh face twisted together without any sense of beauty.

Six was captured; Jiang Xiaoyou on the roof probably didn't get too lucky either. While she agonized over the loss of her two fighters, she was beyond furious.

[They dared to fire without any warning!]

[My 40mm cannon will fu*k you up!]

With teeth gritted, she waited for a while but the sound of the cannon firing didn't arrive.

Wang Xie's face turned pale white.

Could it be that they took out all three targets along with the 40mm cannon…

"B…Boss, what, what do we do?" The cigarette man looked back at Wang Xie, shaking uncontrollably, with fear written all over his face.

"What can do we? They only have twelve people, FIRE!"

Wang Xie's order was mixed with a psychotic scream. She immediately turned around to run inside the plant.

Her years of experience struggling on the wasteland told her that the power displayed by the airship was not something the thugs at the water treatment plant clan could resist. The ability to instantly lock onto the sniper and the cannon hidden in the shadows meant that the enemy must possess superior aerial observation capability. And her pawns…

Only a bunch of lousy pawns…

The bullets with orange sparking tails jumped between the water treatment plant and the empty ground. The NAC force used the assistive aim module inside the K2 kinetic skeleton to reap the life of the raiders inside the plant.

At the same time, followed by the eerie blue light arcs, ten T-3 power armors descended from the sky.

Based on this airdrop capability, the kinetic skeleton was no match for the metal giants.

With control, the ten pairs of steel boots stomped through the roof of the water treatment plant and directly invaded the top floor. The shockwave of the impact lifted the raiders up into the air and the firepower of the tactical rifles turned the bodies into pieces.

Just a glimpse of interaction but Jiang Chen noticed ten red drops disappeared on the hologram map.

"This is the airdrop platoon. The top floor is cleared out. Waiting for further instructions."

"Push down and clear the enemy targets on the fifth, fourth, and third floor," Jiang Chen ordered.

"Roger."

Followed by the weapons roar, they announced another round of slaughter.

Because of the reuse value of the equipment in the water treatment plant, AS Order didn't use weapons such as missiles to assist the combat. The four machine guns along with the ten T-3s were more than enough to take out the pawns.

When Jiang Chen with his private force stepped inside the water treatment plant, the sound of firing began to scatter in the entire building.

The raiders curled behind the bunkers all dropped their weapons at the face of the suppressive firepower. They ran and they surrendered.

Jiang Chen fired the rifle while opening the speaker on the helmet.

"We will spare anyone that surrenders. Anyone else will be executed on spot!"

It was an order not only directed to the soldiers behind him, but also against the opposing raiders.

Just in a short moment, the infamous water treatment plant clan bowed down at the feet of the NAC.

The airship dropped a pod connected with graphene cables and transported down some of the infantries of the Third Division and some logistics personnel. They began to establish a military outpost on the empty plot of land beside the water treatment plant. At the same time, Jiang Chen's people gained complete control of the water treatment plant.

Below a water tank, the airdrop platoon discovered the hidden Wang Xie.

A Knight wearing power armor dangled Wang Xie by the neck and threw her to Jiang Chen's feet.

While Jiang Chen didn't agree with treating a lady with such brute force, he didn't feel any compassion for someone that committed such atrocities.

He touched his chin, took out a notebook, and flipped to the page with information on the forces of Hucheng. He then examined the woman on the ground.

"You are the… umm, the leader of the water treatment plant clan? Wang Xie? Why do you have such a funny name?"

Wang Xie gulped while trembling in fear, through her messy hair she saw the man in front of her with fear written in her eyes.

With a heinous life, she knew she wouldn't have a good ending. Similar to the previous leader that was killed by her in bed, she knew she would be replaced by the next person. But she didn't expect the day would be here so quickly. She finally climbed up from being a despicable slave to her position today.

She was still young. She didn't want to die!

The fear in her eyes quickly turned into flattery, she used her hands and feet to crawl beside Jiang Chen. Just like a dog, she pleaded without any dignity.

"Please, please don't kill me, I…" She had a hint of hesitation in her eyes, but quickly she gritted her teeth and the hesitation in her eyes changed into seduction, "I can be your slave. My skills are great. I can definitely make you thrilled…"

She said while kissing Jiang Chen's shoes.

Wang Xie's pleasing action took Jiang Chen a moment to process.

He didn't think as the leader of a force, she could commit an action without any dignity.

Contempt flashed across Sun Xiaorou's eyes. She gently closed her eyes, and the finger beside the trigger silently opened the switch.

Smoke dispersed from the muzzle.

Blood burst out from Wang Xie's mouth. Her eyes widened in disbelief as blood gushed out of her mouth.

Gradually, she stopped moving.

A daunting blood hole was on her frail neck.

"Sorry, I misfired." Sun Xiaorou rolled out her tongue and closed the safety.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh and kicked away the bloodstained face.

"Tell me before you fire. You stained my shoes."

[Whatever, there are plenty of captives.]

…

Inside the spacious basement, Jiang Chen saw water treatment plant clan's "collections".

Naked bodies watched from the cage without any spirit in their eyes, they didn't react to the strangers that stepped into the basement. Some were cuffed down and some were tied down to torture equipment. From the bloodstains on the equipment, it was not difficult to see the cruelty that happened there.

It was no different than the basement of the Huizhong Mercenaries; the raiders were typically associated with human trafficking and naturally, the hideous sex slave trade existed. The unfortunate women came from nearby fallout shelters, or survival camps, or from merchant fleets, or were lone travelers…

The genetics of the 22nd century people were quite superb and it was difficult to see someone ugly. The "collections" included some gorgeous women, and the uncivilized raiders wouldn't give up the opportunity to enjoy them.

Jiang Chen furrowed at the atrocities within the basement.

The stink filled the air along with the smell of mold. It was nauseating.

The boots felt sticky stepping onto the ground, the tiles on the floor reflected a greasy color and it looked like blood and fat that was unable to be washed away. It was a prison for the slaves; no one would clean this place.

"What do we do with them?"

"If we can save them, send them to Fishbone Base Welfare. If we can't, end their misery."

"Brother-in-law is compassionate." Sun Xiaorou gently whispered beside Jiang Chen.

"Am I compassionate? I'm just not committing unnecessary evil. Especially with so many single men in the NAC, this is also another part of the consideration."

The men to women ratio on the wasteland were abnormal. While the birthrate was the same, the survival rate was completely not on the same level. Although the people that became the slaves of the raiders suffered greatly both psychologically and physiologically, with NAC's medical technology, and with proper care, they could eventually recover.

The slaves recused from Huizhong Mercenaries were mostly married by now. This included the wife of the Sixth Street's director, Chu Nan.

The people struggling in the apocalypse were not picky in some aspects.

"No need to explain." With hands behind her back, Sun Xiaorou grinned.

"…" Jiang Chen chose to stay silent.

When they were alone together, she was surprisingly more active compared to being inside the mansion.

Speaking with Sun Xiaorou subconsciously made the depressed feeling less noticeable.

Jiang Chen strolled inside the prison before surprisingly discovering a man. The man was naked on top but was still wearing pants. He had a cut on his forehead and was chained to the chair, looking lifeless.

From the redness still visible on his face, he didn't stay there too long.

When the man noticed the noise outside, he immediately raised his head.

When he saw that they were not the raiders, he immediately had an expression where he looked like he was saved.

"I'm thankful for the ideology of the Federation. Friends, thank you for saving me."

"You should be thanking the ideology of the NAC. I'm not from the Federation," Jiang Chen joked.

The person's expression numbed for a split second before he laughed in awkwardness.

"Sorry, I thought… Wait, you are from the NAC?"

The man seemed to have suddenly realized something. He looked like Jiang Chen with an expression as if he just saw a ghost.

"That's right. Is there a problem?"

"No, nothing." The man shook his head and smiled at Jiang Chen. "I'm just surprised since Hucheng is 600 kilometers from Wanghai… The Federation did hear about the NAC before and said they are a powerful force. It is indeed true after witnessing what happened today."

"Even if you don't try to flatter me, I'll still let you go." Jiang Chen shrugged while joking with him, "So, you are the sex slave of Wang Xie?"

Chapter 625: Empire and Federation

Ji Yucheng was not a sex slave; he was a parliament member of the Federation.

The reason why he was in prison, based on what he said, was due to an accident.

Jiang Chen had been wondering about the Federation.

In the modern world, his hometown was beside Hucheng. Because he visited it quite often, he thought it was just a small place. And in this small place, there existed two forces.

Federation? Empire?

Just from the names, it sounded much more authoritative than the NAC.

Could it be that Hucheng in this world is bigger? But from the map, he didn't seem much of a difference compared to the modern world.

"We are different from the evil Empire, they are just bunch of raiders, thugs, or even mutated humans gathered together. We are superior to them in terms of technology and structure." The parliament member immediately became passionate when Empire was brought up.

Right now, he already changed into his previous suit and sat across from Jiang Chen in the building of the military outpost.

Before the conversation started, Jiang Chen expressed that he was the captain of AS Order, representing NAC to discuss cooperation and trade. The parliament member immediately expressed his welcoming attitude when he heard Jiang Chen came with peace. He strongly recommended for Jiang Chen to work with the Federation and stay away from the evil Empire.

"Is that so? Then I'll take what you have said for now." Jiang Chen nonchalantly wrote a few things on the notebook, spun the pen in his hand, and used the tip to tap on the table, "I have one point I don't understand. In Wanghai, the mutated humans are the enemy of all survivors, we view them as equal to the cannibals. Why does Empire… accept them?"

Jiang Chen first wanted to use the word tolerant, but he changed his mind.

Ji Yucheng took a swig of the tea and savored the taste. He never drank such delicious tasting tea before. The fresh aroma was not something mutated tea could produce.

When he heard Jiang Chen's question, disdain appeared but quickly faded from his eyes.

"Accept? Ha! Those bastards forgot the basics of human dignity. But they are not to be blamed. Raiders are raiders after all. Perhaps they sense something familiar from the mutated humans?"

"We need objective information," Jiang Chen said in frustration.

Ji Yucheng became more collected when he heard the annoyance in his voice.

"To put it simply, they establish rules on their own territory. For example, since mutated humans are naturally violent, they permit the mutated humans to use 'limited violence' on inferior people, and refer to that as the intimacy of the family." Ji Yucheng scorned.

"That's a weird rule. If it were Wanghai survivors, they would have flipped the table and pulled out their weapons already," Wang Zhaowu standing on the side interrupted.

"The situation at Hucheng is different from your side. You are the primary battlefield before the war, where the concentration of mutants and the number of firearms left behind is much higher compared to our side. You probably noticed that the people of the water treatment plant clan all used homemade rifles," Ji Yucheng explained.

"How big is there territory?"

"From the west bank of the lake all the way to Gan River. Half of the city is under their control."

"Population?"

"150,000."

"They control more than half of the Hucheng survivors. Looks like you are weaker compared to them?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Ji Yucheng quickly added.

"That is not necessarily the case. They occupy the most fertile land, befriended the mutated human tribe, and put the shackles around normal survivors. While we are at an advantage in terms of equipment, they have a lot more people. And especially…" The parliament member hesitated but then continued.

"They are discussing allowing cannibals to eat humans so they can join forces."

Perhaps he thought his response was not objective enough, so he glanced at Jiang Chen before carefully added, "Of course, only cannibal's slaves are permitted to be eaten."

Jiang Chen and Wang Zhaowu were stunned.

"Are you not going to ask about the Federation?" Ji Yucheng asked in a whisper.

"No." Jiang Chen negated him. "We'll personally go and take a look."

"I'm willing to be your guide," Ji Yucheng said fawningly.

"We'll talk about this later." Jiang Chen waved him off in annoyance.

Just then, Sun Xiaorou in her kinetic skeleton came inside the room.

"There are survivors outside of the outpost. They say they are ambassadors from the Federation."

"Is it Xu Chengwei?" Ji Yucheng's eyes lit up.

Sun Xiaorou looked at Jiang Chen and received confirmation from his eyes. She then nodded. "I think that's the name."

"He is the advisor for our president; I can introduce you to him." Ji Yucheng looked at Jiang Chen with his white teeth showing. "He should be here to negotiate with the water treatment plant clan. But now that I'm saved by you, the ransom should belong to you."

"We don't think you can pay a lot of ransom. As the payment for saving you, I'm only going to ask you two things," Jiang Chen took out the notebook from his pocket, "Quantum computer research institute. Doctor Sun."

Unfortunately, Ji Yucheng couldn't give Jiang Chen a satisfactory answer.

Doctor Sun was at the capital of the Federation, other than that he knew nothing. As to the quantum computer research institute, he never even heard about it before.

But Advisor Xu made up Jiang Chen's regret and gave satisfactory answers to both questions.

"The quantum computer research institute is located inside Empire and is controlled by Qingyun High Technology Park with security robots around the perimeter. Other than some quantum computer production technology and equipment before the war, there is nothing worth salvaging."

To most of the survivors, the sophisticated quantum computer offered no value.

"Doctor Sun is currently living in Qingshan Arena, the capital declared by the Federation. Based on rumors, Doctor Sun is not a human, but instead a digitalized human. He has lived inside the arena for eighteen years without any change to his appearance. The lone travelers and merchant fleets hold high praises about him, whether it is his medicine or his character."

"Very intriguing information." Jiang Chen nodded, pleased, "thank you for your cooperation, Advisor Xu."

"My pleasure." The tall and slim man shook his head. He then scanned the door before lowering his voice. "But in return, we hope you can do us a small favor."

"Go ahead. As long as I can help you."

"The head of Ji Yucheng."

"No problem… wait, what did you say?"

"He is currently in your hands so it should be pretty easy for you right?"

The glasses on his nose reflected a menacing light. The triangular eyes resembled a snake's.

Xu Chengwei put a stuffed bag on the table.

"There are 310 points of crystals inside, Mr. President wants to buy his life."

Chapter 626: A Worthless Person in Imposing Attire

310 crystals…

When Jiang Chen saw Xu Weicheng putting the bag of crystals on the table, his mouth twitched and he resisted the urge to laugh.

This was equivalent to a poor man asking a rich man: do you want to make 10 dollars?

Seeing as Jiang Chen had no reaction, Xu Weicheng was silent before he took back the sack of crystals. "Please consider it carefully. If you're willing to help us with this small favor, you'll gain the friendship of the president."

The advisor of the Federation courteously bowed before departing.

Jiang Chen deliberated the words of the advisor before making the decision not to execute Ji Yucheng.

The guy was quite unlucky; he thought the people from the Federation were there to save him, but it wasn't a ransom they brought. Instead, it was money to purchase his coffin. It was also the "President's" executive order.

News of the destruction of the water treatment plant thugs quickly spread.

The local survivors all exercised enough caution toward the mysterious but powerful foreign organization, NAC. It was only when they discovered that NAC had no other motives and just built walls below the airship that they started to loosen up.

The bolder villages sent their men out and attempted to approach the camp. When they confirmed they weren't under attack, the local survivors started to interact with the soldiers in kinetic skeletons.

They had to do that.

Because of the sudden spike in the "tribute," their water supply had been cut for a long time.

While they were close to the Gan River, the water in the wasteland wasn't drinkable. This was due to the greenish-yellow cloud in the air. Without the ability to access purified water from the water treatment plant, they could only hope they had powerful stomachs to supplement the meager amount of distilled water.

"We're hoping you could open the water valve of the water treatment plant. Our village has lost access to water for half a month… Of course, we'll pay." An elder in a grey jacket handed Jiang Chen a bug containing only a few crystals as he carefully asked Jiang Chen.

He was the representative elected by the nearby village, the mayor of Hamster Village.

"What's your name?" Jiang Chen didn't take the stuffed bag. Instead, he looked into the cloudy eyes of the old man.

"Zhu Baojin," the elder replied prudently.

"Okay, Zhu Baojin." Jiang Chen smiled, "Tell your villagers that NAC has occupied the water treatment plant. I don't need your crystals. If you want water, swear your allegiance."

Jiang Chen handed him the NAC economic autonomous policy to him, sent him outside the military outpost and watched him escorted by two men with hunting rifles. While the rural area didn't have a lot of zombies, there were dangerous mutants here, like Death Claws for example. An elder without any combat ability wouldn't have come alone.

Sun Xiaorou stood beside Jiang Chen and asked curiously.

"Will they agree?"

"They have no reason to reject." Jiang Chen laughed. "Our proposed conditions could be described as heaven-sent."

NAC collected no taxes on agricultural products in the economic zone, and the governance of the economic zone was based on a mix of local governance and supervising representative.

"Is it?" With her finger on her lips, Sun Xiaorou smiled. "Speaking of which, brother-in-law, don't forget the primary purpose of this trip."

"Fallout Shelter 071, I know." Jiang Chen tousled Xiaorou's luscious hair.

Sun Xiaorou closed her eyes while enjoying the warmth of his big hand.

"Brother-in-law isn't mad at me, right?"

"Mad at you?"

"..."

"In the morning… I purposely shot that female raider."

"I know." Jiang Chen didn't understand.

"Didn't you feel pity?" Sun Xiaorou tilted her head.

"Pity?"

"She's the leader of a force. Did you not fantasize about humiliating her in front of her subordinates and enjoying the expression on her face?" Sun Xiaorou said all this with an innocent expression.

"… I'm not that monstrous." Jiang Chen facepalmed.

"Eh?" Sun Xiaorou covered her mouth and made a surprised expression.

"…"

"Haha, sorry, I'll make it up to you tonight." Seeing as Jiang Chen didn't say anything, Xiaorou patted him on the shoulder with a grin.

Jiang Chen really couldn't scold her when she had such innocent-looking eyes.

…

While the water treatment plant was abandoned for many years, most of the equipment inside was operating autonomously. However, when Jiang Chen attempted to open the water valve, he discovered the valve was stuck. After conducting an investigation with the drone, they discovered that below the membrane of the tank were the eggs of a Mud Crab.

And the location of the valve happened to be clogged with the corpse of a Mud Crab.

Mud Crabs were extremely difficult to deal with and posed a higher threat than Death Claws in tight quarters. The sharp claws could even sever steel as they had a sturdy shell comparable to steel. With such a natural advantage, they didn't want to eat detritus anymore and began to feast on any living creatures approaching them.

Based on the few bodies in the water, the raiders hadn't purposely hiked the prices; that was their temporary solution because they couldn't deal with the crabs.

Under the command of Wang Zhaowu, ten soldiers in kinetic skeletons entered the water tank, accompanied by two soldiers with flamethrowers and a few Hummingbird drones to engage in fierce battle with the Mud Crabs.

Reality soon proved that the Mud Crabs were far more difficult to deal with compared to the water treatment plant thugs who only bullied civilians. With hard shells, they weren't afraid of bullets and even forced the NAC team to retreat a few times.

Jiang Chen then ordered the soldiers to unload a few combustion missiles from the airship. They stuck aluminum heating agents to them and dropped them with drones.

The gate was shut tight.

With the drones in position, Jiang Chen unleashed the missiles.

What happened was obvious.

When the soldiers broke through the scorching steel gate, the boiling water vapor burst out from the edges of the door and carried the aroma of cooked crabs.

When the temperature cooled down, a few brave ones jumped inside with a net and took out the curled Mud Crabs.

There were thirty in total!

This made the food-loving soldiers particularly ecstatic.

The logistics team on the airship was comprised of a few chefs who worked in the Fishbone cafeteria. Since they killed so many Mud Crabs that couldn't be preserved for long, Jiang Chen ordered the chefs to set up a few giant pots in the middle of the campground, to the cheers of the soldiers. Along with a few boxes of alcohol taken from the water treatment plant, the soldiers enjoyed a nice treat.

Mud Crabs were one of the few delicacies in the wasteland!

While the meat is poisonous, the crab roe is amazing. It smelled great and tasted soft, and it was rumored to make men last longer too…

But the soldiers would have to solve their problems themselves since only Jiang Chen had the opportunity to take care of his needs.

At night, around the giant pot.

Jiang Chen, along with the soldiers of his private forces, ate the crab roe while chatting with Zhao Chaowu.

"What do you think about Federation and Empire?"

"Not much."

"Oh?"

"They dare to call themselves Federation and Empire with such a small plot of land; it seems comical." Wang Zhaowu laughed.

"Haha, I don't disagree with you." Jiang Chen took a swig of the fruit champagne made on Coro Island.

"Why don't we use 'the Hammer of Order' to give them a round? The 100-kilogram bomb could really make them reevaluate themselves," Wang Zhaowu jokingly suggested.

The 100-kilogram bomb was just like a meteor. If a 10-kilogram bomb could take out a vehicle, a 100-kilogram bomb could collapse a building.

Jiang Chen only smiled.

Airship diplomacy was part of diplomacy.

If necessary, he would consider this.

Not far away, Ji Yucheng, who was wanted by the President, also enjoyed some crab roe and alcohol.

But despite the delicacy and booze, there was no smile on his face.

"Buddy, don't waste the booze. How about you give me half?" The soldier beside him finished his drink and patted Ji Yucheng's shoulder with a grin, but Ji Yucheng's eyes were focused on the bowl.

"That's enough! General already said the soldiers patrolling at night and in the morning are only permitted to drink half a bowl. Take it easy." His comrade punched him on the shoulder and reminded him.

The rules of the Third Division were no joke.

"Don't be so stingy. I was just joking." The soldier savored the taste of alcohol in his mouth as he spoke with displeasure.

Ji Yucheng suddenly stood up and pushed the two bowls in front of them.

"You guys can have it."

Then he walked straight to Jiang Chen, leaving the two dumbfounded soldiers behind.

Chapter 627: The Password to Immortality

"Mr. Jiang Chen, I need your help."

Stopped in front of Jiang Chen, Ji Yucheng's head was lowered and his voice was even lower.

"Help? Don't you think the fact that I didn't exchange your head for some crystals already did you a huge favor?" Looking at the gloomy Ji Yucheng, Jiang Chen smiled.

Just two hours ago, he experienced defeat, falling from cloud nine to hell.

He previously thought his president would pay the ransom in exchange for him; he hadn't imagined it was a conspiracy targeting him from the start. He thought carefully and realized how it was possible for lousy thugs to dare to execute a kidnapping on Federation's territory - if one permitted it to happen.

When he thought someone wanted to take his life, he didn't leave NAC's outpost although he felt afraid. If his president wanted his life, he wouldn't be safe wherever he went. The raiders in the area were more and less associated with that man. Unless he escaped to Empire to become a slave, his only option would be to leave the region.

He didn't just want to escape.

He wanted to seek revenge on the people who stabbed him in the back.

NAC was his last chance.

Ji Yucheng took a deep breath and slowly said, "Just three days ago, I got drunk at the bar in the city then I was taken outside of the city by someone…"

"Do you think I want to listen to your story?"

Ji Yucheng was clearly struggling to make a decision. Finally, he made up his mind, took a deep breath, and said, "Are you not curious why they want my life?"

"Because of power?"

Ji Yucheng shook his head.

"Because of a secret."

Jiang Chen looked intrigued. He looked at the wretched parliament member.

"Oh? What secret?"

"If you promise to kill Federation's president… and advisor... kill all the bastards and I'll tell you the secret."

"You're too confident. NAC isn't a killing organization," Jiang Chen ridiculed him.

"But you're merchants, right? The vehicles of all the merchants from Wanghai have NAC's symbol."

"That's not wrong," Jiang Chen put the alcohol aside and looked at him. "If you can convince me, I can even make you the president. But if you're just throwing me a hook to trick me into helping you, I'll regretfully tell you that there are no such good things in life."

"A password," Ji Yucheng said.

"What password?"

"The password to immortality."

...

With Jiang Chen's response and the same money sack, Zhu Baojin returned to Hamster Village.

He didn't say anything to his villagers who had hopeful faces. Instead, he gathered the villagers of the nearby survival camps for a short meeting.

While they were still unsettled, the survivors accepted Jiang Chen's terms and expressed their willingness to join NAC to become an economic zone under NAC's jurisdiction, controlled by the military government.

It didn't take long for them to feel glad to make the decision.

Just as Jiang Chen promised, NAC didn't need deprived people like them to pay much dues.

Aside from a team of NAC soldiers patrolling each village daily to purchase supplies like concrete, crystal, and mutated fruit, their lives were almost unaffected. Or rather, with NAC's presence, the number of raiders and mutated humans decreased drastically.

On the seventh day after AS Order arrived in Hucheng's rural area, a U-shaped airship landing tower was built on the empty plot of land between the military outpost and water treatment plant.

At the same time, a second blimp arrived at the military outpost and brought along the first batch of supplies.

The supplies included ammunition, living necessities, and food that made all the soldiers cheer! Even if the supplies were just compressed crackers, they'd be happy as long as it wasn't sour-tasting nutrient supply. In this depressing world, what else was more joyful than having a full stomach?

The extra food was exchanged with local survivors. A box of compressed crackers could be exchanged for up to a bag of concrete, ten crystals, or a full night of service from a survivor gal. NAC's rules didn't permit prostitution, but a willing trade between two parties was allowed as long as it took place outside of work hours.

Since soldiers are humans too, being suppressed for too long could cause other problems.

The survivors wouldn't eat the exchanged compressed crackers; they could sell them for at least 20 crystals in the city. Often times, there was no supply at all.

After the survivors gained approval from Jiang Chen, they established tents in front of the military outpost and formed a sizable market. Merchant fleets occasionally passing by would take a look to purchase useful goods.

The blimp only stopped for one day at the outpost before carrying the 54 female slaves rescued from the prison back to Wanghai.

With the arrival of the second blimp, the major forces in Hucheng all took on a cautious attitude. They previously thought NAC was only passing by, but with the establishment of an outpost and arrival of supplies, they looked like they planned to stay.

Both Empire and Federation sent scouts to the military outpost. They scattered throughout the market and closely monitored the actions of the foreigners.

…

Inside the city, presidential palace.

"NAC has only 500 people in their forces, but their equipment is extremely sophisticated with at least one kinetic skeleton per person." Inside the old office, Xu Chengwei reported to the president.

"What about power armors? Do they have power armors?" Sitting on the chair belonging to the president; Li Zhenping asked what he was most concerned about.

Since they inherited the power armor belonging to the land forces, Federation wasn't at a disadvantage against Empire's human flood tactics; they were also Federation's strongest combat units.

Xu Chengwei thought before replying.

"They also have power armors… but they don't look like they are produced from before the war. They look handmade."

"Therefore, their combat ability is inferior to ours."

"Not necessarily. They also have a steel airship with an unknown purpose."

Li Zhenping scoffed.

[What age is this? Who still uses junk like an airship? Who would give them the opportunity to fly above their heads? Not to mention the anti-air machineguns - even a cannon could take that thing out.]

"Is Mr. Ji dead?"

"We don't know - NAC hasn't contacted us yet. We also cannot infiltrate the military outpost," Xu Weicheng said.

…

Qingshan Arena, the "palace" at the highest point of the stand.

"… Emperor, we already detected that the NAC forces located at the water treatment plant have around 500 people. They are equipped with advanced technology." The retro-looking man had one knee on the ground while he reported to the man sitting in the gold chair.

"I want to know the combat abilities of that airship." The man in the golden chair had his legs crossed, giving off no emperor vibes at all. Just like Ji Yucheng said, they were just a bunch of raiders ten years ago who now just expanded.

Although they used "palace" and "dragon suit" to disguise their past, these words didn't change their nature. Looking at their words and actions, the discord was evident.

"We don't currently know."

The Empire put his leg down and stood up, smashing the chair.

"Pass my order: gather the elders to discuss a strategy."

"Roger!"

Chapter 628: Fallout Shelter 071

Fallout Shelter 071, located in Hucheng, stood in the barren land south of Wuyang Town near the small hill by the Fu River. It had a depth of 1000 meters.

Precisely speaking, the geological formation of the area wasn't suitable for building deep fallout shelters, but the project was approved before 2150. At that time, the global situation was trending positively with rapid developments in aerospace technology. All the countries were working together and no one believed in war. The local government only built the shelter in order to meet the targets set by PAC. It wasn't until 2155 when the local government realized the fallout shelter project was no joke that they reinforced some of the poorly-made ones used to meet the target. By 2160, Hucheng finally built enough fallout shelters with a capacity of ten million people.

On the way to the fallout shelter, the abandoned maglev train was still visible.

The place was covered in grass and weeds with thorns tangled around the track. The wolves hiding in the dark scratched their sharp claws and exposed their fangs at the approaching NAC soldiers.

"Is this the hometown of Sun Jiao?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly while staring at the stone sign corroded by acid rain.

The letters and were no longer clear. The sheds around the train station still showed the marks of bullets and combustion.

"You could say that since we were born in this fallout shelter." Sun Xiaorou's face was pensive as she gently caressed the stone sign.

Just like touching a tomb of the deceased.

The tomb belonged to a civilization.

"General, be careful."

Li Wang noticed the wolves hidden among the bushes. He raised his rifle along with two other private force soldiers and stood in front of Jiang Chen and Sun Xiaorou.

"Awhooo—"

The pack of wolves realized they were noticed. They jumped out howling with their bloody mouths wide open.

The soldiers pressed the trigger calmly and turned the wolves into nothing.

"Good job." Jiang Chen patted Li Wang on the shoulder. "But make sure you remember to call me captain here."

"Yes!" Li Wang nodded.

"Guard the door. We'll be out before night." Jiang Chen noticed it wasn't noon yet and instructed the soldiers behind him.

Li Wang looked troubled at being left outside.

"I have to disobey the order - I'm responsible for your safety."

"What danger could there be in an abandoned fallout shelter? There will probably only be a few mutated cockroaches at most?"

"But—"

"No buts. This is an order."

Seeing Jiang Chen's decisive attitude, Li Wang had to comply. He organized the soldiers to position the vehicles in front of the door and created a temporary blockade. He agreed with Jiang Chen that if Jiang Chen wasn't out by six in the evening, he'd bring people down for support.

The reason why he didn't take people down wasn't because of his confidence in his own abilities but because of considerations.

The secret to immortality was destined to only be controlled by a few.

…

Fortunately, the elevator was still functional.

It took half a minute before the elevator stopped at the bottom. Jiang Chen then saw the gate to Fallout Shelter 071.

Every fallout shelter had a different design, but the structures were mostly the same.

The gear-shaped gate was wide open. From the thick dust on the ground, the place had been deserted for a long time. A body against the door was wearing a blue uniform. From the bloodstain on the chest, the person must've died of a gun wound.

"The raiders' attack was unexpected. The director ordered security to attack back, but a manmade fire made everything turn into chaos. Sister ran outside and encountered a PLA female warrior when she wandered around the shambles… Sister must've told you all this."

"That's right." Jiang Chen nodded.

"Retro ideologists" in the Hua area, they were organized under the previous flags and strictly forced themselves to abide by glory and virtue. They attempted to recreate the magnificent country in these shambles. But up until now, Jiang Chen still hadn't seen them.

"What about you?"

Sun Xiaorou shook her head.

"It happened too long ago; my memory of that incident is cloudy. I just vaguely remember… it was the Dusk Church who took me in."

"If it's a sorrowful past, don't think about it," Jiang Chen said quietly.

"Brother-in-law is so gentle." Xiaorou smiled,"I'm so envious that sister met you first."

"Let's get moving." Jiang Chen dry-coughed to mask the awkwardness. He raised his gun and walked into the fallout shelter first.

With her finger tapping her lips out of habit, Sun Xiaorou's mouth was curved up with joy. She then slid down the graphene glasses on the helmet and followed.

The fallout shelter was completely dark inside without even basic lighting. The nuclear fusion fuel rod was used up a long time ago and the two could only use the headlights on their helmets.

"The layout is similar to Fallout Shelter 027." Jiang Chen picked up a diary and brushed the dust off.

He put the diary on the table nearby. With his rifle loaded, he continued to press forward.

"Screech—"

A sharp screech broke out through the darkness. Jiang Chen immediately turned his rifle to lock onto the source of the sound only to discover a few fat rats squeezed into the corner.

"They're mutated rats. Unless they're very hungry, they typically won't attack humans," Sun Xiaorou said.

"We should still be careful." Jiang Chen let out a sigh and opened the life signal detector on the helmet. "The big crab even ate people."

While it was in the distant past, since she lived there for a long time, Sun Xiaorou still had memories of the layout of the fallout shelter.

Due to a lack of electricity, the elevator inside the fallout shelter wasn't functional. The two of them chose to use safety stairs instead.

The dark corners hid unknown dangers, but they were lucky to encounter merely a cow-sized mutated spider and nothing more dangerous.

Their kinetic skeletons were too strong for the fangs of the spider. Its giant mouth suddenly attacked him from the darkness, making Jiang Chen jump before the unlucky spider's head was chopped off by Sun Xiaorou's dagger. After taking care of the fluid on his arm, he discovered only shallow teeth marks on the armor covering his left arm.

To prevent accidents from occurring, when he passed by the spider web, Jiang Chen crushed all the spider eggs.

Finally, the two of them arrived at the office of the director in the deepest part of the fallout shelter.

Everything related to the fallout shelter was recorded there.

As the brain of the fallout shelter, the electricity system was independent from the exterior; it was supplied by a separate battery.

"I don't understand one thing - how did Federation know the password? It was obtained by a small parliament member and their president felt the need to shut him up," Jiang Chen said while typing the password into the terminal.

"Yet Federation's president, who knew the password, didn't come here after all this time." Sun Xiaorou pondered.

"Could it be that they don't know the location of the fallout shelter?"

"It doesn't look like it." Sun Xiaorou shook her head.

The moment the door of the office was opened, a light on the wall lit up and sent the darkness away.

At the same time, a gentle female voice entered their ears.

"Thank you for using Fallout Shelter Technology. Fallout Shelter Technology will do its best to serve you."

"What's going on?!" Jiang Chen pulled out his rifle and cautiously pointed at his surroundings.

"The power system reactivated? That's impossible - the fallout shelter should be out of power already…" Staring at the screen on the wall, Sun Xiaorou muttered.

Chapter 629: The Director's Diary

The two waited for a long time at the door with their rifles pointed at the entrance not far away.

But after a long wait, there was nothing.

"Someone entered the power room to replace the fuel rod? That's impossible… Li Wang is guarding the entrance of the fallout shelter; no one should've been able to come in." Jiang Chen put the rifle behind his back. He took out a drone terminal from the storage dimension and placed it behind a wall.

Ten Hummingbird drones flew out from the "hive" and hovered around the walkways.

"Why did you take out the drones?" Sun Xiaorou was curious.

"It feels eerie being so empty inside. Let the drones guard us. We can search for useful information in the meantime." Jiang Chen set the patrol order on the terminal, scanned the dark entrance, and walked toward the door.

When he passed through the metal door, he saw a skeleton in a director's uniform. There was a pistol along with a diary beside him. It looked like a suicide.

"Someone came here before us not long ago." Sun Xiaorou used her gun to poke the chest of the skeleton before she spoke with her eyebrows furrowed.

"Why do you say so?" Jiang Chen picked up the diary on the ground.

"These clothes, don't you find something odd about them?"

"What's odd?"

"The office of the director is the command center of the fallout shelter. The door we just passed by has a UV bacteria cleansing device installed, making this room free of bacteria. Inside a sealed environment without bacteria, the decomposition of bodies is extremely slow. While ten years is a long time, it's not long enough for his body to have become this," Sun Xiaorou said.

It made sense.

While ten years was a long time, the body shouldn't have decomposed to this extent. And based on Sun Jiao's memories, the director should've been in the camp above ground, leading security forces in fighting the raiders. There was no reason for him to be there.

For some reason, someone dragged the body of the director from the surface back down to the shelter. Or maybe they used some other body and just changed the body into the director's uniform.

Jiang Chen examined his surroundings, attempting to look for some clues from the environment.

Unfortunately, he didn't possess any detective skills.

"Someone came here, moved the body of the director here, and took something out," Jiang Chen muttered while looking at the diary in his hands. "And also left this diary."

"That's the only explanation." With her finger on her lips, Sun Xiaorou's eyebrows knitted together. "Perhaps Federation's president came here already and changed the fuel rod in the power room when he came. That's why the fallout shelter suddenly lit up when we activated the door to the director's office? Since he already got what he wanted here, then he naturally wouldn't mind Ji Yucheng leaking the password and just wanted to kill him to protect the secret to eternal life… But that doesn't make sense. If he really wanted to keep that a secret, there was no reason for him to leave a diary as a clue."

Jiang Chen fell into deep thought staring at the diary in his hands.

He pulled out a chair to sit down and flipped the diary open. He was surprised to discover the bottom of each page was blocked out by dark squares in black pen. The dates were artificially hidden for some unknown reason.

...

This feeling is inexplicable. It feels as if civilized society entered a forest and the outside is completely dark to us. In order for us to survive, we have to strangle our own throats, stuff our ears to not make any sounds, and distrust any information that could be fake.

Until we reach the year the lock expires, the door of the fallout shelter won't open.>

He did show me a signed document from my superior.

Since I was bored, I agreed to his request. The one condition I set was not to endanger the lives of the fallout shelter residents. As the director of the fallout shelter, that's my duty.>

It was ridiculous. While I'm the director, that doesn't mean I have the authority to do whatever I want.

He threatened me and said this is the highest order from my superior. Once the fallout shelter is locked down for the long-term, the plan must be executed. If I reject the order, it would be viewed as treason.>

I unwillingly told everyone that the survivors on the list were diagnosed with a dangerous genetic disease; they'll be forced to enter the hibernation chamber to wait for future treatment.

There is a little girl on the list. It's too cruel to take away the child from her parents, so I took her name off the list… Did I do a good deed?

Fortunately, the mission was successfully completed without causing massive panic in the fallout shelter. The XXX experiment officially began, and all the frozen popsicles in the hibernation chambers are his experiment subjects.>

…

…

I discovered in a confined environment that people are far more fragile than they think.

We can't drag this on any longer; we have to leave this place.

Once this place reaches the lowest possible standard of confinement, we'll leave.

The darkness is suffocating.>

...

There were many pages torn from the diary, and it only recorded the first two years after the fallout shelter closed.

But just from the brief sentences, Jiang Chen still managed to decipher the information hidden in this diary.

Another observer?

Academician Qin was one too. He used Fallout Shelter 027 to simulate changes in a civilization in an isolated environment.

He began suspecting that all the fallout shelters performed near-crazy experiments.

"Xiaorou?" Jiang Chen put down the diary and deeply inhaled.

"Mhmm?"

"Do you still remember life in the fallout shelter?"

"Most of my memories are cloudy, but I remember everything about sister clearly. Sister was really cute back then."

"It's not about Sun Jiao… do you remember that a lot of people went missing one year?"

Sun Xiaorou shook her head and facepalmed at Jiang Chen's question.

"Brother in law, notice the time. The diary recorded that the experiments were completed one year and nine weeks after the closure. I wasn't born yet."

Jiang Chen took a moment to process that before he realized.

He closed the diary and stood up.

"It's getting late. Since there are no clues here… it's time to go."

Sun Xiaorou still wasn't convinced. She searched the office carefully but still couldn't find any useful clues.

She gritted her teeth and had a defeated expression.

"Looks like we came here for nothing."

"Not necessarily." Jiang Chen patted the diary. "We still managed to find some useful information."

"The diary might not be true. Both the location of the diary and the obvious changes make it look too coincidental," Sun Xiaorou reminded him.

"I know." Jiang Chen nodded. "But this is the only clue. We just need to find that observer… if he's alive."

The whereabouts of the observer weren't recorded in the diary. Perhaps it was recorded originally but ripped out. If he wasn't dead, the secret of immortality should be in his hands. But when he thought about that, Jiang Chen began to have a headache.

It was more difficult to find someone in the wasteland than fighting the Mother of Death Claws.

Chapter 630: "Empire's Capital"

Before they left, Jiang Chen and Sun Xiaorou went to the power room and hibernation center separately.

Just as Sun Xiaorou suspected, someone came to the fallout shelter to install a new fuel rod for the place. The person even lived there for an extended period of time but for some reason, or perhaps because he reached his goal, he left.

And it had been years.

After he left, he shut down power to the fallout shelter until Jiang Chen entered the password at the terminal to finally wake up the dormant Fallout Shelter 071.

"Immortality, or at least extending life, is part of the intergalactic colonization plan, although it isn't necessary. The Dusk Church attempted to take me here, and they did get here. But because they didn't know the password to the office, they could do nothing about the things inside."

"Could the door not be blown open?" Jiang Chen asked.

Based on what Han Junhua said, the door of the office at Fallout Shelter 027 was opened through force.

"Not unless it was permitted by design. Otherwise, even if you blew up the entire fallout shelter, you might not even blow open this room." Sun Xiaorou sighed.

Jiang Chen processed that information and shook his head.

"This is too dark."

He was referring to both this place thousand meters below the surface and the fallout shelter itself.

Sun Xiaorou grinned and continued the topic.

"The Church finally did collect some interesting clues outside the fallout shelter. For example, the experiments of the observer and the director refusing to continue with the experiment involved a girl."

"The girl took off the list mentioned in the diary?"

"It's possible." Sun Xiaorou nodded seriously. "Since she was chosen as an experimental subject, there should be something unique about her."

"Observer, girl… only these two clues?"

Jiang Chen searched through the entire fallout shelter without finding the lab mentioned in the diary.

Sun Xiaorou carefully sifted through her memories from when she was young and had no recollection of the lab at all.

The horrific experiments conducted by the observer were brought to the grave along with the abandonment of Fallout Shelter 071.

But aside from the secret to immortality, the two also found some "interesting" stuff.

One experimental quantum computer, a taken-apart soilless plantation device, and some stuff only available in the fallout shelter.

It was a pleasant surprise to find a quantum computer there as most of the abandoned fallout shelters had been razed through by scavengers. The electronic parts and special material of the quantum computer could be used for weapons.

Since the quantum computer hadn't been uncovered by scavengers, that meant it was hidden well.

The two took a stroll in the fallout shelter. After confirming there was no other useful stuff, they left marks on the items that needed to be moved.

Along with the diary, Jiang Chen and Xiaorou stood in the elevator as they returned to the surface. When he pressed the start button, he raised his left arm and glanced at the time on the EP.

It was precisely six.

When they arrived at the surface, the soldiers all went to greet him.

"General, if you didn't come out just now, we would've gone down." Li Wang was relieved when he saw Jiang Chen.

"It's already this late?" Jiang Chen looked up.

The day had turned completely dark. It looked like it was about to rain.

"What are you planning to do with the fallout shelter?" Sun Xiaorou asked.

"Temporarily take control of the place, and at least maintain an inspection station here… as well as a cemetery," Jiang Chen said while scanning the bodies all around.

With a gracious smile, Sun Xiaorou gently nodded.

"Mhmm."

He ordered Li Wang along with five soldiers to guard the place as Jiang Chen entered the vehicle and returned to the military outpost.

Before dark, a helicopter would arrive, bringing supplies and backup.

…

Qingshan Arena, the capital of Empire.

In the beginning, Empire wasn't called Empire but had a plain name – Qingshan Survivors Gathering. The people there were nowhere close to nice, they occasionally did some mercenary work while being raiders in the dark.

But the villages west of Gan River formed an alliance and referred to themselves as Federation. They elected a President through voting and established a wireless base station to launch propaganda at nearby residents. The survivors at Qingshan saw this, used the opportunity to clear their name and adopted a different name.

With the principle that they would never be inferior to their arch enemy, Federation, they referred to themselves as Empire.

Using the ideology of rebuilding civilization, and promoting openness and freedom to attract merchants and population growth in the region, Federation gradually became a wealthy gathering spot. But with the increase in traffic, loose laws, corruption, and crime prospered there and spread to every corner of Federation like a plague.

Everything there could be bought with a clear price tag.

Whether it was the position of president or the head of a parliament member.

The contrary was true for Empire. With their origins as raiders, they had the thug tradition all along, so they took the route of centralized power.

They gathered a group of raiders and gave "stocks" to powerful mercenaries then they accepted the mutated human's tribe as their own. People with histories of crime could become accomplices to share power while the honest could only work hard. The clear social structure was simple, yet it established a primal power pyramid.

As for who would be the emperor, patrilineal succession would definitely not work. Otherwise, the bosses of the raiders and mercenaries wouldn't be pleased. Then who should be the emperor?

The first leader was an intelligent leader. He dug out the crown abdication system (1) embedded deep in history.

Everyone could be the emperor, and everyone took turns being the emperor.

Federation and Empire.

It was hard to say who was more heinous and who was more civilized.

Since this was the wasteland, it was a dumpster.

"This is the history of Empire and Federation." A mercenary with a PK2000 rifle on his back took Zhao Baodong to pass through the gates while explaining the history.

Zhao Baodong, an ex-Qingpu survivor. He joined Fishbone Base with the Hunter Division and cleared out the bacterial source with Jiang Chen long ago. But he wasn't as well off as his friend Ma Zhongcheng; that guy already became the head of the Hunter Divison, and he was only the captain of a reconnaissance platoon.

He couldn't be blamed since he made the wrong decision from the beginning. The first survivor community Jiang Chen visited was his, and what did he do? Not only did he reject the proposal to fight with him, but he took out a recoilless cannon and asked Jiang Chen to leave…

Jiang Chen didn't seek responsibility from him in the end.

While a gun was pointed at Zhao Baodong, he cooperated. Without the Qingpu survivors, the X2 bacteria source couldn't have been eliminated by the power armors alone.

If he could achieve success in his missions, he thought he could get promoted. Therefore he requested to go to Hucheng and boarded the supply blimp with the reconnaissance platoon.

After he entered the gate, he stood in front of the arena.

The mercenary eyed him, the guard with a homemade rifle also looked at him.

Zhao Baodong immediately took out four grain-sized crystals from his pocket with a smile and stuffed them into the guard's hand. He then pointed at the mercenary beside him.

"Together."

Without saying anything, the guard tossed the crystal on the detector, and the number stopped at four.

Zhao Baodong looked reminiscent, watching the number jumping up and down on the crystal detector.

The Sixth Street hadn't used this equipment for a very long time; the entire Suhang Province had no trace of this device at all. People all used NAC's credit points to purchase goods, so crystals became a product instead.

That was why a lot of soldiers were unwilling to be sent here. Compared to the "advanced" Wanghai, this was an undeveloped mountainous range.

Still, without speaking, the guard waved his gun and looked at the survivors behind the two of them.

The mercenary beside Zhao Baodong immediately dragged on his sleeves to signal he could pass.

"Do we not need to hand in our weapons when we enter the city?"

"No need. You only need to do that when you enter the palace," the mercenary said.

"Palace?" Zhao Baodong paused for a second.

"It's right there." At the end of the hall, the mercenary pointed at the highest point of the arena.

Stepping into the open arena, an explosion of scenery instantly entered his vision.

The wide field had no grass on it. Instead, it was replaced by markets, houses, and even fruit gardens. The place was surrounded by "natural" walls guarding the place like city walls. On the tall stand was Empire's flag.

This was the capital.

Worth mentioning was that the arena of the 22nd century was much bigger compared to the 21st century. It was comparable to a nine-hole golf course.

Including the area underground, the arena could hold a total of 50 thousand people.

This was the center of Empire.

"Thank you, buddy. If there's anything you don't need, you can find me at the bar. Before I accept new mercenary missions, I'll be there." The mercenary waved at him and disappeared down the street.

Based on their agreement, Zhao Baodong would pay a two crystal gate tax and the mercenary would bring Zhao Baodong here while giving him a vivid "history lesson."

It was extremely worth it for Zhao Baodong to purchase such valuable information with just two crystals.

While the mission budget was generous, it was better to use crystals at critical points.

He took a piece of paper from his pocket and confirmed the task Jiang Chen gave him for the last time before he headed to the hostel. He needed to find a place to stay to organize the information he already gathered then he would transmit the information wirelessly to the military outpost.

Chapter 631: The Sudden Alarm

When Jiang Chen and the group returned to the military outpost, the cooks were beginning to clean up the cooking pots.

The logistics personnel saw that the general had come back and immediately greeted him, asking if they should fire up the pots again.

But Jiang Chen rejected his good intention and took Sun Xiaorou to the direction of the general room.

"The day before yesterday was pizza, yesterday was spaghetti, what are we going to eat today?" On the way back, Sun Xiaorou had a smile on her face while she said happily with a finger on her lips.

It was a lavish problem for the people of the wasteland.

"What about seafood fried rice?"

Although fried rice doesn't taste too great after reheating, Jiang Chen wanted rice.

"Eh, noooo. I still want to eat pizza." Sun Xiaorou hugged Jiang Chen's arm and used her innocent eyes to stare at Jiang Chen, a common tactic she used.

"Okay, okay, I said not to be coy here. It won't be good if other people saw this." Jiang Chen wanted to drag his arm out, but she naughtily hugged onto it tighter.

"So, what's the matter?" Sun Xiaorou teasingly blinked.

There were rarely people that passed by the general room with most of the patrols done by drones, so there was no need to worry about other people-

Just as Sun Xiaorou thought about that, she immediately made eye contact with Han Junhua, who was standing at the door.

Sun Xiaorou let him go, rolled out her tongue, and jumped aside.

Han Junhua slightly turned her head and spoke expressionlessly to Jiang Chen, "Do I need to leave for now?"

"No, no need." Jiang Chen awkwardly coughed. "Is something wrong?"

Since it was in a military outpost, while there was no one around, it was still considered out in public. Therefore, it wouldn't look good to be so intimate. As the general, he especially needed to be the role model.

Han Junhua nodded and handed him a thermos container.

"You just returned from the fallout shelter and you must still be hungry. I asked the cook to make extra."

But Jiang Chen didn't take the container and only stared at her blankly. Sun Xiaorou who stood beside him was only completely shocked.

"Is there something wrong?" Han Junhua was confused at the two's dumbfounded expressions.

"No, it is just that…" Regathering his thoughts, Jiang Chen smiled and took the container. "This is very unlike you."

"Is it?" While her face was still expressionless, he could read the confused emotion in her eyes.

At the same time, Jiang Chen could clearly sense the piercing gaze of the person standing beside him…

When Han Junhua left, the two returned to the room.

Opening the container, Jiang Chen looked at the rice and dishes divided clearly and squarely while a curvature appeared on his mouth.

The odd way of putting food was indeed Han Junhua's character.

With a few strands of hair dangling on his shoulder, Sun Xiaorou put her face beside Jiang Chen's. The vibrant red lips were mixed with some jealousy.

"Brother-in-law is so popular."

"Am I?"

"You are." Sun Xiaorou bit on Jiang Chen's ear, displeased. Then she murmured to herself, "Hmm… but if it is Sister Junhua, I don't think sister will mind."

Jiang Chen's eyebrows jumped and he threw the container into the storage dimension while feeling exasperated.

[This girl is becoming naughtier.]

If he doesn't "punish" her, where is the authority of the head of the family?

"Brother-in-law is angry? Ahhh—"

Jiang Chen suddenly stood up. Amongst Xiaorou's scream, he put her on his shoulder.

"Eh? Brother in law, what do you want to do?"

"Wait, wait wait, Xiaorou is hungry, could you wait for a bit?"

"No... QQ…"

"Gulp… Gulp…"

[Humph, now you're afraid? Too late]

Looking at the pouting Xiaorou, the evil Jiang Chen laughed.

…

The next morning, the second blimp arrived at Hucheng.

Other than bringing a large number of supplies, the blimp also brought NAC's most powerful drone units – Reptile and Python.

But based on what the captain said, their trip was not too peaceful.

When they flew over the Yellow Mountain, the blimp was attacked by anti-air machine guns. Fortunately, they were above the clouds. While some bullets struck the bottom of the blimp, the bullets at the end of its range didn't manage to do damage.

"The information of NAC using blimp to transport supplies was known by the survivors along the way. While we flew above the clouds, the radar could still easily capture such a large target. And our speed was not fast. Once we were locked in, we were just a moving target. Fortunately, they used machineguns and not anti-air cannons." Recalling what happened last night, the captain still felt frightened.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen thought of a solution.

"I'll send Aurora-20 to protect you."

With Aurora-20's air to land attack ability, it shouldn't be a problem to take out a few anti-air machine guns. Someone dares to plot against NAC's supplies? Do they think they lived long enough?

"That would be the best. They might use anti-air cannon next time." The captain smiled bitterly.

But sending out the fighter jet was not a long term solution.

Aurora-20's transport fuel had a long production amount, but the cost was daunting. A flying mission's cost was around 1000 credits per hour and thus the cost of a supply mission would drag that number up by several folds. It was probably more economical to purchase locally.

Before ending the conversation, Jiang Chen ordered him to stay for three days at the base and bring the quantum computer found in Fallout Shelter 071 back. All scientists at Fallout Shelter 027 used three experiment quantum computers in total, highlighting how much NAC lacked quantum computers.

And because of this, Jiang Chen was determined to control the quantum computer research institute.

Whether it was for the virtual reality network in the modern world or for the development of the NAC, he must control the production technology of the quantum computer.

"Is there any news of the quantum computer research institute?" Jiang Chen asked Wang Zhaowu in the office.

"We posted at the market outside of the outpost that information was wanted for the research institute, but we currently haven't received any useful information," Wang Zhaowu said regretfully.

Jiang Chen frowned.

The advisor of the Federation only told them the rough location, but the area from east of Gang River to the west of Panyang Lake was all "sovereignty" of the Empire. With such a massive area, where was he going to find the small institute?

Suddenly, the alarm outside began to ring.

Jiang Chen and Wang Zhaowu looked at each other.

They immediately stood up and headed out.

Chapter 632: The Mutated Human Tribe

"What happened?"

Walking to the gate of the outpost, Jiang Chen scanned the crowd in the distance with his eyes narrowed.

"It's the mutated humans." The soldier on duty saluted.

"Mutated humans?" Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, "If it is the mutated humans, why waste energy on speaking with them."

Ji Yucheng walked to Jiang Chen.

"Guru Tribe, they are the mutated human tribe of Empire." He pointed at the slanted flag, "That dragon flag is the flag of Empire."

The group was approaching and Jiang Chen saw the appearance of the group.

They were muscular giants with green skin; the muscles on their body were bulging out. They were covered in drapes and holed clothes with rifles that looked toothpick thin compared to their giant arms. The clothes looked improvised.

Only two or three mutated humans wielded armors made out of C-type steel with massive power armor in hand.

In Wanghai, the mutated humans and humans had an eternal grudge, but this didn't seem to be the case here.

When the survivors saw the mutated humans, while they looked afraid, they didn't display the fear on their faces.

"Should we fire?" Wang Zhaowu looked at Jiang Chen.

As long as he orders, the "Fireball-1" on the airship will turn the mutated monsters into flames.

"No rush. Let's hear what they have to say first. But if they continue to move forward, "Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed with a hint of coldness surfacing on his face, "then let our airship warn them."

The group of mutated humans, fortunately, didn't step onto the red line set by the NAC, they stopped before the airship fired.

Guro Tribe spread out eight hundred meters in front of the NAC outpost.

If they fought, it was the typical combat distance.

The crowd momentarily turned rowdy before a green-skinned muscular giant walked out. He had a flag in his right hand while he dragged a vicious dog in his left hand.

The survivors at the entrance of the market whispered to each other. They began to collect their stuff to avoid him.

Jiang Chen eyed his soldier.

Li Wang understood and walked in front of the mutated human. He raised his gun before the mutated human arrived.

"Please stop, it is NAC's territory up front."

"We are the delegate sent from Guru Tribe!" The mutated human roared in a loud voice. He looked at Jiang Chen. "We brought greetings from the elder."

"Oh? The greetings of the elder? Tell me about it." Jiang Chen looked at him.

"Since you're doing business in Guru Tribe's territory, then you must gift tribute to the magnificent Guru Elder!" The mutated human stabbed the flag on the ground, disgusting saliva was dripping out from his vicious fangs, "Or else, your action will be viewed as disrespectful to God!"

Jiang Chen and Zhao Chenwu exchanged eye contact and they simultaneously began to laugh.

"Rude humans," The mutated human's eyes widened and he threatened, "You don't know that in Empire's territory, you're all third tier people! Even if I rip you apart, the Emperor won't criticize me at all."

It was the first time in Empire's territory where he saw someone this disrespectful to mutated humans. Whether it was a lone traveler passing the area, or a survivor that lived there, anyone that dared to anger the mutated humans must pay serious consequences for their foolishness.

If they dared to fight back, it was viewed as an obstruction to the friendship between Empire and the mutated humans!

The soldiers of the Empire would haunt them till the border of Empire.

"Then did you tell your emperor that the people here haven't paid tax for a long time?" Wang Zhaowu mocked.

Would NAC be afraid of a bastard emperor?

The tax official of Empire arrived at Hamster Village days before and happened to meet the patrol team of the NAC. The consequence was obvious, because of the poor judgment of the unlucky tax official, he was beaten and thrown into the detention room.

From that day on, Empire didn't send another tax official there again. They didn't even dare to ask about NAC's invasion on their territory.

In front of cannons, a human's mind is a lot calmer compared to a mutated human's mind.

"Our elder doesn't care." The mutated human arrogantly raised his chest. "The Emperor declared this area belonged to our tribe, so you must pay tribute. If you reject, it will be viewed as disrespectful to Guru Tribe."

Jiang Chen burst out laughing again when he saw the cocky expression.

"In Wanghai, I heard that the head of mutated humans is not that great. It certainly is true from what I see today."

The mutated human ambassador was instantly enraged.

The mutated humans hated people humiliating their intelligence because the FEV virus does have the side effect of decreasing brain cell activity.

The hand dragged onto the iron shackle raised, he pointed it at Jiang Chen and shouted in anger.

"How dare you! Your humiliation will be viewed as provocative to Guru Tribe. I will let you know what is rage and cruelty— Ahhh!!!"

The severed arm spun in the air. The mutated human collapsed to the ground in pain, covering the place where his arm was as blood gushed out.

On the wall of the outpost, Sun Xiaorou gently smiled and moved the sniper rifle in her hands.

"You'll suffer if you're disrespectful to the NAC General."

The mutated dog escaped the shackle and immediately leaped at Jiang Chen's group, but the creature didn't manage to run two steps before it was gunned down by Li Wang.

The sudden change happened in an instant. No one expected the situation would suddenly turn into a crossfire.

Facing the "delegation" from mutated humans, they clearly didn't expect NAC's reaction being this violent. They even shot their ambassador.

That shot ignited their vengeance!

"AS Order. Aim at all mutated human units 800 meters from the outpost, fire!" Jiang Chen opened the radio and ordered with a merciless voice.

"Roar—"

Mutated humans screamed and unleashed their firepower at NAC's outpost.

The bullets with orange trials shredded the tents in the market, destroyed the frame, and hit the concrete wall of the outpost. The survivors that realized the situation was heading south already ran away, so the bullets didn't hit them.

But the rain of bullets didn't last for two seconds before being suppressed by the bullet hailstorm.

Four 12.76 mm machine guns unleashed fire and the waterfall of bullets exploded the dust on the ground and turned the fleeing mutated humans into meat chunks.

NAC soldiers hid behind the bunkers and fired back with their rifles. At the same time, Python drones were all activated and circled behind the mutated humans from the wing.

Behind the transparent graphene bunker, Jiang Chen looked at the hologram screen of thugs being slaughtered by the bullets from the sky with coldness.

[The policy of Empire spoiled them; they really think they are superior?]

NAC only had one policy when it came to the bloodthirsty thugs.

Kill!

After killing the mutants, throw their body into the incinerator chamber!

That is where they belong!

Chapter 633: Using Other's Knife to Kill

Capital, the Palace.

"Did Guru Tribe start fighting against the NAC?"

"My emperor, based on the scout at the frontline, the two sides are engaging in battle."

"Perfect." The Emperor nodded, a pleased smile appeared on the well-defined face.

After the last emperor's placate strategy, Guru Tribe began to expand. The previous force used as deterrence against Federation now became a tumor of Empire.

The mutated humans' population was not high from the start, it was not a big deal to give them some special rights. But based on this trend, the humans will be a minority. Empire would no longer be Empire.

Not including the mutated humans, the total population of Empire was around 150 thousand, but the growing population of mutated humans was 80 thousand. Could they still be considered a minority? Of course not.

Including the elders, discussion of including the cannibals inside Empire, and retaining their tradition was all out of consideration of balancing the power of the mutated humans.

But balance didn't seem to do the trick anymore.

With NAC's arrival at Hucheng and their blitz action to remove the raiders at the water treatment plant, they displayed their power and firm stance to the local forces.

The emperor first remained cautious to the external force, since the area of the water treatment plan was part of Empire's territory. However, then he gave it a thought and concluded the appearance of Order may not necessarily be bad, and it happened to solve a critical problem.

Empire didn't have strong control of the east rural area to begin with. If he declared the unnecessary area to the mutated human tribe, it not only would satisfy their growing appetite, but potentially would also cause the two to suffer great defeat.

Since Hucheng was still hundreds of kilometers from Wanghai, unless the NAC made up their mind to include this area into their territory, the casualties against Guru Tribe will force them to back away.

…

Different from the lousy thugs in the water treatment plant, while the mutated humans were not the brightest, their combat ability was not weak at all.

Or rather, the FEV virus already engraved the word "battle" into the genetics of these monsters. Just out of instinct, they could explode with combat ability no inferior to trained soldiers.

But the combat ability was not effective under the suppression of aerial firepower.

A few RPGs were launched out by the mutated humans to the air, but they quickly exploded under the laser anti-missile defense system. As to the machine guns firing into the air, they couldn't even leave a dent on the C-type steel armor of AS Order.

The machine guns in the air were suffocating, the mutated humans began to retreat.

Jiang Chen wouldn't let their wish come true.

[You must be joking. Since you provoked me, leave your life here and you can leave!]

The Python drones moved to the wing and unleashed its supreme firepower to the fleeing mutated humans. At the same time, the NAC infantries accompanied by armored vehicles pursued the retreating mutated humans.

"Dammit, these ugly humans' firepower is strong!" With disgusting blood dripped out from his forehead, Lou leaned behind a half-collapsed apartment building while jamming a clip into the machine gun. He then peeked out while roaring, "For the glory of Guru!"

Tatatata-

Bullets jumped between the bunkers. He clearly saw a NAC soldier fall because of his bullets. But unfortunately, he didn't see clearly whether the person ducked down or was killed before his head was cracked open by the soaring bullets.

Curling behind the half-destroyed concrete pillar, Li Wang took a deep breath and stood up with the help of the Reaper assault rifle.

He was hit two times in the chest.

Luckily, the K2 kinetic skeleton's excellent external defense saved him. While his rib cage was in pain, he could continue to fight.

Two Pythons soared by him, Li Wang loaded his gun and continued to chase the mutated humans. The gunner firing at him already died in another's hand. When he stepped over the headless body, he glanced at the mixture of red and white on the ground, feeling shocked.

From the head explosion, the unlucky guy must have died of a sniper rifle. The front line force was not equipped with sniper rifles. But since the bullet came from the outpost, the sniper was too frightening.

This place was 1000 meters away from the outpost.

Right now, at the watchtower, Sun Xiaorou put down the sniper rifle in her hands and leaned it against the wall.

The mutated humans already ran away, she could not see them from her location anymore.

She elegantly took out the tactical gloves and directly jumped down from the eight meters tall watch tower.

"What you did… is too rushed. While you have advanced equipment, the mutated humans occupy a large amount of fertile land to the west of Panyang Lake. They have a population of at least 80 thousand," Ji Yucheng said, troubled.

The 80 thousand mutated humans were all soldiers, and they didn't include the human slaves. While the mutated human tribe's weapons were crude, it didn't mean they didn't have heavy firepower.

And the NAC military outpost, at most, stationed 1000 something people. Even with the support from the airship, it would not be easy to fight against 80 times the force.

"You probably don't know. In Jia City, there were probably at least 80,000, or even 100,000 mutated humans that died to my First Division." Jiang Chen used his EP to send out orders and said nonchalantly to Ji Yucheng.

"Perhaps you're really strong, but this is Hucheng. They are fighting at their front door, and your supply line is 600 kilometers long." Ji Yucheng reminded him.

He hoped Jiang Chen could help to become the president, so he didn't want to see NAC fight against the mutated humans without anything to gain. Only the president of Federation would feel for this situation.

"How many 100 kilogram bombs were transported here?" Jiang Chen looked to Wang Zhaowu.

"200 rounds."

"Not bad, what about Fireball-1?"

"2000 missiles."

"Excellent. Enough for the consumption of a war. Contact Wang Qin and get the logistic department to transport 2000 more missiles. Remember, combustion and explosive each 2000 rounds."

"Roger!" Wang Zhaowu saluted and immediately headed to the command room.

After instructing the necessary commands, Jiang Chen looked at Ji Yucheng again.

"Let's talk somewhere else."

Without waiting for his reply, Jiang Chen headed to the middle of the outpost.

Chapter 634: Being Used?

Ji Yucheng followed Jiang Chen, seeing there was no one around, he gulped and cautiously said.

"Did you find the secret to immortality?"

"Not yet."

"Is the password not right?"

"The password is right, but unfortunately, someone already went into the director office." Jiang Chen took out the diary from his pocket. "I only found this."

Ji Yucheng wanted to grab it, but Jiang Chen didn't plan to give him the diary. His hand awkwardly hung in the air for a while before he took it back.

"Then our agreement…"

"Of course it counts," Jiang Chen smiled, "It is beneficial for me to make an obedient person the president."

Based on their agreement, Ji Yucheng will tell us the password and he will help Ji Yucheng become the president, and kill the former president and advisor stabbing him in the back.

And the first thing Ji Yucheng will do after being elected president is introducing NAC economic zone reform and become a place similar to the Sixth Street in the NAC.

Ji Yucheng thought about the chip injected behind his neck, let out a sigh, and opened his hands. "I still don't understand, compared to Wanghai, everything is clearly terrible, whether it is Federation or Empire. Other than the also mythical secret about immortality, what could interest you here?

"Once you possess territories, you'll want to possess more. Of course, I don't need to explain this to you, you just need to follow what I say."

"Then… what are you planning to tell me? Is it something inconvenient for other people to know?" Ji Yucheng said.

"It is about that password," Jiang Chen stared into his eyes, "I want to carefully recollect how you obtained it."

Ji Yucheng paused before he sighed.

"Is this the question? I can bet you that you'll be disappointed when you hear it."

Jiang Chen signaled him to continue.

"The password was brought to me by a postal man. I was drinking in the bar, he came to find me and said that someone from Federation sent me a mail for me to sign. I was confused… and I was even more confused when I opened the letter. There was a string of symbols along with the detailed explanation of Fallout Shelter 071 as well as a signature."

"That's it?" Jiang Chen stared him, dumbfounded

"That's it." Ji Yucheng nodded; his expression was innocent. "As I said, you will be disappointed."

Jiang Chen scanned the program related to the slavery chip on the EP. From his heart rate, he didn't lie.

"So you gifted the password to the President."

"That's right. I thought I could become a confidant, but he wanted to kill me instead." Ji Yucheng's words were mixed with deep hatred.

"Who sent the letter?"

"Doctor Sun."

[Doctor Sun, could it be…]

Jiang Chen furrowed his brows.

From the intelligence collected by Zhao Corporation about the doctor that doesn't age, he previously thought the person may be a digitalized human, but the truth may not be the case/

But why?

The doctor at the capital. What was his purpose to send the password to Federation's parliament member? Or rather, what was he try to achieve in making Federation's people purposely leave the diary behind?

Ji Yucheng was anxious seeing Jiang Chen didn't speak as he tried to contemplate his thought process.

But quickly after, Jiang Chen spoke again.

"Last question. You gave the password to the president… don't you long for immortality?"

Ji Yucheng took a second to process. He didn't think it would be such an irrelevant question, so he mocked himself, "I'm just a poor man and an unimportant parliament member in Federation. I work my *ss for the stingy poor suckers. Perhaps when I become the president, I will."

...

The gunshots in the distance stopped, the outcome of the battle ended with all the mutated humans eliminated.

A total of 215 mutated humans as well ten mutated dogs all died tragically among the ruins.

NAC suffered two deaths and seventeen injuries, the almost miraculous victory was a historic win in the eyes of the survivors.

But the soldiers didn't seem to be too excited. The advantage in equipment meant the battle would be crushing from the start.

Jiang Chen personally held a simple burial ceremony for the two deceased soldiers.

Their body would be shipped back to Wanghai

To the wounded soldiers, as long as they didn't miss an arm or a leg, NAC's medical expertise could treat them.

All in all, while the equipment of the mutated humans at this location was inferior to the mutated humans supported by the Dusk Church. But in terms of combat ability, the mutated humans were stronger.

The NAC research in the force extracted blood, cell samples from the body of the mutated humans and brought them back to the lab at the outpost to conduct an analysis on DNA and metabolism.

The appearances of the mutated humans were different compared to the mutated humans in Wanghai. Jiang Chen was especially intrigued. Therefore, he assigned the research task to the researchers.

The result was also surprising; the mutated humans here had six strands of chromosomes with obvious differences to the mutated humans in Jia City.

"FEV virus is also called Human Genetic Fixation Virus with the intent to allow the PAC citizens to become neo-humans more adaptable to the harsh environment. But since the start of the FEV project, it received the objection from the mainstream society; the pure species believers. Humans are destined to be a creature that can win against nature, but not compromise to nature and become a monster."

"Therefore, the research of the FEV virus was delayed, it was not till before the war did people start to continue the research after digging the information out. The FEV virus culture widespread on wasteland was mostly the improved version of the original FEV virus."

Inside the lab, the researchers responsible for dissecting the mutated human's body reported to Jiang Chen.

"Other than the difference in appearance compared to the mutated humans in Wanghai, is there anything else that's different?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Of course." The researcher nodded, "Other than poorer regeneration ability, the Hucheng mutated humans' also possessed extremely strong metabolism. But different from the Jia City mutated human, their theoretical lifespan is three times the Jia City mutated humans."

"Three times?!" Jiang Chen was stunned.

"That's right." The researcher said with certainty, "The FEV virus in Hucheng possesses the ability to elongate the DNA telomere. While the technical challenge is great, it is not impossible in theory."

The mutated human's strength and immunity to poison were problematic, to begin with, especially with their cockroach-like regeneration, they could easily adapt on the wasteland.

The inability to breed and shortened lifespan were two weaknesses that limited their size. But the mutated humans here's lifespan was longer than humans? It was unbelievable.

When Jiang Chen returned to the command room, he found Han Junhua to discuss the strategy on wiping out mutated humans.

The first step was to send out reconnaissance soldiers to determine the mutated humans' FEV production base, armory, command, anti-air units, and other critical infrastructures to be destroyed by Aurora-20,

At the same time, the ground force will be supported by Order to push to the west bank of Panyang Lake occupied by Guru Tribe to free the humans slaved by mutated humans.

As to Empire

"In the past few days, based on the information sent by our soldiers to Hezhong City and Capital, I analyzed the Hucheng forces…"

Standing in front of the hologram map, Han Junhua's arms crossed in front of her chest while she orderly explained the complicated relationship between Empire and Guru Tribe.

Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed after he listened to Han Junhua's analysis.

"So you're saying Empire used us?"

"90%." Han Junhua looked to Jiang Chen, "Then, what are you planning to do?"

"Nothing. They will realize that our operation is not free." A mischievous smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face as he stared at Empire on the map.

[Using us? They are playing with fire.]

Chapter 635: Empire no longer in Control

Inside the palace, the Emperor and the elders sat around the long table, celebrating.

The alcohol on the table was a NAC specialty, the curry chicken and stewed beef canned food… were also from the NAC. But there were also specialty dishes from the wasteland. For example, the sauce roasted Crab Mud roe with an alluring fragrance, the Fury Bear Brain in the shape of tofu were all the cuisines on the wasteland that people without status could not eat. The supplies inland were plentiful beyond the imagination of costal Wanghai.

The Emperor and elders toasted in joy.

"Emperor's strategy is witty." An elder with a full mustache raised his cup and toasted with the Emperor, "With this strategy, the NAC force will have to retreat without any gain. The annoying mutated human tribe must also reconsider our relationship.

"That's right!"

"Emperor is wise!"

"Hahaha, my elders, let's drink. This is premium beer purchased from Wanghai. For the glory of Empire, we'll get drunk today!" The Emperor stood up and toasted with each of the elders.

"Emperor is right!"

"For Empire, cheers!"

"I'll finish this drink to show my respect!"

"…

Looking at the elders trying to flatter him, the Empire had a joyful expression on his face but was sneering in his mind.

[You old foxes, everyone knows what hideous things you're thinking about in your minds.]

The witty strategy of borrowing a knife to kill was not the work of the Empire, but a strategy discussed by the elders. And the elders didn't mention any of this and handed the glory to him just an attempt to please him before he steps down.

Empire was a crown abdication. There was one year left in the five-year term, who would be the next emperor will be appointed by the current emperor. As long as the elders don't all reject, the next emperor would be the "wise" person appointed by him.

He was sitting among them while doing all he can to flatter and please the person that sat in his chair, and the second year after he controlled all power, he no longer would even glance the previous emperor.

In Empire, stepping down meant retirement and complete isolation with power; the person wouldn't even have the chance to return to the elders. Thinking that he still had a year of time, the Emperor felt melancholic, but he was over it quickly.

At least now, he was still the leader of Empire, enjoying the respect and support of the nobles.

The chief elder personally poured him a cup of alcohol and the Emperor relaxingly took a drink.

"It is too boring to just flatter each out during the banquet," an elder suggested.

"Why don't we discuss how to take care of the Guru Tribe? We gave them too many special treatments, the inferior people have been complaining."

"It's okay; just arrest the people complaining in public."

"But this is not a long-term strategy, why doesn't Emperor use this opportunity to take back some of the rights given," An elder carefully observed the Emperor's expression and suggested.

"No! Federation is currently eyeing our territory with the NAC in the distance. In this critical moment, we must unite the mutated humans, and cannibals."

After several drinks, the atmosphere lightened and the elders all expressed their perspective.

But the Emperor was not pleased with the elders' argument, so he said.

"My elders please don't be bothered. Today, let's enjoy the night and not talk about state affairs. Everyone eat, drink, and don't leave the tableful of delicacies and drinks untouched."

"Haha, Emperor, you're right!"

"Right, right! Everyone drink and eat!"

A few elders helped alleviate the situation and held up their cups.

When the emperor was a bit tipsy, a soldier ran into the banquet.

"Greetings, Emperor, there is an emergency I must report." The soldier kneeled down and shouted.

The emperor raised his eyebrows but still controlled his mood. Then he said, "Report now."

"Emperor, the NAC just declared war."

"Declared war? Is that it? I know, get out now." The Emperor dismissed him and said in annoyance.

He already expected a war between NAC and Guru Tribe, and the information from the spy already confirmed his guess.

But the soldier was not to be blamed, such the tactful strategy of borrowing a knife to kill was not something they could guess.

The soldier was still hesitant without getting up from the ground.

"Why are you still here? Do you want the emperor to give you a piece of meat?" The elder at the end of the table mocked the soldier.

He had the lowest status on the table and his ranking was not high either. He enjoyed making fun of people below him. He used chopsticks and threw a piece of half eaten chicken leg onto the ground.

The banquet table burst out laughing. Seeing his superiors were happy, that elder looked proud too. The red drunken face was chuckling and looked comical.

The soldier kneeling on the ground didn't mind the laughter. He gritted his teeth and continue to report, "Emperor, NAC's declaration of war is targeted not only on the Guru Tribe but the entire Empire."

The laughter abruptly stopped, the laughter on the face of the elder sitting at the end also froze.

"Bang", the cup dropped to the ground and broke the silence.

The emperor stood up fiercely and stared at the soldier on the ground. Cold sweat instantly took away all the drunkenness and with shakiness in his voice, he stated, "What, what did you say?"

"NAC declared war on Empire."

The banquet erupted in noise.

"No way. How could they declare war on both Guru Tribe and Empire!"

"Too arrogant! They only have 1000 people, their supply line is 600 kilometers long!

"Fight! Fight! We have to teach the uneducated a lesson, how dare they!" The old elder's eyes widened as he said with fury.

"But that airship…" Some elders were indecisive.

"Funny, the massive Empire is afraid of one airship? With just 1000 in force, we only need to use a division force to easily wipe them out!"

"What about Federation? What if they launch a sneak attack against us?"

The banquet was a mess. The emperor's face was blank while his mouth closed shut without any redness.

[Uh oh.]

…

At the same time, in NAC's military outpost. The Fireball-1 launch vehicles transported by the blimp were ready. The construction robots moved the bundles of missiles beside the launch vehicle with soldiers completing the loading

NAC's soldiers formed organized square formations in the front of the outpost waiting for their command. The shining kinetic skeleton cast a daunting vibe while the survivors in the market witnessed all this in a state of shock.

The deafening roar came from the distance, the Aurora-20 just completed its mission and changed into vertical landing mode, landing on the top of the airship.

Standing on the watchtower, Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed while observing his force. Beside him, Wang Zhaowu replied concisely.

"All FEV virus productions on the ground are destroyed."

"Any underground units?"

"Fallout Shelter 010, the origin of Guru Tribe." Wang Zhaowu replied.

"Depth?"

"1000 meters."

Jiang Chen nodded.

Most of the mutated humans on the wasteland could not reproduce, and the FEV virus culture was their "eggs". As long as they destroyed them, delete the production data for the virus, they killed the root of the mutated humans.

If the emperor of Empire thought Jiang Chen just wanted to teach the unintelligent Guru Tribe a lesson, then he is completely wrong.

To the enemy, NAC abides by one principle.

Wipe them from the surface of the Earth.

Chapter 636: Doctor Sun

It was an old clinic that sat at the corner of the arena, the ghetto known for its dirtiness and chaos.

When Zhao Baodong walked into the ghetto, he clearly sensed the atmosphere was drastically different compared to other parts of the arena.

People were dressed poorly and had old, broken shirts and trousers hanging on drying lines above the alley, which made the sunlight-less alley appear even darker.

Along the way, he put his hand in his right pocket and held onto the pistol.

He could sense the unfriendly and even malicious looks from the refugees nearby. It felt like they were thieves assessing their prey.

Clearly, this was the land of outlaws.

Compared to Sixth Street, this place was sh*t.

Zhao Baodong cursed in his mind while stepping into the clinic.

A robot was taking reservations at the door. While he was interested in the robot's design, after hesitating for a moment, he resisted the urge to touch it.

"Number 10, please wait in the waiting area."

A sharp electronic screeching noise came from below the metallic exterior, followed by the sound of paper being ripped. A slip of paper with a number popped out from the robot's mouth. Zhao Baodong took the paper and scanned the clinic before he walked to the waiting area and sat on a long bench.

There were quite a few people in the waiting area, with the majority of them looking poor. Empire had a lot of people; it also had a lot of poor people. Doctor Sun's clinic charged low fees, so the clients were mostly poor or stingy lone travelers. Because of this, the clinic had a great reputation in the ghetto of the capital; it didn't take Zhao Baodong too much effort to find the place.

With this opportunity, he examined the customers in the clinic.

There were humans, mutated humans, and odd people covered in capes refusing to show their faces.

The green-skinned giant in front took up two seats. He crossed his arms while waiting in frustration. His amber-colored eyes resembled a Death Claw, but he wasn't as visibly vicious as a Death Claw.

The mutated human noticed Zhao Baodong's gaze and stared back at him.

Zhao Baodong looked away.

In Empire, anyone disrespectful to mutated humans would be at risk of getting punished. They referred to this as "equality," although everyone, including most of their own, considered it absurd.

There was no need to create a scene here, and the mutated humans wouldn't be around much longer.

With that thought in his head, his turned his gaze to the clock.

"Number 10."

Finally, he heard his name from inside the room.

Zhao Baodong stood up and headed to the room.

When he saw Director Sun, he was shocked.

Just as the information described him, the doctor working in this clinic for ten years still looked twenty years old.

"What's the problem?" Without looking up, Doctor Sun spun his pen and asked.

"Addicted to Jet."

"Arm."

Zhao Baodong obediently extended his arm while he scanned the room.

"No need to look; there's nothing expensive here," Doctor Sun said without looking up.

Zhao Baodong was shocked that the doctor noticed his gaze without looking up.

"You're mistaken. I'm not here to steal." Zhao Baodong laughed awkwardly.

Doctor Sun's hand holding a detector stopped. His finally lifted his buried head, and his apathetic eyes looked at Zhao Baodong.

"Is that so? I'd hope you're here to steal and not here with some other purpose."

Zhao Baodong didn't respond. He pointed the detector at his pulse before stats came up on the screen.

"Jet addiction is recent?"

"Yes."

"You don't have to purposely get high to see me. Medicine is scarce in the wasteland. Even if your employer is rich, it's shameful to waste." Doctor Sun tossed his notebook to the side. "Now, explain your intentions."

Zhao Baodong sighed reluctantly, knowing his cover was blown. "Aren't you going to prescribe medicine for me first?"

A Jet Stopper was thrown into his lap.

Zhao Baodong flipped over to see the price tag, and his eyebrows twitched.

200 crystals.

This guy prescribed him the most expensive medicine.

"Speak your mind," the Doctor said expressionlessly.

"With someone's request, I was hoping you could accompany me to a place." Zhao Baodong did his best to make his wording sound less suspicious, but in the end, he realized that regardless of how he said it, it was no different from declaring a kidnapping.

"What if I said no?"

Zhao Baodong cautiously scanned the door. Seeing as there was no one eavesdropping, Zhao Baodong said, "This is for your benefit. Believe it or not, this place is about to be gone soon."

Doctor Sun was silent for a long time before he then asked, "Then tell me why your employer wants to see me."

"Our leader suspects you're a digitalized human… of course, this doesn't mean we're malicious. We just want to confirm your program-"

Before Zhao Baodong could finish, Doctor Sun burst out laughing.

Zhao Baodong shrugged. He didn't mind a disrespectful laugh, but he just looked at the Doctor in search of an answer.

Go? Or not go?

"Is that what your leader told you? Haha, not bad, a digitalized human is a good way to disguise-"

"Please don't continue," Zhao Baodong immediately said.

"Afraid you'll find out too much?" Sun Yi glanced at the anxious visitor with a grin. His unaged face had the maturity belonging only to elders.

"That's right." Zhao Baodong was honest.

If Jiang Chen hadn't told him the specifics, that meant Jiang Chen knew his identity. If Zhao Baodong learned about something he shouldn't have, it might not necessarily be beneficial for a small character like him.

Doctor Sun didn't make it difficult for him. He only shook his head and paused for a moment before he slowly said, "I could go with you."

Zhao Baodong was relieved. "Then please."

"But the time is not now."

Zhao Baodong's expression froze, and words came out with difficulty.

"Why?"

It was hard to take a person out of the capital by force.

Although this was the ghetto, the outlaw land of the capital, the district outside the capital was patrolled by guards. Even if he was a great fighter, it wouldn't be easy to take someone out of the heavily guarded city.

"In the past ten years, I've saved a lot of people. Out of everyone, nine of them suffered gun wounds," Doctor Sun said calmly.

"To be honest, regarding your leader… or the treasure pursued by all people with power, I've completed my research."

"My previous plan was to make the secret public so everyone could share the wealth exchanged by the blood of the minority. The wasteland could quickly regain its population from before the war, and with the efforts of humanity, the wasteland would be more prosperous, more united, and more pleasant than before the war… we'd work together to create a desirable future."

"But when I woke up and walked out of the abandoned fallout shelter, I suddenly changed my mind. It wasn't because of the despairing barrenness, but something more depressing."

Zhao Baodong was curious what his secret was, but his dry throat couldn't make any sounds.

"You plan to attack this place, right?" Doctor Sun looked at Zhao Baodong expressionlessly. "Then let me see - destroying a city that provides protection for tens of thousands of people, is your leader worthy of the secret in my hands?"

"If not, I'm prepared to take the secret in my grave."

Chapter 637: The Fuse

The battle ensued.

Outside the military outpost, white smoke drifted up at the missile launch grounds. Accompanied by blinding flames, missiles soared into the air, one by one.

"Target hit. Covered unit 14, kill confirmed. Adjusting coordinates (114,23). Smoke covered, over."

"Roger, number 3 cannon fire."

"…"

Inside the control room, the hologram map collected by Aurora-20 reflected real-time battle information to Jiang Chen.

The leading force of the mutated humans arrived 5 kilometers away from the water treatment plant, but under the barrage of missiles by the NAC and the attack of kinetic skeleton soldiers, they were completely wrecked.

But the mutated humans naturally didn't understand fear.

NAC's airstrikes on the FEV virus production bases clearly infuriated the mutated humans.

Guru Tribe mobilized a division of forces totaling 5000 people equipped with artillery, trucks with anti-air cannons, and modified pickup trucks equipped with armor and machine guns. They mobilized to the NAC outpost.

The leading force included the strongest warriors of Guru Tribe. This included lead mutated humans with power hammers, machine gunners wielding steel armors, and mutated dogs strapped with nuclear grenades.

But the complete elimination of the leading force brought the commander of the mutated humans some clarity. He didn't order the troops to just swarm the target, but instead, he ordered them to scatter based on the geography of the city. He sent out slaves and mutated humans to launch some fake attacks against the NAC outpost, but it was all inconsequential.

For some reason, NAC didn't display its full power from the beginning, which gave the mutated humans' commander the false impression that they were equally matched.

But Empire didn't have this illusion; the unaltered brains of humans were clearly more intelligent than mutated humans.

Empire also mobilized two divisions totaling ten thousand, deployed around the rural area of Hucheng. It was half of Empire's forces. Such a massive military attack was the first in Hucheng.

But compared to the brainless rush tactics used by the mutated humans, Empire's soldiers were more cautious and much more devious.

They built defense structures along the borders of the rural area, used reinforced steel to fortify abandoned buildings, dug out trenches to separate the battlefield, and connected the buildings with tunnels underground. Needless to say, their tactics were extremely effective against heavy firepower, and it also suited the raiders' battle style of fighting independently.

From the beginning, their stance was that they would defend their territory with their lives.

Jiang Chen didn't mind Empire's actions; he didn't plan to use fire suppression against Empire. A "Fireball-1" missile cost 100 credits, and based on the conversion rate of the Sixth Street, it was around 500 crystals. With 2000 rounds of missiles, it would be equivalent to scattering money, although it would make for nice fireworks.

There was no need to burn money against Empire.

To dismantle this skyscraper, they just needed to think of a strategy to attack the bottom of the skyscraper disdained by Empire. There was no need to fight to the death against this lousy crowd.

…

Inside the bar at the capital, rare bottles of alcohol were arranged on the corroded table.

Two people sat across each other while downing the drinks.

"I think that increasing one's population to increase power is too rogue." The mercenary with a hat was drunk. He began to talk, and with purposeful probing by Zhao Baodong, he started to blurt out gibberish.

It was his seventh day inside the capital. Zhao Baodong found the mercenary who led him through the door and said he would treat him to drinks.

Alcohol was great. It could numb tense nerves; no one on the wasteland disliked it.

On the table, Zhao Baodang successfully learned his name in addition to other information.

He was Xiao Hu, a mercenary active between Hucheng and Wu City who mostly ran with the merchant fleets between two cities. He lived a poor, drunken life.

While he could be witty, he was unintelligent in nature, which made him easy to manipulate.

"Oh?" Zhao Baodong took a sip of the alcohol and looked at him with a grin. "Your perspective is quite unique."

Xiao Hu felt flattered. He laughed and said, "The people here are weird; a lot of newbies who come here for the first time don't understand why mutated humans are willing to live peacefully with humans."

Zhao Baodong had a brighter smile. "Please explain."

Then he waved his hand at the bartender to signal two more drinks.

"You realize that aside from poor hobos inside the ghetto, everyone's lives are okay? But people aren't happy… Of course, I'm referring to people who live here, not travelers who find fun everywhere."

Xiao Hu's intoxicated face revealed a mysterious smile. He got closer to Zhao Baodong as he said, "Do you want to know why?"

"Of course." Zhao Baodong grinned.

"They believe in a weird standard of equality. The minority receive more special treatment, and the majority receive less power, yet they refer to this as equality… Equality with the species being the unit."

"I'm surprised… is the emperor not human?"

"He's the one cutting the cake, not making the cake." Xiao Hu burped. He took another swig without hiding anything.

"The Emperor is selected from the elders, so do you expect him to eat the cake? Don't dream about it. Even if two walls of the arena collapse and mutated humans kill a few more humans, they'll continue to live lavish lives... I'm thankful for the NAC merchant fleets. Otherwise, we couldn't eat food even if we have the money." Discussing the emperor and elders in the public already drew the attention of the bartender and the people around them. A lot of people afraid of trouble had already left. Right now, a mutated human, who just finished hunting, was sitting at an empty table nearby and ordered cheap alcohol.

Zhao Baodong, who sat across him, laughed and glanced nonchalantly at the dumb-looking mutated human. He shook his head. "Let's not talk about the emperor. I want to listen to your opinion… on the species with special rights."

"I have no comment. Those bastards just eat and sleep every day and only know how to force slaves who are afraid to resist grow mutated fruits; they know nothing else. I heard that the FEV virus will turn people's head into a mess? Haha, they aren't to be blamed. And the elder from Guru Tribe, ha? Who would worship a cancer patient with a tumor on his back as a God—"

Slap—

A loud slap to the face interrupted him.

Zhao Baodong, who was sitting across him, had already disappeared.

The voice of Xiao Hu speaking gibberish to his bottle of alcohol had entered the ears of the mutated human. The giant named Andy stood up as he slapped the table, and he gave Xiao Hu's forehead a hard slap.

With his back on the cold concrete ground, Xiao Hu instantly sobered up. He barely managed up to support himself up from the ground as his bruised face was covered in fear.

The elder was the elder of mutated humans, the God in every Guru Tribe.

Even discussing him in public was viewed as disrespectful by the mutated humans.

"No, no, I-I was just drunk…"

Xiao Hu couldn't tend to his wounds as he crawled back onto the table while looking at the mutated human walking toward him.

He hadn't brought a gun with him. Even if he did bring one, he wouldn't dare to shoot at a mutated human here. A mutated human beating him to death would be locked up at most. If he killed a mutated human, he would be enslaved by the mutated humans.

It was even more terrifying than death.

Andy smiled menacingly. He stepped out of the bar with his fist clenched toward the human on the ground.

As everyone watched, the mutated human stepped onto the mercenary. He swung his fist and punched the mercenary in the face.

Crack—

Xiao Hu seemed to hear his nose bone cracking, but with his dazed head, he couldn't even scream.

After a few punches, every punch landed directly, and the green fist was stained with blood.

"Stop hitting him. He's almost dead," someone whispered, but when met with the mutated human's vicious eyes, that person looked away.

"Anyone disrespectful to the elder is disrespectful to Guru Tribe! Anyone disrespectful to Guru Tribe must die!" Andy bathed in the countless looks of hatred and fear while he sat on top of Xiao Hu. He laughed psychotically while he swung his powerful fists.

"ROAR-" The mutated humans cheered on the warrior.

Perhaps they weren't really respectful of that elder; perhaps they just instinctively craved violence and killing. And the fear present in people's eyes promoted their extremism.

The guard walked to Andy, but Andy was unafraid.

Even if he killed the human here, he would at most spend a few days in prison without any prison guard daring to treat him unfairly. Maybe not long after, the leader of Guru Tribe would negotiate with the officials of Empire to demand his release.

His amber-colored pupils scanned the crowd; he triumphantly exposed his fangs with one word coming out of his ugly mouth:

"Cowards!"

Until the miserable-looking mercenary stopped breathing, no one stopped his atrocious actions.

But then his expression froze.

His eyes met a gun hidden in the crowd.

And the smile belonged to a human.

Bang—

The sound of a pistol broke through the noise of the market.

There were deafening screams instantly.

"Someone was killed!"

Andy laid in a pool of blood. His widened eyes were written with disbelief. He couldn't believe he would die in Empire's capital.

The guards looked around without a clue. They attempted to find the shooter, but it was futile in the massive crowd. The angry mutated humans shoved everyone, beating the innocent crowd while trying to find the murder who fired the shot.

Along with the mass of people, Zhao Baodong disappeared at the end of the market.

The dead Andy would never know that his death was the tipping point to the collapse of this empire.

And the same scene was happening in every corner of Empire.

Chapter 638: Insurgence

Inside the palace, the emperor sat on his dragon chair and elders stood on both sides. In the middle was a mutated human covered in Death Claw fur.

In mutated human society, only a clan leader of ten thousand could wear clothes made of Death Claw fur.

"My people are in a bloodbath against NAC invaders in the frontlines! And you, you cowards, are curled up behind the bunker. Is this the glory you referred to?" This rude roar made the tiles of the palace shake. The emperor on the dragon chair's had a grave face, but he couldn't say a single aggressive word against the discourteous green-skinned man.

The prosperity of Empire required the support of mutated humans. When he considered the bigger picture, he couldn't break ties with Guru Tribe.

The Emperor hid his anger behind his black pupils.

"I'll order the frontline forces to accelerate the attack against NAC."

"No need!" The mutated human ten thousand clan leader swung his hand and glanced the emperor and guards with contempt. "Just let your cowards continue to hide behind the bunkers. Useless people should stay where they belong; the battlefield belongs to warriors! Our people will tear apart the people who dare to offend Guru Tribe."

"But-" The ten thousand clan leader's words took a sharp turn and he stared at the emperor directly in the eyes. He fiercely said, "I want to ask you - regarding the unfair treatment received by the mutated humans, what's going on!?"

[Unfair?]

[What the fu*k! How do you want this to be fairer? More special treatment?]

The emperor didn't say anything, but the guards by the pillar were almost furious. They had never seen a mutated human this shameless.

"I will order the soldiers to search for the murderers," the emperor said.

"The blood of 154 mutated humans needs to be washed by 154 criminals." The ten thousand clan leader gave a bloodthirsty laugh.

"I know," the emperor replied.

"I hope you know, or else I'll let you know." His amber pupils were as bloodthirsty as a Death Claw's.

He looked at the emperor threateningly before he turned around and left with the mutated human soldiers surrounding him.

When the green-skinned things left, the emperor smashed the table and cursed out.

"These monsters! They can't just bully us like this!"

The emperor and elders of Empire were all raiders before; their thug nature was merely hidden by their glamorous clothes.

"Emperor, what should we do?" an elder asked with a bitter smile.

The soldiers couldn't even find one murderer, let alone 154 murderers. Those people clearly had a plan. Otherwise, they wouldn't have committed 154 murders in three days.

It was a conspiracy against the friendship between Empire and the mutated humans; anyone could easily see that.

Aside from the simple-brained mutated humans.

The emperor hadn't been this bothered by the intelligence of the bastards.

A simple conspiracy could make them start a war against NAC, and the NAC could use tactics to force them to stand on the side opposing Empire.

A silent atmosphere lingered in the palace. At that moment, someone broke the silence.

"Emperor, I have a strategy."

An elder walked up.

The elders all looked at him with shock. This elder was the least respected among all the elders, and he always sat at the end of the banquet table.

He normally didn't have the opportunity to speak during meetings, but now, since no one had any good ideas, no one spoke against him.

The emperor thought for a moment with his head lowered before he finally remembered the name of this elder. He slowly said.

"Chen Lin, go ahead."

Chen Lin walked up two stairs and smiled with a grimace. He suggested to the emperor, "The mutated humans believe their rights were violated, so we could just comfort them like usual."

"But what could we give them?" the emperor asked, frustrated.

"Only 154 heads. Since they need the murderers, we'll just hand them over." With ferocity in his voice, Chen Lin looked directly at the emperor.

The emperor raised his eyebrows, not understanding what Chen Lin meant.

But then he caught on and instantly understood the deeper meaning.

Since mutated humans' brains couldn't distinguish the murderers.

Then were they just going to kill a few random people and use their heads to comfort them?

"Where would we find 154 people?" The emperor's fingers tapped the armrest of the dragon chair as he muttered to himself.

With a grimace, the elder walked beside the emperor and whispered into his ear.

"There are ten thousand slaves working in Donggang Plantation. 154 missing slaves is nothing at all…"

…

"How long will this war last?" Standing on top of the wall, Sun Xiaorou dangled her legs while picking up binoculars to observe the horizon in the distance.

In the distance, the sun was sliding west.

NAC unleashed 1000 combustion missiles on the mutated humans' zone of control and suppressed them within the city. Based on the casualty reports from Aurora-20's reconnaissance, the mutated human's 5000 division lost about a third of its troops with all armored units destroyed.

But NAC still hadn't served the final blow. They maintained the illusion that they were fairly matched.

Before the arrival of the signal of Empire's collapse, NAC needed the mutated humans to maintain their arrogance.

Next to Sun Xiaorou, Jiang Chen carefully observed the side of her face.

Sometimes, he thought she was extremely similar to her sister.

Jiang Chen then shifted his gaze to the distance.

"It depends how well the Hunter Division is doing."

Han Junhua stepped onto the wall and walked behind him.

"The ten thousand slaves in Donggang Plantation are uprising."

When he heard his long-awaited message, a victorious smile surfaced on his face.

With the Hunter Division's purposeful provocation, the tension between Empire citizens and officials was pushed to its maximum. And the foolish idea of sacrificing slaves was suggested by an elder bribed by Zhao Baodong. When this news spread out between the slaves, even the numbest people couldn't suppress the fury in the bottoms of their hearts.

They just needed a person to lead and a person to give them a few guns before they would naturally choose the option to riot.

NAC didn't need to send out a single troop.

"Good. In this case, we should start moving."

"Yes."

Han Junhua nodded and turned around.

Sun Xiaorou stood up from the edge of the wall, patted the dust off her hand and looked at Jiang Chen.

"Finally going to start fighting?"

With a smile, Jiang Chen raised his head and gazed at the steel airship.

"Mhmm, time to display our true power."

In the lingering sunset glow, this was the first time the Hammer of Order was stained with a menacing vibe.

Just like the signal produced from a conductor's baton, the prelude to the fall of Empire was about to begin.

Chapter 639: The Hammer of Order

No humans wanted to die.

Slaves were no exception.

Donggang was inhabited before. Shortly after the building of the wall, it became a plantation for mutated fruits. Later on, it became a plantation worked on by slaves.

There were criminals, people captured by raiders, poor people, or people purely in debt working there. They could withstand the plantation work, and they could withstand supervisors cursing and hitting them as long as they weren't slaves of mutated humans. Once they worked their time, they could obtain their freedom and become free.

But recently, a rumor spread among the slaves.

Mutated humans were being murdered in Empire.

Empire planned to use the heads of slaves to calm the anger of mutated humans.

No one believed this at first since it was completely absurd. While they were the slaves of Empire, they were still citizens of Empire. Empire had the right to exploit them, but it had no right to take their lives away.

That was their boundary, the only boundary they had since being exploited.

But one night, some people came from the capital with the plan of taking away 154 slaves.

Needless to say, the people executing the orders didn't have a brain. Everyone in the territory knew of the rumors everywhere concerning violence against the 154 mutated humans.

Combined with the "rumor" from before, the intention of taking away 154 slaves now was obvious.

The plantation workers were completely enraged.

No one wanted to die because of this absurd reason.

Therefore, the glorious uprising started.

The supervisors and guards had guns while the slaves only had hoes and shovels, but that was fine. This was the apocalypse.

The insurgents were divided into two groups - one group blew up the wall of the plantation, and another group used hoes and shovels to ambush the patrol route.

Survivors on the wasteland learned how horrific zombies could be at night. Even Death Claws had to fear the zombies - they would chew away any living creature.

When the zombies broke through the wall, the group paid a price of ten lives to break through the guards' chests. They picked up their guns and attacked the armory according to plan.

The plantation was in complete chaos.

The guards rushed to the collapsed wall and used barbed wire to create a line of defense. They used rifles to kill the zombies swarming inside the plantation. Inside this chaotic environment, no one noticed the patrolling guards being killed, and no one noticed the slaves with guns breaking into the armory.

The mobilized slaves flooded the armory. They went from barehanded rioters to fully equipped insurgents and began attacking the Empire army.

The hundreds of guards and supervisors were just a boat in the middle of a hurricane in the face of the anger of ten thousand slaves. They were quickly flooded by bullets from the insurgents and the claws of zombies. After a bloodbath and paying a price of five hundred lives, the insurgents used barbed wires and trucks to block the hole in the wall and cleared out the zombies that invaded the plantation.

431 heads were cut off, including the official sent from Empire.

The flag of Empire was burnt and converted into the survivors' own flag.

Just like a spark, the riot at Donggang Plantation ignited the flame of separation.

…

Below the steel airship, the electromagnetic cannon named "The Hammer of Order" lowered slightly and aimed directly at the mutated humans' zone of control.

Suddenly, blue electric arcs jumped between the tracks. Like a bright light, it illuminated the darkness. The mutated humans inside the bunkers gazed at the unnatural light source with confusion. At the same time, the NAC soldiers hidden in the bunkers silently reloaded their clips and opened tactical images on their helmets.

"Firing coordinate is adjusted."

"Capacitor is charged."

"Bomb loaded."

"Fire!"

Following captain Jiang Chen's orders, the gunner opened the safety and pressed the red button.

Buzz—

Like the vibration of a cicada's wings, the screeching, buzzing sound was clear even inside the airship.

Water molecules were electrolyzed and oxygen was ozonized. There were ripples in the air close to the electromagnetic pulse cannon accompanying the electric blue arcs.

In the mutated humans' eyes, the blinding blue light instantly turned the night sky into bright daylight, and a trail of orange light instantly flashed out.

"Boom-"

The 100-kilogram bomb smashed into the ground. Just like a bullet hitting jelly, the empty shell popped out onto the soil and threw everything on the ground into the air.

Sand and soil covered the area.

Broken shrapnel and stone shards blew by like a hurricane and shredded everything in the eye of the storm then buried the world.

When the dust scattered, the bloodthirstiness in the pupils of the mutated humans faded, and only deep fear remained as they watched the massive crater in the middle of their zone of control.

"What is that?"

"Why didn't the NAC use this before?"

Only two questions circled in the mutated human soldiers, but before they could react to this outcome, a hailstorm of missiles dropped down.

The combustion materials danced in the air and submerged everything it touched into a fiery sea. The extent of the fire was far greater and violent compared to previous times.

The mutated humans began to retreat, but it was too late.

The fire stopped, and the NAC soldiers charged. With the assistance of Aurora-20 airstrikes, they started to reap the lives of the mutated humans.

The force of 5000 people collapsed in less than half an hour of battle. The mutated humans escaped to the city and jumped into the river. The scene was tragic.

At the same time, the pursuing force happened to encounter the mutated humans' second division, and an intense crossfire took place in the forested area.

Every ten minutes, a 100-kilogram bomb rained down on the mutated humans.

In response to the terrifying heaven cannon and barrage of missiles, the mutated humans had to scatter.

But once they scattered, their numerical advantage instantly disappeared.

Faced with soldiers in kinetic skeletons, the mutated humans with just magazine clips and fur on their bodies were destined to face a one-sided slaughter.

Kill them all!

That was the only order given to the NAC soldiers.

There was no mercy for the bloodthirsty mutated humans.

NAC didn't need mutated human captives nor people to capture mutated humans, so there was no reason to accept a surrender!

When the first light shone from the horizon and scattered the ray of dawn, the blood in the soil was the first to be lit up. It extended from the shambles of the water treatment plant, extending all the way to the west of Panyang Lake…

Chapter 640: The Doomsday of Guru Tribe

While NAC was launching a full-scale attack against Guru Tribe, Empire's commander at the frontlines realized their opportunity might have come.

The hailstorm of missiles was dominating, but they couldn't have an infinite supply. Since NAC had one thousand soldiers, their shortage in numbers meant they couldn't fight on both lines.

But at the critical point of fending off an external enemy, there was a servant coup taking place in Empire. Aside from the arena in the capital, almost all territories lit up with uprising smoke. The Donggang Plantation had the largest uprising. The slaves not only occupied the armory and executed the supervisors of the plantation, but they also hung heads up on the walls!

At the same time, Federation pushed their mechanized division next to Gang River, eager to move against Empire on the brink of collapse. The two sides had fought in the open and in the dark for many years. This was Empire's most tumultuous period in twenty years, so their arch enemy naturally wouldn't let go of this heaven-sent opportunity.

They had been drooling over Empire's "vast" territory and massive population. If they could annex Empire's land, including the territory east of Gang River, into its borders, Federation would indeed become the most powerful force in the province.

Faced with external and internal threats, the elders immediately ordered a retreat.

The two Empire divisions had to give up on the perfect opportunity to attack the NAC outpost. With their backs against their mutated human allies who suffered an excruciating defeat, they had to retreat from the defense bunkers they just built.

…

July 1st marked over half a month since the NAC soldiers set foot in Hucheng.

They used the cover of the night to fly their flag of order over Guru Tribe's land.

With the assistance of missiles, NAC's forces broke through Guru Tribe's line of defense.

In the final moment of battle, their reserves of missiles and bombs were all exhausted, but they were okay without any support.

Their victory was already certain. With a population of 80 thousand mutated humans, over 50 thousand died under missile fire. The remainder died, escaped, or fell under the airstrike of Aurora-20.

The ten thousand clan leader died.

When he rushed out from the shadows swinging his power hammer, he wanted to vent his anger through brute force. But he didn't manage to kill anyone - his head was cut off by Jiang Chen's private force captain, Li Wang, with a dagger.

Guru Tribe's elder took his confidants and supplies to escape into the fallout shelter. They locked the door.

Jiang Chen's orders on the mutated humans acting like turtles were concise.

"Bury them."

Jiang Chen wasn't interested in the FEV virus anyways.

It made no difference whether it was buried or destroyed.

With the size of the mutated humans, they couldn't remain in the hibernation chamber. Even if the fridges of the fallout shelter were stuffed with food, it would last them ten years at most.

When their food become depleted, there could only be two endings.

Starve to death.

Or death through internal conflict.

Regardless of the ending, only despair and death awaited them.

That was the punishment for the atrocities they committed under the tolerance of Empire.

Soldiers in power armor threw the mini-nukes they confiscated from Guru Tribe into the end of the tunnel underground then Jiang Chen pressed the detonate button.

The high temperature even melted the surface of the fallout shelter. A scorching light erupted from the ground like an active volcano and brought burning radiation dust to the surface.

The explosion shook the ground. Even the capital, tens of kilometers from Panyang Lake, could sense the tremor.

The 1000-meter tunnel collapsed and buried the fallout shelter stored with FEV virus data underground eternally.

With the cheers of the slaves, NAC soldiers took control of mutated human territory.

20 thousand slaves were all freed, and Guru Tribe was renamed Golden River Farm and categorized as an NAC economic zone in Hucheng. All citizens could join NAC at their will, record their information to obtain an identity card, receive nutrient supply aid, and wait for the next arrangements.

To ease the process, under Jiang Chen's directions, Wang Zhaowu selected 500 reserves from the villages beside the water treatment plant who joined NAC from the beginning. A small amount of leadership from Third Division soldiers was provided to maintain the order of the farm while nutrient supply was distributed.

The raw ingredients for nutrient supply were all available, and the mutated humans' warehouses were filled with mutated fruit, so Jiang Chen didn't feel any pain in consuming 20 thousand nutrient supplies per day. Some of the land already planted with mutated fruit trees were divided among the slaves.

While these freed slaves were still planting mutated fruit, free citizens with property worked much harder.

They worked for mutated humans before, but now, they worked for next month's food.

...

The tent of Guru Tribe elder was bulldozed, and NAC's construction robots rebuilt a concrete command past at the same spot.

Jiang Chen was inside the command post discussing next steps with Han Junhua.

"Empire's First Division is currently in a stalemate on the Gang River Bridge against Federation. From the position of the cannons, it is highly likely it will escalate into a military conflict."

"Picking the fruit while we're working on Empire? Federation has a good plan. Aside from a standoff, did they do anything else?" Jiang Chen didn't seem worried and laughed instead.

"No." Han Junhua shooked her head. "They should be waiting for us to finish resting."

"While we demolish Empire's land forces, they'll cut the meat behind their backs?"

Han Junhua nodded. Her calm eyes cast a rational light. "That's right."

"So your suggestion is...?"

"If General is planning to include Federation in NAC's territory, how much meat they cut from Empire doesn't really affect us."

"Makes sense." A smile surfaced on Jiang Chen's face then he changed the topic. "What are the movements of the other three divisions?"

"Empire's Third Division retreated to the capital for defense, while Empire's Fourth Division is contracting its line of defense. They're clearing out local insurgents. Empire's Second Division moved to Donggang Plantation and surrounded the local insurgents with cannons and mortars. But due to the frequent activity of zombies and mutants nearby and lack of ammunition, the defense still remains intact while the attack caused sizeable casualties to the insurgents. The local insurgents requested assistance from us through radio."

Jiang Chen only contemplated for two seconds before he strategized the attack.

"Respond to their request for assistance. Send Aurora-20 to strike Empire's Second Division. Before the next batch of supplies arrives, we still need them to waste some more time."

"Yes."

Chapter 641: The Business Opportunity behind the War

NAC's declaration of war against Empire caused an earthquake in Hucheng.

But a more destructive earthquake occurred in the Sixth Street hundreds of kilometers away.

The morning of the third day, when the day just broke, the Sixth Street bank was crowded with a massive group of people. Compared to the survivors in ragged clothes in Hucheng, these people's hair style and fashion was much more glamorous. Their faces were also filled with excitement and joy.

Eight in the morning, the bell of the hour rang from the bell tower.

The instant the sign changed from to , the crowd began to move.

"Fu*k! Don't push me, are you rushing to reincarnate?!"

"Why are you pushing? People in the front can't even walk!"

"Don't cut the line! Fu*k, where's your courtesy?!"

"…"

The guards already prepared yellow lines to separate the crowds into lines to maintain order.

Because of the existence of newspapers, they received the success from the frontline at the earliest time. While at the same time, multiple newspapers of the NAC all had the same headline.

Jiang Chen's iron seal was printed along with the headline.

Underneath the headline, the Sixth Street Bank analyst assessed Hucheng population as well as the most critical investment value. With the backup of the military government, the rating was of course A+.

It wasn't because Jiang Chen was trying to fool the Sixth Street investors, because Hang City's Merchant Alliance also gave a similar rating of A.

Compared to the coastal area of Wanghai, the population and radiation level of the soil were both higher than inland; only the military government controlled Shengxiang Town's soil quality was better. Therefore, the plantations in NAC territory had relatively poor performance.

With the increase in population, including the Sixth Street, all the Wanghai survivors consumed an astronomical amount of nutrient supply. Since not everyone could afford to eat actual food each meal, most of the people's consumption consisted of the disgusting nutrient supply.

But with the average spending of the population also rising, most of the people could afford nutrient supply above B grade. And the ingredient of the B grade nutrient supply was the basic "produce" of the wasteland – mutated fruit.

The mutant pasture recently popularized in NAC also required consumption of a large number of mutated fruits as the feed for Long Haired Pig.

Not only mutated fruits, Carm tree sap, bullet shell grains, and other ingredients also had high demands in the Sixth Street.

Therefore, all the investors acutely captured two keywords from the newspaper: "Labor" and "Land".

With those two things, whether it was mutated fruit or Carm tree sap, the demand could be satisfied.

And because of this, the investors were eager to take out the cash from their pockets and rush to foot the bill of the war.

…

It was the same as the last time when the war bond was sold. Chu Nan sat at the spot by the window while eating buns, drinking soymilk, and reading through the newspaper on the table. Zhao Chenwu sat across him; the council member that slashed the boss of Zhao Corporation woke up early every morning to not miss the breakfast at the council building cafeteria.

"War is always the catalyst for the economy." Chu Nan stuffed the bun into his mouth while glancing at the jam-packed group of people outside with a grin.

"I cannot agree more." Zhao Chenwu nodded.

The bank sat beside the council building, and the line extended from the door of the bank all the way to the square in front of the council building. The people swinging their bills had higher morale for the war than the soldiers unleashing bullets in the bunkers six hundred kilometers away.

The war against Guru Tribe consumed around one million in credits for the cost of bullets, missiles, bombs, and other supplies. But the war was only for two days before more than half of the one million credits were recovered.

No, they even made some money.

With the money from the investors, NAC could send more orders to the military factories. At the same time, the investors spending money in Hucheng will invest more credits there to build farms, construct factories on NAC's colony, and bring more prosperity to NAC.

When Chu Nan thought about this, the usually calm Chu Nan was particularly delighted.

Zhao Chenwu, on the other hand, was more collected. It was not because he had an indifferent attitude… it was because he laughed enough last night.

The bigger companies with a positive relationship with NAC didn't need to be like the investors outside, lining up at the bank door. They had special "VIP windows" to purchase a large amount of land.

Although Zhao Corporation mostly focused on the food business, they maintained a segment of their business in nutrient supply. With 1000 acre of high-quality soil in Golden River farm, when he finished calling Jiang Chen yesterday, he almost fell down from his chair due to happiness.

But despite being happy, in order to best develop the farm six hundred kilometers outside, he still had urgent matters to discuss with Chu Nan.

"Speaking of which, the airship is indeed great." Zhao Chanwu exclaimed while looking at the people outside, "If the airship can be used in commercial transportation, we will no longer need to engage in crossfire with the raiders along the way."

When Chu Nan heard Zhao Chenwu's words, he found it comical.

He had worked with this guy for quite a period of time and he knew exactly what he was thinking. Although the old fox's eyes were looking out the window, his attention was on him.

"Okay, you know it is pretty hard to obtain helium. Before we can meet the military demand, we don't have plans to open the production for a private airship."

Zhao Chenwu looked awkward having being caught red-handed by Chu Nan, he chuckled and continued to ask without shame.

"What about hydrogen? Without helium, we can use hydrogen as a replacement. Since we are floating above the clouds, the probability of an accident is low. It should be okay if I order a few hydrogen airships."

While a hydrogen airship was more dangerous, from a cost perspective, transporting by air costed much less than transporting by land. As long as the accident rate was controlled below 1%, even with a few accidents, it was a profitable situation.

"You're not afraid of death, eh." Chu Nan glanced at him, "Are you sure it is safer to float in the air? The raiders even dared to shoot the NAC blimps, they won't let you go free either."

"Don't worry, we'll bear any loss!" Zhao Chenwu used a negotiating tone.

"That's enough, there is nothing to discuss here." Chu Nan dismissed the idea before putting the last bun in his mouth, "But if we do have that plan, we'll notify you immediately."

With Chu Nan's firm stance, Zhao Chenwu had no other choice.

"Please and thank you."

Chapter 642: Better Wish for Luck

An airship was indeed great.

When they saw NAC's steel airship and the supply blimp sending ammunition six hundred kilometers away, all the merchants travelling at the Sixth Street acutely observed this point.

Due to the six hundred kilometers distance to transport from Hucheng to Wanghai, the raiders or mutants along the way would usually cause sizable damage to the merchant fleets. Based on the road condition of the wasteland, anything sold in Wanghai from Hucheng would cost at least double.

But with the existence of an airship, the situation would drastically be different.

Some merchants even considered ordering a few private airships from the Sixth Street military factory. While they didn't have the money for the steel version, the normal blimp version would be fine.

But the only obstacle was helium, because of the nuclear fusion power station, helium was abundant before the war. But today after the war, obtaining helium was as difficult as ascending into the air. Without helium and the hydrogen blimp being too dangerous; they had to put a hold on the idea for now.

In NAC, helium was a strategic resource.

Fortunately, UA in the modern world was dumping helium to the market.

As the strategic reverse for blimps, UA's helium strategic reserve built in 1925 consisted of 30% of the world's helium reserve. But followed by the blimp making an exit from military operations, the reserve cost a large maintenance bill per year. Therefore, the Congress made the decision to sell all the helium 15 years ago. And this decision made helium in the global market extremely cheap with price twenty times below its actual value.

And because of this, Jiang Chen could obtain large amounts of helium to aid the production in the apocalypse.

But if the production of commercial blimps was made available, the liquid helium he brought from the modern world would not be enough. There were approximately five hundred merchant fleets that conducted trade across long distances at the Sixth Street. If they were to maintain five hundred blimps, the helium consumed per day would be enough to build another airship.

Before the helium production could be resolved, Jiang Chen had no plan to make the helium reserve available.

After discussion with Chu Nan, NAC decided to establish two air transportation cargos between Wanghai and Hucheng with two new 300 tons large blimps. This route would be a supplement to the land trade route to provide transportation service for the larger companies.

The blimps would also provide direct transportation to the survivors traveling between the two locations with a cost

…

Five days passed since Guru Tribe ceased to exist.

Empire and Federation maintained their stalemate across the river, Donggang Plantation insurgents desperately tried to hold their ground with the siege of Empire's army.

With NAC's arrival, the entire Hucheng turned into a mess.

Contrary to Empire's chaotic state, NAC controlled territory was pleasant. Golden River Farm resumed its production with the slaves of mutated humans turned into the owner of the land and began building houses in NAC's designated area.

Inside the farm, businessmen in suits could be occasionally seen accompanied by a few mercenaries. They were mostly investors of the Sixth Street and luckily purchased land from the bank. The moment they obtained their land permit, the merchants all hopped on to the newly opened airship route and headed to Hucheng six hundred kilometers away.

Brought along with them were concrete, steel, graphene pipelines, and other construction materials. The walls of Golden River Farm were reinforced and a small market sprouted from the ground. The seed of order was planted; it wouldn't take long before prosperity began to germinate.

While Golden River Farm was undergoing its rebuilding phase, Empire under tremendous stress finally sent an ambassador out to Jiang Chen, expressing their desire for freedom. However, Jiang Chen with an advantage would not agree.

"Get your Emperor to see me, perhaps I will let him keep his palace and let him continue to be the emperor of that arena. Or else, tell him to pray." This was what Jiang Chen told the ambassador who was kneeling on the ground.

If the emperor recognized the situation and willingly joined under NAC's banner, it was not a big deal for him to continue to be the Emperor. Although he would not receive the treatment of being above all, he could easily live the rest of his life in peace and comfort.

Unfortunately, the elders and the Emperor were enraged by NAC General's "arrogant" attitude.

"These rats, how dare they!"

Smashing his cup on the ground, the Emperor cursed out.

"Emperor please remain calm. As long as we mobilize the army of Empire, we will definitely be able to defeat the external bandits!"

"That NAC General is way too arrogant! Does he really think Empire doesn't have people?"

"But Federation's army is still across the river…" People who understood reminded in a feeble voice.

With these words, the enraged elders instantly deflated and couldn't say a word more.

That's right.

The threat Empire faced not only came from the east, but it also came from Federation, west of Gang River. With the loss of Guru Tribe, Empire was already at a disadvantage against Federation, now they faced the threat of the NAC.

The petrifying firepower advantage was hard for anyone to gain the courage to resist.

Emperor on the dragon chair was silent while he watched the elders gravely. These useless things were witty when discussing how to spend the money in the treasury, they all had a flawless accounting book, and they were all peerless when it came to conspiracy.

But in this critical moment, they couldn't be lousier.

"Speaking of which, where did Chen Lin go?" An elder suddenly spoke up.

The palace suddenly became rowdy again.

"That's right! Where did that fool go, why didn't we see him!"

"Capture him! If it were not for that dumba*s' idea, our two divisions should be fighting against NAC at the frontline rather than being forced to Donggang Plantation!"

"Right!"

Without being about to think of a solution to solve the difficult problem at hand, the elders put their attention into finding the scapegoat. Even if it served no purpose in resurrecting Empire from the losing situation, it was the only thing they could do and can do.

When the Emperor heard the words of the elders, he began to realize what they said is true.

If it were not for Chen Lin's recommendation to use the slaves to comfort Guru Tribe, how would the situation evolve to this state? He didn't come today because he realized his crime.

Emperor looked at the guard beside him with a gloomy expression.

"My order. Arrest Elder Chen Lin, and demote his wife and daughter to slaves."

"Yes!" The guard nodded and walked away.

Just then, a familiar voice came from the door.

"No need for the trouble, I'm here."

Elder Chen stood tall at the door.

Beside him was a figure familiar to everyone at the scene – Commander of Empire's Third Division, Wei Biao.

Chapter 643: A New Owner of Capital

The atmosphere in the palace cooled to freezing point. The instant Chen Lin's big belly appeared at the door, disbelief froze on all the elders' faces.

"Wei Biao? What are you doing here?" The emperor frowned and asked with a cold voice.

"Emperor, you still don't understand? I thought Emperor is smarter than this." Chen Lin's pair of small eyes glanced over the elders and finally stopped on the emperor's face.

How many years has it been?

He was excluded from the center of power in Empire. No matter how many terms, the abducted crown was far away from his grasp. But today, the "influential elders" all looked at him with fear.

Emperor stared right into Wei Biao's eyes and ordered, "Arrest him."

The commander previously loyal to Empire didn't move.

His reaction validated the emperor's suspicion, Third Empire stationed in the capital committed treason. The brave division was the proudness of Empire before, but the emperor never would have thought that the commander he personally appointed would stand here.

The emperor's throat felt dry, but he still squeezed out a word.

"Why?"

"We can't win." Wei Biao's response was brief.

As a previous PAC soldier, his grasp on the battle was more superior than anyone in the palace. When he saw the missile hailstorm, he realized that it was an uneven war from the start.

The only chance of winning was to launch an attack against NAC's outpost when NAC was unleashing its firepower on Guru Tribe.

But the smokes of the uprising sealed the fate of Empire.

The slaves at Donggang Plantation became insurgents to force the two divisions at the frontline to retreat. Federation took the opportunity to line troops west of Gang River to hinder the movement of Empire's First Division…

Empire lost the opportunity to attack the NAC outpost.

When NAC's missiles were resupplied and the bomb in the electromagnetic pulse cannon was reloaded, NAC with an absolute firepower advantage meant that Third Division stationed in the capital was only awaiting their death. If they wanted, cleansing the entire capital will only require 1000 combustion missiles.

Wei Biao trusts that they had the ammunition.

"Just because of this?" The emperor squeezed the words out difficulty.

Wei Biao didn't look at the emperor in the eyes, he lowered his head.

"Emperor, please step down."

"What if I say no?" The emperor narrowed his eyes and signaled the guards beside him.

"Sorry, I just want to live with my brothers." Wei Biao raised his head and put his hand on his waist.

The pupils of the emperor instantly contracted.

Behind Wei Biao, the fierce soldiers with rifles stepped into the palace…

…

The gunshots lasted ten minutes; blood soaked the carpet of the palace. The guards and soldiers engaged in intense crossfire, but the ending was evident. The difference in number could not be made up by shooting.

When the shooting stopped, the elders all died under the fire of the Third Division soldiers.

The emperor on the dragon chair looked at everything in front of his eyes blankly without being able to say a word.

Wei Biao wanted to keep the emperor's life, but Chen Lin took out the pistol hidden in his pocket and personally killed the poor elder on the dragon chair.

Seeing the emperor had already died, while Wei Biao was displeased, he had to let it go.

The Third Division quarantined the palace; the death of the emperor didn't cause a ripple in the Empire on the brink of collapse.

When the news was controlled, Chen Lin immediately came to find Zhao Baodong to deliver the message of surrender to NAC. After an hour, when the NAC airship arrived above the capital, the residents of the capital just realized…

The sky just changed.

"Is this the capital?"

On the drop pod of Order, Jiang Chen observed the arena just ten square kilometers in size from above. Inside the arena was filled with concrete structures and crude tents; narrow paths mixed among the buildings.

"That's right, this is their capital." Beside Jiang Chen was Zhao Chenwu, looking at the palace from the top. His voice carried a hint of mockery.

The drop pod was lowered by graphene cables.

Bathing in the fearful sights from the square, Jiang Chen along with ten soldiers in power armor stepped into the middle of Capital Square.

Empire's Third Division already dropped their weapon and first surrendered to the NAC force.

Eleven survivor locations of Empire were categorized as NAC's economic zone governed by an elected government and supervised by a NAC-sent director responsible for the defense of the location.

When Chen Lin waiting on the square saw Jiang Chen, he immediately came to greet him with a complemental smile.

"I'm Chen Lin, I've been awaiting Mr. General's arrival."

Jiang Chen examined the last elder of Empire before he focused his attention on the man behind him.

"I heard you were a PAC soldier?"

"That's already history."

Jiang Chen noticed when Wei Biao said this, he used "history" instead of "past".

Without saying more to him, Jiang Chen then glanced over to Zhao Baodong with his chest raised high, he nodded, pleased.

"Excellent, you did great this time."

"It is due to General's mentoring," Zhao Baodong replied, his face flushed.

To receive such a grand compliment, he will definitely be promoted. While excited, Zhao Baodong used the opportunity to suck up.

"That's enough. No need to suck up to me. If you have nothing to report, go stay for a bit on the airship. You will be rewarded along with the soldiers."

"Thank you, General!" Zhao Baodong was ecstatic.

Being left hanging by Jiang Chen, Chen Lin began to feel anxious. When Zhao Baodong came to find him, he promised that if he did as told under NAC's directions, when they conquered Empire's capital, he would be guaranteed wealth and glory.

Now that the capital was part of NAC's territory, and when it was time for NAC to fulfill the promise, Chen Lin became unsettled again.

Just as Chen Lin was hesitating if he should remind Jiang Chen not to forget about him, Jiang Chen looked at him with an ambiguous smile on his face.

"Looks like you're the last elder of Empire."

"General, you're being funny." Chen Lin's back was bent and he awkwardly laughed, "Empire is already kneeling in front of you, there is no more elder."

To the flattering attitude of the elder, Jiang Chen grinned and said.

"There definitely should still be elders, but from now on, you're working for me."

"General… the other elders are all dead," Chen Lin carefully said.

"Dead?" Jiang Chen paused and looked over to Wei Biao.

"Dead due to resistance," Wei Biao briefly answered.

Chapter 644: The Officials

All dead?

It certainly surprised Jiang Chen.

He originally wanted to select a few elders that forsake darkness for light to let them organize the affairs of this arena for him, but they all died.

Jiang Chen looked at Chen Lin with a deeper layer of meaning in his eyes.

The ambiguous smile made Chen Lin afraid to look him in the eyes.

"Mr. Chen is decisive; nice tactic."

With a drop of cold sweat rolling down from his forehead, Chen Lin replied while stuttering.

"No."

"That's enough, whatever." Jiang Chen waved his hand to dismiss the topic.

Chen Lin finally felt relieved when he heard Jiang Chen say this. It was his petty idea to kill the elders and emperor. Only when the officials of Empire died could his importance stand out. His only worry was Jiang Chen would have an opinion with what he did, but now it looked like while the NAC General certainly saw through his wit, he didn't mind.

Jiang Chen thought for a moment and nonchalantly asked.

"What's the population of the capital?"

"Permanent population 43,510. Transient population roughly 3,000," Chen Lin immediately answered.

"What's the financial surplus of last month?"

"90,000 crystals."

"You know the situation of Empire quite well. You didn't just guess that did you?" Jiang Chen glanced at him feeling surprised.

Chen Lin grinned, he used a flattering voice to say, "How do I dare to trick you."

"Perfect, looks like you're not useless." Jiang Chen nodded. "Then, are you interested working for me?"

Chen Lin was ecstatic when he heard this. Without regard to what other people thought, he immediately kneeled down.

"Don't be too happy yet." Jiang Chen didn't make him get up and instead, with a smile, he looked at him. "I know your little wit and stuff. You should know, if you use that wit where you shouldn't use it, what kind of consequences you will have."

Jiang Chen immediately put his head on the ground to express his allegiance.

"If I dare to have any other thoughts, I'm willing to die by being stabbed a thousand times!"

"Remember what you said. Get up."

"Thank you, General!"

…

While the morality of Chen Lin was still to be determined, he had talent in management. Jiang Chen sent people to verify the residents and treasury, the data was no different than what he said.

As long as he kept him on a leash, it was fine to use this kind of person.

It was not selecting a role model.

From the way of the square to the palace, Chen Lin fully developed his sucking up nature and followed behind Jiang Chen. But Jiang Chen was uninterested in his flattering words and suck up. He only briefly asked about the situation in Empire before getting this guy to shut up.

With one foot stepping into the palace, the officials of Empire already packed the palace.

Looking at the compliant officials, Jiang Chen furrowed his brows, titled his head, and asked Chen Lin, "How many people are officials in Empire?"

"General… there are five ranks of officials with five divisions in each rank for a total of 527 officials."

[What the fu*k! That many?]

Jiang Chen estimated that around one out of one hundred people in the capital was an official, this didn't include the officials with less important roles.

"The massive government system of Empire was something that gave the elders a headache for the longest time. But these people more or less were related to the elders. With such a small community, no one wanted to mention cutting people. Therefore, the officials of Empire increased more and more, a lot of times one thing was separated into five things for ten people to do…"

"There are too many people, lay some off," Jiang Chen dismissed what he said and said in an annoyed tone.

Different from Chen Lin's cautiousness, Jiang Chen didn't control his voice at all. Because of this, when the officials in the palace heard what he said, their expressions all froze with displeasure written all over their faces.

Chen Lin had a bitter smile in his mind, but Jiang Chen didn't care about what they thought and stepped to the seat in the front of the palace.

He sat on the dragon chair, getting a slight feeling of what it was like to be an emperor. Then he spoke to the officials.

"Is there anyone displeased with me sitting here?"

[No sh*t, who dares to say they are displeased?]

The officials were all compliant with their head lowered not saying a word. However, they had the most vicious curses in their minds.

"Great, looks like no one is displeased." Jiang Chen leaned into the chair and examined the officials with his eyes narrowed.

The emperor of Empire did know how to enjoy.

The Dragon Chair was much more comfortable than the wooden chair in his office. Above the officials, the taste of power was indeed intoxicating.

Jiang Chen cleared his throat and said.

"Chen Lin, give me the officials list."

Chen Lin walked out and handed him a tablet courteously.

While Empire lacked in technological development, it managed to achieve digital documentation. All the names and rankings of officials were recorded on the server in the palace responsible by people with management access. Typically, it was the emperor, but if the emperor died, it passed on to the elder.

Since the emperor already died, Chen Lin was the only elder left, the management access for the server data naturally passed into Chen Lin's hand.

Now that Jiang Chen wanted it, Chen Lin handed to him with both hands.

Jiang Chen took over, saw that the list was already on the screen, and began to flip through them.

"Yang Liang."

"Here." An older looking official stepped out and bowed to Jiang Chen.

"You're responsible for the gate tax right?"

"Yes." Yang Liang said compliantly.

"There will be no more gate tax at Qingshan Arena, you can go home."

With the sound of knees hitting the ground, the older Yang Liang kneeled on the ground with tears bursting out.

"Em…Emperor…"

Managing the gate tax was a lucrative duty; there were at least thousands of people that entered in and out of the gate and everyone who came in must pay. While two crystals were not a lot, it was at least two to three thousand crystals in the bag per day.

No one would notice if he pocketed one hundred crystals.

Jiang Chen's decision killed his money making method.

"Don't call me Emperor, call me General." Jiang Chen said while annoyed. He was too lazy to listen to his complaint. He swiped his finger and called the next name.

"Lu Guangyuan."

"Here." Lu Guangyuan anxiously stepped out and gulped while waiting for Jiang Chen's decision.

"Market Stimulation Department, what department is this?"

"Stabilizing price, promote economic development, improve—"

"Then what's the Pricing Council? Wang Qianping, why don't you explain it to me?"

"Eh! Here, I'm here." Wang Qianping stepped out with cold sweat dripping down.

Jiang Chen eyed him, signaling him to talk.

"Stabilizing price, promote economic development, coordinate—"

"What's the damn difference?" Jiang Chen was growing increasingly flustered.

"Hmm… General, if you listen carefully, the last word is different…" Wang Qiangping's small eyes stared at the floor as he anxiously replied.

Without wasting his word, Jiang Chen swiped two times on the screen.

"The two departments are abolished. The tax rate will be determined by the new administrative department after accessing market supply and demand. You can go home now."

With two sounds of kneecaps hitting the ground, Lu Guangyuan and Wang Qianping both dropped down with tearless grief.

If the gate tax was a juicy piece of meat, the two departments were a giant pig with countless juicy meat. Now that they were being removed, how were they willing to just let it go!"

"General, you, you can't just do that to us—"

"No—"

Jiang Chen was getting goosebumps, the tablet in his hand almost dropped to the ground.

[You guys are disgusting, people on the outside who don't know what's going on probably think I did something to them.]

Holding onto the tablet, Jiang Chen gave the two people a hard stare before eyeing the kinetic skeleton soldiers beside him. "Take them out."

With the officials anxiously watching, the three officials on the ground were forcibly dragged out by the soldiers.

Displeased?

Anyone will be displeased!

The cake being taken away was pure robbery for these people.

But with a black muzzle in front of their heads, no one dared to say no.

Chapter 645: Useless

The officials below him were petrified, afraid Jiang Chen would call their name.

But what must come will eventually come.

After half an hour, more than half of the five hundred something officials were cut, only leaving a scattered one to two hundred people. The massive layoff was unseen of, even a public company in an economic recession didn't layoff more than 70% of its employees.

Jiang Chen didn't care.

He abolished all departments he thought were unnecessary. NAC had money, but no obligation to feed useless people.

The people left behind all let out a breath of relief. A lot people didn't realize they were completely drenched in sweat.

Departments with odd names were all cut, departments with repetitive functions were merged, and the remaining 117 officials were temporarily put on leave while they waited for NAC's Minister of Administration's arrangement.

The name "capital" was removed and replaced by Qingshan Arena Survivor Camp, referred to as Qingshan Town. While a lot of officials didn't want to change the name, the survivors had no problem with it. From their conversations, no one thought of this place as the capital, instead they referred to it as "arena".

Chen Lin assisted in the "accession to the throne" and was named superintendent of Qiangshan, responsible for its affairs and was supervised by NAC director.

Jiang Chen already decided on the director.

The captain of the power armor airdrop platoon, Cai Xuan; he first pierced into the enemy zone of control during the attack on Guru Tribe, and assisted the infantries in breaking through the line of defense to achieve an outstanding accomplishment. After Jiang Chen asked for his personal opinion, he named him the director of Hucheng Survival Camp.

It was not the most attractive option for an NAC upper class citizen and knight to work far away from Wanghai. Not only would the quality of life decrease by a wide margin, the administrative rank was also two levels lower compared to Chu Nan at the Sixth Street and Yu Lu of Camp 027.

But after the completion of his term, once he requested for return to Wanghai, the director of a colony on his resume would indeed help him go further in his career.

The surrendered Empire's Third Division was renamed to Militia Division with the size shrinking from five thousand to three thousand.

The homemade rifles were all thrown into the warehouse and replaced with the Reaper Assault Rifle produced in the Sixth Street. The leather and steel boards sealed together were thrown out and changed into carbon Nano bulletproof vest produced by the Fishbone base.

Other than that, one hundred trainers from Wanghai were incorporated into the division to strengthen NAC's control of the militia while at the same time increase the competency level of the force.

After a series of adjustments, the lousy force instantly gained some traces of an "elite force". The primary responsibilities of the militia were to maintain the security of the location, maintain NAC's defense in Hucheng controlled area, and become a reserved force of NAC's three major divisions.

The previous division commander Wei Biao maintained his position, while only the division was changed from an army to a militia.

Chen Wei was shocked to discover Jiang Chen preserved his position.

He previous thought his fate was at most to be given a severance package and take a few of his confidants back home to farm. But Jiang Chen allowed him to keep his position and increased his salary by two folds. While there were NAC officials mixed into the division now, it was reasonable since absolute trust was nonexistent.

Other than loyalty, he didn't say much more.

The reason for preserving Wei Biao's position was because of a deeper level of consideration from Jiang Chen.

One was to set an example for the three commanders outside of Qingshan Arena, one was because he viewed highly of Wei Biao's ability.

Former PAC land force soldier. While the title was not as convincing as "brigade commander" Han Junhua, he at least received military training from before the war. Compared with the "former civilian" survivors, his combat ability and strategic awareness was far stronger.

The commander of the division was only training. If he proved his ability, he will be promoted in a matter of time.

As to loyalty.

Other than the balance of power, slavery chips exists in Wanghai.

…

After slicing the cake of the old regime into pieces, Jiang Chen threw the tablet back to Jiang Lin before he strolled out of the palace while the officials looked as if the plaque had gone away.

The political change in the arena didn't cause any influence on the people.

When they were sure NAC would not take away their crystals, the merchants and mercenaries there continued on.

The only change was that no more green skinned figures were seen on the street.

The violent maniacs were wiped out by soldiers with kinetic skeletons when NAC first occupied the arena. They were killed on the street, drowned in the toilet. The difference between mutated humans and humans was great. NAC soldiers' shooting skill was also superb, there could be no error.

The bloody genocide caused resistance from the mutated humans which caused innocent civilians to be hurt.

A lot of civilians, mercenaries, hunters with weapons all joined the mission to wipe out the mutated humans; quite a few of them were oppressed. However, because of the protection policy under Empire, they had to swallow their rage.

The moment Empire collapsed, NAC announced that mutated humans were the same as mutants, they started their vengeance.

Sacrifices did occur, but people expressed their full support.

Perhaps people in modern world would be compassionate to the mutated human that suffered a tragic fate, but these people would never exist in the apocalypse unless they were the "blue skin" that just walked out of a fallout shelter and yet to experience the world.

After taking care of the affairs in the palace, Jiang Chen took Sun Xiaorou waiting at the gate to visit the clinic in the ghetto Zhao Baodong mentioned.

There was no one in the waiting room. It looked like the shadow of Order affected the clinic's business.

Jiang Chen got a number from the metallic ball robot at the door. He only waited for two minutes before he walked into the room with Sun Xiaorou and saw the fabled Doctor Sun.

With a buzz cut, he looked clean with twenty years of age; he didn't look like he spent twenty years in the fallout shelter.

Doctor Sun put down the notebook in his hand and gazed at the two at the door.

"Are you here for a diagnosis?"

Jiang Chen shook his head and gently said.

"For the secret of immortality."

"You are Jiang Chen?"

"Yes." Jiang Chen nodded.

Doctor Sun nodded, without saying anything, he moved his sight to Sun Xiaorou who was leaning by the door with a hint of reminiscence on his face.

"How many years has it been? You've grown so much!"

"You know me?" Sun Xiaorou tilted her head and looked back at him with confusion.

"When you were this big, I hugged you before." Doctor Sun smiled. He used his hands to measure a size of a baby, "If I remember correct, your name should be… Sun Jiao?"

Chapter 646: I hesitated

"That's my sister." Sun Xiaorou shook her head with a smile. "Although we do look alike."

Doctor Sun paused for a second before a smile appeared on his face.

"Oh? I do apologize."

"It's okay." Sun Xiaorou shook her head. Her eyebrows had a hint of reminiscence present. "People often mixed up the two of us when we were young, even when we're not twins."

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Sun Boyi." Doctor Sun extended his right hand to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen shook his hand, looked at him and also briefly reintroduced himself.

"Jiang Chen, the NAC General."

Doctor Sun gave Jiang Chen a friendly smile before he continued.

"Because we share the same last name, my memory of that little girl is quite vivid. Since her younger sister is here, you should know her sister, right."

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded.

She was the first person he met in this world.

Sun Xiaorou put a finger on her chin and asked the question troubling her mind." But… even if you saw my sister, she was just a baby. You shouldn't have seen her as an adult right? So how could you have mistaken me for my sister?"

Doctor Sun smiled. "There was a flood of babies in the fallout shelter. Due to the lack of doctors, I was the doctor who completed the procedure. With the help of DNA replication technology, before you were all born, we already knew what you would look like in the future. But unfortunately, I didn't get to see you grow up."

Sun Xiaorou nodded.

Jiang Chen took out a diary from his pocket and placed it on the table. "Did you place the diary on the table of the director's office?"

"The diary was there from the beginning. I just moved his body back where he was supposed to be."

Sun Baoyi must've been referring to the deceased fallout shelter director.

"There are a few pages ripped out from the diary."

"Pages from the diary were already ripped out from the beginning by its owner… Of course, I think you wouldn't be too interested in Fallout Shelter 071's past."

"On the contrary," Jiang Chen shook his head, "If it's convenient for you, I hope you can tell me what happened afterward. Including the history of Fallout Shelter 071, as well as the observer… the experiments you conducted."

"The observer? You know this word..." Melancholy surfaced on Sun Baoyi's face. "Even I almost forgot."

He paused, looked at Jiang Chen, and invited him to sit down.

"Feel free to sit. This story is quite long."

…

When I woke up from the hibernation chamber, it was already the tenth year.

Eight years prior, the director ordered security to attack my lab and made all my efforts go down the drain. He also stole the Golden Apple. He didn't kill me, but instead, he said, "Once the fallout shelter opens, people will punish you for your crimes." He shut me into the hibernation chamber.

His arrogance made me uncomfortable.

It wasn't because the punishment would never arrive, but it was because of the unrealistic fantasy he had of the outside world.

With this fantasy, his naivety would inevitably kill everyone in the fallout shelter, much more than the people I killed.

And it would be for an extremely boring reason…

I sat in the chair trembling while blankly staring at the propaganda poster in the fallout shelter. I tried to empty my mind in order to get accustomed to the unnatural time difference.

Eight years. It was just like a dream.

My eyes closed, eyes opened, and everything outside the glass window was covered in thick dust. Time muddied everything, but it didn't muddy me in the mirror.

The Golden Apple was destroyed; the arrogant Mr. Director destroyed it after he pressed the button to start the hibernation chamber.

Regardless, my mission ended.

When I stepped over the security line, just like I expected, everything here was abandoned.

When I stepped through the metal door, just like I expected, everything outside was destroyed in the nuclear war.

The ending could've been foreseen, but most people always maintained an unrealistic fantasy before finally drowning in their dreams.

Someone said a long time ago that only two nuclear bombs were needed to destroy the world - the first being fear, and the second being vengeance.

I don't remember his name anymore, but I'm certain about one thing. He was elevated from a sociologist to a prophet.

There were a few metal shacks on the surface. I remember those things - they were strategic reserves in the fallout shelter. The PAC flag burnt to dust fitted satirically well with the propaganda posters on the train.

Once the door opened, the survivors would have to rely on those tools to rebuild their home in the ruins.

But from the bones and bullet marks, I already guessed their fate.

How could trained forces lose to refugees with primitive weapons?

My guess was that they didn't die because of the force's shooting skills; it must've been due to comical humanitarianism as well as courtesies extended by the civilized.

I dug through the shelves in the ruins to search for anything useful.

A pistol, a picture belonging to god knows who, and a diary with many pages ripped out - they were all the supplies I could gather.

I considered going back to sleep.

Ten years was too short. If I "time traveled" to 1000 years later, the situation would probably be much better.

Whether it was just a barren field outside or a city built by the new humans.

If it was the former, I could use the human clone technology in the other fallout shelters to restart the PAC civilization. If it was the latter, museums created by new humans could provide with a well-paying job to teach elementary students participating in social awareness activities about how the people before the war lived, how they tarnished themselves…

Regardless of the choice I made, there were urgent matters I had to take care of first.

There was no power and no food; I had to find useful things among the ruins.

I had to at least gather enough nuclear fusion cores needed for the hibernation chamber and a few nutrient supplies.

Before I searched for other survivors, I had to replace the blue skin I was wearing.

If all the newbies who just left their nest wore similar clothes, I had enough reason to believe this blue skin would bring me trouble.

Just like how a civilization naturally attracted barbarians.

It took me quite a while to find well-fitting clothes. Finally, I chose a suit whose color was fading and wore a bulletproof vest inside.

Along the highway, I walked all the way into the city.

Zombies, mutants, raiders, mutated humans… and cannibals.

There was danger everywhere, but I only had 14 bullets – 2 clips.

Hospitals, schools, automated factories… all these places could have nuclear fusion cores, but they had all been rummaged by scavengers. There were survivor gathering spots where human activity could be seen, but out of safety considerations, I didn't dare to approach them.

Since this was the apocalypse.

Later on, I incidentally saved a merchant from zombies and used the crystals I had to trade for some useful items.

He took me to Zhonghe City and told me that as long as I had crystals, I could buy anything there, whether it was men or women.

If it didn't exist on the market, I could just go to the bar.

After reaching out to survivors, my life became a lot easier. When I knew they lacked doctors here, I opened a clinic to treat patients in exchange for crystals. Then with those crystals, I placed orders for nuclear fusion cores at the bar.

A lot of things happened in that year, but I managed to collect ten nuclear fusion cores.

The nuclear fusion core batteries were highly efficient. If they were just used to maintain the hibernation chamber, one would be enough to last me 100 years of sleep.

I closed the clinic and refused the president's, parliament members', and friends' invitations to stay. I returned to Fallout Shelter 071.

But the second before I laid in the hibernation chamber, I hesitated.

Chapter 647: The Secret to Immortaility

"Why?" When Jiang Chen heard that, he was eager to know.

"It's the nature of humans as creatures - the more interaction they have with other humans, the harder it is to accept loneliness." Sun Baoyi sighed. "No matter how you decipher human nature, no matter how indifferent you are… it's not something you, as a twenty-year-old, can understand."

Jiang Chen looked at him with questions still in his eyes while Jiang Chen waited for him to continue.

"In the story, I mentioned that I saved a merchant."

"Yes." Jiang Chen nodded.

"We later became friends, and he invested in this clinic." Sun Baoyi paused for a moment and let out a sigh. "Not only him, but also the crippled hunter, the merchant from the Northern Alliance Area, the female gunslinger from the Black Street Bar… I remember their names, even if some of them may have already died or left for places afar. Regardless, my memories are still there. The more people you know, the more you can't let them go. I admit everything is terrible, but it's not despairing to the point where you don't have the will to live."

"Is that just because of the relationships you have?"

"Don't describe it so simply." Sun Baoyi shrugged. "If you had to lay in the hibernation chamber for 1000 years, would you be willing to let everything go here and head for a different future alone?"

When Jiang Chen thought about Sun Jiao, Yao Yao, and the people loyal to him, he shook his head.

"I kind of understand now."

Sun Baoyi nodded.

"Although I decided to stay in this era, I didn't immediately leave the fallout shelter. Instead, I used the only quantum computer left and restarted the experiment again."

"What about the samples? Since your experiment, the samples… those people were all killed. "

"I'm the sample." Sun Baoyi looked at Jiang Chen, took out a small bottle from his pocket, and placed it on the table. "This is the secret to immortality."

Jiang Chen's eyes locked onto the thumb-sized bottle.

A crimson liquid was inside.

"This is…?"

"You've heard about hidden genetic codes before, right?"

Jiang Chen nodded.

"This is a hidden DNA code expressed in a special manner after the injection of a genetic vaccine. A lot of mercenaries and soldiers take it to increase their combat abilities. Take a guess - if you unlock it to the third level, the last level, what would happen?"

Without giving Jiang Chen time to think, he tapped the small bottle with his finger gently.

"You will become a God."

Because of his stern expression, Jiang Chen held his breath before letting the words out difficulty.

"That is… absurd."

But then, Jiang Chen suddenly recalled the man who referred to himself as God.

"If you think that's absurd, it depends on your definition of God," Sun Baoyi said emotionlessly. "Although it's comical to define God through science, we still gave God a crude meaning. A being who can do things humans can't do is hence referred to as 'God'."

"For example, the leader of the Dusk Church could use spiritual energy to explode a hundred blood crystals to trigger an explosion that could wipe out an entire province from the map. Absorbing energy from crystals is as easy as drinking water…"

Jiang Chen asked Sun Xiaorou before - with her second level genetic code ability, she couldn't even explode one blood crystal, let alone hundreds of them.

Of course, the definition of God wasn't only limited to destructive power.

"So you mean…" Jiang Chen looked into Doctor Sun's eyes. He had an idea of what Doctor Sun meant.

"Looks like you guessed it. Yes, we researched the 'side effects' of genetic vaccines before the war. Based on the genetic map, we concluded that once the genetic code 'resilience' evolved to level three, the 'immortality' ability could be unlocked."

Sun Baoyi paused briefly, then continued.

"With current technological capabilities, the abilities in the genetic code can be transplanted. The only material required is 100mg of serum."

From one perspective, immortality was something only reachable by a God. But more surprisingly, this ability only reachable by a God could be transplanted surgically.

Jiang Chen looked at the bottle on the table and fell into deep thought.

Therefore, the girl mentioned in the diary should be Sun Jiao - she should've been just half a year old. And the other "samples" in Fallout Shelter 071 should be normal people with the genetic code "resilience."

Jiang Chen had an idea of the kind of experiment Doctor Sun performed that caused all the samples to die.

Sun Jiao told him before.

In order to increase the effect of the genetic vaccine and unlock the next level of genetic code, aside from going through high-intensity training, the fastest and least technical way would be to "seek your own death."

It was only when you teetered between the edge of life and death that the hidden genetic code could be exposed.

The simplest way would be to throw the group of people into an "arena" to fight, and the people who survived to the end would have the highest probability of reaching the "God" boundary.

When Jiang Chen thought this through, the benevolent smile on Doctor Sun's face gave him a petrifying chill.

To be able to perform the experiment on the people he lived with, this guy isn't human at all…

Sun Baoyi read the repulsion in Jiang Chen's eyes and he had a smug expression. "It's an inhumane experiment, right?"

"Is it not?"

"I'm delighted you think this way. If people who shouldn't control the secret to immortality got control of the secret, that would be a disaster to civilization."

"Is that really what you think?" Jiang Chen was puzzled.

From his own memoirs and the diary of the director, if the alignment chart (1) was used to describe his personality, Jiang Chen could absolutely define him as an "absolute neutral." He discarded all the weaknesses in human nature and viewed selfishness and apathy as natural; his contribution was just not proactively being evil…

But his reaction after he left the fallout shelter the second time was completely different.

Jiang Chen thought he belonged to "neutral order" now.

Sun Baoyi didn't directly answer Jiang Chen. Instead, he said gently, "Human nature is a burden to survival, but without this burden, the seed of civilization will not germinate."

"I feel like I've heard this before."

"I guess he's another observer." Sun Baoyi laughed.

Jiang Chen nodded and brought the topic back to the genetic code.

"Did you unlock the third level?"

Sun Baoyi shook his head.

"How's that possible?"

"Then how did you not age at all in the past ten years?" Jiang Chen was confused.

"Did you remember the explanation for 'resilience' in the EP?"

Jiang Chen tried to recollect his memory of when they returned from the sewers and Sun Jiao explained Jiang Chen's abilities.

"Expending life in exchange for healing non-critical wounds in a short period of time?"

"That's right." Sun Baoyi nodded, pleased. " When evolved to the second level, new abilities will be unlocked."

"Revival?"

"That's not the right word." Sun Baoyi waved his finger in disagreement. "Aside from fixing damaged organs, the ability also fixes DNA telomeres. From a macro perspective, it greatly increases your vitality."

"Therefore…"

"That's right - I'm only at the second level. But even with just level two unlocked, I gained around five hundred years in life… as long as I don't repetitively use 'resilience' and 'revive'." Sun Baoyi shrugged. "With the second level, all I can give you is the key. As long as you transplant 'resilience' into your body, you'll have a chance of gaining immortality."

"A chance?"

"That's right." Sun Baoyi nodded. "You can only gain the 'key' from another person. As for how many doors you can open, that's up to yourself."

Jiang Chen looked at Sun Xiaorou.

From her expression, he received an affirmative reply.

After he hesitated for a moment, Jiang Chen asked.

"If the genetic code is changed to 'resilience,' what would happen to the previous ability?"

To be honest, he was unwilling to give up "fury" and "invictus," two combat abilities that almost allowed him to cheat.

Sun Baoyi woke him up from his greedy fantasy with laughter.

"Since it replaces, the previous ability will disappear."

"I finally unlocked level two." Jiang Chen's smile was mixed with bitterness.

"I found a shortcut to unlock the second level for 'resilience' - you don't have to worry about that."

"Is that so…"

"If you want to replace the genetic code in your body, I can do the operation for you." Sun Baoyi pushed the bottle beside Jiang Chen gently. "Of course, if you don't trust me, you can take the technology and perform the operation with other doctors."

Jiang Chen played with the serum in his hand and abruptly asked, "Can I ask a final question? If I evolve 'fury' to the third level, what ability would I obtain?"

"Fury… the frequency of this genetic code is high, but people rarely evolve it to the second level, let alone the third level. I see that you must've evolved it to the second level?" Sun Baoyi was quite intrigued.

"Yes."

"Because there's no precedent, I can't predict what ability you will have… but I'm certain it must be an ability that approaches the territory of 'God'," Sun Baoyi said with certainty.

[Should I change my ability?]

Jiang Chen stared at the 100mg of serum and fell into silence.

(1) Alignment chart - The meme that include choatic evil, absolute neutral, ... and seven other states.

Chapter 648: Not Knowing One's Own Strength

With the bottle of serum and information related to the surgery, Jiang Chen left the clinic.

Based on what Doctor Sun said, the surgery could be done before fifty years of age. Through a special method, it would only require one to two years to evolve "resilience" into "revive."

He is only twenty-something, so there is no need to make a rash decision.

"Do we not need to control Doctor Sun?" When leaving the ghetto, Sun Xiaorou turned her head and asked Jiang Chen.

"Get someone to keep an eye on him. It doesn't seem necessary to control him," Jiang Chen said.

At the end of their conversation, Jiang Chen invited him to the Fishbone Base to serve as a doctor, but he rejected the offer. He wanted to continue staying there, living on the wasteland under the identity of Doctor Sun and treating the unfortunate.

But at the same time, he expressed that once everyone around him turned old and the children turned into adults, he would consider closing the clinic and quietly leaving the place. By that time, he would consider entering the hibernation chamber to wait for a distant future…

When they passed an alley, the two walked toward the exit of the ghetto.

But just then, a few figures walked out from the dark and surrounded them.

Jiang Chen stopped and looked at the group of people blocking them, intrigued.

They were holding guns, knives and even sticks. He could clearly sense the unfriendliness in their eyes.

[There are actually people unafraid of death?]

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes and said pleasantly, "You are?"

The man leading the group with a bald head didn't respond. A teen with a rifle walked up two steps and thuggishly said, "Buddy, you ruined the jobs of many after you came to Capital. You think you're tough?"

[Ruined the jobs?]

Jiang Chen instantly understood what this was about. He said while pondering, "So, an official who was cut sent you guys here?"

Another thug with a scimitar tilted his head to crack his joints. He looked at Jiang Chen with vicious mockery. "You certainly are brave to come here without a guard, and you brought a girl along too. Don't you know this is the ghetto?"

"Of course I know this is the ghetto, but… did I need to bring guards?" Jiang Chen laughed.

The thugs all stared at him as if he was dumb. They looked at each other before they started to chuckle.

"Enough, no more bullsh*t. Someone bought your life, sorry. Haha, we'll take care of the little hottie beside you." The bald-headed man laughed menacingly. His small eyes squinted into a line and he wantonly checked Sun Xiaorou out.

"I'm not little at all, although I'm a bit smaller than sister." Sun Xiaorou blinked at Jiang Chen without any sense of urgency before she turned around to grin at the bald-headed man who just disrespected her. Her voice gradually turned cold as she said, "Considering what you just said, that's enough for you to die twice."

"Ha, with just you?" The teen sneered, lowered the rifle on his shoulder, and pointed at Sun Xiaorou while he arrogantly said, "I want to see you—"

Jiang Chen didn't want to watch their hideous gestures, so a cold voice came out of his lips.

"Fire."

Bang—

A gust of wind sent dust high up into the air.

Once the dust settled down, only the bullet marks on the ground and the hint of blood in the air proved the thugs had been there.

As the general, Jiang Chen obviously wouldn't have walked into dangerous territory without protection. Under the airship's watch, he didn't think they would be in danger there.

Jiang Chen turned around to look at the peasants trembling in darkness and met their fearful gazes.

They probably knew the thugs had been hiding there already. No one had told the two of them, but the peasants just remained in the dark.

It didn't take too much thinking to know they want to scavenge the bodies.

Jiang Chen suddenly thought the frail and dark faces looked like crows watching atop tree branches.

"Just leave these things for me to deal with. Now there's blood splattered all over my dress." Sun Xiaorou, who had dust on her face, turned around, picked up her dress hem stained with blood and rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, displeased.

"It's okay, I'll change for you when we get back," Jiang Chen whispered into her ear with a smirk.

Xiaorou's face quickly turned red.

"Screw you."

The two disappeared in the alley.

Like crows that sensed carrion, the people hidden in the darkness swarmed the lumps of bullet holes mixed with chunks of flesh and began searching for anything valuable.

…

When they returned to the airship, Jiang Chen took Sun Xiaorou to change into a clean set of clothes. Then he called upon Cai Xuan, who was acting as the director. He ordered all officials who had been dimissed to be imprisoned and investigated. If they had any connections related to the attack in the alley, they were to be executed.

After taking care of that matter, Jiang Chen headed to the command room of the airship and discussed next steps with Han Junhua.

"…First Division surrendered to Federation, and the soldiers of Federation already crossed the Gang River bridge and are building defense bunkers now. From the images collected by drones, they're equipped with anti-air cannons and missiles as well as heavy artillery support. Just like that, they're focusing on establishing an elite force."

Jiang Chen nodded.

"What about the other divisions of Empire?"

"Second Division ceased its attacks on Donggang Plantation and fled north with signs indicating they're moving to Wu City. Fourth Division stopped its suppression of the insurgents and is in the process of negotiations for surrender."

"What do they want?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Division commander Li Haicheng agreed to surrender to us, but he hopes he can continue to act as the commander."

"Accept his terms." With a brief pause, he continued, "Once he surrenders, reduce the size of the force by half, retrain the force, establish the Second Militia, and make them responsible for the defense of Golden River Farm."

"Okay."

Right now, deputy captain Wang Zhaowu walked into the command room and made a report to Jiang Chen.

"Federation sent an ambassador with the hopes of discussing the distribution of Hucheng."

The ambassador from Federation?

When Jiang Chen thought about Federation taking advantage of the situation, a mysterious smile appeared on his face.

"Make them wait in the conference room beside the palace. I'll personally go to see them."

"Yes!" Wang Zhaowu saluted.

"Right, move the airship to Golden River Farm. It's unsafe to be so close to Federation's air defense power, and it's also not necessary either," Jiang Chen said.

Order's long-range fire coverage could easily cover the entire Hucheng territory, even areas hundreds of kilometers away. If they weren't showing off their power, there was no need to be so close.

When he left the room, he called Ji Yucheng, who was currently resting at Golden River Farm, and gave him some orders.

"Come to the arena."

"Now?" Ji Yucheng was shocked.

"No sh*t."

"Could I ask what it's about?" Yucheng whispered.

"Good things," Jiang Chen answered with irritation "If you want to become the president of Federation, then stop wasting my time and come. I'll arrange people to pick you up, so wait at the gate of the farm."

"Yes, yes!"

Ji Yucheng was ecstatic. He immediately darted out the door.

As a parliament member, it would be his dream come true if he sat on the throne of the president.

Especially for a parliament member in "exile," the temptation to return to the seat of power was great.

Chapter 649: Federation's Ambassador

"Your party's firepower left a deep impression on us. Since the despicable Empire and mutated humans are eliminated, why don't we redefine the boundaries, each take a step back, and remain at peace?"

In the conference room beside the palace, Jiang Chen met the ambassador from Federation.

"So your proposal is?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"With Gan River as the boundary, the territory west of Gan River will belong to Federation and the territory east of Gan River will belong to NAC. The borders will be open with an open trade policy in effect and no customs set in place?" the ambassador proposed with a smile.

Their terms made Jiang Chen extremely surprised.

He previously assumed they would have to engage in intense debate on the negotiation table or be involved in an intense standoff that could even escalate into military conflict, but negotiations went surprisingly smooth. Federation, who already crossed the Gan River, took a step back and was willing to retreat?

Jiang Chen's finger tapped the armrest of the chair while he contemplated the real intentions of Federation.

But regardless of what they thought, the terms brought by the ambassador gave him no reason to reject them.

After a brief silence, he casually said.

"Looks like we've reached an agreement."

A smile appeared on the ambassador's face. He took half a step back and bowed courteously to Jiang Chen.

"It's a pleasure to be able to reach an agreement with your party, honorable Mr. General."

Since they reached an agreement, the two parties signed the agreement that symbolized their friendship.

Without staying for much longer, the ambassador took the copy that belonged to them and departed.

Once the ambassador left, Jiang Chen looked to Han Junhua, who was standing by the side silently.

"What do you think?"

"If NAC needs a market and supply base, Federation's proposal satisfies our needs," Han Junhua replied.

"I share the same perspective as you, although I don't think it's as simple as it looks." Jiang Chen nodded.

It didn't take long before Ji Yucheng finally reached the arena. But before he stepped into the conference room, the ambassador already left.

Jiang Chen had a helpless expression, looking at Ji Yucheng, who was gasping for air.

"You're late. The Federation ambassador already left."

"Th-that quickly? You reached an agreement?" Ji Yucheng stood up with his back straight and asked Jiang Chen in shock.

"Of course. We agreed to set Gan River as the boundary with free trade established… This is the exact agreement." Jiang Chen nonchalantly tossed the agreement they just signed into Ji Yucheng's hands. "Unfortunately, you can't be the president. How about being a diplomat?"

Ji Yucheng scanned through the agreement before putting it down.

"This is a trap."

"Oh?" Jiang Chen curiously examined Ji Yucheng.

"Although Federation's forces have outstanding abilities, the strongest part of Federation isn't its soldiers."

"What is it then?"

"It's the merchants," Ji Yucheng replied.

Jiang Chen almost burst out laughing.

Ji Yucheng looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled, not understanding why he found it funny. Empire was afraid of Federation's merchants and hence established many rules and boundaries within its market. They increased tariffs and established protection policies to support the economy on the brink of collapse.

"Looks like you have hopes to become the president." Jiang Chen didn't bother explaining to Ji Yucheng. He just stood and laughed as he patted Ji Yucheng on the shoulder. "But I want you to first return to Federation. Only then can you participate in the election."

Ji Yucheng shook his head and gave Jiang Chen a pleading look. "No! I don't want to go back! They'll kill me… The president won't spare me with his forces behind him!"

"Don't worry, you won't die." Jiang Chen comforted him. "You're returning as a NAC diplomat; they won't dare to kill you. Also, you've been out here for too long. It won't make sense to kill you to protect the password anymore."

As long as the president of Federation wasn't blind, he would see that Fallout Shelter 071 is now under the control of NAC.

"But…"

Jiang Chen dismissed his comment with irritation. "No buts. If you want to become the president, listen to me or else I'll choose someone else—"

"What!" Ji Yucheng immediately stopped blabbering.

[You certainly recognize the situation.]

Jiang Chen glanced at the guy, paused, then continued.

"Once you return to Federation, just do your job as a diplomat. You don't have to do anything. Just wait for my orders."

Ji Yucheng nodded and carefully remembered Jiang Chen's words of caution.

"Also, keep an eye out for me on one thing."

"What thing?"

"That letter - who sent it to you?" Jiang Chen said.

Ji Yucheng, with a troubled smile, said, "Didn't I say? It was Doctor Sun—"

...

"He didn't send it, although it was sent under his name."

"I swear I didn't lie to you. It's Doctor Sun's handwriting. I delegated people to verify his writing before…" Ji Yucheng assumed Jiang Chen suspected he was lying.

"I know you're not lying to me, but you've been lied to," Jiang Chen said. "The name on the letter may not represent the person who actually sent the letter. He has a clinic and signs how many forms a day? It's not hard to forge his writing."

"How do you know he didn't write the letter?" Ji Yucheng rebutted.

"Because I met him and I confirmed that he didn't have the intention of doing that," Jiang Chen said.

"Okay, I'll keep an eye out." Ji Yucheng nodded.

…

After sending Ji Yucheng off, Jiang Chen left the affairs of Qingshan Town to Superintendent Chen Ling and exchanged a few words with the newly-appointed Director Cai Xuan, then he boarded Order to return to Golden River Farm.

Inside the farm were already a few tractors plowing the land. Bundles of Carm saplings were stacked on the side with a few new farmers cooling off on the side.

The merchants of Sixth Street not only brought capital; they also brought advanced technology.

Disregarding everything else, the farm tractors plowing the farm were the products of Sixth Street factories.

In the near future, NAC technicians would build a communication base station. Once established, Hucheng would be included in the credit EP payment system. At the same time, data exchange between Wanghai could be accomplished through the network.

After he arrived at the command post, Jiang Chen found his private force captain, Captain Li Wang, and inquired about the mission he delegated to him.

"Did you find the quantum computer research institute?"

"We already confirmed a few suspected targets and I sent the brothers of the private force to search for them. I'll have an accurate reply in three days at the most."

"Excellent. I'm glad I entrusted this task to you."

"It's my pleasure to share the General's burden." Li Wang saluted him.

Jiang Chen nodded, pleased.

"I have another thing I want you to do."

"What is it?"

"Head to the Donggang Plantation for me and convince the survivors there to join us."

"Roger that." Li Wang headed out.

"Wait." Jiang Chen suddenly stopped him.

He stopped and turned around.

"Anything else I can do?"

"You've been with me for a while, and I'm pleased with your loyalty. But regarding your abilities, I still need to test you. I won't give you any hints in this mission and I don't have any expectations regarding which method you use to convince them. Your actions and the final result will be used as part of the assessment. If you pass the test, you'll become the captain of Order."

Li Wang's heart trembled uncontrollably as he looked at Jiang Chen with great emotion.

He took a deep breath, calmed the excitement in his mind, and eventually said:

"I definitely won't disappoint you, General!"

Chapter 650: Donggang Plantation

Donggang Plantation.

The scars of battle were beginning to fade. The survivors dug out the bodies of their comrades and buried them on the small hill north of the plantation. On the street outside the barbed wire, zombies tumbled along and wandered around mindlessly.

In the days of continuous fire, Empire's sieging forces destroyed their walls multiple times and cut through the barbed wires to lure zombies into the plantation. The battle devolved into chaos between humans and zombies.

In the chaos, over one thousand slaves died.

With such a limited amount of ammunition, their ability to limit their casualties to around one thousand against an actual force showed that the slaves were certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Of course, NAC's airstrike also was part of the reason.

Out of fear for an airstrike from NAC, Empire's Second Division didn't focus all their efforts on launching a full-scale attack. Out of fear for NAC's forces, Empire's Second Division chose to retreat north for independence. It was only then that the siege of Donggang Plantation finally ended.

Since they didn't know where to go, one thousand survivors chose to leave while the remaining seven thousand survivors gathered together. They elected a leader who led them to rebuild their home on this piece of land.

One morning.

An SUV darted into the street and sent a few dumb zombies flying before it came to an abrupt stop in front of the plantation.

Two machine guns on the wall immediately pointed in this direction. Survivors with scarves and rifles walked up to knock on the car window.

"This place isn't open to the public. Please leave."

Li Wang glanced at the muzzles on the wall, took a deep breath, tapped on the door to lower the window.

"I don't have bad intentions. I represent NAC and I want to see your leader."

Li Wang thought these people would courteously invite him in, but the survivor's expression made a 180-degree shift as he examined Li Wang with caution.

The stark difference completely caught him off guard.

The soldier at the gate pressed on his collar, walked to the side, and spoke with his superior before he quickly returned to the car window.

"We can take you to see our leader, but we have to search you."

Li Wang's eyebrows raised and he was about to go off, but when he thought about Jiang Chen's test for him, he breathed in and suppressed the anger in his mind.

"Of course."

He pushed open the door, walked out, and opened his hands.

"I swear I don't have any weapons on me."

The soldier ignored him and briefly scanned his body. After confirming there were no weapons, he took Li Wang into the plantation.

After walking on a muddy road, they arrived in front of a three-story office building.

Li Wang saw the leader of the survivors when he stepped in.

His knife-sharp eyes could pierce people's minds and his defined face was tattooed with the slave mark, but from his straight back, Li Wang didn't see the meekness typical of a slave.

[This isn't an easy character.]

That was Li Wang's first thought.

When the uprising erupted, the spies behind the conflict retreated from the plantation amidst the chaos. No one could provide him with assistance, and the only information he had was from one week ago.

"Aha, let me see who came. The ambassador of NAC? You finally remembered your neighbor." The leader walked up to Li Wang. With his eyes narrowed, he aggressively stared Li Wang down. "Tell me your intentions."

Li Wang didn't dodge his stare. He paused for a moment before he calmly said, "Are we not allies?"

"You used us to keep Empire Second Division here and used our blood to pave your victory - would you refer to this as an alliance?" The leader started laughing hysterically and he shrugged. "What's next? After you take over the capital, do you plan on taking over the slaves in the capital?"

"You're mistaken."

"Let me tell you, we won't accept any enslavement from anyone, even if you're powerful enough." The leader lowered his voice. His scratchy voice rang beside Li Wang's ears as the words came out one by one.

The pitiful people who just escaped from the shackles of enslavement were more sensitive and more conceited than anyone. While they only had poorly made rifles and a limited amount of ammo, they still believed they could use their faith to defend their freedom.

They were sensitive and suspicious of any form of control.

They wouldn't listen to anything right now.

[The missiles of Order should wake these people up…] That was Li Wang's only thought.

"We won't do that." Li Wang used his most reasonable voice.

"But who can promise you won't do that?" the leader asked in an exaggerated tone. "We have our hands and feet and we can grow mutated fruits and Carm tree sap. Why would we join you?"

"We can purchase your mutated fruits and Carm tree sap."

"Federation's market can too. You're not unique."

The negotiation was at a stalemate from the beginning, but fortunately, Li Wang detected the problem.

"Federation came to see you?"

The leader shrugged and replied with an undeniable expression.

Not denying the claim was equivalent to agreeing with it.

Li Wang took a deep breath, cleared his thoughts, and calmly said.

"Could you give me five minutes?"

...

At the command post, Jiang Chen was working.

Regarding the growth of NAC in the Hongcheng region, he was strategizing the smaller details regarding the bigger picture of expansion. While the model of Sixth Street could be used as a reference, it couldn't be perfectly replicated here and required minor adjustments.

Elections, law…

This time, the door opened and Wang Zhaowu walked into the office.

"Are you busy?"

"Almost done. Why?" Jiang Chen dropped the pen in his hand and asked Wang Zhaowu.

"Nothing in particular. I just wanted to ask if you've made a decision for the captain." Wang Zhaowu closed the door behind him.

The situation with Hongcheng was stabilized. After the open border agreement with Federation came into effect, NAC managed to successfully establish itself in the area. It was near the end of July. After leaving for one and a half month, it was time to return at the beginning of August.

Jiang Chen said from the beginning that the captain of Order would be selected at the end of the conquest. As the General and Division Commander, Wang Zhaowu couldn't act as the captain and deputy captain forever.

"I have someone in mind but I'm undecided."

Wang Zhaowu was relieved when he heard Jiang Chen had a plan. He said with a smile, "I thought you forgot about it. Now I feel assured."

"Enough. You think I would keep you as deputy captain forever? Head back and clean up. It won't be long until you have to return to your Second Division."

"Roger!"

Chapter 651: New Captain

Good news quickly came from Donggang Plantation.

It only took two days before Li Wang successfully convinced the local survivors, including the largest survivor gathering outside of the arena east of Gan River, to become part of NAC's jurisdiction.

As an economic zone of NAC, Donggang Plantation would receive the management of NAC's director stationed in Hongchen, the leader would be elected by the local residents while they enjoye high autonomy. The current leader Zhang Weiping would continue to act as the first leader of Donggang Plantation.

Five year term.

The chip at the back of the neck recorded the mission brief of Li Wang. After reading some of the data, Jiang Chen nodded, pleased. Even with his pickiness, he could gave this guy's ability a high score of 90.

Worth noting, full marks is 100.

"AS Order is the aircraft carrier of NAC. As the captain, you will be the commander of this aircraft carrier. In a conquest, you will have high autonomy, and the choice you make will ultimately affect NAC's interest in the conquest area. Therefore, your ability to represent the best interest of NAC is the most critical part of the test. Congratulations, you passed the test."

On the deck of the airship, under the watch of all crew members, Jiang Chen took off the golden emblem from his chest and put it on Li Wang's chest, beside the knight emblem.

Under the glaze of the sun, the emblem reflected a golden ray.

With the shield in the middle, the view of Order was engraved on top, two rifles crossed below the shield signaling conquest and order. From then on, he would become the flag of NAC's conquest to exert NAC's influence to places further.

Feeling the hefty weight, Li Wang stood up with his back straight. His body was shaking in excitement while an inexplicable expression was on his face.

After putting on the emblem for him, Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder, gazed into his eyes, and said sternly.

"From today on, Order will be yours."

"I will fulfill my mission!" The passion in his chest translated into his voice as Li Wang roared at the top of his lungs.

"Great! That's the spirit! I'm looking forward to your performance." Jiang Chen laughed.

The trumpeter started the music; the rough and melodious brass tone echoed in the sky.

Order fired toward the lake and celebrated the appointment of the new captain.

On the deck, Jiang Chen opened ten boxes of beers and asked the cooks to prepare eight tables of food for the fifty flight crew members; he announced the start of the celebration.

It was certainly a difference to celebrate a thousand meters up in the air. Jiang Chen drank at least ten bottles before he was carried back to his room by his private force.

The newly appointed private force captain was a young man named Lv Ze. It was the first time seeing the General so drunk, so he didn't know what to do. So he had to run back to his old captain Li Wang who was still "battling" and seek advice.

"Well, he is drunk… burp, if you don't know how to take care of this, just leave it to the woman. You think that General wants a man beside him when he wakes up? Dumb!"

Li Wang was clearly intoxicated as well, his speech became wild and disorganized before he pushed Lv Ze away.

Embarrassed to disturb his old superior's celebration further, Lv Ze remembered his "wise words" and ran back to the captain room – before the official handover, the spacious room was still Jiang Chen's personal bedroom.

"Captain, boss already puked twice!" When Lv Ze returned, his soldier began to complain.

"Did you feed the General some medicine?" Lv Ze was completely clueless.

"Yes, but the effect is not obvious!"

"Captain Lv! General puked again!" The scream of agony came from the room.

[What should I do!]

Lv Ze looked around while pondering for a solution. He suddenly thought of a person and immediately said, "Where did Sun Xiaorou go? Get her to take care of the General. We are not convenient to draw a bath for the General. She can do that!"

"Little Wu already went searching for her, she is not on the airship!"

[With all men on the airship, where am I going to find a woman? The entire crew is drinking; it is not possible to lower the elevation either!]

[How about… I'll just get someone to help General shower and change?]

[But what if General is not happy! This is my first day on the job!]

Hastily, Lv Ze suddenly thought of a person and dragged onto one of his soldier.

"Go to the command room and get Advisor Han here."

"Advisor Han? Are you sure?" The soldier trembled when he thought of the emotionless female superior.

"Stop yapping around, go now!" Lv Ze said decisively.

"Okay, okay!" The soldier took the order, bit the bullet, and ran to the command room.

"All of you, get out. Leave this to Advisor Han, we'll stay somewhere else." Lv Ze ordered the private force soldiers taking care of Jiang Chen to come out.

"Is, is it really okay to just leave the General here?" A soldier hesitantly asked.

"Are you dumb?! If you're the boss, would you want a hot girl taking care of your or bunch of sweaty men taking care of you? Stop yapping, listen to Brother Lv, and let's go." Another soldier dragged his comrade out of the door.

Lv Ze didn't know what to say and couldn't think of a way to explain to Advisor Han, so he didn't bother finding an explanation and directly left the mess in her hands to avoid the awkwardness.

It didn't take long before Han Junhua walked to the door of the captain's bedroom.

She furrowed her brows at the scene. Jiang Chen was snoring, his coat was taken off, and his clothes was stained.

"How did he get so drunk? How much did he drink?"

No one replied.

Han Junhua turned around, the private force soldier that had taken her there already disappeared.

The door to the bedroom was closed too.

She expressionlessly looked at the sleeping face and was silent for a long time, before she let out a sigh. Speechlessly, she put him around her arm, and dragged him into the washroom.

Without any extraneous emotion, she just purely thought… she had to do something.

Han Junhua took off the puke stained shirt and looked at the firm chest.

Already her heart was beating fast, she didn't have any corresponding emotion in her heart.

"Is dopamine excretion accelerating? Really incredible. Obviously human feelings rely on hormone secretion, but the Psychic Commissar is able to cut off the link between the two." Han Junhua's index finger gently tapped Jiang Chen's chest, feeling the hot temperature and at the same time feeling the odd peacefulness.

"What an annoying feeling."

Han Junhua shook her head, retracted her finger, and planned to change him into something else.

But then, she saw the sweat drops on his muscle, and she began to contemplate.

[With so much sweat, I should help him take a shower first before changing into clean clothes?]

[Logically speaking, it is better to take a shower or else the sweat would drench the clean clothes.]

As she thought, she put her finger on her own buttons and put her jacket into the basket.

To prevent making her own clothes wet, she took off her stockings and uniform, only leaving a thin white shirt.

Han Junhua put his arms around her shoulder and felt the temperature on her back was even hotter. It could be because the amount of fabrics between the two decreased, or it could be because he was sweating.

"...?"

When she remembered the experience in the black room, the hotness on her back began to decrease.

[Is it because my body temperature is increasing?]

She didn't understand the feeling.

She filled the bathtub with warm water and finally thrown Jiang Chen into the water. She let out a sigh.

She felt relieved.

With a wet towel, she cleaned his body. Just before she turned around to grab a dry towel, her hand on the bathtub was being held.

"…?"

Han Junhua turned around and looked at Jiang Chen with questions in her eyes.

But she was met with a pair of passionate pupils.

The intimate atmosphere lingered between the two.

Although she couldn't read the odd atmosphere, she could feel her heartbeat begin to accelerate and her body temperature was gradually increasing.

The heat from her wrist made her suddenly not want to resist.

Suddenly, the drunk Jiang Chen didn't say anything and suddenly dragged her in.

Without being able to react in time, she fell into the bathtub…

"Pooch—"

Water splashed around and her shirt and pencil skirt were soaked. Her eyes widened and a rare disbelief was in her eyes.

The frosted glasses reflected two warm-colored figures followed by a monotone monstrous roar.

Bathtub, toilet, sink, hallway, desk, the sheets in the middle of the bedroom… the marks of battle could be seen everywhere.

The gorgeous face like an eternally froze ice without any expression began to melt into the flush of the spring rain, starting to ripple in the nightfall…

Chapter 652: Quantum Computer Research Institute

Because the first time was in the bathtub, the mark of her virginity was nowhere to be found.

The only evidence that could prove what happened last night was the still lingering pain.

Han Junhua felt the unforgettable sharp pain and a hollowness in her mind, but it was soon filled up by something else…

It was difficult to describe.

She was hugged tight by the muscular arm; she slightly moved her neck and adjusted into a more comfortable position while savoring the inexplicable after feeling.

[If I could… from this warmth…]

Of course, she knew if Psychic Commissar could be removed this easily, she would be underestimating the power of technology.

She lied flat while staring at the ceiling.

She felt tired, so she temporarily gave up on thinking.

The warm but heavy breathing hushed into her ear and made her tickle, but it was also oddly reassuring.

[It is hard to believe, the dependence of the environment because of temperature is too stupid…]

As she thought, her mind began to turn cloudy. She closed her eyes at dawn to fall asleep again.

It was not until noon did the two wake up to Sun Xiaorou's grin.

Jiang Chen opened his eyes and watched the gentle smile. He had a feeling of being caught cheating.

…

"Boss, you… you can't blame me for that. We wanted to go find Miss Sun, but she was not on the airship." Lv Ze tried to justify himself with a bitter face.

"But you can't go find Jun… Advisor Han, you can just find anyone to change for me," Jiang Chen criticized him snappily.

Although Han Junhua didn't say anything when she got up, nor was she angry, she didn't have any extra expression at all. However, Jiang Chen had a feeling where he owed her.

"Then, then next time General is drunk, I will find you a man…" Lv Ze carefully said.

"… Just find Advisor Han."

After kicking Lv Ze out, Jiang Chen packed up, got off the airship, and officially moved the command post from the air to the ground.

When he stepped into the newly built command post, he bumped into Sun Xiaorou waiting at the door.

Still the same long dress, Xiaorou looked at Jiang Chen with a grin.

"Are you all packed up? Brother-in-law."

"Mhmm… I'm packed up." Jiang Chen awkwardly replied.

"Brother-in-law looks a bit tense."

"Do I? Haha, hahaha." Jiang Chen forced a few laughs, but it was not enough to fool Sun Xiaorou.

Sun Xiaorou slowly strolled beside him, took the luggage in his hand, and whispered into his ear.

"I promised sister to look after you when you're outside."

"This, it was an accident." Jiang Chen looked away in embarrassment.

"Oh? How are you planning to treat Sister Junhua then? Although there was still a smile on her face, Sun Xiaorou's eyes were mixed with a hint of seriousness.

Silence lasted for half a minute between the two.

Although he knew he was greedy, Jiang Chen still said the most honest thought in his mind.

"…I'll take responsibility."

"Humph."

Sun Xiaorou turned around, left Jiang Chen, and walked to the hall.

But just a few steps later, the dress swayed and she quickly turned. She looked backed with a grin, "Looks like you still have some conscience. If you didn't take responsibility, I would have been disappointed."

"That's something odd to be disappointed about." Jiang Chen face palmed.

With her finger on her lips and still the same gentle smile, Sun Xiaorou titled her head, unaware.

"Is it?"

…

After nearly half a month of investigation, the precise location of the quantum computer research institute was determined.

The location was in the high technology park in the east. Due to the structure of building primarily resided below ground, it was able to be preserved. Although it was not far from the blast center of the nuclear explosion, the structure only received minor structural damage.

Because of this, the place became a nest for mutants and resided a dangerous mutant named "Piano Queen"– a mutated spider. The head-sized spider did not rely on venom or teeth to hunt, but used its spider web to form deadly traps to wait for the preys to step into their own death.

The near graphene ring structure even possessed the resiliency of Nano material and was almost undetectable under a faint light environment. A fly passing through the scattered web could still fly two or three meters before being cut cleanly into several pieces…

Even the Death Claws could suffer a tragic ending if it accidentally entered its territory.

It was hard to imagine, a small creature 2 cm tall could evolve into such a deadly creature.

But "Piano Queen's" weakness was obvious.

Once their traps were detected, they would lose the purpose of the trap. Without any attack ability, they had no way of fighting back before being burned by NAC soldiers with flamethrowers.

After the mutants in the building were cleared out, reconnaissance soldiers began to search the internal of the building and finally determined the core lab of the quantum computer research institute to be located on the most bottom floor.

Here comes the show.

In a building preserved with PAC core technology, the security level was naturally not low. Even twenty years after the war, the security robots hidden in the corners of the building still maintained their functionality while waiting for intruders to wake them up.

When Jiang Chen determined the security level of the building, Jiang Chen executed the attack.

Obtain the password?

Funny, after so many years, where was he going to find the password?

As to hacking, that was even more of the question. To display the hacking skill at the quantum computer research institute was making a fool of oneself. The network security level was at least double of the bank.

Even Yao Yao wouldn't be of help.

Lv Ze took the private force and following Han Junhua's plan, exploded the side wall of the research institute before successfully enteromg the building.

Eerie blue laser bullets danced among the hallways and collided with the orange bullet hailstorms.

Because of the security system established by the quantum computer possessed high information suppression ability, the soldiers inside the building could not use drones or robots to assist them.

Jiang Chen finally understood why the Zhao Corporation couldn't get a few quantum computers; it was pretty darn difficult to obtain one.

But fortunately, the private force soldiers were prevailing, with the support of the soldiers, they took an entire day to break through the security system of the building to arrive at the lab on the bottom floor…

"Is this the production line for the quantum computer?" Jiang Chen looked speechlessly at the production equipment piled into a small mountain on the floor.

[Damn, just by placing them together, they occupied over one thousand square meters in area.]

To move the equipment out from underground, scientist from Fallout Shelter 027 had to travel there through the blimp and instruct the soldiers on what could be taken apart and what must be moved with extra caution.

The parts were packed up, data copied, not even a single table or chair was left behind. With the scientists' directions, NAC soldiers raided the entire lab as if locusts had swarmed a crop field.

The scientist responsible for the research of quantum computer was Zhang Fan. He was standing beside Jiang Chen currently and explaining to him some of the technical backgrounds

"This doesn't include the general electronic parts as well as the shell of the computer."

"Just give me some numbers, how many people do I need to get a plant running, how much land do I need?" Jiang Chen looked at Zhang Fan.

"That… that is hard to say. Including the production of the general electronic parts, if we reach 50% automation, the entire plant would require 165 hectares of land and 5000 technical workers." Zhang Fan gave a conservative estimate.

"Where am I going to find that many technical workers?" Jiang Chen said with a headache.

All the technical workers in the Sixth Street were barely that number.

"Ummm… General, don't think it as being too difficult. Knowledge can be learned through the virtual reality education system, and with the unopened fallout shelters in Wanghai, there are plenty of workforce with a high academic background," Zhang Fan said.

"Fallout shelters are too unreliable, one would only popup once in a while. Let's think of a way to speed up the process. How long would it take to train a technical worker in the virtual reality education system?" Jiang Chen paused, before he added, "Starting from zero."

"Probably a year."

"That's too long." Jiang Chen shook his head."

"It would probably take a year to absorb the technology in the production line. It is not too long," Zhang Fan explained."

"NAC's gap in quantum computer is too large. Do you have any way to solve the production issue as soon as possible?" Jiang Chen's eyebrows furrowed.

Without letting Jiang Chen down, Zhang Fan nodded, but he was hesitant.

"Of course, since we obtained the technology related to the quantum computer, we could use 3D printing to produce at a small scale. But the disadvantage of this method is obvious… you know, for the product with high technical requirements and multiple parts, 3D printing is not only inefficient, the cost is also three times normal production through economy of scale."

"Three times? Give me an estimate."

"A commercial quantum computer will at least cost 300,000 credits."

Jiang Chen twitched at the response.

The war only costed 400,000 credits till now.

While he was pained, the money still needed to be spent. He will obtain the material from the modern world which should bring some cost savings. If the production problem of quantum computers could be solved, the expansion speed of the virtual reality network could be sped up in the modern world.

"Don't worry about the money. Make two first."

"Two?"

Zhang Fan thought he heard wrong. However, seeing Jiang Chen nod, he confirmed his wasn't delusional.

"How long will it take?"

"One should be ready in one month and the second one probably just needs half a month," Zhang Fan said with certainty.

"I will leave this to you. Get on it soon. Also, keep an eye on the technical workers' training."

After assigning the task to Zhang Fan, Jiang Chen left the empty lab and headed back to the command post.

Along the way, he bumped into Zhao Chenwu, so he stopped and said hello.

Zhao Chenwu was there to see him.

"What happened? Why're you in a rush?"

Gloom covered Zhao Chenwu's face as he said.

"Federation. They have started to make moves."

Chapter 653: Dumping

Since the open border agreement was enacted, the merchant fleets of Federation flooded into Qingshan Arena. After closure of more than a decade, the crowded and poor capital, the present day Qingshan Town, finally welcomed its long awaited prosperity.

But the harmonious trade only lasted for two days.

On the third day, the trucks from a few major chambers of commerce of Federation suddenly appeared in the Qingshan market. They put out giant signs in front of a few stores with the words "fire sale" written on them.

At the same time, the salespeople in front of the store began to yell at the top of their lungs.

"Cheap nutrient supply! Multiple versions available. Massive fire sale! Cheaper than the market price by 30%, don't miss out on this opportunity!"

"Our store is selling it at a 40% discount! Is there anywhere cheaper than us? Come buy! If you miss the opportunity, you'll have to wait till next year!"

"Buy, buy, buy. Since this is a necessity anyways with a long shelf life, it is not bad to store it at home. Where are we going to see such a massive sale again?"

The residents seeing the opportunity all gathered around. With the shouting and yelling, they took out the crystals from their pockets and grabbed the cheap nutrient supply.

The unexpected sale made all the store owners stare at their empty stores, completely dumbfounded.

Fire sale as well?

But the merchants from Federation were all selling near cost! Some merchants even discovered that the price was lower than their cost. Rather than selling their own nutrient supply, it was better to purchase from Federation's store.

Nobody thought that the common necessity could cause a massive shockwave.

People had ideas.

The major retailers of nutrient supply in Qingshan gathered together to discuss about purchasing the nutrient supply from the merchants of Federation, and then slowly wait for the excessive nutrient supply to be consumed by the market before letting the market price become rational.

While the imagination was great, the reality soon proved to be cruel.

The retailers took out 100,000 crystals to purchase away all the nutrient supply from the merchants of Federation. But before they could catch a break, a massive batch of nutrient supply was hauled into Qinghsan again.

The massive dumping still persisted.

Only in two days, based on estimate, the average nutrient supply held by the residents of Qingshan reached 600, it was enough for the survivors to eat for over half a year. And now, even the merchants of Federation couldn't dump any longer. The market was flooded, the local residents, due to the purchase frenzy, no longer had any crystals in their hands.

After the frenzy, it was depression.

To the current situation of Qingshan, Gears Chamber of Commerce was extremely pleased. As the supporter hidden behind the curtain for the Federation President, they were the ones that facilitated the peace with NAC as well as the open border agreement, and the perpetrator of the nutrient supply dump.

"Mr. Jia Ming, I will congratulate you in advance in becoming the president of the entire Hongchen area."

"Hahaha, you're flattering me. Without your help, Mr. Liu, I wouldn't receive such an honor."

Around the dinner table, Jia Ming continuously toasted with the merchant called Mr. Liu. Although he was the honorable president, he knew that half of the reasons why he stepped onto this position was because of the work of the man in front of him. Therefore, in front of wealthy man, he didn't act like a president at all.

"NAC conquered the capital, but they wouldn't have ever thought that their fruit would end up in our hands. Hehe, how satirical." Liu Hong sunk into the chair, swirled the wineglass in his hand, and said casually.

"What's your next step?" The president asked.

"The market in Qingshan is a complete mess now. We only need to wait for the local merchants to go bankrupt. Then, we'll purchase their dumped assets from the bottom," The small eyes narrowed into two lines as Liu Hong said malevolently.

"Do you need my cooperation?"

"No, we just need to follow our plan," Liu Hong said, slowly.

…

Were those nutrient supplies really okay?

Of course they were okay.

Regardless how they were inspected, the nutrient supply was a proper product and not second grade.

Most of the survivor gatherings with size would all inspect the product in an event where a massive amount of product enter the market. Since some of the D-grade nutrient supply was made with the flesh of mutants and zombies, without the examination of toxicity, who would dare eat it? And the possibility of raiders pretending to be merchants to poison the survivors was also a possibility.

But because of the massive dump of the merchants of Federation, Qinghsan's inspection personnel tightened the examination of nutrient supply entering the market to prevent any poisonous products from entering the market.

If it were the leaders of small survivor gatherings, they would laugh in their dreams with how cheap the nutrient supply was.

But to the leaders of the more prominent locations, excessive nutrient supply would not only make people "full", they would make people "bloated"…

"There are currently three nutrient supply retailers with a partnership with our cooperation that have gone bankrupt. If the nutrient supply price continues to remain low, with consideration of the margin, we must close the 100 acres mutated fruit plantation in Golden River Farm… Of course, I won't do that. But there are smaller shareholders demanding us do that," Zhao Chenwu said.

"What do they want to do?" Jiang Chen furrowed his brows.

"Use nutrient supply to disrupt our market. Not only nutrient supply but because of the massive dump, our merchant business' sale slid by 28%, and the other non-related industries also experience downward pressure in revenue," Zhao Chenwu said.

"Using nutrient supply to 'raid' the currency from the consumers' hands and forcefully extracting the buying power from the market. Not only is nutrient supply affected, the instant noodles, compressed crackers, canned food, and other replaceable products also experienced dramatic influence. Weapons, ammunition, and even clothes are impacted…"

"Not only that, inside the Sixth Street bank exchange, the price of land sales of Golden River Farm also slid down. Since… if Federation has such cheap nutrient supply, the raw ingredient mutated fruits are also effected."

"Chain reaction? …it is impacting the Sixth Street six hundreds kilometers away," Jiang Chen thought, "But I don't understand, how they can supply the market with this much nutrient supply. Are they not afraid of going bankrupt with the dumping strategy?"

"They could use the crystals they obtained from the dump to purchase the depreciated land. In this case, they not only would not lose any money, they could gain massively."

Jiang Chen understood with Zhao Chenwu's explanation.

No wonder he was the devious merchant, this guy instantly read through the conspiracy of the merchants of Federation.

The amount of crystals flowing the Hongchen market decreased would result in the purchasing power of crystals to forcibly increase. And nutrient supply's dump would result in the arable land depreciating, it would allow them to purchase more lands from farmers or bankrupted merchants.

Finally, they will gain a monopoly of the mutated fruits in Hongchen and in turn monopolize the nutrient supply market.

By that time, the price of nutrient supply would be determined by the merchants of Federation.

Since Jiang Chen already knew their intention, he would not let their plan come to fruition. With an idea in his mind, a smile appeared on his face.

"Gain massively? Hehe, I will make sure they lose everything."

"Looks like you have a plan already, I won't offer my strategy then." Zhao Chenwu had a grin on his face too.

"Of course there is a strategy, but I need your cooperation."

"At the command of the General, at any time!"

Chapter 654: Currency Weapon

In the early morning of the next day, the merchants of Federation went to the market. They leaned against the quiet stalls, grinning at the angry Qingshan merchants.

Although they belonged to different chambers of commerce, they were all linked with the same name - Gear Chamber of Commerce.

Liu Jin, the sales of the Gear Chamber of Commerce, joined Gear Chamber of Commerce due to his relationship with the boss, Liu Hong, but because of his sales ability, he quickly received the unanimous approval of the Chamber of Commerce shareholders and was repeatedly appointed with important tasks.

At this moment, as one of the masterminds behind the dumping, he leaned against the door of a grocery store belonging to the Gear Chamber of Commerce while looking at the depressed market with ridicule on his face.

To be honest, although he was in full control to win this trade war, he was still anxious.

After all, NAC was a violent institution. If it can't win economically, it may flip the table and he wouldn't be able to do anything about the fact. While the consequence would cause great damage to NAC's influence and reputation, Gear would also suffer some losses.

Boss Liu Hong judged that Jiang Chen would not sacrifice the influence of the entire NAC for the market of Qingshan. But as one of the masterminds, he, too, was uncertain.

The honest militia guarded the entrance to the market and used their eyes to signal that the local businessmen on the verge of rebelling were not to cause trouble.

Although they became aware of some of the insider information and also despised the actions of Federation merchants, they were powerless as soldiers. Their task was to maintain the security of the market, not financial order.

With the decline in the price of nutrient supply, the land price of Golden River Farm plummeted and dropped 30% in three days.

Federation dumped its two-years of hoarded nutrient supply in a few days. Although they lost nearly a million crystals from this move, they would reap ten times the reward as long as they could quickly change the crystals into land!

There weren't many nutrient supplies on the truck behind them. But it didn't matter; no one was willing to buy this stuff anymore.

The price of B-grade nutrient supply had fallen to one crystal for ten. Grade C, D, E nutrient supply synthesized by mutant flesh and blood no longer had a market.

The current situation was that, for every ton of mutant fruit produced by farmers, the net loss was 10 crystals. For every tone of B-grade nutrient supply the processing plant produced, the net loss was 1100 crystals.

The nutrient supply processing plant in Hongcheng had been completely shut down and about 600 workers had been laid off.

The decline in the price of nutrient supply brought down the prices of a series of commodities such as rifles, bullets, protective gears and medicines. However, the result didn't improve the lives of local people. They lost all their purchasing power. The reason for the price decline was simply due to the reduction in crystals flowing in the market.

These cheap necessities were bought by merchants from other areas, and 80% of these necessities flowed to Federation.

Soon Qingshan would be in recession. People would start to realize that while the price of products were cheap, they just couldn't afford it…

However, these Federation merchants didn't get to enjoy their success for too long.

Just after the market opened up, Zhao Corporation raised a sign.

[Exchanging B-grade nutrient supply credit, one credit in exchange for ten nutrient supply.]

B-grade nutrient supply accounted for the largest percentage in the food consumption market. With the raw material being mutated fruits, the raw material was more stable than the other grades. Its price dictated the movement of other nutrient supply grade prices.

As for the credit system, the people of Hongcheng certainly were no strangers to it. In areas under NAC's control, as long as a signal was available, it was possible to access their bank account in the Sixth Street and interact with other accounts for payments, collections and other operations.

In addition to digital currency, the Sixth Street Bank also issued banknotes for merchants to use in other regions. Therefore, in areas outside of NAC, it was also possible to see the notes being used. The merchant fleets heading east all recognized the value of the note.

At present, the accepted exchange rate between credit and crystal was 1 to 5. In places further, the rate was 1 to 4 or 2 to 5. However, in Hongcheng, the standard exchange rate was used.

Under normal circumstances, the price of a B-grade nutrient supply was 0.5 crystal, the current market price was 0.2, exchanged into credit, it was 0.04.

What is the Zhao Corporation thinking?

A nutrient supply purchased at a price of 0.1 credit. Is it trying to artificially inflate the price of the nutrient supply?

Liu Jin was in disdain.

It was too late to do anything. Even if they ate all the losses and bought all the products available in the market, it would still be futile. The survivors would be happy to sell their nutrient supply at 0.1, but would they be willing to buy at a price of 0.1?

And they already reached the goal of boosting the value of crystal. Disregarding the fact the survivors here had yet to adopt to the credit system. Even if everyone recognized the value of the credit system, crystals would still remain the strongest currency.

Unless NAC transported crystals by truckloads from other places to here and forcibly injected them into the market. Or else, no matter what they do, it would be futile.

"Boss, Boss Liu."

"What is it?" Liu Jin, in a cheerful mood, looked at one of his pawns.

He was in a good mood. He was about to lead Gear Chamber of Commerce to launch the first attack in monopolizing Hongcheng's nutrient supply market!

However, just as he was fantasizing what kind of praises the Gear Chamber of Commerce would award him with, his pawn while trembling, handed him the newspaper.

"This is?" Liu Jin frowned and took the newspaper.

"The newspaper from the Sixth Street...a scanned copy from our merchant fleets."

Liu Jin opened the newspaper and slowly scanned the contents of the newspaper. However, when he saw the headline, his heart suddenly sunk.

[Ten mutant farms in Wanghai all announced an increase of production simultaneously. The value of crystal could experience the biggest drop in a single quarter.]

[Sixth Street raised the official exchange rate between credit and crystal from the original 1:5 to 1:10!]

At the same time, NAC announced that because of the overcapacity of crystal ranches, crystal was in a state of oversupply at the Sixth Street. In order to encourage investors to use credit with more stability, all real estate transfer in areas covered by NAC signal must be settled by credits.

If crystal must be used, a tax would be imposed on both buyers and sellers...

Seeing this while also witnessing more people gather around Zhao Corporation's shop, Lin Jin was sweating profusely.

[It's just shameless to directly manipulate the exchange rate!]

Not just that. The combination of moves made by the NAC directly prevented the possibility of purchasing real estate assets from the bankrupted survivors. In just the past five days, the crystals they hoarded by dumping nutrient supply suffered astronomical loss.

Now, even if they hauled trucks full of crystals, no one would be willing to trade with them. Unless they paid a higher price at a exchange rate of 1:15 or even 1:20 to sell their crystals, or else no one would use their credits to exchange for the depreciating crystals.

Gear was now "stuck" with crystals!

[It's all over...]

Liu Jin dropped down on the ground. He felt dizzy. He pushed away his pawn who was trying to help him up, stormed into the store, and took out a phone from the drawer.

He must get in touch with his boss.

At the moment, Liu Hong, the owner of the Gear Chamber of Commerce, was sitting in an office chair, staring blankly at the ceiling of the office.

The loud phone rang in the office, but he didn't want to pick it up.

Just half an hour ago, the wealth of the Gear Chamber of Commerce shrunk by half, and shareholders were blowing up his phone with phone calls.

He already considered all kinds of situations, including the NAC accepting losses by purchasing the nutrient supply in the survivors' hands at a premium. He also considered NAC breaking the free trade agreement and learning from Empire in terms of imposing high tariffs on foreign businessmen. That way, they'd avoid the depression of the market at the expense of raising the cost of living for locals.

However, he did not consider that the NAC would actually leverage the currency itself.

And this move directly handicapped the Gear Chamber of Commerce.

So sudden that it completely caught him off-guard.

After a long silence, Liu Hong silently took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up. He rarely smoked in the office. Although he was the most powerful man in Federation, he had strict control of himself. But now... he wanted to relax.

Liu Hong closed his eyes, leaned back against the chair, and began to think about the next countermeasures.

However, what made him desperate was that he couldn't think of any good measures. If NAC was set to push the new currency into Hongcheng, even if Gear Chamber of Commerce controlled even more crystals, it could not fight back against the currency.

Wait for the value of crystal to return to normal? They couldn't wait...

Just then, his secretary opened the door and walked in.

Looking at the gorgeous figure in her suit, it was the first time Liu Hong felt bored and annoyed.

"What is it? I said let me have some time alone."

"Boss..." Secretary Xiaoru gulped.

"Hurry up," Liu Hong pinched the cigarette and said impatiently.

"Our third largest shareholder, through Federation's stock exchange, sold her shares to NAC," Xiaoru said quickly.

For a moment, Liu Hong's eyes turned red, and he suddenly stood up and grabbed the collar of his secretary.

"What did you say! That bit*h Wu Qian sold her shares to NAC?!"

"Ye…yes." Xiaoru trembled and answered while gasping for air.

Liu Hong let go of the secretary's collar and sat back in the office chair.

Xiaoru was coughing as she tried to gain her breath back. Inadvertently, the corner of her eye spotted her boss.

She was surprised.

The savvy business leader instantly aged by a decade...

Chapter 655: Peaceful Takeover

The exchange rate was like a knife. If it were used well, it would be able to cut off a large piece of meat from the players participating in the market without any effort.

The Federation's merchants' attempted to completely shrink the mutated fruits farm area by dumping low-priced nutrient supply so that they would then gain complete control of the nutrient supply production.

However, Gear Commerce of Chamber did not think that NAC would directly devalue the crystal in their hands through leveraging the exchange rate.

NAC had complete control of all the mutant farms in NAC region. And those farms accounted for 20% of energy consumption in NAC! This was already a very high number.

Depreciation of the crystal was like a double-edged sword, hurting others and hurting oneself.

The only difference was that NAC could withstand this loss and could wait until the value of the crystal returned to normal, but the Gear Chamber of Commerce couldn't. Unless they didn't want to do business and hoarded the crystal in the warehouse for a long time.

Unless NAC opened a dedicated channel for the exchange of credits and crystals... but it was obviously an unfeasible option.

Zhao Corporation purchased about 500,000 boxes of nutrient supply from the market and transported it back to the Sixth Street by NAC's cargo airship. Now the population of the Sixth Street exceeded 100,000, the floating population was above 70,000, and hundreds of merchant fleets moved through the area.

The nutrient supply consumed every day there was three times that of Hongcheng. The excess nutrient mixture would soon be transported out of the Sixth Street by merchant fleets to other regions. With areas under NAC control free of any danger, the cost of transportation was very low.

With Qingshan market returning to normal, there was still a few incidents left to be resolved.

The Gear Chamber of Commerce was in a desperate situation. It was about to welcome its inevitable collapse.

Jiang Chen immediately sent a merchant from NAC to register a shell company in Federation, and then contacted shareholders other than Liu Hong about the acquisition of their shares.

Instead of using the depreciated crystals, he used credits.

The minority shareholders wanted to get rid of their shares as soon as possible. Although the rational majority shareholders were wary of the hostile takeover proposal, when NAC's premium rose from 10% to 20%, they couldn't resist the temptation.

Was holding the full warehouses of crystals with Liu Hong worth it, or was accepting the credits from NAC and starting over somewhere else a better option?

Smart people already made their decisions.

However, a smarter person made a decision even Jiang Chen didn't expect.

The most luxurious hotel in Qingshan.

The guards outside were guarding the door, and inside...

"...Gulp, gulp…" After taking a drink, the beauty gasped for some air and gently brushed her hair. "Did that feel comfortable?"

"Of course."

Sitting by the window, Jiang Chen patted the beautiful face looking up at him with a sly smile on his face.

The beautiful woman smiled softly. She slowly stood up, picked up her clothes, and covered her slim figure.

"Astonishing. I thought you would live in a luxurious palace."

Looking at the perfect hands putting on her clothes, Jiang Chen laughed.

"I won't stay here for a long time. It doesn't make sense to clean the palace out."

Wu Qian, the third largest shareholder of Gear Chamber of Commerce. When the merchant sent by Jiang Chen went to see her, she made a special request to the merchant - "I agree to sell the shares, but I want to meet your leader."

After getting permission from Jiang Chen, the NAC people escorted her to Qingshan. However, when they met, Wu Qian proposed to become the spokesperson of NAC in Federation and attached quite an attractive condition - voluntarily becoming his mistress.

Wu Qian was keenly aware that NAC's acquisition of Gear Chamber of Commerce was not for the purpose of ruining the largest chamber of commerce in the area, but intended to include the entire Federation within its rule. As a result, controlling Gear Chamber of Commerce was much more important than destroying it.

For assets far from Wanghai, NAC's geographic separation would make it difficult to govern. Therefore, the decision was bound to be choosing a spokesperson as they did for the Empire.

Ever since knowing this fact, Wu Qian too had her own initiative.

For Wu Qian's proposal, Jiang Chen felt surprised. He did intend to retain the Gear Chamber of Commerce, and he also considered the idea of a spokesperson to help him manage Federation. However, he had yet to think of a good candidate. The President would be Yu Jicheng, but the person overseeing the chamber of commerce… he must find someone smart and easy to control.

And Wu Qiao, just happened to be a good candidate.

虽然江晨觉得她的附加条件很没必要,但本着嘴边的肉不吃白不吃的原则,他很无节操地接受了她的"服务".

于是便有了刚才那出香.艳的戏码...

吴芊已经穿好了衣服,恢复了那端庄而不失威严的女强人仪容,就好像刚才什么事都没发生一样,微笑道.

"那么,先前说好的事,就拜托您了."

离开房间的时候,她礼貌地带上了房间的门.

...

Although Jiang Chen felt that her condition was not necessary, in the principle of not wasting food, he accepted her "service" without any dignity.

So that just happened in the hotel room.

Wu Qian was already dressed and had restored her graceful and majestic appearance as if nothing happened. She smiled.

"So, what we have agreed on before, please and thank you."

When she left the room, she politely closed the door behind her.

...

In just three days, NAC completed the acquisition of Gear Chamber of Commerce, which cost a total of 500,000 credits and they controlled 52% of the shares. At the same time, NAC used the Federation's securities trading law and offered two times premium to forcefully acquire the remaining shares from Liu Hong.

At this time, the valuation of Gear Chamber of Commerce for 37% of the shares owned by Liu Hong was only worth 200,000 credits. With double the valuation, it was 400,000 credits. When Jiang Chen paid the money to Federation's stock exchange, Liu Hong was kicked out of his own chamber of commerce.

It was too late to change the law then.

The Gear Chamber of Commerce, which was valued at 10 million crystals, became Jiang Chen's assets overnight.

As a result, the only plantation in Federation was now also under NAC's control.

However, it was just the beginning of Federation's nightmare.

The NAC, which monopolized the production of Hongcheng nutrient supply, immediately announced a price increase and raised the price of nutrient supply to 2 crystals, citing the reason due to the depreciation of crystal.

Commodity prices skyrocketed by a factor of four, the prices of other Federation goods also skyrocketed. Although the number of crystals in Federation citizens' pockets did not change, the wealth of every citizen shrunk. Facing the strength of credits, the circulating crystals in Federation plummeted.

And because the survivors of Hongcheng had already exchanged their currency for credit, the price increase didn't impact them significantly. The only ones affected were the hunters who hunted for crystals, but the loss was negligible for NAC.

NAC's first stab penetrated Federation's chest.

The dissatisfied peopled naturally unleashed their anger on the president.

The wave of protests completely collapsed the city.

At the same time, Ji Yucheng, the NAC ambassador, announced his resignation and returned to Federation's parliament. He stood in front of the public and told the story of the assassination attempts on the president and how NAC saved him.

No matter which era, political assassination was always a scandal.

When the president's chief of staff released an audio recording of the president purchasing his head, the public opinion naturally stood on his side.

Using the public's support, Ji Yucheng immediately announced his election campaign.

"Conspiracy, depression, bankruptcy...Look at what our President has done? This can't continue anymore! Before he ruins our homeland to a point it can't be saved, we must kick out this villain blinded by power. I will run for the next presidential campaign. Brothers and sisters, I need your support!"

The audience burst into loud cheers. People whistled and embraced him like a savior.

On the other hand, the Gear Chamber of Commerce had completed its restructuring. With the support of NAC, this aged behemoth finally regained its vitality.

The former third largest shareholder Wu Qian was elected as the new president of the Chamber of Commerce.

The dignified and glamorous female president, with her excellent management ability and negotiation "means", received orders for nutrient supply from NAC's military government. It also signed crystal supplying agreements with seven factories from the Sixth Street which completely turned around the company.

Under the money offered from NAC, the media gave high praises to her and successfully fabricated her to be one of the most outstanding merchants. But what the public opinion didn't know was how scandalous their goddess acted when she was with Jiang Chen.

What happened next is already predictable.

The scandal, weak economy, and the public dissatisfaction with the president all reached their peaks.

Wu Qian used her influence to speak through the media, attacking the president, accusing him of incompetence in solving employment problems and maintaining market order. On behalf of the Gear Chamber of Commerce, she demanded the president be impeached and called forth another election.

Losing the support of Liu Hong, Jia Ming could only watch this all unfold.

Without the support of capital, he didn't have a fighting chance.

The army was controlled by the parliament, and the parliament was controlled by the merchants. Under the sugar-coated shell of NAC, the parliaments all turned one by one. NAC promised to exercise a high degree of autonomy in Hezhong City as it did in Qingshan Town. Since their own interests would not be affected, the merchants didn't have a reason to say no.

Otherwise, Gear Chamber of Commerce would be their precedence.

The election took place as scheduled.

Without any suspense, the people of Federation welcomed their savior to the president's throne.

The first thing Ji Yucheng did after he took office was disarmament. He sighed a defence agreement with NAC. At the same time, the price of the nutrient supply controlled by NAC fell, showing his people the president's "ability".

Just like that, without a single shot fire, NAC's flag rose above Federation.

Chapter 656: 第六百五十五章 北方阴影

In early September, because of the dumping event, Jiang Chen's return was delayed by a month. But following the conclusion of the Federation election, everything returned to peace.

With the leadership of Ji Yucheng, Federation and NAC signed a more cooperative alliance agreement, officially marking the complete control of Hucheng by NAC.

Jiang Chen personally visited Zhonghe City and witnessed the commercial hub of Jiangyou Province highly praised by people.

To be frank, after seeing the actual city, it fell short of his expectations. The city known for its freedom and prosperity was indeed much prosperous than Qianshan Town, but compared to the Sixth Street in Wanghai, it was lackluster.

But after observing the local industries, Jiang Chen noticed a few interesting things.

The membrane filtration technology of Zhonghe City was more advanced than Wanghai's technology. It was no surprise that the price of nutrient supply there was lower compared to other places.

Their genetically modified Carm trees not only produced tree sap of similar quality compared to Shenxiang, but the production was also 20% higher per tree. They also possessed artificial intelligence for AI, improved graphene production technology and an array of technology…

Following Federation joining NAC's jurisdiction, their secretly-guarded technology flowed into NAC territory through trade routes.

From this point of view, the cost of merging Federation was negligible.

Wu Qian, from Gear Chamber of Commerce, accompanied Jiang Chen on the tour.

Just as the people of Federation witnessed, Wu Qian utilized her exemplary diplomatic tactics to mediate the conflict between Federation merchants and NAC and facilitated a partnership between both parties. The fact that both leaders could walk side by side together successfully proved the point.

Of course, their relationship wasn't as simple as what the public saw.

During the multi-day visit to Zhonghe City, Jiang Chen walked out of Wu Qian's private mansion feeling refreshed.

And during the same period of time, Wu Qian went to work with dark circles around her eyes and her mind constantly slipped when she was working and in meetings, clearly overworked. The employees of the chamber of commerce didn't notice the abnormal behavior of their female boss. Instead, they thought she was working too diligently for the company, which caused her to be sleep-deprived…

If the people who envied her figure knew she was being "trained" every night by a man, would their worldview collapse?

Jiang Chen occasionally entertained that thought.

...

But whenever he mentioned that to her, Wu Qian would "beg" him not to do that or her image would be completely destroyed.

Jiang Chen definitely wouldn't do that since he needed Wu Qian to act as his representative to maintain the stable operation of Gear Chamber of Commerce. He did purchase the company with half a million credit points; it would be wasteful if he just allowed it to erode.

But that didn't stop him from mentioning it.

Jiang Chen's inner sadist pleasure was completely pleassed by Wu Qian's desperate pleas.

Of course, it might've had something to do with Wu Qian being a sadist herself.

…

Their pleasure aside.

On the last day of the tour, Jiang Chen went to see Ji Yucheng at the Presidential Palace in Zhonghe City.

After seeing Ji Yucheng again, it appeared he no longer had a defeated spirit. In a clean and fitted suit, his hair was styled and he was accompanied by an advisor.

The former president Jiang Ming left Zhonghe City at the end of the election for another city. He knew that once he lost, Ji Yucheng, who was the victim of his deceitful tactics, would not let him go easily.

But his previous advisor Xu Chengwei wasn't so lucky.

Because he was late by a few steps, evidence of unlawful transactions was presented against him and former owner of Gears Chamber of Commerce, Liu Hong, was then arrested to await trial. The judge already hinted to Ji Yucheng that Xu Chengwei could get a sentence of at least ten years.

With a taste of power, Ji Yucheng was naturally loyal to Jiang Chen because he knew everything he enjoyed was due to that man. If Jiang Cheng wanted him to lose everything, it would only take a sentence from him.

Jiang Ming, who fled, and Xu Chengwei, in prison, were all perfect examples.

"Currently, we're discussing the proposal to join NAC's economic zone. We already explained to the public that it doesn't mean we're surrendering to NAC, and it doesn't mean we're being controlled by NAC. It's only a method to facilitate cooperation between the two parties. NAC's merchants can have easier access to investments in Federation, and we will no longer need to pay for our defense budget; the budget can go to more meaningful things."

"Is there anyone who objects?" Jiang Chen asked casually.

"Of course, but only a small number." Ji Yucheng's eyes shifted. His fingers crossed on the table and in an assuring voice, he said, "We'll convince them."

"No need to be so anxious," Jiang Chen took a sip of his tea and leaned on the sofa. "I said I'd make you the president and it became reality. I also said that as long as you listened to me, you would continue to sit on the throne."

"Of course I trust you. I'm just not used to it yet." President Ji let out a long breath. His tense shoulders loosened slightly.

"Try to get used to it."

"I will."

Jiang Chen nodded. After a brief pause, he continued.

"Did you discover anything about who sent the letter?"

Jiang Chen was still curious as to who leaked the password to Federation.

Since it wasn't Doctor Sun, who else was connected to Fallout Shelter 072? The survivor of the "disaster" mentioned by Sun Jiao? The perpetrator of the attack? Or some other person?

"We have some information now. From Xu Chengwei's mouth… the former advisor, we obtained some insight through some special methods." Ji Yucheng grinned.

"That's fine. I don't want to ask about the details of your interrogation. Get to the point," Jiang Chen said with irritation.

Ji Yucheng immediately replied:

"The Northern Alliance Area."

"The Alliance Area… did they reach this far already?" Jiang Chen's brows furrowed as he muttered to himself.

Ji Yucheng didn't disrupt Jiang Chen's thought and waited for him to continue.

"Where did they go?"

"They?"

"The Northern Alliance Area people."

Ji Yucheng shook his head with regret.

"I sent people to search for their whereabouts, but the trail ended ten days ago… Ten days ago, they left the Dad of Death Claws Hotel in Zhonghe City then no one saw them again."

[Dad of Death Claws?]

Jiang Chen's eyebrows jumped. [What kind of name is this - isn't Death Claws a matriarchal species…]

"Ten days ago, the second day of your presidency."

"That's right." Ji Yucheng nodded.

"Then can we interpret that to mean they took away former president Mr. Jia Ming?" Jiang Chen said in an undertone.

"That's also what my advisor and I thought, but… we couldn't find any evidence that proved a connection." Ji Yucheng forced a smile.

"Evidence is only one part of the equation. I'm not a judge and sometimes I trust my instincts more. Just like how the media can't find evidence for the 'connection' between us when we do have a connection." Jiang Chen tapped the back of his neck with his finger.

Ji Yucheng gulped.

He was injected with an "honorary chip" and was officially a knight of NAC; it just wasn't disclosed to the public. Once Federation officially joined the NAC big family, Jiang Chen would give him an emblem.

Seeing as Ji Yucheng was silent, Jiang Chen thought for a moment and continued to delegate tasks.

"Compared to Wanghai, you're closer to the Northern Alliance Area. I only have one recommendation: closely monitor their activities. Do you understand what I mean?"

"You mean… the Northern Alliance Area is plotting against us?" Ji Yucheng's face looked somewhat pale.

Although he had never been there, based on the merchant fleets, he could experience the powerful influence of the Northern Alliance Area. Compared to that place, the areas along the coast and river were more like barren land from the destruction of war.

It was the reason why the Northern Alliance Area viewed themselves as the true rulers of this piece of land.

"That's right," Jiang Chen said concisely.

"But they're 1300 kilometers away from us. It'll be a problem just to reach them," Ji Yucheng said with a bitter smile.

"It's only 1300 kilometers, two times the distance from Wanghai to Hucheng. A long time ago, they declared war on us. It's just that after ten years, the fated invaders never arrived, but we never forgot about their declaration."

"Hopefully they forgot about it," Ji Yucheng said.

"I'll never dare to imagine that our enemy forgot about us." Jiang Chen stood up, paused, and looked at Ji Yucheng sternly. "If they ultimately fulfill their declaration of war and clash against us, it will be a war between civilizations."

A war between two civilizations was far more tragic than a war between barbarians and civilization.

"I understand." Ji Yucheng nodded with difficulty then continued to ask while looking at Jiang Chen, who was standing up, "Are you planning to leave?"

"That's right. I'll return to Wanghai tomorrow. I'll have to count on you for affairs in Federation."

Ji Yucheng took a deep breath and said with sincerity:

"Leave it to me."

Chapter 657: Victorious

"Finally going home."

On top of AS Order's steel deck, gazing at the rising sun from the edge of the apocalypse, Jiang Chen was eager to return.

He had been away for two and a half months, which was far longer than the originally-planned one month journey due to various troublesome problems. Of course, the rewards from this journey were incredible. Based on valuations from Sixth Street Bank analysts, this battle contributed at least five million credit points to NAC's economy.

But he didn't want to think about the losses and gains; he only wanted to enjoy this beautiful view.

"The weather is quite nice today." Sun Xiaorou came up from behind him. She gently tucked her messy wind-swept hair behind her ears. "There's no radiation dust; we just see pure blue and white… this is the sky's original color."

The rolling clouds were like fresh-picked cotton. Like waves, they swirled around the mountain range. The Order sailing between them was just like a small boat.

In contrast with the pristine blue sky, below the steel airship were ruins and shambles, broken highways and tree-covered skyscrapers, as well as occasional flames…

"How big is our territory now?" Glancing down from the edge of the airship, Jiang Chen abruptly asked.

"From the Sixth Street to Hucheng Federation, we have around 110 thousand square kilometers of area under control," Sun Xiaorou gently said.

Because Sun Xiaorou often helped her sister with taking care of affairs, she knew bits and pieces of information. There were lots of NAC inspection stations in Suhang Province, and some NAC outposts were also established to provide supplies and protect traveling merchants and local survivors.

On the other hand, Jiang Chen, the boss, didn't know how big his territory was at all.

"Just that much?" Jiang Chen muttered.

In almost two years, they only occupied around one-hundredth of the Huxia Region, not to mention the entire Pac Pacific Area.

Sun Xiaorou rolled her eyes at his greedy comment and started to giggle.

"We're doing very well. Even with 110 thousand square kilometers of land, only less than 10 thousand square kilometers are developed; zombies and mutants are present in the other areas. Civilizing the land is far harder than invasion."

"That's true…" Jiang Chen sighed.

Limited population growth was always the shackle limiting NAC's growth. Even with an expansive territory, invading the land was futile without enough people to build on it.

But without utilizing the strengths of both worlds, when the Harmony invaded, he didn't think he would have any odds of winning. One hundred years meant a lifetime for normal people; it meant the entire world to them. But for a civilization, one hundred years was just a tiny slice of time.

Jiang Chen took out the thumb-sized glass bottle and carefully examined it between his fingers.

The serum with an orange hue cast an irregular sheen. This genetic password that would make all the great powers envious was like a poison…

Sun Xiaorou got closer to Jiang Chen and gently whispered into his ear.

"Don't feel so rushed."

"Feel so rushed?"

"About your hometown."

Jiang Chen took a second to process that before a smile emerged on his face. He tousled Sun Xiaorou's head.

"You're like the bug in my stomach."

"You can't just touch a girl's head like that." Sun Xiaorou grinned. She put her own hand on top of Jiang Chen's head and didn't move away.

"Sorry… also, you're not a child anymore, right?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"… Minus ten points for that sentence." Xiaorou pinched him on the waist before she turned around.

Jiang Chen watching her figure leaving with a smile before he redirected his gaze back to the water's surface.

Taifu River past the treacherous mountain, across the bank of Dianshan Lake, was like a giant egg. The translucent graphene mesh reflected a colorful vibrancy under the high noon sun. Construction vehicles scattered across the construction sites, accompanying the thousands of workers building a groundbreaking piece of work.

The Garden of Eden laid there.

The steel airship flew above the Garden of Eden and arrived in the Songjiang Area in Wanghai. With the help of radar, it slowly descended and moved to the airship harbor of Sixth Street. The soldiers and civilians all showed their respect and cheered the "steel monster" returning from afar.

The reason why they chose to park at the Sixth Street harbor was to demonstrate NAC's military might to NAC citizens and travelers. Military power and environmental stability were the priority for survivors on their search for a new home.

Amidst the deafening cheers of the crowd, Jiang Chen, dressed in power armor, along with the thousand soldiers in kinetic skeletons, walked through the streets of the Sixth Street to the square in front of the Council Building.

People held flowers as they welcomed their heroes home. They tossed colorful petals into the air.

As the man in the black polyethylene armor bathed in the petals and applause, all the soldiers straightened their backs with pride on their faces.

Jiang Chen walked slowly purposely.

The soldiers had been away from their homes for two months and fought valiantly for NAC in foreign territory; they deserved all this glory as recognition for their hard work. A lot of the single girls present not only gave them flowers, but they also gave the warriors warm hugs.

It is human nature to praise heroes.

An adorable girl stopped in front of Jiang Chen. While she was hugging his power armor, she suddenly tiptoed and gave him a kiss in front of everyone.

Jiang Chen didn't know if it was her first kiss because the girl instantly buried her head and escaped into the crowd like a startled deer. Amidst the loud cheers of the crowd, Jiang Chen only hesitated for half a second before a delightful laugh came out. He raised the flowers in his hand and waved at his citizens.

Heroism and beauty were eternal crowd-pleasers.

The fleet stopped only momentarily before it continued forward.

Half a step behind Jiang Chen, Lv Ze whispered into his ear.

"Judging by her experience, she's probably someone who just came out of the fallout shelter. If General is interested, I can search for her name."

Because Lv Ze was uncertain about Jiang Chen's feelings toward that girl, he cautiously didn't use "Blue Skin" with a negative connotation.

"There's no need."

He recalled the purity in her pupils and shook his head with a smile. He placed the fresh flowers, still dripping with dew, on a nylon hook.

Lv Ze looked at Jiang Chen's back with an odd expression.

[Has the Sun risen from the West? The General's now a vegetarian?]

Chapter 658: Home

At the square in front of the Council Building.

Jiang Chen was standing on top of the podium and was handing out Knight Emblems for every soldier worthy of this honor in addition to awarding soldiers for their contributions during the war. The spirits were high and everyone's faces were filled with pride.

Being personally honored by the general was a great honor for the soldiers.

For the soldiers who had fallen beside the Gan River and were unable to receive recognition, the logistics department sent personnel to their family's homes along with their emblems, bonuses, and pensions.

Death must accompany any war.

While material compensation wasn't enough to eliminate the families' grievances, at least it would improve their lives slightly.

After the ceremony, Jiang Chen headed to the director's office with Chu Nan.

The moment he pushed open the office door, his eyes caught the piled stack of paper on the table.

"These are?"

"Military expenses that just got sent over… No need to worry about them; it just looks like there are a lot. We already made our money back by selling land certificates from Golden River Farm, but there's still a lot of work to sign every expense form." Chu Nan swept the pile of papers aside, took a document from the table, and handed it to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen picked up a thick stack of papers and flipped through them.

"This is?"

"Legal document." Chu Nan had a proud smile on his face. "I referenced the law books left by PAC and asked former lawyers and economists to make amendments to the previous bills. This includes the establishment of a security exchange to separate trading and offering securities, options, land certificates from the banking system and more standardized market regulations. Please take a look."

Jiang Chen nodded at Chu Nan, pleased. He closed the document. "Thank you for your hard work."

"Not at all, it's part of my duty." Chu Nan smiled.

"Do you have any good news?" Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

Chu Nan paused for a second before a rare, timid smile appeared on his face. He touched his nose as he said, "How did you know?"

"It's written all over your face. Were you not planning to share with me?" Jiang Chen grinned.

"It's not a big deal at all; it's about my family…" Chu Nan coughed into his fist and rapidly said, "I'm about to become a father."

…

[I'm about to become a father…]

On the helicopter returning to the Fishbone base, Jiang Chen was contemplating those words.

To be honest, when Chu Nan said that, it took him by surprise. He always thought Chu Nan wasn't much older than him.

From Chu Nan getting married to Zhou Xiaoxia one year ago to her getting pregnant, his identity changed from an abject Liuding Town pilot to an almost-father.

From Chu Nan's life, Jiang Chen saw the passage of time.

"… Is it time for children?"

Jiang Chen muttered. As he thought, he took out the serum from the storage dimension.

He took a deep breath, threw the serum back into the storage dimension and shook his head forcefully.

He'd consider the question later; he wasn't ready to take on the duty of a father…

The helicopter quickly arrived and landed at Fishbone base.

Jiang Chen jumped off the plane and went to see Cheng Weiguo who came to greet him.

On the way back to the mansion, Jiang Chen chatted with him about the status of the base and surprisingly heard a number of good news.

Last month, a new fallout shelter opened in the northwest corner of Jia City. Cheng Weiguo sent out the soldiers of the First Division and transported them to the Sixth Street before the raiders arrived, and they also explained the situation on the surface.

The Blue Skins who didn't understand the situation made quite a scene. For example, one person who previously lived in the Sixth Street before realized his house was bulldozed and went to complain, but he was thrown out right away.

Based on investigations, there were no observers in the fallout shelter, meaning that the purpose of this fallout shelter was truly to preserve the population without any other purpose. These fallout shelters were mostly comprised of hibernation chambers. For the survivors, it was only a blink of the eye while they traveled from a peaceful era to the apocalypse.

It was as if they took a maglev to the fallout shelter in the morning, wearing a suit and holding a briefcase as they entered the metal gate, then laid inside the hibernation chamber afterward. Once they woke up, the world outside was entirely different.

If Fishbone base hadn't taken care of them, some of them might've died or been forced into slavery. Some of them might've abandoned the dignity of civilization and become hobos wandering the wasteland.

Of course, because of the existence of NAC, they didn't need to suffer that kind of agony.

Accept, "educate," and release to society. NAC needed their knowledge and abilities, especially economists and scientists whose talents were in high demand in the Sixth Street. Also, people with computer knowledge could find a good job in the military zone.

After saying goodbye to Cheng Weiguo, Jiang Chen stood at the door of the mansion.

When he opened the door, before he could step into the mansion, a familiar figure bumped into his chest and locked his lips with force.

After a while, their lips parted. Sun Jiao stared into his eyes with her face covered in a red hue.

While there were thousands of words to say, after seeing him, only a few words came out.

"… Fool, why didn't you come back earlier?"

Jiang Chen chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?!" Sun Jiao stared at him.

"No, nothing. Right, where is Xiaorou?"

Sun Xiaorou returned to the base by helicopter after she got off the airship. She wasn't a soldier, so she didn't need to attend the victory ceremony nor was she was interested in attending either.

"She's still at the office… She told me you'd be back in the afternoon and let me come home early." Sun Jiao said, slightly embarrassed.

Her younger sister just dropped off her luggage after a long trip and immediately went to help her; that made Sun Jiao feel embarrassed as the older sister. But then she thought about Sun Xiaorou spending two months alone with Jiang Chen and her embarrassment quickly dissipated.

Sun Jiao hugged Jiang Chen for a long time before she let him go. She planned to save the rest of her affection for midnight.

Yao Yao's mouth pouted while she stared at the two of them. She had been twiddling her thumbs for a while.

Seeing Sun Jiao finally letting Jiang Chen go, the little girl immediately stopped twiddling. With both hands behind her back, she anxiously closed her eyes.

Her lips opened slightly.

It looked like she was waiting for something…

Jiang Chen started to chuckle upon seeing her cute gesture and tousled her hair.

"Why are your eyes closed? Don't you want to see me?"

"No, no!" Yao Yao immediately opened her eyes and met Jiang Chen's gaze before quickly looking away with a blushing face. She muttered, "I was just expecting something… Ah, of course, it's okay if- Woo!..."

She went from shock initially to joy, to happiness, and to finally closing her colorful eyes while gently enjoying the affection between their lips.

Their lips parted.

Letting go of Yao Yao, Jiang Chen stared at her blushing, red face and her watery eyes, as well as her expression which said he could do anything freely. His heart suddenly skipped a beat. He somehow felt his Loli Loving Spirit awakening.

Yao Yao's flush went all the way from her face to underneath her shirt.

"Yao Yao will go cook now! We'll eat red bean congee today."

Still intoxicated by her joy, Yao Yao giggled while stumbling toward the kitchen. She looked like she could fall at any time.

Sun Jiao also grinned.

"Pervert."

"I didn't even do anything though?"

Then Jiang Chen noticed Lin Lin's eyes drifting toward him, so he looked at her and joked.

"Do you want a kiss too?"

Lin Lin instantly turned red and jumped up like a squirrel with her tail stepped on. She shouted at Jiang Chen.

"Wh-who would want that?! What a perverted statement! Illogical… Hmph!"

[I want it…] Tingting raised her hand.

[You-you shut up!]

The crimson light flashed at Lin Lin; the suppressed Tingting didn't try to hide her desires at all as Lin Lin escaped back to her room. She slammed the door shut while leaving the two in the living room dumbfounded.

Chapter 659: Artificial Intelligence - "Jean"

It was already September.

With the tail end of summer passing by, the apocalypse was already cooling down. Typically, winter would arrive by the end of October with snowfall coming half a month later. Winter in the apocalypse arrived one month earlier and ended one month later compared to the modern world.

Lin Lin was overwhelmed with work lately.

In order to ensure the exterior structure of Garden of Eden was completed before snowfall and to shift the construction phase to the interior to maximize construction time during the winter, she spent all day on the construction site. The previously freest person in the mansion now became the busiest out of everyone.

Jiang Chen spent his time inside the mansion reading through the legal document amended by Chu Nan. Even though it was scanned into a digital version, the 10 MB size of the document still gave him a headache. It was also a strain on his eyes as he had to stare at the screen for a long time.

Jiang Chen had to return to the modern world by October at the latest and had to take of things before he left. He also wanted to spend time with the girls. Sometimes, he wished he could chop himself up in half, leaving half on this side and the other half in the modern world.

It was becoming more and more apparent that he no longer had enough time.

Jiang Chen placed the tablet on the table and let out a long sigh while massaging his sore eyes.

It was too torturous for an engineering graduate to read through all this. When Jiang Chen thought about it, he couldn't help but scorn Chu Nan. How did a pilot become so knowledgeable?

Then the door behind him opened gently. Yao Yao gently walked beside Jiang Chen with a cup of coffee and put the steamy coffee on the table. Seeing how tired he looked, Yao Yao pouted with heartache and whispered:

"Big Brother… it must be tiring reading through all these documents."

"It's a little tiring, but it's okay." Jiang Chen sunk into his chair and looked up at Yao Yao's caring face with a smile.

"If only Yao Yao could help you out."

Jiang Chen looked at the little loli with a spoiled smile.

"Yao Yao is already helping me a lot - always has been."

"Hehe." With a timid smile, Yao Yao rubbed her face then clasped her hands onto Jiang Chen's shoulder. "You've been working for a while, Big Brother must be tired… So, Yao Yao will massage you."

"Mhmm! Thank you."

Feeling her soft hands rubbing his shoulder, he felt like his weariness was cured.

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and began to enjoy the service.

Seeing how relaxed Jiang Chen looked, a happy smile appeared on Yao Yao's face.

But looking at the thick stack of documents, the little girl's mouth pouted again.

If only she could help.

Suddenly, a spark went off in Yao Yao's head.

In that instant, she thought of a spectacular idea. Even though she only knew how to program, it could help Big Brother out…

…

One morning, Jiang Chen was reading through documents as part of his usual routine. But before he flipped open the document, Yao Yao pushed open the door in a pink robe while rubbing her sleepy eyes and wandered into the room.

No one had the heart to rouse her from her sleep, seeing how sleepy she looked.

Because of the inhibitor injected when she was in hibernation, Yao Yao wasn't very good with mornings. But today, she strangely woke up early in the morning at eight.

"Ha-, here you go~"

While yawning, Yao Yao handed Jiang Chen an electronic watch.

"This is?" Jiang Chen took the small gadget from Yao Yao's hands and he began to examine it closely.

From the light but durable textile, it was probably graphene. The thumb-sized screen looked small but sharp. The side had a grain-sized button which could open an adjustable hologram screen.

The appearance looked similar to Microsoft's smart bracelet, but the difference in content was like night and day.

Jiang Chen took off the EP and put the watch on.

It was light with barely any weight.

After Jiang Chen opened the screen, he was shocked to discover something.

It wasn't a watch at all; it was a lighter hologram computer that carried all the functionalities of EP.

A more shocking thing happened.

Just as the hologram screen expanded, beside the homepage, the image of a girl projected out. She had a ponytail and her clearly defined face looked cold; her emotionless eyes seemed to resemble Han Junhua.

Of course, that was just from the vibes.

Seeing shocked expression on Jiang Chen's face, Yao Yao chuckled while feeling pleased. She slowly began to explain things for Jiang Chen.

"Her name is 'Jian,' an intermediate artificial intelligence entity developed by Yao Yao. Didn't Big Brother want me to develop safer artificial intelligence that possessed the ability to think? Hehe, Yao Yao completed the development."

With a pause and both hands behind her back, Yao Yao timidly continued, "I saw how tiring it was for Big Brother to read through the documents. Therefore… I added some assistive features to her based on the original software. I hope she can help you."

At the same time, the girl in the hologram project politely bowed to Jiang Chen.

"Artificial Intelligence 'Jian' at your service."

"Jian's appearance is downloaded from the library's database. If Big Brother is not pleased, you can modify her yourself," Yao Yao added.

"Haha, how could I not be pleased with Yao Yao's work? Appearances aside, could you describe her functionality to me?" Yao Yao touched her chin while she examined the artificial intelligence.

The security of intermediate artificial intelligence was inferior to basic artificial intelligence, but from a functionality perspective, the workable field of intermediate artificial intelligence was much more expansive than basic artificial intelligence. For example, basic artificial intelligence could produce logical responses based on human actions; it could make calculations but it couldn't process further.

Intermediate artificial intelligence was different. Not only could it solve math problems, but it could solve even deep application questions.

Based on what Yao Yao said, Jian not only possessed the ability to program herself - she could even learn knowledge she came in contact with and gain understanding. Her reading, analyzing, processing and outputting of data was far superior compared to humans.

Similar intermediate artificial intelligence assistants were also seen in major corporations before the war and were commonly referred to as legal intermediate artificial intelligence. Its role often involved managing company servers and helping the president in better managing the company. In this aspect, Yao Yao's "Jian" utilized a lot of the same design principles.

And the security concern Jiang Chen was most worried about wasn't a concern at all.

The probability of losing control was low enough to be negligible, but the amount of hard drive and RAM space required for "Jian" was absurd, so it could only be contained in special "containers." In the modern world, the spaces available for her to stay were extremely limited, so there was no need to worry about losing control.

Even if she lost control, based on the settings in Yao Yao's program, "Jian" would absolutely obey Jiang Chen, limiting the conscious derived from the program itself.

Security wasn't a concern at all.

"I already programmed economic and law knowledge into Jian's database. Her current knowledge level is around the level of someone with a PhD. With Jian as your assistant, it'll be a lot easier for Big Brother to read through the documents." Yao Yao smiled.

After listening to Yao Yao's description, Jiang Chen looked at the watch on his wrist and exclaimed from the bottom of his heart, "It's almost like a hack."

"Hehe." Yao Yao joyfully smiled. "Although I don't know what a hack is, it's great to be able to help Big Brother out."

"Mhmm! Yao Yao helped me a lot this time!" Jiang Chen lovingly rubbed Yao Yao's head.

This artificial intelligence could be moved to the modern world and installed into Future Group's server. Xia Shiyu had constantly been bugging him about getting an assistant and he had been considering it too but he hadn't found the right candidate.

Now, which assistant could be more professional than artificial intelligence?

Its efficiency couldn't be matched by the human brain.

After sending away Yao Yao, Jiang Chen immediately returned to the desk and connected the tablet to the watch to order the new assistant to read the entire document. It utilized economics and law to evaluate each section of the amendment.

From a beginner's perspective, it was amazing to achieve a B+ rating. Jiang Chen was extremely pleased with Chu Nan's abilities.

What made him even more satisfied and amazed was Yao Yao's artificial intelligence.

It was a hack!

"Jian… That's an odd way of referring to a program." Jiang Chen slapped his forehead and thought about a game he thought was fitting, "How about this -I'll call you 'Jean' from now on."

Jean was a female name too.

"Name change completed, Mr. General."

"Also, don't call me General. Refer to me as President."

"Affirmative."

Looking at Jean on the hologram screen, a pleased curvature appeared on Jiang Chen's mouth.

With Jean's help, it wouldn't take long before he could solve the problem that had been giving him a headache.

Chapter 660: Smart Office

Pleasant sunshine, trees swayed with the cool breeze.

Jiang Chen laid on the bed, rubbed his eyes, and sat up from the bed.

He pushed open the window and a gust of cool wind blew by. He inhaled the refreshing air deeply and gazed into the horizon. On the peaceful shoreline, there were glimpses of cruise ships and sailboats. The fishing boats were nowhere to be seen anymore…

It was the middle of summer when he left. Now it was fall.

But on a tropical island near the equator, there wasn't much distinction between summer and fall. The seasons never changed and the only changing aspects were people's clothing styles, busier streets, and taller buildings.

In the one and a half year after the arrival of Future Technology, the Pannu Islands also welcomed drastic changes.

As for the three months he had been gone, he had a distant feeling.

The mansion hadn't changed, however.

Staring at the drones cutting leaves in his garden, Jiang Chen thought.

"Knock, knock—"

A gentle knocking came from the door.

It was definitely Ayesha outside.

A smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face. He closed the window, pulled the blinds, turned on the air conditioner, and walked to the door.

He hadn't seen her for three months.

As for what naughty things he would do next, it wasn't to be discussed with other people.

…

With "Jean's" help, Jiang Chen quickly finished his work and spent a relaxing September with Sun Jiao and girls. He would return to the modern world at the beginning of October.

Before he left, he went to Fallout Shelter 027 to transfer the hidden genetic code surgery and the bottle of serum to Wang Fangping. With his leadership, the life science research institute of the fallout shelter would start researching the DNA strand named "resiliency."

If they could discover the secret of immortality without transferring the genetic code, Jiang Chen would no longer need to debate over changing his skills. Although he rarely needed to fight, he was pleased with his "fury" ability.

On the first day in the modern world, Jiang Chen and Ayesha didn't leave the house and spent the entire day together affectionately.

The next morning, Jiang Chen finally made a trip to Future Building and the first thing he did was install "Jean's" secondary program onto Future Group's server.

The server was previously a commercial quantum computer; it was perfect as a terminal for Jean.

From now on, Jiang Chen could access the status of the computer from anywhere with internet access through the watch on his left hand and execute orders to all departments. Future Technology could be considered the first corporation in the world to utilize artificial intelligence for company management.

After taking care of that, Jiang Chen then visited Xia Shiyu's office to say hello.

Because she was used to his sudden disappearances, during that encounter, her reaction was rather normal. But it would be impossible to say she wasn't worried at all. Due to her worry, when she saw Jiang Chen, she criticized him for a long time.

"You're a billionaire - can you not suddenly disappear? If a reporter catches you, there would be chaos."

"I'm okay, aren't I?" Jiang Chen brushed the problem away with a smirk. He took out a USB drive and threw it on Xia Shiyu's office table.

"This is?" Xia Shiyu picked up the USB on the table, confused.

"'Jean Office,' a smart office software specifically designed for our company. From today onward, I need this installed on every employee's computer. All future emails, contracts, financial statements, and performance evaluations must be uploaded through this software and copied onto the company server to achieve complete digital management!" Jiang Chen said.

Xia Shiyu sighed and spoke with her hand on her forehead.

"It's too forced to suddenly change the working software. The impact of using unfamiliar software is clear on work efficiency, and our company's current software is applicable to our business needs so there's no need to change it."

"Trust me. After you use it, you'll love this software." Jiang Chen smiled with confidence.

This software was an enterprise management software designed specifically for Future Group, based on Jean's assessment of the company's server data and currently software's characteristics. With the aid of the quantum computer's computational power, she created enterprise management software the size of 500 MB in less than half an hour.

"Drafting the idea" took 25 minutes while the actual coding took five minutes.

Xia Shiyu skeptically eyed Jiang Chen, picked up the USB, inserted it, and clicked her mouse a few times.

It was quickly loaded and the installation tool was installed on her computer.

After installation, Xia Shiyu clicked on the fated software.

"There's a user manual in the folder," Jiang Chen reminded her.

"Mhmm. I see."

Xia Shiyu nonchalantly scanned through the user manual and began to follow the instructions.

After one minute, she began to look intrigued.

After five minutes, her interested look turned into shock.

After ten minutes…

"Are you still not done? We're only testing the functionality…" Jiang Chen had to remind Xia Shiyu, who was constantly clicking and typing.

[Face palm! It's not a fun game. It's just enterprise management software - is it that addicting?]

Xia Shiyu blushed and pushed her mouse aside.

"Sorry, it's for testing this… hmm, 'Jean Office' application."

"What do you think?"

"It's fantastic. Whether it's user experience, speed or security, everything is impeccable. Especially the employee community system that is even more refined than in social media apps - not only does it have the ability for virtual conferences, it also simplifies document uploading, reviewing, and copying to the extreme." Xia Shiyu nodded. "Just like you said, this 'Jean Office' was designed just for us."

"Then does Miss CEO still have any objections about pushing this software in the company?" Jiang Chen leaned against the desk and said with a mocking tone.

"I don't have any reasons to object." A curvature appeared on Xia Shiyu's mouth and her serious but gorgeous face showed a rare, delightful smile. "I trust that as soon as we're familiar with the software, the efficiency of our employees will increase by at least 10%. I'll call for a meeting to discuss this with the executives of our subsidiaries. if everything is confirmed, we'll immediately implement and push for 'Jean Office'."

Xia Shiyu's style was so sharp and fierce without lacking consideration.

Jiang Chen nodded with a smile.

"Then I won't disturb you further."

He turned toward the door.

Just then, Xia Shiyu suddenly stopped him.

"Also, President Zhang came to look for you at the office a few days ago. He seemed like he had something urgent to discuss with you."

"President Zhang? Did he mention anything specific?"

"I'm not sure." Xia Shiyu shook her head. "I just heard it has to do with water."

[Water?]

Jiang Chen looked at her, completely lost.

Chapter 661: Lacking Water

Compared with the quietness from a year ago, the presidential palace located on Coro Island became more bustling. The white paint and marble poles resembled the White House and the beautiful tropical garden became a tourist attraction.

On the grass field in front of the palace, Jiang Chen saw the bodyguards in suits and shades; he also saw the tourists taking photos.

When he arrived, the advisor of the president was already waiting at the door.

He was the only one in Xin that didn't require a reservation to see the president. After explaining the purpose of the visit, the advisor respectfully led him into the grand hall and brought him to the office.

There were two people sitting on the sofa in the office.

One of them naturally was Zhang Yaping while the other person looked rather unfamiliar.

Seeing Jiang Chen come in, the two people stood up, Zhang Yaping first introduced Jiang Chen as the more honorable guest.

"This is Jiang Chen, the president of Xin's star corporation. You must have heard of him before."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen." Smith ina black suit, was clean shaven, and politely extended his hand.

"This is the representative from Matrix Desalination Company, Lude Smith." Then, Zhang Yaping introduced his guest to Jiang Chen.

"Hello, Mr. Smith, it is pleasure to meet you as well."

Jiang Chen shook hands with him and nodded before taking a seat. Then he looked at President Zhang Yaping.

Zhang Yaping sensed the question in his eyes and began to explain.

"So this is the case. Currently, we plan to construct a water desalination plant in Xin, so we invited Matrix Desalination Company to conduct a construction analysis for us on Coro Island."

"Desalination Plant? Is there not enough fresh water on the island?" Jiang Chen was surprised.

"Not enough is an understatement. Xin's current water supply relies on imports from Australia," Smith said while taking out a stack of documents from his briefcase, "This is the underground water basin distribution amd these are the possible water treatment plant locations."

Jiang Chen had no idea how much his water bill was for his mansion, especially compounded with the fact that he constantly ran to the apocalypse. It was not until Zhang Yaping mentioned this did he realized this problem.

Before the 20th century, Coro Island's underground aquifer stored an ample amount of water. But due to global warming, rising sea level, sea water being used to clean the roads and houses, the sea water filtrated and polluted into the underground aquifer. This depleted the fresh water resources, hence the water supply on the island could only rely on the aquifer in the center of island as well as the small fresh water lake in the nearby Galin Island.

Tropical regions typical experienced a long rain season and Xin had an ample amount of fresh water resources, but with the increase in immigration and exponential growth in tourism, the water system previously designed to supply 50 thousand people now must supply 150 thousand people. To avoid paying for the expensive water price, a lot of tourists came with bagfuls of water.

But it made life difficult for the locals. It would be ridiculous to buy fresh water off of Amazon.

Including the workers without Xin citizenship, Xin's population reached the 50,000 mark.

Typically, in major city with sophisticated facility, everyone consumed on average 400 kilograms of freshwater, therefore Xin's average water consumption was 20 thousand tons of water per day. Based on stats, 1% to 2% of the water was needed for drinking, therefore Xin require 200-400 tons of freshwater for its residents.

Water for showering could be conserved, but drinking water could not be conservatively measured.

The saving grace was that Xin's government had money and was able to sign a water supplying contract with Australia City West Water to alleviate the water supplying pressure domestically. But the high price of transportation meant that importing water was not a long term solution.

The Xin Congress voted to start a bid for the construction of a water desalination plant on Coro Island to decrease the high water price.

Before the citizens' dissatisfaction turned into protest.

Jiang Chen flipped through the documents while Zhang Yaping continued to explain.

"We plan to give the water desalination plant project to you. If Future Group is not interested, we can think of other solutions."

"Why doesn't CWW build the water plant?" Jiang Chen asked.

In Jiang Chen's memory, it was Australia's City West Water (CWW) Corporation that handled the water supply and pipeline maintenance on Coro Island. Jiang Chen was really disinterested in the fresh water market.

Even if the water reached a ridiculous price of 5 USD per ton and they gained an monopoly on Xin's water supply, the water desalination plant's monthly profit was at most half a million USD.

A yearly profit of six million USD would not even make a material impact on any of Future Group's internet, food, automotive, or health care business.

"CWW thinks our market is not enough to support a water desalination plant and chose to ignore our bid. And other small companies don't have the ability to accept the bid. If it not possible, Congress is discussing about treating the desalination project as a social benefit project, just like state schools and have the government run it," Zhang Yapin said with a bitter smile.

Continue to fund fresh water through the state could not be sustainable even for the rich Xin government.

"Your proposal is?" Jiang Chen looked to Smith.

Smith smiled, took the document from Jiang Chen's hand and flipped to the page with color.

"Based on an assessment of Pannu Islands, Our company recommends this integrated desalination unit in this document, which uses the LT-MED principle. The entire desalination production line can handle 35,000 tons of daily capacity and the processing cost of 1.6 USD per tonne can perfectly solve the current water supply crisis facing Xin. "

"What's the price?"

"Including the construction of the treatment plant, the total cost is 150 million USD."

"It's too expensive." Zhang Yaping shook his head.

Without considering the cost of maintenance, the water desalination plant under ideal settings would take thirty years to recover the initial investment. Even with plenty of money, Jiang Chen had no reason to accept a losing deal.

Smith had a helpless smile.

"Water desalination is a long term investment. Trust me, the one-time investment is more worth it compared to importing water long term."

"Can you lower the price?"

"This is the market price." Smith, in an unnegotiable tone, said. "Matrix has designed water desalination plants for Maldives, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and their price is much more expensive compared to yours."

To be honest, Smith was growing impatient after the negotiation had taken so long.

The negotiation was without any progress. The Xin government wanted to use water desalination but didn't want to spend the money. The biggest water supplier CWW refused the bid from the start which made him feel like he was wasting his time.

His company urged him to finish this deal and take his team to Saudi. There was a 1 billion project with Saudi National Desalination waiting for him.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen spoke.

"Wait, you mean… the price of water desalination equipment is expensive?"

"You think? You think water desalination is just setting up a boiler? I recommend giving it a try."

Smith said hashly, stood up, left a business card on the table, and looked at Zhang Yaping.

"Regretfully, Mr. President, we didn't reach a partnership. My team and I already wasted a week on the island. Regarding the cost to the geology analysis, water treatment plant location selection, we'll bill separately and send it to the Presidential Palace seven days later. If you and your advisors have come to a decision, please contact us then. I have a plane to catch in two hours. See you."

Smith picked up the briefcase and left without turning his head.

Zhang Yaping wanted to keep him here, but Jiang Chen stopped him.

"Let him leave. I don't want to work without them anyways." Jiang Chen laughed.

"Eh, we'll spend the money if it is necessarily since we can't just rely on importing freshwater…. Wait, what are you saying? You want to get into the desalination business?" Zhang Yaping suddenly realized and looked at Jiang Chen, ecstatic.

IF Future Group planned to take this project, there was nothing for him to worry about!

"I didn't have the plan from the start," Jiang Chen started to grin, "But based on what he said, the water desalination business is quite big."

Jiang Chen almost forgot that not only Xin lacked in water! Companies such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE were all countries where water was more expensive than oil.

Even in Han, why did the Han government spent massive amounts of money to move the water from the south to the north? It was because the north lacked water! If the Han government could build tens of water desalination projects off of the northern coast, there would be no need to move water.

Water desalination was not a small market at all, there were massive gains! Was water desalination technology a problem in the 22nd century? Reverse osmosis, low-temperature multi-effect method, electrodialysis were all outdated!

He almost didn't pick up the cash lying on the ground.

Jiang Chen couldn't sit around any longer as he stood up abruptly.

[Sorry, is it Matrix? From now on, you have competition!]

Seeing Jiang Chen was about to leave, Zhang Yaping rushed to asked.

"You're going to?"

He didn't stop Smith from leaving, now that Jiang Chen was about to leave too, he was uncertain.

Someone must take care of the fresh water problem!

Jiang Chen stopped, turned around, and smiled at him.

"I'm going to see CWW. I suddenly remembered Future Heavy Industrial could potentially make water desalination equipment."

The "could potentially" almost made Zhang Yaping cough blood in anger, he heavily criticized him in his mind.

[Fu*k! Why didn't you say so earlier!]

Chapter 662: Are you interested in working with us?

Not only the expansive international market, once Penglai City is completed, fresh water supply would become an actual problem. A total of 300,00 units are sold as of now, even with only 50% occupancy rate, the population of Penglai would be a ridiculous number.

Jiang Chen left the Presidential Palace, got in the car, and asked Ayesha to send him to the gate of CWW.

Once they were on their way, he first called the CWW people before opening the hologram image on his left hand.

Blue particles emerged and a three dimensional portrait appeared inside the car.

Ayesha's widened eyes were written with shock but she didn't say anything. She closed the windows of the car and continued to focus on the road.

"Jean, initiate the fourth dimensional messenger and scan the technology recovery catalogue of Fallout Shelter 027 to match seawater desalination for me."

"Understood." A girl in the hologram projection nodded and the realistic curvature flashed with light blue data streams.

The fourth dimension messenger was previously attached to the chip on his EP and was used to connect with Lin Lin. It was later updated to connected with the Fishbone server to ease Jiang Chen in connecting with the apocalypse.

Because Yao Yao's watch included the function of EP, Jiang Chen transferred the chip into the watch.

"Search complete. Seven matches found."

"Download to my watch."

"Affirmative, Mr. President," Jean said, emotionless.

Watching the bar load on the hologram screen, Jiang Chen poke the projection.

"Received! You can go play now."

"Question, what does go play now mean?"

"Uh, it means you can come out once I need you again."

It was weird feeling having someone watch you. Even if she was an AI, as other than her expression, she was too close to a human.

"Understood."

She nodded and her figure changed into blue letters before fading from the air.

Sinking into the seat, Jiang Chen called out the documents downloaded.

When the infection source was cleared from the city center, Fallout Shelter 027, with the help of NAC First Division, began to conduct technology recovery work in Wanghai's shambles. Disregarding if they digested the technology or not, all the data was inputted into the server by the thousands of researchers for future use.

Water desalination technology was a common technology in the population abundant 22nd century. Although Wanghai at the mouth of Huangpu River could not experience the agony of water shortage, it didn't prevent it in providing technology service to water shortage areas of the PAC.

The scientists of the fallout shelter only recorded the technology without digesting and organizing the technology yet. However, the documents themselves had comprehensive conceptual drawings and data entries so Jiang Chen could read through the content of the technology.

With his finger sliding through the interface, a blue rectangle appeared and outlined the outer appearance of the water desalination device.

"Who is she?" Ayesha curiously asked.

"Artificial intelligence. Her name is Jean."

"It is a program… I thought she was your assistant," Ayesha said in a quiet voice while making a turn.

CWW's office in Xin was located in the city center of Coro Island. Fortunately, the road condition was not too bad and they arrived at their destination in fifteen minutes.

With the car parked, Jiang Chen's hand grasped in the air and retracted the hologram screen before he stepped out of the vehicle.

In a tourism city full of taxis, a flamboyant Lamborghini was quite eye-catching. Some tourists even took out their phones to snap a picture… although Jiang Chen didn't know why they were so excited.

He walked into the CWW building and an assistant came to greet him and took him up the elevator.

On the way there, Jiang Chen already phoned CWW's regional manager. Although the manager didn't want to persist with Xin's government on the problem of water desalination, with the consideration of Jiang Chen's identity, Jim Attri still agreed to his unexpected visit and moved his other meeting back by an hour.

"Please sit down, Mr. Jiang Chen." Attri poured a cup of coffee for Jiang Chen and sat across from him, "I'm surprised you came to visit our company. Is Future Group interested in the water business?"

"Precisely speaking, we are interested in water desalination." Jiang Chen took a sip of the coffee before he decided not to touch it anymore.

It was as bitter as Chinese Medicine.

Attri thought Jiang Chen was here to convince him about the water desalination plant, he sighed.

"We have a running joke in our company."

"Oh?" Jiang Chen looked at him, intrigued.

"Our company's water supplying business in Xin's total profit is not even close to our gain in real estate." Attri savored the taste of the coffee as he continued in a lighthearted tone, "For example the building underneath me, including renovations, it costed a total of 150,000 USD. Now, I can sell it for 2 million USD."

"Haha, that is a funny joke." Jiang Chen grinned. "Are you that pessimistic about Xin's fresh water market? There are only 50 thousand permanent residents here, but what about a year later?"

"This is not the key." Attri shook his head, threw a cubed sugar into the coffee and gently stirred, "Xin Government wants us to increase our size here but they also want to treat drinking water as a benefit. In terms of price, we don't have the ability to set the price. Although Coro Island lacked fresh water, to be honest, we don't view too positively the market here."

"Then do you have plans to sell the business here?" Jiang Chen asked.

Attri shook his head.

"While we don't favor it, we don't plan to leave."

"So you want to maintain the status quo?" Jiang Chen understood their strategy.

"Yes." Attri agreed.

Xin's freshwater pipelines were owned by CWW, other freshwater companies who want to enter the market had only two options. Either work with them or relay the pipelines. Even if the government chose to import freshwater, they still must sell the freshwater at a low price to them based on the contract before they supply the water to the residents. The buy high sell low was another form of subsidization.

Attri took another sip of the coffee, looked at Jiang Chen, and used a quite surprised tone.

"Is Future Group interested in the freshwater business?"

"That's right." Jiang Chen nodded again. He looked at him and continued, "Future Heavy Industrial recently made a groundbreaking discovery in water desalination technology. Zhang Yapin happened to mention to me about the water shortage in Xin, so I plan to build a water desalination plant with an estimated daily treatment amount of 40,000 tons."

40,000 tons was just a conservative number, Any water desalination technology from the 22nd century had a minimum treatment amount exponentially higher than that. But for Xin, the number was enough.

"With Xin's electricty price, we can control the cost of every ton of treated water to be less than 0.5 USD."

"0.5 USD? That's pretty good…" Suddenly, Attri's hand holding the coffee cup froze.

Bang, the cup smashed on the ground. Without caring for the coffee spilled on himself, he banged on the table and looked at Jiang Chen with eyes widened.

"That's impossible! I never heard of any technology that could compress the cost to this low, even Matrix can't do this!"

"But we are Future," Jiang Chen said without much expression, but he was laughing in his mind. [This is because the electricity price is high here. If it were in the 22nd century, with mature nuclear fusion technology, the cost of water desalination is not much higher than the underground water itself..

Attri wanted to rebuke, but his words were stuck in his throat. He suddenly remembered that Future Group always made miracles come true and they always revolutionized the traditional way of thinking. From virtual reality to housework robots…

An absurd idea surfaced in his head.

Maybe they could really do it!

"What do you think? Are you interested in working with us?" Jiang Chen, with a smile, looked at the silent Attri.

Chapter 663: An Old Friend

1 US dollar!

The desalinated water at this price was cheaper than some of the water pumped from the underground aquifer! Attri never heard of such a powerful water desalination technology!

The cost of seawater desalination was highly dependant on the local electricity price. Xin had no oil production and used renewable resources for electricity generation. While it was environmentally friendly, electricity was not cheap. Based on CWW's estimate, a desalination plant on Coro Island, even with the most advanced equipment, would have a cost of 2 US dollar per ton.

So when Jiang Chen suggested the cost of 0.5 US dollars, Attri was very shocked.

Even with a nuclear power plant on Coro Island, the desalinated water wouldn't be so cheap!

Both parties quickly reach an agreement and penned the negotiating terms.

Future Heavy industrial will build the desalination plant, CWW will be responsible for the pipeline to connect Future Group's treated water to Xin's water supply system.

Attri immediately asked his assistant to print the contract and signed with Jiang Chen a water supplying contract of 20,000 tons per day. He looked anxiously, afraid Jiang Chen may back out on the deal.

When the contract was signed, Attri personally sent him to the door.

"The black coffee I brought back from West Australia, do you want to take some home?"

"No need." Jiang Chen thanked him for the offer.

He already experienced how awful it tastes.

A 20,000 tons supply agreement, take away the cost related to human labor, 0.5 US dollar per ton of profit could bring Future Group a monthly income of 300,000 US dollar.

The profit was meager, even if Future Group purchased CWW's water supplying system and vertically integrated the entire chain, it would at most double the number.

From the start, Jiang Chen put his focus on the international market. He happened to have a person's phone number that would definitely be interested in cheap water.

"Hello? Mr. Yerif. It's me, Jiang Chen. Future Heavy Industries has some new gadgets now… No, no, no, I'm not referring to a new robot, it's water desalination equipment."

Just as Jiang Chen got into the car, he took out his phone and called Yerif in the far Saudi Arabia.

"Water desalination equipment? We do have a plan to build a new seawater desalination plant at the coast of the Red Sea, but we contracted Matrix to design it for us. They are the experts in this field and an old partner of ours." Yerif heard Jiang Chen seemingly to be advertising desalination equipment to him, and his brows slightly furrowed.

Although he had a great personal relationship with Jiang Chen, he would not give grounds because of personal relationships to a project related to the wellbeing of Saudi's people. Matrix promised them to build a 1,097,000 cubic meter mixed desalination plant powered by ultra-high-concentration photovoltaic technology in the Mecca area off the Red Sea coast to replace high-energy and the inefficient petroleum energy desalination plant."

Although in the oil rich Saudi, electricity generation through combustion was cheap, from an environmental and sustainability perspective, the cons of "oil exchange for water" outweighed the pros.

And with this mixed energy desalination plant, the cost per ton would be lowered to 1.5 US dollar. This price was reasonable to Yerif.

"What is the water price for your company?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Based on half year stats, in the Mecca area, on average it is 7 Rial per ton." Yerif said while giving it a thought.

7 Riyal was equivalent to 1.9 US dollar.

Jiang Chen estimated while a smile emerged on his face.

"Then, are you interested in 1 US dollar per ton of fresh water?"

Yerif was stunned when he heard Jiang Chen's offer to the point that he forgot to open his mouth when his beautiful Amira put a peeled grape near him.

"1 US dollar per ton? Cost?"

"The cost is going to be a bit lower, 1 US dollar is the price we give you," Jiang Chen said.

Yerif was stunned. He immediately stood up, and walked to the window of the palace with his phone.

"My friend, you always… amaze me. Ahem! Can I ask, what you have said is for real? Provide water to us at a price of 1 US dollar? This is incredible, please excuse my emtional outbreak."

Yerif couldn't even articulate properly.

Saudi had been subsiding their domestic gasoline, power, and hydro. Just take hydro for example, to allow the four million people in their capital Riyadh to drink clear and relatively cheap water, Saudi's Royal Family must subsidize a couple hundred million a year.

While Saudi is indeed rich, who wouldn't want to save money?

Jiang Chen's 1 US dollar price would not only alleviate the water shortage, it would also bring savings to them.

"Of course it is true, truer than gold." Jiang Chen's smile was pleasant.

Compared to the water supplying contract signed with CWW which was close to a benefit, the contract with the oil boss Saudi was the key! 1 US dollar price, even with one million tons of water supplies, it would be 15 million US dollar in profits per month.

And the desalination technology he possessed could supply far more than one million ton per month! With the partnership with Saudi, they will evitably increase the contract because of the cheap price. And other countries who experienced similar water shortage would seek partnership seeing how Saudi enjoyed such cheap hydro.

Jiang Chen could imagine the rich Arabians running at him while waving cash in their hands.

"Also, what is the quality of the desalinated water? We won't feed our citizens water mixed with sand," Yerif asked another one of his concerns.

Long term consumption of desalinated water was not beneficial to the health. If Future Group's desalinated water did not pass the quality test, Saudi's Royal Family would not withstand this. However, his concern was extraneous as the 22nd century PAC had a far stricter demands on quality than any country in this timeline.

"Be assured, we'll finish the construction of the first desalination plant on Coro Island a month later. You can send a team to test our treated water. I can promise you one thing; our desalinated water is cleaner and healthier than any of the desalinated waters available.

With how confident Jiang Chen was, Yerif was assured.

He trusted Future Group's promise.

"I will send people for a tour." Yerif paused for a moment as he hesitated. "Jiang Chen, we are friends right?"

"Of course." Jiang Chen didn't know why he suddenly asked this.

"Could you do me a favor?" Yerif whispered.

"Of course. As long as I can help you," Jiang Chen said gladly.

"For you it is not hard," Yerif coughed and lowered his voice, "I'll think of a way to stop the negotiation with Matrix and change it to an open bid. I hope you don't join our bid."

"Don't bid?" Jiang Chen didn't understand why.

"Yes," Yeriff nodded, "I will invite you to bid."

Jiang Chen then instantly understood what he meant.

Yerif was the Crown Prince, but there was more than one prince in Saudi and the old King loved to change THE Crown Prince. Therefore, a lot of people have their eyes on his position. While he was responsible for the cooperation between Matrix, another prince named Rashid initiated the talk.

While the old King didn't say anything, he seemed to be pleased with Prince Rashid's performance.

It made Yerif feel unsettled.

"Haha, not a problem, Mr. Yerif, don't underestimate our friendship." Jiang Chen laughed.

"Thank you! You're my great brother!" Yerif said in joy and even used his broken Mandarin to say the last sentence.

While his grammar required fixing, Jiang Chen grinned and chatted with him some more.

For Jiang Chen, it was a small lfavor.

If Yerif would not ascend to the crown, Future Group had nothing to lose. But if he did become the King, he would not forget Future Group's favor.

Chapter 664: We don't plan to sell

Jean provided a complete desalination design to Jiang Chen.

Based on the actual conditions of Xin, Jiang Chen ultimately chose a mixed energy source desalination design. He assigned the unsophisticated parts to be manufactured by the factories in New Malaysia Special District, the more advance parts to be produced by the technology industrial park located on Ange Island.

While the name of the park is technology industrial park, only Future Heavy Industries' factory is located there – the service robot assembling factory. A total of 400,000 "Xiao Lin" per month would step off the assembly line, be transported to port, and sold to the rest of the world.

Currently, a new assembly line was added to the plant combined with the industrial 3D printer Jiang Chen brought back from the apocalypse to produce core desalination equipment parts.

All the finished parts would be transported to the region east of Coro Island and assembled by the amphibious construction robots.

Different from Penglai's construction project, the assembly was not disclosed to the public. Due to its small scale, it was not until the entire assembly was completed did the device float up and was hauled by a vessel to one hundred meters away from Coro Island's coast for docking…

…

Noon. A sunny and cloudless sky.

The leaves of the coconut trees swayed and cast its shadow. Washington Post's journalist Jim Calvin was resting relaxingly on the beach at the east coast of Coro Island, enjoying his rare vacation.

The island was always filled with countless amount of news, and the people of Washington surprisingly were intrigued by the small island. Any reports put on the front page of the newspaper about Penglai would garner addition sales. Or rather, people purchased newspaper for the sake of seeing if Future Group created something new.

There was still five days left before he started in Washington again. He planned to use this time to relax and recharge.

The tropical weather almost made people drowsy. Just as he was about to take nap in front of the steamy sea, shouting from the distance dispersed any of his weariness.

"Jim, get up, there is something on the sea!" Just then, his girlfriend in bikini came running, put the shaved ice she just bought on the table, and woke him up by shaking on his arms.

"What is it? Wait, are you sure you didn't just see a mirage?" While he didn't sound pleased, he still got up, and allowed his excited girlfriend to drag him onto the sandy hill not far away.

His reporter instinct told him that something incredible just happened on the sea.

The truth soon proved his speculation.

They only ran halfway before a pitch black shadow surfaced on the sea.

A metal floating island hauled by four vessels stopped at a distance not far away from the beach.

Jim gradually slowed down. While still holding his girlfriend's hand, he stared at the sea blankly.

Words of amazement of different languages flowed into his ears…

"Dad, what is that?"

"This is incredible! My phone, honey, where is my phone? I'm going to upload it on YouTube! Oh, sh*t, it is in my hand…"

"I can bet you it must be Future Group again!"

"No rush, dear, maybe we can purchase tickets and go sunbath up there. Remember to wear your new swimsuit…"

"…"

Suddenly, the shouts from the crowd woke the dumbfounded Jim and his girlfriend up. The surface of the metal island began to expand, the airbags in the middle began to inflate, and the tubes located in the water started to submerge.

"Jim, what is that?" Jenny holding onto her boyfriend's hand asked in disbelief.

Just then, her boyfriend who always treated her nice forced his hand out of hers.

"Phone… Dammit! Phone and camera are all in the bag! Wait for me here, Jenny, I will be back!"

Looking at his girlfriend's shocked look, Jim shouted and dashed to the baggage storage…

But Jim didn't end up filming the deployment of the giant.

Under everyone's watch, the basketball court sized island expanded into the size of a football field.

The rectangular design looked like the offshore rig used for oil and gas, the only difference was the unscientific size and the hundreds of graphene pipelines on its surface.

Surrounding the metal island was stacks of floating pipelines. The pipelines directly extended into the bottom of the ocean and acted as the seawater collection unit for the desalination unit. They would crudely filter the collected seawater and sent the product through the graphene pipeline to the distillation equipment in the middle; the treated water would then be fed out through the outlet at the bottom of the platform.

The left connection could be connected to power units for electricity and the equipment would only be operational once powered. The modular design meant that whether fire power or solar power, they could all be used to power the unit.

The most critical aspect was the desalination equipment can be moved. If the current position was non-ideal or there was a typhoon warning, as long as the graphene cables connected to the bottom of the ocean floor were retracted, the major modules were taken apart, equipment could be hauled elsewhere for redeployment.

Once the pipeline from land connected with the equipment, the "seawater desalination platform" could continuously feed the residents on ground fresh water.

The desalination platform naturally would not be deployed in the tourism area. The reason it was deployed here was for an advertisement of the new equipment.

"This is astonishing." On top of the Future Building, Yerif through binoculars gazed at the desalination platform and could not stop smiling.

He originally planned to send his assistant, but because of the importance of this project, he personally made the trip to Coro Island.

"We'll see a lot of similar comments on newspapers tomorrow." Beside him, Jiang Chen smiled. "So why don't we discuss something more interesting."

"How much do you plan to sell that platform for?" Yerif's eyes were stuck in the binoculars as he said without turning his head.

"We don't plan to sell." Jiang Chen shook his head.

Yerif finally moved his eyes off of the binoculars and looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled.

"Didn't we agree?" Jiang Chen smiled. "We'll provide you fresh water at a cost of 1 US dollar per ton."

Compared with one and done type of deals, Jiang Chen liked long term business more. If Future Group controlled Saudi's hydro, they would not only gain financial benefits.

Everyone depended on freshwater, especially people in the deserts.

Once Future Group used the cheaper water to bankrupt other desalination plants, Future Group, with control of desalination plants, would control the lifeline of water shortage countries.

By then, all the countries in the Gulf and along the coast of the Red Sea would depend on Future Group's water. By that time, they would hail Future Group as their king!

Chapter 665: Two Million Tons Order

After an intense negotiation, Yerif finally reluctantly accepted Jiang Chen's proposal.

The two went back into the building; Jiang Chen took him to his office. At the same time, Xia Shiyu placed the prepared agreement on Jiang Chen's table.

No one was willing to have their drinking water be controlled by someone else, but they couldn't do anything about it since Future Group's price was too attractive!

Saudi's currently desalinated water price was around 1.53 US dollar per ton and it was because of being a major oil producing country and hence a low fire power electricity price.

Based on their agreement, Future Group would partner with Saudi Royal Family controlled Beach Seawater Desalination Company.

Future Heavy Industrial's desalination platform would dock near the Red Sea coast while Saudi would complete the underwater pipelines. Jiang Chen would be responsible for opening the tap while Yerif would drag the tube over to connect the water and pay Jiang Chen 1 US dollar per cubic meter of water.

In theory, with additional water collection modules around the platform and water desalination modules on the platform, a single platform could treatment four million tons of water per day!

But the high water output naturally meant high energy consumption. But it was okay since Saudi's port was right beside the platform and the cost of fuel was low!

Yerif promised Jiang Chen to transport cheap natural gas and fuel to the platform. Based on the 2 million ton of hydro supply per day, the price of every tonne of water could be compressed to 0.37 US dollar.

The price was similar to underground treatment cost. The price was beyond belief.

By then, the platform would provide Future Group an income of 1.2 million US dollar per day; 400 million US dollar per year.

Saudi's Royal Family would save at least 600 million US dollar in cost related to subsidizing water. The originally intended new energy desalination plant built off the coast of Red Sea was canceled and resulted in a saving of construction investment of 1.5 billion US dollar.

Yerif signed the contract in three days. With the contract, Yerif hopped on his plane in euphoria and eagerly returned to Saudi.

He looked forward to his father's expression.

While his younger brother brought Matrix and negotiated a 1.5 US dollar per cube of fresh water with a 1.5 billion US dollar construction fee, he silently brought back a contract of only 1 US dollar.

He knew how much emphasis his father placed on the desalination project.

[Haha, Rashid, my dear brother, just be your Arab Prince. The position of King should be given to someone with ability!]

Regardless how ecstatic Yerif was on the plane, just as Jiang Chen stepped into the Future Building, the platform off of the east coast connected with CWW's pipeline and initiated its trial run.

When the cheap water filled CWW's reservoir, CWW immediately executed Xin government's plan of reducing water prices.

Based on the original price, Xin's water price would be slashed in half.

The news was spread through TV stations, newspapers, and the internet to all of Xin.

"My God! Water prices have dropped!"

"My family was considering buying some plastic barrels. With how high the price was, we were going to resort to purifying rainwater ourselves… Thank God, the price is finally going down!"

"Did you see the platform? It said Future Heavy Industries!"

"Praise Future Group, Praise Jiang Chen!"

The entire country was in celebration for the reduction in hydro rate.

Based on CWW's report, water consumption spiked by 35% on the day of and only returned to a reasonable level a week later.

At the same time, Future Heavy Industries' desalination technology began to draw the attention of the world. It was not because of the cheap water or insane efficiency, but rather because of the futuristic deployment which left a deep impression on everyone.

Someone captured the scene and uploaded it onto social media sites. On the first of uploading, the views broke the million mark!

The netizens around the world was spamming in the comments, asking the person who uploaded the video which film it was from. Some of the netizens aware of the situation continuously clarified, "This is not a sci-fi film! It says 'Future Heavy Industrial' on there. Do you not know? Call your Xiao Lin over!"

Washington Post first reported on the news, New York Time, Los Angles Time subsequently all cited it.

Renowned journalist Jim Calvin who took part in a show with CBS used an exaggerative tone to describe what happened.

"It was incredible. Have you seen Transformers? Of course, I'm not saying I saw Transformers, but the video that went viral! You absolutely could not imagine my expression then…"

After a few days of celebration, Xin returned to peace.

There was already good news from Saudi. Saudi's King was extremely pleased with the contract Yerif and Future Group signed and stated their welcoming attitude to the high tech corporation. Future Heavy Industrial started the production of the second desalination platform. The finished parts would be shipped to Saudi and stored at the port.

All the parts were estimated to be completed by month-end. Future Group's construction boats will sail across the Gulf of Aden and enter the Red Sea region to complete the platform assembly. Compared with the one deployed off the east coast of Coro Island, the Saudi model had a higher production.

To ensure production, Jiang Chen made a trip to the technology park on Ange Island to speak with Lin Zhengyang, the one responsible for Future Heavy Industrial's production.

"This project is the marquee project for Future Heavy Industries in desalination. I need you to keep a close eye on the quality of every screw!"

"Yes! Boss!" Lin Zhengyang responded in high spirit.

Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder and signaled him to go back to his post.

Just as he wanted to take a tour of the Xiao Lin production line, his phone began to ring.

It was Xia Shiyu.

"What's up?" Jiang Chen picked up.

"What the f*ck?"

"'Blue Seagull' International Ocean Protection Committee released a statement on their site stating that our ocean exploration activity in the Pacific heavily disrupted the local ecosystem and sent a lawyer's letter to our group. They hope we can stop destroying the ocean habitat."

Jiang Chen was stunned.

[Destroying the ocean habitat?]

[What the fu*k?]

Chapter 666: Just a Warning

"They're launching a class action suit against us in Xin?" Jiang Chen thought he heard wrong, so he repeated the question again.

If they were suing him in Xin, he could think of a hundred ways Blue Seagull International Marine Life Protection Agency could lose. Suing him on his territory was asking for trouble.

"They launched the class action suit on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Of course, we can also refuse to respond, but this will impact our international reputation. They also wrote in their lawyers' letter that they reserve the right to organize protests. All in all, it's a headache to deal with this kind of non-profit organization…" Xia Shiyu's voice sounded defeated.

"I'll head back right away. We'll talk soon." Jiang Chen hung up and headed out of the factory quickly.

Unlike the International Court of Justice, not only can The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea accept cases between states, but it also accept cases between states and political entities and even individuals. However, such borderless tribunals often lacked binding power and are ignored by countries.

Future Group had been brought to court by a lot of countries, but this was its first time in court with a non-profit organization.

Jiang Chen visited the official site of the International Marine Life Protection Agency on his phone. He first saw a giant poster at the top of the site. Underneath an image of the sea was a rotor of blades and a bloody dolphin along with a slogan on the bottom: Please stop hurting our friends!

What made Jiang Chen exasperated was that all projects from the deployment of mining units to the construction of Penglai were equipped with sonar to remove any marine life. Their criticisms that lacked any factual basis were complete slander!

When Jiang Chen returned to the company, he immediately gunned for Xia Shiyu's office.

"Actively respond to the lawsuit. Also, send our lawyers to sue them for slander in UA and demand compensation for economic damages!"

"And investigate who's behind the slander. I want to see who's giving them directions!"

Jiang Chen didn't believe the slander was instigated by "Blue Seagull" just for the sake of environmental protection.

Future Technology's subsidiary was located in Los Santos with a fairly friendly relationship with the State Justice System. As long as they managed their relations, it wouldn't be hard to win in court. He handed over the investigation to the Ghost Agents overseas.

Surprisingly, before he sent anyone off on the mission, the people behind the scenes revealed themselves.

A phone call came from B City, UA.

"This is just a warning. Withdraw from the Saudi project." A male voice came from the other side.

"A warning." Jiang Chen laughed, but his tone turned colder and he asked, "Are you from Matrix?"

The man didn't deny nor agree. He just said, with a collected voice, "If it was any other business, you could use business strategies to win the project from us and we wouldn't say anything. But this project was conducted under directions from the Capital, so we won't just stop here."

From his tone and choice of words, Jiang Chen detected arrogance and a curvature appeared on his mouth.

[You expect Future Group to fold? In your dreams!]

"Is that so? Then I'm looking forward to your next move." Without feeling deterred, Jiang Chen didn't back down.

"Arrogant."

With just one word, the person on the other side hung up.

The two sides were at an impasse; there was no need to negotiate further.

Jiang Chen immediately ordered the Ghost Agents within UA's border to trace the phone call, and it was determined to be from a public phone booth in B City.

When he obtained that information, he had to look through Matrix to determine the shareholders of the company. But since Matrix was a private company, it took some effort to acquire the information. It was Xie Lei who hacked Matrix's servers and obtained the information from an equity change agreement.

All the evidence led to one name.

The fifth largest consortium in UA – B City Consortium.

Speaking of B City Consortium, it has a rich history. As one of the top ten consortia in UA, although it is less powerful than Morgan and Rockefeller, it is certainly the oldest one. It dates back to the 19th century when the Lovell, Lawrence, Adams, and Lodge families in the Boston area formed the B City Consortium with the emerging Kennedy family, possessing almost complete control of the entire North American textile industry. Their presence could be traced to the Civil War.

Although their current influence has faded compared to before, its influence in UA can't be underestimated. The world famous Raytheon is one of its holdings. These large consorts that controlled UA are more or less inextricably linked to the interests of the Ministry of Defense.

Since it is the B City Consortium that controlled Matrix, everything made sense. The Capital wanted to use the freshwater supply project to increase their control over Saudi. Since the dollar was tied to oil, the Capital still prioritized expanding their influence in the Middle East even when oil prices were so sluggish at the moment.

And because of Future Group's intervention in the freshwater project, B City Consortium obviously wouldn't sit around with their business ruined.

Just like they said, the class action suit from "Blue Seagull" was just a warning. B City Consortium would attack Future Group from multiple fields until Future Group could no longer withstand the losses and compromise on the not-so-profitable freshwater project.

Jiang Chen wouldn't allow their desires to come true!

Future Group would eventually be in a conflict of interest with the "ancient consortia." If he folded whenever there was a conflict, how could he do business in the future? Jiang Chen would not compromise, so he responded to B City Consortium's aggression with a firm stance.

Fortunately, Future Group had no subsidiary that was public, so B City Consortium's traditional financial attacks were futile against Future Group. However, they still managed to determine two attacking points, one was Future Group's most profitable tech business, and the other was marine life protection.

On October 11th, the UA Department of Justice launched an anti-trust investigation against Future Group's subsidiary.

At the same time, two "environmental advocates" forcefully boarded Future Mining's Pacific platform by boat, but they were quickly detained by Celestial Trade's security. UA's embassy in Xin immediately responded and demanded their release.

B City Consortium started the fight with a hook and a straight punch to gain an advantage in the showdown, targeting Future Group's weaknesses.

If UA's Department of Justice ultimately determined Future Technology was guilty in the anti-trust investigation, it would be a detrimental blow to the development of Future Technology's virtual reality market. It would set a precedent for other countries.

Would Jiang Chen allow them to succeed?

The answer was an obvious no!

Chapter 667: Retaliate

Because of the importance of the class action suit, Jiang Chen gathered Future Technology's North American CEO and a lawyer from the legal team to conduct a virtual conference.

At the very beginning, Jiang Chen asked.

"What's the probability of winning?"

"Seventy percent! the UA's Justice Department lacks a factual claim. The precise definition of Phantom is 'high-end VR equipment.' Although it accounts for a large share of the UA market, it's far from enough to achieve a monopoly. Microsoft's HoloLens, Google Cardboard and other devices in the low-end market still occupy a significant market share. The key is that we don't use our advantages in the market to prevent other companies from entering the market," the lawyer replied with certainty.

The law prohibited monopolies, meaning deliberately creating industry barriers to entry, monopolizing key resources, and eliminating competition. It was a procedural determination; the monopoly could result in market leadership, but market leadership didn't necessarily mean a monopoly.

It was only a technological gap that prevented other firms from entering the market - Future Group hadn't used their strengths to thwart completion. Therefore, the UA Department of Justice's claim was far-fetched. Future Group's possibility of winning was high!

The lawyer nodded and Jiang Chen then looked at Hermit.

"Hermit, you're the CEO of the North American division. I have only one thing to tell you - prepare to cause a controversy. Seventy percent of UA citizens' smartphones have Future 1.0 installed. It's not only a gold mine but also our weapon! I need you to create an atmosphere where the UA Department of Justice prevents technological innovation out of protectionism and potentially accepts a bribe to launch an anti-trust investigation against Future Group."

While pressure from public opinion wouldn't be enough to force its hand, it would be enough to make them pay a heavy price. The Department of Justice existed to serve the Capital. If Ms. Hill wanted to continue running the office, she had to remain cautious about this matter.

"It's okay without evidence. We can use the army of the internet and a conspiracy theory!" Jiang Chen added.

"I understand!" Hermit nodded.

After he finished up, Jiang Chen rushed to New Moon Island.

On the island, he met with the two people detained for trespassing on the mining platform. Because of pressure from the UA Embassy, Celestial Trade didn't send the two of them to prison and instead brought them to the military base.

They were a male and a female. The female looked young, like a university student. The male was older, around 30 years in age. His defined face was paired with glasses and a beard.

Inside a dark room, they were looking at the soldiers with rifles outside. The male looked calm and seemed to be experienced with detainment, but the female looked inexperienced as she was shivering in a corner.

"Katie, stay calm. They can't do anything to us. We're UA citizens. Just for the sake of saving her own face, Hill will get us out." Barney comforted his companion.

"But they have guns…" Katie said, frightened.

"Don't worry Miss Katie, we're not New Guinean cannibals. Just as the gentleman said, we won't do anything to you."

A voice suddenly came from the door. The two people inside the darkroom immediately looked in that direction. The soldier in the hallway saluted and stepped aside. Barney recognized the person and immediately narrowed his eyes.

Jiang Chen! He came here personally.

"We're the advocates of Blue Seagull! You heartless businessmen - you don't have the right to interfere with our just cause! I demand you let us go, or else…"

"Or else our treatment of you will be made into a documentary and released on YouTube to tarnish our name?" Jiang Chen grinned. "Or else you plan to launch a massive protest and sue us for the falsified crime we didn't commit?"

"They aren't falsified crimes! Your actions forced poor dolphins to leave their homes. It was all because of your irresponsible actions. Do you know what your actions will do to the ecosystem?!" Katie worked up her courage and berated Jiang Chen while staring him down.

"Is that so? Regardless if we committed a crime or not, you're not the police. And just seven hours ago, you trespassed on Future Mining's mining platform and disrupted our production. We're currently considering suing you for the crime of piracy! If the prosecution stands, you'll be facing a prison term between 10 to 15 years. I'm really curious - when you left the airport, didn't they remind you to follow the laws of the local government?" Jiang Chen said with a smile.

"You-you can't do that!" A hint of fear surfaced on Barney's face.

Jiang Chen didn't look like he was willing to compromise with the embassy. This wasn't what Barney expected.

And his companion, Miss Katie, was completely shocked. While she was a self-proclaimed activist, she never imagined sacrificing herself for the cause. When she heard she was facing ten years of prison time, tears burst out.

"Of course we can do that." Jiang Chen said, emotionless. "You have the right to hire a lawyer to defend yourselves, but I guarantee you'l; lose."

"Please don't do this! I'm still in college. I'll be expelled…" Katie grasped the bars at the window while crying in desperation.

Jiang Chen didn't look at her but focused instead on Barney, who had a pale face.

"But this doesn't have to be the way it ends."

"What do you want me to do?" Barney glanced at Katie sobbing and spoke with difficulty.

"Cooperate with us and restore our reputational damage," Jiang Chen snapped before two contracts appeared.

Looking at the contracts on the table, Barney gulped and picked up one of the copies.

"This is?"

"That's impossible!" Barney cried out emotionally.

Jiang Chen looked at him without emotion and said with an unnegotiable tone:

"You only have two choices in front of you. Rot in prison or sign this document."

Barney's face had no sign of life.

"Barney, I beg you…" The pleading of his friend rang in his ears.

"I just want to prove my innocence." Jiang Chen's expression didn't change.

After a long silence, Barney finally couldn't withstand the pressure and picked up the pen with shaking hands.

When he signed his name, he collapsed onto the chair as if all his energy was drained away.

As an executive in Blue Seagull, he was aware of the reason behind this defamatory campaign against Future Group. Although he didn't know who was behind it, he knew the individual behind it wasn't simple based on the unbelievable amount they were paid.

That was why he was unwilling to sign.

Doing all this for Mother Earth? Don't kid yourself! He knew better than anyone. From the beginning of the Penglai project, he closely monitored its impact on marine life! Just as Jiang Chen said, Future Group's sonar already removed the marine life outside of the construction radius. He even argued with the head of the organization over this.

Just as Jiang Chen said, he didn't have much choice.

"… If I sign, will you ensure my safety?"

"Of course, but you probably won't be able to return to UA in the immediate future. Trust me, this is for your benefit." Jiang Chen collected the contracts, signaled the soldier to unlock the door, and smiled at him. "Our people will take you to a five-star hotel. Don't worry about the cost - I'll foot the bill."

"Remember, you were never detained, not even for a minute!"

Chapter 668: The Work of a Hacker

Just as the UA Department of Justice officially launched a court case against the State Court and sued Future Technology's UA subsidiary, Future Group sent a team of lawyers to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea to actively respond to Blue Seagull's lawsuit.

At the same time, Future Group hired a legal team to officially sue Blue Seagull's headquarters for slander because of the information published on its official site. It caused "detrimental damage" to Future Group's international reputation and Future Group demanded reparations of 1.7 million USD as well as immediately deleting the defamatory comments against Future Group.

With the support of the B City Consortium, Blue Seagull definitely wouldn't stop and expressed that it was bizarre for Future Group to sue a non-profit organization. They also emphasized their stance on their official site on remaining firm against the capitalists! They also stated that Future Group had detained "peacefully protesting" members and demanded their immediate release.

The UA Embassy also contacted Celestial Trade, but events took a different turn.

When the UA Ambassador to Xin, Marchi Bocas, came to see Celestial Trade's CEO, Ivan, he was surprised to discover that the Blue Seagulls members hadn't received unjust treatment from Future Group but instead, had been welcomed by Jiang Chen?

They appeared in front of the media and Barney accepted an interview from a reporter.

"The rumors of being treated unfairly by Future Group were untrue. When Jiang Chen learned of Katie and my intentions, he personally met us and highly praised our efforts in protecting marine life…"

Barney's mouth twitched and he hesitated.

But since he was already standing on the opposing side of the B City Consortium and as he realized he couldn't afford to breach the contract signed with Jiang Chen, he took a breath and spoke into the mic in front of him.

"With his assistance, I completed filming for our documentary… And the name of the documentary is called 'A Lie'."

The crowd began to cause a commotion and the reporters, sensing major news, all bombarded Barney with a load of questions.

Barney didn't respond to any questions.

As per the agreement with Jiang Chen, he maintained an expression that showed he was lied to, and he criticized Blue Seagull for accepting bribes and slandering Future Group under Matrix's directions without any evidence. He claimed he was dragged into this disgusting business without being aware.

The crowd became rattled.

"Mr. Barney, is what you're saying true? Do you have evidence supporting your claim?"

"What are the exact details? Please tell us! All the environmental advocates around the world will stand by your side!"

"Mr. Barney, I want to ask if you've been threatened to say what you just said?"

Barney raised his hand and held out three fingers in the face of the flood of questions from the media.

"I can swear on my dignity that what I said is 100% true! No one threatened me. As you see, I'm safe. As for the evidence, it's all in the documentary and uploaded onto YouTube!"

In the documentary named A Lie, the first thirty minutes documented the state of the ecosystem under Future Group's Penglai, Mining Platform, Desalination Platform, and the second half revealed the bribes between the Blue Seagull organization and Matrix, aiming directly at the Saudi freshwater project.

The documentary led viewers from suspense to reflection to revealing the truth in front of the public.

With promotion from Future Group, Barney's documentary caused a mass commotion on the web.

Blue Seagull's president, Brent Lancy, had accepted a bribe of $2 million. Since he couldn't stand the pressure of public opinion, he was forced to resign. Matrix immediately came out with a press release. However, in the face of public opinion that already formed a perfect storm, their so-called clarification was insignificant.

It could be foreseen that negative public opinion would cause a critical blow to Blue Seagull's reputation. Once a non-profit organization lost its credibility, it would completely lose its lifeline.

Blue Seagull and Matrix were all just pawns; Jiang Chen knew the real opponent of Future Group was B City Consortium.

After taking care of the two pawns, it was time for the real fight.

While the media was criticizing Matrix, Xie Lei, in Europe, used the quantum computer on Coro Island to successful hack onto the server of First B City Bank.

Their information security measures were praiseworthy, but with the deadly combination of a hacker and the quantum computer, there were no secrets in the digitalized era.

Hundreds of thousands of client information were copied. Under Jiang Chen's directions, Xie Lei anonymously posted the information on social media sites in Iceland.

This move caused an earthquake in the financial sector.

First B City Bank's market cap took a dive by 8% that day and barely managed to stop the freefall with the efforts of B City Consortium. The release of client information was a massive scandal for any bank. Clients who had their privacy violated immediately jumped to action.

Clients swarmed to the ATMs and desperately tried to cash out. Once a bank run started, even the most powerful banks couldn't stop the storm.

Jiang Chen wanted something more. He wanted to reduce all the saving accounts to a balance of zero. But unfortunately, Xie Lei helplessly told him that it wasn't within a hacker's capabilities.

Only God had the power to do that.

The hack was a direct blow to B City Consortium. Even as the consortium with the longest history, a direct hit to their core assets would hurt.

After the event, analysts estimated that the information leak caused a direct loss of 3.7 billion USD to the B City Consortium with an indirect loss totaling 11.7 billion USD! A good brand would need one hundred years to develop, but it would only take a few days to completely ruin a brand.

The leak even alerted the FBA. When they traced the attack to a foreign source, CIB entered the investigation as well.

It scared Xie Lei to death.

Although he received a few months' of military training, he would definitely lose to professional agents.

But he wasn't too afraid that CIB would be able to track him down.

With assistance from the quantum computer, he wiped his tracks. All IPs led to an internet café in Morocco at the edge of the Sahara desert. He didn't need to worry about being in the far Ber.

While B City Consortium suspected the leak had something to do with Jiang Chen since he was in the tech business, they couldn't do anything about it without evidence.

Just as B City Consortium was busy trying to put out the fire, Future Technology released an announcement.

To better assist the Department of Justice's collection of evidence for its anti-trust investigation, Future Technology would temporarily suspend its service coverage to the 110 million users in UA. Future Technology continued to reiterate that they would actively cooperate with the Department of Justice's investigation and looked forward to the completion of the investigation so the subsidiary could return to normal service.

WTF!?

On the day of the announcement, the North American subsidiary CEO, Hermit, gave all employees a paid vacation and even took the executives on a paid vacation to Hawaii.

But the UA netizens who saw the notice were completely shocked.

Anti-trust investigation? Suspending service?

WTF!?

Chapter 669: Suspending Service?

Under the user agreement, the Phantom helmet sold by Future Technology and the associated services such as Godly Land and virtual reality community were all online content provided by quantum computer servers.

If Future Technology stopped providing virtual reality service, then the entire virtual reality network would be halted. Everyone who logged onto the Phantom would be staring at a white cube while faced with unusable applications.

They couldn't even surf the web!

If somebody wanted to restore the virtual reality network, they would have to get a quantum computer first!

With a company like Future Technology that produced both the hardware and content, it was scary when the company decided to act ruthlessly. You're researching my equipment? Then I'll stop providing the content as well! It'll be available as soon as you're done the investigation.

If Phantom could only be used to play games, Jiang Chen wouldn't dare to pull the plug. If it was just a console, it wouldn't be a big deal to live without it and wouldn't influence the country at all, but after a year of development, Phantom's functionality was no longer just a "console."

Perhaps one year ago it was, but it definitely wasn't now.

When the virtual community functionality was introduced half a year ago, the immersive virtual reality technology began to expand into people's social networks, personal lives, and even work. A lot of private enterprises used the chatroom function as a tool for remote conferences. A lot of educational institutions even used the virtual community as a tool for remote education…

Just in a year, people were already accustomed to living with virtual life. People reserved their waking hours for their family and real-life friends and shifted their internet-surfing time to after they slept to connect their dreams with the virtual world. Once they woke up from their REM sleep the next morning, they would be ready to tackle the day again…

Now that Future Technology announced the temporary suspension of the virtual reality service, it meant all people's previously-established habits would be broken.

With the release of the news, UA netizens immediately became rattled.

Without virtual reality, some people even developed amnesia - they felt something was missing during their sleep. Before, they could sleep with the press of a button. Now, they had to resort to old-fashioned methods of manually falling asleep on their beds. Some people who really couldn't sleep had to put on the helmet, press the button, and stare blankly at the white cube out of desperation.

Life without virtual reality was torture!

And the Department of Justice who launched the anti-trust investigation immediately became the public's target.

"Fu*k the politics behind this!"

"Get rid of protectionism, screw the capitalists! Give us virtual reality back!"

"There's definitely some shady businesses behind this. Let me guess how much was paid to the Capital."

The Capital desperately tried to explain to the public that the anti-trust investigation against Future Technology was within reason. However, Future Group's lawyer stated that an anti-trust investigation against a company formed less than two years ago with a product less than a year old was unprecedented.

The legal representative Brown Kerning, responsible for the defense against the Department of Justice, sent out a tweet and mocked his opponent.

"This is probably the most interesting case I've worked on in over ten years of working. My defendant didn't even manage to digest the market share, yet they're suspected of preventing other companies from entering the market?"

The tweet led to tens of thousands of retweets and even led to heated debates on talk shows.

Obviously, the UA public wasn't buying the anti-trust investigation.

Therefore, the Department of Justice was withstanding a great amount of pressure to collect evidence and prepare for the prosecution.

But before events developed further, with intentional guidance from Future Technology, disability organizations, Black rights activists, obesity patients and all kinds of people went on a massive protest.

"Using Phantom, it was the first time I saw color in this world. Although I know it was fake, it couldn't feel more real to me. It was the first time I saw my wife. Although she wasn't as beautiful as I imagined, I still love her… Now with Phantom, I can only stare at a blank wall. Future Technology opened the window and also closed the window for their interests," a blind individual protested in front of the camera.

"There's no racism in the virtual world. I can change myself at my own whim, but you took away my ability to do that, so I'm here protesting against you," an equality rights activist said.

"Give virtual reality back to us! At least in the virtual world, no one cares about my weight nor does anyone call me fat behind my back! No one mocks me and says: 'Hey, Cook, have you been on a plane before? How many tickets did you need to buy?' This isn't funny!" A 400-pound, obese individual yelled in front of the Capital.

In a country where political correctness was above all else, if a disabled person criticized the president, the president not only had to apologize, but even the media would continue the criticism. Some people even jokingly said that a lesbian, colored person had a higher chance of being hired because once rejected, the company would be suspected of discrimination.

But needless to say, most people bought into it. Although it was far-fetched to unite virtual reality and discrimination, Future Group did an excellent job of driving public opinion.

Political correctness took politics as hostage.

With the one-sided public opinion, the Department of Justice had to withstand pressure from the Capital.

Therefore, the Minister at the Department of Justice, Lincoln, had to put his differences aside and spoke with Jiang Chen.

"The investigation is a separate thing. Can you resume service?"

Jiang Chen said with a serious face, "No! We're actively cooperating with your country's political system. Before the anti-trust issue is cleared from our name, we won't do anything that could tamper with the law!"

The poor minister was about to cry as he explained: "The anti-trust investigation doesn't mean you can't operate; you just need to temporarily suspend the sales of Phantom in UA!"

"No! Our virtual reality network is part of the technological services provided by Future Technology. To avoid interfering with the evidence-gathering process, we're willing to suspend our service to abide by the rules of the law!"

Lincoln said with irritation, "What kind of logic is this? Who demanded you to do this?"

Jiang Chen said with a stern voice, "Don't be like this, Mr. Minster. We are a company and suspending service means we're losing profits. We feel more urgency than you for this incident to be resolved! We'll wait for the decision and I hope you can patiently wait for us to resume our service.

Lincoln was dumbfounded.

It was like the sun had risen in the west; since when did corporations ask government agencies to wait patiently? Weren't they supposed to be the ones who said that?

As soon as Jiang Chen hung up, he couldn't hold his laughter in and burst out laughing.

"You're laughing? Now that Phantom sales have completely halted in UA, what are you going to do?" Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes at the hysterical Jiang Chen.

"Don't worry. It won't be long before sales explode." Jiang Chen made an explosion gesture and smiled at her. "The suspension of virtual reality service doesn't only put pressure on the Capital - it also serves as an advertisement for our product."

"The cost is quite high."

"What can you do? Sucks for us to fight B City Consortium."

"I'm worried that if the Capital can withstand the pressure of the controversy and continue the anti-trust investigation to the end, we'll be the ones losing since they're a government agency and we're a for-profit company," Xia Shiyu hesitantly said.

"That's impossible because B City Consortium can't withstand this anymore. They're the root of the anti-trust investigation. As long as they accept defeat, the Department of Justice won't persist," Jiang Chen said without hesitation

He smiled and continued.

"And the most critical thing is that our product is irreplaceable."

Even if they temporarily lost some revenue, no one would be able to replace Future Technology.

That was the trump card Jiang Chen was depending on!

Chapter 670: Compromise?

B City Consortium couldn't last much longer.

It wasn't because they had no money. On the contrary, they were very rich and possessed wealth unimaginable by most people. Since the 1950s, they used scientific research from MIT to develop technology in emerging industries and transitioned from the textile industry to the fields of electronics, optics, radars, missiles and even aerospace. If their actual wealth was calculated, even Bill Gates' wealth tenfold would be no match. After all, Bill Gates was only one person and these consortia were controlled by more than one family.

For this monstrous economic giant, the banking system wasn't their source of hematopoietic stem cells so to speak, but rather, it was their more important heart! If there were any problems with the heart, the massive financial and industrial system would face a risk to cash flow.

When signs of a bank run appeared, the attack from B City Consortium immediately halted without any further moves. The anti-trust investigation had hurt Future Group indeed, but it didn't hurt as much as the hit to First B City Bank.

The two opposing sides were like boxers in a ring. They knew they couldn't knock out their opponent with just one strike, so they had to balance the pros and cons for deciding if they should take the next swing.

In a manor in the B City's rural area.

The people inside the house controlled one-tenth of UA's power. The Lowell, Lawrence, Adams, Kennedy, and Lodge families were all gathered there. Among them were big capitalists, Federal Reserve shareholders, Democrat Senators...

They had gathered together to protect their common interests.

"This is infuriating! I can bet that the leak is their work!" John Lowell smashed his fist on the table while gritting his teeth.

"I think so too, but we don't have any evidence. FBA has no leads either," Robert Adams said.

"How did they do it? The information security system for First B City Bank was the work of Websense. If their hackers could infiltrate our system, then there's no reason they can't hack into the Capital." Mr. Lowell furrowed his brows.

Since Raytheon invested $1.9 billion into Websense, B City Consortium's subsidiaries had been protected by this cyber-security company. Since the business involved the military industry, consortia servers suffered a lot of attacks every year, but no attack had ever been successful.

"I'll notify the Capital," Adams said.

"That's enough, my friends. We shouldn't be worried about the Capital right now. We should be worried about Future Group!" Lowell said with a headache.

"We can't compromise on the Saudi freshwater project," Joseph Kennedy stated.

"But our textile plant in Lone Star State requires cash. Raytheon's radar project in the Pacific and the helicopter deal with the Capital also needs funding." Lowell glanced at Joseph. "Although I know the water project is important to you, by the looks of it now… If we continue to wage a war against Future Group, the losses we'll suffer will be insufferable even if ultimately win."

"I agree with Mr. Lowell's perspective." Robert Adams nodded.

"I can't accept this." John Laurence shook his head. "If we compromise, where's our dignity?"

"That's enough, Mr. Laurence. We are businessmen and it's just profits and losses after all. If you really can't accept this defeat, we can take care of them later. But right now, we should take it easy. At least in terms of information security, we must enhance our security!" Loki, who hadn't spoken this whole time, finally spoke up.

"Let's follow tradition and decide by vote. To protect our eternal alliance, regardless of the choice we make, I'll contribute my efforts to the alliance even if it's a choice I'm unwilling to accept. Now… for those of you who agree to settle, please raise your hand." Laurence looked at the four people around the table and raised his hand.

The vote was three to two.

...

Settlement accepted.

"Who will contact them?" Although the decision of the consortium didn't fit with the interests of his family, John Kennedy didn't look too displeased.

"I'll go." Loki looked around the table and said, "I'm the majority shareholder of First B City Bank, so it's best for me to go."

…

While the consortia that controlled the vein of UA's economy had a fairly friendly relationship with each other, "friendship" didn't seem to apply in the business field. It was common for one's tragedy to turn into capitalization by others.

When B City Bank was in the middle of their scandal, all major banks announced an upgrade in their security systems to ensure the privacy of each client. While their actions didn't look too great, the consortia couldn't do much more. Therefore, on the third day after cyber-security became the focus of discussion, the Federal Reserve stepped in.

Based on the latest information from the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Reserve injected 100 billion into First B City Bank to increase client confidence. At the same time, First B City Bank announced an upgrade to its security system and promised that a leak would never occur to recover some of their losses.

Just as the Wall Street investors had trouble digesting the two major headlines: "First B City Bank client information leak" and "Future Technology's potential exit from UA," Jiang Chen, in the far west Pacific, seemed calm.

Standing next to the launch site, Jiang Chen looked at the rocket launch taking off. As he watched the trail of smoke dissipating, a smile emerged on his face.

Now the total number of quantum communication satellites was twelve.

"You still have time to enjoy the fireworks?" Natasha mocked him.

"Oh? Looks like even Russia knows about our small conflict with B City Consortium." Jiang Chen laughed.

"Of course. You made the short list of top suspects for the CIB. They think it's you who hacked into First B City Bank and that your real identity should be an IT engineer who mastered information security."

"That's a fascinating hypothesis, but unfortunately, I only barely passed the computer competency test." Jiang Chen laughed and dodged Natasha's question. "Let's not talk about this. What you think about our rocket launching technology?"

Natasha's appearance at Celestial Trade's launch site wasn't out of personal reasons. Celestial Trade's rocket launch technology was already mature. To utilize its excessive launch capacity, Jiang Chen set his sights on Russia.

Because of the reduced total budget and fluctuations in exchange rates, Russia was forced to reduce the International Space Station's maintenance costs by 30 billion Rupees. Since Russia was concerned with the high maintenance costs, Celestial Trade happened to have a solution.

Not only could they make some changes to turn Celestial Trade's red bottom line around, but this could also be an opportunity to gain experience in supply transport to space stations.

Why not?

But Natasha's response surprised Jiang Chen.

"If you're willing to sell the rocket engines, we can discuss. If you want to talk about contracting… my response might disappoint you." Natasha sighed and spread open her hands. "We won't contract this project out to foreign companies. There's no room for negotiation."

Chapter 671: Russia's Interes

The supplying mission to the International Space Station was both the international duty of the major aerospace powers and the perfect opportunity to develop the aerospace industry. Domestic aerospace companies could only develop new engines if they gained profit from the billion Rupee project.

Contracting to Celestial Trade indeed could decrease the budget in this area, but it would be bad news for domestic aerospace companies. Since there were only so many launch planned for each year, other than SpaceX being able to profit from commercial launches, most aerospace depended on the national projects to survive.

What Natasha said was also the message from Russia's leader.

If Celestial Trade was willing to sell the rocket, Russia would be happy to purchase. But if Celestial Trade was only planning to take the contract, there was no point to discuss it further.

"Are you not going to hear my bid?" Jiang Chen said helplessly.

Natasha shook her head.

"Kremlin won't give it the okay, even if your price is tempting."

It was hard.

But Natasha' words were certainly not without reason. From a pure cost saving perspective, why wouldn't Russia just contract the project out to SpaceX? Falcon with the capability to reuse the first stage rocket could reduce the cost of missions to a terrifyingly small number.

Even if this seemed to be without possibility, Jiang Chen was not the type to give up easily.

After deliberating for a moment, he said.

"Do you really not want to discuss the price? I'm referring to the RM-320 rocket engine."

"I said this… Wait, what did you say?!" Natasha suddenly froze. She stared at him in shock.

Natasha soon hid away the shock on her face and looked him calmly and quickly articulated.

"what do you want?"

Based on the paper provided by Celestial Trade and the observation by Russia experts, RM-320 rocket engine's capability far exceeded Russia's most proud RD-180, even SpaceX's Merlin 1D engine could not fare against it.

Combustion chamber that can withstand 500 atmospheres of pressure, a 1: 300 thrust to push ratio, and the cost of production only one-half of the Russian RD-180!

Natasha didn't think Jiang Chen would agree to sell the engine, so she didn't even bother mentioning it.

Joy came so unexpectedly.

Jiang Chen's eyes scanned across Natasha's face as he used a playful tone, "Take a guess?"

Looking at the undisguised sight, Natasha turned, blushing. However, she quickly noticed the mockery inside his eyes and she responded by giving him a hard stare.

"I don't know."

Jiang Chen put up five fingers.

"Five years of time. Over the five years, Russia's International Space Station supplying project will be contracted to Celestial Trade. Five years later, we'll sell RM-320 rocket engine's prototype and blueprints at market price to Russia."

Five years of contract work in exchange for an outdated technology was too great of a value.

As to why it is "outdated"? Because once space elevators are created, any rocket launching technology would become obsolete.

Because of the existence of space elevator, the launch cost in the millions would be squeezed to a few hundred. This was the reason why launch vehicle technology was completely halted by the end of the 21st century.

"… I can't give you a reply, I have to speak with my superior," Natasha said with difficulty.

Jiang Chen signaled her to go ahead.

Natasha nodded, walked to the side, and called the KGB headquarter in the far away Moscow.

The phone call lasted for a long time. Then her expression took a sudden turn as she walked beside Jiang Chen.

"Our superior hopes to speak with you."

She passed the phone over and took two steps back.

With the phone by his ear, before Jiang Chen spoke, he heard someone speak English with a heavy Russian accent.

"At most three year."

The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't recall it.

"Three years is too short."

"We have to consider the evolution of technology."

"You don't have to worry about that. Even if it is after eight years, RM-320 engine will remain the leader in the market," Jiang Chen said with certainty.

The phone was silent for two seconds.

"Three years. Three years you'll sell RM-320 rocket engine's technology to us. We'll contract you the supply mission at 40 billion Rupees for eight years."

"Deal!" Jiang Chen agreed without any hesitation.

Although his expression didn't change at all, he was laughing hard in his mind. It equated to a contract of 600 million USD a year. At most it will take him two years to create the space elevator. By then, the cost for a supply mission will be less than a million!

It would be Rupee, not dollar.

"Looks like we are in agreement." The voice on the other side seemed more relaxed when he heard Jiang Chen's confirmation without realizing he just got scammed.

"I feel your voice is familiar. Before you hang up, could I ask who you are?" Jiang Chen asked joyously.

"Our Miss Agent didn't tell you?"

"She just said you were her superior." Jiang Chen suddenly realized something.

Wait, Natasha used "we" and not "my".

There was a short silence before a lighthearted response came from the other side.

"You can call me Putin. If there is an opportunity, I welcome you to Moscow…"

Jiang Chen blanked out while still holding the phone.

[Wait, I was doing business with Russia's President?!]

[And I just scammed him?!]

…

With the successful launch of the 12th quantum satellite, Celestial Trade announced paid Wi-Fi coverage to Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Malaysia, and Moro. Based on the cooperation with the local telecommunication providers, any of the users who paid for the service could receive 12 hours of WI-FI trial time. After the expiry of the trial time, user could select different speed plans based on their geography.

Celestial Trade was currently engaged in discussion with UA, Canada, and France providers regarding a potential partnership with the plan to push Wi-Fi coverage globally.

On the other hand, the fight between Future Group and B City Consortium still persisted. But neither parties made a new move and they remained in a stalemate. The Department of Justice was still gathering evidence in anti-trust investigation while B City Consortium was busy putting out the fire at the bank.

Problematically, Websense's response for the cyber security breach of First B City Bank was fully upgrading its firewall and specifically focusing on defence against hacker infiltration.

Based on what Xie Lei said, the upgraded system was like an impenetrable barrel with all the previous holes filled in. Unless they could use an internal computer as a back door, even with the quantum computer's attack power, it would be nearly impossible to infiltrate remotely.

The programmers they hired were not there to sit around.

On the other hand, Jean collected news regarding both companies and presented them to Jiang Chen.

"The Federal Reserve injected 100 billion USD to First B City Bank. The Capital hosted a cyber security summit with top tech security firms. The area of financial security was the focus of the summit."

"The Federal Reserve made a move. It looks like First B City Bank is now stabilized." Jiang Chen furrowed his eyebrows.

Just as he was thinking about the next step, Xia Shiyu's called him.

"Hello?"

"Someone wants to see you in person."

"Who is it?"

"Carson Loki, the majority shareholder of First B City Bank."

Chapter 672: From Enemies to Friends?

Jiang Chen didn't give Natasha a clear response in regards to the Russian president's invitation; he only stated that when the time was right, he would make a trip to Moscow. Restricted by Russia's economic situation, Future Group's development in Russia was limited. The sales of Phantom were incomparable to the popularity in Asia and North America.

When Jiang Chen received a call from Xia Shiyu, he headed to the company.

It was a representative from B City Consortium that has asked for a meeting, and his identity was not be underestimated.

The two determined from their discussion that there was a high chance that the intention of the trip was to settle the feud.

In the battle against Future Group, they were no longer willing to remain in a stalemate. They lost over 10 billion over a 1.5 billion dollar project.

Of course, Jiang Chen's side also suffered heavy losses. The most profitable Future Technology showing red on the bottom line was already a worrisome sign.

But if this war persisted, B City Consortium would be the eventual loser. Even if the Federal Reserve assisted them, even if they upgraded their cybersecurity; Jiang Chen with the backup of the quantum computer would penetrate the wall eventually.

The next morning, beside a Gulfstream G650 landed in Coro Island Airport and Jiang Chen met with Carson Loki, the majority shareholder of Frist B City Bank. Different from the other renowned financial tycoons, Jiang Chen never heard of his name before nor did he know anything about the Loki family.

While they are one of the members that controlled the B City Consortium, their recognition was far less than the "cursed" Kennedy family or the Adams family that participated in the Declaration of Independence, but the mysterious Loki family still possessed a tremendous amount of power.

He was not only the majority shareholder of the bank, but he was also one of the secret shareholders of the Federal Reserve. The Ghost Agent in UA had to do some work in order to gather this information.

The kind-looking elder in a blue suit was far more powerful than he appeared.

"It's nice to finally meet you in person. Mr. Jiang Chen looks much younger in person." Carson Loki walked forward and shook Jiang Chen's hand.

Just from the smile on his face, it was impossible to imagine they were in amidst a bloody financial war.

"Mr. Loki is flattering me."

Jiang Chen was fathoming the purpose behind his personal visit while chatting with him in a lighthearted mood.

Because Carson Loki was staying in the presidential suite in Sheraton inside the Heart of the Sea, Sheraton's limousine already arrived at the airport. When Mr. Loki arrived at the hotel, Jiang Chen asked Future Tourism's CEO Wei Yun to prepare a conference room.

After half an hour, the two met inside the conference room.

"In some areas, there might be some misunderstandings. And the purpose of my trip is to clarify our misunderstandings." Carson was straightforward.

"For example?" Jiang Chen smiled.

"For example the freshwater project in Saudi caused us to have some differences, and the differences resulted in frictions in our other businesses." Carson paused and looked at Jiang Chen. "I will be straightforward. It is beneficial to no one to continue this stalemate. At this point, it is about who has the biggest loss, do you agree with my perspective?"

"I concord with you, but it doesn't mean we will compromise. Future Group only promises to not use unethical tactics first."

"Oh? So you're saying you are the person behind the information leak?" Carson laughed.

"I never said that. Please don't twist my words, and please don't accuse without any evidence," Jiang Chen stated.

Carson Loki gazed at Jiang Chen, and then paused.

"We will discuss with the other shareholders in Matrix to withdraw from the freshwater project in Saudi."

In terms of technology, Matrix already lost to Future Heavy Industrial. Withdraw or not, their odds of winning were low. Unless Saudi insisted on building their own treatment plant, their technology was unattractive.

The favor lacked sincerity.

"This was a wise choice. I want to say, however, the problem doesn't lie here." Jiang Chen shook his head with one hand on the table as he continued while staring into Carson's eyes. "Since you have the intention to settle, I will be straightforward as well. Stop any unethical tactics against Future Group and return to ethical competition."

He paused, then said seriously.

"Or else, we will continue to escalate our measures."

Silence lasted for two minutes, Carson began to explain.

"The anti-trust investigation against Future Technology has been in the agenda for a while. With the rise in the virtual reality network, UA will never rely its cybersecurity to a foreign company. We just brought the proposal ahead of the agenda."

"Is that so? Then we express the deepest regret for the client information leak at First B City Bank. I heard UA received thousands of attacks from foreign IP addresses. I think this leak may be accidental."

"Accidents may happen again."

Carson was silent again. After a long moment. Then he used a calming tone.

"We are here to reach an agreement, aren't we?"

"If you're here to settle, then please bring out a proposal with some sincerity. Mr. Loki, I have to remind you that you started the war," Jiang Chen said fiercely.

From the moment Blue Seagull directed its campaign against Future Group, the war was no longer limited between Matrix and Future Heavy Industrial. There was only one way to naturally end the war and that is to stop the attacks from both parties.

The Department of Justice must stop the anti-trust investigation against Future Technology and Future Technology will cease the cyberattack against First B City Bank.

Carson's finger gently tapped on the table and he said.

"We can help you to throw the anti-trust investigation out of the court, but shouldn't you do something for our loss as well?"

"Your recommendation is?"

"Help us recover our credibility and market cap loss."

"We're not the best in stock manipulation. I don't think I can do too much." Jiang Chen opened his hand.

"It has nothing to be with the stock itself. There is a proverb in China. Out of blows friendship grows. Since continuing the fight no longer matches both of our interest, then there is only one option remaining. Are you interested in a strategic partnership with us?" Carson Loki smiled.

Carson's proposal surprised Jiang Chen. B City Consortium was willing to set aside their differences and enter a strategic partnership with Future Group?

Jiang Chen contemplated for a long time.

"Your proposal is extremely tempting. But I want to hear the details of this partnership."

"I came prepared." The elder took out a document from his briefcase; his smile was bright.

Jiang Chen scanned it through; his eyebrows rose.

[Partnership? Interesting.]

Chapter 673: Going Public

The next morning, despite an extra twenty thousand copies of the Wall Street Journal being printed, the shelf was cleared out immediately.

The reason why was because of two names – Future Technology and First B City Bank.

In the next while, the two names dominated the headlines of newspapers, magazines, websites and forums. The former was recently in turbulence due to the anti-trust scandal while the latter's stock price and client number plunged because of the client information leak.

It was not difficult for people aware of the situation to draw connections.

Future Heavy Industries intervened in Saudi's freshwater project, but Matrix was controlled by First B City Bank and B City Scientific. Both companies were subsidiaries of B City Consortium. After considering all the players, the entire event became clear.

Jiang Chen touched the cake of B City Consortium, and B City Consortium bribed Blue Seagull to smudge the image of Future Group and that unfolded the economic war.

An irresponsible hypothesis, based on the control of each consortium to the Capital, would be that it was highly likely that the anti-trust investigation against Future Technology was the work of B City Consortium. And the infiltration of First B City Bank's firewall was likely done by Future Technology, since they were the leader within the tech industry capable of artificial intelligence.

But last night, both companies published the same announcement on their respective site stating a partnership in the virtual reality financial field to pave the road to virtual reality shopping. The information immediately defeated all the rumors and First B City Bank's shares spiked by 6% on the day.

It was the first rebound the share experienced since the leak.

Not only was VR + Finance an element, Future Heavy Industries will separate the production and distribution in the freshwater project to form the High Tech Freshwater Supply. The company was injected with 400 million US dollars with an equity swap of 19% in exchange for 20.8% of Matrix to replace the Loki family as the largest shareholder of Matrix. The two companies will develop synergies in its operations. Matrix will utilize its vast resources to gain clients while Future Heavy Industrial will digest the contracts.

To Future Heavy Industries with only technology, an equity swap with Matrix was the perfect choice.

At the same time, High Tech Freshwater Supply went public with First B City Bank as the sole book runner.

The IPO of High Tech Freshwater Supply marked the first subsidiary of Future Group to go public. The Wall Street investors were full of expectations with analysts predicting the Saudi freshwater supply would generate at least 400 million US dollars in profits per year! Based on the large demand in the Middle East region, the number could more than likely double!

Based on the a P/E ratio of 15 times, the company with only 400 million US dollars in equity could exceed a market cap of 6 billion US dollars and gear toward 10 billion in a year's time!

The tremendous value naturally made the share the Wall Street darling.

With the assistance of B City Consortium, the IPO process went smoothly. The previously tedious process was not a problem with the support of the consortium and the passion of the investors.

As to why Jiang Chen suddenly changed his mind about going public, it was because of Carson Loki's words.

They already reached an agreement on the partnership by then, but Jiang Chen was against going public from the start. The reason was simple; he firmly believed in the potential of the freshwater business. Future Group didn't lack money and hence didn't require going public to draw additional funds.

"Saudi is UA's strategic ally, even if we are not here to intervene, your business won't be so smooth in the Red Sea."

"Why?"

"Because of UA's military presence in the Middle East." Carson smiled. "Mr. Jiang had done some business in Iraq, am I right?"

"That's right." Jiang Chen nodded.

It was nothing worth disguising for. Anyone who bothered could trace his footsteps Iraq and Viet. Some intelligence agencies thought these experiences as the "organization's" way for Jiang Chen to grow. Because of these experiences, he was promoted to be the leader of the "organization".

If Jiang Chen saw CIB's analysis of him, he would probably start laughing.

"Whether it is IS or other extremist organizations, they are more or less connected with us. This connection is not only demonstrated through the rifles and bullets in their hands, but it is also displayed through the control of Capital. In necessary times, they will help us eliminate people that shouldn't exist and provide an excuse for the unnecessary war."

"I see what you mean." Jiang Chen nonchalantly opened his hands, "You mean I'll be afraid of pirates?"

"Of course not." Carson shook his head, "Based on the Capital's report, out of all the dictators, you have the most powerful military force. But do you think Saudi would allow you to station a force in their sovereignty? Just because of a freshwater supply?"

Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed. He finally understood what Carson meant.

UA of course won't take any action, but they would permit pirates or other organizations to attack the freshwater platform. They could even secretly purchase the "souvenir" from them and research the remains.

At this time, Celestial Trade would face an awkward situation. An international military mission not only tested for military prowess, but also diplomacy.

"I don't understand , what does it have to do with going public?"

"If we go public, even if only 10% of the shares are made public, it could eliminate the concern from the Capital."

Carson used the word "we". After he signed the equity swap agreement, he became a shareholder of High Tech Freshwater and this proposal was from High Tech Freshwater's perspective.

If the company did go public, the situation would be completely different. Even it was to protect the interest of the domestic investor, the Capital would remain cautious on making moves under the table.

Future Group still controlled the company. Regardless from any perspective, going public in UA was a great choice for High Tech Freshwater. Jiang Chen agreed with the proposal and confirmed that 15% of the shares will be made public.

After going public, the structure of the company was 70% controlled by Future Heavy Industrial, 15% owned by First B City Bank. Future Heavy Industrial still had an iron grasp on the company.

Also, the IPO of the subsidiary would bring at least 1 billion US dollars in one time earning for Future Heavy Industries.

On the other hand, with the strategic partnership formed between Future Group and First B City Bank, Blue Seagull, as the pawn, was stuck in an awkward situation.

Without the support, they could not even afford the lawsuit.

Court fees for the international tribune and lawyer fees were not low since they were not charitable organizations. Even if Blue Seagull was not-for-profit, they still must pay for their bill. But Future Group wasn't looking to end the dispute soon as they dumped two trucks of files at the court. It looked like they were looking to fight a long and drawn out battle.

[If you want to play? I will play with you till the end!]

Chapter 674: Charge Dropped

@@

"After a week of investigation, we have determined that Future Technology's operation acted within the principle of a free market. The litigation against Future Technology will be thrown out in the next few days…" In front of the cameras, a Department of Justice spokesperson read out the words without any expression.

The Capital who gave the go ahead to the investigation suddenly changed their mind, the Senators suddenly spoke out questioning the credibility of the investigation.

The Minister of Justice almost wanted to puke blood because of his fury.

M State wasthe home base for B City Consortium and everyone knew what this meant. What the Minister didn't understand was, if you first pushed for the anti-trust investigation, why did you change your mind all of it sudden?

The Department of Justice could no longer withstand the immense pressure from the outraged public. The Capital demanded them to cease investigation immediately and solve any of the lingering @@

In preparation, Keguan Please wait a moment, after the updates, you need to refresh the page to get the latest updates!

Chapter 675: The Beginning of the PM Era

@@

Future Group's repetitive appearances on the headlines made some media companies contemplate if they should seek advertisement fees from Future Group's boss.

Just as Jiang Chen arrived on Papua Island, the world became unsettled because of another piece of news.

UA, New York Times: "Future Heavy Industries announced that there has been a major breakthrough in the field of semiconductor graphene materials research, the 5nm curse that silicon chips cannot break through is expected to be easily solved. Before 2020, the world's electronics industry is expected to enter the PM Era! "(1nm = 1000pm)

UK, The Guardian: "Incredible research results! Professor of materials science at Cambridge University states that Future Group perhaps will change our future again with technology."

France, Le Monde: "Under the Future Group Materials Research Lab, Lu Yuan and other three scientists will be nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2018."

Xiangjiang, South China Morning Pos @@

In preparation, Keguan Please wait a moment, after the updates, you need to refresh the page to get the latest updates!

Chapter 676: Graphene Chips

"I plan to invest 1 billion..." Jiang Chen thought the wording wasn't attractive enough, so he added, "Dollars."

Mackey's eyes instantly turned red and his breathing quickened.

"What do you need?!"

One billion US dollars of investments would be a magnificent political achievement! He had been contemplating how to convince Future Group to increase their investment in the special district, throw more money at Papua Island, and improve locals' lives...

But Jiang Chen made the proposal himself.

Of course, it could be related to the breakthrough in graphene!

The thought of that alone made Mackey's eyes light up.

He already made up his mind. Regardless of what Jiang Chen demanded, he would do his best to meet Jiang Chen's demands. He would do whatever needed to secure the 1 billion USD investment!

"Future Group will acquire 11 companies around the world, organize the patent technology and reorganize into five subsidiaries. The five subsidiaries will produce exterior phone shells, Wi-Fi modules, screen driver chips, camera modules, graphene screens and other parts in New Malaysia Special District."

"Future Group is planning to enter the cellphone industry?" Mackey asked.

"That's right!" Jiang Chen smiled. "I'm pleased with the labor costs in the special district, so the new plants will be built here. We'll need your help in terms of the approval and taxation process."

It was too restrictive to just stay in the phone industry; Future Heavy Industrial first planned to start with chip manufacturing before branching into the industry chain of phone and tablet production.

"Haha, rest assured Mr. Jiang Chen. You're a friend of Papua Province - leave this to me! My assistant Monica will be at Future Heavy Industries this month. If you need any help, please let us know!" While trying to tone down his ecstatic mood, Mackey assured Jiang Chen.

"Thank you."

…

The fact that the world's first graphene semiconductor would be situated in the New Malaysia Special District was great news to Malaysia.

The plant would attract a flock of electronic parts manufacturers interested in graphene technology to build plants in the special district. A one billion dollar investment wasn't much, but the domino effect of the investment would be astounding.

While the Malaysian government daydreamed about becoming the graphene factory for the world, Jiang Chen grinned.

[You're out of your mind if you think the majority of the core products will be produced here?]

The Malaysian workers only needed to stand beside special instruments along the production line to attach various components such as the CPU, baseband chip, radio frequency chip and power management chip produced from Ange Island Industrial Park.

The core technology would be manufactured by workers on Ange Island.

Of course, with the industrial capabilities of Ange Island, it was impossible to produce everything. The labor force in the special district was vast, and with a beneficial economic policy from the Malaysian government, it was the best for everyone to get a slice of the pie.

Graphene displays and touch screens weren't difficult to produce. For cameras, Wi-Fi chips, and audio decoder chips, they didn't require a technological update for the time being. They could be built in the new special district or even outsourced to factories of businesses that invested in the special district.

Everything would use graphene transistors manufactured on Ange Island.

In his few days at the special district, Jiang Chen spent the majority of his time at Future Heavy Industrial's headquarters constantly in meetings to discuss acquisitions and restructuring.

The meeting's materials and restructuring plan was Jean's responsibility. It had a focus on production efficiency which lightened his workload. For the role of an assistant, Jiang Chen gave her a score of 98.

As for the two points deducted, one was because of her expressionless face, and the other was because she couldn't make coffee for him…

But Ayesha perfectly made up for the missing two points.

Strolling in the center of the New Malaysia Special District, Jiang Chen felt a wave of emotions flooding toward him as he gazed at the illuminated streets.

Half a year ago, this place was a town on the border, fighting to cross the poverty line. With Future Group's presence, everything was different.

Bundles of cash were thrown out, and an eight-lane highway connected the town straight to the harbor. More stacks of cash, roads, and apartments began to sprout.

Jiang Chen suddenly thought about Xiangjiang a thousand kilometers away. Before its rise, it was just a small fishing village.

The special district was presently just like Xiangjiang from last century. Just standing on the strait, he could sense the propensity and growth in the air. If the special district became the second Xiangjiang one day, Future Group would become filthy rich.

From walking to the headquarters building up to the strait, Jiang Chen hadn't set foot off his property yet.

Future Group purchased ten square kilometers of land from the special district government for an extremely low price and handled 80% of infrastructure development.

If the housing prices of the special district rose to half of Xiangjiang's prices, Future Heavy Industrial could easily be renamed Future Real Estate.

It was too unromantic to think about this during break time. Jiang Chen intentionally cleared his agenda that day to take Ayesha around.

Life was about more than just making money.

"Aren't you busy today?" Ayesha held Jiang Chen's hand. She tilted her head while her sapphire eyes showed confusion.

"Today is the weekend. It's okay to take a break." He smiled.

He had been taking a "break" all year around. Or rather, working hard for one week was rare for him.

"Mhmm, just relax today then." She spoke gently.

Jiang Chen tousled her hair, kissed her forehead, gazed at her blushed face, and sincerely said to her, "Thank you."

"?"

Ayesha's eyes displayed the confusion in her mind.

"I live in two worlds with so many things to take care of. I just feel like I owe you—"

Her soft finger stopped Jiang Chen from talking. Ayesha shook her head, and her gorgeous but icy face bloomed into a rare, bright smile.

"Do you still remember the trip to the desert?"

It was overreaching to say it was a trip.

Gazing at the gentleness inside her sapphire eyes, Jiang Chen suddenly understood the words in her heart.

"If you really want to talk about who owes whom, I owe you the entire world."

Chapter 677: Ore Negotiation

After spending an afternoon in the special district, the pair didn't return to the company after dinner, but instead, they went to the only five-star hotel in the area.

It was a tender night.

The next day, although he wanted to sleep in while hugging the adorable girl, he had to wake up early.

Based on the schedule arranged by Jean, he would meet with BHP's representative regarding a contract extension for iron and aluminum ore.

BHP's President Luke arrived at the special district and met Jiang Chen at the headquarters.

"Mr. Jiang Chen certainly is ruthless. The development of Penglai was already on your desk when we met in Ber, right?"

While Luke had a smile on his face, Jiang Chen could still hear the displeased tone in his voice.

It was inevitable since Jiang Chen screwed him hard.

An aircraft carrier could carry up to 100,000 tons. Penglai's consumption of steel and aluminum were equivalent to at least one hundred aircraft carriers. Imagine if UA announced construction plans for a hundred aircraft carriers - how would the iron and aluminum ore market turn out?

Especially since Future Group never said they only planned to build just one Penglai. If Penglai became successful, a lot of countries might become interested in something similar. If Jiang Chen ever considered exporting this marine city, orders would flood Future Heavy Industries.

Hua would definitely be the biggest buyer.

The reality was that compared to last year's downturn in the metal ore market, iron and aluminum ores, in both future and spot markets, showed more substantial rebounds. The 80 million tons of supply contracts Jiang Chen owned no doubt timed the market at the floor price with an additional 20% off the floor price.

Luke had regretted signing the contract ever since but he couldn't do anything about it. In order to maintain the credibility of his group, BHP had to take the loss.

While they agreed to take the loss, after supplying 40 million tons of ores to Future Group, if they wanted more, then that would be the time to talk about prices again!

"With the increase in iron ore prices this year, the original price is no longer suitable."

"How much are you planning to increase it by?" Jiang Chen eyed Luke with a smile.

"Based on the current market price, we'll give you a 10% discount."

"Based on the current market price? Do you think I don't know that you released a global iron ore production reduction report through the International Mining Alliance a week ago and raised the prices of iron and aluminum in future and spot markets?" Jiang Chen said with a grin.

Based on Jean's data collection abilities, any published reports couldn't escape her grasp. After analyzing the information, it wasn't difficult to find the correlation.

Luke's expression froze.

He didn't think Jiang Chen, who was keen on the graphene market, would focus on the completely unrelated commodities market. Typically speaking, the International Mining Alliance report was only read by people within the industry, but to prepare for this negotiation, Jiang Chen did his homework well!

"85% of the market price; I can't go any lower. It's impossible to supply the ores at last year's prices! If you agree now, we can sign the contract immediately," Luke said.

Jiang Chen shook his head.

"The Penglai City project has consumed a total of 19.9 million tons of steel and aluminum and most of the steel and aluminum were consumed during the post-war reconstruction of MLL Island and the development of the special district. We have five deposits on MLL Island with proven reserves of over 40 million tons of iron ore, but there's no mining plan yet. You don't have too much bargaining chips on the table. Do you understand what I mean?"

Future Mining's main project was seabed mining and the main outputs were molybdenum, manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt and other metals. The gross margins for mining iron and aluminum ore were too low, so even if there were a handful of iron mines that came from the Moro government, Future Mining had no plans to mine the reserves.

Luke's eyes narrowed. His fingers lightly tapped the table as she pondered how to close this deal. Jiang Chen was observing him with a smile and waiting for him to compromise.

"You have iron reserves on MLL Island?"

"That's right. They're also high-quality iron mines around 67-68%. Not only are there iron ores, but there are also two aluminum reserves." Jiang Chen smiled. "You should know. One year ago, with the constant conflict on the island, the investment environment was poor and the F government had no ability to develop the rich deposits. But now, the reserves are in our hands."

Jiang Chen's message expressed two layers of meaning. The first layer: we have deposits. If your price is higher than our development costs then we won't dance with you! The second layer: Future Group is no longer the Future Group from last year - don't expect us to compromise from external pressure. If I can handle the B City Consortium, I can easily handle you as well.

The silence persisted for a long time before Luke sighed.

"A ragged colt may make a good horse (1)."

"You know this Chinese proverb?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"I just learned it recently; I only know a little." Luke dismissed the topic. "Let's not get off track. I have a proposal that suits both of our interests."

"Let's hear it."

"We have advantages in extraction, transportation, and management, and you already mentioned your advantages which are the resources on MLL Island and the influence in Moro. We could easily invest in a mining company in Moro with a 50% equity split. We'll provide the manpower and technology while you'll supply the reserves and be responsible for public relations. What do you think?" Luke leaned forward and lowered his voice.

BHP could keep the price of ores low, but it was limited by import and export tariffs, tax collections, environmental protections, and so on. As a result, the gross profit of iron and aluminum ores had been stagnant. If Future Group could, by virtue of its influence, reduce taxes and fees for the production and export of minerals from MLL Island, BHP Mining had great room for profit even if it supplied cheap minerals to Future Group.

"This is a great proposal." Jiang Chen's eyes lit up, intrigued by the idea.

The iron and aluminum deposits had been stagnated since Future Mining didn't have additional resources to extract. This proposal was basically contracting the development to BHP Group while the two parties split the profits.

But just as Luke thought they reached an agreement, Jiang Chen's tone took a huge turn: "But do you think your equity is too high?"

[This bloodsucker!]

Luke cursed in his mind, but his expression still remained calm as he debated with Jiang Chen. Finally, both parties settled on the agreement with Jiang Chen to supply 70 million USD and the reserves while BHP would invest 150 million USD. The equity proportion was 55% and 45%.

That was Luke's bottom line.

Printing out the contract required time, so both parties agreed to officially sign the contract the next day. But based on the two parties' reputations, it was unlikely that one party would back out of the deal. Therefore, the partnership between Future Mining and BHP had been secured.

Jiang Chen sensed a vibration on his wrist.

When Luke left, Jiang Chen pressed his watch and Jean's hologram appeared beside the table.

"Is there something wrong?" Jiang Chen pleasantly spoke to Jean.

Because Jean was taking the minutes for the meeting, Jiang Chen opened the voice recording function so Jean could hear their conversation.

"I detected more advanced mining technology from the database; we could easily develop the resources by ourselves."

Jiang Chen shook his head at Jean's question with a smile. He casually stuffed the document into the drawer.

"We can't make all the money in the world, and there's no purpose in doing that."

"From an efficiency point of view, is there a problem with my proposal?" Jean asked.

"Considering things from only an efficiency point of view is a problem in itself. Compared to extracting the last bit of profits, we can proactively gift out the profits and use this to chain more people to us in exchange for greater profits."

"Greater profits? What's that?"

"Regardless of what it is, it's definitely not the US dollar."

(1) A ragged colt may make a good horse - A young person can still be impressive.

Chapter 678: Intel's Visi

Taking BHP Mining on as an ally was definitely beneficial for Future Group. These veteran European aristocrats shouldn't be underestimated in some areas. Even though they might not be able to defeat the financial conglomerates like Rockefeller and Morgan on Wall Street, they certainly could make a dent in fields such as commodities, automotive industry, etc...

After the ore supply negotiations, Jiang Chen personally put Luke on the plane. It was good news that BHP reached an agreement on mineral resource development on MLL Island for Future Heavy Industries with a sustained increase in production capacity.

The next day, just as Jiang Chen was going to return to Xin, Intel's people came looking for him.

The person who came to visit was Bryant Kozic. Speaking of the "legendary" CEO, it was worth mentioning the prophecy he made three years ago. When he transitioned to being the CEO from COO, he was set to develop four core areas for Intel: PCs, data centers, mobiles, and chip manufacturing technology. He boldly predicted that after three years, major manufacturers would completely give up using their rival's Qualcomm ARM architecture and switch to Intel architecture.

However, contrary to expectations, the Intel chip's horrific overheating made it suffer in the mobile device market and repeated failures to deliver their promises made them lose the competitive advantage.

Intel also told investors it would develop SoCs (for both Modem and application processors) for low-, mid- and high-end smartphones and tablets, but Intel's failure to bring them to market on time meant the project was ultimately stifled.

After billions of investments with ultimately no return, Intel tried to disguise the situation without providing investors with a proper explanation.

Future Heavy Industries' breakthrough in graphene materials made Intel both alarmed but also presented Kozic with an opportunity to turn the situation around. If Intel could shift to using graphene, they would have a chance at winning back the mobile market.

"We look forward to receiving your company's license for a total of 271 patents on semiconductor graphene and graphene transistors at a reasonable price!" At the meeting, Kozic provided his request straightforwardly.

He was ready to engage in "tug of war" negotiations with Future Group; he had packed five sets of clothes in his suitcase. Future Heavy Industries' massive international purchasing spree naturally caught Intel's attention. They were obviously preparing to enter the field of electronic equipment production!

From this perspective, Future Heavy Industries would inevitably become their competitor. Obviously, it wouldn't be easy to reach an agreement in the licensing of patents.

But Kozic also had his own trump card.

If Future Heavy Industries intentionally refused to provide licensing rights, that would be a monopoly!

But to Kozic's surprise again, Jiang Chen generously said, "No problem."

"What?"

"I said no problem. We can discuss this. Was there anything wrong with my grammar?"

Kozic coughed.

"I apologize, my mind just slipped."

"What price do you think is reasonable?" Jiang Chen didn't mind and returned to the topic.

"One hundred million US Dollar?" Kozic proposed a number.

"We spent 2.1 billion US Dollar on the research of graphene. Isn't it unreasonable for you to purchase this with just 100 million US Dollar?" Jiang Chen lied without breaking a sweat at all.

[2.1 billion my ass, the entire graphene production equipment cost a few hundred crystals at most.]

But since he was the only one who could travel between the two worlds, he set the exchange rate himself.

Kozic furrowed his brows because Jiang Chen gave him such a ridiculous price tag. However, there was nothing he could do since Future Group's research team was the first one to make the breakthrough. Based on Intel's research department, the completion of semiconductor-type graphene would least require two additional years at least.

"Then what's your price?"

"400 million US Dollar." Jiang Chen put up four fingers then he added, "Every year."

"400 million each year! Are you crazy? Is your patent made out of diamonds?!" Kozic was enraged.

"Graphene is much more expensive than diamonds in terms of economic value, of course." Jiang Chen smiled. "Think about it - how much did you spend on graphene research? How much money would you spend? Now, do you still think this licensing fee is expensive?"

"This means that in the next 20 years, Intel would pay you a total of 8 billion US Dollar!"

"So what? When Intel has annual profits of 20 billion, would they miss this money?" Jiang Chen shrugged. "Of course, it's okay if you disagree with the proposal. Qualcomm will come to chat with us by tomorrow at the latest…"

Kozic, in pain, immediately said:

"Deal!"

Qualcomm was Intel's rival. If Qualcomm got an advantage, it would be disastrous for Intel's plan to conquer the mobile market! Kozic had to buy time for the Intel researchers, even if it was just a day. They had to develop a graphene chip based on Intel's architecture ahead of Qualcomm and send a straight punch to Qualcomm's mobile market shares.

Just as Jiang Chen said, 400 million was nothing for the enormous Intel.

Sponsored by UA's largest Rockefeller Consortium, Intel was far richer than they appeared.

After the negotiation, with the licensing agreement in hand, Kozic boarded the plane to return home. The moment Kozic left the special district, Qualcomm's representative arrived, planning to discuss the licensing agreement with Jiang Chen.

The negotiations with Qualcomm were completed on the same day. When Qualcomm's representative heard that Intel's representative was granted a patent license for 400 million US Dollar annually in patent fees, the representative didn't even blink an eye and agreed immediately. Jiang Chen was crying pitifully in his mind; based on how fast they made their decisions, he could've given them an even higher price!

Xia Shiyu was shocked with how fast Jiang Chen ended negotiations, so she called to express her concern.

"If we want to enter the field of graphene chips, why not drag on the Intel and Qualcomm licensing negotiations for a few months? This would allow us to independently develop chips in the market to seize the first-mover advantage."

"We've had the first opportunity for long enough; graphene chip samples and production line designs are now in the laboratory. Until the acquisition of the subsidiary is completed along with restructuring, we can't start production. I believe that even without our patent licensing, they won't stop borrowing our public information for technological research and development. After all, according to the anti-monopoly law, we have to provide licensing sooner or later. Since they won't have graphene chips tomorrow, it makes no difference when we grant them licensing."

Future Group would be ahead of them in the graphene chip race regardless.

Chapter 679: Information Leak

[There's been a major breakthrough in semiconductor graphene materials. Future Heavy Industries will provide Intel, Qualcomm, and many other chip manufacturers with licensing agreements. Intel's CEO held a press conference stating that by early next year at the latest, Intel would be the first to use graphene chips. Analysts show that this use of graphene transistors is ahead of the expected date previously Intel set, two years ahead of the launch of 5-nanometer processing chips! ...]

Inside the ancient manor, next to the antique tea table, an elderly man with completely white hair was reading the news and drinking tea.

While all newspapers could now be read on phones and tablets, years of habits were hard to break.

Right now, Liu Xiangguo's first son, Liu Yunzhong, was standing by the side. He wanted to say something but was reluctant to do so until he finally made up his mind and carefully said:

"Dad, what do you think we lack compared to the big families in UA?"

Liu Xiangguo didn't respond and continued to scan over the newspaper.

Liu Yunzhong continued.

"Why can't we control Future Group like the Rockefeller family in UA…"

Liu Xiangguo eyed his son and scoffed before refocusing on the newspaper.

"That's a very interesting statement. Then why don't you tell me - why don't we control Intel or purchase the entire Wall Street?"

Liu Yunzhong's expression looked awkward.

"It's pretty far away from us, right."

[And we can't afford it.]

"So that's why I'm saying the Wang family is moronic. Of course, I'm not talking about Little Wang - I'm referring to his little brother, Wang Linhua." Liu Xiangguo adjusted the reading glasses on his nose with his finger while he flipped to the next page. "Dehai was completely blinded by his family. Who didn't see the value of Future Technology? You'll take a bite when you see it? This is why I've been restricting the family from going into business. The land below us is the center of power of the republic!"

Future Group's Hua business generated at least 200 million US dollar for the Liu family. Since it was operated by a subsidiary registered in Central America, the money was extremely clean. How many dividends could Linhua Group pay the Wang family? They indeed made some money from real estate, but what about now? Linhua Group was barely alive after two years of losses. The loan depended on the connection of Wang Dehai; what money did they have to pay dividends?

Even the second child policy couldn't save the real estate bubble!

Liu Xiangguo's shrewdness allowed him to understand the situation. The Liu family wouldn't touch the moneymaking business; instead, they focused all their efforts on preserving their present power. The people who required the convenience would naturally put money into their hands.

Liu Xiangguo gently sighed.

"If this company remains in Wanghai, he could still move up a level just from this achievement alone."

Liu Yunzhong was completely shocked.

Another level above the deputy state level? Wouldn't that be…

"But unfortunately, the brighter Future Group's international performance, the more evidently blind Dehai was. He'll probably have to retire at the city secretary as a member of the Politburo position."

Liu Xiangguo nonchalantly said while flipping another page.

At the end of the page, Liu Xiangguo's finger froze.

He threw the newspaper aside and the elder shakenly stood up. Liu Xiangguo stopped his son from helping him and gave him a hard stare.

"I'm not old yet!"

Liu Yunzhong watched his father walk outside in bewilderment. His thirty years of instinct told him that his father was…

Happy?

Liu Zhongguo walked to the table and picked up the newspaper. He was curious what his father read that made him so excited to leave the house.

"An insider who declined to be named stated that Future Group made significant progress in graphene chip research. Currently, the 'Dragon Cavalry X1' graphene chip, 7nm, is only half the size of Intel's 'Xeon Phi'! However, its performance is up to 1.5 times the performance of Xeon Phi! The architecture used by Future Heavy Industrial was independently researched and developed... "

Splash.

The newspaper fell to the group and Liu Yunzhong's face shifted from stunned disbelief to uncontrollable ecstasy. Two keywords echoed in his mind like a curse.

Ultra-chip! New architecture!

…

In early April, the UA Department of Commerce issued a public notice to block Intel's sale of Xeon chips to Tianhe II system upgrade to Hua National Supercomputing Center. The UA media later disclosed that the Department of Commerce issued an announcement in February saying that the Tianhe No. 2 system and the Tianhe No. 1 A system using Intel microprocessor chips were "believed to be used in nuclear explosion simulations," so the four Hua state institutions were included on the list of restricted exports.

It was indeed disastrous news, but it offered hope for the rise of domestically-produced chips.

This was undoubtedly bad news for the compradors, but from the rise of domestic chips, there was a greater significance. The 28nm process technology "Mars," developed by Feiteng, could replace imported chips such as the Xeon E5V2 and Phi… but it was still based on ARM architecture design and had to pay royalties to ARM.

The news leak of the Dragon Cavalry X1 chip immediately attracted Hua's attention. Although the super-computer idling rate was very high in the state, it still offered great value to the field of scientific research. The key was that Tianhe No.2, leading the world computing list, could boost national confidence better than an Olympic gold medal!

If what the insider said was true, the barrier to Hua's supercomputer development would be eliminated.

Jiang Chen previously planned for the news release of Dragon Cavalry X1 chip to be the next month, but it was leaked by his employee.

When he thought it over, he immediately knew who was behind the problem.

Therefore, after he returned to Coro Island, he went to see the director of the material science lab, Lu Yuan.

As soon as Jiang Chen walked into the office, Lu Yuan lowered his head.

"Sorry, I leaked the news."

"Why?"

"Because I still come from Hua." Lu Yuan's eyes were mixed with guilt, but there was no sense of regret at all. "I'm gracious for your support - without your data and equipment, I wouldn't be able to achieve my dreams of making a breakthrough in the graphene field and I wouldn't be named for the Noble Prize… But I know my home country needs it. I'm willing to accept punishment."

He extended his hands and closed his eyes.

Jiang Chen looked at him, speechless.

According to the confidentiality agreement, research progress was defined as Class B classified content. Under Xin law, leaking Class B secrets would lead to imprisonment for 17 years or more. However, as a former academician of the Academy of Sciences, Lu Yuan knew his country needed it. Therefore, when he had an interview with reporters about his Nobel Prize, he disclosed the news.

After a long silence, Jiang Chen suddenly said.

"I also have the same origin as you, so I understand your actions."

Lu Yuan slowly opened his eyes with a look of disbelief.

"But you should apologize to me because you overstepped your boundaries and acted as a CEO and spokesperson without my permission. If Hua needed this, Future Heavy Industries wouldn't be stingy with our technology, but I need an opportunity. Do you understand the word opportunity?"

"I apologize."

"I don't need your apology. I hope this will be the first and last time." Jiang Chen sternly looked at Lu Yuan before he turned around.

"Yes!"

Lu Yuan gratefully watched Jiang Chen's figure as he left.

But what the old scientist didn't notice was that Jiang Chen had a faint smile when he turned around.

He said a partnership required an opportunity.

But after all the feuds that happened between them, he didn't plan to be proactive anymore.

If people really needed this, they would come to him with a good attitude instead of Future Heavy Industries trying to the crowd pleaser. Dragon Calvary X1 Ultra-chip was designed for Hua's supercomputing institutions. The news would eventually be made public, whether Lu Yuan disclosed the information or not.

He was debating who he should use to obscurely "leak" the information.

But now, Lu Yuan's decision solved the problem for him.

It wouldn't take long before Hua's representative would visit him on Coro Island.

Chapter 680: Breaking Embargo

Just as Jiang Chen expected, on the third day after news of Dragon Calvary X1 graphene chip was leaked, Hua sent representatives there. Led by an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representatives of Loongson arrived at Coro Island.

Jiang Chen met with the two representatives. He was surprised to see a familiar face.

"Long time no see, Mr. Jiang." Liu Haotian shook Jiang Chen's hand with a smile.

"Indeed, long time no see. The last time you were part of the concierge. Now, you've been promoted to a diplomat?" After letting his hand go, Jiang Chen looked over at the stranger.

"This is Hu Weiwen, the CEO of Loongson." Liu Haotian courteously introduced the person behind him.

The middle-aged man at least twenty years older than Jiang Chen extended his hand first to express his sincerity.

"I'm Wu Weiwen. I've long heard Mr. Jiang's name. Mr. Jiang is indeed as impressive as the rumors say."

"You're flattering me." Jiang Chen smiled and welcomed the two men onto the vehicle.

Liu Haotian looked at the vehicle and appeared somewhat shocked as he couldn't recognize the brand of the car. Jiang Chen seemed to have read his confusion. After the Celestial Trade Bodyguard opened the car door, he began to explain.

"Luer S100, a pure electric vehicle with a solid-state lithium-air battery with a range of 500 km. Only 1000 units are available worldwide."

Liu Haotian recalled the name Luer - it seemed to be an emerging European car company with a focus on purely electric vehicles. At the Ber auto show, it received 100 million US dollars in financing and secured battery orders from Future Heavy Industries. It performed slightly better compared to Tesla and was gunning for the top dog position in the new energy field.

At present, Future Group invested 740 million US dollar on Coro Island to fully implement new energy vehicles. Three European car companies, such as Luer, had the privilege of sharing this policy, so it wasn't uncommon to see this brand of vehicle on Coro Island.

"A range of 500 km? That's fantastic," Liu Haotian said enviously.

It wasn't hard to tell he was a car fanatic.

"Do you want one? I can gift you one." Jiang Chen laughed.

"I'm okay. I'm afraid of accepting gifts." Liu Haotian quickly dismissed the idea.

Jiang Chen didn't mention it further.

Liu Haotian wasn't much older than him. To be able to act reserved at his age proved that either he didn't have a competitive mindset or he desired much greater things.

Outside Future Building, Wu Weiwen envied the four-hundred-meter tall building with astonishment. If it was in Wanghai or Shangjing, it wouldn't be considered tall at all, but it had a different meaning standing on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

This area was frequently affected by earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis. Building even a one-meter tall building here wasn't easier than building two meters in Wanghai.

"Mr. Wu is intrigued by this building?"

"The building's material must be impressive." Although Wu Weiwen didn't work in this field, he had a Ph.D. with a background in this area.

"If you're interested, feel free to visit anytime." Jiang Chen led the two men into the conference room.

The conference room was located on the middle floor of the building.

The three of them sat around the table as Wu Weiwen got straight to the point.

"I heard you have made significant progress in ultra-chip research. I wonder if this rumor is true?"

"Of course," said Jiang Chen calmly. "In the graphene field, we're leading the world."

Wu Weiwen and Liu Haotian looked at each other and read the glee in each other's eyes.

Wu Weiwen contained his joy and looked sternly at Jiang Chen.

"The purpose of the trip was hopefully to establish a partnership with you in the field of graphene chips."

"I, of course, welcome a partnership, but… why is Loongson here?" Jiang Chen asked.

Jiang Chen thought Hua would be interested in the Dragon Calvary X1 chip and would provide Jiang Chen with a supply contract, but the situation was a bit different now that Loongson was there.

"We hope to obtain the graphene chip and licensing rights to Dragon Calvary X1 architecture," Wu Weiwen answered.

After UA embargoed its ultra-chip from Hua, developing a computer chip was put on the agenda. However, due to technical challenges, as well as compatibility difficulties and many other issues, Han-made chips still relied on ARM architecture.

In terms of performance, although some domestic media exaggeratedly hyped Loongson as the best in the world, there was no market to prove it. However, the lack of market reaction proved that Loongson's performance wasn't as attractive as advertised. In actuality, whether it was Feiteng or Loongson, just from the chip manufacturing process, they were two generations behind Intel and other well-known international companies.

Wu Weiwen's visit this time was to obtain the authorization of graphene chips related to patents and he was also interested in the instruction set of Dragon Cavalry X1. The news revealed "Dragon X1's" mainstream chip architecture was completely different from X86, ARM, and MIPS.

"There are no issues with granting you licensing for the graphene chip technology, but the instruction set is a bit troublesome." Jiang Chen's finger tapped the table and he looked at Wu Weiwen's nervous face. "After all, the Dragon Calvary X1 chip is still in the lab stage and hasn't entered the patent registration process yet. This includes the lix architecture designed by Future Technology."

"What's the performance of the lix architecture?" Wu Weiwen immediately asked.

"I am personally very pleased," said Jiang Chen with a smile. "In terms of the complexity of the instruction set, we may be leaner than ARM architecture, but we're in no way inferior to the performance of Intel's X86 architecture."

He was still being conservative with that statement. In the apocalypse, lix architecture was the most widely used for graphene chips. It was one of the earliest forms of architecture, derived from the foundation framework. Jiang Chen intended to register 1000 patents; the current patent application documents were still being prepared.

"What's the licensing price?"

"Please don't rush, Mr. Wu Weiwen." Jiang Chen sighed. "We can't authorize a technology without being granted a patent."

Wu Weiwen's expression looked somewhat awkward as he realized he was being abrupt. However, the reason he was behaving so unsympathetically was simply because this was too important for Hua!

"I suggest you purchase the Dragon Calvary X1. The ultra-chip's performance is far superior compared to Intel's Xeon Phi. If you order now, once we complete the registration process, you'll receive the first shipment."

With a pause, Jiang Chen looked at Liu Haotian and said mockingly,

"I can promise that this chip will help you dominate the supercomputer computation chart."

This was directed to the people behind Liu Haotian.

"The development of domestically produced chips is a guideline from the superiors. The ultra-chip embargo was a wake-up call for us and we had to have our own chip production capabilities." Liu Haotian shook his head. "Although your proposal is very attractive, we still favor Loongson and hope to gain the chip production technology."

Jiang Chen looked at Liu Haotian and Wu Weiwen speechlessly.

[Even if I give you the instruction set, you might not be able to beat Intel! From research and development to self-production, how long do you plan on using silicon chips? We're a family! Even if I embargo everyone else, I won't embargo you!]

"How about this - let's sign the Dragon Cavalry X1 Chip Supply Contract for 2 years. Next month, after we complete the patent registration for the lix architecture, let's talk about the lix architecture license. Developing this technology isn't a one-day event. You can first use our product then once you develop your own chip, we can discuss ending the contract?"

Liu Haotian and Wu Weiwen exchanged looks before giving Jiang Chen a nod.

"This proposal isn't bad. I'll have to seek approval from my superior."

"Let's end our negotiation here today. I look forward to hearing good news," Jiang Chen stood up and said with a grin.

[Once Hua's super-computer dominates the Top 500 chart and kicks other countries out of the Top 10, I don't think you'll have the guts to terminate the contract!]

Dragon Calvary X1's purpose was to export since Xin wasn't consuming ultra-chips.

Why?

Because their technology was too inferior.

Future Group's servers used quantum computers and had long abandoned outdated supercomputers.

Chapter 681: A Fruitful October

Based on the contract, Future Heavy Industries would supply Hua's Ministry of Technology and Science one hundred thousand Dragon Calvary X1 Ultra-chips per month at a price of 400 US dollar per chip. The chip would be used by the supercomputing centers, universities, research agencies and completely replace Intel's Xeon Phi.

The contract was set to begin in December.

The 40 million first contract for Future Heavy Industries' graphene chip was indeed a pleasing result. With a contract, production must commence as well!

Built by the construction robots inside Ange High Tech Park, a transistor manufacturing plant and a chip manufacturing center began to take their shape. All production equipment would be completed by the Institute's personnel and printed by the industrial-grade 3D printer.

Future Heavy Industries and Hua's contract made UA Department of Commerce dumbfounded.

The previous embargo was to curtail Hua's supercomputer development, but based on the estimate made by experts, Tianhe No.2 replaced with Dragon Calvary X1's computation speed per second will exceed the previous peak and increase by a complete level!

Dragon Calvary X1's production meant that the high-end ultra-chip controlled by UA will be broken. The countries and companies with embargo orders will have more choice than being limited to just Intel and Qualcomm.

At the same time, the lix architecture's introduction meant that the supercomputer will no longer be dominated by X86. Future Heavy Industrial working with Future Technology will challenge Intel's firm grasp on the top-end chip market.

Regardless what the Capital may think, Jiang Chen was in a pleasant mood.

The engineering vessel that was pulling the desalination platform had already started its journey to the Gulf of Aden under the escort of the submarine and was scheduled to complete the escort when the Saudi Navy arrived at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden; Iron and aluminum ore negotiations ended on a positive note; Graphene introduction was complete to perfection. With so many positive news, this October marked a wonderful harvest for Future Group.

Finally, before early November, the acquisition of the 11 subsidiaries completed the restructuring process, Future Heavy Industries' workforce doubled. Now the total number of employees of Future Heavy Industries exceeded 20,000, while the net profit also exceeded 15 billion US dollar. This marked Future Heavy Industries becoming the second most profitable company overtaking Future Biology in Future Group.

With the prospect of the home robot and chip market, the number could exceed more than 100 billion!

Compared to the stellar performance of Future Heavy Industries, Future Biology, Tourism, and the other subsidiaries that performed splendidly pale in comparison. Xin's monthly visitor exceeded the half million mark with an average spending of 975 US dollar per person. Future Tourism dominated the market at 40%. Future Biology's nutrient supply sale continued to climb and created a trend of healthy eating in the international market… which was complete contrary to the situation in the apocalypse.

Two years ago, in the fall that was beginning to cool off, Future Technology's Future 1.0 first caught the attention of the world.

On this date worth celebrating, Jiang Chen brought his executives and outstanding employees of Future Group and hosted a celebration party on his private island to increase team cohesion and sense of belonging to the company.

In order make the party classier, Jiang Chen called Robert developing in Los Santos and asked him to invite stars to the party.

Based on the principle of not wasting any opportunity, Jiang Chen also asked him to bring his film crew to produce a documentary to highlight Future Group's culture. It would also serve as an advertisement for the beautiful Pannu Islands.

"I will give you 10 million if you help me invite the best film crew," Jiang Chen took a pause before he added, "This is the salary, the cost of filming will be calculated otherwise."

"Oh, sh*t, are you trying to put the advertisement onto the big screen?" Robert was shocked.

"Remember, it is a documentary, who said I'm making an advertisement! And we won't put it on the big screen, we'll use the online channel." Jiang Chen cursed at him, jokingly.

Robert still had a fascination with the word "Sh*t". Now that he hasn't heard for so long, it felt great to hear it again.

"Okay, buddy, leave this up to me. Thank god, this is not something dangerous. Also, you won't forget to invite your old friend to the party right?" Robert jokingly said.

"Of course not. You're welcome to come! Also, bring Nick along." Jiang Chen laughed.

The party was just an idea in his head, but after he personally participated in the planning, he became more and more interested.

The island was an uninhabited island located 170 nautical miles from Coro Island. The middle of the island was rich in vegetation while being surrounded by beaches on all four sides. Other than a wooden cabin on the island, there was no other extraneous structures.

Jiang Chen previously brought Ayesha and Xia Shiyu to this island, Natasha came along midway by a helicopter to join their vacation. Jiang Chen personally enjoyed the nature on this island and he was especially fond of that hot spring on the beach.

Regretfully, he only visited the beautiful island once. When he gave it some thought, it was particularly wasteful.

Jiang Chen named the island Hot Spring Island and set the party location there.

The cabin was too small? Jiang Chen invited BMA Contraction who he previously worked with and asked them to come with the best building plan for a hotel.

There were not enough palm trees on the beach? They used the vessels of Celestial Trade and hauled hundreds of palm trees from other islands. With the guidance of professional gardener, they surrounded the island with trees. The vegetation in the middle was also fortunate to receive the scissors from the garden master and were decorated into a work of art.

The planning of the party was contracted the world renowned party planning company – Party Life. When the company received the contract from Future Group, they put a great emphasis by sending out the renowned party planner Patrick Jarnell. The party master who planned Hollywood Red Carpets and famous celebrity parties planned everything to perfection.

Of course, the cost was not cheap.

But for Jiang Chen, it was too small of a bill to be bothered with.

An estimate of over one thousand guests would be visiting the Hot Spring Island and security measures were also a top concern.

Future Group has a lot of faithful allies, but also a lot of enemies.

The security work was assigned to Celestial Trade National Security Department and Jiang Chen's Ghost Agents. The cooperation of both agencies will ensure absolute safety at the party.

Chapter 682: An Extravagant Party

The party was set for November 15th.

Jiang Chen didn't expect Robert to be able to invite Hollywood director Christopher Nolan. He vaguely recalled that the guy's salary for Interstellar was 20 million US dollar, how could he be interested in the 10 million US dollar business?

Robert quickly answered his confusion.

"Buddy, documentaries and movies are very different, especially if it is just filming for the party. Unless you want to film your corporate culture into Interstellar?"

10 million, less than a month's production period, and no need to worry about box office sales, where could one find such an amazing task?

Most importantly, he could gain a connection with Future Group…

After half a month of preparation, the day of the party was finally here. Other than the executives and outstanding employees of Future Group, all of the major business partners of Future Group received an invitation.

But the number of guests did surprise Jiang Chen, it far exceeded the 1000 guests expected and headed straight to 2000 people. Fortunately, the planner Jarnell was prepared and arranged for forty long tables and other amenities to be placed at the beach and supervised the chef team to prepare food and drink for the additional guests.

Carmen Rothschild couldn't attend due to a matter he needed to attend to, but he still sent out a representative and brought a gift from the Rothschild family.

Other than Mr. Carmen who didn't attend, the top dogs of the party were B City Consortium's Carson Loki and Saudi Prince Yerif. Other than them, Future Biology's partner- Walmart's President, Future Heavy Industrial's partner – Lureka Automotive President, and the oldest son of the Liu family, renowned real estate businessman Mr. Chen… and hundreds of other businessmen attended.

With so many reputable members attending, the party previously intended to be a celebration party took a "turn" and matched the high class party of the top echelons.

Because the invitation permitted bringing at most three people, other than people being invited, many came with their friends "inviting themselves". They included famous businessmen, Hollywood stars, or elites of the society…

They all desired to befriend the massive Future Group.

Even if they couldn't gain a connection, they could use this opportunity to meet with people that could help with their business.

…

Melodious music twirled around the island and added more elegance to the beautiful island in the southern kingdom.

At the most desolated corner of the party, Jiang Chen was planning to see Robert, but a swarm of people flooded him. This made him recall the birthday party Yerif hosted for his princess that he attended. He was sitting in the corner when the security of the party spoke with him.

He faintly remembered that the security's name was Bruce, a mercenary from Blackwater International. The reason he talked to him was because he sensed a similar vibe.

But now, even if he wanted to go to the washroom, there would be Hollywood stars in low-cut dresses attempting to encounter him.

Reminiscing the past gave him a mixture of emotions.

The group of people surrounded Jiang Chen in the middle. Jiang Chen maintained his smiled and acted in the most elegant manner in both speech and posture.

The guests were all powerful and influential, if they came to greet him, he should treat them with respect.

Other than the international businessmen whom he couldn't name, Jiang Chen could only name a few Hollywood stars. Although he always had difficulty remembering names, he could still match the name with the face for the films he enjoyed watching.

For example, Jeremy Reiner, who played the role of Sergeant William James in the "Bomb Players" and who played the Hawk's Eye in "Captain America 3". Also the "Mission Impossible" series actor Tom Cruise.

Jiang Chen was also considered a fan of the "Mission Impossible Series", he really didn't expect to meet his favorite actor this way.

"Thank God."

"You can thank him in person!"

They exchanged lines and the two laughed. Jiang Chen and Tom Cruise fist pumped each other. This dialogue was from "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol", so Jiang Chen remembered it vividly.

"I didn't expect Mr. Jiang Chen to watch the movie I starred in." Tom laughed exposing his white teeth. Extending out his hand, he gave Jiang Chen a firm handshake.

"I not only seen it, I'm also your fan" Jiang Chen used a half-joking tone.

"My honor!" Deserving of being one of the best actors, Tom made a funny flattering look, immediately drawing the goodwill laughter from everyone around.

At this time, a blonde beauty carrying champagne walked into the circle. She stood beside Jiang Chen and biting her lips slightly, she entered the conversation with gracefulness.

"I do not know if I also have the honor to have starred in a movie Mr. Jiang has seen."

A familiar face. Jiang Chen only examined her for half a second before he successfully matched her face.

"Of course… I remember you are Hermione!"

Emma Watson! Jiang Chen who grew up watching Harry Potter naturally recognized this face.

On this topic, Miss Emma Watson is the ambassador for Future Biology's nutrient supply.

"Correct!"

She gently flipped up her curled hair, tiled her head, lifted her chin, and the standoffish vibe Emma Watson gave perfectly fitted with the mold of Hermione!

Hmm, it was an odd way to say this, since she did play the role…

"Oh! What a lucky guy! He received a kiss from Miss Jessica! I expressed my love with roses and a Ferrari but she won't even date me," a tall male enviously said.

"It's only a peck, so what! Look, oh my, that's Oscar winner Jennifer Laurence! God, she is my idol!" The chubby man that came along exclaimed!

"OH MY! It's true! She is here!" The tall guy looked over and jumped up in excitement.

Just then, a middle-aged man who had been listening glared at the two who were indulging in the food and said expressionlessly, "What's exciting about this. This is a high class party. If Saudi's heir and B City Consortium are here, it is not odd for celebrities to come here…"

The two didn't notice what he said. Another celebrity appeared and the tall male shouted to his friend.

"Jiang Chen's charm is unbelievable!"

"It is not Jiang Chen's charm, it is his money's charm. Without Future Group, he is nothing impressive…" The middle-aged male acted like he knew.

The feeling of being overlooked was terrible. This time he raised his voice attempting to draw the attention of the two.

An elder with champagne walked over before an intrigued expression appeared on his face. He stopped to interrupt.

"Oh? I have a contrary opinion. I think without Jiang Chen, Future Group is nothing at all."

"Foolish statement, I don't agree with your perspective. May I ask which company do you operate?" The middle-age man scorned in contempt.

The old man thought for a moment and shook his head.

"It is not convenient for me to say…"

[Must be a random person that got in with their friend…]

The middle-aged man was even more contempt. But he didn't realize that he was also not invited and came in because of his friend.

But after he came in, he didn't manage to get to speak with Jiang Chen who was surrounded by the crowd. He didn't even manage to exchange business cards. Because of this, he was holding in some anger. He couldn't tell the brand of the suit the elder was wearing, so he thought it must be cheap…

"Is it not convenient to say? It's okay, I have a tech company in Silicon Valley. I think I have some credibility in the tech field."

The middle-aged man took out a business card from his pocket and put the card between his fingers in front of the elder.

The elder scanned the address on the card and grinned, he didn't take the business card.

"California Cosic Software Company? Interesting name."

"Thank you for your compliment. We are in the process of our first round of financing. If we are successful, we will acquire 70 million in investment." The middle-aged man took back his card, his mouth formed a curvature.

"Is that so? If we are just counting equity, First B City Bank is one of my assets," Carson Loki holding his champagne said while in thought.

The business card didn't go back to his pocket, instead, it went into the champagne glass several inches out.

The middle-aged man's wide open jaw could fit an entire egg as he just stared at the elder's face.

"You, you are Carson Loki."

[God, what did I just say to him!?]

The middle-aged man's face turned pale white as he wanted to slap himself. He thought the elder looked familiar, but he didn't think he was Carson Loki.

But Carson didn't bother with him and responded to his blank look with a procedural smile.

"It is me. We only invest in companies with a future and don't participate in the operations of any company."

Chapter 683: Each Man has his own Aspiration

Meeting with VIPs, delivering speeches, coping with the compliments of the businessmen and celebrities, and being the host of the party; there were many things Jiang Chen must attend to.

Despite it being busy, he didn't feel irritated at all.

Why?

Of course because…

"Mr. Jiang Chen, allow me to introduce, this is my daughter Daisy. She has loved your culture from a very young age and views you as an idol. When she heard you were having a party, she begged me to bring her along." A Silicon Valley new energy automotive company president was keenly introducing his daughter.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, this is my business card. If you are interested in venture capital, please be sure to contact us, the Chicago Venture Company!"

"I am the CEO of London Urban Construction Company. I heard that graphene can be used in the construction field. Is Mr. Jiang Chen interested? Here is my business card. We can invest together!"

At this time, a blonde wearing a low-cut long dress with a gorgeous figure walked toward Jiang Chen. She leaned the champagne in her hand forward slightly and the bright red lip gloss reflected a seductive glow.

"You can call me Scarlett, Mr. Jiang Chen. If you've seen The Avengers, you must have heard of my name."

Scarlett's debut attracted a wave of whistles. The dream lover of countless men, dressed abnormally eye-catching today. In particular, the whiteness in front of her chest really made people think sensually.

"Of course I have heard of Miss Johansson." Jiang Chen smiled and toasted with her.

He certainly has heard the name, after all, she is the famous Black Widow. Not only have I heard your name, I have also seen your scandalous pictures…. Of course, Jiang Chen could think of the devilish words in his head.

"You can call me Scarlett." Scarlett looked seductively at Jiang Chen while taking sips of the champagne.

Because of the large number of guests, Jiang Chen didn't talk to the Hollywood Star for a long time. By procedure, Jiang Chen handed her a business card. After receiving his business card, Scarlett also gave out her own gift -

An autograph sealed with a kiss.

The back of the paper was written with the number 1071. Jiang Chen took a long time to realize that it was her room number at the Hot Spring Island Hotel?!

What could the number on the back mean? The seduction is too obvious!

Should he go or not?

…

Five hours passed and Jiang Chen finally met with all the guests. In the cabin near the beach, he managed to find Robert and Nick. He enthusiastically dragged the two to the small bar by the beach, opened three bottles of champagne and drank with them while reminiscing the old times.

When Jiang Chen saw Robert, he almost couldn't recognize him.

Since last year's arms deal in South Africa, the two had not seen each other again. Compared to the original shrewd and capable appearance, he became chubbier. It was evident that his life in Hollywood has been great.

The arms business was profitable, but the days as an arms merchant was not good.

They not only brought death to war-torn areas, but walked on the knife's edge.

Therefore, after being warned by the FBA, Robert decided to exit the business.

Counting the money he made from Jiang Chen, he had over 100 million US dollar in assets. Although he wasn't in a great financial situation in the start with his overspending habit, the surprise hot box office in the movie he invested along with the last batch of arms being sold to Jiang Chen made him return to the life of a king.

With money, he naturally didn't want to venture out anymore, and naturally he gained some weight.

"Burp, sh*t, I sometimes feel like the world is too unfair. We are both rich, why did you not put on any weight, but I'm as fat as a pig now." Robert poured a cup for himself, shook his head, and sighed.

"That's an exaggeration." Jiang Chen laughed.

"You know me, buddy."

"I mean, you are as fat as a bear now."

"Sh*t!" Robert gave him the middle-finger while laughing.

Nick was quiet as usual. The Slavic man just drank without participating much in the conversation.

After several rounds, the topic changed from their life to the party.

"Did you sense the passion from the Hollywood Superstars?" Robert had on a smirk.

"Of course… but I don't understand why. I mean, I think they are overzealous?"

"Because I released information on a paparazzi newspaper that the famous Hollywood director Christopher Nolan will shoot a documentary for the world's richest man. Future Group may enter Hollywood."

[That's why so many male celebrities wanted to take photos with me. That's why so many females stars were flirting with me. It was Robert after all!]

"That's fake news right?" Jiang Chen faceplamed.

Future Group currently has no plan to enter Hollywood, at least for now.

"I want to refer this as building up the hype." Robert exposed his teeth, but the smile still resembled a profiteer, "I took a year of time to figure out the inside-out of Hollywood. As long you use the media properly, even the worst film can have a one hundred million box office."

"You're a genius. You're not realizing your potential by retiring too late." Jiang Chen said this heartfelt message.

Robert shook his head, he took another sip of champagne and began to grin.

"I spent thirty years making money I won't be able to spend in a life time, this is my value… This is some pretty good booze, where is it produced?"

"Rothschild's gift."

"Damn, I thought from the start you wouldn't be selling gold for your entire life, but I didn't expect to be so close with Rothschild already."

"Haha, that's an exaggeration, we are just normal friends in the business world. On an other note, are you really not planning to un-retire? I still plan to go into the arms business."

Robert burped and shook his hand, "Nope, I already made enough money and I don't want to suffer anymore. If I don't enjoy the money now, am I going to be doing philanthropy when I'm older?"

"I see…" Jiang Chen felt it was a pity, but he accepted what Robert said.

People have their own dreams and ambitions.

"You should really enjoy your life now with money. We only really live in these thirty years. Investment in movies, sleeping with the Hollywood girls, play golf, sunbath on the beach… It is a waste to not enjoy it and just work. You have more money than me. You should know how to enjoy better than me." Robert full of alcohol patted Jiang Chen's shoulder and "educated" him.

While his expression looked stern, Jiang Chen knew too well. When the not serious people become serious when drinking, that either means they are really drunk, or their words are from the bottom of their hearts.

But to be honest, his proposal was really attractive.

Especially to Jiang Chen.

"Thank you."

"No problem!"

Chapter 684: I'll repay kindness with kindness

Coro Island, lab.

Lu Yuan was organizing the experimental documents of the graphene materials.

After saying goodbye to the scientist still working, he headed to the change room by the door.

According to the laboratory's confidentiality system, any information after work hours must be archived in the designated area strictly in accordance with procedures. Going on and off work requires a security screening procedure with mobile phones, USBs, and all other electronic devices were restricted from entering and leaving the research site. Future Group's security measure for its research information was done to the extreme.

Lu Yuan picked up his phone and headed to the parking lot.

Just as he was about to start the car to go home, his phone vibrated.

It was an email from his old friend.

"Congratulations, Old Lu, the Noble Prize should be yours right?"

Wang Botao, his university classmate from the same hometown. After graduation they both entered the Institute of Research in separate departments. Although Lu Yuan wasn't the most successful in the material science department, this friend of his always treated him well, and he has always been thankful.

Even if he decided to leave in the end.

A smile emerged on Lu Yuan's face. It would be untruthful to say he did not feel proud from his friend's compliment. He tapped a few times on the screen and send an message back.

"I just got named, it is not determined yet."

Beep-

The message went through. Just as he was about to close his phone, his friend instantly replied.

"I'm at the beach restaurant, the one by the west coast, want to have a drink with me?"

Lu Yuan was surprised, he replied immediately.

"You're in Xin?"

"That's right. Do you not want to have a drink?"

Lu Yuan's fingers hung in the air, after hesitating for a moment, he typed a few words on the screen.

"Wait for me… if we are only having a drink."

"Of course."

Lu Yuan drove to the west coast, parked the car, looked at the crowd of people, took a deep breath, and walked to the restaurant.

Instinct told him that his old friend was not here just to catch up and must have other intentions. But even then, he should still meet him after he had traveled so far.

Inside the restaurant, he scanned the crowded place before seeing his friend in the corner waving at him.

Wang Botao patted him on the shoulder after they met and said joyously.

"Haha, are you surprised to see me? Hello, please grab us two beers!"

"This guy, why didn't you tell me you were going to come?" Lu Yuan complained to his friend after he sat across from him. Then he picked up the menu, "Dinner is on me, feel free."

"No need, I already ordered everything. You're a busy person and it is great you still remember me, how could I let you treat me! Don't think about the bill, I already paid!" Wang Botao shook the bill in his hand and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Who pays before eating!" Lu Yuan complained but had to settle.

Quickly, the dishes began to arrive. After a few beers, the conservation began to flow. Since he remembered Jiang Chen's words at heart, Lu Yuan was afraid to drink too much. He did not mention anything related to his work and just chatted about his life.

But to Lu Yuan's surprise, Wang Baotao didn't try to subtly ask about the graphene project. He really did look like he was here for fun and decided to catch up with his friend.

Just as Lu Yuan felt relived at the fact that he no longer need to be bothered with how to reject his friend's request, Wang Baotao suddenly said.

"Old Yuan."

"Eh."

"I always have been wondering that with the way I call you Old Yuan (Old Yuan in Chinese refers to be suffering from injustice), did I call all of your luck away?"

"Why is that?" Lu Yuan took a sip.

"When you were in the institute before, the director of your department always threw you the most difficult project. If you had any success, he always put his name at the front. If the project didn't have any results, then he used your name as a scapegoat…"

"Sigh, let's not mention the things in the past, let it go!" Lu Yuan waved his hand in dismissal.

After being named for the Nobel Prize, his mentality completely changed. The reason why he left was because of the injustice he received at the institute and he no longer wanted to be treated without any respect. So he decided to accept the olive branch from Future Group in the hope that he could make a name for himself and prove to the people that prevented him from being promoted his real worth.

But when he knew that he was named for the Nobel Prize with countless media reporting him, he became peaceful.

The feeling was as if he just ascended and everything that happened in that "small circle" no longer mattered.

Then, Wang Baotao abruptly said.

"Director Li has been put on leave."

"Put on leave? Why?" Lu Yuan was shocked.

"Dereliction of duty .This poor sucker's graduation thesis turned out to be a fraud, Commission for Discipline Inspection came in, and disciplined the no doers. This happened a few days ago." Wang Baotao smiled. "There is a sucker that followed Director Li who is found to have used the advantage of his position in exchange for favors. He is now in prison too. I remember that you didn't like both of them before.

[Is that so?]

Lu Yuan wanted to say something, but when he met his friend's grin, his words were stuck in his throat. After he chewed on the words for a bit, he said something else.

"Is it because of me?"

Wang Baotao didn't respond to the question, but instead looked seriously at him.

"The Director of Material Science Institute position is now open. The country needs you."

Lu Yuan got up, Wang Baotao dragged him down.

"Don't leave just yet, just let me finish."

"Old Wang, we are friends, I don't want you to be the lobbyist."

Lu Yuan insisted on leaving, but Wang Baotao tightly held onto him.

"Old Yuan, I agree that the institute has treated you unfairly on a lot of things! But please give us a chance to make it up to you! People at the top knew about what happened and the superior placed great emphasis on taking out the no doers inside the institute to clear your name! The people that took your results before will be punished. If you have anything, just tell us—"

"Is it because I was named for the Nobel Prize that the superiors finally knew what happened?" Lu Yuan stared at him, coldly.

Wang Baotao was speechless, then he finally said something.

"… Why does that matter? It is the nature of the environment."

"Of course it matters. I see arrogance."

Wang Baotao's expression froze on his face and he awkwardly said, "You can't say that."

"I'll repay kindness with kindness. If you mention this further, we can't be friends anymore."

Lu Yuan broke free from his friend and headed for the door without turning his head.

Walking on the edge of the Hot Springs Island beach, the evening breeze passed by, the coconut palm trees swayed with a sizzling sound.

Stepping on the smooth sand, Jiang Chen held the phone while listening to the Ghost Agent's report.

"… Lu Yuan's performance?"

"Refused harshly." Zhu Yu replied.

"Excellent." A smile emerged.

[He didn't trust the wrong people.]

Nobel Prize nomination and access to graphene technology, Han will without a doubt send people to persuade him to go back. However, he should know who gave him this honor.

"How are we going to take care of Wang Baotao?"

"Investigate his visa. Find a reason to deport him and put him on the blacklist," Jiang Chen ordered.

He was just a director from the institute and not a spy attempting to steal information. Based on the consideration of the two countries' diplomatic relationship, it was better to keep this toned down. A deportation would be enough to warn them.

"Yes."

Chapter 685: Great Reactions

"… Future Group is dedicated to developing for the future. I want to say, future is not a noun, but a way of thinking. We have a flexible work environment and efficient work method. We value everyone's thoughts and we won't overlook anyone and any talent. If you're interested in becoming the future, please join us!"

"Cut!"

After the end of the interview, Jiang Chen was relived and looked to the directing Christopher Nolan; he changed from a serious to a lighthearted expression.

"No good?"

"No, this is perfect!" Christopher raised his thumb.

In the documentary, Jiang Chen only appeared for five minutes. But to prepare for this five minutes, he took an hour of repeated attempts. It was no wonder Christopher won the best script at the Oscars and was a Golden Globe winning director. Not only did he possess a wild imagination, his strive for excellence was beyond strict.

Even if Jiang Chen invested in the film, he didn't compromise on the quality.

The documentary's duration totaled 70 minutes. 20 minutes of the lavishness of the celebration party, 40 minutes introducing the departments at Future Group and the day's work, and 10 minutes on the culture and belief of the firm.

Even if it was just a documentary, Christopher managed to make it into a Hollywood film! Jiang Chen thought it was indeed worth the ten million when he saw the film.

Jiang Chen also prepared fully for the promotion of the film.

Other than Future Group's owned channel, he not only reached a promotion agreement with renowned video websites such as YouTube, he also rented the screens at Times Square for two weeks. The ten million dollar documentary… or advertisement would be played repetitively at the "World's Intersection" landmark.

The effect of the promotion was obvious. Compared to the past year, Future Group's applicants increased substantially in November.

The long term impact could not be deduced yet. However, with the passage of time, Future Group will continue to build its influence among the people. This branding effect will not only be reflected in the applicants' job choice, but also on the production selection from the consumers.

In YouTube's comment section, some people did the math to see how much the documentary costed from filming to promotion; the number somehow reached 15 million USD!

All the netizens cried "spoiled" with how much Future Group spent on a documentary.

"Is there a point spending so much on a documentary?"

"Damn, the single episode price has to be some form of record!"

"Just give me the money instead. I can make one with ten thousand."

"OP, do you think you are worth as much as Nolan?"

"Wait, shouldn't we be focusing on Future Group in the documentary? Paid vacation, flexible work environment, generous compensation, real estate in Penglai after five years! … MY GOD, my job is sh*t in comparison!"

"…"

At the same time, a lot of newspapers and magazines were predicting if Future Group move meant they will be entering the entertainment industry. Virtual reality + movie? It would be a fantastic concept with investors all eyeing Warner Bros.

With Nolan and Jiang Chen's personal relationship, if Future Group were to make a move, Warner Bros would most likely be a partner!"

The day after the rumor, Warner Bro's parent company Times Warner's stock price spiked to a market cap of 62.7 billion USD. Wall Street analysts first introduced the effect as "Future Effect".

Without the interference of a major capital or negative press, any company that has existing partnership or potential partnership with Future Group will push the company's stock price up 5-10 points.

And this observation received agreement from Buffet. But the wise and shrewd investor stated, "I don't disagree with Future Group's new impact on the stock indices. We are in an evolutionary era with a tech giant rising, just like Cisco and Microsoft before. But I do have to warn everyone, investing based on hype is unwise…"

Is Future Group interested in the entertainment industry?

Jiang Chen wasn't before, but after his discussion with Robert, he changed his mind.

Future Group has neither background in film production nor experience in the entertainment industry, but they possess the most essential element of the entertainment industry.

Channel!

By the end of November, Phantom had over 600 million users worldwide. The lack of VR development experience by major corporations and combined with users concentrated on Future Technology's product…

It would be waste if they didn't use the massive channel. Tencent had been developing a pan-entertainment strategy. However, Future Group can also do it, and do it better!

On the fifth day after the completion of the documentary, Jiang Chen paid Nolan the ten million in salary. Before he took his team back to UA, Jiang Chen invited him for lunch.

During lunch, Jiang Chen naturally led the conservation to Hollywood.

"I have seen many movies but I don't know Hollywood too well, could Mr. Nolan give me an overview?"

"Is Mr. Jiang Chen interested in investing in movies?" Nolan was elated.

"The movie industry is one of the rings in our pan-entertainment strategy, and I'm personally interested in sci-fi films." Jiang Chen smiled.

"Warner Bros possess a wealth of scripts, actors and actresses, and directors. If you're interested, we can totally partner up in this area!" Nolan immediately began to sell his company.

Warner Brother Entertainment is one of the largest movie and entertainment producers in the world. It's massive size meant that they didn't desperately need to search for investors. Christopher as the director who produced the legendary one billion dollar box office indeed wasn't relying on investors.

Warner Brothers would love to utilize Future Group's promotion channel and the almost magical virtual reality system.

If virtual reality could be used in special effect animation, or even movie production or film experience, it would completely change the movie industry. Warner Brothers, who will be the first producer to utilize virtual reality in his film, will make history!

Nolan's eyes turned brighter the more he thought about it.

The opportunity of a generation was within his grasp!

Chapter 686: VR + Movie

What Jiang Chen said didn't fall short of Nolan's expectations.

"Of course I'm interested, but we want to have some autonomy over the selection of the script and actors!"

"Umm… you're planning to invite Warner Brothers to film another documentary for you?" Nolan's expression looked awkward.

His hope was for Future Group to provide the channel and filming technology; he didn't plan on filming another "documentary." His company, Warner Brothers, definitely wouldn't agree unless Future Group offered enough to forget their dignity.

"You misinterpreted me." Jiang Chen smiled. "The autonomy I'm referring to isn't deciding on the script, but we should both make the decision. In the filming of the movie, we plan to use virtual reality technology. But since this is the first time virtual reality technology is going to be used in movie filming, the script has to be stricter in order to demonstrate the powerful effects of the technology. We can't use the special effects of Interstellar to film Village Love Story (1) right?"

[What's Village Love Story?]

Nolan took some time to process and understood what Jiang Chen meant before he nodded.

"I know what you mean. You can rest assured on this - Warner Brothers has a wealth of script resources. It's not difficult to select a quality sci-fi piece."

Jiang Chen nodded.

"I definitely trust your company's abilities, but while you work on the script, we'll provide some scripts for reference. The ultimate decision will be yours. You're the director after all, and I trust your abilities."

"It's my honor then," Nolan joked.

After the initial partnership was proposed, the details would be discussed by representatives sent from Warner Brothers.

After saying goodbye, Jiang Chen headed straight to Future Building to see Xia Shiyu. He asked a question the moment he saw her.

"How are our programmers-in-training doing?"

As early as the second round of internal testing for Godly Land, Future Technology hired a group of programmers and animation artists to receive training at Future Group's headquarters on virtual reality programming and model building. The programmers in the apocalypse were lacking and the modern world couldn't always rely on the apocalypse.

It was unpractical for less than one hundred programmers to provide services for billions of people.

They have to learn how to fly eventually.

"They mostly passed the technical training test. There are currently 31 people who are working in Future Technology and currently conducting maintenance for the virtual reality social media platform," Xia Shiyu replied.

"Excellent. Select 50 people from our talent reserves and form Virtual Image Animation Production company!"

"Animation production?" Xia Shiyu said, confused. "Are we trying to compete with Disney?"

"No, our competition is Industrial Light & Magic," said Jiang Chen with a smile. "Virtual Image's primary focus will be on VR film production, movie special effects, 3D animation, and game animation. The company will be a direct subsidiary of Future Group and the first project will be providing updates for Godly Land."

Xia Shiyu nodded.

Godly Land's updates had always been provided by the mysterious "scientific research institution." It had been two years and Xia Shiyu hadn't even had a glimpse of that mysterious institution. It was impossible for her not to worry.

Now that Future Group was rising internationally, if the mysterious "scientific research institution" suddenly stopped providing technical support for Future Group, the building would likely be on the brink of collapse.

Therefore, to master independent programming, scientific and technological research, and developmental capabilities were the top priorities for Future Technology. Even though Jiang Chen repeatedly promised Xia Shiyu there would be no problems, relying solely on an organization she had never seen before was too risky from any perspective!

After Xia Shiyu confirmed the focus of Virtual Image Animation Production Company, she immediately began working to establish the subsidiary.

Her execution abilities had always been impeccable!

On the second day, she finished drafting the operation plan and broke the subsidiary into five major functional departments making a total of 14 departments. She also selected the candidate for the CEO of the company.

The plan was uploaded to Jean's Office on the company server and was audited by Jiang Chen's artificial intelligence assistant. The details were adjusted based on references from the apocalypse. Finally, Jiang Chen finalized the plan!

Virtual Image, with 14 departments, didn't have just 50 people, but those 50 people made up the core technical team of the company! For the talents Future Group lacked, Jiang Chen used the simplest and most straightforward method.

He solved it with money.

They headhunted from Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar and acquired small to mid-sized CG production companies with potential. With Future Group's strong funding, Virtual Image quickly formed a 300-person team.

Their animation film with 100 million US dollars registered capital became a topic of interest in the industry.

The second day after Virtual Image completed its structure, Warner Brothers' representatives arrived at Coro and participated in negotiations with Future Technology.

This move certainly caught the attention of Hollywood reporters. The news of a potential partnership between Warner Brothers and Future Technology instantly made headlines across major news platforms and dominated both entertainment and business sections!

The announcement published on Warner Brothers' site confirmed the validity of the speculations.

The film was expected to use new VR film technology and would be led by famous director Christopher Nolan. People were all speculating about what kind of powerful film the partnership of a tech giant and entertainment conglomerate would bring to the movie addicts.

Inside a movie forum, a sci-fi fan posted:

"There's no need to guess - it must be a sci-fi! With Nolan's abilities combined with Future Technology's technology, it would be a waste not to film a sci-fi!"

But most action film fanatics didn't like that idea.

"That might not be the case. Since Hollywood's sci-fi only makes up a small portion of the market, perhaps Warner Bros will make Nolan do a DC movie. Batman Prequel X? Just the thought of it is amazing!"

"Okay, I agree that VR is great for action films, but won't it be even better in a sci-fi film?! I saw the player-created Godly Land film - the effects were phenomenal!"

"Are you sure you didn't mistake Nolan for Jackson?"

Just as the movie fanatics were arguing, a message on Future 1.0 ended all discussion.

It was a sci-fi film!

Chapter 687: Thank you for supporting me till the end

On Academy Drive in San Fran, young and energized faces filled and crowded the street. On this lovely weekend, even the most hardworking students who spent the majority of their days inside the library and lab decided to spend some quality time with their friends outside.

At a coffee shop at the corner of the street, a young-looking barista hustled between the coffee tables. Under his black hair was a clean and handsome face. His black pupils were profoundly unsuited to his age and had a deepness contrasting the brightness outside the window.

His eyes quickly met with a pair of green eyes.

"Do you have to leave?"

Bathing in the sunshine scattered through the window, her blonde hair was bright. Her watery eyes expressed a longing for him to stay, but he couldn't respond to her message.

Li Ming dodged her eyes, let out a sigh, and gently put the coffee cup on the table.

"Sorry, Louise. Something happened to my family and they can no longer afford to support me studying aboard…"

His father was a Doctor at the Han Academy of Science. His father's work inspired him from an early age and he possessed an extraordinary talent in science. He had always been interested in science. While reading relevant science books, he also wrote articles.

After completing high school, he was admitted to San Fran State University from his excellent TOEFL and SAT scores and he majored in bioengineering. However, close to the end of graduation, bad news came from his family.

Three years ago, to cover his expensive tuition, his father, who was humble and honest, collected a sum of money that shouldn't be collected and helped a person who shouldn't be helped… Normally speaking, it wasn't a big deal, but the person he got involved with was Director Li at the Material Science Research Institute.

A week ago, the higher-ups suddenly ordered the Han Academy of Sciences to thoroughly investigate the rats in the system; Director Li was immediately sacked along with a large number of others. It seemed to be related to the Nobel Prize-winning nominee, which received scrutiny from the top and even alerted the Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The original minor problems were magnified. If his mother hadn't used up their family savings, his father wouldn't just be facing an investigation but would already be thrown in jail. In order to settle the matter, the family spent six hundred thousand already.

The family had no money to support him anymore...

The eyes of the girl called Louise slowly became wet.

"Are you going to give up three years of school and give up… on me?"

Li Ming was afraid to meet her determined eyes. He quietly said,

"Sorry, you're a good girl. I'm not good enough for you."

Working part-time in the coffee shop wasn't enough to support him in his last year of school.

Upon hearing his answer, the sadness in Louise's eyes was replaced by determination.

"I don't need your apology!"

Then she slapped a newspaper on the table and stared directly into Li Ming's eyes.

"I already signed you up. I read the novels you wrote before - you have the ability to compete in this!"

"This is...?" Li Ming paused for a second as he looked at the newspaper and read its headline.

But what attracted him wasn't the headline; it was the following sentences.

The deadline for submission is within one week with an unlimited number of words. Works that have been published are not excluded as long as proof of copyright is provided.

Interested parties can submit their scripts on Future Technology's official site!>

[One million US dollars, if I have this money ...]

Li Ming was moved by the opportunity, but he then shook his head.

With such an attractive price, all the sci-fi authors around the world would try for it. He was just a casual writer. While he shared his work on sci-fi forums before and although he had published his work in magazines back home, he had no courage to compete in this world-class competition.

Even if he did submit his work, it would be forgotten in the flood of submissions.

"Are you just going to give up?" Louise gazed at him.

"This isn't about giving up or not." Rather than gambling on the probability, it was better to buy the lottery.

"So you're not willing to even try?"

Her voice smashed the hesitation in Li Ming's chest.

[That's right…]

[Am I afraid to even try now?]

[I arrogantly said that I want to become a world-famous writer, have my work translated into 12 languages, and stand proudly atop the Hugo Awards podium! Now, however, an opportunity is in front of me and in the face of an opportunity that may change my destiny, I don't have the courage to reach for it…]

"I…"

Louise watched him. She held his hand and gave him the courage through her warmth. "I saw your novel. It was the first time I was fascinated by science fiction. You know, I never read those types of stories before. "

"Thank you."

Looking back at her encouraging eyes, Li Ming's eyes no longer had any hesitation. A bright expression returned to his face and he dropped the tray in his arms.

"Go now. I'll tell your boss that you quit."

"Mhmm." Li Ming nodded sincerely and ran out.

He only had one week, so every second was valuable. After he dashed back to his apartment, he slammed the door shut and locked himself in the small room. He dragged out a paper box from under his bed that held countless scripts he wrote before.

There were short stories and long publications.

He opened his computer, forced himself to enter "the zone" in the shortest amount of time, and placed the scripts in front of him.

He knew if he submitted a casual script to the contest, he had no chance of winning at all. But were these scripts useless? No! It was because of these scripts that his perspective on sci-fi was consolidated. Every single word contained within these scripts were written with his heart. just like the bricks that built the skyscraper in his heart.

In that week, he locked himself in his room. Aside from going to the washroom and eating, he didn't leave his room at all. His fingers typed furiously on his keyboard, leaving shadows behind. Without any other thought in his mind, he felt his mind was flowing.

The scenes appeared in his stories before; now he just needed to piece them together into a complete picture.

And gamble on his destiny.

Finally, when the seventh ray of sunshine scattered through the blinds, he typed the last period, looked up with his panda-like eyes, and stared at the clock on the wall.

Five hours left before the deadline. He did it!

He copied and pasted the story before he clicked submit. 300 thousand words in a week far exceeded his limits, but when he managed to complete this feat, he only felt calm and at peace.

"Name: Time Curtain

"Submission Completed"

Regardless of the outcome, he already exerted all his efforts. He just wanted to turn off the light and sleep.

But before he could walk to the bed, he dozed off on the table…

Two weeks of dreadful waiting.

Finally, he received an email from Future Technology. With inexplicable and complicated emotions, he clicked on the email with trembling fingers.

When he saw the first line of words on the email, his heartbeat stopped.

His eyes teared up.

His mother taught him from a young age that men shouldn't cry easily. But despite knowing that, tears uncontrollably rolled down and splashed onto the floor.

He took out his phone and called Louise.

"Meet me at the coffee shop… I have something I want to tell you in person."

There was a long silence over the phone.

"Wait for me."

Louise hung up.

He took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and his weariness was swept away. He pushed open the door and bathed under the bright sunshine once again. Under the blue sky and white clouds, it felt somewhat reminiscent to him. Everything on the street shifted from black and white to color; he saw the beauty of life again.

He stopped a taxi.

When he got into the taxi, he called his mother to tell her not to worry about his tuition. It wouldn't be much longer before he would receive a large sum of money. Not only could he afford his tuition and living expenses, but he could also send money home… [Don't worry, it wasn't unclean money. It was my reward.]

The taxi stopped at the coffee shop.

The moment he got out of the car, he saw a youthful and beautiful figure.

Louise hopped on him and buried herself in his arms.

"Don't say anything. If you have to leave… I'll go with you."

"No, no need." Li Ming shook his head as he stared into her eyes.

"Why?" Louise's eyes were immediately filled with tears of sorrow.

"Because…" Suddenly, his face was covered with a beautiful smile. "I won!"

The two tightly embraced each other. Tears rolled down, but they weren't out of sorrow.

Thank you, thank you for supporting me till the end…

"You bastard, I thought…" Louise punched him tearfully.

Li Ming let her tears and fists hit him on the chest. Tears also rolled down his face, but he was smiling.

"Future Technology invited us to the signing and ceremony on Coro Island. They'll provide us with the tickets. Louise, will you go with me?"

"Yes, I will!"

Chapter 688: Time Curtain

Future Technology's allure was indeed unprecedented. The company received 170281 scripts which were equivalent to the listings on some web novel sites.

Of course, it wasn't just Future Technology's name - the one million in prizes also played a role.

The massive number of documents meant it was impossible to manually complete the review process. It was time for Jiang Chen's "assistant".

For Jean, there was no inherent difference between 170281 and 1782. The computation speed of the quantum computer could read through billions of words in an instant.

The only problematic thing was that because she was just intermediate artificial intelligence, while she had the ability to think, she didn't possess any human emotions.

Without emotions, she obviously wouldn't understand the beauty hidden inside the words and it would be impossible for her to rate the submissions. She could only filter the text based on the settings Jiang Chen set.

Anything less than 100 thousand words were eliminated. It was too difficult to rewrite that into a script with a plot that could fill a three-hour film.

Works over one million words were also removed. He was planning to make a movie, not a drama series.

Works with more than 50 grammatical errors, awkward logic, and obvious plot holes were among the factors considered; only a few thousand works remained after that. Of course, there might've been gold dusted out along with the sand, but the quality of the remaining works would definitely be of higher quality.

The first round of selections took five seconds, but the second round took two weeks!

With Nolan's lead, Warner Brothers employees began to manually review the English. Chinese works were the responsibility of Future Group.

In order to be fair and open, Warner Brothers invited the World Science Fiction Association, which was the sponsor of the Hugo Awards, to participate in the selection process. Of course, the opinions of the judges were only for reference and did not have a direct impact on the results of the selection process.

After two weeks of selection.

Finally, after much anticipation, Future Technology and Warner Brothers jointly announced their winners on the official website. All winners would be reimbursed for their airfare expenses to attend a grand award ceremony on Coro Island and sign with Future Technology.

At the end of the ceremony, Jiang Chen went to see Nolan.

A total of ten works were selected, but they still needed to discuss to select the top work.

The entire event costed a total of 15 million US dollar to select the right screenplay. Future Technology's willingness to invest certainly made Mr. Nolan feel immense pressure. When they met, he said:

"If we were just trying to create hype, didn't we invest too much?"

"But from the results, our reward is satisfying, isn't it?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Nolan revealed a helpless expression. "I can't disagree on that point, and on that point alone."

In all the works submitted to Future Technology, there were pieces of some emerging writers as well as some novels that had been popular for a long time and had a high demand for an adaptation. Obviously, it wasn't only fans of science fiction films but science fiction writers' enthusiasm for this open contest was also frivolous.

As they went through the list from the top, Jiang Chen exchanged opinions with Nolan, one by one.

"What about 'Civilization' by Ian M. Banks? The most famous space opera science fiction in the 1980s."

"It's too difficult to adapt a series of novels." Nolan shrugged bluntly.

"Then what about the 'Dust in God's Eyes'? Larry Neven's story of the first contact between humans and extraterrestrial intelligent creatures is very interesting. The expedition team, composed of naval officers and soldiers, and businessmen and scientists, was also exciting. Their approach of: 'In the case of contact with nonhuman intelligent creatures, we must assume the other side is hostile' is also quite interesting."

"That book is on my shortlist." Nolan laughed.

"Haha, can you tell me about the lucky ones on your list?"

"In addition to this, there's 'the Fire on the Abyss.' I used to discuss the possibility of adapting this science fiction masterpiece with my younger brother Jonathan, but we finally decided we couldn't film this.

"Not possible to do it?"

"That's right. The scale of the universe described in this book is too great. Three worlds and countless races - even Industrial Light and Magic can't recreate the essence of this work." Nolan looked at Jiang with eyes full of hope. "Could Virtual Image's VR imaging technology do it?"

When Jiang Chen heard Nolan's question, his mouth twitched.

"There's no problem in theory, but three worlds ... the production cycle is probably going to be quite long."

Nolan also knew his proposal was impossible, so he sighed.

"That's really a pity ..."

But when he went down the list, he stumbled on an unfamiliar name.

"'Time Curtain' - what's this?"

"Oh, this, ah, I was planning to recommend this to you," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

"Author ... Li Ming?" Christopher furrowed his brows as he had never heard of the name.

Although the works weren't rigidly attached to the authors'names, since he never heard this name before, he instinctively donned his tinted glasses.

However, Jiang Chen didn't mind and began to introduce the plot.

"This book is on my list of candidates. Although the writing and character shaping aren't as carefully crafted, the depth of thought is unexpectedly at a masters level, and the point of view is also very fascinating. In 2070, the world's climate is no longer suitable for human survival, nor is the world's space weather. The International Astronautics Federation launched a colonization ship called 'Borderlands,' heading for Kepler 22b 600 lightyears away."

"Because of the slow effects of the speed of light, when the Borderlands arrived on Kepler 22b, tens of thousands of years had passed since they left. When they entered this alien land, they discovered the ruins of human civilization and alien species. Evidence suggested that a second colonization ship was launched by the International Astronautic Federation a year after 2070. They just didn't know why they were ahead on the time scale and had long disappeared."

"The extraterrestrial civilization on the planet was still in its infancy, but whether it was indigenous peoples who were enlightened by the remnants of human civilization or those who came from earth themselves wasn't known. What was even more interesting are the later stories. The conflicts and suspense are carefully orchestrated. I won't spoil things for you; you should read it yourself."

"Just from your description, this story is certainly interesting. But how did you pick this book out of so many works?" Nolan asked.

"I didn't choose this, but my assistant recommended it to me," Jiang replied.

This confused Jiang Chen the most.

What logic did Jean, without a concept of emotion or aesthetics, use to recommend him this piece? Jiang Chen asked Jean before, but Jean couldn't answer the question. She only used a vague and humane way to respond to the question: "Because it's interesting?"

Although the theme was impressive, it wasn't stellar by definition. The concept of time wasn't a novel concept in the sci-fi world. While the topic escalated to a discussion of civilization, this point didn't add too much complexity.

But after reading the work, Jiang Chen had to admit that Jean didn't lie to him; the work was indeed fascinating.

"It's too early to make a decision. I'll go back, read this book and I'll give you a reply tomorrow." Then Nolan stood up and looked at Jiang Chen.

"I'm looking forward to your good news." Jiang Chen smiled.

Nolan raised his eyebrows and jokingly whispered.

"I've always been picky with the script."

"Believe me, you'll love it."

Chapter 689: An Unexpected Visitor

It wasn't until three days later that Nolan gave Jiang Chen a reply.

"I made my decision! Jonathan and I both felt the novel is spectacular, and he's already begun adapting the script. It's incredible that an unknown author could actually write such an amazing piece!"

Jonathan was Christopher's younger brother, but he also a well-known Hollywood screenwriter. The movie "Momento" directed by Christopher was based on the short story "Memento Mori," written by Jonathan. In 2002, Jonathan also won the 74th Academy Awards best original screenwriter due to the movie. The adaptations of the script and his brother's film had a common denominator.

Dark themes!

Incredibly dark and depressing themes!

Whether it was Dark Knight or Interstellar, dark themes ran through the films. It was because of the impact on viewers' minds that drew viewers into the world they created.

While Jiang Chen was surprised by the contrasting attitude Nolan had for Time Curtain, he didn't probe further. Time Curtain was on his shortlist to begin with, and the fact that it was a Han work also made him pleased.

At the same time, Virtual Image began to create VR scenes for Kepler 22b, Borderlands, and Aliens. Filming would be done in a VR environment and not the traditional "green screen" film set in which actors had to use their imaginations.

Hans Zimmer was responsible for the soundtrack. He was the film score composer behind the masterpiece soundtracks of Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, and other well-known masterpieces. It would be his sixth collaboration with Nolan.

While the cast hadn't been determined, the screenwriter, director, and soundtrack would use the original team from Interstellar.

According to the contract signed between Warner Brothers and Future Technology, the film would be co-funded by both parties. It was expected that the adaptation of the script would be completed in mid-December, while filming would begin after Christmas.

In the face of journalists and fanatical fans, Nolan made an announcement in front of the camera.

"You probably haven't heard of the novel Time Curtain, but that's not relevant. You must've heard about me and my brother's names. Believe me, I won't let you down. I can't disclose the details of the film, but one thing I can tell you is that Virtual Image Company will create a universe for our movie!"

The cheers of the crowd displayed the people's enthusiasm.

For a joint investment blockbuster with Warner Brothers, Jiang Chen himself was full of expectations!

…

Facts proved that entertainment news would always have more market than serious news.

Before Christmas, the internet hotly debated which movie stars would star in Time Curtain. It got to the point that news of Future Heavy Industrial world's first supercomputer graphene chip outperforming Intel, and Qualcomm and other well-known international chip makers was ignored by the public.

Perhaps the media and public were already accustomed to incredible outcomes from Future Group so it was no surprise they were leading the graphene chip race. Production quietly started, with the first batch of 100 thousand ultra-chips fitted onto the shipping vessel headed for the port of Wanghai.

It wasn't until then that the Western media finally realized.

The chip embargo that the UA imposed on Hua was thus silently broken.

However, this infuriated Intel. When the UA Department of Commerce announced the embargo, Kozic expressed doubts that the embargo was simply meaningless; a unilateral embargo would only force Hua to independently develop ultra-chips as well as force Intel to lose Hua Supercomputer Center orders.

And his concerns had become a reality.

The Dragon Cavalry X1 ultra-chip not only broke the UA embargo but also ended the country's long-term dependence on the UA ultra-chip. At the same time, Future Heavy Industrial providing Godson Technology with the lix architecture would also completely change the bipolar pattern of the processor market dominated by x86, ARM architecture.

In addition, according to rumors, after the Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou announced the operation efficiency of Tianhe No.2 after the "change core," the Dragon Calgary X1 immediately drew the attention of Switzerland. Currently, Future Heavy Industrial was negotiating with the Swiss National Supercomputer Center (CSCS) to provide orders for its creation of the fastest supercomputer center in Europe.

Future Heavy Industrial had begun to seize Intel's market share in Europe!

Kozic, who just received the graphene technology patent license, began to feel uneasy again. If Intel didn't work hard, it was likely to face the same outcome as Kodak.

A strong sense of urgency had given birth to newer technologies. In mid-December, Intel held a press conference announcing the first graphene chips based on X86-derived architecture would be used in PCs, smartphones, tablets, and other areas. The company also promised to investors that it would invest at least 1.5 billion USD in research and development of graphene chips by 2018.

On the third day after Intel held its press conference, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, and other companies also held press conferences to publicize their research achievements on graphene chips.

News commenters joked that these press briefings were simply unannounced shareholder meetings; they weren't meant to promote the product but to save the shaky prices.

And that was indeed true.

When investors saw the companies they invested in weren't letting research go down the drain, their mood began to stabilize as they stopped dumping stocks. Future Heavy Industrial's silence allowed investment expectations to rise and rising stock prices finally made the semiconductor chip makers relieved.

Thank God, at least they could enjoy Christmas happily.

Christmas was coming, and Coro Island was filled with the holiday spirit.

Christmas trees stood in front of shops, and rattans and ribbons hung around houses as decorations. There were girls in short skirts everywhere on the streets.

Because of its history as a British colony, Christmas was an important holiday only second to the Lunar New Year on this island. It was one of the statutory holidays for Xin.

However, due to the weather, it was impossible to see an authentic Santa Claus on the island. If someone was wearing a big red jacket, he would certainly get heat stroke.

On Coro Island, where every season is summer, snow was just an unrealistic fantasy.

Right now, at the mansion on the southernmost tip of the island, it was filled with the same festive spirit. With the help of drones, Ayesha, wearing just a short Christmas skirt, was busy decorating every corner of the house.

Compared to the holiday itself, she enjoyed "dressing up" the house more. Jiang Chen's joy was watching her change into the short skirt and tank top.

"No… Uh, wait till I finish decorating the house?"

Ayesha held onto the ladder while she buried her red face into the soft decorations hung on the Christmas tree. She gently bit her lips while she begged with a quiet voice.

But she didn't realize her gentle voice didn't sound sincere at all.

At least in Jiang Chen's eyes.

"I'll help you in a bit."

"No..."

Ayesha put the decorations on the top of the ladder and closed her eyes. Her long eyelashes trembled with her heartbeat. Looking at her timid expression, Jiang Chen began to make his move with a smirk.

But just as he was about to –

Dingdong.

The sound of a bell came from the living room.

"Someone's here."

Ayesha blushed, jumped off the ladder, and ran to the bedroom.

She'd would rather kill herself than allow Natasha or Xia Shiyu to see her clothes.

Seeing as there was a guest, Jiang Chen had to stop and walk downstairs.

But just as he was passing by the window, he saw someone he didn't expect through the window.

Hermione… Emma Watson?

Chapter 690: Emma's Reques

Emma Watson had deliberately put on light makeup. She had on a white dress and stylish beach sandals; she looked dignified but also had the sharpness of a Queen. With her red lips, she looked playful and enchanting. However, when she pressed the doorbell, her expression wasn't as calm as Hermione, but it was somewhat unnatural and anxious.

Yes, people always associated her with Hermione.

If she starred in any movie, most people would never say "Look, that's Emma Watson's movie!" Instead, they would say, "Look, the actress is Hermione!"

Emma became famous from a young age, but like all the other Harry Potter teens, she didn't have a lot of spectacular roles outside of the series.

For her, her entire life was destined to be bound to Hermione Granger. By the age of 10, she defeated thousands of girls of her age and won the role of Hermione. Given the immense influence of the movie series "Harry Potter," it was no exaggeration to say that she would have a hard time shaping the stage for her acting career beyond the "Hermione Granger" character for a long time.

For an actor, this weakness was fatal.

However, the partnership between Future Group and Warner Brothers allowed her to see hope.

Now, the outside world was heatedly debating the movie which would be using VR technology for the first time and which lucky actors and actresses would be selected.

Warner Brothers had a lot of actors and everyone wanted the opportunity. Emma was only one of many. While she had a good reputation, she hadn't won an Oscar and couldn't be called a premier Hollywood movie star.

It was difficult to compete for the role with her peers.

But she still had a fighting chance.

Given her partnership with Future Biology on nutrient supply endorsements, if Future Group put in a recommendation, Warner Brothers would seriously consider the proposal by their partner. Although she had no chance of being the protagonist in a nearly 100 million USD investment production, she could still compete for a supporting role.

Yesterday, her agent talked to her, hoping she could get this opportunity. Her agent even hinted that she should take the initiative to talk to Jiang Chen about it...

[God, this is crazy!]

As someone with high self-esteem, this was a request that was simply unacceptable to her. She had always tried to take on the role of an empowered woman and spoke about political correctness.

Just as her thoughts were running wild, the screen at the door lit up.

"Can I help you?" Jiang Chen pleasantly asked.

She took a deep breath, adjusted her mood, and smiled at Jiang Chen on the screen.

"Are you not going to invite me in?"

Jiang Chen put on a face of sudden realization and gave her a friendly smile.

"My mistake."

With a clanking sound, the metal gate opened.

Emma looked at the opened gate, took a breath again, and walked inside.

After walking on the paved marble footpath, Emma was prepared to knock on the door, but the door opened.

A beautiful girl opened the door. She had slightly curly hair and a pair of sapphire eyes.

"Hello, I'm Emma Watson ..."

"Ayesha." The girl blinked her eyes. After she introduced myself, she turned around. "Please come with me, master will be waiting in the living room."

Although she had met Jiang Chen at the party and knew about his easy-going character, she felt a little nervous sitting on the couch across from him.

The girl named Ayesha was pouring a cup of black tea for her. After thanking Ayesha, she gently took a sip and looked at Jiang Chen. However, when she and Jiang Chen sat face to face, she blanked out and forgot the speech she originally prepared.

"Is the tea good?" Jiang Chen smiled and asked to resolve her awkwardness.

Emma nodded quickly and said: "Very tasty."

"I think Miss Emma certainly isn't here to drink afternoon tea with me. What can I do for you?"

She had her hands tightly intertwined together and her thumbs twisted on her knees. Finally, she made up her mind; Emma confidently looked at Jiang Chen and made her request.

"I hope to participate in Time Curtain."

Jiang Chen looked at her, somewhat puzzled. He opened his hands and said:

"Future Group's Virtual Image is only responsible for providing technical support and does not participate in the filming of Time Curtain. If I remember correctly, the screening should be in Los Santos."

"I participated in the screening a few days ago."

"Oh? The result?" Jiang Chen asked.

"No news yet," Emma said, embarrassed.

Instead of answering her request, Jiang Chen's next question appeared irrelevant.

"Have you read the book yet?"

"Yes." Emma nodded.

Future Technology had bought the "Time Curtain" copyright from Li Ming; the digital book could now be downloaded from Future Technology's site and could be read online.

"Then in your opinion, which character in the book is most suitable for you?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

"I screened for the deputy captain, but there were many people competing for this role, and I'm afraid I'll lose ..."

She didn't go to Warner Brothers but instead came to see the partner of Warner Brothers, which was certainly suspicious-looking. For someone of such high self-esteem, making such a request was really difficult.

But when she realized that this character was critical to her acting career, she spoke in a sincere tone.

"I hope you can help me."

Clever, wise, courageous, egalitarian, native of England - a lot qualities in one character. The deputy captain named Jennifer could be said to be tailor-made for Emma. Jiang Chen, who grew up watching "Harry Potter," was also very interested to see "Hermione" appearing in his own investment.

But he didn't expect the dignified "Miss Hermione" would lower her head and ask him for a favor. Could what the media suggested - that her activist image was only a facade - be true?

Jiang Chen looked at Emma, intrigued.

Don't be mistaken, he had no ill-thoughts; he was just being playful!

"How do you want me to help you?"

Emma's pretty face turned a dark red, and even her eyes tensed up.

"I…"

"I?" Jiang Chen knowingly asked.

"I want you to help me convince Nolan to select me to take the role of deputy captain in the film." She quickly articulated a sentence she never would've said before. She wanted to find a hole in the ground and bury herself inside.

Jiang Chen looked at Emma, half-smiling.

"What about the other actors competing fairly? Last time I heard from Nolan, he said Kristen Stewart, who played Bella in Twilight, also screened for this role."

"There's rarely fair competition in Hollywood screenings unless it's for a supporting role," Emma whispered defiantly.

It was obvious that she wasn't used to asking for favors.

"Oh? Miss Emma wants to use my connections?"

Emma's face was so red that it looked like blood was about to drip out. Her bitten lips almost looked bruised.

"I can help you," Jiang Chen said.

"Eh?"

Emma was shocked.

She originally thought Jiang Chen would make some inappropriate demands and she was about to just walk out. But Jiang Chen's words surprised her. Without any conditions, he agreed to help her.

Seeing Emma's shock, Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

"Do you have any questions?"

"No." Emma shook her head quickly.

After a short pause, she whispered.

"Thank you."

"No problem." Jiang Chen smiled. "Since you signed a long term endorsement deal with Future Biology, increasing your influence will also help us. And I'm personally looking forward to your performance."

Her anxiety and tension suddenly disappeared. A confident smile returned to Emma's face.

"I won't let you down."

From her pressing the doorbell till now, it was the first time Jiang Chen was able to see a shadow of Hermione.

When Emma left, Jiang Chen saw Ayesha looking at him intriguingly. He tousled her hair.

"What are you thinking?"

"That's strange." Ayesha tilted her head while she enjoyed Jiang Chen's massage.

"Strange?"

"You didn't make any demands."

"… Am I that type of person?" Jiang Chen gave Ayesha a hard stare as he grunted.

[I'm not that sick-minded, am I?]

[Although I agree, it's a tempting proposal.]

At the same time, Emma turned around at the gate and whispered to herself.

"What a strange person."

She shook her head, stopped a taxi, and disappeared at the end of the street.

Chapter 691: Doctor Amos' New Discovery

Emma's request made Jiang Chen realize the problem with selecting roles for the movie.

With the thought that it was no different suggesting one or two people, when Jiang Chen called Nolan, he mentioned the name Liu Yao.

"There is no problem with Miss Watson, her performance and acting skills are excellent. Kristen and she are both one of the best candidates for Captain Jennifer. Since it is your side's request, giving her the role is no problem. Just ... who is Liu Yao?" Nolan frowned.

"It's my friend. If it is convenient, just give her a minor role."

"Does she have experience in acting?" Nolan worriedly asked.

"Don't worry, she is quite famous in Han. Her acting skills are great."

"Then no problem, we'll provide her with a screening opportunity. But if she is not selected…"

"It's okay if she is not selected; just give her a screening opportunity. If she doesn't fit, just replace her with someone else, no need to be concerned of my side," Jiang Chen said.

Nolan nodded.

He was mostly worried about Jiang Chen forcefully demanding a role for her. It would be unpleasant for both sides if he had to change the person, therefore, he warned Jiang Chen beforehand.

"I'm very picky about my role selection, tell her to be prepared."

"No problem."

Jiang Chen hung up the phone before he called Liu Yao.

"Hello? Do you miss me?"

"I miss you so much! Why did you remember to call me?" Liu Yao said joyfully.

"I can't call you if I don't have anything to do?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Of course not."

"Are you going to be free any time soon?"

"Fortunately, I just finished a movie and I'm now in my free period. My agent is helping me to contact the next movie and this time she recommended I try to challenge the female lead role."

"Female lead... ah... pity," Jiang Chen regretfully said, "I helped you contact a movie, but unfortunately is only a supporting role. Forget about it."

Liu Yao paused for a moment.

"A supporting role? Wait, which movie is it?"

"I think the name is… Time Curtain?"

Time Curtain!?

Liu Yao was astonishment.

Of course she had heard the name before, it was the movie co-filmed by Warner Brothers and Future Technology! The film was based on a novel by a Han writer. Any novel who received international awards would be highly portrayed in the country.

Participating in this film will without a doubt help her acting career greatly.

She just didn't think Jiang Chen would remember her for such an important movie…

[I'm only a mistress…]

"Are you not interested? Then I will give the role to someone else."

"Hello! Screw you… Don't bully me!" Tears rolled down to her smiling lips. She rubbed her eyes and coyly said.

The voice was trembling because of her emotions.

"Haha, I will stop teasing you. I already mentioned this to the director. Go buy a ticket to Los Santos and go screen at Warner Brothers."

"I love you so much, mua!"

"Don't be so happy yet, I'm only here to provide the opportunity. It is up to you to see if you can grasp onto the opportunity." Jiang Chen smiled, "Nolan is very picky with the acting of his cast. It is ultimately up to you to see if you can become a world class premier movie star."

Although Liu Yao became popular in Ma Dongmei's Brother a year ago, her popularity remained domestic. As a star that just entered the scene, her international presence was minimal.

It was a great opportunity for her to enter Hollywood through Time Curtain.

It was up to herself to see how well she could act in the supporting role.

…

Movie related tasks were put aside for now.

During the afternoon, Doctor Amos called and invited Jiang Chen to his lab stating he wanted to display his newest research achievement.

Arriving at Future Building, Jiang Chen took the elevator to the first floor.

Doctor Amos' daughter opened the door for him; that blonde loli afraid of strangers. But this time she didn't just run back to her father and instead, took him to the lab.

Perhaps because Jiang Chen often visited, she was used to the uncle…

If Jiang Chen knew that the loli already viewed him as an uncle, he would certainly have a mixture of emotions.

When Jiang Chen pushed opened the door, he saw Doctor Amos working on the back of a robot's brain with a precise welding torch.

Amos, who sensed Jiang Chen's presence, didn't turn his head. He closed the torch and connected the wires to the head before he started to ramble.

"Whoever invented the graphene chip is a genius! I installed Dragon Calvary X1 on the robot, take a guess what happened? Millian, go back to your room."

"Mhmm."

The little loli nodded sensibly. She threw her squirrel-tail like ponytails and ran outside of the lab.

Jiang Chen examined the layout of the lab before he focused on the robot brain on the table.

"What happened?"

Amos typed on the keyboard and inputted a few commands on the computer.

"An even more powerful robot!"

"… Can I interpret you as saying bullsh*t?" Jiang Chen looked at him, speechless.

Even as an outsider, Jiang Chen knew that using a ultra-chip on the robot is equal to changing a CPU for the robot which meant a more powerful computational power.

"No, no, no," Amos grinned, his eyes were replaced with zealous light as he pointed at the Phantom Helmet on the side, "Put on the helmet and try, I promise you will be astonished with what you will see!"

Jiang Chen looked at him with skepticism and picked up the helmet.

Doctor Amos owned Future Technology's highest S level technology permission which includes neural connection, the artificial intelligence database, seabed mining, and other non-public technology. Other people may not be able to open and modify the Phantom, but he could redesign one with the equipment in the lab.

But the cost of peaking at the technology a century ahead was that he must live under the monitor of a Ghost Agent for the rest of his life. Every message he sends and receives must be audited by Jean…

He lost all of his privacy and freedom.

Jiang Chen was not afraid that he would hurt him, he just didn't understand what he wanted to say.

"Put it on and try." Amos rushed in excitement.

Jiang Chen hesitantly put on the helmet and pressed the on switch for the helmet.

Then, he opened his eyes…

The scene before him was astonishing.

Chapter 692: Neural Connection

For the people of the 21st century, the real world and virtual world were only defined by a thin line. This was especially true after the introduction of virtual reality helmets.

Jiang Chen brought Doctor Amos' research work and paper back to the apocalypse and handed it to Lin Lin.

Lin Lin opened her digitalized eyes and used ten minutes to digest the content of the paper, then she sighed.

"Regardless of the era, there will always be geniuses."

"What do you think about this paper… and the technology?" Jiang Chen asked.

"It's perfect."

Even Lin Lin, who did not have the most humble attitude, praised the technology.

As to what happened when Jiang Chen put on the helmet, let's set the time back by two hours.

…

Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

No, precisely speaking, the robot's head on the table opened its eyes.

He saw Doctor Amos, himself with the helmet, the mirror in front of him, and himself in the mirror.

"Neural connection! And the more advanced spiritual connection! Don't you think it is fascinating? God. I feel like I'm a wizard from the Middle Age that could implant a person's soul into a doll…"

"This is truly fascinating… could you deactivate this state for me?"

The speaker and not his vocal cord made the sound, it was a magical experience. But even then, the empty feeling below his neck made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Don't worry, this thing won't last long." Amos opened his hands and shrugged.

The voice died down and Jiang Chen's vision was cutout with his consciousness returning to his body, he took off the helmet on his head. He threw the helmet aside and immediately asked.

"What is going on here?"

"Because of the large amount of data that must be processed, even Dragon Calvary X1 could only last half a minute. I considered using my design to increase the efficiency of the processing, but it is not my field of expertise. Perhaps it is more feasible to simplify the code of the operating system to increase the efficiency…" Amos let out a sigh.

Doctor Amos clearly didn't realize what kind of terrifying technology he created.

Jiang Chen was uncertain if the technology existed in the apocalypse.

Therefore, he brought Amos' research work and paper back to the apocalypse to see Lin Lin.

But the response he received made him even more stunned.

"In my memory, the technology didn't even exist before the war. As you should know, the Scientific Ethics Committee conducts technical reviews of all research institutes, if any of which is proven to be anti-human or may be used as 'low-cost terror attacks' research would been banned, such as antimatter or digitalized humans... They are just like medieval magistrates, except that the Bible is a universally recognized universal value. "

Lin Lin then took a moment to think before she continued.

"Transcribing your mind onto the circuit board obviously has violated the relevant regulations and will surely be stopped when it is discovered ... Of course, this is not absolute. My father, for example, started with support from a PAC Consortium and started an inhumane research project. Perhaps it might be stored in a non-public lab?"

According to Lin Lin's introduction, the principle of Doctor Amos's research results was actually very simple.

Most Phantom Helmets used Xin's quantum computer as processor with itself only as a "modem" for both neural and electrical signals. In theory, as long one gained the access right to change the helmet operating system, it is not impossible to use other supercomputers as a server.

Based on this theory, Doctor Amos used the chip of the robot to act as the "server" for the Phantom Helmet. The Phantom will read the signal sent out by the human brain and return to the ultra-chip on the robot's brain while accepting the feedback from the chip and sending back to the human brain.

Regular chips definitely can't process such a large amount of information, but the ultra-chip can.

Precisely speaking, Dragon Calvary X1 can!

While it sounded simple on paper, there were many difficulties in the execution. Therefore, Doctor Amos received praise from Lin Lin despite never having met him before just because of the execution. While he was standing on the giant's shoulder, he saw the scenery even the giant has never seen before.

Just wear a helmet, keep the signal connection, and one could survive in the form of a robot. Only limited by technical problems, the Dragon Cavalry X1 ultra-chip also couldn't process for a long time. Perhaps when the Dragon Cavalry XN is released could the problem be solved.

However, this problem was actually nothing for Jiang Chen.

After all, the gap between the apocalypse and the modern world, even an ordinary home computer processor computing efficiency was far superior than the super-chip Dragon Cavalry X1.

Did Jiang Chen know clearly the implication of this technology?

Disabilities, aging, and terminally ill people could wear their helmets or put their brains more directly into the culture tank as long as their brains are intact and live in this world with their digitalized bodies. As long as the signal is good, people who are physically deficient can even be healthier than normal people!

High-risk, high-intensity work can be done by the robot, but the direct manipulation of the human brain makes the robot equipped with human resilience and creativity. Robots that connect their mind to their circuit boards will have a much broader application prospect than robots that are good at repetitive operations!

Not only in civil areas but also war applications!

Imagine that a paratrooper is not a flesh-and-blood human, but a robot warrior controlled by a "helmet player." They are not afraid of bullets, nor do they even fear death itself. They could rampage in the battlefield covered by heavy artillery... Of course, perhaps an EMP or wide-area electromagnetic shielding can make them break down as electronic warfare is their weakness. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why soldiers of the flesh were not replaced by drones even in the Third World War.

Of course, the technology was still in its infancy. It was still far from allowing humans to control robots like the way they control their body, there was a long way to go. And this route may not be shorter than the warp engine Jiang Lin was still working on.

When Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, he came to see Doctor Amos again and put ten chips inside a metal box in his hands.

Amos looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled.

"This is?"

"A chip that is superior to the Dragon Calvary X1 in every aspect; it is still in its testing phase," Jiang Chen said.

"Testing phase… is this useable?"

"Why don't you try? I can guarantee you one point; that is that the computation efficiency of this chip is at least ten times the Dragon Calvary X1."

It was the chip for the Reptile drone after all. It was superior both in the chip process technology and design. It was at least ten generations ahead of the early 21st century graphene chips.

Amos stared at Jiang Chen in bewilderment as he exclaimed.

"God… how much more stuff do you have?"

"I don't how as much good stuff as God has, but I still have more. Do you want to know where the chip is from?" Jiang Chen looked at him with a grin.

Amos shook his head with determination.

"No need, I feel like if I know about this secret, I probably won't be able to leave this basement."

A wise choice.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn't continue with the topic. He patted him on the shoulder.

"If you used all the chips, report it to through Jean and someone will send you more chips. I have confidence in you. I also believe this technology will change the world!"

Chapter 693: Christmas Eve and Vodka

Fortunately, Jiang Chen headed out so Ayesha could finish decorating before Christmas Eve. If he was around to make a "mess", perhaps the decorations wouldn't be up until tomorrow morning. During the evening, Natasha and Xia Shiyu simultaneously showed up at Jiang Chen's place.

"My parents don't celebrate Christmas… And umm, it is a statuary holiday at work, and I have nothing to do. Therefore, I'm here," Xia Shiyu at door, with gifts in her hands, said embarrassedly.

"Don't look at me, I don't have anything on me. If you don't trust me, search for yourself." Natasha raised her eyebrows at Ayesha, fully alerted.

Because of the two girls' visit, the empty mansion became more lively.

Normally, only Ayesha and Jiang Chen stayed there and the two happened to be the quiet type, therefore the massive mansion was always quiet. While Xia Shiyu was not as serious when she is not at work, she was not the vocal type either.

Luckily, Natasha was there. While her careless attitude doesn't mesh too well with Ayesha, she was a great person after all.

On the table was golden roasted turkey, strawberry and mango fruit cake, marzipan, apple pie, cranberry sauce… just looking at it would make people hungry.

The four sat around the table, chatted, and ate.

When they finished half the turkey, Natasha suddenly turned her head and ran into the kitchen; she then came out with a bottle of alcohol.

Jiang Chen saw the bottle and his eyebrows twitched in pain.

Diva Vodka, known as "the world's most attractive vodka". It is priced at between 100,000 and 1,000,000 US Dollar, depending on the level of luxury of the packaging, its year of origin, and its production origin. The alcohol brewing process was also extremely cool. It was first filtered with ice, and then filtered with the Nordic birch charcoal, and finally filtered through precious stones and semi-precious stones, known as the "triple distillation."

And the erected glistening "Swarovski Crystal Wand" at the center of the bottle indicated that this bottle clearly belonging to the 1 million dollar category.

The bottle was a gift from Carmen Rothschild, but Jiang Chen was unwilling to bring it out during this party, and instead kept it as a collectable inside his fridge. It was not because of the money, but rather how difficult it was to obtain one.

"Russia's Christmas Party is a Vodka party. Have a shot?" Natasha opened the bottle and the room was filled with a rich aroma of alcohol.

"What does Christmas have to do with drinking?" Jiang Chen scorned.

Despite his scorn, he still extended his cup.

"Haha, you're welcome." Natasha grinned and poured everyone a shot.

"Don't you think it is odd to say you're welcome to the owner of the bottle?" Jiang Chen sniffed the rich birch aroma and took a sip. When the sweet alcohol rolled down this throat, his eyes lit up.

Great stuff!

… Uhhh.

Fine, he couldn't taste the difference between this and Baijiu.

On the contrary, Natasha finished the cup as if she was drinking water and poured herself another cup.

Jiang Chen instantly learned...

Vodka was not something one savored, but something one chugged!

…But then, why was it sold at the same price as wine!

While he cursed in his mind, Jiang Chen raised his cup, asking Natasha to pour him another one.

Ayesha looked at the cup in front of her with hesitation. Although she followed Jiang Chen's non-religious belief, she still remained cautious with alcohol.

The clear alcohol was like the devil's eyes, pristine but filled with lust.

But when she saw Natasha down a drink and her proactive sight, the girl couldn't withstand it anymore. It was only in front of Jiang Chen did she not want to lose anymore, especially to Natasha who was the "same kind".

Therefore, Ayesha expressionlessly held onto the cup, withstood the pungent smell of alcohol, and downed the drink.

The burning sensation rolled from her throat down into her stomach. It was her first time drinking such high percentage alcohol and tears almost came out of her eyes.

Xia Shiyu covered her mouth and giggled; Natasha who saw her pretending to be tough just burst out laughing.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Natasha couldn't hold it down anymore. She held her burning throat and ran to the kitchen.

Jiang Chen stared at Natasha while the latter just pretended to be innocent while rolling her eyes. She didn't look apologetic at all.

When Ayesha return to the table, she didn't touch the alcohol anymore. Regardless of how Natasha "provoked" her, she just ignored her.

Everyone has their weaknesses.

The small interruption didn't interfere with the mood at the table, or rather, it made the four closer. The saying that three women make for a great show seems true and it was the first time Jiang Chen witnessed it. Even the quiet Ayesha and the standoffish Xia Shiyu began to make conservation under the atmosphere.

They surprisingly shared a similar interest.

Clothes.

Unfortunately, Jiang Chen didn't know anything about this at all. Therefore, he dumbfounded realized that he was the "outcast", unable to join their conversation. But since he was drinking while watching three beauties chat, it was a delightful experience.

Natasha had the most fun drinking.

After a few shots of vodka, her golden hair got stuck to her forehead by the clear sweat drops. Her white shirt began to be stained and it revealed her bra underneath. Jiang Chen who sat across from her didn't know where he should focus his eyes.

Xia Shiyu's alcohol tolerance was only mediocre. After being drunk the last time at the company gathering, she decided to drink more cautiously. Whenever she drank, she at most limited herself to three drinks. But for some reason today, perhaps because of the atmosphere, or perhaps the alcohol Natasha raided out of Jiang Chen's fridge was all ridiculously expensive, she decided to have a few more drinks.

Compared to the boldness of Natasha, Xia Shiyu's gestures were decorated with the elegance of the oriental beauty. The pupils intoxicated by the alcohol cast over a sparkling mist, and the blush on her face was redder.

Even if she was still proper, she was charming.

To be honest, looking at the three beauties in front of his eyes, Jiang Chen who was somewhat drunk almost couldn't contain himself. He just had to keep drinking shot by shot, but he didn't know if drinking now would be helpful.

When the clock struck twelve, no one had the energy left to sing Christmas songs.

Finally, other than Ayesha, the three all had their heads on the table.

The girl helplessly sighed and cleaned up the mess by herself before moving Xia Shiyu and Natasha to the guest rooms.

It took Ayesha quite an effort to move Natasha. When she was carrying her, Natasha kissed her. The shy girl instantly turned red and tossed Natasha on the bed, infuriated. She then threw a blanket on her before escaping from the room.

Jiang Chen was next.

Ayesha gently put him on her shoulder. She felt the warmth behind her bum and the warm breaths that whispered into her ear. Her face was even burning hotter than when she drank the alcohol.

When they went upstairs, she didn't go to the bedroom. Instead, she directly went to the washroom at the end of the hall…

Chapter 694: The $8 Billion Christmas Gif

When Jiang Chen and the girls were completely drunk, Wall Street across the planet was having a pleasant day. Investors all gathered inside the stock exchange. Excited smiles were the common theme on everyone's face. Needlessly to think, the happy people all received an early Christmas gift.

They bought the stock of High Tech Freshwater!

While the phone could be used to track the real-time quotas of the stock market, the lucky ones all wanted to be at the scene to experience the exciting moment.

Finally, in the investors' highly anticipated debut, the logo and the name of High Tech Freshwater appeared on the big screen, signaling its listing!

With B City Consortium handling the initial public offering, High Tech Freshwater's road to becoming public was far smoother than expected. With a total market cap of 7.14 billion US Dollar, High Tech Freshwater issued 50 million shares at 20 US Dollar per share with a circulation market capitalization of 1 billion US Dollar, accounting for 14% of the total share capital.

At the opening moment, the volume actually turned empty for a second.

Listing prices went all the way up; the stock price went up two percent, directly to 20.4 US Dollar, before high volumes appeared. Short-term shock adjustments and the difficult to suppress stock price began its ascension which made many investors directly orgasm in excitement...

Freshwater supply orders from Saudi totaling more than 400 million US Dollar each year, as well as the ongoing fresh water supply negotiation in the UAE. Under such positive and favorable conditions, it would be hard for High Tech Freshwater's stock price to be low.

Because of Christmas Eve, the stock exchange in accordance with 1:00 pm EST closed 3 hours in advance. When investors were still struggling to get out of the stock exchange building, High Tech Freshwater's price closed at 23.4 US Dollar.

The first day gain of 17% was definitely a miracle in the history of the market.

It must be mentioned that regardless of the color of the ups and downs or anything else, other than the Wanghai Stock Exchange which was the "most regulated in the world", any new issuance of shares would most likely experience a plunge. Other than the Wanghai market, this phenomenon was true across the globe, especially for NASDAQ.

Think when CIC invested in Blackstone, think about the original Alibaba, and then think about the past few years if you bought Facebook, Zynga, or Groupon at the time of listing, the first two years you may have lost quite a bit.

Market value exceeded 6 billion US Dollar without suspense, then it exceeded the 8 billion mark, and moved toward 9 billion.

To put it into another perspective, just as Ayesha was helping Jiang Chen into the shower, his assets skyrocketed by more than six billion U.S. dollars.

However, it was not until the next morning, when Jiang Chen woke up from the gentleness and looked at his phone did he learn this fact.

Even if his assets exceeded one hundred billion already, his eyebrows still twitched.

No wonder so many Hua companies did everything to get into the Wall Street market, the money making speed was ridiculous!

After Christmas ends, Lunar New Year would be in another one and a half months. The festive mood on the streets did not decline the slightest. Many shops chose to keep up the Christmas decorations until a few days before replacing them with blessing words and couplets of the Lunar New Year; this scene can be considered unique to Xin.

This highlighted the cultural inclusiveness of this country.

After Christmas, the immigration wave once again erupted in the country.

Immigration was nothing new for this island of booming economic growth. The Han cultural circle and the loose government were particularly attractive to the Han people. As of December, the population of Xin had exceeded the 150,000 mark and had been moving toward 200,000 without losing momentum.

Walking through Coro Island, it was impossible to link it with the "small fishing village" it was from two years ago.

The only thing that surprised Jiang Chen was that the source of this wave of immigration was not from Han but from Europe. And among the immigrants, they were mostly Germans.

Some time ago he was busy so he didn't pay much attention to international news. It seemed that something big and unexpected happened somewhere he didn't know.

After he phoned Xie Lei who was studying in Frankberg and after confirming the safety of both her brother and sister, Jiang Chen also asked about the situation in Frankberg.

According to Xie Lei, since last year's attack, the patriotic souls finally woke up. Frankberg went through a series of incidents, such as the early election which resulted in their leader's resignation and the New Choice Party taking power. The European consortium also announced in November the founding of the Refugee Relief Foundation, which announced that it would "properly settle" its refugees by building hundreds of refugee camps in the forests south of the Alta region, in the far north of Norway, and in Finland.

Of course, Norway and Finland will receive a sum of money every year as compensation, and the money will be paid by the relief fund.

The refugee accommodation was not as smooth as imagined. No one was willing to be sent to cold forests; they would rather be on the streets. At least it was warmer on the streets. Incited by the extremists lurking among the refugees, the whole of Europe was now a mess.

Protest, riot, resistance, and suppression...

The only difference was that the EU's extremely united on this issue, a rare sight.

When Jiang Chen heard the news, he just shook his head.

Fortunately, standing on the divergent point of history, Rothschild once made a move.

The situation reminded him of the party he hosted on Hot Spring Island, Carmen Rothschild, unfortunately, was absent due to conflicting schedules. However, he sent his butler with a gift of apology. Now looking back, he was indeed plotting some event.

But even if Jiang Chen knew this, he didn't have the interest to be bothered by the chaos on the other side of the planet. BHP Group's minerals were all overseas. No matter how chaotic Europe was, the cooperation with Future Mining would not be affected.

And from a sole interest point of view, this immigration wave was still favorable for Xin. In particular, most immigrants from Germany have a relatively high level of education and would fill the country's demand for teachers, doctors, and senior workers.

The only problematic element was that the influx of a large number of immigrants and tourists led to an increasing crowdedness of Pannu Islands.

Although the urbanization in the recent two years had improved the problem of residential land shortages, with the continuous influx of immigrants, how to change more high-density residential areas without sacrificing ecological landscape had become a headache for urban construction agencies.

Currently, at the instigation of Jiang Chen, the presidential palace had temporarily tightened its immigration policy.

Zhang Yaping stood in front of the media and promised to those who submitted immigration applications that they would relax immigration policies and the issuance of labor visas after the completion of Penglai.

Chapter 695: Too Obvious

Jiang Chen has never been someone that treated other unfairly, he at most is someone without boundaries at times.

At least he thought of himself this way all along.

He spent a happy Christmas Eve and Christmas with Ayesha. Then, on the night of Christmas Eve, he returned to the apocalypse with Ayesha's hand-made fruit pudding and turkey.

Even with the unbelievable amount of wealth, he had never forgotten this mansion. His subordinates once proposed to rebuild this mansion since the building had been bathed in the nuclear explosion. However, even if the radioactive dust had been cleared, the cracks on the walls were still hard to cover up.

However, Jiang Chen decisively rejected the idea.

For him, this place offered a lot more sentimental value; it was not just a place for sleeping.

"Hum! It's so delicious! How is this made? The perfect blend of mango and strawberry flavor… this is amazing!" The little hand held the fork and her white hair shook. Lin Lin's red and black eyes were filled with happiness.

[You're only eating a pudding… No need to act like you're orgasming!]

But from the scene, both Lin Lin and Tingting in her body appreciated Ayesha's cooking skills.

"Brother, brother Jiang Chen." Pulling on Jiang Chen's clothing, Yao Yao timidly said.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao with a smile and asked,

"That ... that girl named Ayesha, is her cooking skills better than mine?"

Yao Yao asked a difficult question to answer, just like girls who always loved to ask, "Who is prettier, her or me?" It was the same for this question, "Who's cooking is better?" It seemed Jiang Chen could only say that each person has her advantages and disadvantages. However, of course, he wasn't going to say the foolish truth.

"Of course Yao Yao's is better," Jiang Chen used his hand and rubbed the little girl's head with a smile. "Yao Yao's cooking is the best. "

It was a reaction Jiang Chen didn't expect as Yao Yao didn't respond with a smile, but instead, she started to blush. Although the joy could be seen in her big eyes, Jiang Chen thought something felt odd.

Sun Xiaorou was still grinning when she elegantly sent the soft pudding into her even softer lips.

"Sister, a powerful enemy has appeared."

"Mhmm!"

"Hmmm? Is sister not jealous?" Sun Xiaorou turned her head and looked at Sun Jiao who was busy working on the turkey.

"Humph, I'm already used to how perverted this guy is!" Then, Sun Jiao gave Jiang Chen a dirty stare.

Even with the stare, Xiaorou on the side could still read the gentleness hidden in her sister's eyes.

After the delicious dinner, havoc filled the table.

When Jiang Chen cleaned up with the girls, it was already getting late. Yao Yao and Lin Lin went to shower and rest.

But Jiang Chen's Christmas Eve with Sun Jiao and Xiaorou had just begun…

…

When Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, it was already the second day after Christmas.

Carson Loki called him to congratulate him on the successful public offering of High Tech Freshwater.

"Congratulations, Mr. Jiang Chen, your assets under your name ballooned once again. I wish you a Merry Christmas on behalf of all the Wall Street investors!"

The call should have arrived two days ago, but Jiang Chen didn't manage to pick up then as he was in the apocalypse.

"Thank you," Jiang Chen pleasantly responded.

"If you have any plans to IPO your subsidiaries, please contact us!"

"Haha, yes, if there is any." Jiang Chen selectively ignored Carson's attempt to gain information from him.

While B City Consortium was an ally, Jiang Chen never considered them to be the trustworthy type. The high valuation of the company meant that there must be institutions pushing for the price. And the institution most likely to do that was B City Consortium.

And there were two reasons why.

One was because of the shares held by Carson Loki.

Two was because B City Consortium wanted to promise a giant cake to convince Future Group to be "cake chefs" together and bring more cakes to the stock exchange. The more subsidiaries that go public in the UA, the more there are to gain by B City Consortium, and the more assured the Capital would feel toward Future Group.

But Carson's expectation was destined to fall short.

The subsidiary going public did make Future Group taste the sweetness, but it was not sweet enough for Jiang Chen to completely "faint" from it.

He must admit that public listing's one-time gains are really attractive; a second to earn money that could only be made in 20 years, but Jiang Chen never expected to rely on this to make money. High Tech Freshwater going public was only a decision made after weighing the pros and cons. After all, the Gulf of Aden was next to Somalia and Celestial Trade temporarily do not have the overseas troops to exert diplomatic influence.

It was also unnecessary.

For the B City consortium and Wall Street's attempt, Jiang Chen could only describe it in two words.

Too obvious.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen took a trip to New Moon Island.

As the population of Coro Island surged, the number of employees in Celestial Trade expanded several times. The expansion of the business from pure military contractors to aerospace and telecommunications fields plagiarized Raytheon's development model.

New Moon Island has the most powerful military force of Xin and was the strongest card in Jiang Chen's hands. From the initial scale of more than 100 people, it has now grown to 3,000. One in five of the employees were office and logistics personnel, and the remainder were war machines!

When Jiang Chen stepped onto the Island, Ivan was waiting for him at the port.

Jiang Chen didn't make any stop and directly headed to the middle of the island.

Lying there was a spacious warehouse and at the same time the entrance to New Moon Island's underground arsenal. The location was used to store weapons that must be kept confidential, such as the Power Armor.

Since the Moro War and the undersea missile silo demonstration, an eye has grown above the head of New Moon Island. Jiang Chen simply collected the topographic data of New Moon Island and submitted it to the architects of the apocalypse. Their "professional ability test" was to design a reconstruction program, and then mobilize the engineering robots to carry out the underground arsenal expansion.

The design would be based on the specifications of the fallout shelter. Jiang Chen not only brought the new equipment training ground down deep into the ground, but an L-shaped underwater harbor was also built that could allow submarines to dock. The waters around New Moon Island was shallow, but fortunately, there was a fault leading to the deep sea. Just on the fault's side walls, amphibious construction robots opened up an exit for small and medium-sized submarines such as the Water Droplet.

The project, which took five months, was completed around October that year. At that time, Jiang Chen was in the apocalypse and did not visit after the completion of construction. Now, the underground training facilities have been put into operation.

Such as the Power Armor.

Chapter 696: Level Four Warning

The boss possessed many secrets.

The longer he followed Jiang Chen, the more Ivan felt that way.

His ability to occupy that position proved he is a smart man. His intelligence wasn't just mere cleverness and knowing a couple tricks but rather, he was skilled and above all, he knew what to do and what not to do.

Really smart people often didn't ask too many questions.

In the bullet-proof glass isolated training grounds, the big giant in steel armor carried out a series of tactical moves as instructed by the experimenter; including launching heat-seeking bombs, performing evasive emergency moves, releasing machine guns at targets... and so on.

The elites of Celestial Trade were qualified as pilots of the Power Armor. Their loyalty and combat effectiveness had to go through rigorous assessment procedures.

When Jiang Chen saw the giant on the training grounds shredding a Hummer with its hands, he nodded with satisfaction.

"It's almost a war machine... no matter how many times I look at it, the T-3's combat power is so astonishing," Ivan exclaimed.

"It's a war machine." Jiang Chen watched the giant withstood the explosion of the RPG with its front-mounted armor. He narrowed his eyes and spoke with a smile.

It has high mobility, high defense, and the ability to cross the nuclear radiation zone...

In infantry warfare, this type of individual armor has almost no opponent.

"How many people in the force have received power armor training?"

"A total of twenty people."

"Not enough." Jiang Chen shook his head. "We need at least a hundred people prepared. Go work on this and select eighty more people to receive the training."

"But there are only five Power Armors on the island, and even training is done in rotations. If we expand our numbers, we won't have the equipment to support it," Ivan said with a troubled look.

"Not to worry. Tomorrow, I'll make someone send a hundred units over," Jiang Chen said casually

"One hundred units! Don't they have an extremely slow production time?!" Ivan said with shock.

When he first started Power Armor training, he made an application to Jiang Chen and hoped to receive a few more Power Armors for the force. It was really troublesome for four people to use one unit for training. However, the application of equipment was rejected by Jiang Chen, stating that the output was too low.

Now, Jiang Chen just promised to bring a hundred units over, so how could Ivan not be shocked?

Don't they have an extremely slow production time?

"The output can be changed, and now the output increased." Jiang Chen laughed.

In the apocalypse, after conquering Hongcheng, NAC's commercial route to the heartland began to open. As the labor force and material input increased, productivity would naturally go up. The original monthly output of Power Armor was only 5-10 units, but it had now been raised to around 30.

As the situation stabilized, the NAC didn't need so many Power Armors, but the orders hadn't stopped. This batch of extra units was naturally moved to the modern world by Jiang Chen.

When Jiang Chen was ready to leave, Ivan suddenly asked.

"Are there plans for military operations again?"

"No, what happened?" Jiang Chen turned around to ask.

"Seeing as you're expanding the force, I thought you are ready to fight again." Ivan laughed.

"They are produced just in case for unexpected times—"

Before he could finish his sentence, an alarm began to ring in the arsenal. Soldiers on duty raced out from the barracks, kinetic skeletons were put on, and they gathered in an open space.

Jiang Chen looked at Ivan.

Looking in the direction of the alarm, Ivan's eyes turned sharp. "Level Four Warning. Let me go see what happened."

He didn't show the slightest complacency even with the lowest level alarm.

"I'll go too."

Since Jiang Chen had nothing to do, he followed behind Ivan to the direction of the open ground.

The alarm didn't disrupt the order of the facility. Aside from the twenty soldiers gathered together, everyone continued with their routines. Only Level One warnings signaling war required the mobilization of all combat units. This Level Four Warning was nothing more than the discovery of smuggling ships on the radar or the discovery of rescue signals within controlled water. Only the on-duty rapid response force would be mobilized.

Following Ivan into the command center, the Chief of Staff briefly described the situation.

"Three hundred nautical miles north of the New Moon Island in public waters, we received a distress signal from a civil vessel, but it was quickly interrupted. The target area has no storms or other meteorological disasters. The target is suspected to have been captured by pirates. Rapid response forces have been prepared. Aurora-20 has taken off for the target waters, and Black Hawk Helicopter will take off in 2 minutes."

"Life signal?"

"Weak," Chief of Staff said solemnly.

…

Luxury and comfort - this was the Royal Caribbean cruise.

For a 10,000 US Dollar ticket from Sri Lanka, they would go across the Bay of Bengal, float across the Strait of Malacca, dock in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before eventually sailing to Wanghai. Passengers were the rich and famous as well as elites from all walks of life. After all, the people who could afford the cost had to be middle class at least.

In the corner of the cruise ship, two men sat at a beach table.

From the arrogant look on his face, a man in a suit seemed to be powerful. Behind him were two bodyguards standing still wearing sunglasses. The person sitting opposite him was a bit strange not because of the lack of bodyguards, but due to the felt hat on his head.

The hat looked obtrusive no matter the angle.

The male in the suit frowned and thought in his mind.

"Mr. Zhu Tianyou, thank you for your appointment. I'm Tanaka Yoshinobu, this is my business card." Tanaka smiled and handed over the card in his hand.

Zhu Tianyou didn't take his business card. He eyed his bodyguard and the bodyguard took the business card.

"People who know me know that I don't appreciate doing business while on vacation," Zhu Tianyou leaned in his chair and crossed his right leg on his left knee. "...But I'm very interested in your proposal. I, however, am curious. Ten tons of salt - can you really take it all?

The salt he referred to, of course, didn't refer to eating salt.

It was a hallucinogen with a component of methadone known as "bath salts."

"Please rest assured, Mr. Zhu." Tanaka smiled. "We recently received a 'donation' and we have ample money on hand."

Zhu Youtian glanced at him then he habitually swept around his surroundings.

He wasn't interested in the "donation" of Tanaka mentioned nor was not he interested in knowing where he was selling it to.

Of course, if it was shipped to Yoto, he would consider giving him a discount.

"The rule on the streets is money in one hand, goods in the other. You can determine the location of trade, but it must be within Ethiopian borders." Zhu Tianyou leaned in his chair while twisting the ring on his thumb.

The main component of bath salts was MDPV, a chemical mainly found in Arabian tea.

Ethiopia was one of its main producing areas.

"No problem. Ten tons of salt. What is Mr. Zhu's offer?" Tanaka nodded with a grin.

"Three million."

"...Japanese Yen?"

Zhu Tianyou burst out laughing. From Tanaka's embarrassed look, he already knew he couldn't afford it.

"I thought this was going to be a deal, but it turned out to be a poor man."

The buyer had no money, so the deal naturally fell apart. Zhu Tianyou stood up and was prepared to leave. If this was elsewhere, he might've considered chopping two fingers off of the person who wasted his time, but on this cruise ship, he didn't want to cause trouble.

"Can you lower the price?" Tanaka didn't get up and tried to convince him.

"How much money do you have?" Zhu Tianyou stopped and looked at him with a dubious smile.

"5 million Japanese Yen."

"No need to speak further."

"That's really regrettable then." Tanaka shook his head. His smiling expression didn't change. "It seems I have to handle things myself."

The same time he said that he put his finger on his cap.

For some reason, Zhu Tianyou began to feel a strange sense of alertness…

Chapter 697: 100% Human

Drowsily, Zhu Tianyou gradually regained his consciousness.

His body was restrained, his limbs were firmly restrained, and two steel rods were also tied to his back. He tried to move, but he couldn't. He couldn't even bend his knees nor sit up.

His suit was still on him, and his back felt wet. There was a dripping sound.

Zhu Tianyou opened his heavy eyelids and began to observe his surroundings.

In the pitch black cabin, he could make out that he was in a bathtub and the tap was dripping. Beside it… a grinning face was watching him.

"Oh, you're awake?"

The annoying flat cap!

Zhu Tianyou stared at Tanaka in horror as if he had just seen a ghost. He wanted to say something, but only a muffled noise came out as his taped mouth couldn't articulate a single word.

"Oh, I almost forgot - you can't speak now."

Tanaka ripped off the tape on his mouth and threw the crumpled tape into the garbage.

"Are you a human or a ghost?"

[Impossible, his heartbeat and pulse disappeared - how could he still be alive?!] Zhu Tianyou frantically thought in his mind.

"100% human, you and I." He shrugged. His body leaned closer to the bathtub and he stared at the horror in Zhu Tianyou's eyes. With a smile, he said, "Mr. Zhu, will you cooperate with me?"

After his initial fear, Zhu Tianyou had already calmed down.

From the Golden Crescent to the Gulf of Aden, he traveled extensively in Western Asia for many years. He wasn't a simple character himself. At the moment, his mind turned fast, trying to determine the person in front of him was a killer hired by the enemy or a kidnapper looking for riches.

If it was the former, this guy wouldn't talk much nonsense. If it was the latter… some money should suffice.

An Interpol officer? By this person's means, it didn't look like it...

"How much do you want?" Zhu Tianyou slowly said.

"I don't want money; I only need ten tons of salt." Tanaka smiled and shook his head, extending a finger.

"You let me go and I'll give it to you."

When Tanaka heard Zhu Tianyou's words, it seemed like he heard a funny joke and he began to chuckle.

On his face flashed a hint of irritation as Zhu Tianyou fiercely said, "You don't believe me? When I say it, I mean it. I never broke a promise."

"I never trust anyone." Tanaka laughed.

"Then you tell me what to do. Even though you want the salt, I can't make it magically appear!"

"It's easy - tell me your where your 'tea garden' and 'chemical plants' are and I'll get it myself."

Zhu Tianyou looked at Tanaka as if he was watching an insane lunatic.

His salt factory was located on the border between Somalia and Ethiopia. Not only were hundreds of armed personnel stationed there, but the place was protected by local militants. Even the Marines wouldn't dare to enter the tea plantation and drug factory without extensive planning.

However, the confidence in Tanaka's eyes made him feel a little puzzled.

"What? Mr. Zhu isn't willing?" Tanaka grinned as he asked.

Zhu Tianyou didn't speak and hesitated in his mind.

Tanaka smiled and didn't speak. He stretched out his hand and opened the tap above Zhu Tianyou's head.

Splash—

The original dripping of water droplets instantly turned into a water column. The water level in the bathtub began to rise, and Zhu Tianyou's originally calm eyes finally panicked. When the cold sensation touched his ear, his calm face completely collapsed!

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Turn off the water!" Zhu Tianyou shouted and desperately tried to raise his chin while using the corner of his eyes to look at the clear surface of the water.

The pouring water column stopped and returned to slowly falling water droplets.

Tanaka smiled and looked at him.

"You can start."

The ticking sound of water was like the sound of a clock, beating a horrifying rhythm.

[Fu*k, if you want to die, I'll help you!]

Zhu Youtian's eyes turned sharp.

"If I tell you, will you let me go?"

Tanaka reached for the tap.

"Don't! Don't I'll tell you! The tea plantation is in the mountainous area south of Kraft in Ethiopia! Go ten kilometers further to the disputed Ethiopian border and go to the area controlled by the Hudur local warlords. If you ask the locals for Mr. Zhu's salt plant, the locals will take you there!"

"I need a specific location." Tanaka picked up a tablet from the table next to him and placed it in front of Zhu Tianyou. He took a stylus and stuffed it in Zhu Tianyou's mouth. "Point to it."

He bit the stylus like candy. Zhu Tianyou desperately tried to raise his head and pointed to two spots on the enlarged map then spat out the pen. He looked at Tanaka and said fiercely, "I already told you the location. Can you let me go now?"

After being a tycoon for so many years, he had never fallen so hard like this.

Zhu Tianyou already made up his mind. If he escaped from this man's hands, he would catch this guy, use the cruelest means to torture him, and make him regret living in this world!

But he still didn't understand why someone with a stopped pulse and heartbeat could suddenly come back alive.

"When did I say I would let you go?" Tanaka said with the same grin.

"You! You lied to me!" Zhu Tianyou's eyes widened and he looked at Tanaka in horror.

"Mr. Zhu can rest assured that your salt factory will prosper in my hands." Having said that, Tanaka stood up and opened the tap to the max.

Splash—

"No! I beg you! Please don't kill me! I-I have 200 million USD in my Swiss Bank account! I'll give everything to you! If I die, you won't get this money!"

The sound reverberated in the empty cabin, but Tanaka didn't show any signs of turning back. It was as if Zhu Tianyou didn't offer 200 million USD but 200 million sheets of toilet paper.

As he cried in despair, the door of the cabin was slammed shut.

Zhu Tianyou desperately lifted his chin, trying to prevent the water from covering his face, but his angled nose made the water rush into his nostrils and almost choked him.

He was unable to shout after the water entered his mouth.

The tip of the water immersed his nose. He couldn't breathe.

He desperately struggled to get out of the bathtub, but the rope was too tight and the steel behind him locked him to the bottom of the tub. No matter how he twisted like a worm, he was unable to lift his head out of the water.

His consciousness began to diminish; he had no strength left to struggle. He powerlessly sank in the water.

Vaguely, he heard the sound of gunshots, explosions, and something being kicked open, but he had no ability to distinguish what it was...

Chapter 698: Boarding the Cruise

In public waters, the Royal Caribbean Cruise broke through the tide.

Not far away, two Black Hawk Helicopters approached the target, slowing their flight speed and remaining parallel with the cruise ship. At the moment, Jiang Chen was sitting in a helicopter looking out the window at the cruise ship when his brows furrowed.

Blood.

There was blood everywhere…

On a white painted wall, the vivid red was so obvious. Looking around, he saw that all the waiters and visitors, aside from the living dead, were all dead.

City K.

"God ..." A droplet of sweat rolled down Ivan's forehead. He opened his mouth, clearly uncomfortable.

Even though he was used to hell from the civil war in Veit, he couldn't remain indifferent to what was going on even though he had been to City K. The soldiers seated in the helicopter all had stunned expressions.

Jiang Chen's expression was fairly normal. After all, this scene wasn't too out of place in the apocalypse.

From his position, he could clearly see a beautiful woman wearing a bikini, dangling half her head and staring at the sea blankly. There was also a man with an exposed stomach, lying on the ground. And also…

"We might be in trouble."

"Do you want to hand things over to UN?" Ivan looked to Jiang Chen.

The radio life signal detection device found signs of human life in all corners of the cruise - it was present in bars, kitchens, and some rooms. Like the T-virus in City K, not all people were infected once, and many people became zombies only after their second infection.

Of course, there were always the unfortunate ones who couldn't become zombies even after their second infection. Those people tended to become zombies' food, dying from zombies by being torn into pieces agonizingly.

"Board," Jiang Chen said expressionlessly.

"But ..." Ivan's expression was hesitant.

"Firing approved."

After taking a deep breath, Ivan nodded.

"Understood."

Up until now, the UN still hadn't drawn a conclusion on the infectious events that erupted in City K. The fact that the shooting of zombies didn't constitute a "crime against humanity" remained vague under international law.

No one wanted to bear the name of the executioner. No one wanted to have an "antidote" that could cure the infection eventually in the future as they would be tried by the families of the deceased and the International Court of Justice.

But now, there was no time to think.

Jiang Chen wanted to know why an infection broke out on the cruise ship. Kurofune, who had been silent for nearly a year, surfaced again. He couldn't miss this opportunity. What's more - the uniqueness of Kurofune meant it would be inconvenient for it to be disclosed to the United Nations.

His intention was to collect all the clues and destroy them before they were handed to the United Nations.

Of course, fighting videos were essential.

The two Black Hawks descended in tandem and dropped ropes from the hatches on the sides. Hooks hung on the ropes, and a total of twelve heavily-armed soldiers slid down to the open swimming pool. After the sudden appearance of these living creatures, the zombies shifted their blank gazes in their direction.

The soldier taking the lead took a deep breath, made two hand gestures to his comrades behind him, quickly lifted his muzzle and shouted.

"Fire!"

An orange-yellow light flashed and rifle bullets rang out on the cruise ship's deck.

"Roar!!!"

Howling, the zombies rushed toward the landing soldiers. The two Black Hawks adjusted their angles, the gunners fixed their grenade launchers on the steel staircase providing access to the deck, and pulled the trigger.

Boom—

Steel fragments mixed with flesh filled the air. The staircase was blown into iron slags. The zombies fell back down in an attempt to rush from the bottom floor to the deck. Under cover, the soldiers landing on the deck were divided into two teams and quickly rushed to the stairs.

Under the protection of kinetic skeletons, zombie teeth and claws didn't pose a threat to the Celestial Trade soldiers. The residual T virus wasn't a threat at all to those who injected the E-grade genetic vaccine.

Team A headed to the captain's room and team B began to rescue survivors.

Because of the nature of the incident, the Level Four warning was upgraded to a Level Two warning. Celestial Trade Marines were onboard a small landing ship to provide reinforcements. Jiang Chen glanced at the cruise ship under thick smoke and took the combat video tablet from Ivan.

…

Garrett, a former UA Marine Corps soldier, previously served in Iraq. Like most comrades, he chose to join a private military contractor after retiring. Originally, he considered Blackwater and Trefoil Jungle, but he chose Celestial Trade in the end.

He really didn't want to go back to the god-forbidden place known as Iraq. His dream was to live the rest of his life on the picturesque West Pacific Island and risk his life for Wall Street tycoons and "gardeners" living in the White House.

What's more, his salary from Celestial Trade wasn't low, and after retiring, there would also be a generous pension.

Unfortunately, reality seemed to differ slightly from his ideal. He not only didn't get any rest, but at the beginning of the year, he was fighting a modern war? He was also then airdropped into zombie-filled Kejia for "peacekeeping"?

Was this really a military contractor?

Fortunately, the income Celestial Trade provided was great, the high-tech equipment offered great protection, and the military casualty rate was also shockingly low. Sometimes, he couldn't help thinking that the kinetic skeleton he was wearing was far superior to the one from DARPA's lab.

DARPA was known as the the UA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, also known as S.H.I.E.L.D. From the Internet to the GPS, they were behind all the technical innovations.

Since he had excellent combat qualities, he was incorporated into the Celestial Trade Rapid Reaction Force after the Moro War. Originally, he thought his days would be more leisurely, but he ended being unlucky once again.

Those damn zombies.

Hell, where did they come from?

He crossed the red-carpeted hallway and made it into the hall entrance. The captain's room was located on the top floor just above the lobby. The power system hadn't been interrupted, and the shortest distance to get to the captain's room was by the elevator. After confirming the route from his helmet screen, Garrett gestured at his comrades to prepare to break in.

His kinetic skeleton activated, and his kick directly busted open the metal gate of the lobby, sending the zombies behind the door flying.

Garret directly smashed a zombie's brain. Without any hesitation, he raised his rifle and pressed the trigger along with his comrades who broke into the two sides of the door.

"Bang-"

Bullets shredded the wooden decorations and zombie flesh. Pieces scattered the empty lobby. As seen from the clothes strewn about, a ball was underway when the infection broke out. Halfway through the ball, the singing stopped abruptly, and the men and women on the dance floor began to bite each other...

He felt nauseated thinking about that alone.

Zombies continued to rush at them, and the fire network formed by the group of six gradually began to lose its effectiveness.

Garrett fiercely gestured to his comrade, Norman, the main gunner. He understood and took out a grenade launcher from his backpack and launched a grenade at a zombie-dense spot.

Boom, ten zombies exploded. The ones who didn't die but lost their arms and legs fell to the ground and twitched.

Then five rounds of grenades flew out and the dense crowd of zombies was gone.

Garrett and others at the door kept firing and quickly cleared the area

"Area cleared."

Relieved, Garrett lowered his rifle.

But just then, an intermittent call for help came from the corner of the hall.

"Help... help me..."

Norman had just dropped the grenade launcher and he immediately lifted the assault rifle in his hands.

"It's survivors."

"Maybe they're infected."

"Rescue?"

Garrett was silent for two seconds.

"... Is the battle recorder open?"

"It's open."

"Let's rescue... I'll go."

Garrett signaled his comrades to remain cautious then he lowered his muzzle, wary of the undead zombies.

As it turned out, his instincts were correct.

As he crossed the room, a hand dangled on the ground, and a creeping zombie suddenly awakened and bit his leg. Garrett reacted quickly, lifting his right foot directly over the blood-stained mouth. He then stepped on its face and smushed it into ketchup.

As he watched the red and white mixture, Garrett's eyebrows twitched.

"Beautiful stomp." Bill whistled.

"I think the captain needs to apply to the company to get some reimbursement to cover the psychiatrist's bill." Norman squeezed his eyebrows.

"Shut up!"

Garret kicked that corpse while cursing, suppressing the strong discomfort in his mind. He jogged toward the direction of the person seeking help.

"OK, you'll be fine..."

He flipped over a table fallen in the corner, and Garrett's expression suddenly froze.

It was a body that obviously didn't belong to a living person and a cellphone stuck behind the long table with C4s...

It wasn't a call for help; it was a recorded message

"Lie down!"

As he roared, he jumped to the ground. At the same time, he felt a hot air wave smashing into his back...

...

Boom!

Dust exploded, covering the entire hall.

It was more than just one long table - almost one-third of the long tables were mounted with cigarette-box-sized C4s hidden by tablecloths, almost impossible to notice.

The bombs were hidden earlier, originally intended to be used for retreat by Tanaka. He didn't expect Celestial Trade to actually receive the cruise ship's distress signal and quickly dispatch a rescue force.

He thought, at best, he would encounter Country F's Coastal Guards.

Standing on the floor just above the hall, Tanaka shook his head, throwing away the detonator. A rare smile-less expression appeared on his face.

After a while, he looked at the dust downstairs and said to himself.

"I thought I could take at least two with me, but I didn't even manage to take one…"

He threw the rifle down to the dance floor, pulled a lighter from his pocket, and lit himself a cigarette.

He blew out a smoke ring and sighed.

"Another waste of life."

The cigarette slipped to the ground, the flames suddenly rose, and instantly ignited the floor covered with gasoline.

The burning flames reached his pants. With a smile, Tanaka removed his flat cap and was incinerated in the rising flames…

Chapter 699: Permission to Arres

The power system was interrupted and the hall plunged into darkness. The only thing visible was the flames burning on the platform just above the hall. Burning droplets dripped from the edge of the platform continuously and the burning thick smoke gathered above like heavy clouds.

*Cough cough...* Norman pushed down the stone slab on his chest and stood up with his rifle.

The polyethylene bullet-proof plate on his chest was cracked and pressed against his ribcage. He called out the hologram screen and deactivated the front armor. He heard the sound of air being filled as he ripped off the armor in front of his chest.

Dust was everywhere.

"Garrett!"

Norman who regained his breath, opened his helmet mask and shouted.

"Damn! Bill!"

"Cough, I'm not dead. I'm here."

The sound came from the radio channel.

Upon hearing the sound, Norman immediately turned on his tactical flashlight, searched around, and soon saw a hand sticking up in the gravel pile.

Norman ran to it with his rifle. He moved the stone pressed against Bill and pulled him out of the rubble. Under the driving force of the kinetic skeleton, this weight was nothing at all.

"Sh*t, my leg would've been gone if I was there a bit longer." As he collapsed by the side, Bill gritted his teeth and extracted his deformed right leg armor.

Then Norman rescued three other comrades one after the other, but he didn't find his captain Garret.

"Garrett! Damnit, where are you?!"

The life signal detection device was on the captain who happened to be missing. Norman anxiously scanned the captain's previous position, but the blast had already sent Garret to God-knew-where. Not to mention he could be dead or alive!

"What about the mission?"

"Bill, you go with Sean and Freddy to the captain's room. Jim and I will stay here to search for the captain!"

"Okay!" Bill nodded and gestured to his comrades.

"Wait!"

"What happened?"

"Be careful." Norman looked at him in the eyes and said seriously, "Our enemies aren't just zombies."

A few figures suddenly dashed in from the entrance. Norman, Bill, and others immediately raised their rifles.

Both teams aimed at each other.

Tactical flashlights under the muzzle forced him to narrow his eyes; he couldn't see who was at the door.

Just then, a hoarse voice entered the communication channel.

"Friendly."

Norman was taken aback. He immediately confirmed the presence of green dots on the map then lowered the rifle in his hands.

It seemed that after the explosion, they were in a coma for some time, and at this time, the reinforcements arrived.

From the digital camouflage kinetic skeleton, the other team was indeed the Marines, the primary task unit of Celestial Trade. Norman, like Captain Garrett, was transferred from the Marines to the Rapid Response Force, so they were on familiar terms.

But what he hadn't expected was an unexpected person behind the force.

Jiang Chen!

Celestial Trade's boss! Why would he show up here?

Soldiers entering the hall divided into two teams - a team to open the life detection device to join the search and rescue work, and the other team stayed by Jiang Chen's side.

Under the protection of more than a dozen Marines, Jiang Chen walked up to Norman.

Norman put down his rifle, stood up straight and saluted.

"What happened?" Jiang Chen glanced at the fragments around the place and asked in a deep and concerned tone.

"We broke into the hall and cleared the zombies. The captain heard a cry for help and walked over, but someone detonated a bomb," Norman immediately reported.

Jiang Chen nodded and remained silent, but he looked directly above the hall platform.

The interior decorations were ignited and the fire had begun to spread. Even across a distance of ten meters, he could still clearly feel the rising heat waves.

After a brief silence, Jiang Chen suddenly laughed, shook his head and said to himself.

"It seems my approach was too merciful."

"Sir?" Norman asked with confusion.

"Nothing. I just think that treating some villains should be like treating zombies. Before they cause any more harm, shoot them, regardless of the consequences, and make their heartbeats stop... Sergeant Norman, do you agree with me?"

All along, Jiang Chen hadn't cared too much about the Kurofune. Or, even if he cared, he didn't invest too much energy to investigate.

Takeda Pharmaceutical was a Nippon-owned company and was a reputable firm in the country. However, there was a high risk of executing military operations in developed countries, not to mention that FBA and CIB had been involved in the investigation. So, Jiang Chen also didn't concern himself with it. He sent a Ghost Agent, but he didn't authorize her to execute a capture, or infiltrate and carry out other illegal espionage activities. Instead, he simply wanted her to gather intelligence…

Originally, he thought "Kurofune" would be restrained by the Nippon government to some extent, but he was wrong.

Although affiliated with the government, they obviously didn't completely listen to the government.

After all, counting on a bunch of terrorists who wanted to destroy humans was impractical from any perspective.

Soon, the Marines dragged Garrett out from the rubble.

"Still alive?" Jiang Chen asked.

"His life signal is active, but it's weak and he needs urgent medical treatment," replied the soldier who carried the stretcher.

"Go quickly."

"ROGER!"

The fire was spreading ablaze, and the soldiers beside Jiang Chen stepped forward and whispered to him.

"The fire is out of control, Commander, please retreat."

Jiang Chen nodded and said nothing. He turned and left.

Escorted by a soldier, Jiang Chen returned to the helicopter. Looking at the cruise ship, the fire had spread to the middle of the cruise ship. The cruise ship was like an alcohol lamp floating on the high sea.

Two hundred survivors curled up on the deck of the rescue boat with no joy of survival on their faces - there was only deep horror.

Three thousand tourists in total, who had bought tickets to enjoy the holidays, hadn't expected such hellish terror to break out on the Pacific Ocean on this beautiful day.

A child wailed to his mother, a man gently patted a woman's back and said words that couldn't even comfort himself. Medical staff on the deck traversed throughout the crowd, checking their bodies and injecting Future Biology's anti-T virus vaccine...

The evacuation was successful; some were wounded, but no one was fatally hurt.

The worst off was Sergeant Garrett - the explosion damaged his spine. He would probably have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair…

The fire was becoming more ferocious. Once it reached the fuel tank, the cruise ship was likely to explode. In order to prevent themselves from being affected, the helicopters and rescue boat evacuated immediately.

Jiang Chen looked expressionlessly at the cruise ship disappearing. Just then, his phone suddenly rang.

He picked up.

"Hey."

"Among the survivors was a man called Zhu Tianyou. When we found him, he was being tied up in a bathtub full of water. When he was rescued, he was unconscious. We suspected he might be associated with this terrorist attack, so he's under intensive care and being monitored by our medical staff. "

"You did well. Send him to New Moon Island, and I will personally ask him."

"Yes!"

After he hung up the phone, Jiang Chen called Ayesha.

"Order the Ghost Agents to go to Nippon. Within a week, I'd like to see the President of Takeda Pharmaceutical appearing in the interrogation room on New Moon Island."

Chapter 700: Do you want to seek revenge?

In Coro Island hospital, Garrett stared at the ceiling in a daze.

He was under thirty years old, but the doctor told him he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He had seen the diagnosis and also signed on it, but he couldn't accept the facts.

Celestial Trade had excellent welfare. If he lost his ability to work due to work-related injuries, not only would he receive a large sum of discharge funds, but the rest of his life would be guaranteed by Celestial Trade.

However, no amount of money could make him smile.

He would rather not have the money if he could have his health back...

But he knew it was impossible. With present-day medical conditions, it simply wasn't enough to cure his injury.

The door opened and an unexpected person appeared at the door.

Garrett nodded.

"Forgive me for not saluting. you. It's a miracle I can still joke with you."

Jiang Chen smiled and went to the bed.

"You can still joke; looks like you're in a good mood."

Garrett shook his head.

"No, this isn't a joke. I'm telling the truth."

"I know." Jiang Chen nodded and looked at the flowers on the nightstand. "Has your wife been here?"

"Yes," Garrett replied.

"I'm really sorry about your injury ..."

"No, you don't need to be sorry." Garrett shook his head. "Thanks to the kinetic skeleton's protection, I'm still lying here, staring blankly."

Looking at his legs, Jiang Chen pondered for a moment and suddenly said, "Do you want to seek revenge?"

"Revenge?"

"Well, against those who took your legs."

Garrett laughed with self-mockery and shook his head, "You're joking with me again. I can't even walk out of bed, let alone seek revenge; I have to rely on my nurse to help me eat dinner."

"What if I say ... I have a way to help you stand up?" Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Garrett was astonished.

He wanted to say that was impossible, but he suddenly remembered his commander's other identity.

President of Future Group!

There was no such thing as "impossible" to Future Group. Whether it was artificial intelligence or virtual reality or graphene, they always created unbelievable miracles in front of people's own eyes.

If that was Jiang Chen's promise, perhaps it would come true!

Garrett gulped and prepared to speak.

"But I have to remind you that the operation has a 10% success rate and we'll have to replace your entire damaged spine with titanium then install a special electronic neuron module. I guarantee that even with tranquilizers, this surgery will be extremely painful. "

The success rate was 40%, but the pain would be real. After all, it was an operation done on the nerves. Jiang Chen wanted to know Garrett's limits, so he deliberately exaggerated the failure rate of the surgery.

Garrett took a deep breath.

Jiang Chen originally thought he would be afraid; Jiang Chen didn't think he still had the energy left in him to joke.

"Will I become Captain America?"

Jiang Chen was stunned by the question then he pleasantly laughed.

"Of course not. Maybe you'll be stronger than him."

…

Garrett agreed to surgery, which was also expected by Jiang Chen.

After the conversation, he signed a confidentiality agreement.

For whatever reason, the contents of the surgery couldn't be divulged, and the ability mustn't be used for unlawful conduct. The order of the organization had to be obeyed unconditionally and so on. The doctor would implant a slavery chip in his spine at the time of the operation. If he was guilty of betrayal, the slavery chip would blow up his spine's main control system and change him back into a crippled person.

After the agreement was signed, he would be scheduled to be discharged and transferred to the New Moon Island underground facility, where the surgeon responsible for the enslaved chip implementation would undertake the spinal nerve replacement surgery.

Even though Jiang Chen acquired some medical equipment for the surgery from the apocalypse, the mortality rate of the operation was still high under modern world medical conditions. However, while he was being taken to the hospital, Garrett's expression was unusually calm.

He would rather die on the operating table than sit in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Even that meant that from now on, he would wear a "dog chain," do some dirty work for Jiang Chen and carry out more dangerous tasks than ever before.

Luckily, the operation was very successful.

The surgery not only replaced his spine but also replaced the bones in his limbs.

Now, even without relying on the kinetic skeleton, he could bend a steel plate and pick up a car. He had a 6-inch graphene circuit board, integrated retinal imaging, radio life signal detection devices, UAV control components, and motion signal modems implanted in the posterior cranium.

Intuitively speaking, as long he had a rifle, he could easily take on a team if both sides had no support on the battlefield.

The environment would make no difference.

At the same time Garrett's operation was completed, Jiang Chen saw Zhu Tianyou, who regained his consciousness in a ward on New Moon Island.

Zhu Tianyou made out the person visiting him and looked surprised.

"Jiang Chen?"

"Do you know me?" Jiang Chen looked at Zhu Tianyou unexpectedly and asked with a smile.

"Who in this world doesn't know you?" Zhu Tianyou smiled feebly.

"Drug lords also read the newspaper?"

Zhu Tianyou's expression didn't change.

"It seems nothing can blind Mr. Jiang's eyes."

"The Xiangjiang government asked me about you and I told them you weren't on the list of survivors," Jiang said with a smile.

"What do you need me to do?" Zhu Tianyou's eyes closed and he spoke with straightforwardness.

"Do you know this person?" Jiang Chen took the tablet from the bodyguard and threw it on Zhu Tianyou's bed.

Zhu Tianyou opened his eyes and glanced at the screen. His face instantly changed and he squeezed out a few words from his clenched teeth.

"I would recognize him even if he turned into ashes."

"Tell me what you know," said Jiang Chen.

"He tied me in the bathtub, turned on the tap and drowned me," Zhu Tianyou said with hatred.

"Reason?"

He hesitated, but with a sigh, he honestly confessed.

"At that time, we were talking about business on the deck and he proposed to buy ten tons of salt from me."

"Salt?" Jiang frowned.

"Bath Salt, a kind of drug extracted from Arabian tea." Zhu Tianyou looked at Jiang Chen, paused for a moment then said, "But then I realized he only had 5 million Yen, not even enough for a fraction, so the deal fell apart."

When he said this, Zhu Tianyou's face looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"What happened?" Jiang Chen asked quietly.

Zhu Tianyou took a deep breath to force himself to calm down.

"Then... he took off his hat, and the whole person fell on the table. No breathing, no heartbeat, no pulse, dead! Yes, I thought he was dead, but a strange thing happened next!"

"What strange thing?"

"Someone died on board. It was definitely a nuisance for someone to die on board, especially since my identity is rather special. In order to prevent trouble, I asked my two bodyguards to pick him up, pretending he was drunk. Then they dragged him to the end of the boat and dropped him into the sea. As for myself, I returned to the room."

Zhu Tianyou's face turned paler.

"In the room, he was sitting in a chair and smiling at me..."

Jiang Chen was deep in thought.

Sure enough, Tanaka was still alive and hadn't died on the plane. The infection was also his responsibility. The problem laid in that hat - the hat was like a switch. He would die after it was removed.

The problem was that Tanaka seemed to have more than "one life."

How did he do it?

Jiang Chen furrowed.

Chapter 701: Controversial Opinions

"You know what happened after?" Jiang Chen asked.

Zhu Tianyou looked at him blankly.

"After? He fired a shot at me and after I was shot I fainted. When I woke up again, I found myself in the bathtub.

It seemed Zhu Tianyou was not clear as to what happened on the cruise ship after their coma. For some reason, Tanaka released the T virus, turning the cruise ship into living hell. When Jiang Chen told him what happened afterward, he initially did not believe it. When he saw the combat recording brought out by Jiang Chen, his expression gradually turned into horror.

The person that kidnapped him was a murderous devil.

And the devil, for some reason, became interested in the drugs he possessed.

When Jiang Chen asked him what Tanaka got out of him, he gave two names after a moment's silence.

"Ethiopia, Somalia."

Jiang Chen eyebrows jumped.

"Specific locations?"

"Give me a map. I can point it out for you." Zhu Tianyou extended his hand.

Using the same tablet, Jiang Chen turned off the portrait of Tanaka and opened Google Maps. Zhu Tianyou swiped a few times on the screen; the screen locked in on the Gulf of Aden. Then it enlarged to show the Ethiopian-Somalia border, and then he pointed out two positions.

"Right here."

"What's here?"

"A tea plantation, and a salt factory." Zhu Tianyou smiled, but the smile on his face was bitter.

If he revealed the secret, it meant that he had completely given up on it. The T virus was involved; he didn't expect Jiang Chen or Interpol would be merciful to his asset. The assets he operated diligently for ten years in the Gulf of Aden was now ruined. It will be impossible to say he was not distressed.

"I'm glad you confessed. Your choice may have saved the lives of many people." Jiang Chen took the tablet back.

Zhu Tianyou, with a self-deprecating smile, shook his head.

Save people?

How many families did he break apart? He can't even count them himself.

According to the data provided by the Royal Caribbean Company, a total of 3,121 passengers were onboard. Counting the waiters, crew, and other staff there was a total of 3,600 people.

A total of 201 survivors were placed in the Port D in Moro. In order to avoid panic, these individuals were temporarily controlled and only permitted to leave the country after the conclusion of an observation period of one week. In fact, the virus' survival time was very short. Ultraviolet light can kill it and three days was already enough to prove the safety of the survivors. Extending this time to seven days was just a preventative measure

On the day of the incident, the United Nations sent a commissioner to observe on MLL Island. Embassies of various countries also contacted the Moro government one after another to confirm the list of survivors.

Because of the demand for the outside world to understand the inside story, Moro finally agreed to media interviews after discussion with Celestial Trade.

Since the storm in City K, the T virus once again appeared in people's eyes. The massacre of tens of thousands of people who died that night was so terrible that all the spectators felt a deep chill in their bones. Now, the tragedy on the Royal Caribbean Cruise seemed to tell people that the threat of the virus has not been eliminated.

BBC, CNN, Columbia Broadcasting, Al Jazeera... media flocked to MLL Island just like bees searching for nectar. The unafraid reporters, carrying cameras and microphones, rushed to the survivors, Moro officials, Celestial Trade soldiers, and anyone possibly informed.

"I was sitting right next to the dance floor and the crowd on the dance floor suddenly became chaotic. It was not far from me when a lady bit the face of her partner, and at first, we thought they were sharing an affectionate moment until she had torn a piece of meat from his face... God… terrible ... ... "A woman with a scar on her face said in a whimper.

"I was resting in my room because I had an upset stomach due to eating some seafood. Someone was smashing on the door so I went to open it. When I saw fully armed soldiers, my first reaction was that Hollywood must be shooting a film and I was fortunate enough to be part of the cast. But when I saw the blood on the ground and the bodies behind them, I understood, it was not a joke ... "

"I was a chef, and happened to be grabbing something in the freezer. I was ready to go out with the ingredients when I suddenly saw the riot outside. I thought there were pirates at first, but then I found the situation far worse than pirates. I ran into the warehouse, unplugged the power, and hid in the freezer. Perhaps they smelled something, the zombies ran in... Thank God, they can only push on the door and not pull on it.

"There are no signs, just like the Walking Dead!" The distraught man sat on the steps on the street, his face looked weary as he shooed away the reporters.

"The superior ordered us to shoot, so we shot... Please do not ask such stupid questions, they are not humans, so I don't feel guilty at all," a Celestial Trade soldier who participated in the rescue operation said.

Also received by the rescue signal were Country F and Nippon. However, because of the loss to almost all naval forces at the beginning of the year, Coastal Guard ships had been in short supply. It was not until Celestial Trade completed the rescue and the cruise ship detonated did their ships rush to the scene.

Nippon, because of the distance, arrived even later.

"If we first boarded the cruise ship, we would not have ordered the killing of those zomb…, Ahem, those poor infected souls! Absolutely not! We would use fishing nets to find ways to control them, and then lock them in a psychiatric hospital. We need to properly accommodate these unfortunate people until we find a solution." In an interview with the media, a minister said frankly in an attempt to establish a responsible image of a large nation before the international community.

Controversy currently set aside.

Similar to the infection that happened in the City K at the beginning of the year, Future Biology once again made a "disaster fortune".

According to the feedback from official distributors such as Amazon and Taobao, Jiang Chen could intuitively see that the sales volume of the T virus vaccines and nutrient supplies rose sharply in the past week.

Nowadays in the information age, people of the world have long been influenced by countless disaster movies and gained all sorts of "survival skills". Anyone knows that when the apocalypse is here, the four basic essentials are food, medicine, fuel, and weapons. As a long shelf life and easy to store liquid food, nutrition supply was undoubtedly the best "strategic reserve supply."

Even if governments repeatedly declared that the plot in movies could not happen in real life, the direct infection rate of the virus was not high, and the survival time under the exposure of ultraviolet light was short, this collective panic apparently can't be dispelled by any two or three statements.

Unless the culprit was sent to the guillotine.

Just as intelligence agencies around the world joined forces to frantically search for the sources of the virus, the Ghost Agents Jiang Chen deployed in Nippon started to make a move ahead of the CIB.

Chapter 702: Foreign Operation

"Idiot!"

In Nippon, inside the Yoto Government Building and the Defense Ministry's office, Defense Minister Nakatani angrily dropped the document to the ground.

"What's going on with Takeda Pharmaceutical? Didn't we tell them to tone it down since the last meeting?"

The assistant stood by the door and didn't dare to make a sound.

After a while, Nakaya Ryo finally vented out his anger. He took a deep breath.

"Go and fetch me the Chairman of Takeda Pharmaceutical!"

"Yes ..." The assistant nodded before quickly turning around.

…

At the same time, Takeda Pharmaceutical's building was turned in a chaos. The tragedy that took place on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship left the entire world in panic again because of the name T virus. As early as six months ago, CIB began to pay attention to the name Takeda Pharmaceutical, Takeda has been very careful, and with the Defense Ministry's help, even the UA didn't manage to collect any evidence.

Takeda's board of directors had pressured President Hiroshi Tanimura many times and demanded that he strictly restrict the operation of the Kurofune. Including limiting the supply of raw materials, scrutinizing funding applications, sending inspectors to monitor the laboratories, and other moves to curtail the organization.

If City K's actions were exposed, Hiroshi Tanimura probably won't be able to save his own life, let alone all the members of the board which may be trialed by the International Tribunal for crime against humanity.

However, just last month, Tanaka suddenly disappeared on his way home from work.

This scared the Takeda's board of directors. They initially thought it was CIB that made the arrest and thought the company's secrets have been exposed. It was not after investigation did they realize that CIB knew nothing.

Luckily, Tanimura immediately ordered the company to search for the whereabouts of this man in the entire Nippon region. But he did not expect that only in a month's time, the missing Tanaka already went abroad and created a major headline.

"Where is Tanaka?" It was already the tenth time Tanimura asked this question.

"We haven't found him yet," said the vice president anxiously. "I have contacted all the associations that have relations with us and launched all the underground forces we can use to search for his whereabouts, but ..."

"A bunch of useless tools," Tanimura screamed, his fingers trembling as they moved toward his temples.

From the day Tanaka disappeared, he realized the situation was turning south, but he didn't think it would actually happen.

[Damn, where did that guy find the raw materials!]

As the chairman of Takeda Pharmaceutical, Tanimura certainly read the T virus synthesis formula. Producing one gram of virus concentrate requires at least one kilogram of methaconeone, the raw materials that could be used are bath salt, or Arabic tea. But regardless, they are all prohibited items!

Tanimura's brow twisted together.

"President, what are we going to do now?" The vice president said, trembling violently.

"Delete all the research data and all the relevant information of Kurofune from the company's database."

Takeda Pharmaceutical had been on CIB's suspected list, and with this tragedy of at least 27 UA citizens dying on the cruise ship, CIB would no longer be concerned with their method of investigation. Presumably even if the Nippon government intends to intervene and protect Takeda Pharmaceutical, CIB would infiltrate the company through special means.

Since the secret could no longer be protected, then they must completely destroy it!

Although it is research worth 500 million US Dollar, it was nothing compared to the market value of 10 billion.

Then, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

The two stopped talking, exchanged eye contact, and then Tanimura said,

"Please come in."

It was Tanimura's assistant

Tanimura frowned, looking at the assistant.

"Did I not say, no matter what happens, before my conversation with the vice president ends, do not disturb me?"

"But... It is the Defense Minister's phone call."

With a long sigh, Tanimura asked.

"What did Nakatani say?"

"He said go see him after work," the assistant carefully responded

"Where??" Tanimura asked.

"Yoto Metropolitan Hotel."

In the hotel rather than the government building. It seemed to be a secretive meeeting.

Of course, the virus-related event was certainly not suitable to be discussed in the office, especially at this sensitive moment.

After work, Tanimura stepped into his Honda and headed for the Yoto Metropolitan Hotel.

After two traffic lights and turning a corner, he slowed down.

There seemed to be a traffic accident in front which caused a serious traffic jam.

Tanimura looked at his watch as the agreed time was inching closer and began to feel anxious. He slapped hard on the steering wheel twice, but the cars in the front had no response. From the scene, the traffic accident seemed very serious and couldn't be cleared within a short period of time.

Tanimura sighed, took out his phone, and called the minister, but for some strange reasons, the phone call couldn't be made.

Of course, the president of Takeda Pharmaceutical didn't have the courage to stand up against the Defense Minister. He hesitated for a moment, then parked the car on the side of the road and walked across two streets before he stopped a taxi.

"To Yoto Metropolitan Hotel."

"Ok," The driver replied.

The car ride was smooth. Tanimura leaned on the chair and loosened the tie around his neck. Through the mirror, he saw the face of the driver. A delicate face with a ponytail; she looked pure.

"Where are you from?" Tanimura asked casually.

"Nago."

"Nago. I heard a lot of beautiful girls come from there." Tanimura flirted.

"Oh, sir, you sure do know how to joke." The driver smiled politely.

Tanimura didn't seem to mind the lack of interest from the beauty. He introduced himself.

"My name is Tanimura, and if you read the news regularly, you must know me."

"... Oh it is Mr. Tanimura." The driver looked surprised. "I heard you are the ... chairman of Takeda Pharmaceutical?

Extremely satisfied with the beauty's admiration, Tanimura smiled.

He knew too well those who came to work in Yoto from other places, especially the girls who look like they just graduated. They live in a single apartment, sleep on a few square meters of tatami, take over half an hour of subway a day to go to work in the city, and can not resist the temptation to take part in adult films...

Especially this type of beautiful girl, the agents looking for "actress" brokers would not overlook her.

"Can I know your name?"

"Shinanoha."

"Shinanoha… beautiful name." Tanimura smiled and said with sincerity, "If you have any inconveniences in life, please contact me. This is my business card. There are my phone number and address on top."

Of course, the address was not his home, but a mansion he bought elsewhere.

Tanimura put the card in the box behind the stopper.

A smile appeared on Shinanoha's face as she turned the steering wheel to turn a corner.

"Thank you. I think I'll be able to become good friends with Mr. Tanimura."

Her words made Tanimura's mind turn wild as he thought he had a chance, so he began to chat with his new female friend.

Time flew, but they still didn't reach Yoto Metropolitan Hotel.

Tanimura looked at his watch and glanced at the time; ten more minutes before the agreed on time.

Looking at the more and more scattered buildings, he frowned slightly. "Is this the direction to Yoto Metropolitan Hotel?"

"There is a traffic jam on the major highway so I have to go through the shortcut," Shinanoha politely said.

Suddenly, Tanimura realized something was wrong. He pulled out his phone to open the map app. However, he didn't receive the 4G signal.

"Please do not worry, Mr. Tanimura -"

"Stop! NOW!"

Shinanoha paused for a second, and then smiled.

"... it seems like I have to ask you to sleep for a while."

Tanimura knew something went awfully wrong. He immediately reach out to the door, ready to jump out. But then he heard a snap sound; the door was locked.

Just as he turned around and was ready to stop the driver, his gaze met with a tazer.

"Please be obedient before we reach our destination."

Spark-

Chapter 703: We'll go directly

Takeda Pharmaceutical planned to hold a press conference at the end of the month to announce the launch of a new anti-viral drug. However, on December 30, the day before the conference, Takeda Pharmaceutical suddenly announced the conference was canceled.

"At all costs, mobilize all you can mobilize amd make sure you find the whereabouts of Tanimura before the UA!" In the Defense Department Office, Nakaya roared into the phone.

Yesterday he waited late into the night, but Tanimura never showed up.

Even a traffic jam wouldn't last that long!

He couldn't be reached by phone. Nakaya called Tanimura's home and his wife picked up the phone. When asked whether Tanimura came home, his wife was confused. Realizing that the situation was not good, Nayaya immediately called the police station. That night, all the police force in Yoto was mobilized to search for the whereabouts of Tanimura.

The result was clear. Until now, the person was still missing.

Fiercely hanging up the police department's phone, Nakaya wearily rubbed his head.

He didn't sleep for the entire night.

Tanimura possessed too much intelligence, and if these intelligences were made public, Nippon would enter into the worst diplomatic crisis since World War II! Just the information of "the T virus was researched under the authorization of the government "was enough to force the prime minister to step down.

Hundreds of thousands of dead souls in City K, the tragedy on the Royal Caribbean Cruise... This was not something that could be defended by "scientific research without any other purpose", "the sample was improperly stored", "sorry".

Nervous sweat continuously rolled down Nakaya's forehead. He then picked up the phone and called the Takayama, head of the Yamaguchi-gumi.

"The Defense Minister actually personally called a peasant, I am honored," Takayama said with a smile.

"Don't bullsh*t with me, I want you to help me." Nakaya immediately said.

"What's the matter?" Takayama didn't ask for the pay and nonchalantly said.

"Help me find someone. President of Takeda Pharmaceutical. His photo can be found online and his name is Tanimura."

"After I find him?"

Nakaya hesitated for a moment and eventually lowering his voice.

"Kill him."

The entire country had been rattled by the missing Tanimura.

It was at this juncture that a small newspaper in State C far across the Pacific suddenly revealed the secrets of Tanimura's disappearance.

According to an insider, President Tanimura disappeared on his way to a meeting with the Defense Minister, suspected of absconding.

Fear of absconding? Fear of what? When people saw the news, everyone was confused.

Why did the president of Takeda Pharmaceutical want to secretly meet at the hotel with the Defense Minister? The financial situation of the company was good with a promising market, why did president of Takeda Pharmaceutical abscond? People began to suspect the real intention behind the meeting...

Takeda Pharmaceutical was previously just on CIB's suspected list, by now, the CIB had begun to monitor the company. The missing Tanimura also had the honor to become part of the "extra care" list of the CIB and FBA.

However, no one would have thought that Tanimura had already been kidnapped by Ghost Agents and had been taken off Nippon territory by Droplet No.1. He was held in an interrogation room in the underground facilities of New Moon Island.

The news was released by the Ghost Agent, under the instructions of Jiang Chen.

The purpose on one hand was to push Takeda Pharmaceutical to the front of the stage to attract attentions from CIB and other intelligence agencies.

On the other hand, it was used to disrupt the situation and create a chance for Ghost Agents again.

Takeda Pharmaceutical was a Nippon company, but it also possessed information on the virus. Of course, the server that stores the virus data cannot be connected with the network, and it was bound to be heavily protected. After the incident, Takeda Pharmaceutical would most likely delete the company's data within the server, but it was impossible not to leave a backup.

The T virus itself was approved as a weapons project. The Napon government certainly would not be willing to let their investments go down the drain, and they definitely would collect the data and keep it in custody.

Nuclear weapons were dangerous, but no country had ever volunteered to surrender it.

The same was true of T virus.

If the UA came in possession of the virus, the first response would certainly not be to destroy it, but to get it out of the hands of its ally nation through an exchange of interests. This weapon was more terrifying than nuclear weapons, and it was without radiation.

The order that would take ten nuclear bombs to destroy will probably only take ten kilograms of the T virus.

This power to destroy the world must be buried. No one can possess it!

When the Napon government began to transport the experimental data, the Ghost Agents deployed in Nippon would once again make a move and destroy the virus at all costs.

At the moment, in New Moon Island's underground facility's interrogation room.

Tanimura with a pale face looked at the interrogators in front of him with a bitter expression.

He was ready to resist till the end.

However, these people didn't plan to waste a second at all.

Tied to the chair with the camera set up, a shot of truth-telling serum was injected. Tanimura blanked out and spilled everything including the color of his wife's underwear.

And Tanimura's testimony confirmed Jiang Chen's conjecture.

The production of the T virus requires a large amount of methacone, bath salt or Arabian tea can be used as the raw materials that can extract methacone.

At the same time, Tanaka disappeared a month ago along with the experimental data and other intelligences. The virus experiment did get the permission of the Napon government.

"Ten tons of salt ... If Tanaka succeeded in taking over the production of Zhu Tianyou, Sh*t, the madman now has at least hundreds of tons." Standing behind Jiang Chen, Ivan cursed out

"How much virus can that produced?" Jiang Chen looked into Tanimura eyes and asked in a grave tone.

Tanimura's head lowered and used his broken English.

"If other raw materials are not taken into consideration ... ten tons of bath salt can turn half of North American into hell."

Jiang Chen and Ivan exchanged eye contact.

Each saw the shock in the other's eyes.

The shock was knowing that a madman controlled a weapon that could destroy the world. And this madman was also particularly unfriendly towards Xin.

"Send a diplomatic request to the Ethiopian government. If Tanaka is within its region, we need to arrest him immediately," Ivan said fiercely.

"Ethiopia will not allow this. We are unfamiliar with them. They will at most inform the UA troop," Jiang Chen said calmly.

"Is there any difference?" Ivan asked.

"The combat effectiveness of the UA is impressive. As long as someone gets rid of the madman, does it really matter who?"

However, Jiang Chen didn't agree.

"No difference. The virus will just change hands." Jiang Chen stood up, narrowed his eyes, and stared at the sluggish face of Tanimura. Then he coldly said, "The arrest will be executed by Ghost Agents. Celestial Trade Naval and Air Force will provide support."

"What about inbound permission?"

"We don't apply. We'll go directly."

Chapter 704: Best of Luck

Somalia, located at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, was the sea route that all shipping vessels must enter and leave the Suez Canal from and it occupied the lifeline connecting Europe and Asia. Due to the continuous civil war, the order of production had collapsed for many years and pirates has been the local economy since the 20th century.

Chaos, poverty, and the proliferation of arms; here was the hotbed for terrorism.

Occasionally, foreign tourists would visit and spend hundreds of dollars hiring local bodyguards. The bodyguards were usually pirates that switched into the industry and they know clearly who they can't provoke and where they can't go. Although the price was not cheap, it was better than a multi-million dollar ransom.

However, there are exceptions to everything.

Just in the town of Belek, north of Mogadishu, an Asian man was walking alone on the slum streets. In the shadows, pairs of unpleasant eyes watched him without any disguise to the maliciousness in their eyes, staring at him as well as his shoulder bag.

But when he took a turn and headed for that house deep in the slums, all the unpleasant eyes disappeared.

It was the stronghold of Sabah (Youth Party).

Stopping at a fairly complete sand house, Tanaka pulled out his phone, confirmed the coordinates, and walked to the door.

When he opened the door, the previously noisy room gradually turned quiet. The man standing in at the door hoisted a rifle and saw the head of the hat, he then asked.

"Are you Tanaka?"

"That's right," Tanaka said smilingly.

"Cell phone, and weapons." The black man reached his hand out.

Tanaka obediently pulled out a cell phone and put it in the hands of the man.

"Weapons too." The man repeated in broken English.

"I don't have any weapons." Tanaka opened his hands.

The black man glanced incredulously at him and reached for his pocket, but other than his passport and a few pieces of paper, he didn't feel any weapons and found only a small bottle of a thumb-sized perfume.

"I advise you not to open it, or you may kill yourself." Tanaka said with a smile when he saw the man was about to open it. He used Arabic with a tone that didn't sound like he was joking.

There was a burst of laughter, apparently no one took his warning seriously.

The man's opened his mouth and a cruel smile appear, in front Tanaka, he pulled out the cap.

Just as he was going to stuff it into the Asian's nostril, a sudden flash of blood covered his pupils and the color of life in his brown pupils gradually faded.

His chested pumped rapidly as sweat rolled down from his nose and dripped onto the ground.

Tanaka gently took the bottle from his hands, and then put the cap back on.

The rest of the room looked at each other, not understanding the immediate situation. A thin man went up and patted him a few times with his hand. When he saw that there was no reaction, he immediately pulled out a pistol and said warily to Tanaka.

"What did you do to him?"

Tanaka smiled at the boy's action.

"You'll know right away."

"AHHHH—"

A scream came from behind. A man suddenly bit the neck of another man, pushed him to the ground, and blood gushed out. This scene suddenly terrified his companions, they stepped forward to pull the two "twisted" together apart.

"Quickly, separate them!"

"Break off his arm!"

"Ouch! He bit me!"

The sudden unexpected scene made the boy pointing at Tanaka distracted as he turned around to look behind him.

"Roar!"

A short roar came from his back; no one reacted in time. The boy standing in front of Tanaka was smashed into the wall by the man who previously unplugged the bottle and half of his face was chewed off.

"AHHHHHH! Bati, what are you doing!

The miserable howl gradually began to weaken, blood splashed onto Tanaka pants.

The pistol slipped from the boy's hand and fell in a pool of blood.

The man seemed to have captured the smell of the same kind from the boy's body, he stopped chewing and glazed at the other living being with his crimson eyes, he then jumped to them.

The gunshot was finally heard, the person who was plowed to the ground pulled the trigger of the AK-47 in his hand desperately and fired around the house. However, no zombie was killed, but rather, he killed and injured a lot of people who were still alive.

Blood in the dark room formed a river and covered the ants crawling.

Tanaka walked to the boy's side, picked up the pistol and the dropped cellphone, he reached out with a smile and rubbed the boy's short hair.

"Good boy, go now."

The boy opened his mouth and stared at Tanaka with horrific eyes. However, he did not pounce on Tanaka, but he slowly moved his sight and locked them onto another living person.

"Devil!" Crawled under the table, a thin man dashed to the door in horror.

However, he didn't manage to reach the door; Tanaka raised his gun.

"Bang—"

The man's eyes widened and fell in a pool of blood. The boy in unruly steps, jumped on his body, opened his bloody mouth and took a fierce bite.

Tanaka took a stool, sat at the door of the room and smiled at this bloody scene.

On the cruise ship, he used all of his stock, and the 5mg inside the perfume bottle here was the last bit.

But he didn't feel pained at all.

Two months ago, he had developed a modified version of the virus, and now infected people will not only become zombies, but also may evolve into mutants. Most crucially, these modified zombies will not target him as a prey.

This data came from dozens of light years away, all of this was the intention the Kurofune.

It was a waste to just throw the inferior products away. He wanted to serve an appetizers to those poor suckers, so he used the inferior product on the cruise ship.

He will soon be able to get a steady stream of raw materials and before the world could react, the fire of civilization will be extinguished.

The phone began to ring, Tanaka picked up, and said smilingly.

"You stood me up and tested me with a boring trick."

"... We have to make sure we are not dealing with the UA military." The voice over the phone was gloomy.

"It doesn't matter, I have a lot of time. What do you think? Interested?"

"This is the T virus?" The voice over the phone was mixed with a touch of excitement.

If this virus is brought to Nouveau York, the Capital... Sabah will undoubtedly become the most powerful and most influential terrorism organization after Al Qaeda . The whole world will tremble in terror and listen to the teachings of the True God.

"Because it's an improved version, I plan to call this the TT virus," Tanaka chuckled.

"How much do you plan to sell it for?"

"I'm not selling it for money," Tanaka shook his head.

"...What do you want then?"

"Do me a favor. There is a salt factory near Hudour, which is Mr. Zhu's business right? Including his tea plantations in Ethiopia, help me control them. I will split you half of what I produce."

"Deal!"

...

Garrett hugged his wife and daughter in front of the New Moon Island Military Base Hospital. He then walked to Jiang Chen who stood under the coconut tree.

"Congratulations, Mr. Garrett."

Looking at Garrett, Jiang Chen opened his arms with a smile, and gave him a hug.

Letting go of Jiang Chen, Garrett moved his neck and jokingly said.

"Congratulations, Mr. Jiang Chen, you've got yourself a loyal hound."

Having said that, Jiang Chen clearly saw the gratefulness in his eyes.

"Please do not belittle yourself like this; I never thought of my troops as hounds," Jiang Chen laughed. "What about the new body? How are you feeling?"

"Awesome, I feel relived" Garrett punched himself in the chest and made a strong muffled sound, "Muscle tissues are a lot stronger than before, and I feel like I can fight against Captain America."

"Chris Evans will not want to fight with you, his abilities are just special effects." Jiang Chen smiled, and then his expression turned serious. "let's stop the joke here. Ttime is tight and your first task has arrived."

"Ready to go." Garrett stood straight.

"Well, you have three days to get acquainted with your body and practice some high-tech weapons."

"Three days later?"

"I need you to travel to Somalia."

"Target?"

"Drugs."

"Is the target a drug dealer? That's easy." Garrett whistled.

Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile.

"The opponent is the one who exploded you into a crippled person and the culprit who released the T virus."

Garrett took a moment to process, then his eyebrows raised. He bumped his fists together with a ferocious smile appearing on his face.

"Excellent. I will beat him so hard that his mother won't recognize him."

"Find him and capture him. Kill him if he can't be captured and kill him again if he resurrects. Make sure to kill him till he no longer moves. Here's your mission briefing, and more specific information is sent to your chip."

Jiang Chen tapped the watch on his left wrist.

Garett paused, and only himself could see the stream of data flashing through his retina that formed a three-dimensional task briefing.

Just like wearing the Google Glasses, the AR device was implanted directly on his cortex rather than an external item.

Including the T virus information, Tanaka's ability, as well as the secret of the Kurofune, all the information gathered by the Ghost Agents about the Kurofune were shared to the chip in his brain.

After browsing through the mission briefing, Garrett solemnly looked at Jiang Chen.

"I will."

"Ghost Agents will provide you with support, if necessary, Aurora-20 will strike too. I wish you the best of luck." Jiang Chen patted on his shoulder and then turned away.

Chapter 705: Lin Lin's Confusion

Garrett took off along with the Ghost Agents; good news will soon arrive from Somalia.

Kurofune had gone out of control, Takeda Pharmaceutical was caught in the whirlpool of public dissent, and all of CIB's energy has also been drawn into the chess match with the Nippon government and the investigation of Takeda Pharmaceutical. In order to clear their name from their virus, the Nippon government started a secretive operation to transfer the virus data and samples.

At the same time, Ghost Agents lurking in Nippon were eyeing the data and virus samples. As long as the transfer work began, they would immediately move to destroy the backup data and samples.

In addition, Jiang Chen also possessed a copy of the video that recorded Mr. Tanimura's confession about his crimes.

If the video was made public, all the conspiracies related to the T virus will be exposed under the sunlight. The Nippon government would also be dragged into an irreversible pitfall by providing financial aid and policy support to Tanaka and would be condemned by the whole world.

In order to prevent causing suspicions and to prevent the UA from receiving the news ahead of schedule, the release of the video was set after the destruction of the experimental data and virus samples. By then, the video would be anonymously uploaded to YouTube and other video streaming sites, the Nippon government's crimes would be made public.

Of course, Jiang Chen would selectively delete the part related to the Kurofune.

Making the temporarily invincible threats public serves no purpose other than creating panic.

What's more, this would have very limited impact on Tanaka. He already took the virus data and the inventory in the lab and freed the virus recklessly on the cruise ship. To commit such an action, he already didn't care whether the secrets of the Black Ship were made public or not.

Somalia's salt factory was the last stop in his plan.

If the raw materials could be used to produce enough of the virus to cover the entire world, and the local extremist organization was used as a medium to spread the virus to the world. All of civilization would be pushed to the brink of destruction. Kurofune's mission would welcome its ultimate conclusion.

What prompted him to make such a sudden but lunatic decision?

Jiang Chen didn't know, but he hat evert reason to believe that this must be related to the Natural Selection Space Colonization Ship.

"Is it because the technology I brought to this world caused their vigilance?" Jiang Chen furrowed at the thought.

Graphene chips? Quantum communication satellite? Water treatment? Robot? What exactly is it?

He had a hunch that the final showdown with the Kurofune was coming.

Before dealing with Harmony, the stinger lurking inside the human must be removed!

...

"Changing his body?"

Returning to the apocalypse, Jiang Chen found Lin Lin and told her the situation of Tanaka, hoping to get an answer from here.

"So to understand, as soon as he removes his hat, his bodily functions will cease and then wake up from another body." Jiang Chen tried to elaborate Tanaka's story in more detail.

Lin Lin frowned, the marker pinched between her fingers casually beat the table.

"Your description is too abstract, can you not give me a sample of something? Like that hat, or Tanaka's DNA."

After carefully recollecting his memory, once on the plane and once on the cruise ship, every time Tanaka "died", whether the hat or body, were destroyed completely.

Jiang Chen helplessly shook his head.

"This is going to be difficult." Lin Lin pouted and muttered in a quiet voice, "Digitalized people can do it, but some special equipment can also do it. To put it simply, you don't need to know if the so-called false body is a real human or not."

"What does that mean?" Jiang Chen took a second to process.

"It is very simple. Didn't you help a prince make a highly restored man-made human in the modern world? With the use of basic artificial intelligence technology, other than you and the prince, the two insiders, the princess in other people's eyes is just like the real human, right?"

Lin Lin's words woke him up

Jiang Chen instantly realized that he just subconsciously regarded him as a human, but he never thought about if he is really human.

"You mean ... Tanaka is a man-made human?" Jiang Chen frowned.

"Well, I didn't say that," Lin Lin's small head shook quickly, "but it has to do with the hat that never leaves him."

"Of course I know that," Jiang Chen smiled helplessly, "So what's your solution, the intelligent Miss Lin Lin?"

Lin Lin blushed, clearly she didn't think of a good solution, but she didn't want to frankly admit that.

"Ahem, in short, you have to give me that hat first, only after studying it can I conclude..."

Just then, a knock came from the door before it was gently pushed open. Yao Yao wearing aprons appeared in front of the door.

"Ummm, it's time to have lunch. Wait after you eat to work..."

Hearing it was time to eat, Lin Lin happily ran out of the door, leaving Jiang Chen behind. Looking at Lin Lin's back, Jiang Chen shook his head amusedly, and followed her.

After the family enjoyed lunch together, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, but then returned to the apocalypse within two hours. As usual, he set up transport points and added 300 tons of rice, potatoes, bacon, vegetables, salt, pepper, and other foods to the warehouse in the backyard.

With the scale of the food trade increasing, the population of Wanghai was also growing. It was originally enough to transport every other quarter, but now it must be done every month.

Fortunately, with Lin Lin's Fourth Dimensional Transportation Device, Jiang Chen only needed to set the transportation point, and he would be able to throw things from the modern world. So it didn't take him long to move the three hundred tons of goods.

He sent a message to Wang Qing and requested her to transfer all these foods to the warehouse base for preservation. He then returned to the mansion, opened the refrigerator, and stuffed the fresh seafood inside.

The food outside the mansion was different from the food inside.

The former were wholesale seafood from Australia, while the latter was fresh food purchased from the market on Coro Island.

After finishing, Jiang Chen didn't immediately return to the modern world, but walked around the camp to destress.

It was the end of December, there was a lot of snow in Wanghai on the wasteland.

White velvet snow covered every inch of land there. Under the sunshine, the snow reflected a gold-plated sheen. Snowplow vehicles operated in the square, pushing snow to the outside of the base. Children ran from across, picking up snowballs to play. Soldiers lined up with rifles and patrolled with Reptile drones.

Along the way, people who saw him all stopped their work and saluted.

The General, who resumed the order of the city, was revered in the heart by the survivors living there.

As for those who saluted to him, Jiang Chen just smiled and didn't disturb their work.

To be honest, watching the respect in their eyes from the bottom of their heart really made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.

When he passed the rocket launch site, he suddenly remembered something, so he paced toward the Aerospace Technology Research Institute.

Chapter 706: The Cloud above Somalia

Modern world, Somalia, Mogadishu.

A man in a leather jacket with luggage walked out of the airport with giant strides. Above his high nose was a pair of round sunglasses; his well-defined face looked quite vicious. Just from his appearance, this guy wasn't someone to be messed with!

Standing outside the airport, Garrett looked around then pressed on his headset.

"This is Garrett, arrived at Mogadishu Airport... Roger."

Like in a video game, the blue road sign directly appeared in his field of view, marking the mission site.

"Sh*t, this stuff is really convenient," he murmured to himself.

His gaze locked onto his destination. Through the crowd, he walked straight towards the blue road sign.

He walked directly on a street and turned into a local hotel. He didn't go to reception; instead, he went straight upstairs. He stopped at room 503 then gently pushed the door.

The door opened.

Just like as the Ghost Agent said, the door wasn't locked.

Garrett walked inside. His boots crunched on the wooden floor. Carefully checking his surroundings, he closed the door behind, went straight to the bed, and took out a card from under the pillow.

Everything was according to the mission briefing.

With a grin, he then crouched down and pulled out a password-protected briefcase.

He entered the password. With a click, the briefcase opened, exposing the black lacquer of the Reaper Assault Rifle as well as orange-colored bullets and cartridge.

He dumped the equipment onto the bed, stuffed the rifle and drones into the bag, and inserted the pistols into his pocket. After arming himself, he left with the briefcase.

When he went downstairs, a grey-shirted man extinguished his cigarette and stepped forward.

"Sir, do you need a bodyguard? 400 dollars a day. I can guarantee your safety in Somalia."

"Do you have a car?"

"Of course. In Somalia, the bodyguards are the drivers." The man smiled, revealing his white teeth.

Garret nodded then waved.

"Take me to your car."

"Okay. My name is a bit long - you foreigners might not be used to saying it, so you can call me Nasheed."

"Smith," Garrett said emotionlessly.

Smith was the name on his passport.

Nasheed's car was parked near a fruit stand. Not far from the fruit stand were a few children eating apples.

After shooing away the children, Nasheed opened the door and invited Garrett to get in.

It was a modified Toyota pickup; the trailer in the back had clear signs of welding marks. Needless to say, this guy must've been a pirate or something, the reason being that Toyota pickup trucks combined with 50-caliber machine guns were almost the standard for terrorists.

After playing hide and seek with terrorists in Iraq for more than five years, Garrett knew these things too well.

But at that moment, he didn't say anything. He got into the front seat and fastened his seat belt.

"Where to?" The driver started the car and turned to ask.

"Hudur."

Nasheed, almost about to drive, suddenly paused.

"What's the matter?" Garrett asked.

"It's not safe there and I don't suggest you go... That's one of Sabah's strongholds, and you must've heard they're unfriendly to Americans," Nasheed said.

Garrett grinned.

"Just take me there and drop me off."

Nasheed made a helpless expression.

"If you insist."

While Garret traveled on the car, a woman with a black turban drove to the desert north of Hudur.

The second-hand car was parked next to a sand dune. The woman pulled off her turban while throwing the black robe in the car, exposing a pretty face, and an Optical Illusion combat suit in a sand color.

When she got to the back of the car, she pulled open the trunk and took out the hidden Ghost Sniper Rifle as well as a drone backpack.

Putting the sniper rifle over her shoulder, she opened the hologram map, confirmed the coordinates of the targeted salt factory and the contours of the surrounding terrain, then headed for the dunes next to it.

The small drone terminal was behind the sand dune. She immediately activated optical invisibility and headed for the top of the dune.

Creeping on the sand, she set up her sniper rifle. The crosshairs locked onto the salt factory hidden in the hamlet.

"Ghost Bird is in place, waiting for attack orders."

…

In the laboratory of the salt factory, Tanaka inserted a glass tube into a flask filled with a clear-colored liquid and carefully introduced the blue-colored reagent. The moment the blue liquid mixed with the transparent liquid, a chemical reaction suddenly occurred. The originally incompatible blue liquid beads instantly disappeared.

A man, who was standing by the side, incredulously watched this scene.

"Have you learned yet?" Tanaka asked smilingly.

The man disguised his surprised look, pretended he hadn't heard, and looked away.

"No need to be nervous. I know Sabah sent you here to learn. You have to be careful when producing this virus; you could kill everyone if you don't pay attention."

Just then, the door was suddenly pushed open and a brown-skinned man came in and spoke two words to Tanaka in Japanese.

"They're here."

Tanaka looked a little surprised, but he soon returned to normal. He removed the glass tube from the rack then walked to another table.

"They're actually here. It seems that Jiang Chen can still surprise me."

"What to do?" asked the brown-skinned man.

"How many tons of salt have been transferred to the desert?"

"97 tons."

Tanaka nodded, pleased. He picked up the test tube, poured a little bit of unknown powder inside, poured the cloudy liquid in the test tube into the flask and pressed on the cork.

The flask was placed in front of an incandescent lamp. Looking at the oil-like luster on the surface, Tanaka smiling unconsciously.

"Very good, that's enough."

He tucked the flask into the hand of a black man. Tanaka patted him on the shoulder and spoke in English.

"After observing it so many times, you should try it yourself."

The man looked at the flask then at Tanaka, confused.

"What, what should I do?"

"Add a sample of embryonic stem cells from that brown bottle over there, put it into a petri dish and incubate it for two hours at 37°C then the virus's last step is done. I'm going to the washroom and going to grab something to eat. Rest assured - I completed the dangerous steps. You can do it!"

Tanaka and the brown man left, leaving behind a confused chemist.

"Did you tell him the recipe?"

"That's right. He won't live for long anyway," Tanaka said with a smile.

In the village where the salt factory was located, there were about 1,000 people, including the elderly, women and children. 500 of them were directly or indirectly in the drug business. With the help of Sabab, Tanaka had taken over Mr. Zhu's business effortlessly, and now he was the boss.

So when he walked out of the salt factory, these foolish natives looked at him with awe.

They weren't aware he was the man who would bring them death.

Tanaka walked to the front of the parked Toyota pickup and opened the door but didn't sit inside. He looked up at the glaring sun. His eyes narrowed and he whispered, "The Kurufune is welcoming its last moment. Soon, the whole world will remember our name, fear it, and embrace the era of Harmony in the soothing horn of doomsday. Sakda, do you choose to meet our enemies here or follow me to the end?"

"Is there any difference?"

"No difference. Our fate is the same."

"Then I choose to meet them here," the brown-skinned man said.

A cloud covered the gradually lowering sun.

Tanaka nodded with a smile as he patted Sakda's back.

"Best of luck."

Chapter 707: The Shadow in the Distant Sea

When the door opened, the northern wind blew snow all over the ground.

Jiang Chen closed the door, hung his winter coat on a hook, and walked to the Aerospace Technology Research Institute.

Compared to the previous "workshop," the snow-covered Aerospace Technology Research Institute could undoubtedly be called a proper workshop. It had a wide lobby and was a five-story building. Although researchers were still in short supply, at least it was more spacious.

He went straight to Jiang Lin's lab and saw him working with several researchers in lab coats around a two-person tall oil drum.

Jiang Chen went up then looked at the barrel for a moment.

"This is?"

"It's called the 'Messenger,' a space telescope that belonged to the Pan-Asia Cooperation. It has a maximum observation range of 13.8 billion light-years and captures light from the beginning of the Big Bang. It can directly observe galaxies in 1-50 light years, photograph the landforms of the planets, it can also be used to observe black holes, dark matter, etc…" As he put some things aside, Jiang Lin explained to Jiang Chen.

"Good lord, where did this thing come from?" Jiang Chen, clearly intrigued, stared at the object.

"The Zhao Corporation got it from the Taipei Space Launch Base. It was originally used to explore extraterrestrial civilizations. However, before it was put into use, the Third World War broke out, so this was brought into Taipei's Fallout Shelter... You told me to collect all equipment related to space, so I bought it."

"How much was it?"

"10000 credits." Jiang Lin shrugged.

10,000 credits was a huge sum for the average person, but it was nothing for NAC. If this was before the war, this space telescope would've cost at least billions of dollars' worth of pan-Asian currency. Now, it was worth a thousand canned foods.

"Great value, you did an excellent job." Jiang Chen laughed then looked at the thing a few more times. "How was this repaired?"

"This wasn't broken to begin with, but it wasn't completed. The survivors on the Taipei side sold the design drawings and the ground monitoring equipment to us. As long as we digest the technology and create the remaining parts, we just need to install it before it's good to go."

Once this space telescope was completed and launched by Celestial Trade, the mysterious veil of the Natural Selection and Gliese 581g planet would also be completely uncovered. Only when the enemy was seen with one's own eyes could earth have the possibility of fighting its enemy.

After telling Jiang Lin to complete the space telescope as soon as possible, Jiang Chen left the Institute. On his way to the community center, he happened to see Wang Qing, who was looking for him.

From her face, there was a matter of urgency.

"What happened?" Jiang Chen stopped and looked at her.

Wang Ching nodded.

"A distress signal came from Liuding Town."

"Liuding Town?"

While Liuding town still remained independent from the order of NAC-led Wanghai City, it had now become a vassal of NAC with close economic ties. For no other reason, no matter how strong its air force and long-range firepower were, its foundation was ultimately the sea, and they relied heavily on imports from onshore survivors.

Think about it - what kind of industry could be supported by an aircraft carrier?

More and more small and medium-sized survival camps envied the jurisdiction of the NAC. With closer trading with the Sixth Street, they had taken the initiative to join the NAC economic zone and accept the protection of the NAC military government. This could also save a considerable amount of tariffs and military expenses. Among these was the Beer Bottle Company that provided ammunition supplies for Liuding Town and the small harbor towns that had close trade ties with Liuding...

For these small and medium-sized survival camps, NAC gave them a high degree of autonomy. The only requirement was to abide by the NAC-designated constitution and pay taxes to NAC according to their charter.

All the pawns had taken refuge in NAC, and Liuding naturally became a pawn of NAC. Although they were unwilling to accept this fact, after several internal meetings in the Liuding government under the leadership of the capitalist Tang Miya, Liuding and NAC signed a defense pact symbolizing their friendship.

When they received a request for assistance from Liuding Town, NAC was certainly obliged to respond.

However, Jiang Chen hadn't imagined he would run into this on a temporary trip.

"Who's the enemy?" Jiang Chen looked at Wang Qing.

"I'm still not sure if it's an enemy..." Wang Qing shook her head. "A destroyer appeared close to the Bohai Aircraft Carrier and has been hovering five kilometers away from the port of Wanghai. Since they're unsure if it's a hostile force, Liuding has been tense lately."

[Destroyer?]

Jiang Chen furrowed his brows slightly.

What worried him wasn't that it was a destroyer, but that a new force had appeared in the sea near Wanghai. If they possessed a destroyer, presumably their forces weren't small. Whether this destroyer was inherited from before the war or made by them, it proved they wouldn't be easy to deal with.

And what made him most surprised was that someone could actually travel freely on the dangerous seas?

Zhao Chenwu mentioned before that the Zhao Corporation had a small fleet, but it basically didn't dare to leave shallow waters and only sailed along the island mass. The monsters in the ocean were far more dangerous than those on land.

Aside from polarized extreme variants, the strongest mutant on land was the Mother of Death Claw, and they even trembled in front of electromagnetic pulse cannons. In the ocean, both the upper and lower limits were unknown.

After all, species, whether quantity, density, or size, weren't at an order of magnitude. Disregarding everything else, a mutated blue whale was almost equivalent in size to a Bohai Aircraft Carrier. Jiang Chen had seen the photo of the mutated blue whale; it was shot by the merchants who sailed to Japan. Its massive size made it impossible for him to imagine what weapons could defeat it.

"Did Liuding try to contact the destroyer?"

"They've tried to get in touch with them, but the other side seems to be averse to contact."

They didn't want to engage in conversation; they were just hovering in the distance.

It was evident why Liuding felt nervous. Both parties were too close to each other, and any misjudgment could lead to battle. If the opposite destroyer struck, the Bohai Aircraft Carrier, which had its engine broken for more than two decades, couldn't evade an attack.

"What message did Liuding send?" asked Jiang Chen.

"They want us to honor the defense pact," Wang Qing said.

Jiang Chen nodded and said after a moment of contemplation:

"Deploy a battalion of forces from the First Division on Hengsha Island and send engineering teams to build forts and fortifications on the island. Give this to Cheng Weiguo. He knows what to do."

"Hengsha Island is outside the jurisdiction of NAC. There are two different mutant nests in the area. Do we send troops directly?" Wang Qing asked.

"Mutants nests? Perfect - NAC's artillery hasn't performed military exercises for a long time. Bombard the area then enter." Jiang Chen waved his hand and ordered.

"Yes!" Wang Qing saluted.

Chapter 708: Operation: Black

Somalia, Hudur region. It was sunny.

A large net was formed around the village where the salt factory was located. Garrett, a modified warrior, was responsible for the frontal attack. He was supported by a Ghost Agent, as well as a Celestial Trade Marine Corps soldier who was deployed in the vicinity as backup. All combat units had arrived in their scheduled positions.

They were only waiting for the night to execute their mission!

The sun began to set, and a dim halo shrouded the outer edge of the red terrain of the earth, scattering a blood-like color to the surrounding sand dunes. Dark-skinned villagers with long branches shooed the goats back into the pen. A truck drove on the dirt road and raised a cloud of dust. Several armed militants carrying AK-47s jumped off the vehicle and ordered the villagers next to them to unload the "tea leaves" on the truck and move them into the plant.

The Ghost Agent on the sand dunes took a deep breath, shifted her gaze from the scope, and clicked the touchscreen on her right arm a few times.

In order to prevent snipers from snooping, these militants cleverly pulled ropes between the buildings and hung dyed cloths on the rope. However, these methods weren't so effective for a Ghost Agent equipped with advanced technology.

The only problem was the civilian population in the village - it was difficult to avoid accidental injuries.

A holographic screen emerged. Before her eyes was a bird's eye view of the village. The drone had arrived over the salt factory. Using infrared identification devices, it marked the heat source belonging to the militants and used the two-line positioning method to directly present a three-dimensional position of the target on the Ghost Agent's retina.

The sky finally turned dark.

In addition to the armed militants who were still standing around, the villagers had already returned home and closed their doors and windows. The entire village was filled with silence. When the last light went out, Garrett, waiting by the highway, took out his Ripper Assault Rifle from his travel bag, loaded it cleanly, took the rifle and walked towards the wall on the periphery of the village.

The Ghost Agent, codenamed Ghost Bird, had already shared the enemy's heat source coordinates on his chip. Although their dark skin color provided them with natural night camouflage, under the monitoring of drones, they were no different from people sitting underneath a spotlight.

"At three o'clock, there are two sentinels."

Leaning against the wall, Garrett pressed on the headset.

"Can you hit them over there?"

"There's a building in the way; you have to rely on yourself."

"Okay." At the same time the voice faded, Garrett took out the drone from the backpack behind him and threw it in the air like he was throwing a Frisbee.

Buzz-!

A short buzzing sound whistled past. The two sentinels didn't have time to react before a series of blood splatters appeared and they collapsed into pools of blood.

With a rifle, Garrett stepped out of the shadows and reached for the hummingbird drone that hovered over the bodies of the two men. He then proceeded in the direction of the salt factory with his rifle.

At that moment, a shrill scream coming from the distance suddenly broke through the silence of the village. Then, on the other side of the village, there was heavy gunfire!

Garrett's expression turned stern as he assumed his location had been exposed. He immediately rushed for cover and switched his rifle to automatic.

The screams awakened the sleeping villagers and lamps began to light up.

Of course, some people would never wake up again.

The lights illuminated the dark village. Cries, screams, and gunfire mixed together. Garrett waited for a long time, but the envisaged siege didn't come.

"The situation is odd." The Ghost Bird's voice appeared in his ear.

"What happened? Can you see things from over there?" Garrett frowned.

"Zombies. The villagers are infected and turned into zombies... The zombies are now attacking the militants and they're killing each other."

"Fu*k!"

[This madman!]

Garrett cursed, immediately lifted his rifle, and rushed toward the salt factory.

This mission didn't receive approval from the Somali authorities. At the moment, all the people in the village turned into zombies. Such a big event was absolutely impossible to cover up! The heavy casualties of unrelated civilians would inevitably draw the attention of the local warlords, international watchdogs, and UA troops stationed in the Gulf of Aden.

Celestial Trade definitely couldn't become the scapegoat!

He had to finish this quick!

Roar--!

His dark skin stained with blood, a man dashed out of the darkness and rushed at Garrett. Judging from his ferocity and speed, he obviously wasn't an ordinary zombie!

Garrett didn't avoid him at all. He reached out with one hand at lightning speed, grasping the neck of the zombie then snapped it in half. As he listened to the sound of the snap, the neck of the zombie broke and the bloodthirst in its pupils gradually faded.

Without any pause, Garrett set up his rifle and continued to rush toward the salt factory.

Gunfire resounded in the distance, and bullets coming from the side pierced through the zombies about to sneak up on Garrett.

The terrain of the alley was too narrow, and the long range of his rifle made it difficult for it to be effective in close-range combat. Although they were there to destroy the virus, they didn't think they would encounter zombies there!

[Damn it! I should've brought my machine gun here!]

Blood spattered Garrett's face as he pulled out a dagger stuck in a zombie's eyes while he cussed into the communication channel.

"Sh*t! These zombies aren't right!"

"They seem to be mutated... You better act fast. The mayhem here might have alerted the local military force. We didn't apply for entry, so they might not be very friendly."

"I know!"

After smashing down a zombie with his gunstock, Garrett unleashed some bullets and swept across seven or eight zombies. He whipped open a wooden door and rushed into a house.

There was a zombie on the floor and a corpse being eaten. Before it reacted, he rushed into the backyard and took a deep breath then kicked against the sand wall.

The titanium alloy bone was activated, and the built-in power module powered to its maximum.

His foot hit it directly. With only a crackling sound, the entire sand wall collapsed and the two zombies behind the wall were directly knocked to the ground. Because the earlier commotion brought the zombies to the street, there were almost no zombies on this street.

In front of him was the salt factory!

While running, Garrett said while gritting his teeth:

"Ghost, local military forces have discovered the situation here!"

"Yes. Based on the satellite screen, you only have fifteen minutes."

"That's enough!"

The gunfire inside the plant had stopped. From the heat source information sent by the drone, the zombies had apparently won. Sabab, who dealt with the devil, was finally bitten by a devil.

Kurofune had never had any allies. All human beings who refused to accept evolution were their enemies.

Inside the factory, a dozen zombies with rifles still around their waists rushed toward Garrett.

Orange-red flames jumped out from the muzzle. Garrett pressed the trigger and instantly exploded the zombies' heads.

Clank—

A clip was emptied, so Garrett pulled out a new clip from his waist and was about to load it.

At that very moment, a strong wind suddenly attacked from the side.

Garrett, whose five senses had been strengthened, reacted immediately and placed his rifle in front of his chest.

Boom—

Its gun body made out of plastic steel was actually broken in half by the direct blow.

After throwing the broken weapon onto the ground, Garrett jumped back with force. He distanced himself from the man and locked his eyes onto him.

"Who are you?"

The brown-skinned man swung his arms and prepared himself to fight. The muscles of his body swelled at an unbelievable speed.

"Who I am isn't important."

His previously peaceful eyes suddenly turned ferocious.

"You just need to know that today, you will die here with the identity of a Celestial Trade soldier."

"Are you sure?" A menacing smile formed on Garrett's face.

Chapter 709: Tokyo Ghoul

In the bustling streets of Yoto, a black van departed from an underground garage two blocks away from the Takeda Pharmaceutical Building.

According to intelligence collected by Ghost Agents, the Ministry of Defense had taken the lead in transferring T virus data from Takeda Pharmaceutical today. In order to ensure complete security, not only the Ministry of Defense Intelligence Department, but also the Cabinet Intelligence Research Office, which directly obeyed the Prime Minister's orders, and the Second Division of the Ground Self-Defense Force, participated in the transfer.

But on the day of the transfer, their actions were surprisingly low-key.

In addition to the black van, all the Napon intelligence agency's energy was used to shift the attention of the CIB.

Takeda Pharmaceutical's chairman, Tanimura, went missing. The Minister of Defense blamed this on the UA. In his opinion, no one else had the strength to be able to take Tanimura out of the country without anyone knowing.

News about Tanimura's disappearance that they desperately tried to cover up was also first leaked from newspapers in State C, thousands of kilometers away. This was also evidence that supported Nakaya's speculations.

However, the Nippon government didn't realize there were other people eyeing them.

Just as the black van left the garage, a white car parked at the door of the clothing store about 200 meters away began to move too.

"The target has left the garage."

"Roger that."

After closing the communication line, Shinanoha glanced at the screen on her right arm. Through the image from the drone, the position of the black van was confirmed and she kept a distance of 300 meters. It was located in the center of the city and it was inconvenient to execute the mission. As long as the target arrived at the destination street...

Shinanoha's lips formed a smile.

By the way, Shinanoha was just the name on her passport - her real name was Zhu Yu from Michigan.

She had helped Jiang Chen many times and was one of the older agents. In order to ensure everything went smoothly, Jiang Chen sent her to Napon to plan the mission against Takeda Pharmaceutical after the cruise ship tragedy.

Zhu Yu approached a red light so she stopped the car.

The black van continued to drive to the targeted location, but she wasn't worried at all. From beginning to end, the van hadn't disappeared from the drone's monitor.

At this moment, an unexpected event occurred!

A Mercedes on the other side of the road suddenly turned its steering wheel, veered onto the opposite lane, and rammed into the black van without any warning.

No one could react in time.

The Mercedes was obviously modified, and it flipped the black van over.

The crowd screamed and fled, but Hell had only just begun.

Boom!

Fire erupted from the Mercedes, immediately swallowing the black van and the nearby crowd. The flying debris blew away the escaping passers-by, spilling blood and broken limbs on the street. The braking vehicles collided and rammed into the shops along the street. The sudden explosion completely paralyzed the traffic on this road.

Zhu Yu, who was waiting at the traffic light, stared at the fire blankly.

Immediately, she reacted, entered the return command for the drone, and updated her partner at the ambush location.

"The target has been destroyed, the mission is canceled..."

Someone exploded the data and samples of the virus into pieces right in front of them. Was it the CIB? No, they wouldn't want to destroy the virus but obtain the virus! Who could it be…

Zhu Yu's eyebrows furrowed as she was lost in thought.

Suddenly, a shrill scream outside the window shook her.

"It's… it's a zombie!"

"That's a lie! How could that be! How could this appear in Yoto!"

"Run!"

"Drive! Drive! Drive!"

Noisy shouting and car whistles could be heard; traffic accidents near the intersection completely ravaged the entire neighborhood. The sudden outbreak of the T virus turned everything into horrific mayhem.

It wasn't an anime, and it wasn't a movie.

The bloody living-dead walked through the stagnant traffic and used their hands, that couldn't feel pain, to open windows. They pounced at the fleeing people, bit all the flesh and blood they could see and expanded the numbers of living-dead.

Seeing the blood in front of her, Zhu Yu suddenly recalled something.

The vehicle not only contained the virus data, but also Tanaka's newly developed improved virus samples...

There was no time to delay; she awaiting death by staying in that car!

Zhu Yu immediately opened the car door and followed the direction of the crowd, heading away from the source of infection.

At that very moment, a familiar face suddenly appeared on the big screen next to the street.

A pleasant face appeared with an iconic flat cap.

"Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Tanaka..."

...

In Somalia, thousands of kilometers away.

In the salt factory, Garrett confronted Sakda.

Watching the gestures of the man in front of him, Garrett's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Muay Thai?"

Sakda didn't speak and responded with his fists.

Woosh.

The sound of wind breaking rang in his ear. His opponent's iron fist that seemed capable of breaking through his steel plate made Garrett suddenly turn serious and disregard all his contempt.

There was another sound of a fist breaking the air. Sakda skillfully took a jab before he followed with a powerful elbow strike directly onto Garrett's face.

Pooch!

After a muffled sound followed by a drop of cold sweat, Sakda's pupils gradually enlarged.

His elbow strike felt like it hit an iron plate...

No, if it was an iron plate, he had the confidence he could penetrate it with his genetic modification. At the moment, however, it was as if the man's arm was in front of him and he easily blocked his strike. Not only that, but judging by the sharp pain from his hand, his right hand was crippled.

It seemed that the man in front of him had also experienced some degree of "mutation."

And it was a more horrifying transformation.

"Don't be surprised - my bones are made of titanium!"

Garrett grinned and punched his face, caving his nose right in. His entire cheekbone broke into pieces.

"Take this punch for the guy called Tanaka. After you go to hell, thank him for me."

After lobbing Sakda to the side, who was no longer breathing, Garrett opened the hologram map and walked toward the target destination.

Pushing open the wooden door, he arrived at the basement of the salt factory. The viral density here was extremely high, but for Garrett, who was injected with a genetic vaccine, a high density the virus had no effect on him.

He nonchalantly finished the zombies that pounced at him and he headed straight for the source of the infection.

The source of infection was a petri dish, from which the virus leaked.

There were dozens of bath salt bags next to it. There were also dangerous bottles of glass on the table.

All the viruses were here.

"Only 11 kilograms...how could that be?!"

Garrett gritted his teeth and immediately released a drone. However, he searched the entire salt factory and didn't find Tanaka or any more viruses.

There was only one possibility!

The Kurofune had already transferred all the raw materials and made new viruses!

Garrett punched the wall and made a dent in the concrete wall.

"F*ck!"

At the same time, the voice of Ghost Bird resounded in his ear.

"There are only five kilometers left before the local military force arrives. We must evacuate immediately."

"Roger that."

Garrett turned off his microphone and reluctantly looked back at the salt factory. He picked up his rifle broken in half from the floor and departed the salt factory.

Chapter 710: Messy Situation

Ayesha called Jiang Chen back to the modern world through the Fourth Dimensional Messenger on the EP.

He never thought that after being only gone for a while, the world would change dramatically.

First was news from Ghost Agents in Nippon.

There was a T virus outbreak in Yoto, the entire Shinagawa area was quarantined, and more than 100,000 people were infected. The Defense Forces sent in 5,000 combat units to Yoto. At the same time, the UA troops stationed in Nippon also dispatched five Osprey helicopters, dropped a company of Marines, and went to Shinagawa to carry out rescue activities.

It was also in this incident that Tanaka's face appeared on a big screen in Ginza, marking his first public appearance.

"Good afternoon, my name is Tanaka."

"You may not be familiar with my name, but it doesn't matter. You must've heard of the virus I developed."

"You don't have to try to understand the motives behind my action. If you really want to get to the bottom, it's probably war."

"Yes, this is war."

"Human civilization will usher the dawn without hypocrisy and sin. Look forward to the day Kurofune arrives."

"I wish you the best of luck."

Although Tanaka called his actions "war," the world media still categorized the attack as an "act of terrorism" and referred to it as the Asian version of the September 11 incident. The Defense Force and the UA military in Nippon took control of the situation immediately. They used barbed wire to create a quarantine zone and evacuated survivors from the area.

However, the tens of thousands of casualties still cast a shadow on the country and the entire world.

Similar incidents had occurred in the past. In March 1995, a certain evil organization in Nippon released sarin gas in the Metro, causing heavy casualties. However, compared to the number of casualties of the T virus leak, the '95 event was nothing in comparison.

"We express deep sorrow for the crisis that occurred in Nippon. We strongly condemn the use of biological and chemical weapons against unarmed civilians!"

"This is a global disaster. To the nine citizens who died in the virus incident... Our Seals will provide you with an explanation."

"The Kremlin has issued a national warrant for arrest. If Tanaka or the Kurofune appears in Russia..."

"France..."

"..."

However, on the third day of the T virus incident in Yoto, the town north of Hudur in Somalia attracted the attention of the entire world.

Overnight, 987 villagers and 45 militants all died of unnatural causes.

The cause of death was the T virus!

No, to be precise, it was the improved version of the T virus.

The local military forces dispatched troops to the target village immediately after hearing gunfire and explosions. However, this group apparently underestimated the combat effectiveness of the zombies. They directly drove Toyota pickup trucks with their machine guns and rammed inside.

If they were ordinary zombies, perhaps they could be easily suppressed by more than a dozen guns, but these zombies were mutated.

In particular, this type of zombie, whose muscles were swollen and tumor-like, could directly knock over a pickup from the side, and these militiamen realized their sloppy behavior had struck the hornet's nest.

The thirty militias who rushed into the village became food. The warlords who controlled the Belvedere area immediately sent a regiment of troops to block the desert north of Hudur and set up checkpoints in the distance. Soldiers were sent to evacuate villagers from the area.

However, they obviously weren't effective.

Within two days, the zombies spread to neighboring areas and turned villages with populations of at least five thousand into places of the living-dead.

However, the problematic part was that the village viral outbreak was located on the border between Somalia and Ethiopia and was an area with disputed borders. Because of the chaotic political situation in Somalia, the warlords didn't seek help from the United Nations. They stupidly chose to block the news, which pitted them against neighboring Ethiopia.

It wasn't until the third day of the incident that Ethiopia received news from a town on its side. "Strange" people were crossing the border from Somalia, and they opened their mouths to bite people...

Fortunately, the Ethiopian military dispatched the forces of a division immediately and even used armored vehicles and tanks to keep the zombies out of their borders.

At the same time, Ethiopia sought help from the United Nations.

It was precisely because of these political tensions that despite the simultaneous outbreak of the T virus in Yoto, the virus incident in Somalia wasn't known to the world until three days later.

...

New Moon Island, Celestial Trade Military Base. Garrett stood at Jiang Chen's desk. His face was both embarrassed and anxious. The Ghost Agent who stood next to him, code-named Ghost Bird, originally named Penny, was also considered an experienced agent.

However, the mission took a surprising turn.

"What happened in Somalia? Garrett, you go first." Jiang Chen's finger tapped on the table and he didn't have the most pleasant expression.

"We set up a capture plan, but Tanaka wasn't in the salt factory... The T virus found in the salt factory was only 11 kilograms," Garrett said with his back straight.

Jiang Chen looked at Penny.

Penny's expression was a bit more awkward, because the intelligence was collected by the Ghost Agent, and they had received credible news from their informant. Tanaka had been in the salt factory for several days and there were at least three trucks driving into the village each day. He took the tea leaves smuggled from Ethiopia.

Yet on the day of the mission, Tanaka disappeared?

Also gone were the virus-raising materials and viruses made by Tanaka in the past few days.

"Sorry."

"Hundreds of kilograms of virus extracts are missing, and there are nearly 100 tons of viral raw materials missing. What do you think I want to hear from you?" Jiang Chen stared into Penny's eyes and took a deep breath, but he didn't continue to make things difficult for her.

At the same time, Jiang Chen's watch vibrated.

He previously told Jean to monitor news on the Internet about the T virus. Now that she was calling him, it was probably regarding this very reason.

"You can go first," Jiang Chen dismissed the two of them as he took the call.

"Roger!"

Garrett and Penny sighed in relief, looked at each other and turned around.

After the office door was closed, Jiang Chen pressed down on the watch and Jean's holographic image appeared beside his hand.

"New news."

"What news?"

"The Belvedere Regional Army refused to execute the request signed by the Somali authorities regarding the UA military's takeover of the affected area and threatened to withdraw all checkpoints set up outside the infected zone if the UA military forcibly entered the infected area and allowed zombies to proliferate to the entire region of Somalia."

"Well, that fool is playing with fire then?"

Not everyone had the capital to use the virus as a bargaining chip. The Belvedere regional warlords obviously overestimated their fighting power. After the events in Yoto, they still dared to act so recklessly; it was like they were trying to be the enemy of the whole world!

Jean's next words confirmed Jiang Chen's speculations.

"Two hours ago, the United Nations passed a war resolution. Six F-18 Hornets took off from the UA military base in the Gulf of Aden, and they also deployed 12 Osprey transport aircrafts."

Chapter 711: The War at Somalia

The United Nations approved the NATO's dispatch of troops to Somalia with three votes for and two against.

The Somalia authorities accepted the resolution and expressed their willingness to cooperate with NATO's military operations. Belvedere warlord with the Youth Party leaders all issued statements that the actions of the Somali authorities were "shameless betrayals," and would carry this war of resistance to the end.

At the same time, the UA, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and other countries declared war on the Belvedere warlords and Ethiopia authorized NATO with military passage.

Such a rapid response was reminiscent of the 2001 war in Afghanistan. Perhaps it was out of vengeance for allies, perhaps because of the terrifying death rate of the T virus, or perhaps because from the very beginning, it was a war involving all humanity.

Any organization that provides shelter for Tanaka will be uprooted, no matter the costs!

More than 200,000 troops from both sides were involved. NATO and the Somali government invested 90,000 people in total, while the Belvedere warlord mobilized 150,000. The first round of fire broke out in in the northeastern part of the capital, Mogadishu.

The battle outcome was obvious. With the support of the UA Djibouti Air Force Base, thousands of warfare missiles nearly paralyzed all the armored units of the Belvedere warlords. The NATO ground forces relied on mechanized armor and cooperated with ground forces to advance toward Belvedere.

However, the battle situation was not as easy as the UA imagined.

The Belvedere warlords who were proficient in guerrilla tactics and relying on Toyota pickups and standard 107 rocket launchers, raided the M1A1 main battle tank at close range at an incredible pace. This caused a lot of trouble for the UA armored units and soldiers.

At the same time, the Belvedere warlord received messages from his allies. Support from organizations such as Libyan and Al-Qaeda were extremely tenacious in the fight.

Perhaps these "indigenous" would eventually lose, but for the war to finish, it may not happen until next month.

...

After putting down the newspaper in his hands, Jiang Chen sighed and after a few moments of despair, he said to Jean.

"Help me to contact Xia Shiyu. Prepare 5 billion liquidity assets from the group. I want to acquire Yoto real estate. The economic crisis in Napon is inevitable.

"Okay, Mr. Chairman... but is now the time to consider this?" Jean asked.

"You don't understand. Man is an economic creature." Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled, saying something that made the artificial intelligence confused.

It was two days since he came back. Five days has passed since the Yoto T virus incident.

The sudden approval by the United Nations of NATO's military actions against Belvedere's warlords had muddled the situation in Somalia. However, the key figure, Tanaka, was still missing.

The Ghost Agent analyzed the footage captured by the Skyeye X1 spy satellite and finally determined that on the day of the attack, Tanaka left Somalia on a convoy back to Ethiopian tea gardens. However, because all everyone wore headscarves and their facial features were indistinguishable, the investigation couldn't progress.

However, at this time, the informant that the Ghost Agent spent heavily on training in Sabab was once again playing a key role!

According to intelligence, Sabab (The Youth Party) had recently come to start transferring people and equipment to the Mandela region of Kenya. Mandela was located at the junction of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia where the religious situations were complicated.

"Next time your informant contacts you, ask him how the brain is grown on their leader's head." Putting the information in his hands on the table, Jiang Chen's brows was no longer twisted together.

Penny shrugged, and reported to Jiang Chen in a helpless voice.

"They believe that as long as they have control of the T virus that is feared by other Western countries, it is equivalent to controlling nuclear weapons and will be able to achieve parity with the mainstream countries of the world and negotiate to achieve their own political aspirations. Therefore, after trading with Tanaka, Sabab, which was originally a marginalized terrorist organization, immediately received the attention and assistance from IS, Al Qaeda, and Taliban. Until now, they still count on Tanaka to help them win the war."

"They are dreaming." Jiang Chen groaned.

Apart from that, countries will purchase large quantities of antiviral vaccines from Future Biology every month. The poor African people may not be immune to the vaccine.

"What about us?"

"We are going to kick them so they wake up."

After taking a document from the desk, Jiang Chen signed his own name and then tossed it in Penny's arms.

"Last chance, we only have one chance. Destroy the virus and destroy the Kurofune," Jiang Chen starred at her emerald green eyes and said word by word.

Jiang Chen's stare was a little suffocating, but her back remained straight.

"I understand!"

"Then go now."

Jiang Chen waved and signaled that Penny could leave.

Taking the document from the office, Penny closed the door.

The office was empty again. Jiang Chen took a deep breath and rubbed his temples.

"Jean, do you have any good ideas?"

Jean's hologram figure surfaced beside him and looked blankly at Jiang Chen.

"Ask, what is a good idea?"

"Kill Tanaka," said Jiang Chen.

Jean was silent for two seconds and said.

"Is it difficult?"

"He is as slippery as a rat, and harder to kill than a cockroach. He could "resurrect" several times, and we know nothing about it."

"What does he want?" Jean asked.

"To destroy the world?"

"With one person, how could he destroy the world?"

"The T virus in his hands, and the Kurofune lightyears away is plotting for him."

"Then destroy all the viruses and then cut off the contact with the Kurofune."

Jean's answer was abstract.

Destroy all viruses? It was not that simple, what he can do now is to follow behind the trail of the Kurofune. Find the drug plant and send the soldiers there.

Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile, but suddenly, he paused.

Wait, destroy the virus...

He suddenly thought of an idea.

Although somewhat absurd, it seemed feasible...

NATO's military operations disrupted the situation in the Somali region. This was bound to have an impact on the mission of Celestial Trade. On the other hand, the chaotic situation, at the same time, provided the second military operation of Celestial Trade a chance to take advantage of this mess.

On December 31, the NATO coalition forces exchanged fires with Belvedere warlords on the outskirts of Belvedere. This was the gateway to Belvedere. Belvedere suddenly announced that it would withdraw all checkpoints in the affected area and "release" thousands of infected people.

Condemnation had no meaning. The Ethiopian army suddenly announced its participation in the war. Tanks and infantries crossed the border and took over the garrison in the infected area.

Belvedere warlords were facing enemies in the front and back. Their demise was only a matter of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow

At the same time, Garrett, Ghost Agents, and 12 Celestial Trade Marine Corps soldiers arrived in Kenya along with their equipment.

Chapter 712: Arriving in Nippon

This was Jiang Chen's first visit to Nippon.

When he stepped out of the private jet, he could clearly see the depression in Yoto from the scene at the airport.

It was hard to imagine that there were only a few people in the giant airport. The convoy waited at the airport gate, accompanying him was Future Group's subsidiary in Nippon and the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nippon...

"Welcome, Mr. Jiang Chen, I'm Takagi, nice to meet you." Once served as Ambassador of Hua, Takagi was very fluent in Han, and had a respectful attitude toward Jiang Chen.

However, the Nippon people were always respectful to everyone, Jiang Chen couldn't tell whether he meant it or not.

"Hello, Mr. Takagi." Jiang Chen shook his hand courteously.

After some small talks, Jiang Chen learned his identity.

This guy came from a surprisingly powerful background. He was actually the deputy minister of the Ministry of Economy and Trade.

Sitting on the sedan sent by the subsidiary, Takagi got in alone too. He chatted with Jiang Chen while exploring the meaning of Jiang Chen's visit.

"Mr. Jiang Chen, forgive me for being straight forward. The situation in Yoto is very chaotic. It is not the best time for a sightseeing trip."

"Haha, Mr. Takagi is a comical guy." Jiang Chen avoided answering the question, but laughed and diverted the subject, "I wonder what are some good places to visit?"

Takagi took a moment to process as he was stunned but quickly returned to normal and smiled.

"If you plan to go sightseeing, I recommend Mount Fuji."

...

Of course, Jiang Chen did not plan to sightsee. As Takagi said, there were no scenic views of Napon at this time.

There were few vehicles on the streets. Other than the traffic lights, Jiang Chen's car didn't stop at all. There were very few pedestrians on both sides of the street. Even if someone was passing by, they were in a hurry.

Although this T virus leak occurred only in Shinagawa, it destroyed the order in Yoto. Thousands of companies filed for bankruptcy protection overnight and hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs. The Napon Prime Minister announced last night that the country was in a state of emergency. Citizens who lacked food and household items needed to go to a designated place to collect rations...

All the people in Nippon were surprised to find that their prime minister, who was "flourishing" in the international political scene, had his hair turn white overnight.

Not only did the citizens of Yoto suffer, but the quality of life of the people in other parts of Nippon also fell significantly.

The tourism, real estate, and retail sectors bore the brunt of the devastating blow and spread the economic crisis to other areas. However, the most serious loss was not among those industries, but the currency itself.

Some time ago the prime minister was pushing for a monetary quantitative easing policy which already caused the exchange rate of the Yen against the Dollar to fall to 134:1. Although it has improved in 2017, it has never returned to 2014 levels.

Before the outbreak of the virus, the international exchange rate of 1 Dollar was about 106 Yen. After the outbreak of the T virus, the exchange rate became 1:532.

Feel this five-fold drop.

Tanaka's T virus made Japan's wealthy class become the middle class overnight, the middle class become the working class, and the working class become refugees on the streets.

Just yesterday, the Future Group injected US$5.2 billion in its subsidiary account in Yoto to prepare for the acquisition of small and medium-sized enterprises on the verge of bankruptcy in Nippon, as well as land, real estate, and skyscrapers that had been devalued…

For Jiang Chen's arrival, Napon politicians and entrepreneurs were both happy and worried. The good news during the country's monetary and financial system collapsing was that a foreign investor was willing to enter the market at this moment and inject vitality into this shaky economy. However, what they were afraid of was that Jiang Chen did not come to save their economy but to take money away from them.

After getting off the car, Jiang Chen and Takagi bid farewell and entered the company building under the guidance of CEO Ren Pengfei.

Future Group Nippon subsidiary was located in Shibuya. Because many high-tech companies gathered there, Shibuya was also known as the "Nippon Silicon Valley." Although close to Shinagawa, which was quarantined, the group's business had not been greatly affected.

However, it could be predicted that, in the future, for a long period of time, Future Group's business in Japan will experience negative growth.

Other than Future Biology's vaccines.

"Mr. Chairman, I have already booked a room for you at the Hilton Hotel. Do I need to take you to the hotel first," Ren Pengfei asked respectfully.

"No, I didn't intend to live in a hotel." Jiang Chen shook his head.

Ren Pengfei was confused.

Not living in the hotel? Are you going to sleep in the company? But there is no bed in the company?

"Contact me the most famous real estate holders in Yoto."

"Yamato Housing Construction and Mitsui Real Estate are the two largest real estate companies in Yoto."

"Which is the most extensive in Yoto?"

"It should be Yamato Housing Construction," Ren Pengfei replied after thinking for a moment.

Jiang Chen nodded.

"Then that one it is. Contact Yamato for me first. I'm going to buy a couple of suites."

A few to start, Ren Pengfei was immediately shocked by how decisive Jiang Chen was. But when he thought of Wall Street's assessment of Jiang Chen's assets, he no longer thought it was a big deal as he nodded.

"Yes!"

After Ren Pengfei went out, Jiang Chen sat directly on his office chair and looked at the layout of the office.

The decor of birch wood was not particularly bright, but it looked very comfortable. The floor-to-ceiling windows behind could directly overlook the streetscape of Shibuya's most bustling district and the lighting was also excellent. Jiang Chen originally intended to buy an even better skyscraper for the company's subsidiary company. However, it seems that this was not necessary.

It didn't take long for Ren Pengfei to come back with a shrewd-looking middle-aged man.

Before Jiang Chen said anything, the man introduced himself courteously

"I am Koizumi, the General Manager of Yamato Housing Construction. I did not expect to see you, Mr. Jiang Chen, here. It is my honor..."

"No need for flattering words, I'm Jiang Chen and I plan to purchase some real estate in Yoto. Does your company have any good listings you would recommend?" Jiang Chen got straight into the topic.

Koizumi did not feel dissatisfied with Jiang Chen interrupting him. When he heard Jiang Chen's words, his eyes almost smiled.

"Of course, we have the most comprehensive listing available! Not only that, if Mr. Jiang Chen likes an estate we don't currently own, we can also act as an intermediary for buying houses. Whether luxury, location, or price, we'll ensure your satisfaction. If Mr. Jiang is willing to pay in US Dollar, we can also offer you a discount!"

Chapter 713: Buying Yoto

Koizumi did indeed do what he said. Yamato Housing Construction listings really made Jiang Chen extremely satisfied. A 2,000-square-meter mansion with a beautiful environment and its own garden. It was located on the outskirts of Yoto that overlooked the bay. The most critical element was that it stayed away from the noise in the urban areas. A great place to do scandalous things without anyone knowing

However, the only regret was that...

"How much for Mt. Fuji?"

"What?"

"Are you not providing intermediary services? Minister Takagi recommended to me the scenery of Mount Fuji. I plan to buy it," Jiang Chen said in a semi-joking tone.

"...Oh, I'm sorry, Mt. Fuji has no property owner. It is not for sale. If Mr. Jiang is interested, we recommend this golf course at the foot of Mt. Fuji. It has its own resort and entertainment facilities and can be converted into a private villa. Koizumi felt exasperated.

"That's regrettable. What about the golf course? How much is it?"

"5.2 billion yen... If you pay in US Dollar, we can get a discount for you here. It will only cost US$9.5 million." When Koizumi said this, his heart was bleeding.

If it were one month ago, the 18-hole golf course was almost 5 billion yen and back then, the 5 billion Yen, according to the exchange rate, was equivalent to 47.5 million US Dollar! However, there was no other solution since the banks no longer lent money. In order to turn around the capital of Yamato Housing Construction, what he could do was to collect as much US Dollar as possible, and reduce the losses that the Yen's depreciation had on the company's asset.

"No problem, let's buy them together." Jiang Chen waved his hand and bought it like he was buying a cabbage. He directly dropped the golf course into the "shopping cart".

He didn't know how to play golf? It didn't matter, he could always learn. If he didn't manage to learn, it would be a good place to show off. Or he could just sell it for more than that ten years later. In short, with the current exchange rate of the Yen, there would be no loss for buying anything here.

Since he bought his villa and purchased a golf course, Jiang Chen simply took the chance of the big yen discount, picked up another thick booklet provided by Koizumi, and continued to sweep the market.

This booklet was marked with real estate not owned by Yamato Housing Construction. Instead, the major household owners entrusted Yamato Housing Construction as an intermediary for its sale. Koizumi would not bother Jiang Chen with the small apartment buildings built. All the assets registered on the booklet were real estate with prices of more than 5 million US Dollar.

Even after being screened, the T virus and domestic pessimism has affected the number of registered properties for sale and caused a massive amount of listings

Everyone wanted to flee the city, whether foreigners or locals. Even if Future Biology improved their vaccines, they would not be able to curb the panic in the hearts of people. Especially due to the rumors of mosquitoes and flies carrying viruses, and even stray dogs being sources of secondary infections. Even if the official media repeatedly stated that both the T and TT viruses had a very short survival time and cannot be carried by other organisms, they still could not stop the spread of rumors...

Shibuya 109 Building? The heart of fashion? Only 60 million USD? Buy it!

Shibuya MODI? Yoto's new landmark, the center for the entertainment business? This price is quite cheap, now mine!

Shinjuku Commercial Street? Akihabara? Newly developed mansion area in Minato City? Anyway, they are now all the price of cabbages. Buy, buy, buy!

As long as there were in the hands of Yamato Housing Construction, Jiang Chen bought all the assets he wanted. However, he did not use the money of Future Group but used the money in his own private account. Thirteen billion dollars were thrown out and almost half of Yoto was bought out.

Of course, these real estates could not be developed by Jiang Chen himself and he didn't have that energy either.

He'll hire several professional managers to set up a real estate leasing company. Wouldn't it be a great business to just accept rent from people?

...

It was not until the evening did Jiang Chen finish all his transactions.

With a huge sum of 11 billion US Dollar brought back to the company, Koizumi did not know whether he should be crying or laughing. Laughing that the agency fees amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. Crying that even this billion-dollar big deal would not make up for the losses Yamato Housing Construction had in the past few days.

However, in the short term, Tokyo's housing prices would still be unable to escape the curse of continual decline, and it was great to offload these properties earlier.

Regardless of Koizumi's thoughts, Jiang Chen was very satisfied with the result.

The sky was getting dark and it was already time to get off work.

Recently, the public security in Yoto had been poor at night. The company canceled all night shifts and Jiang Chen did bother them longer and separated with Ren Pengfei. After requisitioning the company's two Mercedes, he left Shibuya with several Celestial Trade bodyguards.

The security was terrible, but the road conditions were excellent.

An hour's drive, Jiang Chen arrived at his newly bought mansion.

According to Koizumi's suggestion, this mansion was usually staffed with care professionals and can be accommodated after the transfer. At the same time, the servant's employment contract would also be transferred to the owner. Parked in the garage, Celestial Trade bodyguards consciously went to all corners of the mansion and arranged cameras, sensors and other security devices.

Although there were only six of them, the strength of Celestial Trade bodyguards was absolutely top of the crop among security companies with the aid of high-tech equipment.

When he opened the door, he saw a beautiful maid in a black and white British maid outfit, She was kneeling at the entrance with a dignified smile on her face.

At this moment, Jiang Chen finally understood when Koizumi bid farewell, the smile he had that "all men would understand".

Buy a mansion and get a maid?

Too corrupt!

With a "disheartened" mood, Jiang Chen resisted the urge to "criticize" the wealthy class of Nippon. Instead, told the maid to go and make him two cups of black tea, and bring it to the bedroom.

The tea was quickly made and placed on the nightstand.

Jiang Chen ignored the misunderstanding of the maid's flushed face and didn't touch her. He simply waved her to go back to her room and then told her to close the bedroom door in her puzzled expression.

The air in the bedroom wavered slightly. Ayesha, who ended the optical illusion, appeared beside Jiang Chen and looked at him with the same puzzled gaze.

The eyes seemed to be asking, "Why didn't you eat the little rabbit that was in front of you?"

"I don't have the energy to do that… No, am I like that?" Jiang Chen glared at Ayesha and then sat beside her. "Was there someone following us along the way? "

Ayesha shook her head.

"Is that so?" Jiang Chen sighed.

[It isn't that easy after all? I hope it's because of Tanaka's caution and not that I guessed wrong...]

While thinking, Jiang Chen lied on the bed

Ayesha leaned over and lied on Jiang Chen's body like a kitten and looked at him with her sapphire eyes.

"Do you want to sleep?"

However, the big eyes revealed her innermost thoughts.

[Are we not going to do anything?]

Staring at the tenderness in her eyes, Jiang Chen felt that a certain string in his heart was gently tugged on.

Well, he couldn't resist any longer.

"Ayesha, go and turn off the lights...and shut the curtains."

"Mhmm…"

Chapter 714: Draw a Snake out of its Hole

Early morning, when the first ray of sunshine sneaked into the curtains, Jiang Chen opened his eyes and spent a moment in bed.

Ayesha, lying next to him, has disappeared.

The plan needed her to hide in the dark, so she could not live with Jiang Chen, but had to lurk nearby. Jiang Chen could see her location on the map of his EP, but he did not open the map. Instincts told him that she was not in the mansion now.

Since awakening the power of the second level of genetic code, Jiang Chen had found that he has become more and more sensitive to human scents...

Perhaps it was more appropriate to call it intuition?

Intuition now told him that Tanaka has already noticed him, but was hesitant on whether he should be approached.

The maid brought the breakfast to the table and gently knocked at the door of the bedroom to remind Jiang Chen it was time to get up for breakfast.

After climbing out of bed, Jiang Chen took clothes from the hangers and went to the bathroom to wash up. Then he headed straight to the dining room.

On the table was a slice of bread, fried eggs, and a cup of coffee.

He took a bite of the honey-coated bread and nodded in satisfaction.

Not bad, the color and smell were both excellent.

Looking at the maid standing beside him, Jiang Chen could not help but sigh in his heart.

[This is too corrupt! The damn wealthy class!]

The maid respectfully placed the newspaper on the table and then stood aside.

"How long have you been working here?" Jiang Chen asked casually.

"This is my first day."

People who could afford luxury homes in the ten billion yen range were, in fact, powerful people. Although the country's adult film industry was flourishing, many wealthy individuals in the country are unexpectedly clean. After all, things that are rare are more valuable. Yamato Housing Construction naturally would not provide inferior service to important clients.

"I haven't asked for your name yet."

"You can call me Qian Xia," Qian Xia said with a smile.

"You don't look good, are you still studying?"

"Mhmm, I'm studying education at Waseda University and studied three foreign languages: Chinese, English, and Korean."

It was no wonder her Chinese was so fluent.

"Waseda University? You're a great student."

"Not at all. Education belongs to the lower school department and is often referred to as a second-rate degree." Qian Xia politely joked.

"Are you planning to be a teacher?" Jiang Chen smiled.

Qian Xia shook her head.

"I used to think about it, but sure enough, I'm not very good at it."

The salary of a teacher was much lower than the salary of a maid. The monthly salary of two million Yen was simply an unimaginable huge sum for her a few months ago. We must know that the average salary in Nippon was about 200,000 Yen. Even her professor made only half a million Yen.

Although this job had an "escort" nature, the relatively simple nature and the disproportionate income made the flaw not worth mentioning.

And if there really is a relationship with the owner, it would change her life

"Do you not go to class?"

"After the Shinagawa virus incident, the school suspended classes."

"That is really sad news." Jiang Chen's face had no sad expression on it when he said it.

"Mhmm… a dozen people from our school died. I feel like tragedy is occurring around me. It is too terrifying…" From Qian Xia's expression, Jiang Chen could read her sorrow. Perhaps among the dozen or so people who were killed there were those she knew, and perhaps even her friends.

Jiang Chen sighed and whispered.

"Look on the bright side. The films always told us that the villain will eventually be punished."

"Well, I hope..."

That smile was dignified, but Jiang Chen could see the haze behind the brightness.

...

After breakfast, the maid brought the plate into the kitchen.

Jiang Chen sipped on the coffee and picked up the newspaper.

The habit of reading newspapers was developed a long time ago. As he always traveled between two worlds, in order to stay in touch with the world on this side, it was still necessary to know current affairs.

This news was published in a Nippon newspaper.

Sure enough, people in Yamato wouldn't miss this opportunity to build momentum. While everyone lacked optimism about the economy, Future Group swept Yoto real estate, which would undoubtedly help boost investors' confidence… Bullsh*t!

Nobody was willing to live with the living-dead. Tanaka hadn't been caught yet. The T virus may erupt for the second time.

Because of the influence of T virus, housing prices in Yoto, in particular, had already fallen to the bottom, as they did during the economic crisis in the 1990s. The housing prices in Shinagawa district... Not mentioning the house, many household owners were gone, and the house could only be taken over by the Yoto Municipal Government.

Why did Jiang Chen dare to buy at the bottom? It was only because he knew that the Kurofune would not last long.

Well, it seems that investors on Wall Street were ready to buy. Jiang Chen rejoiced that he came early, or else others would have taken advantage of the situation.

Not only Yoto's real estate, but also the Nippon high-tech companies that were on the verge of bankruptcy, Future Group planned to acquire them all.

It must be admitted that Nippon companies do have a strong ability in the electronics industry. Such as medical care, energy, robots, cameras, displays, optical components... these technologies were even more advanced than the Silicon Valley. The most crucial point was that these technologies were a perfect fit for Future Group

He had a press conference in a bit on Future Technology's acquisition of three Nippon electronics companies. The companies would cooperate with Future Heavy Industries to enter the mobile phone industry. At the same time, he would also act as a spokesperson for Future Technology and explain the privatization and reorganization of assets to shareholders of these three listed companies at the meeting.

At the same time, Jiang Chen felt the watch on his left wrist vibrate.

He glanced at the direction of the kitchen. He didn't call out Jean's holographic image but only opened the voice function.

Jean immediately said.

"They succeeded."

"Garrett?"

"Yes. The Kenyan drug factory has been destroyed and a total of 214 armed militants were killed. About 1.7 tons of virus stock and 50 tons of raw materials were destroyed. Although the Kenyan military was alerted, our combat units did not expose their identity and successfully evacuated from Kenya."

"Excellent." Jiang Chen nodded and only said the one word.

It was over half of Kurofune's inventory.

Tanaka tried to hide the Kurofune behind terrorism, use terrorism to send the T virus to the world and realize Kurofune's doomsday plan. From now on, Celestial Trade will use dominating actions to suppress them, force them to come out of their rat holes, and stand in front of him.

It was almost time.

Putting the newspaper aside, Jiang Chen drank the rest of the coffee in one breath and walked to the door.

Hearing the sound at the entrance, Qian Xia came out of the kitchen.

"Is master ready to go?"

"Yes." Putting on his shoes at the door, Jiang Chen stood by the mirror and fixed his collar.

"About when will you come back? I'll prepare lunch." Qian Xia smiled.

"Around this evening... Right, do you have your own place in Yoto?"

"There is a small apartment that I have rented for a year, but I haven't gone back for a long time."

"Go live at your place today."

"Did I do a bad job?" Qian Xia lowered her head and said sadly.

When Jiang opened the door, he turned his head and smiled.

"No, just go tonight. I may have something to do."

Chapter 715: Why don't you help me?

"...above is Future Technology's restructuring plan for the three companies. Thank you for being here for our media and shareholders. Thank you!"

There was a burst of applause from the audience, but the faces of the original shareholders of the three acquired companies were not smiling. Even if Future Group offered a good deal and took over their mess, it still couldn't make up for the losses they suffered during the virus incident.

The reporter's response was more positive and he asked Jiang Chen all sorts of questions.

"What kinds of products will be introduced by Future Technology?"

"What will the amazing features of this product be?"

"When will you get married?"

"..."

These reporters always plugged in irrelevant questions in serious situations.

In short, the press conference ended successfully, and it was now late.

Surrounded by bodyguards, Jiang Chen walked out of the venue and entered the Mercedes.

"Boss, where are we going now?" The driver started the car and turned to Jiang Chen.

"Go home."

"Okay."

The driver nodded and skillfully turned the steering wheel. Two Mercedes in the front and back guarded Jiang Chen's car in the middle. Although the bodyguards in the car were dressed in suits, they were all equipped with kinetic skeleton underneath.

Even without guns, their combat abilities could compare to a six-man infantry squad. With such a powerful force, Jiang Chen even wondered whether Tanaka was afraid since his bodyguards were too strong.

After thinking about it, he shook his head and dismissed the idea.

News of him in Nippon had spread. With Tanaka's madness and his threat to the Kurofune, he would never pass on this opportunity. In Xin, which was absolutely controlled by Celestial Trade, the Kurofune had no opportunities at all.

In the car, he suddenly got a call from Xia Shiyu.

"How did the acquisition go?"

"It went smoothly. The CEO of the subsidiary handled it for me. I felt that I wasn't useful at all and was just a mascot at the press conference." Jiang Chen revealed a helpless expression as he spoke with a sly tone.

Hearing Jiang Chen's unserious voice, Xia Shiyu sighed and began to lecture him. "So I told you that there's absolutely no need for you to be there in person. Now that the situation in Napon isn't so peaceful, you're in a dangerous position as the group's President. If any incidents happen, there isn't even a successor in place."

"Haha, why don't you help me?"

Somehow, this joke shouldn't have been blurted out of his mouth. Jiang Chen himself was stunned. Just as he was prepared to explain himself, the call was disconnected.

"It was just a joke; there's no need to hang up on me!" Jiang Chen muttered, hesitated, and ultimately decided not to call back. He stuffed the phone in his pocket and closed his eyes to rest them.

At the same moment, thousands of kilometers away.

The hand holding the phone trembled unceasingly, and Xia Shiyu's face was red. Her original serious expression vanished.

The phone slid onto her folder.

Without any indications, she suddenly buried her entire red face into her arms.

[Obviously it was just a joke; why did I react in such a dramatic way? Why did I hang up the phone? Doesn't that make it look like I took it seriously? What a shame! Will he think that I... Hmph, why do I care about what he thinks? I'm so mad!]

It must be said that women thought much more than men to the point where they would even confuse themselves.

Unaware of the confusion Xia Shiyu was in, Jiang Chen was sinking into his seat to rest. He didn't linger on the incident at all.

As the car gradually left the city, the bustling high-rise buildings receded and were replaced with lush green trees and harmonious dwellings. Jiang Chen looked at the GPS; they were a few kilometers away from the mansions.

The sky had turned completely dark. There were street lights on the roadside with only a few souls on the road. Because of the chaos caused by the economic depression and collapse of order, the entire city of Yoto wasn't safe. With that in mind, he couldn't help thinking about the little maid he just received who he asked to return to her apartment. Hopefully, she wouldn't encounter any danger.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

The feeling became stronger and stronger as if there were something staring at him in the distance.

"Here?"

Jiang Chen murmured to himself and put his hand into his pocket. Feeling a dense metal object, his hand gripped the pistol. At the same time, Ayesha's voice came from a miniature headset hidden in his ear.

"300 meters in front, there are a lot of heat sources in the groves. Roadblocks are set up in the middle of the road."

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

"How many people?"

"Fifty-seven."

Fifty-seven? Even though he was wanted by the world, the Kurofune was still able to mobilize so many "believers" in the outskirts of Yoto?

This was contrary to Jiang Chen's expectations. He thought Tanaka would be discreet and play tricks, but he was open and stood in front of him.

"Where are you now?"

"In the mansion… Wait, the situation is a bit odd. There's only one person. The others are all-"

Not far from the streetlights, there were shadowy figures, blank eyes, and dangling hands. Jiang Chen knew what those were too well.

They were zombies!

Without hesitating, Jiang Chen immediately ordered the driver.

"Stop!"

The three cars stopped and the Celestial Trade bodyguards obviously noticed something was wrong. Six people, including the driver, immediately stepped out of the car and kept Jiang Chen's car in the middle. Although there were fifty-something zombies against them and there were only six sticks on their side, no one showed any fear.

No matter if it was the T virus or TT virus, it made no difference to those who were injected by vaccines. Unable to be infected through bites, the threat of zombies was greatly diminished.

The door opened again and Jiang Chen stepped out.

"President, it is dangerous outside. Please remain in the car." The bodyguards standing in the front row saw Jiang Chen getting out and whispered.

"No, staying in the car is more dangerous."

Jiang Chen said emotionlessly. He walked to the front and stood in front of Tanaka, tens of meters away.

"We meet again."

"Yeah, last time we met was last year," Tanaka said with a smile.

"It was the year before last. It was 2018 years ago."

Looking at Tanaka's composed expression, Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

"As the saying goes, best two out of three. We tied during the previous two matches. This is the final match, so shouldn't we decide a winner?"

"I agree." Tanaka smiled.

"So, are you prepared to fight me with these 56 zombies?" Jiang Chen put his hand in his pocket.

"Of course. Don't underestimate them." Tanaka smiled and opened his hands. "They're the manifestation of science."

Instantly, the blank pupils turned red. As if driven by some kind of force, the muscles of these zombie bodies suddenly looked like boiling water. With explosive roars, they began to swell...

Chapter 716: That day will never come

The sallow skin quickly turned into a petrifying green, and the weak limbs instantly expanded into huge muscles unscientifically.

A low bloodthirsty, demonic roar echoed between the trees on both sides of the road.

On this highway without a soul, the mutant zombies howled and rushed in their direction, and leaped toward Jiang Chen. Six sticks were taken out as they ran to the zombies without fear.

"Come closer! Prepare to engage!" Watching those mutated zombies that were obviously difficult to deal with, the bodyguard captain's head felt numb. However, thinking that the president was standing behind him, he decided to give it his all. He shouted, took on a defensive posture, and gestured his comrades to move closer to him.

Since they were at a numerical disadvantage, it was most secure to gather together. The six bodyguards guarding Jiang Chen retreated to a car and formed a "C" formation, exposing their kinetic skeletons and preparing to fight with zombies.

However, right then, Jiang Chen patted the shoulder of the bodyguard's head and motioned for him to move...

Looking at Jiang Chen, who was drowned out by the corpse tide, Tanaka raised his head and cackled.

"Hahaha, although I assumed you were trying to lure me out, you think only six bodyguards can get rid of me? You're too arrogant. Don't feel sad. Before you die, give names to my servants."

Before the start of the operation, he had already sent messages to the Kurofune through Klein particles, interfered with the particle movement of Klein particles, and blocked Jiang Chen's "door" to the apocalypse. Although Jiang Chen had a lot of good tools on his body, even if he took out his power armor at that very moment, he wouldn't have the opportunity to put it on.

If Jiang Chen died, the mission of Kurofune could end too.

They maintained a steady pace of scientific and technological development. It was absolutely impossible for human civilization to defeat the Kurofune on the day of the showdown. No one could stop the evolution to Harmony.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light around the corpses, and a breeze blew past Tanaka's face.

A tingling sensation came from Tanaka's cheeks, but no blood dripped. The high temperature allowed the wound to instantly scab over.

Tanaka's triangular eyes shrunk slightly.

The zombies originally surrounding Jiang Chen were blown away; 17 zombies immediately collapsed. Jiang Chen, who was standing behind the hole, held a laser sword in his hand. The long sword cast a light blue sheen.

The light was gentle, but it was also dangerous.

"It seems you have a lot of good stuff." Tanaka looked a bit sterner.

"That's right."

The laser sword flickered in Jiang Chen's hands, directed at the group of zombies.

"And far more than you can see."

The death of their companions didn't make the remaining living-dead afraid. They still ran fearlessly toward Jiang Chen. However, they hadn't come into contact with Jiang Chen before they crashed into a wall.

A wall made of guns and bullets!

Like a hurricane, the rain-like bullets shredded the remaining thirty zombies into pieces in a flash. Like ghosts appearing out of nowhere, Black Warriors armed with Ripper Assault Rifles emerged in front of Jiang Chen.

The bodyguards next to Jiang Chen were completely stunned.

Originally, they thought it would be a hard battle. They didn't expect that they weren't needed at all.

Although they heard about the advanced technology in the company, "laser swords" and "optical invisibility" only appeared in sci-fi blockbusters; they didn't expect to see it in reality.

There were broken limbs on the ground; black blood stained the streets.

Tanaka opened his mouth, which eventually turned into a helpless sigh.

"I originally thought that more than 50 mutated zombies were enough to finish you. I didn't expect that I was the careless one."

"Not only can you actively induce zombies to mutate, but you can also order the zombies to act as slaves. You've also surpassed my expectations." Jiang Chen put away his laser sword and spoke expressionlessly.

"Yeah, the first one was correct. The second one was wrong." Tanaka chuckled. "Even I can't order the zombies; I can only make them treat me like their own kind."

On the entire road, there were only Tanaka, Jiang Chen, the Ghost Agents, and the six bodyguards. There was no need to order the zombies at all. It was only necessary to strengthen their senses and athleticism to the point where they could detect Jiang Chen, then they would instinctively pounce at him and shred the living into pieces.

"Where did the zombies come from?"

"There was a small village close by, but it took me a lot of effort to get these zombies to come here," Tanaka said with a smile and touched his hat brim with one of his hands. "It's really unfortunate that I played all my cards. We have to decide the winner next time."

Jiang Chen grinned, looked into his eyes and muttered to himself.

"My thought process has been wrong the whole time."

Tanaka stopped what he was doing and examined Jiang Chen with intrigue.

"Oh? Do you have some interesting insights you're planning to share with me?"

Jiang Chen didn't speak but looked back at the bodyguards behind him.

"Wait for me at the mansion. There are only three kilometers left; leave me a car. I can go back by myself."

"But..."

"That's an order," Jiang Chen said affirmatively.

"...Yes."

The bodyguard captain gritted his teeth and waved at the bodyguards behind him. The six bodyguards put away their sticks and got into their cars. The two cars bypassed the roadblock in the middle of the road and headed towards the mansion.

"You can leave now too." After the bodyguards left, Jiang Chen looked down at his watch then spoke to the four Ghost Agents in front of him.

"Roger that."

Without any nonsense, the four Ghost Agents nodded and disappeared from the road.

The irrelevant people had all left, leaving only two people on the road.

Jiang Chen looked at Tanaka and said:

"Not necessarily an insight. It's just some random inspiration and I realized something interesting. Everyone who has seen you thinks you're one person. But is that true?"

Keeping his fingers on his brim, Tanaka was still smiling.

"Of course I'm one person. What else could I be?"

"A lot of people."

Tanaka's expression finally changed, and his smiling eyes gradually turned vicious.

His expression was akin to the last card of a gambler being uncovered.

Although this slight change was imperceptible under the dim light of the street, the sensory-enhanced Jiang Chen still acutely noticed this change.

A light bulb flickered and silence persisted on the road for a moment before Tanaka slowly said, "So what?"

"Yeah, so what?" Jiang Chen sighed. "You've heard of 'cloud computing'?"

Tanaka's pupils looked anxious.

"All programs are run on the server side, and ultimately, the server compresses the computation results and transmits them to users over the network. This allows users to use a low-end computer and enjoy high-end services… The premise is that the network must be open."

"So? Are you planning to educate me on computers?" Tanaka quietly said.

"Of course not." Jiang Chen opened his hands and put away his laser sword. "If my guess is right... you can take off your hat now."

Tanaka took off his hat.

The flat cap fell to the ground.

However, things were contrary to his expectations. His consciousness didn't leave him; everything in front of him was still visible. It was as if a virtual reality player suddenly found himself unable to log out of the game...

His pupils contracted in disbelief, and Tanaka's calm expression turned into panic.

"This is impossible!"

[Impossible!]

The Kurofune didn't respond to his request...

Satisfied with the expression on Tanaka's face, Jiang Chen's mouth finally showed a glimmer of victory.

"It seems that I've bet correctly. Your so-called rebirth is based on a special kind of 'cloud computing.' Through a 'server' a few light years away, user A's memory and thoughts were transplanted to user B. How could they know when to 'rebirth' you a few light years away? Why don't we make a bold assumption - the hat on your head and your own signal of life is the switch of 'rebirth'. "

From the quiver of Tanaka's face, Jiang Chen confirmed his conjecture.

"The next step will be easier."

"Klein particles can interfere with each other. Since you could prevent me from communicating with the 'gate' through interference and thus prevent me from starting interdimensional travel, then I can also stop the communication between you and the Kurofune. You didn't know that when Garrett killed you in Kenya's military operations, you used the ability to 'rebirth' and switched consciousness to this body in Japan, I recorded your communications band then."

"On Earth, only the two of us know how to communicate correctly using Klein particles. Maybe I can't analyze the content of your communications with the Kurofune, but your voice is as pronounced as if you were screaming in an open valley. "

"As long as the communication band is recorded, it is easy to interfere with communication. It's only necessary to constantly stimulate the vibrations of the Klein particles at a specific frequency. And you know, I can go to another world. There are crystals with rich Klein particles beyond imagination."

"It's not safe to use Klein particles as a means of communication. Am I right?"

Cold sweat rolled down from Tanaka's forehead, and he moved back slightly.

This was the first time he felt fear since he acquired the ability to rebirth from the Kurofune. If he took off his hat before he died, he would be able to rebirth into another body. No matter how he died, he would never truly die. He wouldn't even experience pain during the moment of death because rebirth happened in an instant.

"Do you think you can run?" Jiang Chen looked at his footsteps shuffling back, and a mocking smile appeared.

There was a flash of ferocity in his eyes. Tanaka took out a pistol from his pocket and pointed it at Jiang Chen.

Bang!

The gunfire resonated on the desolate highway.

The bullet, however, seemed to hit a wall and was blown away by the air released.

"Nitrogen armor. As you can see, I have a lot of good stuff." Jiang Chen sighed.

Tanaka immediately pointed the gun at himself.

His rebirth ability had double insurance.

The communication interference couldn't continue forever. Even if there was a momentary lapse, as long as the Kurofune detected that he was dead, he could wake up in another body.

However, before he could point to himself, his hand was clamped by a hand from behind.

A sharp pain from his back numbed his body quickly.

"Beautiful."

Jiang Chen walked in front of Tanaka. He smiled and nodded to Ayesha standing behind him then picked up the cap from the ground, patted the dust away, and put it on Tanaka's head again.

"I haven't thought about a good way to kill you. So, you'll have to stay alive now."

Wearing this pesky hat, quietly lying in the underground facilities of New Moon Island for the rest of his life...

"Oh, I didn't expect I would reach doomsday before you." Sweat fell from his forehead, and Tanaka stared straight into Jiang Chen's eyes. The voice squeezed out of his throat had a self-deprecating tone to it.

"It's a very ironic ending."

His black pupils seemed to contract as if he regained his life. As he struggled, he squeezed out a sentence:

"Don't be too happy. I will wait for you at doomsday."

"Let me reassure you - that day will never come," Jiang Chen whispered before Tanaka's pupils dilated.

[Because I am here.]

Chapter 717: The End of Kurofune

After injecting an anesthetic every 12 hours, Tanaka would always remain in a coma and was sent to the underground facility of New Moon Island. There, he will wear his hat, lie in the virtual reality training cabin, be imprisoned forever in the absurd virtual world, and accept spiritual torture.

He'll never be able to die, never be able to take off his hat, and never be able to get in touch with the Kurofune until his death.

Perhaps this was more miserable than death itself.

At the same time, Celestial Trade contacted the President of Kenya and reported details of the military operations in the Mandela region to the Kenyan authorities. At the outset, the expression of Kenya's President's after knowing the incident was outrage because the soldiers of Celestial trade not only landed in Kenya without authorization, but also took out 214 Sabab militants.

Even if the target of the attack was terrorists, who gave them the power to enforce the law? It was a direct slap in the face to the Kenyan government if the event was made public.

Fortunately there were no civilian casualties.

However, when the Celestial Trade battle footage and evidence of the destruction of 1.7 tons of virus stock and 50 tons of virus raw material were placed on the Kenyan President's desk, not a peep came out of the Kenyan President.

1.7 tons of TT virus, if spread throughout Kenya, would be enough to turn Kenya into an uninhabitable zone.

The President of Kenya and Jiang Chen talked on the phone. After a short five-minute exchange, the whole incident became like this...

"Yesterday, under the authority of the Kenyan government, the Celestial Trade Marines launched an operation in Kenya's Mandela city near the Somali border. After a total of 12 Marine Corps soldiers parachuted the area, under the cooperation of the Kenyan military police, a total of 214 Sabab armed militants were killed, and the terrorist organization based in Mandela was completely eliminated."

"In the Sabab base, the Celestial Trade soldiers destroyed a total of 1.7 tons of TT virus stock and 50 tons of raw materials for the production of the virus. During this large-scale drug war campaign, Tanaka, the culprit of the Yoto virus incident, was killed on the spot. Celestial Trade declined to disclose the name of the hero who killed Tanaka."

"A Capital spokesman said that the discovery of Celestial Trade in the Sabab stronghold confirms the necessity and rationality of NATO's military operations in Somalia. And he reiterated that terrorist organizations must not be allowed to obtain the T virus... "

Tanaka is dead, at least in name. The fewer people that know he is alive the better. If other countries knew that Tanaka was not actually dead, but was merely detained by Jiang Chen in the underground facilities of New Moon Island, the situation may get pleasant.

Of course, they will never know.

In the morning, Jiang Chen sat in the dining room and watched the news on the TV.

The breakfast on the table was simple.

A glass of milk and a bowl of fried rice.

Qian Xia was not at the mansion last night, and Ayesha rushed to Xin to smuggle Tanaka overnight. Jiang Chen was not interested in eating the meals prepared by the six men outside, so he could cook himself.

It was his first time cooking in a long time. He prepared himself a bowl of fried rice and also creatively added some exotic products from the apocalypse. Such as delicious mud crab sauce, edible lizard meat. However, the reality was cruel. Deliciousness was simply "1+1=2". Although the fried rice was not inedible, it was not the best either.

Recalling the period of working in Wanghai three years ago, Jiang Chen could not help but sigh.

It was a waste of his "good cooking."

When he was reminiscent, he completely forgot his only good dish was "tomato fried eggs".

After finishing breakfast, Jiang Chen rested for a moment on the sofa and looked at the beautiful decorations in the room.

Did the Kurofune just collapse like that?

To be honest, there was a kind of relief in his heart.

The Kurofune was like a tumor on the back of civilization. The T virus it produced was corrupting the civilization. It makes all the order shaky. He didn't want the world to become an apocalypse too, even if none of the country gave him a welcoming feeling.

Fortunately, before the situation got worse, he ended it all...

Someone knocked on the door and Jiang Chen got up to open it.

There were two policemen at the door; a man and a woman. No matter from their expressions or movements, they were very restrained. This may be because they knew Jiang Chen's identity, or perhaps because of the muscular bodyguards on the side…

The older-looking police officer opened his mouth and asked in non-standard English.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang, I'm the police officer of the Yoto Police Department. Please cooperate with us..."

"Do I need to go to the police station with you?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

"No, no, we just want to learn a few things from you. Did you find a suspicious person near the mansion yesterday?" The old policeman asked.

"You can ask my bodyguards. They may be more concerned with what happened outside than I am." Jiang Chen shrugged and smiled.

Tanaka had said that he obtained the "raw material" of the zombies from the village near the outskirts of Yoto. The entire village was missing, not to mention traces of the T virus in the village. It was impossible not to alarm the local police.

However, Jiang Chen cleaned the road spotless. All the bodies were thrown into the apocalypse, and blood dissolver was poured on the highway. Even if Detective Conan arrived, he would not be able to find the direct link between the villager's disappearance and Tanaka, and the indirect connection with Jiang Chen.

Including the Yoto Police Department, they did not list Jiang Chen as a suspect at all.

Someone like Jiang Chen, with his level of entrepreneurship, if he really wanted to engage in this kind of detrimental activity, did he need to personally go to Yoto for this?

"I see, I'm really sorry to bother you!" The old policeman bowed and was ready to leave.

However, at that time, the policewoman stepped forward a half-step, glanced into the entrance suspiciously, and then looked at Jiang Chen.

"Is there anyone else in the mansion?"

Compared to the old police officer, the policewoman's English was much more fluent. She was obviously well-educated.

"There is also a maid. Miss Policewoman, is there a problem?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

"Where is she?"

"She rents an apartment by herself."

"Does she go back to the apartment every day? Or is it only today?" The woman pursued aggressively.

[Huh? This chick is pretty clever.]

Jiang Chen took a moment to process and looked at the policewoman intriguingly.

"What is your name?"

"Kwai, Mr. Jiang, please don't avoid my question." Kwai reported her name, watched Jiang Chen's eyes, and said word by word.

"Very good, Miss Kwai, I noticed that you are using an interrogative tone. What you mean is that a criminal case occurred on your side and I am the subject of your suspicion?" Jiang Chen retorted.

Jiang Chen was very cautious with his diction, he used "criminal case" instead of the "T virus incident." If he became Tanaka's scapegoat, it would be comical.

To be honest, this female policeman was quite beautiful. Her nose is very delicate, and her forehead was very high, she just had a proud temperament. However, with this police uniform, it felt like a uniform tease.

Kwai did not hear holes in Jiang Chen's words, her face carried a hint of disappointment.

The old policeman pulled the sleeves of Miss. Kwai and dragged her behind his back. The he bowed to Jiang Chen.

"I'm really sorry, we absolutely do not suspect you."

After this, the old police officer forcefully dragged her out of the mansion, disregarding the dissatisfaction on her face.

After the police left, the bodyguards walked next to Jiang Chen.

"What are the arrangements for today?"

"Today..."

Jiang Chen looked up and gazed at the pristine sky, and the marshmallow-like white clouds. He smiled.

Such good weather. It would be simply too wasteful not to enjoy it.

Since coming to Nippon, he didn't even get a chance to be corrupt yet.

Chapter 718: On the Verge of Collapsing

Leaving Jiang Chen's mansion, the two just got in their police car and before they drove far, the old captain Sakai criticized.

"Are you crazy? Do you actually suspect that the president of Future Group is the murderer of the missing villager?"

"But it's suspicious, isn't it?" Kwai argued. "On the day of the incident, he returned home very late. There was a maid in the mansion and she happened to return to her apartment last night."

"I think what Kwai said makes sense." The police officer who drove interrupted.

The old policeman scorned and refuted their opinions: "Motivation? A president of a 100 billion company will dirty his hands to do this? Don't forget we just came to understand the situation since the emergence of the T virus. However, this case will be handed over to the self-defense force investigators to handle. This kind of big case is not under the jurisdiction of our small police station."

Reprimanded by his boss, the police officer driving forced a laugh.

"Senior you're right."

After a pause, the police officer Ito said through the rearview mirror, staring into the eyes of the Kwai.

"I warned you that you're not allowed to act without authorization. One mistake will result in a diplomatic dispute. It may even cause more serious problems. Consider it carefully!"

"Yes--"

Kwai dragged out her tone before she looked to the side with her mouth pouted

Although she agreed, the expression on her face was filled with disapproval.

What is meant by "A president of a 100 billion company will dirty his hands to do this?" It is simply too strange to measure a person's personality with assets! No matter from which point of view, his actions were very suspicious!

Taking a deep breath, Kwai looked at the mansion in the rear-view mirror and her eyes were filled with determination

[Since you don't believe it, then I'll prove it to you!]

...

"Is it tight?"

"Oh, yes, it's a bit big."

"Oh, isn't it better to be bigger?"

"No, it's uncomfortable."

"What about this?"

"Oh, better."

"Can you go in a little further?"

"No, I can't anymore."

Qian Xia pushed her toes a bit further into the boots and put the boots on. Jiang Chen smiled, nodding with satisfaction.

This one looks good, just buy this pair!

"But... this pair of shoes is worth 1 million Yen. Is that really okay?" Looking at the label, Qian Xia gulped while her eyes flashed with joy.

One million yen was is equivalent to a year's savings of most Napon worker.

"Don't worry, I'm in a good mood today." Jiang Chen smiled, took out his card to pay.

The salesperson packed the shoes and handed it to Qian Xia with a polite smile.

Qian Xia hugged the box and buried her head shyly, not knowing what to think.

However, Jiang Chen didn't notice this. It was only 1 million yen, nothing to sweat over.

What's more, the yen was now as cheaper as a piece of paper...

With the local Qian Xia acting as the guide, Jiang Chen spent a whole day visiting many interesting places. However, it was also quite funny to see that many of the landmark attractions that both of them visited were considered to be industries under his name. For example, Building 109, Shinjuku Commercial Street...

It was more touring his own back garden than sightseeing.

Although the pedestrian traffic on the streets were a lot clearer after the T virus crisis, the shops were still open for business.

Throughout the day, Jiang Chen basically walked around, but at night...

Hmmm.

Jiang Chen found an excuse and let the maid go home first.

The accompanying bodyguards had long helped him get rid of the trailing reporters. Jiang Chen attended the press conference only two days before. Now everyone knows he is there. With his current worth, and the exposure of media that does not match his worth, it was impossible for the reporters not to be interested in him.

If the reporters followed him, he couldn't play.

...

The sun shined over Ise Bay, it was a great day for a vacation. Typically, this golden beach would be full of beautiful youthful figures, but this time around there was barely any one. The sky over the entire country was covered by gloominess.

Invisible dark clouds lingered in the hearts of people.

In the beach hotel next to Ise Bay, a Caucasian man sat across from an Asian man at the table. There were two cold drinks on the table. The drinks were filled with ice and reflected two equally cold faces.

The Caucasian man looked at the table and broke the silence first.

"Do you have news of Tanaka?"

The Asian man shook his head.

The Caucasian man remained silent for two seconds and continued to ask.

"Can you contact my lord?"

The Asian man suddenly smiled, the smile was helpless.

"You know only Tanaka can."

Tanaka kept his mouth closed about how to communicate with the Kurofune. Even to his confidant, he did not disclose more about the secret of the black ship. After all, for this semi-religious organization, to maintain the mystery of the "Pope", can enable members to maintain awe and preserve the cohesion of the organization.

However, the disadvantages of doing so was also obvious.

As a spiritual leader, if he died, the entire organization would become a mess, and those secrets would also be brought into the tomb.

Tanaka obviously did not take this into consideration.

He also never considered that with a hack, he would die one day...

"What about Charles? Why didn't our brothers in Europe come?" the Asian man asked.

"Charles is dead."

"Dead?" The Asian man's face was a bit surprised.

"Since the Rothschild family took power, our brothers in Europe have had a hard time. Willey Society have searched for us all over Europe. They think we have the Golden Apple in our hands... Those idiots are just as annoying as flies. ."

A disgusted emotion flashed across his face, and the white man paused. Then he said, "The situation in the Americas is getting worse too. The last Tanaka mission was too hasty, and the missing pilot Gordon was found in Singapore. FBA has begun to investigate us... What about the Nippon side?"

"When the T virus leaked, the Nippon authorities and Takeda Pharmaceutical turned their backs on us." The haze on the Asian man's face deepened, and the teeth that had been bitting the pipette gritted.

"Overall?" asked the white man.

"It's terrible." The Asian man replied with only two words.

"I think so too." The white man smiled bitterly.

The conversation suddenly stopped. The two sat in silence, as if in a daze, as if thinking about the future.

The silence lasted for a long time.

Suddenly, the white man spoke again.

"You know... Since Tanaka has the Lord's blessing, why is he unable to resurrect? He is the spokesperson chosen by the Lord, this is not right..."

"What do you mean by this statement?" The Asian man seemed to have guessed what the white man wanted to say and frowned.

"I mean, could we... have been abandoned?"

While the sentence was being said, both sides saw confusion and fear from each other's pupils.

What should they do next?

Chapter 719: You choose yourself

Yoto at night was covered by a layer of neon.

Among them, Ginza was the most dazzling and defined the word prosper to the extreme. This is Yoto's most prosperous street and the best place to find fun.

Three Mercedes parked next to an exquisite club. The tall signs read Yoshihara Club.

Jiang Chen has only heard that this was the most renowned club in Ginza and even in Nippon.

It is said that the person who paid for the construction of this club at that time were a figurehead of the Liberal Party. The purpose of this investment was to allow politicians in his own circle to come to the club and enjoy themselves while negotiating secrets within the party. If they discussed at home, they may be filmed by reporters. If they discussed in the congress halls, it would also be too uptight. So, they decided a private club would be the best choice. In the meantime, it was possible to strengthen relationships through some "extra programs."

By now, people who come here are not necessarily politicians. There are many large business owners and bankers. Because at the time of the establishment of this club, it was the highest straight club in Napon, so all the people the club accepted had strict identity restrictions. Either you have to be a member, or you are brought in by a member, or you have to prove that your assets are more than 10 billion.

The club will promise to keep secrets for its members. It is not that there are no reporters who want to sneak in and see what high-level ministers and big entrepreneurs played, but they have all "disappeared" without exception.

In the spirit of playing something upper-class, Jiang Chen came here.

However, he just flashed off his passport and the club's reception lady invited him in respectfully.

"Do you not need me to provide my proof of assets?" Jiang Chen joked.

"Mr. Jiang, you're very comical," the reception lady said, smiling. "Who doesn't know now that you used 11 billion US Dollar to sweep half of Yoto."

The reception lady quickly completed a membership form for him, and handed the membership card with golden edges to him respectfully. This membership card is for personal use only. It is the highest level membership card of Yoshihara Club and can be used to enter the club's most exclusive private room.

After taking the card, Jiang Chen just glanced at it and threw it into his pocket.

"Can I bring bodyguards?"

"You are the most distinguished S-class member, so of course. However, the club has rules and bodyguards can only stay in the hallway, cannot enter rooms, and cannot carry metal objects. Your private room is 210. Do you need me to take you there?"

"No, I'll take a look around."

Jiang Chen was still curious about this fabled top-tier private club in Japan, and what kind of perverted stuff existed there. He heard that not only the private rooms had interesting entertainment, but there were also some cool stuff outside the private room.

After finishing, Jiang Chen turned to the bodyguard behind him, "You don't have to follow and wait for me in the car."

"Yes!"

Since they couldn't bring metal objects in, it was too troublesome to take off the kinetic skeleton; he will simply leave the bodyguard outside. He then followed the red carpet and walked down the corridor to the direction of the private room.

On this road, he did see two public rooms. Someone was performing on the stage. However, what he was a little disappointed with was that the content of the performance was too serious. There was really no point in the night scene.

However, when he gave it a thought, he was also relieved.

After all, it was a high-end club, it would be inappropriate to display something that the public loved? The Heaven (1) wasn't even this blatant…

Standing in front of the stage, Jiang Chen was disinterested and turned to the door.

"Excuse me, are you Jiang Chen?"

After hearing someone call his name, Jiang Chen stopped and looked back.

This person was dressed in a casual outfit, with thin hair combed back very neatly. He had a high nose and wide forehead, there was a bit of a powerful vibe surrounding him. Those who wanted to enter the gate of the Yoshihara Club would not be unknown characters.

"And... you are?"

"I'm Mitsui, and the family owner of the Mitsui Financial Group." Mitsui smiled and stepped in front of him. "I didn't expect to see the richest man in the world here. It's really an honor."

"It's all false names. I'm still far from the richest man in the world." Jiang Chen laughed.

"Excuse me for being straight forward, is it the first time that Mr. Jiang has come to this place?" Mitsui smilingly said.

"Oh, why do you think so?"

"Only people who come here for the first time will look around." Mitsui said, "If it's convenient, please allow me to take you around."

"It's okay. I will just look around." Jiang Chen refused.

"Believe me, you must be interested. After all, I'm a member of Kurofune's Asia Division." At the word "Kurofune," Mitsui didn't make a sound but only made the word out with his lips.

Jiang Chen slightly narrowed his eyes, but his facial expression remained unchanged.

"Oh? Then please, Mr. Mitsui, lead the way."

"This way please."

On the second floor, Mitsui took Jiang Chen into a chic private room. They sat on the sofa and Mitsui took a small pot of alcohol from the side and poured it into delicate porcelain cups.

"Mr. Jiang doesn't seem very surprised about my identity." Mitsui was slightly curious.

"What is there to be surprised about?" Jiang Chen said with a smile.

The Kurofune without Tanaka was nothing to fear. Just like Future Group without Jiang Chen would be nothing.

"Honestly speaking... your disregard makes me very depressed." Mitsui sighed. "You must have taken care of Tanaka."

"You should have seen it in the news." Jiang Chen smiled.

Mitsui shook his head.

"Here you can be rest assured that you can speak whatever you want. Mr. Jiang stop playing riddles with me. You and I both know that bullets alone will not kill him, it at most will waste a replacement of his. If I haven't guessed correctly, he didn't die in Kenya but died in Yoto."

"It seems that you know a lot. So what? You confessed this to me, what is your purpose?" Jiang Chen looked at him and said indifferently.

"I confessed to you without any other intention," then he paused for two seconds. Mitsui looked at Jiang Chen and said in sincere tone, "The Mitsui family became a member of the Kurofune just because of historical reasons. After the nature of the organization changed, we have been trying hard to draw a line with it. But under the threat of Tanaka, we are forced to settle with him..."

"For example, to provide them with funds?" Jiang Chen said with a sneer.

Mitsui's expression was awkward.

"Yes, but we have already introspected. To show sincerity..."

Mitsui took out a USB from his cuff and put it on the table.

"This is?"

"There is a list inside." Mitsui looked at Jiang Chen, "the list of all Kurofune members in the Asian Division."

Jiang Chen pinched the USB and looked at Mitsui with intrigue.

[This guy is also very clever.]

It was only a matter of time before he will be finished as an accomplice to the Kurofune knowing the end of the Kurofune. Jiang Chen was able to get rid of Tanaka in Napon and his strength has already made Mitsui fear. Thus, he took the initiative to surrender to Jiang Chen, the enemy of the Kurofune, by providing him with the list in exchange for his name to be removed from that list.

The reason why this list was given to Jiang Chen and not to the government was because he intended to use Jiang Chen's hand to kill those members of the Kurofune that are lurking in Asia.

The fierceness of Celestial Trade will definitely not allow the members of the Kurofune who are exposed to remain alive.

Since he has chosen betrayal, then the betrayal must be absolute!

Even if one is still alive, Mitsui may live in fear. So, simply borrow a knife to kill people, he could remove all these problems!

"Interesting." Jiang Chen put away the USB as a smile emerged on his face.

"I hope this is enough to wash my sins," Mitsui said, falsely.

"It will," Jiang Chen smiled.

Receiving a positive reply, Mitsui finally felt relieved and laughed.

"I would like to thank Mr. Jiang. In order to express my gratitude, your enjoyment today is on me."

Just then, a suited bodyguard opened the door and walked to the side of Mitsui. Leaning over, he whispered two sentences.

It seemed that he had heard some interesting news. Mitsui's eyebrows slightly raised, turned his head, and whispered a few words.

The bodyguard responded and immediately walked out the door.

Mitsui turned and looked at Jiang Chen.

"Speaking of which, it's my apology that we talked about business for a long time. I'm sure Mr. Jiang is here to relax. Right? We have a show to enjoy now."

The voice just fell and the door of the room opened again.

Two burly bodyguards came in with a chair.

Sitting in a chair, a beautiful woman was dressed in casual clothes. With adhesives plastered on her mouth, she maintained an indecent sitting posture, and her hands and feet were tied to the chair by nylon rope.

Looking at the face filled with horror, Jiang Chen felt it looked familiar.

"Noooo—"

The beauty writhed and struggled to break away from her chair. However, this chair was obviously an S&M-specific prop, and could not easily be broken.

"Prepare ten male actors and a video camera." Mitsui orderly with indifference.

"Yes!" one of the bodyguards nodded.

Hearing the words of Mitsui, the beautiful woman's expression turned more fearful. The two long legs tied with nylon rope desperately tried to kick out. However no matter how hard she tried, the center of gravity of the chair was as steady as a rock, and there was no sign of loosening of the rope.

After examining for a long time, Jiang Chen finally realized where he saw her.

Isn't this the policewoman he saw in the morning?

More than a dozen muscular men came in and there was a photographer.

When Miss Kwai was completely in despair, Jiang Chen suddenly spoke.

"Leave her to me, it's a waste of a beautiful girl to shoot a movie."

Mitsui chuckled and responded to Jiang Chen with a look that all men would understand.

"Then I will not bother. I hope Mr. Jiang will have a good time tonight."

He gestured, turned around and walked outside the door. The others also left in succession, leaving only the two in the room.

Seeing that she wouldn't have to suffer a miserable fate, Kwai took a sigh of relief, and tried to calm her breathes.

Jiang Chen walked forward, teared the tape off of her mouth. Because the movement was too brute, tears almost came out of her eyes because of the pain.

"Oh, long time no see... Although not really that long."

Looking at Jiang Chen's teasing expression, Kwai bit her teeth in humiliation and squeezed out a few words from her mouth

"Quick... help me untie this."

"Why?"

Kwai was stunned. She had originally thought that Jiang Chen regained his conscience and decided to save her, but…

Looking at her the horrified expression returned to her face, Jiang Chen opened the camera in close proximity, and said evilly.

"Who said I'm going to untie you? A whip, a candle, or a trojan, choose for yourself."

Or, all of them.

It seems like there were many props in the room…

(1) The Heaven – A high-end club in China known for scandalous things.

Chapter 720: You're a Devil

With a deep exhale, Jiang Chen took out a bottle of chilled red wine from the refrigerator. Without any regard to the string of zeros on the list price, he pulled out the corks, took two swigs from the bottle, and then wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Leaning beside the refrigerator, he noticed an unfriendly sight. Jiang Chen smiled and looked at Kwai with messy hair while holding up the bottle from the distance.

"Want to have a drink?"

Delicate nose, high forehead, as well as some arrogance. Her student temperament has not yet faded away; she must have only graduated recently. Otherwise, she would not be able to do such a brainless thing. Sneaking in here to investigate? Is this place that easy to sneak into?

Unfortunately, she sneaked in in casual clothes. If she wore a uniform, it would be even more perfect, especially with her pair of long legs. It was hard to imagine that the island nation known for short chubby legs would have a pair of perfect legs like this…

However, one thing did surprise Jiang Chen. It was the girl's first time.

Looking at the bright red that slid to the rug along the stool's legs and her white ankles, his mouth formed a curvature.

"I'll interpret that as you have agreed. Anyway, someone is treating, it would be a waste not to drink it."

Jiang Chen took another bottle of red wine from the refrigerator. This time he looked at the label.

Good lord, a bottle of red wine was 100,000, and it was US Dollar. Although he drank more expensive wine before, he still felt shocked by the price. The things in this room were really not what the average person could afford.

With two bottles of wine, he walked back to Miss Kwai. Jiang Chen then sat on the sofa opposite of her; his sight enjoyed the graceful body for a moment.

Looking at the grieving expression on her face, Jiang Chen laughed.

"Looks like you have one? Is your boyfriend an eunuch?"

"You devil..." Tears hung from the corner of her eyes and Kwai squeezed out the sentence from her teeth.

"On the contrary, I helped you to get rid of the devil and saved you." Jiang Chen put on some clothes, pulled out the SD card from behind the camera, and looked at her with a smirk. "And actually towards the end, you were cooperating pretty well weren't you ?"

A blood red color crawled from her neck to her ear. Kwai gritted her teeth and stopped talking.

"Don't look at me like that," Jiang Chen looked at her hateful gaze and stood up.

Walking beside her, he leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Even if I didn't do anything, do you think you could have escaped?"

"You obviously don't realize where this is."

"Why don't you take a look around this place in a bit, maybe you can see your minister having a 'long conversation' with a student? Of course, it may be the Prime Minister too. From the identity of the guests who enter and leave here, do you not realize anything?"

"If you don't want to disappear from this world, you'd better be obedient."

Jiang Chen gripped the SD card with a grin, he combed her hair behind her ear.

"Let today be a lesson. I don't care what you're trying to investigate about me, but I advise you to stop. Otherwise..."

After a pause, Jiang Chen approached her ear and said half-jokingly.

"I will have to educate you again."

Jiang Chen heavily emphasized the word "education".

...

Judging from the scared look on Kwai's face, Jiang Chen knew very well that this chick was listening to him. If he really did not do anything, presumably the club would not let her go, even if it were for the benefit of other members, they have to leave some blackmail in their hands, or simply let her disappear...

Well, these reasons were all found after the fact.

Jiang Chen did not think too much at the time. It was too inconsistent with his unscrupulous style not eating the meat in front of him.

The SD was thrown into the storage dimensional and kept for his personal pleasure. Jiang Chen left the club, got in his own car, and returned to the suburban mansion.

When he arrived home, it was almost two o'clock in the morning.

Qian Xia had already fallen asleep. Jiang Chen did not wake her up. Instead, he returned to his room after washing up and fell asleep till dawn.

The next morning, Jiang Chen woke up early, jogged around the street, and then returned to the mansion to get on the computer and read the news.

Not surprisingly, after the news that Tanaka was executed, Yoto's housing prices showed signs of recovery, and at least the momentum of a large-scale sell-off had been curbed.

Just last night, Future Biology announced the licensing of T and TT virus vaccines to 11 pharmaceutical companies to expand the vaccine penetration rate and swore to kill the zombie virus in its bud. Every time these pharmaceutical companies produced a vaccine, they had to pay 1.5 USD in royalties to Future Biology.

Because of these two pieces of news, people's fear of the T virus finally cooled down a lot.

On the other hand, the Bank of Napon further expanded their monetary stimulus measures, the Congress also came up with a plan for recovery and construction. All these played a positive role in Napon's domestic economy. The exchange rate between the yen and the USD rose, but it would take some time before these rescue measures become effective.

According to an analysis by professional managers hired by Jiang Chen, housing prices in Yoto were still seriously undervalued. The total value of the 11 billion dollar properties he acquired in Yoto, after falling to 9.7 billion, rose back to 10.5 billion. By the time the Napon economy recovers to the level before the outbreak of the virus, the 11 billion in real estate could potentially increase by ten folds.

Hearing this, Jiang Chen could not help but regret not buying more. There were still more than 20 billion US Dollar in his private account.

Although the value was low now, there was no trading volume.

Those small buildings may still be on the market, but the landmark buildings, such as the 109th Building, were definitely not being sold anymore.

Jiang Chen was considering whether the information on Tanimura should be exposed or left to be used as a threat against the Napon government in the future. If directly leaked, Napon's economic situation will undoubtedly deteriorate once again and he would be able to take the opportunity of the disruption to acquire several more properties and companies.

When Jiang Chen browsed the website, Qian Xia brought breakfast for him and a cup of aromatic freshly ground coffee. Then, she gently said.

"Master, enjoy. If there is anything you need, just call me."

"You go ahead." Jiang Chen nodded with a smile.

After Qian Xia left the room, Jiang Chen opened several other pages. After seeing nothing interesting, he took out the USB from Mitsui and downloaded the list.

Looking at the long list, a smile began to form.

Excellent, as long as this list is sent to the Ghost Agents, it will be a game of mouse and cat.

The name of Mitsui was removed. He downloaded the list to his watch and sent it to Ayesha through Jean. She then dispatched the Ghost Agents deployed in Asian countries to perform assassination missions.

After these tasks were completed, Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair and stretched.

Just as he was planning what to do, the watch on his left hand vibrated suddenly.

It was news from the apocalypse.

The destroyer wandering near Wanghai finally made a move.

Chapter 721: Submarine Observation Station

With half a month to go before the New Year, a gloomy cloud covered Liuding.

The survivors living on the deck of Bohai Aircraft Carrier felt a great deal of unease from the wandering destroyer. They'd maintained a certain degree of superiority over the land survivors because were no zombies, mutants, predators or mutated humans on the aircraft carrier. They didn't have to struggle to survive on land.

However, the situation seemed to be reversed now.

The threat from the sea made them feel a fear they'd never experienced.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen honored the defense pact and NAC sent troops!

Construction of the Hengsha Island fortifications had been completed. The island was equipped with a "Fireball-1" rocket cluster system, 2,000 rockets, and fifty-one J-type electromagnetic pulse cannons. Under the leadership of Cheng Weiguo, a 1,000-strong reinforcement camp was stationed there.

NAC had no navy - not even a few ships. But it didn't matter. NAC possessed the top artillery in all of Pan-Asia. Just a few days ago, their rockets filled the sky, cleansed Hengsha Island of soldiers then annihilated two mutant nests.

The whole process was easier than sweeping the floor.

Perhaps it was because of NAC's strong forces that the destroyer cruising around Wanghai City was calculated and reserved.

At least they weren't opposed to communication unlike before.

...

On the shore of Hengsha Island, a spherical submersible device surfaced. From its appearance, this submersible and Jiang Chen's "Droplet No.1" seemed similar, except that the smooth cone on the back was missing.

After a visual exchange, the five soldiers inside the bunker stood up and carefully surrounded it. The door at the top of the submersible opened and a man in a light blue jumpsuit walked out. Faced with five black weapons, he raised his hands calmly.

"I'm not a threat. I'm hoping to meet your leader."

"You're the ambassador from the destroyer?" The leader of the five soldiers stared into the man's eyes.

"Yes." The man nodded.

The captain turned his head and ordered the soldier beside him.

"Make a request to the higher-ups."

"Yes!"

When news of the arrival of the destroyer's ambassador reached Jiang Chen's desk, he immediately sent someone to bring him to Fishbone base and meet the messenger.

Upon seeing his blue costume, Jiang Chen initially thought the clothing belonged to an underwater fallout shelter. After a closer look at the work unit's ID, he realized this wasn't the case.

The Beluga Whale Submarine Observation Station appeared to be a harmless organization.

He just didn't explain why they had a destroyer.

When Wu Yue met Jiang Chen, he demonstrated respect then reached out his right hand and shook Jiang Chen's hand.

"I'm Wu Yue, the vice-captain of the Seagull."

"Jiang Chen, the general of the NAC military government." Jiang Chen released his hand and looked into his eyes then he asked, "I don't think anyone would feel good about a warship at their front door. To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, please explain your intentions."

"We absolutely have peace in mind. You can rest assured," Wu Yue said sincerely.

"Is that so? Why did you not come to greet us until now?" Jiang Chen said with a smile.

It wasn't until NAC made a big move on Hengsha Island that the Seagull finally sent an ambassador. Jiang Chen didn't believe they intended to communicate from the very beginning,

Wu Yue sighed when he heard Jiang Chen's question.

"To be completely honest, even if I personally oppose the war, not everyone is peace-loving. There will be no real peace between the giants and dwarves. Only two giants on equal footing can truly negotiate... Do you understand what I mean?"

"Yes." Jiang Chen nodded, giving him an interested glance. "But what you said surprised me. It seems that even though you remain at sea, you are still in touch with the happenings of the apocalypse?"

"We're not completely living in isolation." Wu Yue opened his hands. "We're different from the fallout shelters. When the nuclear war broke out, we only had a month's worth of supplies. We stretched that to three months. Ultimately, we still had to think of ways to survive above sea level."

"Very good. It seems that you intend to trade with us?" Jiang Chen said with a smile. "But I still have a question. I don't know if it's inconvenient for you to answer me, but how do you actually live in the deep sea without being attacked by mutants?"

"Mutants? There are occasional aggressive mutants such as mutated sharks or mutated killer whales that may pose a threat to our production and life. However, we developed a sonar ten years ago that drove away a school of mutated fish. Although the mutants are scary, they are no longer a threat to us."

Wu Yue paused for a moment and looked at Jiang Chen.

"What about you? Are you interested in trading with us?"

"What do you need?" Jiang Chen asked.

"We need any resources! Food, steel, ores, and energy!" said Wu Yue.

Food wasn't so urgent as seaweed was the best source of nutrients, and some fish that weren't highly mutated were also edible. However, energy was the basis for submarine observation stations. Without energy, they couldn't even get the oxygen they needed to survive.

Unfortunately, although many marine behemoths were huge in size, they didn't have enough crystals for their size. Considering the ammunition required for killing, it clearly wasn't worth wasting the number of crystals needed, so they only had two methods of obtaining energy.

One was to plunder, and the other was to trade.

Jiang Chen smiled when he heard what Wu Yue said.

"Well, what can you give me?"

"It depends what you need. We're good at underwater construction, deepwater maintenance, and we can also escort your trade fleet," Wu Yue said.

Jiang Chen nodded.

The first two were useless. There were so many resources on land. He currently had no plans to expand to the bottom of the sea; providing escorts for the trade fleet would certainly interest the merchants on the Sixth Street, however. Without the threat of major mutant species in the deep sea, ocean trade was far more secure than traversing on land routes.

"Your proposal is acceptable. Regarding the trade fleet escorts, I can arrange for you to talk to the council on the Sixth Street. The merchants there should be very interested."

If the Beluga Whale Submarine Observation Station could really freely navigate the deep sea, NAC's trade fleets would be able to spread through the land and sea to Southeast Asia, Japan and other regions, and even farther away. As long as the price was reasonable, working with them was definitely an option that outweighed any disadvantages.

However, when it came to the deep sea, Jiang Chen suddenly remembered one thing.

After signing the trade agreement, Jiang Chen asked Wu Yue.

"Since you traverse the deep sea... Can you tell me about the circumstances surrounding the Pan Asia Corporation's space elevators?"

Chapter 722: Retrieving the Space Elevator

Kwai returned home without her soul. She didn't recall how she left the Yoshihara Club, nor was she aware of the expression she had when she walked into the 50-square-meter apartment.

She took a shower and collapsed onto her bed. When she woke up the next day at noon, she realized that the pillow was soaked.

Whenever she thought about what happened yesterday, her body shivered uncontrollably.

She picked up the phone on her nightstand, and her fingers unconsciously rubbed the screen as she didn't know who to call. The buzz of an incoming e-mail suddenly shocked her. After seeing the sender, she was relieved. It was a work email.

As expected, the search warrant she applied for the day before was immediately rejected. Her plan wasn't to catch up with the changes. She originally planned on investigating Jiang Chen first and find evidence of his connection with the Yoto Suburbs virus incident then obtain a search warrant to become a legend in the Yoto police community....

It now appeared that her plan was just a joke.

Tears dripped down involuntarily, washing away her self-esteem.

She wanted to call the police, but she felt that her thoughts were ridiculous. She was part of the Yoto Police Department - who would she report to? She suddenly regretted her decision the day before. If she hadn't acted on impulse, she wouldn't have been…

She wanted to call her boyfriend, but she didn't know how to seek comfort from him. It was impossible to talk about what happened last night.

The most ridiculous thing, however, was that the figure who scared her lingered in her mind like a devil.

…

"Space elevator? You're asking the right person; no one is more familiar with that thing than us." Wu Yue suddenly laughed. "Before the war, one of White Beluga Submarine Observation Station's tasks was to investigate the geological environment near the space elevator base No. 3 to detect geological disasters and assist with maintenance."

"What's the situation like there?" Jiang Chen asked immediately.

"Destroyed thoroughly." Wu Yue reluctantly shrugged. "I still remember the day. At the beginning of the war, the tracks that streaked into the clouds were hit by several missiles, and 30,000 kilometers of graphene cables collapsed into the sea. An entire island was cut into two pieces by a graphene cable... so I advise you not to count on it."

[Don't count on it?] He wasn't foolish; Jiang Chen had been counting on the space elevator. NAC had no way of getting to sea or else he would've already sent people to explore the whereabouts of pre-war space elevators. Rebuilding a space elevator was nearly impossible in the apocalypse, where there were few people and resources and no production capacity for technology, but it could be done in the modern world!

"I think I can still count on it... Do you have any way of moving the wreckage of the space elevator into shallow water?" Jiang Chen asked.

Wu Yue looked at Jiang Chen as if he was a madman, and he facepalmed.

"Do you know how heavy the base station for the space elevator is?"

"How heavy is it?"

"With a displacement of 10 million tons, no power system is capable. After being anchored, it has to rely on special transport equipment to redeploy. Not to mention that it's still sinking at the bottom of the sea. Not to mention shallow sea - it's not easy to bring to the surface to begin with."

"I see..." Jiang Chen frowned.

"What do you want to do with a space elevator? It can only be deployed at the equator," Wu Yue wondered.

Wu Yue had another thought he failed to verbalize. Now that outer space was filled with space debris and looked like an asteroid belt from afar, there was no way to develop in outer space.

"You don't have to worry about what I'm using it for." Jiang Chen waved. After contemplating for a moment, he continued, "Well, you can escort our construction ships. We'll be responsible for the shipment. We can discuss the price again?"

"I will convey your proposal to my superiors and give you a reply tomorrow at the latest." Wu Yue nodded.

"Then you can take your leave now," said Jiang Chen.

It wasn't impossible to build a space elevator from scratch. The Graphene Research Institute in the modern world developed a graphene cable that could be used to construct a space elevator. Although an elevator of 22nd-century standards couldn't be achieved, a primary stage space elevator could still be built.

However, unlike Penglai, even if the production capacity of the New Malaysia Special District was completely directed to the space elevator project, it would take at least five years to complete the entire project.

In other words, when the space elevator would be completed, it would be 2023.

But if the wreckage of the space elevator from the apocalypse could be transported into the modern world, it would make things much easier.

It wouldn't be impossible for the project to be completed within one year.

Wu Yue didn't disappoint Jiang Chen's expectations. The White Beluga Submarine Observation Station quickly agreed with Jiang Chen's proposal. After some bargaining, the two sides finally reached a preliminary cooperation agreement.

NAC set up a port on Hengsha Island, north of Wanghai City, where the merchants from Sixth Street would trade necessities with the station. Items traded would include food, raw materials, some household goods, industrial products, and a limited number of arms.

The settlement currency was limited to NAC's credit, and the tariffs were tentatively set at 10%.

The space elevator's transportation agreement was written in another agreement.

White Beluga Submarine Observation Station would dissemble, repair space elevator bases, and recover the wreckage of space elevators from outer space. The NAC was responsible for dispatching transport vessels.

Because the sunken space elevator was far from Wanghai, and the depth of the sea near Wanghai was relatively shallow, it wasn't convenient to place a space elevator base there. After discussion with the Observation Station, Jiang Chen decided to use Taipei as a transit point.

For Jiang Chen, it didn't matter where he shipped these parts to the modern world. If it wasn't for the fact that he was unfamiliar with the station, he would've rushed directly to the targeted sea area to transport it from there and save time.

After signing an agreement with the Observation Station, the expeditionary forces of NAC also finished mobilizing.

The AS Order steel airship could take off and fly along the coastline toward the island of Yizhou. It was expected to arrive in Taipei within eight hours. Accompanied by the Zhao Corporation's trade fleets, their main task was to act as guides and communicate with survivors on the island of Yizhou.

Zhao Corporation was familiar with the situation in Taipei. The rocket engines and aviation equipment acquired by NAC were all obtained from the launch site in Taipei.

Jiang Chen's instructions to the captain, Li Wang, were simple - they were to establish an outpost in Taipei with 200 Marines along with radar stations and lighthouses. They were to establish positive relationships with local survivors as permitted by the circumstances and, if possible, integrate those survivors under the NAC banner.

For this second NAC crusade, Jiang Chen gave Li Wang a high degree of autonomy. During the Hongcheng expedition, the ex-guard captain had proved his abilities.

Jiang Chen also believed the captain he personally promoted would definitely live up to his expectations.

Chapter 723: The Landing of Yizhou

AS Order had taken off. The destroyers wandering near the coast of Wanghai had already returned. Before returning to the modern world, Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao visited Sixth Street. After being warmly received by officials, they visited the industrial development area.

Rows of tank shells were located outside the military factory. Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao walked alongside the industrial park. Jiang Chen looked at the workers who were working on the assembly line. Compared to the modern world New Malaysia Special District, the industrial park in the apocalypse could only be described as "miniature."

Due to population constraints, industrial development on the wasteland was a hundred times more difficult compared to the present day. Even if the equipment technology far surpassed the modern world, the production capacity of the modern world couldn't be matched.

The production output of Future Heavy Industries was ten times the total number of workers in the NAC. Sometimes, Jiang Chen couldn't help but wonder how great it would be to move some workers to the wasteland. Of course, that was just wishful thinking. Lin Lin's research on transporting people had stalled; Sun Xiaorou jokingly dubbed him the name "Hamster Killer."

Each experimenter was a hamster.

And those poor hamsters died without exception...

As he watched power armor being moved out of the factory by a construction vehicle, Jiang Chen asked Sun Jiao, who was standing next to him:

"How many power armors do we have?"

"A total of 325 sets, my general." Sun Jiao grinned as she playfully spoke.

Judging by the curvature of her mouth, Miss General was apparently also very pleased with the production quota of NAC.

"That much?" Jiang Chen was surprised.

According to Han Junhua's teaching of military knowledge from before the war, 300 power armors were sufficient to arm three mechanized infantry battalions.

He still remembered Zhao Chenwu told him a year ago that the monthly output of power armor was as high as ten units, which was the case when the capacity of the military factory was operating at its maximum. What exactly happened to make the output of power armor increase by so much?

Sun Jiao read the confusion in his eyes and answered his question.

"It seems that your memory isn't very good. Did you forget that during the last expedition, we brought Hongcheng area under our sphere of influence? With the opening of the airship shipping route, many downstream processes have been outsourced. Many survivors from Hongcheng migrated to Wanghai. The production capacity of Sixth Street long surpassed that a few months ago."

"I see." Jiang Chen grinned joyfully and nodded.

The two continued to walk along the street filled with factories and workshops.

"Speaking of which, it'll be New Year's soon."

"Yes, the 2018 New Year. The days have gone by quickly," Jiang Chen said emotionally.

"...then, will you spend New Year's here?"

Looking at Sun Jiao's hopeful eyes, Jiang Chen couldn't refuse. Last year, he spent New Year's in the modern world. It looked like this year, he would spend it here.

"Mhmm." Jiang Chen nodded.

"Great, Yao Yao will definitely look forward to it."

"Aren't you the one who's looking forward to it most?" Jiang Chen teased.

"Hmm... I'm also very much looking forward to it."

Her crescent-like eyebrows and the curvature of her lips revealed Sun Jiao's mood. Looking at her joyous face, Jiang Chen also smiled and caught up with her quick steps.

The inspections ended before dark and the two returned to the mansion via helicopter.

On the helicopter, Jiang Chen suddenly sighed and said:

"I feel regretful today."

"Regretful? I feel happy." Sun Jiao moaned with dissatisfaction and couldn't understand why Jiang Chen suddenly said that.

"We spent all day at the factory and I didn't take you to the shopping street."

Sun Jiao's cheeks blushed and she rolled her eyes.

"Can you finish your sentence next time?"

Back at Fishbone base, Jiang Chen went to the General's office in the community center. When he arrived at the office, Han Junhua was standing next to the holographic map. The map was locked onto Yizhou Island, and there was a small green area marked in the northern part of the island.

"Is the expeditionary army there?"

Han Junhua nodded.

"The Order is anchored in the northern part of the island and 200 expeditionary forces have landed in Taipei. According to feedback from Li Wang, the supply station is under construction. He's currently leading 200 expeditionary forces to search nearby areas."

Jiang Chen nodded and asked, "What's the attitude of the local survivors?"

"They're very vigilant against outsiders, but they haven't made any hostile moves for the time being."

"Very good. It looks like Li Wang is doing well." Jiang Chen's lips revealed a smile.

After the supply station was established, the second supply boat could deliver supplies and reinforcements to this group of pioneer troops. By taking Yizhou Island under their control, it could be used as a springboard to spread NAC's influence to southern and southeastern Asia, extending the trade route to more distant areas.

After all, it wasn't as convenient to get to Yoto as Xin. Jiang Cheng didn't want to disappear long-term, so this time, he didn't stay in the apocalypse for long. After he dealt with trivial affairs, he returned to the modern world.

With the virus crisis coming to an end, Yoto's colleges and universities had also resumed classes. Qian Xia, who was still studying at Waseda University, naturally received an email from the school about the resumption of classes.

When the mansion was empty, she just went there regularly to clean the rooms. But now that the master was living at the mansion, she naturally couldn't run between both places like before.

After some consideration, she spoke with Jiang Chen and asked for his advice. If Jiang Chen needed her to stay at the mansion to take care of his daily life, she could drop out of school and be his full-time maid.

However, Jiang Chen rejected her proposal and asked her to study hard. Her full-time maid position could wait until she completed her education. He would have to return to Xin soon afterward. If there weren't any special requirements to do so, he wouldn't return to Yoto often.

In order to make it easier for her to travel, Jiang Chen gave her a car. The happy maid kissed his face. Jiang Chen didn't have any particular reaction, but because of her own "out of line" behavior, the maid, holding her skirt, felt her heart pounding hard.

Unlike most businessmen who had potbellies and bald heads, Jiang Chen's body, although it wasn't completely muscular, was definitely symmetrical. He was strong and was a little handsome. Qian Xia enjoyed his presence.

Looking at Qian Xia's blushing face, Jiang Chen's thoughts turned to when he would eat this rabbit. Her shyness mixed with curiosity and passion always tested his limits.

However, as he was planning to "slowly savor" her, news came from Future Technology. The development of the virtual reality shopping mall finally ended.

It seemed that there was no opportunity to slowly savor her.

He could only devour...

Chapter 724: VRstore Online!

After half a month of military operations in the Belém Devon region of Somalia, NATO successfully captured the warlord-controlled area. At the same time, the United Nations was pressured by various parties to eventually issue a controversial document.

The zombies were defined as unnatural deaths, allowing the army to kill zombies.

Interestingly, when discussing this issue, many countries stubbornly voted against it for strange reasons. For example, the reason why France voted against it was because there was no death penalty in the country. Therefore, it wouldn't vote on this solution involving the death penalty. But India was even odder - their reasoning behind their vote was because they thought the living dead were servants of Shiva...

In any case, even if it was controversial, this long-overdue document was passed through the efforts of all parties.

NATO sent two tank companies and cleared out the zombies from the infected area on the border between Somalia and Ethiopia with the help of drones. At the same time, far on the other side of the world, the self-defense forces and UA troops stationed in Napon began to enter the quarantined Shinagawa area of Yoto and cleared out zombies there.

The vaccines launched by 11 global pharmaceutical companies in cooperation with Future Biology had fully entered the market. It was expected that in the next four months, it would be sufficient to popularize in the world's major countries. Based on the patent fee of 1.50 per vaccine, it was expected that in the next four months, Future Biology would receive 5.7 billion US Dollar in revenue.

The figure was almost equivalent to four years of Future Biology's net profits.

However, as a cost, granting the licensing of the technology meant overdrawing the potential profits of the T virus vaccine. After all, other pharmaceutical companies were more dominant in terms of production scale; even if the cost had an additional 1.50 in royalties, this cost could easily be made up elsewhere.

In the past few days in Yoto, Jiang Chen headhunted a professional manager and formed a professional real estate management team to manage the 11 billion USD of real estate he acquired in Yoto. He was responsible for the maintenance of buildings and leasing of shops.

At Yoto International Airport, Qian Xia waved at Jiang Chen emotionally.

The day before leaving Yoto, Jiang Chen eventually showed his claws to Qian Xia in her maid uniform. At first, she resisted somewhat, but it didn't take long before she obeyed while incoherently murmuring some words.

Maybe it was because the pain of the first time was unforgettable, or maybe it was because of other reasons. After that night, Jiang Chen felt that she looked at him with eyes containing a different glory.

"Will master still come back?" Qian Xia buried her head and whispered in a low voice.

"Occasionally perhaps."

"Then...when I graduate, could I go to Xin to find you?"

"Of course."

Jiang Chen tousled her head and didn't say much in terms of a farewell. He then turned and boarded the Gulfstream G650 private jet at the airport.

Under her watchful gaze, the plane disappeared into the distant horizon.

Soon after Jiang Chen returned to Xin, Future Technology and Amazon, eBay, Taobao, Jingdong and many other e-commerce giants published announcements on their official websites simultaneously.

At the same time, the Phantom Helmet also welcomed its second system update. After the update, an application management program appeared on the interface. Just like Apple's App Store and Android's Android Market, Phantom's Helmets also allowed users to download apps freely.

However, at present, although Future Group announced VR program development tools and provided server rental services, no company could demonstrate the advantages of the VR platform. They had been investigating how to transfer existing applications to the VR platform.

So, for now, aside from the web browser, only two applications existed in the application management program.

One was the Godly Land, and the other was the newly launched virtual reality online shopping platform – VRstore.

The newly launched VRstore currently had two modes.

One was a simple mode combining plane images and VR images. Users could search for items just like on traditional e-commerce stores and find what they wanted in the shortest amount of time. The only difference was that the searched items could be held directly in hand, and the searched clothes could be directly worn.

The other mode was the virtual mall mode. After entering this mode, the user would appear on a virtual street designed by Future Technology, which referenced New York's Times Square and other famous commercial streets. According to a certain algorithm, the goods and decorations in the shops were randomly processed, so that the user could experience and enjoy randomized products with their friends.

According to the news released by Future Technology, there were seven e=commerce giants that joined the VRstore. On the first day of the VRstore launch, all the top shops of the seven giants were made available with a grand total of 800,000 products available.

Many users who tried the VRstore experienced the joy of VR shopping. While the sales volume continued to rise, this powerful VRstore was also positively rated by users.

"The skirt I purchased is already here. It's amazing. It's exactly the same as I saw in the VRstore!"

"I used to be unwilling to buy expensive clothes online. Not to mention size, but what I wear and what models wear seem completely different. Now it's okay, I can try clothes in a VR environment and find things that really suit me."

"It's crazy, how did Future Technology do it?"

"It's a pity there's no tasting function. If the taste of food could be replicated, I'd be able to eat in the virtual mall... I wonder if you can be full in the virtual world?"

"My God, my wallet! How did I spend so much money! Oh..."

For technical reasons, VR images of products were currently produced by Future Technology. Therefore, images of these 800,000 products were randomly selected, sent to Future Technology's headquarters, and scanned using special equipment, producing high-resolution VR images.

As for the VR image production fees for products, Jiang Chen didn't scam them and charged them a cost of 1,000 US Dollar per item. And for the products registered in the VRstore, a monthly data management fee of 10 US Dollar was charged.

Compared with the profits gained from the VRstore, the investment was definitely worth the money.

Phantom helmets had reached hundreds of millions of active users worldwide, and VRstore was one of the only two applications which created strong exposure. Controlling such a large amount of traffic, the price could double and shops would still be willing to pay.

In addition, advertising and other costs were calculated separately and were quite pricey. If the product was on VRstore's homepage recommendation list, the revenue of the shop would have to be divided equally with Future Technology. Even though the price was a bit high, there was still a stream of shops that applied for front page exposure.

These charges, together with data management fees, were the two major revenue streams for VRstore.

Some analysts realized that the launch of VRstore would signal a new period of downward trends for physical stores.

For example, the British "Observer Daily" had thoroughly analyzed this issue.

"We had optimistic thoughts that online shopping would never replace physical stores and would affect the spending habits of some people at the most. Physical stores have an advantage that online shopping can't replace, such as intuitively touching the products you want to purchase, and the fun in shopping itself. These are elements not available in online shopping."

"Now, VRstore seems to have done it - everything that online shopping was unable to do. Maybe this will be a start to completely rewriting the landscape of the global retail industry."

Chapter 725: Miraculous Sales Figures

The relationship between major e-commerce companies and VRstore was akin to the relationship between retail chains and shopping malls. From payment to logistics, traditional e-commerce stores were responsible for providing the goods, while VRstore provided the "window." The relationship between the two parties more closely resembled a symbiotic relationship.

In fact, Jiang Chen previously considered starting from scratch - he thought about getting rid of those veteran e-commerce giants, taking a series of chains from payment to logistics and creating a platform belonging to Future Technology. However, after discussion with Xia Shiyu, he gave up on this plan.

It was like Future Technology was building a rocket, but there was no need to carefully polish each screw.

Inside Future Building on Coro Island, wearing a perfectly-tailored business outfit, Xia Shiyu stood at Jiang Chen's desk and reported the stats of VRstore. From the excitement flowing out of her solemn face, Jiang Chen could already sense the gratifying accomplishments of the "VR+ e-commerce" plan that had been in the works for half a year.

"... According to feedback from the North American branch, Amazon's total revenue rose 18% in the first week, while the VRstore platform accounted for 40% of this week's transaction volume. eBay's transaction revenue also rose by 13%. The two e-commerce giants immediately submitted an additional cooperation agreement to us. They're hoping we can relax the auditing process and speed up the process for additional shops to enter virtual reality."

Jiang Chen comfortably leaned back in his seat.

"What about Hua?"

Xia Shiyu's lips formed a smile then she said:

"Taobao's revenue rose by 28% compared with last week, Jingdong 34%."

This 28% increase wasn't to be underestimated. Although it was attributable to many factors such as natural growth and online marketing, the entire sales base was gigantic. Just looking at Taobao alone, Taobao's annual transaction volume in 2015 was 3 trillion! And since 2010, it had maintained a 60% increase over the years.

Although the growth rate had slowed down, according to Taobao's 2017 data, the transaction volume still exceeded 4 trillion. Now, with the sudden emergence of VRstore, Taobao's transaction value could break the 5 trillion milestone.

"It's almost like a money printing machine," Jiang Chen exclaimed.

"I think so too." Xia Shiyu nodded in agreement. "Do you know how much money we made on VRstore last week?"

"How much?" Jiang Chen was intrigued.

"1.2 billion."

Upon hearing this figure, he was stunned.

However, Xia Shiyu seemed to think that the number wasn't shocking enough, so she added, "1.2 billion US Dollar."

After recovering from his shock, Jiang Chen smiled and touched his nose with embarrassment.

"...If you didn't tell me, I would've thought it was Vietnamese Dong."

1.2 billion a week was more money than a money printing machine! A money printer couldn't print that fast!

Even more shocking was that this 1.2 billion was their income after tax. Although the scanning fee for the one million items contributed to more than half of the sum, the figure of 1.2 billion still stunned Jiang Chen. Alibaba's net profit per year was around 7 billion and it ranked top among the global e-commerce giants. Future Group's VRstore only took a week to earn the same amount Ali earned in a quarter.

Once VRstore matured, what would it become?

In order to celebrate this victory, Jiang Chen gave a large red envelope to each of the 300 employees of the VRstore project team and also hosted a party on the Hot Spring Island.

From the beginning, VRstore had used programmers from the modern world and independently developed VR programs. For Future Group, it was undoubtedly a big step towards technological independence.

For now, in all of Future Group, only Future Technology managed to achieve this feat.

The first reaction of people with vested interests in emerging technology was repulsion. The second reaction was determining how to stop technology. The third reaction was thinking about how to respond to the trend and make changes. However, if they began to think about change three beats slower than the rhythm of the world, they would unfortunately be eliminated by the times.

Bentonville, Arkansas, home to Walmart, the world's largest retailer.

This legendary retail company had a near-mythical family history. When Fortune magazine released their list of the world's top 500 companies in 2007, Walmart topped the list with a revenue of 35.11 billion US Dollar and received this honor for six consecutive years. When Fortune magazine began assessing the top 500 companies in the world in 1955, Walmart was just a mom and pop shop in Bentonville.

At that moment, in the Walmart headquarters, the board of directors held an emergency meeting to discuss their strategy for dealing with the impact of VRstore on the retail landscape.

"Which idiot has the proposal from Future Technology? We could've taken the VRstore ride."

"We had a vote from the board of directors, Mr. Casero." CEO Macmillan rose and responded to the director who mocked him.

"Oh? You mean, all of us here are idiots?"

"Don't get me wrong - I absolutely didn't mean that, Mr. Casero. Unless you personally think so."

"You—"

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound of knocking on the table forcefully dispersed the noise around the conference room.

The chairman, sitting at the head of the conference table, Robson Walton, stopped knocking his hand and glanced at the two men with cloudy but sharp eyes.

"We have more important things to do than arguing, don't we?"

The aged Walton family owner had a high prestige among the board of directors. When they saw Old Walton speaking, all the directors looked at each other and quickly ended their meaningless arguments. McMillan shrugged, opened his mouth, finally said nothing, and sat back.

Yes, Walmart had rejected Future Technology.

Walmart also ran its own e-commerce website, and it was the third-ranked in the UA. But six months ago, they didn't accept the concept of "VR + e-commerce" proposed by Future Technology. As for why, Walmart's network was comprehensive; it could connect its large physical retail stores and online businesses together to provide a full range of customer shopping services, so there was no need to rely on the VR platform.

No Americans were unfamiliar with the products on Walmart's shelves.

Also, if Walmart supermarkets appeared on the virtual reality platform, this would definitely have a greater impact on Walmart's physical store sales.

But the facts proved their decision to be horrendously wrong.

Whether they were willing to accept it or not, Walmart's physical store sales would be impacted by VRstore. Their refusal to enter VRstore resulted in more market share in ecommerce taken away by Amazon and eBay.

"We were at a disadvantage against Amazon. Now. VRstore has pushed us directly to our pitfall. It's not only Amazon, but eBay is also trying to gain distance on us." One director shook his head as he spoke.

"It isn't too late to make up for it now. I'll personally go visit Xin. I'll make the secretary book a ticket for tomorrow," Macmillan said.

"It isn't too late? Even if we change our minds now and beg Future Technology to let us join VRstore, do you think we could immediately enter the VR platform?" Casero, who had previously argued with him, mocked him. "Scanning 800,000 products took more than half a year. If we enter now, there are still countless shops ahead of us in queue. Maybe this time next year, Walmart's merchandise will appear on the shelves of VRstore?"

It would be impossible for them to set aside their partners and allow a latecomer jump in.

"I'll persuade him," Macmillan said earnestly.

"Ha—"

Casero was about to say a few mocking words, but Mr. Walton, the chairman, didn't give him a chance to speak and forcibly interrupted him.

"You don't need to book anything - take my plane. Don't wait until tomorrow - go today."

Holding his breath, Macmillan nodded his head seriously.

"Yes!"

Chapter 726: For Exchange

"How was your time in Los Santos?"

"It was okay. I'm going to go back to Wanghai tomorrow."

"Is filming complete already?

Coro Island was as sunny as ever today. Leaning against a beach chair, Jiang Chen was sluggishly talking to Liu Yao on the other side of the globe. Ayesha, who was wearing a bikini, brought a cold drink for him and leaned over to kiss him on the forehead then ran to the beach.

"It's long been completed; it was just a two-minute performance, and I ended up dying." Liu Yao stuck out her tongue and groaned.

For a minor character, two minutes of screen time was quite enough. Of course, she didn't have any dissatisfaction, but she was just used to ranting to Jiang Chen over the phone.

"Will you see the movie at my place?" Jiang Chen smirked.

Liu Yao's face instantly turned red.

His smirk reminded her that the last time she went to Xin, he was watching her movie while doing some strange things.

Her eyebrows raised. Liu Yao provocatively teased him:

"Oh? Do you only last two minutes?"

"If you forgot, why don't you try to find out?"

"Pervert!"

Hanging onto his phone with a smile, Jiang Chen began to enjoy the summer.

The cloud in the distance was like a boat, drifting along the blue sky. The sea breeze with a hint of coconut swept by his face and took away the heat from his body. Jiang Chen couldn't help but close his eyes and take a nap on this perfect day.

…

The next day, Jiang Chen went to Dr. Amos's lab and observed the experimental results of the "spiritual bridging." However, the experiment unfortunately seemed to have encountered a bottleneck. Although the last-generation chip solved the issue of overheating, it seemed to have a heavy load on the brain.

Being connected for half an hour consecutively could cause the user to fall into a coma and interrupt the connection. Amos was doing some debugging.

However, even then, his research results were astonishing.

It was the only piece of technology from the modern world surpassing the 22nd century that Jiang Chen had seen. As for how far Amos could go in this field, Jiang Chen wasn't able to foresee the limit.

As he left Dr. Amos's lab, a call from Xia Shiyu came in. She said Walmart's CEO had requested a meeting with him.

"Walmart? Is there a problem with nutrient supply? Why didn't he seek out Tao Ming?" Jiang Chen asked with confusion.

"Not about nutrient supply, it's about VRstore..."

After listening to the explanation from Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen slapped his head and realized.

With Future Group increasing their influence, aside from the initial negotiations with the major e-commerce companies, Jiang Chen had delegated the entire project to Future Technology's project team. Ning Huajian, who took over Xia Shiyu's role, was very competent in his position and the people who were chosen for the project team were all elites of the company. In the end, their results didn't disappoint Jiang Chen. Therefore, Jiang Chen didn't question the details too much.

"Where's he now?" Jiang Chen asked.

"In Future Building."

"Is he already there? Let him go to my office and wait for me."

"Okay."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen took the elevator and went straight to the floor where his office was located. At the door of the president's office, he met the representative of Walmart who came to negotiate, CEO Macmillan.

Upon seeing Jiang Chen, Macmillan greeted him enthusiastically.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen. Please forgive me for my uninvited presence."

"Haha, not at all. Future Group welcomes your arrival. Mr. Macmillan...Standing in the doorway isn't the gentlemanly way of hospitality. Please, come inside."

After McMillan was invited into the office, the two sat on the sofa, and the office assistant dressed in business professional attire skillfully made two cups of coffee for them.

"Get Ning Huajian to come here."

"Yes."

The assistant nodded with a smile, listened to Jiang Chen's instructions, and left the office.

Since mid-2017, the headquarters of Future Group subsidiaries had all moved to Xin, including Future Technology from Hong Kong. Although the Chief Executive tried to convince him to stay, Jiang Chen still executed this decision.

As for the reason, it was very simple. This move would save Future Group billions of dollars in tax revenue each year. Future Technology's operations in Hua would be carried out through a subsidiary and would no longer be directly managed by the company. There were many benefits to the localization of management and wouldn't be repeated here.

While waiting for Ning Huajian's arrival, Jiang Chen looked at Macmillan and asked with a smile,

"Mr. Macmillan, I heard you're here because of the VRstore?"

"Yes. About this point, I've already filled in the visit application," Macmillan said comically.

Soon, the office door was pushed open again, and Ning Huajian came in.

"Boss, were you looking for me?"

"This gentleman is looking for you, Walmart's CEO. Please sit down." Jiang Chen gestured toward the sofa and introduced Ning Huajian to Macmillan.

After listening to Jiang Chen's introduction, Ning Huajia immediately understood Macmillan's intentions and smiled at McMillan.

"Future Technology, and even more so, VRstore, welcomes every partner to join us. If Walmart is willing to join our family, I certainly welcome you with open arms."

However, Ning Huajian's tone suddenly changed.

"However, it's a pity that VRstore's operations team has a limited ability to scan products. Establishing VR images isn't an easy task. For now, we can only scan 100,000 items per month."

Ning Huajian didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was obvious.

Every month, 100,000 items were permitted to enter VRstore. It simply wasn't enough for seven e-commerce giants. When Walmart was asked, they didn't join. Now that cooperation agreements had been signed with the other e-commerce companies, why didn't Walmart do this earlier?

"Can't the scanning speed be increased?" Macmillan asked anxiously.

"The number of 100,000 will definitely increase gradually, but as you know, we must give priority to the needs of our partners," said Ning Huajian.

Macmillan was silent for a moment as he adjusted his thought process.

"I know our proposal may make it very difficult for you, but we promise we won't let you do it for free."

"At the 2018 Annual Global Merchandise Exhibition, Walmart will be the organizer of the exhibition. If you can help us scan 300,000 items onto VRstore within the next two months, we'll invite you to assist the organizer."

After a pause, Macmillan looked at Ning Huajian and looked at Jiang Chen again.

"...to host a Global Merchandise Exhibition based on the VR platform with the world watching."

Chapter 727: VRcity Plan

In a small villa with a wide backyard in Florida, a man was preparing to go to work when his wife suddenly ran to him with a tablet.

"Honey, check this out."

"What's the matter, my dear? Let me see..." The man took the tablet from his wife's hands with a smile. He casually glanced at the news. However, two seconds later, he suddenly opened his eyes and couldn't believe it. He mumbled, "God, the world's first VR merchandise exhibition, hundreds of millions of people participating in the grand event on the same stage. It will no longer just be enterprises - consumers are also allowed to participate."

The idea of hosting an exposition on the VR platform was undoubtedly a wild idea. However, no one doubted whether Future Technology had the capability. When this news was announced for the first time, almost all netizens felt their expectations lifting, and all the businessmen were keenly aware of the business opportunities.

This would break the business-to-business limitations in previous expositions, connecting businesses, and business through B2B while connecting businesses and consumers through B2C. The Expo would no longer just be a procurement conference for companies but would also be a promotional event for the products themselves!

"I must go to the company quickly. The boss will definitely be interested in this news." The man kissed his wife on her forehead. He put the tablet in his briefcase and immediately rushed to the garage.

…

From large machinery, motorcycles, auto parts, chemical products, clocks, and watches, to kitchen utensils, ceramics, home decorations, medical equipment, menswear, and office stationery... This global merchandise expo covered almost every aspect of life and production. Over 500,000 pieces of goods would be exhibited and the duration of the exhibition was more than five months.

When McMillan proposed this proposal, Jiang Chen immediately agreed to his conditions without hesitation.

Scan 300,000 items for Walmart to enter the VRstore, and in the future, Walmart would be given the same priority as the other seven other e-commerce companies. For Future Technology, it was nothing difficult.

They would expand their staff and improve the efficiency of VR image production...

The monthly scanning quota would be raised to 400,000. The quota of 150,000 would be allocated to Walmart every month, just enough to meet their 300,000 target. The additional 100,000 units would be allocated to the VR Merchandise Exhibition, as long as the 500,000 items were scanned within five months.

If this merchandise exhibition was successful, it would definitely be a win-win situation for VRstore and Walmart!

"Socializing and shopping - we can integrate the two! I suddenly thought of a brilliant idea!" Standing in Jiang Chen's office, after reporting on the progress of the exposition, Ning Huajian suddenly began to sell to Jiang Chen his own idea.

"What idea?" Jiang Chen put down the file in his hands.

"Based on Godly Land, we can add a third function to the VRstore! Virtual City!"

"What's the difference between this and our 'virtual mall mode'?" asked Jiang Chen.

"The difference is huge!" said Ning Huajian with excitement. "The virtual mall is a group shopping mode based on the friend system of the Phantom Helmet, similar to 'Lan.' The concept I proposed is more like an MMORPG."

Upon hearing the word MMORPG, Jiang Chen suddenly understood what he meant. His eyes were filled with light.

"You mean…"

"Yeah! We can build a virtual city that will dynamically expand with the number of users, just like in Godly Land!"

"When shopping, people can also exchange ideas with users who are also shopping, become friends and invite each other into their own private spaces. Not only that - when users meet their social needs in the virtual city, we can launch virtual prop buying features such as houses, cars, furniture, clothes, kitchen utensils... Before purchasing these things in the world, users can buy them in the virtual world as a trial."

After listening, Jiang Chen's eyes turned brighter.

"This idea is quite interesting."

Inspiration was magical. Although it began with fragmented ideas, Ning Huajian's imaginative vision resonated with Jiang Chen. With an exchange of opinions between the two, these fragmented ideas were gradually pieced together into a complete puzzle.

"VRcity," Jiang Chen suddenly said, interrupting Ning Huajian's endless enthusiasm.

"What?" Ning Huajian paused.

"I said, VRcity." Jiang Chen looked at Ning Huajian with passion. "These ideas don't need to stick to VRstore's framework at all. We can completely set up a new project team to design a virtual social software called VRcity."

"VRcity will include a virtual city that can expand based on the number of users, and it will be linked with VRstore and the Phantom Helmet login space! Users can use real money to buy real estate in the virtual city's residential area, and the purchased property will serve as their own Phantom Helmet login interface!"

The excitement in Jiang Chen eyes was contagious to Ning Huajian.

"That's awesome! The most frequent comments on our official website are that the white cube space is too ugly. But will the server resources be sufficient if you allow users to DIY their own room?"

"They're definitely enough!" Jiang Chen smiled.

The apocalypse had digested the commercial quantum computer production technology from Hong City. The first batch of commercial quantum computers had already left the production line and was transported to the modern world by Jiang Chen. Now that Future Group's commercial quantum computer reserves reached 10, it was more than sufficient to support this project.

After downloading the VRstore, the user's helmet would no longer appear in an isolated white cube. It would appear in a virtual room that would be far more beautiful and far more spacious than reality. With a push of the door, the user would welcome the entire virtual world.

Completing all kinds of interesting small tasks in a virtual city would grant the user virtual coin rewards. They could buy virtual products with virtual coins. If they were satisfied with the virtual product, they could jump directly to the interface linked with VRstore and throw this virtual product into their shopping cart.

If this idea could really be fulfilled, VRcity would be able to connect the entire VR world as one.

"For this virtual city, we can draw some of our staff from the operational team at Godly Land. For VRcity content, we can headhunt people from Rockstar and EA's Maxis studio."

Rockstar Studios was famous in the gaming industry. Its launch of the Grand Theft Auto series of urban-themed roleplaying games was widely acclaimed worldwide. Maxis was also a great studio, and the Sim City series was their masterpiece.

Recruiting talent from these two studios to design the "game" nature of VRcity would definitely be the perfect combination.

Digging up people from these two studios wasn't difficult with the financial resources of Future Technology.

"Boss, I feel like my inspiration is flowing like magma. I can't stay here. I have to go back to the office and put everything on paper."

Jiang Chen waved his hand. "Then don't talk nonsense. Go!"

"Yes!" Ning Huajian rushed out the door and ran to his office.

Chapter 728: The Strong will always be Strong

Jiang Chen originally intended to directly buy the two studios, but there was a minor incident during the acquisition process.

There was no problem with Maxis since EA was only second to Microsoft, the studio killer. The giant Maxis series studios were cut countless times, and Future Technology was more than willing to acquire the studios just as they were ready to swing their knives. They were happy with the deal and sold Maxis Studio at a premium of 20 million US Dollar.

Rockstar was a bit more difficult.

The parent company of Rockstar was Take Two, and its operation wasin good condition. GTA VI: Return to Liberty City, which launched in June 2017, continued the glory of GTA V and expanded the map from California to New York and included one European city. The map more than doubled in size compared to the previous game. GTA VI easily reached sales volumes of 40 million copies across all platforms.

Take Two, of course, wouldn't be that foolish to sell their cash cow.

That being the case, Future Technology had to take a step back and start headhunting people.

The international headhunting company hired by Jiang Chen provided him with a list of 27 names with skills in planning, script-writing, which included the chief designer of Rockstar Studio, in addition to their personal information, incomes, and debts. After obtaining the list, Jiang Chen took out his checkbook and gave their monthly salary a 50% boost then the headhunters took the list back and headhunted using this standard.

Jiang Chen gave Ning Huajian the responsibility of establishing the VRcity project team. He was an expert in this regard. Although Jiang Chen was a frontrunner in virtual reality technology, he definitely wasn't as knowledgeable of the market as the CEO who had worked from the ground up.

After handling those tasks, Jiang Chen noticed it was still early, so he took a trip to the Material Science Laboratory and examined their progress.

After resolving the graphene-related challenges, the Materials Science Laboratory recently recruited a group of scientists and set up two new project departments to study the application of graphene cables and graphene chips.

The former was aimed at space elevators, while the latter was aimed at the electronics industry of Future Heavy Industrial.

Some time ago, the new Top 500 list of supercomputers was revealed at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in Frankfurt, Germany. "Tianhe No.3," developed as part of the National Key Project and the National Parallel Computer Engineering Technology Research Center, claimed the top of the Top 500 list once again after "Sunway TaihuLight."

Unlike previous years, using the Dragon Calvary X1 type supercomputer chip, Hua not only won but also cleared out the top five! The news made Hua Computer Engineering Technology Research Center ecstatic and they quickly added 100,000 to their monthly order to increase monthly imports to 200,000 chips.

Based on this trend, it wouldn't be long until they eclipsed the rest of the world!

Hua's dominance of the supercomputer market also terrified UA. Although Intel also introduced new super chips based on graphene materials, the gap was still more than just a minor difference compared to the Dragon Calvary X1.

In desperation, although it was committed to fostering local manufacturers such as Intel and Qualcomm, the UA Department of Defense selectively purchased 50,000 supercomputer chips to upgrade the performance of the Department of Defense supercomputers. However, the deal didn't go through in the end because Future Group refused to fully disclose the technical details of the lix architecture. This was an unacceptable security risk to the Capital.

Unless Future Heavy Industries was a domestic company, they would't feel reassured.

However, those private super-computing centers didn't have so many concerns. In the market, the survival of the fittest was reflected to the extreme. For example, after seeing the powerful features of the Dragon Calvary X1 chip, Google immediately sent out an order of 60,000 chips per month to upgrade its servers.

After seeing the strength of Future Heavy Industrial in the field of chip manufacturing, Google simply gave up its plan to enter the chip manufacturing industry.

Businessmen strove for profitability.

Google used more than 300,000 chips per quarter. If the Dragon Calvary X1 was used, the company would be able to reduce the number of servers by at least 10% while meeting current business demands. While Future Heavy Industrial quoted a wholesale price of 347 USD per chip, this equated to 60.82 million per month for 60,000 chips. However, from an overall cost perspective, the choice of the Dragon Calvary X1 could save them at least 200 million annually.

They lost the motivation to develop their own chips.

Not only Google, but Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which accounted for the nation's top server chip purchase customers in the UA, also had a strong interest in the Dragon Calvary X1.

At present, the monthly shipments of the Dragon Calvary X1 supercomputing chip reached the incredible figure of 500,000; 200,000 of which flowed into Hua and 100,000 flowed to supercomputers in small countries such as Switzerland and in Europe. The remaining 200,000 were destined for UA.

...

In the foreseeable future, the battle to get onto the Top 500 list of the Frankfurt International Supercomputing Conference would be extremely tragic. Whoever used the Dragon Calvary would be able to dominate the list. If the top ten computers on the list were all equipped with the chip, there would be a competition between who possessed more chips and who used them more skillfully.

Unless Celestial Trade's quantum computer was made public, it would be difficult to end this conflict.

Based on the fact that the major supercomputing centers were extremely close, graphene development involved working on the development of the X2 chip and using it to bring in money.

Do you want to become stronger? Do you want to fire up your national pride? Come and buy Dragon Calvary X2...

Jiang Chen had already imaged what the ads would look like.

...

Future Heavy Industries completed the registration of the lix architecture in various countries and registered patents for each instruction set. After receiving the news, Loongson immediately came to him to obtain authorization for the lix architecture. They were ready to start developing their own superchip based on the lix architecture.

This was agreed upon when the chip was first sold, so Jiang Chen agreed without a second thought. The global price of patent fees was standardized - chips that used lix architecture would pay 10% of the selling price as a patent fee. Although this figure was twice as high as Qualcomm's 5%, Qualcomm's pricing was based on the total price of electronics, where Future Technology only conscientiously charged based on the price of a single chip.

However, Jiang Chen noticed that Mr. Wu Weiwen, president of Loongson who came to sign the patent agreement, wasn't particularly happy.

"Are there any problems, Mr. Wu?" Jiang Chen asked happily.

Wu Weiwen shook his head.

"No problem at all. I just think Mr. Jiang is especially crafty."

"I don't quite understand what you mean. Can you explain it to me?" Jiang Chen laughed.

Wu Weiwen smiled and didn't speak further. He walked away with the lix architecture licensing agreement.

Jiang Chen noticed he seemed to have aged instantly.

Loongson was a state-owned enterprise and enjoyed financial subsidies in business operations. Theoretically, Wu Wenwei, the president, didn't need to worry about their financial performance. Even if he couldn't sell a chip in a year or two, the company would absolutely not worry about going bankrupt.

Frankly speaking, when Jiang Chen agreed and authorized him to use the lix structure with Loongson, Wu Wenwei could clearly sense his superiors' emphasis on Loongson.

However, when the first batch of Dragon Calvary X1 was sent to the supercomputing centers and the scientists at the Supercomputing Center shouted with joy, Wu Wenwei could clearly sense that the eyes of the superiors standing beside him suddenly shifted.

Especially after making the top 5 of the supercomputer list.

The leaders responsible for the National Key Project were almost collectively promoted. The project leader even received praise from the chairman.

This was a great achievement!

Whether it was the individual, the country, or the ethnicity.

Because of this achievemnet, they couldn't stop.

Sure enough, just as Wu Weiwen expected, the leader responsible for the supercomputing project contacted Future Heavy Industrial immediately after receiving the award and increased the number of purchasing orders. Technology was like a drug - once they started, they couldn't stop.

Did you get on the top five this year and would you be willing to lose your place next year? Do you still want to have a career?

What should they do if they didn't want to lose?

They could only buy Dragon Calvary X1. How long did they have to wait before the old scholars came up with research results?

On the dinner table, a sentence from the top leader made Wu Weiwen deeply distressed.

"You can't always follow protectionism. With no market, where's the competition? Future Group is a child who walked out of our country. Rather than attempting to fill this bottomless hole, it's better to obtain their technology. Aren't we a family after all?"

A dangerous thought.

Very dangerous.

However, Wu Wenwei was also clear that as a president of a state-owned enterprise, he simply couldn't change this.

Nothing could be done to solve the problem, but some things just couldn't be solved with money.

Unless he could beat the Dragon Calvary X1 and come up with the world's most powerful super chip...

But was this possible?

Future Heavy Industrial already occupied the high ground of the market and had become the standard chip maker. With its technical advantages, it would take over most of the orders. With the proceeds from these orders, they would continue to invest in these R&D projects, and their technology would only become more powerful and unreachable.

By that time, even Intel and ARM would have to learn from the instruction set of lix architecture to enrich their X86 architecture and ARM architecture and pay royalties to Future Technology, who owned the intellectual property rights.

The powerful would become more powerful. That was the market.

Before the existence of disruptive products, the giants who already occupied the high points would never stumble. It was foreseeable that even if he now obtained authorization of the lix architecture, they would absolutely depend on the chips from Future Group for the next ten years at least.

Chapter 729: Coro University

In the suburbs of Coro City, a 2000-acre, European-style manor stood tall. The majestic main building revealed the atmosphere of the academy with its green lawn and campus full of vitality. At the moment, in front of this luxury building, a crowd stood together. It was full of young people with faces full of energy.

The person standing on the high stage in the doorway was our protagonist, Jiang Chen.

First of all, this wasn't Jiang Chen's manor but a newly built university...

Well, in fact, there was essentially no difference between the two.

When Jiang Chen stood on the podium, people burst into cheers. People below the stage waved the Xin flag and the flag with Future Group's logo. They offered their highest respects to the leader of science and technology that led Xin to prosperity.

In the minds of the young people, he undoubtedly had an unwavering influence.

Wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, Jiang Chen stood on the podium, waved at the crowd, and picked up the microphone.

"Your enthusiasm really surprised me. This is probably the most energetic crowd I've made a speech to."

"..."

Seeing Jiang Chen waving at them, the cheers of the people below the podium erupted like a flood.

"Look! He's waving at me!" A tall, beautiful woman pulled her best friend and shouted in excitement.

"Ah! He looked over here~"

"Long live Jiang Chen! Long live Xin! Long live Future Group!"

"..."

Looking at the pairs of eager eyes below the stage, Jiang Chen was smiling. Although it wasn't the first time he stood in front of tens of thousands of people, no matter how many times he stood in place, he still felt an endless wave of emotions. The young people below the stage were the future elites of Xin. They came from Xin and the whole world. Earning the praise of these proud intellectuals brought him a great sense of accomplishment.

With the atmosphere almost at its climax, he cleared his throat and spoke his opening remarks.

"I'm extremely honored to be here. As the first principal of Coro University, I will give an opening speech to our first freshman."

Applause resounded then gradually stopped.

The noise gradually subsided, and the audience's eyes focused on him. In response to their eager gazes, Jiang Chen continued.

"I don't have much to say. I assume you don't want to hear me read a list of school regulations. Here, I'll talk about why Coro University was founded."

"I've always stressed the importance of science and technology. Technology is changing our lives, changing the earth under our feet, and will change the solar system and even the milky way."

"And it won't be banknotes, nor sophisticated experimental equipment, nor a principal who brags in front of you... that achieves all of this."

After a pause, Jiang Chen's eyes glanced over every student below the stage.

"It is you who will make the change."

"I believe this is also the reason why you have entrusted us with your futures."

Thunderous applause resounded. There were faces full of passion and ambition. Jiang Chen recalled himself from seven years ago. At that time, he was also in a similar mentality and entered the big melting pot known as society. He was prepared to demonstrate some ambition in the field of mechanical automation...

In the end, he became a salesman and was let go.

He never thought it was due to his own abilities. At most, he chose the wrong road or chose a road that wasn't suitable for him. He always believed that no one was a genius, and mediocrity was simply a result of a person not being on the right path.

Under the flashes of the media and thunderous applause, Jiang Chen strode forward and pulled off the red silk covering the school monument, exposing the two gold-encrusted words "Coro University" before the eyes of the world. There was also the school motto engraved on the monument.

"Discovery, attempt, change."

This was also the purpose of Coro University.

To discover, not to instill. Discover the merits of each student and guide them to find the right path for themselves. Their seemingly small forces would eventually breed the power to change the entire world.

...

Education is a strong foundation for a country's development. When he first started building Coro Island, Jiang Chen was already planning to build a world-class academic institution, freeing Xin from dependence on foreign talent and truly start nurturing Xin's own talents.

And now, he finally fulfilled his original idea.

Coro University had six colleges for the time being - the School of Economics and Management, the School of Information Technology, the School of Engineering and Technology, the School of Life Science, the School of Science, and the School of Aerospace Technology. When the teaching team was adequate, the School of Law and School of Culture and Media would also open, as well as the School of Marine Resources Development and so on.

The educational background of Xin was weak; it wasn't enough to support the faculty resources of a university.

However, the beautiful capital was here. Although it was just a pile of green money, it had the magic to change the world.

Future Group announced the establishment of the Xin Education Foundation and injected a billion US Dollar to Coro University in the name of a foundation, while promising to invest more than 100 million US Dollar each year. This 1 billion would be used to pay for professors' salaries, purchase advanced experimental equipment, improve the teaching environment, and most importantly, headhunt people.

If Xin didn't have professors who could teach, then they would go to a foreign university to buy them!

Harvard, Imperial College, MIT ... as long as the professors met their requirements, then they would try to secure them at all costs! With high salaries and the most advanced experimental equipment, Jiang Chen didn't believe those professors and scholars who received invitations would be unmoved.

As for the cost? That wasn't what he was worried about at all.

Money put in the bank was merely a pile of waste paper. People would also think too much when the number was too high. It was only when money was spent that its value could be appreciated. Education was the only investment that would never lose money and Jiang Chen firmly believed this!

While expanding the academic abilities of Coro University, Jiang Chen didn't lessen his support of the supportive element of the university.

Each year, Future Group would provide 5,000 internship jobs to Coro University and recruit at least 3,000 people from the graduates to work in each subsidiary of the group.

For those students who had outstanding performance in certain areas, Future Group would also sign contracts directly with them and waive their tuition fees and living expenses during their schooling. After graduation, they would assume employment at Future Group. At the same time, Xin Education Foundation would set up a total of 1,000 scholarship awards and award a total of 10 million US Dollar a year to students who demonstrated excellence or required financial assistance.

This was undoubtedly great news for foreign students in Hua and even in the world.

The former resolved concerns related to graduation and the latter resolved the urgent problem at hand. For the young people who were deeply influenced by the Internet, what was more attractive than working at Future Group? As for tuition and living expenses, as long as students could get a scholarship, they didn't even need to spend a single penny for four years.

Chapter 730: Hiring M.I.T's Dean

There were a total of 6,217 freshmen that year. After half a year of prep courses, they would begin their first school year in early September that year.

Raphael Leif was the seventeenth dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who started in 2012. After his retirement, he was recruited by the headhunting company hired by Jiang Chen, paying 4 million US Dollar in annual salary. This was almost twice his previous annual salary. Even compared to the University of Chicago, which gave the highest salary, Jiang Chen's offer was higher by 1 million.

In fact, the proportion of Han in Coro University was 65%. The school board recommended that Jiang Chen headhunt professors from Hua universities. However, after some thoughtful consideration, Jiang Chen vetoed this proposal. Not accounting for identity and ability, the bureaucratized management model of Hua universities wasn't something he wanted to replicate in Xin.

As the first university in Xin, Coro University would serve as a model for future education in Xin. Academic bureaucratization was, by no means, a good phenomenon. After exchanging opinions with scientists such as Lu Yuan and Amos, Jiang Chen ultimately made this decision.

Compared to training a group of highly skilled technicians, Jiang Chen hoped to foster a group of highly innovative scientists.

After Raphael Leif arrived in Xin, Jiang Chen personally greeted him at the airport. Mr. Leif was also flattered by Jiang Chen's attentiveness. Although he had a strong influence in academia, his experience was no way as fabled as the president of Future Group.

The grey-haired old man, dressed in a suit, looked healthier than Jiang Chen imagined.

"I watched your speech at the University of Mun."

"Did you laugh?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

"Please don't be so humble. No one in the field of artificial intelligence has more to say than you. Now there's graphene too - I think the guys at University of Mun were very grateful." Mr. Leif smiled and shook hands with Jiang Chen.

He paused then continued.

"To be honest, I was ready to retire, but after hearing about potentially leading Coro University, I suddenly felt I could still do it for a few more years. But before I start working, I have one condition - I don't want the school board to interfere too much with my concept of education."

"Rest reassured. The school board won't interfere with your teaching principles. After you take the position, I'll give you the dean position, and I'll only take the name of the honorary dean. We're only responsible for providing funds, and you're responsible for helping us build an MIT on the Pacific Ocean," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Mr. Leif nodded, reassured.

Operating a university was different from operating a business; historical heritage and cultural accumulation couldn't be accomplished overnight. It would be a while before Coro University really became a famous university known throughout the world - it would be at least four years until the first graduates left the campus.

The two talked for a long time, discussing the model of Coro University.

Before they bid farewell, Leif half-jokingly said:

"Oh right, are you interested in teaching at Coro University? I can only give you 100,000 US Dollar in annual salary."

"Me? I'm afraid I don't have much to teach." Jiang Chen laughed.

His academic credentials were only completing an undergraduate degree. He knew himself well - he could talk nonsense, but you could forget about asking him to teach lectures. It would be like running the next generation of students.

"No, I think you have a lot of qualities that students can learn from, but you haven't even realized it yourself." Leif looked at Jiang Chen with a smile. "Coro University's motto: discover, attempt, change."

After a brief silence, Jiang Chen said:

"...I'll consider your opinion. But just to be clear, I'll only teach one elective course at most."

"I bet it'll be the most popular elective," Leif said in a joking tone.

...

As Coro University gradually got on track, Jiang Chen shifted his focus to Future Group.

The completion of the city of Penglai, the Global Merchandise Exposition, VRcity, and the forthcoming mobile phone launched by Future Technology... When Jiang Chen personally got involved in these tasks, he truly realized how humongous his own company was. He also realized how tired Xia Shiyu, who picked up the weight of the entire group, must be.

According to Jean's statistics, she always maintained an average of two meetings per day and had a 30 document approval rate. Fortunately, Jean could help now. Before, Xia Shiyu had to manually review these documents.

In the evening, Jiang Chen sat in the office of the president, held the coffee his assistant made, looked at the night view of the city from the windows, and thought about the future.

Tanaka had been sealed in the basement of New Moon Island. The Kurofune only existed in name. With Mitsui's list, the Ghost agents arrested half the members of the Kurofune's Asia Division, leaving only scattered sporadic parties to flee.

In the capture and assassination of these people, the Ghost Agents sent by Jiang Chen discovered some strange phenomena.

Many of Kurofune's members showed incredible ability in dealing with the Ghost Agents... almost like they had superpowers?

According to the intelligence gathered by the agents, Ayesha summarized their capabilities. Among them, there were relatively normal skills such as strengthening of the five senses, enhancement of resilience, improvements in athletic ability, and so on. Unscientific ones were manipulative magnetization, discharge, mental oscillation, etc...

Jiang Chen's intuition told him that these abilities were likely related to the hidden genetic code. And these people... how could they unlock the power of genetic code without a genetic vaccine?

Was the Kurofune transforming them or was it because they possessed these special abilities that they could become part of the Kurofune?

How could Tanaka gather these people together?

With a long sigh, Jiang Chen drank the remaining coffee in the cup. Originally, he was thinking about future development. However, he didn't know why his mind drifted elsewhere.

"Forget it; these little pawns will be handled by the Ghost Agents. As for their superpowers... capture some and study them slowly."

As he put his coffee cup on the table, Jiang Chen was about to call his assistant to make another cup, but he heard knocking on his door.

"Please come in."

Xia Shiyu pushed the door open and entered with documents.

Looking at her working so late, Jiang Chen's face looked apologetic.

"Thank you for working so hard."

"Not at all, this is my job." She combed her hair behind her ears and said lightly: "...This is a plan for a merchandise exhibition. Here is a project overview for VRcity. Although I've already reviewed it, it's better for you to read it before signing."

After receiving the documents, Jiang Chen started to review them under her guidance.

A touch of her fragrance lingered over the tip of his nose. Perhaps he was too close, but he could even feel her breath and her nervous heartbeat.

Chapter 731: Who's the boss here

It took an incredible amount of effort for Jiang Chen to suppress his pounding heartbeat and put all his attention back on the document on the table. By that time, he was surprised to find that the documents were all reviewed without his notice.

Putting the stack of papers aside, he suddenly felt relieved. As if the huge pile of work had finally been completed, it seemed to have made up for some of his unfulfilled promises.

Looking at Xia Shiyu, who was collecting the documents, Jiang Chen suddenly said with a grin.

"Are you free?"

"Hmmm?" Xia Shiyu stopped moving her hand and looked up with confusion.

"If you are free after work, let's go for a drink together. I heard that there is a good bar nearby."

Perhaps she was surprised by why Jiang Chen suddenly made such an invitation, Xia Shiyu took several seconds to think.

When Jiang Chen hesitated whether he should add "If you are too busy, then it is fine", she unexpectedly nodded her head and quietly responded.

"Okay."

...

It was already ten o'clock in the evening.

Natasha raised her left hand to check her watch, and then she looked at the dark mansion.

All the lights were off, and it looked like the people inside were all sleeping.

With that in mind, she hesitated for a moment, but in the end she made a decision and reached for the bell.

But before her finger reached the bell, the door opened itself.

When she was puzzled at what happened, she looked in the direction of the mansion and saw an open window. A young girl stood there watching her quietly.

Without the need to think, it was obviously Natasha. Only she would stand at the window every day like a rock, waiting for that guy to come back.

Inside the yard, through the path on the lawn, Natasha walked to the front and opened the door.

Since she often drank there, she was familiar with this place. The front door of his mansion was never locked.

As for why, ask the hundreds of Hummingbird drones lurking in the garden.

No one could approach the mansion without taking the main entrance. Even if someone could, it must be a dead person. Therefore, he didn't need to lock the front door. Within that wall, it was an absolutely safe area.

Pushing open the door, Natasha complained and opened the lamp in the living room.

"It's quite dark in the room, why didn't you have a light on?"

The lights illuminated the dark room and Ayesha's presence was revealed.

Natasha didn't know when she came downstairs and stood by the sofa in the living room, but it seemed as if she was there from the beginning.

"Because I don't need to," Ayesha said emotionlessly.

Night is no different than day to her. This has been especially evident since the awakening of the "Cold Blooded" ability. The genetic code not only strengthened her hiding ability, but also strengthened her perception in the dark. Although she didn't acquire night vision, it was almost equivalent.

She was a natural assassin.

"Are you a cat?" Natasha scorned.

Ayesha did not answer, but responded coldly as always.

"Jiang Chen is not there. You can go back now."

"No rush to get rid of me," Natasha rolled her eyes. "Where is he?"

"Working overtime today," Ayesha said quietly.

"That's rare."

"Yes."

"You didn't come back with him?"

"He told me to come back first."

The topic was interrupted there. Ayesha's conversation ending ability made Natasha feel speechless. Although she has always tried to get on good terms with this girl, it was uncertain if their relationship has already improved.

Silence continued for a moment. Natasha went directly to the subject and put on a serious expression.

"Based on KGB's intelligence, some people are plotting an assassination against him."

Ayesha blinked and did not speak.

Seeing her unresponsiveness, Natasha looked at her in disbelief.

"You don't seem worried?"

"As long as I'm still alive, no one can hurt him," Ayesha said softly.

"Aren't you too confident?" Natasha rolled her eyes again.

Ayesha shook her head.

Not because of self-confidence, but because the security work in place was perfectly safe. Even if she wasn't there, there were other sisters of Ghost Agents accompanying him. And the most crucial thing was that, even if one set aside all these failsafes, Jiang Chen's own strength was no match for the average person.

What's more, this was his new world.

...

The flickering lights swayed with the rhythm of the drums, youthful bodies filled the dance floor, wriggling and dancing with the beat of the music. Crisp clinking sounds of cups continued throughout the night; accompanied by laughter and ridicules.

The clock just struck 10. Nightlife had only just begun for Coro City.

It's funny to say that this was Jiang Chen's first time coming to the club... if the time in the Sixth Street doesn't count.

Looking at the figures dancing, Jiang Chen felt a sense of distance where he couldn't fuse into it. Looking at Xia Shiyu, her expression seems to be uncomfortable too.

But disregarding the gap for now, just as Natasha said, the cocktails there were really good. The titled bangs covered the feminine face and the bartender with unidentifiable sex shook the shaker in hands, skillfully mixing a glass of blue Marguerite for Jiang Chen.

It was already his fifth cup.

The alcohol concentration of the cocktail was not high, it was more like juice than alcohol.

With the urge to pee, Jiang Chen put down the glass and told Xia Shiyu.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

"Mhmm."

After Jiang Chen walked away, the restrained Xia Shiyu finally felt relieved.

Somehow, she accepted Jiang Chen's invitation.

There was still work to be done and she was not good at drinking...

However, it is also true that it is time to relax after working so hard for so long.

Xia Shiyu shook her head and tried to convince herself.

At this moment, a man dressed in a plaid shirt came to sit beside her and whistled disrespectfully.

"Beauty, what's your name?"

Looking at him with a blank expression, Xia Shiyu ignored him, but took a sip of her wine.

That cold attitude made Wang Biao feel embarrassed as he slightly narrowed his eyes. In front of his boss, he patted his chest and promised that he could bring back any woman his boss is interested in.

"Our boss wants to invite you for a drink. Can you give him the opportunity?"

Following Wang Biao's sight, Xiao Shiyu saw the man sitting on the sofa in the corner. The man, who had girls on his left and right, raised his glass to her in what he thought was a cool move. That unconcealed smile made Xia Shiyu feel nauseous.

Xia Shiyu felt comical at this point. Why are there so many people who feel so good about themselves?

"It's not necessary."

"I advise you to think carefully," Wang Biao said with a grin. There was a glimmer of mischief in his narrowed eyes. "Do you know who our boss is?"

The bright red liquor reflected an impatient face, and Xia Shiyu gently shook the wine glass, and coldly responded

"Who is he?"

"Have you heard of the Green Dragon Clan?" Wang Biao said in a tone that was certain she would know him. "People on the streets know that nobody ever dares to say no to me, Biao Zi. I advise you to be obedient. Don't blame me for not warning you if something happens to you."

"Is that true? But I haven't heard of you before."

The voice of dissonance came from his back, Wang Biao frowned and turned his head.

The dimmed lights made the man's face undistinguishable. But from the outline, he seemed familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

"Who are you?"

[Is this the aftereffect of the proliferation of immigrants?]

Looking at the little pawn in front of him, Jiang Chen sighed.

Xin was just like the United States in the 19th century. It was not just immigrants who longed for a good life, but also criminals who have crossed the ocean. If this hidden danger was not solved as soon as possible, it would surely ferment into serious public security problems in the future.

It seemed imminent to do something.

Seeing that the person in front of him did not answer, Wang Biao who was ignored twice was completely irritated. It was the first him being so humiliated and insulted since gaining his reputation.

"You dare to be distracted while talking to me? Are you bored of living?"

Wang Biao licked his lips and reached for Jiang Chen's neck while the other hand pulled out a bottle.

He made up his mind that he must press him in the toilet and teach him how to be humble.

However, his wish didn't come true.

Wang Qian's outstretched hand seemed to be embedded in a transparent wall. He couldn't swing down to react back as he face gradually became bloated.

The change took place in an instant so that everyone didn't respond in time. The onlookers first saw the scene and then moved back to avoid being injured accidentally. The bartender still wiped the glass in a calm manner. While she was mixing the drink, she already recognized Jiang Chen, but she didn't say anything. The heart of Xia Shiyu was about to jump out but it quickly settled back in its place.

Because she suddenly realized that being protected by the Ghost Agent, how could Jiang Chen be hurt by this little thug?

Optical invisibility gradually dispersed, and Zhu Yu, who was standing in front of Jiang Chen's body, held the man's hand calmly. The power of genetic vaccines was not something a thug could test.

The light here was dim. There were only a few that saw Zhu Yu appear out of thin air.

Facing the woman who appeared "out of thin air", Wang Biao;s eyes widened quickly. [Did I just see a ghost or am I drunk?]

Seeing the unrest on this side, crowds of onlookers gathered around and shrieked.

"Beat her!"

"Don't be a pus*y, fight her."

"Fu*k, you can't even beat a woman, are you still a man?"

However, Wang Biao didn't dare to start something. He had gradually realized that he has picked on the wrong person

Zhu Yu was indifferent to the cries of the crowd, but she whispered to Jiang Chen in the communication channel, asking what to do.

Jiang Chen did not answer, but went around Zhu Yu and stood in front of Wang Biao.

"I don't care if you are a green dragon or a white tiger, or whether you are a Biao Zi or a b*tch (homophone)," Jiang Chen said smilingly, and then finished the sentence with what made Wang Biao look like he fell into ice. "If you have heard of Future Group, then you should know who the real 'boss' is."

Chapter 732: The Serene Moonligh

Who is the real boss?

This question seemed to be simply nonsense.

After recognizing Jiang Chen's identity, Wang Biao's face instantly turned as white as ash. The beer bottle in his hand also dropped to the ground.

The dim light was flickering, and Li Qiangsheng, the head of the Green Dragon Clan, who was not far away, saw one of his thugs was being held by a female bodyguard. He frowned.

They really don't want to live anymore. Who on the street doesn't know that this street was Green Dragon's turf?

"Qiangsheng, Biao Zi seemed to have messed up," the beautiful woman lying in his arms coyly complained.

"You little devil, don't make trouble. When I fu*k those two, I'll fu*k you again."

After licking his dry lips, Li Qiangsheng's eyes glanced between the two stunning beauties beside Jiang Chen. Although one has an indifferent attitude, that gorgeous face was simply irresistible. The female bodyguard also didn't look bad, but her face was still young and adolescent.

And after so many years of "examining beauty", intuition told him that they were still virgins.

He couldn't help but feel annoyed just at the thought.

As the saying goes, comparisons are odious. Look at the garbage in his hands.

Releasing the girl wearing heavy makeup from his arm, Li Qiangsheng stood up and gestured to the thugs next to him and slowly strolled over.

People wearing Green Dragon black T-shirts came out of the crowd and a group of young people with buzz cuts approached Jiang Chen. From the posture of these people and the items in their hands, they were obviously part of a gang, a professional organized crime.

A few steps behind Jiang Chen, Li Qiangsheng twisted his neck and grinned.

"Gentleman, you dare to touch my brother on my turf. Are you tired of living, tired of living, or tired of living?"

"Boss..." Wang Biao looked at Li Qiangsheng. He could barely finish a proper sentence.

"Don't be afraid, leave this to me," Li Qiangsheng said. Seeing that his thug was so "touched" that he was about to cry, he acted even more recklessly. Looking at the back of Jiang Chen, the fierceness of his speech intensified. "You dared to touch my people, today if you can get out of this bar perfectly fine, I will write my name Li Qiangshengbackwards!"

Jiang Chen turned his head slightly and intriguingly said.

"Oh? Then why don't you tell me how to fix this?"

"Hehe, either you leave two fingers here, or lend your chick and your bodyguard to me for two days."

[Chick? What is a chick?]

Xia Shiyu suddenly blushed, but her expression quickly turned into fury.

Jiang Chen suddenly burst out laughed.

"Qiang Sheng Li, the name doesn't seem to be very great. What about She Qiang Shang (C*m on the wall)?"

"You—"

When he heard Jiang Chen ridiculing him, Li Qiangsheng was instantly ignited.

Just as he was preparing to get the thugs to fight, a dozen muscular figures wearing sunglasses pushed their way into the crowd. Li Qiangsheng frowned slightly, but when he saw the symbol of Celestial Trade, his face turned green instantly.

At this time, Wang Biao who had been quivering for a long time, finally said the words stuck in his mouth

"Boss... run... fast!"

Jiang Chen turned around.

At this moment, Li Qiangsheng finally saw his face.

It was at that moment when the last bit of life finally left him. This street was the turf of the Green Dragon Gang, but the entirety of Xin was Jiang Chen's turf.

A bodyguard stepped forward and stood next to Jiang Chen. He bowed his head respectfully, waiting for his instructions.

He smiled and looked at the now pale Li Qiangsheng and said emotionlessly.

"Throw all of them into the police station. If you miss one of them, don't come back to see me."

"Yes!"

The bodyguard nodded and then turned around to look at Li Qiangsheng with a smirk on his face.

A dozen bodyguards walked toward the thugs. The obedient ones were handcuffed while the disobedient ones received a fist to the face. These street thugs were no opponents to these quasi-military soldiers, they were crying in despair.

The screaming and howling in the club filled the dance floor. It was completely one-sided. The onlookers were completely stunned as a one-sided beat down was not entertaining at all. The bouncers of the bar stood afar and didn't dare to step forward.

Wang Biao was tossed away by Zhu Yu with one hand. Jiang Chen sat back down at the bar and looked at the bewildered bartender.

"Give me a Pina Colada, add more ice."

...

Cleaning up the thugs that ruined the mood didn't take a long time. The bodyguards of Celestial Trade easily pinned all those people down to the ground. The police finally arrived at the scene. When Jiang Chen revealed his identity, the police officers did not ask who started the conflict and immediately handcuffed Li Qiangsheng and the others with bruised faces and got them into the police cars.

Despite how strong their background was, not even the president could save them.

Although the problem was solved, the mood was completely ruined. Especially when they know he was here, Jiang Chen could clearly feel that the DJs in the bar lowered the volume by two decibels.

After ordering a few more cocktails, Jiang Chen left a few notes on the table and then left with Xia Shiyu.

A fresh cool breeze blew across his face, slightly wafting away the alcoholic smell.

In front of the converted Lamborghini, Jiang Chen opened the door and sat in the driver's seat. He looked apologetically at Xia Shiyu, who sat next to him.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to bring you here so you could relax, but it ended up making you unhappy."

"It's okay." Xia Shiyu shook her head. The cold face suddenly turned into a rare smile. "Thinking about this, I'm really reminiscent."

"Reminiscent?"

"Mhmm, do you remember that day?"

"Are you talking about three years ago?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"Mhmm…" Xia Shiyu nodded, the watery pupils was dyed with the color of memories.

That same night, Jiang Chen saved her from thugs collecting debt from her. The only difference may be merely that he had nothing at that time and now there were many people working for him...including herself.

The moonlight was shining, the palm tree leaves swayed. It wasn't just the tree's shadows that swayed, but the hearts of the two people in the car.

Perhaps because of the alcohol, she had a faint red blush on her face. The fragrance of her body's scent was mixed with a hint of intoxicating red wine. Her soft hair rested against her cheek and was extremely attractive under the pristine moonlight.

Jiang Chen was intoxicated.

The narrow space was always the catalyst for intimacy. Feeling the temperature in his eyes, the red blush seemed have climbed up from her white neck to her earlobes. Their heartbeats gradually amplified, and it gradually became unclear who it belonged to.

Bathed in that avid sight, Xia Shiyu awkwardly moved her body and pretended not to see it.

The atmosphere inside the car made her very uncomfortable, but she didn't dislike it.

Her suppressed feelings uncontrollably erupted from the bottom of her heart.

The car parked slowly next to an empty road.

Their breathing turned louder. Who was the aggressor? Inside the tinted windows, the lips of the two people gradually approached and finally pressed together.

Chapter 733: Five Senses Blocked

After driving Xia Shiyu home, Jiang Chen drove alone on the road in the suburbs of Coro City.

Recalling the scene that had just happened, he couldn't stop smiling.

Or giggling.

Subconsciously touched his lips, he could still feel a trace of temperature there.

He clearly felt Xia Shiyu's feelings for him and he had long decided to be true to his feeling. However, too much happened during this period, so neither of them took a step forward, but instead, they maintained an intimate but indirect relationship.

Perhaps it was because of the pristine moonlight, perhaps it was because of the atmosphere, but when he kissed Xia Shiyu's lips, he didn't feel any repulsion, but he felt the warmth from the thin lips and the gradual hunger and thirst…

However, unfortunately, the two didn't go to the last step.

When Jiang Chen's hands were around her waist, Xia Shiyu became rational again. With the slightest sense of rationality remaining, she told him that she didn't want to go to the last step before marriage. When he learned this point, he didn't force anything and stopped himself.

However, although she rejected him, she didn't push him away.

Replaced by...

"I'm sorry...I can't give it to you."

"It's okay." Staring at the intoxicated but apologetic pupils, Jiang Chen smiled. "It's me who should apologize. I can't give you the promise you want but I kissed you."

There was a flash of hesitation in her eyes; she bit her lower lip and whispered.

"Is It... uncomfortable?"

"Uncomfortable?"

"I... I heard that when men, you know, if they can't relieve it, it would… be uncomfortable."

"Perhaps ... a little bit." When Jiang Chen said this, his face turned red for lying.

However, Xia Shiyu, who never experienced before, took his lie for the truth and thought he really endured for her.

"Then... I'll help you to get it out. It won't be uncomfortable then."

"Well... wait, what did you say?"

[Don't let me say it once more! Bastard!]

Xia Shiyu gritted her teeth and punched Jiang Chen.

Then she reached out to the water bottle that was placed on the side of the driver's seat...

…

Recalling what happened in the car, Jiang Chen's lips formed a curvature subconsciously again; it almost went all the way to his ears. He turned on the radio, switched off the air conditioner, and lowered the window. The night breeze blew on his face, dispersing the intimate emotion in the wind and it drifted afar with the melody.

The roadside lights disappeared and reappeared to form a gorgeous ray. The palm trees on both sides gradually turned sparse and the scenery turned into the open sea.

The southern end of the island was not far. Follow this straight road, and then turning and driving for another two blocks, the mansions on the southernmost side could be seen.

However, just then, Jiang Chen suddenly saw a person in the middle of the road.

To be precise, it was a girl.

A white dress swayed with the sea breeze. Her face didn't look too lively, but a sweet smile could be seen. She stood there, standing in front of the curve, looking directly at Jiang Chen driving towards her.

Jiang Chen frowned slightly and pressed on the horn.

The horn sounded, but the girl remained still.

If she was not a lunatic, then she must be suicidal!

Jiang Chen was about to break when all of a sudden, he seemed to see a ray of piercing light aimed directly at him.

The eyes were blinded with glaring lights, like an incandescent light, flashlight, or a lighthouse on the coast. The light magnified in his field of vision and gradually turned everything white.

It was not just his sight, but also his hearing, touch, and even taste and smell were affected. The five senses were covered by the glaring white light.

At that moment, he was driving at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour!

It was too late to brake!

"Fu*k…"

With a low groan, Jiang Chen instantly activated Fury, and Unparalleled immediately.

The five senses that were covered did not return, but in the whiteness, his hands and feet moved. The tools in his hands were harnessed to the extreme, using his instincts to avoid and react. Even if he couldn't see or hear, simply based on the memory of the road conditions, he lifted the hand brake and spun the steering wheel.

The modified Lamborghini created a beautiful mirage of light on the road. The tail wing was able to pass over the highway guardrail and stop on the road behind the curve.

His five senses returned.

The road on the coast was pitch dark, as if was never illuminated.

Ending this Unparalleled state, Jiang Chen unbuckled his seat belt and stepped out of the vehicle with a rifle from his storage dimension.

There was no doubt that the woman standing in the middle of the road was one of the people with superpowers. And just then, she used a mind oscillation to attack him while he was driving 100 kilometers per hour.

"Stand up there and don't move. Put your hands on your hand and kneel down! I swear I won't pity you."

The two were 50 meters apart. Jiang Chen was not sure of the distance of her attack, so he was careful not to approach. He just held the rifle in his hand and locked the crosshair on her

If anything odd happened, he would pull the trigger and kill her.

After hearing Jiang Chen's warning, the girl not only didn't show the slightest fear but actually started to laugh.

"Certainly worthy of the name Mr Jiang Chen. I thought you were dead for sure."

"Who are you? Did the Kurofune send you?" Jiang Chen furrowed.

From the face, the girl should be Asian. However, according to the list provided to him by Mitsui, there shouldn't be anymore Kurofune members in Asia.

Is it a fish that escaped the net?

However, contrary to Jiang Chen's surprise, the girl shook her head and smiled.

"No, I just wanted to take revenge for my parents. This is really unfortunate; it seems that I have failed."

Like murmurs in a dream, the sea breeze continued to blow.

"Parents? Wait! Stop!"

The girl didn't give Jiang Chen an opportunity to explain. She took out a dagger and stabbed it into her heart...

Blood flooded out of the young girl's mouth and dripped down her lips. Before her death, her eyes kept staring at Jiang Chen. The lips seemed to be mourning something.

Or, cursing something.

Gunfire echoed in the night sky.

A bullet penetrated her head and the girl silently fell on the icy highway.

He put the rifle back into his storage dimension and slowly closed his eyes.

He did not know why she hated him, and why she was even willing to die for it.

The only thing he could do was end her misery.

Chapter 734: Please Give the Phone a Name

The sunshine outside the window was dazzling, and Coro Island was particularly hot today.

The air conditioner was turned up high. Jiang Chen was sitting in the study room, quietly reading a novel. He seldom read books. Thanks to Ayesha, this elegantly decorated study room was never covered by dust.

Today he was in no mood to go out, nor did he feel like wearing the Phantom to play games, so he simply came to read. While waiting for the news of the Ghost Agents, he quietly read this novel he had read half a year ago, but never picked back up.

"Cabbages and Kings"

He did not try to guess the ending of the story, because O. Henry's endings had always been unexpected.

A gust of wind blew by and Jiang Chen looked up. Ayesha, dressed in a maid uniform, appeared at the door and walked beside him in gentle steps.

"The identity of the assassin was found. Her parents were Kurofune members and killed by Ghost Agents."

At the request of Jiang Chen, Ayesha did not tell him the name of the girl.

He closed the book, put the book aside, and gently said.

"What about her?"

"She had nothing to do with the Kurofune... but we do not rule out that Kurofune members later found her and simply trained and instilled in her... the concept of hatred." Ayesha adjusted the wording to be as brief as possible.

"Is that so..." Jiang Chen was in deep thought

Hatred fueled by hatred, this was what he had expected. However, he didn't intend to change his mind. The Kurofune must be wiped out and any excuse was not sufficient to argue against their crime against society.

What's more, they were on their last breaths.

"We can add an examination to the medical checkup during immigration inspection to monitor the presence of the genetic code," Ayesha suggested.

"There are too many people who carry hidden genetic codes, even more than those who do not carry them. The difference between superpowers and ordinary people is whether the genetic code is explicitly expressed or not." Jiang Chen said.

Ghost agents penetrated into every area of Xin and monitored every incoming and outgoing phone call, text, byte of data in Xin's artificial intelligence. However, to ensure the security status of each incoming passenger, it was almost impossible to complete the work for a tourist country with a traffic of several hundred thousand or more.

Compared to the mercenaries using weapons, attacks by unarmed people were sometimes more dangerous and even more difficult to prevent. For example, the girl last night used a mental oscillation at a crucial moment.

Fortunately, although these so-called superpowers were inconceivable, they are all within the realm of nature. For example, the superheroes that could destroy everything would only exist in Marvel.

Biting her lower lip, Ayesha lowered her beautiful face.

"I'm very sorry. It was my dereliction of duty that you were almost assassinated last night—"

"No need to apologize. Raise your head." Jiang Chen smiled. "Nobody can predict what will happen. All we can do is prevent it before it happens."

Although Jiang Chen's words gave Ayesha some comfort, the young girl still did not completely forgive her dereliction of duty. If there weren't any of them, there would at least be a Ghost Agent that would accompany Jiang Chen. However, unfortunately, the atmosphere with Xia Shiyu was too great last night. Zhu Yu, who was standing next to him, protecting him, did not dare to look at the "live show" of the two, and quietly left.

No one thought it would be such a coincidence. If Zhu Yu was nearby, she would certainly not hesitate to execute the girl immediately. The person with superpowers was still a person, no matter what kind of superpower, as long as the person was dead, there would be no problems.

For this matter, Ayesha lectured Zhu Yu for a long time.

If it were her instead, she would certainly not shy away from watching Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu doing naughty things, perhaps she would have joined them… Ahem.

Since Ayesha didn't respond, Jiang Chen paused for a moment but then continued.

"What happened last night was nothing. My car was modified. Even if I didn't stop the car and drove into the sea, I would at most suffer some small injuries. So, don't feel too guilty. In that world, I have seen people with even more terrifying superpowers."

"More terrifying?"

Jiang Chen nodded with a smile.

"His superpower had been unlocked to the third level, and he could wipe a whole province from the map... but in the end, he still died under my Light Sword."

Also, he had to thank those crystals detonated by the guy named Bo Yu. Otherwise, his storage dimension would not have changed to the real universe.

After listening to Jiang Chen's words, Ayesha asked in concern.

"Over there... Is that world so terrifying?"

"Not necessarily. Although in every sense the situation there is very confusing and chaotic, but fortunately, there is a group of people who are still pretty good, and now slowly establishing order. So, don't worry about me too much. If there is the opportunity, I'll take you over there for a tour...though it is not a good place."

Jiang Chen smiled and rubbed Ayesha's head.

"Mhmm." Aisha murmured.

...

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Jiang Chen did not disclose the assassination to the public. The body of the girl was also taken to the apocalypse for burial. The traces of her existence were erased from the world forever.

After a day of rest at home, he arrived at the Future Group building the next day.

With some contrast to what he had imagined, he originally thought that with Xia Shiyu's thin skin, after experiencing such an embarrassing thing, she would surely avoid him for several days. However, the reality was out of his expectations. Not only did Xia Shiyu not hide from him, she also sat across from him at lunchtime.

Perhaps it was Jiang Chen's illusion, but the relationship between them got a lot closer.

However, when the two people were eating, they mostly talked about work.

"Is Future Technology prepared?"

"What are you referring to?" Xia Shiyu mixed the salad dressing with the vegetables and fruits, and then picked up a tomato with her fork before sending it into her cherry mouth. However, for some reason, Jiang Chen felt the moment when the red lips bit onto the tomato, it was extremely sensual. Maybe because the salad dressing was white.

"The phone."

He cut off a piece of steak and chewed to hide his embarrassment.

"Future Heavy Inudstries already delivered the sample. From product quality, it is absolutely worthy of the concept 'next generation'. In addition, I have seen Ning Huajian's plan, and the promotion and sales channels of Future Technology are ready to go. All the work is ready and only one last thing remains."

"What?"

Xia Shiyu smiled and used a joking tone she rarely used.

"Mr. President, please give the phone a name."

Chapter 735: The Unbelievable Phone

Downstairs of the Future Group building, major newspapers and media reporters clashed around. The security personnel gestured to each other, pulled up the yellow line, and guided these excited people to the right positions to prevent accidents from pushing and shoving.

Future Technology was holding a product launch conference and Jiang Chen would be present in person.

Outside the venue, one could see heavily-armed star ring trade soldiers, helicopters hovering in the air, and snipers deployed on distant buildings. Hummingbird drones were also hidden in unseen places. As far as the security level, the specification of this conference was absolutely above that of the president's speech.

They had started to plan the conference since the beginning of the year.

From the earliest announcement that the company would enter the mobile device manufacturing industry, then to the breakthrough of graphene technology and the subsequent acquisition of the Nippon technology companies. For this day, Future Technology was long-prepared. The media and the public were having unprecendent high hope for the reveal.

What kind of groundbreaking product would they come up with? As early as the first three days before the conference began, major social media platforms and forums had already started to debate.

At the same time, to really stir things up, Future Technology revealed the frame of a black cell phone on their official website. On the face of the phone were welcoming words and under that was a clock, counting down the time till the conference. Also, Future Technology agreed to cooperate with Xin Radio and Television Station and broadcast the conference live on their official website and TV station. Finally, 100 lucky viewers would be drawn and given the price of the new phone.

Future Technology was preparing for this highly anticipated event for a very long time!

The live broadcast did not start yet, but the chat was already filled with comments.

"Hurry! My brother, I have been waiting for a week!"

"One week is nothing. I've been waiting since last year."

"Like you knew anything about it the year before! Future Technology first announced this event at the beginning of last year when they decided to enter the mobile industry. If you didn't know about it , you must be dumb!"

"..."

Behind the scene of the conference venue, Jiang Chen was in a chair, crossed his legs and looked at the official website of Future Technology through the holographic screen on his watch. He could not hide his grin. The live broadcast had not yet begun, but the number of online viewers had already jumped to 11 million and was constantly refreshing to new highs.

At the same time, the official website of Future Technology had suffered no less than 100,000 hacker attacks starting this morning. However, under the combination of artificial intelligence firewalls and quantum computing, hackers who could break the group's defense system were yet to be born.

"Ning Huajian's skill is really something else. The chief designer is looking forward to it."

Xia Shiyu stood by the curtain with her arms folded and watched Jiang Chen without any nervousness, then she coughed to catch hi sattention.

"Are you ready?"

"Relax, it's not my first time." Jiang Chen smiled, turned off the watch's holographic screen, stood up and looked at Xia Shiyu. "How long do I have?"

"Thirty-five minutes."

"It seems there are still a few minutes for me to go to the bathroom."

Waving his hand, Jiang Chen walked toward the bathroom.

...

Thirty minutes before the start of the conference, journalists and special guests were allowed to enter the venue. Thousands of square meters of the venue were suddenly crowded with the continuous flow of people. Already drilled numerous times, the staff skillfully maintained the order at the scene.

The crowd in the venue were buzzing. Before they could start, reporters did not check their speeches and instead, whispered to their peers. Looking at the bustling venue, people who unaware would have thought it was a rock concert.

Suddenly, the lights in the stands were lit and the entire venue became silent. Reporters focuesd the lenses in the center of the stage. The curtainly slowly opening made everyone held their breathe.

The lights gathered toward the center. Jiang Chen stepped out from behind the curtains and stood in front of the stage with thunderous applause and cheers.

Behind, Future Technology's giant logo flashed on the screen. With his opening speech, numerous light particles spread out on the screen and staggered into the twelve languages.

Real-time translation!

One of the Future Technology's hidden technology!

"I would like to extend my gratitude for all the reporters and special guests making the visit, and for the viewers watching the live broadcast on through the livestream and on TV. Thank you for your continued support and expectations for Future Technology. Please believe me, I will live up to your expectations." Jiang Chen said the opening remarks with a smile.

Standing in the background, Xia Shiyu was holding her breath.

Just a short span of two minutes, the number of online viewers on the official website exceeded 100 million!

Looking at the pairs of eager eyes below the stage, and their gazes full of anticipation, Jiang Chen intentionally paused for two seconds and immediately extended his hand, with a bright smile, he said, "Future."

When Jiang Chen saidthis word, the reporters were obviously surprised. He did not understand what he meant. It wasn't until the beam of light gathered in Jiang Chen's hands did they see the piece of paper.

Yes, it was like a piece of paper.

When Jiang Chen said the word, the phone named "Future" also revealed on the screen. Its parameters such as thickness, length, width, pixel, CPU, etc., surprised everyone so much that their eyeballs almost popped out.

0.1mm!

Almost only the thickness of one piece of paper!

This really is a cell phone? !

Everyone's minds circled around the same idea.

This is unscientific!

However, in the following moment, Jiang Chen proved to them with practical actions the real science.

After most people saw this scene, they all came up with the same question in their minds, no matter if they were at the venue or watching the conference live from Future's official website.

However, the audience did not ponder too long on this issue. Jiang Chen soon answered their question.

"I know what you are worried about. Such as if you would lose this cell phone forever if you dropped it on the ground. Next I will tell you that your concern is completely redundant."

Saying this, Jiang Chen bent down and picked up the "paper" from the ground and shook it in front of the audience.

"When the phone enters standby mode, the fluorescent material built into the graphene material will outline the phone screen with lines and display the time in the center of the screen. Of course, if you don't like it displaying the time, you can also change this function in the settings."

Holding up "Future" phone, in the incredible exclamation of everyone, Jiang Chen folded it into a circular arc to show people its powerful shaping function.

"The graphene material is very soft. You can bend it into a circle and put it on your wrist like a watch. You can also fold it into a purse, roll it up and pack it into a cigarette box, or even fold it into a paper plane and throw it. If you have neighbors... Of course, I don't recommend you do this."

Friendly laughter came from the audience.

At this point, everyone thought that the function of this first graphene cell phone had already been introduced. Some reporters was already taking notes, and they were also contemplating what questions to ask later. Based on the arbitrary folding function, this mobile phone could already be worthy of the title of "Future", and was also worthy of the expectations of countless people that waited for almost a year.

However, when everyone thought that was it, Jiang Chen smiled and opened his mouth again.

"However, these functions are not the focus I intend to introduce today."

Jiang Chen mysteriously smiled, then rolled the Future phone onto his wrist like a bracelet.

His demeanor was like that of a magician.

"Next, we will witness miracles!"

Chapter 736: One hundred million per minute

Catherine couldn't believe her eyes. She has been a reporter for many years and attended countless Silicon Valley's product launch conferences, but it was the first time she had been genuinely amazed by a product.

When Jiang Chen on the stage rolled the phone into a watch and put it around his wrist, a spectrum of light formed an entity on his palm.

Everyone held their breath.

Hologram!

No, not just holograms! She personally watched Jiang Chen touch the hologram and operate the phone by touching the holographic screen. The screen suspending in the air was like a physical screen, and the transparent operating interface was simple but aesthetic.

Holographic interaction technology! And it was a holographic interaction that had completely separated from the physical interface!

She didn't know what words she could use to describe the shock in her heart at the moment. She peeked at her peers' notes and saw the chief reporter of the Daily Mail's pen tremble before he jot down one word.

Incredible.

Yeah... maybe only the word incredible could depict the shock of the audience.

As it was too shocking to see, Catherine's chin was in a jaw-dropping state during the rest of the conference.

Fully charged, the phone could operate for 24 hours. It adopted the Deep Blue M1 processor chip designed by Future Technology with a performance equivalent to twice to the phone with the same price.

Because the mobile phone itself was already thinner than the USB interface, for this purpose, Future Heavy Industrial had specially designed a wireless charger for charging. In addition, Future Technology completely abandoned wired headsets and directly configured a Bluetooth headset. The headset or the phone could be used to change into speaker or headset mode.

Abandoning the original sim card design, Future phone adopted a similar concept proposed by Apple and Samsung as early as 2015. However, due to the impact on the wireless carriers, this feature was temporarily unavailable in some countries. Instead, Future Technology had added a sim card scanning function.

In addition to these unbelievable functions, Future was also introducing different colors, such as Deep Space Gray, Snowflake Silver, Rose Gold, and Gay Violet to provide the most distinguished services to the most distinguished customers.

Well, in fact, there was no difference between the different colors. Graphene was transparent, and the only difference between these different colors was the fluorescent material that was incorporated into them, that is, the color of the screen frame and the clock... and the price.

Among them, the basic colors such as orange and blue were the cheapest. The direct selling price was 950 dollars before tax, and the selling price of Rich Gold was as high as 1,100 dollars, which was more than 150 dollars higher!

By the way, these tricks of making money were learned from Apple.

Jiang Chen, named chief designer, was unclear about the difference between light pink and Rose Gold. However, the comments on the official website broadcast had already exploded. According to Jean's data analysis and statistics, 70% of users had a strong preference for Rose Gold.

"Future, let us welcome the future together!"

As Jiang Chen concluded the presentation with a pun, the presentation of this product launch came to an end. The reporters stepped forward and directed the cameras and microphones at Jiang Chen.

"Mr. Jiang, will Future be positioned as a high-end phone? Did your designer consider that the $950 price, for most middle-income people, especially those in developing countries, is difficult to accept?"

"Future is positioned as a high-tech product. We don't want to label it with a low-end or high-end label. Buying an iPhone 8 for $950 may pain you for a while, but I promise you, if you buy a Future, you will only feel that it is a great purchase," Jiang Chen said.

The reporters' eyes lit up, and their pens furiously jotted notes down.

[Future Group Chairman Jiang Chen at the press conference criticized Apple's iPhone 8 price for being too expensive to match its poor functionality.]

Controversy and gossip were always easier to sell than the product itself. Jiang Chen didn't care about his exaggerated facts.

After all, it was hype.

"Mr. Jiang, when will Future be on sale?"

"Mr. Jiang, there is rumor online about you and Emma Watson..."

"..."

The two-hour questioning session quickly passed, but the enthusiasm of the journalists at the venue did not diminish at all. When Jiang Chen walked out from the siege of reporters, the body injected with genetic vaccine even felt a little weariness.

Pushing the door into the backstage room, Jiang Chen sunk into a chair while letting out a long breath. Xia Shiyu walked over with a glass of water. Jiang Chen took the water and chugged it clean.

"It's exhausting. I don't know how the reporters have so many questions."

Although he was complaining, a smile hanged on his mouth.

The explosion of Future had, to some extent, reflected the market's expectations for the product. It is foreseeable that on the day of the release, being out of stock would be the inevitable.

"Did you know? The peak number of live viewers just exceeded one billion." Standing next to him with her arms folded Xia Shiyu smiled.

One billion?!

After hearing this figure, Jiang Chen was astonished. Even though he was full of confidence in the Future's popularity, he was startled by this figure. One billion online viewers, fortunately, the official website's server is a quantum computer, or just this ridiculous traffic would blow up the official website of Future Technology.

"According to the online users' IP, we have identified a list of 200 lucky users and have now issued prizes based on the address they filled in. In addition, the official website sales link has been open for ten minutes, and the 200,000 phones on hand were sold out within a minute."

With the current production efficiency of the New Malaysia Special District, the average profit of a Future phone was 600 US Dollar and 200,000 mobile phones were all sold. In other words, in just one minute, the Future Group made 120 million.

This is ridiculous.

The FED's printer cannot match this speed.

"Let Future Heavy Industrial re-adjust their production capacity, and increase monthly production to 4 million pieces within two months, and increase it to 9 million before the end of this year!"

"I have already delegated people to do that." Xia Shiyu nodded and pushed her glasses up. Then she added, "In addition, five companies including Samsung and Foxconn submitted a letter of intent to us and expressed their willingness to negotiate with us on Future to help us increase our production capacity."

"What's their proposal?"

"They are willing to be our OEM for the Dark Blue M1 chip, graphene screen, and battery for a total of 13 parts. It is estimated that this move can save costs of 79 US Dollar. And it will be able to increase our production capacity to 5 million per month in a short period of time," Xia Shiyu said.

Jiang Chen pondered this for half a minute; his index finger tapped gently on the table. Then he said.

"The Future Group does not have the plan of OEM for the time being. You can just tell them that."

"Okay, I'll draft the email later." Xia Shiyu nodded.

For outsourcing, Xia Shiyu also held opposing views. However, she still needed to consult Jiang Chen.

In order to build a complete set of electronic production lines in New Malaysia Special District, Future had already invested 2 billion US Dollar. Although OEMs could allow for large-scale production, minimize product costs in a short period of time, and increase production, the side effects were also obvious; it'd lead to an outflow of technology.

Although the 21 components including the Deep Blue M1 chip have been registered for patents in all countries, Future Heavy Industrial's electronic production processes were still business secrets.

If made public, it meant that the OEMs would possess the same production technologies. Companies that did not have their own products were fine, but for Samsung that was both in the OEM and the phone production business, they could easily develop their own graphene mobile phones and at most pay a patent fee to Jiang Chen.

For Future Group, it would be a lost cause.

Patent barriers and technical barriers. Under the protection of these two strongholds, could Future Group maintain their monopoly in the market and ensure its hegemony?!

Chapter 737: The Monopoly on Future

The Apple Spaceship headquarters is located in Cupertino, California. This 2.8 million-square-foot building is like a castle that signified the Apple Empire. In the words of Steve Jobs, this new building is like a "spacecraft that landed," and the UA media likened it to "a giant glass donut."

At this moment, 48 hours has passed since the Future Technology product launch. Apple CEO Tim Cook sat in his office and leaned back against the office chair. After Steve Jobs' death, he was worried about the company's prospects for the first time.

By the way, in the two days' time, Apple's market value evaporated by 20 billion US Dollar. Wall Street analysts believed that Future Technology's announcement to enter the mobile phone manufacturing industry would change Apple's dominant position in the high-end smartphone market.

Against Future, Cook pessimistically discovered that the Apple 8 did not have any advantage beyond price.

For the Apple 8 positioned in the high-end market, it was undoubtedly very ironic.

Looking at the Future in his hand, Tim Cook sighed.

Even as a competitor, he had to admit that the design of the Future was perfect, especially the function of the holographic screen; it was addictive to play with. If it were not for the fact that he was concerned about the media taking advantage of this opportunity, the thought of changing his own phone came into mind.

There was a knock on the door.

Putting the Future aside, Cook said listlessly.

"Please come in."

The door was pushed open, and his assistant Bernard Bermen came in. As soon as he stepped in, the assistant said.

"Two news, one good and one bad, which one do you want to hear first?"

"Too old of a saying, what do you think makes me feel better?" Cook waved his hand.

Berman's expression was a little embarrassed, he hesitated for a moment and said.

"The product development department reverse engineered the Future phone. Combining the documents we obtained from the UA Intellectual Property Office, we have already deciphered their technology."

"Oh?" Cook said with his eyes lighting up. He sat up and crossed his fingers on the table. "How long will it take to apply it to our iPhone 9... No, it can't be called iPhone 9. The ground-breaking product line must be renamed. Call it iPhone-N1..."

"Sir..." Berman awkwardly whispered and shattered Cook's illusion.

"What's the matter? Is there still a bad news?" Cook said. "It doesn't matter how much they're going to charge for patents. If prices are too high, we can sue them."

"It's not a question of royalties." Berman gritted his teeth, and finally decided to be truthful, "Although we have analyzed the technology, but in regards to how to mass produce their parts ... none of our OEMs can do it."

Cook took a minute to process the information and then leaned back in his chair while revealing a wry smile.

"I knew it."

Why did Future Heavy Industrial start to invest in the electronics industry and make big acquisitions from the screen design to the camera and a series of electronic equipment manufacturing companies at the start of the year? The graphene technology was integrated and a complete production line was built from scratch. From the very beginning, their plans were not small.

It was not just a move to dominate the smart phone industry, they were trying to monopolize the entire graphene industry from the source.

Future? Together to welcome the future?

It's better to say something more appropriate.

Monopolize the future.

...

Because of their limited production capacity, Future was even selling ten times more expensive in some countries on the black market. However, even if this were the case, the Future phones were still without a market. The intents to purchase Future phones could be seen on all the major forums, just like when the Phantom helmets were sold.

Whether it was from its innovation or practicality, the phone that could be held in a wallet, around a wrist, and project holographic images could be said to occupy the limelight. In combination with the marketing of Future Technology, and the massive marketing campaign, it was adding oil to the fire,

It was precisely because of this that the Future has been favoured by young men and women since its release.

"Ten thousand to purchase a Future, private message me! Contact information XXXX..."

"OP, if you're talking about US Dollar, I'd probably consider it."

"..."

Some odd people even directly messaged Jiang Chen on Weibo with their selfies, seeking for a Future phone, which even made the scandalous Jiang Chen speechless.

Not only the Future phone sales were booming, but the mobile processor designed by future heavy industry, the Deep Blue M1 chip, had also been favoured by major mobile phone manufacturers. Within a month, Future Heavy Industrial received 2 million chip orders. If it were not for the priority to meet the needs of the Future phone, the dark blue M1 chip alone could make Future Group rich.

There was also a graphene screen.

With features such as light weight, resistance to dropping and strong durability, the graphene screen can be said to have already surpassed the current state-of-the-art OLED screen and has become the most promising display material in the future. More than a dozen companies, including rivals such as Apple, Samsung, and other smart phone giants, have reached out to Future Technology. They were even brazen enough to place orders at Future Heavy Industrial in hopes of upgrading their screens.

For these competitors, Jiang Chen did not make it difficult for them.

Under the premise of satisfying the Future phone production capacity, he didn't mind letting these competitors help him absorb excess production capacity. After all, the more he produced, the lower the cost would be. Is was even more pleasant to use this money earned from the competition to expand and improve the production line and grow his own strength?

More critically, they must swallow this!

The patents were in Jiang Chen's hands. You want to research and develop? OK, every production of a screen, batteries, chips, the patents cost to your cell phone will make your cost ridiculous! And the self-developed product with a spending of more than 1 billion US Dollar may not necessarily be comparable to the more mature graphene technology of Future Heavy Industries.

In the end, they still must buy screens, chips, and batteries from Future Heavy Industries!

And the most critical interactive holographic projection elements, as the main selling point of the Future phone, Jiang Chen would not sell to the competition at any cost.

Monopoly? Unfair competition? Oh, why don't you sue me in Xin.

Electronic parts with advanced technology were completed in the high-tech park on Ange Island. It would not enter the market unless it was supplied to Future Technology. If anyone wanted to use interactive holographic projection technology, take the patent file and research it.

It wouldn't be possible to understand the production process in five years. And five years later, Jiang Chen would have no need to keep the technology in his pocket. There would be more advanced technology. These outdated technologies could be packaged and sold directly.

The benefit of having an advantage in science and technology was precisely this point. Other people not only have to eat your leftovers, but they also have to swallow it. With the technical guarantees from the apocalypse, at least in a hundred years, Jiang Chen wouldn't have to worry about his technology becoming outdated.

As for one hundred years later...

Too far away. Jiang Chen didn't want to think about it now. If he couldn't defeat the crisis of 20.5 light years away, the continuation of the earth civilization on this timeline would be in jeopardy, let alone his Future Group.

Chapter 738: Penglai City Completion

On February 1, 2018, Walmart and Future Technology jointly organized the first VR product exhibition in the world.

During the four months duration, hundreds of thousands of products were exhibited on stage, covering small crafts, large-scale electromechanics, clothing, food, and housing with more than 76,000 exhibitors participating.

One of the most eye-catching items was the Mercedes-Benz S750e launched by the Daimler Group. The vehicle used a wireless rechargeable solid-state lithium-air battery designed by Future Heavy Industries with a powerful and aesthetically pleasing design. Although not specifically an auto show, the advanced technology was always eye-catching. Many ordinary tourists who could not afford to buy cars experienced it in the virtual world. Therefore, the Daimler Group's Mercedes-Benz S750e has successfully set a record for the highest number of visits.

In addition, the exhibition with the highest technological content would undoubtedly be the products from Future Heavy Industrial such as the improvement of housework robots, Dragon Calvary X1 supercomputing chips, Dark Blue M1... In the first day of the exhibition, Future Heavy Industrial received a value of 5 billion US dollars in orders.

According to data released by Future Group after the incident, in the first month of the global product exhibition, the total turnover easily exceeded $20 billion. With this trend continuing, this year's Global Merchandise Exhibition would easily break their turnover record.

After attending the opening ceremony of this grand event, Jiang Chen took off his helmet.

Although he was the "founder" of the virtual reality network, he himself enjoyed the feeling of living in reality. As the president of the group, he just needed to read the opening speech written by the secretary and shake hands with representatives of major companies at the opening ceremony.

Ayesha shaved for him and then Jiang Chen put on a casual outfit before heading out.

Today was an important day, not only the opening ceremony of the VR Global Merchandise Exhibition, but also the completion ceremony of Penglai City.

...

On the sea north of Coro Island, two Guardian-class frigates that have been upgraded with electromagnetic pulse cannons have been patrolling the target sea area accompanied by Kilo-class submarines. A dozen large engineering ships lined up along the edge of the construction seas, forming a loose circle.

Countless large and small yachts lined up. Some of them were wealthy tourists coming to Coro Island, some were investors or immigrants who have purchased real estate in Penglai City, and some were reporters invited by Future Group.

The Black Eagle helicopters belonged to Celestial Trade. The hovered above the sea and carried staff to perform the final inspection of the construction site. Aurora-20 suddenly broke through the clouds and whistled past, attracting the cheers and whistles of tourists and reporters.

The weather was lovely with no signs of a storm in the radius of a hundred miles, a good day to hold the completion ceremony.

On a cruise ship, tourists in beachwears and bikinis leaned against the railing and looked out at the calm sea.

"Sh*t, that fighter is so cool!"

"I heard it is called Aurora-20. I don't know, is it better than the F35."

"I'm more concerned about Penglai City. If I haven't got the wrong date, it should be today."

"A city on the sea, Atlantis of the East sounds really romantic. Dear, can we live there later?"

"Okay, baby, whatever you say... if Future Group doesn't bounce on us."

"Look! The sea is moving!"

With a loud exclamation, everyone stopped their chitchatting and looked intently in the direction of the sea.

Yes, the sea was moving!

Large bubbles emerged from the bottom of the ocean, the turbid air bubbles covered dozens of miles of the sea, defeating even the rolling waves. After two minutes, the tumbling air bubbles stopped. The sea level suddenly rose, and a hill that was hundreds of meters in radius emerged.

Afterwards, the seawater spread around, and the ships and yachts in the outer ring were like leaves in a storm, pushed away by the sea waves that rose suddenly! Ships closer were even tilted at a 45° angle!

"That boat! The boat is going to fall!" A tourist shrank to the edge of the cabin and shouted.

"Why are you shouting?! There is no leak and no rollover. Shut up!"

"Look! Look over there! The city of Penglai is coming out!"

"God, what do I see..."

"Dear Virgin Mary!"

"Buddha!"

"Fu*k!"

Like a sharp steel blade, a steep octave tower pierced through the sea.

Then, a metal building with a radius of several hundred meters lifted up as the water rose. A block of high-rise buildings sprang up from the surface of the water like spring bamboo shoots. The seawater fell from the top of the building and formed countless natural waterfalls, covering the face of Penglai City like a veil.

The seawater crashed down and white mist soon formed around the vicinity.

The wind blew gently, and the white fog wave moved with the wind, dancing flirtatiously on the ocean surface.

Steel broke the waves and layers of ripples scattered around.

The waves clashed against the side of the ship and created muffled sounds that resembled the sound of a heavy hammer smashing onto steel. Standing on this unmoving guardian frigate, Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes and looked up at the rise of the city with his binocular.

"The main structure has risen!"

"Unlock the stability lock. Initiate the rising of the second-level structure!"

"Rising is complete, the graphene pipe is connected!"

"Drainage gate..."

Like a gyro, the circular main building became stable on the surface. Then the ring of aluminium foam structure rose, the graphene pipe protruded from the hole, and accurately penetrated into the side of the centre island, forming a giant, circular, artificial island!

The sea water injected into the building flowed into the streets, flushing the shells, conch, and algae on the streets into the sea and formed a waterfall on the edge of the island. After completing the island floating operation, the crew immediately opened the pressure valve at the bottom of the island and discharged the seawater that was injected into the drainage and water supply system.

"Is this Penglai City? Although it is not as beautiful as it is in the virtual reality, it seems more astonishing than what I have seen in the virtual reality." Standing beside Jiang Chen, Xia Shiyu exclaimed.

Ayesha didn't speak, but from her sapphire eyes, Jiang Chen could still read her astonishment.

As for Natasha, as a Russian diplomat, her head was lowered and no one knew what she was thinking.

"Rest assured, I bet it will be as beautiful as the one in the virtual reality." Looking farther into the city, Jiang Chen said with a smile.

The most critical main structure floating work has been completed. Jiang Chen's clenched hands could finally relax. Drainage work will take two full days, followed by the filling of other structures between the outer ring and the centre island.

These structures were just like blocks, and they were all already built on the sea floor. They just need to be pieced together.

That will take about five days.

After all the work has been done, what was left was the clean-up. Workers wearing protective clothing would be the first to board the island and drive rubbish trucks to clean seaweeds, shells, and jellyfishes.

In the process of floating, Penglai City brought a lot of "specialties" from the seabed. Now the entire artificial island was surrounded by a pungent smell. Without cleaning it up, no one would be willing to live on this island.

This seemingly simple clean-up was the most time-consuming and laborious part of the entire floatation work. It was expected that the Future Group will use 1,000 "Xiao Lin" and 2,000 cleaning personnels, 6,000 sweeping drones, 50 garbage trucks and water tankers to complete the clean-up.

It was expected to take one month.

Chapter 739: The Construction of the Century

The footage of Penglai's completion was captured on video and went viral on sites like YouTube. People's initial reaction was to suspect that this was a special effect in a movie, and it was not until people watched other onlookers upload videos of themselves did people realize.

It was not a movie, it was true!

Back then, how many experts stated that it was impossible for this to be built. Even if it were built, it would not float to the surface of the sea. Even if it really did, several waves would have torn the island apart. Even on the day before the completion ceremony of Penglai City, a professor in ship science still commented to make this point known.

"I'm telling you, this thing won't float! How do we make islands? Although this is knowledge in the field of construction, as a professor, I still know some elements. In general, we have to surround an area first, then fill it with sand, build an island directly on the sea floor, and then float it! This is completely ridiculous! I'm willing to bet, if this island doesn't sink, I will eat a pound of sh*t!"

However, the next day, Penglai City successfully floated. So many experts' face was slapped hard.

When everyone singled the professor out and asked him when he was going to eat, he suddenly stopped talking.

Material science breakthroughs would bring a series of chain reactions, and changes to the construction industry and manufacturing would be disruptive. The tidal forces that ordinary steel cannot withstand were not difficult in front of tougher graphene materials.

At the same time, the advantage of replacing metal material with graphene as a stabilizing structure was that there was no need to worry about seawater rust. As long as it was not built on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and happened to encounter the volcanic eruption at the bottom of the sea, there was no need to worry about broken graphene cables.

With the completion of Penglai City, the number of people on Coro Island suddenly surged. Many hotels and rental rooms were completely booked out, so some people simply bought a tent and set it up on the roadside. The Xin National Congress had to introduce a city management bill urgently and regulate the phenomenon of sheds everywhere to contain it.

At present, flights between Penglai City and Coro City had been established, and a dedicated line had been set up beside the passenger port to provide pick-up and drop-off services for tourists on the outlying islands. At the same time, the island itself also had a yacht pool and a berth at the edge where visitors could dock their own yachts and even sailboats and cruise ships.

However, these access channels were temporarily closed. As for the reason, it was naturally because the cleaning work has not yet been completed.

Although Future Group explained the reasons, people's curiosity and enthusiasm for Penglai City still caused crowds to gather in front of the passenger port.

"Let me on the island! I bought a house on it. Why are you not letting me on!" A man in a designer suit shouted and questioned.

"Sir, please wait patiently for Penglai City to officially open. Now we are working on the final stages of cleaning out the seaweed and desalination. Compared to a semi-finished product, we would like to show you the most beautiful city in front of you." The front desk lady with a perfect smile explained to the tourists what she repeated countless times.

Whether or not this kind of rhetoric will satisfy these eager tourists, before the month-long clean-up is complete, Future Group would not let anyone in. In addition to the cleaning work, there would be simultaneous safety inspections.

For example, is there any leakage? Is there seaweed in the power component? Is the graphene cable cracked? These were major events that could affect the lives and safety of millions of people and thus they could not tolerate any sloppy behaviour. If everyone boarded and the island sank, then Future Group would have completely played itself.

According to the statistics provided by Xia Shiyu, in order to build this city, Future Group spent a total of 31.7 billion US Dollar, which was almost equivalent to the total amount of funds invested by Hua real estate investors in 2015 internationally!

From this figure alone, it was demonstrative of how much liquidity this century project occupied. If Penglai City was unsuccessful, it was possible that Jiang Chen must really seek help from the Rothschild Bank, or send more subsidiaries public to ease the financial pressure.

High risk goes hand in hand with high reward. The return on investment from the completion of Penglai would also be shocking.

As early as the end of last year, Wall Street analysts conducted a valuation on Penglai City, and the final valuation was as high as 400 billion US Dollar!

What was the concept of 400 billion US Dollar?

The world-famous investor, Buffett, known as the stock god, said directly.

"I can't estimate the market value of Penglai, just like I can't set a price for Los Angeles or Chicago, because that's not what money can measure. It's a city, as long as it is always there, it will always be generating value. Compared to Penglai City, I would rather value the founder of this spectacle, Future Heavy Industrial. If the spectacle could not be replicated, there is no doubt that it will be the most profitable company in this century. The biggest regret of this century will be Jiang Chen's unwillingness to go public.

It seems that he felt his statement was not powerful enough. Buffett paused and added a sentence.

"Yes, I mean, it will make money faster than the Fed can print money."

...

When everyone couldn't wait to step onto Penglai City and start exploring it, apart from the staff of the Future Group, only Jiang Chen and a few others have experienced the city.

However, as Future Group explained to the public, there was nothing to see in Penglai at this time.

Streets full of jellyfish, and thickened salt blocks were everywhere on the pavement. The salts were not simply sodium chloride, but contain ionized elements such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium. When the sun shone on it, these elements crystallized out of the sea.

In order to flush these aesthetically-stricken residues, Jiang Chen had also drawn a desalination platform with a daily processing capacity of 4 million tons from Future Heavy Industrial. At the same time, the company deployed two tidal power generator sets on the seabed to power the desalination platform.

It had now been a full ten days since the island's rise. During the Lunar New Year, Jiang Chen intended to return to the apocalypse. The expeditionary force seemed to have encountered some problems on Yizhou Island. He planned to go personally. After all, it had to do with the space elevator, and the trade routes south of the NAC.

It could take as little as a few days or as many as two months. If he didn't take advantage of this time on the island to look around, once Penglai opened in March, he would not be the first to step onto the platform.

Therefore, Jiang Chen took Ayesha, Xia Shiyu, and Natasha, who forced her way there with her thick skin. They boarded a helicopter and landed in the square in front of the architecture in the middle of the island – the Central of Penglai.

"I think if these things are sun-dried into salted fish, they must be another huge sum of money." Standing in the doorway of the Central, Jiang Chen looked at the dead fish on the steps and sighed.

He didn't know when these salted fish would be cleaned up.

"I heard that the World Environmental Protection Organization is preparing trouble for you?" Standing beside Jiang Chen, Natasha mocked.

"From Blue Seagull, our troubles have not stopped. We can only say that they inadvertently started a trend, and now those defenders of the Earth are looking for us. But do I care?" Jiang Chen laughed and kicked the salted fish aside.

"Just like this salted fish."

Chapter 740: The Central

The Central of Penglai stood at a height of 432 meters as the tallest building in the center of the island. It was similar to an obelisk in a steel forest. The surface of the building was covered with graphene material, and the steel skeleton was a made out of graphene tubes, which ensured the strength of the building. At the same time, the opening of the building's surface rotated from the bottom to the top. This design could effectively reduce the lateral force of the airflow in all directions to the building.

After all, the wind on the sea was quite strong, and these were all carefully considered by the designers.

The building would serve as a comprehensive super high-rise building, with a focus on municipal offices, and would also include services such as convention and exhibition centers, hotels, sightseeing and entertainment, commerce and catering. The top room of the building, as the tallest building on the Pacific, could easily overlook the entire Penglai.

Of course, as Jiang Chen's private property, this room was not accessible to ordinary people.

With Ayesha, Xia Shiyu, and Natasha, Jiang Chen took the sightseeing elevator to reach the highest floor, Jiang Chen's private room.

Surrounded by transparent graphene floor-to-ceiling windows, from the inside, it looked like the windows were nonexistent From the outside, you could only see the black glass window.

Stepping out of the elevator, Xia Shiyu carefully walked to the edge, reached out and touched the cold graphene floor-to-ceiling window and gently knocked on it before she sincerely exclaimed.

"It's absolutely breathtaking. Although I don't know the world's wonder assessment criteria, this city... can absolutely be nominated to be the world's ninth wonder."

After listening to Xia Shiyu's words, Jiang Chen smiled and did not speak.

Penglai City could be regarded as the ninth wonder. If he can manufacture the space elevator, "the first heavenly tower in human history", what will that be then?

"Only the miracles precipitated by history could be nominated. And as far as I know, six of the eight wonders of the world have been destroyed," Natasha murmured.

Ayesha has been standing beside Jiang Chen without speaking, but from her blue pupil, Jiang Chen could see the reflection of the entire city and the color known as shock.

After taking photos, Jiang Chen uploaded them to Weibo and Twitter. He took the three girls around for a tour in The Central before taking off on a helicopter and leaving the artificial island and returning to Coro Island.

At present, the entire island was still in the clearing stage, and sea urchins and algae growth still existed below the sea level. One month later, the Pearl of the Pacific would present to the world her true appearance.

...

Just as Jiang Chen was landing on the island, at least five spy satellites from around the world aimed at the island on the western Pacific Ocean and observed the "artificial island".

As early as the first day of the completion of Penglai City, all countries in the world turned their attention to this giant city on the sea.

What does it mean to build a city on the sea?

It means that the congested living space on land would be completely freed to the ocean, and those countries with extensive territorial waters but scarce land resources would hopefully obtain opportunities to develop resources on the sea through Future Heavy Industrial.

At present, 27 countries have listed the marine city plan as a state-level key scientific research project. 97 of the 150 coastal countries have started to strengthen diplomatic relations with Xin and have thrown olive branches at Future Group.

Although Future Heavy Industries had not announced plans to sell marine cities, for the time being, there was bound to be a second city. While there was no such plan now, it didn't mean that there would be no plan in the future. In short, there was no reason not to have a good relationship!

Affected by the expected coverage of the marine city, the share price of High Tech Freshwater once again spiked. Desalination platforms play an irreplaceable role as supporting facilities for offshore cities. If Penglai City would open up the prelude to the development of marine resources, the desalination market would expand more than two times.

In the future, the marine cities built by Future Heavy Industries would naturally be equipped with their own seawater desalination plants. This would be undoubtedly true.

On the other hand, as Jiang Chen's photographs taken on the top floor of the Central were uploaded to Weibo and Twitter, his fans immediately ruptured and retweeted fanatically as the photos began to spread to other social media platforms.

"It's so cool! I've already decided that after Penglai opens, I must go to this city! I'll buy my ticket now!"

"Sh*t! The ticket to Coro Island in March has already been sold out! Fortunately, there are still several cruise tickets..."

"The feeling of living on a floating city must be awesome! Oh, damn, why didn't I buy the suite on it? It wasn't very expensive at first..."

"..."

While the photos were going viral, the major media also reprinted this set of photos and had various eye-catching headlines to carry out extended coverage. Exclusive news, insider information, and all sorts of leads flowed out.

According to Google Trends data, in just 12 hours, the global search of the word Penglai had exploded 17.5 times! It was ranked first in search ranking.

From just this stat, it was easy to see people's enthusiasm for Penglai City.

From a business point of view, this was undoubtedly a successful marketing campaign. Even those who had no interest in the city being in the sea or on land would be more than happy to take out their wallets and buy a ticket to go to Coro Island...

If there were any tickets left.

Of course, some experts and scholars expressed concern about the establishment of Penglai City.

"I recognize that the establishment of Penglai City is disruptive to the construction, shipping, and other fields. But I also have to point out that the impact on the Pacific eco-environment will also be disruptive. With our encroachment on the living space of marine life, one day we will push these human friends to a dead end. As for whether or not Future Group exploit marine resources is reasonable, I would question on behalf of Greenpeace..."

"The completion of Penglai City will undoubtedly exacerbate the maritime territorial disputes, especially in the South China Sea..."

"Tsunami, typhoon, submarine volcanic eruption... For a marine city, these disasters are absolutely deadly. Before Penglai proves that it has enough crisis response capabilities, I doubt the safety of living in this maritime city. "

"..."

However, these opposing voices were eventually submerged in the wave of one-sided public opinion. The data released by the New World Tourism Administration and Future Tourism were sufficient to support this. Many hotels in Xin were booked full in March. Even some relatively unsophisticated hostels were in short supply.

As a response, InterContinental, Marriott, Hilton and other international hotel groups announced plans to add hotels in Xin in the next quarter to cope with the current short supply of rooms.

How long can this tourism festival last?

At least before the official opening of Penglai in March, the tourists on Pannu Island would not decrease.

However, Jiang Chen may not be able to witness the grand opening. NAC's Expeditionary Force in Yizhou Island encountered a little trouble. For the space elevator base parts waiting to be delivered, he must make a trip, personally…

Chapter 741: The Month of Disaster

Lunar New Year in 2018 happened to be on the day after Valentine's Day. Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse on Valentine's Day and enjoyed a wonderful Valentine's Day with Sun Jiao. Then they spent Lunar New Year and Lunar New Year's Eve together with the girls and the others at Fishbone base.

On the 17th, the second day of Lunar New Year, Jiang Chen took the airship to transport supplies to Yizhou Island at the agreed-upon time with White Beluga Station. Lin Lin also went with him. There were rumors about a helium refining plant in Taipei and a small nuclear fusion power station with a high degree of retention.

Because of long-distance power transmission and the Helium-3 mining base on the moon, the nuclear fusion power plants from before the war had basically all been moved to the moon, and the only remaining large nuclear power plants were battered by the nuclear attack. Finding an intact nuclear fusion power station in the wasteland was harder than climbing the sky.

When Jiang Chen heard about a nuclear power plant in Yizhou, he immediately became interested in it. In particular, this wasn't the time to be a picky eater, although the use of plutonium as nuclear fuel wasn't as environmentally friendly as Helium-3.

The nuclear power plant didn't seem particularly attractive to the Sixth Street with crystal energy as its source of energy, but nuclear power stations would have extraordinary value for Xin and especially for new countries, whose energy sources depend on imports.

Especially for Penglai, which was about to open.

If cold fusion technology could be used, everything else could be discarded. The 100,000-acre power generation seaweed project that was originally scheduled to be added in the nearby sea could be canceled. The twelve large tidal power generator sets and 150 wind turbine generators could also be eliminated. Not to mention that the cost of electricity could be reduced tremendously.

...

Of course, this technology would be kept secret and revealed only when the space elevator was available.

There were only a few nuclear experts in Wanghai, and only Lin Lin knew Jiang Chen's secret, so he took her with him. The Project Garden of Eden was almost finished, and after the last stage to be completed in the spring, the Garden of Eden, which had taken more than a year, could be declared complete.

The purpose of Jiang Chen's visit was to transport the space elevator base, reclaim nuclear technology, and, incidentally, to solve the minor roadblocks encountered by the expeditionary force.

It had been a month since the expeditionary force landed.

When Jiang Chen arrived in Yizhou, Li Wang, the captain of the airship, immediately arranged a clean and comfortable room for him. He presented the intelligence and mission logs collected that month and handed over temporary command rights.

Immediately after landing, Li Wang dispatched expeditionary soldiers to explore Taipei and its suburbs and build simple cement fortresses and lighthouses on the sea cliffs at the northern tip of the island of Yizhou, as well as lifts that could be used by airships.

Compared to the mainland plagued by war, while Yizhou Island also had signs of war, it didn't look as tragic. Due to a lack of direct nuclear strikes, most of the high-rise buildings in the urban area were intact. The radiation from the island was mostly due to radiation dust blown from Southeast Asia.

However, there were a couple of things that were almost the same as on the mainland, which were plants that grew abnormally, as well as despicable mutants and zombies.

Vines and dry branches covered the high-rise buildings. On the ragged roads, there were rows of craters. In the shadows, there were wolf-like creatures with sharp claws; expeditionary soldiers called them "ghouls." Not even your bones would remain once attacked by these creatures.

However, this wasn't the most terrible thing.

Although these ghouls were terrible, two rounds of bullets could kill them. However, for Mud Crabs which were agile and had thick shells not inferior to steel, even rifles couldn't make people feel any safer.

In particular, these Mud Crabs always moved in groups; it was simply a nightmare.

And the problem facing the expeditionary forces was related to these Mud Crabs...

The next day, the patrols on the exploration islands were present as usual and returned to camp before dark.

Unlike usual, they brought back a native back this time.

The private forces searched him and placed his bow and arrows under possession before taking him to Jiang Chen.

It was still snowing on the wasteland in February. Even Yizhou Island in the south still had visible traces of snow. This man was wearing an old grey jacket with some mud stains on his body. His tanned skin and shaved head gave him an honest farmer vibe, but it was his small eyes scanning the area that exposed his cunningness.

"Your name is?" Jiang Chen looked at him.

"Chen Guangning. I'm doing business in Taipei and along the southern coast of the mainland. If you need guidance, I will be the most suitable person." Chen Guangning smiled humbly and respectfully.

Other locals might not have heard of NAC's name, but as a businessman who often traveled to southern Anhui, he was slightly acquainted with this name that arose in Wanghai. Within two years with thunderous momentum, the major forces in Wanghai City were wiped out and the survivors of all of Wanghai City and even the Suzhou-Hangzhou Province were brought under their own control.

The man in front of him was the leader of NAC.

If he could establish a relationship with NAC, that would definitely greatly benefit his business. So when NAC's expeditionary forces arrived at the survival camps in Taipei to find people and the other survivors all expressed their distrust, he took the initiative and went to the fortress of the expeditionary forces.

Jiang Chen smiled and asked directly:

"I'll consider your suggestion. Before that, I have a question for you."

"Please," Chen Guangning said respectfully.

"Tell me more about the Month of Disaster." Jiang Chen asked the question he was most concerned about.

The so-called the Month of Disaster referred to the landing of the Mud Crabs. However, the NAC Expeditionary Force knew little about this disaster that would last for a few months. The locals were very repellent to these outsiders who suddenly entered their homes. Although the two parties were in peace and occasionally traded, the dialogue was still kept to a limit.

Upon hearing Jiang's question, Chen Guangning answered immediately.

"Every March, the Mud Crabs that lurk in shallow water will lay eggs on the northeast bank of Yizhou. At this time, the survivors of Taipei will hide in the air defense shelter in central Taipei and wait until the Mud Crabs leave before coming out. There are similar practices in other regions. The sheer number of Mud Crabs isn't something humanly forces can fight against, so it's called the Month of Disaster."

As powerful scavengers, these Mud Crabs were particularly fond of survivor-inhabited areas. Whenever they arrived, they would invade the territory just like locusts, looting the survivors while leaving behind a large pile of slimy follicles.

Clearing these follicles was very dangerous. One mishap would lead to the hatching and release of small Mud Crabs. Although they weren't as frightening as mature Mud Crabs, small Mud Crabs could still cause serious casualties to survivors.

"When does the Month of Disaster end?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Generally speaking, by summer solstice," Chen Guangning replied.

[Summer Solstice?]

It would be more than three months, and the materials for the first batch of space elevator bases were about to be delivered. Jiang Chen couldn't wait for such a long time. On the other hand, the exploration of nuclear power plants would also have to be delayed due to the impact of the Month of Disaster.

If possible, he wanted to resolve the two issues as soon as possible.

Frowning slightly, Jiang Chen asked again.

"What solutions do you have for these Mud Crabs?"

Chen Guangning smiled helplessly.

"If I have a solution, I would've been the leader of these survivors."

Chapter 742: Constructing Line of Defense

"The best way to deal with the Month of Disaster is to wait it out. It's better to clean up the eggs of the Mud Crabs than to fight against the Mud Crabs. There are tens of thousands of Mud Crabs around and even tanks can't do anything. Since you flew in on an airship, get on the airship at the beginning of March or just wait until the summer solstice comes again."

"We need to do something on the island; we can't wait for that long." Jiang Chen paused then asked, "What about you? What's your plan for the Month of Disaster?"

"My original plan was to go where survivors live in the province of Minnan until the summer solstice, but my ship is out of shape this year. If there's nobody willing to give me a ride, I might choose to go to Taipei Fallout Shelter No. 79. Only 50 crystals are needed to stay until the summer solstice; the price is relatively fair," Chen Guangning replied.

"Okay Mr. Chen, we happen to need a guide. Are you interested in staying with us?" Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

Upon hearing this invitation from Jiang Chen, Chen Guangning was rejoiced and immediately said, "I am very interested. If there's anything I can do, I'm more than happy to help!"

"Just be a good guide; there is nothing more you need to do. Go out and talk to the guards. They will arrange a place for you. I will pay you 10 crystals a day. If you have nothing else to add, you can go now."

"Thank you, General!"

Chen Guangning changed the manner he addressed Jiang Chen immediately, but Jiang Chen himself wasn't very strict with formalities.

"Go ahead."

After Chen Guangning left, Jiang Chen thought for a moment, tilted his head slightly and looked at Wang Li, who was standing by his side.

"What do you think?"

"According to the intelligence collected by our reconnaissance team, we can use cement to build defence lines on the northern Desperate Beach and block the Mud Crabs in shallow water," said Li Wang.

Jiang Chen nodded.

This was indeed a viable plan. The only flaw was that if they wanted to build a line of defense that enclosed the entire Desperate Beach, they would need an enormous amount of cement and ammunition. Sand could be sourced locally, and the graphene tubes used as skeletons and cement could be transported by supply airships. The only troublesome aspect was that it was February 18, and there was less than a week until the arrival of the Month of Disaster.

There wasn't much time left for the expeditionary forces.

"The ammunition and cement needed will be delivered as soon as possible. Immediately start construction and do everything possible to build the line of defense before the Month of Disaster."

"Yes!" Li Wangli saluted and headed out.

After Li Wang departed, Jiang Chen activated his watch and entered the communication channel and channel code left by the Beluga Whale Submarine Inspection Station. He hosted a holographic video conference with them.

Their contact for him was still Wu Yue. Judging by the background behind him, he was probably on a warship.

After contact was established, Jiang Chen was direct.

"Can the sonar on your ship drive away Mud Crabs?"

Wu Yue seemed to anticipate Jiang Chen would ask this question, but he still shook his head regretfully.

"Unfortunately, our sonar can't do this. It's a real headache to run into Mud Crabs in the shallow sea - they'll try to climb onto the boat... Do you want to delay the delivery of space elevator parts?"

Jiang Chen shook his head.

"Go with the originally planned date. You are responsible for sending our transport vessels to the shallow seas. I'll try to resolve the problem of the Mud Crabs."

"As you wish." Wu Yue bowed slightly.

Desperate Beach was located on the northernmost tip of Yizhou and lowest point in the northern part of the island.

Before the war, there used to be a water park with a total area of several thousand acres. It stretched from the beach along the shallow sea to the edge of the deep ocean. However, now it had been bombed to ruins, and a freighter's ruin was left on the beach.

Staggered steel skeletons and debris formed a wetland-like environment within the shallow beach. The uncontrolled growth of algae and seaweed in the wet shadows was a paradise for scavengers and a breeding ground for mutated organisms.

Even experienced adventurers didn't dare to enter this dangerous territory. Even if people had power armor on, it would still be difficult to gain an advantage against sharp Mud Crab claws and teeth, not to mention the other mutants hiding in the shallow seas. With the complex terrain, the means of attack were unpredictable.

This was why this place was known as Desperate Beach - it made everyone who entered this place desperate.

Li Wang's execution efficiency was high. The day he received the order, he started construction of the defense line. One hundred engineering robots drove around Desperate Beach and laid the foundation for the walls. At the same time, the local survivors employed by the Expeditionary Force worked at the frontlines, earning 5 crystals per day.

Not all people had the money to live in a fallout shelter, not to mention the limited capacity of the fallout shelters. When the Month of Disaster arrived, most people still chose to hide in the temporary bunkers they made themselves and anxiously live in terror with their family for months.

In the beginning, the arrival of the expeditionary forces made them feel wary. After all, these people didn't seem to be lawful at all, judging from their excellent armed forces, but when these survivors saw them starting to build fortifications along Desperate Beach, they changed their minds completely.

Even if they didn't think these people could block the tens of thousands of Mud Crabs that came ashore to lay eggs, they still had a faint hope in their hearts.

In the unlikely event that these people would repel the Mud Crabs on Desperate Beach, the Month of Disaster that had plagued the island for more than a decade would be completely eradicated. Hopefully, if the Mud Crabs were beaten up by the NAC and failed to lay eggs in Yizhou, they might be forced to change their living habits in the coming year and start migrating to other places.

As a result, there would be one less season these survivors had to suffer through.

Therefore, when the expeditionary forces recruited people from survival camps near Taipei, the survivors were also very cooperative or at least didn't cause any trouble.

On the other hand, Jiang Chen had already made contact with Fishbone Base and had drawn 1,000 troops from the Third Corps into the ranks of the expeditionary forces.

At present, there were only five hundred expeditionary soldiers stationed in Taipei. It would obviously be unrealistic to fill a battle line several kilometers long with so few people. If they couldn't recruit many soldiers from the locals, they had to draw forces from Wanghai as reinforcements.

According to the plan proposed by the Expeditionary Army's engineering soldiers, the battlefield would have a total length of 5.1 kilometers with 52 five-meter-high defense towers first built along the edge of the battlefield then three-meter tall and half-a-meter wide cement walls would connect the towers. Sandbags would be placed behind the cement walls, and trenches and stakes would be placed in front of the cement walls to prevent Mud Crabs from entering.

A total of more than 1,400 laborers would be involved in the building of the defense line. With the assistance of construction robots, this defense line should be completed without any problems.

With the arrival of a new batch of supplies, heavy machine guns were put on the wall, and orange-yellow ammo chains filled the armory, dazzling like gold. Missiles were placed in the open space of the expeditionary fortress. The artillery skilfully installed launchers and completed the deployment of the "Fireball-1" system.

When the survivors working at the frontlines saw this scene, that immediately eliminated their last remaining doubts and worked even harder.

With such powerful arms, perhaps these people could really do it...

Chapter 743: The Mole Agency

Unfortunately, on the 25th, there was a storm in Taipei.

Heavy rain made sand and soil into mud, and several construction robots stalled as the rain poured into the unfilled foundation. Because the construction conditions were too crude, the project didn't progress and it even got to the point where it had to be stopped...

"If this rain continues, we have to fight with the Mud Crabs on the beach." Standing on the lookout tower of the expeditionary fortress, looking at the construction site on Desperate Beach, Li Wang furrowed his eyebrows…

No one expected a downpour.

At the time of the Water Plant in Hongcheng, Jiang Chen recalled some memories about the troublesome Mud Crabs. Their shells were impenetrable by bullets, but pliers could crush steel and get to that delicious crab roe...

However, listening to what Chen Guangning said, Mud Crabs were also divided into river crabs and sea crabs. Crabs that lived in the marine environment has a deeper shell color, larger body size, and more aggressive habits. Any creature smaller than its size would become its prey.

Without the protection of the wall, it would be unrealistic to fight these monsters out in the open.

Heavy rain slowed down the progress of the project and Jiang Chen had no better solutions. If there were no chances at winning, he would have to order the withdrawal and wait until the summer solstice to transport the space elevator. Jiang Chen couldn't let his soldiers die while trying to accomplish an impossible task.

After taking a deep breath, Jiang Chen said:

"If 80% of the project isn't completed by the first of March, then we will withdraw our people from the front lines, retreat to the fortress, and withdraw in batches."

"What about those survivors?" asked Li Wang.

"You don't need to ask about them."

Jiang Chen looked at him and left the tower.

If the expeditionary forces evacuated, the fate of these survivors would be obvious.

However, even if the survivors had no time to hide and would suffer tragic deaths, he would still make this choice.

After all, over the lives of these strangers, he was responsible for the lives of his own people.

...

The rain smashed onto the concrete pavement, and Taipei's sky was shrouded in a dense haze. The fear brought about by the Month of Disaster lingered in the hearts of every survivor in Yizhou like a ghost.

Entering the city along the north, through two streets and a station, there was a survival camp that looked almost like a ghetto. The town had no name and was named as town 79 because of the fallout shelter. People used bricks and billboards to build houses and crowded together to try to extract meager warmth from the apocalypse.

However, this warmth was so thin at the onset of danger.

The people who had enough crystals were already hiding inside the fallout shelter and those who did not could only watch the numb guards with pleading gazes. Some people would survive while others would only survive on luck. Even the island that stood independent of the world wouldn't escape this principle that was universal in the apocalypse.

The guards at the entrance leaned against the shelter with their dirty assault rifles beside them. Their eyes shifted in slight annoyance.

For the pedestrians, they just glanced at them in a hurry and were too lazy to ask in detail. The lack of resources on the island and the closed economy meant there were almost no visible raiders in Yizhou, but some survivors were occasionally part-time bandits.

As they inherited the arsenal of Fallout Shelter No. 79, the township of 79 had 500 fully armed soldiers. They could be regarded as the largest survivor force in Taipei; no bandits would dare to cause trouble in this area.

In heavy rain, a group of people dressed in raincoats headed to the town. Their raincoat hoods concealed the three men's faces and they looked suspicious. However, the guards glanced at the trio and looked away.

After they passed through the town's gate smoothly, Lin Lin shrunk her arms into the raincoat a bit more and murmured:

"Can't these dirty guys clean up their own house?"

"There's no use in making it look nice. When the Month of Disaster is over, the only thing left in perfect condition will be the Mud Crab eggs." Chen Guangning fully immersed himself in his role as a guide as he explained to Lin Lin and Jiang Chen.

The scavengers were very sensitive to the smell of humans. When the Month of Disaster arrive, the Mud Crabs would spontaneously move closer to human settlements.

Jiang Chen examined the buildings around him and didn't comment too much on the living conditions of the survivors. Judging by the size, the town should be able to accommodate five or six thousand people. At the moment, however, there were no people to be seen on the crooked streets. As Chen Guangning said, most people had already fled to the fallout shelter or left town by this time.

Jiang Chen came to Town No. 79 this time to investigate the whereabouts of the nuclear power plant and to examine the appearance of this town on the island. Li Wang opposed Jiang Chen acting alone at first, but Jiang Chen insisted on doing so.

With too many people next to him, it wouldn't be convenient for him to move nuclear devices to the modern world.

As for whether Chen Guangning was reliable, that was an unnecessary concern.

Whether people had intentions of lying or not, the slavery chip would not lie.

The three of them turned into two alleys and arrived at the door of a bar. Chen Guangning walked to a door covered in moss, reached out and gently knocked three times. It didn't take long before the door opened.

Under the shadows, a blank expression appeared behind the door. It was a common face that couldn't be distinguished in a crowd. What was on this face left a deep impression; it was probably his sharp eyes.

When he saw Chen Guangning, he was obviously surprised.

"Old Chen?" His eyes lingered on Chen Guangning for a moment then he looked at the two people behind him. The man grinned and smiled. "You brought guests over?"

Feeling uncomfortable by the gaze, Lin Lin moved closer to Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen gently squeezed her hand and motioned her not to be nervous.

"Yes, I brought business for you, five days before the Month of Disaster. Do you think you can give me a discount price?" Chen Guangning asked.

"You know, I always have a set price." Then, the man turned and walked into the dark house. "Welcome to my office. If the price is right, there's nothing on the island I can't do. I guarantee with my credibility."

Looking inside, Jiang Chen examined the layout of the house. His initial impression was that it was dark and damp. His second thought was: Could this place really be used for human habitation?

"Feel free to sit anywhere. I don't provide tea here." The man grinned and looked straight at Jiang Chen.

His instincts told him he was the hirer.

Without taking off his raincoat, Jiang Chen sat on an old couch casually and asked:

"How should I address you?"

"You can call me Mole," Mole said with a smile.

From his expression, he didn't seem to care that Jiang Chen made his sofa wet.

"I need you to help me find a place. Can you do it?"

"That's easy, as long as you can afford it."

[Afford it?]

Jiang Chen laughed. No one had asked him such a funny question in a long time.

Without asking for a specific price, he paused and said:

"Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant - I want you to help me find the specific location for it, and the password to get admin control. Can you do it?"

Chapter 744: Former PAC Intelligence Agen

"Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant?" Mole's eyes narrowed.

"Is there a problem?" asked Jiang Chen.

"Of course not." Upon hiring his employer's problems, Mole immediately shook his head and smiled slyly. "Respecting the privacy of customers is the foundation of our industry, but I have to remind you that it isn't an interesting place."

Mole's statement made Jiang Chen grin.

"What's there?"

"Rumors, just rumors." He paused for a moment. Mole built enough suspense and pointed up with one finger. "10 crystals."

Jiang Chen's eyebrows furrowed and Chen Guangning stood up immediately while slamming on the table.

"You're ripping him off—"

Jiang Chen raised his hand and stopped Chen Guangning, who was about to argue. He threw out a thumb-sized crystal and tossed it on the table. The pupils of Mole immediately dilated then contracted. He didn't see where the crystal came from.

Looking at Jiang Chen's eyes again, he couldn't help but feel cautious.

"Thank you, boss." With a sly laugh, Mole took his hands out from his sleeve and picked up the dark green crystal on the table.

Being in a shady business for so long, he didn't need a detector. As soon as he rubbed the crystal, he could estimate the energy inside the crystal.

Since he received payment, it was natural to do business. The mole turned and walked into the darkened apartment. It didn't take long before he took out a map that looked quite similar to a tourist brochure.

Spreading the map on the tabletop, his withered fingers crossed several streets along the main road in the center of the city, eventually stopping in the middle of the forest between Taipei and the Northern Expeditionary Fortress. He tapped on a spot that read Datun Mountain.

"It's here."

"Datun Natural Park?" Jiang Chen gently raised his eyebrows and looked at the mole.

After reading the mistrust in Jiang Chen's eyes, Mole smiled. He wrinkles on his face squeezed together. "I know you may have questions such as how a natural park and nuclear power plant is linked. You can think about why Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant survived the nuclear war."

Jiang Chen leaned on the couch and glanced out the window at the rain. With no indication of stopping, he casually said:

"I didn't spend this much time with you to play riddles. You might as well tell me directly."

The mole shrugged his shoulders and stopped being indirect. He met his hirer's request.

"The Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant is equipped with a plutonium-refining plant and about 100 tons of solid-state plutonium used as a strategic reserve for PAC, and their specific coordinates are kept as confidential Class A. It's precisely because of this that the brand new nuclear power plant survived NATO's nuclear missiles, but for me, this isn't a secret. The administrator password is written on the back of this map, and the entrance is at Datun Natural Park."

"You haven't told me what's there," Jiang Chen said.

"I almost forgot." The mole slapped his head and smiled. Then he said, "Hundreds of tons of plutonium and an undamaged nuclear power plant - it's not just you guys who paid attention to these things. Two years ago, the ruler of this town also got the idea to restart Clearwater. After all, it was hundreds of tons of plutonium. It would be enough to last this town hundreds of years. However, the result was that none of the 100 people who went ended up coming back."

While Mole explained, he smile was sly, and his smile was full of indescribable cruelty.

"What exactly is there?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Perhaps Mud Crabs, perhaps a guardian machine used at the nuclear power station, maybe something else. No one came back alive, nor did anyone collect the bodies of those unlucky bastards. If you're curious, you might as well ask the mayor of Town No. 79, but he's probably already hiding in the fallout shelter," said the mole.

Mole had already provided all the information he had.

Putting the map in his pocket, Jiang Chen stood up from the couch.

But before leaving, he looked at the mole and asked one last question.

"My last question is how do you know all of this?"

"Me?" Mole laughed. "Inquiring about privacy isn't a good habit."

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and said with a smile:

"As long as the price is right - that's what you said."

Mole still held up a finger.

"Ten crystals?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"One hundred," Mole said emotionlessly.

As soon as his voice faded, a baby fist-sized crystal was thrown on the table. Mole's pupils contracted. This time, he still didn't notice Jiang Chen's movements, but he wasn't too bothered anymore. All his attention was captured by that crystal.

The dark green sheen was like a pearl in a darkened room; even Chen Guangning, who was standing by the side, gulped.

Greed gradually faded from his pupils, and the mole shifted his gaze back without reaching for the crystal. Instead, he focused on Jiang Chen. His intention had been to make the problematic employer back off, but he didn't expect that the rich employer would really offer up one hundred crystals.

He now knew why Chen Guangning didn't hide in the fallout shelter or board the ship but worked for the man in the raincoat instead. One hundred crystals thrown like a rock without the blink of an eye - this man definitely wasn't just rich.

"What's the matter? Are you talking about 100 blood crystals?" As his fingers tapped on the sofa armrests, Jiang Chen grinned.

Mole shook his head and remained silent for a long time before slowly opening his mouth.

"This isn't a secret for a former PAC Class A intelligence personnel."

Pan Asia Cooperation Class A intelligence personnel? Jiang Chen's pupil enlarged slightly, intrigued by his response.

[If he was a PAC intelligence personnel, then Yizhou Island has no secrets for him.]

Jiang Chen took a look at Chen Guangning and read similar surprise from his pupils from the remaining scattered light. Obviously, he didn't associate "Mole" with the former intelligence personnel - he just used him as a simple intelligence dealer.

"Then, former Pan-Asian Cooperation intelligence personnel, are you interested in working for me?" Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Mole glanced at Jiang Chen and didn't immediately answer, but he said cautiously.

"I will consider it."

Jiang Chen wasn't too surprised at Mole's answer. NAC might not be better-known than the distant Northern Alliance Area to the local people living on Yizhou, Chen Guangning aside.

It would be good for NAC if the former regime's intelligence personnel worked for him. But if not, there would be no loss.

So Jiang Chen also just smiled and said casually:

"If you agree, you can come to Expedition Fortress to see me."

Leaving the mole with this sentence, Jiang Chen left this dark room with Chen Guangning and Lin Lin, who had long wanted to leave.

Standing in the doorway of the broken shack, Mole watched the three people disappearing in the rainy alley. It wasn't until long after they left that he turned around and went into the dark house.

Chapter 745: The Park in the Mis

The construction speed had been squeezed to the limit. However, whether at least 80% of the project could be completed by March was still unknown. In particular, the rain didn't show any signs of stopping, which cast a shadow over this unstarted battle.

Fifty construction robots had just walked down the production line of the factory at Sixth Street and were dispatched to Yizhou Island by the airship as an emergency. More expeditionary soldiers and employed survivors were also assigned to the project.

Li Wang personally stood at the front lines and supervised the construction. Although he knew that this was more for psychological comfort than any practical purpose, he still did it.

At that point, a deputy officer came to his side.

"There are survivors in the west construction sector protesting. They are demanding salary payment."

Li Wang didn't move his eyes and said emotionlessly:

"In the beginning, we said the salary would be paid after completion."

The deputy officer hesitated but still truthfully reported.

"They are afraid that the project will never be completed."

After a long silence, he said:

"Salary will be paid out on March 2. I don't care what method you use to suppress their attitude."

"Roger!" The deputy officer saluted.

Li Wang clearly knew about how they absolutely could not pay the workers' salaries. As for why, it was not because the NAC lacked the funds, but it was because once the money had been paid out, these people would not stay here to work. Instead, they would take the crystals and go hide in the fallout shelter.

Their pay had to wait until March 2nd, after the door of Fallout Shelter 79 was closed...

At the moment, inside Fallout Shelter 79.

A man dressed in a PAC military uniform was standing in the doorway, staring at the feeble and weak survivors lining up to enter the fallout shelter with his eyes narrowed. He enjoyed the feeling of watching poor people bowing their heads, praying for his protection, and handing him their meager crystals with both hands.

Yuan Yi, mayor of Town No. 79, was also the director of Fallout Shelter 79. Constrained by the understanding of the apocalypse, in the "history of rises and falls" of many fallout shelters, very few blueskins managed to conquer the chaotic wasteland "refugees" and succeed in establishing stable order.

Town No. 79 was undoubtedly an exception.

Long before opening the door, the director of the fallout shelter completed the transformation from democracy to totalitarianism. With sufficient reserves of arms, almost all men in the group of 2,000 were enlisted as soldiers.

When the fallout shelter opened, his attitude toward these wasteland refugees wasn't to aid them - he wanted to conquer them.

Obviously, he succeeded.

Regardless of whether or not the means were extreme, Fallout Shelter 79 successfully survived the first year of its opening and had existed until now.

While Yuan Yi was admiring the expressions of those survivors, his men came over and saluted in a PAC gesture and spoke.

"Director, there's still has no sign of evacuation of the NAC Expeditionary Force from Desperate Beach."

After hearing this news, Yuan Yi narrowed his eyes slightly.

Every Month of Disaster, he could harvest tens of thousands of crystals from these poor worms who came to seek refuge. The size of Town No. 79 developed to today's scale was based on people's fear of the Month of Disaster.

Unlike most survivors, he was unwilling for this disaster to disappear as a vested person in the Month of Disaster.

However, at the moment, he couldn't blatantly act.

The strength demonstrated by NAC made him deeply wary. Disregarding everything aside from the steel airship, he knew very well that the strength on both sides wasn't at the same level.

Yuan Yi thought with his arms folded for a moment before a sinister smile suddenly appeared.

"Let the survivors, who are lurking in the labor forces, make preparations. Before February 28, call for a strike in the name of demanding payment."

The subordinate's eyes lit up and he immediately said:

"The director is brilliant!"

Yuan Yi waved his hand and laughed.

"Make the order for me. If this can be done, there will be great benefits."

"Yes!"

The subordinate nodded but didn't leave immediately.

"Why aren't you leaving?" Yuan Yi asked, frowning.

"There's one more thing to report." The man lowered his head as he spoke.

"What's wrong?"

"The Datun Nature Park scout discovered someone attempting to enter the park..."

...

Today was the 26th, only two days away from the start of the Month of Disaster.

The heavy rain in Yizhou showed signs of easing, but the dark clouds hovering above them made the weather turn into continuous drips.

Muddy water was washed off the road, and due to the lack of maintenance, the cracked country road became a dirt road. Two centimeters of mud later, the concrete road underneath could be seen.

In raincoats, three people stood at the entrance of Datun Natural Park.

Jiang Chen took off his hood and scanned everything in a circle. The dark forests on both sides were disturbing, but after turning on the radio life detection device, they didn't catch any traces of mutant activities. From this point of view, this forest couldn't be safer.

However, it was abnormal.

Jiang Chen frowned slightly.

"It's not just humans who choose to seek refuge in the Month of Disaster. Many mutants will also hide in the caves or rubble of the buildings and avoid the crabs that will eat everything." Seeing the confusion in Jiang Chen's eyes, Chen Guangning explained to him.

"So that's the case." Jiang Chen nodded.

"I'm saying... Do we really have to go up?" Looking at the road leading to Datun Natural Park, Lin Lin's face was filled with intimidation.

Seeing her frightened appearance, Jiang Chen laughed.

This little girl was a digitalized human, but she was even more timid than humans.

Chen Guangning hesitated but also offered his perspective, "I have the same point of view as Miss Lin. The mole said there may be something bad here, so it's better for us to be cautious. In addition, do we really not need the assistance of the expeditionary forces? More than 100 people sent by Fallout Shelter 79 were lost here. We have only three people. What's more..."

[Not to mention you are still NAC's general.]

How could he transport nuclear devices and materials with such a large number of people? As for the danger, Jiang Chen didn't worry too much. As long as he was wearing power armor, there was no possibility of being "killed instantly." No matter what kind of danger he was in, he could quickly disengage.

What's more, the pile of technology hidden in the storage dimension could freely be used, and he would possess the fighting power equivalent to one hundred people.

"You can wait here. And you, Lin Lin, wait until you see my signal."

Leaving these words, Jiang Chen, disregarding how Chen Guangning and Lin Ling would react, revealed a Ripper Assault Rifle under his raincoat and walked alone onto the misty mountain road.

Chapter 746: Ghostly

The more he moved forward, the denser the fog. When he reached the mountainside, the visibility was less than two meters.

Stepping into the uphill muddy road, Jiang Chen threw away his raincoat and exposed the black kinetic skeleton concealed beneath it.

With his tactical helmet wielded, a light blue light spread across the screen, and everything in his field of vision gradually became clear. Although there was a slight difference from daylight, it was not much of hindrance . Jiang Chen opened the safety and loaded the rifle, his movement was much more catuious.

Everything here was strange.

Logically speaking, it was difficult for rain and fog to appear at the same time, especially in heavy rain.

Through the dense and heavy fog, Jiang Chen arrived at the end of the road. It was a resort, but from the size, it wouldn't be wrong to say it was a small town. The roadside sign dangled and rust stained its emerald green surface.

However, Jiang Chen could still catch a glimpse of the remaining white paint.

Terminal Station: Datun Resort

"Is it here?"

Murmuring, Jiang Chen opened the holographic map and confirmed the coordinates. The map Mole gave him had been scanned into an electronic file, including the password for entering the underground nuclear power station.

Directly in front of him, the misty resort looked terrifying, just like a ghostly town in typical horror films.

Two words suddenly popped into Jiang Chen's head.

[Silent Hill?]

A closer look made him realize it was indeed similar, but that was all.

As a determined "non-spiritual warrior", Jiang Chen did not believe in ghosts and demons from a very young age. Despite the clearly abnormal town gave him an ominous feeling, he still moved forward along the dirt path.

But at that moment, he suddenly felt like he was being watched.

He immediately turned back and lifted the muzzle, but there was nothing but thick mist.

"An illusion?"

Jiang Chen whispered, slowly lowering the rifle.

The resort's billboards had broken down on the side of the road, and the windows were all pitch black. If it was not for the life signal detection device revealing that no one is there, he would not have dared to step onto this path.

Without investigating the suspicious houses, Jiang Chen directly went to an abandoned hospital, following the path on the map.

As he crossed the courtyard, he noticed there were many luxury cars parked in the parking lot.

It was evident that this resort in the natural park was very popular among the rich before the war.

According to the information given to him by Mole, the entrance to the nuclear power plant was here.

At the hospital's main building entrance, he hesitated for a moment before he took out the drone terminal from the storage dimension, then deployed it at the door of the hospital. From the time he entered the resort until now, he did not even see a trace of danger, but this strange atmosphere made him unusually cautious.

A dozen Hummingbird drones flew out of the drone terminal and explored the corners of the hospital. The orange light in the fog turned into a beige glow. Although it still was not pleasing to the eye, it was much better than the previous darkness.

Holding a rifle and stepping through the door of the hospital, accompanied by his drones, Jiang Chen's eyes carefully examined every corner.

The hall was very messy, the chairs were sideways on the ground, and documents were scattered everywhere. However, in a scene typical on the wasteland, Jiang Chen still found a hint of unusualness.

It was too clean. He did not even see any corpses!

It was abnormal.

The outbreak of the war was very sudden. If the coast of Yizhou Island, which was on the front lines, had not been specifically targeted by NATO's missiles, the locals certainly would not have much time to evacuate. And he suddenly remembered there were many cars parked in the hospital garage.

This also indirectly showed that when the war happened, people did not leave the hospital at all.

Jiang Chen frowned at the thought.

[Where did they go?]

Passing through a dark corridor, the damp air was mixed with a moldy smell. After opening the air filter on the tactical helmet, his nose felt slightly better.

The entrance to the nuclear power plant was in the basement.

However, as Jiang Chen's target drew closer, his heart became even tenser. So far, he had not encountered any so-called danger. Of course, he would not optimistically think there are no differences between today and five years ago. If that was the case, why did the people from Fallout Shelter 79 never return?

Nothing was more disturbing than the unknown.

He pushed the door of the basement open and threw in a flare, raised his rifle, dashed through the door, and cautiously pointed at his surroundings.

The old medical equipment was cluttered and stacked in the corner of the basement. It looked like no one had been there for a long time.

After lowering the muzzle slightly, Jiang Chen opened the holographic map and confirmed the specific location of the entrance to the refuge. He then carefully approached the left wall of the basement, reached for the tiles above the floor and stopped at the seventh tile on the left. He pressed it down.

As Mole indicated on the back of the map, there was a hidden device on the back of the tile.

A pale orange holographic screen emerged from the wall and stopped in front of Jiang Chen. After he entered the password, the floor gently shook and the stack of medical devices buzzed to form a narrow trail.

Did he finally find it?

Jiang Chen felt relieved and tapped on his wristwatch, ready to bring Lin Lin up the mountain. Transporting nuclear power facilities would require Lin Lin, an expert in this field, to guide him. Tampering with the equipment inside could create special situations, which was why he brought her to Yizhou.

The holographic screen unfolded, but at that moment, his fingers were fixed in the air.

On the wall, he saw a shadow.

An axe was raised...

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Chen slammed his body to the side and rolled on the ground while taking out a nitrogen shield and laser pistol from the storage dimension.

The short axe smashed into the wall and shattered the tiles.

Jiang Chen's pupils contracted.

The figure was as hazy as smoke. The only thing truly visible was the axe.

"Buzz-"

The sound of an electric current entered his ear, Without landing the hit, the figure moved rapidly and flung the short axe in his hand at Jiang Chen.

The high-pressure air current expanded instantly to push the axe aside. At the same time, faint blue laser bullets burst out, displaying the short-range firepower advantage of laser pistols! Laser rain instantly covered the dark shadows and all the spaces it could dodge.

The bullets hit the target at least ten times.

The shadow howled in pain but still didn't lose its mobility.

Taking advantage of the short gap between bullets, it leaped back. The smoke-like figure immediately merged into the fog in the corridor.

Jiang Chen chased it out. At the same time, the Hummingbird drones followed suit.

However, when he stood in the hallway and turned on the life signal detection device, he unexpectedly discovered something odd...

Light blue ripples swept across the screen and there was only blankness on the screen. There was no trace of mutants or human activity at all...

There was a faint chill in his heart and Jiang Chen frowned.

What kind of thing was that dark shadow?

Chapter 747: Clearwater Nuclear Power Plan

Leaning against the wall of the elevator, Jiang Chen quietly waited to descend to the bottom.

The backup power system was still in operation, and that elevator might be the only electrical system in the resort that was still operational. The "black shadow" he previously saw in the basement still lingered in his mind.

He didn't call Lin Lin to come up the mountain, but he chose to enter the nuclear power plant to first explore the area. The black shadow's attack was simply impossible to counter. Even the life detection device could not find its trace of it. Jiang Chen really didn't have the confidence to take care of a person who had no fighting power while protecting himself.

Since it could be wounded by laser bullets, he could already rule out ghosts and other things. However, Jiang Chen ultimately still didn't believe that ghosts and demons existed in the world, but he still couldn't understand what he saw.

"Ding—"

His thoughts were interrupted by the bell of the elevator. Jiang Chen stood still and raised the rifle in his hand.

The elevator slowly opened.

However, to his surprise, this nuclear power plant wasn't empty.

"This is the Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant. Put down your weapon, buddy."

After the elevator opened, six riflemen stood in the doorway and their muzzles pointed straight at him. Jiang Chen responded immediately and aimed his rifle. Although a gun looked laughable compared to six guns, there were ten Hummingbird drones behind him.

"Give me a reason to put down my weapon." Jiang Chen didn't have any intentions of putting his weapon down.

The signal underground was poor, and the drone terminal deployed on the ground couldn't get in touch with the underground drone. However, there were drone backpacks that could be used as a temporary terminal for drones.

Looking at the ten squeaky drones, Zhao Tianyu, who stood in front of Jiang Chen, felt a chill down his spine. Disregarding how many bullets the kinetic skeleton would be able to resist, he didn't know how to deal with the drones.

"Okay... You can hold your weapon, but if you're not looking for trouble, please state your intentions."

After weighing the pros and cons, Zhao Tianyu made a compromise. After all, being able to come here alive meant he wasn't a simple character.

Jiang Chen's eyes focused on their hands for a moment.

They were all PK2000s, although they looked old. Since they were using this type of PAC automatic rifle, commonly found in fallout shelters or pre-war military facilities, Jiang Chen immediately knew their identities. It seemed that what Mole said wasn't necessarily completely true; the one hundred plus people who entered the resort to explore five years ago hadn't all died.

At least, the six people standing in front of him hadn't died.

"I'm a mercenary and I'm employed by the director of Fallout Shelter 079 and came to investigate your... cause of death. I just didn't expect that you are all still alive." To gain their trust, Jiang Chen made up a lie.

The six people looked at each other before a bitter smile formed on their faces.

"Still alive? About twenty are left."

Zhao Tianyu lowered his rifle and the five subordinates who stood next to him also followed suit. Since their visitor was friendly, there was no point in aiming their guns at each other. Jiang Chen also did the same, however, he didn't retract the drones he was with.

"So...may I come in?" Jiang Chen pointed to the outside of the elevator.

"Of course, we can go to our station. Please come with me." Zhao Tianyu welcomed him.

After the elevator was a hall with the characters "Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant." After passing through the hall, in front of an arch, Zhao Tianyu pressed his fingerprint on a scanner and opened the nuclear power plant buried under several hundred meters.

Finally, as he entered the interior of the Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant, Jiang Chen shockingly discovered something.

It wasn't a nuclear power plant; it was a small fallout shelter!

Large and small tents were set up inside in the empty halls, and in the back were the living quarters of the workers. Although Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant was designed to operate on its own for at least 50 years without maintenance, it was designed with a living space for 500 people.

There were more than 500 people crowded there - at least a thousand people.

"These are the aboriginals of the nuclear power plant... There should be no problems referring to them by this name." Zhao Tianyu walked forward with Jiang Chen and introduced him.

From Zhao Tianyu, Jiang Chen immediately understood why he didn't see any corpses at the resort and the owners of the luxury cars in the garage didn't show any signs of leaving. Originally, those people didn't flee to fallout shelters several kilometers away when the nuclear war broke out. Instead, they directly hid in the nuclear power plant.

When the nuclear war broke out, people with a conscience didn't keep the strategic reserve secret; they hid inside with a large group of despairing survivors.

"Originally, these workers' dormitories were occupied by Mud Crabs. We cleared the area after we came."

"Even the most optimistic will become depressed after living underground for a long time. These people aren't the easiest to get along with, but they also need us to maintain order, and they share their extra food with us."

"Food? Where do they get food from?" Jiang Chen confused.

"Mushrooms, algae, and seaweed are all suitable for growth here." Zhao Tianyu grinned. "The nuclear power plant's deuterium refinery has a pipeline that connects with the sea. Not only can it obtain seaweed, but there are a few small fish occasionally."

Planting mushrooms at a nuclear power plant was certainly a different taste of life.

However, Jiang Chen didn't mock their food and remained silent along the way. Avoiding speaking was the best way to disguise himself.

At the end of the workers' dormitories, two guards stood at the entrance in the corner. This place was Fallout Shelter 079 Exploration Team's station. After entering the so-called command room, Zhao Tianyu moved a chair over for Jiang Chen.

"Let's sit."

Jiang Chen sat in the chair and leaned on the rifle next to him.

Zhao Tianyu sat across from him, fingers crossed on the table, and asked Jiang Chen seriously:

"Does the Fog Demon still exist?"

"If you're referring to that shadow with an axe, I think he's still here," Jiang Chen said.

A bitter smile appeared on Zhao Tianyu's face.

"Sure enough... can you tell me how you escaped it?"

"He sneaked from behind. I noticed then I shot him."

Although Jiang Chen said that in an understatement, Zhao Tianyu still felt the danger in his words.

"Good lord, you certainly have a few moves. We had 117 brothers at one time, but only twenty of them made it in here. If I'm not mistaken, those brothers running down the hill must've all died."

"How are you so certain?" Jiang Chen asked.

"It's easy to guess. If they returned to the town alive, the director wouldn't have waited for so many years to collect our bodies," Zhao Tianyu said, "What's your plan now?"

After a moment of silence, Jiang Chen said.

"Take you back and bring these people along the way."

It was inconvenient for him to transfer these nuclear fusion generators and nuclear fuel, and those who depended on nuclear energy would certainly not allow him to move those generators. However, if he could bring them to the outside, he believe they would be happy to give up this nuclear power plant.

"We can't get there." Zhao Tianyu shook his head. "With the Fog Demon guarding outside, people are going to die. The thick fog is his territory. In his territory, we'll die."

"What's this so-called Fog Demon?" Jiang Chen frowned.

When he heard Jiang Chen asking this question, Zhao Tianyu let out a long sigh.

"It's said that he used to be a person who belonged to Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant."

After a short pause, he then continued.

"And he was the one who opened the door and brought these poor people into the nuclear power plant..."

Chapter 748: A Cannibal as Neighbor

More than two decades ago, the war broke out.

The first nuclear bomb exploded in Europe, followed by Wanghai. NATO declared war on Pan-Asia Cooperation. All this happened suddenly, although both the economic crisis and the energy crisis were foreseeable problems, no one had ever thought the two would lead to a war.

Human civilization had been peaceful for too long since the Cold War.

Like other parts of the Pan-Asia Cooperation, this resort in Datun received war alarms within an hour after the collapse of the Holy Shield in Wanghai. However, it was almost impossible for people at a resort far away from an urban area to go to an urban fallout shelter within an hour.

A feeling of despair overshadowed everyone.

Faced with inevitable death, everyone was helpless. They couldn't do anything except cry and pray.

At that point, one person stood up.

He claimed to be an intelligence officer of the Pan-Asia Cooperation and guarded the secrets of the underground nuclear power plant. As one of the strategic reserves, the design of Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant was a quasi-fallout-shelter. Although there were no reserves of living necessities, it wouldn't be difficult to resist nuclear strikes.

"... Then, under his leadership, people moved the entire resort's food, medicine, tents, and other living supplies into Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant." Zhao Tianyu told them.

"What does this have to do with that Fog Demon?" asked Jiang Chen.

"After that, something unbelievable happened." Zhao Tianyu shrugged then said, "You must've heard of genetic vaccines."

"Yes."

"The lucky ones can unlock special abilities through genetic vaccines; more common ones are fury, rapid healing, visual enhancement, etc., There are some more special abilities that even cannot be explained by science..."

"Such as that Fog Demon?" Jiang Chen scowled. "...I thought it was a different species.'s

"No, he's a person, and he was once a great man. Between his responsibilities and human nature, he made the right choice, but in the end, people weren't able to forgive him for some reason and he was forced out by the survivors." Zhao Tianyu laughed.

"What unforgivable thing did he do?" asked Jiang Chen.

"Thirteen years ago, the seawater pipeline that provided food for the survivors of the nuclear power plant was invaded by Mud Crabs. The survivors, who had never seen these creatures, were beaten by hungry Mud Crabs and fled. Not only did they lose the deuterium refinery, but they also lost the workers' dormitories. In order to drive away these Mud Crabs, he injected illicit drugs that didn't pass clinical trials, forcibly unlocked the hidden genetic code, drove away the Mud Crabs occupying the pipeline, and destroyed their nests."

"What was unforgivable about this?" Jiang Chen laughed.

"The unforgivable thing is what happened after. The illicit drug wasn't without its side effects. While unraveling the genetic code, that drug also caused a mutation in his V127 gene." After a pause, Zhao Tianyu smiled, lowered his voice and said, "The V127 mutation, also known as a cannibalism gene."

"He ate people?" Jiang Chen was slightly caught off-guard.

"No, but do you think a group of weak and pathetic people would allow a potential cannibal to live next door to them? What's more, the sneak ability he unlocked made him a natural killer. And in day to day life, he did show a desire for human flesh and blood." Zhao Tianyu smiled, but his smile was brutal.

At that point, Jiang Chen could've guessed what happened next.

The hero who originally saved everyone was expelled by the people he saved. He was expelled from the nuclear power station, disheartened by what happened, and faced the empty ruins outside. He exiled himself in the dust of radiation and became a true cannibal, hunting everyone who broke into this place or humans who intended to escape from there.

"I know that much. If you want to find out more about him, you can go to Doctor Mike at the clinic. The illicit drug that was injected by the Fog Demon was made by him. He's a Portuguese foreigner, but his Chinese is quite good. He is also very easy to get along with," Zhao Tianyu said with a smile.

"I will." Jiang Chen nodded.

"It's getting late. I'll arrange a room for you."

"I have to go back as soon as possible. There are still people waiting for me under the mountain." Jiang Chen shook his head.

"It's very dangerous at night. During the day, the Fog Demon is just a ghost, but at night, he's the devil reincarnated," Zhao Tianyu said seriously.

After weighing all the pros and cons, Jiang Chen eventually accepted his offer. Although he was unable to communicate with the outside world through radio in the underground facility, he and Lin Lin didn't need radio; they could use the Klein particle wave that could even transmit between timelines.

When Jiang Chen entered the room provided by Zhao Tianyu, he checked all corners of the room and confirmed there was nothing spying on him. He immediately contacted Lin Lin. As soon as the call was connected, Lin Lin's anxious face appeared as a holographic image.

"Where are you now? Why have you not come down yet?"

"I've already entered the nuclear power plant... The situation on the mountain is a bit strange. I won't be able to explain it to you in a short time. In short, it's dangerous here. You shouldn't come up."

When Lin Lin heard the mountains were dangerous, her face immediately turned pale.

"Wait, are you in danger?"

"No, I'm more worried about you... Well, you and Chen Guangning should return to the base first, and when I solve this issue, I'll come looking for you."

After explaining the situation to her, Jiang Chen turned off the hologram and ended communication before heading outside the room.

The people who lived there were very pale as they lived in the ground all year round without any sunlight exposure. This kind of paleness didn't look aesthetically pleasing, but rather, it was an unhealthy, morbid state. Walking in the hallway of this underground residence, Jiang Chen noticed that the people around him were watching him with vigilant eyes.

There was curiosity and temptation, but there was almost more distrust.

There was only one clinic in the entire Clearwater Nuclear Power Station. Jiang Chen found it without much effort and met Mike.

When Mike saw Jiang Chen, he immediately recognized he was from the outside and he certainly looked surprised.

"I guess you're not coming to see the doctor. But before you ask me any questions, I want to ask you first - how did you get in here?"

Jiang Chen repeated the previous remarks he made to Zhao Tianyu.

After listening to him, Mike nodded, dropped the pen he had been spinning in his hands, and sighed.

"I see ... looks like not all hatred fades with time."

"Compared to hatred, I think it's more like a beast's instinct that's driving him."

Upon hearing Jiang Chen's words, Mike looked genuinely surprised for a moment before his expression was replaced by intrigue.

"Oh? Can you explain in detail?"

Upon hearing Mike's words, Jiang Chen smiled helplessly.

[It was me who came to inquire about intelligence. How did I eventually become the person being questioned?]

Jiang Chen selectively repeated his encounter with the Dog Demon. After listening to his story, the expression on Mike's face also gradually turned stern.

After a moment of silence, he said slowly:

"If my guesses are correct, he should've unlocked the third stage of the genetic code."

Chapter 749: Suppress

It was already February 27th and it was drawing closer and closer to the Month of Disaster.

The Mud Crabs near the beach had begun to rattle, and some even ended their hibernation early and began to move ashore. After discovering the situation, Li Wang immediately organized troops to attack Mud Crabs and finish them before they could land.

However, unlike the expeditionary forces who had seen stormy weather, the survivors working at the wall immediately collapsed emotionally.

On the evening of the same day, under the instigation of moles of Town No. 79 in the labor force, all the survivors dropped their tools and gathered in the open space in front of Desperate Beach. A large crowd gathered of more than two thousand people.

"Give us our wages! If you don't give us crystals, we won't work!"

"Yes! We won't work!"

"We're not free labor!"

"Give me my hard-earned crystals!"

"..."

NAC soldiers temporarily surrounded the demonstrators, but there was no order and nobody knew what to do at the moment. After the deputy commander ordered his troops to control the situation, he immediately ran back to the command post and looked for Li Wang. The General wasn't there, so at the moment, he was the one with the decision-making power.

"How many people are there after the strike?" After listening to the situation, Li Wang only asked one question.

"Almost all," The deputy commander said while sweating profusely.

Li Wang didn't say anything. He nodded and headed straight for the door.

...

It had been ten days since construction on the wall started. For all laborers involved in the project, NAC had generously provided food and shelter, so for these survivors, all the crystals they earned were theirs to keep.

One day's wages were five crystals, so ten days would be fifty! The entrance to the fallout shelter was also exactly fifty crystals!

With these fifty crystals, everyone had the opportunity to pay for admission to the fallout shelter. There was no need to join NAC's people in betting on this impossible-to-finish wall.

It was precisely because of this that the survivors protested so loudly.

Standing in front of these survivors and looking at the countless faces, Li Wang was lost in thought.

If they gave them the crystals now, they would, without a doubt, run to the fallout shelter. Everyone knew the fallout shelter couldn't possibly hold everyone and would hold 1,000 more at maximum.

Whoever ran the fastest could live.

The rest could only die.

Interestingly, Li Wang could detect the desire for survival from each of his pupils. When a person had a strong desire for survival, it would undoubtedly become a force to help him. However, when everyone collectively had a strong desire for survival, it would only speed up their collective destruction.

"The project is only 75% completed, according to the order of the General..." The deputy commander whispered.

If they failed to complete 80% of the project before March 1st, they would temporarily evacuate from the island. However, the deputy commander didn't finish his sentence because he wasn't sure what the captain meant.

"The general hasn't returned yet," Li Wang said, "And there are eight hours before March 1st."

The deputy commander smiled bitterly and said nothing. He just turned to look at those protesting.

Only eight hours. Even if they were given two more days, he was afraid the wall still wouldn't be completed.

"Your crystals are here!"

Li Wang's roar interrupted the survivors' protests.

Or rather, the keywords of his sentence attracted the attention of all survivors.

The voices of the protest ceased. Li Wang gestured the deputy commander next to him and whispered two sentences.

After listening to Li Wang, the deputy commander had somewhat of a bizarre expression, but he still nodded and left.

Soon, a full, tall box half-person in height was carried up by two soldiers.

The box fell heavily on the ground and a hole was formed in the sand. Li Wang only glanced at it before he said emotionlessly.

"Open it."

"Roger that!"

The soldiers who brought the box saluted. In front of everyone, they opened the box.

For a brief moment, the dark green light made all the survivors hold their breaths. A pair of black pupils were painted green!

A box full of crystals!

They had never seen so many crystals!

Looking at the greedy sight, Li Wang sneered and said emotionlessly, "I heard... Someone doubted our ability to pay?"

The protesting survivors looked at each other blankly and didn't know what to say.

Seeing that the situation was about to be controlled, those with ulterior motives naturally couldn't stand it. At this time, someone hid in the crowd and shrieked.

"Since you have money, why don't you pay us!?"

Soon, people in the crowd began to echo the same sentiment.

"That's right! Since you actually have the crystals, why don't you give us our wages?!"

The momentum of the protest once again heated up.

Li Wang stood there and looked indifferently at the furious faces. From the crowd, he suddenly saw a gloating face. In a flash, he seemed to understand something, and he sneered.

Quietly waiting for all the frustrations to be unloaded, he raised his pistol and pressed the trigger at the sky.

"Boom—"

When the gun was shot, the crowd was instantly silenced.

Li Wang glanced at these survivors and slowly said:

"The first person who started the commotion, the second person to agree with him, and the third person to respond, please come out."

No one moved; obviously, no one would move.

Li Wang sneered then said:

"The whistleblower will be rewarded with ten crystals per person."

After that, Li Wang didn't waste a word. He grabbed a handful of crystals and tossed them on the ground.

"No need to wait for a few days."

In an instant, everyone held their breaths then their gazes focused on the crystals of the ground and involuntarily flitted to the one who shrieked. Their eyes were like swords, pointing out the mole causing a mess.

As he was stared at by the people around him, the short man shook his head in a panic.

"You - why are you looking at me? No, I didn't shout first..."

"Ten crystals." Li repeated emotionlessly then added another sentence: "Only ten whistleblowers will be chosen. If you push him up, you get the crystals."

When that was said, no one hesitated anymore.

Many pairs of hands were pressed against the little man. It wasn't the will of a certain person, but the greed of a group who pushed him out of the crowd.

"No, not me. Fu*k, don't push me!"

Nobody cared how he screamed. Along with him, the first two people to agree were immediately shoved to the front of the crowd. People rushed to the crystals on the ground and even started fighting. Li Wang ignored them but looked at the short man.

With a chill down his spine, the short man gritted his teeth and met Li Wang's eyes as he said wickedly:

"What's wrong with that? You owe people crystals, and you don't want anyone to say it?"

He was betting that if NAC still wanted this project to go on, they wouldn't do anything to him. As long as he escaped this, he could return to Fallout Shelter 79 and claim his reward. Although he firmly believed that NAC wouldn't do anything to him, Li Wang's stare made him feel nervous.

His stare was just like staring at a dead person.

"I don't know who the master is behind you, and I'm not interested in finding out," said Li Wang in a voice everyone could hear.

He wasn't speaking to a certain person but to the moles still hidden in the crowd who hadn't yet been caught.

"What do you want?" the short man asked anxiously.

Li Wang grinned.

"What's your name?"

"Lin-Lin Zhengyang," the short man said in a trembling voice.

"Excellent. I will write that on the grave for you."

As soon as his voice faded, before anyone could respond, Li Wang pointed the pistol at Lin Zhengyang's forehead and pressed the trigger.

Chapter 750: The True Form of the Fog Demon

Bang!

The sound of a gunshot pierced the silence on the beach and the survivors who were fighting for the crystals stopped and looked slyly in the direction of the gunshot. When they pushed out the man named Lin Zhengyang, they never thought the NAC would shoot him...

"Ahhhh!"

Seeing as their accomplice was killed, the remaining two people screamed and ran away. However, they had yet to take two steps before the soldiers standing on the edge of the beach lifted their rifles and without hesitation, turned the two into sieves.

The gun smoke dissipated. Looking at the three people fallen in pools of blood, the beach was dead silent.

No one thought that NAC, who had always been "nice," would suddenly execute the three people who caused the protest. Looking at Li Wang's cold eyes, a chill went down all the survivors' spines.

"We have the option to leave this place." Li Wang pointed at his own feet then pointed to the sky.

"We have airships. Just like when we arrived, if we can't defend this place, we could withdraw from here first and wait until the Month of Disaster has passed and come back. Losses? Do you think those crabs could destroy our fortress? Even if they can, we can build another one. What about you guys.? You can wait for your deaths here and feed the crabs."

The survivors held their breaths.

It wasn't that they hadn't considered this option, but they all had the same fluke mentality.

The fallout shelter could hold around 1,000 more people. They had a fifty percent chance of getting in; no matter how unlucky they were, they felt that the person who died shouldn't be themselves.

Li Wang scanned the survivors.

He knew that as the entity with the greatest to gain in the Month of Disaster, Fallout Shelter 79 had the most motivation to do these things. At the same time, he also knew there were more than three survivors disrupting everything.

But no matter how many moles were left, what he wanted to say wouldn't change.

"We said from the beginning that the crystals will be paid after the project is completed. Now, I will add that if the project isn't completed, we will still give you these shiny things before our evacuation. But I promise that by then, even if you have the money, you won't have the life to spend them."

"Our troops will fight for time for you, and whether you survive will depend on you. Don't expect me to give you crystals in advance and let you fight to get into the fallout shelter. I'll be clear with you - you must be dreaming to think that will happen!"

"You only have two choices now."

"Either finish the project and live, or throw away the tools in your hands and get the hell back to your kennel to wait for your death!"

...

Turning into a mist wasn't the same as sneak, but the integration of the body into the fog was in the true sense, disappearing

Compared to fury and other self-enhancing capabilities, this ability to Mystify was undoubtedly somewhat supernatural. After all, neither thermal imaging nor heartbeat sensing could capture the user's tracks. However, unlike other undiscovered abilities, the data on the mystify capability was documented in the Pan-Asian Cooperation hidden genetic code research archive.

The so-called mystify couldn't turn the body into water vapor, but when the air humidity broke through a certain critical value, it allowed the entire body's particles to hide between the gaps the third and fourth dimensions, resulting in the ability to disappear.

Fog wasn't the cause of the phenomenon but rather, an enabler of the phenomenon.

In simple terms, he could hide his form only in the presence of fog. However, with the current state of technology, the inevitable link between "fog" and this ability couldn't be explained for the time being. Even the scientists in the twenty-second century had little knowledge in the study of fourth dimensions.

When he heard this, Jiang Chen's face suddenly appeared quirky.

[It seems that any ability to evolve to the third level is related to the four-dimensional Klein particle.]

However, this wasn't the focus.

Since he knew the weakness of the Fog Demon, he had already thought about how to deal with that guy.

The next day at noon.

After he bid farewell to Zhao Tianyu, Jiang Chen embarked on the elevator back to the basement.

The door to the elevator opened. Jiang Chen didn't release the drones from his backpack. He immediately threw out the lighting in his hand and walked outside the door.

The murderous air was filled with thick fog. The fog was thick in a vicious form that was touchable. The moist air was like the hand of the Slim Reaper. Under the thin illumination of the flares, everything looked like shadows.

Jiang Chen breathed the vicious air and said softly:

"I guess you're nearby although I don't know where you are, am I right?"

He wasn't sure whether the Fog Demon heard him, nor was he certain whether it was possessed any human consciousness to understand what he said.

With the rifle in his hand, Jiang Chen looked around the empty room before he sneered.

For the Fog Demon with close-ranged weapons, if he made up his mind to prevent anyone from escaping from here, then this hospital was definitely his last chance. Once the battlefield changed into open space, his chances of winning would be reduced by at least half.

Jiang Chen could feel he was waiting for an opportunity, but Jiang Cheng didn't show anxiety. He headed for the basement doorway.

A raised foot hung over the basement door. Jiang Chen didn't step out of the door but slammed the door to the basement and locked himself and the Fog Demon in the basement.

Although he could hide his body between the third and fourth dimensions, this didn't mean he could teleport through a wall! This was his weakness. After entering this kind of "mist state," the ability to rely on fog was only possible inside the fog, and there was obviously no fog in the walls.

Almost at the same moment when he closed the door, a strong wind blew at him.

However, this strike failed to hit Jiang Chen. It slashed into empty air.

The Fog Demon that showed its figure paused for a split second. His ugly beastlike face was filled with disbelief. His prey just disappeared in front of him. This strange hunting experience was something he never experienced before.

But then, he suddenly noticed the prey's backpack was on the ground.

A strong uneasiness entered his heart. The beast's instincts drove him to respond and immediately started to mystify. Almost at the same time, the backpack suddenly exploded.

The explosion wasn't particularly powerful, but the scene was spectacular.

In the enchanted white fog, a string of powders sprinkled every corner of the room. The coldness instantly filled the room in a split second, big water drops began to crystallize and the air humidity dropped at a visibly noticeable rate!

It was dry ice!

A whole backpack of dry ice!

With an agonizing shout, the Fog Demon, who just suffered frostbite, stumbled out from the fading mist, and the illusory shadow began to fade from his body. The ugly face started to gradually return to a human-like appearance.

Just like a werewolf after the full moon, he returned to his weak figure.

"It's really surprising... Although I heard the Fog Demon was once an intelligence officer, I thought you might be connected to the Fog Demon somehow. But I really didn't think you would be the Fog Demon himself."

When the fog dispersed, Jiang Chen returned to the room and held the hilt of the laser sword in his hand. With a perplexed expression, he gazed at the man curled up on the ground.

It was no one other than the intelligence trafficker in Town No. 79, the man named Mole...

Chapter 751: The Fight in the Basemen

"Yes, it's me."

A white mist was leaking from his mouth, Mole with a grin stood up from the ground; his body was trembling.

The dry ice spread out in the basement, causing the temperature to drop instantly to the freezing point.

Not just Mole, Jiang Chen noticed that his tactical helmet screen had gradually begun to precipitate with ice shards. However, these ice crystals were not bothersome, he was only a bit cold compared to the Fog Demon that had been duped by dry ice powder.

"This is the industry norm?" Looking at the Mole that moved to the corner, Jiang Chen smiled wickedly, "The intelligence trafficker and cannibal?"

"The intelligence trafficker is my side business. What could be more fun than killing people?" Mole licked the corner of his mouth and drew two daggers from his pockets. He put them in front of his chest, like a cross. "Yes, dry ice can indeed cause me problems, especially in this small place."

While Mole said this, his eyes glanced at the door behind him.

"I didn't expect to encounter the same kind here."

"I don't think we are the same kind," Jiang Chen laughed.

"Oh? The ability to just disappear, you didn't get this when you unlocked the third level of genetic code?" Mole's pupils showed a look of interest, depressing his hoarse voice. "If I'm not mistaken, you could only reappear where you disappeared right."

Hearing the words of Mole, Jiang Chen's clearly looked surprised.

He didn't expect this guy's head to be quite clever, worthy of his role as an intelligence officer. Although he could not guess the essence of his ability to travel interdimensional, he instantly recognized the only weakness.

However, even if he saw this through weakness, Jiang Chen also had the confidence to beat him.

The tube he was holding vibrated, and a light blue laser blade emerged out of nowhere. Jiang Chen turned his wrist a few times.

"Any last words, I will write an epitaph for you."

Upon seeing this, Mole's pupils contracted, but soon a emotionless smile appeared on his face.

"Since we both unlocked the third level, you should not be naive to think that my power is only to mystify."

Jiang Chen noticed that his face, which had been damaged by the dry ice, was gradually healing. It seems that the unraveling genetic code not only gave him super abilities and powerful physical qualities but also enhanced his natural healing ability.

Mole's back was bent, and he lowered his body more and more. At the same time, the two daggers in front of the chest gradually formed into the shape of an X.

Suddenly, a ray of light burst from his eyes, and the murderous vibe pierced toward Jiang Chen. At the same time, the two daggers drew a dark arc, and his sudden accelerated body dashed toward Jiang Chen.

"Go to hell!"

The light and shadows danced. The blue arc formed into a semicircle and slashed open the two dark shadows. There was no sharp metal sounds, Jiang Chen's pupil contracted slightly, and he saw that the two dark shadows instantly dodged his slash and turned into two ghosts stabbing toward him.

Too late to hesitate, Jiang Chen activated his Peerless ability. The laser sword in his right formed a circular arc, and the left hand took out the high-frequency vibrating particle dagger, slamming toward the air to his left side.

PING!

Metal collision sounds echoed in the room. Although less powerful, the technological level was not comparable. Jiang Chen's particle dagger sliced through the dagger in Mole's hands without any suspense. Then another laser sword slashed to his face.

The dagger was slashed in half, and Mole did not hesitate to throw the hilt at Jiang Chen's face, using the opportunity to force Jiang Chen to back down and to create distance. However, Jiang Chen did not give him a chance to breathe. He easily avoided the broken dagger, the trailing light on the laser sword formed a perfect curvature. With a light blade forming out from the blade, it spun and flew to Mole just regaining his balance.

Leaning to the side, Mole began to sweat profusely and barely escaped this fatal blow. However, he had not yet fully relaxed when a round of bullets arrived.

[Fu*k! Where did he get the gun from?]

Mole's pupils were almost bulging out. He remembered clearly that when Jiang Chen came out, he was empty handed!

Through the fog slashed out by the light blade, he temporarily activated mystify. With the mist that had suddenly melted away, he flew two meters away and escaped the bullets.

Jiang Chen's pupils were slightly zoomed, and his eyes were locked on the Mole's escaping figure. The empty rifle was thrown away and the second submachine gun was taken out in a fluid motion.

Emotions were stripped from his body. The brain was clearer than ever before, and fighting was as easy as breathing and drinking water.

The spitting flames danced in the room, and the bullets looked like they were chasing behind Mole's buttocks. With nowhere to escape, Mole dove behind a surgery table, lifted it up onto his shoulders, and slammed it against Jiang Chen like a giant shield.

However, before he could even take two more steps, together with the surgery table on his shoulder, he flew backwards as if he had been hit by a train. Blood spilled out of his mouth, and Mole along with the broken surgery table smashed into the wall.

Clank.

Jiang Chen threw away the power hammer in his hands, moved around his sore wrists. The pupils gradually recovered to clarity.

Coughing blood, Mole covered his chest and looked at Jiang Chen who had come to his side. He moved his right hand and found that the hand had been fractured.

"...Looks like you many good things," said Mole, panting, and coughing out blood.

"It's a pity that you won't have a chance to see all of them." Jiang Chen smiled, and with no nonsense, he raised his pistol and pulled the trigger.

...

Bang!

Rain of gunshots sounded and orange bullets covered Desperate Beach.

As night fell, the crabs eager to move gradually gathered on the shoreline. Listening to the deafening gunshots, the survivors resisted the fear in their hearts and mechanically repeated the movements in their hands, dragging the cement bricks to the walls and applying cement.

The first of the more than 50 defensive towers that had been built unleashed the firepower of the machine guns. The rear support placed out mortars and shells and fired electromagnetic pulse bombs at the beach.

Ordinary rifle bullets caused little harm to the Mud Crabs, but the rain of bullets composed of machine guns was still a great deterrent to the Mud Crabs.

Ten sets of power armor stood in front of the beach, swiftly rotating the barrel of the revolving machine guns, and venting out their fierce firepower. Of those power armors, the captain's Li Wang was among them. Personally dressed in T-4 power armor, he took the lead and immediately boosted the morale on the frontline, suppressing the Mud Crabs that landed on the beach along the shoreline.

Just when they woke up from their hibernation, they were attacked. The Mud Crabs were immediately angered by this group of humans seeking death. Their six legs quickly moved under their thick armor as they rushed to those who opened fire.

"Their shells are too thick! I think we should bring up the anti-tank cannons!" In the bunker next to Li Wang, the deputy commander wearing kinetic skeleton reloaded and said through gritted teeth.

"If we have that many anti-tank cannons." Li Wang moved away from the red hot barrel and threw out the signal bomb in his hands.

Not far away, in the direction of the expedition form fortress, flame flared.

Afterward, low-pitched buzzing roared and countless rockets fell from the sky, covering the entire battlefield and turning the beach into a sea of flames.

The fire engulfed the Mud Crabs and even melted the sand. The soldiers stopped shooting and lowered their muzzles, watching the Mud Crab that had just been submerged in the sea of fire, their pupils showed no sign of ease at all.

Even if all NAC's airships were mobilized to this supply line, it would be impossible for this fire to burn continuously.

The Mud Crabs were temporarily suppressed by the fire and returned to the sea. Their small, dark green eyes flashed fierce hatred. They waited eagerly for the fire to extinguish.

Yes, no fire could burn forever...

Chapter 752: Reward

The terrifying blood hole was printed on the forehead of the Fog Demon, the vicious pupils gradually faded, and the cold basement returned to silence.

Confirming that the guy was dead, Jiang Chen only then put away his weapon and slowly felt relieved.

The guy's fighting power was indeed impressive, and the two daggers were like shadows. If it weren't for his Peerless ability, he did not have the confidence to win the duel.

The light of the flares were flickering, resembling the person that just died.

Using the flickering light, Jiang Chen noticed a necklace hanging from his neck.

Out of curiosity, Jiang Chen bowed down and took the silver chain out of his pocket.

It was a rusted soldier's card. Only three words could be seen.

[Qin Chuan, Captain]

Turning it over, small twisted words were scribbled on the back of the soldier's card.

[Code: Mole]

He didn't say anything. Silently, he put the chain back into his pocket and closed his eyes.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed that in the pocket of Captain Qin Chuan, there was something that resembled a notebook. The crumbled notebook was taken out and Jiang Chen flipped through it. Apart from the hidden code that he couldn't understand, he found a pen drawn map.

The location of the map seems to be within the resort.

What will be there?

With hesitation, Jiang Chen threw the notebook back into the storage dimension.

Anyway, since most of the troubles were solved, it would not be a big deal to take a look along the way.

Returning to the nuclear power plant, Jiang Chen told the underground survivors that the Fog Demon had died. At first hearing this news, their first reaction was disbelief. Afterwards, they voted for two delegates that stepped into the elevator in a heroic manner and went to the surface to confirm whether the Fog Demon was really dead.

Jiang Chen didn't bother with the slow survivors, he found Zhao Tianyu and also told the news to the people of Fallout Shelter 079.

"Dead? Really?" Zhao Tianyu looked at Jiang Chen blankly.

More than 100 people have been killed by that guy with only 20 left. He really couldn't imagine Jiang Chen killed the terrifying devil by himself.

"Yes." Jiang Chen nodded and looked to Zhao Tianyu. "Those survivors are planning to go to the surface, but before that, they intend to send a representative to explore the surface first. What about you? What's your plan?"

Zhao Tianyu pondered for a moment. He didn't answer Jiang Chen's questio, but began to speak abruptly.

"You are not from Fallout Shelter 079 nor a mercenary who is working for Yuan Yi. Am I right?"

"Oh? Why do you say that?" After being identified, Jiang Chen did not deny it, but looked at him intriguingly.

"Because Yuan Yi could never find such a strong helper. I don't plan to return to the fallout shelter for the time being. Maybe I'll go back later... If my computer's calendar is correct, tomorrow should be March 1st, the first day of the Month of Disaster. The door to the fallout shelter will close at 12 o'clock tonight, and even if we go back now, we won't be able to get through the door."

Although he was deceived, Zhao Tianyu's didn't not look upset at all, but he looked at Jiang Chen genuinely and thanked him. "Anyway, you solved the trouble outside for us, and I owe you one."

Regarding Zhao Tianyu's promise, Jiang Chen only smiled and did not put too much weight on it. He was the NAC General. What could the head of a mercenary of more than twenty people do for him? What concerned him was that, unknowingly, it was already the 28th.

There is no sunlight in the ground. If he didn't look at his watch, the feeling of time was almost non-existent. After Jiang opened the watch, he discovered that it was already 11 o'clock at night. He didn't know how the expeditionary force was doing over there.

"Tomorrow is the Month of Disaster, and I have to take my people and make preparations. I won't stay with you for the time being. If you are here for the generator set at the nuclear power plant, I could give you half the nuclear fusion generators, including the deuterium fuel."

Zhao Tianyu's generosity made Jiang Chen feel a little surprised. He was still thinking about how to distract them so he could secretly move a few nuclear fusion generators from the Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant. However, he did not think Zhao Tianyu would mention it first.

"This is your deserved reward. You solved the problem for us. I can't let you leave empty-handed," Zhao Tianyu said genuinely.

There were hundreds of tons of fuel stored in Clearwater Nuclear Power Station. Enough for Taipei to use for several years, not to mention the small settlements of just more than 1,000 people in this area. With the pre-war storage technology, these deuterium would not be depleted by natural decay even after they have been stored for centuries. That means that in the next few hundred years, this settlement would not have to worry about energy.

Zhao Tianyu very keenly guessed that Jiang Chen was thinking about the nuclear power station, or else he would not come here in the first place. In that case, it would be better to offer half of the generators on their own initiative to gain a favor.

Graciously accepting his kindness, Jiang Chen said with a smile.

"Your generosity will bring you good luck."

"I hope so." Zhao Tianyu laughed heartily. "There are nuclear physics experts among the survivors. I will convince them to help you bring the generators and deuterium storage tanks to the surface. But I suggest that you wait until the Month of Disaster is over to leave. There is no place safe on the entire island."

"The Mud Crabs won't hurt me." Jiang Chen shook his head and declined his good intentions. He smiled and said, "I'll try to think of a way to move the generators. I will have to count on you on the dissembling process."

After bidding farewell with Zhao Tianyu, Jiang Chen rested for a night in his room.

The next day, Zhao Tianyu came to see him and told him that five nuclear fusion generators had been dismantled and transported to the surface. Not only that, but he also found a still-usable truck near the resort's warehouse and loaded Jiang Chen's nuclear fusion generators and storage tanks.

Before bidding goodbye, Zhao Tianyu gave him a USB.

"Inside is a blueprint of a nuclear fusion generator and the Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant management program. I asked the nuclear physics scientists to make you a copy. Perhaps you will be able to use them."

"That's amazing." Jiang Chen smiled and accepted the USB in his hand.

"Take care, will we meet again with luck." Zhao Tianyu extended his hand and solemnly bid farewell to him.

"Take care." Jiang Chen shook his hand and released it. Then he suddenly mysteriously smiled and added a sentence. "It may not be long before we will meet again."

Leaving this sentence that made Zhao Tianyu confused, Jiang Chen headed in the direction of the elevator.

...

The fog that lingered around Datun Mountain still did not disperse, but the fear that had been hidden in the fog disappeared.

More than 20 years have passed, and many people have already entered the prime of life from their childhood, moving from their prime to old age. When they saw this once picturesque resort, reminiscing the good times before the war, and watching its rundown state now, it was hard to avoid being depressed. Many people even hid their faces and began to cry.

Their cry was like an elegy, mourning the death of civilization.

As for those who were born in the nuclear power plant, because it was the first time they saw the outside world, they expressed more yearning rather than despair compared to their parents. Once they thought that Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant was the entire world, and the mushroom garden was paradise. Now they have discovered that the world is so vast and covered in green in every inch of the Datun Mountain.

Without bothering with these survivors and after leaving the hospital, Jiang Chen took out the maps he found on Captain Qin Chuan from the storage dimension.

Before leaving, he intended to go to the location on the map first. Maybe he could find some interesting things there.

For example... the secret of unlocking the third-level of the genetic code.

Chapter 753: The Cabin by the Lake

On the first of March, the Month of Disaster arrived on schedule.

Mud Crabs began to awaken from hibernation one after another and emerged from the shallows. They began to move on to the beach. Hunger and breeding biological instincts drove these creatures forward. Any other creatures would not be foraging. Even the Dead Claws would not dare to appear in front of these monsters that consumed everything.

On Desperate Beach, piles of triangular spines tied with graphene ropes were placed on the beach. The wooden stakes were connected by barbed wire, just like countless tank traps.

This was the idea Li Wang's deputy commander came up with. Although it looked stupid, it was surprisingly effective. These stakes may not be able to stab through the shells of the Mud Crabs, but they were heavy and strong enough to impede their movement. For a creature like the Mud Crab with short legs, either they remove the entire stake or push the stakes forward in the sand.

Before the wall is built, they could only use this method to stop the footsteps of the Mud Crabs. The supply line from Yizhou to Wanghai was too long and the number of "Fireball-1" was limited. Therefore, artillery coverage must be used in critical areas.

NAC's soldiers attacked the Mud Crabs trying to cross the line behind bunkers and stakes.

More and more wooden stakes were placed on the beach to gain time for the construction of the wall. The artillery intermittently fired toward the beach and provided soldiers with a slight chance to catch their breath in the frontline.

In the Expeditionary Fortress, with the exception of artillery soldiers and a small amount of logistical personnel, non-combat units had begun to evacuate to the airship.

Lin Lin looked pale in the cockpit of AS Order when she gazed at the direction of Desperate Beach. The wave made up by Mud Crabs formed a dark green steel turbid that squeezed through the NAC soldiers' defenses...

Her small hands tightly squeezed in front of her chest before fixating to the direction of Datun Mountain. The small lips repeatedly whispered the same sentence.

"Big Pervert... Please be safe."

...

It was a log cabin next to the resort's Clearwater Lake. Until he saw the rusty sign, Jiang Chen did not know why the name of the nuclear power plant was not called the Datun Nuclear Power Plant, but instead, Clearwater.

While there were houses everywhere, for some strange reason, he chose to build this wooden cabin by the lake.

Pushing open the decaying wooden door, a damp, musty smell blew into his face.

Jiang Chen walked into the house and examined the layout.

Pots and pans were all available, but it didn't look like someone lived there. The corners of the cabin were filled with thick cobwebs. Moss and mushrooms grew wildly. The foot-sized cockroaches quickly escaped into their caves, revealing the desolation of the area.

There were a pile of nutrient supply beside the cabinets and some pickled Mud Crab roe. Evidently, this place was his hiding place during the Month of Disaster. If he didn't enter the shelter, it was a good place to take refuge.

A diary was placed on the table in the wooden house with its pages already turning yellow. Jiang Chen picked up the diary, shook off the dust on the cover, and turned to read the contents of the diary.

This diary was written after he was expelled from the nuclear power plant and it recorded his adventures over the years. Unlike the notebook on which the map was drawn, the text recorded in this diary was very neat, and the writing style was very delicate. It was difficult to associate the diary with the murderous demon.

When betrayed by the people he once guarded, he moved from "neutral good" to "chaotic evil". Instead of suppressing the desire for blood, he followed this desire and perfectly played the role of Fog Demon. He used the status of an intelligent trafficker to throw off the bait and hunted every survivor near Datun Mountain that fell into his trap.

However, Captain Qin Chuan, Mole, Fog Demon, and the man with triple identities eventually died in the secret doorway he guarded.

On the last pages of the diary, Jiang Chen finally find out about the third-level genetic code he was looking for.

According to his description, when he ate the hundredth heart, a strange mutation appeared in his body. He took the instrument from the hospital, and conducted genetic sequencing with his own blood, and finally found that his V127 gene mutant, the cannibalism gene, had further mutations that stimulated the hidden gene to unlock the third level genetic code.

"Eating people to evolve? This is bullsh*t right." Jiang Chen could not help but scorn as he put down the diary.

It seemed that the way everyone evolved is not the same. The reason why Bo Yu evolved to the third level was probably based on believers' beliefs, and the reason why this Fog Demon evolved was because of cannibalism. Jiang Chen could not help but think about what his path would be to the third level.

After leaving the diary in the wooden cabin, Jiang Chen found the blood sample he used for gene sequencing and left.

Returning to the resort, under the leadership of the guard sent by Zhao Tianyu, he found the truck containing five nuclear fusion generators.

The generators were not as big as he thought, and each tank was the size of a wardrobe. Five generators and more than a dozen storage tanks filled the truck perfectly. Without leaving too many farewell words, Jiang Chen took the keys of the truck and drove down the hill.

In the fog, visibility was low, so Jiang Chen drove extremely slowly and carefully.

Driving halfway down the mountain, he looked into the rearview mirror and confirmed that no one followed and stopped the truck on the side of the road.

After getting out of the truck, he put his hand on the nuclear fusion generators and moved the generators into the storage dimension. After transporting the full truck of things back to the modern world, Jiang Chen temporarily put them in the backyard of his mansion on Coro Island, and then found Ayesha who was at the gym.

"Did you take care of everything on the other side?" Gently wiping the sweat from her forehead with a towel, Ayesha walked toward Jiang Chen and asked softly.

"Almost finished. Help me to do one thing. I left five machines in the backyard and more than a dozen barrels of nuclear fuel. Get the Ghost Agents to come and ship them to the underground facilities of New Moon Island."

"Leave it up to me." Ayesha nodded.

Jiang Chen didn't want to have enough nuclear fuel in the backyard of his home to flatten the entire island. Although nuclear fuel storage technology in the 22nd century was safe, it would be a mental hurdle for him.

After Ayesha went out, Jiang Chen suddenly felt a wave of hunger. So, he went to a kitchen where he had a box of pasta and a bottle of champagne. Sitting on the sofa in the living room, he devoured through his food before he returned to the apocalypse.

Chapter 754: Those who surrender will be spared

"Hold the defense! HOLD ON!"

The beach was filled with flying rockets and the roars of soldiers. The corpses of Mud Crabs were everywhere and formed charred briquettes on the beach. However, mutants naturally did not fear. The death of a companion not only didn't force them to retreat, but instead aroused their fierceness.

On several occasions, the Mud Crabs darted through the NAC's line of defense. Soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons had to fight at close range and use their flesh to block the flood of mutants. They had to wait for Fireball-1 to cover the battlefield to destroy the Mud Crabs that broke through the defense. After that, they put the stakes back up.

After the whole day of battle, when dusk arrived, the attack of the Mud Crabs finally slowed down. Perhaps it was because the Mud Crabs that ended their hibernation had all been wiped out while the remaining Mud Crabs chose to lurk in the water, waiting for more companions to wake from their hibernation, and then launch an offensive attack against the defensive line on Desperate Beach.

On this day, the ammunition NAC unleashed on the beach could pile up in a small hill.

Li Wang opened the mask of the helmet and collapsed on the chair. He took the nutrient supply from the logistical staff and chugged two tubes. He had fought in the front line for a whole day and didn't drink a single drop of water until now.

At this time, the deputy commander stepped forward and reported to him the status on the frontline.

"From early morning until now, we have used 107 cases of ammunition. The remaining ammunition is only enough to last two more days."

"What about the wall construction?"

"There is still 10% progress remaining."

Li Wang nodded.

"With the current momentum, it should be completed by noon tomorrow."

Looking into the horizon far away, the waves rolled up along the beaches to form countless white bubbles. He didn't know whether it was a tidal wave or the foam that was being spat out from the Mud Crabs that awakened. No one knew how much time Mud Crabs would give them to breathe. However, after the soldiers finished drinking their nutrient supply, they went to the beach to find crab roe. They returned to their positions, started a bonfire, and used branches to cook the roe.

In normal times, they would definitely enjoy it with some fine booze, but this time obviously did not permit them to celebrate with alcohol. After finishing the roe in their hands, they once again brought their rifles back to the front and waited for a new round of offensive attacks while gaining some valuable rest time.

Taking advantage of this gap, Li Wang convened the subordinates in the command room and made adjustments to the frontline deployment.

At this moment, a person picked up the curtain of the command room and walked into the barracks.

"General?!" Seeing the person who came in, Li Wang suddenly opened his eyes in joy and welcomed him. "Great! You are finally back!"

After Ms. Lin returned from the Datun Nature Park, Li Wang had been worried about the safety of Jiang Chen. If it weren't for the frontline that couldn't allow him to spare the manpower and Jiang Chen personally ordering him to not worry, he was ready to send someone to look for him.

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded. He immediately asked about the situation on the frontline.

"How's situation up there?"

"It's very grim. There are too many Mud Crabs, but we managed to finish 80% of the project before the early morning of February 28th. We can complete this wall before tomorrow at the latest!" Li Wang said, definitively.

"What are the casualties?" Jiang Chen asked about the issue he was most concerned about.

"Seven dead and five injured... There were some mutated Mud Crabs that spat out corrosive acid. The main casualties are caused by those mutants."

Seven dead and five injured. This casualty figure was still within the acceptable range. Jiang Chen was relieved.

If they couldn't hold on, he still preferred to temporarily withdraw from the island and wait until the summer solstice to return to complete this line of defense. Although he would like to begin the construction of a space elevator earlier, if it caused the expeditionary force to suffer a large number of casualties, this would inevitably be a lost cause.

"I'll let Wang Qing settle the family members of our fallen soldiers. I'll have to count on you for this line of defense," Jiang Chen said

"Roger!" Li Wang saluted and then paused for a moment. He then said, "There's one more thing I have to report to you."

"What happened?" Jiang Chen stopped.

"Some time ago, the survivors were incited by people with ulterior motives. A strike almost completely stalled the project. Based on my investigation, those with ulterior motives were precisely the moles sent by Fallout Shelter 79."

Moles?

Jiang Chen slightly narrowed his eyes and anger flashed in his eyes.

[Fu*k, my people are on the frontline are defending you. But you are playing small tricks in the back, and plotting against the wall?]

[They are simply tired of living!]

Li Wang looked at Jiang Chen and quietly waited for his orders.

"First, defend this line of defense. Then, divide 200 people to take over Town No. 79."

"What about the fallout shelter?"

Jiang Chen's eyebrows raised and he sneered.

"We will not kill those who surrender."

As for not surrendering? Go to hell!

After delegating Li Wang with the defense measures, Jiang Chen circled around the front line and put his presence in front of the officers and soldiers. When they saw the commander personally appear at the front line to supervise the war, the exhausted soldiers' morale climbed to a new peak, and they vowed to keep their position guarded and never retreat.

For the General who unified Suhang Province, the survivors who had been wandering around on the wasteland were revered from the heart. The personal worship had even transformed into a kind of faith.

After all, in land without religion, there was not much that could be used as spiritual dependence...

Without staying too long on the beach, Jiang Chen returned to the airship.

When he boarded the airship, Lin Lin was standing in the cockpit and looking out the window.

It was dark and two days had passed. However, Jiang Chen did not return. Although she knew that Jiang Chen would be fine, she could not help but worry if he would been in trouble in the mountains.

At this moment, she heard the door open behind her, Lin Lin turned around, the pair of red and black colored eyes suddenly bloomed with the color of joy.

But soon, she reluctantly hid this euphoria and scorned.

"You, are you finally back?"

[The change of expression was too rigid. If you were worried just be straight forward... Worrying about people is not a bad thing. What's there to hide?]

Jiang Chen did not say anything. Smiling, he went to her side, reached out beside her head, and magically took out a USB from thin air and handed it to her, "I can't read the model, in short, this is the nuclear fusion generator blueprint from Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant. It is compatible with three kinds of nuclear fuels: deuterium, tritium, and helium 3. There is also a management AI for nuclear power facilities. I would like to count on you for integration."

"Ahem, I won't do free—" She took the USB from Jiang Chen's hands. Lin Lin just wanted to give him some attitude. However, before she said anything, Jiang Chen laughed and stuffed a box of mango pudding in her hands.

Being so predictable, Lin Lin's face turned red and she looked away.

"Sorry for making you worried." Jiang Chen smiled and rubbed her little head. "Don't eat too much at night and don't stay up too late."

"Mhmm."

Lin Lin responded, mumbling while her thoughts drifted elsewhere.

Before she even realized, Jiang Chen had left the command room. Looking in his direction, mist covered her eyes.

After a long time, that petite mouth only murmured one word.

"Idiot..."

Chapter 755: Installing the Reactor

The airship was not the most stable platform, Jiang Chen did not dare to activate interdimensional travel on top of a floating ship. On a side of caution, he returned to the fortress. His private force strongly opposed of this. If the frontline failed to hold, it would be extremely dangerous to stay on the ground. However, he insisted on doing so.

"There is a two-kilometer distance from Desperate Beach to the fortress. Is the Mud Crabs loaded with rockets on their feet? I believe Li Wang can hold them down. Even if he disappoints me, I don't believe that the buffer distance of two-kilometer is not enough for me to move to the airship!" Jiang Chen said to his captain.

However, to his surprise, after hearing that he planned to return to the surface, Lin Lin also insisted on returning to the surface.

As for the reason...

...

"You're planning to go back for the generator, right? In this case, if I stay in your room, I'll report the situation to you in time in the event of an emergency. Even if your guards knock on your door, someone will be inside." Lin Lin told Jiang Chen.

Under everyone's sly gaze, Jiang Chen took Lin Lin and stayed in the same room.

However, nothing worth blushing happened inside.

Jiang Chen went to the modern world immediately and left the little girl alone.

...

The time axis was synchronized. Even if there was a time difference of one or two hours, it was also night time in the modern world.

Sitting up on the bed, Jiang Chen checked his watch. It was already ten at night.

Ayesha's sleep schedule followed a strict routine. If he was not at home, she would be asleep or taking shower at this time.

Sure enough, when Jiang Chen walked to the end of the corridor on the second floor, he heard the sound of falling water and saw the graceful and petite body behind the frosted glass.

There was a smirk on his face as he gently stepped toward the bathroom and pushed open the door.

There was a short-lived scream, but it was quickly submerged by the sound of splashing water. With a few moans, the wonderful music played from the bathtub to the bedroom. Ayesha used her tenderness to remove all the fatigue from Jiang Chen's body...

The next day, when Jiang Chen woke up, Ayesha had already snuck out from his arms and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for him.

But when he came to the kitchen, he saw the little girl wearing only an apron while bringing the delicious omelet to the table. Looking at this scene, Jiang Chen subconsciously gulped, but did not do anything. He still had plans today. If he was so corrupt in the early morning, he won't be able to step outside.

Sensitively aware of Jiang Chen's thoughts, Ayesha returned to the bedroom and put on a less attractive dress. She came to the dining room and sat beside him.

"The things have been shipped to the underground facilities of New Moon Island."

"Excellent. I have to leave in a bit."

"Need me to help?" Ayesha asked.

Jiang Chen sent the omelet into his mouth and swallowed, he smiled, "It's not a particularly troublesome thing. But if you want to, come along."

Nuclear fusion generators have already arrived, and the power grid in Penglai City will also turn into a zero-pollution, environment-friendly city with nuclear power as the main source of power and supplemented by wind and solar power. This time he was going to New Moon Island to install the nuclear fusion generator in Penglai City.

At the underground facility, Jiang Chen along with Ayesha went to the highest security warehouse. In this empty room, he saw the machine that would turn the world crazy - nuclear fusion generators.

Commanding construction robots to transfer the five nuclear fusion generators to the Droplet. Jiang Chen and Ayesha boarded the Droplet and exited underground, heading towards Penglai.

Because Penglai's debut was so spectacular, it inevitably brought the attention of intelligence organizations from all over the world. In order to prevent these spies from stealing information inside Penglai, Celestial Trade patrolled day and night on the sea near the island and deployed life signal detection devices on the seabed. Through layers of security recognition procedures, the possibility of infiltration from under the sea was completely eliminated.

However, these identification procedures were only aimed at others. For Jiang Chen, the owner of the island, these things did not exist.

In close proximity to Penglai City, Jiang Chen presented his identity certificate through three-phase identification methods of iris, voice, and fingerprint. He soon obtained an entry permit. A staff member who had been on the island for a long time opened the submarine hatch and waited for the Droplet to enter. Then the second hatch was opened to allow it to float into the submarine harbor in Penglai City.

Feng Kaiping, the person in charge of Penglai City, came to greet him.

Jiang Chen was direct and asked him..

"Put aside all ongoing work and temporarily remove the staff members below 'A' level permission from the lower levels of the 20th, 21st, and 22nd floors of the sea temporarily. In addition, get the person in charge of the power system to see me. I have something to explain to them."

All of the staff below "A" were temporarily removed, leaving virtually no one on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd floor. However, Feng Kaiping did not hesitate at all. Jiang Chen's face told him that it was not a joke, but a truly important matter.

Soon, Zhang Haiwang, Penglai City's electric power minister came into the harbor. He felt that he made a mistake somehow and looked at Jiang Chen anxiously. However, Jiang Chen's first sentence removed any of his concerns and put him in a state of astonishment.

"Cancel the tidal power generator project under construction and the seaweed plantation project. Cut the number of wind turbines by half, also, solar power panel construction can be stopped too."

Zhang Haiwang was silent, then he asked in a trembling voice.

"President... are we out of money?"

"Money?" Jiang Chen took a second to process before he started laughing. "You're thinking too much. It's something different."

Speaking of this, he put on a serious face and looked at Feng Kaiping and Zhang Haiwang, who were standing in front of him.

"From now on, what I'm going to explain next is Future Group's highest level of confidentiality. You know what this means. If you leak anything, you don't even have the opportunity to hire a lawyer to defend yourself."

The two held their breath.

They knew very well what this means.

If it were an ordinary commercial secret leak, the maximum punishment would be a fine, unless it resulted in serious losses for the company. In this case, this would lead to prosecution for criminal responsibility. However, Future Group was not purely a business organization, at least not in Xin.

"President... you're being funny, our loyalty can be seen by heaven and earth." Feng Kaiping was the first to react and quickly expressed his loyalty.

"Yes, right! That's right!" Although Zhang Haiwang, who is usually more talkative, stuttered, he still quickly complied.

"You shouldn't be too nervous," Jiang Chen smiled. After a pause, he slowly said, "From today on, Penglai City's power grid will be focused on nuclear power, and five nuclear fusion generators will be responsible for its power supply."

Zhang Haiwang, the electric power minister, was stunned.

Nuclear energy? He thought he was mistaken. Xin was not a nuclear-armed state, without even a nuclear power station, where did the nuclear energy come from?

Wait!

A light flickered in his head, he suddenly made out the more astonishing news from Jiang Chen's words!

Nuclear fusion... generators?!

He subconsciously looked at his watch and his expression was even more peculiar.

[What the fu*k?! Today is not April Fool's Day!]

Chapter 756: The Key of the Universe

Nuclear fusion generators, the more technical term should be nuclear fusion reactors.

The closet-sized generator was hard to compare with the house-sized reactor in a nuclear power plant.

However, nuclear fusion reactors in the 22nd century were this size. Although not as miniature as Iron Man Tony's reactor on his chest, tthese five fusion reactors were still unimaginable miracles for the current technological capability , .

Yes, phenomena that cannot be described with existing knowledge can only be described as miracles.

It was Penglai City's electric power minister, Mr. Zhang Haiwang, who lost his ability to reason at this moment. When he saw the generators being deployed into the power room, personally connecting them to the power grid, personally putting the storage tank in place, personally pressing the test run switch...

He felt for a split second that his decades of learning was no different from a primitive man that never learned the concept of school.

A single generator was enough to meet the lighting needs of the entire city. Two generators were enough to supply the electricity demand of the entire city. The remaining three were used only as backups, when the other two generators fail or require maintenance. However, this situation would hardly appear. Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant was a strategic reserve facility, the safety and self-running capabilities of the reactors were considered top priority. Designers had already solved these possible problems during the planning phase.

After completing the nuclear fusion generator placement, the staff members were allowed to re-enter the closed floors. Everyone was guessing why the three floors were temporarily closed, but no one could guess why.

"Can I ask about the cost of producing these deuterium? I'd like to set new electricity prices." When the placement work was completed, Zhang Haiwang asked another key question.

Cost? That would be a difficult problem because Jiang Chen did not spend a penny on these nuclear fuels.

After considering it for a moment, Jiang Chen said.

"The production cost is difficult to calculate. I can't give you an accurate figure. But one thing is certain, the cost of nuclear fusion power generation is only one-tenth of that of wind power. As for the electricity price, you can refer to the electricity price of Coro Island and lower the price based on that. But externally, claim that the Future Group will implement electricity price subsidies for Penglai City."

Nuclear fusion power generation technology was a confidential matter and naturally cannot be disclosed to the public. The cancellation of the current tidal power generators and seaweed projects were apt to give rise to suspicion, but it was not enough to make people think of nuclear energy, nor nuclear fusion.

After all, Jiang Chen could make something up to the media. He would say that Penglai has adopted the latest tidal power generators installed in every corner of Penglai and invested however many billion. It would ultimately be his words that count in the end.

As for the spies who come to the island, it would the work of Ghost Agents and not his concern.

After completing the work with nuclear fusion generators, Jiang Chen and Ayesha left Penglai. However, he did not immediately return to New Moon Island, but opened up the panoramic imaging function. The four-sided curved wall formed into transparent glass. The two in the Droplet felt like they were standing in a transparent droplet of water.

Jiang Chen accelerated the speed Droplet to the maximum. He took Ayesha and enjoyed a swift and smooth ride under the sea. After playing for a while, he returned to New Moon Island before noon and parked the Droplet in the underground facility.

After returning home, Jiang Chen asked Ayesha to prepare lunch for three people. The extra one was prepared and packaged for Lin Lin.

Lin Lin did not contact him. It meant that the situation on the front line was not too bad. It seemed that Li Wang did not let him down and successfully hold the line of defense on Desperate Beach. As the result, the last thing he needed to do in Yizhou was transfer the space elevator base.

After lunch, Jiang Chen returned to the room and took a nap. At about two o'clock, he returned to the apocalypse.

...

When his return to the apocalypse, there was a triumphant cheer at Desperate Beach.

After more than forty hours of intense battle, the wall was finally completed. The soldiers who were on the front line, on the beach, began to withdraw in batches and climbed onto the cement wall. The Mud Crabs' shell was thick and heavy, their teeths and pliers were sharp, but they did not have the ability to climb walls.

The four-meter-high wall was simply an insurmountable iron wall for these creatures! As long as several machine guns and a dozen shooters were allocated to each wall, the Mud Crabs on the edge of the wall would be cleared in time. The Mud Crabs would never be able to cross the line of defense!

After the wall was completed, the survivors were equally relieved and collapsed on the ground.

As soon as the time turned to March 1st, the door of Fallout Shelter 79 closed based on schedule. All the people who still had ulterior motives immediately stopped. If the wall could not be completed in time, NAC people may not die, but they absolutely have nowhere to escape.

Fortunately, the wall was completed before that point.

When everything was over, even they themselves were in disbelief that the Month of Disaster this year, the nightmare for the island, was stopped like that?!

At four o'clock in the afternoon, reinforcements from Wanghai arrived at the battlefield. At this point, NAC had deployed more than 2,000 troops to the island. 1,000 soldiers were stationed on the wall in front of Desperate Beach. Another 1,000 entered the city with Tiger II tanks and took control of Town No.79.

When the NAC soldiers were seen by survivors, they welcomed the soldiers into the town with cheers. These people were the poor survivors that did not have enough crystals and they were rejected by the fallout shelter. Compared to the unrequited Fallout Shelter 79, the name NAC was naturally more prestigious.

Li Wang ordered a hundred soldiers to set up a line of defense at the entrance of the fallout shelter and blocked the only entrance.

Since they dared to cause trouble for the wall, they could not blame NAC's ruthlessness.

With the establishment of the fence, NAC took over the line of defense in the northern part of the island, and Fallout Shelter 079 also had no need for its existence. As a result, the name of the township was also changed to Yizhou Town and was included in the economic zone of the NAC. The management model was still local people who manage the locals. The NAC would assign the executive officer to supervise and the garrison to maintain law and order.

As for who the mayor should be, Jiang Chen already had a candidate. He sent someone to Datun Nature Park and asked if Zhao Tianyu had any interest in being the mayor. After learning about the situation outside, Zhao Tianyu didn't hesitate at all and accepted Jiang Chen's invitation.

Before arriving in Yizhou and seeing Jiang Chen, he still couldn't believe who he had thought was an ordinary mercenary but was actually the General of NAC!

However, the fact was that, after confirming this point, while being shocked, he felt like he dodged a bullet. Fortunately, he did not do anything hostile, otherwise he would not be invited to become the mayor now...

As for the NAC's decision on Fallout Shelter 079, he also expressed his acceptance. Five years ago, he was not particularly favored in the fallout shelter. Five years later, he naturally had little loyalty left for the director.

After these trivial matters were settled, Jiang Chen then got in touch with the people at the White Beluga Station and agreed to transfer the space elevator to the western beach of Yizhou Island. The space elevator base, which was the size of several football fields, was disassembled into smaller pieces and were then packaged in containers and dropped to the bottom of the sea.

In addition, they also collected and shipped the rail wreckage.

In order to transport these things to the modern world, Jiang Chen spent a full two days. Over these two days he was on the sea floor almost every day, busy moving these treasures to the other world.

Graphene technology had made a breakthrough and Future Group has already established the theoretical basis for building a space elevator. Now with these "garbage's" help from the 22nd century, controlling the space elevator, the key to the era of the universe, was finally on the agenda.

Chapter 757: The Placement of the Space Elevator

In the modern world.

237 nautical miles east of Ange Island was Xin's territorial border. Going further southeast was the vast international territory without a single island nearby. However, because of the recent application for the mining of manganese nodules, Future Mining used a construction vessel and dragged an offshore platform to this location.

However, it was strange. After Future Mining left the offshore platform alone in the sea, there was no sign of work starting. Other than a few soldiers patrolling the location and several workers, there weren't even mining equipment.

What is Future Group planning to do?

It was undoubtedly the UA that was the most curious after they started extensive monitoring after the completion of Penglai City. While curious, they could not ask directly. Then the Capital used its usual tactics to disclose this information through an official who wished not to be named, and then let these reporters go find the news.

However, Future Group apparently did not take the reporters' bait. When the reporters asked about the offshore platform of Future Mining, the answer was the same one—"Legal activity. No comment."

The "disguise" of Future Group actually made the public more curious. For the time being, all kinds of rumors began to sprout. Each of the keyboard warriors analyzed the actions of Future Group and searched for their deeper motive. Some people said that Future Group was building a second Penglai City, and some people said that they were building submarine cities. Some people even said that they discovered the remains of aliens under the sea...

Public opinion was easily led to odd places.

What is Future Group really doing?

Everyone was curious about this problem...

...

"What is that?"

On the offshore platform, Calvin, the CEO of Celestial Trade Aerospace Space Technology Institute, glanced over the platform at a board 20 square meters long. From the appearance, it didn't look like solar panels, he really couldn't think of the functionality of this thing.

"The anti-satellite laser array. It is too cumbersome to explain. In short, the spy satellites on our heads can only see a luminous spot of more than a dozen square kilometers. The radio signals they monitor will just become white noise. "Jiang Chen patted the fence on the platform and smiled at Calvin. "This is one of the top secrets of Future Group. Now you still have the chance to go back."

"But it will make the curious me unable to sleep at night." Kelvin shrugged and followed behind Jiang Chen.

The Droplet stopped at the offshore platform, but Jiang Chen obviously didn't plan to look at this bizarre submersible.

After entering the Droplet, Jiang Chen established a route on the holographic screen, and then opened panoramic imaging, turning the whole Droplet into a real water drop, transparent inside and out...

"Stunning technology." Calvin reached out and touched the wall, his fingers poked the steel plate. "It is the first time I have seen such a magical underwater submersible vehicle... Is this the top secret?"

"Do you think this needs to be kept a secret?" Jiang Chen laughed.

Calvin also laughed.

It made sense, this was nothing more of a secret compared to all the technology Future Group introduced. Even in Penglai City, Jiang Chen did not hide anything from the media during its construction. Halfway through the project, he began auctioning off the property on the artificial island.

Obviously, there was something incredible hidden underneath the sea.

However, what puzzled Calvin was why Jiang Chen asked him to come along for something under the sea. His field of expertise was aerospace.

He didn't have to wait long, that is, around two minutes of time, the Droplet had slowly submerged to the bottom of the sea. When the searchlights were turned on, Calvin followed the beam and his eyes widened suddenly.

There was a giant metal cube. From the top down, it looked at least two or three kilometers in length and width. Compared to Penglai City, this cube was not shocking, but for some reason, he felt a more science fiction design from the structure...

And intuition told him that this must be related to aerospace.

Reminiscent of what Jiang Chen said about space elevators in the past, his heart suddenly felt a hint of enlightenment. Could it be...

"This, what is this thing?" Kelvin asked in a trembling voice.

"I thought you'd be able to guess it," Jiang Chen grinned back and pressed down on the holographic screen to stop the Droplet in place. "The base station for the space elevator. Though not yet completed."

Yes, this was just a semi-finished product.

The space elevator base obtained from White Beluga Station was disassembled. Jiang Chen mobilized all the amphibious engineering robots that he brought to the modern world and assembled it for half a month before seeing this half-finished product now.

Calvin was silent for a long before sighing.

"I don't know why I feel regretful."

"Oh, why?" Jiang Chen asked.

"I have used what I have learned in my life and the rocket era is already over," Calvin said in a sly tone.

At least, the era of the space rocket is over.

If the cost of aerospace could be reduced from tens of millions of dollars to a thousand dollars, who else would pay for space rockets? Even SpaceX's Falcon Rocket would not be this cheap. It could be foreseen that Celestial Trade, with control of the space elevator, will undoubtedly control all global satellite launch projects... At least commercial satellite launch projects.

"It's too early to say that." Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled. After a pause, he continued, "The space elevator has only completed its first phase of the project, which is the base of the space elevator. The remaining part needs to be completed by both the Aerospace Technology Institute and the Future Heavy Industries."

Unlike all buildings on earth, this "Babel" tower leading to synchro orbits was built from the top down. The space station of the synchronous orbit was built first. Then the construction of the terminal balancer and the 36,000-kilometer orbit must be started simultaneously.

This meant that all construction materials must be launched into outer space through rockets. Regardless of the cost of the material itself, the cost of the rocket launches would not a small figure. This was also the reason why Jiang Chen began to merge and acquire private aerospace companies since last year to develop the Celestial N-series rockets. Only by lowering the launch cost to a relatively reasonable price could Future Group have the conditions to build a space elevator.

As early as last year, Jiang Chen was preparing for this moment.

"All technical information on the space elevator has been developed and all we have to do now is to bring the blueprints to life. I will not set a ceiling for the project budget, and your only task is to complete this for me. Babel."

After a pause, Jiang Chen smiled.

"If it is completed, your name and my name will all be celebrated in history."

Chapter 758: Penglai City is now Open!

The rolling waves slammed onto the side of the ship. The water freely splashed on the bow. The crew members were wearing raincoats and holding cameras in front of them, while the reporters were moving further forward, holding the railing with one hand and holding the microphone with the other to provide the viewers with first-hand information.

"Now, behind us is the fabled Penglai City. You may not be able to see it because we are about fifteen nautical miles from the nearest port! Look at that black spot, now we can see the top of the Central of Penglai City. Celestial Trade temporarily blocked this area and the blockade will be lifted at noon. Then our reporter will bring you further reports..."

The face was blown red but there was no temperature at all. After finishing the last word, Lu Hao wiped off the water from her face. Her legs were weak, and she walked down with the help of crew members.

Returning to the cabin, Li Hanliang, the old leader of the interview group, came over and handed her a bottle of water.

"Must be tough out there."

"Not at all!" Lu Hao chugged half a bottle before finally recovered some of her spirit, and a rosy glow finally returned to her naive face. "Leader, did Celestial Trade accept our application?"

Li Hanliang shook his head, sighed, and sat in the chair next to her.

"It's difficult to do this. Regardless of what I say they just won't agree. But the other TV stations are the same. They aren't favoring anyone, even their own station is outside the closed area."

Hearing this, Lu Hao looked at him peculiarly.

It was not an interview at all, it was more like a race! The ship next to them was a BBC reporter. The ship further away was from Colombian TV. Future Group was certainly prestigious to have so many media stations rent boats and wait for them on the open sea.

Time flew quickly. It didn't take long before it was noon, and Celestial Trade gave them the green light.

The news of the blockade being lifted was received by the media. The cruise ships and small boats around Penglai City began to march toward the city known as the miracle.

From the helicopter, the scene of countless dragging white waves coming from all directions to Penglai, was a magnificent painting! According to statistics from the Tourism Bureau, the number of people who applied to land on the island reached 127,000, and the total number of vessels in the target sea area exceeded 9,000!

On the other hand, a luxury medium-sized cruise ship gradually started moving, carrying passengers visiting Penglai City.

The weather on the sea had changed very quickly. Two hours ago it was raining and now the sun was out, the deck turned burning hot just after a short while. Wearing a casual outfit, Wei Wendong stood on the bow of the cruise ship as he looked at the direction of Penglai City with a smile.

Penglai, the wonder he had seen in the virtual world...

As for what the city would look like in the real world, he was full of imaginations.

In the days after New Year, the A2 season of the Godly Land ended, and Kings won the first prize in individual competition and fifth in team compition! The title of the championship naturally belonged to him. In order to celebrate his victory, the sponsors directly packaged him a red envelope of 20 million RMB.

Was it a lot? In fact, it was not too much.

Godly Land had the largest player base in the world. Due to the popularity of virtual reality online games and the subsequent effects, many people who never played the game also put on their helmet and applied for visitor passes to watch his live stream in action.

According to the official data given by Future Technology, not counting the ratings broadcasted by television stations, the peak number of live audiences in the arena exceeded 290 million! Additionally, counting the stats of the rebroadcast, the number of views at least doubled!

What is the concept of 290 million?

The NBA's peak audience was just over 20 million. Individuals who made out of the group stage in the individual and team competitions were allowed to affix the trademark of the sponsoring company behind their names. To be able to put the company's brand in such a high-traffic location and appear in front of hundreds of millions of people from around the world, the commercial value was immense.

Wei Wendong did not know how much the sponsor gave to their club afterwards. He only knew that the number would not be less than 500 million RMB.

After the match, the Kings directly chartered a luxury cruise ship and took the core members of the club for an offline party! The destination of the offline party was exactly Penglai City.

Wei Wendong clicked on the Future phone rolled up on his wrist. A palm-sized holographic screen immediately expanded above his wrist. Taking a picture of Penglai City from afar, he looked at the city in the screen and let his hair fly in the sea breeze. He couldn't feel more proud.

Last year, he bought two properties in Penglai City, a restricted level two unit, and an unrestricted level four unit. At the time, he felt pained to purchase the properties as the two houses directly halved his saving. But now his only regret was not spending the other half.

With the completion of Penglai City, the rumor immediately faded. In less than a month, the price of the two houses under his name doubled and was on the trajectory to double again.

Soon, the cruise ship docked in the harbor of Penglai City.

On all four sides of the ring-shaped artificial island, there were thousands of ports, large and small, private and public, boathouses could be freely accessed. Although the scene of over 9,000 boats was spectacular, it didn't crowd the landing.

Just like in the advertisement, the entire city felt like a science fiction movie with technology at the forefront of the era. Billboards, shop signs, and the big screen on top of the mall all used holographic technology produced by Future Group.

Putting on AR glasses received from customs, and the cute navigation Little Rain reappeared beside his hand and playfully flew around him. Little Rain stopped in front of him, responded to his request, and took him to the property he had purchased.

While walking, Little Rain replied to his questions and introduced him to Penglai City.

Such realistic augmented reality technology made it even harder for him to distinguish whether it was real or fake.

Along the street, shops were open. The staffs of shopping malls, restaurants, and service industries received permission to enter in advance; they had already boarded the island as early as yesterday and set up the stores so that they could open their doors on the first day of the city's grand opening.

There were few vehicles on the streets, and most people walked. However, the traffic planning of Penglai City was carefully thought out. The twelve maglev train rails laid in the basement allowed visitors to reach anywhere in the city in ten minutes.

In addition, at the beginning of the construction of the city's roads, maglev tracks were built under the road. After the breakthrough in the technology of magnetic levitation vehicles of the future, the city's traffic movement would shift from ground to three-dimensional…

Wei Wendong thought of this and he was even more hopefully.

His life would not be boring to be in a city filled with so many cutting-edge technologies...

Chapter 759: A Common Problem in Any Mega Corporations

On the top floor of the Central, Jiang Chen stood beside the floor-to-ceiling windows and enjoyed the panoramic view of the city. For the grand opening of the city, this was undoubtedly the best place to view the show.

Crowds formed an endless stream of people in the streets . Although he couldn't see the expression of every face in the crowd, he felt the strong enthusiasm of the people even from a far distance.

The edge of the island was covered with sandy beaches and scattered with green coconut trees. Along the streets, subtropical plants lined up neatly. Although Penglai's focus was on technology, Jiang Chen did not ignore the importance of vegetation and greenary. Looking around, the jungle of steel and cement was mixed with spots of green and emerald.

The sea breeze swept over the road and the trees' shadows danced, sending a cool sip of air to the hot summer day.

In addition to AR, holographic images, maglev trains, another big selling point of Penglai City was the drones.

Future Heavy Industries designed the Beta-series drones for Penglai City. Among them, Beta-1 was a fire-fighting drone and Beta-2 was a police drone. Those two drones would provide smart fire and policing for Penglai City.

Wherever there was a fire, fire engines would not be deployed and firefighters would no longer put their lives in danger. Dozens of drones would fly directly to control the fire. Where there was a crime, after receiving the alarm, the drone hive deployed nearby would immediately release drones and control the criminal before the police arrived.

This would not only alleviate traffic pressures but also increase execution efficiency, It would also reduce municipal spending. With the cooperation of the drones, the work that originally required five policemen to complete only now required one.

Penglai City would serve as a pilot for firefighting and policing drones. If this proved that the model was feasible, the presidential office at Xin would promote this throughout the country.

At the same time, the logistics vehicle being designed by Future Heavy Industries would also be put into operation soon, and the orders of Penglai City Logistics Center and various shopping malls in Penglai City would be completed first. By then, 500,000 logistics drones would support the entire city's express delivery services...

Even if you are not at home, you can buy your favorite products, enjoy the food of a five-star restaurant...

Just as Jiang Chen gazed out of the window and was imagining the glorious future of Penglai City, Jean's holographic figure appeared.

"There is someone looking for you outside the door. It's your CEO."

"Let her in."

"Yes." Jean nodded, and her image disappeared.

A gentle voice came from behind and the elevator door opened. Xia Shiyu walked into the room.

"Thank you for your hard work," Turning around, Jiang Chen said.

Xia Yu shook her head and a noticeable smirk formed.

"This is my job.."

Perhaps because of their last "sincere encounter", Jiang Chen always felt that the way Xia Shiyu looked him was mixed with a different kind of emotion. He couldn't tell what kind of emotion it was. It was only when he inadvertently met her eyes would he feel his heart beat faster. There was no difference during work, but once in a private space, this feeling was particularly evident.

"What happened outside? There were no incidents right?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Celestial Trade has handled the security work very well. It seems that we have nothing to worry about," said Xia Shiyu.

Jiang Chen nodded.

127,000 people rushed into Penglai City at the same time. The load undoubtedly caused a huge burden on traffic. If there were any accidents, it would bring a gloomy shadow on Penglai's name.

"B City Consortium, Mr. Carson asked us if we are interested in creating a satellite city for Hawaii. There is also a request from Saudi Arabia that the Saudi royal family hopes we can build a maritime palace for them in the Persian Gulf…"

"What orders do we have?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Future Heavy Industries has yet to sign any agreement, so they can't be regarded as orders." Xia Shiyu pushed up the frame of her glasses. She retrieved the holographic image from Future worn on her wrist and gently pushed it toward Jiang Chen. "Till one hour ago, Future Heavy Industrieshas received a total of 218 letters of intent related to the construction of marine cities, of which 14 are from national organizations and 204 are from private companies."

The investment of 20 billion US Dollar now created a value of over 100 billion. With such a high rate of return on investment, there were naturally a lot of eager organizations. Expansion into the sea was already one of the strategic priorities of many coastal countries, the business opportunities in this area were simply inestimable!

Jiang Chen thought for a moment.

"There will be no current plan for the construction of a marine city. However, Future Heavy Industriesmay open orders for next year. For the time being, let's reply to them like this."

Tens of billions of dollars projects seem to be profitable, but the rate of return was not that high. At present, Future Group's industrial capacity was limited to the industrial park on Ange Island and the New Malaysian Special District on New Papua. The production capacity was not yet high enough to be "wasteful".

What was more, he was also building the "Babel"...

Xia Shiyu only nodded as Jiang Chen explained his choice. Although from the group CEO's perspective, she was more inclined to favor offshore city projects and expand the company's profitability. However, she also believed Jiang Chen had his reasons for making such a decision.

This unreserved trust was established as early as the establishment of Future Technology.

However, sometimes, Jiang Chen's decision making also gave her a headache...

"Speaking of this, have you made any moves recently?" Xiao Shiyu paused, and then asked.

"Well, it's related to aerospace." Jiang Chen nodded.

Xia Shiyu sighed and pushed up her glasses again.

"Sure enough... If it is confidential, I won't ask about it. But when you make a financial decision for the group, could you please tell me in advance? Although the company is making money, its liquidity is not in too good of a position. To have money to inject 20 billion in Celestial Trade, the finance department had to cut the budget already approved for Future Biology. Tao Ming was just protesting to me and asking me about what happened. That money was supposed to be used to expand production..."

Speaking of this, Xia Shiyu did not continue. Instead, she looked at Jiang Chen with a slight grievance.

Seeing his own sloppy move actually made such a big mess, Jiang Chen was somewhat embarrassed. At that time, he did not consider that much. When Calvin reported his budget to him, he immediately approved it. The space elevator could be built with only 20 billion, and the only thing in his mind was "it is so fu*king cheap."

"I'm sorry, I'll tell make sure to consult you next time."

Already accustomed to taking care of Jiang Chen's mess, Xia Shiyu only made an expression that said "I hope so."

Just then, Jiang Chen suddenly thought of a problem.

"Right, you said that our liquidity is a problem?"

Xia Shiyu answered professionally.

"This is a common problem in any big company, unless..."

"Unless we open a bank," Jiang Chen said immediately.

Xiao Shiyu took a moment to process. Although she wanted to say to maintain a good relationship with the bank, Jiang Chen's view was indeed correct too.

After a pause, she nodded and replied.

"Yes, unless we open a bank."

Chapter 760: Future Bank

A company is like a beast.

The more hands and feet on the beast, the larger the body, the more complex the blood vessels under its skin, and naturally more blood flows through the blood vessels. For a company, cash is the blood that maintains its normal operation. The blood vessels supply blood to the various organizations of the company and create value through its circulation.

Business expansions, business failures, strategic adjustments, and a series of other measures may cause the company to temporarily lose blood. In general, the best solution at those times would be to seek out a loan from banks, but Future Group faced a problem.

The bank of Xin did not have the ability to provide transfusion for Future Group.

Therefore, referring to the practices of B City Consortium and the Rothschild family, Jiang Chen decided to create a blood supplying heart for Future Group!

What was more convenient than opening a bank himself?

Since he decided on it, he would do it!

On the following day, the Future Group, through its subsidiary, purchased a Cali-based bank at a price of 600 million US Dllar and changed its name to Future Bank with lightning speed. The scale of Future Bank was not too large with only twenty locations in Cali. It also had less than one million depositors. The total amount of deposits was only 4.8 billion US Dollar, and the loan-to-deposit ratio was 71% with a few bad debts.

Just as people were beginning to speculate on why the Future Group would acquire this small, unnamed bank in far away Cali, Future Group announced in high profile that it would invest ten billion US Dollar in Future Bank, and at the same time acquire 11 small and medium-sized banks located in North America and Europe at a premium.

The progress of acquisitions was very smooth, mainly because the premium offered by Future Group made it impossible for shareholders of the banks to refuse.

Immediately afterward, Future Bank began its restructuring work, integrating the operations of these eleven small and medium-sized banks under the same name, Future Bank. It transformed itself into a multinational bank.

The news on Penglai City's opening was still a heated topic and Future Group already made an unprecedented move. With such intensive acquisitions of banks, was Future Group looking to expand into the financial markets?!

Future Group's move immediately caught the attention of American banks such as Citibank and Morgan. Although they didn't think that Future Group would be their opponent in the financial sector, the influence on the Internet had caused the old banking giants to not take this move lightly.

And it turned out that their worry was not without warrant.

Future Bank immediately held a press conference after the completion of the reorganization and announced to the media that Future Bank had already reached an agreement with Future Group's subsidiary Future Technology. The agreement was to simplify the payment procedures for virtual reality content payments. After opening an account with Future Bank, Future Technology would automatically register an online banking ID for the individual. After the identification information was verified, the individual's account could be activated.

As soon as this move was announced, the number of depositors in Future Bank rose exponentially. However, what really motivated people to save money was not simplified payment procedures, but because Future Bank's deposit interest rate was high as 1% for their chequing accounts, and the fixed-term interest rate was 4%. For the vast majority of ordinary people, it was direct benefit they could see!

At the press conference, the CEO of Future bank was even more direct.

"Yes, our bank's primary business is to lend money to Future Group! Do you think making a loan to Future Group may lead to bad debt? Look at your family's robot Xiao Lin and the Future around your wrist. Do you think Future Group could go bankrupt? So please rest assured in keeping your money here. Unless Future Group goes bankrupt, you will never have to worry about your own deposit."

Of course, the questioning voice was not absent. For example, some competitors employed experts and scholars in the finance field and stated that Future Bank's funding ratios were too concentrated and lacked risk management capability. They questioned the security of Future Bank's deposits.

However, even if these dissonant voices existed, they were unable to stop the Group's march into the financial industry. After Future Bank announced its cooperation with the parent company, the number of depositors and total deposits increased at a visible speed. By the end of March, this figure had grown to an astonishing level...

"Currently, the Future Bank has 17.41 million depositors globally, and the total deposits, when converted to US Dollar, is 112.1 billion based on the current exchange rate, and the loan-to-deposit ratio is 77%. At present, the CEO of Future Bank has proposed to us to acquire additional funding by going public and then using the money to acquire other banks. What do you think?" Xia Shiyu asked.

Injecting ten billion USD into Future Bank to complete the acquisitions of eleven banks, counting the 20 billion previously injected into Celestial Trade, the group's liquidity was pinched.

"Does going public mean information disclosure?" Jiang Chen asked what concerned him the most.

Xia Shiyu nodded. "If a listed company has a major investment project, or significant business adjustments that may cause stock price fluctuations, it is obliged to disclose the details of the project to the public. But the disclosure is only limited to the details of the investment, and the part involving trade secrets can be kept confidential. My suggestion is that if you just intend to use Future Bank to support the parent company's business, it is not bad to go public."

After all, only a large enough scale could support the beast known as Future Group.

Going public was undoubtedly the best choice for business expansion!

The financial giants, including Citibank, were all listed companies that allowed them to accelerate their expansion and squeeze their competitors out of the market.

Old financial giants such as Rothschild Bank, although very rich, had less influence than Citigroup. One of the key reasons for this is that Rothschild had been extremely stingy with its shares and had never considered going public.

In a sense, Jiang Chen was such a person, but recently he made some changes that followed the beat of the century.

In the field of finance, Jiang Chen did not have any cutting-edge technology to use. At most, he would devote some effort on privacy and information security of depositors. However, the depositor's information security alone may not be enough of a selling point for absorbing deposits. If he wanted to expand the business of Future Bank in a short period of time, then going public was the only answer. Then, he could use that money to buy out the competitors and achieve his goal!

"Is 30% enough?" Jiang Chen advised after a long pause.

"That's enough." Xia Shiyu nodded.

"Excellent. Let's put going public aside for now. I need to temporarily tighten the lending policy of Future Bank and maintain the loan-to-deposit ratio at 80%, giving priority to satisfy Future Group's loan demand!"

"Okay!"

Chapter 761: Hawaii of the Eas

Future Bank's public listing went smoothly. The bank was expected to issue 30% of their shares for 11.9 billion US Dollar. Jiang Chen gave David Smith, CEO of Future Bank, full responsibility on the listing process. The former Citibank executive was an expert in the financial field, so naturally, handling making the company public would be no exception. So on this matter, Jiang Chen didn't need to seek help from B City Consortium Boston and he would be able to complete the matter himself.

After Future Bank was listed, it would continue to acquire small and medium-sized banks with the ten billion US Dollar from the proceeds, and it would continue to snowball and expand the heart of the behemoth!

On the other hand, at the beginning of April, Penglai City started to gradually enter the right track with the continued emigration of immigrants.

The economic structure of Penglai City was dominated by tourism, followed by the office industry, supplemented by small manufacturing and light processing.

According to statistics from the Xin Tourism Bureau, due to Penglai City's grand opening and other influences, the number of tourists in Xin in March showed explosive growth. Compared to the 180,000 visitors in February, the number of tourists in March skyrocketed straight to 797,000. Based on the data from Xin Airlines, the number of air passengers in the month also exceeded one million, setting a historical peak!

Shocked by this high-tech city, many tourists expressed their astonishment after their visit.

"This is an incredible city! I didn't think I could see the legendary Atlantis in my lifetime! The whole city is built entirely on the sea, but you can't feel the slightest bump."

"..."

"What impressed me the most was the security here. No matter where robberies took place, it never took more than five minutes after receiving a call till the criminals were caught. I saw a thief who hadn't yet run halfway across the street before he was caught by a police drone with my own eyes. He tried to escape and was hit by rubber bullets to the point where he peed his pants. Haha, compared to Detroit, this place is heaven. I'm going to move."

"The streets are very clean. The round cleaning robots are so cute. I don't know where to buy them?"

"The shopping is amazing, the water activities are spectacular, and the traffic is impeccable. I can't really think of any reason to leave a bad review. Yeah, the air here is really good! I plan to buy a level 1 unit here and spend my vacation here every winter."

The world's most trusted travel websites were filled with positive reviews with barely any negative comments.

The wave of positive reviews was partially because people always have the greatest tolerance for new things, but of course, there was the charm of Penglai.

Booming tourism led to a series of industry chains related to consumption and services. With such huge business opportunities, capital predators naturally wouldn't let this opportunity escape from their grasp, and they swarmed in with cash. According to statistics from Penglai City Hall, as of the end of March, there were as many as 57,000 companies in Penglai City providing a total of 517,000 jobs for Xin.

Zhang Yaping, the president of Xin, was smiling so much that he couldn't close his mouth. With the help of Future Group, the Pannu economy lifted off like a rocket.

At present, only a third of the half million job vacancies had been filled. The huge demand for labor attracted a large number of immigrants from East Asia and Southeast Asia. Influenced by the similar culture, immigration to Penglai City from Guangzhou and Fujian was particularly popular. The name of Penglai City, therefore, gained nicknames in Hua such as "the land of opportunity" and "Hawaii of t".

In addition, the city's municipal structure was even more surprising to the world.

Penglai itself didn't belong to the territory of any country. Although it was nominally a part of Xin, both the laws and municipal administration were the responsibility of a department under Future Group – Penglai City Hall.

In other words, the island floating in the Pacific Ocean was a city completely controlled by a private enterprise.

The mayor would be elected. Every citizen with household registration in Penglai City could participate in the election through a personal terminal. The intelligent program would announce the election result and appoint the mayor. In addition to the mayor, Penglai City would also include a Citizens' Assembly. Members would be elected by the citizens of each constituency with checks and balances to the mayor.

The justice, security, and military system were independent of the municipal system. The former had a separate system and was executed under the supervision of AI. The latter two were under the control of Celestial Trading, directly loyal to Jiang Chen.

Rather than saying the place was a private kingdom, it was more fitting to call it a giant enterprise. Every citizen on the island was an "employee" who, after "entry", accepted the supervision of company rules and regulations and enjoyed the benefits of the company's high technology under the framework of the law...

In addition, the residents of the island possessed a special right.

There was a vote to decide if Christmas and Lunar New Year should be spent in the Southern Hemisphere or the Northern Hemisphere.

At the beginning of April, with most of his work completed, Jiang Chen also gave himself a vacation. He took Ayesha, Xia Shiyu, and Natasha, who wasn't invited to Penglai City, to enjoy a leisurely holiday.

In the beginning, Shi Shiyu said she couldn't leave her job, but Jiang Chen decided to "forcefully" give her a vacation.

"Although work is important, life cannot be thrown away. Just relax this week and don't think about work," Jiang Chen said.

To be honest, upon reflecting on Xia Shiyu's work schedule 365 days a year as her boss, Jiang Chen didn't want her to work so much. Of course, this concern was unrelated to overtime pay but rather out of concern for her own health. Working so hard every day would be detrimental to her health in the long term.

During holidays, her access rights would be temporarily lowered by two levels and she wouldn't be able to access her office door.

Having been accustomed to Jiang Chen's decision-making process, Xia Shiyu sighed and accepted his good intentions.

However, in her heart, she did want to go on vacation with Jiang Chen. It was only in front of Ayesha that she always had a kind of incomprehensible anxiousness as if she did something unforgivable to Ayesha.

After all, that night, she followed her own heart and did something incredibly over the line with Jiang Chen. Even if she tried to pretend nothing happened with him, she was embarrassed and ashamed for that night's move when she was alone.

What she didn't know, however, was that Ayesha didn't care about Jiang Chen's harem, and she already knew what happened that night.

In this country, what could escape the eyes of Ghost Agents?

Fortunately, Ayesha wasn't the jealous type and accepted the idea of a harem. If any other woman controlled the intelligence department, it would be a bloody reign in Jiang Chen's harem...

Chapter 762: Holiday on the Beach

"Clank—"

Upon picking up the Coke from the vending machine, Jiang Chen opened the can and took a swig.

The sweet, cold sensation flowing down his throat was especially refreshing. Jiang Chen discovered unexpectedly that happiness wasn't just eating delicacies of the world.

The glaring sun was blinding. Looking at the beach, his eyes narrowed.

Green palm leaves swayed and not far away on the beach, children were playing with their mothers and couples were chasing each other on the beach. This was the largest beach in Penglai. The one thing the place didn't lack was bikinis and beautiful women. Pairs of long, white legs reminded Jiang Chen of his time at Wanghai University. His best buddies went to the beach to swim while they watched the beauties who walked by them…

Not far away, a net was pulled on the beach. Ayesha and Natasha were battling each other in beach volleyball. Xia Shiyu, who didn't have their stamina, wisely choose to not participate in their contest and looked comfortable in her beach chair. While in the shade, she leisurely kept score for both of them.

Both women were rookies in beach volleyball. However, in terms of physical strength, both were superwomen. One was a former KGB agent and the other was injected with a genetic vaccine. Although the latter had stronger physical attributes, the former was not too far behind her.

Ayesha leaped up and used her brute force to smash the ball. The volleyball turned into a shadow and swiped past Natasha's blonde hair. The volleyball bounced into the sand with a bang and formed a deep pit on the beach.

"Are you trying to murder me?" Natasha glanced at the deep pit and gave Ayesha a hard stare.

Lightly landing on the ground, Ayesha combed her hair without even quickening her breaths while she looked at Natasha emotionlessly.

"Fifty. I win."

Although she still looked expressionless, at a closer look, there was a faint smile on her face.

However, her proud expression lasted for not two seconds.

Just as she wasn't paying attention, a Coke can came from behind and struck her face.

"Hmph!"

Ayesha, who was frightened by the chill on her cheeks, shivered. Looking at Ayesha's lovely expression, Jiang Chen couldn't help but smile and put the Coke in her hands.

"Get along with each other. Are you all tired? Come for a drink."

"Mhmm..." Gruffly glancing at Jiang Chen, Ayesha took the Coke and sipped the drink.

She never really like carbonated drinks, but she never refused anything Jiang Chen gave her.

Looking at the pair's intimate moment, Natasha rolled her eyes. Her eyes then suddenly swept across Ayesha's chest and she began to smirk. She stepped forward, gently swayed her blonde hair, and frankly passed the volleyball in her arms to Ayesha.

"I lost in volleyball."

"Hmph..." Ayesha scoffed and raised her head slightly.

Perhaps it was because Jiang Chen was standing next to her that she felt a little arrogant from Natasha's admission of defeat.

Looking at Ayesha's proud expression, Natasha smirked.

"But I won't lose at other sports; do you want to try me?"

"I'm more than happy to." Ayesha raised her eyebrows. Without asking what they were competing in, she quickly accepted the challenge.

"Oh? Then in this special game, we're still missing a gentleman as a referee. Are you interested?" Natasha turned to Jiang Chen and whistled while raising her chest.

The "soccer ball" wrapped in a few pieces of cloth was just about to jump out of the cloth.

Russia's ethnic talents seemed to be centered around the word "big" - whether it was the caliber of a tank cannon or the beauty of Moscow. A few years ago, Google did a ranking on the "size of female parts around the world" and Russia ranked first without any surprise.

No normal men would say no. However, as a "gentleman," it wasn't elegant to express too much desire…

Well, to say any more would be an excuse. If it wasn't for Xia Shiyu's murderous eyes, Jiang Chen would've really wanted to do something.

Jiang Chen utterly rejected the temptation while Natasha had a smug look. He dragged the bewildered Ayesha aside and warned the innocent little girl not knowing the evil in the world to not easily accept challenges.

It was a lot of fun. When dusk painted the sky golden, the four left the beach and returned to Central Hotel.

In the next few days, the four also went to the newly opened Venus Water Park, the most popular robot museum for tourists, and Penglai's largest submarine shopping street... and visited all the fun places in Penglai City.

On the last day of the tour, Jiang Chen's original plan was to return to Coro Island, but he just happened to catch up with a unique charity party. There would be celebrities from all walks of life in attendance. As the richest man in Penglai City and possibly even the world, Jiang Chen naturally received an invitation.

The event was jointly organized by a number of charitable organizations such as UNICEF and the International Red Cross. It was sponsored by more than a dozen philanthropic rich people around the world. The venue for the evening party was located in the Submarine Ballroom in Penglai City. However, these weren't the selling points. The selling point was that one of the most influential painters in the contemporary era, Julian Schnabel, would auction his latest work "Pearl of the Pacific" at this charity event.

Just from the name, it was easy to tell the painting was based on Penglai.

Xia Shiyu attended the event with Jiang Chen because the two of them received invitations. Originally, Jiang Chen was also planning to bring Ayesha, but Ayesha refused on the basis that it would be inappropriate for her to frequently appear in public based on her job.

Holding onto Jiang Chen's hand, Xia Shiyu was particularly stunning that evening. A black dress that was conservative but also charming contrasted with the whiteness between her face and collarbone, perfectly displaying the feminine side she rarely revealed.

When she entered through the gate, she immediately attracted countless stunned eyes. Even movie stars and singers were all overshadowed by her beauty.

However, those stunned gazes disappeared after a glimpse.

After seeing the man she was holding onto, the people who were originally interested smartly gave up. Competing with the richest man in the world was just merely asking for discomfort.

Upon seeing the arrival of the main guest at the charity party, the host, Adam Galway, smiled and greeted Jiang Chen with a warm welcome and extended his right hand.

"Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Jiang Chen!"

"For the world's children and those who need help." Jiang Chen also shook his hand with a smile.

Although he himself didn't share their philanthropic spirit, it didn't prevent him from gaining an international reputation.

There were reporters in the ballroom. After all, the money spent by these rich people couldn't be spent without any gain; they had to at least gain some good public recognition.

However, these reporters weren't allowed to interview guests and weren't even allowed to communicate with them. They could only silently record the party. After all, those who were present were all recognized globally.

Chapter 763: Charity Ball

The auction was the last part of the charity ball. The proceeds from the auction would be used to help civilians and orphans in war-torn areas. In addition to the "Pearl of the Pacific" by Julian Schnabel, there were many things Jiang Chen was interested in at this auction. If the prices weren't too far off, he intended to take a few pieces of artwork back to hang at home.

Natasha had been criticizing him as classless. Although Jiang Chen himself didn't think he was that bad, since he had the opportunity now, it would be better to buy a few pieces of art and fake it. Of course, in addition to these artworks, several rich people also said they would auction off some collectible items. The organizers didn't disclose what these were, drawing people in with the mystery.

Not wanting to chat with the organizers for too long and since Mr. Galloway also had other guests to greet, Jiang Chen took the initiative to end the conversation.

When he walked into the venue with Xia Shiyu holding her hand, the party had already begun.

The magnificent, elegant and gorgeously decorated hall was surrounded by transparent graphene boards. The reflection of the blue sea and blue light added a touch of mysterious coolness to the venue.

Waiters with champagne moved between the long tables and crowds to present guests with wine and towels. This submarine restaurant was one of Penglai's famous attractions. Whether it was the decorations, service, or food on the table, it was built according to a three-star Michelin level, which made it a "it's worth a special trip to visit" restaurant…

At the party, Jiang Chen saw many acquaintances and many strangers greeted him.

What surprised him most was that he actually saw Carmen Rothschild here. This guy quietly came to Penglai City to participate in a charity party without telling him in advance.

When he saw Jiang Chen, he greeted him with a warm smile while showing off his glistering teeth and shook Jiang Chen's hand, full of energy.

"We meet again, my old friend."

"Haha, it's been a long time." Jiang Chen smiled and let go of his hand. "This is my partner, Ms. Xia Shiyu."

"Hello, Mr. Rothschild." Xia Shiyu smiled.

"I'm honored to meet you, beautiful and wise Ms. Xia. Your male companion is really an enviable guy." Carmen made a joke with great demeanor.

Xia Shiyu smiled politely and courteously, but it was obvious she was still very fond of compliments.

Jiang Chen also followed with a smile then said, "How are you, my old friend? Have you resolved the trouble on your side?"

From daily international news, the situation in Europe had become increasingly unstable. Last year, when Frankberg chose a new party to take power, the entire European political arena began to move to the right. Especially at the end of the year, several consortiums invested in the construction of refugee camps in the forests bordering Norway and Sweden. This completely ignited conflicts between cultists and mainstream society... and also incited conflicts between social justice warriors and the rest of society.

"My troubles will never end." Carmen skillfully took a cup of champagne from the waiter's tray and made a toast to Jiang Chen. He self-mockingly shrugged and said, "It's like the champagne this evening."

"Is there any problem in this world that the Rothschilds cannot solve?" Jiang Chen smiled, took some champagne and toasted Carmen.

"Of course there are. For example, there are problems that can't be solved with money." Then, Carmen put the empty glass aside. "I recommend that you pay attention to the auction coming up; there are many good things for sale."

"For example?"

Carmen only smiled mysteriously and didn't answer. He then went to join other circles.

Carmen's mysterious smile made Jiang Chen's heart itch, but since the auction was beginning soon, he didn't dig deeper.

Although the party was held in the name of charity, there was no shadow of charity at all at the party. In this kind of upper-class society, the common "hobby" of charity work was just a reason for wealthy celebrities to gather together, fulfill social needs, and meet business partners.

Of course, it didn't exclude the few who really wanted to do something for poor people.

Walking through the party venue, Jiang Chen felt that the weight on his arms was no longer so stiff. He suddenly said, "Beautiful."

"Hmmm?" Xia Shiyu didn't understand what he meant.

"I meant you're beautiful today."

While he said this, Jiang Chen smiled and gazed at her. She, however, was embarrassed by his sincere look. With a blush beginning to form on her face, she rigidly avoided his gaze.

"Why-why did you suddenly say this?"

"I noticed that from the time you entered the venue until now, at least 100 people have looked in your direction. Of the 100 people, 99 have escaped your line of sight," Jiang Chen whispered to Xia Shiyu.

"Is it because my dress is too strange?" Xia Shiyu quickly lowered her head anxiously, looked at the dress on her body and compared it to the clothes of other women around her.

Her evening gown was borrowed from Ayesha. It was her first time wearing this type of dress and now that she was singled out by Jiang Chen, she suddenly felt a bit awkward.

"No, it's just because you are so beautiful," Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

"Nonsense." Xia Shiyu blushed and gave him a hard stare.

After a few laps around the venue, because she had quite a few cups of low-degree champagne, Xia Shiyu went to the bathroom midway through and Jiang Chen began to wander alone

At that moment, someone suddenly shouted out his name.

"Jiang Chen?!"

"You are?" Jiang Chen looked puzzled at the man who said hello to him. He didn't remember this person at all.

Even with Asians' perspective on beauty, this man could be considered handsome, and he was the complete opposite of the European and American sense of beauty of being free-spirited. However, while eagerly being watched by a man, Jiang Chen didn't feel good at all. In particular, this man still looked rather handsome and gave him even more goose bumps.

"You certainly don't know me. I'm Alex Watson." Alex took the initiative to extend his right hand.

[Alex Watson?]

Jiang Chen frowned slightly. Even though Alex said his name, Jiang Chen didn't have the slightest impression of him.

Alex only smiled helplessly and shrugged.

"Well, it seems that my sister rarely mentions her disobedient younger brother."

Suddenly, Jiang Chen noticed his surname while he mentioned about being a brother.

"You are... Emma's brother?"

"Yes, you finally recognized me. My sister is also at the party. Do you want me to take you to see her?" Alex Watson asked enthusiastically.

"No, it's okay. If she wants to see me, she'll come and find me," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

The two people weren't familiar with each other and it seemed there was no need to say hello. What's more, Emma was the ambassador of Future Biology, and Jiang Chen could be considered her boss's boss. If he had the choice, he himself would not want to see his own boss during his time off.

At that moment, there was suddenly a sound of broken glassware.

Including Jiang Chen, the guests next to him all looked to the direction where the sound came from...

Chapter 764: Meeting Emma Again

The Lewis family was neither a big name in Cali nor a renowned name in UA's upper class, but its family wealth was ranked the wealthiest in the state. With the overseas real estate boom in Hua, the family owner Pound Lewis made a fortune. He was listed in Forbes' Top 30 Wealth List because he held stocks in Dream Estate with a total value of 23.7 billion US Dollar.

With just money, he would just be considered nouveau riche. In order to build up his class, Pound did all he could to squeeze into the upper echelons. He once spent a billion dollars to become a Warner Bros. shareholder in order to walk the Oscar's Red carpet. He wouldn't miss this opportunity to be at such a world-class charity party, of course.

However, because of business reasons, he didn't have time to visit in person, so he sent his son Berkeley Lewis to take part in this charity party.

However, compared to his wealthy father, Berkeley Lewis was undoubtedly a douche. Other than spending all day driving sports cars his father bought for him, he always hung out with Hollywood stars using his father's name. He was the perfect definition of a playboy.

After seeing Emma Watson, he was immediately attracted by her noble and glamorous temperament, so he used the usual tricks and invited her to dance. Unfortunately, Emma didn't respect his father and euphemistically rejected his invitation.

As a woman who once delivered a feminist speech at the United Nations, Emma would not just bow down because his father was on Forbes' list. Berkeley's "good reputation" wasn't a secret in Hollywood either. She naturally felt disgusted by this type of persona.

As for being a Warner Bros. shareholder?

There were many Warner Bros.'s shareholders - at least twenty. The UA company's general shareholding structure was scattered. 1% of the shares were enough to enter the board of directors, and 30% of shares were enough to become the chairman.

However, Mr. Berkeley obviously didn't anticipate that he would be rejected by a second-tier movie star. It was obvious he used implicit words to harass Emma, and he even wanted to reach out and hold her around the shoulders. Emma finally erupted, pouring champagne over his face.

When she took the champagne, her hand accidentally knocked the crystal glass off the table so the shattering sound attracted the attention of surrounding guests.

The previously-gelled hair was now stuck to his face. Lime-flavored champagne dripped down his hair. When he was splashed with champagne, Berkeley Lewis was completely dumbfounded. The situation around him and his surroundings caught him in a turbulent whirlpool of embarrassment. His eyes were gradually filled by anger.

Emma calmed down from her impulses and her face gradually turned pale.

At the heat of the moment, she splashed him out of rage. When she calmed down, she suddenly realized that what she did was excessive.

"Very well, very well..." Angry lips trembled, and Berkeley stared at Emma gloomily.

If it wasn't for the people watching, he would've thrown a punch.

However, he couldn't. To lay hands on a female guest at a banquet would, disregarding his loss of reputation, cause his father who loved his own reputation to chop him in half!

Seeing that his boss was splashed, the bodyguard walked up and emotionlessly said one word to Emma.

"Apologize."

Burly muscles bulged in the suit, just like an orangutan wearing human clothes. Seeing as Emma didn't respond, the bodyguard expressionlessly squeezed his fists. The sound of joints cracking made Emma's face turn even paler.

"It's not a gentleman's action to threaten a lady."

With a smile, Jiang Chen didn't look at the bodyguard but looked at Mr. Lewis.

Seeing someone intervening, Berkeley raised his eyebrows and turned his attention at the man. When he saw Jiang Chen's face, his face turned green.

If someone didn't know Jiang Chen's face a year ago, that would be excusable. However, if people still didn't recognize him after being on the news for an entire year, then they must be out of sync with this world.

Originally, Berkeley was going to leave some harsh words and wait until he returned to Cali to find a few people to take care of her. But when he saw Jiang Chen stepping in, he immediately dismissed this idea

Future Group was also on the same level with B City Consortium. This kind of monster wasn't on the same level as the rich people on the Forbes list. When other people get angry, they would beat people. When this guy get angry, he beat up an entire country. If he got in trouble with this guy, not even father times ten would be able to save him!

"I'm sorry."

Lewis bowed down and dragged away his own bodyguard without saying anything.

Although he was a douche, he wasn't stupid.

A smile emerged on Jiang Chen's face, but he also felt bored after Berkeley just left.

The unpleasant atmosphere quickly dissipated as most of the guests came to see a scene. The party returned to the lively and peaceful atmosphere. Seeing that the Playboy took his bodyguard and left, the timid Alex finally sighed and stepped forward to give the two a middle finger behind their back.

"God, sis, are you okay?"

"Why didn't you come!" Emma gave her younger brother a hard stare, but she had no intention of blaming him.

With her brother's small build, ten of his fingers couldn't defeat one of the bodyguard's fingers.

"I..." Alex blushed and scratched his head, and suddenly an excuse came to mind. He immediately pointed out Jiang Chen with a grin. "I looked for someone to save you."

Emma and Jiang Chen's eyes met up and then they awkwardly looked away.

"Thank you."

To be honest, she had been hiding from him. Jiang Chen didn't tell her why he chose her to be part of the "The Time Curtain." Her excessive self-protection instincts told her that his own thoughts might be the same as the other man,'s - he was just less obvious.

When she thought about this, there was an inexplicable feeling that grew in her mind

If he asked her, could she really have the confidence that refused Berkeley, to refuse him?

While having mixed feelings, her thank you was very sincere. Because she knew clearly that if it wasn't for Jiang Chen, even if she left unscathed today, the situation waiting for her wouldn't be good in Cali.

"You're welcome." Jiang Chen smiled. He didn't think as much as her - his actions were more about seeing an acquaintance in trouble and doing a favor. "But it's better to think before you act. After all, you can't count on there being so many gentlemen willing to save you."

The richer people were, the more people cared about their own feathers

Due to their identities, most people just glanced over. Was it worthwhile to get in a conflict with a billionaire for a movie star? Anybody who did business would do the math. It was precisely because of this that only Jiang Chen stepped into the mess. Only he didn't care.

Without chatting with Emma for too long, Jiang Chen realized the time then bid farewell to the siblings. He then went to the agreed location and met up with Xia Shiyu.

There was a half-hour before the auction's start time. Taking advantage of this time, he intended to fill his stomach first. The food on this long table was full of colors, flavors, and smells. Having entered the venue for so long without even touching the food was a great tragedy

After arriving at the agreed-upon spot, Jiang Chen realized Xia Shiyu had waited for a long time already.

"Who is she? She looks… familiar."

"Emma Watson, the brand ambassador for nutrient supply under Future Biology. She tied her hair up and I didn't even recognize her at first," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

"Hermione?"

"Yes, but if you call her that, she probably won't be too happy," Jiang Chen said jokingly.

[What is your relationship with her?]

Xia Shiyu just wanted to ask this question, but when she thought about it, she swallowed it back.

[If this is the case... What is my relationship with him?]

Chapter 765: Auction

"This is pis*ing me off!"

After taking the elevator back to the surface, Berkeley cursed at Jiang Chen for stepping in and cussed at Emma who made him look like a fool in front of everyone. He vaguely recalled how people around him looked at him when he was leaving the venue.

He had never felt so useless!

A Porsche was parked at the side of the road. Seeing his young master approaching, the driver immediately got out of the car and opened the door for him.

Compared to the first few days of opening, there were more vehicles on Penglai's roads. Some affluent cruise ships were built with garages and cars followed the ship around. Berkeley's ship apparently was part of this category. When he came to Penglai, he set sail directly from a private port in Cali.

Berkeley was feeling gloomy.

"Drive me back to the hotel."

"Yes."

Seeing that the young master was in a terrible mood, the driver could guess that the master must've encountered some unpleasant events at the party. As a professional suck-up, it was the perfect opportunity to ease the mind of his young master! Halfway through the trip, Berkeley's mood improved slightly and the driver asked, "Master Berkeley, who had the courage to make you unhappy?"

"Jiang Chen," Berkeley said emotionlessly.

The driver suddenly shivered.

[Fu*k, there's no solution to this!]

However, Berkeley added, "And Emma."

Explaining the cause and aftermath to his driver Tate, Berkeley sunk into his seat and stopped talking. Thanks to Emma, he still must think about how he to explain this fiasco to his father. After all, his father viewed his own reputation above anything else.

Even now, he had no self-awareness that it might be his fault.

With Jiang Chen's protection, Emma was untouchable. However, this wasn't any problem for Tate - before he drove for the man with too much money, he was a Hollywood paparazzi. In order to earn his salary, what kind of means had he not attempted?

His eyeballs turned, Tate held the wheel while lowering his voice.

"Master, I have a way."

"Say it," Berkeley said impatiently.

"Since this b*tch is doing whatever she wants because of her protection, then we will first take away her protection before making a move. Just..." Tate whispered a few words next to Berkeley.

After listening, Berkeley's eyes turned brighter and brighter. Suddenly he slapped his thigh with a big smile.

"Haha, Tate," Berkeley hooked Tate's shoulder and laughed. "You're such a bad boy!"

Instantly, his bad mood disappeared.

[Just Wait! I'll make you pay the price!]

Berkeley licked his lips, and he began to plan in his mind. After he got that arrogant little girl to bow her head, he would torture her.

...

The waiters withdrew the cooked dishes and replaced them with delicate and delicious desserts. The sweet but not greasy ice cream stimulated Jiang Chen's taste buds. Even though he didn't like sweets in general, he fell in love with this ice cream he couldn't name.

Jiang Chen secretly made up his mind. After the party was over, he would go to the kitchen to get the recipe of the ice cream then ask Ayesha to make it for him.

After dessert was over and the guests savored the food, this evening party entered the final and most crucial part - the charity auction.

The items to be presented at the auction were donated by people from all walks of life. Jiang Chen donated a pen that he used for a price of 100,000 US Dollar. Compared to Julian Schnabel's Pearl on the Pacific, a pen undoubtedly paled in comparison. However, the most important factor was how much money being donated, not the price of the items auctioned.

Because it was a charity auction, most of those sitting there were successful with prestige and reputation. After auctioning an item, the organizer would report the names of the winners to satisfy the vanity of the donors.

At the reception of the waiter, Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu went to the next venue and sat in the corner.

The guests were already seated and the waiter standing at the door gently closed the door.

It was almost time for the show. The host of the party, Mr. Galloway, stepped onto the stage, then he looked at the guests with a smile.

"I'm extremely happy and very grateful to see you here today. We are here for the same purpose, for those who need help..."

There was not any highlight in the opening remarks. For Jiang Chen, an atheist who didn't feel much compassion, Galloway's words didn't interest him. Compared to charity, he was more concerned about what interesting things he could win from this auction.

Without disappointing Jiang Chen, when Mr. Galloway finished his section, the beauty wearing a UNICEF uniform came forward. In the red wooden box she was holding. it was an antique teacup.

"The cup belonged to Queen Victoria with over two hundred years of history. The donor was the Duke of Edwards from London. The starting price is five million!"

There was applause at the venue. People paid their respects to this generous Duke and raised their bidding cards.

In the end, the teacup used by the Queen was sold for a price of seventeen million US Dollar.

The second item was also an antique, nothing remarkable.

For the third item, Jiang Chen immediately paid more attention

Because the upcoming item was the pen he used. The starting price was 100,000 US Dollar!

To be honest, he was looking forward to the final auction price of the pen. However, reality was cruel. The auction room was quiet for two seconds without anyone bidding. Seeing that his own pen was about to go unbidden, Jiang Chen's expression suddenly turned awkward.

[I may have overestimated myself!]

Looking at Jiang Chen's awkward look, Xia Shiyu giggled at the scene.

She took the card and wrote a series of zeros on it. She was preparing to bid for the pen.

However, at that time, a sign was raised from the other side of the venue, and the host turned his attention to the other side while exclaiming.

"One million! Directly increased the price by ten times! Our winner is Carmen Rothschild! Let us give our applause to this generous gentleman and give it to this generous family..."

Applause rang, but Jiang Chen felt embarrassed.

He noticed Carmen was sitting there smiling, then raised his cup.

[Well, finally someone recognized its true value.]

The fourth piece of merchandise was the "Pearl of the Pacific," the most prized item, which pushed the atmosphere to the climax. With a starting price of five million, the price increase must not be less than one hundred thousand. However, as soon as the painting was put out, a wealthy man already doubled the price to ten million!

However, it was a pity that his competitor is Jiang Chen.

After some competition, when the third sound of the hammer fell, the painting was eventually sold at a high price of 110 million US Dollar by Jiang Chen. A painting sold for 110 million US Dollar, even for the many wealthy individuals at the party, it was still a shocking and ridiculous final price.

Many celebrities focused Jiang Chen with undisguised desire. At the same time, they gave Xia Shiyu, who was sitting next to him, the dirtiest and most jealous look.

The fifth item appeared and immediately attracted Jiang Chen's attention.

It was a simple notebook.

To be precise, it was a codebook.

The origin of this codebook was somewhat unique...

Chapter 766: The Code Book from Berlin

"After returning home, he handed over the codebook to Churchill, but the codebook wasn't taken seriously. The war had been won. No matter what kind of intelligence was recorded, it wasn't important to the British who already defeated the devil. After some symbolic deciphering work, the codebook was sent to a museum in London along with other souvenirs. Later, after several twists and turns, the codebook arrived to the hands of a collector from Berlin, that is, our generous Mr. Woolley Fergus."

At the same time, the host looked at Woolley Fergus with a smile, who also returned the smile.

"No one knows what's written in it. The disorganized characters are like a madman's graffiti. If they're not a leader's nonsense in his last moments, then he must've buried some kind of incredible secrets here... but this isn't important anymore. It used to belong to a devil, but now it will be used in great undertakings, with a starting price of one million US Dollar and no less than one hundred thousand for each bid. The proceeds of the item will be used to help those who are left without a home due to the war!"

The sentence just finished yet someone already raised their hand.

"One million! Thank you, first, oh, oh my God, two million! Mr. Fergus from Paris has directly increased the price by one million dollars! Thank you for your generosity..."

The auction was conducted in an open manner. For each bidder, no matter how much the price increased, the host would offer a blessing. Maybe shocked by the financial power Mr. Fergus displayed, the host's hammer dropped twice without anyone raising the bid.

Jiang Chen looked in the direction of Carmen Rothschild and saw him indulging in red wine. He seemed to be uninterested in this item.

"And there are no interested buyers? If not… Three million!"

Jiang Chen raised the sign.

"Three million once! Three million twice! Three times! Sold! Thank you, Mr. Jiang Chen, your generosity will be remembered by everyone!"

Three million to buy a notebook, in the eyes of the people who didn't know the truth, was completely a waste of money. There was no artistic value in it; the ultimate destination would be a history museum without much room for appreciation. However, this was at a charity party. No one would think that. So they all looked at Jiang Chen with praise and blessings.

Everyone thought he wanted to do something for the poor people from the bottom of his heart, so he directly increased the price by one million.

Only two people didn't think so. One was Jiang Chen himself, and the other was Rothschild who was sitting on the other side of the hall.

The auction continued, but the following items were nothing interesting. Jiang Chen paid attnetion Carmen's side. Other than the pen he used, he only bid for two more things. A fifteenth-century armor from Western Europe and a winery located in Croatia.

In fact, Jiang Chen was also interested in that winery, but when he realized Croatia seemed to be located in the Balkans, his interest immediately faded.

The Balkans seemed to be the gateway for refugees to Europe, and it was even more of a mess now. If he bought a winery in this place, Jiang Chen felt he would have no interest in spending his holidays there. Moreover, he seemed to have bought a golf course at the foot of Mount Fuji in Nippon, and the engineering team he hired was changing the golf course to a private estate.

After some time, he would hire several gardeners and plant some grape vines there to perhaps establish his own winery.

When Jiang Chen was deep in thought, Mr. Rothschild had already beaten his rivals with 90 million US Dollar and successfully won the manor.

The auction concluded and Adam Galloway read out the funds raised by the guests present, totaling 420 million US Dollar. Adhering to the principle of openness, Mr. Galloway promised to the people that the official websites of many charitable organizations such as the International Children's Fund and the International Red Cross Society would monitor the whereabouts of this huge amount of money in real time and invite people from around the world to also participate in the auditing.

Finally, he once again thanked the entrepreneurs for their generosity. In particular, Jiang Chen and Rothschild's contributions equated almost half the funds raised by the audience.

After the party ended, Jiang Chen met Rothschild who was also on his way to the elevator.

"So, what is that interesting thing you are talking about?"

"Didn't you already win it?" Carmen smiled.

"You're referring to the 110 million painting or the sketchbook used by the great Fuhrer?"

"Haha, that's a good one." Carmen didn't hold back and burst out laughing. "It's not a sketchbook. It's an original piece of the unsolved mystery from the last century. Someone said the secrets of the Third Reich are hidden in the notebook. People also said it's a treasure map, and MI6 never stopped deciphering the codebook. A copy of the book has been lying in their confidential archives for decades. Of course, what the host said was right. That is, no one has yet been able to decipher the secrets of this codebook."

"Do you think I can decipher it?" Jiang Chen joked. "You're overestimating my strength. I'm afraid that this original in my hands will suffer the fate of lying in the archives."

"That's not my problem," Carmen laughed and mocked him. "I just said that it was an interesting thing, but I didn't say you would find the treasure."

The value of items with more than a million dollar in value would generally be handled by dedicated escort officers, who would take the auction items to the winners' homes. However, at the request of Jiang Chen, after paying, he took the codebook directly from the auctioneer.

After taking Xia Shiyu back to the hotel, Jiang Chen returned to his room on the top floor of the Central with the three million dollar codebook.

When he got home, Ayesha had already filled the bathtub with water. The water temperature was just right.

With Ayesha's service, Jiang Chen took a relaxing bubble bath. Wrapped in a bath towel from the bathroom, he returned to the study and took a briefcase with the codebook. Jiang Chen sat directly at the desk.

Dark gray leather covered the dust full of history.

Nothing was written on the cover of the codebook. Only a small Swastika was engraved in the middle of the cover...

Chapter 767: Just in case?

Turning open the page, an old, dry scent blew in his face. Jiang Chen called out artificial intelligence Jean to the watch as looked at the line on the title page, then asked her to translate German into Chinese. Sure enough, it read the Fuhrer's name.

Like the host of the auction said, densely packed characters filled the yellowed paper as he turned to the second page.

But when he thought about it, the famous MI6 spent half a century trying to decipher it without fruition; it wouldn't be any different with the effort of an individual.

Jiang Chen sighed. Just as he was about to close the book, Jean suddenly said, "The Neumann password, invented in 2059, belongs to the disordered large-quantity password that is organized by the quantum algorithm in the early days and can only be restored through a specific algorithm formula. Theoretically, if there is no codebook, considering the cryptography of the quantum algorithm, this piece of information has no solution using contemporary decryption technology."

When Jiang Chen heard Jean's words, he took a moment to process the information and immediately looked at Jean in excitement.

"Wait. You mean you know how to decipher this?"

Jean turned her head and told Jiang Chen what she could do with her actions.

Through the pupils in the hologram, a stream of green data flowed. After about half a minute, this secret that troubled MI6 for half a century was translated on the holographic screen.

36,000 characters were crushed into large pieces of text and graphics in accordance with a special algorithm. Like spells, they were arranged in layers under Jean's command.

When all the information was extracted, Jiang Chen discovered in the bottom right corner of the holographic screen that the data released by the 36,000 characters was 2.7 gigabyte in size!

[How could anyone decipher this?!]

"... ummm, are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" Jiang Chen looked at the image on the holographic panel in disbelief and asked Jean.

"During deciphering, I used 4.7% of the computing resources on the quantum computer," Jean replied in an indifferent voice.

Without the computational power of a quantum computer, without knowing the translation formula, it would be almost impossible to crack the information in the codebook. Or to put it another way, even if you knew the translation formula of the codebook, if you wanted to release more than 36,000 characters into a 2.7 gigabyte file, it would be extremely difficult to do purely by hand.

Jiang Chen couldn't understand the mathematical formula, but he could recognize the graphs.

V2 rockets, jet engines, Me163 comet interceptors, BV246 gliding missiles, Ho-229 experimental battle suits, atomic bomb design plans... and some strange things that even the reserve search engines couldn't find. Obviously, Germany didn't complete the translation of the codebook even at the last moment.

Even if they controlled the formula.

"Unbelievable, these incredible technologies of the Third Reich were actually recorded in 36,000 characters."

Jiang Chen looked at the holographic screen for a long time and finally sighed.

Who would've thought the fate of the entire empire was in such a booklet? Unfortunately, this booklet didn't save the fate of the empire.

"The Golden Apple, code book..." His finger tapped on the arm of the chair gently. Jiang Chen recalled the issue he discussed with Lin Lin about the space colonization ship. They sent signals to this dimension of Earth through Klein particle waves.

Lin Lin once told him the amount of information the Golden Apple is able to receive is limited. In this case, the purpose of the codebook was evident.

The Golden Apple's "small water pipe" obviously wasn't enough to transfer a 2.7 gigabyte file, so the space colonization ship entered the void of the colonial ship first passed the 36,000 characters through the Golden Apple to the Fuhrer and passed on the codebook to translate the characters.

It was equivalent to compressing the 2.7 gigabyte file then tossing in the decompression tool together with the compressed file.

Although the reason why the people on the colonization ship chose Germany as their spokesperson was unknown, but it was certain that their plans fell short. Even with these incredible technologies, the Third Reich still perished in the steel floods of the two superpowers.

These technologies were obviously all based on the technology of the 40s. They could no longer be considered incredible. Any rocket engine could easily defeat the old V2 rocket.

Jiang Chen was a bit disappointed when he realized this.

He previously thought he could learn some interesting stuff in this notebooklike the technology from the void. However, survivors who were lost in the void seemed to have considered that over-advanced technology would not only have a benign impact on the Third Reich, but it would lead them to infuse a large amount of scientific research resources into meaningless projects. It was like throwing Einstein a set of nuclear fusion equations; he couldn't have made the hydrogen bomb before making the atomic bomb.

But even without the technology, at least he now possessed the treasures of the Third Reich! Although Jiang Chen didn't lack money, searching for a treasure not known to the world has always been a boy's romance!

His fingers scrolled through the holographic screen, bored, and the technology that had already been outdated passed by in front of him.

However, when he yawned and turned to the last picture, he suddenly stopped.

On the holographic screen was a fortress among the glacial snow mountains. The Remnants of the Void not only presented weapons from the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, but also offered him a design map ...of a castle.

Detailed instructions for carrying out the construction were already recorded in the drawing, and even the construction site was clearly written on it.

Jiang Chen's eyes scanned the last two lines of the image and captured three key words.

Fallout Shelter, Antarctica, just in case.

[Just in case?]

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

"What are you looking at?"

The door of the room was pushed open. In a loose white towel, Ayesha walked to Jiang Chen's side with a cup of coffee. She just showered, and her white neck was covered with pearls of water droplets. Her soft skin was as tender as tofu.

Pushing the holographic screen to the side, Jiang Chen turned the chair and took a sip of the coffee from her.

The sweet bitterness diffused in his taste buds, soothing his hard-wired nerves and his tightened eyebrows.

Putting the coffee down, Jiang Chen smiled and looked at the well-behaved Ayesha. He whispered, "Thank you."

Ayesha grinned, leaned over him with her petite and graceful body and kissed him softly on his forehead.

"Go to bed early, my dear."

The love in the kiss awakened a particular string in his heart. Jiang Chen's heart gradually began to burn in a passionate fire.

"Mhmm, I'll head to bed soon." Gently patting Ayesha's back, Jiang Chen got up and leaned closer to her ear. "Wait for me."

Chapter 768: Undersea Tunnel

However, after some contemplation, Jiang Chen also didn’t understand what this “just in case” actually referred to.

Was it meant to leave a seed for the Third Reich or for something else?

And this fortress was just a blueprint. Did the Fuhrer really send people to Antarctica and constructed the doomsday fortress following the instructions from the Remnants of the Void? And as far as the location on this map was concerned, the fortress seemed to be buried in the permafrost. It remained an unsolved mystery whether it was possible to survive in such a place.

[Should I go to Antarctica?]

This idea suddenly appeared in Jiang Chen’s mind and exploded uncontrollably.

Fallout shelters couldn’t determine the outcome of the war, and at most, they provided the losers with a dying grave. No matter how he thought about it, it was meaningless to do so. However, the Remnants of the Void wouldn’t insert a piece of useless information in the characters for no reason. They did and they certainly must had their reasons…

What could the reasons be?

…

The next morning, Jiang Chen returned to Coro Island with Ayesha and Xia Shiyu after spending a wonderful time in Penglai.

For work reasons, Natasha boarded a plane the day before the charity ball and returned to Moscow. It was only the three of them on the return flight.

Back on the island, Xia Shiyu’s first task was to go home and drop off her luggage, and the second task was to go to Future Building. A week without stepping into the office – the accumulated workload must be as high as a mountain. Although her assistant could help her take care of some documents, many of them concerned the direction of the group’s business and must be handled by her.

Jiang Chen returned to the mansion with Ayesha. After a short break, he also started to busy himself.

On the one hand, he was preparing for his Antarctica trip. On the other hand, he recently planned to build a undersea tunnel to connect the nine Pannu islands together. As a result, people wouldn’t need to travel by ship, and they could drive directly to any corner of Xin in just a vehicle.

If a country wished to be prosper, they must first build roads. It was the unchanging principle throughout history. If there was an undersea tunnel that could unite the nine islands of the Pannu archipelago, it would provide a huge boost to the economy of the entire country.

Apart from that, once this tunnel was completed, the demand for cars in Xin would surely explode.

However, despite this, building a tunnel wasn’t an easy task.

There were many ways to build an undersea tunnel. There were four representative types such as the drilling and blasting method used in tunnels in Xiamen and Qingdao, the immersed pipe method used in Xiangjiang, the drilling machine method used in the English Channel, and the shield method used in Japan.

However, these four methods all shared one characteristic in common.

Expensive! Very expensive!

Take Hua as an example – 123 kilometers of the Dalian-Yantai High-Speed Rail Undersea Tunnel under construction had a bill as high as 260 billion RMB, and the average cost per kilometer exceeded two billion! Even if the 129 million cost of the high-speed rail per kilometer was taken out, just the cost of building a pipeline was an astronomical figure!

And this budget was only a conservative estimate!

If all nine Pannu islands were connected, it wouldn’t be as short as 123 kilometers. The distance directly between the southernmost island Ange and Coro Island exceeded 150 kilometers, which was equivalent to the distance from Wanghai to Hangzhou.

A conservative estimate was that the undersea section of the tunnel must be at least 300 kilometers long to connect all Pannu nine islands. If the project was contracted to a builder in Hua, the entire project would cost at least 60 billion US Dollar.

Sixty billion US Dollar, good lord, this money would be enough to build two more Penglai Cities! Even if Future Group was rich, it obviously wasn’t possible to spend in this manner.

Fortunately, Future Heavy Industries made breakthroughs in graphene technology in semiconductor-type graphene and high-strength nanomaterials. It could be said that no scientific research institution in the entire world was a worthy opponent of Future Group’s Material Science Laboratory.

Among them, the use of graphene plates on Future Building was a breakthrough in driving down the cost of construction of undersea tunnels. If a tougher material than steel could be used as the outer wall of the tunnel, the progress of the entire project would undoubtedly be much easier.

At the beginning of April, Future Heavy Industries selected a partner from hundreds of construction companies worldwide through public bidding – the Victoria Construction Company registered in Xiangjiang. The construction company once designed and constructed two undersea tunnels and had a deep knowledge of the immersed pipe method.

Considering that the immersed pipe method was more suitable for the performance of graphene materials, Jiang Chen ultimately decided on this company as the final candidate.

After the successful bid, Victoria Construction immediately dispatched Wu Weiyu, an engineer who specialized in undersea tunnels, to Xin to discuss the application of graphene materials in the construction of the undersea tunnel.

Just as Wu Weiyu landed, Jiang Chen immediately invited him to the High-Tech Park on Ange Island.

In the center of the spacious factory building was a semi-cylindrical archway about twelve meters wide and about five meters high. The four walls of the archway were transparent, but the sheen of the glass wasn’t visible on the surface.

Taking Wu Weilu to the side of this transparent archway, Jiang Chen took a hammer from the staff and smashed the archway.

Dong!

There was a muffled sound and the sound echoed in the closed archway. Wu Weiyu looked at the spot where Jiang Chen smashed the hammer, and his eyes widened in shock.

“This is our prototype.” Jiang Chen smiled. He returned the hammer to the staff and patted Wu Weiyu on the shoulder. “The outer wall of the tunnel is to be made of graphene material, ten times the strength of molybdenum-nickel steel. Its longitudinal extension is stronger than all metal materials except there’s an issue with high-temperature resistance… Of course, chances of catching fire in the sea are pretty small.”

“There may be traffic accidents in the tunnel which may cause a fire, even in the ocean.” While stroking the outer wall of the graphene archway, Wu Weiyu mumbled to himself, “But we can paint on inner wall flame retardants, this should be an easy fix…”

After a short pause, Wu Weiyu looked back at Jiang Chen and asked him seriously, “What’s the cost of this graphene material?”

“For this archway, about one meter is about seven hundred dollars.”

One meter, seven hundred dollars. One kilometer was seventy thousand dollars – this cost was much cheaper than steel! If a large sum of money could be saved on the materials, the construction cost of the entire project would undoubtedly be cut several times!

With this thought in mind, Wu Weiyu’s eyes on Jiang Chen suddenly turned brighter.

Victoria Construction Company must find a way to obtain the graphene tunnel! If this high-strength, low-cost building material could be obtained, Victoria would undoubtedly gain strong market competitiveness in the global tunnel construction market.

Not to mention the quality of the project – just one deal would be enough to murder countless competitors.

Victoria Construction Company must establish a long-term strategic partnership with Future Heavy Industrial!

Wu Weiyu already made up his mind secretly. After the end of today’s trip, he would make a phone call to his boss and be sure to clearly explain the pros and cons. If they could obtain this deal, it would be a huge achievement and promotion would no longer be a dream.

That passioante gaze made Jiang Chen shudder as he subconsciously distanced himself.

[What the… Could this guy be…]

Chapter 769: Three Pieces of Good News

The first day of negotiations ended on a high note.

After returning to the hotel, Wu Weiyu immediately contacted his boss. The next day, Victoria Construction Company moved two construction ships, two survey helicopters, and a professional construction team from the Xiangjiang headquarters. They took several laps around Pannu Island to survey the structure of the seabed, and delineate the construction route and series of other tasks.

Three days later, Victoria Construction Company proposed a macro design plan and determined the project length and route as well as a budget. Wu Weiyu immediately took a stack of documents five centimeters thick to Jiang Chen.

“This is the plan we proposed. The tunnel starts from the northernmost Garin Island in the Pannu archipelago, passes through Coro Island, and ends on Ange Island, connecting the rest of the six islands via slip roads. The tunnel will use a transparent graphene shell. 319 kilometers in length and a two-way 12-lane road – driving in the tunnel will be the same as driving on the sea floor! Here is the engineering concept diagram. I bet the Pannu Undersea Expressway will make its mark in the history of modern architecture!” Wu Weiyu ecstatically pounded his chest and vowed to Jiang Chen.

The transparent undersea tunnel wouldn’t only serve as a transportation belt for Xin, but it would also become a world-famous tourist attraction with a total length of 319 kilometers. Under the attraction of light, fish would inhabit the vicinity of the tunnel. While enjoying a tour of Pannu, tourists could enjoy the beautiful scenery outside the window. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Jiang Chen took the proposal from Wu Weiyu’s hands, flipped through the pages and nodded with satisfaction.

It seemed he had a good vision. This Victoria Construction Company was indeed capable of completing this project.

“How much will the project cost?”

“The construction of the graphene pipeline is provided by Future Heavy Industrial and isn’t included in the project cost. Our budget for this undersea tunnel is 10.17 billion US Dollar and no more than 12 billion US Dollar.”

At an average price of around 200-300 million RMB per kilometer, this price was already quite cheap. Including the cost from Future Heavy Industries, the graphene material for the entire project would be around 500 million US Dollar.

“Excellent, this project will be yours. I will send scientists from Future Heavy Industries to your project team temporarily as technical consultants for graphene materials.” Jiang Chen signed the letter of intent on investment. “Send the contract to my CEO tomorrow and start construction the day after tomorrow. Can you do it?”

“No problem!” Wu Weiyu said without hesitation.

“Then you can go now.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Right after Wu Weiyu left, Future Group also completed the registration of a subsidiary named “Pannu Undersea High-Speed Management Company” and injected 15 billion US Dollar into the subsidiary. The next day, the Victoria Construction Company sent a contract to the subsidiary to complete the signing of the undersea expressway project.

At this point, this 12 billion US Dollar project was formally announced!

After just spending billions of dollars on the space elevator, 15 billion was invested into the undersea tunnel. Typically, Future Group wouldn’t be able to squeeze out so much cash.

But now, there wasn’t much concern. Future Bank had already reached 24.49 million depositors since its establishment. Total deposits had been converted into 192.1 billion US Dollar based on current exchange rates. After half a month of tightening the lending rate, there was no issue with providing 15 billion US Dollar of fresh blood for Future Group.

Jiang Chen no longer needed to worry about liquidity for the company. Only when the blood flowing in their blood vessels was sufficient would the behemoth Future Group take off and expand at a faster pace to transform the world.

Of course, the premise was that there were no major operational mistakes.

On the other hand, Future Bank was in the process of going public. If nothing unexpected happened, it should be successful on the New York Stock Exchange in mid-May to issue 30% of the shares. According to the news brought by Future Bank’s CEO, Future Bank just entered the asset review stage. With a 15 billion US Dollar loan, Future Bank could increase its P/E ratio and earn more money from investors

After Jiang Chen finished setting the direction of the tunnel, there were three other pieces of good news from Future Technology.

The first good news was that Virtual Image Production Company completed the modeling of Gliese 581g. According to the data sponsored by the International Astronomical Association, the planet’s surface environment was restored in a 1:1 ratio.

As a result, “The Time Curtain” would enter the second phase of shooting. With the help of powerful virtual reality processing technology, director Nolan would be able to express his free-flowing imagination and demonstrate the collision between two “homogenous origin but heterogeneous structure” civilizations for the audience!

To be honest, although Jiang Chen read the script, he was still looking forward to the stunning masterpiece Nolan would bring to his audience.

He also sincerely blessed this friend to fulfill his dream to become the first director to win an Academy Award for Best Film using a sci-fi genre.

The second good news came from VRcity. After several months of hard work, the game development department of Future Technology completed the production of VRcity beta after integrating the famous Maxis and designers of Rock Star Studio.

Although the game was still only in beta, this program already possessed a city scale. The satellite imagery of Shanghai, Beijing, Wanghai, New York, London, Paris and other large cities captured by the Sky Eye X1 satellite was analyzed and constructed by smart programs. Over one hundred programmers completed the modeling of VRcity.

In addition to its rich infrastructure, tens of thousands of user-selectable building plans and the new city-based mission system designed by Rock Star would provide users with a wealth of game content while meeting users’ social needs.

At present, VRcity opened a total of 100,000 beta testing codes to users from multiple countries as part of the internal beta testing for social media software. If there were no major problems after the test, this VRcity would enter the Phantom in the fall for users to download.

Jiang Chen was extremely pleased. Ning Huajian, CEO of Future Technology, perfectly replicated his original idea.

The only regret was that the GTA7 he was looking forward to may be bounced for an indefinite period.

Future Group mercilessly headhunted 17 developers of Rock Star, leading to stagnation of the development of GTA7. Jiang Chen was very hesitant when he made the decision.

From Vice City, he had always been a loyal player in the GTA series. However, this series was now ruined in his hands and he was extremely regretful.

While regretful, it was a decision he made.

He still couldn’t stop shaking his head at the thought that if Take Two agreed to sell Rock Star, he wouldn’t have needed to go through the trouble to headhunt. If Rock Star was acquired by Future Technology, he could produce a GTA based entirely on the VR platform.

Crimes would be completely restored in the real New York – shooting against gangs in the dark alley, street racing against the police, experiencing Fast and Furious through virtual reality… just thinking about this made him excited.

But would too realistic crime simulations increase the crime rate in real life?

It wasn’t an outcome Jiang Chen could predict.

Chapter 770: VRgame Online!

The last piece of good news was about Phantom helmet from Future Technology.

In early April, Future Technology held a special VR game industry summit in the Silicon Valley subsidiary. Future Technology invited hundreds of renowned game companies and studios worldwide and signed a VR technology sharing agreement.

As early as the beginning of last year, Future Technology responded to the demands of parties to open up VR software development tools. However, because there were no supporting training sessions, major game companies and studios were extremely slow when transplanting their games to the VR platform. In addition, aside from the large vendors such as Microsoft, Sony, Sega, and Ubisoft, almost no one had the financial resources to rent a supercomputer as their own game server.

It was precisely because of this that until April this year, there was still no large-scale VR game other than “Godly Land” on the market.

But now this situation would soon change.

According to the signed VR technology sharing agreement, Future Group would send technical consultants to major game companies to train groups of developers who could skillfully use basic VR development tools. Future Group would hold 5% of the shares of the participating game companies. This 5% stake would enable Future Technology to acquire a seat on the board of directors in these companies.

However, Future Group promised to exercise only limited voting rights on the board of directors.

At the same time, in the latest update of Phantom Helmet, the icon of VRgame was added to the menu interface, although it was only a black frame with the words “stayed tuned” at the moment.

The positioning of VRgame was similar to Steam on PC; users could purchase games through VRgame. All companies that joined the technology sharing agreement would be eligible to join VRgame. For games sold by other companies, Future Technology only charged 20% of the total sales as channel fees as well as a relatively low server renting cost based on server resource demands.

For technical reasons, Future Group completely sealed the possibility of piracy on the channel, and VR games were the future of games for the next era. Therefore, once the VRgame application was launched, it immediately attracted the attention of countless developers.

What’s more, some shareholders even directly announced at the shareholders’ meeting that they would devote all their energy to the development of VR games and completely abandon the piracy-rampant PC field.

At the same time, the launch of VRgame also allowed Chinese game makers to be hopeful. At the beginning of 2000, China had a lot of outstanding stand-alone games, including Butterfly Meteor Sword and Chinese Paladins. However, these masterpieces that once hoped to compete with Japanese game companies were, without exception, dead in their own hands. They didn’t even make it out of the country before being bankrupted by piracy.

The only Chinese Paladin series that barely survived today began to sell games based on people’s nostalgia.

But now this situation could finally end.

All VR games would be run on Future Group servers, and any server rental applications without copyright would be rejected. In addition, the genre issues that some countries’ game makers worried about could also be perfectly resolved in VRgame.

The platform’s own translation system would eliminate the problem of language barriers. Even if you made a game that couldn’t be published in the country due to censorship, you could sell it in Xin and conquer the global market. The “backdoors” in Phantom Helmet also made it possible for players in other regions to jump over the walls to purchase games for sale in Xin. In other words, as long as your game was good enough, even if it was sold in Xin with a population less than 100,000 people, the sales volume would still be able to break 100 million.

Could the people in the government go to Xin and burn their servers?

According to the relevant provisions of the WTO on virtual product services, there were no tariffs when selling games in different countries, therefore this wouldn’t be classified as a tax-avoidance move.

It was foreseeable that in the next few years, there would be a wave of outstanding quality VR games on Phantom, which would cement Future Technology’s dominance and develop VR into a flourishing market.

Microsoft Game Studios, or MGS for short, was a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft that developed and distributed games for Windows-based personal computers, Xbox and Xbox 360 game consoles. Its development game involved various fields from RTS to RPG. Classic titles included Age of Empires, Fable, and Halo. The consideration of MGS as the richest console game company wasn’t an exaggeration.

At the summit, Future Technology invited MGS, and MGS CEO Aiden Nelson also personally attended the summit.

After attending the VR game industry summit in Silicon Valley, Aiden stepped out of the venue and immediately flew back to Redmond, Washington, and took his suitcase directly to Microsoft headquarters.

He handed the suitcase to his assistant and stood at the door of the CEO’s office. He took a deep breath and stepped inside.

As he expected, CEO Satya Nadera was working. When he saw Aiden entering through the door, Satya put the pen down and looked at him.

“How did it go?”

Aiden opened his hands and didn’t know how to answer the question. He merely took out a document from his briefcase.

“This is a VR technology sharing agreement provided by Future Technology. The fruit they gave is very sweet, but the conditions…”

Aiden spat out some words after a long pause.

“Are very harsh.”

Satya didn’t seem to hear any of his words. She took a look at the documents and flipped through them.

Half an hour later, Satya laid down her documents, picked up a pen resting on the side, and signed her name at the end.

“Not bad.”

Satya looked at the name and swallowed.

“Do we really want to let them control the MGS? Although it’s only 5% of the shares…”

“Think about it from another perspective – paying 5% of the shares will allow MGS to live. This isn’t a bad ending at all.” Satya grunted and shook her head with a smile.

Deducting 5% of the shares of MGS was equivalent to using 500 million US Dollar to join this agreement. With only 500 million in exchange for the possibility of entering the field of virtual reality, this deal didn’t seem bad at all. What’s more, Microsoft didn’t have much choice.

The introduction of VR equipment was like an industry reshuffle. In this shuffle, even a small workshop with a market value of one dollar might become the market-leading company with a market value of ten billion in the future. What was certain was that those small indie companies must’ve signed without hesitation. If Microsoft hesitated this time, MGS may be surpassed by these indie companies in the field of VR.

Ignore the agreement, Future Technology also promised compensation for companies with high market value. This compensation was mainly reflected in the distribution of training resources. Large companies possessed more abundant talent pools, and Future Technology would also send more technical consultants to “help” them become familiar with development tools.

Anyway, they were now a family.

“The next strategic goal of MGS is to port Minecraft to VRgame. The only requirement is to occupy the sandbox game market before everyone else!”

Minecraft, which Microsoft bought for 2.5 billion US Dollar, originally was prepared to be ported to HoloLens. However, sales of HoloLens was their first defeat in the VR field.

Porting Minecraft to a competitor’s platform was, in a sense, equivalent to a defeat. But from another perspective, it was also a choice. After all, it wouldn’t be wise to fight to the death in VR devices against Future Group, who had an absolute advantage.

[But… is this really okay?]

After picking up the agreement and looking at the expressionless CEO, Aiden finally stopped himself from asking the question that lingered in his head.

Chapter 771: Is this really okay?

Is this really okay?

Xia Shiyu and Ning Huajian had both asked Jiang Chen the same question at least once.

However, Jiang Chen’s answer was very simple. Although there were some areas that were not professional, the overall grasp on the macro trend still persuaded the two meticulous subordinates.

“Just with our company, VR alone would have taken us a hundred years to finish and we may not even finish it. In this case, we might as well invite more companies to join in. Then we can make this cake bigger, and finally, come in with a knife and cut the cake.”

“In the MMORPG market, we still maintain an absolute monopoly. Using the quantum computer to provide online services for games, most game companies can only afford limited online capabilities. It is absolutely impossible to achieve the size of Godly Land.”

“I’m more inclined to follow the strategy of Future 1.0. Give up the small and medium-sized games and focus on maintaining an absolute monopoly in the high-end gaming market. We should maximize user stickiness, and then open up the surrounding markets, such as live streaming, and e-sports.”

“And the most critical thing is that we have the world’s only quantum computer as the server. Unless they pay big money to rent NASA’s servers at a loss, they will never be able to leave us. Their operating costs will always be controlled by us. We only need to maintain the advantage and not kick the opponents out of the race.”

After determining the next-step strategy for Future Technology in the field of VR, Ning Huajia immediately began to set up a VR game project department to complete the development of the VR game. On the other hand, technical consultants to be sent to various companies had also been selected.

All consultants sent to foreign countries must abide with stricter confidentiality agreements to ensure that they would not be headhunted away. They would return to the company after the end of the one-year training period, these technical consultants sent to foreign countries would be promoted as compensation for their overseas work.

Future Technology aside, the applications submitted by Future Group to the United Nations for the establishment of an Antarctic scientific research station had already been approved. The proposed project temporarily included three items: polar geological structure exploration, hydro-environment exploration, and flammable ice research.

The review process was actually very simple. It was submitted by Xin as the member states of the United Nations and passed in accordance with the procedures. After all, for member countries, the United Nations had very little binding force. As long as the country would not cause a substantial impact on the ecological environment of Antarctica, any country could establish a research station in Antarctica.

The premise was that you have to have the technology and budget.

…

At the end of April, Jiang Chen resupplied the warehouses in the apocalypse. At the same time, Lin Lin gave him good news in excitement. The Garden of Eden, which had been in construction for nearly two years now, was finally finished!

The completion of the Garden of Eden meant that food production in the apocalypse could finally be self-sufficient.

The biosphere, which was completely closed to the outside world, would become the real Garden of Eden in the apocalypse. Under the leadership of the NAC, it would draw nutrients from the wasteland, rebuild pre-war prosperity, and germinate the seed of civilization. The survivors on the mainland must also face a choice that they have to consider.

To the south or to the north?

It was foreseeable that, in the near future, a “Civil War” was bound to erupt between NAC, led by General Jiang Chen, and the Northern Alliance Area, self-determined to be the righteous ruler. Only then would the foundation be laid for the right to rule the land.

It was precisely because of this that even if the province of Suhang returned to stability, the military government did not cut its spending for the military industry. The expeditionary force occupying Yizhou would continue to expand south, integrating the survivors of the Pan-Asia Cooperation and collectively respond to the threat from the north.

Before returning to the modern world, Jiang Chen paid his dues for two days.

Although it was an amazing experience to pay his dues, for two days in a row, he felt his kidneys not being able to handle the intensive workload. Especially for the two girls with superior attributes, Sun Jiao and Xiaorou, their stamina in certain activities was more impressive…

After returning to the modern world, Jiang Chen finally had some free time and began preparations for the trip to Antarctica.

As a continent surrounded by the sea, Antarctic was 2,350 meters above sea level and was the highest continent in the world. More than 95% of the Antarctic continent was covered with ice and snow all year round. The lack of oxygen in the air and the reflection of solar radiation on the surface of ice and snow made it the coldest region in the world. The annual average temperature was usually between -50 and -60°C, with a low that could reach-88°C. It was said that working there, rubbing your nose may accidentally rip your nose off.

Exploring in such a hazardous place is extremely dangerous if one is not adequately prepared.

In addition to a polar cruiser purchased from a ship company, Jiang Chen also prepared a lot of equipment from the apocalypse for dealing with extremely cold weather such as constant temperature tents, snow melting agents, ice-breaking bombs, and dozens of Hummingbird drones that could adapt to various uses in low-temperature environments.

20 people would take on the endeavor to visit Antarctica to set up a research station. They would consist of soldiers, scientists, and adventure lovers. Taking into account the main purpose of this trip to the South Pole, the soldiers of Celestial accounted for half of those on the trip. Especially as there may be unaccountable dangers inside that fortress.

In addition to the 20 people, Jiang Chen also brought Garrett along. As for Ayesha, Jiang Chen did not ask her to come. Instead, he told her to command the Ghost Agents and keep a close eye on the movement of Rothschild.

It would be impossible to go to Antarctica unnoticed. Intuition told Jiang Chen that Rothschild, the problematic old friend, must also be keeping an eye on this codebook.

After the military operations in Kenya, the modified soldier Garrett, was incorporated into the Sea Lions Special Forces as captain. All soldiers serving in the “Sea Lions” were examined for both combat effectiveness and loyalty. These “war machines” were not only equipped with a large number of high-tech weapons but also had implanted nano-chips in the spinal nerves to achieve rapid tactical command through retinal imaging.

When Jiang Chen asked him, he looked at Jiang Chen blankly, directly expressing his confusion.

“The South Pole? Is there anything there?”

“To protect the science research team.”

Garrett’s expression turned even more bizarre.

It was the first time, he had heard such bizarre thing like sending special forces to protect the Antarctic research station. [Do penguins threaten the safety of researchers? That is ridiculous.]

Jiang Chen obviously saw the confusion. He said and smiled, “On the surface, this is a mission to protect the scientists. But in fact, I need to take you with me for a mission. It is unclear whether or not there will be danger, but we have to be cautious just in case.”

Garrett’s expression instantly changed and immediately said.

“Is there a mission briefing?”

“The content of the mission is top secret. I’ll tell you after arriving at the destination.”

Then, Jiang Chen got up and left the barracks.

Chapter 772: Arriving in Antarctica

The ship had a 150-meter-long hull, with a width of more than 20 meters. The mid-section was equipped with two mechanical arms. A helicopter landing pad was located in the front with an “Arctic” version of the Mi-8 helicopter. The side of the hull was painted with the giant words that spelled out in red –

Pathfinder!

It was the name of the polar expedition vessel and the name of the Antarctic research group.

There were no grand ceremonies. After the two dozen members, including Jiang Chen, boarded the ship, the Pathfinder left the port in a low-key manner. They crossed the equator and headed south. Not until all personnel boarded did the crew members surprisingly discover they were on the same boat as the famous president of Future Group.

“My name is Jiang Chen, obviously you already know that. Just go on with your tasks, I’m just taking a trip to check out the South Pole.”

The ship moved, and the leader of the team held a briefing session. All the crew members attended and Jiang Chen did not exclude himself. At the meeting, he made a brief introduction. After finishing his introduction, he headed back to his room and left the shocked crowd still in the cabin.

After the meeting, four girls that specialized in surveying gathered together and went to the cafeteria for food.

On the way, the four girls quickly began to gossip.

“Oh, is that…is that really Jiang Chen?”

“That’s the one on TV?”

“The president of Future Group with multiple hundred billion companies…but why is he on our ship?” A girl covered her mouth with her her eyes widended.

“On the same boat with the president, My god, this is just the perfect beginning of a Korean drama!” Another girl said with stars flickering in her eyes.

“Wake up, Qianqian, it’s time to take your medicine.” The girl standing next to her passed her, her lunch box.

“I hate you! Screw you!” The girl called Qianqian blushed and softly hit her friend

….

From the equator, the South Pole was close to 10,000 kilometers away, At the highest speed of the Pathfinder, being 18 knots, it would take them about two weeks.

Not until now did Jiang Chen realize how terrible of a decision he made not bringing Ayesha. With Ayesha, at least he didn’t have to spend the nights alone. Now, his only pleasure all day was to stay in the bedroom with a Phantom helmet, using quantum communication satellite Wi-Fi to play online games.

The total number of female creatures in the entire vessel was scarce. First of all, the soldiers were all males. Second, all the scientific researchers were basically male. The only four female scientists were quite interested in him, but Jiang Chen was not interested in spending an intimate moment with them.

However, time did fly by quickly while playing online games and enjoying the sea breeze.

Although Jiang Chen had an administrator account, he did not use it. He registered an account and created an archer, and began to level up from level 1. It was certainly fun playing this game. In particular, when someone showed off in front of him, he would secretly open a hack and one shot them with a magic arrow

It felt amazing.

After playing for more than two weeks, he met several interesting netizens, but Jiang Chen didn’t state his identity. When the Pathfinder approached Antarctica, he would probably stop playing the game.

In the last three days, the temperature began to gradually drop, and when the icebergs began to become a common sight, the Pathfinder was approaching Antarctica. Even Jiang Chen’s body conditions couldn’t stand the weather anymore and he had put on thick winter clothes.

The winter clothes were all made by the textile factories of the Sixth Street. They looked like down jackets, but they were warmer. Sponge-like cotton wool was sandwiched by a warming wire, which could be adjusted by the touch screen around the wrist. After the clothes were made, the scientists could not wait to put them on.

Every trip to the South Pole is not a pleasant experience, regardless of the country, at least from the temperature perspective. However, with the winter coats, although their nose would still be frozen, at least their bodies felt more comfortable.

Fortunately, there were no glaciers to deal with along the way.

The Pathfinder bypassed Scott Island, sailed smoothly into the Ross Sea, made a simple replenishment at the Hallett Station. Arguably, these inspection stations, in principle, did not sell supplies externally, but they all have exceptions.

It was clearly not Captain Marshall Keller’s first trip to the South Pole. He was familiar with the situation there.

“It is an unwritten rule to help each other here. The surface of the sea is prone to freezing, and anyone may experience a situation where the supply vessel is delayed. If you have excess supplies on hand, selling it to others is equivalent to saving someone’s life. Of course, the price may be slightly more expensive.”

After the supplying was completed, a UA wrapped like a polar bear kneeled by the railing and greeted the people on the ship.

“Hey, guys, where did your clothes come from? I mean… is it not cold to wear such thin clothes?”

When he was shouting this sentence, he had an Ohio accent. There was an immigrant from the same state on Jiang Chen’s ship, so he shouted back.

“Haha! Wearing this thing is just like wearing a heater!”

At the same time, the Ohio man also showed off the logo on his chest, afraid his fellow friend couldn’t see the brand of their clothes.

Future Textile.

Well, the two words were what he ordered to be printed. However, this so-called Future Textile still remained on the drawing board. He has been hesitating to enter the textile industry where profits were not so lucrative.

The man who was standing at the side of the observation station looked at the clothes, full of envy.

While he didn’t recognize the words, no one in the world didn’t recognize the character “Future”. Turn on the phone and you’ll recognize it. Future 1.0 still maintained a dominant market share in the smartphone industry, and the name Future almost became synonymous with high tech.

He looked at the Pathfinder departing and shook his head. Moving his legs buried in the snow, he walked toward the hut.

If it were an adventure to the pole, most tourists would choose Ross Sea as a landing point. This was because it was the most southern waters that can be reached by ships, and it was also the traditional route that humans used to reach the South Pole with ships.

However, Jiang Chen and others were not trying to challenge the world’s extreme, but explore the treasures of the Third Reich. So after completing the replenishment, the Pathfinder directly sailed out of the Ross Sea and traveled along the shore of George V, toward the Wilkes Land…

However, what the people did not know was that shortly after they left the inspection station at Hallett, the man with a thick down coat walked behind the station and took out a satellite phone.

The lips under the shadow spat out white mist.

“They have arrived…”

Chapter 773: Breaking Ice

“If the cold blizzard is like a knife, then the earth is used as a chopping board, and the people are fish and meat. Snow gusting, the heaven is the furnace, and it melts everything into white silver…”

When seeing the snow dancing and whirling into a white wall in the storm, Jiang Chen recalled this stance by Jin Yong.

They seemed to have ran out of luck. On the shores of George V, the Pathfinder encountered a blizzard from the pole.

Bean-sized ice cubes flung against the ship, but the Pathfinder, designed for bad weather, wouldn’t be stopped by a small blizzard like this.

Because of the uncertainty of where the eye of the storm was located, Captain Marshall, in order to prevent the Pathfinder from rolling over, directly placed the large ice-breaking bow in the direction of the storm and then anchored the ship to wait for the storm to pass.

While waiting, the leader of the research team gathered its members and crew together. Fifty people sat around five tables and began to eat hot pot in the cafeteria. A couple of Californians who couldn’t eat the chili peppers was screaming about how it was too hot and attracted the friendly laughter of others.

The storm was blowing outside and the pot was lit inside. It was a great experience.

Jiang Chen had not eaten hot pot for a long time. It was the first time he had eaten such spicy hotpot, he had to eat several bowls of rice to down the food. With the president being so down-to-earth, the members also became less reserved. A pretty little girl was adding rice for him. Regardless of the skin color, everyone spoke the same language. Everyone ate meat, drank alcohol, and chatted freely.

But Garrett was stubborn and didn’t drink.

As soldiers of the “Sea Lions” Special Forces, protecting the safety of Jiang Chen was their top priority. Not to mention not a single drop of alcohol, they must take shifts when eating. With such strict discipline, although he felt bad for the soldiers, he didn’t say anything.

Discipline was discipline. For soldiers, discipline was above all else.

Since it was Garrett’s team, everything was up to him. Jiang Chen knew very clearly that giving directions as the president would only cause trouble for other people.

The storm persisted until the next morning.

The Pathfinder has stowed the anchor, adjusted its course, and continued along the shores of George V.

…

Inside the control room, Captain Marshall had just lit a cigar and was frowning slightly at the map.

After a while, he put down the cigar and looked at Jiang Chen with questions in his eyes. Jiang Chen was standing on the side with his arms folded. Just ten minutes ago, the president of the group found him and suddenly asked him to change the original destination and deploy the station on the location marked on the map.

“Why choose to build a station there? Whether it is the weather conditions or the cost of supplying, this is far less ideal than the Ross Bay.” Marshall asked, pointing at the red circle on the map with the two fingers still holding a cigar.

“But there are abundant flammable ice reservoirs in the nearby sea.” Jiang Chen shrugged.

The sea floor has abundant flammable ice reservoirs, but that is not the only reason.

The closest location to the coordinates on the codebook was the real reason he chose this place. The reason why he did not disclose this information before and suddenly went to find Captain Marshall, was because he was worried that the people on board the ship would leak the information.

“It’s reckless.” Marshall shook his head, sighed, and looked at the first officer. “Reduce the speed of the ship, the landing point has changed!”

Although he was not satisfied with the reckless decision, he was the president after all. The salary he now earned was twice that of his peers, and he just couldn’t complain for the sake of his salary.

Just like this, the Pathfinder made a turn from its original route and diverted to the hinterland of Cape Goodenough.

There was a thick layer of ice on the sea, but it was not difficult for a polar expedition ship with ice-breaking capabilities. The large ship’s hull directly hit the thick ice, and then crushed the ice directly with its displacement. Just like the roller cruising in the glacier, in the frozen sea, a blue trial was rolled out through the whiteness.

Many members of the expedition team stood on the bow and took pictures with their phones. Although it was the first time for some of them to come to the poles, they didn’t have much of a chance to see the icebreaker breaking ice before. It was also the first time for many people.

Also standing on the bow was Jiang Chen.

It was his first time seeing an icebreaker in action..

In the past, he always thought that the icebreaker used its bow to cut, but he did not think that in fact, the icebreaker was “crashing” ice with its own weight.

“Fortunately, we didn’t come across a thick layer of ice that couldn’t be crushed. Now, we don’t need the explosives anymore.” Standing in the air-conditioned cabin, Captain Marshall wiped his sweat off of his face and then looked at Jiang Chen who just came inside. “Close the door, my sweat is freezing!”

Jiang Chen gave him a friendly smile and immediately closed the door behind him. He hung his winter coat up and walked next to him.

…

“How are things going? With your experience, is this coast suitable for the deployment of a station?”

“The terrain is good, but I’m afraid it will be a little troublesome later for supplying.” Marshall glanced at the ice outside the window and picked up a pen to draw a line on the map. “We want to make sure that it will not freeze here. We must cut a triangle here and push it out of the region… I suggest we push it out. If we blow it out, the International Environmental Protection Organization may give us trouble.”

“However you see convenient. I believe in your judgement.” Jiang Chen laughed.

Marshall grinned and put the cigar back in his mouth.

“Leave it to me.”

…

In the middle of Cape Goodenough, on the frozen, the Pathfinder crashed outward along the triangle. Several crewmen in winter clothes jumped out on the triangular ice shelf and drilled a dozen piles from the outer edge of the ice shelf with spikes.

The graphene cables were thrown off the boat. The crew members tied the ropes down, and then returned to the boat. These cables were all tied on the mechanical arms of the polar expedition ship, the strongest point of the entire ship.

Everything was ready, Marshall, with the same cigar, began to increase the horsepower of the ship.

The graphene rope gradually tightened and creaked.

At this time, Jiang Chen was surprised to find that the ice surface of several square kilometers was moved by a small ship.

“Although the surface looks daunting, we just need to give it some speed and it will run out on its own.” Marshall said with a smile, pointing out the window. “Those cables are really strong. Much stronger than what we used before. We used steel rope before, the toughness was bad. Not only was it susceptible to breaking, it may hurt our own people.”

“Graphene material.”

“Is it? Technology is a magical thing.” Marshall grinned.

The ice outside the window slowly moved, and the cheer of the crew came from the bow. The members of the research team have returned to the cabin. The Pathfinder was about to land and it was time for them to prepare for their landing.

Chapter 774: The Fortress on Antarctica

To be honest, April was not a suitable season for a visit to Antarctica.

Every year from the winter solstice on December 22nd, the brightest months were in January and February, and they were the most suitable times for traveling to Antarctica. By the summer solstice on June 22nd, the sun would shine north of the equator. The South Pole would welcome polar night and remain in complete darkness.

Now in mid-April, after entering the Antarctic Circle, the sun was not far above the sea level, as if it could fall at any time.

However, Jiang Chen did not have the patience to wait until next year.

Ten-meter-long mechanical arms were deployed to move containers on the white coast. The crew of the expedition got onto the boat and landed on the ice-covered coast one after another.

Before boarding, everyone consciously used a vacuum cleaner to clean every corner of their pocket to avoid seeds or other creatures being brought to the South Pole. It was a rule that all surveyors stepping on to Antarctica consciously abided by. The Antarctic ecosystem was extremely fragile and everyone must prevent the ecological disasters caused by the invasion of species.

After all the errands were taken care of, Jiang Chen boarded the last boat and stepped onto the continent of Antarctica.

Accepting from the hands of the exhilarated members, Jiang Chen inserted the blue flag into the height of the white desert.

The nine stars that represent the nine islands of the Pannu archipelago swayed in the wind and the palm leaves that surround the nine stars symbolized victory.

“As the first South Pole research station, the president should name it! Everyone! What do you think?” The leader of the mission, He Gaoyang, said in excitement.

“Yes! Yes! Please give a name to the research station!” Immediately someone responded with whistles.

“Haha, why don’t we call this Future Research Station!”

“It’s not creative…”

With the enthusiasm of the team members, Jiang Chen thought carefully for a moment.

With his naming creativity, it would be difficult to think of a good name. Future? He was almost bored of hearing this name. The research team was not an enterprise. There was no need to make it sound like his retail chains.

“Let’s call it Antarctic Gull!”

Seagulls are the national birds of the Pannu archipelago and have not changed even after the change of regime. It is said that the first settlers who arrived in the Pannu archipelago were rescued by seagulls, so the colonists who first arrived in the Pannu archipelago considered the seagulls as the ambassadors of God.

Antarctic Gull Research Station was unanimously agreed upon by the team. Because their trip was planned in a hurry, the team also didn’t have a name. Therefore, He Gaoyang decided everyone should vote by democracy to pick a name, and it resulted in the research team being named Antarctic Gull as well.

Therefore, the first research station of Xin in Antarctica was established.

Named Antarctic Gull.

With the help of the crew, the members of the mission started to remove their equipment from the containers. The radio was first set up in the snow, and then the tented dome-shaped house was opened followed by a simple port…

Not far away, the chubby penguins formed a line on the snow, revealing their bulging white belly. Flapping their wings from time to time, they watched this group of foolish humans.

In order to avoid bothering these cute animals, the station site was chosen to be as far as possible from the activity range.

Just as the members of the team began their work, Jiang Chen, Garrett and several members of the “Sea Lions” Special Forces were preparing to march toward the Antarctic heartland.

“Where are you going?” Hearing Jiang Chen’s preparations for leaving the camp, He Gaoyang put aside his work. “There was just a storm and I don’t rule out the possibility of another some time soon. I don’t think…”

“I’m just going to take a tour.” Jiang Chen patted the polar car next to him. “There are supplies on this. Even if there is a snowstorm, you don’t have to worry about it.”

Seeing Jiang Chen insisting on going out, He Gaoyang didn’t try to persuade him further and watched the two polar cars head into the white desert.

…

The headlights shot out high beams to illuminate the road in front of them. The two SUVs blew up the snow and headed directly south.

The two polar off-road vehicles named Grizzlies-P3 were Russian products that had proven their reliable performance on the Siberian ice sheet. Two massive tires could smoothly run over the snow without being impeded by any kind of terrain. A car could seat up to six people, and could load up to five tons of cargo, even exceeding the load of some small trucks!

Garrett held the steering wheel, glanced at the coordinates on the map, and then looked at Jiang Chen who was sitting next to him with his eyes closed.

“Sir, can you tell us what the mission is now?”

“A treasure hunt.”

Garrett’s eyebrows twitched, and he looked at his president in exasperation.

[Taking a dozen Special Forces to go to the Antarctic for a treasure hunt, he is certainly a wild one.]

But he didn’t say anything. He closed his mouth and drove.

Unfortunately, thanks to He Gaoyang’s jinx, they really encountered a blizzard.

Visibility dropped to a minimum and it was dangerous to drive further. So, the two SUVs stopped on the empty snowfield one after the other, unfolded the brackets on both sides, and fixed the body of the car to the ground.

It was getting late and people took out self-heating food. There were roasted sausages, braised beef, dried fish, and rice. The food was wrapped in a hot bag and could be heated with some water. Apart from not seeing vegetables, this meal was quite delicious.

After lunch, Jiang Chen looked at the snowstorm screaming outside of the window and continued to rest.

They had to wait until late in the evening before the storm finally passed.

The two Grizzlies continued on the road and Jiang Chen informed the camp that they would not return for the night.

However, while he referred to it as nighttime, he was actually referring to the times of 18 o’clock to 8 o’clock in the 24 hours clock format. In the Antarctic in April, dawn was just a few hours after noon. After that, Antartica turned dark early with the majestic aurora not far in the distance.

Jiang Chen looked at Garrett as he casually asked.

“Where are we now?”

Garrett double-clicked on the car map and enlarged the area.

“We have already entered the heart of Wilkes Land, and the terrain in front will be a bit rough. We are close to our destination. Should we go straight or wait until morning?”

“Go now. Maybe we can stay in it overnight,” Jiang Chen said.

Garrett took some time to process and did not understand what Jiang Chen meant by staying overnight. However, since it was an order, he nodded and set his sights back on the road ahead.

Through the plains, the group came to a mountain range covered with snow.

“The snowstorm in blowing across the mountains. Let’s go back!”

“Forward! Listen to me!”

With Jiang Chen’s order, Garrett gritted his teeth and drove the vehicle into the storming mountains.

The storm screamed and the windows were also screaming! Heavy snow blew like a tide. It even annihilated the car’s high beam! Just watching through the window, the soldiers sitting in the car could feel the chilliness of the storm!

As they closed the distance, Jiang Chen’s heart rate also gradually accelerated as he held his breath.

Finally, after passing through the layers of the blizzard, the group broke through the limit of nature and came to the forbidden area of life that was guarded by the snowstorm, unveiling the mystery that had been masked for decades.

A beam of light scattered on the cement wall embedded in the glaciers and revealed a frozen castle covered in snow and ice.

When they saw this frozen fortress, everyone held their breath…

Jiang Chen stared at the gigantic door embedded in the glacier and squeezed his hands into fists. His eyes flickered with inexplicable excitement.

[Finally, I have found it!]

Chapter 775: Two Explosions

If there was something similar between this place and the fallout shelter in the apocalypse, it probably would be the fact that it wouldn’t keep anyone alive.

The symbol of Swastika was frozen in ice crystals as if it were trapped in a frozen tomb. A five-meter-wide iron gate rose up at the corner of the stone wall. It was buried by the eternal snow with only one edge visible.

This place didn’t look like it contained any living people.

“There must be something wrong… Tell me, boss, we are now in the Alps in the northern hemisphere, not at the southernmost point on earth.” Looking at the banner, a soldier whispered in the communications channel.

Garrett also widened his eyes and looked at the sign on the door in disbelief. He had heard of the story of Nazis and its Antarctic fallout shelter, but he had never really taken that story seriously. However, what he saw completely changed his world view and personal values.

“Treasure hunt is about the treasures of the Third Reich,” Stepping off the polar vehicle, Jiang Chen opened the communication channel and said with a smile.

After a long time, Garrett could only respond with.

“How can this be?”

“No matter what, this is a fact.” Jiang Chen shrugged. “It’s getting late. If we don’t want to stay here for too long, let’s start working.”

Although Garrett had many questions, he swallowed all of them.

Returning to the car, he and several soldiers took out the shovels. With the help of the kinetic skeleton, they shoveled the ground like windmills and quickly dug a hole through the hard as steel ice.

“Probably half a meter thick,” wiping off the ice shards from his face, Garrett hit the iron gate with his shovel, and white mist blew out of his mouth. “It could be a meter… Hell, this door is no longer made out of steel.”

“What is it made out of then?”

“Stone.”

Leaning against the polar car, Jiang Chen laughed.

The raging wind was still screaming, leaving little time for everyone.

Without keyholes or grips on the gate, whoever shut the place didn’t seem to plan to open it again.

Jiang Chen ordered the soldiers to the most primitive method against the iron gate embedded into the glacier

Explosives.

Yes, explosives. Although there was a risk of causing an avalanche, it was undoubtedly the fastest and safest method. And as long as the amount of explosives is controlled, this risk would be reduced to a minimum.

Garrett was confident in using explosives as he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and he was not unfamiliar with them. However, even Garrett wasn’t too confident using explosives in an icy and snowy environment.

Judging from the number of explosives used and the angle of blasting, Garrett carefully stuck strips of explosives on the iron gate. He gestured to his comrades next to him and pressed the switch.

There was a flash, then the sound of the explosion was muffled because of the deep snow, and the heavy door was blown apart.

Fortunately, it did not cause an avalanche.

The dark tunnel led to the innermost part of the snow mountains. Even when shone with a ray of light, there was no end. There was a stale smell inside, which made one wonder if there was air down there.

Soldiers of the Sea Lions Special Forces were ready to fight. They removed their combat equipment from the polar vehicles, started retinal imaging using the nanochips, and formed into fighting formation at the gate.

Garrett gestured to the soldier next to him. The soldier nodded and clicked on the touch screen around his arm to start the drone hive behind the polar car.

With searchlights, the Hummingbird drones rushed into the dark fortress. The tactical camera fed the environment inside directly into their retinas. Jiang Chen did not implant nanochips into his eyes, so he opened the hologram on his wristwatch.

“Is the air content normal? What a surprise… there are no traps inside nor any living people inside… Should we enter?” Garrett asked.

“Prepare to enter. Prior to this, move our cars inside and don’t let them get buried. Garrett, follow me, and the rest of you stay at the door.”

“Roger!”

The order was issued and the Sea Lions Special Forces immediately moved. They backed the two polar vehicles into the dark tunnel and guarded at the entrance.

They were the only things alive in the frozen kingdom. Not even a penguin could be seen. The reason why Jiang Chen ordered the soldiers to stay by the entrance was because he did not want to expose too much information. As for Garrett, Jiang Chen was confident of his loaylty. After all, he was now standing here all thanks to the titanium alloy bones he put inside him.

Just like this, the two men followed the pitch black tunnel. Garrett took control of the drones and responding to Jiang Chen’s request, he turned off the camera permission of the soldiers.

“I feel it’s too quiet here.” Garrett scanned the dark corners with his rifle.

“Oh? I don’t expect to meet a living person here. Few people could live for a century.” Walking behind Garrett, Jiang Chen confirmed the structure of the fortress in the codebook through his watch.

There were many speculations about the whereabouts of the Fuhrer. Jiang Chen had consulted relevant sources before coming.

1943 was the turning point of the Eastern battlefield. The end of the Battle of Kursk, the Italian battle was in full swing, and the originally strong Germany collapsed almost instantly. It was also from that year that the genius of speech never made any more speeches.

Some people say that he really died. Along with his mistress and children, they were burned by 20 liters of gasoline. Some also said that he took the U-boat to South America and spent the rest of life in a town sympathetic to Nazi in Argentina. Others say he went to Antarctica with more than 200 scientists who disappeared along with thousands of soldiers loyal to him.

The first argument was recognized by everyone, while the latter two were thought to be conspiracy theories. But since the Golden Apple and the codebook both exist, what could be impossible? Anything may be hidden behind this door. Even if he was about to encounter the incredible technology of the twenty-second century or even something he had never seen before, he was mentally prepared.

But unfortunately, it seemed to be a smooth journey, and the expected traps did not appear. On both sides of the tunnel were many doors, some living spaces, while others served as garages. There were piles of tools, parked construction vehicles, and even tanks…

Although the living quarters were constructed, there were no traces of life.

At the end of the tunnel was a staircase. From there on, there was no more signal.

Garrett and Jiang Chen exchanged eye contact. After receiving instructions from the latter, Garrett transferred the drone terminal from the drone hive outside to the drone backpack behind his back.

The drone was still the first to explore, and then the two descended one after the other.

At the end of the stairs, there was a password door. However, the power system there had long collapsed, so Jiang Chen did not have to worry about the password. He immediately asked Garrett to set up the explosives and returned to the top of the stairs.

However, when the door was blasted open, there were two explosions.

An explosion came from below; Garrett successfully blew through the password door.

And another explosion seemed to be from the outside…

Chapter 776: Remnant of the Void

Jiang Chen and Garrett stared at each other when they heard the loud explosions outside. They both read the alertness in each others’ eyes.

“I’ll take a look outside.” Garrett loaded his rifle. “If I run into an unexpected situation…”

“You have the approval to fire and keep the entrance guarded.”

Garrett took a deep breath and nodded.

“Roger.”

After that, he maximized the power of the kinetic skeleton, and at the same time he modulated the limits of his own titanium alloy skeleton to run at the speed of a car.

Jiang Chen frowned as he watched him leave.

In fact, as early as when he first left Coro Island, he expected some people to follow behind him. Not to mention that several major victors that had been coveting the Golden Apple, and even the ancient families like Rothschild began to reveal their undisguised greed for the roots of the power that once helped the Third Reich.

Even if they couldn’t obtain the incredible technology inside, an understanding of the perspective in history told from the future would also be a reward. Compared to the former, the latter was even more attractive. The butterfly effect would completely change the timeline, with one of the three major powers declaring bankruptcy and one dying in its infancy. The only remaining one maintained an alliance on a military level without any further cooperation.

Even so, the history known to the future could serve as a reference for the future development of this world. The upcoming problems could be avoided. The potential dangers could be contained in its cradle. Although this kind of political and economical awareness may not be accurate to a specific field or industry, it would be enough for an influential individual in possession of power!

However, they still didn’t understand what the Golden Apple really was.

They were not in communication with people from future, but beings even more powerful.

Those who have entered the void gave no time definition for its existence. They may have only lived for a second longer than those in the apocalypse, or they may have lived thousands of years longer than any life on earth. For humans at the material level, they were the specter in pure quantum states.

And for specter, they have no concept of death…

Inside the basement, Jiang Chen saw a computer.

That’s right, it was really a computer. Though it was the size of a cabin and the tube exposed outside the case was as thick as an arm.

If Jiang Chen wasn’t mistaken, the earliest computer was created in 1946, and in that year, World War II was over.

“The lost technologies? Are just these things?”

Muttering to himself, Jiang Chen walked inside. If the only secrets hidden inside were just these, then he just wasted two weeks on a meaningless tomb.

As soon as he stepped into the room, the signal light on the machine turned on.

The red lights lit up one by one. The hidden power system started and sent power to the machine. The shrill buzzing made Jiang Chen take a few steps back, but everything soon returned to normal…

Or, it turned completely abnormal.

When the hoarse current sounded, Jiang Chen’s eyes widened with disbelief, and he was completely shocked.

“How are you, compatriots on the Alternative World Line… I’m glad we’re able to restore contact with you…”

Jiang Chen made a mistake

It was not a computer at all, but a walkie-talkie that spanned across the dimension…

…

Boom!

A dozen rounds of 40mm grenades launched through the snowstorms and the dense explosions instantly covered the entrance of the fort. The explosions blew up the snow, mixed with ice shards, and the milky smoke instantly engulfed the nine Sea Lions at the door.

“Kill confirmed.” Observed from the thermal image that the heat source disappeared, the leader spoke into the mic

“Enter the fortress.”

“Roger.” The leader tapped on the helmet and ended the communication.

At the same time, on the opposite slope, eight figures dressed in polar camouflage stood up and moved to the entrance of the fortress with rifles.

Their faces were tightly concealed, there was no national flag on their arms, and even the rifle was covered with white cloth.

From their fluid tactics and actions, these people were obviously not rookies. If they were not special forces in any country, they must be experienced mercenary soldiers.

However, although Sea Lions were not known internationally, they were not rookies either!

The instant when eight rifles with thermal imaging stepped into the white mist covered area, gunshots suddenly erupted.

The orange-yellow trajectory shredded the smoke, and without the time to duck, the eight mercenaries were penetrated by the Sea Lions into sieves.

The defense of the kinetic skeleton was not a joke. Although the grenade attack took everyone by surprise, at most it caused minor injuries to several unlucky guys.

The initial force was completely eliminated and the unidentified force that ambushed the Sea Lions was caught off guard. However, they reacted quickly. Several firepower points immediately unleashed toward the entrance of the fortress.

“Damn! Where did these guys come from!” A Sea Lion threw himself behind a snow pile, took the moving bunker that his comrades had thrown his way, and slammed into the ground.

The tripod was nailed into the snow, and the alloy plate expanded upwards, blocking the front of the Sea Lion.

The other few were also equally dispersed, setting up behind covers at the entrance to the fort and fired back.

The cold temperature even made the gunshots turn less accurate.

In such adverse weather, the ballistic trajectory of the bullets drifted as the bullets freely flew in the screaming snowstorm. The tracer’s ballistic trajectory has drawn an elusive arc on the open space between the two sides. Even the Sea Lions’ Reaper Assault Rifle offered little advantages.

The opposition was at a complete advantage in terms of numbers. From the information on the life detection device, there were more than a hundred people and more than ten times the Sea Lions there! The Sea Lions were better equipped, whether it was heat source shield or the bulletproof ability of the kinetic skeleton.

“What the hell is this! Keynes, what is going on outside! Who are they?” Having ran to the fortress’ door, Garrett quickly entered the battle. Leaning back against the gate, he yelled in the communication channel.

The man who was called Keynes was the deputy leader of the Sea Lions Special Forces. But at the moment, he was also confused. He did not understand who they were fighting.

“I want to know too! But I think we can only know if we win!”

“They have too many people! If they go around our wings, we will be in trouble! And we still don’t know if they have any reinforcements!” A Sea Lion said.

“I hope not -”

Whoosh!

Suddenly a screech interrupted the man’s words, and the explosion rang in the battlefield. The splattered snow splashed all over Garret and the other Sea Lions’ face. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

“Oh, Sh*t, they’re not afraid to cause an avalanche?”

As he spoke, another mortar was fired!

The explosion caused great trouble for the Sea Lions, but fortunately because of this snowstorm, the other side’s shells practically all missed.

But sooner or later their good luck would run out.

Garrett did not panic, he captured the position of the enemy units from the life detection device and calmly gave instructions to the team.

“Cairns, you take two people from this side and go around the wings. Leon, you go to the hillside in the middle of four o’clock with your sniper rifle. The rest of you stay here with me! Tell them with our guns, who the real elites are!”

“ROGER!”

Chapter 777: The Gift of the Void

“B…World Line?”

Looking at the bronze machinery, Jiang Chen murmured.

To his surprise, the opposite seemed to be able to hear his voice.

There was no real sound in the empty enclosure. The metal-like friction sound seemed to be directly communicated to his mind. This kind of communication across dimension was surreal, too surreal to be described by words.

But Jiang Chen knew was that when he stood there, he could heard and be heard.

As simple as that.

“Yes, B World Line.” The frictions of the metal made that voice sound cold, but he couldn’t hear the emotions in that voice. “If we define our past time as A, then you are B, and there are hundreds of thousands of C, D, E… Parallel lines that never intersect now connected together because of a failed voyage, and it made us into a non-existent but ubiquitous specter.”

“Is this codebook your masterpiece? … If you can see what I have in my hand,” Jiang Chen took out the codebook from the storage space.

“I said, we are everywhere. From the perspective of the void to the three-dimensional world, everything here is like writings on paper,” the voice said.

“…The void is at which dimension?”

“The void is not a universe in which matter exists. It is neither positive nor negative. It is a destabilizing factor in the gap. Therefore, we do not have the concept of dimensions.”

There is no concept of dimensions?

Jiang Chen felt overwhelmed with the concept. It was enough to make him understand the concept of dimensions. Now this man… The specter in this quantum state told him that he did not have the concept of dimensions.

“Then…how can I refer you?”

“You can call me Nothing, you can call me Ghost, or Specter.”

“Then I will refer you as Specter,” Jiang Chen collected his thoughts, and asked the question boggling in his mind. “I want to know why you broadcasted Klein particles to Earth. Do you have any purpose?”

“Of course there is a purpose,” Specter replied with a dull voice. “We choose a spokesperson to guide civilization in the right direction, welcome the final battle on doomsday, and finally defeat the heresy. This is our purpose.”

“The heresy…you mean…”

Jiang Chen had an enlightenment. All the clues were strung together by a rope and finally completed the puzzle. These Remnants of the Void spent countless effort to transform and guide the history of the world. They used the lure called the Golden Apple to shake the wings of the butterfly…

“The neighbor 20.5 lightyears away had started the journey with us at the same time, but met a completely different fate.” Specter replied softly, confirming Jiang Chen’s speculation.

However, what still puzzled him was their motives for doing so.

“But why?” he asked his confusion. “If you have been imprisoned in the void and has interfered with what happened in the three-dimensional universe, what’s in it for you?”

According to Lin Lin’s point of view, they were locked up in the void and it was unknown to the outside world. Where there was no concept of time, they had long since become non-physical specters. And since they became this form, the connection to the real world should also be broken.

“If you ask for motives, then we may have to disappoint you.” The bronze machine was like a pair of eyes that peep out of the void, staring at the small person in front of him with no grief and dismay. “Without any reason, it is just because when we died, we died as pure human. If you fade away, the significance of us as specters will also dissipate, so we hope that you will survive.”

“We have selected a dictator. In our opinion, only the dictatorial regime has the determination to battle with the heresy.”

“However, regrettably, the plan failed. The technology we gifted to them did not reverse the course of the war. The gap between the electric age and the atomic age is not only reflected in physics, but also reflected in scientific thinking. The manufacturing process of the atomic bomb was given to them, but until the last moment, they only completed the enrichment of uranium.”

As Specter was saying this, Jiang Chen remembered the U-boat found in the New Zealand trenches and the suitcases inside. If the Third Reich completed it one year earlier, even if it had completed this “miracle weapon” half a year earlier, history would probably have taken a different course in the other direction.

“If we have not guessed wrong, you should already know what happened later.”

When Jiang Chen heard this sentence, he could feel that eyes were looking at him through the bronze machine. Gulping, he slowly nodded and replied.

“Yes.”

Silence lasted two seconds and a slight tremor came from the ceiling. Jiang Chen suddenly looked up, and some dust fell, causing him subconsciously to take two steps back.

From the sound of this explosion, there was a battle outside, but who could it be?

“There is not much time left to us. The Klein particles in the void is becoming too thin. Sometimes unilaterally speaking is really helpless, but the good thing is that you found here. Although I don’t know why, but you can hear every note that I say, without the help of the Golden Apple.” The metal tone whispered the final words. “Then, since you are the only one who can find here, we should gift you the last hope.”

“The last hope? What are you planning to give me?” Jiang Chen glanced at the ceiling. Large chunks began to fall from above. It seems that the battle above was turning more fierce.

“A special gift; it weighs about one gram. We used half a century of time to send it from the void to the reality.”

The searchlight on the top of the machine was lit and the light scattered in the basement. An old fashion looking suitcase appeared. However, Jiang Chen did not have any doubt that what is contained inside would be incredible

“We call it anti-matter.”

…

The battle on the surface was extremely intense. Whoever said the group may have back-up certainly jinxed it. This group of unknown armed forces really had reinforcements.

Although they were not better equipped than the Sea Lions, the weapons in the group were also elite. Not only were the rifles suited to the snowy conditions, but also various grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and mortars were available.

They were caught off guard and by surprise, and the squad that tried to flank the wing was attacked and had lost contact. A soldier who was at the door was shot in the head and killed. In desperation, Garrett had to order to retreat the defense and pull back into the tunnel.

The old German equipment stacked on the side entrance became handy. The tank with the iron cross emblem was dragged out. Although the machine gun was no longer functional, it was more than enough to serve as a cover.

“Sh*t! Are they on crack or cocaine!” Blood was on his forehead. Garrett gnashed his teeth and reloaded a clip behind the tank. He leaned out and fired back.

They started the battle with ten people, there were now only five left. Leone’s whereabouts was unknown, and Keynes took two soldiers to defend the wing and their fate was most likely a tragic one. The opposite soldiers seemed to be endless. At least ten people had fallen under his gun, but the other party did not intend to withdraw at all.

Thinking about his brothers who had fallen, Garrett’s pupils shone with anger.

There was no doubt that they had been forced to a dead end.

Just then, they suddenly heard footsteps that echoed from the tunnel they were protecting.

The footsteps were heavy and powerful, accompanied by the impact of steel.

Looking at what was coming out of the shadows, Garrett’s eyes widened. Not only him, but other soldiers also stared at the figure deep in the tunnel and became speechless.

“Don’t look at me like that, I found this inside.”

It was the power armor!

Garrett knew because he received relevant training.

How could a power armor appear here?

There was no explanation, or the need for an explanation.

Jiang Chen waved his arm to his back before he deployed the minigun equpped on his right arm. The flying bullets only left shallow white marks on his front armor that did not cause any damage. After taking a glance at the wounded soldier behind cover, he looked at the raging fire coming from the tunnel entrance, then a menancing smile appeared appeared on his face.

“The game is just now starting.”

Chapter 778: One-sided Battle

“…We lost contact with Team A! I repeat, we lost contact with Team A!”

“Damn it, what kind of monster is that!”

“Get the bazooka! Quick! Sh*t!”

“AHHH, my leg!”

The battlefield was reversed in an instant. Jiang Chen’s team, who was originally forced into a dead end, suddenly reappeared as a steel monster. The bullets that hit him barely scratched him, and the minigun on his arm shredded any flesh that attempted to stop him.

The radio was filled with the sound of gunfire. After the defense was broken, there was the screams of the soldiers, and then a jumbled static sound. On this polar expedition vessel several tens of kilometers away, everyone in the temporary command post fell silent.

According to the frontline news they could only draw one conclusion.

The mission failed.

At the same time, there was a question in everyone’s hearts.

The Poisonous Arrow Mercenary Corps was part of the Arrow Military. One of the top ranked mercenary groups widely active in hot spots such as Ukraine and Syria. Whether it was equipment or tactics, the Poisonous Arrow Mercenary Corps could be considered impeccable elites. However, what exactly happened that turned the originally advantageous situation into a one-sided massacre in a matter of seconds?

Could it be…

Inside the vessel, everyone looked at each other and everyone saw deep concern from the other person’s eyes.

Could it be that Jiang Chen had found something in that fortress, such as the “miracle weapon” that the Nazis had not yet used?

“It’s ridiculous.” A lanky Jewish man threw his hat on the table and pulled his collar, starting to feel irritated. “Fergus, go lower the air conditioner, it’s too hot.”

“Yes.” The man who was called Fergus took a deep breath, nodded nervously, and walked toward the remote control by the window.

At the same time, there was a harsh fricative sound from the radio, as if someone picked up a mic from the ground. A moment later, a hoarse voice transmitted, and everyone in the room held their breath.

“… buzz … oh, good evening.”

Silence lasted for a few seconds and no one responded.

“…Not talking to me? It seems that you are not going to say hello to me.”

“It doesn’t matter. I will find you.”

“In addition, congratulations to you. If you started this ‘party’ to provoke me, then you have already succeeded.”

“…”

Communication was cut off and silence lasted in the cabin for a long time until deep anxiety and panic creeped into everyone’s heart…

“We must get out of here right now!” The thin Jewish man got up and left his seat. “Leave now.”

“Calm down, Mr. Oliver.” The man who sat at the top of the table reverberated. “He’s just bluffing. He can’t position us just by radio.”

Oliver smiled and shrugged.

“Calm down? Yes. Then? What should we do next?”

The cabin fell into silence again.

Yes, what should we do next?

After a long absence, the man who sat at the top of the table spoke again.

“They are still in Antarctica. We’ll request reinforcements from the headquarter. In any case, we must acquire the Golden Apple!”

“Yes.” Everyone there agreed.

“Dismiss for now.” The man waved his hand.

All of them pulled their chairs up and left the meeting table.

The man leaned against the seat and stroked the knuckle of his right hand. On his index finger, he wore a uniquely shaped ring engraved with two inverted letter “Vs” and an uppercase “G” inscribed in the middle.

…

Jiang Chen smashed the mic into the ground and stood up from the snow.

The roaring wind wrapped the ice flakes and scratched the shell of the power armor. Behind him, blood dyed this white snow field into a terrifying redness. Corpses collapsed in the pool of blood, and their rifles scattered on the ground

Against T-3 power armor’s high-mobility and light weapons protection, these unknown armed forces did not have a fighting chance. Because they were fighting in the polar environment, they did not expect to encounter a heavy armored unit. The only two rocket launchers that could pose a threat to the power armor were quickly destroyed by Jiang Chen’s minigun.

When Jiang Chen was beating the mercenaries, the remaining five “Sea Lions” were not standing around. They followed behind Jiang Chen and launched an assault on the group of unknown armed forces.

Their comrades died one after another. These people finally became scared and began to withdraw. However, Jiang Chen would not let them escape and quickly finished the polar armored vehicles with rockets. They could only escape on foot.

However, it would be nonsense to outrun a power armor just on foot.

Especially in snow.

What happened next could already be guessed.

The unknown armed forces that scattered and fled fell into pools of blood in Jiang Chen’s pursuit.

To his surprise, people escaped, but no one surrendered. He tried to catch one or two captives, even if they couldn’t disclose their employers, he could at least ask them what mercenary group they were from, and then follow the evidence. Unfortunately, all those who lost their combat ability chose suicide without exception.

From the very beginning, they did not intend to become prisoners…

Not far away, Sea Lions were cleaning the battlefield. The bodies were taken to the polar car and transported into the fortress. They found an empty room, and the bodies were thrown in and gasoline was poured over them. A total of 200 people without any clues to their identity.

“They are mercenaries and their identities cannot be confirmed.” With his rifle, Garrett walked beside Jiang Chen.

Although they won, the veteran’s face couldn’t see any sign of relief. When they came, they were ten people. Now, there were only five left. The deputy captain, Keynes, along with his brothers were all people he selected.

“It will be confirmed soon.” Jiang Chen smiled, opened the holographic screen, and pushed the map to Garrett.

Looking at the red dot on the map, Garrett was shocked and asked.

“This is?”

“It is the position of their command post. They won’t be able to guess we can track the radio signal.”

Just a few seconds after talking to the other party’s command center, Jiang Chen has already positioned them on the map. For the time being, it could be confirmed that they were located at the sea near Ross Bay. Due to the Sky Eye X1 satellite not being able to capture the images in Antartica, they couldn’t track where they were exactly.

However, that’s okay. He’ll make a trip down regardless.

“I’m going to kill them!” Garrett said while gritting his teeth.

“No, you take your people back to the station first.” Then, Jiang Chen looked northward. “I will personally go and greet them.”

“But—” Garrett also wanted to say something, but he was interrupted by Jiang Chen.

“This is an order.”

Jiang Chen stared at Garrett with an incontestable look, then turned to the polar vehicle.

Chapter 779: Spare No One

The polar vehicle raced on the snowfield, leaving a flurry of snows flakes and ice shards behind its trail.

Jiang Chen was in control of the steering wheel and scanned the yellow dot on the GPS.

There were more than a hundred kilometers in distance, with his current speed; it would be possible to reach it in an hour or so.

He had taken off the power armor and was thrown into the back seat of the car. When he was far away, he moved it into the storage dimension. There was also a suitcase that was supposed to contain one gram of antimatter. He also moved that into the storage dimension.

After directly passing Wilkes Place and arriving at the shore of George V, Jiang Chen gradually slowed down, pressed the button to open the trunk, and tapped the watch to call out the holographic screen.

The trunk opened, exposing the drone terminal hidden in it, as well as a fixed-wing drone about the size of one person; the Falcon Z-2 manufactured by Camp 27.

On the way, Jiang Chen stopped the car and replaced the drone terminal in the trunk of the polar vehicle. The Hummingbird drone’s detection capability was mainly in close range, if the target was located in the vast sea, a fixed-wing drone was much more efficient.

Falcon Z-2 flew towards the Ross Sea and soon reached the target area. As Jiang Chen expected, the target had already left its original position.

However, it didn’t matter. Only two hours passed since the end of the communication. Even if the ship accelerated and went from 0 to 20 knots in two hours, it would at most moved 60 or 70 kilometers. Jiang Chen parked the vehicle alongside the snow-capped coast. He leaned over and petted the little penguin. Then he focused his attention on the watch connected to the drone terminal.

The Falcon circled the target sea for two laps and quickly locked in on the target.

It was a polar expedition vessel and it looked just like any other expedition vessel from the outside, but when the Falcon Z-2 opened its life detection device, it found nearly 200 lives on the vessel.

For a polar expedition ship, it was obviously abnormal to have so many on board!

Having determined the target, Jiang Chen immediately removed the amphibious kinetic skeleton for diving from the storage dimension and put it on top of his winter clothes. After checking the equipment, he took a deep breath and dove into the sea.

The chilling cold was blocked outside of the winter clothes. Jiang Chen opened the back of the propulsion device and maintained a depth of about five meters as he moved straight to the location on the map.

…

In the control room, Griffin sat at the table and looked at the black circle on the map marked in the center of the Antarctic. His eyebrows gradually twisted together.

There was the legacy of the Third Reich, and treasure sought after by the Freemasonry for nearly a century.

“I didn’t expect that he actually cracked the code. It seems that Mr. Rothschild is right. Jiang Chen really is not a simple character.” With fingers tapping on the map, Griffin leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling.

“Since Mr. Rothschild has already told you that Jiang Chen is not a simple character, I don’t really understand why you’re asking for your own death.”

An icy edge was pressed against his neck and Griffin suddenly froze. He didn’t know when the man covered in black suddenly appear behind him with a dagger on his throat.

“I advise you not to do anything that will hurt yourself,” The man in black said with a smile and pressed the dagger against him even harder.

Feeling the sharpness piercing his skin, a cold drip of sweat rolled down. He slowly took out the pistol from his right pocket and put it on the table.

“Who are you?”

“Who am I?” The man in black laughed. “Shouldn’t you first introduce yourself first before asking for another person’s name?”

“Griffin Turtles, head of the French Antarctic expedition…” The dagger against his throat was even closer and Griffin paused with a trembling voice.

“Don’t waste my time,” the man said impatiently. “Antarctic expedition ship? You need to carry guns and bullets to visit Antarctica? I’m asking you for the last time, who are you and why did you attack me?”

“You…are you Jiang Chen?” Griffin blinked in shock.

Jiang Chen tightened the dagger in his hand and said without emotion, “I’ll cut off your right ear on the count of three, and then I’ll count again.”

“You are playing with fire. Do you know who you are against?”

“One.” However, Jiang Chen did not pay attention to him.

A cold sweat fell from Griffin’s forehead.

“Don’t do this.”

“Two.”

His hands began to tremble, and large drops of sweat appeared on his forehead. Disregarding all of this, Jiang Chen counted the last number.

“Three.”

“It’s the Freemasonry! Let me go, let me go! I’m just being instructed…” Griffin confessed his identity.

“Freemasonry? What is that?” Jiang Chen was slightly surprised and frowned.

When Jiang Chen intended to ask something further, the door of the captain’s room suddenly began to creep. At the same time, there was a sound that sounded like a balloon leaking.

Jiang Chen looked at Griffin and saw no more fear in his eyes. Instead, a fanatical smile appeared on his face.

Obviously, the expression he just had on was all made up.

Taking advantage of Jiang Chen’s slight confusion, he pressed the switch on his watch. The room was sealed off and what looked like sprinklers on the ceiling began to spray gas.

“Let’s go see Satan together.” Griffin laughed gloomily, ignoring the blade against his throat.

Looking at Griffen without fear, Jiang Chen smiled slyly and put away the dagger.

“Simple tricks.”

Three high-explosive grenades fell to the ground. In front of Griffin’s face, Jiang Chen started the optical invisibility on the kinetic skeleton and disappeared.

Then, under Griffin’s horrified gaze, he initiated interdimensional travel and escaped the room.

“Boom!”

The blasted flame ignited the gas and triggered a more violent explosion. An almost physical heat wave blasted away the windows and doors and brought thick white smoke onto the deck. The crew members that accidentally got burnt mourned and fell on the ground. The first officer hurriedly directed the crew to extinguish the fire.

The mercenaries on board were heavily armed and rushed to the control room where the explosion occurred. However, they had not yet approached the stairs before they were forced back by the bullet storm falling from the sky.

The bullets jumped between the steel walls and played a ping pong symphony.

With orange-red trails blazing, Jiang Chen walked out of the smoke. The steel armor was like the Hell Knight’s armor, wielding a scythe called “bullets” and harvesting the life of the living creatures.

Mixed with the sound of gunshots were screams and howls. In order to avoid the firing of the machine gun, the crew on deck frantically jumped into the sea. However, jumping down into the sea full of ice was no different from suicide.

Without being able to swim for more than ten meters, they would lose consciousness because of the cold and eventually sink to the bottom of the sea and die.

“Go to hell!”

A mercenary took out the rocket launcher and pressed the trigger.

Ten more orange trajectories penetrated the mercenary’s body without any suspense. Behind the propelling engine, Jiang Chen quickly and easily avoided the unguided rocket and lifted up the machine gun.

Blood flowed from the bow to the stern.

When the gun smoke from the minigun dissipated, no living person could be seen on the entire deck…

Next was the cabin!

Chapter 780: Return

The attackers were Poisonous Arrow mercenaries, belonging to the Arrow Military registered in Madagascar.

While on this topic, the company certainly had previous conflicts with Xin. Country F had hired its military operations to take military action against Xin in an open attempt to kidnap Jiang Chen. Although the team dispatched to Coro Island was wiped out on the island, Jiang Chen later dismembered the reckless nation through Moro’s Liberation Movement, but for this military company in Africa, he had never been too concerned about them.

This time, they were employed by the Freemasonry and attacked Jiang Chen and the others in Antarctica. Five Sea Lions were killed and the remaining five were also suffered varying degrees of injuries. However, the blood debt was already paid.

After interrogating information from several prisoners with the truth serum, Jiang Chen ended their misery.

After cleaning up the electronic equipment on the polar expedition vessel with EMP and eliminating the possibility of being positioned, Jiang Chen set the sail of the ship to the far sea. After setting down the speedboat and installing explosives on the deck to sink the ship, he went back to the polar vehicle. Then he drove back to the camp.

With the questions from the head of the research team on the casualties of the Sea Lions Special Forces, Jiang Chen did not make any response but merely stated that they had encountered a storm.

Although the wounds on Garrett and the others didn’t look like hail caused them…

After returning to the Antarctic Gull Station, Jiang Chen returned directly to the boat and locked himself in his own room.

Freemasonry, Rothschild, Arrow, the Golden Apple, one gram of antimatter… All these words entangled. He needed time to sort out these intelligences and think about future countermeasures.

“Freemasonry?” Jiang Chen clutched the ring in his hand and observed the pattern above.

The ring was taken from Griffin’s hand, with two opposite “V” characters and a capital “G” in the middle. Just looking at this pattern, Jiang Chen couldn’t find any clues at all, so he thought it must be the symbol of the Freemasonry.

Shaking his head, Jiang Chen put the ring aside.

What was certain was that there must be a connection between Rothschild and the Freemasonry, and it was very likely that Rothschild had told the Freemasons the purpose of his trip. This could be deduced from Griffin’s own words.

At this time, knocking filled the room.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Marshall.” Marshall’s voice came from the other side of the door.

“Come in. The door is not locked.”

Opening the door, Marshall entered the room. He then nervously looked at Jiang Chen.

Anyone would be nervous, especially seeing the wounded special forces and the five dead bodies that were put into body bags, and he had no clue what these people had done after being out for nearly 24 hours.

“Are you looking for me?”

Jiang Chen looked at Marshall and he read the nervousness from his pupils.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t mind. He revealed a comforting smile. After a pause, he said in a mild tone, “Prepare. We’ll leave for Coro Island in five hours.”

With a short pause, Marshall then asked.

“What about the research team?”

“Carry on,” said Jiang Chen.

The goal of the Freemasonry was only him. There was no reason to attack the station and make international headlines. If he stayed there, it would bring danger to the people of the station. The only thing he had to do now was to return to Xin as soon as possible. Only there could he be considered absolutely safe.

“But…”

Although there were many questions to be asked, Marshall’s intuition told that it was better not to say anything superfluous at this time. The more he knew, the more dangerous it would be. The movies always said this.

“…Yes.”

All his questions came out as a single word. Marshall nodded and left the room.

The next morning, Pathfinder was ready to make its return.

After that happened, the people of the research team were deeply disturbed. This uneasiness stemmed from the fear of the unknown. They did not know what Jiang Chen encountered in the Antarctic hinterland, nor were they sure if they would encounter it themselves.

After some thought, Jiang Chen decided to order a temporary evacuation of the station.

Although the Freemasonry had no reason to make use of the ordinary scientific researchers, since they were planning to explore the fortress in the Antarctic hinterland, they were bound to land at Point Goodenough. The two sides still had a chance to meet.

Just over a month from June, the polar night would make the Antarctic extremely cold and the climate there would no longer be suitable for scientific research. The evacuation would only be a month or so earlier than the planned end date.

After locking the device, He Gaoyang boarded the polar expedition ship at last. Captain Marshall pulled up the anchor chain and ordered the Pathfinder to set sail to end the short trip to the South Pole ahead of schedule. As for what kind of danger he had encountered in Antarctica, Jiang Chen’s explanation was that he had encountered heavily armed kidnappers. Those people knew that he would go to Antarctica, so they deliberately waited for him in the South Pole…

Very far-fetched reason.

He didn’t know whether such explanations would be convincing, but it at least could reduce unnecessary speculation.

After returning, he would order people to sign a confidentiality agreement with the members of the research team and the crews of the Pathfinder.

The two-week voyage was very long, but it was also very peaceful. Jiang Chen had originally thought that he would be chased by the Freemasonry, but other than a few storms, they did not encounter any trouble.

Griffin’s ship had sunk and the Freemasonry didn’t even know that Jiang Chen and the others had left the South Pole. When they finally find out about Griffin’s death, it would be two weeks later. Searching for the sinking polar expedition vessel may take several days or even months depending on their luck.

Even if they learned through intelligence analysis that Jiang Chen had left Antarctica, they would have to face two choices – whether to search for Jiang Chen in the Pacific Ocean or to devote all their energy in investigating the fortress in the Antarctic hinterland.

But any normal person would not choose the former, because it would almost be impossible to complete the task. Even if satellites were used, it is would an easy task to locate a research vessel that was only 100 meters long on the vast sea. But if they choose the latter, they would be destined to find nothing.

The suitcase containing antimatter had been taken away by Jiang Chen. Other than the stacks of equipment that could directly enter the museum, only the “radio station” that could communicate with the Remnants of the Void remained.

Jiang Chen did not take the “radio station” away. The “specter” clearly told him that they do not have enough energy to interfere in the more distant future. And that 1 gram of anti-matter was the ultimate help they could give to the people of B World Line.

After removing some of the parts, he left the basement.

Leaving the “radio station” there could, on the contrary, confuse the Freemasonry and deprive them of some of their energy that would be spent on the machine that had already lost its functionality.

However, compared to the troubles from them, Jiang Chen cared more about what he received from the void.

The antimatter weighing about one gram may be their hope…

Chapter 781: Let’s make a deal

The Freemasonry, with the literal meaning of “free masons,” formed in the 18th century in the United Kingdom, was a religious brotherhood organization and was currently the world’s largest secret organization. They claimed to promote fraternity, kindness, virtue, and the pursuit of human survival. Its members included many famous people and politicians in the world. Its origins weren’t yet defined. According to the interpretation of its program literature, the History of the First Part of the Masonic Charter, the Freemasonry originated in 4000 BC and they called themselves descendants of Cain with knowledge of the mysteries of nature and secrets of the universe.

Since the founding of the Freemasonry, the voices of questioning and opposition never ceased. The most famous incident was the century-long war between the Catholic Church and the Freemasonry. The original conspiracy was questioned during the French Revolution. Freemasonry was suspected of supporting the campaign to overthrow the monarchy. By the middle of the 19th century, the Morgan incident triggered the anti-Freemasonry movement in the UA.

At the same time, according to unreliable rumors, many secret associations around the world had deep roots in Freemasonry.

For example, Willie Society…

In addition, it was rumored that the biggest supporter of the Freemasonry Association was the Rothschilds family.

“… According to unreliable rumors, only Lincoln and Kennedy weren’t members of the Freemasonry Association.” Standing beside the desk, Ayesha reported to Jiang Chen about the information gathered by the Ghost Agents about the Freemasonry.

“So they’re all dead? I think that information is more like a conspiracy theory from a novel than rumors.” Sinking into his chair, Jiang Chen put his fingers on his chin.

Three days ago, he was escorted by the Celestial Frigate and returned to Coro Island. These days, he stayed in the mansion and sent Ghost Agents to Europe and North America to gather intelligence about the Freemasonry.

“Some are smoke bombs, some are actual truths,” Ayesha said cautiously.

“Yes, the key lies in how we categorize the intelligence.” Jiang Chen sighed and sat up in a chair. He couldn’t stop from cursing out, “I thought I was going to the South Pole for a break, but I didn’t expect a lot of trouble.”

After gently walking behind Jiang Chen, Ayesha put her arms around his neck and whispered softly, “I’ll handle all this trouble for you.”

Ayesha’s gentleness soothed Jiang Chen’s mind, and he couldn’t stop smiling.

“Well, I’ve been bothering you all this time,” Jiang Chen whispered while holding her hands.

The atmosphere was becoming more intimate, but at that point, the phone on the desk began to ring inconveniently.

Jiang Chen was planning to hang up but he saw the name on the screen which said Carmen Rothschild.

“Hey?”

“How was your trip to the South Pole?”

“Could I interpret this as you playing dumb?” Although Jiang Chen was smiling, his voice gradually turned colder.

“If I was playing dumb, I wouldn’t have called you.” Carmen sighed. “I admit I used you before, but I always thought we were friends. What do you think?”

Jiang Chen laughed and didn’t reply to his question. He asked indifferently, “In order to avoid more misunderstandings, I think we shouldn’t play games here. State your purpose or the purpose of the Freemasonry.”

“The Golden Apple.” Seeing as Jiang Chen wanted to be direct, Carmen smiled and gradually changed into a serious tone. “And the things you’ve taken away in Antarctica.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“Please don’t play dumb, Mr. Jiang Chen.” Carmen smiled. “We’ve investigated you. You traveled to New Zealand two years ago. When you traveled there, you discovered in the trenches to the west of Coromandel a submerged U235 submarine laying there. We found the submarine a few months ago, but the things inside were gone. If you plan to be direct with me, please show your sincerity.”

Carmen’s words forced Jiang Chen into silence; it seemed that the Rothschilds family had been investigating him and even knew such details.

After a brief silence, Jiang Chen slowly said, “The Golden Apple is right here with me, but why should I give it to you?”

“Why? You don’t even know what you’re holding onto.”

When Carmen said this, Jiang Chen sneered in his mind.

[Who’s the one who doesn’t know? The knock-off version of the Klein Particle Sender, and I even have an interdimensional video call device. You have the audacity to say this?]

“Let’s make a deal.”

After hearing Jiang Chen’s proposal, Carmen felt relieved. Although the Freemasonry had never been afraid of anyone, it wouldn’t be a good decision to enter into direct conflict with Future Group. The Golden Apple lost its purpose after 1943. This is what the Rothschilds confirmed. In that case, Jiang Chen shouldn’t have deciphered the secret hidden inside yet.

With a smile forming on his face, Carmen made a decision and said softly, “No problem. How much do you want?”

“Money? Are you kidding?” Jiang Chen chuckled.

After a pause, he said emotionlessly, “I can give you the Golden Apple, but I have two conditions.”

The Golden Apple was always in Lin Lin’s laboratory, and now it was almost a display. As a device that received signals in one direction, the Golden Apple could only passively listen to sounds from the void. However, the “specter” clearly told him in the end that they would no longer be able to interfere with the timeline in the future.

Since Carmen knew the Golden Apple was in his hands, there was no need for confidentiality anymore. It was better to use it to exchange for greater interests and avoid making himself the top target in Rothschild’s mind. It would also buy time for Future Group.

“Say it,” Carmen said.

“First, Xin will become a nuclear-armed country.”

“Give me something else; there’s no point discussing this. Even if I want to help you, I can’t.” Carmen shook his head.

“Oh, is that so? As far as I know, 60% of Freemasonry membership is in North America. Are you sure you can’t do anything with the Freemasonry’s influence? The IAEA is based in Vienna. I don’t believe the Rothschilds family’s influence in Europe can’t reach this area. The Rothschilds Bank is on the list of shareholders for half of France’s nuclear power plants. Can you really tell me you can’t do it?” Jiang Chen said dubiously.

Carmen narrowed his eyes slightly and moved his fingers as he held the phone.

“It seems you’ve done your research.”

“It’s not just you who has an intelligence organization,” Jiang Chen responded.

Silence ensued for a long time.

After repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, Carmen offered, “I can promise you that the IAEA will recognize Xin’s possession of nuclear technology. The UA Congress won’t pass the sanctions bill of Xin on the nuclear issue… but there’s a premise that the nuclear technology you use is limited to the civil sector and nuclear tests must also be within certain limits.”

Hearing Carmen’s compromise, a smile emerged on Jiang Chen’s face. And at the same time, Jiang Chen gradually grew vigilant.

[If the Freemasonry really can achieve this, then its influence shouldn’t be underestimated.]

“No problem.”

“Well, what’s the last condition? I hope it’s not excessive,” Carmen said as he adjusted his position, still holding onto the phone.

“The last condition is that the Golden Apple is here with me. You have to come and get it yourself.”

Chapter 782: An Old Friend

“At 9:00 yesterday morning, the Xin Energy National Energy Administration held a press conference to announce that Xin will build the first nuclear power plant on Coro Island to ease the increasingly tense power pressures on the island. At present, the project has been approved by IAEA. Celestial Trade will be responsible for the construction of the plant. At noon today, Country F expressed its strong condemnation against Xin’s nuclear power plant, calling it a conspiracy of Celestial Trade in the development of nuclear weapons, which will further worsen the situation in Southeast Asia.”

“In response to this, the Celestial Trade Spokesperson responded that Xin’s development of civil nuclear technology is legitimate and legal. In addition, the nuclear power plant will use a light water reactor rather than a heavy water reactor that can permanently produce Uranium-239.”

“It is expected that the nuclear power plant will be completed before the end of this year. According to the details of the project disclosed by Celestial, Coro Island Nuclear Power Plant will be responsible for 59% of Xin’s electricity demands after completion and replace the thermal power station on the island.”

“On the development of civil nuclear technology for Xin, the Capitol spokesman stated that the UA was surprised at the rash decision taken by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but just this morning, a Senate member who asked not to be named stated that they had already debated over the small country in the Western Pacific for ten hours. The debate wasn’t only between the two parties, but there were also different voices within the Democratic Party. This situation is rare…”

“The Hua side supports Xin’s development of civil nuclear technology. Enjoying the convenience of nuclear energy within the framework of peace is the power of people around the world. Russia is not concerned about the situation in the Pacific…”

Because civil nuclear fuel was difficult to convert into weapon-grade fuel, even if it had to be converted, it would be at a great cost. It would not be worth the effort in all respects. Therefore, only the core technologies and materials such as military nuclear fuel and centrifuges were controlled internationally, and the famous “Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty” merely limited military nuclear technology.

Although this was the case, legally building a nuclear power plant still required approval from the IAEA.

Whether or not a nuclear power plant could be legally owned would test the strength of a country’s diplomacy and its scientific and technological strength. After the latter absorbed hundreds of thousands of immigrants, Xin already possessed this capability. However, the former was quite lacking in the country that had just completed a change in regime.

If Jiang Chen could use a useless Golden Apple to exchange this diplomatic achievement from the hands of Freemasonry, he wouldn’t lose out in the trade at all.

Just three days after Celestial Trade announced the beginning of construction of the nuclear power plant, a private plane from Germany landed at the Coro Island airport.

At the invitation of Jiang Chen, Carmen Rothschilds personally made a trip.

When they met, both sides remained silent about the unhappiness that occurred in the South Pole. The mercenaries killed five “Sea Lions,” and Jiang Chen slaughtered the mercenaries sent by the Freemasonry, although the Freemasonry didn’t understand how Jiang Chen did it. Logically speaking, Celestial Trade shouldn’t have deployed its troops in Antarctica beforehand.

At the airport of Coro Island, Jiang Chen stood at the airport runway next to Ayesha in a suit, and behind them were several bodyguards wearing sunglasses.

Ayesha’s case contained the treasure the Rothschilds family and the entire Freemasonry longed for.

The Golden Apple that could communicate with the future.

Although it no longer could.

Behind Carmen was still the same bodyguard; Jiang Chen remembered his name was Johnson. In addition to this bodyguard, Jiang Chen also saw the old butler of Balv manor, Ccides.

“We meet again, my old friend.” Carmen smiled.

“Yeah, old friend.” Jiang Chen smiled on his face, but he emphasized the word “friend.”

Ayesha, who saw Jiang Chen’s approval, handed over the suitcase.

When Johnson saw it, he wanted to grab it for his boss, but he was stopped by Carmen.

Carmen accepted the suitcase, opened the box, and a smile emerged when he saw the Golden Apple inside.

Ccides stepped forward and picked up the Golden Apple with white gloves. He removed the ring-sized magnifying glass from his pocket and studied it for a while before returning it to the suitcase. He whispered a few words beside Jiang Chen before he stepped behind Carmen again.

“Is the appraisal work done?” Jiang Chen, who had been observing next to him, grinned.

“Yes, Mr. Jiang Chen is sincere. It seems that our deal is done.”

Speaking with a smile, Carmen extended his right hand.

“Since you already know it, I won’t hide it. I am a level 33 member of the Freemasonry. If you are willing to join us, you would also be a level 33.”

For level 32 Scottish affiliates, based on their contributions to the Freemasonry or the community, they could be upgraded to 33 as the highest council level. This symbolized the highest glory of the Freemasonry and was generally granted only to the people in the world with extensive influence.

For example, a banker holding trillions of capital, or a certain country’s president…

“I’ll pass. I’m an atheist,” Jiang Chen responded indifferently and shook his hand.

“That’s really regrettable.” Carmen shrugged.

Refusing as an atheist was just an excuse. Freemasonry had long been categorized as a religious organization, but it wasn’t limited by race or skin color. Since Jiang Chen didn’t want to join, Carmen didn’t insist again.

After accepting the Golden Apple from Jiang Chen, Carmen didn’t make any further stops. After bidding farewell, he took off again.

Watching Rothschild’s departure, Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

“Ayesha.”

“Yes.”

“Order the Ghost Agents in Europe to find someone for me.”

“Who?”

“Evelyn, vice president of Frankberg.” With a short pause, Jiang Chen then added, “Or the former vice president.”

Jiang Chen saved his life when he participated in the auto show. Although he didn’t know whether he is still alive now, perhaps he could become the breaking point to defeat the Rothschild family.

“Roger,” Ayesha whispered.

Although the deal was completed successfully, a grudge must’ve been established. At this stage, exploration of the Antarctic fortress and research on the Golden Apple would surely hamper Freemasonry’s energy. And once they freed their hands or found out they expended so much political resources only for a useless rotten apple, they would certainly do some unpleasant things to Future Group.

Jiang Chen didn’t know how long this timeframe might be, but he had to make sufficient preparations before this to deal with the Freemasonry that had enough power to control the political situation in the UA, and the richest family in the world…

After his meeting with Rothschild, Jiang Chen also returned home and headed to the mansion in the apocalypse.

With his dealings with the Golden Apple coming to an end, he now had more important things to address.

For example, the antimatter…

Chapter 783: Magnetic Confinement

It was a wonderful phenomenon.

A blue light ball floated inside a transparent vacuum tube about the thickness of a wrist. At closer examination, it was possible to see electron beams between the two ends of the photosphere and the two ends of the vacuum tube.

The vacuum tube was placed on Lin Lin’s experiment bench.

It was Jiang Chen’s first time seeing antimatter

To be honest, when he saw the real thing, it was still different from what he expected. He originally thought that antimatter should be dark, so he didn’t expect it to be somewhat dazzling.

“This is antimatter?” Jiang Chen pointed to the vacuum tube while looking at Lin Lin next to him.

Lin Lin stared at him with a gaze that said ‘idiot’ in her eyes. She coughed before she began to display her wealth of knowledge.

“…plasma with a dense core formed in an absolute vacuum metal tube, using an electron beam injected through small regular angular momentum.”

“Plasma?” Blasted by many technical terms, Jiang Chen felt his head was getting jammed with terms he couldn’t comprehend.

Lin Lin, however, seemed to enjoy his confusion. It was even more obvious when a sly smile formed on her face.

“Yes, you can think of this glowing light sphere as a ‘shell’ wrapped around the antimatter. In the center of this ‘vacuum sphere’ is an extremely dark particle that oscillates randomly. That’s what’s commonly called antimatter. We usually call this method magnetic confinement.”

Lin Lin also added a sentence with a smirk.

“Although it’s just one gram, it can instantly wipe this region off the map.”

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows jumped, but he didn’t look as afraid as Lin Lin imagined.

“…are there no safety issues by just placing it here?”

“There’s no need to worry about safety. The plasma sphere is stable or can even be described to be perfect… It’s confusing. How did the guys in the void do it?”

“It’s impossible to achieve this with 22nd-century technology?” Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin, somewhat surprised.

Lin Lin shook her head.

“Disregarding the formation of such a peculiar plasma sphere, creating an absolute vacuum in this vacuum tube isn’t an easy task for the 22nd century. You must know that even the universe isn’t an absolute vacuum. Aside from matter we can see, there’s dark matter we can’t see. It’s definitely not an easy task to get rid of these things to create an absolute vacuum.”

After a pause, Lin Lin murmured as she fixated on this vacuum tube.

“Although atoms are electrically neutral, they have a weak magnetic distance. It’s also the same for antimatter, the opposite of matter. By using a special magnetic field, antimatter can be confined to a certain space. Surprising design… Although human observations of antimatter can be traced back to the 20th century, no one could store antimatter in plasma until two centuries after.”

“What about using antimatter as a weapon?” Jiang Chen immediately asked the question he was most concerned about.

“The power is amazing, but I advise you not to use the weapon belonging to the interstellar era on Earth.” Lin Lin glanced at him. “In theory, there are no defenses against antimatter; any positive matter that comes into contact with antimatter will be rapidly annihilated. 100% of the mass will be converted into energy and released as high-energy gamma rays. By the way, hydrogen bombs have only 0.7% of its mass conversion. To destroy the earth, only about one kilogram of antimatter needs to fall to the ground. This is why antimatter is listed as a prohibited research project.”

After Lin Lin’s explanation, Jiang Chen knew why the Remnants of the Void compared this to the last hope.

It possessed terrifying lethality. If they could possess antimatter weapons, then human civilization might gain a fighting chance against Harmony 20.5 lightyears away.

Lin Lin reminded him in a quiet voice when she saw how moved Jiang Chen was.

“But you shouldn’t get too excited. The Remnants of the Void only give us a sample. The manufacturing process or the related technology, our foundation is zero.”

“Start from zero? No problem, I believe in your abilities!” Jiang Chen laughed and patted Lin Lin’s shoulder. “Antimatter research will be handed to you!”

“Don’t give me everything! I’m still researching the subject you gave me about interdimensional travel! Even if it’s me, I have zero background in antimatter? I suggest you find some scientists with research background in physics. Moreover, it’s very dangerous to research this on the surface. It’s better to research and extract antimatter in outer space,” Lin Lin protested.

Lin Lin didn’t have any more understanding of antimatter, but she still helped Jiang Chen design a research path.

Divide the topic into three parts.

The first part was to study how to make an absolute vacuum container for the storage of plasma wrapped with antimatter.

The second part was to study how to make such plasma capable of magnetic confinement of antimatter used for wrapping antimatter.

The third part was to study how to use high-energy particle colliders to produce antimatters more efficiently and collect them with magnetic fields before decaying.

In fact, producing antimatter would be the simplest step. After all, in 2014, the European Organization for Nuclear Research succeeded in creating an anti-hydrogen atom beam. It was an antimatter beam up to 2.7 meters made of 80 antihydrogen atoms, but no one managed to preserve and produce it on a large scale.

These high-energy ion accelerators could typically only produce a few nanograms of antihydrogen atoms per year, and one nanogram was one billionth of a gram.

After leaving Lin Lin’s lab, Jiang Chen went to the community center and sent the documents for the establishment of a new research project team to Wang Qing.

“Acquire the missing talents from the fallout shelters, mark the physics research labs near Suzhou and Hangzhou, and the Expeditionary Army will be responsible for recycling the technology.”

“Antimatter?” Wang Qing was completely bewildered by the documents in her hands, but since the general made this request, she nodded. “Okay, I’ll make the order right away. Right, some time ago, there were some news from Hongcheng.”

“Hongcheng? What news?”

“Compared to before, the activities of the merchants in the Northern Alliance Area and Qingshan Town increased substantially. At the same time, Wu Wei, President of the Steel Gear Chamber of Commerce, also reported that merchants from the Northern Alliance Area were active in the area. They were buying steel, rare earth, and electronic components while lacking interest in other goods.”

“Purchasing steel?” Jiang Chen thought for a moment and looked at Wang Qing. “Increase the conversion ratio of credits with crystals. Allow the crystal farms controlled by us to increase the output of crystals.”

With the depreciation of crystals, the Northern Alliance Area merchants who purchased steel would see an increase in cost. Although this would affect the NAC’s local economy to a certain extent, it could effectively curb the outflow of strategic resources caused by the market economy.

“In addition, increase orders for military factories on Sixth Street. Be sure to double the production output before the end of this year!”

Jiang Chen then said after a long pause..

“Finally, be prepared for a war.”

Chapter 784: Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden was located beside Dianshan Lake. The towering dome covered a few square kilometers of land. The graphene hexagonal panels reflected a faint glow and drew energy from the thin sunlight.

Outside the dome, it was barren land.

And within the dome, birds sang and flowers whispered.

“It’s like a garden.”

Butterflies flapped their wings and flew among the flowers. Jiang Chen was stunned by the beauty of the garden.

The flowers and plants in the Garden of Eden were recovered from the gene pool and were restored by artificial incubation techniques. According to Lin Lin, if he wanted to, he could even raise a few dinosaurs in the back garden.

“Hey, what did I say?” Wearing a dress, Sun Jiao walked beside Jiang Chen and held his hand with a joyous smile. “Although virtual reality can simulate the environment, it still feels more fulfilling in reality.”

Tall buildings were scattered in the circular space with green trees and lawns in between. The tall building in the center was a giant tower that represented the world tree, supporting this world outside of the apocalypse. The circular road connected the top of a building, just like a piece of art in a fairy tale.

Sun Jiao’s face was full of smiles and she explained everything about this Garden of Eden.

“The aboveground part only accounts for 20% of the living space in the Garden of Eden; the more spacious area is underground. Twelve numerical controlled planting towers will complete the cultivation of crops, and the quarterly output is expected to reach more than 50 tons… Hey, are you listening to me?”

Her cheeks began to blush as Jiang Chen’s eyes were fixated on her.

Examining her beauty, Jiang Chen thought for a moment and finally expressed what had been bothering him.

“Umm, I feel you look strange in a dress.”

Sun Jiao suddenly raised an eyebrow when she heard his words, then she pinched his waist fiercely.

“Hmph! Do you want to die?”

Jiang Chen screamed with exaggeration and escaped Sun Jiao’s attack.

At the same time, Xiaorou stepped forward and chuckled at the two teasing each other.

“You can’t bully sister. In order to overcome the uneasiness of the fluttering clothes, it took her a lot of time for her to make up her mind to put it on…”

“What are you talking about?” Sun Jiao covered her sister’s mouth from behind with a terrified smile on her face.

Xiaorou, with her mouth covered by Sun Jiao, sobbed with a miserable expression and looked “pleadingly” at Jiang Chen.

It must be said that although they looked like they were carved out of the same mold, Xiaorou looked much more natural in a skirt compared to her sister. Compared to skirts, short shorts and tank tops seemed to better suit her style.

But since becoming the general’s wife, she rarely dressed that way.

At the entrance, Yao Yao and Lin Lin passed the sterilization room and came inside. The former was full of curiosity about everything there and was eagerly looking at the flowers and plants in the Garden of Eden. As a designer, Lin Lin proudly raised her small nose and explained everything about the Garden of Eden to Yao Yao.

Only the innocent Yao Yao could satisfy her vanity.

Following the main road to the central tower, the group boarded a sightseeing elevator.

As the elevator slowly ascended, Jiang Chen watched the scenery outside of the graphene compartment with a pleasant smile.

From now on, this place would become the most desirable place in the wasteland. The seeds of civilization would germinate from here, transporting food along countless trade routes, and spreading the fire of civilization to farther places.

And he was the owner of this city.

From the offices of the central tower to the numerically controlled planting towers in the corners to the underground living space, in this harmonious atmosphere, the family walked through the blooming Garden of Eden.

…

After three days in the apocalypse, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world in mid-May.

Before he left, he gathered Cheng Weiguo, Zhao Gang, and Wang Zhaowu and detailed the NAC military expansion plan. The threats from Northern Alliance Area were increasingly approaching, and only strong armed forces could better guard the prosperity of NAC territory.

If war broke out, Hongcheng would become the frontline between Northern Alliance Area and NAC’s crossfire.

Before Jiang Chen left the apocalypse, Zhao Gang took the Third Corps to build a defense line in Hongcheng. Deployments included electromagnetic pulse cannons, laser anti-missile systems, and units. They also established reconnaissance outposts along the journey to closely monitor the movements of Northern Alliance Area.

After returning to the modern world, Ayesha brought good news.

Ghost agents found Mr. Evelyn, the former Frankberg deputy prime minister who was being hunted in a small village east of Hungary.

Since New Choice Party took office, his days became much more difficult. The Federal Government filed a total of eleven charges against him. They also suspected that he planned the murder attempt against the presidents of Frankberg and Austria and demanded him to return to the country immediately.

Evelyn obviously would not return to Frankberg to respond to the lawsuit. If he went back, he would die in an accident before he could appear in front of a judge.

With the influence of the Rothschilds family in Europe, no country would provide him with political asylum. Russia might have interest , but he was on the Hungarian border and there was no way to go to the Russian border.

At first, when he was found by a Ghost Agent, he thought it was his enemy. It wasn’t until the agent sent to Europe revealed her identity that he calmed down and made his own request.

“He hopes we’ll take him to the Russian border. Russia has agreed to provide him with political asylum,” Ayesha reported to Jiang Chen.

“Russia?” Jiang Chen rubbed his chin and began to contemplate.

Now he had two choices. One was to send him to Russia and Russia would provide him with assistance. The other was to take him directly back to Xin with Future Group providing support. Both of these options could cause trouble for Rothschild’s plan in Germany, but the latter could obviously make Future Group directly enter a conflict with the Freemasonry prematurely.

Although in Jiang Chen’s view, when gun was fired in the Antarctic, the façade between the two sides had already been torn apart.

“Send him to Russia…Right, where did Natasha go?”

“She will return from Russia probably the day after tomorrow. Is there any problem?”

“Nothing.” Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled back. “Take Evelyn back to Coro Island. I’ll give you the Droplet, and you’ll have to make a trip yourself.”

The existence of Droplet was a secret for the time being. At present, only a few people knew. Only Jiang Chen and Ayesha had permission to access the submarine. The vast majority of sonars were currently unable to detect its presence, and its high cruising speed also allowed it to arrive in Europe in a short period of time to bring back the deputy prime minister.

Ayesha gently said, “No problem.”

As she prepared to leave, Jiang Chen suddenly stopped her.

“There’s something else.”

Ayesha turned around.

“Remember to knock him out before Mr. Deputy Prime Minister sees Droplet.”

Chapter 785: Stakes on the Negotiation Table

Although the underwater cruising speed of Droplet was very fast, it would still take about one week for the round trip. Ghost Agents in Europe moved Evelyn from Hungary to neighboring Serbia and were on their way to Albania.

The Ghost Agents would temporarily place him in Albania, waiting for Droplet to arrive before transferring him onto it. Once he boarded Droplet, it meant he would be free.

When he arrived in Xin, he would act as a bargaining chip between Jiang Chen and Russia.

The next day, Ayesha made breakfast for Jiang Chen then went to Coconut Island’s dock. As a private holiday harbor for Jiang Chen, it had been used as the storage place for Droplet.

After waking up and not seeing Ayesha, Jiang Chen knew she already left.

This also meant that in the next week, he had to be inside this empty mansion, all alone. The thought of it made him feel lonely.

After breakfast, Jiang Chen sat on the sofa and rested for a moment. He got up and turned off the TV and went to the kitchen with a plate. After putting the chopsticks and plates into the dishwasher, he took a shower in the bathroom, put on formal attire, and went straight to the garage.

Since there was nothing to do, he went to the office.

Driving the converted Lamborghini, Jiang Chen deliberately took a detour on the way to Future Building, heading on the expressway beside the beach.

On the glittering golden beach, familiar faces could be seen everywhere. Under the transformation of Future Group, Coro Island became Eastern Hawaii and the preferred tourist resort for Asian countries.

Of course, he deliberately took a detour not to look at women in bikinis, but rather, to look at the underwater expressway of the Victoria Construction Company.

In the middle of last month, after signing the contract, Victoria sent a construction team over. At the moment, several engineering vessels were parked at the southeastern end of Coro Island. They sunk the graphene pipes into the water and operated the machinery by underwater operators to complete the laying of the pipeline.

Watching the bustling sea region, he was filled with a pleasant joy.

By this time next year at the latest, the road connecting the nine islands would be open to traffic.

By then, the people of Xin would no longer have to travel by ship, and they would be able to travel across the island in just one vehicle. The previously depressed private car market could also recover with the completion of the subsea expressway. By then, it would be almost time to promote maglev vehicles.

At the office, he parked into the garage. When Jiang Chen walked through the doors of Future Building, the passing employees all looked at him like he was a rare guest.

They weren’t to be blamed for their reactions. After all, as the group’s president, Jiang Chen’s attendance had always been very spontaneous. Sometimes he was there every day one month, and sometimes, he would disappear for months.

The managers were already accustomed to this, but for employees, the whereabouts of the president could be described as mysterious.

With the expansion of the company, there were new faces at the building every day. Although it was only for a short period of one month, Jiang Chen felt like it was a brand new place when he stepped inside.

Coincidentally, when Jiang Chen entered the hall, there was just an elevator on the first floor. Seeing the arrival of the president, an employee quickly hit the door open button and waited until Jiang Chen entered.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t say anything. He pressed the button for the top floor of the building and closed the elevator door.

The elevator began to move upwards, and through the transparent walls, he was able to see the sandy beach of Coro Island.

Perhaps because of the gap in position, Jiang Chen felt that the atmosphere in the elevator was a bit weird because there were no sounds at all. Several employees standing near him didn’t even dare to breathe loudly. There were also several intern-looking employees who were peeking at him from time to time.

“Is there something dirty on my face?” Jiang Chen smiled and quipped at the female intern who had red permed hair.

She didn’t expect Jiang Chen to talk to her. The girl with the curls suddenly blushed and told the truth while stuttering.

“No, no, I’m just thinking the president is so young.”

The employee next to her immediately felt secondhand embarrassment for the new intern. She had just been there for a few days, yet she said the wrong thing in front of the boss. How could she still continue to work there? Saying that the president looked young, in an alternative perspective – wasn’t that questioning the president’s abilities? She should’ve used the word “mature”!

However, contrary to their experience in the workplace, Jiang Chen didn’t show the slightest discontent at all. On the contrary, he laughed.

“You don’t have to think that; I’m very young to start with, so I have to count on you guys for the group’s work!”

She wasn’t blamed but was encouraged instead. The new employee’s face was flushed with excitement, taking the opportunity to agree.

“Yes!”

Jiang Chen smiled, indicating that she didn’t have to be so nervous.

Soon, the elevator door opened, and the employees walked out one after another. When the woman with the “curled hair” left the elevator, she blushed and bowed at Jiang Chen then quickly left.

Although it was only a small episode, news of the president being easy to get along with quickly spread throughout the company.

Jiang Chen was also pleased with the result.

If possible, he didn’t want to be a distant leader to the point where all who saw him felt they had to bow their heads. In contrast, he was more willing to be a leader loved by all employees, so that every person who saw him would say hello instead.

Before entering his office, Jiang Chen went to Xia Shiyu’s office.

When Xia Shiyu went into the office with a smile, she gave him a few extra glances.

“What’s the good news?”

“Nothing, I’m just in a good mood today. Do you have anything to report to me? So you don’t have to make a trip in a bit.” Jiang Chen took a chair from the side and sat across from Xia Shiyu.

After seeing this scene, the female assistant who was holding some documents came in. After she laid down the documents, she consciously left the room. However, Xia Shiyu didn’t overthink it. She picked up the documents and glanced over them before pushing the pile aside.

“You came just in time. Future Heavy Industries once again signed a blockbuster deal.” Then Xia Shiyu placed a document in front of Jiang Chen.

“Blockbuster deal?”

Jiang Chen picked up the document with great interest and looked at the title. Two keywords immediately caught his attention.

“Drone” and “Express”.

Chapter 786: Drone and Express

This letter of intent for partnership came from SF Express. The partnership hoped to introduce drone express technology to Hua and use the city of Xiangjiang as a pilot to complete the deployment of the drone logistics network.

Jiang Chen was extremely confused after reading the content of the partnership.

“Drone + Courier” – this concept was proposed long ago, and it wasn’t a concept from Future Group.

As early as June 2013, Matternet Corporation tested drone networks in Haiti and Dominican Republic. The drones used were capable of carrying two kilograms of weight and flew 9.7 kilometers. After completing the initial planning of the drone network, the company was planning to establish a large international drone transport network and a global supply system for drone accessories. At the same time, it also planned to establish a charging base station so that drones could land along the way for charging.

In September of the same year, the courier drone independently developed by SF Express completed internal tests and conducted trial operations in local areas. This drone adopted eight rotors and had a flying height of about 100 meters. With a built-in GPS navigation system, the destination and route could be set in advance by staff. The drone would automatically reach the destination and errors could be controlled within two meters.

However, both Matternet and SF hadn’t been able to extend the drone logistics for widespread adoption. The former drone seemed to be suitable only for poor countries in the third world, while the latter’s drones were only suitable for use in poor mountainous areas in the country.

Although drone logistics could significantly increase distribution efficiency as well as reduce labor costs, they were constrained by severe weather and the inability to avoid vandalism and other shortcomings during flight, rendering the concept of “Drone + Courier” only feasible on paper.

Penglai was probably the only modern city in the world that achieved adoption of drone logistics. However, the reason why was partially because of the technical advancement in drones. However, the more crucial factor was the safety and security of Penglai.

For example, some news from some time ago: “A man in Guangzhou sent mooncakes to his girlfriend with a drone and the drone was shot down by an old woman. When the guy discovered that his drone was ‘hijacked’, he rushed to the woman for compensation, but the woman not only denied having the drone shot down, but she also said she was almost injured by the drone…”

Not to mention that the legislation of drones had always been a gray area, and there seemed to be no space for drone logistics to become bigger and stronger from the general public. SF Express wanted to introduce beta series drones from Future Heavy Industries and complete the establishment of the drone logistics network in Hua. To be honest, Jiang Chen didn’t view their decision favorably.

However, their offer made it difficult for Jiang Chen to refuse.

For the completion of the drone logistics network in Xiangjiang, the quote from SF Express was 450 million US Dollar. According to Jiang Chen’s calculations, 500 drone terminals should be able to cover all areas of Xiangjiang and to meet the demand for distributio, about 50,000 drones would suffice.

According to the cost of production of the Beta-3 drone, a drone cost 3,000 US Dollar. Compared to Matternet’s 5,000 US Dollar drone, they offered an advantage in both technology and price.

A detailed calculation suggested that the establishment of the drone logistic network for SF Express wouldn’t exceed 200 million US Dollar. Compared to its offer of 450 million US Dollar, it was a 125% profit!

Moreover, if the pilot city of Xiangjiang proved the feasibility of drone logistics networks to the mainland, the next step of SF Express undoubtedly would be to expand the drone logistics network to Shenzhen, followed by Guangzhou, and then…

Consider the number of cities in the entire country. How many courier companies would they need?

Such a huge market was simply an inexhaustible gold mine!

“Your face tells me you’re very interested.” Looking at Jiang Chen’s expression, Xia Shiyu grinned and smiled.

“Yes, this market is worth more than 100 billion US Dollar. I don’t think any company wouldn’t be interested.” Jiang Chen looked at the documents and nodded.

To be honest, although he didn’t understand the details of the partnership, he was certain about the prospects of the entire market. With the number of cities and courier companies, even if the average city could only earn 500 million US Dollar, the scale of the market would be unimaginable.

“I’m also very optimistic about this agreement. Regardless of whether SF Express will succeed during pilot operations in Xiangjiang, there are no risks for us. However, I don’t agree with their proposal for the time being.”

“Why?” Jiang Chen was intrigued by her decision.

He knew she must have some reason for this.

“Although SF Express’s offer is very attractive, we have the core technology, and we have the cash flow. Why don’t we do it ourselves?”

[Why don’t we do it ourselves?]

Future Group controlled VRstore, a huge virtual reality shopping platform that integrated the ecommerce giants. Daily trading volume on the VRstore already reached an astronomical figure. With such a huge resource advantage, Future Group could fully develop the offline delivery service on this basis.

Users could shop on the VRstore, and Future Group would deliver!

The use of drone delivery technology would greatly reduce the labor costs of Future Group. SF Express had to pay salaries for 400,000 employees, but for Future Group, this figure could be reduced to less than 50,000.

In terms of operating costs, Future Group had an absolute advantage.

When he heard Xia Shiyu say this, Jiang Chen thought about it for a moment.

“Do the logistics by ourselves? Does our company have management experience in this area?”

“We don’t need to start from scratch. My advice is to buy a logistics company, integrate its management team then restructure it. In the process of sorting, transporting, and dispatching goods, our head office will send people to redesign and replicate the model of Penglai City. If the trial operation proves to be feasible, we will fully promote it on the mainland and further promote it to the world!”

Prior to this, Xia Shiyu apparently had a plan for the development of this “Drone + Logistics”, so she had full confidence in her explanation.

Jiang Chen was convinced too.

Providing service for other people would definitely not be as lucrative as integrating the entire industry chain?

“What about the risks?” Jiang Chen asked the last question he was concerned about.

“The completion of the acquisition will cost about 3 billion US Dollar. Then we’ll gradually cancel the local agency rights, turn the franchise model into direct operations, and set up our own outlets in major cities. This work will probably require an investment of 1 billion US Dollar. The use of Xiangjiang as a drone logistics network pilot has a cost of 200 million US Dollar.”

By his calculations, the cost of the entire project was about 4 billion US Dollar. With the financial resources of Future Group, this risk could easily be managed.

“Well, you have my full support!” Jiang Chen smiled.

Since they decided to engage in this drone logistics network, the letter of intent from Shunfeng Company was naturally ignored.

Xia Shiyu smiled and combed her hair behind her ear.

“I got it.”

Chapter 787: Interfering the Acquisition

Shenzhen, SF Express headquarters.

Sitting at the desk, Wang Wei meticulously read the files on the table.

As the president of SF Express Group, Wang Wei, was as legendary as the company he led. He was only 22 years old. With a start-up capital of only 100,000 CNY, he had grown from a startup company with a total of six people to SF Group with a market value of over ten billion dollar today.

Even Jack Ma expressed deep admiration for him.

However, today he was obviously a little absent-minded. This situation was very rare. He put the pen aside and rubbed his sour brows.

Recalling the past, the last time he experienced this kind of anxiety was still in 2002.

At that time, SF faced a severe test of the right to retrieve power from franchisees. If successful, SF Express would become the first logistics company to get rid of the affiliate system and achieve direct management of the company’s network.

There was no doubt that this attracted the interest of the franchisees. However, in the process of retrieving power, Wang Wei had a tough stance and he even made it clear that by the deadline, they either had to sell the company’s shares to him or leave SF.

It was because of this tough attitude that brought Wang Wei death threats. Some franchisees actually put a bounty to hunt Wang Wei. This incident left a deep scar in his life – even today, he always had 4-6 bodyguards with him.

At this time, his subordinate Li Dongqi pushed open the door and swiftly walked in.

Wang Wei didn’t blame him for not knocking on the door but hurriedly asked, “Did Future Group agree?”

Li Dong had a bitter smile and shook his head.

“No, they gave me the impression that their ambitions for this market aren’t small.”

Wang Wei didn’t seem surprised by the answer.

With the control of VRstore that generated a huge amount of traffic, Future Group even possessed the momentum to command the field of e-commerce. Now, many people developed the habit of experiencing the virtual yet realistic shopping experience, including Wang Wei himself. Every time he put on a helmet, he couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity of the VRstore designer.

…

With such a unique advantage, it would be strange if Jiang Chen wasn’t interested in logistics.

After a few moments of deliberating, Wang Wei said, “Tomorrow I’ll personally visit Xin. If I can meet Jiang Chen, I’ll convince him in person.”

“No, he’ll probably be here by tomorrow.” Li Dongqi sighed.

Wang Wei took a moment to process before his eyebrows twisted together.

This was a bit difficult to handle now.

While SF felt difficulty in making progress, Jiang Chen also felt resistance. Otherwise, he wouldn’t make a personal trip here.

The company selected by Xia Shiyu was STO, and for the 11% premium offered by Future Group, the proposal to purchase 51% of STO’s shares for 1.7 billion US Dollar received satisfaction from several major shareholders.

Future Group wanted to invest in STO. That was a good thing! Even if it was based on its resources in the VRstore that could favor STO even by the slightest margin, their shares would more than double the current value, not to mention Future Group also purchased at an 11% premium!

As long as they gave up a portion of the stocks, the rest of the stock could be more valuable. It would be foolish to reject such an offer.

However, they encountered resistance in the last stage of the acquisition.

As soon as he was about to sign, the original shareholders who agreed to sell their shares changed their positions and refused to sell their shares. No matter how Future Group persuaded them, they seemed to have their minds made up.

Future Group inquired for the rationale and they discovered it wasn’t the shareholders, but it was the government that began to intervene.

This caught Jiang Chen off-guard, but when Shi Xiyu heard the news, it didn’t seem to surprise her.

For mutual acquisitions between small companies, the government’s attitude was often based on the criteria of “according to the laws of market economy development.” However, when it came to large companies, the government’s attitude was more cautious.

A typical case was Coca-Cola’s acquisition of Huiyuan Juice Group in 2009, which was rejected by the Ministry of Commerce under antitrust. This situation not only occurred in Hua. Huawei’s repeated setbacks in the UA could be attributed to the fact that since 2008, the UA government had systematically prevented the company from acquiring UA assets. This caused Huawei to suffer repeated setbacks when it entered the UA telecommunications industry.

What had to be pointed out was that if Future Group was registered in Shanghai, and not a small Western Pacific country that has no international influence, but held strategic signifiance to UA, perhaps the Phantom helmet wouldn’t be available in the UA.

Jiang Chen originally hoped the Liu family could offer some help, however, Elder Liu’s answer left him with nothing to say.

The Liu family did have influence at the very top, but this matter wasn’t something that he alone could decide. After all, the political power of the Republic was more than the Liu family. The government was overwhelmed by the fact that Future Group became too involved, and they weren’t interested in drone logistics.

Reducing 400,000 jobs to 50,000 might seem tempting to other companies, but from the government’s standpoint, weren’t they lowering the employment rate?

Many times you’re not brought in because you’re advanced, unless the country can’t survive without you.

For example, quantum communication satellites were not available in market because of the potential impact on the “Telecom Big Three” in the oligopoly market.

“When we were in the conference, the Liu family voted against the proposal to intervene in the acquisition. I can’t help you too much in this matter. However, I can reveal to you the bottom line in this acquisition.” At the end of the call, Liu Xiangguo smiled mysteriously.

“Oh? What is it?” Jiang Chen asked.

[You took so much money every year and now you should do something?]

“Equities,” Liu Xiangguo gave an abstract word. “Future Group can expand into the market, but it can’t monopolize the market. Do you understand what I mean? If you want to buy STO, you can only hold 30 percent. This is the bottom line. Or you start your own logistics company.”

In the end, the old man’s tone was mixed with deeper meanings.

“What about drones?” This was Jiang Chen’s main concern.

“The drones … we certainly hope you can cooperate with domestic logistics companies. After all, this drone technology is very good!”

Judging by the first half of the sentence, it was clear that Hua wouldn’t make a fuss about the upcoming drone management bill, but the latter half of the sentence was somewhat unclear.

However, since he already asked about the answer, Jiang Chen stopped chatting with the old guy. Just before hanging up the phone, he suddenly thought of something then asked another question.

“By the way, have you ever heard of an organization called Freemasonry?”

Liu Xiangguo’s narrowed eyes opened slightly as he frowned. His tone became unpredictable.

“Freemasonry? How did you get involved with them?”

“They came to find me.”

“Oh, then you ran into a very troublesome opponent.” Liu Xiangguo smiled gloatingly. “How about this? Do you want to come back to the country? They can’t do anything in the country.”

“I’ll pass. I’m very comfortable on the outside.”

After hanging up the phone, he immediately went to see Xia Shiyu. The two exchanged opinions with each other.

The resulting answer was also very clear.

The profits of the logistics market were quite large. In the past decade or so, the logistics industry had seen exponential growth. According to data from 2015, the annual volume had already exceeded 20 billion pieces, and the total industry revenue also reached 200 billion.

If things worked out, the market alone on the Hua side would bring about billions in profits to Future Group each year!

Although there were some problems with the policy, they could still work to resolve the issues in front of them.

If they couldn’t do so directly, then they would flank from the back!

Chapter 788: Return of Xiangjiang

On May 17th, a Gulfstream private jet landed on the runway of Xiangjiang International Airport.

Although an effort for confidentiality was made, the fastest reporters in the world still got wind of the situation and were waiting at the entrance of the international airport the moment they received the news.

There was no doubt that this aircraft came from Xin, and the owner of the aircraft was the president of Future Group, Jiang Chen.

It was very difficult to interview Jiang Chen in Xin. If he didn’t want to be interviewed, it was difficult to even see him. However, in Xiangjiang, these reporters didn’t have so many concerns and they all clamored him with cameras.

A dozen burly bodyguards formed a circle, blocking Jiang Chen’s surroundings and shoving the crowd out of the way, escorting Jiang Chen to the vehicles sent by the subsidiary.

It was like these were paparazzi chasing an international superstar.

After entering the vehicle, Jiang Chen felt overwhelmed.

He Weicai, the president of Future Group Hua Subsidiary, came to pick him up. The Group’s acquisition of STO was also led by him. No need to explain what happened, but due to some small mishaps, the acquisition failed.

“President, should we go to the company building or hotel first?”

“Hotel.”

“Okay.”

After receiving news from Jiang Chen, the subsidiary already booked for him the presidential suite of the Peninsula Hotel. As one of the only two six-star hotels in the city Jiang Chen stayed there for a few days before with only good reviews to provide in all aspects.

After checking in, Jiang Chen went to take a shower and washed away his weariness.

After putting on a clean outfit and having lunch, he went to the subsidiary in the afternoon.

This building was bought from Mr. Chen and was originally used as the headquarters of Future Technology. However, since Future Technology moved to Xin, this building became the head office for the group’s subsidiary in the region.

It was still called Future Building, although it was much shorter and smaller than the Future Building on Coro Island.

Jiang Chen immediately called He Weicai and other company executives to hold a brief meeting.

“The group has made a decision and the strategy for entering the logistics industry will remain unchanged. We’ll start with the pilot project in Xiangjiang, focusing on the development of the Hua logistics market. The Beta-3 Express Delivery Drone will be our flagship product!”

“I know there is much resistance on the policy side, but this isn’t enough reason for giving up.”

“The subsidiary is already registered and is called Global Express.”

“There are several sets of proposals that have been sent to you from headquarters. I believe you should’ve seen them before the meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss this issue. You can speak freely and bring forward any opinions!”

Jiang Chen’s opening words were as short as always. Within a minute, they entered into discussion.

However, the situation wasn’t as ideal as he expected, and the subsidiary lacked experience in the logistics industry.

However, the lack of experience didn’t matter; the lack of talent could be filled and the lack of experience could be obtained through the process. JD, when it first entered into logistics, was plagued with problems, but they still managed to complete the process.

Jiang Chen could start a VR station dedicated to VRstore service, and it could be a store with dual uses. One would be to act as Phantom Helmet’s experience store, the other use could be to act as the distribution outlet for VRstore.

He discussed this proposal with Xia Shiyu for a long time and determined it to be completely feasible!

The purpose of this in-person visit to Hong Kong was mainly to negotiate with the government, negotiate all the policies, and strive to lay the blueprints for “drone logistics”.

After the meeting was adjourned, the senior executives of the company left. However, Jiang Chen and He Weicai didn’t leave. Instead, they briefly discussed several proposals put forward at the meeting.

But just then, He Weicai’s assistant came in from outside the conference room.

“Wang Wei, president of SF Express Group, made a request to meet with the president.”

Meeting?

Jiang Chen and He Weicai exchanged looks then looked at the assistant.

“We agree to the meeting. Tonight, the location is set at the Peninsula Hotel.” Jiang Chen looked at He Weicai. “Perhaps we don’t need to start a logistics company from scratch.”

“You mean SF?” Although he used a questioning tone, He Weicai seemed to have grasped the key point.

“Yes, that’s what I just suddenly thought of. We’ve been using thinking from 2018 to study the logistics industry for a long time, but conservative practices aren’t necessarily universal. We can do it in a different way.” Jiang Chen reached out and lifted the lid of the table-top teapot, gently resting on one side. “For example, splitting the logistics into two links.”

…

Starting from scratch meant Future Group would need to spend a lot of effort on establishing outlets across the country, set up warehouses, develop transportation plans… and so on. The way to avoid trouble was to acquire, but the country was bound to intervene in the acquisition in the name of anti-trust.

In this case, why not adopt another mindset?

The advantages of drone logistics were mainly reflected in the dispatching of parts. Future Group needed to cover the outlet for hundreds of cities and counties across the country.

Domestically, only EMS and SF Express adopted the direct management network out of all delivery companies. EMS was a state-owned enterprise, so there was no need to consider it. Future Group could fully cooperate with SF Express to solve this problem in the network.

Later, Jiang Chen returned to the Peninsula Hotel and went to the agreed-upon meeting place.

When he arrived, he discovered Wang Wei was sitting in the corner of the teahouse in the lobby and he seemed to have been waiting for a long time.

The headquarters of SF Express was located in Shenzhen. The journey would only take two to three hours from Shenzhen. However, the speed of the other party did surprise Jiang Chen somewhat.

“Hello, you must be Mr. Jiang Chen.” Wang Wei stood up with a smile and extended his right hand.

“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wang Wei.” Jiang Chen shook his hand and smiled. “Now let’s leave the small talk for after dinner. Mr. Wang requested a meeting with me, so what did you want to discuss today?”

“I hope to revisit the letter of intent we sent to Mr. Jiang Chen earlier,” said Wang Wei sincerely.

“To adopt Penglai City’s drone logistics network?” Jiang Chen smiled. “I’m sorry, but building my own logistics company has always been one of the strategic plans of Future Group. Not long ago, we already registered a company called Global Courier. Although it’s very small and business is only focused in Penglai City, surely you should be able to see our ambitions for the logistics industry from its name.”

Chapter 789: Global Express

Jiang Chen’s words didn’t make Wang Wei feel discouraged. He clearly knew that since Jiang Chen agreed to meet with him, there must be room for negotiation.

After collecting his train of thought, Wang Wei responded, “I don’t know if Mr. Jiang studied the case of FedEx’s failure in Hua.”

The hotel waiter served the two people black tea and pastries. Although it was close to dinner time and past time for afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel, distinguished guests always received extra privileges.

Taking a sip of the black tea to soothe his throat, Jiang Chen said, “Of course.”

“There are many reasons behind FedEx’ operations failure in the country. Even though they had a considerable advantage in price and made efforts in localization, they struggled to enter the market. My operating team studied this case and we came to a conclusion. Do you know what it is?” Wang Wei locked his eyes onto Jiang Chen.

“Is this a test?” Jiang Chen grinned.

“Not at all.” Wang Wei laughed and held up one finger. “In the end, there’s only one reason. They suffered a Google-style failure.”

“Google-style failure – this concept is rather interesting. This is my first time hearing this.” Jiang Chen looked at Wang Wei with interest. “So, do you think our Global Expresswill suffer a Google-style failure?”

Wang Wei didn’t directly answer Jiang Chen’s question but he used the art of negotiation to blur the issue.

“New trade protectionism. Starting in the 1980s, with non-tariff barrier measures such as environmental barriers, technical barriers, anti-dumping and intellectual property protection, the policy has protected local companies and excluded foreign companies from entering the market. Although Hua started in this area quite late, with the trades frictions with the UA after 2000, we also learned a lot. I personally concluded that there’s an interesting law; all products that can be replaced are domestically protected by policies. The logistics industry is obviously one of them.”

“Even if you have a drone logistics network that’s convenient and quick, that’s not irreplaceable enough. After all, our companies that rely on human resources can also send packages to customers’ homes; at most, we’ll be slower by a few hours in the dispatching process.”

After listening to the explanation, Jiang Chen looked at Wang Wei with surprise.

What he said was also Jiang Chen’s biggest concern.

Global Express had a complete set of localized operation plans. At the same time, it also recruited former senior executives of many renowned delivery companies from headhunters. However, taking Hua as the first leg of the international market meant Global Express would have tough obstacles to overcome.

However, although the obstacles weren’t small, Jiang Chen already had plans in mind.

“So, we plan to divide the business into two parts.” Jiang Chen looked at the confident Wang Wei with a grin.

“Two parts?”

“Yes.” With his fingers crossed on the table, Jiang Chen began, “Global Express will split the business into two parts. The first is to build a drone logistics network and the other is to contract delivery services from other courier companies.”

“What do you mean?” Wang Wei furrowed his brows.

“Taking Xiangjiang as an example, we’ll establish the drone logistic systems of Penglai City as a pilot project for Xiangjiang. No matter whether it’s SF Express or YTO, they can deliver packages to our warehouse and provide customers with drone delivery service. Our services don’t target the customer receiving packages but rather, our target is courier companies. Do you understand what I mean?”

Delivery companies? Franchises?

Wang Wei instantly understood the intention behind Jiang Chen’s plan.

This was equivalent to saying that they would contract all delivery services from courier companies.

Taking YTO with a market share only second to SF Express, for example, YTO would deliver the sorted packages and transport them to the various distribution outlets in Xiangjiang then the delivery work would be assigned based on each package. Therefore, any couriers could deliver goods to the “Delivery Center” of Global Courier then the drone logistics network could complete the work for the entire Xiangjiang area! This would even eliminate the step where courier companies deliver to outlets!

“Do you think courier companies will give you the contract?” Wang Wei laughed.

“There’s a price advantage.” Jiang Chen put up a finger. “The drone delivery cost is only half of the cost of manual delivery, and the efficiency is twice that of manual delivery.”

“That’s all?” Wang Wei’s smile looked a bit funny.

“Of course that’s not all,” said Jiang Chen. He held up a second finger. “VRstore will differentiate delivery options on the user’s end. The first to join Global Express will be prioritized; you should exactly know what this means.”

With his smile frozen on his face, a drop of cold sweat dripped from Wang Wei’s forehead.

He certainly knew what this meant. If VRstore set a “recommendation” on which courier to select on the user interface, then the user would definitely prefer to choose the recommended courier company.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Antitrust laws are not there for decoration purposes,” Wang Wei replied.

“The definition of monopoly is using your own dominance to control the market, to prevent other companies from entering the market, or to use unfair competition to drive other companies out of the market.” Jiang Chen looked at Wang Wei, chuckling. “Which term do you think VRstore has violated? We’re only recommending our own partners and won’t prohibit any courier companies from entering this market.”

After listening to Jiang Chen’s reply, Wang Wei took a deep breath.

“So…it seems we have nothing to talk about?”

“On the contrary, we have a lot to talk about.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “We’ve always been very optimistic about cooperating with SF.”

Jiang Chen took out a letter of intent and placed it in front of Wang Wei.

Wang Wei picked up the letter of intent and glanced through it then his expression clearly shifted.

“This is…?”

“A win-win situation. Is Mr. Wang interested?”

Global Express would launch a comprehensive strategy with SF Express in its operations in Hua, relying on SF Express outlets throughout the country to conduct the deployment of drones in the top 100 cities. VRstore’s resources would favor SF Express, and SF Express’s express delivery service in Xiangjiang would be gradually outsourced to Global Express by the end of the month.

For SF, they would save on a lot of expenses while improving distribution efficiency.

As Jiang Chen said, this was a win-win proposal.

“If you’re not interested, I’ll talk to YTO tomorrow. I heard the year before they began to try to retrieve power from local franchises—”

It didn’t surprise Jiang Chen. Before he finished his sentence, Wang Wei signed his name on the letter of intent.

Although he signed his own name, Wang Wei still asked, “Is half a month enough time?”

Putting away the letter of intent, Jiang Chen sank into the sofa and confidently said, “It’s more than enough.”

Chapter 790: Valenica Mining Deposit

The drones were available on demand. Even before Jiang Chen’s arrival in Xiangjiang, Future Heavy Industries already added several Beta-3 drone production lines. By the end of the month, there would be no problems meeting the production quota of 100,000 Beta-3s.

The most critical agenda now was to negotiate with the Xiangjiang Government…

“What about security? What if the drone’s cargo falls from the air?”

“There’s no need to worry about this issue. Security is one of the design priorities of Beta-3. Even if there are any accidents, Beta-3 will launch emergency procedures to slowly descend together with the cargo to land on an area without any human presence while other drones will be responsible for recollection. At the same time, Global Express will plan delivery routes to ensure that drones carrying heavy objects won’t pass through densely populated areas to ensure the safety of civilians.”

“What about privacy? Will you install cameras on the drone? Does this mean Beta-3 can capture the private space of homeowners?”

“The Beta-3 is indeed equipped with a camera, but in general, its functions are decided by AI. Unless there are special circumstances, the staff won’t manually control the drone. All video data will only be stored on the server for 30 days and will be automatically cleared after 30 days.”

“…”

The most nuanced link was the Legislative Council. Delegations sent by Future Group must face inquiries from various committees, and eventually, persuade the people of the Legislative Council to introduce favorable regulations to facilitate Global Courier’s expansion into the drone delivery service.

But overall, negotiations went very smoothly.

Jiang Chen met with the Chief Executive and negotiated the logistics of drones. On the other hand, he exchanged opinions with Future Group on investments in Hong Kong. Judging from the attitude of the Chief Executive, the Xiangjiang Government still valued Future Group and expressed a considerable degree of interest in this drone network.

If all went smoothly, the Legislative Council would issue drone management regulations before the 25th, and Global Express would begin the establishment of the drone logistics network starting on the 30th.

In the evening, back at the hotel, Ayesha called, “Evelyn has been controlled. Two hours ago, he was transferred to Droplet and has now left Albanian territorial waters.”

“Beware of safety…Right, what’s the situation in Europe?”

There were a few seconds of silence.

“The atmosphere is a bit strange.”

“Strange?” Jiang Chen pondered for a moment. “Tell the Ghost Agents to closely follow the movements of the Rothschilds and find out what they’re trying to do.”

“Leave it to me,” Ayesha whispered back.

In Jiang Chen’s days in Hong Kong, many things happened.

MLL Island recently discovered several new large-scale mines. Due to its concentration in the Valencia region of central MLL, the area was named the Valencia Mining Area. The reserves of the mines were astonishing. The minerals found included above-average iron, aluminum, lead, zinc, and copper, which were in high demand in the New Malaysian Special District!

However, the Valencia mining region detonated a divergence between BHP Group and Future Mining.

As an explorer in the Valencia region, BHP Group put forward demands for more shares and re-interpreted the contracts that were signed previously. They believed that according to the contributions of both parties, the original 55% and 45% division of shares was unfair and that BHP Group deserved to own 55% of the shares.

Future Mining naturally didn’t agree and insisted on following the contract or they would call the whole thing off.

Both sides began to negotiate on this issue in March that year. The attitude of the original BHP Group began to soften, but since May, after Jiang Chen gave the Rothschilds the Golden Apple, their stance began to harden again.

There was no doubt that Mr. Luke of BHP Group was also a member of the Freemasonry. The Freemasonry apparently believed Jiang Chen was now willing to compromise.

But they were obviously wrong.

The expiration of the contract between BHP Mining Group and Future Mining in MLL Island resulted in Future Mining immediately refusing to renew the contract. In the future, Future Group would independently complete the development of the MLL Island mineral resources, kicking the BHP Group out of the game.

BHP Mining Group expressed its surprise and regret regarding this decision, but it still made the decision to withdraw their equipment and personnel from MLL Island. They also withdrew their assets from Moro with disbelief.

From this incident, discerning people could see that the honeymoon period between Future Group and the Rothschilds family had ended.

But then again, to this end, Future Group didn’t need to count on anyone anymore.

Currently, the resources of the New Malaysian Special District and Ange Island High-Tech Industrial Parks were basically supported by MLL’s rich mining resources. Especially after the exploration of several rich mines, Future Group no longer needed to rely on these mining giants.

While kicking out BHP Group wasn’t the most ethical move, the Freemasonry hadn’t played fair to start with.

On the other hand, High Tech Freshwater and Future Bank listed in New York were shorted by unidentified funds, and their stock prices fell by 30% in three days.

In light of this situation, Jiang Chen calmly held his position and increased his holdings through the secondary market, scooping up all the dumped shares. He knew who was using financial leverage against him, but this superficial warning didn’t even make him flinch.

In the worst case, he would privatize High Tech Freshwater and Future Bank. Future Group no longer needed to seek loans from other banks, and their own bank was sufficient to complete blood transfusions for the group.

After completing negotiations on drone management regulations, Jiang Chen immediately left Xiangjiang.

However, he didn’t directly head back to Coro Island but went to Moro and landed at Port D International Airport.

It had been more than a year since the civil war. The anti-government forces led by Santos used arms sneaked in by Jiang Chen and entered a stalemate with government forces, but scars from the civil war were no longer visible on the streets.

Backed by Future Group, Port D’s recovery was much faster than expected.

After stepping off the plane, President Santos of Moro personally went to the airport to greet Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen almost didn’t recognize this guy and thought the president was someone else.

When Jiang Chen confirmed it was Santos, he could only sigh at the scene. Time certainly flew by. The original muscular man with bullets around his shoulders now had a beer belly and a chubby face.

Jiang Chen immediately brought forward his own demands when he met Santos.

“1 billion US Dollar in investments in exchange for 20-year mining rights in Valencia’s newly-developed mining area.”

“No problem.”

Santos didn’t hesitate to agree.

Although BHP Mining Group offered slightly higher prices, Moro was dependent on Xin after all. Until now, Celestial Trade still maintained a small number of garrisons in the two major cities and a considerable number of attacking drones.

The northern country, with the help of the UA, had relentlessly reorganized the dismantled army and navy.

The two sides signed a ceasefire agreement. Country F had never recognized the independence of Moro and hadn’t given up its ambitions to recover sovereignty areas. At that time, if Santos didn’t hold onto Celestial Trade tightly, he would have a problem!

Chapter 791: Arms Race

After greeting Jiang Chen at the airport, Moro provided great hospitability.

The vehicle fleet consisted of the extended version of Black Lincolns, and the hotel where he stayed was the National Guest Hotel in Moro. Passing through the emerald green lawn, under the guise of the honor guards, they set foot on pure white stone steps, the marble columns solemnly lined up, giving a Parisian Pantheon charm.

Seeing the flag of the rebel forces flutter as the national flag, the scene did stun Jiang Chen.

But then the only thought in his head was how corrupt they were!

Although the per capita income was only 800 US Dollar, this didn’t prevent the warlords that ruled MLL Island from living a lavish life. After spending many decades fighting a guerrilla warfare with the Country F government in the mountains, they finally achieved their long-cherished wish. How could they manage to control themselves from pursuing a better life?

In accordance with the requirements of Future Group, Moro in the Constitution was defined as an elected government to prevent the criticism of Western countries. At the same time, they also wrote one condition in the constitution. Special wartime regulations stipulate that the president’s term of office will be extended indefinitely during the war, and the top commander has the final say in wartimes.

By the way, the president and the top commander both were General Santos.

How did Santos exploit his people? Jiang Chen didn’t care.

He needed to be responsible only for the employees of Future Group, Celestial Trade soldiers, and the people of Xin on Pannu Islands. Therefore, he accepted the lavishness without feeling too guilty.

There were as many as ten maids responsible for taking care of his daily life, and their appearances were all among the finest. The decoration of the rooms was extravagant with fine wine and cigars in the display cabinets. Even Santos himself probably was too cheap to be this lavish.

While sighing at the generousity offered by Moro government, Jiang Chen was also wondering, did Santos need to ask him for something?

In the evening, Santos hosted a banquet in the banquet hall of National Guest Hotel to entertain Jiang Chen.

With the exception of Jiang Chen as the protagonist, all visiting guests were dignitaries on MLL Island. Among them were mostly military personnel, as well as some Moro real estate developers and gold mine owners. Most of the female guests were relatives of these officers and businessmen. Jiang Chen noticed that many young girls looked at him with passion and fiery…

But the daughters of these aristocrats were not too beautiful, so Jiang Chen had no interest at all.

With cups clinging, and the symphony playing, the guests were all in a delightful mood.

After a couple of rounds, Santos beside Jiang Chen suddenly bloomed into a smile.

Seeing his expression, Jiang Chen knew that this guy must have something problematic that needed his help.

“Mr. Jiang, our enemies have recently been somewhat restless on the border.”

It must be said that this Santos was much more acute to the oblivious muscle man back then. He came to understand that ruling the country didn’t just rely on muscles. This opening uses of “our enemy” immediately pulled Jiang Chen to his own side. And this tone was just discussing about military intelligence with his allies, so he wouldn’t lose his face in front of his subordinates.

While Jiang Chen read this, he didn’t put too much thought into it. He took a sip from the glass and casually asked.

“Oh, what is Country F doing?”

“The Aquino government promulgated the new conscription bill. They declared that they will reorganize the beaten army and expand its military by 100,000.”

“Aquino? Didn’t the guy resign?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“The one who resigned was Aquino the Third, this is Aquino the Fourth who came to power…”

Okay, the Fourth.

Jiang Chen massaged his temples because of the effect of alcohol.

He didn’t really understand these people…

Santos carefully looked at Jiang Chen, then continued.

“In addition, Country F also announced that it will build a modern army with the help of the UA and purchase M1A1 main battle tanks and Apache helicopters…”

“M1A1?” Jiang Chen was slightly moved. His fingers gently tapped on the glass as he mocked, “Can they afford it?”

[How many bananas do they need to sell to buy one tank?]

Santos also sighed with a few scowls.

“I don’t know. The news we got from the informants on the other side of Country F was that they seem to have received a generous loan.”

Loan?

Putting down his glass of wine, Jiang Chen’s expression was a bit erratic.

“Is there any exact information on the amount and time of the loan?”

“The amount is about ten billion US Dollar, time… probably at the end of April.” After a quick exchange with his intelligence chief, Santos nodded.

At the end of April, it was almost when Jiang Chen and Freemasonry officially ended their honeymoon and when Future Mining and BHP Mining Group saw a crack in their cooperation.

Ten billion dollars, a decisive deal! An M1A1 tank only had a cost of four million If the money was spent on land force and air force, Country F could create a modern army.

When investing in military expansion, Jiang Chen couldn’t think of any other way except for war to recover investment.

Jiang Chen originally did not understand why the BHP Group proposed something that Future Group would never accept. They were also so calm after the contract renewal faltered. From the signs now, their plans should not be small.

After a moment of indulging, Jiang Chen gently pointed at the glass of wine on the table and asked in a semi-joking tone.

“Your military spending is not just used on this right.”

“Not at all! Our annual military budget accounts for 15 percent of GDP because we are worried that they will tear up the armistice agreement,” Santos replied hastily.

Jiang Chen didn’t ask him how much GDP per year was spend on enjoyment, he thought for a moment and said.

“From tomorrow onwards, Celestial Trade will help Moro establish a modern army to cope with regional tensions caused by the expansion of Country F. You don’t have to worry about military spending for the time being. We will lend you low-interest loans here. The total amount of loans is give billion US Dollar.”

Santos was seeing flying colors. The pressure on top of his chest was finally removed. He immediately got up and proposed a toast to Jiang Chen.

“Haha, thank you so much! Our friend, the MLL people will remember your contribution to our revolution!”

After the banquet ended, he declined the invitation of several famous ladies to visit their rooms and went straight back to the hotel.

He tossed his suit on a hanger and immediately contacted Celestial Trade about his decision to assist Moro’s military modernization.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen was preparing to change clothes and bathe under the service of the maids, but the Future around his wrist began to ring.

Looking at the words on the holographic screen, it was an unexpected number.

An international long distance call.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Chapter 792: The Enemy’s Enemy

“Long time no see, my friend.” The hearty voice came through over the phone.

The voice undoubtedly belonged to Loki, one of the important figures within B City Consortium.

A hand gesture was given to the maids beside him, motioning for them to leave. Jiang Chen put some clothes over his body. After sitting up on the sofa, he smiled and replied.

“Indeed long time no see. What’s the matter?”

“I heard you and Rothschild’s honeymoon is over?” Loki asked with uncertainty in his tone.

“Not that extreme, but indeed unpleasant.”

With a confirmation from Jiang Chen, Loki’s smile turned even brighter.

Of course, in order not to be mistaken for gloating, he tried very hard to restrain the smile from reaching his speech as he lowered his voice and said.

“Oh, God, it’s not fun to be remembered by the Rothschild’s family. But what I didn’t understand was… Didn’t they help you in Congress some time ago? Xin developing civil nuclear technology; to be honest, many people voted in favor of the interference option.”

“The exchange of interests, nothing more… I am also very curious to ask what these questions mean for B City Consortium?” Jiang Chen asked back.

It seemed that he had heard Jiang Chen’s displeasure. Loki smiled and quickly explained.

“My apologies, I may have been somewhat direct. But you have to believe me. We don’t have any malicious intentions. We might as well say … we’re somewhat happy.”

“You’re glad to see Rothschild and I go against each other?” Jiang Chen crossed his legs and sunk into the sofa, and said with a casual tone, “or rather, add the Freemasonry into it too?”

“No, no, you may have misunderstood what I meant.” Loki shook his head and paused. Then he threw out a question. “How much does Mr. Jiang know about the UA?”

“Other than the power being divided into three, I don’t know much about it.” Jiang Chen laughed.

The Capitol and Wall Streets were divided.

“What about Wall Street?”

“A bunch of greedy bankers and investors.”

“Hahaha, Mr. Jiang’s opinion is really unique. But forgive me; your opinion is still somewhat amateur.” Loki did not mind Jiang Chen used the adjective “greedy” and laughed.

Jiang Chen also smiled without responding, waiting for Loki to continue.

While Loki had his laugh, he took a sip of water, soothed his throat, and changed into a serious tone.

“The Capitol has two owners. Wall Street also has two owners.”

“Who are they?”

“Jewish Consortium and Protestant Consortium – known as WASP.”

Jiang Chen was silent for two seconds and said in a joking tone.

“I thought the UA was Jewish’s garden.”

“That is a prejudice. Jewish Consortium is made up of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and other investment banks. WASP side is comprised of Morgan Stanley and First Boston. Obama was their people, and Hillary is ours. Whether it is financial or political, we are at best head-to-head against them.”

This sentence had already proved Loki’s position. Jiang Chen could feel the friendliness in his tone.

Loki’s next sentence made his intention even more clear.

“It’s not easy to face the Freemasonry alone. Do you want to join forces?”

“How do we work together?” Jiang Chen asked.

“When confronting a Jewish organization that stretches its hands everywhere, we stand together. Whether it is to attack or retreat, we stand together both politically and economically!” Perhaps he felt Jiang Chen’s concerns. Loki added, “Of course, the Covenant itself is not bidding. The only requirement is that against the Freemasonry conspiracies, our coalition can unite!”

The room was quiet, and the silent atmosphere lasted for a long time.

Loki waited quietly for Jiang Chen’s reply. He knew it took time to think but he would agree eventually.

Because, Jiang Chen had no reason to reject.

However, the facts were indeed true. Jiang Chen seriously thought about it for a long time, and he really could not think of the reasons to disagree with this proposal. Future Group appeared strong on the surface, whether he thought himself or in the eyes of other, but the lack of allies in international affairs had always been the Achilles heel of Future Group.

Working together with WASP would undoubtedly make up for this shortfall.

As to whether the relations with Jewish Consortium such as Rothschild would continue to deteriorate, Jiang Chen was no longer concerned. Both sides were about to fight in his own garden, why bother saving faces?

“… One more friend is always good.” After making up his mind, Jiang Chen responded.

A smile bloomed on Loki’s face.

“Great. I’m very happy that we have a strong ally on the other side of the Pacific!”

…

Strictly speaking, the relationship between WASP and Future Group was not harmonious. The business expansion of Future Group had touched the interest of many people. But against a common enemy, the United States and the Soviet Union, which have very different ideologies, could stand on one front. What is absolutely impossible in this world?

Compared with Future Group, Protestants obviously disdained the Jews more.

If they could get rid of the Freemasonry in UA and regain control of the Fed and Wall Street from the grasps of the Jews, WASP would benefit far more than Future Group.

The Covenant didn’t not have any paper documents; it was only a verbal commitment.

Because no laws and regulations could possibly provide legal protection to this documentation.

Early the next morning, Jiang Chen, accompanied by Santos, personally traveled to the Suriga region, the northernmost point of MLL Island, to inspect the military deployment on the border of Moro.

Two brigades of artillery, two divisions of motorized infantry and an armored battalion.

As far as the military personnel was concerned, such a deployment was sufficient, but Jiang Chen didn’t know what to say about the equipment. Still using the T-72 tank as the main armored tank, Jiang Chen was very skeptical on how many seconds they could last in front of the M1A1.

Without the deterrence of Celestial Trade, Jiang Chen even suspected that if the current Country F army have pushed to the border, the forces on MLL Island would probably have to go back to fighting a guerrilla warfare again.

However, since Jiang Chen was there, so he naturally would not allow this to happen.

After finishing the border inspection, he immediately returned to Xin by plane and started to provide military assistance to Moro.

A large number of military supplies were transported by ship to Port D. Beginning with light weapons, they began to equip the military force. It was worth mentioning that B City Consortium has extended a helping hand on this matter. Raytheon sold 30 M1A1 main battle tanks to Celestial Trading at a price of four million US Dollar. The tanks were sent to Moro, replacing the old T-72 in the armored battalion.

The dark cloud named war lingered over MLL Island. In the eyes of the public, it was a clash between human rights and sovereignty. But only the top officials on the front line knew that this was not for the sake of the people from the very beginning.

The Freemasonry wanted to kick Future Group out of MLL and indirectly control Future Group’s industry power through monopoly of resources. Future Group would never give up the resources of MLL Island, nor would it make concessions on the Moro country issue!

In this period of time, a shadow casted over Southeast Asia…

Chapter 793: Future Military

At High-Tech Park on Ange Island, Zhong Wei, the newly appointed head of the park, listened to Jiang Chen’s instructions. He found it quite challengingt.

“The output of the Beta-series drones must remain unchanged, and the monthly production of the Hummingbird military drone must be increased to 100,000 units…this is impossible.”

The Beta-series drones increase was achievable as it didn’t take up much production capacity even with the new drone employing many cutting-edge technologies. However, the Hummingbird drone that used completely new technology in many parts, including the engine, which could only be manufactured with the 3D printer.

Fortunately, there was an industrial-grade 3D printer that could print in batches; otherwise it would be a problem to complete the commercial production of Hummingbird drones.

“The group’s laboratories have completed the industrial design plan. After that, the production of the Hummingbird drones can be carried out without the need for a limited 3D printer, the first batch of production equipment will arrive tomorrow,” Jiang Chen said.

“Completed? Great! Then it should be feasible!” Zhong Wei heard the good news and immediately felt the pressure lift off of his chest.

The limited number of industrial-grade 3D printers available to Future Group meant that these printers could be used to replace the production of key parts in an emergency, but they seriously limited the production output and production costs.

“By the end of this month, I’ll speak with the Xin government to double the area of the Ange Industrial Zone. The newly expanded park will be fully used for military production. At the same time, Future Heavy Industries’ military projects will be split out to form Future Military.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen said in a serious tone.

“There are two key development priorities for the company. One is aerospace and the other is military.”

“Yes,” Zhong Wei solemnly said.

[Drones will be the protagonists of future wars, and they will also be the main force in Celestial Trade’s combative units. Currently, there are 15,000 soldiers serving on New Moon Island, while the Hummingbird drones serving in Celestial Trade are as high as 200,000, forming a ridiculous 1:13 ratio with the soldiers.]

In the world where EMP weapons were not widely used in combat, drone cluster tactics would be quite effective.

The situation in MLL Island deteriorated, and the friction with the Freemasonry began to heat up. Only a strong force could maintain the core interests of Future Group in Asia and the world.

…

At the end of May, Ayesha successfully returned to Xin, piloting Droplet

Returned along with her was Catherine, a Ghost Agent stationed in Europe, and Evelyn, who was locked in a hibernation chamber. The existence of Droplet must be kept a secret. No one except the Ghost Agents and Xia Shiyu knew of its existence.

Droplet stopped at the port of Coconut Island. Ayesha and Catherine pulled out the hibernation chamber and tossed it on the beach in front of the port. Then they reported their arrival to Jiang Chen.

A few moments later, two yachts emerged on the surface of the sea. Jiang Chen took several Celestial soldiers and boarded the island, freeing Evelyn from the hibernation chamber.

Inhibitor must be injected before entering the hibernation chamber for an extended period of time. When the door opened, Evelyn crawled out of the chamber. Before he could stand straight, he started to vomit.

“Hell, did you put me into a pork freezer?” Evelyn accepted the paper towels from Jiang Chen’s bodyguards and wiped his mouth before finally regaining his breath.

“Of course not. The pork freezer cannot sustain someone for a week without eating.” With a smile, Jiang Chen patted his shoulder, “Welcome to Coro Island. The Xin government will provide you with political asylum. Corruption, bribery, murder, a total of more than twenty crimes, it is certainly not the best life to be on the run, right?”

“Those are straight up lies and accusations!” Evelyn shouted indignantly. “They will bring Frankberg into the abyss!”

Jiang Chen comforted him with a few words and ordered the bodyguards to send him to a safe place.

Evelyn’s current identity was rather special. If exposed in Xin, it would inevitably cause a lot of unnecessary trouble. Originally, Jiang Chen was planning to negotiate with Natasha. After he arrived in Xin, he would send him directly to the plane in Moscow. However, Natasha, who should have arrived two weeks ago, disappeared until yesterday. She was now on a plane to Coro Island.

Therefore, Evelyn must spend some more time in a dark room on Coro Island.

Seeing Evelyn leave under the escort of Celestial Trade Bodyguards, Jiang Chen turned his gaze to Ayesha, who stood by his side, with a warm smile emerging. Catherine saw this scene, and consciously ran to the port.

Soon there were only the two of them on the island.

It was quiet, with only the sound of waves washing the beach and the palm trees swaying in the wind.

Stepping forward, Ayesha hugged Jiang Chen’s neck, tiptoed and kissed him softly on the lips, then put her face against his shoulder.

As the saying goes, a short time away is better than just married. The subtle but sweet feeling was inexplicable.

After savoring the lingering silence, Jiang Chen caressed her chestnut hair, combed her hair around her ear, and whispered.

“Did you miss me?”

“Yes.”

Although it was only one word, there were endless amounts of emotion in that word.

The quiet atmosphere lasted around the two of them embracing.

Feeling the increasingly hot temperature on his chest, Jiang Chen opened his mouth again and interrupted the quiet atmosphere.

“…Do you want to sit in Droplet for a bit?”

“Mhmm.”

With a joyous smile, Ayesha hid her face deep into Jiang Chen’s shoulder, allowing Jiang Chen to carry her to go to Droplet at the port.

On the following day, Jiang Chen and Ayesha returned to Coro Island and went straight to his mansion.

At the door, he saw Natasha with her suitcase, looking like she had been waiting for a long time.

Seeing Jiang Chen and Ayesha, faces filled with happiness, Natasha did not hide her dissatisfaction as she pouted. She flung her golden hair and raised her watch around her wrist.

“You let a lady who just landed wait for half an hour.”

“I’m sorry; I was a little delayed on my way.” Jiang Chen grinned and opened the door with an electronic key.

As the iron gate retreated to both sides, Natasha walked in unceremoniously. After walking along the stone path on the lawn, she walked into the living room as if she were in her own home. She left the suitcase aside and went straight to the kitchen refrigerator.

Looking at the figure rushing into the kitchen, Jiang Chen just smiled and said nothing.

He was not accustomed to the high alcohol concentration of Vodka, but the alcoholic beverage existed in his fridge purely because of Natasha, who visited often. By the way, those low-degree fruity champagnes were prepared for Xia Shiyu.

“Phew, it is so hot standing outside!” Holding a dazzling bottle, Natasha flapped her soaked collar, and sat right onto the sofa. “Speak your mind, what do you want?”

Ayesha went to the kitchen and Jiang Chen went to sit opposite of Natasha.

“I’m not in a hurry. You should rest first. By the way, what have you been doing back in Russia over the past few days?”

“Were you worried about me?” Natasha grinned.

“No, just making small talk.” Jiang Chen shrugged and mocked.

Natasha rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and reached out and picked up the remote control on the table. She turned to the TV in the living room and switched on the news channel.

She raised her head, took a swig of the vodka, and then sunk into the sofa sluggishly.

“You’ll know once you look at the news.”

Chapter 794: Person for Intelligence

The camera shook violently, the crowd was fleeing, and the armored vehicle that maintained its firing bulldozed through the main road. The heavily armed soldiers desperately pushed the masses behind them and urged the unrelated people to evacuate from the street.

At this moment, a rocket hit the armored vehicle. Then, the connection was lost and the screen switched to the view of another camera.

Jiang Chen noticed that the word Live was marked in the upper right corner of the screen.

It seemed like it was still live.

“Where is this?” Jiang Chen frowned slightly.

These days, he was caught up with matters related to Global Express and Future Mining. He did not pay much attention to international news.

Natasha did not answer, but she raised her chin and pointed at the TV. Soon, the reporter on the news screen used English and answered Jiang Chen’s question.

“We are now in Istanbul. The footage that has just aired is a fragment of the crossfire between the anti-government and government forces. Because of safety reasons, we can’t go further. We are now only one kilometer away from the front line, ten minutes ago the government’s armored forces just passed by here, and the bullet holes on the wall behind me are the traces left by the tanks’ machine guns as they strafed the anti-government forces! According to Istanbul officials, the Turkish government has the upper hand, but according to the frontline soldiers, the situation is not as optimistic as what the politicians are saying…”

Putting the crystal bottle on the table, Natasha let out a long breath and interjected.

“It’s not optimistic. It’s very not optimistic. According to the current situation, this is not a coup, but a civil war.”

“You guys did it?” Jiang Chen looked bizarrely at Natasha.

As far as he knew, the relationship between Russia and Turkey didn’t seemed to be very friendly. In particular, two and a half years ago, Turkey shot down the Russian fighter plane, turning the relations between the two countries to a freezing point and any one opportunity would be used to escalate it into a war.

“It’s not us. The coup in Turkey is just as frequent as eating and drinking. You can’t say it’s us every time.” Natasha knew what Jiang Chen was thinking and brushed him off. “We just went and retrieved our people. But as we were executing the mission, we discovered that things were not as simple as we had thought.”

“Why did they ask you? I remember you had left the front line.” Jiang Chen asked.

“Because it’s my supervisor who is responsible for this case and the KGB was a little tight on field agents. He sent out all the people he could.” Natasha sighed, and she combed her bang back in distress. “We had some problems on the border and almost didn’t manage to come back.”

From the phrase “didn’t manage to come back,” Jiang Chen felt the heaviness in her speech.

“At first, we thought it was just an ordinary coup, but it was more intense than previous times.” At the same time, Natasha’s fingers dipped into the wet crystal bottle and began to draw on the coffee table. “Until we found this symbol from the personal belongings of a rebel general.”

It was a pyramid. The part of the spire was an eye.

Jiang Chen certainly recognized this symbol.

G, which was held between the V ruler and the book, the symbol of the Freemasonry.

“The Freemasonry…”

“Yeah,” Natasha snapped. “After all, the Freemasonry has always been the focus of the KGB. We did a little investigation and found that the officer was an external member of the Freemasonry, a supporter of the secularization movement in Turkey.”

While speaking, Natasha picked up the bottle and took a sip. The she swirled the liquid and examined Jiang Chen who was immersed in thoughts.

“I have heard that the situation in country F is not very peaceful?”

“Yeah,” Jiang Chen did not hide it. Now that Natasha mentioned it, she must have known something about it. “The arms race between Country F and Moro has already started. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Country F’s army crossed the ceasefire line tomorrow.”

Natasha grinned and said. “Is that true? It seems that the global situation has escalated by a considerable extent. Let’s not talk about this, you certainly did not ask me to come to listen to stories?”

“Evelyn is on Coro Island.” Jiang Chen was direct.

“He is actually in your hands,” the red lips showed a look of surprise. Natasha gazed into Jiang Chen’s eyes, crossed her arms, while deep in thought, “No wonder we couldn’t find him. He was controlled by you.”

“You were looking for him? It seems that the Russians are also interested in the status quo in Frankberg.”

“Of course, Frankberg is our biggest trading partner in Europe,” Natasha said, grinning at Jiang Chen. “I guess you wouldn’t have leaked this information to me intentionally. Say it, what are your conditions?”

“For Evelyn, I need all your information about the Freemasonry!”

“All our information? Your appetite can be really big. Do you know how much information we have on them? If you write them all on A4 paper, you can stuff a whole file room. The world’s largest underground organization, we have been monitoring them since the Stalin era.” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen with a sly look. “Are you planning to exchange all this information just for a former Frankberg deputy prime minister? Don’t you think this is unfair?”

Jiang Chen was not discouraged by Natasha’s ambiguous response.

“I want to be clear. Is the Freemasonry your enemy or your friend?”

“Enemy since the last century.”

“Ours too,” Jiang Chen looked into Natasha’s eyes seriously. “We are also the enemy of the Freemasonry. The enemies’ enemies are friends. Am I correct? Whether it is in Veit or Frankberg, the Freemasonry’s Order has always been contrary to the interests of Russia. Similarly, their position on the issue of MLL Island is also irreconcilable with us. As such, with a common enemy, we can stand on the same front together. This is not an exchange of interest. It is a helping hand for the allies. Do you understand what I mean?”

Natasha was in silence, her index finger rested on her bright red lips while she debated Jiang Chen’s words.

“I can’t make the decision. I will give you a reply the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

Picking up the bottle from the table, Jiang Chen toasted to her and smiled, “help me to convey my words to the Kremlin.”

“I drank that.”

“But the alcohol is mine!”

The clock on the wall pointed to the position of 12:30. Ayesha walked out of the kitchen with delicious food and entered the dining room next to the living room. Even from far away, they could smell the aroma of food.

Seeing it was late, Jiang Chen got up and extended an invitation.

“It’s late now. Leave after you have food?”

“Leave?” Natasha raised an eyebrow, with a grin, “Who said I’m leaving?.”

Chapter 795: Drones are the Future

Jiang Chen finally understood why Natasha brought her luggage to the door, rather than returning to her apartment to drop off the luggage, She was planning to live here from the very beginning.

“I don’t have a choice, your housing prices have risen too fast. I can no longer afford the apartment I rented on Embassy Street with my current salary. Anyway, since you have plenty of rooms here, you won’t lose anything by sharing a room,” Natasha rolled her eyes and said bluntly.

“Does the embassy not have staff accommodations or something?” Jiang Chen said.

“Yes, but it’s too small. I like to live in a spacious house.” With eyebrows raised, Natasha scorned. “Do you not welcome me?”

It was inconvenient by any means. However, Jiang Chen did not have plans to develop the apocalypse in the short term, so he agreed.

“If you only live here until you find another place.”

After lunch, Natasha consciously helped Ayesha put all the dishes in the dishwasher.

Then Jiang Chen took her to her room and handed the room key to her.

Natasha’s room was at the end of the corridor on the second floor, next to Ayesha’s room. Ayesha helped her with her luggage and she moved in. At the same time, she arranged a housework robot Xiao Lin in her room to take care of her daily life.

“I don’t need this stuff.” Natasha said pointing to the robot.

“We need it,” Ayesha said indifferently. “To ensure that you will not make play tricks in our home.”

“Please, am I that stupid?” Natasha rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

It was unwise to play tricks in front of the chief instructor and commander of Ghost Agents.

What’s more, she herself was not willing to do so.

After cleaning up the room, Natasha went to the bathroom with a change of clothes. Ayesha went to Jiang Chen’s office.

“Natasha is taking a bath. I checked her luggage, and there are no devices inside, only clothes and carry-on items. If there are any changes, I’ll immediately report back to you.”

“Mhmm, I will leave it to you then. However, don’t be overly suspicious.” Jiang Chen caressed Ayesha hair, smiling at her.

In addition to the kitchen, gym, bathrooms, guest rooms and other facilities, places where there may be sensitive information, including the study room and basement, were installed with cameras. Entering without permission would trigger an alarm.

However, Jiang Chen knew that Natasha would not be trying any tricks.

After Natasha took a shower, Ayesha and Jiang Chen also went to the bathroom to take a shower, and then returned to their rooms for a short nap.

At about two o’clock, Jiang Chen ended his nap and went to the bathroom to freshen up. Then he put on some formal clothes, and went to the garage.

Just as he had gotten into his car, and was preparing to leave, Natasha, dressed in a security uniform, came downstairs and knocked lightly on his car window, biting her bright red lip while using a fake flirtatious tone.

“Hey Handsome, can you take me for a ride?”

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and lowered the window.

“Get on.”

The garage door slowly opened, and they steadily hit the road.

Jiang Chen turned the steering wheel and drove in the direction of Embassy Street.

After sitting down, Natasha put on her seat belt. At this time, Jiang Chen suddenly noticed from the front mirror that the pair of turbulent spheres were distorted by the seat belt. The conservative and dignified uniform not only did not disguise the charm but made it look even more attractive!

[You didn’t need to wear a seat belt. No police will check my car…]

Jiang Chen originally wanted to remind her, but the words were then swallowed down.

Perhaps it was because his attention was focused on the flying scenes. Time flew quickly, and they arrived on Embassy Street.

Jiang Chen parked the car on the side of the street and reached out to unlock the door.

“Thanks.” Natasha grinned and unbuckled her seat belt.

“No problem—”

However, before he finished, Natasha suddenly printed a bright lip print on his cheek.

Very moist.

Also very soft.

Jiang Chen looked blankly at her. He could not comprehend the situation and it took him a while to squeeze out a sentence.

“This is … a unique way for Russians to say hello?”

“That’s right. But even the most open-minded Russian beauty only uses this way of saying hello to special someone in herlife.” Then, her firm legs stepped out of door. Natasha, who had stepped out of the vehicle, blew a kiss and disappeared at the end of the street.

She was gone.

After reminiscing about what happened, Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile.

The pounding heartbeat was dispelled from his mind. He re-started the car and stepped on the gas.

…

Because he was delayed for a while, it was already three o’clock when Jiang Chen arrived at the company.

Before getting off, Jiang Chen looked into the front-view mirror and repeatedly confirmed that there was no residue on his face before leaving with assurance.

As usual, before he went to his office, he headed straight to Xia Shiyu’s office and listened to her report on the company’s recent progress.

“At noon yesterday, Global Express had begun installing the drone logistics network in Xiangjiang. A total of 329 drone terminals will cover the whole Xiangjiang region and achieve zero traffic occupancy. The Xiangjiang Government has seen our holographic concept map. And immediately understood the benefits. In addition, the Fire Department and the Police Department of the city are consulting us on the price of the Beta-1 and Beta-2 drones and the difficulty of introduction.”

The Beta-1 and Beta-2 drones were firefighting and police drones respectively. The former could carry dry powder fire extinguishers into the fire, and the latter could fire rubber bullets or special 5mm bullets. They could be considered the two powerful weapons in maintaining normal order in high dense cities!

With Beta-1, there would no longer be the worry of fire trucks being blocked on the road. Ten drones were the equivalent to one truck! Twenty drones could control most fires.

After seeing the convenience of drones, it was not surprising that the two emergency departments became interested.

“Only debating about the price?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Yes, there are major divides within the Xiangjiang government aboutthe introduction of these two drones. On the one hand, it’s due to the price. On the other hand, it’s due to the safety concern of the police drones.”

For a major city like Xiangjiang, the cost of a drone logistics network would be around 200 million US Dollar. But the cost of establishing a complete drone firefighting network would be almost three times the cost of the former. As for the drone policing network, it would be even more expensive.

And security even more so. Logistics and fire safety were less of a concern, but the police drones were equipped with guns. If Future Group left a back door in this drone system, it would be a disaster.

It would be impossible to introduce this system until the parties have established enough trust.

“Leave the problem of Xiangjiang government aside, how is the little Beta-4’s progress?”

The Beta-4 drone would be a true masterpiece launched by Future Heavy Industries. Unlike popular technologies such as firefighting, policing, and logistics, Beta-4 planned to tackle the medical field with the most innovative capabilities!

“It has entered the final stage of experiments. The person in charge of the lab and I spoke, and by next month, at the lastest, we can have the prototype ready!” Xia Shiyu grinned.

Jiang Chen was pleased with the positive news.

“Can I ask a question unrelated to work?”

“Of course.”

“Why are you so interested in drones?” Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses and looked at him with curiosity

“Because drones are the future.”

Chapter 796: Xin-Malaysia Joint Excercise

Drones are the future.

Whether in the commerical application or in military application.

In a bay in New Guinea, the raging waves slammed against the hull of the ship. Zhang Feng held tightly on the edge of the landing craft and played with the little toy in his hands.

“Don’t break it” His comrade who sat beside him groaned jokingly.

“It’s not that easy to break it—” Zhang Feng was about to say something and a wave crashed into the landing craft, causing him to press the Hummingbird drone against his chest.

“Cough- This is so salty!” The man who sat across him spat out the water in his mouth and wiped his mouth fiercely.

“Focus! It’s an exercise, but for us it’s a war! Stare at your target, fire your trigger, and give me all you got! You hear me?!”

“Yes!”

Together with his comrades on the boat, Zhang Feng shouted at the top of his lung and then pulled the Hummingbird drone to the front of his chest. In theory, this thing should be waterproof, but if water entered the engine, the fail rate would be very high.

The exercise was associated to the bonus for next month and the month after. He didn’t want to drop the ball at the most critical moment.

In the air, two Aurora-20s whistled past and black smoke suddenly exploded on the beach!

Zhang Feng skillfully opened the holographic screen on his arm, looked at the long string of dense red spots on the map, and then watched most of the red dots under the cover of two MXJ-11 cluster bombs instantly extinguish.

An orange-colored beam pierced above the landing craft and wiped away a concrete bunker on the beach. The landing craft finally approached the shore. Zhang Feng’s heart was pounding and he put one of his arms in front of his chest.

The captain in the front of the landing craft had pressed the rifle on the side of the landing craft.

“Two hundred meters!”

“One hundred meters!”

“Fifty meters! Open the safety! Release the drone!”

The soldiers on the landing craft tapped their arm against their chest. A dozen Hummingbird drones popped out of their chest slots, and uniformly flew toward the beach.

Looking from below, the white trails on the ocean were like sharp knives that pierced the line of defense of the imaginary enemy.

The signal light turned from red to green, and the captain’s roar came immediately from the bow of the landing craft!

“Move! Go! Go! Go!”

As soon as the landing craft broke through to the shallow end, Zhang Feng released the nylon buckle that was tied to his body and rolled into the sea from the side of the landing craft.

The tactical helmet marked the heat source information of the enemy units on the screen. The drone was the first to attack the beach, the soldiers followed tighted behind. At the same time, the dense tracer bullets formed an orange-colored bullet net into the heavy smoke of the imaginary enemy’s position!

Zhang Feng’s feet finally touched the beach, he then took a deep breath. The kinetic skeleton’s output power was adjusted to its maximum, and he lowered his body to begin accelerating.

They had practiced countless times in the virtual reality training system.

The setting of the kinetic skeleton was to defend against ten rounds of tracer bullets. Ten hits would mean disqualification. Casualty report, time, and the number of kills would all be converted into points of the team’s strength according to a formula.

President of Celestial Trade said at the mobilization meeting prior to the exercise that for the top three performing teams in each division, in addition to a special medal, they would be granted a bonus of more than 100,000 US Dollar as an award!

With this thought in mind, Zhang Feng licked his mouth, and the rifle locked on the red spot behind the smoke.

In this exercise, Team C must win!

…

At this moment, in the command centre in the far away New Moon Island.

The meeting was headed by Jiang Chen, Ivan and the others as they surrounded a holographic sand table, overlooking the three-dimensional situation of the entire battlefield.

Infantries and armored vehicles marked with green dots were Celestial Trade’s Marines. At the first minute of landing on the beach, the drone cluster had already broken through the enemy front and “turned off” the machine gun points. At the same time, the speed of the infantries was no less than the armored vehicles. With the help of the kinetic skeleton, they immediately took over the first line of defense.

“From deploying the landing craft to breaking the line of defense, their landing time was five minutes! The Marines conducted a successful landing exercise,” Ivan turned around and reported to Jiang Chen.

From Ivan’s expression, he was proud of the achievements from the soldiers he trained.

Jiang Chen looked at the image on the hologram and nodded with a smile.

Accurately speaking, it was four minutes and forty-nine seconds.

Looking around the world, the Marines’ performance was absolutely top notch.

At this time, the communication soldier reported.

“Malaysian Prime Minister sent a brief, he congratulated us on the success of the exercise. At the same time, the Malaysian Prime Minister asked us what the Hummingbird drone was and how much it would cost if they were for sale.”

Laughter rang in the command post.

The Hummingbird drone was one of the most powerful weapons of the Celestial Trade army and was not for sell. Even the dependent nation Moro was not sold a single Hummingbird drone.

“Respond to the Malaysian Prime Minister. Thank them for their congratulatory words. In addition, tell him that the Hummingbird drone is not for sale. Future Military directly equipped the army after production and will not be put them on store shelves,” Jiang Chen said with a sly tone.

“Yes!” The soldier saluted and left the command post.

Translating the response from the President into English and diplomatic rhetoric, Celestial Trade replied the Malaysian Prime Minister.

After the landing exercise was over, the next exercise was battles in urban, mountain and jungle setting.

Although this exercise was nominally a counter-terrorism exercise, the contents of the exercise included landing exercises, tank attacks, and infantry anti-armor exercises. In terms of scale, the equipment invested far exceeded the level of anti-terrorism.

At the beginning, the Malaysian side rejected the joint military exercise proposed by Celestial Trade. Although the relationship between the two was good, a military exercise was not a joke. They must be responsible for the stability of the region!

However, Jiang Chen quickly used the green Franklin to persuade the Malaysian Prime Minister and parliament to carry out this joint military exercise.

Visible benefits were much more convincing than verbal promises.

Compared to the last civil war in MLL Island, Celestial Trade’s exercise had much better performance compared to last time.

The frigate offered fire coverage; infantry with the drone cluster attacked the beach, armored units then landed. The entire exercise was executed smoothly and displayed Celestial Trade Marine’s dual strength in penetration and annihilation.

Who was the imaginary target of this military exercise is self-evident from the simulated topography!

Chapter 797: The Blueprint of Babel

In the Country F Army command centre, senior military officers and political figures gathered, but the room was silent.

Moritz, a military adviser sent by the Freemasonry from Europe, said nothing, and the expression on his face did not reveal the thoughts in his mind. The president of Country F, Aquino IV, looked around, tightened his collar, and whispered to the assistant beside him.

“Pour a glass of water for me, thank you.”

The assistant nodded and left the room.

On the other side of the table was the newly appointed Army Marshal, Stark. He silently stared at the live broadcast of the military exercises that just ended. His fists were clinched tightly against his thighs to the point where his veins were exposed.

Celestial Trade did not keep the landing exercise a secret, but rather responded to the demand of the United Nations to disclose it to Southeast Asian countries. In Stark’s opinion, it was simply provocation… [Even if we showed you our cards, you still can’t win!]

It was Celestial Trade’s message!

“Arrogant…”

“What about urban warfare?” Moritz turned his attention to Marshal Stark. He said in a meticulous voice. “Compared with the performance of drones in landing, I’m even more worried about the performance of drones in urban warfare.”

The high maneuverability and flexibility of drones made them tailored to the city terrain! Although not quite familiar with this Hummingbird drone, Moritz immediately saw that the drone’s real stage was not on the beach but in the city!

“No,” Aquino IV shook his head to answer the question. “They only made the sensitive landing exercise public. The combat footages of urban, mountain, and jungle were not made public to the United Nations. I protested but it was useless…”

Aquino IV said in a helpless tone.

Marshal Stark looked to Moritz and hoped that the European military advisor could offer a countermeasure.

“The odds are low, but it’s not too terrible.” Moritz mused for a moment and put his knuckle against his chin. “Tactically, hitting a drone with a rifle in mid-range is not an easy task, but in close proximity, it’s possible. Fragmented grenades and rifle grenades in mid-range could still pose threats to the drones. Strategically, signal shielding and interfering with unmanned drones and terminals would be effective, although it may cause problems in our own communication. However, it should be able to effectively counter the drone tactics of the Celestial Trade.”

“We must make immediate adjustments to the frontline deployment. MLL Island’s counterattack plan is temporarily delayed. We need more time!”

…

As far as results were concerned, the results of the joint military exercise between Xin and Malaysia were still quite outstanding.

After seeing the powerful operational capabilities of Celestial Trade forces, Country F Army deployed to the southeast island became much more tame.

However, the newly appointed president of Country F and Army marshal obviously did not choose to back down. The Freemasonry that provided loans for the military modernization of the country had not been shaken in the slightest. The tanks and modern equipment were still sent to the island. This added more and more firewood to the already severe regional situation.

But in Jiang Chen’s opinion, even if more than 80,000 Country F Army troops were equipped with modern equipment, J the Moro regime supported by Celestial Trade would still not lose. The cards in his hand were not just the Hummingbird drones and the Aurora-20s. If Country F dared to provoke, Celestial Trade was ready to push them back into their capital!

The military exercise lasted a total of three days.

Three days later, Celestial Trade soldiers boarded a transport ship and set off for the port of the New Malaysian Special District.

Jiang Chen personally traveled to the New Malaysia Special Distract. After meeting with the prime minister of Malaysia, the Xin Malaysian joint military exercise concluded on a high note.

Upon his return to Coro Island, the Aerospace Science and Technology Center also had good news for him. The orbit section of the space elevator achieved a major technological breakthrough. Combined with the materials provided by Jiang Chen, the scientists of the institute had completed the design of the entire space elevator and verified the mathematical model through the quantum computer.

Jiang Chen who just landed didn’t even go home, instead he headed straight to Future Building. He went to see Kelvin and asked the institute’s scientists to show the concept map of the project.

The light blue particles were projected in the air, and the space elevator that went directly to the synchronous orbit looked like an umbrella that was propped outwards. One side was a narrow “cable” that ran through the stratosphere transit station, then reaching to the the ground. On the other side, it was a wheel-shaped space station. As an outer orbital living and working space, it also served as a center of gravity for the space elevator to control the synchronous orbit as a “counterweight.”

“The ability for graphene trucks to withstand the force is much greater than its ability to withstand pressure, thus the risk of the trucks being crushed by their own weight is much greater than the risk of the trucks being pulled apart by its own weight. To avoid the space elevator being crushed by its own weight, our engineers came up with an idea to drop 36,000 km of cable from the space station in the synchronous orbit to the ground, and at the other end of the cable to design a wheel-shaped ‘counterweight’. The center of gravity at the counterweight behind the space station would contra-rotate at a constant speed, applying an outward pull to the ‘cable’ by centrifugation, avoiding the tracks to bear their own weight!”

“At the same time, the wheel-shaped counterweight will also serve as part of the space elevator, providing extra living and work space for the space station.”

Kelvin was genuinely proud of the design.

A year ago, graphene materials had not yet appeared and putting forward such a design concept would undoubtedly cause laughters. It was like a crazy dream coming true. Just as when Physicist Pearson proposed the concept of a space elevator in 1970, peers and the media all made unfriendly suggestions to him—”Go write science fiction novels instead.”

However, today, the design of the “counterweight” would surely become the standard for the construction of space elevators in the future, and Kelvinwould also become one of the founding fathers of Earth’s celestial era because of this design!

He had every right to be proud.

Although future space elevators also had a structure similar to the “counterweight,” the information Jiang Chen provided to the institute made no mention of the specific design. The information from the apocalypse only included the prerequisite technologies for the space elevator as well as the base station.

“How much will the project cost?”

When it came to cost, Kelvin showed a hint of embarrassment. This space elevator was good in every aspect, except for the cost. The “2050 Space Elevator Construction Plan” announced by Nippon’s Daelim Construction which would build the “sky tree” for Yoto estimated a construction cost of 9.5 billion US Dollar, which was almost one-twelfth of his quote.

Of course, the former’s price was without any concrete proof.

“From the tracks to the space station, the total cost of the project … is estimated to be 120 billion US Dollar.”

“No problem, I’ll find some way to fund the project. Future Heavy Industries will adjust production capacity to fit your needs. Is it possible to start construction tomorrow?”

Jiang Chen’s reaction was contrary to Kelvin’s expectation. No hesitation. The president didn’t even blink when he approved the project. It was not twelve hundred dollars, but one hundred and twenty billion!

Kelvin lost his ability to articulate for a moment.

“What’s the problem?” Jiang Chen asked with a puzzled voice.

Jiang Chen’s question made Kelvin return to reality. He stood there full of energy and shoutedout in excitement

“No! There is no problem! We’ll finish the construction!”

Jiang Chen was unclear why Kelvin was full of energy all of a sudden, but seeing his subordinate so motivated naturally made him very happy. He patted him on the shoulder.

“Then go!”

Chapter 798: Foreign Army

120 billion US Dollar was definitely not a small number for Future Group.

But if the 120 billion US Dollar was used to forge this key to the universe, then it would only just be a meaningless number.

After the completion of the space elevator, ignoring the 120 billion number, it would be a question if Future Group would use US Dollar for settlement. The aerospace industry would complete its leap from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. The cost of entering outer space would be even lower than that of the civil aviation. The original unrealistic space mining would also become a reality. The changes to civilization would be described as world-changing.

And to achieve all this, only 120 billion pieces of paper would suffice.

After coming out of Aerospace Institute, Jiang Chen went to Xia Shiyu’s office, and communicated with her the 120 billion space elevator project. Although Jiang Chen had previously disclosed that the cost of this project may be quite astonishing, after Xia Shiyu heard the actual figure, she could do nothing but gasp for air.

“Do you think the company is printing money? Even if many projects make money, it will take time for us to recoup the investment.”

Even if Future Group’s annual revenue exceeded 100 billion US dollar with the total profit close to 60 billion US dollar, it would take a year to generate the fund. Since its establishment, Future Group had been expanding its business, and the step-by-step expansion required cash in every step.

“Did we not open a bank?” With question after question slammed on Jiang Chen’s head, he rubbed his nose in embarrassment.

When she heard this, she sighed helplessly and patiently explained to him.

“Even if we opened a bank, it does not mean that the money is free to use. Space elevator… just from the name, it won’t be the kind of project that would recover investment in the short term. All the 120 billion US Dollar are locked in on the same project. This can no longer be described as risky.”

“What about borrowing money from other banks?”

“Have you ever thought about repaying the money?”

“Of course, I not only considered repaying the money. I also thought about whether US Dollar would be worth the same when the space elevator is built.” Jiang Chen responded with a confident smile despite Xia Shiyu’s skepticism.

Xia Shiyu was stunned, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Just as she was about to ask why he said so, she soon realized the meaning from her economics background prior.

When any kind of currency could monopolize a market, the influence of this currency would change other markets based on its relevance to other markets.

To give a very simple example, oil settlement must use US Dollar, which is one of the reasons that established US Dollar as a hard currency in international trade. For now, there is no commodity other than oil that has had a greater impact on other markets. Because no matter what is produced, oil must be consumed directly or indirectly.

If a space elevator is built, it would mean that Celestial Trade could monopolize the portal to space. Even if Celestial Trade printed money, and pointed at those papers stating that all future space trade must be settled with these papers, governments around the world must swallow and accept the fact.

She uttered a sentence from her throat after a long silence

“This is too risky.”

“But we have a lot to gain,” Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu, in a serious tone.

…

The space elevator would start on schedule and Future Heavy Industries would begin to adjust its production capacity to expand the production of graphene on Ange Island.

The construction plan was to launch the material into outer space first, and after the establishment of the synchronous orbital space station, the construction of the space station as a “counterweight” would start simultaneously along with the tracks to ground.

After the orbital section was built, it would no longer be necessary to transport materials by rocket. The graphene tracks would be used to send materials directly to space. This would significantly decrease the construction cost of the space station.

In other words, the 120 billion budget may not be exhausted in the end.

At present, the space elevator base station on the equator line had been built, and it looked like a Rubik’s cube from afar.

For safety reasons, Celestial Trade deployed a battalion of force at the base station. Many foreign media had already smelled the wind. Future Group seemed to be ready to make headlines again in the Pacific, so they sent out their fastest reporters.

However, with the media inquiries, Celestial Trade and Future Group were all silent on this issue and made no mention of the use of this giant offshore platform. However, many people already had an idea from the recent frequent space activities of Celestial Trade, but they were still unwilling to believe it.

A space elevator?

It would be ridiculous.

Jiang Chen did not bother with the rumors on the internet, because he had more important matters to attend to.

He understood possessing something he couldn’t be protect will be a sin. Although the big five under the UN framework would not necessarily be as savage as the Victorian superpowers, the desire for the space elevator would inevitably lead to many unnecessary troubles for Celestial Trade.

Therefore, before the completion of the space elevator, Celestial Trade must possess matching strength!

One week after the military exercise ended, that is, in early June, Celestial Trade published a recruitment advertisement on its official website.

From any country, anyone interested in Celestial Trade could download test programs in the application market of the Phantom Helmet and pass the Celestial Trade assessment in the form of VR games. For people that pass the test, Celestial will provide free tickets to Xin to participate in an interview.

If the applicant passed the interview, they would be incorporated into Foreign Corps and become a Celestial Trade employee.

At present, the permanent population of Penglai City had exceeded half a million. The total population of Xin had already exceeded the 800,000 mark. With the gradual decrease in labor gap, Xin had begun to tighten its originally loose immigration policy and the number of labor visas issued.

It was not as easy as it was a year ago to immigrate to Xin.

No money, no education, and want to immigrate? Then go become a soldier!

According to the conscription policy of Celestial Trade, Xin enacted the Foreign Corps Act. Any foreign employee engaged in a military-related industry in Xin country would be able to acquire its nationality and become a Xin citizen after serving for three years. For foreign soldiers killed during their service or have served for five years, immediate family members would obtain Xin nationality.

When the recruitment advertisement for Celestial Trade was announced, it harvested tens of thousands of resumes from all over the world. Many people came there not for the paycheck, but to obtain the immigration qualification.

When it came to immigration, an interesting phenomenon must be mentioned

Since the completion of Penglai City, the number of immigrants from Europe increased substantially.

They were not refugees but the reasons for immigration were more or less due to refugees.

Since the EU adopted a high-pressure policy on refugees, it completely ignited the contradictions buried in European society. In the long run, this may allow Europe to escape the danger of “greening” in the future, but in the short term it would undoubtedly exacerbate social unrest.

There were terrorism attack every month in many cities. Most cities had announced a state of emergency. The high-welfare Europe was no longer the immigration paradise and developing countries with good economic growth became the first choice for European immigrants.

Perhaps because of the relatively cold nature of Western Europe, Xin lactating on the edge of the Equator line was particularly favored by European immigrants.

In particular, immigrants from Frankberg and Fran had brought a large number of new and high-tech talents to Xin. Among them were experts in the electronics, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other fields and contributed greatly in the growth of the country.

Chapter 799: There is never a true ally

The construction of the space elevator was in full swing.

Keeping the rhythm of one rocket per day, Celestial Trade Aerospace Institute had turned rocket launch into a daily activity, launching 24 tons of loads every day. All RM-320 Engines were produced by an industrial 3D printer. They all just rolled off the production line and were immediately shipped to the rocket launch site to be assembled.

In an interview with the media, employees at the institute even jokingly stated, “We have successfully transformed the space industry into an assembly line.”

However, when Kelvin sent the budget to Jiang Chen’s desk, Jiang Chen could only groan.

Four million a day, 14.6 billion a year!

It was merely the cost of transporting materials to outer space.

However, the more expensive, the more reason to invest. At the beginning of the year, Jiang Chen had already allocated 50 billion US Dollar to Celestial Trade. After the completion of the research and development of the space elevator, there were still more than 40 billion US Dollar in savings. Future Bank received a loan of 20 billion and 30 billion US Dollar through B City Bank and Morgan Stanley respectively. The loan used the shares of Future Group as collateral and had a repayment period of five years and an annual interest rate of 6%.

It must be said that the shares of Future Group remained attractive to the UA consortium. When Jiang Chen and Loki began to discuss loans, the old fox was hesitant in the beginning, saying that the amount was too large. When he heard that Jiang Chen was willing to use the shares of Future Group as collateral, all the hesitation disappeared. Loki wished he could lend more to Jiang Chen, and become the largest shareholder if Jiang Chen could not repay the loan.

However, after some hesitation, Jiang Chen didn’t do that in the end.

No matter what they were allies, Jiang Chen wouldn’t want to put them in such a miserable situation.

So, after going to B City Consortium, Jiang Chen went on to find another major shareholder of the Fed, the core of WASP Consortium, Morgan Stanley.

When Jiang Chen went to Morgan Stanley, he also used shares as the bait. Just as he expected, after they stated that they would debate this matter. The next day they contacted Jiang Chen stating that the 30 billion US Dollar loan was a go.

The reason why Morgan Stanley and B City Bank were so diligent was simply because they did not believe Jiang Chen could afford to repay the loan. Through multiple sources of intelligence, they all indicated Future Group was wasting large amounts of money on aerospace projects.

The analysts at Morgan Stanley and First B City Bank unanimously agreed that there the tens of billions of dollars of loans would be invested in aerospace projects.

They sentient on the street was that aerospace projects are a bottomless pit.

Even SpaceX, an outstanding private space company, was unable to earn more than half of its profits by relying on contracts from NASA and the Department of Defense. It was impossible to sustain an aerospace enterprise simply by launching commercial projects!

Although the economic growth rate of Xin was fast, it was a small country after all. How much of its annual finance budget could be put into space projects? Just relying on Russia’s outsourced International Space Station refueling project would be enough just for sustainment. If it really made money, why would Russia let them do it?

Therefore, Morgan Stanley and First B City Bank unanimously believed that Future Group would never be able to recover its investment costs within five years, and Jiang Chen could only repay debt through shares.

However, will Jiang Chen make their plan come true?

On the day of the space elevator completion, Future Group would launch its attack on the US Dollar.

…

It was almost two weeks since Natasha moved into the mansion. After two weeks of time together, Jiang Chen was used to the Russian girl.

If there were still things he was unaccustomed to, those were probably not being able to return to their home after work and freely have fun with the lovely Ayesha in the gym, bathroom, and balcony. And when he visited the apocalypse to see Sun Jiao and Yao Yao, he must lock the bedroom door.

However, the opportunity was still there, after all, Natasha didn’t stay at home all day. As a security guard at the embassy, she was not like Jiang Chen, who worked based on his mood and the weather. Even if there was a typhoon in Coro Island, she still must be at Embassy Street at seven o’clock every day.

On the 6th of June, the Kremlin finally agreed to Jiang Chen’s proposal for “person to exchange for information”.

Since Frankberg’s newly elected party came in power, Frankberg, Russia’s largest economic partner in Europe, immediately changed its original soft attitude towards Russia and became a staunch supporter of the “Southern Corridor” program—that is, expanding the investment of Azerbaijan Pipeline to Europe and seeking new sources of natural gas from south of the Caspian Sea to the Middle East.

If the “Southern Corridor” project is successful, it would shake up the European energy map and completely change the EU’s energy constraints on Russia. This would undoubtedly deal a heavy blow to Russia.

The unaccounted Merkel most likely ended in a tragic fate, and the former Deputy Prime Minister Evelyn had become Russia’s hope. And Evelyn himself and his party “Christian Democratic Union” acted as one of the best pro-Russian governments in Europe. This could be clearly seen through Merkel’s series of statements related to the approval of lifting sanctions against Russia and the acceptance of Crimea to Russia.

And compared to Xin that was separated by tens of thousands of miles, Moscow, which is closer to Europe, could indeed provide better support for Evelyn.

So Jiang Chen made the right bet. Evelyn was indeed a heavy bargaining chip for Russia.

On the other hand, the increasingly tense situation in Turkey had actually stimulated Russia’s nerves. From the Willie society’s presence in the past civil war to the present intervention of Freemasonry interfering in the Turkish coup, the Kremlin finally realized the danger of this organization.

Russia was in need of allies on the Freemasonry issue.

It was undoubtedly that Xin, also threatened by the Freemasonry, would be a good choice!

“A total of 34.7 gigabytes of data on record with all the information from the WWII to the current KGB investigations of the Freemasonry. All of it is in the USB flash drive.” Natasha waved the USB in her hand and smiled, while lying on the sofa, she said, “Shouldn’t you do something to thank me?”

“Endless Vodka? Although I feel like you haven’t been polite when you raided my fridge.” Jiang Chen mocked her and reached for the USB.

“How is the situation in Country F? I heard that the Freemasonry sent Colonel Moritz from Europe as a military adviser for the Country F Army. That guy is certainly a spicy character.” Natasha grinned.

“Is he?” Jiang Chen smiled without denying or agreeing and put the USB into his pocket. “It’s the same for me.”

“I admire your confidence, but you must not underestimate your enemy.” Natasha warned. “I also heard that you and the UA WASP consortium are very close, but I have to remind you, don’t treat yourself as their ally. They may dislike Jews, but they do not like anyone outside of the Anglo-Saxons.”

After hearing this sentence, Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

[Do you need to remind me?]

[There is no real ally in international politics.]

[The Diva Vodka you drank last Christmas was gifted by Rothschild, the head of Freemasonry.]

Chapter 800: VRcity Online

Jiang Chen decided to join forces with the Russians and WASP Consortium to take out the Jewish Consortium that exerted a tremendous amount of influence in Europe and North America. After defeating the biggest boss known as the Freemasonry, he planned to bring the Russians to board to eliminate the WASP that shorted the Russian Ruble.

Half of Fed’s shareholders would then be in shambles.

When the space elevator is completed, Future Group’s attack on the dollar would be much easier to execute.

In the darkness of the night.

Natasha had already fallen asleep. After Ayesha confirmed this, she walked softly into Jiang Chen’s office.

Jiang Chen was sitting at the table, and through the holographic screen projected by the watch, he turned to look at the information about the Freemasonry exchanged for Evelyn from Russia.

After receiving the information from Natasha, he scanned all the data to the wristwatch and handed it to Jean for sorting and sharing to all the Ghost agents with permission.

In the materials, Jiang Chen accidentally saw many unbeliveable secrets.

Including Kennedy’s death, including the Iran-Iraq War, the Freemasonry seemed to be behind all of these. Just like the Rothschild was far more than Carmen and Lafite Winery revealed in the public, the Freemasonry hide their strength in the underworld. What Jiang Chen has seen and what the KGB has investigated may be just the tip of the iceberg.

Freemasonry was by no means a pure secretive religious organization, but a highly institutionalized organization.

However, what surpirsed Jiang Chen the most was not their great achievements in the modern times, but the action plan that was collected by the KGB.

“The first step is to establish a Jewish-led world order. The second step is to reduce the world population plan by means of vaccines, artificial viruses, and genetic weapons, and control the global population to within 500 million. The third step is to rule the world with a small population that enjoys the world’s natural resources and realizes the mythological Eden…just like a novel.”

Jiang Chen shook his head and minimized the holographic image projected on the wristwatch and slid it to the side.

No matter from which point of view, this piece of information was a bit too inconceivable. However, the KGB also made an annotation under this piece of information that it was just a speculation based on limited intelligence, rather than a fact that can be supported by evidence.

However, the one thing Jiang Chen cared about was a series of NATO’s military operations, codenamed “Shipwreck”, against the Somali warlords that covered up Kurofune members. Nearly six months had passed, however, NATO has still not withdrawn from the infected area.

Or, the “military contractor” responsible for maintaining local order had not withdrawn from the infected area.

Could it be…

He suddenly came up with a terrifying hypothesis as his eyes narrowed.

“Ayesha,” Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha, who had been standing beside him. “Sent a Ghost Agent to Somalia to find out who is the military contractor maintaining the order and who are the shareholders behind them. Apart from implementing the UN law, what else are they doing in the area?”

“Yes.”

Ayesha replied softly and turned to leave.

Bu then, Jiang Chen suddenly stopped her.

“Wait.”

“Is there anything else?” Ayesha turned and bowed her head in confusion.

“It’s already so late. You can give the order tomorrow…”

The moonlight gradually climbed onto the treetops, and the lamp in the office that had been lit for a long time was not extinguished until deep into the night.

…

Early the next morning, Evelyn boarded the plane to Russia and headed to Moscow for political asylum.

Before leaving, he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Jiang Chen and stated that when he takes office, he would certainly make his own contribution to the friendly relations between Frankberg and Xin.

Jiang Chen just smiled at the blank check Evelyn had given him and didn’t think too much into it.

To be honest, he did not think that before the collapse of the Freemasonry, the former deputy prime minister would have any opportunity to revitalize the party and regain control of Frankberg from the New Choice Party.

From the Ber Incident to the New Choice Party taking office, the Rothschild family had obviously been carefully planning each move. Now that Frankberg was not the Frankberg two years ago, the issue of refugees had made the whole European public’s opinion lean right. There was no chance of winning the election just relying on Evelyn alone.

A Ghost Agent had already departed to Somalia, and the military modernization construction in Moro was also in full swing. Before the Freemasonry played their next card, Jiang Chen could only hold his cards and wait for the next step.

Uncertainty aside, in order to fill the bottomless space project, making money became his focus!

Recently, Future Technology has finally completed the development of VRcity. With high expectations from many, it would enter the VR application market.

The social media platform called VRcity would allow users to DIY their own private virtual space and own their own property in a virtual city. In terms of virtual shopping and other functions, VRcity would be linked with VRstore. When users purchase virtual goods, they could directly purchase one copy of the virtual goods if they were satisfied with the products.

In addition, VRcity also allowed users to meet new people through the “quests” scattered throughout the city, which would be a great tool for the NEET’s to socialize.

As expected, VRcity was well received by users since its launch.

Not all VR users like the fantasy-style online adventures of “Godly Land”. The emergence of VRcity filled the blank in leisure games, making the entertainment of the virtual reality network more diverse.

Although there were also games produced by other companies in the VR application market, compared to Future Technology, these latecomers were lagging behind. And limited by factors such as servers, games developed by these developers all stop at the online level.

However, among game studios, a number of competitive products were emerging. For example, Microsoft’s MGS game studio’s leading game – Minecraft. This phenomenon IP performed extraordinarily on the VR platform despite the pixel style. Prior to the advent of VRcity, Minecraft was at the top of the chart among casual style games.

Yes, before VRcity appeared.

Even this game lost to Future Group’s brand influence and technical excellence.

“As of noon today, the data provided to me by Future Technology showed that the number of registered users of VRcity has exceeded 50 million and is expected to exceed the 100 million mark before the end of the month!” Reporting to Jiang Chen in the office, even the usually collected Xia Shiyu, showed some excitement.

In just one week, the number of users already exceeded 50 million. The outstanding performance was indeed something to be proud of.

Chapter 801: Civil War

If the coup can’t end in a day, it will undoubtedly evolve into a civil war.

More than two weeks ago, the Turkish military launched a coup in Istanbul.

A F16 suddenly changed course when completing a routine mission. It flew over Istanbul and opened fire on the presidential palace. However, Erdogan temporarily changed his itinerary and wasn’t in the presidential palace. He was fortunate enough to escape the attack.

The rogue F16 was immediately tracked down by ground-based air defense system and was shot down in northern Istanbul.

After learning about the army’s coup, Erdogan immediately convened a Supreme Military Council meeting and ruled out the newly established Presidential Guards who promised allegiance to him personally after 2016. He arrested coup participants and surrounded the 14th Mechanical Brigade suspected of participating in the coup.

The 15th Infantry Brigade and the 31st Armored Brigade exchanged fire with the 14th Mechanical Brigade in the western part of Istanbul, forcing the 14th Mechanical Brigade to retreat in the direction of Samantra and were eliminated during the retreat. At the same time, four Armored Brigades and two Mechanical brigades stationed in southwestern Istanbul announced support for the coup. They called the insurgents of Istanbul their compatriots, vowed to overthrow Erdogan’s rule and advance Turkey’s secularization process!

The spark of a coup ignited the flame of civil war. The two sides fought fiercely in the southwestern region of Turkey. Planes hurled shells over cities and towns. Nobody expected this coup to evolve into a fierce civil war.

However, for some people, all this was expected.

At the moment, in the mountain range of southeastern Turkey, a city called Batman was under the control of anti-government forces.

At the airport in the north, a C-5 “Galaxy” transporter under the veil of night crossed the Turkey-Iraq border and landed on the flashing runway.

The aircraft landed and the hatches opened. Tank guns pointing straight ahead remained in the cabin. Several soldiers waiting at the airport stepped forward and carefully transported the equipment out of the transporter.

An officer dressed in desert camouflage came out of the cabin, accompanied by two bodyguards to see the chief of the 22nd Armored Brigade, Kolb.

Kolb saluted the officer. After the latter saluted back, they both approached the airport.

“Three M1A2 main battle tanks, 40 tons of munition supplies. There are still 40 M1A2s coming in from the Iraqi border. You must maintain control of this corridor to Iraq unless you want to lose supplies,” Walking beside Kolb, Colonel Bertrand from Europe said quietly.

“Count on me.” Kolb solemnly nodded. “The soldiers of the 22nd Armored Brigade will never give up Batman to Erdogan’s government!”

The size of Turkey’s land forces was the second in NATO, but only in terms of scale.

The tanks of the armored units were dominated by the M-60 in the Cold War, supplemented by German Leopard 1 tanks and even M24, which served in World War II. There were two such ancient vehicles in the 22nd Armored Brigade.

With help from the M1A2s, the disadvantage faced by the 22nd Armored Brigade would be reversed.

“The secularization of Turkey depends on you.” Colonel Bertrand patted his shoulder and sternly said, “If necessary, you can seek help from the Kurds; they’re all natural-born warriors. As long as independence is used as bait, they won’t miss out on this opportunity.”

Kolb frowned after hearing the sentence.

“Kurds? I don’t trust them!”

“If you want to win this war, you must trust them.” Looking at the Turkish officer without any expression, Colonel Bertrand said, “Even if they’re pagans, it’s fine as long as they can be used by me. They’re our allies. It’s the decision made by Freemasonry – you should understand what I mean.”

Kolb held his breath.

Of course he understood Colonel Bertrand.

If this was a decision made by the Freemasonry, then the brigade commander of a rebel force certainly couldn’t question the decision.

“In addition, volunteers from Europe will join this war. By then, our people will enter the Iraqi border with UA equipment. The UA’s position will be very awkward, or rather, the Hill government will be put in a very awkward position. NATO’s fighter planes won’t help Turkey bomb its own people, even if they’re the country’s ‘criminals’. Do you understand what I mean?”

Kolb swallowed and nodded.

“I understand.”

“As long as you understand.”

Bertrand spoke briefly then adjusted his hat and looked in the direction of the C-5.

The soldiers of the 22nd Brigade completed the unloading. The tanker was testing the equipment in an open space not far away. Tomorrow, the three M1A2s would appear on the frontlines of the crossfire and become a nightmare for the opposing 27th Armored Brigade.

In the distance, the tracer flew in the air, and gunfire decorated the night sky, creating an unnatural mixture of purple and red.

Kolb looked toward the other side.

He suddenly felt that the sky was like the future of the Ottoman Empire – dark and without any direction…

“The 22nd Armored Brigade stationed in the Batman area launched a counterattack on the Turkish 27th and 29th Armored Brigades yesterday evening. Prior to this, outsiders always believed the 22nd Armored battalion’s supply was exhausted and could no longer resist Turkish government forces. However, the counterattack shocked the world, and the 22nd Armored Brigade didn’t regress but even used the M1A2 tank.”

“… Regarding the appearance of UA equipment in the hands of anti-government forces, Erdogan expressed strong condemnation and called it a betrayal, while the Capitol said that although the tank is UA-based, it source was not from their country. Hill visited Istanbul and started talks with Erdogan in an attempt to appease the Turkish sentiment.”

“Some analysts say the coup in Turkey may cause the UA to find itself in a dilemma. BBC News Live.”

In the morning, Jiang Chen turned on the international news channel as always. While enjoying food from Ayesha, he watched the lively global community.

Natasha walked over with her own plate and sat next to Jiang Chen, across from Ayesha.

“Is it interesting to watch the news?”

“Of course it’s interesting,” Jiang Chen smiled and used a fork to separate an egg, punctured the delicate egg yolk and spread it evenly on the bread. “Someone once told me that Obama and Hill both belonged to the Democratic Party, but the former was part of the Jewish Consortium, while the latter was from an anti-Semitic consortium.”

The KGB apparently heard about this news. Natasha’s expression didn’t show any surprise. Instead, she licked her red lips slightly and joked, “Your way of eating is quite interesting.”

“I think so too. After all, forks are just not as useful as chopsticks. I’ll occasionally try different ways of eating… Ayesha, can you pass me the honey?”

“Mhmm!”

Ayesha bit the bread, put down the fork and freed her right hand to pass the jar of honey to Jiang Chen.

On the TV, the report about Turkey ended and the next report was an alert. An image of VRcity, the latest product from Future Technology, appeared. At the same time, Jiang Chen said, “What are you going to say to me?”

“Why do you think I have something to say?” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen curiously.

“Because it’s already eight o’clock,” Jiang Chen pointed at the clock on the wall with a smile. “If I remember correctly, you should’ve gone to work at seven o’clock.”

After Jiang Chen pointed this out, Natasha put down the knife and fork in her hands.

“Yes, I do have something to discuss with you. Are you interested in selling drones to Russia?”

Chapter 802: Arms Sale to Russia

Sure enough, Jiang Chen already anticipated that when Celestial Trade showed off the Hummingbird drone in the Xin Malaysia Joint Military Exercise, there would certainly be interest in the flexible support equipment.

The mobility and intelligence the drones offered would simply be nightmares for all soft targets.

Actually, not only Xin, but the Navy Seals and Alpha Special Forces had all equipped similar individual drones. However, those propeller drones obviously weren’t comparable to the Hummingbird’s aerodynamic engine.

“The Hummingbird drones aren’t for sale,” Jiang Chen said without hesitation, “The sale is nonnegotiable. Future Military will only complete orders for Celestial trade. I’m afraid this answer will disappoint you.”

“I expected you to say that.” Natasha shrugged. “So I didn’t intend to ask about the Hummingbird drone.”

“What were you referring to then?” Jiang Chen looked at her.

“We’re very interested in the Beta-3 drone, that is, the drone logistics network you built in Xiangjiang,” said Natasha.

“Russia’s delivery market isn’t developed.”

“We also didn’t plan on using the Beta-3 for delivery,” Natasha said, staring at Jiang Chen. “The logistics needs aren’t just limited to deliveries. The Beta-3’s all-terrain transportation capabilities can be fully utilized on the frontlines such as for sending ammunition and supplies to deployed soldiers…”

After a moment of thought, Jiang Chen expressed his sincere feelings, “The person who came up with this idea is a genius.”

To be honest, Jiang Chen sometimes felt puzzled. Every time he introduced an incredible piece of technology, there was always someone who took the hassle to dig deeper into its military value for him. Using the drone logistics network for providing front-line supplies was something he never considered.

But then again, using Beta-3 drones for supplies offered little significance to Celestial’s soldiers. Because of the existence of kinetic skeletons, each soldier could carry weights three to five times more than that of soldiers from other countries. With the penetration speed of Celestial Trade Soldiers, there was no need for replenishment.

“Give me a price,” Natasha said, smiling.

“The drone terminals could be mounted on infantry vehicles. The drones could be used to supply soldiers who are dispersed in combat. If necessary, they can also tie explosives and fly towards enemies… Nice, this method is indeed feasible.” Jiang Chen carefully thought about the possibility.

Beta-3 had a load capacity of about 2-3 kg. Through technical upgrading, at the expense of the range, it should be no problem to raise its load capacity to 5 kg. As for the large Beta drone control terminals deployed in the delivery network of Xiangjiang, it was technically feasible to reduce them to small-sized vehicle terminals that could control 10-20 drones!

“Half a million US Dollar for 20 drones and supporting vehicle-mounted drone terminals,” Jiang Chen said.

Natasha’s eyebrows raised and she coughed.

“This quote…is a bit too expensive. I remember that the cost of laying a drone logistics network in Xiangjiang was around than 200 million, and 50,000 drones were equipped. So the average drone was only 4,000 US Dollar. 500,000 US Dollar for 20 drones – why don’t you just go rob a bank?!”

“It’s half a million for 20 drones and the supporting terminals.” Jiang Chen emphasized the word “terminal” and watched Natasha quietly, then he said, “The price of the terminal is much higher than that of the drone itself. After all, it’s not just a random computer that can provide data processing services for drones.”

“Can you go any cheaper?”

Natasha pretended to be pitiful, but Jiang Chen insisted on his own price.

“No! We have to specifically design a portable Beta drone terminal for you. We can’t go any cheaper.” Jiang Chen shook his head again and again.

Of course, he could offer a lower price, but how would he earn money?

The cost of 20 drones and terminals was only 100,000 US Dollar, but since the equipment was intended to be exported in a monopoly, it would be a shame not to scam them.

After some bargaining, Jiang Chen eventually agreed to a 10% discount, setting the price of the devices at 450,000 US Dollar. The specific agreement would be brought by Natasha after work. Before going to work, she repeatedly pestered Jiang Chen not to change his mind.

Jiang Chen tried his hardest not to laugh. After she left, he finally burst out laughing.

Future Military was formed a month ago, yet they were already receiving international contracts.

450,000 US Dollar per set, excluding the costs, he would earn 350,000 US Dollar. Even if just one-tenth of the military vehicles in the Russian army were upgraded with the drone supply system, it would be a profit of 700 million US Dollar. How could Jiang Chen not be happy?

The arms business was really too profitable. Jiang Chen made up his mind and would contact the Liu family in Hua and ask them if they would be interested in this Beta drone supply system. Compared to the poor polar bears, they were the wealthy ones.

The international influence of Future Group now made it unnecessary for him to worry about the implications behind the arms business.

After confirming this matter, Jiang Chen helped Ayesha clean up the dishes then he went to Future Building.

After work, Natasha placed an arms purchase agreement in front of him. She smiled and watched him sign his own name. She received countless praise from her superior for helping the Russian Ministry of Defense save a lot of money.

Only the caring voice of her boss made her feel a little enraged as if she used sex to persuade Jiang Chen to provide a discount.

After signing the contract, Jiang Chen went to the office and dialed the Liu family’s number.

Liu Xiangguo immediately expressed great interest after he listened to Jiang Chen’s proposal. However, after all, he wasn’t a man of the military system and couldn’t make rushed decisions on matters like this. After stating that further discussion were necessary, the old fox hung up.

Drones brought him lots of good news the entire day.

However, at that time, the Ghost Agents brought him some bad news.

“The UA is currently developing a vehicle-mounted anti-drone device that’s currently being bid on by two arms companies. Raytheon’s design proposal is to eliminate drone targets through directed energy weapons, similar to a simplified version of the experimental laser anti-missile system. Lockheed Martin’s design proposal is to block communications between drones and terminals in the target area by targeting all-channel interference technology and setting up no-fly zones for drones,” Ayesha reported to Jiang Chen the intelligence collected by the Ghost Agents stationed in UA.

Jiang Chen wasn’t surprised.

After the birth of any weapon, people would inevitably think about how to counter such weapons.

Raytheon’s plan was costly, but it was undoubtedly more effective because anti-drone equipment in the apocalypse basically relied on faster and more accurate directed energy weapons, and regional EMP weapons didn’t exist in the modern world. As for the latter Lockheed Martin proposal, it used the common internationally-used method, but it wasn’t effective for Hummingbird and Beta series drones.

Although they relied on data processing and remote control from the terminal, the Hummingbird or Beta drones had built-in AI programs. Even in an offline setting, scheduled missions could be completed and they would return to their terminals.

Lockheed Martin’s full-channel interference technology was a flashbang at most. Although it could cause trouble for Celestial Trade, it couldn’t completely make drones lose their combat effectiveness.

[If you interfere with radio, can’t we just design anti-radio interference?]

Before the war in the apocalypse, anti-radio interference was the basic equipment for electronic warfare.

Personally, Jiang Chen still very much hoped that Lockheed Martin would win the bid.

So he thought: [Should I help them out?]

Chapter 803: Fooling the Pentagon

Arlington County, Virginia, southwest of Washington, DC, housed the Pentagon, the largest single office building in the world. This was the heart of the UA Army, Air Force, and Navy, and it dispatched the 1,245 military bases operating around the world.

At that moment, in a spacious office, the Department of Defense’s Purchasing and Procurement Policy Bureau, Schneider Weser, was staring at two documents in front of a desk with a frown, while he tapped on the table restlessly.

Xin’s large-scale measures to equip intelligent drones, as well as the performance of the Hummingbird drones in military exercises, attracted the attention of the Department of Defense. The UA Secretary of Defense came to talk to him a week ago and hoped he would contact the arms company that had a relationship with the military, with the goal to bid on a weapon similar to the Hummingbird drone along along equipment to effectively counter this type of drone!

This kind of equipment should be portable and adaptable to all terrains, especially in cities, where drones would be the most effective.

There were two companies involved in the bidding process; one was Raytheon and the other was Lockheed Martin.

The two arms companies both came from an influential background. The former was the holding company of the Boston Financial Group, and the latter belonged to the California consortium. One was expensive but reliable, and the other was cheap but there were many uncertainties…

However, in the end, they had no way of knowing whether or not the Hummingbird drones could be disrupted from radio interference

At this point, his assistant came in and placed a newspaper on his desk.

Schneider looked at his assistant with a puzzled look and picked up the “Washington Post.” He frowned slightly at the headline that was highlighted.

[… The Russians chose the Beta-3B military supply drone instead of the Hummingbird drone when negotiating with Future Heavy Industries in the arms agreement to support infantry front line operations. According to an informed source who wished to remain anonymous, the reason why Russia canceled the Hummingbird drone purchase plan was because Hummingbird drones had loopholes in their security.]

[“When we tested the operational performance of the Hummingbird drone, we found that the Hummingbird wasn’t as powerful as we believed. At least in its performance against an anti-drone machine gun, it was extremely clumsy…”]

Strictly speaking, anti-drone machine guns weren’t firearms but were individual portable wave-type weapons. These kinds of weapons were under study by all countries. As early as a few years ago, the West Point Military Academy developed a special anti-drone machine gun. In front of the Minister of National Defense, it successfully forced a drone to land.

And the cost was only 150 US Dollar!

In principle, Lockheed Martin’s design scheme was similar to this anti-drone machine gun! The same technique of radio interference was adopted, except that the latter had a wider interference area and the interference effect was stronger!

Schneider immediately jumped up the second he read the report

“Contact Lockheed Martin! The Department of Defense needs a more detailed design plan, as well as a quote! Give them three days. I need to discuss with the other department officials!”

“Yes!” His assistant nodded and immediately got on task.

Looking at the newspaper, Schneider rubbed his fingers repeatedly.

[Hummingbird drone, right? Then the name of our military development project will be named “Bee Catch”. No! Let’s call it “Fly Trap”! Your Hummingbird will fly like a headless fly under our equipment…]

…

“… Lockheed Martin successfully bid for the project codenamed ‘Project Fly Trap’.”

When Ayesha told Jiang Chen about this news, Jiang Chen was so happy that he stood up and gave her a hard peck on the face.

They thought Russia canceled their purchase of the Hummingbird drones? Celestial Trade never planned to sell them from the very beginning!

As for the so-called “someone who wished to remain anonymous,” it was entirely a ploy played by the Russian side. The price of this ploy was to first supply Russia with five drone terminals and the companion Beta-3B drones.

At a price of only 1.75 million US Dollar, Jiang Chen was able to afford this.

Letting go of the flushed Ayesha, Jiang Chen walked back and forth several times in his office and waved his fists with excitement.

“If Lockheed Martin makes a successful bid, the Country F Army will very likely be its first buyer. By then, if Country F tears up the ceasefire agreement, the effectiveness of the so-called ‘anti-drone equipment’ will be worse than water guns!”

Lockheed Martin was unlikely to get a sample of a Hummingbird drone. It could only use the Beta series drones that had already been marketed as targets for testing weapons. Undoubtedly, this weapon could certainly interfere with civil drones

However, unfortunately, the Hummingbird drone used a completely different technology than the Beta series drone!

In the afternoon, Jiang Chen went to Ange Island.

The task he assigned to Zhong Wei, the head of Ange Island Industrial Park, was already in the process of implementation. The separation of Future Military from Future Heavy Industrial would help Future Heavy Industrial better participate in the international market. At the same time, it would also encourage specialization of military production.

The next four square kilometers of land had been zoned to the park. A Hummingbird drone assembly plant and a small turbine engine production plant had been built. According to Zhong Wei’s submitted production plan, a series of armored vehicles and tank assembly plants would be added later.

The newly-established subsidiary Future Military would be led by CEO Ling Tao, a native of Coro Island.

Jiang Chen only had one task assigned to him, which was to strive to achieve local production for even buttons on soldiers’ military uniforms. Any projects involving Celestial Trade Army that were once outsourced to overseas companies had to all be reclaimed!

After inspecting the factory in Ange, Jiang Chen was preparing to return to Future Building but then, President Zhang Yaping called him.

After picking up, Jiang Chen put the Bluetooth headset on.

“Hey? What’s up?”

“Are you free now? Can you come… Whatever, I’ll come and see you?”

“It’s okay, I’m heading out. I’ll make a trip to the presidential palace. Is anything the matter?” Jiang Chen noticed Mr. President’s voice was a little weary.

“It’s not a nuisance, just a little problem…well, it might be difficult to explain on the phone. I’ll wait for your arrival,” Zhang Yaping said.

“OK, give me half an hour.”

Zhang Yaping phoned Jiang Chen’s personal mobile phone. The two weren’t using an encrypted line and it was inconvenient to discuss important matters. After understanding this point, Jiang Chen hung up and asked Ayesha to drive to the harbor.

Before heading to Future Building, he wanted to hear the troubles encountered by the president of Xin.

Chapter 804: Inquiry from the Office for Outer Space Affairs

“I received at least 13 protests this month. Some were from private companies, some were from different countries and some were from the United Nations.” Zhang Yaping threw a stack of documents on the coffee table. He sighed as he sat across from Jiang Chen. “They’re about the space activities of Celestial Trade.”

“The reason they protested?” Unlike Zhang Yaping who was having a headache, Jiang Chen leaned back on the couch and smiled.

“The orbit.” Zhang Yaping said, “They believe the engineering activities of Celestial Trade in the synchronous orbit has seriously threatened the satellites that are in the synchronous orbit.”

“The synchronous orbit has a perimeter of more than 220,000 kilometers. I think this kind of protest is entirely unreasonable. The legal area we enjoy in outer space is at least as large as our national territory, including our territorial waters!” Jiang Chen said indifferently.

“I think so too, and I also responded to the protesters.” Zhang Yaping sighed. “However, the inquiry letter from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is a bit of a hassle. They worry that our ‘worksite’ will eventually turn into space debris because of malfunctions and cause serious accidents. The Office for Outer Space Affairs hopes we can at least explain the scope of the project to eliminate the concerns of various governments…”

The assistant walked over and made two cups of Blue Mountain coffee then sensibly left the president’s office.

After the assistant to left, Jiang Chen moved closer to the coffee table and lowered his voice.

“Shall I teach you what to do?”

“I would love to hear it.” Zhang Yaping shrugged helplessly.

“One word, drag.”

“Drag?”

“Yes, drag it on!” Jiang Chen lifted his coffee cup with a grin and took a sip before he continued. “Say that we’ll cooperate with the investigation while using various policies and regulations to block their procedures. The UN’s procedures are counted by the year, so if you drag it on for a year or two, our people will be done up there!”

“One or two years?” Zhang Yaping looked surprised.

As the President of Xin, he knew some information about the space elevator program. Judging from the engineering details Jiang Chen disclosed to him, this didn’t look like a short term project.

Jiang Chen put down the empty coffee cup and held up two fingers.

“Two years at the most. Our elevator will be completed in two years and we’ll lead the new international order. You just need to cooperate with me and quietly wait through this most critical period.”

After receiving a positive reply from President Zhang Yaping, Jiang Chen left the presidential palace with a satisfied smile.

The next day, Xin replied to the United Nations, saying that would cooperate with the United Nations investigation to prepare relevant procedures for observers of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

According to the laws of Xin, this process would take two work months to prepare.

Yes, two work months, not workdays.

The efficiency of Xin’s operations made the United Nations drop their jaws. After arriving in Xin, these UN observers were unable to start work because the required documents weren’t approved yet.

As for two months later…

Celestial Trade would prepare two trucks’ worth of documents for these observers to review.

The storm caused by construction in outer space was set aside. The investigation Jiang Chen asked Ayesha received results.

According to information reported by the Ghost Agents in Somalia, the military contractor responsible for maintaining order in the Belém region of Somalia was Arrow, registered on Madagascar Island.

Old rival.

It wasn’t the first time Jiang Chen heard the name Arrow.

Everything from the first attempted kidnapping on Coro Island to the attack in the Antarctic was committed by this private military contractor registered in the southern African island state. There was no need to investigate the shareholders behind it. There was already conclusive evidence that this company was a chess piece for Freemasonry.

As early as the kidnapping conducted by Country F, Xin protested to the Republic of Madagascar through diplomatic channels. However, the answer was quite ambiguous, and the local government and central government both acted indifferently toward Arrow.

Just as Celestial Trade controlled the order of Xin, Arrow, also in the form of exchange of interests, dictated the politics and economy in the Republic of Madagascar. As one of the most underdeveloped regions in the world, the Rothschild family already “bought” the place.

To avoid necessary problems after the fact, Celestial Trade didn’t pursue its follow-up responsibilities but only punished the perpetrator behind this attack.

Looking back on this matter now, the attack wasn’t so simple. At the time, Freemasonry already had Jiang Chen on their mind. However, Jiang Chen didn’t notice it at that time. He simply categorized the kidnapping as a retaliatory action of country F.

“What are they doing?” Jiang Chen asked Ayesha.

“Keynes Pharmaceuticals, a company that invested $5 million in the Belvedere area, established a pharmaceutical factory for the production of drugs such as penicillin and the hepatitis B vaccine needed for Somali refugees, and assisted the United Nations with humanitarian assistance… but we found something else at their pharmaceutical factory.”

Ayesha stood at the desk and held out her hand. She waved it over the desk and switched on the holographic screen.

It was a warehouse. From the angle, the footage looked like it was taken by a drone from a high point of view. In the yard, one could see people in sanitary suits and security guards with bullet-proof vests. There were a few Somalians not far from the door, and they seemed to be waiting for something.

“This is?” Jiang Chen frowned slightly.

“Keynes Pharmaceuticals’ warehouse in the Belvedere area, but after our investigation, we found out that this was a laboratory. In addition, our people searched the archives of the Somali Ministry of Commerce and this laboratory didn’t file a record.”Ayesha reached out and switched to the next picture. “This is a picture taken after our drone approached. In the picture, Keynes Pharmaceuticals researchers are testing experimenters’ blood.”

“And then?”

“After our investigation, these participants were revealed to have a common characteristic.” Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen and said in a tone of certainty, “They’re survivors of the TT virus outbreak in the region.”

“They’re researching the vaccine for the TT virus? No… It’s something we already developed.” Jiang Chen frowned.

“On April 13, a special piece of equipment was unloaded from the port of Mogadishu, Somalia, and left a record at Customs. Our agents discovered this equipment and found it was a gene sequencing device from Germany…”

“Genetically sequence for the survivors of the T-virus?” Jiang Chen’s fingers tapped on the table.

It was quiet in the office. Ayesha reached out and turned off the screen, quietly waiting for Jiang Chen’s command.

After a long time, Jiang Chen said, “Keep an eye on them. Try to get their research results without attracting their attention. I want to know what Freemasonry is really planning to do.”

Chapter 805: Astronaut Training Center

On southern shore of Ange Island, there was a special astronaut training center. The 700-acre site occupied a jagged cliff at the southern tip of Ange Island. One-third of the facilities were on the surface, while two-thirds of the facilities were located in the sea.

The graphene compartment enclosed a 400-acre sink in the sea. The seawater in the tank wasn’t exchanged with external seawater and was partitioned into two blocks by the graphene barrier. By changing the salinity of the salt water in the district, the buoyancy of seawater could be compensated by gravity to simulate a weightless environment in space and the low-gravity environment on the moon’s surface.

Underwater facilities included simulated space stations, space living areas, experimental cabins, and core cabins. The training program covered a total of 437 space activities ranging from spacewalking to core cabin work to operating a workboat to complete the recovery of space debris.

103 of these projects were open to the public. Both Xin citizens and foreign tourists could enter the site, while the remaining 335 projects had a level of confidentiality in which only training staff could participate.

The venue was open to the public free of charge on Saturdays and Sundays. Aside from parents with their children, visitors included public schools who organized social activities. The admission fees were low. Travelers who came to visit Xin could also experience feeling weightless by holding a tourist passport and paying a 100 US Dollar admission fee.

However, considering the expensive price of space suits, only trained staff could wear them. Other visitors, however, had to use a simulation space suit to experience the space environment.

The entire training center invested a total of 2.5 billion US Dollar. As one of Celestial Trade’s space programs, it was funded by the space elevator project and could accommodate up to 8,000 tourists and trainees at the same time. In terms of scale and openness, this was undoubtedly the largest space training center in the world.

Future Group shifted the aerospace industry from a private project into a national project. In addition to throwing a large amount of cash into the bottomless pit known as space exploration, it also introduced a series of policies to stimulate the development of the aerospace industry through its own influence in Xin politics.

Such as tax exemption, aerospace volunteer immigration policies…

The country in the world that had the highest proportion of astronauts would surely be Xin after several years.

Liu Qingpeng from Fujian Province was one of the beneficiaries of the Aerospace Volunteer Immigration Policy.

Three months ago, he was still working in Fujian, and he saw a special advertisement from Future 1.0.

[Celestial Trade has issued a lunar colonization plan and is recruiting volunteers around the world!]

This advertisement reminded him of the Mars colonization plan announced by SpaceX several years ago. In the next 15 to 20 years, SpaceX planned to send 80,000 volunteers to Mars for colonization, and volunteers would be living a self-sufficient life on Mars…

It sounded surreal.

After all, trips to the lunar colonies that were within reach hadn’t been completed. Not to mention, Mars was 55 million kilometers away from Earth. According to the plan issued by SpaceX, each volunteer had to self-raise 500,000 US Dollar in travel expenses.

It wasn’t so much a Mars colonization plan as it was a unique crowdfunding opportunity.

However, this advertisement of Celestial Trade glued his eyes to the screen.

[All volunteers only need to sign a security agreement and voluntarily devote themselves to the space industry. All project participants, after signing up through the official website, can go to the embassy to apply for a special work visa and join our business.]

[After arrival in Xin, volunteers’ accommodation and catering will be provided by Celestial Trade. Training will be 8 hours per day, 4 hours of which will be completed at the Celestial Astronaut Training Center, and the remaining 4 hours will be through Phantom Helmet. The training times can be arranged by volunteers after consultation with the instructor. The training venue will be open all day.]

[In addition to food and accommodations, Celestial Trade will also provide volunteers with a minimum monthly salary of 400 US Dollar. After working one year or more, volunteers can change their working visas to immigrant visas. Salaries will also be increased by 300 to 600 US Dollar depending on the job type.]

[Note: If the contract is terminated halfway, the visa will be revoked and the volunteer will be deported. If volunteers unilaterally terminate the agreement after the first year, they will bear a certain fine. The company will decide whether to further pursue the breach of contract liability depending on the severity of the circumstance.]

[The first colonial project has been confirmed as the moon, and the detectors of Celestial Trade have already been launched to map lunar geological information and find large-scale ice reservoirs.]

[To the volunteers who will be working on the first step of human colonization of space, we look forward to working with you!]

To be honest, Liu Qingpeng was impressed after reading this advertisement.

A monthly salary of 400 US Dollar was indeed very low. After all, they were recruiting volunteers, not employees. What really impressed him was the work visa for Xin and the potential for immigration after one year!

Since the completion of Penglai, Xin had tightened its immigration policy. Now it wasn’t as easy as it used to be to obtain a Xin green card. The labor market was already approaching saturation. Other than the shortage of high-tech talent, all other labor was provided by Xin’s own citizens. The Xin government, of course, gave priority to handling employment problems in its own country.

Originally, Old Liu was planning to work in Fujian to save some money then apply for a work visa to immigrate to Xin. But he was one step too late – when he applied for a visa, the embassy staff gave him two choices.

Either go to Celestial Trade and become a soldier or provide proof of academic qualifications above graduate school.

He didn’t know how to feel about his options.

He wouldn’t be able to endure the hardship of being a soldier. If he had high academic qualifications, he wouldn’t be working in a factory. He could not meet either conditions, so his only option would be to say goodbye to the beautiful Coro Island.

However, a brand-new opportunity was now being presented in front of him! As long as he signed up for the moon colonization program, he would be able to gain an opportunity to immigrate to Xin as a space volunteer.

Although the moon project made him nervous, who knew how many years it would take for the colonization plan to be implemented. One year of work would allow him to receive qualifications. He would just train at night while working a part-time job during the day, easily making 3000 US Dollar a month. Celestial Trade would also provide accommodations and food, so he would save everything he made.

After making up his mind, he immediately filled in his information on the official website and applied as a volunteer.

However, when he closed the official website, his eyes inadvertently swept through the statistics column at the top right corner of the screen.

[Number of applicants: 4305123]

When he saw this figure, Liu Qingpeng gasped for air, and his original excitement suddenly cooled down by 50%.

[If so many people signed up, will they really choose me?]

Chapter 806: Resistance in Acquistion

Chapter 806: Resistance in Acquistion

Three days later, the number of applicants exceeded ten million.

Immigration without a threshold was first welcomed by the poor people of Africa and the Middle East. Those who more or less had contact with the Internet and were eager for a better life in the outside world were particularly enthusiastic about signing up.

However, Jiang Chen failed their expectations.

For volunteers from underdeveloped areas, Celestial Trade adopted an extremely cautious attitude. Only a few applicants were accepted from Africa, and slightly more Middle East applicants were accepted for interviews.

This decision wasn’t because of racial discrimination but rather, because of considerations such as laws, living habits, religious practices, and even food culture, all of which might present hidden dangers to colonization. In order to reduce this risk, any applicants who rejected secularization didn’t receive an interview.

After the results of the interview came out, Liu Qingpeng couldn’t even believe he was accepted as someone with only a high school degree!

Happiness came too suddenly. On the same day, he excitedly took out several well-connected workers from the factory and went on a drinking binge. He resigned to the factory’s director the next day then he went to Xin’s Embassy with his identity card to receive a Coro Island work visa.

Dragging his suitcase at Coro Island Airport, he quickly saw the buses that were picking up volunteers.

There were people all over the world on the buses, but due to language barriers, he could only curiously look at them and didn’t communicate with them as much as he would have liked.

The buses boarded a ferry then the ferry stopped at Ange Island. The buses then transported them to the volunteer community next to the training center.

From now on, they would live there. They would receive four hours of on-site training every day, and four hours of VR training.

After six months, they would be separated into different jobs for specialized training according to their performance during training. A year later, their status would be changed from temporary workers. Although they would still be volunteers, they could be viewed as quasi-astronauts.

The construction of the space elevator would start simultaneously with the lunar colonization program. A year later, Celestial trade would select 200 of these volunteers as the first settlers to the moon. This would be the first step toward the astounding intergalactic settlement!

After the completion of the space elevator, a large number of astronauts would be needed at the space station.

The astronaut training center started construction at the same time as the space elevator program. On one hand, it was meant to provide staff for the space station. On the other hand, it was meant to carry out basic aerospace training for the citizens of Xin; they had to at least adapt to non-gravity environments!

“Up until now, 30,000 volunteers have arrived in Xin to receive training. Although cooperation with Future Tourism has begun, the entire space training center is still at a loss. According to estimates from the Finance Department, the deficit of the space training center this month is about 8 to 10 million.”

“We’ll lose 100 million a year?”

Jiang Chen’s expression didn’t change much after he digested Xia Shiyu’s words.

The aerospace project was a bottomless pit. He had long been prepared to lose money. Since he already committed more than 100 billion US Dollar, would he care about a mere 100 million?

“The budget of the training center remains unchanged, but let Wei Yun think about it a bit more and see if he can make better use of this space training center for tourism. Don’t aim for profitability; just don’t lose too much money.”

“I’ll tell him.” Xia Shiyu nodded.

“In addition, what happened to the negotiations with Australia’s SunRice?” Putting the astronaut training aside, Jiang Chen asked another question he was concerned about: the food supply to the future space elevator station and the moon’s colonial base.

“SunRice rejected our offer for the acquisition of the farm in Northern Australia, even though we offered a premium of 11%. According to the person responsible for negotiating with us at SunRice, this decision was made by the parent company Cargill.”

It was no secret that 80 percent of the world’s food market was controlled by the four big companies “A,B,C,D”. The companies were ADM in the UA, Bunge in the UA, Cargill in the UA, and Louis Dreyfus in France. It could be said that global food prices were basically determined by these four companies.

Interested people could easily see that three of them belonged to the UA. It was fair to state that the global food market was basically under the control of the UA. Although the UA had never announced that the grain market must be settled using USD, the rice in everyone’s bowls had never left the control of the UA.

During the 2004 soybean crisis, the Hua enterprises collectively collapsed, and they were taught a painful “trade lesson” who had joined the WTO for less than three years. Today, more than ten years later, the soybean industry in Hua hadn’t rebounded from the crisis.

It should be noted that before 2004, Hua was one of the major soybean exporters.

Now that it was no longer the barbarous Victorian era, the battlefields had long not relied on swords and machetes. By using invisible leverage in the market, they could achieve things that even nuclear weapons couldn’t do.

Whether it was the orbital space station or the moon base, the only industry where it was difficult to be self-sufficient was food production. Even if methods like hydroponic were used, it would be difficult to control the high production costs.

With the space elevator, the cost of transporting food to outer space would be greatly reduced, but at the source, it would still be difficult to minimize control from the four ABCD companies.

At present, Xin’s food supply mostly relied on imports from Australia. If Jiang Chen attacked the US Dollar, the UA would undoubtedly beat Xin through the grain market.

With Xin completely depending on the import of grains and dairy products, the country virtually had no defense in the food market.

There was only one way to minimize the impact of price fluctuations in the international market – producing their own food. They needed to transform themselves from an importing country to an exporting nation! Even if rice wasn’t grown on Coro Island, it had to be grown on an overseas farm controlled by Xin’s own companies.

Being self-sufficient in food production was crucial for the future development of Celestial Trade, so Jiang Chen asked Xia Shiyu to propose an acquisition of SunRice, a company that monopolized Australian grain exports, hoping to acquire 400,000-acre farm in northern Australia.

Unfortunately, Cargill, which controlled SunRice, wasn’t willing to give up its farm, although the 400,000-acre farm accounted for only a small portion of the land owned by SunRice.

“Did we get in touch with Cargill?”

“They aren’t willing to talk at all.” Xia Shiyu shook her head. “My advice is to register a subsidiary in Australia and acquire a farm from an Australian farmer through a subsidiary… Although the cost and efficiency of doing so isn’t directly proportional, it’s certainly easier than pulling teeth from a tiger’s mouth.”

As one of the granaries in Asia, Australia’s agricultural market was quite mature. There would be no farmers willing to sell their farms. After all, many Australian farmers had been farmers for generations. If they lost their farms, they couldn’t find any other work.

Unless Future Group offered a very high premium, they wouldn’t agree.

Jiang Chen had no solutions.

Everything else was good about Xin aside from the lack of land. He hadn’t thought so far ahead when he chose the island. He thought that with globalization, he could buy anything with money. But when he had a big country to run, he realized things were far more difficult than he imagined.

[So much trouble. Only if I could replace thousands of square kilometers of sea with land… Hold on!]

As he thought of this, his eyes light up.

[Why not just build farms on the sea?]

ADM, Bunge, Cargill and (Louis) Dreyfus accounted for between 75% and 90% of the global grain trade.

Chapter 807: Building farms on the Ocean!

“When’s the last time you came back?”

Sun Jiao pressed her cheek against Jiang Chen’s chest as she let out a sigh, her gentle breath puffed on his chest as she drew circles. Her tone was resentful.

“Sorry…”

“I don’t want to hear you say sorry!”

Sun Jiao bit Jiang Chen’s shoulder and watched his pained expression before she started to chuckle.

“Sometimes I think back to when we only had our one mansion three years ago; life was good.”

Sun Jiao let out another sigh and rolled over to lie on the bed with her arms pressed against her chin. She looked at Jiang Chen’s profile, dazed. Her lips seemed to be mumbling. “And I always think… You were cuter back then.”

“Cuter…” Jiang Chen facepalmed. “For men, this isn’t a compliment.”

“Oh, I know.” Sun Jiao stuck out her tongue then smiled. “I just think you’re manlier now.”

Watching Sun Jiao’s little actions, Jiang Chen responded in a sly tone, “But you’re now more feminine than before.”

“What, you’re saying I wasn’t feminine before?” Sun Jiao’s eyebrows raised and she punched his chest with dissatisfaction.

[Just like a bandit and even manlier than a man!]

Of course, Jiang Chen could only say this in his mind.

But really, perhaps it was Sun Jiao’s wildness that attracted him in the beginning.

“What about now? Do you like the old me or the present me?” Sun Jiao moved closer to Jiang Chen and watched him.

“I like all of you.” Jiang Chen laughed without hesitation.

“What a greedy guy!”

“Haha, you don’t like that?”

The light outside the window was still an unhealthy dim yellow, but the despairing darkness was no longer visible on people’s faces. On the streets, the scavengers were still in a hurry, but no one would ever worry about dying tragically in the mouths of mutants. Wanghai survived through the most difficult 20 years and now had ushered in the first year of order. NAC would rule here and bring eternal peace and prosperity.

There was a variety of dishes on the table. Wearing an apron, Yao Yao brought out a pot of vegetable and meat stew under the watch of starving eyes.

These vegetables and pork were all produced in the Garden of Eden. Although the fruits and vegetables picked from the controlled planting tower and the meat cut from cloned pigs couldn’t be considered delicious, they still made people happy to eat.

It was perhaps only the rice, salt, and vegetable oil on the entire table that was “imported” from the modern world.

At the dinner table, Jiang Chen asked Lin Lin about the problem of building a farm at sea.

“Building a farm at sea? Oh… are you talking about submarine farms? Although this kind of thing exists, it’s not very practical. After all, Pan Asia Cooperation had plenty of arable land, and only parts of submarine infrastructure convenient for re-supplying will be paired with small submarine farms.” Lin Lin chewed delicious food while mumbling.

“Isn’t there a lot of food where Brother Jiang Chen is from?” Yao Yao tilted her small head.

“Since many people need to eat, the food we have isn’t enough,” Jiang Chen replied as he caressed Yao Yao’s hair.

Although Yao Yao didn’t quite understand the reason, it felt really nice to be touched. Yao Yao closed her eyes with happiness and tucked the problem away at the back of her mind.

Xiaorou’s fingers were pressed against her mouth and she thought of a bad idea.

“There are still a lot of tanks in stock. Why don’t you just move some over?”

“You can’t use tanks for food.” Jiang Chen didn’t know what to say.

“You can rob people!” While chewing on delicious pork ribs, Sun Jiao interrupted with an indifferent attitude.

[How are the two sisters so violent?]

“Come on, I don’t want to pick up garbage in two worlds,” Jiang Chen scoffed.

At that moment, Lin Lin, who had been busy eating, suddenly interrupted.

“Submarine farms … After all, this isn’t my specialty, and I have better ideas. But why don’t you ask the people at the Beluga Station? They should be experts in this area?”

Lin Lin’s words suddenly reminded Jiang Chen.

[Yeah, those people grow vegetables on the seabed? How did I forget about them?]

After the signing of a trade agreement with the Sixth Street, Beluga Station commenced the contract to provide paid escort agreements to merchants on the Sixth Street, from the city of Wanghai to the island of Kyushu in Japan, and from Yizhou to places even further.

In order to facilitate contact with merchants who needed escort services, Beluga Station established an office at the entrance of the Sixth Street Market. While it accepted business, it also served as an embassy.

After lunch, the family cleaned up the dishes together. At the request of Yao Yao, Jiang Chen cuddled the little Loli for a short nap.

At almost three in the afternoon, Jiang Chen went to the Sixth Street and found Wu Yue stationed there near the market of the Outer Circle, so he told Wu Yue about the submarine farm.

“Submarine Farm? What do you need this technology for?” Wu Yue looked at him bizarrely after he heard the request.

Beluga Station did possess a submarine farm on the Pacific Ocean seabed. However, because of energy shortages, the farm’s output efficiency was very low. Otherwise, they wouldn’t import so many cans from the Sixth Street every month.

However, Wu Yue was curious because NAC controlled the powerful Garden of Eden – why did they need to think about submarine farms?

“It’s for research purposes. We can discuss the price. However, the technical data of this submarine farm shouldn’t be too difficult for you to work with, right?” Jiang Chen asked.

Seeing as Jiang Chen didn’t plan on explaining further, Wu Yue shrugged. He didn’t bother asking any further.

“It’s not really difficult. The price… How about a ton of canned beef? After all, the data should be worth something. Apart from the submarine station, there are very few departments that will store—”

“Deal,” Jiang Chen agreed.

Seeing as Jiang Chen agreed so fast, Wu Yue was happy but felt regretful at the same time. He should’ve asked for a higher price!

However, since they agreed on the deal, he wouldn’t say anymore. He sent a message back to the station. Jiang Chen didn’t wait for a long time before they sent back the relevant data on submarine farms.

The data was downloaded to his watch. Jiang Chen took out a check and signed it with a line of written words. He told Wu Yue that he could take this check and go to NAC’s granary to withdraw a ton of canned beef before leaving Beluga Station’s office.

Chapter 808: Xin Ocean Agriculture

The design of the submarine farm wasn’t particularly complicated. With the industrial level of Xin, the two industrial 3D printers that had been moved to the modern world could complete production in the Industrial Park on Ange Island.

Although the design proposal provided by the Beluga Station was a small-scale submarine farm, the design principle was the same. It wasn’t difficult to modify it to a large-scale submarine farm through extrapolation from quantum computers.

After Jiang Chen passed the data to the researchers at Fallout Shelter 027, he didn’t wait too long before the design of the large-scale submarine farm was completed.

The entire design was divided into two parts – above water and underwater.

The part above water was the offshore platform that included living enclosures, docking areas of submersibles, and unloading areas for transport vessels. There were no technical components.

The core of the entire design program was the underwater portion!

It had an external structure entirely made of graphene. It would be surrounded by a circular wall made of hardened graphene spacers. At the top was a graphene balloon filled with gas. From a distance, it resembled a flat and wide “yurt.”

This “yurt-like” structure would be the planting unit for the submarine farm with a radius of about 45 meters and an area of about 10 acres. A connection pipe on the wall would allow individual planting units to communicate with each other.

In addition to connection pipes, there would also be a molecular exchange membrane on the wall that separated dissolved carbon dioxide from seawater and discharged oxygen produced by plant metabolism.

The planting of plants would be completed in this “yurt.” These planting units were like biospheres with sensors installed inside. They could provide real-time data to monitoring terminals on the offshore platform including temperature, pH, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration.

As for the light needed for photosynthesis, it would be provided by LED light sources. Because the wavelength of LED light sources could be controlled effectively, the lettuce produced by the submarine farm would be crispier, softer, and even taste better than land-grown vegetables!

With the information gathered by Fallout Shelter 27, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world in haste and immediately transmitted the data to Future Group’s database. Then he looked for Xia Shiyu and told her about the plan to build a submarine farm.

After listening to Jiang Chen’s plan with a bewildered expression, Xia Shiyu repeated the sentence while dumbfounded.

“Submarine farm?”

[Two days ago, we were still discussing the acquisition of an Australian farm. It hasn’t been two days, yet the president showed up then told me we’re not going to buy Australian farms. Instead, we’re going to farm ourselves.]

[Where are we going to farm?]

[On the seabed!]

[What is this?]

“Wait, let me organize my thoughts first,” Xia Shiyu rubbed her eyes and chewed on the words Jiang Chen just said. She then asked, “Did the Lab of Future Group just develop something new? Are you kidding? Submarine farms? How do you plant land under the sea? Plant seaweed?”

Upon hearing the bombardment of questions from Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen facepalmed.

This time, he slowed down and took out the holographic concept map from the database. He then explained it to Xia Shiyu again.

Xia Shiyu finally understood and her eyes gradually lit up.

Although she wasn’t very knowledgeable about agriculture, as a CEO of a multinational corporation, she was very sensitive to opportunities in the market! She immediately understood the value of a submarine farm!

Just like that, Future Group’s plan to enter the food market was finalized.

The registered subsidiary, Xin Ocean Agriculture, was wholly owned by Future Group.

After the establishment of Xin Ocean Agriculture, Xin’s presidential office immediately approved the documents and designated 400,000 acres of sea territory in the northern part of Ange Island as a submarine planting area, contracting Xin Ocean Agriculture at a cost of 100 US Dollar per hectares. Due to Xin’s tax-free policy for agriculture, Future Group wouldn’t be required to pay taxes for the 400,000 acres and it could be used permanently for a one-time payment of 40 million US Dollar.

The water depths of this contracted sea area was between 100 and 120 meters. The submarine topography was relatively flat. The volcanic activity and ocean current movements on the seabed were relatively stable. There was no large-scale fish school activity. It was simply a treasure land tailored for Jiang Chen!

Moreover, according to the results of the geological survey by Future Mining, the abundance of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the sediments of the area was high and was considered to be eutrophic sediments. After simple treatment, it could be used as fertilizer for farm crops.

After the founding of Xin Ocean Agriculture, it immediately attracted the attention of many around the world. Some people were surprised. Some people were skeptical. Some people were in disbelief, but most were curious! In particular, maritime countries with smaller territories who relied heavily on imports for food became more interested in the concept of submarine farms proposed by Xin Ocean Agriculture.

After all, these countries often had territorial waters. If these vast territorial seas could be turned into arable land, the island people who were eating high-priced imported foods would laugh even when sleeping!

Of course, given that Xin Ocean Agriculture hadn’t yet planned to build farms abroad, this submarine farm had nothing to do with them.

In fact, submarine farming wasn’t a flashy gimmick. As early as 15 years ago, the Italian Ocean Coral Reef Group proposed the concept of submarine farming and named the project “Nimo Garden,” which was carried out on the seabed by balloons.

The consistent water temperature was very conducive to plant growth, which was a huge advantage that most land farms didn’t have. Although crops underwater would be impacted by large currents, it was also better to be eaten by insects, and there were worse weather conditions on land.

The other factor was carbon dioxide.

It had been confirmed through the simulation of ocean circulation and carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater that about 40% of the carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuels was absorbed by the ocean, so the ocean could be regarded as the largest carbon dioxide sink on earth. Thus, the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the ocean would put plants on steroids, so they would grow rapidly.

It was no exaggeration to say that the maturity cycle of crops of this submarine farm could be reduced by up to 50% compared to traditional land farming!

However, until now, the “Nimo Garden” project was still in an experimental stage. New Ocean Agriculture’s sudden appearance and claim that they mastered techniques for large-scale farming of land crops on the seabed were inconceivable by others.

Some media even hesitated and categorized the news under entertainment after they learned the information.

However, it wasn’t surprising that the concept proposed by XinOcean Agriculture was too advanced for the rest of the world. The public’s interest in agriculture wasn’t high compared to other hot fields. Although these media outlets also believed the scientific and technological strength of Future Group, they still couldn’t resist the temptation to mock.

[After all, it’s still just a concept on paper without the actual product?]

Jiang Chen ignored the reports completely.

[Once I slap all of your faces, why would I care about what you say?]

Chapter 809: Greenpeace

Graphene separators and films were all produced at the New Malaysian Special District. The more advanced technological parts were printed directly through industrial 3D printers.

The project was in full throttle until early July, when half of the 400,000 acres of farm area had been developed and tens of thousands of submarine planting units were installed on the seabed at a depth of one hundred meters. Through the layer of thin and durable graphene film, rows of emerald green plants in the culture tanks were thriving under the weak LED light.

A total of ten offshore platforms were located in the area, with twelve staff members on each platform accompanied by two Celestial Trade soldiers responsible for security. Each of the offshore platform had to manage more than one thousand planting units, which might seem overwhelming, but it turned out to be reasonable.

Watering, fertilizing, sowing, and soil replacement in the culture tank could be completed automatically by planting units. Only a small number of emergencies required the crew to drive the submersibles under water.

The surrounding waters became rich in oxygen and perfect for the growth of seafood because of the oxygen released from the planting units. In order to prevent wastage from such excellent fishing grounds, Jiang Chen zoned the top of the planting area into an offshore fishery, built a floating breeding base, and raised common sea fish species like sardines, salmon, squid, and lobster, and produced fish oil as a byproduct.

Because of the oxygen-enriched environment, the growth of these fishes was much faster than in the wild, and their meat was also more delicious and more likely to accumulate fat.

In addition, the excrement of these fish schools could also be collected through special equipment as natural organic fertilizer!

Farms and fisheries complemented each other. This was known as recycling agriculture.

As soon as mid-August arrived, Xin farmers markets would be able to sell vegetables grown domestically. At the end of this year at the latest, the grain market of Xin would reverse the zero-export situation. In one fell swoop, it would become a granary on the Pacific Ocean!

[Cargill doesn’t want to sell farms?]

[I don’t even want to buy them anyways.]

However, Australia’s SunRice wasn’t happy to see this situation.

With a monopoly in Australia’s rice market as well as holding a majority of the agricultural produce market in Asia, only Thailand, Vietnam remained as competitors in the market. However, now that Xin Ocean Agriculture started to grow vegetables on the seabed, it wasn’t a good sign for them.

Originally, they were quite optimistic about Xin’s farm product market. After all, Xin’s arable land to population ratio was completely out of proportion, and the resistance to price fluctuations in the global food market was almost zero. However, now that Xin was using this jaw-dropping method to diverge from their dependence on Australia’s agricultural product, it was difficult for SunRice’s senior executives to accept.

Just as Xin Ocean Agriculture announced the establishment of a fishery above the submarine farms and the implementation of “dynamic agriculture,” Cargill held a board meeting to discuss countermeasures against the changes in the Asian agriculture market.

From the beginning of the meeting, arguing hadn’t ceased. Cargill’s shareholders were extremely complex. Although there were only one or two true decision makers, such meetings couldn’t exclude eligible shareholders.

“Not just submarine farms – I heard they also plan to build submarine ranches!”

“The monkeys on this island… are they going to convert the entire shallow waters of the western Pacific into arable land?”

“We must find ways to stop them!”

“But Xin is a country. We can’t persuade the Capitol to interfere with them.”

“What are the resources we can use?”

“The Department of Agriculture is completely inadequate!”

“Use dumpings! We can squeeze out their sub-sea farms with low-priced food!” A shareholder banged the table with his knuckles.

“It’s difficult! If Future Group is bent on entering the agricultural market, they won’t care about this money! With their financial resources and influence, it’s at least on par with the B City Consortium…”

The meeting room unexpectedly quieted down.

Yes, regardless of the circumstances, Future Group was on par with B City Consortium. Although consortiums were all behind ABCD, Cargill was a private company with the majority of assets in Asia. Cargill didn’t share strong ties with the consortiums with market values only between 40-50 billion US Dollar.

Fighting a price war with Future Group with a valuation above one hundred billion would be asking for trouble.

Even if Future Group’s focus in high tech meant that the market value might be artificially inflated, the company could easily use assets as collateral and no bank would be willing to reject such a ludicrous customer. Unless the UA government considered it necessary to intervene, it would be pointless to engage in any tactics.

One of Cargill CEO’s arm was pressed against the table and his other hand rubbed his sore brows.

If he was aware of this earlier, he would’ve agreed to sell 400,000 acres of farms! In any case, the northern part Australia wasn’t fertile. The fertile land was concentrated in the east and the south. Now considering this situation, if Xin entered the grain market, their market share in Asia would shrink again.

Submarine farms?

The territorial area of Xin was massive. This area of arable land on the seabed left people with too much room for imagination.

…

“Yesterday morning, we received an announcement from the United Nations Marine Protection Organization. Greenpeace is suing us and believes that our project on the seabed has severely damaged the ecological environment in the Pacific. Professors at Columbia University’s School of Biological Research supported this view, claiming that the mathematic model established analyzed that the 400,000 acres of submarine farmland might completely change local fish habits, thus triggering a large-scale marine ecological disaster.”

“In addition, Greenpeace held a parade at the entrance of Xin’s Embassy in the UA. Protesters held an iPad to broadcast a marine protection documentary to protest the nature-despising behavior of the Xin government.”

At the presidential palace, Zhang Yaping read his assistant’s report with a headache.

“Greenpeace… Where did Greenpeace come from?”

Greenpeace was only a civil rights organization with the aim of opposing nuclear testing during the Cold War. However, it evolved from non-violence to a model of anti-civilization organization. Why? In their eyes, from chemical to genetics, all industries were “elements of the devil” and must be eliminated; everything from Apple laptops to canned tuna and mineral water bottles was poisonous and harmful.

Any country or organization would develop a headache from being targeted by this group of people.

Compared to the little-known Blue Dolphin Organization that previously bothered Future Group, Green Peace would undoubtedly be more organized and more difficult to deal with. Greenpeace now learned from the lessons of their “predecessors” and bypassed Future Group with a hard stance. They directly exerted pressure on the Xin government.

While it wasn’t a big deal, it would be troublesome!

“These Social Justice Warriors with nothing to do.. do they not know that people in the world are still starving?” The enraged Zhang Yaping smacked the document on the table.

In fact, he really wanted to toss the paper at Jiang Chen’s face, as he always had to wipe Jiang Chen’s butt.

After calming down, Zhang Yaping said to his assistant, “Get my advisor. We have to discuss this in a meeting.”

“Yes!”

Chapter 810: Country F Army's Ambitions

Chapter 810: Country F Army’s Ambitions

Jiang Chen heard about the problem with Greenpeace from Zhang Yaping, but he was not bothered.

Obviously, the other party also knew that the bodyguards of Celestial Trade weren’t there for show, so they weren’t stupid enough to do dumb things such as illegally trespassing the offshore platform. They just held protests and stirred sh*t up through international public opinion… While in actuality, not many people took them seriously.

Since they didn’t interfere with the day-to-day operations of Future Group, Jiang Chen didn’t pay any attention to these trivial matters. In contrast, there were more important things waiting for him to deal with, such as the increasingly tense situation on MLL Island.

The KS-32 vehicle-mounted anti-drone system led by the UA Department of Defense, developed in cooperation with Lockheed Martin, left the lab and officially entered into production. As the main equipment of the “Fly Trap,” the KS-32 anti-drone system could suppress information communication on drones with a radius of 500 meters and force drones, including the Beta-series drone from Future Group, to land.

The Country F Army became Lockheed Martin’s first customer of the “Fly Trap.” They invested 11 million US Dollar to purchase 1,000 KS-32 anti-drone systems for frontline troops.

There were still 8,000 units of follow-up procurement planned. Country F made up its mind to equip the systems on every Hummer, armored vehicle and tank to nullify the effectiveness of the Celestial Trade drones.

At the same time, Country F also purchased five Patriot 3 surface-to-air missile systems, including 357 PAC-3 missiles and five test missiles, as well as corresponding radar equipment and upgrade kit racks, to deal with the air superiority of Aurora-20.

Although Hua protested against the UA deploying the Patriot 3 missile system in country F, it had no effect on the arms sales agreement

In addition, Country F also analyzed the case where the headquarters on MLL was struck by EMP missiles and completely lost communication. They brought in the world’s most advanced EMP regional protection devices from European laboratories.

Obviously, Aquino IV, whose in power, was determined to regain control of MLL Island.

Santos, the president of Moro, was obviously more anxious than Jiang Chen. After July, when the Country F government stepped up its border patrols, he kept talking to Jiang Chen and asked Celestial Trade for reinforcements.

“We should strike preemptively! If we wait for them to reorganize the army, we’ll have to sacrifice even more!”

“Striking first is the correct tactic, but we can’t do this strategically.” Sitting in the office, Jiang Chen put his legs up and shook his head to deny Santos’s proposal.

According to “The UA and Country F Joint Defense Treaty,” if Moro provoked the start of the war, it would undoubtedly bring UA from the opposite side of the Pacific onto the chariot of Country F. That would be exactly what Country F want. Aquino IV apparently had more brains than his predecessor, and he didn’t conceal his plans of using force in his strategic deployment. His purpose was to provoke Moro to start the attack first.

Only when this war was “a war of aggression” would the common defense treaty not take effect. In other words, Moro must wait patiently for Country F to open fire first to avoid the more dire consequences.

“But—”

“I need you to stay calm, Mr. Santos. Do you understand what I mean?” Jiang Chen interrupted and said without hesitation.

Santos forced down his stomach-full of problems and said with an unreconciled tone, “Yes.”

“Not bad.” Jiang Chen nodded, sitting upright from his chair. “What’s the size of the army?”

“A total of 50,000 soldiers,” replied Santos.

The population of MLL Island was a total of 18 million people. With its lagging industrial and economic level, it wasn’t easy to form an army that could support 50,000 people and two mechanized brigades. Santos didn’t drink and didn’t act corruptly all day long. At least he still made some progress in improving his army.

“Call up the reserve and expand the army by 20,000. I’ll deal with the equipment problem for you.”

Celestial Trade focused on building elite soldiers. Future Military’s weapons wouldn’t meet Moro’s needs. Fortunately, Jiang Chen had a good relationship with Russia. It wouldn’t be difficult to obtain cheap arms from Natasha.

After finishing his call with Santos, Jiang Chen went to see Natasha. He ordered 40,000 AK-12 assault rifles, 10,000 boxes of ammunition, as well as infantry support equipment such as mortars and RPG-7 rocket launchers. These would be used to support the Moro new infantry division.

A total of 150 million US Dollar in arms was more than a fair price.

The contract was signed on the spot. It seemed Russia already expected Jiang Chen would purchase more equipment.

With the contract, Natasha asked Jiang Chen about the drones.

“Will the Beta series drones be affected by the KS-32 anti-drone system?”

Jiang Chen knew what Natasha was concerned about and nonchalantly dismissed the idea.

“The civil drones will be affected, but I sold you the Beta-3B, which belong to the category of paramilitary drones and have a built-in anti-interfering device. Unless they’re within 100 meters of a KS-32, they won’t be affected.”

“I feel much more reassured now.” Natasha smiled back.

Russia’s imaginary enemy was NATO. If the US’s Fly Trap plan proved to be effective, it would undoubtedly hit the Kremlin’s interest in the Beta series of drones. As the leader of Russia’s purchase of Beta drones, Natasha naturally didn’t want to see her work as a joke in the country.

After signing the contract, Natasha said she would go to the embassy.

Seeing as it was still early, Jiang Chen, who didn’t have much to do, grabbed a bottle of champagne from the fridge, leaned against the sofa, opened his watch, called out the holographic panel, and began to browse through Weibo.

Since Liu Yao helped him register an account last time, he hardly used it. For a while, he handed over the account to the company’s marketing team, but when Future Technology later became Future Group, he asked the marketing team to stop focusing on this area.

He thought about it. The last time he posted something was a year ago.

After logging onto his account, Jiang Chen noticed that his followers had broken 90 million. As for the long list of private messages, it was even more shocking.

“What, am I that popular?”

Jiang Chen stroked his chin as he began to seriously debate this issue.

From his perception, it was just the trip to Xiangjiang where his itinerary was leaked which led to a flood of reporters. There were two private visits to Wanghai to see Liu Yao, and those two outings didn’t attract the attention of the world.

Shaking his head and forgetting the question, Jiang Chen looked at the trending list and unexpectedly discovered that the words “submarine farm” actually appeared on the list.

It seemed that Greenpeace was still doing some good things with all the controversy they created. Even though Future Group hadn’t intentionally marketed submarine farms, they became a trending topic on the Internet.

The Weibo official account also invited a professor from a university to explain the “submarine farm” concept.

However, when Jiang Chen was ready to take a look at what the expert had in mind, a phone call came in.

Chapter 811: Priate Hijack

The phone call was from Xia Shiyu. From her tone, it was an urgent matter.

Although he hadn’t spoken yet, Jiang Chen had already felt the seriousness of the matter.

“The vessel responsible for shipping the desalination platform was intercepted by pirates when it entered the Arabian Sea. Fifteen High-Tech Freshwater employees and 35 crew members are taken hostage. We have already contacted the Saudi-side, but the vessel has been hijacked. The ship has left the Arabian Sea and lost its signal in the waters west of Somalia!”

The High-Tech Freshwater cargo vessel was hijacked. When Jiang Chen heard the news, he stood up immediately.

“Send me the coordinates of the missing vessel!”

“Wait one moment!”

The phone was hung up, after waiting for half a minute, Xia Shiyu sent the signal of the lost vessel to Jiang Chen.

Confirmed the coordinates of the missing vessel, Jiang Chen immediately contacted Ivan.

“High-Tech Freshwater vessel and the desalination platform have been hijacked by militants and the coordinates of the site where the ship finally disappeared have been uploaded to the command’s server. Dispatch search and rescue vessels immediately to the target area and rescue the hostages! ”

“Yes, sir!”

After the order, Jiang Chen also started to move.

Ayesha saw Jiang Chen change and was about to walk down stairs, she came over.

“Do you want to leave?”

“Yes,” he tossed his pajamas aside and change into a shirt. “Our vessel was hijacked in the Arabian Sea. I have to go to New Moon Island immediately. Ayesha, can you drive?”

“I’m going to change now.”

Ayesha disappeared at the stairs.

Jiang Chen went directly to the garage. Ayesha who changed was already in the Lamborghini and had started the car.

After Jiang Chen pulled up the door and sat inside, the car darted out.

On the way, he called Natasha and asked her to come back later at night.

When he hung up, Jiang Chen looked at the scenery fading through the window and his eyebrows gradually twisted together.

High-Tech Freshwater being hijacked by pirates was a serious problem. It was impossible not to worry with more than 50 hostages on board and the desalination platform being in the hands of the pirates.

Jiang Chen did not expect this to happen. High-Tech Freshwater’s vessel stationed overseas was guarded by four Celestial Trade bodyguards. Although not equipped with drones and heavy weapons, there should be no problem against typical pirates.

However, only now when the ship has disappeared from the map did Future Group finally realize there was a problem. There must be something odd among all this.

Just then, Jiang Chen suddenly thought of something.

“Turn around.”

Ayesha did not hesitate and immediately turned the steering wheel.

“Where are we going?”

“The southern port of Coro Island. We are not going to New Moon Island, we are going to Coconut Island.”

…

In the Indian Ocean, a cargo vessel hijacked by pirates was sailing in the direction of Madagascar. Several pirates, dressed in black and with AK47 in their hands, stood on the bow and watched the High-Tech Freshwater crew. Under the escort of a pirate holding a rifle, they boarded the ship from the platform.

The staff, who was pointed at with the muzzle, had a pale expression while being shoved into the cabin.

These pirates were quite familiar with the High-Tech Freshwater vessel. Not only did they know how to control the ship, but they also know that desalination platforms have locators. The pirate pointed at him with a gun, forcing him to close the locators.

The captain’s room of the vessel was controlled and the locators of the offshore platform were turned off. The entire ship disappeared from the map of Future Group. Even if Saudi Arabia’s navy came to the rescue, no one would be able to find them!

In the hallway where he passed, he could still see traces of blood after some simple scrubbing.

The traces of blood belonged to the fighters who battled against the pirates. Their throat was cut and they were tossed into the sea.

They did not die from the enemy’s muzzle but they died because of their own mutiny. The crew on the ship had enemies onboard. When the four Celestial Trade soldiers and the nearby pirate ship exchanged fire, more than ten pirate informants took the crew members onboard as hostages and then attacked the four soldiers from behind with kitchen knives…

Standing in the cabin, Zaid, the bearded pirate’s head, scowled and looked at those huddled in the corner. They watched them tremble under the intimidation of their muzzle and laughed with the corners of their mouth turning up.

“Bageri, don’t scare them. Keep these little children and we can earn some more ransom.”

“Haha! Compared to the big business behind our ship, how much can these soft eggs earn? Why don’t we cut a few up, I haven’t seen sharks eat for a long time.” Bageri laughed ruthlessly. He deliberately used English and made the hostages even more frightened.

“Mosquito meat is still meat,” Zaid grinned.

Orders placed by mysterious buyers on Madagascar Island offered a high price of 500 million US Dollar for High-Tech Freshwater desalination platform. Since the beginning of the year, they stopped all plans to hijack merchant ships and devoted themselves to planning and executing the robbery against Future Group.

A hostage would at most earn a ransom of one million US Dollar, 30 hostages would be 30 million US Dollar. Compared to the 500 million US Dollar income, the ransom income was just a meager amount. What’s more, exchanging hostages also included the risk of being gunned down.

Really, if it were not for the fear of angering Future Group, Zaid would have ordered to feed the hostages to the fishes.

” Sob Sob …”

She was frightened.

“What are you crying for? Haha, lift your face for me…” Bageri smiled brutally, stepped forward, and brushed the blonde’s bangs away with a gun. When he saw the lovely face in tears, he whistled. “Damn, boss. This girl is fine. You see, I haven’t…”

“Go solve your issue and come back quickly.” Zaid waved his hand impatiently.

Bageri was the best shooter and the most loyal subordinate he had. The only drawback was that he was too lustful. But now that the ship has left the Arabian Sea, even if the Saudi Navy acquired their position, they wouldn’t be able to catch up. What’s more, they were darting around in international waters.

Anyway, since they were close to finishing the task. He didn’t bother to restrict his subordinates.

After all, as Bageri said, they had been too tense for too long.

Cheerful whistles sounded in the cabin. Several people shouted “the wise leader”, and then moved closer to the hostages with a lustful smile while searching for the female creatures they were pleased with.

“Bageri go first, and the others wait in line. This is a sale of 500 million US Dollar. If we finish the deal, we could live the rest of our lives in lavishness! Whoever messes this up, I will personally crack his skull!”

Although some of the pirates were eager to vent their lower body desire, the leader had spoken, so they had to suppress their evil desires

“Please, leave me alone, sob !”

The blonde desperately pleaded and her resistance annoyed Bageri. The man slammed the stock of the gun straight on the blonde’s head and knocked her out.

Greedy green eyes glanced over the beautiful figure; he molested her body with a grin. With disregard to her state, he dragged her on the collar and out the door.

It was no longer necessary to say what cruelty she will face next.

The hostages kneeling in the corner watched their colleague, who has been living with them, get taken out the door. However, they helplessly put their hands on their heads. They had to endure the self-blame and humiliation. Several female employees’ legs trembled uncontrollably and they constantly tried to move behind their male colleagues because they had already noticed, several other pirates in the room were looking at them maliciously.

Even though they knew, this attempt for a little security could not bring them any safety at all.

Chapter 812: Rescue Mission (1)

“Haha, little bit*h, raise your a*s. Right, right, just like that your little sl*t…”

Bageri hymned his hometown tone and tossed the unconscious blonde against the railing of the ship. He leaned the rifle aside, took off his belt and used it to tie up her hands.

The swing knocked her out completely. He was extremely rough, yet the blonde in work uniform still didn’t wake up.

Her jeans were already ripped, revealing her skin. At least the size of 36Ds were wrapped up in a shirt, which became distorted being pressed against the railing. Her golden hair was stuck to her forehead due to blood, and her graceful face twisted with agony.

Ulrika was from Eastern Europe. She has a beautiful name. She had thought that she could finally be free from the cruelty of the world after fleeing her hometown. She did not expect to encounter another horrifying hell in what she thought to be a risk-free trip to the sea.

In dizziness, she felt the restraint around her wrist and slowly opened her eyelashes.

At this moment, Ulrika suddenly discovered in horror that the man behind him had taken off his pants and was separating her legs.

“DON’T!”

In despair, she screamed and tried to break away from him. However, she was no match against his force. Her resistance didn’t deter his action but ignited the desire of the beast behind her.

“If you don’t want to be beaten, you’ll be obedient with daddy. Hey, just relax and don’t move. I’ll make you feel great right away.”

“I beg you, don’t do this. I, I will pay the ransom!”

Her plea only received scorns from Bageri.

“Ransom? Ha! When I make you feel—”

The broken English came to an abrupt stop, and Ulrika suddenly felt the force behind her had disappeared.

Suddenly, a thick, hot liquid sprayed all over her neck.

She froze and rigidly looked down. Instantly, Ulrika’s pupils contracted.

Blood!

Blood had soaked her collar!

Just as she was about to scream, someone covered her mouth from behind.

She was about to lose her sanity when the man behind her whispered warnings into her ear.

“Well, girl, I know you are going to scream, but if you don’t want to kill everyone on board, I advise you not to do that.”

The voice was magnetic and her ear felt itchy.

Knowing that the man behind her came to save her, Ulrika calmed down from her frightened state and slowly nodded.

“Very good. You’ve calmed down.”

Jiang Chen slowly released the hand holding her mouth, and then let go of her body.

He pulled out a dagger and quietly cut off the belt that was around the beauty’s wrist. Then he reached out and pressed the button beside his ear.

“Ayesha, how is your side?”

“Clear.” Ayesha’s answer was crisp but also tainted with a taste of blood.

“Very good. Move above the hostages first, I’ll be right there.” After that, Jiang Chen ended the communication.

“Okay.”

A crisp gun loading sound came from the other side of the headset. Ayesha ended the communication and began to move downstairs.

Next to the lifeboat at the stern, a man fell to the floor. A deep and bloody scar surrounded his neck, and his eyes were wide open, filled with incredible terror and disbelief.

Moving her sight away from the dead man, Ulrika looked at Jiang Chen who was covered in a lacquered black combat suit.

“You, you are?”

“If I were you, I would put my pants on before speaking.” Jiang Chen raised the rifle and mocked.

Ulrika’s face turned red and she quickly pulled down the bottom of her shirt to cover herself. Then she slowly bent down and carefully pulled up her pants.

While she was putting on pants, Jiang Chen had already released the Hummingbird drone from the drone backpack and threw it out of the ship. Then he put his body on the wall around the corner, and his finger flicked open the safety next to the rifle trigger.

The drone that was thrown out of the ship wobbled and adjusted its direction. Immediately before it touched the sea, it darted away and flew toward the center deck of the ship.

“Stay here and don’t move.” Jiang Chen warned her, then began to move along the wall.

“What are you going to do?” Ulrika asked anxiously.

“Of course I’m going to save the other people!”

“Wait, they have more than 30 people, and you’re alone…”

Jiang Chen ignored her and lowered his body, bypassing the iron staircase and moved behind a small container.

Only one vessel in the entire world could catch up to the hijacked ship in such a short period of time. It was Jiang Chen’s Droplet.

In order to bring both the people and equipment back, he had to personally make a trip.

With the ridiculous cruising speed and life signal detection device, after arriving at the missing coordinates, Jiang Chen easily locked in the position of the vessel and pursued at maximum speed.

It was not dark yet, and it had only been a few hours since the ship lost its connection.

After closing in on the vessel, the two acted separately. Ayesha went to the captain’s room, and Jiang Chen went directly to the deck. The optical illusion module could be mounted on the new K2 kinetic skeleton. The two on the ship were like invisible ghosts as they approached the bloodthirsty pirates.

The last time he rescued hostages was three years ago.

Through the screen on his arm, Jiang Chen operated the Hummingbird drone around the pirates on the deck and then locked in on the targets.

His fingers rubbed down on the trigger. He took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally. He tapped down on the button to confirm the attack. Then, at the same time, dashed out from behind and pressed his trigger at the red dots in his field of view.

Tatatatata!

The gunfire suppressed by the silencer instantly created blood splashes on the pirates. Other than the sound of the sea, only some abrupt and weak metal colliding sounds could be heard on the deck.

It didn’t attract anyone’s attention.

Jiang Chen glanced at the map on his right arm. The six red spots that had been marked, were instantly extinguished.

There were four people left on the deck; situated mainly on the bow. In addition to the places where the hostages were held, the 15 pirates in the cabin had already died in Ayesha’s hands.

“Next is the hostage room?”

Muttering to himself, Jiang Chen also switched on a new clip.

“Ayesha, how is your side?”

“The silent device has been placed. So has the C4.”

“Great, I’ll be there immediately.”

Glancing at the remaining four targets on the deck and with a sneer on his face, Jiang Chen marked the scattered targets one by one on the drone and then moved to the cabin holding the hostages.

Chapter 813: Conference

“Where are you now?”

“We are in international waters, around 100 nautical miles from Madagascar. We’ll arrive in six hours by the latest! You can rest assured, we got rid of the Saudi Navy and the locators on the desalination platform have also been turned off. Nobody can find us now!” Zaid chuckled while trying to flatter the person on the line.

“That may not be the case,” the person at the other end of the phone smiled, and said in a hoarse voice. “You should be careful. You know, if this deal fails, it’s not as simple as a failed deal.”

Zaid held his breath. He quietly swallowed and whispered.

“I know.”

“As long as you know.”

The phone was hung up.

Zaid spat on the ground and bolted the gun after the stuffed the phone back in his pocket, scaring the hostages in the cabin.

“Motherfu*kers, pay attention now, where is Bageri, that bastard!”

Looking at the leader’s explosive temperament, the four gunmen standing next to the hostages looked at each other and exchanged conversations in their African dialect.

“What happened to the boss?”

“I don’t know, maybe he didn’t alleviate himself for too long.”

“Shhhh, if the boss heard that, he would rip your head off.”

“What are you chatting about?” Zaid heard some whispers and shouted. His fierce eyes stared at his subordinates and they quickly closed their mouth while shaking their head.

“No, nothing!”

Zaid cursed at them a few times before he anxiously glanced at the clock on the wall.

He felt very flustered at the moment, as if something bad was about the happen.

He shook his head and drove the strange feeling out of his head. At that moment, he heard a rush of static noise. The air in the cabin was oddly still because of the special force field. All sound disappeared, as if they were erased.

Silencing device. Only ten credits in the Sixth Street Weapon Store!

[What sound?]

However, Zaid had no time to think about this carefully, the ceiling exploded and the smoke filled the entire cabin instantly. He hadn’t responded to what was going on before a heavy blow to the back of his head severed off his five senses.

Almost at the same time, the door of the cabin was kicked open, a drone and a gun, led by orange-red sparks gunned in.

Tatatatata!

Jiang Chen clasped the trigger fiercely and the muzzle swept over the standing pirates.

The bullets bounced in the cabin and everything ended quickly.

The whole set of actions took place within one second. With the speed of Jiang Chen and Ayesha, the pirates with physical traits slightly better than ordinary people had no fighting chance.

“Ayesha, go and open the window.”

“Okay!”

Ayesha ended the optical illusion and retrieved the rifle behind her. She then opened the window.

The sea breeze poured in and soon the smoke in the room dispersed.

Looking at the corpses on the ground, several hostages with weak mental states had begun to vomit. Fortunately, the pirates did not give them breakfast and lunch, and nothing could come out even if they wanted it to.

Looking at the two people in the cabin, the captain in the hostages worked up the courage and asked.

“Are you from Celestial Trade?”

Jiang Chen examined him, grinned, and removed the mask on his face.

“You’re not wrong, but you should call me President.”

The cabin was silent.

Everyone, including the captain, opened their mouths and their eyes popped out.

[President? Jiang Chen? Wait… Why did Jiang Chen come to save us?]

This feeling was like the Americans seeing the US soldiers they prayed to the stars and moon for after they had been captured by the Talibans; to finally having the Special Forces captain who led the rescue team pull off his mask and reveal himself as Obama.

It was so unexpected… No, it was so incredible!

Because what they learned was so shocking, the hostages forgot to celebrate through the tragedy.

Jiang Chen ignored the hostages in complete bewilderment, glanced at the wounds on them and found that there were no serious injuries and ordered the captain.

“Can you still move?”

“I can!” The bearded captain quickly nodded.

“Bring your first officer to the control room, keep the current course, and continue to move toward Madagascar.”

“What, what?” The captain thought he misheard.

“Continue to move in the direction of Madagascar. Do I still need to repeat myself?” Jiang Chen repeated patiently.

“Yes, but… okay.” The captain nodded in a compromise.

Although he did not know Jiang Chen’s reasons for doing so, he chose to trust his own president.

“Remember not to turn on the GPS and continue to remain in the lost communication state… Get the High-Tech Freshwater employees that can still move to turn on the locators on the offshore platform. Also, do you guys know where the four Celestial Trade soldiers are held?” Jiang Chen looked around at the hostages in the corner and found no one resembled a soldier.

When he heard Jiang Chen’s question, a crew member said in a quiet voice.

“They…”

“They?”

“They have been executed…”

The temperature in the cabin suddenly dropped.

Ayesha, who was tying Zaid, raised her head and looked at Jiang Chen’s back.

She could obviously feel that his mood was terrible.

With a gloomy expression, Jiang Chen took a deep breath, turned and walked out the door.

“Take Zaid and follow me to the warehouse under the deck.”

“Yes.” Ayesha nodded and followed, carrying Zaid who was tied up like a Zongzi.

The people who stayed in the cabin looked at each other and did not know what to do at this time.

The captain stood up and told the injured and women to return to their room first to rest. The rest of them went to clean up the blood on the vessel. The first officer and second officer followed him to the captain’s room.

While descending down the stairs, Jiang Chen pressed on his microphone and got in touch with the command center on New Moon Island.

“The coordinates have been sent, Ivan, how is your preparation?”

“The Sea Lions Special Forces have set off with the frigate… Boss, don’t do this next time, it’s too unthoughtful!” Ivan said with a wry smile.

To put it bluntly, Ivan would rather the entire ship be slaughtered by pirates than agreeing to Jiang Chen taking just a special agent to conduct a rescue mission. It was just one ship, but even if there were ten more ships, they would not be as important as Jiang Chen. If it were not for the fact that Jiang Chen had already taken off, he would not agree with his plan.

“This is a special circumstance,” Jiang Chen replied. “In addition, tell the Sea Lions to move fast. The war is not over yet.”

Chapter 814: The war in not over

“…Hijacked a cargo carrying European industrial machine tools. Attacked an embassy in Djibouti. Launched a terrorist attack in Yemen, and exerted pressure on the local government… Employers generally hire us for the dirty work inconvenient for them to do. The reward is handsome, the intelligence is guaranteed, and the risk of the mission is usually very low…”

In a dark room with only a single beam of light, Zaid’s hands were tied behind the chair. His head was dangling back, his eyes were fixed on the dark floor while drool leaked from his mouth. The appearance indicated he was injected with the truth-telling serum.

With his crimes, it was taking it easy on him to use the truth-telling serum. However, Jiang Chen did not intend to waste time on these minuscule details, and he still needed this guy, so he used the most effective method.

“Who is your employer?” Jiang Chen asked in a cold tone.

“Employers do not reveal their identity. This is an industry practice…”

“Who is responsible for contacting you?”

“Arrow Military.”

“Mayotte Island in the west of Madagascar…”

The necessary intelligence was gathered. Jiang Chen turned off the recording pen on the side of the table and then gestured for Ayesha.

Ayesha understood, grabbed a bucket, and splashed water on the pirate’s head.

A puddle of cold water was poured over his face. Zaid coughed violently and then woke up.

The dim light made him unable to see who was sitting across from him. He could only see a black rifle leaning against his side.

“You, you are…”

“You don’t need to know who I am. Let’s do a deal.”

“What deal?”

“Take my people to the location. If the deal works, I can let you live,” Jiang Chen said without hesitation.

“You’re crazy…do you know who they are? Arrow Military, although only a private military contractor, can smash the 22,000 regular troops of Madagascar!” Zaid’s eyes quivered in uneasiness as his beard shook constantly. “We will die…”

“Before you refuse, I should make it clear.” Jiang Chen put up a finger and smiled. “If you don’t cooperate, you will die now.”

Sweat drops dripped from Zaid’s forehead. He was clearly conflicted. Then he lowered his voice.

“Why should I trust you?”

“Just because you are only an ant to me.” Jiang Chen said apathetically.

Just an ant…

Zaid’s mouth twitched but it was irrefutable.

“Cooperate, or die. Make your choice.”

Instead of trying to persuade him, Jiang Chen whipped out a pistol and loaded the gun. Then he pressed it against his head.

The cold metallic feeling made Zaid’s heart pump furiously.

He didn’t want to die. His deposit in Switzerland still had more than twenty million dollars in blood money. This money would be enough for him to flee to any country and start a new life. Even if Arrow Military and the forces behind them pursue him, it would be better than dying on the sea.

“…I will cooperate.”

Jiang Chen smiled and put away the gun.

“Wise choice.”

After the cooperation was reached, Zaid was temporarily locked in a dark room and guarded by a drone. Because he needed to confirm contact with Arrow, Jiang Chen loosened him and handed the intercom to him.

“Every word you say will be recorded. If you dare to play any tricks, the drone will automatically shoot you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Looking at Zaid’s desperate nod, Jiang Chen closed the cabin door and locked it from the outside.

The bloodstains on the ship had been washed away by the rescued hostages. At the request of Jiang Chen, the pirates’ clothes and equipment were all pulled off of their bodies. They were thrown into a cabin and locked and sprayed with disinfectant.

He had other uses for the bodies.

After these things were completed, the High-Tech Freshwater employees returned to their dorms, and the crews who had no tasks returned to their rooms. Although they didn’t ingest anything since that morning. After such a tragic accident, they didn’t have the appetite.

While passing through the cabin, Ulrika, who was rescued by Jiang Chen, suddenly hugged him and gave a kiss to the hero who saved her. However, when she hinted to see if Jiang Chen could accompany her back to the dorm and stay with her for a while, Jiang Chen declined the beauty’s request because he was not in the mood.

She was not at the scene at the time and knew nothing about Jiang Chen’s identity. If she knew that he was not a special force soldier, but the group’s chairman, would she blush at her own thought?

After all, foreigners looked at Han as if they looked alike, just like when Han looked at foreigners. Even if he met Gate or Jobs on the street, if no one pointed them out, Jiang Chen would not recognize them either.

Returning to Droplet, Jiang Chen set it on auto-cruise mode and followed the cargo vessel.

After about two hours, the night was already approaching, and the two black dots flew from the distance.

Two black hawk helicopters flew in tandem and were filled with soldiers of Sea Lions Special Forces.

In the cheers of the hostages, the soldiers wearing black combat suits dropped to the platform. Garrett hung the rifle behind the kinetic skeleton and walked towards Jiang Chen waiting at the bow.

“Boss.”

Due to his identity, Garrett just forced a smile and swallowed the “too reckless” in his stomach.

Jiang Chen looked at the equipment on him.

“Is this the K2 kinetic skeleton?”

Since the last time they were almost wiped out in Antarctica, the newly organized Sea Lion Special Forces had been equipped with the K2 kinetic skeleton produced by the Sixth Street military factory. These skeletons could mount more modules, including optical imaging, anti-EMP, and nitrogen shields which were not possible with the K1 model.

“Yes,” said Garrett.

“Very good, follow me.” Jiang Chen nodded and headed to the cabin.

…

The room was originally a cafeteria but it was now changed to a temporary command center. The heavily armed soldiers formed a circle and waited quietly for Jiang Chen’s order. Several tables were combined together. Jiang Chen spread a map on the table and then used a marker to draw two lines and a circle.

“Four soldiers were executed by the pirates. The dark hand behind all of this is Arrow and we were also attacked by them in Antarctica. Now let’s settle everything together. Diplomatic issue aside, blood debt must be paid by blood. You understand what I mean.”

The soldiers did not speak, but Jiang Chen could feel the high morale.

Revenge for their dead comrades.

For revenge!

“… The plan is very simple. Team A will be led by me and be disguised as pirates. We’ll go to Mayotte Port west of Madagascar and deliver the desalination platform. Team B will be led by Garrett and depart for Mayotte in helicopter prior to deployment in the northern part of the island. Then you’ll travel on foot around the coast to the exchange site. Attack from both sides and wipe them completely out!”

Hearing Jiang Chen’s words, the pilots objected.

“Our helicopters are running out of oil. If we return to the frigate now, I am afraid it will be too late.”

After a long journey, the petrol on the helicopter was just enough to return to the frigate. There was insuffient fuel to carry out the mission.

“There is petrol in the ship’s warehouse. After the battle meeting is over, go refuel.”

“The cargo ship uses diesel. The Black Hawk needs No. 3 jet fuel,” the pilot educated Jiang Chen .

“I’m talking about No. 3 jet fuel. I’ve carried the supplies in the underwater submersible I brought. I’ve put it in the warehouse on the left side of the stern. Open the door and you will see,” Jiang Chen explained.

The pilot nodded in surprise.

Jiang Chen threw the marker on the map and glanced at the twelve fighters and four pilots present.

“Action code: Trojan Horse. Raise any questions you have, if not say so.”

With Garrett as the leader, the soldiers stood upright and uniformly roared.

“No problem!”

Jiang Chen slammed on the map and then waved his hand.

“Then let’s get moving!”

A powerful and coherent answer responded to him along with crashing footsteps.

“Yes! Sir!”

Chapter 815: Don’t Speak Chinese!

It was getting late.

North of Mayotte, a cargo vessel slowly sailed towards the fishing port in the northwestern part of the island.

The location was close to the slums of the Republic of Madagascar. There were rows of old brick houses and diseases, crimes, and deaths filled the dirty alleys. Only two kinds of people were there; poor people starving to their bones or powerful and strong killers.

The children sat on the edge of the wharf in groups and looked curiously and alertly at the cargo vessel and the offshore platform. Although Arrow’s people occasionally used the port, it was their first time seeing such a strange thing.

Because of the arrival of this cargo vessel, the originally messy port turned even more chaotic. Naked men left in a hurry and several naked mercenaries with rifles and magazines wrapped around their bodies hopped on the port and then gestured toward the vessel..

“At three o’clock, the man with a hat. He is an informant of Arrow Military. At five o’clock, the guy who is waving at me is the informant responsible for contacting us. The name is long and wordy. I usually call him Andre… Can I reply to him?”

“Be natural.” Jiang Chen in optical illusion, whispered.

“Okay…”

Zaid squeezed out an ugly smile on his face, but it was not obvious under the darkness.

Zaid negotiated with the people on the dock and quickly got permission to enter.

The other party sent several sailors to the vessel. The man named Andre happily walked next to Zaid and punched him on the shoulder. He spoke French, a common language in Madagascar.

“Hey, man, this is a big deal. You should treat me after you’re done the deal. ”

“Come on, wait until I confirm the money is in my account.” Zaid took out a cigar from his pocket and said slyly, “Where is the ship? Are we driving this into your garage?”

“The ship will be here in a minute,” Andre said in a flattering tone. “Oh right, where is Bageri? How come I didn’t see him?”

“He is doing something in Somalia. I did not bring him on the mission,” Zaid said.

“How about the hostages?”

“All fed to the fishes.” Zaid grinned maliciously.

Only from this smile did Andre smell the thick scent of blood. He scratched his head and forced out a smile.

“Oh, just pretend I didn’t ask.”

Two hours earlier, the frigate moved closer to the cargo vessel that slowed down and a corps of Marines boarded the ship. The High-Tech Freshwater employees and crew members boarded the frigate.

The clothes that were plucked from the pirates came in handy, and the soldiers currently standing on the deck of the ship were all Marines. The kinetic skeletons were hidden under the tightly wrapped rags, and the assault rifle was hidden near their hands.

Jiang Chen tilted his head slightly and whispered to Captain Cramer, who was dressed like a pirate.

“Don’t speak Chinese.”

The sun-tanned man grinned.

“I understand.”

Jiang Chen nodded and gestured to Ayesha behind him.

The two started their optical illusion and disappeared into the darkness.

Time passed by slowly. The soldiers waiting felt like time was passing by endlessly.

Several sailors confirmed it was safe to board and that the desalination platform behind the vessel was also safe. Then they returned to the bow. After confirming, Andre made several calls.

Soon, a freighter with a tonnage of more than 5,000 tons appeared in the distance.

The freighter had obvious signs of modification and the deck was cleared out. There were two helicopter pads with two Black Hawk helicopters parked on top. The soldiers in desert-colored camouflage jumped onto the deck. The hearts of Jiang Chen, Cramer, and Zaid were pumping furiously.

It was the most critical moment!

Obviously, these soldiers boarding the ship were the elites of Arrow Military. If they discovered their plan, the consequences would be disastrous!

Fortunately, however, it was late in the night and Jiang Chen’s side managed to successful disguise themselves through the inspection. Perhaps because of the multiple partnerships they had with Zaid, these Arrow soldiers also relaxed their vigilance. They just went from the bow to the stern, unloaded the offshore platform from the back of the ship, and connected it to their own freighter with steel cables.

“What about the money?” Zaid said to the mercenary who had contacted him.

“Already in your account,” the mercenary responded without a change in expression.

Hearing these words, Zaid breathed a sigh of relief.

He was not worried about Arrow scamming him. All he thought about now was that he had to quickly transfer money from the Swiss bank to a Russian bank account. Putting money in Europe always made him feel unsafe. After all, he heard that the shareholders of Arrow were Europeans and belonged to a powerful family.

After completing the delivery of the “goods,” Arrow’s mercenaries immediately returned to their own freighter and were on course with the desalination platform. Two days later, this desalination platform will be towed to Europe, where the German engineers will study the structure and design.

The Arrow ship got further and further away, but Zaid’s fists clenched tighter.

Because he knew that once the ship left, it was time for the main course.

“The work is done now. Now let’s go for a drink on the island.” Andre laughed while patting Zaid’s shoulder.

“You go first, I feel a bit dizzy.” Zaid rubbed his nose and pretended to be uncomfortable. He wanted to get rid of him quickly.

“Haha, you shouldn’t be seasick, man!” Andre said with a sly smile

Pirates could get seasick?

What a creative joke.

While they were bantering, the cargo ship slowly moved towards the port.

Under the cover of the night, an Aurora-20 quietly arrived over Mayotte Island.

“Archer-1 has reached the target and requesting instructions…”

The outdated radar in the Republic of Madagascar was non-existent to the Celestial Trade fighter jet. Knowing that Arrow had infiltrated the government, Jiang Chen did not ask for permission to take military actions.

He would never recognize the mission tonight.

A report came from the pilot. Jiang Chen removed the rifle from behind and whispered.

“Turn off the lights for them.”

“Roger that.”

After closing the communication channel, Archer-1’s pilot opened the cover with his finger.

Then, his thumb pressed on the red button.

A black missile attached to the bottom of the aircraft was separated from Aurora-20 and accelerated toward the clouds.

The moment it came in contact with the clouds, the missile suddenly exploded. Blue electric light blasted over the clouds and high-energy particles were emitted, colliding with the oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the air. The entire cloud layer turned into an electrode plate and cast a powerful momentary electric field toward Mayotte Island.

“Is it thundering?”

The loud sound in the air caught Andre’s attention. He took out the burning cigar from his mouth and gazed into the clear night sky.

“Perhaps,” Zaid responded vaguely, quietly moving away from Andre.

The lights suddenly went out and the darkness corroded the entire coast.

“What’s wrong? You look a bit weird—”

Andre’s words stopped abruptly, and a blood hole appeared on his forehead.

Zaid closed his eyes at the scene and then kneeled on the ground covering his head.

[Dude, I’m sorry… I had no other choices.]

The gunfire suppressed by the silencer began.

The killing also began!

Chapter 816: Madgascar

Woosh!

Homing noises echoed through the silent night.

The rockets slammed into the steel armor and sparks flew out from the other side of the ASV-150 light armored vehicle. The glaring flames lifted the turret into the air. The mercenaries who were on the side of the armored vehicle were blown to the bushes on the road and fled to seek shelter.

Because the steel armor itself resembled an imperfect “Faraday cage,” it had a strong resistance to the electric field passing through it. The broad range of strategic EMP merely paralyzed the communication stations hanging outside the carriages. It did not burn the electronic components inside the armored vehicle.

However, while it escaped the first time, luck was not with it the second time.

The Sea Lion Special Forces dashed through the night were like ghosts based on the optical illusion modules mounted on the K2 kinetic skeleton. They haunted the smoke-filled battlefield. The Arrow mercenaries could only fight back reactively, and all unprotected electronic devices were fried, including night-vision goggles and infrared sights.

At the same time, Arrow’s headquarters in Mayotte Military Base also turned into chaos.

Attacks first came from the north side and then appeared on the west. However, they did not even know how many enemies there were! Due to radio failure, their two infantry squads fought against each other in the streets outside the slums.

“This is Mayotte Military Base. This is Mayotte Military Base. We are being attacked! I repeat! We are being attacked! Dam*it!” Colonel Mangala slammed the phone on the desk, grabbed the rifle next the table, and then rushed out of the door.

The fire was blazing in the base, and the sound of gunfire was approaching the barracks of the military base. It was no longer a safe place to stay. He had to evacuate!

If he could evacuate…

Just ten minutes ago, a “thunderstorm” boomed over Mayotte Island.

Followed by a large-scale power outage.

Not just a massive power outage, mobile phones, computers, walkie-talkies… All electronic products lost their functionalities.

The traffic system completely collapsed, and cars with malfunctioning brakes slammed into each other. All the vehicles on the road became scrap metal, and all functions were lost except for windows and door. Due to the large scale of short circuits, a fire began to spread in many areas with fire hazards.

An EMP bomb turned the entire island back to the Stone Age.

Although before the bomb arrived, the island half the size of Wanghai was not advanced by any means.

Team B was engaged in battle, and Team A just encountered enemies at the dock!

At the second of the EMP’s explosion, all the light bulbs in the slums were destroyed, and the entire dock turned into darkness. The freighter was also within the EMP strike range, and the lights on the deck suddenly went out. However, other than a moment of delay on the kinetic skeleton of the soldiers, there were no other interferences.

It was Jiang Chen who took the first shot and killed Andre who was standing next to Zaid. After receiving the attack signal, the Marines disguised as pirates immediately lifted their AK47s and opened fire. After emptying the cartridges, they tossed the AK aside and took the Reaper Assault Rifle on hand to continue firing.

Several pirates at the dock were killed on the spot. Refugees in the slums screamed and ran in fear. Arrow’s people crouched behind walls and houses while returning fire at the freighter.

Some of them were mercenaries of Arrow, some were contractors employed by the company, and some were local gangs with connections to them.

Bullets flew through the pitch dark dock. Although Arrow had an advantage in numbers, their accuracies and tactics were terrible. They were no match to the Celestial Marines, who had just completed their joint military exercise.

The only thing that caused trouble for Jiang Chen was just a few RPGs that directly hit the cabin. However, it would be naïve to think that a few RPGs would sink the thousand-ton ship.

The drones were released and the soldiers behind the wall were obliterated.

Marines tore down the robes outside of the kinetic skeleton, jumped to the dock, fired while running, and penetrated to the interior of the slums.

“Anyone with weapons will be killed! I repeat! Anyone with weapons will be killed!” Marines Captain Cramer shouted into the communication channel, and at the same time directed soldiers to separate into three teams to attack the stronghold of Arrow in the slums.

Jiang Chen did not personally go into battle. After the first shot was fired, he sat on the side of the ship and looked into the blazing slum. He was a spectator in the battlefield. Ayesha was with him. The sea breeze swayed her hair while she quietly stood there.

Zaid cautiously climbed up from the deck and wiped the sweat and blood off of his face, He then squeezed out a smile.

“Where, where are you going to drop me off?”

“Here, but before that, I need you to do one last thing for me.” Jiang Chen smiled.

From Jiang Chen’s smile, Zaid felt a hint of anxiousness, but he couldn’t tell what disturbed him because after all, the smile was peaceful.

The gunshots in the slums gradually subsided. From the sporadic gunshots and resistance, it was possible to hear Arrow’s demise.

Zaid followed behind Jiang Chen and stepped onto the dock. Then he came to a brick house in the slums.

At the corner, he saw Colonel Mangala, Arrow’s instructor and officer, had been shot in the legs and lost his ability to walk. The man who had participated in both the Iran and Iraq war had a drink with him before, but now he was like a dead dog.

Blood…

“It was you…Zaid.” Mangala used his last breath and pressed on the wound on his leg. He grinned. “I didn’t expect it. I didn’t expect it. The boss trusted the wrong person!”

Zaid did not look him in the eyes.

Although he did not care about any glory and dignity when he became a pirate, he still felt guilty after killing so many friends.

Jiang Chen did not care about their exchanged in French and simply handed Zaid a dagger.

“Kill him. You are our companion.”

Zaid took over the dagger, and Jiang Chen also raised his gun.

The information conveyed by this gesture was clear.

[If you do not kill him. You are our enemy!]

“Come on, look at my eyes and kill me!” Mangala’s eyes were crimson but with a stiffened neck, he stared right at Zaid.

Knowing that he was dead, Mangala chose to die in the most quick and painless way.

Zayed swallowed, thinking that since he was already an enemy of Arrow and the boss behind the company, an extra life in his hands wouldn’t matter.

Therefore, he made up his mind, grabbed the dagger, and slashed at Mangala’s neck.

At the same time, he mumbled in his heart – “I’m sorry, brother.”

However, this inner monologue could not be completed.

Just as his dagger sliced through Mangala’s throat, blood spewed from his own chest and spilled onto his former friend.

It was his blood.

Blood began to pour out from the hole in his chest. Zaid stood there blankly, looking down at his chest.

Jiang Chen lowered his gun. His face was cold.

Zaid, using all his strength to turn around and stare at Jiang Chen.

The eyes seemed to be saying “Why?”

“I said you are only an ant to me.”

Not even considered a dog, how could he be a companion?

From the moment he ordered the execution of the four soldiers, his fate was sealed.

Everyone must die.

[Pay for your own behavior!]

Jiang Chen casually put away the gun and made a gesture to the soldiers next to him. Then he left the alley.

The soldier understood his gesture and stepped forward. He slammed his fist on Zaid’s face and knocked him unconscious. Then, grabbing his collar, he dragged him to the man named Mangala and returned the pistol used by the dead Colonel.

The two died together as if they killed each other.

Before the last lingering consciousness faded, Zaid heard the following words floating in the alley.

“Pull down the bodies of the pirates from the ship, put clothes back on them again, and throw them here… Also, toss a few bodies around the corners of the slum. Don’t forget to give each person an AK. Be fast, Madagascar’s government should realize what has happened by now. Evacuate immediately after five minutes!”

Chapter 817: The Trojan Horse

Hauling the desalination platform robbed from Celestial Trade, the modified freighter slowly sailed to the port in the northwest corner of Madagascar.

At the end of the jungle and mountains, there was a fortress that was inconsistent with the poverty in Madagascar. Within the tall concrete walls, there were more than a dozen Black Hawks and even Apache helicopters. In addition, the number of M1114 and M2A3 infantry vehicles parked in the garage even surpassed many UA military bases overseas.

There were also Patriot 3 guided missile launch vehicles hidden underneath the cover. They were even more indicative of Arrow’s military and political influence.

The terrifying arms force could easily overturn a small country. It was not the power that an ordinary private military contractor could possess.

Because its strength, the UA government was also cautious toward Arrow. Even if the Freemasonry exerted a strong influence in the UA political scene, its military bases could only be built overseas, such as in poor Africa, or chaotic South America.

The freighter entered the port and the officer wearing a desert-colored army cap walked down the freighter and down the stairs. On the edge of the port, a middle-aged bald man in a suit extended his hand from a long ways away and greeted cheerfully.

“Hahaha, welcome, Colonel Ferrer.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans.” Ferrer shook the hand sincerely.

Judging from the look of the colonel’s face, he was very respectful to Mr. Evans.

This respect was not due to social status but constrained by an ancient class.

In the Freemasonry, lower-level members must commensurate higher-level members as their mentors. Although in modern times, this rule had not been strictly enforced. Only in internal meetings would people use the vintage title of mentor.

But this did not prevent Ferrer from respecting the gentleman in front of him.

As an ordinary member of the Freemasonry, Ferrer was only level three. The man in a suit, who stood across from him, had a ring engraved with a number 32 on his right hand. He was only one grade away from the top Scottish faction.

Engineers boarded the ship and removed the desalination platform from the back of the ship.

Evans didn’t have an attitude. He smiled pleasantly and took Ferrer to the side, handed him a cigar and lit one for himself.

“Our country has a long coastline, but it lacks fresh water. We negotiated with High-Tech Freshwater, but they were extremely stingy about their precious technology. We are very disappointed.”

The country was referring to Israel.

When Evans mentioned disappointment, he blew a ring and grinned, patting Ferrer’s shoulder.

“Fortunately, we have a group of brave men. Future Group will soon regret the decision to refuse us.”

“Zaid is done. I’m afraid we’ll have to find someone else to do the dirty work for us,” Ferrer grinned.

Someone must bear the wrath of Future Group. Evans and Ferrer didn’t believe that they would dare to launch an attack against the Freemasonry. So Future Group could only retaliate against the pirates of Somalia.

But then again, it would be a question if Jiang Chen could find the man behind the scene.

Evans smiled at this thought.

He dusted his cigar. The 1-inch long soot fell to the edge of his shoe, and Evans blew another smoke ring. The eagle-like eyes looked in the direction of the desalination platform.

“Zaid won’t live till tomorrow. By tomorrow evening, Mossad’s men will take out his den in Somalia and wait for him to show up at the door. As long as the insider Zaid dies, Future Group won’t be able to find anything.”

“A month later, the Mediterranean Freshwater Company will be listed in New York and formally explore the Middle East market. We will use the influence of the oil market to seize the market share of High-Tech Freshwater from the east coast of the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf region.”

Looking forward to a bright future, a curvature formed on Evan’s mouth. He then looked at Ferrer who was standing next to him.

“Did you check the goods?”

“Not yet, but this is a direct shipment to be deployed in the Red Sea. There should be no quality problems.” Ferrer laughed.

“Deploy it first and see. I heard this thing is easy to move anyway.” Evans grinned, pointing the cigar to port. He was just about to say something to the soldier next to him, but soon a light attracted his attention.

On the sea not far away, the offshore platform began to shine.

The compressed light leaked from the gaps of the mechanical shell. It even separated by hundreds of meters. He could still feel the burning pain on his skin.

The steel was melted into molten iron, and armored vehicles and helicopters faded in color under the strong light. The cement peeled off from the reinforcing steel frame and collapsed like an avalanche.

It was said that at the moment of death, that second will be infinitely elongated until the consciousness has completely faded.

At the moment before losing consciousness, Evans saw the sunrise.

The so-called bright future, in the halo of this sunrise, along with the cigar between his finger, was blown into ashes.

The shock wave swept through the mountains and stained all the greenery with darkness.

On the pristine ocean surface, a mushroom cloud rose.

“Buzz… Here is Raven 1, we have arrived over Mayotte Island. It’s dark here, with only sporadic fire…”

“…received, landing.”

After Jiang Chen and the others evacuated, four transport helicopters took off from the base in Madagascar and flew over Mayotte Island.

All contact channels were cut off. When they learned that the entire island had lost contact, Madagascar officials thought it was a joke. After all, the incident was late at night and the question sounded bizarre.

Until with the passage of time did various departments realize the “toe” became paralyzed. They then sent troops to the island to investigate the situation.

Army soldiers landed in the slums in transport helicopters. However, they saw a devastating scene.

Walls were full of bullet holes and residues of explosions. Bloodstains were everywhere. Most of them belonged to the local gangs and the mercenaries of Arrow Military. Of course, some of them were from civilians from the slums.

“Pirates! They attacked us!” The boy who was rescued shouted in shock while shuddering.

There was a scar on his arm from stray bullets and an injury to his leg that left his bone exposed. He was carried out on a stretcher.

The scene became chaotic and cries and shouts filled the air. The rescue team that first landed had to report the situation to the headquarters to request additional assistance while treating the wounded.

“AHHHH…!”

“Don’t move, man, you’ll be okay…”

“My legs! AHHHH-!”

“Who has bandages, hand me a piece! Quick!”

At the same time, in the Presidential Palace in Madagascar, officials from various departments were in complete mayhem. President La Jonah put a suit on over his pajamas and rushed to his office. He was anxiously contacting Arrow. However, the phone was busy.

La Jonah slammed down the phone.

At the same time, Madagascar’s Minister of Power came in.

“A large-scale power outage occurred in Mayotte! According to the incident diagnosis, various degrees of burnout occurred in various circuits. As for the cause, it is currently unclear…”

“Continue to investigate!”

“Yes!” Seeing the President was in a bad mood. The Minister of Power did not dare to say anything more. After nodding, he immediately turned to leave.

“Wait!”

The Minister of Power stopped and asked anxiously.

“What else can I do?”

“Call the Minister of Defense—”

At the exact moment, the door was suddenly pushed open, and the Minister of Defense with an unfastened seatbelt trodded into the room and looked at La Jonah with panic. He said in a stuttering voice.

“Nuclear…”

“What?” La Jonah frowned.

His face twisted together. The Minister of Defense with an almost crying expression incoherently articulated his sentence.

“Yes, nuclear, nuclear weapons! North of Madagascar was attacked by tactical nuclear weapons!”

Chapter 818: The Aftershock of the Tactical Nuclear Bomb

The office was silent.

President La Jonah and the Minister of Power didn’t move.

The silence lasted for half a minute. The president shuddered and collapsed back on his seat, fingers rubbing his forehead.

“I’m sorry, I may not have heard clearly, could you…”

The Minister of Defense quickly repeated his speech.

“It was a tactical nuclear bomb. It exploded at the headquarters of Arrow Military and the entire coast was turned into ruins… The nearby forest is on fire and our firefighters has already entered the forest to extinguish the fire. Fortunately, their headquarters are far from the city and there are no civilian casualties. At present, we have not made an announcement to the media…”

La Jonah finally accepted this fact after a long silence; he sighed and said with a headache.

“Evacuate citizens in nearby villages and towns near the forest. Don’t release the news of the tactical nuclear explosion to the press yet, at least not tonight.”

“But those firefighters…” squeezed out the Minister of National Defense.

“The country will remember their contributions.”

“Yes…” The Minister of Defense nodded and left the office with a low-spirited expression.

“Continue to investigate the reasons for the blackout on Mayotte and the identity of the group that engaged in crossfire with Arrow…” La Jonah took a deep breath and then said to the Minister of Power. “You can go now.”

“Yes.”

The Minister of Power replied and slipped out of the room hastily.

…

Paper can’t cover fire.

Jiang Chen disembarked on Coro Island and collapsed on his bed once he returned to the mansion. When he woke up, the world was in a heated discussion over nuclear weapons.

Although it was a tactical nuclear bomb with only limited destructive power, it was more than enough to smother a military base.

News of a tactical nuclear bomb hit north of Madagascar had already been all over the international news panel. The name of Arrow, the private military contractor, appeared for the first time in the eyes of the public.

They were employed by the UA and have repeatedly traveled to other countries to perform tasks inconvenient for the UA to perform. Such as rescuing key members, counter-terrorism operations, planning of a coup, and a series of tasks that could not be exposed under the light.

Now, all this was exposed in the eyes of the public.

Moreover, Madagascar’s domestic and foreign media had unanimously condemned this military company registered in the UA for why Arrow’s military base in Madagascar would have a tactical nuclear bomb. In this period, because of this nuclear bomb, the international community was stirred into chaos.

“Why was a nuclear bomb shipped into our country! How many nuclear bombs are here in our country and were brought in by those Americans without our knowledge!” Madagascar Cable TV.

“All Arrow’s actions are independent actions without the knowledge from the Capitol. When the media asked why Arrow would hold a nuclear weapon, the Capitol spokesman used shock and unbelievable in his speech. The nuclear weapons incident in Madagascar again exposed the foolishness of the Republic’s policy to push for military outsourcing…” The Washington Post.

“The South African government is vehemently protesting the UA’s deployment of nuclear weapons of all forms to Africa and expressed concern to terrorism with private ownership’s possession of nuclear weapons. The AU is currently holding an emergency meeting at the African Union Conference Center in Ethiopia and is in a dialogue on the Madagascar nuclear issue with the Capitol…” South Africa Morning Post.

“Arrow stated that the nuclear weapon was not held by the company but is related to Celestial Trade. However, when asked for evidence, Arrow’s spokesperson avoided the issue. For Arrow’s unsubstantiated allegations, Celestial Trade used the word ‘absurd’ to respond, and the challenged the logic behind Arrow’s accusation.” Xiangjiang Daily.

It was mayhem.

The first was the firefight that took place in Mayotte.

Beside the body of Arrow officer Mangala, the international wanted criminal Zaid’s body was discovered. It had now been confirmed that Mangala was killed by Zaid and the reason was currenly unknown.

According to the analysis of the scene, as well as the bodies of some of the attackers on the scene, it was confirmed that the attackers were Somali pirates. The attack was eventually characterized as a clash between Somali pirates and Arrow. Just five hours after the attack, the Somali government announced that with the cooperation of Israel’s intelligence services, the Somali government forces eliminated the pirate stronghold led by Zaid.

In connection with the Jewish background behind Arrow, it was difficult for people not to link these two events together.

With regard to the large-scale destruction of electronic equipment in Mayotte, experts at present had only made a lot of speculations, but they had not been able to make a specific conclusion. There was speculation about sunspot activity and geomagnetism. Some people had speculated that Arrow Company was testing new weapons on Mayotte…

No one linked it to Celestial Trade, far away in the Pacific Ocean.

Although Celestial used EMP in the Battle of MLL Island, and had conducted regional EMP strikes against the Country F Army, neither the range nor strength could be linked to the phenomenon on Mayotte. What’s more, EMP weapons belonged in the experimental stage. At present, only high-altitude nuclear explosions could produce wide-area electromagnetic pulse effects.

However, the gamma value on Mayotte remained normal and the nuclear explosion only occurred at Arrow’s military base in Madagascar.

As for the nuclear explosion, Arrow still offered no explanation.

The tactical nuclear bomb was the masterpiece of Jiang Chen, and he personally installed it inside the desalination platform.

However, there is no evidence at all, except for Arrow and Jiang Chen who knew this point.

Not to mention that because it was in the center of the explosion, even the iron and steel on the desalination platform melted into molten steel and was impossible to retrieve from the water. Taking ten thousand steps back, even if they did prove that the nuclear bomb was hidden in the desalination platform, why did their desalination platform turn up there?

It could not be explained.

All the evidence was buried in the tomb with the death of Zaid.

Even if Arrow intended to no longer disguise its intention and announce to all media and reporters that the transport vessel of Celestial Trade was hijacked by them and that they did not expect they had hidden a nuclear bomb in the desalination platform. No one would believe their nonsense.

Zaid died on Mayotte and died beside military officer Mangala. All pieces of evidence stopped there. Zaid led the pirates to attack Arrow’s military base in Mayotte, and it had no relationship with Celestial Trade.

And just ten hours after the incident, Celestial Trade announced to the media that the transport vessel that was hijacked was rescued by its navy in the Indian Ocean. All the reporters saw that when the ship was brought back to the Coro Island Port, it had hauled a desalination platform behind it…

The broken teeth can only be swallowed down. This was the current situation facing Arrow Military.

Jiang Chen knew, however, that the Freemasonry hiding behind the scenes would certainly not swallow their teeth. They would certainly do something.

At least divert the attention of the international community…

Tossing the newspaper aside, Jiang Chen took a sip of the coffee Ayesha made and then called the President of Moro, Santos.

He didn’t speak yet, and Santos asked nervously first.

“Was that you in Africa?”

Their allies held nuclear weapons. It was incredible news. However, Jiang Chen obviously didn’t plan to discuss this question.

“It is not in your consideration.” Jiang Chen did not answer his question directly. “You must strengthen the defense at the northern border. Although I have been stressing this matter, I now have to emphasize it once more. The war has already started.”

“Started?” Santos was stunned.

“Yes.” Jiang Chen paused, “The MLL Island will be the frontline between Freemasonry and Future Group. You’d better be mentally prepared.”

“This statement is certainly enraging,” Santos bitterly said.

“But it’s not something we can control,” said Jiang Chen, taking a sip of his coffee. Then he continued, “If you want to continue to be the dictator, then you have to fight with them. If you don’t want to, please remember to speak with me in advance.”

Santos took a deep breath.

“I know what to do…”

“Excellent, then Celestial will always have your back.”

“…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Chapter 819: Two Funerals

Early the next morning, at the cemetery on Coro Island, Jiang Chen attended the funeral of four soldiers who were killed as the President of Celestial Trade.

Celestial reported on the hijacking of the ship and stated that the hostages were all rescued and that all the pirates have been killed on the spot. Four Celestial Trade bodyguards died in service. Jiang Chen attended the funeral of the four soldiers to sending his condolences and personally handed the Medal of Honor and pensions to the families of the fallen soldiers.

At the funeral, after Jiang Chen finished his words of mourning, he briefly addressed the media on the incident of hijacking.

“…Celestial Trade will never compromise to any evil forces. Absolutely never. No matter how many sacrifices are made, no matter what kind of methods are used, whether provocations come from pirates or anyone else, we will protect our people at all costs.”

“… Let us remember these warriors who sacrificed themselves for peace.”

There was applause from the audience.

At the end of the speech, the reporter immediately stepped forward and extended his microphone.

“Mr. Jiang Chen, as the President, what do you think about Mr. Smith, the president of Arrow, and his connection with the Madagascar nuclear explosion and Celestial Trade?”

“I don’t have any opinions on such nonsense. And on this sad day, I don’t want to give any opinion on events unrelated to Celestial Trade. However, if the CEO of Arrow is interested, I recommend he goes to Coro Island’s Institute for Mental Illness to receive treatment.”

There was friendly laughter from the crowd.

Although it was inappropriate to laugh at the funeral, Jiang Chen’s words still amused the foreign journalists.

Obviously, they also didn’t believe there was a linkage between Celestial Trade and the nuclear bomb. After all, Xin only gained control of civil nuclear technology a few months ago. Even if they ignore the gap between commercial nuclear technology and military nuclear technology, and secretly replaces all light-water reactors with heavy water reactors. It was also impossible to get enough of “Plutonium” to make nuclear weapons in such a short period of time.

People were more willing to believe that it was Arrow that deployed nuclear weapons in Madagascar.

The intention behind this move was unknown.

On the bright green lawn, the honor guards raised their guns in front of their chest and shot three times.

Under the ensemble of people, the casket covered with the Xin flag was lowered. The military band played a solemn and passionate national anthem. It was particularly tragic with the cries of the families of the fallen soldiers.

The ceremony was approaching its end. If he continued to stay, he would have to deal with the countless reporters. Jiang Chen nodded to Ayesha, who was next to him and headed to his car. The accompanying bodyguards blocked the reporters for him until the retro black car drove off.

…

Neither the Capitol nor the Pentagon had the precedence to wipe the military contractors’ butts for them.

The Capitol spokesman stated they were unaware of the situation. At the same time, he expressed to the public that the Arrow’s assets in the UA would be strictly audited to ensure that there are no nuclear weapons outside of the control of the government on the UA soil.

As for the follow-up impact of this incident, it was still being escalated under the intentional influence of Future Group online.

Currently, in the manor in the suburbs of of a town in Frankberg, members of the Freemasonry were holding a secret meeting.

Even in this day and age with the highly sophisticated internet infrastructure, they continued to maintain the mystic traditions, relying on ancient dogma to maintain a covenant superior to bloodline.

Sitting in front of a round conference table, the white-haired elder at the head of the table wore a religious robe. With a mourning but solemn tone, he spoke.

“Two days ago, on Madagascar, we lost two brothers.”

“Level three member Mr. Ferrer and level thirty-two member Mr. Evans. Their death is a heavy loss for the Freemasonry. We will never blind our eyes with hatred and we will never spare anyone that killed our brothers.”

“Future Group will pay for their stupidity.”

“As a punishment, I propose to send The Gatekeeper to Asia.”

Here, the old man paused and looked at Carmen who was sitting in the left-hand seat.

“The new head of Rothschild. Do you have any comments?”

Twelve pairs of eyes gazed on him, but Carmen’s expression did not change and he responded with a smile.

“No comments, Mr. Lord.”

The Rothschild family had many friends, but no one could claim to be a friend in front of the most core interests.

The old man nodded and placed his right hand on the table. On that dry finger, the golden ring glittered under the halo of the candle.

“Then, let’s start voting.”

Thirteen hands were placed on the table, representing the thirteen families of the core power of the old world. The vote passed unanimously.

The elder nodded, pleased. He then looked at the door.

The man standing in the doorway slightly bowed and disappeared into the darkness of the doorwy, as if he had never been there.

The elder focused his attention back onto the room.

“Since the war has begun, let us carry out the ceremony to the end.”

Everyone raised their right hand, and in ancient Hebrew, they solemnly repeated the oath repeated countless times.

The candles on the wall flickered.

By that dim light, the thirteen rings pointing up were all engraved with the number thirty-three.

…

Three days had passed since the hijacking. Jiang Chen, as usual, sat in the office of the mansion and turned to an unfinished book.

Natasha knocked on the door.

Jiang Chen knew so clearly because Ayesha’s knocking was always as light as a cat… if a cat could knock on doors.

“Please come in.”

Jiang Chen sighed and put a bookmark into the book and placed in the corner.

Natasha walked in with giant strides and, as Jiang Chen expected, got directly to the point.

“You went overboard.”

“Overboard?” Jiang Chen laughed, got up from his chair and walked to the window. “When they were in Antarctica, they sent an entire battalion to attack me. They didn’t think what they were doing was going overboard?”

The war began long ago, not just in the sense of a war fought with bullets.

If any party naively thought that both sides could co-exist, that would be the definition of naiveness. The new world must be nurtured in the flames of the old world. Whether it was the Freemasonry or the WASP consortium, they would eventually become the enemies of Future Group, except the oldest one should die first.

Hijack a ship? It was just a foolish way to test Future Group. Start from the marginal interests of Future Group and in case Jiang Chen compromises, they would take away the building blocks piece of by piece until they gradually reach for their core interests…

However, Jiang Chen did not intend to compromise. He had made up his mind from the very beginning.

Natasha raised one of her eyebrows.

“Was it really you in Madagascar?”

“I didn’t say anything.” Jiang Chen shrugged and focused on the drone that was fixing up the garden outside his window.

“…”

Natasha silently stared at Jiang Chen’s back, not knowing what to say at the moment.

She didn’t know whether he was confident that the bottom card in his hands would never lose. Or that his achievements were turning him into someone with blind arrogance. There were many people who believed that they could overcome the ancient alliance, but those geniuses who had stood at the crossroads of history all eventually stepped into the abyss of hell.

From Napoleon to Hitler, in terms of war alone, they were undoubtedly geniuses.

“Can you answer a question for me?”

Looking at his reflection beginning to overlap with Natasha’s reflection; Jiang Chen did not turn around and asked abruptly.

Chapter 820: Spiraling Down

“What problem?” Natasha furrowed.

“Reminding me that I might have gone overboard, is this a KGB order, or is it a decision that you made without permission?” Jiang Chen fixed his eyes on her and then smiled.

Natasha was caught speechless.

The atmosphere in the room was a bit subtle. After a moment of silence, she began to speak slowly.

“In the last communication with the KGB’s intelligence minister, the minister used the term ‘allies’ for Future Group. I judged based on existing intelligence that it is necessary to remind you of your actions… If we lost you as one of our allies, our days won’t be too pleasant either.”

After listening to Natasha said, Jiang Chen almost laughed.

[What is this? When did the Russians start to act so subtle?] From his first encounter with Natasha in Eastern Europe, this was the first time he was interested in her poor excuse.

“What are you laughing at?” Natasha frowned.

“Nothing, it suddenly felt a little…well,” Jiang Chen coughed, putting away his impassive expression.

“I should treat this seriously.”

“That would be for the best.” Natasha paused, and then said, “The Freemasonry sent the Gatekeeper. He should have arrived in Asia by now.”

“What is the Gatekeeper?” Jiang Chen asked.

“We are not sure,” Natasha shook her head. “We only know there are many Gatekeepers. Some of them are responsible for the arrangement of the assembly venues, some of them patrol the gate to the assembly, and others hold the ceremonies for new members. One of its meaning is a sharp sword ready to strike while the other meaning is an all-knowing eye that guards the gate. Whatever it stands for—”

“It is not here to send me a membership card, right?” Jiang Chen interrupted with a grin.

“Yes.” Natasha nodded.

The Gatekeeper could be an assassin, a banker, or a general, or just a soldier, or even just a declaration of war.

A sharp sword ready to strike. If it means that, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it the “Cleanser”?

Jiang Chen fixed his gaze on the drone that pruned foliage outside the window and began to think.

…

Madagascar’s nuclear issue continued to escalate. In addition to the anti-UA sentiment boiling in the country, the ongoing protests in the capital, Antananarivo, revealed people’s attitude toward this issue. People emancipated the signs that called for the barring of Arrow and even extended it to the banning of all UA companies. They rashly blamed the Mayotte tragedy and the nuclear explosion as a UA conspiracy.

The BBC reporter repeatedly clarified that he was British and finally got the chance to interview demonstrators without being beaten.

“It was the pirates the UA drew! Their policies in Somalia incurred the revenge of the Bel Devin warlords! The flies will always chase after sh*t! Bar the UA companies out of Madagascar!”

“Why does Arrow possess nuclear weapons? What did they consider our country? An African arsenal? Can we still trust them?”

“Get out of Madagascar…”

Young people shouted slogans in French and surrounded the UA embassy and Arrow Compounds, burned the star-spangled flag. Every Arrow’s military post on the island was forced to be temporarily closed, and the UA embassy also had to close its doors.

Although the adoption rate of the Internet on Madagascar was not high, there was still plenty of tactics for Future Group to utilize. Once a certain kind of public opinion has formed, and the spirit of patriotism and nationalism had been propped up, then this hurricane could be easily manipulated and irrationally sweep away everything.

Forced by pressure domestically and from the Congress, Madagascar President La Jonah, who was inclined to cooperate with the Freemasonry, also had to change his previous strategy and urged Arrow to withdraw from Madagascar.

At the same time, Jiang Chen in the far away Coro Island also began to step up his preparations for war.

Since the KGB could guess he was the perpetrator, the CIB would also have the same capability.

The UA did not make any allegations because they had no evidence to prove this directly. Or even the UA intelligence agencies themselves were skeptical of this inference. Compared to Xin, Israel’s possession of nuclear possession had long been a revealed secret.

“We will protect your industry in North and South America, but Europe… I am very sorry but our capabilities are limited.”

Loki’s voice was very polite, even if he was rejecting them, it was difficult for people to produce unpleasant emotions.

“Anyway, you have been a great help,” Jiang Chen said.

Jiang Chen was not surprised that his request was rejected. After all, he could expect honesty from businessmen, but loyalty would be a big stretch.

However, it would be impossible to say there was no disappointment.

Obviously, although the alliance was formed earlier, the WASP consortium hoped that Future Group would play the role of a pawn. Before the situation played out, they would rather watch than participate. No matter who became the victim, the other side would also be severely injured. This result was a win for them.

WASP was willing to provide shelter for Future Group’s industry in the Americas. The result was not too bad.

However, this meant that Future Group’s industry in Europe would face heavy losses as it was the home base for the Jews after all.

It really did not surprise Jiang Chen.

Just on the second day after the funeral of the four soldiers, Future Group’s European subsidiary received an inquiry letter from the European Commissioner on anti-monopoly investigations, requesting Future Technology to open source virtual reality systems to Europe and allow all other tech companies to enter the market more equitably.

Future Group responded strongly to this.

On the day of the anti-monopoly investigation, the headquarters of Future Group announced that it would suspend the provision of virtual reality network services to EU countries.

It was different from the last decision in UA. Quantum communication satellites launched by Celestial Trade last year were now able to achieve global coverage. Nominally, Future Group suspended the provision of virtual reality network services to EU countries, but Europeans could still access virtual reality networks through Tunisia’s nodes.

The only solution would be for the European Union to confiscate all helmets in every European home, but that would obviously be unrealistic. After more than two years of development, the Phantom helmet had already obtained a good market share in developed countries such as Europe. Even if the European Commission prohibited the sale of Phantom helmets in Europe, it would still be unable to influence Future Technology’s business in Europe in a short period of time.

Salary remained normal, and work followed suit, It was the status quo of Future Technology’s European subsidiary. Tunisia, the smallest country at the northern end of Africa with a population of just around 10 million people, had seen its access to the Phantom helmet reach 200 million within a few days.

In addition to the huge loss of taxes, the Freemasonry-led European Commission did not gain any benefits.

However, on the other hand, the European Union put forward antidumping and countervailing cases on the solid-state lithium-air batteries. This move almost forced Ruhrka into bankruptcy because all the pure electric vehicles used Future Heavy Industrial’s batteries.

For such a result, Jiang Chen’s approach was very simple. He directly allowed Ruhrka Motors to switch off its European factory and build a new plant in the New Malaysian Special District.

Trade frictions gradually escalated. Robots such as Xiao Lin and Dragon Calvary X1 chips were also investigated by environmental protection agencies, human rights organizations, and the European Commission. With the control of the Freemasonry, these organizations handed out astronomical fines against Future Group.

Those policemen holding court summons all had a face determined to bring Future Group down.

Jiang Chen knew that Future Group had lost Europe.

Chapter 821: Layoff

Chapter 821: Layoff

At Future Group Building, Jiang Chen came to work as usual.

It had been two weeks since the funerals of the four soldiers. At least calmness returned to Coro Island; tourists hadn’t felt the tense atmosphere of the past. The only difference was that security near the airport and the port had been strengthened by several magnitudes. The number of patrol drones stationed near Future Building also increased to twice the norm. Future Heavy Industries continued to recruit while Ange Park Industrial Park’s military factory produced around the clock.

Xia Shiyu entered Jiang Chen’s office and gently placed a stack of documents at the corner of the table.

“Last month’s financial report came out. Are you going to take a look?”

“Just tell me if it’s positive or negative.”

“The company’s total revenue for the previous month was 4.7 billion US Dollar, a 13.7% decrease compared to last year at the same time. If the situation doesn’t improve next month, it may fall about 4-5 points again.” Here, Xia Shiyu paused. Then she said, “After all, we’ve lost all of Europe.”

Jiang Chen picked up the financial report and flipped through it.

“What suggestions do you have?”

“Layoffs in the European subsidiary,” Xia Shiyu said without hesitation.

“This may cause a loss of talent.” Jiang Chen didn’t share the same views as her.

“Executives and technical staff can retain normal salaries while all other employees will be put on leave without pay, which will cut us a lot of expenses. I don’t deny that Future Group can indeed afford these employees, but if we lose the European market for an extended period of time, we must do more long-term planning. We shouldn’t rule out the temporary closure of the European office, leaving only one office to maintain patents and trademarks, and relocating the entire executive team to Penglai City or the headquarters on Coro Island.”

There was nothing wrong with Xia Shiyu’s judgment.

She based her judgment on being the CEO of Future Group. If the European Commission was eager to wage a war against Future Group, Future Group would be unable to make any means in the European market while also without any means of fighting back.

There was an international precedent.

In the second half of 2013, the European Commission conducted an antidumping and countervailing investigation into three Chinese photovoltaic companies. Even if the EU’s decision at the time lacked sufficient legal basis and also violated the spirit of free trade advocated by Western countries, the sanctions decision was eventually implemented.

Because of the three decisions, the three photovoltaic companies were forced to withdraw from the MIP agreement and were imposed tariffs of 47%. After the results of the ruling came out, the two photovoltaic companies announced they would no longer ship to Europe from China, turning the market’s focus on China, Japan, and South Korea.

If resistance came from the policy side, then the companies would have no way around it.

Since they would be forced to leave eventually, it would be better to go out with a bang and layoff hundreds of thousands of people while taking away the executives and technical talents.

Seeing Jiang Chen didn’t make a decision, Xia Shiyu sighed then said, “…at this stage, the nutrient supply of Future Biology is being investigated by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and the results of the investigation will be released a week later. From the current situation, despite Tao Ming holding a press conference, declaring nutrient supply has no problems at all, and even drinking two bottles on the spot, the final investigation results may not be good for us.”

If this had been before, Jiang Chen might’ve slammed the table, greeted the ancestors of the European Commissions, then decided on the layoffs.

But now, he was expectedly calm.

The result would be no different.

“For senior executives and technical experts, grant Xin visas, as well as relocation expenses. For those willing to transfer locations, their salary will be increased by 20%. For those unwilling, put them on two years of paid leave.”

The tax rate of Xin was different from that of high-tax, high-welfare Europe. Even if the salaries remained unchanged, European employees who migrated to Xin would receive much higher salaries compared to working in Europe.

With a deep breath, Jiang Chen paused for a moment with his fingers crossed on the table.

“Other than Future Bank, all 315,000 employees of the group’s subsidiaries in EU will be laid off!”

With 315,000 employees, Future Group was paying nearly one billion US dollar in salaries each month. Layoffs were commonplace in the capitalist world, and Future Group wouldn’t be blamed morally.

However, it would make it difficult for the EU countries. After all, they would suddenly have more than 300,000 unemployed people. Even if they were distributed among the countries, it still wouldn’t be pleasant. This was the case in high-welfare countries. All unemployed people had to be supported by the government.

“As for the United Kingdom … wait and see first,” Jiang Chen said.

The United Kingdom was no longer in the European Union, and it hadn’t responded to the attack of Freemasonry against Future Group. However, if the United Kingdom also made a decision, Jiang Chen didn’t care as he had given up the European market.

At least until the collapse of Freemasonry, he had no intention of returning.

“Yes.”

Xia Yu nodded and left.

…

The European Commission was eagerly plotting against Future Group. People who understood the situation clearly knew that the European Union was keen to get rid of Jiang Chen’s “home” in Europe. However, just three days before the results of EFSA’s investigation on the safety of nutrient supply, Future Group suddenly announced its assets had fully withdrawn from Europe and 315,000 employees would be laid off. Only two offices in France and Germany would be retained to deal with the law and legacy issues…

After receiving this news, the European Commission that was meeting to discuss how to deal with Future Group suddenly quieted down.

The members around the table stared at each other. They wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

Sitting in the first spot around the conference table, the European Commission’s chairman, Juncker, was silent. He tapped his pen against the notebook and broke the silence at the conference table.

“Does the discussion still need to continue?”

“Layoffs? 320,000? Are they crazy?” The Frankberg Commissioner was astounded by the news.

After all, one-third of the Future Group’s employees were concentrated in Frankberg. If the news was accurate, then just one second ago, Frankberg gained another hundred thousand unemployed citizens.

“It seems that it’s true.” The French Commissioner looked at the watch, then put on their pen cover and closed their notebook. “It seems that the meeting can end early. We won. Future Group ran away from Europe… Thankfully, this errand is finally over.”

He faced a considerable amount of pressure when he voted in favor of the series of investigations into Future Group.

The people weren’t as foolproof as they thought. The series of measures of the European Commission clearly displayed strong local protectionism. Perhaps entrepreneurs were happy to see one less competitor, but in the eyes of those who were interested in Future Group, this behavior wasn’t as popular as when they investigated the Chinese photovoltaic companies.

After all, the average person wouldn’t come into contact with photovoltaic equipment every day, but they would use Future phones every day, along with the only neuron access device in the world, the Phantom Helmet.

Even if it was the intention of the Freemasonry, it was the members of these voting committees and the government behind each in-favor vote that had to bear the controversial opinion.

“Then the meeting is adjourned.”

The commissioners all left, and although they won, for some odd reason, nobody looked pleasant.

When leaving the venue, the Frankberg Commissioner Framont made two calls – one to the president and one to an old friend in Freemasonry. There were many things that would keep him busy once he returned to Germany…

Although they won, Framont had the illusion of being defeated.

It must be an illusion.

Chapter 822: Victories and Defeats

Chapter 822: Victories and Defeats

Future Group, that gained significant market shares, suffered a Waterloo-like defeat in the hands of the European Union. This news caused a great uproar in the international community. Wall Street investors were even ready to take over Future Group’s assets in Europe. However, the decision made by Future Group was beyond everyone’s expectations.

They directly laid off more than 300,000 employees. In addition to the suspension of all business outside the bank, they sent work visas to more than 10,000 employees for work in Xin.

As for the real estate under the name of Future Group, as well as patents coveted by companies, Future Group didn’t intend on changing ownership. It was clear that Future Group hadn’t given up on its ambition to return to Europe, and their actions now were only considered a strategic withdrawal.

Some analysts estimated that because the EU’s attitude towards Future Group changed sharply at the end of June, the direct economic losses to Future Group were as high as 11.3 billion US Dollar.

However, in contrast, the EU paid a heavy price from its decision to drive out all Future Group’s products. Future Heavy Industries’ solid-state lithium-air batteries were far superior to those of Daimler, Volkswagen, Renault and other large automobile manufacturers in both cost and performance. It was precisely because of this that in pure electric vehicle batteries, Future Heavy Industries held almost 70% of the market share in the European market.

However, the products of Future Heavy Industries were now no longer being exported to the EU. It wasn’t just the group Jiang Chen laid off who lost jobs from the decision. Many factories involved in the production of electric vehicles were also facing serious issues.

Leave? Or stay and look for alternatives?

Including Jiang’s own holdings of Luer, many small and medium-sized automobile manufacturers chose to relocate their factories to Britain, which had already exited the European Union, or to Switzerland and Norway which were close to the European market but not within the European market.

In European countries outside the twenty-seven EU member countries, Future Group’s business continued to operate, although the size was almost negligible.

On the European continent, Future Group was losing in the battle against tje Freemasonry on the surface. However, in other areas of the conflict, Future Group performed evenly or even slightly better.

In the North American and South American markets, due to protection from the WASP Consortium, the influence of the Jewish consortium on Future Group’s business wasn’t too drastic. In Asia, the continent had always been a weak area of influence for the Freemasonry.The Freemasonry’s influence was weak in Hua, let alone under the watch of the Liu family.

As for Southeast Asia, the Freemasonry only had one strategic fulcrum left.

It was Country F, eager to rise through the dependence of superpowers.

…

While the Freemasonry launched its attack, Jiang Chen didn’t sit around.

Arrow became a despised name in Madagascar. Celestial Trade contacted the Madagascar Congress and the opposing Liberal Party. They launched an impeachment against the current president La Jonah, accused him of being incapable during his term of office and conniving with Arrow’s collusion with gang forces, even secretly holding nuclear weapons and so on.

This argument was simply flawless.

Regardless of La Jonah’s rebuttals or how much he tried to calm the demonstrators with unstable emotions, he couldn’t separate his ties with Arrow.

In the public opinion war, Celestial Trade found the first responders who entered the forest during the incident. At a cost of 10,000 US Dollar, the company created a tear-jerking documentary for the firefighters who ingested excessive amounts of radiation dust and consequently suffered from cancer.

A young man lying in bed spoke in an intermittent tone about everything that happened that night with his last few breaths.

“At that time we received an order to support the fire rescue. Both my brother and I thought it was an ordinary forest fire.”

“It was only when we arrived at the scene that we realized the seriousness of the problem. It wasn’t the police but the army surrounding the site. There were helicopters in the sky, but they weren’t the firefighting type but rather, they were military helicopters.”

“Although we were skeptical about the details of the mission, an order was an order. With the urging of our superiors, we put on chemical protective clothing and carried equipment into the fire.”

“The fire extinguishing was successful, but the more I moved forward, the more I felt that something was wrong. It wasn’t like an ordinary forest fire. The entire forest looked like it was ravaged by storms.”

“At that moment, Jamie suddenly asked me: ‘Hey, man, do you think the air smells a bit sweet, like rust?'”

“I didn’t know what it meant at the time, and I laughed and joked with him. Until later… Later…”

While narrating, the young man was already in tears.

Inhaling excessive amounts of radiation dust, to the point where one could smell the rust, was equivalent to a declaration of death. There were a total of 1,000 firefighters who entered the forest, and more half the 1,000 firefighters died within half a month.

And the ones living were all in hospitals without the ability to live normally for the rest of their lives.

This documentary was placed on the front page of Future 1.0 news. Immediately afterward, the young man on the sickbed appeared on the signs held by protesters.

Due to outraged public opinion, President La Jonah consciously announced that he would resign and that Madagascar would hold an early election before the impeachment went into effect.

At that time, the Liberal Party supported by Celestial Trade stood in front of the public. In front of the voters who supported them, the leader, Sanivini, took advantage of this opportunity and counted what Arrow brought to Madagascar and put forward his own election campaign.

“Look at what UA did in our homeland! Poverty, violence, crime, war, now there are nuclear bombs! I don’t care what La Jonah and those rich people did. Now I say no!”

From the cheers after each speech as well as the results of the polls, there was no surprise about the Liberal Party becoming Madagascar’s ruling party. When he was sworn in office, he would abolish all contracts between Madagascar and Arrow and would completely remove the stinger from Africa’s south.

When the situation stabilized, Celestial Trade would replace Arrow and become a new military contractor stationed in Madagascar.

The impoverished island had rich deposits of chromium, graphite, bauxite, mica, nickel, silicon carbide, and other minerals. It was also known as the “World Gem Museum” and the world’s third-largest crystal deposit. Madagascar also had the reputation of being “Treasure Island.” Its resources were incredibly attractive to Future Heavy Industrial.

In particular, silicon carbide, which was one of the raw materials for the production of some graphene materials, was also a relatively scarce mineral on MLL Island and Papua Island.

Of course, these reasons were only secondary. The main purpose of Jiang Chen’s plan was to remove Arrow and Freemasonry from the island. To retaliate for the hostile behavior of the Freemasonry in Europe and to cut off its military forces from Madagascar!

During the first round of confrontation, both sides enjoyed wins and suffered losses.

Chapter 823: Weapons and Alliance

It was soon mid-July. Although the island experienced summer all year round, it was located south of the Equator, Coro Island was still hotter compared to other areas.

Since Natasha told Jiang Chen that the Freemasonry would send the “Gatekeeper” to Asia, Jiang Chen reduced unnecessary travels. Although he wasn’t worried that someone could pose a threat to himself on the island, he did so under strong urging from Ayesha.

At the same time, the Ghost Agents also conducted investigations on the so-called “Gatekeeper.” Unfortunately, not everything could be solved by technology. So far, Ghost Agents hadn’t yet been able to confirm the identity of the Gatekeeper.

Future Group withdrew its European assets and the EU economy had been overshadowed by strong local protectionism. Celestial Trade’s space activities were still ongoing, the Turkish civil war continued, and the situation on MLL Island began to deteriorate.

On MLL Island, Country F and Moro’s military forces were in a tense state. It was no exaggeration to say that it was probable war would erupt in the next second, and the trigger could be that a sentry’s rifle accidentally fired because he forgot to close the safety.

From public opinion, the two sides were also fighting a war there.

Aquino IV accused Santos of corruption and treated the Country F citizens living on MLL Island unfairly, and the delay in dismissing the war measures was equivalent to contempt for human rights. Santos, in turn, accused Aquino IV’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops on the border of preventing him from dismissing war measures. The MLL Island people had to lift their weapons to fight against possible aggression.

Discerning people could see that Country F was propping up public opinion for a war.

In Port d, north of MLL Island, Jiang Chen walked out from his Gulfstream private jet, accompanied by more than ten bodyguards wearing kinetic skeletons. Standing next to him, in addition to the bodyguards, was Ayesha in a suit. The eyes behind the electronic sunglasses continuously scanned the edges of the airport.

Jiang Chen’s visit to MLL Island wasn’t for vacation but to make a deal with Russia.

The fleet sent by Santos took him to the hotel. At three in the afternoon, Jiang Chen met with the Russian military officer, Shatov, at the same warehouse in southern MLL Island, which acted as a warehouse for Celestial Trade.

The burly Russian, whether it was his face or demeanor, seemed to possess a great amount of force. After seeing Jiang Chen, he extended his right hand.

“I am very glad to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is very long. According to the language habits of the Han people, you can call me Mr. Shatov, or Lieutenant Colonel Shatov.”

Contrary to Jiang Chen’s expectations, the Russian was very good at Han. He even had an accent of the northeast region.

Jiang Chen also made a simple self-introduction after shaking hands.

“Jiang Chen, President of Celestial Trade.”

Shatov nodded and got straight to the point.

“I heard you plan to do a deal with us. The Kremlin is putting a lot of pressure on this. So, what is your proposal?”

“Send in two divisions to enter the Crimea Peninsula. I hope you will exert pressure on the EU on the Ukrainian issue,” said Jiang Chen.

Shatov took a moment to process this. He obviously didn’t expect that this abrupt request would be made. Ukraine was the bottom line for NATO on the issue of Eastern Europe. If Russia continued to push forward, it was likely that it would ignite gunpowder barrels throughout Eastern Europe.

A direct collision with Russia wasn’t in the interests of NATO or the other Western countries. But in the same way, Russia wouldn’t want to clash with its enemies now. No matter whose perspective it was from, if war really broke out, Russia’s chances wouldn’t be good.

“Comrade Brzezinski once said that a Russia without Ukraine wouldn’t be able to become a big country. I don’t believe you’re willing to give up this century-long opportunity. And now this opportunity is before you.” Jiang Chen fixed on Shatov’s eyes then he suddenly smiled. “Let’s put this aside for now. Let’s talk about compensation.”

“I am afraid that your proposal won’t be accepted,” Shatov replied reluctantly.

“Not necessarily,” Jiang Chen said, snapping at the bodyguard next to him.

The bodyguard, who understood, walked to the soldiers guarding the warehouse. After briefly communicating, the two guards turned their backs and quickly opened the door to the warehouse.

A dry smell blew out. Looking at the dark warehouse, Shatov frowned slightly.

“Follow me.” Jiang Chen took the lead into the warehouse.

Shatov hesitated and followed him in.

From the outside, the warehouse was very unremarkable, but when he walked into the warehouse, he was surprised to discover that the warehouse was astonishingly large. Soon the soldier turned on the lights and the incandescent lamps at the top brightened the interior space. Shatov blinked and saw a lone object lying in the middle of the warehouse.

“This is…?” Shatov stepped forward, tapping on the circular tube.

“Remember the Madagascar incident that happened last month?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Shatov’s pupils contracted slightly and he retracted his hand.

“This is a nuclear warhead?”

“No, this is a conventional weapon,” Jiang Chen said with a smile and walked to the side of this round-tubular device. “But its power is more astounding than nuclear weapons, especially in modern society.”

When Jiang Chen said this, Shatov didn’t understand for a moment. But when he chewed repeatedly, his face suddenly became quite emotional and his fingers began to tremble.

“Could it be an… electromagnetic pulse weapon?”

“Yeah, we call it EMP and it’s a strategic EMP, which is a little bigger than the ones used on Mayotte.” Jiang Chen nodded and tapped his fingers on the tubular device. “The Sword Shuttering-1’s combat components can be mounted on intercontinental missiles. Only one missile is needed and it will indiscriminately eliminate unprotected electronic equipment without any pollution in a 100,000 square kilometer zone.”

While he said this, Jiang Chen stopped the conversation and looked at Shatov, who was frozen there. He smiled.

“Now do you still think my proposal won’t be accepted?”

“…you’re willing to sell us this weapons technology?”

“We never sell technology, but we’re happy to sell our products. The components of TEN Sword Shuttering-1s should be enough,” said Jiang Chen.

EMP weapons belonged in the lab at the experimental stage for any country. However, aside from high-altitude nuclear explosions, no one had yet developed “environmentally friendly” electromagnetic pulse excitation methods. If this Sword Shuttering-1 was really as powerful as Jiang Chen stated, its presence would completely reverse the situation in which the Russian military lacked confidence against NATO.

“…I can’t give you a definitive answer, but I’ll ask the Kremlin,” Shatov replied cautiously.

“No problem, I look forward to the next time I meet with you. I hope I’ll be hearing good news.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Chapter 824: The Cause of the War

In the same afternoon, Shatov returned to Russia on a Russian military plane. Jiang Chen gifted him the “Sword Shuttering-1” from the warehouse to bring back as a sample to show the Kremlin.

As for whether or not Russians would reverse engineer the “Sword Shuttering -1,” Jiang Chen wasn’t worried about this issue.

There was a gap in technological understanding. Even if the Russians studied the “Sword Shuttering-1” for ten years, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to create their own EMP weapons with a dozen or so limited samples.

What’s more, Sword Shuttering-1 only covered a 100,000 square kilometer zone, equivalent to only a quarter of California. As far as strategic weapons were concerned, it wasn’t a top-notch weapon, and it could only be regarded as an early-generation strategic EMP weapon.

At least Dolphin-10 intercontinental missiles deployed on the seafloor were equipped with EMP combat components in the million square kilometer range. Those were the ultimate tools of destruction. It wouldn’t an exaggeration to call them the killers of modern civilization!

The Kremlin didn’t make Jiang Chen wait for a long time. On the third day after the meeting on MLL Island, the Russian side took the initiative to contact Jiang Chen. At Natasha’s invitation, Jiang Chen went to the Russian Embassy.

What made Jiang Chen even more surprised was that he ended up talking to the President of Russia, Putin!

No extraneous words were exchanged. After the phone was connected, Putin directly discussed the issue and put forward his own requirements.

“Twenty pieces of Sword Shuttering-1 combat components. If you don’t want to sell related technology, I hope you can at least open arms sales.”

“No problem. If you run out of these 20 Sword Shuttering-1s, I can sell you 20 EMP weapons at a lower price. But I request that we send a commissioner to you. We must at least confirm that our ‘gift’ was used on the battlefield or in exercises and not taken apart in the laboratory,” said Jiang Chen.

“What’s the lowest price?” asked Putin.

“3,400 million Rubles.”

Putin was somewhat caught off-guard after he heard Jiang Chen’s offer,

Not because of the price – 3.400 billion Rubles was equivalent to 5 million US Dollar. When compared to its effect, this price was fair. What really surprised Putin was that Jiang Chen proposed to settle in Rubles.

If he remembered correctly, he previously negotiated a few arms sales contracts with Xin, all of which were in US Dollar.

“Do you not want US Dollar?” Putin said.

“Intuition tells me that the Ruble will be very valuable soon.” Jiang Chen laughed.

In short-term it may fall, but in the long run, it would at least be worth more than it is now. However, Jiang Chen’s reason for doing so wasn’t entirely due to the appreciation of the Ruble. There was another major reason.

At the end of the conversation, Putin laughed.

“Haha, using the idiom of the Chinese people, I’ll borrow your words.”

“It seems that our deal has reached an agreement?” Jiang Chen couldn’t stop smiling.

Although he failed to pull the WASP consortium across the ocean into the chariot, he successfully pulled the Russians into the game. The Freemasonry in Europe could no longer freely exert pressure on Xin. The threat from the East would directly approach their hinterlands.

“I wish us the best of luck.” Putin smiled.

“Best of Luck!”

While the situation in MLL Island continued to escalate, the Ukrainian crisis once again entered into the eyes of the people around the world. With Russia’s high-profile increase of 100,000 troops, deployed at the Crimean Peninsula and the Russian-Ukrainian border, Europe once again reached a tipping point.

This time, the Russians not only displayed their power with a strong stance, but they also showed their decisive attitude. To reporters, Putin reaffirmed Russia’s position of supporting Russia’s right to choose their own destiny, and for the first time, they recognized the legitimacy of the People’s Republic of Donetsk and the People’s Republic of Lugansk.

Such an act would undoubtedly inspire the militants still fighting the city of Donetsk and other regions. Since the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, they had never achieved a real ceasefire with the Ukrainian government forces.

The Western world was rattled.

No one thought Russia would suddenly act so irrationally.

The European Commission held an emergency meeting on this topic. At the same time, 11 countries including France, Germany, and Poland issued statements one after another the following day. If the Russian army dared to cross the border between Russia and Ukraine, it would be regarded as a provocation against the UN Charter.

The most intense reaction came from UA, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

The UA Capitol spokesperson declared that if Russia crossed the border between Russia and Ukraine, NATO would also set a precedent for sending troops to non-member friendly countries. At the same time, President Hill also revealed new sanctions against Russia in an interview with the media.

However, some analysts also commented on whether the sanctions would be effective, whether NATO would set a precedent and whether these commitments would be honored.

Due to the outbreak of civil war in Turkey, the anti-government forces took control of large areas of territory in eastern Turkey, resulting in the cutting off of the “Southern Corridor” from Europe to Azerbaijan.

In the rushed plan of the Freemasonry to secularize Turkey, the civil war ultimately failed due to Russia’s sudden movements on the Ukrainian issue. As the Southern Corridor was cut off due to war, the supply pressure of natural gas in Europe increased dramatically. In contrast, European demand for natural gas imported from Russia suddenly spiked.

If the EU joined the new sanctions against Russia initiated by the UA, the EU, with a shortage of natural gas, would become the biggest loser.

Even if the Freemasonry intended to encourage the EU’s confrontation with Russia on the Ukrainian issue, in reality, their assets in Europe also depended on natural gas imported from Russia.

The sudden escalation of issues in Russia undoubtedly disrupted their plans.

At that moment, in the Xin presidential palace, Jiang Chen was discussing issues of Madagascar with Zhang Yaping.

Just yesterday, Zhang Yaping ended his diplomatic visit to Madagascar and achieved good results.

“Madagascar has agreed to further cooperate with us in economy and trade. If we’re willing to assist them in rebuilding the Mayotte power grid and provide 1 billion USD in loans, they’ll agree to contract the mines in northern Madagascar to us… Originally owned by Arrow, they were confiscated as a national asset after the nuclear bomb crisis.”

“No problem, agree with his conditions,” Jiang Chen said.

At this point, a phone call suddenly interrupted the conversation.

Jiang Chen turned on the holographic screen and looked at the caller. It was Ivan. Out of courtesy, he then looked at President Zhang.

“Do you mind if I take a call?”

“I don’t mind.” Zhang Yaping waved his hand.

Jiang Chen went to the window to pick up the phone.

“Hey?”

“It’s Country F! They’re making moves!”

Although it was expected, Jiang Chen’s heart still twitched at the arrival of this moment.

The war had ultimately erupted!

Chapter 825: Circling Tactic

Country F tore up the ceasefire agreement, which everyone expected.

However, one thing was contrary to the Celestial and Moro military’s expectations.

Country F didn’t land from the strait north of MLL Island. Instead, it chose to cross the Baohe Sea and landed directly in City C, where the defense was weak. They then risked the deaths of their soldiers, crashing planes and airdropping a brigade in the mountain range to attack the port of Cagayan from the east and north.

“… This is the City C military base; we’re being bombarded by Country F!”

“Message received by the command center. Aurora-20s have lifted and are heading to the target airspace…”

Artillery was fired from across the sea. Country F deployed artillery positions on Bohol Island. From the intensity of firepower, the Freemasonry appeared heavily invested in Country F. Artillery was being fired like popcorn.

Holding UA weapons, the Country F’s army, broke through the defense zone where the Moro 13th brigade was stationed from the port of City C and forced the brigade to retreat through the cover of commercial transport ships.

Celestial Trade retained a certain number of garrisons in City C, but the number was still too small. Since the end of the zombie crisis, Celestial Trade Marines stationed there had been returning home or moved to the Surinam region.

There were only 100 combat units in City C, which was equivalent to one company. Although the field commander responded immediately, the size of the battle was too great for 100 soldiers to control.

The 102nd Company stationed in the area was immediately divided into nine platoons and exchanged fire with the 21st Infantry Brigade of Country F that broke through the defense line in the western part of Ctiy C. With the cooperation of the individual drones and the Aurora-20s which rushed to support, the 102nd company made Country F’s army pay a heavy price, but unfortunately, City C still fell.

After receiving the call from Ivan, Jiang Chen immediately left the presidential palace, drove to the port, and boarded a boat to travel to New Moon Island.

After arriving on the island, Jiang Chen hastily went to the headquarters.

When he arrived, the headquarters were bustling; staff moved between rows of computers. The liaison officer was wearing a headset and quickly repeated the combat orders issued by superiors while connecting frontline fighters to the airstrikes and intelligence resources.

Jiang Chen passed through the commotion and went straight to the commanding table. Ivan was standing there and exchanging opinions with the officers and staff. Upon seeing Jiang Chen, they immediately stopped the matter at hand, stood up straight and saluted him.

Jiang Chen saluted them back and immediately requested a briefing of the situation.

“Let’s get to the point. What’s happening at the frontlines?”

Ivan used a laser pointer to point at the holographic screen on the command table. The Air Force scanned the location of Country F’s Army. Judging from the arched attack front, the situation of Moro 13th Brigade wasn’t looking too good and had even reached a precarious state.

“… Country F’s army deployed artillery positions on the defense base in the northern part of Bohol and shelled our base in City C. City C was a weak point of Moro’s air defense. They gave up to obtain air superiority and riskily dropped a brigade in the mountain range. Although it was risky, they succeeded.”

Abandoning the courtesy of modern warfare, Country F placed itself in an asymmetrical position from the very beginning. Country F was smarter this time than before. If they combined their forces together and revealed their strength on the negotiating table, it would be difficult for them not to be wiped out.

At this point, Country F’s army on the holographic map made a new move.

Two brigades set out from Suluhai and landed in Zamboanga City in Moro. At the moment, the two frigates of Celestial Trade were located in the sea region east of Luzon Island and Samar Island respectively, to guard against Country F’s army crossing the Surinam Strait.

Even if they lost control of the sea and air, Country F’s army seemed to have counted on the shortage of Celestial Trade’s air force and navy. Even with strong firepower, Celestial Trade wouldn’t be able to protect both sides of MLL Island at the same time.

This tactic was extremely risky.

Without sea and air superiority, it meant that the troops who penetrated into the hinterlands of Moro would have no ways of accessing supplies. However, Country F precisely predicted the weaknesses of Moro and Celestial Trade from their numbers and prepared a war of attrition similar to guerrilla warfare by continuous supplying troops to different regions.

It was daring, but it could make up for their disadvantages in technology.

“Sh*t! I don’t understand why they bought so many tanks? Are they acting as props?”

“The Commander of Country F Army is certainly not Marshal Stark. Only a madman or a gambler would give out orders like this,” an officer shouted.

“Our opponent is probably Moritz, a military adviser from Europe,” replied the head of the Military Intelligence Division.

“Whoever our opponent is, we will beat them badly.” Jiang Chen tapped two positions on the holographic map then painted two dividing lines fiercely. “Air and sea superiority is in our hands. At the moment, UA is still on the sidelines and we must end the war before they decide to interfere on the grounds of ‘peacekeeping.’ Since Country F intends to fight with me, then we’ll go directly to City M to catch war criminals!”

They couldn’t drag the war on. If Country F’s Brigade that dropped in the mountains fought guerrilla warfare on MLL Island, the production of Future Mining would undoubtedly be interrupted by guerrilla activities. The world ore market was monopolized by the Jews. The factories of Future Group relied on ore from MLL Island. If the supply of raw materials wasn’t enough, the industrial capacity of Ange Island and New Malaysia Special District would be seriously affected!

Looking at Jiang Chen’s mark on the holographic map, Ivan touched his chin and his eagle-like eyes looked like he was locked into the holographic image.

“Straight through the Surinam Strait, landing on Leyte Isalnd?”

According to the two lines Jiang Chen drew, the Moro Army would land in Tacloban, the capital of the province of Leyte, with the support of Celestial Trade. This move would cut off supplies from the Isle of Wight, which was north of the Surinam Strait, while occupying a strategic point en route to Samar Island.

And when they seized Samar Island, Luzon, the largest island in Country F, would open its doors. By then, the President of Country F would have no choice but to go abroad in exile.

“That’s right.” Jiang Chen nodded.

“The plan is certainly feasible.” Ivan nodded.

“What about Country F’s land forces on the mainland of MLL Island?” asked an officer.

“We can only count on the guerrillas of Moro to be smarter. Air superiority is on our side. As long as they’re not stupid, it’s not difficult to finish off the guerrillas of Country F.”

With a pause, Ivan looked at all the officers and said sternly, “Immediately prepare the combat plan for landing! Within three days, we will raise our flag above Takloban municipal government building!”

“Yes, sir!”

Chapter 826: The Landing of Leyte Island

At 14:31 on July 21st, Moro 1st Armored Brigade, and the 6th Infantry Brigade entered the Surinam region. The command was ordered by the New Moon Island Command Centre and they began to embark; at 16:00, Celestial Trade’s spokesperson announced to the media that Celestial Trade would intervene in the form of mercenary warfare against Country F in the name of self-defense.

At 17:30, the landing fleet carrying two brigades set off from Surinam Port. The fleet avoided the artilleries deployed by Country F on the other side of the coast and marched towards the Region of Leyte.

While relying on the powerful computing power of quantum computers, Celestial Trade launched a full-scale cyber-attack on Country F. A large number of packets tagged with the word “Nazi” swarmed onto Country F’s government websites, replacing not only all the characters in the database but also completely paralyzing the network servers in ten minutes.

The photo of President Aquino IV was replaced by Hitler, and the national flag of Country F was replaced by a swastika. Eighty percent of the websites in Country F, including the media, communications and transportation systems, had been paralyzed by the Celestial Trade Network Force, which had a major impact on the military operations of Country F and directly affected Country F’s war mobilization and support capabilities.

At 17:32, ten Aurora-20 fighters first reached the target area and encountered twenty F-22 fighters that took off in an emergency.

Because of the assistance provided by the Rothschild family included the Patriots 3 land-to-air defense system, the air battle was extremely fierce. After paying the heavy price of four Aurora-20s, the Celestial Trade Air Force downed 15 F-22 fighters in exchange and successfully captured air superiority over Leyte Island.

At 20:19, the Sea Lion Special Forces landed in the mountainous region of central Leyte and launched a night attack against the 4th Air Defense Battalion deployed there, destroying 8 Patriot 3 air-defense missiles deployed in the foothills of the mountain and killed 221 country F soldiers with the assistance of drones.

After discovering that the Sea Lions Special Forces had been airdropped, Country F urgently transferred a division from the southern defense line for support.

At 20:32, the formation of the Moro Landing Forces at Leyte Bay began to attack. Under air strikes of the Aurora-20 and suppression from electromagnetic pulse cannons of the guardian frigate, the 6th Infantry Brigade boarded landing crafts and began to attack the beach in the southern part of Tacloban.

The night sky exploded with thunderous boom, it was an Aurora-20 dropping an EMP bomb over the city of Tacloban.

After a short air raid warning, the entire city was in dead silence. The city was covered by electromagnetic pulses. The sporadic lights were also wiped out and the east coast of Leyte fell into complete darkness.

Country F’s 2nd Mechanized Division, who was responsible for defending the area, immediately mobilized after receiving a naval intrusion warning. The EMP arrived, but because the communication equipment and armored units were protected against EMPs, their combat effectiveness remained.

Celestial Trade and Moro were destined to be a fierce battle.

Accompanied by the roar of motors and shouting of waves, the first wave of landing teams began to rush to the position of Country F. Country F built a concrete fortress there with anti-personnel mines and tapered concrete blocks on the beach that impeded armored forces

Although the Air Force and the Navy carried out a series of bombings in this region, it was obviously impossible for Country F’s Army to be stupid enough to put all its troops into the trenches at once. Soldiers continued to die under Aurora-20 bombs and missiles, but soldiers soon reinforced the defensive positions.

Due to the loose formation, landing attacks weren’t as easy compared to Joint Military Exercises.

But they weren’t too difficult either…

The sea was deafeningly silent. Aside from the roars of the engines, Zhang Feng couldn’t hear any other sounds.

As the 11th battalion of Celestial Marines, he and his platoon were arranged into the first wave of attack along with Moro 3rd, 4th, and 5th Battalions of the 6th Infantry Brigade.

This time, it wasn’t an exercise. He was no longer an ordinary soldier but a Seargent in war.

In the air, a blazing fire exploded, and the orange-red flare illuminated over the stronghold position of Country F.

Immediately afterward, Celestial Trade transport planes dropped a dozen coffin-like black boxes onto Country F soldiers. When these black boxes slammed into the area Country F was defending, these soldiers had no time to react before the sides of the black boxes snapped open.

Accompanied by a buzzing, hundreds of Hummingbirds were ejected from the drone hives and attacked the position held by Country F’s 2nd Mechanized Division.

“Sh*t! I can’t hit these da*n things!” The machine gunner clasped the trigger and let loose onto the drones on the beach a hundred meters away. However, no one knew if he hit anything.

Not far in the distance, the drones were moving between the first lines of defense. Like reapers with scythes, they harvested Country F soldiers hiding behind the bunker. At such a close distance, the stocks of rifles were actually more effective than bullets.

“Enemy drones landed on the beach! We can no longer hold our position!”

The soldier taking cover behind the sandbags pressed his helmet and shouted loudly into the intercom.

“What are the first-line-of-defense idiots doing? Turn on the KS-32 anti-drone system! Fast!”

“It’s already on! Damn! This stuff doesn’t work!”

“What?!”

On the distant beach, fire and light flickered.

The firepower suddenly seemed muted. The airdropped drones caught Country F soldiers by surprise. In particular, the KS-32 anti-drone system ordered by Country F’s Army had no effect against the Hummingbird drones.

The soldiers on the landing crafts had opened the safety, fastened their nylon helmet buckle, and prepared for the battle!

“50 meters! Release the drones!”

Zhang Feng shouted at the same time, suddenly knocking on his chest.

The drones popped out from the grooves in the kinetic skeletons and scattered from all sides of the landing craft.

“Jump! Prepare to fight!”

“Roger—”

A howitzer exploded about five meters in front of the landing craft and nearly overturned the boat. Already approaching the beach, the soldiers quickly untied their safety belts that had been strapped to them and flipped into the sea from the side of the landing craft. They maximized the power of the kinetic skeletons and rushed toward the beachhead.

The Moro Army had taken the lead in rushing to the beach. Without the support of the drone group, they began to fight for control of the beach against Country F’s soldiers.

It was at this time that the two frigates of Celestial Trade also began a new round of firing.

Bombs with orange trajectories created countless specks of dust toward Country F’s 2nd Mechanized Division.

When Zhang Feng and his team rushed to the beach, the battle on the beach was almost over.

After the optical illusion of the Sea Lion Special Forces taking out the Patriot 3 air-defense missiles, they succeeded in getting rid of the siege and intercepted Country F’s Mountain Division. After hijacking the vehicles, they crossed 12 kilometers and raided Country F from the rear. They called in airstrikes to destroy 12 concealed infantry vehicles and 4 M1A1 main battle tanks.

The armored units were hit hard. More than half of the soldiers were killed and wounded. Country F soldiers began to withdraw to Tacloban.

“No, don’t kill me! I surrender!”

“Ah! Mom—”

The real battlefield was far crueler than exercises. When Zhang Feng rushed into the trenches behind the beach with the team, it was already bloody and gruesome inside. Broken arms were mixed with the wreckage of drones, together with lifeless, torn bodies.

Country F’s soldiers, who had lost their morale, dropped to the ground and raised their hands to surrender. There were also tenacious people hiding among the corpses and waiting for people to come close and perform suicide with grenades.

After killing a Country F soldier who rushed at him with rifle stock, Zhang Feng appointed a person from the team to watch the prisoners then took the remaining soldiers to continue chasing the retreating enemy forces.

After they took control of the beach, the engineers dismantled the tank traps, the anti-tank mines were deployed, and Moro’s 1st Armoured Brigade began landing. The 5th Mechanized Division already boarded the transport ship and was moving toward the line of defense on Leyte Island.

At the same time, Celestial Trade Command Centre issued new combat orders.

The order was to take control of Tacloban before dawn the next day, then control the highway connecting Samar Island in the north to completely cut off the supply line of Country F’s army deployed in the northern part of Leyte Island.

Chapter 827: The First Sunrise

Chapter 827: The First Sunrise

On the morning of July 22, Moro’s 1st Armored encountered Country F’s 4th Armored Brigade on the outskirts of Tacloban City and exchanged fire.

Country F invested a total of 70 tanks, 120 infantry combat vehicles, 10 self-propelled artilleries, and 30 anti-aircraft guns. The tank units included 20 M1A1 main battle tanks and various UA armored vehicles. In addition, there was an enhanced support company to provide battlefield support.

For Moro, 60 tanks, 150 infantry vehicles and 20 self-propelled artilleries were deployed in battle. The main battle tank was T-80, and most of the tanks were the relatively outdated T-72 model.

Although there was a lack of armor power, the addition of Celestial Trade’s Armored Forces clearly reversed this situation.

Tiger IIs with A-type steel front armor combined with the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon were tank destroyers on the battlefield. Although the tanks were independently researched and developed by researchers in the apocalypse lacking experience in armored combat, the leading technology still filled the shortcomings of actual combat experience.

M1A1’s armor piercing could only damage the side armor and turrets of the Tiger II. The M1A1’s armor, in a normal striking angle, was one shot in front of the Type-50 cannon.

At the same time, prior to close contact between the two sides, the artillery units of Celestial Trade used “Fireball-1” and projected hundreds of EMP rockets onto the battlefield.

Interestingly enough, while the anti-drone equipment purchased from UA wasn’t effective, the anti-EMP weapons were surprisingly effective.

When the rockets from Celestial Trade lifted off, white smoke was immediately sprayed on Country F’s armored units.

The smoke was composed of droplets of special contents and size, forming a simple “Faraday cage” within the white mist range. It protected the electronic equipment wrapped against EMP.

However, the basic anti-EMP method had obvious shortcomings. After the droplets were attached, the communications equipment of tanks and armored vehicles would fail due to physical electromagnetic shielding for some time.

But needless to say, they were still very effective in critical situations.

At least this time, Country F military didn’t suffer a breakdown in communication compared to last time. After they came into contact with the armored forces of Moro and Celestial Trade, at least they possessed the ability to fight back.

However, it was only the ability to fight back.

On the road from the beach to Tacloban, there were smoking tank wreckages scattered along the way. Some were M1A1s and some were T-80s or T-72s. In this tank battle, more than hundreds of tanks were destroyed. More than half of them belonged to Country F, and a small portion belonged to Moro.

As for Celestial Trade, the only destroyed Tiger II was directly hit by artillery from the top. The rest of the tanks had their belts destroyed at most or turrets damaged; none suffered a tragic fate from the M1A1s.

After Country F’s 1st armored brigade was eliminated, Moro’s 5th mechanized division that landed on the island began to march toward Tacloban at full speed. Sea Lions Special Forces took Blackhawk helicopters moving north to blow up the highway and stop the retreat of Country F’s garrison from Leyte.

Celestial Trade invested a brigade of troops on Leyte Island and quickly marched to the edge of the urban area with infantry vehicles. They engaged in intense crossfire with Country F’s Army in this region.

The vast majority of civilians in the city had already fled, leaving only a small number of people without sufficient time to retreat. After the impacts of the EMP, Tuckloban became a dead city. Rows of tall buildings were like tombstones, silently overlooking the soldiers who entered the city, and the explosives left behind dim sparkles

After the line of defense outside the city was broken down, Country F’s soldiers began to retreat into the city, ready to engage in urban warfare.

Walking next to a Moro armored vehicle, Zhang Feng looked at the window around him holding a Reaper Assault Rifle.

Eight Hummingbird drones were suspended around the armored vehicle and guarded against any unsuspecting rocket launchers that might protrude out from windows, or explosives dropped from rooves.

Suddenly, a rocket dragging a smoke trail flew toward the armored vehicle and destroyed armor hung on the left side.

“An enemy’s anti-tank team is on the roof!”

“At four o’clock, take them out!”

The gunner rushed behind cover and set up a light machine gun to unleash bullets on the window on the roof. Seeing that their strike failed, the enemy immediately retreated.

“The target is moving!”

“You made trouble and you want to run?! Go and catch them!” Zhang Feng cursed while giving instructions through the holographic screen and he assigned two soldiers upstairs to clear the anti-tank squad.

And just then, bullets suddenly shot across the street.

Country F’s soldiers crouching down behind the stores on the street set up their machine guns and rifles and fired at Zhang Feng’s team. Unprepared, the soldier standing in the front row took two shots to the chest. Fortunately, the polyethylene armor blocked the bullets and saved his life.

“Hide! Behind the shelter! Go!”

Two shots were fired at the opposite side of the street. Zhang Feng leaned against the back of the concrete wall and marked enemy targets with drones.

“This is the 121st team. Enemy troops were found in the southern side of Tacloban. It is estimated that there are forty soldiers. Requesting air strike support.”

“Shooter-3 received. Airstrike will take place in 2 minutes, please mark enemy units.”

“The targets have been marked!”

“…Received.” An Aurora-20 hovering in the air changed course and flew toward the target area.

The armored vehicles in the middle of the street were reversing while the gun turrets on top spat out trails of bullets toward the stores on the road.

The shop’s glass shattered to the ground; 20mm large-caliber ammunition easily tore off cement blocks from steel skeletons. The Country F infantry squad was pinned to the ground.

After the end of his message, Zhang Feng scanned the countdown of the air strike on the holographic screen. He then leaned out of cover with a rifle and turned on the thermal imaging function on the sight glass. He used semi-automatic firing mode, and with the help of armored vehicles, cleared the Country F soldiers hidden behind cover.

The air strike countdown hit zero!

In a flash, the street where the Country F soldiers were hiding looked like it was raided by a hurricane. The land was crushed by bullet rain from the sky. The dust spread around and blew two streets away. After seeing the shadow of Aurora-20 soaring away, Zhang Feng finally heard the roar of the cannon.

“Clear!”

Zhang Feng shouted and walked out of cover.

“Sh*t, the dust is all over my face now.”

“You should be glad it’s not something else on your face.”

“Hey buddy, don’t say unlucky things!”

The rifleman behind the concrete block stood up and wiped his face.

Zhang Feng grinned and helped his comrade up. He then knocked on the armored vehicle.

“Keep going.”

With the support of air strikes, all resistance forces were paper to them. Once they captured the city center, Country F soldiers still in the city would be completely separated by Moro’s armored forces. Either they threw away their weapons and uniforms to disguise themselves as civilians or wait to be killed or captured!

But just then, there was a light in the distance.

Zhang Feng narrowed his eyes slightly and looked in the direction of the rays.

Attracted by the same ray, the rifleman next to him murmured, “Sh*t, what’s that…”

The night sky was lit, as if there was a second sunrise.

Chapter 828: The Second Murshroom Cloud

Chapter 828: The Second Murshroom Cloud

A mushroom cloud rose above Tacloban and the radiating halo illuminated against the face of enemies and allies.

At that moment, both the Country F soldiers behind the sandbag bunkers and the Moro soldiers advancing with tanks released their finger on the trigger and turned their eyes toward the bright sky in the city center.

Nuclear weapons would make all resistance and offense meaningless.

When the shockwave swept across the street, whether it was an enemy or an allied force, they were all disintegrated to dust by the scorching shockwave…

“… This is the Command Center, please respond…”

“… Buzz… Please respond…”

After opening his blurred eyes, Zhang Feng tried his best, but he couldn’t stop himself from coughing up blood.

He was in a terrible state at the moment. The surrounding glass all shattered and littered the ground. Broken jars and mud were everywhere. He was trapped under a wooden cabinet. It appeared that when the shockwave arrived, he was thrown into a flower shop.

Outside the broken window, an armored vehicle tipped over on the road, and its turret had been slashed. The spilled fuel was blazing with flames.

Tragedy…

Zhang Feng removed the stones pressed against his chest and fought hard to stand up.

When the shockwave swept across the streets, his chest felt like it was rammed by a truck. Fortunately, the protection of his kinetic skeleton and being several kilometers away from the center of the explosion saved him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t just suffer some internal bleeding

“Cough!”

Supported by a rifle, Zhang Feng walked to the side and picked up his tactical helmet.

“This is the 121st team… We … may have suffered a nuclear strike.”

“…This is the Command Center. Please organize the personnel and retreat to the landing point.”

“Roger.”

[Why is there a nuclear bomb?]

[With the scales tipping to their side, it was clear Celestial Trade wouldn’t use such weapons of mass destruction. With air superiority, in this case, the nuclear bomb must’ve been set in the city in advance…]

[How does Country F have a nuclear bomb?]

[And they actually used it in their own city?!]

[Are they crazy?]

Zhang Feng didn’t understand.

The only thing he confirmed was that half his team suffered casualties during that split second. At the edge of the city, he himself experienced such a violent shock. Then Moro’s 5th mechanized division, which already entered the urban area, most likely suffered a tragic fate already.

Country F Army was retreating to Samar Island, and Tacloban was the only way to go.

If he didn’t want to be captured, he had to immediately retreat to the landing point.

…

Within a month, one big and one small mushroom cloud rose on the surface of the earth.

The nuclear explosion in Tacloban caused a panic in the world that wasn’t any less than the previous zombie crisis.

People only felt the power of nuclear weapons in movies.

However, at that moment, all this happened in reality. Although it was only a few words in the newspapers and a scarlet bright spot on satellite imaging, the shock it brought to people was far greater than any film and television show since the Cold War.

“Last night, a nuclear explosion happened in Tacloban? Please wait, I have to confirm whether the press release made a mistake…”

“According to the data released by Country F, the confirmed death toll exceeded 20,000 people, including 13,000 civilians who have not yet withdrawn. However, after two hours, this figure was updated to 50,000 people. The specific information can be found on the official website of Country F’s government… If Celestial Trade stopped its cyberattack against Country F.”

“A spokesperson for Country F’s presidential office said the nuclear explosion was detonated by Moro and that the nuclear bomb came from Celestial Trade. However, Moro gave an opposite answer, accusing Country F of detonating the bomb in the city.”

“…Nuclear weapons are rampant. How many countries illegally hold nuclear weapons outside the framework of the nuclear non-proliferation convention? We must put an end to this unstable situation; this is important for preserving the lives of everyone on Earth…”

Five hours after the nuclear explosion, news spread to the whole world in an instant.

NASA first published a satellite image. A bright spot suddenly appeared over Leyte Island on the screen, which was clearly visible in outer space. This picture, which was shot by satellites, was also used by the major media as the only picture to report on the power of nuclear weapons.

At present, the control of the city of Tacloban remained undecided. With such strong nuclear radiation remaining, no reporters could enter the area.

“It’s crazy! They actually used nuclear weapons directly!” Ivan grumbled while smashing his fist against the table.

“We got set up.” Jiang Chen frowned.

The 11,000 Moro Land Forces lost more than half its men; in Celestial Trade’s two thousand soldier brigade, a total of 431 people were killed and 1,107 people suffered injured of varying degrees.

At present, all combat units retreated to their landing points.

Seizing this opportunity, F Country Army garrison on Leyte Island launched a frenzied counterattack against Moro and Celestial Trade’s positions with the support of artilleries. Because the artillery was deployed in the foothills of central Leyte and was protected by a large number of anti-aircraft guns, it brought great difficulties for air strikes.

Two frigates deployed on the coast bombarded the artilleries, but due to topography, they had little success.

At that moment, there was a heated discussion inside the command center involving this issue. Including Jiang Chen and Ivan, no officers closed their eyes for a moment.

“Why do they have nuclear weapons? When did Country F become a nuclear-armed country?!”

“Is it the Freemasonry? Israel is known for possession of nuclear weapons. If the Jewish consortium has enough influence in Israel, it isn’t too difficult to obtain nuclear weapons.”

“But what do they want to do?”

“Frame us and even pull the United Nations into this civil war!” Barkary, the logistics chief, who had been silent, suddenly spoke out.

The command desk quieted down, including Ivan and Jiang Chen. Everyone was looking at him.

“It makes sense.”

Jiang Chen nodded. Barkary’s words gave him a clearer picture in his mind.

At that point, an officer entered the command center and walked over to the commander’s desk.

“Country F requested a ceasefire. The two sides will return to their respective areas of actual control and wait for an investigation from the UN”

“Investigation? What investigation?” Jiang Chen asked with a frown.

“About which party used nuclear weapons,” the officer said with an ugly expression.

Both sides accused the other side of using nuclear weapons, and both sides had reasons why they absolutely wouldn’t use nuclear weapons. Moro clearly had an advantage and it was impossible to throw a nuclear bomb on its own soldiers. Although Country F was at a disadvantage, it was impossible that they used a nuclear bomb in their own city and on their own citizens.

In addition, both sides were non-nuclear countries.

In order to investigate the source of the nuclear weapons, the United Nations had already convened an emergency meeting and announced it would intervene in this “civil war.”

However, Jiang Chen suddenly realized a serious problem.

“The ceasefire … what about the area occupied by Country F guerrillas?”

Chapter 829: There is no war without scarifices

“Country F proposed that the northern part of MLL Island, which is occupied by the guerrillas, is under the actual control of Country F and should be temporarily managed by Country F. Leyte Island, as a war zone, suffered a nuclear strike and should be controlled by UN peacekeeping troops. Both sides should take a step back and withdraw their troops from Leyte…”

The officer responsible for conveying the message hadn’t finished yet, and Ivan was already fuming.

“This isn’t taking a step back! This is a conspiracy!”

Compared to Ivan’s anger, Jiang Chen’s expression seemed much calmer.

He finally understood that Country F government’s delivery of guerrillas to MLL Island wasn’t a suicidal war of attrition, but rather the move was meant to gain actual control of the region.

Immediately afterwards, through an external cause, the UA or the United Nations would intervene to forcefully end the war!

This ceasefire line would cause the entire northern part of MLL Island to fall to Country F’s side!

“Using the three divisions located across the Surinam Strait as bait, they seduced us to launch a landing attack on Leyte Island to cut off supplies for the three divisions, then left a brigade in Tacloban to block us from advancing. Finally, they detonated the nuclear bomb hidden in the city after we almost seized control of Tacloban…” With his finger resting on his chin, Jiang Chen whispered while thinking.

[Air superiority was in our hands, and sea superiority was also in our hands. From the outset, Country F didn’t plan on winning the war on the battlefield. Instead, it intended to win the battle outside of the battlefield. Once the war hit the international tribunal, the United Nations would be responsible for examining which party used nuclear weapons.]

Obviously, if they go to court, the Freemasonry with a wider range of influence will have a higher chance of winning.

Regardless of the outcome of the verdict, Moro would lose control of northern MLL Island.

From the very beginning, they intended to detonate the nuclear bomb!

“How much time did the United Nations give us?” Jiang Chen looked at the officer.

“Twenty-four hours,” the officer said nervously. “The observers dispatched by the United Nations have a tough stance. If we can’t achieve a ceasefire in 24 hours, the United Nations will authorize permanent members to forcibly intervene in the regional situation…”

“Twenty-four-hour to achieve a ceasefire? The war was provoked by them. Now they want a ceasefire!” said one of the officers.

“Fu*k United Nations! This isn’t fair!”

“Sh*t! Moro can’t accept such a result! This is no way—” the officer from Moro shouted.

“Now is not the time to complain.” Jiang Chen’s fingers rapped on the table and interrupted the voices. Sharp eyes swept across the table. “Everyone, we have twenty-four hours.”

“Think about it, what can we do with these 24 hours?”

Jiang Chen paused and put out two fingers.

“Typically speaking, there are only two situations in a ceasefire. Both sides lay down their weapons and return back to the ceasefire line or one of them surrenders.”

“You mean?”

“We go directly to the capital of Country F.” Jiang Chen tapped on the holographic map, erased the original offensive line and drew a red cross directly at City M’s position. “Before the UN trial, we’ll prosecute the war criminals who detonated the nuclear weapon!”

All the officers at the table held their breaths and looked at each other.

The silence lasted for nearly half a minute. No one said a word.

“…This is crazy.” Ivan broke the silence.

However, contrary to the skepticism raised by him, his eyes were filled with fanaticism.

“Yes, this is crazy,” Jiang Chen nodded, his hand slamming on the command table, eyes scanning from one face to the next. He then squeezed out the last sentence from his teeth, “But remember, they were crazy first!”

…

City M’s underground bunker. It was the temporary headquarters of Country F’s National Army.

Because of the loss of air superiority, the Defense Ministry, the Congress, and the Presidential Office temporarily moved into the bunker to maintain the operations of the military and government agencies in order to prevent the Aurora-20s from launching air strikes against the capital.

“Bastard! What did you do? What you did was wrong! Answer me!”

Marshal Stark, Country F’s Defense Minister, kicked open the door to the office. He took two steps forward and grabbed the military adviser Moritz’s collar. However, the latter only looked at him indifferently and allowed the old man with white sideburns to drag him by the collar.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“The nuclear explosion in Tacloban! Aside from the Jews, who else could’ve possessed nuclear weapons!” With spit flying in the air, Marshal Stark growled furiously.

“Please pay attention to your what you’re saying,” Moritz, a military adviser from Europe, said indifferently and removed Marshal’s hand from his collar. “There are many countries that possess nuclear weapons, either publicly or secretively. Although there’s no evidence, we can assume that Xin possesses nuclear weapons.”

“Bullsh*t!” Stark shouted, “They already gained an advantage, so why would they need a nuclear bomb? Exchanging 13,000 people for a brigade of 2000 people – even if a pig was commanding, it wouldn’t have made such a stupid and absurd decision!”

“But this is a fact. It was a nuclear bomb that was dropped by a Celestial Trade bomber. We have no evidence, but they don’t either. Air superiority was in their hands, and it was impossible for the nuclear bomb to fall by itself.”

“That was a city! A city where 100,000 civilians hadn’t yet evacuated! I’m not talking about the soldiers who are still fighting with Moro! It’s 100,000 people! 100,000 unarmed civilians!” General Stark’s eyes turned crimson and he almost crashed his own teeth in rage.

“But this is a war,” Moritz said without emotion.

The office was quiet.

Marshal Stark’s chest swelled violently. Like a caged beast, his mouth and nostrils let out loud breaths.

“The United Nations will intervene and the two sides will ceasefire in twenty-four hours. The peacekeeping forces will take over Leyte Island, which was hit by the nuclear weapon. The entire northern part of MLL will return to Country F because it’s under the actual control of the guerrillas.”

While speaking, Moritz paused and fixed the collar of the old man in front of him.

“Since things have happened, I think we’d better be unified.”

“The people who died…”

“There’s no war that can be won without sacrifice. I asked you from the very beginning – what are you willing to do? Now I tell you that your compatriots who died are all necessary sacrifices to win this war.”

A cold bead of sweat dropped, and Stark’s lips trembled.

“You lunatic… I can’t let you command the army of Country F. I will apply to the president to withdraw your command!”

“The command can be returned to you. There are only twenty-four hours left. Moro will do everything to attack the guerrillas in northern MLL Island. At this time, we only need to maintain the continuous landing on the island and the artillery positions to support the guerrillas in defending our ‘winning fruit’—”

Just then, a harsh warning sound interrupted Moritz.

Moritz frowned slightly and looked at the door.

“What’s this sound?”

Stark looked up at the concrete ceiling and murmured.

“It is an air defense alarm…”

“Airstrike?” Moritz frowned.

[At this point, what’s the use in air striking City M?

“I hope…” Somehow, Stark made such a statement.

However, intuition told him that things might not be as simple as an air strike.

Chapter 830: Code: Retribution

The action code was Retribution.

The mission was very simple – control Country F’s Presidential Palace, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of National Defense, and other critical facilities; and arrest war criminal Aquino IV, Defense Minister Marshal Stark, and Moritz, the military adviser from Europe.

A three-thousand-strong reinforced airborne brigade mobilized by Moro and Celestial’s two thousand-person brigade and a drone attack group of 8,000 Hummingbirds would carry out the airborne operations on City M, the capital of Country F.

Only 24 hours to carry out the mission.

At 3 a.m. on July 23, a Dolphin-10 ballistic missile was launched from a submarine missile silo deployed in the western Pacific Ocean and detonated in the airspace of central Luzon. The EMP hit more than half of Luzon Island. City M suffered a total power outage and traffic was completely paralyzed.

Subsequently, Aurora-20s flew into the airspace and engaged in a fierce battle with 10 F22s and 5 F35s that took off. They completely seized air supremacy over City M.

Sea Lions Special Forces then landed on Luzon, infiltrating and destroying the Patriots 3 and other air defense systems, paving the way for the airborne troops.

When everything was ready, the paratroops of the two brigades set off from Port D Airport and arrived on Luzon Island at 5:00 a.m. to begin the large-scale airborne operation known as “Retribution.”

30 Il-76 transport aircrafts carried out the mission.

A long time ago, Jiang Chen ordered this large transport aircraft from Russia with a unit price of 20 million US Dollar from Natasha for the rapid deployment of combat units. Although there were better aircrafts available from the apocalypse, they were still in the draft mode for the time being. At present, Future Military didn’t have enough capacity to achieve large-scale production.

In order to reduce civilian casualties, Jiang Chen specifically set the start of operations at night.

At 12 noon was the United Nations’ deadline for the warring parties. As long as the dismantling of Country F’s command system and arrests of the President of Country F and half the members of Congress were carried out before 12 noon, it would be enough to force them to immediately sign a surrender agreement and end the war.

To defeat Country F nation and achieve a ceasefire!

Through the roar of the engine, the cold wind gusted outside the steel cabin.

With their backs against the cold cabin, two rows of armored soldiers sat neatly on the Il-76 transport plane.

The dark kinetic skeleton armed the soldiers to the teeth, and the ink glass on the digital helmet cast a murderousness vibe.

The fuselage violently shook, and the nose bent upwards slightly. The signal light in the cabin lit up, the safeties were all removed, and the nylon buckles behind them were released.

They were above City M.

The commander walked to the center of the cabin, steadied himself, and did the final mobilization.

“…They detonated a nuclear bomb in their own city. Now we have to go capture the person who pressed the button. Land, confirm, lock, fire. Don’t shoot the civilians! Push toward the mission target, It’s that simple! Now check the equipment and prepare to go!”

He was met by a uniform roar from the troops.

There was no need for mobilization at all, and they were all exasperated.

Country F had to pay the price for the 431 soldiers who died in the nuclear explosion. A blood debt must be paid by blood! Every soldier’s eyes glowed with hatred.

The signal light turned from red to green, and the door of the cabin slowly opened.

Above the clouds, two fighters whistled by.

Air currents rolled into the cabin, and through the layers of white clouds, anti-aircraft guns with tracer bullets could clearly be seen following the Aurora-20s ravaging the airspace. Not far away, Moro’s 31st airborne brigade had already begun to parachute, and parachute bags filled the sky.

Land in the capital of Country F and end the war within 24 hours!

“Now! Jump! Quick!”

After the commander’s roar, the soldiers in kinetic skeletons jumped out of the cabin.

Unlike the paratroopers of Moro, the soldiers dropped to around 200 meters. The slow descent device mounted on the backs of the kinetic skeletons activated, and blue lights burst out. The paratroopers of Celestial Trade cut off the parachutes behind them and struck the cement or high-rise buildings directly under the buffer of the short-range rocket ejectors.

The city was about to wake up. Under the high-rise buildings, the citizens of City M screamed and fled. Traffic became jammed when the EMP landed. When the paratroopers began to parachute, the entire city became a mess. Even the policemen dropped their guns and batons as they joined the citizens in fleeing to subway stations.

Occasionally, one or two patriots picked up pistols and were soon locked on by the drones that landed first.

Any person with a weapon was considered a combatant!

The Moro paratroopers landed first and immediately began fighting with Country F’s 11th Brigade and anti-terrorist forces. Explosions of flames filled the streets of City M, and the destroyed armored vehicles were abandoned by the roadside.

After landing, Celestial Trade soldiers opened their holographic maps on their digital helmets. The Artificial Intelligence set by the quantum computer established the nearest assembly point and the attack routes were marked on the holographic maps. Everyone entered a combative state in the shortest amount of time.

Country F’s soldiers who rushed to the urban areas for support became the reactive ones.

No one would’ve thought Celestial Trade would come up with such a radical and risky strategy to directly drop two brigades on City M instead of concentrating on eliminating the guerrillas on MLL Island.

In the war, Celestial Trade used the Reptile drone for the first time as an infantry fire support platform. The short-range rockets and small caliber grenades were used to unleash fire on Country F’s soldiers.

The two sides started to exchange fire at shopping malls, bus stations, roads, office buildings, and other locations to compete for control of the city’s major traffic arteries.

The battle was extremely tragic.

Because fighting took place in the city and in the capital, Country F couldn’t use artillery to support their front-line troops. It could only deploy armored battalions that were stationed nearby and sent tanks and armored vehicles to wipe out Moro’s airborne troops.

However, air superiority was in the hands of Celestial.

With the hail of bullets falling from the sky, Country F’s ground units were like chickens facing a hawk, and they could only flee in fear.

As soon as anything was marked on the map, there would soon be a bomb or hail of bullets that smashed vehicles into scrap metal.

In order to avoid being targeted by Aurora-20s, a Country F armored vehicle backed into Country F National Bank. However, an air-to-ground missile still hit the target. The exploding flames shredded the entire bank door into pieces.

In order to end the battle as soon as possible, Celestial Trade could no longer avoid civilian casualties.

Since they joined the war as mercenaries, Moro would be the eventual scapegoat.

What’s more, Country F’s government didn’t care.

In addition to dropping in a brigade force, Celestial parachuted 1,000 drone hives to City M and released a total of 8,000 Hummingbird drones. They programmed 16 groups of drones to clean up the ground units in Country F.

These groups of drones were like locusts, destroying everything in their path.

Overlooking the earth from space, all of City M looked like it was ravaged by fire. Smoke from the war burned from the suburbs to the city center, burned into the square in front of the presidential palace, and burned into the underground bunkers of high officials such as Aquino IV…

Chapter 831: Conquering City M

The underground bunker was located below the Presidential Palace, about 500 meters deep. The bunker was designed to defend against nuclear strikes.

The original intention of its design was to prevent the government and the command system of Country F from being paralyzed even in an emergency situation. However, at the moment, this underground bunker became a tomb that Country F had dug for itself.

Sea Lions Special Forces led by Garrett exchanged fire with president guards on the square in front of the Presidential Palace.

From the start of the assault to the surrender of the last president guard took less than ten minutes. The staff of the Presidential Palace surrendered and put up their hands.

When the life detection device was turned on, Garrett quickly found the entrance to the underground bunker and attacked with the special force.

Almost no resistance was encountered along the way. Defense Minister Marshal Stark and President Aquino IV surrendered. In the last room of the underground bunker, the Europe military consultant Moritz had shot himself after knowing they lost.

At ten o’clock in the morning, Aquino IV stood in front of the camera in despair and broadcasted at the Presidential Palace, to the entirety of Country F, that he has surrendered.

At ten-thirty, Country F formally ceased fire of its artilleries on the shores of Bohol Island.

At eleven-thirty, the 14th, 15th, and 17th Mountain Brigades who fought against Moro, north of MLL, raised white flags and surrendered to Moro 2nd Mountain Brigade.

At eleven-forty, the three divisions of Country F on Leyte Island also announced their surrender to 6th Mechanized Division holding the beach. Then the 5th Mechanized Division sent a regiment to receive weapons and equipment, and then sent a battalion, equipped with radiation protection suits, to search for survivors.

Two minutes before twelve o’clock, Moro declared the end of the war. The invaders were defeated!

…

Protected by bodyguards, Jiang Chen and President Zhang went side by side through the airport’s private passage.

Celestial Trade took control of City M, and now he needed to travel to Country F immediately to contact UN observers. It was impossible for Moro to occupy Country F for a long time. He must use the limited time to win more benefits for Celestial Trade.

“The Capital condemned us for using intercontinental ballistic missiles in the war, as well as large-scale EMP weapons. It claimed that these weapons not only caused irreversible damage to the urban grid in City M but also caused devastating damage to civilian facilities…”

“France, Germany and other countries condemned us -”

“You don’t need to tell me about being condemned. Do they have any substantial moves?” said Jiang Chen as he walked toward the Gulfstream G650.

“Not for the time being,” Zhang Yaping replied.

[For the time being, do they intend to wait until the peace talks are over?]

Jiang Chen nodded, didn’t say anything, and boarded the plane on the runway.

At three-thirty in the afternoon, Jiang Chen and Xin officials arrive in City M International Airport.

Moro 11th Airborne Brigade and 1st Armored Brigade that subsequently landed were stationed there.

In order to avoid the United Nations’ request for an immediate withdrawal of troops, Jiang Chen evilly dissolved Country F’s police system on the spot, and at the same time opened the prison on the ground that he wanted “to create space for war criminals” and released all criminals other than terrorists, drug lords, and kidnappers. All members of the Congress and the senior officials of Country F were taken into custody.

Now, the entire security in City M relied on the troops of Moro.

In this state of anarchy, Moro could cease fire but it would be impossible to withdraw its troops. Unless the United Nations sends a brigade peacekeeping force to Luzon Island, but that was obviously unrealistic.

Immediately afterward, Jiang Chen ordered the use of truth-telling serum on the President of Country F and the Minister of Defense and they revealed all the secrets in their stomach.

…

After landing in City M International Airport, Sea Lion Special Forces took over the security work.

The streets were now extremely unsafe. From time to time there were irrational demonstrators who threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers standing at the checkpoints. In order to avoid any spillovers, Jiang Chen and the Xin officials did not take the highway. Instead, they boarded a Blackhawk helicopter and flew directly to the Presidential Palace.

At the entrance to the palace, Jiang Chen met with three UN special observers.

Two of them were Europeans and one was Jewish. Two UN peacekeeping troops with blue helmets stood next to them, one of them was Chinese.

Jiang Chen could clearly feel that the one peacekeeping soldier looked at him with admiration.

Just a few hours ago, he did what they dreamed of doing.

He smiled in a friendly manner, stepped in front of the UN observers, and politely extended his right hand.

“Welcome.”

“This is not your territory. Welcome is a word you shouldn’t use.” The European said in English, but still extended his right hand, “Oliver Rooney, from France, the UN observer responsible for this incident. My assistants, Mr. Mangala, and Mr. Kozinkin.”

Indifferent to Mr. Roone’s coldness, Jiang Chen smiled and made a pleased gesture, and then he walked into the Presidential Palace.

In the Presidential Palace, a Sea Lions Special Forces soldier stepped forward. He saluted and then handed a Future phone to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen scrolled through the contents of the phone before a faint smile emerged. He tossed the phone on the table in the president’s office and then opened the holographic screen.

“Where is Mr. Aquino IV? I need to confirm that he has not been treated unfairly,” Rooney said.

“Don’t rush things. We are very civilized and we are more civilized than some people.” Jiang Chen waved his hand to dismiss his request, and then he tapped on the holographic screen. “Mr. Aquino is in jail and locked up next to his father.” But before you meet him, I hope we can watch a video together.”

Rooney frowned and wanted to refuse, but the video was already playing.

On the screen, the soldiers of the Sea Lion Special Forces were interrogating Aquino IV. Due to the long video, Jiang Chen dragged his finger on the screen and quickly fast forwarded to the key part of the interrogation– the nuclear weapon in Tacloban!

“… is the idea of Moritz. He told me that both air superiority and sea superiority are in the hands of Celestial Trade. If one wants to win, one must consider ways beyond the war.”

“So you detonated a nuclear bomb in Tacloban?” the soldier asked.

When asked about this issue, Aquino IV’s expression was slightly distorted, and apparently, he was quite resistant to this problem. However, the efficacy of the truth-telling liquid was absolute. After the soldier repeated the question, the expression on his face changed and he answered with frankness.

“Yes, he told me that as long as the weapon of mass destruction was detonated, all permanent members of the United Nations would not sit idly on this issue. It is only necessary to plant this on Moro and Celestial and the victor of the war would be us.”

The three observers’ expressions all changed drastically.

Jiang Chen was keenly aware of this, but he said nothing. He just smiled and continued to look at the holographic screen.

“But you lost.” The soldier laughed.

“Yes,” Aquino replied.

“Okay, then the last question.” The soldier turned a page of the book on the table and asked, “Where did the nuclear weapon come from?”

Aquino’s lips twitched and showed a stronger resistance than before.

However, the soldier did not care and just raised his voice and repeated the question.

“Where did the nuclear weapon come from?”

This sentence was like a spell, breaking Aquino’s psychological defense.

This secret must remain a secret, but also because of the efficacy of the truth-telling serum, it was revealed.

“Israel.”

The video ended, and a commotion rose in the Presidential Palace.

Chapter 832: The Awkward Situation

“That’s not possible!” Jewish observer Kozinkin raged. “Israel has no nuclear weapons and it’s impossible to provide nuclear weapons to other countries!”

“Your first sentence is a lie. Can I interpret the latter half of the sentence as… um, a lame excuse?” Enjoying the angry expression on his face, Jiang Chen grinned.

Israel in possession of nuclear weapons was not a secret internationally.

At this point, even if he denied further, as just an observer, he didn’t have any convictions or facts supporting other wise.

Olivier Rooney, an observer from France, stared coldly at Jiang Chen and said word-by-word.

“I’m sorry. Your interrogation is illegal, and the UN will not recognize illegal evidence. Only by ensuring that the parties are conscious can we determine the authenticity of this piece of evidence. As far as how the nuclear issue should be characterized, it must be investigated by UN observers. After all the evidence has been collected, the investigation will determine the final conclusion!”

Looking at Mr. Rooney’s cold sight, Jiang Chen only smiled indifferently and shrugged.

“Is it? Okay, you’re free to do your investigation, but I uploaded the video onto the internet already. Celestial Trade will also investigate the incident and report in real time on the official website.”

Instantly, the three observers’ expression all changed. In particular, Kozinkin, the Israeli observer’s expression was more dramatic than an Oscar winner.

Rooney’s face turned red as he pointed at Jiang Chen.

“You, you are—”

“I’m what?” Jiang Chen raised his chin and stared at Rooney coldly. “I believe that the United Nations is open, fair, and just, so please show your sincerity. Let me see that this is a fair trial, and not an unfair judgement through tinted glasses.”

Eyes shaking slightly, Rooney chose to divert the topic that was clearly unfavorable to him.

“You must immediate transfer Aquino and Marshal Stark to the United Nations Tribunal! This is a decision made by the Special Committee of the Moro-Country F War. They should be judged by the United Nations Tribunal rather than being judged alone by one of the parties to the war!”

“Before accepting the trias under international law, they should first accept the judgment of the Moro people. They must be prosecuted as the aggressors of war!” Jiang Chen stared into Rooney’s eyes and used an unyielding tone. “Also, please pay attention to your rhetoric. This war was unilaterally provoked by Country F. Its name should be self-defense against Country F and not the bullsh*t name you gave.”

Overwhelmed by Jiang Chen’s unyielding stance, the muscles on Rooney’s face stiffened, and his throat was as uncomfortable as if a piece of cotton had been stuffed inside. The other two observers’ faces were quite ugly. They did not think that Jiang Chen’s reaction would have been so strong.

After a long time, he only responded with a word.

“I will convey your message to the United Nations.”

He involuntarily dwarfed on his stance.

“I look forward to the news you bring back.” Jiang Chen reached out and made a pleased gesture. Then he pointed to the door.

Rooney fixed his eyes on Jiang Chen, fixed his collar and walked away with the group of observers.

…

Jiang Chen was not bluffing. After the video was played, he uploaded it to the official website of Celestial Trade. Through the media controlled by Future Group, this video without “violence” was retransmitted to various media outlets and platforms.

After the release of the interrogation video, the international community suddenly became rattled.

Instantly, Country F nation and Israel, suspected of providing nuclear weapons to Country F, stood in the cusp of public opinion.

Russia and Hua condemned Aquino IV immediately. Russian President Putin, even more bluntly, expressed his opinion before reporters. Compared to a president, Aquino IV ‘s behavior was more like a terrorist.

The UA, which had previously strongly denounced Moro, was forced into an awkward position.

UA turned deaf to Country F’s shelling of City C and then denounced the airstrikes Celestial Trade “possible” of increasing civilian casualties. After the nuclear crisis, it jumped out and demanded that Celestial Trade withdraw immediately. They then expressed shock and disbelief to the media during the massive airborne operation…

And now it seemed that their series of interferences for preheating an armed intervention was as funny as a clown’s act.

It was not just the UA Capitol, but also the protesters in City M.

In order to resist the aggressors, they spontaneously formed protest groups, large and small, and used violent or non-violent methods to throw stones, and even firecrackers at Moro soldiers occupying their capital.

However, after the release of the video, their protests immediately turned into awkwardness.

The nuclear bomb was not dropped by the aggressors as declared by Aquino IV, but it was an order from their beloved president.

…

In front of the media, the Capitol spokesman Jay Carney held a press release in his hands, but his expression was quite tense.

“Celestial Trade used an unusual drug interrogation method during the interrogation process, which is illegal under the International Human Rights Convention. In addition, the interrogation itself was inconsistent with the procedure as it should be inquired by the UN Tribunal. Please understand the message I’m conveying. I mean, everything has to follow the procedure. Investigate, collect evidence, open court. If we don’t follow the procedures, what’s the use of our law?”

The person who wrote the speech did not go into details on what he must say, while at the same time, the reporters’ questions were also tricky and filled with traps.

“Mr. Carney, did you mean that the interrogation video released by Celestial Trade does not count as evidence?” asked the Times reporter.

“I didn’t say that, but what I meant was… Well… the Capitol questions the legitimacy of the interrogation.”

“What we want to know is who is behind the nuclear explosion. Please answer our questions!”

“That has not yet been finalized—”

“Celestial Trade has released the interrogation video! We don’t want to know what the Capitol thinks about the interrogation process. We want to know who is behind all of this!”

“Enough! Don’t interrupt me! I want to ask your mother if she has ever taught you the etiquette of being a British gentleman. I said that it has not yet been decided. The Capitol is currently—” Jay Carney finally snapped as he pointed at the journalist who kept giving him trouble.

However, he regretted it immediately as so soon as he said it.

It was too late, and the next day the photo of him snapping at the reporter became the cover of Times, and was paired by the headline.

[When asked about whether the Tacloban nuclear explosion was related to Israel and whether the Jewish consortium had played a disgraceful role in the Moro-Country F War, the Capitol spokesperson’s response was rather unreasonable. Although the Capitol has evaded this topic, it is not difficult to see that there may be an unspoken secret behind this…]

The public opinion was shifting.

However, at the moment, the Capitol was unable to deal with the shift in opinion.

Twenty-four hours passed since Celestial Trade parachuted in M City. The president and the chief of staff did not closed their eyes for a single minute as they gathered senior officials of Ministry of National Defense for more than ten consecutive meetings.

It was not because of the situation in Country F.

It was because of the EMP that was launched from the seabed…

Chapter 833: Two Seconds

In the conference room, the conference table was fully occupied. The people gathered around there was the hierarchy of UA’s power.

Not only senior officials of the Department of Defense were present, but also the politicians made a rare visit this conference room. From the left-hand side of the Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, were President Hill, her chief of staff, and the national security advisor.

The atmosphere at the conference table was tense. Everyone had a gloomy expression on their faces.

The door of the conference room was pushed open, and a young man dressed in a suit holding a thick stack of documents strolled in.

“Morell, you are late.” Ashton Carter was not pleased.

“Sorry, it took a while to print these materials… what happened to my seat?”

“There are a lot of people today.” Sighing, Mr. Carter looked at the assistant standing next to him. “Help Mr. Morrel bring in a chair.”

“Okay.” The assistant nodded and headed out.

Hill exchanged look with her chief of staff and then looked at Ashton.

“Since everyone is here, can we start?”

“Of course,” Ashton nodded, looking at Morrel. “Well, let’s start with the Guam military base.”

“Okay, boss.” Morrel immediately turned the document to the page on Guam. He couldn’t bother with the chair anymore as he started to read the document standing up. “At 3 in the morning, on July 24th, Celestial Trade launched a Dolphin-10 ballistic missile from a submarine missile silo located in western part of the Pacific. When the missile rose to the stratosphere, it briefly appeared on the THAAD anti-missile system deployed at the Guam military base…”

“Briefly appeared?” Hill’s eyebrows raised. Her pen gently tapped on the book as she interrupted Morrel’s speech. “I want to know how many minutes briefly refers to.”

Morrel’s expression suddenly turned peculiar when he heard the question, and he gave a subtle glimpse at his boss Ashton.

However, the latter did not seem to take the hint and said impatiently.

“The president asked you a question, don’t waste our time.”

“Yes…”

Morrel quickly nodded and looked at Hill. After he hesitated for a moment, he finally decided to tell the truth to everyone around the table.

“Two seconds.”

The conference room went quiet.

Although it had been quiet all along, Morrel felt a deathly silence at the very moment.

“…Thanks.” Taking the chair from the assistant, Morrel felt relieved as he whispered and sat in his chair.

The feeling of being focused on by everyone, he couldn’t take a second longer.

Silence continued for a while around the conference table, and Hill broke the silence and said to Ashton.

“If the Ministry of Defense’s budget is not enough, you can just tell me. there is no need to play games in this meeting.”

Ashton was completely dumbfounded and had yet to recover from the two-second figure.

[Two seconds?]

[How could this be possible!]

[From the Moro War of Independence, Celestial Trade forced UA to compromise with intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the UA strengthened its anti-missile deployment at the Guam military base. Not only is the most advanced THAAD system deployed at Guam, but the radar of the original Patriot 3 air defense system was also updated…]

But now, the head of the military base in Guam told him that they only observed the missile for two seconds?

Moreover, the missile was observed in the most easily captured stage and most likely to be intercepted. The acceleration phase from the launch point to the low orbit!

Seeing that the boss was silent, Morrel thought that he needed to help him, so he continued.

“No, it has nothing to do with the budget… The invisibility technology of Dolphin-10 is extremely advanced. Not just us, our allies, Nippon, didn’t even notice Celestial Trade launched a ballistic missile…”

“What do you do with the 600 billion US Dollar budget we give you each year! How could you not even catch a missile from a tiny country?” An official cursed in anger.

“This can’t be blamed on us entirely! We are developing anti-missile technology. They are also upgrading ballistic missile technology!”

“Haha, explain it to the taxpayers!”

“…”

The conference table was full of noise and shouting. Hill, who was the first to speak, was silent.

Using an intercontinental ballistic missile to launch at a neighboring country that was a few hundred kilometers apart was no different from hitting a mosquito with a cannon. Obviously, Celestial Trade had other motives. Explicitly, it was targeting Country F, but in fact it was testing the capability of THAAD.

If the system wouldn’t be able to discover missiles, then never mind the anti-ballistic missiles.

Hill suddenly pessimistically discovered that Celestial Trade was ahead of the UA in both EMP and missile technology.

The horrors of M City have already proved the terrifying power of EMP weapons against modern civilization.

The entire city was turned back into the Stone Age overnight, from traffic to social order, all were destroyed. There was no pollution residue, not even death, but the consequences were even more terrifying than killing tens of thousands of people.

If EMP detonates over any of the UA city…

Hill couldn’t even imagine it, but one thing would be certain.

The economy of the entire world would regress by at least two decades.

Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, the national security situation in the UA had never been so severely tested…

“Immediately increase the research and development budget for anti-EMP technology! I don’t want to wait until the EMP hits us, only the tanks and armored vehicles will be able to move in the country. Also the anti-missile system! If THAAD fails, we will change to something else. Within five months, I need a solution! If that doesn’t work, then people need to be replaced.” Hill stared at Ashton in dead seriousness.

The latter held his breath and nodded in stiffness.

“I promise.”

“Then, today’s meeting is over.” Hill stood up.

Morrel, who saw Hilary planned to leave, immediately said as he had not completed the report.

“Wait, there are cybersecurity issues! In Celestial Trade’s cyber attacks against Country Fs, we sent network security experts to remotely assist Country F government defense—”

“And we lost?” Hill looked at Morrell without any expression, and her eyes began to narrow along with her wrinkles. “I don’t want to hear you report on your incompetence. I hope you can have solutions as soon as possible!”

“Yes…” Morrel swallowed, then stiffly nodded.

Immediately afterward, Hill looked to her Chief of Staff.

“Help me adjust my schedule. Cancel all afternoon and evening plans and leave the rest of the day open. I need to go to see the United Nations. EMP weapons must be restricted. Later I will go to the CIB. Tell them to wait for me in the office.”

“Okay.” The chief of staff nodded.

“In addition, send John Kerry to City M. We must have a conversation with Jiang Chen.”

Chapter 834: First Strike Advantage

Inside City M, the protesting crowd was still in heated conflict with Moro soldiers, but the protesters’ morale had not been as high as it was two days ago. Their goal was to fight against the “invaders,” and the chanting slogan was to support the leadership of President Aquino IV.

However, the video released by Celestial Trade made all protesters taste the feeling of betrayal.

The leader they trusted and supported was a culprit who pressed the “nuclear button” in Tacloban?

Suspicion sprouted in the hearts of every Country F citizen. Once the young people became suspicious of the legitimacy of the former regime, all the resistance forces turned vulnerable.

The armored vehicle of Moro’s First Armored Brigade, accompanied by its proud infantry, stepped on each main road in City M.

Behind the armored vehicles was a high-powered broadcast. Every day, Aquino IV and Marshal Stark’s confession repeatedly played in the streets of M City about the nuclear incident in Tacloban.

The voice echoing in the streets and lanes was like a curse, afflicting every patriot who still possessed illusions and hopes for the country.

They had already endured the pain of defeat, now they must be tortured by lies and betrayals and taste the humiliation and pain.

It was really despairing to witness-

They totally deserved it!

The EMP rendered almost all electronic equipment in City M useless. The entire city’s supply of water and electricity collapsed. Necessities in the city had also fallen into a state of extreme deprivation as a direct consequence.

At present, international aid organizations had sent a total of 21,000 tons of relief supplies to Country F, including food, tablets, and various household items. As the Country F government was already paralyzed, the relief supplies were issued on behalf of Moro at military checkpoints in City M.

However, these necessities only prevented people from starving.

Eighty percent of corporate companies requested bankruptcy protection. Shops and supermarkets all closed their doors. People unable to buy necessities could only rely on relief supplies.

But even if the shops opened, they wouldn’t be able to buy anything.

With the defeat of Country F, the currency devalued into waste paper overnight. A banknote with the largest denomination could not even purchase a roll of toilet paper. In contrast, the US Dollar and Chinese Yuan became the stable currencies in the occupied territories. In addition, cigarettes and tampons were also quite highly sought-after on the black market.

Ten dollars, or even a few Dove chocolates, or a pack of self-heating rations, could be exchanged for a girl’s virginity. A bag of powdered milk or a box of cold medicine could buy the chastity of a dignified female.

Even with the strict military discipline of Celestial Trade, the commanders turned a blind eye to the soldiers’ actions during their private times. As long it didn’t happen during the post, as long as it was not by force, no one intervened.

What’s more, from another perspective, there were “good deeds” after all.

…

After occupying City M, Jiang Chen convened the opposition party in Country F for the first time, elected obedient members and politicians, and formed the transitional government prior to the UN meeting, and threw all the administrative affairs of the occupied area to the transitional government.

The United Nations, led by Western countries, certainly did not recognize the legitimacy of the transitional government.

But it didn’t mean anything. Jiang Chen immediately ordered the newly established transitional government to do one thing.

Disarmament of 40,000. The Army would retain a small number of light weapons and light vehicles. The Army would be reorganized into a gendarmerie, or also known as military police. It would enforce the law in place of the disbanded police system in the occupied territories and maintain the provisional constitution of the transitional government.

Following this, Hua and Russia stated that they recognized the transitional government of Country F and urged the transitional government to stabilize the situation, and re-elect at an early date to restore peace and stability…

Before the UN’s meeting on the establishment of the transitional government of Country F, Jiang Chen not only complete the formation of the transitional government in advance but also brought two permanent members to his side. Then even if Western countries tried to make a fuss through the United Nations and request the reorganization of the transitional government of Country F, Jiang Chen, at least, had two votes against it.

As for the protests in Country F…

Frankly speaking, Jiang Chen did not care how they protested. Even if they complained before the international media and shaped themselves as victims, they could not change the fact that they were aggressors.

What’s more, they protested from the day they were defeated. The demonstration did not stop for a single moment. The entire nation was under the military control of Moro, and the intense protesting didn’t create any obstacles.

As for the establishment of gendarmerie to take over the security of the nation, it was a move mainly to fix the mess. It would be impossible for Moro to keep such a large-scale garrison in Country F. Not to mention the UA would not agree, Moro’s own finances could not afford it.

These troops cost a lot of money to be in foreign countries even just for a second. Celestial Trade already began to withdraw its troops, and only retained two military bases in City M and a brigade.

…

The Hilton Hotel near the Presidential Palace was purchased by Jiang Chen from the sale of the Hilton Group, which sold off its assets in Country F, for a minimal price of 20 million US Dollar. It had been transformed into office space for Celestial Trade in the country.

In addition to more than a dozen diplomats, there were also two hundred fully armed soldiers stationed there, as well as special commissioners dispatched by Moro. Jiang Chen still had some things to take care, so he temporarily resided there.

Two days ago he lived in the Presidential Palace, but now the Sea Lions Special Forces have returned it to the transitional government.

“…The UN peacekeeping forces have arrived on Leyte Island. Today, at noon, our soldiers have withdrawn from the suburbs of Tacloban.” In the holographic screen, Ivan reported the situation to him.

“Very well, the United Nations has finally taken over the mess.” Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair, lifted Ayesha’s brewed coffee, took a sip and smiled. “How many people came?”

“A thousand people.”

Jiang Chen nodded, taking into account the population of the survivors of Tacloban, it was the figure he estimated.

Ivan seemed to be somewhat reserved, but he finally decided to say.

“Is it really okay to allow the United Nations to control Leyte Island?”

“Why not?” Jiang Chen laughed. “Now the entire island is a mess. If we don’t throw it at the United Nations, we would have to let our people take on the risk and repair the grid for Country F that is filled in radiation. City M is enough. Don’t bite off more than we can chew.”

“No, I mean, if the investigation is fully handed over to the United Nations, will the Freemasonry use its influence in the International Tribunal to make unfair decisions on the investigation results…”

Jiang Chen shook his head. “Following the procedure, from the investigation to evidence collection to the court hearing, when do you think the verdict result will come out?”

Then, Jiang Chen put the coffee cup back on the table and raised three fingers.

“Three years and the fastest will be three years. The more important the matter, the more complex the investigation and evidence collection process. We already have the advantage in public opinion. The international community already has a preconceived notion of this event. If they intend to change the verdict, then they must drag the investigation and evidence collection process on for as long as possible to add more uncertainties!”

“Then—” Ivan opened his mouth but was soon interrupted.

“Then, the question is.” Looking at his subordinate with confidence, Jiang Chen crossed his fingers on the table and said with certainty. “Will they still last for that long?”

Chapter 835: Kerry’s Visit

The Freemasonry had not moved for the time being. The UA was the first to react.

Although Jiang Chen suspected that the UA would contact him, he did not expect the UA Secretary of State – John Kerry to pay a personal visit.

The UA Secretary of State, nominated by the former president, as Hill’s successor, was described as sophisticated in diplomacy. He was praised by the UA media as “a rare diplomacy star in the history of the UA”. Due to his high evaluation during his term of office, he received a nomination from the new president after the previous president’s term ended.

The Secretary of State personally paying a visit could only mean one thing.

The EMP did indeed scare the UA.

“Haha, welcome, Mr. Kerry. What brought you here?”

“The friendliness across the Pacific Ocean. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen.”

At City M International Airport, Jiang Chen stood at the runway of the airport. He smiled and extended his hand to Mr. Kerry who had stepped off the plane. The latter also enthusiastically took his hand and expressed his gratitude for his greeting.

If people didn’t know the grudges between the two sides, in the eyes of others, the two were simply like friends who hadn’t seen each other for many years. Their actions didn’t look like they just met for the first time.

After exchanging greetings, accompanied by Sea Lion Special Forces, Jiang Chen took Kerry to the front of the fleet responsible for transportation.

Looking at the Lincoln’s Limousine sandwiched between armored vehicles, Kerry was dumbfounded, “If it wasn’t for the fact that I have come to City M before, I would have questioned if my captain was drunk and sent me to Baghdad by mistake.”

Although it was only a joke, it certainly carried a satire tone. Kerry’s message was nothing more than to express that Moro and Celestial Trade had become the destroyers of regional stability. A “stable” country was turned into Iraq in Southeast Asia.

However, when he said this, he apparently selectively forgot that the status quo in Baghdad was caused by the invasion of UA.

“Believe me, this is definitely better than Iraq.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“I hope so,” Kerry shrugged and said without refuting.

Sure enough, with armored vehicles to clear the way, no one came to cause trouble.

The security level was high not because of the protestors who threw stones and Molotov cocktails, it was mainly to prevent the Freemasonry from sending out assassins.

While the appearance of this Lincoln didn’t look extravagant, each of its glass had been replaced by higher density graphene and each inch of the vehicle had been replaced by Grade A steel. Even anti-tank rifles would not be able to hurt the passengers inside.

The two armored vehicles, both in the front and back, acted as minesweepers to prevent possible roadside bombs.

Jiang Chen’s safety was the responsibility of by both the Sea Lions Special Forces and the Ghost Agents. Even if the Israeli Mossad came, it would be a one-way trip for them!

Sitting in the vehicle, Kerry made no mention of the details of this diplomatic visit. Both men talked about basketball and then turned their conversation to golf. Neither talked about issues related to international politics. Seeing that he did not plan to bring forward the issue, Jiang Chen did not pursue the topic either.

Kerry was sent to the hotel where he stayed, and Jiang Chen returned to the Hilton hotel.

When returning to the presidential suite on the top floor, Ayesha had prepared a delicious dinner for him.

At the entrance, she took over the suit jacket in Jiang Chen’s hands. While hanging up the jacket, she reported to him on the information collected by the Ghost Agents.

“… Two days ago the UA Department of Defense held a secret meeting at the Capital. After the meeting, Minister Ashton immediately raised the Research and Development budget for anti-strategic EMP weapons and high-orbit interception systems. In addition, after the meeting, Hill went to Nouveau York to meet with the Secretary General of the United Nations. According to the analysis of the National Intelligence Bureau, the UA may restrict the use of EMP weapons through the establishment of a UN convention.”

Jiang Chen nodded and stopped for a moment at the entrance before he asked Ayesha.

“What about Europe? Is there news of Carmen?”

“Not yet.” Ayesha’s expression didn’t look too great when it came to this matter. “Carmen’s last public appearance was two months ago. In mid-June, he appeared at a product release event of Daimler Group. Then he evaporated from the world.”

“Is that so? It seems that from June this year, he has been guarding me.” Jiang Chen smiled and was not surprised.

Assassination was the lowest tactic, but it was also one of the most effective tactics. If the level 33 members of the Freemasonry were all eliminated, then the Freemasonry would be destroyed. However, these capital predators were no easier to assassinate than the President of the United States.

Presidents traveled with the media but for capitalists like Carmen, even if the media wanted to interview him, they wouldn’t be able to pinpoint their location.

The wealthier, the more afraid of death. Jiang Chen himself believed in his sentiment.

The Rothschild family’s investment in the safety of its members was no less than their investment in wineries.

In order to confirm the positions of the high level Freemasonry, and to even carry out assassinations, Ghost Agents would face at least Mossad-level opponents.

Technology could bring advantages, but the advantages were not absolute.

In order to prevent infiltration by the intelligence agencies of other countries, when the Ghost Agents absorbed new members, the choices were often those who had no experience in intelligence work. Also, they specifically targeted young people. Although this guaranteed loyalty, there was no way to make up for the lack of experience of actual intelligence workers.

“Do we need to send more field agents to Europe?” Ayesha asked, unable to admit defeat.

“No, that’s good for now.” Jiang Chen shook his head. Suddenly, he seemed to recollect something. “Yes, that mansion in Bav, have you checked the place out?”

“We checked. Carmen is not there.” Ayesha shook her head.

“Not Carmen, I want to ask, is old Rothschild doing okay?” Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

Although he and the Rothschild were no longer on friendly terms, he still felt good about the old man who lived by the lake. Even now, he still remembered what the old man said that night, and the greasy chicken that he made.

It was not delicious by any means, but compared to the treats at the banquet, it was a different flavor.

Ayesha took a moment to think, obviously not expecting Jiang Chen to suddenly ask about this. She didn’t have a deep impression of the old man because she did not attend the banquet with Jiang Chen. However, in the intelligence collected by the Ghost Agents, it mentioned the old man.

After earnestly recalling, she reported.

“His health condition is good. I heard… the former head of the family is constructing a ship by the lake?”

“Is the ship built?” asked Jiang Chen.

“It’s done… Do we need to keep an eye on him?” Ayesha titled her head.

“Haha, no, it’s just my personal curiosity. There is no need to send someone to monitor him.”

Glancing at the wall clock on the wall, it was already late. Jiang Chen rubbed Ayesha’s hair to end the topic of work.

“It’s late. Let’s get breakfast.”

Feeling the warmth on her head along with his big hand, Ayesha nodded tenderly.

“The food is ready. I’ll go bring it up.”

Jiang Chen smiled and reached for her slim waist, and whispered in her ear.

“Let’s go together.”

Her gorgeous face turned into a ripe apple and she shyly closed her eyes.

“Mhmm.”

Chapter 836: M.A.D

After arriving in Country F, John Kerry did not rush to make a deal with Jiang Chen. Instead, he met with Santos, the President of Moro, and the current president of the transitional government, Baudista.

However, based on the informant response collected by the Ghost agents on both sides, Kerry did not achieve any desired results in the talks, especially not with the current president of the transitional government.

Although Kerry offered a lot of incentives and promises such as: help Country F resolve the MLL issue, help Country F rebuild its economy, help with… and so on, Baudista remained unmoved and clung to the thigh of Celestial Trade.

Disregard the fact that their army had yet to withdraw from City M, even if they did withdraw, when did the promises ever get fulfilled?

Baudista knew very clearly that the issue of Country F was seen favorably by the UA. The UA needed Country F to act as a stronghold in the South Asia region to exert its influence, so it made these promises. However, the Jewish Consortium controlled Country F’s economy, the WASP consortium with an advantage in the Capital did not intend to honor the promises made due to political needs…

At this time, if the transitiol government continued to hold on to its diplomatic tactics of depending on Nippon and the UA, it would be completely foolish.

Finally, on the third day of Kerry’s visit to City M, without making any progress, he had to go to the Hilton Hotel where the sign had been replaced by “Celestial Trade City M Office”. With the lead of Celestial Trade soldiers, he came to the meeting room to meet Jiang Chen.

Leaning against the sofa, Jiang Chen looked at Mr. Kerry as he walked in with a grin.

“Long time no see, Mr. Kerry, how have you been recently?”

Jiang Chen’s ridicule made Kerry awkward because he had almost no progress in the past three days.

“It’s not bad.” As a long-time diplomat, his true thoughts didn’t show on his face. He smiled and sat across Jiang Chen, then turned his gaze to the bottle of red wine on the table. He started the conversation with a casual topic, “… Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, good lord, I heard that the price per bottle is comparable to its equivalent weight in gold. I’ve only seen it in Hollywood movies.”

“Produced in 1945. Six hundred thousand US Dollar.” Jiang Chen motioned to the waiter to open the cork and pour a glass for the two, he then looked at Kerry and said, “When Hilton sold this hotel to me, they also transferred the fine wines in the cellar to me. I live with traditional values where we treat our guests with good wine. Today, with an important guest visiting, wouldn’t it be inappropriate without it?”

“I’m afraid it’s not appropriate for me to drink such expensive wine.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not the Capital.” Jiang Chen lifted the glass and gestured for a toast. “You don’t have to use the tactics in the Capital here. Please be straightforward.”

“Then I’ll directly get to the topic.” In the end, he did not touch the glass of wine. Kerry hid the smile on his face and put on a serious gesture, “What do you really want?”

“What do we want?” When Jiang Chen heard Kerry’s question, he suddenly chuckled. “Do you mean, is this war provoked by me?”

“Mr. Jiang Chen, since you want me to be straightforward, then let’s not go in circles.” Kerry shook his head. “You and I are both know. I don’t mean this war.”

“What do you mean?” Jiang Chen slightly narrowed his eyes.

“On what terms will you remove the missiles deployed under the Pacific Ocean?” Kerry stared at Jiang Chen.

The atmosphere in the conference room gradually cooled down. Jiang Chen put down the glass and spread his hands.

“This issue is not a problem at all because we absolutely cannot remove those missiles.”

“Your missiles have seriously threatened regional and global stability! If you do not plan to trigger a new round of the arms race, I urge you to consider this issue in a serious and responsible manner! Not that—”

“So why doesn’t your party give up all nuclear weapons in order to maintain love and peace? I also ask you to consider my proposal seriously and responsibly,” Jiang Chen interrupted Kerry’s words and said with a smile.

Jiang Chen’s words made Kerry pause for a moment. He did not expect Jiang Chen to use such a rogue tactic to stop him.

After some thought, Kerry recollected the strategy in his mind and slowed down his voice.

“The unilateral abandonment of nuclear weapons by the UA will not bring about a positive impact on the global situation. Instead, it will adversely accelerate the deterioration of global stability. In addition, we are discussing the matter of EMP and the problem of your deployment of intercontinental missiles in the Pacific Ocean. Please do not mention these irrelevant topics.”

“Is that so? It seems to me that the two are completely one issue,” Jiang Chen laughed. “If you are unwilling to give up nuclear weapons, then what reason is there to demand that we give up EMPs? In my honest opinion, EMPs are more environmental and safer than nuclear weapons.”

“But in terms of danger, both are equivalent.” Kerry said word by word, “If you refuse, then we will deploy B2 bombers at the military base in Guam.”

However, contrary to Kerry’s expectation, Jiang Chen did not react to his threat.

Silence continued for a long time between the two.

After a long wait, Jiang Chen saw that Kerry did not continue, raised his eyebrows and broke the silence

“And then?”

And then?

Jiang Chen’s words stunned Kerry.

[I already told you everything. If you do not withdraw the missile, we will put strategic bombers at your doorstep. And then?]

[Of course, I can’t be so straightforward.]

Kerry coughed and went on.

“It seems that Mr. Jiang did not understand what I meant, so I will explain it in detail. The B2 bomber is a stealth strategic bomber that the UA military is proud of. It is inappropriate for me to mention more about this bomber and you can find more information on the internet. I will only emphasize on one point, the B2 bomber has nuclear strike capabilities, and you should understand what I mean.”

Jiang Chen smiled.

“I thought you were planning to say something else. If several B2 bombers can make you feel safe, then feel free to drop them off at our doorstep.”

“You are not afraid?” Kerry did not comprehend.

“Why should I be scared?” Jiang Chen sat up and leaned forward slightly. “Where you place your nuclear bomb offers no difference to us. M. A. D. I believe you won’t be unfamiliar with this term. After all, this is the theory you put forward.”

M. A. D. “Mutual Assured Destruction,” was proposed by the Secretary of Defense McNamara during the Cold War. Although it had always been denied by the government, this mechanism had been the idea used by the United States and the Soviet Union in the arms race and had been used up to this day and age.

If the UA used nuclear weapons against Xin one day in the future, then Celestial Trade’s EMP would also allow the UA to return to the Stone Age overnight.

That being the case, where the UA placed the nuclear weapons had no effect on Jiang Chen?

Looking at Kerry’s nervous look, Jiang Chen used a slightly more moderate tone.

“Peaceful development and friendly relationships are the consistent diplomatic positions of Xin. As the guardian of Xin, Celestial Trade promises that the EMP weapons will only be used for defense, and counter-attack and will not be used aggressively.”

Jiang Chen then looked at Kerry, and said.

“If you insist on asking us to give up EMP weapons, then we also ask you to set an example and destroy all nuclear weapons. If not, then…”

Jiang Chen chuckled and stopped talking.

Although he did not finish the last sentence, the meaning he expressed was already clear.

[If not, then go back to the Capital with your double standards!]

Chapter 837: Liquidation after the War

In the City M court, Aquino IV stood in the defendant position without any color on his face, his eyes stared blankly at the pattern on the floor tiles.

At the moment, his face was paler than when he was just injected with truth-telling serum. The handcuffed arms were almost as thin as sticks. In order to prevent UN observers from mistaking that he was treated inhumanely in prison, before the trial, prison guards forced down him two high-calorie nutrient supplies under Jiang Chen’s instructions.

The indignation of the public prosecutor drew the applause of the jury. However, all this was quiet and inaudible, just liked flies buzzing around his ears.

It wasn’t until the judge’s verdict that he raised his head.

“The accused Aquino is sentenced to life imprisonment for dereliction of duty, crimes against humanity, crimes against public security, war crimes, with a total of 15 counts. The sentencing will be executed immediately after the court trial with no parole and medical treatment during the sentence.”

The judge’s words were like heavy hammer strikes that rang the death bell of Aquino’s heart.

He was full of regret.

He regretted being tempted by Rothschild’s words, regretted fighting this stupid war, and regretted agreeing to Moritz’s crazy plan…

However, regretting was futile.

Because of this lapse of judgement, he was nailed to the pole of shame in history.

He hated the fact that the judge did not give him a death penalty…

“Go.”

The gendarmerie said coldly, his hands pressed on Aquino’s shoulders.

Looking at the young gendarmerie, looking at his hateful eyes, Aquino wondered why he wanted to laugh.

However, he didn’t manage to laugh.

The gendarmerie pushed him out of the court with indifference.

Not only did he bring Country F to the abyss of defeat, but he also ordered the use of nuclear weapons against his own citizens. He had become the sinner of the entire country.

Especially those young people who once supported him.

Even compared to Moro people who praising their victory to City M, they hated him more.

“Next, defendant Stark…”

The last thing he heard was the judge’s voice without emotion.

After Aquino was taken away, the trial continued.

…

As the perpetrators of war, both Aquino and Marshal Stark were sentenced to life imprisonment and detained in the notorious Quezon City prison in City M.

In fact, at the very beginning, the court was preparing to give the two death sentences. However, taking into account the pressure from the international community and the abolition of the death penalty in Country F’s criminal law, the Supreme Court’s judges changed their final judgment to life imprisonment after considering Jiang Chen’s proposal.

For them, death was a relief.

Sometimes living was a more cruel punishment.

The remaining war criminals were each sentenced to more than 20 years and less than 50 years of imprisonment. Although there was a time limit on these sentencings, the age of these war criminals meant that the sentences they received were no different from life imprisonment.

Since the war had ended, the mess had also been cleaned up.

Then the real liquidation should begin!

In late August, the F Country transitional government verified the accounts of the former regime’s state treasury. Based on the reasons of indirectly supporting the war of aggression, the transitional government froze the assets of many parties that allegedly funded war criminal Aquino IV, including Rothschild bank.

This move immediately caused strong dissatisfaction in countries from the European Union!

However, at this moment, there was no use for them being dissatisfied. The only thing they could do was to cancel the 20 million US Dollar in aid originally provided to the transitional government.

However, more than 10 billion US Dollar in assets had been nationalized by the Country F transitional government.

The peso became just mere papers with printed colors, and now the finances of the country were under duress.

The properties previously belonging to the Rothschild Bank, the mines of the BHP Mining Group, and the plantations and sugar factories of the Louis Dreyfus were all sold off by the transitional government in need of funding. Most of these assets liquidated at a low price and eventually fell into Jiang Chen’s pocket.

With a low price of 6 billion US Dollar, the 20 billion assets invested by the Jewish consortium in Country F were stripped clean. As the behind-the-scenes controller of the transitional government, Jiang Chen earned a lot!

The money was spent from his personal account, so it was not within the assets of Future Group. However, in order to facilitate the management of these assets, he used a symbolic price of 1 US Dollar to pour these “trophies” to his “left hand” – Future Bank, and Future People Group would manage these assets.

As the saying goes, the more debt you have, the less you’re worried.

Anyway, Jiang Chen already was on bad terms with the Freemasonry, and did not care how much more he would do. It would dumb to care about their past relationships in this hostile state.

Just like this, Future Group’s withdraw from the European Union that costed billions immediately got paid back by the Freemasonry.

Not only did billions of dollar worth of investments go down the drain, all of the assets in Country F were liquidated. It was no exaggeration to say that within this month, the direct losses of the Rothschild family amounted to 20 billion US Dollar. And several Jewish consortia that were inextricably linked to Freemasonry had a loss that added up to more than 35 billion US Dollar!

In theory, with such terrible losses, it would be absolutely impossible for these Jewish consortia to give up. However, at this moment, even if they just wanted to retaliate against Future Group, they had no energy left.

While the entire world was focused on Southeast Asia, Ukraine, far behind the globe, was quietly brewing a dramatic change.

On the evening of August 20, militants stationed in Donetsk launched a new round of offensive attacks against the Ukrainian government forces west of the ceasefire line, destroying the mortars and howitzers used to harass the western defense line of Donetsk.

Although the two sides reached a ceasefire under the mediation of the United Nations, the ceasefire in the true sense had never been honored. Although no one had crossed the ceasefire line, sporadic mutual artillery attacks had always been the daily “greeting” of both parties. The artillery shells that had fallen to the east of the ceasefire line were produced by the European Union’s military factories, and those that fell to the west were produced in Moscow.

Now grudges over the years have finally been ignited.

The Kremlin knew clearly, this time was Russia’s golden opportunity to recover eastern Ukraine! If they didn’t act this time, then it would be impossible to find another good opportunity. Under the secret support of Russia, the militant forces in eastern Ukraine drove government troops from the ceasefire line to the other side of Dnieper.

Recovering all of the territory, Donetsk and Lugansk held successive referenda to prepare to replicate the Crimean model and merge into the Russian Federation.

NATO’s energy was contained in the Turkish Civil War and the Southeast Asian nuclear crisis. The Ukrainian crisis that broke out at this time undoubtedly caught the unprepared EU and UA off guard.

The battle in their own front lawn forced the Freemasonry to temporarily shift its strategic focus to central European. As for how much chips the EMP could add to Russia’s response to NATO, it was not what Jiang Chen could foresee.

The game between superpowers, and the game between superpowers and small countries, was played using completely different rules.

At this moment, Jiang Chen was busy digesting the loot discarded by the Jews, and had no time to manage such a distant issue.

The second round of battle against the Freemasonry resulted in the victory of Future Group!

Chapter 838: Economic Dependent Country

The summer was approaching its end, and City M’s temperature was much milder than it was some time ago.

The prisoners of war were locked into prison and the post-war liquidation ended. The transitional government took over the affairs of the country and the tension eased down.

At present, the troops of Moro still occupied City M. The scars of the war were still visible on the streets. The war refugees queuing for food at the military checkpoints were a lot less than before.

MLL Island was developing industries at lightning speed. Many food processing plants, paper mills and garment factories had sprung up. People who couldn’t find a job in City M began to migrate south. They took a boat trip to MLL Island to test their luck in Quezon.

Although the war between the two countries had just ended, the unification of many years meant there is a connection still existed between the two countries. The relationship between the transitional government and Santos was friendly. To ease the strained domestic employment pressure, the two sides signed a special visa-free agreement to facilitate the unemployed in City M to work in MLL Island.

Moro’s industry was in its infancy and it needed these technical talents from City M.

In early September, with the help of State Grid, the power grids in City M’s downtown and industrial areas managed to recover. As for when the power grid in City M could return to pre-war levels, the estimated time was close to a year.

At the moment, on the outskirts of City M, production had resumed in large and small plantations.

In the entire City M and even in the entire southern part of Province L, the only industry that suffered the least loss was the plantations with little-to-none technology.

Although orders from Mainland continued to decrease, it was fortunate that relations between Country F and Xin eased after the transitional government took power. Xin lowered tariffs on 21 items including bananas, mangoes, coconuts and iron ore from the country. Orders from Xin eased the pressure on these plantations, allowing those unsalable fruits to be disposed of at a price acceptable by farmers.

For years, the border friction and Celestial Trade’s part in the Moro-Country F war contributed to hostility towards Xin. However, these fruit farmers who obtained the benefits were undoubtedly grateful that Xin’s businesspeople saved them.

Among them, with Future Group taking the lead, Future Biology almost purchased their entire inventory.

At the moment, the refugees who came from the city to work in the countryside were helping to carry a box of fruit on a wooden cart and to carry the goods to the dock with horses. The trucks in the plantation broke down and the new vehicles had not yet arrived. Before that, they could only use this primal method.

Some of these people who carried goods were wearing leather shoes and even wearing dress pants.

Obviously they didn’t look like farmers, but they were doing labors much harder. The bitterness was only known to them

Throughout City M, very few companies didn’t close down, and only a few decent or professional jobs remained.

Although several large industrial parks had resumed their power supply, none of the factories were operational. It was not just the power grid that the EMP destroyed, but also the production lines and machines. Without production machines, and just electricity, they couldn’t just plug themselves in to do the work.

When discussing about the negative impact of EMP on Country F’s industry, it must be necessary to mention the pure electric vehicle companies that Jiang Chen purchased earlier in Europe.

Previously, due to a series of sanctions imposed by the European Union, many pure electric vehicle companies such as Luer with a market value of several billion US Dollar declined to the point of bankruptcy. At that time, Jiang Chen gave orders to move Luer and other companies from Europe to Asia, to settle into the New Malaysia Special District and to give up Europe and focus on markets in Hua, Nippon, and South Korea.

Luer was undoubtedly in despair when he executed the order.

However, not two months passed and the situation immediately turned around! It was not because of anything else. It was because of the EMP detonated over City M!

Within the scope of EMP strikes, vehicles throughout City M turned into scrap metal, and the sales of the nation’s motor vehicles were in high demand.

The collapse of the transportation system was even more vexing than the collapse in the production system. Affected by this, the demand for cars in Country F soared and the performance of Luer Motor skyrocketed!

Especially for pickup trucks and small and medium sized trucks, many companies restoring its logistic network even went into debt to purchase vehicles. In this environment, with its reliability and relatively low selling price, Luruka’s brand conquered half of the automobile markets in Country F.

In order to fill this large market gap, Luruka continuously issued orders for its assembly plant to expand. At the same time, it combined Future Heavy Industries and a number of other electric vehicle manufacturers to invest in the construction of solar power charging stations in major cities to further consolidate its current market position.

…

To maintain long-term dependencies, it was by no means a contract, but an economic dependency.

What Jiang Chen needed was for every piece of iron ore mined in Country F to be directly or indirectly processed by Xin’s steel plants. Every grain produced in Country F must go through the Future Group’s food processing plant before returning to their own dinner table.

At that time, even if the transitional government was disbanded and the new President elected by the Country F national election was not Bardista. For the sake of the employment rate and GDP data, they must continue to stay onboard Future Group’s vessel.

Having stayed in City M for a month, the affairs on hand were completed. Jiang Chen flew back to Coro Island.

Walking out of the airport and watching the crowded street, Jiang Chen finally had the feeling of returning to a civilized society. When staying in City M, it was quite inconvenient. Every time he needed to go somewhere, there were armored vehicles and there were at least two people standing in front of the door.

Fortunately, now that he was back, that life should be over.

Unlike the run-down City M, the developing Xin was thriving. The war against neighboring countries did not affect the lives of the people of Xin. On the contrary, due to the depreciation of the peso, the cost of living on Coro Island was much lower than before.

Especially fruits and food.

In mid-September, the first shipments of rice, cabbage, and carrots from the seabed finally landed in the farmer’s markets in Coro Island and Penglai.

Since there was no need to worry about insect pests, these agricultural products were free from pesticides, and they had truly reached their natural state, pollution-free! Due to the ocean’s carbon dioxide-rich environment and constant temperatures, these crops produced on the seabed were often better and more delicious than those cultivated on land.

The grains of rice were like pearls; the steamed rice soft and delicious and addictive to chew on! The Chinese cabbages were oozing with water and looked like jade; nutritious and delicious for consumption.

These agricultural products would be competitive regardless of which country’s market they were sold on.

And most critically, these crops were cheap!

Because it was produced in the country, not only were there no custom duties, even the corporate income tax enjoyed policy subsidies. In addition, because pesticides were not required, the dimensional configuration with fishes being raised on the top and vegetables grown below eliminated the need for fertilizers. The highly mechanized farming process required little manpower.

If the one-time investment in the construction of submarine farm project was not considered, the cost of these rice grown on the seabed would be at least 30% lower than the imports from Thailand and Australia!

Chapter 839: Establishing a Monopoly

Matthew Griya, the former CEO of SunRice Australia, is currently serving as the CEO of Xin Ocean Agriculture, a subsidiary of Future Group.

Some time ago, the Future Group’s acquisition of SunRice’s assets was stopped by Cargill. The wealthy Future Group immediately launched an attack on SunRice. Because the terms offered by Future Group were lucrative, and Matthew himself was quite optimistic about the prospects submarine farming, he did not hesitate to accept the olive branch thrown by Future Group.

After he took office, he did demonstrate his own professional ability. He built the newly formed company of just six months old into a properly run organization.

After Jiang Chen returned from City M, the first thing he did was to set up a meeting with the CEO of Xin Ocean Agriculture. Although the company accounted for a very small proportion of the revenues of the Future Group’s subsidiaries, he had always regarded agriculture as a key project.

Agriculture had a direct bearing on the cost of living for the people of Xin and indirectly relates to the stability of the country under his control.

At this moment, Jiang Chen was listening to Matthew Griya’s report on the recent work of Xin Ocean Agriculture in his office.

“… The total area of 400,000 acres of seabed planting area of Xin Ocean Agriculture has been fully developed. The total revenue for the first quarter is estimated at 43.7 million US Dollar, accounting for 56% and 37% of the market share of Penglai City and Xin farmers’ markets respectively. According to the market research department, there is a large gap in the market for crops such as soybeans, tea, coffee and cocoa beans in Xin. In the next quarter, we plan to grow cash crops and add 500,000 acres of arable land.”

After listening to Matthew Griya’s report, Jiang Chen nodded and said.

“It is no problem to add 500,000 acres of arable land, but I have different views on growing cash crops.”

Although his plan was questioned by the president, Matthew Griya did not show any discouragement.

When he was the CEO of SunRice, the thing he did most every day was to persuade the shareholders who did not understand market conditions and get them to nod. Future Group had a single shareholder and Jiang Chen represented the entire board of directors. So persuading one person was a lot easier than convincing a group of people, so he patiently explained.

“Growing cash crops is definitely in line with the current market demands of Xin. And the company’s technical department has confirmed that it is technically feasible to grow cash crops on the seabed. If you still have doubts about this plan, I can provide you with a global and domestic market research report and industry analysis documents.”

“You misunderstood me,” Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile. “I’m not saying there is anything wrong with planting cash crops. It’s that the cash crops are completely unnecessary to grow on the sea floor. I have 15 million acres of land in Country F. Future Bank already distributed the land to Xin Ocean Agriculture in the form of trusteeship assets, and procedures will be completed in about three days.”

15 million acres!

Jiang Chen’s understatement caused a massive storm in Matthew’s head.

Others may not understand it, but as the CEO of the former Australian rice monopoly, he was well aware of the area of arable land in Southeast Asian countries. The 15 million acres of plantations, equivalent to 10,000 square kilometers, was almost one-tenth of the total arable land of Country F!

When did Future Group’s relationship with Country F become so close?

Would the Country F government allow foreign companies to control such a huge amount of arable land?

It was not after a while did Matthew recollect his thought and hid away his surprised expression.

“I’m sorry, got caught up thinking.”

“It’s okay.” Jiang Chen smiled and handed the plan on the table back to him. “I understand your surprise, but this is the case. The seabed farm area of Xin Ocean Agriculture is still for food crop. Cash crop can be grown in overseas plantations. We have already negotiated with the Moro government to build an industrial park based on food processing. Future Biology and Xinglong Food Processing are currently establishing food processing plants on MLL Island.”

Jiang Chen paused for a moment and looked at Matthew with a smile. His fingers drew a triangle on the desk.

“Country F produces the raw materials and Moro processes the raw materials to finally serves Xin’s market. We also plan to sell our products from Penglai city to the global market. I hope that the cash crops grown by Xin Ocean Agriculture are not just soybeans, tea, and coffee and cocoa beans; you must get involved with coconuts, rubber, and all other crops that Future Group can use. The priority is to meet the needs of the group, and the extras will be exported!”

“…A Monopoly.” After listening to Jiang Chen’s words, Matthew gulped and squeezed out a rather retro vocabulary.

The reason why it is retro is that in the modern society, this kind of monopoly of profiteering has almost disappeared. Even powerful consortia such as Morgan and Goldman Sachs do not dare to flagrantly monopolize an industry.

From the production of raw materials, to processing, to sales, and to the final distribution of profits, all are completed by one group. The highly integrated management structure would make each production link become a screw in the entire industry chain and it is all controlled by the same company.

The benefit is that the company’s production costs will be extremely low.

Lower to the point where other companies simply cannot compete.

To give a very simple example. Coca-Cola’s cost of producing a bottle of Coke was only about 70-80 cents, but if all the raw materials used for cans and aluminum were produced by Coca-Cola’s subsidiary, the cost would likely be reduced by half.

Of course, no one knew how much the costs was reduced by and Coca-Cola would absolutely not do so. Rockefeller first established the first monopoly, monopolizing 95% of the refining capacity, 90% of the oil transportation capacity, 25% of the crude oil production, the result was the oil empire he built was tragically broken apart in the hands of Roosevelt and turned into 34 “small Mobils.”

“Yeah.” Jiang Chen nodded and smiled bluntly. “You can understand the nature of Future Group as a new type of monopoly. But there is certainly still a difference.”

From the outset, Future Group has grasped the army as a key institution, and forcibly established a living space for monopolies through the control of sovereign states.

In other places, in China, or UA, Future Group would not be able to gain the soil for development. Sooner or later, it will have to touch the bottom line of the state’s tolerance on monopoly.

So far, Jiang Chen was most satisfied with two decisions he made. One was that he chose Xia Shiyu as the CEO without caring about personal grudges, and the second was moving Future Group to Xin.

“Got it. I’ll have to revise the plan. Tomorrow…no, the day after tomorrow, I’ll send the new one to your desk. Tomorrow I’ll have to meeting with Xin Ocean Agriculture executives, if we have 15 million acres in Country F, then we have to go back to the drawing board.” Matthew shrugged, but the exhilarating smile on his lips could not be hidden.

“Go ahead, don’t waste time here,” Jiang Chen replied.

After Matthew left, Jiang Chen leaned in the chair and called the office assistant. He asked her to make a cup of coffee. After that, he took a moment to think about the next direction of the development of the group.

The coffee cup was gently placed on Jiang Chen’s desk. The female assistant peeked at the eyes of the president with eyes closed.

Her daily routine consisted of making coffee, occasionally assisting other assistants in organizing documents and issuing detailed information such as letters of introduction. Logically speaking, due to the nature of her work, she would spend a lot of time with Jiang Chen. However, on the contrary, Mr. President skipped work every few days, and sometimes went on business for one or two months so she seldom saw him.

To be honest, she thought about fantasies with Jiang Chen.

Only Jiang Chen did not display any intention at all.

After quietly organizing the documents on the table, she quietly left the office and closed the door behind her.

Chapter 840: Neural Bridging Breakthrough

The future development direction of the group was a broad topic.

In order to counter the threat from 20.5 light years away, the focus of Future Group’s development was definitely the universe. Even if Earth civilization was doomed to use “bows and spears” to fight against foreign visitors’ “guns and cannons,” he must at least sharpen the bows and spears.

As for the threat from within humanity…

Maybe it would be better to release some news at the right moment?

He was just uncertain if it would be counterproductive or not…

While Jiang Chen was about to fall asleep, Jean’s holographic image appeared on Jiang Chen’s hand and awakened him in an emotionless tone.

“Mr. President, Dr. Amos wants to see you.”

Jiang Chen rubbed his sleepy eyes and sat up in his chair, yawning.

“Amos? What is it?”

“According to him, the neural bridging technology seems to have made a breakthrough -”

Jiang Chen suddenly stood up from the chair.

“Neural bridging technology? The technology that connects the circuit boards through brainwaves and transplants the soul to the machine?”

Perhaps the understanding of the word soul was not profound enough. Jean took a second to analyze Jiang Chen’s words and then gave a positive answer.

“Yes.”

“Tell him to wait for me. I’ll go now!”

After saying this, Jiang Chen beamed out of the office to the elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor. As the modern world’s first technology developed independently, he must personally witness its birth.

…

Amos was indeed a genius.

Even Lin Lin, who always had a bad mouth, wholeheartedly admitted this point. She appraised him as the genius who stood on the shoulders of giants but saw the landscape not seen by the giants.

Derived on the basis of neural connection, by adding a brainwave acquisition device to increase the amplitude, it could be remotely connected to the robot’s body as if the soul possesses the same body as the robot.

At this moment, Jiang Chen was standing in Dr. Amos’ laboratory and watching himself sitting in a chair and wearing a helmet.

Not through a mirror, but the robot’s electronic eyes.

“How does it feel?”

Amos watched “Jiang Chen” with eager eyes, and Jiang Chen suddenly had goosebumps… if the robot had goosebumps.

“Overall, it’s not bad…”

Looking at his metal hands, Jiang Chen moved his arms and fingers and then moved his legs, intrigued.

Almost the same as moving his own body. Although there was a big difference with the human body, in terms of flexibility alone, this mechanical body was no worse than the human limbs. The only flaw was that in the body of a robot, the whole person felt empty as if there was something missing.

Oh, and, because there was no tactile feeling, Jiang Chen found out during the test that the robot had poor control over its strength.

For example, reaching out and holding a cup, he wouldn’t be able to feel how much power he actually used and would accidentally break the cup. When he thought about hopping up, he would end up hitting the ceiling.

Later, under the guidance of Dr. Amos, Jiang Chen set a limit on the output power of each joint, which avoided making a fool of himself again.

However, if the parameters of every action must be set in advance, it would be a countless amount of trouble.

It seems that this “driver” of mechanical substitutes must be trained for a long time before that driver could skillfully use this mechanical body.

Immediately afterward, Jiang Chen under Dr. Amos’s instructions completed a series of relatively complex actions such as running, weight lifting, boxing, and shooting with a large number of experimental equipment.

While Dr. Amos was pleased to collect experimental data, Jiang Chen could not help but ponder.

For the application prospect of this mechanical substitute, he first through about construction of outer space!

No need for wearing a spacesuit, directly control the robot through the neural bridging technology and remote control the robot into space to complete dangerous and complex work.

Although the cost of robots would be much higher than that of spacesuits, it would be much safer and more efficient. The cost-effectiveness of using these robots in outer space would still be quite high!

Objects moving in the universe have high relative movement speeds that are hard to imagine.

Even if a piece of sesame-sized meteorite debris slashed on the space suit at a relative speed of several hundred Mach, the accident caused would be extremely severe. Only because human activity in space was still not very frequent today, this issue has not been exposed.

The solution at the apocalypse was to increase the strength of space suits so that typical meteorite fragments didn’t feel like anything on the body. After all, the chance of encountering meteorite debris at few hundred Mach was not much higher than winning a lottery ticket. It would simply be unlucky if that did happen.

However, it was undeniable that the use of neural bridging technology through a remote connection method was indeed feasible. The robot controlled by the human brain; by using AI instead of sending people to outer space to perform dangerous and complex work that could not be completed would do wonders.

Another point was supply.

Until the space elevator is completed, the cost of sending an astronaut to the sky was not a small figure. A person needs to eat and drink, and can’t live for too long in a gravity-free environment. The person must be changed every three months. Therefore, the more people in outer space, the greater amount of resources demanded from Celestial Trade.

Currently, without the space elevator, these people relied on rockets and landing capsules to go back and forth!

Affected by this, the number of astronauts who constructed the space elevator in outer space was very limited. Although intelligent engineering equipment assistance existed, many tasks still could not be done without humans. The progress of the project was slow.

However, if this thing could be used in outer space construction, the situation would be completely different. These robots could stay for as long as they wished in outer space, with only a solar charger, there would be no need for supplying missions.

Jiang Chen took off his helmet and he fixed his eyes on Amos, who was processing the data, and immediately asked.

“How long until you can have a finished product?”

“This is already a finished product, although it is only a first-generation product.” Amos picked up the robot and put it back on the stand next to the lab, and then patted its head with a smile, “Continued working hours can be as long as 24 hours. Although there are many flaws, but there will be no problems using it.”

“What is the cost of this robot?”

Speaking of cost, Amos embarrassedly rubbed his messy hair.

“Ahem. After all, it is a first generation product, and it is purely hand-made… Well, if you don’t consider the research and developement costs, probably about 5 million US Dollar.”

Jiang Chen silently made a note in his heart.

It would certainly not be possible to throw bare robots directly into space. In order to adapt to a specific working environment, specialized modifications would also be required. In so doing, a neural bridge robot that can build in space should be around 10-20 million USD.

A possibility!

After making up his mind, Jiang Chen said immediately.

“Designing a machine that can be used in space… What’s the name of this machine?”

“X-1 robot.” Amos added.

“Mhmm, I hope you can design an X-A1 robot that can be used in space. Is there a way to do it?” Jiang Chen looked at Amos and said seriously.

“It’s not difficult in theory, but what about communication in space?” Amos asked.

Upon hearing this question, Jiang Chen began to laugh.

“Haha, my friend, you forgot. We have quantum satellites!”

Amos slapped his head and suddenly caught on.

“I almost forgot.”

“How long have you been inside? You should be able to go on the internet.” Jiang Chen mocked.

“For some time now, haha.” Amos smiled awkwardly and said with a timid voice, “Going on the Internet … The Group’s database has more resources than the National Library. There is no need to go on the Internet.”

He was the kind of person that once he touches the experimental equipment, he would be in his own world.

But it was precisely because of his dedication to scientific research that he finally “saw the landscape not seen by the giants”.

Chapter 841: The Volatile Crude

On September 21, 1,000 Celestial Marines set sail from the port of City M to end a two-month military occupation. In the future, the security of City M would be governed by the gendarmerie and Moro Army, and Celestial Trade’s force in Country F would be cut by half again, leaving only half a brigade stationed in the region.

On the one hand, the decision was in response to the UN peace initiative. On the other hand, it was to free up some hands.

After boarding the transport ship, the soldiers did not return to Coro Island but merged with another large transport ship and under the escort of a Guardian-class frigate, crossed the Indian Ocean and set foot on Madagascar Island on the southern tip of Africa.

Last week, the opposition party leader of the Madagascar, Samvini, was successfully elected as president. He withdrew every privilege of Arrow in the country and revoked their business licenses on charges of tax evasion, murder, and bribery.

However, it would be obviously impossible for the Freemasonry to honestly surrender the forces it operated in Madagascar over the past decade. On the first day of the sworn inauguration of Samvini, more than ten Arrow special forces lurking in the capital Antananarivo ambushed Samvini’s fleet.

The president, who took office for less than 24 hours, died under Arrow’s gunshot.

Madagascar was completely rattled.

Arrow simply took this opportunity and introduced former President La Jonah, claiming that the Liberal Party conspired with foreign forces in an attempt to subvert the stability in Madagascar. The election was invalid and they must re-elect!

However, La Jonah had no intention to hold a re-election. With the support of the Southern Constituency, he established a presidential guard force who was absolutely loyal to him with the help of the Freemasonry. At the same time, he hired Arrow and chose the military coup way.

In any case, for the small, undeveloped African countries, the coup was much more frequent than the general election.

When the president died, the Liberal Party was in a turmoil.

Fortunately, Vice President Bernard immediately acted and took over as president. He took control of Madagascar’s army and vowed to resist to the end.

Only 21,600 regular troops and not more than fifteen tanks combined. The armored vehicles of the army were not enough to form a mechanized brigade. With such a weak army, it was obviously unrealistic to face La Jonah with Freemasonry’s support.

Bernard ordered the Army to defend their front line at all cost and stopped the rebels 120 kilometers frm the capital. On the other side, he immediately contacted Jiang Chen, the backing supporter of the Liberal Party, for assistance from Celestial Trade.

With the allies call for help, of course, Celestial Trade went into action.

A mechanized brigade sailed on a transport ship, landed in the northern port of Madagascar, and went straight to the front line to combat the rebels. The so-called “Presidential Guard” and the Madagascar Army were all irrelevant. What truly determined the outcome of this war were Arrow and Celestial Trade.

Therefore, this war was also dubbed by many people as “The Agent War” or “The Mercenary War.”

The longer the war dragged on, the better it would be for Jiang Chen. Celestial Trade mainly mobilized its foreign corp, individual drones, as well as armored vehicles and tanks purchased from Russia, and did not use its Tiger II or Aurora-20.

Only if Madagascar’s power was consumed as much as possible could it be obedient after the end of the war and not consider becoming independent once again.

Although his allies must suffer, they must make some sacrifices for the benefit of Xin.

…

When Celestial Trade and the Freemasonry battled on Madagascar, a financial tsunami was quietly brewing.

The situation in the Middle East had continued to deteriorate. From Iraq’s IS to the Turkish Civil War, the people interested in the global situation could clearly see that this piece of soil that surrounds the Babylonian civilization had been plunged into endless wars. This war revolving around the black gold was also filled with smoke in the international crude oil market.

Since reaching the bottom at the beginning of the year, the price of crude oil per barrel had continued to rise.

The UA economy had long relied on the two pillars of oil and dollar. According to the calculation of the International Monetary Fund, for every 5 dollar increase in oil prices, the global economic growth rate would be cut by about 0.3 percentage points, while the UA economic growth rate may decline by about 0.4 percentage points.

The UA dollar and the price of oil were negatively correlated.

It was precisely because of this that UA had been deliberately promoting the devaluation of oil. As early as 2014, the shale gas revolution made oil production double in three years. Many people subjectively believed that all oil came from the Middle East, but they ignored the fact that the production in the United Arab Emirates was less than that of a state in the UA.

However, even because of this, the oil in the Middle East was cut off due to the impact of the war, and the international oil price took a serious blow.

On September 23, Celestial Trade and Arrow exchanged fire in the northern mountainous area of Madagascar. The dollar has been continuously declining for three days because of the fluctuation of the international crude oil market. Wall Street traders predicted that the probability of a rate hike in September would reach 47%. At the same time, a report from Future Bank had also been placed on Jiang Chen’s desk.

“According to the rate hike expectations, the dollar rose slightly and stopped the decline. However, the international crude oil market has not shown any signs of stabilizing. At this time, interest rate hikes have already buried the hidden dangers of the economic crisis.”

“And this economic crisis is destined to be paid by other countries.”

Standing at Jiang Chen’s desk, Futures Bank CEO David Smith explained the report to Jiang Chen.

“Does the dollar depreciate?” Jiang Chen pinched the report and fell into his own thoughts.

It came faster than expected.

If the UA dollar depreciated, the interests of Future Group and even the economy of Xin would take the first blow. The appreciation of crude oil would also have an immeasurable impact on the industries of New Malaysia and Ange.

Minerals, food and other things could be produced by Future Group, but oil has been a headache. Xin possessed vast ocean area and rich mineral resources, but it had no oil. And oil happened to be a very important resource in industrial production.

From fuel, plastics, synthetic rubber, even clothes, pharmaceuticals, and food; the fields covered by oil was extensive. It was because of this that oil was used as an important indicator to assess the global economic outlook.

“Are there any good ideas?” Jiang Chen set aside the report and asked David Smith.

“Of course.” Mr. Smith nodded. From his expression, he was obviously prepared.

“I have noticed that Xin is still using the US dollar for settlement, and its resistance to fluctuations in the foreign exchange market is very fragile. If the dollar is devalued significantly, the first to bankrupt is Xin’s finance. If the dollar depreciates ten points, Xin’s whole year GDP will vanish.

Hearing this, Jiang Chen began to sweat profusely.

[Holy!]

Originally he was planning to wait until the space elevator was built, but now it seemed necessary to bring the plan ahead of schedule!

Sharing the same thought with Jiang Chen, Smith paused for a moment and made his own suggestion.

“With the current population of Xin, it is fully capable of supporting a monetary system. Taking into account the influence of Future Group in the country, I propose that Future Bank along with a number of private banks in Xin establish a institution similar to the Federal Reserve, and issue Xin’s own currency!”

Chapter 842: New Joint Reserve

On the morning of September 25, the Statistics Bureau of New Nation released data on the GDP and economic aggregates of the country for the first half of 2018 and suggested that the growing domestic market of the country was enough to support the issuance of domestic currency.

In order to cope with the fluctuations in the international exchange rate market, Xin must use its own currency to price its own products.

When this report came out, the wise people immediately sensed the wind, which was the government rallying for the release of the national currency!

Sure enough, shortly after the publication of this report, Future Group expressed its support for the initiative.

At the same time, Future Bank, in conjunction with a number of domestic banks in the country, announced the establishment of the “New Joint Reserve Bureau” and the issuance of a currency called “Xin New Dollar” or “XND”. The plan was to completely get rid of the domestic use of foreign currency by the end of 2019.

The issued currency was in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 XND.

The initial issuance of a total of 50 billion XND was guaranteed by precious metals and foreign exchange with a total value of 54.1 billion USD. It was put on the market mainly in the form of loans, and at the same time, it was open to foreign citizens to exchange money. In the future, an additional 50 billion XND would be put into the market for a total amount of 100 billion.

Based on the consideration that the currency was just issued and that Future Bank’s foreign reserve was still adequate, the New Reserve temporarily adopted a fixed exchange rate system, which stipulated that 1 XND would be exchanged for 1 USD, and the foreign reserve would be used to float the XND around the current exchange rate.

After waiting for the currency to stabilize, the New Reserve would gradually loosen its monetary policy and make a transition from a floating exchange rate to pricing based on supply and demand of the market.

As the largest shareholder of the New Reserve, the first president of the New Reserve would be headed by David Smith, president of Future Bank, and the vice president would be elected by votes of other banks in Xin.

Financing was rather troublesome to execute. In the spirit of specialization, Jiang Chen handed over the details of the New Reserve to Mr. Smith. He had faith that the former Citibank executive would certainly live up to his expectations.

In a small country in Pacific, the issuance of currency did not cause many waves in the international market.

However, compared with the indifference of the international media, under the influence of the local media, Xin has set off a wave of support for its own currency. Driven by Future Group, many shopping malls had affixed XND labels on their shelves and offered 10% discounts to customers who use XND to purchase goods.

Penglai added XND to the personal electronic accounts of urban residents and provided a “one-click exchange” button.

In order to reduce the cost of tourism, many tourists also chose to exchange their currencies for XND. However, many foreigners were quite confused.

“Xin New Dollar? Guaranteed with coconuts?”

“Maybe it’s with rubber or shellfish or something.”

“Why can’t we just use USD? A small country with a population of no more than one million has to issue its own currency. I don’t see any benefit other than when it becomes more troublesome to pay.”

“Perhaps it is because the president of Future Group wants to put his head on the banknote. To achieve this goal, it seems that he couldn’t think of a better way.”

Ridicules could occasionally be seen in the comment section of the news.

Although people did not care about the New Reserve and Xin New Dollar, they were still very interested in Future Group itself.

A self-made businessman could achieve this. Not only did he establish a trust mode monopoly in an offshore country, but he also issued his own currency.

Numerous capitalists and businessmen had made Jiang Chen a target and countless aspiring young people have used him as a beacon to inspire their own life. Fortunately, Jiang Chen did not know these things. If he knew, he might laugh out loud.

[Is my success easily replicated?]

[If you want to copy it, you must first make an interdimensional bracelet!]

…

There was no work on Saturdays.

At eight in the morning, Natasha walked out of her bedroom rubbing her sleepy eyes. She bumped into Jiang Chen coming out of his bathroom.

“Morning.”

“Ha…ah, morning.”

Yawning, Natasha greeted Jiang Chen and walked around him to go into the bathroom.

After washing up, she went into the dining room.

There were sandwiches and milk on the table. Jiang Chen, who was already dressed, was enjoying breakfast.

The Freemasonry was pinned down by Russia on the Ukrainian issue. They temporarily stopped their plan against Jiang Chen and he had a rare period of free time. Although both parties still were fighting in Madagascar, Africa was, after all, far away from Asia.

Picking up a sandwich, Natasha’s arms rested lazily on the table. With one hand holding the side of her face, her blue eyes suspiciously examined Jiang Chen from head to toe.

“What a surprise, how are you up so early today?”

And dressed up.

Who gets dressed in the morning? And on the weekend especially?

When Jiang Chen heard Natasha’s question, a prideful smile appeared on his face. He fixed his collar, narcissistically raised an eyebrow, and said.

“Ahem, it’s Professor Jiang who is standing in front of you now.”

Natasha rolled her eyes, biting a large mouthful of the sandwich, and her eyes suddenly brightened.

[This taste… is really a sandwich?]

“How is the taste?”

Jiang Chen smiled and put the last piece of sandwich in his mouth, then he wiped his hands with a paper towel.

“Delicious!” Natasha said without hesitation. She quickly finished her sandwiches and licked the salad dressing on her fingers. “What did you use to make it?”

“It’s actually nothing. The vegetables produced by the farm on the seabed plus Ayesha’s cooking.”

At the same time, Jiang Chen subtly looked away.

Obviously, she didn’t realize how seductive her action was in the eyes of men.

Especially when she was still wearing a bathrobe…

At this time, the dining room door was pushed open and Ayesha appeared in the doorway.

She walked to Jiang Chen’s back and her hands gently landed on Jiang Chen’s shoulders, massaging it. She then whispered into his ear.

“The car is ready.”

“Mhmm, have something to eat.”

“I already ate in the kitchen after my morning jog.”

If Jiang Chen didn’t stay up too late the night before, Ayesha usually got up around 6:30. After running for half an hour along the beach, she would take a shower, and then prepare breakfast for Jiang Chen.

“What are the plans for today?” Looking at Jiang Chen ready to go out, Natasha was too curious not to ask.

“Didn’t I say it? Call me Professor Jiang today.” Jiang Chen smiled, showing his white teeth.

“…speak English.”

Looking at Natasha’s disbelief expression, Jiang Chen shrugged helplessly.

“Well, the open elective course at Coro University is today. As an honorary professor, I just happen to have my elective today.”

After listening to Jiang Chen’s words, Natasha stared at him with a dumbfounded look on her face, and even the sandwich in her mouth fell back on the plate.

“Professor? You? Hahaha… Cough!”

“What are you laughing at?!”

Jiang Chen gave Natasha a dirty look as she patted her chest and took a swig of the milk. Her chest continued to pump rapidly.

[I AM A SUCCESSFUL PERSON AFTER ALL!]

[What’s wrong with being an honorary professor? I am also the first president! There are too many students who want to choose my class!

“By the way, what do you plan to teach your students?”

With a serious expression, Jiang Chen replied very honestly.

“Cosmology.”

“Hahaha… Cough! Water! I’m going to choke!”

She already chugged the milk. Natasha rushed into the kitchen like a gust of wind while trying hard not to laugh.

Looking at the swinging door in the kitchen, Jiang Chen fixed his tie again and scoffed in his heart.

[Just choke to death!]

Chapter 843: Cosmology

Inside the scenic campus ofCoro University, the shades formed by the giant trees swayed with the wind, energetic and youthful figures were scattered among the trees and bushes. Most of them were from Asia, but some were also from North America, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Many also came from Europe, on the back of the Earth.

The relaxed and diversified teaching philosophy allowed students from any place to quickly integrate into this young university.

On the stone path that represented the path to knowledge, students, holding books, were walking in groups, heading towards the building. This scene was commonplace during the week, but a rarity on weekends.

“Hey, have you heard? Jiang Chen is coming to our school to teach an open elective course!”

“Jiang Chen? Is that Jiang Chen? The president of Future Group, the founder of the virtual reality network?”

“Really? What is it about? I want to go!”

“Cosmology,” The girl with glasses that looked quiet said.

“…Cos… Cosmology?”

“…is it science?”

“What a surprise, I thought he would talk about the economy or the Internet.”

“Hehe, then should we still go? It’s not related to our study.”

“Nonsense! Is that even a question!” A girl’s eyes flashed with small stars as she said in excitement.

“After all, it’s the class taught by the richest man in the world! I heard that Harvard wanted him to talk about artificial intelligence database and the three definitions, he didn’t go!” Another girl also echoed.

Indeed, there were not many opportunities to listen to the world’s richest man, especially since Mr. Jiang Chen was quite low-key. Except for his appearance at last year’s opening ceremony of the university, he was rarely seen on this campus.

Even if the name of the open elective course was rather strange as it seemed to be irrelevant to Jiang Chen’s area of focus. However, this still didn’t hinder people’s curiosity about him.

No matter what purpose they had, when Jiang Chen stepped into the classroom and saw that the room was full of people.

The classroom, which could accommodate 200 people, was completely filled. Some even took chairs from the classroom next door and sat in the aisle.

Looking at the energetic faces, even if he had done this many times, Jiang Chen’s scalp still felt numb.

At this time he remembered the unpleasant laughter from President Rafael Leif when he was on the phone yesterday. Sure enough, the old guy was right. If he taught this open class, no matter how unpopular the topic was, the classroom would definitely be packed.

While his scalp was feeling number, he was not afraid of the stage.

He was the leader of hundreds of thousands of people after all. In the apocalypse, he was a “military lord” with his own territory. A hundred students were not enough to make him scared.

Jiang Chen smiled and waved to the audience, he opened the headset in his ear, cleared his throat and tried the microphone, Then, he began the lecture.

“All of you here will for sure have the same question in mind: Why is the man standing before you today choose the inexplicable subject known as cosmology? Why is he not teachingsomething more useful or more practical in terms of success?”

The noisy classroom gradually subsided, and everyone focused on the podium, fixated on Jiang Chen.

“This question is easy to answer. The well-known economist, Wall Street Investor James Glassman, recently published a book that put me as his subject of research. In-depth… Of course, it seems to me that it would be very superficial… How did Future Group use only a short period of three years to stand on the tip of the pyramid from absolutely nothing.” Then, Jiang Chen smiled and scanned the look on every student. “I don’t agree with his validation process. But I do agree with his conclusion.”

“That is, my success story cannot be replicated.”

“Since my experience cannot be replicated, then it is not good medicine for you. It may just be poison.”

“But besides my business success, I don’t think I have other skills that would make me strong in other areas. So I’ve picked a topic that I’m personally interested in, and I’ve studied a little bit about. That topic is cosmology that I want to talk about today.”

Jiang Chen noted that many students picked up their phones and were recording.

However, he didn’t care. What he wanted to say today was originally for the sake of getting started.

He turned around to pick up the marker and wrote three words on the whiteboard.

Where are they?

Turning around, Jiang Chen put the marker on the table and gazed at all the people in the room.

“Where are they? I think everyone here is certainly not unfamiliar with this question. Yes, it is the famous Fermi Paradox.”

“It is estimated that the number of stars in the observable universe is probably between 10 to the 22 and 10 to the 24, while the amount of sand on Earth is 7.5*10 to the 18 particles.” After a pause, Jiang Chen then spread out his hands, “In other words, every grain on Earth can correspond to 10,000 planets in the universe.”

“The universe is far greater than our imagination, and it is darker than we can think.”

“This kind of darkness is not from any aliens. In the time scale of 13.8 billion years, all civilizations are humble and tiny. Maybe a civilized fire existed on Mars at the step to our door, but its life depleted a billion or billions of years ago, and when the billion-year-old earth was still a disordered ocean without trilobites.”

“This is the so-called the Great Filter. The probability of encountering extraterrestrial civilization is negligible, and the probability of discovering each other after encountering each other is even less likely.”

“But we still have to make assumptions. If we meet with extraterrestrial civilizations and we just happen to find each other and we can understand each other’s existence, then I can assure you that the consequences of a blind contact will be quite dangerous…”

Understanding does not mean recognition, but disapproval will lead to conflict. This recognition is embodied in many aspects such as aesthetics and values. It is like the undead people who viewed death as the most beautiful thing. They can never accept the living who praise life.

Jiang Chen did not bring too much inspiration to the students in the class. Many of the arguments he had made were already discussed by predecessors.

He just wanted to see how these students would react when he told them the truth.

Through the reactions of the students, at least a rough assessment could be made to publicize the crisis facing civilization on Earth.

The lecture was nearing its end.

“…if I were saying there is a colony ship from an extraterrestrial civilization, and it is on the way to the earth. And that we don’t know where it came from, nor are we sure if it will carry goodwill. If you were the decision makers of Earth’s civilization, what decisions would you make after learning this information?”

“That is your homework. I hope you will take it seriously.”

Jiang Chen noticed that many students in the audience had a very lack of interest after hearing this assignment.

Obviously, no one would really take this baffling homework seriously. After all, from whatever point of view, this assignment was really boring. They were no longer the childish age that would fantasize about space and imagine the first contact between human beings and extraterrestrial civilizations, and imagine unrealistic problems.

Perhaps a job, a scholarship, or a professor’s topic could make them take it more seriously.

Jiang Chen chuckled and shook his head.

Having read the books on the desk, he coughed and said to the students who were preparing to leave the room.

“Okay, I know you are all definitely not interested in this, so I’ll just say it.”

“I believe that all of you, if you use a phone, or wear a helmet, must be familiar with the space colonization plan of Celestial Trade. The study of extraterrestrial civilization is part of the Celestial Trade’s space colonization program. You may find it boring, but now I can tell you that, this subject has commercial value, and the assignment I assigned is related to this topic.”

“The prize for the project is ten thousand dollars, and ten qualified papers will be selected. If you are interested, you should submit an essay to me. Yes, students who did not take this course can also participate. The mailbox is on the whiteboard. As I’m afraid I may not be able to give you the prize in person, please include your bank account number in the mailbox as well…”

Before he finished, he noticed that the pairs of eyes looking at him suddenly became different…

Chapter 844: Ten Thousand Dollar Reward

That evening, the Coro University forum was already filled with keywords related to the incomprehensible open elective course “Cosmology”.

Many students filmed the class and uploaded it to the the forum, their personal profiles, and even social media sites such as YouTube. The videorose to top of trending on Future 1.0, Weibo, and other major social media sites.

“Cosmology? This is certainly new!”

“Future Group is going to heaven!”

“Being next to the Sun!”

“Extraterrestrial civilization? This subject is so simple! It must be… Dark Forest! Ten thousand dollars for me!”

“It seems that the space colonization plan announced by Celestial Trade is not fake after all, and even the most obscure extraterrestrial civilization exploration has been established as a research topic. If it is not a one-way ticket, I would like to try it out.”

Compared to the heated debate on the Internet, many news media have also made similar headlines filled with clickbait on this issue.

Rich professor driving Lamborghini is teaching a course? Who made the university become a profit-orientated place?

Homework, and the reward is 10,000 USD! The most expensive homework in history!

The study of extraterrestrial civilization becomes a Celestial Trade project? Is it an illusion or the hope of conquering the starry night?

Unexpected information revealed in the class, more details of the Celestial Trade space colonization plan were exposed…

“Up to today at noon, the number of applicants for space volunteer immigration has doubled from the previous month. If we do not expand the space training base, I am afraid that the training facility will be jam-packed. Should we not temporarily close to the public?” Kelvin proposed.

“No,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “If you don’t have enough money, apply to the Finance Department. The initial stage of the space industry is a money-losing project. Don’t worry too much about this. As long as every penny is spent at the right place, you don’t have to be polite with me.”

“Yes,” Kelvin was relieved and nodded.

To be honest, his team was the only one that constantly lost money in the entire group, and the losses have been particularly severe. They were all spending billions of dollars! Although Jiang Chen has been telling him not to worry about money, and focus on building the space elevator, but to say that there is no psychological burden would be absolutely impossible.

After Kelvin’s departure, Jiang Chen set aside his work paper, opened the watch, clicked the mailbox, and browsed the assignments submitted by his students.

Perhaps because of the ten thousand dollar in reward, the assignment students turned in were all top quality! Especially Asian students studying abroad with inheritance to the academic culture easily wrote hundreds of thousands of words and cited dozens of articles. Finally, they wrote their own conclusions and attached a thank you note for the professor’s hard work.

While Jiang Chen was moved by their effort, he was also embarrassed.

It was his negligence that he should have told the students that they only needed to make a conjecture. There was no need to write a lot of proof at all. Because this kind of problem has never happened before, even if they referenced many other people’s literature, they could not conclude with an definitive answer.

He just wanted to take this opportunity to understand what opinions most people have on contact with aliens.

After all the papers have been searched, all the main ideas of each paper were outlined and sorted based on rules.

From a total of 1,173 papers, Jiang Chen surprisingly received 87 different perspectives.

Perhaps influenced by the political correctness common to western society, many students from the West, especially Western European students, put forward ideas that could be defined as Social Justice Warriors.

Some people proposed that special ecological protection zones be set up on Earth to accommodate these visitors. Or establish an embassy to resolve possible differences between the two parties through dialogue. Some people also said that setting up an extraterrestrial cultural reserve on Earth may not be appropriate. After all, it was not clear whether the other party is suitable for the atmosphere, and it may be poisonous to them. They should be placed on the moon, or Mars…

For students from Asia, the answer was more conservative.

That was, before we’tr certain that the other is here with good intentions, first suspect whether the other party is hostile.

This may be related to the fact that in the recent wars, Asia has been the victim of the aggressors. When it came to foreign civilizations, Asian civilizations were even more vigilant, and they were even more inclined to display its own weapons before throwing out the olive branch.

It has been suggested that no matter what intention the other is holding, we can “strike” first. If they are still alive, then we could consider contacting them. It has also been recommended that communication and dialogue are necessary, but the prerequisite is to show the other with force first. That was, sending a fleet to display Earth’s military power.

But there were also pessimists who suggested that if they can’t resist, they should build their own colonial ship to escape, at least let some people run away and stay away from the solar system to find new homes…

Some interesting points that were also identified include that since the other is able to conduct intergalactic travel, it proved that the other’s technological level is superior. Instead of trying to get in touch or confront it, it’s better to think about how to please the aliens. It is better to be a pet than a livestock.

Some female students didn’t even answer the question at all. They just posted photos of themselves without any Photoshop in the e-mail. They subtly asked “Are you free on the weekend?””Can you take me for a ride?”…

Looking at these points of view, Jiang Chen only smiled and shook his head somewhat helplessly.

Ignoring all the nonsense, the viewpoints could be divided into three categories.

Peace, Fight, Surrender.

After removing the papers without a solid argument, Jiang Chen found out that among these students, the people who supported surrendering accounted for 50% of all total papers, while the peace faction accounted for 30%, but only 20% thought of fighting back.

And among the 20% of people, some people’s points were also wavering.

After all, even the “dry dock” of spaceships – the space elevator has not yet been built, let alone spaceships.

Although many people were optimistic when they wrote the paper, on the day when Earth’s civilization and extraterrestrial civilization comes into contact, there will be spaceships, and there will be giant battleships and cannons. But they were uncertain as to how they would come into possession of these weapons…

“Is it too early?” Jiang Chen murmured to himself and fixated his gaze on the world map hanging on the wall.

If this issue was left to the United Nations to decide, what conclusions will they eventually reach?

Is it with hope to greet destruction, or is it to abandon unrealistic illusions to clash head on, or is it to fight with among ourselves first?

Everything is unknown.

He had the means to prove that the space colonization ship is on course. An astronomical telescope could do the job, since he knew the coordinates. However, he did not have the means to prove its aggressiveness, nor did he have the incentive to convince everyone that the space colonization ship was hostile.

He randomly selected ten papers with representative opinions and gave his evaluation. Jiang Chen then sent the money to the ten lucky winners’ accounts.

For these students, the money may be a lot, but it was nothing to him.

Although there were some regrets, judging from the present, it was not the best time to disclose the coordinates of Harmony civilization and the intelligence of the space colonization ship.

Chapter 845: Oil grown from the ground

On September 28th, the continuously rising oil prices marked the highest increase of the month, and it closed at 71 US Dollars per barrel, more than double the previous year’s high. High pressure on the global economy caused by high oil prices was also seen from Future Heavy Industrial’s financial report.

Affected by rising costs, the profits of multiple Future Heavy Inudstries projects decreased by 13% from the previous quarter. Future Biology and Future Mining suffered minor impacts. Future Tourism’s profits was equal to the previous quarter’s. Only Future Technology maintained an upward trend.

As long as it maintained a technological lead, the Internet would be an infinite gold mine.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) issued a statement on the same day that OPEC members would hold an informal meeting in Algeria in October to discuss modest increases in production to maintain the stability of the oil market. Only when the oil price stabilized within a relatively reasonable range could the interests of these oil-producing countries be maximized.

If the global economy was in turmoil because of oil prices, although they could profit in the short term, the subsequent decline in oil demands would make their days much worse.

However, after the announcement of this statement, it didn’t mention the rising oil prices.

Tesla’s boss, Elon Musk, once said: You’re burning such an expensive chemical resource?

The petrochemical industry was one of the standards for measuring a country’s basic industrial development level. Ethylene production was a measure of the development level of a country’s petrochemical industry. Fuel was only a small part of oil’s usage. Why wouldn’t gasoline be used to measure the level of development of a country’s petrochemical industry?

Ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, and xylene were examples of basic chemical resources; all were processed from oil itself!

The high price of oil was indeed a big problem for emerging economies.

However, for Jiang Chen, who possessed all the technology from the 22nd century, this problem didn’t seem so drastic.

Not enough oil? Then replace it with something else!

At that moment, at Future Biology’s lab, Jiang Chen entered the culture area with the subsidiary CEO, Tao Ming.

“This way please.”

Tao Ming gestured and respectfully opened the door for Jiang Chen.

Fresh air blew out as soon as the door opened.

The circular roof was covered with hexagon-shaped graphene plates, and the bottom was a trial field consisting of separate culture tanks. Inside the culture tanks were palm tree-looking plants inside.

More than a dozen researchers surrounded the culture tank. Some were recording data, some were debugging the experimental equipment, and others were checking plant growth

When Jiang Chen and the director of the Lab came in, the researcher, who was leading the experimental team, immediately walked in his direction with his eyes lit up.

The man dressed in a white coat looked very tall and thin. He was about 50 years old.

“This is Mr. Jiang Chen, president of our group.” Tao Ming introduced Jiang Chen, who was standing next to him.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen. I have long admired your name.” Sullivan smiled and revealed his white teeth. He shook his hand.

Immediately afterward, Tao Ming introduced Professor Sullivan to Jiang Chen.

“This is Professor Bill Sullivan; we hired him from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His area of research is bio-engineering and gene technology. His main research direction is oil crops; he currently has an authoritative position in the research related to this area.”

“I am also very pleased to meet you, Professor Sullivan. Thank you for joining us. Our research project has taken a big step forward.” Shaking Professor Sullivan’s hand, Jiang Chen greeted him.

“No, no, I should thank you.” After releasing his hand, Sullivan shook his head very seriously and looked at Jiang Chen. “The DNA code provided by you is very interesting. After I examined the research, some of the problems that previously challenged me were immediately solved. Can I know who invented the code? If it’s convenient, I want to speak with this person.”

“Oh, this is a bit difficult because for various reasons, he can’t come here for the time being.” Jiang Chen briefly addressed the question then diverted the topic, “Let’s not talk about this. How’s the research progress? Can you show me?”

When Jiang Chen asked about the progress, Sullivan was proud.

“Of course, let me show you.”

He turned around and took Jiang Chen and Tao Ming to a “palm tree” then spread out his hand in the direction of the culture tank with a smile.

“This is the result of our research, Oil palm.”

Sullivan gestured to his assistant, took the gloves from his hands and carefully opened the glass cover of the culture tank.

“After modifying 37 DNA fragments from the palm tree, we created the genetically modified Oil palm tree through two generations of cultivation. The oil it produces is no longer palm oil but a liquid nearly 90% similar to oil… It’s like this.”

As he talked, he took a knife from his assistant and he gently slashed the surface of the palm tree.

A shocking scene unfolded.

With just a small slash on the bark, a dark red and viscous sap flowed out!

The assistant wearing gloves came forward and used a beaker to collect 20 ml of liquid. Then he went to an instrument and conducted component identification.

Soon, a report was placed before Jiang Chen.

Although he couldn’t read it, Jean interpreted the parameters on the report for him.

Indeed, as Professor Sullivan said, the sap produced by this Oil palm was indeed surprisingly similar to oil! With just a little bit of processing, it would be higher quality oil compared to conventional oil from underground!

“At first, we tried to produce this liquid through the fruit. However, we later discovered that if the oil-secretion is designed into the plant’s nutritional organization, it will greatly reduce production efficiency. Later, we simply deleted the related DNA and it was completely transformed into a palm tree without any fruit. Then the organ that produced the oil was designed next to the transporting tissue. Finally, we ended up with this.” Professor Sullivan, thrilled, knocked on the glass of the culture tank. “Only a small opening on the bark allows a lot of oil to be harvested from the tissue under the bark!”

Looking at this plant, which looked no different from typical palm trees, Jiang Chen looked stunned.

[Oh my! Growing oil from the ground; this is simply money being grown!]

The relevant DNA of this plant was brought from the database in the apocalypse, but a piece of DNA code that he didn’t understand was far less shocking than seeing “black gold” oozing from the tree!

[Oh no, it’s a dark red liquid…Who cares! As long as oil can be refined!]

“How long is the plant’s growth cycle?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.

In his memory, the early growth of plants in the palm family was quite slow. After the maturity period, it only grew about one meter a year. If he had to wait five years to use this palm tree to produce oil, it would too late!

“There’s no need to grow from the seed. We can obtain this kind of palm by using special means to make specific changes to the structure of the tissue. This cycle of induction differentiation is only two months long!” Sullivan said affirmatively.

“You made a great contribution!” Jiang Chen was filled with joy. He patted Sullivan’s shoulder and announced in a loud voice, “All the researchers involved in this project will receive a bonus of half a million dollars! As for Professor Sullivan, I’ll personally award him 5 million more!”

All the people in the lab had trouble breathing. Even Tao Ming’s eyebrows jumped.

The bonuses were in the tens of millions. No workplaces worldwide offered this kind of bonus.

However, Jiang Chen thought the money was worth it. He was never stingy toward his researchers

Talent was always at the core of Future Group. Only talent like this would allow him to own the future!

Chapter 846: On the Ocean

Oil crops weren’t first created by Future Biology.

As early as the 1970s, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Melvin Calvin discovered a tall evergreen tree named Hevea brasiliensis in the tropical rain forest in Brazil. After drilling a small hole, it was possible to produce a small amount of oil similar to diesel.

In 1986, the UA took the lead in growing “oil crops.” Subsequently, other countries also successively carried out researches on the applications of “oil crops”, then established new environmentally-friendly oil production bases such as “oil botanical gardens” and “oil farms.”

Unfortunately, as of today, this kind of green energy still has not been widely used.

Not because it wasn’t easy to use but because of cost and production-related issues.

Let’s talk about production first.

What was Saudi Arabia’s oil production last year? According to data released by OPEC, this figure exceeded the historical peak of 12.5 million barrels in 2018…

Per day!

Yes, 12.5 million barrels per day! Think about the concept of this number?

In contrast, the UA, which was relatively advanced in the field of oil crop research, only harvested 140 barrels per hectare on “oil farms” per year. That was a more lenient calculation, even if its quality was equivalent to 120 barrels of crude oil. At present, there were only 100,000 hectares of oil crops in the UA and 12 million barrels of oil were produced each year.

Clear data intuitively explained the problem.

The production of oil crops in the UA was less than the amount of oil produced by OPEC countries in one day. Of course, it wasn’t equal to the daily oil production of Texas.

It was obviously impractical for this level of production to challenge the status of crude oil.

Therefore, all countries only used this kind of “oil crops” as an alternative development project for their energy strategies. They subsidized these “farms” through various energy and environmental protection policies so they wouldn’t die out. After all, no one could be certain what the future is.

Perhaps one day, the Middle East would drill out the last drop of oil and these oil crops might have hopes of becoming a life-saving straw to solve the energy crisis.

Of course, it was only a wishful thinking.

After all, this output was too little!

However, in Future Biology’s labs, “oil palm” was different. With only one slice, more than 10 liters of sap would flow out from underneath the bark! A barrel of oil was equivalent to 159 liters and 16 trees could produce a barrel of oil. And this kind of sap could be collected once a week!

Assuming 100 “oil palms” could be grown on one acre of land, the average daily output of an acre of land would already be close to one barrel of oil!

100,000 acres would produce a daily output of 100,000 barrels of oil. It would only take one million acres of”oil palm” and several refineries that specifically refined this sap to meet the energy needs of Xin. It would also open up the possibility of exporting to major oil importing nations in the region.

After coming out from the lab, Jiang Chen immediately made an order to purchase all palm trees on the market and he asked hid CEO to urge the lab to do their utmost to perform induced differentiation on these acquired palm trees.

The former was a simple task. Palm trees were common in the region from New Guinea to even Xin. After a phone call from Jiang Chen, Santos immediately organized Moro peasants to head into the mountains, use trucks and tractors to pull millions of palms into the port and sell them to Future Group at a reasonable price.

This move was nothing for this island with rich resources. Santos was secretively ecstatic that he made a fortune. The amount of money Jiang Chen paid him was about 20 million US Dollar, and he only paid a million to the farmers.

Jiang Chen voted against the idea of growing oil palms in Country F plantations after some thoughtful consideration.

This kind of technology should remain in his own country. Although Country F became the de facto vassal of Celestial Trade, it was ultimately still an outsider. After the Cold War, the relationship between Nippon and the UA was strong, but Nippon-based companies still sold top machine beds to the Russians.

In order to ensure these oil crops could be produced at a low cost, all oil palms must be grown in the country, and plant cultivation techniques and DNA codes must be kept strictly confidential! Jiang Chen awarded these researchers high bonuses, especially Bill Sullivan, to keep their mouth shut.

However, 100,000 acres wasn’t a small area. The entire area of Coro Island was only just above 100,000 acres, not to mention the millions of acres of oil palms needed to become an oil exporting country.

Submarine farms were good at farming crops, but it wouldn’t be feasible to grow palm trees several meters tall.

For the first time, Jiang Chen was troubled about the size of his territory.

But in the end, he still came up with a solution.

Next to Penglai City, a plantation with an area approximately the size of Penglai was built.

These plantations wouldn’t need to be built in accordance with the standards of the island. They only needed to build offshore platforms with a length of approximately 250 meters and a width of 250 meters, fill it with soil, and connect platforms with graphene cables to form a chessboard-like sea plantation.

Of course, he still needed to consult the experts about the feasibility of this idea.

However, Jiang Chen predicted it wouldn’t be challenging. With the strength of graphene, it shouldn’t be too difficult to withstand the force exerted by tides. This kind of floating farmland should have a much lower one-time investment than submarine farms.

As for how to deal with storms or other bad weather, this task was given to the scientists at Future Heavy Industrial. During Penglai’s construction, they had accumulated a wealth of experience in offshore construction. This small issue shouldn’t be challenging for them.

September soon passed and October came quietly.

Compared to the turbulence of the previous period, September could be described as stable and free of trouble. The government forces had the upper advantage in the Turkish Civil War with peace negotiations on the horizon.

In addition to the civil war in Madagascar that was ongoing, the Eastern European issue escalated because of pressure from Russia. The global situation seemed to be approaching winter in the northern hemisphere, however, they just welcomed a relatively calm period of time.

Of course, that was only relatively speaking.

The international crude oil market was still filled with the invisible smoke of chaos. An invisible hand was stirring up the market and casting a gloom over the global economy.

Future Group’s business was also affected, but compared to other international companies, it still performed much better. Under the monopoly model, Future Group was producing industrial raw materials while producing products. Although the price of oil had driven up the price of resources such as ores and agricultural products, the influence on Future Group only came from the crude market.

These days, Jiang Chen’s life followed a routine. During the daytime from Monday to Friday, he basically spent all his time at the office. On Saturdays, he took off half a day to teach those lovely students at Coro University.

He didn’t expect them to learn anything substantial. After all, people who came to open elective classes didn’t expect to learn anything. Jiang Chen only hoped that he could subtly change their perspectives with this method.

For the remainder of his time, he remained in the apocalypse.

He was the general after all. Maintaining his “attendance” was necessary to stabilize the military. Even if he wasn’t required to control the overall situation, showing his face was still required.

In addition, he also wanted to spend time with his “family” there.

Since the crisis in Wanghai had been resolved, after the pace of expansion in the modern world accelerated, he had rarely focused on the apocalypse. Even if it was just a form of compensation, he wanted to spend more time with Sun Jia, Yao Yao and the rest of them.

They were very important in his life.

Chapter 847: Ocean Plantation

It has almost been a year since he arrived in Penglai.

Zhou Qiang never imagined that with his ordinary life, he could become a millionaire one day.

In 2017, under the influence of his family members, he went through the online recruitment process and went to Xin for work. Penglai was just under construction at that time. With a good physique and hard-working spirit, he was transferred to the deck crew.

The name “deck crew” sounded sophisticated, but in reality, his everyday work involved tossing “boxes” into the water. When he was free, he helped unload the supply ships or helped with cleaning.

To be honest, until the completion of Penglai, he couldn’t believe that the giant city floating up from underneath the ocean was a project he participated in.

After the completion of Penglai City, everyone received a 20,000 dollar bonus. Because of their good performance, after the deck operation team was disbanded, he was very fortunate not only to become a member of Future Heavy Industries, but he also received the opportunity to purchase an apartment in Penglai at an employee discount price. At a price of 90,000 US Dollar, he bought a property in a remote area.

Now, the market price of this Class One unit was already close to 500,000 US Dollar.

And there was no supply on the market at all!

Converted into his hometown’s currency, his assets were over the one million mark.

However, despite this, he still worked at a very basic job in Penglai. His educational level wasn’t high, and he couldn’t do anything else.

There was a provision in the purchase agreement which stated that although this internally purchased property was regarded as his one of his assets, it couldn’t be leased within three years and couldn’t be sold within ten years. Otherwise, he would’ve really liked to rent the house, rake in Xin New Dollars, and return to his hometown to live…

In the past year, he worked as a plumber and worked on sorting. His work duties changed every few months. Fortunately, every job move brought a raise; otherwise, he was almost certain he’d have gone insane.

However, this time, the company’s orders this time left him completely confused.

[Transfer to Future Biology? Penglai Oil Crops Plantation?]

He predicted that this order came in because when he first submitted his resume, he included a line that said he worked in forestry before. However, it was hard to even see soil on Penglai, let alone work on a plantation?

Also, what were oil crops?

With his many years of experience, it was his first time hearing that oil could be grown from the ground!

However, this question didn’t linger in his heart for too long. When he was taken to the workplace to see things with his own eyes, all the doubts in his heart turned to shock.

The rectangular floating plantation held by a material he didn’t know was stably floating on the ocean. The soil was half a meter above sea level and was protected by clapboards to prevent high salinity waves from entering.

Zhou Qiang estimated that the length of such an expanse of a floating plantation was probably about two hundred meters, with an area of about 100 acres. If just palm trees were planted, about ten thousand trees could fit. Planting trees wasn’t as troubling as planting crops; trees didn’t need much care. With two people managing this floating plantation; the job shouldn’t be exhausting.

After boarding this floating plantation, Zhou Qiang glanced at the ditch around the wall and saw that the ditch was filled with clear water. He didn’t know if the water was saline or fresh.

However, if it was used for irrigation, it shouldn’t be saline.

Constrained by his level of education, he didn’t know much about semipermeable membrane technology. However, he didn’t have to know. The people on top didn’t need the workers to understand the principles; they simply needed to follow the instructions to plant the transported palm trees into the ground.

After a while, this floating plantation carried about a hundred people.

After being greeted by the leader, Zhou Qiang followed behind others and stood in the middle of this floating plantation.

“In a while, the researcher of Future Biology will come to teach you how this tree should be planted and what you need to do…”

“Boss, I know how to plant trees!” Someone hiding in the crowd shouted out in a hippie tone.

“Aren’t they palms? I’ve planted them before!”

“We don’t need university students to teach us; just give us the saplings!”

Seeing as these people apparently weren’t taking his words seriously, the leader with a beer belly scoffed and suddenly increased his volume by several decibels.

“I know you’ve planted trees before, and don’t give me that hippie attitude. I’m telling you – the trees you’ll plant in the future won’t grow fruit; they’ll grow gold! You hear me?!”

Gold!

Everyone was shocked.

Although many people thought otherwise, their impatient attitudes disappeared and gradually turned into curiosity.

This type of palm tree was really this precious?

“Okay!”

At this time, a very, educated-looking young man dressed in jeans and a white shirt came out.

The boss with a beer belly, after seeing the researcher, suddenly put on a flattering smile and politely invited him to the front. The researcher skillfully turned on the hologram function on his Future phone, cleared his throat and got straight to the point. He explained the details of the job to the new plantation employees.

This included how much water to be used for irrigation every day, how much oil should be extracted each week, and how to extract oil. Every step had to follow the procedure! Everyone, including Zhou Qiang, was starting to feel confused. And the few who shouted they planted trees before were also dumbfounded.

After the lecture was over, the researcher turned off the holographic screen and looked around at all the employees present.

“If you don’t understand anything, just ask.”

The crowd lingered for a long time but no one spoke out. They didn’t understand anything and they didn’t even know where to start.

The researcher apparently expected this and he didn’t expect these people to digest the techniques in such a short period of time. All he needed was for these people to understand the planting process. The floating plantation workers’ huts were equipped with computers that were connected to the company’s intranet. They could refer to the details there.

As long as they were willing to learn, nothing would be a challenge.

“I hope you’ll take this job seriously.” The researcher pushed up his glasses and glanced at everyone’s faces. “In the future, you’ll be divided into one hundred production teams, two people per team. Each team will be responsible for one hundred acres of floating plantations. For the top ten production teams, the company will provide bonuses ranging from 100,000 to 10,000 XND, which will be paid along with the year-end bonus.”

“The things I just talked about are in your dormitories – that is, your huts.” The researcher pointed to the iron houses on the edge of the floating island. “If you don’t understand anything, you can ask through the intelligent program.”

“Time is money. The earlier you start, the further ahead you’ll be of your competition.”

“But let me emphasize this again – if the saplings die, your bonus will be reduced.”

The researcher stressed the last sentence then looked at the leader with a beer belly and gave him the remainder of the time.

“Do you all understand?!” The leader shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Understand!”

With the incentive of bonuses, everyone’s eyes were burning with a fighting spirit. They were eager to rush into their dormitories now and study the planting techniques. As the researcher said, time was money! If they started production one day earlier, they would have a lead over their opponents’ output by a day!

100,000 XND, converted into his hometown currency, was more than 600,000!

Even if the bonus was divided into two people, one person could receive 300,000!

It was the first time they worked in a positio with such a ridiculous bonus.

Chapter 848: Moon Landing Project

Having lived up to Jiang Chen’s expectations, the Graphene Research Institute of Future Heavy Industries came up with a solution that would turn the kind of floating plantation he conceived into reality.

One hundred acres of floating plantations were on the southwestern waters of Penglai. They were connected by graphene ropes. Under the force exerted and received, each floating plantation was as stable as flatland. While on the plantations, there was no feeling of bumpy waves at all.

The output of sap was collected by the staff on the floating plantation and poured into the designated area. Through the graphene pipes that connected plantations to each other, the sap was transported to storage tanks, awaiting tankers to transport them to the refinery on MLL Island to be refined into fuel and other petrochemical products.

Yes, although Jiang Chen didn’t intend to build a plantation abroad, he didn’t mind sharing the highly polluting industry of refining with his own allies. The industrial foundation of Moro was very shallow, and half the finances depended on the mines of Future Mining. Santos was more than happy for Jiang Chen to move these highly polluting factories to his lands.

On the one hand, it could solve the issue of unemployment. On the other hand, it could also increase tax revenue.

Regardless if it was dirty, stomachs had to be filled first!

Just like that, from Penglai to MLL Island, a relatively complete oil industry chain was formed. The petroleum products produced in MLL were transported through the port to Ange Island and New Malaysia Special District to support the oil demands of the local chemical, food, and clothing companies, while the surplus oil would be exported to Hua.

At present, both the MLL refinery and the 100-acre offshore plantation in Penglai were under construction.

According to the Ministry of Finance’s assessment, once this oil industry chain was completed, it would bring Future Group a direct profit of at least 20 billion XND per year, and it would completely reverse the status quo of Xin’s industry subject to the international crude market.

After learning that Future Group found a new solution to the energy crisis, countries sent their own researchers to Coro Island. Supposedly, it was in the name of experiential exchange. In fact, they were trying to figure out the DNA code of these oil palms from Future Group. It would be even better if they obtained the breeding technology.

In the open and in the dark, all countries tried to use all tactics possible.

However, these researchers sent to Xin didn’t even see Xin’s scientists, let alone exchange experience with them.

No matter what reasons they gave from being “academics without borders” or “performing a duty for all of mankind”, Celestial Trade’s soldiers guarding the entrance of Future Biology were completely unmoved.

As for those spies who came under disguise, they were invariably countered by Ghost Agents. Some were expelled from the country, and serious consequences were carried out in secret. Although the overseas activities of Ghost Agents were less skillful than that of CIB and the Mossad, the home court advantage combined with their technology ensured the national security of the country when it came to anti-espionage activities.

Although no countries could gain anything despite the tactics used, they were clearly unwilling to give up.

Switzerland offered 2 billion US Dollar for the DNA information, but Jiang Chen didn’t even look at the letter of intent before he immediately tossed it into the recycling. While the price was seriously understated, he wouldn’t sell to a NATO nation to start with.

Exxon Mobil offered a high price of 3.7 billion US Dollar. However, even this figure still grossly undervalued this technology in Jiang Chen’s mind.

Even the Liu family in Hua was interested in this technology and probed to see whether Jiang Chen had any plans for cooperation.

“If you need land, we happen to have some.” On the phone, Liu Xiangguo smiled.

“That’s enough. We can export crude to you at a price that is lower than OPEC’s. As for the oil palm DNA, you can forget about it. I can’t sell it.” Jiang Chen was direct.

[It’s exactly because you happen to have land that I can’t sell it to you.] The only advantage of Future Group was technology. If this technology was sold, any slightly larger landlocked country could use its own land area to plant these oil crops.

They were at sea, while the others were on land. Without a technological advantage, how could he compete?!

Jiang Chen didn’t need money that much to sell his technology.

“Doesn’t our relationship count for something?” Liu Xiangguo pretended to be confused.

Jiang Chen chuckled.

“What are relationships in business?”

Liu Xiangguo shook his head and thought it was a pity.

He dealt with Future Group for such a long time and got to know Jiang Chen as a person. He knew very well that Jiang Chen gave such an absolute statement so he didn’t give him hope. If they persisted on this issue, that would stifle the relationship between the two parties.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore. Are you doing anything new in outer space lately? That space colonization plan… Are you serious?”

Although it was a casual conversation, Jiang Chen could sense the probing in Old Liu’s tone.

However, he didn’t intend on disguising this.

“Yes, I already thought about the name of the first city already.”

“Oh? Oh, this isn’t a matter of confidentiality.” Liu Xiangguo used an elderly tone. “Tell me then.”

“Guanghan City.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Guanghan City, named after the myth of the Guanghan Palace.

As the name suggested, the first step of Celestial Trade’s space colonization plan began with the moon.

The construction of Guanghan City could start simultaneously with the space elevator. After the space elevator was completed, the cost of transportation would be reduced significantly and the scale of the moon city could be expanded. There was no need to wait until the space elevator was completed.

Colonizing the moon offered high practical significance.

In addition to the abundant resources of titanium, manganese, chromium, and rare earth materials, the most important thing was helium-3!

With control of the moon’s abundant reserves of helium-3, Future Group could use controllable nuclear fusion technology and lead the next energy revolution wave after the material revolution in materials science.

As early as the completion of the astronaut training center on Ange Island, Celestial Trade launched a lunar probe to find moon ice buried beneath the soil to determine the colony’s landing site.

Fortunately, in a crater with a diameter of more than one hundred kilometers, the lunar probe found the reservoir of moon ice. With proven reserves of more than 56 million tons, it was distributed in the soil between 500 meters and 1,000 meters.

When Kelvin reported the news to Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen immediately ordered the launch of a moon landing rocket and dispatched space volunteers to land on the moon, marking the first step in space colonization.

Note: Guanghan Palace – In ancient Chinese myths, Guanghan palace was where a beautiful goddess stayed on the moon

Chapter 849: The Colonists Set Sail

The entire lunar colonization program was divided into three steps.

In order to display the aerospace strength of Celestial Trade to the public, the entire colonization process would be broadcast on the official website to the world, 24 hours a day.

The rocket launched first was named Celestial 4, which was the largest carrier rocket for Celestial Trade. As a moon landing rocket, unlike the other rockets in the Celestial series, it used a similar three-stage propulsion mode to a normal rocket. As the first rocket, it would carry the colonists’ tools, materials, some necessities, and two pilots.

Kelvin and other space launch center staff had been preparing for this day for too long.

Within the launch center, not only the staff, reporters, and observers from the United Nations were present, but representatives from the UA, France, Hua, Russia, and Britain, and Jiang Chen were all gathered there as well.

When ignition was ordered, a dense fog quickly dispersed into the launch site. With a long trajectory, Celestial 4 carried the hope and pride of Xin and soared into the blue sky.

Landing on the Moon entailed a long waiting process.

After the launch of the rocket, the rocket didn’t fly in a straight line to the Moon; it had to go through several orbital changes in the process.

Celestial 4 first entered the parking orbit, which was a circular orbit around Earth where the spacecraft operated like a satellite. The two pilots conducted various checks on the spacecraft and after confirming that all equipment was normal, they would then decide whether to proceed to the Moon. If there were any problems, they would return to Earth and cancel the launch.

Everyone’s hearts were thumping rapidly. Their eyes were locked onto the holographic screen in front of them along with the green dot orbiting around the Earth.

After a few hours of waiting, a message stating that “everything is normal” came back from the parking orbit.

Kelvin was relieved and let out a long breath of air. He wiped his sweat with his palms and ordered, “Celestial 4 is functioning normally, march towards the Moon!”

“…Roger that.”

After receiving an order from the ground command center, Celestial 4, in standby, circled one and half times before the third-stage rocket reignited and seized the opportunity to enter the Moon orbit at a speed of nearly 11 km/s.

By now, the entire launch project was almost successful.

Kelvin wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand while he let out a sigh of relief.

He didn’t do much labor, but he was soaked.

Journalists and anchors from major media outlets came forward in attempt to take photos and interview him. However, he just waved his hands and gave his assistant the opportunity to speak before he headed to the lounge.

“Congratulations, Mr. Jiang. Until now, the launch process has been going smoothly. If there are no accidents in the next 60 hours, you will be the second country in the world to successfully send humans to the Moon.” In front of Jiang Chen, Henry, a UN special observer, smiled and extended his hand.

Since the launch of the first Celestial Trade rocket, he has been stationed on Coro Island because of Xin’s frequent space activities. At first, he was resentful about this, but Jiang Chen treated him well and he couldn’t really complain. In the past two years, he put on a few more pounds and also grew accustomed to life in the country.

After the completion of Penglai City, he bought a house there. He planned to retire there and not return to the UA.

It wasn’t farfetched to say he saw the leaps Xin made in aerospace from the beginning to the manned Moon landing that just happened. Despite his position, he genuinely felt happy for Celestial Trade.

“I will take your word for it,” Jiang Chen said with a smile. He glanced at the reporters attempting to break through the wall of bodyguards and said, “Let’s eat something together. Since this morning, I haven’t had a single thing to eat yet. ”

“Me too,” Henry smiled back and walked with Jiang Chen to the cafeteria.

Because of the large number of foreign guests, the cafeteria staff made a sumptuous dinner, going above and beyond their usual performance. Jiang Chen saw the UA delegation sitting in a corner, chewing on pork chops, fried shrimp, and ham while talking about Celestial Trade’s launch that day.

Obviously, they were shocked that the launch of Celestial Trade went so smoothly.

Although they successfully sent people to the Moon in the 1960s, their failure from Apollo 1 to 10 finally taught them the secret to success. Only NASA would know how much sweat, sacrifice, and money went into this success.

However, some of the most difficult obstacles to the Moon landing were easily tackled by Celestial Trade. While the UA delegates were stunned, it also deeply infuriated them.

Perhaps as revealed by the officials of the Ministry of National Defense, Celestial Trade had already surpassed the UA in missile technology, and launch vehicles were just another manifestation of this technological advantage.

After dinner, Jiang Chen met with representatives of the UA, France, Hua, Russia, and Britain. Regardless of their positions, they all congratulated him. At the same time, however, these representatives from various countries also inquired about his next step.

Jiang Chen was open with the intelligence that could be revealed.

As for his corporate secrets, Jiang Chen kept his mouth shut despite their incessant questioning.

Reporters from major media outlets lingered in the reception hall of the launch center until ten o’clock. Instead of spending time on these reporters, Jiang Chen went to the dormitory the staff arranged for him. He planned to stay on the island until the entire launch mission was completed.

He wouldn’t miss his chance to witness history!

Representatives of other countries also shared the same thought. They turned down the hotels arranged by Celestial Trade and asked staff to stay in dormitories. Even if the accommodations were simple, no one complained.

The next day, “Celestial 4” shuttled through dark space. The third-stage rocket was already extinguished and the rocket was moving slower and slower. When it approached the midpoint between the Earth and the Moon, the speed slowed down to 3 km/s.

On the third day, Celestial 4’s third-stage rocket reignited and entered the Moon’s orbit to be captured by the gravitational pull of the Moon.

At that point, Celestial 4 arrived at the perigee.

However, it didn’t start landing immediately. At this time, the rocket was still fast and needed to be adjusted several times on an elliptical orbit. It had to drop from a 12-hour orbit to a 127-minute orbit before landing could begin.

The command center on the ground and the astronauts on the rocket also welcomed the most crucial moment before landing!

If the rocket’s speed wasn’t controlled at this time, the remaining fuel wouldn’t be enough to correct the orbit. The end result would be that the entire rocket would become uncontrolled “space debris.” The astronauts could only enter the hibernation chambers and wait many years as the technical conditions allowed before being retrieved.

Fortunately, no accidents occurred.

According to the orbit calculated by the quantum computer, Celestial 4 successfully arrived at the landing site on the Moon surface.

It lasted 67 hours.

When the dust of the surface rose, all staff, including Kelvin and observers, all erupted in cheers, applause, and roars.

Even though they were from different nations, at this very moment, they were all witnessing the first step taken to march into the vast galaxy as one humanity.

Chapter 850: A Breathtaking Moment

Astronaut: “Ready! Distance 30 meters, descending speed at three meters per second, fuel is sufficient! Stable, distance 15 meters.”

Astronaut: “The landing was successful! Repeat, the landing was successful! Praise the Lunar Goddess! We succeeded!”

Ground Operator: “…moon dust confirmed.”

Jiang Chen: “Congratulations!”

At this point, the launch center erupted into cheer. People hugged each other while tears of excitement and joy overflowed them. The reporters forgot to interview people and silently recorded this historic moment.

Celestial 4 landed successfully!

When this news was first announced on Celestial Trade’s official website, all the people of Xin cheered.

People stepped onto the streets and the stores hung banners.

Just like they were celebrating Christmas or the Spring Festival, people celebrated this historical moment with action, applauded the two astronauts on the moon, and applauded Celestial trade. The media outlets of various countries also reported on the success of Celestial Trade’s moon landing mission. In particular, on CCTV, Hua gave high praises to the two men that stepped onto the Moon.

The tense but quiet sixty-seven hours received the ultimate reward when the Moon dust scattered.

On the big screen of the ground command center, in front of people’s computers and TV screens all over the world, and on the holographic screens of Future phones, an astronaut in a white space suit carefully held onto the handrail and set foot on the Moon.

“The first man to step onto the Moon from another nation! Praise Celestial Trade! What’s great about this Moon? We’re up there too! Haha!”

“It’s unbelievable that the second country on the Moon isn’t the old aerospace giant Russia nor the rising Hua, but a small country in the Pacific Ocean. How did they manage to do this?”

The debate on the Internet wasn’t heard in the silence on the Moon.

While the world offered their blessings, praises, profanities, or suspicions, the second astronaut also stepped onto the Moon.

“Incredible, it’s incredible…” The man who stepped onto the moon first used the word “incredible” twice to express the shock in his heart.

Standing on the Moon and gazing at Earth, their homeland was like a glowing sphere, reflecting dazzling brilliance. Even the entire universe was overshadowed by its presence. If he hadn’t seen this with his very own eyes, it would’ve been impossible to imagine. On the Moon, which was closer to the sky, not a single star was visible.

Two astronauts inserted the national flag of Xin on the surface of the Moon and took a group photo.

Then the live broadcast ended.

After completing the Moon landing activities, they would unload 50 tons of supplies on the rocket to build a simple lunar ice exploration well on the ice, as well as a simple living unit fixed on the surface of the Moon to further conduct research on the geology and vermiculite activity near the landing site.

The next two Celestial 4 rockets would bring them 20 companions and a total of 100 tons of equipment and living supplies. Celestial Trade would soon launch a Celestial 4 to the Moon each month to deliver supplies and production equipment to these pioneers until the completion of the space elevator.

Right after the launch of the first Celestial 4, the second rocket was also put onto the launch pad.

With a successful predecessor, all the people in the command center were much more confident than they were three days ago.

Since he had already witnessed the successful landing of the first moon landing rocket, Jiang Chen had already witnessed the making of history, so he left the southernmost island of Xin.

When he returned to Coro Island, the festive atmosphere on the island was still very palpable.

Many tourists traveled thousands of miles to this small southern island because of this hyped up “moon colonization plan.” Small merchants and big shopping malls seized this business opportunity and were hosting activities, selling dolls, peripherals, and souvenirs related to aerospace. They celebrated the success of the national project with a festival.

It wasn’t just these ordinary businesspeople who seized business opportunities.

Future Technology’s virtual reality online game, “Godly Land,” opened a special mission on the same day – Guanghan Palace. Players doing the mission received doubled earnings. By killing a demonized and enchanted BOSS rabbit, they could receive expensive lunar memorial equipment.

Just three days after the successful landing on the moon, Future Biology’s nutrient supply introduced the “Astronaut Version”, which directly used the portraits of the two pioneer astronauts as endorsements. They also used the slogan “even people on the Moon said it tastes great,” which instantly made it flourish in Asian countries.

As the saying went, it was easier to transition from a simple to a luxurious life than to change back into a simple life from experiencing the lavishness of the world. If you were used to an extravagant lifestyle, living an ordinary life wasn’t at all comfortable.

Jiang Chen thought he was a person who didn’t care too much about the environment, but after lived in the dormitories of the Space Launch Center for three days, he missed life in the mansion. Although he could traverse to the apocalypse at any time, in a place with so many different people, it was inconvenient to use that ability for enjoyment.

After returning to Coro Island, Jiang Chen went home to take a shower then rested for a day.

The next morning, Jiang Chen got up early.

After eating the breakfast Ayesha prepared, he left but didn’t head to Future Building. Instead, he went to the Presidential Palace.

These days, President Zhang was working diligently on diplomatic issues. First oil plants then the moon colonization program. A series of moves by Future Group and Celestial Trade created a lot of trouble for the Xin government.

For example, an internationally-recognized environmental protection organization required Xin to constrain the research of domestic enterprises in the field of genetic engineering. Arbitrarily planting large-scale genetically modified crops that hadn’t undergone long-term clinical trials could lead to an ecological crisis. If the government of Xin didn’t intend on verifying their safety, it had to at least supply the DNA code of the oil palm to the international community and send it to Europe to be certified by a professional to verify its safety…

These were fairly trivial matters; as long as the request asked for the DNA code, the shadow of certain countries could be seen.

The bizarre one was yet to come

Just a day ago, the UA’s “The Lunar Embassy” sued the Future Group in Xin to protest the invasion of its legal “moon real estate.”

Speaking of “The Lunar Embassy,” it could be considered an odd piece of work in history. The company’s founder, Hope, unexpectedly discovered that when consulting the “Outer Space Treaty” law enacted in 1967, all UN members signed and agreed that outer space objects weren’t owned by any one country, but the treaty didn’t ban private individuals from owning an outer space star, so he declared his “ownership” of the Moon and other eight planets and their satellites.

Xin’s Court rejected their lawsuits. The lawyers of Future Group even suggested that these unreasonable people go check their brains on private social media accounts.

Not to mention that Xin didn’t recognize the documents they issued, they even made the mistake of suing the wrong entity.

Future Group didn’t land on the moon, but Celestial trade did.

Although the behind-the-scenes shareholder of both companies was the same person.

Occasionally, the media also often confused the two…

Chapter 851: New TransAsia

“This is a document sent by the Nobel Committee. This is sent by the International Biological Certification Alliance,” As Zhang Yapin went through the pile, he picked up some of the letters from the stack of files on the table and pulled them aside. “…and these.”

“My assistant will pick up these documents after.” Jiang Chen looked at the documents with disdain. Afraid of trouble, he didn’t flip through them. “Today I’m here not to deal with these troublesome trifles.”

“What else?” Zhang Yaping put his hand on his head, visibly annoyed, feeling a headache.

“Well, something else,” said Jiang Chen as he took out an envelope from his suit and put it on the table. With a reserved smile, he said, “Looks like I have to trouble you again.”

Looking at the two dark circles on his eyes, Jiang Chen, who continued to trouble others, was rather embarrassed and felt guilty.

“It’s okay. I’m used to it.” Zhang Yaping sighed and picked up the letter. He scanned through the lines and he began to look intrigued. “New TransAsia Economic and Trade Cooperation Organization? I remember Asia has an ASEAN. There is also a Wanghai Economic Cooperation Organization. Why do we have to set up a separate one?”

“Because our influence is growing. If New TransAsia Economic and Trade Cooperation Organization are established, we can draw at least three members. That is, Moro, Malaysia, and Country F.” Jiang Chen smiled and called out a map from his watch to draw a red circle on the map of Asia. “Compared with ASEAN, New TransAsia will focus more on economic cooperation. We will work together in international trade, labor and environment, intellectual property rights, tariffs, and other issues.”

As long as they exerted enough influence in the economy, influencing other areas wouldn’t be too far away.

“We already have three partners. How many countries will join next will have to rely on your diplomatic means,” Jiang Chen said to Zhang Yaping.

“Diplomacy…?” Zhang Yaping pushed up his glasses and thought for a moment. “The key point is what can we offer as a bargaining chip to convince other Asian countries to join New TransAsia that we have established? If it is just an unfulfilled promise, even the most clever diplomat will not achieve any results.”

“There are two chips; technology, and the Xin Reserve,” Jiang Chen said with confidence.

“Technology? Xin Reserve?” Zhang Yaping frowned and repeated in confusion.

“Our neighboring countries have abundant natural resources and labor resources, but their technologies are generally lagging behind. I believe that with the use of technology as bait, they definitely will be tempted.” Jiang Chen smiled. “So, we can use this as the entry point, persuade them to join our New TransAsia.”

“Will you take out the technology and share it with them?” Zhang Yaping looked at Jiang Chen without a word. He was very clear about the extent to which the Future Group’s secrecy on technology was achieved.

“On a limited level,” Jiang Chen said with a smile. “Take this for example, with growing demand and wider application of graphene materials, the production capability of New Malaysia Special District is absolutely not enough to meet the demand. We can share technology that is not sensitive, and then use their labor force to earn profits for us, while focusing on higher-level interests…”

“What about the Xin Reserve?”

“The Xin Reserve can provide investment for members of the New TransAsia,” said Jiang Chen.

“…I remember that the Xin Reserve’s main funding comes from Future Bank. Do you have that much money? This kind of investment at the national level will not just be in the range of 10 to 20 billion,” Zhang Yaping questioned.

“We may only have 10 to 20 billion now, but it doesn’t mean that we will only have this much next year. Imagine the sky above us. The resources there are unlimited. By next year, I promise you, whether it’s the Dollar or the Yuan, they will all become a figure for Future Group.” Jiang Chen explained with confidence.

Looking at the confident smile on his face, Zhang Yaping shrugged, said nothing, and put away the letter.

“Well, since you’ve said that, then… I’ll probably be able to arrange some time next week. The first stop will be Malaysia.”

“There is no rush at all even if you visited at the end of the year. I am looking forward to hearing good news from you.” Jiang Chen smiled and got up. “What we are willing to give if they cooperate is in that letter. You and your advisor should discuss it and draft a plan.”

“I thought you would put a specific plan on my desk,” Zhang Yaping said while feeling speechless.

Although he had predicted that Jiang Chen would certainly toss the burden on him, he never thought that the New TransAsia proposed by this guy didn’t even have a specific implementation plan. It was not wiping his butt for him, it was sh*tting for him!

“Hahaha, this thing can be thought out slowly. I will send the President of the Xin Reserve to discuss things with you, and the economic consultants of Future Group think tank. We have many talents in the economic field, but we are lacking relatively in the political area. So I say no hurry, this thing should be discussed with everyone.” With an irresponsible laugh, Jiang Chen bid farewell.

After leaving the Presidential Palace, Jiang Chen sat in his Lamborghini.

Ayesha, who waited in the car, took off her sunglasses, casually hung it on her collar, and started the car.

“Where are we going?”

“To the port.”

“Not going to the company today?”

“No. Take me to the headquarters of the Ghost Agents. I have something to do,” Jiang Chen said while checking the time on his watch.

…

The Ghost Agents were headquartered on a small island 100 kilometers from Coro Island, where the first group of agents was trained. The mansion in the center of the island was originally Jiang Chen’s private property but was later converted into a training facility for the training of this special force that directly reported to him.

With the expansion of influence, Ghost Agents were now no longer obtaining new blood from online recruitment. Instead, they recruited through charitable organizations supported by Future Group that shelter orphans who had become homeless in war-torn regions around the world.

The orphans that were selected were often 13 to 15 years old. This was the age group most easily influenced. They would receive semi-brainwashing education with the help of the AI program and forget about the teaching of their faith. This would ensure that without the slavery chip, they would offer their most loyal support to Jiang Chen.

This practice may be inhumane. But from a different perspective, without the help of Future Group, they may have died in a more tragic way from war or hunger.

After all, Future Group was an enterprise, not a charitable organization.

Jiang Chen only promised that Ghost Agents can retire at the age of 30. After the age of 30, they can choose to retire or to transfer to office jobs and leave their former field agent life. Genetic vaccine made their lifespan longer than ordinary people for about twenty years. From the perspective of equivalent exchange, what they sacrificed was equal or more than what they had gained.

Chapter 852: Ghost Island

Since being established as a training base for Ghost Agents, the island was removed from the official map of Xin and given a new name – Ghost Island.

The name certainly fitted with its current identity.

The nearby sea was classified as a military restricted zone. No one except authorized personnel could approach in the 20 kilometers vicinity of the island. Those who were allowed to enter and leave the island without authorization are only Jiang Chen and Ayesha. Ayesha was the chief instructor and the Minister of Intelligence.

At noon, a Blackhawk helicopter soared from the horizon and landed on the helicopter pad.

The blond female instructor wearing a kinetic skeleton stepped forward and confirmed the identity of the two. She then stood firm and saluted, before taking them to the training facilities in the center of the island.

Along the way, Jiang Chen saw many exotic faces. They mainly came from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, currently in the midst of unrest, and some from Asia. In addition to the necessary skills be an agent, the educational programs on the Phantom helmets there would also teach them basic knowledge including language, mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

When the three walked along the edge of the training ground, the instructors and young trainees saluted.

Jiang Chen noticed that the pairs of young eyes all flashed with gratitude and adoration.

Apart from being relieved, it did make him feel somewhat unpleasant.

Other than paying money to “buy” them, he thought he has done nothing worthy of their worship. The reason why they developed this kind of thinking was only that the education program in the Phantom has subtly influenced them, and it was Future Group who rescued them from the chaos of the war.

Of course, ignoring his guilty conscience of influencing the girls, Jiang Chen felt fantastic being praised by so many beautiful women.

Because of their genes, and after more than two years of conditioning, these previously young and malnourished girls transformed into women with perfect figures. The tight lines under the military green shirt showed their vitality and youth. The most exciting thing was that even if he made an inappropriate request to call one of them into his room, no one would resist, instead, wholeheartedly…

Under Ayesha’s puzzled eyes, Jiang Chen suddenly coughed and dispelled the unhealthy thoughts in his mind.

Decency was still necessary.

On the way, Jiang Chen learned that the blond female instructor named was Betty. She was one of the first Ghost Agents personally trained by Ayesha.

Now, she was twenty-one years old and she was from Eastern Europe. She was a tall and cheerful girl. However, due to her tall stature, she was not suitable for fieldwork and instead became responsible for training Ghost Agents on Ghost Island

Under instructors Betty’s lead, Jiang Chen and Ayesha came to the filing room on the ground floor of the mansion. A commercial quantum computer that served as a server for more than 500 Phantom helmets was located there.

Through the double inspection of iris and fingerprint, Jiang Chen obtained the authority of the quantum computer.

Then he took out a thumb-sized USB from his pocket and inserted it into the slot of the server.

Soon, a series of progress bars displayed on the holographic screen to complete the installation of the program.

“This is?” Betty asked.

“This is a new training program. Ghost Agents will be equipped with new equipment. I need you to have a preview on the helmet beforehand.” Jiang Chen’s fingers clicked a few times on the holographic screen and then closed the operating authority.

[New equipment?]

Jiang Chen’s words shocked the blonde instructor.

The “invisibility clothing” that could make someone disappear out of thin air was already shocking enough to the world. Now the president just told her that the Ghost Agents would now be equpped with even newer technology? How advanced could it be?

However, this suspense did not last for too long. The first shipment of several pieces of equipment was already in the Blackhawk helicopter.

These “new weapons” were nothing more than the Python drones and Reptile robots that were captured from Lin Chaoen in the apocalypse.

One was a high-load low-altitude attack drone, and the other was a fully armed mobile ammunition platform. On the training ground, Jiang Chen ordered Ayesha to demonstrate to these Ghost Agents how to control these powerful support weapons through the wristwatch and destroy soft and hard ground targets.

If a Hummingbird drone, only capable of carrying 60 rounds of small bullets, was considered a “mosquito”, then the Python could be considered a ferocious eagle. As for the Reptile robot that used firearms and grenade launchers to unleash destruction, it was, without doubt, a “Demolition Expert”. Not only was it an efficient killer against soft targets, but it could also tear the bunker apart, and even threaten armored units at close range!

After seeing such powerful weapons, the trainees and instructors in the training field all popped their eyes wide open.

After recovering from the shock, Betty expressed her confusion.

“Do we really need these weapons?”

With such a fearsome weapon, for agents who mainly engage in intelligence gathering and investigations, they offered little practical value. Additionally, the Python drone’s size was at least dozens of times that of a Hummingbird and almost half the height of an average person. It was not convenient to carry.

As for the Reptile robot, just looking at the bazooka set at the top of the “turtle shell”, would definitely be better fitted for the battlefield.

However, Jiang Chen’s reply was very concise and clear.

“We can use it.”

Seeing Betty still not understand his intention, Jiang Chen explained.

“In the future, the work of Ghost Agents will not only be limited to infiltration and intelligence gathering. Collaboration with Sea Lions Special Forces to decapitate and destroy ground facilities will also be tasks that you may handle. For those who are good at concealment and infiltration, they are more suitable to use support weapons to provide aid to the Sea Lions engaging from the front.”

Betty nodded, but she then hesitantly asked.

“I have another question. I don’t know if it’s convenient to ask?”

“No need to worry, please go ahead.”

“Are we… going to war again?” Betty asked carefully.

Hearing this question, Jiang Chen laughed and said in a sly voice.

“War? The war has already begun.”

Yes, the war with the Freemasonry began long ago.

The civil war in Madagascar was reaching its tipping point, and it was almost ready to close the net.

After this would be Turkey, Ukraine, followed by Europe. Celestial Trade would extend its tentacles to the world and completely overwhelm the Freemasonry’s living space. In order to avoid escalating the situation, he would try to avoid launching a large-scale war. Instead, he would use these agents and special forces as much as possible to surgically remove the forces of the Freemasonry.

After presenting new equipment to these future agents, Jiang Chen went on to examine their training and ate dinner with the orphans on the island. Before the sun was about to disappear from the horizon, Jiang Chen with Ayesha returned to Coro Island.

After returning to the mansion, Jiang Chen took a shower and was preparing to spend some intimate moments with the lovely Ayesha, when his watch suddenly shook. Lin Lin’s call request came over from the apocalypse, saying that she had news to share and for him to hurry back.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Chen had to regretfully cancel his plan and traveled back to the apocalypse.

Chapter 853: The Breakthrough in Antimatter Technology

“This is?”

Looking at the black “storage tank” in the backyard of the mansion as well as the intricately entangled pipelines, Jiang Chen questioned.

“The essence of science and technology!” Lin Lin raised her chest. Her mouth turned into a crescent moon as she proudly announced.

“Speak English…” Jiang Chen facepalmed.

“In a nutshell, it is a magnetic confinement device used to store antimatter—”

Lin Lin didn’t even finish speaking when Jiang Chen subconsciously took a step back.

[WHAT? Antimatter this size?]

“In the tank… everything is antimatter?”

Looking at Jiang Chen’s expression, Lin Lin burst out laughing, waving her hand.

“No, there is only 0.1 milligram of antimatter in the middle. However, it must be stored with such a large magnetic confinement device.”

Upon hearing Lin Lin’s explanation, Jiang Chen felt relieved.

Dozens of milligrams of antimatter could be used as fuel and propel a spacecraft to Mars in six weeks. One kilogram of antimatter exposed to the air could blow up the entire Earth. One ton of antimatter could make the Earth the second largest asteroid belt in the solar system.

It was not unreasonable for the Science and Ethics Committee of this timeline to ban the development of antimatter. The material was too dangerous on Earth. Everyone may explode together because of an experimental accident

However, it amazed Jiang Chen that 0.1 milligram of antimatter was stored in such a large storage tank. After all, the gift given to him by the Remnants of the Void was only the size of the bottle.

Perhaps Lin Lin read what Jiang Chen was thinking as she coughed to hide her embarrassment.

“Ahem. After all, our research on antimatter is only in the very beginning stages. They should have easier access to antimatter in the void compared to us.”

“Why?” Jiang Chen asked curiously.

“There is an argument that the void itself does not have the concept of space. The positive and negative substances that exist in it cannot pass through the specific medium interface… It is very troublesome to explain. It is as if we want to find a drop of water in a desert without an oasis while they are on the beach; their left hand is holding the sand while their right hold is holding the water. Of course, this is only a theory. After all, people who entered the void cannot come back,” Lin Lin explained.

“I see… But what can this 0.1 milligram of antimatter do?”

“It can’t do anything.” Lin Lin shook her head and said with repentance, “The manufacturing process of antimatter is not difficult. In the 21st century, trace amounts of antimatter can be observed through the Large Hadron Collider. It is just that the antimatter particle exists for a very short amount of time. There is no way to save it in the universe filled with positive matter. After analyzing the void technology, this magnetic confinement device I designed can store antimatter in small quantities, but I can’t think of the usage of this stuff other than bombs. It is also inappropriate to use it for bombs as the cost is more than a thousand times that of an equivalent bomb.”

“This storage… Hmm, what is the TNT equivalency of the magnetic confinement device?” Jiang Chen asked, pointing to the tank.

“According to the energy equation, one gram of antimatter annihilation releases energy equivalent to three nuclear bombs. The actual killing effect may exceed tennuclear bombs.” Lin Lin quickly gave an answer.

The antimatter destruction power of one gram was only equivalent to three nuclear bombs. Considering the cost of production, this 0.1 milligram of antimatter really did not offer practical value. However, as a scientific area in its infancy, this result was pleasing.

In order to reward Lin Lin’s efforts, Jiang Chen brought her three boxes of pudding created from the hands of a Belgian pastry master. Looking at Lin Lin’s joyous face as she embraced the boxes and ran to the kitchen, a smile emerged from the bottom of his heart.

As usual, Yao Yao made a tableful of dishes. Most of the fresh vegetables on the table came from the farms in Garden of Eden, while roast turkey and pork came from Earth. Now that life in the apocalypse under NAC had gradually improved, the time spent eating canned food was not missed.

If it weren’t for the grayish-yellow radiation cloud in the sky, and the destroyed streets outside the window, just around this table, there was no feeling of the apocalypse at all.

Five people surrounded the dining table and happily enjoyed a sumptuous lunch. They chatted about the funny things that happened around the base and all the way to Yizhou Island that was still under development. After the Mud Crabs crisis ceased to exist, the crab eggs and crab roe flew into Wanghai in the form of specialty products, and they were well received by restaurants in the Sixth Street.

The visionary businessman even opened a cannery and made these crab roes into delicious canned goods and sold them farther away.

As they chattered, the topic changed into the modern world.

When they heard that Future Group led by Jiang Chen was actually controlling three countries, the eyes of Sun Jiao, Yao Yao, Xiaorou, and Lin Lin all sparkled. It would be great to see the other side, but unfortunately the interdimensional study of the moving living had no progress at all.

But everyone knew that there will be a day.

After the meal, Jiang Chen went to the office and found Han Junhua, who was dealing with military affairs.

“How is the situation in the north?”

Han Junhua’s open mouth stopped moving as she opened a holographic screen to lock on the map the Hanzhong area of northern Hua. Jiang Chen looked at the name of the Northern Alliance Area and narrowed his eyes.

“I remember they are located in Lanzhou?”

“A year ago in Lanzhou,” added Han Junhua. After a pause, she continued, “Since last year, they have been migrating south. Under the leadership of the new commander, they wiped out the zombie and mutants in the Hanzhong region. Then they gradually migrated the population of the Northern Alliance Area, setting up settlements along this tributary of the Yangtze River.”

“Why are they doing this?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“We sent out Aurora-20s to survey the target area, but we did not gather any useful intelligence. They used air defense missiles to force away our fighter. From any point of view, they are acting in a very unfriendly manner,” said Han Junhua.

Jiang Chen once again set his sights on the map.

Migration meant giving up years of development. Whether it was arable land or city walls, the price they paid was quite high. He was curious as to what was forcing the “country” that first established order to abandon the land.

However, there were more real problems now that he must face.

If the Northern Alliance Area had already relocated to the Hanzhong area, if they took a ship and sailed down the Yangtze River, they could easily reach Wu City. From there, the next stop would be Hongcheng, the outpost of NAC in the east.

The series of actions of the Northern Alliance Area in Hongcheng already alerted him.

Preparing for the worst, chances were that they had long set their crosshair on Wanghai. When the coup d’etat occurred in the Sixth Street, the image brought by the Dark Red Chamber of Commerce was a declaration of war on the survivors of Wanghai several years ago.

In that video, the commander of the Northern Alliance Area also seemed to mention the word “treasure.” The head of the Dark Red Chamber of Commerce interpreted it as the wreckage of the God’s Cane, but it turned out to be false. After NAC regained control of the city center of Wanghai from the mutants, it did not find anything that could be considered a “treasure”.

“Have you ever tried to get our pilots to avoid Hanzhong and fly directly to Lanzhou? I’m curious what happened to cause hundreds of thousands of people to migrate southward,” Jiang Chen replied.

“Of course, but from the air, our pilots did not collect too much useful information,” Han Junhua replied.

“I see…” Jiang Chen slowly started to frown as he thought.

Chapter 854: The Growing Colony

The best option was to improve their defensive efforts.

The deterrent power of the Aurora-20s in the modern world did not apply to the Northern Alliance Area. Although Aurora-20s did not detect the presence of fighter aircrafts that belonged to Northern Alliance Area, those who inherited Pan-Asia Cooperation Technology such as ground-based air defense missiles and laser air defense weapons could be deadly threats to Aurora-20s with.

If a war would break out, the outcome of the war would undoubtedly be decided on land.

Jiang Chen stayed for three days in the apocalypse and then returned to the present world.

This time he brought back ten new Aurora-20s from the Sixth Street Military Factory and the new K1 kinetic skeleton production line built by Zhao Group.

The kinetic skeleton previously was produced by the Sixth Street and Jiang Chen acted as the transporter to move the supplies to the modern world. However, now that the apocalypse must bear the pressure of the Northern Alliance Area, it would be stretched thin to also spare capacity to serve the modern world.

Now Future Military was capable of scaling production and was fully capable of integrating this production line. Following the Hummingbird drone, another set of 22nd-century arms production lines settled on Ange Island.

The whole set-up was tens of thousands of square meters in size. Jiang Chen chose Coconut Island where he docked the Droplet as a “transportation warehouse”. After transferring all the equipment to the island, Jiang Chen called a transport ship of from Celestial Trade, dispatched a frigate to escort the ship, and transported every single screw to Ange Island.

There was a clear bottleneck in the development of the industry due to manpower and resources in the apocalypse. However, this bottleneck did not exist for Future Group. Future Mining sent a continuous stream of ores to New Malaysia Special District, which was processed to steel there and transported to Ange Island. Future Military further treated the steel and refined it into C Grade steel and pour it into molds.

The more sophisticated the internal structure was, the easier it was to be completed by the factory on Ange Island.

All the kinetic skeleton outputted not only could fill the gap in the current expansion of the Foreign Corps in equipment but also could, in turn, meet the needs of the three major Corps of NAC in the apocalypse. Because there had been no war for a long time, the adoption of the kinetic skeleton of the several Corps in the apocalypse was not as high as the modern world.

Though this situation may change very soon.

…

Two weeks passed since the beginning of the moon colonization project. From the images transmitted from the Moon, Guanghan City had already taken shape.

Several barracks were placed on the edge of the crater. The colonists who wore spacesuits placed solar power generators on the open space. Before nuclear fusion generators were sent to Guanghan City, they could only rely on solar energy to maintain the operations of the colony.

The mining stations were not far away from where the moon ice was being drilled and there was also a moon ore mine.

Moon ice was one of the sources of the colony’s drinking water and was also the main source of the colony’s oxygen. The oxygen tanks carried on the spacecraft only could support the twenty-four colonists for a week, and in the following hours, all the oxygen would be obtained by the electrolysis of water.

From the current point of view, it was the cheapest way to obtain oxygen. 1 liter of water that undergoes electrolysis could generate 0.623 cubic meters of oxygen and 1.25 cubic meters of hydrogen. Based on the oxygen content of 15% in air, the amount of pure oxygen consumed per person per day was only 0.5 cubic meters under normal atmospheric pressure. As for the by-product hydrogen, it was stored in a special container, and the carbon dioxide produced by their respiration could used to generate methanol and a small amount of water under the high-temperature catalyst.

Methanol was used in production as an industrial raw material.

As a result, a simple cycle was formed.

Of course, Jiang Chen sent them to the Moon, not just for them to figure out how to live. Every day, in addition to driving a lunar rover to explore the mines and maintain these facilities, they also shouldered the task of assisting ground scientists in carrying out scientific research.

And in all scientific research projects, the most critical step was the collection of helium-3!

The small mine site being built on the moon burdened this important responsibility.

Since there was no global “dipole magnetic field” protection on the moon, solar winds containing carbon, nitrogen, and rare gas ions such as helium, neon, argon, and krypton could bombard the moon’s surface, and enter moon soil particles, making the soil contain quite a lot of helium-3.

As for the value of this energy, a set of data directly explained it. One kilogram of helium-3, if used to generate electricity, could produce 19 megawatts of energy; enough to light Moscow for six years. Only ten tons of helium-3 was needed for the electricity generation to be enough to power China for an entire year.

In addition, for each ton of helium-3 extracted from the soil, 6,300 tons of hydrogen, 70 tons of nitrogen, and 1,600 tons of carbon were obtained. However, compared with the value of the former, the value of these by-products was negligible.

The Moon soil itself was also rich in aluminum, iron, magnesium, titanium and other rare earth metal minerals.

Jiang Chen already possessed the nuclear fusion power generation technology. The power source of Penglai was the nuclear fusion generator from Yizhou Island in the apocalypse and several storage tanks of helium-3. What he needed next was to know how he could efficiently extract helium-3 from the Moon.

It was one of the main tasks of these colonial pioneers and researchers.

So far, the 24 colonies on the Moon cost Jiang Chen one billion Xin New Dollar.

However, the money sepnt would be worth it.

After the video ended, Kelvin spoke with Jiang Chen.

“NASA hopes that we can publicize the living condition of the colonists and share the investigation of the Moon. They’re willing to exchange this information with us for files that have not yet been disclosed to the United Nations.”

“Is that intelligence very important? I mean theirs.” Jiang Chen asked.

Kelvin thought for a moment.

“Not very important, NASA officials disclosed that the unpublished files are mainly about the analysis of KREEP rock and the distribution of helium-3 reservoir in the Moon soil. Our researchers are also studying these things, but we just don’t how far they are.”

“There is no need to exchange information with them. I believe that you will be in front of them in no time.” Jiang Chen paused and then continued, “but the life of the colonists can be shared. After all, this is part of the propaganda. There are rumors on the Internet that is attacking us for using the astronauts as test rats. Are they dead now? Shooting a short video of their lives is a powerful counterattack! As for what content can be disclosed and what must be kept confidential, I think you should know.”

“You can be rest assured.” Kelvin nodded.

After giving him directions, Jiang Chen was preparing to leave. However, Kelvin stopped him.

Jiang Chen turned around.

“What else?”

“There is one more thing. Two days ago, our Space Launch Center received a visit request from the United Kingdom,”

“Visit request? Don’t we receive a stack of those every day?”

“This person is a bit special. I couldn’t directly refuse and must consult your opinion,” Kelvin said cautiously.

“Who? Is it the Queen of England?” Jiang Chen joked.

“No, it’s Hawking.”

Chapter 855: The Scholar in a Wheelchair

At Coro International Airport, Jiang Chen met one of the greatest modern physicists in the world, the wheelchair professor, Hawking.

However, at this moment, his appearance was different from the widely circulated image of being on a wheelchair. He was being pushed forward by his assistant and a Phantom helmet was on his head.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen. I wonder if there is any way you can make a small crack on the helmet? Wearing a helmet and using the electronic sound synthesis tool makes me feel a lot better. The doctor even said that I could live for two more years, but I can’t see anything this way.”

Jiang Chen took a second to process the information and then laughed.

“I will ask my scientists to investigate this issue. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Thank you so much,” the electronic voice responded.

Given the influence of Hawking in the scientific community, Jiang Chen did not reject his request to visit the Space Launch Center. In a sense, he was more representative of the academic world than the researchers sent by NASA.

Of course, he still knew what could be displayed and what couldn’t be displayed.

The ship arrived at the island where the launch center was located. A Celestial Trade bodyguard replaced his assistant’s job and pushed the wheelchair next to Jiang Chen.

“This is our launch site. The Celestial 4 is launched from here. That side is used to launch other types of rockets. We recently had some frequent space activities. There is basically a launch mission every other week.” Jiang Chen introduced him while bringing him into the launch center.

“An enviable budget,” Hawking exclaimed.

“That’s because I didn’t spend the taxpayer’s money, and only my own money.” Jiang Chen laughed.

Entering the launch center, Kelvin welcomed them and took them to the ground command center responsible for the colony of Guanghan City. There, more than 50 personnel were busy at the computers with their tasks at hand.

Hawking let the person pushing his wheelchair to take off his helmet. He didn’t want to talk at the moment; he just wanted to see what this place looked like.

Kelvin walked to a computer and touched several buttons on the screen. Soon, a hologram projected in front of everyone. The image came from Guanghan, 384,400 km away.

“Here is the colony of Guanghan. What’s the order, Commander.” An astronaut appeared in the camera and asked Kelvin.

“Report on the status of supplies.”

“Okay, just a second…”

After listening to the astronaut’ report on the oxygen, drinking water, collection of moon soil and other materials, with the help of Celestial Trade bodyguard, Hawking put on the Phantom helmet again and sincerely said.

“I saw the future.”

“It is a privilege to receive this honor,” Jiang Chen humbly responded.

After a pause, Hawking continued.

“Humans can’t place all of our eggs in one basket, so they can’t place all of the bets on one planet. I said this long ago, but unfortunately neither the British nor the UA government took this seriously. Spending taxpayers’ money in Iraq is always much better than throwing it in the space without a future. Even if everyone knows it, the future will be there. History is always strikingly similar; Columbus also lobbied Britain, France, Italy, and Portugal. It’s amazing that Icarus’s paradox not only applies to businesses, but it also applies to some superpowers as well.”

“But in front of you is also a businessman,” Jiang Chen said.

“But you are still very young and being young is always good.” With that synthetic voice, Hawking said something ambiguous and difficult to interpret.

Jiang Chen couldn’t stay there for too long. There was still a meeting on VRcity that he needed to attend to in the afternoon at Future Group. After leaving the task of hosting Hawking to Kelvin, Jiang Chen was preparing to leave the space launch center when his eyes suddenly stopped on Hawking’s wheelchair.

“Is there a problem?”

Hawking had noticed his gaze as his helmet already off. With his finger tapping on the keyboard of the armrest, he asked Jiang Chen in the electronic voice.

“One thing,” Jiang Chen nodded, grinning at the old man, “I have a proposal. However, I don’t know if you would be interested?”

…

At the same time, a special hearing was being held in the Congress Building in Capital, UA.

“…We must restart the Apollo Program immediately! Celestial Trade has already begun its colonization of the Moon. We have led the world for more than half a century, but now we are behind them. For the great UA people, this is unacceptable!”

Standing in front of the hearing, NASA’s Head Charles Bolden spoke passionately to the members of the hearing and tried to convince them to restart the Apollo Program. However, the Congress members in the hearings showed a lack of interest. Some people played with their pens, some people looked at Bolden with one eyebrow raised, and others simply turned to the next page in the document.

Since 1972, NASA’s has not received any sort of budget increase, but its budget was reduced by about 75% and has remained so for more than forty years. Unlike the Kennedy era, when NASA only needed to use one sentence—”The Soviet is also doing this!” for a large budget to be approved immediately. It was not a hassle at all.

Now, the president gave the go ahead, and as long as the Congress was willing to allocate the budget, the Apollo Program could be restarted. However, what made Bolden desperate was that Congress was not interested in the free land 384,400 km away.

“The UA people will view this as unacceptable? Why do I feel that there are plenty of people who have signed up to be a Celestial Trade astronaut?” One lawmaker smiled.

“Do you think this is right?” Bolden retorted back.

“What is wrong about it,” said the Congress member who was sitting in the middle. He tapped on the book. “I need you to tell me what benefits the Apollo Program can give us other than boosting national confidence.”

Bolden was silent, he could only squeeze out a sentence after a long pause.

“…Not all benefits can be seen.”

Several members smiled at each other and the Congress member at the top shrugged.

“But only the visible benefits can convince taxpayers to pay the money.”

After the hearing ended, Bolden returned to NASA’s office and slammed the prepared document onto the table.

“The Congress is discussing raising the budget for research and development of new anti-ballistic missile systems and anti-EMP weapons. This is an even more urgent issue. The odds of convincing them is almost zero.” The assistant followed in said while closing the door.

“What did Hill mean?” Bolden said irritably.

“She may have just given us an empty promise.” The assistant with a bitter smile said.

But then, the door was suddenly pushed open, and a NASA employee came in and put a newspaper on his desk. He was visibly excitedly.

“Look at this! There is this!”

Borden with a frown took the newspaper. When he saw the red circled text, his eyes widened.

They just!

Wait!

His eyes lit up. He then snatched the newspaper and quickly rushed out the door.

“Where are you going?”

“The Capitol! Our opportunity is here!”

Leaving the dumbfounded two confused in the office, Bolden disappeared.

Chapter 856: Nothing is Impossible

The originally dull weekend was ignited with a video released by Celestial.

A thirty-minute documentary journaled the living conditions of twenty-four astronauts in space. Including how they collected Moon ice, how they produced oxygen through electrolysis of water, how they extracted of rare earth elements from Moon soil, how they used the lunar rover to explore giant craters, how they were building the lunar greenhouse still under construction, and so on.

Since the controlled fusion technology remained confidential, the documentary did not explain the other uses of the collection of soil, the excuse was the collection of rare earth resources.

The person responsible for the filming work was an astronaut named Li Fang. Before joining the space colonization program and subsequently receiving training to become an astronaut, she worked as a reporter at Coro Island Radio and Television Station. When they received the task of filming a documentary from the ground command center, she immediately volunteered. While she filmed, she provided vivid descriptions.

“Look at the big shack behind me. That is our lunar greenhouse. Although we have to get food through monthly supply rockets now, we’ll be able to eat potatoes from the Moon in about three months. Jim, who cares for these potatoes, said that the mashed potatoes on the Moon will be very tasty and I’ve already drooling at the thought.”

At the end of the documentary, the young lady ended with a propaganda message.

“If you, like me, love space, then join us in our great colonial cause!”

There was no need for her to publicize it. After seeing such a novel Moon life, a “space fever” spread all over the world. Curiosity was always the driving force behind the exploration of human beings. When space, something beyond the imagination, was within reach, even people who were totally uninterested in the aerospace industry were driven by their emotions and developed an interest in colonizing the moon.

Prior to this, the rumors that the 24 astronauts turned into space junk faded with the release of this documentary. They not only survived on the Moon but now they started to grow space crops!

Just the day after the video was uploaded to the official website, the UA citizens who saw the dawn on the Moon went onto the Capitol’s website and sent a petition to restart the Apollo Program. According to regulations, when the number of signatures exceeded 100,000, the Capitol must respond.

It took only 24 hours and the number of petitioners already exceeded 100,000.

Out of necessity, Hill had to deliver a message in front of the media and say that she would discuss with the Congress about the feasibility of restarting the Apollo Program. However, she also stressed that even if the Apollo Program was restarted, the UA could not emulate Celestial Trade’s Moon mission in the short term.

However, at the end of her speech, she also subtly criticized Celestial Trade’s space project.

“Celestial Trade has spent tens of billions of dollars on this space colonization plan. They spent one to two years of NASA’s budget in half a year. They spent their own money, so I cannot criticize them. However, as the president, I will not squander taxpayer’s money on a project that currently seems meaningless. Instead of colonizing the moon, we might as well go colonize the Sonora Desert.”

The Sonora Desert was a large desert at the junction of the UA and Mexico. No one other than smugglers entered the life forbidden zone. Her words were nothing more than mocking that Celestial Trade had spent money on meaningless projects.

But no matter what, the 30-minute video completely ignited people’s desire in exploring the universe.

Just three days after the release of the video, Celestial Trade received more space volunteer applications than the sum of the past two months!

The more exciting news had yet to come.

Shortly after the documentary was released, Hawking published a message on his personal social media account, saying that he had already immigrated to Xin. He also resigned from Cambridge University as a professor and would serve as a professor of physics at Coro University. In addition, he joined Celestial Trade as a consultant in the “space colonization” project.

Stephen William Hawking, a name that was not just renowned in the scientific community. This man suffering from ALS, who could only move his eyes and three fingers, was able to prove the singularity theorem of the general theory of relativity and the black hole area theorem. He proposed the theory of black hole evaporation and made considerable contributions to a unified Einstein’s theory of relativity and Planck’s quantum mechanics.

He was the pride of modern British physics.

Now, however, the pride of the British suddenly announced the change of nationality after a visit to Xin. This move made British Prime Minister Teresa May and the Queen of England shocked.

When asked by media reporters why he made such a choice, Hawking’s answer was quite frank.

Although it was still the cold reply of electronic sounds, the reporters at the interview felt his truest feelings.

“Science is borderless, and scientists are also borderless. In my later years, I saw the hope of humans migrating to space. Now I hope to be closer to my own dreams and use my shallow knowledge to contribute a little for this dream. I hope you don’t over interpret my decision. This is just an old man who hopes to use his own way to complete the last journey of his life.”

However, for this great scientist, British Prime Minister Theresa May even visited Coro Island personally, hoping to change his mind.

“There are many ways to realize your dreams. The ESA has recently also been discussing a moon landing program with a plan to establish a European colony on the Moon in 2030 – New Amsterdam. We need your help.”

May, not minding that Jiang Chen was on the side, directly extended her invitation to Hawking who had changed his nationality.

However, Hawking’s answer was very direct.

“As long as you are still discussing, that will never be the result.”

Teresa May was stunned. After a moment of silence, she couldn’t stop herself from asking

“Excuse me for asking, but what did Future Group promise you that you made your mind to stay here.”

When he heard this question, Hawking squeezed out a smile with his stiff muscles and his three fingers typed on the keyboard.

“He promised to help me stand up.”

Stand up?

Teresa was stunned, then anger appeared on her face as she looked at Jiang Chen standing next to her.

“Mr. Jiang Chen, deceiving an old man is not a gentleman’s move.”

“Deceiving?” Jiang Chen laughed. “If I said I will help him stand up, I will definitely help him stand up.”

“Is it true? As far as I know, ALS is an incurable disease. Modern medicine can’t solve this problem at all. And you said that you can cure Mr. Hawking’s illness. Isn’t this fraud?” Teresa narrowed her eyes as her wrinkles squeezed together.

The Prime Minister who succeeded Cameron resembled the “Iron Lady” Thatcher’s demeanor, but Jiang Chen, who had long been accustomed to power, was able to respond to the pressure.

“Modern medical treatment can’t cure it, but it doesn’t mean that Future Biology can’t cure the disease.” Jiang Chen smiled. “Don’t forget, the T virus vaccine that saved the world was developed by our research institution.”

After listening to this sentence, Theresa stared at him.

“You mean Future Group has already found a cure for ALS? How is this possible…”

Jiang Chen confidently responded with a definitive tone.

“For Future Group, nothing is impossible.”

Chapter 857: Conquering a Medical Chapter

ASL, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, was the scientific name for a “degenerative disease.” After suffering from this disease, there were hopes of early treatment, but once in the later stages, the probability of recovering from clinical treatment was almost zero. In Hawking’s situation, what modern medicine could do was only control the patient’s condition.

However, with 22nd-century technology, there was no difficulty in treating this condition.

In the apocalypse, medical technology was quite developed on the timeline. Before the war, almost 90% of the incurable diseases could be treated. ASL was one of the conditions no longer incurable.

The easiest way to treat ASL would be to use the smart medical chamber Jiang Chen brought back to cure Ayesha. No matter how severe the muscle tissue experiences necrosis, atrophy, or other symptoms, with enough time and nutrient fluid, it could be effectively treated. As for accumulated neurotoxic substances and glutamic acid that accumulates between nerve cells, it could be cured by an injection of a special drug.

With medical experts in the apocalypse, it would not be a difficult task to prepare these drugs.

With complicated emotions, the British Prime Minister left Xin and ended her three-day diplomatic visit.

Before receiving treatment, Hawking asked Jiang Chen a very interesting question.

“Before I receive treatment, can I take the liberty to ask a question?”

“If you plan to ask me if the operation will be painful, my answer is no,” Jiang Chen replied comically.

“It has nothing to do with me. What I want to ask is about the homework you assigned to the students two weeks ago.”

“Oh? The master of cosmology is also interested?” Jiang Chen looked at the old man in surprise.

“I’m just curious. Have you guys discovered something?”

The cloudy eyes seemed to possess a penetrating insight into the universe and pierced directly into Jiang Chen’s soul.

“Why do you think so?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Because the number of rockets you have launched in the past few years is equal to the sum of NASA’s launches over the past decade or so.” Hawking hit the keyboard with his trembling fingers. “With such frequent space activities, you definitely can discover something.”

“Has NASA discovered anything in the past few decades?” Jiang Chen asked in turn.

Hawking was silent for a moment. Then he began tapping his fingers on the keyboard.

“They have never answered this question directly, but I’m sure they have discovered something. You can pay attention to Area 51, which is not just a federal military base.”

For details of Area 51, Hawking did not elaborate. Obviously, as a scholar, he wouldn’t know too much intelligence.

At the end of the meeting, Jiang Chen abruptly asked.

“If there is an extraterrestrial civilization and they also know that we are here, do you think they will be hostile?”

Hawking replied with his keyboard.

“If you watched my lecture, then you should know very clearly. I never doubted this point.”

Jiang Chen smiled and extended his hand.

“It’s a privilege that we share the same opinion.”

“…I’m sorry, I can’t shake your hand now.”

It was mid-October. Inside Coro Hospital, a subsidiary of Future Biology, and accompanied by his three children from Britain, Hawking entered the operating room and was placed in a medical cabin with the help of a team of medical staff.

Considering that all his body muscles have shrunk to a very serious degree, the repair time may be extensive. The news of Future Biology conquering the challenging ALS received wide attention from the international community.

Any incurable disease that could be cured was incalculable progress in the medical research field.

Even if the occurrence of ALS was not high, international medical organizations still displayed strong interests.

However, similar to previous occasions, Future Biology did not disclose how to treat this terminal illness, but generalized the treatment process to the two steps of “muscle tissue repair and neuron repair”. The international medical community had no solution to Future Biology’s “stinginess.” After all, Future Group was a company rather than a scholar institution. Even if it discovered something, it wouldn’t publish a journal on the SCI.

In fact, this time it wasn’t Jiang Chen’s ignorance, but he really could not explain it clearly.

The nutrient fluid used in the smart medical chamber could accelerate the repair of necrotic cells under special electromagnetic effect. If the medical experts in the apocalypse explained it, they could potentially offer a good explanation. However, for Jiang Chen, a clear outsider of the field; he could only use this general explanation.

Anyway, the treatment process was foolproof. Two nurses put the patient inside and then remember to change the nutrient fluid regularly. The process was almost like a washing machine.

…

Shortly after the news of Hawking’s new nationality proliferated, countries also made subtle adjustments in their policies regarding the Moon.

The first was the UA. As the first and only country to send humans to the Moon, Celestial Trade was ahead of them in establishing a colony which clearly triggered the nation.

After many rounds of discussions, NASA finally persuaded Congress to give them a ten billion dollar budget. The Capital announced the restart of the Apollo Program, and the NASA would work with SpaceX to re-explore the moon. Many tech companies, including Google, would also participate in the project and share the 10 billion USD national budget.

The European Space Agency did not lag behind and announced that it would hold a meeting in Darmstadt, Germany to discuss the establishment of a moon landing plan as soon as possible. However, no agreement was reached among countries on who should pay. Although ESA and the European were not linked, the UK after Brexit showed little interest in the initiative. After wealthy Britain left, relying solely on the finances of France and Germany was difficult to squeeze ten billion Euros into the aerospace project.

The Director of ESA called for private companies to invest in the project. However, given the uncertain commercial outlook, the investors’ interest was still unclear.

Then followed by Hua, the success of the ChangE Series rockets also gave confidence in moon landings. Shortly after ESA convened a meeting, the mysterious authorities (1) announced a new aerospace white paper and incorporated the manned Moon landing plan into the national space strategy. It was expected that the first manned Moon landing craft would be launched in 2030.

On the Russian side, due to the lack of funding, they didn’t make any changes to their program. However, Kremlin said that if conditions permit, it would change the existing space program and incorporate moon landing into the Russian space activities.

Jiang Chen did not feel threatened by the aggregated countries.

Even with the technology of Celestial Trade, he also spent a lot of money in space before he arrived at this stage. Perhaps the UA was the most hopeful second country to achieve moon colonization. But by that day, colonies and mines of Celestial Trade would already be all over the moon.

Even if they wanted to colonize, would they still have a place to settle?

(1) Mysterious Authorities – A satirical noun. There are many authorities that have jurisdictions over unexpected areas. It is almost impossible to see a clear governance structure in China.

Chapter 858: Gambling Contract

As Jiang Chen had expected, after coming home from work one day, Natasha wanted to speak to him.

“The Kremlin hopes that you can fulfill the original contract ahead of schedule. As compensation, we are willing to buy five RM-320 rocket engines at twice the price.”

After Celestial Trade received Russia’s contract to supply the International Space Station, Jiang Chen reached an agreement with Russia to sell the RM-320 rocket engine used on Celestial 1 at reasonable prices several years later.

Jiang Chen originally was planning to wait until 10 years later before fulfilling the agreement. However, seeing that all the countries in the world were preparing to reach the Moon , Russia couldn’t just sit on the sideline. With a tight budget, they couldn’t afford to invest too much money in developing more advanced rocket engines, so it was natural that the Kremlin thought of Jiang Chen.

The RM-320 engine was no longer used by Celestial Trade. Although it marked the top technical jewel of the apocalypse’s rocket, it was the product of nearly 50 years of almost zero rocket development. After the birth of space elevators, no one developed the troublesome and high-cost rocket engines. Instead, they devoted all their energy to missiles and spacecraft engines.

But this didn’t mean it was technically impossible to improve the engine.

After integrating some of the pre-war technology, the apocalypse scientists made improvements on the RM-320 rocket engine and developed a more advanced RM-400—which was exactly what Celestial Trade used for its Moon landing.

From this perspective, it didn’t seem to be an issue to sell RM-320 engines to Russia. However, taking into account his strategic needs, Jiang Chen hoped that Russia could focus on Eastern Europe instead of a gradually escalating space race.

So, after organizing his thoughts, Jiang Chen shrugged and replied.

“There are only two years left before 2020. Can’t you wait?”

“Time doesn’t wait and the technology will be outdated. Under the current international environment, who knows if your RM-320 will still be leading the space race in 2020?” Natasha rolled her eyes.

Jiang Chen laughed when he heard the question.

Even with a decade, SpaceX’s Falcon series wouldn’t catch up to the RM-320.

“How about this. I promise that before the end of 2020, the performance of RM-320 will still be leading.”

“What if it’s not?” Natasha said.

“Then I will not sell it and give it to you for free.” Jiang Chen smiled confidently.

Natasha thought for a moment and nodded.

“In this case… there should be no problem. Then I will reply to the Kremlin.”

“Wait.”

Natasha, who was preparing to get up, sat back down.

“What else?”

“Since it is a gambling contract, then whether win or lose, there should be a prize,” Jiang Chen said. “If I win, and no rocket engine is superior to the RM-320 in terms of performance by the end of 2020, what do you plan to pay? ”

Hearing Jiang Chen’s words, Natasha’s lips closed together and her long curved legs crossed together

“Oh? What do you want?”

Jiang Chen smiled and proposed.

…

With a gambling contract, Natasha left Jiangchen’s mansio. Although it was already eight o’clock in the evening, the embassy did not close for the day. To be honest, Natasha had more than enough credentials to serve as an emissary through her repeated effort in reaching agreements with Future Group.

However, for some odd reasons, she did not seem to have any plans for promotion.

At noon the following day, Russia delivered four new Guardian-class frigates to Celestial Trade. This 500 million US Dollar military sales were paid with Xin New Dollar. Due to the astonishing success of the Moon colonization program and the end to the region conflict with Moro securing the victory, the Xin New Dollar showed a trend of continued strength in the foreign exchange market, and the exchange rate against the US Dollar had risen to 1:1.2.

Although the rising exchange rate didn’t benefit exports, many industries of Future Group were unique and without competition. In addition, an increase in the exchange rate meant that Xin’s import prices were cheaper, and it would help Xin’s companies to invest overseas and expand their influence on the international economy.

The four Guardian-class frigates were sent to Coconut Island. The engineering robots would equip them with Type-50 J-model electromagnetic pulse cannons. Counting two ships and two submarines that were previously purchased from Russia, Celestial Navy already owned six frigates, more than sufficient to form an attacking formation with maneuverability and firepower.

In addition, the shipyard of Future Military was built on Ange Island, and orders for the first destroyer had been issued. Soon after, Celestial Trade would list its own produced warships and use its own gunboats to defend its sovereignty.

After the completion of the handover ceremony, Jiang Chen returned to Coro Island. When he noticed the time, he headed to the Future Building.

After Xia Shiyu reported on the company’s most recent progress, Ivan’s phone call followed.

Touching the screen and picking up the phone, Jiang Chen asked.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s related to Madagascar.” Ivan replied. “At present, Madagascar’s government forces, with the help of the foreign troops we dispatched, are already besieging Arrow and the rebels trapped in the Bezaha area in the southern part of the island. President Bernard called us half an hour ago and hoped that we could cooperate with the government forces in the final attack on the besieged rebels.”

Ivan paused and waited for Jiang Chen’s instructions.

Jiang Chen’s index finger gently tapped the table and debated.

As early as Celestial Trade’s soldiers landed on Madagascar, the outcome of the war had already been decided. No matter how the former President La Jonah fought together with Arrow, he could not escape the end of this demise.

However, Jiang Chen did not order the Foreign Corps to eliminate the enemy immediately, but instead dragged the war out for as long as possible.

Jiang Chen’s approach was the exact same as that of the Moro Independent War. Only when Madagascar owed enough money would the government be more obedient. Rather than forcing Celestial Trade to intervene on the island, he hoped to be greeted as a savior.

What’s more, dragging this war on had also consumed the strength of the Freemasonry.

However, the Jews seem to have given up this chess piece. Originally, they were sending more mercenaries to Madagascar. Now, even the transporting of supplies became more cautious. The turmoil in Eastern Europe has left them with no energy for the southernmost island of Africa.

Obviously, from the perspective of the Freemasonry, the threat from Russia was far greater than that of Future Group, a multi-national company.

“Send our Aurora-20s and finish this mess.” After a long pause, Jiang Chen ordered.

“Roger!”

Chapter 859: Since Then

On October 21, Aurora-20s arrived in Madagascar and launched a 24-hour airstrike on the rebels defending the Bezaha area.

The next day early in the morning, with the cooperation of the Celestial Trade Foreign Corps, Madagascar’s 5,000 government soldiers launched their final offensive attack against the rebels supporting former President La Jonah.

The result was no suspense. More than 3,000 rebel soldiers and 571 mercenaries from Europe were killed, 81 went missing, and the wounded surrendered. In an underground bunker, Foreign Corps soldiers captured the former President La Jonah.

Arrow’s current President and Chief Instructor Diarra was also captured at the scene. After consultation with the Madagascar government, Diarra was secretly extradited to Xin, while La Jonah was handed over to military court.

On the same night, Madagascar’s President Bernard made a speech to the nation and announced that with the help of Celestial Trade, the civil war that lasted several months had ended. Arrow’s assets in Madagascar would be confiscated and former President La Jonah would be sentenced to death and executed at the end of the month.

After the rebels surrendered, the French side proposed to Madagascar with the hope to send the captive “European citizens” back home. However, under the instruction of Jiang Chen, Bernard rejected this proposal and responded that human rights are absolutely not a reason for contempt of the law. No matter what the purpose was for the Europeans involved in the rebel forces, they must face allegations of murder and war crimes. Only those who deemed not guilty would be released from prison.

Madagascar was not planning to release anyone.

The purpose of Jiang Chen’s plan was to use these prisoners of war to put pressure on the European government and the politicians under the control of Freemasonry.

…

After Arrow’s President Diarra was extradited to Xin, he was immediately transported secretly to the New Moon Island military base. Jiang Chen made a personal “visit”.

In the prison-like dark house, the man with a pale expression was sitting on a chair. The suit he was wearing was the same one he wore when he was caught. There was a golden ring on the table. The gold-engraved pattern depicted the number 30.

In the Freemasonry, the highest level was level 33; level 30 was a prominent figure in the Freemasonry.

Jiang Chen sat from the window across and smiled at him.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Diarra. I know you won’t be familiar with my face. I heard that you have a bad habit that when you plan for a mission, you like to stick the photo of the target with a dagger on the map. ”

Diarra laughed wryly.

“Just shoot me, why are you wasting time on a dead person?”

If he was arrested by the Madagascar government, he would still have hopes of living. When he learned that he was extradited to Xin, his last traces of hope disappeared.

“We have a lot to talk about. Let’s start from two years ago.” After a pause, Jiang Chen smiled, “Do you remember the first kidnapping mission against me?”

Earlier, Country F had planned a kidnapping operation against Jiang Chen and hired Arrow. Nearly a dozen police officers were killed on duty and Ayesha was also wounded. It was at that time that Jiang Chen made up his mind to build an intelligence organization.

Diarra did not speak and looked at Jiang Chen silently.

“After thinking carefully, it seems that during the internal testing of the Phantom Helmet, unidentified armed forces penetrated the training facilities… but they were discovered by our people.” Jiang Chen looked at Diarra. “I’m curious, when did you guys begin to monitor me?”

“You mean the Freemasonry?” Diarra grinned.

“Yes,” Jiang Chen nodded.

“Why should I tell you?” Diarra ridiculed.

“Just because I can let you live,” Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair, fingers crossed before him, and stared at his eyes. “I can also make you die.”

Diarra’s throat moved, but his eyes did not waver.

“I know what you are worrying about. If you confess to me, your family in Europe may suffer unexpected events.” Here, Jiang Chen sat up from his chair, approached the glass partition, lowered his voice, and said in a tone with deeper meaning embedded in his voice, “But I don’t know if you thought about it. Since the Freemasonry can make your family suffer an unexpected accident, then why can’t I do the same thing?”

Jiang Chen did not intend to use family as a threat. However, Diarra was likely to become a breakthrough point to take down the Freemasonry, so he did not use the simple but brutal truth-telling serum; he intended to convince him to join his side.

Jiang Chen gestured to the bodyguard next to him. A photo was placed on the table between the two.

“It’s your wife and your two daughters. They are beautiful, aren’t they?”

When he saw the photo, Diarra’s eyes suddenly turned red, and the armrests shook violent. He stared at Jiang Chen, squeezing a few words from his grinding teeth.

“You…”

“I am a monster, I know what you want to say.” Jiang Chen’s expression remained unchanged, “but you are not qualified to say this to me. In an old Chinese saying, you and I have no grudge between us, but why are you always on my butt?”

Jiang Chen was also infuriated.

Starting with the Antarctic mission, the Freemasonry became unscrupulous against him and his group. As he said, those two shared no grudges, but the Freemasonry followed him like flies.

[The Golden Apple? Hell, they really thought that stuff could communicate with the future?]

Diarra’s tense body suddenly relaxed. He suddenly started laughing and said in a slightly calmer tone.

“You asked me before. When did we start monitor you?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen replied.

“Future 1.0.” Diarra tossed a name that surprised Jiang Chen, and grinned. “When you introduced the concept of artificial intelligence, we noticed your company and you.”

Seeing Jiang Chen had no response, Diarra raised an eyebrow. Iis it very unexpected?”

“It’s really unexpected.” Jiang Chen nodded. “I thought that you began to keep an eye on us from the coup on Pannu Islands. I didn’t expect that you would have monitored me since then. But you haven’t answered me yet. Is the reason behind monitoring me just because of the Golden Apple?”

Apart from the accidents, Jiang Chen was also secretly curious.

He was aware of this kind of intelligence. His position in the Freemasonry should not be low.

“It wasn’t because of the Golden Apple. We just thought that you are worth investing. But after a series of moves by you, we suspected that the Golden Apple was on you.” As he spoke, Diarra started to laugh again. “And we were right, it was really on you.”

However, Jiang Chen wanted to say that what he achieved today was not because of the Golden Apple.

“The Gatekeeper will end you.”

“I have been waiting for him for a long time,” Jiang Chen looked at his watch, shrugged and said, “However, I still haven’t seen him yet.”

“It won’t be long. Believe me.” Diarra laughed unnaturally and then gazed at Jiang Chen’s watch. “It seems to be time.”

“Time?” Jiang Chen frowned slightly.

At this moment, Jiang Chen saw a rush of blood oozing out from Diarra’s mouth and dripping on his pants.

His rolled pupils were covered with daunting crimson lines…

Chapter 860: Something More Valuable

The bodyguard beside Jiang Chen immediately kicked open the door to the interrogation room and rushed in. However, when the military doctor arrived, Diarra’s heart had stopped beating.

“Died of heart failure… We found a drug containing propafenone and metoprolol tartrate in his home in Madagascar. According to the autopsy report, he had stopped using the drug for two weeks.”

At noon the next day, in the mansion’s office, Ayesha reported on Diarra’s autopsy report.

“I see. It’s a pity.” Jiang Chen sighed.

Originally, Jiang Chen hoped to develop Diarra as an insider for Celestial Trade. He would use the slavery chip to monitor him, return him to Europe through the form of interest exchange, and collect intelligence of the Freemasonry.

It would be great to determine the whereabouts of Carmen or the other level 33 members.

At this moment, Aisha quietly interrupted his thinking.

“Should we do it?”

A photo fell gently on the table. The blonde woman in the photo had a bright smile on, along with her two daughters. This photo was taken in Munich, Germany. It was Diarra’s wife and daughters whom Jiang Chen previously threatened.

After a long moment of silence, Jiang Chen sighed and shook his head.

“It’s not necessary…He has already passed away.”

Ayesha nodded, smiled, and gently replied.

“Mhmm.”

…

Good news came from the Moon colony. The moon mining station succeeded in extracting 100 gram of helium 3 from the soil, and the cost converted was only 11,000 Xin New Dollar.

To feel how low this cost is, simply reference the tritium that could be also be used for nuclear fusion. As a nuclear material that can be collected from Earth, the price of tritium was more than 10,000 US Dollar per gram. Because most of the tritium was produced in UA, the amount of tritium the UA permits for annual export was only about one kilogram, and the main purpose other than industrial and experimental use was to manufacture neutron bombs.

Helium-3 did not produce neutrons in the fusion process. It only produced protons that were not radioactive, and it would not produce the radiation people feared. It was a clean energy source. From this perspective, the price of helium 3 should only be more expensive than tritium, and it should be much more expensive!

With a solution to the energy problem, many more issues would be resolved immediately.

After the completion of the space elevator and the introduction of super long-distance wireless power transmission technology, the new round of energy revolution would be led by Future Group. The world officially entered a new “electricity era.”

With the advancement made on the Moon set aside, after the end of the civil war in Madagascar and President Bernard taking care of the country domestic affairs, his first stop for diplomatic visits was Xin. After the meeting with Xin’s president, Zhang Yaping, the new president made a low-key visit to Jiang Chen’s mansion to meet the country’s behind-the-scenes controller.

With an entire drone attack group acting as his security guard, Jiang Chen’s mansion was definitely one of the safest places in the world.

The accompanying bodyguard stayed at the door. Bernard and his assistant entered the mansion. He immediately extended his hand with a smile when he saw Jiang Chen.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen, on behalf of the people of Madagascar, I would like to offer you the highest respect!”

“You’re flattering me.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his hand. “Welcome to my house, Mr. President.”

It was still during working hours, so only Jiang Chen and Ayesha were in the mansion.

After Bernard was invited to take a seat, Jiang Chen sat across from him. Ayesha made black tea for them and then quietly left the living room.

Without a lot of small talks, Bernard explained the intention of the visit.

“The La Jonah rebels have been annihilated. When is your party prepared to withdraw from Madagascar?”

From Bernard’s cautious expression, Jiang Chen wanted to laugh but instead, he took a sip of the tea.

“You can, at any time, see when you plan to end their employment.”

Seeing Jiang Chen was easy to talk to, Bernard and his assistant all sighed in relief.

At present, Celestial Trade’s Foreign Corps on Madagascar totaled 3,000, and there were also more than ten armored vehicles, tanks, and other military vehicles. It was no exaggeration to say that this 3,000-strong force completely surpassed the military power of Madagascar.

With a gunpowder barrel in the country, how could he not be worried as the president?

Before arriving, Bernard wondered how he would convince Jiang Chen if he did not plan to withdraw from Madagascar. But now it seemed that these concerns were extraneous.

But were the concerns extraneous?

What he did not notice was that Jiang Chen had a faint smile on his face.

“Then, before we withdraw, let’s settle your debt.”

“Debt?” Bernard muttered.

“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded.

Ayesha, who had previously left the living room, brought back a document.

After roughly glancing at the cover of the document, Jiang Chen rubbed Ayesha’s head with a smile. The latter closed her eyes with happiness and left the living room again contentedly.

“The employment cost of Celestial Trade, as well as the previously delivered arms to your force, and the secret agreement signed on behalf of your party by the former President who suffered an unfortunate fate. All the expenses are on here. You can go through it first.”

Whether it was reorganizing the army or running for president, the amount of money spent was not a small sum. What’s more, they didn’t have a choice at the time, even though Jiang Chen’s side was raising the price, they could only swallow and accept.

However, Bernard’s brow was twitching when he saw the 11 billion US Dollar bill.

Madagascar’s GDP was only around 10 billion US Dollar a year. Where could he find the money?

With the tightening fiscal, he wished to borrow from Future Bank.

“This agreement…”

“The signature is there. If you doubt it, you can test the fingerprint on it.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“We don’t have much money at all.” His words didn’t come out fluent at all.

However, he couldn’t dare to say he was not repaying. Debt defaults would immediately make the already deteriorating investment environment immediately drop to freezing point. If a country could easy forfeit its debt burden, it would be completely isolated by international capital.

Bernard could not help but curse at the assassinated former president. However, cursing a dead person could not solve the problem of the alive.

“I didn’t ask you to pay back the money immediately.” Jiang Chen looked at Bernard, who could not articulate at the moment, then he continued, “Moreover, I’m more interested in more valuable things you have.”

Chapter 861: Pionneer

With a complex expression, Bernard and his assistant left Jiang Chen’s mansion.

Madagascar had just gotten rid of Arrow, but then the country soon welcomed Celestial Trade into its backyard. He didn’t know what this would mean for his country; whether it was a blessing or a curse to his motherland. It was difficult for the new present to accept the girm reality.

The former president’s assassination was quite sudden. The former party leader left no useful information, and the position of vice president was like a mascot. If it wasn’t for the death of the president, he wouldn’t be able to sit in this seat.

Madagascar’s post-war recovery required help from Future Group. Even if he didn’t want private armed forces to continue to proliferate in the country, he had to make compromises on this issue.

According to his agreement with Jiang Chen, Future Bank would provide 2 billion Xin New Dollar in loans to the Madagascar government. In addition to the mines promised to Future Group, Future Mining would also have priority mining rights in its domestic mines. In addition, Celestial Trade would establish five military bases with a force of 200 in Madagascar and be able to legally employ locals to join the Foreign Corps.

On the plane returning to Madagascar, Bernard pinched his sore eyebrows.

He was now worried about how to convince his people to allow Celestial Trade to establish military bases in Madagascar. Fortunately, Future Group promised it would help shift public opinion, so it shouldn’t be too difficult…

In the basement of Future Building, inside Amos’s laboratory, the blonde girl led Jiang Chen to Dr. Amos, who was testing the robot in the laboratory.

Amos was sitting in a chair with an improved Phantom helmet on his head. On the opposite side, there was a “water tank” 100 square meters in size separated by graphene partitions. A robot no different from the human body floated in a water tank. A string of air bubbles was ejected through the joints, surrounding a satellite floating in the center. It was performing a series of difficult and complex movements.

When Jiang Chen saw Amos last time, he asked Amos to develop a neural access robot designed specifically for use in space, with the goal to replace the need for astronauts to enter a vacuum environment to perform dangerous work. Unexpectedly, his progress was so fast that he created a prototype in less than three months.

The robot in the tank looked in his direction.

After realizing that Jiang Chen had arrived, the floating robot quickly stopped moving. About two or three seconds later, Amos, sitting in a chair, disconnected the nerves connected to the robot and took off his helmet.

With the helmet aside, Amos rubbed his daughter’s hair, allowed her to go play on the side, then looked at Jiang Chen with a grin.

“What do you think?”

“Absolutely amazing…” Jiang Chen could offer nothing but praise to him.

Once these robots became available, the construction speed of the space elevator would undoubtedly be much faster! Humans could get tired and must eat and drink, but machines would only require charging. It was no exaggeration to say that the construction speed would more than double if a floating charging station was placed next to the construction site in outer space.

“Produced at scale, the unit price of each robot is 1 to 1.5 million Xin New Dollar, and it’s about the same price as a spacesuit. With just a little training, anyone can use these fun toys.” Amos smiled.

“Can I try it?” Jiang Chen looked at the robot in the tank and eagerly asked.

“Of course.” Amos got up from his chair and gestured toward the helmet on the table.

Jiang Chen stepped forward and put it on his head.

“The connection password is 1452. To start, just say ‘connect’ or ‘start.’ A holographic interface will appear on your retina. Focus on the options and wait 3 seconds for it to finish loading. After that, special function operations can be performed.”

After listening to Dr. Amos’s explanation, Jiang Chen repositioned himself into a comfortable position. He cleared his throat then said, “Connect!”

It was similar to how the Phantom started, but it didn’t connect to the virtual reality network. Instead, he switched to the robot’s field of view. Jiang Chen looked at the robot’s arm through its electronic eyes and looked around again, feeling a difficult-to-restrain excitement.

Through the holographic interface in his field of vision, Jiang Chen saw his heart rate and the secretion of hormones such as insulin, adrenal glands. This was meant to determine if the previous body suffered from hunger or other physiological effects.

The button in the upper right corner was a shutdown option. After focusing on the button for 3 seconds, the neural bridging mode would be disconnected. Compared to the previous model that had to be disconnected with the help of others, this design was undoubtedly more user-friendly.

Jiang Chen opened his mouth and merely wanted to ask: “How do I control the propulsion of the joints?” However, no sound came out.

Instead, what he wanted to say was delivered as text and sent to a computer outside the tank.

“This is one of the difficulties of the neural bridging technology.” Amos helplessly opened his hands and explained to Jiang Chen, “It’s as if I put a pair of wings behind you, but if you can’t understand how to use the wings. They’ll only be used as a decoration.”

“What does that mean?” Jiang Chen moved around in the water tank, trying hard to imagine the propulsion in his joints, but no matter how he tried, the stream wouldn’t come out.

“Literally,” Amos sighed. “The core that controls this mechanical body is still your brain. But you lack something in your body; it’s impossible for your brain to understand this situation without training for an extended period of time.”

Jiang Chen gave up trying to focus on the exit option and ended the neural bridging state.

He removed the helmet and set it aside. He then massaged his somewhat swollen brain and casually asked Amos, “… Well, let me ask, how long did it take you to smoothly control this robot?”

“About two weeks? After all, my brain is a bit more powerful than the average person.” Amos laughed without the slightest humility and picked up the helmet. “By the way, using this device for the first time puts a big load on your brain. If you feel tired now, I suggest you go home and sleep.”

After Amos listened to Jiang Chen’s opinion, the neural bridging robot destined for space activities was eventually given a name of “Pioneer” and would be produced by Future Heavy Industries. At the same time, the space launch center would assign 100 people to the astronaut training center to be trained on this groundbreaking invention

After returning to the office to make arrangements for production, Jiang Chen was yawning continuously and decided to give himself the rest of the day off.

Ayesha was driving. Jiang Chen was just about to doze off before a call disturbed his nap.

Chapter 862: Silicon Valley’s Invitation

Since major technological breakthroughs in graphene materials, phone screens, regardless of the technology, were replaced with graphene, and the chips also gradually transitioned from silicon-based chips to graphene chips. It was at this time that people fully realized how profitable Future Group would be from leading this materials science revolution.

80% of the world’s supply of graphene materials came from New Malaysia Special District, from Future Group’s graphene factories. Especially for high-strength graphene and semiconductor-type graphene materials, Future Group, which held the core technology, almost monopolized the entire supply market and controlled the undisputable pricing power.

Even Future Technology’s competitors, Apple, Samsung, and other electronics manufacturers, had to admit that their own technology was inferior. They used graphene screens produced by Future Heavy Industries and the Dark Blue M1 chips.

However, after obtaining a technical license from Future Group, Intel also subsequently developed a graphene chip to stop the downward pressure on the plunging stock prices. However, people with a clear read on the situation saw the technological gap between this rushed semi-finished product and the Dark Blue M1.

It was precisely because of this that the most unbearable loss of the European embargo against Future Group was the losses suffered in the electronics industry. Although the European Union seemed to have selectively forgotten about graphene and didn’t impose any penalty on the graphene materials exported by Future Group to Europe, Future Group unilaterally announced that it would terminate the supply of graphene to European companies.

This dealt a heavy blow to the supercomputer centers in Switzerland and other countries, as well as the European semiconductor companies that were already lagging behind Silicon Valley. If they wished to purchase Future chips, they had to purchase the chips at high prices through offshore dealers registered in Sweden, Norway, and Britain.

It was no exaggeration to say that with the increasing popularity of graphene materials, Future Group’s control of the global electronics industry also became more pronounced. The reason why UA didn’t target Future Group was partly because of the coalition formed with the WASP consortium. On the other hand, they were concerned about the impact on Silicon Valley from the price fluctuations of graphene.

80% of the world’s graphene materials came from Future Group, and 60% were sold to Silicon Valley. Hastily disturbing the status quo offered no benefits for anyone.

If Intel could replace Future Group and solve the technical problems of graphene semiconductors and high-strength graphene materials, based on the tendency of the UA Department of Commerce, it would’ve launched a double counter investigation already.

The phone call was from Xia Shiyu.

Jiang Chen, who just stepped out of the door, immediately went back.

When Jiang Chen opened the door, Xia Shiyu put down the pen in her hand and said apologetically, “Sorry, I didn’t know you left work already. Do you want something to drink? I’ll make you something.”

“Water is fine…Yawn… Get me a coffee – a mocha please.”

Jiang Chen wanted water, but his yawn changed his mind.

Xia Shiyu nodded and went to the coffee machine to help Jiang Chen and herself to two mochas. She then brought them back and sat down.

“Thank you.”

Sniffing the fragrance of the cocoa beans, Jiang Chen suddenly felt his sleepiness disappearing.

“No problem…when did you sleep last night? Why are you so sleepy?” she asked out of concern.

“Oh, maybe I slept a bit late last night.” Because it was too cumbersome to explain, Jiang Chen followed along with the conversation.

At the same time, Jiang Chen yawned again.

For some reason, when she heard that Jiang Chen slept late, Xia Shiyu’s face suddenly blushed and she gave him a hard stare.

“Mind… Mind…”

“Mind?” With an eyebrow raised, Jiang Chen was confused.

“Mind your body, and learn to control it.” Xia Shiyu coughed then looked away as she finally spat out the words stuck in her throat.

Jiang Chen grinned at her face.

He would never get bored with her “not frank” look, no matter how many times he saw it.

“Why are you staring at me?!” Xian Shiyu stared at Jiang Chen back, stood up and walked toward her desk.

[It’s not like you will lose anything.]

Jiang Chen scoffed in his mind.

Holding a stack of documents, Xia Shiyu tossed them on the coffee table after she returned and sat back on the couch. Judging by her serious expression, she had switched back to work mode. Jiang Chen’s grin also disappeared after he glanced at the documents. He forced away the sleepiness in his mind and put on a serious attitude.

“Silicon Valley Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit?”

“Yes.” Xia Shiyu nodded. “It’s the largest and highest-profile technology event in Silicon Valley. It’s also an international professional conference in the technology field. We received an invitation. What do you think?”

Jiang Chen picked up the documents and scanned through them.

It wasn’t a small summit. Although the organizers and participants were all American companies in the beginning, the influence of later summits gradually spread to Asia. The areas covered included mobile internet, cloud technology, big data, games, smart hardware (home, internet of things, robots and wearable devices, etc.), education, medical care, and low-carbon, representing the frontiers of Silicon Valley.

The conference was held every autumn. Each time it was held, it attracted a large number of tech leaders from Hua, the UA, and the Asia Pacific region. These included over 1500 tech companies from Hua and the UA, over 1000 Fortune 500 executives, over 20,000 professionals, and more than 120 media outlets from different parts of the world.

The 16th summit was held in Shangjing, and this time, it was going to be held in the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley.

The UA’s invitation to Future Group to attend the meeting was undoubtedly a signal for peace. There was no need to be concerned about their intentions.

As long as missile silos existed for one day, no matter how much the FBA and the CIB hated him, they wouldn’t dare to allow accidents to happen to him on The UA soil. The situation in City M proved that in the 21st century, a more effective and terrifying force than nuclear weapons could destroy a civilization. Its name was an electromagnetic pulse.

Jiang Chen was considering what benefits this visit would bring him.

“The organizers are looking forward to our arrival. The UA Department of Commerce also hopes that we will cooperate more closely with Silicon Valley in graphene and artificial intelligence technologies. In addition, companies will also display the results of their research and explore business cooperation and investments at the summit. At present, we possess a very high market share in the graphene field, but the total value of the graphene market is still seriously undervalued. Through this summit, we can promote our products to more companies.” While Jiang Chen was weighing his decision, Xia Shiyu further explained the significance of this summit.

Jiang Chen nodded then closed the documents.

“I’ll head back and prepare. It’s October 31st, right? When should we arrive?”

Xia Shiyu took an extra few seconds to process.

“Wait, you’re going to go personally?”

“What’s the alternative?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Chapter 863: Long-distance Wireless Power Transmission

Xia Shiyu originally planned to attend this summit by herself. As the executive of Future Group, she could indeed represent Future Group to some extent. The reason why she made this decision was mainly out of concern for Jiang Chen’s safety.

Jiang Chen spent a lot of effort to finally persuade and reassure Xia Shiyu.

His business was all over the UA, but he hadn’t visited yet.

In addition, Cali, where Silicon Valley was located, was just next to Nevada. He also planned to “visit” the mysterious Area 51 to see what the UA people were actually studying.

Before flying to Cali, good news came from the apocalypse.

Jiang Chen requested Beluga Station to search for long-distance wireless power transmission equipment and there was finally progress. Wu Yue, who was stationed at the Sixth Street, conveyed some news to Chu Nan which was fed back to Fishbone base.

When Sun Jiao told Jiang Chen the good news, Jiang Chen immediately returned to the apocalypse to meet with Wu Yue.

In front of the warehouse on the Sixth Street, the guard in a kinetic skeleton saluted him and opened the iron gate.

With a dry splash of air, Jiang Chen walked into a bright warehouse and soon saw Wu Yue standing on a platform along with scientists from Camp 27, who were busy studying around the platform.

“We meet again, Mr. General.”

Wu Yue came forward and shook Jiang Chen’s hand tightly.

“Long time no see.” Jiang Chen grinned and let go of his hand. “I didn’t expect that after so long, you’d still be the representative here.”

“Surprised?” Wu Yue shrugged and laughed.

“No, I’m just curious as to why you didn’t get promoted yet. Let’s not talk about this anymore. Where is it?”

Jiang Chen looked around but didn’t see what he wished to see in the warehouse.

Wu Yue stomped his feet.

“It’s just under our feet.”

Slightly surprised, Jiang Chen looked down.

At a closer look, this hexagonal platform was indeed special.

On the black painted shell, scale-like little bumps about the size of a thumb were visible. They were neatly arranged into a net and covered the hexagonal platform.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t expect that this hexagonal platform occupying a thousand square meters on the ground was actually a part of the long-distance wireless power transmission equipment.

“How does this stuff work? Can you show it to me?”

Jiang Chen casually stepped on the surface of the platform. Other than the surface material feeling very soft, he didn’t see anything else special about it.

“This thing works in outer space. It can’t be used in the atmosphere.” Wu Yue shook his head and pointed his fingers at the scientists who belonged to NAC. “You can ask your subordinates how it works. I don’t know much about it. Well… let’s settle the bill first.”

A bright and friendly smile appeared on his face.

Jiang Chen didn’t waste any time. He tapped the wristwatch, pulled out the data cord, linked directly to his EP, and transferred 10,000 credits to his account. Seeing that string of zeros, Wu Yue’s smile was even brighter. He bowed to Jiang Chen respectfully and left the warehouse.

With 10,000 credits, the purchasing power was equivalent to 100,000 crystals. It was enough for Beluga Station to purchase a whole month’s worth of supplies from the Sixth Street. If they worked with merchants, it would take four trips to Japan to make the same amount.

Helping the NAC military’s government salvage equipment before the war was a great job for the Beluga Station.

After Wu Yue left, Jiang Chen called a scientist busy on the computer next to the platform and asked him how to use the device.

The scientist named Luo Yong was excited when the general asked him. He laid down his work and took Jiang Chen straight to the front of an instrument at the corner of the warehouse. The iron box looked like a closet and there was a transparent acrylic tube about one meter long.

“This is a device that simulates wireless power transmission in outer space. Electric energy is converted into a laser beam that carries energy at pole A and converts it into electricity at pole B. Now the glass tube is pumped into an approximately vacuum state to prevent the loss of the transmission laser in the form of heat energy.” Luo Yong explained the science behind the technology to Jiang Chen using layman terms. He reached out, turned on the holographic screen and pressed the start button.

His fingers tapped a few times, set the transmission power, and one end of the glass tube began to illuminate. The power indicator began to jump and eventually stopped at 21 kiloWatt.

In an instant, the blue laser filled the entire vacuum tube, just like flowing liquid – bright but not blinding. At the same time, the number on the indicator that measured the other pole of the vacuum tube, also began to increase. When the surging laser stabilized, this number eventually stopped at 20.997 kiloWatt.

Considering that this one-meter-long distance only had a 0.014 percent electrical energy loss, it was quite astonishing. Different from traditional power transmission methods, under ideal conditions, this laser transmission didn’t need to utilize a medium, so there was no power loss due to resistance or heat.

As long as the medium on the optical path was as small as possible and the beam was concentrated as much as possible, the electric energy could be transmitted stably from one pole to the other, even through millions of kilometers with negligible energy lost.

At that time, the helium 3 mined from the Moon wouldn’t need to be transported to Earth via a spacecraft, and it would be directly converted into electricity on the Moon’s fusion power station then directly “fired” from the end of the space elevator in outer space. After being converted back into electrical energy, the superconductor line would transmit to the power grid on the surface of the Earth.

“Because of the acrylic glass, we can observe the laser beam with the naked eye. Although it looks very mild, it’s also a form of power loss, but in the actual universe, this beam is invisible. Only in regions close to the Earth, or in the presence of dust or water molecules, can blue, tubular beams be observed.”

While describing the science to Jiang Chen, Wu Yue turned off the device.

“If a spacecraft passes this laser beam, isn’t it dangerous?” Jiang Chen suddenly thought of a very serious problem.

[Tens or even hundreds of millions of megawatts of electricity would be converted into lasers. This would be a Moon-based laser turret! If the middle of this light path passed through any spacecrafts or rockets, it would cook them into molten iron.]

Also, if this laser accidentally went off target and was directed at the Earth…

Jiang Chen was a bit afraid that he could accidentally make a hole in the atmosphere.

“This concern is redundant.” Luo Yong laughed. “Generally speaking, the light path will be marked on the navigator of the spacecraft. No spacecraft will approach the area. It’s just like we won’t go touching high-voltage poles with a ladder for fun.”

“Then what if the laser misses?” Jiang Chen persisted.

Chapter 864: Recently at the Sixth Street

Jiang Chen always asked questions that were tricky and difficult to explain. This unpleasant habit made Luo Yang screaming on the inside, but he must keep a patient appearence.

[What do we do if it hits the Earth?]

In his opinion, it wasn’t a problem at all.

“Nothing, the atmosphere’s appetite is much larger than we imagine it to be.” Luo Yang shrugged and replied, “The wavelength of the laser is quite short. Particles in the air will block the laser, scatter it around, and eventually, it will be absorbed by the ozone layer. Unlike a light beam emitted by a laser pistol, you can view the transmission laser as a type of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than ultraviolet light. This type of energy is more easily absorbed by the atmosphere, so the environmental impact on the Earth would be quite minor.”

While he mentioned this point, Luo Yong paused and said half-jokingly, “Taking 10,000 steps back, the space elevators are usually built out on the open sea. Even if there’s a small angle deviation in the optical path of the transmission laser, there’s a high probability that it will only hit the sea. It’s almost impossible to strike landmasses.”

Under the control of a quantum computer, it was almost impossible for a laser beam to miss the thousand square meter hexagonal platform. According to data provided by Luo Yang, from the period between 2050 to 2150, there were only four power transmission path failures between the Earth and Moon.

Four failures in one hundred years – this probability was already quite low, and the economic loss caused by each failure was only the power lost in the atmosphere, and the nuclear fusion cores consumed by ground facilities in the event of large-scale power outages.

After being educated by the scientist, Jiang Chen circled around the long-distance power transmission equipment a few times and finally left the warehouse feeling satisfied.

Before coming, he thought long-distance power transmission in the 22nd century was similar to Tesla’s proposed Wardenclyffe Tower project. They were going to build an electric tower that resembled a radio tower, except it wouldn’t be used to transmit information; it would transmit energy.

As long as it was on Earth, without new electric poles, only a “radio”-like device would be needed, no matter how far it could connect to the power grid.

However, when Jiang Chen proposed this concept, he realized the scientists were struggling hard not to laugh and they explained to him that the concept wasn’t possible. Moreover, Tesla also existed on the timeline of the apocalypse, but it wasn’t Morgan Consortium who provided the funding for the Wardenclyffe Tower.

“Constrained by the technological level of the current era, Tesla created his wireless transmission system by coil coupling. In his algorithm, ground, water, air, and the ionosphere don’t absorb electromagnetic waves, so the transmission efficiency is certainly much higher than the resistance of the wires. However, in reality, this is impossible.”

“To be honest, Tesla isn’t a reliable genius. Of course, I don’t deny his contribution to alternating currents, his Nobel Prize, or his many contributions. It’s just that many of the concepts he proposed were too… Well, science fiction, including his super weapon ‘Deadlight’ which was proved to be just a charged particle beam. But this is the reason why he was admired by everyone. After all, compared to old pedagogy, ordinary people generally prefer elaborate theories. It’s like conspiracy theories are always more widespread than news.”

In other words, if his invention was so magical, the Morgan Consortium never would’ve stopped funding him.

After leaving the warehouse, Jiang Chen didn’t return to the mansion. Instead, he accompanied the guards and toured around the Sixth Street.

It was nearing the end of October. The dry and cold air iconic to the end of the fall was lingering.

Winter in the wasteland was much longer than in the modern world, and it was much colder and deadlier.

Even in the southern region, snow would start to fall in Wanghai in a month at most.

Since the control of the city center was regained and the mutant nests and zombies were cleared, the city was no longer threatened. The walls that surrounded the Outer Circle of the Sixth Street was still preserved, but compared to its original purpose, the wall now served more as a symbol.

The survivors built houses outside the walls, and the half-collapsed buildings were also used. After a few repairs, they became the homes of survivor families and groups.

Almost all survivors of Suhang Province migrated to the Sixth Street or Jia City, also under the jurisdiction of NAC. Excluding the colonial cities of Hongcheng and Yizhou, the total population of NAC already exceeded 300,000. On the streets of Sixth Street, it was more crowded compared to a year ago.

On the road leading to the market, vehicles transporting food passed by frequently. Merchants from afar often chose to do one last haul before winter, pull Chinese cabbage from the Garden of Eden to the more southern area of Fuzhou, and take their crystals to comfortably spend winters at the local survivor settlements. After the spring, they would bring back local products and return to Sixth Street.

Because of the existence of NAC, Wanghai had become a trading hub connecting the north and south.

For some unknown reason, based on what Chu Nan said, the number of merchants from the north decreased significantly compared to previous years. The military government sent a team of Hunter Corps to explore the area around Shangjing, but the scouts who had yet to return.

However, there were only a few possible reasons for the decrease.

If it wasn’t the weather, they must’ve had a hard time dealing with mutants, or they encountered gangs in a certain place that blocked their way.

Jiang Chen exclaimed from the industrial zone to the market because every time he returned, he would discover something new in this place. In his memory, the robot ramen noodle shop on the corner was gone and was replaced by a neon bar. The small vendors all disappeared and were replaced by the same shops as the Inner Circle.

The abundance of materials brought economic prosperity.

According to Lin Lin, the second Garden of Eden was under construction. After the success of the previous Garden of Eden, the construction of the new one was faster. When the second Garden of Eden was completed, NAC’s food would achieve self-sufficiency without any need for exports.

By that time, Jiang Chen could get rid of the title “food transporter.”

In any case, he was also the president of a world-class company and a warlord with control of a sizable territory. A trip to the secret warehouse to transport hundreds of tons of food every month was unfitting for his status.

Every week, adding some vegetables from the bottom of the sea to the refrigerator in his own mansion was enough to demonstrate his status as a “great family man.”

Whether it was the taste or texture, the vegetables produced by Xin Ocean Agriculture were very popular among the ladies.

At the dinner table, watching Sun Jiao and Lin Lin gobble down the food while Yao Yao and Xiaorou took small bites every time made Jiang Chen feel sincerely happy.

After all the crises in Wanghai City were eliminated, that was one of the main driving forces for him to return to the apocalypse every week…

Chapter 865: Hope for Interdimensional Travel

Jiang Chen left the Sixth Street by helicopter and returned to Fishbone base.

He went to the community center and spoke with Wang Qing to gain an understanding of the base’s supply reserves. He then asked Han Junhua about the deployment on the front line and whether any new moves had been made by the Northern Alliance Area. Finally, Jiang Chen went to the software development department to check on the department’s new game. After he completed all these stops, he left the community center and returned to the mansion.

Yao Yao was cooking lunch.

The little Loli in an apron prepared a table full of dishes.

Whether it was the tender trotters or the fish that had a delicious color, the food all radiated with an appetizing odor. Lin Lin, who was already at the table, had flashing eyes emitting a hungry light. Her chopsticks were already raised and ready to conquer the food.

After seeing the dishes, Jiang Chen took out two bottles of cold beer from the refrigerator.

One bottle for himself, and the other bottle for Xiaorou. Sun Jiao never acted appropriately after drinking. She was self-aware and remained loyal to Coke. As for the lovely Yao Yao, Jiang Chen prepared some coconut milk from Coro Island, which was one of her favorite drinks.

The family ate lunch and chatted about Penglai being built by Jiang Chen in the modern world.

“Is it a city floating on the ocean? That’s unimaginable… Can you build one in the apocalypse?” Sun Jiao took a swig of her Coke then said enviously.

“There were still a lot of marine cities before the war… but most of them sunk.” In the end, Yao Yao’s tone was mixed with nostalgia.

Yao Yao, who lived before the war, was no stranger to the concept of marine cities, but with her current life now, she rarely recalled her life from before the war. The same was true of Lin Lin, who was still fixated on eating her food, even though she took part in the design of Penglai. When Jiang Chen praised Penglai, she just pouted then licked the grease off her lips.

“Technically feasible, but there’s absolutely no need for one here. If I get a chance, I’ll definitely take you to see it over there.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“That sounds so good,” Sun Xiaorou sighed, full of hope, one hand holding her chin. She murmured, “I just don’t know when that day will come.”

“There will be such a day.” Jiang Chen promised.

At that moment, Lin Lin, who was devouring the food, suddenly raised her head. She swallowed down the food in her mouth and looked at Jiang Chen.

“Oh, one thing I almost forgot to tell you.”

“You probably forgot already… What is it?” Jiang Chen asked.

Her little eyebrows raised and her red and black colored eyes narrowed. Lin Lin proudly raised her chest and dropped a heavy bomb on the table.

“I made progress on my research in performing interdimensional travel with living creatures.”

After lunch, nobody touched the plates on the table.

Not only Jiang Chen, but even Sun Jiao, Xiaorou, Yao Yao all squeezed into Lin Lin’s laboratory and fixated on Lin Lin, who was calibrating the instrument.

“Don’t look at me like this, I… I’ll get nervous. I’ll just mention in advance that after all, it hasn’t been tested yet. In theory, it should be feasible. But I’ll only find out after the experiment,” Lin Lin muttered in a quiet voice. Her fingertips typed on the holographic screen rapidly and she opened several instruments set up in the lab. “Right, how big is your storage dimension now?”

Lin Lin’s question made Jiang Chen think for a moment. He hadn’t thought about this for a long time.

“It’s very big… wait for me to take a look.” Jiang Chen closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the spherical universe.

This feeling was quite wonderful. Although it was dark, he could clearly perceive the presence of every object in it, and he could use invisible “hands” to fiddle with their positions. The boundary of the universe was an invisible “wall” consisting of pure gravity. There was no substance behind the “wall,” and there wasn’t even a concept of space.

It was troublesome to measure the size of this space. Although he had absolute control over all substances in the dimension, he couldn’t change much about the space itself.

Fortunately, he had those invisible “hands” to help. Using manipulation, Jiang Chen arranged the things stored in the storage dimension like Lego to form a crooked line through the center of the spherical universe.

A proud smile appeared on his face, but his expression suddenly turned awkward.

[How do I measure this without a ruler?]

After a long time, Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

The work just made him feel slightly dizzy. Using the invisible hands consumed the energy stored in the bracelet.

“The radius is approximately 20 meters. Hmm, perhaps 15 meters… It’s around the size of a small house.” Jiang Chen vaguely described it.

“How big is a small house? Stupid.” Lin Lin mocked him and sighed. Holding a test tube containing an unknown liquid, she approached a cylindrical instrument.

A small opening in the center of the cylinder perfectly fitted the test tube. White mist rose from the small opening, and it seemed that the temperature inside was quite low.

“Low-temperature hibernation?” Sun Xiaorou tilted her head.

“Yes, but no.” Lin Lin gave an ambiguous answer. She inserted the test tube into the cylinder, closed the cap, then knocked on the cylinder. “Throw this into your storage space. If I’m correct, it should work.”

“Throw this entire thing in?”

“Yes, this entire thing.” Lin Lin nodded.

The girls’ eyes all concentrated on Jiang Chen.

Being watched with so much eagerness, Jiang Chen awkwardly touched his nose then put his hand on the cylinder.

In just the blink of an eye, the one-person-tall cylinder disappeared.

He looked at Lin Lin and asked, “That’s it? Then?”

Lin Lin, holding her small chin, thought carefully. “Directly … no, first, travel back to your side, then come back and spit it out from the storage dimension.”

Lin Lin’s voice had just faded when Jiang Chen disappeared from the room.

Two minutes later, he appeared in the laboratory again. He lifted his hand, and the cylindrical machine reappeared in the laboratory.

Yao Yao blinked blankly and still didn’t understand what the experiment was all about. Sun Jiao and Xiaorou were also the same, looking at Lin Lin, Jiang Chen and the cylinder at the center of the laboratory in bewilderment.

Without a care for Jiang Chen, after seeing the cylinder, Lin Lin immediately stepped forward to open the device and took out the test tube. She walked to a microscope, made a temporary slide, and observed it under the microscope.

Two seconds later, Lin Ling’s face turned ecstatic.

“It’s a success!”

Chapter 866: This Year’s Winter Arrived Earlier

The frost, like sharp knives wrapped in snow and ice, gusted through the faces that had long been frozen and numb. The blanketing snow slowly added more and more pressure on their backpacks. They had 50 kilometers to go before they could reach the outpost in Hanzhong, and there was no time for them to rest.

The sentry wearing a winter suit walked beside the queue and looked at the white wilderness with a guarded look and his muzzle. The machine gunners who sat on top of the armored vehicles breathed out white mist as they leaned against their machine guns to kill time.

They were an army that belonged to the Northern Alliance Area.

Standing behind them were survivors from the Northern Alliance Area, the last group of people to migrate from Lanzhou to Hanzhong.

Unlike Wanghai, winter had arrived more than a month earlier not just because of the latitude, but more because of radiation clouds covering the sky. Radiation dust weaved together like a quilt. Their effect wasn’t keeping the soldiers warm but reflecting sunlight back into space.

This year was extremely abnormal. Even for the northwest region, this year’s winter came much earlier than previous years.

However, for the wasteland, abnormality itself was the norm.

People might feel desperate, but they would never be surprised.

After harvesting the last batch of mutated fruit, the group of people had to travel through the heavy snow to Hanzhong. A lot of people might die there, but if they didn’t go, many more were going to die.

Unlike Wanghai, there weren’t many types of zombies there, but many powerful and deceiving mutants haunted this region. And even in the winter, the hungry mutants never hibernated; they lurked in the dark corners, quietly waiting for feasts of blood.

For example, the mutated wolves attacked like a gust of wind with claws faster than bullets, the only remains of their victims were often only broken bones. A single migrant group once encountered them. Although everyone had guns, no one survived.

Even if the army ran into these fast and powerful creatures, it would still be quite a headache.

In order to reduce survivor casualties, the commander of the Northern Alliance ordered the use of valuable nuclear fusion cores and artillery shells by armored troops to escort the migrating survivors.

Although they inherited armored forces from the pre-war regime, it was regrettable that the lack of resources made it difficult for them to resume industrial production. They could only alleviate the supply pressure of the tens of thousands of troops through resource recovery and the production of small workshops.

The situation they faced was even worse than that of Sixth Street three years ago. After all, NATO’s Marine Corps had never been to the northwest region of NAC. There was almost no battlefield there, and there weren’t many resources worth recycling.

Each round of heavy machine guns was precious to them.

An assault vehicle in snow camouflage approached from behind. When the assault vehicle passed by, although the soldiers didn’t stop, they raised their hands to perform a PAC salute and offered their leaders the highest respect.

In the back of the assault vehicle, a fierce-looking man looked at the map without saying a word.

His name was Wei Bian. After Jiang Beihai, he served as the commander of the Northern Alliance Area. His position was similar to that of NAC’s General. Sitting next to him was his assistant, Deputy Commander of Luo Xugang. These were the last survivors to migrate to Hanzhong and were also the last survivor group to move from Lanzhou.

When they withdrew, the city left behind had only broken walls and roaming beasts. Perhaps in a few hundred years, ivy would drill through the stone cracks in the cement pavement and sprout new shoots from the dead wood. It would naturally use its own methods to erase evidence of human existence and dye the earth with its original color–

Barbaric and without order.

“This year’s snow is earlier than usual.” Luo Xugang, who was sitting in the front, sighed and shook the cigar that was about to burn up.

“Yes,” Wei Bian replied without much emotion.

“I’m going to die of the cold.” Lu Xugang glanced at the commander from the corner of his eye. When the last trace of nicotine on the cigarette butt was burnt, he squished the cigar into the ashtray.

“Should I turn up the air conditioner?”

“No, no, I meant a different sense of cold.” Luo Xugang waved his hand, and his coarse fingers took out another cigarette from his pocket and put it into his mouth.

“You’re smoking away your health.”

As if he heard something funny, Luo Xugang suddenly laughed and blew out a smoke ring. “Fu*k health.”

Wei Bian didn’t respond; his furrowed eyes still remained on the paper map.

Silence ensued in the vehicle for a long time with only the sound of wheels rolling over the snow. Luo Xugang opened his eyes and silently smoked his cigarette rolled from the mutated tobacco and felt the spicy taste inside his nasal cavity. He didn’t know when it started, but only this feeling gave him a sense of being alive.

Very abruptly, Luo Xugang broke the silence.

“Our time is limited.”

However, Wei Bian had the same indifferent expression.

“I know.”

“I heard there’s a rising power called NAC in Wanghai. The full name seems to be the New Asia Cooperation.”

“I’ve heard about them.”

“Those little guys seem to be sent by them. Although our missiles can handle them, they’re always a problem… Do we really want to fight them?” Luo Xugang scratched his head.

“Mhmm.”

Silence resumed.

After a long while, Luo Xugang, holding his cigarette, was still the one who broke the silence.

“I’m really envious of you.”

When Wei Bian heard that, his eyes left the map for the first time, and he gazed through the window to the white wilderness.

There, a sentry discovered the mutant wolves lurking in the snow, and he immediately lifted his rifle. Soon, blood splattered onto the pristine snow, but when he pulled out the dagger and stepped forward to dig for the crystal, three more wolves leaped out…

The gunfire was loud but soon stopped.

The medics took the dying sentry to the truck, but unable to save him, he quickly ended up in a body bag. The bodies of the four wolves were tossed onto trucks equipped with organic converters. After digging up the crystals, they would be refined into nutrient supply. The team didn’t stop from beginning to end. The survivors who passed through the bloodstained ground didn’t look away from the road under their feet for a second.

It seemed that nothing happened there.

Nature had already decided who would die and who would survive.

“You won’t be envious.” Wei Bian’s eyes refocused on the map as he spoke without emotion.

…

“It’s a success!”

The cells in the test tube were still alive!

There were cheers from the ladies in the laboratory.

When Jiang Chen heard Lin Lin say this sentence, he didn’t know what to do to describe the excitement in his heart.

According to Lin Lin, she dropped 20 milliliter of test solution mixed with human tissue cells into the test tube before placing the test tube in the freezer. After placing the test tube in a special freezer and simulating a hibernation environment, the living cells in the test tube successfully survived through the entropy reduction step when crossing through the “dimensions.”

The key to transporting living creatures lay in antimatter!

Lin Lin explained the reason with a lot of mathematics and physics formulas. However, Jiang Chen was lost from the first step and didn’t understand what she was saying. Even though he repeatedly asked her to explain the principles in common language, she just knocked on the whiteboard helplessly, tossed away the marker in her hand, and looked at Jiang Chen with care in her eyes.

“Just give up.”

At the same time, snowflakes were falling down.

“It’s already snowing?” Sun Jiao looked out the window.

“Does it usually snow at this time of year?” With the topic changed, Jiang Chen also glanced out the window.

“It usually snows in November,” Yao Yao quietly whispered.

“It seems that this year’s winter arrived earlier.” Sun Xiaorou sighed.

Chapter 867: War Preparation

Although it was only possible to transport 20 millilitre of test solution, it was already a breakthrough for the problem that had no solution.

Jiang Chen believed that as long as the experiment continued, the problem of interdimensional travel would be solved sooner or later!

The crux of the problem was that transporting 20 millilitre of the test solution consumed 0.01 milligram of antimatter. These antimatter substances were almost everything Lin Lin collected.

According to Lin Lin, it was easier to collect antimatter in space because there would be much less material interference than on Earth. However, it was very difficult to carry out space activities in the apocalypse. Space debris in outer space had almost formed an asteroid belt that orbited the Earth at a terrifying speed.

Construction of an antimatter collection space station on the other side might be a good choice, but from a technical point of view, it seemed quite unrealistic.

But anyway, it was a good start.

Perhaps as the study continued, Lin Lin could find more convenient ways that consumed less antimatter to achieve transporting living creatures between the modern world and the apocalypse.

In order to celebrate this success, Jiang Chen returned to the modern world and asked the dessert chef at the top floor of the Future Building to personally make a 12-inch indulgent pudding cake, which he brought to the apocalypse for Lin Lin as a reward. The excited Lin Lin almost jumped on the cake.

A party was held in the evening. Jiang Chen only remembered he drank a lot of alcohol and didn’t remember anything that happened after that.

It was snowing.

This year’s winter was earlier than in previous years. The snow fell from the previous afternoon until morning the next day.

Just overnight, the entire city was covered in a layer of silver foundation. Although it was only a thin layer on the ground, people could already smell the nuclear winter from the air and started preparing for the toughest season.

There was a shortage of cabbage and potatoes in the farmers’ market on Sixth Street. In order to stabilize prices, Jiang Chen had to shoulder his responsibility as the “food transporter” once again and transported 300 tons of rice and 150 tons of cabbage and potatoes to the apocalypse to stabilize market demand.

The merchants stationed on Sixth Street left the market at the earliest date and headed south. They had to transport their expensive food to areas further south before the snow blocked the roads.

NAC’s patrol team also changed their equipment and began to don their winter clothes and drag out the snowmobiles to the damaged streets as they began to patrol NAC territory. The soldiers already completed a ten-kilometer run. They were now entering the training ground with rifles and began live firing exercises under the direction of instructors.

After emptying a clip, the soldiers would then go to the cafeteria to eat. After half an hour of rest, their training continued.

Everyone at Fishbone base lived a fulfilling life, except for the general who “lived lavishly and scandalously”. He didn’t wake up from the tenderness of the sisters until the Sun was directly over his head.

Planting gentle kisses on Sun Jiao and Xiaorou’s foreheads, Jiang Chen covered the two sisters with the blanket, put on some clothes and walked out of the house.

There were two days left before he flew to the UA. It would be inconvenient to return to the apocalypse there. He planned to see what he needed to do and finish all the work before leaving.

When Jiang Chen pushed open the door of the command center, Han Junhua was sitting at the table studying the map. Judging by the coffee that no longer emitted white steam, she must’ve been there for a long time.

“The last batch of survivors have already made their way. If they didn’t stop at the halfway point, they’re now estimated to be in Hanzhong. According to the information gathered by the pilots, the Northern Alliance Area has a combat capability between 100,000 and 300,000 soldiers, equipped with pre-war armor and air defense vehicles.”

“100,000 to 300,000? The margin of error is that big?” Jiang Chen was surprised.

“Our planes can’t get too close. They used air-defense missiles to force away our fighters.” Han Junhua gently swiped on the holographic map and opened a window in front of Jiang Chen. “The red zone box was the no-fly zone delineated by the air defense missile.”

From Hanzhong to Ankang, they were all enveloped in the air defense missile warning zone of the Northern Alliance Area.

“I still don’t understand why they’re migrating. If they’re expanding, why should they abandon their base in Lanzhou?” Jiang Chen looked at the mark on the map in Hanzhong and he couldn’t be any more clueless.

According to merchants from the Northern Alliance Area, it seemed that the military organization named the gendarmerie had political power and implemented a similar military-political-management model as the NAC.

Not only that, but over the past 20 years, the local survivors already developed a large number of farmland and settlements, planted mutated fruits, shell bullets, and a genetically modified plant that resembled potatoes with a poorer taste.

[From this point of view, they shouldn’t be facing a severe survival crisis.]

[But why are they so fixated to the south?]

“The specific reasons are only clear to them. There isn’t much opportunity for merchants from the Northern Alliance Area to come into contact with survivors. All trade is done directly with the gendarmerie. They don’t trust outsiders very much. We have no way of communicating with them.” Han Junhua shook her head.

“If we go to war, who do you think has better odds?” Jiang Chen spoke after a moment of thought.

“They have a large amount of PAC pre-war marine equipment, but we have the resources advantage.” Here, Han Junhua’s beautiful eyebrows wrinkled slightly. She put her hand against her chin, deep in thought before she finally replied, “Perhaps it’ll be a brutal battle, but we’re unlikely to lose.”

Even if they used five Tigers IIs to take down one Wanderer Tank, the odds of winning would still tilt toward NAC. As long as the Type-50 Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon could rip through their armor, Jiang Chen felt there was no reason to make him lose.

However, there was one point Han Junhua didn’t consider. NAC wasn’t only advantaged in terms of resources, but it was backed by a world of resources. The assembly plant of the kinetic skeleton had been completed on Ange Island. Within a few months, Jiang Chen could bring over tens of thousands of kinetic skeletons to equip every NAC soldier.

Even now, the monthly production of the K1 Kinetic Skeleton on Sixth Street didn’t exceed 500.

After considering Han Junhua’s opinions, Jiang Chen revised the conscription bill. From next month until March next year, two thousand people were to be recruited each month from the NAC jurisdiction to train at Fishbone base.

At the same time, the three major corps were expanded to three armies containing division-size combat groups. Each division had 2,000 personnel with no upper limit on the number of divisions in each army. With the current force, each army was formed by only four divisions. Based on the number of soldiers now, there was still a large discrepancy between NAC and the Northern Alliance Area ‘s power.

But victory was never decided by the number of people alone.

If they compared industrial and logistics capabilities, then even ten Northern Alliances would be no match against the invincible NAC.

Chapter 868: I m also going to live here

Although it was already winter in Wanghai, the modern world Coro Island was still beautiful and lovely.

With the Sun just above the horizon, the sea breeze gently swayed the palm tree leaves and danced with the people swimming in the ocean tide. With the breeze, bursts of playfulness and laughter drifted in the distance. Although he couldn’t understand the language, Jiang Chen always felt at peace upon hearing this sound.

They applied for the runway at Los Santos International Airport. Tomorrow, he would fly to the UA.

This morning, he returned from the apocalypse and spent the whole day at home, making final preparations for the trip. After dinner, he thought he should change his mood, so he decided to put on some sportswear and headed outside.

Jiang Chen only intended to run a few laps around the park in the community, but with his body condition, he didn’t feel any weariness from just jogging a few kilometers. Halfway through the jog, he ran a little farther than before and got on the road at the edge of the beach.

On Coro Island alone, there were as many as 500,000 to 600,000 visitors that stayed at any-given-time. Looking at people who were having fun on the beach, Jiang Chen always felt a sense of satisfaction of being the king of the island.

Shaking his head, laughing and driving this weird idea out of his head, he wiped his sweat with the towel on his shoulders. He wondered if it was time to head back, but he happened to see a familar face also on the road.

It was Xia Shiyu.

She was wearing a white tracksuit set. Her hair was tied into a refreshing ponytail which wobbled like a squirrel’s tail with her running rhythm.

When she saw Jiang Chen, she waved and jogged over.

“What a rare sight. Are you in the habit of running at night?”

Jiang Chen said: “It’s usually in the morning, unless I wake up late. Want to run together?”

“Mhmm.”

Xia Shiyu nodded and ran naturally beside Jiang Chen.

In fact, Jiang Chen planned to go back, but he started running alongside Xia Shiyu. But what he didn’t know was that when he ran into her, she was almost done her jog as well. When he invited her to accompany him, she somehow agreed.

They ran for an hour.

What made Xia Shiyu curious was that from his appearance, Jiang Chen didn’t look like someone who worked out often. But during this one hour jog, he didn’t even sweat that much. It was her who ended up being gassed and asked to rest for a while.

They happened to stop near Jiang Chen’s mansion.

Xia Shiyu took a shower in his bathroom.

Ayesha walked into the bathroom with clean clothes and took away their sweaty clothes to be laundered. When she walked by Jiang Chen, she gave Xia Shiyu an odd thumbs up.

Drying off her wet hair, Xia Shiyu, dressed in pajamas, pushed open the frosted glass door, slightly embarrassed.

“Do you have any casual clothes I can borrow? … I can’t wear this outside.”

Ayesha said: “It’s almost nine o’clock. Stay here for the night.”

Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha helplessly.

This little girl occasionally would decide to do superfluous things.

Xia Shiyu’s cheeks turned red and she was just ready to decline when she heard the invitation.

Just then, Natasha pushed open the door and walked in. After walking up the stairs, her eyes locked withXia Shiyu’s eyes.

Seeing someone she didn’t expect, Xia Shiyu took a second to process who it was.

“Why…are you here?”

“Because I didn’t manage to rent a place. Since there happened to be a spare room here, I stayed.” Then Natasha smiled slyly and mocked Xiao Shiyu. “What’s wrong? Are you jealous?”

The flush extended from her cheeks to her neck. However, Xia Shiyu’s stubborn expression meant she wasn’t going to admit this point.

Natasha didn’t wait for her to answer. Humming a Russian song, she went into the bathroom. Since she just returned from the embassy, she was planning to take a shower and change into some loose pajamas to rest.

Silence lingered at the stairs.

When Jiang Chen was about to ask if Xia Shiyu needed him to drive her back to her apartment, Xia Shiyu moved her stiff neck and looked at him.

“In the future…”

“In the future?”

“I’m also going to live here.”

When Xia Shiyu squeezed this sentence out of her lips, she seemed to have exhausted all her strength. Jiang Chen completely froze in place as the information processed through his head.

[What the heck just happened?]

It was a 13-hour flight from Coro Island to Los Santos, and the time difference was 16 hours.

At 6 o’clock Los Santos time, a white Gulfstream private jet landed on the runway of Los Santos International Airport slowly. Six black cars stopped on the runway. Officials and bodyguards in suits quietly waited for the plane to land.

Accompanied by Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen walked off the plane.

Behind him was a Ghost Agent named Zhu Yu and six Celestial Trade bodyguards in suits.

Although Ayesha strongly requested to accompany him, it was better for her to remain in the rear, considering her identity as the Ghost Chief Instructor. Also, if any incidents happened to Jiang Chen, she would be the one who pressed the launch button for the missile.

After seeing Jiang Chen, Lawrence, who had waited for a long time, took off his sunglasses and extended his hand in the distance.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen. You must’ve met me before, but I guess you’ve already forgot me. Allow me to introduce myself-”

“Nice to see you again, Mr. Lawrence,” Jiang Chen said, holding Lawrence’s hand with a grin.

Lawrence stopped. He obviously didn’t expect Jiang Chen to remember him.

“Your memory is amazing…”

“I’m also amazed that the FBA is actually responsible for my safety?” Jiang Chen looked at the two bodyguards behind him wearing sunglasses and said in a mocking tone.

“That’s right. Your security level is just behind that of a fat man sixty years ago. By the way, his name was Khrushchev. Ahem, allow me to introduce you. This is the Minister of Commerce, Mr. Pritzker. You may have engaged in a lawsuit against each other, but I hope you don’t mind.” Lawrence introduced Jiang Chen to the official next to him.

The so-called lawsuit naturally referred to the anti-trust investigation that caused a sensation in the UA and resulted in the interruption of the Phantom helmet service.

“It’s an hour to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen.” Pritzker extended his hand. His hooked nose looked aggressive, but his voice sounded mild.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Pritzker.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his hand.

As Jiang Chen expected, the UA placed great importance on his safety. No matter how much of a headache those dozens of intercontinental missiles gave them, they couldn’t do anything against him here, nor would they allow anyone to do anything to him here.

If something happened to this guy, those missiles definitely wouldn’t keep the peace under the sea; they would fall on this soil.

By then, the entire continent would have to return to the Stone Age.

Chapter 869: Arrving in Los Santos

Jiang Chen left the airport with Lawrence and the others through a special terminal.

The UA certainly did take his safety to heart, and there wasn’t the slightest news of his visit to Los Santos released. Otherwise, if nothing else, the airport entrance would’ve definitely been blocked by a large group of technology enthusiasts and reporters lurking around.

Phantom helmets had been incorporated into the lives of UA citizens. The influence had already surpassed Google, Microsoft, and Apple’s. Although the Capital was constantly having a headache over young people’s reliance on Future Group’s products, some things just couldn’t be resolved by thinking.

Especially in a country who voted for their president.

Regardless how much money consortiums paid for publicity, the final outcome of the election still depended on the ballots cast.

For various reasons, Jiang Chen didn’t sit in the same car as Mr. Pritzker but he sat beside Lawrence. Judging by their conversation, the former FBA agent appeared to be doing quite well and had climbed into a senior position.

Although the encounter between the two wasn’t friendly, they got along well surprisingly. Lawrence repeatedly emphasized several security precautions to Jiang Chen such as avoiding straying too far from the vehicle when going out and not panicking in the event of an emergency because a whole squad of Seals would ensure his safety in the periphery. Unless it was a last resort, he was not to let the girl agent shoot…

“How’s my old friend Robert doing?”

“He went from being an arms dealer to a big director, but the nature of a b*stard won’t change.”

Jiang Chen laughed and didn’t respond.

But really, compared to those politicians excellent at dodging questions, he preferred to spend time with more direct people. Although they were more vulgar, at least they didn’t annoy him.

When the fleet arrived at a bridge, there was a traffic jam.

It seemed there was a protest in front of them; people were holding green signs and shouting gibberish slogans.

Jiang Chen vaguely heard a guy using a megaphone and shouting a mouthful of broken English: “We refuse to work the arranged work and we didn’t come to work. We’re Hill’s guests!”

“We need more vines and camels in the zoo! Not pandas or alpacas!”

“Supermarkets aren’t allowed to sell pork!”

“Beef too!” It seemed that the “Indians” wearing turbans were also part of the protest, but no one noticed.

“What kind of degenerate manages this city? I’m protesting against the mayor of Los Santos! The mayor of Los Santos must resign!”

“…”

Perhaps this situation was too common; pedestrians walking around calmly watched them raising their placards and shouting slogans. Other than media reporters who wanted headlines, only a few people with travel bags took pictures.

“And they are?” Jiang Chen asked slyly.

“The ‘guests’ invited by the old lady with menstrual problems; there are probably also a few who just wants to make trouble. Ignore them; we’ll change lanes.” Lawrence cursed, closed the window, and turned the steering wheel.

According to traffic rules, temporary lane changes weren’t allowed, but the FBA car wasn’t the same as the average car. This kind of privilege was common in any country, especially for special personnel.

“Speaking of that, what’s the relationship between the mayor of Los Santos and the supermarket?” Jiang Chen gloated while laughing.

There wasn’t much trouble in Xin. Almost all villains went out of business since police drones were popularized from Penglai to Coro. Even transnational criminal gangs quieted down.

As for protests or riots?

All were deported and went back to where they came from!

“There’s no relationship, but some people live like dogs. There’s no contribution from this group – they steal your things, like locusts leaching from you, but they also act like they’re vulnerable. If there’s one less piece of meat in their lunch box, they’ll shamelessly pose as the victims and demand you must change things. If they encounter the slightest obstacle, they’ll put on a thuggish appearance and use their shallow intelligence and vulgar language to show how shameless and ugly they are.” Lawrence honked his horn and stopped in front of the red light.

“Is it really okay to say this?” Jiang Chen glanced at him.

“I’m not the president. I don’t care about some ballots,” Lawrence groaned. “I really don’t understand why I didn’t vote for Donny.”

After a short silence, Lawrence felt he might have gone over the line and added with a moderate tone, “Okay, I admit that not all refugees are like this… At least some people are still aware that it’s not right for them to do this.”

“There are many people like this, anywhere. Just get used to it.” Jiang Chen comforted him.

However, just as he said that, a “BOOM” rang out in the near distance. There were screams and cries, burglar alarms began to ring, and chaos filled the entire street, but the FBA official was rather calm.

He seemed to be used to it.

Lawrence stepped on the brakes, buried his face between his fingers and sighed out of exhaustion then picked up the intercom on the side.

“Carl, Jess, you go over there and analyze the situation. At least keep the situation under control then hand things over to the Los Santos police.”

“Roger.”

Lawrence continued driving after he ended the communication.

Jiang Chen asked: “What happened on the other side?”

Lawrence scoffed, “Somebody hid a bomb in his clothes? Or in a car? Who knows? Anyway, I only know that where there are refugees, there will be terrorist attacks. If we suspect it will happen, then it will happen. That’s Murphy’s Law.”

The fleet soon arrived at the Xin Embassy. The Ambassador of Xin had long been waiting and welcomed Jiang Chen and Mr. Pritzker, the Minister of Commerce from the Capital. Here, Jiang Chen also saw the mayor of Los Santos, the governor of Calif, and city officials.

Although the welcome ceremony wasn’t grand by any means, the officials who came to greet him were definitely at the national level.

After meeting all the eager officials, Jiang Chen went to his accommodations with Sun Yongcheng, the Xin Ambassador in Los Santos.

At the embassy, Jiang Chen’s security work was under the responsibility of Celestial Trade. Outside of the embassy, the FBA was responsible for his safety. In fact, in the beginning, the UA recommended he stay at a place like the Hilton Hotel. However, when he thought of being under the watch of FBA even in his sleep, Jiang Chen felt uncomfortable, so he declined this proposal and chose the Xin Embassy.

Before Jiang Chen entered the room he was staying at, Zhu Yu remembered Ayesha’s words and walked into the room with anti-reconnaissance equipment to conduct a full-scale inspection to ensure there were no devices such as a wire-tapper or pinhole camera.

After throwing his suit on a hanger, Jiang Chen rested on the big bed for a while then went out to find Xia Shiyu, who was organizing her clothes.

Considering how busy she looked, Jiang Chen couldn’t help laughing.

“Why don’t you just ask the embassy staff to help you?”

“I’m more used to organizing my own belongings. Right, there’s a party tonight. Are you not going to rest a bit first? After all, that was a 13-hour flight.” Xia Shiyu gently combed her hair then neatly put her clothes inside the wardrobe.

“Are you not going to go?” Jiang Chen asked with some regret.

“I won’t. That kind of occasion…I’m not very good in those situations. And for Silicon Valley’s Summit, I still have some work to do,” Xia Shiyu said as she pushed up her glasses.

“Thank you.”

“Not at all.” Xia Shiyu smiled.

Perhaps it was an illusion or perhaps not, but Jiang Chen felt that Xia Shiyu loved to smile more than before, and her distant attitude was no longer so distant anymore.

Could it be because of that night…

Jiang Chen thought about that and his face began to burn. He coughed a few times to push the thought out of his head.

However, there was one thing Jiang Chen was wondering about. In the car that night, they were already at that stage. However, Xia Shiyu seemed to pretend that nothing happened before. It was like she had forgotten everything since she never mentioned it.

Was it really because she was drunk?

Chapter 870: Governor’s Party

In the evening, Governor Jerry Brown invited Jiang Chen to the governor’s residence along with Richard Fox, Vice President of Warner Bros., and elites from all industries in Los Santos.

For the wealthiest man in the world on the Forbes list with wealth enough to match a nation, Jiang Chen naturally became the central figure at the banquet. Everyone around him was either envious, jealous, or friendly. Many entrepreneurs who wished to establish a connection with Future Group did all they could to befriend him.

Jiang Chen never thought that he would embark on the UA in such a stance, but when this day came, he didn’t feel too surprised.

“Welcome to the UA, Mr. Jiang Chen. This is the wealthy’s paradise. You will love it here.” Mr. Fox smiled and lifted his champagne, gently toasting with Jiang Chen.

For Warner Bros. and the only virtual image production company – Virtual Image’s co-produced “The Time Curtain,” Mr. Fox, as one of the shareholders, had high hopes. The film was in its final stage and would hit the screens by January of next year at the latest.

Major movie critics’ websites all gave quite optimistic forecasts for this next-generation film. After all, it would be the first film produced using VR technology. Even just for this novelty, the box office would not perform poorly

“If you are referring to Mr. Brown’s party.” Jiang Chen laughed and drank the glass of champagne.

At this time, the governor and a middle-aged man in a suit came to their side.

Brown with a shaved head asked Jiang Chen with a smile, “Are you pleased with the drink?”

“Very pleased. Thank you for your hospitality.” Jiang Chen replied courteously.

“Haha, thank you for your compliment. Please allow me to introduce this gentleman. This is Andi Giannini, the sponsor of this banquet,” Brown smiled and told Jiang Chen about the middle-aged man standing next to him. “Chairman of Bank of America, and a major shareholder of Pacific Insurance.”

“It’s too boring to write your business on your business card. I’d rather others refer to me as a golfer.” Andi grinned and rolled his eyes, extending his hand to Jiang Chen. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen.”

Jiang Chen noticed that Mr. Fox, a shareholder of Warner Bros., appeared to be rather restrained.

“My pleasure, Mr. Giannini.” Jiang Chen took his hand.

To be honest, this last name was quite a mouthful. He almost bit his tongue the first time he said it.

But Jiang Chen was no stranger to this last name.

After all, before coming to the UA, he had done enough homework.

Bank of America was the centerpiece of the Cali consortium. Its predecessor was the bank founded by the descendant of Italian immigrants, A.P. Giannini in the early 20th century. The Giannini standing in front him was one of individual that possessed the real powers of the UA. In this country dominated by Wall Street, the capitalists were the people that controlled the nation. Although the status of the Cali consortium was slightly inferior to that of the consortium on the east, its accumulated wealth in the past 100 years still could not be underestimated.

Many people knew that Los Santos in Cali was renowned for its film industry, but few people knew that Cali was also the largest arms production base in the UA. Including the famous Lockheed and Northrop Grumman, the nation’s largest and second-largest arms companies belonged to this family. Although the shares were also diluted by other consortium, their status as military overlords remained untouchable.

The banquet this scale was definitely not possible to be funded by the state government’s vault. Disregarding everything else, just the champagnes on the table all came from famous Italian wineries. The expense of the alcohol would cost more than hundreds of thousands of dollars. If journalists knew that the governor took the taxpayer’s money to party, the media would pounce on it immediately.

However, the party being sponsored by the Giannini family also showed that the relationship between the governor and the Cali Consortium was not shallow.

It could even be said that the party itself was held based on the directions of this important figure.

The two chatted casually and made no mention about business. Giannini seemed to be very interested in golf. When Jiang Chen mentioned that he owned a golf course at the foot of Mount Fuji, his eyes lit up and he said with a smile.

“Mr. Jiang Chen is certainly confident having dared to buy at the dip during the Yoto Crisis. If I have the opportunity to go to Yoto, I must check your golf course out.”

Jiang Chen did not believe that he was the only one who divided up the assets of Nippon at that time. The consortium on the west coast had always been interested in the affairs of East Asia and it would be impossible for them to let such a good opportunity pass. Although it was certainly a gamble, a few billion was nothing for a consortium this size.

“Haha, I look forward to your arrival,” Jiang Chen responded courteously.

The small talk lasted for about ten minutes. The governor and Mr. Fox left one after another and joined other circles with champagne. Mr. Giannini, however, finally began talking about “business”.

“I’ve heard… Mr. Jiang has had some frictions with the Freemasonry. I don’t know if it is true or not?”

After asking this, Giannini seemed to feel that it was not appropriate to ask such a question directly, so he added another sentence.

“Of course, I didn’t mean to offend. Our ancestors came from Italy. Although the Giannini family is no longer within the WASP faction, we also have reservations .”

“Frictions, of course, and not small frictions either. If Mr. Giannini has read the news, you will certainly know about this.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Giannini smiled and did not respond.

Of course, he had read the news, and he obviously knew about the public events. It was just that the meaning was completely different when the parties involved directly speak of it. Because their assets were mostly located on the west coast, the Giannini family was far from the Capital, the economic and political center of the UA. In the view of the Eastern Consortium, they were more like the “rich landlords” of the countryside than their competition.

It was also the reason for the gradual decline of the Cali Consortium. It was now almost ranked at the end of the top ten consortiums in the UA. If it weren’t for the behemoth known as the Bank of America, the Texas Consortium that emerged after World War II could even stand toe-to-toe with them.

This sense of alienation from the mainstream world made the Giannini family quite restless and this was also the reason as to why they were keen to invest in Asia. If they couldn’t go eastward, they must at least find a way out in the west.

The friction between Future Group and Freemasonry made them see opportunities.

If the Freemasonry was to fall, the Freemasonry headed by Goldman Sachs would face liquidation, and the situation of the Wall Street divided by the two would completely change. This would undoubtedly be a rare opportunity for the West Coast Consortium away from the center of power.

Of course, all this was based on the premise that the Future Group would be the eventual victor.

Andi Giannini was convinced. With his foresight, he thought that this young man would be worthy of his chips on the table.

Chapter 871: Unexpected Trouble

However, when Giannini prepared to discuss some business matters with Jiang Chen, the party was suddenly interrupted by a rude knocking sound.

The melodious music in the hall stopped and two men in suits came in, and their expression was clearly unfriendly.

The original lively party suddenly quieted down.

Seeing the people that came in, Governor Brown frowned and walked toward the two men in suits. Jiang Chen noticed that behind the two men, Lawrence also followed them, and he was clearly displeased.

Although he was unhappy, Brown in a gentle tone asked, “What’s wrong, Mr. Steven, this is my party. All the invited guests are law-abiding citizens. Or is the terrorist attack from the morning parade in front of the bridge causing you a headache so that you want to have a drink or two at my place.”

“Law-abiding? Is that right?” The man known as Steven scoffed coldly as he gazed at the governor’s mansion’s hall with a hawk-like look. He then locked onto Jiang Chen, and his eyes began to narrow. “You are Jiang Chen?”

The organization of the intelligence department was somewhat unique. CIB and FBA both directly served the National Security Council of the UA. The chairman of the National Security Council was also served by the current UA president, so the CIB possessed a strong national sense of pride and acted completely independent of the state government.

It was precisely for this reason that Steven could care less about this governor.

“Yes, what’s the matter?” Jiang Chen said pleasantly while putting his glass aside.

“Our agents discovered something interesting in Ukraine. As you know, the Russians have been doing little tricks there recently, or to put it more straightforward, it is an illegal invasion. According to Ukrainian government soldiers, the Russian soldiers who disguised themselves as militants use a weapon that can paralyze electronic devices.”

“I’m sorry; I don’t understand what you said,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

He noticed that Zhu Yu, in a brown suit, was already standing by the door with her hand in her pocket.

Of course, she wasn’t trying to draw a gun, but if this Mr. Steven made an offensive move, there were a hundred ways the Ghost Agent could lay him on the ground.

“Is it true? I think your company is an expert in EMP weapons. It should be very clear what this means.” Steven sneered.

The guests attending the banquet all looked in their direction with interest.

Jiang Chen sighed and helplessly shrugged.

“Only relying on the EMP feature to determine that the weapons are coming from the hands of Future Group, isn’t this too arbitrary? What about the Ukrainian militants and government forces who are armed with M4 rifles? Or are they actually special forces sent by the UA?”

Steven’s tone began to sound threatening. “I hope you bring a cooperative attitude. I’m not kidding with you.”

“So, what are you going to do to get me to cooperate, for someone who is not a UA citizen?” Jiang Chen shrugged and said with a careless smile.

At this point, the tension had already escalated to its peak.

Brown was annoyed. He didn’t care if there was an EMP in a Ukrainian town tens of thousands of kilometers away. He only cared about how many dollars he could bring to Cali and how many jobs he could create.

It was no exaggeration to say that as long as Jiang Chen and anyone there made a deal, it would give him great help in the next governor election.

However, it was a pity that this party went down the drain.

As he prepared to speak, Lawrence, who had been standing in the doorway, spoke first. With his colleague belonging to different departments, he used a rare aggressive tone.

“Enough, Mr. Steven. Jiang Chen is a guest of the Capital, not your suspect. Everything has to be done according to procedures. If there is no procedure, why do we need the Capital and Constitution?”

Steven then said word by word, “In the interest of national security, there is a special case for everything. And I’m not interrogating. I just hope he can cooperate with the investigation.”

Lawrence stared at him and said without hesitation. “But the FBA is responsible for his safety. If you don’t understand the word national security, then ask your boss. At least receive permission first.”

Lawrence sealed Steven’s mouth.

As he suspected, Steven’s action was unauthorized.

However, even within the FBA, Jiang Chen’s security level was strictly confidential information. It was understandable that Steven, who had no knowledge of the situation, would be unaware. After all, he was assigned as a commissioner on Ukrainian affairs. When he learned that Jiang Chen, who might be involved in the matter, would visit Los Santos, he flew from the Capital right away.

He didn’t even ask his boss.

“Ah, Mr. Steven, say hello to Mr. Naomi for me.” Giannini gently coughed.

Jiang Chen noticed that Steven’s shoulders turned stiff all of a sudden.

Naomi was likely his top boss. Judging from his rude demeanor to Lawrence, his rank was at least a rank above an agent in CIB. In this case, Mr. Naomi should be the director or deputy director.

It seemed that the strength of the Cali Consortium really cannot be underestimated.

In the end, under the pressure by the countless stares, Steven gestured to the assistant next to him and chose to leave for now.

However, before he left, he left a sentence. “I will find evidence.”

[Evidence?]

Jiang Chen almost laughed out loud.

[What if he collected evidence?]

[Can the UA give him a sentence?]

[The agent is probably the kind of “newcomer” who got promoted too fast and is eager to do something to prove his worthiness in his new position. However, such thoughts are often quite dangerous, especially for people who work in dangerous industries.]

In contrast, Lawrence, the old fox, would never make such frivolity.

Jiang Chen didn’t think Mr. Steven could cause him any trouble. He looked at him with a smile. “Please.”

“I’m sorry for this small interruption,” Brown walked to Jiang Chen with a glass of champagne and said in an apologetic tone.

“No worries, I can pretend that it was a great standup comedy.” Jiang Chen laughed.

Surrounded by friendly laughter, Zhu Yu nodded to Jiang Chen and withdrew from the hall after Lawrence left and closed the door of the hall. The melodious music continued again.

However, after the interruption, everyone’s interest was reduced to the minimum. Even though the Governor was very good at communication, he used all his effort to barely manage to keep the party going to the end. Because of the sudden visit by the CIB, the well-planned party was completely ruined.

Not only was the governor irritated, but so was Andi Giannini.

The CIB people not only ruined his mood but also ruined his business.

Originally intending to discuss cooperation with Jiang Chen, he swallowed everything back down.

After such an unpleasant event, who would still have the mood to discuss business?

However, Giannini did not mind too much. After all, Jiang Chen was staying in Los Santos for a while. He still had many opportunities.

Chapter 872: Late Night Chat

In addition to the gentleman named Giannini with a difficult last name, Jiang Chen also met many other interesting people at the party.

There were entrepreneurs who spared no effort to sell their companies, entrepreneurs who desperately tried to pitch their business ideas, and Hollywood actresses who were simply selling themselves.

“Mr. Jiang Chen, It’s an honor to meet you. This is my business card. I don’t know if you are interested in financial products. You know, the richer you’re, the more you’ll not let your wealth shrink. I happen to be in this business.”

[Haha, I already have my own bank. Do I really need to buy “financial products” from you?]

“…I’m the chairman of Kandal Material. This is my business card. I don’t know if your company is interested in nanoceramics? We have made amazing technological breakthroughs in the related fields of nanoceramics, but only slightly lacking in funding. If you are interested, I’m willing to sell 50% of the shares.”

Of course, he was interested, but these types of companies not only existed in Cali, but many were also already listed on NASDAQ. Other than hyping up the concept to fool investors’ money, Jiang Chen really didn’t believe these “technology companies” could create something amazing.

“My name is Angelina Jolie. May I have the honor of having a drink with you?”

The dress with an exposed cleavage worn by the Hollywood sexy goddess perfectly showed her graceful body, especially with the almost obvious seduction in her gesture … if it were not for the fact Jiang Chen wasn’t interested in older women, he probably wouldn’t be able to control himself.

Worth mentioning, for the name Angelina Jolie, Jiang Chen’s only impression was the female tiger in Kungfu Panda. But he heard that Jolie was famous in Hollywood’s social circle. There must be countless “silent men who support her”, a successful woman (1). Jiang Chen had a drink with her before he went and socialized with other people.

The party soon came to an end and the guests began to leave. As they left, they all said their goodbyes to the host, Mr. Brown.

After bidding farewell with Brown, Jiang Chen stepped out of the governor’s residence. At this time, he noticed that the chick who tried to flirt with him was holding another old man’s hand and went inside a classical black car. Seeing this scene, he shook his head while laughing.

Hollywood is a paradise for rich people. No truer words have been said.

“Which one do you fancy?”

Andi Giannini smiled and walked to his side.

“Haha, no one.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“What a waste. I bet that if you just point your finger, they’ll send themselves over,” Giannini squeezed his eyebrows and said.

It was exaggerated, but it sounded nice.

Jiang Chen smiled and did not continue on this topic.

Somewhat abruptly, Giannini changed into a serious tone.

“The Russian issue is quite sensitive in UA politics. If you plan to use the power of the WASP Consortium to defeat the Freemasonry, it is best to pay attention and control the distance between Russia. Wall Street rarely comes together unless the country faces a common crisis.”

Giannini’s words were a reminder without any malicious intention.

However, even without his reminders, Jiang Chen could feel the swing in attitude of the WASP Consortium.

In European affairs, it completely stayed out of the mess. In the UA, it has no intention of cooperating with Future Group in suppressing the Freemasonry. It only took a defensive posture and protected Future Group’s assets from the Freemasonry controlled political power.

It seemed to also be the case during World War II.

Even though the conflict between Morgan-led WASP and the Jewish Consortium comprised of Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers reached an irreconcilable degree, the Jews used the concentration camps story to win the sympathy of the mainstream media and dismembered Rockefeller’s push for Roosevelt to the president’s position. The WASP Consortium, which had allegedly provided funds for Hitler, also halted the move that went against the historical trend.

“Thank you for your advice, I will consider it carefully,” Jiang Chen said.

As for the result of consideration, it would depend on the circumstances.

After bidding farewell with Giannini, Jiang Chen went straight to Lawrence, who was waiting at the door.

“Give me some time.”

Afterward, Jiang Chen gestured to Zhu Yu and took her to a slightly distant position.

“Is the car ready?”

Jiang Chen, of course, didn’t ask about the car to return to the embassy. After all, the FBA was responsible for that. This trip to the UA was not just about going to the Silicon Valley Summit, but also “visiting” the mysterious Area 51.

Since it was Hawking’s proposal, there must be something interesting to be found there.

“It is ready, just in the garage two streets opposite the embassy. The coordinates have been sent to your map.”

Compared to Ayesha, the girl almost had the word vigilant written on her face. Although Jiang Chen wanted to tell her to relax and not be so nervous, thinking about it, maybe it was her habit, so he did not make any remarks.

“Thank you.” Jiang Chen nodded with a smile.

“The CIB’s people seem to be monitoring you… Should we go instead?” Zhu Yu asked hesitantly.

“This is indeed a problem, but it is not enough to adjust our plans.”

After exchanging some more words with his subordinate, Jiang Chen walked to the FBA car.

Although fame has many benefits, the fun is also much less. With his identity now, it would be nearly impossible to visit the west coast night scene. However, with the thought in his mind, Jiang Chen asked Lawrence to take a longer detour, passing through several bustling streets on the coast, and hurriedly enjoying the beautiful night view of Los Santos.

After returning to the embassy, Jiang Chen took a shower and didn’t go to bed right away. Instead, he began to browse the web.

He planned to visit Nevada next door in a few days. Because it was an arrangement outside the itinerary and must remain a secret, flying, therefore, was not an option. This meant that he must drive five or six hours through the desert.

If he didn’t study the map beforehand, he would definitely run into trouble.

After doing some preparation work, Jiang Chen learned about the route and let out a yawn. It was getting late. As he was preparing to turn off the lights, he heard knocking on his door.

Turning off the holographic map, Jiang Chen called out, “Please come in.”

The door opened, watching Xia Shiyu coming in, Jiang Chen sat up from the bed.

“So late, what’s the matter?”

“There are a few things.” Xia Shiyu shook a few documents in her hand. “I have the company information provided by the summit host. There are several companies with good investment potential. I think we can consider owning a controlling stake or direct buy them. Also, about tomorrow’s itinerary… Are you going to sleep?”

(1) There is an idiom in China that goes by “For every successful man, there is a woman who quietly supports him”.

Chapter 873: Three Directions

“Not yet, I just showered. Feel free to sit anywhere,” Jiang Chen replied with a smile.

Xia Shiyu nodded and didn’t think much. She sat down next to Jiang Chen.

She was in a simple dress shirt. Her aura carried a faint jasmine fragrance. Jiang Chen’s heartbeat accelerated out of courtesy as he stared at her red cheeks hidden behind her luscious hair, but he quickly focused back on the task at hand.

There was obviously something necessary to discuss if she came for a visit this late. If he had other thoughts, it would be too impolite.

Perhaps she smelled the alcohol from Jiang Chen’s breath. Xia Shiyu sniffed and frowned a little. When she opened the document, she nonchalantly asked, “Did you drink?”

“Is the smell that strong?”

Jiang Chen blew into his hand.

There was some smell, but it was not as strong as he thought.

Many people toasted him at the party. Although they didn’t drink spirits such as brandy or whiskey, champagne could also be intoxicating.

“Not a big deal, it just that there is an important meeting tomorrow. I suggest that it is better to drink less before going to bed,” said Xia Shiyu.

“I can’t spit it out can I.” Jiang Chen made a helpless expression and took the documents from her hands. He saw the places marked with red. “What are these?”

“A list. It contains technology companies with potential in Silicon Valley, and they all have a scale of less than 10 million US Dollar. Taking into account the company’s strategic needs in the future, if we want to further develop the North American market, we must consider working with local companies.”

Jiang Chen glanced through the list.

The list only contained the main business areas of each company, but also indicated the ownership structure, operating conditions, assets… Xia Shiyu had even given a clear valuation for every company’s purchase price.

She was very meticulous in this task.

“Thank you.”

“This is my job.” It was her usual answer. Xia Shiyu used her hand to put a few fallen strands of hair behind her ear. “The scope of Summit is very broad, but there are only three focuses that we need to focus on. Smart health, new materials, and cloud technology. Of course, this is just my opinion. If you have other ideas, we should discuss in advance.”

“I share the same thought as you.” Jiang Chen nodded.

In addition to the aerospace project, the strategy of Future Group was focused on developing in these three directions.

New material was a no-brainer, with the focus of course on graphene-based materials. Developing diversified graphene materials to cater to different market needs was the current focus of Future Group’s materials science laboratory. In addition to semiconductor-type graphene materials used in electronic devices, high-strength graphene had also been used to a certain extent in the fields of construction and ship building.

The smart health market was also quite large. The current Beta-4 Medical Drone investment in Penglai made good progress. It could measure body temperature, conduct saliva analysis, detect iris and perform other convenient functions through the infrared sensors. It could also treat some minor cold and non-severe bruises. It was a great tool that benefited society in a country that required booking a doctor’s appointment in advance!

Jiang Chen was even considering whether to install medical modules on home robots. After all, the size of a robot could carry more medical equipment, and for a middle-class family, it would not be difficult to afford a private doctor at 20,000 US Dollar.

As for cloud technology, it was mainly related to quantum computers of Future Group. Since the acquisition of the manufacturing technology of the commercial quantum computers, the Sixth Street factory produced a number of quantum computers and was brought to Coro Island.

Now the number of quantum computers held by Future Group had far exceeded its own needs. Quantum satellites could be used to sell cloud-based technology to other companies that have a superior cost-effectiveness far beyond supercomputer centers.

According to Xia Shiyu’s proposal, Future Group could acquire several medium-sized companies on the West Coast. Its business scope could include smart health, graphene, and information service-related companies. They could use UA’s hands to do business with UA citizens and reduce the federal government’s vigilance.

After all, no country would want to see its domestic market share divided by foreigners.

Especially healthcare and information security, two issues often hyped up at presidential elections shows that the federal government places great emphasize on these.

The greater the importance of these issues, the more cautious against outsiders. So, Future Group must look for partners that are smart enough at this high-profile event.

The list provided by Xia Shiyu has clearly listed companies with acquisition potential, and the valuations were all between 1 million US Dollar to 20 million US Dollar. Future Group’s liquidity could more than cover the acquisitions. Jiang Chen just briefly scanned the document and nodded to the proposal.

The only trouble was whether the Department of Commerce would interfere.

In the UA, when Hua companies had repeatedly run into a wall, it was one percent related to this annoying organization. For example, Huawei’s acquisition of 3Leaf, a small technology company, was abruptly terminated by the Foreign Investment Committee on the ground that “Huawei may be associated with the military.”

Although Xin’s threat was far less, from the start of the anti-trust investigation, the Department of Commerce was an old rival of Future Group.

On the second day of Jiang Chen’s trip, he was visiting Mr. Pritzker, who had traveled from the Capital to Los Santos.

His own opinion dictated whether the acquisitions of Future Group in the Summit could proceed smoothly.

The next day, Jiang Chen met in a hotel with Mr. Pritzker who was preparing for the Summit. This time, more than 500+ Hua companies would attend. Pritzker represented not only the Department of Commerce, but also the UA’s cooperative attitude and the Capital’s intent.

“Welcome, Mr. Jiang Chen”, although Pritzker had said the same words at the airport, he had a smile and greeted Jiang Chen. “How are you enjoying Los Santos? Do you enjoy the place?”

“Very pleased, just a little restricted,” Jiang Chen scoffed.

“After all, for your safety, we have to be careful.” After Pritzker invited Jiang Chen to take a seat, he asked his assistant to pour two cups of coffee. “I don’t know what brought you here?”

Jiang Chen was direct. He took out a document from his briefcase and placed it on the table.

“The organizer of the Summit provided us with a list of companies that are participating as well as the main focus of each company. We selected a number of companies with potential from this list through our own channels. You know what I mean. I intend to acquire them.”

Hearing this, Pritzker’s eyes suddenly narrowed and gently said in a tone with a deeper layer of meaning.

“Oh?”

Chapter 874: Stalled Negotiation

Jiang Chen gently pushed the document in front of Pritzker.

Pritzker leaned forward and glanced through the document. When he saw the long list of names, his eyebrows twitched and he started the conversation with a nonchalant tone.

“These companies… are you planning to buy them all?”

“Of course not, even with the financial power of Future Group, it’s impossible to buy all of the companies on this document.” Jiang Chen dismissed the idea and said, “We just have the intention. But you know, we have to play by the rules of the game.”

“The rules of the game? That’s the Foreign Investment Commission’s job. The Ministry of Commence doesn’t have control over this.” Pritzker shook his head.

“Mr. Pritzker, let’s be straightforward or else it’ll only be a waste of time for both of us. You have invited us to come here, surely not just to let Future Group go through a series of events and to develop closer cooperation with Silicon Valley for an hour at the opening ceremony, right?” Jiang Chen opened his hands, then gently tapped the document on the table. “My sincerity is already on the table. I hope to see your sincerity now.”

Although the Foreign Investment Commission involved eight administrative departments and seven Capital institutions, if there was disagreement, the president would still need to go through with arbitration. However, as long as it did not involve the national defense production capacity of the nation, reselling of military technology to specific countries, or influencing the leading technological position in national security, the final decision would be made only by the Ministry of Commerce.

Jiang Chen, who had done enough homework beforehand, was keenly aware that Pritzker was evading this topic.

This also showed indirectly, the Ministry of Commerce had the intention to intervene to begin with.

Pritzker did not give an answer. His finger tapped on the arm of the chair, and silence continued for a while between the two. Jiang Chen was not in a hurry. He had all morning to solve this problem.

The young assistant brought coffee for both of them and Jiang Chen touched the cup to sense the temperature.

At this point, Pritzker finally spoke and said softly.

“The Capital is very happy to see your company cooperate with Silicon Valley companies, but for your company’s actions to turn these technology companies into your companies… I am afraid that no matter who is the president, no one will think this as a positive matter.”

Jiang Chen was not surprised.

It would be better to say that for the veteran Minister of Commerce to put the issue on the table and not divert the question, it was already a win.

As long as they were willing to negotiate, it showed that there was still the possibility of agreement between the two parties.

Jiang Chen smiled and pushed his own chips onto the negotiating table.

“As you know, there are more than 1,000+ UA companies and 500+ Hua companies.”

“Of course, the Silicon Valley Summit is targeted toward both North America and Asia.” Pritzker nodded.

“Then you should also know that I don’t have the habit of returning empty-handed.” Jiang Chen also smiled and put up three fingers. Then he said, “I’ll just say it now. Future Group’s future strategic focus is on graphene, smart health, and cloud technology. If there is a stalemate in the North American market, we will shift our focus to the more cooperative Asian countries.”

Pritzker’s eyes moved slightly, although it was subtle, but with senses far beyond ordinary people, Jiang Chen caught this change.

Disregarding graphene and cloud technology for now, the significance of smart health offered critical meaning for the federal government.

Since the beginning of the Bama era, the Democratic Party had been actively promoting medical reforms to improve the domestic medical conditions. However, it was unfortunate that during the period, he encountered the largest fiscal deficit in the history of the UA, accounting for 12% of the GDP, and it was the highest proportion of the fiscal deficit to the total economic output since the Second World War. There was no money to push health care reform.

Moreover, the reform of the medical insurance system had always been one of the deepest divides between the Democrats and Republicans. The two parties disagreed on the reasons for the sharp increase in the cost of medical care in the country and the solutions to the problem.

The success of Beta-4 medical drones in Penglai caught the attention of all countries. In this Summit, a number of companies in the UA also planned to introduce the advanced medical drones.

For the Capital, while Beta-4 could not be helpful to ease the highest pharmaceutical prices in the world, but it could effectively reduce the cost of medical care for the UA people. If this kind of convenient and efficient drone could be introduced in clinics, UA citizens would be able to see the doctor as easily as calling 911. They would just need to make a phone call to bring the Beta-4 drone deployed in the community clinic to their home.

For companies, the cost of purchasing drones was significantly lower than paying for redundant doctors. For the federal government, the saving was equivalent to the large financial subsidy for medical treatment each year.

Although it would certainly be protested by the Medical Association, it would definitely be welcomed by all “people who are troubled by the difficulty of seeing a doctor.”

“You can sell drones completely without problems. The UA is a free market. As long as your products are safe, we will not set too many obstacles for you like some countries,” Pritzker said. “The same applies to graphene and cloud technology, but I don’t understand how this relates to your acquisition plan.”

Of course, it was for pricing rights, sales resources of those companies and some of the technologies that were of interest.

For example, Future Group wanted to sell the Beta-4 drones to major private hospitals. It would be impossible for Future Heavy Industrials to recruit and send out sales to negotiate door to door. This would not only be inefficient, but also very slow.

As far as expecting companies to come to buy their own products, the efficiency would be even lower. After all, not all companies were willing to risk changing their existing business model. Even though the graphene materials were excellent in all aspects, most companies were still making silicon-based electronic devices. Even if Intel bought a patent license from Jiang Chen, it did not completely stop the research and development for the higher performance silicon-based chip.

When Watt invented the steam engine, the textile factory in Great Britain didn’t change its equipment overnight. Even if it was late in the industrial revolution, no one would dare to say that the popularity of steam engines reached 100%.

Speculate first, if worked well on peers, and then adjust slowly. It was the safest approach.

In addition, unlike the Hummingbird drones, the Beta-4 was completely developed by scientists in the modern world, and its technical content was at most ahead. If other companies developed a similar product during this period, even if the performance did not reach the same level as the Beta-4, as long as with great sales team and a low selling price, it could still take a lot of market from Future Heavy Industrials.

Only by occupying the high ground of the market in the shortest time could profits be maximized!

Either seek collaborators or buy directly!

Future Group had the capital, and in order to grasp pricing power, Jiang Chen would certainly choose the latter.

From the Beta-4 drone alone, if Future Group could acquire a pharmaceutical company and use its existing partnership with major hospitals, as well as experience in the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries. The promotion of the Beta-4 would definitely be much easier than if Future Group formed a new subsidiary from the beginning.

Graphene and cloud technology would follow the same principle.

It was precisely because of this that Jiang Chen’s negotiations with the Department of Commerce reached a stalemate.

Chapter 875: Robert’s Mansion

The negotiations in the morning did not make much progress. Pritzker stated that he would need to contact the Capital. Jiang Chen was not in a hurry. After all, there was still a week away from the opening of the Summit. He had plenty of time to wait for the outcome of the Capital’s discussion.

Graphene and cloud technology both possessed great value in the global market, but Beta-4 drones were not the same and didn’t apply to all markets. It could even be said that from the East Coast to the West Coast, the market was barely existent.

Taking Hua as an example, leaving behind a number of widely criticized but inconveniently mentioned problems, the procedure for visiting a doctor was inherently much simpler than that of Western countries, and doctors were not as “noble” compared to the capitalist world and the hospital operating costs wererelatively low. Although its level of medical care in the world ranking may be unsatisfactory, its cost-effectiveness was undoubtedly at the forefront, which was also recognized by the world. It was also the reason why many people who get sick abroad still choose to seek a doctor domestically.

In this environment, the market space for Beta-4 drones was naturally narrow.

In the same way, logistics drones would be less useful in the North America market. A perfect example of a product unfitted to compete in the market due to different habits.

After leaving the Pritzker’s hotel, Jiang Chen got into Lawrence’s car. To have a FBA official be his driver was not a treatment everyone could enjoy.

“Where are we going next?”

“Los Santos City Hall. It’s still early. I’ll have to visit the Los Santos Mayor and then have lunch with him. In the afternoon … I have to go to Hollywood. I don’t have the opportunity to come here often so I’m going to meet my old friend.” Jiang Chen looked at the schedule of Xia Shiyu planned for him and said to Lawrence, who was driving.

Surrounded by modern skyscrapers, the City Hall with a dome resembled the Mausoleum, looking retro and small. However, this magnificent tower was still the most well-known landmark in Los Santos. This municipal building often appeared in Hollywood blockbusters, such as the Daily Planet newspaper, where Superman works.

They soon arrived at City Hall. In the square in front of the City Hall, Los Santos Mayor, Eric Gashiti, personally met with Jiang Chen and invited him to his office.

It was very easy to communicate with the mayor, much easier than the officials from the federal government. The most important reason for this was that Mr. Gashiti was more focused on immediate interests than the interests of the entire federal government.

Local government and the federal government were two independent systems. This provided Jiang Chen with a lot of conveniences. Just an empty promise for a multi-billion investment, he received preferential tax-reduction and tax-free policies from the city of Los Santos.

Now Los Santos was desperate for investment from foreign capital. The soaring crude oil prices continued to weaken the dollar, and the refugee problem made the economy even worse. Although Los Santos was the economic center on the west coast, it still had difficulty shaking off the looming economic crisis.

Of course, Eric’s policy benefit to Jiang Chen was also empty promises.

Only when Future Group invests in Los Santos, will these policies actually be honored.

However, these were minor issues. Before Jiang Chen arrived, he was quite optimistic about the manufacturing industry in Cali. According to the forecast set out by Future Group’s economic analysts, if oil prices continued to rise, the dollar would continue to weaken, and a new round of economic crisis was already foreseeable.

By then, if Future Group could rely on its high self-sufficiency trust model to gain a firm foothold in the economic crisis, it could completely free up its hands to acquire overseas assets. The West Coast would be the starting point for Future Group to enter the North American market. Investment in Los Santos wouldn’t be a bad choice by then.

After discussing all the items on his agenda, Eric Gashiti enthusiastically invited Jiang Chen to have lunch at the City Hall. Jiang Chen, who already had this idea, was naturally pleased with the proposal. The food in the City Hall was fantastic. Except for the creamy dessert, which was not Jiang Chen’s favorite, the roasted black pepper steak and the creamy corn soup were especially addictive.

After lunch, Jiang Chen bid farewell with Eric Gashiti and left the City Hall building.

When he got into Lawrence’s car, the agent supervisor was leaning against the car door with a coke and a beef burger. After seeing Jiang Chen get into the car, he quickly finished the food in his hands, crumbled the oily wrapper and stuffed it into a plastic bag before throwing it into the trash can next to him, then he got into the driver’s seat.

“You only ate a hamburger?”

“In fact, it tasted pretty good.” Lawrence grinned and started the car. “We are going to Hollywood?”

“Yes.” Jiang Chen opened the holographic screen of his watch and slid his finger across the translucent map in front of him before reaching a place marked with a red dot. “The exact location is here.”

Lawrence saw that the map in front of him clearly and was shocked for a second, then he said enviously, “It’s a really convenient tool.”

…

Hollywood was located on the outskirts of Los Santos. It was surrounded by mountains, a mild climate, and pleasant scenery. It was not only the center of the global music film industry but it was also a true “wealthy area” in Los Santos. Many wealthy people would choose to purchase mansions there. If a person’s name could be printed as the “producer” of a film with major investments, that person would be the focus of attention at any party.

For example, a guy who made his fortune with firearms and gold.

“Welcome! Haha, my old friend, you finally came to see me!”

Seeing that grin, Jiang Chen, with a big smile on his face, hugged him. Although he didn’t spend too long with this guy, the experience they shared in Iraq developed a strong friendship between the two.

Or else when he was in South Africa, he would not have taken such a big risk as to give the last batch of arms to Jiang Chen.

Whether he was doing it for the money or not, he did indeed do Jiang Chen a favor.

“I just got off the plane yesterday. You have to let me get over my jet lag.”

“Mr. Agent Supervisor, I haven’t seen you for a long time.” Robert noticed Lawrence behind Jiang Chen and also said hello.

Lawrence with an indifferent expression lit up a cigarette and blew out an impatient smoke ring. He said impolitely.

“I feel inexplicably upset when I see you jumping around on this.”

Robert said with a grin, “Hey, man, don’t be like that. You have to give me credit for you being in this position now.”

Lawrence scoffed but did not speak. He clearly agreed with this point.

Although Robert was once on the FBA’s blacklist, it was already two years ago. It is impossible for the FBA to monitor a person for a lifetime. As long as he proved that he completely withdrew from the arms business, the FBA would naturally stop monitoring him.

Just out of habit, Lawrence subjectively witnessed this guy who crossed the red line of the Capital and ended up living a comfortable life. He was not too thrilled with the result.

“Come in for a drink?”

“I can’t, I can’t drink during work.” Lawrence looked up at Robert’s mansion and declined Robert’s invitation.

“That’s really regrettable, you’re missing the party,” said Robert. Then he turned back and patted Jiang Chen’s shoulder. “Come on, man, let’s go in and have a few drinks. I said multiple times to take you to enjoy Hollywood. I happen to have a few acquaintances to introduce to you here. They are all very interested in you and I think you will also be very interested!”

“Acquaintances?” Jiang Chen asked while raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, they are famous directors and stars.” Robert winked.

Chapter 876: Rumors

It seemed that Robert was indeed doing very well in Hollywood. To own a mansion that was over 1,200 square meters in the crowded Hollywood Hills, it would have cost him over 10 million US Dollar.

A gym, a steam room, a sauna, a swimming pool, a home theater, and everything imaginable were all available. The balcony directly faced Los Santos. Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, it overlooked the beautiful skyline of Los Santos. On both sides of the mansion were green hills that looked refreshing.

“The living room is the highlight of the entire building. The fireplace is built out of limestone. The modernist style with milky white furniture combines the sense of line and artistic feel. This makes home life comfortable while at the same time reflect the concept of high quality and low luxury of different eras. The floor-to-ceiling large glass windows coincide with the wooden beams, rendering a strong Spanish-style romanticism in contemporary home décor,” when Jiang Chen walked into the mansion, Robert blabbed on and on.

“Did you memorize the entire description on the pamphlet?” Jiang Chen mocked.

“Absolutely not,” Robert waved his hand quickly, but then said, “I only memorized a few paragraphs.”

At this time, after entering the living room, Jiang Chen heard a bout of laughter from the balcony not far away.

“Hey, Robert, are you done? If you don’t come now, we’ll finish this bottle of champagne you have kept for ten years…”

“Oh! Sh*t! Don’t do that, that’s my life!” Robert shouted exaggeratedly, kicking his leather shoes aside and walking into the house.

On the balcony, men and women were laughing and chatting. Jiang Chen followed Robert into the living room. A man passed through the door on the balcony and came in their direction.

“Haha, Robert, where is the big deal you are talking about? If you’re just showing off your relationship with the FBA ‘old friends’… Oh God, you, are you Jiang Chen?” The man who was grinning suddenly stopped, his eyes almost popped out as he stared at the man beside Robert.

“Yes, nice to meet you.” Jiang Chen extended his right hand with a smile.

Although he felt he had seen this guy somewhere, he couldn’t recall the name. Unless it was a particularly liked director or actor or if they had impressive features, he generally didn’t pay attention to what the person’s name was.

“I’ll introduce you. This is Bryan Singer. If you’ve seen the X-Men, you must be familiar with him.”

Hearing the name Bryan Singer, Jiang Chen suddenly put his face to a name.

Speaking of Bryan Singer, most people associated him with the term X-Men. From the success of the “The Usual Suspects” in 1995, Bryan Singer officially entered the Hollywood circle from his personal production. By the year 2000, the “X-Men” adapted by him received unexpectedly great success. Then on, his directing career was tied to the X-Men franchise.

It was not that he didn’t try to make a transition, but he seemed to be cursed. Whether it was “Superman Returns” or “Jack the Giant Slayer”, the fiasco of the box office caused Warner Bros. to weep and cry and cast a shadow over his directing career.

Hollywood was a real place. Whether the future of a director was bright or not was directly linked to the box office.

But Jiang Chen remembered this guy’s name, not because of the X-men, but because he heard through the grapevine that this gay was bisexual.

It was indeed a memorable feature.

“Nice to meet you. Mr. Jiang Chen. I always thought that Robert was bullsh*tting. I didn’t think it was true!” Holding Jiang Chen’s hand, Bryan looked excited.

“It’s also nice to meet you, Mr. Singer. The X-Men is also very famous in my country. Oh, I have seen Apocalypse.” Jiang Chen smiled and quietly withdrew his hand.

Shaking hands with someone who may be interested in him, the feeling gave him goosebumps.

Although it was only a rumor…

After all, it was a party hosted by the old pervert Robert. In addition to those friends he made in Hollywood, there were also many blondes and some were even Hollywood movie stars.

As Robert put it, he was considered successful in Hollywood, and several films that performed well in the box office made him a successful producer. In addition to Bryan Singer, Jiang Chen also saw Alicia Vikander. She was Laura Croft in the “Tomb Raider” released this year and the star of this party.

However, Jiang Chen knew clearly, even for the experienced pickup artist Robert, this kind woman could be quite difficult. Just relying on the identity of the producer may not be enough to open her legs, and judging by how comfortable she was at the party, it didn’t look like she and Robert had a relationship beyond friendship.

However, when she saw Jiang Chen, she, like the rest of the people at the party, showed a considerable degree of surprise… and interest.

“Mr. Jiang Chen, after the party, can I invite you to my house for a cup of coffee?” Alicia gently bit her bright red lips, and when no one was around and offered with a voice full of temptation.

This proposal was quite attractive. Everyone knew what coffee equaled to in this situation.

If only…

“I’m sorry, Ms. Lau… Ms. Alicia. This proposal is indeed very tempting, but my temporary security adviser probably won’t allow this.” Jiang Chen regretfully declined her invitation.

The rejected Alicia Vikander smiled and was not discouraged. After chatting with Jiang Chen for a few moments, she went into other circles. Jiang Chen, who was working closely with Warner Bros., would undoubtedly help her career, and Virtual Image Animation did display ambition to enter Hollywood. However, it was a pity that Jiang Chen did not seem to show enough interest in her. She was keenly aware of the situation and stopped persisting on the idea.

Not just big names such as Alicia Vikander, there were a lot of beautiful women who cast a look of passion to him at the party. Emma Watson’s endorsement fee was enviable. But being able to receive the supporting actress role in the epoch-making “Time Curtain” made people especially jealous.

No one here was worse than her, and no one was willing to admit defeat.

The party continued until eight o’clock in the evening. Unlike most of Hollywood’s private parties, this party that started in the afternoon already reached its end. The sea breeze blowing from the west coast brought a little coolness and blew away the heat in the guests’ hearts. The guests shook hands with Robert one after another as they bid farewell and left with joy and laughter.

Everyone but Jiang Chen.

“How does it feel? This city.”

“So-so.”

Robert laughed and opened his collection with a bottle opener. A 1965 red wine. It was a brand Jiang Chen had never seen before, but just from the color, it didn’t look ordinary at all.

“A very harsh remark.”

Shaking his head, Robert poured a cup of his collection for Jiang Chen.

After the party, the mansion seemed empty. The wine bottles lying on the ground, poker chips, and the tin foils used for drugs all demonstrated the bustling of an hour ago.

Jiang Chen shook his glass and took a sip of the sour liquid.

“Where is Nick?”

“It’s a pity that he couldn’t come. He is shooting a movie in Australia or else he definitely wouldn’t miss this party.”

Robert took a swig of the champagne and then let out a long breath of relief. He stared at the skyline of Los Santos in the distance and said to himself, “I spent the first half of my life through the land of the dead and now I’m spending the second half of my life intoxicated in dreams… This feeling is fascinating.”

“Consider making a biography of yourself?” Jiang Chen joked.

“That is a great idea!” Robert rainsed his cup to Jiang Chen from the distance, grinned and continued to stare into the skyline of Los Santos. “I have a feeling that if I took out my autobiography and made it into a script, it would be like ‘Lord of War’ where the box office and word of mouth would all take off and I would win both fame and wealth.”

“It’s also possible that you will fall flat.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Don’t be like this, man.” Robert glanced at Jiang Chen and continued to drink.

Of course, to make an autobiography into a movie was just something he thought about. It was certainly impossible to produce. It was impossible to write an autobiography after having sold arms for the Capital. Even if he wanted to produce it, the FBA certainly won’t cooperate in smearing themselves.

Smearing the federal government was the definition of political correctness in Hollywood blockbuster, but some of the bottom lines cannot be crossed. Lawrence, for example, once planned to use IS to solve the problem and link UA and terrorism, this would clearly not be suitable for the big screen. Even though it was the tradition to smear politicians, even the audience wouldn’t buy it if it went over the line.

Think of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” although he heavily mocked Bush to win the Palme d’Or, did he make a famous movie after that? There was a precedent for this case.

“Right, ‘Time Curtain’. The movie you have been working with Warner Bros. should be in theatres soon. What do you think?”

“Come on, only Virtual Image Animation under Future Technology is participating in the production. I can’t pay attention to a side project like this to know everything clearly.” Jiang Chen helplessly shrugged.

When Robert heard this, he gave a middle finger.

“Sh*t, in your Chinese words, this is called ZhuangBi (Showing off)?”

“Your Chinese pronunciation is becoming more and more standard.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Yes, is Miss Watson in that movie? She is acting as…” Robert frowned while trying to recollect his thoughts.

“Vice-captain. Wait, don’t think about my actresses,” said Jiang Chen.

“Sh*t! Am I that kind of person?” Robert glared at Jiang Chen. He had automatically designated Emma as a kind of woman with an unusual relationship with Jiang Chen. He leaned against the balcony railing. “It’s just, I recently heard some bad rumors… After all, you have invested 100 million in this movie. I can’t just watch my brother get conned.”

“What rumors?” Jiang Chen furrowed.

Chapter 877: Establish A New Company

“Some people are investigating Miss Watson,” Robert paused for a moment, then continued, “You know, I’ve had some ambiguous contact with the underground forces in Los Santos, though they have come clean now. Someone hired private investigators to investigate Emma’s past. But her image of a woman rights’ activist is kept very well. Until now, those private investigators have not dug out anything useful.”

“Isn’t this good?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Not at all,” Robert shook his head. “Especially for those who want to find something.”

Jiang Chen frowned and had an idea of what he meant.

Asking a private investigator to investigate a person had obviously crossed the bottom line of Hollywood’s “fair competition.” It was different from hiring paparazzi and reporters to track and smear. Even when the top eight publishers were at the height of competition, they never used private investigators to investigate competitors’ actors.

Since the other side could easily cross the bottom line, naturally the means didn’t matter anymore.

Emma Watson was the star of Future Biology and was printed on every bottle of nutrient supply sold. She was also an actor in the Virtual Image Animation and Warner Bros. co-produced “Time Curtain”. Although standing from the perspective of the president, this kind of trivial matter did not require his personal attention. However, since it was related to his immediate interests and he just heard about it, he should do something.

“Who might be behind this?” Jiang Chen asked, with thoughts already forming in his mind.

“I don’t know.” Robert shook his head. “I paid attention to it, but the force is not small either. I’m not the arrogant dealer anymore. Los Santos’ gangs have no reason to do me a favor. Also, protecting the privacy of their hirer is the rule of their business.”

“Could it be Warner Bros.’s competitors?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Not likely.” Robert shook his head.

Even if it was Warner Bros.’s competitors, choosing Emma Watson as the subject of controversy would be a foolish decision. Not to mention the vice captain’s role was not especially important in the film. In North America, she was barely a second-tier movie star. The idea to pull Future Group’s subsidary Future Biology into the mess was not the brighest choice to begin with.

A closer look into the films screening at the same period, the publishers competing with “Time Curtain,” the masters behind the scenes would be unable to hide themselves.

No evidence was needed in Hollywood. They only needed to know who their enemies were. And there were also plenty of ways to solve problems.

Jiang Chen then asked. “Who would it be?”

“Perhaps she offended someone? Or maybe she caught the attention of somebody? Anyway, someone wants to ruin her reputation. It’s that simple,” Robert shrugged and said with indifference.

After deliberating for a moment, Jiang Chen merely kept this in the back of his head. After he could not think of a reason, he didn’t delve on this issue.

Shaking his head, Jiang Chen focused back on the second reason for visiting Robert today.

“Let’s not talk about this. Do you have plans to work together again?”

When Robert heard this, he glared at him cautiously.

“Dude, you know, I came clean. If you want the arms, I can introduce you to people… But you don’t need me to introduce them. The consortium led by the Giannini family is the biggest arms dealer in Los Santos. Even if you want to buy a few F-18 Hornets, he can give you some ideas—”

“Shut up, I’m not talking about arms.” Jiang Chen interrupted Robert’s words and coughed. Then he said, “I’m going to register a film company in Los Santos and I’m missing a CEO.”

When Robert heard it was not arms, he immediately became interested, but he didn’t agree right away. Instead, he asked a question that he was more concerned about. “Are you planning on starting your own movie company? Isn’t your Virtual Image Animation working with Warner Bros.?”

“They are holding their shares too tight and they are financially opaque.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “While our cooperation with Warner Bros. is very enjoyable, there are still some small differences in the books. In addition, although virtual reality production is the main business focus of Virtual Image Animation, I don’t intend to make it into another ‘Industrial Light & Magic’ for major film makers, but just for me to have a place in Hollywood.”

“Do you plan to get into distribution?” Robert looked at Jiang Chen weirdly, placed an empty glass on the table beside him, and poured himself another glass. “That’s not possible. The distribution rights of the film are basically controlled by the eight major film studios. I don’t imagine that you can just make a movie and put it on the big screens. The distribution of film is no easier than the production of film. Many movie producers in Hollywood have to tolerate the eight studios leaching off of them otherwise, the things they produced themselves simply can’t reach the theaters!”

“In this era where the channel is king, even the best scented wine is afraid the alley that is too deep (1). The major cinemas won’t scramble to run and beg Future Group to allow them to release its film just because it is influential in the technology sector.”

Robert took a sip of the wine and paused for a moment. Afterwards, he said, “As for the accounting issues… Hollywood scamming foreign investors is not news anymore. They even dares to deceive Wall Street’s capitalists, let alone investors from overseas. If you invested 100 million and North American box office reaches 200 million, they could give you an income statement with minor losses, and that means they went easy on you.”

Here, Robert emphasized the sentence.

“Even if you are working together.”

Jiang Chen shrugged, “So I’m coming to you. Someone who even dares to deceive the Capital has no reason to not deceive the eight major studios.”

“Hey, man, who do you think I am?” Robert was displeased

“The old fox, or something else.” Jiang Chen laughed.

Robert slyly gave him the middle finger and put the glass back on the table.

He didn’t pour himself another glass.

Over the years, he had developed a habit. He could drink freely at a party, but he must stay conscious when he discussed business, and it was best to not touch a droplet of alcohol.

“Come with me, I think we should plan this carefully.” Robert turned around and walked to the living room.

“Isn’t film release being monopolized by the eight major studios?” Jiang Chen ridiculed while whistling.

“Indeed, that’s why I said we should plan things carefully. For example, how can we cut a piece of meat off of these bloodsuckers,” Robert said in excitement.

“So, you are ready to take on the CEO position?”

Robert turned back and smiled.

“Why not? Working with you always brings me good luck.”

(1) The best scented wine is even afraid of the alley that is too deep – Even the best product is afraid of not getting the exposure it needs to sell.

Chapter 878: Secrecy

After exchanging opinions with Robert, Jiang Chen finalized the plan for Future Group to enter the film industry.

Jiang Chen would personally invest one billion US Dollar to establish Morning Light Film. Morning Light Film would be responsible for the production and distribution of films, and would be structured independently from Future Group. This move was mainly to avoid the Paramount Decision (1). Future Group may intervene in the screening of the film in the future. However, there was not much difference. Both Future Group and Morning Light Film were controlled by him. Although the shareholding structure remained independent of each other, there wouldn’t be any difference in actuality.

After all, it was not his Xin.

With 10% equity and one million US Dollar in base salary, Robert was hired as the CEO of the company. After spending over a decade in Los Santos, he came clean about being an arms dealer and became a producer for three years in Hollywood. Robert was more than sufficient to take on the role of CEO with his connections in this city.

Of course, everything now remained in the drafting phase.

At least for now, the cooperation between Future Technology and Warner Bros. remained in a honeymoon period, and everything had to wait until after the release of “Time Curtain”.

When Jiang Chen came out of the mansion, it was already eight in the evening. Lawrence was still leaning against the side of the car, but this time, he was not chewing on a hamburger but smoking out of boredom.

After seeing Jiang Chen, Lawrence extinguished the cigarette.

“Where are we going next?”

“Where else can I go at this time?” Jiang Chen yawned and sat in the car.

“I thought after attending this kind of party, you’d definitely have a date.” Lawrence shrugged.

Two hours ago, he saw a group of Hollywood stars exit Robert’s mansion, some of whom were pretty blondes. According to the FBA’s archive for him, this guy definitely wasn’t the type that constrained himself.

“I’m reducing the workload for you.” Jiang Chen told the unruly agent in charge. After putting on his seatbelt, he said, “I have no plans for the next two days, and you can consider giving yourself two days off.”

“No arrangements?” Lawrence raised his eyebrows.

According to the security agreement of both parties, Jiang Chen was obliged to provide the FBA with his schedule for the next day so that they could be prepared. However, Jiang Chen had no plans, which made him feel puzzled.

“Yes, I will be staying in the Xin Embassy for the next two or three days to discuss the upcoming Silicon Valley Summit with my CEO. At the same time, there are some things from Xin that I need to deal with.” Jiang Chen brought out the set of rhetoric that he prepared long ago.

Lawrence glanced at Jiang Chen suspiciously, but he did not say anything about it.

As an outsider, he couldn’t make irresponsible comments about the internal arrangements of Future Group. And he would never think that Jiang Chen would sneak out and “visit” Area 51 in Lincoln County in southern Nevada.

At the same time, a fierce debate was taking place here at the CIB headquarters. Steven, who had just returned from Los Santos, had found his top boss, CIB Director Naomi Madden, and was trying to persuade his boss to initiate an investigation procedure on Jiang Chen.

“There is no conclusive statement on whether it was a graphite bomb or an EMP.” Turning the pen in his hand, Naomi leaned back in his chair and listened to his reports.

However, at work, his top man did not buy it. Steven magnified his volume and contended. “Conclusive? What evidence do we still need? If the testimony of 110 Ukrainian government soldiers cannot be used as evidence, then what else can be used as evidence? I’m sure it’s an EMP!”

Identifying the difference between a graphite bomb and an EMP was very difficult. Both could destroy the grid and damage electronic equipment. However, the former’s accuracy was poor, and it was ineffective for devices with strong leak-protection. Because the site of the incident was at the most chaotic frontline, even a CIB agent couldn’t penetrate behind the enemy line and collect so-called evidence like investigators.

Naomi’s face held a dignified look but he still didn’t make a decision.

The Ukrainian issue was indeed very important, or else the project team led by Steven would not directly report to him. In the Ukrainian government’s military report, Russia used a weapon that could paralyze electronic equipment and immediately attracted the attention of the CIB. After the airborne operations in City M, no country could ignore the killer of modern civilization, the EMP. Although all countries were protesting against this kind of weapon, everyone knew that everyone was also studying this weapon in the dark.

The Capital suspected that Future Group provided assistance to Russians, but the KGB had done a very good job in intelligence work, and the CIB couldn’t collect relevant evidence for the time being. The CIB didn’t even know the degree of cooperation between the two parties. If it was a simple arms sale, everything would be fine. But if the technology was sold, it would be bad.

However, the people involved also made it difficult for Naomi.

The Capital was releasing a friendly signal to Xin, and his top man proposed to investigate Jiang Chen… Regardless of whether Jiang Chen was related to the weapons on the Russian-Ukrainian border, it was impossible for the CIB to investigate an important guest.

“The crux of the problem now is that even if we prove that these weapons came from the military factories on Ange Island, it would be an arms sale between Russian and Future Military. They did not directly sell arms to the rebels.” Naomi’s pen stopped spinning. He leaned back in his chair and muttered in a frown. “This is difficult.”

“Just because it is difficult, are we going to let them just walk away like this?” Steven said bitterly.

Naomi looked at the emotional Steven. He knew exactly why his subordinate would regard Jiang Chen as a thorn in his eyes. The CIB had planned a kidnapping operation against Jiang Chen before, but the dozens of CIB agents sent to the country were still missing.

At first, they thought that it was Hua who arrested them. However, after several years, the silence of the nation began to make them suspect that it was not Hua’s intelligence service that got rid of those agents

Those dozens of dead agents were all Steven’s comrades. He understood his feelings at the moment.

But from a political standpoint, it was impossible for Naomi to approve his proposal. His predecessor resigned because he had planned the kidnapping operation without approval. As the CIB director who was pro-Capital, he made the most conservative and correct choice.

“I will inform the Capital.”

“We can’t ask the Capital for everything. Please, we are the CIB, not the FBA, not the puppets of the Capital! We should be responsible for the nation’s security! We can solve it with our own methods-”

“It’s too risky!” Naomi immediately interrupted Steven’s words.

However, Steven did not give up; a bloodthirsty grin appeared on his face as he said word by word.

“I heard that the Freemasonry has a grudge against them.”

Naomi paused. Not letting this opportunity get away, Steven continued.

“This is no risk, and we’ll be completely out of this. We just need to provide a little help to those who are also keen against them.”

Naomi frowned and seemed to understand what Steven wanted to say, but there were concerns about the feasibility of this move.

“A bad move will provoke a war between the two countries.”

“There’ll be no war! As long as it is not the UA that strikes! As long as we completely separate ourselves from all of this, we’ll not get into any trouble!”

After a long silence, Naomi did not openly endorse it, nor go against it. Instead, he gave an ambiguous answer.

“I hope Los Santos will not become the second Bay of Pig.”

A faint smile finally emerged on Steven’s face.

He knew that this conservative and cautious director was finally convinced.

“I promise.”

(1) The Paramount Case was a landmark United States Supreme Court antitrust case that decided the fate of movie studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their films. It also changed the way Hollywood movies were produced, distributed, and exhibited. The Court held in this case that the existing distribution scheme was in violation of the antitrust laws of the United States, which prohibit certain exclusive dealing arrangements. (Source Wikipedia)

Chapter 879: Welcome to Nevada

At six in the evening, Steven walked out of the CIB headquarters and got on a black car. Just as he fastened his seat belt and inserted the key, a Jewish man in a trench coat opened the door and sat next to him.

“All good?”

“The CIB will assist you.”

A smile appeared on the man’s face.

“Congratulations, Mr. Steven, you can finally find your revenge.”

Steven scoffed and didn’t respond, but the smile on his lips was still obvious.

“This is a little gift from us.” Then, the Jewish man gently placed a card in the item holder, as if nothing had happened, and looked straight ahead with a smile.

“I didn’t help you for money.” Stephen frowned.

“But you have no reason to refuse, right?” The man smiled. “And your efforts are definitely worth this number.”

Stephen was silent.

The car passed through the bustling streets of the Capital and the glaring and sparking lights reflected off of the windshield of the car. This was the center of a prosperous world and the center of world power. The well-dressed crowds and the unreachable floors looked fascinating just from their appearance.

Steven suddenly laughed.

Indeed, as the Jewish man said, he had no reason to refuse.

…

After returning to the Xin Embassy, Jiang Chen said goodbye to Lawrence and remained in the office with Xia Shiyu. Then, she returned to her room.

Zhu Yu followed her.

Xia Shiyu looked to Jiang Chen’s room and said nothing. With her current position, she was exposed to some of Future Group’s secrets, including his trip to Nevada.

Although she was worried, she would not say anything to stop it. Instead, she stressed the importance of safety to him and continued to focus on the tasks at hand.

He closed the door behind him and asked Zhu Yu to be responsible for her safety at the embassy.

“Do you leave now?”

“Yes.”

Jiang Chen nodded. He took off his suit and shirt and tossed it on the bed. The muscles of his upper body were exposed right in front of the girl’s eyes.

Although the defined muscles did not have explosive visual effects, they cast a controlled and firm tension. However, with professional training, Zhu Yu’s heartbeat only sped up for two seconds and she did not even flush at the scene.

The bullet-proof vest was taken from Zhu Yu’s hands and Jiang Chen put it on himself. This type of vest was not much thicker than a shirt as it was made of graphene material. Although its protection against the kinetic energy of bullets was limited, it could effectively intercept all bullets.

Finally, he put a trench coat on over it. Jiang Chen took a Type-11 pistol from Zhu Yu and placed it in his pocket. Then he brought out a K2 kinetic skeleton with an optical illusion module from the wardrobe and skillfully wielded it on himself.

“The car is parked in the underground garage on the opposite side of the embassy. Coordinates are on your watch… Do you really not need our assistance?” Zhu Yu said hesitantly.

Jiang Chen tapped the screen on his arm and set the parameters. He smiled and said, “No need, you are too worried.”

“Ayesha told me that you shouldn’t do anything dangerous… If you get into an accident, please contact me immediately.”

“I will… Right, I need you to do something for me.”

“What’s the order?” Zhu Yu asked Jiang Chen.

“Emma Watson, sponsored by Future Biology. Someone is investigating her. I am very curious who it is.”

“That’s easy,” Zhu Yu said.

“Then I will leave it to you.”

At the end of October, the sea breeze in Los Santos already had some coolness to it, but it couldn’t carry away the humidity in the air. Darkness already shadowed the city, but the entire city was still immersed in the gorgeous neon, the endless streams of light that colored the nightlife. Everything had just begun.

Jiang Chen activated optical invisibility, did not attract anyone’s attention, quietly left the embassy from the back door, and walked by an FBA car. He could see the ash that had fallen from the cigarette in between the agent’s fingertips, but he couldn’t see him.

Ten minutes later, in the underground garage opposite of the Xin Embassy, a black SUV slowly hit the road and merged into the city of Los Santos. The FBA wouldn’t know that Jiang Chen, who was supposed to stay in the Embassy, was already on route to Nevada.

He hasn’t driven for a long time, but when Jiang Chen held onto the steering wheel, he didn’t feel any discomfort.

He took off the kinetic skeleton and placed it in the backpack in the passenger seat.

In order to avoid being stopped by the traffic police, even after he left Los Santos, Jiang Chen did not speed up. Now that the entire UA thought that he was in the embassy. If he were detained by traffic police within a dozen kilometers away, there would be many unnecessary troubles.

If he kept his current speed and not stop midway, he should be able to reach Nevada five hours later.

Jiang Chen opened the hologram map and made a rough estimation. When he arrived at Area 51 in southern Nevada, it should be exactly 4 in the morning. Of course, he couldn’t drive directly inside. He planned to spend a full day in a nearby town. It would be a better choice to wait until the next night.

After leaving Los Santos, the traffic was unusually smooth, and the scenery on both sides also changed from high-rise buildings to endless desert. To keep himself entertained, Jiang Chen turned on the radio. Although he did not like loud music, it would at least prevent him from falling asleep.

On the way, Jiang Chen saw many tourist buses. In between California and Nevada, there was a tourist attraction called the “Death Valley” of the civilized world. Most of the rumors were similar to the Bermuda Triangle, which were all created by the tourism industry.

Jiang Chen wondered if he should visit the nearby Death Valley after visiting the mysterious Area 51, but soon he drove the idea out of his head.

The end of October was not considered the peak season for tourism. However, this type of attraction would drive quite a crowd and it would be better to avoid unnecessary troubles.

Just as he spent time distracting himself with the vehicles along the road, his watch suddenly vibrated. Only two hours later, Zhu Yu’s called.

“Hey?”

“The person you told us to investigate has been found.”

Zhu Yu’s words surprised Jiang Chen. Only two hours had passed, her efficiency was almost frightening.

But thinking about it, Jiang Chen was relieved. After all, the other party was a private investigator. Although it could use illegal means such as interception and drone filming, they are definitely more amateur compared to a professional agent. As long as the target is identified, the Ghost Agent on standby in Los Santos could easily track the private investigator following Emma.

With the truth-telling serum, there was no intelligence that can’t be known.

“Employer’s name is Berkeley Lewis, the eldest son of the Lewis family.”

“The Lewis family? Berkeley?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows. He couldn’t recall the name.

“Should I deal with it?” Zhu Yu asked.

“No.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “Keep an eye on him. If he does something out of the ordinary, tell me.”

“Yes,” Zhu Yu answered.

He hung up the phone. Blasting heavy metal music, the black SUV left behind a trail of dust and gradually merged into the darkness. A sign on the side of the road said, Welcome to Nevada.

Chapter 880: Area 51

Area 51 was an area of approximately 155 square kilometers located in Lincoln County, southern Nevada, and 130 kilometers southeast of downtown Las Vegas. It was part of the UA Air Force training facility. However, everyone knew this military base was definitely not what it was advertised to be as a training facility.

Only those with a high security level who were invited by senior military officials or senior leaders of the intelligence agencies could enter the military base. Could the average pilot really be qualified to train here? There were red warning signs everywhere – “No photo,” “No entry,” and “Authorized to use lethal weapons.”

Of course, there were also signs such as “Aliens” set up by nearby residents themselves. These odd signs attracted many tourists. There was nothing that couldn’t be used to market in this capitalistic country.

Endless sand hills were decorated with dried grasses and countless cactuses. Occasionally, a few poplars could be spotted scattered around. From time to time, some hares dashed from one bush to another.

A black SUV stopped slowly beside the sand hill.

It looked no different from a brand new car a few hours ago, but the car was now covered with yellowish-gray debris. When the door opened, Jiang Chen got out of the car, took a travel bag from the seat next to him, threw it into the storage dimension, and ventured to the top of the hill.

The dawn light was already leaking out in the distant sky. In a few minutes, there would be daylight.

After he crossed this hill and walked a few kilometers on foot, he would be able to see the legendary Area 51. However, Jiang Chen knew very well that although this mountain was right in front of him, it wasn’t an easy trip to make on foot. The straight line distance on the map was more than a dozen kilometers.

And that was the straight line distance!

Jiang Chen carefully took out a specially made telescope and turned on thermal imaging to scan the area. Every year, there were many curious climbers with backpacks attempting to explore the mysterious Area 51.

Fortunately, he only saw a few hares.

After confirming that there was no one there, Jiang Chen put his hand on the SUV and tossed the vehicle directly into the storage dimension. Then he began to hike up the hill.

Not far from Area 51 was the Nevada Test Site, where the Department of Energy tested nuclear weapons. Although he hadn’t yet seen the signs prohibiting entry, he knew very clearly that he was now on the verge of the military zone with the highest level of readiness!

The slope of the sand was very gradual. It wasn’t difficult to climb up, but it certainly took some effort.

It took until sunrise for Jiang Chen to finally climb to the top of the hill.

Taking out his binoculars, he could already spot the military post in the valley opposite him. A few kilometers further down the road was the legendary Area 51, but Jiang Chen definitely couldn’t just follow the road and stroll in.

With his kinetic skeleton reequipped again, Jiang Chen didn’t start the optical illusion module and just walked down the hill.

This wasn’t a restricted military area. It was impossible for soldiers stationed at the post to keep their eyes on their binoculars all the time. Looking from the military post right across, only the shape of the mountain could be made out. It was absolutely impossible to spot anyone with only the naked eye.

As long as Jiang Chen didn’t make too much movement.

It took half a day’s time, and at two o’clock in the afternoon, Jiang Chen followed the bottom of the hill and circled to the side of the military base. Many sensors were deployed there, hidden in the bushes. They would immediately be set off if someone accidentally bumped into them, alerting the patrols.

However, finding these things wasn’t a difficult task for Jiang Chen. Carefully avoiding all the sensors, he hid behind a bush and overviewed the entire Area 51.

Metal fencing had isolated hundreds of square kilometers of land from the desert. Large and small houses were located within this military base. Apart from tanks and armored vehicles, aircraft were also seen on the runway. At least five F-35s were parked on the runway. In addition, he saw many cool-looking airplanes that he couldn’t name.

The layout of the building here was almost the same as the photos published on Google Maps, but there were still some subtle differences.

For example, the radar that stood in the southeast corner of the military base attracted Jiang Chen’s attention.

Instead of categorizing it as a radar, it was more like a “big bowl” embedded in the ground. Four poles pointed straight up in each of the four corners and were connected diagonally by slings in the center. In the middle, a giant antenna structure was suspended in midair.

According to his binocular ruler, the giant bowl was at least 200-300 meters in size. Jiang Chen thought for a long time but he couldn’t figure out what the antenna was.

After hesitating for a moment, he pressed down on the side of the helmet, opened the tactical camera, and filmed the giant radar.

Along the way, he also took a few close-up shots of the entire military base.

At that moment, a rustling noise in his ear lingered, followed by a dizzy feeling that entered his brain. It forced Jiang Chen to furrow his brows. But soon, his body relaxed and he recovered from this sudden discomfort. The noise in his ear disappeared as if it never appeared in the first place.

“What happened?”

Jiang Chen shook his head while forcing out the numbness in his head. He put away his binoculars and turned off his tactical camera.

He noticed that just in that moment of hearing the sound, even the holographic screen on his tactical helmet froze for a moment.

[Was it an EMP?]

Jiang Chen denied this idea for a moment.

Despite the strength of electromagnetic pulses, they were ineffective on humans, and EMP couldn’t explain the momentary dizziness he felt. Compared to high-energy transient currents induced by high-energy particles, this feeling was more like a kind of super electromagnetic wave or something else.

Casting his doubts aside, Jiang Chen confirmed the patrol route of the military base through his binoculars. With the help of Jean, he calculated a relatively safe sneak path on the map.

The preparations for the day had already been completed. The next step was to wait until dark and execute the plan.

“I wonder how the embassy’s doing,” Jiang Chen whispered.

While he said that, he wasn’t worried.

If someone came to visit, Xia Shiyu could help him cancel the plan. Even in special circumstances, no one would suddenly break into the embassy of other countries.

The coordinates were set. He left a camera in place that could transmit data across the dimension then he traveled to the apocalypse. The mission was scheduled for the night; he didn’t want to be like a real sniper and crawl behind a bush all day long.

Even at the end of October, the afternoon sun in Calif was still burning.

Not to mention he was in the middle of the desert…

Chapter 881: Defense Adjustment

Because of Hill’s refugee policy, the West Coast, far from the political center, played a very awkward role. Tens of thousands of refugees not only didn’t bring any substantial benefits to Cali, but they seriously worsened the security in the state.

The only benefit was simply improving the employment rate.

Yes, the employment rate did rise. Among the refugees, the hard-working ones only made up a small minority. Most people belonged to the lazy class. Even though mainstream society still sympathized with these people because of political correctness, the “victims” on the West Coast didn’t buy it.

Although Hill lost Cali’s votes, this loss was insignificant compared to the number of supporters she gained. After all, Cali was more supportive of Donny, and her ballet warehouse was concentrated on the East Coast.

Of course, merely receiving a green card didn’t mean they had the right to vote. Only by obtaining citizenship could they cast their “holy” ballots for their trusted president in the general election. But it didn’t matter; the Hill government was working hard to resolve this problem.

Just let the refugees become citizens before the next election…

The group who was the most dissatisfied with Hill’s policies was undoubtedly the Jewish community.

The long-standing conflicts between the two sides hadn’t been entirely religious. This hatred had long been integrated into the blood of both sides. There was the war which resulted in the separation, the defeat in the BC era which led to their ousting, and they wandered for more than two thousand years. It wasn’t until the French Revolution when the status of Jews in Europe improved. It wasn’t until more than thirty years after World War II when they finally returned to their spiritual home.

It wasn’t difficult to understand the hatred between the two. Just imagine the grudge between China and Japan magnified tenfold.

Not all Jews were members of Freemasonry, but both the Freemasonry and Jews were definitely staunch opponents of Hill’s refugee policies.

On October 25th, the terrorist attack on Venice Street in Los Santos wasn’t accidental, but it was an attack planned by the nation’s far right. A Hispanic youth born in Utah placed ten pounds of explosives in a trash can along with 200 steel balls wrapped in plastic bags.

When the demonstration team passed by, he pressed the detonation button with his cell phone.

It was easy to imagine what kind of damage this kind of bomb would cause in the crowd.

“This is a disaster. Sob . We’re just expressing our opinion. Those racist people will go this far to commit such heinous crimes! Despicable!” In an interview with a CBS reporter, one woman from Libya said in tears.

His phone placed on the roof of the car, Lawrence leaned against the door and gnawed at his burger while coldly watching the screen.

To put it bluntly, as an FBA senior official, his political position should be closely aligned to the Capital’s, but he had no sympathy for these people from the bottom of his heart.

At that moment, a car stopped beside him. A man in a suit and tie stepped out from the car, carrying a black briefcase in hand as he swiftly approached him.

Lawrence stuffed the last bit of his burger in his mouth and swallowed it down with Coke. He turned off his cell phone and looked at his colleague as he said nicely, “Mr. William, what brings you here?”

Michael William, Director, Los Santos Police Department. Although a completely separate organization, due to work needs, the director often contacted people in both the FBA and CIB systems.

Like most UA citizens, Mr. William was straight to the point.

“The case from a few days ago ran into some problems. We originally believed it was a lone wolf attack, but the evidence that was subsequently collected reversed our previous speculation. Lawrence, we need your help.”

Lawrence glanced at the embassy next to him.

“Unfortunately, I’m working for the Capital now.”

“Oh, God, what else is more important than the security of the UA?!” Michael said earnestly. “This attack is different. Some people in the country are deliberately provoking opposition between refugees and UA citizens and preventing them from integrating into our society.”

Lawrence almost laughed when he heard that.

[Opposition? Are they worth the effort of provoking? Prevent? Do you have to get on your knees and ask them to come in for us to be welcoming?]

Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to bring his personal feelings into his work.

After a moment of deliberation, Lawrence said, “It’s better that you contact the Los Santos FBA branch. I have other tasks now—”

Michael raised his hand and stopped him. He took a document from his briefcase and handed it to him.

Lawrence looked at the file in his hands and raised his eyebrows.

The FBA branch in Los Santos was tight on staff. It was also common practice to move people from the Capital to assist local authorities in big cases like terrorism. If it involved overseas affairs, the CIB was usually sent. If it only involved domestic affairs, help usually came from the FBA.

At the same time, it was proposed to enhance the security of Jiang Chen. After all, the security of this important guest was related to the friendship between the two countries.

For this, the CIB proposed a compromise.

The security work of Jiang Chen would be shared by both the CIB and the FBA. Half the FBA agents replaced would be moved to the recent terrorism case. The Silicon Valley Summit planned for a week later would also be jointly planned by the Los Santos police and the CIB.

There was no problem with this document; it was only a slight adjustment to Jiang Chen’s security plan.

However, he didn’t know why, but he had a strange feeling that something was unusual.

Being in this position for so long, he wasn’t a kind of idiot without political sense.

“I need to make a phone call to the Capital,” said Lawrence.

“Do it as soon as possible,” Michael said with seriousness.

…

After returning to the apocalypse, Jiang Chen went straight to Lin Lin’s laboratory and handed the memory card on the tactical helmet to her.

“I want to know what this is.” After pulling up the photograph taken at noon, Jiang Chen pointed at the giant radar and asked Lin Lin with confusion.

Lin Lin just glanced at the picture. The electronic eye quickly flashed through a string of data streams. She was trying to match this object to something that appeared in “history.” She pouted and said with a clear lack of interest, “It’s just a large radio telescope.”

“A telescope?” Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised.

[This doesn’t look like a telescope at all. Isn’t that a radar?]

“You don’t just think a telescope is called a telescope because it has a lens, right?” Lin Lin glared at Jiang Chen.

“Well, that’s what I thought.” Jiang Chen facepalmed. He paused for a moment then asked, “What does this thing do?”

“It’s mainly used to detect electromagnetic waves in the universe. Don’t view it as just a bowl; there are countless radar arrays inside. Any faint electromagnetic wave can be captured by this to be screened and filtered. It can be considered an early extraterrestrial civilization detector.” Lin Lin commented on the picture.

[Extraterrestrial Civilization Detector?]

Jiang Chen’s expression was a bit odd.

In this case, Area 51 was indeed related to so-called aliens. However, according to Lin Lin’s disapproving attitude, this original “telescope” apparently didn’t capture a record of extraterrestrial civilization… at least in this timeline.

Chapter 882: The Unseen Ghost

“Can I see Mr. Jiang Chen? In light of the recent security situation in Los Santos, I have some security adjustments…”

“I’m sorry, he’s already rested. If you have any questions, you can speak to me.”

Standing at the door of the embassy, Xia Shiyu declined Lawrence’s request to visit. He was in the desert of Nevada, more than dozens of kilometers away.

Lawrence frowned slightly and eyed the embassy.

“This is very important. I hope you treat it seriously.”

“He gave me full power to deal with it,” Xia Shiyu replied with an uncompromising tone

Since this Ms. CEO already said that, Lawrence no longer persisted. He nodded, handed the files over, and left the embassy.

Xia Shiyu scanned the documents. They detailed the recent security situation and the FBA’s adjustment of Jiang Chen’s travel security work.

According to the description in the documents, it seemed Jiang Chen’s security level increased?

As night arrived, Nevada’s desert returned to quietness. Jiang Chen, who was wearing a kinetic skeleton, had returned to the modern world. He was still behind a bush. Silence surrounded him, leaving only the wind blowing.

Lights illuminated Area 51. High-powered searchlights scanned the military base.

Today’s night was no different from the day before. All soldiers remained in their positions like before. Even the most meticulous soldiers, staring at the endless desert, couldn’t help but feel tired and blank out.

No one noticed that an invisible ghost was approaching…

There was a gust of wind, and a soldier leaning against the checkpoint sneezed and rubbed his nose. The soldier standing across from him yawned and adjusted the rifle on his body. At this point, no one would check the post. Their standing posture was casual, at least not as professional as if they were in front of cameras.

However, at that moment, the soldier who sneezed looked around.

“Crony, did you notice anything?”

“What? A hare?” The drowsy Crony instantly woke up.

“No, it could be an illusion.”

“Sh*t, we’re about to get off our shift. Don’t play with me…”

Upon hearing the soldiers’ conversation, Jiang Chen was relieved.

The weakness of the optical illusion was being in environments where the optical difference would be obvious. It was difficult to achieve perfect invisibility, and walking in the sand would leave footprints. In order to avoid being discovered, he chose the road and directly entered from the checkpoint.

As for the lighting problem, he could only walk against the edge of the building.

Judging by the number of patrols, this military base was indeed one of the highest security military bases in the nation. In addition to those patrols with rifles at each corner of the base and invisible snipers, Jiang Chen also noticed helicopters flying by often.

He didn’t dare to turn off his optical illusion for a single moment.

Fortunately, decades-long peace and stability made people lower their guard at this base with the highest security level. Jiang Chen didn’t encounter any trouble along the way. He successfully managed to just sneak past the patrols like a ghost.

At such a large base, of course, he couldn’t just wander around like a headless chicken. In the photographs taken in advance, Jiang Chen marked the buildings worthy of investigation on the map. These buildings included the large radio telescope, the fighter aircraft hangar, and several houses that he couldn’t identify from the outside.

At the airport, Jiang Chen quietly slipped into a hangar.

Here, he saw a few prototypes that couldn’t be named. The aircraft didn’t have a cockpit, but it was supposed to be one of the fabled six-generation drones.

Jiang Chen hesitated for a moment to decide whether or not to put several bombs in it and take these planes away when he leave. However, he hesitated for a moment and gave up the plan. Making too much noise wasn’t good for him. If he knocked down the hornet’s nest, he feared the whole state of Nevada would be locked down.

In such a large desert, he couldn’t walk back under his optical illusion.

He would silently come and quietly leave. Anyway, the purpose of his trip wasn’t to blow up planes.

After the hangar was the radar station.

This two-story building was in the corner of the base, just like the “Giant Bowl” to which it was connected.

Compared to the highly-guarded hangars, garages, research institutes, and other facilities, Jiang Chen clearly sensed that the patrol efforts here were lax.

Hiding behind a concrete wall, Jiang Chen carefully avoided the two patrol teams crossing the main road and quickly moved to the back of the radar station and looked through the window. At this time, the radar station was completely dark. Obviously, all the work had been completed during the day. There should be no researchers inside.

He estimated the height of the window then glanced at the lookout tower not far in the distance.

It was a blind spot, or at least the searchlight’s blind spot. No light could shine there.

From the storage dimension, Jiang Chen took out an electrostatic adsorption device similar to a suction cup. Although he didn’t know the principles behind this device, he could easily control the adsorption between the suction cup and the wall by simply pressing the button on the grip.

He didn’t know anything about particle physics, but it didn’t prevent him from using it.

Jiang Chen put it on his arm and calf then stuck his arms to the wall like a gecko. He pressed the button of the right-hand grip and deactivated the adsorption of his right arm and left leg. Jiang Chen skillfully climbed up with his right hand and moved up to the window.

Fortunately, perhaps because it was too humid that day, but the window wasn’t locked.

After entering into the radar station, Jiang Chen carefully turned on the detection equipment and determined that there were no infrared sensors or cameras in the room. Then he carefully examined the room.

The room was very dark, but the night vision function on his tactical helmet solved this problem. The dark blue light prism spread out in front of his field of vision, and everything in the room was clearly displayed on Jiang Chen’s retina.

It seemed to be an office. Neatly stacked documents were placed on the row of desks. Jiang Chen stepped forward and glanced through them. Although he could understand English, the more technical stuff gave him headaches.

Fortunately, he could ask for help.

His watch was connected to his kinetic skeleton and he assigned the camera control of the tactical helmet to the artificial intelligence hosted on his wristwatch.

“Jean, what are these things in these documents?”

“…astronomical observations, some drafts, and some paper reports. Do you need me to translate for you?”

“No, I wouldn’t understand even if you translated for me. Can you see if there’s any useful information such as aliens, extraterrestrial civilization or related information?” Jiang Chen said with a headache.

Pointing his camera at the documents, Jiang Chen quickly flipped through them. But unfortunately, Jean didn’t collect any useful information. With or without use, these files were stored on his memory card.

After leaving the office, he entered the hallway.

The placard on the door was a big help. The function of each room was written in English and was easy to find. There were control rooms, conference rooms, drawing rooms and other rooms, but those weren’t what Jiang Chen was looking for. He was looking for the file room. Without a doubt, all secrets would be stored there!

After all, it was only a two-story building. Jiang Chen didn’t search for long before he found his target at the end of the first floor.

Chapter 883: The Technology of Area 51

With a faint clunking sound, the iron door was gently pushed open.

Jiang Chen stepped into the file room and looked around.

In addition to a row of file racks, at the end of the file racks were two closet-sized servers. Seeing the two servers at the end, Jiang Chen was suddenly ecstatic. It would completely exhaust him if he had to flip through every single document in the room, but if they backed up the data on electronic devices, regardless how secure their server was, Jiang Chen could dig the data out eventually!

He could even trace and find something else!

Restraining the excitement in his head, Jiang Chen asked knowingly, “Jean, can you infiltrate these two machines?”

“That’s easy,” Jean said calmly, still in an emotionless tone.

Pulling out the adjustable data cable from the arm, Jiang Chen found the interface on the servers and inserted the data cable. Soon, the screen of the tactical helmet flashed several reading windows. Jean integrated the computing resources of both the watch and the kinetic skeleton and quickly infiltrated the firewall built by security experts.

In fact, during the infiltration process, Jean simply didn’t encounter any strong resistance. Even the most skilled hackers wouldn’t break into computers that aren’t connected to the Internet. Similarly, if the computer wasn’t connected to the Internet at all, then it was naturally not necessary to frequently update the firewall.

Area 51 was such an exclusive military zone that is independent of the outside world. There wasn’t even one kilobyte of data exchange between the Internet and the Intranet here. Naturally, there would be no so-called network security problems.

As for whether there would be any hackers who could sneak inside?

The soldiers at Area 51 weren’t worried at all.

Dozens and dozens of Soviet spies were captured there.

Just the sensors spread out all over the military base were enough to make it difficult to even advance an inch for those who wanted to approach it illegally.

Jiang Chen patiently waited to read the article and watched the data stream flashing through.

The downloading speed was increased to the maximum. Jean copied all the confidential files stored on the server. To artificial intelligence of the 22nd century, the firewall installed on these two machines was simply child’s play.

Half an hour later, all the data were quietly fragmented into 0s and 1s and disappeared into the tactical helmet screen.

“Complete.”

Jean used her unemotional tone and declared the outcome of this silent battle.

Jiang Chen didn’t stop to rest and immediately opened the ten terabyte of compressed file that Jean downloaded onto the memory card. To review these documents with human effort would take at least one to two months to categorize the documents. However, for an artifical intelligence, all documents were sorted out in less than a minute.

In these projects, Jiang Chen saw many shocking things.

Document Number: 10020

Record Name: RQ-180 Drone Improvement

Development Direction: Improve the cruising ability, strengthen the cruising speed, and enhance the ability to defend against EMP weapons…

Development Budget: One illion US Dollars.

Content: …

A strange expression gradually appeared on Jiang Chen’s face as he skimmed the information in the document,

It seemed that the EMP did scare the UA. He looked at more than a dozen projects, and all of them specifically stated improvements against EMP. For example, reducing the size of electronic components of key equipment as much as possible to reduce the high temperature generated by electromagnetic pulses, or even sacrificing a small amount of stealth and agility to apply a specific metal coating to form a Faraday cage on the fighters.

With limited scientific and technological conditions, these methods were somewhat effective. However, even the researchers in Area 51 didn’t find a good solution for the EMP’s attacks on the grid, civilian facilities, and factories.

However, the Capital already established this project and allocated a budget of five billion US Dollars to study how to defend against EMP on the soil.

In addition, Area 51 seemed to be studying a small four-rotor attack drone. This drone shape was similar to Future Group’s Beta-3, but at the bottom were hanging muzzles and magazines. At present, this type of drone had already entered the testing phase. Researchers in Area 51 were determining ways to eliminate rotor noise and wanted to design AIs that could automatically identify friendly and enemy targets.

It seemed that on the issue of national security, the UA didn’t mind copying technology. As long as they changed the appearance, who would know this was a counterfeit version of the Beta-3 logistics drone?

However, Jiang Chen didn’t mind. As long as Future Group maintained a leading position in technology, the UA would only be able to chase behind them, unable to catch up.

In addition to these projects, Jiang Chen also witnessed many incredible technologies projects that were still in the planning stage that had yet to receive funding.

For example, one project was filed under the name “Northern Lights Arrival”. By creating specific channels in the targeted airspace, solar wind could pass through the shielding of the Earth’s magnetic field, enabling high-energy particles to cause electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects over a relatively wide range.

However, this project didn’t receive enough financial support. Obviously, the Capital didn’t believe whimsical researchers could find a way to open a hole in the Earth’s magnetic field. Moreover, the solar wind that passed through the shielding of the earth’s magnetic field could not only certainly cause EMP effects over a wide area, but it would also create a large hole in the ozone layer.

Even if the budget for this project was a bottomless pit, no one could measure the serious environmental impact of this bewildering weapon. If this tunnel that passed through the Earth’s magnetic field could no longer be closed, surface organisms would go extinct…

“Jean, is this kind of weapon possible?” asked Jiang Chen.

Jean paused for two seconds. She probably went to search the database in the apocalypse.

“At least in NAC’s database, this type of dark technology doesn’t exist.”

Jiang Chen felt relieved that he would no longer be bothered by the “Northern Lights Arrival” when he received confirmation, then he continued to search the catalog for information on the radio telescope.

With the help of Jean, Jiang Chen saw the project numbered 12417 not long afterward.

This project was listed in the space category.

Item Number: 12417

Record Name: Extraterrestrial Civilization Exploration

Development Direction: Through radio telescopes, analyze the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization within 50 light years from the Earth.

Development Budget: 300 million US Dollars.

Content: …

He ignored all the content he didn’t understand and only scanned through the key points. Jiang Chen looked down through the documents, but when he saw the progress, his pupils suddenly shrank.

Research and Development Progress:

… Subproject No. 011: Gliese 581.

Location: Located 20.4 light-years away from Earth. It’s located about two degrees north of Beta Librae, the brightest star in the Libra constellation.

Analysis: The star is a red dwarf with spectral type M3V. Observed by radio telescope, there are active hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other elements on the 581g planet surface, and there is a large probability of water. Planetary tides are locked, the solar wind is active, and the state of the geomagnetic field is unknown.

There may be an atmosphere.

There may be creatures, distributed along the twilight line.

No regular electromagnetic waves are observed; civilization is less likely to exist, or if existing, it is likely to have technological capability below the Stone Age…

When Jiang Chen saw this, he held his breath.

Gliese 581 – he was too familiar with the name.

He just didn’t imagine that in the exploration project of extraterrestrial civilization in Area 51, there would actually be a record for this planet. Although the evaluation of their civilization level was somewhat ridiculous…

Looking at the line of text, Jiang Chen was silent for a long time.

As he thought about what to do, suddenly, there was a deafening alarm outside the window…

Chapter 884: Burning

Nightfall covered Los Santos. The bright neon lights turned this bustling city into a city that never sleeps. The corners of the streets remained crowded even deep into the night.

The cool sea breeze swept through the streets, blowing away the heat of the day.

This was the center of economy and culture on North America’s west coast. Due to centuries of peace, they had accumulated unimaginable wealth there. Even if there had been slight unrest in recent days, there was no concern on people’s faces.

Regardless of their membership of any ethnic groups, people were proud of this city from the bottoms of their hearts and believed tomorrow would be better.

Venice Street.

Because of the recent attacks, the defense around the Xin Embassy was adjusted. After consulting the Capital, the FBA assigned some agents to assist the Los Santos police in investigating the terrorist attack that occurred during the protest, and the missing agents were replaced by the CIB.

Wearing a black coat, Brad leaned against the car. Because the target had been in the embassy these days, Brad temporarily took over the security work of the embassy as a top man working under Lawrence.

Looking at the lights in the embassy, Brad felt a little bored.

Even the most maddening terrorists wouldn’t have the abilities or guts to rush into the Xin Embassy protected by the FBA and the CIB. Support helicopters were on standby at the FBA’s landing pad, and FBA sniper team was also deployed not far away. It was no exaggeration to say that the security level here was only inferior to one place.

The Capital.

The CIB detective who was standing opposite him handed him a cigarette and grinned.

“Do you smoke?”

“Thank you.”

Brad took the cigarette and put it in his mouth. He took out a lighter and lit the cigarette. The CIB agent who handed him the cigarette couldn’t wait to borrow a lighter and lit one himself. Then he blew out a smoke ring in enjoyment.

“My name is Ivan Keynes. Yours?”

“Brad Wayne.”

“How many times have you been on missions like these?” asked Keynes.

“I don’t remember.” Brad shook his head.

There was a slight change in Keynes’s expression, and a very intrigued look emerged.

“Don’t remember? Sh*t, you must be an experienced guy. Have you been to Iraq?”

“No, my tasks are mainly domestic.” Brad shook his head.

He already felt the person in front of him was too chatty. However, Mr. Keynes didn’t realize it himself. Not only did he not stop the conversation, but he vividly talked about his service in Iraq.

“I’ve been there. It’s terrible. There’s countless amount of sand, camels, and bombs everywhere…”

Brad frowned slightly as he listened to the voice.

It didn’t matter if people smoked, but chatting on duty wasn’t very good. People with a little bit of experience knew chatting could be distracting and slow the response time to unexpected situations. Although he didn’t think anything would happen, attitude was a key issue.

Brad could conclude with confidence that the agent was a rookie. The reason why he left from the frontline was mostly because of this blabbering nature that could’ve seriously interfered with the mission.

Turning his gaze to the street across from him, Brad selectively ignored him.

[Why would a rookie be assigned here? What are the CIB, full of idiots, thinking?]

On a corner across the street, a truck with a large Hollywood poster slowly stopped at the side of the road. The car seemed to be experiencing a breakdown. The owner pushed open the door and got off the car. He circled a few times to examine the tires, called for a car repair, and walked toward the shop on the street.

Just as Brad tried to see what movie the poster was advertising, a similar truck appeared on the other side of the road and followed the traffic flow in his direction.

At this time, Brad raised his eyebrows, and a sense of peculiarity alerted him.

Almost subconsciously, he reached for the radio on his shoulder.

“Jim, the truck that is twenty meters from your left hand, go and take a look.”

“Roger.”

The agent in disguise, who wasn’t far from the truck, walked toward the truck that stopped by the road. He first looked into the driver’s seatm then walked over to the container in the back. However, at that moment, the truck that passed in front of the embassy suddenly stopped in the middle of the road.

“That truck is a bit odd.” Keynes looked at the middle of the road and said what Brad was thinking.

However, without a second to respond, a massive flame ball exploded from the truck in the middle of the road.

“BOOM!!”

A cluster of crimson fireballs engulfed the entire truck. The shockwave flipped the car behind the truck and shattered the windows of all the vehicles on the street, even shop glass windows within a ten-meter radius were all destroyed. Brad immediately ducked, and the flying debris almost swept past his head at the same time.

However, Keynes, who was standing beside him, wasn’t so fortunate. A pool of blood was already scattered on the iron gate behind him. The aluminum alloy pieces pierced through his neck and chest.

The explosion was sudden.

The fleeing cars smashed into one another and caused traffic to turn into chaos. People on the street screamed and fled, and brave people took out their phones to call the police. The car alarms were loud, adding to the mayhem on the street…

Although the entrance of the embassy was ten meters away from the road, this distance was nothing for the bomb! Brad pulled out his pistol immediately, and he aimed at the still-burning debris and the chaotic crowd.

In a flash, Brad understood the intention of the attackers.

The first wave of attack was only causing chaos!

The real attack was the second wave!

“Damn, are they crazy?!”

Brad clenched his teeth with a fierce expression, staring at the escaping crowd, guarding against possible attackers. At the same time, one of his hands reached for his shoulder and provided feedback to the FBA Los Santos branch.

“There’s a terrorist attack at the gate of the Xin Embassy! I repeat, there’s a terrorist attack at the gate of Xin Embassy!”

The fire trucks had already arrived. Firefighters wearing respirators and carrying oxygen rushed to the wreckage burning in the middle of the road. However, at this time, Brad saw that Jim, who he sent to investigate the roadside truck not far away, was already in a pool of blood…

The door of the truck had long been opened. A team of soldiers wearing armors that resembled black dragon scales, carrying assault rifles, jumped onto the road.

Without any identification, they neatly and systematically loaded their weapons. They spread out like a professional army into the surroundings, weapons already pointed in his direction.

Brad’s pupils instantly shrinked.

Regardless of their identity, there was one thing he was sure about – they definitely weren’t SWAT coming to the rescue!

Chapter 885: Battle of Los Santos

On Venice Street, the sound of alarms and guns disturbed the tranquility of the night.

The police had already blocked off the street and dispatched almost all police forces in the nearby area to the attack location.

However, this didn’t change the unfavorable situation of Los Santos Police Department.

“…their firepower is too strong! We need support!”

“SWAT is on the way, hold on!”

“Damn, what are our snipers doing?” Brad hid behind a car, controlling his pumping heart. He seized the opportunity to return fire with his pistol.

However, against the unidentified armed force armed to the teeth, his m1911 bullets only tickled. Unless they directly struck the enemy’s head or leg, it wouldn’t cause substantial damage. Brad seriously wondered if they were wearing dragon scales or at defensive body armor of similar strength!

As for the Los Santos Police Department, Brad didn’t expect them to be helpful at all.

The police standard was Glock pistols with one or two shotguns at most. The state legislature did not pass the police’s request for automatic weapons. Therefore, in some UA blockbusters, it was often seen that the police force were beaten by the gangster’s automatic firepower… before the SWAT team arrived.

At the office building eight hundred meters away.

On the roof of this sixty-story building, close enough to oversee the entire Venice Street…

A soldier wearing a black mask with only his eyes exposed was kneeling on the edge of the roof. He systematically adjusted his sniper rifle. Next to him was an observer. The binoculars in his hand were locked on the chaotic street.

“At three o’clock, 871 meters, two targets.”

“Roger that.”

Three seconds later, the sniper pressed the trigger.

Near the ventilator, not far behind the two people, two bodies laid there quietly. From the logo on their clothes, they belonged to the FBA…

The instant he heard the piercing sound of bullets, Brad watched his comrade’s head get penetrated by a bullet in front of him. The insides of his brain, mixed with blood, spilled on the ground like crushed tofu.

He blanked out for a second.

Fear overwhelmed him, but this discomfort didn’t last long. In the next instant, his consciousness was brutally pulled out by a bullet that descended from heaven.

The FBA and CIB agents suppressed by the automatic weapons behind cover were killed by the sniper rifle, one by one. Twelve armed militants dressed in black combat uniforms divided into three teams, and they pushed foward by firing alternatively. They began to surround the Xin Embassy and advanced forward.

The polices were forced to take cover behind the police cars and didn’t have an opportunity to fight back.

Fortunately, the SWAT response was as fast as ever.

Four police helicopters quickly arrived at the battlefield. The SWAT team, also dressed in black, quickly dropped onto the road after the helicopter approached the area. With automatic weapons, their firepower was far superior to the Los Santos police, but…

Boom!

Two gunshots.

One bullet hit the concrete pavement, and the other hit the helicopter’s propeller bearing and created a blinding spark. The helicopter hovering above the road slammed and crashed into the building on the side. The propeller was like rotating blades, slashing the concrete wall. The SWAT team that had yet to land on the ground were like grasshoppers strung on a rope and they crashed into the building.

When the helicopter was shot down, the sniper also exposed his own coordinates.

“Enemy sniper spotted, coordinates…”

“Roger, moving.”

The SWAT team that landed on the road immediately engaged in crossfire with the unidentified armed forces.

The two sides were equal in firepower, but in tactics, these SWAT units with countless experience were inferior to the unidentified armed forces.

Just then, a modified van rushed out of the nearby underground garage. The remote-controlled machine gun at the top unleashed fierce bullets at the SWAT and the police car. The police officers hidden behind the police cars could only watch the unidentified armed forces rush into the embassy.

“A heavy machine gun! God, it’s a heavy machine gun! Hell, how did they get this stuff into Los Santos?!” With his pistol clenched tightly, a police officer looked on in fear and shouted in a trembling voice.

“This is SWAT. The other party is equipped with heavy firepower. Requesting support. I repeat…” The SWAT captain leaned against the back of a cover and gasped for help from the headquarters.

Support was already on the way.

The Los Santos Police Department had dispatched all SWAT members in armored vehicles equipped with heavy weapons; they were headed to Venice Street. Unfortunately, they experienced a traffic jam on the way to Venice Street.

Like the explosion that took place at the entrance of the Xin Embassy, bombs were detonated on all major intersections and completely collapsed the surrounding traffic. The fleeing vehicles disregarded all traffic rules and emergency lanes and crashed together on the road. Even the casualties caused by the explosions weren’t greater than the casualties caused by traffic accidents experiencing a chain effect…

In the past decade or so, the UA encountered many terrorist attacks and shooting incidents, but it was the first time they engaged in crossfire with such strong firepower—no, they couldn’t be mere terrorists, everything about those attackers were more like mercenaries!

…

In Area 51 of Nevada, alarms rang out at the military base.

Jiang Chen, who started the optical illusion, stood on the roof of the radar station and looked in the direction of the airport. Two F-35 fighter jets left the hangar and headed to the runway before they lifted off in an emergency flight. On the tarmac, next to the Osprey helicopter, about 50 fully armed soldiers were assembled.

The entire military base was moving, but there was no sense of confusion.

The chaos came from outside the base, not inside.

After this point was made clear, Jiang Chen’s pumping heart gradually settled.

Just two minutes ago, he thought he was discovered. Against the encirclement of the entire military base, he had no confidence he could escape without exposing his power armor.

His relaxed state didn’t last long before he began to furrow his brows again.

The entire military base was on high alert. It meant that the situation must not be trivial. Predictably, the highway from Nevada to California was bound to be blocked. Even if the road wasn’t blocked, temporary checkpoints would be set up. However, Jiang Chen’s current identity might be difficult for police to inspect.

Not taking the highway? Directly cut through the desert?

Theoretically feasible, but the fighters had already taken off.

At this time, it was almost impossible to drive a car through the desert. While it was dark outside, an SUV with its roaring engine would be like a beacon on pilots’ thermal imaging. Jiang Chen didn’t think the pilots would just happen to miss the thermal imaging.

Hide here for the night?

That was even more unrealistic.

Once dawn arrived, it would be even harder to leave.

In the rare event Jiang Chen was feeling troubled, Zhu Yu called his watch.

Jiang Chen immediately answered the phone.

However, to his surprise, it was an unfamiliar voice.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen.”

An ominous feeling entered his head and Jiang Chen frowned.

“Who are you?”

“That’s not important.” The man’s voice was mixed a tone of victory. After a pause, he said, “I think we need to talk.”

Chapter 886: Hostage

The Xin Embassy was attacked by an unidentified armed force, and the entire Venice Street was shut down. A total of 14 civillians, 8 agents, 11 Los Santos polices, and 6 SWAT members were killed in the attack and 37 people were injured. Even the Los Santos SWAT team that came to support was also suppressed by the firepower of the enemy to be forced to take cover.

Yellow tape blocked off Venice Street. Police vans and reporters’ vehicles completely congested the area.

The journalists who weren’t afraid of death even set up cameras and brought first-hand information to the viewers around the globe. Although the Los Santos Police Department wanted to conceal their own failures, they couldn’t forcefully clear the area while facing so many cameras.

Ten minutes ago, all unidentified armed forces had already entered the embassy and engaged in fierce exchanges of fire with the security in the embassy. According to law, although security personnel in the embassy were allowed to possess weapons for self-defense, the weapons allowed into the embassy were limited to non-automatic weapons such as pistols.

With just a few pistols, it obviously wasn’t enough to fight those “terrorists” armed to the teeth. After finishing off several security personnel, the militants divided into three groups and broke through the embassy’s line of defense without much effort. They kicked down the wooden door blocked by a closet and rushed into the hall with rifles.

At that point, the mission was going well, but that was the end.

The captain lifted his fist and the three mercenaries behind him understood. They rushed to the stairs without a moment of hesitation. However, at that moment, a fierce wind attacked the captain from the side, cutting through his Kevlar material at his throat.

There was no screaming. One person out the team of four was already killed.

The soldiers rushing to the stairs immediately turned around, but the next scene stunned them.

Their captain stood there in a weird manner as if he was held by an unseen hand behind him. However, while they were stunned, their movements didn’t stop at all. Three guns fired and the crossfire penetrated the already dead captain.

Zhu Yu, who started the optical illusion module, held the body of the captain with her right arm like a shield. There was no fear on her face, even if the impact from her right arm almost dislocated her joint.

Even with her genetically-strengthened arm muscles, it was difficult to cut through Kevlar material with a fruit knife. She understood the situation and immediately threw away the fruit knife in her left hand without hesitation. She used her leg and picked up the assault rifle on the ground. Her left arm sandwiched the gun in her waist and returned fire at the staircase.

Very effective counterattack!

This type of unidentified rifle significantly enhanced its penetrating power, and the luxurious wooden stairs turned into sawdust. By using the short time gap when the enemy changed their clips, Zhu Yu suddenly dropped the body and rolled onto one side.

As long as she escaped the eyes of these mercenaries for two seconds, they wouldn’t be able to find her!

However, at that moment, a signal bomb was thrown from the upper floor. The bang flickered while the smoke moved up to the roof at the same time.

Zhu Yu was perplexed and couldn’t understand the significance of the move. At that moment, the water spraying down from the roof caused her heart to sink instantly.

The smoke of the signal bomb triggered the smoke alarm! While the alarm bells rang, the water sprinkling from the ceiling outlined her figure.

“Bang!”

Blood splattered on her shoulder and stained the water droplets a light red.

Strengthened bullets penetrated the thin layer of graphene material.

Zhu Yu kept her mouth shut and was just about to escape to the door. Another round of bullets hit her left leg. Without the slightest suspense, she stumbled down onto muddy floor tiles.

A muzzle pointed at her head and Zhu Yu closed her eyes.

However, the expected gunshot didn’t ring out. The other person used a force that almost stopped her breathing and stepped onto her slender neck with one foot. Followed by a dry cough, white foam mixed with water droplets flowed out of her mouth.

At that time, she saw with her blurred vision that a man was squatting in front of her. He lifted his mask and smiled.

“Is that the optical illusion model? We long suspected you might have mastered this technology. It seems we were correct.”

“Let me introduce myself, I’m Cham Rothschild. You can call me Mr. Rothschild. It’s a great surname. Am I right?”

“Then beautiful lady… can I borrow those headphones?”

Without intending to seek her consent, Cham pulled off the headset on Zhu Yu’s head.

[Talk?]

When the stranger said this sentence, countless thoughts flashed in Jiang Chen’s mind.

[Why’s he using Zhu Yu’s communication equipment?]

Zhu Yu was the first batch of Ghost Agents and was one of Ayesha’s favorite apprentices. Jiang Chen thought he treated her nicely and didn’t think she would betray him. After all, every Ghost Agent had an implanted chip when they entered the force. No traitor survived after betrayal. At the moment they were sworn in, their fate was tied to the chariot of Future Group.

With an absence of information, Jiang Chen chose the most conservative answer.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“My name is Cham Rothschild. You can call me Mr. Rothschild. Of course, in order to distinguish from my brother, you can also call me the Gatekeeper.” Cham smiled.

“And?” Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

“Oh?” Cham exclaimed with exaggeration, and a curvature formed with his lips. “It seems you’re not in Los Santos now, otherwise you should’ve found out what happened to your embassy.”

Jiang Chen didn’t speak, but his mind turned fast.

[What happened to the embassy? What could’ve happened?] At that time, Jiang Chen’s eyes fixed on the Osprey helicopter not far away. [What was happening that required the mobilization of Army support from Area 51?]

[Is it…]

Suddenly, a chill was sent down Jiang Chen’s spine.

Thinking of the other party’s attack in Frankberg, he thought of another, almost unbelievable possibility.

“Do you think I’m bluffing?” Cham shook his head and snapped his finger at the mercenary next to him. “Do you think silence can solve the problem?”

The mercenary raised his rifle and rammed the stock onto the fingers of Zhu Yu’s right hand.

“AHHH!” Even if the pain was about to drive her insane, Zhu Yu still defiantly suppressed her scream in her throat. Her bloodshot eyes stared at Cham through her mud-covered hair.

“If you don’t yell, I’ll be very upset.” Cham grinned then kicked away this despicable sight.

It was annoying no matter how many times he looked at it.

“Enough!”

Jiang Chen’s grave tone stopped Cham. His eyes were as cold as knife blades as he stared at the airport in the distance.

“Enough? Since that’s your request…” Cham shrugged and held back the foot he was about to kick out. “I was ready to slaughter a little mouse. Anyway, Mr. Jiang Chen won’t care about the death of a mouse. Especially if we have a valuable chip in our hands…”

Cham was laughing manically.

Jiang Chen quietly waited for him to finish laughing. The laugh gradually turned into panting and then he returned to normal.

“State your purpose.”

“Now all of Los Santos has been blocked, but I’m sure you’ll find a way back. Coordinates will be sent to your map. There’s a mobile phone on the roof of the target building. Pick it up and I’ll tell you what to do next.”

Here, Cham paused and changed into a relaxed tone.

“It’s easy, isn’t it? I hope I’ll receive your call in two hours.”

Without giving Jiang Chen an opportunity to answer, Cham hung up.

Chapter 887: It’s been a long time

It was the first serious terrorist attack in the nation since 9/11.

The FBA and the CIB were in a complete meltdown. No one knew how those fully armored fighters appeared, how they crossed the borders, nor how they cleared custom. Not to mention, how they transported the heavy firepowers to Los Santos.

Fifteen minutes passed since those terrorists entered the embassy and SWAT reinforcement finally arrived to surround the embassy with armored vehicles. The Los Santos Police Department never faced such an embarrassing defeat. The founder of the modern SWAT team, the LSPD SWAT team, was terrorized by the firepower of the terrorists.

After the terrorists secured the embassy, they mounted light machine guns at the windows and used the hostages at hand to threaten the special forces from approaching. These people neither submitted their requests nor expressed their intention to negotiate.

For a while the situation was in a stalemate.

Under the influence of the Internet, the impact of the attack spread across the country and around the globe through social media platforms.

The countless cameras and phones made Lawrence sweat profusely.

Two hundred meters away, his partner Brad was lying next to the car in front of the embassy. Although his brain was shattered by a sniper bullet, he could still recognize that the body belonged to his partner Brad.

He still could not imagine that after just stepping away for a few moments, a horrific incident unfolded.

[Terrorists sat in a truck and drove onto Venice Street openly. Did the CIB all become blind that they didn’t see that modified vehicle hidden inside the underground parking lot?]

At this time, Sheriff Michael William of the Los Santos Police Department got out of the car and came over to him.

“We can’t wait any longer, we should rush in immediately to save the hostages! The reporters are watching. The longer we delay this, the worse the situation will be for us. If the Army is not going to be here, get the SWAT team to do it—”

“Twenty embassy staff members, as well as Jiang Chen and his CEO. Even the Capitol doesn’t dare to take the risk with the hostages on their hands, do you understand what I mean Sheriff William?” Lawrence said with a stern look

“So we are just going to wait?” Michael looked to the embassy with disdain on his face.

“That’s all we can do.” Lawrence looked towards the embassy. Even from his position, he could only see a rough outline.

Just then, the phone rang.

Lawrence glanced at Sheriff William, and finally, William took the call.

Unsurprisingly, it was from the Capitol, and it was a call from the president. As soon as the phone was connected, she asked immediately.

“How is the situation over there?”

“It’s awful, we must plan for the worst—”

“Mr. William.” Hill interrupted him.

…

“Yes…?”

“I don’t care what method you use, I only care about one thing. Jiang Chen must be alive. Do you understand?”

Sheriff William held his breath. His throat moved, but no words could come out. It took him a while before he could articulate to the president.

“I understand.”

After hanging up, Hill rubbed her sore eyes and immediately phoned the Xin Presidential Palace at the far away Coro Island. With an incident of this scale, it was impossible to hide it. Being proactive would show more sincerity than waiting for the other party to call.

…

Even now, the UA side was still unaware that their most feared bargaining chip was now in the building.

Cham Rothschild also did not expect this. He searched through all possible hiding spots inside the embassy and still did not found Jiang Chen’s whereabouts. So the only possibility was that Jiang Chen deceived the FBA and did not stay in the embassy, instead, he sneaked elsewhere.

With optical illusion for cover, it should not be difficult to escape under the watch of the FBA.

Jiang Chen was absent. From this point of view, this operation already failed.

But luckily, Xia Shiyu was there, and they could use their backup plan.

According to Freemasonry intelligence, this woman named Xia Shiyu was not only the CEO of Future Group but also the lover of Future Group’s owner. However, Cham was uncertain whether or not she could be used as a bargaining chip to lure Jiang Chen out since there were many women that have relationships beyond friendship with Jiang Chen.

As for the title of CEO of the group, he didn’t think it would be useful. After all, for a behemoth like Future Group, they could get as many senior wage earners as they wish.

He was betting that Jiang Chen would go retrieve the phone and not go to the UA government and demand the immediate elimination of the terrorists in the embassy.

“The identity of the other party has been ascertained. Cham Rothschild is a member of the Rothschild family. He went missing with a total of 16 mercenaries led by him when he participated in a European mountaineering club event in 2009. He was previously a member of the Poison Arrow Special Forces…”

In the desert between Nevada and Cali, Jiang Chen was sitting in the cockpit of the Aurora-20. He was testing the aircraft’s instruments while listening to the report of the Ghost Agent deployed in Los Santos.

“Got it.”

“Is there anything else?” Penny asked.

“Go to a place for me. Someone might be waiting for me, so keep an eye on him. However, don’t make a move.” Jiang Chen reached out and clicked on the watch, and sent the coordinates that Cham had given him to Penny.

After receiving the coordinates, Penny bit her lip and was hesitant to speak.

“What’s the problem?” Jiang Chen asked.

“No, nothing…” Although she did not have the right to ask, she asked after a moment of hesitation, “…are, are you planning on giving up the people in the embassy?”

Her best friend and closest comrade-in-arms were in the embassy at the moment. If it were not for her superior’s order, she would be already trying to rescue her.

“Did I say that?” After checking the weapon system, Jiang Chen said expressionlessly.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, go to the coordinates now.”

Jiang Chen closed the communication channel, took a deep breath, and put his hand on the center stick.

Fifteen minutes ago, he slipped out of Area 51, rolled to across a sand dune with his quested speed, and reached the desert two kilometers away from the military base. Then, he returned to the apocalypse.

Half an hour later, Jiang Chen returned to the desert, and along with him, was a fully-loaded Aurora-20.

“In my opinion, you only have two hours of virtual flight time, and I’m afraid it’s not a good idea to directly operate the real machine.” Jean’s emotionless voice fluctuated in Jiang Chen’s ears but did not change his decision.

“I know.” After confirming that no steps were missed, Jiang Chen slowly closed his eyes. “Even for a talented pilot, one has to train for at least half a year.”

“This is my opinion,” Jean said.

“But it doesn’t apply to me.” When Jiang Chen said this as he opened his eyes.

His dark pupils were covered by a layer of crimson red.

In his field of vision, the previously strange instrument became familiar in his head.

Hidden genetic code – Peerless!

“It’s been a long time.” Muttering to himself, Jiang Chen pushed the throttle forward with his left hand, and skillfully adjusted the engine direction with his right hand.

Dust was blown away by the jet propulsion, and under the effect of the lift, the Aurora-20 bounced 20 meters vertically. After a short pause, the engine adjusted its direction and propelled forward. Like a stream of light, the Aurora-20 disappeared into the night sky…

Chapter 888: Hard Landing

“Will he go?” Sitting across from Cham, Gasol, the deputy captain of the team, asked in a deep voice.

“The probability is fifty percent, but it’s worth a bet.” Cham glanced at the machine gun placed on the window. “After all, we have no better choice.”

The embassy was surrounded by the SWAT. The muzzles mounted on the armored vehicles could be seen from the outside door, and even armed soldiers had shown up at the scene. If it was not for the fact that Jiang Chen and Xin diplomats weren’t in the embassy, forcing the Capital to remain extra cautious, the nature of never-compromising terrorists meant they would’ve already stormed in otherwise.

“If he went…” Gasol grinned. He seemed to be laughing, but there was a difference.

Cham laughed and leaned his rifle against the side of the chair.

“Steven will wipe our butt for us.”

As if he had already decided on his fate, the two men smiled, except they hadn’t given their own destiny the slightest consideration.

From the moment they came to Los Santos, they hadn’t planned on going back alive. For the gatekeeper, killing Jiang Chen meant he fulfilled his mission. He was worthy of the Rothschild’s last name and worthy of the significance that the Freemasonry gave him.

For Poison Arrow… they fought for faith and revenge.

“What about this person?” Gasol pointed his chin at Zhu Yu, who was lying in a pool of blood.

Because she wasn’t bandaged, the agent with excessive blood loss was barely alive. Without any medical attention, she might die soon.

Cham tapped on the railing with his finger, thought for a moment, and opened the headset.

The phone soon switched on, and Cham said slowly, “You have 30 minutes left. Maybe I need to remind you that our patience is limited.”

After the Peerless ability was activated, emotions were stripped from the body and Jiang Chen said expressionlessly, “Oh.”

Cham raised his eyebrows because Jiang Chen’s tone was unpredictable.

“In thirty minutes, if you haven’t appeared yet—”

“Five minutes is enough.”

The communication ended, and Cham paused and looked at Gasol.

“What’s wrong?” Gasol asked.

“I feel something is wrong,” Cham frowned.

…

Aurora-20, soaring above the clouds, didn’t attract the attention of the radar. After ending communication, Jiang Chen pulled up the throttle valve. Under his operation, the vortex engine began to decelerate, and the Aurora-20 also switched from flight mode to a vertical suspension mode.

The horizontal speed dropped to zero.

Jiang Chen reached out and unlocked the nylon buckle on his body, liberating himself from the shackles of the pilot’s seat.

The crimson red faded from his pupil, and his Peerless state was deactivated in an instant. Jiang Chen reached out to the control and threw the fighter plane into the storage dimension.

The cold air turbulence covered his body and he didn’t stay in the air for too long. In the next moment, he traveled to the apocalypse, and he touched the soft bed behind him.

The T-3 power armor was placed on the side of the bed. It was equipped with an anti-radar coating and exuded a touch of bright silver. The legs and feet were equipped with anti-impact modules, with a propulsion jetpack on the back. After he put on the power armor, he took a deep breath and disappeared from the room.

On Venice Street, the reporters’ cameras were all pointed at the occupied embassy far away and they were discussing the situation in front of the cameras. Los Santos police stood behind the police cars, clueless about what to do and they watched the SWAT, FBA and CIB agents who were equally at a loss.

Not far away, the UA military was holding a combat conference, but half an hour already passed since they first stepped out from the Osprey transport plane. There was still no action.

The Colombian TV reporter, Baine, kneeled on the side of the road and finished the hot dog in his hand swiftly. He wiped the grease from his hands and was just about to return to the camera when he heard a humming sound in the air.

Baine looked up into the clear night sky and thought for a moment.

He didn’t remember how many times this happened. The UA military’s F35 screeched past Los Santos, but it often returned to the nearby air base after only a brief hover. Maybe they thought this could pressure the terrorists? Or maybe this would let the people know that the federal government wasn’t just doing nothing.

But the truth was that they were doing nothing.

According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, embassy enjoyed a high degree of diplomatic immunity. In the absence of Xin’s authorization, breaking into the embassy wasn’t permitted, even if it was for rescue and attacking terrorists.

Yes, for some odd reasons, Xin rejected the UA’s request for authorization to enter the embassy. If the UA military entered the embassy at this time, the only way was to recuperate Xin’s right to use the Los Santos embassy lease. In short, the diplomats would’ve been expelled… The UA certainly couldn’t do that. Hill was actually relieved because Xin rejected the request for authorization.

They were up against fully armed mercenaries and rescue hostages. She really didn’t have confidence. However, if something were to happen to Jiang Chen, it would be difficult to ensure that those intercontinental missiles that stayed under the sea would still remain there.

The Capital spokesperson expressed “regret” to the domestic and foreign reporters for Xin’s refusal to authorize the UA military to enter Xin’s embassy. At the same time, it once again emphasized that any form of terrorism was the common enemy of all mankind, and the UA would absolutely not compromise to terrorism…

You see, it wasn’t that they didn’t act. It was Xin that prevented them from entering.

Shaking his head, Baine was ready to return his focus to his camera. However, at that moment, his eyes staring into the air were stuck in the sky and fixed above the embassy…

The flame engulfed the lower part of the power armor and looked like a striking meteor. Turbulence under the bowl-shaped anti-impact modules formed a burning cyclone, accompanied by a roar that broke the sound barrier and fell vertically through the roof of the embassy.

It was the blind spot of the militants within the embassy.

Jiang Chen’s eyes were locked onto the sloped roof. The heat source information of the enemy units had been marked in his field of vision. As for how he did it, it was through the chip implanted in the back of the Ghost Agent and the cameras in the embassy…

Without the slightest buffer, the power armor smashed into the roof directly with a hard landing. The three mercenaries in the hostage’s room were smashed into pieces, along with the bricks on the second floor ceiling and floor.

Outside Venice Street, reporters, policemen, SWAT, the Army in the meeting, and the crowd had only one expression. It was blank. They didn’t know what that thing was. When they managed to react, the thing had already penetrated through the Xin Embassy.

The entire embassy looked like it was bombarded and one corner was directly cut off.

The hostages curled up in the corner were equally as stunned. Because they were in the corner, the collapse that occurred didn’t cause too much damage to them, but the mercenaries who stood in the middle of the room weren’t so lucky…

The bloody mercenaries barely lifted their pistols and pointed at the steel monster standing up from the dust.

Jiang Chen pulled away the reinforced concrete in front of him, ignoring the spewed flames and bullets coming at him. He slapped away the pistol in a mercenary’s hand and grabbed his neck.

Blood splattered onto the surface of the steel armor, and the already fearsome armor was even more bloodthirsty..

Jiang Chen looked out the window and saw the soldiers and SWAT at the doorway about to make a move, but it was clear they hadn’t yet received authorization to enter the embassy… or rather, Jiang Chen, who contacted the Xin Presidential Palace, didn’t approve the authorization.

Turning around, Jiang Chen saw the horrified but calm eyes behind the ruins. Other than a few bruises on the forehead and being covered in dust, Xia Shiyu was uninjured.

Not only Xia Shiyu, but all diplomats were safe and sound.

After confirming the safety of the hostages, Jiang Chen was relieved.

He finally made it. Penny should also be in position.

Just at that time, the communication request was sent to Jiang Chen’s watch.

“Reached the target location.”

“You can start the execution,” Jiang Chen ordered.

“Roger.”

After receiving the order, Penny ended the communication.

A cruel smile appeared, and a deathly fierceness pierced out from his eyes. The triangular prismatic barrel emerged from his steel right arm and unleashed the roar of death in rotation. Jiang Chen crossed the rubble and threw out the ammunition-loaded Hummingbird drones from the storage dimension. After setting an order to protect the hostages, he followed the hallway forward.

A strong wind came from the side and the mercenary hiding behind the door slammed toward the steel helmet with a tactical short axe. This aggressive attack appeared to be flawless, but he apparently didn’t consider the hardness of Grade A steel. The axe blade didn’t even dent the helmet before his right arm was chopped off by a waving dagger.

Jiang Chen ignored the howling mercenary with blood gushing out from his arm. He continued to walk forward.

The mercenary crouching behind cover vented his fear with unleashed bullets and tried to use firepower to repel the slaughter armor. However, only jumping sparks reflected in their pupils. Even if the bullets were strengthened to counter against Celestial Trade’s kinetic skeletons, they couldn’t penetrate through the armor of the machine.

A grenade was thrown at Jiang Chen.

The exploding hot air scrapped the armor’s surface. Except for a series of slamming sounds, it didn’t give the scared mercenaries any comfort.

Fear didn’t last too long, including the pain that was about to arrive.

Jiang Chen lifted the minigun and pressed the trigger.

With orange trajectories, blood and fire ended their lives…

Chapter 889: It’s not up to you

The light bulbs flickered in the room. Cham supported his body with a rifle and shook his cloudy head to drive away the dizzy feeling. He struggled to get up from the ground. Gasol, who was previously sitting next to him, was similarly holding himself up with a rifle.

Just a moment ago, the entire embassy shook violently as if it was hit by a missile. The huge impact shattered all the ceilings and everything smashed on the ground. At the same time, the two were toppled and they also lost their balance.

“Sh*t, what happened?!” Gasol spat out and subconsciously glanced out the window.

Fortunately, the UA soldiers made no further moves.

“I don’t know.”

Cham, with an uncertain expression, squeezed the sentence out of his mouth and turned off the safety of the rifle.

“Should we execute the hostages?” Gasol said gravely.

“Execute some.”

If they didn’t respond to such provocative actions and allowed the other party to think they were bluffing, it would be problematic.

After finishing this sentence, Cham pulled out his pistol, and looked at where the girl on the ground.

However, to his surprise, the blood on the ground was still there, but she had disappeared.

Cham cursed.

He was careless. When the bullet broke through her combat suit, the optical illusion stopped functioning. Because he thought she lost her combat power and she wouldn’t have lived for long after the loss of blood, he just tied her up and tossed her to the corner.

Unexpectedly, this combat suit didn’t completely fail from the breakage…

Nor did he expect she could move even while being that injured…

Cham and Gasol raised their muzzles immediately and their narrowed pupils scanned the room. When the optical illusion moved, it would cause a slight ripple around the individual. With enough concentration, it wouldn’t be difficult to identify her movements.

Half a minute later, dense gunfire came downstairs, and a strong of sense uneasiness entered his mind.

What happened next confirmed his instincts.

The door was kicked open and Gasol lifted the muzzle out of his reflex. However, at that time, Zhu Yu moved.

With one hand, she pulled out the dagger on her waist, and in a flash of a second, the dagger cut open his throat. Not far away, Cham turned his gun, but he didn’t have time to aim before a dark shadow slammed from the doorway, sending him flying.

Cham was coughing out blood. He pushed off the body of a mercenary on top of him and he desperately tried to reach for his gun. However, three shots shattered his hopes.

“AHHH—” His left hand held onto his broken right hand. His face was twisted because of the sharp pain.

A flash of resoluteness entered his eyes. Relying on his strong will, he let go of his left hand holding onto his right arm and he reached for the detonator around his waist. The modified van parked in the garage was filled with 200 kilograms of explosives. As long as he pressed the detonator, the entire embassy would be lifted from the ground up.

However, when he pressed the detonator, the expected explosion didn’t happen.

The optical illusion was forcibly deactivated. Zhu Yu appeared beside Gasol’s body. The bloodstain on the body couldn’t be distinguished. A round tube resembling a can of Coke was nonchalantly tossed out from Jiang Chen’s hands and rolled slowly in front of Cham. However, he didn’t notice it. He just looked at the detonator with disbelief.

“Have you heard of EMP? You guys just don’t remember.” Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Impossible. It’s impossible… There’s a heating wire in the bomb. Even if there was EMP, it should directly trigger the bomb,” Cham mumbled, even forgetting his pain.

“We can make EMP bigger and naturally, we can also make it smaller. For example, the round pipe in front of you – we call it the EMP grenade.”

Without bothering with Cham, who was completely stunned, Jiang Chen went to Zhu Yu’s side and kicked away the fallen Gasol on her. He examined the gruesome wounds on her shoulders, sighed, and picked her up from the ground.

“You did a good job. Just rest for a while,” Jiang Chen whispered. He placed the unconscious girl on the couch, released the Beta-4 medical drone from the storage dimension and pointed it in her direction.

Cham stared blankly at this scene and was even more shaken and stunned.

He couldn’t understand where the drone came from.

He didn’t need to understand.

Because soon, he would take his last name with him and go to hell.

Jiang Chen walked in front of Cham, ignored the shaking pistol, nonchalantly took it away from him and threw it to the side.

“I heard you’re the Gatekeeper.”

Cold sweat rolled down from his forehead. Chan said with difficulty, “You…are you Jiang Chen?”

“Yes.”

“…” From Cham’s eyes, Jiang Chen saw a lot of emotions, and the most dominant emotion was disbelief.

Perhaps because of his position of high power, the Freemasonry had already equated him to the likes of Carmen Rothschild and Luke Joyce. They had forgotten about his past when he once single-handedly penetrated into IS territory and the Ukrainian theater. Before gaining today’s achievements, his combat power was already at the human pinnacle.

Even if he rarely used his own force, even Robert Downey Jr., the successor to Stark Industries, didn’t give his steel suits to his subordinates and completely retire behind the scenes.

Realizing he had underestimated Jiang Chen’s abilities, the detonator fell to the floor, and Cham’s fingers slowly slackened.

“I won’t tell you anything.”

Jiang Chen raised one of his eyebrows, and a needle emerged from his hand covered in steel.

“You don’t get to make that choice.”

In the eastern suburbs of Los Santos, on the 13th street of Knights Road, the originally illuminated streets had already merged into the curtain of the night. On the roof of a shopping mall building, the cold wind gusted wildly, but it still didn’t manage to cool his pumping heart.

Standing behind the roof’s water tank, Steven looked in the direction of the stairs. He repeatedly put his hands into his trench coat pocket, as if that cold metal texture could cool the restlessness of his heart.

[Will he come?]

Steven was unsure.

Jiang Chen wasn’t in the embassy and the operation already failed. The change from assassination to kidnapping was a forced change of plan, and this phone placed on the roof was the only insurance of this mission. However, no one could guarantee this insurance would work.

Based on the previous CIB mission in Gya, the other party had a record of them stepping into danger for the female CEO. However, people could change. If he really chose to collect the corpses for the entire Xin Embassy, they couldn’t do anything about the fact.

At that moment, a faint sound came from the stairs.

Steven immediately focused his attention. His hands slowly left his pocket, exposing the pistol hidden inside his trench coat.

The door quietly opened.

However, no one was there.

Steven stared at the stairway not far away, slowly turning off his pistol’s safety while holding his breath.

However, at that very moment, a cold sensation was pressed against the back of his head, causing his frantic heart to suddenly fall to the bottom.

A female voice came behind him.

“Don’t move.”

Chapter 890: The Value of the Chips

When the embassy was hit by the “missile”, Venice Street erupted. A corner of the embassy was cut off, exposing the steel beams inside. The splattered concrete blocks even hit the armored vehicles on the street, showing their powerful force.

The soldiers leaning behind the armored vehicles peeked out and looked at the chaotic embassy and exclaimed, “WTF? What was that?”

“A missile? Or something else?”

“It didn’t seem like it… Do you not think it looked like a person?”

If it weren’t for the police’s desperate attempt to stop the mob, those eager reporters would’ve rushed into the embassy to find out what it was. They were keen to know what exactly hit the embassy and they had every reason to believe that the audience waiting in front of the TV was also keen to know the truth.

The SWAT team leaned against the door of the embassy. Their automatic rifles were already loaded. They were just waiting for the commander to make an order before rushing in to teach the terrorists who had previously embarrassed them a lesson. However, Los Santos Sheriff Michael Williams appeared to be quite hesitant.

He didn’t obtain authorization from the Capital.

Or, the Capital didn’t receive authorization from Xin.

Lawrence leaned against the street light and pressed his phone to his ear. This was already the tenth call he received. Half the calls came from the Capital and half came from the FBA. Everyone had the same questions: What happened? What actually hit the embassy? Are the people in the embassy still alive?

As well as…

Did a war start?

Lawrence noticed the people outside the cordon hadn’t realized the seriousness of the situation with the corner of his eye. Many people were busy uploading their captured photos to Twitter or Facebook, sharing their shock from that moment.

“I swear! I just saw it! It definitely wasn’t a missile. It was a man! No, it’s Iron Man! Jesus! This is crazy!”

“…Do superheroes really exist?”

“Why are our police still not moving? What are they waiting for?!”

Lawrence withdrew his gaze and sighed, turning his gaze to the half-collapsed embassy and praying.

[Please let everything be okay…]

…

Smoke blew out from the muzzle. Jiang Chen put away his tactical rifle and deactivated his power armor.

Having obtained the information he wanted, Jiang Chen naturally didn’t need Cham Rothschild to live anymore. As a distant member of the Rothschild family, his blood was separated from Carmen by more than three generations. He didn’t have any value as a bargaining chip.

As a Gatekeeper, he knew much more than Jiang Chen imagined.

Every time the Freemasonry Level 33 members held a secret meeting, he stood at the doorway of the conference room. Although he didn’t deliberately explore the contents of the meetings, he still had a very clear understanding of the list of the Level 33 members and the location of the meetings.

After taking out his satellite phone, Jiang Chen put the rifle aside and sat on the sofa, dialing Ayesha’s number.

“Are you okay?!”

There was a rare anxiety and panic in Ayesha’s voice.

Hearing that familiar voice, Jiang Chen smiled with relief.

“I’m fine. The crisis at the embassy has been dealt with. In addition, I’ve obtained a lot of interesting intelligence from the Gatekeeper.”

Ayesha made a sigh of relief and whispered in a blaming voice, “Next time… don’t do this.”

“Don’t worry, I know my limits,” Jiang Chen said carelessly, leaning against the cushion on the sofa. He then said, “The rest of my job is to tie the loose ends. I need you to send more people to Europe. It’s time for this to end.”

Ayesha closed her eyes and said seriously, “Leave it to me.”

“Also, let Zhang Yaping know. I need the Xin government to put pressure on the UA government. There’s an interesting confession in my hands; it happens to belong to a CIB agent.” Jiang Chen grinned. “It will be a breakthrough for us to blackmail the Capital.”

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen stretched his body and looked at Zhu Yu lying on the other sofa.

The Beta-4 drone provided her wounds with a simple treatment. It was hovering next to her after completing the task. Jiang Chen called the drone back through the holographic screen and threw it back to the storage dimension.

The drones downstairs were still hovering at the door to the hostage room, but there were no mercenaries alive left in the entire embassy. The power armor couldn’t be disguised anymore and many rescued embassy staff would become suspicious about this. The reason why he wasn’t in the embassy was also something that had to be kept a secret.

Although there were a lot of problematic things, Jiang Chen knew Xia Shiyu would surely think of a solution for him.

After dealing with the aftermath, while the outside world remained shocked by the situation inside the embassy, Jiang Chen had a phone conversation with the Capital.

After the call was connected, Jiang Chen unceremoniously exerted dominance in the conversation and used a furious yet calm tone.

“Madame Hill, I need an explanation for this attack.”

“I really am sorry for the incident that happened to you and the staff of your embassy, Mr. Jiang Chen. I understand your anger and pain, but please believe me – we were also the victims of terrorism. Forty UA citizens died in the attack. Some of them were police officers and citizens. They could be fathers of children, husbands of wives—”

Although her tone was quite sincere, it undoubtedly avoided any responsibility and portrayed the UA as the victim. As a former secretary of state, Hill was undoubtedly a tough opponent on diplomatic issues.

However, Jiang Chen mercilessly interrupted her.

“Do you want to listen to a recording first?” Jiang Chen grinned.

Hill paused for a moment and didn’t understand what Jiang Chen meant.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Leaving this sentence, Jiang Chen opened the holographic screen of the watch and played the recording Penny obtained.

(Wind)

Ghost Agent: “What are you doing here?”

Steven: “Just in case.”

Ghost Agent: “What do you mean by ‘just in case’?”

Steven: “Literally… if he comes, I will kill him. If he doesn’t come, then the mission fails…”

Ghost Agent: “Who is he?”

Steven: “Your boss, Jiang Chen.”

When the recording was played halfway, Jiang Chen noticed that the breathing on the other side of the phone almost stopped. Half a minute after he turned off the recording, there wasn’t a single word.

The CIB was suspected of murdering foreign key personnel visiting and even colluded with terrorists. Once exposed, this scandal wouldn’t only destroy the diplomatic credentials of the UA for decades, but it would even shake the foundation of the current federal government. If the Republican Party used this to challenge the current government, Hill might become the president with the shortest term of the UA in the century.

As Jiang Chen expected, it was a sufficient bargaining chip.

With a curvature forming on his lips, Jiang Chen leaned back on the sofa, patiently waiting for Hill’s reply.

“If you don’t remember Steven’s name, I can help you out. His identity is the CIB’s agent supervisor, belonging to the Ukrainian Action Group. Now, he’s in our hands.”

With a long silence, Hill no longer avoided the question and said, “Be straightforward. What do you want?”

Chapter 891: Annihilate

“When we were interrogating Steven, we learned an interesting piece of information. After attending the governor’s party, he returned to the Capital. And after he came out of the CIB headquarters, he met a Jewish man and received a sum of money from him.”

“His name?” Hill asked.

“I don’t know.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “As long as he is not stupid, he will not introduce himself to Steven.”

Hill said, “We can’t convict someone because a Jewish man bribed him.”

Jiang Chen laughed and then continued.

“Madame Hill, you have been in the Capital for too long. Is it still unclear? There are some things we don’t need to prove at all. We just need to know who the enemy is.”

There was a brief silence.

Seeing that she still did not provide a stance, Jiang Chen continued.

“Since the beginning of the Thirteen Colonies, the forces of Freemasonry have been entrenched in the UA for too long. Its roots already permeate every inch of the country. Look at the current Europe and what they have done there. Since they were able to oust Merkel by special means yesterday, who can guarantee that Hill will not step down tomorrow? Think of what happened Kennedy, who was one of the few presidents in the history of the UA who was not part of the Freemasonry.”

“Just then, they launched a team of special forces to kill me, and even instigated a senior CIB official. If this did not go over the bottom line of your country, then I really feel sorry for you.”

After finishing this sentence, Jiang Chen stopped speaking. He knew that with the situation evolving to this point, the Capital would inevitably make a “correct” choice. Or rather, the money bag WASP Consortium behind Hill would make the right choice for her.

Silence continued for a while, and Hill slowly began to speak.

“I need to discuss this with my chief of staff.”

She must discuss this matter with someone.

“I hope I can hear good news before dawn.” Jiang Chen smiled.

…

The terrorist attack that happened last night swept across the country like a tsunami. There was no terrorist organization that claimed to be responsible for the attack.

However, instead of guessing who the attackers were, people were talking about who actually rescued the hostages in the embassy.

When the “unknown force” hit the embassy, someone captured what happened with their phone. Although the short one-frame scene appeared blurry, people could still clearly distinguish that it was not a missile, but a humanoid steel armor!

When they saw photos, many people climaxed.

Most of them were fans of Iron Man.

It was hard to imagine that Iron Man really existed. And just a few streets next to Hollywood?

“…Based on the number of camera frames and the analysis of the picture, the speed of a falling humanoid object should be above the speed of sound, or at least close to the speed of sound. Perhaps it was another technology from Future Group? After all, from my personal knowledge, I have not heard of a weapon that could be deployed at this speed through hard landing. If the steel armor is piloted by a person, striking the ground at the speed of sound would undoubtedly break it the person into pieces…if there is no protection.” A military expert analyzed.

“… An Army Captain, who did not want to be named, said in an interview after the attack. The Capital urgently mobilized a company of force from the nearby military base. The unit was from Area 51 at the junction of California and Nevada. According to informed sources, the mysterious steel armor may be a secret weapon developed by the Pentagon.” Colombia reported.

“The hostages have been confirmed to be safe. After the security confirmation by the Los Santos Police Department, they already lifted the blockade on Venice Street. At present, the Xin Embassy has not accepted any interview with reporters. The FBA requested to enter the embassy for investigation, but Xin has not approved the FBA’s request for the time being,” The New York Times reported.

However, while people were discussing with enthusiasm about “the one that saved the hostages,” a financial earthquake had quietly begun.

The source was located on Wall Street, from Goldman Sachs Group headquarters.

When people stepped onto Wall Street, they discovered that Goldman Sachs Group’s building was surrounded by FBA personnel and police cars. Shortly afterwards, Goldman Sachs Group CEO Lloyd Blankfein was handcuffed and assisted out of the Goldman Sachs building in a low-key manner. Then he was taken away in a FBA’s car.

Subsequently, the Capital issued relevant announcements and launched investigation procedures for Goldman Sachs with a total of 17 charges including financial fraud. Subsequently, the Capital held a press conference to explain the legality of the investigation process.

Goldman Sachs Group definitely would not concede. It immediately issued an announcement on its official website about a press conference, accusing the Capital’s decision to be without legal ground, and claimed that these 17 counts were supported by false evidence. In addition, Goldman Sachs Group’s lawyer team would actively respond to all accusations.

The Capital’s move also alerted Congress.

The Goldman Sachs Group belonged to the two major families of Goldman and Sachs, both of whom were of Germanic Jewish descendants and were linked by a marriage relationship. The name of the Goldman Sachs Group was derived from the names of the two big families. After the Second World War, the two families started to show differences and the Sachs family became the actual controller of the Goldman Sachs Group.

The Sachs family was one of the leaders of the North American Freemasonry.

The Capital’s attack on the Freemasonry at this point in time made it impossible for people not to relate it to the tragedy that happened at the West Coast last night.

The Goldman Sachs Group was being investigated and the entire Wall Street was rattled.

No financial group had a clean record, but since everyone was part of a country governed by law, everything must be determined by law and evidence. The UA Department of Justice, without conclusive evidence, used the FBA to apprehend the CEO of Goldman Sachs. There was no doubt the FBA had violated regulations.

The Goldman Sachs lawyer team was ready to respond, and was even ready to sue the Justice Department. In a country where power was divided into three pillars, as long as the best lawyers were hired, black could be turned into white. Goldman Sachs had complete confidence that it could win this lawsuit.

However, the real battlefield was not in court.

Regardless of whether the charges were true or not, the scandal involving alleged fraud by a world-famous financial group had triggered a credit crisis that shook its stock price and it even spread the effect to the entire financial community. On the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on the same day, the Goldman Sachs Group, with a market value of 70 billion US Dollar, plummeted, sharply pulling down the Dow Jones Index by three percent.

At the same time, Morgan Stanley, another big investment bank in the UA, immediately began the acquisition of Goldman Sachs Group and its assets. Some financial analysts commented that if the Department of Justice gave the nod to the merger and purchased Goldman Sachs. A never-seen-before financial giant may be created on Wall Street.

Also interested in Goldman Sachs was Future Bank. While Morgan Stanley was acquiring Goldman Sachs Group, Futures Bank North America Subsidiary also began to increase its shares of Goldman Sachs Group.

The entire Goldman Sachs Group was pushed to the edge of the cliff, and the Sachs family’s control of the financial empire had fallen to a precarious level.

People aware of the situation could clearly see that Future Group and the North American WASP Consortium no longer disguised their desire and revealed their claws against the Jewish Consortium. If Goldman Sachs falls, Wall Street would undoubtedly face a reshuffling at an unprecedented scale.

Many people sensed something unusual.

The sky was about to change.

Chapter 892: You should feel honored

The tragedy on Venice Street cast a gloom over the bright skyline, but people’s lives were not greatly affected. The streets of Los Santos were still bustling, but something seemed missing from the usual propersity. The waves of the financial tsunami from East Coast already arrived on the shaky West Coast.

Revolving around Morgan Stanley’s merger and acquisition plan for Goldman Sachs, financial markets throughout North America and even the rest of the world were restless. The originally turbulent crude oil market was already dragging down the global economy, and now the financial turmoil on Wall Street has pushed the crisis to its peak.

For the WASP Consortium, it was a golden opportunity. Since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, only one investment bank was left that supported the influence of Freemasonry on Wall Street. If the Goldman Sachs Group was to be acquired by Morgan Stanley, then North America wouldreturn to the Anglo-Saxon embrace and send the unwelcomed Jews back to Europe.

From the budding of the financial industry in North America three hundred years ago, the conflict between Jews and Protestants was already the fuse for conflicts between the two sides. Although both parties had reached an agreement, the competition and hostility between them never changed.

If it were before, the UA Department of Justice would absolutely not allow Morgan Stanley to complete the acquisition of Goldman Sachs Group. A united Wall Street was not in the interests of the federal government. Even if Hill’s campaign funds were partially supported by the Morgan family, the relationship between them was not one of superior and subordinate but a cooperative one. The president would seek benefits for the “sponsor”, but there was the premise, that it must be within a reasonable range. The two sides maintained an unspoken understanding of cooperation and competition and formed the North American campaign ecology…

However, the emergence of Future Group tipped the balance.

The CIB participated in the Los Santos attack, forcing the federal government in an awkward position. If Jiang Chen made the evidence public, the federal government must face not only the condemnation of the international community but also domestic pressure.

After all, it was not just the securities of Xin Embassy that died. There were civilians, FBA agents, Los Santos police, and even the CIB’s own agents. The Republican Party was eyeing the president’s position. If Hill could not handle the aftermath of this incident, she would likely face impeachment from Congress…

Therefore, under the influence of external factors, the Ministry of Justice acquiesced with Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisition plan.

If Jiang Chen proposed for Future Bank to acquire Goldman Sachs, the Capital would certainly not agree. However, since the acquisition was from Morgan Stanley, Hill kept an eye open and an eye closed. Although the ownership of the company had changed, it was still in the hands of UA Citizens.

The merger and acquisition plan was for up to 50 billion US Dollars, and the assets involved were in the 100 billion range.

Even the Morgan family could not digest the astronomical amount of assets alone. Many investment banks, including First B City Bank and Brown Brother Harriman Bank, sent representatives to contact partners at Goldman Sachs to gain a share in this robbery.

Future Group did not stand on the sideline. Futures Bank CEO David Smith immediately flew to New York City after receiving a call from Jiang Chen. As a former Citibank executive, mergers and acquisitions were his expertise.

Jiang Chen gave him a budget of 5 billion US Dollars to acquire as much of Goldman Sachs’ assets or share as possible.

The CEO was investigated and the FBA’s vehicles surrounded the headquarters of the group. The investor’s panic mood was reflected in the freefalling stock price. In order to control the ownership of Goldman Sachs, the Freemasonry was forced to sell assets to obtain liquidity and buy back stocks from the wavering shareholders.

The financial market was filled with chaos. Outside the financial sector, there was also mayhem.

…

The Capital did not ask too much about what hit the embassy on that day. However, major UA media showed strong interest. CBS parked a team in front of the Xin Embassy and waited for the mysterious hero who was wearing the “iron and steel armor” to appear.

However, they were going to be disappointed.

Because the main building of the embassy was seriously damaged, there were still a few days before the start of the Summit. Jiang Chen resided in the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco. Because this was done secretly, he did not attract the attention of media reporters when he left.

It was already a few days later when the media realized that Jiang Chen was not there.

“The biggest individual shareholder of the Goldman Sachs Group, Stephen Sachs, was found dead in his home. The cause of death was a bullet in the head. At present, the FBA has been involved in the investigation and initially confirmed that the suspect is a middle-aged man. He was arrested and jailed for burglary in 2013 and was a repairman at a car repair company after his release.”

As if he was deliberately reading it to Jiang Chen, Lawrence, sitting in the driving seat, took the newspaper and read it casually when Jiang Chen stepped into the vehicle.

“Oh my. What a sad story,” Jiang Chen put on his seat belt and said nonchalantly.

“Was it you?” Lawrence glanced at Jiang Chen.

According to pieces of evidence gathered by the FBA, weapons and equipment used by Cham may be provided by the Sachs family. The Jewish businessman who had previously been in contact with Steven was probably a member of the Sachs family.

“Of course not.” Jiang Chen looked at Lawrence’s skeptical expression and smiled. “My dear friend, why do you think I did it? In fact, with a dispute involving hundreds of billions of dollars of interest, there is no need for me to do anything. They will do everything for me.”

Lawrence did not respond and defaulted to Jiang Chen’s explanation. He put the newspaper aside and started the car.

The traces of bullet holes were still visible on Venice Street, but the broken shop windows were replaced with new ones. The dark burn marks in the middle of the road were cleaned and repainted. The car left Venice Street and headed toward San Francisco.

Xia Shiyu and Zhu Yu were in another car, and four black vehicles surrounded them from all four sides.

Compared to a few days ago, Jiang Chen could clearly feel that the security level had been at least doubled. Obviously, the UA did not plan to be embarrassed twice, let alone at the last moment.

However, security work was not to be blamed for the last attack. If it weren’t for Steven to weaken the security around the embassy, with just a dozen mercenaries, they wouldn’t even be able to touch the door of the embassy.

Soon the vehicles arrived at the airport.

When Jiang Chen stepped out, Lawrence said.

“Right, someone asked me to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“At noon yesterday, the Director of CIB, Naomi Madden, submitted his resignation.” When he said this, Lawrence stared into Jiang Chen’s eyes.

“Maybe I should be happy?” Jiang Chen mocked Lawrence.

“You should feel honored that at least two CIB directors resigned because of you.”

Jiang Chen shrugged.

He agreed with Lawrence very much.

Especially the choice of words “at least”.

Presumably, in the near future, there would be plenty of opportunities for the two parties to mingle with each other.

Chapter 893: An Important Person

Silicon Valley Summit commenced as scheduled. Because of the participation of Future Group, the summit was added with a flavor of leading-edge technology.

Although the organizer previously considered the impact of the terrorist attack and had the thought of canceling the summit, after consultation with the parties involved, the summit filled with high expectations, commenced.

In the exhibition, Future Group reached an import and export agreement of graphene materials with 117 large and medium enterprises and established Coro island as the trading hub for global graphene materials.

In addition, Future Group acquired a pharmaceutical company in Silicon Valley for 5.1 billion US Dollars and the company would be be responsible for the sales of the Beta-4 drone in North America after restructuring with Future Medicine.

In cloud technology, Future Group also garnered great results.

A total of 171 tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, entered into a supercomputer lease agreement with Future Group, relying on quantum satellite transmission speeds to obtain information processing services provided by the Supercomputing Center on Coro Island. In terms of cost, the Coro Island Supercomputing Center was only half of the cost of the Silicon Valley Supercomputer Center.

Perhaps Future Group’s direct income was similar to the two companies, but the market prospect was substantially greater.

With the gradual increase in the popularity of the Internet, cloud technology was the trend of the future.

In the near future, there would be fewer and fewer personal servers, and even the vast majority of work would be done on the cloud. Maybe someday in the future, a CPU or even a computer won’t be needed, only a browser would be needed to enjoy high performance service.

Strictly speaking, the Phantom helmet was an application of cloud technology.

The three-day Silicon Valley Summit ended. Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu returned to Los Santos. The trip to the UA was nearing its end. Before returning to Xin, “The Time Curtain” co-produced with Warner Bros. hit the theater and the premiere was held at the China Grand Theatre in Hollywood.

Jiang Chen originally also planned to walk the red carpet, but since Time Warner and Future Group both invested a lot of promotional resources and the premiere event was bound to be quite chaotic, for security reasons, Jiang Chen gave up on the idea. Instead, he immediately boarded a plane returning to Xin.

…

The Gulfstream aircraft took off from Los Santos International Airport. Jiang Chen looked at the city disappearing in the distance and felt relieved

The battle with the North American Freemasonry forces was not yet over, but he himself was not suitable to stay there any longer. The WASP Consortium gained the upper hand. Although the old European consortiums like the Rothschild extended a helping hand, the UA obviously would never allow these European consortiums to tap into Wall Street.

The Freemasonry forces in North America declined to the lowest in history. Unwilling to succumb behind the scenes, they already alarmed the UA.

For Jiang Chen, it was also the best time to get rid of the Freemasonry.

When he returned to Xin, the European mission would begin.

Sitting opposite of Jiang Chen, Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen, who was immersed in thought, and showed confusion for the fourth time in her eyes.

When the embassy was captured by terrorists, she thought she was dead. However, when she saw Jiang Chen wearing a power armor come alone to save her, she only felt the softness in her heart that had been buried for a long time once again be touched.

Perhaps the love for romance was the nature of every woman, or maybe it was just because work occupied her heart for too long. Recalling that night, when she expressed herself after being drunk, her face began to blush.

Only if she could maintain that state forever…

Confusion gradually faded from her eyes, Xia Shiyu suddenly woke up and shook her head repeatedly to drive the unhealthy thought out of her mind.

[No, he already has a girlfriend…]

If she was to become a mistress, disregarding that she won’t be able to accept the fact herself, her parents certainly won’t accept this.

[What’s more, he has been avoiding…]

When she thought about this, her heart could not help but feel sour. Although Jiang Chen did not do anything or say anything, the sensitivity of the woman made her feel faintly aware that he had been avoiding her feelings. She had noticed this when they were in Wanghai.

With a bizarre expression, Jiang Chen saw her blushing, shaking her head, and then feeling conflicted. He didn’t know what kind of thoughts were in her mind.

After thinking about it, Jiang Chen asked in a concerned voice.

“Do you feel okay?”

Jiang Chen’s sudden words made Xia Shiyu, who was in the middle of a bewildered thought, jump up. She wanted to say something but nothing came out of her mouth.

Jiang Chen became more and more convinced that his guess was correct, then he stood up.

“I’ll help you get some motion sickness pills.”

However, as he was prepared to leave the seat, Xia Shiyu grabbed his cuffs and responded to Jiang Chen’s caring gaze with, “I’m fine.”

Jiang Chen said, “Are you really okay? You don’t look so okay.”

Xia Shiyu gently bit her lower lip, after indulging in a long silence, she whispered out the words that did not coincide with the situation.

“…Why did you come to save me?”

Jiang Chen paused for a second, then laughed.

“Do you need a reason?”

“But they were targeting you! If…”

Jiang Chen interrupted Xia Shiyu’s slightly emotional words.

“No one can act with indifference when an important person to them is in danger. I just did what I wanted to do.”

Xia Shiyu could no longer distinguish the latter part of the sentence.

At this moment, her head was buzzing.

This feeling was like her heart and soul being immersed in sweet honey, and her long-buried feelings finally received a response.

[Important person…]

…

After getting off the plane, Ayesha rushed into Jiang Chen’s arms and only let go of him after a long time. The two sapphire eyes that could speak were filled with worry and longing.

Jiang Chen rubbed her soft chestnut hair and kissed her on her forehead.

“Sorry to have worried you.”

Xia Shiyu’s had a complicated look on her face.

When Jiang Chen kissed Ayesha forehead, that nasty feeling was back.

In order to make herself feel better, she quietly looked way.

What she did not notice, however, was that her little trick had already been spotted by a little girl.

The sapphire-like eyes moved back and forth several times between Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu. A sweet smile suddenly appeared on Ayesha’s face.

Xia Shiyu, who sensed Ayesha’s gaze, subconsciously looked to her. However, for some strange reasons, the curvature of her lips made her heart beat faster. It was like a child who did something wrong was discovered by an adult.

Their eyes only met for less than one second before her eyes fled and looked toward Jiang Chen, who was shaking hands with President Zhang.

It took her a while before she hid away the unnatural emotions in her.

Based on Jiang Chen’s request, the Xin government did not make a grand appearance, but President Zhang Yaping personally came to the airport. It was not only Zhang Yaping who came to the airport, but also other political leaders of Xin and members of the Liberal Party. It took a while just to shake hands with everyone.

When Jiang Chen was busy interacting, Ayesha quietly walked to Xia Shiyu and whispered in her ear.

“Can you come with me?”

Chapter 894: Great Synagogue

For most foreigners, the name Pilsner may be unfamiliar. However, when it comes to Pilsner beer, many people would surely have heard the name.

Pilsner is a distinctive town compared to many other towns in the Czech Republic. Known for its architectural or medieval monuments, it was a metropolitan area located in the western region of Czech Republic. Famous for the automotive and the beer industry, it was where one of the three most famous Czech beers originated and the place of production for the famous Skoda in Eastern Europe.

Most of these industries were assets of the Rothschild family.

And the assets totalling more than one billion dollars included the world-famous Great Synagogue. Although almost destroyed in the hands of the Nazis in World War II, more than half a century later, this ancient church was repaired. While some marks of history disappeared, the appearance was no different than the past.

In the synagogue, Jewish people were praying. The bearded Cantor gentled caressed the Torah in his hand and read the unknown prayers in Hebrew. Brass-colored candle holders were engraved into the ancient wall and candles swayed with flickering lights.

There was a heavy wooden door behind the synagogue. Underneath the door handle, an illuminati eye the size of a thumb was engraved onto the surface. Passing through the wooden door, a spiral corridor with dry stone steps led to underneath the ground. At the end of the corridor was a wine cellar with a stone wall on the side. The stone wall couldn’t be opened from the outside, and the door would open only if the password matched.

After passing through the stone door, the claustrophobic feeling suddenly disappeared, and the underground of the church became open again. Persian rug worth more than the price of gold and diamond stretched over the length of the floor. The hallway was decorated by mahogany wood carvings, and on the table were ancient silverwares, all of which highlighted the luxury of this place.

This was the heart of the synagogue and the heart of the Freemasonry.

At the end of the hall was a conference room. The door was open, and a young man stood at the door. There should have been two people standing there, but one of them decided to stay in North America forever. Now there was only one.

When a secret meeting was held, they were the guardians of the Covenant.

When they were needed by the secret meeting, they would become the hounds that seeked vengeance.

There were only few times in history they were sent out for mission, but they rarely failed. The more famous ones were Kennedy and 115 related witnesses, and the hero of the Civil War, Lincoln. These assassinations were masterpieces of their work.

However, coincidentally, they only missed three times in a century.

Except for the head of state who conquered Europe, the other two were all Chinese.

At the conference table, thirteen Level 33 members of the Freemasonry were already seated around the table. The lord who sat at the top of the table glanced around and his eyes stopped on the “stranger”, who took a seat on the chair that belonged to the Rothschild family.

“Where is Carmen?”

“He’s in Sweden and he can’t make this meeting.” James Rothschild crossed his fingers on the table and the gold ring on his fingers glittered under the candles. “My dear brother asked me to represent the Rothschilds at this meeting. He has finally realized my value.”

The immediate blood of the thirteen families were automatically Level 33 members, but just like Level 33 members did not just belong to the members of the thirteen largest families, not all Level 33 members were eligible to attend this meeting.

Only the owners or heirs of the thirteen families could speak at the conference table.

Several members at the conference table exchanged looks with each other and saw strange expressions in each other’s eyes.

The Rothschild family was the leader of the European consortium, James Rothschild, of course, was not an unfamiliar name. As the youngest son of the Rothschild, Mr. James also received a certain degree of inheritance rights. However, compared to his brother, James’ talent was not particularly outstanding, or that his talent was not in the family business, but on women’s belly. Even though he repeatedly tried to prove that his talent, people could see the difference between James and Carmen.

Just from the undisguised proudness on James’ face, the talents of the two were not on the same level.

Not keeping his eyes on him for too long, the Lord put the focus back on the meeting.

“I believe that you must have known before coming. Our compatriots’ actions in North America have failed.”

The expressions on everyone’s faces were not pleasant, except for the one representative that just received permission to participate in the meeting, Mr. James, who was eager to prove his worth in front of his allies.

As soon as the Lord finished speaking, James Rothschild immediately stood up and began to speak in an aspiring tone.

“Gentlemen, this is not the time to be depressed. We should formulate more effective plans to kill the threat that is threatening us in its cradle. I propose that we should directly attack Coro Island, which is the foundation of Future Group. As long we promote hatred to Future Group among the people of Xin, we will be able to nurture pro-Europe forces in Xin, create riots, and let Future Group be consumed in a civil war…”

The Krupp family representative, who was sitting across from James, frowned slightly and looked at the Bruce family representative next to him. They each saw a bit of helplessness in each other’s eyes.

[Creating riots? It’s easier said than done.]

The Future Group has unimaginable prestige in Xin. The Freemasonry certainly considered the option of transporting refugees to Xin to drag down the country’s economy, and to shake the foundation that allowed Future Group to maintain its monopoly position.

However, the Xin government did not like the idea at all. Or rather, Asia, who shared a strong patriotic view, never believed the idea that their country must save everyone around the world. Even in their past attempts to convince human rights organizations to protest, the Xin government never took them seriously.

The Level 33 member meeting was not the company’s regular morning meeting. This impassioned speech did not make any sense. The meeting’s focus was to discuss how to deal with the decline of the Freemasonry North America forces and the rise of the WASP Consortium fueled by the Morgan family’s acquisition of Goldman Sachs Group.

The other side already used the dirtiest tactic of assassination. Obviously it planned to settle the grudge with the North American Jewish Consortium and no longer considered the consequences. If the Goldman Sachs Group was acquired by Morgan Stanley, it would signal that the Freemasonry is kicked out of Wall Street, and the effect on their assets in North America would be incalculable!

However, they had no rights to say this, after all, they were the first ones to use the assassination tactic.

“Mr. Rothschild, that’s enough.” The Lord smiled and nodded to James. He gestured and signaled him to sit back down.

Although James still wanted to say something, the Lord had already spoken. James, who was about to continue his speech with his mouth already open, decided to stop. He shrugged and sat back down.

“We should discuss some more constructive issues. Allies in North America need our support. The trouble now is the UA government. If the Foreign Investment Commission insists on delineating our capital, the Sachs family will have a hard time resisting the siege from the WASP Consortium.” The Krupp family representative stood up, looked at his allies, and spoke in a serious tone, “We can start with the WTO and accuse the UA of protectionism in the takeover of Goldman Sachs Group and barriers to investors from Europe.”

“As long as European capitals can enter Wall Street, it is not difficult to keep Goldman Sachs. Lehman Brothers’ tragedy cannot be repeated!”

“As for Future Group, we can try to contact them and release peaceful signals. Russia is pressing harder on the Ukrainian issue. North American allies have been hit hard. Now is not the best time to deal with them. We can put them aside first and use the European market as a bait, they have no reason to refuse us.”

Including the honored Lord, the representatives of the families present all nodded.

The European Consortium accumulated wealth for centuries. It wouldn’t be a difficult task to spare billions to keep the Goldman Sachs Group alive. The minerals held by the major mining giants in the world were calculated to be worth trillions of dollars.

As for Future Group, as long as it was a business, who would say no to money? Although there were some “little” unpleasantness between the two sides, the frictions between the two parties already existed. Since Future Group chose to remain silent before, there was no reason to believe they would make a different choice this time.

Just throw a bait, and perhaps they could convince Future Group to join forces…

“I agree with Mr. Krupp’s proposal.”

“I oppose. We have already decided to take a different path with Future Group. If we make concessions at this point, they may not necessarily accept our good intentions.”

“We can release a peaceful signal first with the goal to stabilize Future Group, or Russia. It is not wise to face too many enemies at the same time. We must first solve our North American issue, and then consider the others.”

“We can’t give up on the assassination against Jiang Chen, but next time we have to be more secretive! As long as Future Group doesn’t have him, the group is nothing at all.”

Although there were controversial voices at the conference table, most family representatives still expressed their support for the Krupp family’s proposal.

James looked at the representative of the Krupp family and a trace of disdain quickly disappeared from his eyes.

He could clearly feel that everyone around the table were contemptuous of him. In their eyes, only his nasty brother mattered and they did not take him seriously at all.

[These idiots don’t know that I also Have inheritance rights! Why can’t I receive the respect that should have belonged to him?]

He didn’t pay attention to the discussions after. His thoughts already drifted elsewhere.

As he was zoning out, he suddenly smelled something unusual.

As if something was burning…

Chapter 895: A Fire

“They did it?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

Carmen Rothschild hung up the phone, then tossed it on the table. He picked up the goblet full of red wine on the table, and cast his sights on the garden outside. It just snowed. The edge of the window was dotted with fine cones of ice, the white fluffy scene in the garden perfectly painted the serenity of the season.

It was Rothschild’s manor in Finland.

Yes, he was not in Sweden, but in Northern Europe.

Just half an hour ago, a fire broke out in the Pilsner Church in Czech Republic. The 13 Level 33 members of the Freemasonry were all killed during their secret meeting.

Looking at the reflection on the window, Carmen’s finger tapped on the glass, he listened to the crisp sound, but his thought already drifted elsewhere.

Sure enough, his instinct was correct.

The Future Group possessed a special interrogation method. With consideration of its leading position in neural connection technology, it was possible for Future Group to directly scan the brain of the interrogated person through a device similar to a Phantom helmet.

When Cham failed in North America, he realized that the Freemasonry assembly was already exposed. Even if the Gatekeeper was loyal, and combined with news reports also indicating that he was killed at the scene, Carmen still prepared for the worst.

With a sigh, Carmen drank the red wine and twirled the remaining wine in the glass. A smile suddenly appeared on his face. He fixed on his own reflection and muttered to himself quietly.

“It’s fine.”

He could have also guessed that this defeat would surely contribute to the emergence of reconciliation between the Freemasonry and Future Group.

Although the 13 families were united because of common interests, as long as they were businessmen, they would weigh the pros and cons. However, it would be naive to reactive. People always repeat the same mistakes. In World War II they already made the mistake once. If it weren’t for their North American ally, they might have already vanished in the dust of history.

[It’s fine.]

For a family like Rothschild, the death of an heir or the owner of the family would only cause temporary problems. A machine is never scrapped because of a broken gear. Even if he died, the Rothschild wouldn’t just fade away in history like this.

[As long as all of the direct family has not passed away, the death of an heir of the thirteen families dying is no different from the death of the president.]

[If hatred can annihilate all unrealistic ideas and reunite the shaken senior Freemasonry into one force, the cost of the thirteen lives is nothing.]

Of course, Carmen also admitted his own selfishness here.

His brother James Rothschild was always reluctant to just be an honest wealthy man and showed enthusiasm for family affairs that did not conform to his identity. It was great that he disappeared through the hands of the Future Group.

“Johnson, its time to go.”

After finishing the remaining wine in the glass, Carmen put the empty glass on the window sill and turned to the door.

His bodyguard, Johnson, stood in the doorway like a statue. There was no expression on his dark face. When Carmen passed by, he turned and followed him.

“Where are we going?”

“Going to Europe to clean up the mess.”

[Also, to take back the position of the Lord.]

He put on a coat and stepped into the blizzard. Behind him, it was the manor in the northern hinterland. He walked towards the garage, and Johnson followed closely behind him. The snow drifting in the northern breeze even tainted his pupils, and there was no extraneous expression on his defined face.

…

“It was a success?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen was relieved.

After obtaining the assembly of Freemasonry from Cham, he first announced the end to the hostage crisis to the outside world, and released the news that dozens of terrorists, including Cham, were shot on the spot to paralyze the alertness of the Freemasonry.

Then the Ghost Agents stationed in Europe immediately headed to Czech Republic, arranged agents near the Pilsner Church, and closely monitored the movement of the Freemasonry members. Finally this morning, the Freemasonry held a secret meeting. Ghost agents who took advantage of the opportunity took a decisive action to destroy the entire church in a sea of fire…

“Did something good happen?” Kelvin looked at Jiang Chen.

“You can say that.” Putting away his phone, Jiang Chen focused back on the big screen at the Space Launch Center. When he learned that the space elevator project had made major progress, he didn’t even go home to take a shower but instead rushed here.

From the cameras, a group of Pioneer robots were connected by graphene cables and quietly floating in synchronous orbit. They surrounded a giant ring and systematically carried out construction operations.

The entire space station was already starting to take its shape. The ring acting as the counterweight was completed, as the graphene track approached completion, the ring would gradually move outwards, keeping the center of gravity of the entire space elevator in the synchronized orbit.

“With the help of Pioneer robots, our construction speed is much faster. The rockets launched into space no longer need to carry supplies, which saves a large capacity for the Space Launch Center and saves a great chunck of the budget for the entire project.” Looking at the magnificent project on the screen, Kelvin was full of proudness.

“I only care about how long it will take to finish this whole thing,” Jiang Chen said.

“The space station is 90% completed, and the graphene tracks has all been transported to outer space. After the space station is complete, the tracks can gradually be connected to the space station. Latest, by mid-December, the entire space elevator will be complete! “Kelvin responded with excitement.

[In mid-December. At most one and a half months?]

Jiang Chen nodded pleasingly.

Once this “highway” was complete, Celestial Trade’s space colonization plan would fully commence.

The current lunar colony expanded to a scale of 50 people, which doubled from a month ago. The moon ice exploration wells and moon acquisition stations deployed on the outskirts of the colony has also expanded. According to information provided to Jiang Chen by the scientists in the colony, they have already designed a set of helium-3 collection programs. At present, the reserves of helium-3 in the colonies have already reached two kilograms, and if they were all used to generate electricity, it would be enough to power Xin four years.

In addition, Kelvin also brought another piece of good news to Jiang Chen.

The first bok choy grown on the moon farm has matured, and the fresh vegatable was placed on the dinner table of the moon colonists. This breakthrough meant that the colony reached the first stage of self-sufficiency. Although at present, it was quite difficult to completely be independent from imports, this breakthrough was undoubtedly exciting enough.

People could take their footprints further. And going further is no longer just a dream…

Chapter 896: Tinder Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Jiang Chen gave the launch center instructions for the next steps. In the next supply mission to the Moon, the rocket would be loaded with a “Tinder” nuclear fusion reactor on the rocket.

The so-called “Tinder” was the model of the five nuclear fusion generators operating in the power center of Penglai. After integrating the technology from Clearwater Nuclear Power Plant, the production of “Tinder” nuclear fusion generator was succesfully implemented in the Sixth Street.

In fact, for the modern world, the difficulty of this nuclear fusion generator was mainly in the materials. With 21st century materials, it could hardly withstand tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of degrees of high temperature. For a nuclear fusion reaction to take place between helium-3 and tritium, the temperature must be maintained at tens of millions of degrees.

“Tinder” nuclear fusion power generating unit used a cold fusion technology. The core temperature was only 4,000-10,000 degrees. With the special materials from the apocalypse, it could allow reactions between the helium-3 and tritium to take place and allow stable amount of power to be generated.

Limited by the production process, the “Tinder” generator could currently only be completed in the Sixth Street. However, the demand for “Tinder” was not high, and Jiang Chen currently did not plan to move the production process to the modern world in order to increase production capability.

When Jiang Chen left the center, it was starting to get dark.

Jiang Chen called Ayesha and said that he would come back later. After finishing dinner at the cafeteria, he boarded the returning yacht.

…

When he returned home, it was already nine in the evening.

Ayesha seemed to have fallen asleep, judging by the dimmed lights in the mansion. Natasha returned to Russia for a trip and she was not at in the mansion these days.

Even with his body injected with genetic vaccines, after having just stepped off the plane and running errands for a whole day, he did feel some tiredness. He originally planned to go to the office to read some books, but without the energy, he gave up that plan.

“Forget it, it’s already this late, time to go to bed.”

Yawning, Jiang Chen did not turn on the lights up again and went to the second floor bathroom.

He turned on the faucet and the water began to splash.

Comfortably taking a shower, Jiang Chen felt his exhaustion being washed away and he seemed to be back alive again. After drying himself, he put on a set of loose pajamas. Then he walked out of the bathroom feeling full of energy, even humming a son while walking back to his room.

He pushed open the door and was ready to turn on the lights when saw there was someone on the bed.

Seeing this scene, he was smiling.

This little girl already showered and was waiting for him in bed. She couldn’t wait any longer?

He didn’t see Ayesha for more than a week already, his lower abdomen also began to feel heated and dispersed his fatigue from bottom to top. Whenever he thought of her gentleness and intimacy, no matter how many times, he just wanted to hold her tight and give her his tenderness…

Jiang Chen wanted to give her a surprise. With a grin, he quietly sneaked into the bed, took off his clothes, and reached to the corner of the quilt, and moved closer to the figure on the bed.

There was a murmur from inside the sheets. Jiang Chen smiled and gently reached out. He “explored” and “moved forward” in darkness.

Just then Jiang Chen paused and was confused.

[Huh? Why does is it feel different?]

As if to confirm Jiang Chen’s speculation, a short and suppressed pout came from underneath him.

Jiang Chen was surprised, his sat up from the bed and then opened the bedside curtains.

With a swoosh, the curtains opened.

The moonlight scattered through the window and was sprinkled between the two.

The serene and graceful waist was as smooth as silk under the bright moonlight. The timid rabbits were subtle but cast a subtle seduction. The delicate neck was white and soft, and the face flushed. The two brows were like crescents in the sky, and the teeth gently bit into the lower lip.

However, it was obviously not the right time to enjoy the scene.

Even if the light was not bright, Jiang Chen discovered that the person below was not Ayesha. And in his impression, Ayesha never had the habit of sleeping naked…

Xia Shiyu’s lips trembled slightly, looking at the eyes inches from her, with the gradually heavy breathing, her heart pumped rapidly.

After getting off the plane in the morning, she did not go home directly. Instead, she went to the Future Building to deal with the things accumulated during the week. Not only was she tired from work, but after the conversation with Ayesha when she landed, she was so confused and conflicted that she didn’t even eat dinner and she passed out after taking a shower.

Before going to Los Santos, she moved in here, but Ayesha hadn’t had time to prepare a room for her. She just looked for an empty room and because she was too tired, she did not think too much and went in.

What a coincidence…

If she were to blame someone, it was Ayesha who kept the room too tidy. At first glance, it didn’t look like someone lived there.

It was not just Xia Shiyu whose mind stopped working.

When his sight met her sight, he forgot how to speak. The phrase “sorry” got stuck in his throat and could not come out. Rationality told him that he should first come down from her and explain the misunderstanding. However, human beings are never purely rational creatures. Rather, it’s sensuousness that drives human behavior.

And impulse…

Sniffing that faint fragrance, under the influence of the scene, Jiang Chen slowly leaned into that beautiful face.

Xia Shiyu’s expression was a bit conflicted.

In the conflicted state, it contained expectations, contained resistance, and contained confusion…

She admitted that she has feelings for Jiang Chen… No, it was like, or even love. Even if she resisted at the bottom of her heart and tried to forget it countless times, she could not completely remove it from her heart.

However, just as she gently closed her quivering lashes and prepared to hand over everything to Jiang Chen, the gradually approaching breathing began to move away.

Xia Shiyu slowly opened her eyes.

There was a trace of confusion in her eyes.

However, the two’s sight did not fix onto each other like before. Jiang Chen subtly looked away.

“I am sorry…”

He almost did it, but the slightest resistance in her eyes, like a bucket of cold water, extinguished the passion in his heart.

He admitted he is an unscrupulous bastard, but that didn’t mean he had no bottom line. For strangers, he could act freely. For equally unrestrained people, he didn’t mind playing with them. But for the important people around him…

He admitted that sometimes he may be scandalous, but he was far from just thinking with his bottom half.

If she was unwilling, then he was using the affection in her mind to force her to do something she didn’t want to. What’s more, he knew that Xia Shiyu is a relatively traditional woman and he could not give her the traditional sense of marriage.

Tears began to well up in Xia Shiyu’s eyes.

She didn’t know why, she was feeling a hint of sorrow. Even she wasn’t clear about why she felt this emotion. She didn’t even understand whether she was looking forward or resisting. Perhaps it was also why she was unable to respond to Ayesha proposal…

As the distance between the two people gradually widened, the door was gently pushed open.

Chapter 897: I m willing to share with you

In the quietness, the creak of the door was crisp.

Xia Shiyu looked to the door and her eyes met Ayesha, who had a devious smile on her face. Inexplicably, she felt like her hand was caught in the cookie jar. Shyness soon overwhelmed her. She looked away and was about to push away Jiang Chen, but little did she expect a hand would reach from the side and gently hold her wrist.

She looked to the side, and Ayesha was standing by the bed.

Still in the push-up position, Jiang Chen was also unfortunately stuck in the awkward situation.

“I…” Gazing into the sapphire blue pupils, he was somewhat embarrassed. He was about to say something, but Ayesha’s finger gently touched his lips.

Then she turned to look at Xia Shiyu, whose face was covered in a red hue. Ayesha smiled lovingly and softly said.

“Can you give me the answer to the question I asked you in the morning?”

Hearing Ayesha words, Xia Shiyu’s eyes fled, but behind her was the soft bed. She had nowhere to escape.

“Question?” Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha, and for a temporary moment, he forgot about his current state.

Ayesha’s bright eyes blinked, and it was a rare time that she did not respond directly to Jiang Chen’s question. Xia Shiyu was turning even more red and her eyes were filled with panic and uncertainty.

Contrary to Jiang Chen, Ayesha, with her delicate emotions, captured more of the emotions named “hope” from Xia Shiyu’s complicated eyes. The so-called resistance was not a refusal from the heart, but it was more of an unexpressed reserved state…

Having made this clear, a faint smile formed on Ayesha’s face.

With both her hands around Jiang Chen, Ayesha who was already naked, hugged him from the back and pressed down on him…

From a long time ago, she made up her mind and decided to push these two people teogether at the necessary moment.

Although she made the decision on her own, she had already made the decision for the two people who were not straightforward.

Clouds and fog cast a shy veil on the moonlight, which disguised its brightness and hid the arousing picture under the moon. Outside the window was the garden. Two vines intertwined in the garden on the fence and interspersed among the green groves.

An unknown white flower blossomed at the end of the vine, and the fragrance spread until deep into the night.

…

The next day.

A glimpse of sunlight sneaked into the window, and when Jiang Chen opened his drowsy eyes, the sun was already high up in the sky.

Watching Xia Shiyu’s kitten-like posture, and the softness from her arms and legs tangled around him like an octopus, his heart began to beat faster. It seemed that she felt the sudden acceleration of his heartbeat. Ayesha, who was lying on his chest, sniffed with her nose and then lazily licked the corner of her mouth.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Chen took a deep breath.

If it were not for the fact that he didn’t want to wake up the two women, he really wanted to shout to express the uncontrollable feelings in his chest at the moment…

[This is so cute! ! !]

However, this intimate picture did not last long.

Xia Shiyu’s eyebrows slightly moved and she slowly opened her still weary eyes. However, when her eyes fell on the clock on the bedside table, she suddenly jumped from the bed like a squirrel’s tail being stepped on.

It was already ten o’clock!

Today was not Saturday or Sunday, but Monday!

“What’s the matter, why are you in such a hurry?” Looking at Xia Shiyu that hurriedly got up, Jiang Chen asked with a smile and admired her beautiful curvatures.

She fumbled to grab her black-rimmed glasses from the bedside table and gave a hard stare at Jiang Chen.

“What’s the matter?! You see what time it is!”

However, at this moment, she suddenly flushed and realized that she was wearing nothing at all. She immediately reached out and covered her sensitive parts. With a whispering voice, she quietly said.

“Turn… turn around. I’m going to put on some clothes.”

[I already seen it anyway, it is not like you’ll lose anything…]

Although he mocked in his mind, Jiang Chen wouldn’t just say it out without any sense. Since he was a gentleman, he turned his head away.

Relieved, the fast pumping heartbeat finally slowed down.

Confirming that Jiang Chen turned his head, she slowly got out of bed. Ayesha was still sleeping. She did not want to awaken her. On the one hand, she didn’t have the heart to do so. On the other hand, she did not know how to face her.

After all, last night, under Ayesha’s guidance, the two held hands together to brace the impact of the “beast”.

Even the Good Morning’s greeting was skipped. Xia Shiyu put on clothes and rushed to the bathroom. While withstanding the pain of her first, she spent the shortest amount of time to put on professional clothes, put on light makeup, and then walked with her high heels to the garage.

The plan in the morning was now out the window. By the time she got to the office, it would already be lunch time. Since she became the CEO, it was her first time being this late, but also for her to be late because she slept in.

Not long after Xia Shiyu left, Ayesha slowly opened her beautiful eyes.

Obviously, she woke up long ago and just pretended to be asleep.

Looking at the side of her lover’s face, Ayesha had a sweet smile on her face. She got closer to Jiang Chen’s ear and whispered softly, “Did you have fun last night?”

Looking at the faint redness on the sheets, Jiang Chen did not speak for a long time.

Ayesha pecked on his lips and made him look at her.

“She has always liked you.”

“Don’t you mind?”

Ayesha gently shook his small head, her luscious chestnut hair turned golden under the sunlight.

…

Although she did not say a word, Jiang Chen has got all the answers from her deep and gentle eyes.

He rubbed her hair lovingly, and looked at the eyes that closed because of comfort. He suddenly remembered something, and he asked.

“What did you say to Xia Shiyu when we got off the plane?”

Ayesha tilted her head and began to repeat what had happened.

…

At that time, Jiang Chen and the others had just gotten off the plane.

Ayesha secretly approached Xia Shiyu while taking advantage of Jiang Chen busy dealing with the Xin officials.

Taking her to the corner of the airport, Ayesha looked at her.

“Do you like Jiang Chen?”

Xia Shiyu, who was read like book, subconsciously wanted to deny it. But when she saw the face of her “enemy”, she didn’t want to say the defeated words out loud. Since she already decided a long time ago that she would take Jiang Chen from her hands…

“Yes…so what?” Xia Shiyu said coldly, in defiance.

Unexpectedly, she did not see any negative emotions from the girl’s face.

Or rather, that smile from the bottom heart of her heart seemed to be happy for her candid answer.

“Great.” Ayesha took a step forward, held her right hand, then said sincerely.

[What is great about this?!]

Xia Shi looked at her dumbfounded.

Intuition told her that her expression was not fake.

But why?

Obviously, she was her rival and intended to “steal” her favorite person from her hands… Was she that much of a non-threat? That night, I…

If Ayesha’s previous sentence made her dumbfounded, then the next sentence completely crashed her brain

The little girl holding her hands gazed into her eyes, her sapphire eyes filled with sincerity.

“I know you really love him. If you don’t mind, I am willing to share with you…”

Chapter 898: Graphene Trade Centre

“What happened later?” Jiang Chen kept asking.

“Later… she broke free from my hand and fled without saying anything.” Ayesha was slightly upset when she spoke about this.

Of course, this frustration did not last long, and soon she was immersed in the happiness of Jiang Chen’s “special way to get up.”

At last, before lunch, Jiang Chen spared Ayesha who was “begging for mercy” and watched the little girl limp into the kitchen.

After lunch, Jiang Chen helped Ayesha clean up the dishes and then went to the garage. Sitting on his converted Lamborghini, he raced toward Future Building.

Compared to Xia Shiyu, who was meticulous, the employees of Future Group were no longer surprised by the President’s casual work time. After all, only the CEOs of the subsidiaries had direct report relationships. Ordinary employees rarely had the opportunity to contact him on the job. Therefore, there was no need to lead by example.

However, both were late together today, and indeed many people were somewhat surprised.

For example, the two ladies at the front desk of the building,

“Hey, that was… the president right?” With curly hair, the female professional poked her colleague next to her and said with a look of curiosity.

“Yeah? What happened?” asked the colleague with her hair in a ponytail.

“Have you noticed that Boss Xia was actually late today and came after eleven! And, the way she walked… it was a bit weird.” The curly haired woman quickly glanced around her and whispered to her friend.

The ponytail woman’s face immediately turned red and seemed to have related it to something. She gave her a hard stare and whispered.

“Don’t talk nonsense! Maybe it’s just her time of the month. If the department manager hears about this, be careful about your bonus!”

The curly haired girl popped out her tongue and stopped talking.

But nonetheless the gossip only spread to more people, in less than an hour, the “must-tell story between Boss Xia and the President” began to spread. Although after learning of this news, many male workers who secretly admired their beautiful boss pounded their chest in disappointment, most people still blessed the two from the bottom of their hearts.

Both of them have considerable reputation in the company. The two finally coming together was also expected by most people

Sitting in the office for just a short while, Xia Shiyu pushed open the door and came in.

Her black long hair was tied up. The delicate face had light makeup on it. The white shirt and black pencil skirt drew out her perfect curves, and the black stockings underneath the skirt were simply irresistible.

When Xia Shiyu’s eyes met with Jiang Chen’s, Xia Shiyu who had already adjusted her mind couldn’t help but panic. She looked away and then took a few steps forward and handed the files to him.

“…this is Future Bank’s proposal for the acquisition of the Goldman Sachs Group’s assets. David Smith has already been in touch with some of Goldman Sachs’ shareholders. They also plan to withdraw from the infighting between the Jewish Consortium and the WASP Consortium. We expect that we can acquire 11% of Goldman Sachs Group shares at relatively low prices, as well as some of the physical assets that are distributed along the West Coast. Due to the amount involved is as high as $6.1 billion dollars, we need your signature.”

Xia Shiyu bit her tongue three times as she spoke. She buried her head and wanted to find a crack on the ground so she could hid inside it.

Jiang Chen took the documents she handed over and took this opportunity to look into her eyes. He said seriously.

“I will take responsibility.”

“This, here is the office… Please don’t do this.” Xia Shiyu’s eyes once again escaped. The panic on her face was not one that belonged to a successful business woman.

A smirk formed on Jiang Chen’s face and he couldn’t resist the temptation to tease her.

“Eh? What did I do?”

“…” Xia Shiyu’s face remained red and she did not respond.

Seeing that she was not talking, Jiang Chen stood up and walked around the desk slowly. When he was beside her, he whispered into her ear.

“Or, rather… are you looking forward to something?”

…

Xia Shiyu eventually escaped, but Jiang Chen did not really intend to do anything. It was the workplace after all. If he did plan to do something, he would have to wait for everyone to leave work…

The work in the afternoon was basically signing documents after documents to deal with the success of Future Group in the Silicon Valley Summit.

A large number of graphene material orders allowed Coro Island to become a global trading center for graphene materials. Jiang Chen originally intended to build the hub in Penglai, but considering that Coro Island was the capital of Xin and the numerous expansions of the port on the southern tip, compared to Penglai, which focuses on tourism, it was more suitable as a transfer station for the transfer of graphene materials to the world.

In fact, the Malaysian government had tried to put this trade center in the New Malaysia Special District and provided a number of unimaginable preferential conditions. However, Jiang Chen, with almost no hesitation, rejected the proposal of the Malaysian government.

For any sane people, anyone could see the benefits of such a trade center. Controlling a material trade center would mean huge international influence. And these international influences could be directly reflected in the economic growth of the country!

Although graphene was basically produced at the plant in the New Malaysian Special District, the location of production doesn’t dictate ownership. Oil was mostly produced by OPEC member countries, but it was still settled with US dollars.

The same principle.

Although Malaysia and Future Group maintained cooperation worth tens of billions of dollars, Malaysia even created a special district for Future Group. The relationship between the two sides was quite close, but it was not close enough for Jiang Chen to willing surrender such a great benefit.

The graphene trading center would only be built on Coro Island, and the settlement of graphene would also be entirely done in Xin New Dollar.

Even if Coro Island does not produce one gram of graphene at all.

In addition to the graphene trade center, cloud technology projects with companies in the UA and Hua had also started. Future Group planned to build a new supercomputer center near the Future Building. It claimed that the supercomputer center would be using a supercomputer newly developed by Future Heavy Industrial. Actually, it would use quantum computers and transmit data through quantum communication satellites to provide data processing services for contracted companies.

Finally, the first batch of 100,000 Beta-4 unmanned drones arrived at the port of Los Santos and was received by the reorganized Futures Medicine. The reorganized organization was responsible for selling to major North American hospitals. Although skeptical about the drone’s medical technology, many hospitals placed a small order.

Based on the estimate that every hundred people would need a Beta-4, there would be a gap of more than three million in North America, and this figure did not considere replacement or damage! Based on this calculation, the entire North American market would be worth hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars. It was a completely untapped market.

In the near future, major hospitals would see the benefits of the Beta-4 drone.

Even at the current stage, North American doctors’ unions, nurses’ associations, and other organizations issued protests, but when money ruled, these voices were only silenced and ignored. Just because the textile workers protested, did the steam engine stopped selling?

As for the unemployment rate in North America…

That would be the Capital’s headache, and not a problem for Jiang Chen.

Chapter 899: Completion of the Underwater Tunnel

“At nine o’clock on November 6th, a SUV that drove into the Synagogue located in Pilsen, Czech Republic, caught on fire. When the SUV crashed into the church, the vehicle exploded. The Pilsen Fire Department dispatched immediately, but when the fire engine arrived, the church was completely swallowed by flames.”

“A total of 31 people were killed and 57 suffered burns of varying degrees. The vehicle was remotely controlled and contained highly adhesive fuel. At present, the Pilsen City Police Force has initially determined that this incident to be a terrorist attack against Jews. The Czech President made a speech in front of the media, declaring the Czech Republic to enter a state of emergency and Pilsen to be placed under martial law. When asked how long the martial law would last, the Czech President did not explicitly give an answer. He only said that martial law’s duration would be further discussed at parliament…”

The news on the television showed the horrific incident that occurred in Czech Republic and once again was another blow to the Western world deeply traumatized by terrorism.

In contrast, the gunfight that took place on Venice Street in Los Santos was forgotten by the media.

After all, the death of a group of UA and Xin citizens was far less compelling compared to what happened here.

In particular, there were exactly thirteen chairmen of European conglomerates that were praying in this humble church…

Ayesha, with a plate, walked next to Jiang Chen. She gently placed a glass of milk and golden fried rice in front of him.

A follow-up report of the Pilsen Attack was shown on television. Ayesha’s expression didn’t look any different, as if it had nothing to do with her.

“The FTSE 100 Index opened at 7,121 points, diving 4.3%, the French CAC40 index opened at 4,441.7 points, down 2.0%, the German DAX30 index opened at 10,610.8 points, a substantial plunge of 5.7%.” While drinking milk, Xia Shiyu concentrated on the newspaper, “Shanghai, Shenzhen, and the Nikkei rose slightly, and the Dow Jones Index rebounded slightly after being down at the open…”

With a sigh, she put down the cup.

“The economic crisis has already begun.”

With half a half cup of milk down, the corner of her mouth was still stained with white milk. Perhaps she realized this, she subconsciously licked it with her tongue.

The action was especially seductive, although she did not realize this, Jiang Chen who sat next to her closed his legs.

Xia Shiyu noticed that the way Jiang Chen sat seemed a bit unusual. She looked to his side with a puzzled expression.

“Any questions?”

“No, no! Ahem, speaking of this… Economic crisis, is it related to this?” Jiang Chen hurriedly pointed to the report on TV, and followed her last sentence to change the subject.

After listening to Jiang Chen’s question, Xia Shiyu nodded approvingly.

“There is no direct connection. This economic crisis is due to causes from a long time ago. From the recent soaring oil prices, it is a glimpse of the cause. But to some extent, this attack could be considered the tipping point.”

As Xia Shiyu explained, she spread the newspaper in her hands and turned to another panel. She did not know the connection between the attack and the Los Santos Incident, the Freemasonry, Jiang Chen, and Ghost Agents. She just analyzed the issue from an objective point of view.

Looking down at Xia Shiyu’s slender fingers, Jiang Chen saw the title on the newspaper, which seemed to be about European inheritance taxes.

“The key lies in the people who died in this attack. Among them are the Chairman of the Krupp Group, the Director and CEO of Luxembourg’s Albed Steel Group, the Executive Director of Siemens… and even the second order of Rothschild Bank. In addition to the last one, these people are the real power figures of the European capital.”

Speaking of this, Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses and a flash of sharpness showed in her eyes.

“The unexpected incident has made the European economy, which is already stagnant, even worse, and even pulled down the North American economy. In contrast, the long suppressed Asian market has rebounded. If we look at this from this perspective, our departure from the European market appears be a correct decision.”

“Are you not going to praise me?” Jiang Chen joked.

“You just got lucky.” Xia Shiyu glared at the cocky Jiang Chen and scoffed him.

Jiang Chen shrugged and did not deny this point.

After the start of the war with the Freemasonry, many people in the group opposed the complete abandonment of the European market and excessive investment in Asia, but only he insisted on making this decision.

Even now, this decision was absolutely without support. If it were not for the fact that he was the only on the board, this decision would not have passed at all.

But as a result, this decision became worth celebrating…

Xia Shiyu finished her milk and looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s almost time, should we go to the company together?”

“I have a completion ceremony to attend to in the afternoon. I’ll be free in the morning. We can go together and I’ll just ride in your car.” Jiang Chen finished the remaining items on the table and looked at the plate in front of Xia Shiyu, “is it really okay for you to eat this little?”

Other than drinking the cup of milk, she only had an egg. It was only half past seven and more than four hours away from lunch

However, Xia Shiyu didn’t seem to mind but instead looked at Jiang Chen in confusion.

“Is it not a lot? But I’m already full.”

…

In mid-November, the underwater tunnel linking the Pannu nine islands was finally completed. In the future, citizens would no longer need to transfer to a ferry to travel from Coro Island to Ange Island. The journey would be completed through the highway connecting the nine main islands

The underwater pipeline made of graphene material was like a transparent crystal corridor. In this crystal corridor, the colorful corals, shells and tropical fishes could be seen by lifting ones head. Even people with deep-sea phobia did not need to worry as cold lights were installed inside and outside the pipeline, enough to dispel fears caused by the deep ocean.

As for safety, the ability to withstand pressures over millions of pascal was indicative of the strength of graphene material at the depth of up to two hundred meters. The inner surface of the graphene pipe was coated with a fireproof layer, which also eliminated the danger that a car accident may cause fire. After all, fire was one of the few weaknesses of graphene material.

The Xin’s submarine highway surpassed the record of 123 kilometers set in the Bohai Bay underwater tunnel and became the longest underwater tunnel in the world!

As an investor in the highway, Jiang Chen participated in the completion ceremony organized by the construction party.

In front of the crowded media lenses, the ribbon was cut.

After the cut, it was the opening ceremony.

Not only were the construction party and Future Group executives in charge of the project invited to attend the ceremony, the President of Xin, government officials, celebrities, and even foreign guests were also among the participants. More than 70 guests participated in the ceremony, boarding a fleet of vehicles that consisted of more than 30 luxury cars.

With the media following closely, Jiang Chen led this special fleet to complete the first trip on the submarine highway.

It was an extremely glamorous and extravagant ceremony!

The company that received the most highlight was the new energy automotive company Luer. As one of the sponsors of the ceremony, all vehicles were provided by either Luer or companies connected to Future Heavy Industries.

It was not just an opening ceremony. Rather, it was a large-scale promotion for pure electric vehicles. The auto market in Xin, in the past, had been very sluggish, and the reason nothing to do with per capita income. The main reason was transportation. If a car could only run in one city, there was really no need for a middle-class family to buy a car.

However, the need would be different after the completion of the underwater tunnel.

In the foreseeable future, Xin’s automobile market would surely welcome a period of explosive growth. The focus of Future Group’s promotion would be on new energy vehicles!

Future Group planned to build thousands of wireless charging stations distributed throughout Xin, with an area of coverage even greater than gas stations!

Chapter 900: The Miracle of Medicine

Just as Xia Shiyu expected, the economic crisis arrived on schedule and swept the world from the Mediterranean at lightning speed. Even if OPEC member states all announced production increases, the upward oil price momentum remained unstoppable.

It should be noted that capacity was only one of the factors that determined the price, and not the only factor. The Turkish Civil War cut off the southern corridor that supplied European’s energy needs. The Ukrainian issue and the sanctions against Russia completely blocked the gas pipeline from the east to Europe.

The extreme forces such as IS spread like wildfire and have also caused the Middle East’s oil production capacity to hit a low.

The attack on the Pilsen Synagogue was just a fuse.

The turmoil in the stock prices of the thirteen financial groups directly detonated the long-overdue crisis.

The global economy once again hailed a disaster no inferior than the 2008 financial crisis. The New York Stock Exchange’s Dow Jones failed to stop the freefall, and Wall Street’s “dealer” rang the bell to begin the shuffle.

It was India that fell first. Due to geological conditions, India was an oil importing country and has very little natural gas reserves. As an emerging economy that was on the road to industrialization, the price of oil directly constrained the lifeline of this country.

With the rise in oil prices, bills for imports of crude oil in India also continued to rise, and the crisis further exacerbated. The rapid increase in production and transportation costs, the drop in exports, and the withdrawal of investors, followed by a sharp rise in the Indian government’s fiscal deficit, eventually triggered a crisis.

There were countless companies that went bankrupt. The unemployment rate in all countries grew by more than a percentage, and the consumer index fell to a historic low. Affected by the impact of the aftermath, Future Group’s group operation also suffered. These losses were reflected on the November financial report.

However, compared to other companies, Future Group’s focus on the frontier industries, was minimally impacted.

With the continued expansion of the planting area of petroleum crops, the factories of Future Group at least did not need to worry about high oil prices. As for other commodities driven by crude oil prices, Future Group relied on the three raw material suppliers, MLL Island, Country F, and Madagascar to ease some of the pressure.

The global economic situation was in a downturn. Jiang Chen also gradually shifted the focus of investment to the industries beyond Earth. The real enemy was actually just light years away. While the Freemasonry posed a big problem, in contrast, he must plan out more important things in advance.

The space elevator was basically complete. Some plans that previously must be put on hold, could now gradually start.

Before that, Jiang Chen had one more thing to do.

…

Coro Island Central Hospital, a hospital funded by Future Group, brought together cutting-edge technologies for Future Biology. Many incurable diseases that could not be solved by modern medicine was treated to a certain extent here, and some were even completely eradicated.

The entrance of the hospital was completely jammed by reporters and TV vans. People looked at the hospital entrance with full of hope. At this moment, they were devoted believers, they were waiting for a miracle.

A culture chamber that was tangled with tubes stood inside the special medical room in the hospital. On the surface of the culture chamber, a palm-sized screen was embedded and the center of the screen pulsated with numbers similar to a countdown.

When the number returned to zero, the medical staff in the room gathered around the chamber and emptied the culture fluid, opened the chamber, lifted the respirator and the tubes with different functions on the patient, and finally lifted the patient to the moving bed and sent him to the rehabilitation room.

There was an uproar downstairs, and if it weren’t for security guards, the eager reporters would have rushed upstairs

Who had this honor?

Yes, it was the famous physicist and the patient with ALS, Hawking.

Before he was sent to the rehabilitation room, he opened his eyes and saw Jiang Chen at the entrance. He used his vocal cord to intermittently say the first words he said in decades.

“Where is my wheelchair?”

Jiang Chen smiled and did not answer. He watched him be taken into the rehabilitation room.

For the well-developed medical technology of the 22nd century, ALS was not a problem. The reason why he stayed in the chamber for so long was mainly to repair the muscle cells and neurons in his body that were necrosis due to paralysis.

In the rehabilitation room, accompanied by medical personnel, Hawking with two crutches regained the ability to walk again. Like a toddler learning how to walk, he was emotional, and every one step he took, a coherent word was squeezed out from his shaking lips.

The nurse helping him could only distinguish two words.

“Unbelievable,” and “God.”

More than an hour later, Hawking, who was already able to walk on crutches, was escorted from the rehabilitation room by two medical staff members. It was not easy to learn to walk again, especially for an elderly person who had been in a wheelchair for several decades.

Looking at the old man with emotion and gratitude on his face, Jiang Chen smiled.

“How does it feel?”

“Kick me. I need to make sure I’m not dreaming.” Hawking replied English, although the pronunciation seemed off.

“Haha, you should tell your son and daughter to do that. It’s amazing, I originally intended to prepare you a keyboard and a loudspeaker, but did not think that in less than two hours, you ‘learned’ how to speak,” Jiang Chen said.

“Where are they? I want to meet them now!”

“They are downstairs,” Jiang Chen pointed to the stairs. “But before you go downstairs, you better be prepared because it is already surrounded by reporters.”

Hearing the latter half of the sentence, Hawking, who was eager to walk down stairs, suddenly stopped and turned to Jiang Chen with an unpleasant expression.

“Can you get rid of them?”

Jiang Chen shook his head.

“We made a promise. If I cured you, the first thing you need to do for me is to be interviewed by reporters.”

“I’m a patient, I need to rest!” Hawking said, unwilling to accept the fact.

“But people are eager to know the truth, and I have no right to stop them.” Jiang Chen shrugged and said in innocence, “Let’s think about it. We cured a late-stage ALS patient. It is a miracle that will go down in history. Doctors who have worked diligently for your health certainly are hoping you can speak to the media. Shouldn’t you do something for them?”

Perhaps the last sentence touched the stubborn old man. After going downstairs, Hawking accepted an interview with the media.

“Thank you Jiang Chen, thank you Future Biology. I’m very grateful to the care staff at the Coro Island Central Hospital. I feel great right now. I want to do a lot of things right now. I want to embrace my wife, my son, my daughter…I have owed them this hug for a very long time. In addition, I still want to see my wheelchair, and I will send it to the Queen of England. I’m sorry I’m separated with Britain, but the Pannu archipelago has historically been part of the Commonwealth. I am very fortunate that I did not have to betray my vows…”

Hawking said slowly, but no reporter showed impatience. Everyone felt the deepest emotion in his tone and the excitement of defeating the disease. His wife and children pushed through the crowd and embraced the old man.

The Times reporter wiped the corner of his eyes and captured this warm picture. It became the cover of the Times the following day.

At the same time, the fame of Future Biology and Future Medicine also spread to the world with the news of Hawking’s recovery. The Beta-4 drone, which was originally unmarketable due to the economic crisis, was also digested by the North American market at an incredible pace.

The original rumor that Future Group could not cure Hawking faded overnight.

Chapter 901: Asteroid Mining Project

Although Hawking was no longer a Britain citizen, the Queen and Prime Minister still sent him blessings and also sent a thank-you letter to Jiang Chen. Although his relationship with Europe was gradually deteriorating, Future Group unexpectedly won Britain’s friendship.

Perhaps it was because of historical factors that the Rothschilds didn’t have as much control over their homeland as they did in the past, or it perhaps it was because of an old man who was widely known in the scientific community.

Jiang Chen didn’t charge Hawking for the treatment but instead, asked him to join Coro University as a professor of physics. Although Coro University attracted a large number of great professors from all over the world with Jiang Chen’s monetary tactics, other than the seventeenth dean of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rafael Leif, there wasn’t really anyone there that could be printed on the admissions ads.

The arrival of Hawking undoubtedly solved this problem. Because of his arrival, the influence of Coro University increased by not just one notch.

Of course, Jiang Chen didn’t invite Hawking just as an advertisement for Future Biology or to add a banner to Coro Island; these were all secondary. What he really saw was Hawking’s achievements in the study of the universe.

On the second day after treatment, Jiang Chen went to Coro Central Hospital again and found him. After asking his wife and children to step outside for a moment, Jiang Chen explained his intentions.

“Asteroid Mining Project?” Hawking raised his eyebrows.

“We’ve taken note of your research on 101955 Bennu and the predictions that it will collide with the Earth in 2135. If you can provide us with information on this asteroid, it would be extremely helpful,” Jiang Chen said.

In fact, Hawking’s achievements as a prophet were far less prominent than his achievements in physics and cosmology. Like the series of predictions he made before, this prediction about the collision of Bennu asteroid with the Earth in 2135 didn’t happen… because as early as the beginning of the 22nd century, this asteroid with a diameter of about 500 meters was mined clean by NATO.

In aerospace technology, NATO was comparable to PAC and CCCP in the apocalypse and even went a bit further. They were also very cautious regarding confidentiality for related technology.

The Pan-Asia Cooperation library database didn’t contain detailed information about the Bennu asteroid, such as its most critical operational orbit. However, in the database compiled by the Camp No. 27 scientists, Jiang Chen accidentally discovered the relevant model of asteroid capture technology.

According to Lin Lin’s description, the Bennu asteroid was one of the earliest captured asteroids and was one of the most easily captured. Using this asteroid as a test would undoubtedly be fitting for Celestial Trade, where space technology was still in its “infancy”!

However, after listening to Jiang Chen’s plan, Hawking appeared to be extremely worried.

“Have you ever thought about the disaster of mining failures?”

“Bennu’s orbit is extremely close to Earth and we can even ‘see’ it from Earth every six years as it passes through Earth’s orbit. If you reduce your mining speed and cause it to be captured by the gravitational force, the only result is a direct collision with Earth! Have you considered this consequence yet?” Hawking looked at Jiang Chen as he spoke seriously.

“Of course I considered this,” Jiang Chen said with a smile. “Because our plan is to slow it down, then eventually capture it with the gravity of the Earth and Moon system. It will stay in the Earth and Moon system at a height below the Moon’s orbit and orbit the Earth. Our scientists have calculated the orbit that’s best suited to ‘deposit’ the asteroid.”

Hawking looked at Jiang Chen speechlessly. Words only came out after a long silence.

“Either you’re a genius or you’re a madman. If you make a mistake, all of mankind will be buried.”

“It’s a privilege to receive this honor, but such an accident won’t happen.” Jiang Chen smiled. “I swear, my plan is absolutely safe.”

Cloudy eyes stared straight at Jiang Chen, and after a long moment, Hawking finally sighed.

“Although I want to stop you, I’m afraid I don’t have that ability at all. If it can increase the success rate of your plan, you can take all my research on Bennu. In addition, although spacecraft and mining aren’t my fields of expertise, feel free to ask me anything related to cosmology.”

After hearing Hawking’s words, Jiang Chen nodded.

“Thank you for your understanding. Speaking of this, aside from the Bennu asteroid, I still have one more important thing that requiresyour help.”

“What is it?”

“Our scientists accidentally observed a particle from the higher dimensional universe in an experiment… We call it Klein particles. It contains some mysteries related to phenomena such as time and black holes, but pity that we know very little. If you’re interested, I hope you’ll participate in related research.”

As early as the beginning of the year, Jiang Chen had plans to capture the asteroid with an abundance of mineral reserves. Although the plan wasn’t disclosed because of various issues, related preparations never stopped such as research and development and construction of mining rockets, design capture plans, etc…

The Asteroid Capture Plan was to be divided into three steps: landing, webbing, and pulling.

The so-called landing was launching a mining spacecraft, accelerated to the same orbit as an asteroid which would land on the surface of the asteroid for construction.

Webbing, on the other hand, would weave a “net” with sufficient toughness to enclose the asteroid around five hundred meters in diameter. The preferred material was naturally graphene. Whether it was toughness or strength, this material was very suitable for weaving this giant web.

The last was pulling, which would be also the most difficult and most crucial step. This step involved complex mathematical modelling. In addition, according to the estimates of the Space Launch Center, completing the manual orbital change of the asteroid and slowing it down to be captured into a safe orbit by the Earth and Moon system would require at least eight RM-320 rocket engines . A series of ignition and extinguish sequences would need to necessary to precisely control the orbit of the asteroid.

A minor mistake would mean that the asteroid will leave the Earth forever. A serious mishap, and the asteroid would crash into the Earth. Celestial Trade’s last resort would be to blow up the asteroid and reduce its damage on the earth.

If there was no quantum computer responsible for data processing, Jiang Chen simply wouldn’t have dared to implement such a complicated project.

And even with a quantum computer as a data processing tool, the records from the apocalypse about the Bennu asteroid were extremely limited. There was also a lot of uncertainty about this project. As Hawking said, the person who made this decision was either a genius or a complete madman.

But this first step must be taken eventually.

Therefore, after repeatedly reviewing Kelvin’s plan, Jiang Chen signed his name on the document and approved the implementation of the plan. In order to avoid unnecessary consequences, Jiang Chen didn’t report to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in accordance with the procedure, but instead launched five mining rockets into space under the guise of building a “large space station.”

The Bennu asteroid was already approaching the Earth and was estimated to pass through Earth’s orbit at the end of December. That was the best time to complete the final step of the asteroid capture program – “changing orbits.” If they missed it, they would have to wait six more years.

In order to seize this once-in-a-six-year opportunity, the Asteroid Capture Program would run simultaneously with the Space Elevator Program!

Chapter 902: Conspiracy

The economic crisis, like a plague, swarmed the entire European continent. It was not yet the coldest time of the year, but standing on the streets of Berlin, even without the dark cloud that symbolized the decline, people could still feel the coldness and despondency in the air.

Even during business hours, there was not a soul in the once bustling shops on Friedrichstrasse. The shopkeepers all put up sale promotions, but even so, it was difficult to attract those customers with an empty purse.

Some shops simply closed their doors, like Rotunda Cafe on the corner of Friedrichstrasse. From antique wooden doors to the turquoise ornaments, from the high stools to the quaint bookshelf, everything in the stored all showed a mysterious and elegant Renaissance vibe. If it was on a regular day, it would be packed with tourists or young artists from nearby universities.

However, at the moment, the store hung up the closed sign early.

Everyone was having a hard time.

At this moment, a person wearing a gray trench coat walked down the street.

Her head was lowered, and the shadow of the brim covered her eyes. Just like the unemployed people everywhere in Berlin. The shopkeeper who was standing in front of the shop to hail customers did not glance at her. After all, no one would think that she would walk into any shop. This kind of person should go to the bar; it was the only destination of the unemployed. In the current economic downturn, only beer sold the best in Germany.

However, she did not go into the bar, but turned a corner and went into Rotunda Cafe.

Three long knocks and two short knocks, she gently knocked on the door.

“Closed for today.” Behind the wooden door came the impatience voice of the shopkeeper.

“I’m from the night.” The girl under the hat had a calm but hoarse. It was a beautiful voice. Just from the voice alone, she should be a beautiful woman.

“Nightingale?”

“No, the ghost.”

The secret code matched.

The door was unlocked.

After a while, the wooden door of the coffee shop opened, and behind the door was a middle-aged owner that began to bald.

As the owner welcomed her, the trench coat lady walked into the coffee shop. She took off her hat and hung it on a hanger on the wall. Her name was Monica Geller, but she hasn’t used this name for a while after she became the “ghost”. After becoming a field agent, they all used codenames instead of names, and her codename, Guinevere, comes from some myths or legends.

“Need I open the air conditioner?” asked the owner.

“No, I’m not going to stay here for a long time.” Monica shook her head and examined the interior of the store. “The decor is great. How much did you spend?”

“About several hundred thousand euros? It’s not very expensive anyway.” The owner smiled.

Monica nodded and did not fix on this topic, she instead went to the deepest part in the coffee shop. In the last row, there was a man, middle-aged, from the Slavic region. When he saw Monica, the middle-aged man got up, bowed, and invited her to take a seat.

It was a safe house for KGB. It was the first time the two sides have cooperated over the Berlin issue.

“I am very glad to meet you. Miss Guinevere, do you need a cup of coffee?” said the middle-aged man.

“No, Mr. Sphinx, I’m not going to stay here for too long. Can we get to the point?” Monica shook her head and sat down across from him.

“Of course we can.”

Putting down the coffee cup, the man known as Sphinx put away the hippie smile and swtiched to a serious expression.

“We have been in touch with Germans who wish to change the status quo.”

“What did they say?” Monica’s fingers lightly tapped on the table, as if she had fallen into thought.

“The New Choice Party has more than half of the members of the Federal Parliament. Most of them were either threatened or bought off by the Jewish Consortium. It’s difficult to end the behind-the-scenes reign of the Jewish Consortium through peaceful means. We must consider other ways.”

“Such as an armed uprising?” Her lips formed a curvature, and planning a rebellion seemed to be the area of expertise of Ghost Agents.

However, Sphinx did not give a direct reply, but nodded with a stern face.

“This is the last option.”

“Be direct, what do you need for us to do here?” Monica leaned back in her chair and said slowly.

“We have an arsenal hidden in Ukrainian territory. Weapons inside are sufficient to arm two infantry brigades. I need you to help us bring weapons into Germany in case of any accident. As far as these equipment go, I can only reveal that we have a hidden arsenal in the border region of Germany and Austria.”

“It’s a dirty job.” Monica didn’t immediately agree, but thoughtfully said, “Your people can’t bring weapons in?”

“To do it undiscovered, it is hard.” Sphinx said seriously. “We have very tight hands in Germany. If you can help, then it is best. If it is not, we have to look for solutions ourselves. ”

Monica considered for a long time and finally said.

“Transport the weapons to the Madagascar Peninsula and we will take them to Germany.”

With a positive reply, Sphinx was relieved and thanked her with a relaxed tone.

“I thank you on behalf of the KGB.”

“You’re welcome. Jiang Chen sent me to assist you, you can thank him.” Monica said softly. “Is it just the weapons this time?”

“Not exactly, there’s something more important.” After a pause, Sphinx said gravely, “Our intelligence experts analyzed that the attack in Europe may be a self-directed incident. The producer was the Rothschild’s family, and the two presidents who died in the theater were just victims of the power struggle.”

“We also made similar speculations, but unfortunately, there is no evidence to prove this .” Monica said.

“Fortunately, we have already collected some evidences.” Sphinx pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket, gently placed it on the table, and pushed it to Monica. “There is an address and a photo on it. I heard that you are very good at interrogation. This big fish is all yours.”

“It seems that you are very well-informed.” Monica put away the note and stood up from her seat. “You can expect our good news. Also, the person we asked you for you to look, did you find leads?”

“Yes,” Sphinx rolled up his sleeve and glanced at his watch. “If I’m not mistaken, he should be at Coro Airport now.”

Chapter 903: Two Choices

At Coro Airport, a commercial airliner landed on the runway.

A young man with a baseball cap walked off the plane. Behind him were two burly men dressed in suits. From the way they stared behind him instead of looking around, the two men apparently weren’t this young man’s bodyguards and were more like guards.

After he got off the plane, one of the burly men showed his ID to the airport staff. The trio immediately entered a special track of the airport and arrived in front of a black limousine.

When the door opened, James Rothschild’s facial muscles twitched when he saw the person sitting in the car, but he still suppressed the urge to flee and sat in the car.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. James Rothschild.”

“Nice to meet you… Mr. Jiang Chen.” James tried to squeeze out a smile but it was uglier than crying. He shook Jiang Chen’s hand.

Even if it was a tool, he could understand that the fire in Pilsen’s Synagogue was probably related to this man in front of him in some shape or form.

The heads, heirs, and representatives of the thirteen families who marked the core ranks of the Freemasonry almost all died in the fire… only he survived. Although the death of a family leader would only cause some temporary turmoil for the old continental families such as the Krupps and Rothschilds, and the covenant that lasted a hundred years wouldn’t be destroyed because of the death of a few people, it was still a heavy blow for the collective Freemasonry.

Even the most unruly terrorist organizations absolutely wouldn’t have the guts to commit such resolute actions.

Unless it was a reckless madman…

In the hands of a madman, James couldn’t help but feel deep despair.

“Please sit down.” Jiang Chen pointed to the seat opposite him. James nodded quickly and carefully sat down across from him.

Jiang Chen made a gesture to the bodyguard outside and the bodyguard closed the door. The driver started the car and James noticed that the bodyguard in the front passenger seat put his hand intentionally or unintentionally in front of his chest.

There was no doubt that he was holding a gun. If he acted slightly abnormal, the pistol hidden in his suit would instantly point against his forehead.

When James thought of that, his already pale face turned even whiter.

During this short period of time, Jiang Chen examined the man in front of him. Even if he was relatively inexperienced at reading people, he intuitively concluded that the man named James Rothschild was inferior to his brother Carmen not by just a little, both in terms of ability and courage.

It was better this way.

If he was a capable person, it would be more difficult.

Looking at James’ unsettled appearance, Jiang Chen smiled and said with delight, “Are you scared?”

James forced a smile and didn’t respond.

“You can try to take a deep breath. It’ll help you,” Jiang Chen said.

James took a few deep breaths. Not only did he not relax, but he instead choked himself and coughed repeatedly.

James said with a grim face as he looked up: “Mr. Jiang, if there’s anything you need me to do, just say it. I presume you didn’t bring me from Europe to Xin not just to watch me make a fool of myself.”

After hearing James’s words, Jiang Chen looked at him slyly.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“I swear to God that what happened in Los Santos had nothing to do with me-”

“Of course I know it had nothing to do with you.” Jiang Chen raised his hand and interrupted James.

James was delighted.

“That—”

“However, it has to do with your last name, Rothschild,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

James’ heart sank and his hands and feet turned icy cold.

Looking at his frightened appearance, Jiang Chen smiled and said inattentively, “You have two choices now.”

“The first choice is to work for me. Maybe I’ll let you become the next head of the Rothschild family.”

“The second choice…” Jiang Chen deliberately paused for a moment, raised a second finger, and roguishly said, “Go and become food for the fish.”

“I’ll pick the first one!” James Rothschild said without hesitation as he sold out his family. “What do you need me to do?”

A wise choice.

Jiang Chen grinned and whispered, “The fire in the Pilsen Synagogue was a conspiracy directed by Carmen Rothschild.”

James took a second to process it, but quickly, cold sweat dripped down from his forehead and he realized what Jiang Chen meant.

In the Freemasonry senior meeting, 12 people were killed. Only one person survived and it was the current head of the Rothschild family, Carmen. It was foreseeable that the influence of the Rothschilds in the Freemasonry was bound to rise to a new height. The reorganization of the level 33 members would result in a more united Freemasonry than before!

This should theoretically be the case.

However, in turn, there were weaknesses to be attacked.

Future Group did motivation to plan the attack, but from the point of view of gains and losses, the Rothschilds or more specifically, Carmen Rothschild, was the biggest beneficiary.

Why did only one person survive the tragedy out of all the representatives of the thirteen families? Why did Carmen, who originally planned to attend the meeting, temporarily change his plans and allow his not-so-talented younger brother also with inheritance rights to attend instead?

Evidence?

No need for evidence at all.

Jiang Chen wasn’t a judge, but he didn’t intend to convict the Rothschild family.

Suspicion didn’t require evidence; as long as it existed, it could cause cracks.

And this would be enough.

“Say it with me.” Jiang Chen looked at James with a smile.

“…The fire in Pilsen Synagogue was a conspiracy directed by Carmen Rothschild,” James said slowly word by word.

“Very good.” Looking at James who was very cooperative, Jiang Chen nodded pleasantly. “I’ll send you back to Europe. If a reporter asks about this, you know what to answer.”

Hearing Jiang Chen’s words, James immediately said in horror: “No, you can’t do this. My brother… Carmen will definitely kill me!”

“I won’t make you return to Germany. You’ll travel to Moscow to take shelter from the Russian government in the form of refuge and at the same time, you’ll be interviewed by the media there. We will provide you with the materials. You only need to be responsible for smearing them.” Watching his fearful expression, Jiang Chen comforted him. “Relax, I will send people to protect you.”

After a while, the car stopped.

The bodyguard waiting at the side of the road opened the door and respectfully stepped to the side.

“Where’s this?” James said, looking up at the tall building in front of him, wondering, “Coro Central Hospital? Why did you take me here?”

Jiang Chen’s smile was bright, but in James’s eyes, it was a devilish smile.

“In order to ensure that you’re obedient, I arranged a minor operation for you. Don’t worry, it’s good for you.”

Chapter 904: Frame

“Mr. James Rothschild, may I ask if what you said is true?”

In front of reporters, the moment when James told “the truth,” the audience erupted.

Originally, James, who was identified to be dead in the fire, reappeared before the public. However, compared to what he said next, the shock caused by the “resurrection of the dead” was simply not worth mentioning.

“Yes, what I said is true, truer than the 24k gold ring on my finger!”

“…I repeat once again that the fire that took place in Pilsen wasn’t a terrorist attack but a despicable and shameless murder!” Standing in front of cameras, James Rothschild waved his fist frantically and scolded the conspirators. “As for the murderer, it wasn’t anyone but Carmen Rothschild, my brother.”

“Mr. Rothschild, what evidence do you have?” A reporter brought the microphone closer and said quickly, “If your accusation is validated, this will become the most appalling scandal in this century. We need to know more details.”

“Details? You need detail? God, I know my brother too well. He’s a man who can do anything to achieve his goal! Anybody can be a victim, even his allies, even his closest relatives. Don’t believe? Haha, Look at Ber. It’s a beautiful city, isn’t it? You might have forgotten what happened there two years ago, but I will never forget!”

James didn’t answer the reporter’s question directly because he had no evidence at all. Instead, he cleverly threw out even more exciting news. He pushed the terrorist attack two years ago in front of the media, intentionally yet unintentionally linking it to the Rothschilds.

It was a fact.

They were certainly involved in that attack.

After that, Merkel lost the trust of voters, and the New Choice Party came to power. The Jewish Consortium became a direct beneficiary.

Suspicion required no evidence.

Whether or not James could produce evidences, his previous remarks already created controversy. It would take time before the scandal become a conspiracy theory. He didn’t need to make any explanations, in fact, he could even just hide from the media to create the illusion that he was being hunted by his own brother and family. This would add persuasiveness to this baseless conspiracy theory.

The report continued, but James Rothschild used the excuse of not feeling well to end the interview. But judging by the swarm of microphones, the reporters who sensed a big story didn’t plan on letting him go.

“This bastard,” said Johnson, gnashing his teeth in rage, his eyes flashed with ferocity. “I advised you to kill him long ago.”

Carmen gloomily stared at the TV. His four fingers holding the glass tapped in order. The reflection of the shaking liquid on the glass didn’t reveal his emotions at the moment.

“Do I need to arrange people to take him out?” Johnson sighed.

“No.” Rothschild shook his head then he suddenly grinned and smiled. “If we acted in anger, they would, in turn, use my brother’s death and frame me as a heartless demon or cold-blooded killer.”

“He’s just an insignificant piece. We don’t need to worry about him.”

“But he intends to fight for inheritance rights with you,” said Johnson, staring at the image on the television.

Carmen suddenly burst out laughing.

“Inheritance? My dear brother is even afraid of leaving Moscow. You expect him to have the guts to go to court against me in Europe?”

Carmen shook his head and finished his glass of red wine. He gazed at the empty glass and hid his contemptuous look. “Compared to my inadequate brother, I’m more worried about what that man might do. It’s regretful that Cham actually failed… things are starting to get interesting.”

“He did something superfluous.” Jiang Chen smiled at James, who was being interviewed at Moscow Square. “I didn’t ask him to expose the event from two years ago.”

The fear of death made Mr. James Rothschild do something extraneous. Obviously, he didn’t believe the Ghost Agents could protect him from his brother, or he never believed Jiang Chen intended to protect him.

So, he deliberately exposed a conspiracy to the media – he knew the inside story of the incident from two years ago.

Nothing was worse than death. People respected death and respected the words of the dead.

It was impossible for people to believe him just from his words alone. The Rothschilds were the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks. However, if he died as “the only insider,” it would be easy for people to connect the dots together.

“Do you need me to warn him?” Ayesha stuffed the buttered toast in her mouth as she chewed and murmured.

“No.” Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled. “Although he played the card a bit early, the end result wouldn’t be that different … but still, remind him so he won’t make decisions for me in the future.”

“Mhmm.” Ayesha nodded.

After completing the slavery chip implant surgery with Mr. James, Jiang Chen sent him on a flight to Moscow. Mr. James was also quite cooperative. After landing at Moscow International Airport, he immediately stood in front of the media and fulfilled his promise.

“Are you watching the news?”

Holding a plate, Xia Shiyu gracefully sat next to Jiang Chen.

Since the two established a relationship, evenings at the mansion became more and more shameless. Xia Shiyu, who tasted the feeling of intimacy, was more open to Jiang Chen and had a much friendlier attitude toward Ayesha,

The only thing that was somewhat regrettable was due to her thin skin. No matter the amount of time he tried to convince her, she would never sleep with them as a group of three again.

It was Saturday. Xia Shiyu got up a bit later and breakfast changed from an egg to a fruit salad, which was more difficult to make. Jiang Chen was very skeptical that the meat-free breakfast could really be filling, but since she was used to it, he didn’t say anything.

After breakfast, Ayesha diligently brought the plate to the kitchen, leaving only Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu in the dining room.

Jiang Chen looked up at the clock and said something abruptly.

“I might have to leave for a few days.”

Xia Shiyu looked over and she didn’t seem surprised. Obviously, she was accustomed to Jiang Chen’s regular disappearances. Although she was curious where he actually went, she never asked.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Chen seemed to make up his mind. He said, “I used to hide a lot of things from you. From Future 1.0, I’ve been ambiguous about the origin of these things. I didn’t plan to hide these things from you forever. I’ve always thought that when the time was right, I’d be truthful with you.”

“When I come back this time, I will tell you everything—”

Chapter 905: Go Through the Ice

“When I come back this time, I will tell you everything—”

His mouth was covered, and Jiang Chen’s eyes widened.

Lips were planted on his lips.

In the same way, Xia Shiyu also made a decision in her mind. Xia Shiyu gently bit her lower lip and whispered, “Whatever you tell me, even if you’re an alien, I… I will stay by your side.”

Considering how serious Xia Shiyu looked and sensing her warm breath just inches away, Jiang Chen took a moment to process before he suddenly burst out laughing.

“What-what are you laughing at?”

Redness instantly covered her cheeks. Xia Shiyu gritted her teeth, raised her hand and gave Jiang Chen’s chest two punches then she reached out to his waist. Jiang Chen certainly wouldn’t get hurt by this level of attack. He fell while laughing on the sofa.

“No, nothing! Haha… okay, okay, I’ll stop laughing.” He grabbed Xia Shiyu’s fists. Jiang Chen, who had been laughing to the point where his stomach began to hurt, took a moment to calm down. Then he looked at Xia Shiyu, who was embarrassed on top of him, then said with a serious face, “Rest assured, I’m definitely not an alien.”

Looked at Jiang Chen pretending to be serious, Xia Shiyu giggled this time.

Jiang Chen also laughed along, he then gently let go of her hand and whispered, “Wait for me to come back.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Not very dangerous.”

“Can you not go…”

Jiang Chen didn’t speak but only gazed at her black pupils.

The blushing Xia Shiyu looked to the side. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest with her fingers twisting her black hair. Slightly shy, she said, “Umm…remember to be safe on the outside—Ahh!”

Jiang Chen suddenly sat up and Xia Shiyu, who was on his lower abdomen, exclaimed and fell backward on the other side of the sofa. Their positions changed instantly. Looking at his face in close proximity, Xia Shiyu wanted to escape out of panic, but his strong arms gave her nowhere to hide.

With a smirk, Jiang Chen got closer to her ear and gently blew into it.

“You’ve been riding on me for so long. Now it should be my turn.”

Looking at her panicked face and thinking about her dignified, meticulous appearance during the weekdays… the contrast was simply irresistible.

“Wait, wait, what are you going to do?! No, not here, there is where we eat… Ayesha is still in the kitchen… oh, oh!! Oh yeah…”

…

The apocalypse, Hanzhong.

Axes like wind and blades like snow formed a white hurricane unleashed from the heavens. They shredded every inch of exposed life. The survivors set up strong, warm tents on the edge of the Han River and huddled inside sheets. The patrol team scooped snow out of the camp with a vehicle and while carrying rifles, checked every corner where mutants might be hidden.

Next to them was the Han River. The river was long frozen.

In order to take water from the Han River, the survivors had to use a rig to drill a hole that was nearly a meter down.

The poor living conditions in the northwest region and the scarcity of materials had reached an unimaginable level. Even if the Northern Alliance Area prepared ample supplies for the migration, this migration was still be a death march. Every day, people froze to death, were killed by mutants, or died because of the lack of medicine.

Everything was because of the radiation dust that permeated the sky.

At the moment, in the center of the survivor camp, was the barracks of the commander-in-chief of the Northern Alliance Area. The electric heater emitted a mesmerizing heat. The electricity supply in the camp was limited, but it only applied to regular survivors.

Commander Wei Bian sat beside the holographic map and drew on a wrinkled map with a marker. Deputy Commander Luo Xugang sat across from him, occasionally glancing at his paper map, but he spent most of his time napping.

The marker stopped moving, Wei Bian frowned and abruptly broke the silence in the command room.

“Our time is limited.”

Leaning on his chair, Luo Xugang opened his half-closed eyes and yawned.

“You’ve said this many times.”

Right after he said this sentence, a cold wind brought snow inside. Like a pot of cold water poured from head to toe, the drowsy Luo Xugang instantly woke up. He shuddered several times and his drowsiness instantly went away. He stared angrily at the door.

Although his moves were fast enough, snow still blew inside the command post.

Wei Bian still had the same expressionless face. He looked at the officer and said, “What’s the matter?”

The officer reported quickly.

“NAC is deploying its defenses in the Wu City region. They’ve deployed Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannons and laser array defense systems along the Yangtze River. They have between two to five thousand troops stationed. Our outposts established in Wu City have been eliminated by them…”

After listening to the officer’s report, Wei Bian became silent. The deputy commander sitting next to him also furrowed his brows. He stared at the map on the holographic command table and kept thinking about the countermeasures silently.

“You can go now.” As if a decision was made, Wei Bian suddenly said, “There will be a combat meeting here in an hour. All officers above the lieutenant colonel level must be present.”

“Yes!” The officer saluted and hurriedly left the command room.

Snow once again covered the command post, but this time, Luo Xugang didn’t bother with the irritable ice shards. Instead, he looked at the Commander of the Northern Alliance Force.

“Combat meeting?”

Wei Bian nodded and his fingers tapped on the holographic screen.

“We must take Wu City before the end of the winter.”

“How can we get past the snow?” Luo Xugang furrowed his brows.

Wei Bian’s laser pointer was on the Han River.

“We’ll go through the ice.”

With his eyes open, the bright colors faded, and the yellow and gray tones unique to the wasteland appeared. However, these colors were only confined to the mansion; outside the window was a monochrome whiteness. This year’s winter came much earlier than previous years, and it was also a lot colder.

The wooden door of the bedroom opened and a figure flew into his arms.

“Darling, you’re finally back.” Sun Jiao bit Jiang Chen’s ears resentfully and pouted. “You know how much I missed you?”

Looking at the beauty between his arms apologetically, Jiang Chen was about to say something, but she gently put her finger on his lips.

“I know what you want to say, but I don’t want to hear you say sorry.”

Looking at the mischievous Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen, who was red, smiled apologetically and fixated on her eyes full of love.

“…Once Lin Lin’s research is successful, would you like to live with me on the other side?”

“Didn’t we agree on this already?” Sun Jiao whispered.

“You’re right.” Feeling the warmth in his arms, Jiang Chen spoke while caressing Sun Jiao’s luscious hair.

After sharing an intimate moment with Sun Jiao, this “satisfied” kitten finally let Jiang Chen leave. She held his hand and went downstairs. After they went to the living room, they bumped into Lin Lin who had just come out of the lab.

Seeing Jiang Chen, Lin Lin’s eyes light up, and she quickly stepped forward to grab his empty hand.

“I was just about to go find you. Come with me.”

After that, she didn’t give Jiang Chen a chance to respond before she pulled him into the lab.

Chapter 906: Improved Antimatter Storage Device

After the asteroid collection and the completion of the space elevator were delegated, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse. He had just shared a tender moment with Sun Jiao before Lin Lin pulled him into the lab.

“What’s the matter? Why so rushed?” Looking at the excited Lin Lin, Jiang Chen was curious and confused at the same time.

“Don’t worry about it. Just follow me!”

After closing the door, Lin Lin let go of Jiang Chen’s hand and walked to the side of a machine. She pulled off the dust-proof cloth.

“Hey! Guess what this is?” With her small chest proudly raised, Lin Lin showed Jiang Chen the machine that was about her height.

Jiang Chen looked at the oddly shaped machine and couldn’t react for a moment.

It was a machine with a cylindrical body. Jiang Chen carefully searched his own memories, but he couldn’t find any matching machines from his memories.

“What is this?”

“The enhanced version of the magnetic restraint device. Compared to the prototype, this enhanced magnetic confinement device can store up to one gram of antimatter,” Lin Lin proudly said as she patted the machine.

“In other words … if this thing blows up, it’s equivalent to three nuclear bombs?” Jiang Chen glanced at the machine and his eyebrows twitched.

“The TNT equivalency is comparable to three nuclear bombs,” Lin Ling corrected Jiang Chen, and she then said, “In terms of power, this is comparable to ten nuclear bombs detonated at the same time!”

[What the fu*k, this can blast a small asteroid into dust!]

As if she read Jiang Chen’s mind, Lin Lin coughed and pointed at the casing of the machine. She added, “Of course, there’s only 0.01 milligram of antimatter inside. Collecting antimatter in the atmosphere is extremely difficult. If you can help me build a lab in outer space…”

“You know that’s impossible.” Jiang Chen sighed.

The wreckage of the war filled Earth’s outer space. It almost formed a planetary ring consisting of space debris. It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered launching satellites in the apocalypse, but due to environmental limitations, it was almost an impossible task.

Lin Lin also sighed and shrugged.

“Then we have to do it slowly.”

“Also, what’s the progress on the living creature interdimensional study?” Although antimatter was a prerequisite for enabling live creatures to interdimensional travel, Jiang Chen was more concerned with this issue.

“If it’s just microorganisms or bugs, then there are no problems, but when it comes to small animals such as hamsters, the device seems to run into some minor problems. It’s too difficult to explain; maybe it’s because of a lack of energy? Maybe it’s the size of the ‘door’ being too small?” Lin Lin murmured, engrossed in her own thoughts.

Jiang Chen then left the lab.

After lunch, the snow seemed to settle down.

With winter clothes and boots, Jiang Chen left the mansion alone and went to the community center. The soldiers patrolling all saluted out of their hearts when they saw him. From their pupils, Jiang Chen could clearly sense the reverence from their hearts.

Stepping into the command center, Han Junhua was studying the holographic map and deliberating. After she noticed Jiang Chen entering, she withdrew her focus on the map and looked at Jiang Chen.

“You’re here.”

He walked next to Han Junhua and spoke to her, in a casual tone, “Did anything change?”

The laser pointer in her hand pointed at the location of Wu City on the holographic map. Han Junhua said with a concerned voice, “Our pilots discovered during a recon mission of the Northern Alliance Area that their armed forces are abnormally mobilized. The number of troops in the first wave is expected to reach 2,000, and follow-up units might include more than 10,000 people. They’re equipped with a large amount of weapons from the pre-war era. It’s hard to understand their motive, but they seem to be planning to take Wu City in winter.”

Although even the Aurora-20 was in a very disadvantageous position against pre-war air defense weapons, it could still conduct reconnaissance missions by maintaining a safe distance. Pre-war rifles and personnel armor weren’t insignificant, and the T-series power armor that was further developed after the war might not be weaker than the pre-war P-series, but tanks such as the Wanderer could certainly give people a headache.

In the beginning, in order to abolish a Wanderer Tank of the Crimson Chamber of Commerce, Zhao Chenwu was forced to resort to the anti-ship Disaster-32 cruise missile. According to the description of the Aurora-20, the Northern Alliance Area was equipped with a large number of Wanderers.

If the armored units of both sides engaged in conflict, it would be a tough battle.

Looking at the red dots and arrows on the map, Jiang Chen was lost in thought.

“Junhua, you used to be a former PAC Brigade Commander. What are your suggestions for dealing with the Wanderer Tank?”

Han Junhua said expressionlessly, with one finger on her chin, “The Wanderer Tank relied mainly on the Meissner effect of the superconducting armor, which completely renders all metallic warheads useless. It’s called killer of the electromagnetic pulse cannon for thisreason. Even with the use of insulated warheads, it’s difficult to penetrate the 140mm Grade-A steel armor. EMPs, lasers, microwaves, and so on are basically ineffective for tanks produced after 2200, so they can be ignored.”

“In other words … there’s no weakness at all?” Jiang Chen said with a bitter smile.

Han Junhua shook her head.

“There are no weapons without weaknesses, even if it’s the strongest main battle tank of the PAC. Its battery life is its weakness. Maintaining Meissner armor requires a lot of power, and 112 tons of weight is a big problem in itself. Even if it has dual fusion cores as its power source, this type of tank cannot remain in battle for an extended period of time. Tactically, we should avoid direct engagement as much as possible, strategically cut supplies… In addition, the continuous use of napalm bombs is also useful against this tank. ”

“What’s the deployment of our troops in Wu City?” Jiang Chen then asked.

“Wang Zhaowu has already led the Second Army to Hongcheng and dispatched a team of about 2,000 soldiers to Wu City to contact local survivors. As the former industrial city of PAC, there were many robot factories in the city, and the local survivors modified many civilian robots into combat robots. Their combat effectiveness is significant. If possible, we can use crystals to draw up local survivors to fight for us,” said Han Junhua.

“If you can defeat them, then that’s best, of course.” Jiang Chen nodded. A problem that could be solved with “money” was never a problem. NAC, which was backed by the entire modern world’s resources, didn’t have to worry about living necessities at all.

Suddenly, he noticed the distance between Hanzhong and Wu City. Jiang Chen frowned and made a calculation.

“But 750 kilometers…how exactly are they going to get there?”

The northern mutants were different from southern mutants. The mutants from the south such as Death Claws usually entered hibernation in the winter. However, most mutants in the north didn’t hibernate. If they wanted to mobilize from Hanzhong to Wu City, the mutants along the way would be problematic to deal with.

Shaking his head, Jiang Chen temporarily put this question aside. However, as he prepared to discuss the deployment of troops with Han Junhua, there was a knock on the door. After receiving permission, Wang Qing came in.

“Hang Merchants Association Kong Qian is here.”

Chapter 907: Little Ice Age

“Hello, Mr. General,” said Kong Qian respectfully. “I represent the Hang Merchants Association and offer you the highest respect.”

A year ago, the Hang Merchants Association was merged into the NAC as an economic zone, but Jiang Chen had always given these businessmen a high degree of autonomy. Apart from keeping a form to maintain order, NAC only symbolically established offices and executives in Hang City. The president of the association, Kong Qian, was still elected by themselves.

Jiang Chen was very curious about the purpose of his trip to the base.

“Let’s be straightforward – what’s the purpose of your visit here?” Jiang Chen examined Kong Qian and asked.

Kong Qian didn’t answer. He only lowered his head slightly and took out a letter in front of his chest and handed it to Jiang Chen.

“This is?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, opened the envelope, and looked at the lines of words. His brows furrowed. Han Junhua, who was standing beside him, seemed to guess what the letter encompassed. She just swept the first line of the letter and stopped reading.

[Dear President of the Hang Merchants Association, I only represent the survivors of the Northern Alliance Area and offer my highest respect to you. We’ve been trading for many years. We’ve always maintained a friendly, cooperative relationship in all aspects of our interactions…]

[…The force we possess isn’t something criminals can fight against. The puppet regime will be crushed under our tanks. If you stubbornly resist, you will only welcome destruction. I hope you carefully consider your choice.]

[Sincerely, Fang Yuanhong, First Army Commander of the Northern Alliance Force.]

Although the choice of diction was polite, it was still difficult to hide the arrogance between the lines.

In short, it was a letter seeking surrender.

“The force we possess isn’t something criminals can fight against…? Oh, it seems we’re being looked down upon.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head.

Although the industrial capacity of the Sixth Street was incomparable to any industrial area before the war, if the wasteland was used as a comparative standard, it would be impossible to find an industrial base with as much productivity as the Sixth Street. Although the Northern Alliance Area controlled the pre-war equipment, the war had never been merely a matter of competing scientific and technological knowledge, it also tested logistical capabilities.

Even if a Wanderer could take out ten Tigers IIs, so what? There were only so many Wanderers, and there were still many Tiger IIs ready to roll down the assembly line of the Sixth Street military factory.

Jiang Chen folded the letter then looked at Kong Qian. He saw Kong Qian looking at himself with a half-smile.

“It seems that you’ve made a wise choice.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Kong Qian bowed slightly.

“In my opinion, the change of regime is like the rotation of the Sun and Moon. There’s no such thing as a formal orthodoxy. For us businessmen, whoever brings stability to us is the undisputed owner of this land.”

In the eyes of these merchants, compared to the NAC that believed in free trade, the people of the Northern Alliance Area were more like criminals.

“I will remember your words and your loyalty.” Jiang Chen put the letter aside and looked at Kong Qian. “So, did you come to deliver this letter? Or was there something else you wanted to discuss with me?”

“There’s still one more thing.” Kong Qian nodded then said, “I don’t know if General Jiang Chen noticed that this year’s winter came one month earlier than previous years.”

Recalling the previous year, it was indeed true.

Jiang Chen vaguely remembered that at this time in October, Wanghai welcomed the first flurries. Because many things happened afterward, he hadn’t taken this detail to heart. Now, when he thought about it, it was really anomalous.

“A few days ago, one of the businessmen in the association trading drugs and mutant hides returned from Shangjing and brought news from further north. The area north of Heilongjiang Province that belonged to CCCP is now almost a no man’s land because of the extreme cold. According to the weather data observed by the Shangjing Weather Station, it’s possible that the Earth will enter a Little Ice Age triggered by nuclear winter in the next five to ten years.”

“Little Ice Age?” Jiang Chen’s eyebrows furrowed.

He vaguely remembered that in history, the Little Ice Age began in the 13th century and reached its extreme in the 17th century. At its most extreme period, the Nordic region turned into a no man’s land. Even half the population of Norway and Sweden died in a famine. In the Ming Dynasty on the other side of the globe, part of the reason for the might empire’s decline in power could be attributed to the Little Ice Age.

“General, do you remember the first few years after the nuclear war?” Kong Qian asked.

“I don’t remember. I was in a fallout shelter,” Jiang Chen shook his head and replied with his usual rhetoric.

“No wonder.” Kong Qian sighed and explained to Jiang Chen: “After the nuclear war ended, in the first five to six years, there was no concept of summer even in the hottest region in the South. The Earth was covered with ice and snow all year round. In the haze of the nuclear winter, the situation didn’t improve until the seventh year after the end of the nuclear war.”

“We originally thought the nuclear winter had already passed, but now that seems to be wishful thinking.”

Having said this, Kong Qian paused for a moment then continued.

“From the settlements of survivors north of Wanghai, all of them are desperately acquiring and storing food. Fortunately, in the Wanghai region, the prices remain stable. But outside of Wanghai, the price of nutrient supplies has doubled. All of the goods outside are devalued… except for crystals of a hard currency.”

“Some people are hoarding nutrient supplies and crystals? Are there any special uses for these things?” asked Jiang Chen.

“It’s all the survivors who are hoarding these two things,” Kong Qian said earnestly. “As for the obvious reasons, they’re preparing for the winter.”

No one knew how long this winter would last. Ten years? Twenty years? Even a century? As long as that radiation dust remained in the sky, the surface climate would only become increasingly severe. Under natural selection, mutants would evolve towards being cold, strong, and barbaric, but weak human beings without the aid of tools would be eliminated by nature during the Little Ice Age.

If the winter continued…

Jiang Chen looked out the window and felt a strong sense of unease.

This inexplicable unease was even stronger than when he heard about the invasion of the Northern Alliance Area.

If winter lasted, NAC’s plantation would be the first to suffer. Without the input of mutated fruits and Carm tree sap as raw materials, industries on Sixth Street would undoubtedly suffer losses as well… While they could use greenhouses, what would be the solution for the most critical resource – energy?

Most of the crystals on the Sixth Street came from mutant farms, and the feed came from the mutated fruits produced by the plantation. The source of energy for the crystals ultimately came from solar energy. If the two sources of energy, solar and crystal, were lost, electricity consumption in the entire NAC area would become a problem…

Wait, if the migration of the Northern Alliance Area was due to the climate problem, why did they not migrate to more southern regions? Why did they choose the city of Wanghai on the east coast? Why didn’t they choose a place like Fuzhou or Yizhou?

Jiang Chen suddenly recalled the “declaration of war” misunderstood by the Crimson Chamber of Commerce during the last civil war.

If it wasn’t the wreckage of the God’s Cane that the Northern Alliance Area was fixated on, what was the “treasure” they described?

Just as Jiang Chen was deep in thought, Kong Qian spoke again.

“We have a proposal here and we hope General will consider it carefully.”

Chapter 908: First Contact

The cold wind ravaged the decaying walls and broken windows on the desolated streets. The apocalyptic snow was a dense fog that shrouded the entire city under its oppressive greyness.

This was Wu City.

During previous years at the same time, it absolutely wasn’t this cold, but this year, it was somewhat different.

On the streets, only zombies in twos and threes strolled mindlessly. Because their muscles and fat were all frozen, they stood in place like ice sculptures. It was unthinkable that they could still hunt living animals in the spring while frozen in this state.

No one bothered with the zombies. The X1 bacteria in the back of their necks couldn’t accumulate energy through photosynthesis. Even if they cut through the skulls of these zombies, there wouldn’t be a single crystal. Only mutant rats would desperately go bite the living dead. Their stomach was powerful enough to not worry about indigestion.

On the street, aside from the walking dead, there was only silence…

Leaning beside the observation hole in the tower, Hu Cheng clutched his rifle tightly, looking through the bulletproof glass of the hole, and carefully observing the empty icefield. The blowing, raging wind made him begin to wonder if his work served any purpose.

With such a large snowfall, would the people from the Northern Alliance Area really come?

The tower was built on the roof near the belfry, not far from the river, and it was made of wood for disguise. It looked only like a shabby shack. Behind the timber was a real concrete bunker which blocked the heat source and life signal, and it could withstand the direct fire of tanks.

It was almost impossible for enemies to discover this as an observation tower unless they were actually inside.

Hu Cheng yawned at the same repetitive scenery and set aside his rifle at the window.

At that moment, in the cold gusting wind, a dark figure gradually appeared.

Hu Cheng lifted his muzzle out of his reflex, but he soon put the gun down again. He took a few steps while rejoicing then lowered the ladder for the man who arrived.

The door clunked open. A middle-aged man with thick winter clothes, covered in ice shards, came in. His cheeks were glowing red while he carried an insulated lunchbox. He put the lunchbox on the table while ripping off his hat that almost stuck to his head. He cursed.

“…What the fu*k, next time don’t point that at me. If you misfire, you can just wait for those zombies with broken brains to bring you food.”

“Hey, part of the job?” Hu Cheng couldn’t wait to open the lid of the lunch box and set his eyes on the hot steamed pork and white rice. He couldn’t even wait to put down his gloves and started to gobble on the food.

“Fu*k the job? Do you really think that the barbarians in the northwest will make a fuss here? Do you think they ate too much?” Tossing the ammunition pack on the ground, Deng Wenjie eyed his partner and grabbed a chair. He took out a bottle of booze from his pocket, unscrewed the lid and carefully took a sip.

“Oh, if the barbarians could eat, then they wouldn’t come here…” Hu Cheng smelled the fragrance of the alcohol and his eyes were glued to the bottle. He rubbed his hands with a grin. “Ummm, brother, you see…”

“No,” Deng Wenjie waved his hand and stuffed the bottle back into his pocket. “You’re on patrol.”

“Whatever, aren’t you also on duty?”

“This is for work purposes.” Deng Wenjie stared menacingly and covered the bottle in his pocket. “Shall we change jobs? Do you want to go outside?”

“Whatever!”

Hu Cheng stuck up a middle finger at this stinky fellow and cursed shamelessly in his mind, but he eventually gave up trying to ask for a few shots.

He finished the lunch in front of him and used his sleeves to wipe his mouth full of grease. He then stood up and lifted the rifle against the table.

Standing next to the observation hole, Deng Wenjie looked in the direction of the ice with a frown.

“What are you looking at? Don’t you need to go and send supplies to the next post?” As he walked beside his comrade burping, Hu Cheng patted him on the shoulder.

“What’s that on the ice?” Deng Wenjie pointed to the Han River not far away, frowning.

“Ice?” Hu Cheng took out the binoculars from his pocket and stuck them against the window.

With one look, he immediately pressed Deng Wenjie’s head down.

“What the fu*k are you doing?”

With his head pressed, Deng Wenjie was about to swear, but he was greeted by his comrade’s widened eyes in shock.

“It’s the snowmobiles from the Northern Alliance Area! Those barbarians…they really came!”

On the ice, dozens of snowmobiles galloped and passed the NAC demarcation line in Wu City in just a few seconds.

The front ends of the snowmobiles had high-caliber heavy machine guns installed. The soldiers wearing polar camouflage teamed up as pairs on the snowmobiles to form the leading force. In the back, there were a lot of snow transportation vehicles in droves. These light armor vehicles were refitted with wide load-bearing wheels, which allowed them to move freely on the one-meter-thick ice surface.

As they were about to pass through the line of defense, a burst of fire broke out in a building on the shore.

The cylindrical projectile drew a trail of crushed snow in the air and slammed on the ice more than one meter thick.

“Boom—”

The surface of the ice shattered without suspense, and web-like cracks spread out instantly. The huge hole directly devoured the snowmobile, unable to break in time. However, NAC’s sudden attack didn’t cause these leading troops to panic. They maintained their momentum while spreading out, directly passing through the range of the electromagnetic pulse cannons.

Immediately following the formation of the snowmobiles, the transport fleet immediately slowed down, turning toward the streets on either side of the Han River. At the same time, the soldiers wearing polar camouflage jumped out of the vehicles and sprinted toward the street. Judging from their swift actions, this rapidly responding snow force was obviously equipped with strengthening armor like kinetic skeletons.

However, NAC’s soldiers weren’t rookies. As the enemy spread out, there were a series of wailing noises that appeared in the blizzard. The dense barrage covered the surface of the ice. Snowflakes and ice shards immediately shrouded the river surface. The impact of the explosion almost tore this layer of ice over a meter apart!

The intensive barrage obviously caught the people of the Northern Alliance Area off guard. These people who had escaped the shelling didn’t get a chance to catch their breath before the screaming rockets arrived.

The targets of the barrage were the streets on both sides of the Han River, which were the transporters and soldiers who landed ashore from the river.

Not far from the top of the building, Wang Zhaowu was overlooking the battle situation five kilometers away with his binoculars. He had a serious frown on his face.

Although the battle was one-sided, it was surprising that during this initial contact, the NAC with their artillery didn’t gain an advantage.

The second wave of soldiers deployed on the surface of the river blasted the ice with explosives and blocked the formation of the snowmobiles. The two sides underwent a fierce exchange of fire under the bridge across the river. The tracers almost wove a net in the air.

In half an hour, the leading troops were completely wiped out and the soldiers in the Northern Alliance Area began to withdraw.

Wang Zhaowu ordered them to stop chasing and consolidated the line of defense, ending the battle.

Putting down his binoculars, he wasn’t relaxed.

The size of this attack was only 500 people. Other than the dozens of snowmobiles, the heavy armors were nowhere to be seen at all. According to intelligence from the rear, his opponent was the First Legion of the Northern Alliance Area with a force of more than 10,000 people and a countless number of armored units.

The initial contact ended with the NAC victorious, but the real war had only just begun.

He had a hunch that this would become a gruesome and diffcult war.

Chapter 909: The Moment War Started

Although there were no flags indicating their identity, there was no one else other than the people of the Northern Alliance Area who would come here.

After witnessing this 500-strong force, the frontline post sent a warning to the headquarters immediately. At the same time, the Second Army stationed in the city assembled themselves and prepared for war.

Local mercenaries were also mobilized. Although their direct combat capabilities were unsatisfactory, these individuals were all DIY and robots specialists. They were locals who could fully use the terrain against the offense of the Northern Alliance Area.

After they sent a fleet of forces to test out the NAC, the Northern Alliance Area took position in the suburbs to the north of the city. They used small-scale forces against the Second Army to gain regional control with the goal of weakening NAC’s artillery support.

Because of the blizzard, the visibility was extremely low, and the difficulty of flying mission greatly increased. The air superiority brought by Aurora-20s appeared to be negligible under the threat of air defense weapons. As Wang Zhaowu expected, it would be a hard battle.

The news of the outbreak of the war was quickly transmitted to Wanghai by radio.

…

“If the climate is like what the Shangjing’s meteorological observatory predicted, the world will enter a Little Ice Age caused by radioactive dust, and the surface environment will no longer be suitable for human survival, or the cost of living above the surface will be far higher than below the surface.” Kong Qian looked at Jiang Chen seriously and proposed, “Based on the plan we prepared, if the subway of Wanghai City is reconstructed, it can be transformed into an underground fallout shelter large enough to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. Once the surface of the climate is too harsh to survive, we’ll at least have an option to choose from.”

“Transition to the underground? Have you ever considered the energy issue?” Jiang Chen replied.

Without energy, even if the production and living facilities were moved underground, it would just be a grave they dug for themselves.

“Of course. Energy is a problem that cannot be ignored,” Kong Qian nodded, agreeing with Jiang Chen’s point of view. “We thought of two options. One was to use geothermal energy, and the other was to deploy ocean current generators in coastal areas. ”

Even if the weather got bad again, it would be absolutely impossible to freeze the ocean. Geothermal energy was also an inexhaustible source of energy… However, Jiang Chen’s indecisiveness wasn’t about a matter of energy. After all, the Moon colony in the modern world had begun to take shape. If he wanted to, he could always move some helium-3. As for the other material for nuclear fusion, there was plenty of tritium in the sea.

After a long silence, Jiang Chen finally said, “I hope we’ll never have to use this last resort.”

“I know this is a difficult decision, but we must face this reality.” Kong Qian bowed his head slightly. “We’re willing to share this project with NAC.”

After contemplating for a moment, Jiang Chen gave a relatively conservative reply: “…we cannot invest too many resources in the near future into the subway modification project. After all, no one can expect those invaders from the north to put aside their prejudices because of climate problems. But I promise that when we have free hands, we’ll seriously consider this matter.”

Without receiving a direct affirmative reply from Jiang Chen, Kong Qian was slightly disappointed, but he also expressed his understanding of the issues NAC was currently facing. After all, compared to the nuclear winter and the Little Ice Age, the Northern Alliance Area with tanks pointing at the south was the most imminent crisis.

“We’ll wait for your reply. I hope everything won’t be too late. If Mr. General has nothing else to add, then I will take my leave now,” Kong Qian replied respectfully.

“Okay.” Jiang Chen nodded and looked at Wang Qing, who hadn’t spoken yet. “Wang Qing, go to the warehouse for me and grab a box of Anxi Tie Guan Yin (Premium Tea) for Mr. Kong.”

Kong Qian was slightly moved and looked eagerly at Jiang Chen. He once again bowed: “Thank you, General!”

Jiang Chen said with a smile, “You’re welcome.”

These luxuries were tens of thousands of dollars for him – there weren’t rare at all. However, for these wealthy businessmen on the wasteland, this box of purely natural, pollution-free tea couldn’t be bought even with money.

It would allow them to brew a rich cup of tea, savor the taste from the pre-war period, and recall the good life before the war. For these high-ranking people, it was the ultimate enjoyment.

In the meantime, giving small favors to others would not only win them over but also strengthen the alliance between the two parties.

After Kong Qian left, Jiang Chen prepared to go to the software development department before returning to the mansion. However, Han Junhua stepped into the office with quick steps.

“Northern Alliance Area’s troops already advanced into Wu City. NAA’s First Legion has engaged fired with the Second Army headed by Wang Zhaowu.”

Jiang Chen’s pupils constricted.

Although he had the slightest hope that this moment would never come, this moment had finally arrived.

The fire of war was already lit.

…

Pulling the trigger in his hand, Hu Cheng hid behind the concrete bunker and used the rifle in his hand to return fire against the soldiers in polar camouflage. The blizzard ravaged above his head. It would take luck to hit people in this weather.

Whoosh!

Hu Cheng immediately buried his head, and the bullet whistled against his scalp. His cold sweat formed ice shards on the tips of his hair. He skillfully reloaded the clip and moved to the side of the bunker. The rifle was once again shoved out of cover to return fire.

“Tatatata!”

Indistinctly, he saw a few bright red spots gushing out from the white snow pile across from him. The rifle covered in white stripes fell on one side of the snow. There was no screaming, or the agony was already lost in the gusting wind. There was a hand behind the bunker that dragged the body behind cover.

Confirmed kill!

Behind the cold bunker, Hu Cheng panted. There wasn’t the slightest indication of happiness on his face, only the gratitude to be surviving. He was one of the earlier ones who joined the NAC and participated in battles against the Seventh Area mutated humans. He also participated in the expedition to Hongcheng, but the undoubted similarity between these wars was that the NAC had the absolute advantage.

Against the reaping of the drones and the barrage of rockets, the mutated humans were run over. Against the massive cannon of “The Order Airship”, Hongcheng’s survivors could only surrender under the shadow of the steel airship.

However, the Northern Alliance Area wasn’t the same. The other side had inherited the pre-war Pan-Asian Cooperation armor and its modern military ideology…

Gnashing his teeth, Hu Cheng continued to peek out from the bunker and returned fire.

He chose not to think about the outcome of this war and handed everything to Commander Wang Zhaowu of the Second Army. As a soldier, all he needed to do was kill his enemies and kill as many enemies as possible before his death!

This was his only option to survive through the snowy and icy hell…

On the main battlefield two streets away, drones flocked to the positions of the Northern Alliance Area. However, under the blockade of EMP weapons, these Hummingbirds all became headlong flies. On the battlefield with considerable scientific and technological advances, these flexible killing machines became worthless. In order to consume the EMP weapons of the Northern Alliance Area, drone teams were formed in twos and threes to attack their positions.

The armored vehicles of the Northern Alliance Area bulldozed through the concrete wall and drove onto the street. They used the frontal armor to block the bullets and used the machine guns at the top to fire at the NAC. They suppressed NAC’s gunners’ positions and protected their infantry as they moved forward.

However, this losing situation didn’t last long, and a round of bombs penetrated the armor. The armored vehicles exploded. NAC’s gunners immediately peeked out and fired back to kill the Northern Alliance soldiers who were charging onto the empty road.

The Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannons ambushed near the clock tower had the miraculous effect of a sniper rifle. However, the orange-red ballistic exposed its position, and soon, an explosive bomb hit the clock tower. When the dust dispersed, the top of the clock tower had been slashed away, and no trace of the cannon was seen.

The war was extremely gruesome. The northern suburb of Wu City was blanketed by dark thick smoke.

In general, NAC, on the defensive side, still had the advantage.

Until the Wanderer tanks emerged…

Chapter 910: The Power of the Wanderer

The first engagement with the Wanderer tank was on the street near the bridge.

After seeing the Wanderer tank, the Tiger II, which was providing cover for the infantries, immediately aimed its Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon. A glaring electric arc emerged from the side of the barrel.

The orange-red arc crashed into the Wanderer tank. However, the shell didn’t hit the armor. Instead, a strange projectile appeared in front of the tank armor and the shell was redirected into an old building on the side of the street.

The cylindrical shell was transformed into a superconductor under the effect of a special electric field. The instant it approached the electro-magnetized armor, influenced by the Meissner effect, the magnetic field generated by the antimagnetic superconducting current in the superconductor deflected the bomb to the side. It was why the Wanderer was known as the Land King. Metal warheads were ineffective and insulated warheads couldn’t pierce the armor. Even NATO’s most powerful armored forces wouldn’t dare to engage in a direct battle against the Wanderer.

The Tiger II used the smoke generated from the explosion and quickly retreated to the corner of the street. Soliders dispersed into the buildings on both sides, avoiding the machine gun bullets that pierced through the smoke screen.

However, Tiger II’s escape plan was unsuccessful.

The secondary rapid-fired electromagnetic pulse cannon unleashed high-speed projectiles and left a row of bullet holes in the bottom armor of the Tiger II and knocked off the belt on the right side.

“Abandon the vehicle! Fast!”

The tank lost its mobility. The captain yelled while opening the top cover as he climbed out of the tank. The gunners and machine gunners tried to crawl out. However, they didn’t have time to climb out before there was a flash in the smoke curtain not far away. The high-temperature particle cluster passed through the snow and created a daunting hole on the side armor of the Tiger II. The hit punctured the power module directly, leading to the explosion of the nuclear fusion core.

The aftermath of the mini-nuclear blast blew away the snow and concrete blocks on the entire street. Behind the scattered dust was the frightening muzzle.

The primary cannon of the Wanderer – Type-52 Particle Cannon!

The sound of cannons firing came from the distance and napalm bombs covered the area. However, in the blizzard of this scale, the fire didn’t last long. The Wanderer ran over the wreckage of the Tiger II, and the infantries of the Northern Alliance Area previously hidden now followed behind the tank and pushed forward.

Through the long-range aerial photography of the drone, Wang Zhaowu examined everything with an emotionless expression.

The blizzard twisted the picture into a “white paste,” but from the light pushing forward, he could still tell that the Second Army’s line of defense was being pushed back.

Strategically, NAC was undoubtedly successful. Laser array air defense vehicles could effectively counter Aurora-20, but they couldn’t protect the entire 700-kilometer supply line. Wang Zhaowu avoided weaknesses of NAC and utilized his strengths. He used the 20 Aurora-20s of the Second Army to attack the supply line of the Northern Alliance Area. It was impossible to completely cut off the supply line, but it was more than sufficient to seriously limit its efficiency.

On the other hand, for the Second Army, their supplies came directly from Hongcheng, which was adjacent to Wu City. The supply line was only about two hundred kilometers away. Whether it was artillery or ammunition, it was more than abundant to supply the needs of the army. As long as the Second Army held its position, the Northern Alliance Area would definitely be the first to fold under the limitations of the supply line!

However, the commander of the First Legion wasn’t an idiot. He was well aware of his disadvantages in supplies. From the very beginning, the First Legion hadn’t planned on using conservative tactics. Instead, it used a scattered tactic to disperse NAC’s artillery support and competed with NAC’s infantry for regional control. Then he simultaneously pushed their strongest armored force to the front of the battlefield and chewed away at the most secure position of NAC’s defensive line.

Just as Wang Zhaowu stared at the holographic screen and was in deep thought, a military officer dressed in winter clothes came in and opened the door of the tent. With a grim expression, he saluted then gave his report.

“According to the information from the frontline troops, the effect of the napalm rockets didn’t meet expectations. The blizzard is too big and the temperature is too low… It’s going to be very difficult for us to hold the line of defense in front of the bridge.”

Wang Zhaowu looked at the holographic screen, called out the aerial view of the drone, and transferred it to the tactical map of Wu City.

A green line ran several kilometers into the mouth of the Yangtze River from the Han River and passed through the bridge. This line separated the northern suburbs controlled by the Northern Alliance. The forces on both sides were evenly distributed on both sides of the Han River. If the bridge in the middle of the battle line faltered, NAC would be forced to shrink the line of defense, retreat to where the Han River estuary met the Yangtze River, and fight in the city.

The closer they were to the center of the city, the taller the buildings, and the less effective the support artillery would be, which would undoubtedly increase the difficulty of NAC’s defense.

[Retreat?]

[Or defend to the death.]

Wang Zhaowu’s fists clenched and his arms swelled.

If it was just individual strength, the average of his three properties would reach a daunting 40, but the so-called bravery was rather ridiculous on the battlefield consisting of army-level forces. Even if his muscle strength and agility reached the absolute boundary of human limits, he didn’t have 50% the strength of a Dead Claw. Even the Mother of Dead Claws would be unable to withstand a 10 kg mass bomb launched from the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon.

Just as he was planning to order the troops to defend at all costs, a soldier suddenly ran into the command room. He saluted while gasping for breath, and was met by Wang Zhaowu’s frown.

“Report.”

“What’s the matter?”

“AS Order has arrived at the southern suburbs of Wanghai and Chief of Staff Han Junhua is on the ship.”

Wang Zhaowu opened his eyes slightly and a hint of joy appeared in his pupils. Although the Order couldn’t approach too close to the battlefield, the heavy electromagnetic pulse cannon suspended on the ship could bombard the position of the Northern Alliance Area and exert some psychological pressure on the “barbarians”.

“What did the Chief of Staff say?”

“The Chief of Staff is taking the General’s order to take over the command of the Second Army and directly command the entire army.”

Slightly frowning, the previous joy faded from his face and his expression was hesitant.

He wasn’t reluctant to give up control; all his responsibilities came from the General’s trust. If Jiang Chen ordered him to surrender his military power, he wouldn’t hesitate for a single second. However, he doubted that changing command in the middle of war would really have a positive effect?

And although Han Junhua had some abilities, after all, she used to stand on the opposite side of NAC…

Wang Zhaowu didn’t reply. Instead, he grabbed the phone and called the General through a special line. Out of loyalty to the NAC, he needed to confirm the truth of the order with Jiang Chen.

The phone soon connected.

However, to his surprise, the order was actually issued by Jiang Chen.

Hand over command to Han Junhua.

Jiang Chen repeated this sentence again.

Hanging up the phone, Wang Zhaowu looked at the soldier and ordered, “Pass on my orders; the entire unit of combatants of the Second Army will completely obey the command of the Chief of Staff, Han Junhua!”

“Roger!” The soldier saluted and immediately ran out of the command post.

Wang Zhaowu looked at the holographic screen, sighed and sat back in his chair.

With a large-scale battle like this, with matching strengths on both sides, that was the most he could do.

He hoped the Chief of Staff, who had been an officer before the war, could be the turning point in this battle…

Chapter 911: No Eternal Enemy

“…”

“Destroy the bridge, take all ammunition and supplies, and shrink the line of defense to the south bank of the Yangtze River.”

“Give them the northern suburbs.”

“Deploy the machine guns from the frontline along the bank. The Wanderer’s tank has a weight of more than 100 tons and will not be able to pass across the ice. As long as the enemy infantries and light armors are stopped from crossing the Yangtze River to build pontoons, victory is on our side.”

“Hunter Corps, harass the enemy supply line from their flank and use light armor to raid the rear of the enemy.”

“Focus on attacking air defense targets. Remember to avoid direct engagement with the enemy and retreat if the attack fails.”

“…”

Although the Northern Alliance Area possessed a strong air defense force, the air supremacy remained ultimately in the hands of the NAC. Even if NAC couldn’t launch an air strike, it still possessed the ability to conduct high-altitude reconnaissance at a safe distance.

As long as the communication remain unblocked, the air force could use the terrain to avoid the force of Northern Alliance Area.

Active retreat and a network was deployed along the river to block the enemy’s offense to the city center offensive, while extending the strategic depth of the enemy and use guerrillas to harass the rear of the enemy.

Several orders were issued consecutively. Under the command of Han Junhua, the tactics of the Second Army began to shift toward mobilizing the force.

Although the change of command caused some confusion at the beginning of the retreat, Han Junhua still managed to maintain the confusion to a minimum with her previous command experience.

Seeing the reconstructed defense line, even Wang Zhaowu marveled at the pre-war military officer. He was indeed not comparable.

At the same time, in a half-collapsed building in the northern suburb.

From its appearance, it was no different from the rubble all over the wasteland. Even if it were swept through by a life detector, there wouldn’t be any abnormalities. In essence, however, it was transformed into a temporary headquarters by the Northern Alliance Area. Fang Yuanhong, the commander of the First Legion, was personally stationed here.

Since the retreat of the NAC began, Fang Yuanhong stared at the map in the holographic screen in silence. At this moment, a faint smile suddenly formed on his face before it evolved into laughter.

“…Interesting.”

When he laughed enough, the resilient face gradually cooled down, shaking his head and talking to himself.

“It seems that this puppet regime called NAC is not made up of just fools after all. It can correct strategic mistakes in such a short period of time and boldly put it into practice… Eh, could it be—”

[This can’t be a monster that the project came up with…]

Then Fang Yuanhong shook his head and denied his conjecture.

The Mental Commissar was the secret weapon of Pan-Asia Cooperation and not some kind of basic training. And even if it was a pre-war PAC officer with Mental Commissars in command, NAC was unlikely to win.

They want to block the First Legion’s armored spear with the Yangtze River?

“Oh, we can use more than the Wanderer.” Fang Yuanhan smiled and shook his head, turning his eyes to the door of the headquarters.

There stood a dark green figure.

On the orc-like burly body, the marble-like muscles bumped. No one doubted its physique that could compete with the Dead claws. In this icy snow, it was only covered with a not-so-thick leather, the amber pupils exuded bloodthirsty fierce lights.

It was a mutated human. It belonged to a tribe that had migrated from Wanghai City to the north.

In order to win, the Northern Alliance didn’t mind working with anyone.

Even if they were not human at all.

…

Outside the Fishbone base, a unique car was parked at the gate of the base.

The door opened, and a middle-aged man stepped out with his driver and two bodyguards. Four people lifted their hands above their heads and motioned there was no hostility. The two NAC sentries at the entrance stepped forward and took away their weapons, as well as the crystals, and then brought them into the base.

In the meeting room at the outer layer of the base, Jiang Chen met with the middle-aged man.

“Hello General of NAC, my name is Lu Minghui, Bishop of the Dusk Church. Here, I represent the followers of the Dusk Church and offer you the highest respect.” Maintaining the highest level of humility, Lu Minghui bowed to Jiang Chen. .

The Dusk Church originated in Lanzhou. However, two tigers couldn’t reside in the same mountain. After losing in the confrontation with the Northern Alliance Area, the Dusk Church had to migrate. Some of them went east, while others went down the Han River.

Religion has always been a troublesome thing. The more suffering, the blinder the followers, and the more believers. On this migratory road, although few people accompanied the stubborn and arrogant man to the end, they left a lot of “fire seed” along the way.

One branch that grew stronger was the Shangjing Chapter. The people who had not migrated along the Han River used the underground rail transit line and arrived in Shangjing after many twists and turns. They settled in a large city that was not inferior to Wanghai.

Two years ago, Jiang Chen “inadvertently” poked a hole in their leader Bo Yu. Since then, the church’s influence in the south plummeted and it completely lost control of Suzhou and the surrounding areas.

However, this did not affect the relationship between the NAC and the Dusk Church. Although the diplomatic dialogue was almost zero, there had been a considerable amount of trading between the two parties.

It was because of this reason that Jiang Chen did not kick out the fellow who claimed to be Bishop of the Dusk Church.

“Welcome, Mr. Lu Minghui.” Jiang Chen asked him to take a seat and ordered the waiter to pour two cups of good black tea from Sri Lanka.

As soon as his mouth touched the edge of the teacup, the bishop’s eyes flashed with a hint of consternation. With such refreshing aroma and pure taste, he hadn’t tasted something like this for more than 20 years. The reason was because of the reminisce about the past and the nostalgia for the pre-war life.

“Great tea… If you don’t mind me asking, can I ask you where did you get it from?”

“Pan Asia, in the Indian region, Island of Sri Lanka,” Jiang Chen smiled. “You should have heard that we have already occupied Yizhou Island and opened a trade route to the south. If you are interested, I can gift you some.”

Half of these were his nonsense. This so-called Sri Lankan black tea was just a gift from a business partner from the other world. He had an inventory of luxury goods such as tea. However, Mr. Lu Minghui was not likely to go to the far-away India to validate this, he didn’t mind using this “import” to increase his bargaining chip.

Being able to trade with distant survivors was a symbol of strength.

Sure enough, after seeing Jiang Chen’s generosity, Lu Minghui visibly hid away the slightest contempt and hesitation behind the politeness, and instead adopted a more stern attitude.

“I’m grateful!”

He bowed and he unceremoniously accepted Jiang Chen’s gift.

“Let’s stop with the small talk. You should be very clear that we are in a war with the Northern Alliance Area. If you are not here just to be a bystander, you should have something interesting to discuss with us. Am I right?” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

“Indeed, we have very important things to discuss with you,” Lu Minghui said. “But before that, I want to ask Mr. General a question first. Have you heard of a term before?”

“What term?” Jiang Chen responded with a frown.

“The Holy Shield.”

Looking into Jiang Chen’s eyes, the bishop said seriously.

Chapter 912: The Holy Shield

On the way to the interstellar era, there were many technologies that are prerequisite to interstellar travel. Such as controllable nuclear fusion, warp engine, shield technology, high-power energy weapons and so on.

Because of the difference in ideology, countries’ technology focus were quite different. For example, in shield technology, Pan-Asia Cooperation was undoubtedly leading in the forefront of the world.

The Holy Shield System was even more representative.

The city defense system built in 2147, after countless updates in decades, finally included the entire Wanghai into its protective cover. Although limited by the flaws in the technology itself, the shield system did not completely resist the bombardment of God’s Cane, but it still gained valuable time for citizens to enter fallout shelters.

In the virtual reality game where he met Lin Lin, Jiang Chen had seen that scene.

The waterfall-like light beams poured over the dome of the city, and countless light particles fluttered in the sky. Without thinking about the meaning behind this image, the picture was still indeed absolutely stunning.

“The Holy Shield? Of course I heard that before?” Jiang Chen took a sip of the hot and steamy black tea and looked at Lu Minghui thoughtfully.

“I believe that Mr. General has already noticed that the nuclear winter is approaching. Not long afterwards, the entire land will be covered with snow and ice. Even the strongest and toughest mutants will have to change their habits and migrate underground or southward.” Afterwards, Lu Minghui looked at Jiang Chen. “For us humans, it is the same. This land will no longer be suitable for our survival.”

After listening to his words, Jiang Chen smiled and half-jokingly said.

“So, are you going to order a space colonization ship from us?”

“Of course not.” Lu Minghui shook his head. “Although we believe in the doomsday theory, we are not complete escapist. Unless we are forced by life, I think no one want to escape from their homeland.”

“What’s your proposal?”

“The Holy Shield is the key to dealing with the nuclear winter.” Gazing into Jiang Chen’s eyes, Lu Minghui continued, “In the first three years, the Holy Shield was originally designed to deal with natural disasters such as typhoons. After the economic crisis, Pan-Asian Cooperation then added strategic defense capabilities to it.”

The words of Mr. Bishop surprised Jiang Chen.

He didn’t think that the original design philosophy of the Holy Shield was to shield typhoons, and not intended to shield artillery and missiles!

[I see…]

In this case, in the North Alliance Area declaration of war that was sent long ago, it mentioned a treasure. It must have been referring to the Holy Shield.

“I remember that it had been destroyed,” recalling what was seen in virtual reality, Jiang Chen whispered.

“It’s not destroyed, it’s just overloaded! It’s no different than being destroyed, but at least it’s not bad enough to be unrepairable. We have obtained the design drawings from the backup server of the Defense Research Institute in Shangjin. With some time, repairing it should not be a difficult task.”

Lu Minghui’s words made Jiang Chen eyes light up.

Paying attention to the interest on his face, Lu Minghui smiled and continued passionately.

“As long as we restart the shield system, we can isolate the entire city of Wanghai from the wasteland. As long as energy input is maintained, nuclear winter is nothing!”

“If energy input can be maintained,” Jiang Chen’s finger tapped the table lightly. “Have you considered the source of energy?”

“Although there is no way to get helium-3, but deuterium and tritium reaction is also a good choice. There are an ample amount of deuterium and tritium reserves in ocean. Though it is not environmentally friendly, no one really cares about that now,” Lu Minghui said.

Compared with the Hangzhou Merchants Alliance’s subway project, the proposal to restart the Holy Shield was obviously more reliable. Moving all the factories of Sixth Street underground? Are you kidding? The production machinery and factory buildings are not tables, at least not the kind of tables that can be moved freely.

After a glance at the snow accumulating outside, Jiang Chen refocused on the steamy white mist above the teacup.

“Your proposal has convinced me, but I still have a question.”

“Please.”

“Shangjin also has an urban defense system similar to the Holy Shield, why did you choose Wanghai, and not your current base Shangjin?” Jiang Chen asked the doubt in his heart.

Regarding Jiang Chen’s doubts, Lu Minghui was not surprised. He had a helpless expression on his face and explained, “Shangjing was one of the political centers of Pan-Asian Cooperation before the war. The number of shelters are also the highest in Pan-Asian. This means that when the war is over, it is far more chaotic than elsewhere. The survivors are divided into factionals and the network of relationships is complicated.”

Lu Minghui paused and sighed.

“The most critical thing is that the local survivors are far more exclusive than our imagination. Even if we have migrated to Shangjing for a few years, we still can’t gain their trust. Now that the nuclear winter is approaching, living supplies are getting scarcer. The relationship between the survivors has also deteriorated to unimaginable levels.”

“So you chose us.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Yes,” Lu Minghui said seriously.

During negotiations, the bishop had already shown enough sincerity, but Jiang Chen did not rush to give him a reply.

“The so-called covenant is equal to alliance. I don’t want to go in circles. We can repair the Holy Shield ourselves. If so, what can we gain from an alliance with you?”

“The Northern Alliance Area is also our enemy. We are willing to work together with you to counter the threat from them. In addition, we will offer you a tribute. I am sure you will be interested.”

Jiang Chen noticed that Lu Minghui had used the word tribute very interestingly and could not help but raise an eyebrow. He asked intriguingly.

“Oh? What?”

“Stingray X-1, a protype of a small, multi-purpose spacecraft… I heard that you have a hobby of collecting space vehicles. If the rumors are true, I believe that the ‘artwork’ produced in the Jiuquan Launch Center will surely satisfy you,” Lu Minghui said respectfully.

…

The covenant was formed.

For Jiang Chen, the Stingray X-1 was a pleasant surprise. However, even without that, Jiang Chen would consider forming an alliance with the chapter of the Dusk Church.

Based on what Sun Xiaorou described, this chapter belonged to the Sectarian Guardians in the church. It believed in a drastically different path compared to the Bo Yu-led, radical extremists advocating for escapism. The divergence in doctrine also made the relationship between the two sides not so harmonious, so at the time of migration, both parties went separate ways. One went down the river and the other went to Shangjing.

Compared to those who were brainwashed by Bo Yu, the Sectarian Guardians were also more pragmatic. Jiang Chen promised that after the restart of the Holy Shield, he would assign them an autonomous region in Wanghai, allowing them to preserve their own traditions and formulate their own laws based on the NAC Constitution.

After the conclusion of the Covenant, the Dusk Church Sectarian Guardians in Shangjing will send 5,000-strong troops and head south to Wu City to support the Second Corp of the NAC to fight against the threat from the Northern Alliance Area.

After the threat of the Northern Alliance Area could be resolved, the two sides agreed to immediately launch the “Restoration of the Holy Shield” plan to cope with the ever-deadly nuclear winter…

Chapter 913: The Icy Fortification and Frozen Blood

The frozen Yangtze River divided the city into two. North of the river was under the control of Northern Alliance Area while the area to the south was occupied by NAC.

Two days ago, the last batch of troops responsible to cover the retreat also returned to the line of defense and established a multi-layer defense line along the river.

The thickness of the ice layer was close to one meter. With special tires, it was not a problem to allow light armored units to pass. However, this thick ice was still far from enough to hold up the weight of the Wanderer tank. With the restriction of the terrain, the fierce offensive from the Northern Alliance Area finally halted to a temporary stop.

It was also on this ice that the NAC’s artillery exerted its maximum advantage. An electromagnetic pulse cannon could easily penetrate the ice, turning a solid layer of ice into broken ice shards, preventing soldiers from trespassing.

Machine guns along the bank also easily weaved a firepower net. On this frozen river, even the narrowest part was more than 1,100 meters in distance. It was almost an impossible task to rush through this ice sheet with bare flesh and blood.

Under the command of Han Junhua, the defense line of the Second Army was more than several times stronger than it was two days ago.

…

Scooping the snow from the foxhole to the outside with a shovel, Hu Cheng tossed down the shovel and rubbed his numb face. It was freezing outside, with wind gusting. His breath immediately turned into white fog as he sat on the ammunition box.

Two days ago, the retreat order freed him from the hell on the front line. Taking advantage of the light machine guns he had picked up from the battlefield, he was assigned to the foxhole.

There was only one task. It was to press the trigger when the enemy charged. He loved this job very much, he didn’t need to aim and just needed to use firepower to force the enemy to retreat.

In fact, their machine gunners did do that. NAC’s supply was sufficient, enough that he did not need to calculate how much ammunition remained.

Yesterday, those “barbarians” tried to launch three fake attacks and two assaults, but they were forced back without exception.

Today, they were suprisingly quiet, except for occasional shots through the blowing snow, there were basically no new movements.

There was an electric kettle not far from his hand. In such a weather, there was nothing better than drinking a hot cup of cocoa… Of course, hot cocoa was just a thing in his imagination. Since he climbed out of the hibernation chamber, he hadn’t seen any of these comfort things before the war.

He tossed a few dry tea leaves in the boiling water. This tea came from the tea garden near the Sixth Street with a beautiful name called Intoxicating Tea. Just brew in boiling water for a while, it would produce an alcoholic taste.

The tea was not just intoxicating, but also warmed the stomach.

These things were popular among the middle class. One of the most expensive luxury items that they could enjoy. If it was not for the generosity of General Jiang, they simply wouldn’t have the opportunity to enjoy these.

If he was to pay money for this, he would be too stingy.

Hu Cheng took out the binoculars, and cautiously leaned against the edge of the pit and confirmed the line of defense on the opposite side.

“Very well, it seems that they are too cold too,” muttering, Hu Cheng put the binoculars into his pocket, sat back onto the ammunition box, rubbing his hands together. Then, turned off the electric kettle, took out a steel cup, poured half a cup for himself, and took small sips.

He had never seen such a cold winter, nor had he seen such strange snow. When he woke up from the hibernation chamber, the toughest decade already passed. He heard from those who lived through the most difficult period after the war that this may be the fabled nuclear winter?

Intoxicating Tea also had the benefit of reducing radiation.

After finishing the tea, Hu Cheng looked at his radiation value and the iodine inventory on his EP. He stepped back to the machine gun position, and adjusted his grip.

At this moment, he suddenly saw a few green figures in the distance.

His eyes squinted, then Hu Cheng whispered and grabbed the binoculars.

“Am I seeing things?!”

Lifting up the binoculars, he examined the distance.

For a moment, he actually saw mutated humans. Could it be that I’m too tired? It was indeed possible since he didn’t get good sleep for many days.

The binoculars fell on the snowdrift and Hu Cheng opened his mouth in daze.

[Are they really mutated humans?]

[How could this be?!]

However, the enemy did not give him the time to react from his shock. After a series of intensive gunshots, mutated human soldiers armed with C-grade steels, carrying rifles began taking charge at NAC’s zone of control.

Hu Cheng buried his head out of reflexes, and there was a homing sound from above. The shell exploded about 10 meters behind the foxhole.

The flying shrapnel knocked down the electric kettle. Without the time to be pained by the waste of perfectly fine tea. Hu Cheng quickly swept away the snow on his body before he leaped beside the machine gun and unleashed a fury of bullets!

The bullet sputtered a series of sparks on the steel armor. From the trajectory of the bullets, the bullets did not penetrate through the simple and crude armor.

“Damn it!”

An inexplicable panic entered his mind. Hu Cheng gnashed his teeth and tore off the chain on the machine gun. He scrambled to change into armor-piercing bullets, and once again unleashed bullets to those mutated humans.

The recoil shattered the ice cones on the edge of the cement bunker, and it also pained his muscles. The speed of the machine gun was much slower, but the penetration power more than doubled. Many mutated humans’ armor were knocked off and then they were shredded by the bullets and shrapnel rain, but more mutated humans rushed into NAC’s first line of defense and began to fight with the soldiers behind the trenches!

Even if there were shots and their internal organs crushed into slush, these mutated humans didn’t die immediately. The simple minded creature was far more difficult to deal with than they thought when they were driven by their desire to kill.

Python drones and Reptile drones were immediately mobilized, but the EMP weapons launched by the First Legion caused a lot of trouble for these robotic units. Although the EMP did not directly destroy the drones, the side effects of overloading the circuit forced the drones to stall.

A mutated human rushed right below Hu Cheng’s machine gun and had avoided the maximum shooting angle of the machine gun. Through that snowstorm, he could even see the despicable face, and the drool that was frozen on the corner of its mouth.

“Go to hell! You disgusting green skins!”

Hu Cheng roared, grabbed the rifle with a bayonet from his side. He shoved it out from the bunker and stabbed the mutated human’s head in a commanding position. A few rounds of bullets struck next to him. Cement chips and ice shards left a few bloody scratches on his face.

The bayonet did not pierce the mutated human’s face, but stuck on its arm.

However, he did not flinch. A suddenly flick torn open the muscles of the mutated human’s arm.

The mutated human howled out in agony. Its rifle dropped to the ground, but the other hand reflexively took out the crude machete from its waist. It swung toward Hu Cheng.

Docking his head, he avoided this hit. Hu Cheng caught the opportunity and aimed at the ugly face. He pressed the trigger in desperation.

With the burst of fire, the orange trajectory brought blood and hit the snow, and then sizzled to form a white mist. The machine gun bullets from across the river suppressed Hu Cheng back into the foxhole. More and more mutated humans rushed onto the frozen river surface and opened fire.

As he anxiously prepared to shoot, there was a shrill screech nearby.

Before he could react, bursts of fire exploded on the ice, the explosions blew large chucks of ice along with snow and ice shards meters into the air. When everything dispersed, the entire river was already fragmented, and large sections of ice slowly drift down the river.

There were no traces of mutated humans left? Only the smoke of the explosion lingered on the fractured ice surface in the howling blizzard…

“Beautiful!”

He threw a punch at the concrete wall and shouted at the surface of the river in excitement.

Although he also knew that it would take less than a day for the shattered ice surface to be frozen again by the blizzard, at least for the next ten hours he didn’t have to worry about his own defense zone. Even if he napped against his machine gun for a while, it wouldn’t be a problem…

He hadn’t closed his eyes for a long time.

But, just as he dozed off, he was still confused.

[Where did the mutated humans come from?]

Chapter 914: Stingray X-1

After establishing an agreement, the Dusk Church Sectarian Guardians immediately sent a tribute, the heritage that belonged to the Pan-Asia Cooperation, to a cargo ship. They also sent a group of diplomatic personnel who would be stationed at the Sixth Street. The ship was escorted by Beluga Observation Station to the port of Wanghai.

In the warehouse at the port, Jiang Chen saw the Stingray X-1 multipurpose spacecraft Lu Minghui mentioned. Even at just the first sight, the spaceship made a deep impression.

Because the craft’s primary functional area was space, the spacecraft was different from an conventional aircraft. There was no aerodynamic design, and even the wings were omitted. An orange cockpit was at the head of the sleek ship. The back of the fuselage was embedded with a bowl-shaped pulse engine, and the wings were equipped with mechanical cantilever arms that could be folded in the atmosphere. The abdomen was equipped with a low-power engine for adjusting directions, as well as a connecting ring.

Because it was a multi-purpose aircraft, if the mechanical cantilever is equipped with a laser cutter and the abdominal connecting ring is equipped with a mining module, this aircraft could be used as a mining vessel. If a directed energy weapon was mounted on the mechanical cantilever, and a missile or an electromagnetic torpedo is hung on the abdomen connecting ring, it could be used as a fighter soaring in space…

“Although it is a prototype, the PAC scientists have already tested it and equipped it to the space colonization ship Zheng He.” Lu Minghui patted the outer shell of this spacecraft in reminiscence.

“In other words, the first generation machine?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Yes. At the time they were in a hurry, not having the time to improve it, and many functions are quite crude. However, the functionalities are all there. Whether the mining module or the attack module, the PAC scientists designed them quite well and a set each. But I don’t recommend that you use this thing in the war against the Northern Alliance Area. In the atmosphere, it could only fly upwards like a rocket by consuming a lot of fuel. The correct way to launch this ship should be sending this to outer space through a space elevator… If you have a space elevator,” the bishop said, shrugging.

Jiang Chen smiled and did not speak.

He really did have a space elevator. It was just in another world.

According to his plan at the time he left, the asteroid capture plan should be at the weaving stage. In early December, the orbital work was to start and the asteroid would be pulled into Earth and Moon system. He originally planned to use the mining rocket independently developed by Celestial Trade, but now it seemed that it was sufficient to use the Stingray with the mining module.

After Jiang Chen accepted the tribute to the Sectarian Guardians, Jiang Chen also reciprocated and asked Wang Qing to send them a whole container of cocoa beans. This commodity was definitely one of the most sought-after food, especially during the winter time. With 22nd century technology, it could easily be made into delicious and high-calorie cocoa or chocolate with some little processing. Since Country F was included in the sphere of influence of Celestial Trade, the last thing Xin lacked was tropical crops.

Unlike Jiang Chen’s calmness, after seeing a whole container of cocoa beans, Lu Minghui was stunned.

The Sectarian Guardians lived a fairly plentiful life, but they never saw a whole truck of luxury goods.

It was obviously impossible for these crops to be nurtured in the soil in Wanghai region. It must be traded with the survivors of South Asia. Or else, NAC must own plantations in South Asia, and these cocoa beans must be produced from those plantations.

No matter from what perspective, NAC’s strength far exceeded the imagination of the Dusk Church.

Apart from rejoicing, Lu Minghui also re-examined the alliance between the two parties.

[The Dusk Church must treat this covenant more carefully and do everything possible to avoid conflicts with the NAC!] Keeping this statement firmly in mind, Lu Minghui bid farewell to Jiang Chen respectfully and took this full container of goods to board the transport ship operated by Beluga Observation Station. He headed north along the East China Sea to Shangjing.

After watching the messengers from the Dusk Church disappear in the horizon, Jiang Chen left the port by car, returned to the Fishbone base, and went to the community center.

After finding the staff of the logistics department and ordered them to transport the Stringray X-1 to the backyard of the mansion, Jiang Chen went to the holographic meeting room and confirmed the front line situation with Han Junhua, who had already taken over the Second Army control in Wu City.

For Han Junhua’s command ability, Jiang Chen was quite assured. Since she had experience commanding a PAC brigade prior, she should have no trouble taking control of the battlefield.

Sure enough, she did not disappoint him. Under her command, Second Army successfully blocked the Northern Alliance Area to the north of the Yangtze River. Even with more than a dozen Wanderer tanks, they could no longer move forward by a single inch.

However, it was not all good news from the front.

“…mutated humans?”

Sitting in a holographic meeting room, listening to the reporting of Han Junhua’s holographic images, Jiang Chen frowned and began deliberating.

“How did they get together with those monsters?”

These seemingly inhuman creatures were far more dangerous than raiders and mutants. Since NAC incorporated the entire Suhang Province into its territory, it cleared all the mutated human tribes and cannibal tribes in the territory. From this perspective, the mutated humans did have reasons to hate NAC.

However, what he did not understand was what kind of benefits the Northern Alliance Area offered to convince these boastful and arrogant beasts to join their camp. If it was really like what Han Junhua said, then it was indeed a big problem.

On individual combat capability, even if equipped with a kinetic skeleton, pure humans could hardly overcome these green skin monsters. Under the command of the enemy First Legion, these mutated humans did not clutter together and gather at the frontline. Instead, they sent more troops in an organized fashion to battle positions with wounded soldiers.

As a result, the killing effect of barrage was greatly reduced. Although Second Army had adequate supplies, it didn’t mean ammunition was unlimited.

“According to intelligence from the Hunter Corps, aiding the Northern Alliance Area is the Helmet Tribe that previously settled around Hongcheng and fled to Wu City after the Empire collapsed. The Northern Alliance promised the Helmet Tribe that after victory, they will gift Hongcheng to them.”

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow, ” They believed them?”

Han Junhua in the hologram shooked her head.

“It is unclear whether they have reached any other agreements, but the fact is that they are on the same front. We need more rockets to defend our defense line, what’s the situation on your side?”

“I have already told Zhao Group’s military factory. Their factory will ramp up the production of Fireball-1s.” Here, Jiang Chen had a smile on his face, “In addition, I have good news that the Sectarian Guardians’ of the Dusk Church has reached a coalition with us. They will send reinforcements from Shangjing and attack the rear of the First Legion.”

Chapter 915: The Technology that Changed the War

The reinforcements from the Sectarian Guardians were undoubtedly good news for Second Army who fought at the front line, especially after learning that the Northern Alliance Area and the Helmet Tribe united together. After repeating the details of the covenant with Han Junhua, Jiang Chen ended the holographic meeting.

In the evening, Jiang Chen returned to the mansion together with Sun Jiao and Sun Xiaorou, who had finished their administration work.

When they pushed the door open, Yao Yao already brought a plentiful and delicious meal to the dining table. As for Lin Lin, she was already sitting at the table.

Responding to the joyous look of the small lolita, Jiang Chen rubbed Yao Yao’s soft hair. After he went to the bathroom and washed his hands, he returned to the table.

The baked tender red trotters glowed with a delicious shine and the tender green leaves were oozing with freshness. Yao Yao’s cooking skills improved a lot. If she was not limited by the raw ingredients, perhaps her cooking skill would be better than Ayesha’s.

The haze at the frontline did not affect the family’s dinner. After enjoying this sumptuous dinner, Jiang Chen packed up the dishes with his girls.

After Yao Yao went to bed, Jiang Chen went to the study room on the top floor of the mansion and looked at Sun Jiao waiting at the window. A smile formed on his face and he magically took out a bottle of fine wine and two wine glass and walked towards the graceful figure.

Through the reflection on the window, she noticed him when he entered the room.

However, she did not turn around, but smiled at the reflection on the glass and gently blew out a white mist.

“How did you know I was here?”

“Just thought you’d be here,” Jiang Chen walked to her and put the glass and bottle on the window sill. Then he hugged her around the waist and said, “Beautiful lady, do I have the honor to ask you for a drink?”

Sun Jiao seductively rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and lazily leaned into his arms.

“I heard that there was a job called a bartender before the war. By mixing two different types of wine together, it brought out a lovely taste.” Playfully nibbling on Jiang Chen’s ear, she used a cute voice, “I want to drink that.”

Jiang Chen made a helpless expression. Then he took out a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of brandy from the storage dimension, and also another bottle of spirit he couldn’t name, and then placed a cocktail shaker on the window sill.

“I have only seen it before… I mean, I can try it.”

Amused by Jiang Chen’s expression, Sun Jiao grinned and gestured him to continue.

Jiang Chen poured a little from each bottle into the shaker. Then he shook the mixture a few times, poured two cups for Sun Jiao and himself, and invited her for a taste.

“Try it?”

Sun Jiao picked up the glass and took a sip. Before she had enough time to relish the taste at the tip of her tongue, the pungent alcohol taste made her cough violently.

“Cough Cough! This is not alcohol? It’s just as hot as chili water…”

“Eh? Is it” Jiang Chen glanced at his glass and didn’t have the determination to try it.

It took Sun Jiao a while to regather her breath. She rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and put the glass back on the window sill.

Jiang Chen scratched his nose out of embarrassment, and said, coughing.

“It was just an accident. Do you want to try something else?”

“No! Just give me a cup of wine…”

The blizzard outside the window howled. Looking out from there, the lights in the base seemed to be covered by a thin vile. The two snuggled up by the window and chatted while sipping the fine wines brought from the other world. This leisure time passed slowly.

“The snow is getting bigger…” Fixating on the snow outside the window, Sun Jiao said abruptly.

“Yeah.” Jiang Chen emotionally sighed.

Sun Jiao seemed to have thought of something as she gently bit her lower lip, and hesitantly said.

“If… if one day, it is no longer suitable for people to live here—”

“By then, I will take you to the other world,” Jiang Chen interrupted Sun Jiao’s words and hugged her in his arms.

Sun Jiao’s face seldom showed a hint of weakness. She buried her head and whispered, “You won’t leave me?”

Jiang Chen laughed. “How can I leave you?”

Her lips closed and happiness appeared on her face. Although she knew his answer, she felt warm no matter how many times she listened to the response.

“Really?”

Caressing her hair and feeling her temperature, Jiang Chen solemnly said, “Of course.”

“Mhmm…”

The murmured whisper, with the chilling wind, gradually faded into the night.

…

The next morning, the snow temporarily subsided.

After waking up early, Jiang Chen got dressed and kissed Sun Jiao, who was still in her sleep. Then he went out to the community center. At the General Office, the Chief of Staff Department handed over the battle report from last night.

With coffee brought to his table, Jiang Chen carefully read through the report.

The war on the front line still continued. Last night, under the cover of darkness, the mutated humans launched a continuous and ferocious attack against multiple NAC lines of defense. Under the assault of the fearless foes, they almost tore a hole on the Second Army’s defense.

However, they ultimately failed.

The only good news was that the Hunter Corps sneaked behind a refueling Wanderer tank, mounted a tactical nuclear bomb on the bottom of the tank, ran a thousand meters away, pressed the button, and directly sent the tank into the air!

The difficult-to-replicate nature of the pre-war armor meant that every single tank destroyed meant less and less tanks. It was the first Wanderer NAC destroyed since the start of the war!

Jiang Chen made an annotation immediately below the battle report. He will award the Knight Order to the warrior and reward him with 10,000 credits.

After handling the military affairs at hand, it was still early. So, Jiang Chen came to the warehouse in the backyard of the mansion and tossed the prototype of the Stingray X-1 and the backup USB files containing relevant technical data into the storage dimension and temporarily returned to the modern world.

The asteroid capture project and the space elevator both entered their final phase. However, Celestial Trade Space Launch Center had yet to design an aircraft suitable for use in outer space. The Stingray X-1 provided by the Sectarian Guardians was a perfectly timed solution to the technical department of the Space Launch Center, which was still arguing over “propulsion or non-propulsion engine.”

Not to mention the use of high-temperature and high-pressure materials for the shell, the pulse engine used by the spacecraft was a groundbreaking technology in the modern world. Traditional jet engines were not suitable for interplanetary navigation. More advanced pulse engines were the best choice.

Jiang Chen did not expect to take the drawings to the modern world nor expect the factory in Ange Industrial Park could achieve large-scale production of the Stingray X-1. But at least with an industrial-grade 3D printer, it would be possible to replicate a few prototypes out of it.

In addition, taking the necessary technology from the Stingray X-1 and independently researching and developing transport vehicles between the Earth and Moon, it was also crucial for Celestial Trade’s planetary colonization program. Although it was now possible to rely on transport rockets to provide supplies to the Moon, the use of such low-reuse vehicles was undoubtedly an inefficient option.

After these things were done, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse in the evening.

However, with his front foot just stepping onto this world, good news came from Camp 27!

It was no exaggeration to say that if nothing unexpected happens, this suddenly conquered technical problem would completely change the direction of the war…

Chapter 916: Magnetic Confinement and Plasma

In the warehouse of Camp 27, a seven-meter-long gun barrel was connected to a turret covering an area of more than ten square meters. The middle section of the gun barrel was connected with a hydraulic triangle bracket. With just one look, this cannon seemed to just be “long”, but it was not the case.

The narrow barrel did not emit any physical projectiles. Instead, it was firing magnetically confined plasma particles with a core temperature of several tens of millions of degrees. After being hit by the magnetic field, the plasma confined by the magnetic field relied on its own thermal energy to melt through the metal armor of the target, and at the same time release the electrical energy condensed in the plasma instantaneously to destroy the soft targets and electronic devices in the armored units.

In short, it was a large plasma gun. It was similar to the Type-52 Particle Cannon on the Wanderer tank, but there were many differences in details. However, whether it was the particle cannon or the plasma cannon, both could be regarded as “tank killers” at close-to-medium range!

Speaking of which, the large-scale plasma cannon was completed with the effort of Lin Lin’s research on antimatter technology. Magnetic confinement devices used to encase antimatter could also be used to wrap plasma. The researchers at Camp 27 used Lin Lin’s research results and made further derivation to solve the problem of delays after the magnetic restraint was disengaged from the device.

To solve this problem, it could shoot out the magnetic confinement wrapped with high-temperature plasma as a projectile.

After the researchers at Camp 27 explained the technical elements to Jiang Chen, they immediately entered the weapon testing stage under the General’s command. Several staff members installed the cannon on a truck and moved into the shooting range.

With the project leader Zou Rong coming to the shooting range, Jiang Chen stood behind a bulletproof glass.

Jiang Chen fixed on the large turret in the middle of the field, knocked on the bulletproof glass, and casually asked Zou Rong.

“Why tainted glass?”

“The bullets fired by the cannon can be blinding. The use of tainted glass is for the protection of your eyes,” Zou Rong explained with a smile.

“Weapon testing commence!]

After receiving the order, a NAC soldier stepped forward and connected the wires behind the turret to a tablet terminal. He skillfully set the firing parameters. On the other side of the shooting range, an Grade-A steel plate with a thickness of 200 mm was raised on an open space of about 800 meters away from the turret.

Zou Rong ordered the soldier, who stood ten meters behind the turret, to immediately press the firing button.

With a flash of blinding white light, the plasma cannon suddenly sprayed the energy projectile confined by the magnetic field. Even in daytime, the bright white plasma was burning to a point where it was blinding to look at.

The energy projectile came in contact with the steel and there was hardly any explosion. Escaping from the constraints of the magnetic field, the high-temperature plasma emerged from the tiny space, and melted through the steel with a thickness of nearly 200 mm!

A blue arc that scintillated behind the armor as it spread like a spider web, and instantly penetrated the ground…

Standing behind the tainted glass and witnessing this shocking scene, Jiang Chen’s eyes widened and the expression on his face gradually changed from shock to excitement.

Observing the facial expression on the General’s face, Zou Rong proudly said.

“In the atmosphere, this plasma projectile can only maintain a steady state for a very short time, so the maximum range of this plasma cannon, tentatively named RK-1, is only 800 meters. However, the damage against armored units, as you can see, is astonishing. As long as the projectile hits, disregarding the Wanderer, even if it were a destroyer of the Pan-Asia Cooperation, it would be melted.”

With a range of 800-meter, as long as it hit the body of the armor, it could turn the almost invincible Wanderer into a pile of scrap iron. It may be difficult to approach the 800-meter distance on the plain, but in the urban terrain, an 800-meter battle distance was common.

Prior to this, Jiang Chen was also skeptical about the “technology that will change the course of the war.” However, when he witness the RK-1 plasma projectile penetrate the 200mm steel armor without any suspense, he firmly believed this point.

“How much is the cost of producing this plasma cannon?” Jiang Chen asked Zou Rong.

“With the same production scale, the production cost of this RK-1 is about three times that of the Type-50 Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon.”

Jiang Chen nodded. The cost was within the acceptable range of NAC. In general, costs and production difficulties were also positively correlated. He didn’t care how much money and materials he spent, but if he wanted the Second Army to list this weapon in the war, he must complete production in the shortest possible time.

Without any hesitation, Jiang Chen immediately found Wang Qing and told her to start organizing the production of RK-1. At present, the industrial level of the Sixth Street has begun to take shape, and more critical high-energy capacitors, electromagnetic generating devices, particle acceleration tracks and other parts could all be outsourced to private factories by placing orders.

In order to be able to carry the RK-1 plasma cannon, the engineers at Camp 27 also made some modifications to the Tiger II body. The turret was redesigned while weakening the armor thickness and increasing engine output.

Due to the difficulty of accelerating particles, the barrel of the RK-1 was designed to be very long. If according to the original design of the turret, the barrel would be several meters beyond the body and the entire center of gravity of the tank would be moved to the front.

The engineers at Camp 27 boldly canceled the design of the turret and sank the entire turret into the carriage. They modified the vehicle into a turretless tank destroyer. This design obviously did not match the historical trend, but it was the design that best suited the Second Army..

There was only one chance to fire. If it missed, there was basically no chance of firing a second shot. If the enemy’s particle cannon fired, it made no difference in whether the vehicle was hit on the front armor or the side armor without energy shields, so having a turret did not impact the performance of the vehicle.

The vintage tank was named Longbow I, with 120 vehicles planned. It was estimated that within ten days, 20 vehicles could be sent to the frontline, replacing the powerless Tiger II.

However, in the eyes of most people, this plan was undoubtedly obscure, such as Zhao Group, which contracted 70% of the plan’s production tasks.

Although coveting the profits of this order of over one hundred tanks, Zhao Chenwu was clear that this was almost an impossible task. On the wasteland, not all problems could be solved with “money”.

When leaving the Fishbone Base Community Center, Zhao Chenwu followed Jiang Chen and ranted to him about the difficulty of the task. He tried to persuade the “nonsensical” General to reduce the number of orders.

“We don’t have that much resources at all. If we want to complete all of these orders, we need tens of thousands of tons of steel and aluminum, countless amounts of chromium, nickel, and other rare earth metals. Even if we buy the entire Sixth Street market, we still can’t—”

Woosh!

Without any explanation, Jiang Chen pushed open the door of the Fishbone warehouse. Incandescent lights on the ceiling lit up and illuminated the entire space.

The words Zhao Chenwu hadn’t finish were stuck in his throat, he stared blankly at the warehouse.

Piles of ore piled up to form a small hill in the warehouse. The reflected lights almost blinded his eyes. At this very moment, he could not think about where the ore came from. He just wanted to pinch his own arm and confirm that he was not dreaming…

Turning around, Jiang Chen looked at Zhao Chenwu, who was dumbfounded, and shrugged.

“You may need some trucks.”

Chapter 917: Turning Tides

The war continued for two weeks. It was already mid-December.

The Northern Alliance Area and NAC remained in a stalemate on the two sides of Yangtze River in Wu City. As the snowfall continued to accumulate, if nothing unexpected happens, this stalemate may continue to stagnate.

If nothing unexpected happens…

The accumulated snow on the street piled up to form small snow hills, and a Northern Alliance soldier with his rifle was sitting in a bus stop. From time to time, he glanced down the street with a vigilant sight. Beside him, was a Wanderer tank that just completed resupply, and an infantry squad that was responsible for protecting the tank.

His name was Shi Wenqiang and he was the captain of this infantry squad.

Since the last time the Hunter Corps took out a Wanderer tank that was resupplying with a tactical nuclear bomb, the patrols in the area occupied by the Northern Alliance Area had visibly increased.

Snipers hid in every corner of the city, and infantry patrolled the ground. The mutated humans with leashed mutant hounds searched the streets for anyone living that was not a Northern Alliance soldier. These mutant hounds and life signal detection devices were two of the nemesis of optical illusion and caused a lot of trouble for the guerrillas of the Hunter Corps.

“To be honest, I hate working with those green idiots.” A bearded soldier said as he walked beside Shi Wenqiang. He took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up. He happened to see a mutated human patrol squad. “I always feel that they look at me as if they are looking at food.”

“You’d better whisper, I heard that their hearing is good,” said Shi Wenqiang, licking his lips, taking the cigarette from his comrade, and lighting one for himself. “I really agree with you. But who cares? Anyway, as long as they can take down the hard to bite NAC for me.”

Just at this moment, a gunshot came from afar.

Shi Wenqiang frowned, extinguished the cigarette he hadn’t smoked, and stuffed it back into his pocket.

In order to reduce the threat of NAC bombardment, the Northern Alliance Area troops dispersed within the urban areas, and they hardly stayed in fixed locations for too long. This meant that they had a high probability of encountering NAC guerrillas.

“About a kilometer from here.” A soldier who had been silent and squatting on the side of the road, abruptly said, “They are approaching, and there is also a vehicle.”

Everyone loaded their weapons and gathered in the direction of the Wanderer. Shi Wenqiang slammed his fist on the armor of the tank and said through the headset.

“Get up, time to work.”

The tank responded with an engine-start roar. The tank advanced two or three meters ahead and blocked the entrance of the road. Shi Wenqiang gestured to the soldier next to him and motioned for him to move to the side of the bunker and set up the light machine gun.

The gunfire across the street gradually turned intensive, and Shi Wenqiang faintly felt something odd, but he couldn’t tell what was wrong.

At this moment, the screeching roar drifted from the mall in the street. A mutated human, full of blood, stumbled into the street. But he didn’t even run two steps before he was shot by a bullet from behind.

“Using the electromagnetic pulse cannon, open fire on the first floor of the mall,” Shi Wenqiang said calmly.

“Roger that.”

The tank turned its turret, and the rapid-fire electromagnetic pulse cannon next to the Type-52 particle cannon blasted out high-speed projectiles. The doors of the mall were broken into several pieces together with the walls. The gunfire in the mall was suppressed, but Shi Wenqiang had not yet had time to breathe before a wave of bullets arrived, it almost caught his team off-guard.

Retreating behind the tank, a sneer appeared on his face. He released the reconnaissance drone from his backpack, marking the NAC riflemen across the street through the tablet terminal.

“Fool!”

The Wanderer moved the turret slowly and pointed the cannon at the NAC soldiers.

Any ground target, whether soft or hard, was a vulnerable paper tiger in front of the Wanderer. NAC didn’t have any means to win a direct engagement against the Wanderer. Against absolute technological superiority, all so-called tactics were in vain.

Shi Wenqiang firmly believed this.

However, his despising sneer quickly froze.

Directly behind the turret of the Wanderer tank, a peculiar-looking tank with a turret crashed through the wall and the daunting barrel was already pointed to his direction.

[A tank? How can there be a tank?!]

NAC destroyed all bridges in the city. No armored units could pass through the ice. Neither the Northern Alliance Area nor the defending NAC…

Theoretically, that was the case, but he obviously did not consider NAC’s airship.

“Hide!”

Shi Wenqiang pounced behind cover and roared at his comrades who leaned against the tank.

He did not think that the tank without a turret could pose a threat to the Wanderer, but for the infantry, any armored units that steered were deadly threats.

However, his blind confidence toward the Wanderer also did not last long.

Blinding white light flashed, a ball-shaped lightning shell instantly printed itself onto the body of the Wanderer tank. Heavy armor played no effect at all. The over ten thousands degrees of high-temperature plasma melted through the armored shell instantly.

The word fear was so deeply etched on his face that he forgot the sting in his eyes. Drones attached with muzzle rushed across the street like a tide, and the NAC soldiers hiding behind cover began to charge.

Long Bowman I’s coaxial machine guns suppressed them behind the bunker, and they couldn’t even look up. Not to mention return fire at the attacking NAC.

Shi Wenqiang never felt so much despair.

“Captain, what are we going to do!” said a young man who was lying behind a concrete bunker and looked at him in horror.

He took out the EMP grenade, but hesitated for a moment. Shi Wenqiang eventually put the EMP grenade back.

Even the Type-52 particle cannon couldn’t penetrate the armor of the Wanderer with only one strike.

It was clear that NAC already mastered a directed energy weapon superior to the prewar technology.

When the Wanderer’s armor was smashed through like paper, his desire to fight was lost. If they lost the armored advantage, with the supply disadvantage of the First Legion, there was no chance of winning.

“Surrender… throw the rifle out of the bunker, and the pistol too.”

After saying the word out in humiliation, he threw away his dignity and tossed out his rifle. From the polar camouflage sleeves, he cut a white strip with his dagger and attached it on the rifle.

After their leader surrendered, the soldiers behind the bunker did not have a look of despise at all. Instead, they were all relieved.

They were not PAC officers. They were not interested in the so-called orthodoxy. They followed the Northern Alliance Area just to survive on the cruel wasteland.

After the white flag was raised, the machine guns stopped shooting.

NAC’s soldiers did not give them trouble. They skillfully handcuffed them and handed them to mercenaries outside the war zone. The drone formation went into the building next to the street, and Longbow I returned to battle and continued to advance toward the hinterland of the occupied area with the infantry.

Since they entered Wu City, they already destroyed four Wanderers. Counting the one that was blown up, only eight Wanderers remained.

And on the NAC side, thirty Longbow I were still unscathed!

Although they didn’t know how long the strategy of “Infantry attracts firepower, tank fire from the back” would last, they were certain about one thing.

The offensive and defensive stance of both sides just suddenly reversed!

Chapter 918: Counterattack

In half a month’s time, 30 tanks rolled off the production line. The Sixth Street military factory managed to exceed their expectation.

Jiang Chen provided the production needed ores at market price to the Sixth Street military factory. With the production line reaching its highest utilization rate possible, the support of industrial-grade 3D printers, the Sixth Street’s production capacity did not let Jiang Chen down and completed production tasks at an incredible pace.

After Longbow Is were delivered to NAC’s force, Han Junhua immediately changed her tactics. She used AS Order to deploy all Longbow Is behind the First Legion. With the cooperation of the Hunter Corps, it was a sharp knife that directly pierced into the belly of the First Legion.

The tactic was a great gambit.

Longbow I, as a new weapon, had not yet been tested by actual combat. And deploying a large number of armored units behind the enemy line was a risky option in itself. If used well, this knife could directly pierce the enemy’s heart, but if not well used, this knife was likely to get stuck on the enemy’s ribs.

The absence of a turret meant that it must not stop moving. Once surrounded, the lack of anti-infantry weapons meant that it may be destroyed by anti-tank weapons or explosives.

In addition to betting on the armored units, Han Junhua also devoted almost all the drones of the Second Army to this battle. Under the cover of the drone sea, the assaulting Longbow I was invincible.

Although the EMP weapon caused significant damage to the drone, only a few drones near the center of impact crashed. Drones like Pythons and Hummingbirds were all been retrofitted to EMP weapons. With some distance, EMP only caused overheating of its internal circuits, making it stop for two or three seconds.

Want to destroy all? Unless the enemy had stronger EMP grenades or other EMP weapons. However, that was almost impossible for the First Legion deprived of supplies.

“Boom!”

A particle shot pierced the NAC’s drone group, and more than a dozen drones were melted into iron slag.

While recharging the particle cannon, the Wanderer tank attempted to retreat into the building behind it. However, just as it had just slammed through the concrete wall, a bomb shattered the concrete wall that it was being used as a bunker.

The bomb bounced off of the armor without any suspense. The Wanderer was moving its turret and aiming the particle cannon at the Tiger II. At this moment, however, a glaring white light melted through its armor, and the instantaneous release of the electric current turned all the members in the tank into char.

The Northern Alliance soldiers who fought around the Wanderer tank watched in horror at the crippled tank. In their battle plan, there was simply no mention of what to do after the Wanderer tank is destroyed.

NAC made a decision for them.

The drone group flooded from the sides of the street and the infantry unit that lost armor protection was just like salted fish on the cutting board.

With a victory cheer, the NAC soldiers left cover and charged at the Northern Alliance.

Longbow I pushed over the concrete wall in front of it and revealed its dominance in front of the Northern Alliance soldiers.

“Run!”

Someone shouted out in fear. Maybe it was just the fear for death. The Northern Alliance soldiers began to recede and left cover in a panic as they began to retreat. Machine guns were raging in the cold snow, and countless people fell in frozen pools of blood and were ran over by the merciless steel belts.

This special force that appeared behind the Northern Alliance soldiers penetrated the hinterland of the enemy controlled area with its unexpected offensive.

At the same time, beside the Yangtze River Bridge that broke into several pieces a few kilometers away, Hu Cheng’s defense line received a command to counterattack ten minutes later.

At first he thought there was a problem with the command. However, after seven minutes, dense rockets fell from the sky and landed on the opposite bank of the Yangtze River belonging to the Northern Alliance Area. Three minutes after the bombardment, the defense buildings were barely standing and the horn of counterattack rang.

The assault began.

Although Hu Cheng was more than unwilling, the command of the headquarters was absolute.

Hu Cheng gritted his teeth, grabbed the rifle, climbed out of his bunker, used his roar to dispel all the fear in his chest and rushed toward the opposite line of defense.

“Charge!!”

The light armor emerged from the trenches of the first line of defense and took the lead. Machine gun bullets fired from time to time through the explosion’s smoke screen, but under the continued suppression of artillery bombardment, this symbolic firing was no longer a threat.

The Northern Alliance, which had been on the offense, suddenly was caught off-guard by the sudden counterattack.

However, although they were unprepared, the soldiers of the Northern Alliance in the trenches did not panic, but were amazed by the NAC’s offensive move. They believed that as soon as their Wanderer tanks arrived to the line of defense, they could immediately teach them a lesson.

Not only that, but it was also an opportunity to conquer the line of defense that was in stalemate.

However, the development of the situation was beyond the expectation of the soldiers of the Northern Alliance. The Wanderer’s tanks didn’t arrive, and reinforcements didn’t arrive either. With artillery support, NAC’s soldiers had only sacrificed a small amount of casualties before they easily crossed the frozen Yangtze River and engaged in battle with the soldiers hiding in the trenches…

“Fu*k! My ears!”

The explosion of artillery from afar stopped, Hu Cheng bore the sharp pain of his eardrum and jumped into the enemy’s trenched while carrying a rifle.

“ROAR!”

There was a deep, short snarl, and a mutated hound, with one of its legs shredded by artillery, leaped at him.

Without the slightest trepidation, Hu Cheng used his rifle to knock away its sharp teeth, took out the dagger on his waist, and slashed its abdomen into two parts. A bullet flew over his scalp, and he immediately rushed toward the side for cover and fired back at the Northern Alliance soldier.

“Unbelievable, I actually set foot in the enemy’s trenches?”

While thinking about this shocking event, Hu Cheng killed the enemy soldier and leaned against the snow-covered wooden box. He gritted his teeth and loaded a new clip into his rifle, and then watched the time on his EP.

“It’s time.”

Silently, Hu Cheng let go of his rifle and covered his ear.

BOOM!

The second round of bombardment arrived on schedule and passed the first set of trenches, covering the second line of defense of the Northern Alliance. It duplicated the previous bombardment of the first line of defense.

The soldiers of the Northern Alliance who retreated from the first line of defense were all swallowed by the flames of explosion. The soldiers hiding in the second line of defense could only tremble in the corner of the bunker under the deafening explosion.

At the end of the shelling, Hu Cheng shook off the snow and mud from his body, grabbed the rifle next to him, and slowly climbed out of the trenches.

The exploding black smoke covered the battlefield, and the sporadic fire could not be completely extinguished even by the heavy snow.

Looking at the scene in front of him, none of fortifications was intact.

The assault continued, and even the arrogant snoring of the mutated humans was stained with a hint of fear.

The war was not over, but Hu Cheng, who had never seen the Wanderer from the beginning to the end, knew very well.

They had already won the war.

Chapter 919: Armor Spearhead and Drone Attack Group

Staring at the wrecked line of defense on the holographic map, the Legion Commander Fang Yuanhong’s eyes widened in disbelief, and his face was no longer calm. His mouth was open, and his tightened fists trembled with fear while precious time passed without a single order given out.

When NAC used an unknown energy weapon and destroyed half of the Wanderer tanks, he knew that he had already lost the war.

The adjutant standing beside him said in a difficult tone, squeezing out the confusion from his throat he could not understand. “…how did they transport the tanks behind us?”

Fang Yuanhong did not answer. He just silently stared at the red dots on the holographic map.

The gunfire outside the building gradually became clear. The battle was already approaching the headquarters.

“How many tanks are left?”

“Only two.”

Only two…

Yuan Fanghong’s body trembled.

Before he left, he swore to Commander Wei Bianbian of the Northern Alliance Area that he would not only lead the First Legion in winning this war, but would also do his utmost to bring all these precious tanks back intact.

Now, however, his adjutant told him that only two Wanderers were left…

…

“Bring me the Helmet Tribe leader. Not just Honchong, I would like to reward them with the entire province of Suhang.” Fang Yuanhong fixed the hat on his head, hesitated for a moment, and finally took it off and left it at the table.

The adjutant took a moment to process. He did not understand what the commander meant and subconsciously asked.

“And then?”

“And then?” Fang Yuanhong raised an eyebrow and looked at the adjutant, “and then let them protect our retreat.”

…

The retreat of the First Legion was rather decisive, just like when they came.

Since knowing that winning had become impossible, saving their power was the best option.

The unexpected tactics of Northern Alliance Area had made great advancement in the early stages, but with the extended range of the battlefield, the Northern Alliance Area quickly realized the danger of NAC’s tank without a turret.

In addition, it was not just NAC that was equipped with drones. The First Legion was also equipped with a large number of drones, including attacking drones such as Pythons. However, in order to reduce the effectiveness of NAC’s bombardment, their troops were more dispersed.

The Hunter Corps and tanks formation penetrating from the north merged with the Second Army infantry that crossed the Yangtze River near the train station. They were advancing toward the headquarters of the Northern Alliance Area.

In the final battle, NAC invested a total of 30 Longbow I, 20 Tigers II, 100 Armored Vehicles, and nearly 10,000 infantry. However, after the confluence of the main forces of the NAC, they did not encounter the Northern Alliance Area, but engaged against an unusually excited mutated human army.

Obviously, at the last moment, the Northern Alliance sold their teammates whose brain didn’t work too well. Until the last mutated human soldier fell, they still firmly believed that Hongcheng and Suhang Province belonged to the Helmet Tribe.

The First Legion retreated decisively. The Second Army only symbolically chased. After determining that it was impossible to catch up, the force regrouped at Wu City and concentrated on clearing the mutated humans that were hiding in the streets and planning to fight against them till the last moment.

The war lasted from morning until late the next day.

When the victorious news transmitted to Fishbone base and the Sixth Street, the entire NAC cheered. The atmosphere of the festivities lingered on the streets of the Sixth Street. The prices of beer and wine all skyrocketed.

After the victory of the war, the NAC military government convened a high-level meeting to summarize the successes and failures of this war and began preparing for their next step. Apart from Jiang Chen who attended the meeting, there were also heads of three army groups and other senior military officers, as well as ministers of various departments of the military government including Wang Qing and Lu Huasheng.

As an interim commander who led the Second Army to victory, Han Junhua naturally became the second protagonist at the conference table.

However, she was unable to be present because she was still on the front line. She only participated in the conference through holograms.

In summary of this battle, she put forward a very interesting word.

“Armored spearhead and drone attack group?” Jiang Chen chewed on the two strange vocabularies and looked at her with intrigue. “Can you explain it in detail?”

Han Junhua nodded, opened the holographic screen, and sketched with lines to show the tactical connotation of those words.

“The so-called armored spearhead and drone attack group is the use of the most powerful aspect of armored units to form a spear to penetrate the enemy’s defense line. In coordination with the drone attack group, soft targets not targeted by armored units can be eliminated. Armored unit’s carrying capacity can be used as a carrier for large-scale drone terminals. At the same time, the maneuverability of drones also enables armored units to maximize their speed.”

After listening to Han Junhua’s explanation, Jiang Chen realized the superiority of this tactic.

With the cooperation of drones, tanks equipped with heavy firepower would move like swift lancers. They could constantly puncture the enemy’s defense line during the campaign and moved to the next combat position before the local infantry could surround them.

Especially in the urban terrain where the advantages of drones could be fully utilized, the superiority of this tactic was self-evident.

Jiang Chen silently memorized Han Junhua’s word. Not only in the apocalypse, this advanced tactic would be effective in the modern world. After all, on the other side of the world, EMP weapons didn’t reach a point where every soldier was equipped with EMP grenades. The combat effectiveness of drones could be maximized.

Han Junhua continued to read the report and quickly reached the casualties figure..

“… In the entire war, we lost a total of 14 Longbow I. Only five were destroyed by the anti-tank rockets, only three were destroyed by particle cannons of the Wanderer, six were due to technical malfunctions. So the captain of the tank was forced to abandon and destroy the vehicle.

After all, the tanks were rushed off of the production line, so it was an understandable situation. However, the problem still must be solved.

Jiang Chen looked to the Minister of Scientific Research and told him to send the issue back to Camp 27 to find out whether the problem was due to design or production. With the imminent crisis alleviated, there was now enough time to resolve these issues.

“There is another issue that we must place great importance on. It is the Type-52 Particle Cannon of the Northern Alliance. This particle cannon is the prototype of plasma weapons. We cannot unilaterally expect our enemies to remain stagnate. Now what we need to consider is how to defend against this kind of energy weapon.”

Here, Jiang Chen paused, looked at the Minister of Scientific Research and then said.

“The next key task of the Ministry of Scientific Research is to maintain its constant investment in space technology and appropriately shift its resources to shield technology. Armor thickness is meaningless against energy weapons, whether it is the Type-52 Particulate Cannon gun or our RK-1, both already proved this point. Now we have a sharp enough spear, we still need a matching shield.”

Although the war has never changed, the form of war has changed.

The era of armor was justice, and caliber was truth already passed. Regardless of how thick the armor, against energy weapons, it would only be a matter of time and power for the armor to disintegrate in front of the energy weapons.

The technology the Pan-Asia Cooperation could not complete before the war was finished by NAC.

Next would be shield technology. As long as they understood how to turn the Holy Shield into a small-scale version, it shouldn’t be hard to solve this problem.

Chapter 920: A Wise Decision

Shangjing, Ziyuan Road No. 27 was home to the largest gymnasium in Pan-Asia Corporation. Before the outbreak of the war, a grand football match was being held. Therefore, in the seats around the round stadium, there were still skeletons and rusted coke cans.

Just below the stadium sat Fallout Shelter 022, but the fallout shelter had long since been abandoned. It was the most pragmatic and diligent Sectarian Guardians of the Dusk Church that brought the fallout shelter back into the sun. Although they were followers, they were never constrained by the teachings and pursued absolute efficiency. It was because of this that they separated from the Bo Yu-led orthodox.

“Sometimes, I feel that the name Gravediggers is more suitable for us than the Sectarian Guardians.” Lu Minghui took a flashlight, looked around, and followed the blood trails that have oxidized many years ago.

“Your statement is very vivid.” The man smiled and said in a relaxed tone. “But I will not approve of your proposal at the meeting. No matter what age, digging graves is not a popular career.”

“Come on, I was just saying it as a joke.”

Walking in the run-down subway, behind the two, was a herd of double-headed cows carrying goods. These hard-working animals were one of the few mild mutants left on the wasteland. They could easily be tamed and could cross over terrains otherwise impassable by vehicles. And because of the reduced accumulation of toxins in the body, they were also one of the few meat sources on the wasteland, disregarding its dry taste.

More than a dozen soldiers dressed in winter clothes walked around the consignment team. They vigilantly glanced at the shadows in the corners and scanned for possible zombies, mutants, or raiders. Although it was the usual route they took, no one dared to be off-guard. Even if everyone alive exhausted all their fingers, it would still not be enough to count the survivors that died because of carelessness, many of which were also powerful lone travelers.

Soon, they arrived at their destination, Shangjing Stadium Station.

Passing through the ticket gate that was demolished, a team brought the double-headed cows to the exit and entered the second underground floor of the stadium. It was the stronghold of the Sectarian Guardians. Nearly 10,000 people live there. The center of the stadium was transformed into a large plantation. The transparent graphene shield could block the snow and allow the Sun to pass through. The fruit grown on the green field was the food source of this underground “city”.

Two sentries at the entrance came forward and immediately confirmed Lu Minghui’s identity, then they took two steps back and saluted.

Lu Minghui nodded, crossed the gate, and continued to walk forward. The man behind him stayed behind and took the team in another direction.

In a place like a cow shed, a potbelly man stepped forward and rubbed his swollen eyes and took out a flat plate from his pocket. As a warehouse manager, his daily job was to count the materials that were shipped into the base.

“Hey, fat man, are you on duty today?”

“Yes. My nose is almost falling off because of this damn weather…”

He mumbled and opened the leather buckle. Then, his hands suddenly froze.

“This! This is!” The man called Fat Man was shocked. The two squinted eyes widened and looked like two green beans.

“A whole container of cocoa beans. I don’t know exactly how many tons this is… but isn’t it wonderful? Until a few days ago, I thought this was extinct from Earth.” The man lit himself a poor-quality cigarette and patted the bulging package on the double-headed cow. “Separate this and move it into the warehouse. Remember to keep it dry.”

Fat Man nodded quickly and asked the staff to unload the cocoa beans. Just bake it in a pan, add sugar, and boil it continuously. They could extract the cocoa liquid. With a little refinement, it could be used to make cocoa powder or chocolate.

The end product would be luxury on the wasteland. Because of its easy to store nature, it could even be used as currency like canned food!

And because of their high-calorie characteristics, they were much more valuable than canned food of equal weight!

If the cocoa beans were converted to crystals, they would at least be worth millions.

On the other hand, Lu Minghui, who walked deep into the basement of the gym, stopped and pulled out the data cable from his EP to access the port next to the door. After it was loaded on the screen, a gap appeared on the flat concrete wall and formed a tunnel.

He walked into the tunnel.

As he stepped in, the cold lights in the corners of the hallway lit up, dispelling the darkness in the corridor. He stopped in front of the door at the end of the hallway. With a short pause, he took a deep breath and reached for the door.

Inside, his field of vision suddenly expanded.

It was a circular meeting room that resembled a Roman Religious Court. There were about 50 Dusk Church seniors on both sides of the conference room. Judging from the packed room, this meeting has already been in session for a while. At the same time as the gate opened, everyone’s focused shifted onto Lu Minghui.

“You are late, Mr. Bishop,” The old man sitting at the head of the table looked at his watch and softly said.

“There was some minor mishaps along the way.” Lu Minghui walked to the middle of the round conference room and bowed at the elder.

There were many bishops of the Sectarian Guardians, but only a few possessed actual power. The old man sitting in the head of the table was one of them. As the archbishop, he was in charge of all the decision making power including finance and military.

The old man nodded and did not pursue the reasons for his lateness. The dry lips slowly opened.

“Start reporting.”

Lu Minghui slightly lowered his head and began reporting.

“NAC has not taken a hostile approach to us despite the previous hostile relationship with the Orthodox led by Bo Yu. The covenant was agreed upon and Jiang Chen also liked the gift we offered. If the Holy Shield system is repaired, he promised to provide us with a sanctuary ground in Wanghai.”

People in the room whispered and exchanged some words. They were a little relieved. The old man sitting at the head of the table also nodded with approval. Obviously, he was quite satisfied with the good news brought by the bishop.

Seeing it was the right atmosphere, Lu Minghui adjusted the tone, and then said.

“As a gift, they gave us a container of cocoa beans…”

The discussion in the conference room came to an abrupt stop, and everyone’s expression, including the old man’s, froze. Everyone froze not because of embarrassment or anger, but because they were too shocked to react.

A container?

How big is a container?

A container of cocoa beans? Not mutated fruits? Or bullet shell grain?

Lu Minghui was not surprised by everyone’s reaction. He already experienced this feeling back in Shanghai, and until the container was loaded onto the freighter, he still remained in shock.

Looking at the seniors around the conferencetable , Lu Minghui looked at the old man sitting at the head and solemnly said.

“The strength of NAC is far beyond our imagination. We must re-examine our relationship with them.”

The skinny index finger rubbed on the armrest and the old man was silent. Compared with the senior figures present, he was considering the deeper meaning behind the gift and the daunting power of the NAC.

There was no goodwill on the wasteland. The only factor that allowed one to keep the other side calm was absolute power.

A long time later, the cracked lips slowly said.

“You’re right.”

Lu Minghui let out a sigh of relief.

“A wise decision.”

Chapter 921: Recognition and Two People’s Thoughts

When the war officially concluded, it was already the end of December.

Other than the weather being colder and the snowfall being heavier, people didn’t detect any difference associated with the seasonal change.

After a war, although Second Army was at an advantageous position in the latter half of the war, the force still suffered a high casualty number, and most of the survivors were wounded and exhausted.

According to the orders from the General Office, Second Army would be replaced with the Zhao Gang-led Third Army and to handover the defense of Wu City. The replaced Second Army would go to Fishbone base for reorganization. At the same time, the General would personally preside over the ceremony and reward the soldiers’ meritorious service.

Due to heavy snowfall, the road from Wanghai to Hongcheng was completely blocked off, and airships were the only transportation option between the two places. It wasn’t until the end of December that the two armies completed the exchange of defense.

Therefore, the ceremony was set on the eve before New Year’s Eve.

This ceremony, which symbolized glory and honor, also gave the 2019 New Year a special sense of delight.

“…Granting Private First Class Hu Cheng, the Knight Medal!” A bright and rough voice reverberated throughout Fishbone base square.

At the ceremony, Hu Cheng’s face was flushed, and his chest was raised high. He saluted Jiang Chen. After General Jiang personally put on the medal for him, they shook hands. Then he took back a half-step, and he took the uniform that symbolized a Knight and a cheque with one thousand credit in a wooden box.

According to NAC’s regulations, outstanding soldiers would be awarded the Knight status, meaning he would be able to own a set of power armor and lead a five-man platoon. He would also have the opportunity to transfer from the front line to the military government system as an official.

Although General Jiang didn’t say a word when they shook hands, Hu Cheng was shuddering in excitement. Shaking hands with The General who commanded the entire NAC and receiving his recognition was an absolute glory in itself.

In the tavern, he drank with his comrades freely. Hu Cheng then dragged his drunk body and returned home at Fishbone base.

It was a simple apartment. From the coffee table covered with dust and the miscellaneous things stacked up around the house, he lived alone. But it didn’t matter; he would soon receive a new place. Any person who received Knight status has the right to own property in the Garden of Eden.

It was a privilege that belonged to those who made outstanding contributions to the NAC.

By the way, the function of the Garden of Eden was of course not just the unimaginably large CNC plantation towers; the living space that occupied 50 percent of the area was the main function of the garden. As a closed, independent biosphere unit, the pre-war scenery only existed in the Garden of Eden.

There was no chilling blizzard; only eternal spring.

He collapsed on his bed and his snores quickly filled the room.

In his dream, he dreamed of his goddess. In his dream, she finally agreed to his proposal and was willing to be his wife. In his dream, he held her delicate hand and put a ring on her. In his dream, he was wearing the power armor and leading his platoon to insert the NAC flag among the ruins of the Northern Alliance Area…

He turned in his bed, and he was clearly drooling

No matter how unhappy his life once was, from tomorrow onward, his life would be completely different.

After the end of the ceremony, Jiang Chen returned to the mansion with his exhausted body and threw the winter clothes on the hangers.

He just sank into the sofa and didn’t want to move a single inch.

Although he didn’t need to say a word, he maintained a stern expression for an entire afternoon, shook hands with more than a thousand people, and knighted almost one hundred people. All in all, it was extremely tiring.

But he couldn’t complain—the rules were set by himself.

It was a way to show proper respect to the loyal soldiers and served as repayment for the soldiers’ expectations, so he had to stand there from start to finish.

[So thirsty…]

While he was debating whether he should go to the refrigerator to take a bottle of juice and continue to lie down, Yao Yao walked over with water with a fluttering skirt.

Yao Yao gently put the cup closer to Jiang Chen’s lips and carefully fed him the water. Although he had the strength to drink, looking at the thoughtful Yao Yao, Jiang Chen with lazy cancer suddenly didn’t want to move and enjoyed the small Lolita’s service.

Looking at her beloved Big Brother’s exhaustion, Yao Yao was distraught and pouted. She raised her hand and gently wiped Jiang Chen’s mouth with her sleeve as she whispered, “… It must be tiring.”

“It’s tiring,” said Jiang Chen. He tousled Yao Yao’s fluffy hair. “But thanks to Yao Yao, I’m much better now.”

“Hehe…”

With a lovely smile, Yao Yao with her hair tousled was like a little squirrel who just picked up a pine cone. Her happy expression cured all his fatigue. Even though he wasn’t a Loli Lover, it was difficult to resist her softness and gentleness, and an urge gushed from his chest to make her even happier.

“Speaking of it, has Sister Sun Jiao not come back yet?”

“Sun Jiao and Xiaorou are still preparing for the New Year celebrations in the evening.” The thought alone gave Jiang Chen a headache.

Although there would be many fun shows and delicious food at the celebration, it meant he wouldn’t be able to go to bed early.

Looking at Jiang Chen’s pained expression, Yao Yao sighed. Her expression was slightly depressed as she murmured.

“I’m sorry…Yao Yao is getting less and less useful. Big Brother must think Yao Yao… is useless.”

Jiang Chen stopped then laughed.

“How come?”

“Oh…Yao Yao’s computer technology hasn’t come in handy for a long time.”

One hand picked up Yao Yao and put the frightened little animal on his lap. Jiang Chen gently patted her back and said softly: “Yao Yao has helped me a lot even though Yao Yao doesn’t even know it.”

“Really?” In Jiang Chen’s arms, her big eyes gazed into his eyes.

Responding to her eyes full of hope, Jiang Chen solemnly nodded, squeezed her little nose and smiled.

“Of course.”

“Hehe…”

Yao Yao smiled shyly and pressed her soft cheeks against Jiang Chen’s chest to feel his warmth.

The quiet atmosphere continued in the living room.

Hiding behind the door, holding her favorite mango pudding in her hand, Lin Lin silently closed the door. She planned to mock him for a bit then stuff the pudding his mouth, but someone seemed to be a step ahead.

She was relieved.

She didn’t need to worry about something she wasn’t good at.

The girl comforted herself.

Even with the strongest and fastest quantum supercomputing chip, she couldn’t understand the inexplicable frustration in her chest.

Leaning against the wall next to the door, Lin Lin slid slowly to the floor.

Hugging her legs and resting her chin on her knees, there was a hint of distress in her dichotomous eyes.

She repeatedly murmured and buried her head in her knees.

“This idiot…”

Chapter 922: New Year’s Eve and Departure

The New Year’s Day celebration was busy and joyful.

The Garden of Eden Two was nearing completion. The crops produced by the two CNC planting towers, combined with nutrient supply, were sufficient to meet the food needs of hundreds of thousands of people. With the increasing abundance of living supplies, the survivors’ happiness index was gradually increasing. These were all intuitively reflected in the scale of festival celebrations.

On the stage, a female singer who recently woke up from the hibernation chamber delivered a song of love and hope with her beautiful voice, kicking off the New Year’s party.

If this was three years ago, someone like her would definitely be the best-selling commodity in the slave market, a toy of the mercenary warlords. Now, however, NAC abolished the inefficient slave system and established a set of strictly enforced “Blue Skin Protection Laws” in its area of control.

Although many people in the apocalypse looked down on people unaware of the cruelty of survival, these people from civilized society were valuable assets to Jiang Chen. If the fire of civilization couldn’t be reignited, even with the restoration of the Holy Shield and reconstruction of high-rises in Wanghai, it would only be a façade of prosperity.

After a round of applause, the stage curtain fell.

Behind the stage, Lin Xiyi, in an elegant skirt, walked to Jiang Chen dressed up in a suit with a smirk.

“A very beautiful song, Miss Lin.” He noticed Lin Xiyi, who was walking. Jiang Chen put his speech paper aside and smiled.

“Thank you, Mr. General, for your praise.” The singer Lin Xiyi smiled and extended her graceful hand. Her fingers inadvertently swept his wrists. “After the celebration, can I invite you to have a drink?”

Looking at the shimmering light in her eyes, Jiang Chen very sensitively read the implied meaning between her bright red lips.

Slightly shaking his head, he politely refused the invitation.

“Maybe next time.”

He was extremely tired at the moment without any lustful thoughts.

Not to mention…

His desires in that aspect weren’t as explicit as before.

Lin Xiyi’s eyes showed a hint of disappointment, but of course, she wouldn’t say anything with her identity. Still keeping a bright smile, she headed outside after chatting with Jiang Chen for a while.

Not long afterward, Wang Qing and Sun Xiaorou pushed open the door and entered. They both examined Jiang Chen from head-to-toe and nodded in agreement.

Wang Qing said concisely, “Perfect.”

Sun Xiaorou grinned and said, “More handsome.”

“…” Jiang Chen, who didn’t know how to answer, scratched his cheek and cleared his throat. He then stuffed the printed speech into his sleeve, and asked, “So, it’s my turn?”

“Mhmm! You can do it.” Sun Xiaorou patted Jiang Chen on the back. “Don’t mess up from the very start.”

“Am I that untrustworthy?” Jiang Chen glared at her, ignoring her innocent look. He took a deep breath and walked on stage.

Beer, barbecue, and enjoyable shows. During the New Year’s Day celebrations, the non-military facilities of the Fishbone base were open to outsiders. Not only the soldiers returning from the front lines gathered in the square, but there were also small vendors, survivors from the Sixth Street, and lone travelers with NAC citizenship.

All the people enjoyed the celebration on an equal basis without needing to pay for food. There was only one condition, they must not waste food.

After three singing and dancing performances, the celebration welcomed the highlight of the day.

The soft lights gradually became brighter, the atmosphere of joy in the square was unabated, and the noise gradually stopped. Even people who didn’t care about the performances turned their attention to the stage and the big screen to watch Jiang Chen, the leader who led NAC toward prosperity.

“I’m very happy to stand here and celebrate New Year with you.”

“I am Jiang Chen.”

“We’ve spent another year on this devastated land.”

His forceful tone spread to every corner of the base through speakers. People stared at him in fervor and watched the unbeaten General, offering him the highest respect. If there really was a God in the world, God must be very similar to him.

To survivors on the wasteland, the person who could provide food was a well-deserved ruler. The person who could expel mutants and zombies was a well-deserved warrior. The person who could bring order to the wasteland, but also taking into account the first two, even if he wasn’t a god, how was this person different from God?

Standing in the crowd, Hu Cheng, who already became a knight, looked up at Jiang Chen on the stage. His throat was moving, unable to express his pride in his chest. At that moment, holding his arm and standing with him to share the celebration was his goddess!

He still vividly remembered in the morning when he held a ring and proposed to her, she was that charming.

Taking a swig of cold beer, a genuine smile appeared on Hu Cheng’s face. He said while burping: “Yesterday, at that place, General Jiang personally put the medal on me.”

His girlfriend pouted, glared at him, and gently pinched his waist.

“Why do I feel that you’re more excited about that than when I agreed to become your girlfriend?”

“Hehe.”

Hu Cheng smiled while scratching the back of his head. He quickly hugged his future wife and used sweet words to make her happy.

Recognizing the work of all citizens of NAC, commending front-line soldiers for their hard work, and sending blessings to the soldiers of the Third Army who were unable to participate in the celebrations because of their position in Wu City… The speech from the General was already coming to an end.

At the end of the speech, thunderous applause erupted the audience. Maintaining the proper attitude of the General, Jiang Chen nodded slightly and walked down the stage.

In the preparation room, Sun Jiao was standing there, smiling.

“How did I do?”

“Pretty good… or rather, superb.” Jiang Chen laughed, undid his tie, took off his extra thick suit, and took his winter clothes from the hanger. “It’s finally over.”

Sun Jiao’s expression was slightly solitary.

“Ready to go back?”

His hand on the button stopped and after a moment of thought, Jiang Chen nodded and said, “Well, tomorrow is the battle conference against the Northern Alliance. I’ll have to go back the day after tomorrow.”

He was supposed to go back in the middle of December when the space elevator was completed. However, no one expected that the battle in Wu City would be in a stalemate. If it weren’t for magnetic confinement technology breakthroughs and the PR-1 plasma cannon, this war would likely have remained in a stalemate.

Sun Jiao didn’t say anything. She stepped forward and kissed him.

“I’ll wait for you to come back.”

Jiang Chen held her hand tightly and whispered, “…Thank you.”

Chapter 923: Space Elevator Completed

As long as the weather was good enough, even in New Guinea hundreds of kilometers away, the giant tower piercing the sky was visible.

No one knew what it was; it was like it appeared overnight, “grew” to the Earth’s center continuously day till night, and finally landed on the horizon.

From afar, it looked like a single strand of hair. Only high-powered telescopes could make out the surface of the tower.

On the southernmost island of Xin, Ange Island, it was possible to catch a glimpse of this magnificent tower even with the naked eye. It was precisely because of this that many aerospace and alien enthusiasts came to Xin from all around the world to see this incredible spectacle.

Yes, only the term spectacle could describe this magnificent project that connected heaven and Earth.

“Dad! What is that?” Standing on a beach on Ange Island, a little boy pointed to the distant white line connecting the heavens.

“It’s an elevator.” Looking at the space elevator in the distance, the man in beach trunks showed a fascinated expression.

“An elevator? Where does this elevator go?” The little boy looked at his father and asked in confusion.

“Space.” The man tousled the boy’s hair. “When daddy was a kid, going to space required very, very strong rockets. The rockets needed to be ignited from the back. Now, using an elevator is enough.”

“Space? Will I have a chance to go?” The boy’s eyes flashed with hope as he looked at his father.

“Of course. Not only space, but you will be able to go to places even further.” The man smiled and looked at the clouds pierced by the space elevator. “My child, you’re lucky you live in good times.”

The sea near the space elevator was assigned as a military restricted area by Celestial Trade. The frigate modified with a Type-50J electromagnetic pulse cannon cruised the area, and with the help of the maritime police, it drove away ships entering the area. The offshore platforms equipped with laser air defense systems were deployed in the sea two kilometers away from the space elevator to prevent missiles or aircraft that might pose a threat.

Under the narrow space elevator was a connected cuboid several kilometers long and wide that floated above the sea.

As the base station for the space elevator, it could dock freighters with displacements of up to 10,000 tons. The runway next to it also allowed civilian airliners to land.

The space elevator completed currently had six passenger-transport channels on the inside and six freight lanes on the outside. A vertical upwards “carriage” was placed in the passenger passage, and a single “carriage” carried 60-80 passengers, using the principle of electromagnetic drive. The entire carriage was like a projectile of an electromagnetic gun, accelerated on a powered rail.

As for the freight passage, the principle was similar to a passenger passage, but because the cargo was being transported, the acceleration of the carriage was more than the 10G force limit, and the vertical speed also approached the first cosmic velocity.

Each freight car could push 50 tons of cargo to the synchronous orbit, equivalent to two Long March 5 rockets. As for the cost of transportation per ton of cargo, it was exponentially lower than SpaceX’s Falcon series rockets.

The nations around the world seemed to know about this “giant tower” that connected outer space with Earth, but they all kept silent. They believed that even if they didn’t say anything, Future Group would soon disclose this secret. They were waiting for Future Group to speak first then based on the chips in their hands, they would put forward their own proposals.

Compared to the silence of world governments, the Internet exploded.

Space elevator!

This concept that originally existed only in fantasy literature and films actually became a reality through the hands of Future Group?!

What completely ignited public frenzy was a video uploaded by a newly registered user to YouTube. In the video footage, Celestial Trade employees operated engineering vehicles, loaded unknown cargo into the containers of the space elevator, and sent them to space.

The video was clear and edited. This anonymous user seemed likely one of the internal personnel of Celestial Trade, or the video was released under Celestial Trade’s guidance.

Regardless of the purpose of this video, it caused a stir. Not to mention on other network platforms, but just in the comments section, netizens used their own language to express their shock.

“My God, I can witness humanity’s leap to the Interstellar Era in my lifetime!”

“That’s far-fetched! It’s just an elevator. Without warp engines being built, would you dare to call it the Interstellar Era?”

“It’s just an elevator? Stop talking. Take some medicine first.”

“I heard Nippon’s Daelim Construction Company plans to start construction of a space elevator in 2050. I wonder what they think now?”

Not only did netizens discuss spontaneously, but major newspapers, television, and online media also reported on the century project of Future Group.

“The breakthrough in graphene technology has foreshadowed the completion of today’s space elevator. The height of 36,000 kilometers will surpass any building in the world and will exceed any building in the next 50 years. We should reflect on this when we try to build taller buildings and make buildings more expensive to the point where most people cannot afford them. A small country far away in the Pacific Ocean has already reached out to a place we could only hope to reach.” BBC News.

“The contradiction of the rocket is that most of the rocket’s fuel is consumed to transport the fuel itself. The space elevator can rely on electricity to deliver the things we need to push to the geosynchronous orbit. Peter, President of the International Space Elevator Association, believes that space elevators are an amazing technology that allow us to open the door to the solar system. We all thought he was being eccentric years ago, but now I’m afraid no one will doubt this point.” Colombia Radio.

“… behind this great project is a very creative entrepreneur. His contribution to modern civilization far outweighs the contributions of Jobs and Gates because he has had a staggering amount of involvement in many fields. This great entrepreneur was born in the Jiangnan area of our country, in a small county called Hucheng. What kind of living environment gave birth to such a genius? Let us walk into this small county and explore the school he went to…” People’s Daily.

Flipping through the newspaper in his hands, Jiang Chen suddenly started chuckling.

Ayesha walked toward him with coffee and gently placed a mug on the table. She gazed at the chuckling Jiang Chen with confusion.

“Did something good happen?”

“Somewhat.” Jiang Chen shook his head and tossed the newspaper aside.

As an official media outlet, People’s Daily also reflected the Hua government to a certain extent. Over the past few days, People’s Daily had been doing its utmost to create an image as “an outstanding young man” who stepped out from Hua to the world and glorified the country. Although he was happy to see someone flattering him, he had to think about the deeper meaning behind it.

“I hope in a week at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, they’ll be on our side.” Jiang Chen lifted his coffee and took a sip.

There was no doubt that the space elevator would certainly be the focus of this UN summit. What actions the Big Five would make on this issue was also a question Future Group had to pay attention to.

If nothing else, Hua and Russia should send people to contact him in private. The UA should send people too. Britain, which separated from Europe, should also be in the play. As for the European Union, it might be more reserved. After all, the relationship between Future Group and the European Union remained in a delicate situation.

Regardless of the decision of the UN at the summit, Celestial Trade’s plan wouldn’t change.

The second day after the end of the summit, the space elevator would officially be open for traffic from the offshore platform to the orbital space station, Celestial City.

And they planned to send people, not cargo.

Chapter 924: The End of an Era

Moscow, Kremlin. There was a conference being specifically held on the space elevator built in the territorial waters of Xin.

“Yesterday, Celestial Trade sold us the RM-320 rocket engine promised to us. Reverse engineering has started. Within one year at most, the new rocket engine will replace the old engine. We will take one year to surpass the gap the UA took decades to maintain.”

“Unfortunately, when Celestial Trade handed this sword to us, they also pulled down the curtain of the entire stage. Whether it’s economics, politics, culture, or military, everything tomorrow will be different from today since it’s unknown there, and unknown means infinite.”

Here, the director of the Russian Space Agency, Oleg Aosta, lowered his eyes and stated the facts in an artistic way. He looked at the members of the Russian Federation Committee present there, as well as the person sitting at the head of the table, President Putin.

After a pause, Oleg continued.

“Guys, the old era is over.”

Taking a deep breath, the Minister of Defense looked at Putin, who was silent. He murmured, “If the space elevator can send tons of supplies to outer space, then the space-defense force we’re most proud of will be a joke.”

Putin tilted his head slightly.

“Fortunately, our relationship with them is good?”

“That’s the case, but we cannot place all our hopes on good diplomatic relations,” the Minister of Defense said with his voice lowered, he continued to whisper, “The United Nations will discuss the safety and reasonable use of the space elevator. I am very much in favor of maintaining good bilateral relations with Xin, but only an alliance with matching strength is in line with our interests. Is it appropriate to weaken them…”

Putin lifted his hand and interrupted the statement made by the Minister of Defense.

“If the United Nations is destined to become history, then what significance does it have for us to make things difficult for them at the United Nations?”

…

In the Congress building in the faraway Capital, a special hearing was also being held.

At the meeting, with Congress members, experts, and scholars present, the director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Charles Bolden, read the manuscript in his hand.

“Although Congress has been trying to reduce our budget, we will still use a limited budget to advance the space program step by step. The results achieved over the past decades have been great, shockingly great. We haven’t only focused on the privatization of the space industry. Even the seemingly loss-making facet project finally achieved profitability.”

“Yes, we’ve lead before.” Mr. Bolden paused there and scanned the members in the hearing. “We once convinced the world that the Statue of Liberty was the future.”

The Congress Budget Committee members who aggressively reduced NASA’s budget in the past all looked defeated. They lowered their heads and didn’t dare to make eye contact with the old man.

Secretary of State Kerry coughed.

“This is the Congress hearing, not federal court. What we should discuss now isn’t determining who is accountable but how to deal with it.”

“I didn’t mean to determine who’s accountable, Mr. Kerry.” Mr. Bolden looked at Kerry. “But I must remind you that we shouldn’t make the same mistake again on the same issue.”

“Your opinion is?” Hill asked, sitting in the hearing.

“Increase NASA’s budget. We must immediately begin research on space elevator technology. Compared to Hua and Russia, we have a unique advantage in global influence. We can replicate a space elevator in the Atlantic Ocean!”

“How much money do you need?” Hill looked at Bolden and asked earnestly, “I mean, from research and development to completion.”

Bolden directly turned the manuscript to the last page, sniffed, and said quickly, “If we can get technical support from Future Group, the investment budget will be about 20 billion to 40 billion dollars. If we start from research and development, NASA needs 200 billion dollars and construction will start in 2030 at the latest.”

The hearing members present all stared at each other and the experts’ expressions weren’t the most pleasant. Hill and Kerry exchanged looks and saw the obvious disappointment in each other’s eyes.

Help? How could UA get help from Future Group? If this technology was mastered by more than two companies, then they would, of course, try to sell their own technology in order to obtain a space elevator order from the UA government. However, there was only one company who mastered the space elevator technology now. What could be more profitable than a monopoly?

As for the 200 billion budget application, disregarding the fact that Hill wouldn’t give the nod of approval, but the budget committee at the hearing would directly shoot down the project.

“200 billion? God, this money is enough for us to create two aircraft carrier battle groups!” Sure enough, Hill didn’t even speak before an opposition member said in a mocking tone, “Unless Hua continues to lend us money, where would this money come from? Do you expect taxpayers to pay for this whimsical project?”

It wasn’t a whimsical project. Someone had secretly completed it already.

Bolden just wanted to say this before an expert in the space field who was neutral said, “The UA also has a large number of private aerospace companies. We’ve proved the enthusiasm and innovation of private enterprises in half a century. Rather than arguing here about an unsolvable problem, why not ask for SpaceX’s opinion?”

Bolden’s face was a bit ugly.

Ask for SpaceX’s opinion? What do your think SpaceX is? A Magic Conch Shell (1)?

Long before the hearing began, he had already spoken with SpaceX’s founder, Elon Musk, to ask about the feasibility of building UA’s own space elevator. However, Elon Musk’s response was that he felt deeply powerless.

According to information released by Celestial Trade, if the UA wanted to build a similar space elevator, it must begin with the most basic elevator materials.

Two hundred billion?

What was presented to the Budget Committee had always been conservative estimates.

After the hearing was over, Kerry walked with Hill side by side. On the way, the two spoke about the problem of the space elevator without reaching a resolution.

“He doesn’t care that Xin has a breakthrough in aerospace technology compared to the UA. He only cares about NASA’s budget.”

“You’re an expert on international issues, Mr. Kerry. I want to hear your opinion,” Hill said with no expression.

Lowering his voice, Kerry said seriously, “We can use the United Nations to put pressure on Xin! This is a big cake. Russia and Hua shouldn’t give up sharing a piece of the cake on the space elevator. As long as we make slight concessions on the cake, they’ll agree to our joint efforts to pressure Celestial Trade. The outer space belongs to all of mankind, and a worldly elevator project is supposed to be shared by all mankind…”

Chapter 925: Guests from Afar

Although it was called an elevator, the base of this elevator was much wider than a high-rise. However, with a length of more than 30,000 kilometers, the vertically suspended elevator was just like a noodle.

Travelling with Celestial Trade’s frigate, Jiang Chen boarded the base station of the space elevator.

Shortly after he boarded, a group of people walked in his direction.

“We succeeded!”

When Jiang Chen first saw Kelvin when he returned to the modern world, the arrogant middle-aged man was as excited as a child, holding his hand and not letting go.

Jiang Chen, on the contrary, seemed calmer. Compared with the excitement of witnessing the birth of a spectacle, the excitement of leaving his name in history, he felt this was a wish coming true and he felt relieved for the distant future.

“Yes, we succeeded.”

After letting go of Kelvin’s hand, Jiang Chen looked up at the space elevator and suddenly gazed at the technical director who was standing next to Kelvin.

“If I want to engrave a line at the bottom of the space elevator, what kind of pen should I use?”

The technical director took a moment to process this then said, “The laser welding torch should be good.”

“Help me get the laser welding torch.”

Although he didn’t know what the president was doing, the technical director eyed the engineer next to them. Soon, a five pound laser torch was handed to Jiang Chen. After he took it in his hand, he weighed it to test its feel. Kelvin and the technical director were impressed by the scene.

To be able to hold a five or six-pound welding torch in his hand like this, the President’s strength was much greater than they thought.

Standing next to the space elevator, Jiang Chen pressed the switch of the welding torch and engraved a line of words on the titanium shell.

Taking two steps back, Jiang Chen looked at the line he engraved and nodded with satisfaction.

“I know we can solve the next problem because we’ve already solved all the problems that existed before.” Kelvin read the sentence with a perplexed expression, he then looked at Jiang Chen, “Is there any deeper meaning to this sentence?”

“There’s none. This is just for memory’s sake.” Jiang Chen laughed, turned off the welding torch, and threw the welding torch back to the engineer. “Take me to see the inside of the elevator.”

Walking into the interior of the space elevator, Jiang Chen used the engineering holographic concept blueprint displayed by Kelvin to view a panorama of the entire space elevator track and its operating mechanism. There was a total of six passenger tracks, three of which were upwards and three were downwards. The carriages changed tracks after reaching the terminal.

Because of the one-way unidirectional design, multiple carriages could travel at the same speed on one track. It was foreseeable that space activities would surely be quite frequent in the distant future. People could take space elevators to outer space and the elevators could even be as convenient as high-speed trains today.

The kind of design took traffic congestion in the future into consideration.

After the visit, Jiang Chen enjoyed lunch with the senior officials of the Space Launch Center in the cafeteria of the offshore platform. At the dinner table, Jiang Chen asked Kelvin about the progress of the asteroid capture project.

“The work of landing and weaving the nets went very smoothly, but the progress of the orbital change work is slower than expected.” Kelvin put his fork down and said bleakly, “Although the supercomputing center calculated the orbit of the asteroid, maintaining the speed and orbit of the asteroid at the same time still remains difficult with our current technical means. Each acceleration of the rocket is quite critical. With even one wrong step, everything has to be recalculated.”

“And Bennu didn’t leave us with too much. In the middle of January, the asteroid will be farther and farther away from us. If we want to catch it again, we have to wait six years,” the project lead next to Kelvin interrupted.

Jiang Chen expected many difficulties with this project. He was able to bring back advanced technical data from the apocalypse, but he couldn’t help these scientists digest these century-defining technologies. Even in the 22nd century, asteroid mining was a frontier discipline.

“Deploy explosives on the asteroid to ensure that if it suddenly loses control, we can at least blow it up before it enters the atmosphere.”

“We’re already doing that,” Kelvin said earnestly. “We deployed 2.5 tons of TNT equivalent explosives on the Bennu asteroid. If there are any errors in the orbit change and the rocket thruster won’t have enough fuel to force it to leave the gravitational pull of Earth, we can detonate it into meteorite fragments as it approaches the dissipative layer.”

After lunch, Jiang Chen arrived at the Space Launch Center along with Kelvin.

The launch site originally used to launch rockets was idle after the completion of the space elevator. Transport ships between Earth and Moon were already designed and were now in the experimental phase. Currently, to send supplies to the lunar colony, Celestial Trade’s No.4 second stage rocket would be sent to the geosynchronous orbit with the space elevator before it would accelerate toward the moon.

Since the first stage rocket and the fuel used to travel into outer space would be preserved, the cost of returning to the Moon would be cut by 60%. Celestial Trade was studying the feasibility of expanding the scale of the lunar colony. If the plan was finally put into action, Celestial Trade planned to send 100 more colonists to the moon.

When Jiang Chen inspected the colonial base of the Moon, his wristwatch began to buzz.

He picked up the phone and Xia Shiyu’s voice entered his ear.

“Our guests are here.”

“Oh? Are they from Hua or Russia? Or are they from the Capital?” Jiang Chen asked pleasantly.

“It’s our guests from Hua. They’ve already landed. The Minister of Commerce and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have already gone to the airport. The purpose of the other party is very clear—they want to talk to us about the space elevator.”

Jiang Chen opened a holographic screen and looked at the time. It was already five in the afternoon.

“Since they came from a long way away, let them rest for a day. Did they make arrangements?”

“They’ve already booked rooms at the Heart of the Sea and are now on their way to the hotel,” Xia Shiyu replied.

“Sounds good.”

After finishing, Jiang Chen hung up the phone and set his sights on Kelvin.

“Has the nuclear fusion generators been sent to the lunar colony?”

“Yes, they’re in the newly built power station. One of the nuclear fusion generators has already been put into use, replacing solar energy to supply power to the lunar colony. To meet the needs of nuclear power plants, we need to build a heavy water plant to produce the deuterium needed for fusion reactions. ”

“Let’s set this aside for now. I need you to prepare a report for me before tomorrow afternoon.”

“Report? What report?” Kelvin looked at Jiang Chen with confusion.

“The transportation costs of using the space elevator. I need you and your team to make an accurate assessment. We’ll use it in tomorrow’s negotiations.”

Chapter 926: A Small Accident

Although their relationship was confirmed for quite some time, Xia Shiyu was still very resistant to the idea of sleeping together. This made Jiang Chen somewhat depressed since she was so open that night. Ayesha once asked Jiang Chen seriously if she should use force like last time…

Well, Jiang Chen admitted it was a very attractive proposal, but he still “reluctantly rejected” Ayesha’s tempting offer.

It was bad to force things, and he wasn’t sure whether this would generate some resentfulness from Xia Shiyu. Not everyone enjoyed being the masochist.

In the evening, when Jiang Chen returned home, it was almost twelve o’clock.

After taking a shower and drying his hair, when he walked to the corridor on the second floor, he suddenly stopped and his eyes lingered on the bedroom door.

[Hmm, whose bedroom should I go to tonight?]

While immersed in his thoughts, Jiang Chen was already in front of Xia Shiyu’s door. Reaching for the door handle, he found that the door was locked.

Jiang Chen didn’t expect this.

“Is she tired?” Whispered, Jiang Chen went to Ayesha’s room instead.

The door wasn’t locked.

Or rather, he just gently pushed on the door before the door sprung open.

From the concave part of the bedding, Ayesha was already asleep.

A smirk appeared on Jiang Chen’s lips as he quietly snuck to the bedside.

The room was silent. Moonlight scattered through the window into the room and dyed her adorable face with a touch of serenity. She sniffed her nose slightly, and her soft lips opened and closed with rhythmic breaths. Looking at such a lovely face, a natural desire to protect her arose from his heart.

Jiang Chen’s lust subsided slightly.

“Forget it, I’ll be more gentle today.”

Gently opening the corner of the quilt, Jiang Chen lay next to Ayesha. Originally, he intended to sleep like that, but when he got into bed, Ayesha, who was sleeping, murmured and hugged him like a sloth.

Pressed by her softness on his arm, Jiang Chen suddenly didn’t feel sleepy at all.

The desire that lay in his abdomen was reignited like fire splashed with gasoline…

“Is he still not back?”

Yawning, Xia Shiyu hid half her face in the quilt and peeked at the clock on the wall.

In Jiang Chen’s absence, she already reached a “sharing agreement” with Ayesha. Although it was strange to use the contractual spirit in this aspect, it seemed to be the best way to avoid conflict when there was no better solution.

As for the future…

She didn’t want to consider this issue.

However, as her thoughts ran wild and she watched the passage of time, Jiang Chen still hadn’t returned.

After waiting for so long, she couldn’t help but feel somewhat flustered and her mouth covered by the quilt pouted.

She had prepared for so long…

Just like this, with anxious thoughts, Xia Shiyu couldn’t resist the heavy fatigue and finally closed her heavy eyelids at two o’clock in the morning.

“This guy…how come he hasn’t come back yet?”

She muttered. Her hands holding onto the quilt slowly relaxed. Uniform breaths wafted from underneath and she gradually drifted away into the long night.

Early the next morning, Jiang Chen stretched and rubbed his sleepy eyes as he got up from the bed.

He examined the messy bedding and a smirk appeared on his face. He got off the bed feeling refreshed and put on some clothes to go to the bathroom.

After washing up, Jiang Chen encountered Xia Shiyu, who was eating breakfast in the dining room.

What surprised Jiang Chen was that she slept so early, but she had dark circles under her eyelids.

“Did you stay up late to play with your phone?” Carrying a plate and sitting next to Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen asked.

Xia Shiyu gave him a dirty stare, turned her head around, and left a “hmph”.

Jiang Chen stared at the back of her head, completely unaware of the reason.

Looking at the two people next to her, Ayesha couldn’t stop giggling. Although it was a completely unexpected accident last night, she clearly knew why Xia Shiyu was sullen.

Sure enough, in order to avoid such accidents, it was better to tell him about the “timetable” she discussed with her sister.

With this in mind, Ayesha already quietly sold out Xia Shiyu, who strongly urged her not to tell Jiang Chen about the shameful “agreement”. It was to avoid accidents like last night, Ayesha convinced herself.

The Heart of the Sea mega-structure consisted of shopping, dining, accommodations, and entertainment, just like its name. This landmark building on Coro Island’s coast was like a pearl in the Western Pacific Ocean. Since its completion, it had been filled with people.

In the presidential suite of the Hilton Hotel, a serious, old-fashioned, white-haired old man repeatedly flipped through a document in his hands.

Right then, the door was pushed open and a woman about 20 years old entered the room. She walked to the old man’s side and curiously looked at his document.

“Grandpa, don’t sleep so late. What are you looking at?”

“I couldn’t sleep.” Ye Qinghua sighed and put the document on the table. “We missed out on a talent we absolutely shouldn’t have missed out. For so many years… Since your grandmother left, I’ve never been so remorseful about something.”

He was reading through Jiang Chen’s file. This file recorded everything from birth, admission and graduation from Wanghai University. Regardless how he examined the file, he was just an ordinary young man. The type who wouldn’t stand out in a crowd.

One day in the late summer of 2015, he registered a technology company in Wanghai. His Future Technology, which eventually became Future Group and took the world by storm.

If the Wang family plotted against Future Technology, the Ye Family could’ve given him a hand..

Shaking his head, Ye Qinghua didn’t think about these unrealistic ifs.

He must now organize his thoughts. There was an important negotiation waiting for him in the afternoon. Not only Hua, but the UA, Russia, Britain, and France were all staring at the space elevator. The reality of being able to send people up to space for a few Xin New Dollars wasn’t just as simple as saving a couple million in economic value.

Regardless how reluctant the countries were to admit it, this young man under 30 had already started a new era.

Standing next to the old man, Ye Yunfei disagreed. She only glanced at the photos on the documents before she was no longer interested.

At the age of seventeen, most people were in high school and worried about which university to attend. She had already completed a degree in economics and management at Harvard University and began her postgraduate studies in economics and management. Two years later, when her country’s peers were still in their first year of military training, she was already preparing to pursue a master’s degree at Harvard.

She didn’t excuse herself from hard work because she was born into a good family. Ye Yunfei was a model among the new generation of the powerful families.

In her view, the success of Future Group definitely wasn’t his work alone. This person was just lucky. She was even confident that if she was in the same position, she would do even better.

There was slight dissatisfaction in her mind and she accidentally let it slip out through her murmur.

“What kind of attitude is this? He left us dry for a day.”

As soon as her voice fell, a fierce gaze stared at her which made her immediately shut up. Although Grandpa was always kind, she knew how scary this gentle old man was when he was furious.

“The conference is crucial to the Ye family and more important to the Republic. Commander trusts this old bone and sent me here. I know you have your arrogance. You look down on the new money, and you’re aren’t convinced of what he achieved. But I’m telling you now—no matter how unconvinced you are, hold it in!” Ye Qinghua said while raising his voice.

Ye Yunfei lowered her head, but she was pouting.

Seeing that his granddaughter did not respond, Ye Qinghua persisted.

“Do you hear me?!”

“Yes…” As if she just experienced all the wrongs in the world, Ye Yunfei reluctantly squeezed the word out of her mouth.

However, in her mind, her impression of Jiang Chen, who she had never met before, was even worse.

Him? Just a bastard who got lucky.

Let me bow. Who does he think he is?

Chapter 927: Space Defense Force

In the morning, Jiang Chen came the head of the military, Ivan, at theNew Moon Island’s military base. They chatted about the establishment of a space defense force.

“Establish a space defense force?” The fresh vocabulary made Ivan slightly confused as he spoke out subconsciously, “What’s that?”

“Literally what it means. It might be changed to another name in the future, but for now, we can call it by this name,” Jiang Chen said.

“But who can we defend against? Even if the UA is our imaginary enemy, our missiles that cover the entire UA would be enough to make them cautious,” said Ivan.

“The significance of setting up such a force is exactly that. Our space defense force can be deployed in any area of the globe in just a few hours. Traditional air defense weapons will be meaningless against attacks from the orbit. It won’t just make them cautious, but it will stop them from having ill intentions in the first place.”

Having said that, Jiang Chen looked at the stunned Ivan.

“What do you think? Are you interested in witnessing this day?”

Hiding his look of shock, Ivan took a deep breath and looked solemnly at Jiang Chen. “Of course. I look forward to seeing the UA hegemony fall in your hands.”

Former Soviet soldiers, Ukrainian-born Ivan, had reason to hate anyone who used conspiracies to destroy his country. Although most of his hatred had already faded with age, his heart which was eager to witness the fall of the UA still remained to this day.

Jiang Chen nodded.

“Celestial Trade Space Defense Forces—the name ‘defense force’ is not the true intention, and I need you to build an outright attack force. Space-based weapons, orbital airborne troops, and laser array defense systems in the atmosphere… This is the blueprint for the construction of our army. The Space Defense Forces plan will be Celestial Trade’s top secret. In addition to the orbital airborne troops, all other sub-projects will be conducted in secret.”

“I understand.” Ivan nodded cautiously.

Once such a plan was made public, it would inevitably cause joint opposition from the countries all over the world. Even former allies and friends of the same cultural circle wouldn’t hesitate to stand on the opposite side of Xin and try every possible means to obstruct the implementation of the plan.

The use of outer space for military purposes had always been forbidden for the international community. Even when the UA was trying to implement a space-based weapons program, it also received considerable resistance domestically and internationally. No one wanted others to extend the Sword of Damocles above their heads; it would make everyone uneasy.

If everything was already a reality, even if all nations strongly opposed it, they would have no alternative, and Xin would have enough strength to go down that path.

“It’ll take a long time to complete the entire project. I’m not rushing you to make it an immediate success. I would rather you be slow and make the entire plan foolproof before you start to implement it.”

Here, Jiang Chen paused then said, “We can start with high orbital airborne troops. Although we’re confident they will be far more powerful than missiles, soldiers aren’t missiles after all, and they shouldn’t incite any objections from any countries. Although it doesn’t rule out the possibility that some people will use this as an issue to attack, using this force to test the bottom line of the international community is a prudent and appropriate choice.”

“Leave this to me. However, to form this force, we need help from the Space Launch Center.”

Although Ivan was the CEO of Celestial Trade, his power was essentially limited to Celestial Trade’s military decisions. He couldn’t even intervene with the logistics as it was Barkary who handled this aspect.

Clear responsibilities not only helped increase loyalty but it also strengthened the combat effectiveness of the military. Only when all people were in positions they were best at could the effectiveness of the group be maximized. In terms of loyalty, Jiang Chen didn’t just depend on slavery chips or his personality.

Only an efficient and strictly enforced system could ensure the long-term stable operations of an organization.

“I will explain to Kelvin that the establishment of a space defense force and the Space Launch Center’s interstellar colonization plan won’t conflict,” said Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen didn’t stay on New Moon Island for a long time after he delegated the establishment of the space defense force.

There was also a meeting with Han representatives in the afternoon. He had to go back and prepare in the meantime.

An important person was coming to Coro Island on this visit. Not only did he visit foreign countries with top figures, but he also shook hands with famous individuals like Wallace.

Liu Xiangguo only revealed three words to him—Jiangnan Ye Family—and he didn’t say anything else.

The Ye Family also prospered from the Hongcheng region and was very close to his hometown, Hucheng. Jiang Chen had heard of the Ye family, but that was all he knew. He knew they were very powerful in the Jiangnan area, but he didn’t know the specifics of their influence.

After all, his height determined his vision. When he stood in a high enough position, his ability was enough to allow him to ignore everything he had ever looked up to.

The fact, this time, Hua sent the Ye family’s head, a prominent central figure almost ready to retire, in an attempt to woo him. The Ye family were prominent members of Jiangnan. If Jiang Chen was reminiscent for the past, maybe the emotional card could work wonders.

In Future Building’s meeting room, Jiang Chen met the white-haired old man. Dressed in a plain Chinese suit, his back was straight and posture was resolute. Although he looked well over his sixties, he was healthy.

A half-step behind him was a young and beautiful woman with little makeup on her elegant face. A fitted suit couldn’t hide her beautiful appearance. She must’ve received higher education as the black framed glasses cast an intelligent vibe. Her gracefulness was something absolutely impossible for the average person to imitate.

“Mr. Jiang is an imposing figure—so young, yet so accomplished. You’re a model for young talent in the Jiangnan region.” After seeing Jiang Chen, Elder Ye smiled and wasn’t stingy with his compliments.

“Elder Ye is flattering me.” Jiang Chen humbly gestured then he looked at the woman behind him. “This is?”

“This is my assistant and also my granddaughter,” Elder Ye said with a smile, introducing the woman standing a half-step behind him. “Yunfei, introduce yourself.”

Because of the private nature of the meeting, Hua didn’t issue any documents for diplomatic visits. Instead, Liu Xiangguo and one of the biggest names notified Jiang Chen separately. Elder Ye visited Jiang Chen for private reasons, so he wasn’t so rigid and directly stated that his assistant was his granddaughter.

Ye Yunfei walked forward and extended her graceful hand.

“Ye Yunfei, the second granddaughter. Mr. Jiang Chen, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

In the same way, Jiang Chen smiled in a friendly way and nodded in response.

“I’m Jiang Chen, a businessman.”

Ye Yunfei gently gripped Jiang Chen’s hand and released it right away before she took a step back.

For some reason, it was only their first encounter, but Jiang Chen felt she was very cold to him. Or rather, she seemed to dislike him?

However, Jiang Chen didn’t take this kind of trifle to heart because this negotiation could even change the tide of the global. For this important ocassion, any single individual was insignificant.

Not Ye Yunfei, not her grandfather, or even the important figure who signaled her grandfather to visit, they were all irrelevant.

It was the same for Jiang Chen.

Chapter 928: Lease? Not A Chance

“Haha, Mr. Jiang is quite comical.” Elder Ye chuckled. “If Mr. Jiang is just a businessman, what are the tens of thousands of businessmen around the world?”

Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t continue on this topic. He raised his hand slightly and invited Elder Ye to sit.

“It’s not appropriate to stand and talk. Please take a seat, Elder Ye.”

The trio sat down in the parlor room. The waiter poured tea for Jiang Chen, Elder Ye, and Ye Yunfei then stepped to the side respectfully. Ye Yunfei took out a notebook and a pen from her briefcase and prepared for the recording of minutes.

Seeing Jiang Chen sitting there alone, Edler Ye was slightly surprised. Although it was a private visit, the things to be discussed later would be related to cooperation between the two countries. Jiang Chen’s attitude was still too informal.

Out of good intentions, Elder Ye reminded him, “Mr. Jiang doesn’t need an assistant to record conference transcripts?”

“My assistant is already here,” Jiang Chen said in a relaxed tone and tapped the wristwatch on his left hand.

Elder Ye was somewhat confused as he didn’t understand what he meant. Sitting on his left hand, Ye Yunfei’s gaze carried a hint of disappointment. The temperament he showed earlier gained some approval from her, but now, his informal attitude in this high-level negotiation instantly destroyed any positive image he built up in her mind.

Jiang Chen didn’t notice Ye Yunfei’s feelings, but he read Elder Ye’s confusion.

Obviously, the old man didn’t understand what he just said.

Jiang Chen smiled and pointed at his wrist. Dark blue rays weaved next to the watch, forming a three-dimensional female holographic figure. Looking at Elder Ye and Ye Yunfei completely dumbfounded, artificial intelligence Jean nodded.

“Jean is my name.”

Elder Ye stared at everything that was happening in front of him with astonishment. Although he heard about Future Technology’s holographic technology, it was far more shocking witnessing it with his own eyes. Ye Yunfei’s expression was also exaggerated now. Although the Future phone she was using now also had holographic imaging capabilities, it was nowhere nearly as advanced.

“Ms. Jean is my personal assistant.”

“She is…”

“She’s an artificial intelligence.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Elder Ye nodded and recovered from his initial shock. He smiled gently and said, “Artificial intelligence? If Mr. Jiang hadn’t reminded me, I would’ve almost thought Ms. Jean was a real person. Future Technology certainly leads the world’s technological frontiers and the technologies you introduce always shock us.”

In the early days, Jiang Chen’s Future Technology once designed a drone system for the military. The military still praised the system, which had almost no obvious bugs. The Soaring Dragon II high-altitude drone independently developed by Hua, with the help of the intelligent drone control system, maximized its performance.

When Elder Ye saw this artificial intelligence no different than a real human, he sighed in secret.

It seemed he still underestimated Jiang Chen back then.

“You’re flattering me.” Jiang Chen smiled back. “Let’s get to the topic.”

Elder Ye nodded and his smile gradually converged into a serious expression.

“Since Mr. Jiang said that, I will be straightforward. My visit to Xin this time was precisely meant to discuss the space elevator you completed recently. Although Hua’s space activities aren’t frequent, and the market size is also quite limited, but we’re quite interested in the amazing technology you’ve demonstrated.”

“So, what’s your proposal?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Elder Ye cleared his throat and smiled kindly.

“We hope to closely cooperate with you in the development of space resources. After internal discussion, the cooperation we propose is to establish Hua Space Development Company. For a period of 50 years, we will sign the elevator track lease agreement for two freight rails and two passengers rails for space resource development purposes.”

Leasing? Two of each?

Jiang Chen was stunned by Elder Ye’s proposal.

Although he didn’t expect something material on the first day, the proposal from Elder Ye was too whimsical. The total number of tracks was twelve, but he wanted four from the start. How can I agree to this?

Elder Ye wasn’t to be blamed for this kind of proposal. After all, it was a plan discussed in a high-level internal meeting. Nowadays, the space activities of countries around the world weren’t very frequent. Although they were optimistic about the prospects for the development of space resources, no one could accurately estimate the prospects.

Seeing as Jiang Chen wasn’t speaking, Elder Ye thought he was considering the proposal, so he paused then added: “The price is negotiable, as long as the figures given by your party are within a reasonable range.”

“If there’s anything unsatisfactory about the proposal we came up with, please point it out and we can discuss it.”

Silence ensued in the room for a long time.

Ye Yunfei’s pen stopped and she frowned slightly at Jiang Chen, who didn’t speak a word. In her opinion, the conditions proposed by her grandfather were quite generous, and he also lowered his attitude to travel to discuss this with Jiang Chen in Xin. She didn’t understand why Jiang Chen would be unsatisfied.

After a long moment of deliberation, Jiang Chen opened his mouth but didn’t speak.

In the end, he sighed and broke the silence.

“It seems we have to discuss this.”

Upon hearing Jiang Chen’s words, Elder Ye’s brows furrowed.

“Oh? It seems Mr. Jiang has a lot of dissatisfaction with the proposal. You may bring up the differences between us-”

“We have a lot of differences on the proposal itself.” Jiang Chen leaned in his chair and spread out his hands. “Celestial Trade never planned on leasing out the space elevator, even if it’s one of the tracks. We’re willing to provide to all countries an inexpensive outer space transportation service, and that’s also the only service we’re currently selling.”

In total there were only 12 tracks—six freights and six passengers. There were five permanent members, and if one country leased four and another leased four, the space elevator built by Celestial Trade wouldn’t be enough to divide up, so he absolutely wouldn’t set a precedent.

Jiang Chen’s words made Elder Ye’s expression slightly stiff.

Just as Jiang Chen didn’t think they would propose a lease agreement, Elder Ye also didn’t expect Jiang Chen to reject with such decisiveness. In his opinion, this proposal, which was developed by the Central Government, was quite generous already.

However, Elder Ye wasn’t furious. He still knew he was negotiating with a foreign company.

However, as he was preparing to speak, Ye Yunfei, who had been recording the transcript, suddenly interrupted.

“I don’t know if Mr. Jiang is aware of the fact that the United Nations is currently preparing to hold a high-level summit on the development of outer space?”

“Yunfei.” The old man gave a hard stare at his granddaughter and motioned for her to be quiet.

However, this time, Ye Yunfei didn’t back down but stared at Jiang Chen, trying to catch a hint of caution in his pupils.

It was a negotiation skill taught by her professor.

At the negotiating table, the method of expanding one’s advantage was nothing more than seizing the other’s weakness and forcing the other party to make concessions on non-core interests. How one seized other’s weaknesses depended on the chips on both sides and the art of negotiation.

Although she was the second granddaughter of the Ye family and lived a carefree life with a golden spoon in her mouth, she never considered that something to be envious about. She received an aristocratic education since childhood and her fate of growing up had also been determined. For the benefit of the family, she had to marry a strange man and spend a lifetime with someone she didn’t love at all…

She originally thought that after she received a master’s degree from Harvard, she could escape this fate. However, when she returned home, she heard by accident that her father intended to marry her to the Zhou family’s disappointing youngest son. She almost fell into despair.

She didn’t want to be a puppet of the family and let the family dictate her life. In order to achieve this and to achieve true freedom, she must make enough achievements to prove herself and prove that her abilities were far more than just serving as a fertility tool for a political marriage!

The achievements she wanted weren’t related to the TOEFL, SAT, or Harvard University degree certificates. For the Ye family, these titles were just titles. The reason why she asked Grandpa to take her to Xin and participate in the negotiations as an assistant was to prove himself!

If she forced Jiang Chen to make concessions and gain advantages for her country during these negotiations that entered a stalemate, what else could prove her abilities better than this?

What’s more, in her opinion, this was too easy.

She didn’t see any elite quality or knowledge from Jiang Chen. Although he acted calmly in the conversation with her Grandpa, it was just the cockiness of a new money.

He had never received elite education nor had he been influenced by any elite culture. Such a uncultured person—even if he was placed in the position of president of a one hundred billion dollar company, he was only a simple-minded new rmoney. If it wasn’t for a group of talented people, what would he be today?

With this thought in mind, a glimmer of a victorious smile appeared on Ye Yunfei’s lips.

“Hua is one of the permanent members and Mr. Jiang should clearly understand what this means. In addition, what we can provide will definitely be more favorable than the UA. We believe that if it wasn’t us here but the UA, they would be demanding more than a lease agreement.”

At this point, Ye Yunfei stopped speaking and looked at Jiang Chen with a smile.

The stakes had been clarified. In her opinion, she already won.

However, she was destined to be disappointed.

Instead of showing the slightest caution, Jiang Chen examined her with amusement.

“So?”

Chapter 929: So What?

Verbal threats were the weakest weapon. The higher the level of negotiation, the more the statement pertained.

When Ye Yunfei intentionally or unintentionally used a threatening tone to point out the forthcoming United Nations summit on the rational development of outer space, it was nothing more than stating an implied point—”If you don’t cooperate, we won’t cooperate in the summit when issues of the space elevator are brought up.”

However, would Jiang Chen be afraid of this?

Even if the United Nations ordered him to hand over the space elevator and co-manage it with the international community, he possessed the ability to refuse. More specifically, the United Nations wouldn’t make such a shameless demand. If there was no legal basis, it wouldn’t be possible to set a precedent for daylight robbery.

Jiang Chen placed great importance on the upcoming United Nations summit because it represented the view of the international community. However, the summit wasn’t that crucial that he felt he had to make concessions before it happened.

“So?”

Jiang Chen nonchalantly rebuked and Ye Yunfei’s expression froze.

So? Therefore, if you’re aware of the situation, it’s best to cooperate with us! Leasing the space elevator is the bottom line of our negotiation. The price can be discussed, but the principle isn’t negotiable…

However, the sentence already formed in her brain was stuck in her throat. A drop of cold sweat dripped from her forehead and instantly cooled her feverish brain.

If she did really say that, the negotiation between the two sides could be concluded. Prematurely setting a bottom line for themselves would threaten the outcome of the negotiation. It would be great if the negotiation was a success. But if it failed, then it may lead to a strained relationship.

Of course, she wasn’t stupid enough to determine whether or not he was really cautious about the summit from his expression, but Jiang Chen’s calmness already made her uncertain.

What do I do?

Put everything on the table? But the negotiation is just beginning. Is it too early?

And if it fails, this responsibility…

A second drop of cold sweat rolled down. Jiang Chen smiled at Ye Yunfei, intentionally or unintentionally exerting pressure on her.

Watching his granddaughter’s tense and indecisive expression, Elder Ye sighed in his mind.

He knew about his granddaughter’s temper. She did possess the ability, but she was too proud. She emphasized quick success too much! She wasn’t a special case. Most of the younger generation of families who returned from studying abroad more or less all shared this trait. They thought they obtained a lot of knowledge on the outside, and they thought they could make a splash when they returned.

Originally, he thought that since she had already interrupted, he would give her this opportunity to finish the sentence and see if she could do something. But looking at this state, Elder Ye knew he couldn’t wait any longer.

Anyway, she just completed her task…

Elder Ye stood up and motioned to Jiang Chen.

“I think that’s it for today. Since your side is dissatisfied with this method of cooperation, it would be futile if we continued to speak in this manner. I need to consult with the head and I hope Mr. Jiang will understand.”

Elder Ye then paused for a moment and continued with an apologetic tone.

“I’m very sorry about my granddaughter’s abruptness. She is only an assistant, and she doesn’t have any diplomatic authorization. I also hope Mr. Jiang won’t take her words to heart. Her words do not represent the position of the nation. Regardless of the outcome of the negotiation, Hua and your country share the same stakes. We attach great importance to friendly relations and the origin of our blood.”

Elder Ye’s words were very interesting. Although he didn’t make any promises, he pulled the relationship between the two parties closer. The subtle emphasis on their mutual origins established a foundation for the next negotiations to be friendly.

“No, I didn’t mind at all.”

Jiang Chen smiled. Without looking at Ye Yunfei with a complex expression, he politely took the two of them outside Future Building.

Watching the black car driving away, Jiang Chen returned to the parlor room.

Hot air lingered over the teacups. Since the negotiations didn’t last long, the three didn’t even have an opportunity to touch the tea on the table.

Looking at the rising white mist, Jiang Chen repeatedly recalled the details of the negotiation, a hint of enlightenment suddenly emerging on his face.

“This old man isn’t simple.”

“Oh? Why do you say that?” Xia Shiyu, who already finished her work, walked into the parlor room and sat next to Jiang Chen as she asked with intrigue.

“He knows his granddaughter the best. I’m afraid that his granddaughter would have said everything even without his direction, he was expecting her to act this way,” Jiang Chen explained while still in thought.

Without any special purpose, would he bring a new assistant to participate in this level of negotiation? Anyone who had some experience wouldn’t make such a thoughtless statement. Ye Qinghua just wanted to use Ye Yunfei’s mouth to emphasize the stakes of the United Nations summit.

However, he was about to be disappointed. Jiang Chen would never agree to lease the space elevator.

Celestial Trade didn’t need money now and wouldn’t need money in the future. Cooperation? Of course that was welcome, but this so-called cooperation might not include the lease of the space elevator itself.

“What are you going to do during the next negotiation?” Xia Shiyu poured a cup of tea for herself. She looked at Jiang Chen. “In your plan, Hua is an essential player.”

“Yes, but not exactly.” Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair as a confident smile emerged. “Negotiating with Hua isn’t something we have to rush. They won’t easily give up their interests in outer space. And they will never lose sight of what the space elevator means and the prospects for the development of the universe’s resources. There’s only one space elevator, and this will be the only one in the next few decades. There’s no doubt that the negotiating power is on our side.”

“The usefulness of the space elevator is definitely not as simple as making satellite launches cheaper. Our asteroid capture program is at its most critical stage, and the research team led by Kevlin is making final adjustments to the manual orbit adjustment scheme. The majority of the production line of the Stingray X-1 spacecraft has also been completed at the Ange Island Industrial Park. According to the drawings, the first-generation prototype manufactured by industrial-grade 3D printing has entered the testing stage.”

“The next step is asteroid mining, and we will hollow out the entire Bennu asteroid! Then, we’ll use the almost infinite amount of ores to destroy the Jewish consortium that monopolized the traditional mining industry as their economic backbone. With ores cheap beyond imagination, Rothschild’s Vale will go bankrupt!”

While explaining, Jiang Chen stopped the conversation and smiled at her.

“Excuse me, I’ve gone a bit off topic.”

Xia Shiyu grinned and elegantly took a sip of her tea.

“That’s okay. You look handsome when you’re confident.”

“Am I?” Jiang Chen took a second to process that information and immediately touched his face. “I thought I was always handsome.”

Cough.

Her shoulders were shaking and Xia Shiyu covered her mouth while coughing. The other hand put down the teacup she was holding. She was amused by Jiang Chen’s remark and didn’t manage to contain herself. She laughed with tea in her mouth and almost choked.

Jiang Chen didn’t expect her to be so easily amused. He quickly reached out and patted her back. After her cough eased up, he asked with concern: “Do you feel better?”

Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen and used a handkerchief to wipe the tea at the corners of her mouth to restore her dignified appearance.

“Well, let’s be serious. Natasha called me. Her work in Moscow has ended early and she’s going to return tomorrow.”

Jiang Chen’s expression changed.

“So you mean…”

Xia Shiyu nodded.

“Yes.”

Russia was also eyeing the space elevator. Natasha’s sudden return now must be related to the elevator, and this was why Xia Shiyu was worried. She heard Natasha and Jiang Chen’s personal relationship was good. If Russia planned to use this card…

“In other words, in the future… I have to restrain myself?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“…”

Xia Shiyu looked speechlessly at Jiang Chen’s regretful expression. She planned to pretend not to know this improper guy for the next ten minutes.

Chapter 930: Asteroid Hunting

“Engine No.8 ignite.”

“Ignition is completed. The asteroid successfully entered C2 orbit. The fourth orbit change will occur in ten minutes. All units prepare.”

The tense atmosphere in the Space Launch Center instantly disappeared. All the tightly-clenched fists slowly eased up, including Kelvin’s, and there were whispered cheers. Each orbital change was a great challenge for a command center with zero experience.

But soon, everyone’s fists clenched again.

Ten minutes later, the next orbit change would occur. Before the final orbit change, they couldn’t let their guard down.

“Roger… The parameters have been entered and confirmed.”

“Engine No. 3 decelerate.”

“The engine output of Engine No. 6 is increasing by 10%.”

To describe the difficulty of the project, the best metaphor was using steel wires to operate a scalpel and operating on a patient several kilometers away. Aside from a few orbits where the asteroid could remain for long periods of time without the need to control it, for the rest of the time, Kelvin could hardly close his eyes.

Unless he couldn’t keep his eyes open at all, he would let his assistant take control for a few moments.

At last…

“The Bennu asteroid successfully entered the D1 orbit from the C2 orbit.”

“All rocket engine groups successfully stalled.”

“The next orbit change will occur in ten hours, at two o’clock. I hope to see all of you in your positions. Now, other than the monitoring team, the rest can disband.”

Without cheering, all the staff were relieved. They organized the items on the table and headed to the door. Now, they only wanted to go to the cafeteria to have a meal, take a shower and sleep for a while. They were still eight hours away from two o’clock. This time, they could sleep for a little longer. They didn’t know how many days it may be before they could sleep for this long again.

Kelvin rubbed his eyebrows and sat down in his chair.

In order to maintain his concentration, he was standing and commanding for the entire duration. Now that the asteroid successfully changed orbit, he was no longer in a state of hypertension.

His assistant brought him a cup of coffee.

“Coffee?”

“No, it’ll make me unable to sleep.”

Declining the coffee brought by the assistant, Kelvin continued to sit for a while then got up.

Having entered the D1 orbit, after five more orbital changes, the asteroid would be integrated into the Earth-Moon system. This work was simply tormenting. The fatigue he accumulated over the past week was almost equivalent to all the fatigue he accumulated with the space elevator project over the previous year.

It was okay to just do this kind of thing once. Next time, he would leave this to his assistant. With the experience, he already drafted a blueprint in his mind about establishing an asteroid mining project department as well as a division in this department. He planned to divide the entire project into systematic steps.

When he reached the entrance to the cafeteria, he bumped into Ivan.

Kelvin looked at the Ukrainian with surprise and stepped forward to say hello.

“Ivan? What brought you here?”

“I’m here waiting for you.” Ivan grinned and gestured the assistant next to him to give a document to Kelvin. “Celestial Trade intends to set up a Space defense force, and our military needs assistance from Space Launch Center. This project was approved by Mr. President himself. You better go over it.”

“You should’ve just sent it to my assistant. There’s no need to make a personal trip here.” Kelvin shook his head with a smile and took the document. But when he saw the mark on the cover, his drowsy brain immediately sobered up. “Highly confidential?”

“This is also the reason why I made a trip here,” Ivan solemnly said, “The contents of the document relates to the highest confidentiality level of Celestial Trade, the contents of which can only be viewed by you alone.”

“I understand.” Kelvin nodded gravely.

After explaining the matter, Ivan left.

Kelvin looked at the document in his hand, looked at the cafeteria, and finally sighed. He shook his head and headed to his office.

“Forget it… I’ll get the assistant to bring me a sandwich. There goes my lunch.”

While muttering, Kelvin pulled out his mobile phone.

He knew how crucial documents with the highest level of confidentiality were as an executive at Celestial Trade. What he needed to do now was to briefly scan the document then stuff it into a safe that could only be opened with his fingerprints and iris scan…

At Coro Airport, a civilian airliner landed on the runway.

A tall Russian beauty walked through the airport with her suitcase and stopped at the airport gate, attracting countless visitors heading to the departure hall. It wasn’t that no one worked up the courage to say hi; it was that she didn’t even have any interest to respond to strangers after their attempts.

A black car was parked in front of the airport.

The Russian beauty’s eyes lit up and her golden hair swayed. She picked up her luggage and walked forward.

This scene made all the men eager to introduce themselves envious. They all jealously fixed their eyes on the ordinary looking car. The most annoying thing was that the man sitting in the car didn’t get out and the beauty had to put her luggage in the trunk herself.

Countless people were all bitter over this fact.

“How blind could you be to be with a man without any gentlemanly traits?”

“Fu*k, another flower inserted into cow dung!”

“…”

However, neither the ordinary looking driver nor the blond beauty bothered with these people. Soon, the car disappeared on the road and disappeared from everyone’s sight, leaving behind countless people who failed in their attempts to leave an impression.

Of course, if these people knew who was sitting in the car, they would’ve all swallowed what they said.

“I didn’t think you would actually come to pick me up. I thought it would be your little girl.”

Putting on her seatbelt, Natasha said jokingly.

“I’m free today, and I promised you,” Jiang Chen casually said and started the car at the same time.

It was very inconvenient for a person with a big chest to wear a seatbelt. Natasha perfectly demonstrated this point.

“Where did your Lamborghini go?”

“I don’t drive it that much anymore.”

“Why?” Natasha asked curiously.

“I feel I’m past that age.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“What brand is this car? I haven’t seen it before.”

“Luer GT300, my own investment.”

“A purely electric car? No wonder it’s so quiet.” Natasha looked at the layout inside the car. “In Russia, only ladyboys drive pure electric cars.”

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows twitched and he glanced at the grinning Natasha before he continued to concentrate on driving.

“This car shell is a titanium alloy?” Natasha knocked on the door with her knuckles and asked casually.

“Superplastic steel.”

“PVC?”

“No,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “Simply speaking, even if it was hit by an RPG7 rocket or a Barrett sniper rifle, it would ensure the passengers in the car were harm free.”

“I feel like you’ve changed,” Natasha suddenly said.

“Changed?” Jiang Chen was puzzled.

“I feel … you’re a lot more mature than before? Of course, it might be my illusion,” Natasha said bluntly as she shrugged.

Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head.

“People will mature from innocence and finally grow old… Not to mention that I have experienced twice as much as you.”

Natasha laughed when she heard Jiang Chen’s words, but when she heard the latter part of the sentence, she blanked out for a second.

“Twice? No way. Time is equal to anyone.”

“Is it?”

Jiang Chen only smiled and didn’t answer.

He had only had the bracelet for three years, but it felt like he experienced more than a decade of life.

The true meaning behind this sentence could only be understood by himself.

Chapter 931: Elder Ye’s Thoughts

After dragging her suitcase into the mansion, Natasha examined everything inside and abruptly said.

“You guys are together?”

He wasn’t planning to hide anything and nodded.

“Yes. A lot happened while you were in Moscow.”

“Eh? I didn’t see it coming.” Natasha glanced at Jiang Chen with a surprised look on her face and then said with a playful expression. “I thought you were keeping it ambiguous.”

“What do you mean by keeping it ambiguous.” Jiang Chen gave her a dirty look. “How did you figure it out?”

“I am still a former KGB agent.” Natasha shrugged. Suddenly, she pulled her face closer to Jiang Chen, and with a mischievous grin, she said, “Not to mention, I’m still a woman.”

“I see, I almost forgot.”

Jiang Chen’s sudden realization look made Natasha give him a dirty look.

Although she went back to Russia for some time, Jiang Chen left her room for her, Ayesha also occasionally cleaned it for her. After helping her carry her suitcase into the room, Jiang Chen did not bother with her anymore and went to Ange Island Industrial Park.

This morning, Yang Guanglei, the CEO of Future Heavy Industries, sent a short message to him through the office software of Future Group. The first Stingray X-1 machine produced by Ange Island Industrial Park had completed its initial tests.

If all things went smoothly, during the United Nations Summit on Outer Space five days later, it would be sent into orbit by the space elevator together with 60 passengers. These passengers would be participating in the first-passenger ride. A professionally-trained astronaut would pilot the spacecraft. A transport module would be prepared with five kilometers of deuterium and several tons of foods to complete the round-trip flight between the giant Celestial City and the Moon Colony.

Although eighty percent of the parts were completed by industrial-grade 3D printers, it marked the astonishing ability of Ange Island Industrial Park’s capability to produce 22nd-century equipment. To finally achieve this point, Jiang Chen spent two full years.

…

Although the first round of negotiation with Celestial Trade was unsuccessful, Ye Qinghua was not discouraged. In a sense, he expected this. If they didn’t make any unreasonable offers at the beginning, would it really be considered negotiations?

If such a big project could reach an agreement on its first meeting, he would be suspicious of Jiang Chen setting him up.

However, Jiang Chen’s tough stance on the track leasing contract was to the surprise of Elder Ye and Hua’s top authority. With the current space market activities, there was no demand for twelve tracks. Celestial Trade shouldn’t have rejected this proposal.

“It seems that we still underestimated the market prospects of space resource development and Jiang Chen’s ambition. Future Group is an expert in this area, so they should be able to see farther in this respect…”

After scolding his granddaughter, Elder Ye also gave her a small break.

To test Jiang Chen’s bottom line at the negotiations table and his stake in the opponent’s heart, her task was complete. Although for herself, she would have to return empty-handed.

Although using the younger generation made Elder Ye feel a little guilty, but in front of national interests, the interests of the family could always be sacrificed.

When he returned, he planned to talk with Ye Xianrong, Yunfei’s dad, about the marriage and stop making it difficult for his own daughter. Although Jiang Chen continued on his upward trend, he was nothing to the giant Ye family. Since Yunfei didn’t like him, he would just call everything off.

It would also be her compensation.

When people grow old, they always have a soft side for the younger generation.

Shaking his head, Elder Ye set his granddaughter’s matter aside and looked at the photo on the table.

It was a photo photographed by his bodyguard at the airport. The Russian woman carrying a suitcase in the photo was Natasha, who Jiang Chen had previously picked up from the airport.

“The former senior KGB agent. She was active at the Russian-Ukrainian border before meeting Jiang Chen there and retiring. Her personal resume shows that she has participated in the Georgia War, the Crimean Crisis, and other significant international events… How is she in contact with Jiang Chen.”

Elder Ye frowned, puzzled.

Jiang Chen possessed a special intelligence force, which had long been public knowledge in the intelligence organizations of various countries. He shouldn’t be unaware that the Russian beauty who lived in his home had served the Russian intelligence agency.

“Are the rumors true then…” Elder Ye touched his chin and was lost in thought.

According to the intelligence analyzed in the General Staff Department, Jiang Chen’s private life was far from being as low-key as the Internet generally perceives. Not only has he been in an affair with a domestic celebrity, but the rumors also said that his female bodyguard has another identity, his mistress.

Moreover, a rumor that has been circulating states that as early as Jiang Chen was still in Wanghai, he maintained an “ambiguous” relationship with Xia Shiyu.

Not only that, there seemed to be another mistress in the mansion he bought in Yoto that has yet to graduate from university.

“If he really likes women, this is good news for us.” A shrewd light shone from Elder Ye’s eyes.

Although neither he nor the people above him had ever imagined that he would return to Hua, they didn’t mind establishing a few bonds to maintain a close relationship.

Marriage is a good choice!

Whether it is for the country or for the Ye family…

With the thought in his mind, his sad granddaughter’s face had who just been reprimanded emerged in Ye Qinghua’s mind.

Although Ye Yunfei may have left a bad impression at the negotiation table, there was no deep hatred between the two. It was better to have an impression than to have no impression at all! If he could use some means to get them together…

With this idea in mind, Elder Ye’s cloudy eyes gradually became clearer.

Even though the daughter of his second son was no goddess, he was confident in her beauty and believed that she was still stunning. Not only was she beautiful, but she also received excellent aristocratic education. Whether looking at her individual talents of poetry and painting or her educational background as a graduate from Harvard, she was far from being an ordinary woman.

Although there is a bit of arrogance in her bones, with so many positive traits, this shortcoming could be easily ignored.

As for Jiang Chen’s private life, he did not care at all.

Even if Jiang Chen wished to constitutionally restore polygamy in his “small kingdom” or even if Jiang Chen wasn’t emotionally committed to this marriage, he could care less.

In front of national interests, so-called personal feelings were never important. The strength demonstrated by Future Group and Celestial Trade was also enough to allow the Ye Family to lay down its traditional stance and sacrifice the personal happiness of a certain family member.

“It’s just… poor Yunfei.”

Elder Ye sighed. After deliberated for a moment, he reached for the phone and called his second son, the provincial government secretary, Ye Xianrong.

He would have to discuss this with the top authority, but he must first talk to her father. Regardless of the success of this marriage, he must persuade Yunfei first.

Forcing her to put down the prejudices in her heart and getting close with a man she didn’t love at all would be hard for her.

However, Elder Ye knew that she would understand his and her father’s difficult decision.

Chapter 932: A Serious Case

“Achoo!”

Jiang Chen suddenly let out a sneeze while bathing in the sea breeze.

Ayesha grabbed the coat beside her and draped it on his shoulders.

Holding onto Ayesha’s hand, Jiang Chen turned his head and smiled.

“It’s okay. You know I won’t catch a cold.”

After being injected with the genetic vaccine, his immunity was even enough to ignore the X1 bacterial infection, and he hadn’t experienced the feeling of having a fever for a long time.

“But… you were sneezing. It is better to be careful,” Ayesha whispered.

“Perhaps someone is thinking about me.” Jiang Chen shrugged with a smile and tightened the coat around him. “How is the situation in Europe?”

“We helped the Russians ship weapons into Frankberg. The Russians are still negotiating with the insurgents in regards to the budget. Our people are still tracking the whereabouts of the new high-ranking Freemasonry members and Carmen, but they have kept their trail very secure. Even with the help of the KGB, our progress is quite slow,” Ayesha said with some regrets.

Jiang Chen reached out and rubbed the little girl’s head, smiling.

“No need to become frustrated about this, we have a lot of time to do this.”

The wealthier one was, the more fearful of death, and the same applied for Jiang Chen too. Since being attacked by a mental psychic on his way home, it was not that he didn’t experience another security threat, but Ghost Agents solved all the troubles without him knowing. What presented to him, in the end, was usually just a paper report.

The remaining Kurofune, the Freemasonry, business rivals. Too many people wanted him died. The same was true for Carmen Rothschild. The enemy of the Freemasonry was not just Future Group, so he must be careful.

“Speaking of the situation in Russia, how are they negotiating with the insurgents?” Jiang Chen asked.

“A native Frankberg chocolate maker is responsible for negotiating with the insurgents. He nominally provides support for Frankberg in separating from the extreme beliefs of the “righteous behavior, but in fact, the source of funding comes from a hidden account in Gazprom.”

“Is there any evidence?” Jiang Chen asked thoughtfully.

Ayesha nodded.

“Monica Geller listened to their calls. Although they used a lot of codes, our detection technologies can decipher the meaning of the codes.”

Monica Geller, the name Jiang Chen heard from Ayesha before, is one of the main agents of the Ghost Agents active in Western Europe. The agent is codenamed Guinevere, a queen from the legend of ancient England.

After listening to Ayesha’s reply, a satisfied smile emerged on Jiang Chen’s face. He rubbed her hair as it fluttered in the wind.

Although Xin and Russia were allies in many aspects, it was not enough of a reason for Jiang Chen to have no reservations. Even as an ally, he must keep his distance. Controlling the evidence of the collusion between the Frankberg insurgents and the Russian intelligence services does not mean that Jiang Chen must use it in the future, but when necessary, it could play an important role.

Seeing the smile on Jiang Chen’s face, Ayesha smiled happily and gently rubbed her face against his big hand.

She always enjoys this warmth and enjoys the smile on the face of her beloved. Especially when she knows that this smile is because of her work, the happiness from her heart gives her even more motivation.

…

After Jiang Chen inspected the high-tech industrial park, he returned from Ange Island to Coro Island. Although the undersea tunnel was now open to traffic, occasionally he would choose a yacht as his means of transportation.

One was to enjoy the refreshing breeze, and the other was to stop the yacht anytime when they encountered fish. He could then do some fishing along the way, primarily motivated by the fact that the fish purchased from the market was different from the fish he would personally catch.

Stepping onto Coro Island, Jiang Chen received a call on the way back to the mansion. It was an unknown number.

“Hello?”

The phone was silent for a while before he heard a stiff female voice.

“…Hello, I’m Ye Yunfei.”

“Ye Yunfei?” Jiang Chen frowned slightly as he recalled this name from his memory. He suddenly remembered the name.

It seemed to be the granddaughter behind Ye Qinghua who he had met a few days ago? But what did she call me for?

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Jiang Chen asked politely.

Because Jiang Chen paused for two or three seconds, Ye Yunfei instantly knew that Jiang Chen forgot her name. Her teeth ground together. But when she thought of what her father and grandfather said to her, humiliation quickly appeared and faded between her eyebrows. In the end, she took a deep breath and suppressed the dissatisfaction in her heart. She then spoke in a calm voice.

“Do you… do you have time to talk? I want to invite you for a meal. Last time, I was too abrupt… I want to apologize to you.”

“Oh, that. Don’t worry, I didn’t mind. If you want to have a meal, let’s try another day. I don’t have time now.”

Ye Yunfei was stunned.

No… no time?

She had seen too many men who coveted her beauty, driving luxury cars and gifting her with flowers at her residence, making hearts out of candles, singing a love song while playing the guitar, trying all kinds of things to pursue her… “I invited him too and he actually, actually…”

Seeing there was no voice from the other side, Jiang Chen frowned slightly, thinking that she had hung up, so he hung up too.

Ye Yunfei was just about to say something, but when she heard the busy tone, she was completely dumbfounded.

You actually hung up on me?

Anger instantly filled her brain, she gritted her teeth, and slammed her phone into the pillow.

Humph!

This is infuriating!

Even the real estate bosses back at home with companies worth tens of billions of dollars all treated her with respect. She never had been treated like this, it was no wonder she was furious.

Ye Yunfei would never understand that the people pursuing her all didn’t purely pursue her, but instead pursued the Jiangnan Ye family behind her. Without this background, would those people still pursue her?

Beautiful? Talented? Too many people possess those traits! Even her father’s mistresses could all pull out diplomas from one or two prestigious university diplomas or some unknown international certifications.

The market value of Future Group in the public eye was lower than that of Apple, but that was because Future Group remained a private company and didn’t need to seek lending from banks. Anyone with in-depth contact with Future Technology had no doubts about Future Group’s insane profitability.

In the eyes of most ordinary people, Future Group was just an ordinary multinational group. Just like most ordinary people, they remained unclear about whether Future Group and Celestial Trade were controlled by one person or not. Most believe that Xin with an election system was an democratic country and believed President Zhang was in office because of his ability…

Ye Yunfei was a member of the younger generation of the Ye Family. She had never even touched the core of her family’s powers. She just went abroad for a few years and was somewhat arrogant, of course she didn’t understand all this. Naturally, she just treated Jiang Chen as the boss of a multinational group and a businessman with a lot of money… if he just had money, he wouldn’t even enter the sight of her family.

Although she understood the difficult decision of her father and grandfather and decided to endure the grievances in her heart and contact Jiang Chen, she did not figure out the most crucial point.

Unlike the domestic CEOs, unlike the overseas businessmen eager to squeeze into the huge domestic market. Even her background, the Ye family, was nothing in Jiang Chen’s eyes.

The powerful politician in the Liu Manor spoke politely to him. What is Ye family to him?

To put it bluntly, this is a kind of Princess Syndrome.

And a serious case too.

Chapter 933: Port Leasing

In a lounge on New Moon Island, next to the training ground, soldiers who had just completed their live-fire shooting training were taking a shower and grabbing their clothes from their compartments.

When they finished, everyone suddenly noticed that a poster.

On the poster, there was a massive spaceship. Beside the spaceship, there was an armed soldier equipped with heavy armor. The background was Mars… Zhang Feng didn’t know if it was Mars or not. Anyway, looking at the surface of the bare planet, it certainly didn’t resemble Earth.

“Space Defence Force? What is this?” He tore off the propaganda poster and used the towel on his shoulder to dry his wet hair. He then sat down on the bench to carefully examine the small characters on the poster.

“Maybe, this is the movie that was just released?” The Mexican machine gunner on his team came to his side and inched his face closer. “How did they post this? This is a military restricted zone.”

“Use your brain and think about it, Jack,” a big hand slapped on the Mexican’s shoulder, the rifleman Liu Duntao grinned. “Since this is a military restricted zone, it is our people that posted this.”

“The advertisement was posted by me, but of course, it was the order from the above.” A man in a military uniform walked into the lounge and took the hat that was left on the bench. “You better consider it seriously, it’s a good opportunity…”

After that, the officer from the logistics department left.

Several soldiers took some time to process the information before looking at each other in bewilderment.

“I heard that Celestial Trade is working on an interstellar colonization plan. I thought they were joking… Sh*t, it seems that they are serious? We… we have the opportunity to change from the Marine Corps to Interstellar Corps?”

“Going to outer space to combat? It’s so cool!”

“Very good. Compared to fighting against humans, I would much rather fight aliens, even though we don’t know if they exist.”

“Sh*t, you planned to be a deserter? I can’t just let this go.”

“…”

Zhang Feng ignored his comrades’ chattering and bantering. He carefully read the words on the poster.

To be honest, he was not very interested. After all, he was already a captain in the Marine Corps and led a team of six soldiers. No one knew the nature of this newly-established force, and it was uncertainty if the concept of space defence would really be taken seriously.

After returning to his dormitory, his roommate, who just came back from a mission, saw the poster he had placed on the table.

“I heard that it’s a new force established by the headquarters. The salary is very high and the retirement benefit is also good. I have already registered… the orbital airborne unit. What about you?”

“Me?” Zhang Feng shook his head. “I am going to consider it again.”

The base salary was 12,000 XND for a regular soldier. Those with military ranks and command experience would be promoted first. With his rank and resume, the transfer shouldn’t be a problem and he’d probably be promoted immediately.

The monthly salary of 20,000 XND was almost twice his current salary.

However, the selection requirements were extremely strict. In addition to physical examination, genetic sequencing was also required. In contrast, the physical requirements of applicants were relatively low.

According to the description on the poster, even if you are weak, our training from hell will make you a real man.

Should I register?

Zhang Feng shook his head, took a form from his drawer, and pulled out a pen.

Might as well try, since I may not be selected anyway.

With the thought in his mind, he wrote his name on the form and simply filled in his resume. Leaning on the chair and stretched his body, he put the form aside. He was about to go to cafeteria to eat, then register at the military office.

…

These days, Jiang Chen lived a relaxing lifestyle.

The Hua-side had yet to reach a conclusion, and Ye Qinghua didn’t come to see him again. Russia was thinking about something else, Natasha didn’t mention the space elevator, and no one came from the Kremlin.

Europe was stable. There were no other moves besides ESA’s publication of several papers on the space elevator, ranging from the space elevator may be affected by extreme climatic conditions and the potential hazards of the design. In the quagmire of the economic crisis, they did not have the economic power to develop space resources.

NASA called and simply inquired about the space elevator and the fee. Jiang Chen tossed a brief introduction to them and sent their people away. They did not call again when they received the information.

There were many large, medium, and small private enterprises that contacted Celestial Trade. The line of Celestial Trade Outer Space Track Development, responsible for managing the space elevator business, was almost at full capacity 24/7. The sheer number of companies could form a line form Coro Island to Silicon Valley.

Among them was SpaceX, NASA’s appointed space exploration technology company. The space elevator completed the first batch of materials transportation from the ground to the orbit, and the private space companies instantly mourned in agony. SpaceX took the first and foremost hit, with the market prospect of the Falcon rocket series instantly vanishing. After falling for a few consecutive days, its market value had fallen from twelve billion dollars to less than ten billion dollar. Even Google felt the pain of the loss with its stock price taking a hit.

Because the caller was from SpaceX’s founder, Elon Musk, the operator of Celestial Trade transferred the call to Jiang Chen.

After the call connected, the American legend who founded PayPal spoke politely.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang. We exchanged business cards at the Silicon Valley Summit. I don’t know if you remember me?”

“Of course, Mr. Musk.” Jiang Chen smiled and joked. “I’d remember you even if we didn’t exchanged business cards. After all, I grew up listening to your success story.”

The hobo richer than an entire country, Musk. The ordinary looking but wealthy, Jack Ma. The man who climbed to the peak from the troughs, Jobs. Countless aspiring young listened to their success stories. Although Jiang Chen sneered at such stories, it didn’t stop him from being bombarded by these chicken soups when he went to school.

But now, his story also started to “aspire” the future generations.

“Unemployed youth who started from scratch.” He vaguely recalled that he was labeled with this phrase on some inspirational talk on Weibo.

Although Musk knew Chinese, he did not understand the joke. However, he only slightly hesitated, and looked past this. After all, he didn’t call to make small talk, but for business inquiry.

“I don’t know if you have the intention to lease a space elevator track?”

“Celestial Trade is willing to provide a comprehensive service from the port on Earth to the synchronous orbit. There is no plan to lease, or contract out an entire track,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, and directly rejected Musk’s proposal.

Musk was not discouraged when he heard the response, but a glimmer of joy appeared in his eyes.

“Oh? It seems that you are also quite optimistic about the prospects for the development of outer space resources?”

“Of course, after all, the future is there,” Jiang Chen said, full of passion.

“We have a win-win proposal here, are you interested?” Musk smiled.

“If it is a proposal other than leasing.” Jiang Chen once again emphasized this.

“Although it’s related to leasing, it’s not about leasing the tracks,” Musk shook his head and cleared his throat, then he introduced seriously, “SpaceX hopes to lease the port at the space station. Our offer will not disappoint you.”

Chapter 934: Future Direction

Lease the port?

Musk’s proposal somewhat surprised Jiang Chen.

In Celestial Trade’s internal discussion about the profitability model of the space elevator, there was indeed options to lease the port at Celestial City.

Since it was a one-man market, the scale was limited. Rather than sharing one cake alone, it was better to make the cake bigger with everyone, and then be the person cutting the cake. Only when everyone participated in the giant market could Celestial Trade maximize its profit while avoiding unnecessary conflicts.

Imagine this, the entire world’s development of space resources must be done through the space elevator in Xin. All the freights must stop at the base station underneath the space elevator. All the resources from outer space must be transported from Xin’s port to the rest of the world. What would this mean to Xin’s economy, currency, and international standing?

Competition? Of course there would be competition.

But if Celestial Trade couldn’t out compete with SpaceX with a technology a century ahead, then Celestial Trade employees should just give up!

But what surprised Jiang Chen was that just after the space elevator’s completion, while Celestial City was just beginning to take its shape, and before the United Nations summit, Musk already thought much ahead. This indeed amazed Jiang Chen.

“What do you think? Are you interested?” Musk asked with a serious tone.

“I’m extremely interested… Or rather, I’m really surprised,” Jiang Chen said.

“Oh? Did I offend…”

“No, you’re misinterpreting me.” Jiang Chen shook his head, used his finger to move the hologram communication window from the left hand to the right hand side, then continued, “We do in fact have the intention to lease the port, but the specifics remain on paper. We can’t give you an answer now, but since you proposed this, once the United Nation summit is over and we determine a feasible plan, we’ll contact you immediately.”

With a joyous expression, Musk said passionately.

“Please!”

“Is there anything else?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Of course, there’s one more thing.” Musk smiled. “We originally planned to launch Falcon 9 at the beginning of February carrying 450 kilogram of supplies to the International Space Station. But by the looks of it now, we don’t need to waste sixty million?”

“You plan to contract NASA’s mission to us?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrow and asked with intrigue.

Musk snapped his finger and responded.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

…

The cost of transporting out and back would be different. Depending on the type of goods, there would be some differences on the type of transporter used and the acceleration process, naturally, the quote would be different. But in any case, the transportation cost of the space elevator was definitely much lower than that of rockets.

The standard price of the Falcon 9 was 60 million US Dollars. Even if the successful recovery of the first-stage rocket could save 80% of the launch cost (the probability of success is not high), it would come with a bill as large as 12 million US Dollars. Compared with 450 kilograms of goods, the transportation cost per kilogram was as high as 26,000 US Dollars.

The quotation of Celestial Trade, together with the spaceship and its 450 kilograms supply could be sent to the geosynchronous track for a total of only 2 million Xin New Dollars. Converted to US Dollars based on current exchange rates, it would be roughly 2.15 million.

Based on the UA subsidy policy for the aerospace industry, NASA paid about 61 million US Dollars to SpaceX. If it was outsourced to Celestial, it would be almost sixty times the profit!

And they wouldn’t have to gamble on the probability of recycling the first stage rocket!

Such a tremendous profitability was more than enough to make any capitalist crazy.

Even if outsourcing a subsidized project to a foreign country may lead to dissatisfaction with the federal government, Musk still made the decision. As for how to calm the anger of NASA, he has already thought of an excuse.

In addition, Jiang Chen also tossed out an extremely attractive proposal. If the entire supplying work is outsourced to Celestial Trade and without launching the spacecraft around 8 tons in weight, the price of Celestial Trade could be reduced to several hundred thousand Xin New Dollars. However, Musk did not completely lose his mind, and declined Jiang Chen’s “good intentions.”

After hanging up the phone, Musk immediately looked at his assistant.

“Cancel the launch plan in February immediately. Package and sell Falcon rocket-related technology and try to do this before this week’s UN Outer Space Summit. I will go to the launch center in person in a bit and cancel all arrangements for me in the afternoon.”

The assistant was shocked.

“But… this is NASA’s order, and our Falcon rocket engine is already complete.”

“Other than the rocket engine, did anything else start production?” Stopping at the door, Musk turned his head and asked seriously.

“Wait a minute…” The assistant reached out to the stack of documents on his desk, flipped the one he was looking for, and quickly turned to the production progress report. “Not yet—”

“Cancel immediately. Also, package and sell the rocket engine that has already been completed. Also immediately terminate the development of the Falcon 10 rocket and allocate the extra budget to the third-generation Dragon Spacecraft.”

“But why?” the assistant couldn’t help but ask.

He thought he might be the only one besides Musk to know how much effort Musk devoted on Falcons 10 Rocket. He couldn’t believe that just after this phone call, Musk, who pushed the Falcons 10 rocket development project, ended this great project with such an understatement.

“Because it is out of date,” Musk said without hesitation.

His heart was equally full of unwillingness, but he knew, half a minute ago, he already made the most calm and wise choice in his life.

The birth of the space elevator marked the decline of the traditional rocket space, just as the tank eventually eliminated the cavalry. Even if they spent a lot of money to produce the Falcons 10 rocket, it would just be a dying struggle before dusk. The cost of the launch simply would not be competitive in front of the space elevator!

Depend on subsidy?

God, this is a capitalistic country!

They couldn’t just rely on subsidies! One day the Congressional Budget Committee would lose patience.

Looking at the struggling expression on the assistant who had worked for him for many years, Musk took a deep breath and said slowly.

“My dear Mr. Bassmore, my friend. You should be able to understand me. You should understand that at the moment, my heart is not as relaxed as I seem. The abandonment of the Falcon-series rockets does not mean giving up on everything, but it means I’m making a choice… I should be the most pained person in the whole company. But rationality tells me, I have to do this.”

“It is only a matter of time before the rocket that goes from the atmosphere to outer space becomes eliminated. The Falcon series has completed its historical mission. We learned from it, and its technology, and now we must solemnly close the coffin. I know this is very difficult… but if we don’t want this series to be our last song, then we must move forward with the trends of the world.”

“Stronger, bigger, faster; a spacecraft that can freely traverse the universe. That is our future!”

Chapter 935: The Livid Bolden

What The F*CK!

“Musk! That bastard!”

Bolden slammed the file on the table, and collapsed into his chair. His heavy breathing sounded like he was about to spurt fire.

As the director of NASA, he always favored SpaceX as a representative of private aerospace companies in the UA. Whenever a good project appeared, he always thought of the company. However, Musk just now told him that they outsourced the supply mission of the International Space Station to Celestial Trade.

What the fu*k!

How dare they, how can they do this!

Traitor, this is betrayal!

Other staff members in the office were all silent. Even Bolden’s assistant sped up when he passed by his desk. Everyone knew why this grumpy old man was angry. SpaceX actually outsourced the supply mission.

The space market was a highly fragmented market. In general, even if the launch price of SpaceX was low, Hua and Russia didn’t give their launch projects to SpaceX. The market of each country consisted of a maximum of 10-30 launch missions a year. It was already difficult to feed the domestic aerospace companies, who would outsource their projects to other countries?

Russia’s outsourcing of supply missions to Celestial Trade was an exception, on the one hand because of Russia’s own economic situation, and on the other hand because Jiang Chen promised to sell the RM-320 rocket engine… Although the RM-320 was eliminated by Celestial Trade, Jiang Chen did fulfill the commitment of the contract.

But in the UA, such exception would never exist.

What made Bolden angry was that he once touted the Falcons 10 rocket in front of the president and praised as “a technology masterpiece that will down in history”, “the rocket that will change the future of mankind”, “the hope of the UA”, etc. The titles were given to a project that had yet to produce results.

However, Musk now told him – “Sorry, our Falcon 10 rocket development is now cancelled.”

Oh! God! I will definitely be the laughing stock of the Capital!

Just as Bolden was fuming, his assistant anxiously walked over and articulated quickly. “Musk is outside. He said that he wants to see you.”

Bolden’s eyebrows raised and he forced down his rage. After he calmed himself down, he said to his assistant, “Let him come in.”

“Yes…” The assistant nodded and quickly left.

He knew that his boss was at the brink of explosion. The reason why he didn’t roar out was nothing but the silence before the storm.

Soon, the office door was pushed open and a man in a coat came in.

Bolden made a scoffing sound and his penetrative sight fixated on the person that just entered the room.

“I was looking for you, but you came yourself.”

Musk coughed, then said, “Let me explain…”

“Explain to the Capital,” Bolden said. “You have outsourced a subsidized project to a foreign company. Are you that desperate to make money?!”

“Of course I’ll explain to the Capital, in fact, I am already preparing the materials for the hearing.”

If he didn’t prepare a reasonable explanation, the misers at Budget Committee would probably directly send him from the congressional hearing to the Federal Court.

After a pause, Musk continued without pressure, “I have to clarify, even if I just outsourced the launch mission to Celestial Trade, the supply work is still completed by us.”

Bolden, who was fuming, sneered, “What is the difference?”

“Do you think it makes sense to go back and forth with chemical rockets from the surface to the orbit?” Musk asked.

Bolden’s eyebrows furrowed as he was just about to open his mouth, but he suddenly stopped.

Yes, the space elevator has been completed, so what is the significance of continuing to develop chemical rockets? That is not the future!

He was just raging and lost his calmness without being able to properly think. Now that some rationality returned to him and he began to re-examine the issue, it may have actually been a wise choice to give up the Falcon series rocket. As an expert in the aerospace field, Bolden knew exactly the limits of chemical rockets.

Seeing that his old friend had calmed down, Musk also breathed a sigh of relief and built off his previous statement.

“I promise that the budget saved from the launch project in February and on the Falcon 10 rocket development plan will be used in the development of the third generation Dragon spacecraft. Over the past few years, we have continuously improved the Falcon rocket. The Dragon Spacecraft series plan had been stagnant for too long, and now it is time to make a step forward.”

Bolden was still gloomy, but there was a sign of his wavering. “This means that we have to borrow the space elevator of Celestial Trade in the next few decades.”

“And ports and berths at the space station. I tried to probe when I called Jiang Chen. Celestial Trade is very sensitive to the rental of the space elevator track. There is almost no room for negotiation, but they didn’t exclude the leasing of ports and berths.” Musk paused slightly. “There are still three days until the UN Outer Space Summit. I think… this information can be used as a reference.”

Bolden’s eyes lit up slightly.

He immediately stood up and strode to his assistant’s desk.

“Meeting in the conference room in an hour. NASA executives must be present.”

“Yes!” The assistant stood up and was about to leave the desk, but Bolden reached out and stopped him.

“And, contact the Capital for me!” Bolden said. “I hope that the Capital will pay enough attention. It is best to send someone and make a transcript. Remember, I don’t want an intern!”

“Understood.” The assistant hurriedly nodded.

Before leaving, the Mexican-American assistant secretively examined Musk. He didn’t understand how this guy calmed his boss’s anger. He had thought that it would turn into a brawl after they met. After all, it was not a rare event to start a fight as part of the “office culture”.

After the assistant left, Bolden again issued several orders to his subordinates to ensure that everyone started to move and then returned to his desk. His mouth felt dry, but he remembered his assistant was already arranging for the meeting.

Just as he was about to get up, a cup of coffee appeared right in front of him.

“At the congressional hearing, I need your help.” Musk smartly made a cup of coffee when his old friend ignored him.

Bolden raised his eyebrows. He glanced at the coffee and then glanced at Musk.

“I will help you, but it is still up to yourself.”

Musk smiled.

“With your words, I feel assured.”

Just as NASA launched a heated discussion for the upcoming UN summit, Jiang Chen already ended separate meetings with representatives from Hua, the UA, Russia, and the UK. Although the results were limited, Jiang Chen was already prepared for the upcoming summit.

After this summit, the political landscape of the world wouldn’t necessarily be changed.

But the history of human civilization would certainly be rewritten.

Chapter 936: The Historic First Train

“Every time I look up at this space elevator, it’s difficult for me to restrain my impulse to worship it. Only a miracle can describe this magnificent project. May God bless human beings and may they not lose their course in the sea of stars, Amen.”

Standing at the foot of the space elevator, looking up, the old man with a beard in a priest’s suit reached out and touched the outer shell of the space elevator. He painted a cross with his old fingers, and recited an unknown prayer.

Today marked the first time that the space elevator passenger rail was open to public. Among the seventy people that would arrive at the terminal station, other than thirty trained astronauts, were twenty representatives from Xin as well as twenty invited foreign guests.

The selection of these twenty people was handed over to the United Nations. In addition to the numbers already discussed with Hua, the UA, Russia, the UK and other countries, the other seats were voted on by the special committee set up by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

The bearded white “Santa Claus” was the former Pope José Rachel, from the Vatican, and was the oldest passenger on the first journey. In order to take care of this elder nearly a hundred years old, Celestial Trade specifically adjusted the acceleration of the space elevator during the acceleration and deceleration phases. It would make the acceleration time slightly longer, but it didn’t have much impact on the entire 36,000-kilometer journey.

The man stopped fixating himself on the elder, took a small wooden box from his pocket and slowly pressed the box in front of his chest. His skin color was very pale, his brown short hair was slightly curled, and there was nostalgia in his pupils.

“In 1895, the Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky was inspired by the structure and shape of the Eiffel Tower to imagine a ‘sky castle’ that revolved around the earth.” Looking up at the space elevator, the man muttered, “Fascinating greatness, the charm of civilization is exactly this. We can always obtain inspiration from our own culture, to imagine unrealistic dreams, and finally turn the dreams into reality.”

“You are?” The black man standing next to him looked at him with surprise.

“A writer,” with a pause, Rudolf Clark looked at the wooden box in his hand with a hint of reminiscence, “Like my grandfather.”

In 1978, his grandfather Arthur Clark took inspiration from Pearson’s description of the American Space Mechanics Research Laboratory and wrote “The Fountain of Heaven”, which depicted the blueprint of the space elevator and influenced many science fiction literatures.

The “carbon nanomaterials” and “ocean-equatorial space station” described in the text predicted the future in a certain sense. The main material used by Celestial Trade to build space elevators was “graphene”, and the end of the space elevator was the space station named “Celestial City”.

“You seem to be surprised?” Rudolf looked at the man.

“Indeed,” the man nodded. “I have seen at least two writers.”

As he said this, he turned his eyes to the side of the space elevator.

There, there was an Asian old man who didn’t seem to mingle well with the group.

“There is a line of words written in Chinese.” Haruki Murakami reached out and slowly moved his fingers across the square of the space elevator. He said to himself, “Who left this?”

“I know that we can solve the next problem, because we have solved all the problems that have existed before… If it is translated into English, it probably means this.” Standing next to the old man, Liu Haotian replied in English. “As for who left it, who else?”

A nostalgic smile appeared on his face.

When he was in Shangjing and Wanghai, he did spend some time with Jiang Chen. But now that his position changed, partly because the Liu family did not want him to waste more years in the previous position. This time, the reason why he could represent the state in this special ceremony was due to the energy and influence of the Liu family.

However, he was somewhat regretful that he didn’t see Jiang Chen on this trip.

Just as they held the first train ceremony here, Jiang Chen accompanied the Xin President to Canberra to attend the UN Outer Space Summit.

“I am Murakami Haruki,” He was surprised at Liu Haotian’s remark. The 60-year-old man extended his hand to him, “I am very glad to meet you.”

Liu Haotian took the hand that the old man had stretched out and shook it gently.

“Liu Haotian, it’s my honor to meet you.”

Of course, not everyone showed a fascinated expression to this space elevator. For example, the expert from ESA with a sneer and commented on the design of the space elevator with the BBC reporter net to him.

“Did they consider the impact of high air flow differences on the structure of the elevator? You should eat some motion sickness medicine, we will be probably be shaking like a noodles once we get to 10,000 meters.”

The ESA expert then mocked.

“Maybe it will break like a noodle.”

Going into space with all the invitees was a Stingray X-1 space plane that hung on the outer cargo track outside the space elevator.

To be precise, its name was Stingray C-1.

According to data released by Celestial Trade, the Stingray X-1 was to be used as a multi-purpose spacecraft with multi-function modules. The transport module was named Stingray C-1 and would carry a small amount of cargo. The Stingray with mining capability was named P-1, and the Stringray with an attack module was named A-1.

However, Celestial Trade did not recognize that it had a production plan for an attacking spacecraft. At least for now, humans have not discovered the existence of other civilizations. That being the case, the purpose of an attack module didn’t exist.

After all, according to the design drawings of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, the weapons used by the Stingray A-1 was a laser cannon. The power attenuation coefficient of laser weapons in the atmosphere also makes it impossible to become an efficient medium to long-range weapon. Moreover, the use of an spacecraft without any aerodynamic design to fight a war in the atmosphere is far less effective than the Aurora-20 with wing design.

“Ch-001 train is ready, please go to the waiting room and board the train…”

A polite and clear voice appeared, with the assistance of Celestial Trade staff, the first seventy passengers boarded a vertical train on a small lift.

Liu Haotian’s ticket was A07-9, which represented the 7th floor 9th seat.

Under the guidance of the crew, he sat in his own fixed seat and fastened the strange-looking seat belt. During the ascending and landing phases, the cabin would enter an overweight and weightless state. During these two phases, passengers were prohibited from leaving their seats. However, when the elevator was at a constant speed, passengers would be able to leave their seat and stand by the window to enjoy the breathtaking view of leaving Earth.

After securing himself in the seat, Liu Haotian took a deep breath and rested his head on the soft cushion to relax his tense body.

Under a uniform traction, the carriage began to move sideways under the traction of the robotic arm and then moved up. Like a bullet being pushed into the squall line, after a short and slight tremor, the carriage entered ascending track No. 1.

“Welcome to the Ch-001 train of Celestial Trade Outer Space Orbital Development. This train runs from the base station to Celestial City, with a distance of 35,860 kilometers. The estimated flight time is 5 hours and 12 minutes, and the maximum speed is 2 kilometers per second…”

“The elevator track has been confirmed to be smooth, and the Ch-001 train has entered the No. 1 track. Please ensure your seat belt has been fastened…”

Immersed in their own thoughts, all the passengers closed their eyes while soothing music began to play.

“The train is departing. I wish you a pleasant trip.”

Chapter 937: Heated Verbal Exchanges

Heated verbal exchanges.

That was the only impression in Jiang Chen’s mind of this UN summit.

Canberra, the capital of Australia, was located in the open valley of the Australian mountain range. The city didn’t have a large population but possessed beautiful scenery, it was chosen as the location for the UN Outer Space Summit. The Australian government attached great importance to the convening of this summit, because many heads of state and high-level representatives from the five permanent members would be present, the importance of this meeting was easy to imagine.

As early as the three days prior to the meeting, access to the vicinity of the venue was restricted, stores were closed, factories were shutdown, and all the streets of Canberra West were emptied.

The meeting was successfully held without any twists and turns.

Usually at such a summit attended by many heads of state, more than one topics would be discussed and it would not be limited to the topic of outer space development. Additionally, the important issue of the summit were often not discussed in the beginning.

The first topic to be discussed was not the space elevator, but the North Korea nuclear issue. Just two months ago, North Korea launched a missile suspected to be a ballistic missile, with the capability to mount a nuclear warhead. How did this relate to the Outer Space Summit? Of course, it was related. The use of outer space for peaceful purposes has always been the consensus of the international community.

Although the lean-looking representative was impassioned during his speech, Jiang Chen, who was sitting next to Zhang Yaping, couldn’t stop yawning.

Problems like this couldn’t get solved at all, it was a waste of time regardless of the length of the discussion.

To summarize, the individuals who spoke were North Korea representative and the UA Secretary of State Kerry, and the contents of the two sides could be summarized in four sentences.

“You are not allowed to launch missiles!”

“Launching missiles is within my power!”

“I dare you to launch one.”

“Oh, I did.”

War?

They would have gone to war already if they could.

But war was never something that could be determined by one or two missiles and a pat on the head. International issues were never resolved by a click of a button. It was not as easy as simply “destroying the enemy’s base.”

People often seeked reasons to persuade themselves for what has happened, or use their own logic to combine the limited information avaliable to derive their own truth out of necessity. The only real conclusion behind all the mental gymnastics was nothing but the fact that people are often wrong.

People will always repeated the same tragedy, and humans will always make the same mistakes.

Because Jiang Chen firmly believed this point, he could sit hear without fear. NASA Director Bolden even caught him yawning when he looked to his side. However, after glancing at the nearest camera and estimating that it could not capture anything below the table, he took out his phone and started to play games produced by Future Technology.

Even if the space elevator was placed right in front of them, even if they knew the true value of this technology, they could only watch him leave if they could not pay the price.

Zhang Yaping glanced at Jiang Chen next to him and whispered.

“Your mentality is not bad.”

“It’s okay. The space elevator is after three more issues, you don’t have to be so nervous now.” Jiang Chen did not look up as his eyes were still staring at the screen.

Zhang Yaping paused for a second and touched his face with an odd expression.

“I seem nervous?”

“It may be my illusion.”

As Jiang Chen expected, the North Korea nuclear issue did not yield any results. But looking at Kerry’s indifferent expression, he probably didn’t think anything material would come out of this meeting.

After the question of whether North Korea’s launch was a missile or a rocket, it was followed by the Turkish Civil War that lasted from the second half of last year to now and then the Ukrainian Civil War. If the previous issue could be related to outer space, then these two issues were completely trivial. Purely because there were not many opportunities for such high-level representatives to meet, such discussions were bound to take place.

These two discussions did not last long, and soon it was the main focus of the summit – the use of space elevators and its security concerns.

Jiang Chen put away his phone and scanned the audience.

With his vision, he clearly observed that the originally sleepy Italian President began to focus; the ESA Director who had originally been spinning his pen stopped; and the NASA Director who kept glancing at him finally stopped looked at the memo on his desk.

It was the voice of Ms. Mazlan Osman, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Before her voice settled, President of Panama, a Central American country, stood up and directed a question to Xin.

“With regard to the space elevator, I would like to ask the President of Xin. When you submitted the filing of space activities to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the filings were for scientific research purposes and orbital space stations.”

When he said this, the Panamanian President’s words contained some hostility. Central American countries were under the influence of the superpower UA. Glancing at NASA Director Bolden’s calm and collected look, Jiang Chen knew that the statement made by the representative of Panama was mostly UA’s message.

When Celestial Trade expanded its space station, it already caused the vigilance of the UA and other countries. When Celestial Trade began to “throw the rope” down from the space station, they were completely dumbfounded.

When NASA analyzed that it might be a space elevator, it was already at near the end of last year. Until the announcement of Celestial Trade mid-January, they still couldn’t fully accept this fact.

God, that’s the thing from science fictions!

Zhang Yaping stood up and tapped the microphone on the table…

“This is in Xin and a Xin company carrying out reasonable and legal projects in its territory in accordance with Xin’s constitution. There is no need to explain to the countries across the Pacific.”

In the round conference room, representatives from the UA stared at each other dumbfoundedly. Although they had expected this answer, they couldn’t help but feel furious. Bolden was in a rather calm state, whispering something to the person sitting next to him.

The representative from Panama sat back down.

Soon, a representative from the South America Ecuador spoke. It was the dark-skinned president who stood up and began speaking in a sincere tone.

“Ecuador’s borders cross the equator line. Can Xin assist South American countries in building our own space elevator? Of course, the South American National Union will bear all the expenses of the construction of Celestial Trade. Here, I can make a promise, there will an investment of more than 50 billion US Dollars.”

When his words came out, the representatives of Hua and Russia immediately became nervous.

Where would South American countries find so much money? Ecuador’s GDP was just 100 billion US Dollars a year. It was already difficult for them to squeeze one hundredth from this 100 billion, let alone a 50 billion dollars project.

It was obvious where this money came from.

Both Hua and Russia were countries far from the equator line and had limited international influence. It would almost be impossible to build a space elevator. Otherwise, when Elder Ye came to negotiate with Jiang Chen, he wouldn’t have mentioned just leasing the track but would have asked for help in building one for themselves.

Considering all the countries in the world, including the oil bosses in the Middle East, who had the most money?

It was precisely because of this that Hua and Russia had been sparing no effort in winning over Xin.

“About the problem of the space elevator… I think Jiang Chen, the chief designer of the space elevator, is better suited to answer this question.” As agreed, Zhang Yaping threw this inconvenient answer to Jiang Chen.

When all the lenses were focused on him, Jiang Chen stood up and nodded to the representatives of each countries.

“I am very honored to stand here and answer the questions of the international community about the space elevator. I understand that you are all very interested in this 36,000-kilometer elevator because it is definitely the longest elevator in the world and definitely the most profitable elevator. Other than corporate secrets, as the chief designer and chairman of Celestial Trade, I’ll do my best to answer all your questions.”

After that, Jiang Chen’s line of sight inadvertently swept to the NASA representative’s seat, looking over the face of Director Bolden, and finally falling on the President of Ecuador.

“We are very sorry about your request. Although we are very interested in this 50 billion project, our factory has no excess capacity to complete this order. Perhaps you can choose other engineering companies.”

Chapter 938: A Mysterious Meteor

“The train is departing. I wish you a pleasant trip.”

With his back slightly tensing up, Zhang Feng felt a pair of invisible hands gently press onto his shoulders. The strength of the “hands” was very soft, lying in this specially designed decompression cockpit, the overweight discomfort was almost negligible.

When the corner of his eyes caught the screen on the armrest, he saw the number 1.48G on the top lefthand corner of the screen.

Zhang Feng smiled as soon as he saw the number. As a former Celestial Trade Marine, he could easily withstand 3G of force. If it were for a short period of time, he could even withstand a force of 7G.

The rising acceleration was half of the gravitational acceleration, and the maximum speed was 2 kilometer per second. Zhang Feng estimated in his mind that it would take around ten minutes to reach the end of the acceleration phase.

In fact, their acceleration time was a little shorter than he estimated.

The overweight feeling on his shoulders slowly disappeared and his seat belt was unlocked. Zhang Feng twisted his neck slightly. Like other passengers on the floor, he walked down to the transparent window and looked out the window with fascination.

“It’s impossible,” a European man kneeled by the window and glued his nose onto the glass. He was screaming from the shock. “It’s absolutely impossible! Through the troposphere and the stratosphere, there was no swaying at all! This is absolutely impossible! Unless… unless…”

The European man immediately jerked himself upward, and his pupils were filled with disbelief. “Unless, the force point of this track is not at the ground, but in the sky?”

The tallest building in the world was not built from the ground to the sky, but from the synchronous orbit. Utilizing this design, the entire track was stabilized by its own gravity, and the stress of the material itself was sufficient to negate the effect of the high air flow.

But what if it encountered bad weather like a typhoon?

Dimitri knew that Celestial Trade would have certainly taken this into account. However, as an ESA Space Technology Expert, he couldn’t understand how Celestial Trade managed to solve this problem.

Directly below the ESA executive was another window.

Liu Haotian went to a white-haired old man and politely asked.

“Did you see anything?”

The old man sighed after he heard the question from the young man.

“In addition to the beautiful scenery that I will never forget in my life, I can’t see anything with my old eyes.”

The name of the old man was Liu Zhusheng, a researcher at the First Research Institute of Hua Aerospace Science and Technology Group. As one of the founders of the Hua aerospace industry, he was involved in the Shenzhou series rockets. At the first train ceremony, Celestial Trade provided four tickets to Hua, and he was given one of them.

The Aerospace Science and Technology Group and the top leaders of the State all had high hopes in that he could learn something from this ceremony. They hoped that he could learn some of the principles of the space elevator.

However, standing there, looking at the clouds gradually drifting away, he suddenly had the illusion of being in a completely different area of study.

But soon, he smiled and shook his head, relieving the burden in his chest.

Although he was an expert in the aerospace field, his expertise was in the field of chemical rockets. He could solve the technical problem of “longitudinal coupled vibration”, which restricted the development of large-scale liquid rockets in Hua with a pen, and impress the world’s aerospace experts by the leaps Hua’s aerospace industry made in a couple of decades, but it didn’t mean that his talents were applicable to the space elevator.

“There will always be more talented people,” Liu Zhusheng shook his head again and smiled. “I finally know why other countries gave this precious opportunity to authors.”

“Why?” Liu Haotian asked thoughtfully.

The old man raised his hand and used his index finger to point at his white hair.

“We need imagination.”

The conversation of an elder and a young man caught Zhang Feng’s attention.

Seeing familiar faces in a foreign country always gave him warm feelings. However, he did not go forward to talk to the two, but turned his sight outside the window.

For every thousand meters above sea level, the temperature would drop by 5 to 6 °C.

There was ice crystals condensing on the window with white mist lingering. The thick gas layer covered Earth like a spherical shell, just like a fairyland in one’s fantasy. Standing by the window, Zhang Feng silently took out his phone and captured this beautiful scene.

Being in such a magnificent place, he heard people exclaim in different languages.

Just then, he heard some broken Chinese.

“You’re a soldier?”

Zhang Feng turned around and looked at the man standing behind him. He did not deny his inquiry, but asked.

“Oh? How did you know?”

“Your posture is very unique.” The man shrugged and smiled, exposing his white teeth. “I heard that Hua specifically trains the way soldier stands, and how to fold their quilt into a tofu block.”

Hearing the banter in his words, Zhang Feng didn’t care, but raised his eyebrows and asked.

“Oh? How do the Americans train?”

The man grinned and said, “We get trained on how to beat people up.”

“Would you like to try with me?”

Looking at Zhang Feng’s half-grinning face, the man shook his head and waved his hand. “Hey, man, I’m just joking. If the two of us are tossed out from here because we are dueling, we can’t survive even with a parachute.”

After a pause, the man coughed and introduced himself.

“William James, Captain of the UA Marine Corps, what about you?”

“Zhang Feng, Celestial Marine Corps. I am also a Captain,” Zhang Feng shook the man’s hand.

William’s face showed a surprised expression, but it quickly returned to normal.

“I thought you were from Hua.”

“You didn’t guess wrong,” Zhang Feng let go of his hand, “in terms of ancestry at least”.

“As an employee of Celestial Trade, can you tell me what is on the space station above us?” William leaned against the railing by the window and asked casually.

“You will know when you arrive.” Zhang Feng shook his head.

William made a bored expression, but did not say anything more.

Just like what Zhang Feng said, when they arrive, he would know what’s up there. It was just that the five-hour journey was too long. If he didn’t find something to do on this lengthy ride, he would be bored to death.

It was not just him who was curious about what’s above him, but also netizens from all over the world who watched the space elevator’s first passage on Celestrial Trade’s official site. People commented to vent their shock and offered sincere praise to Celestial Trade.

Just as William was looking out the window in boredom and waiting for the time to pass, he suddenly saw a bright spot of a tail in the dark and deep space.

A meteor?

Outside the atmosphere?

No way!

He blinked and confirmed that he didn’t make a mistake. There was no reference in space, and he couldn’t judge how far the bright spot was from him. However, standing in his position, the stretched light was so distinct in the dark universe.

“What is that?”

He muttered to himself, took out his phone, and captured a photo of the mysterious meteor.

Chapter 939: Framework For Cooperation

Choose other engineering companies?

This euphemistic refusal left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Although it was not shown on his face, the representatives from Hua and Russia were relieved. They were most worried about Celestial Trade being unable to withstand the pressure. They didn’t mind that a neutral small country owned a space elevator, but they couldn’t accept their competitor possessing one.

The best solution was for Xin to possess the sovereignty of this space elevator, and for all the other countries to share outer space.

The rejected President of Ecuador did not have a pleasant expression on his face, but he also did not say anything more. He nodded and then sat back down. NASA Director Bolden looked calm as he already expected the rejection. After all, the monopolistic market always made more money than a competitive one.

At least until the emergence of a second company that could master the technology of space elevators, it was impossible for Celestial Trade to accept orders for space elevator construction from other countries.

The discussion continued, and the issues discussed next were simple and straightforward, mainly on how countries should cooperate in the space elevator projects.

The Director of the European Space Agency, John Werner, stood up and glanced at the representatives and began to deliver his remark.

“Space has no boundaries. Everyone should contribute to the collective mankind. Although the space elevator is built by Celestial Trade, the outer space belongs to all of mankind, and the space elevator should be shared by all of mankind…”

When John said this, the expression on Jiang Chen turned into a sneer.

It was so obvious what he was going to say next.

“… So, here, I propose,” John Werner did not look at Jiang Chen, but looked up at the representative of the France and German Space Agency, and then shamelessly read out his proposal, “The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to evaluate the cost of space elevators. Countries will jointly pay for the construction of the space elevator to Celestial Trade, and buy the space elevator in the name of the United Nations, which will be jointly managed by the international community.”

John Werner’s speech ended. There seemed to have been an agreement made prior as a round of applause sounded. Immediately afterwards, representatives from the European countries rose to speak and expressed their support for the proposal of the Director of ESA.

“The representative of France seconds.”

“The representative of Germany seconds.”

“The representative of Italy seconds.”

“…”

Listening to the overwhelming support, a smile emerged on Werner’s face. Before the start of the summit, they all agreed to pressure Celestial Trade. So many countries have seconded the same proposal at the summit. Even if Celestial Trade wanted to refuse, they must weigh the diplomatic risks brought on by the rejection.

Although Bolden, who represented the UA, did not express his position, he turned his eyes to Jiang Chen.

So many countries seconded the proposal. How will you deal with this?

Suddenly, at this moment, a different voice echoed.

“The representative of Hua, votes against.”

Everyone, including the Director of the European Space Agency and Bolden, was stunned and looked at the seats of the Hua delegation.

“The space elevator is built within the territorial region of Xin and should be owned by Xin. The position of the Hua is consistent. We oppose any country interfering in the internal affairs of the third country in any form.” The middle-aged man with black hair glanced at the seats of the European representatives and said word by word, “Hua recognizes the legitimacy of the Xin’s space elevator. Hua is willing to respect the territory of Xin and cooperate with Xin.”

The summit was quiet, not a single person spoke.

Jiang Chen opened his mouth and was about to say something. At this time, the Russian representative stood up and concisely said.

“The representative of Russia seconds this view.” After a pause, the man with a Slavic face said. “Agreeing with Hua’s perspective.”

There were already two permanent members that recognized the legality of the space elevator. Even if there were more voices opposing this, it wouldn’t change this fact. Jiang Chen expressed his gratitude by nodding to the representatives of Hua and Russia.

Although he did not think ESA could influence him with this little trick, regardless of how many countries seconded this proposal, it wouldn’t make him change his opinion. However, the representatives of Hua and Russia expressing their support indeed helped him solve this trouble.

Jiang Chen looked at Zhang Yaping and signaled him to request for permission to speak.

After receiving permission, Jiang Chen stood up again and glanced at the ESA director with a stiff expression and then spoke to the representatives of the countries at the summit.

“Celestial Trade welcomes companies from all over the world to participate in the development of space resources. But what I want to say again is that we will never accept any unreasonable proposals. I hope some people will think with their brain before speaking.”

Upon hearing this, John’s face instantly turned gloomy and he clinched his fists under the table. The representatives of France and Germany, who had previously seconded the proposal, were sitting there with an unpleasant expression. Obviously, they were quite displeased with Jiang Chen’s statement.

However, would Jiang Chen care about them?

When there is only one store in the market, the position of buyers and sellers is no longer “customers are Gods”, but “If you don’t want to buy it, I will sell to other people.”

There was only one space elevator now, even if the EU countries were reluctant, they would still have to swallow this fact.

Unless they were willing to be left behind by the world…

“After some internal discussion at Celestial Trade, we have two proposals for the space elevator.”

“Celestial Trading is willing to provide satellite launch, cargo transportation and other services at reasonable prices. We assure you that with the use of the innovative track transportation technology, our transportation price is less than one percent of the market price.”

“In addition, we will build a giant space station on the same track that is larger than Penglai City. The circular counterweight that maintains the center of gravity of the space elevator is the living area. And the centrifugal force that is generated by its rotation will provide gravity. Considering the needs of various countries, Celestial Trading is willing to provide long-term leases of living areas, industrial areas, ports and other facilities to countries in the form of leasing while retaining sovereignty.”

“This is the framework for cooperation of the space elevator. As for the specific details of cooperation with all parties, we can have more in-depth discussions at a later date.”

Jiang Chen ended his speech.

He noticed that after he identified this so-called cooperation framework, representatives of many countries were eager to propose objections.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t intend to waste time with them.

After whispering with Zhang Yaping, Jiang Chen got up and left the venue of the summit before they requested permission to speak. He was present as an advisor to Zhang Yaping and did not posses any formal diplomatic status. His absence didn’t have any impact on the progress of the summit, but it certainly would reduce the weight of this summit.

But who cares?

Using this UN Outer Space Summit, he already communicated to all countries the cooperation framework developed by Celestial Trade. As far as results were concerned, the significance of his participation in the summit were already achieved. In this case, there was no point in continuing to stay.

Of course, there would be a number of countries that disagreed with the framework proposed by Celestial Trade, a number that is not small as after all, space mining was more like an unrealistic dream. Even the lunar colony of Celestial Trade that has been established for half a year did not claim that it had made a profit on the lunar project.

But Jiang Chen didn’t mind.

The rules were already placed here, and the people who were willing to accept would share in the profits together, and those unwilling could just sneer and scoff. Even if no one took his framework seriously, Celestial Trade could absolutely play single player mode in space.

Just the development process would be somewhat slower.

However, he was very clear that it wouldn’t take long before the profit of the space elevator would make the indifferent people today crazy tomorrow. And the seemingly unacceptable conditions he put forward would no longer be out of discussion with absolute interests.

Bolden stared blankly at Jiang Chen’s back as he departed. He opened his mouth and wanted to speak, but eventually closed it. There were some things he couldn’t make a decision on alone. He decided to wait for the meeting to make a request to the Capitol before making a decision.

Several representatives of the Hua side exchanged their opinions quietly in a serious manner, and other representatives of countries interested in space elevators were more or less the same.

The summit continued…

Chapter 940: Space-themed Hotel

The entire summit lasted two days, while Jiang Chen spent a full week in Canberra. Half of a day was spent in the summit, four days were spent in business meetings, and two days were spent with Ayesha, touring Canberra and experiencing the Australian culture.

However, there was nothing to visit during this time. Many shops in Canberra were tempoarliy closed due to this high-level summit.

The result of the summit was surprising. In some sense, even Jiang Chen didn’t expect this level of success. Originally, he thought that when such a demanding cooperation framework without even any profitability discussion was proposed, not many people would work with him, but it was not the case.

The first country to express their willingness to cooperate was Moro. After all, the state was Xin’s number one supporter. However, Jiang Chen was very skeptical if Santos even knew what the space elevator was. In addition, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand, Madagascar and some small African countries accepted the cooperation framework proposed by Celestial Trade.

After a period of discussion, Hua and Russia also expressed their willingness to join the cooperation framework.

The representative of Hua proposed to establish a microgravity laboratory for the Institute of Mechanics of the Hua Academy of Sciences for 51 national research projects including two-phase flow, microgravity combustion, vapor phase epitaxy, metal alloy nucleation, and supercooling. The offer was a research fund of 1.57 billion Xin New Dollars.

The conditions for building a microgravity laboratory on the ground were quite difficult, and the UA had been trying to obstruct Hua’s participation in the International Space Station project, making the microgravity experiment only possible on the ground. After all, the cost of maintaining a large space station alone was too expensive.

To simulate the gravity-free environment in the experiment, Hua’s solution was to design a tall tower that simulated the microgravity environment through free fall. In the National Microgravity Laboratory established in 1995, the design of the 100-meter drop tower, in which the microgravity time of the landing system was 3.5 seconds, and the microgravity time of the drop tube system was 3.26 seconds. Both parameters were already considered topnotch in the world.

This achievement was worth being proud of, but it was also very helpless, because they were forced to adapt and innovate.

After the summit, the first thing that the Hua representative told Jiang Chen was to set up a microgravity laboratory in Celestial City and offered a quote of 1.07 billion. Converted into Hua’s local currency, it was a huge sum of more than 7 billion. But compared to the tens of billions of huge costs of building a space station alone, and the unimaginable maintenance costs, the figure was nothing.

Since Hua was the first country to work with Celestial Trade, the microgravity laboratory cooperation document signed with Hua became the blueprint for negotiations with other parties.

Subsequently, Russia also reached an agreement with Celestial Trade to invest 950 million to build a relatively small microgravity laboratory in the gravity-free section of Celestial City, which replaced the original Russian area expansion on the International Space Station.

However, the majority of the income didn’t come from this, it was the private companies that made Jiang Chen his fortune.

Formerly, space was still an unattainable dream for ordinary people. If it was not a rich man, only people who signed SpaceX’s Mars Program to board the one-way spacecraft could achieve their space dream.

But now was the turning point.

Celestial Trade announced the fare of the space elevator on its official website. The base price of the adult fare before tax was only 1,500 Xin New Dollars! It was even cheaper than most of the international flights during busy season!

It was absurd!

As if overnight, the space travel only the rich could afford suddenly became an international tour that even ordinary people could participate in.

After SpaceX, the second company that came to see Jiang Chen was not a space exploration company. The business it operated was not related to aerospace, but related to the services industry.

It was the famous Hilton Group. As early as the development of Xin’s tourism project, the two sides already established a good relationship. Now, Hilton was aiming at the tourism prospects brought on by the space elevator.

The moment the summit ended, Hilton Group President Christopher Nasseta requested a meeting with Jiang Chen and proposed an invitation for cooperation.

“Mr. Jiang Chen, we are quite optimistic about the prospects of the space elevator. We have studied all related information on the space elevator published by you. We hope to be able to purchase a total area of 24,000-30,000 square meters in the gravity-free section, low gravity section and surface gravity section of the city to establish space-themed hotels.”

The cost of a space station was expensive largely because of the high cost of shipping. After the completion of the space elevator, the price of orbit construction would fall substantially. Take the 50 billion US Dollars International Space Station as an example. If Celestial Trade wanted to build an identical one, the cost may be less than one percent of the budget. If the same living area were to be to be expanded on Celestial City, the cost could even be compressed to 100 million US Dollars.

Celestial City was located on the synchronous orbit, and the proposed area was much larger than Penglai City. If it were a year ago and the Hilton Hotel wanted to build a space-themed hotel with a living area of more than 10,000 square meters on the synchronous orbit, they wouldn’t be able to afford this even if they sold the group itself.

But now, with a mere cost of only 1.3 billion Xin New Dollars, they could complete the project.

However, before signing the contract, there was still a problem that required clarification.

It was the opinion of the UA government.

The Hilton Group was a UA company, but the UA had yet to make any statement on whether to accept the cooperation framework of Celestial Trade. Jiang Chen was not against the idea of the Hilton Hotel settling in Celestial City, but if the UA Department of Commerce decided to intervene, he was worried that the Hilton Group wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressure.

After listening to Jiang Chen’s concerns, Mr. Nasetta laughed and said nonchalantly, “Mr. Jiang is worrying too much, we are also a multinational corporation, even the Capitol can’t stop us from making money. We have a registered company on Coro Island that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hilton Group. The UA law can only go as far as Hawaii, and it will have no impact on our cooperation.”

After hearing this, Jiang Chen also laugh and extended his right hand.

“My pleasure.”

Mr. Nasetta grabbed Jiang Chen’s hand and shook with force.

“My honor!”

The date of the contract signing was set on the day before Jiang Chen returned to Xin.

Early in the morning, Nasetta brought his secretary to the door and sent the contract to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen already received an electronic version of the contract, passed it back to Celestial Trade Headquarters, and conducted a three-round review by a team of professional lawyers. After getting the paper contract, Jiang Chen just scanned through it. After confirming that the contract was the same, he took a pen and signed his name.

After the contract was signed, Christopher Nasetta invited Jiang Chen to have a meal with great enthusiasm. Jiang Chen also accepted his invitation.

Having just signed a multi-billion-dollar investment project, Nasetta was naturally enthusiastic. Favors were liked by everyone, especially for the decison-maker of a large group like him. What utlimately decided whether or not he could continue in his position, to a large extent, was no longer just his ability, but his connections.

A “super-premium customer” like Jiang Chen was naturally an individual he wished to connect with.

After the meal, Christopher Nasetta gave Jiang Chen a black diamond card.

According to Nasseta, the perks of this black diamond card were more than a regular diamond card, and the card itself had never been released to the general public. Only the important customers of the Hilton Hotel received one. Customers with this black diamond card could enjoy the treatment of the presidential suite directly at the counter at any Hilton hotel in the world. Even if there was no room available, they would find a way to arrange it for you. As for everything else, all services were complimentary.

Jiang Chen accepted the black diamond card and then bid farewell before returning to the hotel he stayed at.

After taking a shower, Jiang Chen laid on the bed and began to browse through the holographic screen of his watch.

He was returning to Xin tomorrow.

Just when he began yawning and was prepared to go to bed early, a video that broke the number of views in a week caught his attention. The video was uploaded a week ago, and the time matched the first train ceremony of the space elevator passenger track…

Chapter 941: The Spotted Asteroid

William James was shocked.

He didn’t even think the 20-second video he took, uploaded to YouTube, then posted to his Twitter would create an Internet storm

He wasn’t a social media influencer and no more than one hundred people on Twitter followed him. Most of them were his real friends with the rest of his following consisting of strangers. He didn’t expect that just two hours after uploading the video, the video would become viral and easily broke the 100,000 mark, rapidly moving towards the 500,000 views.

Happiness came too suddenly and too inexplicably.

William didn’t realize what was going on and just watched his Twitter followings skyrocketing.

Two hours ago, he saw a meteor outside the window of the space elevator.

That’s right, it was a meteor!

Meteors were formed after friction with the atmosphere of the asteroid. There was no air in the universe, and naturally, it was impossible to form a gorgeous, flaming tail. He was convinced he didn’t make a mistake, and that the bright spot had a flaming tail! In a dark universe, it was so bright and visible!

Unlike most civil airliners, when the altitude exceeded 100 kilometers, the space elevator could access the network through the quantum communication satellites of Celestial Trade and the network speed would still be quite fast.

Clicking on the video he uploaded, he opened the comment page, and after watching the 20-second video, the netizens left their own amazed comments.

“God! What did I see? There are meteors in outer space? Isn’t this a scene that is only visible in the atmosphere?”

“There’s nothing to see. I’m a professional pornography examiner. I have to watch thousands of videos every day. I can confidently say this video is photoshopped! There are too many unreasonable scenes; there are so many that I don’t know where to start.”

“To the comment above, you’re not a professional pornography examiner! I perform video verification for the courts. From a professional point of view, this video doesn’t have any synthetic components at all. In addition, photoshop is an image processing software. Read more books before you speak online.”

“The comment above is amazing!”

William looked at the line of comments on his phone.

He didn’t expect that the video he uploaded would create such heated discussions.

“The name of the video uploader’s Twitter is William James. I saw it on the official website of Celestial Trade. The name of this person is included on the list of foreign guests participating in the first train ceremony! This video should be real, but how can they access the internet on the space elevator?”

“Are you dumb? There’s internet connection in all areas covered by the quantum communication satellite. There’s free Wi-Fi in any place in Xin, yet you’re asking how can they access the internet?”

He was dumbfounded by this. Just as he was preparing to post something on his Twitter, the elevator crew made an announcement.

“This Ch-001 train is about to arrive. In the train deceleration phase, the carriage will experience upward gravity. To avoid accidents, please return to your seats and fasten your seat belt. The current speed is 2.1 kilometer per second. The deceleration time is…”

The angular velocity was constant, and as the altitude increased, the linear velocity of the elevator itself naturally increased. The macroscopic performance was that the farther away from Earth, the more obvious the sense of weightlessness in the elevator felt. When the elevator arrived at the synchronous orbit, the speed of the passengers and the elevator would also reach the synchronous orbit rotating speed, at which time the elevator would reach complete weightlessness.

At the end of deceleration, the passengers would follow the inertia upward, and the gravity parameter in the compartment would become a negative number. The ceiling and floor might be reversed. Therefore, the crew warmly reminded the passengers to return to their seats before entering the deceleration phase and fasten their seat belts.

William looked at his unedited Twitter post on his phone and sighed helplessly. He stuffed the phone back into his pocket and returned to his seat. He made up his mind that by the time he arrived to the final destination, Celestial City, he would reply to all the curious comments.

…

Jiang Chen also saw the video, although it was already a week after. The popularity of the video even challenged the large-scale documentary “Space Elevator Travel” launched by Celestial Trade and BBC!

Humans had a natural tendency to gossip.

Some people speculated that it was an alien spaceship, and some people speculated it was a burning asteroid, and even more weird netizens commented it was someone breaking the realm of the world.

However, Jiang Chen, who was lying in bed, read the true identity of the “unidentified flying object” at first glance. It was the Bennu asteroid captured by Celestial Trade?

A few days ago, the technical team led by Kelvin dragged it into the Earth and Moon system, and they were making the final minor adjustments to make the asteroiod as close as possible to Earth.

The closer to Earth it was, the lower the mining cost. But what Jiang Chen didn’t think about was that the rocket hanging in front of this asteroid could be seen so clearly from the synchronous orbit!

Jiang Chen’s sleepiness suddenly disappeared as he jerked up from bed, and changed to a more comfortable posture to lean on the pillows.

His fingers swiped over the holographic screen and entered keywords with his voice, them he began to concentrate on the related news.

In less than two minutes, he found what he was looking for.

As early as the second day the video was uploaded, the Capitol received a petition to investigate the “meteor in space”. In just five days, the number of signatures on the petition broke 100,000. According to regulations, once the number of signatures reached 100,000, the Capitol must respond.

The Capitol’s approach was also very simple. They tasked the duty to Bolden, who had just returned from Canberra, and they handed over the investigation to NASA. NASA also lived up to their expectations. After two days of investigation, NASA Director Bolden clarified the matter through the official website of the Capitol.

It had nothing to do with an extraterrestrial civilization like the Martians—it was an asteroid. It was an asteroid with quite a name. Its name was Bennu, and the scientific prediction was that it would collide with the Earth at the end of the 22nd century.

On the top of the asteroid was a “net” made out of special materials, which was connected by eight rocket engines in the front. The mystery was revealed, and the elongated light wasn’t the “tail” of the asteroid, but the flickering tail of rockets flying in front of the asteroid.

The mystery was revealed and the Bennu asteroid was pulled into the Earth and Moon system from its original orbit. And all this turned out to be artificial. It blew the minds of NASA’s experts and they also felt nervous for Mother Earth.

According to the data observed by NASA, Bennu rotated the Sun at a speed of 63,000 miles per hour, which was not slow compared to the Earth’s revolution. A collision with Earth would be equivalent to detonating three billion tons of explosives!

It was no match for the asteroid that made the dinosaurs extinct, but it was certainly a big thing for mankind.

Jiang Chen went onto the official website of the Capitol and glanced at the time when NASA published the report. The time was exactly five o’clock that afternoon. At that time, he had just signed a contract with the president of the Hilton Hotel, and the two went to a hotel owned by Hilton to have a meal.

“No wonder I didn’t receive any news at all. This is really a coincidence,” Jiang Chen muttered to himself while beginning to deliberate.

He didn’t file the plan to the United Nations to capture the small asteroid because in his view, there was absolutely no need for it. The fact was that if he actually did file it, he would be asking for trouble. Apart from causing unnecessary panic, there would be no benefit at all.

Now, this asteroid caught the attention of the UA, or rather, caught the attention of the whole world. Although there was no direct evidence that the eight rocket engines were masterpieces of Celestial Trade, which other company in the world could do something this outrageous?

It took everything SpaceX had to send a detector to the asteroid to take a rock sample.

Either the aliens made a joke with Earth or Celestial Trade was joking with all humans.

Thinking of this, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but pinch his brows.

What to do now?

Chapter 942: Is this really just a Space Station?

“Is this Celestial City?”

The universe was cold, but standing there, Zhang Feng with short sleeves only felt the coolness like an air-conditioned room. With his foot stepping on the solid metal floor, he was surprised to feel gravity similar to Earth here.

This should be the gravity section of Celestial City, which was the “balance hammer”-part of Celestial City.

Standing around him, except for the man named William who was playing with his phone, everyone went to the transparent floor-to-ceiling window and examined the beauty of Mother Earth.

“This five-hour journey took a century.” Rudolf Clarke reached out and gently stroked the reflection of the Earth on the window, opening the wooden box he had been holding on his chest. It was his grandfather’s photo inside.

The old man who had predicted this day with his imagination.

Although everything was late by almost twenty years…

“Can I throw it into space?” Rudolf found a guide who was waiting for them at the exit of the space elevator, he asked with a sincere but serious expression, “It was my grandfather’s last wish.”

The young guide shook his head and rejected Mr. Rudolf’s request.

“No.”

Any space debris that left the space station would become a potential safety hazard, and in the future, it may cost tens of billions to recover them.

“It’s just a photo.”

Rudolf tried to convince the tour guide, but the tour guide still shook his head and rejected his request.

“Photos flying at 3.1 kilometers per second are no different from blades.”

And it was the kind of blade that could cut steel.

Although regrettable, Rudolf wasn’t a very unreasonable person. The tour guide nodded at him, thanking him for his understanding then he walked over to everyone, clapping his hands and indicating for everyone to look in his direction.

“Welcome, visitors to Celestial City Space Station. My name is Lu Fengming. I will be your guide for the day. If you encounter any problems during the tour, please be sure to consult me. I will do my best to provide assistance.”

“I don’t want to say too much more, so I wish you a pleasant trip.”

The guide’s concise opening remarks immediately won Zhang Feng’s goodwill. He wasn’t the type who talked much, and he naturally didn’t like people who spoke a lot.

The group followed Lu Fengming and walked into the space station.

“From the side, the entire space elevator is like a ‘Y’ plugged into the Earth, and the opening is like a ring. Now, we’re inside the ring, also known as the gravity section.”

“We can feel gravity, but in fact, it’s not gravity but pseudo-gravity generated by centrifugation. Yes, us, the floor under our feet, and the space we’re in are all rotating around the axis of the space elevator, rotating at a speed of several kilometers per second.”

“Thanks to this ring that opens outwards and rotates continuously, the center of gravity of the entire space elevator can stay in the synchronous orbit and we can feel gravity similar to what we would feel on Earth. We are now standing in this ring, facing the center of the circle.”

Having said that, Lu Fengming paused and thought for a moment, then said, “The specific principle is hard to explain. You can view us as a group of hamsters who are running on a running wheel nonstop,” Lu Fengming explained humorously and amused many travelers.

They all carried Future phones with a voice translator, and there was no communication barrier after wearing the headphones. Many people felt very strange because they weren’t floating. Now after listening to the tour guide’s explanation, although it was by no means scientific, they gained a rough understanding.

After listening to Lu Fengming’s words, Academician Liu Zhusheng looked up thoughtfully and looked down. His expression was relieved for a moment then excited for a bit. He sighed for some time, seemingly lost.

“It’s really worthy of being called a miracle… Is this really something humans can complete? To accelerate the entire star ring—what angular momentum is at the center of the shaft…? What metal can withstand the tremendous amount of mechanical force? Titanium alloy? Impossible… even titanium alloy couldn’t do it!”

Graphene? That was even more impossible.

Graphene was strong enough, but the commonality of carbon-based materials was that their anti-wear ability was generally poor. It would be impossible to make gears or axis.

Compared to Liu Zhusheng’s shock, Dimitri from ESA was completely numb. Unlike Liu Zhusheng, who specialized in the field of rockets, he was also very accomplished in space station research and even participated in the design of the International Space Station. In contrast to Liu Zhusheng, he was more deeply aware of the technological power engrained inside the giant space station.

If the International Space Station and Celestial City were placed side by side, the International Space Station built by multiple countries was more like a small boat in front of a harbor.

The group continued to move forward and walk down the corridor.

Here, the earth wasn’t at their feet but forever fixed outside the glass window on their side, like a vivid window flower.

“This is the corridor of Celestial City. We have residential rooms next to us. Below us is a rapid train that allows us to move quickly in this ring city. You can think of a subway in a city because it really is below our feet.”

The space inside the city was spacious without the illusion of walking on a pipe. They walked for about one kilometer and came to the front of a door. After some pressure adjustment, the door slowly opened, revealing an elevator.

The crowd stood in the elevator and the door closed.

As the floor jumped from one to three, they were like moles who were sneaking out to the surface, and their field of vision suddenly expanded.

Stepping over the porch, Zhang Feng looked up.

Through the transparent dome, he saw the space elevator with the background of the starry sky and the whole picture of the city.

Looking down at the front, the shocking color in his pupils became more and more intense.

It was a field of wheat.

Golden wheat moved like sea waves, bathed in a cold-colored UV light, and the circulating airflow slowly rose and fell. At the end of the wheat field was a field of verdant green, where other varieties of vegetables were grown.

He didn’t know how to use the word “endless,” because he really couldn’t see the end of the field. He could only see the green and blocks that connected the universe and city.

“People can live in the pipeline, but they can’t endure the small space forever. Eighty percent of the living space in the city is designed in the corridor we just passed. Every ten kilometers or so, we will design an inserted space station, which covers an area of about two thousand acres. It’s like a piece of paper stuck to a ring. We can farm in it, plant flowers and grass, build real estate, and manufacture light and heavy industries… We can do everything we can on Earth.”

“If you look at it, you might think this is advanced technology. No, no, no, it’s not as advanced as the corridor you passed through—not even one-tenth.”

“If necessary, we can continue to expand the space. If we don’t consider resources, we can even embed this kind of space station with no advantage other than the area around the ring.”

Lu Fengming again paused and added a sentence.

“Of course, when I said no advantage, I meant before it’s developed.”

Listening to the tour guide, Liu Zhusheng, who was listening carefully like a primary school student, twitched his eyes.

Is this really just a space station?

Chapter 943: Inestimable Value

Was this really just a space station?

It wasn’t just Liu Zhusheng who was shocked.

When the netizens around the world saw the video Celestial Trade released and the photos taken by the first passengers to the city, they were stunned by this magnificent space station.

In an aviation fan forum in Hua, a member reposted the pictures on Celestial Trade’s official website onto the forum. The entire forum then boiled and instantly filled up with countless discussions on this topic. The members who originally just lurked on the forum all engaged in heated discussion about the photos that looked like they were taken from movies.

“…My God, did I walk into Star Trek’s studio?”

“Star Trek’s studio? Are special effects and real-life comparable?!”

Other than pointless comments, some people discussed the pictures published by Celestial Trade from a technical perspective. For example, someone who claimed to be an expert in the relevant field jumped out and posted a somewhat technical piece.

“Using the ring as the counterweight, the counterweight operates around the axis at an extremely fast speed. The tension is applied to the cable-like track by centrifugation to ensure that the track is tight. The ‘balance hammer’ itself is used as a living space, using centrifugation to provide gravity… the person who proposed this design is a genius!”

Like this discussion post, when the number of clicks and replies reached to a certain point, naturally “industry experts” began to share their opinions. Apart from those new members, there was usually no shortage of technical experts actually in the aerospace field.

For example, a senior member named “Aerospace Private” not only had countless certification badges hanging under his ID, but it also stated he was working at Hua Aerospace Science and Industry Group! He was a member of the forum for quite some time. In an era when the space enthusiast forum was still discussing Microsoft’s “Freelancer”, he was already active on the forum.

“A genius made this design possible. Every time you transport materials to the space station, the position of the center of gravity will change. If the weight of the counterweight is increased to offset the speed of the cantilever, the amount of calculation involved will be an astronomical number. It’s estimated that even Tianhe No. 1 would have to calculate for half a day in order to obtain the optimized result!”

When the expert spoke, it immediately attracted countless attention.

“My God, then is the main control computer that controls the space elevator balance system even more powerful than Tianhe No. 1?”

“Aerospace Private” scoffed when he saw the countless amateur comments. As an avid fan of Future Technology, he replied with a few lines

“Is this difficult for them? You might not know, but the supercomputer chip used by Tianhe No. 2 is designed by Future Technology and manufactured by Future Heavy Industries. It’s known as Dragon Cavalry X1 supercomputer chip. Using new lix architecture, graphene material, and 7nm processing, even the industry leader Intel envied at this technological masterpiece!”

“I tell you every year the amount of patent fees Intel pays to Future Group is enough to buy several public companies!”

When he mentioned patent fees, Aerospace Private couldn’t stop his praise.

Since joining the WTO, when it came to the high-tech field, especially the electronics industry, Hua must pay tens of billions of patent fees to the electronic giants Intel and Qualcomm every year. Although he wasn’t in the semiconductor industry, he still felt proud.

What?

Future Group isn’t a Hua-based company?

Why does that matter?! It’s a company created in Hua, and it’s a company started by someone was born in Hua!

Of course, the technological details were always discussed by a small group of people, and most people focused on other, more explosive elements of the news. The news was posted on the official website along with pictures, drawing the attention of every viewer.

[Celestial City signed a contract with Hilton Hotel for a total area of 30,000 square meters to create the world’s first space-themed hotel.]

Earlier, Celestial Trade announced the fare of the space elevator on the official website. The pre-tax base price of an adult fare was only 1,500 Xin New Dollars! The economy class fare was even cheaper than some airfare!

People without money saw an opportunity to tour outer space, and people with money saw an opportunity for space tourism!

Hilton went all the way up to build up a hotel, so why can’t I go up and sell a biscuit?

Although Celestial Trade’s ticket sales had yet to open, everyone’s hearts had already flown to the beautiful Coro Island.

Almost all the famous and influential travelers were all astonished by the ridiculously cheap space tour. Many of them had already traveled the world, but none of them visited space before! When they heard Celestial Trade released ticket information, their passion to explore was immediately ignited.

The best course of action was to wait on Coro Island.

While countless people were planning to travel to Xin, something even crazier happened.

A certain popular figure in Hua commented and scoffed Southern Airlines, not because of the quality of service, but because the tickets were completely sold out!

“This is insane! I just went to Southern Airlines’ official website to look at tickets. All the tickets to Xin were sold out! Yes, they were all sold out! Even the first class. The innocent me thought I could buy a ticket. I didn’t expect the tickets for the next month to already be sold out!”

A stone cast a thousand ripples, and countless fans replied.

“Really? Why doesn’t Southern Airlines offer more flights?”

“Are you stupid?! There are only two airports on Coro Island in total. The third airport is still constructing its runway. There is a high demand here, so there is low demand everywhere else? It takes time to construct a runway! Plus, fights can’t be easily added.”

“Now it’s possible to go to Xin through a cruise. Fly to Xiangjiang or Wanghai or Guangdong or Guangxi, then take a cruise to Ange island. However, if not limited by finances, I recommend flying to Australia first before taking a cruise there, it will be faster.”

“…”

In addition to those well-known influencers, the 1,500 dollars space tour also became widespread among ordinary people. After reading some blogs, some “aspiring young women” inexplicably thought going to space would be a spiritual journey for the soul. (1)

However, the space elevator wasn’t a Sichuan-Tibet line, and they couldn’t hitch a ride from a “good-hearted person.”

So someone asked for help.

“Sisters, where are the lucky travel guides of Celestial Trade? This is very urgent.”

There was also a selfie attached.

In this age filled with good-hearted people, someone would help, naturally.

For example, a netizen with a wide range of ideas replied.

“You can buy a ticket to Xin first, then try to see if you can get a free ride from Mr. Jiang. If you can get on his limited-edition Lamborghini, he definitely won’t mind sending you to heaven.”

“…”

It wasn’t just the netizens around the world who were stunned, but also the governments that just participated in the United Nations Outer Space Summit. However, they didn’t show their shock through official channels, but they worked overtime to re-examine whether they underestimated the true value of the space elevator.

(1) This refers to the phenomenon of young women traveling to Tibet with a budget. They hitch a ride with people along the highway in exchange for sexual favors.

Chapter 944: Asteroid Mining Program

The busy runway didn’t affect Jiang Chen’s return from Canberra.

Busy runway?

At his level, even if a runway wasn’t available, Coro Island International Airport would find a way to construct one for him. In the worst case scenario, his private jet could land at New Moon Island’s military base.

That runway could even land AN-225, let alone a Gulfstream G650?

Back to Coro Island, it was the fifth day after the United Nations Outer Space Summit, and the successful first train of the space elevator was a week ago. In a few days, the passengers on Celestial City would return to the surface.

Nowadays, Celestial City was empty. Other than an experimental field that used some of the Garden of Eden’s technology, only a small area of living space was available that could fit around a thousand people. Only 30 of the astronauts who traveled to the space station would stay in the city.

The first thing Jiang Chen did after he got off the plane was to see Kelvin.

The asteroid capture project was completed, and eight rocket engines all stalled. They quietly rotated around an asteroid 500 meters in diameter in a circular orbit far from Earth.

Kelvin was in charge of preparing for the launch of the Dragon Spacecraft. It was the outsourced project from SpaceX for only two million XND. Compared to the earnings of the first two projects, it was negligible. The launching was quite simple. The robotic arm would lower the Dragon Spacecraft on the outer track of the space elevator, then the rest of the steps were all foolproof.

The launching task was given to his assistant so that Kelvin, who was already bone-skinny, could give himself a small vacation. He didn’t want to do anything other than sleeping on his private island he bought for 10 million. He wanted to catch up on all the sleep he lost last year.

However, after spending just two days of leisure time on the island, he was disturbed by Jiang Chen’s helicopter.

The helicopter’s rotors blew the sand away on the beach as Kelvin sat up from his beach chair. Seeing as it was Jiang Chen, his furrowed eyebrows instantly disappeared as he greeted Jiang Chen with a smile. The technology of Celestial Trade completely blew the mind of the scientist from Mississippi.

Who did he respect the most in the company? It was undoubtedly Jiang Chen. Even if their work relationship didn’t exist, Jiang Chen’s strategic foresight alone was worthy of his respect.

“President Jiang, what brought you here?”

“There’s a problem with the asteroid project. Have you read the news?” Gaining his footing on the beach, Jiang Chen was straightforward.

Kelvin took a moment to think, then shook his head.

“No, what happened?”

Like most companies, Celestial Trade certainly had a public relations department, and public opinion monitoring was its responsibility. Unfortunately, the asteroid capture project was a high-level secret within Celestial Trade. Apart from the relevant personnel, even the group’s top management didn’t know the space launch center executed a plan to capture the asteroid.

Until NASA’s observations came out that the Bennu asteroid was guided by eight rockets. The responsible people from public relations realized this matter might be related to their own company.

Jiang Chen briefly explained to Kelvin what happened and asked his opinion.

“They can see the ‘construction site’ on the space elevator? This is…” Kelvin had a speechless expression as he thought for a while, still unable to come up with a suitable word to describe this coincidence.

Celestial Trade didn’t use traditional chemical rocket engines as the propulsion device. They used an electric propulsion rocket engine named RM-400, modified by Jiang Lin, based on the RM-320 rocket engine.

Electric propulsion was using electric energy to generate thrust using electric field. The application of electric propulsion technology in the aerospace field actually appeared at the end of the twentieth century, but it was limited by insufficient thrust, so the technology was not widely applied. In the apocalypse, electric propulsion technology didn’t make a big breakthrough until the middle of the 21st century.

Among them, the plasma propulsion derived from electric propulsion technology was used in some engines of “Zhenghe (1)” Space Colonization Ship. The technical aspect was also very simple. It was nothing more than electrons in the ion body experiencing Hall effect under the action of the cross-vertical electric and magnetic fields, and the ions propelled out were used to form thrust to move the spacecraft forward.

However, this seemingly simple technology in the modern world remained in the conceptual phase. In the modern world, even Ad Astra Rocket Company, the company with the farthest progress in rocket engines, just used this concept as a way to draw investors.

The characteristic of this type of engine was that it didn’t form overly visible tail flames at the tail of the rocket.

This wasn’t to be underestimated as it was quite critical. This meant that with the naked eye, the spacecraft using this engine could only be observed at a certain angle or close enough distance. And if it was on the ground, in most cases, even if people did discover it, it would usually be treated as an ordinary star without drawing too much attention.

“Now, the outside world has speculated it’s Celestial Trade who dragged the asteroid into the Earth-Moon system. Because of the controversy created by a certain group, a wave of negative public opinion formed. The Celestial Trade didn’t drag a big mine into the Earth-Moon system, but an equivalent of three billion tons of explosives.”

“This has no scientific basis.” Kelvin facepalmed.

“Yes, but you can’t expect everyone to study physics and learn to think rationally.” Jiang Chen mocked.

The Bennu asteroid capture program was already successful, and even without considering the dozens of tons of explosives placed on the asteroid, there was no need to worry about any safety hazards.

As for why, it was easy to explain. Since “Bennu” was captured by the gravity of the Earth-Moon system, its relative speed with Earth as the reference point already dropped to less than ten kilometers per second. Even if it really crashed into Earth, the impact would be much smaller compared to before.

It was a headache.

After some discussion, Jiang Chen made a decision.

“The asteroid mining program will start right away, and we must change the public’s false impression that ‘our’ asteroid is not under our control.”

As long as the public could see that Celestial Trade not only possessed the ability to drag this trouble beside the Earth, but they also possessed the ability to solve the trouble, all negative opinion would fade away. The plan was completed as early as last year and only required some minor adjustments.

After arranging this task, Jiang Chen didn’t hold up Kelvin’s vacation any longer. He boarded the helicopter and flew away from the private island.

Looking at the beach hut covered with sand and mud, Kelvin twitched uncontrollably. If he knew, he would’ve built a tarmac.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally gave up the urge to clean himself and called the construction company. The company’s phone number was left for him when he bought the mansion. Its business scope wasn’t only renovations but also maintenance, cleaning and other value-added services.

But then, his plan for a vacation on this beautiful uninhabited island just went down the drain.

(1) Zhenghe – A Chinese mariner from the Ming Dynasty. Zheng commanded expeditionary treasure voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. According to legend, his larger ships carried hundreds of sailors on four decks and were almost twice as long as any wooden ship ever recorded. (Source: Wikipedia)

Chapter 945: Like A Movie

After the one-week visit, the group of international friends Celestial Trade invited started to return home.

The rectangular train moved from the edge of the celestial ring to the center track, then started its descend in the narrow elevator track. Almost at the same time, at the other end of the main axis, the blue electric arc flashed for a second and a black dotwas thrown into the vast universe…

“Phew.”

With a sigh of relief, the pilot moved his stiff fingers. His right thumb gently moved the joystick and turned off the breathing aid.

The feeling of electromagnetic acceleration was terrible. Although he was injected with the genetic vaccine that strengthened his body and he conducted anti-pressure training, without a breathing aid and decompression cockpit, the acceleration of 12G and the acceleration time of more than one minute could still squeeze out the last trace of air from his chest.

Liu Qingpeng moved his sore neck around, then opened the dial on the holographic helmet.

Half a year ago, he moved to Xin through the space volunteer immigration policy. Originally, he only planned to work for three years before transfering to become an electrician, but he didn’t expect to become an employee of Celestial Trade because of certain aspects of his talent, let alone that he would ultimately become a pilot of Stingray P-1.

The plan was executed half a month ahead of schedule, but it had no effect on him. Although it was his first mission, he was quite calm. After all, he lost track of the number of hours he flew in virtual reality. Now even with his eyes closed, he could pilot this spacecraft to Bennu asteroid.

There was no reference point in the universe. Even if he was moving away from the Earth at a speed of 7.2 kilometers per second, he couldn’t distinguish any change in the starry sky with the naked eye.

His finger pointed at the operation panel, Liu Qingpeng opened the voice control system.

“Open the task beacon.”

The side light of the helmet flickered, and an asteroid constructed by three-dimensional lines emerged in his field of vision. A line marking the word “Bennu” appeared on the upper part of the asteroid.

Then a yellowish path emerged in his vision, drawing a slightly curved arc from the cockpit of the Stingray P-1 to the position of the asteroid.

“Route is set.”

“Plasma engine output is 40%.”

“Move!”

In the dark universe, the tail of the Stingray P-1 formed faint blue light particle ripples, and the spacecraft soared away.

At the command center on the surface, a male and a female figure stood in front of a large screen. They watched the instant images returning from more than 400,000 kilometers away.

Outside the atmosphere, speed and distance were always just monotonous characters. If 400,000 kilometers was on Earth, it would be enough to circle the equator ten times. However, for the Stingray X-1 series spacecraft that cruised at a speed of 20 kilometers per second, the flight time was less than half of the duration of an international flight from Asia to North America.

After Jiang Chen learned that the first mining spacecraft set sail, he went to Space Launch Center.

Out of curiosity, Xia Shiyu also came along.

In the picture, Stingray P-1 that completed deceleration turned off the engine and slowly approached the asteroid that was intertwined by the graphene cable.

Stingray deployed the mining module like a water spider. A blue light blade formed in front of the two robotic arms. They weren’t laser knives but ion jets with temperatures up to tens of thousands of degrees. The highest temperature could poke a hole in steel with a single touch, and it could naturally cut through minerals.

The two ion jets interlaced together and cut two holes in the ore body easily. The other two robotic arms were like two pliers and attached to the outer shell of the asteroid. The two forearm tools changed, turning the ion jets into two alloy hammer-like props, and smashing along the cut.

The Stingray X-1 separated the ore chunk from the asteroid, and the entire operation stunned Xia Shiyu.

It was strange to see a stunned expression from her.

“It’s like producing a movie.” Xia Shiyu praised.

“And it’s a sci-fi blockbuster,” Jiang Chen added.

He had already seen the 3D simulation of Stingray P-1. Of course, he wasn’t as stunned as Xia Shiyu, who was now seeing such a futuristic mining method.

Xia Shiyu suddenly remembered something and looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled.

“Why don’t we move it to the synchronous orbit?”

Jiang Chen smiled and began to show off his aerospace knowledge that he acquired during the process.

“While the diameter of the asteroid is only 500 meters, it has a much higher mass. If it’s too close to Earth, gravity will drag it down. Of course, it’s not impossible to move it to the synchronous orbit. We just have to add a spiral arm as a counterweight, similar to the design of Celestial City, and it can hang in the sky.”

“But from the cost considerations, it is absolutely unnecessary.”

“The pulse engine used by Stingray is powered by nuclear fusion cells, and the fuel cost isn’t high. Except for the acceleration and deceleration phase, the aircraft that sets the route is only in inertial cruising for a long distance.”

“We just need to send the Stingray to the asteroid, cut the ore from its body, and pull it back through the cargo craft.”

Stingray P-1 was like a mosquito feasting on a piece of fat meat—it continuously peeled the ore from the asteroid and collected it into a foldable container. Waiting next to it was the cargo spacecraft independently developed by Celestial Trade. It used the RM-400 plasma propulsion engine. While the acceleration performance was inferior compared to the pulse engine, it was more suitable for large and medium-sized cargo spacecraft due to the high thrust.

After all, the cargo spacecraft didn’t need to perform anything highly maneuverable; it just needed to transport in straight lines.

Xia Shiyu glanced at Jiang Chen and her mouth formed a sweet curvature.

Unlike Ayesha, if she was asked when Jiang Chen was the most attractive, her answer would undoubtedly be when he was confident.

The relationship between the two was now much closer.

As promised last year, Jiang Chen selectively told Xia Shiyu about the apocalypse.

In fact, even he didn’t say anything, Xia Shiyu had already guessed something, but she just never made mention of it.

However, when she heard Jiang Chen narrating his story, she was quite surprised.

As Jiang Chen expected, the scenario in her mind was almost completely different from his actual situation. She originally thought Jiang Chen had transmigrated to a galaxy that entered the interstellar era, and the reason why he spared no effort in developing space technology was to help the Earth fight against an interstellar civilization…

And because of certain restrictions, he was forced to go back and stay for a while.

Women’s imaginations were certainly fascinating. Her creativity was enough to create a Hollywood blockbuster.

After a while, the minerals collected by Stingray P-1 already filled a container. Two mechanical arms clamped the hook of the cargo container, and Stingray P-1 carried the cargo container to the side of the cargo spacecraft, then slowly placed the cargo in the cargo compartment at the abdomen of the ship, and the mechanical arms removed a memory alloy plate from the cargo spacecraft.

Upon powering up, the memory alloy plate would unfold into a similar container.

The next step was to repeat the work.

Xia Shiyu still had something to deal with, so Jiang Chen left the launch center and boarded the yacht at the port. Just as he was preparing to return to Coro Island, a call from Presidential Palace rang on his watch.

As soon as the call was connected, Zhang Yaping immediately said, “We’re in trouble.”

Chapter 946: Not Just For Farming

The recent space elevator created a frenzy on the Internet, and thus, the Bennu asteroid didn’t draw much attention.

From Doomsday 2000 to the unremarkable Christmas in 2012, people were no longer bothered by the different end of world conspiracies.

Even if Jiang Chen stood in front of the media and told them there was an alien ship from the universe sailing to them 20.5 light years away for nearly a century, people would probably just smile and label the president richer than most countries with “humorous” and “love to joke.”

Because of this, while the criticism against Celestial Trade’s irresponsible actions was harsh, it wasn’t intense by any means.

However, this didn’t mean some countries would give up this point of attack or stop criticizing Celestial Trade on the “space hegemony.”

For example, the UA, their partner EU, and Latin American countries didn’t stop.

ESA first protested the “irresponsible” behavior of Xin and asked Xin to explain the incident at the United Nations General Assembly in September that year.

Hua only expressed a statement that it was paying close attention to the progress of the incident and believed Xin would properly handle the issue of the Bennu asteroid. Considering the recent cooperation with Celestial Trade on the microgravity laboratory project, the diplomatic language of Hua remained relatively peaceful. However, it expressed some dissatisfaction about pulling Bennu into the Earth-Moon system without the knowledge of the international community.

The stance of the UA was quite tough, requiring Xin to immediately produce evidence to prove the safety of Bennu asteroid, otherwise, NASA would begin to investigate plans to destroy the Bennu asteroid in outer space.

When Jiang Chen heard the word “trouble” from Zhang Yaping, he suddenly laughed and scoffed.

“Destroy? I’ll let them destroy it, but can they destroy it?”

The difficulty of landing on an asteroid would be much more difficult than landing on the Moon. It would be even more difficult to transport enough explosives to blast the asteroid. Jiang Chen certainly trusted that NASA had the strength to calculate the orbit of the asteroid and trusted that SpaceX had the ability to send explosives up there.

But!

Sending dozens of special explosives up and installing them properly? Just with the toothpick known as the Falcon 9? If UA allocated one-tenth of its military budget to SpaceX, gave them two years to come up with a plan, two years to implement the plan, he was confident they could probably blow Bennu up.

Anyway, his space elevator wouldn’t help transport explosives.

Jiang Chen’s reply to Zhang Yaping was also very simple.

“There’s only one way to resolve this—drag this on.”

“We already started the mining program ahead of schedule, and we will publish an edited asteroid mining video soon after.”

“They’re worried about being hit by the asteroid on the head? Then let them take a good look at the gap between indigenous and civilized people. When they see our ability to dissect the asteroid, they won’t be suspicious any longer.”

“I’ll have to go to Future Mining. That’s it from me.”

…

In the Capitol, William James in a Marine Corps uniform was led by a female secretary to the door of a conference room.

He had just returned from Coro Island, and as soon as he got off the plane, he was invited by his superiors there.

The female secretary nodded at him, pushed the door of the conference room for him then retreated to the side.

James said thank you and walked in the door. When he saw the people in the conference room, he was completely blownaway.

He definitely recognized NASA’s director Bolden. Sitting next to Bolden was the Head of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Anthony Cregan, a skinny-man with a hooked nose and freckles.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, also known as DARPA. There was another nickname for this remarkable department, known as “S.H.I.E.L.D.”

As for the two people sitting at the head of the table, they were even more powerful.

One was the current Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, and the other was President Hill.

Taking a deep breath, William James was preparing to salute to his immediate boss, but Mr. Carter didn’t plan to waste any time and immediately said, “Mr. James, we want to hear what you’ve seen in Celestial City.”

William James certainly wouldn’t refuse. The reason why the UA government sent the Marine Corps to go to the ceremony was to obtain intelligence.

The soldier nodded. After swallowing, he began to narrate.

“After about a five-hour voyage, we arrived at the space station located at the synchronous orbit, which is Celestial City.”

“It’s a bit slower than rockets.” Mr. Cregan lowered his voice and said to Hill, “Our Falcon Rockets would only take half an hour to complete the journey.”

SpaceX received technical support from the DARPA department when developing the Falcon series rockets, so the term “our Falcon Rocket” used by Cregan wasn’t wrong. But when he said that, Bolden glanced at him, said nothing, and moved his gaze away after two seconds.

Hill nodded and didn’t speak, but continued to focus on James, waiting for the soldier to continue.

“After arriving at the terminal, Celestial Trade sent a tour guide to take us inside Celestial City.”

“According to him, the entire city was a ring, and the ring was also the counterweight of the space elevator. There were subways, living units, and external space stations…”

William James paused, and there was a hint of fascination in his eyes.

“The most shocking thing was that they moved farmland to the space station.”

The high-level officials present all stared at each other. Only Cregan had a disdained look and began to play with his pen.

“There was also a planting unit on the International Space Station. This is nothing special. It’s nothing to be shocked about. We saw the pumpkins shipped back from the International Space Station a decade ago. Was there anything else besides this?”

Hill and Ashton also nodded.

Just planting vegetables in space wasn’t novel technology. As early as ten years ago, the UA had solved this problem in the laboratory. Fourteen years afterward, it approved the establishment of a space farm in the UA section of the International Space Station and successfully planted a variety of surface plants such as cabbages and carrots.

Compared with these insignificant technologies, they were more concerned about the potential value of Celestial City from a military and economic point of view.

Of all the people present, only Borden was indifferent. Returning from the Outer Space Summit, he clearly understood how ahead Celestial Trade was in space technology.

It wasn’t good to go against the boss, but William James felt it was necessary to remind everyone in the room, so he said in a quiet voice, “But they have an area of two thousand acres…”

The conference room was quiet, and even a needle falling on the ground could be heard.

The pen being spun already dropped on the notebook, and Cregan’s mouth opened slightly, closed, and opened again, like a robot.

Hill had no expression—she was expressionless—because she didn’t know how to express her shocked state.

Even Bolden’s expression changed drastically. Even though he was prepared, he was also stunned by Celestial Trade.

Is it easy to grow vegetables in space? It’s really simple.

But what about large-scale farming? These are two totally different concepts!

An external space station with an area of more than two thousand acres? Can this really be called a space station?

Seeing that as his own boss, the defense minister, didn’t have a pleasant expression, William James hesitated and whispered, “…should I continue?”

“Go on then,” Hill ordered.

Seeing Ashton nod, William James went on.

“Most of the space station is made up of open space. We only saw a single two-thousand-acres farmland.”

The people present there were relieved. It seemed this kind of astonishing technology might be difficult to manufacture. Even with the financial resources of Celestial Trade, they could only build one.

But then, William James’ next words made everyone’s moods that just improved slightly enter into a state of despair. Cregan’s chin, which had finally closed, dropped open again.

“I asked the tour guide why the open spaces weren’t all planted with wheat. He told me this type of external space station has many uses, not just farming. They’re going to build houses and build factories. Just because there are very few people currently in Celestial City, and there is no need to develop so many agricultural areas…”

Just then, William James’s speech was interrupted, and an assistant-looking man pushed the door open and rushed into the conference room.

With so many dissatisfied looks, he couldn’t be bothered at the moment. He took out his iPhone from his pocket and looked up at Hill in a dignified manner.

“What? Mr. Eric, don’t you know we’re in a meeting now?”

“Celestial Trade just made a new move! You asked me to follow them closely. Believe me, I definitely didn’t mean to interrupt the meeting. Please allow me to take up three minutes!”

The man named Eric clicked on his phone a few times then presented the phone to Hill.

It was a video, and it looked more similar to an edit from a sci-fi movie…

Hill frowned. Why did the assistant break into the conference room to show her this Hollywood movie? Ashton glanced at the video and didn’t take it seriously at first, but he seemed to have discovered something, and soon, his expression gradually became more interesting.

Bolden’s expression became blank as soon as he saw the panorama view of the asteroid.

For a while, his stiff facial muscles twitched, and he whispered, “This is the Bennu asteroid… The video doesn’t look like special effects.”

Hill, who was enjoying the video, shouted out as if she had just seen a ghost.

“That’s impossible!”

Chapter 947: There is no way to compare

“That’s impossible!”

With a critical attitude, Fred opened a video called “Asteroid Mining Record” on Celestial Trade’s website. His expression gradually turned from disdain to suspicion, then changed from disdain to shock. When he saw two robotic arms popping up two laser knives like light sabers, his heart suddenly sank.

Then there was the exclamation, “That’s impossible!”

The video continued.

The two laser knives interlaced, and two holes were created without any hindrance. Then the tool turned into a hammer, and the large ore was peeled off from the asteroid. The mechanical hammer smashed on the ore, and at the same time, it slammed on his heart. The technical capabilities of Future Mining completely shattered his doubts and disdain.

He was the editor-in-chief of the Nouveau York Times Technology Editorial. In recent years, he realized that readers seemed to be more and more keen on understanding what Future Group created compared to Apple and Microsoft’s product launches.

Since NASA’s announcement that Celestial Trade had dragged the Bennu asteroid to the Earth-Moon system, he already published dozens of articles in succession and continued to follow the story.

“Who gave the power to the madman on the other side of the Pacific Ocean to drag a three billion TNT-equivalent asteroid close to our home?”

“Technology must be limited; unconstrained technology will only accelerate our destruction! This time it’s three billion tons of explosives—what about next time? Ten billion tons? God can’t save us! We’ll become extinct like the dinosaurs after a hard landing of the asteroid!”

As the editor of the Technology Editorial, his comments seemed to be largely inappropriate. But as an editor who climbed up the ranks as a reporter, he knew what a journalist should say. The seriousness and rigor of the news? No, no, that was the old tradition of the last century. News without hype and sensation has no future!

Therefore, he chose to oppose mainstream society.

At the same time, he also believed he was obliged to stand up and remind the UA citizens who were blindly pursuing Future Technology. They must be sensible in dealing with the more and more arrogant man.

Because of his critical words and controversial speeches, he was even invited as a guest on famous talk shows and appeared on TV as the editor-in-chief.

On his computer, a document criticizing Celestial Trade dragging the asteroid to the Earth-Moon system was already edited, and it could be published after his return. In order to create this piece, he traveled almost to all the colleges and universities in the country. He even flew to Massachusetts to see astronomical experts who taught at Harvard University to prove that mining on the Bennu asteroid was impractical and dangerous.

He was very confident about this report.

Because a professor at Harvard University assured him that even the most advanced technology in the world could only bring back a few mineral samples from the Bennu asteroid at best. The ore transported back and forth from 400,000 kilometers away would have a fuel consummation cost several times higher than the value of the collected ores.

It turned out this professor had been in the laboratory for too long and couldn’t keep up with the times.

The video released by Celestial Trade slapped Fred’s face so hard that he became numb.

Impossible?

Celestial Trade told him with actual footage that impossible was nothing.

He speechlessly closed the video and rubbed his sore eyebrows.

“Fu*k, what have I done in the past half month…”

He devoted too much effort on this report. However, if it was published, it would be like putting his face forward and asking people to slap it again.

But if he just gave up…

In the end, he made a decision to abandon the report, but the moment he hit delete, he felt like his heart started to bleed.

…

Shangjing.

In the space technology laboratory of the National Science and Technology University, an old gray-haired professor was staring at the images on the computer screen meticulously. Standing behind him was an old man standing straight with a serious expression, and a middle-aged man with a square face.

The old man’s name was Liu Zhusheng, an academician of the Hua Academy of Sciences.

He had just returned from Coro Island. After two or three days of rest, the old leader came to see him and gave him a video file. The video was the operation video of the latest Stingray P-1. The country was very interested in the engine used by the Stingray P-1 and the “laser knife” used to cut the ore, so they came to see him as the most prestigious expert in the aerospace field. They hoped he could carefully look at it and see if he could gain some clues from the video.

After repeatedly watching the video a dozen times, Academician Liu sighed and closed the video after the twentieth time.

The middle-aged man standing behind him rushed to ask, “What do you think? Academician Liu, did you find out anything?”

Liu Zhusheng glanced at him, picked up the teacup, soothed his throat, and began to speak without hesitation.

“If my guesses aren’t wrong, their engine uses electric propulsion technology.”

The middle-aged man was slightly moved, he was about to say something, but Academician Liu slowly spoke before he get a word in.

“I know what you want to say—you want to say this is impossible. Electric rockets are less than an order of magnitude less powerful than chemical rockets in terms of thrust.”

“But I want to tell you now that the specific impulse of the electromagnetic propulsion system is much higher than that of the chemical fuel propulsion system. With the electromagnetic acceleration principle, it’s theoretically possible to obtain a velocity that’s one to two orders of magnitude higher than when using chemical fuel. I don’t know what future spacecraft will look like, but I’m sure that future spacecraft won’t be tied with fuel tanks, wasting a lot of valuable fuel on the fuel itself.”

“The impossible thing you want to say is just something that can’t be done with our technology.”

Academician Liu’s words made the middle-aged man speechless.

As the head of the Hua Aerospace Science and Technology Group, only the old man who designed the Shenzhou-series rockets dared to talk to him like this, and he couldn’t argue back. Although his administrative level was much higher than his, on the importance of this country, ten of him wasn’t comparable to an academician with real knowledge.

The old man who had been standing there without saying a word slowly spoke.

“What about the laser knife that can cut minerals?”

“That’s not a laser knife.” Academician Liu shook his head. “Although it’s not something in my field, I know a little about it. That’s probably ion jet technology. By jetting high-temperature ions, even a piece of depleted uranium steel placed there could be cut into pieces, not to mention ores.”

The old man’s expression changed, and the middle-aged man’s shock was even more obvious.

This meant that even with a tank, the ion jet knife could easily penetrate it like a piece of paper.

Hiding his shocked state, the old man asked, “With Stingray P-1 as an example, how big is the gap in electric propulsion and ion jet technology? Is there any possibility of replication?”

Liu Zhusheng shook his head.

“Our starting point in the aerospace field is too low. Compared with UA and Russia, we still have a big gap. If we directly compare to Celestial Trade… To be honest, we’re simply no match.”

There is no way to compare…

The middle-aged man had a bitter smile.

Although he didn’t imagine that the Aerospace Science and Technology Group could develop a similar spaceship in his hand, Academician Liu’s answer still made him feel bitter.

Just then, the old man spoke again.

“Strengthen our cooperation with Celestial Trade, especially in the aerospace sector. Since the prospects for the development of outer space resources have been proven, we must not fall behind.” When the old man said this, he was looking at the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man understood and immediately nodded.

“I understand!”

Chapter 948: We Found Gold

It had been a while since the last time he saw Yang Yuan, but Yang Yuan did look a lot better compared to before.

On the one hand, it was expressed in his temperament. On the other hand, it showed through his skin color.

Although he was the CEO of the subsidiary, the nature of his work and his persistence for knowledge made it impossible for him to stay in the office as a white-collar worker. Instead, he often traveled between the mining areas in MLL and Madagascar. For this reason, his skin color was much darker than before.

His ex-girlfriend Su Fei did impact him dramatically, but now, he wasn’t crushed by her. Instead, he came back stronger and reached new heights in his career and abilities.

The old friends met, and after some small talk, Yang Yuan didn’t waste time as he immediately turned around and took a stack of reports to discuss work.

“The results of the analysis on the ore samples have come out.”

“The results are quite amazing! In addition to iron and siliceous, we also discovered a surprisingly large amount of titanium in the asteroid core! And the quality is astonishingly high!”

“We found a treasure! Mining and refining must be done by our department. We have the equipment and technology! The specific data is here—you should see it yourself!”

Yang Yuan was ecstatic when he was explaining. He waved his fist in the air with excitement. Jiang Chen could clearly feel that his current mood was even more excited than when Jiang Chen handed over the exclusive mining rights of MLL Island minerals to him.

“Rest assured. All the mining-related projects are yours.”

Jiang Chen smiled and took the report from his hand. He looked at it and he was even more astonished when he actually read through the data.

The first section was an overview of the Bennu asteroid. Some of the data were measured by Space Launch Center. The asteroid had a diameter of about 500 meters and a volume of about 36.8 million cubic meters. The average density determined by spectroscopy was about 4.5 times that of water, which was 4.5 tons per cubic meter. The mass of the asteriod reached an astounding 165 million tons.

He turned to the most critical part, the mineral reserves.

According to the verification done by Future Mining based on the ore samples, there were more than 40 million tons of asteroid iron ore reserves, and the ore grade was an astonishing 80%(1)!

It was an impossible-to-reach number on Earth because it meant it must exist as pure iron! It was impossible to form this mineral in an oxidizing environment. Almost all iron in the Earth’s crust existed in nature in the form of oxides.

But space was different.

The 40 million tons of iron ore would allow for the refining of more than 30 million tons of steel at an ultra-low smelting cost. Not only would it be enough to maintain the industrial parks in Ange and New Malaysia Special District for several years, but they could also export to international markets on a large scale to earn foreign exchange!

Although the value of iron ore was high, it still paled in comparison to the titanium ore in the core.

High-performance titanium alloys and titanium-based composite materials had a high specific strength, high corrosion resistance, high durability and low weight, which were unmatched by other metals. However, there weren’t many titanium mines held by Celestial Trade. Except for the debris recovered from the apocalypse, most of the external structures of Celestial Trade used high-strength aluminum alloys.

It was common knowledge that titanium ore still had a rich reserve. It was considered a rare metal rather than a precious metal, but titanium alloys were quite rare. There were two main difficulties that hindered the development of titanium alloy technology. One was the smelting of titanium alloys while the other was the processing of titanium alloys.

The first was smelting. Aside from the number of complicated processing steps, since titanium was chemically active at high temperatures, after titanium ores were processed into titanium sponge, it must be smelted once or twice through cacuum arc remelting (2) to produce high purity titanium ingots!

Because of the complicated production steps, the cost was naturally high.

It was precisely because of this that the price of titanium ore differed drastically based on purity. Fewer impurities meant less difficulty in the refining process, and too many impurities meant little to no processing value. However, in general, the price of titanium ore remained constant around 1,000 RMB. As for the price of titanium ingots, the price was exponential.

The other problem was processing. Titanium ingots alone were useless; it was even more difficult to process titanium ingots into pipes, plates, screws, bearings, and even aerospace engines.

Up till now, only the UA and Russia possessed acceptable titanium welding technology. Due to Russia’s good welding technology and the high titanium ore reserves in Siberia, they even built several nuclear submarines with titanium alloys – known as the fabled Alpha Attack Nuclear Submarine that remained controversial from construction to service. This particular submarine was unafraid of magnetic mines and possessed a horsepower that could even catch the MK-48 torpedo.

Because the cost of titanium alloy production and processing was extremely high, some people called it a “goldfish.”

Only the Cold War could give birth to this absurd and powerful weapon.

But now, with close to 30 million tons of high-grade titanium ore, Jiang Chen now had the chance to “splurge.” The reserve was more than enough to change the aluminum alloy of the entire space elevator into titanium alloy, let alone constructing submarines made of titanium alloy casing!

The titanium ore found on the Bennu asteroid wasn’t only rich in reserves, it was also high grade. There was even pure titanium found in the ore sample! The cost of smelting would also be much cheaper than producing titanium ore in any titanium mine on the planet. The ore produced from the mines in the Siberian cold regions were incomparable!

Just for the sake of the 30 million tons of high-grade titanium ore, Jiang Chen must firmly hold onto the asteroid.

“The smelting of the ore will be up to you. The second electric Stingray P-1 will be completed by Future Heavy Industries very soon and delivered to Celestial City’s port by next month. You will have to train qualified pilots as soon as possible. The production of the Bennu asteroid must be ramped up, especially the titanium ore, which is very important for our space colonization plan!” Jiang Chen handed the report back to Yang Yuan and ordered a series of tasks.

Yang Yuan grinned and confidently assured Jiang Chen: “You can rest assured. Space mining is the strategic direction of Future Mining! Several mining experts in our company have been training on the astronaut training base on Ange Island for almost half a year. It won’t take long before they can obtain Stingray P-1’s driving qualification certificate.”

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded.

The Stingray P-1 currently working on the Bennu asteroid was owned by Future Mining, but the pilot was rented from Celestial Trade. The pilot mainly trained for the A-1 attack type and the C-1 transport type. It was inefficient to let someone driving a tank to operate a mining vehicle.

Today, he came to Future Mining headquarters for two tasks, and now that he finished one, there was one more.

“There’s still something else I have to ask you.”

“The external ore processing unit that completed design some time ago—is it ready?”

(1) Overall, the quality of iron ore is mainly judged based on the Fe (Iron) content. More specifically, ores with Fe contents above 65% are regarded as high-grade ores. (Source: AJB Muwanguzi, ‎2012)

(2) Vacuum arc remelting (VAR) is a secondary melting process for production of metal ingots with elevated chemical and mechanical homogeneity for highly demanding applications. Certain metals and alloys, such as Ti, cannot be melted in open air furnaces. (Source: Wikipedia)

Chapter 949: Ore Processing Unit

There were many advantages to refining in space, especially for minerals mined from space. Transporting the unprocessed ore to the surface through the space elevator meant transporting the useless slag back. The price of untreated ore wasn’t high in itself, and including the transportation cost of the space elevator, it would be difficult to be price competitive in the international market.

Although the cost of transporting through the space elevator was low, it was still a cost.

Future Mining owned a smeltery for the process of treating ores, and there was no need to profit from selling unprocessed ore. Only processing ore into finished steel products could maximize profits.

What’s more, there was no need to worry about pollution in space. The non-toxic waste slag would be burned directly by being tossed into the atmosphere, which would be much more environmentally friendly compared to the garbage disposal stations that destroyed the molecular structure of materials at ultra-high temperatures. The toxic waste would be compacted into containers then tossed to Mercury with a rocket.

In addition, the vacuum environment would make it extremely easy to smelt alloys such as titanium alloys that were chemically active at high temperatures, far more easily than at surface conditions.

Therefore, Jiang Chen provided Yang Yuan with the interface, specifications, and dimensions of Celestial City’s external space station last year, asking him to delegate Future Mining’s research department to design an ore processing unit that could be attached to Celestial City.

Yang Yuan didn’t let down his hopes and soon took Jiang Chen to Future Mining’s lab.

In the center of the laboratory warehouse, there was a machine with a volume of about four large containers. People were like ants next to an eraser. The shape of the square was very similar to the movable complex common on construction sites, but it was magnified several magnitudes higher. Of course, it wasn’t a movable complex but an attachable module of the space station.

At one end of the space station, there was a protruding interface with dimensions of six by four meters, which could be connected to the outer rail of Celestial Trade as a channel for material and energy exchange. The ore fed into the space station through the freight passage would then be processed by special smelting equipment to produce the finished ingot.

On the side of the space station module, was printed the logo of Future Heavy Industries and Future Mining, as well as a symbol with “Fe” circled.

“This ore processing unit is a prototype we requested from Future Heavy Industries. The drawings were designed by us and made through 3D printing technology by them. It can be used to smelt a variety of iron ores. The daily processing efficiency can reach up to 12,000 tons with an annual steel output of over three million tons!”

Yang Yuan was full of enthusiasm when he said that.

With a highly automated design, a workshop only required four workers to complete production. Using the electric smelting technology of the next era to replace the traditional steelmaking process, the recyclable carbon-fixing technology could maximize the utilization efficiency of each kilogram of coal and could produce hundreds of kinds of high-quality carbon steel, tool steel, and high-strength Grade A steel.

Combining the core technology of Future Mining, this ore processing unit tailored for outer space steelmaking was at least 20 years ahead of the world in automated steelmaking. It was no exaggeration to describe this as the jewel of Future Mining!

“This prototype has passed performance tests in a vacuum environment. It can be put into service once it’s transported to Celestial City through the synchronous orbit!”

“At present, the titanium ore processing unit has completed the design phase, and the design drawings should be sent to Future Heavy Industries tomorrow. The prototype should be completed by the end of the month.”

After listening to Yang Yuan’s report, Jiang Chen only had one question. “How long will it take for mass production?”

Yang Yuan hesitated for a second but then gave a response.

“Before the end of the month, the iron ore processing unit production line can be completed. Future Heavy Industries can deliver ten of the units at the end of the month, and the remaining ten units in the middle of next month. With a total of 20 processing units, our annual output can reach more than 30 million tons!”

“As for the titanium ore unit, we have to wait for our drawings to be delivered and reviewed by the engineers from Future Heavy Industries before the design of the production line can start.”

…

“Mhmm, talk to you later.”

Ye Qinghua hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. His fingers tapped rhythmically on the armrests and he contemplated in silence.

Construction started for the microgravity laboratory borne of Hua and Celestial Trade’s collaboration. The top leader highly praised his efforts, but Ye Qinghua knew the 1.5 billion Xin New Dollars project wasn’t really his work.

He had been on Coro Island for half a month. He toured around the nine Xin islands and Penglai City. He felt like he entered a new world, as the more he walked around, the more shocked he became.

People drove pure electric vehicle with zero emissions, and the submarine express connected the fractured nine islands together. People of all skin colors lived together in harmony. There was certainly disagreement, however, under the supervision of police drones, few people resorted to violence.

Yes, the police drones they turned down after careful consideration achieved almost a zero crime rate in Xin’s major cities.

For Coro and Penglai City, the old man was most impressed that drones had become part of an integral culture of this country. They were the helpers of the police force. They replaced firemen in rushing into fires. They sent packages from the logistics center to buyers’ homes within one hour.

Efficiency was everything in the city, but efficiency didn’t dictate everyone’s lives.

This country never seemed to lack imagination, and everything there was filled with the kind of imagination that only existed in science fiction. They built a city at sea, created a farmland at the bottom of the ocean, created a track connecting heaven and earth, and had a space station larger than a city…

Ye Qinghua didn’t know what they would create next, because the imagination was never limited by boundaries. He just silently took out his notebook and recorded everything about the city for reference like when he visited the UA in the 1980s.

The old man leaning against the chair sighed. He took out a slightly damaged notebook with a leather cover, then he gently rubbed the bottom of the notebook. The experience of this past half-month both comforted him and made him speechless.

A weak and poor Xin was undoubtedly more in line with the interests of Hua, but the words “weak” and “poor” were already distant to Xin. More so, the concepts of low crime rate, beautiful environment, similar cultural circle, and high-tech city promoted Xin to Europeans and American countries currently in economic and terrorism crises. Xin became the first choice for immigrants all over the world.

Just then, the door of the room was pushed open.

A man and a woman came in.

“Grandpa, were you looking for me?” The young man in a suit bowed down and greeted the old man with respect.

The woman wanted to say something, but the old man spoke first.

“Mhmm, I was worried.” Ye Qinghua nodded and smiled at the young man. “So, I wanted to ask you if you were prepared.”

Ye Ziqi smiled confidently and raised his chest.

“You can rest assured! I’ve been preparing for this for half a month. Even without a complete grasp, I am more than confident!”

Elder Ye nodded, impressed.

“This project is very important to the Ye family. Now the State has attached great importance to the strategic cooperation with Celestial Trade. If the Ye Group can set an example, it wouldn’t be too difficult for your uncle’s position to move up. By that time, there would be another provincial-level politician in the Ye family!”

After chatting with his favorite grandson, Ye Ziqi left the room respectfully.

There were only two people left in the room.

“I…” Ye Yunfei bit her teeth and suppressed the unhappiness in her mind. “He has no interest in me. I happen to be the same. We’re not suitable, I can’t help…”

After a long time, Elder Ye sighed then lovingly smiled like a grandfather who loved his granddaughter.

“I won’t force you. Marriage is your choice. If you really don’t like him, then forget it.”

Ye Yunfei was relieved as if a big stone that had been pressing upon her finally disappeared.

If she had to put down her dignity and please a man she didn’t like, it would be crueler than killing her.

“Thank you…”

“Go now.”

Ye Yunfei buried her head and left the room in quick steps.

Elder Ye leaned back in his chair, pondered for a moment, and looked at the invitation on the table.

Xin Space Resources Development Forum.

The forum was to be held in Coro Island in three days. As a representative from Hua, he naturally received an invitation. He already considered issues should be brought up in the forum and how to help Hua to obtain more benefits.

He was now somewhat uncertain about his granddaughter.

Should I really give up?

Chapter 950: Xin Space Resources Development Forum

At the end of January, with the end of the United Nations Outer Space Development Summit, the space elevator sent 400 staff members to Celestial City.

Most of them were the beneficiaries of the space volunteer immigration policy introduced by Xin. After several months to one year of training, they were now signed by Celestial as employees, receiving an enviable salary. They had already started in various positions at the space station.

At present, the entire Celestial City was still in a semi-closed state. Before it opened to public, there were still many civilian infrastructures that required further improvement. On the other hand, the micro-gravity laboratories began construction in collaboration with Hua and Russia, and both countries generously paid construction funds in full.

Of course, it was based on the current exchange rate and conducted in Xin’s currency for settlement.

During this half-month period, companies from Hua, Russia, and even the UA across from the Pacific Ocean sent their respective salesmen to Coro Island to engage with Celestial Trade.

From the highly anticipated ticket presale, they already saw the prospects of space tourism and the business opportunities behind it.

Some of them were international hotel chains like the Hilton Group, while some were space companies like SpaceX interested in port leasing. Even McDonald and KFC all came for the fun of discussing the expansion of their businesses in Celestial City.

Due to the excessive number of companies coming for engagement, Jiang Chen simply announced the convening of the Xin Space Resources Development Forum. He sent invitations to interested companies and individuals with the plan to host a forum at Future Building in early February.

…

In the large circular conference hall, there were dozens of round tables scattered in an organized manner. Fine wine and expensive champagne were placed on top of the tables. The slightly dim light created a mysterious atmosphere at the venue as well as a hint of silence.

Not all the attendees were handsome men and beautiful women, but all of them were successful businesspeople and entrepreneurs. Anyone picked by random could be the chairman or president of a multi-billion company. A Versace boutique suit might not even be more expensive than the suits worn by the waiters pouring champagne between the round tables.

At that very moment, the industry leaders gathered together in groups of three and five, whispering and exchanging opinions amongst themselves while waiting for the business forum to start. Most of the people were there for the same purpose—to establish a relationship with the person who was hosting his forum…

In the darkness, soft light illuminated. In front of the venue, Jiang Chen in a suit walked to the front of the stage and reached for the microphone on the podium.

“Welcome, everyone, to the Space Resources Development Forum held by Celestial Trade. I am representing Celestial Trade to express my gratitude for your presence.”

Jiang Chen bowed.

Modesty always made people feel good, and there was a round of applause.

Waiting for the applause to quiet down, Jiang Chen paused, and he started on the topic of the day.

“I believe that you’ve already conducted your research before your arrival. At the last United Nations Outer Space Summit, we proposed a framework for friendly cooperation. Celestial Trade will serve as a permanent neutral party, providing companies in any country with a platform to develop space resources…”

In his near half-hour speech, Jiang Chen first explained the size of the space market. The tourism industry alone, based on the market assessment by the Future People Group think tank, was more than 100 billion XND. The prospect of space mining was even more incalculable.

“… Some time ago, our company’s spacecraft captured the Bennu asteroid to the Earth-Moon system. And in the middle of last month, Future Mining launched its long-awaited asteroid mining program. According to our estimates, the asteroid has reserves of iron and titanium minerals in the tens of millions, and the economic value is more than 20 billion XND.”

When Jiang Chen spat out the figures, he could clearly feel that everyone in the venue was holding their breaths.

Just an asteroid with a diameter of 500 meters had a value of more than 20 billion. Not to mention in the solar system, but there were countless asteroids in the vicinity of the Earth-Moon system. Now, in the eyes of these capitalists, those asteroids were no longer asteroids, but flying treasures!

Many people secretly took out their phones and texted their assistants. What Jiang Chen didn’t know was that because of his words, on Wall Street, which was tens of thousands of kilometers away, stock prices of space companies with space mining expectations like SpaceX all soared.

There was only one reason for this, someone was increasing holdings of these companies.

Of course, Jiang Chen wouldn’t pay attention to the fluctuations of the stock market. His full attention was on the business forum where countless capitalists were gathered.

Seeing that the bait he tossed out already exceeded expectations, he smiled, used a provocative tone, and said, “Ladies and gents, we’re entering a new world! A new continent that hasn’t been claimed and is several times wider than the Americas. The unknown never means absurdity but infinite possibilities. Now it’s a trillion or even hundred trillion-dollar cake in front of us. Although we can only cut a small piece now, I believe that with the participation of all of us, we will have more than we could ever imagine!”

When the enthusiasm of all investors was ignited, Jiang Chen naturally introduced the specifics of cooperation.

In addition to the projects such as port leasing, warehouse leasing, space station development, and space elevator transportation, Jiang Chen also tossed a large piece of cake in front of everyone. It was the leasing of the six by four space station interface!

Other than some special space stations, the space station of Celestial used a interface of six meters in length and four meters in width.

According to the size specifications of Celestial Trade’s external connection, any company could design its own space station to meet its own business needs. As long as the company reported to the Celestial City Management Committee, which was responsible for the operation and maintenance, the drawings and prototypes must be sent for safety monitoring and qualification certification. Then the space station could be attached to the interface and begin operations in Celestial City.

The ore processing unit designed by Future Mining was based on this rule.

Celestial Trade had more than ten thousand interfaces divided between the gravity section, gravity-free section and low gravity section used to connect external space station modules. In addition, between space stations, the units could also be connected to each other through a specific interface. In other words, this circular city had almost unlimited room for expansion.

Compared to the solitary space station floating in the orbit, the type of interface the space station offered had considerable advantages. Not only did it offer convenient transportation, but it could also enjoy the water, electricity, and oxygen supply from Celestial City at a lower price. The city itself offered living spaces for space stations that required staff, so there was no need to waste valuable space to establish a separate living area.

Going to work at the station would be as convenient as walking to work!

All the capitalists looked at Jiang Chen in front of the podium with lust in their eyes.

The proposal from Celestial Trade meant that everyone present not could only participate in the space tourism industry, but they also had the opportunity to participate in the development of space resources together with Celestial Trade!

Obtain cheap minerals and resources from asteroid mining, then produce a large number of low-cost goods through Celestial City’s factory then transport them to the surface through the space elevator…

Of course, while they were tempted, the people present there were all elites and didn’t express their emotions.

Projects involving hundreds of billions of dollars of investment couldn’t be decided just on a whim. Very few companies’ shareholding structures were as stable as Future Group; even the chairman of the board couldn’t just ignore the opinions of other shareholders within the company.

Chapter 951: Over One Hundred Billion Worth of Contracts

“Mr. Jiang, I am the chairman of the Hua Aerospace Science and Technology Group. Here is my business card. I heard that you have leased out a port to SpaceX. Do you still have plans to rent out additional ports? Our offer will definitely not disappoint you!”

“It is my honor! Mr. Jiang is young and achieved! I am the president of Yike Real Estate Group. This is my business card. I heard that there are two thousand acres of land in the external space station yet to be developed on Celestial City. We have more than 30 years of experience in real estate development. I hope Mr. Jiang can seriously consider our group. Whether it is capital or technology, our strength is proven!”

“…I am the president of Bigo Aerospace. Haha, it’s been a long time since we have seen each other. At Silicon Valley, I shook hands with you… We have extensive research in the field of inflatable spacecrafts, are you interested?”

“…”

After the question period, it was open floor discussion.

When Jiang Chen walked down from the podium, he was surrounded by a group of entrepreneurs. All kinds of business cards were stuffed to him one after another. Of course, the invited visitors were all elites. Even if they were enthusiastic, they still maintained courtesy.

There were nearly 370 companies from all over the world who expressed their interest. There were also 50 companies that signed agreements on the spot. Following SpaceX, Hua Aerospace Science and Technology Group also signed a port lease agreement for a price of 170 million XND, leasing a port large enough for five small and medium-sized aircraft to be docked for ten years. Ten years later, the company would have priority in the renew of the lease.

The Russian Aerospace Group subsequently leased three ports to develop its own spacecraft.

This kind of cooperation with state enterprises offered far more diplomatic and political significance than economic significance, so Jiang Chen offered a reasonable price. After all, after renting a port, and then transporting things to the port, they must go through the space elevator. Every kilogram of material delivered to space must pay a transportation fee to Celestial Trade. Although it was not much, it was a stable source of income.

However, the real profit came from the cooperation with companies from all over the world.

For example, Yike Real Estate Group, the company with a market value in excess of 100 billion directly offered 1.5 billion XND, and bought the development right of an external space station with an area of 700 acres. They ambitiously planned to turn this 700 acres into the most prosperous business district in the entire city.

Converted into a per square meter cost, it was already higher than the price of some cities’ top real estate location. Celestial City wasn’t even open to the public as the risks are self-evident, yet it generated an absurf premium.

However, the boss of Yike Group had other ideas. He sent the group’s best expert to visit Celestial City, whether it was the convenient transportation or potential commercial development value, the land was worth the money.

Although the hefty price certinly pained him, if the 700 acres of land turned into real estate, merchants all over the world would rush to stay in his commercial estates, and banknotes would flow in from every continent.

It was not just Yike Group that possessed ambitions, but Yida Group was preparing to invest in the construction of cinemas in Celestial City. Additionally, the Intercontinental Group, and the ArcelorMittal Group were planning to lease the six by four interface.

As the world’s largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal Steel Group was the leader in the steel market. After seeing the video of Stingray P-1 mining released by Celestial Trade, they immediately saw the broad market prospects of space mining.

It didn’t matter if they didn’t posses the technology. With enough money, they could outsource the design of the space station. With the power of capital, as long as the technical conditions were sufficient met, those challenges were not challenges at all. After the birth of the space elevator, Silicon Valley had too many aerospace companies undergo a difficult transformation.

Celestial Trade left them another opportunity. After the end of the forum, there would be plenty of companies willing to invest. Designing space stations with different functions would become an alternative profitability model to replace commercial satellite launches.

…

The sea breeze swayed by and brought away some of the heat.

A unique sightseeing tower was built by the seaside not far away from Future Building. The working environment of Future Group was very relaxed, and many employees chose to dine here during their lunch break. But as the night was approaching, the place was getting quiet.

Jiang Chen stood beside the railing as the tides raged. He lit a cigarette and silently gazed at the ocean. His thoughts drifted away with the breeze.

Tonight, he signed contracts worth at least 60 billion XND. Later, because there were too many people, he left the other tasks to Xia Shiyu and other company executives, and slipped out of the venue.

Now this number should have at least doubled. Xia Shiyu was much better in business negotiation compared to him. He was looking forward to the development of the outer space resources. At the end of the forum, could this figure exceed 100 billion?

Whether it was 60 billion or 100 billion, converted into US dollars, counting his previous income, all investment in the space elevator had been recovered. After paying off the loans from Future Bank, the tightened cash flow of Future Group for over a year finally became alleviated.

With the completion of the space elevator, Jiang Chen felt that the burden on his shoulder had also lightened.

The space elevator appeared more than 50 years earlier compared to history.

This way, even if one-day mankind must face the colonization ship from Harmony, human civilization would stand a fighting chance.

Jiang Chen suddenly smiled.

He found the idea of worrying about something more than a hundred years later, too…

For a while, he couldn’t think of any words to describe himself.

Then, a windbreaker appeared on his shoulders.

Jiang Chen turned back and met a pair of sapphire eyes.

“Don’t catch a cold.”

Her hair was blowing in the sea breeze. Ayesha was standing behind him

“Mhmm.” Jiang Chen smiled and responded to her gentleness. “Thank you.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“I should… not that. Just some things related to the future.”

Not far away, Ye Yunfei also stood on the beach, watching the two people who were leaning together.

She was wearing a light blue evening gown with a glass of champagne in her hand.

To be honest, she was very surprised.

The Space Resources Development Forum completely changed her impression of him.

Entrepreneurs present were more cunning than the sly foxes. Igniting their investment fervor with just a speech was even harder than convincing a mouse to catch a cat. Even with her experience, she had to admit the speech was indeed a classic.

Originally, she thought that he was just a lucky new money. She didn’t expect him to have such an ability…

She suddenly felt that he was not so annoying after all.

As for her intimate feeling…

She swore, she only had a little bit of feeling for him.

Thinking of what her father said to her on the phone, she finally decided to try to take the initiative and approach Jiang Chen. However, when she saw the scene of the two embracing, the determination she just formed faded with the wind.

Her closed lips opened, and Ye Yunfei slowly let out a long breath.

“This is good too.”

Her words were inexplicable. She tilted the glass in her hand slightly, pouring the champagne into the sea before turning away without any hestiation.

Chapter 952: Change the World

Leaving the contract signing work to Xia Shiyu didn’t mean that Jiang Chen could escape from all the formal gatherings. At the end of this business forum, as the host, he must of course go up to the stage and present a concluding remark. Then, he must shake hands with each visitor at the door of the venue.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang.” A smiling young man stepped forward and respectfully extended his hand while still being quite far away.

His face didn’t look familiar, so Jiang Chen held his hand and asked in confusion.

“You are?”

“I am Ye Ziqi, the president of Ye Group. I have long heard of Mr. Jiang’s name. Although I signed a cooperation agreement with you, it was unfortunate that I didn’t get to meet you. So, I just wanted to say hello.” Ye Ziqi shook Jiang Chen’s hands and gracefully smiled.

It turned out to be a member of the Ye family.

After carefully searching through his memory, the Ye Group seemed to be engaged in aerospace engines and industrial machine tools. The group was a listed company with a state-owned background and a market value of more than 50 billion. Before the forum, the group already contacted Celestial Trade multiple times.

It seemed that Hua’s decisionmakers gave them directions. They were interested in electric propulsion technology and ion jet cutting technology of the Stingray P-1, and even offered an astronomical price of 1.8 billion XND. However, the two parties didn’t reach an agreement in the transfer of technology, and they took a step back. Finally, they targeted the RM-320 rocket engine that Celestial Trade already sold to Russia.

The material used in the combustion chamber that withstood 500 atmospheric pressures could achieve an astonishing 1:300 Thrust to Weight Ratio (1), as well as fuel that was several times more powerful than dimethylhydrazine (2). Although the era of chemical rockets was over, the technology could still be used for the engines of missiles and aircrafts.

Since Jiang Chen could sell the RM-320 to Russians, he certainly was not stingy to sell the engine to Hua enterprises with a broader market. The Ye family also paid a hefty price for this technology. They offered a 7.5% stake in the Ye Group as a price in exchange for the RM-320 engine and related technical information.

Although the Ye Group’s annual profit was only about 300 billion XND, but after obtaining the full set of RM-320 technology, its expectation of future appreciation was high. They didn’t just manufacture aerospace engines, but were also involved in military projects such as missiles and aircrafts. Future Group obtained shares in the Ye Group in exchange, but because of the sensitive projects involved, those shares only possessed dividend rights and could not be sold to the secondary market within the next two years.

“Mr. Ye is too modest, and it’s our pleasure to work with you in developing a vast Hua market.”

There were not much small talk as after the two brief exchanges, Ye Ziqi took the initiative to say goodbye to him. The Ye family’s new star left a good impression on Jiang Chen, at least a better than Ye Yunfei. This certainly reversd the image of Ye’s new generation in Jiang Chen’s mind.

The children of an established family were not all ordinary after all.

Then he sent away a few batches of guests. Scanning the empty venue and the cleaning staff working diligently, Jiang Chen slowly let out a long breath and sat down.

A glass of water appeared in front of him.

Jiang Chen looked up and met Xia Shiyu’s sight.

Her black hair was tied up and with some slight touch ups, her eyebrows were particularly charming. In a beautiful black dress, it didn’t hide her natural beauty, but added a sense of glamour.

Xia Shiyu smiled gracefully and whispered, “You must be tired, have some water.”

Jiang Chen paused a second and did not grab for the glass of water. Instead, he massaged his eyebrows as if he had just seen an illusion.

“It seems that I am really tired.”

Xia Shiyu didn’t understand for a second and then understood the meaning of Jiang Chen’s words. She immediately gave him an angry stare and shoved the cup into his hand. Then she groaned, “Whatever.”

Jiang Chen took the cup with a grin and took a sip.

“This is more like you.”

“What do you mean, can’t I be gentle and considerate?” Sitting opposite of Jiang Chen, Xia Shiyu’s eyebrows raised while pouting.

If other people in the company saw the meticulous CEO Xia display such a cute expression, they would be in complete shock. However, Jiang Chen knew that this was her usual relaxed state.

The distant expression was just the disguise of excessive self-protection.

“Of course not,” Jiang Chen smiled and took another drink of the water before putting the cup aside. “How did we do?”

When it comes to work, a proud smile appeared on Xia Shiyu. “A total of 130 billion XND contracts were signed, and the extra money is enough to build another Penglai city.”

Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head. “One Penglai City is enough. We don’t have to payback the loans from Future Bank yet. The space elevator has been completed, and investors are quite confident in us. Payback half and we’ll invest the rest of the money in our lunar colony.”

“You don’t seem surprised?”

“Surprised by what?”

“We received 130 billion. If it is converted into US Dollars, it would be nearly 150 billion US Dollars, and it is all cash.” When Xia Shiyu said this, she was quite amazed.

One hundred and fifty billion US dollars.

Four years ago, she never thought that she would have achieved this one day. If she didn’t meet him, her best situation would just be a project manager in a small company. She would be worrying over a small project in the thousands of dollars while trying to persuade all kinds of strangers to stay calm…

“It is just 130 billion Xin New Dollars.” Looking at the fascinated Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen smiled. “In fact, after the establishment of the Xin Reservse, money is just a figure to us.”

If someone else said this, Xia Shiyu would just roll her eyes, but when Jiang Chen said this, she didn’t feel this way at all. Instead, she felt that he was only explaining a fact.

He has the final say in the amount of currency this country prints, what else is money to him other than a figure?

Of course, although this is the case, he didn’t have freewill over the money printer. The issuance of banknotes required special procedures for approval, and it was necessary to disclose the news one to two months in advance, and the printed banknotes belonged to the New Reserve. The additional currency could only be provided to banks registered in Xin in the form of loans.

Printing excessive banknotes would cause inflation. Without an open and transparent regulatory mechanism, the monetary system itself wouldn’t be able to obtain sufficient credit, and wouldn’t be recognized by its own nation, let alone the international community.

Xia Shiyu scoffed and didn’t want to see Jiang Chen showing off.

“Well, Mr. Richest Man, now you are as powerful as a country. So, what is your next goal?”

As she said this, she lifted the glass in her hand and put it below Jiang Chen’s nose, using it like a microphone.

Jiang Chen smiled and grabbed her hand.

“Change the world.”

(1) A high thrust to weight ratio means that the aircraft will have high acceleration and thrust and a high rate of climb. (Source: NASA)

(2) 1,1-Dimethylhydrazine is a clear colorless liquid and used as a rocket propellant. (Source: U.S. National Library of Medicine)

Chapter 953: 6X4 Standard and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

The Space Resources Development Forum came to an end, and it also kicked off the capitalist’s interest in the space market. A total of six large-scale external space stations with an area of more than 2,000 acres were leased to developers around the world. All development work had yet to begin, but space tourism and space property already occupied the big screens on Times Square.

Jiang Chen even heard that Yike Group has already sold 2,000 residential properties on Celestial City before even transporting their construction equipment to Ange Island.

Although most of the living space was in the ring part of Celestial City, not everyone enjoyed the idea of living in small units. The wealthy who pursued a certain quality of life didn’t care about the money. They cared more about having the ability to overlook the entire city and to gaze into the starry night.

With nearly more than 5 billion US Dollars in revenue, Yike’s CEO almost fell off his chair and immediately called Jiang Chen to express his gratitude.

It was only the beginning. By the time the 700 acres land were fully developed, the income from various shopping malls wouldn’t be any less than the income of 2,000 residential properties in this district.

On the other hand, the “six by four standard” became a buzzword on online search engines.

Six meters in length and four meters in width, the dimensions of the space station interface in Celestial City. If nothing else, the “six by four standard ” proposed by Celestial Trade would become the standard for all space station interfaces in the Interstellar Age and beyond.

The power of habit is astonishing, especially for a civilization. Unless unsolvable defects existed, the standards accepted by everyone were basically impossible to change.

Just like the not-so-perfect USB interface, it dominated the entire Personal Computer era.

With the details of the “six by four standard” being disclosed, many space station design companies were established.

These companies were mainly concentrated in Silicon Valley, most transformed from aerospace companies engaged in rocket or satellite design. These companies specialized in providing space station design solutions and qualification verification to companies interested in establishing their own space stations but didn’t possess the technical expertise to do so. Even SpaceX launched a similar service, and the first project was to help the UA Steel Company design an automated steelmaking space station.

The business forum of Celestial Trade directly gave birth to an industry with a scale of more than 10 billion US Dollars.

The aerospace-related majors which were not considered popular prior, but after this forum, it gradually started gaining recognition, and even more related majors, such as space station design, biosphere engineering, spacecraft design, and others, were born.

Coro University undoubtly was on the frontier in the aerospace field.

With a strong reputation, the university was initially established to export talents to Celestial Trade began to be favored by other large enterprises with the completion of the space elevator. Although its international academic crediential was still not first-class, it was already leading in the commercial field.

…

The Lunar colony.

A cargo spacecraft inscribed with the trademark of Celestial Trade steadily landed on the cemented tarmac. The staff member who had been waiting for a long time operated the robotic arm and unloaded the cargo box from the abdomen of the spacecraft. At the same time, more than a dozen people wearing spacesuits walked down from the spacecraft. They were led by a staff member and were walking towards the colony.

It was already the fourth group this month.

After the completion of the space elevator, the transportion to and from the Moon no longer used disposable rockets. Instead, they were replaced by cargo spacecraft capable of vertical liftoff and landing. The original supply mission that occurred every several months now became multiple times in a month.

Another intuitive change was that there were more and more people in the colonies now.

From the first few dozens to the first one hundred, now there were 500 people in the moon colony. In addition to some engineers and scientists, many of them had careers completely irrelevant to colony construction. Some were journalists, musicians, and painters, and some were just ordinary people…

Standing in the colony, Tang Weijie looked at the new colonists from the distance. He did not understand the purpose of bringing so many people here, but he believed that the decision made by Celestial Trade executives would definitely be meaningful. It was just that as the colony administrator, he didn’t understand it.

The dozens of newcomers looked left and right as everything here was so fascinating for them. When they passed a space farm, someone even exclaimed out loud… However, only he could hear his own exclaimation.

Compared to a few months ago, this colony on the surface of the Moon was already taking shape. In addition to mines and space farms, most living areas and work areas were connected by pipes embedded in the ground.

From a distance, it was like a bunker connected by trenches. This design could effectively reduce the threat of meteorites before the breakthrough of shield technology. After all, there was a lack of atmosphere on the Moon, and the pits and holes on the surface showed the frequency of meteorites.

The entrance to the colony was two valves.

Just like the design of most submarine facilities, after crossing the first valve, the vacuum buffer chamber was filled with air, then when the second valve opened, the group continued to move forward. After taking off their space suit and bathing in the locker room, they changed to casual wear with jet holes on key joints.

Then everyone gathered in the square in the middle of the colony.

“Well, newcomers, look this way.” Tang Weijie clapped his hands and signaled for everyone to look at him. “You are the fourth batch this month. First of all, I wish you a happy life on the Moon.” In addition, I have to say, you will miss life on Earth.”

“Take an hour or two every day to go to the gravity room to avoid osteoporosis (1). Obey the colonial discipline as anyone who engage in a brawl will be expelled. Remember to bring your ID card at all times as that is your identification and is used at any given moment. This is all you need to pay attention to. Feel free to ask any questions now.”

When he just finished, someone raised his hand.

“What about our luggage?”

“It will be sent directly to your residence, any more questiones?” Tang Weijie asked.

Seeing no one respond, he paused and said.

“Very good. If you have any questions, you can ask them through the personal terminal. Ask the AI or ask a psychiatrist. Only these two people are free at anytime. Someone will take you to receive your daily necessities and bring you to the living quarter.”

“Before that, let’s check the list first…”

The list check was completed swiftly, and Lu Fan got his ID card.

The soft graphene card felt smooth, like a Future phone, it could be rolled up and worn around his wrist. The card had his name on the front and the words [Power Engineer].

Under the guidance of the instructor, Lu Fan received his daily necessities and a room key. In a room the size of 30 square meters, he saw his suitcase.

But he hadn’t had time to unpack his luggage before he began to reminisce about his life on Earth. As he was standing by the window, his door was knocked on.

“Lu Fan? Power Engineer?” The middle-aged man in a colonial uniform examiend Lu Fan from head-to-toe and talked to him in a questioning voice.

“Yes.” Lu Fan nodded politely and asked, “Is there a problem?”

After receiving a positive answer, the middle-aged man suddenly grinned and patted him on his shoulder.

“Haha, you are finally here! Let me introduce my self, my name is He Biao.”

“The colony is ready to replace the circuit. In order to prevent issues, the power department has been short on people. I just applied to the headquarters to send a power engineer here some time ago. I didn’t expect you to come so quickly! Come! Leave your luggage for now.”

“Wait, replace the circuit? Why are we suddenly changing the circuit?” Lu Fan was confused.

In his impression, this colony was only established less than half a year.

“The colony plans to build two new mines. The power generation of the solar power station can no longer handle the load. The headquarters ordered that we put that equipment into use. The colony will no longer lack electricity, but on the other hand, before the end of the month, we won’t have any free time.”

When he said this, He Biao did not look resentful at all.

Life on the Moon was very boring, not working was more boring than working. To alleviate the loneliness, they could only chat with the psychiatrist, or use a beauty robot manufactured by Future Heavy Industries to vent their desire. After hearing that the power shortage problem could be solved and the colony could start building some entertainment facilities, it was no surprise he was so enthusiastic.

Although the newly arrived Lu Fan did not understand his emotional state, a word caught his attention

“Equipment? What equipment?” Lu Fan asked.

No more power shortages? Before he came, he studied the power consumption of the lunar colony. The electricity consumption of 500 people in the district was even higher than that of a small town of 10,000 on the Earth. Although the surface of the Moon is bright, a day and night is close to four weeks in Earth time. For this reason, Celestial Trade had to invest in building a large number of solar panels, as well as power storage units. Power alone consumed nearly 50 million XND per month.

When He Biao heard Lu Fan’s question, he laughed and looked at him with a smug look.

“Do you know what the Lunar Soil Collection Center produces?”

“Rare earth?” Lu Fan wondered.

“Although it certainly produces that, it also produces something else!” He Biao smiled mysteriously and lowered his voice. “We produce Helium-3, and we have already produced tons of it!”

Lu Fan took a moment to think about it before the expression on his face turned into disbelief and shock.

Helium-3!

Controlled nuclear fusion?!

And it could be used to generate electricity?!

(1) Osteoporosis is a bone disease that occurs when the body loses too much bone, makes too little bone, or both. Astronauts who spend many months on a space mission can lose, on average, 1 to 2 per cent of bone mass each month (Source: NASA)

Chapter 954: Nuclear Fusion Power Station

The Lunar Colony Ground Command enter was bustling.

Today was a historic day. The nuclear fusion generator placed on the surface of the Moon would officially be powered on. It not only meant that the shortage of electricity in the Lunar Colony would no longer be a problem, it also signaled that the excess power could be sent to Celestial City through long-distance power transmission and then to Earth.

“Ready?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s get started.” Jiang Chen nodded and gestured to Kelvin that he could start.

The entire command center was like clockwork. Everyone all put ten times and twenty times their usual effort and fought in their positions. The parameters on the big screen in the center were flashing, and the nuclear fusion generator a few hundred thousand kilometers away was monitored here.

“The magnetic confinement device has been activated and helium-3 fuel has been loaded into the reaction chamber!”

“The magnetic confinement device is operating normally.”

“The super fluid thermal cycler is activated… operation is stable.”

“Deuterium fuel is loaded!”

“…”

“Ignition!”

All the lights turned green, and Kevlin immediately pressed the red button. In the holographic screen, the progress bars were instantaneously filled, and the power output instantly reached an astounding 5,000MW. In the spherical reaction chamber dozens of kilometers away, the magnetic confinement device already turned into a blinding ball of light, and its internal reaction temperature reached an extraordinary ten million degrees!

It was no exaggeration to say it was a small Sun.

If the violently reacting atoms broke through the magnetic confinement, its power would be no less than the detonation of a million TNT-equivalent hydrogen bombs. If it were placed on the Earth, it would be enough to erase a metropolitan from the map.

However, everyone had full confidence in the device.

As early as the completion of Penglai City, Celestial Trade already secretly put the nuclear fusion generator into operation. It was also not their first time initializing a nuclear fusion generator set, the difference was that the nuclear fusion generator was manufactured by Future Heavy Industries and located hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

5,000MW was far from the limit of this nuclear fusion generator set. As the fuel tank continued to be filled, the output power of the electric energy climbed higher. The reaction temperature also exceeded 15 million degrees, and after a slight fall, it stabilized at 14 million degrees.

Kevlin sighed in relief and a smile finally landed on his face. He picked up the intercom on his shoulder and announced to everyone.

“No. 01 nuclear fusion generator is successfully in operation!”

There was a burst of cheers in the command center, and the staff members walked down from their positions, cheering and celebrating.

Jiang Chen was also delighted.

Unlike most nuclear power plants, Celestial Trade abandoned the inefficient steam turbine power generation design after absorbing the apocyalpse’s technology. Now, they used a more advanced thermal ion reactor.

To put it simply, the cathode and anode poles were connected by wires, the cathode was heated to release the electron beam, and the anode absorbed electrons to form a circulating circuit. However, the whole set of equipment was certainly not as simple as its description. Just like a simple nuclear power station generated electricity by boiling water, the technical expertise involved was far more than just boiling water.

How to solve the power generation limitation, how to recycle the heat absorbed by the anode and use for power generation… These were the problems that needed to be solved by the modern world. If the world didn’t go on a tangent, then in another thirty to fifty years, controlled nuclear fusion technology would also be born here, and most would still be using steam turbines to generate electricity. Just because neutrons could easily be absorbed by light materials, a second-loop heat exchanger could be eliminated compared to nuclear fission.

At the same time, the same cheers also happened on the Lunar Colony hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

A steady stream of electricity was transferred from the nuclear fusion generator to various parts of the colony, replacing solar generators that had to rest for two weeks after four weeks. The reaction temperature reached its limit and the fusion reaction could continue as long as the supply of fuel in the reaction chamber was maintained.

Although the tens of millions of degrees of high temperature was startling, this generator was far safer than the generator set of any nuclear power plant in the world. The thermonuclear reaction between helium-3 and deunterium only generated protons without radioactivity, so the use of helium-3 as an energy source didn’t produce radiation, and even if an accident occured, the cost of rescue would be low.

In the worst case, due to the lack of oxygen on the Moon, and even if the reactor experienced a catstrohpic explosion, there would be no shock wave. The killing effect of nuclear weapons in a vacuum environment is extremely limited, far less intimidating than its TNT-equivalency.

“Congratulations.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook Kelvin’s hand. “Excellent execution.”

“Thanks to for your confidence.” Kelvin accepted the praise humbly.

After a pause, Jiang Chen continued.

“I intend to reorganize some of the business units of Celestial Trade.”

Kevlin looked at Jiang Chen, puzzled. He didn’t understand why he was telling him this. The Space Launch Center he managed was only a part of Celestial Trade and although it almost had no budget constraints, it was still owned by Celestial Trade.

Jiang Chen did not explain, but went on.

“The restructuring is mainly in the aerospace business. The rankings of the Space Launch Center will be cancelled and replaced by the newly established space department. The department is responsible for the Colonization Program and all projects in the group that involve the development of outer space resources.”

“And I hope that you can serve the manager of the space department,”

Kelvin took a moment to digest his word before he was overwhelmed by joy.

“Thank you for your trust, I will not let you down!”

Jiang Chen smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

“I believe you won’t let me down.”

…

In mid-February, Celestial Trade spent 2 billion XND to acquire Pannu Power Company, which supplied power to all of Pannu Islands, and changed its name to Global Power Company, integrating its power generation companies and power grid units in Xin.

At the same time, the engineering ship of Celestial Trade once again sailed to the equator and started construction under the base station of the space elevator. It was ambitiously preparing to build a submarine cable extending from the equator line to Ange Island and merge it into the national grid of Xin.

Everything was paving the way for long-distance power transmission for the lunar nuclear power plant.

Jiang Chen apparently was not satisfied with just the domestic electricity market. At the same time as the construction of the submarine cable, he engaged in negotiations with the governments of Moro and Country F to open up their own electricity market.

With almost no hurdles, Jiang Chen easily convinced these two countries. Both Country F and Moro had agreed to cooperate with Xin to build transnational submarine cables and integrate them into the national grid. The electricity cost of Country F was the highest in the world, and was the definition of the poor getting poorer. Of course, they couldn’t refuse Celestial Trade that could lower their electricity bill.

What’s more, they didn’t have the confidence to reject. The force of Celestial Trade had yet to complete its withdraw from City M.

As for Moro, Santos simply recognized himself as a younger brother, why would he refuse the request of the sovereign state? What’s more, the recent rise in oil prices meant that the oil import nation was facing an imminent energy crisis, how could he reject his savior Jiang Chen?

After wooing Country F and Moro, Jiang Chen then began discussions with Malayasia…

Chapter 955: Are you sure you didn’t add an extra zero?

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.

The sun was about to rise and a private jet landed on the runway of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Five extended Lincolns were waiting outside the special terminal of the airport, and there were anti-terrorist secret service agents protecting the vicinity.

This special terminal usually remained closed to the public, and it was specially prepared for distinguished government officials. But now, it made an exception to open up for an entrepreneur with no official position. The Malyaisa government greeted the entrepreneur from Xin with the highest courtesy.

“Welcome, Mr. Jiang. As Malaysia International Trade and Industry Minister, I sincerely thank you for your contribution to the Malyasia economy.” In the car, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustafa politely expressed his gratitude.

The New Malaysia Special District created an annual output value of 50 billion USD, accounting for almost one-eighth of the total Malaysia Gross Domestic Product. The backcountry of the poor Province of Papua suddenly became one of the most stunning economic and industrial provinces on the country’s financial report. At least half of the output value contributed to the industry was from Future Group, it was no surprise Mustafa was so enthusiastic.

The vehicles quickly passed through the emerging international metropolitian that fused oriental culture with Western civilization. They headed to Putrajaya, 20 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur. More than a decade ago, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Federal Administrative Center moved here.

Compared to the bustling Kuala Lumpur, it was quieter here.

The vehicles stopped directly in front of the Prime Minister’s Office. The red stone brick road paved all the way to the doorway of the dome building. The green vegetation and carved street lamps gave off a retro vibe.

Malaysia Prime Minister Razak was personally waiting at the door, with his aides, and politely ushered Jiang Chen into the building.

The group went into a reception room, and the black-haired middle-aged man invited Jiang Chen to take a seat, and then told the assistant to pour a cup of black tea for himself and Jiang Chen.

“What is the purpose of Mr. Jiang’s visit?”

Thick white fog lingered above the black tea. Jiang Chen didn’t touch the cup and instead was straightforward.

“For a win-win agreement.”

Razak’s face showed interest.

“Oh? What kind of agreement brought you personally here.”

“According to your 2018 electricity consumption report announced by the Ministry of Energy at the beginning of this year, the total power generation in your country last year was 224.3 billion kWh, and the average cost per kWh was 0. 21 Ringgit. The energy cost compared with the previous year went up by a few points, am I right?” Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

Razak nodded, and spoke, “It’s true… Are you worried that the energy situation in our country may affect the investment environment? You don’t have to worry about it at all. We are next to Singapore, even if our electricity cost rises, other countries increase will only be higher, definitely not less.”

Because Malaysia was located next to one of the world’s three major refining bases, the country itself was a major exporter of oil and natural gas. Malaysia’s power generation mostly depended on thermal power generation, supplemented by wind and solar energy. Although the price of oil was relatively cheap compared to other countries because of the lower cost of freight, the rise in oil prices in recent years still slightly raised the cost of electricity.

As early as 2015, Malaysia had proposed to build the first nuclear power plant in 2021. At that time, the Russian national nuclear energy company participated in the bidding. However, due to the surge in opposition, the location of the nuclear power plant remained to be finalized even to this day.

The problem of electricity consumption has plagued Malaysia for many years, and has never been completely solved.

Even without the report of the Ministry of Energy, Jiang Chen could clearly see this from Future Heavy Industries’ financial report in the New Malaysia Special District. The change in electricity prices would be directly reflected in the production cost of steel and aluminum plants. Almost all industries with high pollution and high manpower demand were built in the district.

“But this is still a big problem, isn’t it?”

The brows raised slightly, and after Razak indulged for a while, his brows returned to normal as if he had made some kind of a decision. He said, “We are willing to give a five percent discount on electricity in the special district. But this special treatment is not convenient to disclose, and you must fulfill the duty of confidentiality for this matter.”

Jiang Chen shook his head.

“This is not a long-term solution.”

Razak was caught off-guard, and then there was an unpleasant look in his eyes. Willing to make concessions on the price of electricity already showed sincerity, but Jiang Chen refused the offer without even considering it.

If it were not for the cooperation between the two sides that was important to Malaysia’s economy, he would already have asked him to leave.

Although deeply disguised, Jiang Chen saw the dissatisfaction on Razak’s face. However, he did not explain anything and continued on.

“Seeking special treatment is not the reason why I came here today. Since the problem lies between us, then what we need to do is solve this problem, not to ask for one-sided concessions.”

Razak was somewhat uncertain after he heard this.

Not seeking special treatment? Why did you mention electricity prices? Could it be…

Suddenly, he speculated a possibility and looked at Jiang Chen with surprise. Jiang Chen then spoke up.

“We have made a major breakthrough in power generation technology–”

Jiang Chen didn’t even finish when Razak said immediately.

“Is it nuclear power?”

Jiang Chen nodded and said, “It is indeed nuclear power.”

“Although I personally hope that you can participate in the bidding for the nuclear power project, I have to remind you that Malaysia’s nuclear power project has not yet finalized its site selection so far. At least until 2025, the nuclear power plant project is unlikely to start construction.” Razak shook his head.

“Although it is nuclear power, it will not be built in your country.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Then where?” Razak frowned.

“It’ll be built in the sky,” Jiang Chen said, pointing his finger at the ceiling. “You only need a cable from Coro Island to New Malaysia, and your country can enjoy cheap electricity.”

“Do you mean to connect Xin’s grid with Malaysia’s grid? This is impossible.” Razak shook his head. “The grid is related to national security. Our diplomatic relations with Xin are good, but we have not yet trusted each other to merge the grid.”

“It’s not the power grid, it’s just a simple sale of electricity.” Jiang Chen spread his hands and continued to persuade the president, “Like buying and selling natural gas, our electricity price will be much cheaper than your domestic power generation cost.”

Looking at Razak, who was in deep thought, Jiang Chen went on.

“How about hearing my offer first?”

“How much?”

“0.05 Ringgit per kWh”

Jiang Chen’s nonchalant responded created a shockwave in the mind of the Malaysia Prime Minister. To the point where he almost gasped.

“Are you sure you didn’t add an extra zero?”

Chapter 956: Power Export Agreement

Most people believed that nuclear power was cheaper than most power generation methods.

In fact, it was a misconception.

According to the survey conducted by Bloomberg New Energy Financial Consulting, the global nuclear power plant’s power generation cost averages 14 cents USD per kWh, which almost costed the same as solar power generation. Compared to the cost of 8.2 cents of land-based wind power and high-efficiency natural gas power generation, the cost of nuclear power was much higher, and even higher than thermoelectricity power generation using coal, natural gas, or oil.

Nuclear power could alleviate electricity shortages, but it would not effectively reduce electricity prices. In particular, the safety of nuclear power plants received increasing media attention. In order to prevent serious nuclear accidents such as core melting, nuclear power plants must spend more on safety maintenance, so power generation costs always trended upwards. Unless the size of the nuclear power plant increased drastically could some of the costs be saved through scale.

Under such circumstances, it was no wonder the 0.05 Ringgit Jiang Chen offered stunned the Malaysia leader. No power generation that existed in the world could reduce the cost to such a degree.

In other words, if the price of electricity could really be this cheap, there was no need for other energy sources.

If Razak learned about the actual cost for Celestial Trade, he would be even more shocked. The cost for Celestial Trade was around one-eighth of the offer. Helium-3’s proven reserves on the Moon were around one million tons and 100 tons would be enough to supply the world for one year. As for the deuterium needed for the reaction, the reserves in the ocean were even richer. As long as the refining technology is in place, the cost could be completely negligible.

The Prime Minister was completely dumbfounded by the offer.

Trying to calm his breathing, he was silent for a while before he finally spoke again.

“Can’t you build that nuclear power plant in our country?”

Razak made up his mind. Even if all the Malaysian parliament voted against the nuclear power project, he would convince those members one by one to agree to this project. It was too important for Malaysia! Not only would this affect the cost of living for the people, but the price of electricity directly affected the cost of industrial production. If the price of electricity could be reduced, more international companies would come invest!

Moreover, the annual financial subsidies made by the Malayisa government on the electricity bill could be completely removed. The hefty budget could be moved to education, medical care, and other more critical fields.

However, Jiang Chen shook his head.

“It doesn’t make any sense to build a nuclear power plant in your country. The mineral needed for the nuclear power plant comes from the Moon and it is not very convenient to transport… In short, building this nuclear power plant in space has far more advantages than building it on the surface. What’s more, in space, we don’t have to worry about nuclear accidents at all.”

Jiang Chen’s words made Razak silent again.

On the one hand, he was really convinced by Jiang Chen’s offer, but on the other hand, he was worried that this might force Malaysia local power companies to go bankrupt. Then, Malayisa would no longer be able to escape the cheap electricity supply from Celestial Trade.

Jiang Chen was not in a hurry. He leaned back on the chair leisurely, and sipped on the tea.

The tea cooled down a bit. While he enjoyed the tea, he quietly waited for Razak’s answer.

It woule be best to receive a positive answer from the prime minister. If this didn’t work, he would have to spend some time to contact Malaysian politicians and offer sufficient benefits to force the Prime Minister to compromise on the grid problem.

In addition, with his control over Future 1.0 and virtual reality networks, he could utilize many necessary means. He just needed to let the Malayisan people know that they could have enjoyed 0.05 Ringgit electricity, but because of the under-the-table transaction between the prime minister and other “black-hearted businessmen”, cheap electricity could not enter the domestic market…

Jiang Chen quietly looked at Razak and waited for him to make a decision.

After waiting for about ten minutes, the prime minister was relieved and said.

“It is no problem to build a submarine cable. It is no problem to connect the New Malayisa Special District’s grid with the Malyaisa grid. But in the first year, we are willing to import 26-30 billion kWh of electricity. The specific plan will be discussed with the National Electric Power Bureau and TNB Power Company.”

26 billion kWh was equivalent to ten percent of the annual electricity consumption of Malayisa. According to the export price of 0.05 Ringgit, the Malaysian power grid would pay 1.3 billion Ringgit in foreign exchange for a year, equivalent to 400 million XND.

As for TNB, Malaysia’s power giant, the company managed the grid of the country. Jiang Chen believed that this highly profitable agreement offered no ground for them to refuse.

Jiang Chen believed that in less than a year, TNB would shut down several high-emission power stations, and then take the initiative to ask for more.

Buy 0.05 Ringgit electricity and sell it for 0.1 Ringgit. They would basically be earning free money.

Pleased with the result, Jiang Chen left the Prime Minister’s Office. Celestial Trade Malayisa Subsidiary had already sent a convoy parked out at the door. After Jiang Chen got in the vehicle, he told the driver to send him to Hilton Hotel.

Because he had to negotiate specific contracts with the National Electric Power Bureau and TNB Power Company for submarine cables and power export, he had to temporarily change his plan, and decided to stay for one more day in Malayisa.

Going straight to the hotel counter, when he pulled out the black diamond card that Nasseta gifted him, the hotel manager immediately freed up a presidential suite for him and courteously escorted him to the door of the room.

Jiang Chen took off his formal clothes and took a shower, changed into a casual outfit, and sat on the sofa in the living room.

He opened a bottle of red wine, turned on the home theater, and randomly picked a film that he had not seen before.

Guns and blood were always the theme of Hollywood action movies, and were the most attractive to the audience. It was also Jiang Chen’s favorite genre to watch.

Without explosions, would it be called a Hollywood blockbuster?

After watching for about thirty or forty minutes, the film was just about to reach its climax as a vigilant gun battle was about to unfold. Jiang Chen was concentrating on the screen while enjoying the thrill, but the sound of the alarm rang by his ear.

Alarm bell?

Jiang Chen looked around before focusing out the window.

This alarm didn’t come from the home theater, but from outside on the street.

“What happened outside? Why are there so many alarms, there are at least six or seven police cars.”

With curiosity, Jiang Chen paused the movie, and went to the window. In front of the shopping mall half a street away, and a row of police cars with red and blue lights blocked the entrance to the mall.

Jiang Chen held a peculiar expression on his face.

What a coincidence. I was watching an action film, and there is a confrontation outside.

Chapter 957: Hostage Crisis

The hostage situation alerted the Kuala Lumpur Police Headquarters and the Malayisa federal government 20 kilometers away. The Chief Sheriff of Kuala Lumpur rushed to the scene, followed by the head of the National Anti-Terrorism Office, the anti-terrorism experts from the military, as well as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Miesba.

Not far behind the police’s explosion-proof vehicles, these people urgently convened an operational meeting to discuss how to deal with the terrorists in the mall.

“There are nine terrorists in the mall who control the fourth, fifth and sixth floors. They captured a total of 79 hostages,” Chief Sergeant Meyaki anxiously reported.

“When is our anti-terrorist force coming?”

“They are on the way. What about the cameras in the mall? We need to confirm the location of the hostages and the layout of the mall. Where are the contractors who built the building? Find them, I need the drawings of the building.” The anti-terrorism expert examined the map provided by the person in charge of the mall, then said with a deep frown. “This is useless.”

The map for tourists didn’t offer any value. It didn’t identify the location of the cameras, let alone the building’s load-bearing structure and other critical information. Without knowing the load-bearing structure, if they encountered any situation where they were required to blast through, the amount of charge used and the risk associated would be up to their own judgement, which undoubtedly increased the risk of action.

“We have already contacted the building contractor. They said that they will send the drawings within half an hour. The hostage location… This is a bit difficult,” Meyaki answered while sweating profusely.

“Difficult?” Gafael, the head of the National Anti-Terrorism office, frowned.

“The terrorists planned this carefully. They not only cut off the power to the building, but also cut off all connections between the monitoring line and the outside. We can’t see anything…” said the person in charge of the mall building.

These terrorists were prepared.

The chief of staff, Miesba, looked at his watch and looked at the direction of the Hilton Hotel. He took a deep breath and walked over to Gafael.

“Listen, I need you to solve this problem in the shortest possible time and in the cleanest way.”

Gafael immediately shook his head. “The shortest time? Don’t bullsh*t me, there are 79 hostages. Unless the Prime Minister is willing to take responsibility for the safety of the hostages, there’s no way this will be quick.”

Miesba lowered his voice, “I know it’s hard to do, but there is a foreign guest in the Hilton Hotel next door, and an extremely important one.”

“A foreign guest? Which one?” Gafael frowned.

“The rich man from the New Malaysia Special District, you should know who it is. And just now, he and the Prime Minister agreed on a big deal involving more than one billion dollars in value related to electricity and TNB.” Miesba took a deep breath and looked to the mall. “We can’t let the other party be concerned about our investment environment. We must solve this hostage crisis in the shortest time, otherwise… Someone has to stand up and take responsibility in the end.”

Gafael’s scalp felt a little numb as he cursed out.

“These damn scums, why did they pick this time and this place!”

“Ask them this question once you capture them, if you can take them captive in the first place.” With a sigh, Miesba looked at his watch again and then looked at the Chief Sheriff, “Have someone appease the foreign guest’s emotions. At least let him know that this is just an accident and does not represent the security of the country…”

…

On the twenty-first floor of the Hilton Hotel, which overlooked the entire situation, Jiang Chen moved a chair over and sat beside the glass window to examine the situation with great interest.

It was much more interesting than the movie.

The police force surrounded the entrance to the mall with police vehicles. They nervously hid behind the vehicles that acted as covers. Police officers wearing bulletproof vests and used megaphones to speak to the terrorists inside the mall behind the explosion-proof vehicles.

The Kuala Lumpur Police closed the scene and evacuated the street. The entire street was blocked off, including the entrance to the Hilton Hotel.

There were still many people unafraid of death.

Outside the police line, the crowd surrounded the scene and formed a dense circle. In addition to reporters, many citizens filmed the situation. With so many cameras directed at them, the police officers were feeling the heat. As a major metropolitan in Southeast Asia, the hostage situation was going to make international headline!

Jiang Chen called the bodyguard downstairs and asked him to learn more about the situation.

Not far away, the police force and the terrorists entered a stalemate, the hostages in the mall forced them to be extra cautious, but the demands of the terrorists were simply unacceptable.

Soon, the bodyguard called back and reported the situation downstairs to Jiang Chen.

In short, those terrorists were no ordinary terrorists at all, but equipped with automatic weapons and bulletproof vests. A total of 79 hostages were held in the mall, most of them were mall staff and shopping tourists. The terrorists demanded that the police immediately release 110 people who were detained in prison for being suspected of planning and participating in terrorist attacks. If the police didn’t release the prisoners, they would kill one person every hour.

The Malayisa government would never release those prisoners.

If they established the precedent to compromise to terrorists, it would be a nightnamre in the future. And the terrorists inside this mall clearly did not intend to escape. If they confirmed the safety of their associates, they would probably explode everything the next second.

The Malayisa Police were helpless and requested reinforcements from the anti-terrorist forces stationed in Kuala Lumpur. Soon, two armored vehicles arrived and two Black Hawk helicopters hovered around the mall. Anti-terrorist units wearing black combat uniforms entered the scene and surrounded the mall.

There seems to be no further actions?

Jiang Chen yawned, and when he was about to go back to his room, his watch shook twice.

The holographic screen opened, and the bodyguard standing at the door appeared on the screen.

“The Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Miesba, and Kuala Lumpur’s Chief Sherrif, Meyaki, are at the door and they want to see you.”

Jiang Chen took a second to think of the reason and immediately understood their intentions, so he nodded.

“Invite them in.”

“Yes.” The bodyguard wearing sunglasses nodded and ended the communication.

Soon, the door opened, and a slim man with a European face in a suit walked in. Behind him was an Asian in a police uniform.

Miesba apologized as soon as he entered the room.

“Mr. Jiang, I am sorry that we meet again in this way. There is a hostage incident in mall across the street. I am sorry that our mistakes have affected your travel. If you have any arrangements to go out at night, we can arrange an armored vehicle to escort you from the door to the police line.”

“No need. I understand your difficulties and I sincerely hope that the hostages in the mall will be safe and sound.” The apology of the chief of staff was very sincere, and Jiang Chen did not give him any trouble. He expressed that he didn’t mind the situation.

But at this moment, Jiang Chen focused on the sheriff behind him.

His eyes moved around and an idea suddenly appeared, so he smiled and said.

“Can I learn more about the situation? Are the hostages in the mall still fine?”

Meyaki’s heart clanked as Mr. Jiang asked about the situation.

Meyaki had to bite the bullet and respond with honesty. “The situation is already under control. After the anti-terrorist forces arrive, we will soon start the rescue operation. It is only because of the monitoring system-”

Miesba glanced at Meyaki, and the sheriff immediately realized that he said too much and quickly closed his mouth.

Although the sheriff quickly closed his mouth, Jiang Chen had already heard the information he wanted to hear.

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded, then looked at the chief of staff.

“Monitor? Maybe Celestial Trade can help you.”

Chapter 958: An Idiotic Question

Jiang Chen’s proposal somewhat shocked Miesba, but soon he shook his head and declined.

“I express my gratitude for Mr. Jiang’s good intention. Malaysia has a professional anti-terrorist force; we don’t need foreign counter-terrorism forces’ help.”

As a private military company, Celestial Trade gained a far more notorious name compared to Blackwater International, Triple Canopy, and DynCorp. The three most classic battles were Pannu Islands coup, independence of MLL Island, and Moro’s self-defense.

The combat power the company displayed was not inferior to any army of any country.

This army nominally acted as a mercenary force and Xin’s national defense contractor. In reality however, no countries regard this army as a mercenary force, but viewed it as a regular army outside the formal establishment. Although the hostage incident in Kuala Lumpur put the Malaysia Prime Minister in a tight situation, the situation was far from requiring the help of foreigners.

However, after understanding what Miesba meant, Jiang Chen shook his head. “You misunderstood what I meant.”

“Oh?” Miesba raised an eyebrow and looked at Jiang Chen with a questioning look. “What is Mr. Jiang’s proposal?”

“Terrorists have occupied the mall, taken control of the monitoring inside the building, and cut off the connection. If I didn’t guess wrong, they must also have the standby generators in the building under control. Even if the building’s power is cut off, they can also maintain the power supply of the building for a long time. Under such circumstances, it means that your anti-terrorist forces have to carry out the rescue operation under the eyes of the terrorists. Am I right?” Jiang Chen said with a smile

“We have contacted the building contractor of the building and will soon be able to obtain the architectural drawings. We have professional anti-terrorism experts and this is our own problem. Mr. Jiang should not worry about it.” Miesba shook his head.

“Of course it is your own problem, but we can provide you with better equipment and increase the success rate of the rescue.” Jiang Chen smiled at Miesba and then looked at the chief sheriff. “The drones manufactured by Future Heavy Industries, are you not interested?”

…

The distance between Coro Island and Kuala Lumpur was not very far, even for a passenger plane, it was a two to three hour journey.

Jiang Chen made a phone call and ordered New Moon Island to prepare the equipment and aircraft. Two beta-2 police drone terminals, as well as more than 20 drones, were loaded onto the transport aircraft, along with a Celestial Trade drone expert.

The chief of staff called the prime minister, and soon Prime Minister Razak approved Celestial Trade’s participation in the hostage rescue. Kuala Lumpur was the capital of Malaysia. Now the media all over the world focused on how the government could resolve this incident.

It was no exaggeration to say that the outcome of this hostage crisis would affect the national image, tourism, and investment rating for at least five years, or even longer.

On the one hand, the Kuala Lumpur Police Force negotiated with the terrorists through negotiation experts to calm the terrorists while on the other hand, they were working with the special anti-terrorist forces to prepare for the rescue of the hostages.

After hearing that Miesba had asked for foreign aid, the head of the National Anti-terrorism Office, Gafael, scoffed at the idea, saying that his subordinates did not need those toys at all. As long as they saw the architectural drawings of the mall, they could easily sneak into blind spots and then save the hostages.

However, after getting the architectural drawings, his expression suddenly changed for the worse.

At least from the drawings, it was almost impossible to approach the hostages without disturbing the terrorists. And based on the drawings, there were too many places where the hostages could be!

It was not just him, even the anti-terrorism expert from the army gave a helpless look after studying the drawings.

The media were waiting for their news outside the cordon. They had been preparing for a long time.

Should they start the rescue?

Just as Gafael and anti-terrorism experts were sweating profusely in the temporary command room, an explosion-proof car stopped in front of the temporary command room, and a man came in.

After Gafael saw him, he frowned slightly.

“You are?”

“This is my business card.”

The man said distantly as he took the toolbox next to the map, leaving Gafael feeling bewildered.

Soon, Miesba came in and explained.

“This is a drone expert from Celestial Trade.”

Gafael frowned, “I said, I don’t need those gadgets.”

“Then do you have a better plan?”

The words made Gafael stop, he couldn’t respond.

Seeing the stubborn head of the National Anti-terrorism Office speechless, Miesba continued,

“The Prime Minister asked you to resolve the problem within five hours. There is still one hour left. If the terrorists execute the hostages, will you take responsibility?”

Cold sweat dripped from his forehead, and Gafael moved his stiff neck. He finally caved in and nodded.

“Okay, let him try.”

When the drone expert of Celestial Trade arrived, he just glanced at the map and took a few photos. He then turned away from the command room and dragged the equipment out of the vehicle and prepared for work.

Gafael watched him play with the equipment. He couldn’t see anything intriguing about this, so he spoke up.

“The noise of the drone will attract the attention of the terrorists. You are risking the life of 79 hostages.”

“Our drone are noiseless,” the drone expert said emotionlessly.

Gafael stared at him as if he was staring at a monster.

The drone is noiseless? Are you kidding me?

However, just as he was about to say something, the drone expert quickly took action to shut him down.

The drone terminal deployed on the road quickly opened the cover on the outer casing. A palm-sized drone flew out from inside and steadily hovered over the drone expert’s hand.

Unless it was extremely close, the noise was barely distinguishable.

Instantly, he was deeply ashamed of his action.

While they were all four rotor-wing drones, the embedded aluminum alloy fan blades of Future Heavy Industries did not make loud audible noise like the drones available in the market. It was like an invisible hand holding the drone from below.

The drone expert told Gafael with his actions the fascinating limit of technology.

Locking his eyes on the drones, Gafael said with astonishment, uncertainty of the reality in front of him.

“Where are you going to… let these little guys in?”

Gafael immediately realized that the question he asked was plain stupid.

[Were? The central air conditioning vents? The maneuverability of this drone could go anywhere?]

The central air-conditioning in the mall extend in all directions, and the drones could easily go in where people can’t! Want to determine the location of the hostage? It is too easy!

Sure enough, the drone expert also felt that the question was idiotic and did not answer.

He took the tablet and uploaded the scanned map into it, then set the flight path of the drones along the central air conditioning duct. A dozen drones flew out of the terminal and rushed into the dark mall.

After doing all this, the drone expert looked at the bewildered Gafael, and calmly said,

“Tell your people to prepare themselves. It’s time to get to work.”

Chapter 959: Drone Orders

It was a battle without suspense.

Ten drones followed the central air-conditioning duct and quickly arrived at the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors controlled by the terrorists. They identified the location of the hostages through the camera and ambushed above the head of the terrorists.

The Malaysia counter-terrorism forces immediately formulated an execution plan based on the intelligence detected by the drone. They divided into five teams and attacked the weak parts of the building, and began their operations simultaneously.

With the cooperation of the sudden attack by drones, more than 30 special forces rushed into the building with lightning speed, killing several terrorists and ended the battle in just eighty seconds.

All 79 hostages were rescued, eight of the terrorists were killed on the spot and the remaining two were captured.

Yes, there were a total of ten terrorists.

The Malaysia police’s information was incorrect. There were more than nine terrorists, one of the terrorist disguised themselves as a tourist and stayed together with the other hostages with explosives in his jacket.

If it was not for beta-2 police drone’s quick reaction in executing the terrorist attempting to detonate the explosives, this hostage rescue operation may have ended in failure.

Thanks to the help of the beta-2 drone, the hostage crisis was solved.

Afterwards, the prime minister and King of Malaysia expressed their gratitude to Jiang Chen and Celestial Trade for their help. All the media that arrived at the scene also expressed their amazement at the police drones that contributed greatly in the hostages rescue!

The Nouveau York Times on the other side of the ocean even gave the drone a name of “anti-terrorism holy grail”.

Gratitude was just gratitude after, if it were not for the benefits after, Jiang Chen was not be that bored to give out a helping hand.

Sure enough, just after he and TNB negotiated the power export agreement and the construction of the submarine transmission cable, the Malaysian police chief came to see him, hoping to order a batch of beta-2 drones.

The total value of the order was over 20 million XND.

The 20 million XND order was not a big order to Future Heavy Industries, but it was definitely a good start. For a long time, this kind of police drone with the capability to carry light weapons was unable to penetrate into the foreign market. Compared to working with foreign companies, the police departments were more inclined to work with domestic equipment suppliers.

This hostage incident undoubtedly brought good publicity for the beta-2 drone.

With the cooperation of beta-2, the Malaysia Special Forces suffered no casualties and rescued all 79 hostages from terrorists equipped with sophisticated gears. Even among the cases of success story in counter-terrorism operations around the world, this would be considered an impressive achievement.

The countries plagued by terrorism would certainly be interested in the beta-2 drones.

…

Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, on the Lunar Colony, more than a dozen vehicles were working around a football-field-sized open space. The steel frame was being built, and the workers in spacesuits moved around the construction materials like kangaroos. They attached the frame together with a low-power metal jet welding torches.

At the center of the site was a hexagonal platform.

On a dark and sturdy outer shell were scaly drums. Each of the protrusions was about the size of a thumb and they were neatly arranged into a net that covered the entire hexagonal outer casing.

“…the connection is normal.”

With a sigh of relief, Lu Fan raised his hand and rubbed his forehead.

He was not really sweating. It was just a habit he has whenever he solved a big problem. But this time, he touched a heavy helmet.

Still processing his action, Lu Fan immediately smiled awkwardly and tossed the device into the toolbox, ready to return to the colony.

It had been more than a week since he came here.

The closer you are to the universe, the more miniscule you feel.

After the initial craze, Lu Fan began to remember his life on Earth just as the director had said. The feeling of legs bound to the ground by gravity could only be felt in the gravity chamber.

Passing through the buffer chamber, he hung his space suit at the door, pulled out his ID card and swept it on the scanner. Then, he took a can of coffee from the vending machine. In space, he still had to pay, but his salary was several times higher than on Earth, so there was no need to carefully budget.

At the same time, a middle-aged man also passed through the buffer chamber and entered into the colony. After seeing Lu Fan, he said hello.

“How does it feel?”

“It was okay,” Lu Fan said casually. “I felt like I went to Australia and became a kangaroo.”

The middle-aged man laughed and put the toolbox aside.

“Yes, we are all kangaroos. Speaking of which, have you been to Australia? The kangaroos there are really fun, I mean the ones in the zoo, the wild ones are not friendly at all.”

“I haven’t been there. Maybe I will go after my three month shift,” Lu Fan squeezed his eyebrows, “and learn from them about how to jump like kangaroos.”

“Hahaha…!”

The middle-aged man was his boss, He Biao, the head of the power department in the colony. Although he was the boss, there was no concept of beauracracy here. The size of the colony now was around 500 people. Although new people joined in every once in a while, it was still a small place.

The entire power department only had twenty people.

These twenty electric engineers supported the entire colony’s grid from the living quarter to the soilless room.

The two packed up their things and prepared to go to the cafeteria for lunch. To keep a good schedule on the Moon, it was important to keep track of time, so the sleeping and eating schedule could be maintained.

In the cafeteria, Lu Fan ordered a plate of curry beef, and sat across from He Biao. He could just see the work site from the window from where he sat.

Lu Fan frowned slightly and asked about something that bothered him. “You said… what exactly is that thing?”

He Biao thought for a second and looked at him strangely.

“The thing outside? You don’t know?”

Lu Fan shook his head.

“No one told me, is this confidential in the company?”

He Biao smiled and shook his head.

“It’s not confidential, because it will be put into use soon. But some time ago, the relevant information about that was indeed classifed as highly confidential.”

Lu Fan was even more curious.

“What exactly is it?”

“A device that converts electrical energy into light energy, and then transports it hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.”

“How is this possible!” Lu Fan couldn’t control his voice.

Seeing other people in the cafeteria look in his direction, he quickly lowered his head and lowered his voice.

He Biao looked at the astounded subordinate and grinned. “Nothing is impossible. Although when I heard this for the first time, I was even more surprised than you. But after studying the entire drawings, you will not think that way.”

He turned his eyes to the window and said longingly.

“If the test runs smoothly, this will become the first gift from the Moon to the Earth. And our colony will no longer be burning through cash!”

Chapter 960: The February Spent on Plane

After staying in Kuala Lumpur for three days, Jiang Chen returned to Coro Island on his Gulfstream G650 and began preparing for his next trip.

Shortly after he returned, Celestial Trade sent a construction ship to the sea between Ange Island and New Malaysia Special District to begin construction work under the sea. It was much more troublesome to lay such a submarine transmission line than to build an overhead transmission line on land. However, for Celestial Trade that often engages in submarine engineering, it was not a big deal.

The person in charge of the project assured Jiang Chen that the transmission line would be completed by the end of March at the latest.

On the other side of the Moon Colony, the colonial director Tang Weijie also assured Jiang Chen through video calls to complete the laying of long-distance power transmission equipment by the end of February. From Celestial City, the device used to receive the laser was also under construction.

Kelvin guaranteed Jiang Chen that by the middle of March at the latest, the whole country would be able to use the electricity generated by the lunar nuclear fusion power station. Coro Nuclear Power Plant could finally be decommissioned form the historical stage after years of criticism .

…

Jiang Chen spent almost the entirety of February on his plane.

Following Malaysia’s agreement to connect its domestic grid with the Xin, negotiations between Celestial Trade and Australia, India, Nippon, and South Korea were also in progress.

As Jiang Chen expected, the electricity price of 1.2 cents USD per kilowatt-hour was impossible to refuse. Some people speculated that Celestial Trade used solar energy, while others also speculated that there were a large number of isotope of uranium and thorium on the Bennu asteroid, but no one thought of nuclear fusion.

Because it was too difficult to achieve nuclear fusion, no material could withstand the tens of millions of degrees of reaction temperature required. The fabled cold fusion has even more demanding conditions to the point that was sounded more fictional.

In fact, even in the 22nd century, there was no material that could withstand tens of millions of degrees of high temperature.

If such a material did exist, flying into the Sun would not be a problem. After all, the internal temperature of the sun was only around 20 million degrees Celsius.

But in the not-too-distant future, a magical technology that confined particles into a certain space, while maintaining its own high temperature, while not making contact with other materials, was invented. Instead of a material container in the traditional sense, it was held by an invisible hand.

It was the magnetic confinement technology.

But even applying magnetic confinement technology, nuclear fusion power generation was still an almost impossible problem for most people. The device for constraining charged particles by magnetic confinement was born as early as the end of the 20th century. However, the use of magnetic confinement technology to constrain the uncharged helium-3 and deuterium involved particle science that couldn’t be explained by present day physics.

All in all, the negotiations with Australia were quite successful. The Australian-side promised to build the submarine transmission line, but insisted that the construction and maintenance of this line must be handed over to Australian companies. Jiang Chen readily accepted this proposal. If it was really handed to the offshore construction team of Celestial Trade, they wouldn’t be able to manage all the projects. They could only postpone the construction period after the completion of the transmission line between Ange Island and New Malaysia Special District.

Australia’s annual power generation was almost twice that of Malaysia, close to 400 billion kWh. Moreover, due to institutional reasons, the Australian-side did not interfere in the negotiation with its own domestic companies like Malaysia did on the import amount.

Australia’s electricity was basically monopolized by two major companies. AGL committed to the development of new energy source offered a lucrative deal. The company signed a contract of 100 billion kWh and obtained priority in the Australian market after Jiang Chen proposed the offer.

This southern hemisphere market would generate more than one billion Australian dollars in revenue per year for Celestial Trade.

As for India, the negotiations went even smoother.

As an emerging economy with the world’s fifth-largest power generation, India’s annual electricity subsidy remained an astronomical figure. Just when negotiating with India, Jiang Chen learned the definition of honing. Both parties already agreed on the price, but they strangely couldn’t finalize the deal.

In the end, Jiang Chen simply gave the follow-up work to Future Bank’s branch in India and then flew to Japan.

There were still many things he must do, and there was no time to waste in one place.

…

Europe, at the foot of the Alps, in a manor under the name of Rothschild, fruit farmers were working in front of rows of grape vines. The planting techniques they use were inherited from the traditional planting techniques mastered by the Medici family in the 14th century.

The Rothschild family firmly believed that only the traditional planting techniques could produce the most authentic wine. The red wine that flowed out of this winery were wines comparable to gold, and were sought after by the entire upper class in Europe.

Next to the vineyard, a man in a casual outfit was looking at the newspaper and sitting on a wooden chair made of rattan.

Without a close examination, no one would know that the Jewish man was the uncrowned king of the underground forces in Europe.

After the tragedy in Pilsner Syragogue, he integrated the power of Freemasonry and was indeed worthy of the title “uncrowned king.” Among the level 33 members, his seniority was the highest. He was not only the one controlling the Freemasonry, but the one who owned the wealth of the Rothschild family.

However, at this moment, the young king had a melancholic expression.

A Mercedes-Benz was parked at the door of the winery, it was Johnson that stepped out. He was Rothschild’s private bodyguard and his most loyal subordinate. He has been following Carmen since he was picked up by Rothschild from the French Foreign Legion.

He seemed to be one of the perpetrators behind the tragedy in Europe that shocked the world.

Without turning his head, Carmen flipped to the next page and asked casually.

“Did you take care of it?”

“Like a cold war machine,” Johnson responded.

“All of them have been taken care of?”

Just two hours ago, all the voices of opposition within the EU were annihilated.

A curvature formed on Carmen’s lips and he folded the newspaper.

The butler who stood by his side was slightly surprised. It was the first time he saw his young master smile.

Putting the newspaper aside, Carmen stood up and laughed.

“Where is our enemy? Did they notice?”

Johnson shook his head.

“Excellent.”

Looking towards the Alps not far away, the smile on Carmen’s face became even brighter, just like the snow that had just melted in the Alps.

“I should get going soon.”

Chapter 961: Returning to Yoto

One year had gone by since Jiang Chen last visited Nippon.

Nowadays, the traces of the tragedy last year could no longer be seen on the streets of Yoto. The Shinagawa area under the control of the UA military was also returned. The shops reappeared, looking brand-new and bustling with life.

The reality proved Jiang Chen’s judgment was correct.

The Kurofune collapsed, the T virus disappeared, and the housing prices in Yoto returned to a “normal” level. Although the prices has yet to return to top ten in the world, it wasn’t too far away from regaining its former glory. At that time, companies that tossed out real estate like hot potatoes were in despair.

No one thought that the crisis would end so quickly.

Jiang Chen’s Shibuya 109 Building bought for 60 million US dollars was now his cash cow under the management of a professional property manager he hired. The Shinjuku Commercial Street he purchased already appreciated more than ten times its original value. Even Akihabara, which he bought because he felt like it, was transformed into a street combined with holographic and augmentative technologies by Future Technology.

The mood of the Nippon government was in a complicated state as they witnessed the transformation brought by Future Group in their own country. On the one hand, Future Group basically rubbed money from people’s hands, but on the other hand, they also really benefited in joy and agony.

Just like the UA, 50% of its citizens would protest if Future Group no longer existed. The Nippon government was now facing the same problem. Although they wanted to learn Future Group’s technology then kick the company out, they couldn’t do that.

However, the reaction of the people was dull, and most of them didn’t seem to be bothered by who transformed their city.

The mansion at the foot of Mount Fuji, once a golf course open only to upper class, was completely transformed into a private manor after being bought by Jiang Chen. The green lawn that covered a thousand acres naturally became his private garden.

In order not to waste space, Jiang Chen also learned from the European aristocracy. He hired a French gardener and designated a piece of land to turn into a vineyard. Although the soil at the foot of Mount Fuji was rich in sulfur and the grapes produced weren’t sweet, he viewed it as a decoration.

Jiang Chen didn’t expect to use the grapes here to make wine.

“Master, please enjoy.”

“Mhmm, put it there for now.”

“Okay.”

Qian Xia, in a maid’s outfit, leaned down and gently placed the brewed black tea on the table. When she left, she inadvertently made eye contact with the beautiful woman sitting across from Jiang Chen. She immediately bowed in embarrassment and fled.

“You certainly know how to enjoy yourself.”

Liu Yao pouted and expressed her dissatisfaction. She picked up the teacup, took a small sip, and suddenly “squeaked” in surprise.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t speak.

It seemed that during the time when he wasn’t there, Qian Xia didn’t stop practicing as her tea craft improved.

“Why don’t you talk? Did you not miss me?” Seeing as Jiang Chen had no response, Liu Yao acted sad as she put down the teacup.

“How could I not have missed you? I’ve just been too busy lately.” Jiang Chen laughed and changed the subject. “Right, speaking of which, how come you suddenly came here?”

“I’m participating in the premiere here; I told you on the phone the day before yesterday.”

It seemed that Jiang Chen didn’t pay enough attention to her, and Liu Yao was pouting even more. However, Jiang Chen didn’t mind her attitude.

“The premiere? Is the ‘Time Curtain’ not already released?” Jiang Chen was surprised.

“Not the same movie. I was just a nobody in ‘Time Curtain’.” Liu Yao stuck out her tongue. “Before ‘Time Curtain,’ I also starred in another movie. Future Technology is the biggest investor—don’t you care about your company’s business at all?”

Jiang Chen thought about it. It was probably before Ning Jianhua’s promotion to CEO of the head office. Although Jiang Chen never disclosed his relationship with Liu Yao, there were rumors of similar anecdotes on the Internet.

A domestic film required an investment of around 50 million US dollars at most. Compared to Future Group’s profits in Hua, it was negligible. As long as this small investment followed the procedure, his subordinates didn’t need to report to him.

In his memory, Liu Yao mentioned this to him before, but too many things happened recently and he didn’t remember.

Just as Jiang Chen was awkwardly trying to Google her movie without her noticing, Liu Yao read his awkwardness like a book and said the name of the movie herself.

“It’s ‘The Three-Body Problem,’ a domestic sci-fi blockbuster.”

“The Three-Body Problem?” Jiang Chen was genuinely surprised. His first reaction wasn’t to ask Liu Yao, “What role are you playing?”

“Is it finally filmed?”

Finally filmed?

Speaking of The Three-Body Problem, it was a treacherous story. From the initial advertisement to the CEO’s ambition of creating Hua’s own sci-fi blockbuster, to the CEO’s announcement of his resignation two months before the release, to the removal of the special effects team and the director, these all seemed to cast a shadow on the seemingly bright future of the country’s science fiction genre.

Although the company responsible for production didn’t give up on the rights to create the film, the budget burned in the beginning netted nothing and all the created content was abandoned. Investors all withdraw their investments on the film they previously had shared optimism on. Even the parent company held a cautious attitude.

Emotion was worth nothing in front of capital. A project filled with risks even directed by the best director would make investors cautious.

Because of a lack of suitable investors, this masterpiece that won the Hugo Award was put on hold for an indefinite period of time.

Fortunately, however, the new team that took over the adaptation of The Three-Body Problem took the opportunity to collaborate with Future Technology—or collaborate with the woman of an important individual.

Although many netizens were very dissatisfied with the lead female actress being someone with big breasts because they thought it was disrespectful to the original, the crew eager for investments didn’t care much. The right for adoption had a time limit and they couldn’t wait forever. What’s more, Liu Yao now possessed the ability to draw box office numbers. As for the fact that the female protagonist in the original didn’t have a big chest, who would care other than diehards?

Besides, did the image of the female protagonist really matter in a science fiction film?

Just like that, the blockbuster film with a treacherous road was finally put on the big screen in early 2019.

As the investor, Future Technology also inserted advertisements into some of the scenes in the film based on the contract. For example, the VR helmet in the original directly appeared as the Phantom helmet. The trademark of Future Technology was also printed on many high-tech products.

In any case, after this arduous journey, the crew responsible for filming finally put the film on the big screen in 2019 and shattered the rumors that it would be delayed until 2020.

Chapter 962: Now, do you believe I missed you?

“It’s already released.” Liu Yao flirtatiously rolled her eyes and took a sip of tea. “Three days ago, I was still attending the premiere in Wanghai. According to the response from the theaters, the box office did quite well on the first day and was ranked first among the movies released in the same period. Now all the cinemas have begun to increase the placement rate. If nothing goes wrong, the box office should go over one billion without a problem.”

“One billion?” Jiang Chen was shocked. “Emotion is too valuable.”

“Hey, what! I worked very hard!” Liu Yao was displeased. “You should praise me more. Also, you didn’t go watch the movie with me this time and the time before…”

While finishing her sentence, Liu Yao suddenly blushed and her voice became quieter and quieter.

She suddenly remembered that Jiang Chen always watched a “pre-screening” with her at home before she went to the cinema with him, and they seemed to always use a special position during the movie…

“Would you like to… Watch the movie together?” Jiang Chen was grinning.

“Screw you!”

Liu Yao “slammed” her fist on Jiang Chen’s chest, but she didn’t refuse…

The crew obviously brought the film source to attend the Yoto premiere. Jiang Chen called Ning Huajian, who was promoted to the CEO of Future Technology, and the digital version of the film source was quickly sent to him.

It wasn’t favored by capital, and they didn’t have a big-name director. Naturally, they didn’t have the audacity to refuse a request from the largest investor.

Jiang Chen told Qian Xia to go back to university then he returned inside with Liu Yao.

The lavish mansion was equipped with a home theater. Pulling out the data cable to connect his watch to the home theater, he loaded the digital version of the film source onto the device. Liu Yao already brought two bottles of red wine from the refrigerator.

The bottles were popped open. Jiang Chen sat next to Liu Yao, and the trademarks appeared on the screen.

The film officially began!

To be honest, the development of Hua science fiction films was extremely difficult and not necessarily the fault of the directors. The biggest hurdle was special effects. While poor special effects could work in Xianxia or fantasy, it mattered greatly in producing realistic science fiction films.

Fortunately, Future Technology solved this problem. All the special effects were outsourced to Virtual Animation, the subsidiary of Future Technology. In order to ensure that this investment of nearly 200 million didn’t go down the drain, Virtual Animation also sent two specialists to Wanghai to assist in the filming.

A piece above average!

At the end of the movie, Jiang Chen rated this film.

After drinking the last drop of red wine, he took a sigh of relief, picked up the remote control and turned off the movie. He then picked up Liu Yao, who was already melted on the sofa, and walked into the bedroom.

They watched the film for so long and even he was feeling tired, let alone Liu Yao who must be drained.

Well, they were just watching the movie and didn’t do anything like last time. Don’t think too much.

A warm tenderness was between his arms. A faint panting echoed beside his ears mixed with a hint of sweetness.

“So naughty…”

There was a complaint as faint as a mosquito then his ear was bitten by her teeth.

It didn’t hurt, but it was very seductive.

Jiang Chen smirked and slapped her curvy figure.

“Now, do you believe I missed you?”

“…I believe you.” Liu Yao pouted while admitting her defeat, but the sweetness on her lips couldn’t be hidden.

Jiang Chen turned her over and tucked her in.

“Rest for a bit.”

After giving her a kiss on the forehead, Jiang Chen left the bedroom.

After Qian Xia went to class, no one else was in the mansion, so he tidied the things in the living room and tossed the empty bottles into the recycling in the kitchen.

After he just cleaned up, he heard Liu Yao’s scream from the bedroom. It didn’t take long before she ran out in a hurry with her hair all messy.

“I’m so screwed! I have to be at the premiere at night! How did I forget about this?! No, the agent called me already.” She rushed into the bathroom and carefully examined to see if there were any strange marks on her face.

There would be a lot of reporters. If they spotted a hickey, it would be extremely embarrassing

When she ran out of the bedroom, she only had time to put on a T-shirt. Jiang Chen stared at her two long legs and the looming mysterious field. He felt the desires that just dissipated gradually reappearing again.

“Agent? Is it a man or a woman?” Jiang Chen walked behind Liu Yao, grabbed her slim waist, and smiled.

“You bad guy. Of course it’s a woman. It’s my best friend from university, a girl who graduated three years later than me.” Liu Yao felt something terrifying against her. She blushed and looked at him in fear. “Umm, she’s already on her way. Can you… can you wait until the premiere is over…”

Although there were some regrets, Jiang Chen also knew the limits and didn’t insist. After teasing her for a bit longer, he let her go. There was still a negotiation in the afternoon that required some preparation.

After Liu Yao dressed up, she appeared in a light blue dress and the pure and dignified Liu Yao reappeared in front of him.

At about the same time, a black car stopped in front of Jiang Chen and was stopped by two Celestial Trade bodyguards.

Just when Chen Yuqing was anxious and didn’t know what to do, the door opened and a man and a woman came out. The woman was naturally Liu Yao, and she was holding onto Jiang Chen.

“Yao, you finally came out.” Chen Yuqing grabbed Liu Yao’s hand. “The crew didn’t see you and they’re worried as hell. Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?”

The girl with curly hair looked young. Although she was fashionable, it was easy to tell she just left university from her actions and words.

“Sorry for worrying you.” Liu Yao scratched her face in embarrassment.

How could she tell her about meeting her lover?

The next second, Chen Yuqing focused on Jiang Chen, and her eyes instantly widened.

“You… are you Jiang Chen?”

“Guaranteed to be authentic.” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded.

Chen Yuqing nodded in a stunned state, lowered her head and whispered, “I thought Yao was joking last time. The rumors are true.”

Jiang Chen smiled. “Can you please help Yao keep it a secret?”

Chen Yuqing nodded hard. “Of course! I’m her agent. I still have professional ethics!”

After that, Chen Yuqing looked at Liu Yao with some objections.

“You have to be careful. The place is so openif there are any reporters…”

“The reporters can’t follow me,” Jiang Chen said half-jokingly. “Didn’t you see? The two cars that followed you turned around.”

With his status, it was too easy to pick on ordinary people. No one would make jokes about their own lives. Naturally, there would be reporters who pointed their cameras at private occasions.

Chen Yuqing looked at the street behind her in surprise but saw nothing.

Obviously, the new agent didn’t realize she was followed after leaving the crew.

Jiang Chen was worried about Liu Yao and whether such a rash agent would be good or bad for her acting career.

Holding Jiang Chen’s arm, Liu Yao tipped her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

“Can you go to the premiere with me?”

“What time is it?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Eight! At the entrance of the Piccadilly Cinema in Shinjuku!” Liu Yao said excitedly.

“Eight?” Jiang Chen looked at his watch. It was only ten o’clock in the morning. “Shouldn’t be a problem. I should be able to take care of everything.”

“Mhmm! I love you the most!” Liu Yao held Jiang Chen with joy and kissed him on the face. “You must come. I’ll dress up for you.”

Jiang Chen patted her on her butt and let go of Liu Yao, who wanted to hit back.

After teasing her, Liu Yao bid farewell then reluctantly turned around and sat in the car with Chen Yuqing.

Watching the car leave, Jiang Chen lifted his watch out of habit. He looked at the time and said to himself, “I should probably get going too.”

Chapter 963: Sumitomo Foundation

“A price of one US cent? Mr. Jiang, are you sure you’re not kidding?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen. Patiently, he repeated the sentence he said countless times. “A transmission line from Xin to Yoto will be able to solve the entire country’s electricity usage problem.”

The man sitting across from him suddenly smiled and held Jiang Chen’s hand enthusiastically.

“Hey! Hey! We can talk about this!”

After the T virus incident, the former Nippon Prime Minister was forced to step down. Although the re-elected politicians didn’t take as far right of a stance, domestic conservativism remained the dominant ideology.

The stance demonstrated a mistrust of foreign companies.

Celestial Trade could guarantee the supply of electricity within the contract period. But what if the contract expired and Celestial Trade refused to renew the contract, or what if they hiked the price? Compared with the price of one cent, the power plants in Nippon simply weren’t competitive. This would create a gap in which even financial subsidies couldn’t make up the difference. By that time, the Nippon power plants would all be shut down. Even if they were unwilling to accept the price increase of Celestial Trade, they would have to forcefully accept this deal.

Tempting? Of course it was tempting.

After the nuclear power plant incident, the whole country was shrouded in a mood called nuclear panic. It was impossible to start construction of a nuclear power plant. But if the country couldn’t rely on nuclear power, relying on new energy sources without the ability to ramp up couldn’t solve the social contradictions brought about by the growing demand for electricity.

Even if Jiang Chen repeatedly promised that such a thing wouldn’t happen, he wished to dispel the concerns of politicians and it wasn’t so simple.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you a clear answer today. I have to exchange opinions with my cabinet in order to provide a responsible answer.” Sitting on the opposite side, the man got up, shook hands with Jiang Chen and saw him to the door.

They wouldn’t show their hand. That was the most difficult part of negotiating with Nippon people.

It was completely different from India. The Indians invited him into the room with joy and excitement. Negotiations went smoothly, but they dragged on signing for as long as they could…

Jiang Chen was even considering if he should find a North American to represent him in the negotiations. As long as the commission was appropriate, B City Bank or Morgan Stanley should be happy to represent him in negotiations. Someone with a different background should ease the concerns of the Nippon politicians.

After leaving the official residence of the Nippon Prime Minister, Jiang Chen, who was in the car, looked at the time.

It was only three o’clock; he still had some time before the eight o’clock meeting with Liu Yao. He was thinking about what to do during this time when a phone call suddenly hit his watch.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, boss. What you told me has already been done.” David Smith’s voice rang in his ear. Before that, Jiang Chen entrusted the negotiation between Celestial Trade and the Indian Power Company to the Future Bank. There must be some result now.

“Is the original contract still intact?”

“Yes, the Indian state-owned electric utility company made a concession on the submarine transmission cable investment percentage. They promised to bear 70% of the construction
cost.”

A smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.

“Good job.”

The construction cost of submarine transmission cable was one of the issues that had been disputed by both sides. Jiang Chen already saved a lot of electricity costs for them, and it was unreasonable to spoon feed them more. The construction cost of nearly one billion US dollars wasn’t a small number. In the beginning, India’s state-owned electric utility company insisted that both sides bear 50% then finally dropped it to 60%, but it was still ten points off from Celestial Trade’s expectations.

“As long as you find the right way to get along with Indians, this is actually very easy.” Smith smiled and accepted Jiang Chen’s praise.

Jiang Chen talked about a few more things with Smith then Smith suddenly remembered something and added, “Right, there’s one more thing.”

“What?”

“The recent exchange rate of the Euro on the international foreign exchange market is very peculiar. According to the analysis of Future Bank’s financial team, there’s likely human intervention. Although we interrupted most of the business in Europe, we still hold a lot of Euros and real estate in Europe.”

Mr. Smith paused and waited for the boss’s decision.

Intuition told Jiang Chen the Freemasonry was likely behind this, but the peculiar exchange rate wasn’t enough to determine any more useful information.

Sitting in the car and pondering for a moment, Jiang Chen, who couldn’t decide, asked, “What is your suggestion?”

“Sell some of the assets in Europe and exchange some of the Euros in the bank with dollars or gold. The Euro has a lot of risks. The best way to avoid missing our expected targets is to reduce our holdings appropriately.”

“Just do what you said.”

“Yes, boss.”

Hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen swiped his finger and closed the holographic screen. The bodyguard sitting in the front turned slightly and respectfully asked Jiang Chen, “Boss, where are we going now?”

His arm was placed against the window, looking at the young girls on the street. Jiang Chen’s index finger tapped the door rhythmically. After thinking for a while, he made up his mind.

“Where in Shinjuku is a suitable place to negotiate? Other than restaurants.”

The bodyguard immediately replied, “There’s a high-end business bar in Shinjuku.”

“Just go there.”

“Yes.”

The car slowly started. Jiang Chen opened the holographic screen of his watch, pulled down the list of business cards, and a row of light blue information appeared in front of him.

In order to help him collect information, each time he received a business card, he scanned the information on the business card to his watch for storage. The artificial intelligence classified the cards according to an algorithm. In this way, he could easily find the phone numbers he needed.

[President of Central Power Company, the second son of Sumitomo Foundation, Sumitomo Kenichi]

After selecting this number, Jiang Chen dialed.

Although he didn’t remember when he met this person, this didn’t stop the two from talking

Sitting there and unilaterally waiting for the Nippon government to reply wasn’t Jiang Chen’s style.

Although the influence of the Nippon consortium wasn’t as evident as Wall Street’s influence on the Capital, it was a force that couldn’t be ignored.

Although Celestial Trade and the Nippon government had yet to reach an agreement on the issue of grid connection, this didn’t stop him from engaging with the power company first or discussing with Sumitomo Finance Group to talk about it. With billions in profits at stake, Jiang Chen knew the Sumitomo Foundation is tempted.

And since they would be tempted, they would presumably also exert their influence in their country’s politics.

Chapter 964: Premiere

Headquartered in Nagoya in the central part of Nippon, Central Power provided electricity to approximately 16.6 million people in five counties in the central region. It was the third largest power company in Nippon and was controlled by Sumitomo Foundation.

In fact, in addition to Central Power, Jiang Chen had a better choice-Yoto Power. However, due to the aftereffects of the nuclear accident, Yoto Power had yet to solve the problem of compensation and aftermath. Moreover, the company’s financial situation was far from ideal with a risk of bankruptcy. With these reasons combined, Jiang Chen finally decided on Central Power as his partner.

In a high-end business bar in Shinjuku, a black car stopped at the door.

Although most bars didn’t open at this time, this bar was special. Even early in the morning, it was open; it was just that it didn’t provide bartending services.

Jiang Chen stepped into the bar.

The two bodyguards escorted him on the left and right. Since he was handsome and combined with the fact that he wore an expensive suit and sleek sunglasses, he had yet to step into the bar before he drew countless gazes.

The server rushed forward and asked weakly, “Hello, please show your membership card…”

Jiang Chen frowned slightly. He couldn’t understand the language.

The bodyguard standing on the side immediately leaned over and whispered in his ear.

Seeing as Jiang Chen didn’t respond, the server was somewhat at a loss.

Just then, Jiang Chen heard fluent Mandarin from the bar.

“Mr. Jiang is my guest. How dare you stop him at the door?”

This sentence was obviously for Jiang Chen because the server cearly didn’t understand.

A young man walked out of the bar. He was also in a suit. His proper appearance could be considered handsome, but he was half a head shorter than Jiang Chen. He first lectured the server with a few words then put on a smile and greeted Jiang Chen.

“The hospitality here isn’t good. I hope Mr. Jiang can forgive me.”

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly.

“No worries. Come to speak of it, Mr. Sumitomo arrived first?”.

“Allow me to be honest. This business bar is one of Sumitomo’s assets. When Mr. Jiang called, we were negotiating with Yoto Power.” Sumitomo gestured at the bar. “Please come inside.”

Jiang Chen followed him in. “Oh? If you don’t mind me asking, what business is it?”

“About the merger and acquisition of the power management rights of a city in the county.”

When Sumitomo said that, he was quite confident, so Jiang Chen, who was walking next to him, actually eyed him for a few seconds.

Showing the strength of one’s own side without any traces, it seemed that the intelligence of Sumitomo Foundation was certainly quite informed, and they already knew the topic of today’s negotiation.

From the layout of the bar, this so-called high-end business bar didn’t have the blinding lights and loud music of other bars. The lighting in the lobby was soft and the decor was elegant with a Western design and a touch of traditional style.

Most people who drank there were in business formal attire.

A beautiful waiter took the two to the lounge deep in the bar and respectfully opened the door for the duo.

However, before entering, Sumitomo stopped Jiang Chen and turned to look at him.

“Do you need to take a bath first?”

Jiang Chen paused for a moment then smiled and shook his head. “No, I have a date tonight.”

There was only one possibility to take a bath here.

If he had time, he wouldn’t mind experiencing their “unique” culture, but since he still needed to attend Liu Yao’s premiere, the timing wouldn’t necessarily work out.

Sumitomo squeezed his eyebrows at Jiang Chen with an expression that all men would understand, but he obviously misinterpreted.

“That’s really a pity. Since Mr. Jiang has other arrangements this evening, I can only treat you next time.”

Turning around, Sumitomo winked at the waiter, indicating that she could leave for now. He then smiled and looked at Jiang Chen to invite him into the room.

“Please come in.”

Jiang Chen gestured to the bodyguards to stay at the door then he stepped into the private room.

At Shinjuku Piccadilly Cinema, as the first sci-fi masterpiece to go abroad, the premiere of “The Three-Body Problem” was quite grand. Backed by the rich and powerful Future Technology, the crew’s budget was more than sufficient. They directly rented out the entrance of Piccadilly Cinema and the most high-end first auditorium.

The premiere was at eight o’clock, but it was just a little after six when the press were already gathered at the entrance as well as special guests, film critics, and fans who received premiere tickets through various channels.

The process of walking the red carpet had yet to begin, but the flash of cameras already colored the night.

For this sci-fi movie from Hua, Nippon sci-fi fans were more surprised than looking forward to it. As early as the release of this film in Hua, trailers and low-pixel versions of the movie had already flowed to other countries.

The special effects technology of Hua was only mediocre at best. In many people’s minds, they acquiesced this fact.

And it was precisely because of this that Nippon fans were so surprised since what they saw from the trailer made it completely unimaginable that the film was produced from the hands of Hua filmmakers; it was more likely made from Hollywood studios from across the Pacific.

While interviewing the crew, the reporters didn’t ignore the audience.

“I hope it lives up to my expectations. It’s my first time attending a premiere.”

“Hua has science fiction films? Ha, unbelievable! I must debunk their lies in person…”

“I read that novel. It seems to be good, but I doubt it… I’ve never heard of this producer. Do they have the ability to put this film on the screen? In my honest opinion, even if it was a Hollywood filmmaker, it’s hard to restore some of the details from the book.”

“The trailer was good. I hope the movie is the same.”

“Shao Feng is so handsome!”

“Liu Yao is so beautiful! Is there a poster of her? Do they sell these at the premiere? Or can they only be bought on Amazon? But it’s too late-I want her signature!”

On the other hand, Liu Yao, who was already wearing her evening gown, stood in front of the media camera with a smile, ready to be interviewed. Unlike her cute appearance when she was around Jiang Chen, she was graceful and elegant, quite a goddess.

Chen Yuqing already made arrangements for what questions could be answered, and what questions should be answered in advance. Although the questions were fired at her like cannonballs, she still responded calmly and comfortably.

However, as time gradually approached eight o’clock, a hint of anxiety was starting to show, and her gorgeous eyes drifted to the entrance of the theater from time to time.

After she finally got rid of the media, Liu Yao returned to the dressing room, weary and exhausted. She still had to walk the red carpet, and she fixed up her makeup. The makeup artist had already been waiting for a long time. Almost as soon as she sat down, she grabbed the brush and foundation and began to work her magic.

Sitting there completely motionless and letting the makeup artist transform her face and hair, she looked at herself in the mirror and squeezed out a beautiful smile.

“Are you ready? My Majesty the Queen.” Chen Yuqing, standing next to her, joked.

Liu Yao smiled and hit her best friend jokingly. “Be careful, the Queen will hit your butt.”

After fooling around for a while, Liu Yao got in front of the mirror and carefully checked to see if there were any blemishes. Chen Yuqing stood behind her, coughed, and reminded her, “It’s time to take the red carpet.”

“Okay.”

With a smile, Liu Yao was full of confidence.

It was her first time appearing as the leading actress and walking the red carpet abroad.

However, there was a commotion coming from outside…

Chapter 965: Please Get Out

Messy footsteps gradually approached. Liu Yao and Chen Yuqing looked at each other and saw confusion in each other’s eyes.

The door of the dressing room was suddenly pushed open, and a man dressed in a white, flamboyant suit holding a bundle of roses walked in. His eyes swept through the room and stopped on Liu Yao. The man smiled and stopped in front of her.

“Who are you?” Liu Yao frowned slightly.

“Your admirer. At first sight, I was deeply drawn by your beauty.” The man made a smile that he thought was courteous, revealing his white teeth. He then handed over the flowers. “Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Morita Yosuke, the manager of Morita Real Estate. In 2016, I went to Hua on a business trip. At that time, I watched the movie you starred in. I am deeply in love with you. Will I have the pleasure of having a drink with you after the premiere?”

2016? Liu Yao tried to remember. Did she star in a movie back then?

In any case, her first impression of this arrogant person who didn’t knock on the door was awful.

Chen Yuqing, standing next to Liu Yao, silently looked at the man in front of her and commented in her head. Morita Real Estate? It might be a huge force in the eyes of others, but what is it to the man behind her?

Chen Yuqing asked herself if her man was as good as that person. She probably wouldn’t look at most men ever again.

“Mr. Morita, it’s very impolite to enter the ladies’ dressing room without permission. Didn’t anyone tell you?” Standing in front of Liu Yao, Chen Yuqing pushed up her glasses while stating the fact in a distant voice.

Morita frowned, examined Chen Yuqing, and his smile reappeared. He continued to look at Liu Yao.

“I will apologize for my rudeness. After I receive an answer from the goddess, I will leave.”

When he said that, Morita was polite, but a trace of disdain appeared in his eyes for a second.

(You’re just a Hua female actress. I’m the heir to a real estate company with a market value of a trillion yen! I’ve slept with countless celebrities, and you’re just a star who only recently became somewhat popular. I can easily woo you.]

However, Liu Yao’s answer was even more distant than her agent Chen Yuqing. She replied with three concise words.

“Please get out.”

Morita Yosuke’s confident smile turned stiff and his expression suddenly turned ugly.

om

At that moment, the security guards of the theater also rushed into the dressing room following the crew members. The people behind him clearly heard the rejection.

Seeing that Morita Yosuke didn’t act, Liu Yao repeated in an icy voice in front of everyone.

“Please get out.”

After understanding the situation, the director Wu Hao, who stood next to the security guard, immediately stepped forward, warning him with a sullen face, “Please leave immediately. Otherwise, we will contact the police.”

Being slapped in the face in front of everyone, Morita Yosuke’s facial muscles couldn’t stop trembling

Just when Chen Yuqing worried he would suddenly burst out in a rage and step in front of Liu Yao, he suddenly smiled.

A very odd smile.

Suddenly, Morita Yosuke let go and dropped the bouquet of roses on the ground.

“Good, good, good.”

After three words, he turned around and glanced over the crew members with a gloomy expression. He finally stopped at Liu Yao’s face, and a sinister smile appeared.

“You’re just an actress and too ignorant to know what’s the best. I hope you don’t regret this. No one has ever dared to reject me!”

After leaving this sentence, he turned and pushed the crowd away.

The people in the crew chattered, and Director Wu lectured the security guards. They actually let someone who wasn’t in the crew into the room. If he was a paparazzi or even a kidnapper, it would’ve been a big problem!

Looking at that inexplicable man’s back, Liu Yao frowned, and there was some uneasiness.

She didn’t seem to mind the threatening words, but she just worried it would cause trouble for the crew.

“Are you okay, Yao?” Chen Yuqing grabbed Liu Yao’s arm and looked at her good girlfriend with some concern. She stared at the man’s back furiously. “Don’t worry about that psycho. In the worst…”

In the worst case, we can go to Jiang Chen. He can take care of this.

ev

However, Chen Yuqing didn’t finish her sentence. After all, the relationship between the two remained a secret.

“I’m fine.” Liu Yao shook her head and patted Chen Yuqing’s hand. “We don’t have to bother him with this.”

Director Wu Hao scanned the crowd and asserted his authority.

“What are you doing there? You have to go on the red carpet in a while. Get moving now!”

The crew also dispersed.

“Are you okay? If not, we can set the time back ten minutes and do other activities first.”

“No, I’m fine.” Liu Yao shook her head.

Wu Hao nodded and gestured to the makeup artist before leaving the dressing room.

After the door closed, Liu Yao was relieved, and her mood stabilized. She glanced at the roses scattered on the ground, and she said to Chen Yuqing casually, “Get someone to come over and clean up here. This is bothersome.”

“Mhmm, I’ll go now.” Chen Yuqing nodded and headed outside.

The negotiations with the Sumitomo Foundation were very successful, to the point where Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised.

Without wasting any effort, he tossed the proposal on the negotiating table and the other side nodded without hesitation. He quite cheerfully expressed his willingness to force the government and urge the cabinet to pass the grid interconnection plan as soon as possible.

Hype nuclear power threat theory, emphasis on energy crisis… For these big consortia, they could use many ploys.

Even before the negotiations began, Sumitomo already guessed Jiang Chen’s intentions. Or rather, when Jiang Chen got off the plane from Yoto International Airport, the Sumitomo Foundation already guessed he might be negotiating for power exports.

There was a total of nine power companies in Nippon, and the entire electricity market was in a state of division. It was critical to know which company Celestial Trade would begin cooperation with, which meant the transmission line from Xin would originate from that region to the rest of the power grid. This company would have the most promising costs and the ability to rob business from other power companies to expand its scope of business.

Jiang Chen didn’t think so much. They could fight all they wanted-he was simply optimistic about the tens of billions of dollars in the energy market, and the ability to grasp the country in the future.

An exaggeration? Not an exaggeration at all.

The cost of Celestial Trade had an unbeatable competitive advantage in the electricity market. The export price of 1 cent per kWh created a gap in which financial subsidies couldn’t make up the difference. As time went by, the power plants in the country would only decrease in number, and the dependence on nuclear power, natural gas and oil would also decrease… This seemed to benefit the country and the people, but in essence, it created another inescapable shackle onto the nation, that was, the submarine transmission cable controlled by Celestial Trade…

The contract was negotiated and could be signed as soon as the policy allowed it.

After agreeing on a multi-billion dollar business for the family, even Sumitomo, who was more shrewd, didn’t stop his emotions from showing. He saw Jiang Chen to the door and watched the car leaving. He waved his fist in the air and couldn’t stop the joy from overtaking him. He laughed hysterically at the door.

The pedestrians all looked in his direction and sent their sympathies to perhaps an emotionally unstable person…

The bustling street was starting to dissipate, and Jiang Chen retracted his gaze from the window and opened the holographic screen.

It was half-past seven, and there was half an hour left before the premiere.

“Go directly to Piccadilly Cinema.” Jiang Chen turned off the holographic screen and told the driver.

“Yes, boss.”

Piccadilly Cinema was also in Shinjuku, not far from the high-end bar he just left. Fortunately, he didn’t encounter any traffic and arrived at his destination in about fifteen minutes. When Jiang Chen got off at the parking lot, the premiere was about to start.

At the door, he fixed his collar and headed to the entrance.

Just as he passed the main entrance, he saw a man in a white suit with a gloomy expression, followed by two security guards, walking out from the cinema. It seemed he was being escorted out for doing something wrong.

Jiang Chen exchanged eye contact with him, and the man said a few words before he walked away in anger.

Hearing what the man said, the bodyguard behind Jiang Chen was about to go and knock him out, but Jiang Chen stopped the bodyguard.

“What did he say?” Jiang Chen turned his head slightly and asked his bodyguard.

The bodyguard hesitated, but he still provided the actual words spoken.

“Get out of my fu*king face.”

Jiang Chen furrowed his brows and looked at the man who was already long gone.

“Don’t bother with this type of person.”

He continued on.

After being escorted by security guards along the way, Morita Yosuke sat in his Lexus LFA. After starting the car, he glanced at the Piccadilly Cinema with hatred.

The controlling party of the Piccadilly cinema possessed an unimaginable amount of influence, and of course, he didn’t dare to do anything. However, these crews from Hua had no foundation in this country. He was engaged in real estate, and he naturally dealt with gang forces. It would be too easy to deal with these foreigners.

Especially them.

He took out his phone and dialed a number.

“Shosa-san, it’s me, Morita. I want to ask you for a favor. We can discuss the price…”

Chapter 966: Red Carpet

Jiang Chen asked the staff for directions and walked to the crew, but just as he walked to the junction leading to the dressing room, two security guards stopped him.

“Sorry, sir, this isn’t open to tourists.”

After the bodyguard translated the words of the two security guards to Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen frowned and replied in English, “I am not a tourist. Someone invited me—”

“Sorry.” The security guards stood firm like two towers and used an irrefutable tone.

Is the security level this high at a normal premiere?

Just when Jiang Chen thought to call Liu Yao, he saw an acquaintance coming out from inside.

When Chen Yuqing saw the person, her eyes lit up and she immediately greeted him.

“You’re finally here. Yao has been waiting for you for a long time.” She eyed Jiang Chen and talked with the two security guards in English, then while giggling, she pulled him in. “Come with me.”

The two bodyguards were left outside, and Jiang Chen went to Liu Yao’s dressing room with Chen Yuqing.

“Don’t be too surprised,” she said to Jiang Chen jokingly. She reached out and pushed open the door.

The door to the dressing room opened.

Looking at Liu Yao, who was standing in front of the mirror, Jiang Chen actually had an illusion of not knowing her.

OWS we

Her two eyebrows were long and picturesque, her eyes were twinkling like stars, her black hair, like a waterfall, poured down. In an elegant evening gown that perfectly outlined her good figure, she was enchanting and dignified. Sure enough, beauty certainly depended on attire. It was the first time Jiang Chen felt she looked better with clothes than without…

Her beautiful eyes bloomed with joy when her eyes met his eyes.

She grabbed Jiang Chen’s arm, restrained the urge to pounce on him and pouted.

“You’re finally here. I thought you forgot me
again.”

“What do you mean again? I haven’t forgotten you at all.” Jiang Chen laughed.

He spoke, reached out and touched her hair gently, and said sincerely, “You’re beautiful today.”

“Hehe.”

Liu Yao smiled happily, didn’t speak any further, and accepted his compliments happily.

“Don’t mess up your makeup. There are five minutes until you have to walk the red carpet; there’s no time to do your makeup again.” Chen Yuqing made fun of the pair.

Liu Yao’s face turned red and she rolled her eyes at her best friend.

“I’m not going to do anything. How could I mess up my makeup?”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

With a smirk, Chen Yuqing left the dressing room and carefully closed the door for the two of them. She guarded the door for them in case someone wanted to intrude on their private space.

Although the theater strengthened their security, it was difficult to ensure that no paparazzi snuck in. It was okay if the crew saw them, but if they were caught by those troublesome paparazzi, it would be big news.

“Three-body” had just been released overseas. If news of female lead female having an affair with the biggest investor leaked to the public, it would certainly affect the box office.

They didn’t stay in the dressing room for too long, Jiang Chen came out two minutes ahead of Liu Yao. Director Wu Hao heard Jiang Chen came personally and immediately rushed over. He first shook Jiang Chen’s hands, exchanged a few words and issued him a movie ticket and a special guest pass.

cal

With this pass, he could freely enter and leave the crew’s work area without worrying about being blocked by security.

Under the guidance of the assistant director, Xiao Zhang, Jiang Chen entered the VIP passage and went to the red carpet.

The red carpet had always been the finale of the premiere. Most cameras gathered there along with fanatical fans. Generally speaking, at a premiere, there would always be a few guests who couldn’t be present for personal reasons. At that time, in order to ensure the venue was full, the organizers would randomly distribute “temporary tickets” to the fans at the scene.

However, such an opportunity was rare unless the movie was too bad or the organizer messed up. A maximum of three or four temporary tickets would be added at the premiere, and this was also the reason for the fans’ enthusiasm. The closer they were to the red carpet, the higher their chances of getting a temporary ticket.

Of course, the caveat was that they couldn’t be too close or they would be tossed out by the security guards.

On the red carpet, the participants were being interviewed by the media.

Actors and actresses who weren’t famous rarely had the opportunity to walk the red carpet. During this moment of glory, they even wished to stay on the carpet.

Liu Yao swayed her long hair and confidently stepped forward in her high-heels. The goddess walked quickly across the red carpet, ignoring the reporters’ request for a photo, giving all the lenses a confident silhouette.

Passing through the red carpet, she arrived at the interview area, and after the group members took photos in front of the camera, they were interviewed by reporters in twos and threes. In the film, she played Master Ye. The storyline of “The Three-Body Problem” narrated her life, and the media was also devoted to her with considerable enthusiasm, which made all the others envious.

Without bringing a bodyguard, Jiang Chen sat alone in the corner of the VIP lounge, waiting for Liu Yao.

Just then, a woman in high heels walked to him and smiled.

“Is there someone sitting next to you?”

The faint smell of perfume floated along with her melodious voice. Jiang Chen raised his head slightly and said, “No one’s sitting here. Do you need anything?”

The woman smiled and sat next to him, putting on lipstick and pulling out a photo of himself from the bag.

“Nothing; just wanted a signature from my
idol.”

“Idol?”

“In four years, you went from nothing to being the richest man in the world. Your life experience could be written in a book.” The woman with bright, gorgeous eyes gazed at Jiang Chen. “Can give me a chance to know more about you?”

Jiang Chen smiled and teased.

“Of course, when I’m old, I might be able to write a biography if I have nothing to do.”

Amused by Jiang Chen’s words, the woman giggled.

Jiang Chen took the photo and pen from her hands, signed his name, gave it back to her, and joked: “The signature you wanted.”

“This is my gift.” The woman took a photo from her bag again and signed her name with the lipstick.

However, she didn’t immediately give it to Jiang Chen. With a mysterious smile, she kissed the photo, leaving a seductive lip print.

“Bye-bye.” She handed the photo to Jiang Chen, got up and left.

Jiang Chen examined the photo and identified her name from the signature.

“Tang Yan?”

Although “The Three-Body Problem” changed the special effects team and director, most of the actors and actresses remained the same. In Jiang Chen’s memory, Tang Yan’s role was Shen Yufei, a Japanese-born, cold but pristine female scientist.

Turning to the back of the photo, where she left the lip print, there was a phone number and her temporary address in Yoto.

“Glasley Hotel, 1101?”

Shaking his head with a smile, Jiang Chen put the photo into his suit and threw it into the storage dimension.

“What are you laughing at?”

After the interview, Liu Yao came to the VIP lounge.

“Nothing. Just encountered something interesting.” Jiang Chen smiled. “Right, how’s your relationship with other people on the
crew?”

“Other people?” Liu Yao tilted her head. “We’ve been pretty good.”

“What about Tang Yan?”

Liu Yao looked at Jiang Chen suspiciously, and her expression changed suddenly. She sat beside Jiang Chen. With a begging look, she grabbed his hand and whispered. “You…you want her? She’s a good friend of mine. Can you go for someone else…”

“What are you even thinking?” Jiang Chen reached out and tapped on her head. He watched Liu Yao covering her head and hiding from him. “Am I the kind of person who will go for your friend?”

A bright smile appeared on her face, and she pecked his cheek.

“You’re the best!”

Touching the lip print on his face, Jiang Chen teased her. “Are you not afraid of ruining your makeup now?”

“Not afraid! I’ve already finished my interview!” Liu Yao said gently as she took Jiang Chen’s arm.

A good friend?

The entertainment industry is certainly entertaining

However, Jiang Chen didn’t point this out to her. Some things were just better kept a secret.

Chapter 967

As time went on, other actors who finished their interviews gradually entered the lounge.

And almost everyone, after seeing Jiang Chen, enthusiastically walked up to say hello or converse. Although Jiang Chen’s circle was far from the entertainment industry, capital had no limits.

After staying in the VIP lounge a bit longer, Jiang Chen took Liu Yao’s hand and left the theater from the back door. His bodyguard had already driven the car to the back door.

Like a gentleman, he opened the door for Liu Yao, and after the beauty got in first, he followed.

“Luer FA6? This must be in millions.” Sitting in the car, Liu Yao touched the door then touched the sofa. “I only saw this in magazines before.”

Since being bought by Jiang Chen, Luer Motors had grown from an unknown pure electric vehicle company to a large-scale automobile manufacturer that now had operations in Asia and the Americas. Its luxury models received wide recognition from across the world. For example, the Luer FA6 pure electric car had a pre-tax price of more than 30 million RMB.

However, Liu Yao didn’t know the brand belonged to Jiang Chen.

“Your pay is probably around ten to twenty million? It shouldn’t be difficult to buy a car?” Jiang Chen smiled and gestured the driver to go home.

“How can I spend all my money on a car?” Liu Yao rolled her eyes. “I’m just barely able to pay for the maintenance for the two Maybachs and Lamborghini you gave me.”

“I’ll maintain them for you.” Jiang Chen smiled.

It was already eleven o’clock in the evening, three hours after the premiere began.

The road conditions in Yoto were surprisingly good. Jiang Chen didn’t encounter traffic and went smoothly on the highway to the suburbs. The mansion at the foot of Mount Fuji was about one hundred kilometers from Shinjuku, the distance from Jia City to Wanghai.

Although there were many inconveniences in choosing such a remote place to stay, the beautiful environment more than made up for the distance. Not to mention that Jiang Chen wasn’t particularly in a hurry. In addition to occasional passers-by, there was basically no one around.

They were almost out of Tokyo.

Surrounded by mountains and fields, except for vehicles that passed by them from time to time, there wasn’t a soul at night.

At that moment, the bodyguard sitting in the front passenger seat suddenly narrowed his eyes and put his hand into his armpit. The driver sitting in the driver’s seat also noticed the abnormality and reported to Jiang Chen.

“Boss, someone is following us.”

Liu Yao looked around anxiously and didn’t see anything

Jiang Chen just raised an eyebrow and calmly said, “Oh? How many people?”

The bodyguard in front tapped on his sunglasses, and a light blue interface suddenly appeared on the inside of the ink-colored lens. Two drones were released from the bottom of the car and flew out against the chassis of the car. They hovered beside the vehicles and locked on the followers with the hanging lens at the bottom.

“A total of four vans, around 20 to 30 people. There are no heavy weapons on the cars. Most of the weapons are knives, machetes… Seems like Yakuza,” the bodyguard answered.

Jiang Chen shook his head with a grin.

“Yakuza? They seem to be underestimating
me.”

Since the Los Santos incident, Jiang Chen spent a considerable amount of thought on his security. While he only brought two bodyguards, these two bodyguards were the elite of the Celestial Marines.

The injection of D-class genetic vaccines and participation in the two wars of MLL Island were only the most fundamental requirements. They must know at least four languages. The one bodyguard in the passenger seat could easily take down two Ghost Agents with the same equipment in close combat.

As for this Luer FA6, it was transformed by Future Heavy Industries. Not only was the chassis equipped with a drone terminal, but the outer casing was replaced with a titanium alloy material containing a graphene lining; even anti-tank snipers wouldn’t make a dent.

“Do you want me to take care of them?” Slowly taking out a pistol, the bodyguard asked in a low voice.

Liu Yao was scared by the gun.

The bodyguard saw the boss’s mistress was scared, and he quickly stuffed the gun back under his armpit.

“Pick a quiet place. There are too many people here,” Jiang Chen said nonchalantly, looking at the van that was closest to him. “If you don’t need a gun, don’t use a gun.”

“Roger.” The bodyguard nodded and gestured at his comrade driving.

The bodyguard sitting in the driver’s seat nodded, turned the steering wheel and headed off the road.

When the car went off the highway, it seemed to hit a bump. Liu Yao looked at Jiang Chen with some worry, gently grabbed his arm and asked nervously, “Are things going to be okay?”

“Don’t worry.” Jiang Chen patted her hand that was holding on to his arm. “It’s just a few skunks. They’ll take care of it so they don’t bother us.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen grinned.

“Not to mention that I’m also very curious as to who would actually dare to follow me.”

Seeing Jiang Chen’s car changing lanes, the four vans were delighted and didn’t realize a crisis had arrived. They also turned off the road.

After driving on the mountain roads for half an hour to an inaccessible place, two of the vans began to accelerate and overtook Jiang Chen’s car. The four vans sandwiched his car in the middle then slowed down, forcing Jiang Chen’s car to stop.

The Luer FA6 just stopped which made the people in the vans surprised.

While they were surprised, they didn’t think the people in the car could resist.

The door of the van opened. Twenty thugs wearing black T-shirts and carrying iron bars and short knives surrounded Jiang Chen’s car. Behind the crowd, a boss-looking young man with sunglasses jumped out from the last van and walked in front of his thugs with authority.

With his gangster appearance, Jiang Chen laughed and shook his head.

“It seems the thugs in every country are the same. You just don’t know your limit.”

The front passenger door opened, and the bodyguard wearing a suit got out of the car.

Liu Yao looked at Jiang Chen nervously. “Should we call… call the police.”

“No, leave it to Chen Sen.” Leaning against the cushion, he wasn’t worried about the bodyguard who got off the car.

When Chen Sen was in the jungle of MLL Island charging at enemies, these thugs were probably playing mud on the street. There were at least twenty soldiers who died under his muzzle already.

Chapter 968: Qi? That’s my fu*king kinetic skeleton!

The lights of the vehicles cast shadows on the ground. On the empty road, five cars stopped.

Twenty-five people against one person.

The disparity formed a sharp contrast in the car lights.

Standing in front of more than twenty thugs, Shaosa made neck circles followed by the sound of his joints cracking. Anyone familiar with him knew blood must be shed.

Ito Shaosa wasn’t his real name. His real name was Ito Yuan. It was only later when he started to gain a reputation in the Yoto region with his fighting and killing abilities and formed a gang. The thugs in the gang respectfully called him Shaosa. After a long time, he recognized the name and simply replaced his real name with this nickname, so a person named Ito Shaosa appeared.

Today, he was drinking with his brothers when a phone call suddenly interrupted them.

It was the manager of Morita Real Estate, Morita Yosuke. He asked him to help him with a price of 50 million yen. After hearing the 50 million yen, Shaosa said nothing, immediately hauled his brothers in the gang and rushed over.

50 million yen-enough to buy a life, not to mention a foreigner, but also a Hua woman.

The target didn’t act alone after leaving the theater but boarded a luxury car with a man.

Shaosa watched the scene from afar, but he didn’t back down.

Not to mention that there were only two bodyguards, but even two Bruce Lees wouldn’t be able to beat twenty men with knives and bats.

Ito was convinced.

The foreign wealthy businessman who was captured by him the last time hired bodyguards who received military training from Blackwater, but they still only had two hands and one head each? Two or three steel pipes and it would be over before they could even react.

Looking at the man in a suit walking to him, Ito Shaosa raised his chin and began to trim his nails in contempt.

“Only you?”

Chen Sen didn’t answer. An arc appeared on his lips, the muscles of his body swelled, and his bones creaked. He hadn’t beat people up for a long time. Their threatening and mocking gazes didn’t make him afraid in the slightest but released the bloodthirsty desire in his bones.

Without any awareness of the danger, Ito Shaosu sighed and waved his hand with a lack of interest.

“Okay, no more nonsense. Hand over the woman in the car… well, and the car too. Take your boss and get the fu*k away.”

“Get the fu*k away?” Chen Sen didn’t stop. He licked his mouth and nonchalantly said, “You should be the one who gets the fu*k out.”

Ito Shaosa was stunned then he became furious and swung his hand.

“Baka! Pigs! Brothers, fu*k him up!”

With a loud roar, the thugs rushed toward Chen Sen.

With a steel pipe swung toward him, Chen Sen didn’t dodge. Instead, he lifted his foot and directly kicked the person rushing at him on the chest and sent him flying out, taking down four other thugs along the way.

What just happened seemed to hurt the morale of the thugs swarming toward him.

They certainly saw people who could fight before, but they had never seen someone who could send someone flying and take out four people along the way. This wasn’t a sandbag! This was a person!

Ito’s eyes widened. He had also never seen someone who could do this before. The man who sat next to him just opened his narrowed eyes slightly, but he soon closed his eyes again, not seeming to mind what happened.

The attack and defend positions seemed to be completely reversed.

Chen Sen rushed into the crowd, punching and kicking. Every punch hit the flesh, every kick struck its target. No one could last more than a move against him despite the pipes and knives. These originally arrogant thugs were beaten to the point where they started crying and shouting.

It wasn’t that no pipes landed on him. However, these thugs discovered that every strike seemed to have smashed against a steel wall. The attacker didn’t seem to be hurt, but their hand swelled immediately after.

Is this guy made of iron?

Everyone thought in horror.

Without any fancy moves, pure strength and combat techniques from the army, Chen Sen followed Jiang Chen’s instructions. Without a gun, he used his fists and legs to ground all the thugs.

In less than two minutes, only three people were left standing on the road.

Chen Sen stood straight and clapped his hands.

He didn’t chase those who turned and fled. He just smiled at the scared Ito Shaosa and continued to walk toward him.

The man who had been standing next to Ito Shaosa stepped forward in front of his master.

There was a knife scar on his forehead that looked extremely frightening. His pair of eyes narrowed, and his pupils were like two mung beans. A viper-like fierce haze swept across Chen Sen’s face. Under his clothes was a samurai sword five feet long.

“That’s enough,” the man said slowly, his hand already on the hilt. “If you step forward half a step, I will cut your arms off.”

Sitting in the car, Jiang Chen leaned forward slightly and looked at the samurai sword slightly sheathed with interest.

“What age is this? Are Samurais still a thing?”

Liu Yao, who was sitting next to him, looked pale white. Her hand grasped Jiang Chen tightly.

“Right, speaking of which, they seem to be coming for you?” Jiang Chen looked at Liu Yao and squeezed her hand to comfort her. “How did you manage to get on the wrong side of these people?”

Liu Yao shook her head, but she suddenly seemed to have remembered something. She bit her lip and said, “Probably…probably that psycho.”

With Jiang Chen’s questioning look, Liu Yao told him everything that happened outside the dressing room before he came, including the man named Morita Yosuke, including how she refused him, including the threatening words he left…

After Jiang Chen heard the story, he nodded in understanding then…

Then he suddenly squeezed her butt.

“Ah!” Liu Yao shouted and looked at Jiang Chen with anger.

The driver sitting in the front row closed his eyes to rest to perfectly play the deaf and blind role. He pretended not to know about the “teasing” between the boss and his mistress.

“You-you squeezed my… what.” Liu Yao blushed and didn’t say the word” butt”; she only vaguely stated the obvious.

“To punish you.” Jiang Chen squeezed her nose. “Tell me these things in the future, don’t hide them from me. This time, I was here. What if I wasn’t here?”

Although she was being punished, she felt warm.

Pouting, she whispered in defense, “I didn’t know he would get these people to… Why are they so narrow-minded?”

Although it was a bit shameful, she was more relaxed after the punishment.

Jiang Chen looked at Liu Yao, whose mood was stable then he opened the holographic screen of the watch. He selected the phone book and immediately called Sumitomo.

“Hey, Mr. Sumitomo? If it’s convenient, can you help me investigate this individual…”

Outside the car window, Chen Sen only slightly raised his eyebrows while standing in front of the man dressed as a samurai.

Seeing as Chen Sen stopped moving forward, Ito Shaosa thought he was afraid. He regained some courage and screamed sternly, “Get the fu*k away! Mr. Sensei has learned the truth of the Ying Blade. One swing will even cut steel. Money is a good thing, but you must have a life to spend it! Just leave the woman in the car and I won’t care about what just happened.”

“Money is a good thing, but you must have a life to spend it,” Chen Sen repeated the same sentence, grinning. “This sentence is for you too.”

As he spoke, he took a step forward and looked provocatively at the man dressed as a samurai.

“I just stepped forward. Let me see how you can cut my arms off.”

“Qi (1) does have its own uniqueness.” The blade moved a half inch, and the man’s slightly narrowed eyes suddenly opened. “But! The secret of my blade can pierce your weakness!”

The voice hadn’t faded before a blade slashed down.

Liu Yao, who had just calmed down, immediately covered her eyes. She seemed to have foreseen the bodyguard’s blood splashing

However, there was only a crisp clang. The scene of the blade piercing through flesh didn’t appear.

Liu Yao slowly opened her eyes and looked at them incredulously.

The bodyguard only raised one arm and parried the seemingly unstoppable slash.

“How-how’s that possible?!”

The samurai’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the chipped blade.

However, he didn’t have time to be shocked. A huge fist appeared in his vision and sent him flying along with his remaining consciousness.

“What Qi?” Sitting in the car, watching the man sent flying, Jiang Chen laughed. “That’s my fu*king kinetic skeleton!”

An ordinary person could easily take down a strong man.

This was the power of technology!

“I thought it was martial arts.” Liu Yao stuck out her tongue and held Jiang Chen’s arm tightly. “Let’s go back.”

“Mhmm.” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded.

At the same time, outside the window, Mr. Shaosa, who lost his last trump card, was starting to be in despair.

“Don’t-don’t come.” Ito Shaosa looked at Chen Sen, who was walking toward him in horror. He felt like his legs were shaking. He didn’t care about his face or dignity at this moment. He screamed, “I-I-I’m sorry! I beg you, don’t-don’t hurt me.”

Chen Sen, with a grimacing smile, looked at him like a cat looking at a mouse that was forced into a corner and walked toward him unhurriedly.

Incoherently begging for mercy, Ito Shaosa tried to move back. He wanted to turn and run away, but his legs weren’t listening to his commands. He fell to the ground, desperately searching for anything to help him stand up, but he accidentally grabbed the chipped blade, cutting his hand.

“AHHH!”

Screaming while letting go of the blade, looking at Chen Sen standing in front of him, sweat began to appear on Ito Shaosa’s forehead.

He didn’t look like a respectful gangster at all.

Chen Sen raised his fist. But before he could punch down, he smelled an odd scent.

The boss of the gang actually peed himself and fainted.

“Pus*y,” Chen Sen cursed, fixed his collar, and walked to the car.

However, an alarm bell sounded not far away.

Chen Sen stopped and looked back.

On the road not far away were flashing red and blue lights.

Soon, two police cars that arrived late stopped by the roadside.

Several policemen quickly got out and said a few things to Chen Sen.

When Jiang Chen saw the person who first stepped out of the police car, Jiang Chen, who was wondering if he should call a lawyer, suddenly had a strange expression.

The world was too small…

(1) Qi: A mysterious flow of air described in marital arts that gives one power

Chapter 969: Sideshow

After the last time she left Ginza, Kwai’s life hit an all-time low.

In her career, she was transferred from downtown Yoto to the county of Yoto, Hachioji. Obviously, the force behind the club didn’t plan to just spare her on this. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible to explain why she was demoted without making any mistakes. When she thought that person’s influence reached the police system, she was overwhelmed by a chilling fear.

As in her romantic life, after she lost her virginity, she could no longer treat her boyfriend the same. So, her suspicious boyfriend suspected she had an affair and chose to break up with her after giving her a slap on the face.

It didn’t matter since life didn’t matter anymore anyway.

After encountering the dark side of society, Kwai thought about suicide.

After spending more than a year in a gloomy state, she finally got her life together. She decided that no matter how dark and decadent society was, she must act worthy of the badge on her shoulder.

Then after two months, she “accidentally” met an acquaintance on this country road.

“What happened, Chief?”

Seeing his long-legged, beautiful boss was frozen in place, the police officer who was preparing to question what happened looked at her, puzzled.

Five or six meters away, the backdoor to the Luer FA6 parked in the middle of four vans opened. With the help of the bright headlights, she saw a man in a suit looking at her side with a smile.

“No, nothing.” Kwai stared back at Jiang Chen’s smile, but her body instinctively trembled. She eventually worked up the courage and said to Jiang Chen coldly, “You’re suspected of brawling in public. Please come… come to the police station for questioning.”

Several police officers focused on Kwai. It was the first time they saw their female boss, who was transferred from Yoto, stuttering.

It was the first time they saw their female boss, transferred from downtown Tokyo, speaking while biting her tongue in the face of a suspect.

“Brawling?” Jiang Chen smiled and took a step forward, making the frightened Kwai take a step back instinctively.

Looking at her stubborn and stiff expression, Jiang Chen smiled and said, “Miss Kwai, you can’t talk nonsense. Before you got here, I didn’t even get out of the car. How could I have brawled? What’s more, any discerning person can see that it’s the thugs who started the brawl.”

The police officers standing behind her had even more peculiar expressions. How did this man know their boss’s last name? Officer Kwai didn’t seem to have introduced herself at the beginning…

Using all her courage to stop her desire to retreat, Kwai said coldly: “Evi…evidence?”

“Evidence?” Jiang Chen grinned.

With his status, many things didn’t require evidence at all. There was something called diplomatic immunity. Even if he did anything wrong, according to the Vienna Convention, the country would send him back to his country of origin at most and ban him from the country.

But was this possible?

Even if he was the one who started the brawl, the country would try to do everything possible to clean up after him. After all, it was a crucial period for power negotiations.

However, it was too boring to use diplomatic immunity now.

Jiang Chen gestured at the bodyguard sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Give Officer Kwai a look at the evidence.”

The bodyguard nodded and pushed the door open.

Soon, a tablet was stuffed into her hands.

“You’re looking at the footage taken by the driving recorder. You can clearly see that the man lying on the ground that peed his pants started the fight.” Jiang Chen walked beside Kwai, looked at her shaking hands holding the tablet, and a smirk appeared. “Officer Kwai? Can you keep it steady? Don’t drop my tablet.”

Jiang Chen suddenly approaching her made Kwai almost throw the tablet in her hands.

Angrily looking at the innocent-looking Jiang Chen, she involuntarily took a step back.

Kwai, realizing her flustered emotions, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

Finally, she calmed her breath, opened her eyes, and sighed.

“As evidence, I need to bring the tablet back to the station for backup. The driving recorder can prove your innocence, but your bodyguard must take a trip with us and go to the station to make a transcript. I hope you can cooperate.”

“As you wish.” Jiang Chen showed an indifferent expression then looked at Chen Sen. “Please accompany Officer Kwai to the police station.”

Chen Sen nodded and replied concisely, “Yes, boss.”

Jiang Chen nodded, looked at Kwai again, and suddenly sighed with exaggeration.

“I deeply regret the security in your country. In particular, the discrimination of your police has tarnished my reputation. It seems that I have to rethink whether your country has developed investment value worthy of a developed country.”

Jiang Chen then paused, hiding his smug smile. He turned his back to Kwai and said to himself, “Well, this is an investment involving hundreds of billions of dollars. I’ll have to apologize to the Sumitomo Group and the Nippon Energy Agency. Oh, what a pity…”

When Kwai heard the Sumitomo Group, Kwai’s heart, which finally calmed down, suddenly raced again.

She knew the political power behind the six consortiums in Nippon. Even her boss, the head of the Yoto Police Department, couldn’t withstand the anger of the Sumitomo Foundation.

“Wait, wait a minute!”

Looking at Jiang Chen going into his car, Kwai wanted to stop him. But the Luer FA6 already started the engine and stormed away.

Looking at the back of the car, Kwai’s lips tightly pressed together, her shoulders shivered, and tears were about to fall out.

(Why… Why do you bully me like this? Why do you have to do all this to me? Do we have such a big grudge?]

“When are we going?” Chen Sen, like a wooden man, said with a blank expression.

“…Now.”

She squeezed out the word and walked toward the police car.

In the Luer FA6, Jiang Chen and others returned to the highway leading to the mansion at the foot of Mount Fuji.

“Why did you bully her like this?” Liu Yao giggled while covering her mouth. Her soft fist slammed into Jiang Chen’s shoulder. “She’s just a police officer. You’re the richest man in the world.”

“I don’t know why.” Jiang Chen shrugged. “I just wanted to see her self-righteous face look frustrated. So I opened my mouth.”

He was kidding; a business that involved billions of dollars wouldn’t be affected by this. Jiang Chen just wanted to scare her and never thought of using his influence to make things difficult for her. Just like Liu Yao said, she was just a small police officer.

When the Sumitomo Foundation solved Congress’ problem, the contract would be signed. After signing, he would leave the small island country. It was just that Jiang Chen didn’t expect this girl would actually be scared by a few words.

It seemed the “impression” left on her was too vivid.

“I didn’t expect to see such a naughty side of you,” Liu Yao said.

“Haha, just once in while.” Jiang Chen laughed.

With a bit of ridicule, their laughter blended into the night in the rural area. For him, everything that happened tonight was only a small entertainment. At that moment, this episode already came to an end.

As for those who were hiding behind the scenes?

Naturally, someone would clean up after him.

Chapter 970: A Necessary Decision

In the morning, a ray of sunshine scattered into the room.

Lying in Jiang Chen’s arms, Liu Yao, who hadn’t yet taken off the evening gown from last night, moved her cherry lips. Her silk-like skin under the sunlight was as beautiful as a piece of jewelry decorated with gold.

“Master, breakfast is ready. Do you need me to bring it up?”

Standing at the edge of the bed, Qian Xia, dressed in a maid uniform and white stockings, woke up Jiang Chen with her sweet voice.

“Yes, bring it over.”

“Okay master, please wait.”

Looking at Qian Xia’s back, Jiang Chen suddenly felt a gentle bite on his chest. Liu Yao’s resentful eyes drifted toward him, and her finger circled on his chest. “I already spent so much energy feeding you, but you’re looking at other women the moment you get up.”

“What are you thinking about?” Jiang Chen pinched her delicate nose.

Liu Yao turned over and wanted to sit up.

But it was still hurting. Her eyebrows furrowed in pain, and she fell down.

n.

“Don’t force yourself; lie down for a bit longer.”

“You bad person… why did you go so hard?”

“Hmmm? You asked for it,” Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

Liu Yao blushed.

She did ask him to use force when squeezing her hands. But at that time, her brain was in an unconscious state, and she didn’t realize how tremendous his power was. So after she woke up, she discovered her hands were all red…

Enjoying this quiet time, Jiang Chen picked up the remote control and turned on the TV on the wall.

The news was playing on the TV.

Although he didn’t understand, his watch had built-in instant translation function.

“… Morita Real Estate CEO Morita Masahiro is suspected of tax evasion. The amount involved is in the billions. The power money trade behind the scenes is shocking! The eldest son, Morita Yosuke, the heir to Morita Real Estate, was suspected of collusion with the Yakuza, and he has repeatedly hired gangs to engage in human trafficking, kidnapping, and other illegal activities.”

“After receiving the report, the Yoto Police Department has arrested two men. The father and son met in prison and burst into tears. The scene was touching but also served as a reminder. The poor man must have something to hate. If they know this will happen one day, why bother?”

On the TV, Jiang Chen saw the man he met at the entrance of the cinema. In his memory, Mr.Morita was the one who wore a white suit and said: “Get the fu*k away”?

Shaking his head with a smile, Jiang Chen changed the channel.

Sumitomo certainly knew how to deal with the situation. Jiang Chen remembered that he merely mentioned the name “Morita Yosuke” last night. They not only finished their investigation, but they also helped him handle the problem. For a big consortium that controlled the political scene of the country, it was too easy to handle a real estate developer without a clean background.

It was better than doing it himself.

Looking at Future Technology’s advertisements on TV, Jiang Chen yawned leisurely.

Liu Yao, who was lying on his chest, popped up as if she remembered something.

“Right, what did you inject me with last night?”

“A drug that strengthens the body. It also has the effects of delaying aging, enhancing recovery, improving metabolic function, whitening…” Jiang Chen explained.

In fact, it was an E-grade genetic vaccine. He also injected Xia Shiyu with the same thing.

The higher the level of genetic agent, the greater the risk of uncontrolled mutation, and the lower the grade, the safer it was. The safest was the E-grade, which was the so-called civilian-grade physical strengthening drug from before the war.

Strength wasn’t necessarily better the more you had. For example, Jiang Chen never thought about injecting an A-grade genetic vaccine which had a higher than 90% lethality rate, although that stuff could turn him into a real “Superman.”

“What’s the other one?” Liu Yao tilted her head.

“Birth control.”

Liu Yao rolled her eyes and punched his chest lightly.

After a while, Qian Xia brought breakfast to the bedside table.

Jiang Chen, in a rare instance, enjoyed his lavish and corrupt life. He lay in bed and let the two girls feed him.

Honestly, the idea was better on paper. But being fed wasn’t as comfortable as he imagined. Jiang Chen wanted to take the spoon and feed himself so many times.

After the meal, Jiang Chen sat up from the bed and went to the bathroom to clean himself. When he came out of the bathroom, Qian Xia had already pressed his suit and respectfully held it in front of him.

“Your clothes and the hostess’ evening gown have been cleaned and dried. Is there anything else I can do for you, Master?”

“No, I have a business meeting today. I will get home at five o’clock. I will eat lunch outside, so just prepare dinner.”

“Okay, Master,” Qian Xia said with a smile as she bowed.

Jiang Chen nodded, pleased.

He felt closer and closer to this maid. Maybe he would bring her home one day? Although his mansion was taken care of by drones, he always felt something was missing after everything was taken care of by machines.

Sitting in the Luer FA6, Jiang Chen first took Liu Yao to the crew’s hotel then told the driver to head for the Prime Minister’s residence.

The Sumitomo Foundation was very efficient. When Jiang Chen arrived at the Prime Minister’s residence, some people were wearing headscarves at the door and were protesting to the Prime Minister with the slogans of “abolishing nuclear power” and “containing electricity prices.” The police stayed around to maintain order, and media relayed the protests in front of the Prime Minister’s residence to the entire world.

In fact, from the slogans, the two arguments of this protest were completely contradictory. For a resource-limited island country, nuclear power was almost an inevitable choice. Nuclear power costs weren’t cheap, but nuclear power was a cheaper alternative for a country where oil and natural gas were all imported.

In this case, there would be no doubt what kind of proposals the Prime Minister and the Cabinet would discuss.

When Jiang Chen saw the Prime Minister again, he discovered that the word “tired” was almost written on his face.

Obviously, he didn’t sleep at all last night, and he was in a meeting for the entire morning.

Even if he was unwilling, pressure from public opinion and Congress forced him to make a decision as soon as possible. Because of external and internal pressure, a decision that typically required three days came out the next day. The Prime Minister did indeed give Jiang Chen a satisfactory answer.

“We welcome Celestial Trade’s investment. Regarding the construction of submarine transmission lines… We have no objections. The only requirement is that the construction of this transmission line must be completed by domestic companies, and maintenance must also remain in the country. As compensation, we’re willing to accept your request to cover 70% of the capital cost for the project.”

A genuine smile appeared on Jiang Chen’s face. He held the Prime Minister’s extended hand.

“No problem. I look forward to our cooperation then.”

Chapter 971: Amazing Reviews

After negotiating with the prime minister, Jiang Chen went to the crew’s hotel. When he got on the elevator, he happened to bumped into Miss Tang who gave him her phone number.

Tang Yan said hello to him with enthusiasm, but there was a hint of resentment in her eyes.

Obviously, she was still somewhat disappointed that Jiang Chen didn’t show up to her appointment. Last night, she deliberately took an extra long shower and even put on light makeup after, ordered two bottles of expensive red wine, and waited for half the night…

After a few words with Jiang Chen, the elevator reached the floor she was going to, and she left the sentence “I’ll wait for you to call,” before she hurried off the elevator.

Arriving on the fifteenth floor, Jiang Chen went to Liu Yao’s room, knocked on the door gently, and the door quickly opened.

Liu Yao in a T-shirt and jeans saw Jiang Chen and her eyes lit up.

“Take a sit, I will get you some water.”

Jiang Chen examined the room and saw the suitcase beside the door.

“You’re packing?”

“Well, the premiere ended. According to the arrangement, we have a fan meetup in Hokkaido, and then I will return to Hua,” with two glasses of water, Liu Yao said reluctantly.

“It’s okay, my negotiation is over. I have to go in a few days too.” Jiang Chen rubbed Liu Yao’s hair and looked at her with a smile. “What are you thinking about?”

Liu Yao puffed her cheeks, with both of her hands on her chin and muttered. “I was thinking, when will be the next time I get to see you.”

“You make it sound like this is a farewell. If you have no problem with the schedule, you can come to Xin at any time.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“That’s true.” Liu Yao grinned and hugged Jiang Chen. Her beautiful eyes shone with brilliance as she pouted. “I am leaving this evening, before that, don’t you want to do something?”

After lunch with Liu Yao in the hotel restaurant, Jiang Chen looked at the time.

Seeing that it was almost time, after noting her to be careful, Jiang Chen bid farewell with her.

When taking the elevator downstairs, Jiang Chen happened to run into Director Wu Hao, so he asked about the premiere.

According to Director Wu, the response from the cinema line was quite good. According to the survey after the premiere, the audience that participated at the screening gave a score of 8.9. For the most important special effects of science fiction films, the audience gave a score of an astounding 9.7!

Unbelievable, a visual feast.

The audience used these two lines to summarize the modeling and production of Virtual Image Animation.

It was no surprise to Jiang Chen that the film received this recognition. Virtual Image Animation that could produce for Hollywood proved its ability in “Time Curtain”, and the innovative VR modeling shooting allowed many scenes in the filmed to be presented in the VR environment by the actors.

“Accounting for overseas box office, we are fully confident we can break through the 2 billion mark!” Director Wu assured Jiang Chen.

“Dollars?”

Director Wu’s expression was somewhat awkward as he coughed.

“Ahem, Yuan.”

They still had a long way to go. It would be unrealistic to change the reputation that existed for many years. But in any case, it was a good start.

After leaving the hotel, Jiang Chen got in his Luer FA6 and told the driver to go home.

On the way home, Jiang Chen received a call from Sumitomo.

“Mr. Jiang, are you satisfied with the way we handled the situation?”

“Very satisfied.” Jiang Chen knew that he was referring to Morita Yosuke, so he smiled. “Your work efficiency is impressive.”

A hearty laugh came through the phone.

“Right, how about Mr. Prime Minister’s reply?”

“The submarine transmission cables has been decided. You should receive approval soon. On the other hand, the government requires that the construction and maintenance of the cables must be domestic companies…” Here, Jiang Chen deliberately paused.

Sure enough, Sumitomo suddenly became anxious.

Although the income of the construction is not comparable to the profit of power import, it is nothing to laugh at! Moreover, the construction and maintenance of the entire project are all funded by the government, and the risk is almost zero compared to other projects.

How could he let the money slip away from him!

“Submarine cable? Sumitomo Group is fully capable of taking over this project! You see…” With a flattering tone, Sumitomo said on the phone.

“Of course, I appreciate your ability to do things. If there is no accident, this project will of course be handed over to you.” Jiang Chen said, “But because the project has to go through the approval, everything must be in accordance with the process. We tender, you bid, as long as the price is not too outrageous, we will give you priority as a construction party.”

“Haha, thank you Mr. Jiang!” Sumitomo was elated.

Hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen closed the holographic screen.

It was better to do a favor and make a friend.

His cooperation with the Sumitomo Foundation was quite enjoyable. His work was also very understanding. If all goes smoothly, Jiang Chen didn’t mind cooperating with them. For Celestial Trade and Future Group, choosing an influential family as a spokesperson has considerable benefits in all senses.

In addition, if Sumitomo’s status in the family continued to rise, this would also be of great benefit to the cooperation between the two parties.

Back in the mansion, Jiang Chen threw his clothes to Qian Xia, and then went to the bathroom to take a shower.

The framework for cooperation was decided, and the next step was basically the signing and discussing the details of the cooperation. These trivial things did not require him and he already ordered a special project team to be responsible for the entire global power grid project. Two days later, the team responsible for contact with the Central Power Company and the Sumitomo Group would arrive in Japan and live there until the cable was complete.

Inside the bathtub, Jiang Chen was planning his day tomorrow while splashing around in the water. After washing for half an hour, he stepped out the bathroom while rubbing his hair with a towel.

Qian Xia had put delicious food on the table and respectfully waited at the bathroom door.

“Master, the food is ready.”

Putting the towel on the clothes that needed to be changed, Jiang Chen looked Qian Xia and nodded.

“Good job, let’s go eat together.”

“Yes, master.”

The standard maid-style smile, Qian Xia followed Jiang Chen, and went to the dining room with him.

The food on the table was very fulfilling which made Jiang Chen even more hungry. However, when he picked up his chopsticks and was ready to start, the doorbell rang.

Jiang Chen looked at the time. It was already 7 o’clock in the evening. Then, he muttered in his mind.

Who could it be at this time?

Chapter 972: If you can apologize to solve the problem, then why do we need the police

Kwai anxiously stood at the entrance to the mansion while holding tightly onto a tablet.

The police car behind her and the police uniform on her body did not give her any sense of security, because the people living inside could already ignore all these.

Although the manor that covered a thousand acres was magnificent, but in her eyes, it was as daunting as the Devil’s Den. There was a voice shouting in her heart that a devil lived inside. She wanted to turn around and escape countless times, but she eventually lost to the fear inside her.

Whenever she thought about the news she saw in the morning, Ito, who was taken away by the Yoto Police Department and two men in suits, she could not help but feel despair. She already interrogated from Ito that he was employed by Morita Yosuke to do this stupid thing.

However, Morita Yosuke, who hired him, was jailed early in the morning. What does this mean? Even if she were slow, she could guess that something must be hidden behind all this. Then, the Yoto Police Department sent people to take away Ito in an unprecedented manner. The rumor reported that Morita Real Estate was maliciously acquired by the Sumitomo Group…

There was only one explanation. What Jiang Chen said that night was all true…

Gently biting her lower lip, a hint of determination appeared in her eyes, and she pressed the doorbell again.

The courtyard door of the mansion opened. Standing in front of her was a girl dressed in a maid costume. Her smile was also pure, it was easy to feel close to her. In the heart of Kwai, the maid was a poor girl that is forced to surrender to the devil.

“Come in, master is waiting for you in the living room.” Qian Xia smiled and said politely.

Master?

Kwai took a second to process before she cursed in her mind.

This pervert!

Through the stone brick road in the front yard of the mansion, Qian Xia opened the door for her, and invited her in.

From the red carpet on the ground, to the marble handrails on the stairs, and the oil paintings with golden borders on the walls, all of them displayed the corruption of the high class.

In the living room, Kwai saw the man who made her “sleepless at night.”

At the moment, he was smiling at her.

Kwai placed the tablet on the sofa, staring into Jiang Chen’s eyes, and said with a blank expression.

“I came to return the tablet. The evidence has been copied.”

Jiang Chen smiled, responded to her sight, and said softly, “Just for this?”

Gently biting her lip, Kwai slightly bowed her head and said quickly.

“And… I mistakened you yesterday, sorry.”

After listening to her words, Jiang Chen smiled. “Miss Kwai, you are the police, you should know. If you can apologize to solve the problem, then why do we need the police?”

“What do you want me to do!” Her expression was stiff, and Kwai immediately turned serious and cold.

However, she clearly chose the wrong target.

This majestic expression may be effective when interrogating criminals, but for the man standing in front of her, it was not useful at all.

“This is your attitude when you apologize?” Jiang Chen shrugged innocently. “It seems that I need to call your boss and ask him. When the police are on duty, are they all so rude and disrespectful?”

The serious expression suddenly collapsed. The fierce eyes softened into an arc of grievances.

“You! You! Is it fun making this difficult for me?”

(Very interesting. Otherwise, I won’t make it difficult for you.] Jiang Chen said in his mind, but his expression remained intact, and he continued to smile.

“I didn’t mean to make it difficult for you. But Miss Kwai, we all know that if you do something wrong, you have to pay the price, don’t you?”

“What do you want?” Grinding her teeth and avoiding his sight, Kwai squeezed out a few words.

“You know what I want.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Kwai’s face turned white and then turned dark. Her lower lip was turning white because of her clenched teeth.

Just as Jiang Chen felt that he teased her enough, and he should send her away or the dishes would turn cold, Kwai seemed to be determined and stated in an icy tone.

“I know… that right?”

So aware?

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and changed his mind.

“Oh? It seems that you are ready?”

It was him last time anyway, I’ll just pretend I got bit by the same dog…

Kwai lowered her head in humiliation and defaulted to Jiang Chen’s statement.

“Can you do me a favor?” Jiang Chen’s eyeball turned, and then looked at Qian Xia beside him. “I need you to help me prepare some props.”

“Of course!” With a splendid maid-style smile, Qian Xia slightly raised her skirt and respectfully said, “The master’s order is absolute for Qia Xia.”

“Let me think about it, some things should be available in the nearby town. Iron chains, leather whip, ropes, small clips… H me think about it, what else,” Jiang Chen said while smiling wickedly, then looked at Qian Xia from the corner of his eye.”…For now, you should know which store you can buy these from.”

When he spoke, he did not suppress his volume.

He deliberately said this to her. He was very curious. After hearing this, would she run and flee in fear.

If she escaped, whatever, he didn’t plan to use all these anyway since he was about to go back.

If she didn’t run…

Hey, her body is quite honest.

What happens next will be entertainment for the night!

Kwai did not notice Jiang Chen’s sight, she just felt numb and her hands and feet were trembling.

The door was behind her, there was no lock, she wanted to turn around and escape, and she has confidence to escape.

But somehow, her feet were glued to the red carpet, and she couldn’t move half an inch.

The breeze blew through, mixed with the scent of jasmine.

The innocent maid walked by her side and went to the nearby town to buy the “punishment tools” according to the so-called master’s instructions. At this moment, there was only two people in this room.

“Come here.” The devil smiled at her and waved.

“Nooo…”

Her throat made a voice of sorrow, and although she resisted, she moved subconsciously.

Seeing her obedient behavior, the devil smiled more cheerfully and was waving her over.

Step by step she moved forward but resisting in her mind. She didn’t know why, as the devil was getting closer and closer to her, an uncontrollable heat suddenly rushed into her heart. Her hands were pinched tightly in front of her chest, feeling the pounce of her heart, as if her heart didn’t belong to her at all.

What she didn’t know was that it was at this moment…

Behind the abyss of fear in her heart, the opium blossomed, sprouting a different feeling…

The smile on Jiang Chen was more and more bright.

Occasionally, only occasionally, especially in front of a masochist, sometimes he would also reveal his unknown sadist side.

Chapter 973: Back to Xin

On the third day, Kwai left the mansion without her soul.

There were no traces of scars on her body, her uniform was neat and tidy, and nothing seemed odd… but she felt something had shattered inside her.

Dignity? Pride?

Maybe both.

What happened over the last two days she swore she would not tell another soul.

If she saw Jiang Chen before, she would only be scared.

However now, she was not only psychologically afraid of the face and name, but also horrified to find out that she actually … doesn’t hate him.

At the beginning, she resisted Jiang Chen holding her hands.

But later, she was proactive and even began to call him “Master” …of course, it was forced.

Looking at the business card in her hand, she wanted to tear it apart, but in the end, she still resisted her impulse.

She remembered when she was lying on the carpet without any life inside her, Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

“…how should I say this, maybe I went a little overboard. I do feel bad. After all, I’m the man that took your first time, and I should have been gentle with you. Don’t overthink, I won’t apologize. But, I will give you a little compensation.”

“Keep this business card with my personal number on it. If you get into any trouble, remember to call me.”

“Haha, of course, if you have a need, you can also call this number.”

(What need!)

Hesitating for a moment, she put the business card into her bag.

Kwai took a deep breath to calm her chaotic mind. She took out her car key and left the place.

Standing by the window, Jiang Chen looked out at the exhaust that gradually dissipated, and his smirk remained.

Although he was going to return to Xin tomorrow, he had a feeling that they will meet again.

After the premiere of “Three Body” ended, the film was released to major theaters.

Just two days after, the box office of “Three Body” in the first weekend also came out. It was quite an impressive result to achieve a box office of 310 million yen with just 300 screens.

In contrast, the audience of science fiction works in the Nippon film market was quite limited. This point could be seen from “Star Wars 7” that scored 500 million dollars in the first week internationally lost to a game adaptation film “Monster Watch 2”, even the Hollywood special effects blockbuster didn’t manage to please the audience.

In any case, with this spectacular result, Director Wu could begin the production of “Three Body 2” with full confidence.

The sci-fi movie genre within Hua will once again begin its journey to prove its worth.

At the beginning of March, Jiang Chen boarded the plane back to Xin.

Originally, he planned to head to South Korea to discuss the power export business with Samsung Group. However, the news from the European side forced him to temporarily change his plan and return to Xin in advance.

When he got off the plane at Coro, Ayesha was already waiting for him in the special tunnel. When she saw Jiang Chen, she rushed to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Did you miss me?” Looking at the sapphire-like pupils, Jiang Chen smiled and touched Ayesha’s hair.

Ayesha nodded hard, didn’t talk, and just buried her head into his shoulders in joy.

“Okay, come down now, don’t you see Jiang Chen is very troubled?” In high heels, Xia Shiyu sighed, patted Ayesha’s back, and then looked at Jiang Chen with some resentment, “It has almost been half a month and you are finally back.”

“Ahem, a busy schedule.” Jiang Chen scratched his cheek awkwardly.

Of course, he wouldn’t say that he actually finished all his work three days ago, but for some reason he only came back three days later.

“Your relationships are so good, count me in too?” Natasha, who had a smug look on her, walked over. She put her hands lazily behind her head. From her beach-style T-shirt, she should be in Xin for vacation.

Two sharp sights locked onto her immediately.

Natasha hurriedly waved to the two women and laughed heartily. “I am just kidding, don’t take it seriously.”

“…just a joke?” Xia Shiyu said suspiciously.

“Other women can, but she… gives me a bad feeling,” Still hanging onto Jiang Chen, Ayesha said.

They did not stay at the airport for long. With the baggage given to the accompanying bodyguards, Jiang Chen took the girls with him. Because of the limited seating of the Lamborghini, his preferred ride became the custom-designed Luer.

Because the model wouldn’t be released to the market, this car didn’t have an accurate price tag. However, from the titanium alloy shell and the high-power electric engine, the cost of this car was than 10 million dollars.

After getting into the car, Jiang Chen got behind the steering wheel and drove onto the road.

Judging from the streets on both sides, the city had already taken shape as a cosmopolitan. Travellers from all over the world strolled on the streets. With the sea breeze blowing from the western Pacific Ocean, Jiang Chen looked at Natasha, who was sitting with Ayesha in the back through the mirror and asked casually.

“Hmm, are you working for the Russian KGB or for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs? I always feel that your work boundaries are getting more and more blurred. Did you go back to deal with work some time ago? If I didn’t guess wrong, was your destination Europe?”

“Accurately speaking, it is the Russian-Ukrainian border. But unlike before, the main content of my work is planning. You know, the situation in Europe is quite different now. From the Baltic countries to the Black Sea border in Romania, deployment of troops seems to be increasing…”

“You haven’t answered my previous question yet.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Ummm… well.” Natasha’s expression was awkward. She hesitated for a while and answered the question. “My current status is a bit subtle. On the one hand, my position has indeed changed from the Russian Federal Intelligence Agency to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, I still haven’t pulled out of Ukrainian affairs, but just retreated from field work to work behind the scene. It’s very troublesome to explain. You are not a person in our system. It’s hard to understand all this mess.”

Natasha then paused and said seriously.

“But you can be rest assured that when I come to Xin, I absolutely have no intention to inquire about your intelligence. Our country attaches great importance to our friendly cooperation with you…”

“That’s enough,” Jiang Chen interrupted her with a smile, “If I didn’t believe this, I wouldn’t let you stay in my house.”

Russia is not stupid. They know Ayesha, the senior official of the Xin National Intelligence Agency, stayed with him, how could they plant an agent in to spy on him? Not to mention that he has never had the habit of placing confidential documents in his own home. The only place used for office work can only be accessed after obtaining permission.

Natasha gratefully smiled at Jiang Chen, but soon she pouted in dissatisfaction.

She noticed that Jiang Chen used the word “let you stay”.

Ayesha, beside her, smirked.

Perhaps because they were “natural enemies”, every time she sees Natasha being displeased, she feels an odd sense of pleasure.

Chapter 974: Start the Money Printers

Chapter 974 Start the Money Printers

The construction of the submarine transmission cable from Ange Island to Malaysia was half complete. Construction had also begun for the cable to Australia. The cable from the New Malaysia Special District to India had also entered the preparation stage of the project.

As Jiang Chen had planned, the global power grid plan was progressing.

Only due to the accidents in Europe did Jiang Chen have to end his trip ahead of schedule. In the list of first countries that joined Celestial Trade’s global power grid, the name South Korea won’t be a part of it.

But it didn’t matter. Jiang Chen couldn’t travel the world for several cables.

When other countries see the benefits of importing electricity from Xin, they will naturally come to negotiate.

At that time, it will no longer be a buyer market, but an absolute seller market.

Promoting the electrification of society, drastically reducing the cost of industrial electricity, improving the energy structure, and reducing the burden of thermal power generation on the environment… These were all visible benefits. Jiang Chen also believed that most countries would not turn a blind eye to this.

After returning to Xin, the first thing Jiang Chen did was convene a Xin Reserve shareholders’ meeting and put forward a resolution that had a profound impact on the country.

Without any precious metals as a guarantee, the Xin Reserve announced that it will issue a total of 14 trillion XND in three batches this February according to the annual GDP data announced by the Xin National Bureau of Statistics. And in the next five years, the Xin Reserve will relax the restrictions on currency issuance to meet the needs of the market.

Does the market really need it?

When Jiang Chen proposed this resolution at the shareholders’ meeting, everyone was rattled.

It was not just printing banknotes, it was simply flooding the market!

Bankers and capitalists of Xin sat in the meeting, most of whom were directly or indirectly supported by Future Group. Of course, many of them also emigrated from other countries in the Commonwealth. After all, in history, this island was once a British colony.

When they heard the resolution proposed by Jiang Chen, someone immediately stood up and raised objections.

“It’s too crazy! The economy of Xin is finally stable. Printing money on such a large scale will undoubtedly cause a large-scale devaluation!”

“This is not printing banknotes, but a bubble!”

“What is the use of printing so many banknotes? I can’t see any benefit except inducing inflation!”

“I don’t have any opinions on printing money, but the figure of 14 trillion is simply whimsical! The total amount of money we are currently issuing is only 13 trillion Xin New Dollars, and the currency circulation is less than 500 billion—”

“Is it crazy?” Standing in the meeting, Jiang Chen looked around at the shareholders. “Ladies and gentlemen, our currency circulation is close to one-third of the total amount of money, which means what? This means we have this strength.”

“Bubble? I want to ask you, how much of our GDP is a bubble? Which of the many businesses of Future Group became a Fortune 500 company through real estate or financial speculation?”

“I want to ask you, how much of the 90% of GDP I contributed is a bubble?”

In a domineering speech, all the shareholders were speechless.

As Jiang Chen said, 90% of the GDP of the country was directly related to the two companies, Future Group and Celestial Trade, and the remaining 10% was basically indirectly related to this man.

After all, four years ago, people on Pannu Islands were still fishing and farming. Today, more than four years later, they not only built the longest submarine tunnel in the world but even built an elevator to the geosynchronous orbit and established a colony on the distant moon.

Everything in this country was because of the man in front of them.

“This is one Xin New Dollar, the currency of our country.” Jiang Chen took out a coin from his pocket and shook it in front of everyone, and then slapped it on the table. “In five years, it will become the currency of the world.”

“Let’s start the vote,” Jiang Chen glanced at all the shareholders. “Let me see the courage and ambition in you.”

The shareholders looked at each other and exchanged opinions in whispers.

Jiang Chen sat back in the seat and quietly watched everything unfold.

About ten minutes later, the statistics came out.

Looking at the numbers on the big screen, there was a smile on his face.

With the exception of 5 abstained and 2 votes against, almost everyone voted for it.

The miracle created by Future Group has made the shareholders of the Xin Reserve almost unconsciously make their choices.

There was no need to doubt at all, was there?

The large-scale issuance of banknotes did have a certain impact on the exchange rate of the Xin New Dollar. However, because the newly issued currency did not immediately enter the market, the impact was quite limited. After all, the printed banknotes did not get used immediately, but mainly entered the market in the form of lending.

However, while this was the case, the banknotes had been printed and this piece of news entered the market.

For everyone, the passive depreciation seemed inevitable?

The International Monetary Fund had lowered the credit rating of the Xin New Dollar. Central banks had made some adjustments to the exchange rate between the Xin New Dollar and their domestic currency, declining the exchange rate drastically in a short period of time.

After the Xin New Dollar depreciated for a while, Jiang Chen began to gradually exchange all the foreign exchange held by Future Group and Celestial Trade into Xin New Dollar through Future Bank. This included the profitability of major subsidiaries around the world, including the contracts signed on the Outer Space Resources Development Forum.

Even if the foreign exchange did not arrive on the bank yet, it was sold to the Xin Reserve by Jiang Chen in the form of a “loan”.

This move certainly did not escape the eyes of other shareholders of the Xin Reserve, but no one posed an objection. After all, the decline of the Xin New Dollar was imminent. At this time, exchanging foreign exchange in hand to Xin New Dollar was undoubtedly a high-risk move in the short term.

Moreover, at the time when the exchange rate was free falling, the Xin Reserve also needed a large number of foreign exchange reserves to stabilize the value of its currency.

Buying when the exchange rate was falling means that Jiang Chen could use a small amount of foreign exchange to gain a large number of banknotes called Xin New Dollar from the hands of the Xin Reserve.

At this moment, the central banks around the world were watching the show, seeing how the Xin Reserve will play itself by printing a bunch of paper that are useless after all, and messing up its own economy. They planned to acquire the bankrupted companies once they could no longer afford to purchase raw materials.

Just when everyone thought he was crazy.

Celestial Trade suddenly published a resolution on its official website.

[According to the regulations on the Development of Space Resources Act promulgated by Xin, in order to facilitate market management and taxation, Celestial Trade has decided in its internal meetings that the signed contracts are not affected, and from today on, including space elevator freight, cargo import, and export settlement, all businesses will terminate the use of foreign currency for settlement and the Xin New Dollar will be the only currency accepted for space resource transactions…)

Chapter 975: Dark War

“All businesses will terminate the use of foreign currency for settlement, the Xin New Dollar will be the only currency accepted for space resource transactions…”

When this passage was read by Secretary of State Kerry in the conference room of the Capitol, the entire conference room went quiet.

Kerry was uncomfortable being the focus of countless eyes, so he moved the document away and shrugged. “I’m finished.”

All the tension in the conference room seemed to have disappeared, as if it were some kind of signal, the whispering gradually grew louder.

Kerry sighed and sat back in his chair. He rubbed his sore eyes and glanced toward Hill and the House of Representatives. Typically, the internal meeting of the Capitol didn’t include people from Congress, especially the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Paul Ryan, an Republican.

But they couldn’t do that anymore.

The eyebrows of Hill and the Chief of Staff furrowed, and the Minister of Commerce had shut is jaw for the tenth time. The Minister of Internal Affair looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. Economic experts and consultants exchanged opinions in small voices, but it was obvious that they did not have anything to recommend. If there was an idea, they would have brought it up already. After all, the only reason they were here was to contribute their ideas.

This situation lasted for ten minutes and finally an official broke the silence.

“I don’t understand the reason why they do this. The US dollar is the international currency. If it is settled in US dollars, it would make a lot of inconvenient things a lot more convenient!”

“Obviously they are trying to save the crumbling New Xin Dollar,” said an economist from Harvard University.

“No, maybe they have greater ambitions…” Stanford University’s international relations expert said, “just a few days ago, we thought they were crazy about buying back the Xin New Dollar in the foreign exchange market. It was just a temporary solution to patch up their mistake. I didn’t expect everything was a trap they set.”

A Democrat congressman leaned back in his chair and sneered at them with disdain.

“I think we are being too anxious. How big is the market for the development of space resources? At most hundreds of billions.”

“Yes. Our core interests are still on the planet. No matter how much resources they have developed in space, they have to be circulated on the international market. The US dollar still has an undisputed influence, and to challenge the US dollar with just one space elevator. This is simply idiotic.”

“They just captured an asteroid, not to mention the asteroid has not yet been fully developed, even if it’s fully developed, it’s worth hundreds of billions at most. The global US dollar is over 90 trillion, it is not in the same order of magnitude.”

“Unless, they can prove the profitability of the space elevator.”

The debate lasted for a while, but it was Hill who cleared her throat that silenced the room.

Seeing everyone present here look at her, Hill spoke.

“I have just exchanged views with the Speaker of the House of the Representatives. We all agree that it is necessary to send the Secretary of State to conduct a diplomatic visit to Xin. Expanding the application of the US dollar is one of our diplomatic strategic priorities. The US dollar is an international currency. The philosophy we have been working on for decades.”

“At least, using the US dollar and the Xin dollar both for settlement, after all, the US dollar has a certain amount of liquidity in Xin, we must remind them of this.”

Secretary of State Kerry turned the pen in his hand, and his hands on the table spread out slightly.

“Europe? Recently in Europe…”

Hillary looked at him and said.

“I know. Everything has a priority.”

“The EU is our ally, so you should go to Europe first, and when you return, make a stop in Xin on the way.”

Hill emphasized the words “on the way “.

Kerry nodded, fully comprehending.

It was important to convince Celestial Trade to allow the US dollar for settlement, but they couldn’t give Celestial Trade the feeling that it is too important.

Just after Celestial declared that Xin New Dollar as the only settlement currency for space trade, the exchange rate market experienced quite peculiar fluctuations, just like most stocks that bottomed out and rebounded to the original exchange rate at an incredible rate.

Although there were many ideas speculating on Celestial Trade’s decision, central banks collectively made the same decision; to increase their holding of the Xin currency.

If Xin New Dollar was the sole currency for outer space trade, then in order to develop its own aerospace industry with the space elevator, then a rigid demand for Xin New Dollar now exist for their country. Considering that other countries had similar demand, the Xin New Dollar now had room for appreciation, so the central banks all shared the same view.

That was to buy Xin New Dollar from the foreign exchange market with its own currency.

Under the influence of these external factors, it naturally promoted the appreciation of the Xin currency.

As early as when the Xin New Dollar dove to the bottom, Jiang Chen bought a total of 212.7 billion US dollars worth of foreign exchange assets, according to the exchange rate at the time, he purchased 943.1 billion worth of Xin New Dollar for the New Reserve. Now, the exchange rate between the Xin New Dollar and the US dollar was almost the same.

In this event, Jiang Chen has turned over 212.7 billion US dollars of funds held by Future Group and Celestial Trade into 943.1 billion of US dollars in funds.

The reason why it jumped up and down like a seesaw was because low circulation of the Xin New Dollar. For any other major currencies, unless it is a financial tsunami, a large fluctuation is almost impossible.

“Financial instruments are obscure.”

When Xia Shiyu put a financial report on Jiang Chen’s desk, Jiang Chen exclaimed.

Even for Future Group that has grown to the present level, 943.1 billion in US dollar was still an astronomical figure. Although the money was all in Xin New Dollar, the exchange rate was to remain stable in the foreseeable future.

A large-scale printing of banknotes, a long-awaited regulation on the settlement currency, the two paper documents allowed Future Group to sweep more than 700 billion US dollar in just one month, creating Apple out of thin air.

“The US fiscal revenue is only 5 trillion US dollars a year. Even for a country, 900 billion US dollars is not a small number.” Xia Shiyu moved a chair over and sat across from Jiang Chen. Holding her chin, she smiled while studying Jiang Chen’s expression, “How are you going to respond?”

The financial market is a zero-sum game.

It does not create any value in itself. If someone makes money, then it means someone must have lost money. More than 700 billion US dollars was not from thin air, but the intelligence advantage of Future Group that beat the Federal Reserve and the Wall Street predators who manipulated the foreign exchange market.

It’s hard to imagine that they won’t fight back.

“Their means will be nothing more than attacking the Xin New Dollar in the foreign exchange market, suppressing the exchange rate by short selling, and forced our low-priced banknotes to rot in our hands while destroying the economy of the country.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen with some surprise.

“Are you surprised?” Jiang Chen was keenly aware of the surprise in her eyes and grinned. “Well, I do also study.”

Although this financial battle has nothing to do with him, everything was directed by the professional financial team of Future Bank and these theories were learned from David Smith.

“Stop bragging,” Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes and got up from the chair. “The long-distance power transmission device on the lunar colony will start tomorrow. Are you sure the laser beam will not poke a hole on Earth?”

Jiang Chen opened his hands and helplessly said.

“How many times have I told you, even if it shoots at Earth, it won’t penetrate the ozone layer.”

Chapter 976: A Ray from the Moon

April 1st was a day with significant meaning for the lunar colony.

Lu Fan looked up at the magnificent hemispherical building outside the colony, and there was admiration in his eyes.

Power transmission to the Earth hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, in his mind, it was almost impossible to accomplish two months ago. However, at this moment, he didn’t have any doubt that this project, a project that could be described as a miracle in the history of mankind, has been completed in their hands.

The original hexagonal laser generator was wrapped in a giant hemisphere consisting of a hexagonal grid.

These hexagonal grids are made of special materials. Under different conditions, it has variable transparency.

According to the program, only one side of the hexagonal grids is transparent, and the other sides reflect all light. Lasers in different directions are constantly reflected throughout the sphere, and are eventually converged in one direction. Then, they are released at one point and directed at a specific point hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

This is the mechanism of the entire device.

Under the precise control of the quantum computer, the direction of the beam is precisely controlled by changing the transparency of the hexagonal grid on the spherical surface. After all, this distance takes light even for a full second to travel, any error will be infinitely magnified.

The target that receives the laser is moving relative to the moon all the time, and only the quantum computer with astonishing computing power can take the helm of the project.

“Are you very surprised?” The unshaven He Biao walked to Lu Fan’s side and touched his own head that was about to bald. Then, he grinned. “After a few days, I can return to Earth and I can brag to everybody that the life and death of Earth were under my control for a moment.”

ere

Lu Fan laughed with him. “The colonial supervisor said that there would be no problems even if it is shot on the Earth?”

“It is true,” He Biao also turned his eyes to the giant egg, grinning. “But who cares when I am bragging?”

After hearing the irresponsible speech of his boss, Lu Fan smiled and shook his head.

Suddenly, he realized a problem and frowned.

“What if… another country gives us trouble with this problem?”

He Biao laughed and patted him on the shoulder.

“Then let them give us trouble. This is a national event, something not for the ordinary us to worry about. The sky is falling and there are tall people who will be hit first, let alone those who have already gone to heaven? There are a few days left before we change shifts, if I were you, I wouldn’t be thinking about all this. You might as well think about how you should spend the money you have earned in the past six months when you go back.”

While the two chatted, in the colonial command room, Tang Weijie solemnly ordered the launch.

Within the giant egg, the hexagonal base began to form a dark purple light visible to the naked eye.

There were no specular light beams and there were no fancy effects.

Everyone waited nervously for three seconds.

Three seconds later, a green signal light illuminated, and the command room erupted with cheers and whistles. Even Tang Weijie, who has always been calm, tossed his hat in the air.

Just three seconds ago, or more precisely, exactly a little more than two seconds ago, the spectrometer next to the giant egg received a return light verifying that the laser hit the target. This beam of light that transmitted for just two seconds brought them the news of success.

Half a minute later, Tang Weijie received a call from the ground command center.

Only one sentence was sent through his phone.

“Congratulations to you; congratulations to us; this is a monumental moment.”

Jiang Chen sent his blessing to the governor of the lunar colony. Filled with excitement. he put down the phone, patted Kelvin’s shoulder, and walked out of the command room.

Passing through the corridor, through the front hall, and standing on the lawn outside the ground command center, he could still hear the cheers. Although he did not see it, he could imagine people embracing each other, high-fiving each other, and celebrating the accomplishment with each other.

Then the tensed state began to dissipate. He first smiled and soon began to laugh.

It was finally successful.

The last two months of hard work has not been in vain.

It won’t take long for the high-voltage electricity “shot” from the Moon to connect the grid across the two oceans. After seeing the ultra-low cost of lunar power generation, more and more small and medium-sized countries will abandon nuclear power and thermal power, join in his global power grid plan, and be bundled with the submarine transmission cable forever.

At this moment, Xia Shiyu walked next to him, poked his waist, and interrupted his fantasy.

“Is this it?” With a surreal tone, Xia Shiyu whispered.

Jiang Chen turned and gave Xia Shiyu a big hug. Before her exclaim, he kissed her on the lips and looked at her pretty face. He joked with a grin, “What else? Put a rainbow aurora in the sky?”

A light wave shorter than the ultraviolet wavelength cannot be observed with the naked eye. Even on the space elevator, it would be impossible to see the laser that is coming from the Moon.

Xia Shiyu blushed, and anxiously looked around. After confirming that there was no one else, she relaxed her tense body and poked the tip of Jiang Chen’s nose. “You are such a child.”

Ayesha came over and enviously looked at Xia Shiyu who was picked up by Jiang Chen, and gently pulled on Jiang Chen’s shirt.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chen turned his head and smiled at her.

Ayesha did not speak, but the watery sapphire-like pupils spoke for her.

“I also want a hug.”

As Jiang Chen was enjoying the company of the two beauties, the ground command center was also filled with excitement and joy.

After the excitement, Kelvin looked at the three-dimensional image on the holographic screen, and cast a look full of fascination.

The three satellites floating in the geosynchronous orbit formed an isosceles triangle; like a piece of art that combined the beauty of mathematics and physics.

The three uniquely shaped satellites formed the “prisms” that remain relatively static on all three sides to either pass the laser beam or reflect the laser beam on the receiving ring on the outer side of the space elevator.

There, light energy was converted into electrical energy, along the superconductor transmission lines installed outside the space elevator. Then the energy was transferred from the geosynchronous orbit to the ground, or up to Celestial City.

If the space elevator only allowed the world to see the broad opportunities for the starry sky and ignite people’s enthusiasm for investing in the aerospace industry, then this laser from the Moon made everyone “see” the real benefits…

Without any other products and just selling electricity, it could easily allow the lunar colony that burned hundreds of millions every month to achieve profitability.

Chapter 977: Run After You Showed-Off

In front of the pure white Presidential Palace of Coro City was a beautifully constructed lawn. On this lawn, the people of Xin gathered. They looked excited and focused on the stage.

In a round of applause, their beloved President Zhang Yaping stepped onto the stage, smiled, and waved his hand. He then cleared his throat and fixed the microphone.

“Today is a great day.”

“This morning, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, our compatriots on the lunar colony have sent us 20 million kWh of electricity.”

“Maybe you are surprised, but I am now honored to announce this fact to you.”

“The breakthrough we have made in long-distance power transmission technology has enabled our grid to be connected to the power grid of the lunar colony!”

The long-suppressed cheers erupted, and countless people shook the Xin flag in their hands and celebrated this great moment. Sitting on a special guest’s seat, Jiang Chen who was looking at Zhang Yaping speaking in front of the stage, nodded and clapped.

After the whole audience quieted down, Zhang Yaping looked at the people with a smile, raised his hands, and loudly stated.

“All this time we had to pay for expensive electricity prices because of energy dependence, because of the high cost of nuclear power, and because of other reasons. We had to sacrifice the environment, sacrifice safety and sacrifice our children and grandchildren’s future, but now, I solemnly announce to all of you that all that has become history.”

The environmentalists in the audience looked at their president with excitement. Most of them were wearing green headscarves and green shirts, easily distinguishable from the crowd. Since the construction of the thermal power station and the nuclear power plant in Xin, they have raised their voices of opposition.

But now, all this has finally been rewarded!

Although it had nothing to do with their protests…

“From today, I announce.”

“Xin will systemically remove thermal power and nuclear power! Let this picturesque archipelago stay forever!”

“In addition, I am here to make a commitment. The basic electricity price of our country will be cut by ten times in one month!”

IIII

The cheers in the audience roared and Jiang Chen smiled at the excited crowd. Starting today, Xin will open a new chapter and usher in a new era of electrification.

Throughout the history of the world, the capital always played a pivotal role in the promotion of social progress. When the cost of electricity is infinitely compressed, energy-efficient electric equipment will naturally spread to every corner of society.

Because of this light from the Moon, Xin has already boarded the train to high speed development.

From pure electric vehicles to digital cities, the door to the future has now opened!

“…Now, please allow me to hand over the rest of this time to Mr. Jiang Chen, the president of Future Group.” In a round of applause, Zhang Yaping smiled warmly and welcomed Jiang Chen who slowly walked onto the stage, as he then retreat to the side.

After the thunderous applause quieted down a little, Jiang Chen cleared his throat and reached out to grab the microphone.

“Hello, everyone, I am Jiang Chen. I am honored to stand here and say hello to all of you.”

“As a responsible company, we will actively respond to the policies of the Xin government.”

“Here, I declare that starting today, Xin will shut down the first and last, nuclear power plant on Coro Island!”

The environmentalist broke out with cheers, and Jiang Chen nodded to the people with the green headscarves.

“Most of the facilities used in the nuclear power plant for nuclear reaction will be dismantled, leaving only one reactor for the production of deuterium. The original site of the nuclear power plant will be converted into a safe, harmless deuterium refinery by using separation from seawater.”

“Someone may ask, what is the deuterium used for? Is it used for nuclear weapons?”

“Before answering this question, I want to ask you to think about a problem first. From today, we will enjoy the electricity from the Moon. But how is the lunar colony generating electricity?”

“Solar? Many scholars and experts in the world guessed this.”

“But what I am saying here is that this is a misunderstanding.”

Looking at the crowd, Jiang Chen paused and raised his volume.

“In order to understand the possible misunderstandings, here I decided to open a document that belongs to the A-class confidential of Future Group!”

Jiang Chen noticed that when he mentioned the word confidential, the audience was silent, and everyone was waiting for him to continue. Especially the journalists as they already smelled ground-breaking news, and they want to capture every muscle on Jiang Chen’s face.

Under everyone’s gaze, Jiang Chen slowly said.

“Not just wireless power transmission, our biggest breakthrough is controllable nuclear fusion. As early as two months ago, the world’s first nuclear fusion generator using helium-3 and deuterium as fuel was built in the lunar colony!”

This sentence, like a deep-water bomb, was directly thrown into the crowd.

Including journalists, Xin citizens, and tourists, everyone blanked out for two seconds.

Through this gap, Jiang Chen wisely gave the position on the stage to Zhang Yaping, and hurriedly stepped down before the media came up.

Listening to the exclamations and shouts from behind him, a smile emerged on his face.

The feeling of showing off and running was certainly exciting.

Jiang Chen didn’t know how Zhang Yaping settled the chaos and appeased the reporters who rushed up onto the stage. After his speech, he went straight to the office at the presidential palace.

About half an hour later, Zhang Yaping, who announced the end of the speech, returned to the presidential palace and went straight back to his office.

After seeing Jiang Chen sitting in his office, he told the assistant to make two cups of black tea and then sat on the sofa opposite Jiang Chen.

“A very good speech; you have stolen my thunder.”

“Have I? Then I have to give my assistant who helped me write the speech a raise.”

The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

Jiang Chen tried the still hot black tea and mentioned something else. “It seems that you are confident with your campaign?”

“Of course,” Zhang Yaping laughed and squinted his eyebrows at Jiang Chen’s humorously. “The poll shows that our support rate is over 80%, far higher than the second Whig Party and the third Socialist Party. As long as this trend continues, I will still be sitting in this position for the next four years.”

Zhang Yaping cleverly used the phrase “our support rate.”

However, Jiang Chen just smiled. He gently stirred the black tea with a spoon and whispered, “This trend will continue.”

“It is said that the Whig Party is supported by the British government. They advocate promoting Xin to join the Commonwealth. The Socialist party is supported by the people on the other side of the Pacific. They advocate the restoration of UA governing Pannu Islands as in the 1970s and abolish defense contracting…”

“They won’t cause a stir.” Jiang Chen smiled and said casually, “The ghost is staring at them.”

A smile formed on Zhang Yaping’s face.

Compared to the young man who found Jiang Chen because of his ideals four years ago, he has now become a sleek and shrewd politician. He was very clear that as long as he holds the golden thigh of Future Group, his presidential status will be unshakable.

Jiang Chen, who needed a stable political environment, would never easily replace his long-term cooperation.

Chapter 978: Controversies

Just after Jiang Chen disclosed that Future Group has mastered controllable nuclear fusion technology, the Internet was taken by storm. This news was published onto an official source on Weibo, and the comment section exploded.

“Nuclear fusion? How is this possible!”

“Do you know the central temperature of the nuclear fusion reaction? If you don’t know I will tell you! More than 20 million degrees Celsius! There is no material in the world that can withstand this temperature! I don’t know if the material exists in the solar system, but at least not on earth!”

“I don’t know much, but I have some common sense. Since the temperature is too high, can’t you turn down the fire? I think that our country’s researchers can start from this angle. Since Xin can come up with a solution, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“…Do you think the reactor is your gas stove?”

“Hahaha.”

In addition to these non-constructive replies, many well-known influencers also left their opinions, and expressed their views on the breakthrough of the two major technical problems; long- wireless power transmission and controllable nuclear fusion.

“I hope that another 10,000 SCI papers can be exchanged for controllable nuclear fusion. When we are still studying how to carve on bronze, the compatriots across the ocean have already picked up the hammer and started to wrought iron. I mean nothing more than just my amazement of the change happening in our generation” A well-known news commentator shared his amazement after reading the report.

“Because of the breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology, the Xin electricity price has dropped from 0.22 XND to 0.12 XND. I don’t know why the official source didn’t report this. I saw it in the international news of Future 1.0. It seems that the title of the Country of Hope can be moved across the Pacific Ocean. Xin’s housing price is not very expensive? Celestial Trade also recently announced the Mars Colonization Plan. People who can’t afford housing can consider this since there is no need to learn foreign languages there, haha.” A streamer named Shadow Devil on Godly Land bragged on his streaming channel.

Not only Hua was shocked by the technological progress of Future Group, but the UA across the ocean was also shocked.

In the evening scientific talk show aired by CBS, nuclear physics expert, Professor Omar Hareken of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory made a rare appearance. Using easy to understand language, he explained the difficulty of controllable nuclear fusion.

“As early as the 1950s, we made bold predictions that after 30 years, we can use nuclear fusion to generate electricity. But knowing that today, the word ’30 years later’ is still an optimistic estimate. As many people know, there is no material in the world that can withstand the high temperature of 20 million degrees. Even if there is, we have absolutely no way to use it.” In the interview, Professor Hareken explained.

“Just a few years ago, we were infinitely close to controllable nuclear fusion technology.”

“At our Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in the inertial confinement fusion, 192 lasers were used to heat and compress a fuel pellet until the nuclear fusion reaction took place, and the prototype of a small nuclear fusion power generation device is already in place. The device is now in Livermore, California. It’s like a metal-wrapped ball, but the reactants are smaller than a fingernail.”

Having said that, Professor Omar Hareken’s expression became quite melancholic.

They originally thought that in nuclear fusion technology, the only ones that matched them was Russia, and while Hua was catching up, they did not expect another private enterprise would suddenly emerge.

The host Anderson nodded seriously and then asked, “So, how far do you think the UA is from mastering controllable nuclear fusion technology?”

“It may be tomorrow, or it may be thirty years later.” Professor Hareken shook his head with a smile. “For science, unless you have crossed that door, you never know how many steps are left.”

When the public talked about the establishment of a Celestial Trade nuclear fusion power station trade, the top officials of various governments did not stop their actions.

The UA took the lead in raising the budget of three nuclear research institutes in the country and announced that its domestic research institutes have already made “major breakthroughs” in nuclear fusion projects. At the same time, Kerry, who was visiting Europe, negotiated with France to establish a submarine transmission cable from the west coast to Paris.

On the other hand, the Capitol had not forgotten to launch a diplomatic attack, obstructing the agreement on the construction of submarine cables Celestial Trade had signed with Australia and Nippon.

Obviously, the Hill government has already noticed that the submarine cable laid by Celestial Trade would have an incalculable impact on the UA diplomatic strategy.

Regardless of whether there is progress on controllably nuclear fusion, is there any ability to extract helium-3 only available on the Moon? The Hill government, which could no longer sit around, had begun to establish submarine cables connecting the UA and European power grids.

The Russian side had been unable to increase its budget for nuclear fusion projects because of the deteriorating economy in the country. Moreover, considering that even if they developed their own controllable nuclear fusion technology, they did not have the ability to build a colony on the moon to refine helium-3, they would ultimately have to purchase from Celestial Trade.

Russia simply sent a high-level diplomat to Xin along with the president of its own state power company. They discussed with Celestial Trade about the construction of a submarine cable from Ange to Vladivostok. Since this submarine cable was in the same direction as the submarine cable leading to Nippon, construction could be started simultaneously.

This time, Jiang Chen did not go personally, but the other party came to the table. The advantage was on Jiang Chen’s side.

After some discussion, Russia accepted 70% of the construction and maintenance costs of submarine cables, and Celestial Trade would also hire Russian-based companies to complete the construction of this submarine transmission cable.

As for Hua, the country’s attitude toward Celestial Trade making breakthroughs in nuclear fusion technology was somewhat ambiguous.

As a world factory, Hua’s annual power generation was also the first in the world. The magnificent Three Gorges Project was a miracle of hydropower projects in the history of mankind. Its power generation was equivalent to five Daya Bay nuclear power plants, but the cost was far lower than the expensive nuclear power.

The industrial and civil electricity prices in Hua were at a relatively low price. This was why Jiang Chen did not list Hua as the one of the first targets in establishing the global power grid plan. Because to the rich nation, his cheap electricity was not so attractive. Moreover, it was difficult for domestic enterprises to compete fairly with the colossal State Grid, let alone foreign companies.

Technology? Financial subsidies can achieve the same result.

Is there a need? Of course, there is a need, but it is not urgent.

Adhering to the tradition of making a fortune but keeping quiet, they were not vocal with their strategy of weather or not to increase the budget for the research of controllable nuclear fusion, or the establishment of a new space strategy.

Chapter 979: Uncertain Times

Just like Jiang Chen expected, the Ye family and the Liu family came to see him about the difficulty of establishing a nuclear fusion power station. After hearing the need to use helium 3 on the moon as a nuclear material, they stopped the conversation, and instead asked if Future Group had any research on controllable fusion.

If helium 3 and deuterium fusion were second-generation nuclear fusion power generation technologies, then deuterium tritium was first-generation technology. Although the nuclear waste produced was difficult to manage, the advantage was that all the raw materials could be obtained from the ocean without relying on importing from Celestial Trade.

The two countries were related by blood, but they were not without reservations.

Hua would not allow the necessary energy in the country to rely on foreign imports, especially if it were monopolized by one party unless there was no better choice.

Jiang Chen also wouldn’t sell the information on the first generation nuclear fusion technology as that was his cash cow. So, he euphemistically told Liu Xiangguo that Future Group had no research on the controllable fusion between deuterium and tritium.

Regardless if Liu Xiangguo’s believes it or not, there was nothing he could do even if he doesn’t believe it.

Just as Future Group made a splash in the community arena because of “long-distance wireless transmission” and “controllable nuclear fusion”. When countries re-examined the bilateral relationship with Xin, another big news captured the headlines.

At 9:00 pm Paris time on April 7, 2019, EU Foreign Minister suddenly announced that EU will no longer be a collective but will be a united and become a powerful single entity.

Or, a country.

On the sandy beaches north of Coro Island, a private island surrounded by beaches and palm trees was situated there. An elegant and chic wooden mansion was located in the middle of the island. Under the rising sun in the horizon, everything looked like it was gilded by a layer of gold.

Occasionally, Jiang Chen chose to come here for a holiday or to relax.

On the morning of April 1st, after the long-distance power transmission start-up ceremony and the afternoon speech, he flew here by helicopter with Ayesha and Xia Shiyu. Now, it was the third day of their holiday.

If nothing else, the entire Coro Island should now be filled with high-level officials, countless foreign journalists, and experts and scholars in the scientific community from all over the world… These people all wanted to see him, but Jiang Chen obviously wouldn’t be making their wish come true. The best way to deal with the problem was to give yourself a vacation, wait for the international community to lose interest, and then make further plans.

But what Jiang Chen didn’t think was that it all came so fast.

In the living room of the mansion, watching the EU Foreign Minister speaking on TV, Jiang Chen was pondering.

Originally, Natasha also planned to come here for a vacation, but because of this event, she had to fly back to Moscow overnight.

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and carefully recalled. When she left, her expression seemed stern? And she seems to have said, “Since the Cold War, the entire Eastern Europe has not been so close to the edge of war…

Why?

It was only a decision within the EU. Was this necessarily related to war?

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and pondered for a long time. With only limited intelligence, he could not analyze the situation.

Ghost Agents had been working with KGB for a long time in Frankberg, but there was no good news, which also made him feel a bit anxious. The situation seemed to be moving in an unexpected direction, but he couldn’t get a reference from the future because the two worlds were not on the same line.

Just then, Ayesha in a swimsuit, brought milk and freshly baked bakeries to Jiang Chen. Sitting timidly next to Jiang Chen, Ayesha kissed him on the cheek and spoke softly.

“Eat something first.”

With his brows no longer furrowed, Jiang Chen smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “Mhmm.”

“Public display of affection in the morning?” Xia Shiyu, wearing pajamas, walked out of the bedroom and brushed her hair back. She looked at the Ayesha sticking next to Jiang Chen in only a swimsuit and pouted in jealousy.

Of course, she was not really jealous.

After half-year of “co-existing”, she seemed to be accustomed to the three-person life. This aspect was due to Ayesha’s view and character, and the two live harmoniously.

On the other hand, it was purely because of Jiang Chen’s desire which made it harder and harder to meet his demand…

“Do you want one too?”

Jiang Chen, with a smug smile, moved his face closer.

“Screw you!”

Xia Shiyu got closer to Jiang Chen’s face and “viciously” bite his ear. After listening to the “painful cry” that he faked, she turned around to the washroom with satisfaction.

After breakfast together, the three went to the beach, set up a parasol, moved over a cold drink cart and beach chairs, and spread a beach mat on the sand.

The morning sun was not hot, with the salty sea breeze, there was even a cool hint of air.

Lying on the beach mat, Xia Shiyu accepted Jiang Chen caressing hand against her body as she applied sunscreen for him. Then she lied facedown on the beach mat and lazily basked in the sun while leisurely watching Ayesha and Jiang Chen run to the sea.

“I have been too lazy recently,” Xia Shiyu whispered, her fingers slid gently down on her wrist and a light blue light prism spread out. The boot screen of Future phone appeared.

Although she was on vacation, she was the CEO of Future Group, and she habitually checked her work emails every morning and evening

When she opened Jean Office, Xia Shiyu got closer to her straw and took a sip as she looked at the work email and picked up the emails that needed to be replied to.

“The lunar colony has discovered rare earth deposits, and the reserves of rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium are about three million tons or more…” Seeing this, Xia Shiyu was astonished

Because the subsidiaries of Future Group were involved in the mining industry, she still knre about the market of rare earths. As a rare earth exporting country, Hua’s rare earth reserves accounts for 36% of the world’s proven reserves, which was 36 million tons.

What is the concept of three million tons?

India’s rare earth reserves were 3.1 million tons, ranking fifth in the world. The mineral deposits found in the lunar colony were almost compared the rare earth reserves throughout India.

“No wonder they said the moon is a giant lump of gold. This is not even gold. This is worth more than gold.” Xia Shiyu moved her lips and thought for a while, and gave instructions in the email, annotating this message as B Class Confidential and entered it into Future Group’s date base.

Now because of nuclear fusion power generation, there were already too many eyes focusing on Future Group and Celestial. At this time, the lunar colony’s discovery of a rare earth deposit would only draw some people to take action.

Slow down the pace of announcements and release it once mining starts.

Just as Xia Shiyu tossed the message aside and looked down the list, an email suddenly caught her attention.

Chapter 980: U.F.O

On the fourth day of his vacation, Jiang Chen ended the scheduled seven-day holiday ahead of time and boarded a helicopter back to Coro Island.

Everything was because of an email that temporarily changed his vacation schedule…

The evening of April 4th.

A black helicopter’s propellers roared, approaching a small island on the equator that was heavily guarded, it descended on the tarmac with flashing green lights.

The helicopter did not come to a full stop yet but Jiang Chen, who was in casual outfit, jumped on the tarmac and walked to Kelvin. He had been waiting here for a long time.

This is the original site of the Space Launch Center. After the establishment of the Space Department, it was renamed the Celestial Trade Ground Command Center. It is the headquarters of the most extensive space department.

Walking side by side on the way to the command center, Kelvin said with a serious look.

“The night before, the astronomical observation team of our Mars Colonization Project made an optical observation of the C1201 channel during the astronomical data analysis of the Mars route, and then discovered the thing. It is unbelievable…”

“Is the information controlled?” Jiang Chen asked without stopping.

“Everything has been controlled,” Kelvin said solemnly.

Jiang Chen nodded. “The confidentiality level is listed as S Class, and the relevant personnel have to be temporarily isolated.”

Kelvin took a deep breath and nodded. “I understand.”

The Mars Colonization Project team, established for the purpose of Mar Colonization, was designed to address all the difficulties that may arise from the colonial ship’s departure to the colonizer’s life after landing on Mars. The ecosystem could be built by the Garden of Eden project from the apocalypse, but other troubles were not small. Even if it absorbed the technology from the apocalypse, many places must be personally involved in the design by modern worlds’ researchers.

In the timeline of the apocalypse, for various political and diplomatic reasons, until the war, no one from the three ideologies successfully built a colonization ship to Mars or achieved a breakthrough in scaling space activities.

According to Lin Lin, there were indeed colonies of CCCP, NATO, and PAC on Mars, but they were basically scientific in nature, and the scale was naturally quite limited. After they could not achieve a ecological cycle, after the space elevator was destroyed, three colonies that depended on the supply from Earth were forced to be abandoned.

It is not difficult to launch a spacecraft onto Mars. NASA did it a long time ago. But to build a colony that maintained a stable exchange of goods with the Earth, rather than letting Mars become a one-way ticket, was not just as simple as launching a spacecraft.

Mars and the Earth have always maintained relative movements, with distances ranging from 5,500 to 40,000 million kilometers, ensuring a stable route from Earth to Mars was the key to achieving the Mars Colonization Project. This work was done by the astronomical observation team.

Their daily work revolved around confirming the navigation channel calculated by the quantum computer. Using optical, spectral and other observation means to examine if there were obstacles such as meteorites and asteroids on the path. However, when observing the channel number C1201, they found something similar to a UFO.

The two stopped in front of an aluminum alloy door with the Mars Colonization Project logo. Kevlin pulled out the graphene card and swiped it on the card reader at the door.

When the door opened, Kelvin quickly walked to the holographic screen in front of him, and the project leader immediately gave up his spot. Kelvin reached out and clicked on the operation interface. Then he patted the chair of the front row staff and ordered. “Align the Celestial Trade No.1 telescope to the number C1201 channel.”

“Roger.” The staff member nodded and typed on the touchscreen.

The astronomical telescope on the far away Celestial City slightly tilted, and the lens began to zoom.

Soon Jiang Chen saw that there was a dark shadow in the center of the holographic screen. The shape of the shadow was similar to the regular sphere, and the surrounding space was distorted by waves similar to wrinkles, exuding an ominous feeling.

His pupils contracted, and Jiang Chen instantly tensed up.

“By spectral analysis of the elements, the target titanium content is above 61%,” Kelvin did not notice the change in Jiang Chen’s expression. He called out another orange-red spectrum diagram and explained the parameters to Jiang Chen.

When he heard this sentence, he slowly relaxed his tightened fists.

Although he was uncertain whether the unknown civilization used metal to arm itself, at least one thing was certain. Since the technology of Harmony shifted to organism, the carbon content must be more than 50%.

Slightly settling his emotions, Jiang Chen raised his chin and focused on the black sphere in the holographic screen.

“What is that?”

“We don’t know,” Kelvin’s expression was extremely odd, it contained excitement and doubt. “We guess it might be a UFO… from another civilization.”

Another civilization?

Jiang Chen processed the information and frowned.

“Zoom in on it.”

“Can’t do it.” Kelvin shook his head.

“Can’t do it?”

Kelvin did not explain but chose to show why. He patted the chair of the staff member sitting in front of him, and gestured to adjust the focal length of the telescope to focus on the UFO.

What happened next made Jiang Chen widen his eyes.

As the lens zoomed in, the image of the UFO in the center began to tear. When the distance reached a certain limit, the dark UFO started to blur, and finally disappeared from the picture.

Yes, it disappeared.

Silence lasted for a while, and when the staff zoomed out, Jiang Chen spoke abruptly.

“Optical invisibility.”

“Yes,” Kelvin said, nodding. “We think so too.”

From this point alone, it completely ruled out the possibility that the spacecraft was launched by the former Soviet Union or the UA. At present, only Celestial Trade and Future Group have mastered the mature optical invisibility technology.

“This UFO can be optically observed. Our technology temporarily is unable to analyze what mechanism is behind it. But one thing is certain, this function should be damaged for some reason, otherwise we should not see it at all. We definitely shouldn’t be able to see a black shadow at a certain distance, as it is now.”

Kelvin paused for a moment and explained his own speculation.

“If this interpretation is true, then the only possibility is that this should be the wreckage of a UFO.”

Looking at the black shadow on the screen, Jiang Chen meditated for a long time, then spoke.

“Is there any way to retrieve it?”

Kelvin shook his head as an ugly expression appeared on his face.

“It’s too far away. It’s 30 million kilometers away from us based on a straight-line trajectory. Our Stingray X-1 series spacecraft has a cruising radius of only one million kilometers. It is simply not suitable for flight outside the Earth-Moon system, let alone have it retrieve something.”

“Just go up and have a look.” Jiang Chen looked at Kelvin. “We at least have to know what it is.”

At least we must know before other countries know what it is.

After debating for a long time, Kelvin sighed.

“In theory, the RM-400 ion propulsion engine used by the Stingray X-1 series spacecraft already has the capability of interplanetary navigation. With the ejection port of the space elevator, it is not difficult to accelerate to the second cosmic speed and get out of the Earth-Moon system. But the key is the battery of the Stingray X-1. According to the calculation of the quantum computer, its energy is just enough for one round trip. Forcibly carrying out this mission will have a high probability of being a one-way trip.”

Once it is impossible to return, it’ll float forever in the universe and be equivalent to a death certificate.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen made a decision.

“Select volunteers from active pilots in Celestial Trade.”

“The rank of the individuals who participate in this top-secret mission will automatically rise by three levels, whether the individual returns alive or not.”

“Install hibernation chambers in the Stingray X-1. If it is determined that it is impossible to return, allow the hibernation procedure to start and send our volunteers to the future.”

Chapter 981: Enterprise Dictatorship

The problem of the spacecraft was easy to resolve. In addition to the four Stingray P-1s already being delivered to Future Mining, the Stingray X-1 prototypes built by Future Heavy Industries and Celestial-duty X-1 prototypes entered the delivery phase. By selecting a Stingray X-1 and adding an attack module, it could be upgraded to a Stingray A-1 with outer space combat capabilities.

At present, Celestial Trade trained a total of 20 Stingray series spacecraft pilots, all of whom received training for the three models. The problem now was choosing one volunteer from the 20 people.

As Kelvin said, there was a high probability that this would be a death flight without a return trip. If the remaining energy at the time of return wasn’t enough to accelerate the spacecraft to a position close to the Earth-Moon system, it might be difficult to retrieve the spacecraft with existing technology.

Although it was important to determine what the UFO was, it was impossible for Jiang Chen to spend all of his time in boundless space.

The volunteer selection and psychological work were handed over to Kelvin. After receiving the guarantee of completion of the task, Jiang Chen shifted the focus of his work to the European issue.

“As of mid-February, 317 high-ranking European officials have died in various accidents. All the clues pointed to one source

— they were all opponents of EU integration.” Here, Monica Galle stood before Jiang Chen’s desk, her head bowed down. “I’m very sorry, we have been misled. Before the EU integration resolution vote, we thought this was the Rothschild consortium’s plan to implement the Southern Corridor.”

“Please raise your head; don’t blame yourself too much. You are not to blame. After all, all of our energy has been focused on Russia’s plan.” After all, European’s Ghost Agents’ full cooperation with the KGB to assist the coup in Frankberg was his personal order.

Watching Monica raise her head high, Jiang Chen tapped his finger then said, “The situation in Europe is now out of our control, but it’s not to an irreparable point. You will return to Europe tomorrow. I need you to do something…”

Monica nodded, her expression solemn.

“It will be my duty.”

The Commercial Bank Headquarters, the headquarters of the Frankberg Commercial Bank, was the tallest skyscraper in the country. It had been the tallest building since it was completed in 1997 and was the tallest building in Europe until 2003.

As one of the three largest banks in the country, few people know that the name “Rothschild” was at the top of its list of shareholders.

At 8:00 pm Berlin time, the building was decorated with lights.

In the empty top-floor conference room, Carmen Rothschild stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, holding the red wine produced by his own winery, quietly watching the bustling night.

Just then, a slightly short and obsessive Germanic man opened the door and walked in.

“Wait for me outside.”

The bodyguard behind the Germanic man nodded, stepping back halfway and standing at the door.

The door was closed. The Caucasian bodyguard with sunglasses and a black suit turned sideways slightly and looked at the black man standing on the other side of the door.

“Hello,” Johnson said hello to him in French as he smiled.

The white bodyguard didn’t respond to him. He looked straight ahead and stood still.

Johnson licked the corners of his mouth and didn’t pay more attention to him. He continued to stand guard.

But the expression between his eyebrows gradually returned to the previous coldness.

Carmen turned around, smiled, opened his arms and greeted the Germanic man.

“Welcome, Glen Krupp, my old friend. We meet again.”

“Yes, we meet again.” Glen Krupp forced a smile and hugged Carmen, hiding the dissatisfaction in his mind. Then he put his coat on the chair. “Can you explain something to your old friend? What do you or the Rothschild family want to do?”

Unlike the Jewish family that emerged from the United Kingdom, the Krupp family, born in the traditional Prussian aristocracy, was tied to the German chariot along with the invincible artillery. The family with their influence in arms, steel, ships, textiles, chemicals, oil refining, electromechanics, and even elevators in buildings, was almost integrated into every corner of Europe.

They might not be as rich as the Rothschild family, but they weren’t inferior to the Jewish family.

Carmen saw through the concern on Glen’s face. He coughed and placed the red wine on the conference table.

“If a company controls the food, medical care, water supply, power supply, light and heavy industries, national defense, and even the military in a region, what’s the difference between this enterprise and the country in the region? Or what’s the difference between the existence of this country? You know very well. I just did the right thing.”

Glen Krupp sneered.

“We’re most worried about this point. Whenever our old friends think they’re right, all of us might be in trouble.”

The pasts of the Rothschild family and the Krupp family shared a very similar point. That is—they used to support a certain demon, and they were almost sent to hell by that very demon. The Rothschilds once lost all of Europe, and the Prussian aristocracy suffered in the hands of the national guards.

In history, every madman trying to unify Europe had brought disaster to the whole world.

Through bloody means, the Rothschild family forced the adoption of the EU Integration Act at the EU meeting in an attempt to turn the entire EU into a country then chose a puppet while controlling them behind the scenes.

Not only the Krupp family, but all the Level 33 members of the Freemasonry felt a little uneasy about The Rothschilds’ behavior.

“My dear friend, please listen to me first,” Carmen said as he smiled.

“I will give you half an hour,” Glen Krupp said coldly as he looked down at the watch.

Carmen shrugged, looking nonchalant.

After clearing his throat, he paused for a while then began to speak.

“People are economic animals. People can’t live without money, and our society is the same.”

“The speed of social development depends on the flow of money. If society is compared to human beings, then money is its blood. Throughout the history of the world, countless revolutions were just mere attempts to overthrow those blood clouts in the blood vessels of civilization.”

“We chose a puppet, and we stood behind the scenes, manipulating this puppet. We will be more democratic than ever. More advanced than ever! We no longer manipulate the elections; we directly manipulate the candidates, and at the same time, our president no longer enjoys the power that the president deserves.”

“This new regime, I call it enterprise dictatorship!”

“Why do I feel this was copied from somewhere?” Glen sneered.

“I have to admit that our opponents inspired me,” Carmen said with a smile. “Although we also manipulate politics, they’re more absolute than us. But I am discussing us, not them.”

Carmen pointed to his own chest and pointed to the ring on his hand that symbolized the Level 33 member then he said, “Dysfunctional subsidiaries will be reorganized, turning losses into profits and revitalizing in the restructuring process. The EU is the same, and the restructured EU will be more efficient and stronger than ever.”

“And you, me, and the newly established 13-member committee will serve as the ‘shareholders’ of the entire EU.”

Chapter 982: I curse you!

Silence ensued for a long time in the conference room.

Glen Krupp now knew that the Rothschild family had been planning this for a long time. At that time, he only thought that shift to the right in politics was just because of a feudal grudge between the Jews and the Middle Easterners, but he didn’t expect that all of this was foreshadowing today.

Glen spoke slowly.

“Then Frankberg will become the State of Frankberg?”

“Yes.” Rothschild smiled.

“What about France?”

“The State of France.”

“Haha, what about Poland?”

“Naturally the State of Poland.”

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Glen raised his head and began to laugh hysterically as if he heard a great joke. He took two steps back and suddenly spat next to his shoes.

“Hitler should’ve killed you idiots! I’ve never prayed for him to climb out of his grave like this.”

After he cursed out, Glen pulled his coat and walked to the door without turning his head.

He opened the door, but he froze.

Blood slowly flowed down, soaking his soles and freezing his line of sight.

Outside of the conference room, a man in disbelief had his throat slit by a dagger.

“Your bodyguard is strong, but that’s it.”

Johnson grinned and leaned against the door, wiping the blood on the dagger with his hand.

“How could it be…” Glen squeezed a few words out of his throat and turned stiffly, but his eyes met a black muzzle.

Boom!

There was a spark, a gunshot, and Glen collapsed to the ground.

Smoke emitted from the revolver, and Rothschild looked straight at the expression still filled with disbelief with a sly smile.

“For the glory of the Freemasonry, please go to hell.”

“Cough-” Blood coughed out of Glen’s mouth. He used his blood-filled pupils to stare at his former friend. “The Krupp family will not spare you… you won’t succeed.”

“Is that the case?” Carmen kneeled down and looked down at Glen’s face. “Unfortunately, as soon as you entered this building, your younger brother became the new chairman of the Krupp Group.”

Carmen paused for two seconds and added a sentence.

“With the help of Rothschild Bank.”

Glen’s eyes widened, and fury was blazing in his pupils. It was directed at the betrayal of his family or the hatred of the name Rothschild.

The muzzle gently stroked his chin, and Carmen stared into his eyes and suddenly sighed.

“My friend, I gave you a chance; you don’t have to be like this. If we had just reached an agreement, today would’ve had another ending…”

“I curse you!” Glen interrupted Carmen, and the blood was gushing out of his mouth, dying his white teeth blood red. “I curse your family and you will go to hell! Tortured by Satan!”

Carmen slightly nodded.

“My friend, you don’t have to say all this. We will meet again in hell, but you will go first.”

Carmen gently placed the pistol on his chest, reached out and slowly closed his widened eyes. Then he removed the blood-stained ring from Glen’s stiff finger.

“And how can Satan punish his believers?”

Retrieving the ring symbolizing the Level 33 membership, Carmen laughed in self-mockery then stood up.

Back to his former friend, he looked at Johnson.

“Clean this place up. Even if he’s abandoned, he’s the former head of the Krupp family and deserves the respect of allies.”

“Yes.”

Johnson nodded.

In eastern Kane, in the northwestern suburb of Oesk, the city ruins turned into frontlines littered with trenches and bunkers. Fortunately, some Russian Warfield engineers helped the civilian armed forces to fortify their defenses to prevent the war from being so one-sided.

With the support of EMP weapons from the Russian-Uzbek border, the civilian armed forces successfully pushed the front line to the east bank of the Dnieper River, but now the situation suddenly turned south.

Ten kilometers away from the frontline, Natasha, wrapped in a heavy coat, saw the informant, the Ukrainian government officer, Skanov. She handed a document from Moscow and a box of crumpled cigars.

Skanov grinned, and the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes cracked like a spider web. He took a cigar from the cigar box and put the document in front of his chest.

“Say hello to your father for me and say that the old guy thanks him for his gift.”

Natasha spt out a cloud of white mist, and she glanced through the shadows between the ruins. Somewhat absent-mindedly, she said, “I will.”

For three years, even if she returned to Kane occasionally, she only operated in the relatively safe Crimea area. It was her first time in three years being so close to the front line. The environmental changes made the place somewhat unrecognizable, and the cold climate made her feel even stranger.

Even she was surprised that she became used to the small island of the Western Pacific, and the man who was sometimes “shrewd” and sometimes “naive”.

If it weren’t for the drastic changes a few days ago, she would still be on vacation on a private island.

Skanov grinned and teased.

“Thinking about a man?”

Natasha glanced at him coldly. “What’s the situation on the front line?”

Extinguishing the cigar with his thumb, Skanov stuffed the half-smoked cigar back into his dirty pocket.

“The Future Group once destroyed the Freemasonry Arrow in Madagascar. We once thought they destroyed it. But in fact, the Freemasonry only moved it from South Africa to North Africa. Now, it is in Europe, it is across our… or your side.”

NATO promised not to send troops to Ukraine, so mercenaries who weren’t bound by laws and international conventions stood across them, and most of these mercenaries came from refugee camps on the borders of Sweden, Norway and Finland.

No one expected that the refugee camps, which were jointly funded by major European consortiums and built after the Frankberg tragedy, became the source of mercenaries of the European consortiums. In order to get their families away from the cruel and cold refugee camps, they fought tenaciously on the battlefield.

Natasha looked more serious.

“You are so smart; you should’ve guessed it?” said Skanov. “The integration of the EU, the new puppet taking office, and the fact that many of the original ridiculous things have become natural.”

“I don’t think that’s how the EU managed to unify.” Natasha shook her head.

“What’s not possible?” Skanov shook his head and said indifferently. “Although I thought they were joking until a week ago.”

“Standing in front of the civilian armed forces is no longer a weak and incompetent Ukrainian Army, but a well-trained, well-equipped private arm. They bought the ‘Faraday spray’ from the other side of the Atlantic in the name of counter-terrorism and applied it to the tank armor on a large scale, which effectively counters the EMP weapon in our hands. We can only hope for those brave and fearless Oesk citizens after losing this one card, .”

Faraday Spray was a tactical anti-EMP weapon developed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the UA Department of Defense. By spraying droplets of a specific content and diameter, it formed a simple “Faraday cage” within the white mist envelope so that the electrons wrapped in were protected from EMP weapons. The technical content of this weapon wasn’t high, but it was surprisingly effective when defending against electromagnetic pulses. It was tested in the second MLL Island War.

“Is there no way to sanction them?” Natasha said with a frown.

Although Russia also secretly sent its own soldiers dressed as civilians to support the civilian armed forces, this practice was ultimately not allowed. Most of the soldiers who participated in the war were instructors and military advisers and rarely participated on the actual battlefield.

After all, if Russians died there, it wouldn’t be easy to explain.

Skanov shook his head.

“International law can’t sanction them because they don’t belong to any country in principle but are employed by the Ukrainian government.”

Having said that, Skanov paused for a moment thoughtfully.

“Unless… we hire another mercenary force and fight with them.”

Chapter 983: A Ship

Putting on the helmet and carefully checking each seat belt, Liu Qingpeng opened the instrument in the cockpit.

After taking a few deep breaths and trying to make his expression look less stiff, he touched the side of the helmet and a light blue prism spread out in front of his eyes. An unfamiliar but ordinary female face emerged in front of his eyes.

“No. 01 Navigator is at your service… are you
nervous?”

Liu Qingpeng forced a smilem, “What do you think?”

“You’d better control your heart rate which will help avoid accidents. In order to save onboard fuel as much as possible, you will complete the acceleration step on the runway.”

“How much g-force?”

“20.1.”

“…Can you apply for a Guinness World Record for me?” Liu Qingpeng forced a smile, but only bitterness was visible on his face.

The navigator said with no sense of humor. “No, this flight is a top-secret mission. Unless when you return, you’re willing to try again.”

“Tell me this when I do get back.”

The navigator used a tone with certainty. “You will.”

You will?

Liu Qingpeng didn’t believe this at all. No one was more familiar with the machine than himself. The flight distance of 30 million kilometers was more than ten times the normal cruising radius of the Stingray A-1, especially for a dangerous flight outside the Earth-Moon system. Even if there was a quantum computer navigating for him, his probability of survival was only ten percent.

He wasn’t most worried about not catching up to Earth. Instead, he was most worried about being unable to slow down due to the lack of fuel and overshooting to become a ghost in the solar system.

All sacrifices, just for a look.

But he didn’t regret it because he accepted the task.

Finally, taking one last breath of the air in Celestial City, he resolutely pressed the takeoff button next to the control.

The robotic arm that pulled the Stingray A-1 slowly moved, grabbed it from the airport, and “stuffed it in” the dark runway.

The lights on the runway were turned on one by one, but they were still unable to illuminate the runway hundreds of kilometers of long. The blue arc began to swim on the edge of the spacecraft. In order to prevent his retinas from falling off, Liu Qingpeng chose to close his eyes.

Whenever he lay on this runway, he felt like a shell and was stuffed into the electromagnetic pulse cannon.

The navigator’s undulating voice rang in his ears.

“Ejection countdown.”

“5”

“4”

“3”

“2”

“1”

“0”

For a moment, every single cell in his body felt like it was being torn apart. Liu Qingpeng gnached his teeth, then used all his perseverance he had ever in his life to resist the tear of the acceleration while silently counting seconds in his heart.

The torment lasted for a whole minute, and the force squeezing on his shoulders suddenly disappeared. When he opened his eyes again, Celestial City had turned into a ring, and he was in the starry sky.

From a distance, the blue arc of the launching port in the center only flashed for a moment, and a black spot was thrown into the vast universe. Compared to the entire Earth, this Stingray was like a boat sailing into the vast sea, small and fragile.

Earth’s civilization, like a newborn child, reached out to the unknown existence for the first time.

Before he had time to reminisce about the gradually disappearing Earth, the voice of the navigator rang out again.

“Check the weapon system.”

“Roger.”

Liu Qingpeng pressed the red button next to the control and two thick long tubes popped under the Stingray A-1, slowly opening the two wings. At the same time, under the command of the navigator, he released the safety and pressed twice.

The glaring white light flashed, and several laser beams that were as thick as a thigh fired into the distance and disappeared into the darkness.

“The weapon system is functional.” Liu Qingpeng reported and closed the safety.

Although his mission was just to take a look, no one could guarantee if the UFO had friendly intentions. The Stingray A-1 was equipped with the most powerful extraterrestrial attack weapon of Celestial Trade, the A-type attack module designed by the Pan Asia Cooperation of the apocalypse.

If the UFO displayed an aggressive behavior after he approached, Celestial Trade permitted him to use his judgment.

After escaping the gravity of the Earth-Moon system, Liu Qingpeng opened the throttle valve of the engine and accelerated to the marker in the field of view. When the speed stabilized above the second cosmic speed, he immediately turned off the throttle and began a long wait.

It would take nearly 2.6 million seconds to catch up with the UFO. Nearly a month turned into days.

It was naturally impossible for such a small spacecraft to have a complete ecological circulatory function. Freshwater, liquid food, and oxygen stored under sufficient power could only be maintained for about 15 days. However, Celestial Trade had specifically modified the spacecraft with a hibernation chamber. For a long time, he would spend his hours sleeping. When approaching the target, Ground Command Center would wake him up.

Of course, it didn’t rule out another possibility.

It was force majeure, such as the sudden acceleration of the target that changed the position, so he passed by the target. If Ground Command Center judged that his remaining fuel couldn’t allow him to catch up with the target, Ground Command Center would wake him up in advance to return…

The temperature in the cockpit began to decrease, and the life maintenance device injected a special cell stabilizer into Liu Qingpeng.

With his hands off the control, his sight began to blur and he eventually fell into darkness.

In Ground Command Center, Jiang Chen watched Stingray A-1 successfully entering the orbit and his clenched fists gradually loosened.

Although the matter was delegated to Kelvin, he had to come to the command center and watch the hero fly into the night on the day when the volunteer set sail.

“It’s over,” Kelvin whispered as he bumped Jiang Chen with his elbow.

Jiang Chen nodded. He didn’t say anything, then took a final look at the Stingray on the holographic screen before walking out.

Although they had yet to be in contact with the UFO, witnessing this incident had a profound impact on the research direction of Celestial Trade. Based on Jiang Chen’s instructions, Kelvin raised the research budget of the interplanetary engine for the first time, and at the same time, he included the “extraterritorial attack method” for the first time in the scientific research sequence… Jiang Chen originally planned to take it slow since the existing science wasn’t enough to support powerful weapon technology.

It was like black gunpowder on a musket.

Without the formula for the gunpower, no matter how the ancient craftsmen studied the weapons, they could only figure out how to sharpen bows and spears, not create a powerful musket.

Before the breakthrough of the magnetic confinement technology in the apocalypse, laser weapons were generally regarded as the most promising method of extraterrestrial attack. The A-type attack module designed by Pan-Asia Cooperation was designed based on this concept. However, after the breakthrough of magnetic confinement technology, the plasma gun that directly emitted high-temperature plasma became a more promising option.

However, now, sharpening the bow and spear was the more urgent option.

Regardless of whether the UFO was hostile or not, Celestial Trade, the representative of the civilization from Earth, would not show any weakness against the unknown force.

Chapter 984: An Invite From Moscow

After leaving Ground Command Center, Jiang Chen returned to the Future Building by helicopter.

The helicopter arrived, Jiang Chen stepped onto the landing pad on the roof, then returned to the office.

Jiang Chen sunk into his chair as he picked up the documents on the table. Ayesha’s figure then appeared behind him, her hands gently placed on his shoulders then she massaged.

There was a subtle but warm smile on his face. He flipped through the document about the application of the space station interface by Hua Heavy Industries, then he asked, “Is there anything new in Europe?”.

Ayesha shook her head with some regret.

“We were a step late. Glen Krupp was dead. His body was found on a farm in the suburbs of Falkford the day before yesterday by a farmer. He was shot in the chest and no one knew why he appeared there. Now the head of the Krupp family is his brother, Leon Krupp.”

If there was anyone who could stop Carmen, it would probably be the Krupp family representing the Prussian aristocracy. Their achievements in the industrial field were equivalent to Rothschilds’ financial dominance. From the Prussian era, whether it was a big factory or a small workshop, they liked to put the Krupp logo on the barrel to indicate that they were using high-quality gun steel from Krupp, which showed its profound influence.

Not everyone liked to see Europe moving toward unity, or, most people didn’t want to see this day.

The Rothschild family could manipulate the poles by selecting an extreme right government. Through the media, they could alter what some people thought, but ultimately, they couldn’t avoid the Krupp family born in the traditional Prussian aristocracy and Glen Krupp, who was the Duke of Prussia.

In Jiang Chen’s plan, if he could pull Glen Krupp into his forces, he should be able to dismantle the Freemasonry from the inside, thus aborting the Rothschild’s family plan. But now it seemed that Carmen wasn’t stupid enough to let go of this hidden danger, and he acted before the Ghost Agents found Glen Krupp.

Jiang Chen had a headache and pinched his eyebrows.

Just then, his watch shook.

A holographic image opened. It was a long-distance call from Moscow.

After Jiang Chen thought for a second, he answered the phone.

“Hey?”

“It’s me,” Natasha said.

“I’m relieved to hear your voice. It seems that you haven’t suffered a tragedy in Kane,” Jiang Chen joked.

“I’m very busy now; no time to joke,” Natasha took a deep breath and went on. “I have something… or Russia wants to talk to you.”

Jiang Chen’s finger gently tapped the table.

“Let’s talk. I’m listening.”

“I don’t want to disclose the details over the phone. There will be an important person who will talk to you in detail… If it’s convenient, can you come to Moscow?”

Brussels, Belgium, the location of European Union’s headquarters. A week ago, the EU foreign minister announced the establishment of a controversial EU Integration Resolution. All the EU reporters and protesters were gathered there…

Today, because of a special meeting, the government officials of many EU countries were all in this place. In order to avoid accidents, Belgium even dispatched the famous Special Operations Brigade (SFG) to take charge of the security. With the aid of the special task police, the Belgian Police successfully dispersed the protesters blocking the entrance to the EU headquarters to ensure that the high-level meeting was successfully completed.

After the meeting, with the protection of bodyguards, the New Choice Party leader, the Chancellor of Germany, Peter, walked through the reporters with a stern expression. Although the bodyguards blocked the way, the microphones reached out one by one. The police dared to drive away the violent protestors, but they didn’t dare to scare away reporters.

“Mr. Chancellor, how will the integration of the EU take place?” asked a British reporter.

“It will start as soon as possible before our economic situation and employment rate get worse.”

“Many countries in the EU have expressed opposition. The conservative groups in Frankberg have also clearly expressed their opposition to this resolution. What choices will the New Choice Party take in the future?” a reporter from a German television station asked.

“We will allow them to trust me,” Peter said with patience.

“Do you have any opinions on the EU moving toward the United Nations? Does the United Kingdom have any opposition?” asked a reporter from a Belgian newspaper.

“Their opinions are not important. This is a European affair, not British. They have left the EU and we have no plans to let them back.”

“How will EU integration help Greece and other countries get rid of the debt crisis and will the merger of the EU’s territories make the economically-backward member countries further hinder Frankberg’s economy?” a reporter from the UA asked.

“We will come up with an effective plan to let the unemployed find a job instead of wasting euros burrowed from our bank…”

Finally, Peter got rid of the annoying reporters. He heaved a sigh of relief and sat in a black limousine.

The fifty-meter-long journey was almost as exhausting as running a marathon.

Yes, exhausting.

New Choice Party was regarded as the inheritor of the extreme right because of the ideals of “exiting the Euro Zone”, “recovering border control” and “shooting refugees”, but now, they not only failed to fulfill their campaign promises, but they overthrew everything they promised and chose to work with France to establish a unified EU.

Not only did he oppose the decision, but many voters who voted for them also opposed.

He didn’t know why he was standing here and voted for a proposal he didn’t agree with. But by being in this position, he didn’t have a lot of choices.

The New Choice Party wasn’t Merkle’s Party. They were really too young. From formation to taking the office, they hadn’t accumulated enough chips to negotiate with the major European consortiums. This political power yet to take its shape was too fragile in front of Rothschild’s capital.

Perhaps Merkle had the temper to oppose thatman, but he wasn’t Merkle; he was nothing but a puppet of the Rothschild family. The same kind of puppet who existed almost everywhere in the Bundestag, in every corner of the New Choice Party, and even in the military.

If he dared to show any dissent, stepping down was probably the most decent ending.

He admitted that although he didn’t know how far this EU integration resolution could go and how long it would last, the man named Carmen was already halfway to the feats that Napoleon, William II, and Hitler never achieved.

He even started to regret the choice he made…

When Peter got into the car, an old man in a suit had been sitting in the car for a long time.

Seeing the Chancellor, the old man expressed his respect by bowing his head.

After the door was closed, Peter cleared his throat.

“The resolution to remove the authority of central banks in the European Central Bank system has been passed. The next step is for the ECB to control the central banks and gradually withdraw the right to issue euros from the EU countries…”

“You are doing very well.” The old man smiled. “Who voted against it?”

The feeling of being stared at by the poisonous snake made Peter suffocate a little, but he soon returned to normal and shook his head.

“With the exception of two abstentions, no one objected.”

The old man smiled and nodded.

Out of the anxiousness for the country’s destiny, Peter added, “Do you think this is really good?”

When the old man looked at him, he quickly added, “I mean, from an economic point of view, the concentration of the distribution rights of the euro may increase the economic burden of Greece, Italy, Portugal…”

The old man just smiled and didn’t answer this question.

“The EU will be more dynamic than ever, whether in economics or influence.”

Peter shrugged and looked away.

At a glimpse, he got the illusion that the entrepreneur or butler trained by the Rothschild consortium in front of him was more like a politician…

Chapter 985: Preparation Before the Departure

“If it is convenient, can you come to Moscow?”

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen didn’t reject Natasha’s invitation.

If he must make a trip to Moscow, then it must be inconvenient to discuss on the phone and it must be a topic not appropriate to delegate to a diplomat. His intuition told him it must be related to stormy Europe.

Russia was one of the strategic partners of Celestial Trade. The economic cooperation between the two was second only to Hua, and their military cooperation was even above that with Hua. From this perspective alone, he should go there in person.

The integration of Europe was also inconsistent with the interests of Celestial Trade.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen looked to Ayesha. He dragged her hand closer to his face as he smiled and whispered, “Sorry to bother you.”

“No worries.” Ayesha’s hand was gently placed on Jiang Chen’s hand, indulging in the intimate moment. She closed her eyes. “It’s my pleasure to share your worries.”

“Isn’t this supposed to be what a gentleman tells a lady?” Jiang Chen said.

Ayesha smiled and started the optical invisibility to hide her figure in the office.

Since playing a virtual reality game called Assassin’s Creed: Phantom in the Phantom Helmet, she had fallen in love with using “stealth” to bid farewell.

He felt a gentleness and warmth on his forehead, and soon, a gust of wind swept through the office.

Jiang Chen touched his forehead, and he smiled.

This little girl secretly kissed him…

The more eastward, the weaker the influence of the Freemasonry, but even the KGB couldn’t guarantee that Moscow, the capital in Eastern Europe, didn’t have informants of the Freemasonry

Risks and benefits were always proportional.

In order to ensure the safety of his trip to Moscow, Ayesha headed to Moscow first. She used the intelligence network established by the Ghost Agents in the local area to clear potential dangers for Jiang Chen’s visit while having the smallest possibility of offending his allies.

The date of the visit was set a week later in the name of the submarine transmission cable.

Before going to Russia, Jiang Chen didn’t just take time off but he returned to the apocalypse…

At the beginning of April, the heavy snow over Wanghai finally stopped, and the snow covering the ruins of the city also showed signs of melting.

This winter came earlier than before, and it also left much later.

The entire Earth was like a computer that had been put into excessive use by the countries. After hundreds of years of high usage, it finally restarted because of the global nuclear
war.

The facts confirmed the speculation of the Dusk Church. After many years of silence, the world welcomed a Little Ice Age far more severe compared to the one in medieval times. A disaster caused by the nuclear winter was wrapped in the roaring snow and covered the whole earth.

In the coldest days, Jiang Chen basically spent his time in the modern world, only occasionally coming back to accompany his girls to eat hot pot, so he didn’t personally experience the harsh winter. According to Sun Jiao, Wanghai and Yizhou Island were okay. In Hongcheng and Wu City, which were more inland, many survivors froze to death.

The Little Ice Age ultimately impacted the development of Sixth Street.

The proclaimed “trade center” that connected the survivors of the north and the south had a looming hint of depression because of the influence of the winter last year. Although the irreplaceable food trade maintained a considerable degree of vitality, population growth still slowed down.

People became more inclined to find a suitable place to live in the south.

At that moment, Jiang Chen began to understand why the Northern Alliance Area forcefully declared a war on him even with their fragile supply line.

It wasn’t that they were crazy, but they were forced to do so.

Inheriting the armed forces of the pre-war Pan-Asia Cooperation and uniting the mutants who fled from Hongcheng to the vicinity of Wu City, they achieved some success.

If it wasn’t for the breakthrough in magnetic confinement technology combined with the “strong” industrial capabilities of Sixth Street, which allowed the frontline troops to successfully install the plasma cannons, the Northern Alliance Area would likely be attacking Hong City or might have even already reached the gate of NAC, Hang City.

However, that was only a “what if”…

When Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse, the welcome he was expecting didn’t happen, and the mansion was quiet.

Sun Jiao and Sun Xiaorou needed to handle his affairs for him when he returned to the modern world, although Sun Jiao, who used to act leisurely, hated the job. However, she still bore the responsibility for Jiang Chen. As for Lin Ling, because of the research, she went out to camp No. 27.

That was to say that at the moment at home, only Yao Yao lived in the boudoir every day…

And this information was exactly what Jiang Chen heard from the girl’s mouth.

“That… can you come down from my lap?”

The soft jade was warm in his arms, and Jiang Chen had scratched his cheeks with some cramps.

At the moment, Yao Yao, wearing floral dress pajamas, sat happily on his lap with two happily swaying small feet wrapped in white silk. Even her bunny slippers were kicked to the side.

A fluttering scent came along her fluffy hair, and the soft sound seemed to have a sweet scent. Her deer-like watery eyes shone with the hope that she wouldn’t be rejected.

“Can… can you hold Yao Yao for a while?” Turning his head slightly, Yao Yao whispered.

“No problem! How long will it take?” Jiang Chen replied immediately.

Yes, I can’t refuse it!

Even Jiang Chen, who occasionally revealed the “S” side of his deep heart, couldn’t bear to see the lonely expression on the face of the little angel.

Thinking about it anyway, there was nothing to do. Jiang Chen sighed and smacked the hair of Yao Yao and recited something in his heart more than a dozen times: “I am not a Luo. Li control.” He decided to remain at the side of the little girl and stay for a while.

Feeling the warmth of his head, the expression on Yao Yao’s face was satisfying, and he happily picked up the song.

The current sound of the chassis was looming, and Jiang Chen looked around Yao Yao’s boudoir. There had been little change in everything there over the years. In addition to the bed and furniture replaced with new products imported from the new country, the pink girlish wallpaper and the electronic components emitting a metal flavor didn’t make up everything in her room.

There were more and more books on the shelves. Looking at one book, Jiang Chen thought: I think that should be a relatively high-end computer professional book.

Feeling that Yao Yao had grown up, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but caress her hair and say with emotion, “Speaking of which, is Yao Yao not growing up at all?”

“Hey!”

Being poked painfully, her small shoulders shook. Yao Yao’s mouth pricked up slightly, her throat snorting with some frustration.

“This room is definitely not big enough. Remember to go out to do some sports, at least in the backyard.” Jiang Chen suddenly realized that the sun was shining through the yellow-green tone of the dust. It seemed that it wasn’t as healthy as indoor lighting.

Yao Yao shrank and whispered, “Hey… Big brother, don’t you like girls who are smaller?”

This wasn’t a minor category, this was young. The teeth weren’t over…

Moreover, this wasn’t the focus at all!

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but tap her head with his fingers.

“I’m worried about your health; how can you think about that?!”

“Hey.”

With hands clasped together, covering the big hand that caressed the top of her head, on Yao Yao’s mouth hung a sweet smile.

Although she was counting down, she always felt warm in her heart.

It was like a vacant place, filled with the same…

Chapter 986: Heart To Heart in the Office

Jiang Chen stayed in Yao Yao’s room with her until 5 o’clock. Soon after, Lin Lin returned from Camp 27 and Sun Jiao and Xiaorou also finished their work and returned home.

The satisfied Yao Yao jumped off of Jiang Chen’s legs. She took the apron from the closet and tied it around her petite body.

“There is delicious steamed fish tonight, Big Brother can look forward to it…”

The little loli with a red hue on her face skipped out the door.

Listening to the cheerful tunes from the corridor, a heartfelt smile appeared on his face.

As he stood up and began to walk to the living room, he bumped into Sun Jiao.

When she saw Jiang Chen, she immediately jumped into his arms and kissed him on the face. Xiaorou with her watery eyes looked at their public displays of affection and giggled while covering her mouth. Lin Lin was the only one who couldn’t stand them. After she bad-mouthed the two, she rolled her eyes and hid into her lab while.

Because Jiang Chen was back, dinner was more lively.

After dinner, Jiang Chen helped Yao Yao and Xiaorou clean up the dishes. Then he went to the third-floor office.

Pushing open the door, Jiang Chen found Sun Jiao standing in front of the window, looking at him with a smile.

“I knew you would come here.”

She walked to him and put her arms around his neck as she gazed into his pupils with longing and unspoken thoughts.

Jiang Chen smoothly closed the door behind him. Then, he kissed her lips with affection and looked into the eyes fixated on him.

“I knew you would be waiting for me here.”

“Now there is no one around.”

“Here?”

“Let’s wait until this evening,” Sun Jiao began to blush as her lips curled. She placed her chin on Jiang Chen’s shoulder and closed her eyes in joy. “Now, I want to be hugged by you like this.”

Leaning against the window of the office, looking at the snow that has almost completely melted, Jiang Chen was feeling the warmth and tenderness in his arms. From the distance, he vaguely heard singing in the quietness.

“People are…singing outside?” Jiang Chen asked casually as he looked out the window.

“The Spring Concert is being held by a large orchestra in the Sixth Street. The performance will continue from 8:00 to 12:00. We can’t hear clearly from here, but if you are interested, we can go to the performance,” Sun Jiao suggested.

“I’ll pass. I’m not really interested in a concert,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “But it is good to hold this kind of an event, especially in peaceful times.”

With resources becoming more and more abundant, the lives of the survivors were also becoming richer. When these people no longer needed to fight in the frontline with guns, they needed to seek some recreations for entertainment. More cultural activities would not only promote social stability but also teach these survivors the concept of civilization.

“There are quite a few female celebrities from before the war. Do you want me to hold a contest for you?” While in Jiang Chen’s arms, Sun Jiao mocked and gently poked at his ribs. “A lot of people are interested in your heroic deeds.”

“I don’t have any heroic deeds.” Jiang Chen coughed and looked away in awkwardness.

Sun Jiao didn’t say anything and simply smiled at him.

As the closest woman to him, she has witnessed everything. The downfall of the mutated humans, the eradication of the mutant flood, the recovery of the city center, the destruction of the runaway artificial intelligence, and the salvation of Hongcheng and Yizhou… each merit alone could make a person’s name known on the wasteland.

And when these achievements are all condensed onto one person, no matter how humble, he is worthy of the hero title.

It was like this for a long time. The stability of NAC never relied on citizenship, but instead relied on the personal prestige of the general.

“Let’s not talk about this, right… Is there any news on the Guardian Sect?”

When Jiang Chen began to mention important matters, Sun Jiao didn’t leave his arms, but she stopped giggling. After thinking for a moment, she replied.

“They sent 50 technicians from Shangjing. They were in charge of maintaining the Holy Shield System before the war. After the war, they also participated in related projects for the space colonization ship.”

Jiang Chen had to interrupt when he heard this.

“Pan-Asia Cooperation didn’t bring these talents with them?”

“The space colonization ship can’t take everyone away, and there is no need to take everyone away. At least, this was Lu Minghui’s explanation,” Sun Jiao briefly explained and returned to the main topic. “At the beginning of last month, we started the maintenance work of the Holy Shield System but repairs of this scale are not an overnight job.”

“When will they be done?” Jiang Chen asked.

Sun Jiao shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe this year, maybe next year, maybe it will never be repaired… but now, according to the feedback from the engineers on our side, we have not encountered any issues we can’t solve.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

With the arrival of the Little Ice Age, winter will only be longer and more severe than last year. It would be best if they could repair the Holy Shield System before October. But if that was not possible, they must spend more effort on winterization.

To be prepared, before he left last time, he had given Lu Huasheng orders to begin cleaning up Wanghai Metro Line 1. He had set aside a budget to purchase heating facilities, temporary living spaces, and set up necessities production workshops in the metro.

If the living environment of the surface is too severe, at least the civilians of the Sixth Street could spend the winter underground.

“Right. Recently a new fallout Shelter opened in the northern suburbs of Hongcheng. The director of the refugee shelter accepted our proposal and agreed to merge under the banner of NAC, but after accepting the status quo of the surface, he hopes to see you,” Sun Jiao suddenly remembered and mentioned this.

“Oh? Where is he now?” Jiang Chen said.

If he was close, Jiang Chen could go see him. But if he was too far away, he couldn’t see him since he only planned to stay for a short time.

“At the Sixth Street.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

“I am going to see an old friend there tomorrow, let him wait in the parliament building.”

The Blue Skins may not understand the world, perhaps not welcomed by survivors. But for Jiang Chen who hopes to rebuild order on this wasteland, these people are the most precious resources on this wasteland. Even if they are not scientists, even if they are just ordinary people, they are all well-educated and have the order that has long been annihilated in the ruins that belonged to civilization.

The seed of civilization is not germinated by
guns and cannons.

When these people from before the war successfully integrated into this post-war
ociety, perhaps they will bring a precious and unique inspiration to NAC’s path to the future.

Based on this alone, Jiang Chen felt that it was necessary to have a good conversation with the director.

Chapter 987: The Fate of Fallout Shelter 118

It was already late into the night when the light in the office went out.

When Jiang Chen brought Sun Jiao into the bathroom, then into the bedroom, and then till the room returned to silence, the hour hand had already passed the 12 o’clock position.

With Sun Jiao peacefully sleeping in his arm, Jiang Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead and collapsed into the pillows.

The desk lamp on the bedside table was turned off, and Jiang Chen pulled up the quilt.

They started when they were taking a shower and because he used up too much of his stamina, he quickly drifted to sleep.

A silent night.

The next morning, after eating breakfast with the girls, Jiang Chen, Sun Jiao, and Xiaorou went out together.

After dropping the girls off at the community center, he took the long way to the warehouses of the Fishbone Base before heading to the helipad.

Although the Fishbone Base is strictly speaking a military area, with the increase in population and the natural buff of the NAC “Capital”, the development speed here was not inferior to any economic zone within the NAC. This was evident based on the growing number of warehouses and the number of people traversing between the warehouses.

In Jiang Chen’s memory, at the early stage of the Fishbone Base, there were only a few small warehouses that stored the materials from the modern world. Now, the area completely turned into a cargo distribution center at a size only second to the Sixth Street’s cargo distribution center. Not far from the airship ports, giant mechanical arms were loading cargo onto a helium airship set to fly to Hongcheng

Most of the supplies sent to Hongcheng were arms and some grains produced in the Garden of Eden.

After his short tour, Jiang Chen came to Transport Helicopter-51. The young man piloting saw him and immediately saluted. Then he hopped into the helicopter and started the engine, transporting Jiang Chen to the Sixth Street.

Heavy snow hindered the population’s growth but didn’t freeze the prosperity of the Sixth Street.

Looking from above, the size of the Sixth Street more than doubled compared to last year. The trade interrupted by heavy snow resumed with the spring breeze, and wasteland traders from all over wasteland swarmed to the Sixth Street.

After the helicopter landed, Jiang Chen went to the parliament building.

Members of the Sixth Street Council were in a meeting, so Jiang Chen did not bother them. After chatting with the security officer on duty, he came to the general office on the top floor of the parliament building.

Other than the cleaning staff who come here regularly, this office was mostly empty. Located in the middle of the top floor of the parliament building, it served as a symbolic presence. The offices of the executives of the Sixth Street were beside it.

Like a magic trick, Jiang Chen took out a small can of coffee beans from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and tossed it to the assistant in Chu Nan’s office. After asking her to make him a pot of coffee, he also requested she brings the fallout shelter director to him.

After a little while, a pot of aromatic coffee was placed on his desk.

Jiang Chen poured a cup for himself. The thick white mist was still lingering above the coffee when a polite knock was heard on the door.

“Please come in.”

The door opened, and a young man walked in. When he saw the pot of coffee on the table, his expression changed and his eyes widened, but soon he calmed himself down and stood in front of Jiang Chen.

“Please free feel to sit,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, made a gesture to the chair next to him, and at the same time poured a cup of coffee for him.

“Thank you.” The young man nodded politely. After tasting the coffee, he said with some emotions. “The nostalgic taste reminds me of the morning before the nuclear war broke out… this should be expensive in the apocalypse right?”

“Yes, after all, after more than twenty years, even with the best preservation technique, everything would almost be expired by now,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “I heard you wanted to see me? Now that you have seen me, what do you want to talk about?”

The young man nodded.

“Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lu Yihua, Director of Fallout Shelter 118. When the door of Fallout Shelter 118 opened, we met the messenger sent by you and learned about what happened on the surface.”

Lu Yihua paused, and then said with reminiscence.

“Before the door opened, we had imagined the end of the war but did not expect the final outcome to be like this… no victorious country, no defeated country.”

“It’s all happened over twenty years ago,” Jiang Chen looked at the clock on the wall. “Do you just want to talk to me about this?”

Lu Yihua shook his head.

“No. To be precise, I am going to give you something.”

As he spoke, he took off the pendant hanging on his neck and gently placed it on the table.

Jiang Chen leaned forward and looked at the pendant on the table. The silver ring had strange patterns carved into it and in the center of the ring, there was a ruby the size of a grain of rice.

It just looked like an ordinary accessory.

Jiang Chen looked confused. He did not understand why he was given this.

“This is?”

“This is a key,” Lu Yihua said while looking at Jiang Chen, “It is also the mission of Fallout Shelter 118.”

“Can you elaborate?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Unlike most social experimental fallout shelters as well as fallout shelters with the purpose of preserving population, the meaning of our existence is only to leave a little hope for the possibly dark future,” Lu Yihua said, as he gently pushed the key in front of Jiang Chen. “At the bottom of the Poyang Lake next to Hongcheng, there is a completely dormant fallout shelter, coded T7. Two thousand researchers are lying in those hibernation chambers. Their professions cover a total of 167 fields from particle physics to aerospace technology. They will sleep through the passage of time until someone opens the fallout shelter, wake them up and take their knowledge from under the ruins.”

“Fallout Shelter T7 was not constructed as part of the Fallout Shelter Project. The construction party of the shelter is the Pan-Asia Cooperation Science Research Institute, and the project is called ‘Seed of Civilization.’ Over the past few days in the Sixth Street, I did see the germination of civilization. I hope that you can make good use of these researchers and revitalize the glory of civilization on this land.”

Under the sunlight, the rice-sized ruby cast a faint ray called hope.

Picking the pendant up from the table, Jiang Chen solemnly said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I should be the one saying thank you. I have already planned to treat this as an heirloom. I didn’t expect that I can fulfill my mission in my lifetime.” Lu Yihua stood up, bowed to Jiang Chen, and left the office.

Chapter 988: Private Talk

The modern world, at a suburb estate of a small town in Frankberg.

A plain black car was parked in front of the manor’s driveway. Two big men in suits came up to check the identity of the people inside. They whispered into the intercom before the gate slowly opened, letting the car with Frankberg’s Prime Minster roll in.

“What’s the purpose of the flashlights in their hands?” Peter asked the old man sitting next to him.

Although it looked like a flashlight, no light illuminated from it.

“A tool for catching mice, especially invisible mice.” The old man smiled and rolled up his sleeve to check the time. “Master Carmen will wait for you in the office. I have something to do later so I won’t accompany you.”

Peter forced a smile and did not continue the conversation.

Upon his return from Belgium, he ran immediately to the federal parliament. Once there, he spent the day yelling with a bunch of aggressive idiots and because he was unable to withstand the pressure, he was forced to disband the meeting and seek help from his behind-the-scenes master – Carmen Rothschild.

On the phone, Carmen did not immediately tell him what to do. Instead, he asked him to come to his estate.

After hanging up the phone, Peter immediately told his assistant to clear his schedule and rushed to Carmen’s estate.

“The opposition parties are driving me crazy!” Peter, with his hands on his head, walked into Carmen’s office and tossed a transcript of the meeting on his desk. “The Prussian Solidarity Party called for a referendum in the Prussian region and is seeking federal independence. There is also the Forward Union asking me to resign, immediately. Otherwise, they will impeach me through the federal parliament—”

He did not come empty-handed. The transcript of the meeting detailed the dissent and political demands of the opposition parties. If the parties do not resolve their differences, Frankberg may collapse before the European integration process even begins.

Carmen did not go look at the transcript. He simply crossed his fingers and leaned back in his chair.

“Don’t be nervous, my dear Mr. Peter, we have an absolute advantage in parliament. Their impeachment will not be successful.” Carmen looked in the direction of his housekeeper, “Gramm, go and tell the kitchen to prepare an extra set of cutleries for the dinner table today.”

The old butler standing next to him nodded and left the room.

Seeing that the unrelated person has left the room, Peter grabbed a chair, sat across from Carmen, and began to complain to his old friend.

After getting along for so many years, he knew his “old friend” very well. The bastard called Carmen Rothschild does not mind people complaining to him about work, as long as they didn’t stand on the opposite side…

“But…but the voice of questioning is not just from the opposition parties, but also from within our New Choice Party—”

“Then you will explain everything to them,” Carmen said with a smile.

Originally, he wanted to first slow down the European Union integration and soften the attitude of those who oppose it. After all, their anger seemed to be pointing toward a revolution. From any perspective, it seemed like pushing for the integration resolution was a futile and reckless move.

Just looking at the attitude of Mr. Carmen, he seemed to have no intention of “listening to persuasion”.

“But this is impossible! You can never convince two people who are not willing to be together to hold hands, just like no one can convince the Germans and the French to live under the same roof. Now Frankberg is opposed to the European Union integration. The same is true of our allies. My chief of staff can write a speech for me, but even if I am clever, I can’t turn black into white—”

Carmen interrupted Peter, who was in obvious distress and explained patiently.

“You are wrong, my friend. Black, of course, can be white. Not only that, as long as you use the proper method, ugly can be beautiful, weak can be great, ridiculous can be reasonable, and pain can be happiness.”

“The only one who can do this is God,” Peter ridiculed himself, “And there is only a poor man standing in front of you.”

Carmen shook his head.

“The opposite is true. God has never succeeded in doing this. Only men have succeeded.”

“Ah, dear Mr. Carmen, how are you going to make the sky green?” Peter laughed. Then pulling on his hair, he said in agony, “Tell me, what should I do now.”

“What you have to do is not explain.”

“Always remember that people are never creatures that can be convinced, just as there is no truth in this world.” Carmen shook his head and raised a finger. “What you need to do is give them a reason for ‘believing’. How to make one believe the sky is green? A color blindness diagnosis is far more effective than an impassioned speech.”

Peter was stunned and stared at Carmen blankly.

He felt like a door just opened in his head. After that flash of ingenious, he seemed to have caught on to something.

“People are against us?”

“Don’t try to convince them to put down their prejudice. Just give them a reason to.”

“We need a war, and then broadcast it on our TV to render the horror and brutality of this war. If you want to find a goal that will make the Germans and the French stand together, Russia is a good choice. It happens that our Ukrainian brothers are in a bad spot right now. We don’t even need to do anything new, we just need to use the appropriate tools.”

Carmen spun the globe on the table and smiled. “For example, let people believe that the crisis of aggression is imminent. Ukraine is the outpost of Europe. We are not uniting for the selfish desires of the capitalists or the ambitions of the politicians, but for unity. Get up and fight against the common enemies of Europa.”

“Don’t forget your identity. The New Choice Party is an extreme right party.” Carmen patted Peter’s chest with the back of his hand. “Unemployment, economic crisis, refugee problems, energy shortages, use your imagination. Everything is the fault of Russians.”

“Remember, not only the parliament members but the mouthpieces of the mainstream European media are also in our hands.”

Peter felt like his brain was never clearer. He already understood what he needed to do.

“As for what to do,” Carmen pointed to his head. “Think about it here, think about it. If you can’t think of it, find someone to think for you.”

“Who should I look for?” Peter was still stunned and asked subconsciously.

“Belgium is one of the EU member states and has the highest welfare—”.

“You mean I should go to the Belgian president and exchange ideas…” Peter raised his eyebrow.

“No, no, you don’t need to exchange ideas with the Belgian president, you just need to be a new consultant.”

Chapter 989: The Treasure Buried Deep

Several boats with the NAC symbol quietly drifted in the middle of Poyang Lake. Soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons stood on the boat and carefully observed their surroundings.

On the wasteland, places with water are always more dangerous than places without water. Behind every plant could be a Mud Crab. A Mud Crab covered with heavy armor could match the deadliest mutant – the Death Claws.

Wearing a black lacquered power armor, Jiang Chen stood at the bow and looked into the bottomless lake.

Ripples disturbed the clear water. If he didn’t receive strong evidence, he wouldn’t believe such an amazing secret would be buried under this lake.

Two thousand scientists with extensive research fields. This “treasure” is crucial for Jiang Chen.

After a while, a Knight walked behind him and bowed respectfully.

“Observers have scanned used the life wave detection device. There is no trace of Mud Crab activity in the area. Our people are ready to go.”

“Then let’s go now.” Jiang Chen ordered.

“Yes!”

Hu Cheng saluted. His fist slamming on the steel armor made a clear sound.

Under the leadership of the NAC knight, five soldiers wearing amphibious kinetic skeletons quickly gathered at the bow and jumped into the lake.

Jiang Chen stood in the bow and waited quietly until the underwater team confirmed the safety of the lake, and then stepped into the lake.

As a single armor that can cross the nuclear radiation area, the average depth of only ten meters is nothing for the T3 Power Armor. It didn’t take long before Jiang Chen’s feet stood on the soft lake bottom.

A few mutated fishes swam to him and began to bite at the steel armor. Jiang Chen waved his hands and shooed these self-humiliating mutants away before moving toward the location marked on the holographic screen.

Unlike most fallout shelters, this fallout shelter was not documented. The circular entrance had a dimeter of ten meters. It was not embedded in the wall but placed at the bottom of a lake.

Time did not leave any rust on its body. The bright alloy made it seem like it was only dropped here yesterday. In the center of this giant round door, T7 was painted.

“This is it.”

A string of bubbles squeezed out from the gap in the knight’s armor. Jiang Chen looked at the knight and nodded. He took out the ruby pendant and walked toward the center of the steel door.

“Let me do it.” Hu Cheng hurriedly tried to stop the general.

As a knight of the NAC, how could he let the general make risky moves?

However, Jiang Chen just shook his head.

“It’s over. The possibility of traps being here is low.”

Fallout Shelter 118 already joined under the banner of NAC. Lu Yihua has no reason to lie.

Only graves need to have traps protecting them. If the purpose of this fallout shelter is to send knowledge and hope to the future, then the person who built the shelter has no reason to put weapons in it.

In the center of the steel giant door, just as Lu Yihua described, there was a circular print engraved into it.

Jiang Chen put the end of the pendant inside and gently rotated it half a turn to the right.

The ruby embedded in this pendant was the key to opening the door. The ruby had been specifically designed and processed so that over ten gigabytes of passwords could be engraved within it. This encryption method made it so that even a quantum computer’s computing power would not be sufficient in deciphering all the passwords.

The current followed the silver disc and passed through the ruby.

A string of bubbles formed from the edge of the round steel door and pushed toward the surface.

With a slight tremor, the giant door slowly began to sink.

“It’s not quite right here… General, please come out first.” Hu Cheng looked around nervously and immediately stood in front of Jiang Chen. Five soldiers wearing amphibious kinetic skeletons also nervously raised their underwater rifles and watched for possible threats.

“Don’t be nervous, it’s just an elevator.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head. He pressed down on the muzzle and indicated for everyone to remain calm.

With the steel giant door slowly sinking, after less than half a minute, the giant door that originally protruded onto the surface became a deep pit. When the giant door sunk to a certain height, the entire giant door clanked into place like a bullet being loaded.

The roof of the deep pit began to converge, like a dome, covering everyone’s head and sealing the exit.

When the dome was completely closed, the signal light in the deep pit turned on, illuminating the entire space.

Then, the water level began to fall. After the water was completely pumped out, a door formed on the vertical well wall.

“It seems like this is not a door, but an elevator.”

Hu Cheng examined his surrounding and discovered that he was surrounded by steel walls. He put down his rifle and muttered to himself before grabbing the tactical rifle around his waist.

Jiang Chen had already stepped in front of the open door.

But just as he was about to cross the door, he stopped and frowned.

On the open iron gate, he saw a familiar sign.

He gently touched the raised badge, the soft titanium on his fingertips followed the engraving and swept away the dust. If he remembers correctly, the company that owns this trademark has a famous name.

“East Asia Heavy Industries…” Jiang Chen muttered.

“What’s wrong?” In muffled steps, Hu Cheng walked in beside him. He raised his flashlight and pointed it into the darkness behind the door. But other than a narrow corridor, he couldn’t see anything else.

“Where is that pendant? Give it to me.” Jiang Chen turned and looked at Hu Cheng.

“Roger!”

Hu Cheng respectfully nodded, stepped back to the center of the giant circular door, kneeled down and removed the pendant out of the groove.

After taking the pendant, Jiang Chen waved to soldiers behind him to follow him into the corridor.

Under the leadership of Hu Cheng, the six men guarded Jiang Chen.

Soon, the group came to the end of the corridor.

Jiang Chen took out the key again and swept it on a card reader on an alloy door.

After reading the password in the ruby, the alloy door slowly opened. Then, cold lights gradually began to turn on, illuminating the space inside. Seeing the marvelous scene behind the door, Jiang Chen’s pupils gradually widened, revealing his amazement.

Just like Terracotta Warriors were in the giant space, there were about two thousand oval-shaped hibernation chambers. The white shell looked like a large goose egg wrapped by arm-sized pipelines connected to the central main control computer and the life support device.

This is not a fallout shelter, but a time machine.

From the past decades to the future. It carried the seed of civilization.

“Wait for me here.”

With inexplicable excitement in his heart, Jiang Chen moved the nearest giant egg. He reached out and pressed the button that said “End Hibernation.”

A neat seam formed on the “shell” and cold white mist spewed out of the gap.

Just like sputum being reborn, the outer shell of the hibernation chamber slowly opened, revealing a girl lying in the shell with skin as fine as jade.

However, when he saw the girl’s face, his excited mood suddenly extinguished like a bucket of cold water was poured on his head.

Suddenly, he thought of something, he jerked his head up and looked at the central computer.

This familiar device…

As if to confirm his guess, the dark display lit up and a suited man appeared in the center of the screen.

He was sitting in an office chair and behind him was the skyline of Wanghai from before the war.

The expressionless face seemed to state his lack of interest in anything.

“Hello, future friends… From your expression, it seems that you have seen me from somewhere before?”

Chapter 990: A Blank Sheet of Paper

Jiang Chen, of course, has seen him before. Even if he has turned into dust, Jiang Chen would still remember that face. The face linked to the brain that was floating in the culture tank…

And buried together with the Supreme.

“We meet again, Dr. Lin Minjie.” Looking at the man on the screen, Jiang Chen sighed with some emotion, took the coat from the open hibernation chamber, and covered the girl. “I thought you were already dead, I didn’t expect to see you alive.”

Although Dr. Lin Minjie was much younger than the last time Jiang Chen saw him in the underground fallout shelter in Wanghai, he still recognized him from certain distinct facial features. The girl lying in the hibernation chamber also put a complex expression on his face.

At the same time the screens lit up, Hu Cheng gestured and rushed forward with the soldiers in front of Jiang Chen.

As he passed Jiang Chen, he caught sight of the girl in the hibernation chamber with the corner of his eye. He was shocked, but he quickly made the decision to ignore what he saw and focused his attention on the man on the screen.

Although he didn’t know who the person was, his instincts told him the man doesn’t have the best relationship with the general.

“Lin Minjie? That is indeed my name.”

As if Lin Minjie didn’t see the rifles pointed at him, the man raised his head and looked at the non-existent ceiling and signed in nostalgia. “Allow me to correct one thing. It is debatable if I am alive or not.”

Debatable?

After hearing this sentence, Jiang Chen frowned and slowly lowered the rifle in his hand.

“Now that you are calmer. No matter what conflicts you have with that person, isn’t it pointless to be angry at a program?” Lin Minjie opened his hands with a helpless expression. “I was born in 2168, almost at the same time as the fallout shelter was completed. My personality and other features are based on the programmer who wrote me.”

“Can I ask a question?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Of course.” Lin Minjie slightly nodded, “answering your questions is the meaning of my existence.”

“Which level of artificial intelligence are you, basic? Intermediate? Or—”.

“Basic, of course.” Lin Minjie smiled. “For a commentator, thinking is just cumbersome.”

Jiang Chen was silent for a long time. Then, he sent an order to Hu Cheng through the communication channel.

“Wait for me outside.”

Hu Cheng hurriedly replied, “But—”.

“This is an order.” Jiang Chen used an irrefutable tone and stopped his attempt to persuade. “Wait for me in the elevator. Unless I order, don’t come in.”

For the Knights, the command of the general is absolute.

Although Hu Cheng was still concerned about the general’s safety, he couldn’t say more. He just reluctantly lowered his head and accepted the order.

“Roger…”

Raising his hand, he gestured to his soldiers in the squad and took them to the corridor leading to the elevator. Standing at the door, he hesitantly took one last look at Jiang Chen’s back before obeying his absolute order and retreating to the elevator.

After the footsteps gradually drifted away, Jiang Chen was silent for a moment before asking

“Tell me, what are you doing?”

“Leaving seeds for civilization.”

“These…clones, are what you call seeds?” Jiang Chen’s rifle moved to the side and pointed to the girl who was looking at him with innocent eyes. Then, he said emotionlessly, “or, is this some sort of sick experiment?”

The girl lying in the hibernation chamber looked like an exact replica of Lin Lin. If she was not a special exception, then the 2,000 scientists lying here should all be replicas of Lin Lin…

When Lin Minjie heard Jiang Chen’s words, he shook his head.

“You’ve misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood?”

“In my database, the key term ‘Seeds of Civilization’ does not contain any words relating to experiment. The human female who is lying in front of your eyes is a clone born through the cell cloning technique with cells from an individual named Lin Lin. Her name is Lin Yi, number 0001.”

Jiang Chen was very curious. If number 0001 is called Lin Yi, then what is 0100, or 1000 called. But these didn’t matter, he just wished to know one thing right now.

“Why is it Lin Lin…” Jiang Chen with a complicated expression asked the question bothering him.

“Maybe it is the father’s guilt to his daughter? Or maybe because it’s something else?” Lin Minjie shrugged and said in a nonchalant manner. “The master that created me did not tell me such details. I am afraid I can’t answer that question. As for why you should use these clones, I think even if I don’t tell you, knowing the time of when this fallout shelter was completed, you should realize the answer.”

Jiang Chen paused for a second, but soon understood the message behind his words.

The Third World War started in 2171. This undocumented fallout Shelter was built in 2168. Therefore, as it was built before the start of the war, the world economy was still a mess and the Science Ethics Committee was still in existence. Therefore, it would be impossible to select a group of “volunteers” willing to go to the future.

From this point of view, the choice of using clones to pass on the seeds of civilization seemed like a helpless choice in the context of history. Although it also violated the taboos of science, at least the creation of clones could be carried out in secrecy.

However, another question still troubled Jiang Chen

“I don’t understand why people must be used as the carrier of information instead of the more efficient machine?”

A mobile hard disk could carry more information than the human brain. And unlike humans, the machine naturally does not know how to forget. Even after millenniums, as long as the parts themselves are not oxidized, knowledge can be passed on for generations.

“You are not the first person to ask this question. My programmer muttered to me before, but I regret that I can’t give you a standard answer.” Lin Minjie spread his hand, “For reference, I can only tell you the conclusions from the “Seeds of Civilization” researchers; hard drives can pass on knowledge, but only people can serve as the embodiment of civilization.”

After a pause, Lin Minjie went on.

“Their soul is like a blank sheet of paper. Other than the knowledge they are taught in virtual reality programs, their cognitive and learning abilities are almost the same as those of newborn babies. As long as you are willing to accept them, they will be able to adapt to the outside world in the shortest amount of time.”

“As for whether to accept them, the choice is yours.”

In an understatement, Lin Minjie gave Jiang Chen the toughest decision he has had to make.

Jiang Chen silently looked at number 0001 lying in the hibernation chamber, the girl named Lin Yi.

Right now, she was expressionless and looking at him with the eyes of a baby. The clothes covering her body had slipped off when she reached out to gently touch the cold barrel around her. She curiously touched its outline, completely oblivious to the lack of clothes on her body.

“What is this?” Lin Yi asked.

Silence lingered for a long time, before Jiang Chen finally let out a sigh. He put the rifle in his hand down, picked up her clothes, and covered her.

“Put on your clothes first.”

“Clothes?” Lin Yi tilted her head.

Jiang Chen’s mouth twitched.

He now understood the meaning of “their soul is like a blank sheet of paper”.

Chapter 991: Two Thousand and One Sister (One)

Jiang Chen recalled when he was still in high school and the anime he saw a long time ago.

The background was in a city similar to Penglai, except the city was not floating in the sea. A group of students with superpowers lived inside the city. There was an interesting setting that intrigued him. The female protagonist was a clone with superpowers. She was used as cheap weapons for inhumane research purposes. Her cost of production was only 180,000 Yen with over 20,000 units produced… Her cost was even lower than sex dolls!

Jiang Chen didn’t know what the cost of Lin Yi and her sisters were, but it couldn’t be cheap. The basic artificial intelligence based on Dr. Lin Minjie didn’t plan to answer any questions about these clones and East Asia Heavy Industries. Everything was answered by “proprietary secret”.

After listening to the answer of “Lin Minjie”, Jiang Chen was not pleased.

[Proprietary secret? Go to hell! East Asia Heavy Industries is probably in some gutter outside of the Solar System.]

However, for a program without the ability to think, there was not much he could do.

Threat? Stop joking, threatening a basic artificial intelligence that doesn’t know what is “life and death” will make people laugh at you. As for hacking the system… NAC possessed a number of computer experts, but for the computer infiltration that lacked practically, Yao Yao was probably one of the best.

However, Jiang Chen was very aware that even if Yao Yao’s computer skills are great, there would still be a big gap compared with the cyber security experts whose jobs depended on this before the war.

“You don’t know how to wear clothes?”

Separated by the steel gloves, Jiang Chen carefully held the clothes and tried to put it on Lin Yi. However, Lin Yi was not Lin Lin with a titanium alloy skeleton. After he accidentally used too much force, tears began to form in her eyes as she was about to cry in pain.

With a sigh, Jiang Chen took off the power armor. He picked up the clothes and put it on Lin Yi.

“You don’t even know how to wear clothes. Forget it, there is no point talking any sense into you. Let’s just finish this and go back… Wait, your hands, no touching!”

It was fine putting clothes on her. If she didn’t move around, it was an easy task. But her hands were moving and touching him while he was trying to do this very simple task, as if she just encountered something novel.

Jiang Chen was not an expert in taking care of children, not to mention that he could not treat her as a child. The fine skin was like a finely crafted art. With genetic modification, they possessed beauty and body proportion no inferior to Lin Lin.

Even Jiang Chen who encountered many beautiful women found it difficult to concentrate.

Finally, he put the one-piece uniform and the white coat on her. He raised his arm and wiped his forehead.

Jiang Chen glanced at the more than 2,000 hibernation chambers inside the hall. The idea of 2,000 more “giant babies” gave him a headache. Lin Minjie in the screen looked at him with intrigue, as he interrupted and suggested

“You can let the few people outside help you. At your current speed, I am afraid that you won’t be able to put clothes on all of them by tomorrow.”

“…I didn’t plan to get everyone out today.” Jiang Chen looked at the man on the screen. “I need to consult someone before I receive these clones.”

“Who?”

“Lin Lin.”

Lin Minjie’s expression showed a hint of surprise, but it quickly returned to normal. However, his expression did not escape Jiang Chen’s eyes.

“You seem to know something about Lin Lin?” Raising an eyebrow, Jiang Chen tightened the zipper for Lin Yi while examining the man on the screen.

“…well, I know a little. When I was being programmed, my creator, Dr. Lin Minjie, once told me about his daughter.” Lin Minjie did not conceal anything. After all, this private matter was not classified as “proprietary secret”, naturally he didn’t need to keep it confidential.

“What did he mention?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Mental tree diagrams, collective unconsciousness and unified behavioral models, as well as the principles of brainwave resonance… seem to be related to genetics and brain science.”

These words made Jiang Chen pause.

If his ability to comprehend was fine, the three terms seemed to be from biology, completely unrelated to technology.

From Jiang Chen’s impression, Dr. Lin Minjie should be an expert specialized in electronics and mechanics. He devoted his life to searching for the mean to engrave the consciousness on the circuit board, replacing the flesh and bone with electric current and machinery, and becoming Supreme.

In order to bring civilization in the Supreme direction, he even sacrificed his daughter’s happiness. He even sacrificed his own body and sealed his own brain into small culture chamber.

The stubborn madman was interested in a field he scorned?

Jiang Chen silently recorded these keywords, climbed into the power armor, and picked up Lin Yi.

Seeing Jiang Chen was planning to leave, Lin Minjie reminded him fearful that he may have forgotten

“There are still 1999 people in hibernation, I suggest you bring them.”

“I will be back in the next two days.”

Without planning to speak more non-nonsense with the artificial intelligence, Jiang Chen left the room.

Fortunately, Lin Yi could speak.

On the way out of the fallout shelter, Jiang Chen told her his name, told her what she needed to pay attention to outside, and specifically mentioned to her not to touch everything out of curiosity…

In addition to telling her basic common sense, Jiang Chen also asked her a few questions about herself.

Although she lacked common sense, when he mentioned “Mechanism of deep brain wave action and nonspecific projection system of cortical thalamus”, she could easily explain the concept and quickly recite principles. The difference made Jiang Chen question his university degree; his knowledge was inferior to a three-year-old.

Passing through the corridor and back to the elevator, Hu Cheng rushed in his direction as he walked up to the door.

For the girl in Jiang Chen’s arms, he didn’t even look at her. Although he didn’t understand the relationship between the girl and the girl in the Fishbone base with the same appearance, intuition told him that knowing too much would not be a good idea. So, he chose to ignore the topic.

“General, are you okay?”

For this overprotective Knight, Jiang Chen couldn’t say anything negative and just smiled.

“I’m fine. It’s very safe inside. I have a task for you.”

“On your command!” Hu Cheng stood straight.

“Take your squad and secure this place. Without my order, no one can pass this door.” Jiang Chen pointed to the ground and ordered.

Hu Cheng smashed his fist on his chest and saluted.

“Roger!”

Even if the general told him to fight the Death Claw, he wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow

Chapter 992: Two Thousand and One Sisters (Two)

Imagine if one day you meet someone on the street who looks exactly like you. Your first reaction is definitely not to go up and shake hands with that person… Of course, it’s impossible to encounter this scenario in reality. After all, the law limits the development of cloning technology, and modern society will not permit this type of experiment to be carried out.

When Jiang Chen took Lin Yi back to the Fishbone base by helicopter, it was already nighttime. It was inconvenient to arrange accommodations for Lin Yi, and he worried about her safety, so he took her home.

And a problem soon ensued, Lin Lin was going to encounter a sister she never met before.

“Who is she!”

Standing in the living room of the mansion, when Lin Lin saw Lin Yi, her eyebrows raised up in anger and said with vigilance.

Lin Yi seemed to be startled by Lin Lin’s action as she shrunk back behind Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen expected Lin Lin to react this way. He let out a sigh and put his hand on Lin Yi’s head to comfort her, before gently pushing her in front of Lin Lin.

“Your…sister?”

(Somatic cell cloning, should she be considered your sister?]

Jiang Chen didn’t know how to define the relationship between the mother and the clone, and even this statement ended with uncertainty in his tone. After all, no reference existed for such a case.

“I don’t remember having a sister!” Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen seriously and had a rare stern expression on her face. Then, she said a word at a time, “Tell me, where did you find this woman!”

He felt something weird with this question coming from Lin Lin, but he couldn’t explain why.

Perhaps they heard the noise downstairs, Sun Jiao and Xiaorou also came down out of curiosity.

When Sun Jiao saw the little girl standing behind Jiang Chen, she was obviously stunned, and then she looked at Lin Lin with a strange expression.

“Your long lost sister?”

Different from the reaction of her sister, Xiaorouo was intrigued by the situation. The pair of beautiful pupils focused on Lin Lin for a while before moving to the little girl hiding behind Jiang Chen. She began to giggle, “Ah… it seems that we have to add a pair of chopsticks at the table?”

Lin Lin seemed to be ticked off by this sentence as she became enraged.

“Impossible! How could I possibly… How could I live with this person who looks exactly like me! This is too strange, there must be something wrong… Wait! No electronic eyes, she should not be a digitalized human… NOO!”

Lin Lin jumped beside Lin Yi and ignored the startled eyes. She reached out her devil claws and began to examine the “counterfeit” all over. But the more she examined, the more she was depressed and sad because of inexplicable jealousy and a mixture of other emotions.

A pair of chopsticks?

Jiang Chen’s expression became awkward.

He didn’t tell Lin Lin that at the bottom of Poyang Lake, there were 1,999 more clones still lying in the hibernation chamber; ones who used her as the blueprint…

In the living room of the mansion, the head of the family, Jiang Chen, decided to hold the first “family meeting” in a long time to discuss what to do with Lin Yi. Even Yao Yao attended the meeting in her loose nightdress and bunny slippers, overwhelmed with sleepiness.

He didn’t remember what they discussed about the last time they had a meeting.

Those attending held expressions of curiousity, inquiry, anger, or sleepiness. Jiang Chen cleared his throat, cleared his mind, and began to narrate the story. From the conversation with the director of Fallout Shelter 118 to the “treasure” he opened at the bottom of Poyang Lake.

“…this is what happened.”

Half an hour passed as Jiang Chen explained what had happened. Jiang Chen looked around at the women with helplessness. “I want to hear your opinions on this little girl…”

Jiang Chen paused and looked at Lin Lin, who was sitting next to Lin Yi, pouting.

“Of course, the most important thing is Lin Lin’s opinion.”

Lin Lin didn’t expect Jiang Chen to suddenly put the focus on her. She immediately blushed and became embarrassed, “Me, me?”

“After all, they’re your clones. There are still 1,999 more sleeping at the bottom of Poyang Lake cloned from your somatic cells.” Jiang Chen looked at Lin Yi, who was sitting in the corner of the living room not far away. “You have the power to decide whether to accept her or not.”

When Lin Lin heard Jiang Chen’s words, she lowered her head in distress.

What should she do? She was also unsure.

Although Lin Lin likes to badmouth people, she has good qualities, and could even be described as kind.

Although she couldn’t accept the “counterfeits” cloned through her own DNA, both physically and psychologically, she also couldn’t make the cruel decision about their fate.

After some internal battles, Lin Lin bit her teeth and finally made up her mind.

“Accepting them…is not impossible.”

When he heard Lin Lin’s words, he let out a sigh of relief and thanked her with a smile.

Lin Lin’s face turned red and she looked away, whispering.

“This is not… not for you, don’t overthink it.”

Two thousand scientists would be really important to Jiang Chen, but he couldn’t completely ignore the feelings of the people around him. Lin Lin accepting them would be the best possible outcome. If not, he wouldn’t force her. They could still prove to be valuable if isolated away from others in the bottom of Poyang Lake or Camp 027.

However, the efficiency would be lower, and it would remain as something in Lin Lin’s mind.

Since Lin Lin expressed her willingness to accept the 2,000 cloned sisters, Sun Jiao, Xiaorou, Yao Yao naturally didn’t disagree.

Only after solving the big problem of “stay or leave”, there was still a big issue in front of everyone.

“The key is where are they going to live?” Sun Xiaorou’s index finger gently touched her lower lip as she said, thoughtfully, “If there are only one or two pairs of chopsticks, it doesn’t matter, but two thousand more pairs of chopsticks…”

Sun Xiaorou looked at Jiang Chen with concern and raised a very real problem. “Even if our mansion doubles, I am afraid we can’t fit so many people.”

Where are they going to live? This is indeed a problem.

It was impossible to put 2,000 “Lin Lin’s inside the mansion, but anywhere else, it would be hard to be reassured. After all, their minds are no different from children. They are not ready to be contact with survivors yet.

However, Sun Jiao brought up a good proposal.

“How about we build a research institute behind the mansion? These 2,000 Lin… clones are all scientists in different fields? Living in the institute is probably better than running around outside,” Sun Jiao suggested.

Chapter 993: The Good Stuff From the Sea

Clones certainly exist on the wasteland, but their presence is not welcomed. Especially for the clones “produced” from the fallout shelters; they served as toys. While the phenomenon changed when NAC took office, but people’s natural discrimination against these unnatural born lives could not simply be changed with a decree.

The best case scenario was to separate Lin Lin’s sisters from the survivors and have them taken care of by professional caregivers.

Sun Jiao’s proposal received unconditional support from Lin Lin.

Building a research institute behind the mansion was a compromise. They didn’t live too far away but there was no need to see them every day. Thinking from Lin Lin’s perspective, it would be odd if she saw someone who looked exactly like her every day, Jiang Chen didn’t think he could stand the idea.

In the end, Jiang Chen adopted Sun Jiao’s proposal. The next day, he went to the logistics department to see Lu Huasheng. The decision was to remove the old warehouse behind the mansion and build a new semi-enclosed research institute on the existing foundation that accommodates 2,000 people.

Immediately afterward, Jiang Chen found Wang Qing and ordered her to recruit a group of trustworthy female employees from the Fishbone base or the Sixth Street. The best candidates would be people born in fallout shelters with experience in nursing or caregiving. Jiang Chen ordered them to be on standby in Hongcheng to take home number 0002-2000 Lin Lins from Fallout Shelter T7.

Jiang Chen trusted Wang Qin’s attention to details.

He couldn’t follow every step of this task since, after a few days, he must go back to the modern world to Moscow.

After repeatedly cautioning her on the important details, Jiang Chen left the community center and headed to Jiang Lin’s Aerospace Science and Technology Institute.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the Aerospace Science and Technology Institute, Jiang Lin was out of the office. After speaking with his assistant, he learned that the chief engineer who loved to get hands-on with all projects went to participate in the manufacturing process.

“I’m going to take a look at the warehouse in a bit. This is a couple of boxes of tea as a gift for him.” Jiang Chen handed the bag to his assistant.

While these luxuries were easily accessible to Jiang Chen, it was not so easy for the survivors on the wasteland.

After all, technology was not the solution to everything, especially the luxury goods cultivated by traditional means. Even before the war, natural and pollution-free goods could not be easily purchased.

The assistant quickly took over the bag in Jiang Chen’s hand and expressed his gratitude for his boss. It was not because of the value of the goods, but because it was a gift from the general.

“Sorry for troubling you.”

Jiang Chen smiled and waved his hand and said with ease.

“No problem, it’s on the way.”

Since he didn’t need anything in life anymore, whenever he saw something interesting in the modern world that he couldn’t use, he would purchase the goods and toss them into the storage dimension. Then he would gift them in the apocalypse. While it was a small gesture for him, his subordinates often treated it as a prestigious reward.

After leaving the office, Jiang Chen walked to the warehouse behind the Aerospace Science and Technology Institute.

Different from Celestial Trade in the modern world, the Aerospace Science and Technology Institute was the research institution with the lowest security in Fishbone base. It didn’t even have a lock on the door and anyone could walk in and out… although rarely anyone visited this place.

The difference made sense. Space technology was probably the least valuable technology on this wasteland. All space technology from the 22nd century onwards was based on the development of space elevators. By the current state, it was impractical to build a space elevator on the wasteland.

Including the NAC, most people regarded this institute as a personal hobby of the general, just like the department that specializes in game development, no one really held an optimistic view on the development of space technology. If the chief designer Jiang Lin didn’t occasionally participate in the development of kinetic skeleton technology, the institute’s presence would be completely non-existent.

Jiang Chen was also aware of this issue, but he didn’t intervene.

After all, the technology from the institute was exported to the modern world and had little practical value in the apocalypse.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the warehouse, Jiang Lin with his fellow researchers was busy working in front of a strangely shaped wreck.

He also happened to bump into an acquaintance. Wu Yuezheng from the Beluga Observation Station was standing next to Jiang Lin. He curiously looking at the researchers working on the wreckage with instruments. Because he had nothing to do, he immediately noticed Jiang Chen’s arrival.

“Hey, what brought you here?” Wu Yue’s eyes lit up and immediately greeted him with a warm smile.

Jiang Chen gestured for Jiang Lin to continue with their work before he started to chat with Wu Yue.

“I wanted to ask you the same thing. Why are you not at the Sixth Street waiting for business?”

“Haha, it is the beginning of the spring. The merchants are all rushing to the hinterland. It is the low season for those of us escorting on the ocean. When all the merchants make enough money and it becomes closer to winter, they will consider going to Japan, Korea, or even further.” Wu Yue laughed, then patted the wreckage that resembled some kind of aircraft, “Since I have nothing to do, I brought this thing we found when we were cruising in the Western Pacific. I thought you’d be interested, so I brought it here.”

Jiang Lin tossed down the tools in his hands, wiped the sweat on his forehead, and walked toward Jiang Chen

“The Soaring 07 Engine, the product of Pan Asia Space Group. From the debris on the interface, it should be on the SS Sea Dragon… If I remember correctly, SS Sea Dragon was a transport ship to Mars. You guys are too lucky to have found this.”

“Have you seen it before?” Wu Yue raised an eyebrow and looked at Jiang Lin with interest.

Because of work needs, the two were often in contact with each other and knew some of each other’s backgrounds. For example, Wu Yue knew Jiang Lin was a native of the wasteland, born in the years after the war.

“I have seen it in videos before.” Jiang Lin shrugged.

“This engine… is it used for transportation to Mars?” Jiang Chen walked closer to the engine, intrigued by the wreckage, he knocked on the titanium alloy casing.

Celestial Trade was troubled on how to design a spaceship that can travel to Mars, and Wu Yue brought him a big gift.

“It’s a destroyed engine,” Jiang Lin emphasized. “There is no problem in restoring the technology in this wreckage but building a spacecraft capable of traveling beyond the Moon is not as easy as having an engine.”

It was great to be able to restore the technology. At least now they have a reference on how to build a long-distance transport engine. With this engine, they should be able to design a space colonization ship capable of reaching Mars before the end of 2019.

“Give me a price.” Jiang Chen looked at Wu Yue.

“Same old, we will charge a salvage fee, 20,000 credit points.” Wu Yue smiled.

“Done.” Jiang Chen took out a graphene card from his pocket and brushed it against Wu Yue’s EP. The 20,000 credits were directly sent to the Beluga Observation Station bank account registered by NAC.

Looking at the number jumping in the EP, Wu Yue was so happy he couldn’t close his mouth.

20,000 credit points was a generous foreign exchange income for Beluga Observation Station. The Sixth Street products were in high-demand in Beluga Observation Station, especially the canned beef and canned pork. These couldn’t be grown in the submarine farms. As for steel, aluminum, and even rare earth materials, those were even in higher demand as he must purchase a large number of shipments every quarter.

And that was Jiang Chen’s goal.

He was not afraid of the Beluga Observation Station making money off of him. Only by making money would they try their best to salvage parts for him. These things offered no value other than scrap metal, but in his hands, no amount of canned food and instant noodles could equate to their value.

Chapter 994: Consciousness Communication?

After receiving the payment, Wu Yue did not stay for long. He had some small talks with Jiang Chen for a bit longer before departing.

After Wu Yue left, Jiang Chen asked Jiang Lin to store the engine first. The institute would start the reverse engineering process to create the blueprint, then send the prototype with the blueprint to the warehouse in his backyard. After these instructions, he pulled Jiang Lin aside and handed him a folded blueprint.

The main purpose of his visit to the Aerospace Science and Technology Institute was not to examine the engine, but to design a piece of technology, or a weapon for him.

After taking the drawings from Jiang Chen’s hands, Jiang Lin frowned. He tilted his neck and put his hand on his chin but couldn’t come up with a conclusion after a long examination.

Because of the lack of reaction, Jiang Chen spoke out.

“What do you think? Are you confident?”

“Of course. Wanghai is full of this stuff everywhere, especially the closer we get to the city center…” Jiang Lin returned the sketch to Jiang Chen and asked the question bothering him. “But what’s the purpose of this?”

Jiang Chen slapped his head and forgot about this. Those steel prisms stuck in the concrete are NATO Orbital Airborne Pods? He didn’t need to use models built in a game.

Yes, the prismatic steel box in the sketch is the “descending objects” used for his “Space Defense Force”. Based on his concept, using these “steel boxes” can allow his soldiers to be deployed to anywhere on the surface from the synchronous orbit within any location on Earth.

“Don’t worry about the use, there is, of course, a purpose.” Jiang Chen, using his usual tactic, avoided the question.

Jiang Lin naturally didn’t persist on the question simply for the sake of curiosity.

With a nod, he took the errand. He said that the prototype and drawings could be completely in half a month at the latest.

As for the sketch, Jiang Chen crumbled it and tossed it into the trash. With a ready-made model to reference from, it was not necessary to design based on the sketch. They could easily take a few of those pods from the city center and reverse engineer the design.

After leaving the Aerospace Science and Technology Institute, Jiang Chen toured around the Fishbone base.

Almost four years passed, and the base received a new look every year; he couldn’t even recognize some places anymore.

The wall drenched by mutants’ blood was removed and placed two blocks out. A dozen more kilometers out was the Sixth Street. The underground sewage system that connected Fishbone and Sixth Street were even upgraded to a maglev track.

Based on Chu Nan’s plan, once the Holy Shield System is fixed, the Sixth Street and the Fishbone base could merge into one after a few more years of development.

Based on his words, the quality of the houses on the outskirts of Wanghai was still good. It would be a pity to let them go to waste. Since the mutants and zombies were eradicated, it was more cost-effective to reuse than to rebuild them.

While walking, Jiang Chen’s thoughts drifted elsewhere, thinking about what was missing from the base.

What is missing?

It seems that nothing is missing.

The second and third Garden of Edens were entering production. Not only vegetables and fruits were being produced, but cloned pigs, Cows, and sheeps were also being bred. Together with canned sugar and Mud Crabs imported from Yizhou, food was no longer a rarity in Wanghai. Even the poorest citizen could afford meat every week.

For this very reason, his personal prestige reached an astounding height.

On the wasteland, the person who can make everyone feel safe, feel full, and feel warm, the person will be well-deserved of being called the savior. It is no exaggeration to say that even without things like “citizen ranking”, “Knight Medal” and “Honour Collar”, no one would rise against him.

When Jiang Chen strolled back to his home, he still couldn’t think of what was missing in the base.

While pleased with the work of his subordinates, he felt somewhat lonely. He was more than happy to give autonomy to his subordinates, but now that they have all matured, he realized that he was no longer helpful.

Shaking his head with a smile, Jiang Chen threw these thoughts out of his mind and pushed open the door.

He would be crazy to worry about positive changes for the base.

The next day, the engineering team began the construction of the research institute. The foundation was already in place and the building didn’t need to be high. With the construction speed of the Fishbone engineering team, it would at most take two weeks to complete.

Jiang Chen spent his time walking around and increasing his presence in the base. At night, he fed the two kittens and indulged in the gentleness of the sisters.

Time passed quickly and in a blink of an eye, half a week passed.

As the artificial intelligence said, Lin Yi’s learning ability was impeccable. In just a few days, she learned how to wear clothes, eat, go to the bathroom and take a shower. She even learned some common sense like drying her hair before going to sleep.

The artificial intelligence was not accurate about a point, that is, she actually knew these things.

Like clothes, chopsticks, towels, since she knew what they are called, of course, she knew their purpose. However, these bits of knowledge were stored in her mind and not habits.

After all, from the embryo to her complete form only took up to two or three weeks. Jiang Chen even suspected that she didn’t even live a normal life for a few days before being placed in the hibernation chamber. She must immediately start learning in deep sleep.

On the other hand, Lin Lin’s attitude also changed a lot. From the initial exclusion to alienation, she now grew closer to her sister.

Although the two sisters looked identical, they could easily be distinguished. For example, Lin Lin, who is a digitalized human, has a black and red pupil, pale skin, and fairy-like silver hair.

Lin Yi’s hair was black. Although her skin was pale, it was more similar to Asian skin tones and not as exaggerated as Lin Lin.

In order to make the difference more obvious, Lin Lin also demanded Lin Yi to not keep the same hairstyle as her and to not wear the same clothes… Although they didn’t have the same clothes to begin with.

The strange thing was that Lin Yi, other than Jiang Chen who she encountered first, listened to Lin Lin the most. While she didn’t follow every command of Lin Lin, she followed most of them. She followed Lin Lin every day like a pet.

So one day, she also discovered a special function – the ability to communicate with Lin Yi through consciousness.

It was a mysterious feeling, even Lin Lin didn’t understand it. Two people didn’t even speak, didn’t even look at each other, and didn’t even need to be in the same room, but after they entered a certain state, they can understand each other’s thoughts.

The state was quite stable, Lin Lin didn’t understand the mechanism behind the state and even made a fool of herself quite a few times.

Jiang Chen and Lin Lin herself didn’t know if this was positive or negative. They also didn’t know what will happen after the rest of the 1999 sisters wake up.

But in any case, it was an incredible discovery.

Chapter 995: The Intimacy Before Parting

After a few days of pondering, Lin Lin was still confused about the connection between her and Lin Yi. In her words, it seemed that there was an invisible cord between their brains. When a voice called her, if she responded, she could sense the connection with Lin Yi.

The connection was mysterious. Not only were thoughts shared, but even things that were difficult to describe, such as thinking, knowledge, and experience could be shared through this connection.

In a nutshell, it was like two servers connected in parallel. Because the digitalized human possessed computation power comparable to the quantum computer, Lin Lin would be the host. Lin Yi held the knowledge of “Mechanism of deep brain wave action and nonspecific projection system of cortical thalamus”. Although this knowledge was outside of Lin Lin’s field of research, Lin Lin could “burrow” this knowledge stored in Lin Yi, like burrowing a hard drive, via this connection.

It was hard to describe the feeling. Jiang Chen thought about it himself, if Lin Lin and her 2,000 sisters were put together, it was similar to forming a large “integrated chip supercomputer with biological kernel”.

Lin Lin did not deny this statement, but neither did she agree. She was uncertain herself if it worked the same way on 2,000 people as on one person.

After all, before the war, cloning was the taboo of science. Even if someone conducted experiments in secrecy, the state-level secret would not be accessible by everyone. There was no precedent or reference for them to consult.

Now that the institute was still in the process of construction, Lin Lin’s “sisters” didn’t have a place to stay, so they still remained inside the hibernation chambers and were looked after by professional caregivers. But before they move in, Jiang Chen did a lot of experiments.

For example, the sensing distance between the two.

Jiang Chen tried to let Lin Lin and Lin Yi stand at the two ends of the Fishbone base and attempt to sense the connection with a distance of more than ten kilometers. Lin Lin and Jiang Chen were both surprised that the connection still could exist, even if the connection was weakened by the increase in distance.

Shocked by the magical telepathy, Jiang Chen was also wondering if it is a technology created by “East Asia Heavy Industries”. After all, he did hear novel terms like “mental tree diagram” from that artificial intelligence.

Jiang Chen not for a second believed that they were a proper corporation.

Applying the logic of the modern world, Dr. Lin Minjie was just a poor scholar that owed an astronomical amount of debt. Even if a paper of his was published by the Science Ethics Committee and attracted the attention of big companies, it just doesn’t make sense for him to receive such a high budget.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, even for mega-corporations.

Jiang Chen reflected on this and thought he gave a generous amount of funding to his scientists, but he couldn’t just let them freely spend it. Every project must go through the approval process, and its detailed enough that he knows where every single dollar is spent. He just couldn’t fathom the idea of using the budget to build a fallout Shelter to work toward the glorious destination of “Supreme”. In the end, even using the cells of his daughter to clone 2,000 copies to send them to the future.

As long as the management of East Asia Heavy Industries were not stupid, there was only one possibility. Dr. Lin Minjie was just one of their pawns.

And this company couldn’t be just be a company. The ability to dig a hole inside the economic center of Pan-Asia Cooperation and leave their iron seals on countless air-defense projects in that special era demonstrated political influence and power.

However, Jiang Chen still couldn’t comprehend one thing. These officials and businesspeople all left Earth on the space colonization ship “Zhenghe”. By the time they woke up from the hibernation chambers 500 years later, they would be at a picturesque new world. What would be left on this crumbling planet to long after?

Jiang Chen shook his head and left the matter behind him.

He would have too much time on his hand to worry about a company from before the war. If he was really curious, he could ask Han Junhua.

ds I

Speaking of her, since that time on the airship, she hasn’t treated him “emotionlessly” for a long time. The “Metal Commissioner” was certainly tough, but not strong enough to withstand the “improved slavery chip” created by the slave masters of the wasteland. Though the soul is tough, it can’t stand the slavery chip from the wasteland. With a press of the bottom, he could make her feel whatever emotion he wished… Ahem.

“I have to go back tomorrow.”

Jiang Chen gently kissed Sun Jiao’s lips and collapsed beside her. He didn’t even have the strength to wipe the sweat off of his forehead

Next to her, her sister Xiaorou shrunk into a ball; her messy hair was spread freely on the bed as she was already asleep.

This girl teased him during the day, but Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao worked together to
shouting “sister”, “brother-in-law” to the point where she was losing her voice.

Because of this “punishment”, Jiang Chen was completely exhausted. Only Sun Jiao with insane body attributes and her sister with matching stats could tire him out.

“Can’t you go back just a few days later?” Sun Jiao pouted, turned over and whispered in Jiang Chen’s ear. She was just like a cat seeking for attention as she nibbled on his ear.

“I also want to stay here all the time,” Jiang Chen closed his eyes, “It’s so relaxing here.”

He was being truthful. He originally planned to be a wealthy man in the modern world, but ambition grew. Once it swelled to the point where he couldn’t control it anymore, he lost his opportunity to just be ordinary.

When he learned that a space colonization ship was on its way to his hometown, he had to do something.

“You are just sweet-talking me.” Sun Jiao was still pouting. She obviously did not believe Jiang Chen’s rhetoric.

Who would choose to live a difficult life?

She told Jiang Chen more than once that when Lin Lin invents the ability to travel to the modern world, the first thing she will do is resign as the wife of the general. She will leave this wasteland to enjoy the life of the 21st century.

She was not interested in caring about the daily lives of the survivors. If she could
neighborhood, why be a king in the slums? If it was not to help Jiang Chen and she happened to be free, she wouldn’t have collected so much burden for herself.

Whenever she thought about Jiang Chen leaving her to enjoy the life in the modern world, then tease her constantly with videos and photos, Sun Jiao gritted her teeth and took a bite of Jiang Chen shoulder before sitting on top of Jiang Chen again.

“Hey! Are you a dog… wait, what are you doing?”

“I am not full yet,” Sun Jiao’s eyes narrowed. With a smirk, she put her finger under Jiang Chen’s chin. The same “sadist” vibe used on her sister once again appeared. “Don’t move.”

“Wait, my resilience is not as strong as you, can we continue tomorrow. It’s already past 12, I need to sleep…” Looking at the smirking face approaching him, Jiang Chen didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

The resilience buff meant that even ten Jiang Chen could not match Sun Jiao. Especially since he had already emptied his load when he was punishing Xiaorou. His legs were already shaking.

“That is not up to you.” The watery pupils turned around, and Xiaorou who woke up was looking curiously in their direction. There was not a trace of tiredness on her face.

“Xiaorou, help me pin him down.”

“Okay, sister.”

Sun Xiaorou smiled and hugged Jiang Chen from behind. She used her arms to hook onto his arms. With eyes that spoke, she looked at Jiang Chen through the reflection in the mirror.

“Brother-in-law, don’t move.”

The back of his head rested on two firm gentlenesses, even if he wanted to resist, he didn’t have the energy anymore.

He could only watch the smirking Sun Jiao move closer and closer to him…

Chapter 996: Returning to The Modern World

Jiang Chen sometimes felt that the way Sun Jiao smirked really resembled him.

No, to be precise, the “sadist” side that he occasionally would reveal probably came from her.

Looking at the peaceful face, Jiang Chen leaned down slightly and left a kiss on her forehead.

After a night of rest, he regained most of his energy

To avoid disturbing the two women, Jiang Chen gently quietly moved off of the bed. But as soon as his center of gravity left the bed, his legs couldn’t help but tremble and he almost fell down face first.

He turned around and was about to glare at Sun Jiao. However, when he saw the joyous face deep in sleep, he suddenly lost his temper. He gritted his teeth and limped toward the door.

Because of the side effects of the inhibitor plus mild anemia, Yao Yao usually had a difficult time getting up in the morning. Xiaorou was responsible for breakfast on weekdays.

Now that Xiaorou was still recovering and Sun Jiao was sleeping in and it would be hysterical to count on Lin Lin, the burden naturally fell on the head of the family.

Although Lin Lin was never interested in cooking, she never compromised on food.

She washed up quickly and sat at the table, waiting for breakfast to arrive.

Jiang Chen was planning to send her directly to the cafeteria in the community center to take care of breakfast, but now with Lin Yi who shouldn’t be walking around, he had to cook for the first time in a long time. He made breakfast while yawning profusely before finally walking out with fried eggs sizzling with oil.

As for milk and bread, Lin Lin understood how to use the microwave, and they were already on the table.

“By the way you are walking… are you okay?” Looking at Jiang Chen limping with the plates toward the table, Lin Lin looked at him strangely.

“I fell down going down the stairs.”

“That’s a lie. When I went to the washroom last night, I saw Sister Xiaorou sneak into your room. You must have done something bad to become like this, this morning.” Lin Lin’s unrelenting words came out while chewing on the egg sandwich.

“Not your issue!” Jiang Chen shot Lin Lin a look.

“Humph!”

After swallowing the food in her mouth, Lin Lin spat out her tongue and pouted.

Lin Yi tilted her head, and the hands holding the sandwich stopped in front in front of her mouth. She was using her innocent eyes to examine the two.

“Also, isn’t there a washroom on the first floor? Why did you have to go to the washroom on the second floor?” Suddenly realizing another problem, Jiang Chen added.

“Not, not your issue…” Lin Lin’s face turned red, her voice quieted down, and she couldn’t come up with an answer. In the end, she pretended not to hear the question and no longer spoke.

She didn’t know why. The washroom on the first floor was closer, but she couldn’t stop herself from going to the one on the second floor every night.

Seeing the quiet Lin Lin was very rare, Jiang Chen also stopped battering with her and focused on enjoying his own gourmet meal.

After finishing breakfast, Jiang Chen went to the kitchen again and stuffed some more mango pudding into the fridge. After he was done, he told Lin Lin. “I put some more pudding in the fridge, don’t eat it all at once.”

“Mhmm,” Lin Lin buried her head and whispered.

Jiang Chen glanced at Lin Lin strangely. He couldn’t understand what happened to her today. Normally, she would jump up in happiness hearing that the fridge is stuffed with puddings. This unusually quiet state was not like her.

While perplexed, Jiang Chen didn’t think too much of it. Even the liveliest people would experience a few down days.

After breakfast, he went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and washed his face, and then took a shower.

He had recovered by this point. At least he was no longer shaking, and his back was no longer so sore.

It was about time to go back, so he went to Yao Yao’s room.

It was only eight in the morning, so Yao Yao naturally was still asleep.

The little girl did not have the habit of locking her door. Jiang Chen just gently pushed it opened and walked into Yao Yao’s boudoir.

A faint fragrance blew in his face, following the unique fragrance belonging to Yao Yao, Jiang Chen quietly walked to her bed without disturbing this peace. He examined the cute face under the ray of morning light and a heartfelt smile appeared on his face.

It seemed like she was dreaming of something delicious. The slightly open lips formed a happy arc. A sparkling silver thread hung at the corner of her mouth, just like morning dew on the mimosa. Delicate and cute.

Jiang Chen did not wake Yao Yao. He leaned down and kissed her, counting it as a simple farewell.

After he left the room, he gently closed the door behind him.

When Jiang Chen opened his eyes from the soft bed, he saw the sea breeze blowing in the open window. He could hear the rustling sand mixed with the sea wave. After he slowly adjusted his mindset back to the 21st century, he got out of bed.

The room was quiet, Ayesha had already left for Moscow, and Xia Shiyu had gone to the Future Building. He was the only person in the mansion.

After returning to the modern world, Jiang Chen didn’t just sit around. He immediately began to pack his luggage for Russia. Although Natasha said that he can go live at her place, considering that he may be in a foreign country for two to three weeks, he still must prepare some necessary items.

Whether in his luggage or in the storage dimension.

After Jiang Chen finished packing, it was already noon.

While hymning a song, he was preparing to treat himself to some fine dishes and a couple of good wines, but when he opened the fridge, he was suddenly speechless.

There was only half a pizza, a box of unopened pasta, and also a bottle of champagne, but it wouldn’t taste the same without an accompanying dish. Clearly, no one has cooked in this house for a while.

It was understandable for this to happen. Ayesha, the cook, went to Moscow and Jiang Chen also spent some time in the apocalypse. In the past week or so, Xia Shiyu was alone in this mansion. Since she could eat two of her meals at the Future Building cafeteria, even if she knows how to cook, she must have been too lazy to cook alone.

“Why is this girl so lazy,” closing the fridge door, Jiang Chen muttered to himself.

Although he could ring someone and they would deliver the ingredients to him, it would still take two hours. By then, it would be time for his afternoon nap.

With that thought in mind, Jiang Chen left the kitchen depressed and went back to the garage.

Since there was no food at home, he had to go to the Future Building.

Chapter 997: A Pleasant but Short Lunch Break

Chapter 997 A Pleasant but Short Lunch Break

When Jiang Chen walked into the Future Building, it was lunch break. The building was filled with people moving between places as they chatted with their coworkers. Fortunately for Jiang Chen, he came early. If it was just a little bit later, he would be stuck waiting for an elevator.

However, it was a smooth ride up for him. Most of the employees recognized his face. If he squeezed by the elevator, people would let him go up first.

When he came to the western restaurant on the top floor, Jiang Chen followed the window and saw Xia Shiyu sitting by the window. Regardless if he was at the office or not, this spot was exclusive reserved for him. And the spot across naturally belonged to CEO Xia.

Jiang Chen ordered a beef cheese risotto and a vanilla ice cream. Then he took the plates and walked over to his spot.

Seeing someone sit across from her, Xia Shiyu raised her head slightly. When she saw the person in front of her, her eyes burst into color, but then she noticed that she was still at the company and her expression quickly resumed to her serious and reserved state.

“Did you miss me?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrow and looked at her.

The long, black hair was tied behind her head, the black frame glasses rested nicely on her pretty nose, her skin was as pristine as new snow, and the clean and elegant black professional dress didn’t hide her beauty but amplified her innate standoffish temperament.

He must admit that watching a beauty eat is both a spiritual and physiological enjoyment. The two fingers holding onto the silver fork, gracefully sending vegetables covered in salad dressing into her red mouth. Her lips were moistened by the tomato juice and white salad dressing covering the corner of her mouth made him begin to fantasize.

Biting a small tomato, Xia Shiyu continued to maintain her cold appearance and made a sound with her nose.

“Humph, what’s the use of missing you? You don’t come back anyway.”

“I’m back now.” Jiang Chen, with thick skin, smiled. His put his hand on his chin and examined her for a long time. When Xia Shiyu began to blush, he stopped harassing her with his eyes and said seriously, “You became even prettier in just one week.”

Her cheeks were covered by a red hue, and she rolled her eyes before continuing to enjoy the tomato in her salad.

Although she didn’t say anything, the love flowing out of her watery eyes vividly rendered her thoughts and longing for him.

Jiang Chen couldn’t resist anymore and hurriedly finished his lunch. When Xia Shiyu was about to go back to the office, he stopped her at his door.

Perhaps he missed her too dearly as everything came so naturally.

Jiang Chen closed the door behind him and pushed her against the door. Without saying anything, he kissed her seductive lips.

The beauty between his arms only resisted for a moment before Jiang Chen felt the hands pushing against his chest slid behind his back. They were no longer pushing him away but turned into an affectionate hug.

Jiang Chen was being naughty when they kissed. Not only was he searching for her slippery tongue, but the hands behind her back was also searching. He even unclasped the hook inside her clothes.

Her lingerie slipped down, and her body shivered for a moment. She wanted to hide, but her back was already against the door. Even if she could hide, Jiang Chen wouldn’t let go of this little lamb.

Normally, Xia Shiyu would say “pervert”.

But now her mouth was covered. She could only make sounds and it was impossible to distinguish her words.

Seeing the ineffectiveness of her resistance, Xia Shiyu, who has always adhered to her principles, also softened. She half-willingly accepted Jiang Chen doing inappropriate things in the sacred office. Then he even carried her to the office chair next to the floor-to-ceiling window.

At the floor-to-ceiling windows, it looked dark inside from the outside. But from the inside, it looked crystal clear. They could even see the vehicles moving on the road and the clouds floating not so far away.

It was as exciting as it could be to do naughty things here…

After nearly an hour passed and lunch break was almost over, Jiang Chen finally spared the exhausted Xia Shiyu.

Although she was injected with the genetic vaccine, she had always lived in a peaceful environment. Her stamina was not comparable to Jiang Chen who had been on the battlefield before. If Jiang Chen didn’t consider that she still had work to do in the afternoon, her legs would probably be trembling…

“Now do you believe I missed you?” Fingers gently rubbing on Xia Shiyu’s chin, Jiang Chen smiled and looked at Xia Shiyu.

She was facing him and sitting on his lap. Due to the center of gravity being behind her, her legs curled slightly back. Her back was against the desk and her elbows were even on top of a few documents. She was breathing heavily.

Xia Shiyu has a thin face compared to Jiang Chen. Her cheeks were so red that they looked they are bleeding, and the redness even migrated to her neck. She gritted her teeth and punched him in the chest. But because her center of gravity was behind her, she quickly had to stop the punch to balance herself.

“Pervert…what if someone hears us.”

“Who dares?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and snarled in a half-joking tone. “I will fire them.”

No one could hear them as Jiang Chen already had scandalous thoughts when they began the construction of the building. His office’s sound insulation was designed according to state-of-the-art sound insulation technology. Even if someone pressed their ear against the door, it would be impossible to hear a sound.

But then again, who was bold enough to put an ear on the door of the president’s office?

“Fortunately, your office is on the top floor, or you will have to fire the whole company.” Xia Shiyu mocked.

Jiang Chen smiled cheekily and avoided answering the question.

“You must be tired, let’s change positions.”

Before Xia Shiyu could respond, Jiang Chen used his arms and carried her between his arms. Just then, Jiang Chen noticed that the feet wrapped in black stockings was missing a high heel.

“Should I …I help you pick up your shoe?”

Xia Shiyu held onto Jiang Chen and pressed her burning face against his shoulder to hide her embarrassment. But as the longer she held onto him, the shameful emotion disappeared, and her breathing also calmed down.

Perhaps the standoffish mask was worn for too long, she loved the feeling of being between the arms of her loved one. Jiang Chen who wanted to tease her swallowed his words and just quietly hugged her.

Without the need to think about anything, she was being held quietly. Because it was so comfortable, soon her breathing turned rhythmic and she fell asleep.

Chapter 998: Hua Electricity Group

Happy times are always short-lived.

At the end of the lunch break, Xia Shiyu first opened the door of the office to peek outside. From the tiny gap, she observed the situation in the corridor. After confirming that there was no one in the hallway, Xia Shiyu flashed out of the door and fled back to her office.

Seeing no one found her abnormality, Xia Shiyu had a sigh of relief behind the door. She sat back at her desk, took out her mirror, fixed her bang, and carefully checked whether her appearance looked odd.

Although she already checked once in Jiang Chen’s office, it is never a bad idea to check again.

However, what Xia Shiyu didn’t know was that what happened during lunch break is obvious to anyone with some experience.

For example, the young assistant who makes tea and sorts documents every day. Although she just graduated not long ago, she knew exactly what happened during lunch break with just a glance.

Some things can’t be hidden, such as the hue of her neck and her cheeks, and the fact that she was intermittently blanking out…

While making Xia Shiyu coffee, the little girl also estimated that CEO Xia at least climaxed twice in the span of that hour…

It was only a thought in her mind as she would never dare to let this slip out.

But with how “satisfied” CEO Xia looked, the little girl also began to fantasize. When she returned to her desk, she was sorting out the documents while daydreaming – if she was in the president’s office, would she resist or be obedient…

After Xia Shiyu left, Jiang Chen sprayed air freshener throughout the office, then cleaned up the scattered documents that fell off the table. Xia Shiyu was going to help him clean up, but Jiang Chen declined her kind offer. It was best for her to go back to her office before people returned to work.

While very few employees worked on the top floor, other than the assistants, most of them were executives of the group. If people accidentally saw her sneaking out, it would be damaging to her prestige.

In the afternoon, Jiang Chen met with the president of Hua Electricity Group.

“Haha, I have long heard of Mr. Jiang’s name. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Jia Zhengrong, this time I represent Hua Electricity Group. I would like to make an inquiry about nuclear fusion power generation.”

When the 50-year-old man saw Jiang Chen, although he was much older than Jiang Chen, he did not act entitled. He not only smiled and greeted him but also was the first one to extend his hand. His flattering words even made Jiang Chen smile.

From the changing attitude of these state-owned enterprise bosses, Jiang Chen began to feel the growing international status of Celestial Trade.

However, a few flattering words wouldn’t sway the negotiation. These officials are experienced in the political world. While they may not have good technical understanding, they certainly know how to use the right rhetoric at the right time, so conversation was their strong suit.

For the compliments of Mr. Jia Zhengrong, Jiang Chen only smiled and did not let it get to his head.

Australia and Malaysia took the lead in completing the submarine cables. At the beginning of this month, the grids were connected. The electricity prices of both countries were reduced by half and they were gradually becoming cheaper. Countries that previously held a speculative view suddenly couldn’t wait anymore.

Nippon was the first to react. Before the UA pressured the Nippon authorities to obstruct the construction of the Sumitomo Group so that the project that was originally planned for completion at the beginning of this month had yet to start. Now that they saw results in Australia and Malaysia, the prime minister with a reserved attitude immediately took a proactive stance. He no longer cared about the external pressures and brought the construction of the submarine cable onto the country’s agenda.

Even India still being delayed in the Malacca Trench, began tossing down cables into the water furiously. They did everything they could to move cheap electricity from Xin at an earlier date to ease the dependence of its energy gap on fossil fuel imports.

As Jiang Chen expected, Hua finally couldn’t sit still any longer and sent Hua Electricity Group to negotiate.

The domestic electricity price average about 0.10 XND, and the export price of Celestial Trade was around 0.01-0.02 XND. While the difference of 0.08 CNY may be small, the effect is magnified on an industrial scale.

Taking electric steelmaking as an example, a kilowatt of electricity produces around 1.5 kilograms of steel. The 1.5 kilogram of steel, regardless of financial subsidies and steelmaking technology, has a cost of 0.08 XND higher due to electricity costs. In the market, other people’s 1.5 kilograms of steel will be 0.08 XND more competitive.

How about 1.5 tons? How about 15 million tons? With the amplification of volume, the advantage of cost competitiveness would also become more and more obvious. Sometimes it is about wanting to change, but external pressures could also force people to adapt to the changing era.

As one of the world’s largest electricity consumption country, Jiang Chen, of course, welcomed Hua Electricity Group to discuss with him about the submarine cable.

It was unnecessary to discuss a joint venture for a nuclear fusion power station. Jiang Chen clearly stated that there are no plans to build any nuclear fusion power stations on the surface. Jia Zhengrong was not surprised by his rejection. Then the two sides began to discuss the submarine cable and the power export price.

Jiang Chen directly took out the contracts with other countries to discuss cooperation work with Jia Zhengrong.

In the end, the two people happily reached a preliminary agreement. The two sides would jointly fund the construction of submarine transmission cables, and Celestial Trade would directly export the electricity to Hua Electricity Group. As for discussion beyond Hua Electricity Group to local companies, it was not something Jiang Chen needed to worry about.

As for the amount of capital invested by both sides, who would maintain the cable and how much electricity would be imported in one year, those details wouldn’t be determined until further discussions. Jiang Chen left the rest of the negotiation work to Xia Shiyu as he must make go on a trip tomorrow and he couldn’t make Mr. Jia wait for him.

“Allow me to ask, is Mr. Jiang planning to go to Moscow in two days?” Jia Zhengrong smiled and asked, “I hope Mr. Jiang doesn’t misunderstand, I’m only worried about this contract…”

“Yes. But rest assured, CEO Xia will take care of the rest.”

Although he didn’t openly market his visit, his trip to Russia was no longer a secret. But what made him unsure was whether this question was from him, or from someone else.

After hearing Jiang Chen’s answer, Jia Zhengrong smiled and gestured.

“Then I won’t bother you any longer. When Mr. Jiang comes to Shangjing, please be sure to let me know. I will definitely do my deed of being a good host.”

“Haha, then I will certainly let Mr. Jia know.” Jiang Chen ceremonially replied, smiled at him, and watched Jia Zhengrong leave his office.

Chapter 999: Sharing is Caring

The cooperation with Hua Power Group was an important part of the Global Power Grid Plan. Jiang Chen was not afraid that Jia Zhengrong only purchased a limited quantity, he was afraid that he couldn’t commit to buying. It was difficult to believe that that the government would push for zero-emission for thermal power when the cost of electricity was a few cents.

You think thermal power’s pollution is too high? You need to add a filter at the end of the chimney? Perfect, we think the cost of thermal power is too high!

Importing oil to generate electricity is not importing? Isn’t it better to buy it directly? When this transmission line is signed, you don’t have to worry about energy subsidies. The power station can be directly shut down and a large amount of money can be saved.

With this spare cash, it was better to send more benefits to employees, organize study abroad trips and, upgrade the vehicles of the leaders. This is a good thing for the benefit of the country and its people!

After the letter of intent was signed, Jia Zhengrong paid extra attention to this submarine transmission line. First, he headed onto the sea to inspect the transmission and distribution station, and then he took the initiative to discuss the project with Celestial Trade. Jiang Chen thought it was a done deal, so he entrusted the rest to Xia Shiyu.

Jiang Chen was ready to make the appropriate concessions on the transmission line. In the first year, the goal was to increase the amount of power imported by Hua. Last year, Hua’s national power generation exceeded more than 6 trillion kWh. This market was bigger than all the countries that Jiang Chen had personally visited combined and he must focus on this market.

The matter of Global Power Grid aside. Recently, during the time Jiang Chen was in the apocalypse, a major event happened in the modern world.

With the cooperation of the Xin Space Administration, Celestial Trade promulgated the “2019 Celestial Trade Outer Space Resource Development Plan”, which aggressively and decisively listed a total of nine asteroids in the Earth-Moon system for mining purposes.

No one doubted the fact whether Celestial Trade will succeed or not, after all, the Bennu asteroid proved their strength. The size of the nine asteroids are smaller than that of Bennu, and the mineral reserves are unknown. Maybe there are only stones on it, but maybe there are tons of diamonds hundred times bigger than The Cullinan (1).

Developing the universe will always be a gamble. What matters the most is not what is on the asteroid, but the fact that Celestial Trade already possesses the ability to develop space resources on a large scale. However, this also creates a problem. Although there are many asteroids in space, there are also mining challenges to solve.

When NASA became involved, it was not happy at all. Although the outer space resources belonged to all of mankind, the default rule is it belonged to whoever got to it first. However, if Celestial Trade “planned” the few asteroids that are the easiest to mine, how are we going to compete?

You can be ahead of everyone, but it’s not right to not get everyone involved.

While unwilling, no one directly opposed this. Why? It’s not because of the face of Xin, but because Celestial Trade also added a “timely” announcement of a plan to explain the previously published 2019 Celestial Trade Outer Space Resource Development Plan. Celestial Trade is willing to contract all 9 asteroids out.

Without mining spacecraft? It doesn’t matter, Celestial Trade can lend it to you! No transport ships? It doesn’t matter, don’t borrow it, Celestial Trade will sell it to you directly! As long as the minimum output value specified in the contract is mined within the contractual deadline, the asteroid’s contractual right is still yours.

If you don’t produce, there are still many people waiting to do it!

On the surface, Celestial Trade contracted the nine asteroids seemed to be a move to divert pressure and give up part of the profits. However, thinking about it carefully thinking, Jiang Chen is simply a bad man.

It is best not to monopolize the market. No one will blame you for building a bridge and charging a toll. But if you don’t allow anyone to cross the bridge, you will be hated. However, Jiang Chen is not happy to just charge a toll, he wants people who crossed the bridge to work for him.

Let’s not talk about whether these asteroids are filled with gold or slag. Even if you mine the asteroid, you can’t throw them directly into the atmosphere. Without a space elevator, the product must be shipped to Celestial City

This is not the end of it. Directly transporting the mine and the rocks back to the surface is simply not worth it!

Transported by Celestial Trade, it is best to process it on Celestial City. Iron ore is refined into steel, and titanium ore is refined into titanium ingots. They are not scamming you, as you can process these things in your space station or Future Mining’s space station since they are all connected to Celestial Trade. But after all, since it is in the territory of Xin, it is not too much to charge a transaction tax, right?

Settled in US dollars?

Sorry, the law already stipulates that only one currency is recognized in Celestial City, and that is the Xin New dollar.

The ingots that you produce, whether you send them to the surface and sell them to the international market or sell them directly to the local factory in Celestial City, no one will intervene. The export of mineral ingots is the same as the export of ore; there is no need to pay export tax. At most, a space elevator transportation fee is charged, and port management and usage fee are also charged on the surface.

After several taxes and charges, all that money will basically enter the pockets of Celestial Trade. The cost of these ingots is still lower than the average price of the international market. These have nothing to do with the relationship between supply and demand. It is purely because the quality of space ore is too high, and the impurity composition is relatively low. With Celestial Trade’s mining and transportation equipment, the cost is extremely low.

You don’t have to worry about environmental protection, and you don’t have to pay a series of additional taxes such as mining tax, education, and urban construction. The asteroids in outer space don’t have “local governments” associated with them. It belongs to whoever mines it. Although they have to pay various fees to Celestial Trade, you are still saving in the end.

Celestial Trade is not monopolizing the market, but you have to give us some of the profit?

As for renting equipment and selling transport ships, Jiang Chen had other plans.

You want my technology? Easy, I will sell it directly to you. Since it is impossible to transport this down the space elevator. Although I have sold this to you, you can only use it in Celestial Trade.

If you want to try hard landing, take out the parts from the wreck and study it, that’s fine too. Celestial Trade will revoke your safety qualification certificate. If you want to buy it later, I will not sell it to you. As for reverse engineering, when the technology is separated by a large enough gap. Even if I sold the prototype to you, you must have that theoretical foundation to study it.

Jiang Chen thought he was a genius!

Celestial Trade will not need to pay a single cent and all the risks are borne by his international friends. In the future, Future Heavy Industries will only increase its production capacity, producing transport ships, mining ships and space stations. Future Mining will constantly process the ores mined in its ore processing units.

If these nine asteroids are all developed by Future Mining, then even with ten times the size, Future Mining will not be able to develop all of them. But if other countries joined, nine more asteroids as big as Bennu will not be enough.

While Celestial Trade gave up some, it gained more in return. Not only that, Celestial Trade can use other people’s money to improve its own production capacity. Where could Celestial Trade find a better deal than this?

(1) The Cullinan Diamond was the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found

Chapter 1000: Moscow Trip

The 2019 Celestial Trade Outer Space Resource Development Plan was like a giant rock tossed into the middle of a quiet lake.

Investors from different countries flocked in along with the immigrants. Xin welcomed its third immigration wave, and the scale was far greater than the previous two waves, even surpassing the sum of the previous two.

More houses were being built in Celestial City, but the city still couldn’t catch up to the population growth.

With the increase in the development of space resources, new industries were born and new gadgets appeared in the market in this city floating around the synchronous orbit every day. Those who originally held a pessimistic view of the commercial value of the space elevator put down their dignity and poured into Xin.

Anyone could see the business opportunities and broad prospects.

If Xin was only an ideal immigrant country a year ago, it was now a paradise for immigrants.

Talents from all walks of life could find a suitable job in Celestial City, even if they didn’t know how to do anything before. After half a year of training in the Astronaut Training Center on Ange Island, they could even pilot a spacecraft on the geosynchronous orbit.

These immigrants were not only from Hua but also from the other side of the globe such as Canada, the United Kingdom, nearby Southeast Asia and distant Russia. Police drones helped to maintain order. These immigrants from all over the world didn’t ruin the security of Xin. Instead, they brought their culture to the new country and contributed to the diversification and compatibility of the country’s diverse culture.

It wasn’t just grassroots movement but also international capital.

After the development forum, private companies already had a taste of the opportunities available. With approval from their government, public institutions linked to the aerospace sector also joined in. They had begun to develop their own space technology with the help of the space elevator platform.

Everyone wanted to participate, and no one wanted to lag behind in the undeveloped space.

Zhang Yaping didn’t have time to feel bothered by election campaigns. Actions were always stronger than words. Celestial Trade took control of his election work and instead, he spent all day with the diplomats of different countries to obtain more benefits for Celestial Trade.

While he was busy, his days were quite enjoyable. He just attended the banquet of the Russian Embassy the day before. Today, he was chatting with the UA ambassador in a private hall.

On the evening of April 20th, a private jet landed at Moscow International Airport under the mask of night.

There was no grand ceremony and there were no crowded reporters, but the Kremlin welcomed this special and distinguished visitor with the highest diplomatic etiquette.

Surrounded by several burly and hairy men, Jiang Chen sat in a black long limousine. He couldn’t tell the name of the vehicle from the outside, but the lavishness inside made him think about purchasing one for himself. While pondering it, a security department agent had already respectfully opened the door for him.

Other than the Russian Foreign Minister, Jiang Chen also saw an unexpected person.

“Oh? You came to pick me up. I thought you were doing damage on the Russian border.”

It was Natasha. She was wearing a lady’s suit, her long blond hair was tied into a ponytail and she looked quite formal. The only thing that wasn’t too “formal” was probably her bulging chest. Jiang Chen had only not seen her for half a month, yet he felt it already got bigger. The buttons on the white shirt seemed to be crying in agony, ready to explode at any second. But for some odd reason, her waist still looked so thin.

Eastern Europeans’ body proportions always amazed him.

Natasha didn’t care about Jiang Chen staring at her chest, but she expressed a considerable degree of dissatisfaction with his first sentence, and she retorted back, “Let me correct one point-intelligence gathering and causing destruction are two different things. Please don’t take the nature of my work and…”

“Ahem.”

The Russian who was sitting directly across from him coughed, and Natasha quickly closed her mouth.

Jiang Chen sat next to Natasha and examined the man across from him. Of course, he knew the identity of the Foreign Minister. But what alerted him was that from his attitude, Natasha’s identity didn’t seem so simple either.

At least, unlike ordinary intelligence agents.

“Welcome to Moscow, Mr. Jiang. My full name is very long. According to the language habits of the Han people, you can call me Sminov.” Unlike his burly appearance, the voice of Mr. Sminov was courteous, and his standard Mandarin was good enough for him to be an announcer. He seemed to be a natural at diplomacy.

“I am Jiang Chen.”

Jiang Chen smiled, shook his hand, and began to chat.

The two didn’t discuss any work in the car and just chatted about all things. Sminov was an interesting person. While he didn’t talk much, he could talk about many topics. They discussed football, gold, then went on about fishing. Even if Sminov didn’t know some of the things, he could use clever language techniques to not make Jiang Chen feel bored.

And Natasha, sitting next to Jiang Chen, just felt invisible. Maybe it was because of her identity, but aside from her first sentence, she didn’t speak anymore.

It wasn’t until the car was parked at the door of a five-star hotel that Sminov mentioned the important affair.

“… In addition to the special security team of the Russian Security Service responsible for the peripheral work, on this trip in Moscow, Miss Natasha will be your security consultant. Whether it’s in life or work, if you encounter any inconveniences, you can consult her.”

“Don’t be polite; this is my job.” Natasha squeezed her eyebrows at Jiang Chen. It was the second sentence she said.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be polite with you.”

You’ve been drinking and eating at my house for so long. If I don’t bother you, I’ll be missing out on an opportunity big time!

Natasha grinned. Jiang Chen then looked at Sminov again. “I don’t know when you’re going to start the official discussion with us; I’m free any time, but I hope it’s not too late.”

“In three days at the latest. We will arrange for you to meet with an important person as soon as possible. It’s because he’s currently on the front lines and can’t come back immediately; I hope you can understand,” Sminov replied.

“No hurry. I will stay here for a while; I’m always free.”

After a few words, Sminov said goodbye to Jiang Chen.

Accompanied by Natasha and security personnel, Jiang Chen stepped into this five-star hotel. However, at the door of the presidential suite where he was staying, only Natasha followed behind him.

Jiang Chen took off his suit and tossed the tie aside. He then languidly took some champagne from the fridge and nonchalantly asked Natasha, “Can you tell me what you’re planning to discuss with me?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know the exact details. This is top secret… I can only reveal one point and it’s related to the situation in Europe.”

Jiang Chen nodded and didn’t make it difficult for Natasha.

He then headed to the bathroom door. As he was about to take off his clothes to take a shower, he suddenly stopped and looked at Natasha on the sofa.

“I’m going to rest soon. You’re not going back to your room?”

She was amused by Jiang Chen and her bright red lips grinned. Natasha was leaning on the sofa drinking and didn’t have intentions to move at all. She gracefully crossed her legs.

“My room? It’s here.”

Chapter 1001: Restless Night

“My room? It’s here.”

It’s here?

Jiang Chen heard her words and raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not afraid that I will do you in my sleep tonight?”

“When I lived at your home, there were so many opportunities yet you didn’t seize any of them.” Natasha rolled her eyes as if she didn’t see Jiang Chen as a threat. She added a sentence, “I won’t resist. Do you dare to take action?”

When Jiang Chen heard this sentence, he wasn’t pleased.

I’ve crossed the line so many times that you couldn’t count even if I lent you another hand.

However, while he wasn’t pleased, he was still dictated by reason. He always maintained enough rationality and didn’t get too involved with the agent woman. He wasn’t afraid of what she would become, but he was afraid of getting stuck in this mess himself.

While his private life could be described as scandalous, he still maintained rationality.

“When I finish showering, I will take care of
you.”

Natasha was provoking him by biting on the beer bottle and he responded with a hard stare then he closed the bathroom door.

Her eyes stayed on Jiang Chen’s back until the door closed, then a complicated expression appeared.

If he showered by himself, he usually took a short amount of time. He turned on the showerhead and rubbed himself with the towel. Before he finished humming two songs, he walked out in a bathrobe feeling refreshed. But when he walked out, there were already three empty bottles on the table.

With a bottle of champagne, two bottles of different brands of red wine, and half a bottle of Bordeaux left, Natasha was slowing shaking her wineglass.

“You’re certainly a drinker. Aren’t you afraid of getting a beer belly?” Jiang Chen looked at the empty bottles and mocked her.

“I’ve never worried about these problems. As long as I keep a good schedule and exercise, I don’t even have an opportunity to get fat,” Natasha said while smug then changed the position of her legs. “Do you want to have a drink?”

She indeed could show off her slim and fit waist; it wasn’t like the typical waists of Eastern Europeans. On the beach, Jiang Chen had seen it and not only was there not even a single trace of fat, but she had a deeper waistline than Ayesha, displaying both strength and beauty.

And the giant gentleness in front of her demonstrated her perfect inheritance of the “Slavic ancestry advantage.” Jiang Chen was worried that if she lifted her chest, the buttons on her blouse would explode.

“I’ll pass. I still have things to do tomorrow. You can drink.” Jiang Chen retracted his gaze from her gentleness, gulped, and refused her invitation. He turned around to go to his bedroom.

Natasha shrugged and looked at Jiang Chen with mischievousness.

Jiang Chen didn’t have a good sleep that night. After being teased by Natasha, he felt like a fire was burning in his lower abdomen. Ayesha and Xia Shiyu weren’t there, and he couldn’t risk revealing his secret by going back to the apocalypse in Russian territory, so he couldn’t release himself in any way.

Using his hands?

He hadn’t used his hands for a long time.

Jiang Chen looked at his small tent in the morning then looked at the sun outside the window and shook his groggy brain. He dressed and walked out of the bedroom then saw Natasha lying on the sofa. He stepped forward, shook the sofa with his feet, and woke her up.

Natasha opened her eyes, yawning. She rubbed her eyes and sat up on the sofa.

“You really slept here last night?” Looking at her hungover face, Jiang Chen spoke. “I already said so? I live here.” Natasha couldn’t stop yawning. She held her groggy brain and stood up. “Damn it, I drank a little too much yesterday.”

Looking at the empty bottles on the table, Jiang Chen was twitching.

A little too much?

“Go and clean yourself up; I need to leave in a while. If you don’t resolve your black circles, just stay here,” Jiang Chen said wickedly.

“I can’t do that; I’m your security consultant.”

When Natasha heard she had dark circles, she remembered that she slept without washing her face. She realized she must not be in an elegant state, and she suddenly rushed into the bathroom without any sleepiness.

Jiang Chen estimated that she would need to take a while and called for two servings of breakfast.

Not long after, under the surveillance of two agents, the waiter carefully rolled the dining cart in and stopped at the door. After knocking on the door, he uncomfortably delivered the breakfast into Jiang Chen’s room.

This five-star hotel was quite good; at least breakfast was impeccable.

The main course was buckwheat porridge with Russian characteristics as well as grilled Bolognese and Russian big ribs. The side dishes were quite fancy—there was grilled toast, grilled mushrooms with salt and black pepper, and mashed potatoes with minced garlic, dried tomatoes, and butter. There was also something mixed with cream that Jiang Chen couldn’t name.

One of the dishes that left the biggest impression on Jiang Chen was the bowl of soup. It wasn’t the flavor, but the soup had everything. Potatoes, fresh cucumbers, plumeria, green onions, sausages, all kinds of vegetables, and even wine. Jiang Chen didn’t know how good it tasted, but it was some bizarre cuisine.

After eating half a bowl of the buckwheat porridge and half a slice of toast, Natasha finally came out of the bathroom. Standing at the door and smelling the fragrance of the food, her eyes lit up and she sat opposite Jiang Chen. She then grabbed some toast from the basket.

“That’s not the way you eat it; it should be like this… Then you can put blueberry jam on it. It would be better to have yogurt; yogurt can make this softer and taste better.”

Can

Russian women with makeup weren’t the same as women without makeup. Caucasians typically had larger pores compared to Asians, and their faces were more three-dimensional than Asians, which was more suitable for the use of color.

She combed her messy hair, wiped off the makeup that she slept on yesterday, and retouched her face with a little makeup. It was just some simple fixing, but Jiang Chen was stunned.

Very satisfied with Jiang Chen’s reaction, a curvature formed on her lips. She stuffed the toast with blueberry jam into her mouth.

“Where are you going to go?”

“In the morning, I have to go to the Russian Aerospace Corporation. There’s an investor exchange meeting in the afternoon… and a cocktail party in the evening.” Jiang Chen took out a small notebook from his pocket and scribbled the agenda for the next few days.

Nominally, he came to Russia to research the investment environment, but it was naturally impossible to stay at the hotel all day. Since he didn’t have anything to do, he found some casual events. He only needed to show his face without the need to discuss any cooperation in person.

“A cocktail party? What cocktail party?” Natasha was excited when she heard “cocktail.”

“It’s a private reception hosted by General Nikolaev. Many Russian politicians will also participate in it. Since I received an invitation, I should go… What happened to you?” Jiang Chen looked at Natasha staring into space, not understanding what happened.

Chapter 1002: SS Oleg

Natasha didn’t tell Jiang Chen what happened even after they headed out. She just vaguely said that she had drunk too much yesterday then changed the topic. Although Jiang Chen was curious, he didn’t persist on the topic. After, he went to clean himself up.

At about eight o’clock, surrounded by hairy Russians in suits, Jiang Chen took Natasha downstairs and sat in the limousine.

While it didn’t feel the most comfortable being followed by a large group of security personnel, he understood that they were now in the midst of a special period and it was always better to be safe.

A call came to Jiang Chen from Xia Shiyu.

“How are you? Are you safe?”

“It’s fine. I have so many burly men looking after me when I go outside, and there are people to even go to the washroom with me.”

“Oh, then I’m relieved. You won’t do bad things then.”

Xia Shiyu was doing her hardest not to laugh.

Jiang Chen, who thought Xia Shiyu was laughing too hard, decided to tease her. With a smirk, he said. “That’s not necessarily true. Guess who the appointed security consultant is?”

Xia Shiyu thought about it for a second and wanted to say Ayesha, but she thought she could be regarded as a private bodyguard.

After thinking for a moment, she suddenly thought of a name and probed.

“Is it… Natasha?”

Among all Russians, she knew Natasha the best. She remembered that Ayesha had mentioned to her that Natasha used to serve the KGB and later entered the diplomatic system.

Although her relationship with her wasn’t bad and the four of them even went on holiday together, this didn’t mean she was willing to add one more sister.

“The two beautiful women in the family aren’t enough for you to eat?” Gritting her teeth, Xia Shiyu couldn’t think of any way to control Jiang Chen. She pouted as she spoke with resentment.

“Ahem. She’s just a safety consultant; I have nothing to do with her. Don’t think too much. Well, let’s not talk about this. How about you? How many of our asteroids have been contracted out?”

She noticed that Jiang Chen didn’t want to continue with the topic. Although Xia Shiyu got jealous easily, she didn’t always persist on the same thing and understood priorities. She quickly shifted her focus to the more important issue.

“A total of five were contracted out, including Hua, Russia, the UA, Nippon, and India. NASA asked us to expand the asteroid contracting quota and replace the hard indicators with market bidding. The United Kingdom and France submitted an application to us.”

“NASA’s request can be ignored. Get them to finish mining the one on hand before applying for the second. As for the United Kingdom and France…”

As Jiang Chen was talking, he glanced at Natasha sitting opposite him.

Although she put her hands over her ears to indicate she wasn’t listening, Jiang Chen was not easily convinced.

He organized the wording in his head, avoiding all the sensitive information.

“The conditions for the United Kingdom’s application can be relaxed. Just hold France’s application for now. Once the EU mess is over, you can review their application.”

“Will this be brought to the WTO?” Xia Shiyu was somewhat hesitant.

“WTO is for countries. We’re a private enterprise and a large multinational one at that. We have the power to decide who we do business with and who to play with,” Jiang Chen said with certainty.

“Well, since that’s your order, I will follow it.” Xia Shiyu nodded.

“Please.”

After saying goodbye to Xia Shiyu, Jiang Chen smiled and turned off the holographic screen on his watch then his line of sight crossed Natasha’s.

“Why can’t I be included?” Natasha said, displeased.

“Because…” Jiang Chen couldn’t think of how to answer this question then responded with: “Love is selfish.”

Sure enough, Natasha made a vomiting gesture and also an exaggerated clown face at him.

“Then why is Ayesha?”

This time, Jiang Chen didn’t know how to answer. For a while, he couldn’t think of any rebuttal.

“There are always exceptions,” Jiang Chen shamelessly said.

“I understand. You only like women with small boobs and aren’t interested in other women. In the words of your country, you’re a Loli Lover! Pervert!” She was infuriated by Jiang Chen’s answer so she blurted out the sentence before she turned her head and ignored him.

Jiang Chen looked at her sulking without knowing what to do.

What is this?

Maybe she was really angry. Natasha didn’t say a word again along the way. Although he was confused, he wasn’t too bothered by this. He knew very well that she wasn’t the kind of woman with a small mind, and she might forget it in a while.

As for asking him to examine himself, that was impossible.

When he arrived at the Russian Aerospace Science and Technology Group, a Russian with a giant nose greeted him and enthusiastically invited him into the building. He took Jiang Chen from the warehouse to the office and even went into the research and development center without hiding anything.

During their conversation, Jiang Chen learned that the name of the big nose Russian was Yuri, which was a very popular name in Russia.

He was extremely talkative. After Jiang Chen entered through the door, he didn’t stop talking for a minute.

“This is the RM-320 we produced according to the drawings you provided. Your design is outstanding. I don’t know what words to use to describe the astonishment in my mind. The only limit is that the materials in our combustion chambers aren’t up to standard…” Pointing at a bright silver rocket engine, Yuri didn’t stop complimenting him. “We will also ask Jiang Chen about some of the technical problems related to the rocket.”

However, Jiang Chen was bound to disappoint him. He didn’t understand any of the technicalities at all. At most, he understood the direction. In terms of technical details, he might be less knowledgeable than the interns who copied data, working behind the scientists.

Fortunately, experts also came with him from Xin and these problems were dealt with by those experts. Perhaps it was because of the conviction of the technology of Celestial Trade that these high-spirited scientists were very eager to learn. If there was anything that they didn’t understand, they were humble to learn.

Helping Russia master the RM-320 engine itself was part of the agreement. Jiang Chen let the Celestial Trade expert deal with the scientists while he went to another place with Yuri.

In an empty warehouse, a flat-shaped cuboid aircraft about 15 meters long was parked. Behind the cuboid aircraft, there were four large holes and an RM-320 engine could be placed in each of the holes.

“SS Oleg, this is our spacecraft that can be used in the Earth-Moon system. This is the top secret of our group.” Yuri slapped the metal giant and squinted his eyebrows at Jiang Chen with pride.

Chapter 1003: Learning The Truth from Experiments

After seeing the design of the transport spacecraft, Jiang Chen almost laughed out loud.

These Russians just changed the rocket in the middle, lined up four rockets together, then removed the third-stage rocket. They placed the fuel tank at the bottom of the middle section of the spacecraft while the cargo was above. Although the overall layout surpassed the standards of the times, the power system still used the original chemical fuel engine.

The advantage of this cuboid aircraft was the longitudinal acceleration which could effectively alleviate the load on the aircraft’s outer casing during the acceleration phase. But at the same time, a problem also arose in which if the spacecraft wanted to turn a corner in space, it would be extremely difficult. It’d be like holding a toothpick, sticking to the wall, it’d be hard to break the toothpick, but it wouldn’t take much effort to break it by pinching the two ends.

It was no problem to turn through the speed difference of the four engines, but to change the steering more than 90 degrees, it’d likely require the gravity of the planet. Unless they added a small engine in the middle, but then the whole hull would be too bloated.

When it came to this engine, Jiang Chen still felt embarrassed. After all, he did scam the Russians. After the space elevator was built, the RM-320 chemical fuel engine no longer had a future. A high-energy storage battery, plus a palm-sized Cesium metal had a cruising radius equivalent to a traditional chemical fuel rocket with two small house-sized fuel tanks. The limitations of technology meant that the issues couldn’t be solved without simply improving the technology.

It was like a bronze knife. No matter how you improved the tempering and forging technique, you couldn’t compare it to a tool made out of steel.

“It’s not impossible to use a chemical fuel engine as an engine, but it can only be used as a short-term solution. At most, it will be eliminated in another 20 years. EmDrive (1) is the future of space development. It’s difficult to make giant strides, but we can start with electric propulsion… Don’t take notes; I’m just talking casually.” Jiang Chen looked at the big-nosed Russian taking out a notebook and starting to jot down notes before he felt embarrassment.

He really didn’t understand aerospace. His only role in Celestial Trade’s Space Department was to transport the documents from the apocalypse to the database of the modern world, and the departments managed the affairs of each department. No one knew who made these documents.

However, he still understood the general direction, so he just casually made a few comments. As for whether his comments really reflected the truth and could be scrutinized, he wasn’t sure himself.

Yuri touched the back of his head, feeling awkward. “I think what you said made sense. However, we’ve studied the principle of EmDrive from the Soviet era, but we still didn’t achieve anything. We have a prototype for electric propulsion, but the propulsion power is too low and can’t match the carrying capacity of chemical rockets.”

“If you really developed EmDrive, we would be learning from you.” Jiang Chen began joking with him because of the Russian’s easy-going character.

Yuri took out a piece of document and handed it to Jiang Chen.

“I wanted to ask—what do you think about this spacecraft? Can this dock at the port of Celestial City? If not, what are the specifications that don’t meet the requirement? Please be sure to tell us.”

Jiang Chen took the English densely-written documents and couldn’t understand a thing, then he returned them to Yuri.

“I can’t give you a reply now. You don’t have to give me the document; the scientists I brought are experts at this. Import the parameters of this aircraft onto the computer, and we will test this in the simulation program to see if you meet the standards.”

This time, he came to the Russian Aerospace Group to help them check whether the Oleg could stop at the port of Celestial Trade. This procedure was not to be underestimated. Not just any spacecraft could enter the Earth-Moon system. The speed of outer space was measured in kilometers per second. The loss would be in the billions. This matter must be taken seriously even for the safety of Celestial City.

However, this had nothing to do with Jiang Chen. He mainly came to show his presence. After all, it was a very special period. His real purpose of coming to Russia must be hidden.

However, Yuri didn’t think so. Jiang Chen’s argument that “the chemical rocket has no future” won him over. Some might say that even Jiang Chen, as an outsider, saw the problem. Did Yuri as an expert not understand?

This involved a problem with research schools.

EmDrives or propulsion engines. It was hard to say which one was wrong. Could concepts be “wrong” in research? Two research directions, one focusing on the present while one focused on the future. Adhering to the more efficient development of chemical fuel rockets, the RM-300 had doubled the thrust to the push value of Falcon 9 rockets. Going down this road, who could say which was better? Before the Flintlock mechanism was invited, guns weren’t superior to bows.

Yuri also had his own ideas in mind. He copied Jiang Chen’s statement not to make notes but to use his aura to persuade those who supported the RM-320, to convince his bosses who were more optimistic about propulsion engines.

Although Jiang Chen claimed he didn’t understand aerospace technology and that he only understood general directions, who would doubt his words? Many people regarded him as the founder of the second “Great Navigation Age” of human beings, comparing him to people like Columbus.

Not to mention the Russian Aerospace Group, which largely inherited the success of the old Soviet Union, but even the director of NASA would still take notes. This wasn’t about academic authority but more about the truth determined from experience. If people had opinions? Why didn’t they build a space elevator first then bring them up!

After copying several pages of notes, Yuri couldn’t stop smiling. He saw Jiang Chen to the door joyously and watched him disappear at the end of the horizon. Even Natasha looked at Jiang Chen a few more times. She couldn’t associate the word “scientist” with this man. However, he was able to make technical director Yuri take notes, which made her uncertain.

“You…what you said was true?”

“I was bullsh*tting. I had nothing to do say.” Jiang Chen smiled. “But while my understanding of basic theory is limited, there aren’t many people in the world who know the general direction better than me.”

As for why, there was no need to say.

Natasha nodded.

After a long silence, she suddenly said, “Can I discuss something with you?”

“What’s the matter? Let’s talk.” Jiang Chen looked at Natasha with some surprise. He thought she wouldn’t talk with him today. He didn’t expect her to not be angry so quickly and even adopt a negotiating tone which was so unlike her personality.

After hesitating for a moment, Natasha said, “Can you go by yourself… to the cocktail party tonight?”

(1) EmDrive is purported to generate thrust by reflecting microwaves internally in the device, in violation of the law of conservation of momentum and other laws of physics. (Source: Wikipedia)

Chapter 1004: Natasha’s Unusual Behavior

“Can you go by yourself… to the cocktail party tonight?”

When Jiang Chen heard Natasha’s words, he took a second to process before examining her from head-to-toe.

Natasha was starting to feel uncomfortable as she rebutted, “Why are you looking at me like that? Can you just give me an answer? Hurry.”

As a security consultant for Jiang Chen, she had to follow where he went, including this private reception.

“I used to think about it—the leader of a frontline intelligence team in her twenties, and a woman too.” Jiang Chen touched his chin and looked with intrigue. “Do you think this is normal?”

“You’re sexist,” Natasha protested.

“Well, let’s throw away the gender problem. You just graduated from university a couple of years ago, right? Don’t mind me, I’m just saying. Back home, if an official is in their twenties, there are two situations: either they’re the second generation of a politician
or—”

“Is this related to you?” Natasha said.

Normally, Natasha wouldn’t be so passive, at least not in her language; she might’ve even teased Jiang Chen instead. Now, she was obviously troubled by something on her mind.

“Of course it’s not related to me. If you say you’re already in your forties, I’m sure I will believe it… Wait, let’s keep it civil. No use of force!” Jiang Chen didn’t finish his words yet before a strong gust of wind was directed at him. He quickly put his arms up and grabbed Natasha’s foot in midair.

This chick was indeed fierce. Although they were in a limousine, it wasn’t spacious at all, and she could still kick her leg. However, while fierce, Jiang Chen could handle a few moves from Batman with his strength and reflex, let alone Natasha.

The movements in the limousine disturbed the bodyguard sitting in front. The bald man turned his head sideways slightly. Jiang Chen only saw his narrowed triangular eye and the hand reaching into his pocket. His murderous vibe was like a monster; he had only seen this in Carmen’s bodyguard before. Of course, it wasn’t directed at Jiang Chen but Natasha who sat across for him…

“Worry about your own business. Turn around; we’re just having fun,” Jiang Chen pushed away Natasha’s foot and waved at the bald guy.

This murderousness made Natasha turn pale, but it was useless to him. He fought the Mother of Death Claws head-on before. Not to brag, but a creature on this Earth without radiation exposure that could scare him hadn’t been born yet.

The bald-headed guy didn’t speak. After hearing Jiang Chen’s words, he nodded and took his hand out of his pocket then continued to look straight ahead. The driver sitting next to him was even more spectacular. Like a robot, the speed of the car didn’t change at all during the entire incident as if nothing happened.

“What’s with you today?” Looking at the pale Natasha, Jiang Chen was worried.

She didn’t use force. Although it seemed fierce, she reduced her strength in the end.

The pressure from behind slowly disappeared and Natasha breathed a sigh of relief. She sank into her seat, buried her face between her hands, and took a deep breath.

“Sorry… I am a little emotional today.”

“Apologizing isn’t necessary; I was trying to irritate you and I apologize too. If you aren’t feeling well, you can go back and wait for me.” Jiang Chen sighed and wasn’t in the mood to guess her issues so he comforted her.

Jiang Chen certainly wouldn’t have so much patience if it was someone else, but they had known each other for so long now.

On the way, neither of them said anything.

When Jiang Chen was bored, he focused on the person driving the car and the back of the bald guy sitting in the front. He felt that the two were indeed powerful and he wondered which system they belonged to.

Intelligence Agency? Alpha Special Forces?

While his mind was running wild, the limousine had already returned to the hotel. Natasha requested an absence. She didn’t even return to the hotel and disappeared right after getting out of the car. Jiang Chen wasn’t too bothered; everyone had their own private affairs. If she needed his help, would certainly not be polite with him.

If she didn’t say anything, it only meant one thing.

This wasn’t something he could help with.

In the afternoon, there was an investor meeting. It was jointly organized by the Russian Space Agency and two national space giants to attract investments. One way to describe this was “making money together,” while the other, uglier way to describe this was “lowering the risk.” After all, the Russian economy was now in a slump, and even the banks tightened their belts. Even these giants had to be treated with caution.

Like what happened in the morning, Jiang Chen showed his face on the stage, gave a speech in front of a group of Russians interested in investing in outer space, discussed the broad prospects of outer space then handed the rest to the organizer…

If nothing else, the script should be like this.

However, Jiang Chen apparently underestimated the enthusiasm of these investors and journalists. If it wasn’t for the giant bodyguards helping him clear the way, he would’ve almost been drowned by the crowd.

“I’m just making a suggestion. You should decrease your attendance to events with a high amount of people. This puts a lot of pressure on our security work and it’s also a risk to your safety.” After leaving the venue, the silent bald guy who had been silent this entire trip finally spoke, and his Russian English sounded a bit low and hoarse. Jiang Chen finally understood why he rarely spoke. With this voice, no matter how politely worded, the tone would sound bloody.

“I will be careful in the future.” Jiang Chen nodded then curiously added, “Just wondering; which system are you in? I don’t know if this problem is presumptuous. I’m very curious—are you from the fabled Alpha?”

At that moment, Jiang Chen finally saw a hint of a smile, but it wasn’t better than not smiling.

“We aren’t the little guys from the National Security Agency. We are Gruu…” the driver sitting in the driver’s seat said.

Jiang Chen finally made sense of the relationship.

The Alpha Special Force was affiliated with the National Security Agency and was mainly responsible for counter-terrorism missions. The scope of activities was also mainly within the country. The two men sitting in front of Jiang Chen were tasked around Syria and Kane year-round, usually performing military missions in the truer sense. If they died, the country would deny their existence unless it was hard facts.

It was hard to say which force was stronger, but from the expression of the bald-headed guy, he seemed quite disdainful of the name Alpha.

After returning to the hotel, Jiang Chen went straight back to his room. After eight o’clock in the evening, he still needed to attend a private cocktail party. Before that, he must prepare himself. Even if it was a suit, it was divided into business and casual.

He opened the tap and went into the room. Just as he was about to take off his clothes, a softness hugged him from behind.

Jiang Chen froze for a second before he realized and picked up Ayesha, who was wearing a carbon nano battle suit. He brought her into the bathroom. In her shock, Jiang Chen threw her into the bathtub that was as wide as a small pool with a smirk.

With a “splash”, Jiang Chen easily held Ayesha’s hands. He rubbed his nose against hers with a smirk. “I just caught a little spy. How should I punish her?”

Her sapphire eyes were burning with thoughts. Ayesha didn’t speak. She lifted her chin emotionally and offered her sweet lips.

The burning fire he hadn’t vented was rekindled by a gentle touch.

At that moment, Jiang Chen didn’t care about being late. Since there were still a few hours, he could eat at the cocktail party if need be.

He slapped her perky butt then turned Ayesha around while still holding her hands. He watched her “trying” to struggle and whispered in her ear, “You dare to seduce the popo during interrogation? Looks like you need to be punished. Don’t move. Let me see if you’re hiding a weapon here…”

Chapter 1005: Heartwarming Reunion

A high-pitched voice intermingled with a low-pitched concerto, and the dimly-lit bedroom returned to a state of calm.

Ayesha curled up in front of Jiang Chen’s chest. Her white and delicate skin was filled with a seductive blush, just like a ripe shrimp. Jiang Chen combed her bangs then caressed her messy hair.

Still immersed in a fascinating pleasure, Ayesha wiggled her petite nose and moved closer to Jiang Chen so she could enjoy the aftermath of climaxing.

No matter how many times he tasted her, Ayesha always intoxicated him. It wasn’t because of her petite and fit body nor her stunning beauty but it was because of her gentleness, as if she never knew what rejection meant. Regardless of how embarrassing the proposal might be, she never resisted and instead, she prepared herself for the ultimate pleasure…

As for why the battlefield changed from the bathroom to the bedroom or why they were sweating at the moment, this would forever remain a mystery only to be imagined.

“I have to attend a private reception hosted by General Nikolaev in the evening-do you want to accompany me? Oh right, are you hungry? If you’re hungry, I’ll get something to eat.”

“But… I didn’t prepare the right clothes.”

Looking at her carbon nano battle suit tossed onto the bedside table, Ayesha looked somewhat regretful, but Jiang Chen caressed her hair and smiled.

“It’s okay, just wear an evening gown. This is a five-star hotel. If they can’t resolve this little issue, they should close down.”

Jiang Chen sat up and called the front desk.

It was already past six and it was definitely too late to order a dress, but since the hotel was on the busiest street in Moscow and it was also a foreigner hotel, it should be able to easily resolve small problems like this. Especially for a guest living in the Presidential Suite who was taken care of by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Security Bureau.

On the phone, Jiang Chen asked his question and the waiter immediately brought a measuring tape and knocked on the door.

When the waiter was measuring Ayesha’s size, Jiang Chen also called for dinner.

There would definitely be food at the cocktail party, but he probably wouldn’t get a chance to eat. It wasn’t the first time he participated in this type of private reception. It was best to eat before going or else it might be awkward to have his stomach growling.

After measuring Ayesha’s size, the dining cart also arrived.

The waiter told Jiang Chen that she would bring the dress within an hour then left.

Dinner was still Russian-style, vanilla-flavored low-calorie liqueur, creamy bread stuffed with meat, caviar with a value comparable to gold, and unique borscht.

Ayesha, wrapped in a bathrobe, sat next to Jiang Chen. She held a silver fork and fed him spoonful by spoonful. In the end, she barely ate anything, but Jiang Chen was stuffed full.

While eating, the driver called Jiang Chen and reminded him of the time. This made Jiang Chen slightly surprised. He remembered that he didn’t tell the Russian official his schedule for the evening. He thought about telling the driver later, but this phone call already served as a reminder.

But he just thought about it before tossing it to the back of his mind.

After all, a Russian general was hosting the party. Although it was a private reception, it was impossible to hide it from the Russian official.

It was also due to safety considerations that he should reduce his travel outside his schedule. While only a few bodyguards followed him on his visit to the Russian Aerospace Group, it would be no exaggeration to say that within a ten miles radius, everything was under the control of Russian intelligence. Half the Security Bureau would have to go rogue before anything happened to him.

Regardless of the purpose, Russia was much more careful about Jiang Chen’s safety compared to the UA.

They finished dinner in half an hour. Jiang Chen then hugged Ayesha and rested for a while before the dress arrived.

According to the waiter, the dress was bought at a nearby boutique store. Two million rubles, the dress, and the bill were sent to Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen tossed in a tip of 100 Xin New dollars to the waiter. Then the lady smiled and blew him a kiss before leaving.

“I’ll go change now.”

“No need to hurry,” Jiang Chen said with a smirk. He didn’t hand the dress to Ayesha. Instead, he approached her like the Big Bad Wolf approaching Red Riding Hood and slowly unfolded the white evening gown. “It’s hard to put on this dress; should I help you?”

Ayesha turned red and whispered, “How about… We go to the bedroom?”.

“What are you going to do in the bedroom? We’re fine where we are.” Jiang Chen sat down on the sofa and patted his thigh. He generously offered, “Come on, sit on my lap.”

Ayesha’s cheeks were almost bleeding. Knowing that resistance would be futile, she simply closed her eyes and let go of her towel.

A cool breeze blew, and the white bath towel slipped down. Two smooth legs stepped out of the towel and sat on Jiang Chen’s lap.

After messing around for a while, her body was finally wearing the dress.

She ran to the mirror and turned around a few times. Looking at herself in the mirror, her face was glowing.

Jiang Chen also nodded with satisfaction. It was just a change of clothes, but her vibe completely changed. The black cotton evening gown, although conservatively covering most of her skin, still perfectly outlined the curves of her figure.

It outlined everything that should be outlined. It was petite, not exaggerated, low-key and elegant.

Judging from her smile, she was quite satisfied with this dress.

Just from the waiter’s choice, Jiang Chen felt that the tip he left seemed to be too low. Maybe he should make it up to her next time.

Ayesha didn’t leave Jiang Chen cold. After examining herself in front of the mirror, she turned and dove into Jiang Chen’s arms. Her beautiful eyes blinked at him full of affection as she said with excitement, “Do I look good?”

Feeling the warmth in his arms, Jiang Chen felt his little brother raising his head again. Feeling the hardness against her lower abdomen, Ayesha, who finally calmed down, blushed again.

Of course, there was still a reception, and even if Jiang Chen wanted to do something, there was no time.

Jiang Chen kissed her on her lips and slapped her perky butt.

“You look great! You dared to seduce me? I’ll teach you a lesson tonight.”

Without any fear, her sapphire-like eyes blinked as if they were saying: “I’m waiting for you to come back and teach me a lesson.”

At that moment, the phone rang in an untimely manner. Jiang Chen let go of Ayesha and opened the holographic screen. There was a bald head in front.

Since Jiang Chen already knew what he was going to say, Jiang Chen was too lazy to answer the phone. After hanging up the phone, he patted Ayesha’s back.

“Let’s go-my two bodyguards are already rushing me. This is too amusing; they’re even more anxious than me. This is what I call dedication.”

Swiping the holographic screen to the side, Jiang Chen put on his shoes while muttering as he left through the door.

Chapter 1006: The Bearded General’s Cocktail Party

Since the economic crisis triggered by the spike in oil prices and the pressure on the dollar at the beginning of the year, Moscow had since been in a state of depression. Although the rise in oil prices spurred income from Russian oil exports, most of the money went into the pockets of the oligarchies. Even Putin, who dared to go against the capitalist countries, couldn’t change the oligarchies’ monopoly on Russia’s economy. They were the bloodsuckers on top of the polar bear, but without them, the polar bear would be worse off.

Driving out from the busiest city center, the air on the street seemed to cool down. Judging by the hurried pedestrians on the street and the night that seemed to be missing an element, Jiang Chen felt the city had just experienced a chilly winter.

Of course, all this had nothing to do with Jiang Chen. What’s more, in fact, he was also an oligarch of Xin, and what he was doing was even more unacceptable. The only difference was that he earned “tuition” from foreigners, not the hard-earned money of ordinary people.

Natasha didn’t show up, and Ayesha sat across from Jiang Chen. Regarding the woman who suddenly appeared next to Jiang Chen, the bald head only glanced at her before focusing on the front.

His instincts told him that the woman just 160 centimeters tall was much stronger compared to the KGB girl in the morning.

In stark contrast to the depression in the Russian city, the villa in the suburbs was filled with luxury cars. Ladies took the arms of their male partners and showed their invitations to enter the main entrance of the villa.

The driver parked the car. This seat was reserved for him. The waiter at the exit of the parking lot came up, and after taking the invitation from Jiang Chen, he ran back. After a short while, an old man with a long beard crossed the courtyard door of the villa and greeted Jiang Chen.

Almost without asking, just by looking at the huge beard, Jiang Chen guessed his identity.

Commander of the 58th Army Group of Russia, General Nikolaev!

Melodious and magnificent symphonies played on the lawn, serving as the backdrop for those who were dancing with the music. Bars were located in every corner of the lawn to provide a resting place for the people tired from dancing. In this country, only alcohol didn’t have class; even a general with a star on his shoulder was also a loyal fan of vodka.

While Nikolaev was an alcoholic, his ability to command was certainly among the top. Among the 22 existing army groups, the 58th Army Group was the largest and most powerful army group. The Second Chechen War might have nothing to do with him, but in the Georgian War, referred to as the “Five-Day War” in 2008, he was the trump card that served as the main force.

“Welcome, friends from afar.” The bearded old man laughed loudly, patted Jiang Chen’s back, and invited him through the door. He then took two bottles of alcohol from the waiter. “In this prairie, this is my kingdom. There’s a rule in my kingdom-anyone who comes as a guest must drink a shot. Vodka or mineral water, which one do you choose?”

Seeing the Asian who was invited by Nikolaev personally, the young people next to them also turned rowdy. The lights were very dark and it was difficult to distinguish their faces, but it didn’t matter—no identities mattered here. Even if the president chose a bottle of mineral water, they would still be booed to the point of shame.

Looking at Nikolaev’s harm-free but challenging eyes, Jiang Chen smiled and took the bottle of vodka. He pushed away the cup that the waiter handed to him and began to chug directly from the bottle.

Nikolaev’s eyes almost popped out as he didn’t expect Jiang Chen to do that. The young people who were acting rowdy also became silent as they didn’t expect this Asian to be able to drink like this.

It wasn’t beer but 70% vodka. Pure enough to be used as medical alcohol!

After the first swig, Jiang Chen was also sensing the heat of the alcohol, but since he already decided to show off, he couldn’t back down. Except for the first and last swig in which he actually drank it, the rest of alcohol was all wasted and entered the storage dimension.

He tossed the empty bottle to Nikolaev, burped, and wiggled his eyebrows at Nikolaev.

Nikolaev’s beard was shaking before he shook his head and finally spoke.

“You can drink more than I can. I admit defeat.”

Nikolaev was quite straightforward. He picked up the mineral water and chug it down. After finishing the bottle, he tossed the bottle out. Then he patted Jiang Chen’s back while laughing, not caring that he just lost face.

The silent young people finally reacted and instantly erupted into cheers and whistles.

Not many people could outdrink Nikolaev, the old alcoholic. For the young people who loved action, just watching this scene made this cocktail party worthwhile.

There were also several Russian girls attracted by the noise. After learning about Jiang Chen’s fascinating alcohol-drinking abilities, they looked at him differently.

Everyone wanted her man to be a hero. In the eyes of these girls who loved to party, the man who could make Nikolaev drink mineral water was worthy of the name “hero.” While Jiang Chen had a female companion, the enthusiastic and outgoing Russian girls didn’t seem to be bothered.

When Jiang Chen followed Nikolaev to receive warm greetings from the crowd, Ayesha, who was behind him, also caught the attention of many people. For those young people accustomed to big chests, this exotic face and petite body was particularly attractive.

Sitting next to the bar, a person with a hooked nose was biting his glass. He didn’t even drink a few gulps before his eyes became intoxicated. The slightly more mature man next to him wasn’t drunk as he punched his friend on the shoulder and laughed.

“I advise you not to think about it. Take a look at the man beside her.”

“Who? The president of a country or the prime minister of a country? Even God cannot obstruct sincere love. Fyodor, I think I’m in love. If I don’t try, I think I will go crazy.” The young Russian took a sip of whiskey.

“Get out. How many times have I heard the same sentence?” Fyodor laughed and cursed. “Don’t blame me for not warning you. Women from the Middle East aren’t normal. Maybe they look romantic in your opinion. In her eyes, it’s despicable and an insult to her. And rumors say that she’s the chief instructor of the Ghost Agents. Have you heard of the Ghost Agents? They’re like ghosts. You’re just a captain; even you added one more bar here—”

“Fu*k Grass, don’t say it. I’ll pass.” Hearing the name of the Ghost Agents, the officer shrank and looked around. He met the mocking gaze of his comrade and cursed, “Fu*k. If I see your smug smile again, I will put your head into the keg.”

Just after the two officers were bickering with each other, Jiang Chen followed General Nikolaev and walked toward the villa. Inside the villa was a seating area, mainly for those tired from dancing to relax and drink. At the same time, for those young men and women who developed close relationships, the adjacent hall also provided rooms for the “exchange of feelings.”

It was rare to see people entering the seating area right after the start of the party, but no one was concerned about the unusual behavior of the Lord and his guest.

For them, the carnival tonight had just begun.

Chapter 1007: A Surprising Meeting

Accompanied by the lights in the city center, the suburbs of Moscow had already fallen asleep. The night had already cast its shadow on the country road, and only sporadic street lights decorated the lonely night sky. A Renault SUV passed by, raising dust that had been settled for a long time.

A birch tree gently swayed and the leaves rustled. The branches bloomed with the buds belonging to April. Among the flowers that symbolized life, there was a cross of an Orthodox church, and below the cross was an inconspicuous tombstone.

The Preobrazhensky Cemetery. This path has a poetic name – “Heroes Trail”.

A bunch of white lilies was placed in front of the tombstone. An index finger gently touched the engraving on the tombstone and removed the dust that hid the hero’s name. A line of words described her life on the tombstone. However, unlike most heroes buried there, there was no record of merits on the tombstone.

Whenever this happened, there were generally only two possibilities. The merits she obtained weren’t glorious, or her merits were difficult to record, or both…

Marina Ivanovna Nikolaev

Moscow in April was still cold. Especially at night.

In front of the tombstone, she looked at the words she had read countless times. Natasha took a deep breath and buried her face in her hands. The white mist that floated between her fingers quickly spread into the cold night and gradually blurred her vision.

“Mom, how are you?”

“Your daughter has been very good. I… I came to see you again.”

“It’s been eleven years since that day. I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you and your daughter has finally embarked on this path.”

Her face was buried in her sleeves, and Natasha wiped her eyes and the mist that was in the way. However, a rare softness appeared on her stubborn face.

“But… it’s okay.”

Looking up at the starry sky, she opened her stiff mouth and forced on a smile.

“When this is over, I’ll retire.”

“Although I don’t know what the outcome will be… sure enough, I still want to try and pursue my own happiness.”

Once again, she took a deep breath with her nose and quietly sensed the chill that filled her nostrils. Natasha felt that her mood was slightly calmer. She then reached out and picked up a handful of dust and carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief.

Putting the handkerchief into her purse, Natasha stood up and gave the tombstone a deep bow.

Just as she was about to leave, at that moment, she suddenly noticed that there was a white rose lying not far from the tombstone.

The pure white petals were stained with dirt like they had been blown by the wind…

Walking side by side in the corridor of the villa, just as Jiang Chen was wondering why General Nikolaev brought him there, the bearded general spoke.

“Natasha didn’t come with you?”

Hearing the familiar name, Jiang Chen looked at him, confused.

“You know Natasha?”

After Nikolaev heard Jiang Chen’s question, he laughed as if he just heard a funny joke.

“You’ve known her for so long. You don’t even know her last name?”

Jiang Chen thought for a second and his expression suddenly changed.

A possibility that he never guessed suddenly emerged in his mind. But even if the answer was already obvious, he still couldn’t imagine that the Russian who looked like a relative of the polar bear was actually Natasha’s…

“Let me introduce myself again-my name is Vladimir Nikolaev. Natasha Vladimir Nikolaev is my daughter.”

Jiang Chen was silent for a long time and it took a long time for a sentence to come out.

“I’ve always suspected that Natasha’s background wasn’t simple. I just didn’t expect her to have an army group commander behind her. Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t mean anything by it; it’s just… Very surprising.”

This explained why Natasha could arbitrarily hop from the intelligence department to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Although the relationship between the father and the daughter wasn’t very harmonious, she was still the daughter of General Nikolaev. It was difficult to say that her father didn’t secretly take care of her.

Nikolaev laughed happily, but a hint of desolateness mixed into his laughter which finally turned into a sigh.

“It’s useless to say that… It seems she still doesn’t want to see me.”

“So, you invited me to come here just to see your daughter through me?” Jiang Chen showed a helpless expression. “Unfortunately, when I told her that the party was held by General Nikolaev, she asked for sick leave.”

“No, seeing my daughter is just the wish of an old father.” Nikolaev shook his head and spoke with a grin. “But standing here is General Nikolaev, commander of 58th Army Group. Do you understand what I mean?”

Jiang Chen smiled courteously and didn’t answer. He didn’t like to gossip, nor was he interested in other’s people’s private matters, and he wasn’t interested in being involved in the conflicts between father and daughter.

Nikolaev clearly understood the status of the young man in his daughter’s heart. The previous words were deliberately directed at Jiang Chen with the hope that he would do something. However, Jiang Chen didn’t respond to his expectations, which disappointed him a little.

However, these disappointments lasted only for a short moment. Today, this party wasn’t for his daughter.

After a pause, Nikolaev hid his laughter and said seriously, “Let’s get down to business. I hope you will accompany me to meet someone before attending the party.”

“Why don’t we do it after the party? It’s not good for the host to disappear for so long,” Jiang Chen said.

“Compared to the future of Russia, the party is secondary.”

Stopped in front of a wooden burgundy door, Nikolaev raised his hand and knocked on the wooden door three times.

The door opened, and a Russian man wearing sunglasses opened the door. After he confirmed the identity of the visitor, he stepped to the side. General Nikolaev stepped forward and gestured at him to come in.

“Please.”

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and stepped into the room. The moment he entered the door, he looked up and saw the man sitting on the sofa, and his face was unexpectedly surprised. The man smiled and took the lead.

“Welcome to Moscow, friend from afar.”

The man lifted the goblet in the distance and expressed his welcome.

Although it was the first time meeting him, Jiang Chen was no stranger to this face.

The Russian President, Putin.

Chapter 1008: Rubles and A Military Base

When Jiang Chen went in, he noticed that at least ten pairs of eyes were focused on him. But he didn’t care and continued as if nothing had happened.

“Surprised?” Putin raised an eyebrow and gestured at him to sit with his empty hand.

“Indeed.” Jiang Chen shrugged and sat down across from him. Jiang Chen nodded to a waiter who handed some champagne to him then he looked at the leader of the fighters’ nation. “I heard the Minister of Foreign Affairs say that you were in the Crimean Peninsula inspecting the frontlines and wouldn’t return to Moscow for three days.”

Both of them spoke good English and didn’t need to communicate through translation.

Gently toasting with Jiang Chen, Putin drank the champagne in the cup and handed the goblet to the waiter.

“If you want to fool your enemies, you must first fool yourself.”

“Do you still need to be careful in Moscow?” Jiang Chen returned the goblet to the waiter as he joked.

“There’s no harm being careful. Russia’s territory is vast; it’s difficult to guarantee that no one will slip in.” Putin’s fingers crossed on his knees, his body leaned forward slightly, and his blue pupils looked straight at Jiang Chen. “So, time is tight. To not miss the party, let’s get straight to the topic.”

Putin eyed Nikolaev, who was standing behind Jiang Chen.

General Nikolaev immediately saluted, took a map from a bodyguard, and lay the map on the coffee table.

It was a topographic map covering the cities of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk, with contour lines depicting basins and mountains. In the middle of the two cities, there were also villages and towns. Three jagged black lines were drawn in the middle of the map. Three or four arrows pierced the hinterland of the Republic of Donetsk from the northwest like a sharp knife and divided the armed forces of Donetsk and Lugansk.

The map looked familiar to Jiang Chen. It wasn’t just European countries that were concerned about the civil war in Kane. However, the information disclosed on this map was slightly different from what Jiang Chen learned. Although he heard that the civilian armed forces were on the losing side in the end, he didn’t expect them to be in such terrible shape. The armed forces that had already been pushed to the Dnieper River were now forced back to their starting point.

Nikolaev’s next few words confirmed Jiang Chen’s speculations.

“Since last month, an illegal private armed force has entered Kane from Poland, and the situation has changed sharply. They claimed to be mercenaries and were employed by the President of Kane. The sources of funding were quite complex, including the National Foundation for Democracy which had a total of more than 20 North Americans, Europeans, and human rights institutions. Our intelligence personnel tried to investigate their behind-the-scenes shareholders, and eventually, all the clues point to an organization.”

“The Freemasonry?” Jiang Chen asked.

“You guessed it.” Nikolaev paused. “These aren’t regular mercenaries. They’re composed of retired veterans of NATO member states and refugees. They were trained in Finland. Their equipment isn’t limited to automatic weapons but also armored vehicles, tanks, and even helicopters…”

“Tanks? Helicopters? What’s the difference between this and an army?” Jiang Chen was stunned.

“This is an army, and the size is comparable to the 58th Army Group,” Nikolaev added.

The silence lasted for a long time.

Putin, who was silent, spoke up.

“So? Are you confident?”

“Confident?” Jiang Chen looked at him, and his expression was a bit strange.

Staring at Jiang Chen’s eyes, Putin continued: “This is about our cooperation, and we hope you will be their opponent.”

The room once again fell into silence.

But Jiang Chen broke the silence this time.

“We’re their opponents? We’re an enterprise; we can’t do anything that has no benefits.” Jiang Chen leaned on the sofa and smiled.

After hearing Jiang Chen’s words, Putin also smiled.

Although there was no immediate answer, since he didn’t directly reject it, it showed there was still room for discussion.

“Please rest assured. You’re an enterprise, and we don’t expect you will provide assistance free of charge. All the mercenary supplies will be converted into rubles and we will bear the burden. In addition, we will pay 100 billion rubles in fees in two settings.”

100 billion rubles, equivalent to 1.7 billion Nw Xin dollars. For Russia, which had a tight budget, it wasn’t a small number. However, 1.7 billion New Xin dollars didn’t meet Jiang Chen’s appetite. He was more interested in something.

“One hundred billion rubles, a military base.”

Putin and Nikolaev frowned at the same time upon hearing the demand. Although they eagerly hoped Celestial Trade could intervene in the Kane crisis and reverse the decline of pro-Russian civilian armed forces, this didn’t mean they were willing to sacrifice their interests for Donetsk.

Putin eyed Nikolaev, and his fingers tapped the arm of the sofa before he spoke one word at a time.

“Russia will not open military bases to any country or private institution. We can raise the fee as needed, but this condition is unacceptable.”

“You misunderstand.” Jiang Chen waved his hand and explained, “Our military base will certainly not be built in Russia. Since we’re fighting the Kane government, it will naturally be built there.”

Nikolaev breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Putin. That was certainly acceptable to them.

“If it’s Donetsk, there’s no problem. We will help you negotiate with them.” Putin nodded. “What else?”

“Nothing. Best of luck to both of us.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Without a legal document to sign, this contract naturally couldn’t appear on paper. The actual employer of Celestial Trade would be a local chocolate company in Donetsk. As for the source of funds, it would be from shell company registered in Russia or overseas.

A map of the world was spread out on the table. The bearded general pointed his finger along the map and pointed to the position of Vladivostok, a far east Russian city.

“You can land in Vladivostok. We will provide a railway route from Vladivostok through the Siberian region to the Russian-Ukrainian border. This line will serve as your supply line, and all costs will be borne by us. If the situation is positive, by mid-May, you should be able to deploy two brigades at the border…”

“No need.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “It’s too slow.”

“No need?” Nikolaev repeated.

Putin’s eyebrows rose slightly and displayed a look of intrigue.

“We go directly from here.” Jiang Chen’s finger tapped on the corner of the western Pacific Ocean, where the equator line crossed.

Following Jiang Chen’s finger, Nikolaev’s pupils suddenly shrank.

There were no markers there, but he was no stranger to the latitude and longitude of the position.

That was a space elevator, the man-made miracle of Celestial Trade.

Chapter 1009: Orbital Airborne Soldiers

In mid-April, the Kane Civil War was in its peak, and mercenaries continued to cross the Polish border and entered the Kane region to support the pro-Western Poroshenko government. In this war, Arrow Company entered the international community for the first time. Its combat power was comparable to that of regular army, and it was a mercenary organization that owned tanks, artillery, and helicopter gunships. On the battlefield, they ignored any international law and killed their enemies with the cruelest means.

However, in this regard, the UA, Europe, and other countries were only symbolically condemned, and no one would use international law to prosecute private companies that had an unknown registration location. This double standard worked perfectly, just like what happened in Iraq, with the private military company taking most of the blame.

There was a rumor that Celestial Ring trade would be involved in this war. However, except for a train full of supplies being pulled to the Russian-Kane border, there was no news about Celestial Trade. At first, the Kane government also strongly condemned the action, but intelligence soon revealed that Celestial Trade did not make any other moves in the region was and the tension was slightly diffused.

As a pawn of the Freemasonry, Willey Society was exhausting all its resources to collect intelligence in Russia and keep tracking of Celestial Trade. They were not so naive to think that Jiang Chen was just joking with them. Their master, Carmen, knew better than anyone else what Jiang Chen was capable of.

In late April, after the official signing of the contract with the Donetsk Chocolate Field, Celestial Trade completed war planning and all forces were deployed within three days.

In a ring-shaped city 36,000 kilometers away, a black transport ship left the port.

At first glance, this spaceship resembled the Russian-designed SS OleG. It was the same rectangular structure with defined corners as well as four engines. However, a closer examination revleaed that Celestial Trade’s ship was much larger, and the four engines at the tail used principle of electric propulsion rather than chemical power.

After the transport ship left the port, it changed directions, reduced its speed, and follow the synchronous orbit. After the ship entered 30-degree east longitude, it would then accelerate and return to the synchronous orbit.

In this 30-degree east longitude airspace, there was a total of ten transport ships hovering. These transport ships were pulled by mechanical arms and arranged side by side, just like a bamboo pole spread out on the orbit.

Leaning against the window of the transport ship, Zhang Feng, in a kinetic skeleton, squinted at the view from the window.

Looking down, Europe was brightly lit, but their destination had nothing to do with the center of the bustling world. They were aiming for the darkest corner of the continent, Kane, only decorated by the spare artillery explosions.

“It’s exciting to jump from a height of more than 30,000 kilometers, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not afraid. I’m just going back to my hometown.” One of the Slavic soldiers joked.

Zhang Feng looked at him but didn’t say anything. They were from all over the world, and the only thing they had in common was their veteran experience as soldiers.

At this time, a black shadow near the window slowly approached.

Zhang Feng glanced down and happened to see the red signal light on the watch embedded in the kinetich skeleton’s arm.

Time was up.

“The last bus is coming. I wish you good luck.” Zhang Feng patted the arm of the Slavic soldier, lifted the rifle on the side, buckled the helmet, moved his stiff neck, then moved to the cargo.

Counting the ship that was approaching, these eleven transport ships were the entire fleet of Celestial Trade. In order to carry out this large-scale airborne mission, Ivan even borrowed the space shuttle that sailed between Celestial City and the Moon.

When the last transport ship entered the queue, the entire fleet of transport ships moved together, like a chemical reaction taking place.

The bottom door slowly opened and the cargo compartment tilted downward slightly. The iron boxes dropped down like from the hatch like dumplings being dumped into the boiling pot. There was a short burst of flame coming from the top of the iron boxes, and they fell down to the Earth one after another.

30,000 kilometers below, in the northern suburbs of Donetsk, the night had opened the curtain for the battlefield. The trenches had divided the streets around the city. From time to time, green tracer bullets were sprayed out from the bunkers, flying in the empty night. Sporadic sniper rifles were like demons, taking away the fresh lives.

The sound of gunfire in the distance sounded from time to time, and the soldiers in the trenches had become accustomed to it. The shells plowed through every inch of the land. The black burn marks were like scars, printed in every corner of the city.

This line of defense was the last lifeline of the armed forces. It directly determined whether the democratically elected government of Donetsk would remain in place or become a government in exile.

About fifteen kilometers north was the artillery position of the Kane government army, where the 11th Artillery Brigade of the 5th Infantry Division was deployed. An hour ago, they received an order to fire at the northern suburbs of Donetsk, providing fire support for Arrow mercenaries who were attacking civilian armed positions.

“Look! What is that!?” A Kane soldier pointed to the sky and shouted.

Shining highlights descended from the sky, and they looked like lamps in the distance, but these “lights” were too high and too dazzling

“Sh*t! Are they rockets from Russians?! No… not quite like… damn, what are those things?!” Another Kane soldier nervously shouted.

The bright spots didn’t give them too much time to prepare. Along with the roar in their ears, the burning iron boxes broke through the sound barrier, tearing apart the curtain of the night, and directly landing on the artillery position of the Kane government.

Self-propelled artillery was directly hit by the airdrop cabin and turned into scrap metal, with the giant turret directly flattened. High-pressure steam rushed out of from the airdrop cabin, and the door slammed down. Four soldiers in kinetic skeletons stepped out from four different directions and rushed to the nearest cover.

The airdrop cabins fell one after another, and the Kane government force were divided. The hologram helmet marked the identity of the friendly force, the night vision made the dark battlefield clear as day light. Among the chaos, there were only explosions that covered the screaming and mourning.

The gunfire from the north came to an abrupt end, and the civilian armed forces once again regained the lost grounds. After some casualties, Arrow mercenaries were forced to retreat.

At the same time, there was an angry roar from the command room dozens of kilometers away.

With his eyes completed red, the officer was screaming into the face of the soldier that delivered the news while holding onto his collar.

“The 11th Artillery Brigade is completely wiped? By Russian airborne troops? How can there be airborne troops if there are no planes!”

“No, I-I don’t know.” The muscles of the soldier was tensed up, he was almost to burst into tears.

At that moment, the man who had been standing next to him without speaking suddenly spoke.

“They are not from Russia.”

Letting go of the soldier’s collar, the officer turned and looked at the man, his raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? Not from Russia? Do you want to they are your froce?”

“It’s Celestial Trade,” the man said. “And we may be in trouble.”

Chapter 1010: A Sleepless Night

Looking from a distance, a series of airdrops with flaming tails fell on the plain behind the hills, like the hellfire in a magical movie. The soldiers emerging the steel ruins were like those stepping out of the gate of hell. Like cavalries, they harvested the livings.

The cold wind was blowing, and the wind under the propeller was especially fierce.

Standing at the door of the Mi-8 helicopter, Jiang Chen was holding a military telescope while the heavy wind gust turned his hair into a bird nest. He was overlooking the tragic situation of the 11th Artillery Brigade a few kilometers away.

That night, in the house of General Nikolaev, Jiang Chen reached a secret agreement with Putin on behalf of Celestial Trade. At the cost of 100 billion rubles and a military base that has been in use for 50 years, Celestial Trade became involved in the civil war.

From that day on, he was accompanied by Natasha to the Russian-Uzbek border and lived at the military base on the border. First, he met with the interim government of the Republic of Donetsk, and with his nominal employer, the chocolate tycoon.

He had a relaxing week. Almost everyday, he would take a SVD and hop in a helicopter to hunt in the nearby mountains.

As a security consultant for Jiang Chen, Natasha naturally had to follow him everywhere. Just when she suspected that he was traveling, Jiang Chen suddenly made a rather excessive request.

“I don’t want to go hunting in the mountains this time. I want to go to the border to distract myself.”

Due to such close proximity to the battlefield, Natasha naturally opposed. The operation plan of Celestial Trade was known only to two Russians, and she was obviously one of them. Although her task was to fully cooperate with Jiang Chen, in her opinion, it did not include accompanying him.

However, Jiang Chen was the kind of person who only listened to himself. He had authority granted by the Russian President himself. He did not need Natasha’s consent and directly contacted the military base. The person in charge of the military base received his request and quickly approved it. Then a helicopter and two pilots were seated on the tarmac, accompanied by four Alpha special forces.

In desperation, Natasha had to follow Jiang Chen as he boarded the Mi-8 helicopter.

At the risk of being taken down at the border, the Mi-8 escaped from the radar at the edge of the forest and the mountain, reaching its current position.

Of course, the helicopter could only reach this point. The pilot said that he would not go any further.

This artillery brigade was often equipped with anti-aircraft guns and radar vehicles. Experience has taught him that they were quite close to the radar’s scanning radius. If they advanced further, even a blind man would notice a helicopter at this distance. Jiang Chen could only use his telescope to make up for the remaining distance, and could not see the first battle of Celestial Trade’s orbital airborne troops at close range.

However, the Russian pilot clearly did not expect the 11th Artillery Brigade to fall so quick. The brigade did not even have a chance to lock on the helicopter with its radar.

It only took ten minutes before the entire brigade was wiped by this unexpected attack. The bullets flew in the air, and explosions appeared one after another. The soldiers fired back with their AKs, but they efforts were futile to reverse this battle. One after another, they died under the guns of the orbital airborne soldiers.

The only two armored vehicles were penetrated by RPGs. The trucks carrying the rockets were blown into iron slag by sticky bombs. The ammunition racks piled up on the ground exploded, one after another, with countless blossoming orange-red mushrooms appearing on the vast plain.

The outcome of the 11th Artillery Brigade was evident, and there was nothing more to look at. Jiang Chen hopped into the helicopter again, handed the telescope to Natasha, who was spacing out, and jokingly asked.

“Isn’t that spectacular?”

She caught the telescope thrown by Jiang Chen and woke up from her blanked state. Then she raised the telescope to examine the battlefield in the distance.

She had never seen such a strange war.

The battle there was basically over, with only sporadic resistances.

Before the establishment of the military base, Celestial Trade did not have the conditions to accommodate prisoners, nor did it intend to accept surrenderers. As for the Geneva Conventions, the rules could only restrain a regular army, and there was no point for a group of hired mercenaries.

“Those are…airborne soldiers?”

“Yes.” While answering Natasha’s question in an understatement, Jiang Chen reached out and patted the pilot’s back. “Today’s flight is over, you can return. Go quickly, as the enemy plane will be here soon.”

Even without Jiang Chen’s reminder, the pilot was fully aware.

With what just happened, the entire region was about to erupt. The door was pulled up and the helicopter began to turn around and return.

Natasha lowered the telescope. Her sight finally came back inside the cabin.

“Where did they come from? Crimea military base? Or…”

“No.” Jiang Chen shook his head and raised his eyebrows proudly. Then he raised his hand and pointed. “They belong to the Celestial Trade Air Defense Force, Orbital Airborne Brigade.”

Jiang Chen could not see the expression hidden behind the Alpha Special Forces’ green and black camouflage ink, but it was not difficult to guess the shock in their minds at this moment.

Natasha took a second to process the information before she immediately whispered anxiously. “Stupid! Don’t just say this kind of thing—”

“It doesn’t matter. The whole world will know about it by tomorrow.” Jiang Chen looked at his watch. “In about five hours, we will have a second round of airdrops. As a result, we will have two brigades in this region. Although we lack in numbers compared to Arrow, we will be fine. We never win by numbers anyway.”

In addition, he did not expect to be able to finish the war in such a short period of time.

There was a substantial gap between the government forces here and Country F, which determined that this war was unlikely to replicate the great victory of the City M’s landing war. This gap was not only reflected in weapons and equipment, but in tactical thinking, organization, and politics and many other factors.

On the other hand, the supply line of Celestial Trade would be extended. Although Russians promised to help with transportation, some sensitive weapons would not be handed over to them. They could only transport them by air to the military base on the front line, or directly ship them from outer space to the military base.

If Arrow mercenaries continued to replenish the forces at the front line, this war was bound to become a tug-of-war.

But the only thing that Jiang Chen did not worry about was the ending of the war.

Natasha gasped as she listened to Jiang Chen’s speach, then she repeated his words in with a unbelievable tone.

“Two brigades? That is, you just…”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen smiled. “You are very surprised by the fact that I just dropped an entire brigade.”

“I shouldn’t have been surprised. I should have known that a madman was sitting across from me.” Natasha rolled her eyes.

Jiang Chen grinned.

Recently, he noticed that she was not in the best mood after she dodged the cocktail party that night. The main reason why he dragged her along tonight was to distract her.

In the next hour of flight, the two didn’t say a word. Jiang Chen leaned in his seat and closed his eyes, and Natasha was digesting all the shock she felt that night. Because she was too astonished, she even began to worry about the report she must draft.

The direct airdrop from outer space and the deployment of an entire airborne brigade anywhere in the world within a few hours. If this tactic could become universal, it would undoubtedly revolutionize the pattern of future wars.

Whether voluntarily or not, for all those involved in this whirlpool, tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.

Chapter 1011: Two Powerless MiGs

The battle on the plains had ended. The Orbital Airborne Troops who cleared the battlefield reassembled. Before the enemy Ukrainian armored forces arrived, they disappeared into the northern forest.

As expected, two MiG-29 fighters whizzed through the air.

The First Airborne Brigade of Celestial Trade did not pay any attention. They had already withdrawn to the edge of the forest.

Once they entered the dense forest, no one could stop them.

With such a large-scale airborne attack, the government forces thought that the 58th Army of Russia on the border finally attacked. What they didn’t understand was how the Russians avoided their radar.

It was an entire brigade! Even aliens wouldn’t be able to erase an entire brigade from the radar!

Are all of their radars broken?

Two MiG-29s took off from the airport and rushed to the target airspace in full throttle.

The safety for the missiles was released, and the pilot even prayed by signalling a cross. He was prepared to engage in a dog fight with the Russian Su-35 fighters. However, what puzzled him was that not a single airplane was within the target airspace.

The expected battle did not occur. Looking at the white spots scattered on the thermal image screen, the two pilots couldn’t fathom how the airborne troops appeared.

With the original intention of suiciding with the Russian jets, the two MiG jets were both equipped with air-to-air missiles. In order to improve maneuverability, the 150 pairs of 30X165mm Fuel Air Explosives were removed.

The two MiGs could only watch the airborne brigade that annihilated their entire artillery force escape into the forest.

On the edge of the forest, Zhang Feng who was just looking at the radar gestured to the comrade next to him. The soldier nodded and lowered the air defense missile on his shoulder before putting the weapon on his back.

The task of their team was to secure the exit route, if the two MiGs were to launch an air strike, they would fire missiles in retaliation. However, the two MiGs only hovered in the air for a few laps before they flew away, without any intention to avenge their own people.

Of course, it was the best ending.

Zhang Feng sighed and walked into the forest.

“Sh*t, they just left like that? If I were on that jet, I would have definitely sprayed some bullets before I left.” With a rifle in hand and leaning against the back of the tree, an active Slavic boy raised two thumbs and pressed a few times, as if he was playing an arcade game.

His name was Sergey; a very popular name in Russia. He fought two years for the guerrillas in this region. Later, he somehow snuck into Xin, joined the foreign corp, and obtained legal status.

But he did not expect that he would return here in this fashion.

“You should be taught a lesson. I would do that for the two little birds.” The man next to him grinned and slapped the back of his head.

“Don’t mess with me, I didn’t close the safety, you should worry about your two pickled eggs.” Sergey grimaced and turned around, swaying his muzzle. The guy, scared, jumped to the side.

“If you two are going to make trouble, then just stay here. Others, keep up. It’s time to go.”

With the command of the captain, Sergey and the buffed soldier immediately stopped, and followed Zhang Feng. They began to chase after the brigade.

The raid on the artillery force was just their first mission tonight.

At the gas station ten kilometers away, another killing awaited.

…

Back at the military base, it was already one o’clock in the morning.

Having just watched a “firework show”, Jiang Chen did not feel sleepy at all. He only felt his empty stomach and the desire to eat something. However, at this time, the canteen of the military base was long closed. If he wanted to go out to eat, he would have to drive to a small town 10 kilometers away. So, his only option was to make something himself

He went straight to his apartment, tossed the jacket on the sofa, and then went to the fridge to take out noodles and other ingredients. While hymning, he made himself a bowl of chowder as the snack for the night.

Taking a deep breath of the white steam coming up from the bowl, Jiang Chen threw the spoon aside and nodded in satisfaction.

Just by the smell alone, the noodle shouldn’t taste bad!

Just as he put the noodles on the table, picked up the chopsticks, and was ready to eat, he heard knocking at the door

“Wait, I’m coming…” he shouted and put the chopsticks aside. Then he went to open the door. He saw Natasha, in plaid pajamas, standing at the door. He took a second to process this before he jumped to the side and pulled her into the room.

“Are you not afraid of catching a cold?”

Although more than half of April had gone by, the temperature was still very low, especially at night, even Jiang Chen didn’t dare to sway outside wearing only his pajamas.

As for why Natasha appeared in her pajamas, it was because she lived next door.

“For the Russians, this cold is nothing.”

Natasha’s lips curved up as she walked around Jiang Chen and scanned around.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up when she saw the bowl of noodles on the table, and gulped subconsciously.

Jiang Chen suddenly understood her intentions.

She was here to steal his food

“How did you know I had food here?” With a sigh of defeat, Jiang Chen asked.

“You Asians make a lot of noise when you cook.”

As a former agent. Natasha’s face didn’t turn red when she lied and Jiang Chen almost believed her.

What noise could he make while making noodles? Her nose was too sensitive!

“Am I…”

Jiang Chen only complained in his mind and did not state the truth.

Natasha, who got hungry from the smell of meat, rushed into the kitchen. She took a bowl and helped herself to some noodles before returning to Jiang Chen, giving him a charming smile.

Not being distracted by the smile, Jiang Chen keenly noticed that she was not only holding noodles, but was also holding a bottle of vodka.

While slurping on the noodles, Jiang Chen looked at her alcohol-induced flushed face and said, “This is the first time I have heard noodles go well with vodka.”

“That’s because you don’t understand Russians,” Natasha took out two cups. She first poured a cup for herself, and then filled a cup for Jiang Chen. “I have been waiting for you to come to Moscow. This one is on me. Here, take it.”

“You couldn’t find a better place to treat me to a drink? And I won’t even mention the fact that you are still using my vodka.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and put the glass on the side.

“Can you drink with me?” Natasha whispered.

“Is something wrong?”

“Sort of.” Natasha sighed.

The eyes that looked into the empty space were stained with memories as tears began to fill them.

Chapter 1012: Leave without Saying Goodbye

So big.

No, precisely, extremely big.

It was the only feeling left on Jiang Chen’s fingertips.

A ray of sunshine passed through the window and sprinkled onto Jiang Chen’s eyelashes. The muscles on the corners of his eyes contracted slightly, and the eyelids that were half-closed opened. The sound of snoring stopped abruptly as Jiang Chen struggled to open his sore eyes.

There were a few birds singing outside the window. From the sun that already rose above the treetops, it was probably after ten.

He searched around him, but didn’t manage to find any clothes. The only thing he found was a piece of cloth.

“Black? This is…”

Jiang Chen discerned from his blurred sight that it seemed to be a underwear, the type that had lace…

Out of reflex, he tossed it to the side and instantly woke up.

“What the fu*k, how is this here? It’s Ayesha’s… No, last night…”

Shaking his dazed brain, Jiang Chen sat up from the bed, closed his eyes to meditate while desperately searching through his snippets of memory from last night.

As he searched further, the fragments of his memory gradually gathered like a puzzle and everything gradually became clearer.

“It was Natasha.”

His lips moved slightly as he whispered to himself. He looked around but she was not seen on the bed or on the floor.

Last night, Natasha knocked on his door, went to the kitchen for a bowl of noodles, and then took out a bottle of vodka from the fridge… These trivial things didn’t matter. Jiang Chen remembered having a few drinks with her, listening to her talk about her childhood, and then… and then both of them got drunk and he couldn’t remember who took the initiative but remember that the two finally hugged together and rolled onto the carpet. He seemed to have hurt her.

“Did I just…?” With a bitter smile, he held his head. Although he almost crossed the boundary of friendship countless time, he never thought it would end up this way.

Jiang Chen didn’t feel any awkwardness or regret. He never was the type that felt bad after crossing the boundary. The only regret was the lack of memory from last night, and she disappeared after waking up.

“This is not good, how do I say hi to her when I see her… fu*k.”

When he got out of bed, he almost slipped.

After getting dressed, Jiang Chen went to the bathroom to wash up. Now at half-past ten, there was still a little bit of time before lunch. So, he decided to eat something to fill his stomach. However, when he opened the fridge and his eyes swept across the shelf before suddenly stopping.

One, two, three, four… four?

Jiang Chen rubbed his eyes.

There were no mistakes. It was indeed four bottles.

He clearly remembered that the four bottles of vodka were from the logistics personnel in the base. He asked them to purchase the bottles for him when they went to the nearby town.

This kind of potato-brewed vodka was too spicy for his throat, and Jiang Chen didn’t like the taste of it. The reason why he put a few bottles in the fridge was mainly for Natasha who often came to steal food from him. However, there wasn’t a single bottle of vodka in the fridge, then the vodka from last night…

Finally realizing what happened, Jiang Chen slammed the fridge door and rushed to the entrance.

As expected, Natasha’s shoes were not there. Jiang Chen did not even change before rushing to the corridor and turning to the front of Natasha’s door.

“Natasha,”

He just knocked on the door once, and the door opened by itself.

Jiang Chen stopped and then stepped in.

There were two pairs of shoes missing, and the luggage next to the shoe cabinet was gone.

The curtains in the living room were pulled shut and the light in the room was very dark. Jiang Chen searched in every room, even the washroom, but she was nowhere to be seen. He entered his bedroom again and opened his wardrobe.

There was only one set of pajamas left in the closet. It was the one she wore last night, and the rest of her clothes were disappeared.

Obviously, she already left.

“Did I say too much last night? You didn’t even say goodbye.” Jiang Chen with a bitter smile shook his head and sat on her bed.

All kinds of clues pointed to one thing, that was, Natasha left without saying goodbye, and already planned it last night.

She brought the vodka that contained a “special ingredient”; likely a benign drug that did not trigger his immune mechanism. The reason why she did this was probably to bid farewell to him.

It was also what Jiang Chen was most afraid of.

Where did she have to go that she must say goodbye to him in this fashion? It was not a farewell; the night’s intimacy was to make up for some regret. Therefore, when she was leaving, she had already planned for the worst.

“FU*K!”

Jiang Chen punched the wall and even shook the closet.

As early as in Moscow, he discovered that Natasha might have encountered trouble. He originally thought that it was only a small problem such as a conflict between father and daughter. When she needed help from him, she would naturally ask him for help. But he did not expect that the trouble she encountered was not a small problem, and she was so stubborn that she didn’t even mention and just left.

If she encountered some trouble, if she was willing to say it, he wouldn’t turn a blind eye to her. But she chose the most difficult road of facing it alone. What was this girl’s head made out of?

Now, he didn’t even know where she went.

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Chen pressed his index finger on his temple and tried to recall every detail of last night, trying to uncover the truth hidden behind the thin mask.

Just then, footsteps came from outside the room.

Jiang Chen looked up and saw Ayesha standing at the door, looking at himself with a confused look.

“I didn’t see you in your room and her door was open… What happened?” Seeing Jiang Chen didn’t have the best look on his face, Ayesha rushed to his side and sat down. Holding his hand, she asked with a concerned voice.

Jiang Chen patted her hand gently, telling her not to worry. He then adjusted his expression, and said.

“Ayesha, did you see Natasha when you came?”

Ayesha shook her head and looked around the room. When she saw the open wardrobe, she suddenly understood something. The hand holding Jiang Chen’s hand tightened and her sapphire eyes looked sternly at him, ” When did she leave?”

“Morning… maybe last night.”

“I am going to help you bring her back.”

Ayesha stood up and was ready to leave. However, Jiang Chen did not let go of her hand and pulled her back.

“What are you worried about? You don’t even know where she is, how can you get her back?”

“But…”

“Let the Ghost Agents of Moscow keep an eye out for her. If she is going back to Moscow, then don’t worry about her.”

Among all possibilities, it was the most optimistic possibility. If she did not return to Moscow, she was likely to be on the border.

“I will let them know now.” Ayesha nodded.

“Not so fast. There is something else I need you to do. Find someone for me.”

“Who?”

“Marina. If I remember correctly, she should be Natasha’s mother…”

Chapter 1013: Two Bad News

Marina Ivanovna Nikolaeva. Italian-Russian. The dead wife of General Nikolaev and the mother of Natasha.

On August 8, 2008, the Russian-Georgian war broke out. It was also the same day that Marina, who was engaged in intelligence gathering in Georgia, was found died by the Tbilisi police in the hotel she stayed at. Through the individual items in her suitcase, she was finally confirmed to be a Russian intelligence personnel.

Since the war ended in less than a week, the news was not disclosed. After the signing of the ceasefire agreement, the Georgian government returned the body of Marina to Russia with the remains of other Russian soldiers.

Eventually, Marina was buried with other Russian soldiers killed in Georgia in the Preobrazhensky Cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow. Nikolaev attended her funeral with Natasha, who was only 15 years old at the time. Since then, the relationship between them deteriorated.

The death of Marina was said to be due to a shot in the head, but there was no further evidence that could provide more information.

An entire day passed since Natasha’s departure. When Ayesha reported the information to Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen frowned.

“Hated her father because of her mother’s death? I had always felt that there was something wrong with this explanation.”

“Maybe it’s due to the reason behind the death of Marina, ” Ayesha analyzed.

“You mean…Marina was killed by her husband Nikolaev? One is the commander of the 58th Army, and the other is the agent of the Russian Security Service. The work of the two are not in the same field. Did Nikolaev have a reason to do this?” Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair while rubbing his sore brows and said while easing a headache, “I’m the most curious about what the big bearded general thought when he found out he had a spy as a wife, especially a field agent.”

Ayesha walked behind Jiang Chen and placed her hands on his shoulders to gently massage them for him, trying to ease his fatigue.

“Maybe, it is not his intention to marry Marina.”

Jiang Chen’s eyes lit up, but immediately turned dark and shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. Nikolaev did not remarry. With his position, he shouldn’t have lacked pursuers. Unless he liked men, it makes no sense….”

With so little evidence, he was only sure that Natasha must have been tracking down her mother’s cause of death for several years, and this sudden disappearance was most likely related to it. As for whether Marina’s death was related to his husband Nikolayev, or what role Nikolayev played in her death, that all remained a mystery.

Enjoying the massage of the two small hands on his shoulders, Jiang Chen closed his eyes. His fingers began gently tapping on the arm of the sofa.

“Will the clues be in Georgia?” Ayesha suddenly said. “If we send people to the hotel where the incident happened…”

“It’s useless, it’s been eleven years,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “It’s better to go to the local police station than go to the hotel, but I suspect that all the evidence and Marina’s personal belongings would have been transferred with her body after the signing of the ceasefire agreement. It is better to go to Moscow than to go to Georgia.”

“Then…”

“I know what you want to say, but I forbid you to do this. Our relationship with Russia is now in the honeymoon stage, and any miss step may cause misunderstanding and could be quite unwise.”

Jiang Chen hesitated, but in the end, he didn’t break out the news of Natasha’s disappearance. Disregard if the Russian Security Service would go deep into a foreign country to find a special agent who left her duty without provision, no one would be sure if the Freemasonry planted insiders inside Russia. Breaking out the news would increase her danger at the border.

As for how long he could keep it a secret, he’ll take it one day at a time.

Originally, he planned to return to Xin after the military base was complete. But now, with Natasha’s sudden disappearance, it directly disrupted his plan. Before confirming her safety, he couldn’t just leave.

“How many people do we have in this region? I am referring to the Ghosts Agents.” Jiang Chen suddenly looked at Ayesha and asked.

“Only two people. The intelligence in the Ukraine region is mainly the responsibilities of Gnavier. Now our focus on European intelligence work is concentrated in Western Europe… Do you need me to contact her to send more people?” Ayesha asked.

“No, she needs people on her side.” Jiang Chen stood up from the sofa. “We will transfer people directly from the headquarters.”

“Transfer directly from the headquarters? But is this feasible?” Ayesha wondered.

“Normal entry is definitely too late, but we can go through the orbit.”

The village in the northwest of the city of Donetsk, where in shambles and ruins. There was not a single sign of life. As early as the beginning of the war, the residents here moved to the town in the north to take refuge. The government forces and civilian militants were both stationed here and from the cracked wall, this place endured heavy artillery.

Dressed in a brown windbreaker, Natasha’s long blond hair was tied into a ponytail. Natasha, dressed as an independent journalist, carried a travel bag and walked through the rubbles. She was being cautious of the shadows lurking in the darkness.

She made a few turns in the ruins, and soon arrived at the designated location.

It was still Skanov, the Ukrainian military officer that actually served Moscow.

When he saw Natasha, Skanov grinned and greeted her.

“Where is the stuff?”

As soon as he said this, a package of documents was tossed at him.

After catching the documents that Natasha had thrown, Skanov opened the package and took out the documents from inside. He took a few glances at the text, and he seemed surprised, but very quickly his expression returned to normal.

“Is this the last piece of document?” After Skanov roughly scanned the document, he put the document in front of his chest and looked at Natasha.

“Yes, the organization suggests that you withdraw to the rear. It is better you have a wound or something, better than dying on the battlefield.”

“Even if the organization doesn’t recommend it, I will still do it.” Skanov smiled. “Have you heard about what happened the night before? In five hours, two airborne brigades were deployed here, and the entire Ukrainian radar system had no response. It was ESA that first discovered the little guys and reported them as meteor showers. Hey, speaking of which, pulling Celestial Trade into this mess was my idea, I don’t know if they will give me a St. George’s medal after I return home… Right, where is my cigar?”

When Natatha came, she would get a box of cigars fom her father and give it to this old friend.

“I left in a hurry and didn’t go see him.” After a pause, Natasha said, “Do you have any lead on the thing I asked you to investigate?”

“If you didn’t mention it, I would have forgotten,” Skanov slapped his forehead and then looked at Natasha with a smile. “I have two pieces of bad news. Which one do you want to listen to first?”

Chapter 1014: A Meeting Engagement On The Plains

The steel belts of the tank roared in the wilderness. A T-84 main battle tank rolled over the plains, leaving a trail of dust behind it.

This steel beast was modified from the former Soviet T-80UD main battle tank and was particularly fierce on the open plains. It acted as the main tank in the Ukrainian government armored force and was a nightmare for the militants.

“Eight T-845, no identity.”

“…confirmed the tank formation belongs to the Arrow. Attack is approved.”

“Roger that.”

Across the hill two kilometers away, a group of soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons kneeled behind the tall grass.

On the third day, the First Orbital Airborne Brigade Zhang Feng belonged to was competing with the Ukrainian 4th Armored Brigade and Arrow Mercenary for control of the northern town of Donetsk.

Zhang Feng, who was at the front, held a telescope and locked his sight on the eight tanks. When the tanks slammed into the marked positions, he gestured to Sergey behind him. The Slavic boy understood and tapped a few times on the holographic screen of the arm guard.

At the same time, several drone hives were deployed from behind the bunker two kilometers away. Dozens of Hummingbird drones came out from the hive. With the remote-controlled road signs, they were soaring towards the eight tanks.

They weren’t equipped with machine guns but had viscoelastic bombs installed on them.

The tank formation broke across the edge of the farmland and began to slow down and prepare to drive through the ditch.

Entering the low-lying area, the visibility of several tanks was greatly reduced. A machine gunman opened the top of the tank and exposed half of his body. Both of his hands held onto the grip of the machine gun; the gun was used in case any danger appeared.

At this time, dozens of drones that had already entered the blind spot of the tank suddenly leaped out from the grass and rushed toward the tank formation that was moving through the ditch.

The machine gunman’s pupil suddenly shrank. He shouted while pulling the trigger to open fire as he used his foot to kick the occupant below him. After a clip of bullets, only one drone was unfortunately hit. Most of the bullets pierced into the cabin behind the drones, breaking the piles of rotten wood into pieces.

“He said to reverse.” Behind the hill two kilometers away, Sergey stared at the screen and bite his tongue in excitement.

“Do not talk nonsense,” Zhang Feng impatiently ordered.

“Okay, cap, they can’t run away.” Sergey target set the attack target for the drone with a grimacing smile before pressing the last button.

Seeing that the flies could not be hit, the machine gunner hurriedly hid into the tank. After the captain issued an order to withdraw by one kilometer, he immediately opened the electromagnetic shielding device hanging outside the tank, but it was too late. All the attack commands processed by the terminal were already cached on the chip built into the drone.

The entire tank formation had just started to reverse when the first echelon of drones began to attack the tanks from above. The fist-sized viscoelastic bombs landed on the surface of the tank, and when all the viscoelastic were in place, they exploded. All the reaction armor hanging on the surface of the T-84 turned to scraps.

After discovering the intent of these drones, several tanks suddenly panicked, and their engines roared. However, no matter how much they accelerated the engine, it was impossible to escape. The second echelon of drones already appeared over their heads, and the viscoelastic bombs directly stuck to the tanks’ surface.

“Goodbye.”

Sergey murmured.

There was no deafening explosion. Only a short flash of fire. Eight tanks collectively stalled and slowly stopped after losing power. This amount of explosive alone, of course, couldn’t blow up an entire tank. However, the “caving effect” formed inside the armor due to the explosion turned the members inside the tank into sieves.

It was a strategy that Zheng Feng summarized when he served in the Celestial Trade Marine Corps. At that time, they dealt with the enemies in City M equipped with the M1A1 main battle tank with this technique and captured a tank.

Not far away, a Ukrainian dressed as a farmer stepped out from the bushes and ran to the nearest tank. He took out a pistol from his pocket, climbed onto the tank, and carefully opened the top.

After confirming that all members inside the tank were dead, he immediately stood on top of the turret and whistled in excitement to the comrades in the bushes.

Soon, more than a dozen civilian militants dressed in camouflage moved closer to the tanks. They checked the inside of the tanks. A few courageous boys even jumped into the tanks and pulled out the fleshy bodies.

“It’s going to be fun tonight.”

The man behind Sergey suddenly smirked with a sly look on his face. His appearance gave Sergey goosebumps.

“Today’s mission is over. Let’s go.” Zhang Feng took the lead and stood up. Then several soldiers walked toward the tanks two kilometers away.

When they met with the militants, they immediately received a warm cheer. A passionate Ukrainian female soldier even daringly stepped forward and gave several heroes a big hug. Finally, she gave the man named Hans a French kiss…

Zhang Feng saw with the corner of his eye that Hans brought the Ukrainian girl to a cabin. The two conversated while smiling. Later, Hans gave her a pack of cigarettes, and the two walked inside.

At this time, an unshaven Ukrainian who was wearing a muddy gray coat, walked over and handed him a crumpled up cigarette. Zhang Feng had some impressions of him. He was the first one who climbed onto the tank.

“Do you smoke?” He said in English.

“Smoke mine.”

Zhang Feng took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket and took out two. He put one in his mouth and handed the other one to the man. In the resistance zone, cigarettes were equivalent to dollars, which acted as a local hard currency. Zhang Feng himself didn’t lack cigarettes.

The Ukrainian did not reject the offer. After taking the cigarette from Zhang Feng’s hand, he took out the lighter from his pocket and lit it for Zhang Feng and himself.

“Eight T-845, I have to thank you for the tank battalion. They have always wanted to get a few T-845 from the enemy. Now their dream has come true and can finally get rid of the tractors.” Philip laughed.

“You’d better add anti-disintegration lining inside. Armor that has already experienced the caving effect is prone to secondary caving.” Zhang Feng shook off the ash and pointed to the nearest tank.

“We will be careful!”

Celestial Trade naturally had no interest in the tanks, but they were all treasures to the militants. Of course, Celestial Trade did not do the job for free. These trophies were converted into rubles and sold to the militants.

Of course, the wouldn’t get the money immediately. The tanks would be loaned to the Republic of Donetsk and paid for after the war, and even if they aren’t able to pay for them later, compared to the depreciating banknotes, Celestial Trade’s stance always favored other goods in exchange.

After a few words with the man named Philip, Zhang Feng estimated that his comrades should be done, so he extinguished his cigarette.

However, not so far away, voices of dispute attracted his attention…

Chapter 1015: A Prisoner of War Claiming to be An Informant

“What happened?” Zhang Feng looked towards the noise.

Two soldiers dragged out a Ukrainian from behind the haystack and found an M9 pistol and a military officer card on him.

Philip tossed away his cigarette and ran to him.

“We caught a Ukrainian officer. He claims to be an informant of the Russian Security Service. I have never heard such a funny joke.” A thin Slavic boy with a grin on his face dragged him out and punched him in the stomach.

The Ukrainian was covered in muddy water, his hair was glued to his scalp by mud, and his pants were stained with dark red blood. Not his best look. With another punch to his stomach, he reflexively gagged and emptied the acid in his stomach.

“Barf, Sh*t! I am not kidding, man, let me at least let me see your officer before you punch me. Don’t be impulsive…”

“I am their captain.” Philip stepped forward, put his arm on the shoulder of a soldier, and raised his eyebrows to look at the tied up Ukrainian. “You said that you are a Russian informant? What is your proof?”

“I didn’t bring my documentation, but please believe me. Just take me to the back—”.

“We can’t take you to the back, we are here looking after the tanks.” Philip lifted his finger and interrupted him. “And since you are a Russian, why are you hiding behind the haystack?”

“Listen, I am an informant of the Russian Security Service. I have provided them with intelligence up till four months ago. But it didn’t last long. I was discovered by the government four months ago—”

Too lazy to listen to this person’s nonsense, the thin Slavic guy dragged the man to the ground, then pulled out the machete from his waist and revealed a grimacing smile. “It seems that you will not tell me the truth until I teach you a lesson.”

“Trust me! Fuck! I really am—”.

The machete did not fall. Zhang Feng grabbed the hand of the Slavic boy.

Both Philip and the Slavic boy looked at him with questioning eyes.

“Let me ask him a few questions.” Zhang Feng let go of the Slavic boy’s hand, walked to the Ukrainian’s side and squatted down. “What is your name?”

“Skanov… You are from Celestial Trade, right? Take me to see your boss! Please, before everything is too late… cough!” Skanov dry coughed a few times and mud or blood spilled out from his mouth.

“You want to see our boss? Haha, I want to as well. I want to take a picture with him. Of course, it would be better if I could shake hands with him.” While chewing on his gum, Sergey looked at Skanov with a dubious smile.

Zhang Feng ignored this boy and stared at Skanov’s eyes for about half a minute.

“Take him with us. We are heading back anyway.” Then, Zhang Feng turned and gestured to Sergey while pointing to Skanov. “If he escapes or resists, end him.”

“Roger!” Sergey saluted. “Spill it out,” Zhang Feng said impatiently.

“What if I accidentally press the triggered?” Sergey squinted at Skanov without any good intention.

Before he immigrated to Xin, he was a Russian from eastern Ukraine. Although the Ukrainians and Russians were both Slavs in heritage, the eastern Russians and the western Ukrainians naturally were incapable of coexisting. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the two sides were dissatisfied with each other and were now in the midst of a conflict.

“Then I will dump you into the dumpster.”

“Sh*t! Cap, I was just joking.” Chasing after Zhang Feng, Sergey then turned around and poked Skanov’s arm with a rifle. “Hurry up and get up. Raise your hands and hold them against the back of your head. Don’t let me see you play any tricks.”

Watching Sergey take Skanov forward, Philip walked next to Zhang Feng.

“I advise you not to believe his rhetoric. These self-proclaimed informants are a common sight. They just want to be sent to Crimea or the Russian-Ukrainian border, or other places with “human rights,” Philip looked at Skanov. “The most convenient way is to torture out valuable information, and then find a place to bury him. With this, it still counts as a contribution.”.

Philip patted the officer’s card in his hand. “Maybe. But anyway, we have time today,” Zhang Feng said.

Philip shrugged, didn’t say anything, and walked away.

The force was reorganized next to the farmland, and Zhang Feng found that a person was missing.

“Where’s Hans?”

“Still in that cabin.” A guy laughed and put his finger into the hole he made with the other hand.

“F*ck, …Enemy!”

Zhang Feng raised his leg and kicked the wooden cabin door open. With a loud bang, the entire cabin shook a few times as dust fell from the roof. Then they heard a male scream and curse inside while a female sneered.

Hans’ face was flushed as he stepped out of the cabin. While running to his position in the formation, he was still pulling up his trousers and buckling the armor around his waist.

“The enemy, where is the enemy? Sh*t, you are playing me!”

Hans was ready to see who interrupted his good times, but then found that it was his captain, so with a sneer, he quieted down.

Behind him, the busty Ukrainian woman who also walked out of the door had changed into her militant uniform. When passing by Hans, she blew him a kiss.

Zhang Feng did not say anything but quietly whispered, “Get ready to go”. Then he walked towards the direction of the city of Donetsk.

When a group of people passed by the drone hive, a soldier in the team stepped forward and carried the half-person high drone hive directly behind him. With the help of the kinetic skeleton, his weight-bearing ability easily surpassed two hundred kilograms. The drone hive was nothing to him. The only thing obstructing him was the mud on the ground as he was more likely to get stuck with the extra weight on him.

The way back was very safe. The high-altitude drone already scouted out this zone in advance. There was not a single soul in the area.

On the way back, Skanov became more flustered. As time went by, his expression became more and more anxious.

Finally, he couldn’t hold his silence and shouted.

“Do you have a radio? Can you get in touch with the command center?”

Zhang Feng stopped and looked at him.

Skanov took a deep breath and looked straight into his eyes. The 190 centimeters tall man’s voice even carried a pleading tone.

“Listen, this is urgent. I know that I seem suspicious… But whether you believe me or not, I hope that you can at least contact your boss. ‘Natasha’, I only ask you to give your superior this name. Please, or else it will be too late!”

Chapter 1016: A Monster

“Two pieces of bad news?” Natasha frowned as she continued to stare straight at Skanov. Then, her lips suddenly curved up. “Does it matter?”

Skanov smiled and sighed in relief.

“The idea of your investigation is correct. Your mother’s death is indeed related to your father. It was the Special Forces under the 58th Army. The order was issued by the Russian Security Service.”

Natasha took in a deep breath of cold air. Her fingers trembled as she tried to control the sorrow that was about to overwhelm her. She was desperately trying to sound strong.

“And the other piece of bad news is?”

“The other bad news is related to your mother’s death. Are you sure you want to hear about it?” Skanov smiled. “Old guy Nikolaev will not want you to know.”

“Say it,” Natasha said it expressionlessly.

“Your mother was a double agent. She joined the Freemasonry when she was twelve years old. In 2008, she sent us intelligence in Georgia but accidentally revealed herself. And I, I am her master.” With a dubious smile, he looked at Natasha who took a step back, “I advise you to take your hand out of your pocket. At least two sniper rifles are being pointed at you.”

The smile on Natasha’s face gradually disappeared.

From when she walked into the town, she realized that something was wrong, but did not expect the one who betrayed her, who betrayed Russia, would turn out to be her father’s old friend, Major Skanov.

“This joke is not funny at all.” Using the corner of her eyes to observe the surrounding environment, Natasha determined by experience that the location of the sniper should be in the clock tower 400 meters away and on the roof of the factory 500 meters away.

She didn’t take her hand from her pocket but let go of the pistol and held onto the smoke bomb.

Skanov shrugged.

“This is not a joke… You don’t have to waste time. Even if the Alpha Group came, they wouldn’t be able to save you, and they won’t take the risk to save you. The 14th Motorized Brigade of Ukraine is stationed not far from here.”

After Skanov finished, he clapped his hands.

Like ghosts, twelve figures appeared from the shadows. They were covered in lacquered black combat uniforms, armed from head to toe, and moved without a sound. Without a doubt, they were the elites of the elites.

When Natasha saw these special force agents, a trace of despair appeared in her eyes. If there were only snipers, she could work up the courage to make a gambit, but against twelve heavily armed special force agents, even if she was 007, her possibility of surviving was null.

“Shameless traitor.” Squeezing a few words out of her teeth, Natasha stared at Skanov.

If eyes could kill, Skanov would have died many times.

However, against Natasha’s allegations, Skanov didn’t seem to agree.

“A traitor?” Skanov shrugged, and raised his hands and rubbed his neck a few times.

When she saw this, Natasha’s pupils shrunk. She noticed that as he rubbed, there was a noticeable chromatic aberration, and then his hands seemed to have grabbed onto something. He tore and ripped off the silicone hood from his head.

“Skanov” who had removed the silicon hood became a completely strange face.

In other words, he revealed his true appearance.

“Let me introduce myself again. I am Peter Petrov.” Since it was no longer necessary to disguise himself, he revealed his real voice.

The stiff expression on Natasha’s face gradually softened into a bitter smile.

Disguise. She was naturally familiar with this as she is a member of the Security Services. However, she never expected to fall for this trick. The identity of the real Skanov was exposed, and he was most likely killed.

“When did it start?” Natasha asked bitterly.

“Since the beginning of this year. I remember at that time, I also proposed to you to pull Celestial Trade into this mess. Did you forget?”

Natasha looked at Petrov inexplicably. She didn’t understand why he did it, or why the Freemasonry did this. Knowing the combat prowess of Celestial Trade, weren’t they afraid that they would lose too fast?

“You should be seeing Stalin after I get this stuff.” Petrov grinned and patted the stack of paper in his hand. “But you are very lucky, the superiors think that you still have some value. If you are obedient, you may be able to live a bit longer.”

After that, he gestured to the special forces behind him.

Two special force agents stepped out and walked over to Natasha.

Looking at the black muzzles, Natasha only felt the coldness of her hands and feet, and she probably already guessed what the so-called value meant. Not as a Russian agent, nor as a daughter of Admiral Nikolayev, but as a bargaining chip that could threaten Jiang Chen.

The memories with him flashed through her head. When she reminisced to their night of intimacy, a smile appeared. Somehow, she was suddenly unafraid.

The smile was very gentle; it was nothing like her normal smile.

There was a ray of determination in her eyes. Just as she was preparing to risk it all, a trace of unnatural humming suddenly began to approach from above.

She was not the only to notice the sound.

Petrov looked up and his pupils suddenly shrank, but when he caught a glimpse of what was above, everything was already too late.

The tungsten rod projectile that fell from a height of 36,000 kilometers was melted into droplets as they passed through the atmosphere. They continuously broke through the sound barrier that prevented them from protruding and left explosions behind them. The moment he heard the resonance, the bullets that were as wide as his hand had arrived.

Ten dozen tungsten rod projectiles, like dozens of Tomahawk missiles, bombarded the area. The second the rods hit the ground, they sent kinetic energy to the bottom of the earth. Like bullets hitting gel, they formed a huge cavity in an instant, and instantly shattered the ground below.

The soil was blown up into the air, flying into the sky more than ten meters above, and the reinforced concrete fragments and wooden chips were exploding around wildly. Even the well-trained Arrow elites were caught off-guard by the sudden impact.

That was her only chance!

Natasha used her arms to protect her head, fighting hard to stand up from the ground. Fleeing under the disguise of the dust that covered the sky, she threw out the smoke bomb in her hand.

Almost at the same time, a round of rapid gunshots emerged from the depths of the smoke and swept toward her direction.

Natasha grunted in pain as a bullet hit her belly and another shot hit her in the shoulder. During her escape, she almost tumbled to the ground when a transparent figure emerged from behind her and put her on their back.

The whistling sound of the flying bullets swept past her. Natasha watched the petite figure underneath her with a complex expression on her face.

“I didn’t expect… one day I would owe you my life.”

“You were shot. Are you okay?” Ayesha did not talk nonsense with her but asked in an emotionless tone.

“I’m fine. I wore a bulletproof vest… my left hand might be fractured.”

The bullet pierced through Natasha’s trench coat but did not penetrate the bulletproof vest she wore inside.

This bullet-proof vest was “borrowed” from Jiang Chen’s closet. It was made with high-molecular-weight polyethylene fiber and it could release the kinetic energy of the bullet to the surface of the vest. Therefore, it has the ability to block bullets and to limit the kinetic energy received upon contact to a safe limit.

“Catch her!”

Petrov’s unsettled expression quickly dissipated as he was to first respond to the situation. He roared, snatched up a rifle from the ground, and rushed into the smoke.

A total of twelve special forces; two died and one was injured. If Natasha escapes, he wouldn’t be able to take the fall.

However, just as he rushed into the smoke, he suddenly seemed to have hit a wall and stopped there.

One hand grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground like he was a little chick.

Petrov’s pupils focused on a point. When he saw the steel-built body, there was nothing but fear.

“A monster…”

Chapter 1017: Rescue Mission

“A monster—”

His throat, being locked by a steel hand, screeched in fear. Petrov reflexively pressed the trigger and the automatic rifle around his waist fired against the power armor. However, the bullets only left a series of crisp sounds. Only a layer of paint on the surface was scraped off.

Through the holographic mirror, Jiang Chen looked at him coldly. He used slightly more force on his right hand and then heard the cervical vertebrae crack. Petrov rolled his eyes and relaxed his muscles. He couldn’t be more dead.

The dust had dispersed, and more than a dozen armed men hid behind the bunker and began to fire back.

Jiang Chen released his minigun without hesitation and began to cleanse the battlefield bombarded with tungsten rods. The firepower turned the concrete and wood into fragments and the return fire of the special forces instantly disappeared.

As for the two snipers in the distance, Ayesha had long finished them before the tungsten rods arrived.

While maintaining firepower suppression, Jiang Chen scanned the mess and nodded in satisfaction.

With the dual insurance of quantum computer trajectory measurements and terminal guidance, the pseudo-space-based weapon displayed great accuracy and good killing power.

The reason why it was a pseudo-space-based weapon was that it draws on the design of the God’s Cane, but it was not fixed by satellites at a certain point on the orbit. Instead, it was carried by a transport ship and could be dumped directly over the target. Because there was no launch track to give the initial speed, the probability of a direct hit was not high and could only be used as a means of suppression.

At the beginning of the design, the weapon was originally prepared for the orbital airborne force. The target area would be bombarded with tungsten rods before landing to ensure the safety of the landing site. However, Jiang Chen did not expect that the airdrop cabin from the apocalypse would have its own suppression effect. Instead of carrying a few tungsten rods on the transport ship, it was better to have two more airdrop cabins.

However, for the time being, the tungsten rods were not useless. Any fixed bunker placed in front of it was just as thin as a piece of paper. And this kind of weapon thrown directly from the synchronous track had a miraculous effect on decreasing enemy morale. The weapon was never intended to kill many people, but it could destroy the faith of those who witnessed the tungsten hell-rain.

The firepower of the power armor was too strong for the special forces to fight back. Seeing the lack of effectiveness of rifle bullets, a special force soldier took out the AT4 rocket launcher, quickly opened the safety and pressed the trigger. However, this steel giant not only had a thick armor but was also agile and maneuverable. This unguided rocket was easily dodged.

From the storage dimension, Jiang Chen took out a heat sensor grenade and threw it straight to the target heat source. The grenade spurted a trail of flame in midair before flying straight behind the enemy bunker. With a bang, the soldier carrying AT4 was blown into pieces.

“Wesley! FU*K!”

Giles, with bloodshot eyes, watched his comrade explode. He could not do anything against the steel giant.

They already replaced their rifles with special armor-piercing ammunition specially prepared for Celestial Trade soldiers, but against the steel armor, it was useless. The situation was completely out of their grasp. Giles gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and gestured to his comrades.

“Retreat!”

These special forces came quickly and left quickly. The back row first dashed to the back of the house. The front row also left the bunker in batches and retreated from the street.

Jiang Chen fired a few more clips at the direction of their escape symbolically. He didn’t pursue further and decisively headed to the agreed evacuation point.

From the satellite image, the 43rd Motorized Brigade of Ukraine was close to him. With the mess here, as long as the commander was competent, he would inevitably send people to investigate the situation. Both of Celestial Trade’s Orbital Airborne Brigades were deployed in eastern Ukraine. Only two waves of tungsten rods were the available attack methods. Celestial Trade Forces on the ground and the militant’s base were nearly 80 kilometers apart, which didn’t help the situation.

Though Jiang Chen would be interested in trying to solo an entire brigade, unless he replaced his power armor with a Gundam, he didn’t have the confidence to try.

It was confirmed on the satellite map that the ten special force soldiers had indeed withdrawn from the town. Jiang Chen ran into a semi-collapsed house and threw the power armor into the storage dimension. Putting on the K2 kinetic skeleton, he went to the outskirt of the town.

Behind a haystack of a farm, a military green “battalion commander” T98 armored vehicle was parked there. Its other name would be the Russian version of the Hummer. Although not as well known as the Hummer, it performed better in terms of protection. Jiang Chen burrowed the car from the Russian military base and the engine was also modified. He used this vehicle to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Jiang Chen closed the door after he got into the backseat.

Ayesha skillfully started the engine, stepped on the gas, and headed into the forest.

Leaning in the backseat, Jiang Chen let out a long sigh of relief and leaned his rifle against the door. When he turned around, his sight aligned with Natasha’s.

Natasha was not in the best state. Not only was there a hint of blood by her mouth, but her left arm was fixed in place by a splint.

They made eye contact and her expression became awkward. She didn’t know how to face Jiang Chen so she lowered her head.

“Sor—”

However, the word “sorry” had yet to come out completely before Jiang Chen picked her up and put her on his lap.

“Let go! What are you doing—” Natasha was like a frightened golden-haired Persian cat, uneased.

Although she struggled hard to escape, manpower could never outpower the kinetic skeleton, not to mention that she still suffered a small injury. Jiang Chen controlled her with just one hand.

Careful not to touch her left arm, Jiang Chen did not waste any time. With his spare hand, he slapped her *ss.

The loud sound was extremely noticeable in the vehicle.

“…” Ayesha’s cheeks turned red, as she pretended nothing happened.

After a cry, Natasha with her eyes widened, stopped struggling.

“Do you dare to do this next time?” Jiang Chen said wickedly to Natasha.

“Bastard…you, you actually hit me.” The blushing Natasha glimpsed at the back of Ayesha’s head and then tried hard to turn her neck. She growled at Jiang Chen with embarrassment and anger. “Let me go!”

Jiang Chen raised his hand again and landed his palm against the curved and soft butt.

“Hey!”

Natasha couldn’t help but again cry out loud. Ayesha was turning even redder and her eyes flickered to the rearview mirror from time to time. Perhaps it was an illusion but Jiang Chen saw envy?

“Bastard! I want to kill – AH!”

“You are a per – HEY!”

“NOOO… I’m sorry, don’t – ah~”

The original imposing curse was interrupted by the loud slaps.

Humiliating and shameful tears formed in Natasha’s eyes. The sting on her butt seriously hurt her self-esteem. At this moment, she had lost her usual calmness. However, the most annoying thing was that… she began to feel aroused…

Chapter 1018: Do you dare to do this again?

“Do you dare to do this again?” Jiang Chen’s hand stopped in mid-air as he looked at Natasha who was begging for mercy; a smug look appeared in his eyes.

“No…No!”

Although she didn’t exactly know what he was referring to, she did not dare to be argumentative at this moment.

Watching Natasha’s blond hair swing back and forth, Jiang Chen finally nodded in satisfaction and put down his raised hand.

Training seemed to be successful.

Natasha glared at Jiang Chen with a hateful look and turned her head back. Jiang Chen was not surprised either, if someone slapped his butt, he would feel hateful towards them too. However, compared to being hated, he was more worried that she would again disappear on him without saying a word.

“Do you know why I slapped your butt?”

“…” Natasha didn’t speak, her lips pressed tightly together.

“Do you know how worried I was?”

Although he couldn’t see her face, he could clearly feel the tensed muscles in her abdomen relax slightly.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t speak further. He released her wrist and waist and then let her go.

Natasha, who “regained her freedom”, did not come down from his lap. She just stayed in his lap.

At this moment, Jiang Chen suddenly heard the sound of splashing water.

That sound was very soft and very quiet as if a pearl had fallen on the sofa.

He froze for a second, then reached out to comb her hair back. When he saw her teary eyes, he suddenly panicked.

Although he wanted to punish this girl, he never wanted to make her cry.

Just as Jiang Chen was helplessly looking for ways to appease her, Natasha’s right hand pressed against the sofa and she slid down from his lap. Then she looked at him.

Due to the lack of room inside the car, she could only kneel in front of him as she softly bit her lower lip. Her face was written with weariness and bloodstains were still visible at the corners of her mouth, and now tears were emerging from her eyes.

“I hate you.”

“I—”

Jiang Chen was just about to say something, but his lips were quickly blocked by Natasha who rode onto his legs. A soft and indescribable thing aggressively entered his lips, causing havoc.

Suddenly, the frightened Ayesha accidentally stepped on the gas and almost knocked off Jiang Chen’s teeth

With a glorious and victorious expression, Natasha wiped the corner of her mouth with her sleeve and said fiercely.

“I hate you… you stole my heart.”

This time, Ayesha almost stepped on the brakes, and Jiang Chen in the back was completely stunned.

Although he was moved, it was exactly like the plot of a romantic comedy.

But it was not the time for Jiang Chen to think about this. With both of his hands around her waist, he coughed, then continued the plot.

“Then just hate me forever.”

However, this seemed to have worked extremely well.

Natasha’s eyes gleamed with tears as she “munched” on him.

Enjoying the softness, for a glimpse of a second, Jiang Chen noticed with the corner of his eyes that even Ayesha, who had never been jealous, started to pout.

…

To avoid the Ukrainians and Arrow on their journey home, Jiang Chen made Ayesha take the long way. Instead of crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border directly from the forest on the east, they drove along the forest to Starobersk and took a detour of more than fifty kilometers.

Although they were already far away from Donetsk’s front line, driving at night was still very dangerous. Turning on the lights could cause them to be detected easily from a far distance, but driving without lights meant that they could accidentally drive into a ditch. The most pressing issue now was to find a safe spot to spend the night.

Fortunately, at the edge of the forest, Ayesha discovered a logging yard. Judging from the rusty iron gate and the mushrooms on the woods, this logging site seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. Since there was no owner, they requisitioned this logging yard.

After they drove into the warehouse, Ayesha stepped out of the vehicle and deployed four Hummingbird drones into the area. She then connected the drones to the terminal at the back of the vehicle.

Jiang Chen was taking out the outdoor gasoline stove from the trunk of the vehicle. There was no shortage of food and water, so he started to cook noodles in the middle of the warehouse.

It didn’t take long before the delicious aroma filled the warehouse. The three people soon started to slurp on the noodles placed in stainless-steel bowls.

The noodle was far from delicious as the ingredients were dried meat and dehydrated vegetables, but they devoured the food. Jiang Chen didn’t mind the taste of his food, Ayesha enjoyed whatever Jiang Chen cooked… As for Natasha, it was purely out of hunger.

In the past two days, she only drank the sour nutrient supply. It was the first time she even ate anything remotely hot.

As the night grew darker, the three laid their sleeping bags in the middle of the warehouse and then arranged their lookout schedule. Originally, Ayesha insisted Jiang Chen does not participate, saying that she could watch two shifts. However, in the end, she could not convince him and had to agree to include him.

Ayesha would take the first shift. With a long day of driving tomorrow, for the safety of everyone, Jiang Chen insisted on putting her in the first shift.

After extinguishing the fire of the gasoline stove, darkness gradually returned to the warehouse.

As his eyes gradually adapted to the darkness, Jiang Chen saw through the faint moonlight that Natasha, in her sleeping bag, was staring at him with her emerald eyes.

“Still awake?” Jiang Chen closed the zipper of his sleeping bag and smiled.

“I can’t fall asleep that fast.”

“It’s better to go to bed early. We still have a long way to go tomorrow. By the way, speaking of it, it was you that night…”

“Don’t say it.” Realizing what he wanted to say, Natasha looked away while interrupting him. “It took a lot of determination.”

“No, what I want to say is that I didn’t feel that night at all. When will we have another in-depth session?” Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

There was a curvature on her mouth, and Natasha said while raising her eyebrows.

“Okay, once we go back.”

The two chatted, and soon their sleepiness started to catch up to them.

Jiang Chen was yawning and just about to pass out when Natasha suddenly asked in a quiet voice.

“How did you know I was here?”

“When the soldiers under my command were in the north, they met a captive named Skanov. He claimed to be an informant of the Russian Security Service. He mentioned your name when proving his identity.

“Is that so? Skanov is not dead yet.” Natasha sighed with relief, “Yes, what about the document?”

“The document?” Jiang Chen was confused.

Natasha’s face suddenly turned pale, and the sleepiness she had accumulated instantly disappeared.

“You didn’t get it?”

Jiang Chen frowned.

“Be clear, what document is it, what is on that document?”

“It’s a list… The organization asked Skanov to withdraw, and the list contains the intelligence resources he can use. There is also an encrypted file, I don’t know what it is, I only know it is important!”

“Tell me the name of the informant,” Jiang Chen said.

Natasha’s expression was a little hesitant at first since this involved the Russian Security Service’s confidential information on the Ukrainian issue. Even if Celestial Trade was an ally, the organization was not part of Russia.

Jiang Chen knew what she was thinking and yawned.

“Forget it.”

“Mario Melnikov.”

“Just one?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and gave Natasha a surprised look.

“And also…”

After reporting the entire list, Natasha seemed to have had her energy drained away as she hid her head in the sleeping bag, upset.

“Is this treason…”

“It must be, but you can save the lives of those informants,” Jiang Chen said while editing the audio file. Then, he sent the file to the Ghost Agent Headquarters through quantum satellites. “Why don’t you immigrate to Xin once the war is over? ”

Chapter 1019: Ghost Rescue

The next morning, the three packed up the gasoline stove and their sleeping bags, and continued with their journey.

Jiang Chen was the last one to be on guard. After getting in the vehicle, he napped against the window. However, when he woke up, he found his head on Natasha’s lap.

Although separated by jeans, it still felt quite soft.

“I suddenly found out that you have a cute sleeping face.” Meeting Jiang Chen’s eyes, Natasha mocked him.

He sat up while rubbing his eyes and with a yawn, then asked.

“What’s today’s date?”

“April 25th.” Ayesha, who was driving, replied.

“It’s already April 25th?” Jiang Chen looked at the scenes disappearing from the window, as well as the smoke rising in the south, and then said, “We should go back soon. I have a feeling something is going to happen here.”

What’s more, it would be May 4th in a week, and the Stingray sent to the UFO would be back by then. He was quite curious about the UFO. Half a century passed since humans began to explore extraterrestrial civilization, during which countless postcards symbolizing friendship have been launched into the universe, but they have never been answered.

Even in the timeline of the apocalypse, Jiang Chen never heard of any record of extraterrestrial civilization. If the unidentified object really belonged to an extraterrestrial civilization, it would mark the start of the contact between human civilization and the extraterrestrial civilization.

“What are you thinking about?” Natasha gently poked Jiang Chen’s arm.

Jiang Chen smiled.

“I was thinking… about something far away.”

To avoid the patrols of the border guards, Ayesha once again released the drones, confirmed the patrol route of the border guards, and found the right time to rush through.

On the way to the border, Jiang Chen also saw ragged smugglers. Most of them were poor people displaced by the war, and some were deserters from the frontline. From their lifeless and colorless eyes, there was hardly any hope.

Perhaps it triggered some unpleasant memory, Ayesha’s expression changed and she began accelerating.

Someone waved to stop the car, but they didn’t stop. No one could be certain who really needed help, and who held sinister thoughts. What’s more, there were so many people. They couldn’t save everyone.

No longer focusing on the refugees, Jiang Chen then glanced his watch.

It was almost eleven o’clock, which means they shouldn’t have any problems with cross the border before lunchtime. Perhaps it’ll even be possible to have a hot meal in a Russian town.

Just then, a brief from Ghost Agents’ headquarters was sent to his watch.

There were only two words.

[Rescue Successful]

…

In the eyes of Mario’s neighbors, he was just a coffee shop owner. However, few people knew the other side of the kind-hearted Slavic man. In addition to being a great coffee grinder, he also served as an informant of the Russian Security Service in the underground intelligence network of Kiev.

In the Kiev intelligence system, he served as the microphone, the information transfer station. He was responsible for assigning the task of the superior to the informants, and for sorting out the information collected through the encrypted radio and broadcasting the information to the receiving station on the border.

As usual, Mario made breakfast for himself and enjoyed his meal while watching TV before heading to work. Recently, he heard that a front line, Ukrainian military officer named Skanov was transferred back to the capital. His real identity was the informant of the Russian Security Service.

Just as Mario wondered who he should assign this work to, the doorbell rang.

After hearing the doorbell, he paused for a moment.

It was 8:00 in the morning. No neighbor would visit at this time.

When he thought about this, he became more cautious. He carefully walked to the door and peeked through the peephole.

Two men in black trench coats were standing at the door. The man in front wore a cap, and his narrow face gave off a sense of sophistication. The other hooked nose was particularly eye-catching. Mario immediately analyzed they were two intelligence workers from their appearance.

First, they carried guns.

Second, the man leading was a soldier.

When the door didn’t open, the man pressed the doorbell impatiently and gestured to the other. The hooked nose understood and went to the other side.

Mario knew that the other man was going to the back of his house to prevent him from escaping.

Now he knew that the people outside were not here to investigate and collect evidence. They likely already obtained enough evidence and had come to arrest him.

He cursed under his breath, hurriedly put on his shoes, and ran to the stairs.

When he had just gotten to the second floor, a loud noise came from the living room.

When the man found that there was no response after pressing the bell three times, he had realized something was wrong and decisively chose to break in.

Mario rushed into his bedroom, took out a Glock pistol and two magazines from under the bed and then ran to the bathroom. He loaded the gun and then locked the reinforced glass door, before sliding into the bathroom.

Behind the bathroom curtain, there was a wooden door that he designed specifically for escaping. He never thought that he would use it one day, but as he pulled out the key to open the door, the door of the bathroom was gently pushed away.

He jerked and lifted his gun. The muzzle was shaking in fear.

Although he received military training, he never killed anyone before, and he never thought that he would have to fight with a gun. After all, he didn’t serve combat duty nor did he need to risk his life to collect intelligence. Before he became an agent, he was just an ordinary person.

No one came in through the open door. Mario was gasping heavily and tried hard to stop his hands from shaking.

However, at this moment, his vision suddenly blurred and his gun became unloaded. Before he could react to what just happened, his hands were reversed and he was pinned down against the edge of the bathtub. Despite how much force he used, he couldn’t break free.

A figure emerged from behind him. Like a ghost, he didn’t even notice where she came from.

“Don’t move.”

“Friendly.”

One hand was enough to pin him down. Mario then noticed that her other hand was holding a dagger, and the dagger was stained with blood.

No doubt, the blood was fresh.

He felt extremely relieved.

It should be the blood of the man that broke in earlier…

Chapter 1020: UA’s Reaction

“…Rescue Successful?”

When Jiang Chen called out the holographic screen and tossed it toward Natasha, Natasha was confused by the short text.

“Didn’t you give me a list last night?” Jiang Chen smiled and reminded her.

Natasha’s emerald eyes widened, and she looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief, “it… it was this fast?”

Ayesha’s lips curved up in proudness; not saying a word.

But her eyes, that could speak, perfectly depicted the smugness she wanted to express.

“We are a private company. Compared to others, we are more focused on efficiency.” Jiang Chen said with a smile and removed the holographic screen. “Now you can rest assured that the most important people have been saved. Our people will transfer them to a safe place. Now the decision to withdraw from the country or transfer to another place to continue working is left to your people.”

If Mario was caught, the Russian spies and informants in the entire city of Kiev wouldn’t be able to sleep. Even if he withstood the torture and not let out a word. Those frightened informants may still become whistle-blowers and turn against the country.

If that did happen, it would be a heavy blow to Russia. At the same time, Russia’s national image would be tarnished because of the spy scandal.

Speaking of this, the Ghost Agents that saved Mario were originally sent to Ukraine to find Natasha. Except they didn’t play their role yet before Skanov, who escaped from the Freemasonry, told Jiang Chen her location.

“The Russian Security Service owes you a favor.” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen and said with sincerity.

“What about you?” Jiang Chen half-jokingly said.

“Me?” Natasha smiled. “I gave myself to you already. What more do you want?”

At the border, Ayesha showed the documents to the border patrol and they passed by smoothly. Afterward, the group stopped at a Russian town next to the border. Jiang Chen found a restaurant opened by the locals and ordered a table full of dishes.

Compared to the time in Moscow, no one in this remote area seemed to recognize him. Compared with his identity, his Asian face was more surprising. Most of the visitors were Russians who had fled from across the border. With the lack of tourist attractions here, the locals rarely saw a foreigner.

There were very few guests in the store, and the sumptuous lunch quickly arrived at the table.

The bread in the basket was much harder compared to the ones in Moscow, and also saltier. However, the borscht in the bowl was fresher, and judging by appearance, the stew at the end would be especially delicious.

After the three cleared the dishes, Jiang Chen left money on the table before continuing on with the trip.

After crossing the border, Jiang Chen felt he was more relaxed. Although they were still traveling, because were on the Russian side, they longer worried about being caught by the Ukrainian army. The speed at which Ayesha drove naturally slowed down.

If nothing else, the three should be able to reach the city of Voronezh, the capital of Lipetsk, before dark. There was an international airport there, and Jiang Chen’s private jet had already landed.

Because of the ominous feeling lingering in his heart, Jiang Chen didn’t want to stay for a second longer. He planned to return to Xin the next morning and even canceled his plans to visit the military base established by the First and Second Orbital Airborne Brigade.

As for Natasha, she had to go back to Moscow first.

Though only after she repeatedly swore that she would never do anything stupid alone.

In the car, Jiang Chen received a long-distance call from Ivan.

After the news that Celestial Trade deployed two orbital airborne brigades in Ukraine spread, it caused a global uproar. The EU and the UA expressed shock and doubts about the use of the space elevator for military purposes. On the contrary, they didn’t respond to the involvement of Celestial Trade within the civil war.

After all, the latter was only a strategic interest, and the former is related to national security.

The UA first sent an airborne brigade and two B2 bombers to the Guam military base on the grounds of strategic balance. However, this move did not cause dissatisfaction with Xin. Instead, it resulted in backlash from Hua.

“Let them deploy. Don’t bother with them. If they don’t flex, they can’t explain this situation to their citizens. As for the threat? For someone who can turn the Capital into ruins in ten minutes even if they stuffed an armored division here, is not a threat to us. You overreacting now will only make them nervous. Ignore them and let them do their thing. As long as they don’t cross the line, just pretend like we didn’t see anything,” Jiang Chen said after listening to Ivan’s report over the phone.

“Then I should order the Guardian frigates cruising between the Pannu Islands and Guam to withdraw?” Ivan asked.

“Let’s do this… send four Guardian frigates to conduct live-fire military exercises in the waters around Ange Island. We can showcase the high-precision, long-range strike capability of our Type-50 Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon. We can’t completely ignore them. We have to appropriately flex back too, at least let the people feel at ease. But don’t trigger them, so, a landing exercise is not necessary.”

“Roger!”

Ivan’s answer was concise.

Ivan always strictly executed Jiang Chen’s order and never made judgments in uncertain situations. These traits were what assured Jiang Chen the most. As a commander, it is essential to have one’s own judgment. But it was also important to understand the difference between an order and a judgment.

What Jiang Chen needed was not a general who was masterful in battle, but a general who could carry out his orders without compromise. As for the combat effectiveness of the army, those could be supported by technology. Do civilized people need the Art of War when fighting against cavemen?

As long as he didn’t provoke a total war with all the superpowers, Jiang Chen never considered the possibility of losing.

When the sun had almost fallen, the group finally arrived in Voronezh. Jiang Chen wanted to call General Nikolaev to inform him about his daughter’s safety, but he didn’t expect that he would be unable to reach him. Jiang Chen informed the head of the Russian Security Services about his location.

After checking into the hotel, Natasha rushed into the bathroom. She had not taken a shower for three days. Ayesha helped Jiang Chen call the front desk and ordered room service before she began to check for eavesdropping equipment in the room.

Jiang Chen, who had nothing to do, turned on the TV and sunk into the sofa.

International news happened to be on.

It showed what happened in Ukraine yesterday morning.

Chapter 1021: A Flaw in the Plan

“In the early morning yesterday, the northern towns of Ukraine were under attack from Celestial Trade. Many houses were damaged. No civilian casualties were confirmed. The Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a press conference that Celestial Trade’s usage of space orbital weapons violates the international community’s consensus on the peaceful use of space resources and highly condemns Celestial Trade’s behavior. At the same time, it emphasizes that Celestial Trade’s involvement in the situation is a conspiracy between Russia and the militant, and it is an insult to human rights. However, when the media asked the source of funding for the hiring of European military contractors, the Ukrainian diplomatic spokesperson avoided the question based on the grounds of confidentiality…”

“According to a Ukrainian military officer who asked not to be named, when the first time the air raid occurred, they rushed to the target town and found dozens of tungsten rods about 1.5 meters in diameter in the ruins. The rods were worn when entering the atmosphere. The ESA satellite expert stated that if the tungsten rods were dropped from the synchronous orbit, the theoretical speed would’ve been close to eleven kilometers per second by the time they entered the atmosphere. Now, the town behind me is the traumatic aftermath of space-based weapons. We can clearly see the deep pit in the middle of the road and the damage to the buildings around the pit caused by the aftershock…”

When Jiang Chen was watching the European reporter, he almost burst out laughing.

He didn’t believe that those people pegged the destruction of this town on him. Did they not think about investigating beforehand to see how many times the town was bombarded? Other than the Arrow Special Forces he saw, he didn’t see a soul when he entered the town.

“What’s there to look at?” Natasha was drying her hair. She came out of the bathroom wrapped in a bathrobe. When she saw the news, she sneered with disdain. “It’s all unfounded speculations. The narrative is completely based on the reporters’ mouths?”

When Natasha finished showering, Ayesha, with changes of clothes, walked around her and rushed into the washroom. Soon afterward, water began to splatter around inside.

“Quite interesting at times.” Jiang Chen smiled and looked at Natasha, his eyes suddenly brightened.

After showering, she was completely different compared to how she was in the car. Her slightly curly golden hair cast off a fine mist. Her smooth skin was like a beautiful piece of art, born at the function between the landmass of Europe and Asia, an exquisite fusion between the west and east. Every smile was filled with exotic temptations.

Natasha noticed the fire burning in Jiang Chen eyes. She didn’t act shy but she whistled at him, then turned into the bedroom.

Just as Jiang Chen was debating if he should accept her temptation and have some fun before dinner, the doorbell rang.

The hotel’s waiter pushed in a dining cart with everything from staple foods to dessert.

He stuffed a 100 XND tip into the waiter’s hands then pushed the cart to the dinning table. When he was preparing to go wash his hands, he suddenly noticed water was still splattering around in the washroom.

With a smirk, Jiang Chen closed the door and locked it. He then placed his clothes and pants on the aluminum frame, and gently tapped on the door like a big bad wolf.

The little petite rabbit was obedient and opened the door.

Soon, there was an exclamation in the bathroom, which gradually changed the sounds of water splashing onto the rocks, followed by a repressed moan, and finally ended with the ultimate conclusion…

An hour passed before they left the washroom.

At dinner, Ayesha had a triumphant smile and sat next to Jiang Chen. Natasha, across the table, pouted with displeasure. Every time she locked eyes with Jiang Chen, she rolled her eyes.

Her hint was so obvious, but Jiang Chen didn’t follow her. Instead, he snuck in to see Ayesha. It made her feel like she lost.

In particular, Ayesha’s smugness made her particularly furious.

Throughout dinner, she was wondering how to “retaliate” against this bastard at night.

“Orbital airborne troops, outer space weapons…”

Staring at the report, Carmen’s lips curved up as if he didn’t take this problem to heart.

At the corner of his desk was a gold-colored apple. Weird lines covered the entire apple, like a piece of art.

He turned his gaze to the apple. In his pupils that spoke of control, a glimmer of gloom flashed.

Rothschild’s research institute analyzed the structure of the Golden Apple and even cultivated artificial brain cells through embryonic cells, extracting similar substances and successfully creating a second Golden Apple. However, no matter how they studied it, they couldn’t solve the mystery, and they couldn’t get in touch with the Void Remnants who helped the Third Reich.

Originally, it was his biggest dependency, but now a slight flaw appeared in the plan.

In his plan, as long as he could decipher the secrets of the Golden Apple, he could grasp the source of Future Technology’s technology that transcended the present world. With the resources of Europe, North America and South America, it would be easy to suppress Xin, which was gradually gaining a foothold in Asia.

A Space elevator? As long as they mastered the technical principles, they were fully capable of building one in Ecuador and building one in the Gulf of Guinea in Central Africa. It was why European countries other than Britain weren’t eager to join the Celestial Trade Space Development Program.

He shook his head, shook off his annoyances, and tossed away the military activities of Celestial Trade. Carmen looked at the bodyguard standing next to him.

“Johnson, what do you think?”

Johnson wasn’t only his bodyguard but also his private military adviser.

“We should increase the number of people. If we take into account the disadvantages of the technology, we don’t have enough people,” Johnson said.

Carmen nodded and picked up the Golden Apple on the corner of the table, looking at the engraved lines.

“I think so too. How about Krupp? Has there been any progress with the weapons research?”

“The prototype is completed, but the cost isn’t low.”

“The cost can be reduced by scale. I only need them to come up with equipment that isn’t too far behind Celestial Trade’s kinetic skeleton.” Carmen stood up and put the Golden Apple back in place. “We have resources that they can’t imagine. My dear Mr. Johnson, do you understand the meaning of my sentence?”

“War is a process of learning from each other, but it requires a certain sacrifice.”

“As long as they’re pulled into the civil war then continue to be dragged down by the war, we can always learn from them through reverse engineering.”

Having said that, Carmen grinned.

“When we completely digest their technology, it will be their end.”

At that moment, the door of the office was suddenly pushed open and Carmen frowned. After looking at the person who entered, his frown eased. He raised his hand to ease up Johnson then pleasantly spoke to the man.

“What’s wrong, my friend. What’s the rush?”

“Celestial Trade Trade launched an attack on our stronghold in Red Army Village!” The man gasped and looked anxiously at Carmen. “Just now, we received a signal of distress from the front lines.”

“Attacking the Red Army Village?” Carmen frowned. “How many people did they dispatch?”

“Two orbital airborne brigades.”

“Two brigades? That’s only around 6,000 people.”

“No, their size is somewhat unique. There are only 2,000 people in an orbital airborne brigade…” There was a bitter smile, and his tone was forced. “And now they have completely erased our first line of defense.”

Chapter 1022: Code Name Lightning

Boom!

Dirts were blown into air, scattering throughout the battlefield like countless brown pines.

The whistling tungsten rods sketched white trajectories in the sky. They instantly rained down destruction as if they didn’t cost any money. The rods littered the line of defense created by Arrow Mercenaries, crushed the concrete bunker into a million pieces, smashed the pavement into deep pits, and filled the trenches up…

With a scream, the horn of the counterattack was blown. The militants in the second formation rushed out from the woods and bunkers following T72 main battle tanks. They launched an assault.

The armor rammed over the rugged bushes, the belts’ roar echoed on the ground, and the smoke from the gunfire dyed the sky to a pale white. With the meteors falling from the sky, the militant’s infantries stepped over the first line of defense outside the Red Army Village.

Behind them were the ruins of a reinforced concrete bunker.

On the concrete bunker, there was a daunting fracture. The cement shattered like glass and the steel skeleton used as the supporting structure was broken into several sections. As for the soldiers and mercenaries, not a single corpse was intact.

There was no back-and-fourth fight, only sporadic exchanges of fire.

The torn defense line was like a collapsed dam; there was no coming back.

The damage of space-based weapons was not only reflected in the damage to structures and weapons but also in the enemy’s mental fortitude. The real warrior might not be afraid of bullets from their enemy, but against a disaster that struck without warning, the fragility of all people was the same.

The Ukrainian Army and Arrow Mercenaries were forced into the urban area after the start of the war.

The two orbital airborne brigades led the offense. The soldiers armed to the teeth rode in assault vehicles. After entering the city, they released the Hummingbird drones equipped and engaged in crossfire with the elite soldiers of Arrow.

The soldiers on both sides were fueled by blood. The smoke of war filled the streets. With the roars of tanks, the militants and Celestial Trade pierced the urban area from three directions.

In a building, several Arrow mercenaries hid inside.

“Don’t panic! They don’t dare to use that stuff in the city! Keep an eye on your position!” An Arrow veteran who had participated in the civil war of Madagascar stared out the window. His eyes were filled with fear, but he didn’t pass this fear to the comrades behind him.

“God…”

With a cry, a soldier holding a rifle drew a cross on his chest. Others anxiously squatted under the windowsill. The knew the enemy was in front of them, but their hands and feet couldn’t stop twitching.

“They’re attacking in this direction! The idiots… get ready to fight! Listen to me—count on three, we will—”

He didn’t get an opportunity to finish before the building collapsed into ruins like broken tofu. It buried his comrades and him. His last remaining piece of consciousness only heard the order to charge.

Just now, Celestial Trade unleashed a second round of tungsten rods against Arrow positions and precisely destroyed the strongholds of Arrow through terminal guidance, clearing the way for the advancing troops.

The battle on the ground was still in a stalemate, but the outcome of the air battle was already decided.

MiG-29’s machine guns roared in the air, but against the high-speed Aurora-20, it could only be on the receiving end of the attack. Although only four Aurora-20s were deployed at the frontline base, it was more than enough to destroy the third-generation jet’s defensive formation.

Unless NATO wanted to risk angering Russia by establishing a no-fly zone in Ukraine, or sending F35s and F22s with a high risk of battle damage, Ukraine had already lost air superiority.

Jiang Chen knew very well that this war would last for a long time, but he had no plan to drag it on. The longer it went, the less favorable for Celestial Trade with a long supply line. If Arrow received a continued stream of troops from refugees, then there would be no purpose for dragging on the war.

When the two airborne brigades completed deployment and the frontline base was established, the first batch of war supplies was transported to Donetsk by air and rail. Then the command center of Celestial Trade launched a counterattack with the code name “Lightning.”

As for those tungsten rods, it was an option outside the plan. Because of the unexpected suppression ability demonstrated in the rescue of Natasha, the previously ignored weapon was used as one of the means of attacking from outer space.

Last night, Ayesha, who was already “satisfied”, left some time for the parting couple.

Natasha had to go back to Moscow, and because of the nature of her work, she had to spend some time in the observation period after she was dismissed. However, considering the scope of her espionage and the cooperation between Russia and Celestial Trade on the Kane issue, this observation period shouldn’t last too long.

A month to half a year at most. During this time, she would be unable to leave Moscow and naturally wouldn’t be able to see Jiang Chen.

It was precisely because of this that Natasha was particularly passionate. Just like a hungry little kitten, shaking her blond hair, craving for the smell of sweet milk. She seemed to somewhat release all of her desire for the next six months that night…

It was also the first time Jiang Chen tasted “exoticness”. He gained a strong understanding of the definition “massive.”

He was in a half-drunken state when they shared their first time with hardly any memory of it. To make up for the last time, Natasha used her pair of 36D weapons to leave a “memorable” impression on Jiang Chen.

At the Voronezh airport, Natasha kissed Jiang Chen and looked at his eyes deeply.

“The plane’s about to take off,” Ayesha whispered as she looked at the table.

“Goodbye.”

Without too many words, after kissing Natasha, Jiang Chen said goodbye and headed to the Gulfstream G650.

Their parting words were already said, and it would be too melodramatic to say them again.

After the plane took off, Jiang Chen leaned on his comfortable chair. Ayesha gently pushed a holographic screen toward Jiang Chen and reported to him the situation at the front line.

“Ten minutes ago, there was good news from the frontlines; Operation Lightning has already achieved initial success. Our First and Second Orbital Airborne Brigade successfully seized the control of the Red Army Village and drove out the enemy from this area.”

“Great.” Jiang Chen took a closer look at the report then nodded with satisfaction. “The next step is to drive them across the Dnieper River. When I go back, Ivan should have the plan in place.”

“And then the war is over?” Ayesha tilted her head.

“Not possible.” Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile. “As long as the confrontation between NATO and Russia exists, the war won’t truly end.”

Chapter 1023: The Groundbreaking Transportation Method

Returning to the beautiful Coro Island, the sci-fi vibe was amplified compared to half a month before.

On his way out of the airport, Jiang Chen noticed several floating cars flying over the six-lane highway not far from the airport. The foreigners who came there for the first time exclaimed at the scene and started to capture the beautiful city. The locals reacted calmly and moved on with their lives.

This calmness wasn’t only reflected in the fact that cars could fly but also in the foreigners’ surprised actions.

The taxis at the airport were in particularly high demand. They were the first to use magnetic levitation vehicles. In order to experience this novel form of transportation, many international friends even asked their drivers to take a detour. After cruising down the maglev highway, they would finally return on route to their hotel.

Jiang Chen felt slightly shocked by the ever changing Coro Island, but it only lasted for a moment. After all, he brought the technology back from the Sixth Street. So, it was more of a novelty for him.

He just felt emotional seeing that the technology that belonged to the future was now in the modern world. The world was changing too fast.

Walking into the parking lot outside the airport, Jiang Chen avoided the taxi stop area surrounded by foreigners and headed straight to the corner of the parking lot. There was a red car parked, and a beautiful and familiar figure stood there. Her noble but cold temperament blocked all men with thoughts of taking their chances ten meters away.

However, when she saw Jiang Chen, her expression suddenly melted and a gorgeous smile formed.

“You’re finally back. Was it fun in Moscow?”

“What fun? I went there for business.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes.

“I heard that you took a walk outside the border?”

“Oh, that was a special circumstance.” Jiang Chen didn’t look straight at the piercing sight and avoided the question by laughing.

Fortunately, Xia Shiyu didn’t persist further on the issue. Jiang Chen didn’t want to think about how he would confess to her about Natasha.

Opening the trunk for Jiang Chen, Xia Shiyu watched him put his suitcase in then invited him into the front passenger seat, leaving Ayesha alone in the back seat. She then got in and started the car.

Looking at the ground outside the window gradually disappearing, Jiang Chen’s hand involuntarily grasped the armrests beside the door. He was tense and looked pale white.

With how nervous Jiang Chen looked, Xia Shiyu, who was steering, couldn’t hold her laughter. She smoothly entered the acceleration lane. When the speed reached the maximum and the vehicle rose to the top of the track, she turned on the automatic cruise mode and her hands left the steering wheel.

Ayesha curiously looked around. Although she heard Jiang Chen talk about the future, it was her first time seeing this novel transportation.

“Look how scared you are. I got my maglev license with my skills, okay?” Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes, showed the license in her hands, then tossed it into the drawer.

“Your new car?”

Jiang Chen changed the subject. In fact, he wasn’t afraid of the maglev car; it was just because he was sitting beside a female driver.

“Of course. Magnetic levitation cars were launched in the middle of this month. The model of this car is called Luer EML-A1. EML is an abbreviation of eletro-magnetic levitation. How do you like it?” Xia Shiyu said proudly.

“It looks quite good; I will buy one some time.”

His hand clutching onto the armrest finally loosened, and Jiang Chen made a pertinent evaluation.

On automatic cruise mode, the speed of the car reached a daunting one hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. The scenery outside the window quickly disappeared. It was hard to imagine they were in the city center. After leaving the urban area, Xia Shiyu turned off automatic cruise and drove the car into the buffer lane, slowing down and slowly descending.

The wheels and the road connected then the vehicle sank onto the road, and Jiang Chen’s heartbeat also relaxed. He knew the EML had finally returned to the ground.

“The financial report of fiscal 2019 first quarter came out.” Xia Shiyu skillfully switched to the road driving mode then spoke casually.

“Oh.”

“You’re not curious about which department’s financial report was the most eye-catching?” Xia Shiyu glanced at him curiously.

“Do I need to guess? The first was Future Technology, and the second was Future Heavy Industries.” Jiang Chen shrugged.

Since the establishment of the New Reserve, he started to feel less and less astonished by the long astronomical figures in the financial reports. In particular, the last time he looked at the news, New Xin Dollars was the only settlement currency for space trade and swept 943.1 billion US Dollars in the foreign exchange market. For Future Group, more money was just a figure.

Of course, that wasn’t to say that money was useless, but his goal wasn’t just earning more money. The lunar colony had only just begun to turn a profit this year, and the rate of return was less than one-tenth of Future Technology’s virtual reality project, but he was willing to burn money on the moon colony project.

“On the contrary, Future Heavy Industries was first, and Future Technology was second.” Xia Shiyu’s lips curved up.

“Oh? Manufacturing was more profitable than technology? Wait… I might know why.” Jiang Chen was intrigued for a second before he realized.

After Celestial Trade promulgated “Celestial Trade Outer Space Resources Development Plan of 2019”, nine asteroids were contracted to various countries for mining, which led to a large number of foreign enterprises flocking to Celestial City. This led to a snowballing amount of orders sent to Future Heavy Industries for external space stations.

The price of a space station was between one billion to ten billion USD. Although many space station custom companies were in Silicon Valley, Cambridge and Singapore also accepted orders, but neither their quality nor reputation matched Future Heavy Industries. They could only share the markets left behind.

Jiang Chen also forgot about the record profits of the production of space stations. Not only did Future Heavy Industries surpass Future Technology in first quarter profits, but the division was likely to completely leave Future Technology in the dust.

“Right, there’s still one more thing. There are visitors from Hua.”

“Let me guess—are they here to ask about outer space weapons?”

“You guessed wrong again.” Xia Shiyu blinked. This playful gesture on her was cute because of the sharp contrast. “The Minister of Transportation and the CEO of First Automobile are visiting.”

“Oh? Are they interested in magnetic levitation vehicles?” Jiang Chen showed interest.

“They heard about the concept of magnetic levitation vehicles and three-dimensional traffic.” Xia Shiyu, proud of the fact, continued. “Especially after learning that magnetic levitation vehicles can effectively alleviate urban traffic congestion.”

Chapter 1024: The Everchanging Coro City

As early as the beginning of March, funded by Luer Motors, Xin State Construction Company carried out magnetic levitation modifications on the two-way six-lane highway from the airport through the city center to the port. Using construction vehicles equipped with a pile driver at the front, the prismatic magnetic generating devices were driven under the road, and the cement was re-cast and paved with asphalt.

Almost in the same month, Luer Motors introduced a magnetic levitation model of a new generation of pure electric vehicles. While maintaining the original wheel structure, the magnetic suspension drive was installed on the chassis. The vehicle could be suspended on the magnetic levitation track.

After exchanging opinions with Luer Motors, Xin Transportation Bureau issued the corresponding Interim Regulations on Magnetic Levitation Traffic Management, tentatively designating the area between 4.5 and 20 meters above the road as a special zone for maglev vehicles; no flying devices were permitted to pass. Based on different speeds, five different tracks with different heights were delineated.

The first track was a buffer track with a height of five meters and a speed limit of less than ten kilometers, equivalent to the speed of a normal motor vehicle in the first gear.

The speed of 60 kilometers per hour was limited to the track eight meters high, and the speed of 80 kilometers per hour was limited to an eleven-meter-high track. The speed of one hundred kilometers was the maximum speed for manual driving and was located on a track fourteen meters high. As for the 17-meter-high track, the automatic cruising track was fixed at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

Maglev vehicles were faster and safer than conventional vehicles. Vehicles driving at the same height were equal in speed, so there was no problem with collisions or rear-end collisions. When entering the top track, maglev vehicles entered automatic cruise mode with the speed locked at 150 kilometers an hour. After setting the route, artificial intelligence replaced the driver to complete driving tasks.

As for the adjustments in the details of overpasses, acceleration, parking, traffic lights, changing tracks, and drivers’ licenses, there were also relevant regulations in new traffic management. A total of 100,000 words partially detailed all the problems.

At this point, Xin’s traffic had officially leaped to the three-dimensional traffic era.

From now on, Coro City would gradually complete the magnetic levitation transformation of every road in the urban area. By then, with a magnetic levitation car, it would be possible to enjoy the speed of the highway despite being in the heart of the city. Even if the population density doubled, there would be no need to worry about traffic jams.

Coro City would still require a period to popularize the magnetic levitation vehicles, while Penglai City already fully promoted this technology. As early as the completion of the city, the magnetic levitation track was embedded under the urban traffic network. With the introduction of the Interim Regulations on Magnetic Levitation Traffic Management and the release of the Luer EML model, this novel transportation vehicle was popularized in the city on the sea.

However, this innovative vehicle did not receive the attention that it deserved in the international community.

The reason for this was mainly because the concept of the magnetic levitation wasn’t a novel concept.

What’s more, Luer EML’s release just happened be in the midst of a conflict between two “private military contractors” in Ukraine. Celestial Trade even revealed two lethal weapons, outer space weapons and orbital airborne troops. This series of moves snatched headlines from Luer Motor and attention from the international community, causing the innovative technology to not receive the recognition it deserved.

However, from the number of views of the vehicle from major social media sites, people were quite interested in the transportation vehicle that could fly on the road. The citizens of UA, known as the country constantly behind the wheel, immediately headed to Luer stores to demand a release date of the new Luer EML, which made the store managers quite dumbfounded.

They obviously didn’t understand the maglev car only worked on roads specifically designed for this purpose. Before the introduction of the magnetic levitation vehicle, magnetic levitation roads must be first built. And this decision wouldn’t be the decision of a certain company but rather depended on the transportation department of the nation.

However, the first one to knock on the door wasn’t the UA across the ocean but neighboring Hua.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang, my name is Zhou Yuanyuan. This is Guo Maolin, General Manager Guo…”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang.” Manager Guo smiled and shook Jiang Chen’s hand with great enthusiasm. “I have long heard of Mr. Jiang’s profound reputation!”

“That’s flattering.” Jiang Chen modestly arched his hand, but he felt great about the comment.

After some small talk, Jiang Chen invited the two to sit. The office assistant poured tea for the three then left the office. Minister Zhou perhaps knew about Jiang Chen’s temper. He took a sip of the tea and without being indirect, he mentioned the purpose of his visit.

“I’ll be honest. After seeing the magnetic levitation cars in Coro City and Penglai City, I was quite astonished! A concept that originally belonged in films has now became reality bit by bit because of your work.” Minister Zhou smiled kindly. “I’ll be straightforward. Is Mr. Jiang interested in the Hua market?”

“Mr. Zhou wants to bring magnetic levitation cars to Hua?”

“Exactly.” Minister Zhou nodded seriously and said with a smile, “This magnetic levitation car is an amazing invention tailored for major metropolitans like Wanghai! If cars can be suspended in the air without any safety issue, then we don’t have to put restrictions and only use temporary solutions.”

“I understand what you mean. Magnetic levitation vehicles do help greatly in relieving traffic pressure. But you might not know that our magnetic levitation cars can only travel on a specific type of road. Bring the car to the market is only the second priority; the first priority is to build the right infrastructure,” Jiang Chen explained.

“Then… is it difficult to develop the infrastructure?”

“The construction isn’t difficult, but it isn’t cheap,” Jiang Chen said bluntly, “And the most important thing is on the policy-side. Without the traffic regulations related to magnetic levitation vehicles, we don’t have the guts to export this. We’re a proper business and we can’t sell a shady product.”

“Hahaha, Mr. Jiang certainly has humor. Money isn’t a problem. As for the policy, since I came here, do you still have to worry about policy making?” Minister Zhou grinned and put down the teacup in his hand. “This purpose of my trip was to discuss this traffic regulation issue. I have to learn from you, and I hope Mr. Jiang won’t mind?”

“Of course I don’t mind. I will have my assistant print a copy of the provisional regulations for you.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Thank you, thank you! Right, the next issue is for you business people. Rest assured about the policy side; this has already been discussed by the Central Committee. If we can reach an agreement, this will benefit the country and the people. I would like to thank Mr. Jiang on behalf of the people!” Minister Zhou said then looked at Manager Guo before he handed the conversation to him. “Little Guo, why don’t you chat with Mr. Jiang?”

Chapter 1025: A Consensus View

First Motor was a deputy ministry level organization and was under the supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. However, the deputy minister referred to the chairman directly appointed by the state, not the general manager in charge of business operations. As for the general manager, there was generally no administrative level associated with the position, but the power was equivalent to a department level. (1)

Right now, both men sitting across from Jiang Chen were senior officials of the Hua Republic.

Jiang Chen always eyed the Hua auto market, and Hua just happened to have a strong need for magnetic levitation vehicles. Luer’s patents on magnetic levitation technology were controlled by Future Heavy Industries. Future Heavy Industries planned to use these patents for a joint venture with First Motor.

The purpose of a joint venture was to reduce taxes but also to receive preferential policies. In contrast, the magnetic levitation vehicles would only be sold in Hua, so it wouldn’t take market shares away from other Asian markets.

The most important reason for joint ventures with state-owned enterprises was to reduce the amount of troubles that could arise from entering alone. It was better to not worry about minor problems not worth Jiang Chen’s time.

In addition, when forming a joint venture with First Motor, Luer would continue to expand in the Hua market with a focus on the high-end market.

The supporting magnetic levitation roads would be funded by the Ministry of Transportation with Future Heavy Industries providing the technology and equipment. The project would be open to bidding by all construction companies in Hua.

The first phase of the project was to be based in Wanghai. The existing road infrastructure in a part of the Wanghai urban area would be converted. If it indeed had a positive effect, the project would be promoted to the first-tier cities across the country then gradually cover the major highway network before entering second and third tier cities.

After talking with Minister Zhou about the supporting infrastructure, Jiang Chen suddenly had an idea and smiled.

“Well, since we’re building magnetic levitation roads, we have to provide magnetic levitation technology. Since the magnetic levitation vehicles are all pure electric vehicles. why not just give me the charging stations to develop as well to avoid compatibility issues?”

Jiang Chen completely made up the compatibility issue.

The wireless charging technology of Celestial Trade was extremely high-end, but only Xin achieved full adoption of wireless charging stations. Most of the charging stations in the gas stations in other countries were mainly wired. However, in these countries, it was still possible to see Luer. Those vehicle owners weren’t worried about finding charging stations.

The secret was that Luer pure electric cars sold overseas were equipped with a notebook-sized wired-to-wireless conversion device which connected to the charging line of wired charging stations. As long as the car was parked within ten meters, it would charge the vehicle.

Minister Zhou apparently didn’t understand the details. He nodded thoughtfully. Only, when he was about to make a decision, he was troubled.

“This… doesn’t seem to be within the jurisdiction our Ministry of Transportation. The management of gas stations is complicated. Some of the gas stations on the highway are owned by the state oil companies, and some are operated by local enterprises or even self-employed individuals. But I will help pass on your opinion. As to how to implement that…”

“It’s not that troublesome.” Jiang Chen smiled and waved his hand. “You can’t stick to the rules. The charging stations don’t have to connect to a large tank. You don’t have to build it in a gas station. I think the highway service areas are a great idea. Think about it—put four or five charging stations in the parking lot of the service area, and the owners can park their cars there. The cars can be charged in a meal’s time. Not only is this convenient for people, but it can also increase passenger traffic in the service area. A win-win situation.”

Minister Zhou’s eyes lit up. As soon as he heard the proposal, he immediately understood the benefits.

Although the gas stations weren’t overseen by the Ministry of Communications, the highway service areas were operated by the local transportation department. The income generated by the service area made up part of the profits of the operating company, while the other part was fiscal revenue! And this income was at least above ten billion a year!

Not only would he gain political achievements but the benefits would also be visible. With such a big piece of cake in front of him, Minister Zhou couldn’t sit still.

“I will go back and study this proposal. This should be no problem!”

Since the Minister of Transportation assured him, then it was pretty much decided.

Soon, the assistant brought a copy of the “Provisional Regulations on the Management of the Magnetic Levitation Traffic in Xin” and handed it over to Minister Zhou.

The purpose of this trip was completed. With an important thought in his mind, Minister Zhou immediately bid farewell to Manager Guo.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the top floor office, Jiang Chen overlooked the car that left Future Building and finally burst out laughing.

He didn’t care about the income from the charging stations. The national grid would take the majority of the cake. The operating company would take a bite then regional finance and also the central government would also want a piece. Although he created the cake, only a small remained in the end.

What he really cared about was the fact that he would develop the standards.

If the charging stations of all highway service areas were replaced with wireless charging piles manufactured by Future Heavy Industries, then other competitors who wanted to enter the pure electric vehicle market would have to accept the standard set by Future Heavy industries and simultaneously pay a licensing fee and certification fee. Otherwise, the car owners would be in constant search for charging stations.

Indirectly, Future Heavy Industries established the standard and raised the barriers of entry and the cost of potential competitors. The benefits generated by this would be far greater than the operation of the charging stations themselves, but this wouldn’t be realized in the short term.

In addition, the service of charging stations would be linked to Future Technology’s service.

The user would only need to click on the button “Pure electric vehicle charging” in Future 1.0. The application would complete the charging service and retrieve payment based on the user’s GPS information.

Moreover, on the mobile phone, the user would also be able to view the electricity price of the nearby charging pile in real time. In the future, they wouldn’t need to have a bunch of cards and complete the operation completely card-free.

Back at the desk, Jiang Chen opened the holographic screen and called Yang Guanglei, the CEO of Future Heavy Industries. He informed him of the cooperation with First Motor and the necessity to expand the production line of wireless charging stations.

Not just on the highway, but all the parking lots in the city also required this infrastructure. If Hua was determined to implement “three-dimensional traffic,” then pure electric vehicles would enter a period of high growth.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chen sank into the chair and stretched his body. Then he asked the assistant to pour out the tea for a cup of coffee.

But just now, there was a phone call from Kelvin.

(1) The administration level follows the descending order of, state, ministry, department, unit, and office.

Chapter 1026: The List of Colonists

As soon as he picked up, Kelvin’s voice came from the other side of the phone. Jiang Chen heard a hint of excitement—it must be good news.

“The list has been determined. Do you want to see it?”

“List? What list?”

“The first colonists to Mars or pioneers. The equipment needed to colonize Mars was completed last month, and the list of colonists was finally finalized. In a few days, the colonists and equipment will be shipped to Celestial City. I thought you would be interested. Do you want to come for a visit?” Kelvin asked with a smile.

“Wait for me at the experimental base. I will come soon.”

Jiang Chen immediately stood up and headed for the door.

However, just as he was about to open the door, the door opened by itself.

A beautiful secretary in a professional suit was holding a coffee and smiling at him sweetly.

“President, your coffee.”

Jiang Chen then remembered that he had just asked for a cup of coffee.

Looking at the white mist floating above the cup, it didn’t look like it could be drank in one chug. He was silent for two seconds before he awkwardly said, “Ummm, can you drink it for me?”

Located in the northern part of Ange Island was the Space Training Base. It became a space research base for Xin and the rest of the world. It was home to aerospace scientists from all over the world, astronauts who received professional training, and volunteers longing for the boundless space.

The Mars Colonization Experimental Base was also located there, but due to the confidentiality of the project, the research center nearly 100 acres in size seemed very deserted. The place wasn’t open to the public and tourists, nor did it accept any interviews. Outside, Celestial Trade stationed soldiers with security measures as strict as a military base.

A Luer sedan stopped at the checkpoint gate. After the soldier confirmed the identity of the visitor, he respectfully performed a military salute then opened the checkpoint.

Jiang Chen entered the experimental base following Kelvin’s assistant.

Standing at the door of the test site, Kelvin constantly glanced at his watch and looked like he had been waiting for a long time. When he met Jiang Chen, he gave Jiang Chen a big hug then stuffed the list in his hand before going to the test field.

The lunar colony base had yet been built, and the Stingray that traveled for tens of millions of kilometers had yet to return, but this didn’t prevent Celestial Trade from spreading seeds to farther places. Most importantly, the ecological circulation system on the lunar base already provided a theoretical basis for the construction of the Mars Colonization Base. Although Celestial Trade had yet to develop spaceships that could travel between Earth and Mars, it could still send a small number of people there first to build an outpost.

It would certainly burn through cash, but with so much money, it was meant to be burned through.

At least Jiang Chen believed that with sufficient cash, it would be much more meaningful to burn money in the sky than to burn it elsewhere.

“Zhang Cheng, male, 27 years old. Occupation: High School Teacher.”

“Chen Huaiyu, female, 28 years old. Occupation: Surgeon.”

“Duncan Fabio, male, 31. Occupation: Aerospace Technical Engineer, Astrophysics Expert.”

“Christina Michel, female, 27 years old. Occupation: Artist…”

“…”

A total of 20 people was included in the list from different countries. They stood out from the 10,000 volunteers and were selected as pioneers of Mars to establish an outpost.

“Interesting. There’s even a football player? Is there a football field on Mars?”

Looking at the personal information of the colonists on the list, Jiang Chen followed Kelvin and visited the equipment displayed on the experimental base. Normally, the colonists also trained there. But now, they were enjoying their last holiday on Earth and bidding farewell to their loved ones on Earth.

“In order to understand the adaptability and psychological pressure of people with different occupations in the Mars environment, we considered sending professionals in non-technical fields when selecting colonists. This is part of the experiment… Ummm, a part of the colonial plan. Look here—this is the colonial unit, the center of the future Mars colony, and the center of the ecological recycling device of the entire colony. Its shape is quite unique, isn’t it?” Kelvin grinned, revealing his white teeth.

“Looks like a sewage treatment plant.” Looking at the rows of pipelines on the surface and the hexagonal egg-shaped main structure, Jiang Chen was fascinated.

“Well… your perspective is quite unique. Let’s continue. This is a small nuclear fusion generator. The Mars atmosphere is thin and there’s no protection from the magnetic field. Although the content of helium-3 in the soil isn’t as rich as the soil on the moon, it’s still possible to find helium-3 rich areas. The only issue is deuterium—we have to send it from Earth. It seems that we must quickly find a solution to the problem of the third generation of nuclear fusion. If the nuclear fusion energy only consumes helium-3, the burden on the lunar colony will also be alleviated.”

“Research needs time, but I think this shouldn’t be a long-standing problem,” Jiang Chen said reluctantly.

The third generation of nuclear fusion was already the main research project of Camp 27 in the apocalypse, but there was little progress. It was only in scientific research in which he couldn’t arrange a fixed timetable. Maybe after he woke up tomorrow, they would have a breakthrough in the research. Or maybe it would be like the warp drive, where research progress was completely stagnated.

Kelvin shrugged. He continued to walk down and introduced a prismatic shaped house.

“This is the colonial living unit, divided into four sections, which can house four families. They are connected through pipes and will eventually be connected to the colonial unit.”

“This is?” Jiang Chen turned his eyes to the rear of the living unit, which was a device shaped like an aquarium fish tank. Through the translucent outer wall, he could see a row of thin round tubes. The tubes were covered with thick moss and soaked in the culture solution.

“This is a fungus culture room.” A confident smile appeared on Kelvin’s face.

“Growing mushrooms?”

“That’s not the case.” Kelvin laughed and went up to pat the giant fish tank covered with moss. “Special strains of fungus are being bred that can survive in high carbon dioxide concentration and low gravity situations. Through photosynthesis, the carbon dioxide in the air is converted into organic matter, and oxygen is generated at the same time. This can be used in conjunction with the organic converter. I drank the nutrient supply, and the taste isn’t bad.”

“You’ll get sick of it after a few days.” Jiang Chen made fun of Kelvin while examining this device. But then a doubt entered his mind. “I remember that photosynthesis requires an extensive amount of water. Is there ice on Mars?”

“There’s liquid water, but it’s very scarce—mostly permeated in the soil. It has a very high salinity, just like brine. But fortunately, we have the means to turn it into pure water. By analyzing the rock formation and the terrain, we will select the landing site in a lake sedimentary area. Then we have to talk about this equipment.” Kervin walked in front of a standing long cylindrical tube and patted the silver surface. “This is a centrifugal pump. While this isn’t anything high-tech, it will absolutely be useful on Mars.”

Chapter 1027: Mars Colonization Plan

Even the closest calculated distance from Mars to Earth was hundreds of times the distance between Earth and Moon. A distance that would even take light three minutes to travel. Under the current technical conditions, it was unrealistic to establish a supply line to and from the Mars colony and Celestial City.

At present, the research plan developed by the Aerospace Research Institute in the apocalypse was to design an engine capable of making return trips between Mars and Earth. The engine must accelerate a million-ton transport ship to escape velocity 60,000 kilometers per hour, so the duration of the trip would be between a week to half a month. Although the technical barriers were overcome long before the war, no engine drawings were available for reference. So the engine must be redesigned based on the technologies of their predecessors.

Jiang Chen felt this was the greatest misfortune.

The Zhenghe Space Colonization Ship could accelerate to one-tenth of the speed of light. However, the researchers involved in the design of the engine were invaluably talented and definitely didn’t stay on the wasteland.

Since establishing a supply line was impossible for the time being, it meant that the colony on Mars must be self-sufficient. It must have a higher resource utilization efficiency than the lunar base, and the production cost of its equipment reflected the challenge.

At the end of the tour, Kelvin gave Jiang Chen a number.

The cost of the entire facility totalled 25 billion XND, and 90% of the structure must be manufactured through industrial 3D printers. It only took 20 people to burn off the market value of his public company which made even Jiang Chen feel the pain.

On the first Friday after his return to Xin, it was time to launch the Mars Colonization Plan.

On top of the offshore platform of Celestial City, Jiang Chen sent twenty colonists to the space elevator. After shaking hands with them, they were personally presented with commemorative medals in recognition of their contributions and sacrifices for the space industry.

Upon arrival in Celestial City, they would receive a week of training. At the end of the training, they would board the ship and sail to Mars tens of millions of kilometers away.

For now, it was a one-way ticket. In the next few years or even a dozen years, they would spend their lives on the barren Mars. At least until return flights were possible, they wouldn’t be able to see their loved ones even once.

The scenes of parting were touching. All the people present were in tears, witnessing the families of the heroes and heroes saying goodbye. Media from all over the world recorded this historic moment and spread the news to every corner of the global community.

The responses from NASA and SpaceX were quite calm after Celestial Trade beat them to a completely manned mission to Mars. They had fully prepared for this day since the completion of the space elevator.

SpaceX silently canceled their Mars mission originally scheduled to start in 2020 and focused on adjusting its business focus to the development of asteroid resources.

However, all this had nothing to do with Jiang Chen. Regardless of whether SpaceX adjusted its business strategy, he never considered them a competitor in the space race.

As for the reactions of the UA and Hua, he also hadn’t considered them too much.

After end of the ceremony, Jiang Chen cleared all of his plans and spent his weekend leisurely. He woke up naturally in the morning, spent the afternoon surfing or just lay on the private beach sunbathing. As for the evenings, even if he didn’t want to, he would be dragged into the gentleness of his girls.

Occasionally, only occasionally, when Xia Shiyu couldn’t handle his embrace, she would seek help from Ayesha who happened to be peeking. It was only when she woke up the next day when she would feel ashamed of everything that happened last night.

Good times always flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was May.

With Celestial Trade joining the regional conflict, the Ukraine war situation welcomed a historic turning point. Following Jiang Chen’s orders, Celestial Trade soldiers who helped to advance the front line to the east bank of the Dnieper River stopped all attacks. They began to take a defensive stance. Other than maintaining air support, most of the ground forces had withdrawn from the front lines.

It wasn’t the time to win.

NATO wouldn’t allow Ukraine to fall to the east, and Jiang Chen didn’t like the idea of satisfying the polar bear at once. However, he couldn’t be too obvious with his reluctance. After all, his employer paid money. Fortunately, Arrow sent 20,000 mercenaries to Ukraine and launched mobile warfare against the militants in the northern towns. This also gave an opportunity for Celestial Trade to maintain the stalemate.

Perhaps Celestial Trade’s reluctance gave the Arrow commander an illusion of “winning”. At the end of April, the two divisions of the Ukraine Army launched a new round of attack.

A total of 120 tanks, 327 armored vehicles, 27 armed helicopters and 10 fighters participated in the war. Steel shambles and tarred black smoke spread throughout every inch of the eastern suburbs of Dnepropetrovsk.

If it wasn’t for the two Celestial Trade brigades’ timely rescue, they would’ve almost done it. Both sides suffered a lot of casualties with Ukraine ending up in defeat. The two divisions returned to the west bank of the Dnieper River.

Because of the tragic defeat of the Ukraine Army on the east bank, the Ukraine president was almost forced to step down. However, with NATO support, he managed to stay in office.

The two sides were deadlocked on both sides of the Dnieper River, and no one could gain an inch. The situation finally eased.

In addition to carrying out the airstrike mission, Aurora-20s occasionally snuck into the airspace of Poland, Frankberg, and even France. Following Jiang Chen’s orders, they cooperated with Ghost Agents to search for Carmen’s whereabouts.

Carmen was certainly devious. Since the assassination at Pilsner, he seemed to have disappeared. All the events in which he must appear in public were given to his spokesperson or professional manager. He completely hid behind the scenes. Occasionally, he resurfaced only to quickly disappear again.

Even with the help of high-tech investigative means, it was difficult to pin a person’s whereabouts in massive Europe. What’s more, with the strong grasp of Freemasonry inside its home base, the organization’s power integrated and was entrenched into every aspect of the continent. If Carmen didn’t want to reveal himself, the possibility of catching him was almost zero.

Ghost Agents operating in Europe previously captured traces of Carmen’s activities in Switzerland and Finland, but when they arrived, he had long escaped.

But it wasn’t like they gained nothing.

On the morning of May 4th, Monica Geller, who returned from Europe to Coro Island, brought two interesting pieces of news to Jiang Chen…

Chapter 1028: The Destination of the Secret Flight

Earth time, May 4th.

1In the vast space tens of millions of kilometers away from Earth, a spacecraft travelled at a constant speed.

In this spacecraft without any apparent trace of life, a young man lay inside. He wore a respirator and lay quietly in the hibernation chamber. His bodily functions seemed to have completely stopped. The entire hibernation chamber was attached to the cockpit. The inside of the glass was scattered with ice shards that just looked like an ice coffin.

The blue signal light flashed dim, accompanied by a quiet noise. The mist slowly floated out from the gaps on both sides of the hibernation chamber and was removed by the fan located inside. The top glass cover slowly opened, and the entire hibernation chamber was split into four steel shells that began to retract to the back.

“Hibernation has now ended…”

An electronic voice without any emotion rang in his ears. Liu Qingpeng opened his eyes, then moved his stiff limbs. Taking off the respirator, his stomach twitched abruptly. He bowed down and tried to vomit, but nothing came out except for his stomach acid.

In order to prevent the food in his stomach from damaging the internal stability of his body due to decay, he only ate nutrient supply for three days before the flight.

Holding the control in his hands, the feeling of coldness gradually faded. After a while, Liu Qingpeng recovered from the state of discomfort.

“I… am here?”

“I am connecting the navigator for you… please wait.” The electronic voice spoke again after it had confirmed the pilot’s heartbeat, and the green signal light flashed. Soon, a burst of static noise entered his ears and began to become more clear.

“This is the command center. Please respond after hearing this message.”

Liu Qingpeng adjusted his breathing. He pressed on the helmet and turned on the microphone. “Stingray A-1, received.”

Navigator: “I am very happy to hear your voice again. It seems that you are still alive… static…”

Liu Qingpeng smiled and moved his sore neck. “Can I take this as your blessing?”

“Of course.”

From the ground command center to his current position, even electromagnetic waves must take four to five minutes. However, with quantum entanglement communication technology, the distance of tens of millions of kilometers was eliminated. Although there was noise mixed in the communication, it was fairly clear.

Following the instructions of the navigator, he re-corrected the route and the Stingray began to slow down.

In his current position, he could observe unnatural black spots with optical instruments.

This discovery made him both excited and anxious. He was excited by his luck; no accidents had occurred on this flight of death. He was anxious because even the navigator couldn’t tell him what was waiting for him out there.

He glanced at the Gauss Rifle plugged on the right side of the cockpit. However, the rifle which cost one million XND didn’t give him an increased sense of security. He was even wondering if he encountered an alien with a laser gun, would this expensive “toy” come in handy?

“Move close to the UFO. If the other side attacks… static…”

The communication from the ground command center was abruptly interrupted. Liu Qingpeng frowned and restarted the communication device, but he still couldn’t receive any signal.

“Communication shielded?” he murmured while rubbing the safety in his hand. He examined the unnatural blackness of dozens of kilometers through the optical sight.

There was no extra energy for him to change course, fly out of the communication-shielded area, and obtain new instructions. With only one chance for contact, only twenty-four hours were left for him to investigate the target.

Traveling a distance dozens of kilometers took the Stingray A-1 a few hours. When the dark UFO was close to a distance that could be observed by the naked eye, the Stingray finally ended its deceleration phase and reached a relatively static state.

All communications were blocked; even the drone showed no images after being released.

Looking at the darkness a few hundred meters out, Liu Qingpeng hesitated for a moment. He then gritted his teeth and pulled out the Gauss rifle from his right leg. He buckled the gun to his spacesuit then manually opened the cockpit before jumping into the darkness.

In the boundless space, the fear programmed in his genes instinctively overwhelmed him.

After taking a few deep breaths, he finally overcame his biological fear. His arms bent backward, controlling the small nozzles with his joints, and drifted out to the UFO.

When he approached the ten-meter mark, the oddity disappeared abruptly. In front of his flashlight, a silver-white ball about 10 meters in diameter suddenly appeared in his vision. At this moment, he could only conclude that this was definitely not a natural phenomenon.

Liu Qingpeng raised the Gauss Rifle, controlled the nozzle to adjust his speed, flew around the ball, and found a twisted fracture on the back of the ball. On the steel-like frame in the fracture, fragments of meteorites could be seen.

“It was hit by a meteorite? What a coincidence…” Liu Qingpeng whispered aloud, but he was secretly relieved.

The energy of the flying object was obviously exhausted and couldn’t dodge an incoming meteorite. In fact, when he came in, he still had some concerns. If the flying object suddenly flew away, he really wouldn’t be able to get back.

The spherical flying object was three levels in size and the middle level was the widest. On this flying object, he didn’t find any traces of aliens nor any traces of hibernation chambers or even a cockpit.

Perhaps it was unmanned itself, or perhaps he was unable to understand the way in which the higher beings operated the flying object.

“It seems that this toy isn’t useful after all.” Liu Qingpeng barely forced out a smile and lowered the muzzle. He walked back and forth in front of the ball and carefully checked every corner while collecting evidence.

This aircraft should’ve belonged to a certain civilization, and in all likelihood, it was a civilization that had disappeared in the passage of time.

Nature erased everything that existed in it, leaving behind only the wreckage floating in boundless space.

It took about 30 minutes. Liu Qingpeng captured every corner of the flying object. After collecting one gigabyte of data, his mission was completed.

This should be the case.

However, just as he returned to the middle layer, he stood next to the platform that he had first examined. He used the flashlight to unintentionally find a dent on the flat table.

The dent was very special, as if only the light at a certain angle could make it appear.

“This is?” Frowning, he reached out and touched the dent. At the same time, a prism of light illuminated from the platform. A rounded sphere slowly rose from the other side of the platform, separated from the platform, and floated above the platform.

This lost civilization seemed to be fond of spheres.

Looking at the fluorescent ball, Liu Qingpeng, unable to control his curiosity, reached out…

Chapter 1029: A Historic Discovery

It was easy to grab the ball. The imagined scenario of him being bounced back didn’t happen.

However, when he tried to move the ball, the unnatural resistance made him stop.

There was no gravity in the universe, but the inertia of matter itself made it resist any changes in motion. Liu Qingpeng looked at the small ball, thinking it was peculiar. His right hand, which touched the ball, did not feel like it was touching a small ball, but a massive meteorite.

“What the hell is this stuff, and how is it so heavy?”

Liu Qingpeng cursed as he took out a mass analyzer that resembled a spatula. He knocked on the ball with force.

A muffled “bang” passed through the spacesuit into his ears. The ball just moved slightly and slowly drifted to the other side of the flying object. At this moment, the mass analyzer recorded the reaction force and the time, as well the micro-velocity change of the ball’s velocity. Based on all the parameters, it calculated the mass of the ball.

When Liu Qingpeng saw the data sent to his helmet, his eyeballs almost popped out.

“One hundred kilograms? How’s that possible? What’s the density of this thing? Even osmium doesn’t have this density.”

Osmium, which has a relative atomic mass of 190, was currently known as the heaviest metal that existed in nature. He immediately realized that he might’ve made a significant discovery. If possible, he wanted to report his findings to the ground command center immediately, but he was unable to do this because of the breakdown in communication.

Controlling his propulsion, Liu Qingpeng slowly floated over and held the ball in his arms. As he approached the edge of the flying object, he kicked against the wall and flew out of the fracture with the ball.

Carefully avoiding the sharp metal frames, he returned to the empty space. He opened the markers in his helmet and locked on the Stingray. Then he adjusted the output power of the nozzles to the maximum and pushed forward the ball weighing more than 100 kilograms.

With an extra one hundred kilograms hanging on his body, he was afraid that the nitrogen in his spacesuit wouldn’t be enough to “brake”, so Liu Qingpeng flew slowly. His previous trip that only took him fifteen minutes now took him over an hour to complete.

The ball was placed in the cockpit of the Stingray and he carefully fixed it in the compartment behind the seat. He immediately opened the navigator and established the return trip according to the data previously calculated by the quantum computer.

However, at that moment, the red signal light flashed on the operation interface.

“Warning, mass parameters are changed. Insufficient energy to enter return orbit. Please reduce the load inside the spaceship and restart the navigation system.”

Liu Qingpeng’s heart sank to the bottom. He almost forgot the immense mass of the ball. One hundred kilograms was already equivalent to the mass of one adult.

He heistated for a moment. He bit the bullet and reached out to the platform on the right side of the seat. He opened the safety and yanked out a ring.

With a slight tremor, the two laser cannons located below the Stingray A-1 were separated from the fuselage, and the attack module worth tens of millions of XND was abandoned. He could only leave the economic analysis to his superior to determine if he made the right decision.

The signal light was still flashing red, and the cold electronic voice was still so impersonal.

“Please reduce the load on the spacecraft.”

Looking at the remaining five kilograms of load exceeding the value, Liu Qingpeng was sweating profusely.

“Fu*k, I already tossed the attack module. It still wasn’t enough? Wait, there’s still the magazine…”

Since the laser cannons already drifted away, he didn’t feel too bad when he ejected the magazine. Two box-shaped power supply modules were left behind. When he watched the value returning to neutral, he was finally relieved. If he still needed to reduce the load, other than unloading himself, he didn’t even know what else he could throw out.

After restarting the navigator and setting the route, he waited for the Stingray to leave the communication shielded area, then he immediately restarted the communication module on the spacecraft.

“This is Stingray A-1. Command center, please reply…”

“…This is the command center. Navigator 01 continues to serve you.”

The command center, which was originally in a state of gloom due to losing Stingray A-1, erupted in a cheer after communication resumed. Not long ago, several space experts were still arguing whether his failure was due to a communication failure or because of the UFO attacks.

And now it seemed that these arguments were unnecessary.

The quantum computer calculated the returning orbit at the fastest speed. The navigator immediately sent the latest orbital data to the hero who was tens of millions of kilometers away, guiding him on his journey home.

At the same time, the one gigabyte of captured pictures was sent back to the ground command center with the restored communication channel. This valuable information happened to prove Kelvin’s previous hypothesis that the UFO was indeed a masterpiece of a foreign civilization.

This historic discovery was no inferior to the geographical discoveries centuries ago. The century-long debate could finally be settled—they weren’t alone.

It was almost foreseeable that if these photos were made public in the international community, that would undoubtedly create an unprecedented earthquake in every field. However, Celestial Trade would never disclose these photos and all data would be treated as top secret for at least 50 years.

“Minister, please take a look at this.”

Kelvin’s assistant walked next to him and handed a printed photo to him.

“This?” As Kelvin examined the photo, the frown grew more apparent on his eyebrows. He picked up the photo and examined it more carefully.

It was a picture of a small ball with its size, mass and other information marked next to it. When he saw the data in the mass column, he paused to process it for a moment. Then he turned to his assistant with a peculiar expression and knocked on the photo with his knuckles.

“Is this unit wrong? One hundred kilograms? How is this possible?”

“There’s no mistake in the data… Although I thought he was wrong at first, he insisted that he hadn’t made a mistake.”

“How did he start acceleration?” Kelvin looked at the assistant and asked in disbelief. “If I remember correctly, the Stingray X-1 series aircraft has a weight limit except for the C-1 freight type.”

“He ejected the two laser cannons under the spacecraft and a power supply module used as the magazine.” The assistant swallowed and said seriously, “If this wasn’t a trick by aliens, we might’ve discovered a new element that we’ve never seen or imagined before.”

“Look after the situation for me. I have to make a call.”

Kelvin clearly also realized this. He gave the command to his assistant, then walked to the door hastily.

While walking, he clicked twice on his wrist. The call was to Jiang Chen’s office.

Chapter 1030: A Not Interesting Piece of News

On the morning of May 4th, Jiang Chen met Ms. Monica at the top floor office of Future Building. Although she was also in a black long skirt, compared to their last meeting, she was so much thinner that her high cheek bones were even more visible.

It was evident that she had been under high stress which took a toll on her physically and emotionally.

Jiang Chen asked the assistant to change the coffee into hot cocoa.

Monica smiled and nodded to show her appreciation for the boss’ kindness.

Holding the hot cocoa in her hand, she cleared her thoughts and began to report on her work.

“Carmen is still missing. We’ve tracked evidence of his whereabouts in the estates of Switzerland, Finland and other places, but we didn’t encounter him. However, when tracing his whereabouts, we intercepted a letter to the Krupp headquarters, which revealed very interesting information.”

2“It’s this letter? There are still people who don’t know how to use e-mail in the 21st century.” Picking up the envelope that was already open on the desk, Jiang Chen grinned. “What do these numbers mean?”

“A special password.” Monica nodded. “After deciphering it, we found out that this is a cargo transfer document.”

“What cargo?”

“The wreckage of the K1 kinetic skeleton, a small portion from Country F, mostly from Ukraine.”

Jiang Chen frowned.

The thing he worried about the most had still happened.

No war could end unscathed. Even with the most advanced technology, the Orbital Airborne Brigades of Celestial Trade still suffered more than 20 casualties.

As the most violent process between two civilizations, war was a method of learning and influencing both sides. The most direct method was the tools used to kill. Before the Spaniards landed in the Americas, the indigenous people still used bows and spears, but in just over a decade, the tribes learned how to use the weapons of civilized people.

That was one of the reasons why Jiang Chen always used power armor and the Tiger II tank as secret weapons, and he never directly entered a battle.

“Did they make any progress?” Jiang Chen asked thoughtfully.

“They reversed engineered the K1 kinetic skeleton to a certain degree and created an exoskeleton code named ‘Lightning’. But neither the load capacity nor the defensive capability is comparable to our model; it’s more bulky and heavy.”

“But these fakes have been able to defend against light weapons and improve the survivability of soldiers on the battlefield. Am I right?” Jiang Chen looked at Monica, who was hesitant, as he smiled nonchalantly.

“That’s the case.” Monica nodded. “The parts of the ‘Lightning’ exoskeleton produced by the Krupp Group have been delivered to Arrow and shipped to Ukraine for field testing.”

In fact, the military exoskeleton had been around for a decade, but it hadn’t been applied in the real world. With the introduction of Lightning, Jiang Chen could only sigh. Even without the wreckage of the K1 kinetic skeleton, they would sooner or later be able to design exoskeleton equipment suitable for modern warfare. Celestial Trade only accelerated the timeline.

However, the product was ultimately a fake, and the gap couldn’t be closed in a short time.

They couldn’t copy neural connection technology and material science research was difficult to reverse engineer. Even knowing the molecular configuration of the K1 kinetic skeleton polyethylene shell, that didn’t mean they could replicate the design. The core technology was still controlled by Celestial Trade. As for the mechanical mechanism and functional design, they could freely copy it if they wished.

Jiang Chen’s fingers gently tapped on the table. After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen told her. “After a few days, when you go back to Europe, see if you can get the design of the ‘Lightning’. It’d be best to get the weapon test report. We must know their progress at least. As for Carmen… Keep an eye on his whereabouts, but don’t let him take all of our attention away.”

“A very challenging task, but I think I can try.” Monica smiled.

It was easier to steal information from Krupp Group than to chase an invisible person.

“I heard you had two things to report. The other thing is?” Jiang Chen then asked.

“When we traced Carmen Rothschild, we discovered an underground factory by coincidence. From their products, we found this thing.” Then Monica took out a black ball from her jacket and gently placed it on Jiang Chen’s desk. “They call it the Golden Apple, although it has nothing to do gold. It’s said to be related to the legacy of the Third Reich in World War II, but we haven’t determined any connections.”

“That’s to be expected, because they don’t even know themselves.”

Looking at the Golden Apple, Jiang Chen’s expression was strange. He didn’t expect that after Carmen got the Golden Apple from him, he started to produce it at “scale.” The Remnants of the Void told him personally that their connection with this timeline had been cut off.

Even if they produced more “radios”, the station had already closed down.

“I’m very curious… How did they produce this stuff?” Jiang Chen picked up the black ball and examined it carefully

Monica put down the hot cocoa in her hand and answered: “It’s believed that they used embryonic stem cell differentiation technology which contains extracts of primate brain tissue.”

Jiang Chen nodded and put the Golden Apple aside.

“Just leave this here with me for now. You can stop the investigation of the Golden Apple for now. It doesn’t have any purpose.”

“But…”

Monica’s expression was hesitant. She felt that there might be some big hidden secret. It would be a pity if she missed any valuable information. However, Jiang Chen knew it was a bottomless pit without any return.

“Do as I say,” Jiang Chen ordered.

“Yes.” Monica bowed her head.

After knocking on the door, the assistant walked in and took away the coffee cup. When she asked if Monica would like another hot cocoa, Monica declined. She had reported all her work and she still need to report to her boss, Ayesha, on New Moon Island.

Jiang Chen entered deep thought as he watched Monica leave.

The EU integration movement was in full swing, and Carmen’s whereabouts were still unknown. He couldn’t think of an idea that could track a person’s coordinates, even in the apocalypse.

Just then, Kelvin’s call interrupted his thoughts again.

After picking up, a smile finally formed on his face.

After listening to one piece of bad news and one not-so-bad news, one piece of good news had finally arrived.

The Stingray A-1 sent to the UFO a month ago successfully entered return orbit. Just like they had previously hypothesized, the UFO did come from an unknown higher civilization.

It was good news because, according to the astronauts who performed the mission, the UFO turned out to be wreckage or relic abandoned for many years.

And the most exciting thing was that he also brought back something interesting from that flying object.

Chapter 1031: Insurmountable

“Let me guess, you are Lin Yi?”

The girl shook her head. Her big, curious eyes blinked with innocence as she looked straight at Jiang Chen.

If she dyed her long luscious black hair silver and then put on some red contact lenses, then she would be no different than Lin Lin.

“Well… then you are?”

“No. 1004,” The girl quickly replied.

Not even a name? That’s simple.

Jiang Chen shook his head with a bitter smile. He rubbed her head to comfort her.

The girl felt the sympathy in his eyes, but she showed a confused expression to his sympathy. Clearly, she did not understand the reason for his sympathy, or that she did not think that being nameless was worthy of sympathy.

“Do you want a name?” Jiang Chen looked into her eyes.

The girl shook her head and then suddenly raised her head, as if she had received some kind of signal, and ran away.

Jiang Chen looked at the direction No.1004 ran to, then he stood up straight and looked at the newly built research institute in his backyard

Ten days ago, the institute was completed, and Lin Lin’s sisters had already moved in. Because she was very pleased with the design of the institute, Lin Lin took the largest laboratory as her own and then moved the experimental equipment piled up in her room there.

She finally made space in her bedroom.

To make it easier for Lin Lin, the construction party created a small door that could access the research institute from the mansion based on the request of Jiang Chen. Other than Lin Lin who used the door every day, her sisters occasionally slipped into the backyard of the mansion to stare at the flowers and plants.

As for why Jiang Chen was standing there, the story began two days ago.

…

The clock turned back to two days ago, May 4th.

Kelvin called from the ground command centre and reported some good news to him. The Stingray A-1 tasked with the UFO investigation successfully returned. It did not find signs of life on the flying object and brought back a sample.

Although the sample had not been delivered, the relevant data was transmitted to the ground command centre. However, many experts and scientists were puzzled by the fact that the density of the sample reached an astounding 2,985 grams per cubic centimeter.

Intuition told Jiang Chen that it was something incredible.

In fact, it was not even intuition. Hawking, who participated in the research project of extraterrestrial civilization, directly told him that this discovery was likely to completely change the perception of matter in modern physics. There was no single element that could form a substance with such high density while still being stable.

Since modern science could not explain it, Jiang Chen immediately sought help from the future.

After Kelvin organized all the data, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse. He tossed the USB stored with the highest class confidential information to Lin Lin.

After receiving the data, Lin Lin completely locked herself in her lab for two straight days. Seeing her serious attitude, Jiang Chen did not bother her. He decided to stay in the apocalypse during those two days and had been taking morning and evening walks in the backyard.

Just then, he saw Lin Lin at the door.

The little girl didn’t seem to have slept at all. She was yawning while walking toward him.

“I’m finally done… Wait, did you do something to my sister?” Lin Lin, who was still tired, suddenly woke up as if someone had just shocked her. She suspiciously looked at Jiang Chen.

“What could I have done? Am I a pervert…” Jiang Chen facepalmed.

Lin Lin answered this question with her eyes and said with vigilance, “I warn you, No.1004’s research is related to space theory. She is my assistant in transporting living things into interdimensional travel. You can’t give her strange thoughts.”

“Whatever. Don’t accuse me the moment you see me… So, did you figure out what the ball was?”

Lin Lin shook her head and sighed.

“2,985 grams per cubic centimeter, the density is 2,985 times that of water at room temperature. It’s far denser than the densest base metal, Osmium, with a density of 22.6 gram per cubic centimeter. Do you know what this means?”

“What does it mean?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.

“59 grams per cubic centimeter, which is the density of the red dwarf closest to the solar system, is not even close to the small ball you gave me. This means that the force between the particles in the ball is even more terrifying than the red dwarf’s own gravity. This force has transcended the scope of Van der Waals forces. If I am not mistaken, there is only one possibility left.”

“What possibility?” Jiang Chen was in a state of shock.

“Strong interaction force. That small ball is composed of countless hadrons and even quarks…” When she raised this hypothesis, Lin Lin revealed a strange expression. It looked like she was doubting her own hypothesis while being extremely convinced.

“Strong interaction force material? Is there any technology in the field before the war?” Jiang Chen asked.

Lin Lin looked at him like an idiot and glared at Jiang Chen. “How could there be such a thing. Until the war, there was a lot of controversy about the existence of strong interaction force materials. Did you really just ask if this technology existed?”

Jiang Chen had long been used to Lin Lin’s ridicule, and he didn’t want to argue with her, so he opened his hands and shrugged. With thick skin, he said, “I don’t understand this. That’s why I asked you. The smart Miss Lin Lin. Can you explain it to me? If the ball is a material made by strong interaction force, how advanced is it compared to pre-war technology?”

Lin Lin had no resistance to flattery. Her chin rose up proudly and she patiently explained to Jiang Chen.

“The so-called strong interaction force refers to the force acting between hadrons. The strong interaction force holds the most ordinary matter together because it confines quarks into hadron particles such as the proton and neutron. As the strongest force in the four fundamental interactions, its range of action is only at the range of 10 to the minus 15 meters. Exceeding this range, the strong interaction force will decay exponentially.”

“If the particles in the material are composed of strong interaction forces, it means that the spacing between the particles must be within 10 to the minus 15 square meters unless the atoms are forcibly removed and all electrons are discarded. However, this creates another problem. A strong interaction material that completely discards electrons will carry a very large positive charge, attracting a large number of electrons, which in turn destroys its particle structure.”

From the perspective of modern physics, this material shouldn’t exist.

As for the future.

Who knows about the future?

The development of science itself was a process of constant imagination, constant application, and constant self-denial.

As for the civilization that has mastered the strong interaction force material, Lin Lin couldn’t answer as to how advanced they were. It was not something that could be judged by time.

However, Lin Lin was sure about one point. That is, from the understanding of particle physics alone, the gap between the two civilizations was insurmountable.

Chapter 1032: Seagull Class

Jiang Chen didn’t know how to react when Lin Lin used the word insurmountable to describe the gap between the two civilizations.

Fortunate? Of course, there was no sign of life activity on the flying object, and it had clearly already been abandoned by its owner for a long time. At least he didn’t need to worry about some higher civilization knocking on his door. A colonization ship from 20.5 lightyears away was already giving him a headache. If another unfriendly neighbor dropped by, he wouldn’t be able to play this game anymore.

Confused? Perhaps a little. He didn’t understand why the flying object was abandoned. If they could create strong interaction force materials, there shouldn’t be anything that could threaten them in this universe, at least in his view.

“Don’t get any crazy ideas. Wait for the one hundred kilograms ball to arrive, and remember to bring it to me.” Lin Lin patted Jiang Chen’s shoulders, but her hand was slapped away by Jiang Chen and she also received an eye roll.

“Arrive? Do you think this is a courier service? We’ll see.”

Jiang Chen poked Lin Lin on the forehead and contently looked at the cocky Lin Lin who squatted down covering her forehead. Jiang Chen ignored her dissatisfied gaze and turned to the mansion…

It took a month for them to arrive at the destination. The return trip would take two month’s time.

Before the ball was brought back, any discussion about it was meaningless. Jiang Chen temporarily set it aside. After the ball was brought back, he would think of a suitable reason to bring it back to the apocalypse for Lin Lin to study.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t understand one point. Since he could discover that unknown flying object, then there was no reason the government or institution wouldn’t be able to identify it. It would be reasonable to say that the discovery of extraterrestrial civilization would shock the world. However, he did not ever hear any news about it in the history of the apocalypse.

Lin Lin gave him an explanation.

“If you discovered this, would you brag about it?”

After hearing Lin Lin’s rebuttal, Jiang Chen suddenly understood.

If it were him, after gaining the knowledge of an extraterrestrial civilization, he would pretend nothing happened and research in secrecy. Even if he couldn’t discover anything, he would not disclose this information to scientific research institutions in other countries, let alone the public.

Without the need to think, If the UA learned about the UFO, it would definitely state that the opportunity to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations should belong to the whole world. Then they would ask Celestial Trade to send the ball to Area 51. By then, even Xin’s friendly partners Hua and Russia, would certainly euphemistically agree, except for the last point.

There is no real friendship between the countries. When it is necessary, even enemies can become brothers, and brothers may turn into enemies. History has proven this countless times.

Jiang Chen didn’t stay in the apocalypse for long. He only stayed for three days before making his return.

However, he didn’t come back empty-handed. He brought the Red River X1 engine from the Aerospace Science and Technology Research Institute in his storage dimension.

This engine was similar to the Sea Dragon 07 transport spacecraft engine designed by East Asia Heavy Industries for the Pan Asia Space Group. Jiang Chen bought the engine from White Beluga Station for 20,000 credits. As for how similar the engines were, it would be left to the imagination.

Since no intellectual property rights existed in the apocalypse, he used it to his advantage.

The Red River X1 engine would be installed on the newly developed Celestial Trade transport spacecraft as the first large-scale “transportation” spacecraft operating between the Earth and the Moon. It would also technically be the first spaceship.

In theory, the performance of the Red River X1 already reached the capability required to sail to Mars, but the technical difficulty of the transport spaceship was not just the engine. The overall design was hindered by the other internal shortcomings. The spaceship was designed a year ago, now this spaceship about to set sail could only be used to carry out missions between the Earth and the Moon.

Celestial Trade still lacked experience in “shipbuilding”, they needed to learn through trial and error.

Even scientists from the apocalypse wouldn’t be able to help them. The scientists from Aerospace Science and Technology Research Institutes primarily focused on engine design. Designing an entire spaceship was not something that could be completed by one research institute, especially given the lack of drawings for reference.

Located in the gravity-free dock of Celestial City, a spaceship about 600 meters was quietly docked under dozens of robotic arms. Under the command of the engineer, the Red River X1 engine was attached to the empty slot at the end of the spaceship, completing the final step before “entering the water.”

Since it was designed according to the specifications of this spaceship, it was a smooth process without any accidents.

“Perfect design… Where did you get this engine?” Looking at the new engine being attached to the spaceship, Kelvin exclaimed in amazement.

However, Jiang Chen did not answer his question. He only smiled.

The new spaceship was designed as a transport ship but could be converted for military use. The orbital airborne brigade that required ten small transport ships to deploy would only require one large transport ship.

Seeing Jiang Chen avoid the question, Kelvin knew he shouldn’t pursue further and changed the topic.

“Speaking of which, our new ship doesn’t have a name yet, do you have any good suggestions?”

“What is the tonnage of this ship?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Fifty thousand tons.”

Jiang Chen closed his eyes as he pondered for a moment. Then he said.

“Fifty thousand tons? Let’s call it Seagull.”

“Seagull? Fine… as long as you like it.”

Kelvin was speechless about Jiang Chen’s naming capability. He gave a spaceship with a defining significance to the world such a common name without any significance; a name that’ll likely end up making history in itself.

However, with the boss’ pleased expression, he couldn’t raise his opinion and defaulted to the name.

With the completion of the Seagull, the capacity of Celestial Trade’s freight capacity increased to more than 500,000 tons between the Earth and the Moon. The increase in capacity brought a monumental change to Celestial Trade’s space resources development capability.

The most intuitive example would be the lunar colony. Five hundred new colonists arrived on the surface of the Moon along with the new habitat unit on the Seagull. With the arrival of new colonists, the outpost of the Celestial Trade colony already exceeded one thousand.

To celebrate this historic moment, Celestial Trade held a press conference to share this good news with the rest of the world.

At the same time, through this rare opportunity, they made two announcements.

The Moon colony will be renamed to Lunar City, now deserving of this name.

As for the second, Lunar City will be open to individuals or institutions around the world for investment.

Chapter 1033: Lunar City

Outside of Future Building, media from all over the world gathered. The first-floor conference center was jampacked with people and the reporters all rushed into the venue. With staff’s guidance, the reporters were seated and the photographers continued to hold their cameras of different sizes. All the lenses were focused on the podium in front of the venue, waiting for the press conference to begin.

They didn’t wait long. The hour hand had just passed nine o’clock and a soft light lit up from behind the podium, Jiang Chen in a black suit went to the podium, calmly picked up the microphone, and smiled at the cameras.

“Thank you for coming to the press conference of Celestial Trade. I am representing Celestial Trade’s Board of Directors and I warmly welcome you.”

“I believe that everyone is aware of the content of the press conference from the materials in your hand. According to our discussions with Xin Space Agency, the Xin Lunar Colony will be officially renamed Lunar City. The city will also exist as a Xin municipality similar to Penglai. Xin will have judication and sovereignty right to Lunar City and Celestial Trade will enjoy autonomy as a Xin enterprise in the city.”

When these words came out, there was a wave of discussion. Although these reporters from all over the world already learned Celestial Trade’s decision to change the name of the lunar colony, the material didn’t mention sovereignty over Lunar City!

The right to establish sovereignty on the Moon? What a joke!

Many journalists, especially Western journalists, raised their hand high. However, Jiang Chen just glanced at them and gestured for the journalists to wait.

It is not the Q&A stage yet, keep your question to yourself.

“At two o’clock yesterday morning, the Seagull-class transport ship carrying 500 colonists arrived at the Moon. The population of Lunar City has now exceeded 1,000. Considering that the production units have been fully developed, from tomorrow on, Celestial City will open a travel route to Lunar City for all Xin citizens and foreign tourists holding passports!”

The venue was quite quiet, and the reporters who were eager to ask questions stared dumbfoundedly at the podium. It took them a full ten seconds to digest this explosive piece of information. Someone began to applaud, then it quickly turned into thunderous applause that deafened the venue.

And those netizens watching the live broadcast from their computers already began to cheer. They quickly typed on the keyboard while venting their excitement through countless comments and shares.

[Damn, this is amazing!]

[It’s shameful, our manned Moon mission is still in the research stage, and they have already built a city on the moon. Maybe by the time we go up, playgrounds and cinemas would be everywhere.]

[Stupid, why do we need to research. A ticket is enough to go, why bother researching? I think all those in aerospace research should be laid off. The funding can be used to build more schools and help the poor.]

[What did the aerospace research do… It’s not like we have not been putting in all our effort, it’s just that the competition is too spectacular. What do you want us to do?]

[I don’t care about anything else. Does this mean I can travel to the moon? I already have a tourist visa, who can tell me what I need to do next?]

The discussion on the Internet began to heat up, and the press conference continued.

After a brief overview, it was the Q&A period. The reporters were eager to raise their hand. It was finally their home court. They did their best to ask the trickiest and toughest questions.

“You mentioned that Xin will have the sovereign right to Lunar City. I want to ask if you learned about the United Nations ‘Outer Space Treaty’ signed in 1967. The second article clearly stipulates that ‘outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.’” The Colombian Television reporter immediately raised a sharp question.

From the eyes of the reporters in the front row of the venue, Jiang Chen saw similar questions. Obviously, all the reporters questioned the legitimacy of Celestial Trade’s sovereign declaration.

Jiang Chen adjusted the microphone and answered the question.

“The Outer Space Treaty was signed half a century ago. Until a year and a half ago, in the past half a century, only a total of twelve people successfully stepped onto the Moon… Yes, until a year and a half ago. Obviously, the United Nations “Outer Space Treaty” signed in 1967 is no longer applicable to the modern aerospace industry that has expanded at lightning speed.”

Jiang Chen then paused, and his voice grew louder and more powerful.

“We have the technology that can send more people to the Moon and even other celestial bodies to expand the territory for human civilization. Why do we still use ancient treaties to imprison our footprints? You think that we are declaring sovereignty on something that doesn’t belong to us, right? Wrong! Absolutely wrong! We are just guaranteeing our legitimate rights and interests, proving that the wealth we create belongs to us. I remember that you are a UA citizen, and you declared the rights to America. At least we declared on no man’s land, but your claim it at the expense of the Indians.”

Jiang Chen’s rightful and just speech turned the Colombian Television reporter speechless.

To be precise, the reporter actually had more to say, such as “this is totally two different things”, “Indians are also an inseparable part of our society, please do not make statements that are harmful to the unity of society and people.” However, according to the rules of the press conference, a reporter could only speak once unless in special circumstances. Jiang Chen indicated that he could sit down, so he could only swallow his rebuttal.

The second reporter stood up and was a reporter from a Xin TV station. He naturally could not question the sovereign right of his own country. His concern was related to economics.

“In your speech, I noticed that you mentioned that Celestial Trade will open up Lunar City to the public. Does this mean that ordinary investors can also participate in the development of Moon resources? If so, in which areas is Celestial Trade more inclined for cooperation.”

After listening to the reporter’s question, Jiang Chen smiled and replied cheerfully.

“As a city, Lunar City naturally has no reason to be isolated from the world. We have never intended to monopolize the resources of the Moon. Like Penglai, we welcome every visitor, immigrant, and investor.”

“As for the specific areas of cooperation, there are too many. Rare earth resources, tourism, entertainment, metallurgical industry, power export, these five industries will be the economic pillars. Other than power export that involves confidential and sensitive technology for cooperation, investors have their choice to join us.”

“The premise is to recognize the sovereignty of the city.”

Chapter 1034: Diverging Opinions

Chapter 1034: Diverging Opinions

It was not only the reporters present or the netizens watching the live broadcast that were focused on the press conference, but top government officials around world also kept a close eye on the progress.

Not many developed countries in the world welcomed immigrants; the number was even smaller for developed countries that welcomed Hua immigrants, and Xin was one of them. The top officials of Hua did not expect that the palm-sized country would have replaced the UA in just four years, becoming the first choice of destination for immigrants.

The most unbelievable thing was that although they have raised the threshold of immigration several times, the number of Hua immigrants in Xin increased every year. In the past four years, the average number of immigration out of Hua reached 1.25 million, an increase of nearly one million compared with the previous four years. Of the 1.25 million people, 80% of immigrants chose Xin as their second home.

What was even more incredible was Xin’s government and Celestial Trade’s attitude toward immigrants. They didn’t seem to care about the security and economic problems that may arise from the influx of immigrants. They seemed to always find ways to digest these fast-growing populations. So far, Xin economy did not show any sign of weakness but was thriving with prosperity.

As for security, it was even more remarkable. No criminals and terrorists exist there. Occasionally, a few robbers would smuggle into the country but were quickly tracked down by law enforcement drones, waiting to ambush them in the darkness of streets and teach them a lesson on how to properly behave.

Needless to say, the name of Lunar City also gained the support of many Han. Not only because of the intimate feeling brought by its name, but also the cultural identity that is stronger than a blood connection. However, not everyone was pleased with the status quo.

“Humph! Lunar City? This time it is Lunar City. What is it next time? If they are not restricted, they will create a Heaven City?”

In a quaint tea room, a man with a square face said with a gloomy expression on his face.

At this moment, the head of the top ten families has gathered here. Even the Wang family, who fell from the position of power, sat in front of the long table. Although none of them were still in power, all of them were inextricably linked to the center of power. Although their opinions didn’t represent the opinions of the Republic, they could at least represent the opinions of some important people…

For example, the man with a square face was Zhao Youyong, the head of the Zhao family. The two giants, Hua Aluminum and Hua Telecom, were controlled by the Zhao family. The former was a leading enterprise in the production of rare earths, and the latter was a large state-owned communication giant, demonstrating the family’s wide influence.

The reason why he held a prejudice against Xin was because the rare earth produced from the Moon impacted the rare earth market in Hua. Under the banner of Hua Aluminum, the Zhao family constantly smuggled rare earth metal and profited for foreign companies. However, because of Future Mining’s rare earth deposits in the ocean and on the Moon, it squeezed into the market and further reduced the export price of rare earths. This resulted in at least billions of losses for the Zhao family every year.

Zhao Youyong’s speech received support from some people, but only some people.

Liu Xiangguo put the teacup down and began to act as the mediator,

“If they like the name, we can’t stop them, right? Since the people like it, let them call it that. Anyway, we won’t lose anything.”

It’s not the Liu family that lost.

Although Zhao Youyang thought this, he only sneered and didn’t answer. If other people said this, he could rebuttal, but not against Liu Xiangguo. The Zhao family didn’t have the cleanest record, so he didn’t need to offend people over commentary.

Future Mining’s entry into Hua’s rare earth market indeed harmed the interests of the country, but objectively speaking, the damage was actually limited. Although monopolizing the global market for rare earth exports, Hua never gained the pricing power of rare earth materials. The cost for sustainable mining and the cost for one-time excavation was night and day. The rare earth materials sold at a large discount naturally didn’t come from sustainable sources. This became a tool for some people to fill their own pockets and resulted in a loss of more than ten billion US Dollars a year for the country.

However, everything has two sides. Originally, it was a way to earn foreign exchange and join the WTO, so the country didn’t control the export volume of rare earths. Now the country became the second largest economy, Hua didn’t need the money anymore, but the rare earth materials problem couldn’t be effectively managed.

“I feel that we need to introduce a stricter visa review bill, especially for travelers to Xin. There are more and more people immigrating to Xin, and most of these people are highly educated talents. I am worried that it will have an impact on our economic environment.” Another elder raised a very practical problem.

“I agree,” Zhao Youyong said immediately. “It is one thing thing to strengthen the cultural ties between the two countries. But there should be a certain limit for everything. Now that this is going to be more harmful than beneficial, it is necessary to begin managing this issue!”

“What’s the problem? We have a lot of people.” Ye Qinghua sipped his tea and smiled. “When the British people ran to the Americas, no one stopped them from going out, right? We can’t control everything and let the West make fun of us.”

Zhao Youyong glanced at Ye Qinghua with a gloomy expression. The Zhao family never had a friendly relationship with the Ye family. Now Ye Qinghua’s open disagreement made him quite dissatisfied.

However, Elder Ye did not care about his attitude. After he finished speaking, he started to enjoy his tea again.

With the help of Celestial, Hua Aerospace Group achieved rapid growth and development. As a representative that obtained the rights for asteroid mining, the Ye family naturally rose in importance. Ye Qinghua didn’t have a problem with Jiang Chen at all. The only regret was his granddaughter and Jiang Chen did not become a couple.

“Okay, there is no point for us to discuss this here. We are just chatting and let’s not hurt any relationships because of this.” Seeing it was about time, Liu Xiangguo started to mediate and comfort Zhao Youyong.

From the start of the tea party to now, they have been discussing Celestial Trade for almost half an hour, but they didn’t reach any conclusions. This situation was quite rare. But for Liu Xiangguo, it was already the best result he could anticipate.

Then, someone asked a very practical question.

“If the United Nations wants to vote on the legitimacy of the Xin’s sovereign right of the city, how should we vote?”

The middle-aged man, who was sitting at the head of the table that didn’t speak a word, spoke slowly.

“Abstain.”

Liu Xiangguo was stilling smiling while drinking his tea as if he had already expected this. Ye Qinghua secretly let out a sigh of relief. Neutrality is always the most conservative choice. Zhao Youyong’s expression was still dark, making it difficult for people to read him.

With their own thoughts, this tea party continued.

The same discussion, in different forms, happened all over the world. The UA Capitol was in a fierce debate at the start of the press conference. They even held a cabinet meeting to discuss how to deal with Celestial Trade’s aggressive expansion on the Moon.

But regardless of their conclusion, Celestial Trade would not make any changes.

In a round of sincere or fake applauses, Celestial Trade’s press conference came to an end.

Chapter 1035: Ticket Price Going to the Moon

Chapter 1035: Ticket Price Going to the Moon

The Moon belongs to all of mankind, who represents all of mankind?

In 1967, the Outer Space Treaty was signed. In 1969, Neil Armstrong placed the Star-Spangled flag on the surface of the Moon.

The so-called United Nations resolution was just a piece of paper, just like the United Nations itself. The Moon belonging to all of mankind was also nonsense, it would belong to the people capable of landing there.

On the surface, Jiang Chen was open for investment of Moon resources to investors in other countries. But in reality, he just wanted to tie the international capitals with him to develop the Moon for him.

No matter how much money the investors invest in the Moon, it would be on the basis that they recognize the legitimacy of Lunar City. Any expansion would be within the boundary of Lunar City and not New New York or New Moscow.

Taking a thousand steps back, if someone dared to declare independence, Jiang Chen would shut down their water, electricity and air. The controllable nuclear fusion power generation technology was the threshold of interstellar colonization. After several decades when other countries make a breakthrough in power generation, the moon would already be covered in Celestial Trade factories.

…

After the flight from Lunar City and Celestial Trade was established, Celestial Trade opened the ticket sales channel on its official website and issued 500 tickets per day for a price of 100,000 XND.

A journey 400,000-kilometer in distance, the maximum flight speed was close to 10 kilometers per second. It would take half a day to arrive at the Moon’s orbit. The 100,000 XND may be an unaffordable price for most people, but the world never lacked rich people.

For those wealthy people without a place to spend their money, no matter if the Moon was worth it to go, it was a prestigious opportunity for a visit. At least at some high-level gatherings in the future, they could bloat about their trip when they meet their business friends. “Hey, look at the Moon in the sky, I have been up there. It is probably the most beautiful place I have seen in my life. I highly recommend you to go take a look…”

With only one Seagull-class transportation ship (TS Seagull), the transportation capacity from Celestial City to Lunar City was quite valuable. In addition to people, TS Seagull also transported goods from the Earth. The most important restraint was that Lunar City could only accept 10,000 tourists and it was not the right time to develop the mass public market.

In fact, Jiang Chen still underestimated the attraction of Moon tourism to the billionaires and millionaires. On the first day of ticket sales, the tickets for the seven flights within one week were sold out in almost one second. If it were not the for the fact the ticket only sold seven days in advance, most likely the entire month’s tickets would be wiped clean in a few seconds.

The boss of a real estate company had foreseen the frenzy, so he ordered his assistant with foresight and tasked more than one hundred employees to purchase a ticket for him. Just when he thought victory was within his grasp, the few milliseconds of defeat snatched the ticket from the jaws of victory. He stared at the anxious assistant in front of him and slapped the table.

“Fools! You guys play with your phone all day long. Now you can’t even buy a ticket for me!”

The assistant sobbed. “Boss, you can’t blame us. This is not a flight or train ticket. There are only hundreds of tickets around the world. And I suspect, someone is definitely using a software!”

When the boss heard his, he was even more furious. “Other people can use software, why can’t you use it. I asked you to find people to buy the ticket for me, did you find a bunch of construction workers? I could have done this myself!”

“But, but we don’t have the software…”

“With so many programmers in the company, why didn’t you just get a few people to write one! I asked you to find people, but you need to use your brain!”

The secretary stopped speaking. He knew that the boss was angry and just wanted to vent his anger at someone. It was better to keep his head down rather than defend himself.

Just then, the company manager rushed in,

“Boss! The ticket is being sold on the black market.”

The boss heard the news and immediately asked, “How much is it?”

“For the ticket three days from now, one million…USD.”

The boss cursed in his mind when he heard this as it was the price of a house. But then when he thought about it and how he developed real estate himself, he changed his mindset and said in pain.

“Hurry and place an order, buy… buy ten for me!”

Originally, he only intended to buy three to take his wife and son to see. But when he thought how the fare may go up even higher, he would make his money back by selling it at a higher price.

As a result, with the thirsty market and the pump of a large group of people with other intentions, the ticket sold on the black market sold at more than ten times the price with the highest ticket priced at more than 10 million USD.

Another interesting phenomenon was that the tickets that had seats closest to the front of the ship were sold at a higher price. This was especially true for the earlier flights. An example would be seat 001 on the first flight. It was bought by a Middle-Eastern billionaire at a price of 15 million USD.

Although 1,012 people have already stepped onto the Moon, everyone wanted to be the 1,013th. Even if history wouldn’t remember the name of the 1,013th person who landed on the Moon, it would still be worth the fame. Jiang Chen admitted that he had underestimated wealthy people’s desire for exclusivity. The pumped up ticket price had seriously affected the normal operation of Seagull flight.

As a result, while all previous sales didn’t change. From the second day on, the sales of the tickets began to be linked to the buyer’s identification information. The ticket holder must hold the same visa and passport as the ticket purchaser to board the ship. The measure immediately crushed the scalpers who got a taste of the sweet profit.

At the ground command center, looking at the green spot on the radar that marked the Seagull, Kelvin expressed his opinion.

“I think we sold our tickets too cheap. The black market is selling them at 10 million USD. We can totally price a ticket at 200,000 XND. At this price, we can at least make 50 million per flight.”

The Seagull used a nuclear fusion generator for its power, and the total value of the helium 3 battery and the bismuth metal consumed by the flight was less than one million XND. Even adding the ship’s maintenance costs and labor costs, the cost of a trip would only be two million XND.

With the current fare, the flight would make so much money!

The Lunar Colony that burned money for a whole year finally achieved breakeven through electricity sales and rare earth mining. It finally achieved profitability through tourism! Two days before the first flight, the excited Kelvin was in tears. Now he was complaining that the fare was set too low.

A quite fast change in attitude.

“The fare will come down sooner or later. The tourists’ enthusiasm can’t just be supported by the rich. What’s more, we have a golden mountain behind us, would you still care about the coins in the workers’ pockets?” Jiang Chen teased him.

“Isn’t there a proverb? Mosquito meat is still meat.” Kelvin shook his head.

“There is another proverb, the one that can be successful doesn’t care about the small profits.”

Jiang Chen patted Kelvin’s shoulder and left the confused Kelvin alone.

Standing beside the route map for a long time, Kelvin’s eyebrows locked together, thinking about the words Jiang Chen said.

After a long time, he finally squeezed out a sentence with a serious expression on his face.

“…How come I remember that the proverb as, the one that can be successful doesn’t care about the details?”

Chapter 1036: Air Show at Celestial City

Chapter 1036: Air Show at Celestial City

Under Jiang Chen’s order, Future Heavy Industries integrated its twenty industrial space stations in Celestial City and assembled a technical team involved in the design of the Seagull-class to establish a subsidiary called Xin First Shipyard. It had begun the production of a second Seagull-class.

The order of the second transport ship was still made by the aerospace department of Celestial Trade, but the new ship would not include a passenger cabin, but only cargo with low technical requirements. At present, Lunar City could only host a certain number of tourists, increasing the number of flights would only make it more difficult.

The mission of this transport ship was to transport rare earth materials. The rare earth-rich Moon soil would be sent to Celestial City for processing, and then Future Mining would send the processed ore to Earth and access the international market.

By the time the new 500,000-tonne transport ship was built, the “boats” that were previously used to transport rare earth mines could be retired. The capacity of five Stingray C-1s making two trips combined was less than the capacity of a single trip of the Seagull, and they weren’t faster.

The Stingray C-1 retired from the transportation route would be sent back to the shipyard on Celestial Trade. After the mining module was replaced by the transport module, the Stingray would be sold at a discount to Future Mining and join the asteroid mining fleet.

There was another story with the newly built transport ship.

After Kelvin learned of Jiang Chen’s poor naming ability, he didn’t ask Jiang Chen to name the ship again. Or rather, he never mentioned this to Jiang Chen and discussed with the technical team. They came to the decision of simply printing the name “Sea Dragon” onto the body of the ship and sending it as a report to Jiang Chen’s desk.

The name didn’t matter since Jiang Chen thought it was troublesome to give something a name. He also never considered putting his own name on a transport ship. He thought that a ship worthy of his name would at least by a carrier-class ship more than ten million in tonnage. He would rather let the future generation name it for him.

Just after learning about the name of the transport ship, Jiang Chen was dumbfounded.

History is always strikingly similar. The prototype of the Red River engine was the Flying Dragon 07 engine of the Pan-Asia Cooperation, and the engine scavenged by Beluga Inspection Station happened to come from the PAC Sea Dragon.

Now the new ship not only inherited the engine of the Pan-Asia Cooperation but also inherited the name of the ship that had crashed in the future.

Even Jiang Chen, who never believed in gods, was amazed by this coincidence.

Perhaps, it was meant to be.

…

Shortly after the flight from Celestial City to Lunar City became available, SpaceX and other aerospace companies participated in the design of the Apollo X1. After being dismantled into pieces and packed into dozens of containers, they were sent to Ange Island port by freight. After it arrived at the SpaceX’s leased warehouse in Celestial City, Apollo X1 was assembled.

According to the agreement between SpaceX and Celestial Trade, the newly reborn Apollo would participate in the transportation route between Celestial City and Lunar City after it passed the safety qualification check. The rare earth materials were transported to Celestial City while crops and daily necessities on earth were brought to Lunar City.

Perhaps it was a tribute to a certain movie, the main structure of the Apollo X1 was designed to be semi-spherical. Compared with the long strip design of Russia’s Oleg, the design offered more agile control and higher safety factor. The drawbacks were mainly due to the maintenance cost of the engines and the cost of the spacecraft itself.

In addition to the Apollo X1, Jiang Chen also saw the Oleg in Moscow. The design of the 200,000-ton class was a size larger than the Apollo X1, and the capacity was also greater. However, compared with the 500,000-ton Seagull, both of them were miniature.

Whether it was the UA or Russia, the two traditional aerospace powers did not currently have the capability to produce a 500,000-ton spacecraft. While they possessed the design capability, the technical barriers of the engine and power source were something that they couldn’t easily get around.

Perhaps they possessed more experience in aerospace manufacturing, but these problems were not solved by experience.

In addition to the two traditional superpowers, the Ever Spring independently developed by Hua Aerospace Science and Technology Group also participated in the transportation route. The transport ship used the RM-320 engine purchased from Future Heavy Industries at a high price and all the other parts were design by the Hua Academy of Sciences. In appearance, the ship reflected an Oriental design.

The mining speed of iron, aluminum, titanium ore and rare earth resources in Lunar City already far exceeded the transportation capacity between Lunar City and Celestial City. For Jiang Chen, he welcomed anyone willing to participate, otherwise the ores would be useless without a buyer.

According to Jiang Chen’s estimate, at least 50 ships with 100,000-tonage were needed to fulfill the ores’ transportation demand.

However, it was not something that could be rushed. Apart from Xin, there were only three countries capable of producing large transport ships.

Although Nippon, ranked fourth in space technology, participated in the design of the Apollo X1’s observing system and navigation system, the country didn’t have the capability to independently manufacture a 100,000-ton spacecraft. The fifth-ranked India was ambitiously preparing to design a 500,000-ton “spaceship” that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Seagull. However, they didn’t figure out how to make it move after completing the ship design.

It was soon mid-May, and Celestial Trade held the first Aerospace Science and Technology Expo in Celestial City.

If Xia Shiyu didn’t remind him, Jiang Chen almost forgot. Future Heavy Industries’ tweleve products would appear in the expo, of which seven were export products. The remaining five were only for exhibition, not to be sold.

For example, the Stingray series aircraft that made countless people astonished. The P-1 mining type and the C-1 transportation type that had been eliminated from the fleet would be displayed.

The expo would be held every year beginning from 2019. The significance of holding events was mainly to support other aerospace companies and help them find buyers. If Celestial Trade discovered something novel, they could also use this opportunity to procure it.

To be honest, Jiang Chen did see a lot of interesting things at the air show, but he did not intervene in the procurement. He gave full responsibilities to the aerospace department, only they knew what they really needed in space.

Xia Shiyu accompanied Jiang Chen to the expo. When they appeared in front of the public, they became the focus of the air show. From the beginning of the expo, a large group of people surrounded them. People handed him their business cards and after a short while, his hands were full of business cards of different languages.

Jiang Chen was surprised by the fact that he stole the show from the Stingray X1.

It was like putting the cart before the horse.

Chapter 1037: A Traitor From Far Away

Chapter 1037: A “Traitor” From Far Away

In the lounge outside the air show, Xia Shiyu stuffed the business cards into a drawer before letting out a long sigh of relief.

“I still don’t understand. If we can produce ourselves, why do we give other people our order?”

Jiang Chen smiled and did not answer.

From the position of CEO, Xia Shiyu naturally wished for fewer competitors, but it was not something he wished to see. His identity was not just the shareholder of Future Group, but he also held many other positions.

Whether Future Group or Celestial Trade all became leading giants with millions of employees worldwide, directly or indirectly providing jobs for tens of millions of people, all depended on him.

To some extent, the Icarus effect already became evident on Future Group and Celestial Trade. That is, when the company was large enough and forms a monopoly in the market, the company’s innovation would naturally be suppressed. The more conservative option would be to replace innovation and it would become the first consideration in managers’ decision-making process.

If Future Group and Celestial Trade only absorbed technology from the apocalypse like a sponge, in the short term, there would be no problem as they could easily form a monopoly. But what would happen after the monopoly?

With only the technology of the apocalypse, there would be no chance of winning against the invasion of Harmony. Without competition, there would never be innovation. Jiang Chen dared to assert that if he did not open the space elevator to the international community and encouraged the development of other private aerospace companies, it would not be an exaggeration that Celestial Trade would use the same Seagull for the next century.

Sometimes giving others some breathing room was also for his own benefit.

“The space elevator has been built for so long yet I have rarely used it.” Jiang Chen smiled and changed the topic as he gazed at the blue planet outside the window.

From this angle, the Earth’s pristine white clouds resembled an eggshell, under the distant sunlight, it reflected a faint glow. If the people on Celestial City didn’t constantly stare in this direction, they would even have the illusion that Earth was just a mural on their windows.

“It is also my first time being up here.” Xia Shiyu pressed her face against the window. Her eyes gazing at the Earth glowed with fascination. She whispered softly, “Did you know? When I was young, I dreamed of being an astronaut.”

“It’s normal. I wanted to be a scientist when I was a child.” Jiang Chen smiled. “It turns out that the dreams of a child were not reliable after all. Let’s not mention being a scientist, I gave most of the stuff I learned from university back to the professors already.”

“But you became the boss of scientists.” Xia Shiyu joked.

“And you also become the CEO of astronauts?” Jiang Chen laughed.

Just then, he received a call.

When he opened the holographic screen and heard the voice from the other side, he couldn’t stop smiling.

“I see.” After a simple reply, Jiang Chen hung up the phone, used his fingers to slash the holographic screen into digital fragments, then sat up from the chair. He then told Xia Shiyu, who was standing next to him, “I need to head out for a moment.”

“Is there something wrong at the air show?” Xia Shiyu asked.

“No, it’s just some work.” Jiang Chen smiled.

…

Affected by the policy and the deterioration of bilateral relations between Xin and the EU, only a few companies from the EU member states participated in this expo. However, policies were never absolute. Xin’s counter-sanction against European companies were mostly aimed at the financial and commodity sectors. There were still many European companies that used the UK to partner with Celestial Trade.

For example, an aerospace company from Brussels, Belgium, participated in the first Celestial Trade Aerospace Science and Technology Expo, and also brought some very interesting information.

“Is the information reliable?”

Walking quickly in the hallway, Jiang Chen confirmed again.

Tightly following Jiang Chen, Ayesha nodded.

“Monica has verified the company in Belgium. Its main business is the production of high-precision gyroscopes and infrared Earth sensors. It is one of SpaceX’s overseas suppliers and was registered in 1995. Its chairman, Alec Bruly, is a supporter of the Belgian opposition party. He opposed Belgian ruling party’s political stance on the EU integration decision. He is demanding re-election…”

“It’s just that it is not passed by the parliament?”

“Exactly.” Ayesha nodded.

“Interesting.”

An intrigued smile formed on Jiang Chen’s face. He stopped at a door near the end of the corridor, walked into the door, and entered the room.

When they saw Jiang Chen, the two Europeans sitting on the sofa immediately stood up. The middle-aged man with red hair stepped forward and extended his right hand.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen, please allow me to introduce myself first. Alec Bruly. This is…”

“Steven Radneck is my name,” said the thin-looking man. Looking at Jiang Chen in excitement, he incoherently said, “Listen, you must stop him, the devil will ruin Europe! No, he will ruin the world.”

Jiang Chen and Ayesha looked at each other, and Alec quickly pulled him aside and gave him a wink.

“Calm down, man-”

“I am a researcher from the Golden Apple Project.” Once again interrupting Alec’s words, Steven calmly confessed.

Alec stopped, Ayesha’s expression did not change, and Jiang Chen examined him a few more times.

Although he admired his courage, after hearing his identity, Jiang Chen was still slightly disappointed, but he did not show it on his face. Instead, he whispered, “We don’t care about the Golden Apple.”

Steven sneered.

“That’s because you don’t know what experiments they are doing.”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue.

However, Steven did not immediately continue, but subconsciously looked at his old friend Alec who stood next to him.

After hesitating for a moment, he began. “Sorry, my friend, I can’t drag you into this… You know, you are different from me. Hearing these things may put you in danger…”

“One hour later I have meeting with a representative of the Russian Aerospace Industry Group.”

Alec immediately understood his friend’s intention and left the office.

There were only three people left in the office.

Jiang Chen invited him to take a seat.

“Please feel free to sit.”

“Thank you…” Steven courteously waited for Jiang Chen and Ayesha to sit down before sitting across from the two.

Jiang Chen clicked on the holographic screen of the watch. Soon a robot dressed as a maid walked into the room and poured coffee for the three of them.

Through the rising white mist, Jiang Chen looked at Steven, who was uneasy, and began the conversation.

“Mr. Steven, no matter whether your intelligence is valuable to us or not, we will provide you with political asylum. Xin and EU member states have no extradition treaty. The Freemasonry also can’t reach their hands into my backyard. You can be assured about this.”

“So now, can you talk about what exciting news you know?”

Chapter 1038: Turning Point

Taking a deep breath, Steven sorted out his thoughts and slowly began to narrate.

“First of all, from the Golden Apple Project, you may feel what you hear next is obscure, but it is true. The experiment on Golden Apple can be traced back to the Freemasonry’s discovery of extraterrestrial civilization during World War II…”

Jiang Chen raised his hand and stopped him. “You don’t have to tell me the background of the Golden Apple Project. We know what the Golden Apple is for. It is used to communicate with an extraterrestrial civilization, right? But as far as I know, your research has not progressed.”

“We really have no progress with extraterrestrial civilizations,” Steven stressed. “But it does not mean we have no progress in other areas.”

“Such as?”

“For example, I found this in the research institute.” As he made up his mind, Steven took a deep breath and slowly took out a box of cigars from his pocket. “This is a research report.”

Jiang Chen watched him take out and slowly unfold a piece of paper rolled into a cigar.

Looking at the crumpled paper, Jiang Chen moved closer. Although he could not understand academic reports, from the first few lines, he understood the abstract of the report.

And his nonchalant attitude turned more serious.

“The interference of the brain wave resonance effect on the nervous system?”

Steven nodded and patiently explained to Jiang Chen the contents of this report.

“In short, it’s brainwashing. You know, we’ve accidentally discovered a very interesting phenomenon when we used the embryonic stem cell-induced differentiation technology to find a more efficient production method for Golden Apples… First, I have to clarify that I’m not involved in the follow-up experiment—”

“You don’t have to worry, keep going.” Jiang Chen raised his hand and stopped his statement, indicating for him to focus on the topic at hand.

Steven took a deep breath.

“We studied brain extract and found that if the brain extract is exposed to gamma rays, the cells will differentiate into a special substance while rapidly decaying and attenuating.”

“A special substance? What kind of special substance?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“It’s similar to what we’re looking for in the brain extract, but there are a few differences.” A terrified expression appeared on Steven’s face. “We were close to the results. If these substances can be modified slightly, the cost of producing Golden Apples will be reduced by several factors. However, a hypothesis was proposed that this special substance may be related to the mechanism of excitement…”

“Be more specific.” Jiang Chen reminded him.

“The point is the hypothesis suggested by that person. The administration approved the sub-topic research and provided us with human subjects for the experiment. After the experiment, most of the subjects died because of brain death or excessive excitement induced in the brain, but a small number of people survived. And among those who survived, we summed up the results and reached a conclusion.”

“When a certain dose of radioactive material is used to stimulate a specific area of the brain, it can interfere with cognition. For example, we succeeded in getting a certain subject to believe that he is a goat…”

“I’ll take this report.” Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Jiang Chen picked up the report and immediately stood up. “Please stay here for a while, I will get someone to bring you a card. There is 10 million XND in the account.”

Steven stopped, then argued, “I am not doing this for the money—”

“I know, but no one can have too much money, right? And your account in Europe is probably already frozen.” Jiang Chen patted him on his shoulder and smiled, “This money is yours to keep.”

Steven stayed in the lounge alone, and Jiang Chen took Ayesha into the hallway.

“Do we need to spread the news out?” Ayesha asked.

“No, this is a serious matter. If it is done well, it may be a good opportunity for us to reverse the situation in Europe. Before we start, we have to discuss with our allies, we need their cooperation.”

Jiang Chen then called Natasha.

Although Natasha already withdrew from the Russian intelligence system, she would certainly be able to find the right person to take this matter over.

Without spending anytime to flirt, Jiang Chen was direct.

“If Frankberg knows that their chancellor is actually controlled by the Rothschild family, what do you think will happen?”

Natasha sighed slightly, and soon realized what he meant; she whistled and joked, “This is a great question. Eighty percent of UA citizens know that the Capitol’s shareholders are Wall Street, but can they do anything about it?”

It was not that the Russian Federal Security Agency did not consider making the role of the Freemasonry in the integration of the European Union public, but the truth was drowned in countless conspiracy theories. In the eyes of most people, Rothschild Bank was only a second-tier bank. They thought that multiple European right-wing parties were manipulated by the Freemasonry was only a joke.

The really clever trick was not to put a patch on the history or truth but to confuse the audience with a lot of false rumors. Not to mention the fact the Russian Federal Security Agency couldn’t find any key evidence. Even with evidence, what could they do?

“These are two topics, one is just to exert influence behind the scenes, but the other is related to crime against humanity, that is, interference at the cognitive level.”

“Brain? Crime against humanity? Wait, can you elaborate?” Natasha couldn’t keep up with Jiang Chen’s thought process and confirmed again.

Jiang Chen retold his conversation with Steven. He emphasized that the research institutions of the Freemasonry used the missing population as experimental subjects and studied brainwashing.

Natasha then was aware of the seriousness of the problem. However, she did not immediately believe it but cautiously asked.

“Can you determine the authenticity of that report? And the identity of the researcher?”

“He is under our control. Our people will verify the authenticity of the intelligence in Europe.”

Having said that, Jiang Chen paused for a moment and emphasized again.

“This is an opportunity. If we seize it, it may become a breakthrough. What the truth is, is not important. What is important is to guide people to believe what is the truth. Even if the Freemasonry does not brainwash the political parties in its sphere of influence, as long as we can reveal that they are suspicious in this regard, we can create a revolution in Europe.

Natasha took a deep breath to calm her pumping heart.

“I need to make a call, ten minutes… No, five minutes is enough. I will give you a reply in five minutes.”

“Hurry.”

Jiang Chen hung up.

Chapter 1039: Controversies

Just like Jiang Chen said, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Ghost Agents already helped the Russian Security Service transport weapons and equipment to the opposition party in Frankberg for over a year, but until now they didn’t find a suitable opportunity to use these weapons. Both the insurgents and the Russian intelligence personnel were waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to crush the Rothschild family.

Now, the opportunity emerged.

“Researcher at the Institute of Rothschild Bank broke the news, illegal research on brainwashing human subjects”

“Frankberg Prime Minister is controlled by a mysterious organization? Demystifying the story of the Freemasonry and European integration”

“The European media is collectively silent, the poor people are living in lies”

“This is bullsh*t! When did the New York Times start to report on these inconspicuous reports.”

Carmen slammed the newspaper on the table and rubbed his hand on his chin. Through the haze in his pupils, it was evident that he was not in the most pleasant mood.

The research institute was indeed researching brainwashing technology, but he could swear to God that he did not use brainwashing technology on those politicians. Of course, if the brain specialists under his command could achieve a 100% success rate, he would not mind doing so. But without certainty, it would be a headache to just explain where the missing public figures went.

Standing in front of Carmen’s desk, his assistant hesitated for a moment, then finally reported.

“The news was uploaded from the news channel of Future 1.0. At first, the news spread only on the Internet before being reprinted by newspapers. Not only the New York Times, but the global media are now reporting this research report. Now the entrance to our institute has been surrounded by protesters, demanding the research institute reveal the truth. Radical protesters even threw bricks and are burning flasks inside. Research work has completely stalled…”

“Send some people with our newest equipment. I need the security there to be the best possible,” Carmen looked at Johnson. ” Your only task is to protect that institute, and if someone dares to enter our private property, shoot them!”

“Yes.” Johnson saluted.

“Allow me to be blunt, this is not the best choice…” The assistant intended to add something, but Carmen stopped him with his eyes. He took two steps back and shrugged. “Okay.”

The assistant bowed his head and left the office.

The office was quiet once again. After a long silence, Carmen again turned his eyes to Johnson.

“Is the identity of the traitor determined?”

“The researcher of the 7th Research Institute of the Golden Apple Mass Production Project, Steven Radneck.” Standing next to the desk, Johnson reported.

“Where is he now?” Carmen said with a sullen expression.

“In Xin.”

“What about his family?”

“Before he left the country, they already entered Russia. It is estimated that they already reunited with him in Xin.”

Sinking into the chair, Carmen was silent.

The power of the Freemasonry in Xin was almost non-existent. It was not impossible to kill an individual there, but the risk and return would not be proportional. Even if he killed Steven, nothing would change about the current scandal. Instead, it may be used as ammunition.

Just then, the phone on the table began to vibrate.

After the phone vibrated for three seconds, Carmen reached for the phone and put it beside his ear. He didn’t need to see the caller to know it was Peter.

“God… What did you do? What is this human experiment? You didn’t say any of this to me…”

“It’s all refugees, and refugees without registered citizenship. That’s enough, enough of your false sympathy Mr. Peter. Now it’s better to calm down with me and think about what we should do to deal with this scandal.”

“Wait, buddy, that news article says you are doing brainwashing experiments…”

“Why, Mr. Peter, do you want to be a volunteer in the lab?” Carmen laughed sullenly which made Peter immediately shut his mouth.

“Don’t ask what you don’t need to ask. It’s best to think with your brain before you ask. If I really intended to brainwash you, would you still be able to call me with this tone?”

After finishing this sentence, Carmen hung up and tossed the phone back on the table.

…

In the mountains of southern Bava, Frankberg, this was the border between Frankberg and Austria. In the depths of the uninhabited woods, a cabin long-abandoned was full of people.

The smell of tobacco hid the moldy smell of the woods, a pile of polished automatic rifles and ammunition were stacked up in the corners and tables. There were two maps placed on the table that had already begun to grow mushrooms. A traffic map and a blueprint for the research institute.

“The plan is this.” The Germanic head, holding the marker, placed symbols, lines, and arrows to indicate the course of action. “There will be a sniper that will support us, but after we enter the facility, we have to rely on ourselves.”

“What about the security system? If they locked the door of the institute internally, we can’t carry enough explosives to blast the wall,” said a bearded man.

“Use this,” the Germanic leader took out a USB flash drive from his pocket. “There will be a hacker who will help us remotely. As long as we plug it into a computer in the guardhouse, their security system is ours.”

“They can’t give me some decent drones? For example, the ones that appeared in Ukraine with machine guns on the bottom.” Playing with the beta-3 drone in his hand, an insurgent soldier complained.

Among all the drone export models from Future Heavy Industries, only the beta-3 drone had the widest export range. However, since it was a non-military drone, it was necessary to make modifications before being used for military purposes.

“Be content, this is our country. You can’t expect others to finish all of our obligations.”

After that, the leader slapped the map on the table, looked at the soldiers around him, and sternly said.

“Brothers, we have been waiting for this day for almost a year.”

“Tomorrow we will be on the battlefield. I hope that you have not forgotten the training you have received abroad.”

“I don’t want to say anything more, tomorrow we will fire the first shot of this war. Some people will be hurt, some will be sacrificed, we have to fight with our own people. But no matter what happens, I hope that you will always remember, always remember our mission.”

Chapter 1040: Gunshots in Bava

Chapter 1040: Gunshots in Bava

Central Bava, a small town on the Isle River.

This small town with barely any foreigners throughout the year had people from Europe and around the world gathered here. They came from different countries and from different backgrounds. But at this moment they were wearing uniform T-shirts and holding slogans with the same central idea and surrounding a research institute shouting in different languages.

“Open the Institute!”

“Stop the inhuman experiment immediately!”

“Release all human subjects! Release experimental details!”

“…”

To maintain order, the state government had to pull police from elsewhere to support the local police and put up yellow warning tape around the institute. The color seal reminded the angry protestors that it was private property.

However, the protestors did not buy the idea at all. The uncooperative attitude of the institute made them feel more and more suspicious. The police’s partiality made them sense the oddity in this situation more. They set up tents on the road outside the institute and broadcasted their protests with their mobile phones.

More and more social justice warriors gathered there to join the protest.

As the protest intensified, the director of the institute couldn’t remain calm anymore.

In order to calm people’s anger, he risked his life, used a speaker, and began to speak to the crowd behind the wall.

“…all of our research is within the framework of the law, and any rumors about the Institute researching brainwashing on human experiments are foolish and absurd…Fu*k!”

However, before he could finish, a large brick the size of a fist flew out from the crowd. A young man with a baseball cap gave him a middle finger. Within two seconds, the young man was arrested by a group of police swarming him and pushed him to a police car.

When the young man was detained, the police and the crowd clashed. The shouting and pushing made the scene extremely chaotic and the peaceful demonstration evolved into a violent conflict. Garbage and bricks were thrown over the wall and some landed on police and police cars.

Carefully avoiding the bricks, the director of the institute evacuated behind the explosion-proof shield.

“Fu*k! Are these people crazy?”

Once back in the institute, the director named Carol cursed and slammed the speaker on the ground.

In his heart, he already cursed Steven countless times. Because of that nobody’s betrayal, the entire 7th Institute was pulled into the center of a massive scandal.

“You should be glad that bricks are flying. I just found burning flask in the crowd. Although the guy hesitated and didn’t ignite it. I encountered this weapon in Iraq. If even a little bit touches you, you will turn into a piece of charcoal.” A mercenary joked as he put the explosion-proof shield aside.

Carol eyed the mercenary and grunted while fixing his messy collar.

“Look after your position, if you let the violent protesters in, you know what will happen. ”

“They can’t get in,” the mercenary shrugged and patted the pistol at his waist. “If they cross that door, we will shoot.”

Just as Carol walked into the institute, several vans were parked at a closed restaurant two blocks away. More than a dozen men wearing thick coats stepped out. They carried guitar cases or suitcases and hurried into the restaurant.

Almost at the same time, on a hillside one kilometer away, a canvas bag was thrown into a patch of tall grass filled with weeds. A young woman took off her sunglasses and removed the parts from the bag.

Within a minute, the chilling Ghost Sniper Rifle appeared in her hands.

Kneeling on the ground, she released the stand, adjusted the scope, and tapped on her earlobe.

“The Ghost is in place. Ready to start.”

In the restaurant one kilometer away, a dozen rebel soldiers were already covered in black masks.

The leader of the rebel army loaded the clip, pulled the bolt of the rifle, and a blazing fire ignited in his eyes.

“Now.”

…

As the police were pushing the young man toward the police car, the young man suddenly lowered his head and collapsed onto the ground. The riot police beside him didn’t have time to react. As he was about to pull him up, an intensive round of gunshots came from the crowd and hit them.

The crowd screamed and fled, and the previously chaotic scene became completely uncontrollable.

Hit by several bullets, the police uniform was soaked in blood. The sheriff who led the team leaned against the car and aimed at the crowd. However, because he couldn’t spot the militants, he spat out blood and fired a few bullets into the air before cursing.

“These damn bastards…”

The mercenaries inside the wall rushed to the nearest cover immediately and took over the automatic weapons thrown from their comrades behind them. There were exoskeletons in the institute, but no one wanted to wear something that heavy. Now they could only fight behind cover against these rioters to delay time while waiting for support to arrive.

It shouldn’t be difficult, if it was just a group of ordinary rioters.

The automatic rifles in their hands were no different than sticks… The leading mercenary gestured for his comrades to prepare themselves behind the bunker, but he didn’t get the opportunity to speak reassuring words.

PANG!

Without any warning, a bullet lifted his skull. Under everyone’s watch, the brain matter of the NATO veteran from Iraq was scattered all over the concrete floor behind him.

“Sniper!”

The captain immediately took over the command. He tightly pressed his head against the wall and yelled at his team.

“Search for cover! Lower your head – FU*K!”

There was another bullet. The sniper pruned on the top of the build fell down with his sniper. Now they were completely suppressed.

The exchange of fire between the militants and the police soon ended. The police had nothing but pistols, explosion-proof shields, as well as tear gas. No one thought that this would happen. They never expected to exchange fire.

“Smoke bomb!”

The mercenary behind the cover threw out a smoke bomb, and the smoke quickly dispersed the battlefield.

On the hill one kilometer away, the Eastern European beauty sneered. She gently pressed the radio life detection device button on the scope. Then she calculated her lead before pressing the trigger at the target that began to move.

Chapter 1041: Breaking Down the Defense

Chapter 1041: Breaking Down the Defense

BANG!

She pressed the trigger and the bullet pierced through the thick smoke.

The sniper one kilometer away used the radio life detection device on its scope to harvest the life of the mercenaries attempting to retreat. But when Arrow mercenaries realized this, five people had already fallen under her sniper.

“Sh*t! He can see us!”

The cement slag splashed against his face, and a frightened mercenary fell behind cover while yelling into the intercom on his shoulder. The bullets of the automatic rifle scratched over his helmet, but he didn’t dare to fire back at the “rioters”. He saw with his own eyes that a comrade five meters away died under the muzzle of the sniper rifle.

He couldn’t understand how the sniper locked onto them through the thick smoke.

Their smoke bombs had a pseudo-infrared function. Even with thermal imaging, it was only possible to see bright white or bright red.

Just as he was still shocked about what happened, a white pickup truck slammed through the entrance of the institute and rushed toward his rear. He saw from the corners of his eyes that there was no one in the driver seat, and two burning oil drums were tied behind the carriage.

He had no time to react, and the deafening explosion pierced his eardrums.

The scorching air swept through the open space in front of the institute, and the burning fire swallowed all the smoke.

“Perfect.”

The militant leader peeked out from cover and looked at the defense engulfed in flames. A merciless smile formed on his already cold face.

He raised his hand and waved his fist forward. A dozen armed soldiers left cover and fired in the direction of the institute. Under the cover of heavy machine guns and a sniper rifle, they pushed forward.

The protesting crowd had disappeared, and bullets flew freely between the two sides. Arrow’s mercenaries placed two heavy machine guns on the roof and hid behind the steel reinforcements to fire at the militant soldiers.

The sudden, unexpected firepower caught the militants off-guard as five soldiers were torn into pieces by heavy machine guns.

“Fu*k, they hid two heavy machine guns in the institute.”

Behind the armored police car, the militant leader cursed and gestured to the soldiers behind him.

Soon, four RPGs were aimed at the two machine guns. Followed by four whistling noises, the explosive warhead burst in the building, and the walls with reinforced concrete collapsed.

With the loss of the two heavy machine guns, Arrow’s firepower decreased substantially and was suppressed by the militant soldiers. The sniper in the distance forced them to stay undercover. Seeing that the situation was turning south, the head of the mercenaries had to order a retreat.

Soon, the militant soldiers with automatic rifles rushed downstairs in the main building. They fired at the lock of the iron gate then knocked open the door with the stock. A grenade was thrown inside, and as the dust of the explosion oozed out from the room, four soldiers against the wall rushed in.

They had already practiced this drill countless times while training abroad with expertise no inferior to anti-terrorist forces. The militant soldiers inside divided into two. One team immediately rushed to the second floor to clean up the rest of the mercenaries while the other team headed to the basement entrance to suppress the mercenaries who didn’t have time to evacuate into the underground passage.

Based on the information provided by Celestial Trade and the structural map of the institute, the 7th Institute was only an affiliated research institution of a pharmaceutical company. However, behind the scenes, it was conducting a special project called the Golden Apple Project, and all the sensitive experiments were conducted underground. The entrance to the underground was an alloy door that was comparable in thickness to any bank’s vault. It was basically impossible to open from the outside.

After being attacked by the militants, the director Carol, under the cover of mercenaries, brought all the researchers involved in the Golden Apple Project into the basement. As long as the door was closed, there was no chance for the militants outside to enter.

In half an hour at most, reinforcements would arrive. Even if these “rioters” had three heads and six arms, they wouldn’t be able to escape the cleansing power of Arrow mercenaries.

However, things didn’t develop in the direction they expected.

The leader of the militants entered the guard room and pushed away the corpse of the security guard in front of the computer. He took out a USB drive from his pocket inserted it into the computer then he executed the program inside.

Almost in an instant, a large number of black boxes and progress bars covered the screen. According to the agreement, Celestial Trade could hack the system through the institute’s internal network.

The mercenaries who fled into the basement didn’t have time to catch their breaths, and the indestructible alloy door slowly opened under their terrified gazes.

“Turn off the power! Quick!”

However, it was too late. When the door opened, a tear gas grenade was tossed in. The tear gas exploded inside, and the militant soldiers wearing gas masks rushed through the narrow entrance. After a lot of casualties, they ripped apart the defense formed by Arrow.

Intensive gunshots came from afar, and there were occasional blasts of grenades. Carol, who was previously relieved, once again entered a state of fear. Right now, he could only vent his anger at the head of mercenaries.

“Damn, aren’t you elites?! It’s just a group of rioters. You can’t even win against them?”

“They aren’t ordinary rioters. They received military training, are well equipped… and most importantly, they have the numerical advantage.” While responding to the director’s complaints, Jeff was locked onto the door.

The exoskeleton that covered his body didn’t bring him too much security. The approaching gunshots were enough to tell him about the tragedy outside.

The gunshots that were gradually becoming clear confused him. If his soldiers on the ground were caught unprepared, losing to the well-trained “rioters” would be excusable, but the mercenaries stationed underground were all wearing “lightning” exoskeletons. Although it wasn’t comparable to the K1 of Celestial Trade, they shouldn’t lose against a group of nobodies.

The combination of bulletproof steel plates and weight-bearing exoskeletons should be invincible in a battle between rifles.

However, the doubts in his mind were quickly answered.

The gunshots stopped and the door was slammed open, but no one came in.

Jeff pushed Carol to the back of the desk. With the other three mercenaries, they scattered to the four corners of the room. Jeff held his breath and his crosshairs locked on the door while his left hand touched the grenade launcher hanging under the barrel. However, a tubular grenade rolled in front of him at this very moment.

“Grenade!”

With a roar, he instinctively bunkered down, but the expected explosion didn’t arrive. He only heard static noise passing through his ears before his limbs seemed to be filled with lead.

A drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, and he seemed to understand what happened…

Chapter 1042: Living Hell

Chapter 1042: Living Hell

If there were any weaknesses in the ‘Lightning’ exoskeleton designed by Krupp Group, EMP was one of them. Although Celestial Trade only provided a small number of EMP grenades to these militant forces, it was enough for them to win this battle.

When Jeff heard the static noise, his heart sank. The stiffness from his joints allowed him to confirm one thing—the exoskeleton covering his entire body had completely shut down.

With both hands pressed against the ground, he gritted his teeth and desperately wanted to get up. But a hundred pounds of alloy steel plates on his body wasn’t easy to lift without the force of the exoskeleton.

Just like that, Jeff could only watch the militant soldier walking toward him. The soldier first kicked him down then pulled off his helmet before sending him to sleep with a strike to his face.

In the blink of an eye, the only four mercenaries in the room lost their combat abilities. Carol desperately tried to escape to the corner while watching in horror.

“Don’t-don’t come close to me… I beg you, let me go. I’m just a researcher. I-I have a wife and a three-year-old daughter. They’re still waiting for me to go home. You can’t—”

The leader of the militants grabbed his collar and lifted him as he stared at his frightened eyes.

“Sample room, go and open the door.”

“Yes, yes…”

Carol nodded while shivering. His feet returned to the ground, but he stumbled in fear.

With a gun pointed to his head, Carol didn’t dare to drag things on. He took the soldiers to the underground sample room.

The door of the sample room was already sprayed-painted with the militants’ logo and various slogans. As he was pushed to a metal door, several soldiers were already waiting. Under watch of several pairs of eyes, Carol typed the password with his trembling fingers. With a clunking noise, he was rudely pushed aside.

As the soldiers entered the sample room, the leader of the militants took off his gas mask and looked at everything in the sample room, muttering to himself.

“God… What did we find?”

Countless body bags, like dried fish on a production line, were neatly hung with hooks. Through the plastic on top of each body bag, he could even clearly identify the facial structure of each “sample” and the number attached to the body bag.

“Sir, we’re going to… do.” The soldier’s throat next to him felt dry and he squeezed out a few words.

The militant leader silently took out his phone and gave it to the soldier.

“Go take some photos. Remember, they have to be clear.”

After making the order, he put the rifle behind him, took out another USB from his pocket, and inserted it into the lab server according to the agreement with Celestial Trade.

After waiting for the data transfer to finalize, he grabbed the USB. The soldier who was taking photos had returned. With an ugly expression, he forced out a few words.

“Done.”

The militant leader didn’t say anything. He just nodded then ordered a retreat.

As he passed by the door, a soldier stepped forward and poked the head of the director with a gun.

“How are we going to deal with this guy?”

Looking at Carol’s horrified and pleading eyes, the militant leader scoffed and looked away.

“Tie him up and leave him here.”

After hearing this sentence, ecstasy suddenly appeared on his face. However, the ecstasy didn’t last two seconds and his heart sank to the bottom again with the next sentence.

“There has to be someone to explain to the protesters and reporters outside what these body bags are for.”

“It seems that we’ve found something incredible.”

Through the holographic screen, Jiang Chen, who was in Future Building, was looking at the photos sent by the militants. The hanging bodies were daunting. While he was mentally prepared about the use of living people as materials for the Golden Apple Project, he didn’t expect that the Freemasonry would place such a low value on life.

If he remembered correctly, this was the modern world, not the apocalypse.

Sitting on the other side of the office was Xie Lei. Compared to when he first met Jiang Chen, the boy had now matured. With Jiang Chen’s support, his sister regained her vision. As agreed, after he returned to Xin from university, he swore his allegiance to Jiang Chen. He was mainly responsible for maintaining the network security for Celestial Trade and occasionally working part-time as a hacker for Jiang Chen to deal with things that must remain hidden.

For example, like the current operation.

Jiang Chen got up and walked to the other side of the office. He patted Xie Lei’s backrest and looked at the data stream flashing inside the computer. “How’s it going? Are you done?”

“Database deciphering is now completed, and a total of 197 gigabytes of experimental data has been copied…. To be honest, deleting their originals doesn’t make any sense. As long as they aren’t stupid, they probably periodically back up the lab’s data to a specific location on the hard disk.”

Despite this, Xie Lei also pressed a few buttons, following Jiang Chen’s request, and deleted all the research data on the Golden Apple Project in the 7th Research Institute.

“I understand that the purpose of deleting the information here is just to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Russians. You don’t have to worry about these things; concentrate on your work.”

Information related to Golden Apple definitely shouldn’t fall into the hands of the Russians, including information related to brainwashing technology. This kind of technology was useless to Jiang Chen but not for other countries.

“Okay, you’re the boss. The Russians won’t find any information related to the Golden Apple Project.” Xie Lei yawned, but his typing motions didn’t stop at all. The network security engineers at the institute were tied up. With the help of a quantum computer, the server was pretty much undefended to him.

“Got it!” Xie Lei’s hands left the keyboard and he snapped his fingers.

Everything was going as planned, and Jiang Chen couldn’t stop smiling.

“Remember to wipe your footprints.”

“Understand.” Xie Lei grinned and tapped the enter key on the touch panel. At the same time, the screen began to load. “It’s the Freemasonry who destroyed the data when they retreated. As long as we leave misleading traces then erase records of us breaking into the server…”

Chapter 1043: In a Storm of Scandal

The sound of the propeller whizzed in the air, and five transport helicopters arrived above the 7th Institute.

Looking at the dense crowd below, Horvat’s skull felt numb. He was ready to enter combat when he was dispatched, but there were no militants at the scene at all.

Other than the wreckage and shambles, he only saw protestors that had already rushed inside, as well as media vans from the media outlets around the world.

“Sir?” The mercenary sitting next to him looked at him with eyes of inquiry.

After hesitating for a moment, Horvat pressed on the headset and made an order: “Lower the height, prepare for a rope drop.”

Five helicopters hovered in front of the main entrance of the institute, and dozens of special forces landed on the ground using ropes.

The protesters had already rushed into the institute, and ambulances and fire trucks surrounded the entrance. Stretchers and cameras mixed with the crowd and made the scene particularly chaotic. Police dispatched from nearby were trying to control the situation and remove unrelated individuals and the media from the institute, but they were ineffective against the angry protesters and aggressive reporters.

Sargent Dover leaned against the police car with his hand on his forehead. He brought over a hundred police forces, but they still had a minimal impact on the protestors who had already rushed into the institute.

Obviously, the reporters found something in the research institute. Body bags labeled with numbers were lined up in the open space in front of the institute. The director of the institute, who had a bruised nose, was lifted into an ambulance. The protesters questioned who the police should arrest. The police also asked the police chief the same question. Dover didn’t know the answer, so he could only resort to reporting to his superior.

However, until now, his superior hadn’t given him any clear instructions. He just repeated the sentence: “Control the situation.”

With heavily-armed mercenaries, Horvat walked to Dover’s side and showed him the documents to enter the restricted zone… The documents were unnecessary since the restricted zone was already filled with protestors who couldn’t be moved.

“Where is Carol?” Horvat glanced at the protesting crowd and lowered his voice.

“You’re talking about the director of the institute? He was carried to the ambulance.” Dover raised his chin and pointed to the ambulance next to him. “He looks a bit miserable; you should be mentally prepared… when we retrieved him from the protesters, we almost didn’t recognize him.”

Horvat’s eyebrows twitched and he walked in the direction of the ambulance.

Looking at the mercenaries rushing into the crowd, the protesters looked at them with hostility.

“Arrow? Where is our 9th Anti-Terrorist Brigade? When did Peter outsource ‘anti-terrorism’ to military contractors?”

“Who knows? Maybe next time, they will even outsource the ballots.”

“Ah, then I have to sign up for a printing factory to bid.”

Without paying attention to the protesters, Horvat pushed aside the protestors in front of him, walked to the ambulance, showed the medical staff his documents, and pulled Carol out of the ambulance. The sound of the bolts scared off the protestors who were preparing to rush forward. They formed a human wall and retreated in the direction of the helicopter.

“Sh*t, this guy got messed up.” The stretcher was pushed into the transport helicopter while a mercenary whispered.

“As long as he’s the right one.” Horvat glanced at him and told the medic to handle the director’s wounds then turned back to the crowd.

Although he was miserable, Carol fortunately still had some air left in him or it would be difficult for him to answer to his superior.

In addition to the director of the institute, other researchers surrounded by protestors were waiting for rescue. When Horvat rescued key researchers from the locked office, he returned to the helicopter and Carol, who was almost on his last breath, woke up.

Horvat sat down beside him and stared into his eyes.

“Where is Jeff? How come I didn’t see him?”

“Jeff…” It took a while for Carol’s concussed brain to recall the owner of the name.

Coughing violently, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his violently pumping chest.

“He was taken away by the militants.”

“How could that be with Jeff’s skills?” a mercenary interrupted.

Horvat frowned, raised his hand to cut the mercenary off and persisted further.

“Tell me all the details.”

“The militants broke into the underground research institute’s security system and opened the alloy door. The last mercenaries and the militants exchanged fire in the corridor in front of the main entrance, and Jeff took me to the office at the back of the lab. Then…”

“And then?”

Recalling the tragedy that occurred an hour ago, Carol was frightened. Suppressing his fear, he narrated what happened with great discomfort.

“Then they quickly pushed the front door and threw a grenade inside. Jeff and the other three got down, but the grenade didn’t explode. There was only a very faint static noise then they couldn’t crawl back up. They were knocked out by the militants who rushed through the door. If I’m not wrong, that should’ve bee—”

“EMP” Horvat muttered to himself and spoke the three letters for him.

Located in the Finnish manor, Carmen quietly listened to the report from his phone.

The 7th Institute was attacked by the militant army organization claiming to be the “People’s Liberation Front.” They released a video of the battle at the research institute, not only publishing evidence of human experiments to the whole world but also letting in the protestors.

“The traces of EMP weapons were found on the scene,” Johnson said with a dignified look.

Whenever these three letters were mentioned, it wasn’t difficult to guess who was behind this. All Celestial Trade possessed were non-nuclear EMP weapons. However, Carmen didn’t expect that not only did they reduce the size of their EMPs to non-guided support rockets, but they also further reduced it to a portable grenade.

After listening to Johnson’s report, Carmen didn’t speak. After a long silence, he picked up the phone and called the Krupp Group to tell them that the ‘Lightning’ exoskeleton required EMP protection then hung up.

After being neglected for a long time, Johnson waited for Carmen to finish calling then he hesitated for a moment before asking: “…What should we do now?”

“I’ll give you all of Arrow’s resources in Frankberg. Find them and kill them in their cradle. ”

“Roger.”

Johnson lowered his head then left with quick steps.

Looking at the closed door, Carmen gritted his teeth in anger. He gazed at the Golden Apple on the table sullenly and said, word by word, “You will pay for your stupidity.”

Chapter 1044: The Start of Disorder

“The Frankberg People’s Liberation Front announced its support for the exiled government led by former Deputy Prime Minister Evelyn. The leader of the rebel militants, Franz, claimed that 10,000 people have joined their ranks and they will be armed to protest against New Choice Party’s decision for EU integration and the blatant disregard for the interests of the people.”

“Evelyn told the media in exile that the tragedy in the 7th Institute wasn’t an accident. With Peter’s involvement, the country is rotting from the inside. The New Choice Party isn’t the people’s government but a puppet government controlled by corporations. Everyone should stand up and fight against this tyrant…”

Leaning on the sofa, Jiang Chen enjoyed Ayesha’s gentle massage while watching CNN’s report. When he saw the chaotic scene that had erupted at the 7th Institute, he couldn’t stop smiling.

The conceitedness associated with power and fanaticism for the Golden Apple would bring him and his empire into the grave sooner or later. Of course, without the work of Celestial Trade and Russia behind the scenes, the rebel militants wouldn’t have made such great progress.

So far, everything was going as planned.

The scandal might force Peter to step down, but it wouldn’t hurt Carmen Rothschild at all. Before the first shot, Ghost Agents had already investigated that Bava Pharmaceuticals, the parent company of the 7th Research Institute, had no direct equity relationship with the Rothschild Bank, but it was controlled by an overseas shell company. The legal representative had lived abroad for many years and the police couldn’t even find a person, let alone pursue legal actions.

Without any further incidents, after Carmen took this slap to the face, his next step would be to revise the Public Gathering Bill and the Anti-Terrorism Act. This would provide assistance to his own forces to remove the militants from the territory. However, New Choice Party’s support rate, already losing popularity, would fall to the bottom. This would push the already fierce conflicts in the country to a new peak.

“According to the agreement, the militants handed over the captives of the Arrow to us. Our people used Truth-Telling Serum and obtained the location of Arrow’s training base on the Finnish border. We then provided the information to an informant of the Russian Security according to your instructions.”

“Very good. Then it’s up to Russia’s decision.” Jiang Chen grinned.

The pictures on TV were showing the police using tear gas to clear the area. Western reporters seemed to have a soft spot for reporting this scandal. Perhaps a reporter might’ve been hit on the head by a stick, but the TV even showed a few close-ups of the faces of the Frankberg police.

Now the world was waiting for Frankberg to make a decision. But in an interview, Peter, who won the election with his tough and extremely right image, was acting like a disgruntled clown. Other than defaming and denying the rebel’s statement and the opposition’s voice from the country, he couldn’t think of any practical way to put an end to the chaos.

“What about us?” Ayesha asked.

“Us? We don’t have to do anything,” Jiang Chen said.

“Nothing at all?” Ayesha seemed to be confused.

“Nothing needs to be done. Our ghosts only need to hide in the dark, wait for an opportunity to appear, and deal the enemy a fatal blow. Now it’s Russia’s turn to play the game; let them attract firepower first… Of course, we aren’t out of this mess yet. Our two orbital airborne brigades will create a big victory on the Eastern Front and light a fire under their as*.”

Looking at his confident expression, Ayesha smiled and leaned down to kiss his ear. “Go eat now—breakfast is ready, and it will get cold if you don’t eat.”

“Mhmm, I’ll go now.”

Feeling the warmth on his ear, Jiang Chen smiled and kissed her on the cheek. He lifted the remote, turned off the TV, and walked to the kitchen with Ayesha with his hand around her waist.

…

In the afternoon, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse and retrieved life necessities for this quarter.

With the development of the NAC, the materials he needed to transport were decreasing. The three Gardens of Eden were enough to support the consumption of survivors in the city, and surplus food was exported elsewhere.

In the past, he mainly transported canned food and compressed crackers. But now, he brought back mostly rare earth metals which were difficult to obtain in the wasteland. Recycling alone couldn’t sustain the consumption of the iron and aluminum mines on Sixth Street.

After Jiang Chen moved the last container into the empty warehouse, he let out a long breath of air. Out of habit, he raised his arm and wiped his forehead before he walked out. The guards at the warehouse saluted, followed behind him, then sat in the military vehicle.

Because a new research institute was built in the backyard of the mansion, the warehouse that was originally used to store the “transported materials” was demolished. Now, the warehouse was placed outside Fishbone Base’s walls due to the ease of transport and the discreetness of the location.

“You’re done already?” With her arms on the steering wheel, Sun Jiao smiled and looked at Jiang Chen who sat in behind her.

Because it was a break, she was wearing clothes that Jiang Chen brought from the modern world. Because her smile was too bright, Jiang Chen had an illusion that the girl in front of him was from a modern world metropolis.

But soon after, the illusion disappeared. Because of Sun Jiao’s uniqueness, even if she wore modern clothes, it would be hard for Jiang Chen to compare her with white-collar workers in the city.

“Are you thinking of something rude?” Sun Jiao’s smile was even brighter, but Jiang Chen shuddered.

“Ahem, absolutely not. Don’t be so suspicious, dear.”

“Then I want you to compliment me, such as saying this dress is very… very well-fitting.” With a smirk, Sun Jiao persisted.

“It’s perfect.”

Jiang Chen didn’t lie as only sincerity was in his pristine gaze.

Sun Jiao blushed and her head that had peeked over slowly shrank back. They had been dating for a long time and already tried countless different positions, but she never was good at dealing with Jiang Chen’s “sweetness”.

Her thumb and index finger fiddled with a strand of her hair. She coughed and hid her shyness in the roaring of the engine.

Driving on the main road on the base, Jiang Chen observed the scenery along the way through his window and casually talked to Sun Jiao about the base.

“Preparing for winter already?”

“The sooner we prepare, the better. Last year’s heavy snow was so memorable.” Looking at the cloudless sky outside the window, Sun Jiao yawned. “The Holy Shield system hasn’t been fixed yet. If nothing surprising pops up, it probably won’t happen this year… Are those people really trustworthy? I always feel they’re too slow. Is it that difficult to repair a shield?”

There was a rare case of good weather today; it was typically hard to see such clear clouds in the wasteland. The rays mixed with hues of yellow and green and the hazy radiation dust were the normal state of the wasteland, along with the zombies and Death Claws among the ruins. But with the establishment of the NAC, they started to disappear.

“It should be very difficult. It wouldn’t benefit them if they chose to be slow. We don’t supply them with free winter supplies, so if they can’t fix it by the end of this year, they will have to freeze in Shangjing.” Jiang Chen laughed.

Chapter 1045: Trading with Northern Alliance Area

“I thought you stepped down from intelligence work.”

“Kutpov is responsible for this task. I’m only responsible for helping him contact Celestial Trade. The coordinates of Arrow have been exposed. If everything goes smoothly, he will fly to Finland tomorrow.”

“Hah, that old man. I know—very interesting guy.”

“Interesting? I don’t see anything interesting on his face with as many knife-scars as wrinkles…”

In a villa on the outskirts of Moscow, an old man and a young woman sat across from each other and enjoyed a not-so-family dinner. However, Nikolaev was very content. Since the death of Marina, his family was fragmented. The cold war between the daughter and father had continued till now. The last time they had dinner together was in the distant past.

Both sides knew that this wasn’t each other’s fault but they couldn’t forgive each other. Regardless of what Marina did, she was Natasha’s mother, and she died in Georgia because of his orders. He didn’t expect Natasha to forgive him, even if he believed she could understand him…

Nikolaev looked at his daughter deeply. Natasha stopped moving her fork and touched her face with a frown.

“Is there anything on my face?”

“There are a lot of things, lots of reminders of Marina… Sorry, I shouldn’t mention her name.”

“It’s okay, I know she died. You’re in more pain than me.” Natasha was nonchalant.

Nikolaev forced a smile, pinched his eyebrows, hesitated for a while, and finally spoke the words that had been brewing for a long time.

“Listen, I heard he has many women.”

“Are you not the same?” Natasha sneered.

“This…this isn’t exactly the same…” Nikolaev touched his nose awkwardly after his daughter revealed his private life. “I just hope that you can take care of yourself—”

“I will.”

Nikolaev opened his mouth, but his vocabulary seemed to have disappeared, as nothing came out in the end. He spread his hands and said, “…I hope so.”

This was her own life, and he had no right to interfere too much, even if he was her father. She was already an adult. But if possible, he wanted to see Jiang Chen again. This time, he swore that he would grab Jiang Chen’s neck and beat the wicked and lucky boy.

Looking at her father’s expression, Natasha knew what he was thinking and couldn’t help but sigh.

After a moment of silence, she slowly said, “After some time, I will be there.”

“Oh,” Nikolaev responded with his nasal voice as if he didn’t seem to mind

“Although I have no plans to forgive you… I remember the things you’ve done for me.”

After a pause, Natasha stared at the steak on her plate and said in a casual but forced tone, “Anyway, thank you.”

However, from her slightly trembling voice, she wasn’t calm.

“Thank you…”

The old man smiled and touched his chin full of grease.

He had previously made up his mind that he must beat that guy, but he suddenly changed his mind.

Drinking two bottles of vodka with him didn’t seem like a bad choice either.

“Achoo!”

Jiang Chen’s nose was a little itchy, and he couldn’t help but sneeze.

Perhaps someone was thinking about him, but it was the second time he sneezed in the last few minutes. If it wasn’t for the fact that he knew his body was immunized against most colds, he would wonder if he caught a cold.

Sitting across from Jiang Chen, Chu Nan joked with a smirk while drinking tea.

“Got a cold from last night?”

“It’s just that my nose is a little itchy… Where were we again?” Jiang Chen said as he rubbed his nose.

Chu Nan sighed. “Did you really listen to what I said about the Northern Alliance Area?”

“Indeed.” Jiang Chen waved his hand and motioned for him to continue.

To the NAC who had rekindled civilized fire, the Northern Alliance Area was like nomads. Because of the climate problem, they targeted the relatively rich area of Wanghai, and they tried to take away this “prosperous” land from the NAC with equipment inherited from the Pan-Asia Cooperation.

Especially the three Gardens of Eden. Half of the decision to choose Wanghai as the destination was because of the three gardens.

However, the NAC wasn’t an easy opponent. The offensive attack from last winter ended in the defeat of the Northern Alliance Area. Their strongest Wanderer tank was simply incomparable against the advanced pre-war Particle Cannon.

With the Particle Cannon as their trump card, even if the Northern Alliance Area wanted to attack, there would be no opportunity to advance a step further. However, Jiang Chen was facing the same issue.

Jiang Chen, Han Junhua, and other high-level NAC executives certainly discussed a conquest of the Northern Alliance Area. It wasn’t impossible to execute, but a very real problem was placed in front of them. It was the problem of profits.

Regardless if they won or lost, even if the NAC managed to maintain a thousand-kilometer supply line through countless zombies, mutants, and raiders on the wasteland, even if they won, there would be no substantial benefit to the NAC.

The “gap between the rich and the poor” was too great. Other than weapons, the Northern Alliance Area had nothing Jiang Chen envied. The only thing he was curious about was a launch center, but he was only curious. Since it was based on the Sectarian Guardians, there was nothing left there.

Since it was the worst choice for both sides, there was only one option left.

“You mean they’re going to trade with me?” Jiang Chen laughed and sipped on his tea. “We have a lot of good stuff here, but what can they trade?”

Chu Nan didn’t speak, but he also smiled. He took a graphene card from his pocket, wagged it with his fingers, and placed it on the coffee table between them. He then gently pushed it in front of Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen picked up the graphene card and rubbed the switch, then a list of goods appeared in front of him.

“Mutant fur, Steel Tooth Tiger teeth, Blood Vine, crystal… how come I don’t understand some of things on here?” Jiang Chen furrowed.

“In addition to the crystals and industrial-use Blood Vine, the others are luxury goods. They’re only available in the northwest area of the mainland. They can be used to produce coats, jewelry, or other items. These luxury goods are in high demand on the wealthy Sixth Street, the southern area, and overseas. What do you think? Interested?” Chu Nan asked.

When Jiang Chen heard the word “luxury,” he almost burst out laughing.

Sure enough, the pursuit of a high quality of life was part of human nature. Without a need to worry about food, people begin searching for other things, but this was also part of the path toward civilization. A civilization without luxury couldn’t ever be truly prosperous.

“What do you think?” Jiang Chen tossed the card back on the table and didn’t directly answer his question, but instead, he asked Chu Nan for his opinion.

“If trade can feed them, at least they can control their own hands. I think this is a good thing. But we have to consider what can be sold and what can’t be sold.” Chu Nan said, with a shrewd light piercing out from his eyes.

Chapter 1046: The Force of a Prairie Fire

Chapter 1046: The Force of a Prairie Fire

The representatives from the Northern Alliance Area were also brought over, and the negotiations lasted for an entire afternoon. The “NAC-NAA Free Trade Agreement” that made countless businessmen on Sixth Street ecstatic was finally introduced.

However, while it was free trade, there were still restrictions.

First, “strategic materials” like iron, aluminum, titanium, tungsten, molybdenum, and rare earth materials were all restricted. Businessmen who were caught would be immediately treated as smugglers. At this point, Jiang Chen didn’t make any concessions, no matter how the Northern Alliance Area representative protested.

Iron, aluminum, and titanium were the keys to the production of advanced weapons ranging from the optical components of laser guns to the accelerometers of Type-50 Electromagnetic Pulse Cannons, all of which depended on these strategic resources. As for tungsten and molybdenum, one was raw material for smelting C-type steel, and the other was used to produce neural connection devices.

In addition to the ban on the sale of strategic materials, Jiang Chen also imposed an additional 15% tariff on luxury goods. They must pay the tariff if their products entered the Sixth Street market. For the modern world, a 15% tariff didn’t seem to be high, but in the apocalypse which had limited resources, it was very high.

Objections? Useless.

The products of the Northern Alliance Area weren’t the only option available to the NAC. NAC’s extensive trade routes went south to Yizhou and west to India, all of which could substitute as trading partners.

However, the Northern Alliance Area didn’t have much choice. Although they could find large survivor hubs in the south, the mutants and zombies along the way made them miserable. The extreme cold weather in the north wasn’t suitable for the cultivation of mutated fruit trees. The production of nutrient supply couldn’t just be supported by hunting unless they wasted their already-limited ammunition on mutants. Not just nutrient supply, but many things piled up in Wanghai’s warehouses were in short supply in the north.

Opening up the trade route down the river was their only choice unless they could access a large reserve of helium to build airships, but that was obviously impossible. In the 22nd century, helium was a scarce resource and only Jiang Chen could lavishly use it to fill “balloons”.

Of course, Jiang Chen didn’t make a one-sided agreement. Light weapon bullets, laser gun batteries, and other supplies could be purchased by merchants of the NAC. But in order to prevent them from hoarding ammunition, the amounts of each purchase were strictly limited.

With the signing of the trade agreement, the two sides finally lowered the guns pointed at each other. A peace that had appeared to have an expiry date had finally arrived on the land ruled by the NAC.

So far, Jiang Chen was finally able to deal with all the matters on this temporary return. And at this time, another new piece of information arrived from the modern world.

Although she was very disappointed, Sun Jiao finally let go of Jiang Chen, who was “squeezed out”. She left a kiss on his lips and watched him disappear from the room.

News came from Europe.

Since the militants fired the first shot at the “7th Institute Campaign”, they declared war on Peter’s government.

In the few days that Jiang Chen was gone, the fire of revolution had already ignited throughout Frankberg.

The state of Bava which had the most intense conflict was under martial law, and Ber once again welcomed a curfew after a year and a half. Following the principle of running away if they couldn’t win, the rebel militants used civilian vehicles and light weapons to fight mobile warfare against special forces and regular troops in the city. When they were under siege, they fled into the mountain ranges on the border and used the treacherous terrain to engage in guerrilla warfare.

The reason why these protesters could cause such a massive upheaval was mainly due to the integration of the EU.

After several years of continuous “efforts,” according to data released after further disarmament in 2012, the entire Frankberg Army had only retained three divisions. The main battle tanks were reduced from more than 2,500 tanks to 230 tanks and 470 vehicles. Other than a strong air force, the size of the entire force was smaller than an army group for most countries.

Although Peter made adjustments to the defense budget after he took office, it was impossible for a reserve of more than 100,000 to fight a war against the militants at a moment’s notice. Frankberg used a recruiting system and soldiers were volunteers with salaries. With Peter’s current approval rate, even if he still maintained support from the right-wing, the votes in the EU integration meant he would only receive boos from the people of Frankberg.

At present, NATO had yet to send troops. At the time of the contract, no member countries determined there was a need to send troops to maintain stability in member countries.

After all, the country wasn’t a private enterprise, and sending troops wasn’t a simple matter. However, it also fitted Carmen’s intentions. Arrow took a strong stance and intervened in the drastic changes happening in Frankberg caused by the revolution.

After Peter signed a decree that read: “If encountering resistance, soldiers can shoot rebel militants on the spot,” the protests and crackdowns were heightened to the extreme. Bloody conflicts occurred in every corner of the city. Walls were smeared with the black marks left by explosives. The bullet holes were like scars, contradictions that couldn’t be erased.

It was hard to imagine that this could happen in a developed country. Although this predicament had been previewed countless times in games and films, no one truly believed this.

Perhaps it was a cultural war brought by the refugees.

In the early morning of May 21st, Coro City Airport welcomed a special guest. Under the escort of four bodyguards, the old man with a hooked nose smiled and greeted Jiang Chen with a hug.

“I had a hunch when I left last time that we would meet again. I didn’t expect this day to come so quickly.”

“It’s not that quick. When I saw you last time, you were forty.” Looking at the two side-burns on the old man, Jiang Chen smiled, “Welcome, future Prime Minister.”

“It’s still too early for that. I’m just a poor man who’s living under other people’s rooves.” Although the tone was modest, Jiang Chen could clearly sense the sense of relief from his bright smile.

Bloody conflicts weren’t something to be happy about, but the Frankberg finally picked up weapons against the tyrants they selected. It was a big step forward. More and more people joined the Frankberg People’s Liberation Front, went overseas to receive military training, and returned to their home country to advance their progress.

Evelyn had reasons to believe his days of exile would end soon.

For this reason, he was able to represent “New Federal Frankberg” to visit Coro City to discuss the future of the country with Jiang Chen…

Chapter 1047: Taking Advantange of The Situation

Chapter 1047: Taking Advantange of The Situation

Sitting in the gazebo behind his Coro Island mansion, Evelyn and Jiang Chen chatted about the future of Frankberg while leisurely enjoying the sea breeze. Ayesha, in a maid uniform, poured iced black tea for the two then left with gentle steps.

“Europe’s anti-dumping and countervailing investigations of Celestial Trade and Future Group are against the law. If I was in office, such a ridiculous thing wouldn’t happen.” Evelyn sipped the black tea in the cup and began to speak: “The whole world is enjoying the convenience brought by technology. It’s unreasonable for the people of Frankberg to only use smuggled goods. The consortium led by the Rothschild family has been controlling politics for too long. Now they’re working together to take the voting rights from our people? That’s theft!”

“I believe you will bring the much-needed change.” Jiang Chen smiled, took a sip of the iced black tea, and turned his eyes to gaze at the beach not far away.

His mansion was located in the deepest part of the wealthy area, and it was also at the highest point. In addition to the 500-meter-long private beach, they could also see the busy public beaches not far in the distance and the luxurious yachts in the sea.

Everyone who lived in this community possessed a significant amount of wealth. The beach and the yachts were naturally full of beauties with different skin colors. Jiang Chen once saw a man crowded by more than a dozen beautiful ladies on a yacht, and he suddenly felt that his life was too clear-minded.

Compared to those animals.

“The beach, sea breeze, palm trees… It’d be perfect if we had some champagne now.”

“If we popped some champagne now, what would we use to celebrate after the victory? Tea?” Jiang Chen joked.

“Hahaha.” Evelyn laughed. “I didn’t expect you to understand American humor.”

“I know a little about the cultures of all countries.” Jiang Chen smiled and put down the teacup in his hand. “Let’s leave the chitchat to dinner time. You flew here not just for a vacation, right?”

“Of course. Are we not discussing the future of Frankberg?” Evelyn laughed.

Jiang Chen shook his head. “We already agreed on opening the channels for Future Group and Celestial Trade prior. It was also a prerequisite for us to support you. This isn’t discussing the future.”

Evelyn spread his hands. “Well, precisely speaking, the purpose of my trip was to hear your opinion or recommendations.”

“Recommendations? What recommendations do you want?” Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair and looked at the old man, intrigued.

“The civil war has pulled Frankberg into chaos. I believe you must’ve seen on the news what the country is like now. I’ll be straightforward—once I’m elected as the next prime minister, if I want to stabilize my position, I must fix the mess left by Peter and reinvigorate the Frankberg economy from its ruins.”

“You came to seek out investments?” Jiang Chen acutely sensed his intention.

“Yes.” Evelyn nodded solemnly. “What we lack is exactly what you have. Whether we have a poor market or an energized market depends on you.”

On the economic issue, Russia, which lacked self-sufficiency, definitely wouldn’t be able to help. Evelyn could only discuss this matter with Jiang Chen. If Frankberg wished to step out of the grim civil war, it must inject a lot of money. However, no one was willing to spend hundreds of billions to take a risk on Europe, which would be in turmoil for the next decade or even longer.

Evelyn anxiously observed Jiang Chen’s expression, and he was relieved that he didn’t see signs of rejection. However, Jiang Chen’s grin made him question if the decision to ask the question was wise…

Jiang Chen smiled. “Are you sure? My appetite is very big.”

Evelyn’s eyebrows twitched, and he bit the bullet. “Go ahead.”

Jiang Chen extended three fingers and said slowly: “Daimler, Volkswagen, BMW…”

“That’s impossible!” Evelyn exclaimed and interrupted him. “Do you think Frankberg is Xin? Our antitrust regulations won’t allow—”

“When I finish talking.” Jiang Chen raised his hand to signal for him to not overreact then he put up a finger. “100 billion Xin New Dollars.”

More objections were stuck in his throat, and nothing came out of Evelyn’s mouth.

At the current exchange rate, 100 billion XND was almost equivalent to 150 billion Euros. After the German People’s Liberation Front succeeded in its revolution, his party would again become the majority party and end the EU integration process. It was possible that 100 billion XND could be equivalent to 200 billion Euros.

Two hundred billion Euros, a number he couldn’t refuse in any way.

“You have to promise not to move the Frankberg factories to Xin…” His shoulders were no longer tense, and Evelyn compromised.

“If I really had that idea, why wouldn’t I just open a few factories in Xin? Rest assured; even if I wanted to do that, Xin has no room for me to build another industrial park. Let Frankberg become Future Group’s factory in the Eurozone—this is the option that suits my interests. With the injection of our funds, the people will get jobs, and the government will have tax revenue. This is a win-win situation, isn’t it?”

Listening to Jiang Chen’s unrealistic vision, Evelyn twitched and squeezed out a few words.

“I sure hope so.”

The automobile industry was a 1:10 industry, which meant the output of one unit of the automobile industry could increase the overall output of at least 10 units in all sectors of the economy.

The most direct impact was the development of upstream raw materials industries such as steel, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, plastics, rubber, and glass. In the mid-stream manufacturing process, the automotive industry had brought considerable benefits to industries such as machinery and electronics, CNC machine tools, and automated production lines. In the downstream industries, the automobile industry had effectively promoted logistics, finance, insurance, sales, and advertising industries. This huge multiplier effect was unmatched by any other industry.

To boost Frankberg economically, choosing the automotive industry as an entry point was undoubtedly the perfect choice.

Of course, Jiang Chen wasn’t helping Evelyn out of a spirit of selflessness. His money didn’t grow on trees. Without profits, he wouldn’t think at all.

Taking advantage… um, a more elegant description would be… win-win! That was the motive for his decision to boost the Frankberg economy.

28% of Research and Development personnel in the Frankberg industrial sector were engaged in automotive R&D, while one-ninth of the employees in the automotive industry worked in R&D-related fields. On average, the Frankberg automotive industry released 10 patents per day and generated 3,650 patents each year. All of this ensured the technological leadership of the Frankberg automotive industry, which Luer under Jiang Chen lacked.

A lot of things had to take time to accumulate. Luer Motors was like a limping giant, leading the world in lithium-air batteries and wireless charging technology, but its management experience and research and development capabilities only compared to second-tier companies.

However, these problems wouldn’t exist if he acquired the Frankberg auto industry. With equity manipulation, Jiang Chen could allow the companies under his name to hold shares of other companies to allow for the exchange of experience and share the global market.

Looking at the hazy Evelyn, Jiang Chen’s eyes began to consider other opportunities.

Since he already bought the automobile manufacturing industry, why not just spend more money and purchase the second pillar industry, electronics? Just as the tentacles of the global power grid plan already spread across Asia and brought a significant reduction to the cost of household electricity throughout Asia, the cost of household electricity had been greatly reduced. The entire Asian electronics market was ready for a chemical reaction to bring change to everyone’s lives.

But the old fox, Evelyn, wasn’t an “indigenous” of MLL Island. What price would be appropriate this time?

Chapter 1048: Battle of Dnieper River

Just as Jiang Chen and Evelyn worried about the future of Frankberg, it was late in Ukraine on the other side of the globe.

It was already late May, and the air on the outskirts of Dnepropetrovsk began to feel hot.

The old church stood alone in the middle of the shambles. Perhaps it was because the warring parties had intentionally avoided firing at it that it miraculously survived. In the cemetery behind the church, dark smoke slowly floated up. In order to prevent the plague from spreading, the citizens of the suburbs all helped the government forces to drag the dead bodies there and incinerate them.

Two streets away from the church were the front lines.

A ragged old mother limped forward and wandered around the Dnieper River filled with dead bodies. She was numb to the constant cannon shots in the distance. She mechanically touched the faces soaked by water as she muttered: “God”, “Jesus”, “No”.

The mother river that gave birth to the Ukraine people was now filled with countless floating bodies.

Zhang Feng sighed, raised his hand and pressed on a button outside of the helmet.

“A05 district, found a civilian … who’s going to bring her back?”

After he ended the communication, he looked at the time and saw that it was time to change shifts, so he switched to the team channel.

“Okay, guys, pack things up and get ready to change.”

“Roger that.”

Soon, the squad sent by the militants took over defense from Zhang Feng. Several militants wearing worker uniforms placed machine guns behind the bunker, seemingly guarding their posts diligently. However, Zhang Feng knew that except for the captain who led the team, these people all recently joined the military without proper training.

However, he didn’t say anything.

Why did it matter? Anyway, the situation was similar on the other side. The veterans’ luck was exhausted, and it was the rookies’ turn. At least the morale of the militants was high. They fought for freedom.

At least they thought so.

Out of kindness, Zhang Feng patted the shoulders of a soldier when he left, pointing to the ruins on the other side of the river.

“At three o’clock, there will be firepower from the government forces.”

The captain in the gray sweater glanced on the other side of the river and grinned.

“Thank you.”

“Good luck—”

BOOM.

Zhang Feng didn’t finish before the roar of the artillery interrupted his blessing.

The two men bent down to protect their eyes and blocked the rubble from the ceiling. The glass window shattered into pieces, scaring the machine gunner to curse in horror while retreating into the corner.

“Damn, *cough*. What are they doing?”

After inhaling a full nose of dust, the captain straightened his back, dusted off his arm, and quickly walked to the window. He zoomed on the shoal of the river. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he subconsciously swore. “Fu*k…”

Tanks and armored vehicles formed a steel wave. With the roar of artillery, the enemy launched an attack across the river. Soldiers screamed out and held the rifles on their chests, closely following the steel wave. They stepped across the burning ruins and assaulted the smoke-filled defense.

The machine gunners on both sides directed firepower at each other, and orange trajectories darted wildly over the Dnieper River, tearing the quiet night sky into pieces. On the other side of the river, a dozen transport helicopters were escorted by armed helicopters, penetrating the flank of government forces.

Leaning against the other side of the window, Zhang Feng blankly stared at the street in the distance.

“Sir?” Sergey went to Zhang Feng and looked at him with questions in his eyes.

Just as Zhang Feng was ready to answer “I don’t know”, the signal light in his vision flashed, and the commander’s holographic image appeared. Raising his hand to stop Sergey from speaking, Zhang Feng listened to the commander’s orders, then immediately saluted, following by a shout, “Yes, sir!”

Sergey and Hans looked at each other with confusion then looked at their captain.

After taking a long look at his team members, Zhang Feng took a deep breath.

“Sorry, guys, the activity is temporarily canceled.”

“Ten minutes ago, Celestial Trade Command Center issued the highest attack order and ordered the frontline troops to cooperate with the militants to take Dnepropetrovsk Airport before dawn and pushed our defense line to the city center.”

“It’s time to end the war. Let’s cross the river to finish those idiots.”

“The destination is the airport. You have a minute to check the equipment! Now follow me to the checkpoint and get moving. MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!”

The air filled with chaos blew in their faces and blew away any last remaining drowsiness. Behind the first teams to engage, Celestial Trade soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons rushed out behind cover and advanced through the shoal area at a faster-than-normal speed.

Flare and fire flashed in the sky. Aurora-20s and F18s fought among the clouds. After a while, the parts belonging to the F18 fighters rained down.

The anti-aircraft firepower deployed by the government forces in the eastern part of the city was marked by Celestial Trade Special Forces wearing K2 skeletons and turned into alloys by the tungsten rods descended from heaven. Under the cover of optical invisibility, they walked through the battlefield like ghosts. Even if government forces deployed a large number of infrared sensors on the front lines, they would still be dodged by these experienced veterans.

In just ten minutes, five Aurora-20s obtained air superiority from the government forces. The dropped bombs set off a wave of explosions, sweeping a path for the militant’s First Armored Brigade.

The fierce battle seemed to have brought down the clouds from the sky, and rain began to splatter in the previously-clear night.

Arrow’s armed helicopters appeared in the northern part of the city, trying to flank the militants’ forces. However, they lost their air superiority and were at the mercy of Aurora-20s. Without any need for missiles, the Aurora-20’s machine guns sent the helicopters crashing into buildings.

“Damn! Did they mobilize all of their tanks? These madmen!” Behind their defensive position, venting about the fragile firepower, the government soldiers shouted in horror, “Where are our anti-aircraft guns? Who’s going to take care of those planes—”

Without the opportunity to finish, a bomb landed above them. When the smoke dissipated, his unrecognizable corpse was already hanging on a billboard ten meters away.

Not only did the government forces acting as the main force of combat face immense pressure, but Arrow’s mercenaries were also placed in a difficult position.

Unlike the temporarily armed refugees and European volunteers who fought on the Northern Line, they were sent by Arrow to guard the city. They were all veterans who had engaged in previous wars before. Having participated in two asymmetric wars prior, it was their first time being on the losing side.

The strong people were still resisting in vain, and weak people were crying for God. They even forgot how to resist.

In half an hour, two armored brigades completely lost combat ability, but the militants only paid a price of less than twenty tanks as they pushed forward two kilometers.

Chaos was the tone of the city, and the government forces who could not change the fate of the war, began to desert. The Arrow mercenaries first began to desert. They didn’t have any sense of honor in a war for someone else. Naturally, they didn’t feel guilty when they ran.

Immediately after the soldiers of the government force began to desert. Many of them were forced into the army. When they saw their captain was killed in action, almost everyone chose to take off their uniforms and hide in nearby houses.

Looking at the battlefield through binoculars, a joyful smile emerged on the face of the militant commander.

Anyone could see that there was no more suspense about the outcome of this war.

Victory was only a matter of time.

Chapter 1049: Frantic

The militants’ offense lasted for eight hours. It wasn’t until dawn that the control of the airport fell in the hands of the civil militants. Seeing that the situation was irreparable, the Ukraine forces and Arrow mercenaries were forced to withdraw from Dnepropetrovsk and hand over the strategic center of Europe’s third-largest river.

The news of the Dnieper River’s victory spread to every corner of the world. It was so fast that some people didn’t even get a hold of this sudden “accident”.

As for the result of this battle, some were happy while others were worried.

Russia sent a congratulatory message to the militants, and at the same time urged the Ukraine government to make a choice to adapt to historical trends. The UA sent warnings to Russia, militants, and Celestial Trade, warning mercenary organizations not to add fuel to the situation in Ukraine…

After receiving the good news, Jiang Chen, on Coro Island, had a good night’s sleep.

Although the victory was expected, there was nothing more joyous than listening to the celebratory trumpet.

Of course, while it was an effortless win, it had a high cost.

In just eight hours, Celestial Trade unloaded more than 2,000 guided tungsten rods to the enemy’s frontlines. The bill for the space-based weapons alone was as high as 100 million XND. Of course, the majority would be footed by the Russians, so Jiang Chen wasn’t in too much pain.

As Jiang Chen expected, the victory on the Ukraine battlefield directly affected the revolution thousands of kilometers away. Militants crossed the Dnieper River and ignited war across the originally peaceful part of Kane. The country’s capital located in the upper reaches of the Dnieper River was no longer safe.

Ukraine was standing at the intersection of history—the decision to head east or west became the focus of the world. It was about whether NATO’s frontlines would be in Ukraine or at its doorstep in Poland.

“Useless fools!”

The battle report was slammed onto the table.

The office was silent. Other than Carmen’s heavy breathing, there wasn’t a single decibel of sound. Johnson and the executives of Arrow lowered their heads, terrified.

Carmen’s chest violently pumped and his bloodshot eyes covered any haze in his eyes, replaced only by madness.

“I gave you the best weapons. A division couldn’t stop two brigades. Were your fortifications made out of paper?”

Sardes lowered his head. As the CEO of the Arrow Company, he wanted to argue for the soldiers on the frontlines. Against “space-based weapons”, their fortifications and tanks were basically made out of paper.

The real reason for their failure wasn’t because of the terrifying space-based weapons, but it was because air supremacy was never in their hands. Even F35s couldn’t gain an upper-hand against Aurora-20s, let alone the old MiG-29s and the second-hand F-18s from Western countries.

However, Sardes didn’t open his mouth after all. He knew that his boss was fuming. It was more effective to lower his head than to raise his head and argue.

The silence lasted for a long time. Carmen took a deep breath and calmed his emotions, speaking slowly: “How’s the situation in Frankberg?”

“It’s not good…” Johnson hesitated, gritted his teeth, and finally said, “The 10th Armored Division is fighting the rebels in Bava. Although it’s achieved victories, the number of rebels actually increased. Yesterday, at noon, the 23rd Mountain Infantry Brigade was blocked by a human-formed wall when it entered the city. The 12th Armored Brigade was attacked with Molotov cocktails. If the situation persists, we will probably lose control of Bava…”

“We absolutely can’t lose control of Bava.” Carmen seemed to have recovered his rationality. He calmed said, “Add a division of mercenaries to Bava.”

“We don’t have that many people,” Sardes buried his head and said under immense pressure: “Our combat power has been contained on the Kane battlefield. If we dispatch troops from Ukraine, we can’t stop the attack from militants and Celestial Trade, and we may lose Ukraine entirely…”

Frankberg couldn’t lose Bava. Europe couldn’t lose Ukraine. For Carmen, it was a dilemma.

After a moment of contemplation, Carmen made a decision.

“It seems that the Frankberg military service system needs to be adjusted. Since they don’t want to be soldiers, then we will change our recruitment system to a conscription system, and the army size will be expanded from three divisions to ten divisions.”

Johnson and Sardes looked at each other and saw each other’s concern in their pupils. Everyone standing in this office knew it was a bad idea to amend the law at this time, but no one dared to say anything at that moment.

If this was two years ago… No, even if it was a year ago, Carmen would never have made such a reckless decision. But now, his ambitions began to outgrow what he controlled or the strength of the Freemasonry.

“The Federal Senate is unlikely to pass this proposal to amend the law. Earlier, the Minister of Defense raised the possibility of this change, but it was rejected by the Speaker. We have influence in the Senate, but some people have begun to question us—” The middle-aged man standing next to Sardes tried to convince Carmen from a reasonable point of view, but he was interrupted by an undeniable voice.

“I will convince those who are sitting on the fence,” Carmen said emotionlessly then eyed Johnson. “Make them understand who’s the master of this country.”

Johnson was secretly relieved. He nodded, turned and left the room where he didn’t want to stay for a second longer.

The middle-aged man no longer said anything, but he took a deep breath and looked around subtly then said, “Peter is still on a diplomatic visit to Sweden… I will tell him to come back.”

“Mhmm, go.”

After receiving permission, the middle-aged man left the room with relief.

There were only three people left in the room aside from Sardes, the CEO of Arrow. The other two were the managers of Arrow in Ukraine and Frankberg. From the start of the meeting, neither of them had said a word.

“Nate.”

“Yes.” The burly man with an obvious Jewish accent took a half step forward and answered.

“My only request for you is to protect Kiev.” After a pause, Carmen smiled and lowered his voice. “Remember, this is your last chance.”

Nate’s muscles trembled involuntarily, and fear flashed across and quickly disappeared in his eyes. He knew very well what the last chance meant for him. The cold sweat gradually oozed down from his forehead. Being pierced by Carmen’s gaze, he squeezed a word out of his throat.

“Yes…”

“Good, go on.” Carmen nodded, indicating that he could go, and he turned to the other manager. “Mr. Derek, step forward.”

Derek didn’t hesitate to take a step forward and quickly said, “Guaranteed to complete the mission!”

“Yes? Not even asking the task? Very good.” Carmen nodded with satisfaction. “At least your attitude is pleasing to me.”

Just as Derek felt relieved, his boss suddenly took out a pistol from his pocket and fired at his forehead.

There was a spark and his blood stained the cashmere carpet.

Derek couldn’t dodge. His eyes were widened and frozen in shock before he collapsed on the floor.

He didn’t understand why he died.

Carmen quickly answered the confusion in his heart, but he could no longer hear it.

“It’s understandable to lose against Celestial Trade. After all, the weapon differential is there. But you can’t even deal with a group of mobs—what would be the use in me keeping you?” Carmen slowly spoke, raised his chin, then gently place the silver-plated revolver on the table.

Sardes felt that his legs were weak. He didn’t dare to look at his boss, and he didn’t dare to look at his colleague lying next to him.

“Sardes.”

“Yes, yes!” Because he was trembling, Sardes’ tone even changed.

Carmen smiled and whispered: “Take him out, and congratulate the deputy manager of the Frankberg branch for me—he got promoted.”

“Yes…” Sardes gulped then his stiff waist and knees bent down and he put Derek on his shoulders.

“Right—by the way, remind him for me again.” Looking at Sardes, Carmen stopped him at the door and said with no emotion: “He only has one month. I need to see results in one month. Otherwise, the person on your shoulder will be his role model.”

Chapter 1050: Victory and Celebration

As an extreme comparison to the turbulent Europe, the situation in Xin on the other side of the globe was encouraging.

Although Evelyn wasn’t elected as prime minister yet, Zhang Yaping showed the exiled head of state first-class courtesy under Jiang Chen’s instructions. They put their European friend up at the British Royal Hotel, which had existed since the colonial era.

All the members of the upper class in Xin were invited, and Jiang Chen was naturally amongst those who were invited.

After hearing abut the victory at Dnieper River, Evelyn congratulated Jiang Chen. While expressing his praise for the military prowess of Celestial Trade, he said in a half-joking tone, “Why don’t you send two orbital airborne brigades to Frankberg and end the war for us? Just put our name in the employer section—don’t worry about the money.”

“I’m not that gutsy.” Jiang Chen handed the empty glass to the waiter and took another cup of champagne. He swished the clear liquor. “Ukraine is already NATO’s bottom line. If my people went a step further, your enemies wouldn’t be Frankberg troops and special forces.”

It was important to know your limit. Entering a full-scale war with NATO wasn’t something Jiang Chen wished. Regardless of whether he lost or won, the world would be no different than the apocalypse.

A war that could stay rational till the last moment didn’t exist.

“It seems that you’re not drunk.” Evelyn laughed.

“Are you testing me to see if I’m drunk? I’m sorry to disappoint you. This kind of juice is like boiled water to me.” Jiang Chen also joked. He knew Evelyn wasn’t really serious.

Rather than testing him for drunkness, he was testing his ambitions for Europe. If Jiang Chen really thought about stationing troops in Frankberg, Evelyn would have to reconsider his cooperation with Celestial Trade. He didn’t want to drive out the wolves only to bring in another tiger.

After exchanging a few words with Jiang Chen, Evelyn went to socialize with other circles.

Looking at the cunning old man chatting with several billionaires from Xin, Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head. He brought his champagne glass to the balcony next to the ballroom.

I seem to be getting better and better this?

A few years ago, he wouldn’t be able to tell other people’s intentions.

The balcony was the second resting area at the banquet other than the dining table. As long as one stood there, no one would come and chat unless the guests were close.

Leaning against the marble guardrail next to the balcony, the sea breeze from the western Pacific Ocean blew away the heat of his mind. To be honest, compared to the bustling ballroom, he enjoyed watching the bustling room from the side. Of course, it was nothing elegant. He spent most of his time watching what the ladies wore.

Although he could see what the beach beauties wore from his balcony, they couldn’t compare to the upper-class ladies. Regardless of their appearance and bodies, the difference in their temperament alone was like night and day. Jiang Chen noticed a very interesting phenomenon. The female guests at the banquet all looked fine.

Anyway, since he had nothing to do, he simply tasted his champagne while he rated the ladies, easing up the tension he had felt in the past few days.

Yet, he wasn’t as relaxed as he appeared to be.

He looked across the ballroom “observing”, but he was very careful not to look at any one particular person for too long. If he caused unnecessary misunderstandings, that would be troublesome. After all, when he looked at others, many people were also peeking at him .

After staying on the balcony for a while, the champagne glass in Jiang Chen’s hand was empty. When he just saw a “princess” almost as cute as Yao Yao, a glamorous beauty walked over to him.

She had a soft evening gown designed like a waterfall, pouring from her left shoulder to the carpet. A silk ribbon was wrapped around her waist, conservative but not without mystery. Her crystal high heels and her white ankles loomed under her spiral skirt, which complemented her fair skin above her neckline, highlighting her noble and glamorous temperament from inside out.

“Do you want a drink?” With a glass of champagne in each hand, Xia Shiyu smiled and offered.

“Of course, my beautiful queen.” Jiang Chen placed the empty wine glass next to the marble guardrail. He teased her and took the champagne. “You’re stunning today.”

Xia Shiyu’s thin red lips curled up, and her eyes were filled with gorgeous colors. Obviously, she was very fond of Jiang Chen’s praise.

However, Jiang Chen wasn’t a proper person. When she wasn’t paying attention, he put his hand around her smooth waist.

Xia Shiyu’s cheeks suddenly turned red from being pulled into Jiang Chen’s arm. After she broke free, she looked around anxiously. When she realized no one had noticed, she felt relieved. Then she rolled her eyes. “What do you want? Look at the occasion…”

Jiang Chen innocently shrugged, tilting his glass and gently clinking with her. “The Knight and the Queen—I thought you would like this setting.”

When Xia Shiyu heard the word “Knight”, she blushed even more. She eyed Jiang Chen with a smirk then walked away in her high heels.

Looking at her seductive figure. Jiang Chen put the glass close to the lips and a smile formed.

[Maybe this dress will do for tonight?]

Just then, there was a long-distance call from Europe which interrupted his reverie.

Jiang Chen opened the holographic screen and saw it was Monica. He pressed the button and walked to a quiet corner of the balcony.

“Peter has boarded the plane.” As soon as he picked up, Monica spoke.

Jiang Chen was slightly surprised.

If he remembered correctly, Peter should be in Sweden for a three-day diplomatic visit, and his next stop should be the three Baltic countries. Why did he return to the country?

For a moment, he couldn’t guess why. He shook his head and didn’t think about it anymore.

Anyway, to someone already dead, there was no difference.

“Good, you can execute.”

Monica closed her lips and smiled respectfully.

“Roger.”

Chapter 1051: Earthquake

Assassination was a skilled job, especially the assassination of a heavily protected dignitary, a head of state.

Sometimes a bullet could solve a lot of problems. However, it would also bring about more problems that were no less than the problems it solved.

Ghost Agents would wear the optical invisibility gear. Then, fire a few bullets… Definitely wouldn’t work.

Not to mention the exposure of optical invisibility would cause the security departments of all countries to add infrared and acoustic wave sensing devices. Optical invisibility was just invisible to the naked eye and not a true-sense of disappearance. If the Ghost Agents really used brute force for this assassination under everyone’s watch, Carmen would laugh even in his dreams.

There was no need to investigate who mastered optical invisibility technology. Even if NATO didn’t form a consensus in its organization, they would be forced to make a move.

The trigger for the First World War was because of a bullet, at least that’s how it was recognized in history.

So what Monica needed to do was to make this assassination appear as an accident…

On the evening of May 23rd, the Frankberg Prime Minister took off from the Stockholm International Airport in Sweden. When passing through Gotland, the left engine failed due to the wear and tear of the circuit, and the pilot tried to return to the airport. However, when the course was changed, the left engine completely turned off, causing the fuselage to lose power and roll over under turbulence. The plane eventually crashed into the ocean west of Gotland. After the rescue team arrived, there was no sign of life in the cabin, and the cause of the failure was confirmed from the recovered black box.

Although some people speculate that it was a murder, there was no evidence to prove it.

The black box couldn’t talk, and there were no explosives on the fuselage or traces of the plane being hit by missiles. The left engine that was salvaged from the bottom of the sea indeed showed a worn-out circuit. The only doubt was whether the circuit really caused the engine to completely fail.

But in any case, people were dead.

From the news of the next day, Jiang Chen saw BBC’s follow-up report on the crash.

He was actually curious about how Monica did it to make it appear so perfect, but he did not call and ask her. He emphasized on the result more than the process. Peter died in an accident, it was enough for him.

Compared with Jiang Chen’s calmness, Peter’s death caused a storm in the world.

Peter, who previously represented the right-wing force, was elected into the office on strong support. Many people photoshopped him into Hitler, thinking that he would bring the world into abyss.

During the domestic revolution, the leader of the New Choice Party, Peter, died in the Baltic Sea. This loss was like poison that slowly spread through the extreme right-wing of Frankberg. Although deputy prime minister took over the position of prime minister, neither the prestige nor the experience of the new prime minister could compare with Peter.

After he took office, he would give up the European Union integration initiative, punish the company involved in the “7th Institute Incident”, appeal for the previously exiled political party, and then announce for re-election. Perhaps there would be a chance to turn this situation around…but this was obviously impossible.

Already having chosen this path, they must continue regardless of the result, and there was no return. If the New Choice Party lost its ruling status, then there would be only one consequence left, rotting in prison.

On the other hand, the rebel forces’ morale soared after the death of Peter. They regard Peter’s death as the dawn of victory, and the size of the rebel army began growing. More and more aspiring young people join their forces. It was no longer just people from Bava, there were people from all over the nation.

Once the countless confrontation with civilians began, a dangerous thought began to plague the army. At the most dangerous moment for the country, choosing to desert its side and instead side with the other deserters was no longer shameful, but glorious.

At first, it was only one or two soldiers. Later, it became a tank. In the end, it even evolved into a whole company that turned to the rebels. Except for those in power, no one called them deserters. People called them “the people who made the right choice” and offered flowers and blessings.

Just two days after Peter’s death, another event shocked the world.

The 10th Armored Division on mission turned themselves in to the rebels on the evening of May 25th.

…

The Greek gatehouse on the west side of King’s Square was illuminated by countless lights.

Tanks and armored vehicles gathered into formations, just like a military parade. The soldiers were dressed in uniforms and holding their rifles in front of their chest. They were neatly lined up in the square, looking straight ahead.

Curfew was imposed, but civilians gathered around the square.

The crowd surrounded the square, and the people in the back even stood on top of car roofs.

There were no stones, no fire, people just quietly watched the general on the gatehouse, suspicious, doubtful, excited, hopeful, or calm.

In this square that witnessed history countless times, the 10th Armored Division commander, Kelford with a medal-filled chest, stood in front of media reporters from all over the world and in front of his people.

He stood straight, not to prove the merits he had received, but to firmly believe that the choice he made was the right one, and worthy of the flag behind him.

In a powerful tone, he announced to the world.

“Chaos, poverty, corruption, ignorance, and now the war, see what Peter has brought upon us over the past two years? He has not fulfilled his campaign promise and he is splitting apart the country and bring us into the abyss!”

“This can’t continue any longer!”

“Please allow me to refuse to use words such as surrender and betrayal. The soldiers of Frankberg have never betrayed our people. When they ordered us to shoot at the people, we refused, and then stood on the side of our people. We just made the most correct choice today, a choice any Frankberg person would make.”

“The 10th Armored Division will not join the rebels, but starting today, we will fight for the same cause.”

“After the victory of the revolution, I will resign. If I am guilty, judge me. But before that, I will take the country back in the right direction as a soldier!”

Cheering erupted through the night sky, deafening the entire square.

The soldiers marched forward and the tanks began to roll. No protesters formed a wall, and there were no Mokov cocktails. People consciously stepped back to form a path, watching their soldiers step on the right battlefield…

1Tonight, the world was shocked.

Chapter 1052: Falling

Carmen hung up the phone call from Johnson

He sunk into the chair, and his fingers pinched his eyebrows as he looked into the dark and long night.

Just now, Johnson “convinced” the senate’s speaker. The bill to amend the military service system could be drafted by the afternoon of the day after tomorrow. The next step was voting, which shouldn’t receive too much resistance.

As for Peter…

Carmen admitted that the idiot dying at this juncture was a heavy blow to his strategic deployment in Europe.

But if he could last till next month, there should be room to turn the table.

Opening the desk drawer, Carmen took out a box of pills, poured two out and stuffed them into his mouth. His tired nerves gradually relaxed.

In the eyes of outsiders, the Jewish consortium was glorious and prosperous. Making a fortune in the financial crisis, and letting the entire UA people foot the bills. At the time of the election, it donated money to both sides, manipulated politics, defended Israel, robbed the Third World, and as if the world is just a game. The Jewish consortium was winning in everything… but in fact, the situation couldn’t get any worse.

Especially now.

It was an unprecedentedly bad situation

Since the war with Future Group, they didn’t seem to live a peaceful day. They had several opportunities to kill that man, but the opportunities slipped away from their hands again and again. Last time, Future Group and the WASP consortium almost took out Goldman Sachs.

But he did not regret that he chose to be Future Group’s enemy.

In order to protect his own interest, the incumbent forces were bound to create conflict with emerging forces. Either be replaced or be swallowed by the enemy and digested into something of their own. From the day when Future Mining was founded, he had already foreseen the day when the two sides would meet in arms.

Eighty percent of the world’s ore trade was controlled by them. Fifty percent of the oil trade was directly or indirectly related to their assets. But since the series of “issues” such as the space elevator, asteroid mining, and oil crops emerged, their wealth was shrinking at an exponential rate.

He firmly believed that if Jiang Chen chose financial markets and arms trade as an entry point, those UA-based consortia would not have any reservation at all.

Hesitated for a moment, he picked up the phone and dialed a number.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.”

There was pleasant laughter on the other end.

“Mr. Rothschild, how are you doing?”

Without being bothered by the sarcasm from the other party, Carmen took a deep breath and sighed.

“Stop with your disgraceful American humor, Daniel Morgan, I’m here to discuss business with you.”

“Oh? What business? Are you planning to merge the UA and Mexico?” Daniel Morgan acted surprised

“Do you want to join forces?”

“Join forces?” As if he heard a ridiculous joke, Daniel chuckled. “Man, did you forget something? We fought tooth to nail over the Goldman Sachs acquisition six months ago. Now you are planning to work with me?”

“There are no eternal enemies, there are no eternal allies,” Carmen said coldly. “You really think of yourself as good allies of Future Group? Then why are you watching them make a mess in Europe? Instead of doing the deed yourself?

“Humiliating the poor is not a gentlemanly thing to do.”

“Don’t kid yourself. You don’t want to see them rise. Even if you were in the same trench together, you would never regard them as one of your own. Do you really want me to put it all out there for you to stop acting ignorant?” Carmen said blatantly.

“Oh,” Daniel Morgan smiled, changed the hand he held the phone with, and then put his feet on the desk, “Do you think we want to see you make a comeback? My dear Mr. Rothschild, is your brain influenced by that Golden Apple? If you are sitting in my seat, would you help me?”

Although he had been watching without emotion, Morgan didn’t keep his eyes closed. He understood very clearly what the 7th Institute studied, but just like Jiang Chen, he didn’t take it to heart.

Only a person with a malfunctioning brain would bet everything on an illusory possibility, at least in his opinion, Carmen’s brain had already stopped functioning. Of course, the reason why he thought this was because he didn’t know that the Rothschild family back then established contact with Remnants of the Void, and had benefited a lot from it…

If he learned this secret, perhaps he would also be interested in the magical “apple.”

“You will regret your choice today,” Carmen said sullenly.

“On the contrary, I am extremely convinced that one day in the future I will be grateful for the choice I made today.”

The phone line was cut.

Carmen, who was fuming in anger, threw the phone into the bookcase. He gritted his teeth while cursing out.

“A bunch of idiots…”

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing his emotions, Carmen said slowly.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and his secretary anxiously walked in.

“What?” Carmen raised his head and tried to make his voice sound as calm as possible.

“Bava…” The secretary, looking pale and fearful, ultimately didn’t have the courage to finish his sentence.

Looking at the secretary who was shaking, Carmen was growing impatient.

“What happened to Bava? Just say it.”

The secretary who knew he couldn’t escape decided to bite the bullet and report the bad news he received from Frankberg.

The 10th Armored Division revolted. The Arrow’s strongholds received catastrophic destruction and they were forced to retreat…

In short, the situation in Frankberg was getting out of control, and the Rothschild family was losing their grasp on the nation.

To the surprise of the secretary, after listening to the report, the boss’s emotions were unexpectedly calm.

“Go out, let me be alone.”

The relieved secretary left in quick steps.

When the door closed, a burst of sick redness suddenly appeared on Carmen’s face, and blood appeared in his hand after he coughed.

So much regret!

He was so close!

He was so close to unifying Europe and completing the great work that Napoleon and Hitler never completed!

His bloodshot pupils stared at the Golden Apple sitting quietly on the table. The bloodstained hand tightly held onto it.

Until it disappeared in 1942, the direct blood of the Rothschild family could rely on this media to communicate with the sages who claimed to be the Remnants of the Void and acquire knowledge and gain wisdom beyond the times…

However, after returning to his hands over more than half a century, he didn’t hear the voice in his brain as recorded in the genealogy.

He didn’t understand why he was not chosen!

Perhaps his “prayers” over the past few days was finally answered. At this moment, a devilish voice suddenly sounded from the depths of his mind.

“You… need… help?”

Chapter 1053: Hamster Killer No.1

A faint blue holographic screen floated on Jiang Chen’s right-hand side, and Lin Lin in the screen was debugging in front of a machine.

On Jiang Chen’s left-hand side was a weird-looking machine. The reason it looked weird was that the box-design didn’t seem to consider the consumer’s perception. Other than the countless wires that connected to an arm guard, the other side of the machine was connected to two discs stacked together.

In the middle of the two discs was a hamster cage.

Lin Lin called this device, Portal No. 1.

As the name implied, it was a device used to transport things between the apocalypse and the modern world. Lin Lin designed machines with similar functions, and on a much larger scale, primarily used to help Jiang Chen transmit food and ore. But different from the previous device, this could be used to transport living things.

Jiang Chen jokingly referred to it as Hamster Killer No. 1.

“Ready?”

Putting on the arm guard, Jiang Chen took a deep breath, took a last glance at the suspicious machine, and then tightened his grip.

“Okay.”

“That’s the beginning… the coordinates have been imported.” Lin Lin tapped a few buttons on the touchpad, “Countdown…3, 2, 1, 0! Power on!”

Blue arc flashed and merged into a vortex between the two discs. The instantaneous magnetic field surged and made all of Jiang Chen’s hair jump up.

“What the… is this thing really reliable?” Looking at the spherical arc growing in size, Jiang Chen grabbed his right arm and moved back a little as he protested.

“No problem, no problem! The data is showing everything is fine, the channel is very stable…Though energy consumption is a bit fast, and the anti-matter that we took half a year to accumulate has almost been completely depleted, but those are all trivial things, you should concentrate on keeping the storage space open.”

The ferocious magnetic field and the secondary dimension field began interfering with the interdimensional communication chip in the watch, and the holographic screen began to appear unstable. The zealous Lin Lin furiously typed on the keyboard while not forgetting to keep Jiang Chen calm.

However, her words did not give Jiang Chen any peace of mind, but rather, it made him more uneasy. If he didn’t have unconditional trust in Lin Lin, he would have kicked the power long ago.

After forcing the thought of escaping out of his mind, Jiang Chen took a deep breath and submerged his consciousness into the storage dimension. Inside the dark and eerie spherical universe, he saw a ball of light. He then reached out and covered the ball of light sparkling with electric rays with his consciousness and pulled it into the modern world…

The deafening noise of static filled the room, then everything returned to calmness.

“Success!”

With Lin Lin cheering, the disordered magnetic field in the room disappeared instantly. When Jiang Chen opened his eyes, he saw on the cage of “Portal No. 1”, a slow-looking hamster.

All the pressure he felt disappeared and he let out a long sigh of relief. With a weary smile, he sunk into a chair.

“Yeah, finally fu*king successful.”

“Hey, can you not swear?”

Jiang Chen did not reply to Lin Lin as he took off the arm guard tied to his right arm. Then, he got up and walked to the other side of the machine.

One foot stepping onto the power switch, Jiang Chen then went and lifted the iron cage up and put it in front of himself.

Perhaps the current hurt its brain, but its black eyes stared straight at the human outside the cage. The small nostrils opened and closed, and it seemed to be traumatized. Jiang Chen thought about it, and he certainly understood its feeling. He would have been scared to death if he was in the arcs of a storm.

Jiang Chen looked at the shaking hamster in the cage, then he smiled and opened the door of the cage, patted its head.

“Lucky guy, at least a hundred predecessors died before you… Take this, your reward.

Jiang Chen handed the hamster a sunflower seed and then closed the cage.

When the little guy saw it, it immediately reacted. The two small claws grabbed the seed in a hurry and used its small mouth to quickly peel open the seed. After it ate the seed, it looked to Jiang Chen again with its benevolent eyes.

Jiang Chen could not help but smile when he looked at the fat hamster acting cute. He grabbed a handful from the bag next to him and threw them into the cage. The hamster surrounded by happiness gathered all the seeds around him.

“Hey, eat it. At least this is a good meal. There are still two sets of experiments waiting for you later.”

If the hamster understood him, maybe it would have dropped the seeds in fear.

In short, Jiang Chen was extremely happy.

Although the hamster was only 50 grams in size, after this breakthrough, transporting a human would not be so farfetched.

He took out two crystals from the storage dimension. Jiang Chen pinched the crystal in his right hand and absorbed the energy. After looking at the lines on his wrist, he tossed the crystal that turned white onto the table.

“Are you done resting? I’m ready to repeat the experiment here!” Lin Lin put her face close to the camera.

Jiang Chen eyed Lin Lin in the holographic screen.

“Why do I feel like a white lab rat?”

“Not at all!”

At this moment, the picture in the holographic screen suddenly blurred. Lin Lin, denied the accusation, moved at an extremely slow pace.

Jiang Chen slightly frowned, raised his left arm and looked at the watch, but found no issues.

Lin Lin also seemed to be aware of this strange phenomenon in the apocalypse . She had already left the table and was running to the other machine. From her frown, he seemed to notice something unusual.

Jiang Chen tried to activate the interdimensional bracelet, but what surprised him was that he didn’t manage to interdimensional travel, he was still sitting on the chair.

Just as he was shocked at this moment, the blur on the holographic screen disappeared, and the interdimensional communication resumed as normal.

Once again, he activated interdimensional travel. This time, there was not a single pause. In a blink of an eye, he had already appeared in the mansion.

He walked quickly to the backyard, passed through the side door of the institute, and under the crowd of Lin Lin sisters’ watch, he ran into Lin Lin’s new laboratory.

When he closed the door, he immediately asked Lin Lin, who was standing in front of the touchpad with a stern expression on her face.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. Just now, the Klein particle signal suddenly received strong interference. It should not be the device’s issue… Wait, could it be…” Lin Lin’s expression suddenly changed, and she clicked on the touchpad that formed several ripples. There was sudden realization on her face when she read the data from the device’s feedback.

“What the hell is going on?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“The communication channel was crowded. When we talked, someone sent a Klein particle wave to this area. If I didn’t guess wrong, you shouldn’t be able to interdimensional travel at the time. Do you remember?”

Jiang Chen took a second to think and his expression instantly changed.

He recalled from a long time ago when he was in City K in Country F, the Kurofune used a special method that prevented him from interdimensional travel for a certain period of time. At that time, Lin Lin explained that the Harmony space colonization ship interfered through the resonance effect of the Klein particles by releasing a Klein particle wave.

This was originally a means of communication, except that the strength of the wave exceeded a certain threshold.

“Just then, that space colonization ship released Klein particle waves toward the solar system. You can understand that they used a ‘radio’ that can emit Klein particle signal and broadcast it to that area… But what is their purpose?” Lin Lin frowned.

Yeah, what is their purpose? The Kurofune was destroyed…

Suddenly, a terrifying thought came to Jiang Chen’s mind.

“The Golden Apple.”

Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen with confusion. “Isn’t the Golden Apple in your hands?”

“I… I gifted it to someone else.” Rubbing the back of his head, Jiang Chen smiled bitterly.

Lin Lin’s eyes widened and said.

“Gifted it? How can you do that?”

“It’s… It’s a long story. Didn’t you say that it can only be used to receive signals? Anyway, the Remnants of the Void have completely lost connections. I thought that it was useless, so…” Jiang Chen scratched his cheek apologetically.

At that time, he exchanged the Golden Apple for the IAEA’s acquiescence to the development of nuclear technology in Xin and won time for the development of Future Group.

“Well, you can’t just give it away!” Lin Lin was very angry and stomping her feet.

“Can you locate the signal?” Jiang Chen interrupted Lin Lin’s words.

“I can… but the Golden Apple is just a receiver. If you can only accept the signal unilaterally, I can only track the direction of the signal source at most… Wait, how is this possible?” Lin Lin stared at the flashing green dot and the parameters next to it with an incomprehensible look.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chen walked over, though he couldn’t understand the graphics or numbers on the holographic screen.

“Only half a minute ago, my Klein Particle Wave Tracker detected a feedback signal.” Lin Lin looked at the screen, shocked. Muttering to herself, “how exactly did it do this? The Golden Apple? No… it’s impossible to do it with just the Golden Apple. It must be something else.”

Jiang Chen raised his hand and interrupted Lin Lin’s muttering.

“I only have one question. Can you locate it now?”

“Yes.” After adjusting her thought, Lin Lin nodded, and the finger clicked on the touchpad a few times. Then the signal light on Jiang Chen’s left wrist flashed. “I have sent the coordinates to you… This is incredible”

Clicking on the holographic screen on his watch, Jiang Chen opened the mail.

It was a map of the world; the focus was on Northern Europe. A striking red dot was marked on the map, and the marked position was –

“Finland?”

Chapter 1054: Operation Alpha

Chapter 1054: Operation Alpha

When Johnson returned to the Rothschild manor in Finland, Carmen was packing his luggage in the office.

While he was packing up, other than a few books, there were only two things inside – the Golden Apple and a laptop. He didn’t need to worry about clothes and necessities as the butler would naturally take care of it for him.

What surprised Johnson was that the boss’s mood seemed to be pleasant. Not only was the gloom in his eyes gone, he also looked less terrifying. Every time they changed their hideout, his mood had always been bad.

Something should have happened when he was gone.

“You’re back?” Carmen stood up and smiled.

“Yes.” Johnson nodded and walked into the office, he glanced at the suitcase on the ground. “Are we ready to leave?”

“Yes, in half an hour.”

“What is the destination?”

Carmen laughed and pointed out the window.

Johnson looked at the window but was confused. He did not see anything.

The north?

But they were already at the northernmost manor of the Rothschild’s family. How north could they go?

“My dear Mr. Johnson, tell me, where is the largest concentration camp in Northern Europe – no, the largest refugee camp?”

“Near the Inari Lakes in northern Finland.”

“Bingo!” Carmen snapped his fingers. He opened his arms with a smile. “That is our destination.”

Johnson didn’t understand why the boss suddenly wanted to visit the refugee camp, but since it was the boss’s decision, he could only obey. However, before they leave, he still must inform the boss. Intuition told him that it may be better to say this when the boss is in a good mood.

“I don’t mean to disturb your good mood, just…” Hesitated for a moment, Johnson then continued, “The newly appointed Arrow Frankberg branch manager Bagley, was killed by the 10th Armored Division during the command of the battle by an artillery shell.”

“How many people do we have left in Frankberg?”

“Only two thousand left…”

No one expected the allies to suddenly turn their weapons. Arrow deployed five mechanized brigades in Bava, almost all of which were defeated on the night the 10th Armored Division turned.

“Let them withdraw,” Carmen said without a change in mood.

Johnson, shocked, looked at his boss.

It seemed like he expected the shocked reaction, Carmen smiled and said, “The Rothschild family, or the Freemasonry has lost Frankberg, I know this very clearly. Rest assured, I’m not the kind of person who can’t take a loss, nor the kind of person who easily gives up. You can do as I say. In addition, get Sardes to come to the military base next to the refugee camp, I have a new assignment for him.”

Johnson bowed his head.

It seemed that the boss regained his rationality.

But for some reason, Johnson instinctively felt a little uneasy.

If he wasn’t mistaken, in the dark green pupils, there was a strong sense of zeal…

…

Lake Inari, the largest freshwater lake in Finland and the northernmost lake. The Ivalo River flows into the lake from the southwest and is injected into the Arctic Ocean through the Patz River to the east. The lake has appeared many times in Norse mythology. More than 3,000 islands were scattered in the lake and divided the lake into a complex network of lakes and rivers.

No other seasons existed here, only snow decorated the lake all year long.

It was night. To the north of Lake Inari, a snow-camouflaged motorboat floated quietly onto the shore of the lake, looking far away, it looked like a floating piece of ice.

Not far away, two patrol boats galloped across the lake without detecting the motorboat at all.

After the patrol boat left, eight figures wearing polar camouflage slowly lifted their heads from the motorboat.

“Keep going.”

Kutpov gestured to the person operating the motorboat, and the motorboat slowly started and quietly headed to their destination.

Under the camouflaged beret, it was a face with as many scars as wrinkles. On the defined face, there were two pupils that only should exist on wolves. Just by making eye contact, one could feel the dangerous, murderous intent within him.

Beside him were guys who are as dangerous as him.

They were part of the Alpha Special Forces, among the most dangerous offshore special operations teams.

There was nothing on them that could prove their identity. Participation in unauthorized overseas military operations, if discovered, could not be explained by diplomatic disputes. A bad fallout could spark a military conflict between two countries. From the moment they took off, they were prepared to die as stateless people.

Of course, under normal circumstances, they all would go back alive.

The motorboat was docked north of Lake Inari.

Kutpov towed the motorboat ashore, hid behind the snowdrift, and then gestured to his comrades to maintain a fighting stance while moving toward the target position.

The reason why they appeared in Finland was due to what happened a week ago.

The Russian Security Agency received information from its allies that the military base next to the refugee camp on the north bank of Lake Inari in Finland was the largest training base of Arrow Company in Northern Europe. It delivered more than 5000 mercenaries to the war.

Their task was very simple. Set up beacons in the ammunition depot, training grounds, and important facilities in the training base, and then destroy the base’s air defense system and guide the PAK-DA stealth strategic bomber to “mistakenly” bomb the site.

While it may be a “mistake”, it was no different than an outright airstrike.

This military base was close to the border. As long as the “correct” people die and they are not detected by the radar, the Finnish government is likely to keep an eye closed. The harsh environment in the refugee camps were criticized by human rights’ organization to be the concentration camps of the 21st century. If report come out that the mercenary organization is forcing refugees to join its rank, it would be a heavy blow to the image and diplomatic reputation of Finland.

Once the military base is destroyed, the mercenaries going to Ukraine in the next five months would be cut to one-third. It won’t take five months, even if Celestial Trade dragged the war on, the war could end in a month.

The return was worth the risk for Russia.

Under the disguise of the night, the Alpha Team traversed through the snow and approached the high ground next to the military base in the pine forests.

Passing through the dense pines, through the barbed wire covered with snow, they even saw the refugees gathered around a coal stove for heat. Just like the intelligence said, the European consortium “accommodated” these poor people, and then moved them here. They used their family members as hostage and used citizenship and salary as a temptation to force them to sell their lives to Arrow.

According to the mark on the map, the first ammunition depot was just 500 meters away. These people did not seem to think that anyone could reach here. The patrol intensity was quite slack, and the sentinel on the sentry even lit a cigarette to kill time.

However, Kutpov frowned and gestured for the soldiers next to him. Everyone stopped simultaneously and quietly pruned in the snow, as if they naturally belonged in the whiteness.

The roar of the helicopter propeller gradually became clear. A black transport helicopter flew not far away from them and headed straight to the military base, landing on the tarmac near the gate. With the arrival of this helicopter, the entire base became excited.

Kutpov noticed that the sentinel had thrown away the cigarette in his hand, and his back was straight, acting full of energy.

An important person arrived.

With the thought in his mind, Kutpov took out his binoculars and looked in the direction of the helicopter.

A man in military uniform stood in front of the helicopter, welcoming the visitors.

A team of mercenaries with exoskeletons swarmed out of the helicopter, followed by a Jewish man who jumped out from the helicopter. Adjusting the focal length and focusing on the man’s face, Kutpov paused for a second as his pupils suddenly contracted.

Carmen Rothschild!

Ghost Agents’ number one wanted target!

But why was he here?

Chapter 1055: A Trip to Finland

At 12 o’clock midnight, in the mountain ranges of Lapin maakunta in northern Finland.

Except for the manor five kilometers away and the highway a few kilometers out, there were no signs of human existence.

On this quiet night, a “meteor” crossed the night sky and landed in the frozen soil covered by pines.

There was a loud and deep bang.

The snow on the ground splattered and turned into mist under the high-temperature airflow.

When the mist mixed with snow dissipated, a prismatic-shaped airdrop cabin appeared. With the sound of air leaking out, the door gradually opened. A figure stumbled out from inside and scared away a little fox peeking its head out at the foreign object.

“Damn, this stuff is really not meant for humans.”

Holding the pine tree trunk next to him, Jiang Chen gagged, and then wiped his mouth with his arm.

Compared to him, Ayesha seemed just fine. She stepped out of the airdrop cabin and walked next to him with a look of concern. She patted his back and said quietly.

“Are you okay? How about… you wait for me here?”

“Pshh, wait for you here? Then why did I come? Don’t worry, I’m fine. My stomach just feels a bit agitated.” Jiang Chen gritted his teeth and then straightened his back. He looked at Ayesha with a reassuring smile before heading back to the airdrop cabin and putting his hand on the cabin.

With a blink, the entire airdrop cabin was tossed into the storage dimension.

When he received the coordinates from Lin Lin, Jiang Chen interdimensional traveled back to the modern world. He used the space elevator to head to Celestial City before landing directly in northern Finland through the airdrop cabin.

Originally, he was planning to go alone, but he couldn’t convince the stubborn Ayesha, so he took her along.

This mission shouldn’t be dangerous. Carmen with exposed coordinates was no different than a dead man. Even if he came himself, he was more than capable of finishing the task.

If it was not for the fact that he had wanted to say farewell to his “old friend”, he could have ordered Monica to finish the job.

Putting on the K2 kinetic skeleton with the optical invisibility module, Jiang Chen checked his equipment and confirmed everything. Then, he called out a snowmobile from the storage dimension.

The distance of five kilometers was still a bit far away, not to mention being in a mountainous range. If they walked, it would be late into the night before they arrived.

After Ayesha hopped on, Jiang Chen started the snowmobile and galloped toward the manor located halfway up the mountain.

…

Rather than saying it was a manor, a castle was the better fitting description.

The northernmost manor of the Rothschild family was built in the 17th century and belonged to a Swedish prince. After several transactions, it was bought by the Rothschild family and renovated into a habitable manor. Other than the walls, it looked nothing like its former appearance.

The snowmobile was recalled into the storage dimension. The two hiked up along the mountain path. When they were halfway, Ayesha gestured to Jiang Chen and then started optical invisibility to move up alone.

The security guard wearing a thick jacket stood at the gate of the manor and yawned at the empty and lonely path.

A cold gust blew by which made him shiver. He scanned around and then cursed under his breath.

“F*ck, is there really anyone that will come to this god forbidden place?”

Just as he said this, he did not notice a nearly transparent figure walk beside him.

Shaking his head, under the dim light, he suddenly saw a line of footprints that did not belong to his on the snow. This immediately alerted him. However, he didn’t have time to react before the series of current noises took away the consciousness left in him.

Ayesha, who had already taken out two guards after him came back and tasered him.

An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to wake up in a day.

She dragged the security guard across the ground and hid him in the bushes, Ayesha proudly shook the electric taser in her hand towards Jiang Chen, as if she was saying, “Look, it was the correct choice to bring me.”

Jiang Chen made a helpless expression, got up from behind the bushes, and walked up to the main gate without any defense left.

His original plan was to rush in with a rifle. Since this place was far away from the city, he didn’t need to worry about the Finnish police showing up. However, a low-key mission also had its advantage. At least they could avoid some trouble before retreating.

Easily avoiding the patrols of more than a dozen security guards, Jiang Chen followed Ayesha and successfully passed through the atrium into the main building. After entering the building, all defense suddenly seemed to disappear as there was not even a single guard in the building.

“This defense is too lax.” Walking up the stairs, Jiang Chen frowned. He examined at the decorations in the manor. Medieval armors and shields with accents of history and the Rothschild emblem smeared with time, these should be fairly old.

Just as he was about to take a step, Ayesha suddenly grabbed him and pointed to the corner of the wall.

Jiang Chen stopped, squinted his eyes before finally detected the oddity.

“Infrared alarm?”

Ayesha nodded. She tossed out a special powder, and soon the infrared rays that were staggered in the hallway were outlined. Even with optically invisible, they didn’t completely disappear. If they trigger the alarm, they may trigger some hidden traps.

Jiang Chen’s only confusion was that if Carmen protected himself like painting in a museum, does he not need to go to the washroom at night?

“Give me some time.”

The little girl pulled out some equipment and began to dismantle the alarm, but Jiang Chen stopped her.

“Leave it to me,” Jiang Chen smiled, with confidence and then took out an EMP grenade from his pocket. He pulled the fuse and rolled it on the floor into the middle of the hallway.

The static and current noise filled the corridor and the infrared rays all disappeared. Even the alarm system was fried.

Looking at the speechless Ayesha, Jiang Chen grinned.

“Time to go.”

Jiang Chen whispered into the communication channel as looked his rifle, and took the first step forward.

About half a year ago, Monica had been here in the manor. But when she came, Carmen was not here. Although she returned without success, she still remembered the structure of this manor. Such as Carmen’s office, and the bedroom he once lived in.

Following the map, standing at the door of Carmen’s bedroom, Jiang Chen cleared his throat and politely knocked on the door.

What surprised him, however, was that the room was unexpectedly quiet, and there was not a single sound.

Jiang Chen frowned, realizing something was not right and turned on the radio life detection device. To his surprise, there was no sign of life in this entire building. The security guards were concentrated in the atrium while the servants were sleeping in the annex…

“What’s wrong?” Ayesha walked next to Jiang Chen and looked to him.

“Still a step late…?”

Ayesha unlocked the door with the omnipotent key. After entering the room, Jiang Chen turned on his tactical flashlight and examined the bedroom. The bedding was new, and there was a book placed on the bedside table. From the details, the owner of the manor should have just left not long ago…

He moved forward, picked up the book on the bedside table wrapped in cowhide.

Using the flashlight, he identified the two lines of gilded words on the cover. It should be a biography.

The author was someone that belonged in the Rothschild family. It should be the family history of the Rothschild family.

“We certainly won’t go back empty-handed.” Jiang Chen’s lips curved up as he turned the pages of the book with interest. He scanned the contents of the book.

Just then, Ayesha received a call from a Ghost Agent.

After speaking to the agent, she walked up to Jiang Chen’s side and softly said.

“The Russian’s have returned us with a favor.”

“Oh? What kind of favor?” Jiang Chen stopped reading and asked.

“They saw Carmen at the Arrow military base next to the Inari Lake refugee camp.”

Chapter 1056: The Secret History of The Rothschild Family

The day had yet to break; an off-road vehicle was traversing through the frozen soil in northern Finland and galloping northeast.

The mountain was not far from Lake Inari, but there were no proper roads connecting the north of Lake Inari to here. Fortunately, Jiang Chen stored an off-road vehicle in his storage dimension, otherwise, he would have encountered some issues.

Ayesha was still the driver.

Sunk into the front passenger seat, Jiang Chen’s finger slid on the holographic screen, reading through the information scanned from the book. He was quite intrigued with the content inside.

“Interesting…”

“Hmm?” Ayesha looked to Jiang Chen.

“Nothing, I just saw some secrets. I finally understand now what the so-called prophets mean.” With a sigh, Jiang Chen told Ayesha briefly what he read from the book he found.

The Rothschild family started with Mayer Rothschild, but it was not him that brought the family to the top, but his son Nathan Rothschild.

On the eve of Napoleon’s first exile in March 1814, Nathan predicted that the Vienna and London stock market were about to enter a bull market, thus buying Austrian stocks. However, in just one year, Napoleon fled to Elba Island and returned to Paris for “Hundred Days”. Nathan, bull on Austrian stocks, lost almost everything…

So far, everything recorded in this family history was the same as Jiang Chen saw in the world financial history.

However, in April 1815, just a month’s time, historical differences appeared.

After Napoleon’s restoration, Nathan regrouped. On the one hand, he hoarded gold in London. As recorded in history, he openly predicted that the British government would fight on the European continent, and claimed that this war would force the British Empire to be stuck in an extended war. On the other hand, on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, he changed his previous position of being bearish on the British, and quietly swept all the British government bonds that had fallen to 7% of the original price.

Everything else happened according to history. In June of the same year, even the Duke of Wellington himself did not expect the outcome. He actually led the British Prussian coalition and defeated the invincible Napoleon.

The British Army sung the triumphant songs, and brought the news of victory back to London. During this national celebration, Rothschild, with a large amount of British government bonds, became the largest creditor of the British Empire and became the biggest winner in the war.

At that time, controlling the pound was the same as controlling the world.

Interestingly, according to Nathan’s own description, as early as April, he predicted the occurrence of this battle and even foresaw the end of the war.

Nathan did not describe in detail how he got in touch with the Remnants of the Void. He didn’t even mention the word Golden Apple. He just used vague words to describe this glory in honor of “the gift of my Lord”.

According to Lin Lin’s research, some people with a unique brain structure possessed a higher Klein particle density. They naturally could perceive the specific frequency of the Klein particle signal, through specific cases such as dreams or the illusion of drunkenness.

“I thought that the timeline of the two worlds diverged in World War II. I didn’t expect that it changed since the Napoleon time.” Jiang Chen sighed and closed the holographic screen.

No wonder when he asked Lin Lin whether she had heard of Rothschild’s name before, Lin Lin looked at him dumbfoundedly.

It turned out that this family had never existed on the timeline of the apocalypse.

This includes the Freemasonry.

It was the reason why the World War II ended much earlier there than the modern world.

“So, for the Rothschild family, the Golden Apple is more like an amplifier?” Ayesha asked, “their body can detect the Klein particles from the Remnants of the Void?”

“You can say that. Because brain itself cannot accept too much data, so the Remnants of the Void gave them the manufacturing process of Golden Apple, used their hands to create the Golden Apple that later gave birth of the technology of the Third Reich. The only thing that the Rothschild family did not expect was that the Fuhrer kicked them out once he got his hands on the Golden Apple.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head.

However, history still returned to the right track. Even the technology that transcended times didn’t change the ending for the Third Reich.

Jiang Chen could understand the intention of the Remnants of the Void. Perhaps they wanted to create a unified and militarized regime by interfering with history before humans could destroy themselves. However, history always repeated itself. History did not develop in the direction they expected, and even bred a multi-polar world that was more divided than the world divided into three powers.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of the third world, and the Pan-Asia Cooperation that never formed…

“But… since they don’t need the Golden Apples to hear from the Remnants of the Void, why did they lose contact with them in the past half century?” Ayesha was confused.

“Perhaps only the Remnants of the Void know.” Jiang Chen shrugged. “If you let me guess, those who are in the void probably felt they couldn’t help more, so they shut up.”

If the Remnants of the Void couldn’t transfer technology through the Golden Apple, the only thing that they could do was to use their own advantages in being the prophet of history. However, history was already changed by them. In the apocalypse where the Soviet Union dominated till the end of the twenty-second century, actually ended in the twentieth century. Everything changed beyond their expectations.

Of course, it may be another possibility. The Rothschild family was abandoned by them. The Remnants of the Void believed that they couldn’t complete the great cause of establishing the “Earth Federation”, so they gave up.

Jiang Chen then suddenly realized a problem and couldn’t stop laughing with one hand rubbing his chin.

“So, am I the chosen one?”

At the last minute, those in the void seemed to have put antimatter in his hands.

What does this mean? Am I the chosen one? Am I destined to be the first “Earth Master?”

Ayesha stared at Jiang Chen’s face.

Although she didn’t know what he was thinking, she could feel that Jiang Chen was in a good mood and not frustrated because they missed the target.

For this simple reason, a bright smile also formed on her face.

The rising sun gilded a beautiful layer of golden mist on her beautiful smile, and in this misty white morning, the two drove into the distance.

Chapter 1057: Paltamo Refugee Camp

After he hesitated for a moment, Kutpov made the decision not to shoot.

Carmen was the number one target of the Ghost Agents, but not the number one target of the Russian Security Services.

His mission was to place beacons to guide air strikes instead of assassinating Freemasonry members. Compared to the Freemasonry, Arrow sending mercenaries to Ukraine gave them more of a headache.

Less than five hundred meters away, he had 100% confidence that he could use the sniper rifle behind his back to kill him. But if he shot, the mission would fail, and the entire Alpha team would also be killed.

He could only watch Carmen sit into the Hummer and entered the depths of the base.

Two minutes later, he was thankful for his decision.

The roar of the engine came not far away from them and homing noise even caused the snow to scatter down from treetops.

A Russian soldier behind Kutpov put his face on the ground and listened quietly for half a minute, then he whispered.

“One kilometer away, between 30 and 50 vehicles.”

“At least one brigade, maybe two, dammit… the intelligence is wrong.”

With a binocular in his hand, Kutpov observed the situation in the camp.

Carmen arrived at the military base next to Lake Inari, and Arrow suddenly sent two brigades to the area, all of which exceeded the expectations of the intelligence. At this time, it was obviously not a wise choice to sneak in. It was better to withdraw first and look for a high ground in the vicinity to observe the situation in the base before making further plans.

What’s more, there were still a lot of valuable intelligence to be reported.

Thinking of this, he made a decisive decision and made a gesture of retreat.

“The mission is cancelled, retreat to observation point B…”

The group of people silently moved back and just like when they came they left without a trace.

…

The Paltamo refugee camp, as its name suggested, was located on the frozen soil next to the town of Paltamo in northern Finland.

The employer of the refugee camp was the “Frankberg Humanitarian Foundation”, and the actual manager was Arrow, which accommodated nearly 400,000 refugees in the past two years and the number of refugees grew by 10,000 per month up till a month ago. Not only Muslims were sent here, but also illegal immigrants who refused to be repatriated for reasons other than war.

The entire refugee camp was semi-closed and aimed to provide refugees with a “New World” to guide them in reaching self-sufficiency through labor.

In addition to distributing a small amount of living necessities, many lucky winners also received the honor to enter the factories and farms invested by the foundation to produce bullets or potatoes. They were called lucky winners, because having a job here was considered extremely good. It meant that the family didn’t need to starve to survive.

Although the salary was meager, it was better than nothing.

In addition to working in factories or farms, another good option was to sign up to join the mercenary. If they could survive through the month of hellish training, they would become the humblest of Arrow mercenaries. Not only could they get rid of their refugee status, but their families could also leave the camp in the future.

Of course, joining the mercenaries as refugees meant they were often sent to the most dangerous battlefields after the end of training, and performed missions with the highest mortality rates, but at least there was hope, the hope to return to the civilized society with normal people.

However, job opportunities were limited, and only few stepped onto the battlefield. Most people relied on necessities.

Unemployment and poverty had always been the breeding ground for crime since ancient times. Fighting, robbery, and theft constantly happen there. Arrow obviously had no intention of establishing order. They only distributed bread and mineral water by number. As for these supplies getting robbed, as long as it didn’t happen in front of them, they didn’t care.

Many people missed their lives in Europe. Sleeping in a warm and comfortable welfare home, living the life provided by other people, and occasionally enjoying the pagans… Thinking back, those days were “heavenly.”

There were no fences and checkpoints at the entrance to the camp. Anyone could freely enter or leave.

Refugees who live here occasionally headed to the nearby towns to buy some necessities with salaries. Arrow was not concerned about refugees escaping. Without a passport or visa, only two possibilities exist for those who escaped, freezing to death on the road down south, or being captured by the police and sent back.

After Jiang Chen parked the off-road vehicle on the tundra outside the refugee camp, he persuaded Ayesha to wait for him, and then walked to the camp.

As he stepped into the camp, he immediately noticed that at least a few pairs of eyes focused on him. Although he didn’t know their intentions, he knew that one of their intentions was not friendliness.

Jiang Chen was not worried about being recognized. The button on his neck already used holographic imaging technology to “change” his face into a typical Central Asian. Other than his expression being too dull, there was almost no difference with a real face.

This button-sized device was a gadget designed by Yao Yao. The little girl’s hardware skill was not as superb as her expertise in software, but it was still excellent. Jiang Chen’s first drone was created by her.

He lowered the cap on his head. Pleased with his perfect camouflage, he stepped into the refugee camp.

From the image returned by the satellite, his was very close to Arrow’s military base. However, it would be too dumb to rush inside. Even a Gundam wouldn’t be able to survive through countless RPGs. He must gain some information before entering.

For example, how many people were there, how many tanks, and if an important person was paying a visit…

Jiang Chen ignored the unscrupulous gazes, before the refugees put “unfriendliness” into action, he turned into the side alley, released a drone and scanned the nearby map, and quickly walked into a house.

From the corner of eyes, he noticed several brawny men in down jackets run towards him as soon as he started moving faster.

“@#*!” The man with a red headscarf first ran to the alley and looked at the empty alleyway. “He ran away!”

“What should we do? Should we report him?” The brawny man behind the man foolishly asked.

“Are you a pig?” Harriet slapped his head in anger. “What did the boss tell us? Go and find him! If we can’t find him… Just pretend his never happened! You hear me!”

“Yes.” The people gathered around nodded and quickly ran into the alley.

Harriet hesitated as he watched the thugs go chasing in, he gritted, then quickly followed.

However, when they went into the alley, Jiang Chen already made many turns.

He easily left those people behind. After he confirmed with the drone that they couldn’t catch up, Jiang Chen stepped into a backstreet.

Just as he was about to open the holographic screen to confirm the map, a voice speaking broken-English came from the corner.

“Are you a reporter.”

Jiang Chen stopped and looked for the source of the voice.

A body with slightly dark skin was squatting over a ditch and washing his clothes. The large eyes were looking to him with curiosity and caution.

As if he had heard something interesting, Jiang Chen looked at the boy and pointed to his own face, “Do I look like a reporter?”

The little boy shrugged.

“I don’t know, but if you are a reporter, I advise you to be careful of those who wear gray down jackets. They are employees of Arrow. If they know a reporter has sneaked in, your best ending is getting your phone confiscated and then getting tossed into the nearest town after a beating.”

“There are a lot of people wearing grey down jackets. How can I distinguish them?”

“Use your eyes. There will be an arrow-shaped sign on their arms. Also, you have to be careful around the Sami Gang.”

“Sami Gang?” Jiang Chen frowned.

The boy did not speak, just blinked.

Jiang Chen smiled and put his hand into his pocket. With the cover of the clothes, he took out two “Franklins” from his storage dimension and stuffed it into the boy’s hand.

“Your tip.”

When the boy saw the two hundred-dollar bills, his eyes almost bulged out, but soon he used his innocent acting to take the huge sum of money and stuff the bills into his shoes.

“They are gangs in the refugee camp, because Sami is the head of the thugs, so they call themselves the Sami Gang. They were already gangs back in Syria and were sent here after being captured in Frankberg. Based on rumors, they are close with Arrow, so a few of Sami’s important thugs avoided military service. In short, they are the most difficult people here to deal with. If you don’t want to be miserable, it is better to stay away from those people.”

“I thought your boss was a person from Arrow.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Arrow mercenaries don’t care about us. We are just bugs to them,” Without any fluctuation his emotions, the boy spoke indifferently. “This refugee camp is like a prison. Arrow mercenaries are the prison guards, we are prisoners, and Sami Gangs are the thugs. As long as not too many people die here at once, the production of the factories is unaffected… If you have a camera on you, can you hide my face? If my face appears on a news report—”

“Rest assured, I’m not a reporter.” Jiang Chen smiled. He was prepared to leave. “Thank you for your information. If someone asks if you have seen me…”

But he stopped mid-sentence.

Just now, he suddenly thought of a brilliant idea.

He didn’t need to send a brigade to Finland nor did he need to create something shocking to kick away the “turtle shell” on Carmen.

Jiang Chen then looked back at the boy, and asked, “Do you know where to find that Sami?”

Chapter 1058: Slap People with Money

“A reporter has sneaked in?” Sami sat on the sofa with his legs crossed as he looked at the thug trying to flatter him with a sneer. “Harriet certainly got braver. He learned to play tricks with me.”

Catching every journalist who sneaked in was the task that Arrow gave him. At the main entrances of the refugee camp, he arranged gang members to stay there day and night. They could easily distinguish the people from town with those from the refugee camp, or the outside.

While he looked powerful now, if any photos or videos leaked out that were damaging to the camp’s image, he would be the first one to receive consequences.

“Get Harriet to come and see me. Make up a random reason and don’t mention the reporter,” Sami said emotionlessly.

“Yes!” The thug straightened his back and took the order.

“There is still something else. We can’t just leave the reporter out there roaming. Get our brothers to search for him. Remember, the reporters like to go to the dirtiest and messiest places.” Sami then paused and smiled at the thug. “Order the brothers for me.”

The thug was overjoyed and immediately showed his loyalty to the boss before running downstairs.

After the door closed, Sami leisurely leaned back on the sofa and picked up the glass filled with cheap alcohol from the table. While supplies were short in the camp, it was only for the honest people. As the “leader of a faction”, there were always ways to get the good stuff.

As to whether drinking was a conflict with the doctrine? Anyway, he never considered himself as a qualified believer.

Just then, there was a faint sigh in the corner of the room.

“Why are you so sure the foreigner is a reporter?”

There was a strange voice in the room, and Sami was suddenly alerted. When he stood up from the sofa and reached behind him, it was already too late. His eyes met with a black hole and the eyes of a young man.

Before Sami could point the pistol at him, the revolver in Jiang Chen’s hand was already aimed at his head. From the shadows, Jiang Chen walked out. “I advise you to stop what you are doing. I can promise you that before you can take out your gun, I have enough time to aim at your head and then shoot your balls. ”

It was hard to identify the Sami Gang from the crowd, but it was easy to find Sami. There were not many decent buildings in the entire camp, and the Sami Gang was housed in one of them. Although the three-story apartment buildings were not luxurious, the building absolutely stood out in this refugee camp.

These apartment buildings were built at the start of the refugee camp used as a poster image by Arrow. They hired a well-known photographer to take photos and videos of the “happy life of refugees” and uploaded them online to fool the netizens.

Jiang Chen followed the boy before he arrived at the Sami Gang’s nest, and walked in under the disguise of optical invisibility.

When Sami heard Jiang Chen’s words, he slowly loosened the grip on the gun. With a stiff expression, he put his hands over his head.

“Who are you, what do you want? Who sent you…”

“No one sent me.” Jiang Chen shrugged.

“Oh? Then you are here for money?” Money could be made again, but he only had one life. Therefore, Sami said in pain, “My money is in the safe on your left-hand side. The password is 5657. You can take the money, take it all. Just let me go.”

“Money?” Jiang Chen groaned and trying his hardest not to laugh, “How much can you have?”

Sami heard the sarcasm in Jiang Chen’s words, but he did not dare to show any anger as he said anxiously.

“90,000… no, 100,000 euros.”

Jiang Chen was a little surprised. He originally thought that this guy has at most 30,000 in this condition, but he managed to beat his expectation. Certainly, a talent.

“Money, let’s talk about money,” Jiang Chen lowered his gun slightly and smiled at him. “You have 100,000 euros in your safe, right? I’ll offer you 200,000 euros, as long as you do something for me.”

When he heard Jiang Chen’s words, greed appeared in Sami’s eyes but it instantly faded into a strong vigilance. The higher the reward, the more the money burned. 200,000 euros was already a huge sum for someone like him. But without his life, even two million was just a number.

“What do you want me to do?” Swallowing, Sami asked calmly.

“It’s very simple,” Jiang Chen said emotionlessly. “Rebel.”

“No way! Are you crazy?” Sami exclaimed.

Jiang Chen inserted the revolver into his pocket and sat on the table next to the window sill.

“Nothing is impossible. Let’s be direct, are you willing to stay here forever? Just to be the emperor of a refugee camp? Your criminal genius can absolutely help you climb to a broader stage, such as… trampling the UA Law.”

Sami admitted that Jiang Chen’s blueprint was tempting, but he was not foolish enough to believe what other people say. He could easily leave any moment, but the problem was that they can’t survive in the outside world.

However, the most important thing was that they can’t win at all!

“You can’t succeed, they are an army! You want to use a group of unarmed refugees to attack an army? Stop joking!”

“If you are not unarmed?” Jiang Chen smiled. “I can provide you with weapons.”

Jiang Chen paused and emphasized, “A lot of weapons.”

“…Who are you?” Sami asked, staring at Jiang Chen.

“Ahem, in fact… I’m an agent of a human rights organization. But it doesn’t matter who I am. The important thing is that the refugees here are suffering.” Jiang Chen made up an identity and changed into an impassioned tone, “You are a believer, you allow those infidels to treat your fellow believers like this? Where is the courage flowing in your blood? You should stand up, pick up some weapons and fight for your deserved rights!”

Jiang Chen felt that these words were not convincing enough, so he added a sentence.

“If you help us successfully get rid of the cancer of the human civilization, I can solve the problem of nationality for you. Believe me, no matter which country you want to go to, we can help you.”

Sami twitched.

“You don’t have to bother with nationality. If you can really get weapons… compared to an empty cheque, why don’t we talk about money again.”

“No problem.” Jiang Chen made a “please” gesture.

Undisguised greed once again filled his pupils, Sami made an outrageous offer, “One million dollars!”

“No problem.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Jiang Chen’s attitude made Sami pause for a second before he added.

“I want to see cash, who knows if you are—”

Jiang Chen directly reached into his pocket and took out a bundle of cash and slapped it on his chest.

Jiang Chen looked at the wide-eyed Sami, who was busy picking up the money, then he said in an nonchalant tone, “The 100,000 dollars is my deposit. Now, shall we can sit down and talk about how you can get the rest? ”

While saying this, Jiang Chen silently added a sentence in his mind—

Dammit, how come I didn’t try this before? It is so satisfying to slap people with money!

Chapter 1059: Boost Support

A problem that could be dealt with using money is not a problem at all. One million dollars was a huge sum for Sami, but was it for Jiang Chen?

As for whether or not Sami would have other intentions, Jiang Chen was not worried at all. When Sami took the deposit, Jiang Chen pointed a gun at him and forced him to put on an electronic collar. Then, he threateningly said.

“After the weapons are ready, someone will come to see you. As for the collar on your neck, I will deactivate it after the deed is done. But if you dare to play tricks with me, I promise you, your head will fly away like a football.”

Jiang Chen then jumped out of the window and activated the optical invisibility to hide his figure after landing. He swiftly came and swiftly went, and did not attract anyone’s attention.

Sami was astonished by Jiang Chen’s moves. It was a three-story building. Any ordinary person would be crippled after that landing. But when he looked down, Jiang Chen had already disappeared.

Cold sweat soon emerged on Sami’s forehead.

He was wondering why he didn’t notice Jiang Chen when he arrived. With his skill, it was way too easy to take his life…

While Sami was still astonished, Jiang Chen was already a street out. He turned into the alley and saw the boy waiting for him there.

“Did you see Sami?” As Jiang Chen came back intact, the boy looked at him strangely.

Without any injuries, when did the Sami gangsters behave so well?

“I saw him… here, this is your tip.” Jiang Chen took out a hundred dollar bill from his pocket and stuffed it into the boy’s hand. With a smile, he said. “Now, help me do one more thing. I must tell you in advance, there are risks with this task, but the reward is very handsome.”

“Since you are telling me about it, then I should be able to do it.” The boy hid the bill in his shoe and asked directly, “how much are you going to give me?”

“Ten thousand dollars.” Jiang Chen put up a finger. “I have 500,000 newspapers. I need all the refugees to see it within one day while avoiding Arrow.”

“Newspaper? Are you planning to sell newspapers in the slums? Don’t bother, no one will buy that.” The boy looked at Jiang Chen with peculiar eyes.

“It’s not for sale, it’s free.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “You don’t have to worry about why I’m doing this, you just need to do what I say and give the newspaper to everyone, or put it in a place where it will attract attention. Then the ten thousand dollars is yours.”

The boy hesitated.

“Can you prepay me five hundred dollars? I can’t distribute out 500,000 copies in one day.”

“Are you going to hire someone to help you?” Jiang Chen looked at him, intrigued by his strategy. “Who are you going to hire? Are they reliable?”

“They are also children. Rest assured, I can swear on my life they are all trustworthy people.” The boy patted his chest.

“Really? Okay, then go and prepare.” Jiang Chen looked at the time on his watch. “At five o’clock this afternoon, come to the nearby town to pick up the newspapers.”

“How can I contact you? I don’t have a mobile phone.” Seeing Jiang Chen was preparing to leave, the boy hurriedly asked.

“You don’t need to contact me. When you walk into the town, someone will contact you.” Jiang Chen waved his hand and disappeared at the end of the alley.

…

It is not enough to prepare for the war. It is also important to build momentum for the war. You can’t expect refugees would be willing to fight for you simply because you gave them some weapons.

However, if they can be convinced that they are being oppressed by the pagans. Fighting against Arrow would be for themselves and they could even go to “heaven” after death. Without the need for supervision, they could pick up weapons and fight.

It was not the first time Jiang Chen has done this. He was very good at it.

When Jiang Chen came out of the campground, Ayesha who was anxiously waiting for him, immediately unlocked the door.

After Jiang Chen got into the car, Ayesha started the engine while asking. “How is the situation?”

“Arrow’s military base is located on the other side of the logging farm, about four kilometers from the refugee camp. There are a large number of training facilities in the base, as well as a research institute located in an underground bunker. The permanent force is a 2,000-person motorized brigade. There are enough weapons and ammunition to arm a division. Although there are no tanks, there are ten 30-ton ‘Puma’ armored vehicles. According to the thugs in the camp, an important person has come to the military base.”

“Carmen?”

“Definitely has to be him.” Jiang Chen smiled. “Go to a nearby town. We’ll rest there for the night.”

Surprisingly, Sami knew a lot of information. Even information such as “an important person came by helicopter”, “arrived only last night”. After gaining all this information, he couldn’t help but exclaim that Carmen really bumped into him. The guy had just stepped out with his front foot and Jiang Chen had arrived moments later.

If Carmen was late, there wouldn’t be so much trouble.

“A motorized brigade, we can’t take them alone.” Ayesha’s eyebrows slightly furrowed.

Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously. “We don’t need to deal with them. Someone will deal with them for us.”

Back in the nearby town, based on Jiang Chen’s orders, Ayesha immediately got in touch with Monica. After receiving news about Carmen’s whereabouts, Monica immediately left for Finland. She was at the international airport in Helsinki, Finland.

Unlike Jiang Chen and Ayesha, two illegal trespassers, Monica held a passport and possessed a relationship network in Finland. Compared to Jiang Chen, some things were easier for her to deal with.

On the phone, Jiang Chen explained two things to her.

The first was to rent a warehouse for him near the town of Paltamo. The second was to use the special channels of Ghost Agents in Europe to transport a batch of weapons to Europe, and the more the better.

Just as Monica was on her way, Jiang Chen returned to the apocalypse. He edited the human experiment of the 7th Institute and related reports with the refugees a few days ago. Then, he asked Lin Lin to print 500,000 copies for him.

Putting these newspapers in any other place would be regarded as old news, but it would absolutely be breaking news in the refugee camp. This area is in the mountainous range of Finland. Of course, there was no network in the refugee camps located on the tundra.

Jiang Chen trusts that the contents of this newspaper would not only be interesting but would also be shocking.

While the news may not be enough to start a resistance, but at least they would give them a reason to fight.

Because only certain content could be printed, these 500,000 newspapers were only one page and two-sided; one box held tens of thousands of copies. But 500,000 copies still filled more than 40 large cartons.

These cartons were shipped to the modern world by the evening.

With a group of children from the refugee camp, the boy arrived in the town as promised. As for how they would transport the cartons and distribute the papers, Jiang Chen didn’t plan to ask, nor was he interested. He only cared about results.

Jiang Chen was also certain that for money’s sake, the efficiency of the boy would amaze him.

Chapter 1060: Ignite

Three days passed since Jiang Chen arrived in Finland.

During these three days, the fire of revolution had already spread throughout Frankberg.

Before the coalition of the “People’s Liberation Front” and the 10th Armored Division arrived in City B, the protesters had already occupied the capital and protested to the authorities by blocking police stations and military encampments. The special operations division stationed in City B’s morale was low. It seemed that neither the soldiers nor the commanders wished to carry out this pointless war.

The two sides were restraint to not use heavy weapons, and the situation seemed to be stuck in a deadlock. However, it could be foreseen that it was only a matter of time before New Choice Party must step down.

There was no doubt that Rothschild has lost control over Frankberg.

On the Finnish side, Arrow’s military base remained quiet and Carmen didn’t come out since he stepped inside. Jiang Chen suspected that he was doing something inside, but since his satellite had locked the area, he did not believe that he could slip out under his eyes.

As for the refugee camp, the 500,000 newspapers printed by Jiang Chen caused an uproar. Most people’s understanding of human experiments stopped on anatomy. Whenever the refugees thought that their fellow people were taken away from the camp and placed on the surgery table and slaughtered, almost no one could sit still.

Now every refugee looked at Arrow like beasts feasting on people. In particular, Arrow’s force conscription in the refugee camp on several occasions almost escalated into conflicts.

Arrow was puzzled about why these refugees suddenly became so fierce. They previous lacked control in the camp. Now that the only insider, Sami Gang, was controlled by Jiang Chen, they couldn’t spot anything unusual within a short amount of time.

Even if they did spot anything unusual, they wouldn’t think more into it.

Every time they transported the necessities, they stayed inside armored vehicles, and the soldiers were armed with bullets loaded. They encountered more than once where the refugees fought for supplies, but the violent rioters never succeeded once.

It was too easy to abuse the refugees holding a steel pipe or a brick.

…

Next to the pine forest near the town of Paltamo, there was a long-abandoned warehouse next to the farmland scattered with weeds.

The space inside the warehouse was spacious, more than thousands of square meters in size. But for some reasons, the farm was abandoned for a long time along with the warehouse. Monica only used 30,000 euros to buy the warehouse from the owner previously used to store farm equipment.

Of course, it was now filled with tightly sealed containers…

“G36? Oh my!” Sami opened the plastic box, then picked up a G36 automatic rifle from the box and aimed with it in excitement. “German equipment, how did you get it?”

After the occupation of the rebel army in Bava, the local military factories fell into the hands of the People’s Liberation Front. With the relationship between Celestial Trade and the government in exile, it was too easy to obtain light weapons. The reason for choosing G36s was mainly because of the bullet processing factory near the refugee camp produced the 5.56mm ammunition.

Jiang Chen smiled and didn’t talk nonsense with him. Instead, he pointed to the equipment in the corner of the warehouse.

“There are 5,000 guns here, 400 RPG-7s, more than 30 mortars, and plenty of ammunition. Now they are all yours. I have only one request; under my order, take your people, and do what you are good at.”

Sami gulped.

With his eyes on the row of pristine rifles and RPG-7 launchers, his scalp felt numb. While stunned by the power of the young man in front of him, he couldn’t help but to reflect on the choice to join on this man’s ship.

But in any case, he must go forward now.

“Do you need me to help you move this in?” Jiang Chen asked.

“No, my people have a way…” Sami shook his head, then he hesitated. He looked at Jiang Chen and asked. “Have you thought about the problem after this? If the Finnish army is deployed—”

Jiang Chen raised his hand and stopped his words. “You don’t have to worry about it, you just do what I said.”

Jiang Chen picked up the map outlined with the plan from the table and stuffed it into Sami’s hand who was still full of doubts. After sending him away, Jiang Chen did not stop, and soon left the warehouse and locked the iron gate of the warehouse.

There were only two keys, one in his hand and one in Sami’s hand. A new batch of supplies would arrive in the refugee camp this afternoon. There would be two armored vehicles and one hundred mercenaries. The first step to resistance in the refugee camp was to takeout this escort team.

…

At eight o’clock in the evening, under the escort of the armored vehicles, trucks slowly entered the center of the refugee camp. The uniformed mercenaries jumped off the trucks and set up a blockade line as usual, separating the eagerly awaiting refugees from the vehicles.

The necessities would be unloaded here and then distributed to the various supply stations. Each refugee had its own number, which was equivalent to their “identity card” living here. They could receive supplies at supply stations by number.

“Get into a line, get the supplies in order… Sh*t, so many fu*king people.” Ennis put down the microphone while he cursed, then lit a cigarette and watched his men shove the refugees over the yellow line away.

He already forgot the number of times he had been here. But every time, he wished that the mission could end sooner. He didn’t want to stay for a second here.

Just then, his deputy Glick came over and asked him to borrow a lighter. He lit one for himself and cussed.

“Sh*t, I really don’t know what the refugees think.”

“What’s the mess?” Ennis narrowed his eyes and grinned.

“Not any mess. You didn’t see how they looked at us; they look like they want to tear us apart.” Glick shook his head, and the contemptuous sight swept over the ragged men. “Do these people not know how to be grateful? If it weren’t for us, they couldn’t even be able to eat.”

“There is no point talking about grateful to these people,” Ennis had a sight that seemed like he has read life, through the smoky smoke rings, he said. “Only civilized people will be grateful.”

“Maybe.” Glick tossed away the cigarette in his hand and pointed to the direction of the supply station. “You take it easy, I will go there and see.”

“Go.” Ennis waved his hand and grinned.

After Glick left, the cigarette between his fingers almost burned out. Throwing the cigarette on the floor, Ennis was preparing to patrol the team to see if anyone is being lazy. However, there was a sudden commotion in the crowd.

Ennis frowned slightly and looked in the direction of the commotion. But then, an exclamation from the top of the Hummer instantly froze his heartbeat.

“RPG-!”

BOOM!

The violent explosion was followed by the screams of the crowd.

The side was covered in flames. The “Puma” armored vehicle at the front was firing while desperately trying to retreat through the crowd into the alley. However, just as it was about the crash through a wall, four more RPGs flew out from the crowd.

This time, there was no armor to block the RPGs. Ennis saw it with the corner of his eye that the armored vehicle turned into a ball of fire. The occupant cried out in pain while climbing out from the top. He desperately rolled in vain while trying to extinguish the fire that burned his whole body.

There was fire everywhere.

There was blood everywhere.

And the flying bullets, and the disfigured corpses…

The sudden attacks stunned the mercenaries, who had to fire back against covers.

The blast of the explosion turned the Hummer in front of Ennis. He had no time to say something before his remaining consciousness was swallowed up by the steel fragments and the fire ball…

Chapter 1061: : Ragtag

“Here’s the command center… What? There’s a riot at the refugee camp. How’s that possible?”

“I repeat, the transport team was attacked! We need backup! Sh*t—”

Following an explosion, the communication ended with static.

At the military base, several communication officers stared at each other in shock while conveying the confusion and shock through their eyes. Fortunately, the head of the command center responded quickly as he immediately grabbed a radio and connected to the rapid response force at the base, then reported the news to the person in charge.

In two minutes, two heavy transport helicopters and four Blackhawk helicopters took off and brought 32 heavily armed special forces. They wore “Lightning” exoskeletons and were armed with a special shell-less rifle newly developed by the Krupp Group. They were armed to their teeth.

However, they still underestimated the scale of the riot. When the helicopters arrived on the scene, the narrow streets were filled with the wreckage of Hummers. More than half of the hundred mercenaries were killed, leaving the rest of the mercenaries struggling to fend off the siege from the refugees.

Indeed, the enemy was a mob, but they clearly underestimated the numbers of the mob. The most important thing was that these refugees were very familiar with the layout of the refugee camps. Even if the mercenaries who lost communication with them were brave and courageous, they could only find cover under bullets coming from all directions.

The eyebrows of the team captain, Bruno, twitched a few times as he examined the battlefield below. Then he picked up the intercom on his shoulder.

“Well, guys, let’s bring our brothers back. Hunter-1,2, descend in height, prepare to lower the rope, deploy defense lines at the evacuation point, and cover our brothers as they retreat. Hunters-3, 4 cover in the air, get ready to fire the Gatlin and don’t worry about refugee casualties—fire at any refugee you see with guns!”

“Hunter-1, roger. Deploying.”

“Hunter-2…”

“…”

More than half of the thirty-two special forces descended to the ground, and these warriors with mechanical exoskeletons were indeed not comparable to the average soldier. In the dark alleys, under the cover of the Gatlin machine guns, they managed to clear out a way through the chaos.

Krupp certainly had a different perspective on weapon design. After discovering that “Lightning” was useless against EMP, it gave up on the lightweight design. The use of steel instead of functional plastics turned the exoskeleton into a power armor mold. The formed Faraday cage shielded them from electromagnetic pulses.

In addition to the EMP protection enhancement, the armor’s defense also improved drastically. Looking through a binocular on the battlefield, Jiang Chen discovered that the 5.56mm used by the refugees couldn’t penetrate the steel plates in front of their chests.

Of course, the cost of this type of improvement was exceptionally high—at least five times the cost of the previous version.

Sure enough, war was a lubricant of a civilization. The problem they previously didn’t understand could be resolved after taking two punches to the face. Perhaps they could give Freemasonry another decade, and they would find a “trivial method” to deal with the advanced technology of Celestial Trade. Just like how the US military managed to avoid roadside bombings in Iraq.

“We can’t wait any longer.” Jiang Chen put the binoculars into his pocket and took out his PK2000 assault rifle, which was rusting in the storage dimension. “If I don’t help them, the mob will collapse. At least I have to take out those two Blackhawks.”

There weren’t many people who were directly killed by Gatling guns on the street, but the firepower exerted immense psychological pressure on the people taking cover.

Ayesha nodded and was preparing to go forward but was stopped by Jiang Chen.

“Hey, wait, what can you do if you go empty-handed? Can you dismantle a plane with your bare hands?” Jiang Chen dragged her back and confirmed no one was nearby. Then he took out two portable air defense missiles from the storage dimension.

“This is the ‘Viper’ Rocket Launcher air defense model—you should know how to use it. Inside the box is a replaceable warhead; bring two rounds. You can have two Blackhawks while I take the other four.” Jiang Chen picked up a launcher from the ground and loaded the warhead into the tube. He turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Which two do you want?”

Ayesha looked a little hesitant.

“Can you leave them all to me? I’m worried about you…”

“No worries; this isn’t difficult at all. Well, since you aren’t picking, the farthest two are up to you. I’m going to go now.”

After that, Jiang Chen jumped from the three-story building, rushing forward with the launcher.

Since Jiang Chen had already set off, Ayesha sighed. She shook her head and picked up the launcher and warheads from the ground then also jumped downstairs.

On the other side, Bruno, sitting on the Blackhawk helicopter overlooking the battlefield, didn’t realize that disaster was about to come. Rather, he felt somewhat relieved. The wounded and the mercenaries preparing to retreat gathered near the evacuation point, and the four Blackhawks ascended in height again. Now, four Gatlin guns hovered in the area. The situation was slowly turning in their favor.

As long as they repelled the mob, the two heavy transport helicopters could land and take everyone away.

However, at this moment, his right eye twitched, and a strong uneasiness suddenly overwhelmed him.

It was too late to understand the cause of this uneasiness. A rocket from the ground flew to him and smashed into the tail of the helicopter without warning. Bruno only heard an explosion that broke his eardrum, and the entire helicopter was sent into a tailspin.

“Damnit! We were hit! Hunter-3 is calling command center. We’re falling!”

The first officer roared into the intercom, and the pilot clutched onto the stick, trying to control the rotating nose or at least adjust the helicopter to better prepare for a crash landing.

“Get up! Sh*t—”

The helicopter crashed into a residential building, and the flare was visible even two streets away.

Looking at the smoke rising in the air, Jiang Chen put down the launcher. Under a reverent look from the refugees, he switched onto the second warhead. He aimed at the second helicopter then pulled the trigger.

The crash of the Hunter-3 shocked all the mercenaries. The tail flame was obviously not from some smuggled RPG—it could only have been a portable air defense missile.

Why did the refugees have air defense missiles?!

It was too late to think about this issue. The evacuation plan was temporarily canceled, and the remaining helicopters immediately ascended in height to avoid the range of the air defense missiles. However, from the moment they were targeted by Jiang Chen, their fates were already doomed.

The second anti-aircraft missile hit its target, and another Blackhawk crashed to the ground. Under the horror of all the mercenaries, the explosion sparked a fire in all directions…

Chapter 1062: Preparing for the Final Battle

The team that escorted relief necessities were attacked at the refugee camp. The mob even forced the special forces to falter.

After receiving the news, Sardes arrived at the headquarters immediately.

“Not just the fleet, but eleven supply stations in the camps were also attacked. The medical staff and security guards have been taken hostage. The military factories outside the refugee camp are also occupied… These snakes.” The brigade commander in charge of the military base slammed his fist against the map.

“We should immediately seek help from the Finnish side. The situation is now out of control. It’s only through mobilizing the army—” an advisor suggested.

Just then, the door was pushed open and Carmen walked in.

“Don’t inform Finland—them taking over the issue will only make this simple suppression into a humanitarian crisis,” Carmen said emotionlessly as he stood in front of the map with his hands behind him. “There’s no doubt that Celestial Trade was behind all of this. Very good, very good, very good….”

Carmen nodded and said three “very goods” in a row. Carmen grinned peculiarly and suddenly looked at the brigade commander in charge of the base.

“How many new recruits are there at the base?”

“A total of 4,000 people…” The brigade commander immediately reacted. “Are you worried that they will revolt and join the refugees? That’s certainly a possibility, but…”

“Take them to the underground research institute, and my guards will take care of them.” Carmen turned around and ordered in an irrefutable tone: “Just say that there’s a riot outside and they need to temporarily enter the underground bunker.”

The three men stared at each other in confusion while Carmen left the room.

On a hill one kilometer away, Kutpov quietly observed the movements at Arrow base with his binoculars.

For the past few days, he and his Alpha team lurked there, looking for opportunities to sneak into the base. With the arrival of Carmen, an entire brigade was added to the base’s forces, but the patrol frequency more than doubled.

It wasn’t until today that they finally got their opportunity.

First, there was black smoke in the direction of the refugee camp a few kilometers away. Then the special forces at the military base were dispatched urgently. Combined with the information about the mobilization of Celestial Trade weapons from the rear, it must be the Ghost Agents making a move.

However, these agents were indeed ruthless. They stuffed more than 5,000 guns into the hands of “terrorist reserves”. The security situation in Finland would be messy for a while…

Kutpov grinned with the thought in mind, and the scars and wrinkles on his face mixed together.

He gestured at the team behind him, then took out a hook lock and got up from the snow.

“Get ready. Set off in two minutes.”

Just as the Alpha team started its operations, the battle at the refugee camp was over.

All four Blackhawk helicopters were down, and one of the two heavy transport helicopters was also taken down while the other one escaped. With air support completely eliminated, the mercenaries who originally reinforced their defenses now lost the only advantage they had.

The exoskeleton that covered the entire body in steel was indeed strong, but the strongest armor couldn’t stop an attack from the refugees. Especially the guy who got a Molotov cocktail tossed onto his face—he turned into a ball of fire along with his armor. It was especially miserable since Jiang Chen didn’t know if he died suffocating or burned alive. Neither of those possibilities sounded humanitarian. He just remembered that when the fire on the poor fellow was extinguished, the steel plate in front of his chest turned red…

When the fierceness of these believers was ignited, their combat power was nothing to scoff at.

After the end of the battle, the refugees unleashed their bullets into the air and yelled out to express their joy of victory. Ten bruised mercenaries were tied up by ropes and taken to the square of the refugee camp. They were pinned to the ground by more than 20 strong men.

Sami, who was carrying a rifle, went to the center of the square. He pretended he was a hero who liberated his people from “slavery.” He wasn’t used to this change in identity, but the mercenaries who were kneeling on the ground were also in disbelief.

Three days ago, Sami was just a hound for Arrow.

“I was angry when I learned about the massacre that took place at the 7th Institute.”

In the center of the square, standing in front of the ten captives, Sami grinned cruelly and looked around the refugees.

“A lot of people might be confused. Why do we have to stand up and resist? Because they killed a few of our people? Wrong! What really makes me angry isn’t that they used a knife to dig out our livers but that they view as livestock. They’re feeding us, and when they need us, they pull a group of us out to die. We have to lie on the operating table to help them with their human experiments. But we treat all of this as if it’s normal!”

“This isn’t normal!”

Sami lowered his voice and loaded the rifle. The mercenaries seemed to have guessed what he was going to do and looked at him in horror. They tried to shrink back but were held firmly by the people behind them. They could only make pig-like cries with their sealed mouths.

“We aren’t captive camels. We’re wolves in the desert. We will use our claws and teeth to tear up the pagans who oppressed us!”

His voice was impassioned, and Sami aimed at the mercenaries on the ground, gnashing his teeth.

“Let them loose and we’ll give them a chance to escape. Halal will decide their fate.”

The sound of the assault rifle echoed in the square. The injured captives with their hands and feet tied up simply couldn’t escape, not to mention that there was a wall behind them.

The blood painted the wall red, and the refugees cheered at their leader. Even the refugees who were still hesitating were now influenced by the “sacred war”. They turned into fanatical war activists in the next second.

“I told you, we didn’t have to do it ourselves.” He was standing on the roof of the building not far from the central square. When he saw that the “gunpowder barrel” was ignited, he smiled. “They’re natural warriors. The genes of war are integrated into their bone marrow. They have everything that civilized people don’t have, and they’ve hardly changed with the times.”

Not far away, the Sami gang…or now the Sami Army, the militants who used red headscarves as a symbol, had begun to distribute the supplies they captured to the refugees.

Three days ago, the Sami gang suppressed the refugees and made a living by exploiting them, but now they became the heroes of the same group of people.

It was quite ironic.

“Boss, you’re a genius.” Seemingly disingenuous and without sparks in her eyes, Monica put her hands in front of her and admired Jiang Chen. At the same time, she eyed Ayesha beside Jiang Chen. “If it wasn’t for the Instructor, I might not have stopped myself from falling for you.”

Ayesha glanced at her in confusion with a look that seemed to say: Why? I obviously don’t mind.

However, Jiang Chen, who was aware she was joking, laughed aloud.

“Stop trying to flatter me—I won’t give you a raise. There’s a military base waiting for us. We’ll leave in half an hour, so go and get ready.”

“Whatever. How do you know I was flattering you? What if I really meant it?”

With a smile, Monica turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

Jiang Chen didn’t answer but turned his eyes to gaze outside the refugee camp, in the direction of Arrow’s military base.

With a curvature on his lips, he tightened his fists.

Finally, this was the moment.

It was time to end the war…

Chapter 1063: Bombardment Across the Border

Even on the northern tundra, the Finnish authorities wouldn’t be oblivious to a riot on its own soil, but they remained silent about the matter. Arrow brought trouble, and it happened on their “private territory”. Since no Finns died and Arrow didn’t seek help, why would they bother?

The local police in the town of Paltamo sent several mounted police officers around the camp. However, these police officers didn’t dare to rush in and decided to withdraw. Judging from the equipment in the hands of the refugees, it was no longer a problem they could handle.

The police chief of Paltamo immediately decided to mobilize local militia groups to increase security in the town and do their utmost to ensure the town’s safety.

It turned out his choice was correct. In less than half an hour, documents were issued and the local police were urged to do their utmost to protect the security of Paltamo. At the same time, a special force was sent to support this effort.

As for the refugee camp, it was to be taken over by the Finnish Defence Force hundreds of kilometers away.

Nominally.

Jiang Chen learned of the news through the intelligence of the Russian Security Services. The Finnish official’s silence did indeed surprise him. He originally thought that Finland would send out forces to maintain stability, but he didn’t expect their reaction to be so dull.

Carmen was likely at the military base and there must be something that couldn’t be exposed. Or perhaps he thought that the two brigades at the base would be more than enough to take care of the mess.

Regardless of Carmen’s reaction, Jiang Chen’s plan was proceeding according to plan.

Most of these refugees came from the Middle East. Many people had participated in militia training or had been recruited into the reserves. They had received basic military training. While they certainly couldn’t drive a tank, they could fire a mortar, and at least they wouldn’t direct a shell at their people.

With the second batch of equipment entering the Paltamo region from the Finnish border, Sami formed a 10,000-man-strong guerrilla force from the camp along with his rapidly accumulating prestige. With his cause as “only believers can end the oppressive rule of the pagans”, he mobilized the entire camp to pick up arms against Arrow.

Boxes of ammunition were carried onto old vans and trucks. The workers took the electric welders from the factories and welded heavy machine guns onto pickup trucks. Needless to say, this mob didn’t have any combat power at all. Under the same circumstances, there was almost no chance of defeating the mercenaries who have received training, but Jiang Chen was confident regarding the outcomes of the battle.

The reason was simple.

While they couldn’t shoot properly, they could bombard!

It was two o’clock in the morning, six hours after the start of the riot. Only 2,000 people were left to defend. The armed Sami Army was on the path to take down Arrow, to “rescue” his people from their misguided path.

The mighty army went to the tundra two kilometers outside of Arrow’s military base and surrounded the area. Under the command of several veterans, the Sami Army with shovels and hoes dug out simple artillery pits.

Hundreds of mortars and dozens of artilleries were placed. After the launch of a signal flare, hundreds of mortars ignited the tundra, and clusters of explosions covered the entire military base, completely dazing the mercenaries in their defensive positions.

Of course, the mercenaries stationed at the military base weren’t just going to bend over. While they were bombarded, all the mercenaries rushed into bunkers. At the same time, the howitzers on the military base began launching a counter-attack against the refugees based on the coordinates of the scouts’ feedback…

However, these mortars were scattered, and shells from all directions exhausted the mercenaries at the military base. Although they were better, they were simply outnumbered.

A mortar shell landed on the roof of the command center and created a hole in the reinforced concrete. Dust from the ceiling covered the face of the brigade commander, Arnold. He held the table to gain his footing while cursing out the window.

“Sh*t! Where did these bugs get so many mortars?!”

The sudden artillery caught everyone off guard. They thought these gangsters would use rifles and rush to their machine guns; they didn’t expect them to bombard the military base.

“There’s no doubt that Celestial Trade provided them with the weapons.” Holding the table and returning to the map, Sardes looked around at everyone in the room. “Look, we can’t just defend. No one knows how many shells they have because the man who supplied them with weapons is a complete b*stard. Arnold, take your people to finish them. Tell them that modern warfare isn’t only won by sheer numbers alone.”

“Roger!”

Arnold saluted, took off his intercom, and began to order his troops.

After the order was issued, the military gate opened and dozens of Hummers rushed out. Four “Puma” armored vehicles followed, rushing toward the refugees. Under Jiang Chen’s orders, Sami decisively ordered a 2,000-guerrilla squadron to block the path with anti-armor weapons.

The front line was located on the edge of the pine forest, and there were plenty of pines that were wider than the length of two people’s arms.

After encountering the refugees, the Arrow Hummer and armored vehicles immediately slowed down and used the heavy machine guns on the roof to shoot at the refugees. The mercenaries in the vehicles also jumped out and fired at the refugees taking cover.

However, they apparently underestimated the anti-armor ability of the refugees.

Just as the mercenaries fired the machine guns, various high-explosive, armor-piercing RPG warheads flew wildly in the pine forests. Although their accuracy was awful, the sheer number alone made up for it. The reaction armor on the armored vehicles was completely scrapped and only one managed to retreat intact.

Of course, the warheads still weren’t enough to take down the mercenaries. While the unexpected RPGs caught Arrow off guard, the refugees weren’t equally-matched opponents, even without the armored vehicles…

After fewer than ten minutes of fire was exchanged between the two sides, Sami already had more than 200 casualties. For Arrow, there were no more than 50 casualties. Seeing that the tide began to turn, Sami began to panic and quickly called Jiang Chen, seeking help.

“Our troops are collapsing; their accuracy is too good! It’s the first time many of our people are using guns. We can’t beat them…”

“Don’t worry, it will be alright.”

Jiang Chen’s words confused Sami.

It will be alright? Alright?

Just as he was digesting those words, the ground trembled like an earthquake and there was a loud explosion from afar. A shockwave swept through the pine forest, swept through the tundra, and even swept through his bangs.

Sami didn’t respond to what was going on; he only saw thick smoke rising from the military base. His mouth was wide open.

Standing on the hill on the other side of the battlefield, Jiang Chen watched the gorgeous fireworks. He couldn’t stop smiling.

The Alpha Special Forces succeeded.

Chapter 1064: The End of Arrow

Under the suppression of mortars, the military base was in chaos. No one noticed a special force team sneaking in.

Without expending extra effort, Kutpov placed a beacon on the target then withdrew from the base with the team. After they safely arrived at the evacuation point, they called for an airstrike.

Soon, the Russian stealth bomber whizzed through the clouds, and the four bombs landed precisely on the two ammunition depots and two fuel depots at the base. The shock wave of the explosion was sent through the entire base and collapsed the concrete buildings around the points of impact.

The exploded ammunition and burning fireballs were sent scattering across the camp and caused a series of chain explosions. Flames, blood, and corpses were everywhere. The guards stationed at the base suffered severe casualties, and the rest were injured.

Medical soldiers with stretchers rushed inside the base. They searched for the wounded and immobilized. The engineer soldiers with heavy explosion-proof suits rushed into the flames to pull out any unexploded ammunition from the ruins. All the soldiers who could still move began to mobilize while they searched for their missing team members.

Sardes looked at the fire outside the window, and despair gradually appeared in his blank pupils.

Smoke covered the entire base. Flame stained the entire night sky red. The scene resembled doomsday.

“Sh*t…” Sardes muttered to himself. He moved his heavy legs and slowly left the window.

When he turned around, his eyes met his advisor’s eyes.

“Sir, what should we do?”

The explosion finally stopped. There were no more chain reactions at the base. However, nobody could be calmed. The mercenaries who escaped from the explosion knew it was just the beginning of their nightmare.

The previous explosion seemed to ignite a signal and signaled an attack from the Sami Army. Under the orders of Jiang Chen, Sami seized this fleeting opportunity. He jumped in front of everyone and brought all the remaining refugees to the frontlines.

More than six thousand people charged into the tundra, into the burning pines.

It was a spectacular scene.

At the same time, looking at the smoke rising from behind the base, all the mercenaries fighting on the front lines were panicking. Their previously-boosted morale dropped to rock-bottom in an instant. Even if they could defend their position, they were unwilling to fight.

Without any suspense, Arrow’s defense line was penetrated, and the uncooperative mercenaries collapsed in front of the Sami Army. Some of them fled back to the burning base, but most of them deserted and fled deep into the woods.

Jiang Chen didn’t need to remind them since even a pig would know what to do next.

Jiang Chen watched as Sami began to launch an attack on the military base then he put away his binoculars. He took out an off-road motorcycle from the storage dimension and patted Ayesha’s back gently.

“It’s time, let’s go.”

“Mhmm!”

Ayesha nodded, and after Jiang Chen sat on the motorcycle, she also hopped on behind him.

The engine roared and the belt shattered the snow.

Jiang Chen rushed down the hillside and turned to the side of the military base. He then parked the motorcycle on the side, took out a laser sword from the storage dimension, and stroked it in his hand. The barbed fence was shredded easily.

The entire base was immersed in fire and chaos, and there were still explosions from mortars from time to time. All the mercenaries fought on the front line and fought with the refugees for control of the entrance. Except for a company guarding the command center, no one was in the rear.

For Jiang Chen and Ayesha, it was no different than having no defense.

A total of ten guards—two guards standing in the sentry tower, and the remaining eight were stationed at the entrance of the first and second floors. Ayesha took out the Ghost Sniper Rifle and quietly took down the two guards standing in the tower then used blind spots in their field of vision to kill the eight people upstairs and downstairs one by one.

When Ayesha took care of the guards, Jiang Chen took out a rifle and moved to the command center. Just as he passed the Hummer at the entrance, he just happened to bump into Sardes and his advisor fleeing.

When their eyes met, both sides stopped.

The advisor first responded and immediately pulled out his gun, but he didn’t reach them in time before Ayesha pinned him down. Sardes was trying to resist but was easily controlled by Jiang Chen and his hands were pinned against the Hummer.

“Sardes, male, 43. The general manager of Arrow and the highest commander. Am I right?”

Although it was the first time they were meeting, Jiang Chen’s holographic helmet, which was connected to the Ghost Agent’s database, stored photos and personal information related to Sardes. His information was projected onto the holographic screen.

Sardes’ face was pressed against the hood of the vehicle. He was certainly tough as he was reluctant to surrender. He gnashed his teeth.

“I won’t say anything. Just kill me…”

“Kill you? I didn’t ask anything yet.”

Jiang Chen grinned and smiled. He didn’t care about Sardes’ uncooperative attitude. Jiang Chen freed his right hand, pulled out a needle and injected it into Sardes’ back.

“AHHHH!”

Sardes growled in resistance. His eyes began to look bloodshot, and soon, the light in his pupils faded. Jiang Chen simply let his hands go. No ordinary person could resist the truth-telling serum.

Jiang Chen turned Sardes around and asked one word at a time.

“Where is Carmen?”

“Underground research institute in the underground bunker…”

“Where is the underground bunker?”

“The entrance is in the middle of the base and can only be accessed through the elevator. There are two aprons next to the entrance.”

Jiang Chen soon got the information he wanted.

“Good, now your wish has been granted.”

Jiang Chen took out a pistol and ended him then tossed his body aside.

It was a quick way to die, but for the well-known Arrow general manager Mr. Sardes, death in this obscure form might be more painful than death itself… if the dead felt pain.

“The underground bunker?”

Looking at the center of the base, Jiang Chen sneered.

No matter what Carmen was plotting, his good fortune should be over. The fate of the Rothschild family would end as it began, fame because of a war, obscurity because of a war…

However, at that moment, there were fierce screams from the distance.

Chapter 1065: Iblis

Chapter 1065: Iblis

The screams pierced the entire battlefield and even overshadowed the sound of bullets.

In the middle of the intense exchange between the mercenaries and the refugees, a black shadow suddenly interrupted the battle.

With the help of a flare, everyone saw the appearance of the monster.

Bow-shaped legs, arms that looked like two lacquered black machetes, grain-sized fangs in its rectangular-shaped mouth, and two pairs of short wings on its back, just like a humanoid mantis.

The exchange of fire briefly stopped for two seconds.

Everyone was stunned by this scene.

However, just when the exchange of fire stopped, the “mantis” moved.

The bowed-shaped legs began to move, and the seven-foot-high figure took off like an explosion. The refugee who was closest to him didn’t have any time to react before his head was cut off by the blades. Blood spurted out from his arteries as he collapsed.

Pushing his prey to the ground, the monster’s mouth severed his neck and penetrated the flesh. With a crunching sound, the monster drank the bone marrow and flesh of his prey.

The ruthlessness was as cruel as a beast.

Even the fanatical believers couldn’t stop the nausea in their stomachs. Their legs began to tremble as they uncontrollably moved back.

“Iblis…”

It was the name of the devil, like Satan from the Bible.

“Iblis!”

Someone shouted the name out and there were screams, screeches, and shrieks.

The refugees aimed with their G36 rifles and pulled their triggers at the monster. However, the mantis used its two blades and allowed the bullets to hit its armor. It did not worry about the 5.56mm bullets at all.

The worst thing was that there wasn’t just one of this monster!

Dozens of black shadows jumped out from the entrance of the underground bunker, waving their double blades at the refugees. Once monsters were close to the refugees, the refugees’ only fate was being slaughtered.

Other than the mantises, there was also a worm-like creature that sprayed highly corrosive saliva. Even steel and cement couldn’t withstand its high corrosiveness, not to mention human flesh.

Against the fabled devil, the believers finally began to fear.

The mob finally began to collapse.

On the other hand, the mercenaries were cheering.

It was their allies!

Although they looked disgusting.

However, their cheers didn’t last long, and soon, a similar nightmare engulfed them.

Dense spores floated out of the underground bunker and slowly spread throughout the entire base, barely noticeable under the disguise of the night. People who came into contact with these spores began to have difficulty breathing, then the searing pain began to spread from their chests. They screamed and scratched their skin, letting their blood gush out.

Soon, they lost all senses and became just like the walking dead.

Except for those wrapped in exoskeletons, those who were on the battlefield, regardless of their side, were swallowed by the spores.

In order to survive, the mercenaries and refugees turned their guns and began to fight a common enemy.

However, from the beginning, they didn’t have a chance of winning.

“What the fu*k, what is this thing?!”

A monster that resembled a Death Claws leaped at him. Jiang Chen kicked its chest while sweating profusely. He emptied his clip from the rifle, then took out a laser sword to chop down one arm of the monster.

Green blood spurted out and the blood turned into mist by the burning laser sword.

While the monster was screaming and moving back, Jiang Chen didn’t chase it. His right hand, which was holding the sword, shook and a beautiful arc formed in the air. The rotating laser blade separated from the hilt and cut off half of the monster’s face.

Fortunately, he was still familiar with this move; otherwise, he would’ve really been caught off guard.

On the other hand, Ayesha set up a Ghost Sniper Rifle and calmly exploded the skulls of two mutants.

“There are too many of them. We can’t stay here anymore.” Jiang Chen picked up the PK2000 on the ground and replaced a magazine. “Prepare to retreat.”

Ayesha nodded but didn’t move.

“I will secure our backs.”

“You first, hurry!” Jiang Chen pushed her shoulder then fired at a few zombies rushing toward them.

That’s right, they were zombies.

But they looked different from the zombies in City K. These zombies didn’t seem to be infected with viruses but were similar to zombies from the apocalypse.

[Warning: Unidentified pathogens are detected in the air. The filter unit is automatically activated. Please…]

When he saw the two lines of words projected on his helmet screen, he suddenly understood what these things were.

They were too similar.

The things he had encountered in Wanghai.

Without time to process what just happened, Jiang Chen didn’t hesitate. He used his highest command authority in Celestial Trade, bypassing all decision-making layers, and directly connected to Stingray C-1 deployed in the synchronous orbit. He targeted the underground bunker in the center of the base and called for an airstrike.

As for diplomatic issues, these would only matter after he dealt with the enemy of humanity!

“This is Stingray C-1. The airstrike target has been confirmed. The tungsten rods have separated and are leaving the synchronous orbit. The airstrike is expected to arrive in ten minutes. Combatants, please evacuate from the target area…” Jiang Chen turned off the communication, emptied his rifle, and rushed toward the edge of the base.

Ayesha, who had already run outside the base, set up a sniper rifle and began to cover Jiang Chen’s retreat. For some reason, these monsters seemed to be consciously chasing them as if they were controlled by some kind of consciousness.

Before being surrounded by the army of zombies and mutants, Jiang Chen successfully dove out of the barbed wires. At the same time, he tossed a nuclear grenade behind him, then ran without turning back with Ayesha.

The explosion blew up a group of mutants. After he confirmed that the zombies and mutants were not chasing them, Jiang Chen took out the off-road motorcycle from the storage dimension and whizzed to the nearby mountains.

They headed not in the direction of the refugee camp, but the direction of the border.

The motorcycle rushed onto the hill and he stopped. After he confirmed the time, he looked back at the military base. With the light from the sporadic fire, he barely recognized that there were no living humans in the entire military base.

Just then, white light, like stars flickering, appeared in the night sky.

With long and narrow tails, dozens of tungsten rods slammed into the center of the military base, and the dust from the explosions were elevated high into the air.

“They should’ve died, right?” Jiang Chen muttered and took out binoculars from his pocket.

When the dust dissipated, only a deep pit with a diameter several dozen meters wide was left in the center of the base, just like an abyss leading to hell.

The mutants were crawling out of the deep pit…

Chapter 1066: The Unfortunate Country Called Finland

Chapter 1066: The Unfortunate Country Called Finland

Dawn was about to break. It was already six in the morning.

The orange-red civilian helicopter hovered in the sky with the letters “YLE” printed on the side. When the black smoke rose after the ammunition depot exploded, Finnish Radio and Television sent their helicopter to the scene.

They thought it was a forest fire, but when they arrived, they discovered it wasn’t a forest fire at all. The fire was caused by Arrow’s military base, which was widely criticized in Finland. A war seemed to have erupted there, even leaving a giant pit in the middle of the base.

“This is Finnish Radio and Television. We are now here to broadcast the forest fire in the suburbs of Paltak… although it turns out that this was not a fire but a human-induced explosion? We are seeing a huge pit in the middle… wait, what is that?”

The lens swayed violently, and the cameraman adjusted the focal length and zoomed in on the base.

Inside the burning base, zombies were freely roaming and strange creatures were crawling out of the deep.

“…we seem to have discovered something peculiar. It seems that reports of Arrow’s experiments at its military base were true. What are these? Aliens? Zombies? Dear God…”

Just as the helicopter was delivering first-hand information to the people of Finland and the world, Jiang Chen, standing on the mountain, was also worried about the situation at the base.

Obviously, when building this underground bunker, Carmen made heavy investments. The tungsten bombs from heaven didn’t destroy the underground bunker—it just collapsed the elevator.

Spores continued to eject from the underground laboratories and began to spread outside of the base. Jiang Chen noticed that the terrifying bacteria not only caused mutations in the animals that accidentally entered its range but also the plants rooted there.

“Ayesha.”

“Mhmm?” Ayesha turned her head. Her beautiful hazel hair drifted in the wind.

“I think… we created a huge problem,” Jiang Chen said with a bitter smile and put down the binoculars.

At that moment, he suddenly felt alert. He and Ayesha almost turned at the same time and aimed at the intersection.

“Come out; I’ll count to three.” Jiang Chen’s finger opened the safety as he spoke emotionlessly.

With his hands over his head, a hairy man in a polar camouflage uniform stood up and spoke in rather non-standard Chinese.

“Don’t be nervous; I’m your ally.”

Jiang Chen put away the pistol and let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the scarred and wrinkled face. He signaled Ayesha to put down her weapon and grinned at him.

“I almost shot.”

“I’m thankful you didn’t.” Kutpov lowered his raised hands and walked over to Jiang Chen. He lifted his chin in the direction of the military base under the mountain. “What’s the situation there?”

“Special circumstances; I can’t explain it in a few words. Let’s talk after we get back.” Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Well, do you want to go back together?” Kutpov pointed to the mountain. “If you don’t plan to return to the refugee camp, you can go to the evacuation point with us. There are helicopters waiting for us.”

Of course, Jiang Chen couldn’t return to the refugee camp. Not only did he direct an uprising in the territory of another country, but he also created a hole on their map. The Finnish government definitely wouldn’t sit still now.

Almost without hesitation, Jiang Chen and Ayesha hopped onto the helicopters of the Alpha Special Forces and returned to Russia with them.

As if to confirm Jiang Chen’s suspicions, right as he crossed the border, the Finnish Defence Forces was already mobilized to Paltamo.

When their national security faced a serious challenge, the Finnish authorities did not take any humanitarian crises into account anymore. Tanks and armored vehicles entered the refugee camp, and the heavily armed soldiers took control of the ammunition factories and the warehouse at lightning speed. They confiscated all the weapons from the refugees.

During the disarming process, the Finnish Defence Force didn’t encounter any resistance.

In other words, Sami didn’t hesitate to take the lead and drop his weapon. He obediently walked into the vehicle and squatted in the corner. He recited the name of Iblis and sought forgiveness from Halah.

And those who were lucky enough to survive had the same expression as him. When they were asked what happened last night, the most frequently mumbled words were: “Iblis,” “Devil,” “Monster,” “Slaughter”…

What surprised the commander was that the refugees who surrendered seemed to be terrified. They did everything they could to get into the prison and more than 1,000 people stated that they participated in the execution of the prisoners.

However, in fact, only ten mercenaries were executed that night…

“Iblis? What kind of thing is that?” Duvio threw the briefing on the table. He frowned while he examined the map. “What’s the situation at the military base?”

“Our helicopter has gone to investigate, but nothing can be seen. The entire military base is surrounded by a yellowish cloud that formed into a giant bubble. Because our pilots were afraid of the toxicity, they didn’t get too close,” Duvio’s deputy replied.

“Let the scouts go take a look. Remember to wear protective clothing.”

Duvio had just finished speaking when an officer entered the tent containing their temporary headquarters. After he saluted, he handed a letter to Duvio.

“Sir, an order from the Ministry of Defense.”

With an eyebrow raised, Duvio opened the sealed letter.

His brows gradually furrowed. After reading the letter, he massaged his sore temples and threw the letter aside.

“The mission is canceled. Don’t send the scouts.”

The deputy looked at the commander strangely and didn’t understand what made him change his mind. Out of responsibility, he still reminded his chief: “If we don’t confirm the situation at the base, we can’t make a plan to initiate the rescue.”

“We don’t need to make a plan to rescue. Thanks to those officials. the reporters were one step ahead of us. They already confirmed that there are no living people there.” Duvio shook his head and put his fingers on the envelope. “This is an order from the Ministry of Defense. We must not be within one kilometer of the military base. Now, our only task is to remain stationed here, cooperate with the police to evacuate the town of Paltamo and the refugees to the two refugee camps on the Norwegian border.”

After a pause, Duvio looked out of the tent and cursed under his breath.

“Let those officials negotiate with Russia if they think they can solve all problems with negotiations.”

While he complained, a plane had taken off from the international airport in Helsinki, Finland with the Finnish Ministry of Defence and Vice President to Murmansk, Russia, the largest city bordering the Arctic Ocean.

At the same time, the Russian Minister of Defense and the Director of the Security Services also rushed to the city. They were prepared to seek a solution with Finland…

Chapter 1067: Only Celestial Trade Can Save You

Chapter 1067: Only Celestial Trade Can Save You

The trouble with Harmony civilization was that their understanding of biology was beyond the imagination of human civilization at its infancy. When countries around the world were still busy exporting ideologies, they had begun to spread something more dangerous – their evil genes.

Their DNA code to biological creatures was just like a computer virus to a computer.

Jiang Chen wasn’t concerned about Carmen.

Even if he was still alive, most of his life would’ve already been gone. Harmony would’ve at most provided him with nothing more than a few square kilometers. Just like the reserves the United States once promised to the Indigenous people. Dozens of indigenous people survived to serve as a “sample” of human civilization.

The only thing Jiang Chen was grateful for was that the Freemasonry had begun its decline. If Carmen connected with Harmony in the heyday of its strength, half of Europe would’ve already become a breeding ground for mutants.

But then again, if it wasn’t for Future Group’s constantly stranglehold on the Freemasonry, if it wasn’t for the Golden Apple that turned useless, how would Carmen have gone down this path? Jiang Chen didn’t believe he couldn’t see the danger of Harmony. This civilization had aggressiveness written in its genes.

Murmansk, Russia’s largest strategic town near the Arctic Ocean, was less than 90 kilometers from the Russian-Finnish border. Aware of the seriousness of the problem, the Finnish Defence Minister immediately went to Russia with the Vice President while sending its national force to secure the site of the incident.

The Finnish president was originally planning to go there in person, but the diplomatic process was too long, and he had to stabilize the country.

Because the incident was very close to the Russian border, the evacuation of Murmansk might even be required if the situation deteriorated further. Russia also attached great importance to the accident. The Minister of National Defense, Sergei, and the Director of the Security Services, Barth, were in the town to meet with high-level officials from Finland.

Other than high-level officials of the two countries, there was also a foreigner with a special identity who participated in the meeting…or the combat conference.

Jiang Chen briefly outlined the relevant contents of the secret experiment conducted by the Rothschild family collected by Celestial Trade, and he repeatedly stressed that this unauthorized military operation in northern Finland was for the safety of Finland and the world.

This rhetoric easily won the applause of Russian officials. After all, it was already communicated between Jiang Chen and Barth before the meeting. However, officials in Finland weren’t stupid, and the Finnish Vice President and the Defense Minister scoffed in return.

Since he didn’t achieve the expected results, Jiang Chen began to discuss the primary focus of the meeting.

The danger of the X2 bacteria.

“In the center of the military base, the source of infection is called the ‘nest.’ As the name implies, it can produce a special kind of bacteria with spore characteristics.”

“Our scientists named it the X2 bacteria. This bacteria is very aggressive in nature and can easily infect organisms without antibodies and turn them into a medium for their breeding. Infected organisms will behave more aggressively and their DNA will be modified specifically to the traits of the organism. For example, like Spiderman or the Hulk.”

“So you’re saying it won’t take long for the citizens of Finland to all become Spiderman?” the Finnish Vice President sneered.

“Uhhh… We don’t have to worry about that for the time being,” Jiang Chen said, drawing a circle on the satellite map and using a marker to point at the circled forest. “Do you see those withered pines? Those mutated creatures—let’s call them mutants—cannot leave the spores. Of course, we cannot exclude the possibilities that they’re out hunting or that the spores are continuing to spread.”

Jiang Chen didn’t mention one thing. He was most worried about the possibility of the X2 virus mutating and turning into a X3 virus.

After all, the best thing about creatures was evolution. The X2 bacteria lost because of his incendiary weapons. Now four years had passed, and Harmony, which already suffered losses, might have evolved into a more advanced state.

“Only Celestial Trade can save you. You should leave this to the professionals,” Russian Security Services Director, Barth, emphasized.

“It’s because of you that the situation ended up like this!” Finnish Defense Minister was agitated. He yelled while he knocked furiously on the table. “Now you’re telling me only you can deal with this. What makes you think I can believe you?”

The head of the Russian Security Services forced a smile and looked away awkwardly.

Jiang Chen also touched his nose awkwardly and coughed. “Let me correct you—it was definitely not me but Carmen who turned the situation into what we’re seeing today. If you didn’t let Arrow enter and rent out the tundra in the north to build a refugee camp, would today’s situation have happened? You didn’t even know that they were doing research on your land. Do you not have any responsibility?”

“If we let you deal with this, what are you going to do?” The Finnish Vice President stared at Jiang Chen in the eyes as he asked seriously.

“Send an Orbital Airborne Brigade,” Jiang Chen said without hesitation.

“Aren’t your only two Orbital Airborne Brigades in Ukraine?” the Finnish Defense Minister questioned.

“In fact, we still have a secret force and started training a long time ago.” Jiang Chen coughed. “I didn’t intend to reveal the force so early. But now that the situation is urgent, the circumstances are no longer important.”

When Jiang Chen said this, it seemed like he had made many concessions.

The Finnish Vice President exchanged looks with the Defense Minister then looked at Jiang Chen and the Russian officials. He looked at the Russian Defense Minister Sergei.

“I’m sorry but your integrity is doubtful. We think that NATO can deal with the current problem better. At least they will let us know when a bomber flies into our airspace. You violated the rules of the game first, so don’t blame us for making this difficult choice.”

The issue of Finland’s accession to NATO started since the beginning of the Cold War, but it remained undecided. The parliamentary election practically finalized the agenda for joining NATO, but the biggest resistance came from a final referendum, and Finnish citizens weren’t willing to give up the status of their neutral country.

However, if NATO solved Finland’s crisis, resistance during their most difficult referendum would also disappear.

Once Finland joined NATO, it would mean that on Russia’s border, there would be a thousand additional kilometers of armed soldiers. Behind the line were strategically important cities like Petersburg and Murmansk. This worried Russia the most.

“Russia cannot accept NATO troops entering Finland; you have better choices.” Sergei immediately stood up and nervously said, “If you insist on the wrong decision, the situation will only be worse.”

“Is this a threat?” the Finnish Vice President sneered.

“This is a suggestion,” Barth said in a gentle tone.

“The Finnish people are facing a threat, and how could things get worse than they are now? I thank you for your advice on behalf of the President. In fact, two hours ago, our President met with the NATO Secretary General in Helsinki. Goodbye!”

The officials on the Finnish side stood up. Sergei wanted to continue talking, but in the end, he froze there.

“Remember to use incendiary weapons to deal with those bugs—weapons bombs might be more effective than bullets and pesticides.” Jiang Chen didn’t care much about issues concerning Russia and NATO, but he kindly reminded: “And if you must ask NATO to help you resolve this problem. Remember to tell them not to use 5.56mm ammunition. Their armor is naturally resistant to small-caliber ammunition. Don’t give the bugs more meat.”

“And, if you can’t deal with it, remember to call me.”

The Finnish Vice President waved his hand to dismiss him, then he left with Defense Minister along with other senior officials.

Chapter 1068: Bugs were going to evolve

Chapter 1068: Bugs were going to evolve

The meeting room was quiet.

They had only gone through half of the scheduled agenda, but the Finnish officials had already left early. Sergei, who stood up, didn’t know if he should sit or not. He eyed the assistant behind him and the latter immediately walked up to help him clean up the things on the table.

When the documents were sorted and chairs began to move, the Russian officials also began to pack up.

Even half of the expectations weren’t reached, yet the meeting was over.

Jiang Chen, who stood in front of the satellite map, put down the marker and walked toward the door. When he came, he only brought himself, so there was nothing to pack up. When he left, he called Ayesha and asked her to help arrange a dinner at the front desk.

He just wanted to have a hot dinner now. The last time he properly ate something was already twenty-four hours ago.

Last night, he was on the helicopter. After he arrived in Murmansk, the first thing he did was call Hilton to book a room. After he returned to the hotel, he didn’t even take off his clothes before he slept until the afternoon. Then Russian Security Director Barth called him to remind him about the meeting.

It was already 7 o’clock in the evening. Before the meeting, he only drank a fruit-flavored nutrient supply, and his stomach had begun to protest.

Just as he left the government building, Barth waved at him. Barth walked to him hastily, patted him on the shoulder, and grinned.

“Do you want to have a meal together? There’s a very good restaurant nearby—I’ll treat you.”

“I’ve already booked dinner at the Hilton Hotel, so let me treat you.” Jiang Chen gave Ayesha a call and asked her to speak to the front desk to change the location to the private room at the restaurant and add another serving.

“Well, then.” Since Jiang Chen was already making arrangements, Barth didn’t reject the offer. He took out a car key from his pocket. “My car?”

“Please.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Unlike Defense Minister Sergei, Barth didn’t have a driver and traveled by himself, perhaps because of a need for work. Jiang Chen didn’t know the brand of his car; it must’ve been a local brand.

Right after the car started, Barth’s expression was bitter.

“Man, you’ve caused us a big problem.”

Jiang Chen glanced at him, dissatisfied.

“Why are you like the Finns, tossing everything onto my shoulders when something goes wrong? If your Alpha Special Forces killed Carmen, then there wouldn’t be all this trouble! I heard there were 500 meters between them, and you could’ve shot him. But instead, you thought about blowing up the ammunition depot?”

Barth frowned.

“What can one person do?”

Jiang Chen sneered, leaned against the seat and closed his eyes. “You can give him a chance to evolve in the next ten years. Maybe he can turn Russia into that dead zone.”

“What now?” Bart asked.

“Wait.”

“Wait?”

“Once NATO encounters the same problem, they will naturally think of us.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Do you think NATO can’t solve this problem? It’s just a few bugs.” Bart argued.

In his view, NATO didn’t need to deal with this, as even the Russian border guards could easily crush the little bugs.

Jiang Chen laughed after he heard such a naive point of view.

“Just a few bugs?”

Holding the steering wheel, Barth was silent for a while.

Right as Jiang Chen was about to fall asleep, he said, “Allow me to be honest—why are you so sure? Don’t misinterpret me; I don’t mean anything else… I’m just curious as you seem to understand this situation? It was the case when the T-virus happened, and now it’s the same case for the X2 bacteria.”

His intuition behind years of intelligence work told Barth that these seemingly irrelevant events were connected.

Jiang Chen’s left eye opened slightly and examined Barth in surprise.

Just as he was just about to make an excuse, he suddenly thought of the Golden Apple that flowed from the factory controlled by Rothschild. It was also those Golden Apples that made him change his mind.

Perhaps now was the time?

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen suddenly smiled and said,” “Yes, I do have knowledge. I also know how Carmen got these things. Want to know how?”

“If it’s convenient.” Although the expression on his face was nonchalant, Jiang Chen could clearly feel that Barth’s tone was very concerned.

“Let’s talk when we eat.”

Jiang Chen didn’t answer and closed his eyes again to meditate.

It was still a half-hour drive from the Hilton Hotel. Before he disclosed the secret, he had to think about how he should structure the conversation.

Frankberg was in the middle of a revolution. It was definitely impossible to send troops to support their allies. The aircraft carrier was too far apart, and it didn’t seem realistic to move a fleet from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea, and it would stimulate the fragile nerves of the Russians.

It was the United Kingdom, who had already left the EU, who stepped up to help.

However, the British apparently underestimated the danger of the “nest”. The country only sent a mechanized brigade that deployed in northern Finland through heavy transport aircrafts.

They might’ve kept Jiang Chen’s suggestion in mind. The Finnish government sent engineers to chop trees along the “infected area” and dug out a 50-meter-wide zone. Immediately after, the British Army fired 20 white phosphorus munitions at the “nest.” They were planning to physically sterilize the area before entering the infected area.

However, the results were unexpected. The white phosphorus munition did burst into a splendid spark, but soon after, the flames seemed to be “frozen” and were extinguished in midair. The spores that had been burnt dropped to the ground, but the empty holes were soon filled by more spores from under the ground.

Realizing that something was wrong, they extracted a part of the spore from the infected area and found that a single cell would quickly consume itself in a high-temperature environment, secreting a special high-temperature resistant liquid. The fire would be wrapped by the liquid and extinguished.

A cell with a fire extinguisher!

This incredible discovery shocked the biologists into disbelief. They were invited to test the spores in infected areas. Even with their decades of experience, they didn’t understand what happened.

It didn’t surprise Jiang Chen at all.

Bugs were going to evolve.

If they were capable of interstellar navigation, how hard would putting out a fire be?

Chapter 1069: Leave it to the Professional

White phosphorus munitions, petrol bombs—all options were tried to no avail. Even the flamethrower was useless.

In addition to incendiary munitions, the British tried other things. For example, pesticides, strong acids, strong bases, or even chemical weapons. These weapons definitely wouldn’t be considered humane normally speaking, but against insects, it was another story. Regrettably, those bugs weren’t afraid of chemical weapons, and nothing changed with the spores.

Also, the British considered launching larger incendiary munitions, which could, in theory, burn all the air in the infected area, but the Finnish government wasn’t happy. If the incendiary munitions got any bigger, the 50-meter isolation belt certainly wouldn’t be effective. If there was a forest fire, then the loss would be severe!

They were in the Arctic Circle, and the ancient pine forest was in the tundra! Every tree was a living fossil! In order to release incendiary bombs, trees that were cut already agonized the Finns. What’s more, the British couldn’t guarantee that the bigger bombs wouldn’t be “frozen” by the strange spores.

Those evil things could even wrap up the atomized gasoline!

It was fine if they didn’t use it. It was a great chance to flex their muscles to their future younger brother, a chance to demonstrate the power of the big NATO family. The British Ministry of Defence made a decision, and the dispatched commander didn’t take it seriously either. Two mechanized companies, a total of 40 “Ajax” armored vehicles, and more than 300 infantries wearing chemical protective suits followed.

The combat plan was very simple: eliminate all the mutants in the infected area within ten minutes, suppress the entrance within 20 minutes, and send special forces into the underground bunker to remove the source of infection. The soldiers wearing chemical protective suits didn’t realize the danger of the task. Instead, they joked in front of the media reporters during their interviews, saying that if the nest appeared in London, the firefighters alone could take care of the issue.

The emergence of the nest attracted worldwide attention, and this interview was also broadcast live worldwide.

Inside the same conference room, the satellite map on the big screen was replaced by a live broadcast of a Russian TV reporter interviewing British soldiers in the Paltamo region.

Originally, Jiang Chen didn’t want to watch the news with the Russians because he could already guess what the final result would be. However, the National Defense Minister Sergei personally invited him and it was difficult to reject his invitation, so he came.

To be honest, a group of senior officials quietly watching news felt weird.

“Are you sure they can’t handle it?” Sergei looked at Jiang Chen and asked somewhat incredulously, “I don’t mean to gloat, but it’s very important for Russia’s national defense strategy. If the British succeed, we will have a thousand more kilometers to defend.”

“Let’s wait.”

Leaning in his chair, Jiang Chen glanced at the confident British soldier on the screen and grinned.

London firefighters?

Even if you sent Chinese city enforcement forces, Japanese high school students, and American hobos, they wouldn’t do a damn thing! (1)

With the departure of the army, the image on the TV moved. The reporter gave a close-up of the forty armored vehicles and quickly switched to coverage in the air. The helicopter followed the mechanized forces and watched them rushing into the infected area covered by the turbid spores.

Because of his confidence behind this “de-bugging” plan, the British commander, under the guidance of the Ministry of National Defense, made an exception to open some insensitive combat communications to reporters to demonstrate the combat effectiveness of NATO. As for the combat video, it wasn’t made public due to the sensitive information.

“This is the 12th Company. We’ve reached the target area, and no abnormalities have been found.”

“Mutants spotted. Open safeties and fire freely.”

The intensive gunshots and the roars of mutants lasted for two minutes.

The senior Russian officials sitting in front of the screen, especially the Russian National Defense Minister, gradually had expressions that looked more and more excited. They were all senior members of the military. Just by listening to the sounds, they knew that the situation wasn’t pleasant.

“…we’re fighting the mutants! They have too many people, but our firepower is superior—”

“SH*T! They’re too fast! Fu*k! Infantry! RETREAT! I repeat, Infantry! RETREAT! Charis! Are you crazy, take your people and move back… buzz—”

The communication was cut off. It was clear that the British commander realized that the contents were no longer suitable for broadcast to the media.

Only the flashing sparks in the turbid fog could depict the tragedy on screen.

The meeting room was silent, and the Russian military all stared at each other.

No one expected this result. No one thought that a mechanized unit would lose to mutants… except for one person.

Jiang Chen.

Since they neglected their anti-armor abilities because they were fighting bugs, he wasn’t surprised that the British lost. The only thing he was curious about now was how many armored vehicles could retreat intact.

As for the infantry, they were probably chewed down to the bone.

“There was a little accident in the nest while clearing it up. The following is a story from…” On the screen, the reporter’s expression was slightly awkward.

At this point, the aerial coverage of the military base was gone.

Just then, Jiang Chen’s watch shook.

“Let me take a call,” Jiang Chen quietly whispered to Sergei sitting next to him, got up and walked out of the meeting room.

The call was from the Presidential Palace of Finland.

He didn’t need to guess the reason.

Jiang Chen went to the window, opened the holographic screen, and pressed the button.

The call was connected, and the other side didn’t speak right away.

The silence lasted for two seconds, the atmosphere was a little subtle, and the other side finally began the conversation.

“…Ummm, the British aren’t doing it anymore.”

Just as he expected, a regular army wasn’t a mercenary force, and every life in peacetime was very expensive. Two companies were lost in the infected area without even touching the underground bunker, and Great Britain was rattled now.

“Oh.”

“The Americans said they need to observe for a while longer, but the area covered by spores is spreading. Now, the 50-meter-wide isolation zone has been covered.”

When Jiang Chen heard the words of the President of Finland, it didn’t come as a shock.

The killed British soldiers were equivalent to providing the nest with easy-to-absorb organic matter. Animal bodies, including humans, were easier to breed spores compared to wood and insects. Only two companies were swallowed, yet the nest had already begun to diffuse more spores.

From this point of view, the nest was similar to Carmen.

With his speculations validated, Jiang Chen’s confidence in resolving this problem increased. But then, he didn’t rush to offer a solution. Obviously, the other side was asking for help. If he was too eager, that would be nice to them!

At the start, I was going to resolve this issue for you for free, but you were unhappy. Now you’re begging me?

“Mhmm.” Adjusting his tone, Jiang Chen said nonchalantly, “Just be straightforward.”

“How about… you take care of it?” the Finnish President asked mildly.

Jiang Chen pretended to hesitate for a moment, then he slowly spoke.

“Now the infected area has increased. Even the United Kingdom’s mechanized brigade can’t deal with it. I’m afraid it will be difficult. Do you want to try carpet bombing? Although the spores can stop flames, there’s no way the spores can stop high-explosive bombs?”

“We tried it earlier and it didn’t work. The spores secreted at a much higher speed than the spores that were removed, and the bombs even blew the spores farther.” The Finnish president smiled bitterly. “How about this, let’s be straightforward. You’re a businessman, so give me a price.”

With a smile, Jiang Chen pleasantly said, “300 million New Xin dollars.”

Hearing this number, the Finnish president’s eyebrows twitched.

“…can it be cheaper?”

The exchange rate of Xin New dollars wasn’t low. The euro had recently depreciated, and it was impossible unless he used the Finnish National Defense Force’s annual procurement budget.

“If you can’t afford to pay, we can also consider another payment method. For example, Arrow’s assets in Finland are packaged and sold to us. Of course, we can only offer 300 million Xin New dollars for their assets after what happened. Believe me—this is already a fair price, and it is definitely much higher than the valuation from the bank.” Jiang Chen wickedly laughed in his mind.

Although Arrow was his old rival, the mercenaries didn’t have a grudge against him.

After the incident, Arrow was bound to go bankrupt because of the high penalty issued by the Finnish government. If Arrow, which was registered in Finland, was acquired, more than 20,000 experienced veterans would become great assets to Celestial Trade. As long as they were trained and offered more benefits, these people would soon swear their allegiance to their new boss.

The management could be completely disbanded. The grassroots soldiers would be reorganized after screening. The weapons and equipment could be packaged and sold to Africa. As for the remaining two refugee camps, they could be kept there for the time being. With appropriate methods, they could be used as bargaining chips to discuss conditions with the EU.

As for the two military bases associated with the refugee camps, he also had great uses for them.

The Finnish president reluctantly nodded.

“Deal.”

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded.

“Great.”

“When will your people arrive? We might not be able to wait for long…”

“It won’t take so long,” Jiang Chen looked at the time on the holographic screen. “Give me five hours. By the way, notify the British army for me. Tell them they can pack things up and go home. Let the professional deal with this.”

(1) Famous in the Chinese online community, mocking the behavior of these groups of people.

Chapter 1070: Mother Nest

The fracture dozens of meters in length located in the center of the military base was like a giant crater that appeared out of nowhere. Under the crater, 500 meters down, was the underground bunker designed by the Rothschild Group.

There wasn’t a sign of life in the underground bunker. It was completely covered by a suspicious blood-red flesh bubble, exuding an awful stench. Suppressing nausea, upon closer examination, there was dense, sesame-sized pus covering the surface of the meat bubble.

Whenever the pus ruptured, spore gas was released. With the countless flesh bubbles, countless spores were born every moment. They drifted through the entrance to the surface, and contributed to the expansion of the nest.

In the center of the underground research institute, there was a giant flesh pile that acted as the root. As the core of the nest, it was both the heart and the “central processing unit” of the nest. The tentacles that spread from top to bottom acted as the cable lines connecting the host and the subunits.

In its abdomen, there was a coffin carved out of a resin material, or, more appropriately, a “culture chamber.” Unlike the flesh-colored nest, this lacquered black cabin looked reinforced. Through the translucent film with palm-sized thickness, it was possible to see a person lying inside.

His eyes were open and he gazed at a number on the semi-permeable membrane.

[14731]

Four thousand of them were refugee recruits he brought underground, and more than three thousand of them included researchers and his own guards. The other seven thousand came from the conflict between the mercenaries and refugees in the military base. Then the British also contributed about six or seven hundred people to him.

Each person contributed two units of organic matter, and he already consumed half of the organic matter to fortify the nest and hatching mutants.

“Not enough.”

Carmen, inside in the culture chamber, shook his head and began to reflect on whether he went overboard with showing off.

If he didn’t kill them all at once, perhaps he could give the British the illusion of winning, thus they would send more people to provide him with organic matter.

However, now the British were more cautious.

Other than constantly shelling this area, no one entered the area.

Upgrading the nest required 500,000 units of organic matter.

There were two sources to obtain organic matter—one was primitive photosynthesis and just required waiting. The other was also one of the quickest, simplest and most primitive methods, which was to eat constantly. It was growing by phagocytizing creatures and digesting their flesh and bodies.

Carmen, of course, favored the latter. If organic matter was to be obtained by photosynthesis, it would take a few centuries for the nest to cover the entire world. But if he constantly devoured, he could complete the transformation in just a few days.

With that thought in mind, Carmen looked aggrieved.

The reason why he chose this location for the nest was because the refugee camp next to the military base had more than 500,000 refugees. If he swallowed the refugee camp and swallowed the town of Paltak, he would’ve completed the first stage evolution!

The second-stage nest required an astounding amount of energy. Not only would the mutants’ hunting range be expanded to 100 kilometers, but he would also unlock new “forces.”

For example, a monster named Roshan that could withstand tank shells with its fat.

However, because of Jiang Chen, his plans all faltered.

His teeth gnashed together and he made an unbearable grinding sound with the thought in his mind.

Spores acted as his eyes and ears, and he could clearly sense everything that happened in the spore-covered area. He was positive that that night, he “saw” Jiang Chen at the military base, but it was a pity that he couldn’t keep Jiang Chen there forever.

[Reminder, the host is still far away from the organic matter reserves of 500,000. It is recommended to upgrade forces in the initial stage.]

A thought entered his mind, which was a suggestion from the nest.

There was no need to vocalize words; there was no barrier to language or expression. Communication was directly through consciousness and Carmen thought this was most convenient. It was one of the reasons why he sought biological civilization through the Golden Apple.

Upgrade forces? What you said makes sense. Carmen replied. He closed his eyes, and connected his consciousness with the control center of the nest.

A row of simplified upgrade lists emerged in front of him, and after careful screening, he distributed 5,000 organic matter to upgrade the wings of the “Blade Warrior”.

The name Blade Warrior was given to the mutants that resembled mantises. The upgraded Blade Warrior possessed longer and more powerful wings. They not only aided Blade Warrior’s ability to bounce but allowed it to fly for short distances.

As Carmen distributed the organic matter, a slurry flowed along the pipeline to the pile of larva in front of the nest. After the input of organic matter, the larva began to mutate, and the new “Blade Warriors” broke out from the larva.

The larva was the hatching medium for mutants, and for him, it was similar to a “barrack”.

Just then, there was a violent tremor from the ceiling.

Carmen sneered as he looked above.

The soil above the bunker was reinforced by the nest. The roots of fibers woven into the soil created a layer of “body armor” 500 meters thick, which was comparable to reinforced concrete. The British army threw hundreds of shells on top of his head and only blow up the very top layer.

The reason why space-based weapons blew up the entrance was simply that the nest had just formed, and he didn’t have time to reinforce the entrance…

Suddenly, his expression changed, and at the same time, the consciousness of the nest entered his mind.

[Warning, the protective layer is damaged by external forces, and some of the structures are broken. Please use organic matter for repair. ]

“Damn it! It’s a space-based weapon from Celestial Trade!”

Carmen cursed. He seemed to have still underestimated the power of space-based weapons. Originally, he thought that a few tungsten rods would remove a layer of skin from the outer layer of the nest at most. Now, the damage to the protective layer required him to repair it with organic matter. He was already lacking organic matter!

The amount of organic matter was consumed at a speed visible to the naked eye. As Carmen anxiously moved organic matter into the gap, a series of fracturing sounds came from above.

Realizing what was happening, Carmen’s expression immediately changed; his facial muscles began to distort.

“FU*K!”

Chapter 1071: Use Force

Chapter 1071: Use Force

More than forty armored vehicles drove into the infected area, and when everyone thought it would be a military show put on by the UK, the situation took a dramatic turn in just a few minutes.

No one knew how intense the crossfire in the infected area was, but almost the entire world witnessed the result of this exchange of fire. Five out of the forty armored vehicles returned intact, and all the infantry units were lost. The rifles and cannons lost against bugs. Colonel Moston, who commanded the battle, could not accept this ending.

It was not only him, but the people all watching this event unfold also couldn’t accept this truth.

From City K to Yoto, the phrase “biohazard” repeatedly struck the fragile nerves of the global community. The concept that was originally thought to appear only in films and games turned into reality, and easily attracted global attention.

And panic…

On Facebook, Twitter, Weibo and other social platforms, the discussion about X2 bacteria intensified.

“The last time was the T virus, this time is the X2 bacteria? God, are the capitalists crazy? Is there any good for them to research something like this? The state should legislate to ban these dangerous experiments!”

“Unbelievable, it was really the British army that entered the zone. Are the British armored vehicles made out of paper? It’s just a group of mutants, just run them over! Could their teeth really pierce through the armor?”

“The Doomsday Survival Handbook, a decade-long doomsday enthusiast teaches you how to survive in the event of a doomsday. Quantity is limited, buy as soon as possible.”

“Send a peacekeeping force. This is not a national issue anymore. It’s a issue for the entire world…”

“I’m very curious now. Is there a research institute in every Arrow military base?”

“…”

Colonel Moston couldn’t see what was being debated on social media. He was worried about how to explain this disastrous defeat to the Parliament and the Ministry of Defense. Two companies were lost inside without causing a splash.

God, the prime minister counted on him to deal with this with elegance and pull Finland into the family of NATO. Now, he was pale. He didn’t have the courage to develop a battle plan and didn’t want to send a single troop inside.

A division of force may not even be enough!

The Finnish government was anxious and even threatened that if they couldn’t handle the nest, they would contact Celestial Trade for a solution.

Moston sneered at the Finnish government’s statement, because it was not a question of combat effectiveness at all. If the armored vehicle could be melted by the acid, was the kinetic skeleton of Celestial Trade really harder than the armored vehicles?

The better plan was for scientists to study the X2 bacteria. Morton had a hunch that as long as scientists could develop something that could kill those spores, these mutants would vanish.

“I admit that we underestimated the strength of the nest. It is the wrong choice to send troops to the infected area rashly.” Standing in front of the media, Moston explained under pressure, “The research team from London is already studying the DNA structure of the spore. I believe it won’t take long for a method to be developed to inactivate the X2 bacteria.”

The reporter asked, “Colonel Moston, does this mean the Britain will give up military aid to Finland?”

“NATO will never give up on any friendly partners, but now this is not something that the British alone can solve.”

“…”

“God… look! What is it!”

Just as Colonel Moston was busy explaining to the media, there was a sudden exclamation from the crowd next to him. A female reporter with a terrified expression, pointed at the infected area.

A “fireball” descended from the sky.

Even from a few kilometers away, the fireball breaking the sound barrier could still be clearly heard.

The lens previously focused on Colonel Moston zoomed to the airspace. Almost at the same time, the tremor was felt underneath everyone. While it shocked everyone’s eyes, it also shocked everyone’s mind.

Not surprisingly, it was the first time Celestial Trade’s space-based weapons appeared in front of the media.

Moston was glad that the lens was not focused on him. He knew that at the time, he must have looked dumbfounded.

…

Far away in Murmansk, in the Presidential Suite Hotel, Jiang Chen sat on the sofa was his legs crossed, overlooking the battle through the holographic screen and remotely commanding the battle against the mutants.

Space-based weapons dispersed the spores outside the military base for a short period of time. After a round of bombardment, Jiang Chen saw the ground shatter through the satellite map.

“Hmmm? It didn’t collapse?” Staring at the holographic screen, Jiang Chen grunted.

In theory, even if the underground bunker was more than five hundred meters deep, it wouldn’t be able to block the attack from the tungsten bomb. The tungsten fell from the geosynchronous orbit. Even if the five hundred meters were made of reinforced concrete, everything should have turned into dust by now.

The nest was indeed weird.

Jiang Chen’s eyeballs moved around and issued an order to Ivan.

“Continue to bombard! Bomb until he shows himself!”

The mutants were resilient. Ordinary minor injuries only required a few seconds in the spore atmosphere before they could regenerate rapidly.

Although the British army carried out several rounds of bombing at theary bases, it did not cause many casualties to the mutants. Broken arms and broken legs may be fatal to humans, but for the organized mutants, they could recover by simply lying in the nest.

Even if the mutants were killed on spot, the body could be dragged back and turned into organic matter and re-hatched into new mutants.

What’s more, most of the aliens are hiding underground.

The operational plan formulated by Jiang Chen was very simple and very direct, it was to fatigue the enemy. Launching space-based weapons constantly! As long as their defense could be broken, he would bombard until the nest is exposed!

This tungsten bombs were not aimed at the mutants but aimed to destroy the underground bunker. All the attack points converged to a ten-meters radius. Even with the incredible regeneration of the nest, the space-based weapons’ vertical penetration ability was not to be matched!

Jiang Chen did not know that his simple and direct plan made Carmen suffer.

The first round, the second round… one round after another, the tungsten core bombs dropped down from the geosynchronous track. Jiang Chen burned money, and Carmen burned organic matter. Both sides were bleeding, but Carmen with limited resources, was more distressed.

Soon, the nest wouldn’t be able to repair itself.

Jiang Chen could see it visibly from the satellite image.

As the dust dissipated, the soil layer had completely been blown apart, exposing the staggered roots. Undoubtedly, the roots reinforced the underground bunker, and the soil reinforced the roots to create a concrete-like defense.

The nest vainly released spore, attempting to cover up its weakness, but Jiang Chen did not miss this opportunity and ordered Ivan to take advantage of this opportunity.

The bombardment from the orbit continued to strike down on Earth. When the Stingray C-1 deployed dropped the last tungsten rod, the tentacles covering the underground bunker also shattered. The nest without defense exposed the flesh bubbles hidden underground.

Jiang Chen knew that the opportunity had come and immediately ordered Ivan to move.

“The nest has been exposed, stop the bombardment. Order the Third Power Armor Brigade to airborne!”

“Roger!” Ivan shouted with confidence.

The constant striking stopped, 15 minutes already passed since the first tungsten rodlanded. The reporters, soldiers, and townspeople in Paltak were still dumbfounded. Their head looked up, staring at the clear airspace.

Colonel Moston opened his mouth but couldn’t say a word. The Finnish Defense Minister, who was standing next to him, was full of regrets. He wished that he asked Celestial Trade to do the deed from the start. As for the reporters, they were thinking what rhetoric they should use to narrate the destructive “air strike.”

Everyone was still immersed in a state of amazement.

Just when everyone thought that everything was over, rows of flame trails soared down from the clear sky…

Chapter 1072: Steel and Blood

Chapter 1072: Steel and Blood

For the people who were in Paltamo, it was just a blink of an eye before the roar of collision between steel and earth came from a few kilometers away.

The producer of Finnish Radio and Television quickly eyed the reporters. It didn’t take long before the helicopter took off again and rushed toward the military base. Not only the media was interested in the Orbital Airborne Brigade of Celestial Trade, even the British and Finnish military sent two helicopters.

Ceremonially, it was to provide support to Celestial Trade when necessary, but in fact, everyone understood their intention.

Through the satellite, Jiang Chen saw the little tricks of Finland and the United Kingdom, but he didn’t mind. Since he revealed the power armor, he did not intend to keep it a secret any longer.

This “mini brigade” only consisted of 200 soldiers and was formed two years ago. The reason why he kept it a secret till now was on one hand, the enemy in his surrounding lacked combat capability. There wasn’t any reason for him to flex his power. On the other hand, he was worried about causing a regional arms race and affecting his economic development plan.

The reason why he revealed it now was because the two concerns no longer applied.

As for why, it was a story after the end of the war.

Fifty airdrop cabins dropped one by one. The explosion still lingered on the battlefield and two hundred fully armed T3 Power Armors rushed out from the airdrop cabins. They stepped into the spore-filled battlefield and began to converge on the fracture created by the space-based weapons.

Sensing the invasion of uninvited guests, a screeching scream drifted out from the bottom of the deep pit.

“Blade Warriors” shook its wings and leaped out from the abyss. When the bombardment landed, the mutants all hid underground. Now that they sensed living creatures, they could not control their bloodthirsty desire. They just wished to use their claws to tear apart the prey.

However, they were destined to fail. Now they encountered opponents unmatched by the weaklings before.

“ROAR!”

With a piercing scream, a Blade Warrior moved.

The bow-shaped legs moved, and the long wings instantly opened. The two scimitars formed into a pair of scissors and dove into the nearest power armor. If the scissors landed, even steel would be torn open!

But just at that moment, a transparent shield unfolded from the left arm of the power armor. The Blade Warrior slammed into the shield. The power armor remained intact while the two blades faltered.

The long mouth made out a tragic scream.

The Blade Warrior used its arm to protect its head and moved back. However, without gaining any distance, the power armor slammed through it defense with the shield, and then used a tactical dagger the size an arm to penetrate the Blade Warrior’s chest. The dagger slashed down and split the intestines into two halves.

The fight took place in an instant.

Carmen inside the chamber was stunned.

He has never seen such an agile piece of metal. It reminded him of the rumor from a long time ago about Iron man on Coro Island. In fact, as early as the Los Santos Attack, there was a rumor that Celestial Trade created a “steel combat suit.” There were even more unreasonable rumors that Jiang Chen himself was the “Iron man” in Coro City. His own image was too similar to the heir of a Stark industry.

Cold sweat profusely appeared on Carmen’s forehead.

Although he sneered at the rumors, he never thought that Jiang Chen not only created a “steel combat suit” for himself, but also armed an army with something that clearly costed a lot!

While he was shocked, he did not have the luxury of hesitating.

While the size of the army is not big, they are the trump card of Celestial Trade, and hence trump cards must be limited! As long as he survived through the early stages of growth, the entire forest would be included in the nest’s consciousness. In order to hurt Celestial Trade, even if it meant sacrificing all his bugs, he must destroy the trump cards here!

Even if it meant he paid a heavy price.

With that thought in mind, Carmen gritted his teeth and connected his consciousness with the nest. Almost instantaneously, the red blood vessels in the nest began to surge, and the flesh bubbles hidden under the shadows swelled. The sesame-sized pustules soared to the size of mung beans and then exploded to release spores containing frenzy nature.

All the dark green eyes instantly turned crimson.

“ROAR!”

The roar was mixed with violence. All Blade Warriors went mad and dove onto the two hundred power armors. However, before they could get close, they were hit head on by a net weaved by bullets and shells.

These batches of T3 Power Armors were shipped to the modern world and were functionally subdivided in order to adapt to the modern battlefield. The most obvious difference was that the right arm was no longer all mini guns, but designed with mountable accessories such as a grenade launcher, a shield, and a plasma cutting dagger.

The power armors in the front squatted down and raised the shield in the front with eerie blue sparks. The power armors in the back stepped forward and raised the mini guns on the right arm to unleash bullets. Behind them, 72mm anti-vehicle cannons were set up. The power armors were anchored in place and used the destructive cannons to tear up the mutants.

In terms of firepower alone, this two hundred power armored brigade more than doubled the firepower of nearly 1,000 British troops. Taking into account the comprehensive combat capabilities of maneuvering and protection, Jiang Chen could say without exaggeration that the two hundred soldiers could easily beat a NATO division without airstrike support.

A Blade Warrior that rushed in front was shredded into pieces by the firepower, and the mutants who got close were also cut into two pieces by the dagger behind the shield. The mutant’s armor worked great against bullets but was as fragile as tofu against high-energy plasma jets.

Green blood splashed on the battlefield, mixed with the acid from the Spitters. Carmen was determined to take down Celestial Trade and never planned to retreat. The hatching and digestive ability of the nest was operating at its limit!

At the juncture of life and death, he could no longer be conservative. He used all the organic matter and converted it into Blade Warriors and Spitters. Then, he sent them to the frontline.

The only advantage of the swarm was that it didn’t fear death. Under the influence of the nest’s will, even if only one mutant remained, it would rush to the muzzle without hesitation. As the battle began to escalate, there was no distance separating the two sides. It turned into close-range combat.

The power armor was strong but not invincible. Gradually, there were casualties. Carmen was ecstatic. Following this trend, Celestial Trade must be the first to retreat! He then made the decision to use all his organic matter.

However, Carmen’s emotion took a 180-degrees turn. The eager expression gradually turned into despair. Through the eyes of a Blade Warrior, he saw a series of flares descending from the air.

The second round of airdrops arrived.

They were not people, but drone hives.

Before the start of the airdrop, the power armor in combat with mutants maintained their formation and retreated with order. This left enough space for the mutants to crawl out from the deep pit. When they almost retreated to the edge of the military base, drone hives landed behind the mutants.

Thousands of drones swarmed out and swarmed into the fracture on the nest from the space-based weapons.

When Carmen reacted, everything was too late. The mutants under ground were all sent out. Only mutants that just hatched remained. Although the number was still impressive, it was not enough to stop the drones from flooding in.

Without fighting or even firing a single bullet at the mutants, the drones rushed to the hatching larva.

Carmen’s face turned green.

“FU*K!”

Jiang Chen, who was a hundred kilometers away, sat up straight from the sofa and slammed his fist against the coffee table.

“EXPLODE!”

Chapter 1073: Just Give Him a Quick Way Out

Chapter 1073: Just Give Him a Quick Way Out

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

The drones that rushed to the larva exploded, engulfing the surging larva into a ball of flame and exploding everything into pieces. The reddish-green plasmas that were fused together sputtered out from the flesh bubbles before turning into smoke under the high temperature.

Some of these blood cells belonged to the nest, and some of them were from the mutants still in embryos.

Carmen inside the cabin was drenched…if he could still feel coldness.

Despair flooded him.

This feeling was like he was killing all the enemy champions, but someone backdoored his base.

[Warning, the hatchery is extensively damaged, please repair immediately.]

The consciousness of the nest echoed in his mind, and Carmen quickly looked at the organic matter. However, when he saw the number in the hundreds, the last sign of life on his face faded.

Just then, he distributed all the resources to the larva for hatching the Blade Warriors. However, the suicide attack of the drones damaged his organic matter.

It was not impossible to digest the residue on the ground, but it required time to convert the residue to organic matter. In addition, it depended on the form of carbon present and the photosynthesis efficiency of the spores. Carmen didn’t know how long it took, but a few hours for sure.

But would Celestial Trade give him the time?

The killing of soldiers stopped, and the mutants no longer had any stamina. The Power Armor Brigade that secured their position at the edge of the base began to launch a counterattack against the mutants showing signs of weakness.

The Spitters were torn into pieces by the countless bullets. The Blade Warriors were penetrated by the plasma blade. The corrosive dark green blood splashed, and even faded the paint on the power armor.

Thousands of different mutants were a large force, but in the absence of more back-up, it was only a matter time before they were annihilated.

In the collision of flesh and blood, the first confrontation between the civilization of Harmony and the civilization of Natural was settled in dissipating smoke.

The dust dissipated, and no more mutants climbed out of the deep pit.

At the front of the team, the power armors kneeled down, retracted their shield and with one hand on the ground, they slowly stood up.

“Sh*t, is it over?”

“It’s all over…” Another soldier flicked his mucus-stained arm and snorted.

At the end of the battle, no one lifted their mask to breathe.

High-density spores were still floating outside. Even for those who injected genetic vaccines, it was a dangerous environment. Some soldiers stood in the same place waiting for orders, and some soldiers simply sat on the ground and did not care about whether or not the corpses of the mutants were disgusting.

No cheers. They were only glad to be alive.

A total of forty T3 Power Armors were scrapped in the battlefield, and more than 30 troops were killed on the spot. For the first battle of the Power Armor Brigade, it was a heavy casualty figure, but an undoubtedly epic result.

Nearly 10,000 mutants died in their hands.

Without exaggeration, even if a NATO division was sent in, it wouldn’t achieve the same fruitful result. Perhaps maybe more enemies would appear.

Going to the forefront of the team, the brigade commander of the Power Armor Brigade looked around his brethren.

“Well, guys, the mission is not over yet, let’s go end the bug for good. Let me see…” He clicked the touchpad on his arm and sent a drone down into the deep pit. Before the drone was culled, he saw the situation and said, “There are still about thirty mutants. Who has the strength to go with me?”

A soldier stood up from the ground with the help of his rifle and raised his hand.

“Count me in, I can still move.”

“Count me in.”

The brigade commander picked out eleven people from the team and took the team to the side of the deep pit. Then he opened the vortex engine and jumped down.

Twelve power armors landed. The blade warriors crouching in the dark immediately leaped out, ready to make a dying struggle.

The brigade commander raised his arms as usual, and easily strangled the neck of the mutant. The other hand pulled out a pistol and fired it at its head. He then threw the paralyzed body to the side. The remaining mutants were far away, and they were turned into sieves by the soldiers.

Stepping over the mutants’ body, the soldiers came to the core of the nest.

Here they saw the eggs that were blown into a mess, and the green and red mud.

“Sh*t, this is really disgusting.”

“Let’s finish this and go back up.” The engineer soldier removed the blasting tool from the back and distributed several pieces of thermite. “The red head points inward. Remember to put it deep inside.”

Spores could extinguish fires, but the nest itself didn’t have this function. As long as the burning thermite was completely inserted into the core of the nest, it could effectively prevent the spore gas from extinguishing the fire.

Looking at everything Celestial Trade soldiers were doing, Carmen began panicking.

When countless thermites were nailed to the nest, his eyes turned red.

“NOOO!”

The soldier closest to Carmen grinned at him under the mask. He waved at him with thermite in his hand, and then slammed it into the core of the nest.

1The gorgeous fire leaked out of the gaps, but more of it was sprayed on the inside. Under the high temperature, the core of the nest collapsed.

Carmen’s heart was bleeding as he stared at everything unfolding in front of him.

He sacrificed the researchers of the entire institute, the guards loyal to him, and even his confidants to create the nest,. However, now, Celestial Trade destroyed everything in front of him.

Resentment, anger, fear… countless negative emotions mixed together and distorted his face.

At this moment, the brigade commander walked to his side, knocked on the resin chamber with his fingers, indicating for Carmen to look towards his side. Then he took out a Future phone from his waist and put it on the film of the cabin.

“We meet again.” Inside the presidential suite of Hilton, Jiang Chen looked at Carmen inside the chamber and smiled. “It is certainly satirical to meet this way.”

Carmen’s pupils were bloodshot, filled with rage, as he stared at Jiang Chen. “Do you think I am a joke?”

“Yes, and no.” Jiang Chen shook his head and looked at Carmen who was without any of the elegance and calmness of an old aristocrat. There was pity in his tone. “I’m just a little curious, what has made my opponent look like this now.”

Carmen did not answer, and his brain was now controlled by hatred.

Just then, Jiang Chen noticed the black ball on his head.

“The Golden Apple?”

With a frown, he vaguely recalled his knowledge of the family history of the Rothschild. Their family seemed to be innately susceptible to the influence of the Klein particle wave. They can receive signals without the help of foreign objects. It is the ability that even Tanaka didn’t posses.

The universe is filled with a lot of chaotic Klein particle waves, just like electromagnetic waves. Carmen was not sensitive to Klein particles innately, but was fixated on the idea of the Golden Apple. He even puts the “Klein Particle Wave Amplifier” on his bedside table.

It was like putting a magnet on a TV, it won’t take long for the color in the TV to be misaligned.

To be straightforward, he was already crazy.

Jiang Chen suddenly lost interest. He didn’t want to talk to Carmen anymore.

With a sigh, Jiang Chen turned off the communication channel and sent an order to the brigade commander.

“Just give him a quick way out.”

“Roger.”

The muzzle was pressed against the film of the cabin as Carmen stared at the black hole on his head.

BOOM!

There wasn’t even the chance to make a sound as his consciousness drifted into the abyss.

Chapter 1074: Pentagon’s Concern

Chapter 1074: Pentagon’s Concern

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

It was not just the British and Finns watching the battle on the scene. The UA across the Atlantic was also paying close attention. When Celestial Trade played its trump card, space-based weapons, everyone’s expression became sullen.

Then, from the Power Armor Brigade to the drone airdrop tactics, everything happened next made the atmosphere in the Military Headquarters conference room drop to freezing point.

Although the pictures taken by the British were not clear, they still felt the horror brought on by the flood of mutants, and the immense power of the power armors that defended the attacks of the mutants.

If the K1 kinetic skeleton was like a bicycle, then the power armor was undoubtedly a motorcycle. It not only provided the soldiers with highly maneuverable armor, but it also served as a firepower point, increasing the individual combat effectiveness of soldiers to the max.

Although from a human’s standpoint, the last thing the UA Secretary of Defense wanted to see was Celestial Trade ultimately winning the battle against mutants. The better ending would be UK and Xin both losing, and the UA Marine Corps saving the mankind.

The Minister of Defense kept praying that the mutants could drown these two hundred “human armored vehicles”, but the reality was different. When the drones rushed into the nest, the fate of the mutants was determined.

When the last Blade Warrior was penetrated by the plasma blade and its head slashed off, the conference room went silent.

“These hypocrites, they are lying! They said there are only two Orbital Airborne Brigades, how come there is one more now?” A senior UA Defense Department official broke the silence and cursed.

Minister Ashton Carter glanced at the officer and shook his head.

Did you really believe what they said? The UA Defense Advanced Research Projects Bureau didn’t introduce many pieces of equipment. If you didn’t know, you can only blame your lack of intelligence work.

However, they didn’t have a solution. The local anti-intelligence capability of Ghost Agents was too strong. From a long time ago, the CIB wanted to steal the technology of the space elevator by penetrating Celestial Trade. However, all the agents sent to Xin failed, and some agents who went over the line simply evaporated.

Just then, Hill suddenly spoke out.

“I’m more worried about their space-based weapons than the Orbital Airborne Brigade and power armor. If they can, at any time, send tungsten rods weighing dozens of tons above our heads, it will pose a serious threat to our national security.”

Everyone nodded.

Although the 1966 Outer Space Treaty referred to the prohibition of the development of weapons and the militarization of space in outer space, in reality, vigorously developing military aerospace technology and space power, seizing absolute air superiority, and occupying the strategic commanding heights of safeguarding national security interests have long been the common strategic goal of major powers.

If the treaty was strictly abided, all missiles should not exist. But was this possible?

The CIB director coughed and spoke.

“With regard to their space-based weapons, we obtained some tungsten rods from Ukraine. According to our scientists, the techonological content is not high. It’s just an alloy tungsten rod. A gyroscope-like guidance component is installed in the middle.”

“It’s easy to imitate their weapons,” he then paused, with a hint of helplessness. “The key is how to get these tungsten rods into the orbit.”

If these tungsten rods couldn’t be sent to the orbit at an appropriate cost, the development of space-based weapons would be completely meaningless.

“That’s right.” The Capitol military adviser smiled bitterly. “If we use rockets to put these things on the synchronous orbit and throw them down, it’s pointless. The danger of Celestial Trade is that there is no binding international convention that limits the size of private armed forces. If they continue to expand, we have no way to intervene.”

Hill tapped on the arm of the sofa and said, “If we push for an international convention now?”

“Then we will be the biggest victims.” Secretary of Defense Carter said. “You know, a large percentage of our annual defense budget is spent on military contractors. It’s fair to say that they are already part of the UA Army.”

Including Hill, the Defense Department and the Capitol senior officials in the conference room were all silent.

If the Capitol swung the blade at the private military contractors, Wall Street would be the first one to disagree. Cutting the military industry was equivalent to robbing the wallet of the Wall Street consortia. The infamous private military contractors like Blackwater International were all linked to Wall Street.

It was the 2020 election next year. On the one hand, it was important to please the people, and on the other hand, it was important to not offend the consortium. Now that Goldman Sachs had fallen, the WASP consortiums such as Morgan Stanley and First B City dominated the entire North American financial industry. Itwas not the time to start a conflict with Wall Street.

What can we do about it?

Hill was troubled.

…

When the war ended, the Power Armor Brigade that destroyed the nest controlled the military base.

Seeing the victor was decided, the brigade commander of the British Mechanized Brigade came to the military base and proposed to enter the military base. His reasons were well prepared, such as “collect the remains of fallen soldiers” and “remove the scrapped armored vehicles”, but they were still rejected by Celestial Trade.

The reason for the refusal was simple.

There was no corpse at all. The mutants digested the flesh immediately and sent it back to the nest as nutrient for the spores. Celestial Trade promised that if it obtains any tags with soldiers’ name, it would be returned to the British army.

This reason obviously did not satisfy the British.

Collect the remains was only second in priority. Anyone knew that even the bones were probably gone. They wished to see Celestial Trade’s power armors at a close distance and collect as much information as possible about this new type of weapon.

Of course, in addition to that, what they were most worried about was that X2 bacteria would be controlled by Celestial Trade

It must be said that the ferocious mutants left too memorable of an impression. If someone used the bacteria for military purposes, the consequences would be simply unimaginable.

The best way to overcome fear was to obtain a copy, just like nuclear weapons.

Moston made up his mind. He won’t withdraw his request to enter the military base. Since Celestial Trade didn’t have the confidence to start a conflict with the British, then he would bring a research team from London and investigate the formation mechanism of the nest. Even if it was not used for military purposes, it should be backed up in case of an emergency.

However, Celestial Trade did not plan to give them face. The entire military base was designated as a private territory.

The Finnish officials came for mediation but to no avail. When their president asked Celestial Trade to send troops, they sold the assets owned by Arrow to Celestial Trade. Jurisprudentially, the treaty between Arrow and the Finnish government naturally transitioned to Jiang Chen.

The military base was now a private asset of Celestial Trade and protected by Finnish law.

The brigade commander of the Power Armor Brigade did not plan to talk to Moston. The two soldiers at the gate stopped him.

Even if Moston was reluctant to accept this, he could only return to the military camp next to Paltak. He reported the news to his superiors, the Ministry of Defense, for further discussion before a decision could be made.

Chapter 1075: It’s around us

Chapter 1075: It’s around us

A night passed since the war ended, the next morning, there were snowflakes dancing in the sky.

It was the end of May, close to summer for the Northern Hemisphere, but the concept of weather didn’t apply to the tundra in northern Finland. Located in the Arctic Circle, if an Arctic Ocean monsoon crossed, snow was even possible till mid-June.

At this moment, above the military base next to Paltamo, the flag was replaced with Celestial Trade’s flag.

After several rounds of bombing, there was not a single standing building inside the base. After negotiating with the Finns, Celestial Trade transported supplies to the base through Russia. The logistics and research teams from Murmansk arrived by plane and set up tents outside the military base.

Unlike the bacteria Jiang Chen saw in the apocalypse before, these improved X2 bacteria were tenacious. Even without the nest, they could survive for a long time. Therefore, it would be too risky to not cleanse them completely.

Without the injection of genetic vaccines, any organism that inhaled the spores over a certain threshold would exhibit “zombie” behavior. Especially for primates, the more developed the brain, the more susceptible to these toxic bacteria.

After the arrival of a thousand-person logistics team, the first order Jiang Chen gave them was to kill the spores floating in the air and eradicate all sources of infection.

Although no agents have been developed to kill these spores, not everything must be solved by technology.

These spores could extinguish fires, but conversely, they extinguished fires by sacrificing themselves, and without a nest to reproduce more spores, these characteristics accelerated their demise. No special sterilization equipment was needed, and a flamethrower produced unexpected results.

Now the entire military base was still covered by spores. Other than soldiers in power armor, only the logistics personnel wearing orange chemical protective suits remained on the scene. The mutants’ corpses were piled up in an open space one kilometer away from the military base and incinerated with gasoline.

The dark smoke that floated up into the sky yesterday was still visible the next morning. It was even visible from Paltamo.

In the command post next to the military base, the brigade commander Kleinman took off his power armor. He was wearing heavy winter clothes, standing at the desk and, listening to reports from his subordinates.

“… Columbia TV hopes to enter the military base to film the underground bunker and wreckage.”

“Tell them to get permission from Celestial Trade. We are soldiers, we don’t have permission to decide such matters,” Kleinman said impatiently.

It was already the fifth media station that knocked on his door. Now, the world was focused on this military camp, and everyone was focused on one question – how would Celestial Trade deal with the aftermath?

“In addition, the Finnish Presidential Palace officials contacted us this morning. The president hopes to have a conversation with us on in regards to the handling of the mutants’ body. Instead of incinerating, they hope we can come up with a more environmentally-friendly solution.”

Kleinman raised his eyebrows.

“Then tell him, either accept our plan or try to deal with the source of the infection. If they want, we can send the corpses to the warehouse in the nearby town, free of charge.”

“Roger.”

The officer saluted and left the room.

Kleinman sat back in his chair and planned to rest for a moment.

However, before the seat was even warm. A sergeant ran inside and woke him up from his half-asleep state.

The content of the report was only a few words. But Kleinman, who was disturbed by his dream, did not show any temper.

The sergeant saluted

“Report! The boss is coming.”

…

At noon, a helicopter flew from the other side of the mountain and landed steadily on the tarmac in the military base.

Jiang Chen, wearing a chemical protective suit and a gas mask, jumped off the helicopter. Although he didn’t need to wear any protection, it was better to not shock the world again with the current concentration of spores.

Behind him was the Russian Security Service Director Barth, in wearing a chemical protective suit. He was examining the chaotic base.

Originally, Ayesha also planned to come along, but considering that they would not stay in Finland for too long, Jiang Chen asked her return to Coro Island.

The brigade commander Kleinman saluted to Jiang Chen in his power armor.

Jiang Chen nodded to him with approval.

“Thank you for your service.”

“My honor!” Kleinman grinned.

Jiang Chen continued, “How is the situation underground?”

Kleinman replied, “The nest is confirmed dead and there is no living residue. The logistics unit is still working on cleaning out the X2 bacteria and the research team from Coro Island is investigating the remains of the nest.”

“Take us down.”

“Roger!”

Kleinman saluted.

Behind Kleinman, Jiang Chen and Barth walked to the crater in the center of the base. It used to be the entrance to the underground bunker. It collapsed due to the bombardment of Celestial Trade. In order to facilitate the cleaning personnel and the research team, the logistics team built a temporary lift.

The three arrived at the entrance of the underground bunker 500 meters below.

“This is the interior of the nest? The flesh bubbles are indeed disgusting.” Barth glanced at the residue on the wall, revealing a disgusted look.

“You can interpret that before the core was destroyed. The nest transformed the entire underground bunker into its own,” Jiang Chen explained.

Not far away, researchers were taking samples around the debris of the larva. DNA codes unheard of and contrary to the existence of biology completely changed the scholars’ understanding of the subject. Everyone used all 200% of their energy and devoted their passion for science to collecting these precious samples.

These were valuable materials for the entire human civilization.

For Harmony, Jiang Chen just saw a glimpse from the distance. It was fair to say he knew nothing at all.

He didn’t expect to learn from the wreckage of the nest about the weakness of Harmony, but for now, it was the only means for the Earth civilization to learn about them.

Because of the chemical protective suit, no one recognized Jiang Chen’s identity along the way. The soldiers guarding saluted to Kleinman and let them in.

Accompanied by Kleinman, the two arrived at the ruins of the core of the nest.

Barth glanced at the resin-like “coffin” inside the choatic scene and saw a familiar face through the broken film.

“Carmen Rothschild?”

“That’s right.”

“You really killed him,” Bart said. “For me, the International Court is his best destination.”

“It would be a problem to keep him,” Jiang Chen said emotionlessly.

He did not know what Harmony revealed to him. If those worms told him his ability to travel through dimensions, it would be an issue.

The Rothschild family had produced tens of thousands of Golden Apples and these Golden Apples were a hidden danger to him and to the human civilization.

However, he was now there to get rid of this hidden danger!

Jiang Chen gestured to Kleinman standing next to him and then pointed to the head of the resin coffin. Kleinman understood and took out a dagger. He cut open the resin surface, put his steel fist inside, and pulled out the black sphere.

When Barth saw the black sphere, the change in his expression was subtle.

“The Golden Apple,” accepting the black sphere from Kleinman, Jiang Chen weighed it in his hand. “We have always thought that it is a tool used to communicate with the future. In fact, this is not the case.”

“Communication is only its basic ability. Its true ability is brainwashing, infecting their holders in a subtle way, and turning them into their slaves. Whether Tanaka or Carmen, they were essentially the same type of people.”

Jiang Chen pretended to be disgusted by it and tossed the Golden Apple back to Kleinman, indicating for him to put it back.

He couldn’t see Barth’s expression through the protective suit, but his years of experience of bluffing told him he achieved his purpose.

The revolution in Frankberg was about to end in victory. Russia certainly obtained many Golden Apples from the rebels. If they referred to previous intelligence and experimented, they may learn some new things. Jiang Chen must warn them before they figure out how to use the Golden Apple.

They must feel fearful.

“The most terrifying fact is that the biological civilization that communicates through the Golden Apple communicates not with the future.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen looked at Barth.

“But with what is around us.”

Chapter 1076: Effective Recruitment Advertisement

Chapter 1076: Effective Recruitment

Before the Frankberg Tragedy, Carmen used a series of means to consolidate the power of the Rothschild family into his hands. After he used Celestial Trade to kill his brother in Pilsner Synagogue, he dictated the family.

For this very reason, his death meant the end of the Rothschild family.

Jiang Chen could foresee that once the revolution comes to an end, the New Choice Party would have to step down and the “crimes” committed by the Freemasonry would be punished. Rothschild and other families’ assets would be auctioned by banks to repay for the high penalties.

In the foreseeable future, even if Jiang Chen didn’t do anything, the Rothschild family would still enter a decline fueled by an internal feud over asset division.

They were filthy rich.

However, they were at the same time, too weak.

Jiang Chen was not worried about their decline. The only thing that worried him was the Golden Apples originally controlled by the Rothschild. If they were controlled by Carmen, it would be fine. But now Carmen died, these Golden Apples would surely flow out.

Not only Russia, but Jiang Chen knew that the UA, Britain, France, and even Hua would be interested. The countries would do anything to research the Golden Apple.

Harmony now controlled the communication channel of the Golden Apple. If the senior officials around the world fail to realize the danger, it would be difficult to predict where the next nest would be born.

On the plane returning to Moscow, Barth was still contemplating about the conversation with Jiang Chen in the underground bunker and what he saw in the nest…

“…you mean, this is the product of the extraterrestrial civilization you mentioned?” Barth still couldn’t believe what Jiang Chen had explained to him. His eyebrows furrowed together as he looked at Carmen in the resin coffin. “And the Golden Apple is just a brainwashing tool?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen nodded.

“Hard to believe.”

“I know, this sounds like an April Fool’s joke, but that’s the truth. On June 15th, we will hold the Outer Space Security Summit in Coro, where we will announce what we have collected on extraterrestrial civilization. I am being open and honest with you. As to whether you believe it or not, the choice is yours.”

Due to the excessive amount of information, Barth took a few moments to digest the information.

Extraterrestrial civilization?

Is this a joke!

Barth still couldn’t fathom the idea, even if Jiang Chen had subtly hinted it to him in Murmansk. The Golden Apple that the Russian Security Service finally got their hands on was actually a conspiracy of aliens to invade the Earth? He really thought that this kind of story only appeared in Hollywood, but now he enjoyed it firsthand.

However, when he recalled the serious expression on Jiang Chen’s face, he again began contemplating.

If the Golden Apple was really a brainwashing tool and unconsciously turned its holder into slaves of an extraterrestrial civilization, then this item certainly would be dangerous. After all, no one could tell who is being brainwashed, and those who are brainwashed wouldn’t identify themselves.

If the brainwashed person created a nest in Russia…

The idea alone gave him chills.

After thinking about the details, the Golden Apple already passed through multiple hands from the Rebels to the Russian Security Service.

Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Barth made up his mind.

At least wait until June 15 to see what evidence Celestial Trade would provide. Prior to this, temporarily lock those Golden Apples away and prevent anyone from approaching them again. If what Jiang Chen said was true, then it wouldn’t be too late to destroy them.

…

Through the lens of Finnish Radio and Television, the space-based weapons of Celestial Trade and the powerful power armors spread to every corner of the world. The people who were pessimistic about the mutants because of the defeat of the British army also rekindled hope because of the victory of two hundred against ten thousand.

The ugly mutants, like demons, fell one after another in front of the steel armor. Their dark green blood gushed out under the orange-yellow trajectories. The close-range combat made everyone’s blood boil with passion.

“That thing is so cool, is that two hundred Gundams? Or two hundred Ironmen? I just want to ask if I have the opportunity to wear that when I join Celestial Trade? If so, I will go to their official website and register for the foreigners corps.”

“@Robert Downey Jr, what do you think?”

“The model with the laser knife on the right arm is my favorite! One slice and the mutants are turned into halves. Unfortunately, the image was too blurry. If it was high quality, that would be superb.”

In addition to those messages on social media platforms, in some military forums, a discussion of the practicality of such weapons also formed. The military fans were divided into two factions. One group thought that power armor might change modern warfare. Another group thought that there was no need to make such a big fuss.

“The individual armor reminds me of bulletproof armor in the World War I era, but with a machine gun on the arm? I don’t think there is anything fuss about. It is just a layer of steel outside the mechanical exoskeleton. It is better to manufacture more tanks or armored vehicles than to develop something that wraps a person in steel.”

“Your thinking is too simple. How did the British military’s armored vehicles do? Actual war is the only criterion for truth! The infantry with protection, mobility, support, and even anti-armor ability is the Rambo on the battlefield! And it is capable to be mass-produced! As for the comparison of welding steel plates around the body, I think you are talking about Krupp’s ‘Lightning’ series? These two weapons are not comparable at all!”

Of course, not all public opinion developed favorably of Celestial Trade. The threat of the second “Biohazard” was gone, and people began to ponder about another issue.

If Celestial Trade could deploy a force comparable to a division’s power anywhere in the world within a few hours, what would be the significance of the border?

Under the provocation of people with other intentions, many pacifists spontaneously held protests and rallies in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles to protest against the use of outer space for military purposes.

However, these protests did not form anything material. Even though the mainstream media that represent the interests of the elites were mostly consistent with the views of these protesters, the public opinion on the Internet was obviously biased towards Celestial Trade.

Since Jiang Chen was busy discussing “remuneration” with the Finnish government, Jiang Chen didn’t pay attention to the public opinion on the Internet. It was not until he was at the Moscow airport did he discover Celestial Trade’s Power Armored Brigade had become popular.

Jiang Chen didn’t predict this would happen.

Although he expected the power armor to cause widespread concern from governments, he did not expect to cause such a degree of publicity among the global community.

He didn’t expect it to create such a strong impact. However, he was certain that Finnish Radio and Television provided Celestrial Trade with a free recruitment advertisement and the results were superb…

Chapter 1077: Focus on Driving

Chapter 1077: Focus on Driving

A few days passed since Celestrial Trade’s military operation of clearing the nest, and the Military Department and Capitol had dozens of large and small meetings focused on Celestial Trade.

“…I don’t care what method you use. Within three days, I need to see DARPA’s research and development project for power armors, separated from the mechanical exoskeleton project. Don’t worry about budget issues, I will discuss with the Congress. According to the Minister of Defense, the power armor will be positioned as the fire support point for the infantry. In addition to being able to load at least 50 kilograms of ammunition, it must have nuclear, biological and chemical protection functions, and it must also have absolute protection against ammunition below 12.7mm…”

At this moment, Hill and the DARPA Director were meeting in a small meeting room in the Capitol.

DARPA was the abbreviation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It was known as the real version of the SHIELD. In many defense and aerospace projects, DARPA’s presence was visible, including the Faraday spray that counteracted EMP weapons. It was a product jointly designed by DARPA and Lockheed Martin.

Celestial Trading was now ahead of UA in defense technology, and Hill must put her hope on DARPA.

The DARPA director took notes of Hill’s requests and spun his pen twice before he lightly tapped it on his notebook.

“We’ll begin the project as soon as possible. Lockheed Martin has made good progress in the mechanical exoskeleton. We have ready-made technical resources we can utilize. In addition, I suggest negotiating with Frankberg. Can we get information about the ‘Lightning’ exoskeleton improvement from the Krupp Group? They obviously have the prototype of power armor, but they are still slightly lacking in design.”

“I’ll get Kerry on this matter,” Hill said.

After exchanging some opinions with the President in detail, the DARPA director closed the notebook and got up to leave.

There were still several meetings waiting for him. He must prepare the plan within two days and get ready for the Congressional Budget Committee on the third day. This kind of research and development project, that involves hundreds of millions of dollars, was not a decision that only required a signature from himself.

Just as he was about the open the door, the door of the conference room was pushed open, and her assistant walked in with a document.

“President.”

Hill looked at the assistant and asked with seriousness.

“What’s the matter?”

“The President of Xin sent us an invitation.” He walked to Hill’s side and put the document on the table. “It is an invitation for the Outer Space Security Summit on June 15.”

“Outer Space Security Summit?” Hill sneered, revealing the wrinkles on the corner of her eyes.

Celestial Trade thinks it is a good idea to host a security summit? Who is the one using space resources for weapon development?

“Write a letter of rejection with euphemism. State that the UA regrets the violation of the Outer Space Treaty by Celestial Trade. We’ll not participate in a bilateral relationship with Xin until Celestial Trade and Xin provide an explanation to their actions.”

“Yes.” The assistant nodded and left.

Leaning in her chair, Hill rubbed her weary eyes.

There was another meeting ten minutes later, and when she was preparing to take a short nap, the corner of her eye suddenly caught the invitation letter.

Hesitated for just a moment, she caved to her principles of diplomatic etiquette and reached out and took out the invitation.

When she swept through the first two lines of words, Hill, who caught a certain keyword, suddenly stopped.

“Extraterrestrial civilization?”

Hill’s expression began to change as she read through the invitation,

When she saw the last line of words, she threw the invitation onto the table. She immediately got up and quickly went out the door.

…

In the early morning of June 1st, a Gulfstream plane landed at Coro airport.

Surrounded by a group of bodyguards, Jiang Chen walked through the special passage, yawning, and came to his Luer sedan. After a bodyguard pulled the door open for him, he sat in the passenger seat. Ayesha started the car. When the vehicle reached the initial speed, with the press of the button, the magnetic levitation device activated and the vehicle entered flying mode.

Now that the major roads in Coro have completed magnetic levitation modification, almost half of all private cars were floating in the air. The constant flow of cars and the neon on both sides of the street complimented each other. Under the high-rise buildings and luminous night, the whole city looked like a bright pearl, dreamy and beautiful.

It was hard to imagine what this city looked like four years ago.

In the car, Jiang Chen received a call from Warner Bros.

Christopher Nolan, who had worked with him prior, called him. He stated that Warner Brothers was interested in bringing the battle between men and mutants onto the “bigger” screen. He wanted to know about Jiang Chen’s opinion and see if Celestial Trade could provide some help.

Taking into account the positive propaganda, Jiang Chen gladly accepted the proposal. He said that as long as Celestial Trade played a positive image in the film, Celestial Trade would be more than happy to provide assistance for free.

Jiang Chen put away the holographic screen after he end the call. Then he made himself comfortable. After two flights, he was still jetlagged and felt dizzy.

Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen and whispered.

“How was Finland?”

“Alright, just a bit busy.”

“Did you see Natasha?”

“I saw her before I departed. She treated me to dinner.” Jiang Chen turned and looked at Ayesha. He then placed the hand that was previously on top of his head, around her slender and fit waist. “Don’t always ask questions about me, what about you? Did you miss me?”

Ayesha’s cheeks turned red as she whispered.

“I missed you every day.”

Feeling the naughty hand, Ayesha twisted her body, but she didn’t resist.

Jiang Chen was not worried about the tragic accident. Maglev driving was much safer than driving on the road. The traffic was managed by a smart program. After entering the highest cruising track, the car could drive hands free as the steering wheel is controlled by the smart program.

At first, Jiang Chen was only holding her by the waist, but soon he wanted more.

However, the little sheep was so gentle that the naughty hand went higher and higher…

Gently biting her lower lip, she could no longer restrain her passion. The blushing Ayesha moved the car onto the cruising track, completely handing the car over to the smart driving system. She then moved over and sat on Jiang Chen’s lap.

Her arms were around his neck. She blinked with her pristine eyes and looked straight into his. Jiang Chen who was very active, now felt shy.

“Hey, focus on driving—”

Before he could finish, his lips were sealed by her petite and soft lips. The slippery tongue slipped in through his teeth and the cold but gentle hands moved down from his shoulders…

Separated by the tinted glass, the lights soared beside the two.

Everything was meant to happen.

Jiang Chen felt that his fatigue was gradually disappearing with her warmth.

In the luminous and brilliant night, a Need for Speed was unfolding…

Chapter 1078: Nearing the End of the War

Chapter 1078: Nearing the End of the War

It was the third time Xia Shiyu looked at the clock on the wall. She let out a sigh and muttered to herself, “Why are they still not back? ”

Half an hour ago, Ayesha drove to the airport to pick up Jiang Chen, so she took a shower.

It was summer, and the weather was hot. After the shower, Xia Shiyu did not immediately change. Instead, she wrapped her wet hair in a towel and sat on the sofa in the living room with her bath towel draped around her body.

Xia Shiyu fantasized about the way Jiang Chen would look at her, blushing and breathing heavily; a smile formed on her face.

Suddenly, she realized that she the naughty things playing out in her head and she blushed. With the heat on her face, she coughed and tightened her fists. She took a deep breath and adjusted herself before turning back to a fresh but quiet look.

Only the eyes that couldn’t stop searching for someone and the love inside her pupils exposed her anxiousness.

The clock ticked and tocked; it was already one.

As she looked at the clock on the wall one more time, Xia Shiyu was no longer calm and began to worry.

“Could it be a traffic jam… Impossible, how is the maglev car stuck? Are they in an accident?”

Xia Shiyu couldn’t sit still any longer. She quickly picked up the phone and called Jiang Chen.

The phone rang for a while and no one answered.

Then she called Ayesha but her phone was off.

Xia Shiyu started to get nervous.

Just as she got up and was going to change to take a look outside, she finally heard the sound of door opening. The light flickered and the familiar Luer entered the garage. Soon, the two walked in. Seeing that the two return safely, Xia Shiyu was relieved and walked forward. She pouted and protested to Jiang Chen.

“Why are you back so late?”

Jiang Chen smiled embarrassedly. “Got stuck on the road for a while, why are you not asleep yet?”

Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen with a suspicious look.

No, if he is normal, then he will definitely have an unnatural reaction when he sees me wrapped in a bath towel. He is too calm now?

She didn’t know that Jiang Chen just shot four consecutive bursts and was in the Sage Mode (1) at this moment. Even if she was having a bubble bath with him, he wouldn’t have any reaction!

Jiang Chen didn’t realize why Xia Shiyu felt strange. He felt somewhat uneasy being examined by her look of suspicion. He touched his face and whispered.

“Is there something on my face?”

Xia Shiyu shook her head and then looked at Ayesha.

Ayesha blushed, and dodged her eyes.

Jiang Chen suddenly realized and thought.

This is not good.

Sure enough, Xia Shiyu immediately understood. With a grin, she walked to Jiang Chen and “gently” grabbed his arm.

“There is something on your face, I’ll help you.”

The fragrance of lilacs sneaked into Jiang Chen’s nose, and he saw her wet hair was covered with a layer of fine mist. Looking down at the beautiful face, it was whiteness that led to a seductive deepness. Jiang Chen finally reacted both in happiness and pain.

“There are a lot of things,” carefully examining Jiang Chen’s face, Xia Shiyu nodded. With a jealous look, Xia Shiyu stared at Ayesha, but the “wicked”smile did not change. “Let’s go upstairs, let me help you carefully clean the stuff out~”

Xia Shiyu grabbed the bath towel across her chest with one hand while she grabbed Jiang Chen arm’s with the other and marched upstairs.

Jiang Chen didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, which made Ayesha somewhat distressed. However, the little girl silently mourned for him for just a second before running to the upstairs bathroom, hymning a tune.

Coro’s summer was very hot, and she felt sticky. She couldn’t wait to take a shower and then have a great night of sleep.

…

Jiang Chen didn’t wake up until noon, rubbing his weary eyes.

The beauty who hugged him last night had already got up and left.

There was only the exhausted cattle, no ruined farmland. Last night, he tried all the moves he could perform and worked his emptied body, to finally making Xia Shiyu beg for mercy. He did not expect the dedicated female boss to get up and go to work the next day.

Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled. Then, he got off the bed.

Hearing sounds in the bedroom, the well-behaved Ayesha walked in with some clothes and gently helped Jiang Chen change. She whispered in his ear, “Is there any arrangements today?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen rubbed Ayesha’s hair, “Spending time with you two.”

Enjoying his warmness, Ayesha smiled and softly said, “Spend more time with Sister Shiyu, she always waits for you at home. I occasionally can go travel with you. Although she seldom says it, I can feel that her love for you is not inferior to mine.”

Gazing into the pristine eyes, Jiang Chen suddenly felt he wronged her. He opened his mouth, but her soft finger stopped his words.

“Don’t say anything.”

Whispering softly, Ayesha tipped her toes and gently kissed him on his lips.

Looking at him with a loving gaze, she reached out and fixed his collar.

“Let’s go eat lunch.”

Looking at the beauty inches from him, Jiang Chen’s heart was pounding. He grabbed her waist and whispered into her ears.

“Can I eat you first?”

“No, you have to go to the company in the afternoon.” Ayesha buried her head and gently touched Jiang Chen’s chest with her forehead, then she said, “Get your priorities fixed, or Sister Shiyu will be jealous again.”

Although Jiang Chen was convinced that if he insists on it, Ayesha would certainly not resist. After he considered the harmony of the harem, he still listened to the girl’s suggestion. The two had lunch together, and Jiang Chen drove to the company in the afternoon.

Jiang Chen took the elevator to the top floor and when he passed by Xia Shiyu’s office, he went and said hello.

Although there were no words, Jiang Chen clearly felt Xia Shiyu’s joyous mood because he showed up in the afternoon.

She didn’t care if Jiang Chen treated his work seriously, she was used to dealing with the heavy workload for him. But she cared about if he was willing to spend more time with her. She didn’t expect Jiang Chen’s love for her to be more than his love for Ayesha who spent life and death with him, she just hoped that at least she is not far behind…

Going into his office, Jiang Chen asked the beautiful assistant to help him make a cup of coffee. He then called Future Bank CEO David Smith from downstairs.

Soon, Mr. Smith appeared in his office.

Since it was work hours, Jiang Chen went straight to the subject.

“Within three days, I need to see 150 billion Xin New dollars on the balance sheet of Future Bank. In addition, upload the research report of Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen Group to an email. Right, which companies in Frankberg are the leaders in the electric industry? Get me a list of that too.”

After listening to Jiang Chen’s words, the word shock was written all over Smith’s face.

As a senior financial practitioner, any little bit of capital-related news in the world can’t escape his eyes. Without Jiang Chen’s order, Future Bank was already preparing to scoop up the European economy. The liquidity was available and his team only needed to determine which options would bring in the highest return and the highest success rate.

Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen, the companies that possessed both technology and market, were naturally their first choice for investment. Except, these companies would not always be available. Even with double the premium, the government may not be willing to allow this transaction.

Smith didn’t expect that his boss would be so powerful. Even the pillars of the Frankberg auto industry, such as Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen could be acquired. Did the Frankberg government just allow their pillars to be swept away by foreign capital?

“No problem.” While shocked, Smith only nodded without any oppositions.

“Then go.”

“Yes.”

After Smith left, Jiang Chen grabbed a cup of mocha from his assistant and leaned back in his chair to enjoy it.

The war has been fought, money has been spent, and blood has flowed.

The Frankberg revolution was about to end in victory. Carmen died in Finland. The Freemasonry headed by the Rothschild family could not turn the tide. What happened next was the exciting part!

It was time to divide the trophy!

(1) Sage Mode – A internet jargon describing people who have just finished having sex and not wanting more.

Chapter 1079: Acquisition Spree

Chapter 1079: Acquisition Spree

In City B, northwest of Frankberg, a Germanic man was rushing to pack his luggage. Perhaps because he was panicking too much, he accidentally knocked his phone to the ground. When he saw this, he hurriedly bent down to pick up his phone and stuff it back into his pocket, followed by a curse.

“This damn Carmen, can’t do anything right! How did I get on his boat… Damn!”

As he cursed, he closed the packed suitcase and walked quickly toward the door.

Calvert Krupp, a noble member of the Frankberg society, was once a famous name. However, now he lived like a street rat, he wore clothes worth 100 euros, lived in cheap hotels, and had to wear sunglasses and a baseball cap whenever he went out for fear that someone may recognize him.

For some reason, he suddenly missed his brother, the man who strongly opposed the alliance with the Rothschild family. He was the backbone of the entire Krupp family. If he didn’t get blinded by power and reminded his brother to be careful about Carmen that night, perhaps today’s Krupp family would have another ending.

In the elevator, he shook his head hard and drove away the unrealistic thoughts.

Thinking about this didn’t do anything except add more problems.

He adjusted his mood and watched the number on the elevator gradually decrease, Calvert’s heart began to ignite with a glimmer of hope.

As long as he escaped to South America, he could hide there for a while and wait for the event to pass. Then he could operate through an offshore company and quietly move his money out from the Cayman Islands. He could still be a rich man in South America.

One hundred million dollars, enough for the rest of his life if he doesn’t splurge.

As for the mess of the Krupp family, his two younger brothers and a younger sister, who cares!

The elevator reached the first floor, and Calvert let out a breath of relief. He walked out the door with his suitcase. However, at this moment, four men in black suits also noticed him. They got up and surrounded him from all four directions of the hotel lobby.

Calvert noticed this and a panic expression appeared on his face. He just wanted to turn around and escape, but soon found that he had nowhere to escape to.

In a few seconds, he was surrounded by four men in black suits.

The man in front of him took out a license and said emotionlessly.

“Hello, are you Mr. Calvert?”

“I think you have the wrong person…” Calvert said nervously. “I am Francis Odd, the owner of a food processing company in South… South America. I just came to Germany on a business trip…”

However, the man did not care about his rhetoric and continued.

“We are agents of the Federal Constitutional Security Agency. Mr. Calvert, now you are facing at least 20 charges including treason. Please come with us.”

Calvert panicked. He slammed into the man next to him in an attempt to escape. However, the experienced man was not moved by Calvert’s meager force. The man easily pinned his hands together.

“No! I’m not going anywhere! I have to catch a plane! Help! There are people here…” While struggling, Calvert screamed and snorted miserably.

The agent of the Federal Constitutional Defense Agency saw that Calvert did not cooperate. He didn’t waste his words and gestured to the assistant.

“Take him away.”

“Roger!”

…

On June 3, the Frankberg People’s Liberation Front marched into the capital city without blood, and the people welcomed them with open arms. The revolution that lasted for several months finally welcomed a victory.

On June 5, the government in exile, Evelyn, returned from Russia to the official residence of the prime minister, ending his years of exile. As the leader, he was sworn in as the prime minister in front of the entire Frankberg people.

On the afternoon of the same day, a total of 27 people of the New Choice Party were prosecuted for crimes such as war crimes and anti-federal constitutional crimes. They were given life imprisonment sentences and no parole.

At the same time, a number of European companies, including Rothschild Bank and Krupp Group, suspected of providing huge political contributions to New Choice Party, were sued by the Frankberg government. The Supreme Court immediately froze their assets in the country and started the investigation process.

If convicted, Rothschild Bank could be fined up to one trillion dollars.

There was no doubt that the current Rothschild family could not afford this bill, and Evelyn didn’t plan to collect in cash. After the decision, the shares of companies held by Rothschild Bank would be nationalized and auctioned off by a number of banks.

The proceeds from the auction would be taken back to the national treasury, used to revive the economy.

According to the agreement, Jiang Chen purchased the shares of Daimler, Volkswagen, and BMW from the government at a premium of 20%, replacing the European consortiums such as Rothschild as the top shareholder of the three European companies.

EU integration was expected to go bankrupt and the euro continued to fall. The exchange rate of the euro against the Xin New dollar even fell to 3:1, 150 billion Xin New dollars converted into euros were sold in the foreign exchange market at a price of 400 billion euros.

Among them, 200 billion euros were for a loan Future Bank provided to the Frankberg Central Bank, 100 billion euros were for acquiring 37% of Volkswagen, 41% Daimler, and 39% BMW, and 100 billion euros were investments Jiang Chen made in Siemens, Bosch, and another five electric companies.

In this feast to divide the European consortium, Future Group became the biggest winner. The two pillar industries were printed with the label of Future Group. Jiang Chen also planned to acquire the Krupp Group, but Evelyn was much harder to convince.

It was no exaggeration to say that Krupp is the heart of the Frankberg industry. Even if selected the wrong team with the New Choice Party, the Supreme Court did not hand out excessive punishments. What’s more, the Krupp Group was a traditional Prussian aristocracy. They were never part of the core group of the Freemasonry.

After a new person leads the family, the Krupp Group will stand on the side of the winners. They would be separated from the Rothschild family and the Freemasonry. Evelyn did not intend to pursue this further and decided to flip the page.

The process of EU integration did not take more than 100 days. And the farce ended with Carmen’s death.

Chapter 1080: Another Possibility

Chapter 1080: Another Possibility

As the heart of the European Union, the victory of the Frankberg Revolution inspired the European people amid the turmoil.

The collapse of the Rothschild Empire accelerated the move of European countries “to return left.” People began to reflect on whether the choices made two years ago were correct, and whether those right-wing parties really took their country in a better direction.

Contrary to the turbulent Europe, the Asian economy on the other side of the globe was steadily rising.

Especially in the country situated in the vast western Pacific Ocean, GDP was rising as fast as the space elevator.

On June 10th, the delegation of the Nippon government visited Coro City and brought the Central Power Company and the Yoto Power Company for an agreement to expand electricity imports. This would increase the total import power in the second half of the year by 31% to replace two nuclear power plants that were shut down.

At present, the mining speed of tritium-3 in Lunar City was far greater than the consumption rate. The second nuclear fusion power station was also about to be completed with a considerable surplus in electricity generation. Jiang Chen welcomed these agreements with open arms.

Not only Nippon, but the most prosperous market in Hua also loosened their grip on policies and sent many power companies to delegate. As the world’s number one electricity consumer, Hua’s electricity consumption was larger than the second place and third place combined.

Even if Hua eliminated half of the thermal power, Celestial Trade would make more than a fortune.

As of early June, the Global Grid Plan completed the most critical first step. Thanks to the efforts of many parties, the cables of Celestial Trade successfully covered 80% of Australia and Asia, and the output of electricity accounted for 88% of the total domestic electricity production.

Benefiting from the dividends brought in by cheap electricity, according to the proportion of total electricity consumption in the country, the Global Grid Plan decreased industrial cost by the highest of 1.7% and the lowest of 0.3% for participating countries. The decrease of two percentage points, projected onto the trillion-dollar GDP, brought unimaginable savings!

The benefits to the environment, the investment environment, the competitiveness of export products, the promotion of electrification, and the decrease in reliance on the energy market were not quantifiable. In short, the governments that tasted these benefits have also released positive signals and sent their own companies to negotiate with Xin on increasing electricity imports.

The New York Times even claimed that Xin has become a country on the electricity pole. The Washington Post posted a satirical cartoon that illustrated countless dog chains sticking out from the Western Pacific, leashing the surrounding countries.

Regardless of how the media reported it, the countries that bought tickets to board the train are already for the electrification process, and they had no intention to jump out. The series of grids not only generated Jiang Chen a continuous stream of cash but also allowed him to create diplomatic capital.

The reason why the US dollar could rule the global market for more than half a century was any country’s industrialization process depended on oil. The dollar also happened to be linked to oil. If the domestic production of crude could not meet demand, then a foreign exchange reserve would be needed to avoid fluctuations in the US dollar.

The same was true now. Asian countries were increasing their holdings of the New Xin dollar.

When the rise and fall of the New Xin dollar could affect the cost of electricity in many countries, even if Coro was not the world’s financial center, the Xin Reserve could begin to challenge the dollar’s hegemony.

There was nothing to do with finance, just influence.

…

Five days before the Outer Space Security Summit, Jiang Chen sent invitations to ten major countries around the world. He implicitly mentioned in the invitation that the topics discussed would be related to an extraterrestrial civilization.

So far, the ten countries that received the invitation letter have indicated that they planned to send senior foreign ministers to attend the meeting.

For Jiang Chen, the evidence presented at the meeting was now his focus.

At present, the space telescope he transported from the apocalypse was sent the synchronous orbit via the space elevator. Jiang Chen was unsure about the specific coordinates of that space colonization ship, but it was enough to know their origin and destination.

Gliese 581, about 2 degrees north Libra-beta, 20.5 light-years from Earth. A week before the invitation was sent, the astronomical observation team of Celestial Trade Space Department conducted an observation and analysis of the star. They ultimately reached an astonishing message… but one that was expected by Jiang Chen.

The Gliese 581g planet’s probability of life reached 90%.

“Unbelievable…” With a stack of documents filled with astronomical data, Kelvin walked into Jiang Chen’s office and said incredulously. “Your conjecture is correct. There is indeed the possibility of life there… However, I’m certain that even if there is life there, it is absolutely impossible to breed a civilization with technology beyond the Stone Age.”

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Oh? Why do you think that?”

“The first is Tidal Locking. The only habitable part of the planet is around twilight zone, which determines their living space.” Kelvin took a spectrum and placed it in front of Jiang Chen. “The next most important thing is that the elemental composition of this planet contains a lot of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, but it is extremely lacking in mineral elements such as iron and aluminum. Referring to the gravitational data we have observed, the most likely lives on the planet are arthropods along the twilight zone. There are no mammals!”

Jiang Chen applauded and nodded.

Although it was based on 22nd-century observation equipment, it was quite remarkable to be able to analyze so many valuable insights from limited information.

“Then have you considered another possibility?”

“Another possibility?” Kelvin frowned.

“All along, we all believe that the development of civilization is linear, from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, from the Feudal Era to the Industrial Revolution, and finally to the future known as the Information Age.”

“Is there something wrong with that?” Kelvin didn’t think so.

“The conclusions drawn from only one reference system cannot be universally applied. We cannot negate the possibility of the existence of other civilizations because the development of human civilization is linear,” Jiang Chen said.

“You mean a group of bugs may breed a civilization? Stop kidding, they…” Kelvin shook his head and just wanted to say that they didn’t even have hands, but he suddenly stopped.

He suddenly remembered Celestial Trade’s military action on the tundra in northern Finland. Celestial Trade’s most proud Power Armor Brigade encountered a bunch of mutants hatched from larval.

Why did Jiang Chen instruct Celestial Trade Space Department to observe the Gliese galaxies? Why did Jiang Chen suddenly go to Finland before the X2 bacterial incident broke out? Why was Jiang Chen so certain of the danger of the nest from the beginning…

All the clues connected together in Kelvin’s mind.

He looked at Jiang Chen in shock and squeezed out a few words from his throat.

“You mean…”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen nodded and said seriously, “The X2 bacteria is not just a research accident as publicly stated. From the beginning, this is a conspiracy of an extraterrestrial civilization.”

Chapter 1081: Dysplasia?

Chapter 1081: Dysplasia?

After he left Jiang Chen’s office, Kelvin repeated what the boss told him in his head.

Five days later, the Outer Space Security Summit was going to take place. At the meeting, Celestial Trade would publicize the evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and demonstrate its aggressive intentions… In fact, the latter didn’t need to be proved. Two civilizations with completely different values never have the options to exist in harmony from the start.

Since both sides were bugs in each other’s eyes, only one option existed to prove who stood at the top of the food chain.

War.

Kelvin looked down at the documents in his hands again, recalling the task his boss gave him a minute ago. It was the first time in his life he felt the burden of the task on his shoulders.

…

After a long working session into the evening, Jiang Chen did not go home immediately. Instead, he took a boat and went to Coconut Island alone.

The island was completely transformed into a transit point between the modern world and the apocalypse. Every month, a ship sailed to the island, unloaded food, daily necessities, and other materials, and occasionally transported tightly sealed containers.

Some of these containers contained advanced industrial machine tools, some were T3 Power Armors produced in the Sixth Street, and some were other high-tech products.

Although no soldiers were stationed on the island, a drone attack formation guarded the island. Foreign agents certainly thought about investigating the “mysterious island”, but not one succeeded.

On the small island, Jiang Chen stopped the boat at the dock. After the drone confirmed his identity, he went to the warehouse in the center of the island.

In the corner of the warehouse sat a lonely machine Jiang Chen named Hamster Killer No. 1. The last time Lin Lin used this machine to transfer a hamster from the modern world to the apocalypse, and then back. They finally made the breakthrough in interdimensional travel from 0.1 to 1.

Although there were still some ways to go before making interdimensional travel for humans a reality, it was definitely a good start.

However, Jiang Chen did not expect this device to come in handy so quickly.

Jiang Chen sat beside the machine, took out a few test tubes filled with dark green liquid from his pocket, placed them in the center of the two discs, and then connected the lines to turn on the power. Looking at the electricity arcs jumping, he pressed the switch with a numbing sensation in his skull.

It took a while and some effort before he sent the test tubes to the apocalypse. Jiang Chen then closed the machine and traveled to the apocalypse.

…

One of the test tubes contained the material extracted from the nest, and the other tubes contained spores and larva extracts. The cells in the test tubes were not killed. It was still possible to see the peristaltic movements of the unknown substance through the dark green culture solution.

After she received these tubes from Jiang Chen, Lin Lin immediately locked herself in the lab.

Jiang Chen did not have to wait for long before the lab door opened again. Lin Lin waved her hand and called Jiang Chen in. Next to a special microscope, Jiang Chen saw the tubes he brought with him on the test tube rack and two familiar-looking tubes.

From the labels attached to them, he recalled where the two tubes came from.

“The samples you brought are obviously not the same as ones from Fallout Shelter 005 and the ones from the city center. But there is a lot of similarities in the DNA code. The nest you encountered is an upgraded version. But due to dysplasia, many functions were inhibited.”

After listening to Lin Lin, Jiang Chen’s eyebrows suddenly twitched.

“Dysplasia?”

Hundreds of tungsten bombs and an entire Power Armor Brigade finally took care of this mess, and you are telling the ones I encountered has dysplasia? What do I do when there is a fully functioning one!

Lin Lin nodded.

“Yes, if you provide enough organic matter to it and give it plenty of time for photosynthesis, digesting and absorbing those organic matters into its own components, the nest will gradually develop into a complete form. Based on a simulation of its DNA code, it will become a terrifying existence that can’t be eliminated.”

Lin Lin then paused and said with a stern expression. “At least with the existing means, I can’t think of a way to kill it. Every spore cell has the ability to grow into a nest, and the number of splits is no longer limited. Unless we can kill every spore, then a nest may pop out from somewhere, someday.”

The evolutionary speed of the nest made sent chills down his spine.

For they who completely abandoned it, Earth would be a completely strange planet. Whether the gravity or air composition or magnetic field environment, even if they understood it, it wouldn’t mean they could 100% adapt to it. In a war, humans first occupied the home advantage.

However, on this strange soil, each time they interacted with humans, their abilities would evolve at an incredible speed. If the nest infiltrated Earth a few more times, it would be hard to say how Harmony will fulfill their aggressions.

After Jiang Chen realized the severity of the problem, he debated for a moment and immediately ordered.

“Organize the information about the nest. Focus your analysis on the similarity of the X2 bacteria and the T series viruses in genotype. In addition, give me a separate paper file and an electronic file. It would be great if the electronic file can include images that are easy to understand.”

“Hey, I am not your assistant. This will be very tiring!” Lin Lin pouted and protested.

“Ten boxes of mango pudding.”

“Hmm…” Lin Lin debated for a while, as if she was making a big concession, before saying, “Fifteen boxes of strawberry pudding,”

Jiang Chen shook his head.

Is this difficult for me?

“I will bring them to you next time. But wait, I thought you liked mango?”

Lin Lin stuck out her tongue and looked away. “I still have too much mango pudding. I haven’t finished the ones you brought me the last time.”

The amount of work to sort out the data of the nest was not small, but it was not difficult for a digitalized human. After getting her promise of the pudding, Lin Lin promised Jiang Chen to complete the report in three days.

From the research institute, Jiang Chen returned to the mansion through the back door.

Before coming to the apocalypse, he had already told Ayesha that he would stay in the apocalypse for the next three days until Lin Lin completes the report. This information would play a valuable role in the Outer Space Security Summit.

The attention of the global community completely depended on this information.

Chapter 1082: Eyes on its Prey

Chapter 1082: Eyes on its Prey

An informal Federal Reserve Shareholders Meeting was being held in the Morgan Stanley Building on Wall Street.

The man who sat by the door was Daniel Morgan, the head of the Morgan family. Also sitting at the conference table with him was a member of the Rockefeller family, representing the Loki family of the B City consortium…

Those who were qualified to sit around the conference table possessed influence no less than Franklin on the bill, and they could breathe. Any decision around the table could cause an earthquake in the financial market.

To put things exaggeratedly, at least one-third of the world’s capital was housed in this conference room.

“First, let’s toast to our victory.” Daniel Morgan picked up the champagne and looked around. “Victory belongs to the ‘WASP’ and Wall Street belongs to the ‘WASP’!”

Old Rockefeller smiled and also raised his glass.

Without an extraordinarily long introduction, twelve wine glasses were held high and celebrated the victory for the WASP consortium, led by Daniel.

Twelve waiters stepped forward and handed each member a towel respectfully. They then took the towels and wine glasses away and proceeded to leave the room.

Daniel tossed the towel into the waiter’s tray then proudly looked at the members around the conference room. Among the influential individuals around the world, he was the youngest at forty years old and undoubtedly the most successful.

After all the waiters left, Daniel clapped his hands and gestured everyone to look at him.

“Just yesterday, Morgan completed the acquisition of Citibank shares under Rothschild Bank. So far, I’m honored to announce to you that we’ve completely kicked those Jews out.”

Courteous applause resounded, and even old Rockefeller clapped gently, but his murky eyes showed an intriguing brilliance.

Daniel nodded slightly and humbly accepted the members’ praise to him and his name.

When it came to the control of the Rothschild family, the word “Fed” must be mentioned.

As everyone knew, the Federal Reserve was equivalent to the central bank and possessed the power to regulate the macro “world banknote.” An interest rate hike could mean that some factories in a weak economy just worked for free for a month, and a country’s debt just became unpayable. Interest rates were equivalent to nuclear weapons in the financial sector.

The most terrifying thing was that this nuclear weapon was controlled by private hands.

Although the members of the Federal Reserve Board were nominated by the president and appointed by the senate, they strictly acted in the political sense. However, according to the Owen-Glass Act, the Federal Reserve were divided into 12 reserve areas, each of which established an independent regional reserve bank. The equity of each regional Federal Reserve was subscribed to by the member banks of each region according to the proportion of their assets.

Take the New York Reserve as an example. According to the latest public data, the major shareholders were Citigroup with 15%, Chase Manhattan with 14%, Morgan Trust with 9%, Hanwha with 8%, Hanover with 7%, and these banks were often controlled by the financial families such as Rockefeller, Morgan, and Rothschild.

Goldman Sachs fell last year, and the Rothschild family was just kicked out. The shares of banks such as Citigroup and Hanover were divided by Rockefeller and Morgan.

If Wall Street in 2018 was controlled by the Jewish and Anglo-Saxos and the button for nuclear weapons was in the hands of two people, then Wall Street in 2019 was dominated by the WASP consortium.

Old Rockefeller coughed, pulling Daniel out of the intoxication of victory.

“Celebrating victory can be left to the evening banquet. Gents, now we have more important things to discuss.”

“That’s certainly true.” Daniel smiled, no dissatisfaction apparent on his face.

Old Rockefeller raised his hand over his shoulder and moved his finger. The secretary standing behind him understood the gesture and put a document on the conference table respectfully.

Tilting his back forward slightly, the old Rockefeller put on his gold-gilded glasses and opened the file.

“Yesterday, on June 11, the Central Power Company, the Yoto Power Company, and Celestial Trade reached an agreement to increase power imports. According to the electricity consumption data of Nippon last year, Celestial Trade successfully monopolized 20% of electricity in the country.”

Everyone in the room exchanged glances in shock; even Daniel showed a hint of surprise.

“This news hasn’t yet entered the disclosure process. You might not have received the news yet. My information came from a cabinet official.” Old Rockefeller glanced at the audience. “I don’t need to say more; you might have already felt it.”

“We’re losing control of the situation in Asia.”

When the statement came out, the room was stunned.

All of them were representatives of major consortia and were financial giants on Wall Street. With their IQ and senses, they obviously noticed this point. However, prior to this, everyone was focused on Europe. Everyone was trying to snag a piece of meat from Rothschild, so no one focused on the opposite side of the earth.

“The dominance of the dollar is being shaken, and it might’ve been a wrong choice for the Freemasonry to fall so quickly.”

“What can we do then? Are we going to drag them out of the grave?”

“Maybe we can help the Krupp consortium. As long as there are new rivals to contain Future Group–”

“That’s even more unrealistic.” Daniel interrupted everyone’s arguments and shook his head. He tapped his chin with his fingers. He was still immersed in the joy of victory, but he already noticed the looming crisis facing the WASP consortium. “We must curtail the influence of Celestial Trade from expanding. The bad signs have emerged, and if we allow their Global Grid Plan to progress, we will be at more and more of a disadvantage.”

“That’s right.” Rockefeller nodded and looked around the table. “I know everyone here is cooperating with Future Group in many fields, but if they shake the foundation of the dollar, I think everyone knows what that would mean.”

The financial empire of Wall Street was built on the dollar. Through the two levers of the exchange rate and market, Wall Street giants had plundered the world for nearly a century. Once the dollar lost the aura as the “world currency”, central banks would decrease the dollar reserve, and every dollar bill issued by the Fed would become useless. The Wall Street financial empire built by bills would become worthless overnight.

Two hours since the start of the meeting, everyone including Daniel was completely sober from the joy of victory. The Jewish consortium had fallen, but the jackals who killed them weren’t satiated yet. They had already aimed across the Pacific.

When the interests of all people present were threatened, it was clear the WASP consortium had never been as united as it was now. In the past two hours, they developed a plan to block the Global Grid Plan.

After the meeting, representatives of the major consortiums got up and left in a hurry.

Daniel Morgan, who was the moderator of the meeting, didn’t get up. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered his conversation with Carmen a month ago. At that time, the former Rothschild financial tyrant lowered his stance and asked him for help, but he refused Carmen with almost no hesitation.

“…Just the opposite—I’m extremely convinced that one day in the future, I will be grateful for the choices made today…?” Fingers gently tapping on the table, Daniel muttered to himself the lines he once said, but his tone now carried a hint of hesitation and no longer carried the same certainty.

Chapter 1083: Type T3 Automation Production Plan

Chapter 1083: Type T3 Automation Production Plan

“…The negotiations between our South America delegation team and the Ecuadorian side have ended, and we made great progress. The President of Ecuador has agreed to connect their power grid with us and even welcomes us to register a power company locally to export electricity directly to them, as well as helping them invest in the construction of the national grid. Their only requirement is that we must bear the cost of construction and maintenance of the submarine cable.” Through the interdimensional communication device, Xia Shiyu reported the progress of yesterday’s work to Jiang Chen.

South American countries were generally poor. Ecuador’s finance couldn’t support a submarine cable that spanned the ocean. It was basically impossible to recover their investment through the domestic electricity market. Therefore, the country simply outsourced the entire project to Celestial Trade.

Jiang Chen also didn’t intend to recover his investment from Ecuador; his real goal was Brazil, which was behind Ecuador. As the largest economy in South America with the eighth largest electricity consumption in the world, Jiang Chen’s ultimate goal was to export cheap electricity to Brazil and push his Global Grid Plan to South America.

Ecuador’s conditions matched Jiang Chen’s expectations. As for the convenience of investing in the construction of the local power grid, it wasn’t a problem of Celestial Trade.

However, the Ecuadorian government certainly weren’t guarded against Celestial Trade, as the government allowed a foreign company to operate their state grid.

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded at Xia Shiyu on the holographic screen, .

“Thank you.”

“If you really want to thank me, come back sooner.” Her index finger twirled a strand of hair beside her ear, and she rolled her eyes. Her seductiveness always tickled his heart.

Generally speaking, work reports like this were typically done at night. However, because Jiang Chen had to stay in the apocalypse for a few days, Ayesha loaned her EP to her and he conducted interdimensional communication with the chip designed by Lin Lin.

It was time to get off work and Xia Shiyu finished the work at hand. After they discussed the important matters, they began to chat.

When she heard Jiang Chen talking about the apocalypse, Xia Shiyu made a request.

“Can you show me what’s outside the window? I’ve always been very curious about the apocalypse you talked about… What kind of world is it? Ah, of course, if it’s not convenient, then that’s okay.” Xia Shiyu suddenly somewhat regretted her request.

She was certainly curious. Since Jiang Chen confessed to her the secrets of this world, she had always been very curious. What kind of war, in just three years, had turned the jewels of the human civilization for 22nd centuries into ruins?

However, she was hesitant because she wasn’t certain if Jiang Chen could present everything in this world that only belonged to him. Although she wouldn’t be disappointed by a rejection, she was very worried that Jiang Chen would overcomplicate the issue…

Women in love often overcomplicated things. Jiang Chen didn’t think too much about it at all, let alone the fact that there was nothing to hide.

“There’s nothing inconvenient about that, but there isn’t much to be seen here.” Jiang Chen pointed the camera on the watch outside the window. “The weather is nice today. You can see the blue sky and white clouds. Outside the wall of this mansion is Fishbone Base. Now that all the mutants and zombies in Wanghai have been cleared out, you can only see mutants in Jia City. If you’re interested, I’ll bring you some video footage back if I get an opportunity.”

“Fishbone Base? That’s a real strange name.” Xia Shiyu snorted and giggled, covering her mouth.

Jiang Chen also laughed. “It’s from a canned food brand. It gives me feelings of nostalgia.” The experience of using sandpaper to grind the outer packaging was certainly nostalgic.

Just as Jiang Chen looked out the window and remembered the “hard times”, softness embraced the back of his head. Two arms hugged him from behind.

“What are you doing?” Sun Jiao’s voice rang beside his ears and she looked at the holographic screen with interest.

Jiang Chen was just about to say that he was on the phone. But then he felt a murderous gaze which locked on him across the dimension.

He involuntarily shuddered and suddenly realized that it wasn’t Ayesha who was on the phone with him…

“Hello,” Sun Jiao said hello with a smirk. Her eyes scanned across Xia Shiyu’s chest, and her smirk became even more obvious.

This move naturally didn’t escape Xia Shiyu’s eyes. When she looked at Sun Jiao’s 36D then thought of her body only bigger than Ayesha, her self-esteem was critically damaged.

Even if Jiang Chen had confessed to her that he had a “family” in this world not smaller than in the modern world, she still felt jealous and her vinegar jar (1) tipped when she saw another woman embracing him.

“She… is Sun Jiao, the woman I mentioned before.” Jiang Chen introduced her to Xia Shiyu, feeling numb, but he couldn’t think of things to say.

Looking at the awkward expression on Jiang Chen’s face, Sun Jiao suddenly understood. With the same smirk, she moved her face closer to him and embraced him. “Dear, why are you so nervous?”

The cold and elegant beauty was getting colder and colder.

“I’ll ask you when you come back! Hmph!”

Xia Shiyu hung up the phone.

Jiang Chen shook his head and turned off the holographic screen. He looked at Sun Jiao, who sat down on the sofa making an innocent expression, and sighed.

“You’ve created a big problem for me.”

“You have to kneel on the washboard (2)?” Sun Jiao mocked.

“Not that bad… Where did you learn this? There’s no such thing as a washboard here.”

“From some novels; don’t worry about these details.” Sun Jiao leaned back on the sofa and crossed her legs leisurely. “Let’s put the non-substantial things aside and focus on business. I’ve done everything you asked me to do. The Aerospace Science and Technology Research Institute has already established the ‘T3 Power Armor Gravity-free Environment Automation Production Project’. Based on the space station specifications you provided, the production link is expected to be divided into five modules, completed by five different space stations with different functions.”

“How long will it take to produce results?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.

Sun Jiao smiled. “It won’t be long; the technology is available. There are a few experts in Camp 027 who worked on outer space production modules before the war. Jiang Lin said the prototype will be available at the end of the month at the latest.”

(1) Vinegar Jar – Describing women who easily feel jealous.

(2) Kneel on the washboard – A washboard is a tool to wash clothes before the invention of the washing machine. A washboard has a rough surface. Therefore, when the husband makes a mistake, the wife may force the husband to kneel on the washboard as a punishment.

Chapter 1084: Ten Countries Diplomatic Visit of Xin

Chapter 1084: Ten Countries’ Diplomatic Visit of Xin

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

As the outer space development market gradually heated up, the industrial capacity of Celestial City also increased to an astounding level. Especially in the heavy industry sector as asteroid mining provided the heavy industry sector with raw materials. Wireless power transmission almost reduced the cost of electricity to the minimum. Other than the high cost of the space station itself, there would be no other place on Earth more suitable for the development of the heavy industry sector.

In less than a year, Celestial’s production capacity already caught onto the New Malaysia Special District and the Ange Island Industrial Park. It was expected to surpass the combined production capacity of the two industrial parks in the next six months.

Just half a month ago, Future Mining successfully achieved smelting and production of multiple types of steel in the space environment, such as Grade A, B, and C. At the same time, Future Heavy Industries also completed the integration of the technology provided by Jiang Chen and made breakthroughs in the two technical difficulties of “molybdenum neural connection device” and “power armor core chip”, taking it from theory to production.

It was now possible to build a production line of T3 Power Armor in Celestial City.

Backed by the resources of the modern world, the production and assembly technology of the apocalypse, the factors that restricted the production of power armors would no longer exist. When power armors stepped down from the assembly line, Jiang Chen could already see terrified and shocked faces.

After Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, he planned to start a large-scale expansion plan. The proposed expansion would turn the Power Armor Brigade into two Power Armor Divisions and two Mechanized Infantry Divisions! The focus of research and development of power armor would also be shifted from land to outer space, to Gauss Rifles which were more suitable for low-gravity environments, and to replace the existing aerodynamic engine with an ion propulsion engine.

Days passed one by one, and soon, it was June 13.

With the Outer Space Security Summit held by Celestial Trade approaching its start date, the top ten foreign ministers of the UA, Hua, Russia, Britain, France, Frankberg, Nippon, Arabia all arrived in Coro City. The president of Xin and the foreign minister held a grand welcoming ceremony at the airport.

Celestial Trade and the Xin government invested a lot of effort to make this meeting between the ten countries happen. The drones and the police were dispatched together, and the patrol frequency doubled to strengthen the security of Coro City, which was already extremely safe. Celestial Trade even mobilized a special combat brigade from the New Moon Island military base and temporarily deployed it in downtown Coro to ensure the safety of representatives.

The venue of the conference was set in the new parliament building in Coro, and the hotel where the representatives were staying was the Hilton next to the parliament building. The wealthy Celestial Trade directly booked out the entire building for a week. Foreign ministers and senior officials lived on the top floors, and soldiers with kinetic skeletons filled the rest of the hotel.

Everything was meant to show one thing:

The importance Celestial Trade placed on this summit.

Whether it was the emphasis on the topic to be discussed or the countries participating in the summit.

A week before the summit, there was gossip and rumors about the topic of the summit. Some people claimed on social networking sites that the Outer Space Security Summit was likely related to the recent X2 bacteria in Finland. There were even people with more wild imaginations who linked the X2 bacteria with aliens, Area 51, the moon landing conspiracy theory, and Celestial Trade’s Mars Colonization Project together to describe X2 bacteria as Martians’ plan to fight back.

Driven by public opinion, this summit naturally attracted media attention.

However, the major media were resentful to discover that the content of the summit discussion wouldn’t be made public. Whether the content would be made available was also a topic surrounding the summit.

Everyone wanted to get first-hand information about the summit. Everyone wanted to be in the storm eye of the controversy and win the envy of their global peers. However, the voices from governments was rarely consistent, and the media couldn’t obtain any information.

What kind of issue made Celestial Trade so cautious?

Not only the reporters outside the Hilton, but all those who were interested in this meeting all shared the same speculations.

Two days before the summit, Jiang Chen took Lin Lin’s report on X2 bacteria and finally returned to the modern world. Originally, he planned to return yesterday, but a small delay in Lin Lin’s research forced him to delay his return by one day.

Returning to Coro Island by boat, Jiang Chen didn’t go home but went to the Presidential Palace.

When he arrived at the Presidential Palace, Zhang Yaping was enjoying the presence of the Frankberg foreign minister as the two joked and laughed. Jiang Chen didn’t disturb the pair. Instead, he followed President Zhang’s secretary and sat down in the lounge. He slowly sipped on his coffee while he waited for the end of the informal diplomatic conference between the two countries.

He didn’t have to wait for long. Soon, he heard footsteps.

“You finally stepped outside.” Zhang Yaping sat down on the sofa opposite Jiang Chen. With a weary expression, he asked his secretary: “Pour me a cup of water. No tea, just hot water.”

The senior foreign ministers of ten countries visited and Zhang Yaping didn’t have time for a break this week. What made it worse was that the Outer Space Security Summit would start soon, but Jiang Chen suddenly started to play hide and seek with him.

Although it wasn’t the first time he disappeared, it was the first time before such a major event.

“There have been some recent developments.” Jiang Chen smiled and ambiguously skipped the question. “You did a great job.”

“That depends on how you interpret the word ‘great’.” Zhang Yaping shook his head helplessly. He took the water from the secretary, whispered a thank you, then signaled her to leave. He then looked to Jiang Chen. “Every country’s foreign minister is asking me one thing. Guess what is it?”

“Extraterrestrial civilization?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Yes.” Zhang Yaping sipped the water and soothed his throat. In a half-joking tone, he said, “Everyone wants to know what tricks you’re playing, whether extraterrestrial civilization is indeed a thing or whether it’s just a smoke bomb. Of course, the foreign ministers are most concerned about the steps you’ve taken in the study of extraterrestrial civilizations. Kerry also threatened me with a warning, saying that anything about unilaterally liaising with extraterrestrial civilizations without the consent of the United Nations would be regarded as a provocation of war by the UA… what a joke.”

Zhang Yaping shook his head and put the cup aside.

“Aliens? He’s seen too many Hollywood blockbusters.”

Although Zhang Yaping had already seen the agenda of the Outer Space Security Summit, he didn’t take extraterrestrial civilizations seriously. It was to be expected since Jiang Chen never disclosed the details of Celestial Trade’s space activities to him.

Looking at Zhang Yaping, Jiang Chen had a strange expression.

Zhang Yaping noticed Jiang Chen’s strange look. He stopped and asked, “What’s wrong? Was it something I said?”

“Nothing, it’s my bad.”

Jiang Chen paused for a moment and looked at the confused Zhang Yaping. “What if I told you that the extraterrestrial civilization we mentioned in the invitation… is not a joke?”

Chapter 1085: It isn’t something good

Chapter 1085: It isn’t something good

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

At six o’clock in the evening, a black car was parked downstairs at the Hilton.

The reporters who sensed blood all focused on the vehicle that rolled in. After they confirmed the license plate number, they immediately surrounded the vehicle.

The security guards waiting at the entrance of the hotel were prepared, and they formed a wall to block the reporters as well as passers-by and tourists curious about the commotion.

Frankberg Foreign Minister Stein, who had just finished his visit from Xin’s presidential palace, got out of the car and walked to the main entrance of the hotel. The reporters desperately tried to stuff microphones below the guards’ armpits and above the guards’ shoulders, in an attempt to reach Stein to obtain some more information about the upcoming Outer Space Security Summit in two days.

“Mr. Stein, did you just go to Xin’s presidential palace?”

“Will Frankberg and Xin strengthen their cooperation in space?”

“Are informal diplomatic talks with Xin at this point related to the upcoming Outer Space Security Summit?”

“Are the rumors about extraterrestrial civilization true? People have the right to know the truth…”

Stein was growing impatient. He raised his hand and gestured to the reporters in front of him to form a path.

“Before the summit, we aren’t very familiar with the specific details of the discussion. The Frankberg government will disclose the details of the Outer Space Security Summit at the first available point in time if the outcome of the discussion can be disclosed.”

After a short explanation, Stein whispered a few words to his assistant.

The assistant nodded and the six bodyguards surrounding Stein formed a human shield in front of him. Under complaints from reporters, the security guards of the hotel formed a path in the crowd and escorted the foreign minster inside.

Arriving by elevator to the floor where the Frankberg delegation was staying, Stein went straight to his presidential suite.

“If there are no big issues, don’t come in and bother me. I’ll will eat dinner at about seven o’clock. Request a hotel’s waiter to send it up.” At the door, he stopped and instructed his assistant behind him.

“Yes.” The assistant nodded.

Stein closed the door and hung his suit on the hanger. He went to the sofa in the living room and sat down. He took out a satellite phone from his pocket. After pressing a few numbers, he called the Frankberg Presidential Palace.

“How’s the meeting with the Xin President?”

Stein sighed when he heard Evelyn’s question.

“I didn’t get any useful information; I could feel they’re also confused. I even have a feeling that President Zhang has learned less than we learned.”

“He’s a puppet after all?” Evelyn smiled.

“Yes.” Stein leaned on the sofa. “Celestial Trade completely excluded him from the core. Rather than acting as a president, he is more like a butler who takes care of the man’s backyard. I tried to contact Celestial Trade’s Space Department CEO, Kelvin, but he has no intention of holding informal talks with us before the summit.”

1“And then he pushed you onto Zhang Yaping?” Evelyn smiled.

“That’s right.” Stein nodded.

“What about other countries?”

“It should be the same.” Stein shrugged. “Of all the countries that are participating in the summit, our bilateral relationship with Xin should be the best. They have no reason to treat us differently.”

Evelyn couldn’t help but ask: “In your experience, why do you think they are so mysterious?”

“If they’re not faking this, then it must be some really astonishing information.”

“What do you think will be?” Evelyn asked.

“Extraterrestrial civilization. It was written on the invitation letter.” Stein laughed.

“Be more specific.”

“More specific…” Stein sighed with a headache. After some contemplating, he shook his head. “I can’t guess; I don’t dare to guess. The only thing I’m certain about is that it isn’t something good.”

For the exploration of extraterrestrial civilizations, almost all countries indicated at least publicly that they would share all “important information”, but almost everyone knew this was impossible.

For two cultures without any similarities, often the first impression determined everything.

Stein asked himself if Frankberg was the first to get in touch with the extraterrestrial civilization, the first thing they would think would be to not disclose the news to other countries or even tell their allies. They would liaise with the extraterrestrial civilization alone. They would make the other party recognize their own values, recognize that Frankberg was the representative of Earth’s civilization, and try their best to monopolize all channels of communication with the extraterrestrial civilization.

1The abnormal behavior of Celestial Trade only meant one thing.

They encountered an issue that they couldn’t resolve alone.

After leaving the Presidential Palace, Jiang Chen went straight to the parked Luer.

Jiang Chen suddenly remembered Zhang Yaping’s sullen face and burst into laughter.

Ayesha looked at him curiously when she heard the inexplicable laughter.

“Did something good happen?”

“Nothing; I just suddenly wanted to laugh.” Jiang Chen coughed and changed the subject.

He was the president, after all. It wouldn’t be nice to laugh at him like this, especially since it was his negligence for not disclosing the information to Zhang Yaping. It was understandable to not be able to digest such a large amount of information.

It took half an hour before Jiang Chen barely made X2 bacteria and extraterrestrial civilizations clear to him. As for how much Zhang Yaping took in or what he felt afterward, Jiang Chen wasn’t sure

The car drove onto the highway. This time, Jiang Chen didn’t do anything scandalous in the car and enjoyed the beautiful night. But then, the little girl who drove suddenly smiled and spoke softly.

“After you go back, you better woo Sister Shiyu. She’s still bothered by what happened the day before yesterday.”

“…you really gave me a problem.” Jiang Chen’s pleasant expression suddenly turned sour. If Ayesha hadn’t mentioned this, he would’ve almost forgotten about it.

Jiang Chen got a headache when he thought about the cold tone from the last call.

“Is it difficult?” Ayesha said softly, “In fact, Sister Shiyu is easy to woo. If you use some sweet talk, she will soon forget any unpleasantness. While she always looks cold, she’s actually more eager than anyone else…”

Ayesha’s beautiful lips curved up again.

She knew Jiang Chen could guess what she didn’t say.

“Where did you learn these things from?” Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha, surprised.

Ayesha tilted her head and carefully thought for a moment, but it was a specious answer.

“Feelings?”

Chapter 1086: Outer Space Security Summit

Chapter 1086: Outer Space Security Summit

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

In order to leave time for Jiang Chen, Ayesha used the excuse of parking to not go inside with him.

The lights in the living room were off, but under the pristine moonlight, he could still see clearly. After he took off his shoes, Jiang Chen had just entered before a chilling sight immediately locked onto him from the sofa in the living room.

He could smell the strong vinegar.

He selectively ignored the coldness and sat next to Xia Shiyu with a grin. He reached and grabbed her around the waist. Xia Shiyu threw a temper and moved her waist, but she didn’t escape from his embrace.

In fact, Ayesha’s reminder wasn’t needed at all. Jiang Chen discovered long ago that behind the cold mask was just a girl’s clumsy protective color. When she fell in love with a person, what was buried behind the cold mask were emotions more passionate than anyone.

In a few minutes, the tipped vinegar jar fell for his sweet talk. Xia Shiyu’s pouting mouth gradually turned into a curvature before she finally giggled.

Sure enough, women must be wooed.

Seeing that smile, Jiang Chen was finally relieved.

Xia Shiyu leaned her face against his chest and enjoyed this quiet moment.

Her breathing gradually became calmer. Just when Jiang Chen thought Xia Shiyu was asleep, her muttering came from his chest.

“Umm…” Biting her lower lip, Xia Shiyu embarrassedly whispered, “Is her chest real?”

“What?” Jiang Chen tried to process that for a second.

“I mean, isn’t there a lot of advanced technology in the future? For example, genetic modification… Did her chest become so big in any special way?” Xia Shiyu blushed, embarrassed by her wild imagination.

Sure enough, women loved to compare. Although she accepted that Jiang Chen had a woman in that world, she cared about that woman’s 36D considering that Xia Shiyu just had a B.

Regretfully, Jiang Chen told her with certainty that the 36D was real, but this certainly wasn’t the answer Xia Shiyu wanted to hear.

After a moment of indulging, Jiang Chen made a serious face and said, “To be honest, considering race restrictions, it wouldn’t be so big naturally. But…”

Jiang Chen dragged out his tone.

Xia Shiyu caught the bait.

She hesitated for a moment, slightly furrowing her brows, confused. “But?”

“There are still secrets.”

Xia Shiyu’s eyes lit up and she sat up.

“What secrets?!”

“That, of course, is … a special massage technique.”

Jiang Chen thought that Xia Shiyu would blush, spit out “pervert” and walk away.

However, he guessed the beginning correctly, not the end. Xia Shiyu looked away with her face even redder, but she didn’t get up and leave. The silence lasted for a long time between the duo. Through the moonlight, Jiang Chen saw her hand trembling before finally pressing on her own chest.

Looking down, Xia Shiyu whispered.

“Then, then please…”

…

This palm-sized country once again caught the world’s attention with the upcoming Outer Space Security Summit. Every day, countless reporters gathered around Future Building, the parliament building, the Hilton and formed a scene unique to Xin.

Just as the community debated the summit topic, it was finally the day of the summit.

On the morning of June 15, CBS, CCA, V, Reuters, Asahi News, French TV and thousands of media outlets from all over the world and tens of thousands of reporters stood outside the yellow line and gathered around the parliament building, the crowd even spilled onto the road.

3Fortunately, Coro City’s magnetic levitation road prevented a traffic jam. The crowd even made people question if the representatives could squeeze in.

The media set up their cameras. Just as they were ready to report news first-hand, Celestial Trade’s move made them completely dumbfounded.

Ten heavy-duty helicopters soared from the above, and they stopped at the open space inside the yellow line. The soldiers in kinetic skeletons rushed out from the helicopters and blocked the yellow line.

It was around half a brigade of forces which immediately made the reporters wishing to break the rules reconsider their choices.

After the forces were deployed, the heavy helicopters left in series. Eight small helicopters landed. When they saw the people coming out of the helicopter, the reporters were once again dumbfounded.

Stein waved at the reporters, fixed his collar, and walked into the parliament building with his delegation.

Eight helicopters continued to take off and flew to the roof of the Hilton. They appeared to be transporting representatives of other countries. The representatives didn’t plan to squeeze through the crowd and decided to go directly from the air.

Stein extended his right hand as he walked to Jiang Chen with enthusiasm. They shook hands.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen. It’s been really difficult to see you.”

“Just in the past few days, I’ve had a busy schedule. To make your trip worthwhile, I haven’t rested for a day.” Jiang Chen shook Stein’s hand.

“Haha, now I feel better after your explanation.” Stein smiled heartily and shook his watch. “Half an hour before we start, could you satisfy our curiosity in advance?”

“Regarding the details of this summit, we’ve compiled two versions—one paper document and one electronic file which are now on the table. If you want to know as soon as possible, you better go in quickly.” Jiang Chen smiled.

With a surprised expression, Stein raised an eyebrow.

“Yes? Then I really have to hurry.”

“Please.” Jiang Chen made a gesture and handed the Frankberg delegation to the conference officer waiting on the side.

After he that the contents of the summit discussion were all sorted out in the documents, Stein didn’t have the mind to engage in small talk with Jiang Chen anymore. Under the guidance of the conference officer, he quickly entered the venue with his delegation.

In fifteen minutes, all the delegations of the ten countries were seated, and the gate of the parliament building was closed. Countless curious eyes were also closed off from the building. With the remaining fifteen minutes of free time, representatives quickly scanned the documents in their hands.

Fifteen minutes later, the lights in the venue were slightly dimmed. On the holographic screen in the center, Future Group and Celestial Trade’s logo appeared. Shocked, surprised, and dismissive, the representatives put away the documents and turned their focus on Jiang Chen in front of the screen.

As the organizer of the summit and the representative of Xin, the summit that was comprised of the most senior diplomats officially kicked off.

Chapter 1087: What do you mean by only?

Chapter 1087: What do you mean by only?

It wasn’t the first time Jiang Chen had spoke in front of an audience, but it was his first time in front of such a high-profile audience.

He took a deep breath, and cleared his mind. With all eyes gathered on him, he slowly said, “There may be doubts in the minds of everyone here, whether it’s regarding the topic to be discussed or the summit itself.”

“I don’t have much to say here. Taking the literal meaning, the theme of this summit is security.”

“It’s not security between countries and not related to any territorial disputes, sovereignty disputes, or politics. Don’t show impatience; I’m not joking. Everyone, I’m not an alarmist, but we’re on a fine line between life and death.”

Jiang Chen noticed that when he said this, there were whispers. From the closest representatives, he was able to clearly see their disbelief.

It was just like he said something ridiculous.

Jiang Chen completely expected this reaction. Although evidence about the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and acts of aggression were summarized in the documents, the audience wasn’t the director of NASA or ESA but senior foreign minister of each country, after all.

They weren’t experts in the area. They wouldn’t take everything Jiang Chen said for truth. It would take time to verify.

After a moment’s pause, Jiang Chen went on.

“Just a month ago, Celestial Trade Space Department discovered an interesting phenomenon when observing extraterrestrial planets and exploring extraterrestrial civilizations.”

The image on the holographic screen turned into a star map, and in the center of the star map was the Gliese 581 galaxy, 2 degrees north of the Libra-β.

“Gliese 581g. According to our researchers, the planet has a 90% chance of life.”

The UA delegation couldn’t sit still. The man sitting next to Secretary of State Kerry pressed the button next to the microphone and requested to speak.

Jiang Chen didn’t mind that his speech was interrupted and gestured for him to continue.

The man stood up and fixed his microphone, then he put his hands on the table and looked at Jiang Chen with his eyebrows furrowed. He kept an oppressive posture and said, “NASA long ago conducted a detail observation on the Gliese 581 galaxy fifteen years ago and reached the conclusion that this blue-green pattern may contain life.”

Benjamin stood up straight, shrugged and said with a mocking tone, “But your researcher apparently didn’t pay attention to the journal ‘Science.’ Even as a layman, I know that four years ago, a paper published by the University of Pennsylvania researchers in Science pointed out that the planet didn’t actually exist and it was a color ray error caused by the stellar magnetic field burst of the 581d.”

“If you want to divert the attention of the international community to your ignorance in outer space, you may wish to utilize a more realistic excuse and not blame aliens.”

When Benjamin said this, the venue became rattled.

Although the aerospace technology of Celestial Trade was indeed powerful, the UA was also an established aerospace power. While they might be slightly inferior in terms of hardware, their soft power couldn’t be underestimated.

Celestial Trade just said that there was life on Gliese 581g, yet the representative of UA immediately stood up and slapped his face. If the UA proved that the planet didn’t exist four years ago, then why did they come here for a meeting? To listen to nonsense from Celestial Trade?!

Anger was boiling among the representatives.

After his speech ended, Benjamin didn’t sit down immediately. Kerry, next to him, crossed his arms and looked at Jiang Chen. He wanted to see how he defended himself in irritation.

Stein raised an eyebrow and put his ballpoint pen on the table. He was very curious about how Jiang Chen, who was exposed on the spot, would defend himself.

The Hua Foreign Minister sat in silence, the Russian Foreign Minister and his deputy exchanged looks. The French Representative began to check his watch impatiently…

Jiang Chen’s calm reaction surprised Secretary of State Kerry. It was too calm that almost made what just happened boring.

Jiang Chen nodded at the diplomat. He cleared his throat and swept his eyes across Kerry. He turned to the entire venue and raised his hand to indicate for the representatives to be settled.

After the venue once again become silent, he raised one finger and slowly said to the UA delegation, “First of all, let me correct a mistake you made. Gliese 581g is green, and there is no blue-green pattern at all. As for why, I’ll talk about that later.”

“Does this have anything to do with it?” Benjamin requested to speak after he heard Jiang Chen’s argument. This time, he didn’t wait for Jiang Chen’s acknowledgment. He stood up and sneered in disdain. “No matter what color it is, it doesn’t exist—”

“Furthermore-” Jiang Chen interrupted him and raised a second finger. It was the middle finger next to the index finger. This time, his tone carried a hint of indifference. “Do we need to pay attention to what papers you’ve written?”

Kerry suddenly looked agitated. Delegations from other countries also focused on this side with more or less an eagerness to watch the scene unfold.

Yes, with Celestial Trade’s technology which could colonize Mars, was it necessary to worry about who published a paper on the planet in ‘Science’? It was like a person soon graduating from high school needing to consult with what someone wrote in an elementary school essay?

However, this unadorned statement made it impossible for the UA delegates to sit still. Jiang Chen’s statement wasn’t euphemistic at all. It raised a giant middle finger to the UA aerospace practitioners by saying: “Everyone here is rubbish”.

Benjamin opened his mouth without a show of expression, but anyone could guess the embarrassment on his mind.

“I just mentioned that Gliese 581g is green, and now I will prove it to you.”

Jiang Chen knocked twice on the touchpad of the podium, and soon, the image on the holographic screen behind him was cut onto an enlarged star map.

The center of the star map was locked on the galaxy 2 degrees north of the Libra-β. The white box locked the orange-red star then continued to zoom. The lens focused on that star until the red star filled half the screen.

Stein narrowed his eyes as the light was too bright. However, this discomfort didn’t last long, and soon, the star on the screen was dimmed as if some kind of filter was added.

The light continued to decay until there were several black spots visible to the naked eye around the star.

Benjamin’s eyes almost popped out as he stared at the image in front of him

He already knew what Jiang Chen was doing, but it was impossible!

Even if he was a layman, he knew it was absolutely impossible to directly capture a planet image 20.5 light-years away. Only stars could be directly observed by telescopes. Most of the planets outside the solar system required various techniques such as spectroscopy to measure the planetary data, and then computers would be used to draw a rough concept map.

To put it into perspective, it was easy for someone to see a light bulb hundreds of meters away, but it was impossible to see mosquitoes on the light bulb, no matter how powerful the telescope was. Even with a filter to dim the light, it was impossible to change the fact that the planet itself shouldn’t shine!

Are you kidding!

Using computer animation to fool people?!

Eyes locked onto the black dots with Gliese 581 as the background, Benjamin snarled in his heart.

However, Jiang Chen’s nonchalant words shattered his fantasies.

“It’s almost at the limit. The optical observation resolution of Celestial City Astronomy Telescope can only observe up till this point. It might not be visible to the naked eye, but I can tell you with certainty that those pixels are indeed green.”

Only!

What do you mean by only?

As soon as this statement came out, the audience was astounded.

Chapter 1088: Not Just Bugs

Chapter 1088: Not Just Bugs

Do we need to pay attention to what papers you’ve written?

Jiang Chen’s nonchalant words were a slap to the aggressive Benjamin. The image that appeared next on the holographic screen was a slap to the aerospace science community.

Even Secretary of State Kerry couldn’t sit still anymore.

Fortunately, at this time, Nippon requested to speak and questioned Celestial Trade.

“Even if you could prove that there’s life on Gliese 581g, it only shows that we aren’t alone in the universe. From your tone, you seem to be certain that the extraterrestrial creature on Gliese 581g will be a threat? Can you prove this? According to our point of view, it’s possible that those unintelligent creatures might not have even formed a civilization yet, let alone cross the distance of 20 light years.”

The question from the Nippon representative was the concern of most of the representatives. Based on the analysis Celestial Trade provided, the solar wind of Gliese 581 was several times stronger than the solar wind on Earth, and Gliese 581 has no magnetic field protection, which meant that the entire Gliese 581g planet was being constantly bombarded by EMP. Even if those arthropods could breed a civilization, they could only develop into a society similar to ants and bees at most.

They were just bugs.

“The United Kingdom agrees with the argument put forward by the Nippon representative. Even if we might have a war with them someday in the future, it’s definitely a colonial war on their territory.” British diplomats got up and snarled, “Are you that worried?”

Jiang Chen laughed when he heard the two representatives’ opinions.

“It’s a pity that X2 bacteria didn’t seem to teach you a lesson.”

The British diplomat’s face suddenly turned red.

The fiasco in Finnish tundra became a stain that the British army couldn’t erase. Although the nest was eradicated with the help of Celestial Trade’s space-based weapons and Power Amor Brigade and the British finally regained some dignity, the brigade commander sent to Finland was still dismissed due to improper calculations of enemy strength. Even the British Prime Minister was almost impeached because of the high casualty figures.

As a result, the X2 bacteria had forever become a pain in the hearts of the British.

“As for proof… the last few pages of the documents in your hands record the comparative analysis of the X2 bacterial DNA intercepted fragments and partial fragments of the T-virus RNA. I believe that anyone with some biology background will find the comparison to be unusual. This is very easy to verify; I believe that you all obtained samples of the nest.”

“You mean that X2 bacteria and T virus are works of an extraterrestrial civilization?” Kerry frowned. “How did they do it?”

“This is another focus of this meeting.” Jiang Chen scanned around the delegates in the room, then he pulled out a black sphere and gently placed it beside the microphone. “Have you ever heard of the Golden Apple of the Rothschild family?”

When they saw the black sphere placed on the podium, the accompanying diplomats except for the foreign ministers were confused. They didn’t understand why Jiang Chen suddenly placed a “golf ball” on the podium and were more confused about why he suddenly mentioned the word “Golden Apple.”

Obviously, all countries adopted a confidential stance toward the Golden Apple; only the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Secretary of State would have this information. Otherwise, there would be no chance to learn more about the Golden Apple.

That was also very understandable. After all, the source of the Golden Apple wasn’t the clearest; it came from the notorious 7th Institute. Any country with a strong human rights code must avoid having a stain on their image. While they certainly did experiments, they must be done in secrecy!

What’s more was that the item was the key to communicating with the future, and its impact on society was still unknown. For various reasons, countries all chose to remain confidential and hide the Golden Apple from public view.

Many people knew Rothschild Bank was suspected of supporting human experiments, but they knew nothing about what the 7th Institute experimented on.

“The Golden Apple is my next focus.” Jiang Chen scanned all the foreign ministers. Word by word, he said, “This has never been used as a time machine and this has never been used to communicate with the future, or else, the Freemasonry would never have lost.”

“As for what it is?” Jiang Chen picked up the Golden Apple and played with it in his hand. He grinned. “Think about it. What did Carmen bring before he died? Why did the nest appear in Finland, not Frankberg?”

The audience was rattled again once again. This time, it wasn’t because of shock but because of panic. It seemed like Jiang Chen was not holding the Golden Apple, but holding an atomic bomb in his hand.

Although Jiang Chen wasn’t explicit, no one was too stupid to not understand the connections. Everyone knew what he suggested.

Golden Apple was the culprit of the birth of the nest!

And now, it us in the hands of a madman!

And he is playing with it?

Kerry, Stein, and other foreign ministers were sweating profusely. When they thought that the Golden Apples that were smuggled into their own countries were being played with by the group of researchers unfearful of death, their hearts pounded. They couldn’t wait to make phone calls back home.

The world witnessed the terrifying power of the nest. Fortunately, the last time the nest appeared in the tundra in northern Finland. If it appeared near a major metropolis, the consequences would be simply unimaginable!

Among the people present, the most nervous was the foreign minister of Hua.

With the population density of the country, it would be a disaster.

Even if this matter was still inconclusive, at least the research site must be moved to the desert to prevent the worst from happening. As for how the Golden Apple caused the X2 bacterial incident, it could be a subject for future study.

Studying the expressions of the representatives, Jiang Chen already knew that he fulfilled half of the goals he set.

He trusted that the information he provided was daunting enough. The next step was to wait for the foreign ministers to bring back the news of the summit and discuss it domestically. Then the heads of states would sit together to finalize what was accepted by all.

Jiang Chen admitted that he didn’t have the aura to make everyone swear allegiance to him. He also never expected to rely on a summit to make a strong impression so that the heads of state would bow to worship him. They would form the Earth Alliance, and all human beings would be united…

Throughout the history of the world, there had never been a unity without blood.

To be honest, Jiang Chen was already prepared for war. He was busy preparing for the T3 Power Armor production line at Celestial Trade.

Of course, if they could reach a consensus peacefully, that would be the best.

Now, he still had one last card in his hand. Seeing that the representatives couldn’t sit still, Jiang Chen was also debating if he should play the card now.

“We can set an example in destroying Golden Apples. In addition, I have a report here.” Jiang Chen shook the papers in his hand. “You can study it after your return.”

Chapter 1089: Footprints in the Snow

Chapter 1089: Footprints in the Snow

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

The meeting lasted for three full hours, and the summit’s agenda today finally came to an end.

When Jiang Chen announced the conclusion of the summit, the foreign ministers left the venue at the fastest speed after they received the documents from Celestial Trade. For them, the most important task on-hand now was to communicate with their leaders and pass back the information they received.

The reporters waiting outside the parliament building were bound to be disappointed. The foreign ministers didn’t give them any opportunity to interview. They stepped into the helicopters and immediately departed.

Obviously, the summit’s agenda wasn’t to be disclosed to the public.

At least not today.

The reporters outside the parliament building put away their cameras and left the scene one after another. Although there were reluctant, they now accepted the fact that they waited for nothing.

However, many reporters still noticed an unusual expression from the foreign ministers.

Their expressions were all serious and somber.

Or anxious?

The reporters who noticed this were contemplating the reason. They were trying to dig out valuable information to get back to their bosses.

What made the foreign ministers so anxious?

Instincts told them that there was a lot of information hidden, but they wouldn’t ever know that it was because of the document Jiang Chen gave the ministers in the end.

It was an astronomical observation report.

After confirming signs of life on Gliese 581g, Kelvin took the astronomical observation team to conduct a carpet search on the space outside the Gliese 581 galaxy. Based on Jiang Chen’s opinion, they focused on the observations of the asteroid belts outside the stellar system.

Soon, they found something that became scary after facts were obtained from those asteroid belts.

Among the asteroid belts between the Earth and Gliese 581g, they observed an unnaturally formed vacuum…

Two days passed since the first round of consultation and it had been two days since the document was sent to the UA.

On June 17th, in the conference room of NASA’s headquarters, a bunch of bureaucrats who rarely visited gathered there. Even the President and the Minister of Defense made a visit which surprised NASA.

Even though NASA had recently gained some attention because of the popularity of aerospace projects, rarely did the top officials all visit together. This scene was only possible during an era of an arms race.

“Do you need a cup of coffee?”

“No.” Hill shook her head with a sullen face, and the aides sitting next to her no longer spoke.

It was the day of the results. Although they could’ve waited in their office, after they heard such shocking facts, how could they sit still?

Just then, the door of the conference room was pushed open and Bolden hurried in.

A dozen eyes gathered on him. Bolden took a deep breath and threw the documents in his arms on the conference table, working up the courage to disclose the results.

“The observation results are out.”

“What are the results?” Hill immediately asked while constantly praying in her heart that the outcome with a possibility of one in ten thousand wasn’t a reality. However, she knew that would just be self-deception. The bitter smile on Bolden’s face already explained many problems.

“The data mostly matched with the data provided by Celestial Trade,” Bolden said.

Hill was silent, and the entire conference room was silent.

They were previously optimistic. After all, with the existing astronomical observation means, it was impossible to carry out such detailed mapping. Many people even wondered if this was false information fabricated by Celestial Trade.

However, while eyes could lie, the data couldn’t.

What’s more, the other party even provided the detailed astronomical coordinates of the asteroid belt in the file and gave each country the opportunity for verification.

The NASA researchers took the information and immediately used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the coordinate area. Although they couldn’t create a star map as detailed, based on multiple sets of data obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA obtained the same result three times.

A vacuum was observed in many asteroid belts between the Earth and Gliese 581g. It was obviously impractical to attribute this to nature’s ingenuity, and there was only one possibility to explain this phenomenon.

Something must’ve traveled through the belts.

And the size and speed of that thing weren’t small.

“What do you think is the most likely explanation for the vacuum belt?” Hill gulped.

“They’re footprints,” Bolden said with an ugly expression. “The footprints of a beast passing through snow.”

“I have the same opinion as you.” Looked grimly, Carter felt the sweat in his palms.

He admitted that he was a Star Wars fan when he was young, and his bedroom was filled with posters of Independence Day. He even imagined that he could be a pilot who drove a fighter jet into an alien spaceship. But he never thought that he would really become enemies with the aliens.

As the Minister of Defense.

“What do you think our odds are?” Hill looked at Carter.

Carter didn’t answer this question directly, but said with a forced smile, “What do you think about Iraq’s chance of defeating us?”

Hill also forced a smile.

Nowadays, the aircraft carrier of the extraterrestrial civilization already set off. They couldn’t even create a ship to “set sail”. As for the battle on their home front? After witnessing the horror of the nest, who could work up the courage to face a swarm of mutants?

“Compared to defeating them, I’m afraid it would be more practical to build a spaceship to escape.” Bolden shook his head and ridiculed himself, but he didn’t see that all eyes were focused on him again.

“That’s indeed an idea.”

“Yes, at least the President can be kept alive, just like Air Force One.”

“And we can bring some people to preserve seeds for the UA and even human civilization.”

“…”

Seeing that everyone reacted to his own words and his colleagues had begun to discuss how to escape, Bolden was sweating as he quickly said, “Do you think Congress will approve this budget? Using the taxpayer’s money to allow the president to run away? Those Congress members aren’t crazy yet.”

1“That’s not necessary.” Hill, who didn’t speak until now, suddenly spoke.

Compared to Bolden who rose to his position as an astronaut, Hill’s political sense was undoubtedly more sensitive. She knew who the Capital really served, and she knew who she should really please.

“Congress Members don’t want to die. The wealthy people on Wall Street don’t want to die. We don’t even have to raise money from Congress.” Hill’s Chief of Staff also followed.

With a glimpse of hope appearing in their pupils, Hill and her own Chief of Staff continued: “We only need to set up a Noah’s Ark Fund and promise investors a ticket.”

3Everyone’s eyes lit up.

Yes!

As long as they could convince those rich people to board the ship, how difficult would it be to raise funds?

However, the door was pushed open, and Hill assistant ran inside.

“What’s so urgent?” While she wasn’t pleased, Hill maintained a president’s demeanor as she asked.

1“People-people are holding a demonstration in front of the Capitol. I’m hoping you can explain,” the assistant said with sweat droplets all over his forehead.

2“Explain what?” Hill frowned.

The assistant didn’t answer. He opened the news page and handed the phone to Hill.

When Hill took the phone, she already felt something wasn’t right. But the instant she saw the headlines, her mood suddenly plunged to the bottom. Her wrinkles were even more visible because of anger. She was ready to curse out any second.

“Despicable!”

Chapter 1090: Asserting Pressure

Chapter 1090: Asserting Pressure

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

[According to informed sources, Celestial City Space Department successfully observed extraterrestrial civilization on Gliese 581g, initially determined to be an arthropod carbon-based life. The civilization is capable of interplanetary navigation…]

[On June 15th, the senior foreign ministers of ten countries gathered in Coro City to discuss countermeasures against aggression by extraterrestrial civilizations.]

[According to the diplomat who didn’t want to disclose his name and nationality, the foreign ministers at the summit voted on the resolution of ‘Evacuation from the Solar System’. Although the resolution wasn’t passed, it received a very high number of votes at the meeting…]

[X2 bacteria in Finland were made by extraterrestrial civilization, and the nest was an alien aggression outpost?]

Jiang Chen proposed to keep the meeting confidential, but he also leaked the news with mixed lies and truths.

The reason was simple.

He knew that once governments realized that it was impossible to defend against aggression, escapism would prevail among the elites.

1There was no need to analyze the reasons at all; the history of the apocalypse was a lesson in itself. Once these elites found themselves “with no chance of winning”, presented with a seemingly “better” choice, it would be impossible to expect them to fight to the death.

If they fought, it would be difficult to win.

If they escaped, the probability of survival would be quite high.

After all, it would still be a long time before Harmony’s space colonization ship arrived. The elites ultimately decided what the GDP favored. There would be two separate technology trees depending on if a “battleship” or “escape ship” was favored.

The most likely outcome was building a battleship while preparing for their escape path, and more effort would probably be spent on escape.

It was the simplest decision to make. The elites must think for the elites. Despite the difference in culture, the principle was universal. Take the UA as an example. Even if the senior officials of the current Democratic Party, such as Hill, wouldn’t live to see the day Harmony arrived, they still must have considerations for their own political career.

The Wall Street consortiums that controlled the politics of the country also manipulated the military. Would they be happy to learn that their days were numbered? What would be the significance of the wealth they accumulated since the colonial era?

If Hill dared to stop them from building a ship to escape, her scandals would make the headlines on the Washington Post the next day, followed by impeachment from the Congress up till the eventual re-election.

Not only the UA, but also countries such as Hua and Russia all held the same view. The only difference between them was the level of formality.

If they couldn’t reach an agreement on the most fundamental issues, then this war against all mankind would be lost from the beginning.

With public opinion stirred in a certain direction, the controversy continued to escalate. Not just Washington, London, Paris, but even Coro City saw protests. People held slogans and stepped out onto the streets to ask the government to disclose details of the Outer Space Security Summit.

The focus of public opinion was nothing but two points.

One was related to whether the T virus and the X2 bacteria were related to the aggression of the extraterrestrial civilization. The other was whether the representatives really discussed the construction of a Noah’s Ark.

Under pressure from public opinion, Secretary of State Kerry was the first to clarify.

In front of the media, he repeatedly reiterated that the topic of extraterrestrial civilization was indeed discussed at the summit, but the resolution on an “escape from Solar System” wasn’t discussed. Even if was discussed, the UA would never vote in favor of such a selfish resolution.

1However, simple clarification was obviously not enough to dispel the public’s concerns. Everyone knew that politicians were the unruliest. They used a set of rhetoric in front of the public while another kind of rhetoric behind closed doors.

After several organized protests, the people in demonstrations unanimously demanded that the next summit must be public to the world. The media had the right to exercise supervision. The people had the indisputable right to know…

The situation in all countries was similar. Even demonstrations didn’t happen in a few countries, the heated discussions online already told the same story.

Jiang Chen wasn’t too concerned about the demonstration that happened in Coro City.

The next meeting was scheduled for mid-July, when controversial issues such as the formation of the Earth Federation and the fight against extraterrestrial civilization would be discussed. Jiang Chen gave the governments enough time to digest the information they learned from the last meeting to then make a choice.

1On the second Saturday after the meeting, Jiang Chen took the space elevator to Celestial City.

Since the beginning of May, Celestial Trade’s space-related industries began to migrate to Celestial City. The ground command center in the northern part of the equator finally ended its historical mission. The personnel and equipment were all moved to Celestial City, occupying a separate external space station adjacent to the shipyard of Future Heavy Industries.

In the vicinity of this area, an aerospace industrial park was built. Not only assets of Future Group were located there, but factories invested by other countries were also located there. The factories mainly produced small and medium-sized spacecraft or aerospace equipment and accessories, directly or indirectly providing 27,000 jobs for Celestial City.

After getting off the elevator at the terminal, Jiang Chen took the express to the Space Department.

Kelvin was already waiting at the door. When he saw Jiang Chen, he immediately greeted him and welcomed him into the Space Department.

Because of Gliese 581g and the invasion of the extraterrestrial civilization, Kelvin’s hair almost turned white. His subordinates didn’t see their boss’s smile for a long time. But today, he wasn’t only smiling but ecstatic.

If you asked why, it was an important day today.

Just an hour ago, the colonization ship that flew to Mars successfully reached the orbit of Mars and hovered directly above the landing point. The first colonial chamber could land on Mars with Jiang Chen’s orders and take the first step of mankind to the stars.

While walking on the way to the command center, Jiang Chen learned about the colonization ship from Kelvin.

“What’s the situation with the colonists?”

“All the colonists have successfully woken up from the hibernation chamber. They’re in good health. The colonial chamber function is normal and entered the final deployment stage.” Kelvin was overjoyed.

“What are we waiting for?” Jiang Chen pushed open the door of the command center. He looked up at the big screen in the center at the red-stained land.

This moment finally arrived.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and calmed down his mind. He placed the order for this historic mission in the command center with great excitement: “SS Heavenly Temple, initiate landing sequence!”

Chapter 1091: SS Heavenly Temple

Chapter 1091: SS Heavenly Temple

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

Wang Qiang took a deep breath; he calmed the excitement and anxiousness pumping in his chest. He peaked outside the window at the red-stained land.

The plan was to spend the rest of his life on this new planet.

“Stop gasping or we’ll be out of oxygen soon.” The man sitting across from him joked.

There was a friendly laugh in the chamber, and the nervous atmosphere dissipated.

More than 80 million kilometers away, the blue planet was no longer visible here. Although the moment they set foot on the colonization ship, they were ready to dedicate this life to the aerospace industry. But when they recalled life on Earth, the twenty colonists couldn’t stop reminiscing about life on the homeland.

No one knew what would be waiting for them.

They weren’t only the pioneers to colonize Mars, but they were also the first to set foot on this land. No matter how many space agencies conducted observations on this planet before, no one dared to declare they knew 100% of the planet before a human set his footprint on this foreign land.

However, the thought of colonizing new land for human civilization brought them some comfort.

The colonization ship entered the synchronous orbit and stopped directly above the landing point. The captain could order landing sequence with an order from the command center.

Wang Qian relaxed and sank into the cushion of the seat. He closed his eyes and planned to take a nap.

However, an hour passed after he opened his eyes again.

“All personnel, the command center has issued a landing order, and the colonial chamber will be separated from the colonization ship in ten seconds. Enter the landing stage. Countdown, 10, 9, 8…”

“So fast.”

When Wang Qiang opened his eyes, he heard the countdown. Without being mentally prepared, he felt anxious. But the colonization ship didn’t give him a chance to be flustered as the countdown quickly reached to zero.

With a slight jitter, the SS Heavenly Temple was divided into two, and the 200-meter-long chamber began to separate from the hull.

Looking from far away, the entire colonial chamber resembled a flat cuboid. Under the traction of six ion engines, it fell toward the red-stained land.

Mars’s orbit was only 17,000 kilometers in distance, while its gravity was only four-ninth of that on Earth. The density of the atmosphere was thin. The landing difficulty was slightly higher than on the Moon, but it was much easier than the Earth.

While the chamber maintained a downward sloping posture, the moment it came in contact with the atmosphere, six engines ignited with powerful propulsion rays. They dragged the chamber and stopped the acceleration of the fall.

The high-temperature ions surrounded the chamber tightly. From a distance, it looked like a blue meteor.

In the air, there was an arc. The two-hundred-meter-long flat cuboid, like a giant foot, descended from the sky and made an imprint on the land.

BOOM!

With a muffled sound, the red sand was send into the air by the collision.

The thick thigh-sized steel needle popped from the bottom of the chamber and nailed into the red sand directly into the rock formation tens of meters deep. They firmly pinned the chamber onto the desert and acted as the “foundation”.

After deployment on land was completed, deployment still continued.

The colonization ship with its chamber detached was still orbiting in the synchronous orbit. In the next ten years, it would serve as a satellite to provide communication, meteorological observation and crisis warning for the colony.

At this point, the chamber deployment process was finally completed.

The vibration outside stopped, and the lights in the cabin lit up.

When light returned to his field of vision, Wang Qiang frantically looked around and breathlessly looked at the captain sitting on the left-hand side across from him. He was thrilled.

“Did we succeed?”

The expression on the captain’s face was the same. Even if he wasn’t an animated person, he was moved by the excitement and sense of glory from the bottom of his heart.

Not just the captain, but all twenty colonists felt the same glory.

They received training for nearly a year, and they practiced day and night for this very day.

“Yes, we succeeded!” With a deep breath, the captain controlled his overflowing excitement and ordered in his trembling voice, “All personnel pay attention. Release the security lock. Sacro, go check the oxygen system. Lu Yang, go to the power room and turn on our nuclear fusion generator; we don’t have much energy in the battery.”

“Yes!”

“Understood!”

After the two men unlocked the safety lock, they leaped down from their seats and walked quickly outside the room.

The security lock was also unlocked. The captain stood in the middle of the buffer cabin and moved his sore arms. He looked at the colonists who had already lined up and ordered: “Yang Yuhan, deploy the exploration drone and conduct a detailed investigation of the geological conditions within a ten-mile radius. Liu Rui, Wang Qiang, prepare for patrol. Chris, you and I will go to the main control room. The rest of the personnel, immediately enter your positions. Time is tight and it is necessary to complete deployment of the planting unit within four hours. This is critical to address our food problem!”

“Yes!”

The colonists shouted in unison and acted immediately.

After all the orders were executed, the captain didn’t leave the buffer cabin immediately. Instead, he reached out to the holographic screen and switched the communication channel to Earth tens of millions of kilometers away. With his fingers trembling, he sent back news of success to his previous home.

“Calling the ground command center, we succeeded!”

…

“…we succeeded!”

When the voice was transmitted back to Celestial City more than 80 million kilometers away, the entire command center erupted in cheers, celebrating the moment in joy. People whistled, threw their arms in the air, hugged together, and celebrated this great moment.

Looking at the colony in the center of the screen, Jiang Chen was more excited than anyone.

If the Moon was an energy base, then Mars was the arsenal of the future “Earth Federation.” Mars was a large iron ore and the endless desert wasn’t silica on Earth but iron oxide!

To be more direct, if they took a shovel to any place on Mars and tossed the sand in a blast furnace, a pound of steel could be produced.

If they wanted to build a galactic ship larger than SS Seagull, they would need a million tons of steel. The minerals on Earth and asteroids would just barely be enough. But if they wanted to build an “invincible fleet”, it wouldn’t be impossible with the Mars colony for steel production.

As an important part of Jiang Chen’s space program, the future “Mars Industrial Park” would bear more than 80% of the shipbuilding capacity of the Earth Federation.

The Earth would finally gain a fighting chance against the imminent invasion.

In order to celebrate this historic moment, Jiang Chen announced in the heat of the moment: “All employees involved in the Mars Colonization Program will be rewarded 500,000 Xin New dollars per person regardless of their position! This money will come out of my pocket!”

The big red envelope pushed the cheering in the command center to a new peak…

Chapter 1092: : Mars Plan

Chapter 1092: Mars Plan

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

The colonial chamber was like a building lying on its side. As the center of the entire colony, it was where the colonists lived, worked, socialized and entertained in an array of facilities.

Around the colonial chamber, there were also four spherical buildings made out of graphene material, connected to the colonial chamber by giant pipes. The four spherical buildings were the lifeline of the entire colony.

Mars was a planet covered by desert and volcanic ash which gives off an impression of being extremely dry.

However, the opposite was true. As early as a few years ago, the “Curiosity” rover sent back data that suggested the planet was actually rich in water resources! However, most of the water was brine and buried underground or mixed with the sand so it could not be directly consumed.

But for Celestial Trade, it was not a problem. As long as there was water, there must be a way to turn it into drinkable water. The four spherical buildings served as the water pumps that filtered the water.

The location of the colony was chosen on an ancient lake bed. There were definitely no shortages of water. The four spherical water pumps first pumped the underground brine into spherical storage tanks, filtered the water, and finally pump the water through the pipeline into the colony.

Water was the source of life. Achieving self-sufficiency in drinking water was the key to achieving self-sufficiency for the colony.

After the water, oxygen was next.

The oxygen content of Mars was extremely low. Through the billions of years, the oxygen either escaped or reacted with the iron to form iron oxide. Fortunately, there was still an atmosphere on the planet. There was no oxygen but a sufficient amount of carbon dioxide. Therefore, it would be easier to create oxygen here than on the Moon because it does not need to use energy extensive electrolysis. Since there was no helium-3 on the planet, energy generation remained quite expensive.

Oxygen could also be created with food.

The main components of the Martian atmosphere was carbon dioxide; nitrogen, oxygen and water vapor were almost negligible. For animals, it was hell, but for plants, it was paradise!

Of course, it was not to say that plants can be grown on Mars. The surface of Mars was extremely cold, and plants experienced “Photosynthetic acclimation” by being exposed to a pure carbon dioxide environment, which would ultimately hinder crop growth.

However, as long as the carbon dioxide concentration of the plantation was controlled by nitrogen, it is easy to keep the crops in the plantation with the optimal carbon dioxide concentration. With a controlled water supply and ultraviolet light, the growth rate of crops will be impeccable!

The only shortcoming is that early investment is extremely high. For the ration of 20 people, the cost of the facility exceeded 100 million Xin New dollars. On Earth, the same equivalent dollar amount is enough to create a few hundred thousand acres of fertile land.

Jiang Chen still planned to position the Mars colony as an industrial base. Once the shipbuilding yard of Future Heavy Industries moved to Mars, Celestial Trade could build a few more SS Seagull classes to transport food. It would be a waste of resources to build a farm in the desert.

Lunar city offered the advantage of low electricity costs, and it was understandable to plant some food to ease supply pressure. Without helium-3 and pure water on Mars though, food production would be extremely expensive.

Of course, Jiang Chen considered transforming Mars into a terrestrial planet before. Or not just him, someone had proposed a plan to transform Mars long ago.

The most famous of the proposals was from SpaceX Elon Musk, who has been obsessed with Mars. The man was certainly a genius as he once proposed a shocking method by launching nuclear bombs at the poles of Mars. Nuclear explosion would melt the dry ice, thicken the atmosphere, cause the greenhouse effect, melt more dry ice, and continue to thicken the atmosphere… The key to this idea was to use the nuclear bombs to start the greenhouse effect. While it did sound unrealistic, it made sense in theory; a simple and yet effective solution.

However, Jiang Chen did not take long to give up the idea.

The method was simply too slow. While it was easy to start the greenhouse effect, it was not possible to achieve the end result without the process taking thousands of years. More importantly, the uncertainty of the plan was too high. Mars was the most important part of Celestial Trade’s plan to build its “Invincible Fleet” in the future. If something unexpected happens, then there was no going back and reloading the save.

Of course, although Jiang Chen gave up the idea to change the Mars landscape in the short term, this did not mean he has completely abandoned the plan to transform Mars into a terrestrial planet.

North of the colonial chamber was the plantation. Except for the main chamber, it is the largest building in the entire colony. It is connected by pipelines to the water storage tanks.

In the plantation with an area of about two acres, there was also a small biological laboratory. Two of the twenty colonists were biologists, and Jiang Chen gave them a difficult but honorable task.

To develop a bacterium that could survive in the Mars environment.

This kind of bacteria must be anaerobic, must adapt to a low-gravity environment, can resist low temperatures, and be capable of generating heat, but also be able to withstand the continuous exposure of ultraviolet light… This super bacterium sounds like a fantasy, but Jiang Chen who witnessed the history of Harmony is optimist about the future of biological engineering.

However, there was be a high chance he won’t be able to live to the day when Mars will be covered in grass. This would be a millennium project. He would only start the project and leave it to the future generations to complete the work.

Before recreating the clear and blue sky of Mars 4.3 billion years ago, he must build factories in this desert, and use steel and blood to create peace for the next generation.

…

After leaving the command center, Jiang Chen received a call from the Presidential Palace. Just half an hour ago, the Capitol called the Presidential Palace and expressed its willingness to start the second round of negotiations. However, they proposed an additional condition that appeared reasonable.

Since it was a matter of the fate of Earth, it should not be a closed-door discussion of several countries but discussed by everyone. All countries should discuss and formulate strategies against the extraterrestrial civilization.

In short, the meeting should be done at the United Nations.

The Capitol just called, and then the United Kingdom and France also expressed the same intention. They also added, the condition is the premise of the next round of negotiations. The implication is that if this matter is not discussed at the United Nations, then we will not participate!

Jiang Chen sneered at the news.

He knew exactly what these people were planning.

The Capitol held a firm grasp on the United Nations.

Out of the five permanent members, two of the members shared the same opinion as the UA.

Discussions at the United Nations seemed fair, but it was actually a trap.

Without the need to think, once this issue is discussed at the United Nations, it is absolutely impossible to come up with any results. First of all, Xin does not have equal power with the UA. Then, Celestial Trade is not even qualified to appear in the United Nations.

Without the company that discovered the extraterrestrial civilization, what’s the propose to meet with a bunch of small countries without any understanding of aerospace?

If the United Nations really possessed any power, North Korea would have long given up nuclear weapons!

I made the space elevator, I created the Moon Colony, I generated the trillion-dollar aerospace industry in Celestial Trade, I even offered to mine asteroids together. Now I have to go to your place to discuss how to use the stuff at my place? Let you be the boss?

Do you really think NASA is still the NASA from the Nixon era?

Jiang Chen, without any hesitation, immediately made a decision.

Chapter 1093: Stingray’s Return

Chapter 1093: Stingray’s Return

“Go to the United Nations for a meeting? No problem. Just get our ambassador to go meet with them.”

When Zhang Yaping heard Jiang Chen’s words, he immediately understood the implication. If he was a innocent man three years ago, he had long become a qualified politician.

It was the UN General Assembly, and it was a discussion of an important matter. While the president didn’t have to make a visit, at least a senior official should attend the meeting. Based on Jiang Chen’s decision, an ambassador at the consulate should go. It meant that the ambassador wouldn’t even have the right to represent the country to speak.

He simply meant “You can do whatever you want and I don’t care”!

But Zhang Yaping quickly made sense of the reason, even if he went there, he would not have a say. In this case, what would be the difference between sending someone else?

However, it wasn’t just that, Jiang Chen was not done.

“What is the date of the UN General Assembly?”

“July 2nd.”

“How about this, at the end of June, visit Hua, Russia, and Frankberg to strengthen the economic and trade cooperation. Bring a group of entrepreneurs from Xin and throw out the bait of the magnetic levitating highway. I don’t need you to do anything when you visit, just try to subtly hint their leaders…”

Zhang Yaping, who still had doubts in his mind, immediately understood the implication. His eyes brightened and the doubt in his eyes disappeared. After Jiang Chen finished, he nodded.

“Okay, I’ll get that prepared as soon as possible.”

“Mhmm, thank you.”

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and sneered after he hung up.

Since you want to play tricks with me, then I’ll play with you. Without the UA, Britain, and France, this summit will still continue. Just don’t regret it then!

Once he was no longer emotional, Jiang Chen frowned, and suddenly began to feel doubt.

To be honest, he was not surprised that the UA used their allies to put pressure on Celestial Trade.

He just didn’t understand that if the Capitol knew his personality and knew that he won’t compromise, why would they add this premise to the second round of negotiations?

From this perspective, it was something intriguing.

They clearly didn’t want to talk…

…

The news of Celestial Trade’s colonization ship successfully arriving on Mars, and that 20 colonists successfully settling on Mars spread to every corner of the world in just a few hours.

When the Mars Colonization Program was first announced, many people were eager to see Celestial Trade fail. Without the first step of “landing on Mars”, they began to think about building a colony?

However, the facts disappointed the doubters.

With Mars being full of iron oxide, iron ores were as worthless as sand and countless peopled drooled over the Mars colony.

However, they could only drool.

With the same method they advertised the Moon Colony, Celestial Trade placed a journalist among the 20 colonists to capture the life of the colonists. The photographs and videos were edited by the marketing department and placed on Celestial Trade’s official website.

These videos and photos immediately accumulated tens of millions of views in less than a day, and were forwarded to all major social media sites. They caused a sensation on the internet and even overtook the popularity of the Outer Space Security Summit.

“Even Mars has been colonized. What can stop Celestial Trade from going further?” Some people exclaimed.

“Damn, we didn’t even get to go on the Moon yet and they have already claimed Mars. The good places are being robbed by them, this is not okay!” Someone cursed.

“Sigh, when Celestial Trade recruited space volunteers, I applied for it. But when I saw the Mars Colonization Program, I gave up the idea. Now life on Mars doesn’t look as bad as I imagined…” Some people admired.

“…”

Not just on videos, Celestial Trade made the photos available on their official website for anyone to retransmit.

Intentional or not, amongst the photos, there was a photo that was particularly intriguing. In the photo, several colonists wearing spacesuits stood shoulder-to-shoulder, in a row, posing in front of the camera for a group photo.

The pose of the colonists in the photo itself was completely fine, but the problem was the background, the rover behind them.

…

It was “Curiosity” launched in 2011.

Compared with the astronauts who posed in front of it, it looked like a large toy.

Clumsy, bloated, and unappealing…

The meaning of the photo was of course positive, symbolizing the “friendship” between the countries. No matter from which point of view, it was just a good photo. However, the UA media chose to remain silent and selectively ignored this photo. Controversy only appeared among the netizens.

This photo full of malicious intention was a demand from Jiang Chen

As to why?

I am pitiful!

…

These days, Jiang Chen stayed in Celestial City. He would either go to the command center and observe the Mars colony or take a stroll in Celestial Trade to take in the beauty of the city full of technology.

They were approaching the end of the month. With the first exploration site built in the Mars colony, the Stingray A-1 sent to the UFO for investigation, ended its journey of nearly three months. In a suspense-filled moment, the deceleration was completed before the fuel was exhausted as it barely entered the orbit.

Because of the top-secret nature of the flight and the major events that happened recently, Celestial Trade couldn’t hold a grand welcoming ceremony for this hero. He could only be sneaked into the port of Celestial Trade.

However, Jiang Chen was never the kind of person who would make his subordinates feel aggrieved. In recognition of the brave performance of the pilot, Jiang Chen personally awarded him the Golden Eagle Medal.

It was almost the highest glory of the Celestial Trade Air Force. With such a medal, his career progression will be smooth sailing. As long as he didn’t make too many mistakes, he could be a captain before the age of forty.

In addition to the medal, a bonus of one million Xin New dollars was awarded to him in the form of a year-end bonus. On the one hand, his behavior was indeed worthy of praise, but on the other hand, it was a fee to keep the information confidential.

The one hundred kilograms sphere finally arrived in Celestial City.

Jiang Chen already couldn’t wait to see what it was.

Chapter 1094: A Surprising Finding

Chapter 1094: A Surprising Finding

[June 27, 2019]

Wang Qiang wrote the date at the top of his journal. He sniffed and looked outside the window. The sky was blocked by a sandstorm.

The days on Mars were only 37 minutes longer than Earth. Based on twenty-four-hour time, it should be around three in the afternoon, but it was dusk here.

After the initial excitement, the excitement of landing of Mars already faded.

Life on Mars was boring, communication resources were precious, and of course it was impossible to use the Internet. Before the completion of the large-scale communication base station, each person only had10 minutes of telephone time per day to call their relatives and friends on Earth. It was the only way for them to obtain information.

Without the Internet, it was torture for modern day people.

It meant that he couldn’t use Twitter, nor could he wear a phantom helmet to dive into the virtual world. Almost half of all entertainment methods were crossed off for him.

For Wang Qiang, his daily entertainment was listening to pop music. Lying in bed and reading webnovels, the rhythm of life seemed to slow down. It was the same for most others. They would find something they like to do in their spare time.

Fortunately, one of the twenty colonists in the colony was a chef who specialized in four cuisine types. The reserves in the colonial chamber were quite rich, and they could cook any type of meals every day. Ever since, eating became one of their few entertainments.

In order to boost the morale of the colonists, the captain assured them that he would request to the command center at the end of this month to bring more chefs in the next group of colonists. On the one hand, they had to balance the diet of people from different cultures, on the other hand, they could not eat the same thing forever.

The dust storm outside the window was growing stronger, but Wang Qiang was not bothered and continued to write things down. It was a habit that he developed after he came to Mars, mainly to pass time.

As for why he was so calm, he knew that as long as it was not a level 13 typhoon, the sandstorm just couldn’t move his anchored vehicle. The sandstorms on Mars, since they started to be tracked, were only as powerful as level 12 typhoon equivalent .

Before being sent to Mars, he was a geological worker for Future Mining. And of course, now too. The only one mission assigned to him by the command center was to survey the geological information of Mars, find minerals, and assess the reserves of groundwater.

While it was possible to produce steel with any shovel of sand, the heavy industrial industry required more than just steel. Elements such as aluminum, manganese, chromium, cobalt and nickel were all covered by a layer of iron oxide.

The colonization ship orbiting on the synchronous orbit scanned the geological information of the area. Based to the topographical features on the topographic map, he identified several locations where deposits and groundwater enrichment areas may exist. And his task for the next month was to inspect these mines on the mars rover and complete the final works on geological information mapping.

Although he did not imagine this to be an easy job, the hardships of the planet’s conditions still exceeded his expectations.

The entirety of Mars was a desert with no obstructions at all. It was the fifth time he encountered a sandstorm today. If the colonization ship above his head didn’t continuously monitoring weather data, he didn’t have the courage to get off the rover.

Mars climate was volatile and sandstorms came fast but also went fast.

When the wind indicator returned to a safe level, the dim sky finally reappeared.

Due to the thin atmosphere, dust particles were larger. Because of the Mie Scattering Effect, the dust scattered red light of the same wavelength. The sky was red in the direction without the Sun, and the sky was blue in the direction of the Sun.

Such a magnificent view could only be seen on Mars.

However, watching the same view every day turned out to be dull and boring. Wang Qiang began to miss Coro Island, the pleasant island where the sea breeze mixed with the scent of seafood, and the pristine sky.

Shaking his head, Wang Qiang put away his journal and also his nostalgia.

He opened the door, geared up his space suit, and jumped into the sand with the equipment box. In order to prevent the sudden arrival of a sandstorm, he already opened the anchoring device of the rover and attached himself with a safety rope behind his back.

While he never witnessed it before, before he came, he heard that the sandstorm could reach a strength equivalent to a level 12 typhoon on Earth. He could be easily sent into the air with his build.

“A lake bed sedimentary phase? This is almost weathered. There should be water underneath, just don’t know how much…”

He collapsed the holographic image and held onto the device as big as a suitcase, Wang Qiang found a relatively flat position on the ground, and then fixed the device to the ground.

It was not a sophisticated piece of equipment, but a practical one. There was a striker at the bottom of the device, which simulated the seismic wave by high-speed impact on the surface. According to the different propagation speed of the wave in different media, the lithology of different depths was determined, and also groundwater was determined along with its depth.

He removed the tablet in front of his chest and connected it to the equipment before exporting the seismic wave.

“Imported, let me see…”

Looking down at the waveform, Wang Qiang already gained an understanding of the formation. However, when he saw the positioned about two kilometers underground, he suddenly frowned.

“…is it wrong?”

At the position of two kilometers underground, the three red, blue and green waves were distorted and even intertwined. In his more than ten years of experience, it was the first time he witnessed this kind of a graph.

The seismic wave was backed up, Wang Qiang restarted the device. After waiting for three minutes, he measured another set of data.

However, the result this time was still the same.

Future Heavy Industries was known for its durability. However, if the possibility of equipment failure was ruled out, then there was only one possible explanation. The geological information of the target area was extremely complex.

More than one hundred meters of the formation, there was iron, aluminum, titanium… and something he had never seen before.

It was impossible for this to be formed naturally.

But if wasis not formed naturally, what could it be?

A thought suddenly emerged in Wang Qiang’s mind, his heart started pounding faster.

“… Damn, is this a treasure?”

Taking a deep breath, Wang Qiang restrained his excitement and didn’t bother collecting another set of data. He put the tablet back onto his chest, reached out and pressed on the helmet of the spacesuit, connecting the command center of the colonial chamber through the radio on the rover.

“This is Prospector 01, calling the command center. I have a situation here… not a security situation, I found something interesting.”

Chapter 1095: Strong Interaction Material

Chapter 1095: Strong Interaction Material

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

If Jiang Chen didn’t see it with his own eyes, if he didn’t touch it with his gloves, he would have never believed that the black sphere, the size of a golf ball, would really weigh 100 kilograms.

He examined it closely, the surface of the black ball exuded a faint metallic luster, but its physical properties were completely different from a metal. The smooth texture of the surface didn’t resemble a metal, but a form of glass.

After storing the black sphere in Celestial City’s lab, Jiang Chen immediately gathered more than 20 experts from Future Group’s Material Science Lab to carry out experiments.

However, unfortunately, even the most talented team was still clueless about the composition of this ball.

When the team leader of the research project came up next to Jiang Chen, he shook his head in embarrassment and sighed. “With our current technology, we can’t even determine its elemental composition. The only thing we can confirm now is that the black sphere has high material strength and the surface is very smooth…”

His team carried all forms of experimental methods. But despite their effort, they couldn’t even make a single dent. Even the most penetrative gamma ray couldn’t pass through the sphere which made him feel helpless.

The only thing he could determine is that the black sphere pose no threat and can be in contact with skin.

“What do you think this might be?” Jiang Chen asked.

The team leader hesitated for a moment and said, “I don’t know. If I have to take a guess, I think there should be a gravitational generating device inside this ball that can compress more than one hundred kilograms of material into the size of a golf ball.” Or rather, this is the fabled strong interaction material. It is directly composed of countless hadrons and even quarks… but this would be out of realm of our imagination.”

As he spoke, the scientist shook his head and denied himself immediately.

It was once speculated that there was a strong interaction material, but in theory it didn’t make sense… At least using existing theories, it is unreasonable. But if this sphere is really composed of strong interaction material, then the civilization that created it is really lightyears ahead.

To put it in simple terms, while one was still wondering how to cultivate, the other has already became an immortal…

“I propose to transfer the sphere from Celestial City to Coro Island’s Material Science Lab. There is more sophisticated equipment there we can use to conduct experiments,” The team leader suggested.

Jiang Chen shook his head. “No, let’s pause for now. The way we think may have flaws, I’ll think about other methods,”

The team leader looked confused, but he didn’t insist further.

For three days, he and his team wandered around the sphere. But they couldn’t even advance one step further in their research! The boss’ euphemistic speech was already saving his face.

…

Just like this, the Coro Island researchers returned home.

After the researchers left with the equipment, Jiang Chen orders dozens of soldiers from the military, locked down the lab with the black sphere, and gave out strict order. Except for himself, no one was allowed to enter the lab.

Then, Jiang Chen took the black sphere and tossed it into the storage dimension. When he returned to the ground, he spoke with Ayesha before heading to the apocalypse.

…

After returning to the apocalypse Jiang Chen immediately handed the black sphere to Lin Lin.

After the integration of knowledge between the 2,000 sisters, the research institute consisting of clones and digitalized humans became the most technologically advanced research institute in the NAC. Different from Fallout Shelter 027 with a focus on applied technology, the Lin Research Institute focused on theory and cutting-edge technology.

Lin Lin was the perfect candidate to study the mystery of this black ball.

Although she said she was not pleased with the assignment, when she saw the black sphere, she stopped her work on the portal and immediately dedicated herself to the mysterious object from the extraterrestrial civilization.

Jiang Chen was used to the displeased Lin Lin.

He knew that while she didn’t look pleasant on the surface, she was more enthusiastic than anyone else, she was just too shy to show this side of her. He rubbed Lin Lin’s head, and in her “grumpy” protest, he left the research institute.

Over the next few days, he planned to stay in the apocalypse until the end of the month. Then he would return to the modern world to oversee the situation.

Lin Lin’s research speed exceeded Jiang Chen’s expectations, at least much faster than he expected.

At noon on the third day, Jiang Chen was sitting on the sofa and chatting with Xiaorou in the living room while waiting for Yao Yao to announce it was time for lunch. Then, a tired Lin Lin pushed open the door and strolled in before plunging down right next to him.

“I have the results. Like my previous conjecture, the sphere is indeed made out of strong interaction material, referred to as hadron material.”

Also in three days, the research team of Future Group did not even know how to start. However, Lin Lin already made some progress which even shocked Jiang Chen.

“Strong interaction material?” Sun Xiaorou titled her head and looked at the two in confusion.

“Ummm, it’s hard to explain,” Lin Lin said, putting her hand on her forehead, and sighed. “The strong interaction force overcame the strong repulsive force generated by the electromagnetic force, and the particles in the material are bonded together by strong interaction force. In short, this small sphere is composed entirely of protons and neutrons, and naturally is not made out of the traditional element sense.”

“So, this thing is like a giant atom?” Jiang Chen had a strange expression on his face.

“Well, although you are not right, it is very commendable that you can understand this with your superficial physics knowledge- OUCH!” Before she finished, she covered her forehead, and glanced at Jiang Chen with a grieved expression, “Why did you do that, I’m not wrong! ”

Jiang Chen ignored Lin Lin’s grievances.

“Don’t interrupt. What do you think it is? A battery? Or a weapon? Or a detector…”

“None of those.” Lin Lin shook her head and grabbed her hair in distress, “Or all of them. The issue is that it is hadron material. It is impossible to analyze its internal structure with the existing technical means, no device can even penetrate this…”

Lin Lin’s eyes suddenly lit up and she muttered to herself, “Wait, it’s not impossible.”

Sun Xiaorou looked at the two, still confused about what they were muttering.

Chapter 1096: The Unscientific Defence Capability

Chapter 1096: The Unscientific Defence Capability

After lunch, Lin Lin returned to the institute with Jiang Chen. Out of curiosity, Sun Xiaorou also followed the two.

This small sphere may be a secret in the modern world, but it was nothing special in the apocalypse. Therefore, Jiang Chen did not hide anything from Xiaorou. He narrated the origin of the sphere through a story to her.

“Extraterrestrial civilization? Do they really exist?”

In the corridor of the institute, Sun Xiaorou slanted her head, and her soft, luscious hair draped across her shoulder. Her nose pointed upwards due to confusion, making her look more and more like her sister.

“Who knows? Although we haven’t met it yet, but who knows. Not to mention, if it is not an extraterrestrial civilization, how can we explain the sphere made out of hadron material?” Jiang Chen smiled, “it doesn’t look like something that can be formed in nature at all.”

“Use the result to derive the cause?”

“Yes.”

“How can you explain your ability to interdimensional travel?” Sun Xiaorou grinned.

Jiang Chen thought about it, then shook his head.

For the time being, he didn’t want to think about this.

Lin Lin took the two people to the elevator and arrived at the lab deep underground.

Although the Lin Research Institute did not research weapons, the particle cannon was an exception. Studying how to use magnetic confinement technology to wrap larger, high-temperature particles or even anti-matter, was one of the research topics Jiang Chen gave the institute. And this lab was designed to test this particle cannon.

The explosion-proof and earthquake-resistance of this lab was ranked among the top in the NAC.

In the middle of the lab, Jiang Chen saw the black sphere.

From the new graphene protective wall, it was clear that Lin Lin already tested the particle cannon on the black sphere. She was very close to use antimatter with power equivalent to nuclear weapons as her last resot, but she still couldn’t break the sphere.

Jiang Chen thought that if the particle cannon did not even dent the sphere, perhaps only anti-matter could damage it.

Just as Jiang Chen debated about this possibility, Lin Lin took a deep breath and whispered, “I’ll leave it up to you,” and then a ray of crimson light formed in her eye.

Jiang Chen silently put away the electronic products on him into the storage dimension, and also took Xiaorou’s EP away.

Most of the equipment used in this laboratory were large-scale optoelectronic components. The “parts” on Lin Lin’s body were the jewels of pre-war technology, they were all resistant to the strong EMP effect generated when the Klein particles collapse to the third dimension. But it was not the case for Jiang Chen’s electronics, for example, the watch Yao Yao gifted him. It could certainly resist an EMP grenade, but Lin Lin’s EMP could melt the electronic components inside it into a paste.

Lin Lin’s solution was simple.

Klein particles.

Since it is a particle that exists in the fourth dimension, it shound’t be too difficult to break through the hadron material. After all, the two are not on one dimension at all. As long as she can prove that the Klein particles can pass through the hadron material, then the next step is easy. Design a Klein particle wave detector to learn about the internal structure of the sphere. This step should not be a problem.

“How do you plan to treat Tingting,” Sun Xiaorou with a wicked smile held onto Jiang Chen’s arm. She gently whispered in his ear. “I heard from my sister the story between you and her in the virtual reality realm of Fallout Shelter 005.”

“…”

Jiang Chen selectively ignored this question.

To be honest, he didn’t know how to respond to Tingting’s feelings. He wasn’t even sure if her feelings are the same as the “like” experienced by humans.

Inside the graphene protective wall, Lin Lin… No, Tingting, formed a red ray in her eyes. The unstable red rays were the sign that the Klein particles collapsing from the fourth dimension to the third dimension.

She aimed at the center of the room, and the ray suddenly burst out and directly hit the black sphere.

However, something unexpected occurred.

The moment the ray collided with the black sphere, the ray was deflected and redirected into the graphene protective wall. The ray formed a large hole on the protective wall.

Jiang Chen’s eyes almost popped out.

Although he did not expect the Klein particle beam to penetrate the sphere, it was his first time seeing something that could deflect Klein particles.

The crimson dissipated from her pupils, and the energy-depleted Tingting entered hibernation. Lin Lin stared at the big hole on the wall and paused for a moment. Then she quickly walked to the instrument on her left hand and called out the Klein particle distribution map in the room.

On that image, it was obvious that a thick and bright red ray shot into the middle of the room, and then there was a forty-five degrees turn. The action made sense since Lin Lin did not expect the Klein particle beam to penetrate the black sphere.

However, what shocked her was…

At the position of the black sphere, not only the Klein particles that collapsed into the three-dimensional in the form of energy were deflected, even the Klein particles that have not yet decayed from the fourth dimension were also deflected.

Hadron material, was still a three-dimensional material after all, but it even interfered with the particles in the fourth dimension?

It was like a particle in the fourth dimension was blocked by the wall in the third-dimension?

How could this be!

Although Lin Lin couldn’t believe this, she knew it was not an experimental error.

The Klein particle monitor next to her was designed by her and her sisters. In this three hundred square meters lab, the monitoring of the density of the Klein particles can even be accurate to the millimeter level! Even if this instrument was compared to technology before the war, the top academicians would applaud over the accuracy of this device.

Sun Xiaorou walked over to the graphene protective wall and touched the terrifying fracture. She was stunned.

Unwillingly to accept the result, Lin Lin still wanted to try once more, but Tingting no longer had any energy. She had to give up.

“How is the situation?” Although he had an idea from the expression on her face, he still asked.

Sure enough, Lin Lin shook her head and grabbed her hair in frustration. She muttered in a depressed mood.

“Even the Klein particles can’t penetrate this, I don’t understand, it doesn’t make sense…”

“You mean, the hadron material is completely protected against Klein particles?”

“It seems to be the case… maybe it’s a principle we still don’t understand? I don’t understand.”

While Lin Lin was frustrated, Jiang Chen’s eyes gradually lit up.

This is amazing!

He was worried about how he would defend against the Klein particle beam known as the electronics killer if he encounters the space colonization ship from Harmony. However, now, the solution has appeared in front of him and he only needs to figure out how to gild a layer of the hadron material on the battleship…

Chapter 1097: Martian?

Chapter 1097: Martian?

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

Under Jiang Chen’s eager gaze, Lin Linshivered, and her tone quieted down.

“What, what do you want?”

“Is there any way to replicate this kind of hadron material?” Jiang Chen asked eagerly.

Lin Lin thought, and then she shook her head furiously.

“It’s very difficult, almost impossible.”

“Is it more difficult than antimatter?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Antimatter has a theoretical basis since the last century. The theory has matured since the middle of the century and it’s even possible to start large-scale preparation. It is because of the lack of breakthrough in magnetic confinement technology and the restrictions from the Science Ethics Committee that prevented the breakthrough of the last critical step.”

Lin Lin shook her head with a bitter smile. “But before the war, the so-called hadron material was still something that only existed in science fiction, let alone the theoretical foundation. We don’t understand anything about it.”

“Not possible?” Jiang Chen asked reluctantly.

“It’s not that it is impossible…” Lin Lin touched her chin and looked at the black sphere in the middle of the lab. “I can give it a try, but I can’t guarantee I’ll succeed. Why are you suddenly interested in this?” Even if we can barely make some hadron material, without large-scale production, it won’t be useful.”

“Can’t achieve large-scale production?” Jiang Chen sighed. “We can’t even understand its production conditions?”

This time Lin Lin was confused.

Then, she looked at Jiang Chen with skepticism. “Do you want to use hadron material to build a warship?”

“That’s not a good idea?”

When she heard Jiang Chen’s “naive” question, Lin Lin sighed.

“Think about it carefully. How did the pilot you sent enter the UFO and take the sphere out of it?”

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows furrowed, recalling the pilot named Liu Qingpeng and what he described.

“There was a fracture on the outer shell of the UFO that resembled the collision of a meteorite. He is from…”

Halfway through the sentence, Jiang Chen already realized as his expression turned awkward.

Right, since the meteorite cracked the outer shell of the UFO, then without a doubt the UFO was definitely not made out of hadron material.

Even the “higher civilization” that have mastered the hadron material for many years couldn’t achieve mass production of such material. How could Earth that didn’t even understand the theory achieve the impossible?

As soon as he heard that there was no way for mass production, Jiang Chen’s interest immediately decreased. He sighed.

“Do your best. Your research direction should still be on antimatter and portals.”

Although very reluctant, Jiang Chen rationally knew that if this hadron material took too much of NAC’s energy, it would not be worth it.

As for the black sphere, he planned to leave it here. He thought that even if he brought it back to the modern world, the scientists would be clueless about what to do and ultimately eat dust in the lab. Perhaps Lin Lin and her sisters could come up with a theory with leaving the sphere leaving it here.

…

“You don’t have to be so pessimistic. Perhaps there are more secrets in this black sphere compared to the hadron material. After all, this is a relic of higher civilization. A civilization much more advanced than Harmony. An item made with hadron material shouldn’t just be an ornament…”

With a rare comforting tone, Lin Lin comforted Jiang Chen. Then she took a tablet and clicked on it. Soon, the platform in which the black sphere was placed on slowly sank and was taken into the lab warehouse.

“Stop looking, let’s go.”

She patted Jiang Chen’s back and then walked to the elevator…

Seventy kilometers east of the Mars colony, a rover was parked on this endless sand dune.

The weather was surprisingly nice, and the surface temperature was also above zero.

In a heavy spacesuit, Wang Qiang took the captain and the engineer to Mine 071, the place where he found something intriguing last time. In front of the captian, Wang Qiang once again measured the three sets of waveforms to prove his discovery.

Wang Qiang said seriously as he pointed at the image on the tablet.

“The depth of about five kilometers, the thickness of about 100 meters of the formation, I dare to conclude that there must be something buried inside.”

“Iron ore?” Taking a glance at the waveforms on the tablet, Askim frowned.

As the colony’s engineer, his responsibility involved equipment maintenance and colony expansion. It is fair to say he knew nothing about mining. The few staggering waveforms didn’t look odd to him.

However, Hong Zewei standing next to him realized the unusual nature. As the captain of the colonial ship and the interim executive of the colony, it is fair to say he is the most knowledgeable person in the entire colony. Because of work needs, he understood a little bit of all aspects. Even if he is not a master of everything, he must at least understand.

He is a layman, but he learned how to interpret seismic data. When he saw the waveforms that were distorted by incredible magnitude, his expression changed drastically.

“It can’t be an iron ore. It can’t be any rock formation or deposit.” Wang Qiang shook his head and explained to Askim.

Askim started to grin.

“Not any deposit? What could it be? An alien grave?”

Wang Qiang closed his mouth and did not speak.

Captain Hong Zewei spoke up.

“Maybe… it’s really the Alien’s Mausoleum.”

Askim looked at the captain as if he saw a ghost. His expression looked extremely strange.

“Alien? Hong, are you sure you are not kidding?”

When these colonists set off, the X2 bacterial incident had not happened yet, and the Outer Space Security Summit did not even exist. Aliens were still strange or whimsical to them.

Of course, if Mars could access the Internet, they perhaps won’t be surprised by the word alien. Now, countries were all having a difficult time dealing with the concept of extraterrestrial civilization. The governments were busy calming public opinion and discussing countermeasures as they also have not received any news from Mars.

“Joking. Maybe it is not a mausoleum, but the city of the aliens,” Hong Zewei glanced at him and joked. “Have you seen Starship Troopers? Maybe those bugs live underneath us and are going to crawl out to bite us now.”

2“Fu*k! Don’t scare me.” Askim shivered and looked underneath his feet.

“How do you feel about drilling a hole? Can you do it?” Wang Qiang asked Askim.

“Aha, you must be asking if it is possible to make a hole five kilometers deep? I have to tell you regretfully that there is no such equipment in the colony. Even if there is, don’t even think about it!” Askim shook his head rapidly, using a warning tone, “Listen, I don’t want to die with you! Unless the command center sends soldiers to ensure our safety, don’t expect me to do this stupid thing for you.”

1“You shouldn’t have scared him him.” Wang Qiang looked at Hong Zewei and forced a smile.

“Who knew he would take it seriously?” The captain made a helpless expression. “Not to mention what he said is justified. There are no decent weapons in the colony. If the danger is below, we can’t even resist.”

Originally Hong Zewei was only joking, but this time he has began to think about his own statement. In case the creatures are hiding under the ground, no one can guarantee that there is no such possibility! Mars is more like the Earth than Earth four billion years ago.

When Columbus first set foot on the American continent, he didn’t think there were people on the continent until they met the indigenous people with feathers on their heads.

After all, twenty lives are in his hands.

“What do we do now?” Wang Qiang looked at the captain and asked, “Just leave it here?”

“Let’s go back to the colonial chamber. I will pass the message to the command center and request drilling equipment on the next colonization ship, and then ask if we can request a few soldiers. Fu*k, I scared myself too.”

Chapter 1098: Chaotic

Chapter 1098: Chaotic

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

Alien.

Extraterrestrial civilization.

These two terms were quite strange to most people a month ago. However, just in a month’s time, these two terms had created fear by most people.

More than a week ago, rumors about extraterrestrial civilization swept across the entire Internet, and debate was ignited with the intentionally stirring of Celestial Trade and Future Group.

The T virus and the X2 bacteria had already plagued the nerves of modern people. Under the current circumstance with news of extraterrestrial civilization spreading prolifically, this immediately caused shock around the world.

Interestingly, it was obvious to those who were aware that the messages were disclosed in an “ordered” fashion.

At the beginning, only “informed people” revealed that the Outer Space Security Summit was a defensive nature summit against extraterrestrial civilizations.

Then, a country’s official who asked not to be named stated that the spacecraft of extraterrestrial civilization is on the way to Earth and has crossed the distance of several light years. The government was discussing the use of 5% of GDP for the construction of a space colonization ship.

The signs of escapism ignited panic in those who were concerned. Peasants were not stupid, no matter how big the colonization ship was, they certainly would not have a chance to obtain a ticket.

Either everyone would live together, or we would go down together.

1

Such arguments seemed to be contrary to universal values, but most people living at the bottom were well aware that this was their only hope of living. Maybe they wouldn’t see the day, but they must consider the future of their offspring.

There were protests at unprecedented scale worldwide. The defiance against class was at a level unseen before. Even Xin faced the same issue.

Take the UA as an example.

After the disclosure of extraterrestrial civilization, the Capitol was busy extinguishing the fire, and the Wall Street tycoons completely tore off the disguise on their faces.

The Morgan Foundation and the Rockefeller consortium jointly established a number of non-public funds named Noah’s Ark and Columbus and set a minimum buy-in amount of ten million dollars.

The fund would be used to build an space colonization ship capable of leaving the solar system. Each share of the fund corresponded to a “ticket”, and each ten-share corresponds to a VIP ticket.

However, there was no impenetrable wall in this world.

Once the fund was disclosed, it caused an uproar.

A congressman condemned the fund in the Congress and proposed legislation to ban the existence of such a fund, but the next day he was kicked out of his party. On the third day, he turned into a hero for the civilians, as he stood on the streets to protest, and surrounded the Capitol.

Then on the fifth day, the brave member was found to have “suicided” in his home.

2

On the sixth day, his portrait appeared in the parade that occupied Wall Street. The demonstrators clashed with the anti-riot police, the explosion-proof shield and tear gas made the scene extremely chaotic…

1

In addition to the controversial Noah’s Ark fund, Silicon Valley also created a number of terrestrial planetary exploration companies that seek investor funding by searching for terrestrial planets in hundreds of millions of galaxies and developing colonization programs.

In addition to the dispute between escapism and anti-escapism, many strange rhetorics were also born.

Such as capitulation.

Just as everyone was frightened by the space colonization ship of the extraterrestrial civilization, Greenpeace made a statement. This organization, which flaunts love and peace, declared that extraterrestrial civilization may be coming for peaceful purposes, and that their purpose of aggression is only arrogance and prejudice of humans.

1

They also claimed that rashly taking military action would only provoke a war between two civilizations and warn “some people” not to make the wrong choice.

The organization also used its global influence and organized two large-scale demonstrations in Xin. Both demonstrations were suppressed by police drones. They were not convinced as they turned their attention to the space elevator and created the movement to occupy the space elevator.

Soon, they paid the price for their stupidity.

Celestial Trade was not as nice as the Xin government. The Special Operations Brigade stationed at the base station directly captured all the demonstrators, and the courts completed the trial at lightning speed. They were not given an opportunity to appeal and tossed into prison immediately.

The thunderous reaction of Celestial Trade finally cooled some people’s irrational brains down and learned who was the true owner of the country.

However, the intensive measures are not without side effects. In the past two weeks, the situation in Xin was unsettled, and it even forced the presidential palace to issue documents and tighten the issuance of tourist visas.

Of course, for the colonists on Mars, these things that happened on Earth have nothing to do with them. Perhaps when they call their loved ones, they could reveal snippets of the demonstration, but now, alien was still a strange term to them.

Or, a disturbing term.

After returning to the colony, in just one day, Askim’s big mouth immediately let everyone know about the abnormality discovered at Mine 071. Now the entire colony knew that there may be buried Martians under their feet, and the atmosphere in the colonial chamber suddenly became strange.

Just as Hong Zewei, the captain of the colony, had a headache about how to write this report, the Xin president Zhang Yaping had already ended his visit to Hua and departed for Russia.

Negotiations in Hua were not smooth sailing, but driven by common threats and visible benefits, the two sides reached agreement on the core issues and established the basic framework for the Outer Space Defense Alliance.

Russian President Putin personally greeted him at the Moscow International Airport. With the escort of the Russian Security Service, the convoy of the two presidents headed to Kremlin.

Sitting across from Putin, Zhang Yaping watched the streets of Moscow, and his eyes swept over an armored vehicle.

“Did something happen recently?”

“A lot of things have happened. It depends on what you mean,” Putin smiled and replied in English.

“Things that need to be fixed by armored vehicles?” Zhang Yaping asked in a nonchalant tone.

Putin grinned and then looked expressionless out the window. Zhang Yaping followed his line of sight. It was a temporary post built on the street. The soldiers on duty were looking at the convoy and saluting.

“Just three days ago, some people tried to persuade me to leave a path for the Slavs.”

Zhang Yaping raised an eyebrow.

Before he came, he did some homework and learned about the financial oligarchy and ruthless politicians in Russia.

It was also his biggest concern. If the Russian elites preferred escapism, then the negotiation was destined to fail.

“Oh? How did you answer?”

Until the soldier disappeared from his field of vision, Putin looked to Zhang Yapin and answered without much emotion.

“I told them whether it was Napoleon, Hitler, or Aliens.”

“The Kremlin is in Moscow, and the Slavs won’t go anywhere.”

“In the past, now, and in the future too.”

1

Chapter 1099: North America in the Apocalypse

Chapter 1099: North America in the Apocalypse

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

“It’s already July’.”

“Yes.”

Jiang Chen held onto Yao Yao’s little hand as they strolled around the streets of the Sixth Street, the bustling market gave him a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Resources were becoming plentiful, people no longer looked impoverished, and the clothes on them were no longer made out of mutant fur or rags. Penniless people also no longer have to sell themselves as slaves. NAC’s subsistence allowance didn’t allow these people to live a comfortable life, but they could feed themselves.

The neatly built concrete houses once again stood on top of the ruins, replacing the shacks that used to be made out of iron and wooden supports. The landscape that was originally only seen in the Inner Circle now was common in the Outer Circle, benefiting every survivor in the Sixth Street.

Order in the market no longer needed to be maintained by hanging human heads and bodies treated with formalin. The word law for the first time regained its meaning on this soil. If someone dared to destroy the order, NAC’s fierce garrisons would be the first to let them know their own stupidity.

Almost every month, Jiang Chen took a trip with his guards to the NAC area; sometimes in the Sixth Street, sometimes in Jia City, Hang City, or Hongcheng. Except for Yizhou Island, due to the distance, he visited all the settlements with more than 10,000 people.

The Sixth Street was undoubtedly the most prosperous among all settlements.

The tours served the purpose of observing the people’s living conditions but were mostly used to strengthen his own rule while maintaining his presence among the survivors. If he didn’t appear enough, people wouldn’t remember what he looked like.

The guards in kinetic skeletons surrounded him while the power armors guarded them further away. They left enough space for Jiang Chen and Yao Yao while protecting them in the middle.

No matter where they went, the sight of soldiers, traders, and civilians was always in awe and worship. Some people even stopped and took off their hats to pay tribute.

As the General of the NAC, he was not only the ruler here but also the spiritual leader of the survivors.

Other than the people who admired him, many women worshipped him as a hero and all looked at him keenly, directly revealing their desire. Because of their excellent genes, other than those who were too “skinny”, most of them were stunning.

As for the little girl he was holding, they selectively ignored her. It was not uncommon for polygamy to exist on the wasteland. It was the privilege of the strong and the obligation of the strong to enjoy more spouses.

Even the “civilized people” who only awakened not long after, after they accepted the reality that the civilization they’ve known has disappeared, most remained silent about natural selection, and some even were proactive in seeking stronger spouses. In order to live a life where they didn’t have to survive on nutrient supply, those who passed through the “struggling period” chose to approach powerful men and ignore their many spouses.

The sight of those women made Yao Yao very uncomfortable. The instinctive sense of danger made the little loli fearful, so she tightened her grip on Jiang Chen’s arm.

Before coming out, Sister Sun Jiao cautioned her to look after Brother Jiang Chen, or else there may be more and more sisters at home. She knows exactly what these women want through their gazes, but she couldn’t do anything about them.

Yao Yao pouted with some frustration as she thought about her own body.

Only if my chest is a little bigger…

Yao Yao sighed.

Although Brother Jiang Chen occasionally kissed her and occasionally did some weird things, all the moves stopped before the final base. She was no longer a child. Even with the inhibitors stunting her growth, she was already twenty years old.

However, Brother Jiang Chen always viewed her as a child. However, she could do the stuff that Sister Sun Jiao and Xiaorou do.

If you don’t try it, how do you know it’s not good?

“Do you not like summer?” Looking at the loli’s puffed mouth, Jiang Chen misunderstood her mind and rubbed her fluffy hair. “This good weather is hard to come by.”

“I like it, but once summer is over, Brother Jiang Chen will rarely come back…” She moved closer to Jiang Chen and used her little hand to gently grab his sleeve as she muttered in a quiet voice.

“How come? Yao Yao’s hot pot is so delicious, I am looking forward to the winter.” Holding onto Yao Yao’s small hand again, Jiang Chen smiled.

It would be great if they could fix the Holy Shield System before winter arrives.

The apocalypse already entered the Small Ice Age. For the next while, the weather would only get colder and colder. Wanghai City is located in the south and the effects of the storm would be bearable. Jiang Chen heard that at the beginning of the year, in the area north of Shangjing, the entire settlement was frozen into a dead city, and people who could survive turned into cannibals.

How could the those deeper in the north survive? It was not a problem that can be solved with one or two bottles of vodka.

No one would be spared from this global disaster.

Taking Yao Yao’s small hand, Jiang Chen took his guards to tour a few prosperous areas in the Outer Circle and finally ended this month’s routine inspection.

Yao Yao was sent on the returning helicopter. Jiang Chen did not go back together with her. Instead, he went to the Inner Circle to see Chu Nan, who had just finished a scheduled meeting.

Just half a month ago, when Jiang Chen came back last time, he hired a battleship from the Beluga Observation Station and transported a 50-person investigation unit across the Pacific Ocean to the North American continent.

He had been curious for a long time. Asia was basically in shambles, so what would North America look like?

Although both CCCP and PAC were unable to land in North America, nuclear weapons certainly made frequent visits.

Similarly, Jiang Chen was also curious about Africa. While the whole world was showered by nuclear bombs, Africa surprisingly didn’t get hit due to its poor economic status. They only got secondhand smoke from the monsoon crossing and fought themselves to death.

However, he couldn’t expand to Africa yet due to the distance. It was rumored that monstrous sea beasts over hundreds of meters long roamed in the Indian Ocean. It would be difficult to get to the continent. While many epic mutants dwelled in the Pacific Ocean, the risk was much lower taking the Bering Strait.

After seeing Chu Nan, Jiang Chen got straight to the point.

“Is there any news from North America?”

“According to your request, our people have established an outpost on the West Coast.”

Although Chu Nan did not understand why the General was interested in North America, he sent a reconnaissance unit. A simple post was built on the ruins of the West Coast, and a radio communication base station was set up to contact the Sixth Street.

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded with satisfaction.

“Oh? Then tell me about it. What is it like there?”

Chapter 1100: NAC Navy

Chapter 1100: NAC Navy

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

“The West Coast has formed a separate force, mainly concentrated in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The battleship of the Beluga Inspection Station anchored on the shores of Los Angeles has sent boats to carry our people onto the continent.”

“After they arrived, our people set up a post on the West Coast and sent soldiers to explore Los Angeles. On the outskirts of Los Angeles, we encountered a kind of mutant similar to the mutant lizards we see here. They live in groups and act aggressively, but fortunately, our people first discovered them. After taking care of those lizards, our people successfully arrived in Los Angeles.”

“The entirety of Los Angeles is in ruins. It’s similar to the situation in Wanghai, but the population there is much smaller. Based on what the local people said, there are large and small survivors’ settlements on the West Coast, including the National Guards, the militia “Minutemen”, the cannibal tribe ‘Blood Hounds’, and the mutated humans tribe ‘Destruction’.”

“They have a developed animal husbandry industry. Our people have found large-scale Double-headed Cows on the edge of the desert in California. Their Double-headed Cows are larger in size because of the consumption of a fern that reduces radiation. The radiation of these cattle is low, and the meat quality is relatively delicious. The survivors mainly use crystals and mutant skins as the currency for trade. Also, there is something else that’s interesting…”

Chu Nan took out something from his pocket and gently dropped it on the table.

“…We found this from the Beluga Station and brought it back.”

“This is… a bottle cap?” Jiang Chen was confused as he examined the bottle cap that was spinning on the table.

“More precisely, it’s a limited-edition bottle cap created by the Coca-Cola Company after 2168. It is equipped with Coca-Cola’s nickel-plated anti-counterfeit logo. Each bottle of Coke has a specific number stored in the database of the Coke Plant in California.” Chu Nan grinned. “The factory is now controlled by the California National Guard as their money printing machine.”

“Using bottle caps as currency?” Jiang Chen revealed a strange expression.

3

“That’s right. This is hard to forge. Every factory bottle cap is automatically recorded into the database. The entire West Coast and even some inland states are using this as currency. However, this bottle cap seems to experience high inflation. A good quality rifle requires 10,000 caps, an adult Double-headed Cow is worth 100,000 caps. A National Guard Power Armor requires an astronomical figure, close to ten million I think.”

“Where did they get so much nickel?” Jiang Chen asked.

Although nickel was not a rare earth material, it was more scarce than rare earth materials on the wasteland, let alone North America which was already scarce of nickel. It was due to the already high demand for nickel. From power armor to tanks, every product depended on this particular metal. The amount recycled from wastes was not enough, and Jiang Chen relied on the modern world to solve NAC’s nickel crisis.

In order to smuggle a bit of nickel from the NAC, the Northern Alliance District tried all different kinds of means, but the survivors on the West Coast actually used nickel to produce bottle caps?

“They certainly don’t have that much nickel.” Chu Nan shrugged, then laughed. “So when our people proposed a trade with the California National Guard, the first thing they asked about was, ‘Do you have nickel? ‘.”

Jiang Chen already understood. For the survivors on the West Coast, nickel served the same purpose as gold. Nickel standard instead of gold standard? Or the “security code” standard?

In addition, Jiang Chen gained some other information from Chu Nan. For example, since the survivors used nickel to “cast coins,” presumably their industrial level shouldn’t be high. At most, they would be comparable to the Sixth Street four years ago, building rifles to power armors by hand.

Chu Nan looked at Jiang Chen and already guessed what his boss was thinking, so he asked, “What is your plan?”

He was worried about the boss suddenly making a rash decision and sending thousands of soldiers to California to liberate North America. Even though he believed that NAC’s force could easily dominate the rest of the world, it served no purpose.

Now NAC’s sphere of influence was between Wanghai and the Wu City region. They could easily expand to the southern provinces rich in resources. It served as an advantage to control the West Coast all the way across to the Pacific Ocean.

Jiang Chen certainly understood the drawbacks.

“The West Coast post is to be maintained at its current size. It will likely alarm the local forces if we expand.”

“Don’t let our people just be idle. Get them to investigate what specialty products are worth bringing back, and then research what the local survivors lack in addition to metal resources. In three days, I need you to provide me with all this information in a report.”

Chu Nan smiled confidently. “No problem, maybe it won’t even take three days.”

“Right, there is still one more thing I need your input in.”

“Please go ahead,” Chu Nan said respectfully.

“I’m going to build a navy. What do you think?” Although he said it was an issue he wanted to discuss, his tone revealed his certainty. He has thought about forming a NAC Navy since a long time ago.

It used to be unnecessary, but with the expansion of the NAC, its own market was far from enough to feed the booming industry. NAC’s expansion must be built on trade routes and the role of the ocean played a bigger and bigger role.

However, the ocean was controlled by the Beluga Observation Station.

Previously hiring Beluga Station to escort NAC was due to NAC’s lack of energy to expand to the ocean, while also being worried that these guys with guns and rifles will end up becoming pirates. As for the sonar to repel away small marine mutants, Camp 027 already created a prototype, ready to be put into action at a moment’s notice.

Chu Nan was thrilled to hear the news.

“General is wise!”

“No need to flatter me, I asked you for your opinion.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“NAC should have had its own navy long ago! If you have to ask me, this is my only opinion.” Chu Nan laughed and slapped his thigh, then after recollecting himself, he looked at Jiang Chen with seriousness, “I share the same opinion as you. NAC’s ocean must be maintained by NAC itself. The only trouble now is what will the Beluga Station think of this.”

Jiang Chen frowned when he heard the concern.

The opinion of the Beluga Inspection Station was indeed a problem. Now the oceans in the entire Pan-Asia region were almost monopolized in their hands. Any fleet that wished to conduct offshore trade must sign a protection agreement with them.

If NAC started to develop a navy, it would indeed affect their interest.

Unless he could find a suitable entry point…

Carefully weighing the pros and cons, Jiang Chen’s sight unconsciously landed on the Pan Asia map on the wall. When his eyes moved to the sea near Wanghai, a brilliant idea suddenly came to his mind.

A suitable reason, or an excuse.

Even if the Beluga Station was displeased, he would have the perfect excuse.

Chapter 1101: New Trade Route

Chapter 1101: New Trade Route

On July 1st, Liuding Town requested assistance from NAC on the grounds that the aircraft carrier was in disrepair.

As an ally with a strong relationship, NAC was obliged to help and sent an engineering team to carry out a comprehensive inspection of the Bohai Aircraft Carrier. The NAC engineering team concluded that the aircraft carrier, due to a lack of maintenance, was in critical condition.

Only a full replacement of the aging parts could save the city on the aircraft carrier.

It made sense what happened next. NAC built a shipyard at the port in front of Liuding Town to produce parts for replacement. NAC also sent technicians on the aircraft carrier in the name of site maintenance . But in fact, only they knew what they were actually doing it.

NAC’s move made the Beluga Station feel nervous, but it all made sense. Wu Yue, stationed at the Sixth Street, went to see Jiang Chen several times to subtly learn his perspective and to understand what NAC was planning.

However, Jiang Chen would never reveal his true intention to him.

As for the protagonist of this fiasco, was Liuding Town pleased?

The senior officials of Liuding welcomed NAC with open arms!

Not only did NAC help them replace parts, they also renovated the hull for free. NAC even promised them over a hundred thousand credit points. Where could they find a better deal?

Would the NAC navy pose a threat to Liuding Town? No one thought from that perspective.

When the strength of the two sides was too drastically different, the idea of a threat was no longer within consideration.

Since NAC eradicated the mutants of Wanghai in a dominating manner, Liuding Town never mentioned the idea of splitting Wanghai with NAC once more. Later, Liuding Town was fully integrated into NAC’s credit point monetary system, and the economy became more and more dependent on the Sixth Street. The senior officials of Liuding Town even began purchasing assets in the Sixth Street, and even regarded themselves as part of the NAC.

Just like this NAC built a shipyard on the edge of Wanghai and trained the ship engineers in the name of repairing the aircraft carrier.

On the other hand, a message came back from the outpost on the West Coast. It included a list of California specialty and resource deficiencies.

Inheriting the scientific research results of the pre-war Silicon Valley, the electronics industry there was extremely developed. The drones and robotics level were far above Wu City, mostly attributable to the leadership position of Silicon Valley’s electronic chip production technology.

In addition, North American power armor was vastly adopted. Even the raiders could build power armors using scraps. For pre-war militia organizations like the National Guard, almost one out of every four soldiers owned a “Militia 02” Power Armor. Today, almost everyone owned a power armor.

Electronic chips, robotic accessories, and even power armors were all promising goods to be traded. With almost no hesitation, Jiang Chen listed these three products as the key imports for this trade route across the ocean.

Other than advanced electronics industry.

Due to the development of animal husbandry, California’s canned meat was even sold by dealers to South America. And some of the radiation-resistant crops that could only grow on specific soils made California a granary of North America.

Under such circumstances, it was obviously meaningless to export food to California. Even if NAC’s pre-war food was more delicious, the advantage would not be too substantial. After all, quantity mattered more than quality on the wasteland.

As long as it was not the Double-headed beef raised in the Sixth Street five years ago that tasted like wax, people were already happy being able to eat meat.

This proved that a food trade had no future in North America. However, the development of animal husbandry meant that they were quite lacking in spices and condiments.

For example, the mutated peppers and anise produced by Hongcheng, the various sauces processed in the Sixth Street, and the Mud Crab roe produced in Yizhou Island should have a good market on the West Coast.

In addition to spices and condiments, arms would be another option. The ammunitions produced by the Sixth Street were definitely more durable than the rifles hand-built by the survivors. Of course, the kinetic skeletons and the T3 and T4 Power Armors would not be exported, even if there were hundreds of thousands of miles between California and Wanghai.

“…In addition, when trading with the locals, remember to pay attention to items related to NASA. If they find the wreckage of advanced spacecraft or satellite, ship it back with other trade goods.” After discussing trade items with Chu Nan, Jiang Chen added one more point.

Although the NASA of the modern world was completely outclassed by Celestial Trade, the NASA on this timeline remained a powerful organization.

“No problem.”

It was no longer a secret among NAC officials that their boss loved to collect spacecrafts. Chu Nan simply agreed.

Jiang Chen stretched out and sunk into his chair after the call ended.

After the NAC went on the right track, very few things required him to personally overlook. To the point where he didn’t remember the last time he sat in the General Office to take care of affairs.

Sun Jiao opened the door and walked in with coffee. When she saw Jiang Chen relaxed in the chair, she smiled gently. With quiet steps, she walked behind him and began to massage him.

“Tired? Let me help you.”

Such a gentle action from Sun Jiao made Jiang Chen unable to comprehend.

“Does it feel nice?” Sun Jiao asked.

In order to confirm that he wasn’t hallucinating, Jiang Chen looked up and met a pair of gentle and watery pupils.

“Did you eat something strange this morning… AH, it hurts… BE GENTLE.”

The smile on her face did not change, but the murderousness in her eyes was oozing out as her fingers sunk into his shoulders.

Sure enough, this is the Sun Jiao that I know of…

Jiang Chen thought with a painful grin. If it was Xiaorou or Yao Yao, he would have turned around and took them down. But at the moment, it was Sun Jiao with impeccable strength.

But quickly, the pressure on his shoulders disappeared.

Softness embraced the back of his head, and Sun Jiao wrapped her arms around him, gently placing her chin on his shoulder.

She wanted to say many things, but in the end, there was only one word that came out.

“Fool.”

Jiang Chen smiled and reached out to hold her hand.

A moment of silence lingered between the duo, then Sun Jiao gently bit her lower lip before whispering.

“You are going back tomorrow?”

“Mhmm.”

“…I will always miss you.”

Jiang Chen smiled.

“Dummy—”

“Brother-in-law~”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a crisp voice outside the door. Sun Jiao quickly jumped away and stood next to Jiang Chen.

The office door was pushed open and Sun Xiaorou hopped in.

However, when she took her first step into the office, her foot stopped midair and looked suspiciously at the two people in the office.

When she saw the red glow and nervous expression on her sister’s face, she quickly read the atmosphere in the air, and a naughty smile appeared.

“Ah…sorry to bother you guys, please continue~”

“Wait, this is not what you think—” Sun Jiao was blushing and rushed to explained.

Xiaorou gave no chance for her sister to explain. She spat out her tongue and quickly escaped.

Looking at the door, Sun Jiao, wearing a red hue, stomped her feet in anger before rushing out the door.

Jiang Chen shook his head.

Looking at the cup of coffee on the table, he heartbeat returned to normal, and ripples began to form again in his calm state.

If Xiaorou didn’t interrupt them, then he and Sun Jiao probably would have started in the office…

When they are together, it seemed like there was always no self-control.

Shaking his head and throwing such thoughts out of his mind, Jiang Chen picked up the documents that he put aside on the table.

Zhang Yaping’s diplomatic visit had ended. Without any surprise, he should be on the plane back to Xin.

From tomorrow on, it was time to overlook the overall situation.

Before that, he must finish the work at hand…

Chapter 1102: Earth Defense Alliance

Chapter 1102: Earth Defense Alliance

On July 3rd, the two-day UN General Assembly ended.

Because of a lack of cooperation from Celestial Trade, this meeting didn’t make as much progress as most people expected. On one hand, it was because the United Nations had no right to directly interfere in the internal affairs of member states. On the other hand, it was because the representatives from Xin had no power to make decisions at all.

For example, Canada proposed that Celestial Trade should sell its space elevator to the United Nations at a premium of 20%. Ultimately, it would be jointly funded by all countries and the United Nations would lead the defense of extraterrestrial civilization.

Even though this proposal received a high number of votes, it wasn’t well-received by Xin.

In contrast, the negotiations between Xin and Hua, Frankberg and Russia made great progress.

With Zhang Yaping’s continuous efforts, the leaders of the four countries reached an agreement on the specifics. At the end of the UN General Assembly, all four countries held press conferences at the same time and announced the formation of the Earth Defense Alliance in Coro City, Shangjing, Moscow, and Ber…

When night embraced the Revolution Square in Coro City, the lights illuminated and dispersed the darkness. In front of the reporters, Jiang Chen solemnly gave the opening remarks of this defining ceremony.

In this darkest hour, people’s eyes looked over the fully-armed soldiers and quietly observed the center of the square, no one made a sound.

The protests and demonstrations swept the world in the past few days made everyone feel exhausted and confused. From the moment they learned about the existence of the extraterrestrial civilization, panic and fear were bred in everyone’s hearts and grew uncontrollably.

“There’s already enough evidence to prove that the tragedies in City K, Yoto, Somalia, and Finland were caused by the extraterrestrial civilization. They used lies to confuse our people. They used a conspiracy to split our people!”

A powerful voice echoed in the square, blowing away the fear in people’s hearts. In this square once filled with the blood of revolutionists, a monument stood tall in the center, people were revitalized, and their blood began to boil.

“Their behavior has already constituted aggression.” Jiang Chen paused as he looked around the crowd, then he said slowly, one word at a time: “An aggression against all of mankind.”

“The option of dialogue hasn’t existed from the beginning. All diplomatic means don’t have meaning; traditional borders are meaningless. What we can do is use blood to defend our homeland! No one, no country can stay out of this war!”

“So, we choose to stand up.”

“In this solemn and sacred moment, on behalf of Xin and the colonies of Celestial Trade, I declare to Xin, to our allies, and the world that the Earth Defense Alliance is formally established!”

Thunderous applause and cheers resounded through the square, and people waved the small national flag in their hands. In their pupils full of life, there wasn’t a hint of fear.

For most people, they were fearful not because of the unseen extraterrestrial civilization but because of the chaos before the darkness. If the whole world was united, Earth’s civilization would have a fighting chance. Although still young and weak, the establishment of the Earth Defense Alliance brought hope.

Amidst the deafening cheers, Jiang Chen read out the list of member states of the Earth Defense Alliance.

According to the “Coro City Agreement” signed the previous day, the major members of the Earth Defense Alliance were Xin, Hua, Russia, and Frankberg. The secondary members included a total of 21 Asian countries including Pakistan, Moro, Malay and so on.

Based on the consensus, the major member states would contribute 5-7% of GDP according to their territorial size and population size, and the secondary member states would contribute 3-4% of GDP. All contributions would fund the development of the aerospace industry.

Of course, obligation wasn’t without reward—although they had joined the Earth Defense Alliance to protect themselves, Celestial Trade would also treat its allies right.

In the Coro City Agreement, Celestial Trade promised to member states that its space resources would be tilted toward member states.

In addition, the agreement also stipulated that the Earth Defense Alliance would impose a 50% defense tax on all non-member states in outer space resources development. The money would be collected by Celestial Trade and used to establish an Earth Defense Fund. The purpose of the fund was to establish extraterrestrial fortifications and build a fleet and other defensive measures.

Since this was for the common interests of all people, everyone had to contribute somehow.

If they weren’t going to put in the effort, then it was fair to pay some money.

When this measure was released, it suddenly caused an earthquake, especially in the financial world. The aerospace companies listed on NASDAQ plunged.

The prospects of aerospace companies weren’t the only things that took a heavy blow. With light and heavy industrial raw materials increasingly dependent on outer space resources, pessimism began to spread from aerospace companies to manufacturing industries.

What was the concept of the 50% defense tax?

Taking iron ores as an example, as of July 1, 2019, thanks to the increase in the capacity of the space elevator, the industry-standard ore was quoted a price of 58 New Xin dollars per ton. Before the introduction of the defense tax, the UA could import iron ore from Xin at a price of 45 New Xin dollars per ton, but after the introduction of the defense tax, their cost skyrocketed to 67.5 New Xin dollars.

What’s more, the price of 67.5 New Xin dollars was still lower than the production cost of 76 US dollars per ton quoted by the former mining giant, Vale. In other words, no countries would be able to find a substitute at the same price!

It was impossible to underestimate the difference of 22.5 New Xin dollars.

Steel was the foundation of industry, and fluctuations in commodity prices would be reflected in the cost of manufacturing. If the global price experienced volatility, the effects might be invisible because of the exchange rate. But if this price volatility was confined to a certain part of the country, then the impact couldn’t be underestimated.

The same unit of industrial manufactured goods would be 22.5 Xin New dollars more expensive if produced elsewhere.

Not only iron ore but all metal minerals from iron ore to rare earth metals were impacted. Non-Earth Defense Alliance members would be forced to accept this “unequal treaty.” Unless they wanted to stop using the space elevator, they had to accept the 50% tax.

It was foreseeable that with gradual expansion in space resource development in the future, the defense tax would be an unavoidable burden on non-member states. In the long run, the market competitiveness of the Earth Defense Alliance members would only grow.

As a result, the foreign exchange in the global economy would exhibit a trend where the Xin New dollars would strengthen against other currencies.

For Wall Street, no news could be worse than this new reality.

Chapter 1103: Highway Robbery

Chapter 1103: Highway Robbery

At the New York Stock Exchange, there was another exclamation in the lobby.

The Seattle Trailblazers that carried countless optimism by investors fell below the issuance price at opening.

The company’s primary business focused on the exploration of extraterrestrial planets, as well as the search for a habitable planet. Due to major breakthroughs in space telescope technology, many investors viewed them as the Columbus of the new century. Not long ago, the Noah’s Ark Fund invested $200 million in this company, and on the date of its initial public offering, this bizarre incident happened.

Although it wasn’t rare for stocks to fall below the issuance price on the first day, it was rare for the stock price to be slashed in half, especially for a company that carried such a positive forward guidance.

What made this situation even more odd was that it was the second Silicon Valley aerospace company to suffer a hard landing on the date of initial public offering in three days.

“God, you can’t do this to me. I bet everything on it!” A man in a suit was holding his head in pain, he was on his knees while his eyes were bloodshot.

No one sympathized with him. Most of the people there felt the same despair.

The entire NASDAQ sector plunged, as if all the companies related to the aerospace industry overnight no longer possessed any value.

Countless investors’ mood plummeted along with the downward trendline.

Compared with those who used their own money to invest, many professional managers who worked for investment banks and funds or even prominent figures stood there.

Their expressions were more or less somber. They knew very well that a failed investment could mean the end of their professional career, which meant their luxury homes might be taken by banks and they might not even afford to pay back their credit card balances. As the capitalists’ hounds, once they lost their sense of money, they were useless.

Not just NASDAQ .

The Dow Jones Index, known as the economic barometer, was also brewing a storm. Many people began to decrease their holdings. In a zero-sum game, once the selloff began, it was impossible to close the floodgate.

On the same street, not far from the New York Stock Exchange in the Morgan Stanley Building, Daniel Morgan was reading the newspaper in his hands with a gloomy expression.

Without any warning, he suddenly scrunched up the newspaper and threw it into the corner of the office, he screamed, enraged.

“Fifty percent defense tax? Shameless robbers—this is a highway robbery!”

When Celestial Trade brought together Hua, Russia, and Frankberg to form the Earth Defense Alliance, he wasn’t concerned. After all, without the participation of the world’s largest economy, what was the use of an alliance?

If the Earth Defense Alliance could really stand on the first line of defense selflessly, he was more than welcome. With the economic strength of the four major powers and more than 20 small countries, it would be impossible to burden the defense as they must squander money on fortifications and battleships without any return.

By that time, Wall Street with a war chest of capital could become the savior again and take the Alliance’s fruits of labor as their own.

And the introduction of the defense tax put Morgan in a hot seat.

Since the collapse of the Rothschild consortium, global mining giants such as Vale and BHP were on the brink of bankruptcy due to cashflow issues. Future Mining almost swept and took control of one-third of the world’s commodity market, and they stole the market share previously that belonged to Vale and BHP Group through cheap and high-quality ore.

Especially rare earth metals produced from the Moon, which overtook Hua’s market share and made Xin the world’s largest exporter of rare earth metals.

Without any exaggeration, once the 50% defense tax was introduced, the global commodity market would suffer damage no less than a magnitude seven earthquake.

Of course, that was for the non-members.

It wasn’t just Daniel Morgan who was furious; the Capitol’s reaction was similar.

Hill’s economic adviser read the true intentions of Celestial Trade with just a glance.

They were taking the fruits of other countries’ interests and transfusing them to their own space industry! Of course, they alone couldn’t digest the fruit, so they also invited other countries to the feast.

If this was an era of space competition, developing the aerospace industry was just a means to boost national confidence, so it wouldn’t matter. But with the profit prospects of the industry surging at an exponential rate, the Capitol must respond.

Needless to say, the space industry parks in Silicon Valley and Seattle had already exceeded 1 trillion USD in value. If they were kicked off the space elevator, the loss would be instrumental.

“The risks of the economic crisis have emerged, and we might not see anything in the short term. But if this defense tax persists for a long time, the gap between us in the space industry will only grow. Before it’s too late, we must do something!”

“I propose to impose economic sanctions on Xin on the grounds of suspected trade protectionism!”

At a regular meeting in Congress, a congress member stood up and spoke fiercely.

Economic sanctions—the term which was drastically different from antitrust investigations. If antitrust investigations were rifles, then economic sanctions were nuclear weapons. Based on the market size of both countries, both would suffer. It was ultimately depended on who could last longer.

In the exploitation of third world countries, economic sanctions often worked wonderfully. Using poverty to force the compromised had been a common trick since the Cold War era.

However, in Congress this time, there was surprisingly no reaction and different perspectives emerged.

“Now our top priority is to negotiate with Celestial Trade to minimize the impact of the defense tax on our space industry, rather than let the conflict escalate further and spread to other areas.” A Republican member stood up and raised objections.

Quickly, another Congress member stood up.

“I concur. If it eventually turns into a trade war, I believe we can win in many fields, but in the tech sector, we will suffer a tremendous loss. Especially in the virtual reality network—no modern country can leave the network, and we can’t afford this loss at all.”

“In addition, there’s a very crucial point,” the Congress member said, who looked around at the other members. He said helplessly, “At this time, the sanctions against the Earth Defense Alliance are simply unjustified from the public’s perspective. Before the meeting, I paid attention to the official website of the Capitol. The application for the Capitol to join the Earth Defense Alliance has exceeded 20 million signatures…”

Everyone looked at each other in shock.

What they were most worried about had finally happened.

Chapter 1104: Battle Meeting

Chapter 1104: Battle Meeting

Time quickly passed, and a week had passed since the Earth Defense Alliance was established.

With the joint efforts of more than 20 countries, the administrative and command system of the Earth Defense Alliance was completed. Celestial City was selected as the final location and the ultimate headquarters of the Earth Defense Alliance.

The purpose of the Earth Defense Alliance was to resist the aggression of extraterrestrial civilizations. Therefore, the organization had a separate administrative and command system independent of all countries and did not report to any country. Aside from major decisions that required voting from all member states, all matters were executed by the highest commander.

Based on the “Coro City Agreement”, in addition to the bureaucrats and military officers appointed by each country, the Earth Defense Alliance administrative officials and volunteers would be selected from member states’ citizens who had voluntarily applied.

Once the applicant was selected, the person would automatically be deemed to have given up their original nationality to become a glorious member of the Earth Defense Force. The person would hold a passport issued by the Earth Defense Alliance with free mobility in member states. Food and housing expenses would all be covered by the Earth Defense Alliance, as well as a competitive salary.

The trade-off of great benefits was harsh training and strict discipline.

The Earth Defense Alliance would strictly implement militarized management and even non-combatant personnel would need at least five months of military training. The training time of the Marine Corps and Space Soldiers was more than a year and not capped.

The ultimate goal of all training was to create an army that would never retreat. Even in the worst situation, they would only move forward.

Even if only one person remained.

While it sounded simple, it was impossible to truly achieve this goal without a decade or more of training. Fortunately, the space colonization ship was still many years away. Jiang Chen had enough time to re-sharpen the claws of the civilized people.

The Earth Defense Alliance would be a war machine that guarded the future of Earth’s civilization. From the giant spaceships to the wrenches of the workers, they all served for the war.

It was the only way for Earth to have a fighting chance against the fearless bugs.

Jiang Chen understood very well what kind of beast he was creating.

But he also knew very clearly that it was an evitable step that must be taken.

Celestial City, Earth Defense Alliance Headquarters.

Representatives from various countries walked into the external space station. They took the elevator and arrived at the office floor of their own department. They were the elites selected from various governments and military forces with a wealth of experience in leading and planning. They also had a preliminary understanding of space.

At the top of the Earth Defense Alliance Headquarters, the elevator doors opened and representatives in their nations’ military uniforms walked in.

A middle-aged man in a Hua military uniform entered and fixed his collar. When he passed by Jiang Chen, there was a smile on his aged face. He then extended his right hand to Jiang Chen.

“I saw it; great speech.”

“Thank you.” Jiang Chen shook hands with him, smiled, and nodded before he gestured. “Please sit down.”

The Earth Defense Alliance was established. Before the formation of the army, the parties needed to further discuss the details of the covenant. For example, one of the most critical issues that must be discussed at the forefront was countermeasures against extraterrestrial civilization.

An effective strategy was necessary to develop targeted defense countermeasures.

A total of 20 members of the Earth Defense Alliance Committee were present, including senior officials from national intelligence departments, experts in the space industry, and scientists and military personnel.

For example, the man who shook Jiang Chen’s hand was Wu Changfeng. He was the former deputy commander of the General Staff Department, Second Division, ranked Major General. The old hairy Russian on his left was a subordinate of Natasha’s father, and the former Special Operations Brigade of the 58th Army, also ranked Major General.

And the Frankberg astronomer, Anthony Leibniz, was also a prominent figure in the international astronomy field. He served as the director of the European Space Agency.

Of course, not all member states had sent their own representatives. For example, countries like Country F and Moro, without much understanding of the space field, hadn’t come.

After all the members sat down, Jiang Chen looked at the people present and began.

“Before the meeting, I must emphasize one thing. I hope you will keep the contents of today’s discussion strictly confidential, even to your home country. If you have any objections, you can apply to leave.”

Jiang Chen looked around the conference table. When no one stood up, he nodded and turned on the holographic screen.

In the center of the holographic screen was a star map between the solar system and Gliese 581. In the star map, several broken white lines were drawn. These white lines marked the trajectory of the vacuum belt left by Harmony’s space colonization ship as it traversed in space. If these broken trajectories were put together, a clear path between Gliese 581 and Earth formed.

“Based on infromation obtained by Celestial Trade, the distance between Harmony’s space colonization ship and Earth has shortened by at least fifty percent in the past century. It’s currently only 10 to 6.7 lightyears away.”

“That’s a high margin of error?” Wu Changfeng frowned, as he examined the star map in the holographic screen with seriousness.

“It’s because they entered the unobservable zone.” Jiang Chen’s fingers gently clicked on the control panel and circled a large dark area in the star map. “This unobservable area is about 5 lightyears wide. Due to the low density of stars, we cannot judge their coordinates due to the lack of reference point.”

“We have to prepare for the worst case. If they’re only 6.7 lightyears away from us, then we’re likely to encounter them within 50 years. In order to avoid them landing on Earth, we better take care of the problem outside of the solar system. Besides building a space fleet, I would like to hear if there are any better opinions.”

After the two Russians exchanged their opinions quietly, the seemingly reticent Mogunov stood up and made a suggestion.

“Although I have no experience in star wars, in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, we’re on the defensive and tactically inferior. In contrast, we have the strategic advantage.”

“I suggest we build fortifications in the Kuiper Belt outside the Solar System to increase our firepower to the maximum at the expense of mobility. This’ll also support the frontline fleet in the battle against Harmony’s space colonization ship.”

Chapter 1105: Project Trench

Chapter 1105: Project “Trench”

Mogunov’s proposal received support from all the members present. Everyone saw the benefits of the plan and even Jiang Chen complimented the idea because when he talked to Kelvin yesterday, they reached the same conclusion.

The Kuiper Belt 40 astronomical unit from the Sun extended to hundreds of astronomical units away. The belt was formed by frozen micro-planets ranging from a few kilometers to thousands of kilometers in radius and tens of thousands of comets. They were formed when the Solar System was created.

The construction of fortifications in the Kuiper Belt not only provided long-range fire support for the battlefield, but it was also capable of providing supplies and ammunition to the fleet. The fast-moving comets and ice bodies would not only serve as defensive bunkers, but they would also provide abundant water for the garrisons in the fort.

“It’s a good idea to build a fortification, but how can we solve the problem of rotation? If our fortification changes position constantly, how can we ensure that they will be defending the path of the colonization ship? And how can they provide support to our fleet?” Wu Changfeng got up and raised his questions.

“This isn’t something to be worried about,” Leibniz, who once worked at ESA, said. “One rotation of the Kuiper is quite long. If we build the fortress inside the Kuiper belt, we can control the revolution period to three hundred years. With consideration to the direction of Harmony’s space colonization ship, if they want to be captured by the gravitational forces of the solar system, they must approach the Kuiper Belt at a tangential angle and reduce the speed below the third cosmic speed. With the 60-degree wide-angle range, the fortification can effectively provide support.”

“As long as we ensure that the fortification’s coordinates are accurate and the engine is fine-tuned with its coordinates, then the plan is entirely feasible.”

After Wu Changfeng listened to Leibniz’s explanation, he nodded and sat back down. His knowledge about space was limited, but from a military point of view, this plan sounded feasible. As long as the space fortress didn’t turn in a completely different direction.

Therefore, while building the space fleet, the decision for the construction of the space fortress in Kuiper Belt was also made.

As for the technical feasibility of building space fortress 40 astronomical units from the Sun, it wasn’t the consideration of this meeting—that would be the work of the scientists.

In the next hour, twenty members made comments and refined details relating to building the space fortress. For example, they discussed how many artilleries would be necessary, the budget, the size of the fortress, and the force stationed.

Jiang Chen also put forward additional suggestions on the plan, such as creating a minefield outside the Kuiper Belt.

The entire plan was named “Project Trench.”

Because they were uncertain if organizations similar to “Kurofune” that maintained connections with Harmony still existed, “Project Trench” was classified as class E confidential. Other than the fortress itself, no other information would be disclosed to the public.

At the end of the meeting, the twenty members took an oath and swore to keep the topics discussed in this meeting a secret.

Of course, the so-called oath was only ceremonial. For people of their status, the idea of the law was hardly binding to them. Their positions ultimately dictated their decisions. If conditions permitted, they would do their best to protect the interests of their own countries.

For example, they might leak the plan to the relevant companies in advance then prepare a bid in advance.

For at least two decades, the nationalism inside the Earth Defense Alliance would remain prevalent.

However, Jiang Chen wasn’t in a hurry. He prepared many ways to assimilate them into becoming “his own.”

After the oath took place, the members packed up and were prepared to exit.

However, just as people were about to leave, Jiang Chen clapped his hands and gestured to everyone to look at him.

“Before we officially conclude today, I want to give you a present on behalf of Celestial Trade.”

Then Jiang Chen gently clicked on the control panel.

Soon, four housekeeping robots walked out from the side door with trays in their hands. The robots then distributed the contents on the table.

Everyone was confused.

“This is a DNA Telomere Modification Agent.”

When they heard the strange name, the members present frowned and became even more confused. After all, they hadn’t studied biology. While they understood DNA, what did telomeres mean? Only the biologist from Malay reacted.

“DNA telomere?! Is-is this…!” The biologist was so excited that he could hardly articulate, completely unable to speak properly. He passionately stared at the needle on the table, with eager glowing out from his eyes, his fingers trembled as if he was coveting a heavenly object.

“Is this… a genetic vaccine from Celestial Trade? Interesting.” Holding the needle in his hand, Wu Changfeng was intrigued.

As the former deputy commander of the General Stuff Department, Second Division, he certainly heard rumors about the magical genetic vaccines. Hua had always wanted to bring some back for research, but Celestial Trade never planned to sell them.

The genetic vaccine was rumored to greatly strengthen bodily conditions with just one injection. Even a weak, untrained individual could possess the explosiveness and endurance of a special forces soldier.

The most important thing was that the changes only affected somatic cells and had no effect on the reproductive cells, so changes wouldn’t be passed on to offspring.

Hearing the term “genetic vaccine,” the Russian member also looked at the needle on the table, eyes sparkling with fiery.

“This isn’t a genetic vaccine,” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head as he looked at the people with different expressions.

“What is it then?” Wu Changfeng asked.

With a mysterious smile, Jiang Chen made a revelation.

“Something that will make you live longer.”

After the meeting, Wu Changfeng took the Express to return to the hotel he was staying at in the residetial area of Celestial City.

At the door, he paused and ordered the guard behind him with seriousness.

“Without my orders, don’t come in and bother me.”

“Yes.” The guard saluted and stepped aside.

He walked into the room, then closed the door behind him. He hurriedly sat down on the sofa and stared at the needle in his hand as his breathing gradually turned heavier.

He was forty-one years old. With the rank of Major General at this age and capability of representing his country in such an important position, his resume was peerless among his peers. He has a beautiful wife who was ten years younger than him. He also had a son who was in junior high school and a daughter who was in elementary school.

With success in both career and family, he thought that there was no temptation in the world that could allure him.

However, his eyes were firmly glued to the needle in his hand.

His identity reminded him that he should bring this thing back, take it to the Academy of Sciences, or gift it to a more powerful individual who “needed this more”. However, another voice in his mind repeatedly told him to use it for himself.

He began to recall what Jiang Chen said in the end.

…The serum in the test tube is only 20ml, which can effectively resist aging and prolong your life by ten years. Before absolute resistance, each person can inject up to ten tubes and each injection must be separated by ten years, and the efficacy of each injection will be weakened each time.

In an ideal situation, as long as you can inject this special serum every ten years, there’s no problem extending your life by seventy to eighty years.

Frankly speaking, the production of this serum is quite limited. If not for the fact that I want you all to see our day of “victory”, I wouldn’t have given this to you as a gift.

Living longer than others is both your power and your obligation.

Of course, you can take it or let it go. The choice is on you.

Chapter 1106: Shackles

Chapter 1106: Shackles

This is both your power and your obligation…

Jiang Chen’s last sentence touched the most sensitive part in Wu Changfeng’s mind.

Yes, this is my power. Why should I gift it to you?

I’m the one making the sacrifice; I’m the one standing in front of mankind. What do you have to offer to make me give my “life” to you?

No longer hesitant, he pushed out all the thoughts of giving it to the country. He picked up the needle and directed it at his vein. Pushing away all of his distractions, he made up his mind and injected the needle with his eyes closed.

As the serum was injected into his body, his heartbeat gradually returned to normal.

He quietly waited for the onset of the drug as he leaned back into the sofa.

The second hand of the clock ticked, but the expected pain didn’t arrive. He frowned and looked at the spot where he injected the serum.

“Is there no response?”

Just as he was talking to himself, a sharp pain diffused out from his arm.

He sweated profusely.

As a soldier, Wu Changfeng’s face turned into a pale white. He gritted his teeth, but he somehow endured the pain without saying a word.

Boiled blood spread through his veins, surged freely in his blood vessels, the pain also diffused throughout his body.

“Is this the price of life? That’s too easy then.” Wu Changfeng gasped for cold air, and he barely squeezed out his words before he slowly laid down on the sofa.

The pain began to spread out from his blood vessels, deep into his internal organs, and out to his skin.

Suddenly, all the pain disappeared in an instant.

“This is the… end?”

He quietly murmured, then he closed his eyes and drifted asleep.

He made a choice without realizing it.

The choice of loyalty.

In his sleep, he had a dream.

He dreamed that his wife, son, and grandson turned old. He watched them being lowered into their graves, but he remained so young. At the end of the dream, he saw a fire. Flames engulfed Earth, swallowed up all the cities, immersed the battleship of the Earth Fleet, and incinerated everything…

Wu Changfeng woke up from the nightmare and suddenly popped up from the sofa.

After he realized that everything was just a dream, his rapidly pumping heart gradually calmed down.

“Is it already noon?”

The guard had obeyed his order from last night and didn’t wake him up.

As he panted, he looked away from the clock on the wall. He rubbed his forehead, and slowly sat up from the sofa. He now just realized that he was drenched in sweat and he started to feel cold.

After he took his clothes off, he went to the bathroom to take a shower.

However, when he passed the mirror, he suddenly stopped.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but he realized that he seemed to be at least five years younger than yesterday…

“Everyone chose to inject.”

“Excellent, keep an eye on them until they leave the city.”

“Roger.”

Jiang Chen hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. He looked at the blue planet outside the floor-to-ceiling window and regained a sense of certainty.

Not surprisingly, everyone eventually chose to use the 20ml of serum on themselves instead of bringing it back to their countries.

From the beginning, Jiang Chen knew that once this serum appeared on the market, regardless of the impact on Celestial Trade, its existence would have an unimaginable impact on the existing social order.

Although he didn’t clearly state it, he would never allow them to bring it to Earth and wouldn’t allow them to gift this to a “powerful individual” for superficial reasons.

As a simple example, civilians wouldn’t be able afford this life-extending vaccine. Once it appeared on the market, the lives of the rich and powerful would be much longer than that of ordinary people. Wealth would be more and more concentrated. It wouldn’t be long before the world’s wealth was concentrated in the hands of the 0.1% or even less.

By that time, it would be the end of the civilization.

However, everything had two sides.

As long as it was done properly, the positive effects of “longevity serum” could be far greater than its negative effects.

For example, it could be used to win over people’s allegiance.

The twenty members of the Earth Defense Alliance were regarded as the elites of the elites in their respective countries. Jiang Chen didn’t naïvely think that money or power could make them abandon the concept of country and dedicate their lives to the Earth Defense Alliance.

However, people always had weaknesses.

The more successful people were and the more powerful people were, the more people feared death because once they died, they would lose far more than the average person.

Life was a good option to allure them.

As early as the sphere of influence of NAC had expanded to Hongcheng, Jiang Chen learned the secret of eternal life from Dr. Sun and received 100ml of serum. From this 100ml serum, Lin Lin extracted the anti-aging fragments from the DNA and the anti-aging substances dissolved in the serum for further research.

Although eternal life wouldn’t be possible, it was easy to extend a life span by tens to hundreds of years without side effects. The serum also wouldn’t cover up the original hidden genetic code. Now with more than 2,000 sisters, her research ability had drastically increased. Perhaps in a few more years, she could really invent an eternal potion.

But for those committee members, this would be enough.

Although extending their lifespans would benefit the Earth Defense Alliance, it would also be troublesome if they lived forever. In the future, the Earth Defense Alliance would become stronger and stronger under the oppression of external factors, even to a point where it would replace all countries and evolve into the Earth Federation.

By that time, if a bunch of old hags occupied the committee seats, there would be rigidity in the decision making abilities of the committee.

There must be hope for the young.

Immortality was only an option for himself.

And also his closest relatives, of course.

His finger tapped on the touchpad. He raised his hand, made a few strokes against the holographic screen, and called out the meeting minutes from yesterday. He started to scan the summary sections line by line.

“Project Trench, Project Starship… Although only four words, it’s certainly difficult.”

He shook his head, then leaned back with a headache.

Building a planet fortress or a space fleet would require an astronomical amount of steel and production capability. The current Mars Colony was essentially a planted seed. It would take a long time for it to grow into a towering tree.

“It seems we must speed up.”

With a long sigh, Jiang Chen closed the summary and connected to the database of the Mars Colonization Project Department.

Just as he planned to inspect the development of the colony, a report uploaded ten minutes ago that was unread caught his attention…

Chapter 1107: Taikan Kyohosyugi and Carrier Battle Group

Chapter 1107: Taikan Kyohosyugi and Carrier Battle Group

Taikan Kyohosyugi: The principle of big ships and big guns, a naval tactics used by the Japanese in the Second World War where achieving victory would be dependent upon the effective use of a strong battleship force.

—

At the main axis area of the space elevator was the gravity-free section of Celestial City and the port of the city. Since the launch of the asteroid mining program, countless small and medium-sized transport vessels docked against the port, as they waited for the robotic arms to load and unload the ores inside the containers.

In addition to the transport vessels that carried ores, a passenger ship shaped like a cuboid occasionally flew out from the transfer station and headed for the Moon. Since Celestial Trade announced regular flights between Earth and the Moon, travel between Lunar City and Earth became much more frequent.

The size of Lunar City had expanded significantly compared to before. Living units circled the central square, connected by graphene pipes. A total of nearly 10,000 people called this place home, and most of them were part of the young labor force with high education levels.

To meet the needs of the citizens, Celestial Trade also built an elementary school, a junior high school, a senior high school, a community college, a hospital, a police station and other municipal facilities around the central square. Celestial Trade also opened bids for the construction of hotels, bars, cafes, and other entertainment facilities.

In addition to the resident population, at least 4,000 passengers traveled between Lunar City and Celestial City daily. These people included immigrants to the Moon, tourists, or investors looking for opportunities.

A series of electrolysis chambers and lunar ice drilling exploratory wells were constructed to produce a steady stream of oxygen and hydrogen for the colony. The rare earth mining stations with robotic arms and a lunar refinery that produced helium-3 supported the economy and industry of Lunar City.

Sixty percent of the world’s iron and aluminum mines and eighty percent of rare earth mines were connected by the 36,000-kilometer elevators.

It was precisely because of this that there was the 50% defense tax which made the capitalists in the Western Hemisphere ache in pain.

The decision was a blow right to their chest, and they were forced to be labeled as “scared”…

In the lift cabin of the space elevator, Wu Changfeng stood quietly at the window and looked out at the dark-colored mega-ship.

“SS Seagull”—a name not unfamiliar to anyone. The ship equipped with the Red River X1 engine was personally named by Jiang Chen. It was the first 500,000-ton ship of Celestial Trade and the first interstellar ship of the Earth civilization. Since then, any 500,000-ton ship produced by Celestial Trade was named after the Seagull-class.

The 600-meter-long hull was connected to the main axis of the elevator by a cantilever. It looked massive from the distance and made the spacecraft moving around it look so insignificant.

In the eyes of Wu Changfeng, the size of the Seagull-class transport ship was already large enough. It was at least the size of three aircraft carriers connected together. However, even a mighty ship this size couldn’t serve as the main force in the fight against Harmony.

He couldn’t help but feel concerned about the future of Earth.

What kind of enemy are we facing?

“What are you looking at?” Lu Hao walked beside him and smiled.

Lu Hao, the former Captain of the Nanning Destroyer, ranked Admiral. He served as a representative on the Hua side.

Wu Changfeng turned his head as his colleague started to chat with him, he was about to say something, but when his eyes stopped on his arm, he swallowed his words.

Lu Hao saw the message in Wu Changfeng’s eyes. He sighed, helplessly lifted up his sleeve, and showed him the needle hole on his arm.

“You also injected?” Wu Changfeng raised an eyebrow. While his expression didn’t change, the caution in his mind gradually disappeared.

“Do you think that if I didn’t inject that, they would let us go so easily?” Lu Hao helplessly lowered his sleeve again.

Wu Changfeng frowned and quickly understood what he meant.

A smile formed on the expressionless face as he whispered.

“We haven’t heard of any DNA telomere-modified serum and haven’t injected anything.”

“Of course. You didn’t think I would’ve written that in the report?” Lu Hao laughed and shook his head. “I’m not that stupid. It would’ve definitely caused us trouble.”

Wu Changfeng nodded.

Hua had two seats in the Earth Defense Alliance Committee. What he worried about most previously was that Lu Hao would hand it over to the country.

If that was the case, he would undoubtedly lose the trust of the organization and even cause some important people to be unhappy. With the state’s influence on the Earth Defense Alliance, he might be sacked from his position.

But based on what happened, he seemed to have worried too much.

No one could reject the temptation to “live forever”, especially for people like them.

“Do you think we have hopes of winning this war?” Luo Hao said as he looked at the Seagull-class transport ship outside the window.

Wu Changfeng, glanced at his colleague, then quietly said, “I have no doubt that we’ll win.”

“General Wu is indeed from a political background; your way with words is so beautiful.” Lu Hao forced out a laugh awkwardly.

Wu Changfeng raised his eyebrows and just wanted to say: “Worrying about what will happen after defeat isn’t what soldiers should do,” but this sentence didn’t come out in the end.

If it was before, he could say this as a soldier without any scruples. Considering the short life of humans, he wouldn’t see the day when the first battle with the extraterrestrial civilization. However, his life was extended by more than eighty years now. If technology continued to progress, perhaps his life would continue to be prolonged.

On the day of the final battle, there would certainly be a chance to witness that scene with their own eyes…

“In your opinion, what is our chance of winning?” Wu Changfeng asked.

“Less than 30%.”

“Oh?” Wu Changfeng raised an eyebrow and laughed. “We still have 30%?”

“Maybe it’s an occupational disease.” Lu Hao shrugged. “Now the Earth Defense Alliance is showing signs of favoring big ships, which makes me very worried.”

“Then in your opinion, what route should we take?” Wu Changfeng asked.

Lu Hao smiled. “Don’t forget that I used to be on the destroyer. I naturally prefer the use of carrier battle groups. The high-mobility destroyer can divide the battlefield then the carrier deploys planes to attack the opponent’s weakness…”

“What if the artillery of our ‘destroyer’ isn’t enough to break the defense of the enemy?” Wu Changfeng raised a sharp question.

Silenced ensued for a long time, then there was a response. “That’s why we’re all outsiders.”

The doctrine of the modern navy could serve as the theoretical basis for the future Starfleet, but after all, the ocean and the universe were two distinct fields, and everything was still in the exploration stage.

“I believe in you.” Wu Changfeng patted Lu Hao’s shoulder and grinned. “By the time we select the commander, I’ll vote for you.”

“Haha, then I will thank you now.”

The space elevator gradually approached the gravity-free section, and the SS Seagull from a distant outline was now in front of their eyes.

However, Wu Changfeng suddenly noticed on the “bridge” between the SS Seagull and the space elevator, a team of soldiers in kinetic skeletons were boarding the ship.

“What are they doing?” Wu Changfeng frowned.

Lu Hao took a few steps forward. The tip of his nose was almost touching the window, and a frown also emerged on his face.

“Orbital Airborne Troops? Is it a military exercise? If my memory is correct, Celestial Trade hasn’t been fighting anyone lately…”

While talking, the transport cabin carrying soldiers was loaded onto the SS Seagull. The robotic arm that clamped the SS Seagull separated from the hull. The engine began to ignite and pushed the giant vessel outwards.

Just as the two of them wondered where the SS Seagull would set sail, the lift cabin they were in entered the orbit of the space elevator. They could only watch Celestial City and the SS Seagull accelerate away from them…

Chapter 1108: The Second Group of Colonists

Chapter 1108: The Second Group of Colonists

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

Five kilometers underneath the Martian colony, they discovered the suspected remains of the Martian civilization.

It was an incredible piece of news.

After Jiang Chen read the report from the colonial captain, Hong Zewei, he immediately called Kevin and dispatched the second group of colonists in advance.

A new Seagull-class was responsible for this transport mission. The 500,000-ton ship was commissioned half a month ago. With the improved version of the Red River X1 engine, the ship could complete the acceleration and deceleration phase in a shorter time while achieving higher cruising speed within the solar system.

Based on the calculated data from quantum computers, the trip from Celestial City to the orbit of Mars would only take 21 days with the current relative position between Earth and Mars.

Because the colonization plan was pushed ahead by three months, the 100 colonists who were being trained had to end the training ahead of time. They boarded the ship inside the hibernation chambers with goods to be taken to the Martian colony. In addition to the colonists, there were ten orbital airborne soldiers equipped with the most advanced Gauss rifles and outer space kinetic skeletons.

Although Jiang Chen expressed doubts about the existence of Martians, after all, Mars was only habitable more than three billion years ago. Even if they dug their own tombs underground, they probably turned into sand by now, let alone any living creatures.

However, in order to reassure the colonists, Jiang Chen finally decided to send a force.

He was aware the extreme behaviors of people in an isolated state.

At the same time as the second group of colonists set off, the twenty members of the Earth Defense Alliance also returned to the surface, which ended Ghost Agent’s surveillance. After Jiang Chen left the office, he went to Future Heavy Industries’ shipyard.

The shipyard was located in the gravity-free section of the main axis of the space elevator, next to the port.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the shipyard, the hull of a 600-meter-long Seagull-class transport ship was fixed by more than a dozen mechanical arms and was suspended in space. It occupied almost ninety percent of the shipyard.

Numerous construction robots surrounded the outside of the transport ship and welded finished parts to the transport ship. At the rear of the ship, four mechanical cantilevers were connected to a wide variety of tools from screwdrivers to laser welding guns. These mechanical cantilevers were performing complex operations, which was connecting the Red River X1 engine to the slot at the rear of the ship.

The wisdom of working people was unlimited.

Although the design drawings and key technologies of the Seagull-class transport ship were provided by Jiang Chen, the entire production process was the crystallization of the hard work of 10,000 scientists, technicians, and senior engineers of Future Heavy Industries.

This production process wasn’t necessarily the most optimal, but it could be renowned as the best in the world

1

Jiang Chen could proudly announce to the world that Future Heavy Industries was the only company that had mastered the manufacturing process of a 500,000-ton transport ship. Whether it was Russia’s Oleg-class, Hua’s Changchun-class, or UA’s Apollo X1, they were just small fishes in the water in front of his “big seagull”.

Of course, while he fantasized, he didn’t come here to look at the magnificent size of the Seagull-class transport ship; he had more important matters to attend to.

Not long afterward, a middle-aged man in a uniform flowed to him while kicking his legs back, then he skillfully grabbed the armrest and stood still by the window.

As the shipyard manager of Future Heavy Industries, he was in a meeting with senior engineers at the shipyard. When he heard reports of Jiang Chen’s visit, he quickly asked his right-hand man to take over the meeting while he rushed over.

Dai Zhengming anxiously looked at Jiang Chen while he explained, “Sorry, I was in a meeting with the technicians. I didn’t know the boss personally came to the shipyard to perform an inspection. If there are any places where you think can be improved, please let me know.”

“There’s no need to be so polite.” Jiang Chen let go of his hand on the railing and waved his hand to signal Dai Zhengming to not to take it to heart. He smiled,” I just came for a quick tour; I hope I didn’t bother your work.”

“No, no.” Dai Zhengming quickly waved his hand and laughed, “If there’s anything you don’t understand, please be sure to talk to me. I know all the answers!”

Jiang Chen politely smiled and turned his gaze to the Seagull-class outside the glass window. He paused for a moment then said.

“In the fleet plan approved by the Earth Defense Alliance, open tender is scheduled for the first million-ton class warship to the enterprises in the member states is schedule for a week later. Currently, only we have the technical capability of the hull welding, the engine, and the ecological warehouse. You are an expert in this area, so I would like to refer to your opinion. Are you sure that this million-ton warship is safe?”

Dai Zhengming’s face turned a little sour as he listened to Jiang Chen.

“Boss, to be honest, you should’ve seen it. Our shipyard is still too small. The construction space isn’t enough. The 500,000-ton class is already at the limit. If it was any bigger, the bow would have to extend to the outside.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

He also noticed the space problem of the shipyard. The Seagull-class transport ship had already occupied the construction space of the entire shipyard.

It should be mentioned here that the entire Celestial City was divided into a gravity-free section and a gravity section, and a low-gravity section in the middle. Due to the problem of the center of gravity of the entire space elevator, in addition to the light industries as well as farming, heavy industries such as shipbuilding and steel-making, which had large resource throughputs, were distributed in the gravity-free section—the main axis of the entire space elevator. Shipyards, ports, and heavy industry factories were stacked together similar to Lego blocks.

There were many benefits to this, such as maximizing the use of the limited space available and reducing the time spent on logistics and transportation of industrial raw materials. However, the disadvantages were also obvious. One of them was that if there wasn’t enough space, expansion was not an option.

At present, there was a steel mill below the shipyard, and the port was right above, both of which were troublesome to demolish. Extending outwards was an option, but the lack of vertical distance severely limited the scale of the shipyard.

After some considerations, Jiang Chen looked at Dai Zhengming and said.

“A million-ton class warship cannot be built at the space elevator. If we separated the entire shipyard out of the space elevator and place it on a synchronous orbit, would this solve the problem?”

“Separate it?” Dai Zhengming acutely sensed the intention behind the boss’s words, and his eyes lit up. He then quickly asked, “You mean, we can build a separate space station outside the space elevator as a shipyard.”

“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded. “I don’t know if there’s any difficulty with implementation.”

If the shipyard was moved out of the space elevator and served as the satellite city of the entire Celestial Trade, the space at the shipyard would be much bigger. It would also allow for further expansion based on needs. By that time, one million-ton, or even ten-million-ton interstellar ship could be built.

As for the current shipyard, it was only enough to build ships lighter than 500,000 tons.

Dai Zhengming had considered this issue before, but he was only a shipyard manager after all. It wasn’t clear how the space elevator worked. Since he was under Future Heavy Industries, and the space elevator was managed by Celestial Trade, even if he voiced his concern, it was difficult to be heard.

Now the boss mentioned this, he whole-heartily favored this proposal.

“I will get someone to look after this. You should think about how the space station can be planned?”

At the same time, Jiang Chen muttered in his mind: Celestial Trade and Future Group’s businesses are getting bigger and bigger. It seemed that the cooperation between the departments needs to be strengthened. I’ll have to discuss with Xia Shiyu to see if there is any good way.

With the joyous Dai Zhengming and a group of employees bidding farewell, Jiang Chen left the shipyard. He was about to call Xia Shiyu, however, she called first.

“What’s up?”

“Zhang Yaping just called you but he couldn’t reach you, then he called the company. The foreign minister of Nippon is in Coro City, and he wants to have a discussion with you.”

Chapter 1109: Is the tax a bit too high?

Chapter 1109: Is the tax a bit too high?

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

Kishida sat in the conference room of the Future Building as he thanked the waiter for the tea , but his eyes couldn’t stop glancing at the clock on the wall.

It was the tenth time he looked in that direction since he came in.

After a phone call with Jiang Chen, he immediately cleared his agenda for the afternoon and came over after the meeting with Zhang Yaping.

When Kishida arrived, Jiang Chen was in the space elevator with an hour’s journey before he would arrive in Coro. Xia Shiyu arranged for them to meet in this conference room.

Several other members of the delegation were also in this room along with him, all of which were members he trusted.

In order to avoid causing suspicion in the UA, he came under the banner of electricity negotiations. This meant he couldn’t stay for too long. As for the purpose of his trip, it was supposedly for the fifty percent defense tax.

No country in the world had a stronger desire for space resources than Nippon. A lack of resources and strong industrial development was a curse cast on Nippon since the previous century. The slightest turmoil in the economy would cause the Nikkei Index to fall.

As soon as Celestial City announced the acceptance of foreign capital investment, the capitalists and consortia rushed in, particularly in the rare earth mining projects in Lunar City. They feared Celestial Trade wouldn’t accept enough of their money.

The total investment of Nippon companies in Celestial City ranked third after UA and Hua and was even ahead of Russia.

Hence why the fifty percent defense tax caused so much pain for them.

Just when Kishida was starting to speculate the reason for Jiang Chen’s late arrival, the door of the conference room was pushed open and Jiang Chen came in.

Kishida immediately got up, his face full of smiles, and he extended his right hand.

“My pleasure, my name is Kishida, Nippon Foreign Minister.”

“Jiang Chen, President of Future Group and Celestial Trade. There’s no need for Mr. Kishida’s introduction. We met at the Outer Space Security Summit.” Jiang Chen spoke with a half-smile while he shook hands.

When Kishida heard the term “Outer Space Security Summit”, an awkward expression appeared on his face before quickly disappearing. However, as a diplomat, his skin was naturally thicker than most people. He pretended to not hear the words and enthusiastically began to chat with Jiang Chen.

Since the T-Virus Crisis in Yoto and the collapse of the previous cabinet , he changed his political stance and leaned to the left. Because of his support for the new prime minister’s foreign policy, after the establishment of the new cabinet, he was again nominated to be the minister of foreign affairs. He was the only cabinet minister not replaced by the new prime minister.

Of course, it was also because of the turmoil in the nation and the lack of talented individuals available to the new prime minister.

Aside from those external factors, he could be used as the perfect example as someone who sat on the fence.

He clearly stood on the opposing side at the Outer Space Defense Summit, but now with the Earth Defense Alliance started to take shape, he immediately pretended nothing had happened.

However, Jiang Chen would never reject a willing cooperative partner. After they shook hands, Jiang Chen invited him to take a seat.

“Please.”

After Minister Kishida sat down, the diplomats with him also sat down.

Jiang Chen went to the head of the conference table and sat down. He gestured to the assistant behind him, and instructed him to close the door. After he heard the door click, he leaned back in his chair and looked nonchalantly at the Nippon delegation.

“Mr. Kishida isn’t just here to chat with me, right? You know that I’m a businessman. There’s no need to use formalities here; if there’s anything you need, just say it.”

“Since Mr. Jiang Chen said this, I will be straightforward,” Minister Kishida said, who coughed before he began. “Is the fifty percent defense tax a bit too high?”

When Jiang Chen heard this, a smile that confirmed his original speculation appeared.

“This is a decision that was made after internal discussions of the Earth Defense Alliance. All member states voted before the resolution passed. If you disagree with this resolution, you can go discuss with Hua and Russia?”

Kishida forced a laugh.

“Mr. Jiang is certainly humorous. As far as I know, this fifty percent defense tax is collected by the operating company of Celestial Trade Space Elevator. It’s injected into the Earth Defense Fund as a donation. Does the Earth Defense Alliance have shares in the space elevator?”

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and looked at the old man in his sixties with surprise. He didn’t expect that the man who didn’t take the Earth Defense Alliance seriously actually went deep into researching its background.

Having said that, he still had the advantage.

Therefore, Jiang Chen didn’t come up with an excuse and instead played the mankind card.

“Fighting against the aggression of extraterrestrial civilizations is a common interest of the international community. Since that’s the case, it wouldn’t be appropriate to let some people stand in the frontlines while other people enjoy the fruits of other people’s labor? Either pay or contribute—that’s fair, isn’t it?”

Fair my as*!

Minister Kishida cursed in his mind.

You used our country’s money to support your aerospace companies, then you’re using your advanced technology to make money off of us. Is there anything fair about this?

However, he could only vent his frustration in his mind. He smiled as he continued.

“You’re right; fighting against extraterrestrial civilization is the undeniable duty of all countries. After watching the example you made, we’ve indeed seriously reflected on our selfishness in this respect. Therefore, we decided to establish a space force in our military to support the war against extraterrestrial civilization!”

Jiang Chen didn’t speak. Instead, he leaned forward and looked dubiously at Minister Kishida.

Just as Kishida was about to feel uncomfortable, Jiang Chen spoke up.

“You’re joking with me?”

Although Kishida knew that what he proposed was rude, he still felt awkward after hearing such a straightforward response from Jiang Chen. But the negotiation must continue.

“What do you want then?”

Smiling, Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair again and said with a relaxed tone, “It’s easy to avoid the defense tax. Join us.”

When Kishida heard Jiang Chen’s words, he jumped up.

“That’s impossible! We’re NATO’s allies; how could we join a new military alliance treaty?!”

Jiang Chen didn’t care about Kishida’s aggressive reaction and said, “Then just pay the tax and support the ‘Earth defense’ cause.”

Chapter 1110: Ungrateful

Chapter 1110: Ungrateful

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

“Nippon is discussing the possibility of joining the Earth Defense Alliance.”

A report was placed on Hill’s desk, and Secretary of State Kerry walked to the sofa in the office and sat down. He picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip to soothe his throat. “The issue doesn’t only involve Nippon being swayed—the same goes for Australia and New Zealand.”

“Ungrateful.” The chief of staff standing next to Hill cursed under his breath.

“What about our nuclear power assistance project?” Hill opened the document that Kerry tossed on her desk. She glanced at the report with a serious tone.

Kerry shook his head and said, “It’s useless. For now, our nuclear power project isn’t attractive to Nippon. Two months ago, the half-year discussion between Exelon Nuclear Power Company and the Eastern Power Company of Nippon was canceled, and it’s meaningless to talk about nuclear power at this point.”

“You’re right.” Hill squeezed her sore eyebrows and said, “Why’s Australia trying to get involved? When have they been interested in outer space resources?”

Australia itself was a big mining country, and its own domestic minerals weren’t fully developed. Naturally, it wasn’t necessary to mine in outer space. The defense tax of the Earth Defense Alliance had pushed up the average price of the global commodity market to their benefit. They should be the least interested in outer space resources? Instead, they were entertaining the idea of joining the alliance?

“Because of the Global Grid Plan.” The coffee cup was heavily placed on the table. Kerry walked over to Hill’s desk and said with a sullen look, “Half a month ago, the Australian Federal Parliament was discussing expanding power imports. The quota was used to replace all thermal power stations in Victoria and New South Wales to achieve the 2019 Carbon Reduction Plan.”

“We must immediately pressure Nippon and do everything possible to prevent them from joining the Earth Defense Alliance,” the chief of staff immediately said to Hillary Clinton. “I propose to immediately launch the 2019 Asia-Pacific military exercise and send two more aircraft carrier groups and two Marine Crops divisions to Guam and Okinawa. We must contain the influence of Celestial Trade in that region.”

“That would provoke Hua,” Hill said in a deep tone.

“The situation is different! Xin, or Celestial Trade, has replaced Hua and become the primary threat that may shake our global dominance! If we can’t stop them from continuing to expand their regional influence, they’re likely to subvert all our efforts since the Vietnam War!” The chief of staff was heated.

“If this triggers a new Cold War,” Hill looked sharply at her chief of staff, “Who will bear this responsibility?”

The chief of staff opened his mouth, but after he saw Hill’s eyes, he quickly closed his mouth.

Just now, he saw a hint of cautiousness from the president that shouldn’t be there.

Not cautious about the fate of the country but cautious about her political career.

The UA had already stood at an intersection, and external pressure had never been more severe. If she made the wrong choice, she might go down in history as the person who brought down the country.

Her eyes were tightly squeezed together. Hill closed her eyes and meditated for a long time before she slowly said, “We must win back dominance from the Earth Defense Alliance and bring the issue of extraterrestrial civilization back under the United Nations.”

“Contact our allies in Asia and inform them that the 2019 Asia-Pacific joint military exercise will be held next month. In addition, dispatch the Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Guam under the name of a military exercise.” Hill then looked at Kerry. “Also, I must trouble you to go to Xin. We must talk with Celestial Trade.”

“It’s useless.” Kerry shook his head. “It’s not the first time I dealt with that man. He isn’t the type to compromise. From the first time I saw him, I knew he would become a threat to our nation.”

“We don’t know unless we try. Since they’re a company, I believe there’s nothing that can’t be compromised in the name of personal interests,” Hillary said emotionlessly.

“Of course, there’s nothing that addressing their interests can’t solve.” Kerry was so angry that he actually laughed and exaggeratedly spread his hands. “But they want the crown on our heads and we can’t give it to them!”

After spitting out the last sentence, Kerry quickly left the president’s office.

He slammed the door shut and walked over to the map after he went to the office

With a gloomy expression, Kerry looked at the red line scattered across Asia that had begun to extend to South America. The red line was like a spider web, spreading from Coro Island and providing nutrients that created the despicable Celestial Trade.

“That stupid wire,” Kerry squeezed the words out between his teeth and muttered to himself in anger. “Their hands are reaching in South America! Reaching in our back garden. And our president…”

Our president…

Just then, a crazy thought suddenly formed in his mind.

This idea that had appeared before, but since he won the general election in 2004, the idea never formed in his mind again.

Once ambition was born, it would grow uncontrollably.

No.

This isn’t personal ambition.

This is for the nation.

He hesitated, and his eyes stopped at the phone at the corner of the desk.

He suddenly remembered a phone number.

That phone number belonged to an entrepreneur who once invested in him in 2004. That person had many titles, such as a well-known investor on Wall Street, such as the chairman of the Morgan Foundation…

Wall Street should be the most devastated party by the “Defense Tax”.

With that thought in his mind, he reached out to the phone.

In the Coro Island mansion, leaning on a lounge chair on the balcony, Jiang Chen put his mobile phone on the beach table, and a smirk formed on his face.

“2019 Asia-Pacific joint military exercise? It seems they’re starting to force their allies to make a choice.”

Just now, he received a message from a Ghost Agent.

The UA issued the 2019 Asia-Pacific joint military exercise document to its allies in Asia, which was scheduled to be held next month. At the same time, the 13 billion-US-dollar new-generation nuclear-powered aircraft carrier “Ford” would arrive at the Guam military base this month to participate in the exercise.

Guam was located northeast of Xin.

There was a silky swimsuit tied around her chest and waist that showed off her petite beauty. Ayesha, who carried a tray with iced orange juice, placed it next to Jiang Chen. She gently swayed her long brown hair gilded under the golden sunshine and she looked at him with her sapphire eyes. “Do you need me to do something?”

“Can you give me a massage?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Ayesha put her hands around Jiang Chen’s shoulders.

Whenever he had this expression, she knew he had the situation well under control…

Chapter 1111: Feasibility

Chapter 1111: “Feasibility”

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Caron_

The joint military exercise in the Asia-Pacific region gradually began to escalate tension in the area and the situation in Asia seemed to be hanging on a knife’s edge.

The location of Guam was too sensitive, just on the northeast side of Xin. The UA sent a carrier battle group and the latest Ford-class aircraft carrier to participate in this exercise. In this critical time, a lot of people sensed something was out of the ordinary.

Nippon, Australia, and New Zealand, which were originally discussing joining the Earth Defense Alliance, began to take cautious attitudes once again.

The countries that had joined the Earth Defense Alliance naturally stood on the same side as Xin. The dictator of MLL Island, Santos, denounced the move in front of the media to show his support for Celestial Trade.

Malaysia and other countries took a more civil approach and used relatively mild rhetoric, but they still expressed doubts and dissatisfaction with the UA holding so-called “routine military exercises” at this critical time “when the world must unite”.

Hua and Russia also showed off the comradeship with both countries by sending foreign ministers to visit Coro Island. They jointly held a press conference to question if the UA’s action was an attempt to curb the Earth Defense Alliance, and disregarded the interests of mankind in order to strengthen regional control.

Not only external pressure, but internal pressure was also building up inside UA. However, the country’s hegemony couldn’t be challenged. Regardless of the scale of opposition, the position of the Capitol and Congress remained firm. The military exercise must take place.

Regardless of whether the parties involved were willing, an East-West confrontation quietly unfolded.

At Coro International Airport, a beautiful figure stepped out of the gate with quick steps. In the envious and hateful gazes of male creatures, the beautiful figure was watched as she stepped into a car at the airport.

Her sunglasses were hung onto her collar, her wavy blonde hair swished in the air, Natasha smiled and looked at Jiang Chen in the driver’s seat.

“Did you miss me?”

“Of course.” Jiang Chen grinned as he started the car. “Finally done your sentence?”

“What do you mean done my sentence?” Natasha rolled her eyes. “You make it sound like I’ve done time.”

The inspection period of half a year had passed, and now, she had completely separated herself from the Russian Security Service and transferred to the diplomatic system. In fact, she originally intended to resign and immigrate to Xin but later changed her mind.

Compared to just being a trophy, she wished to be someone who could help him out in her career like Ayesha and Xia Shiyu. Only by being helpful could he be inseparable from her, and that was the advice her father gave her.

Given the friendly bilateral relationship between Xin and Russia, becoming a diplomat was the best choice.

When she saw that Jiang Chen seemed to be in a good mood, Natasha said in a sly tone, “You don’t seem to be worried at all? The aircraft carrier is already at your doorstep.”

“What’s there to worry about?” With his hands on the steering wheel, Jiang Chen laughed. “Do they really want to go all-out with me? I shouldn’t be the one worried; they should be.”

Natasha chuckled, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and mocked him.

“I like it when you’re being arrogant.”

Jiang Chen’s lips curved up.

“It seems you’re not using the right word. This isn’t arrogance—this is called confidence.”

“Is there a difference? Right, where is your little follower? How come she’s not here? Or is she now being invisible in the back?” Natasha said, looking back at the seat as she waved her hand in the air.

Obviously, Ghost Agent’s optical stealth technology left a deep impression on her.

“Stop waving your hand; Ayesha’s not there. Also, can you use a more normal name for her?” Jiang Chen sighed helplessly.

“Then what? Your little tail?”

“…”

Through the mirror, looking at Natasha’s expression full of maliciousness, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but start to worry about the harmony and stability of the future harem life.

Although the relationship between her and Ayesha was no longer as stiff as before, the two women still weren’t on good terms.

It had nothing to do with jealousy. Ayesha never learned how to be jealous and Natasha didn’t seem to mind much. If there really was a reason, then it must be that their fates were meant to clash…

The magnetic levitation mode was activated, and the car entered the cruise track. The two quickly flew back to the mansion at the north end of the island.

Because it was during the workday, when Jiang Chen pushed the door open, Ayesha and Xia Shiyu weren’t there.

Natasha kicked off her high heels and put on slippers. Before she dropped the sentence “I’m going to shower”, which filled his imagination, she winked at him then went upstairs.

Just as Jiang Chen was debating if he should be a gentleman and bring her suitcase up for her or be a “gentleman” and help her shower, an untimely phone call arrived on his watch.

“Did I disturb you?” As soon as the call was connected, he heard Xia Shiyu’s slightly jealous teasing.

“How come?” Jiang Chen touched his nose with his empty hand and said without blushing, “I’m planning to unpack her luggage. I’m not as perverted as you think.”

“Hmph, I understand you too well!”

Xia Shiyu was unconvinced. Obviously, she had timed her call.

Jiang Chen decided to change the topic. He went to the sofa and sat down.

“Was there anything important?”

When Jiang Chen began to discuss an important matter, Xia Shiyu immediately put on her aloof expression, and said in a serious tone,” Under the UA government’s diplomatic intervention, Exelon Nuclear Power and Westinghouse received orders for nuclear power projects in Colombia and Peru through non-standard bidding process.”

When Jiang Chen heard the names “Colombia” and “Peru,” Jiang Chen’s pupils suddenly constricted.

As for why, it was mainly because the location of the two countries was too sensitive. One was located above Ecuador and the other was below it. The two countries tightly covered the small mass on the west coast of South America.

Now that half of the trans-Pacific submarine cable was built, the UA was exporting nuclear power to Ecuador’s two neighboring countries at this juncture. There was no doubt that they intended to stop Celestial Trade’s Global Grid Plan to reach South America on the beach.

“What’s the attitude of Ecuador now?” Jiang Chen asked.

“There’s no reaction for the time being, but we noticed that Westinghouse is in contact with their government,” Xia Shiyu said.

Jiang Chen frowned at the words.

Now the situation seemed to be out of his control.

In the strategic layout of his Global Grid Plan, Ecuador was a crucial first stop on the west coast of South America. However, South America was, after all, the back garden of the UA. Even though Ecuador’s relationship with UA wasn’t as close as Colombia and Peru, politics would inevitably be affected by the influence of the UA.

UA had realized the threat of the Global Grid Plan and made up its mind to block the project. South America was, after all, the home court of the UA. Jiang Chen didn’t have the confidence to compete “fairly” with UA companies.

“Do you have a plan?” Seeing his long silence, Xia Shiyu asked.

Jiang Chen touched his chin and said, “Now it all depends who will have the best bid… but the problem is this—we can give them benefits and the UA can give the same benefits or give even more than us. And before the submarine cable is completed, the low cost of electricity is simply not enough to give us an advantage. Unless…”

A glimpse of realization flashed through Jiang Chen’s eyes, and an idea suddenly emerged in his mind.

If he couldn’t t offer them tangible benefits…

Then he could just draw a cake for them!

“Release news that Celestial Trade is studying the ‘feasibility’ of building a space elevator in the Western Hemisphere.”

When Jiang Chen said this, he had a smirk.

He heavily emphasized the word “feasibility”

Chapter 1112: Aircraft Carrier Battle Group

Chapter 1112: Aircraft Carrier Battle Group

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rainystars

The Wall Street.

In the conference room on the top floor of the Morgan Stanley Building, Daniel Morgan leaned back in his chair and listened quietly to the explanation of the company’s last quarterly earnings.

Some time ago, using the “doom-day conspiracy” and the havoc created by the establishment of the Noah’s Ark Fund, the space companies in Silicon Valley and Seattle formed one after another and led to a new frenzy of space exploration interest never seen for half a century.

As the leader of Wall Street investors, Morgan Stanley certainly wished to get its hands on a piece of this pie.

However, the defense tax introduced by Celestial Trade cooled down the frenzy instantly like a bucket of ice, cold water over the heads of new space companies in Silicon Valley and Seattle.

Of course, this didn’t pain it the most. As a world-class investment bank, it was certainly impossible for its managers to put all the eggs in the same basket. Morgan Stanley not only invested in Silicon Valley and Seattle companies, but it also invested all over the world, and even some aerospace companies listed in Xin have its name on the shareholder list.

What really pained it was another event.

The 100 billion US dollars Noah’s Ark Fund was forced to be dissolved because of a bill passed by Congress. Morgan Stanley and Rockefeller consortium were forced to withstand the pressure of the elite class and return their principal investment and even lost 5.1 billion in fees.

The Wall Street indeed had a lot of influence on Congress. Many Members accepted their “donations”, but no one could ever say they had absolute control over Congress.

Whether it was the fallen Jewish consortium or the WASP that was the new leader in the Wall Street.

It was all politics.

The separation of powers provided the opportunity for capitalism to prosper, but it would never allow the capitalists to drain all the nutrients from the soil. When everyone filled the streets to protest against the “escapism of the elites”, and demanded the government to set an example, even the congress members that accepted money must consider the voters in their own constituency.

3

“Let’s end here for now.” Daniel Morgan raised his hand and interrupted the manager at the bottom of the performance ratings as he was anxiously reporting on his work. “Kevin, go and prepare, HR will talk to you about work.”

The manager’s mood immediately dropped to the bottom of the valley and sweat profusely appeared on his forehead.

Daniel didn’t care about the expression on his face, and he waved his hand wearily.

“That’s it.”

Everyone in the room was relieved and left in a hurry, for fear that the boss may pick on them if they stayed a second longer. Everyone knew very well that the boss was not in a good mood, and it was not the best choice to leave an impression now.

In the eyes of others, they may all be leading six-figure or even seven-figure elites. They sat in the office drinking coffee and managed over tens of millions in funds. However, only they themselves know how careful they had to be to keep this glamorous appearance.

Wall Street never lacked talent. Apart from the capital itself, no one was irreplaceable.

After the meeting, Daniel stared at the financial report on the table, and he felt flustered.

These days, Carmen’s final words had lingered in his mind.

“You will regret the choice you made today…?”

1

Daniel repeated this sentence and muttered. Sometimes Daniel also thought, what if he had helped the Rothschild family at that time, just like what his father did in the “Kristallnacht” of World War II. If so, would everything be different?

Just then, the phone on the table shook.

He shook his head and drove the unrealistic thought out of his mind, Daniel picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.”

A familiar voice.

Daniel’s eyebrows raised, and said with great interest in his voice, “Mr. Kerry? How did the distinguished Secretary of State remember your old friend?”

In 2004, the Morgan consortium had bet on Kerry, but Kerry eventually lost. This investment was squandered. But Daniel didn’t think it was a failed investment, because “betting on both sides” had already been a Wall Street tradition. No matter who was elected, the “War on Terror” in 2006 would not be affected.

What really made Daniel feel pity was that this promising politician never showed any more interest in the presidency since his failure in 2004 and had embraced the role of a Democratic diplomat.

“What do you think of the 2019 Asia-Pacific joint military exercise?”

Kerry’s straightforwardness made Daniel pause for a second, then he seemed to understand something as he asked, “If you are asking me if I support this or not, my answer is of course I do.”

At this point, Daniel suddenly changed the topic, and smiled, “But, is the pressure a bit light?”

“I think so too. The rise of Celestial Trade has seriously threatened our influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Now, this has already been reflected in the economy. If I choose to appease this time, it means that we are handing over the hegemony we built over several decades,” After hearing Daniel’s words, Kerry hid all the joy and excitement in his heart and continued, “Hill and her team are preparing for the 2020 election if she is still in power for the next four years…”

“There is no doubt that the situation will be worse!” His knuckles knocked onto the conference room table, Daniel laughed twice and moved the phone into his other hand. Then he said, full of interest, “Mr. Kerry, I know a good restaurant. If you have time after work, we should have dinner together and talk about the election next year.”

…

The ship speared through the raging waves, and the ten massive figures sailed through the rough sea, leaving milky white ripples behind.

On the Ford-class aircraft carrier, Captain Hogg stood in the command tower and looked into the horizon in the southwest.

Although he couldn’t see anything, he knew very well that Coro Island was in that direction.

Even the glaring sun couldn’t hide the arrogance between his eyebrows.

He and his fleet indeed had every right to be be arrogant.

As the first aircraft carrier designed by the UA using CAD technology, the “Ford-class” equipment was fully networked and computerized. The overall automation level was much higher than that of the Nimitz-class. The carrier personnel onboard was reduced from 3190 to 2,000, but the efficiency of the aircraft increased by 15% compared to the Nimitz, and the overall combat efficiency also more than doubled.

2

In addition, an updated power distribution system reduced the cable length, which made it easier to reconfigure for future installation of electromagnetic pulse cannon, laser anti-missile, and anti-ship weapons; there was enough room for modification.

Although the Ford-class was yet tested in a real battle, it was indeed worthy of the name known as the best aircraft carrier built by human.

“Report! Celestial Trade’s fleet is discovered 100 kilometers away in the southwest, and it is confirmed to be two Guardian-class frigates,” the lieutenant commander saluted and reported to him.

“Two frigates?” Hogg frowned.

He expected Celestial Trade to be within their range since the aircraft carrier battle group’s intent was to put pressure on Celestial Trade A distance of one hundred kilometers showed the other party’s cautiousness in reducing the possibility of escalation to a minimum. However, he didn’t quite understand why they only sent two frigates after them.

1

Is Celestial Trade this confident?

Or did they completely abandon their sea supremacy?

“Send aircrafts and see what they are doing!” Hogg ordered in a deep tone.

“Roger!” The lieutenant commander saluted and left with the order.

Chapter 1113: Who is the boss

1113 Who is the boss Hogg never would have understood.

One hundred kilometers, a safe distance from his perspective, was no longer safe in front of Celestial Trade’s electromagnetic pulse cannon. It was just the typical crossfire distance.

After two rounds of upgrades, the ship-borne electromagnetic pulse cannons on the Guardian-class frigate was no longer a modified version of the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon, but an actual anti-ship cannon designed for warships. A shell 50 kilograms in mass could easily shred a ship with the same tonnage into two.

Even the 2,000-ton frigate could output damage equivalent to a battleship. The Celestial Trade Guardian-class perfectly demonstrated the tactical concept of “small boats equipped with giant cannons” to the extreme. They pioneered the naval warfare to the 22nd-century era where “destroyed upon observation” was the moto.

Just as the two F-35Cs took off from the Ford-class aircraft carrier deck, the two Guardian-class frigates were already locked onto the hull of the aircraft carrier.

If a conflict broke out between the two sides, the seventy-five aircrafts on the carrier would not have the opportunity to take off and would sink to the depth of the Pacific Ocean. As for the two F-35Cs that already took off, they would be taught a lesson by the laser anti-missile system if they dared to approach closer.

On the frigate leading the way, the captain stood in the bridge and stared silently at the aircraft carrier battle group on the holographic map.

From the moment the aircraft carrier battle group crossed Hawaii, they were locked on by the “Sky Eye” Observation Satellite.

It was the reason Jiang Chen did not consider this aircraft carrier battle group a threat because it never left his “sight”.

“Report. Two aircrafts took off from the aircraft carrier and are approaching us in a straight line. The type of aircraft has been confirmed to be F35-C with unknown weapons.” The first officer saluted and reported to the captain.

The captain nodded, and a vicious smile formed.

“Teach them a lesson.”

“Roger!” The first officer saluted again and jogged away with the order.

Soon, a searchlight-shaped device rose from the middle of the frigate and pointed into the distant airspace.

If the two F-35s knew they were already on someone else’s radar, they would certainly reconsider their choice of approaching the frigates

But unfortunately, they knew nothing about power.

“This is Sea Lion-1 (Sea Lion-2), I’m approaching Celestial Trade’s frigates. No submarine activity is detected. The enemy has yet to detect us. Requesting further instructions.” Celestial Trade’s frigates already appeared on the radar as the pilots immediately reported to the aircraft carrier.

A hint of ridicule appeared on Hogg’s face after he received information from the pilots.

Earlier, he was worried that Celestial Trade may be playing some tricks, now they seemed to just be bluffing.

“Show them who’s the real boss,” Hogg nonchalantly said. In the end, he didn’t forget to add, “Pay attention, don’t overdo it.”

“Roger that.”

The two F-35Cs changed their formation in the air and descended to approach the two Celestial Trade frigates.

Perhaps because of their self-confidence in their maneuverability, perhaps because of certainty that Celestial Trade wouldn’t dare to be the first one to shoot, the two F-35Cs entered cruising attitude and even left the cover of clouds. They were about to skid over the top of the frigates to suddenly appear on the enemy radar before vanishing again.

With the invisibility of the F35, this provocative action was tried and tested.

Although they only tried this move against second-tier naval forces.

Giles opened the photoelectric detection pod mounted on the bottom of the aircraft and was preparing to “suddenly appear” on the enemy’s radar when he saw a white light on the frigate in front of him.

Before he could react, the strong glare shrouded his cockpit in an instant.

Giles closed his eyes out of reflex, the burning pain in his eye sockets reminded him of what had happened.

“AHHH— MY EYES, I CAN’T SEE! FU*K, WHAT IS THAT THING!”

There was a hoarse cry from his comrade. Giles wanted to open his eyes to understand what happened. However, the glare blinding him made it all an unrealistic thought.

The two planes were like blinded flies. Their formation was no longer intact and was close to crashing in air.

Sweating profusely, Giles used his experience to make several maneuvers in succession, but he still could not escape the blinding light locked onto him.

The light seemed to be following him and was stuck to his cockpit.

He could swear he has never seen such a weapon!

If it was just ordinary glare, it would never achieve this effect. He was convinced that when he was maneuvering in the air, his cockpit was no longer facing the frigate, but he was still blinked by the light, unable to escape.

There was only one explanation. Celestial Trade must have used some kind of microwave weapon that he has never heard of before, and turned the glass on the cockpit, and even his goggles, into light bulbs…

“Sea Lion-1, this is the headquarters, what is going on? Please report back… I repeat, please report back…”

“God, God, God… please, don’t do this, please…”

Giles prayed the deity’s name and used his years of experience to barely pull the plane back above the clouds. But even then, he was still unable to escape the light.

He didn’t care if there was no warning for a missile being locked onto him. He fired all the flares and chaff jams equipped on the aircraft.

He flew in fear for five minutes.

Even he himself did not know whether he escaped or Celestial Trade just spared him.

The blinding light on the cockpit finally disappeared. Giles was drenched in sweat. After he confirmed his position on the radar, he went north for more than 20 kilometers before he finally adjusted his course to return to the aircraft carrier.

As for the two frigates, he didn’t even have the courage to look back.

“Sea Lion-2, what’s the situation on your side?” Switching to the team channel, Giles asked his comrade.

“This is Sea Lion-2, I need some eye drops… except that, everything is fine.”

“Is there a problem with landing?”

“No problem… probably.”

After Giles confirmed the safety of his comrade, he let out a sigh of relief and immediately contacted the aircraft carrier to report what just happened.

Until now, he still didn’t believe what had happened.

If it weren’t for the lingering pain in his eyes and the wetness on his back, he would rather believe that everything that happened was a dream.

A nightmare…

After he ended his communication with the command center, Giles’s tensed muscles began to relax.

The crisis was averted, and he could soon return to the aircraft carrier.

Out of curiosity, he reached out and touched the cockpit glass.

However, just as his hand touched the glass, his expression turned peculiar again.

Not only the glass but the goggles on his helmet and even the instrument dials in the cockpit…

Even with his gloves on, he felt his fingertips were being burned.

What the hell!

Chapter 1114: The Form of War

1114 The Form of War Giles’s speculation was indeed correct. It was a microwave weapon that caused them to be temporarily blind.

The microwave weapon was a prototype from Fallout Shelter 027, a laser array air defense system called “Light Suppression Weapon”. It was used by countries as “peaceful” means to repulse fighters trespassing.

But this form of weapon was short-lived and forgotten in history by the end of the twenty-first century. In future warfare, drones dominated the battlefield. Even if piloted fighters were not outdated, they gradually became the supporting cast in air combat.

Disregarding everything else, a fighter jet flying at a speed of ten Mach could experience a force over 10G by making a simple turn. If the turn was a little wide, the pilot’s eyeballs would be squeezed out. The human reflex was only so fast, and it was far slower compared to AI’s responsiveness.

From identification to locked down for destruction, while the pilot may still be confirming the target, the AI may already have calculated the trajectory.

However, for the sixth-generation fighters still in the exploration stage, this weapon was simply too effective. It was the same as covering the pilot’s eyes during air combat.

Of course, it served more of a mean of deterrence.

In actual combat, if the enemy planes already entered the defensive radius of the laser array air defense system, directly attacking the wings, ammunition depot, and fuel tank with high-power lasers would be very effective.

“It’s perfect.” In the military base of New Moon Island, Jiang Chen praised as he watched the two F-35Cs in the holographic screen blindly maneuvering in the sky. He then looked at Ivan, who was standing across from him. “Who is the captain?”

Ivan replied immediately.

“The Captain of Frigate Ship (FS) Ange is Captain Lei Zheng.”

“Lei Zheng is very talented. He handled this very well.”

While he praised the captain, Jiang Chen already got an idea of how to use the video that they just captured.

You are planning to conduct a military exercise? Okay! You are planning to flex on your allies? No problem! I’m not going to interrupt anything, but I will actually help you!

We won’t discuss anything about the fighters. First things first, the maneuvers of the two pilots were quite amazing! Celestial Trade can testify that they pulled everything off with their eyes closed! As for why their eyes are closed?

Oh, that is a long story…

At this moment, Jiang Chen was planning on when he should play this card to maximize its effect]

…

It was already more than a week since he returned to Hua. Lu Hao didn’t have any time to rest since his return. He was either being pulled into meetings or being asked to make a report. From the employees to the executive council, everyone seemed to be in a tense state, but they couldn’t agree on a direction.

He understood the impetuous and contradictory atmosphere that permeated at the top of the Republic. He also believed that all countries in the world shared the same struggles.

Whether to create history or become history, no one was prepared for what would happen next.

The opponent was an extraterrestrial civilization. Apart from knowing that it possessed powerful biotechnology, the Earth civilization knew nothing more. However, Lu Hao also understood that he couldn’t be too demanding in this matter. It was not easy to have the courage to fight against an extraterrestrial civilization capable of intergalactic travel.

Of course, his exhaustion was not entirely due to meetings, but also due to other things.

The people above him tried to find a way out, and the people below him tried to gain benefits.

A semi-state-owned aerospace technology company already saw him twice, as it hoped to learn some insights from him about the future direction of the Earth Fleet. What type of battleship would be prioritized? Would engines be the focus or weapons? Or armors? Or even shields?

However, it was never this easy…

Even the Earth Fleet didn’t know its future, let alone his future. Perhaps that man saw something further away, but he was not a god after all. He would also be confused about the distant future.

The once unpopular astronomy and aerospace became one of the hottest disciplines. Not only greedy businessmen came to see him, but many academics have found him to sell their theories. They shoved their papers in front of him, begging him to take a look.

Some of these people came for the name, while others searched for the benefit.

In this day and age, professors may not necessarily be good at scientific research, but even graduate students knew how to write papers. Many universities even used SCI papers as a hard indicator for assessing academic performance. In this kind of environment, anyone could offer an opinion.

For those scholars and experts, if their own thoughts would be agreed on by the members of the Earth Defense Alliance, this meant the opportunity to become a guest of the Earth Defense Alliance Committee, even a technical consultant. Even if they performed poorly in university or at a research institute, they could still become famed within academics and even go down in history.

However, the root of the contradiction lied here.

Everyone thought they were correct and even brought evidence to justify their opinions.

However, it was too easy to falsify evidence. Just look at the science fiction novels of the early twentieth century and look at what authors imagined the year 2000 looked like. It was easy to determine how unrealistic the fantasy of human beings is.

These days, Lu Hao either spent his time in meetings, or dealt with the piles of papers and research reports.

Sometimes he really wished he could stuff these papers into the shredder.

But he knew at this moment, he couldn’t make such a decision. In his subconscious, he hoped to see a paper or research report that offered a clear path for the Earth Defense Alliance.

To be honest, being in his position, he was naturally a supporter of the carrier battle group theory. However, Wu Changfeng’s words on the elevator made him question his previous certainty.

After he let out a sigh, he leaned back onto the sofa in the living room. Lu Hao massaged his soar temples and tossed the paper onto the table. Then, his sight drifted to the globe on the window sill.

He heard the sound of a key turning at the door.

He looked up and saw a clever looking boy and his lips formed a kind smile.

It was his son who was still in the first grade of elementary school. He just came back from school.

The little guy ran towards him in happiness after he saw his dad sitting on the sofa. He didn’t even take his shoes off before jumping onto his dad’s legs.

“Dad, Dad! Are you working in the Earth Defense Alliance now?” With his innocent eyes, the little guy shook his dad’s arm with adoration.

“You can say that.” Lu Hao rubbed his son’s head and said with a smile.

It was not a secret that he joined the Earth Defense Alliance Committee. The state television even created an exclusive interview with him and Wu Changfeng. However, in the interview, he only mentioned the duties and obligations of the Earth Defense Alliance. He also spoke about the plan to create a fleet and intercept the extraterrestrial civilization in the Kuiper Belt.

As for the issues discussed at the committee meeting, even with his own membership, these sensitive issues were directly averted…

“Great! Our classmates don’t believe it. They said that I’m lying.” The little guy excitedly waved his fist and continued to look at him with adoring eyes. “Dad, Dad, will you build a Gundam?”

A Gundam?

Lu Hao shook his head.

A Gundam was absolutely impossible.

Having said that, he didn’t want to dim his son’s hopeful eyes, so he said in a comforting tone, “Your father is too old to pilot a Gundam. So, this task will be up to you. Promise Dad that you will study hard.”

“Can I drive a Gundam if I study hard?” His son’s pupils flashed with excitement.

“Of course!” Lu Hao smiled.

The little guy climbed down from his dad’s knees after receiving the confirmation he was looking for. He skipped out of the living room and ran away.

Looking at his son, his lips formed a curvature that belonged to the kindness of a father.

Even if it is to protect the smile of the little guy, at least he can’t let him down…

He shook his head and picked up the paper he previously tossed down.

What will a war in space be like?

Just as he was feeling puzzled, he suddenly remembered someone.

A person who might give him the answer.

Chapter 1115: Cyclotron

1115 Cyclotron Since Natasha moved in, Jiang Chen’s mansion no longer felt empty.

Ayesha and Xia Shiyu were quiet and reserved, but Natasha was the complete opposite. Her voice and action reflected her Slav origins.

Passionate and unrestrained…

However, the four lived together harmoniously. Everyone did their best to accommodate each other’s habits, and everyone did everything they could to not interfere with others.

The only fly in the ointment was that every night, the competition for the “ownership” of Jiang Chen was fierce.

Before Natasha arrived, there was a timetable arranged to determine who would “serve the bed”, and even Jiang Chen didn’t have much influence on the decision.

However, the arrival of Natasha broke the balance. The fiery Russian girl not only ruin the “rules of the game” agreed upon by Ayesha and Xia Shiyu but even put up a “refusal to negotiate” stance.

“Timetable? What is the use of that?” When Xia Shiyu and Ayesha asked about her schedule, Natasha refused right away, and said without thinking, “The person who he sleeps with is his freedom. How can you use a timetable and ignore his wishes? If you’re not willing, take him away from me with your charm.”

It was fine if she just expressed her opinion, but she was also holding Jiang Chen’s arm and provoking the two girls by straightening her back, exposing the Mount Everest in front of her chest.

Against the invincible size, even Ayesha who never felt any jealousy felt frustrated and began to pout.

As for Xia Shiyu, the vinegar jar was completely knocked over and she remained standoffish for several days…

Well, in fact, Jiang Chen thought he was quite easy-going in this aspect. He didn’t disagree with the timetable, or rather, he supported decisions that promoted harmony and stability within the family.

But at the time he didn’t say anything.

Honestly, it did give him spiritual satisfaction to see the people he loved show jealousy because of him.

It was fortunate for him that the three girls didn’t turn against each other because of “unequal distribution”. Other than at night, they spent time together quite harmoniously. However, he clearly felt that they began to compete in on particular aspect.

For example, Ayesha began to favor just wearing loose pajamas while walking around in the mansion with her legs exposed and Natasha even began treating bikinis as her casual wear at home.

Even Xia Shiyu joined the movement to save “clothes” while gnashing her teeth and blushing.

Jiang Chen didn’t know how he should feel about this.

While he was the ultimate “beneficiary”, and the appearance and body of the three women were all stunning, nowadays, he felt uncomfortable being home. Even with the genetic vaccine, he began to feel that his body couldn’t handle this anymore.

When he subtly hinted this to Ayesha, the girl nodded and expressed that she would help him.

However, Jiang Chen did not see any change at home.

The only thing that changed was the cuisines on the table.

On top of the original menu, a pot of delicious turtle soup was added… (1)

…

Time was like clockwork, and July passed very quickly.

Perhaps the microwave weapon left an impressive impression on the pilots of the fighters on the aircraft carrier, the UA aircraft carrier battle group did not conduct any drastic exercises since it entered the Guam military base. Every day, the F-35s took off from the military base, but the route all avoided the air defense identification zone of Xin without exception.

Obviously, the UA didn’t want to cause more misunderstandings during this critical period.

On the other hand, the UA had resorted to its usual tactics, military high-profile actions combined with diplomatic offensives. Secretary of State Kerry frequently visited Asian countries, ostensibly to strengthen economic and trade cooperation, but in fact, was pointing to Xin and planning to blockade the Global Grid Plan.

Xia Shiyu was extremely stressed over this matter.

Although the irreplaceability of Celestial Trade’s product made it impossible for UA companies to take over, the UA diplomatic approach played a significant role and caused the expansion of the Global Grid Plan in West Asia and South American to almost completely stagnate.

However, Jiang Chen was not in a hurry. He could allow Kerry to create some chaos in Asia first. By the time the 2019 Asia-Pacific military exercise began, he prepared plenty of ways for UA to lose its face.

The Ange High-Tech Industrial Park, an industrial park that condensed the cutting-edge technology of the entire Xin, had more than doubled its size compared to six months ago.

Since Future Military became independent of Future Heavy Industries, CEO Ling Tao built new factories with the budget approved by the headquarters. They built a lab dedicated to weapon development upon Jiang Chen’s request.

At the moment, a giant turret, about 25 meters long and about 12 meters wide, was placed in an empty lab warehouse. The shape of the turret looked like a giant pot. The pot handle was embedded in the pot from the middle and flipped over on the ground.

Since the barrel was too heavy, it must be suspended by a mechanical arm on the ceiling.

From the huge volume, it was easy to guess the use of this weapon.

Other than the starships that flew in the air, it seemed that no warship could carry this massive turret.

Outside the protective glass of the warehouse, Ling Tao showed and explained to Jiang Chen the latest masterpieces of Future Military.

“Sirius X-1, a cyclotron-type electromagnetic pulse cannon prototype. The projectiles are launched in two acceleration stages. The first stage of acceleration is completed on the double circular magnetic tracks in the turret, while the barrel begins to charge. After the first stage of acceleration, the maximum speed of the projectile, in theory, can reach Mach 40. After entering the barrel, the projectile starts to accelerate at the second stage, and the theoretical exit speed can reach Mach 67, which is more than 35% of the third cosmic speed!”

Ling Tao showed heartfelt pride.

Since a year ago, scientists in Future Military began to study the cyclotron. After countless days and nights of experiments, they finally made a breakthrough, as they raised the speed of the electromagnetic pulse cannon by an order of magnitude. It was no exaggeration to say that this electromagnetic pulse cannon was the masterpiece of Future Military.

Different from the war in a traditional sense.

In the war within the stellar system, two crucial issues must be considered, namely the speed of gravity and relative motion.

Different tracks corresponded to different surrounding speeds. If the spaceship on track A wanted to hit the spaceship on track B, it was not as simple as aiming at the target. If the speed of the bullet was not fast enough, it may fly away and become a meteorite in the solar system or even a satellite of a certain planet.

In actual combat, even if the speed exceeded the third cosmic speed, it was not enough.

However, Earth civilization finally gained a fighting chance against the threat outside of the solar system. It was no longer helpless.

(1) Turtle Soup is known to improve men’s performance in a “certain” aspect.

Chapter 1116: The Seed of Future

1116 The Seed of Future Below the magnificent brick wall, an Audi A8 moved on the asphalt road and entered the university decorated in green.

On the solid marble monument, five words were inscribed with fine penmanship – National University of Defense Technology.

As the first group of universities in the “2110 Project” focused on military, the university had been under the dual leadership of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Education. The school’s also held prominence, as it sent over thousands of talents to the military every year.

Lu Hao was emotional when he saw the stone monument.

It was his alma mater.

He hadn’t returned to this place for a long time.

The car stopped in front of a gated faculty and staff district. From the eroded painting on the wall and the fact the building was only five-storey tall, the community was built quite a long time ago. Lu Hao stepped out of the car and looked at the man behind sunglasses as he he sighed.

“Do you still need to follow me here?”

The man with sunglasses shook his head.

“This is my order from the superior. You can just pretend that I don’t exist.”

Lu Hao frowned but did not say anything. He turned and walked to the guard room.

Nothing here has changed in twenty years.

He still vaguely recalled that when he first arrived at university, he joined the astronomy club out of interest and frequently visited this community.

The astronomy society at that time was as unpopular as the school of astronomy.

Not only was there a lack of members, but they couldn’t even apply for a room for their activities.

For a club that could disband at any moment, the school naturally didn’t allocate much money. After the initial interest faded, most of the members who had filled out an application gradually stopped participating in activities, and even the club president himself worked on other things.

Only one person was an exception.

Even today, Lu Hao still vividly remembered the name of the old man.

Professor of the Astronomy Club, Professor Nie Changhai. His research direction was a subbranch of astronomy, a topic that at the time couldn’t be more unpopular – the theory of galatic defense. Although it fitted with the needs of the National University of Defense Technology, most students, let alone professors, were dismissive of this inexplicable subject.

No matter how people at that time viewed him and his subject, Lu Hao knew very well that the old man was never bothered by the opinion of other people, but wholeheartedly made his topic a lifelong research goal.

If he must choose an authoritative representative for the defense of extraterrestrial civilization, perhaps the old professor was the only one who can qualify.

As the thoughts flowed back to him, Lu Hao walked to the guard room and gently tapped on the window to wake up the guard dozing off.

“Is Professor Nie Changhai still teaching?”

“Hey, why don’t you call…” The guard wiped the drool off of his mouth and was about to go off on the person that interrupted his afternoon nap. But when his eyes met Lu Hao’s, his chose to close his mouth and the swallowed the curse that was about to come out.

As a guard for so many years, he didn’t learn many skills, but he managed to master how to read a person.

Fu*k, it’s probably a senior leader visiting…

The guard thought in his mind and forced a smile.

However, Lu Hao did not take it seriously and repeated what he said patiently.

“Is Professor Nie Changhai still teaching?”

The guard stopped to think and quickly scanned the name of each professor in his mind. However, he did not remember the name Nie Changhai. He thought he heard wrong, so he questioned in a quiet tone.

“Who?”

“Professor Nie,” Lu Hao said.

The guard revealed a bitter smile and shook his head.

“Sorry, I have been working here for more than three years and I have never heard of a professor named Nie. Should I call someone to ask for you?”

“I see…” Lu Hao sighed. “It’s okay.”

It’s already been twenty years. If he is still alive, he must be well into his seventies.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, he heard a slightly cold female voice behind him.

“You’re looking for Professor Nie?”

Lu Hao turned around and looked at the young woman behind him.

She didn’t look old, but her vibe didn’t resemble an undergraduate student. She must be a graduate student at the university. From her appearance, Lu Hao saw some resemblance of someone he used to know, but he couldn’t pinpoint who the familiarity belonged to.

“Yes, and you are?”

“I am his granddaughter, Nie Han. Why are you looking for Professor Nie?” Nie Han asked.

“You are the granddaughter of Professor Nie?” Lu Hao’s face showed a touch of joy, and he smiled, “I hope you can help me tell professor that Student Lu Hao is seeking his advice.”

“Lu Hao?” When she heard the name, Nie Han’s voice gained some warmth and she no longer gave off an aloof vibe, “When he was still alive, he always mentioned your name. He complimented you for being the best student he’s ever taught.”

Lu Hao paused in disbelief.

“When he was still alive?”

Nie Han nodded and remained silent as she looked down.

The branches of the birch tree swayed gently and rustled in the wind.

Lu Hao’s throat moved, and a lot of words were rushing out. But because he couldn’t find someone to tell, he only let out a long sigh.

“Am I?”

From the expression on Lu Hao’s face, Nie Han felt remose, so she whispered, “Professor Nie is no longer here, but his items are still in his office. No one has touched them. If you are interested, I can take you to see them.”

“Thank you very much.” Lu Hao nodded.

“Not at all, you are the hero of Hua.” After a pause, a smile formed on Nie Han’s face, and then she continued, “What’s more, if you can learn what he left behind, he will be pleased even in his afterlife.”

Lu Hao and the bodyguard followed behind Nie Han into the community.

Through the birch trees and the cement stairs, Nie Han took out a key and pushed open the door before she walked into the room.

“This is the place. Since he left, this house has been empty. This is his office. He never liked others going through his stuff, so we kept the room in the same state and only cleaned it once every month.” Then, Nie Han said apologetically, “I was supposed to clean this place but haven’t had the time to yet. It’s pretty dusty in here. How about you sit in the living room for a bit…”

“There is no need!” Lu Hao quickly waved his hand and took the broom from Nie Han’s hand. “Speaking of it, Professor Nie has passed away for so long and I have only learned of this today. I never even visited his grave. Let me do the cleaning.”

“You are a guest…”

“What guest! I’m his student!”

In the end, Nie Han could not convince the insisting Lu Hao and had to agree to his request.

The bodyguard saw Lu Hao holding the broom and he rushed forward. “I will help you—”

“You can wait at the door.”

Lu Hao did not appreciate his gesture. After he firmly said this, he went into the house with cleaning supplies.

With a sincere heart, it took half an hour before Lu Hao swept the last trace of dust away in the office.

When he saw the office, and the rows of books on the shelves that his professor purchased with the money he saved up, he seemed to return to the summer of more than 20 years ago. He felt his eyes tear up.

He wiped the corner of his eye, then walked over to the desk and sat where his professor sat before.

In his memory, Professor Nie always recorded his thoughts on paper whenever he had an idea, and regularly put it in a notebook that he carried with him. He had seen the notebook before, but because the content was too science fiction for him, he once regarded it as a novel without a plot.

He was not disappointed. The notebook was still in the drawer on his left-hand side.

Lu Hao gently wiped off the dust on the cover page, and flipped to the last page of the notebook

“…only the universe, I can’t give you any standard answers. The only thing I can do is to give you an idea and guide you to inspiration.”

He whispered the familiar words, then closed the page.

His fingers gently swept across the cover that turned yellow due to age and once again examined the old desk, he whispered.

“Thank you.”

Chapter 1117: Satellite City

1117 Satellite City The more Jiang Chen looked at the over twenty meters long barrel, the more he adored it.

Although the actual value of a pure kinetic weapon in space warfare with a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers was still inconclusive, but huge ships and giant cannons were the romance of men! The scene of a thousand cannons firing simultaneously made him excited.

Now that the cannon is here, will the ship be such a distant dream?

“Can we test it?” Jiang Chen looked at Ling Tao.

“Of course! We’ll show you its power.” Ling Tao took off the radio on his shoulder and spoke a few words to the engineers of the institute, soon the barrel suspended by the mechanical arm slowly lowered itself by half a meter.

Ling Tao raised his hand and pressed the touchpad a few times. The warehouse door with the electromagnetic pulse cannon was shut and locked. The sprinkler embedded on top of the roof began to release dry ice into the warehouse. At the same time, the vacuum pumps in the lab began to operate.

With the enchanting smoke screen, the warehouse quickly became a vacuum.

“Steel plates” a few centimeters thick were transported one by one with the mechanical arm and placed in front of the groove 500 meters away from the electromagnetic pulse cannon to create a steel wall. But that was not everything. When the steel plates were over five meters thick, a concrete wall more than ten meters thick was placed behind the steel plates.

The size of the entire vacuum laboratory was limited, and the maximum distance was 500 meters. However, for weapons used in space, there was not much difference between 500 meters and five kilometers. After all, there was no air resistance in the universe, and there was no need to consider the kinetic energy attenuation.

The barrel of the cannon was pointed at the thick “steel plates”. The capacitor inside the cannon began to charge, and eerie blue arcs began to leak from the muzzle.

When everything was ready, Ling Tao smiled at Jiang Chen and invited Jiang Chen to press the command button on the touchpad.

“Press the red button to fire.”

Jiang Chen stepped forward, looked at the turret outside the glass, and pressed the red button.

There was no warning.

Blue arcs suddenly flashed, and the glaring white light formed and disappeared in an instant. The fifty-kilogram shell smashed onto the steel plate, accompanied by the tremor of the earth and the roar under their feet.

“…”

Words couldn’t describe such a shocking state.

Almost as soon as he gained the ability to think again, a thigh-sized fracture formed on the steel plate. The wall of steel formed by dozens of steel plates turned into a “V”.

As for the concrete wall behind the steel, it was shattered…

Because Ling Tao already witnessed this many time, he didn’t find it surprising.

“The cannon can fire shells up to fifty kilograms in mass. In theory, the rate of firing can reach nine rounds per minute. Should we still test one more shot?”

“No need, I have seen its power.” Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Okay”

Ling Tao nodded. Then, he stepped forward and pressed the touchpad a few more times. Once the overflowing electricity in the high-energy capacitor slowly dissipated, he immediately turned off the power of the cannon. The blue arcs also went dim and eventually disappeared.

After a long silence, Jiang Chen finally said emotionally, “…I am thinking now, if you put this thing on the Pacific Ocean, is there a ship it can’t bring down in one shot?”

“No warship can carry this turret,” Ling Tao thought that his boss was really considering this possibility, so he quickly explained to him, “The electromagnetic pulse cannon on the Guardian-class is already strong enough, no ship can be safe and sound after one shot lands—”

“I know,” Jiang Chen waved his hand. “I’m just saying. I won’t use a cannon to kill a mosquito.”

Jiang Chen paused for a while as he examined the cannon, then he continued, “How much is the cost of this cannon?”

“Ignore the cost of research and development, this prototype costs about 1 billion New Xin dollars.”

1 billion New Xin dollars!

When he heard this figure, even as the major shareholder of the Xin Fed, Jiang Chen shivered.

Even if large-scale production could reduce the cost by half, the price tag would still be 500 million Xin New dollars. If the Earth fleet planned to equip hundreds of the electromagnetic pulse cannons on its ship, it would bankrupt the Earth Defense Alliance!

Since Jiang Chen’s expression didn’t look too good, Ling Tao who guessed his boss thoughts quickly explained.

“The reason why it is so expensive is mainly because of the manufacturing process. Many parts cannot be produced by the current technology. Only industrial-grade 3D printers can be used as a substitute. Once the production technology catches up, the cannon won’t be so expensive.”

Jiang Chen finally felt better after the explanation.

In a few days, the Earth Defense Alliance would reconvene once again. The next meeting was to discuss what class of ships should be built as the first million-ton starship.

In fact, regardless of the class of ship, conventional weapons like electromagnetic pulse cannons would be indispensable. So regardless of the result, orders would go to Future Military. After all, Future Group’s advantage on electromagnetic pulse cannons were obvious to the world.

It was just that the cost of nearly one billion is too expensive.

Jiang Chen knew that if he switched positions with a member of the committee, he wouldn’t easily agree on this budget.

After all, he didn’t own the Earth Defense Alliance. The members paid according to a percentage of GDP and the population. Hua contributed three trillion in just one year! How could Hua allow a company from a differnt country spend this money so easily?

As the executive, he had the decision-making power, but the committee also had voting rights and the authority to do a budget review.

Jiang Chen began to have a headache.

How can I fool these committee members?

It doesn’t seem like an easy task…

…

With August right around the corner, the expectation of the 2019 Asia-Pacific joint military exercise began to increase. However, Celestial Trade’s reaction had been quite mild, as if the carrier battle group parked at their front door didn’t seem to cause any concern.

Above the height of 36,000 kilometers, the spindle-shaped aircraft moved between the steel skeletons several kilometers long. Like sewing needles, they weaved the future of Earth Civilization in electric sparks.

It was the second shipyard of Celestial Trade, and the current progress of the project was only 15%.

The new shipyard that covered 100 acres and costed nearly 20 billion Xin New dollars, was like a satellite city suspended on the side of Celestial City. The city was connected to the space elevator by a graphene track.

Six spindles of about three kilometers in length suspended in the synchronous orbit, connected by a titanium alloy skeleton. Just like a narrow and hollow hexagonal prism, it outlined the shape of the entire shipyard.

Remotely contriolled by human engineers with the help of neural connection technology, nearly a thousand construction robots particiapted in the construction of the space elevator by welding pieces of alloy to the skeleton. The spindle-shaped aircraft moved around the shipyard as they sent materials and construction equipment to the construction robots.

In the future, all warships with tonnage above 500,000 would be built in this shipyard.

The Earth Defense Alliance already held more than a dozen meetings on the the first ship to be built in the shipyard, but it still couldn’t come to a conclusion. Some people proposed to develop missile ships, some people suggested to prioritize aircraft carriers and drones…

The last one to end the debate was a representative from Hua, Lu Hao.

At the seventeenth meeting, his “functional ship theory” gained support from most members.

“It is ridiculous to use the 19th-century artillery to fight battleships of the 20th century. However, after a 19th-century warship has been modified by a 20th-century artillery system, then they can still play a role on the battlefield. Rather than the controversy being whether we should arm our ships with bows or spears, it is better to build the ship first and then consider what weapons to put on it.”

The choice of weapons should be considered in the future, but leave rooms of modifications and upgrades. Even if innovation in shipbuilding technology ultimately rendered this ship useless, it could still be repurposed into a construction ship for additional values.

Lu Hao’s proposal also gave Jiang Chen a sigh of relief.

At least for now, he didn’t have to worry about how to convince the committee to buy a billion-dollar cannon.

Chapter 1118: Trilion Dollar Budge

1118 Trilion Dollar Budge The aim to standarize warships meant that all future warships, regardless of aircraft carriers or battleships, would be based on the first warship. All weapons and functional accessories would also be designed and manufactured around the same standards.

This was like the current space station; all components were built based on the six by four standard proposed by Celestial Trade. If someone designed a six by five interface, there would be no available interface for it to dock and its only fate would be to float in space.

Whoever controlled the standards would have the right to control the industry for half a century, or even an entire century.

It was easy to tell how attractive the first million-ton ship would be.

Hua and Russia didn’t even possess the entry technology to build a 500,000-ton ship, let alone a million-ton ship, or else the first order wouldn’t be swallowed down by Future Heavy Industries alone.

However, only Future Heavy Industries could confidently complete the million-ton ship. Although Hua and Russia both built shipyards on Celestial City, they only received orders for smaller ships.

Future Heavy Industries was different. Not only did the company successfully build three 500,000-ton “Seagull-class” transport ships, it was in the process of building the the fourth “Seagull”. The four Seagull-classs not only helped Future Heavy Industries to accumulate a wealth of shipbuilding experience, but they also allowed the shipyard building process to advance to a new height.

Although Hua and Russia both eyed the attractive deal, there was very little they could to change the situation. They just regretted that their own space companies didn’t have the capability to close the giant technology gap.

Of course, Future Heavy Industries took away the biggest piece of meat. But there was still a lot of meat and soup left in the pot.

It was important to know that through the 50% defense tax and the output value contributed by the member states, the Earth Defense Alliance Fund had raised a total of 349 billion New Xin Dollars. Based on the team of professional managers employed by the fund, the fund would raise over 12 trillion New Xin Dollars by the end of 2019 with its current momentum.

How astronomical was this number?

To choose a reference for comparison, based on the GDP data released five years ago by Hua, the 12 trillion New Xin Dollar was more than 10% of the annual GDP of Hua in 2015.

It was 10% of the GDP output from the world’s second largest economy!

Of course, Hua’s current GDP was by far higher than what it was five years ago. Especially after the announcement of the asteroid mining program, the GDP of the major aerospace powers saw quite a substantial increase. Even so, the 12 trillion New Xin Dollar still was an astronomical amount.

Even if they couldn’t help building the ship, it was still possible to build the computer, or even worse, at least possible to contribute the screws or the buttons on the spacesuit. The more upstream the industry, the more downstream industries were involved. The construction of the mega million-ton military ship would have far more stimulating effects on the aerospace industry of the member states than the four Seagull-class transport ships.

Because of this, everyone wanted a piece of the ship.

Not only the Earth Defense Alliance coveted this pie, but also the aerospace companies from non-member states.

Although these non-members also contributed a lot of money in the form of defense tax, when the Earth Defense Alliance chose cooperation partners, it was extremely critical of companies from non-member countries. Even the leading SpaceX only received an order of 1.7 billion New Xin Dollars in navigation projects.

Out of a total of 12 trillion New Xin Dollars!

Those aerospace companies in Silicon Valley and Seattle were all extremely envious and countless times arranged their employees and unions to petition the Capitol. They lobbied to join the Earth Defense Alliance, or at least to establish good cooperative relations with the Earth Defense Alliance.

It was the first time in the history of the UA where capitalists and unions worked so closely together, unprecedented.

Nippon was even more direct, the only asteroid mine was operated by several powerful consortia, which provided millions of tons of mineral resources to the Nippon manufacturing industry every year. When the 50% defense tax was introduced, the profits plummeted. Later, when the 12 trillion New Xin dollar fund was announced, they worked together to pressure the Nippon government to join the Earth Defense Alliance.

Inside Future Building on Coro Island, Jiang Chen was in his office sipping on his coffee, he was carefully writing something on paper.

The line “Earth Defense Alliance Research Fund Allocation Plan” was written on it.

The first order for Future Heavy Industries shipyard was an unarmed ship. Lu Hao’s proposal ended the nonstop debate at the committee. The Earth Defense Alliance no longer had to worry about which company’s weapons to buy, because weapons were no longer a consideration.

In the short run, it was undoubtedly the best choice to save resources. Instead of wasting production capacity on weapons that are destined to be eliminated, it was better to think long term. However, in the long run, this proposal was still somewhat ill-considered.

Without enticing the arm dealers who make cannons and turrets, why would they put money into research to upgrade and advance weapons?

The more weapons purchased, the stronger the weapons. If there were no sales, there would be no competition. Why did military technology on the wasteland recover so fast? Because for most survivor camps, 50% or even 80% of GDP was spent on weapons.

In that kind of environment, even without proper labs, the Sixth Street used sickle and welding torches to create the T3 Power Armor no inferior to the power armor before the war. After NAC unified the Wanghai area, although Jiang Chen invested a lot in scientific research, the speed of weapon upgrade slowed down.

After the T4 Power Armor, the Sixth Street didn’t manage to create a new power armor. The K1 kinetic skeleton became the standard for the three division. With the kinetic skeleton, the NAC Army could easily sweep through the wasteland, and naturally technology progression was no longer needed.

Earth Defense Alliance’s urgent task was to find a way to stimulate military companies to develop weapons. The best way was to use methods other than orders to give them incentives to do research.

Money is no longer the problem, but how to spend the money is now the problem.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh.

Sometimes he would exclaim, why he did not transmigrate from the future. Without any precedent to follow, he must explore. Now he only faced the problem of his budget. After the Earth Fleet is formed, there would be many things he would have headaches over.

“Talents, talents… Earth Defense Alliance is still lacking talents.”

Chapter 1119: Earth Fleet Taking its Shape

1119 Earth Fleet Taking its Shape How about building a new military academy?

Focusing on training military personnel for the Earth Defense Alliance?

Jiang Chen’s eyes lit up when he thought about this. The more he dwelled the idea, the more he felt he was onto something. He pulled a piece of paper and jotted down a few sentences before adding a few zeros to the end as a budget reference.

“I’m finally done. This is not a one-person job…”

He tossed the pen aside and pushed away the thick stack of documents. He leaned back in the chair and stretched his sore neck and arms.

He hasn’t work this hard for a long time and he wasn’t used to the workload.

His beautiful assistant knocked on the door and came in with a cup of coffee.

When she saw Jiang Chen, who was stretching, she put the cup on his desk and said with a smile.

“Boss, your coffee. Do you need me to add sugar for you?”

“Mhmm, put a few cubes in.”

The assistant put two cubes of sugar into the cup, and understandingly stirred the cup for him with a coffee spoon before she brought the cup to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen sniffed the pure aroma and took a sip of the coffee. The bitterness and sweetness spreaded on his taste buds as he nodded in satisfaction. Not only because of the cup of coffee, but because of the beautiful assistant’s excellent service.

Sure enough, this is the life of a boss.

The assistant’s smile was even more joyous when she saw the smile on Jiang Chen. She raised her hands and moved her fingers.

“Boss, if you are tired, I can help massage your shoulders. My massage technique is great, and every time I helped CEO Xia massage, she always praises me.”

Most of the work was given to the artificial intelligence “Jean”. Rather than being an office assistant, she was more of the life assistant to the president. She really just needed to make Jiang Chen coffee, organize documents, and deliver messages to other departments.

With so few tasks, it was basically impossible to have any achievements in performance. For her, the only way she could get promoted was to do everything to perfection.

For this reason, she learned many other “skills”.

“Then please.”

He was indeed a little tired and did not reject this offer. He turned around his chair and gazed out at Coro City from the floor-to-ceiling window. While he relaxed his tensed state, he felt the two soft and gentle hands massaging his shoulders. They felt so good that he almost moaned.

“Comfortable?”

“Oh, very comfortable… right, what is your name?”

“Hehe… boss you are so rarely here that you can’t even remember my name?”

…

After the second meeting of the Earth Defense Alliance Committee, most of the members stayed in Celestial City, but the executive officer returned to the surface. On the one hand, he was not used to living in space, on the other hand, it was due to an inexplicable sense of lack of security.

On the ground, no matter what danger he encountered, he could escape by using his ability. But in Celestial City, he never even attempted it once.

The reason was very simple. Celestial City was spinning all the time. He could never confirm whether he would appear at the same place or end up drifting somewhere in the vast space.

In fact, Jiang Chen had doubted this a long time ago. The position of his travel ability should not be as simple as the three-dimensional coordinates. After all, the Earth itself was orbiting around the solar system all the time.

Intuition told him that all of this may be related to the mysterious Klein particles.

The drafted “Earth Defense Alliance Research Fund Budget Allocation Proposal” was scanned into an electronic file. It was passed to Kelvin in the Celestial Trade Aerospace Department through Jean for him to make further improvements.

After he took care of these matters, it was almost noon.

After going downstairs with Xia Shiyu for lunch, Jiang Chen estimated it was time, so he drove to the Ange Island Astronaut Training Center.

At the last meeting, some members brought forth the opinions of their country and expressed their willingness to send their soldiers to join the Earth Fleet. Of course, Jiang Chen would not refuse the enthusiastic proposal of the member states. Now Celestial Trade was extremely lacking in astronauts, the million-ton ship would at least require thousands of crew members. If the member states were willing to share some of the pressure for him, he more than welcomed this idea…

If that was really the case.

On the square in front of the main entrance of the Ange Island Astronaut Training Center, a team of burly, sharp-looking men stood under the scorching sun in a neat formation.

Their skin colors were different. Some were from East Asia, some from Russia, and some from Madagascar – the only African countries decided to join the Earth Defense Alliance.

Tourists passing by all stopped, they looked at them with curiosity and awe.

From the vibe of these people, it was not difficult to guess their identity.

The word “military” was almost written on their faces, infused into their blood and bones.

However, at this moment, it was Jiang Chen in front of this team. When he took the list of names from Wu Changfeng, he had a complicated expression.

Undoubtedly, all the countries have treated the Earth Defense Alliance matter seriously. When they heard about the formation of the Earth Fleet, they immediately sent soldiers. Moreover, from the resumes in his hands, all the member states sent elites of the army. The type of soldiers that would be favored by any leader.

However, Jiang Chen knew that this made his work much more troublesome.

Jiang Chen could not help but sigh in his mind.

You guys, I need to form the Earth Fleet. I’m lacking officers who know how to adapt. What is the use of sending me bunch of muscles? Do we need to fight mutants with rifles? What’s the use with all of them just knowing how to listen to orders? It’s going to take me so long to re-educate them.

Jiang Chen was even more determined to establish an aerospace military academy.

Jiang Chen cleared his mind and said loudly in front of the soldiers.

“Your mission for the next three months is to accept the basic training necessary for astronauts here. I assure you that the next three months will be extremely difficult. But I also hope that you will remember that your hard work is for the future of Earth! And for the future of your motherland!”

“DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” Jiang Chen shouted at the top of his lungs.

“UNDERSTOOD!”

Different languages, but the roar resounded in the square and echoed between the buildings.

The roar was like a long sword being pulled out of its sheath, revealing its sheen to the world. All bystanders were moved, and their blood surged in passion.

Although the future war didn’t just depend on passion, these people would ultimately be fighting, and it would be these people that decide the outcome of the war. These officers would serve as a seed, rooting their thoughts and their will in every aspect of the Earth Fleet.

Jiang Chen suddenly felt that it wouldn’t be so bad to have such a group of tough and resilient soldiers as the first group of officers of the Earth Fleet.

Chapter 1120: The End of the Century

1120 The End of the Century A total of five hundred volunteers from member states joined the Earth Fleet that was still in its formation stage. Among them, Hua, Russia, and Frankberg accounted for 70%, while the majority of the remaining 30% came from South Asia.

These volunteers would be trained in the Ange Island Astronaut Training Center, currently recognized as the largest and most professional astronaut training base in the world. They would learn the basics of being an astronaut to adapt and combat in space.

These five hundred volunteers were the first group. In the coming year, the member states would also send a total of five thousand volunteers based on assigned quotas to deliver new blood to the burgeoning Earth Fleet.

After the five hundred volunteers settled down, Jiang Chen parted farewell with Wu Changfeng and left the training center. Instead of returning directly to Future Building, he drove to the high-tech park to visit Future Heavy Industries’ factory.

After signing a power export agreement with Hua Electricity Group last time, Hua’s Minister of Transportation made a trip to Xin. After he learned about the cost of the magnetic levitation road, he immediately proposed the idea of introducing the technology to the country.

At that time, Jiang Chen agreed, but Future Heavy Industries was focused on building the magnetic levitation road network on several islands. The production capacity at the time was not enough to develop the overseas markets. Now that the last island was transformed, Future Heavy Industries could begin to focus on international orders.

After he arrived at Future Heavy Industries’ factory, CEO Yang Guanglei took Jiang Chen for a tour and showed him the newly built magnetic levitation production line.

“This new production line is an attempt at automation. It uses a supercomputer to coordinate the production processes. From production, processing, assembly to final delivery, everything is done by machinery. Except for several engineers responsible for maintenance and optimization of the production line, this production line can be said to be completely unmanned!”

Yang Guanglei was quite proud when he made this statement

It was not a steel ingot or a lead bullet production line, but a high-tech product that included hundreds of links!

From the drawing of the graphene circuit board to the assembly of magnetic levitation generating devices, it was completely operated by automated machineries. If the automation could be applied to other fields, it would undoubtedly be a great leap for Future Heavy Industries’ productivity and cost-savings.

Although the focus of Future Heavy Industries was on aerospace, the company was still a pioneer in the civilian field. After all, as social animals, economic benefits were often the driving force for technological advances. History has proved countless times that technological breakthrough often starts with civilians.

As Jiang Chen looked at the black-colored quadrangular pyramidal piles passing through the assembly line, he nodded with satisfaction.

“How many magnetic levitation devices can you produce per month?” Jiang Chen asked Yang Guanglei.

“With sufficient raw materials, we can reach a monthly output of 100,000!”

100,000 was already better than the Sixth Street.

Jiang Chen was quite astounded by the number.

Chu Nan began to push for a magnetic levitation road in the Sixth Street a long time ago. At that time, Jiang Chen learned from the factory responsible for the production of this magnetic levitation device had only reached 50% automation.

He didn’t know what the productivity levels were before the war, but it wouldn’t be too different.

Many times, Jiang Chen felt that the Future Group in his hand was like a silkworm. It slowly digested the technology he brought back from the 22nd century and spat out white and firm silk threads one at a time.

One day, it will turn into a cocoon.

One day, it will break the cocoon and become a butterfly.

In the shambles of the apocalypse, Future Group would give birth to new glory, bringing the world in a more prosperous and beautiful direction.

Now, Jiang Chen already vaguely “saw” the shape of the cocoon, and he could even faintly touch the boundaries of the 22nd century.

At least in the timeline of the apocalypse with the three superpowers, even by 2170, colonizing Mars was still a dream. However, with Celestial Trade, the Mars colony already began the second round of expansion.

Just then, a sudden phone call interrupted Jiang Chen’s imagination for the future.

It was Ye Qinghua.

He opened the holographic screen, then he gestured Yang Guanglei to wait for a moment and went to the side to pick up the phone.

“Uncle Ye? Is there something wrong?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Since the last outer space development forum, Ye Qinghua had stayed in Xin. Although he retired from his position and had no power in his hands, no one could ignore his influence and his family in Hua’s political scene.

The reason why he stayed here largely explained the official attitude of Hua, and the country still valued Xin as a natural ally.

“Haha, can I not call Mr. Jiang just to chat?” Ye Qinghua said in a half-joking tone.

“Of course you can,” Jiang Chen laughed.

Although Elder Ye rarely spoke to him, Jiang Chen knew that the old man didn’t just sit around. If it was not for Ayesha, he didn’t even know that Elder Ye actually moved beside his parents.

He didn’t just move there. The elder man either played chess with his dad and Elder Xia or went fishing to catch seafood.

Elder Ye’s hometown was in the River South area, strictly speaking, they all came from the same hometown. Meeting a fellow townsman in a foreign country, the elders naturally were very enthusiastic about being acquainted. Elder Ye quickly integrated into Jiang Jianguo’s circle.

Jiang Chen didn’t know why he was so close to his father, but he didn’t bother with their interaction. Usually, he just headed back to his parents’ house to have a meal, and he seldom talked about work, so Elder Ye wouldn’t learn anything about him.

As long as Elder Ye did not try to persuade his father about the marriage between him and Elder Ye’s granddaughter, everything else was negotiable.

“I heard that the magnetic levitation road that you discussed with the Ministry of Transportations will start construction in a month or two?”

Coincidentally, he was there to inspect the production line. It was great timing.

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and said, “Is the Ye family interested in infrastructure?”

“Hehe, it’s the younger generations.” Elder Ye laughed, but he sounded serious.

“Let me tell you the truth. The magnetic levitation road modification project is not a difficult one, and the technical requirement is pretty low. A driller just needs to put the magnetic device into the road,” Jiang Chen said.

Elder Ye quickly said, “Then how about this…”

Jiang Chen smiled and interrupted him, “The key is not with us, but with you. We are only a supplier. The Ministry of Transportations and the provincial transportation departments are responsible for the bidding. If you have the power to take on the project, of course, I don’t have any complaints.”

“Haha, rest assured, we have already spoken with the Ministry of Transportations and the provincial transportation departments. Now we are waiting for you to start shipping so we can start construction on there.” Elder Ye laughed.

Chapter 1121: The Concept of Smart City

1121 The Concept of Smart City Among all the technologies owned by Future Group, Hua was the most interested in the magnetic levitation road.

Three-dimensional traffic had a significant effect on releasing traffic pressure in high-density cities. Needless to say, the unfriendly policies of limiting plates and limiting the days of driving could be completely eliminated. With the three-dimensional traffic implemented, the traffic load a city could handle would increase exponentially.

Precisely because of this, Hua offered an astronomical figure of 10 billion Xin New dollars to ask Future Heavy Industries to assist in the transformation of the existing road infrastructure in a pilot city.

Jiang Chen certainly wouldn’t refuse this proposal, after all, it was a great opportunity to open the overseas market for Luer magnetic levitation vehicles. The more electrified Hua becomes, the more difficult it would be for the country to reject his Global Grid Plan and the more difficult it would be for them to escape Xin’s sphere of influence…

Not satisfied with just this, Jiang Chen used this opportunity to also sell the concept of a “Smart City” to Ye Qinghua.

“Smart city is to integrate all the public service projects of the city’s logistics, transportation, communication, water and electricity, and coordinate the allocation by Artificial Intelligence. Taking the magnetic levitation technology as an example, we will connect every car into the traffic network and maintain a specific speed at a certain height, so that vehicles of the same height remain relatively static, thus completely eliminating traffic accidents caused by vehicle collisions…”

Ye Qinghua shifted the phone into his other hand. His cloudy eyes flickered, disguising his thoughts.

Although he did not say anything, Jiang Chen’s words have already planted a seed in his heart.

A seed named future.

…

At 9:00 pm on July 29th, a bright silver silhouette emerged from the horizon, and the Gulfstream G650 landed smoothly at Coro International Airport.

Sitting at the seat beside the window, Elon Musk, who had not fully adjusted to the jetlag, opened his weary eyes and looked out through the window. He saw all kinds of airplane models, saw the runway that quickly reversed backward, and saw the brightly lit city in the distance…

The blue signal on the side of the runway flew backward. Like a glowing snake, it gradually mystified his vision.

Just then, he felt someone pulling his sleeve. He narrowed his eyes and stopped gazing at the runway that fascinated him to look at the person beside him.

“Mr. Musk, we are here,” his assistant whispered.

Elon Musk nodded and pressed his hands on the armrests. Just as he stood up, his weary eyes were replaced with a sharp gaze.

He was a very clear-cut person who is used to seeing the world from the perspective of an engineer.

When he was in college, he often thought about the real problems the world faced and how those problems affected the future of mankind. He was optimistic about the Internet, sustainable energy, and space exploration. Later, he subsequently entered these three areas and created three companies, PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX.

Although the latter two were defeated by Luer and Celestial Trade respectively, neither Tesla nor SpaceX faltered. Now, with the bankruptcy of the Noah’s Ark Fund, SpaceX narrowly missed the 100 billion US dollars project and got pushed out of the Earth Fleet program.

In the long run, even if SpaceX inherited the advantages that NASA has accumulated since the Cold War era, it would be left behind in this ever-changing era.

Elon Musk’s mood was not so pleasant with the thought.

The primary goal of his trip to Xin was to have a face to face conversation with Jiang Chen. Although he didn’t have much hope, what would be the harm in trying?

After he got off the plane, the airport staff came over and talked to his assistant. Soon, his assistant came back and whispered to Elon Musk.

“Mr. Musk, Future Group has arranged a special convoy for us outside the VIP passage of the airport.”

“Future Group?” Elon Musk was slightly surprised. “They already know I am coming?”

But it made sense. The international airport under his foot was funded by Celestial Trade and even the air defense of Xin was contracted to Celestial Trade. Perhaps when the airplane took off from LAX, Celestial Trade already knew.

Although the feeling of his privacy being invaded made him a little uncomfortable, he did not say anything about it. After all, he hoped to convince Jiang Chen to separate politics from economic cooperation and allow SpaceX to compete fairly in the market.

“What do you think? Should we take the hotel’s vehicle, or…” his assistant whispered.

“Let’s use the hotel’s vehicle, remember to bring my suitcase.” Elon Musk walked in the direction of the airport staff.

A black car was parked at the exit of the VIP passage. He finally understood why Jiang Chen would send a special convoy to pick him up; the exit of the airport was surrounded by reporters.

It seemed that the news leaked before he left.

Among the vans that surrounded the airport exit, he even saw the LA Times.

SpaceX lost in the bidding for the Earth Fleet program, and many people were eager to see his disappointment. His competitors, especially, would mock at his downfall. It was no exaggeration to say that as soon as he revealed his face in front of the reporters, he would appear on the news the next day with the label of bowing down to Celestial Trade.

With this thought in mind, Elon showed a bitter smile. The dissatisfaction of his privacy being invaded disappeared, and he felt grateful for Jiang Chen’s initiative.

On the vehicle headed to his hotel, Elon Musk gazed at the traffic passing around him and sighed.

“I originally thought that Silicon Valley is the future of the world. I didn’t think that Coro City has already entered the 22nd century ahead of time.”

“Your first time here? You will be more surprised when you get to the city center.” With the magnetic leviathan mode activated, the man in charge of driving looked at Elon and grinned. “I don’t know if you have seen that movie? The one starring Bruce Willis?”

“Bruce Willis?” Elon Musk frowned and suddenly a title appeared in his mind, “The Fifth Element?”

“Yes, The Fifth Element. One of the few sci-fi blockbusters in France.” The driver laughed.

“I didn’t expect the American Dream to be realized by Xin,” Elon Musk said.

“It is the dream of all mankind,” the driver said with pride.

“You are not a native of Xin?” Elon Musk suddenly asked.

“Used to be British, but why does it matter? My wife and I left Europe after the referendum about three years ago. Did you know? That’s my most proud decision I made in my life. If you never lived here before, you will never get a sense of how amazing the changes are here.”

Elon Musk gazed at him for a long time.

Once a person started to feel proud of his new nationality, no matter where he used to come from, it was in the past.

Xin’s assimilation of culture was shocking. This assimilation didn’t exist because of institutional or cultural pressures, but because of pure scientific and technological advantages. People living here already felt a sense of superiority compared to people from other countries. This kind of superiority was a feeling of civilized people looking at the more primitive.

Yes, even the most prosperous city in UA was far less advanced than the city of the future.

At least no car there could fly on the road.

Chapter 1122: Taking a step back is the real hell

1122 Taking a step back is the real hell At noon the next day, Jiang Chen met Elon Musk, who had traveled across the globe, in the conference room of Future Building. The nearly 50-year-old Silicon Valley legend still looked sharp and there wasn’t any sign of time on him.

“Please feel free to sit.” Jiang Chen looked at Elon Musk walking into the conference room as he pointed to the chair and smiled.

“Thank you.” Elon nodded politely, sat down and looked at Jiang Chen.

Just as Jiang Chen was looking at him, he was also examining Jiang Chen.

He had long heard about the young man who started from scratch in his twenties and established a technological empire that spanned across the globe in less than five years. Today, at first sight, he indeed looked extraordinary.

Involved in industries from the Internet to new energy, and new materials to aerospace, his tentacles spanned almost all aspects of production and life. Anything that could be imagined was turned into reality by the works of Future Group.

To this day, Elon Musk never understood how Jiang Chen’s brain functioned. In a country where a great person was least likely to be born, such an enchanting individual was born.

“This visit from Mr. Musk today must not just be to chat, right?” Jiang Chen smiled, leaned back in the chair, and crossed his fingers in front of his knees. “You and I are both extremely busy, so why don’t we get straight to the point.”

Elon Musk stared at Jiang Chen for half a minute and finally sighed.

“Before I came in, I was thinking about how to convince you.”

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? You’re not thinking about it now?”

Elon Musk shook his head and went on, “But when I saw you, I know it is practically impossible to convince you.”

“Can I hear the reason?” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Because we’re the same type of person.” Elon Musk looked at Jiang Chen and said seriously, “If we’re certain about something, we won’t change easily.”

Elon Musk’s words made Jiang Chen think.

However, the thinking only lasted for less than ten seconds. Jiang Chen spread his hands and said with ease, “You’re right. If you’re here about the Earth Fleet project, I can tell you clearly that you can go back now.”

When Musk heard that Jiang Chen practically gave SpaceX the death sentence, he couldn’t help but feel bitter.

“Can’t you give Silicon Valley companies a chance to compete fairly? We have a technological advantage over aerospace companies in other countries, and we will never lose to Russia and Hua companies in cost and quality. The Earth Fleet is the future of mankind. It isn’t fair to risk the future of the planet just because of some diplomatic frictions—”

“Just because?” Jiang Chen chuckled and interrupted Elon Musk. “The UA fleet is in Guam, right at the doorstep of Xin. Is that ‘just because’?”

Jiang Chen looked at Elon Musk, who couldn’t refute, then his finger gently tapped the table and he emotionlessly said, “In my opinion, as long as the funds are in place, there’s no permanent advantage. You obtained your technological advantage today because of the space race in the Cold War era, so you received a large budget.”

“We have fifty years or even a century to prepare for this war. In this time scale, the advantages at the starting point are completely negligible.”

“Not to mention, in my opinion, your technical advantage is nothing.”

Nothing…

Jiang Chen’s understatement just denied the achievements of NASA’s half-century of work and negated SpaceX’s position as the second-best organization.

Although Elon Musk was unwilling, he looked at Jiang Chen and not a word could come out. There was only a bitter smile on his face.

He could blame the fact that the space elevator was built in the western Pacific or he could blame Celestial Trade for grabbing the throats of the world’s space companies. With the existence of this large gap, even the technological capabilities of the second-place organization to the one-hundredth place couldn’t match Celestial Trade’s capabilities.

Elon Musk shook his head and stood up.

Since there was no purpose in discussing this, there was no need for him to waste time there.

While SpaceX and a group of Silicon Valley companies were excluded from the Earth Fleet, Celestial Trade still gave them an opportunity to survive. At least the asteroid mining project could still be profitable, and the companies could still receive contracts for outsourcing projects… However, they wouldn’t be able to access the trillion-dollar market.

Stimulated by trillions of New Xin dollars, even a moron could learn and advance. As Jiang Chen said, in the next few decades, the technological gap would only widen between members and non-members of the Earth Defense Alliance, unless the Capitol had the determination of the Cold War era to invest in aerospace.

But is this possible?

The gap between UA and Xin is separated by a 36,000-kilometre space elevator.

Perhaps there’s no way of negotiating an agreement in the first place…

Just as Elon Musk got up and was about to leave, Jiang Chen suddenly spoke.

“Of course, there’s always room for negotiation.”

Jiang Chen’s understatement, like a bomb, was thrown into Elon Musk’s heart which had already sunk to the bottom. He turned sharply and looked at Jiang Chen at the conference table.

However, after he witnessed Jiang Chen’s half-smiling expression, his pumping heart quickly calmed.

He knew that the “so-called room for negotiation” was subject to conditions.

The expression on his face changed several times, and he asked Jiang Chen: “What do you mean?”

“There are many UA citizens starting businesses in Xin,” Jiang Chen said with a smile. “There’s an old saying: people go to high places and the water flows down. Since SpaceX can’t find a way out in Silicon Valley, why not consider Penglai and Celestial City?”

Elon Musk paused, and he had a peculiar expression.

He originally thought Jiang Chen would demand unreasonable conditions; he didn’t expect Jiang Chen to start headhunting?

“Mr. Jiang is kidding, right?” Elon Musk said, disguising his emotions. “Do you think that a company like us can leave at will? Also, you should be worried about the imminent issue.”

“The imminent issue?” Jiang Chen laughed and spread his hands. “I don’t know what the problem is? Can Mr. Musk enlighten me?”

“The aircraft carrier is at your door. Isn’t that a problem?” Elon Musk stared at Jiang Chen right in the eyes. He couldn’t tell if Jiang Chen was arrogant or confident, as he tried to figure out the reason for the fearlessness in his pupils. “In fact, if you take a step back, we can all live.”

The silence lasted for a long time before Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

“When did Silicon Valley start to lobby?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Knowing that his final attempt at persuasion failed, Elon Musk shook his head and stopped wasting time. He pushed open the door and left the room.

Jiang Chen, who didn’t look at the departing Elon Musk, opened the holographic screen on his watch. He swiped on his calendar and seemingly muttered to himself, “It’s almost time to start.”

Take a step back?

Taking a step back is the real hell.

Chapter 1123: Hegemony!

1123 Hegemony! At noon on August 1st, the aircraft carrier battle group stationed in the Guam military base set off. The flag swayed in the sea breeze, and the heroic Marines stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier with their rifles. They gazed to the southwest with enthusiasm.

Coro City, the capital of Xin stood there.

Xin became a stone blocking the UA from establishing its hegemony in the region.

At least in front of these soldiers, the small country Xin was no different from a stone. As soon as they were given the order, they would rush onto the assault boats and re-enact the “Desert Storm” on the beaches of Coro Island.

As a strong supporter of UA, the Nippon Maritime Self-Defense Force formed a battlegroup west of Guam. The fleet included the second-generation Ford-class aircraft carrier and Nippon’s helicopter carrier.

In addition, the Australian, South Korean, and Singaporean navies participated in the military exercise.

Other than Country F which had already lost to Celestial Trade, the Asian countries within the UA’s sphere of influence all participated in the military exercise. Whether willing or not, the four navies mobilized their most elite forces into the region.

The entire Western Pacific Ocean was in full swing.

Anyone could see a storm has been gathering over the peaceful sea.

About forty modern battleships lined up in battle formation on the high sea to begin the first round of target practice exercises in the 2019 Asia-Pacific joint military exercise.

Dozens of target ships were pulled to the area. With the flagship’s order, shells dragging orange tails bombarded the target waters. In an instant, the fleet of “imaginary enemies” sank and shredded into fragmentations.

At the same time, dozens of Tomahawk missiles dragging trails of flames lifted off from the missile frigate, accurately hitting targets more than 300 nautical miles away.

The F-35 and F-22 fighters took off from the deck one after another, leaving behind countless white trails behind to weave a net in the open air. More than a dozen flight squadrons took off to perform mid-range air-to-air combat and anti-ship operations.

Gunpowder raged in the western Pacific Ocean, and the calm sea turned turbulent.

The faces of the representatives of the countries standing in the audience all displayed some fear, and they began to doubt their previous decisions.

Obviously, the power displayed by the UA Navy already exceeded their expectations. Although they gained a lot of benefits from Celestial Trade and although the Global Grid Plan could give a big boost to their economy… power was what mattered.

Without enough force to protect their wealth, wealth was a sin.

Iraq and Afghanistan were all examples.

The representatives of the countries in the audience began to debate if they should reconsider the diplomatic relationship between Xin and the Earth Defense Alliance. Was it a good choice to make such a rash decision?

The representative of Ecuador, in particular, felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over his head.

The signal of the second space elevator released by Celestial Trade made the Ecuadorian government lose any logical sense, so they withstood the pressure of the neighboring countries and the UA. They embraced Celestial Trade and gave the green light to the trans-Pacific submarine transmission cable.

The choice now seemed to be a dangerous and wrong one…

At the same time that the representatives were all reflecting on their choices, the joint fleet officers standing on the flagship were proud.

In the entire aircraft carrier battle group, the aircraft carrier served as the fist of the entire combat formation. Without valuable space to load C4ISR equipment, the flagship was generally served by the missile frigate. The admiral of the fleet was usually the highest-ranking officer.

Hogg, who served as the admiral of the fleet, handed over the commanding rights of the aircraft carrier to his commander. He was standing on the missile frigate, looking far away at the wreckage in the distance. He couldn’t feel more honored about the uniform he wore.

Perhaps the overwhelming bombardment of missiles awakened his self-confidence, perhaps it was the frightened expressions of the representatives from different countries, or perhaps he remembered the “political mission” the Capitol gave him before the military exercise. He looked to his commander and ordered arrogantly, “Apply for passage in Xin waters; the exercise will now enter the second phase.”

The two orders were issued at the same time.

In other words, regardless of whether Xin agreed or not, UA’s joint fleet would sail through Xin’s waters.

Hogg was very curious how Xin would react.

He didn’t think Jiang Chen would easily compromise, but he also didn’t think Jiang Chen would make any rash and inconsiderate decisions.

After all, it was a joint fleet of five nations comprised of more than forty modern combat ships! Nothing would challenge the superiority of this fleet!

As for the glorious record of Celestial Trade’s two Guardian-class frigates destroying the entire navy of Country F, Hogg chose to ignore that fact. He knew about Country F too well. A police boat retired by Nippon was used as the main battleship of Country F. Some converted fishing ships were used to expand their fleet. Destroying this force couldn’t be considered an achievement.

However, the response of the commander was beyond his expectations.

“Xin refused our request and designated the northern waters as a military restricted zone.”

After a short glimpse as he just processed what he had heard, Hogg was furious and enraged. His fists clenched and his veins were exposed more than ever.

A military restricted zone? Do you really consider us as a joke?

Our navy will go wherever it decides to go! Whether it’s the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea or the South China Sea! The great navy of the five oceans and seven seas won’t be challenged by a puny country!

His anger was quickly suppressed. Hogg returned to calmness and placed an order.

“My order: the course is to be adjusted ten degrees to the south, and the exercise will continue as planned!”

“Yes, sir.”

The commander took the order.

Military restricted zone?

Hmph! I want to see who can stop the freedom of navigation of the UA fleet!

The joint fleet began to change course and headed towards the territorial waters of Xin. The so-called application for passage was just a formality and was more of a notice. Regardless of whether Xin accepted or not, the joint fleet still changed course.

The expressions from the representatives gradually became more and more intrigued.

Previous target practices on the high seas were just a demonstration of force from the UA Navy. Whether the missiles just landed on scrap copper and iron or in the heart of Xin would depend on the reaction of Celestial Trade.

And Celestial Trade’s reaction was the focus of their attention.

Although they didn’t expect Celestial Trade’s frigates to enter the battle and stop in front of the joint fleet, if Celestial Trade really didn’t do anything and allowed the joint fleet to freely pass through their waters, then their relationship with Xin would be over.

Countries weren’t enterprises. Economic and trade cooperation was the basis of diplomatic cooperation. However, considering the diplomatic strategy of a country wasn’t solely based on economic benefits.

Not only representatives of different countries on the flagship closely followed the situation, but Hua and Russia also closely monitored the event as they waited for Xin’s reaction.

Taking a step forward would take them into an abyss.

Taking a step back would bring them into hell.

An unprecedented situation in the Pacific Ocean was unfolding. The choice facing Xin was also an unprecedented dilemma.

This step would determine the ownership of hegemony. It would also determine Xin’s future.

The world was waiting for Jiang Chen’s reaction.

Chapter 1124: Only you can“t choose to back down!

1124 Only you can“t choose to back down! The world was waiting for Jiang Chen’s reaction.

At that moment, Jiang Chen was at the military base in New Moon Island where he stood with the officers of the Celestial Trade Armed Forces. He stared at the forty arrows representing the battleships on the holographic screen, and the area of the map was marked with a red cross.

Everyone held their breath.

“It seems like they’re not going to retreat.” Ivan had a stern expression.

After all, the UA was a superpower in the world not just because of the media, but because of their aircrafts and cannons. Even if their political parties fought inside the Capitol relentlessly, even if the ruling party was berated by anti-war activists, they never held back when they needed to fight.

The UA Navy always forced other fleets to make way. How could a small country set a border and ask the superpower to make a detour?

If the hundreds-of-square-kilometers military restricted zones were drawn before the military exercise, the two sides could still both take a step back. If Xin really compromised, the Pacific would still be the peaceful Pacific, except the Global Grid Plan would likely falter.

However, Xin chose to go head-to-head against the hegemony. They didn’t take a step back but rather, advanced forward. They pulled out their sword and drew a line as the boundary, asking: Do you dare to go further?

The reaction of UA was also expected by everyone. They not only took a step forward, but they also asked: I’m going to take a step further. What are you going to do about it?

There was no retreat in the assertion of hegemony!

After all, the UA wasn’t Country F. While Celestial Trade Marines bulldozed through City M, the officers present remained calm. The Orbital Airborne Troops might have strength equivalent to ten soldiers, but counting on the power armor brigade, only four brigades served the country. They wouldn’t even cause a splash in the vast UA.

Ivan didn’t show any sign of fear. Since Jiang Chen pulled him out of the mud pile in Eastern Europe and gave him this responsibility, he swore his allegiance to Jiang Chen. However, even if he wasn’t afraid, his palms were still sweating.

He wasn’t afraid to fight.

Celestial Trade was even less afraid of fighting a war.

It was just that no one could bear the consequences of this war.

If the dozens of submarine missiles took off under the sea, the EMP weapons would send the entire UA back to the Stone Age.

But after this, Xin would cease to exist.

After all, technology wasn’t magic, and even in the distant 22nd century, there was no cheaper and more convenient killing tool than nuclear weapons. The UA had never claimed to not be the first one to use nuclear weapons. The dozen-plus aircraft carrier battle groups and the North Atlantic Treaty definitely didn’t just exist for looks. Once the Pandora Box was open, no country could survive.

Like a curse, a terrifying word surfaced in every officer’s head.

The Third World War…

The officers whispered to each other.

“Only diplomatic meanscan solve this problem.”

“We can’t fight this war…”

“The next step forward is the next world war…”

Just then, there was scorn in the command center and all the whispers ceased.

All the officers’ eyes centered onto Jiang Chen as they waited for the commander’s decision.

Jiang Chen’s expression has never been calmer, but the scorn in his eyes showed a tyrannous vibe. From his deep pupils, Ivan saw a lot, but he couldn’t see the word retreat.

“Coincidently, we aren’t going to retreat.”

His words were like hammer strikes, slamming into every officer’s mind.

Ivan let out a sigh in his mind. The thing he worried about the most still happened. But he didn’t have any regret, nor did he want to persuade Jiang Chen otherwise. Even if Jiang Chen chose to press the button to open the Pandora Box, he would follow Jiang Chen’s will without hesitation and execute his orders until the last moment.

As for the looks of the other officers, Jiang Chen also took everything under his pupils.

He also understood he shouldn’t fight this war.

But he was never more awake, and this time, there was no retreat.

The UA realized the threat of Xin and no longer regraded this small country as a stepping stone—it was an actual opponent.

This military exercise was only the beginning of a signal to other countries. In the future, it would be diplomatic pressure or economic sanctions. Xin could use its technological advantage to expand new markets, but other countries could work together to demand a high price.

Taking two steps to stand in front of the officers, Jiang Chen looked at all of them at eye-level and swept through the faces of every officer. He said in a peaceful but loud tone, “Everyone here is the mainstay of Celestial Trade. When did you start to worry about performing the jobs of diplomats?”

As soon as this was said, the officer who had previously whispered suddenly felt embarrassed.

Without paying attention to the shame on the officer’s face, Jiang Chen turned his gaze to the holographic screen.

“They dared to display their arrogance at our doorstep.”

An understatement rang in the hearts of all officers.

Just as everyone was processing his words, his calm face suddenly smiled, and his words shifted.

“Celestial Trade is strong and powerful. Our warships are guarding our territory. Country F provoked us, and I ordered our navy to turn their ships into scraps. The war ended up with more than 10,000 casualties, and in the end, they surrendered to us. I’d like to ask: if we can fight Country F, why can’t we fight the UA? Are you all bullies?”

The officers who had previously showed fear all showed embarrassment.

The smile faded, and Jiang Chen’s expression turned stern and he shouted, “You’re the soldiers of Xin. Your backbone is the backbone of the country. Your chest is the frontier of Xin.”

“Their warships have already arrived at our doorstep, and now, they’re prepared to run over your chests and destroy the sovereignty we defended with guns!”

“This war has nothing to do with hegemony; it’s about the future of our country and it’s about the dignity of our nation! The entire country can fear, but only you can’t fear. The entire country can choose to back down, but only you can’t choose to back down!”

Only you can’t choose to back down!

His assertive words echoed in every officer’s mind.

Yes, they were soldiers, not politicians nor diplomats. They only thought about war, and they could only think about the war! Even if the next step was down into the abyss, they must take this step forward!

Their shame faded, and everyone raised their heads and lifted their chests. There was not a single trace of fear in their eyes.

Only the courage for war!

“Ivan!” Jiang Chen shouted.

“Roger!” The veteran straightened his back, and his wrinkled face was cold as the winter breeze.

“With ‘Conquer’ as the flagship, all ships are to join the Pacific Fleet. Captain Lei Zhengjun is to be promoted to Major Admiral, temporarily acting as the fleet commander. The fleet will take enemies head-on!”

“Roger! Ivan shouted.

A powerful shout rang in everyone’s ears. Jiang Chen looked at the officers and used the greatest force of his life to place the order.

“All officers, listen to my orders. Immediately activate level-one combat readiness alert! All fighters take off! All Marines board the planes! All battleships set sail! All fighting units to their battle posts! If the enemy dares to cross into our territory, they won’t return in one piece!”

Chapter 1125: Direct Conflic

1125 Direct Conflic The upsurge in the Western Pacific received far more attention than the countries involved.

Celestial City, Earth Defense Alliance Headquarters.

With a coffee, Wu Changfeng stood at the floor-to-ceiling window as he emotionlessly watched the blue planet outside the window.

“What decision do you think he will make?”

Next to Wu Changfeng, Lu Hao smiled.

“For someone who can make up his mind to fight against an extraterrestrial civilization, what decision do you think he will make?”

Wu Changfeng also smiled, but he didn’t continue on the topic.

He gazed at the planet outside the window for what felt like an eternity, then his smile faded as he quietly and thoughtfully said, “If a war really starts, what can we see here?”

Lu Hao’s smile suddenly disappeared.

After a while, he forced a smile and squeezed out a sentence: “I hope… we can’t see it.”

What kind of war can be seen even around the synchronous orbit?

Other than nuclear war, he couldn’t think of any other possibilities.

“I hope so.” Wu Changfeng sighed, his eyes focused outside the window.

Suddenly, in the direction of the space elevator main axis, at Celestial City port, he saw an unusual shadow.

A Seagull-class transport ship had slowly left the port. Its engine left an eerie blue trail and it moved toward the low-Earth orbit…

In the western Pacific Ocean, turbulent waves rolled under the pristine sky, as if thousands of tons of lime were mixed in. The representatives of the countries in the audience all shared the same tense expression. Although they hoped for Celestial Trade to compromise and admit defeat, they were all uncertain.

The leader of Celestial Trade isn’t the most rational…

If he gets hot-headed and starts a war…

On the flagship of the joint fleet, Hogg stood like a sculpture with his hands behind his back, his eagle-like gaze locked onto the sea in the southwest silently. The command room staff were busy working in their posts, only occasionally exchanging communications.

“Report! Celestial Trade’s Naval Fleet was discovered one hundred and fifty kilometers away!” The officer in front of the radar reported.

With a frown, Hogg’s expression showed a hint of malice.

It seems that Celestial Trade isn’t going to give in.

“How big is the fleet?” Hogg coldly asked.

“The entire fleet is composed of six frigates; the number of submarines is unknown.”

When he heard the report, Hogg stopped, and there was doubt in his expression.

“Six frigates?”

Relying on six frigates to stop us is just underestimating the power of our fleet!

“Signal to them and warn them to immediately change course; otherwise, any escalation will result in consequences they can’t bear,” Hogg said expressionlessly.

At this moment, on the ship bridge, the correspondent received the message from the opposing fleet and immediately reported it to Lei Zheng.

Lei Zheng nodded after he heard the message, and his expression was unmoved.

“Lei… Major General Lei?” The deputy looked at Lei Zheng and asked nervously.

His eyes still looked straight ahead, and Lei Zheng ordered, “Respond to them that Celestial Trade Pacific Fleet will conduct a routine military exercise in the 970-square-kilometer military restricted zone. The drill is a live ammunition exercise, and if someone accidentally enters our range, they will have to bear the consequences at their own risk!”

Six frigates were lined up on the high sea, and the guns all aimed at a spot 100 kilometers away, the area designated as the military restricted zone. Under the flagship order, six rounds of electromagnetic pulse cannons launched simultaneously, leaving six orange-yellow trails in the air.

One hundred kilometers away, the seawater was sent hundreds of meters into the air, creating a temporary rain shower within the area.

In the Capital’s the combat command room, the senior officials of the Ministry of Defense were busy communicating.

Accompanied by a military adviser, Hill stared at the satellite image on the big screen.

“Celestial Trade Navy Fleet fired at target waters and announced it would be conducting regular military exercises in the military restricted zone!”

The term “routine military exercise” made Hill pause for a second. The shamelessness of Celestial Trade almost made her swear, but the military adviser next to her swore first.

“Routine military exercise? These third-world b*stards! How is this a routine military exercise?! This is clearly a provocation!”

Hill didn’t speak, but having served the role of secretary of state, she understood very clearly that Celestial Trade used a loophole.

By international conventions, military exercises in public waters required notification to neighboring countries in advance and required invitation of observers from other countries. However, routine military exercises in territorial waters didn’t require notification.

As for it being a routine exercise?

Who knows if they really planned this?

The sudden shelling surprised the joint fleet and scared the observers. No one thought their reaction would be so direct and so intense.

While the joint fleet was surprised, it immediately responded to the shelling. The aircraft carrier slowed down, but the fleet didn’t change course. The two destroyers were at full throttle and accelerated toward the military restricted zone declared by Celestial Trade.

The submarine began to sink, and more than forty ships dispersed and entered battle formation. F-35Cs took off from the deck, and in just a few minutes, the aircraft carrier sent more than a dozen squadrons into the air, all headed for the Celestial Fleet.

Celestial Trade also released its force. More than 30 Aurora-20s took-off and formed into ten squadrons in the air. They showed no fear of the approaching fleet.

The trigger for war was in a fine balance!

With eyes staring at the big screen, the hearts of Hill and every senior official all pounded furiously.

The situation seemed to have gone out of their control from the beginning.

In just a few minutes, it had deteriorated to the brink of war.

It was just a military exercise!

Before this, the Capitol and the Department of Defense certainly considered the possibility of war, but no one ever thought this possibility would become reality. They just planned to use the military exercise to pressure Xin, display their power to their allies, disintegrate the Earth Defense Alliance, take back the control of extraterrestrial civilization defense, and finally lift the space blockade of Xin…

As for the war…

Who was willing to fight with an equally-matched opponent?!

Sweat oozed from Hill’s forehead.

Taking one step ahead was hell!

Now Jiang Chen threw the choice back into their hands again.

What should I do?

Just as Hill felt uncertain, the situation took another drastic turn.

More than a dozen satellite images disappeared.

“What happened?”

“Server 091 was attacked…”

“Check the firewall right away!”

The staff member who was furiously typing in front of the computer suddenly screamed.

“Damnit, it’s not an attack! There’s no problem with the firewall! The server aren’t infiltrated! It’s our satellite that’s experiencing failure!”

At that moment, Jiang Chen’s face replaced the previous image and appeared in the center of the screens.

“Change course immediately!”

“That’s impossible!” Hill fixed her gaze on Jiang Chen, she didn’t back down and righteously said, “The UA is exercising proper freedom of navigation. In addition, I’m warning you to immediately stop interfering with our satellites. Otherwise, the UA will regard it as a provocation.”

Jiang Chen sneered.

“Freedom of navigation? You want to come and go as you wish? Without my permission, your navy won’t cross Xin’s territory. I will only say this once—if you cross this red line, dozens of Peacemakers will arrive on your mainland!”

After that, Jiang Chen gestured to the officer next to him on the screen. A suitcase was immediately taken out by the officer and opened in front of him.

The moment Hill saw the suitcase, her expression immediately changed.

Almost at the same time, her aid also reacted, he stepped forward and placed the black suitcase in front of her.

Hill reached out her hand subconsciously, and her trembling fingers touched the edge of the lock.

From the day she started campaigning more than three years ago, she imagined that one day she would be able to grasp the nuclear button which represented the top authority of the president. However, until a minute ago, she never thought about the day she would actually use this button.

In contrast to her hesitation, Jiang Chen had already entered the password with ease on the screen, opened the suitcase cover, and gently put his finger on the launch button.

He looked into the camera slyly as he coldly said, “So, Madam President. Are you ready?”

A chill slowly covered her from head-to-toe.

From his dark pupils, she saw the fierceness of a wolf.

Even if she served as the secretary of state for several years, she had never seen such a look. Even the most insane dictator had never been so crazy…

Chapter 1126: Social Justice Saving the World

1126 Social Justice Saving the World Rolling waves smashed against the ship, as they shattered millions of tiny droplets against the invincible steel.

The radar and missile launchers on the guided missile cruisers were active and ready, waiting for the command to fire…

“Sir.” The young soldier looked at the officer. He was unsettled, as it was difficult to distinguish whether it was firm or panic in his green pupils. “What should we do?”

What should we do?

No one could answer the young soldier who had just left the military academy; even the seasoned veteran couldn’t. Since they were standing there, they were soldiers—just negligible screws in the massive war machine. They couldn’t make the decision?

Instead of thinking about this question without an answer, it would be better to think about a more realistic question…

What will we do?

Everyone asked the question in their mind, including the new recruits on the warships, including, of course, the one standing on the bridge.

Hogg showed nothing but malice as his destruction-filled pupils already narrowed into a line, like the Celestial Trade fleet that lined up on the high sea.

The Pacific Fleet, more than 150 kilometers away, responded affirmatively to the joint fleet with the first round of shelling.

He made a decision immediately, including forming the attack formation, sending out fighters, and sending out the destroyers…

He couldn’t act weak, not even a bit. Even if he wasn’t willing, he could only move forward.

Representatives of the countries watched him. The Capital, his people, and the world were all watching him. The countless gazes on him were like countless swords pressed against his back.

“Celestial Trade fighters are approaching quickly; our radar can’t lock onto them…” the lieutenant admiral said nervously.

“All fighters take off!” Hogg ordered.

“Roger!” The lieutenant admiral gnashed his teeth.

He already expected this to happen. When Xin and Country F fought previously, they verified that the F-35 was no match for the Aurora-20. However, despite this, he had no fear.

Although the Aurora-20 was strong, it wasn’t invincible. Under the cover of destroyers and missile cruisers, even if a group could only take out a squadron, the final victory would only belong to the joint fleet.

Although the electromagnetic pulse cannon was powerful, the ship carrying the cannon was still made out of steel. Anti-ship missiles and anti-ship torpedoes would take care of them, even if they could sink a few warships or even the aircraft carrier in the center, but what else…

As for space-based weapons?

At a distance of 36,000 kilometers, it would still take some time before those landed.

Hogg felt a lot more at ease after he issued the orders consecutively.

It seemed that the war was bound to happen…

“Twenty kilometers left.”

Twenty kilometers.

At the current speed of the destroyers, they would close the distance in just a few minutes. By that time, the joint fleet would’ve crossed the red line, and the Celestial Trade Pacific Fleet would respond with their electromagnetic pulse cannons. With the war bound to happen, there seemed to be no other alternatives.

When Lei Zheng received the report, he looked at the red dots that were gradually approaching on the radar. At that moment, his expression remained unchanged.

The naval fleet of five nations, forty-seven modern warships, and more than a dozen fighter squadrons… In his eyes, they didn’t seem to exist.

“Ten kilometers!”

The first officer’s eyes bulged out, staring at the distant sea. The veins on his arms were exposed as his palms were sweating profusely.

The two destroyers, one after the other, were marching towards the border.

At that moment, Lei Zheng suddenly raised his hand and fixed his cap.

“Five kilometers!”

Almost as the first officer shouted out this sentence, Lei Zheng took off the radio on his shoulder.

“All combat units, freely aim at all targets of the joint fleet except the aircraft carrier. Prepare—”

“Look! They-they changed course!”

An exclamation interrupted his command.

Lei Zheng’s pupils shrank and fixed on the holographic screen, his eyes were filled with disbelief.

The two destroyers at the forefront almost entered Xin’s territory. However, just two kilometers outside the border, they suddenly changed course and made a nearly 90-degree turn.

Not just the two destroyers retreated, but the joint fleet behind them…

Hill was crushed.

Thoroughly crushed.

She was a wise, strong, courageous, and tactical politician; otherwise, she wouldn’t have defeated her competitors to become the president. She had the best think tank, the best cabinet, but she lacked one thing…

The spirit of a wolf.

In this peaceful era, it wasn’t a quality that could be selected.

Fighting for social justice might help her gain votes, but that would never win a war for her.

When the Social Justice Warriors voted with joy and put the nuclear button in her hands, they trusted that she would never press the button to hell, but they never considered the consequence of the button never being able to be pressed.

If nuclear deterrence didn’t have a deterrence effect, could deterrence be called deterrence?

At the moment when she looked into Jiang Chen’s pupils, she felt that she was pulled out of her office and put into a colosseum.

The opponent standing in front of her was neither a savvy politician nor a great leader but an out-right lunatic, a fierce beast.

“Stop!”

At that moment, all the tricks, games, and even language had lost their effect.

What ultimately broke down her psychological defense wasn’t Jiang Chen’s eyes nor was it his sentence “are you ready?” but the tens of millions of families on the other side of the world and the century-long prosperity of their country…

It was the stakes in her hands that overwhelmed her.

She must not let nuclear war break out!

“Stop!”

In the tenth second of the countdown before the nuclear war, she screamed and pushed away her suitcase, ran to the Minister of Defense, grabbed his collar, and shouted with full strength that the “military exercise is now over,” “change course”…

History changed because of a word.

The destroyers retreated.

The joint fleet changed course.

The nuclear button on the screen also disappeared.

Staring at the emptiness on the screen, Hill gasped and took two steps back.

The word seemed to sap out all the energy in her body. If it wasn’t for the military adviser and the chief of staff holding her, she wasn’t even sure if she could stand.

After all, the war didn’t break out.

The strategy of returning to the Asia-Pacific and curbing Xin had now backfired along with UA’s hegemony.

From now on, nothing could stop the expansion of the Global Power Grid, and nothing could disintegrate the United Earth Defense Alliance. The entire world witnessed UA’s retreat and the rise of Xin. Even the UA Navy that had conquered the seven seas and five oceans couldn’t cross the boundary of one place.

The gate of Xin.

Chapter 1127: There is No Dignity Between Countries

1127 There is No Dignity Between Countries Seagull-class transport ships could easily hijack military satellites in orbit, but it couldn’t place cameras in Hill’s office.

Unfortunately, Jiang Chen could only hear the sound and couldn’t see her last gaffe.

When he turned off the camera, he closed the suitcase and pushed it to the side.

Jiang Chen leaned back in the chair as he looked at the officer next to him who picked up the suitcase, then took a deep breath, and slowly relaxed his tense muscles.

Only he knew that his back was completely drenched.

Just half a minute ago, he was prepared for the worst to happen. If the nuclear war broke out, his first step would be to take his relatives onto the space elevator, take the Seagull-class to the Lunar Colony, wait for Lin Lin to invent interdimensional travel, then move his family to the apocalypse.

As for this world, his only option would be to give it up.

Fortunately, however, the person on the other side was wise. A wise person would never bet everything in a fight against a beast.

Jiang Chen waved his hand to the officers next to him, gesturing for them to leave. After everyone left, only one person stayed.

“Wipe your sweat off.”

Ayesha walked next to Jiang Chen as she spoke softly, handing him a wet towel.

“From today, will I be considered the most wanted terrorist in the eyes of the CIB?” Jiang Chen took the wet towel from Ayesha hand as he joked while he wiped his forehead. “Like Bin Laden and Saddam?”

The cool feeling dispelled the heat that irritated him as his nervousness eased and subsided.

Ayesha held Jiang Chen’s back and gently placed her chin on his shoulder, her sapphire-like eyes blinked.

“I will protect you.”

Her voice was quiet but resolute, her words sneaked into his ear along with her warmth as they gently comforted his mind.

While he was touched, Jiang Chen felt a bit strange being protected by his woman.

He lifted his head, then looked at the holographic screen on the conference table.

The joint fleet in the satellite image had just barely stopped on the border in front of Xin, and a conflict that almost became the fuse of a world war dissipated at the final moment.

From beginning to end, Xin didn’t compromise.

In the next few days, Jiang Chen took a break.

He bathed in the sun and relaxed on his private island. As for work, he completely pushed it aside for now. He also dragged Ayesha and Xia Shiyu along, even if she was unwilling to leave her work, to explore everywhere.

As for Natasha who had only recently moved in, she immediately joined when she heard they were going on an adventure.

Of course, while he relaxed, Jiang Chen still paid attention to what happened in the world.

On the first day he left for the sea on his yacht, the Nippon representative came to Xin with its delegation and made an application to join the Earth Defense Alliance.

It was ironic that just a few days ago, their warships were behind the aircraft carrier battle group. Now that the military exercise ended, they immediately took a drastically different stance.

With this kind of shamelessness… wait, no—choosing the right path—of course Jiang Chen welcomed them wholeheartedly. But because he was still on vacation, he left the work to Zhang Yaping to handle.

is there dignity between countries?

In a restaurant near Wall Street, Kerry and Daniel sat opposite of each other. They enjoyed their steak while they casually chatted about the dramatic changes that took place a few days ago.

“I said earlier that she’s not a qualified leader.”

“Oh? Why do you say that?” Daniel Morgan smiled as he cut the fattest, juiciest piece of meat with his knife.

“The courage to press the nuclear button is different from the willingness to press the nuclear button. See what she did? She pushed our nuclear button away! Oh God, since she didn’t want it, then why did she choose it?!” Kerry cut the steak while muttering under his breath.

He considered himself to have good etiquette.

However, whenever he recalled Madam President’s reaction that day, he always felt enraged.

“What if it was you?” With a fork delivering the meat to his lips, Daniel Morgan’s fork lingered in the air as he raised an eyebrow and asked with curiosity: “Mr. Kerry, what would you have done?”

“I wouldn’t have pressed the button.”

“So, you would’ve given in?”

“I wouldn’t have given in.”

“At noon on August 1st, five navies formed a joint fleet to begin the 2019 Asia-Pacific military exercise. When the exercise entered its second stage, because of frictions with the Xin naval fleet, the joint fleet was forced to divert…”

“At present, the Capitol refuses to make a statement on this matter, but an official who doesn’t wish to be named said…”

No matter how turbulent the Pacific Ocean was at the time, the news just casually made a few understatements, summarizing the hegemonic dispute that almost ignited the Third World War.

The UA media all surprisingly shared the same tone on this incident, and there were no detailed reports on the friction. However, people could still sense the unusual state between the lines…

In a villa complex, home to one of the richest men of UA.

The man with a clearly visible beer belly, laid on an extremely luxurious sofa while he sipped his whiskey. He was hugging a stunning model as he enjoyed the nightlife of the vibrant city.

This TV talk show was one of his favorite shows. He loved the style of the host who made absurd statements. He even spent a lot of money to purchase this show, became its biggest sponsor, and placed his company’s name in the most prominent place on the show.

“That’s my show.” Unabashedly teasing the beautiful woman in his arms, the man raised his hand holding the glass, pointed at the TV with his pinky, and said arrogantly, “Hotels, squares, retailers, mineral water plants, restaurants, bars, and even universities, golf courses, the Internet—my companies are in the lives of Americans everywhere; the media is only a small part of it. The UA can live without that bit*h, but it absolutely can’t live without me.”

Showing off was a great pleasure in life, especially to beautiful women.

The blond in his arms giggled, hugged his neck and gave him a kiss.

Just then, the talk show talked about the recent “Changed Course Incident” in the Western Pacific Ocean. In a very timely manner, the screen began to discuss the “bit*h” he had just criticized.

His drunken eyes glanced at the old woman on the screen, and an undisguised disdain appeared in his eyes.

“I said earlier that she’s not a qualified president.”

“If I became president… burp-”

If I’m the president…

The man suddenly turned his neck.

Wait, speaking of this, I haven’t been president yet!

Chapter 1128: A “Heartfelt“ Speech

1128 A “Heartfelt“ Speech For most Xin citizens, they only saw the shallowest representation of the confrontation in the Western Pacific.

Celestial Trade fired warning shots and the Joint Fleet evaded. The fighters on both sides all took off and dueled it out in the air. In the end, both parties returned with no gains or losses…

Of course, people who followed the situation still saw that Celestial Trade gained the upper hand.

As for the game behind its appearance, no one dug deeper. In particular, both the UA and Xin tacitly remained silent regarding the duel between the leaders in front of the media.

After all, the nuclear buttons were placed on the table. Jiang Chen didn’t want to be labeled as a butcher by controversy, and the UA didn’t want to lose the deterrent known as the president’s “suitcase”. The number of other countries who gained information about this through their intelligence networks was unpredictable.

In any case, making the boss of the world change course was something worthy of pride.

Celestial Trade Navy not only defended the sovereignty of Xin but it also the national honor and glory of the country. In the next week, the people of Xin walked in the streets with their heads held up high, almost to the point where they looked at people with their noses. Many immigrants from all over the world, from this very moment onward, truly regarded this new country as a nation.

As for the UA, public opinion showed polarization.

The leftists praised Hill for her rationality. After all, the Social Justice Warriors never agreed with the military exercise from the start. Xin’s Phantom Helmets and high-tech products were so much fun; why are they bullying her?

In contrast, the right-wingers launched an attack on the weakness of the Capitol on social media, criticizing the government for bringing shame to the country. Even the commander of the Joint Fleet, Admiral Hogg, was targeted by this social media onslaught.

Admiral Hogg was probably the most innocent individual in this whole fiasco. The Department of Defence gave him the mandate to take a tough stance, but the Department of Defense also made him retreat. He executed every order, yet now, he must take the blame with the bureaucrats. Dear heaven, how is this outcome related to him? Did he not sail his ship with a strong enough stance?

The anger of the right-wingers not only filled the Internet—it even flooded into the streets. With slogans held up high, they demonstrated in front of the Xin Embassy.

While these angry young people didn’t smash every single new energy vehicle from Xin, they spontaneously joined to boycott “Xin Goods” with the exception of two things: Phantom Helmet and Medical Drone.

They could live without phones and robots, but without those two items, what would be the point of living…

The economy was an extension of politics.

The showdown in the Western Pacific Ocean already determined the situation today.

However, although the “anti-Xin” sentiment in North America was growing, Future Group didn’t seem too concerned. The Global Power Grid along with the electricity evolution was starting to see its effect, and Future Group was now focusing on opening up the East Asian market.

Take Wanghai as an example—almost every parking lot was equipped with a wireless charging station. Charging could be completed by scanning a QR code with the phone without even needing to step out of the vehicle. The Logistics Drones replaced couriers, and robot mail was common in everyone’s homes.

Many electrical appliances that previously weren’t practical due to high power consumption also become a reality. The Maglev Highway was the best example, although it was only popularized in Xin.

Coro City already entered the 22nd century ahead of schedule.

And Asia was advancing toward the 22nd world under the leadership of Xin.

Regardless of everything else, a very intuitive phenomenon demonstrated the rapid changes in Asia. At night, overlooking the Earth from the geosynchronous orbit, it was easy to tell that the Asian region was much brighter than Europe and the Americas.

In short, although UA hostility toward Xin created a certain impact on Future Group’s market share in North America, the losses were quite limited, so Jiang Chen didn’t consider it an area of concern. His foundation was the virtual reality network, and now, he had the addition of the Global Power Grid. As long as these two initiatives remained untouched, Future Group would be unshakable.

…

“I have money, I’m rich. I’m very rich!”

“So? I don’t care how much money the Wall Street will give me!”

“I assure you that if you vote for me, at least your vote won’t show up in the pockets of Wall Street. Only I can represent your interests; only I can represent the UA dream. Yes, only me!”

In a park in Nevada.

People shouted frantically as they cheered and screamed. Countless arms were raised up, slogans of their support were held, flags were waving in the air as supporters repeatedly shouted the same name.

The eyes of the man on stage were half-narrowed, and his bright orange face had an arrogant and undisguised smile.

He opened his arms and accepted the cheers of the voters with his chin, but he gained a respect that other candidates couldn’t receive from bending down.

He knew what they needed the most.

And what they needed was exactly what he could give!

Choosing the right time to raise his hand and signal everyone to listen, the man fixed the microphone and waved his index finger while speaking with the greatest strength of his life.

“We shouldn’t send Kerry, someone who has no idea how to negotiate at all. He will sign a laughable and irritating agreement with them. Watch them use our money to make weapons and act aggressively on the negotiating table.”

“You know who I’m talking about? That’s right! It’s him! The person who can match him can only be a man manlier than him, not an old woman without a proper menstrual cycle!”

“Tell me—will you vote for that old lady?”

The expressions of many female voters suddenly changed and they immediately lost interest. They not only smashed the signs they held, but they also raised their middle fingers and booed. But the cheers under the stage grew even louder, drowning out their booing amidst the tide of cheers.

They were fed up with being politically correct and fed up with politicians who only made empty promises. Now, someone finally stood up. Even if he might not necessarily be smart enough, considering what he just said, he shared the same perspective as many who stood there!

“The UA dream has been shattered! I will reshape the UA dream, make it bigger, better, stronger, and allow it to return to greatness. Thank you.”

The man bowed down and stepped down from the podium amidst thunderous cheers.

No one noticed this impassioned election speech, and no one even noticed this insignificant candidate.

Hill was still busy dealing with the aftermath of the event as she desperately tried to reunite the allies that started to pull apart. Accompanied by Daniel Morgan, Kerry collected evidence of scandal of a particular person and frequently contacted members of the party. He quietly prepared for the election in the coming year and prepared to strike his “big boss” at the perfect time.

Chapter 1129: The Unlucky Kishida

1129 The Unlucky Kishida Coro City.

At Jiang Chen’s mansion door.

“The weather is nice today.”

“Yeah, the weather is good.” Kishida’s face squeezed into a smile. Without giving an opportunity for Jiang Chen to change the topic, he quickly showed Jiang Chen a document. “What do you think? We’ve already joined the Earth Defense Alliance, so the defense tax…”

“Haha, of course,” Jiang Chen, who just came back from Coconut Island, laughed and patted Kishida’s slim shoulder. Jiang Chen reached for his pocket then looked around before his expression became disappointed. “You see… I don’t have a pen. Why don’t you just leave the document here and I will send it to you after I’m done with it?”

“No need, no need, I have a pen here.” Kishida immediately reached into his pocket and took out a pen. He then handed it to Jiang Chen with a smile. “You can have the pen, so now you can sign it.”

“Hmph—”

Kishida pretended not to hear the sound as he continued to gaze at Jiang Chen with a smile on his face. He was prepared to stay there until the document was signed.

Since Nippon joined the Earth Defense Alliance, Nippon completely got on the wrong side of UA, so it changed its diplomatic stance and began to lean toward Xin. The previous territorial and historical issues were no longer topics of discussion.

However, when Kishida happily went to Jiang Chen with the Defense Tax Agreement, he couldn’t find Jiang Chen anymore.

That’s right, Jiang Chen disappeared!

This made him extremely anxious and paranoid! First, he didn’t expect Jiang Chen to be such a rogue. Second, the defense tax costed Nippon more than a billion per day, which meant he couldn’t wait any longer. Despite being an influential diplomat, he turned into a paparazzi and waited around Jiang Chen’s mansion all day long.

Fortunately, after waiting for a week, Jiang Chen, who just came back from the apocalypse, finally showed up.

Since Jiang Chen couldn’t find any excuses, he sighed and unwillingly picked up the pen. But right then, his eyes suddenly lit up. He looked at Kishida and coughed. “I suddenly remembered that today is Saturday, not a working day—”

As soon as Kishida heard Jiang Chen making another excuse, he couldn’t stand this anymore. His eyes stared straight at Jiang Chen with a tragic look.

“Mr. Jiang, please don’t joke with me anymore. I know you’ve been hiding from me all these days, but we joined the Earth Defense Alliance. In other words, we’re now comrades inside the same trench. Why are you giving us trouble? If you’re angry with the joint military exercise, I can apologize. I just hope you can relinquish the past and treat us equally.”

But your apology is worth nothing.

Of course, Jiang Chen also thought about this. If he really said it, it would damage the relationship between his allies. Since Nippon already joined them, he should relinquish the past.

“Haha, Mr. Kishida, I’m not that type of person.” Jiang Chen held onto his arm. “I wouldn’t make you apologize.”

Jiang Chen picked up the pen again, and under the staring of the mung bean-like eyes, he signed his name at the bottom of the document.

After Kishida accepted the signed documents, he repeatedly praised and thanked Jiang Chen. He thanked but refused Jiang Chen’s invitation for a few drinks and immediately left. Even with the document signed, it would still take a few days to lift the defense tax. Any wasted time now meant wasted money.

After Jiang Cehn sent off the Foreign Minister of Nippon, he returned inside.

As he walked past the entrance, he saw Natasha holding a bottle of champagne in her hand and relaxingly enjoyed the pleasant afternoon.

“What’s the matter? Did you lose money?” Looking at Jiang Chen, Natasha whistled at him and teased.

“I did lose money.” Jiang Chen was very honest and nodded.

Not only did he lose money, but he lost a lot of money.

The idea of the few billion flying away pained him. If he knew better, he would’ve returned a few days later from the apocalypse.

Although the money wouldn’t end up in his pocket…

“It’s fine, you’re rich.” Natasha gulped down a sip of champagne and let out a short burp. She rolled her eyes as she said, “It’s not like you need that money to survive.”

“Drinking during the day? Aren’t you afraid of getting fat?” Jiang Chen mimicked her and rolled his eyes too.

“Are you? Obviously, you don’t seem to mind.” Natasha snorted, giggled, and raised her chest.

“I like it there, but not here.” Jiang Chen pretended to be ferocious.

Not only did Natasha not show any fear, but with a grin, she raised an eyebrow, provoking him.

“I only gain fat there. Try it yourself?”

Try?

I’ll try it!

Since they were the only ones at home, Jiang Chen had nothing to worry about. He turned into a big bad wolf and leaped at her.

Well, Natasha didn’t lie.

Jiang Chen could swear that all her fat shifted to her chest. Even if it was said that Slavs were prone to beer bellies, she somehow managed to maintain her great figure. Her well-proportioned vest line on her lower abdomen was more addictive to touch than her chest.

After they messed around for a bit, Jiang Chen finally let go of the exhausted Natasha while breathing heavily.

He thought she would have to nap for a bit, but she unexpectedly turned over and her fatigue instantly disappeared. Her two fit legs pinched Jiang Chen’s waist as she pushed him down, then she tightened her legs and rode on his lower abdomen.

Too deceiving! It turned out that she faked everything!

But since he did everything he wanted to, he’d let her freely dominate for a moment. Jiang Chen let the proud Natasha ride him to regain her confidence as a former agent.

“To be honest, sometimes I really can’t understand you.” Natasha’s finger circled Jiang Chen’s chest as her witty sapphire eyes cast a lethargic vibe and examined Jiang Chen top to bottom. “Sometimes, I feel like you’re a vulgar businessman who couldn’t be any more vulgar and you always talk about interests. But sometimes, you don’t play by the rules and do something completely outside common sense.”

“Not to mention you; even I can’t understand myself.” Jiang Chen’s eyes gazed into the pair of sapphires and he suddenly let out a helpless sigh. “I could just be a landlord who rules a couple plots of land, so why should I bother with so much? Maybe by the time Harmony’s space colonization ship arrives, Superman, Spiderman would all appear and I wouldn’t need to worry about all this.”

“What are you talking about? How come I don’t understand?” For a moment, Natasha didn’t understand Jiang Chen’s sudden spontaneous change of topic. She looked at him and said: “But if the extraterrestrial civilization really comes, even if you want to protect your land as a landlord, you won’t have the chance?”

“That depends.” Jiang Chen shrugged and didn’t explain further.

A century would be more than enough for Lin Lin to invent interdimensional travel technology. At that time, he could just take his family to the apocalypse, and the Harmony Civilization wouldn’t be able to find him at all.

Of course, this would be the last resort.

Chapter 1130: Welcoming Ceremony

1130 Welcoming Ceremony …August 13th, Sunny

Wang Qian wrote the date on the header, then he gazed out at the endless sand outside of the window. He let out a sigh and closed his diary.

There was no beauty here. It was barren everywhere; sand was the only scenery. The uninteresting view and boring life made it difficult even to search for a few hundred words for his diary.

But it was fine, or how else would he kill his spare time?

When he looked up at the wall clock on the wall, it was about time. Wang Qiang stuffed the diary into the drawer and headed out.

When he walked through the corridor, he couldn’t see a soul.

No matter how vast Mars was, it was a relatively closed environment for the twenty colonists living there. After work, everyone returned to their rooms and closed themselves in their closed circles. Some put on Phantom helmets while others dazed in front of a book.

Sometimes Wang Qiang even wondered if the kitchen could be equipped with a drone, perhaps he wouldn’t ever see his neighbors for the rest of his life?

A closed environment tended to breed more psychological disorders.

More and more people began seeing the psychologist, and the psychologist was becoming busier and busier to the point that his schedule was always filled. It was even to the point that the only psychologist in the colony almost became depressed due to his heavy workload.

But Wang Qiang faired okay with his diary, a friend who occasionally played pool with him, and a not-so-boring job.

After he rinsed in the washroom, he took out his equipment from the closet. After he put on his gear, he went through the buffer room and the air shower room before he headed outside.

His boots sank into the sand, and the dim light scattered through the cracks in the dust.

Wang Qiang raised his head and narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the murky Sun.

Just as he walked to the rover, a communication window popped out on the lower right corner of the holographic screen inside his helmet.

When he pressed the bottom, it was the captain’s voice.

“…Today’s mission is canceled. Drive the rover back to the garage and immediately gather at Central Square.”

Wang Qiang, inexplicably confused, asked, “What happened?”

“The reinforcements are here.”

The reinforcements are here.

When Wang Qian heard the four short words, his heart was overwhelmed with uncontrollable joy. It was like a drought had lasted for three years and the rain finally arrived.

He eagerly hopped onto the rover and parked the rover into the garage. Without stopping for a second, he jogged to the Central Square.

When he crossed through the gate, he found that the remaining 19 colonists had all arrived. Captain Hong Zewei stood in the middle of the square, and he read a stack of papers in his hand. The rest of the people were beside him all listening carefully.

Everyone was full of excitement which oozed from the bottoms of their hearts.

Reinforcements finally arrived.

Wang Qiang pulled his friend and whispered.

“What is the captain reading?”

“The letters from Earth!” the friend said, overjoyed. “Celestial Trade built a column for us and collected about 10,000 greetings from Earth!”

“Are you sure you received greetings?” Wang Qiang asked strangely.

Considering the etiquette of the Internet, he didn’t believe they were greetings at all!

“Ahem, of course, all of them were screened. There were over ten thousand letters in total. How can we read them?” The friend looked at Wang Qiang with an expression that said ‘You only need to know’ then continued to look at the stack of letters in Hong Zewei’s hands.

Wang Qiang was truly touched by the envelopes.

At least the people on Earth still remembered the “Martians”. The words of longing made him think of the blue planet, the magnificent sea, and palm leaves swaying in front of his door…

Sniffing his nose, Wang Qiang suddenly remembered the canceled mission for today and why it was canceled. So he immediately looked around, but he was surrounded by familiar faces.

“Didn’t you say that the reinforcements were here? Where are they?”

“The letters were brought by the reinforcements and thrown down from the synchronized orbit.” The friend grinned and pointed his finger at the sky. “It’s almost time.”

Wang Qiang looked up and looked beyond the transparent graphene dome above the Central Square.

“…Let us welcome our new friends—the second group of colonists!”

Loud cheers filled the square. People popped open the champagne and let the liquid freely ooze.

Since the day of the landing, a long time had passed since he heard this kind of euphoric cheer.

Wang Qian had zoned out as he didn’t hear what Hong Ziwei said anymore. His eyes were stuck on the turbid sky until the blue light particles appeared. They began to gather, turn brighter, and finally reveal the shape they carried.

The rectangular colonial cabin looked like a stone monument on its side. The shape design inherited the consistent style of Future Heavy Industries’ shipyard. It was dropped from the synchronous orbit by the TS Seagull. With the plasma engine reducing its speed to land, it landed beside the colony.

A muffled sound that hit the ground came underneath their feet. The base of the colonial cabin was deeply embedded in the sand, creating a gust of wind and sand.

After the first colonial cabin landed, Celestial Trade made a second footprint on Mars after just a few months.

Although the cabin carried a total of 110 people, the new landing cabin was much smaller than the original colonial cabin. The newly-launched cabin contained only the tools and materials that the new colonists and the colonies desperately needed. It didn’t contain reserved living spaces or a functional cabin with a production workshop.

Ten bus-shaped rovers came out from the side of the colonial cabin that carried more than a hundred colonists from Earth.

Among the colonists were engineers who had worked in Lunar Colony, technicians who specialized in industrial automation design, even chefs with the goal of improving the dining choice at the colony, or musicians who decided to devote their lives…

In addition to these ordinary colonists, there were ten special people.

They were soldiers belonging to the Orbital Airborne Brigade of Celestial Trade. Nominally, they were sent to maintain the security of the colony, but in fact, they came for the secret five kilometers underground.

The colonial garage opened, and the large rovers rolled in.

The old colonists prepared a grand welcoming ceremony for their new neighbors from afar.

It had been a long time since the colony was so lively, so the welcoming ceremony was particularly grand. It wasn’t long before everyone was greeted in the cafeteria. All kinds of food and wine were brought to the table, and the captain, Hong Zewei, gave a toast to start the beginning of the celebrations.

The welcoming ceremony boosted the low morale of the colony.

After five bottles of champagne, Wang Qiang burped, tipsy, and his eyes drifted with swinging consciousness.

At that moment, he suddenly noticed that in the inconspicuous corner of the banquet, a man walked to the captain, saluted, and seemed to say something.

As for the specifics, he was too drunk to figure them out.

A friend gave him a shot of whiskey and Wang Qian felt his world turning. Finally, his forehead made intimate contact with the table before his consciousness fell into the abyss…

This was probably his happiest moment since he came to Mars.

Chapter 1131: Land Reclamation, Farming, and Steelmaking

1131 Land Reclamation, Farming, and Steelmaking After the arrival of the new colonists, the construction of the Mars Colony also entered the second stage.

Celestial Trade had a clear position of the Mars Colony as the solar system industrial base from the beginning, so the development direction of the second stage of the colony had been quite clear. The focus was mining, mining, and steelmaking!

Steel was the foundation of industry. To produce on Mars, steel production must keep up.

It wasn’t difficult to achieve this on Mars. It was possible to smell rust when one bent down and grabbed a handful of sand. It was just a matter of the amount that was the concern. Also, the development of heavy industry had the added benefit of artificially causing a greenhouse effect that would indirectly change Mar’s atmospheric thickness. Perhaps after a few centuries, the atmospheric thickness of Mars might return to the levels three billion years ago with human intervention and become the second paradise of mankind…

Of course, this was an afterthought.

In addition to increasing production capacity, the population must keep increasing.

The labor force was always one of the important factors that restricted industrial development, whether it was the general labor force or educated labor force. Even if automated production could drastically reduce the demand for uneducated labor in industrial facilities, it was unlikely to completely depend on an autonomous process.

Impossible for at least two centuries.

In the half-year plan for the Mars Colony, Jiang Chen clearly defined two goals. The first was that the monthly output of steel must exceed one million tons. The second was to expand the size of the colony to a thousand people.

For this reason, the new colonists who arrived on Mars didn’t have time to enjoy the exoticness on Mars. The next day, they had to drag their alcohol-intoxicated bodies to work.

This Seagull-class transport ship not only brought the colonists, but also brought many production tools such as excavators, cranes, and mining equipment designed for the Mars environment. The original colonial cabin with the square could only provide two hundred living units, and the colonists who arrived later could only live in the rooms they built.

After all, a colonial cabin that could be deployed by airdrops was quite expensive, and it would be impossible for Celestial Trade to waste all of their budget on buying houses for the colonists.

All the engineers at the colony started to share the same schedule as they commanded the construction workers to operate construction vehicles. The entire colony turned into a giant construction site, submerged in flying dust.

The first to start the expansion was the soilless cultivation farm then the spherical water pump, followed by the steel mill…

Just as the construction machines were working on the sand dunes, an armored car that had been specially modified for the Mars environment left from the garage and went to the distant horizon…

…

Celestial City, Space Command Center, Mars Colonization Project Department.

After learning that the transport ship arrived on Mars, Jiang Chen arrived by space elevator at his earliest opportunity. He found Kelvin, who was performing an inspection in the command center, and asked him about the current situation of the Mars Colony.

“Our colonists landed safely?”

“They landed yesterday.” Kelvin nodded. “The Seagull-class transport ship escaped Mar’s gravity after a week in the synchronous orbit and is now returning to the Earth-Moon system.”

The colony is moving in the right direction.

Jiang Chen nodded with satisfaction, then he asked about another item he was concerned about.

“What about Mine 071? Do we have an update?”

“It’s not this quick of a process.” Kelvin shook his head. “Our Marines just departed from the colony and haven’t yet reached the mine. Even if they arrived, we can’t immediately obtain information five kilometers below. According to the solution provided by Hong Zewei, we will first drill a five-kilometer deep well at Mine 071, then insert a drone to scope out the underground environment.”

Jiang Chen asked, “What do you think is there?”

Kelvin shook his head helplessly. “I don’t know; maybe it’s really an alien city. But I hope it’s the grave of an alien or a fossil. If there are living Martians, then it will absolutely be a disaster for our colony.”

Jiang Chen didn’t know if it would be a blessing or curse to discover relics of “aliens”. On the one hand, he was excited to see what the colonists could discover, but on the other, he was worried if this would bring disaster to the Mars Colony.

Just when Jiang Chen felt conflicted, he suddenly remembered that maybe someone could give him the answer.

With a stomach full of questions, he took the space elevator back to the ground the next day.

Coro University.

Unlike third-rate universities not much better than community colleges, Coro University was now a world-class institution. Whether in academia or enterprise, the university began to grow its sphere of influence. Of course, their influence was mainly reflected in studies of aerospace, new energy, and materials science. As for other professions…

They weren’t worth mentioning.

When the university was first established, Jiang Chen promised the dean to teach an elective course called Cosmology. It also satisfied his desire to become a university professor. But since he pulled Hawking from his wheelchair, his short-lived interest disappeared and he gave the job to Hawking.

On the shadowy path among the tall trees, many naïve faces traversed between classes. Students with different skin colors chatted with their friends talking about girls, clubs, professors, where to chill next…

Because it was a Saturday, the campus as quieter than normal. Whenever this happened, the students often chose to take a stroll in the downtown area or buy boat tickets for a day trip to Penglai City.

Only hard-working students or students taking public electives stayed in the building.

Jiang Chen quietly visited the campus without catching any attention. He made a phone call with Rafael Leif and learned that Hawking was in class, so he drove straight to the school building.

After waiting for the class to end, Jiang Chen found Hawking, who had just exited the auditorium.

Hawking was surprised by the unexpected visitor as he paused.

“…a rare guest.”

Jiang Chen made a helpless expression. He was about to speak before Hawking said first, “I guess you have something to ask me?”

This time, Jiang Chen paused. He didn’t expect the genius Hawking to have the ability to read minds.

“Yes, there’s a small problem at work… I don’t know if this is a convenient time for you?”

“Of course? If it’s inconvenient, I don’t know how many scholars would be more than willing to have the opportunity to answer questions from the president,” Hawking said good-naturedly, pulling Jiang Chen to the side. “It’s lunchtime, so let’s talk as we go. The cafeteria at the East Building is quite good—the pancakes there are delicious. I highly recommend them.”

Now that class was over, many students noticed the two people at the door. After they recognized Jiang Chen, some people even took out their phones. He would be surrounded.

Jiang Chen didn’t have time to learn about the enthusiasm of university students for the time being, so he quickly followed Hawking and left the building.

Chapter 1132: Fermi“s Paradox and The Great Filter

1132 Fermi“s Paradox and The Great Filter Although already well into his 70s, mature wasn’t the right word to describe the old man. His posture and the habit of looking around reflected the shadow of a 16-year-old teen.

However, Jiang Chen quickly made sense of it. He asked himself if he sat in a while for a few decades, he would probably be more lively.

Just as Jiang Chen examined the old man from behind, Hawking turned his head and teased him.

“So, Mr. President, if you have any questions, please ask me soon. You are an important man making hundreds of thousands of dollars per second. You shouldn’t waste too much time on campus.”

Jiang Chen laughed without denying the statement. After a moment of thought, he asked.

“3.7 billion years, if you think there are civilizations that existed for 3.7 billion years, what would they develop into?”

“This is a very interesting question. What do you think dinosaurs would have evolved to if they had a hundred million years?” Hawking did not directly answer Jiang Chen’s question, but instead gave him another question.

“Can you consider dinosaurs a civilization?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Are ants considered a civilization then? Are the bees civilized? Do the birds in the sky have their own society? Maybe there are and they do, but we just can’t understand, or have never considered them in these perspectives.” Hawking shrugged, “Arrogance is one attribute that belongs to a civilization. Those who are weaker than us, become slaves, those even weaker become food, and those not even considered food are regarded as bugs.”

Hawking suddenly grinned when he made this statement

“We are very fortunate that at least our civilization has caught the attention of our neighbors. We didn’t get ignored by them as dispensable bugs.”

“You call this fortunate?” Jiang Chen smiled bitterly.

Rather than those bugs sailing 20.5 light-years to take his life, he would much rather those bugs consider him as a bug too.

“Of course it is considered fortunate. The Indians have at least a chance to fight back against the European colonists, but do the bugs have that chance? Stop. Look, you almost trampled the little life.” Hawking stopped Jiang Chen. In Jiang Chen’s peculiar gaze, Hawking pointed to his feet, “That’s right, I’m talking about that ant. If I didn’t remind you, you wouldn’t have even noticed. You won’t communicate with it, and you won’t care what it thinks, and less about whether they have had a technological breakthrough in the nesting process.”

Hawking with a smile crouched down, picked up a branch, and placed it in front of the ant.

The little ant was confused by the sudden obstacle, the tentacles on its head swayed back and forth, and finally chose to go around from the side…

“We are taught a lot of common sense in our life, but common sense is often just synonymous with prejudice.”

Hawking turned his head and looked at Jiang Chen.

“Do you think it will think about why this branch is in front of it?”

“Do you think I should answer this question from a philosophical point of view, or from a scientific point of view?” Jiang Chen said in a helpless tone.

I am not an ant; how would I know whether it will know why this branch is in front of it?

Hawking laughed. He turned his head back and looked at the ant who walked around the branches, then he continued.

“It has nothing to do with philosophy or science. If you have to put a name on it, it should be cosmology.”

Jiang Chen twitched.

“Cosmology?”

“Yes. The definition of cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole and extends to the discussion of human status in the universe. It cannot be considered philosophy, and it is certainly not science. However, it is related to both subjects.”

Hawking reached out and picked up the two branches, blocking the two sides of the ant, and surrounded it.

“If you came an hour earlier, you would be sitting in the classroom and listening to the story of Fermi’s Paradox (1) and the Great Filter (2). But unfortunately, you missed the lively and interesting public elective course. However, it’s still not too late if you treat me with pancakes. I—”

“No problem, as much as you want,” Jiang Chen quickly replied.

Hawking smiled and pointed to the triangular cage on the ground that he made with branches. The “masterpiece” he spent three seconds completing.

“This branch is the Great Filter it faces. If it goes around, then it will survive. If it figures it out, it will become a different ant. If it is blocked…”

After a pause, Hawking stood up slowly and patted away the dust on his clothes.

“It will starve to death here.”

Jiang Chen frowned after Hawking’s words. Suddenly, like a eureka moment, he said thoughtfully.

“Fermi’s Paradox, The Great Filter…”

As if he just caught something, Jiang Chen’s eyes gradually brightened.

At this moment, he noticed that the ant extended its tentacles to the branches. Trapped in the triangle cage, it could not find a way out. Then, it began to explore another method; as it climbed on top of the branches. However, from beginning to end, it was not aware of who manipulated the obstacle placed in front of it.

“Now I’ll answer your question. You asked me how developed civilization will be after 3.7 billion years. I can’t answer you unless you can tell me what they have encountered in these 3.7 billion years.”

“On the scale of billion, the troubles are always endless. Natural disasters, diseases, wars… In fact, these are minor problems. Like this branch, no matter how many more branches are placed in front of it, it will eventually pass them.”

Hawking smiled as he looked at the ant who had successfully climbed over the branch,

“Of course, it is not always so lucky, especially if it encounters a moody ‘God’.”

Hawking raised his foot and stomped down on the ant and the branches…

…

After chatting with Hawking, Jiang Chen felt that he gained clarity over a lot of problems

Not only about the civilization 3.7 billion years ago, but also the extraterrestrial civilization 20 light-years away. He managed to find the answers to all the questions he was uncertain or unsure about.

After arriving at the cafeteria, as promised, Jiang Chen treated Hawking to two sets of pancakes.

To be honest, he really didn’t understand the appeal of this food that is too sweet. But the old man across from him enjoyed it nonetheless. He could only attribute it to the difference in food culture. In the principle of not wasting food, Jiang Chen had to dismember the pancake in his plate and finish the meal.

He certainly miscalculated. He didn’t account for the fact that Hawking came from the United Kingdom, the pioneer of the art of dark cuisine (3)!

“You don’t have to force yourself to eat it,” Hawking said with a smirk as he put another piece of pancake in his mouth. It was obvious he was trying his hardest not to laugh as his wrinkles twisted together.

Jiang Chen suddenly felt that the old man’s smile was too infuriating.

“I’m full.”

Jiang Chen tossed his fork into the plate as he finally gave up on the pancake with more than half left. After he bid farewell with Hawking, he returned his car.

Because he parked at the building, he had to return the same way.

However, as he passed through the forest path again, he found a group of students gathered together around a temporary podium that looked extremely lively.

Out of curiosity, Jiang Chen stopped a passing student, pointed to the other side, and asked.

“What are they doing there?”

(1) Fermi’s Paradox – The Fermi paradox, or Fermi’s paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. (Source: Wikipedia)

(2) The Great Filter – in the context of the Fermi paradox, is whatever prevents dead matter from undergoing abiogenesis, in time, to expanding lasting life as measured by the Kardashev scale. (Source: Wikipedia)

(3) Dark Cuisine – A term in Chinese pop culture that refers to an untraditional method of cooking that produces odd or weird food.

Chapter 1133: The Security Treaty In Jeopardy

Chapter 1133 The Security Treaty In Jeopardy

“Oh, them…” The student looked at Jiang Chen with a weird expression. He only thought that the person in front of him looked familiar, but he couldn’t tell where he had seen him before. “They are probably just pulling for a political party for the upcoming election. There have been more and more of these activities recently.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

Almost four years had passed since he overthrew President Edward’s regime. In the past four years, the changes in Coro Island could be described as ground-breaking. There were almost no traces of the small fishing village.

Xin implemented a presidential system with four years between each election, and the election campaign was set to begin at the end of March next year.

If everything goes smoothly, Zhang Yaping was expected to continue his presidency, and Celestial Trade would continue to be the behind-the-scene ruler of the country. The parties would symbolically compete for the position of president, and then focus their efforts on the parliamentary seats.

As a revolution that saved the people, it was almost impossible for Zhang Yaping to lose the election with the backing of Celestial Trade unless Zhang Yaping decided to voluntarily withdraw from the election.

At this moment, Jiang Chen suddenly remembered something.

The UA election, which always attracted worldwide attention, seemed to be next year too.

After what happened in the latter half of this year, it was difficult for Hill to be re-elected. It was difficult for her to seek agreement in her own party, let alone gain the support of the people.

When he thought of this, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile.

God bless Xin, I hope they will choose a more foolish opponent for me next year.

…

Jiang Chen guessed right, it was indeed a difficult time for Hill.

The aircraft carrier battle group had never turned around because of the threat of any country. What’s more, it was only a small country with a navy of six frigates and thirty fighters.

Except for those who stood in the Pentagon’s combat command room that day, everyone blamed this incident on Hill’s weak diplomatic strategy. Even Hill’s public relations team released some inside information and said that the madam president was against a lunatic who was not afraid to launch a nuclear war, but obviously not many people bought the story.

Nuclear deterrence.

Deterrence.

How did you know that he was not bluffing? How are you sure that he dared to press the button?

Hillary really didn’t know, but she couldn’t bet the country’s future on whether the ten seconds after would be heaven or hell.

Although many people put themselves in her shoes and thought they couldn’t do any better, it didn’t stop them from attacking her.

This was politics.

On Saturday, Hill was in the president’s office, listening to the FBA director’s report.

At this moment, the office door was pushed open, and the FBA director immediately stopped and took two steps back.

When she saw the person standing at the door, Hill frowned.

“You forgot to knock on the door, Mr. Bolden.”

“I will apologize for my rudeness, but please wait until I have finished speaking…The second group of colonists from Celestial Trade has reached Mars. We have lost to them on the Moon and are now the gaps are growing wider and wider on Mars,” he walked in the door anxiously as he placed a document on Hill’s desk. He looked at her seriously and said, “NASA needs a bigger budget! If you still want us to build a space elevator before 2050.”

Hill rubbed the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes.

“You should discuss this with the Congress, not come to me.”

With a bitter smile, Bolden shook his head.

“Those short-sighted people are losing faith in Silicon Valley and Seattle. I have written two plans, but they are all stuck with the Budget Committee. You’re my last resort… I apologize for being rude.”

After Bolden carefully finished his speech, he left from the office

“What are the people in Congress thinking?” Hill frowned. She buried her face between her palms and took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and looked at the FBA director standing next to her, “Help me find out who it is—”

Hill’s words shocked the FBA Director as he quickly waved his hands.

“This is not in compliance. I won’t help you investigate members of Congress.”

“I think someone is behind the scenes,” Hill said expressionlessly, “Someone was lobbying the Budget Committee to stop government funding. The Minister of Defense asked me to talk about similar issues in the morning.”

This situation was very common. In order to achieve political goals, certain groups or companies often pressured the Capitol through Congress, and the Budget Committee was only one of the means. For example, the famous K Street between Capitol Hill and the Capitol was a reflection of this phenomenon, it could be regarded as the gray area of the democratic system.

Hill’s words made the FBA Director hesitate for a moment, then he reluctantly nodded.

“At best, I can help you keep an eye on who those hearing committee members have been with these days–”

Just then, the door was pushed open again.

Hill suddenly became angry.

“That’s enough, don’t you guys know how to knock on the door?”

“Sorry, I’m really in a hurry.” While Kerry apologized, he quickly walked in and took out the documents under his arm. Then he placed it on her desk with an anxious expression. “Nippon announced that it has joined the Earth Defense Alliance. Our people have just confirmed this news.”

Hill raised an eyebrow, “Just confirmed? What is the CIB doing!”

“They were very careful. Their Congress has not even discussed this matter publicly.”

“It’s not within the rules!”

“It’s not the first time they didn’t follow the rules. Asian countries are all like this!” Kerry couldn’t refrain himself from cussing out.

The cabinet bypassed Congress and made a decision. It was indeed not the first time Nippon has done such a thing. It was just that the last time this happened was for the benefit of the UA, and this time it was to prevent the UA from knowing…

After a pause, Kerry continued with an awkward expression, “The thing that worries us the most still has happened. They are now re-discussing the security treaty with us.”

“How dare they…” Hill suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

The legal basis for the UA troops stationed in Nippon was the ” Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the UA and Nippon” signed on January 9, 1960, which renewed every ten-year period, after which it can be abolished by either party with a one-year notice. After the expiry of the term in 1970, the two countries did not announce the abolition but automatically extended it to this day.

Today, the UA military forces stationed in East Asia were no longer supervising the defeated countries in World War II but were there to achieve the UA Asia-Pacific strategy. Nippon’s willingness to be the pawn of the UA was also an attempt to use its influence as protection for outward expansion.

It was also the fundamental reason why neither party has mentioned the termination of the treaty for more than 40 years.

In order to retain the UA troops, the Nippon government paid 5.2 billion dollars each year despite the anger that brewed in the people.

However, since the T virus incident and since Prime Minister Abe was forced to step down, the right-wing forces were in a slump. Now the rise of Xin and the development of outer space resources completely eliminated Nippon’s goal of outward expansion and so, they completely embraced the Earth Defense Alliance.

In this way, keeping the garrison in Nippon went from a mutually beneficial relationship to UA’s wishful thinking.

While Nippon mentioned that it would re-discuss the treaty, it was likely just a ploy to remove the UA military from its soil.

If the weak performance of the joint fleet in the Western Pacific only slightly weakened Hill’s approval rate, then the loss of the Nippon military base would become an unerasable stain in her political career.

This time, Hillary really started to panic.

Chapter 1134: Code Name 007

Chapter 1134 Code Name 007

Future Building, Coro City.

They were still in the conference room, but this time Mr. Kishida did not bring his delegation. He came alone. Jiang Chen’s assistant poured two cups of tea for the two and then exited out of the meeting room.

“According to your request, we are discussing reducing the military budget for UA troops stationed in Nippon,” Kishida politely said after looking at the door and confirmed that there was no one else in the room.

Although the purpose of the Earth Defense Alliance was aimed at extraterrestrial civilization, it was ultimately a form of military alliance. Since Nippon joined the Earth Defense Alliance, it naturally should not accept the garrison of other military bodies.

Since they were all in the same trench, they couldn’t wear the same pants as someone from another trench.

After he discussed this matter with leaders from Han and Russia, Jiang Chen agreed that the issue of UA troops stationed in Nippon should be resolved.

“Reducing? Why not just cut the budget?” Jiang Chen smiled, sipped on the tea, and said, “Do you still want them?”

“Not at all!” Kishida’s eyes turned bigger as he rushed to explain, “It’s just that you know. After all, they are at our doorstep and we are afraid of aggravating them. What’s the saying? Boiling the frog with warm water…”

He certainly changed his stance quickly over the past few weeks.

Jiang Chen looked at Kishida describing everything in a vivid voice and faked a smile.

Although the saying is indeed right, the frog will still jump out once the water is too hot.

Abolishing the security treaty, or slowly forcing the UA troops to withdraw by reducing their budget are essentially no different to the UA. Just as how 80 degrees or 100 degrees water will still burn the frog.

But for Nippon, there was a big difference.

Although the UA military that had yet to withdraw is troublesome, on the other hand, it could also be considered a bargaining chip in their hands to exchange for certain benefits. For example, they could negotiate for an additional asteroid at the negotiating table and win more projects for their domestic aerospace companies…

Jiang Chen never expected Nippon to fully commit to the Earth Defense Alliance. It was expected that they planned to use this as leverage, and the other member states all shared the same perspective.

It was already a not-so-secret conspiracy.

While it was obvious, as long as their request remained reasonable, Jiang Chen didn’t mind. A small step back would be worth it for the countries still on the sideline.

They already drunk two cups of tea.

..

Kishida quietly glanced at the time. He sensed the opportunity was right and smiled. “If by that time…”

“Don’t worry, if they’re still there, I will kick them out myself.” Jiang Chen waved his hand with certainty.

The smile on Kishida was extremely bright. Jiang Chen didn’t know if it was fake or from the bottom of his heart.

“Thank you.”

…

After Jiang Chen sent Kishida away, he returned to his office on the top floor.

He took the coffee from the beautiful assistant and sank into his chair. He then opened his holographic screen and began reading each company department’s report.

He didn’t even finish one-fourth of the coffee before Ayesha came in.

She stood behind Jiang Chen as her two small hands habitually rested on top of his shoulders and began to massage them.

“The task you have given me has been completed.”

“This quickly?” Jiang Chen said, surprised.

A rare smile belonging to a girl formed on Ayesha’s face.

Jiang Chen’s surprise was an affirmation for her.

Or a good reward.

She quickly hid her smile and returned to her emotionless state. Then she reported.

“According to the intelligence we have gathered, the CIB’s penetration of Nippon has reached an alarming level. There is enough evidence to prove that at least 51 members of the Senate and the House of Representatives are directly or indirectly related to the CIB.”

“That many? It seems that the political scene of the country has become ill.” Jiang Chen was shocked by the figure.

It is no wonder that before Kishida reached an agreement with Jiang Chen, he stayed in Xin. It was because he did not dare to go back.

“Yes, it’s already ill.” Ayesha nodded with certainty.

Since the Cold War, the UA never ceased its intelligence operation in Nippon. It continued to support pro-UA candidates to maintain their influence.

Roger Hillsman, who served as deputy secretary of state during the previous administration, said that until the early 1960s, the CIB provided funding to politicians. Although all activities were carried out in secret, espionage became a vital part of foreign policy in Nippon.

With the financial assistance of the CIB, some unknown and young politicians became influential members of the country. This included a former deputy prime minister that denied he received financial support but admitted that he was “closely related to CIB”.

Since the showdown on the Pacific Ocean, Jiang Chen issued an order to the intelligence department to expand the number of agents in Nippon and set up a larger intelligence network to remove foreign intelligence networks.

It must be mentioned here that the intelligence department of Xin is divided into two systems. One was the Xin National Intelligence Agency under the jurisdiction of Celestial Trade Armed Forces; it was an administrative institution of the company. The other was the Ghost Agents directly loyal to Jiang Chen.

The former was mainly engaged in the collection of international intelligence and national counter-espionage work. The latter not only served part of the functions of the former, but the latter also engaged in espionage activities such as assassinating dangerous targets that must remain in the dark.

Simply put, the former was the eye while the latter was the dagger.

Ayesha’s focus for the past was to integrate the power of the eye and the dagger with the goal of forming Xin’s own intelligence network in Nippon.

Now with the eye and the dagger already in place, with just one order from Jiang Chen place; they could remove any foreign intelligence network on the island and become the new “master”.

He leaned back, then looked at Ayesha.

“Do you think the CIB is aware of our actions?”

“They are aware,” Ayesha gently rubbed her hands on Jiang Chen’s cheek. “They have already begun to move. According to the intelligence from Nippon, they are forging scandal documents of the prime minister. Within two months, the current prime minister will be ousted. The code of the mission is ‘Closing Plan’, and the ultimate goal is to elect a pro-UA cabinet.”

“Closing Plan?” Jiang Chen smiled, intrigued. “This is forcing us to also come up with a ‘Supporting Plan’?”

After a short pause, Jiang Chen continued.“What is the stance of the Nippon government now?”

“Keeping one eye open, but no action yet.”

“Oh, it seems that they are certain that we will help, so they decided not to join the fun.” Jiang Chen’s smile gradually disappeared, “Since they asked for it, we’ll give them a prescription. Get our agents to prepare, it is time for war.”

Ayesha looked shocked.

“Roger.”

“Get all the Mickey Mouses out of the country!”

“As for the code name of the mission,” Jiang Chen paused for a moment as a wicked smile appeared on his face, “let’s call it ‘007’.”

Chapter 1135: War in the Shadows

1135 War in the Shadows On August 20th, Naya, a CIB agent on her way home from a café got into a car accident. Alcohol was detected in the blood of the victim and the accident was initially characterized as drunk driving. But the local police were confused about why her blood contained alcohol if she were at a coffee shop.Coincidentally, almost on the same day, a car was removed from the ditch on the outskirts of Yoto. Two UA citizens sitting in the front row of the car had both drowned and fake passports were found in their possession.

On August 23rd, also in Yoto, a private room in a club in Ginza caught fire. Except for two club staff and three UA businessmen that unfortunately died in the fire, no other casualties were reported.

August 24th, Naki Shipyard…

Darkness was about to shroud the city.

In an express hotel near the embassy district, the UA ambassador anxiously paced around in the room. Two bodyguards stood at the window and the entrance, their muscular figures made them appear like sculptures.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

The three people’s expressions all tensed up. The two bodyguards put their hand into their vest, and the ambassador stopped moving and nervously looked at the door

Knock…knock…knock…

It was two long knocks and one short knock.

The ambassador sighed with relief and waved at the two bodyguards.

“Our own.”

The door opened and a man dashed into the room. His hair was messy, dark circles were under his eyes, and his eyes appeared bloodshot.

From his weary expression, he hasn’t lived a peaceful day in awhile.

“Burkes and Noosa are dead,” while carefully closing the door, his whispered. “Nayo, who is responsible for providing us intelligence, disappeared on the way to work this morning. Mr. Hirata admitted to accepting bribes…Fu*k! Our line is completely broken!”

“Stay calm, my friend,” the ambassador patted him on the shoulder. “Maybe you need to sit for a while and have a cup of hot cocoa.”

“Fu*k! I can swear that it must be the Ghost Agents.” When the word “Ghost Agent” came out of his mouth, his throat felt like it was stuffed by a cotton ball. His bloodshot eyes widened, and not a single word could come out.

“What… what’s wrong?” The ambassador looked at him hesitantly.

“Nothing.” The man shook his head and pushed away the ambassador’s hand. He held his forehead and sat down on the chair.

His people were dying of unnatural causes, and he had been pushed to the brink of collapse. The killers, without a trace, were like a dagger against his throat. Just mentioning their name made him fearful.

“Don’t worry, they can’t get in, I have installed that thing in the entire hotel, you know.” The ambassador sighed and poured him a cup of hot water. He comforted the man and said, “I will arrange a plane tomorrow for you to leave. Since your identity has been exposed, it’s not suitable for you to stay here.”

While the optical invisibility of Ghost Agents was terrifying, times had changed. The UA Department of Defense’s Advanced Project Research Institute had developed at least ten methods for detecting optical invisibility. From sound wave induction to laser wave path difference sensing; the entire hotel was designed with traps.

The ambassador was convinced this place was safe.

The man took the cup and hesitated for a moment as he stared at the rising fog.

Suddenly, he seemed to have made up his mind, and he gnawed his teeth.

“No, I will leave tonight!”

“You are in a bad state right now. I suggest you sleep here for one night and then I will arrange transportation to take you to the airport tomorrow…”

No one noticed that a drone was hidden in the darkness, quietly suspended outside the window. The almost invisible laser pointed onto the window and recorded their conversation.

Laser monitoring wasnot advanced technology. Including the infrared sensor camera on the drone, it could almost be considered as something fairly common. The only difference about this particular drone was that the drone’s technological content is a bit more advanced than the drones available on the market.

The laser monitoring device retracted and was replaced by a black muzzle.

Without realizing that doom had arrived, the man was finally convinced by the ambassador to rest and leave tomorrow. The man put down the cup of water, rested for a moment, and prepared to sleep peacefully for a night before returning home tomorrow.

As long as he could step back onto his home soil…

Just then, there were gunshots!

The drone outside the window opened fire without any warning. Twenty bullets unleashed instantly, tearing open the glass and curtains, hitting the man like raindrops. The bullets penetrated the man along with the chair behind him.

The man hit twitched for a moment in the rain of bullets before his hands and head dropped down. There was not a sign of life in his pupils.

The sound of shattered glass almost simultaneously matched with the screams of the ambassador. The hot water and hot blood mixed, soaking the carpet.

The other three people in the room dropped to the ground immediately when they heard the gunshots. Two bodyguards hid behind cover; the ambassador rolled to the bottom of the bed.

Tensely lying flat, the ambassador didn’t even dare to breathe loudly. He desperately tried to shrink his obese body to something as small as possible. Fear was the only emotion he could feel as he watched the man die in front of him.

He was a diplomat, not a soldier.

Perhaps those colleagues who work in the Middle East would be a little braver, but not him.

He had been working in Nippon for more than a decade, and it was the first time a person has died in front of him.

He screamed at the top of his lung.

“Fu*k! Go and inform the guards! Also, get the Marines to come! This group of madmen must have forgotten the Geneva Conventions! How dare they, how dare…”

A bodyguard gritted his teeth and rushed to the edge of the bed. He took out his pistol and prepared to shoot behind cover.

Another bodyguard kicked down the cabinet and used the cabinet as cover to move to the ambassador’s side.

“Sir, we must escort you out first…”

“I’m not going anywhere! I’m not going anywhere before I see the Marines! Take your hand…” The ambassador screamed hysterically as he pushed away the hand reaching for him.

No one could guarantee that the attacker was not still aiming at this place. No one knew whether that lunatic madman would spare the diplomats…

What they didn’t know was that it was a drone that attacked them, a drone with only one cartridge. After all twenty-five rounds of bullets were fired, the drone retreated.

Five kilometers away, also in an express hotel.

A girl picked up the drone that came back through the window, closed her laptop and swayed her beautiful short hair. A subtle smile formed as she calmly stuffed the drone and laptop into her bag.

She pushed open the door, carried her bag and quickly disappeared into the dark alley. It was as if she was never there in the first place…

Chapter 1136: Miss Kwai is Very Scared

Chapter 1136 Miss Kwai is Very Scared

Miss Boss is very scared

On the evening of August 25th, a CIB intelligence chief was shot dead in front of the UA ambassador in an express hotel near the embassy. The war of the spies instantly escalated to an unprecedented level. To ensure the safety of the embassy, the UA deployed two squads of Marine Corps to the embassy.

The Xin National Intelligence Agency’s unexpected move suddenly disrupted CIB’s “Closing Plan”, CIB was forced to devote all its energy to defending against Xin agents.

Needless to say, as one of the top three intelligence agencies in the world, the CIB certainly didn’t lack experience in espionage activities. They were only caught off guard, and when they reacted, they immediately revealed their sharp fangs.

On August 27th, two stateless Asians were suspected of being killed by yakuza members in the suburbs of Yoto. The men were shot and died in miserable deaths with more than 20 gunshot wounds. They were agents of the Xin National Intelligence Agency.

On the same night, an Asian man holding a Nippon passport was shot in a small alley in Yoto. A homeless man spotted the incident. The forensic report detected alcohol and toxins in the blood and the incident was categorized as deliberate murder…

From the initial car accident, the murder under the cover of accidents, to the more and more explicit shooting and poisoning, the two sides had completely torn off any decency. The state of safety in Yoto deteriorated overnight. The spy war challenged the bottom line of the Nippon government’s tolerance countless times and repeatedly refreshed the bottom line…

The Nippon government simply couldn’t intervene due to the nature of the two parties.

The Nippon Police Force had to clean up after both sides while keeping an eye closed on the events unfolding.

Withstanding the internal and external pressure, the Nippon Prime Minister even began to question if he chose the right profession.

Compared with being an official, he felt like he must possess the resilience of a ninja!

The seemingly fierce and violent incidents were surprisingly rational. Both the UA and Xin have tacitly controlled the battlefield in Nippon and not extended the “war” to other regions. They also did not involve other unrelated people.

…

In the Yoto Metropolitan Police Department, case files began to pile up on people’s desks.

“It’s another murder case? There are more and more murders, and they are all aimed at foreigners.” The old sheriff pushed up his glasses and looked at the case file in his hand, frowning, he said, “…I’m afraid it is not as simple as it appears.”

Recalling the order issued by his superior, the old sheriff thought for a moment before he wrote a few words and then placed the file on the corner of his desk.

Three days later, the case file would be sent to the higher up agency of the Yoto Metropolitan Police Department. The National Security Agency of Nippon and the special commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would jointly archive the document as confidential.

“Kwai.”

“Hey!” Kwai, who was organizing documents, immediately put down her work and looked at the old sheriff.

“Be careful when you go back. It hasn’t been really safe lately,” the old sheriff reminded.

Kwai nodded with a smile and politely said that she would be careful.

But she didn’t put much thought into it.

Even if they’re daring, they wouldn’t go after the police…

Go after the police…

The smile on Kwai’s face suddenly froze, and her right eye twitched.

She did meet someone like that…

After work, Kwai hesitated and did not return her pistol.

As the Sheriff said, safety has deteriorated lately. The police department even issued special documents requiring that all police officers above inspector position are allowed to wield a weapon outside of work hours.

After she left the police station, she headed to the Shinkansen.

Since the last time she left the mansion under Mount Fuji, Kwai was inexplicably transferred back to Yoto Metropolitan Police Department.

However, instead of feeling any joy for the promotion, she felt a faint sense of fear. She felt an invisible hand, untouched by the judicial system, controlling her fate in its palm.

Even though almost half a year has passed, this fear still lingered.

Her colleagues always spread rumors around her. For example, an important individual is taking care of her… Well, it is true in nature. She was able to transfer back to Yoto because Jiang Chen made the request to Sumitomo.

She didn’t mind the rumors. She had been deliberately trying to fade that memory and to escape the shadow of that man as soon as possible. In fact, she almost did it, at least she thought she did.

Kwai took a deep breath and walked on the path she always took.

It was already nine o’clock in the evening, and the shops were all closed. With the high number of murders, there were almost no pedestrians on the street.

The evening wind blew into the alley, gently swaying by her bang along with some of the summer heat.

At this moment, from the evening breeze, she suddenly smelled a hint of blood.

She stopped right away and immediately looked down the alley.

She was certain.

It was the scent of blood!

Recalling the recent safety concerns, Kwai was almost certain something must have happened in the alley!

Almost without any hesitation, she rushed into the alley.

As a devoted police, her safety was never her top concern, otherwise, she would never have risked her life to get into the club as an undercover cop.

However, she stopped after taking two steps.

A girl in black was standing in the middle of the alley. Her short hair hit her shoulders and drifted in the wind. It looked very unreal and artistic.

However, the dead bodies in the alley colored the beautiful scene with blood.

“Are you the boss’ little lover?” The emotionless voice floated from the distance, as the girl noticed the person behind her. She turned around like a ghost, then she smiled and nodded with satisfaction, “Nice, you do look pretty.”

Kwai trembled and reached to her waist, but the coldness of the metal did not give her too much security.

“Who, who is your boss’s lover…”

“I advise you not to do that.” The girl noticed Kwai’s movement and sighed.

“Murderer…” Kwai was staring at the girl in front of her eyes and forced out the word from her trembling lips. “Stop, I am a police officer. My colleagues are on their way, I advise you to put your hands up…”

“Murderer? Police? Surrender?” The girl seemed to have heard something funny and shook her head. “This is not something the police can manage. Don’t you see that your Prime Minister is being silent on this matter? This is war. My child, this is war.”

In front of Kwai, the girl’s smile gradually faded, and finally, she disappeared into the darkness.

Kwai’s expression turned pale. She pulled out her pistol and pointed it in front of her, shaking with fear.

Where did she go?

How did she disappear?

Could, could that have been… a ghost?!

Chapter 1137: What will it take for you to stop?

Chapter 1137 What will it take for you to stop? Chapter 1138 How exactly do you want to stop?“Sil, 16 years old; born in a slum in Madagascar; Han and Portuguese mix. She’s proficient in five languages, good at camouflage and drone modification. At the age of 12, she was rescued from a smuggling ship by a Celestial Trade patrol boat. After that, she was sent to Ghost Island for military training among the third groups of agents.”

It was good to start early, and training was not an exception.

Other than the first and second groups of agents, all other Ghost Agents were orphans from underdeveloped areas and war zones.

The older ones were15 years old while the younger ones were under 10 years old. On Ghost Island, they receive basic education up till high school under closed militarized management, while learning language and the necessary “professional knowledge” of agents. Before the age of forty, they would serve as a member of Ghost Agents. After the age of forty, they could choose to retire or serve in non-field positions of Ghost Agents.

Without Celestial Trade, most of their fates would be struggling below the poverty line or die as a casualty of the war. The people who gave them their second life were their saviors, and Ghost Island continued to instill this belief into them.

When they leave Ghost Island, their thoughts have been entrenched with loyalty. That’s why Jiang Chen never worried about their loyalty.

At this moment, in the office of the mansion on Coro Island.

Jiang Chen looked at the resume and listened to Ayesha’s report.

The Xin intelligence personnel and the UA CIB’s spy war in Nippon had escalated to direct and open engagement. Although Xin also suffered casualties, in general, Xin gained the upper hand. While their intelligence personnel was inferior to the CIB, the powerful assassination ability of Ghost Agents regained them some ground.

“This resume is pretty good. However, is being a Han-Portuguese mix… fine?”

“Camouflage is one of her best abilities, and she can easily switch between Asian and European appearances with makeup.”

“That… is really an incredible ability.”

“If it were not an incredible ability, it would not have been included in the resume.” Ayesha grinned as she saw Jiang Chen’s shocked expression.

“In that case, she can serve as the Intelligence Commander of Ghost Agents in Nippon.” Jiang Chen signed his name on the document. “Although, I would have preferred giving Zhu Yu this position. She handled the T vrius Crisis in Yoto quite exceptionally.”

“There is nothing wrong with her abilities. However, her management skill is still a little lacking. It is more suitable for her to engage in anti-espionage work in the country,” Ayesha said gently.

“You are her instructor. You know her best,” Jiang Chen said, “Right, there is another task for you.”

Ayesha’s sapphire-eyes blinked and she nodded.

“Have you heard of the name Qian Xia?”

Ayesha tilted her head and remembered the name.

“The maid that took care of us in Nippon?”

“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded. “If it’s convenient, get Sil to keep an eye on her.”

Although the two sides have remained rationale and haven’t involved other people, it would be impossible to ensure that this demeanor would continue. Just in case, it would be best to prepare beforehand.

Also, he did like the little maid who was so obedient.

Ayesha nodded to signal her understanding, then asked.

“What about that police?”

Jiang Chen’s expression was a little odd.

Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen, confused, waiting for him to make a decision.

“…just leave her be, she should be okay.”

“Yes.”

Ayesha nodded, picked up the document that Jiang Chen just signed, and then left.

After the door of the office closed, Jiang Chen leaned back into his chair. After looking up at the ceiling for a moment, he closed his eyes.

In just two weeks, they lost twenty-nine intelligence personnel in foreign countries. In contrast, a total of 37 CIB agents at all levels were executed, and more than half of them were the work of Ghost Agents.

If he wanted to completely integrate Nippon into Xin’s sphere of influence, then there was no way to circumvent the CIB. The UA did not want Nippon to renegotiate the treaty, and it was bound to make moves through the CIB. Jiang Chen’s only choice now was to tear a few holes out of the intelligence network the UA has been operating since the Cold War era, and then fill in the spaces with the intelligence personnel of Xin with the goal of finally kicking the CIB out.

Only Ayesha and several senior officials of the intelligence department were aware about this difficult task.

Although the report placed on his desk that stated twenty-nine for thirty-seven clearly favored Xin, it was because CIB remained in the open while Xin agents as the newcomers hid in the dark. If the spy war continued, then it would be hard to maintain this ratio until the end.

But then again, with the causalities, it was time to decide a victor.

If everything goes as planned, UA should contact him soon to discuss a “peace treaty” that will satisfy both parties.

Jiang Chen was looking forward to testing Hill’s bottom line.

His bottom line was one hundred people.

If the war’s damage exceeds one hundred…

Maybe he will stop first and look for other options.

Of course, maybe he may get hotheaded again and send another hundred agents in.

Anyway, the intelligence department of Xin obeys his order. War or peace is at the whim of his thoughts. There is no need for any inefficient cabinet discussion or ridiculous voting.

Just as Jiang Chen closed his eyes to meditate, his phone vibrated.

“The UA? They can’t take it anymore?”

Lifting one eyelid, Jiang Chen lazily reached out and opened the holographic screen. However, when he looked at the IP displayed on the screen, he found himself wrong. It was not from UA but Nippon.

He put down his legs that were resting on the table, Jiang Chen fixed his collar, cleared his throat, and then picked up the call.

“Hello?”

…

The prime minister holding the phone had a mix of feelings.

Honestly, he didn’t want to make this call.

With Xin and UA, two countries in the midst of a heated battle, it wouldn’t serve him any purpose to intervene. What’s more, in his position, it would only benefit Nippon for the war to last as long as possible.

Only when the two tigers were both tired could Nippon have the opportunity to consolidate their intelligence network, escape the control of the UA and avoid being controlled by Celestial Trade. Slowly, Nippon would become a “normal country.”

As for the recent murders, it won’t be a big deal since only spies have died.

However, now, he was forced to make this call.

Celestial Trade had done something recently where he must intervene…

Looking at the man in front of him, the Prime Minister tried to make his smile look less rigid.

“…ahem, Mr. Jiang Chen, I will be straightforward with you. What will it take for you to stop?”

Chapter 1138: It“s time to pick your side

Chapter 1138 It“s time to pick your side “What I have done recently? Sorry, I don’t understand.”The Nippon Prime Minister’s mouth twitched as he looked at Jiang Chen who was obviously playing dumb, but he remained smiling.

“Mr. Jiang, I heard that your country has installed a backdoor program in the 20,000 highway magnetic levitation devices exported to our country. Is this true?”

“This is an accusation without any basis!” Jiang Chen slapped the table and said with indignation. “We have always been honest in doing business. How can we do something like this? Mr. Prime Minister, I want to know who is accusing us. I will reserve the right to sue!”

Will I tell you that the CIB told me?

The Nippon Prime Minister looked at Jiang Chen with suspicion. Obviously, he did not immediately believe his words.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” Jiang Chen said, full of certainty, “This kind of accusation must be supported by evidence. If you can produce evidence, I will have nothing more to say. But if it’s just a few false hearsays, I hope that your country will treat the trade relations between our two countries with caution. It is unwise to be used by someone else.”

The Nippon Prime Minister looked at Jiang Chen silently.

Indeed, he had no evidence.

The intelligence was provided by the CIB. Until now, the Nippon intelligence system remained dependent on them. When Jiang Chen mentioned this, he also began to question if he was being used.

The same device was sold to Hua!

With this thought in his mind, the Prime Minister smiled.

“I am sorry to have suspected you. I do apologize…”

Apologizing immediately indeed fitted the culture of Nippon, but Jiang Chen knew that he didn’t just believe his words. The prime minister probably already contacted its agency and began sampling Sumitomo Group’s construction site.

After Jiang Chen ended the call, he leaned back into his chair and sneered.

As long as Xin existed, Nippon won’t be a “normal country.”

Nippon should just behave like Country F and Moro, as a dependent country of Xin. Xin also happened to lack an electronic industrial base. If Nippon could be obedient, he wouldn’t mind boosting their economy.

As for those magnetic levitation devices, Jiang Chen was not worried about them finding the backdoor program. The backdoor program was designed by Yao Yao. If Jiang Chen personally didn’tleak the information, no one would be able to find out.

Aside from the magnetic levitation devices, logistics drones, wireless charging stations, Future phones, all electronic products were installed with some method for access. IBM did it before, Microsoft, Google, and Apple have also done it. It wouldn’t make sense if Future Group didn’t do it.

All of these electronic products manufactured by Future Heavy Industrials not only exist as products but also as chess pieces that Future Group placed all over the world. The chess pieces would export valuable information using quantum satellites to Coro City’s Future Building.

Take Nippon for example. In the future, Yoto would make three-dimensional traffic into a reality with the help of Future Heavy Industries. All magnetic levitation vehicles would be incorporated into the city’s AI, while coordinated with the help of AI, they would also be monitored by AI.

The collected data through logistics drones, satellites, and other devices would be aggregated into quantum computers. With the powerful information processing capabilities of quantum computers, the Xin National Security Agency could even create a database of behaviors for every citizen. Of course, only authorized agents would have access to the data in the database.

To sum everything up in a sentence, once Future Group’s products reach over 50% of the country’s citizens, then the privacy of the country would be nonexistent.

The most frightening thing was that people being shrouded by this intelligence network have no idea that they have lost their privacy.

If this matter wasmade public, it would undoubtedly be the biggest scandal in Future Group’s history with significance no less than the PRISM project (1).

However, the premise was that there must evidence to prove Future Group is undertaking such an initiative.

…

“This is infuriating!” Henry Wilmot, the CIB director, slammed his fist against the table and gnawed.

Just now, he received news that the body of another CIB agent was found in the suburbs of Yoto. Since the start of this spy war, this was the 40th CIB agent to die in the hands of Ghost Agents

Speaking of the CIB director position, this position seems to be cursed. The previous two directors stepped down because of Jiang Chen. The last director was involved in plot that involved Jiang Chen on UA soil, and the one before the last was involved with the incident in Hua…

“They are provoking us to start a war! Is that lunatic not afraid of starting another world war?” Wilmot stared at the documents on the table, feeling inexplicable emotions.

Just then, Kerry next to him sighed.

“You said he is a lunatic, why bother using a normal person’s brain to think from his perspective?”

Kerry indeed understood Jiang Chen’s motive after he gained an advantage on the Western Pacific Ocean and immediately began to uproot the CIB intelligence network in Nippon. Since the man did place the nuclear button on the negotiating table, against a thug from the Third World, he couldn’t think of a way to deal with him.

Unless he is the president…

With this thought, Kerry’s fist tightened and he took a deep breath. Then, he looked over to Wilmot and seemingly talking to himself, he said.

“I went to visit Naomi Madden yesterday.”

A sharp sight focused on him. Kerry’s mouth moved subtly, and his hands were tucked behind him, responding to Wilmot’s vigilant sight.

Naomi Madden was his former boss, the unlucky former CIB director who was forced to resign afterward because of his subordinate’s plot for the Los Santos Incident. If it weren’t because of Naomi’s fall, Wilmot wouldn’t have been able to sit in this position

Slightly hiding the vigilance in his eyes, Wilmot tried to act calm and asked.

“Oh? How is he doing?”

Kerry smiled and began pacing around the office with his hands behind his back. Then, he stopped by the bookshelf.

“Paying his bills by offering speeches and living a decent life. It’s just a bit quiet in his home.”

“What do you want to say?” Wilmot’s eyes moved slightly and he said without a change of expression.

“Mr. Wilmot, if, I mean, if,” Kerry reached out, as if he was searching for a book, and moved his fingers across the edge of the bookshelf. “If the CIB loses the war, do you think you can still sit in this position?”

The tip of Wilmot’s mouth curved up and he said in a slightly mocking tone.

“Oh? When did the Secretary of State also begin to intervene in the CIB’s appointments? Or, is this the message of the president?”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Kerry waved his hand and smiled. “I just made a hypothesis. Of course, the Secretary of State does not have this power. The president did not give me any orders. However, allow me to be honest. If your performance is poor this time, it’s hard to say the respected president won’t use you as a scapegoat.”

Wilmot’s eyes flashed with thoughts and he did not respond.

Kerry took a book from the shelf, patted the dust on the cover, and walked to the desk.

“The FBA people are investigating the Congressional Budget Committee.”

“This is not within the rule,” Wilmot’s first reaction was to frown, and then his eyes immediately widened and he looked at Kerry in disbelief.

It was impossible to be in this position without political sense. When Kerry mentioned the FBA and Congress, he immediately understood the meaning of the Secretary of State.

Why is the FBA investigating Congress? And in particular, the Congressional Budget Committee with the closest tie to Wall Street?

Kerry placed the book he removed from the shelf on the table, and gently tapped on the cover of the book. When Wilmot looked at the cover of the book, Kerry stood up, fixed his collar, and smiled at the CIB director.

“Think about it. It’s time to pick your side.”

“You want me to stop the FBA’s investigation of Congress?” There was a visible shock in Wilmot’s eyes as he saw the cover of the book.

When Kerry looked at Wilmot, who was fighting an internal dilemma, his smile was cheerful.

“On the contrary, I need you to help me collect evidence that will prove Hill is using the FBA to investigate the Congress.”

On the thick leather cover of the book in front of Wilmont, a line of gold-colored Latin, written in calligraphy, read – Biography of Harry S. Truman.

(1) PRISM – PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. (Source: Wikipedia)

Chapter 1139: A Peculiar Peace

Chapter 1139 A Peculiar Peace

Chapter 1140 Amazing Peace

The UA couldn’t sit still anymore.

When the death toll of CIB agents reached 51, the UA ambassador headed to Xin for a meeting with Jiang Chen. At this time, the number of casualties on the Xin side just surpassed 40, still far from the 100 casualty limit Jiang Chen set.

In the office on the top floor of Future Building, Jiang Chen met UA’s ambassador Holman. Due to the fact that only Holman was visiting and it was not a formal visit, the meeting did not take place in a conference room.

There was no small talk or formality, the middle-aged man with a hooked nose just sat down and stared into Jiang Chen’s eyes.

“What do you want?”

“Just cleaning up our garden.” Jiang Chen shrugged and smiled.

Jiang Chen’s understatement made Holman take a slight pause; his aggressive expression suddenly froze on his face. His anger gradually began to spread from his mind to the rest of his body.

Cleaning up your garden?

Cleaning up your garden!

When did UA’s post in Asia become your garden? 50 lives are just nothing in your eyes?

However, the sly smile on Jiang Chen’s face made Holman’s anger dissipate.

As a diplomat, he would never show his expression. And instincts told him that the man in front of his eyes seemed to be angering him deliberately? Although he didn’t understand Jiang Chen’s rationale, Holman didn’t want to let his plan succeed.

“It will be meaningless for us to continue this stupid war. I come with peace in mind and to negotiate with you. I hope that Mr. Jiang can cooperate.” Holman looked straight into Jiang Chen’s eyes and said, “I’m going to be straightforward, what are your conditions?”

“Our conditions?” Jiang Chen smiled and said unceremoniously, “Tell your people to pack up and leave, then this war will naturally end.”

Even if Holman had the best manners, he was furious.

His face gradually turned gloomy, and the man with a hooked nose snorted and said in a menacing tone.

“Do you think just because we made concessions to avoid a war in the Western Pacific Ocean, we will always be humble? Are you taking yourself too seriously?”

Holman’s rhetoric was clever as he described changing the course as “a concession to avoid war.” Although it didn’t change the fact they backed down, it did add some momentum to the negotiating process.

It was a pity that Jiang Chen did not take the subtle threat in his words seriously.

“It’s not that we take ourselves too seriously,” Jiang Chen smiled and looked at Holman, and responded with directness, “but you are overestimating yourself. My conditions are already on the table, if you want to stop the war, you can withdraw.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen looked at him with a sly.

“Of course, if you feel that my proposal is unreasonable, let’s continue to fight and determine a victor.”

The negotiation broke down.

Or rather, Jiang Chen never expected to resolve this issue through negotiations.

Nippon was the front post of the UA in East Asia. As one of the strategic cores of in Asia, the UA would never give up on the grasp of this location. However, Jiang Chen was not in a hurry to negotiate with them. Now, Future Heavy Industries was working with Sumitomo Group to build the magnetic levitation highway. When the entire Yoto road network became Celestial Trade’s network, CIB agents better start praying.

When Jiang Chen watched Holman get up and leave, he touched his chin and said thoughtfully.

“It’s very strange. If the UA really wants to negotiate with us, they shouldn’t have just sent an ambassador.”

As the office door closed, Ayesha’s figure surfaced next to him. She was there from the beginning. Before Holman came here, she was discussing sending additional Ghost Agents to Nippon.

“They should send the Secretary of State?” Ayesha asked.

“Yes.” Jiang Chen, with his hand still on his chin, was thoughtful. “This is very unusual.”

Kerry didn’t come, but someone he never heard of did.

In terms of negotiating, did Holman even have the right to negotiate on behalf of the UA?

…

Three days after the negotiations with Holman broke down, the situation in Nippo changed dramatically in a peculiar way.

CIB agents who were originally active in Tokyo seemed to have received some kind of signal, and suddenly stopped their aggressive counterattack and completely went into hiding. Not only did they suspend contact with members of the right-wing party and some pro-UA leftists, but they even stopped tracking Xin agents.

On the other hand, the clues controlled by Ghosts Agents also became dead-ends.

As if overnight, the CIB agents hid into darkness.

This peculiar peace lasted for three days.

The Nippon National Police Agency was finally relieved. Although it didn’t know how long this peaceful period would last, it was a good start. Every time the bodies of “foreign friends” were dragged out of dark alleys, it must spend countless efforts to take care of the aftermath…

Although it was ten o’clock at night, the lights in the office of the mansion on the east side of Coro Island were still on.

Jiang Chen glanced through the report Ayesha gave him, thought for a moment, and then abruptly asked.

“Did something happen in the Capital?”

Sitting quietly on Jiang Chen’s thigh, Ayesha lowered her head and looked ashamed.

“We… have not received any new intelligence for the time being. Sorry…”

Xin National Intelligence Agency’s penetration into the Capital had been extremely limited. Although Ghost Agents could freely enter and exit the country, it had been difficult to infiltrate into the country’s political network. Jiang Chen must admit the UA established powerful anti-espionage capabilities.

“Don’t be too self-blaming, this is not your fault,” Jiang Chen gently lifted the porcelain-like face and comforted. “A few days later, when Future Heavy Industries’ shipyard is complete, I will stay for a bit in Celestial City and then make a trip to Lunar Colony. Do you want to come with me?”

The sapphire-like eyes suddenly brightened, but they quickly dimmed.

Full of regrets, Ayesha whispered.

“I can’t leave.”

Although CIB’s actions in Nippon seemed to have subsided, no one can guarantee that this peculiar peace will last. As the chief instructor of Ghost Agents, she must take command in Coro City.

“That’s also true,” Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha apologetically. Then gently stroking her hair, he said, “I will bring you souvenirs, is there anything you need?”

Ayesha just stared at him with her pristine, watery eyes.

The sensual atmosphere gradually dissipated the silence lingering between the duo.

After he read the true feeling hidden in her eyes, she immediately understood that she didn’t want a “souvenir” at all, but a “consolation.” So, he smiled and turned off the lights with the touch of a button on his holographic watch.

The last light source in the mansion disappeared as the night shrouded.

The bright moonlight scattered its ray on the pristine body.

Sweat drenched the desk, wetted the chair, and damped the wooden floor. In this office filled with scholar atmosphere, an unfitting story began to unfold among the books…

Chapter 1140: Shipyard Completion!

Chapter 1140 Shipyard Completion! September 7th; a day worth commemorating for Future Group and the entire Earth Defense Alliance.After more than a month of hard work, Future Heavy Industries’ shipyard was finally completed. Like a satellite city for Celestial City, it floated quietly in the synchronous orbit. From the distance, the entire shipyard looked like two capital “U”s.

The shipyard would accommodate 10,000 workers, 20,000 construction robots, and thousands of small shuttles. With the support of giant robotic arms on both sides of the shipyard, they would produce ships with a size of more than 500,000 tons.

The completion of the shipyard marked the starting point for Earth’s first million-ton battleship.

The groundbreaking ceremony of the first battleship of the Earth Fleet would be held simultaneously with the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the shipyard.

At this moment, in the middle section of the shipyard, the invited members of the Earth Defense Alliance states formed into a semi-arc. In the middle of the crowd, an old man in a fancy suit stood in front of a giant steel plate.

“…may God bless us with His glory and give us a victory…”

The bishop holding the cross, in a sad, sorrowful voice with his poetic tone, mourned unknown verses. He made a cross with his finger on the cold steel.

This piece of steel that was “blessed” would be loaded with the ship that is about to begin construction.

When the blessing ended, there was applause.

The steel plate was then carried away. Another old man in a robe came forward holding a cross with three horizontal crossbeams and repeated the previous ceremony…

Religious people were invited to participate in the shipyard ribbon cutting and to give their blessings to the battleship of the Earth Fleet, mainly to meet the requirements of certain countries. Frankberg first proposed the idea in the name of its people and asked the Catholic pastor to bless the battleship.

Russia was a bit unhappy when they heard the proposal. Why do Catholics get to bless the Earth Fleet and not the Eastern Orthodox Church! Without the Eastern Orthodox Church, how would history be written? The Earth Fleet defeated the powerful extraterrestrial civilization under the blessing of God from the West?

This will become gloating material for the next hundred years!

Hua respected their opinions and just expressed their concern to avoid extravagance…

When Jiang Chen saw the conflicting opinions between the two major member states, he quickly mediated, saying that with so many steel plates on the battleship, there was no point fighting over a single one! Since everyone expressed their desire, why don’t we do it together!

Fortunately, with the secularization of the world, all the religions agreed to send their blessings together.

The Earth Defense Alliance Committee then voted to pass a regulation that, as long as the member states apply, all member states were permitted to send blessings with the religion of their choice on the first battleship. As for how history would be written, it would be based on their preference.

Precisely because of this, the religious ceremony took place as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Jiang Chen didn’t mind the presence of the religious leaders that sent their blessings as long as they didn’t leave engravings that stated their visit at his shipyard. Xin advocates for atheism and allows for the freedom of religion. Jiang Chen himself is a complete atheist that is neither a sincere heart nor in awe of a spiritual figure.

Jiang Chen half-heartily applauded and thought in his mind.

God can’t save the Earth civilization, but I can. You should worship me rather than God…

The ribbon-cutting ceremony soon came to an end.

As the executive director of the Earth Defense Alliance, Jiang Chen stood in front of everyone, read the remarks from the executive and the goals of the Earth before concluding the entire ceremony.

In the middle of thunderous applause, Jiang Chen nodded to the camera with a smile, walked down the temporary stage, and let out a long sigh in his mind.

This is finally done!

…

“TS Seagull will enter the Moon orbit in five minutes. Please return to your seats as soon as possible…”

Jiang Chen opened his eyes, slightly turned his face, and his eyes met with a pair of bright eyes.

“You’re awake?”

Looking at Jiang Chen, who has just woken up, Xia Shiyu’s aloof state melted into a blooming smile. Xia Shiyu was already up half an hour ago. Because she had nothing to do, she stared at Jiang Chen out of boredom, and half an hour quickly passed.

With sleepy eyes, Jiang Chen yawned, sat up, and stretched, then he looked out the window.

“We’re already here?”

“The crew said there is still ten minutes…” Xia Shiyu looked at the Moon near the window, as she felt her fantasy came true. “This is my first time being so close to the Moon.”

“You’ll be even closer in a bit, and you will eventually stand on it,” Jiang Chen teased.

Because they were in first class, only the two of them sat in the compartment. However, the entire passenger compartment consisted of two thousand passengers. The normal cabin was still relatively tight.

Yesterday, after attending the party succeeding the ribbon-cutting ceremony, he and Xia Shiyu rushed onto the flight to the Moon.

Four seagull-class transport ships served Celestial Trade. One of which operated the route between Mars and Earth and another operated for the Space Defense Forces. Only two flights operated each day between Celestial City and Lunar City. If they missed it, they would have to wait another twelve hours.

After a total of ten hours, TS Seagull finally entered Moon’s orbit.

The entire Lunar City resembled a bright silver medal from this position, embedded in the center of a large crater. Although it was not the first time Jiang Chen saw the panoramic view of the city, it was his first time witnessing this spectacular scene with his own eyes.

If he sat in the regular cabin, he would definitely hear the marvel of passengers.

Of course, he would be marveled by the passengers as well.

Xia Shiyu’s eyes were filled with amazement as she gazed out the window.

As their line of sight gradually moved from the colony to space, she suddenly said.

“Why don’t we build a space elevator on the Moon?”

“Because the Moon has no synchronous orbit,” At the colony apporached closer and closer, Jiang Chen smiled, “But it’s a good idea to build an elevator that leads to the orbit. It’s only 200 kilometers, only one hundred and eighth of Earth’s synchronous orbit.”

The Moon’s gravity was only one-sixth of the Earth’s, and the “moon elevator” would require far less cable strength than the “space elevator”. Even the high-strength, high-heat-resistance composite fiber called “Zylong” could be used as a material for the “moon elevator”.

The company that designed Zylong had requested countless times for Jiang Chen to contract out the moon elevator project for Lunar City to them. However, Jiang Chen completely disregarded their request.

This is Future Heavy Industries’ job, not yours.

Xia Shiyu’s words reminded him of this as he became deep in thought. After he arrived in Lunar City, he should take a close look at the port cargo throughput and the floating population. If necessary, he would ask Kelvin to establish a project to build the moon elevator.

The gravity of the Moon itself was minimal compared to Earth and because the lack of atmosphere, even without a synchronous orbit, the spacecraft won’t have much trouble landing on the Moon’s surface. An aircraft with a capacity of fewer than 100,000 tons could directly land on the surface. A transport ship with a carrying capacity of more than 100,000 tons could directly drop its cargo.

That’s right, just drop its cargo.

After the rectangular cargo cabin separate from TS Seagull, two small propulsion jets would reduce the speed as the cargo lands. Four cabins dropped onto the surface; there was only one passenger cabin while the other three were cargo cabins.

The passenger cabin landed steadily on the airport strip. An enclosed escalator with a length of around ten meters and a width of two meters extended to a rectangular transfer station next to the airport. As the signal light illuminated, the passengers loaded onto the escalator and moved towards the transfer station.

From there, an underground tunnel directly connected the passengers to a light rail track that was destined for Lunar City two kilometers away.

It was many people’s first time visiting the Moon. When they were on the escalator, they peaked excitedly at their surroundings. They took out their phones, took photos and videos, and shouted at the craters. The tour guides of the tour groups held their flags calmly, reminding everyone to tie on the magnetic belts and follow the group.

The floor of Lunar City was made of alloy steel. When disembarking from the transport ship, everyone received a magnetic belt. For people yet to master the essence of moonwalking, the most sensible choice would be to remain on the ground.

When all the passengers disembarked, Jiang Chen took Xia Shiyu’s hands and took her to the transfer station.

As the owner of the city, he certainly wouldn’t squeeze onto the light rail. As soon as he sat on the Seagull, a lunar rover had stopped at the transfer station, waiting for his arrival

On this lunar rover the size of an armored vehicle, Jiang Chen saw the former Lunar Colony Chief, now the mayor of Lunar City, Tang Weijie, and several other senior executives of the city.

“Welcome to the Moon, President Jiang and CEO Xia…”

Tang Weijie respectfully bowed and politely greeted.

Chapter 1141: Moon Specialties

Chapter 1141 Moon Specialties The lunar rover moved smoothly on the crater-filled Moon surface. After it passed through a tunnel on a slope, it entered the interior of a mountain and Jiang Chen’s vision suddenly cleared up. A silver-white city silhouette appeared in front of him.“The Lunar Colony is in the front. Of course, it has now been renamed to Downtown of Lunar City. All the municipal buildings will be built around the downtown square. The surface is only a small part of the city. Once you’re underground, it will be even more shocking.” Beside the window of the lunar rover, Tang Weijie pointed to the silver-white outline outside the window as he chatted with Jiang Chen. “We have prepared a welcoming ceremony for you and CEO Xia.”

“I hope it won’t be too much trouble.” Jiang Chen smiled and looked at the entrance of Lunar City outside the window.

“Haha, believe me, it is definitely not.”

Jiang Chen had never been a fan of been fixated on small details. Compared with flattering and sucking up on the surface, he preferred to see tangible results. The experience of living in Hua in the early years made him well aware of the low efficiency of a bureaucratic system.

The advanced technology products didn’t please him the most, but rather, the vitality and energy of a start-up even inside this massive company. Future Group’s innovation was not corroded by the management’s thinking.

The culture at the top determined the performance on the bottom.

Tang Hanjie, the mayor of Lunar City, knew the style of his boss, so when he was preparing the welcoming ceremony, he made it grand but not too long.

After the welcoming ceremony on the colonial square, Tang Hanjie personally acted as the guide for the duo. He took the duo to the elevator next to the square.

Once they were on the elevator, they descended about 500 meters.

When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, a fresh and dry gust of air blew onto their faces.

Outside the elevator was a circular hall with more than 30 identical elevators inside. Here, the elevators served a similar purpose as a subway station on Earth, connecting the underground living space with the mining stations and factories on the surface.

The circular hall was bustling with people, from those in Celestial Trade uniforms to passengers in all kinds of outfits. Tang Weijie took Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu to the special tunnel on the side, and directly entered the underground city.

“This place used to be an underground glacier. Later, after the ice layer was mined, we found a lava tunnel formed by the ancient magma activity below the ice. The surrounding rock is a glassy black volcanic rock, which is even stronger than concrete, so we decided to seal the space with aluminum and transform it into the colony’s living space.”

“The temperature difference on the surface of the Moon is high, but the underground temperature is stabilized at around 25 degrees Celsius, and it can also effectively reduce the impact of harmful rays and meteorites. A total of more than 27,000 people now live here and the elevator has become the main form of transformation in the city.”

Tang Weijie described the city’s changes to Jiang Chen as they moved forward.

Although the city was built under his inspiration, when he finally stood in the city, he still felt moved by its magnificence.

No one had thought that the small colony with only 200 colonists would expand to this size in the span of a year.

“Only half of the city is developed, and the other half is still being built. Later, we will use the lava tunnel of the extinct volcano to double the area of the volcano cave. By that time, the city will easily fit over 100,000 people.” Looking at his boss’s touched expression, Tang Weijie was proud.

As they continued to tour the city, Xia Shiyu looked around and gently pulled on Jiang Chen’s sleeve. She whispered.

“Is there water here? I’m a little thirsty.”

The assistant behind Tang Weijie immediately stepped forward and took out two new stainless-steel cups from her bag, she smiled and handed them to the two.

“This is one of the specialties of the Moon, Moon Brand Functional Beverage.” Tang Weijie took the opportunity to introduce the product to Jiang Chen.

“There shouldn’t be any Moon soils inside right?” Xia Shiyu joked.

“Haha.” The assistant lady chuckled.

“What is this? It doesn’t feel like plastic.” Jiang Chen examined the bottle.

“A new type of PVC material. It is an anti-rust, lightweight steel that weighs only 1.2 times that of plastic with the same volume. Its surface material has a germicidal effect similar to that of activated carbon. The most important thing is that the production of steel on the Moon is much cheaper than plastic. Right, this is the work of the Material Science Lab,” Tang Weijie explained.

“Really? I didn’t expect this small cup to have such a long story.” Jiang Chen smiled, unscrewed the lid, and sucked on the straw.

It tasted a bit strange. It tasted like herbal tea, but much sweeter than herbal tea. Jiang Chen felt energetic after he took a sip, he felt even better than after drinking coffee or Red Bull.

When they arrived at the end of the corridor, Tang Weijie led them through an arch door. They passed through the air shower and entered a factory.

Rows of culture racks stood in the factory and were distributed on the factory floor. Dozens of culture tanks were placed on each culture rack, and ultraviolet lamps were mounted on the top. Through the glass wall, Jiang Chen saw the seedlings growing prosperously.

“Is this a farm?” Jiang Chen looked at the nearest culture tank.

“Yes, but this farm mainly produces cash crops, or the raw materials of this drink, such as potatoes, radishes, and pumpkins.” Tang Weijie walked to Jiang Chen and pointed, “Ninety percent of the food in Lunar City is imported from Celestial City. It’s not technologically difficult to farm on the Moon, just other factors make it almost impossible.”

At first, the farms were all built on the surface of the Moon. However, due to the cosmic ray, even with lead plates installed as covers, the crops would still mutate during its germination stage.

Later, it was discovered that the soil on the Moon effectively absorbed harmful cosmic rays and solar wind particles. Therefore, they simply moved the farm underground, leaving only one small plantation used for breeding selection. Other infrastructures on the surface were mines and factories.

“What is the daily average traffic volume in Lunar City?” Jiang Chen reached out and touched the sprouts of the potato seedlings in the culture tank.

“The average daily passenger throughput was 3,417 last month,” Tang Weijie immediately replied.

“What about cargo throughput?”

“The cargo throughput last month exceeded 900,000 tons!”

This figure would likely exceed ten million tons annually considering the continuous expansion of rare earth production in 2019.

Jiang Chen did the math in his head, and after a moment of indulging, he smiled at Tang Weijie.

“I plan to build a 200-kilometer elevator in Lunar City. I want to hear your opinion.”

Chapter 1142: The concept of Moon Elevator

Chapter 1142 The concept of Moon Elevator A moon elevator?When Tang Weijie heard Jiang Chen’s proposal, he first took a moment to digest this information, then joy was his immediate reaction.

“A moon elevator? I don’t have any opinions. It’ll be great for Lunar City! I have discussed this with people from several other departments a few days ago. If it is possible to connect the surface with the orbit with an elevator, the cargo handling efficiency of the city will at least double!”

Even without the efficiency gain, an elevator would save a countless amount of energy.

Future Heavy Industries already accumulated a wealth of experience in the construction of Celestial City. The construction of the elevator only 200 kilometers long could easily be completely even without the wreckage from the apocalypse.

After the tour, Jiang Chen strolled around the underground city while he discussed the construction of the moon elevator with Tang Weijie.

The elevator’s specifications would not need to be as large as the one on Earth. Even living spaces could be omitted. Only four rotating counterweights would be needed at the end with space for docking. The Moon still had a countless amount of space for development, so development in space wouldn’t be necessary.

What’s more, because there was no synchronous orbit, the elevator couldn’t rely on the inertial force to maintain its balance. Hence, a project too large would drive up the cost. For Lunar City, with the goal to save costs, it would not be worth the trouble.

…

After the first day of the visit, the group took the elevator back to the surface. With Tang Weijie leading, Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu went to the hotel.

Although living spaces in the city were mostly concentrated underground, this was only the case for the average citizen.

After all, a trip to the Moon was difficult and rare. If it were possible, no one wants to live in a narrow “tunnel” and stare at a cold ceiling.

It was precisely because of this, as well as the high maintenance cost of the building on the surface, that the land price on the surface of the city was comparable to gold prices. Only the millionaires could afford to live inside a hotel on the surface. And those independent houses with lunar rovers, garages, and saunas were reserved for the wealthiest individuals.

As for private properties…

Sorry, there were no plans for building residential areas in Lunar City. All the properties for sale were underground at a depth of 500 meters and the price was often too high. The most peculiar thing was that… there was no supply even with at such outrageous prices.

Inside the steaming bath, Jiang Chen was enjoying a bath on the Moon while gazing at the distant blue planet, letting his mind drift off.

Bathing didn’t feel too different on the Moon. How much of his body is exposed is only dependent on the difference between body density and water density; it has nothing to do with gravity.

Just when Jiang Chen was zoned out, he heard clothes being taken off.

The clothes were placed in a basket and gentle steps were heard on the tiles. With the footsteps gradually approaching, a smile formed on Jiang Chen’s face. And soon through the mist, a smooth foot tapped on the surface of the water.

“It’s not hot, just come in,” Jiang Chen said.

Xia Shiyu’s face turned into the color of a ripped apple. She quickly sat in, covered her chest. She looked at Jiang Chen sitting across from her, biting her lips, and then whispered.

“I thought you were already asleep.”

“Almost fell asleep,” Jiang Chen smirked. “Now I can’t sleep at all. How do you plan to compensate me?”

Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes as she saw the sly written on his face.

After she hesitated for a moment, she finally overcame her shame and obeyed her heart. She slowly moved her thighs and sat closer to Jiang Chen. The moment she pressed her face against his chest, she felt as if her pounding heart was about to escape her body.

It took a while before her pumping heart gradually calmed down.

A meteorite pierced through space and landed not far away from their window.

Holding Xia Shiyu’s slender shoulder and gazing at the dust floating outside due to the meteorite’s impact, Jiang Chen was emotional.

“Only if I could move the Holy Shield.”

“The Holy Shield?” Xia Shiyu moved her head and did not understand.

“Accurately speaking, it’s called the Holy Shield System. There were some important cities in the apocalypse such as Wanghai and Shangjing projected by this system. It is like the shield outside a spacecraft in sci-fi movies. Pan-Asia Cooperation was invested in defensive technology, but so far, the scientists that I have raised have not been able to fully understand the technology.” Jiang Chen sighed with regret.

Perhaps she was teased by a particular word but Xia Shiyu began to giggle. She buried her face against Jiang Chen’s shoulder as she began to shake.

“Raising scientists… hahaha…”

Hey, this is not that funny…

Jiang Chen had a helpless expression on his face as he watched how difficult it was for Xia Shiyu to contain her laughter

“I’m raising them. When I pay them their salary each month, I always ask if they want money or food. However, they usually don’t say anything. Instead, they just pick up the bag of rice and the box of canned meat and then go home happily.”

With Project Garden of Eden, even survivors in slums occasionally enjoyed delicate flour food, but food remained one of the most heavily sought-after commodities on the wasteland. Even with the occasional depreciation of the credit, the amount of food consumed rarely changed.

It was better to sell the extra food at the Sixth Street than to directly accept credits as a salary.

…

After he soaked for more than an hour, Jiang Chen’s exhaustion disappeared.

He took a long time in the change room before coming out while stretching.

It was 7:00 at night in Xin and there was a banquet waiting for him.

Entrepreneurs with a total investment of more than 1 billion New Xin dollars in Lunar City would be present, as well as top figures of the city. The purposes of this banquet were to celebrate the permanent population of Lunar City reaching more than 30,000, then to celebrate the construction of the first battleship of the Earth Fleet, and lastly to welcome “Lord” Jiang Chen’s visit to the city.

No doubt, the last reason was the most important one.

For those capitalists chasing behind Celestial Trade, Jiang Chen’s existence could be compared to a breathing gold mine. The capitalists would be extremely satisfied to have a chat or a drink with him to make this trip worthwhile.

If he casually pointed to a direction on the Moon, revealing the next area of expansion of the city, the move alone would create a few millionaires.

Naturally, when he walked into the banquet hall with Xia Shiyu, they immediately became the focus of the entire banquet…

Chapter 1143: An Unexpected Gues

Chapter 1143 An Unexpected Gues

“This is my business card and please allow me to introduce myself. I’m the chairman of the Siberian Mining Company and the Russian Asteroid Mining Company. It’s an honor to meet you…” An old man in a tuxedo politely handed Jiang Chen his business card with both hands, then warmly shook hands with him.

“Are, are you really Jiang Chen? Ah, sorry, because my idol is standing in front of me, I’m a little shaken by the excitement. Are you free tonight? Do you want to have a drink together?” A blonde celebrity in a low-cut evening dress looked at Jiang Chen seductively, completely disregarding the warning smile Jiang Chen’s date was giving her.

“Please allow me to have a toast with you, the executive of the Earth Defense Alliance, the commander of the Earth Fleet, the hero of human civilization…” A Hua entrepreneur smiled, revealing his shining white teeth. He then raised the champagne glass in his hand. “I wish you victorious and that you bring victory and glory back to the place we call home.”

“…”

Melodious music changed the mood in the banquet hall and saved Jiang Chen from the enshrinement of flattery.

The male and female guests all put down the glass in their hands and joined hands together to enter the middle of the hall. Tang Weijie and his wife led the banquet to the next stage.

“This glass is really interesting. Is it magnetic underneath?”

Because he didn’t know how to dance, Jiang Chen took Xia Shiyu’s hand and walked to the resting area. After he drank the red wine in the glass, he turned the glass over to examine the bottom of the cup and felt that it was metallic.

To prevent the wine glass from flying around in a low-gravity environment, a magnet must have been installed under the long table covered with red cloth. Not just wine glasses, but also the trays that hold food.

Although life on the Moon was full of inconveniences, the creativity of people was unlimited. From the smooth and elegant moves on the dance floor, everyone was enjoying the party.

“Did you like the banquet?”

At the end of the banquet, Tang Weijie, holding a glass of wine, brought his wife to greet Jiang Chen.

“Of course, I enjoyed it. I’m m so relieved to see how relaxing the life of Lunar City’s citizens is.” Jiang Chen clinked his glass with Tang Weijie.

Tang Weijie’s wife looked young; probably about twenty years old. From her reserved and elegant temperament, she should come from an influential family. It didn’t take her long to start a conversation with Xia Shiyu.

After the men began to talk about business, she and Xia Shiyu went to the side and began chatting about topics reserved only for women.

“I wouldn’t say relaxing,” Tang Weijie laughed, sipped the wine, and humbly said. “I think it’s exploring a lifestyle that suits us. I remember when I first came here, we stayed in the gravity room all day after we completed our tasks. Before the underground city was built, there was really no entertainment on this barren land.”

“It must have been hard.” Jiang Chen raised his glass. “I will remember your contribution.”

“Not at all. It’s my duty, not a contribution,” Tang Weijie responded modestly.

“Lunar City’s model can be applied to other colonies, such as the Mars Colony, and the Himalia (1) in the near future. You have provided a template for the space colonization plan of Celestial Trade, how is this not a contribution? Modesty can be boring.” Jiang Chen patted Tang Weijie’s shoulder as he put down the wine glass.

Just as the two of them chatted, an older man in a tuxedo entered the banquet hall quite late. He searched around the room before his eyes lit up and he walked toward his target.

While Jiang Chen and Tang Weijie chatted about the colony, he saw a familiar face.

Before he could speak, the man smiled and extended his right hand.

“We met again, Mr. Jiang Chen.”

It was when the man shook hands with Jiang Chen did he finally remember he had seen this face. However, to be truthful, after so long, he almost forgot about him.

“You are… Mr. Loki?”

“It seems that you haven’t forgotten me,” Loki said jokingly and didn’t seem to mind that Jiang Chen didn’t recognize him.

It was quite amazing for Jiang Chen to remember him considering that he was a behind-the-scenes person who rarely appears in front of the public. People also have difficulty recognizing people of different races.

To be honest, he was ready to introduce himself again.

“…but why are you here?” Jiang Chen was surprised by his visit, frowning slightly. “I mean, shouldn’t you be in B City now? How are you…”

“Precisely speaking, I was in Celestial City eleven hours ago. As a result, when I was planning to meet with you, I learned that you have left. Very coincidentally, there was one final flight leaving for Lunar City, so I came here.” Loki laughed. “Our consortium has invested in a rare earth mining company in Lunar City, otherwise I would have to worry about how to get an invitation.”

“Right? What a coincidence,” Jiang Chen said without much fluctuation in his emotion.

The B City Consortium then must have a prophet. A flight happened to leave Lunar City, and he managed to obtain a ticket in such a quick span of time? Although it is not tourist season, buying a ticket wasn’t that easy?

The ticket must have been bought a few days in advance.

“It seems that you two have something to talk about. Now, if I may excuse myself.” Seeing that he wasn’t needed in their conversation, Tang Weijie understandingly left with his wife.

As Loki watched Tang Weijie leave, he smiled. Then he looked at Jiang Chen again and said politely.

“Is it convenient to step out for a moment?”

“It’s not a gentleman’s move to leave your date alone at the banquet. Mr. Loki, what do you think?”

Loki heard the subtle refusal in Jiang Chen’s tone as he raised his eyebrow.

Xia Shiyu looked at Jiang Chen and just wanted to tell him that she would not mind, but Jiang Chen stopped her with the look in his eyes.

When the Rothschild family existed, he did not like the “WASP” on Wall Street.

The two sides formed an alliance long ago against the Freemasonry led by the Rothschild family. However, the capitalists of Wall Streets are cunning and clever. When Celestial Trade and the Freemasonry clashed, they didn’t contribute any effort but took the opportunity to benefit.

After the fall of the Rothschild family, several WASP consortia such as Morgan and Rockefeller immediately began to snatch up assets from the fallen giant. They took the two most prized possessions – the Brazilian Vale and the BHP Mining Group.

These spoils should have belonged to Celestial Trade.

Under such circumstances, it would be odd if Jiang Chen treated them with respect.

Loki didn’t seem to be surprised by Jiang Chen’s aloof attitude. He smiled, took a sip of his wine, and sighed.

“Oh? Even if I want to talk about the CIB?”

(1) Himalia – Himalia, or Jupiter VI, is the largest irregular satellite of Jupiter. It is the fifth largest Jovian satellite, after the four Galilean moons.

Chapter 1144: There is No Permanent Alliance

Chapter 1144 There is No Permanent Alliance After Loki said this, Jiang Chen finally understood why he chose to meet him at this place.Indeed, it was absolutely safe here.

Due to the distance, the communication channel between the Moon and Earth was completely under Celestial Trade’s control. He didn’t need to worry about the CIB’s presence. Although Jiang Chen felt that he was being overly cautious, Loki still insisted that it was necessary.

After the banquet, Xia Shiyu went back to the hotel and Jiang Chen went to the lounge next to the banquet hall with Loki.

After they sat down, Loki took out the cigar box from his suit pocket, pulled out a cigar and put it in his mouth. He was just about to take out his lighter when he suddenly stopped and looked to Jiang Chen, “Do you mind?”

Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Thank you.” Grinning, Loki grabbed the cigar cutter and skillfully cut the cigar head. After he lit the cigar on fire, he blew out a ring, fully satisfied. He raised his eyebrow and offered, “Do you want one?”

“I’ll pass.” Jiang Chen shook his head, leaned backed on the chair, and then looked at the old man enjoying himself. “Let’s get to the point—”

“Kerry is preparing to participate in the 2020 election,” Loki said nonchalantly as he also leaned back into his chair.

Jiang Chen took three seconds to digest his sentence and then raised his eyebrow.

“So?”

“It seems that you aren’t informed of the intelligence from the Capitol.” Loki grinned and shrugged. Through the smoke clouds, his eyes were filled with mysteriousness, “Do you know who is supporting Kerry?”

“Who else other than Wall Street?” Jiang Chen laughed. “This question is just as boring as asking why Zhang Yaping can be re-elected year after year.”

“No, no, no,” Loki swayed the cigar between his fingers. “There are a lot of companies on Wall Street. You can’t consider Wall Street as a whole. My question is, who do you think is the main supporter behind Kerry?”

You can’t consider Wall Street as a whole.

Jiang Chen’s eyes flickered as he carefully pondered the meaning behind this sentence.

Loki looked at the silent Jiang Chen and didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He continued to enjoy his cigar, waiting for Jiang Chen’s answer with the same mysterious grin on his face.

The silence lasted another five minutes before Jiang Chen spoke up.

“Obviously, you can tell me.”

“Yes, I can tell you.” Loki straightened his back, extended his finger and wrote on the table. After Jiang Chen looked over, it was an uppercase “M”.

Jiang Chen frowned as he looked at the movement of his hand,

“…Morgan?”

Jiang Chen was not surprised by Wall Street’s manipulation of the election since it didn’t just happen once or twice. The existence of K Street and political contributions exist exactly because of this. As for why Kerry decided to run for the election, Morgan’s decision to invest, while he was somewhat surprised, it was nothing astonishing.

What surprised him was that Loki told him all these things.

“Yes. I can tell you, Kerry has already got the CIB on board,” Loki leaned back against the chair again, crossed his fingers over his knees, and then continued. “The FBA is investigating members of Congress, and the CIB is closely watching the FBA. It’s interesting, isn’t it? I bet that the 2020 election will be the most exciting one in history.”

“The most interesting thing is that you gave this information to someone who is not friendly with the UA.” Jiang Chen’s smile seemed to be embedded with a deeper message. He looked at Loki with intrigue, “Can you tell me why you are doing this?”

“Haha, you and I are all businessmen. Do you think that nationality is something very important to us? If you really care about such an identity, you wouldn’t have created a new one for yourself.”

As Loki explained, he took out a photo from his suit pocket and threw it on the table.

Jiang Chen looked at the photo and was just about to ask when Loki began to explain.

“Joseph Kennedy.”

Jiang Chen frowned.

“Except for the surname Kennedy, I have never heard of someone named Joseph.”

“Why does that matter? Many successful candidates were unknown to the masses before they took part in the election.” Shrugging, Loki blew out another smoke ring. “The election is like a horse race. You have to find a prospective candidate with potential and as long as we are willing to bet on them, there is always a chance. For example, the dark horse in 2008, who knew about him before 2007?”

“Oh? Then why do you think I will participate in your gambling?” Jiang Chen laughed. “To put it blatantly, these are your issues.”

“Because I will give you enough benefits,” Loki stared into Jiang Chen’s eyes. “If Kennedy is elected, we can consider giving you Nippon, or even join the Earth Defense Alliance.”

“I have to say, this proposal is really attractive, but your credit history is not convincing,” Jiang Chen looked at Loki with a sly smile. “To be honest, I don’t trust you. What can do you do to make me believe that you will fulfill your promise? There are only a handful of people in the world that can guarantee a 50% chance in any election. If you can’t even guarantee it for yourself, how can you guarantee it for me?”

When Loki heard Jiang Chen’s words, he smiled and took the photo back.

“Let’s not worry about Mr. Kennedy for now. Have you considered the consequences of Kerry being elected?”

“Do you think Celestial Trade is still the Celestial Trade two years ago?” Jiang Chen spread his hands, “Even if Roosevelt climbed out of his grave, do you think I would care?”

More than two years ago, in order to open up the desalination market in the Middle East, High Tech Freshwater was forced to go public on NASDAQ to reduce the UA’s vigilance. At that time, Celestial Trade was just like an ant in front of the UA. Any of the free world’s aircraft carrier battle groups could give the Pannu people democracy.

However, now, even if the UA sent all of its aircraft carrier battle groups to the Western Pacific Ocean, at most, it would be a lose-lose situation for Celestial Trade. Even if Kerry does get elected, what could he do?

“Well, I believe that you are strong enough to ignore the military power of the entire NATO,” Loki shrugged and stretched out the hand holding the cigar. “But now there are better choices in front of us, why don’t you consider it? Mr. Kennedy will put more emphasis on the space industry than all previous presidents, advocate for erasing the prejudice between the two countries, abandon the new Cold War mentality, and fight against the extraterrestrial civilization… everything I’m talking about will be included in his speech. These are not empty promises.”

After Loki said all this, he pressed his hands against the armrests and slowly stood up. He threw the burnt cigar into the ashtray and looked at his watch.

“I will stay here for two more days. I hope that you can seriously consider our offer. If we join hands, we may be able to avoid an unnecessary war.”

After that, Loki walked to the door.

“There is still a question that I don’t quite understand,” Jiang Chen watched as Loki head to the door, and abruptly said. “Aren’t you part of WASP?”

Loki let go of the door handle, turned around, and said in a ridiculing tone.

“When Mr. Rothschild was still alive, weren’t we all allies in the same trench?”

Chapter 1145: The Cursed Name

Chapter 1145 The Cursed Name “…we are facing the worst depression since 2008. However, our president doesn’t seem to be aware of this. Or rather, she has noticed the problem, but she hasn’t been treating this problem with seriousness. Enterprises and families are facing a credit crunch, our pension and wallet are shrinking, wages have fallen to their lowest point since the 2008 economic crisis, yet our cost of living has reached the highest its been in history!”“Look at what our president has done for us. In order to let us temporarily forget about the pain of not being able to repay our credit card, she stressed that she would return to the Asia-Pacific region, escalate regional disputes, divert our attention, and even send the aircraft battle group for a stroll in the West Pacific Ocean… The result was that she fooled no one but herself, and almost pushed our country to the brink of a world war.”

“Maybe she thinks our life is not miserable enough. I heard that she is now discussing with her cabinet about restricting the import of medical drones. My only suggestion is to spend more time with the cute little angels, maybe they will be taken away by the FBA tomorrow, and no drones will ever fly into the window to save you. Thank goodness, we will return to the era of calling to make an appointment with the doctor. Perhaps this will save us a lot of money. After all, in that era, we didn’t take medicine when we had a fever…”

In the holographic screen, the man in the suit stood in the middle of the supporters and had a bright smile on his face. Unlike the aggressive speech, he was not speaking at a fast pace, he could even be described as gentle, but the words he said were as sharp as the best knife.

From the art of this speech alone, Mr. Kennedy was indeed worthy of his name.

“What are you watching?” Xia Shiyu slipped into the blanket, held her chin up with her hands, and lied beside Jiang Chen.

“Joseph Kennedy’s declaration for the presidential election.” Jiang Chen dragged the holographic screen toward Xia Shiyu.

“Kennedy?” Xia Shiyu was surprised and confused by the name, “The fabled Kennedy?

“Yes, the cursed name,” Jiang Chen looked at the man who waved to his supporters on the holographic screen; a sly smile suddenly formed on this face. “What do you think if I pushed this cursed man onto the president’s throne, will it be interesting?”

“As if you have a cote.” Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes, turned around, and muttered, “you can keep watching, I’m going to sleep first.”

“Hey, wife, it’s not good to sleep so early.” Jiang Chen sent a message to the Ghost Agents, turned off the screen, and extended his arm to surround her smooth shoulder. As he looked at the earlobe that gradually turn red, he whispered into her ear. “Didn’t we agree that we were going to continue what we didn’t finish in the bathroom.”

The redness extended all the way to her neck, the word “wife” poked into her soft spot as Xia Shiyu turned soft.

Although she knew that the word didn’t just apply to her, at least for now, even if it was only now, he only held her…

…

If the nightmare of long-distance travel was jet lag, then the nightmare of a trip to the Moon was never knowing if the time difference was right. Of course, compared to the stunning view of the trip, this nightmare was only a small inconvenience.

A day on the Moon was equivalent to 27.3 Earth days and a day and night were two weeks long. Looking at the Sun that just rose into the sky, Jiang Chen yawned and wondered if he should create a new calendar for Celestial Trade’s colonies.

For example, all Celestial Trade colonies, regardless of the orbital period, must use the Earth calendar and Xin time zone. Or adopt a double-time format…

Today, he must make a trip 100 kilometers north of Lunar City.

After a one-and-a-half-month training period on Coro Island, the recruits of the Earth Defense Alliance arrived on the Moon by transport ships. Half of the three-months training period passed, and the remaining one and a half months would be spent on the Moon for low gravity environment adaptation training.

Although without any weapons, these volunteer soldiers were also combatants, and certainly couldn’t be stationed in Lunar City.

In order to house the future officers of the Earth Fleet, Celestial Trade built a military base to be used as the training facility.

The military base on the Moon was not completed until a month ago. At present, in addition to the 500 volunteer soldiers in the military base, another 1,000 reserve crew members were also stationed here.

The purpose of Jiang Chen’s trip was to greet the future officers of the Earth Fleet while he inspected the military base.

Simply put, a military parade.

The tires lifted the Moondust. Jiang Chen gazed at the unchanged crater outside the window and yawned in boredom. At first, he thought the scenery on the Moon was very fascinating, now, he was already bored of it.

Two hours passed since departure.

Xia Shiyu sat next to him. She was also bored with the same scenery outside and began to inspect the inside of the car. When her eyes stopped on the thermometer on the armrest of the seat, she gasped in shock.

“It is already 90 degrees outside?”

Jiang Chen smiled at Xia Shiyu’s reaction.

“It’s not that bad. This is not the hottest time of the day. At noon, the surface temperature on the equator line can reach 127 degrees.”

“That hot?!”

“What do you think? Why else do you think the building of Lunar City is painted white?”

“…I thought it was for appearances.” Xia Shiyu blushed, then she whispered, “If we get off the vehicle, we’ll be roasted.”

The term “roasted” almost made Jiang Chen laugh out loud.

He didn’t expect this unserious term to come out of Xia Shiyu’s mouth.

“127 degrees is the surface temperature,” looking at Xia Shiyu’s boots, Jiang Chen said, “As long as you don’t lose your boots, you don’t have to worry.”

Of course, they still must change into professional gear before they exit the vehicle.

The three-hour drive was finally over, and the lunar rover parked outside the military base.

In the locker room inside the rover, Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu changed into heavy spacesuits. After confirming the spacesuit’s functionality, under the guidance of the staff, they entered through the hatch and stepped onto the surface of the Moon.

The moment when Xia Shiyu feet stepped on the Moon, she seemed to have forgotten her identity as CEO and like a child, she jumped up in excitement.

Jiang Chen smiled as he watched Xia Shiyu enjoy the amazing moment.

Such childish behavior was certainly a rare scene.

However, as she enjoyed “flying” on the Moon, she lost control and flipped in the air. She then landed face first and rolled onto the ground.

Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu’s tragic fall and chuckled.

He was not gloating, he just thought the fall was too… too cute.

Jiang Chen hopped up and extended his legs straight to drift by her, then he grinned and pulled her up from the ground.

“I told you to be careful. Now you just made fun of yourself.”

Although he couldn’t see Xia Shiyu’s face through the dark mask, based on his understanding of her, she must be blushing, biting her lower lip, and feeling embarrassed…

Chapter 1146: 50 Million Dollars Compensation

Chapter 1146 50 Million Dollars Compensation The hexagonal fortress, quietly located in the middle of the small crater, was like a medal embedded into the surface. The sturdy Moon soil was its first wall, and a tunnel was carved on one side of the crater; it was the only entrance to the entire military base.The entire military base located in the crater covered a total area of 9,000 square meters with three floors above and below. Each floor was five-meters high, with the highest point parallel to the outer edge of the crater and the lowest point 20 meters underground. The roof was made of concrete and covered with soil about 2-3 meters thick.

The wall was divided into two parts. The outer wall was 1.5 meters thick, the inner wall was 2 meters thick, and 0.7 meters of soil was sandwiched between the inner and outer walls to protect against cosmic rays, solar wind, and meteorite impact.

Due to the insufficient width of the tunnel, the huge lunar rover was parked outside the military base.

Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu did not wait for a long time before the door of the military base opened. Two officers who had spacesuits on skillfully leaped out and floated in their direction.

The two officers stopped in front of Jiang Chen, saluted, then led the two into the base.

The officer leading was Hou Zhengwen, a former Celestial Trade Navy frigate captain. Now, he served as a Earth Fleet reserve officer and the head of the Moon military base. When he led the group into the base, he reported to Jiang Chen.

“The soldiers have gathered in the central square and are ready to be reviewed. Do you want a tour of the base first, or would you like to head to the square now?”

“Let’s go to the square first, we don’t want to let our boys wait too long,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

“Roger!”

Jiang Chen examined the outline of the entire military base as he followed closely behind.

The interior of the building was designed as a partition. An air lock was built between the partitions. If the building was damaged and air leaked, the air lock can be dropped to isolate the damaged area. Those who didn’t have time evacuate could enter the hibernation chambers designed on both sides of the safety tunnel to wait for rescue.

This kind of design was similar to the design of Lunar City. Before the shield technology made any more advancements, this was the most feasible option.

One thousand and five hundred soldiers gathered in the central square of the military base, and they were arranged in a uniform square.

The elites from all member states were indeed better than the reserve of Celestial Trade.

When Jiang Chen did military training in school, he always thought that even with the best posture, a bullet was the same to everyone. However, now he wholehearted felt that a good posture was the most intuitive embodiment of a soldier.

Even with only one-sixth of the gravity, these soldiers were as steady as sculptures. Just this alone was enough to impress Jiang Chen.

The two months of training was not wasted.

…

Just as Jiang Chen inspected the future soldiers of the Earth Fleet, it was late into the night in the Capital 400,000 kilometers away.

In the center of the bustling world, a man in a suit walked quickly across the street. He stopped under a bronze streetlight, took a note out from his pocket, and confirmed the address again. He then turned into the side alley and entered an ordinary coffeeshop.

He was on K street.

If the eye of the storm of the 2008 Financial Crisis was Wall Street, then K Street was the ever-changing international political center.

This street was home to a large number of think tanks, lobby groups, and public relations companies. International headquarters, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund were also here. There were a large number of lobbying groups and well-known lobbyists with limitless power gathered on this street and conducted political trades every day. Thus, K street was renown to all.

Or infamous.

“The information you want,” the man took a document from his coat and threw it on the table as he took a deep breath and sat across from the woman. “All the candidates are listed on it. From their political views, to their license plate number. If you want to know the probability of winning for each person, I have a dedicated team to serve you. Of course, the payment must be calculated again—”

“The payment is next to you.” The woman raised her chin slightly and used her eyes to point in the direction of the money.

The man paused and followed her eyes to the right-hand side of the seat. A black suitcase rested by his feet. The man grabbed the suitcase as his expression suddenly changed and he looked at the woman with strangeness.

“I guess it won’t be Zimbabwe…”

The woman lifted her glass and gracefully sipped the red wine. After she put down the glass, she reached for the documents on the table and nonchalantly said.

“You can open it.”

The man hesitated for a moment, then he picked up the suitcase and opened it. After he saw the green, he quickly closed the suitcase.

It was enough.

Not Zimbabwean dollars, nor Walmart coupons, there was at least 200,000 in dollars in the suitcase, and maybe even more.

What made the man puzzled was why she chose to pay in cash.

In UA, only two types of people carried so much cash.

Drug dealers and fugitives.

Either way, never a good person…

“Okay, actually…” The man hesitated, and finally decided to continue to promote his business. “In fact, you can find these things online, other than Hill who delayed her speech for some reason, other candidates all have already finished their election speech. I mean, if you just want to figure out their license plate number, there is absolutely no need to find me. My ability is far more than that—”

“Is it?” The woman looked at the document in her hand and responded nonchalantly.

The man opened his mouth.

It seemed that the customer was not interested in his ability.

Just when he had given up and was ready to get up and leave. The woman who sat across of him took a piece of paper from the document and gently dropped it in front of him.

“I need you to do something for me,” the slender fingers tapped on the photo. “Investigate him. I need to know everything about him. The more interesting the information, the better. You know what I’m referring to.”

“Joseph Kennedy!” When the man recognized the man in the photo, his face suddenly changed into hesitancy.

“I remember you said,” the woman looked at the man, and her red lips formed a mysterious smile. “Your ability is far more than just figuring out their license plate number.”

“You don’t know,” the man showed a hint of struggle laced with a hint of fear. “The Kennedy family is part of the B City Consortium. There is so much going on behind all of this and it is so deep that it can drown anyone who dares to test their depths…”

When the man said this, he suddenly noticed a faint disdain in the woman’s eyes.

Yes, it was disdain.

He was sure he was not mistaken.

Expressed disdain for the B City consortium, who was she on behalf of? Morgan? Rockefeller? Russians? Or Hua? Or, the fabled…

He hesitated for a moment before he finally gritted his teeth.

“If the price is right…”

In any case, he should listen to the price first. If the price was not suitable, then it was not too late to refuse.

The woman opened her left hand and put up five fingers.

“…500,000 dollars?” The man tried to propose a number.

“50 million.” The woman said in an understatement.

50 million dollars!

His heart jerked. The man took a deep breath, and his expression changed several times before it formed a bitter smile

It was a price he could not reject.

Even if he knew this money would bring danger to his life.

“Your answer?” The woman raised an eyebrow.

This question was completely redundant.

No one could refuse such a generous reward on K Street.

Even if the bet was his own life, he would willingly gamble it.

The man took a deep breath, stood up, and extended his right hand.

“Richard Meyer, that is my name. I don’t know if I am lucky enough to know the name of my employer?”

“No,” The woman looked at the document in her hand and replied in a whisper.

Even the refusal was so elegant that Meyer, who had his right hand in the air, couldn’t be angry.

“…well, it doesn’t matter,” Meyer retracted his right hand, shrugged, and looked around, then he tapped on the table and lowered his voice, “wait for my message.”

The woman nodded, without looking up at him at all.

“Mhmm, go now.”

Chapter 1147: Returning to Earth

1147 Returning to Earth

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed since Jiang Chen arrived in Lunar City.

During these three days, the mayor of Lunar City, Tang Weijie, took Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu on a tour of the city.

From the ice exploration wells, to the mining station that collected helium-3, to the nuclear fusion power station that transported electricity to half of Asia, and the wireless power transmission station over a hundred square meters in size, Jiang Chen was able to gain a clear view of Lunar City’s development.

In general, Lunar City had a strong mining industry with a growing tourism industry. The city was a giant mine with complete mining facilities, ground transportation, power supply, communication scheduling, production management and living service facilities.

According to Tang Weijie, to fully develop the potential of the city, at least 50,000 permanent residents would be needed. Before the living space issues could be solved, the limit of the permanent population of the city would be this number.

The shield technology must be dependent on the progress in Wanghai of the apocalypse.

Jiang Chen thought.

It’s time to return to the apocalypse.

…

With all officials of Lunar City’s best wishes, Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu boarded the returning spacecraft.

After they returned to Celestial City, the first thing he did was to convene experts of Future Heavy Industries and Celestial Trade and held a seminar on the Moon elevator.

Under the guise of the group of experts, the engineering plan for the Moon elevator was quickly developed.

Jiang Chen immediately discussed this matter with Kelvin and delegated the work after the feasibility of the project was confirmed,

With the boss personally instructing this matter, the Moon elevator project began to move. Future Heavy Industries immediately dispatched engineers to Lunar City for site inspection. The graphene plant in Ange Island Industrial Park began to operate at maximum capacity. The capacity that was originally idle due to the completion of the space elevator started to ramp up again.

The total length of the entire Moon elevator was 200 kilometers with a budget of 3.7 billion New Xin dollars. The project of course was still executed by Future Heavy Industries and was expected to be delivered to Celestial Trade in the first half of next year.

When Jiang Chen delegated all the work on hand, it was already the 13th.

After he stayed in space for so long, he finally returned to the surface. When his feet stepped onto the soft soil again, he had an illusion of long-lostness.

The seagulls soared in the air, the dolphins jumped out of the water, the warm and hazy sunshine scattered on his face, and the sea breeze that blew in his face was mixed with the fragrance of coconut… these ordinary things on Earth just felt like home.

Jiang Chen went straight home when he returned to Coro Island by helicopter.

As early as three days ago, when he worked to develop the plan for the Moon elevator in Celestial City, Xia Shiyu had already returned. She should be working today. Natasha also shouldn’t be home since she “checked in” at the embassy from Monday to Friday.

In this case, there was only one person who could open the door for him…

When Jiang Chen knocked on the door of the mansion, a stunning figure leaped into his arms.

Jiang Chen spun Ayesha in the air, stroked her dark brown hair, and whispered to her.

“Did you miss me?”

Ayesha nodded with force, buried her face in his chest, and rubbed her nose against him. Finally, a smile blossomed from the usually expressionless face.

After Ayesha took the suitcase from Jiang Chen’s hand, she ran upstairs

Jiang Chen hung his coat at the door, then went to the bathroom to take a shower. When he opened the door again, a change of clothes was placed in a plastic basket. Looking at the neatly folded clothes, he felt her meticulous care to detail.

The clothes smelled like sunlight.

After he changed into clean clothes, Jiang Chen wiped his hair with a towel and returned to the living room.

Looking at Ayesha, who sat on the sofa in the living room, he sat next to her.

“Has anything happened in Nippon while I was away?”

Ayesha shook her head.

“The CIB suspended their espionage activities in Nippon, at least they stopped their contact with the Nippon politicians. We are basically in an armistice with the CIB, although I don’t know how long this can last… Also, on another note, why did you ask us to pay attention to Joseph Kennedy? Is there anything special about him? If it’s just because of B City Consortium—”

“Guess who I met in Lunar City? I met Loki,” Jiang Chen said. “He discussed forming an alliance. He said that if Joseph Kennedy becomes president, they will give Nippon to us and also join the Earth Defense Alliance.”

“Did you agree?” Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen.

“Of course not,” Jiang Chen shrugged. “This piece of meat is too fat and I’m afraid it may taste bad.”

No matter from which point of view, the B City Consortium’s proposal was considered generous. If there was a problem, then it was probably because the proposal was too generous. It was generous to the point that Jiang Chen couldn’t trust them.

Obviously, Ayesha also shared the same perspective.

“According to your instructions, we have begun to investigate Joseph Kennedy.”

“Who is responsible for this mission?”

“Penny.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

The name rang a bell in his head. Zhu Yu and she were the first batch of graduated agents, a veteran in Ghost Agents. She should be able to take care of the matter with no mistakes.

The Earth Defense Alliance was headed on the right track, but there was still a long way to go to integrate resources around the world. The biggest obstacle to this was the ruler of the old world. As the leader of the world’s largest military body, as long as the UA still existed for one day, the sphere of influence of the Earth Defense Alliance could only stay in the Eastern Hemisphere.

However, the issue was that both sides controlled the switch to destroy the world.

The two sides could only test away from the opponent’s bottom line.

Although the two sides still maintained high-standard economic and trade cooperation, the signs of the Cold War had quietly emerged. If this balance could be maintained, the situation would be fine. However, if the fine balance was broken by one side, then the situation may deteriorate to the point of no return.

Who was the most likely to tip the balance?

Jiang Chen’s answer was undoubtedly the UA.

He thought he had a theoretical basis.

After all, the country changed its president every four years!

Without considering the differences between the two parties, the differences within the same party alone were visible enough. If a madman was elected without any common sense, the results would not be certain.

In this case, whether or not the promise of B City Consortium would be honored, it would not be a bad choice to push Joseph Kennedy to the position of the president. After all, Future Group still has close cooperation with B City Consortium in the areas of desalination and VR finance.

Of course, Jiang Chen would not be without reservation.

Ghost Agents in North America had started to collect Joseph Kennedy’s scandals. Jiang Chen believed there was no politician without stains. With further digging, there must be something hidden underneath the surface.

“I will go back to the apocalypse in a few days. I’ll leave everything here to you.” Jiang Chen rubbed Ayesha’s hair.

Ayesha put her hand over his and docilely nodded.

“Mhmm.”

Chapter 1148: North of the Great Wall

1148 North of the Great Wall

It was still the middle of autumn, but a hint of winter’s chillness already lingered in the air.

The Badaling Checkpoint was a tourist attraction more than 30 years ago. Today, more than 30 years later, it had been transformed into a military outpost. With this ancient wall as the boundary, the north was the wilderness, the world of mutants and the south was the ruins, the world of survivors.

In general, survivors in Shangjing were much more fortunate than the survivors in Wanghai. Although both cities were in ruins, many landmark buildings survived. These well-preserved buildings became the base of survivors and provided shelters for survival.

In addition, as the political center of Pan-Asia Cooperation, the necessities here were more than ten times that of Wanghai. The necessities here were not just food, clothing, medical supplies, but also raw materials and energy such as steel, rare earth minerals, oil, helium-3, and even well-preserved industrial machine tools.

The industrial machine tools here were different from the hand-built machine tools built by engineers of the Sixth Street through 3D printers. The former was the crystallization of technology, and the latter was the knowledge of the working people.

It was evident how much of a lead the survivors of Shangjing gained in the early days.

Before the establishment of NAC, there were more than a hundred large and small settlements in Wanghai. In Shangjing, more than a thousand settlements were scattered across the city with hundreds of large survivor camps like the Sixth Street and Liuding Town.

The survivors never unified here. They had made their own rules, such as determining the safe area within the Third Ring Road and prohibiting murder, robbery, and theft. Offenders would be wanted by all survivors.

Another example was the outpost in the Badaling scenic area. In order to prevent extreme mutants with a crystal index of 300 or more from migrating from the north, the survivors of Shangjing jointly contributed to the modification of the city wall of Badaling. They repaired the guardhouse and machine-gun bunker and each settlement took turns guarding.

Even in the harshest winters, this iron law never changed.

“It’s September.”

“Right.”

On the guardhouse, two soldiers stood at each end, leaned against the wall, and gazed into the gray wasteland.

Automatic rifles dangled around their waist and magazines were tied against their body. From their appearance, they were from different survivor camps.

“What date is it?”

“The 15th.”

The one in the blue scarf didn’t seem to enjoy chatting. Only when the survivor next to him asked a question would he respond in a concise manner. Most of the time, he stood there in silence, not moving, and gazed into the distant horizon.

Or dozing off…

“It’s only been fifteen days? Fu*k.” The unshaven man spat out of the guardhouse and grinned. “Do you believe it in another two months, if I spit down, it will turn into ice?”

“…”

The man in the blue scarf barely moved the corner of his mouth and did not speak.

This state continued, and time quickly passed by.

The sky gradually darkened, and the distant horizon was covered with a layer of foggy tulle. With the gust of the northern wind, the fog writhed its enchanting curve and gradually climbed over the wasteland. It rose above the guardhouse and covered the concrete-reinforced wall…

“Fog,” the unshaven man said, raising his head and looking into the sky. He then muttered to himself. “The weather is going to change.”

The fog gradually thickened and formed another wall on the distant horizon.

Suddenly, in the heavy fog, a black outline gradually emerged.

The blue scarf man seemed to notice the anomaly in the fog as he frowned. He reached for the binocular on his chest and examined that direction.

“Did you see something?” The unshaven man also noticed something at this moment, but when he reached for his binocular, he did not find anything. Then he remembered that he left it in the barracks.

“…the fog is too thick to see anything.” The man wearing a scarf pressed his eyes against the binocular as he responded. At the same time, he pressed the intercom on his shoulder and spoke. “Something is going on outside.”

“Roger that.”

Four or five soldiers with rifles left the barracks as they yawned and headed to the guardhouse. At the same time, a drone flew out and slowly flew toward the wilderness outside the city wall.

The blue scarf man tossed the binocular at the unshaven man, then he kneeled down and took out a shell about the size of an adult thigh. He picked up a rag and wiped the ash on it before he walked to the deployed cannon.

“If you have seen enough, come and help.”

“Fu*k, the big guy is being loaded. Are we overreacting?” The unshaven snorted and took one last peak with the binocular. Just as he was about to go help, he seemed to catch a glimpse of a bright red emblem from behind the thick fog.

A sickle?

A… hammer!?

The binocular dropped to the ground, and horror immediately overwhelmed him. His lips trembled for a while before he finally squeezed out two words from his trembling lips.

“The… fu*k?”

The earth shook and the steel roared.

The torrent of steel rolled from the boundless wasteland, and the endless roar swept across the wall, swept over the guard tower, and swept through the continent…

That was not fog!

That was the dust picked up by tank tracks!

The moment they recognized the shadow, the expression of everyone in the guardhouse changed. The stones in the corner began to jump in uneasiness. Even separated by a kilometer in distance, everyone could feel the tremor of the earth.

“CCC…P?” Their teeth trembled, and the soldiers in the bunker loaded their weapons while cursing in fear. “CCCP tanks? No, impossible, didn’t the former regimes all get out?”

“Push up the cannons! QUICK!”

“Idiot! Use AP bombs! That one in red paint!”

The entire military outpost began to mobilize like boiling water after they noticed the strange situation outside. The soldiers rushed to battle positions with automatic rifles, and with the cannons loaded, they pushed it to firing position. These fortifications were originally prepared for mutants. No one ever thought that one day it would be used against the polar bears in tanks.

A speaker was extended out from the guardhouse.

“Listen! Whatever you are doing, stop immediately!”

The armored flood continued its advancement with no response.

The commander repeated the same statement in Russian.

It was still silence that responded to them, and the roar of the tank tracks flattened the earth.

The commander smashed the speaker against the ground, took off his intercom, and a glimpse of heroicness quickly appeared on his face.

“FIGHT!”

BOOM!

Five cannons responded to his roar.

The infantry artillery shells fired and made five orange trajectories in the air. However, against the roaring steel torrent, they were as insignificant as toothpicks.

POOSH!

The shells scraped against the front armor of the tanks and plunged into the mud. It left only a shallow dent.

The unshaven man looked at the tank formation outside the guardhouse and was in so much despair that he even stopped moving.

The cannons invincible against mutants were useless. They couldn’t even make the roaring steel monster pause for a second.

The five cannons on the wall seemed to ignite a certain signal.

Above the rushing steel torrent, a row of icy barrels slowly lifted and pointed in the direction of the guardhouse.

Without the slightest omen, the barrels ignited.

The unshaven man used the last glimmer of light to spot the concrete wall collapsing backward…

Chapter 1149: Ceremonial Ship Launching

Chapter 1149 Ceremonial Ship Launching A long time ago, the apocalypse only gave Jiang Chen the feeling of despair… and despair.The streets were blocked by zombies and mutants, the raiders and the cannibals raged, and the mutated humans occasionally ravaged the land. In order to explain the origin of his food, he must carefully weave lies and then create his own bloody road among the bloodthirsty mutants and cruel robbers.

Only when he returned to the modern world did he get an opportunity to breath.

From the leak of the X2 bacteria to the later mutant flood, from the Supreme rebellion to the subsequent war with the Northern Alliance Area, troubles forced him to move forward. He must protect the home he created, protect the people that loved him, and those that he loved…

Now, the situation seemed to be reversed.

Zombies had disappeared from Wanghai, and mutants migrated away to the wilderness without survivors. There were no complicated international relationships. There were no regional conflicts that must be handled with care. On this ruin, NAC was a well-deserved king, even something as strong as the Northern Alliance Area, left behind from the previous world, must surrender to NAC’s might.

The apocalypse became his peace.

Only in the apocalypse could Jiang Chen temporarily put down the fatigue accumulated in the modern world and enjoy the rare leisure…

…

On the east bank of Wanghai, next to Liuding Town.

The bright steel hull was pushed down into the sea water, and a brand-new destroyer floated beside the rusty Bohai.

The flag of the New Pan-Asia Cooperation (NAC) swayed in the sea breeze. The magnificent steel ship stood firmly in the rolling waves. The three electromagnetic pulse cannons were arranged in a stepped manner. They neatly pointed to the sky and highlighted their fierce firepower.

Jiang Chen stood on the dock and examined the warship not far from him.

The waves rolled against the coast and his heart rolled with it. The launch of the electromagnetic destroyer meant that the NAC Navy finally took its first step. Although there were still many shortcomings compared to the Beluga Station, NAC made a monumental breakthrough.

NAC had conquered the land and was destined to conquer the ocean and bring the world under its banner…

“Our first warship.” Cheng Weiguo walked to Jiang Chen’s side and looked at the brand-new destroyer, emotionally he said, “It is finally built.”

Under the name of building a dock for the maintenance of the Bohai Aircraft Carrier, the shipyard was built. The bottom line of the Beluga Station was slowly eclipsed, and the destroyer finally entered the sea. This was only the first one. There would be many ships in the future. Not only destroyers, but NAC also developed submarines and built the navy based on the standards of pre-war PAC.

“Is there a name for her?” Jiang Chen raised his chin toward the destroyer.

“Not yet, General, please give her a name.”

Jiang Chen thought for a moment and then looked up.

“Let’s call it Destroyer Ship Qingpu.”

The Fishbone Base built itself in Qingpu, Wanghai. Qingpu was the birthplace of NAC and was a fitting name for the first destroyer of NAC.

“DS Qingpu?” Cheng Weiguo nodded. “I will tell people to engrave this name.”

Cheng Weiguo paused and asked, “I don’t know which army the destroyer belongs to…”

“I will establish a new navy division, independent of the Army system. Just like AS Order, it will have its own system and will directly obey orders from the Central Military Department.” Jiang Chen looked at DS Qingpu and said, “The NAC trade route has been in the hands of outsiders for too long. It’s time to take it back.”

When Cheng Weiguo heard the General’s words, he solemnly straightened his back.

As the head of the First Division, he was the confidant around Jiang Chen from the very beginning. Of course, he knew the foreigner the General referred to.

“The next step is to build anti-aircraft cannons along the shore, echoing the electromagnetic pulse cannons of Chongming Island. We are currently not a threat to the Beluga Station at sea, so we must start from land infrastructures. Although we are on good terms with Beluga Station, you can never forget that this is the wasteland.”

“Roger,” Cheng Weiguo shouted.

“Good. I’m going to head back now.”

Jiang Chen nodded, turned, and walked to the armored car behind him.

Cheng Weiguo looked at the back of the armored car and watched it disappear at the end of the street.

…

When Jiang Chen arrived home, the aromatic smell of cooked meat lingered in the mansion.

Every time he came back, the mansion was always bustling.

Not only the NAC granary was filled, but the fridge in the mansion was also full. Although they never lacked food, items such as seafood which can’t be stored for long, could only be enjoyed during Jiang Chen’s return.

Today was no exception.

When Jiang Chen passed through Coconut Island, he brought a fridge-full of fresh seafood with him.

Therefore, the girls voted unanimously to eat hotpot for dinner that night

Yao Yao prepared her original hotpot soup base in the kitchen. Sun Jiao, who only knew how to serve the plates, helped to bring the hotpot to the table.

All eyes stared straight at the bubbling hotpot soup. Lin Lin’s little hand squeezed her fork tightly as she swallowed.

Xiaorou held her face with her hands and smiled while she swayed her slim legs under the table. She was hymning her favorite song that she wrote.

“… beef rolls, mutton rolls, and delicious cuttlefish, which one to eat first~”

Hotpot was really more delicious with more people.

The soup boiled, and Lin Lin who couldn’t wait tossed a plateful of mutton roll into the boiling hotpot, and soon the fragrance spread over the house. All eyes stared at the meat rolls rolling in the soup, and even Jiang Chen couldn’t wait for the meat to boil.

Amongst the cheers and laughter, the family ate hotpot and left a mess on the table.

After everyone cleaned the dishes together, Yao Yao returned to her room to read, Lin Lin went to the “Lin Institute.” As for Xiaorou, she went to the backyard. Every night, she practiced her ability to detonate crystals in the backyard as she tried to unlock her the third hidden gene code.

It was already her habit.

A habit that cost a lot of crystals.

There weren’t really many things for entertainment in the apocyalpse.

Other than enjoying food, there didn’t seem to be many interesting activities. Most people chose to spend their extra time at work. Even if they don’t have a job, they often found something to do, such as practicing shooting and learning.

In fact, Jiang Chen also thought about unlocking his hidden genetic code, except he couldn’t find a suitable way to practice his “Fury” ability. He couldn’t just lose his temper everyday. He thought his temper was pretty mild…

“This year, six hundred babies were born.”

After Sun Jiao entered the office, she grabbed two cans of beer and walked to Jiang Chen. She handed him a can and leaned against the bookshelf.

“Does this count as a lot or too little?” Jiang Chen asked.

Sun Jiao smiled and said with a sly voice, “This is considered a small baby boom. Four years ago, it was rare to see a few babies at the Sixth Street. Thanks to this, the Sixth Street has recently opened a baby goods store and has started to sell things like diapers.”

Jiang Chen nodded as he showed a pleasant smile.

“This is great. It indicates that our survivors have settled –”

“It doesn’t matter what happens to other people,” Sun Jiao interrupted. She stared at her toes and whispered, “I mean, I’m thinking, we should also have a child…”

Jiang Chen sighed slightly, and after a moment of silence, he whispered, “Let him be born in the last days?”

Sun Jiao’s lips were closed, and her eyes showed a hint of confusion.

She also knew, perhaps it would be better to wait just a bit longer, but just watching more and more children in the base strung a string in her heart that was never tough before.

Yes, this family was very big and warm, but she always felt like something was missing.

If she must say what, it may be a little life full of joy. Although she did not have the confidence to become a qualified mother, she vowed that she would work hard, give the maternal love she has never experienced before to her child, give her child a childhood that she has never enjoyed, and find all the irreparable things in that little life that she regretted before…

“Let’s wait.” Jiang Chen rubbed her soft hair.

“How much longer?” Sun Jiao pouted, her mood seemed to be down.

“When everything is over,” Jiang Chen looked at Sun Jiao and looked at the yellowish-green sky outside the window and sighed softly. “Someone must inherit all of this.”

Of course, maybe this was just his excuse.

It was just that he also didn’t have the self-confidence for the time being, to take up the responsibility of being a father…

Chapter 1150: Harmonious Scene

Chapter 1150 Harmonious Scene It was just daybreak when Jiang Chen opened his eyes and slightly moved his shoulders, only to find that his arms were firmly pressed.As if Sun Xiaorou sensed Jiang Chen’s movement, she muttered while she changed into a more comfortable position and continued to use his arm as a pillow

“Sister, sister… Xiaorou can’t eat anymore…”

With her cherry-red lips slightly pouted, Sun Jiao turned around and put her arm around Jiang Chen’s neck. With a sweet smile, she whispered in her dream.

“Just sleep for a bit longer.”

Looking at the peaceful sleeping beauty, Jiang Chen smiled.

No wonder they are sisters. The way they look in their sleep is exactly the same.

But because he was observing too closely, he noticed the unnaturalness of Sun Jiao’s face.

“Hmmm… you’re awake, right?”

Just as he said those words, he saw Sun Jiao’s long eyelashes move.

Although her trick was spotted, Sun Jiao didn’t plan to just let him escape. Her lips slightly opened and exaggerated snoring drifted out between her lips.

This girl…

Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head.

“Get up, there is still something we must do. Don’t stay in bed too long.”

Just when Jiang Chen tried to tickle Sun Jiao, Sun Xiaorou on the other side began to move.

“Hey, you noticed.”

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and wobblingly sat up. Sun Xiaorou, still not completely awake yet, smiled at Jiang Chen with blushed cheeks. Her messy hair did not interfere with her beauty. Nor did the loose pajamas on her body. Instead, they added a unique charm to her.

Sun Xiaorou watched Jiang Chen stare at her and she tilted her head. Then she smiled with a bit of confusion and a bit of shyness before she put her finger on her lips.

“Before saying good morning… don’t you want to do something first?”

…

Although he really wanted to do something, rationality ultimately won.

Jiang Chen snuck out from the bedroom, took some winter clothes from the bedside table, and got dressed. He leaned down and kissed the two on the forehead before he left the bedroom. When he went downstairs, Yao Yao, who was yawning, had already put delicious breakfast on the table.

As for the foodie Lin Lin, she already began to eat…

Jiang Chen moved a chair over and sat next to Yao Yao who happily pressed her little head against his shoulder and her pair of feet swayed in happiness.

With how sleepy Yao Yao looked, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but feel a little distressed.

Her symptoms of lethargy never went away despite her nutrition improving and her anemia being cured. There were even signs of aggravation. Her explanation was that the inhibitors used for the hibernation chambers had side effects similar to allergy symptoms, but Jiang Chen always suspected that it may be not as simple as the inhibitor’s side effects…

“Sister Sun Jiao and Sister Sun Xiaorou are still sleeping?”

“You don’t have to wake them up, let the two sleepy heads sleep for a bit longer,” Jiang Chen said while he rubbed Yao Yao’s fluffy hair.

“Hmm.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Yao Yao shook her head and began to pout.

Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao, slightly confused.

It may be his illusion, but he felt that the little girl’s emotion seemed to be low.

Is it because she didn’t sleep well?

“If you feel like you didn’t sleep enough, don’t force yourself, or… go back to sleep for a bit longer?”

“No need, Yao Yao has already woken up.” The small head shook back-and-forth as she clearly tried to act strong.

“It’s all because you are here, that’s why Yao Yao is getting up so early. If it’s normal days, I’m usually the one who prepares breakfast,” Lin Lin chewed on an egg roll and glared at Jiang Chen.

“Not at all! Obvi…obviously I just happened to get up today…” Yao Yao blushed and eyed Lin Lin, but her eyes didn’t show any fierceness.

“Humph,” Lin Lin swallowed the food in her mouth and spat out her tongue. With a tone of preaching, she began to lecture, “The delicious egg roll cannot fly into my mouth. If you don’t let some big bad guy know, he will take your efforts for granted. If you just watch in silence, your presence will be lower and lower. Until in the end, your feelings will be like your height, always so little.”

After leaving these words, Lin Lin did not give Yao Yao a chance to respond. She quickly put the last piece of egg roll into her mouth, took her plate, and headed to the kitchen.

“It won’t happen…” Lin Lin’s words seemed to pull a string in Yao Yao’s mind. Yao Yao pouted while her hands gently dragged onto Jiang Chen’s sleeves and tightened. She lowered her head while she muttered, “Humph, why are you acting cool, obviously you… you… can’t grow taller too.”

Grow taller?

Yao Yao should still be able to grow taller?

Lin Ling shouldn’t be able to grow taller. After all, the bones were replaced with titanium alloys. If she can grow taller, then that’s an issue.

Without understanding the conversation between Lin Lin and Yao Yao, Jiang Chen sat there, completely lost with half of an egg roll still stuffed in his mouth.

What’s happening today?

After he finished breakfast, Jiang Chen forcibly stopped Yao Yao from doing dishes and even picked up her up to send her to bed.

Jiang Chen saw the little girl blush as he tucked her in, leaned down, and kissed her on her forehead before he left the bedroom.

Back in the kitchen, Jiang Chen was about to clean up the plate, only to find that everything was cleaned.

He quickly realized what happened and smiled at the sight.

Although he always bantered with Lin Lin, he always knew that contrary to her bad mouth, Lin Lin was actually a very gentle person, just unable to express her feeling, or expressed it in the oddest way…

As he pushed open the door, the icy wind gusted into his face. He moved his stiff limbs passed the door before he ventured into the wind.

It was mid-September, but the wind brought on the resemblance of winter.

With Cheng Weiguo, Zhao Guang and several guards, Jiang Chen stepped onto the wall of the Fishbone Base

After the soldiers on duty saw him, they turned to face him, straightened their back and saluted. Their pupils were filled with respect and pride from the bottom of their heart. In NAC’s territory, and even to the more distant south, California, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean… The NAC General was a fabled name.

Jiang Chen looked at the rundown high-rise buildings outside the city wall and suddenly asked.

“Where did the wind blow from?”

Cheng Weiguo quickly thought about it and replied immediately.

“It should be from the north.”

Jiang Chen nodded and set his eyes to the far north and spoke to himself.

“Did the northern wind already start to blow?”

It’s getting colder and colder

Chapter 1151: War Or Peace

Chapter 1151 War Or Peace The endless smoke shrouded the entire horizon as rows of rockets whizzed off and targeted the far distance before they engulfed all the targets in explosions.The dust of the explosion swept across the battlefield. In deafening roars, the soldiers stood up from the bunker with their rifle, followed behind the tanks and armored vehicles that began to accelerate as they rushed toward the battlefield filled with black smoke…

The representatives from different forces looked at the rolling dust in the distance and revealed different expressions.

The representatives from the Northern Alliance Area scorned at the scene. Inheriting the weapons and tactics before the war, they were not afraid of the simple firepower bombardment. Only one weapon of the NAC caught their attention and that was the particle cannon capable of penetrating the Wanderer Tank.

Representatives of the Southern Survivors Alliance were in shock. They whispered around and exchanged opinions. Against the immense firepower, they did not have the confidence to even last through one round of bombardment. Even if the survivors of the entire south knitted tightly together into a rope, it would just be a rope against the mighty NAC…

Jiang Chen turned around and looked at the representatives from the south who look shell-shocked and smiled.

“How is the NAC military?”

Other than the Northern Alliance Area representatives’ disdain look, the representatives from the south all expressed their most sincere praises. They all willingly stated their intention to maintain a peaceful relationship…

A military exercise like this was conducted every year by the NAC.

On the one hand, the purpose was to enhance Jiang Chen’s presence of general who rarely appeared in front of people. On another hand, it was to maintain the combat effectiveness of the soldiers. It also served the purpose of consuming excess weapons inventory. Finally, it could deter the small survivor settlements around NAC. Four birds with one stone.

NAC was rich, too rich.

The three Gardens of Edens had almost monopolized the food trade in half of the Pan-Asia region. The inexhaustible amount of iron, aluminum, and rare earth minerals made people envious. The Sixth Street that completed industrialization transported countless amounts of industrially manufactured goods to the surrounding survivor settlements, used trade to plunder the crystals, resources, and even the population and land of other survivor settlements…

To ensure the smooth flow of the trade routes, it was not enough to rely on guards. From time to time, it was important to gather the representatives of the local forces to flex NAC’s muscles to show the true ruler of the land.

In the distance, a Tiger II had already bulldozed through the smoky battlefield. The soldiers fired alternatively to maintain constant suppression. Under the cover of machine-gun firepower, they pushed toward the target area. Soon, in the center of the battlefield a few kilometers away, the banner of NAC waved high in the air.

The entire military exercise was coming to an end…

The already unimpressed representatives of the Northern Alliance Area scorned and left without saying anything. Representatives of other survivors’ settlements sighed with relief and expressed their gratitude to Jiang Chen, and then left in a hurry.

“What do you think? That’s the power of the First Corp.”

Cheng Weiguo said with a hearty smile.

“Very impressive,” Jiang Chen nodded and looked at the black smoke that gradually dissipated in the distance. After a moment of pause, he suddenly sighed with some emotion. “I just feel that something is missing.”

Cheng Weiguo pondered for a moment and a frown began to show. However, he couldn’t interpret the general’s message.

In the distance, the soldiers have been lined up, boarded the trucks in order, and withdrew from the battlefield in an orderly manner.

Han Junhua provided the most suitable tactics for NAC. The tactic of using firepower at random and then rushing to the target was now replaced by tactics where the armored vehicles and tanks worked together with infantry. However, Jiang Chen looked at the black smoke that was slowing fading and felt something was missing.

What is it?

Not only did Cheng Weiguo fail to understand the message in his words, but even Jiang Chen himself also could not fully understand.

Perhaps because he could separate from the world at any time, he always looked at the problems from the perspective of an outsider. In some places, he has always been more sensitive than the indigenous people of this world.

Of course, it may just be his illusion.

At this time, Lu Minghui, the bishop of the Guardian Sect, who left with the representatives walked to him with a dignified look.

The guard noticed that he was approaching Jiang Chen and stopped him.

“What’s the matter,” Jiang Chen raised his hand to indicate that the guard could be at ease, “Mr. Bishop?”

Lu Minghui leaned in and whispered, “If I dare to ask Mr. General, is our covenant still in place?”

Jiang Chen slightly frowned and looked at him with confusion. “Of course… What do you mean?”

Lu Minghui smiled bitterly.

“This is a long story…”

…

Indeed, a long story.

After half an hour, the bishop finally explained the situation to Jiang Chen.

This was the case.

The CCCP tank formation appeared in the northern part of Shangjing. It immediately took over the military outpost established by the Shangjing Survivors Alliance in Badaling. The local survivors immediately organized coalition forces for defense, but the effort was completely futile against the CCCP’s steel torrent.

As one of the survivor forces of Shangjing, the Guardian Sect naturally sent people, but the results were obvious. If they won, then Lu Minghui wouldn’t be here seeking for help.

Jiang Chen took a while to digest the information from the bishop.

In the map from before the war, no matter from which direction, the border between the CCCP and the Pan-Asia Cooperation was hundreds of kilometers away from Shangjing.

Didn’t the world government already leave the Earth? Where did the CCCP tank come from? Why did they suddenly become interested in Pan-Asia Cooperation?

However, these issues were not the focus.

The point was, was NAC going to head north?

Jiang Chen did not immediately reply to Lu Minghui. After he returned to the Fishbone base, he immediately convened the top officials of the military government to discuss possible countermeasures.

Regarding whether or not to send troops, the military government was also divided into two factions.

One faction supports sending troops, and the other faction naturally opposed…

“…NAC needs time to grow and nourish, not to mention the nuclear winter is just becoming more and more severe. The northern territories are meaningless to us. Our covenant with the Guardian Sect only promises to allow them to remain in Wanghai in an autonomous region after the restoration of the Holy Shield. This has nothing to do with the covenant.” After a pause, Chu Nan went on to say, “I propose that instead of sending troops, it is better to fulfill the promises in advance and help them move south.”

“Mutants and zombies can stop flesh, but they can’t stop iron. If they are coming for us, then there is no meaning in deferring.” Han Junhua said without emotion, “The best choice at this time is to stop the CCCP tanks in the Shangjing region and prevent them from moving south.”

“Please pay attention to your identity,” Chu Nan glanced at Han Junhua, being vocal of his opinion. “I remember that Advisor Han is a NAC Advisor, not a Pan-Asia Cooperation Advisor.”

“I am standing in the position of NAC. Of course, I’m only an advisor. As for the decision…” She was not bothered by Chu Nan’s words, instead, she looked at Jiang Chen with the same expressionless state, “Please decide.”

Everyone looked at Jiang Chen and waited for Jiang Chen’s decision.

The military government was a dictatorial government. There was no vote or democracy. All soldiers were only loyal to the same great existence – The General of the NAC.

No matter the result and no matter which side of the balance everyone was tipping towards.

War or peace was at his whim.

Chapter 1152: NAC Needs A War

Chapter 1152 NAC Needs A War

After a long pause, Jiang Chen stood up and looked around at the top officials of the military government, then said slowly.

“NAC has been at peace for too long.”

Chu Nan secretly sighed.

When he heard this sentence, he already guessed Jiang Chen’s choice.

However, he did not have any dissatisfaction in his mind. Even if he did not agree with the choice to fight the north, he would execute Jiang Chen’s orders without reservation.

The military government had no bureaucrats, only soldiers. The duty of soldiers was to obey the superior without any doubt.

“I know that war is never a good thing. I also know that NAC needs time to grow.” After a pause, Jiang Chen raised his voice, “But the space for survival never grows by itself. We can’t hope CCCP knows to take the gains. We are very wealthy, wealthy to the point that survivors across the Pacific know about our wealth. If we don’t take care of the problem outside our border, then the trouble will come to us. If Shangjing falls, we will be next.”

“This is not about the covenant, but about us.”

“NAC needs a war.”

“Now.”

Jiang Chen responded to the eyes focused on him and said word by word.

Peace had lasted for too long. After the expansion of NAC’s territory to Wu City, it stopped its expansion. IT was not just the soldiers who began to slack, but every survivor under the NAC. In fact, from the beginning of the baby boom, Jiang Chen began to sense something had changed.

It was also for the same reason that he had the idea of ”something was missing” in the military exercise.

Until this moment, Jiang Chen finally understood what was missed.

NAC’s force was still the same, but the sharp blade lost the taint of blood.

Long-lasting peace had begun to rust the war machine. As civilization gradually recovered, the survivors had even begun to forget that they were on the wasteland, not the good times before the war.

War was the main theme of the wasteland.

Only the war could sweep away the mottled rust and let NAC, the behemoth born for war, re-energize its vitality.

Just as Jiang Chen’s voice faded, Cheng Weiguo immediately stood up, full of excitement.

“I’m willing to lead the First Corp!”

“The First Corp must stay put,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “Your mission is to build defense along the coast.”

“But…” Cheng Weiguo’s expression was a little eager.

“No need to say more, I have already decided,” Jiang Chen raised his hand and stopped Cheng Weiguo’s words, “I am going to lead the troops to the north!”

…

War!

When the notice of war was posted on the public notice board, the expression of every NAC survivor was not gloomy but full of excitement.

That’s right, excitement!

Countless powerful opponents once stood in front of the NAC, but they lost to the General. Now the General had decided to “lead the army”, almost no one thought about the possibility of failure. In everyone’s mind, General meant victory.

The survivors lined up in front of the conscription points and eagerly looked in front of them with the goal of becoming a member of the expeditionary army. With a pocket full of war bonds, the merchants squeezed out from the crowded banks with satisfaction.

Stimulated by countless arms orders, the military factories in the Sixth Street operated like clockwork and pushed their capacity to the limit.

From the workers to the soldiers, every gear on the NAC war machine spun under the command of the war and it shook the land it stood on. Over the three-day period, 5,000 reverses were mobilized and completed the assembly in the northern suburbs of Wanghai. With Jiang Chen’s order, they could board the airship and fly north.

Of course, not everyone liked this war.

For example, Jiang Chen’s family, especially Sun Jiao, were full of resentment of the idea that he must leave two days after his return.

“It’s hard for you to come back. Can’t you just stay home for a while?” The delicious food lost its taste, and the chopsticks were placed on the bowls. Sun Jiao held her chin with one hand and sighed in resentment.

The dinner that was supposed to be full of joy was now somewhat gloomy. Even Lin Lin, who always expressed her appreciation for Yao Yao’s cooking, moved her chopsticks at a slower rate.

“It’s not that I don’t want to stay at home, but the trouble came too unexpectedly.” Jiang Chen helplessly shrugged.

“Can’t you let other people go? For example, Han Junhua since she is very good anyway.” Sun Jiao was persistent.

“It can only be me,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “To maintain the prestige of the general, I must do something. I have been sitting behind the scenes for too long, it is time for me to make another appearance.”

Sun Jiao sighed and no longer tried to persuade him. She knew his personality very well. Although he was very easy-going most of the time and would act freely at her will, for matters that involved principles, it was difficult to persuade him.

“Be careful.”

“Mhmm,” Jiang Chen responded with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry too much, you know my ability.”

Sun Jiao threw a menacing stare at Jiang Chen with her eyes red.

“I know, that’s why I’m afraid that you’ll not be careful!”

Jiang Chen focused on Sun Jian and watched her silently before he responded to the eyes full of care with a smile.

“I promise I will be careful.”

Yao Yao pouted, then began to eat.

Lin Lin rolled her eyes, exaggeratedly spat out her tongue, and turned her head away from looking at the two people staring at each other.

The table suddenly turned quiet.

An odd quietness.

Just then, with her hands holding her chin, Sun Xiaorou, who didn’t speak at all, suddenly broke the silence.

“Speaking of which… Who will accompany brother-in-law on this expedition?”

The table was silent and soon fell into a deeper silence than before. Even Lin Lin put down her chopsticks.

Yao Yao secretively raised her small head and glanced at Jiang Chen. Then, her eyes quickly escaped to the window.

With her hands still holding her chin, Xiaorou smiled and looked at the petrified Jiang Chen.

Who should I choose?

Jiang Chen’s expression was a little awkward, and he realized the unnatural state of the atmosphere.

It seemed like a hard choice regardless…

At this moment, his eyes met with Xiaorou’s grin in her eyes.

Behind her, he seemed to see the tail of a little devil waving to him.

Jiang Chen suddenly realized what happened as he facepalmed.

This girl definitely did this intentionally!

Fortunately, she did not continue to make it difficult for Jiang Chen.

The little devil smiled, put her finger on her lips, and changed the subject.

“Well… in short, let’s wash the dishes first?”

Chapter 1153: The Minature Holy Shield

Chapter 1153 The Minature Holy Shield

Even after they had cleaned up the dishes, the family still didn’t manage to decide who would accompany Jiang Chen to Shangjing.

Jiang Chen then went to the washroom.

Just as he pushed open the door again and planned to go upstairs, he saw Lin Lin standing in the hallway.

She didn’t look like she was waiting to go to the washroom, but instead was waiting for him.

Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin strangely, then asked.

“Is something up?”

“Follow me, I have something for you.”

Lin Lin did not wait for Jiang Chen to answer and headed straight to the backyard.

Jiang Chen did not understand what her intention was as he looked at her back. However, since Lin Lin was not Xiaorou after all, she wouldn’t be pulling a prank on him.

With this thought in mind, Jiang Chen Chen followed Lin Lin curiously to the backyard.

The Moon scattered its light in the silent night. The north wind passed through the sparse branches of the autumn leaves and disturbed the previous silence.

The cold air sneaked into Jiang Chen’s neck along the collar of his shirt as he instantly felt the coolness of the night. Looking at Lin Lin’s slender and thin back, Jiang Chen took a coat with a fluffy collar from the storage dimension and covered her.

Perhaps the cold fingers accidentally touched her neck, Lin Lin shook like a startled rabbit and jumped forward. She then turned around and stared straight at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen put down the hands hanging in the air and looked at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, nothing…” Lin Lin grabbed the collar of the coat with both hands and tightened it around her to hide her cheek in the fluff. Through the fluff, she whispered, “What, what did you do?”

“What did I do? I was afraid that you would be cold.”

“…” Lin Lin said. “Actually… I’m not afraid of the cold.”

“I almost forgot,” Jiang Chen said, “You are a digitalized human.”

For a digitalized human, it should be easy for her to regulate her body temperature. In this way, his behavior seems to be extraneous.

However, for some odd reason, after she heard Jiang Chen’s words, Lin Lin’s cheeks suddenly turned red and she started to act shy.

“Really?”

“Really? Really what.”

“You said, you almost…” She whispered halfway before she suddenly stopped. Then she looked up to Jiang Chen, shook her heads, and cheerfully smiled. “Oh, nothing.”

“What?” Jiang Chen did not hear her words clearly and continued to stare at her. “Right, give back my clothes since you don’t need it anyway.”

“Not giving it back!” Lin Lin giggled and jumped forward. She then turned around, spat out her tongue, and made a funny face. “Not giving it back, it is now mine! Come and get it if you can~”

The long silver hair exuded a faint silver glow in the moonlight, and with her innocent hops, it flowed like waves on the sandy beach.

Jiang Chen twitched at the scene of Lin Lin hopping in front of him.

How can I get it!

If I really got it off of her body, I’d be a pervert?!

“Forget it, it’s yours now,” Jiang Chen sighed, “You said you were going to give me something? This coat is my gift to you.”

He didn’t wear that coat many times anyway. It was just something he kept in the storage dimension as a spare.

Since Lin Lin liked it, it was hers to keep.

The two passed through the backyard and came to the Lin Institute.

When they walked into the lab, Lin Lin closed the door and immediately walked in front of a computer and tapped a few buttons on the touchpad. The dark green data loading bar flashed through the holographic screen, and several characters made up the dialog box popped up in front of Lin Lin.

It was also the same time Lin Lin clicked the last button.

Soon, the black box next to her began to make the sound of gas leaking.

Milky white mist escaped from the edges. The black lacquered lid slowly moved backward.

From the gas that floated toward him, Jiang Chen felt a hint of coolness.

In the mist, a black cube rested inside. Its size was no different from a Rubik’s cube, but the engraving had a sense of mechanical perfection. Jiang Chen couldn’t guess what it was just by looking at its appearance alone.

Lin Lin walked next to it and picked up the cube from the cooling trough.

Immediately afterward, Lin Lin stepped in front of Jiang Chen, reached out, and solemnly handed the cube into his hand. With a generous expression, she said.

“Here, yours now.”

That expression made it look like this item was extremely valuable.

Jiang Chen was confused as he weighed the Rubik’s Cube in his hand and the coldness permeated through his skin.

“What is this?”

“Something amazing!” Lin Lin proudly raised her small chest, proud. “You can wear it on you.”

“How can such a big thing be worn on the body,” Jiang Chen looked at the Rubik’s Cube in his hand and turned it around a few times. “And, what is this?”

“A shield generator, I removed it from the Holy Shield System and printed one with 3D printing technology,” Lin Lin said proudly.

The restoration work of the Holy Shield System was far more troublesome than imagined. Although the Guardian Sect mastered information about the system, it was not until the beginning of the restoration process that the two parties discovered the difficulty of restoring the entire system.

As a research center of NAC’s cutting-edge technology, Lin Lin and her two thousand sisters, of course, also participated in the restoration work of the Holy Shield System. In Jiang Chen’s hand was a sub-generator of the Holy Shield System.

After Lin Lin’s modification, the generator was reduced to the size of a two-meters radius. Without any attack power, it could defend against nuclear weapons at medium and long distances.

“If there is any danger, you can twist here.”

Lin Lin took the black cube back and twisted the top half halfway.

Light blue particles began to shimmer like fireflies, The particles emerged from the air one after another and surrounded the two. In the center of the laboratory, the particles formed a circle of soap bubbles-like film.

The pale blue light curtain began to take shape, and it was even possible to see reflections on the thin film.

Jiang Chen was astonished.

“This is the Holy Shield…”

“The miniature version of the Holy Shield. You can interpret it this way.” Lin Lin added.

Jiang Chen extended his right hand, but when he touched the film, he stopped and looked back at Lin Lin. With his eyes, he asked if he could do this. Lin Lin responded with a smile before Jiang Chen pressed his hand against the thin film

A very soft feeling. It was completely unimaginable that this thin, gauze shield could withstand nuclear attacks. Jiang Chen tried to use force, but even as his hand pressed against the film, he could not push out at all.

Surprised, Jiang Chen knocked on the thin film and looked at the ripples, astonished.

“What is the principle behind this?”

“What you’re touching is a layer of ‘Graviton’. The high-energy ‘graviton’ layer can prevent energy and material from penetrating and forces it to bypass the target. In the strict sense, this layer of the shield is a solidified version of a force field.” Lin Lin explained the working principle with technical terminology that Jiang Chen could not understand.

Jiang Chen, as if seemingly understood, nodded, and immediately asked her the question he was most concerned about.

“Can this work on vehicles?”

Lin Lin shook her head.

“No. Moving will change the state of the shield generator, which will cause the shield to fail. The specific explanation is very troublesome, but it works like this.” Lin Lin gently shook the black box in her hand.

The shield was like a layer of gel hit by a bullet, fading like ripples. It was not until Lin Lin stopped did the shield regenerate.

The regenerated shield pushed Jiang Chen’s hand back into the shield.

Looking at the light blue film, Jiang Chen sighed and gave up the idea of putting this on tanks

In a moving environment, it was almost impossible to not change the motion state of an object. A bump could disperse the shield. It was obviously not meaningful to have such a shield on the tank. Perhaps this was the reason Pan-Asia Cooperation used the Holy Shield as a land-based urban defense system and didn’t implement it into the battlefield.

After Lin Lin removed the shield, she walked next to Jiang Chen and gave him the Rubik’s cube.

“In short,” Lin Lin bit her lip and hesitated for a moment. Then, she finally made up her mind, looked away, and whispered, “Come back safely.”

The quiet murmur made Jiang Chen stop.

Such thoughtful words didn’t fit Lin Lin’s style.

The usual her would be showing off the technical content of the shield technology with technical terms he didn’t understand, stare at Jiang Chen, as if he were primitive, then mock him before she finally asked for mango puddings as a reward…

Today, however, she was very unusual.

“Why…why are you looking at me?” Seeing Jiang Chen was staring at her, Lin Lin whispered.

Jiang Chen suddenly extended his hand and rubbed her head.

“That’s enough, I’m just going on a trip. Don’t make it feel like a life or death situation. You’re making me nervous.”

With a red face, Lin Lin bit her lower lip, tightened her fists, and slammed her fists against Jiang Chen’s chest.

“I’m trying to care about you! No, who, who cares about you! Humph!…”

Halfway through her words, Lin Lin’s tone suddenly softened.

Her two small fists were held by Jiang Chen’s palms.

Feeling the warmth, the pair of tightened fists trembled and gradually loosened.

Strange, digitalized humans shouldn’t feel hot…

“I will definitely come back safely.”

Jiang Chen gently squeezing Lin Lin’s little hands and responded to the eyes escaping around. Then he smiled.

“I promise you.”

Chapter 1154: Eden Technology

1154 Eden Technology

In the morning of the next day, Jiang Chen held another “family meeting” that he didn’t have for a long time to continue to discuss the same issue.

After a brief introduction, the silence lasted for a long time. Then, Sun Jiao sighed and broke the silence.

“How about… I go?”

“No, sister is Miss General. Either you or brother-in-law must stay here.” Sun Xiaorou shook her head.

Although very reluctant, Sun Jiao was more understanding. She just sighed and gave up the idea.

Then, after a long debate, she looked at Sun Xiaorou.

“How about… you? Remember to look after him for me! Otherwise, we’ll have to add another pair of chopsticks at home.”

Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen maliciously.

Jiang Chen revealed a helpless expression.

Am I that scandalous?

However, the thought only existed for a moment and he agreed himself.

Uh… seems like I really am?

After Xiaorou heard her sister’s words, she smiled but did not immediately agree.

Just then, a hand slowly raised up and was accompanied by a quiet voice.

“Can… can I go?”

All eyes focused on her.

Scared by all the gazes on her, Yao Yao almost put down her hand again.

“If… if I can’t, then… just…”

She weakly defended herself and was just about to give up on the idea, when something in her mind pushed her further.

The little girl shook her head with force and shook away her weakness. With courage, she no longer doubted herself. Her hands clinched tight and she looked at Jiang Chen with certainty.

Yao Yao?

Although the fact that Yao Yao could have the courage to suggest the idea impressed Jiang Chen, bringing Yao Yao…

Jiang Chen was hesitant.

To be honest, he favored Sun Xiaorou more. Whether it was her force or intelligence, it made more sense to choose her. She could be a bodyguard, an advisor, and at night…

Of course, this was not to say that he did not like Yao Yao. On the contrary, he liked this well-behaved and gentle girl. Hugging her had a kind of magic that could make him feel peaceful and happy.

But he was going to the battlefield. If he must use some energy to take care of Yao Yao, he was worried that accidents may happen to her.

She seemed to have read Jiang Chen’s hesitation as she lowered her head and whispered.

“I’ll be very obedient, super obedient… and, I will cook too…”

Yao Yao began to blush as her face turned completely red and she lowered her head even more.

Just now, she also realized her ability didn’t seem to fit a combat role? On the battlefield, she wouldn’t be of help to big brother and would instead become cumbersome…

Just as little loli was about to cry, Lin Lin suddenly said.

“Eden Technology.”

“What?” Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin and wondered why she would inexplicably say this.

“I suddenly remembered,” Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen, “The headquarters of Eden Technology is in Shangjing.”

“Eden Technology?” Xiaorou pressed her finger against her lower lip, “Is that the Garden of Eden technology?”

“The Garden of Eden Project is developed by Eden Technology, but the Garden of Eden Project is just one of Eden Technology’s projects,” Lin Lin said, “In addition to the Garden of Eden Project, Eden Technology had also led many Pan-Asia Cooperation brainstorming projects.”

“Brainstorming projects?” Jiang Chen had to interrupt.

“Stupid. As the name suggests,” Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen as if he was an idiot and began to explain.

World War Three broke out in 2171, but it began to brew as early as the economic crisis of 2150. When the think tanks of all the countries reached the same conclusion, being that the probability of war breaking out being more than 50%, then the war was inevitable.

It was just the question of who would take the first shot.

In order to become a survivor of the war, the countries began to throw the continuously depreciated currency into the research institute. The Scientific Ethics Committee that originally restricted the academic world also began to exist only as a formality. Various humane or inhumane experiments began to surface.

Not just weapons, but also projects like fallout shelter projects and post-war recovery plans.

And all of these research projects were jokingly called the brainstorming projects by Lin Lin.

In addition, some projects could only be described as brainstorming projects.

Including FEV virus, Genetic Vaccines, the Holy Shield System, Fallout Shelter No.005… These were the products of the bewildered thoughts of scientific research institutions around the world. Some of which had a miraculous effect, while others didn’t quite serve the purpose they intended to serve.

Of course, there were still some more difficult to define.

For example, another epic research project of Eden Technology – Cell Bank of Eden.

As one of the “brainstorming projects” during the war preparation period, Eden Technology scientists used multiple sets of quantum computers to laterally compare hundreds of millions of human somatic DNA sequences, deducing the original DNA sequence of humans and restoring the cells of modern human ancestors.

“…so, this thing finally proved that humans evolved from monkeys?” Jiang Chen had a strange expression.

Apart from this reason, he really couldn’t think of any other purpose.

“It is not to prove such a superficial problem.” Lin Lin glared at Jiang Chen. “In the pre-war preparation period, all national research projects had only two intentions. One was to kill the enemy with the most efficient and cheapest means. The other one was to survive.”

“Then the cell bank…” Jiang Chen frowned.

“I need the information inside,” Lin Lin said bluntly. “When I was in hospital, I heard my father mention this cell bank. It’s hard to say now, but I can be sure that the information inside is crucial.”

Jiang Chen nodded. “I will pay attention to it.”

“Are we are not discussing who should go with Jiang Chen?” Sun Jiao was still a bit let down.

“The security level of the cell bank is Class A. If you don’t want to mess with the 3,000 security drones inside, it is best to bring a hacker.” Lin Lin smiled and put her arm around Yao Yao’s shoulder. “Last year, Yao Yao’s hacking ability already received a S rating.”

Jiang Chen was stunned.

Being hugged by Lin Lin, the little girl blushed. She looked around with uneasiness, then shyly said.

“It’s not something worth mentioning…”

Jiang Chen smiled.

“Can I count on you?”

“Mhmm!” Her eyes shone with the glory of hope. Yao Yao nodded hard and vowed, “I… I will work very hard!”

“You don’t have to work too hard. With Yao Yao’s level, you can do it easily.” Sun Xiaorou also grinned, while she covered her mouth. She also expressed her certainty to Yao Yao.

“Then it’s decided!” Sun Jiao said, “Yao Yao will go. Yao Yao, remember to look after this bad guy for me! Don’t let him bring another girl back!”

Jiang Chen made a helpless expression. “Let’s not talk about the last sentence yet… Can you change my nickname first?”

“No, brother-in-law is a big bad guy.” Sun Xiaorou chucked and turned to Yao Yao. “Well… I’m most worried about Yao Yao. If it is Yao Yao, Yao Yao might be eaten by the big bad wolf?”

Eyes stared straight at the table, Yao Yao’s head was lowered, silent. She had a silly smile on and her cheeks to her earlobe were completely red.

Jiang Chen stared viciously at Sun Xiaorou.

“Am I that bad?”

Sun Xiaorou made an innocent expression.

Perhaps it was Jiang Chen’s illusion. At this moment, he accidentally saw a hint of disappointment in Yao Yao’s excited expression.

Chapter 1155: A Disaster Caused by a Can of Canned Food

Chapter 1155 A Disaster Caused by a Can of Canned Food

The wind, sharp as knife, gusted across the frozen soil.

It was the middle of autumn, but the brick and gravel was covered by a layer of frost.

The boots stepped on the rubble between the broken walls and made a creaking sound. The cold muzzle pointed at every shadow inside the ruins and fired occasionally. Black cotton gloves searched through the blood-stained bodies as they did not miss a single loot.

Even a winter coat, rugged, was dissected of its burnt cotton core and temperature control chip and loaded onto the supply truck.

As for the corpses completely looted, they were piled up in an open area. The hungry mutants feasted on them and saved them the effort of incineration.

Incineration required fuel, and with winter on the way, they didn’t want to waste a single bit of fuel, let alone waste it on the dead.

Five hundred meters away from the Badaling Military Outpost, hundreds of different types of tanks were quietly parked on the open ground, surrounded by dozens of base vehicles the size of old-fashioned trains. The large-sized tires sank into the dirt, and the four-mounted crawler carried the entire carriage.

Lines of soldiers wore kinetic skeletons and patrolled the camp. Even Death Claws could sense the deadliness from the organized force. They gritted their sharp fangs, but didn’t dare to advance a single step.

These Russians never set up camp.

The base vehicles surrounded by tanks were their barracks, warehouses and even factories. With the chassis lowered, the workers could pick up the hammers and sickles and begin working.

They used to be CCCP Border Guards, stationed in the frozen soil in the easternmost part of Siberia, to defend against NATO in Alaska across the sea. They inherited the legacy of the Soviets and ended their mission in the tenth year after the war. They began to migrate south.

No longer with an organization, they were like the nomads a few centuries ago, and cities were their pasture.

From the wilderness of the land of the extreme east of Siberia, all the way to the south, to the land of Pan-Asia Cooperation. Just like countless locusts, they crushed the seed of civilization and ravaged the ruins of the city until nothing was left…

In order to survive, they had already pushed their survival skill to the limit. No one knew the essence of scavenging more than they did. Even the most experienced scavengers in Wanghai would feel hopeless scavenging a city visited by the Russians.

Now, they finally survived the barren land and arrived at the fabled rich soil…

“The weather here is comparable to our spring.”

The man with a full moustache on the chair looked out the window and grinned. The wrinkles on his face twisted together. If he had an eye patch and a captain’s hat, he would look like a pirate from centuries ago.

On the table in front of him, there was a small half bottle of vodka. The galvanized sickle and hammer had worn out and it left only the bare surface.

He had been drinking this bottle for almost half a year. He usually would leave it in his box, except for when he was in a good mood. He would unscrew the cork, have a small sip, and reminiscent the good old times.

Obviously, his mood was great.

Quite great.

Just as he looked out of the window, the door of the base vehicle was pushed open. A middle-aged man in a CCCP military coat stepped his boot in. The man then stood straight and saluted.

“The supply statistics are complete.”

“How is the harvest?” Yegor asked, relaxed.

“Quite great! More than fifty boxes of nutrient supplies above Grade C. Enough to last us for half a month,” Sminov replied.

“Indeed, the rich soil,” Yegor raised an eyebrow before a cruel smile appeared. The wrinkles on his face became more and more menacing. “A military outpost harvest is almost the same as a survivor settlement in the Siberian wasteland.”

He was smiling happily, although in the eyes of others, this smile was horrifying.

“In addition, we found this in their commander’s personal belongings.” Sminov took an aluminum can from his waist and handed it over.

The smile on Yegor’s face froze.

Then it was shock, disbelief, and ecstasy.

He grabbed a can on the table, grabbed the dagger on the table, and cut a hole in the can. The oily gravy immediately oozed out along the edge of the knife. In less than ten seconds, the entire room was filled with the smell of marinated beef.

Sminov swallowed and looked away. He tried his best not to look at the can.

Yegor smeared the blade against his tongue, felt the aroma spread out on his taste buds, and licked his tongue. He tried to make the deliciousness stay on the tip of his tongue longer. Right now, he was almost in tears because of excitement.

Suddenly, Yegor woke up.

He first glanced at Sminov and saw that he didn’t look in his direction. Then he covered the crack on the can with his thumb and turned the can on its back. He saw that the bottom of the can had a small line of text.

[Fishbone Brand Canned Beef]

[Materials: beef, salt, monosodium glutamate, spices…]

[Production Date: 2192]

Sure enough, it was produced after the war!

Yegor felt his heart pounding, just like a beautiful woman had stripped naked and was teasing him.

Canned beef!

He couldn’t remember the last time he ate meat.

Ten years ago? Fifteen years ago?

However, the most exciting thing he wanted to shout was, the whatever bone base was not afraid of other people knowing its location, it even left another line of text after the date of production.

[Origin: Wanghai Sixth Street Food Processing Factory]

Yegor stared at Sminov as he put the canned beef aside,

“How many more canned beefs do we have?”

Sminov lowered his head and replied.

“That’s all. But in the private baggage of other soldiers, we also found something like compressed crackers, instant noodles, etc…”

“Are they all Fishbone Brand?”

“Precisely…” Sminov nodded.

“Excellent!” Yegor inserted the knife into the aluminum table, and suddenly stood up, laughing hysterically. “Great Fishbone! God bless East Siberian Border Guards! Sure enough, heaven is in the south!”

After that, Yegor glanced at Sminov and ordered.

“Under my command, the army shall advance 20 kilometers in the southeast direction. In addition, send the 13th Tank Squadron into the city to test the strength of Shangjing survivors! If they are just a bunch of fat sheep, we’ll push in!”

“Yes Sir!” Sminov saluted and left.

“After taking over Shangjing, we will go all the way to the south, and take a look at Wanghai! We’ll see how much cattle they have, how much fertile land they have! ”

Looking at the canned beef on the table, Yegor laughed.

All the resistance would be turned into a dust under the tanks!

No one could stop his steel torrent!

No one! No organization!

Yegor gazed emotionally into the distance as he licked his thumb full of meat juice.

Chapter 1156: Battle Outside the Sixth Ring Road

1156 Battle Outside the Sixth Ring Road “ACHOOO!!”On the deck of AS Order, Jiang Chen, who was just having the moment of his life, suddenly sneezed.

“Do you feel cold?” The little Loli next to him immediately handed him a tissue, then softly said, “Would you like me to go get you a coat?”

“No, no,” Jiang Chen took the tissue in embarrassment and cleaned himself, then tossed the tissue down the ship, “I don’t think a coat is necessary. I am not cold. I guess someone is thinking about me. (1)”

Although Yao Yao was still worried, she nodded in acknowledgment.

That’s probably true since when big brother left, everyone was very sad…

But the thought of big brother belonging to her for the next month made her feel warm inside.

I hope that there will be no twists and turns in this journey.

The girl prayed silently.

Above Yancheng, the steel’s bow peaked out from the clouds like the head of a great white shark. The giant and menacing jaw ripped through the clouds ahead. The vortex engine on the wings on both sides left behind long marks, dividing the sky. Ten airships engraved with the NAC badge followed, led by AS Order, they were arranged into a V-shaped formation above the clouds, advancing toward the north.

The survivors who lingered between the ruins looked up and envied the behemoth as they showed a look of fear and uneasiness. The brutal mutated humans hid, fearful of peeking their heads out of their windows. Even the dull-headed Dead Claw trembled under the power of NAC.

5,000 expeditionary forces; 5,000 high-spirited soldiers.

United under the banner of the General, no one would doubt the victory of this expedition.

Jiang Chen looked at the far north and narrowed his eyes as the cold wind blew onto his face.

The outline of Chuyun Port was looming in the distance and there were only two hundred more kilometers before they leave the province. CCCP tanks already rolled into Badaling, so the survivors of Shangjing probably wouldn’t be able to withstand them for too long. A tough battle awaited the expeditionary army.

The Russians in this world were likely not be as friendly as the Russians in the other world…

However, Jiang Chen would never have thought that a can of beef already made NAC a target for those Russians that just rolled into the Central Plains.

Speaking of which, indicating the origin on the can was something he proposed. As for the purpose, it was meant to “gain investments” and “attract immigrants”. The historical data also proved that many inland survivors immigrated to Wanghai after they saw the origin on the can.

The capability to produce food and trade food meant strength in the wasteland.

As for the troubles associated with the idea…

They never mattered. Too many people targeted NAC, and NAC never worried about having another enemy. Even without the words on the can, being such a large force, NAC would never be able to hide. Also, due to being such a large force Jiang Chen never feared.

Soon, he would let those Russians know who the real target is.

…

The steel fleet rolled on the city road. Five tanks and five infantry vehicles were divided into two front and rear echelons, quietly moving in the direction of Sixth Ring Road north of Changping.

They did not encounter any resistance along the away.

As early as the fall of the Badaling Military Outpost, the survivors of the northern suburbs were evacuated to the Haidian area as they dragged their families into larger survivor settlements. Other than two Dead Claws who asked for their own deaths, they did not see a single soul.

Sedov, with the captain’s helmet, sat inside the tank. He scanned the surrounding streets emotionlessly through a digital wide-angle screen.

When he passed a derelict supermarket, he suddenly sneered.

He raised his hand and ordered.

“Stop!”

The tanks and vehicles stopped.

The street was deathly silent, just as if a storm was forming.

Soon, two of the infantry vehicles opened its hatch and released a half-human-tall spider robot.

Eight steel mechanical legs moved rapidly, and soon the spider robot rushed to the intersection of the street a hundred meters ahead. It stopped next to a toppled garbage can and then two robotic arms popped out before reaching inside the tank.

Just as the robotic arms touched the plastic bag inside, an explosion suddenly swallowed the robot, sending half of the street ablaze.

“Three o’clock, high explosive munition. Fire!”

The muzzles of the five tanks aimed at the supermarket on the side of the road.

Without the slightest sign, five explosions detonated.

With a loud bang, the entire supermarket seemed to be ravaged by a storm and almost collapsed The survivors hiding in the supermarket screamed and fled, but they were quickly hit by the second round of shells. The already rundown supermarket was destroyed and collapsed in ruins.

“Damn it!”

In the building five hundred meters away, a man in a winter jacket smashed his fist against the table.

Based on this plan, when those Russian tanks passed by the roadside bomb, they would detonate the bomb. Then the soldiers ambushing in the supermarket would use rocket launchers to take out the infantry vehicles in the back.

However, the plan failed before it even got executed.

“Where is the problem,” gritting his teeth, the man looked at the battlefield two streets away with gloom in his eyes.

The ambush failed, so the only option is to stop them with bodies.

DADADADADA-

The infantry vehicles dispersed, and a dozen soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons jumped out of the hatch and searched for strategic locations.

The heavy machine guns spat out its furry, sweeping across the collapsed walls. They tore the concrete bunkers and the flesh of Shangjing survivors together.

“Their firepower is too strong!” With their backs against the wall, the survivors with “Iron Hammer” rocket launcher were all horrified. They roared into the radio on their shoulder, “WE NEED BACKUP! If we don’t see reinforcements in three minutes, you fight this yourself!”

They were not soldiers, they were just experienced hunters.

However, what was in front of them was not prey but fully armored predators.

“…reinforcement is on its way.”

“DAMMIT!” The soldier spat out and opened the safety for the rocket launcher. He was just about to poke out his head out when he was immediately forced down by a few bullets.

These border guards knew how to use the least number of bullets to maximize the suppression capability. Through a single exchange, the skill gap between the two sides were exposed.

However, at this time, dozens of plate-sized drones suddenly emerged from the shadows and surrounded the CCCP infantry vehicles from all directions.

“Activate the EMP Defense Module”

“Roger that.”

Soldiers in kinetic skeletons hid behind the vehicle and prepared for EMP defense. In loud and deafening static noises, the EMP weapon instantly deactivated the drones rushing to the armored vehicles.

But it was futile!

The deactivated drones continued to maintain their momentum, slamming against the armored vehicles. At first, the Russians didn’t seem to be bothered, but when the drones hit the steel armor, their expressions changed.

The incendiary bombs under the drones exploded, spilling vicious fuel all over the armored vehicle. The armored vehicle was instantly swallowed by flames and turned into a giant fireball. The two soldiers hiding behind the armored vehicles were unfortunately splashed by the fuel, as they screamed in agony.

These survivors didn’t use control fuzes, but the most primitive trigger fuzes!

The burning armored vehicle quickly reversed and crashed into a house on the side of the road. The fuel quickly entered the vent and burned into the interior of the armored vehicle. The driver pushed the door open and rushed out of the armored car, frantically rolling on the ground, as he desperately tried to pull the clothes off of his body.

However, his dying struggle was not successful even after he turned into charcoal…

Through the wide-angle screen, looking at the flame still burning, Sedov’s eyes were emotionless.

Just as he was about to order the next attack, the voice of the advisor sounded in his ear.

“That’s enough, come back.”

“But…”

“Retreat, this is the order.”

Sminov didn’t deal with any nonsense. After he issued the order, he shut off the radio.

[Retreat]

Gloom was written all over Sedov’s face as he looked at the red line flashing on the screen.

It was the first time he lost an armored vehicle since their journey down south.

Although he desperately wanted to crush these bugs with his tracks, an order was absolute for the Eastern Siberian Border Guards.

Sedov’s fist slammed against the wall as he gritted his teeth.

“Retreat!”

After they received the order to retreat, the infantries moved closer to the armored vehicles, returned inside, and began to withdraw…

Chapter 1157: The Helpless Survivors

Chapter 1157 The Helpless Survivors

The Russians came in like a storm, but they also retreated like a gust of wind.

In less than half a minute, the entire reconnaissance team retreated from the Sixth Ring Road toward the direction of Badaling. Even the burnt armored vehicle was hooked behind another armored vehicle as they retreated.

The survivors, using the rifles supporting themselves, walked out from the ruins. They helped the medical staff that rushed over to lift the wounded onto stretchers and began digging up their comrades under the concrete pieces…

The result was an armored vehicle being destroyed.

As for the loss… it was insurmountable.

…

The headquarters of the Pan-Asia Cooperation was located in the Inner Ring Road of Shangjing Center.

It used to be the political center of Pan-Asia Cooperation, where the representatives of the major regions held meetings. After the war, due to the nuclear winter, X1 bacteria leakage, and other incidents, the Pan-Asia Cooperation political forces moved inland. The place was soon emptied and then completely abandoned.

Due to the quality of the building, it was once occupied by survivors and existed as a temporary shelter.

There was a time when the survivors of Shangjing entered a painfully dark period because of the tightness of their living supplies. During this period, survivors not only need to be wary of the mutants hiding in the shadows but also needed to defend against ambushes hidden in the dark.

Not only mutants were hunted, but scavengers that wandered on the wasteland, and even survivor settlements with a weak garrison. The major survivors’ settlements attacked each other to compete for scarce living supplies, to compete for the remains of pre-war civilization, and to compete to enslave the weak…

However, unlike Wanghai, the dark age of Shangjing soon came to an end.

A hibernated refugee shelter with 5,000 militia was opened. The first thing that this well-equipped force did when they returned to the surface was to try and establish pre-war order in Shangjing and restore the glory of Pan-Asia Cooperation.

However, unfortunately, the seed that the Pan-Asia Cooperation planted before the war did not sprout. Treating the survivors who had struggled on the wasteland for years with the same attitude as to how they would treat refugees soon meant that the group of idealists quickly died under the guns of the mob.

However, they still played a positive role, that is, they used decisive actions to eliminate some of the most ruthless survivor settlements, then completely destroyed the cannibals hiding in the gutter, and almost wiped out the mutated humans. A small number of people recognized these facts and no longer worked against the flow of history to become a member of the survivors.

They became the powerful kind of survivors.

Later, under the coordination of this militia group, many survivors were convened, and a treaty was established. For example, the establishment of the Shangjing Survivor Alliance designated the area inside Third Ring Road as a safe area. The alliance prohibited the use of weapons of mass destruction and established the Badaling Military Outpost to stop the migration of mutants from the northern wilderness…

The Pan-Asia Cooperation building was used as the headquarters of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance and was garrisoned by the survivors from different settlements.

In the entire city of Shangjing, this location could be referred to as the safest area. Due to this fact, survivors spontaneously gathered around this area to build a free trade market.

All major merchant fleets have traveled to and from here. After more than a decade of development, the place became a small city no inferior to the Sixth Street in terms of scale…

Today, in a rare event, the heads of the major settlemnets gathered together. The Shangjing Survivors Alliance was holding a meeting of the highest level.

“CCCP tanks have rolled to our doorstep.” At the head of the conference table, the man with a square face looked around at the leaders of the forces in the room, with a gloomy expression on his face. “This monster is more frightening than any other mutants that we have encountered before. Shangjing is at a critical moment for survival. If anyone has thought of any good ideas, please bring them forward.”

The man with a square face was Ding Liwei, the head of the Second Militia Corps of Shangjing. Although the strength of the Second Militia Group was not as strong as when it first left the fallout shelter, it remained a powerful force and ranked top among the survivor forces in Shangjing.

The man on his left was Wan Peng, the manager of Sunday Club.

While the name sounded ordinary and didn’t even resemble the name of a survivor force, on the land north of the Yellow River, no one would dare to despise the name Sunday Club or Wan Peng.

As early as before the war, Sunday Club was the top destination for the upper class in Shangjing. And Wan Peng was the security head of this club. There were a large number of security robots in the building and a large number of living supplies stored in the warehouse. At the beginning of the X1 bacteria leak, when the entire Pan-Asia Cooperation’s southern regions were collapsing, the club’s boss went to the launch center, and Wan Peng naturally became the individual with the highest level of authority in the club.

As the security head of this club, he was someone who dared to engage in fights. With the innate resources of Sunday Club, he seized the opportunity at the beginning of the apocalypse and soon became a dominant force in Shangjing.

If the Second Militia Group did not return to the surface, he would be the king of Shangjing.

“I think that the army of CCCP is not a force that we can resist alone. We may wish to send ambassadors and ask what their intentions are? If I remember correctly, after the 2174 Armistice Agreement came into effect, CCCP and PAC should be in the state of armistice. If we can reach a settlement with them…” Wan Peng frowned.

“There is no such thing as if,” a man in a trench coat shook his head. “If they are going to talk to us, they should be outside the concrete wall of the Badaling Military Outpost.”

There were no responses at the conference table; no one else spoke.

Ding Liwei sighed.

Although he was not willing to admit it, the facts were all available to him. The Shangjing Survivors Alliance was now in a state of helplessness. It would be a wild dream if the remaining tanks and armored vehicles in the militia alone could stop the CCCP fleet.

However, he was not willing to surrender.

In his bones, he still regarded himself as a soldier of the Pan-Asia Cooperation. Even if everyone was disappointed with the Pan-Asia Cooperation and the World Government, he was not willing to disarm in front of his former enemy.

That shame would be more painful than killing him.

Just then, the old man in a cotton gown seated to his right sighed and broke the silence.

“We have asked for help from the NAC. According to the news brought by Pope Lu, the General of NAC is willing to send reinforcements.”

The words of the old man made the eyes of everyone in the room turn brighter.

Although Wanghai was thousands of kilometers away from here, everyone in the room has heard of the legendary NAC. Even if they could forget the name of the NAC General, they would never forget the taste of the Fishbone’s canned food…

NAC’s products in the market outside of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building were among the best-selling goods.

The archbishop of the Guardian Sect would not be lie.

If NAC were here, then they would have a fighting chance against the CCCP!

While the faces around the table were full of excitement, only Ding Liwei remained rationale.

“Reinforcement? I’m afraid this reinforcement is not free?”

“Yes.” Archbishop Xu Tiannan nodded as he helplessly said, “What if it is not free? Do we still have a opportunity to bargain?”

Ding Liwei’s expression was a bit stiff, and he soon let out a sigh.

Yes, can they really bargain?

Xu Tiannan hesitantly said.

“Just…”

“Just?” Wan Peng frowned.

“Just that Wanghai is thousands of kilometers away from Shangjing. Even if they want to help us, it’s going to be a dangerous journey here. Even when they arrive, I’m afraid it’s going to be too late.” Xu Tiannan smiled bitterly.

Everyone felt as if they fell from cloud nine to the bottom of the valley in a split second.

Many of them owned merchants’ fleets and they naturally understood the dangers in this journey. Even without considering the zombies and mutants, there were countless raiders.

When the NAC reinforcements cross the Yellow River, the Shangjing Survivors Alliance would already become CCCP prisoners.

Just then, there were eager footsteps outside the conference room.

Everyone’s heart clenched.

Did the CCCP already launch a strike?

The door of the conference room opened. A bodyguard walked in and whispered to Ding Liwei.

Ding Liwei’s expression didn’t change. After listening to the bodyguard, he ordered.

“Let him in.”

“Yes.” The bodyguard nodded and left the meeting room.

Soon, a guard ran into the conference room, gasping for air.

In front of the leaders, he lowered his head in fear before quickly articulating what he needed to say. He was speaking so fast that he almost bit his tongue.

“Report! There are a lot of airships in the airspace 20 kilometers away from Shangjing!”

Everyone was shocked.

“Airships?” Xu Tiannan was also shocked, but soon, his shock was replaced with ecstasy.

He suddenly thought of the news from Bishop Lu Minghui. NAC used airships as a means of transportation in the trade routes to Hongcheng and Yizhou Island. In addition, they also built a giant airship made of steel!

Xu Tiannan quivered as he stood up. He left the conference table and walked to the guard in excitement.

“Which direction are the airships coming from! Tell me now!”

The guard stuttered as he looked at the archbishop.

“From… from the South!”

South!

The direction of Wanghai!

The direction of NAC!

Xu Tiannan’s shoulders trembled with excitement, and the aged face turned red.

Shangjing can be saved!

Chapter 1158: NAC Reinforcements!

Chapter 1158 NAC Reinforcements!

“That is Pingan Street!” Li Wang, the captain of AS Order, stood by Jiang Chen and pointed at the wall in the distance, “That is the most prosperous place in Shangjing. The building in the middle is the fabled Pan-Asia Cooperation Building, the political center of Pan-Asia Cooperation. Now, it’s the political center of the survivors of Shangjing.”

Li Wang used to be the captain of Jiang Chen’s guards, then was promoted as captain of AS Order during the expedition to Hongcheng. His mood was particularly high in this expedition with Jiang Chen.

“The most prosperous place?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Why do I feel like it is more of a farm?”

Li Wang laughed along with him. “Of course, you can’t compare it with the Sixth Street. Based on the standards of these survivors, clean streets, stable order, and stores that accept crystals makes any place a paradise! At least within a few hundred kilometers, you can’t find a more prosperous place than this.”

In fact, Jiang Chen’s statement was still somewhat exaggerated.

In any case, this place didn’t look like a farm.

The mighty concrete walls stopped the mutants and zombies outside. Shops and houses filled the streets. While the place didn’t look prosper, it was filled with vitality. The hunters exchanged their prey for necessities and crystals; the mercenaries with weapons were bargaining with the merchants; the lone travelers were examining the rifles in the windows of the weapon store.

In the corner of Pingan Street, several chimneys spewed out thick smoke, the furnaces smelted the waste into metal and sent it to the processing plant to make weapons or mechanical parts. This must be the legendary Industrial Zone of Pingan Street. If this place was compared with the Sixth Street four years ago, the industrialization here was at least twice as large as the Sixth Street.

Without seeing the “prosperity” of the Sixth Street, Jiang Chen would probably exclaim about a “paradise” like this existing on the wasteland.

“Indeed, this place is in Shangjing. It’s just unfortunate that they possess the legacy of pre-war civilization, but they never thought of doing anything with the legacy.”

“There is always a more reasonable choice in theory,” Han Junhua focused on the decaying Pan-Asia Cooperation building and said, “But civilization itself is an irrational product. Just like this building. Who would have thought 30 years ago, in just 30 years, it would be run down to the point that there was no one to take care of it?”

Jiang Chen paused for a brief moment, then turned his head to look at Han Junhua and smiled.

“I didn’t expect you to say something so interesting.”

“Is there anything wrong?”

“No, just a little surprised.”

The airship flew near, and the outline of Pingan Street gradually became clear. Everything in the entire survivor settlement was in Jiang Chen’s field of vision. But the people in the settlements all showed fear of the huge behemoths in the air.

A guard on the concrete wall overcame the fear in his heart. He was preparing to aim the air defense machine gun before a veteran slapped him on the forehead. The veteran shouted. “Are you stupid? Do you think this can take that thing down? Go and report the situation! GO!”

Just as the guard ran to deliver the message, the survivors of the entire Pingan Street were watching the airships pierce through the clouds like their nemesis.

The expected alarm did not sound, and the guard who went to report quickly ran back. The 3,000 soldiers on Pingan Street received the order that the airships were not enemies, but NAC reinforcements!

The soldiers standing on the wall were relieved.

In just three minutes, many people’s palms were already oozing with sweat.

They didn’t have the courage to resist when they saw the menacing cannons under the steel airship.

Even the giant walls that stopped thousands of mutants would not last a single round against this size of an electromagnetic pulse cannon.

Soon, the top leaders of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance stepped out of the Pan-Asia Cooperation building, arrived at the entrance of Pingan Street by car, and boarded the tower by elevator. They went to a radio station and Ding Liwei took the intercom from the hands of an officer, looked at the airships in the sky, and then cleared his throat.

“Ding Liwei, the representative of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance, the head of the Second Militia Group of Shangjing. On behalf of all the survivors of Shangjing, I want to extend my appreciation for your reinforcement.”

The radio was silent for a long time.

Then, after a series of static noises, Jiang Chen’s voice rang out at the end of the intercom.

“Jiang Chen, NAC General. No need for formalities. Tell your people to clear an area for us.”

No sense of politeness at all.

With ten transport airships, AS Order descended and flew over Pingan Street. The shadows shrouded the entire settlement. The survivors all paused what they were doing to gaze into the sky, staring straight at the huge monster on top of their heads they did not dare to even breathe heavily.

AS Order stopped outside the northern wall of Pingan Street, then lowered the chamber on its belly.

A platform filled with supply boxes tied by four graphene cables landed slowly on the ground. Immediately afterward, the soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons hooked themselves onto the graphene cables and quickly descended to the ground one by one.

In less than a minute, AS Order deployed two hundred engineer soldiers onto the ground.

“Do these primitive people know how to clean their homes?” Looking at the zombies wandering the streets, and the raiders behind the half-collapsed apartment buildings, Li Wang, with one foot on the guardrail, grinned.

“Since we are allies, we’ll help them a little.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Roger!” Li Wang took back his foot and stood upright.

The zombies began to gather under AS Order when they smelt the breath of living humans. Just as the soldiers on Pingan Street were hesitating about opening the door or not, AS Order in the air began to move.

Two quadruple air defense machine guns turned their muzzles and aimed at the zombies that were forming. Without the slightest omen, the two machine guns instantly spat out half-meter-long flame tongues.

Only a short humming sound was heard before broken gravels were lifted into the air.

The hailstorm of bullets unleashed from above tore the zombies into pieces. The mutants, hiding in the dark, all hid the menacing light in their eyes and fled when they witnessed the guns’ destructive power.

The NAC soldiers raised their rifles and fired sporadically on the dusty street, killing the remaining zombies who had luckily escaped.

When Jiang Chen stood on the deck of AS Order and watched this scene from the above, Jiang Chen smiled.

“Do you think we can see Badaling from this location?”

Li Wang, next to Jiang Chen, grinned as he rubbed his chin. “There is only a little more than 50 kilometers from the Second Ring Road to Badaling. We’re flying in the sky, so it would be weird if they didn’t see us.”

“Oh, I don’t know what they would think after seeing our steel airship.”

Li Wang chuckled, “What else can they think? Maybe they will go back to where they came from?”

“That’s hard to say.”

Chapter 1159: Conditions

Chapter 1159 Conditions

“That’s hard to say.”

A standoffish female voice interrupted the two’s bloating.

Han Junhua in a military uniform walked over and stood next to Jiang Chen. Then, she opened the holographic screen on her watch and launched a map of Shangjing. Her finger was pointed at a location two kilometers southeast of Badaling.

“I studied the map of Shangjing and found this.”

When Jiang Chen looked at the spot Han Junhua’s slender index finger pointed to, he saw the logo of a subway station on the map, and then frowned.

“What is the problem with Line 35 subway station?”

“Have you ever taken the subway?” Han Junhua asked.

Jiang Chen just wanted to say that he had taken the subway before, but he remembered that the subway he took seemed to be the subway in the 21st century. He knew nothing about the subway in this world…

Wait, he was not completely clueless.

Jiang Chen suddenly remembered that he took a subway in Wanghai in the virtual world he met Lin Lin in. If the subway in Shangjing was similar to the subway in Wanghai…

Without waiting for Jiang Chen to answer, Han Junhua paused for a second and continued. “The 40 subway lines in Shangjing are distributed in a circular shape. After renovations in the early 22nd century, the average depths are between 200 and 400 meters. The standard track width is capable of allowing two maglev trains to pass in parallel, but there is also a passage for armored vehicles to pass through in the middle, which is the ‘combat tunnel’ mentioned in the 2200 national defense white paper.”

When he heard Han Junhua’s explanation, he started to realize it was more serious.

“If I am the commander of CCCP, I’ll occupy here,” Han Junhua’s index finger gently tapped on the location of the subway station. “As long as they occupy the entire subway line in Shangjing, their tanks can move freely in Shangjing.”

“If we use the electromagnetic pulse cannon to collapse it—”

Han Junhua interrupted Li Wang and shook her head.

“If the tunnel can be collapsed by electromagnetic pulse cannons, what is the significance of the combat tunnel? Originally, it was an underground passage prepared to prevent NATO from destroying the road traffic network. Disregarding the electromagnetic pulse cannon on AS Order, even NATO’s ground-drilling missile had a hard time breaking through the special cement used as a protective layer.”

“What is your opinion?” Jiang Chen frowned slightly.

“Complete the deployment immediately, and then withdraw AS Order and supply airships from the subway coverage area,” Han Junhua’s index finger drew a circle on the map. “What we don’t know now is which CCCP force our enemy belonged to and what their air defense capability is. If their anti-aircraft vehicles move below us through the subway line, we are no different than sitting ducks in the air.”

…

Within ten minutes, NAC completed the deployment of its first group of soldiers. A thousand expeditionary troops descended on the northern part of the wall of Pingan Street and began to set up camp.

After seeing the firepower of AS Order, the survivors of Shangjing also witnessed the construction speed of the NAC.

With the help of twenty engineering robots, concrete walls three-person tall quickly lifted off from the ground. Light and heavy machine guns and mortars were pushed onto the bunker, and barracks were also built one after another. Before the evening, a simple military base was completed.

To ease the need for lookouts, NAC engineers placed explosives in the nearby buildings and exploded several buildings more than 20 stories tall.

In deafening explosions, the buildings collapsed and completely blocked the passage to the northern part of Pingan Street, the zombies on the road were crushed into meat. If CCCP tanks wanted to pass this road, they must send engineers to clear the debris.

Before dusk arrived, AS Order and the ten transport airships began to mobilize and moved in the direction of Qincheng. At the same time, Jiang Chen sent the Hunter Corps to the Badaling area to investigate the deployment of CCCP troops.

When AS Order left with the transport airships, Pingan Street’s gate opened under the giant wall.

With a team of bodyguards, Ding Liwei and other high-ranking executives of the city gathered at the entrance of NAC’s camp and expressed their intention to visit the soldiers.

Next to Ding Liwei, Wan Peng glanced at the kinetic skeleton on the soldiers at the door and a flash of envy quickly appeared and disappeared from his eyes.

The military factory in Pingan Street could also produce kinetic skeletons and even assemble power armors, but the cost of a kinetic skeleton was above 5,000 crystals, and the unit price of power armor was at least 10,000 crystals.

Only his loyal guards were equipped with kinetic skeletons. As for the power armor, only his confidants had such a privilege.

Ding Liwei next to him was in a better situation. The Second Militia Group itself possessed a police model of the kinetic skeleton. If it wasn’t for the war with the mutated humans more than a decade ago that ended up costing him heavily, he could have formed two battalions of power armors by now.

However, even the soldiers of the Second Militia Group were nowhere as equipped as the NAC. Not only the soldiers patrolling wore kinetic skeletons, but there were also two power armors defending the area.

My God, lowly guards also use power armors? How rich is the NAC!

Or do their power armor and kinetic skeleton not cost money?

Wan Peng was not the only one that was shocked, the executives of Shangjing Survivors Alliance all muttered in their mind. Just like that, the force of NAC already exerted psychological pressure on them.

Even Ding Liwei of the Second Militia Corps and Xu Tiannan who invited the reinforcements didn’t hold the most natural expressions.

Although they were reinforcements, if the reinforcements were too strong, things may not end up well for them.

After all, NAC’s support came with a cost.

Without leaving the executives out there for too long, the soldiers quickly received the order to permit passage. The two power armors stood aside, and the soldiers raised the railings to allow entry of the group.

“Welcome, friends from Shangjing.” Jiang Chen walked to the front of the group and extended his right hand, then he shook hands with the executives. After, he welcomed the group to head to the barrack that was in the middle of the camp.

Ding Liwei and Wan Peng exchanged looks and finally chose to accept Jiang Chen’s invitation. The bodyguards with guns were left at the door, and the group walked with Jiang Chen inside the barrack.

Jiang Chen sat at the head of the conference table, after the crowd was seated, soldiers stepped forward and served tea for everyone.

Wan Peng’s eyes were almost bulging out when he saw the tea-filled porcelain cups.

While others may not recognize this luxury, as a former security head at a top club, he very well knew what floated in the cups. It was the best West Lake Green Tea, a luxury rare even before the war! But he was serving guests this?!

Where did this guy get so many good things?

“As the host, we should have set up a banquet for you, but we didn’t expect to be entertained. We apologize for the situation.” Xu Tiannan took a sip of the tea, and couldn’t help but admire its fragrance, “great tea.”

“Not at all, just some ordinary tea,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Ding Liwei did not touch the tea on the table. He just looked at Jiang Chen. His sight was mixed with a bit of vigilance and distrust.

However, Jiang Chen did not care. The two sides were not connected, not to mention the fact that NAC’s combat effectiveness was clearly more dominant. If there was no necessary vigilance, Jiang Chen would have doubts about how he has lived on the wasteland until now.

After a long silence, Ding Liwei finally spoke.

“I have already long heard of Mr. Jiang’s name. I didn’t expect Mr. Jiang to personally head the troops. Please excuse us for not being the best host.”

“No need to worry, I’m not the kind of person who cares about formality.”

“Is that so? Then I am relieved.” Ding Liwei smiled and paused for a while before saying, “Since Mr. Jiang is a direct person, then I will also be direct.”

“I am sure your reinforcements are not unconditional?”

Chapter 1160: The Most Dangerous Place in Shangjing

Chapter 1160 The Most Dangerous Place in Shangjing Ding Liwei’s words drew everyone’s attention to Jiang Chen.No one naively thought NAC came to volunteer. Now Ding Liwei was straightforward, this made a lot of people breathe a sigh of relief.

Since it must be brought up eventually, it was better to deal with it sooner rather than later. Or by the time they resolved the conflict, the two sides would then fight over the same issue which would hurt their relationship.

Jiang Chen took a sip of the tea and said.

“Of course, there is no free lunch.”

“I understand. Then, what are your conditions?” Looking at Jiang Chen, Ding Liwei went on to say, “To avoid unnecessary disputes in the future, we should discuss this matter first. What do you think?”

Jiang Chen smiled.

“Since Mr. Ding already brought this topic up, I certainly have no disagreeing opinion.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen extended a finger. “First, the military expenses of the expeditionary army will be borne by you.”

Ding Liwei, in a relaxed tone, responded, “This is not a problem. After all, you came so far to help us. We certainly will not let you do this for free. I just want to know how much the military expense will be?”

“Not much,” Jiang Chen laughed, “Ten million crystals sound about right.”

The conference table entered a strange silence.

Ding Liwei’s relaxed expression froze, Wan Peng’s mouth began to twitch, and Xu Tiannan, who was drinking tea, almost spat it out of his mouth. All the survivors in the room had an unnatural expression on their faces.

Ten million crystals!

That’s enough to buy more than two hundred power armors!

They could certainly afford the crystals. But by the time they raise the amount, their treasury would be empty!

“Ahem, Mr. Jiang, we’re in a serious setting.” Xu Tiannan wiped the tea off of the corner of his mouth, as he unnaturally smiled. “Ten million crystals… This, this is a bit too much.”

“Is it?” Jiang Chen revealed a very helpless expression. “But I’ve already given you a discount.”

“A discount?! Even the most powerful mercenary group in Shangjing has an employment price of only one hundred crystals per soldier, and you directly ask us for ten million?! Mr. Jiang, we are sincerely trying to meet your offer but you don’t have to be this greedy,” Wan Peng burst out.

“Do the mercenaries have kinetic skeletons?”

Jiang Chen used just one sentence to stuff back all of Wan Peng’s words.

“Do they have power armors?”

“Do they have tanks?”

“Do they have airships?”

Looking at increasing awkward expressions of the survivor executives, Jiang Chen opened his hands.

“Since they don’t have those things, how can you expect us to charge the same price as them? Our NAC expeditionary force has equipped every soldier with a kinetic skeleton, and we have two companies of power armors. Do you still think ten million crystals is too expensive?”

Jiang Chen shook his head, touched his chin, and then muttered to himself, “Hmmm… now I feel that I’m losing money.”

“Ten million is good, no loss at all,” Xu Tiannan eyed Wan Peng and Ding Liwei and then quickly accepted the offer. Finally, he smiled at Jiang Chen. “It’s just ten million is a lot. I don’t think we can get the money ready for you right away.”

If the crystals are gone, they can send a hunting team to the suburbs for a round and at least make ten thousand crystals back. But if their lives are gone, the warehouses full of crystals would just be gifts for those barbarians from the north!

“Archbishop Xu is very easy to negotiate with,” Jiang Chen laughed and looked at the other survivors. “What about everyone else?”

“I have no opinion,” Someone said with a blank expression.

“Ten million is fine… Everyone will pay together anyway,” Someone said while bitterly laughing.

“I suggest that the money will be paid in proportion to the number of people. There are only six hundred survivors in my settlement. We just don’t have that many crystals.” Someone held a difficult expression on his face.

“Garbage! Your building is the richest in the Dongcheng District! Six hundred people? Heh, I am afraid you have not counted the slaves as people?” Someone immediately revealed the truth.

“…”

Listening to the quarrel around the conference table, Jiang Chen waved his hand and signaled them to quiet down.

“As to how the ten million will be paid out and by who, you can go back and discuss on your own. It’s okay if you don’t have crystals. Real estate and industrial equipment are all accepted. We are not picky.” With a bright smile, Jiang Chen paused, then in a serious tone, he went on to say, “In addition, there is intelligence that CCCP tanks may use the nearby subway lines. Before they become familiar with the lines, I suggest you transfer your personnel and assets to Pingan Street.”

Jiang Chen noticed that when he finished the sentence, the faces of the survivors didn’t show panic and fear, but they all shared a peculiar expression.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing the survivors all stared at each other in confusion, Jiang Chen asked, “Is there a problem?”

“Are you sure they will use the subway line?” Ding Liwei said with a strange expression on his face.

“If nothing goes wrong,” Jiang Chen reached out and opened his watch, magnified the holographic screen, and gently pushed it to the center of the conference table. “From a geographical point of view, they are next to the subway entrance of Line 35 Badaling Station. Unless they think their armor’s thickness can overcome our air superiority, the subway network in Shangjing is their only choice.”

“The subway lines are not a good choice,” Xu Tiannan, with a vague expression on his face, said. “I can guarantee it.”

“Why?” Jiang Chen frowned.

Wan Peng sighed.

“You may not be clear since it is your first visit to Shangjing. It is no exaggeration to say that the subway network is the most dangerous place in the whole city…”

…

Wan Peng was not exaggerating, he was even being modest.

It was no exaggeration to say that the subway network in Shangjing is definitely the most dangerous area in the entire Pan-Asia Cooperation region.

Intuitively, once a disaster arrived, where else would be safer than the subway line? Chu Nan even suggested to Jiang Chen that if the nuclear winter continued to deteriorate, it would be a good choice to simply transfer the NAC underground. Not to mention that after the renovation of the subway lines in Shanghai in the early 21st century, it was originally used as a strategic civil defense facility and military mobilization infrastructure.

If the more than 40 subway lines in Shangjing could be used, why would Pingan Street not change its name to Subway Street? Why don’t survivors hide underground?

The explosion of shells echoed in the dark subway tunnels.

“Why are there so many fu*king zombies!” With half of his body peaked out from the Polar Bear Tank. Yegor looked at the flood of zombies in front of him and cursed out. “Hold on tight, we’re going to roll over them!”

A dozen tanks in attacking formation accelerated to maximum horsepower and rolled toward the flood of zombies.

As soon as his reconnaissance team engaged in a battle with survivors of Shangjing, after he studied the map of Shangjing, he aimed his sight at the entrance of No. 35 Subway Line near Badaling. He quickly sent soldiers to gather information on the subway line, then he ordered the whole army to set off and moved the camp to the vicinity of the subway station.

When he saw the steel airships floating in the sky, he didn’t say anything and ordered the entire force to move into the subway station.

In the 22nd century, the subway line in Shangjing was really spacious. There was no problem fitting eight tanks side by side. After the engineers made some modifications, the waiting hall was a good place to set up camp.

However, the smooth trip didn’t last long.

They soon encountered the first flood of zombies…

Chapter 1161: The Power of Food

Chapter 1161 The Power of Food Jiang Chen was skeptical of how much trouble zombie flesh could bring to the Russian tanks. However, when he saw the expression of Wan Peng and Xu Tiannan when he mentioned the subway system, and even Ding Liwei’s look of concern, Jiang Chen began to doubt himself too.In any case, everything would be known after the Hunter Corps return.

Just like this, the two sides reached an agreement at the negotiating table.

Ten million crystals as the military expense of NAC’s reinforcements. The two sides would jointly fight against the CCCP tanks.

As for the spoils, it would belong to whoever claimed them first.

“One last point,” Jiang Chen pointed to the direction of the giant wall of Pingan Street and smiled, “remove the weapons on the wall that are pointed towards us. Although those things have no deterrent to us, no one likes being pointed at by weapons.”

Ding Liwei thought Jiang Chen was about to propose another outrageous condition. When he heard Jiang Chen finish his sentence, he was relieved and said in a gentle tone.

“You can rest assured that we will remove the weapons immediately!”

The contract was finally signed, an electronic contract and a paper contract were produced with each side holding both copies.

At the end of the negotiation, Ding Liwei stood up and looked around at the other executives and then looked at Jiang Chen.

“Since the contract has been signed, it’s time for us to leave.”

“Wait, don’t rush to go,” Jiang Chen stood up and reached out his hand. “Look, it’s getting pretty late outside. You must have not eaten dinner yet. Why don’t you all have dinner here and then leave?”

Just saying this, Jiang Chen clearly heard many people swallowing.

In the beginning, Ding Liwei wanted to refuse this proposal.

But then he remembered that the canned meat in his fridge seemed to be all Fishbone branded, he didn’t want to leave anymore. The serious square face seemed to want to refuse, but he clearly didn’t want to say it. The awkward and conflicted expression on his face was almost comical.

It didn’t take much to convince them as all the executives stayed and followed Jiang Chen to the dining room next to the conference room.

It was another round table, just a lot bigger than the one in the conference room.

Soon, dishes with mesmerizing aromas were served on the table by a housekeeping robot.

Wuchang Fish, Steamed Pork Belly, Fried Eggplant with Meat, Pork Ribs Soup… Even the rice was the Yangzhou Fried Rice.

Their eyes fixed on the dazzling number of dishes, despite all of them being in the upper echelon of society. They were gulping as saliva secreted in their mouth as the aroma tempted their nose. If it were not because of their status, they would already have begun devouring the food.

“No need to be so serious, please eat.” Jiang Chen smiled and picked up his chopsticks first.

In tradition, guests must wait to eat before the host picked up his chopsticks. It was just the guests didn’t have the best etiquette when eating. They were decent at first, but they were about to use their hands and stuff their faces into the dishes.

After a burp, Wan Peng leaned back against the chair with his belly full and smudged the grease on his lips with his hand, he complimented.

“If you open a restaurant in Shangjing, I believe it won’t take long to earn ten million crystals.”

Jiang Chen laughed at this joke and didn’t speak.

He was very curious. If he let these starved beasts know that in the Sixth Street a thousand kilometers away many restaurants served these dishes, would they move to the south?

The table was a mess, but everyone was happy.

The executives were full of joy and left with big bellies. They all expressed their gratitude to Jiang Chen. Although the military expense of ten million crystals made them a little hurt, the meal just now gave them an illusion of it all being “worth it”?

Ding Liwei did immediately follow through with his words. After the group returned, the weapons on the giant wall were quickly removed.

Jiang Chen didn’t expect that a meal would have won the gratitude of so many executives.

Back in the military base, Jiang Chen went to his barracks and met Yao Yao, who was looking outside.

The little girl didn’t change her clothes yet. She was wearing a pale pink apron embroidered with a bear pattern on her chest.

After seeing Jiang Chen, Yao Yao’s eyes lit up and immediately stuck herself to him. She said in a mellow tone.

“Did Yao Yao help out?”

“Mhmm,” Jiang Chen smiled and touched Yao Yao’s small head, “Yao Yao helped a lot.”

When she heard Jiang Chen’s compliment, Yao Yao’s cute face was filled with a shy smile.

She blushed, she looked like a ripe apple that he wanted to bite into.

Of course, he wouldn’t actually bite Yao Yao’s cute face.

He gently left a good night kiss on her forehead, then he sent Yao Yao to sleep before he went to the command room in the center of the camp.

After he discussed with the officers of the expeditionary force about their combat plan against the CCCP armored units, it was midnight. It was then that Jiang Chen finally returned to his room and immediately collapsed into his bed, yawning.

…

The next morning, under the escort of two entourages, the Archbishop Xu Tiannan came to the gate of the NAC military base.

The soldier who received the order in advance allowed the entry of the old man.

It was still the same conference room, but this time, there was only an elder and a young man in the room.

Facing someone much younger than him, Xu Tiannan said respectfully.

“Why did Mr. Jiang bring me here?”

“It’s not a big deal. I just want to chat with Archbishop Xu.” Jiang Chen smiled, then gestured a guard to pour a cup of tea for the old man. When the fog floated up from the cup, he said, “I don’t know if you have heard of Eden Technology?”

“Eden Technology?” Xu Tiannan slightly frowned.

“Have you not heard of it?” Jiang Chen asked.

“If you are talking about the Garden of Eden Project, we have heard of it,” Xu Tiannan’s murky eyes were recollecting the past as he slowly said. “There was a disagreement in the Dusk Church, precisely because of the Eden Project. We came to Shangjing, and they went down to Wanghai…”

“Bo Yu?” Jiang Chen remembered the man wearing 121 hydrogen bombs. He also remembered accidentally poking a hole in him with a laser sword and helping him materialize his storage dimension.

“Yes,” Xu Tiannan nodded. “He was a man, very talented, but too arrogant. If I didn’t guess wrong, you should have already taken care of him.”

“It’s been too long.” Jiang Chen faintly smiled. “But what I want to ask is not about the Garden of Eden project, but the corporation behind it, Eden Technology. I heard that their headquarters is in Shangjing. Do you have any knowledge of it?”

Xu Tiannan pondered for a moment before finally shaking his head. “The Guardian Sect migrated to Shangjing for only a few years. We don’t know much about many things here. However, even though I don’t know, I know someone who definitely knows.”

“Who?” Jiang Chen asked.

“There is a pub on Pingan Street called Hell Courier. The pub is run by an intelligence dealer from a neutral survivor settlement. They know everything from the coordinates of Death Claw nests to the recent relationship between major forces. They leak the majority of the news in Shangjing,” Xu Tiannan said.

“Neutral survivor settlement?” Jiang Chen frowned. “Right, I have heard that there are thousands of survivor settlements in Shangjing, but when I look at Pingan Street, at most there are 100,000 survivors. Is there another Pingan Street in Shangjing?”

“Mr. Jiang must not know.” Xu Tiannan smiled bitterly. “Not all survivors have joined our alliance. There are also some neutral survivor settlements who, despite obeying the rules we set and purchasing assets here, they never considered themselves as part of the alliance.”

Neutral survivor settlements?

With the strength of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance, there are still existences that it can’t take down?

It seems that Shangjing may not be as shallow as what he sees on the surface…

As he rubbed his chin, Jiang Chen nodded thoughtfully.

Chapter 1162: A Useful Sidekick

1162 A Useful Sidekick

After Jiang Chen obtained all the information he needed, he picked up his teacup and smiled at Xu Tiannan to express his gratitude.

Xu Tiannan gestured back with a smile.

“No worries, this favor is not worth mentioning. If Mr. Jiang needs to know anything else, please let someone pass on the message, I will make the trip down.”

“Thank you.” Jiang Chen nodded.

Usually, at this point, the guest would leave.

However, the old man didn’t have any intention of leaving.

Seeing that Xu Tiannan did not leave, Jiang Chen was somewhat confused.

“Is there anything else?”

“No, nothing else,” Xu Tiannan shook his head, with a sly smile, his eyes looked around inadvertently as if he was searching for something. “You see, it’s getting late.”

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows in confusion.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

A soldier walked in and saluted after he pushed open the door.

“What is it?” Jiang Chen asked casually.

The soldier respectfully said, “Miss Yao asked me to tell you that it is time for your meal.”

Jiang Chen looked at the soldier, then glanced the man with a big smile on his face. He instantly understood the old man’s intention.

So, you want a free meal again?

Jiang Chen looked at the old man, exasperated. However, Xu Tiannan’s smile remained intact, pretending everything was normal.

This old man has such thick skin!

However, when Jiang Chen thought about it, since he already acquired useful information from him, he should return the favor by at least providing him with a meal. Especially since food was not something of value to him.

It’ll count as a means to reinforce their relationship.

So, Jiang Chen looked at the soldier and coughed, “Get the kitchen to add one more pair of chopsticks.”

“Roger.” The soldier saluted and left.

…

Xu Tiannan went to the cafeteria with the soldier and Jiang Chen returned to his barracks.

Outside the kitchen, the meticulous little loli already placed delicious dishes on the table. At this moment, both of her hands were under her chin as she gazed out the window.

When she saw her beloved big brother appearing, Yao Yao jumped down from the chair and ran to the entrance, opening the door for Jiang Chen.

Looking at the little loli that appeared at the door, with a heartfelt smile, he rubbed her soft hair.

“Don’t wait for me, if you are hungry, eat first.”

The little loli embraced the warmth of the big hand. Her lovely eyes were half-closed and her long eyelashes trembled as her cherry-mouth formed into a crest.

After he put on his slippers, Jiang Chen went to the bathroom and washed his hands before sitting at the table with the little loli.

Yao Yao caringly filled his bowl with rice.

Although the meal was less lively compared to before, it still had the same delicious taste.

Yao Yao, gazing at Jiang Chen who was devouring the food, rested her chin against her hands. With a warm smile, she softly asked.

“Does it taste good?”

“It’s amazing!” Jiang Chen smiled and looked at Yao Yao, who hadn’t even moved her chopsticks. “Don’t just look at me, eat.”

“Hehe…” The shy Yao Yao giggled. “Yao Yao can’t help big brother in other places, so Yao Yao can only take care of big brother.”

Her smile was sweet and glowing. It made him want to protect it in his hands; it was so pure that he wanted to stroke his color onto it…

Ahem, the latter half is extra.

Jiang Chen quickly lowered his head.

Whenever he recalled what happened in the bathroom last time and the fact that he almost crossed the line, it gave him a headache. Although Yao Yao’s age is completely fine, her loli appearance always made him feel guilty if he had lucid thoughts…

The faint jasmine fragrance in the air belonged to the girl.

Jiang Chen suddenly had a thought in his heart when he fixed his sight on her bright lips,

Yao Yao has grown up…

…

After lunch, Jiang Chen, in a rare instance, didn’t take a nap, but left the military base with a team of guards and headed five to six kilometers towards the north.

Noon was when zombies are the weakest, especially on sunny days.

The X1 bacterial infections were undergoing photosynthesis and just like a sculpture, they were standing in the middle of the street. Unless creatures were within one meter of them, even if someone sneezed beside them, they would only dully move their head and look in that direction with a blank expression.

Only zombies with condensed crystals were more responsive.

Even the most amateur hunters could easily kill these dull-headed zombies.

A bayonet was attached under the muzzle and the zombies passing by had their necks penetrated. The ones further away were left alone. Almost without a single shot, Jiang Chen, escorted by 40 guards, came to the door of an underground garage.

The two survivor-looking men sat on the second floor. When they saw Jiang Chen’s force through the window, they immediately got up and opened the hanging door of the garage. They wore a pair of old-fashioned winter clothes. The bald man smiled and greeted him before bowing respectfully.

“I welcome the arrival of your highness.”

“Oh cut it out,” Jiang Chen laughed and jokingly kicked him. “I’m here to inspect your work. Hurry, take me to see.”

The guy was using the words “Your Highness”.

Jiang Chen hadn’t seen him for a long time, but Zhou Guoping’s flattering skills were becoming more and more advanced.

“Yes, yes, please come in.”

Zhou Guoping, wiping his bright forehead, was grinning. He respectfully led Jiang Chen inside.

He knew the boss spoke with a smile, so it meant that the flattering at least didn’t hit the wrong spot.

At the beginning of this year, the information system of the Hongcheng colony was built. After he handed over his duties, he moved from Hongcheng to Shangjing and settled on Pingan Street as an ordinary survivor.

The growing status of Chu Nan gave him a strong sense of crisis. He was afraid that if one day Chu Nan remembered the things he did in the past, then he would end him. If he didn’t make any contributions to NAC, the general wouldn’t even bat an eye.

Precisely because of this, Zhou Guoping didn’t serve as the president of the NAC Mercenary Union for too long before he taking on the initiative to seek out fieldwork. He took on duties most people didn’t want to serve.

Without a doubt, giving up the great life of Wanghai for field assignments was definitely difficult.

Although Zhou Guoping lacked morale and was a raider before, he was loyal. He diligently spent more than four years in intelligence work, running from the north to the south. Even without merits, Jiang Chen saw all his hard work.

There was no organization completely pure and clean from top to bottom. Jiang Chen also needed someone like him.

Someone who could serve him.

With the guards behind him, Jiang Chen followed Zhou Guoping to the base he established in Shangjing.

This place should have been an auto repair shop before the war. In the center of the warehouse, there were rusty robotic arms. Tools were piled up on the corners. Several survivor-looking men stood on the side and looked at his direction respectfully.

Zhou Guoping brought these people from Wanghai. Without a doubt, they all didn’t have the cleanest background. While Jiang Chen wouldn’t trust them with tasks, Zhou Guoping used them to their fullest extent.

People with similar minds gathered together.

Bringing Jiang Chen and his guards into the repair shop, Zhou Guoping ordered his men to close the door. The dangers on wasteland were far more than zombies and aliens, they must be wary of their unscrupulous counterparts.

The guards were divided into two groups; one group stayed on the first floor while another group followed Jiang Chen and Zhou Guoping to the second floor.

“I have to ask you something,” Jiang Chen entered Zhou Guoping’s office, then pulled a chair to sit down. He waved his hand and gestured to the two guards who followed them in to leave. He then looked at Zhou Guoping, who was standing in front of him, and said, “Have you heard of Eden Technology?”

At the same time, Jiang Chen inadvertently touched his watch.

The Honor Chip could judge whether a person is lying by monitoring a person’s heart rate and brain waves. Although Zhou Guoping didn’t have a reason to lie, he should be cautious.

Zhou Yaping did not notice Jiang Chen’s action as he pondered for a moment and finally shook his head with regret.

“This… I have never heard of it. But if you want information about it, I will arrange for people to investigate immediately. I am very familiar with the entire Dongcheng District! As long as that Eden Technology is in Shangjing, I can dig it out!”

With the confident speech Zhou Guoping gave, Jiang Chen just smiled without giving him more information.

After a pause, Jiang Chen then asked.

“You can put aside Eden Technology for now. Have you heard of the Hell Courier?”

“I have heard of them,” Zhou Guoping hurriedly nodded. “The famous bar in Pingan Street, the mercenaries and hunters like to spend their days in that bar. The most important thing is that it is a gathering place for Shangjing intelligence traffickers.”

Zhou Guoping suddenly seemed to understand.

“…I understand what you mean. If I go there, I can definitely find something, hehe.”

Zhou Guoping chuckled, lowered his voice, and moved closer to Jiang Chen with a mysterious expression hanging on his face. “Boss… cough, General, in addition to the intelligence that others know, I also learned something else from other special channels.”

“Be direct.” Jiang Chen was impatient.

Zhou Guoping immediately stood up straight and said quickly.

“The boss of the ‘Hell Courier’ was once a senior agent of the Pan-Asia Intelligence Agency…”

Chapter 1163: Pingan Stree

Chapter 1163 Pingan Stree

Under the ten-meters monstrous wall at the south gate of Pingan Street, there was only an arch that allowed two cars to pass and a small gate six people wide. The arch permitted the passage of vehicles while the small gate was used to process foot traffic. A team of soldiers stood at the gate as they guarded the entrance into Pingan Street.

On the one hand, the purpose was to ensure contraband items such as small nuclear grenades and infection sources would not be brought into the city, and on the other hand, it was a way to collect tax for those who enter.

Exactly like the Sixth Street four years ago.

The only difference being that the crystals circulating in Shangjing were more than that in Wanghai at the time, and Pingan Street was also larger. Therefore, the tax was naturally more expensive.

In addition, there was no Inner Circle or Outer Circle for Pingan Street. The concrete giant wall surrounded all the survivor settlements inside, so it was necessary to pay tax when entering the city. At the Sixth Street, only the Inner Circle was protected. Thus, it made sense to only collect tax upon entering the Inner Circle.

At the small gate, the survivors formed a long line.

“City gate tax, four crystal per person.”

A survivor dressed in hunter clothes took a bit longer to process the information before his face turned red and he angrily said.

“Four crystals? Was it not two crystals yesterday? How did the city gate tax become four crystals today?! What the fu*k, why don’t you go rob people instead!?”

As soon as they heard that the city gate tax doubled, the people behind the queue suddenly became rattled.

“Wasn’t it two crystals before? How did it suddenly increase?”

“What’s going on!”

“Fu*k, I’ll go to the east gate and see!”

“…”

The soldiers who were guarding the gate were expressionless. There was a police-type power armor next to them. The soldier who collected the city gate tax lifted his chin impatiently and pointed to the notice at the door.

“It changed last night, and it is the same at all the gates. If you have any questions, go to the city hall and ask. If you don’t have a problem, hurry. People who want to come in, pay. People who don’t have crystals, step aside.”

Although the tax increased by two crystals, everyone was forced to accept the price.

There was no other option. The largest market and industrial area in Shangjing were located here. The hunters could only get rid of their loot there. The scavengers could only exchange their baskets of scavenged goods into crystals there. The mercenaries could only replenish ammunition and find new employers there…

As for the option to force themselves in?

Haha.

Disregarding the police-type power armor at the door, the few heavy machine guns on the giant wall were enough deterrents to let those with ill-intentions to reconsider their choice.

After the initial riot, the queue began to move slowly. Although many people left the queue, most of them stayed.

Jiang Chen touched his nose in embarrassment when he stood at the end of the queue.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the reason for the price increase of the city gate tax was because of him.

The queue moved slowly and quickly reached his position.

“Twenty-one people.” Moving forward, Jiang Chen said.

The tax official looked impatient and was about to speak, but then he saw the twenty people behind Jiang Chen, and his arrogant demeanor immediately disappeared.

Twenty guards stood behind Jiang Chen. Although the clothes they wore were no different from the survivors around them, their vibe was not the same at all. It was as if a group of special forces stood in the middle of a group of new recruits. It was easy to spot the difference.

“84 crystals… Who are you?” The tax official asked.

“Mercenaries.” Jiang Chen threw a dark green crystal on the table, raised his thumb, and pointed to the twenty guards behind him.

The tax official’s mouth twitched, clearly not believing his words. However, he didn’t think more about the situation.

He was only responsible for the collection of tax and not responsible for auditing people.

“Go in.”

Without conversing more, Jiang Chen nodded and gestured to the guards behind him. They followed the procedure and stored their weapons at the weapon storage point behind the city gate and swayed into the bustling Pingan Street.

After Jiang Chen learned about Hell Courier from Zhou Guoping, he divided his own guards into two groups. One group returned to the military base, and the other group disguised themselves and followed him to the south gate of Pingan Street.

At the moment, he hid a camouflage chain around his neck and under his collar.

This camouflage necklace was very common before the war, and it almost replaced the existence of cosmetics.

Holographic technology modified facial features to a certain extent. Although the facial features remained largely the same, he looked much older. Unless it was people close to him, it would be basically impossible to recognize him.

The reason why he spent so much effort entering Pingan Street was to see the fabled Pan-Asia Cooperation intelligence personnel in person. On the other hand, he wanted to see the city. Although the degree of industrialization was not high and far from the Sixth Street under the ruling of NAC, it also possessed its own uniqueness.

Such as gun control.

It was not an exaggeration to say that Pingan Street in Shangjing should be the only large scale survivor settlement in the Pan-Asia Cooperation region to enforce complete gun control. Even the Sixth Street is unable to do this. On this piece of land that viewed weapons as life, the survivors in Shangjing not only showed no resistance or resentment, but they silently obeyed this rule.

Even the strongest lone traveler could not be vigilant at all times.

At least on Pingan Street, people could really have a good night’s sleep without worrying about being awakened by gunshots at night or scared if an enemy would intrude and end their life.

Of course, people could still sneak weapons in.

But on the bright side, everyone seemed to obey this iron law.

As they passed through the slums, Jiang Chen examined the streets before heading into the market at the south gate of Pingan Street. Compared with the Sixth Street, the lives of the people here were visibly worse. Disregarding the magnetic levitation road, many people here didn’t even have proper winter clothing, and some people even wore exotic clothes made out of mutant furs.

However, from their calm expressions, it seemed that this was the normal state for survivors on the wasteland.

The survivors well fed and well protected in Wanghai were the abnormal ones.

“Lu Fan.”

“Roger.”

“Don’t be so uptight, don’t forget that you’re a mercenary,” Jiang Chen whispered.

Since Li Wang was promoted to captain of AS Order, the new guard captain was Lu Fan. The 30-year-old bodyguard was superb in every aspect. He was also as loyal as Li Wang but he was not as clever as him. This sometimes would keep him too uptight.

Lu Fan hesitated for a moment and nodded.

“Roger.”

Jiang Chen shook his head and gave up the idea of correcting his respectful appearance.

Anyway, the probability of encountering Ding Liwei and Wan Peng was almost zero. He was not worried about being questioned after revealing some abnormalities. Pingan Street was more complex than he imagined. There were some neutral survivors as powerful as the Shangjing Survivor Alliance.

Jiang Chen also paid attention when he entered the city.

Along the way, he already encountered three groups of bodyguards following a person that looked wealthy.

“Hell Courier” was located in the commercial street near the north gate. However, Jiang Chen did not go north but walked around the market before heading to the industrial area behind the slum.

Similar to the situation he saw on AS Order, the industrial capability of Pingan Street was quite weak. But with wasteland standards, Pingan Street’s capability was considered to be top-notch. Compared to the Sixth Street four years ago, its size more than doubled the Sixth Street’s industrial strength.

Of course, the Sixth Street’s growth far outpaced this place.

The surrounding buildings began to become lower, and the pedestrians on the street were mostly slaves or workers that looked malnourished.

Lu Fan thought that Jiang Chen had gone the wrong way. He hesitated and whispered.

“Hell Courier is on the commercial street near the north gate.”

“I know.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Lu Fan then paused after processing the information.

“Then why are we here…”

“Do you see anyone going to the bar in the morning?” Jiang Chen smiled and raised his chin in the direction of the industrial zone, and then said, “Not to mention, going to Hell Courier to learn about Eden Technology is just a side quest. Our main purpose is to just take a stroll around Pingan Street. If I want to get some intelligence, I can just send anyone. Why would I come here?”

“I just want to ask… Is there any purpose in this action?” Lu Fan said hesitantly. “My suggestion is to give us the task. This place is very unsafe. We may also encounter an unexpected situation, we—”

“That’s enough,” Jiang Chen dismissed his suggestion. “I care more about my own safety than anything else. You don’t have to worry, just follow me.”

After he paused for a moment, Jiang Chen went on.

“I’m answering your previous question now. How is there no purpose?”

He then looked up and gazed at the towering Pan-Asia Cooperation building in the center of Pingan Street, then he grinned. “This place will be ours soon.”

“You mean,” Lu Fan’s expression suddenly changed and excitement began to grow in his pupils, “After getting rid of CCCP, we’ll…”

Jiang Chen shook his head and sighed.

“There are many ways to solve the problem. I hope that you can think about it from another perspective. If you can’t think about the same problem from multiple perspectives, you may miss a lot of better options. In that case, how can I trust you with more responsibilities?”

Lu Fan immediately bowed his head and said sincerely.

“I don’t have any intention to be a high-ranking official. I just hope to serve the general to the best of my ability.”

“If you have this thought, it will be enough.” Jiang Chen smiled. “NAC needs talents and needs loyal and reliable talents. Even if you want to stay in this position for a lifetime, you have to ask for my permission first, right?”

“I’ll follow the general’s order,” Lu Fan diligently said.

Jiang Chen smiled and did not respond. He stood at the entrance of the industrial zone.

“I just told you, let’s think about the problem from another angle. In addition to the option of armed occupation, we have a lot of more gentle and effective options, which can allow us to take over this place without a drop of blood.”

Lu Fan did not interject. He stood respectfully on Jiang Chen’s side, waiting for his order.

“For example, we can buy this place.”

Jiang Chen smiled, his eye narrowing as he gazed at the towering chimney in the steel mill.

“Using their own money.”

Chapter 1164: Hell Courier

Chapter 1164 Hell Courier The Commercial Street located a hundred steps away from the North Gate, was also known as North Street.Despite CCCP tanks recently mobilization to Badaling and the NAC building a military base not far from the north gate, these factors didn’t interfere with the lives of the local survivors.

At night, the entire street was decorated with colorful neon.

After a busy day, the survivors with a good harvest often returned to Pingan Street before dark. They sold their harvest on the market for crystals and then spent the rest of their time at a bar nearby to intoxicate their tensed nerves.

The hunters and mercenaries traversed between the bars, followed the indispensable smell of alcohol, and seeked the best bar. The entire street seemed to be filled with people from all walks of life, just like the dark alleys on both sides of the street.

Having said that, it was important to discuss the life of Shangjing survivors.

Common knowledge was that most of the zombies are unable to form crystals. Only mutants powerful enough could form crystals. Therefore, hunting regular zombies were no different than wasting bullets.

Precisely because of this, the subway stations filled with zombies and mutants became raid quests for survivors of Shangjing, similar to online games.

The north gate was close to the subway station. Every day, hundreds of hunter teams and lone travelers entered Subway Line 10 to 15. The transit stations of these subway lines were concentrated around the Third Ring Road, and the danger of mutants was moderate. Some abandoned fallout shelters were also concentrated here, and many places still had pre-war battle supplies.

Whether for hunting or scavenging, the income underground was much higher than that on the surface.

And these experiences were learned by the survivors of Shangjing through countless lives…

After they entered this area, Lu Fan closely followed Jiang Chen while silently observing for possible threats in the shadows.

When they turned two corners, Jiang Chen and the group quickly entered a side alley before stopping in front of a billboard with faded paint.

“Hell Courier” was located in the corner of North Street, among several miscellaneous shops. It was so ordinary on the outside, just like a fly in a garbage dump. However, when Jiang Chen stepped one foot across the door, he discovered a different world behind the low-key and inconspicuous surface.

In the hall hundreds of square meters in size, there were simple round tables scattered around. People in suits sat here as well as people wearing different mutant skins seamed together. The women in exposed clothes carried trays around the hall, pushing away customers’ hands with a giggle while selling alcohol to the desperados.

The scent of perfume, alcohol, and sweat mixed together in the air. The unpopular singer screamed on stage not far away before being quickly getting booed down by the survivors. He was replaced by a dancer barely covered with any clothes.

He must say, as long as nutrition could be kept up, there were basically no ugly women in the apocalypse.

Through genetic modification, although the people at the end of the twenty-second century didn’t all look stunning, their average appearance was far better than that of the twenty-first century. For example, the lady on stage. Disregarding the vibe she possessed, she could definitely be considered a celebrity in the modern world.

Of course, she could have been a celebrity before the war.

He whispered a few words to Lu Fan, let the guards scatter around, and then just ordered a few bottles of beer. Then, Jiang Chen walked in the direction of the bar.

“What drink?” the bartender behind the bar asked while wiping the glass.

“I heard that there are intelligence dealers here.” Jiang Chen sat on the high stool next to the bar, then looked at him.

“The whole street is filled with intelligence dealers.” The bartender’s cold expression remained.

“Oh? Is it…” Jiang Chen looked at the menu and looked down the price list. “First, let me have a cup of Bullet Grain Beer.”

Then, he pulled a large dark green crystal from his pocket and dropped it on the crystal analyzer on the bar.

The bartender’s eyelids twitched and the number on the crystal analyzer jumped to 101 points.

“The extra is your tip.” Jiang Chen said.

The bartender did not say anything else. He silently put the crystal away, turned, and walked to the cabinet.

Without waiting long, a bottle of beer was placed at the bar.

“Your beer.”

Then, the bartender placed another small bottle next to him.

“Plus, you may need a bottle of Dragon Blue.”

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

“There is a typo on the bottle.”

“It’s called Dragon Blue,” A middle-aged man sat on the high stool next to him and grinned at him. “Because your tongue will get bigger after drinking it and your tongue will also turn blue. It is said that the gallbladder of Death Claws is added during brewing, and also a type of blue mushroom that grows in the subway station. It feels great when you drink it.”

Jiang Chen shuddered.

Mutants wee poisonous. The more powerful the mutant, the more poisonous they become. It was the rule of the wasteland.

For example, the meat of Death Claws was more toxic than arsenic. It was the first time he heard its gallbladder could be used to make alcohol.

As for the blue mushroom in the subway…

Are you sure they are not a type of poisonous mushroom?

“If you’re careful, you can discover that there are many delicious things on mutants. For example, the Mud Crab roe, the caviar made from Mutant Piranha, and the medium-rare steak from a Phoenix Scorpion. They are all delicious, right?” The man grinned and said, “Perhaps in two hundred years, we’ll figure out all the delicious part of mutants.”

Phoenix Scorpion?

Jiang Chen only vaguely recalled that it seemed to be a type of venomous large scorpion in the northern wilderness.

His scalp was numb just from the thought of it.

These foodies are simply fearless!

“What is your name?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Sura,” the man took a drink, raised an eyelid, and grinned. “You can also call me Old Luo. Everyone calls me that. This is your first time here?”

Sura, a pseudonym.

However, Jiang Chen was not interested in knowing his real name, so he nodded.

“Yes. Is that strange?”

“It’s not strange, new customers come here every day,” the man named Sura said and pointed to the bottle of Dragon Blue in front of Jiang Chen. “If you want to know about something that’s interesting, just put a bottle of Dragon Blue on the table, and naturally someone will come to you.”

Jiang Chen looked at the man and raised his eyebrows.

“Oh? So, you are the intelligence dealer?”

“Yes,” Old Luo spat out a cigarette ring, then looked at Jiang Chen. “Tell me, what do you want to hear?”

“What questions can I ask?”

“As long as I know.” Old Luo shrugged.

“The first question,” Jiang Chen smiled and looked at the back of the bartender who went to the other side of the bar, his fingers gently tapping on the table. “Who is the owner of this bar? Where is he and how can I see him?”

Chapter 1165: Brother Tiger? Brother Cat?

Chapter 1165 Brother Tiger? Brother Cat? Old Luo paused for a brief second.“The first question I can answer. I can’t answer the second and third questions.”

“So, answer my first question.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Old Luo just smiled mysteriously and did not speak.

Jiang Chen understood. He put his hand into his pocket and from the storage dimension, he took out a crystal similar to the previous one. Then, he gently placed it on the table. “Is this enough?”

“Scarecrow.”

“Scarecrow?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and watched as Old Luo took the crystal.

Old Luo noticed the dissatisfaction on Jiang Chen’s face and began to explain.

“Scarecrow is his name. I didn’t lie to you. Many people make new names for themselves after the war. Scarecrow is just one of them. Can I ask a question? Why are you looking for him?”

“I heard that he is a former Pan-Asia Cooperation intelligence personnel.”

“Former intelligence personnel? There is such a saying.” Touching his chin, Old Luo frowned and said thoughtfully. “It’s just a saying. Some people say that he is a very powerful lone traveler, or Mr. Ding’s other unknown identity, who knows?”

“You are very close to him?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Very close?” Old Luo joked. “I hope to be familiar with him, so I don’t have to pay for my drinks.”

“You don’t need it to pay for it now,” Jiang Chen smiled, tapping his index finger against the blue bottle. “This bottle of Dragon Blue is on me.”

He would never drink the suspicious thing made from parts of Death Claws!

However, it would a pity to waste it. He would like to see someone drink this to see the “clinical effects.”

Yes, he still needed a lab rat, so Old Luo was a great choice.

“No need,” Old Luo shook his head and stood up from the high stool. “I should go now.”

“Is there something wrong?” Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

“No, just some people are looking for trouble.” Old Luo shrugged and fixed the collar of his gray suit.

“Do you need my help?” Jiang Chen asked.

“No,” Old Luo raised an eyebrow. “I’m used to solving my own problems.”

“I suggest you try it. The feeling is quite good,” Old Luo said and then suddenly laughed. “Especially for people with a lot on their mind, you only need a small shot to forget all of your troubles for a short moment.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t need to drink alcohol to deal with my problems.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Is that so? Lucky guy. By the way, your mask is not bad,” Old Luo grinned, turned, and disappeared into the crowd.

When Jiang Chen looked at the direction where Old Luo disappeared into, he reached for the chain under his collar as a peculiar expression appeared on his face.

What is this ability?

He actually could see through the camouflage chain?

After a while, he couldn’t figure out why, so he just laughed it off and gave up on the thought. Just as he was about to get up, several brawny men without the nicest appearance walked towards him.

“Here is a question for you, where did the man who was sitting next to you go?” The man with a straight cut walked up to Jiang Chen. One of his feet stepped onto the stool that Old Luo sat on as he looked down at Jiang Che with menace.

His thugs also surrounded Jiang Chen and formed into a line, blocking the sights of others.

Perhaps it was to pressure Jiang Chen, a man with spiked hair took out a butterfly knife and spun it in his hand. The mung bean-like eyes glanced at Jiang Chen.

The survivors in the bar noticed the abnormality of the atmosphere and gathered their attention to watch the show unfold.

Fighting was very common on this street. Mercenaries, hunters, and lone travelers all gathered here. It would be odd for conflicts to not happen on the street.

Even the guards on Pingan Street didn’t bother with this street. As long as there were no shooting nor murder, anything else was fair game.

“Who is that? Looks like a tough guy.” Someone whispered.

“Shh, be quiet, that guy is Tiger.”

“Tiger? Is it… that Tiger?” One person looked shocked.

“Indeed! I heard that last month, he and a survivor had a squabble here, and later it turned into a brawl. I think he lost when they fought, and he admitted defeat. But then, he sent people to follow the guy back to his settlement…” Another person added.

“And then?” Seeing the man was no longer speaking, the crowds urged him to continue.

“And then,” the man sighed. “He brought more than fifty raiders and killed the survivor’s settlement inside and out, and ra*ped the man’s wife and daughter in front of him. It’s…”

Among the whispers, Tiger felt disrespected seeing Jiang Chen completely ignore him. The thugs sensed their boss’s abnormal mood and instantly became rattled, doing their best to please their boss.

“Fu*k, the boss asked you a question. Are you deaf?”

“Fu*k, do you not have ears?”

“…”

As if Jiang Chen didn’t hear the curses, he looked at the man whose foot was on the high stool. His index finger gently tapped the blue bottle and he smiled.

“Do you want a drink?”

“Brother Tiger asked you a question, don’t speak nonsense.” The man who played with the butterfly knife, who didn’t speak the whole time, sneered. Then, he tried to push Jiang Chen’s shoulder

However, before his hand could reach Jiang Chen, he felt a huge force around his collar

Earth’s gravity seemed to lose its effect.

His feet left the ground, and a large hand threw him out by the collar. He smashed against a wall ten-meters back. With a thump, his back made intimate contact with the wall and he instantly blacked out, unable to climb up again.

Things happened in an instant, so fast that everyone did not have time to react.

“Fu*k you!”

After Tiger processed what just happened, he cursed and grabbed the stool with one hand.

However, just as he turned around, his pupils met with twenty pairs of emotionless eyes.

Twenty men stood behind him and surrounded him and his four thugs.

There was a murderous vibe in the air. It was so chilly that it could freeze time.

Tiger gulped. His face turned from red to a pale white before turning bright red again. It looked comical.

Jiang Chen stood up and walked slowly to the man.

“I heard that you are Tiger?”

Tiger didn’t dare to speak, shuddering in fear.

Lu Fan, with a grimacing smile, put his hand around Tiger’s shoulder.

“Gen… the boss asked you something, are you going to disrespect him like that?”

“Big, big, big boss…” Feeling the immense strength on his shoulder, Tiger felt like his bone was about to be crushed. With barely the ability to speak, he was shuddering, “Boss, sorry. I didn’t know better. Please just let me go like you let go of a fart.”

“Tiger, right?” Jiang Chen smiled at the scared Tiger. “I heard that you have something to ask me about?”

“I don’t dare, I don’t dare, please forgive me, my mouth is too careless!” Tiger began to slap himself

He was really slapping himself. Every slap made a loud sound, followed by his face turning red and purple. Just looking at his face was enough to feel how painful it was.

The thugs behind Tiger looked at their boss, dumbfounded as if a tall and stalwart figure in their heart just collapsed instantly.

Looking at Tiger slapping himself, Jiang Chen suddenly felt bored.

Sometimes people judged the situation too well that it becomes boring. If he resisted, maybe it would have been more fun.

He waved his hand and said in a tone that lacked interest.

“Draw a cat on his face and then throw him out.”

When Tiger heard Jiang Chen’s words, Tiger’s entire face turned from red to green.

Draw a cat on his face? This is more embarrassing than killing him. How will his thugs look at him? How will he hang around here?

Lu Fan was troubled.

“Boss, I don’t know how to paint…”

Tiger, in his mind, was filled with joy. But before he could let out a sigh of relief, his heart sunk to the bottom again.

“Stupid!” Jiang Chen sighed, “What did I teach you this morning?”

Lu Fan lowered his head.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment and then lazily said when he lookedaround the group of survivors watching this show.

“Are there any tattoo artists here?”

No one responded.

Without surprise, Jiang Chen took a crystal out from his pocket and shook the crystal in front of the survivors before asking again.

With a generous enough reward, there would always be a brave man. Under the temptation of the cobblestone-sized crystal, a man with a mask jumped out and even prepared the tools. The reason why he wore a mask was to not offend Tiger.

“Draw a cat on his face and this crystal is yours.” Jiang Chen pointed to Tiger.

“Do you want a fat or thin one?” The man didn’t pay attention to the warning in Tiger’s eyes as he smiled, looking at Jiang Chen with flattery in his eyes.

“Is there a saying in this?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

“Indeed!” The man chuckled while rubbing his hand. “There are many different kinds of cats, fat and thin, male and female, which type do you prefer?”

Not wanting to be bothered by this question, Jiang Chen took out another crystal from his pocket. He then tossed this crystal along with the previous one into the man’s lap.

“One fat and one thin, one male and one female, give me two paintings, one on each side.”

“Perfect!” The man started the tool in his hand with excitement.

“Don’t, don’t come,” Tiger said, looking terrified as he tried to escape. However, the big hand pressing on his shoulder locked him down.

Also, to prevent him from moving, two guards stepped forward and stood on his sides, directly pinning his hands and pressing his head against the table.

“Oh, brother, I can’t help it.”

Tiger, at this moment, was just like a woman who has been stripped. With fear in his eyes, he watched the tattoo artist that approached him. Soon, the bar was filled with a desperate cry.

The pain didn’t just come from his flesh, but also his dignity.

Only Tiger himself could understand the pain of being tattooed two cats on his face, in public.

Chapter 1166: Backdoor Program!

Chapter 1166 Backdoor Program!

With the support of his thugs, Tiger covered his head with clothes and limped back to the hotel in North Street.

Because he was not cooperative when he was getting his tattoo, he took a beating and looked quite miserable.

In the curious sight of others, he lowered his head through the hall and returned to his room while being held by his thugs.

He slammed the door behind him and pulled off the clothes that covered his head. Then, he quickly walked to the mirror.

There were two cats tattooed on his face; a fat one and a skinny one. They moved while his muscles twitched and looked quite vivid under the light.

Tiger looked hopeless.

“Brother… Brother Tiger,” the thug said with a flattering voice as he did his best to restrain his laughter while Tiger’s muscles twitched. He handed the iodine and cotton swabs with both hands. Please… please treat yourself first.”

Tiger knocked away the iodine and cotton swabs and stared at himself with a grimacing expression; his pupils burned with blazing fury.

“Tiger, we can’t just forget it like this!” Another thug said with despair and rage.

“Of course not,” Tiger said in a sullen tone.

They almost caught the man called Sura, but he managed to escape under his eyes. They went to question someone who may know him, but twenty burly men showed up and not only did they give him a beating, but they also drew two cats on his face…

Only twenty people…

I have 500 guns under my control!

Even those leaders in the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building must respect me. Who was that guy?

Tiger carefully compared the man’s face with the ones in his memory, and eventually did not match his name with anyone influential. And based on his accent, that guy wasn’t even a local.

He must be a mercenary of a merchant fleet and only been on Pingan Street for a few days.

For this kind of fool, I have countless means to make him repay!

With a sneer, Tiger already prepared a plan.

“Follow my order to keep a close eye on them.”

“I already issued the order,” A thug rushed forward and smiled insidiously. “Our people will be watching the four gates. Unless they hide in Pingan Street, otherwise…”

“Very good.” Tiger nodded, pleased. Then he again looked at himself in the mirror in humiliation. After a long silence, he said while gritting his teeth, “… go find me a mask.”

“Yes.” The thug nodded and rushed out of the door.

“Tiger… what about Sura?” The thug who handed the iodine and cotton swabs carefully asked.

“Continue to look for him. Even if we have to flip the city upside down, we have to get him!” With rage burning even more furiously in his eyes, Tiger gritted his teeth, as if the name carried a deep hatred. He said word by word, “I will slice him piece by piece!”

…

Under the watch of the crowd, Jiang Chen took his guards and strolled out of the bar.

As for the bottle of “Dragon Blue”, he tossed it into the storage dimension and prepared to take it back to Lin Lin for testing.

The man named Sura said an interesting sentence. Perhaps in another two hundred years, the delicious parts of mutants would have all been figured out by the survivors.

Jiang Chen agreed with the notion.

Mutants couldn’t be eaten as food was just a lesson learned through blood by the survivors in the first twenty years on the wasteland, but it was not completely accurate. Since mutant meat could be processed into nutrient supply, so then the mutant must possess some nutrients that could be absorbed by the human body.

Perhaps he should set up a research institute to study how to turn mutants into delicious delicacies.

Of course, no matter how tasty, he would never eat it.

“Boss, where are we going now?” Lu Fan whispered as he walked next to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen looked at the sky turning dark and thought it must be late. So he casually said.

“Just find a place to rest.”

It was already 11 o’clock in the evening. At this point, the four gates of Pingan Street were all closed. Unless he revealed his identity, it would be absolutely impossible for the guards to open the gate just for him.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t plan to expose his identity just yet. He still had things to do on this street.

After they left the North Gate Commercial Street, Lu Fan, who walked halfway behind Jiang Chen, suddenly narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice.

“Someone is following us.”

Without a change in expression, Jiang Chen whispered.

“Who?”

After a long silence, Lu Fan looked slightly disappointed and quietly said.

“He’s gone…”

“Gone?” Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised. He looked at Lu Fan. “Are you sure he’s gone?”

“Yes… He gave up. He may have realized that he exposed his whereabouts.” Lu Fan lowered his head and looked embarrassed. “…I’m incompetent.”

“This is not on you,” Jiang Chen looked around, nonchalantly, “this means his anti-reconnaissance ability is strong. Let the brothers keep their guards up. If you see the person again, bring him directly to me.”

“Roger!” Lu Fan obyed.

Who could it be?

Jiang Chen didn’t know, and he didn’t bother to care.

No one could hurt him.

This was not only his confidence in his own strength but also his complete trust in the twenty guards around him.

Many people here had followed him for four years, and some of them were even knights. Whether loyalty or strength, he didn’t have any doubt.

What’s to fear?

On the street outside the North Gate Commercial Street, Jiang Chen randomly picked a hotel that looked decent. After paying 30 crystals to get rooms for himself and the 20 guards, he rented out the entire top floor and chose to live in the most luxurious presidential suite on the top floor of the hotel.

While it was the presidential suite, the facilities were very simple and crude.

He took a shower, then laid down on the clean bedding before he received a message for Ayesha.

It was about the 2020 General Election in the UA. The attachments contained all the information about the candidate for the B City Consortium, John F. Kennedy. This information was clearly handled by professionals, clean without any imperfection.

After he read this information from the beginning to the end, even Jiang Chen, as a foreigner, thought about voting him.

Of course, Jiang Chen was fully aware.

There was no absolute clean politician in this world.

The more perfect the information, the more secrets that were concealed in the dark.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Chen responded with four words on the holographic screen.

Act as you wish

Then he clicked send.

He trusted Ayesha would make the right decision for him.

However, not long after this message was sent out and he had turned off the holographic screen to get ready to sleep, the blue light particles reappeared, and Jean’s holographic image appeared beside him.

With a serious and stern expression, Jean’s emotionless electronic voice said.

“Warning, backdoor programs are detected in the wrist-worn computer, the computer is being infiltrated…”

Chapter 1167: The Booze-loving Russians

1167 The Booze-loving Russians Subway Line 35, the waiting hall of Xinfeng Station.CCCP’s Subway Line 35 reconnaissance team was stationed here.

Jiang Chen was correct with his guess. The flesh was no match against the steel armor, at least not the mutants that wandered on Subway Line 35. The CCCP tanks easily crushed through them and left only a pile of meat.

The only trouble they encountered was a group of Spitters and a few Roshans that threw things around.

However, these encounters were just problems. They weren’t even considered dangers.

Along the way, three stations were cleared out. Two of the stations already showed varying degrees of collapses. Only the Xinfeng station located within the Fifth Ring Road was relatively intact.

Yegor issued a rest order. More than a dozen tanks sealed the lanes on both ends. The remaining armored vehicles, with the help of the infantry, cleared the zombies in the waiting hall and cleared out some open space. Several base vehicles were mobilized there before they were deployed into the hall.

On the hundred-meter-long ramp, soldiers wearing CCCP-made military uniforms used polyethylene bullet-proof panels to build simple fortifications at the ticket gates, and mounted machine guns to guard against possible threats from the outside.

After the camp was set up, Yegor jumped down from the tank covered in blood and flesh and moved towards the deployed base.

Not far away, the engineers used shovels to clean the meat chunks from the tank, collected them in a box, and transported the box to the Organic Boiler so that the meat could be processed into nutrient supply. At the back of the armored vehicles were bags full of Spitter bodies. The soldiers in protective suits were searching with their daggers for crystals.

These crystals were energy-rich and could be used to generate electricity via a special generator, or they could be made into pseudo-nuclear fusion batteries to power tank engines.

Although the crystals were not as large as the crystals formed by mutants in the Siberian wilderness, the quantity was much greater in comparison; greater that they had ever imagined.

In the communication base vehicle, Sminov was in contact with the remainder of the force.

When Yegor entered, Sminov immediately stood up and saluted.

“How is the harvest?” Yegor nodded to signal for him to sit down. He pulled up a chair and sat across from him, “Tell me everything.”

“The captured organic matter produced a total of 3,000 nutrient supplies, and 1,000 crystals. The newly cultivated 50 cloned soldiers in the incubator base have awakened and are currently undergoing training courses in virtual training facilities,” Sminov reported.

The CCCP frontline forces possessed two powerful weapons. One was the cloned soldier and the other was the nano serum.

The former constituted the Soviet rushing team, while the latter formed the super soldiers in the Soviet army, both of which gave NATO and Pan-Asia Cooperation a headache.

In the culture tank, with enough nutrient, the clones could complete the baby to adult growth process in just ten days. With minimal training, they could rush into the battlefield. The clones “produced” from this technology had IQs lower than 100 and an average life space of less than 10 years. The only purpose they served was to oppress the enemy with numbers and waste the enemy’s ammunition… and it was surprisingly effective.

With the right commander, it would serve a miraculous effect on the battlefield.

As for the nano serum, it would be a topic for another day.

Rich in organic matter and abundant in energy, all the mutants in Eastern Siberia added together would not be comparable to the metro in Shangjing. While they fought desperately for survival against the extreme weather, the survivors of the Pan-Asia Cooperation possessed such a wonderful treasure.

Compared with Uelen covered in eternal ice, this place was paradise…

“It’s paradise here,” Yegor couldn’t stop admiring.

He felt fortunate for making the decision of heading south to Pan-Asia instead of crossing Siberia to the west and heading to Moscow.

“Yes,” Sminov was quite emotional too. “Not only are there these weak zombies and mutants, just now, our field researchers found a fluorescent fungus in the subway, rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. These elements could be used as a substitute for some chemical raw materials… I have to say that there are good things everywhere.”

As soon as Yegor heard chemical materials, he looked at Sminov and hurriedly asked him what he was most concerned about.

“How is the situation with the ammunition production line?”

“The ammunition production line has started to run. We have dismantled some of the facilities in the subway for recycling, and the metal resources have been supplemented, but other resources are still lacking…especially oil and its substitutes, rubber, and some chemical raw materials.”

Ammunition had always been a big problem that plagued the border guards. Without an industrial backbone, it was almost impossible to maintain this gigantic armored force. Fortunately, they owned dozens of base vehicles, as long as they gathered resources, they could achieve a certain degree of self-sufficiency.

Of course, the premise had been that a sufficient amount of resources could be collected.

When Yegor heard the news that the ammunition production line started to operate again, the issue that kept Yegor up at night finally went away. The weather-beaten face finally showed a hint of a smile.

“Sir.”

“What’s going on?”

“Do we still want to continue to explore?” Sminov looked out the window. “These resources are now enough for us to digest for a long time.”

“Why not?”

“But…”

“You want to talk about the risks and benefits, right?” Yegor smiled. He was in a good mood today, so his temper was much better. “My dear comrade, I know exactly what you mean. After all, the rewards today are probably more than the gains of a week in the Siberian wilderness. Especially with the Organic Boiler running non-stop. The wonderful noise is like a melody. To tell you the truth, I never imagined that we could live with such wealth.”

“Then why…” Sminov said with some hesitation.

Although they didn’t encounter any danger, the dark tunnel always gave him an ominous premonition.

It felt like the tunnel was leading straight to hell.

“Did you notice?” Looking at the direction of the subway line, Yegor narrowed his eyes. “The tunnel here is wide, even in the middle of the tracks, there is a cement road enough for two cars to run in parallel.”

Yegor’s original intention was just using the subway line as a mean to launch a sneak attack against NAC’s steel airship, however, as he continued to explore the subway, he began to notice the strangeness of this place.

“This is a strategic tunnel for Pan-Asia Cooperation.” Yegor pointed at his feet, “The underground transportation network of the city together constitutes the Pan-Asia Cooperation wartime transportation network.”

Sminov nodded. Obviously, he also noticed this.

Just…

So what?

“Comrade Sminov, I don’t know if you have considered this,” Yegor grinned with his hands behind his back. “For example, what is buried underneath this intricate subway network?”

“Why are you so sure something must be buried below?” Sminov was confused.

“The instinct of a leader.” Yegor pointed at his head with his finger. There was a sense of excitement buried in his pupils. “My instinct tells me that there must be something buried underneath. It may be a super weapon., it may also be just a bunch of useless gold, but in any case, I can’t sit still and just let it lie below my feet. Do you understand this feeling? Comrade Sminov?”

Sminov took a deep breath and nodded.

“I understand.”

“That’s good.” Yegor looked at him, nodded and was about to head out.

However, with one foot already out the door, he suddenly stopped.

“Right,” He turned and looked at Sminov before he pointed to his feet. “Are there a lot of fungi here?”

Slightly stunned, Sminoff nodded.

“I don’t know if there are a lot, but there are quite a number of them. But most of the fungi are inedible. Even if it is used as a raw material for nutrient supply, the organic matter percentage is not high either, and it is not comparable to mutants…”

“It’s not food, it has nothing to do with food,” Yegor opened his mouth. “I heard that there is a kind of alcohol that seems to be called… mushroom wine.”

Sminov took a slight pause, and his expression gradually turn into ecstasy.

Liquor!

Mushroom wine!

The two Russians looked at each other and simultaneously began to laugh hysterically.

Alcohol was a wonderful substance!

Even if it were a poisonous mushroom-brewed alcohol, as long as they could distill the alcohol and drink it.

As for the taste, who cares?

Anyway, vodka was almost the taste of alcohol, and many people had not tasted alcohol for more than ten years. Even the most inferior blended alcohol would be the finest wine in the world for the Russians.

As long as it was alcohol, they were never picky!

“I’ll give you a task.” Yegor’s expression changed. “Select two field researchers and be sure to tackle the issue of brewing drinkable mushroom wine!”

As if he had already smelled the alcohol, Sminov’s back was straight as he shouted loudly.

“Guaranteed to complete the mission!”

“Go now!”

Chapter 1168: Good Night, Sweet Dreams

1168 Good Night, Sweet Dreams After Old Luo casually strolled out of the North Gate Commercial Street, he disappeared into a nearby dark alley. After he turned two corners, he walked into a dead end.In front of the run-down wall, he put his hand against the wall and suddenly laughed.

“It’s time to come out.”

With an applause, a man with a felt hat on and in an old black suit walked into the alley.

“Not bad.”

The five men standing behind him were all in black suits too.

Six automatic rifles were in their hands, and the six men stood at the entrance to the dead end, they blocked Old Luo’s only escape route.

The man smiled happily as he looked at Old Luo without any way to flee.

“When did you notice?”

“From the time you stared at me,” Old Luo grinned; the shadow of the alley blocked the disdainful expression on his face.

“Oh?” The man raised his eyebrows with interest. “That’s interesting. But anyone with a little intelligence shouldn’t be stupid enough to walk into a dead end…. Or are you just lost?”

Old Luo smiled and did not answer but asked.

“Who sent you? The Church? Wan Peng? Or the famous Ding Liwei?”

The man did not answer and just looked at Old Luo with a sly smile.

Seeing that man didn’t respond, Old Luo burst out laughing.

“Wait… is it that Tiger’s clan?”

“Is it important?” The man quietly spoke while he snapped a finger, “You just need to know that someone wants your life. That is enough.”

The five gunmen behind the man all simultaneously loaded their rifle, took a half step forward, and pointed the black muzzles at Old Luo in the dead end, stopping any chance of his survival.

“Good night,” The man gently lowered his felt hat and said in a hoarse voice, “Sweet dreams.”

Old Luo smiled.

“Good night.”

The slender dagger, as thin as a scalpel, slipped from his cuff and was expertly pinched at his fingertips.

Under the dim moonlight, the silver was like a shimmer of light, undetectable.

Like feathers and the shackles of the Grim Reaper, the unspoken words blew into the black suit man’s ear.

“You too, sweet dreams.”

…

Pingan Street was already asleep, but the Pan-Asia Cooperation building was still brightly lit.

In the quiet Shangjing, like the candlelight of the civilized world, the last lingering flame swayed into the empty and dark night.

In the conference room, where the Pan-Asia officials held their meetings, the senior officials of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance held another meeting.

However, the nature of this meeting was somewhat different from that of the last meeting. The number of attendees was less than half of the previous ones. They were representatives of the forces working in the building, such as Ding Liwei, Wan Peng, and so on.

Like Xu Tiannan, although he led the Guardian Sect as the archbishop, his force migrated to Shangjing, so he was only regarded as a foreigner. Even though his force was not to be reckoned with, he still couldn’t squeeze into the core of Pingan Street.

Mayor Liu sighed at the conference table.

“The city gate tax at four crystals is still too high, and the survivors have reacted negatively to it. The City Hall received a thousand complaint letters today.”

Among all the people sitting here, as the mayor, he was the one with the least amount of power.

The reason why he rose to the position was probably the result of mutual compromise between the leaders. Either Ding Liwei or Wan Peng could easily be in this position with more stability.

“High?” Wan Peng snorted. “I feel we charged too low.”

Because of NAC’s astronomical bill, he bled crystals with his warehouse shrinking by one million crystals. Even with the financial resources of his Sunday club, it was still a large expense.

“We only got five million,” Ding Liwei said. “After all, our expenses are not small. It’s impossible to squeeze out ten million crystals to the NAC. The city gate tax will continue to be maintained at four. No matter how much resistance, it must be carried out. At least it should last until the spring of next year. This is our bottom line.”

The factories needed crystals, workers and soldiers also required crystals. The profit from hunting was just a drop in the bucket. The capital chain and the supply chain got intermingled. Although they indeed possessed wealth, they still must be cautious of their finances as there was no room for error.

“I mean, at least to make the news public—”

“Impossible,” Wan Peng interrupted the words of Mayor Liu. “Are you considering the consequences of publicity? Why did we want to block the news of the Badaling Military Outpost at all costs? Think about it, Mayor Liu, if you let Pingan Street survivors know that hundreds of CCCP tanks have rolled to the doorstep of Shangjing, what will they do?”

“The news will spread sooner or later.” Mayor Liu smiled bitterly.

“We’ll deal with it when it does,” Wan Peng said and stared at him. “At that time, we naturally will let them believe that the tanks were not coming for us.”

Mayor Liu still wished to add something, but in the end, he swallowed his words.

Wan Peng’s opinion was naturally the consensus reached by the Survivors Alliance. As the mayor, he didn’t have the right to comment, let alone change the mind of the leaders.

“The next question.” Ding Liwei looked at the meeting table at the man wearing glasses.

The man wearing glasses nodded. “The next question. The Guardian Sect plans to move to Pingan Street within three days. Xu Tiannan asked us to arrange a place for his people, preferably at the East Gate of Pingan Street because their settlement is closer to the East Gate.”

“Is he not staying in the gym?” Ding Liwei frowned.

“Because of the Russians.”

Russians.

Someone said the word.

When the word appeared on the conference table, the whole room suddenly fell silent.

After a long time.

“Approved,” Ding Liwei slowly responded, then looked at Mayor Liu. “Go arrange it. Move part of the slums at the East Gate to the West Gate.”

“Okay.” Mayor Liu nodded.

“Go now.”

“Yes…”

Mayor Liu simply packed up the things on the table and left the conference table.

The door of the conference room closed.

After a while, someone broke the silence.

“Russians are in the subway.”

“DAMMIT!” Wan Peng slammed his fist against the table, and gnashed his teeth. “Why couldn’t they choose anywhere but the subway!”

Ding Liwei’s expression was not so great either.

Obviously, he also cursed the Russians in his mind.

The man in the windbreaker sighed. He hadn’t said anything since the beginning of the meeting, but then spoke for the first time.

“What should we do now?”

“First, stop the project. We’ll wait for the Russians and NAC to leave first,” Ding Liwei slightly frowned while staring at the subway lines on the holographic map. “Fortunately, they are at Line 35… I hope they don’t find anything. As long as they don’t go there, everything will be fine.”

“Stop? Okay, I’m going to the construction site now.” The man in the windbreaker stood up and walked to the door.

“Wait.” Ding Liwei suddenly stopped him.

“What else?” The man turned around.

Ding Liwei stared at him solemnly and said word by word.

“You must find that old Luo.”

The man in the windbreaker nodded and quietly responded.

“Rest assured.”

“He can’t run.”

Chapter 1169: Deal The Hand

1169 Deal The Hand “Backdoor program?” Jiang Chen sat up on the bed and revealed a stern expression. “What?”“Do you want to activate Safe Mode?”

“Of course!”

In the holographic image, a stream of data flashed through Jean’s pupils.

Safe Mode was immediately activated, and the interdimensional communication and electromagnetic wave communication chip of the watch were physically disconnected.

Then, Jiang Chen felt his watch heat up.

He knew Jean was using the full computing power of the wrist-mounted computer to destroy the backdoor program.

In a short while, smoke along with a burnt smell appeared from the side of the watch.

Jiang Chen’s eyes narrowed and touched the side of the watch.

Soon, he snatched a fine mechanical mosquito from the side of the watch.

The mosquito had six limbs and had a data needle on its head. However, it was somewhat distorted because he snatched onto it. The mechanical mosquito should have optical invisibility capability, or else he would have sensed its presence.

The “mosquito” likely downloaded the backdoor program to his watch.

“Done?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Of course,” Jean said proudly. “You know who wrote my AI.”

I should thank Yao Yao when I go back.

In his mind, Jiang Chen indulged for a moment and asked.

“How much data was stolen?”

“The amount of data transferred was only 1.3 megabyte.”

“List the documents that could have been stolen.” Jiang Chen immediately ordered.

“Roger… the suspected stolen documents are as follows…”

Following Jiang Chen’s instructions, Jean took out the information that might have been stolen and listed it as a catalogue with abstracts before presenting it in front of Jiang Chen.

When his eyes swept over the list, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The stolen documents were irrelevant information. He didn’t have the habit of carrying important information with him. The interdimensional communication chip was separately encrypted, and the attacker who infiltrated his watch wrist-mounted computer was unable to reach that stage yet.

“Can I lock the attacker’s coordinates?” Jiang Chen suddenly asked.

“…”

Jiang Chen was uncertain if the way Jean looked at him was the same as how she would look at an idiot…

“If there was a satellite that tracks the signal source, then it is not impossible,” Jean replied.

“Well, I know I asked a very stupid question.” Jiang Chen coughed.

Jean’s holographic image scattered like sand and disappeared from his side.

The wrist-mounted computer was performing high-intensity computations. Now the CPU and RAM were both burning. In order preserve the hardware’s life, Jean entered hibernation mode to save computing resources and release the memory of the wrist-mounted computer…

After he stood up, Jiang Chen went to the window and recalled the people he met today.

Old Luo, who he previously encountered in the bar; the person that stalked him on the road. Not accounting for those two, there were many opportunities to release the mechanical mosquito… There would be too many suspects who might download the backdoor program to his watch.

Next to the window, Jiang Chen gazed into the night view of Pingan Street.

After being deep in thought, Jiang Chen reached out and restarted the communication chip on his watch and called Zhou Guoping.

“Hello?”

“It’s me,” Jiang Chen was concise.

Zhou Guoping at the other end of the phone said respectfully.

“What is the order, General?”

“How infiltrated are your people in Pingan Street?”

“Haha, boss, you came to the right person—”

Jiang Chen didn’t want to waste too much time with him, so he directly interrupted his words and said.

“Perfect, go and do something for me.”

“Please instruct me.”

“Help me investigate two people,” Jiang Chen paused before he continued. “One’s name is Scarecrow, the boss of Hell Courier. The other is Sura. If possible, bring his people to me.”

…

In the dimly lit room, the holographic screen flickered. Only the sound of the fan running could be heard.

Rows of data flowed through the screen at an incredible speed.

The speed at which a man tapped the trackpad gradually accelerated, accelerated, and accelerated…

Eventually it accelerated to the limit.

Ten fingers have turned into residual images and formed countless ripples on the touchpad.

“DAMMIT!” A fist slammed onto the table, and both of the man’s hands left the touchpad as he leaned back against the chair, his face full of gloom.

A woman walked up to his side with cups of coffee and placed one of the cups next to his keyboard.

“How’s it going?”

“It’s awful.” The man shook his head and said, “Lost a mechanical mosquito.”

The woman’s face showed a flash of surprise.

“A mechanical mosquito. They can even detect mechanical mosquitos? This alertness is really…”

“Do you want to say too high? You guessed it,” The man shrugged and said.

Just then, a muffled sound came from the wall, and a ray of light scattered into the dark room.

The two moved their hands to their waists.

However, when they saw the person standing at the door, they sighed in unison and moved their hands away

“I’m back.”

Old Luo pushed open the door, walked in, and closed the elevator door.

“What’s on your body…” The woman looked at him, slightly surprised.

“I came across a little trouble.” After he tossed the broken coat on the hanger, Old Luo sat down on the sofa, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it for himself while he asked casually, “How’s the investigation going?”

“Like you,” The man sitting in front of the touchpad shrugged. “Ran into a little trouble.”

“Oh?” Old Luo raised an eyebrow.

“The person responsible for the target’s information security has a relevant skill rating of at least A, or even S.” The man picked up the cup of coffee with a weird color on the table, took a sip, and bitterly savored the taste. “Unbelievable, what age is this? There are still people who will pay attention to cybersecurity?”

“Are you not a S-class?” Old Luo grinned. “Someone can make the famous Greyhound feel challenged?”

“Attack and protection are two concepts,” The man known as Greyhound shook his head. “Just like football, attacking is also different when you’re at home compared to when you’re away. Not to mention the hardware situation we have. I have used this server for more than 30 years.”

“Nothing?” asked Old Luo.

“The mechanical mosquito is gone. Or, do you want to put another fly? Maybe this time—”

“We can’t continue to waste precious resources on him.” Old Luo shook his head, looked at the ceiling and spat out a smoke ring. He then gazed at the smoke slowing fading and began to seemingly mutter to himself, “Especially when we still haven’t found out what NAC knows about that thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“You continue to try to crack the security procedures,” Old Luo tapped his cigarette and then slowly said, “It is top priority to find that thing ahead of Ding Liwei and the Guardian Sect.”

“Leave it to me… I mean I’ll try my best.” Greyhound spread his hands and sighed. “Tomorrow, I will go to the market again to see if I can get some old parts back, at least let it work. Until everything is over… it’s too old.”

“Go.” Old Luo nodded.

The room returned to silence.

The server seemed to be down again. Greyhound looked at it with helplessness as he held onto a wrench. In the meantime, the woman sat on the chair and read a book by the dim light, as she tried to kill some time.

And Old Luo, just quietly stared at the spicy smoke ring that dissipated at the edge of the ceiling.

After a long time, he sighed softly and threw the burnt cigarette butt into the bin.

“It’s getting more and more chaotic.”

Originally, their competitors were only Ding Liwei and Wan Peng of Pingan Street, as well as the Guardian’s Sect. With the sudden fall of the Badaling Military Outpost, CCCP and NAC also entered the game.

The most important thing was that the chips they carried weren’t small.

Maybe there would be an outcome to this game before the end of the year.

Or maybe earlier…

“Perhaps it’s time to deal the hand?”

Old Luo stared at the ceiling quietly. There was an intrigued light that appeared in his eyes and his dry lips moved as he seemingly muttered to himself.

Chapter 1170: Auction Part 1

Chapter 1170 Chapter 1171 Auction Part 1

The next morning, Jiang Chen stretched his body, yawned, and sat up from the bed.

After he quickly brushed up, Jiang Chen walked into the kitchen, still sleepy. He took out a box of instant pasta and a box of milk from the storage dimension and stuffed the pasta into the microwave oven on the cabinet.

Then, he placed the milk and the pasta that dripped with tomato sauce onto the table and prepared to enjoy his breakfast. But then, Lu Fan knocked on the door, came in, and saluted.

“Gen… boss, this is an invitation from the hotel manager.”

“An invitation?”

Still yawning, Jiang Chen put down his fork and took the invitation from Lu Fan. He glanced at it for a moment before he displayed an intrigued expression.

The Dorsett Hotel had an auction at ten in the morning and it was being held in the lobby on the second floor. He was holding the invitation to the auction along with an admission ticket.

Although he did not register to participate in the auction, but because he lived in the presidential suite on the top floor, the hotel manager certainly would not miss a rich guest. Therefore, whether he registered or not, the hotel manager would send an invitation out of respect. What’s more, the hotel manager prepared a VIP booth along with a beautiful waitress to serve him.

After all, apart from the really wealthy, no one would live in the presidential suite that cost 200 crystals per night.

The profit of a Death Claw was only about 50 crystals. Living in the hotel for one night meant four Death Claws must be killed. Other than the people with no better place to spend their wealth, even the rich would not waste money on accommodation.

Since there were no other arrangements that morning, he decided to check out the auction.

With the thought in his mind, Jiang Chen left the invitation aside and continued to enjoy his breakfast.

…

There were still ten minutes left before the auction started.

With the reception of the waitress, Jiang Chen entered the auction venue from the VIP passage and into the VIP booth prepared for him at the Dorsett Hotel.

The waitress respectfully pushed open the wooden door, slightly bowed, then stepped aside to invite him in.

Red wooden beams decorated the roof, and the wooden floor was covered with a fur he couldn’t identify. The room thirty square meters in size was lined with antique furniture. Even for pre-war standards, the decor would be considered extremely luxurious.

In the VIP booth, a beautiful waitress in a cheongsam stood next to the red wooden table.

When she saw Jiang Chen, she greeted him with a warm smile and a respectful bow. The neckline of the cheongsam inadvertently revealed a large area of softness. Her smile and her gesture, all lingered with temptation.

After quickly examining the VIP booth, Jiang Chen thought that the owner of this place must be a powerful individual to be able to possess this asset on Pingan Street.

Of course, regarding power, no one was more powerful than him.

So, it was only a thought in his mind, nothing more.

At this moment, the waitress took out a business card and courteously handed it to him with both hands.

“This is the business card of our boss, and I hope you, sir, can accept it.”

“Business card?” After he received the business card, Jiang Chen smiled and looked at it. “Your boss is Mei Zhiyong?”

“Mhmm,” the waitress’s face displayed a short glimpse of pride. “The Dorsett Hotel is just one of our boss’s assets. Although he did not join the Survivors Alliance, my boss’s influence in Shangjing is comparable to the members of the alliance.”

“Your boss is very powerful?” Jiang Chen smiled.

The waitress laughed and didn’t act arrogantly because of her boss’s identity. Instead, she said with the same respect.

“I don’t mean anything else, just listening to your accent, you should be from the South. Our boss recently bought two merchant fleets and is doing business with the survivors’ in Wanghai. A friend is another connection. Well, the boss told me that if I ever see an influential businessman from the South, I must do my best to serve our friend… I hope you won’t mind sir.”

“The auction process will be introduced by the host, I wish you can find your favorite item at the auction.”

With another bow, the waitress no longer disturbed Jiang Chen, and exited the booth.

Inside the room, Jiang Chen sat in the old chair and overlooked the crowd gathered in the auction hall.

The windows of the VIP Booth were unidirectional, light-transparent glass. From the outside, only blurred figures were visible, but from the inside, everything was crystal clear. The design maximized the privacy of the VIPs.

After all, not only valuable items were auctioned here, so were items with “unknown” sources. If someone had an eye on an teim but did not win, it would be troublesome.

For this very reason, even in the regular seats, the bidders wore masks randomly distributed by the hotel. Only a card with a number represented their respective identities.

A booklet was presented to Jiang Chen, and the beautiful host smiled.

“This is the catalogue of the auction items. If you see anything that interests you, just let me know?”

“Mhmm, I see.”

At the same time, Jiang Chen took the catalogue and flipped a few pages.

In terms of scale, the level of this auction was undoubtedly quite high. Aside from the dozens of VIP booths, there were hundreds of merchants and riches that sat in the auction hall. With such a large scale, there should be some interesting items.

And it was indeed true. When Jiang Chen flipped through the pages, he suddenly showed interest… or an intrigued smirk.

“It’s here?” Speaking to himself, his fingers slid over the item, remembered the number, and turned to the next page.

The crowd in the venue spoke amongst themselves. Then on the platform in the center, a ray of light suddenly appeared.

In the chatter, the auctioneer stepped onto the platform, clapped his hands to signal everyone to focus on him, and then announced the beginning of the auction…

In general, the process was similar to the modern world.

The auctioneer spectacularly praised each auction item and led many wealth individuals to bid. The auction items also varied greatly. There were commodity items that bankrupt merchants were desperate to get rid of, ingenious high-tech products, a box of canned beef, and even people.

“…The next auction item is Zhao Qiuran! Many people should have heard of her name. Yes, she is a lone traveler active in Haizhou. Because of an accident, she was captured by a raider clan. By the way, the seller, in an effort to receive a good price, has not done anything to her, if you know what I mean. Ahe. Muscle Strength 41, Bone Strength 30, Reflex 37, Brain Activity 13, Gun Rating S, Combat Rating A+, Sneak Rating B… Starting price, 1500 crystals!”

A woman with her hair scattered was fixed on a metal cart and forced to kneel down. The cart was pushed by two bodyguards with guns onto the center of the platform. Under the light, the auctioneer grabbed her loose hair and showed her face to the buyers in the audience.

Chapter 1171: Auction Part 2

1171 Auction Part 2

He had to admit, even with the weariness on her face, it didn’t hinder her beauty.

However, what made Jiang Chen even more surprised was her Muscle Strength and Reflex.

Good lord, it’s a superhuman with stats higher than him. Why are lone travelers so OP?

If it weren’t for the eyes fiercer than the murderous Death Claw as well as the murderous vibe, he almost wanted to purchase her to be his bodyguard.

With the exhibition of this “item”, the atmosphere of the entire auction was pushed to a peak.

In order to compete for this “item”, several rich people bid fiercely against each other. With many competing bids, the beautiful lone traveler was won by a buyer who almost couldn’t squeeze into his suit with a price of a kinetic skeleton and 7,000 crystals.

She was pushed back with the cart, and the unfortunate Miss Zhao Qiuran disappeared from everyone’s eyes. Items worth more than 1,000 crystals must be settled through special channels. It was meant to protect the privacy of buyers.

Jiang Chen noticed that in the corner of the hall, a chubby man with fat squeezing out from the buttons of his suit stood up in excitement as he rubbed his hands. He followed the hotel waiter and then went backstage.

He was eager to inspect his “item”.

Perhaps it was his illusion, but Jiang Chen read a hint of disdain on Miss Zhao Qiuran’s face when she was pushed back. She didn’t look nervous at all. Either she was prepared to die, or she prepared backup plans.

The chubby man probably wouldn’t be able to enjoy his item.

He shook his head, then Jiang Chen left the thought behind and continued to read through the catalog.

Even if he bought her, she was likely to be used as a sex toy. He was not a philanthropist, and he didn’t need something as disdainful as a sex toy. It just didn’t make sense to take on the risk while spending 7,000 crystals.

What’s more, he couldn’t help everyone.

In less than half an hour, the auction sold more than 20 slaves at an incredible speed.

Among them were mature women who were graceful and little lolis in cute skirts. The age range served people with all different tastes.

In addition, Jiang Chen also found a very interesting thing.

Often the female lone travelers with only above average beauty could be sold at a higher price than the pre-war celebrities with perfect figures and beauty. For example, a former actress who had produced a lot of albums and starred in two movies was only sold for 4,000 crystals, which was just half the price of Zhao Qiuran.

Is it because the capturing process is more difficult?

Or because of a deformed desire to conquer, or some other psychological needs…

The children of the former Pan-Asia Cooperation officials, especially the non-clone ones with complete ID information, were also highly sought after by the rich.

…

On the other side of the auction hall, Wan Peng was also in a VIP booth. He looked at the auction venue leisurely as he enjoyed the pair of hands perfect like jade massaging him.

Next to him stood a middle-aged man in a suit.

Judging from his respectful look, he should be Wan Peng’s butler.

“Is the investigation done?”

“Not yet,” said the middle-aged man. “The hotel is not willing to cooperate with our investigation. They said that if they disclosed the information of the buyer, the reputation of the Dorsett Hotel would be completely ruined.”

After listening to the middle-aged man, Wan Peng’s expression didn’t change. His eyes half-narrowed, enjoying the massage while he ordered.

“It’s okay. If this is the case, we’ll do Mr. Ma a favor and purchase it.”

As he spoke, the slave auction came to an end.

Now, half of the entire auction was over.

Jiang Chen crossed his legs, looked at the catalog, and used one ear to listen to the auctioneer praising each item. However, as everything was irrelevant to him, he didn’t show any interest.

As the beautiful host examined the VIP who just flipped through the same catalog, she was anxious, but she could not say anything.

Just then, in the center of the auction hall, a black trolley was pushed up.

From the tray on the trolley, the auctioneer picked up a card.

“It is said that there is a mysterious subway line buried deep under the more than 40 subway lines in Shangjing that serves as the passage to the Pan-Asia Cooperation’s strategic reserve. It is not within the urban transportation system and is not open to the public. This special ‘subway line’ is called Line 0!”

People began exchanging information and whispering.

In VIP booth 076, Jiang Chen put down the catalog in his hand, looked at the auctioneer on the platform, and waited quietly for him to continue. In VIP booth 001 directly opposite of him, Wan Peng also slightly opened his eyes.

“It is rumored that Subway Line 0 is not an ordinary subway line. It is buried with a large amount of war storage materials and industrial equipment. It is the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation. If anyone possesses the treasure, this person will undoubtedly become the richest individual in the entire Shangjing area and even the whole wasteland!”

“And this card in my hand is the ticket to Subway Line 0. It is rumored that even if the location is found, a special ID card is required to pass the security at Subway Line 0… ID card of Subway Line 0, starting price, 1,000 crystals!”

Whoever possessed the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation would become the richest person on the wasteland.

It was tempting, but the survivors were not stupid.

Disregarding the location of the treasure, the first issue would be its existence. Even with the key to the treasure chest, so what?

But that being said, this ID card must possess some value, at least it could be valued as a collection item.

What if the legendary Subway Line 0 was discovered one day? The buyer would be able to go directly or they could sell the card to someone and generate a great return.

Of course, considering the risks involved, even those interested in biding didn’t have a high price set in their mind.

“Eleven hundred!”

“Twelve hundred!”

“Five thousand!”

Five thousand crystals!

Everyone gasped the cool air and cast their sights on VIP booth 001 who raised the price to five thousand.

What kind of person was willing to spend five thousand crystals to buy a small card?

Even the auctioneer in the middle was shocked by the wealth displayed by the buyer of VIP booth 001.

As soon as the auctioneer regained clarity, he immediately shouted.

“Five thousand crystals once!”

“Five thousand crystals twice!”

“Five thousand crystals…”

Wan Peng smirked and leaned back against the chair. To be honest, Ding Liwei and he both had one of these ID cards. The reason why he spent this money was to prevent someone else from receiving the “ticket” to Subway Line 0.

There were enough people interested in Subway Line 0. The last thing he wanted would be to have another unstable factor.

Five thousand crystals, worth it…

“Ten thousand crystals!”

Wan Peng’s smile froze and his face gradually turned gloomy.

“Twenty thousand!”

There was a commotion in the auction hall.

The card was actually bid to a price of twenty thousand crystals. The host felt that the palm of his hand that held the wooden hammer begin to sweat.

“Ahem, twenty thousand crystals once…”

“Fifty thousand.”

VIP booth 076 again raised its placard.

Wan Peng’s expression turned even more gloomy.

The host looked at him hesitantly, asking him if he was going to bid more, but she saw that Wan Peng just waved his hand and then spoke a few words to the middle-aged man next to him.

The middle-aged man nodded and left the room.

Wan Peng looked outside and stared at the VIP booth numbered 076. He gnashed his teeth and thought in his mind, Don’t let me know who you are. Don’t ever think about Line 0, otherwise, you can go die!

The fifty thousand crystals bid pushed the atmosphere to a climax.

“Fifty thousand! VIP booth 076 is bidding Fifty thousand! Is there a higher price? If not, Fifty thousand, once, fifty thousand, twice, five thousand thrice…”

On the platform, the auctioneer shouted three times, and the wooden hammer smashed down.

“Deal!”

Just like this, with an astronomical price of fifty thousand crystals, this mysterious ID card was collected by Jiang Chen in VIP booth 076.

fifty thousand crystals to buy a card was certainly considered wasteful. The same price could purchase a customized power armor on Pingan Street!

The people in the hall turned their eyes to VIP booth 076. They all wished to know the mysterious buyer.

However, apart from a faint illusion, they could not see anything. They could only look at the unidirectional light-transparent glass and dream of the magnificent wealth.

In VIP booth 076, the beautiful host next to Jiang Chen was flushing with excitement.

For every item Jiang Chen purchased, she collected a small commission. Although this ratio was very small, she could receive fifty crystals on the fifty thousand crystals purchase. It was almost the equivalent to her basic salary of one month.

Conversely, if Jiang Chen didn’t buy anything without even bidding once, and the hotel would punish her. Precisely because of this, she was so anxious when Jiang Chen seem disinterested.

The beautiful host with her charming smile gazed at Jiang Chen. Her watery eyes were full of passion.

Since Jiang Chen already purchased what he needed, he didn’t want to stay further and stood up.

“There is still half an hour left of the auction. Do you not want to stay, sir?” The host asked.

“I already bought what I needed. Send the item to my room after.”

Jiang Chen shook his head and left the room.

Chapter 1172: Take It From Their Dead Bodies

1172 Take It From Their Dead Bodies

Subway Line 0.

Before he came to Shangjing, Jiang Chen had never heard of this term. However, when he saw the description of Subway Line 0 in the catalog, he gradually became interested.

Digging an entire subway line hundreds of meters underground shouldn’t be used to store nutrient supply or canned food. The items inside should at least not be cheaper than building this strategic subway line.

The key term “The Treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation” really caught his attention.

Of course, while he was interested, he did not immediately bid for it. Although the price was not his top concern, why would he waste money on purpose? No one could guarantee that the ID card was a real ID card nor if the legendary Subway Line 0 really existed.

However, only when VIP booth 001 across from him offered the high price of five thousand crystals did Jiang Chen’s concern dissipate and he made the decision to purchase the card.

If Wan Peng learned that it was due to his decision of offering a high bid price that made Jiang Chen make up his mind to win the bid for this ID card, he would probably hurt himself. When VIP booth 076 offered a bid of ten thousand crystals, he immediately upped the bid to twenty thousand.

In the end, Jiang Chen ended any possibility with the monstrous bid of fifty thousand crystals…

When Jiang Chen left the auction venue from the VIP passage, he was about to walk to the elevator when he saw a middle-aged man approach him.

The man stood in front of Jiang Chen and spoke with a slightly hoarse voice.

“Do you have time for a quick chat?”

“No.”

Jiang Chen didn’t even look at him and walked straight to the elevator.

The expression on the face of the middle-aged man froze as he looked at Jiang Chen walk pass him.

Although he also thought he would encounter obstacles here, he did not expect the rejection to be this direct. His response didn’t leave him any face.

Seeing that Jiang Chen was about to go into the elevator, the middle-aged man thought of the task that his boss gave to him and rushed forward to stop in front of Jiang Chen. Then he revealed a smile on his face.

Jiang Chen looked up. When he saw the man in front of him, he finally took a closer look at the individual.

A neat hairstyle, black suit with a black tie, and black leather shoes…

If this place was not the apocalypse, Jiang Chen would have categorized him as an insurance agent.

“Sir, may I ask for your name?” The middle-aged man asked after he cleared his throat.

Jiang Chen did not intend to interact with him, but he suddenly thought of something as a mischievous smile formed and quickly faded. Then he said.

“Lu Fan.”

“Lu Fan?” The middle-aged man frowned slightly. He carefully scanned the name in his mind and found that there was no one that matched his particular face. So, his voice became mixed with a hint of contemptuousness as he said in an authoritative manner, “My boss is inviting you to have a cup of tea.”

“Oh? Who is your boss?” Jiang Chen smiled. “Do I know him?”

“Wan Peng, Manager Wan.” The middle-aged man’s eyebrows rose. His arrogance of being a left-hand man of a powerful individual fully displayed. “Have you heard of the Survivors Alliance? The Pingan Street you’re stepping on is partially owned by this powerful individual. If you understand the situation, I advise you…”

Jiang Chen just grinned by slightly lifting the corner of his mouth.

“So?”

The expression of the middle-aged man gradually turned gloomy.

“What do you mean? Are you planning to reject the invitation?”

“When did I show interest?” Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.

The middle-aged man suddenly smiled. The gloom on his face dissipated and was instead replaced by a look that seemed as if he was looking at a dead person.

“Good, very good.”

The elevator arrived.

The middle-aged man stepped aside, made a gesture to invite Jiang Chen to step into the elevator, and looked at Jiang Chen with a menacing smile.

“I hope that Mr. Lu will not regret today’s choice.”

“Soon you will understand what kind of consequences you will receive if you take something you shouldn’t take and you refuse someone you shouldn’t refuse.”

“Of course, if you regret it now, you can hand over the ID card and maybe—”

However, Jiang Chen did not even look at him and just stepped into the elevator.

His contempt attitude was like looking at a tiny ant. It was not even worth the effort to take one more look.

The door of the elevator closed, and the menacing smile that was frozen on the man’s face gradually distorted.

A rage overwhelmed him and completely destroyed his rationality.

“FU*K!”

His fist slammed on the wall. His chest violently pumped as he gnashed his teeth and cursed.

The people passing by all looked curiously in his direction.

“WHAT THE FU*K ARE YOU LOOKING AT!”

Using his fierce expression to intimidate the people looking in his direction, the middle-aged man took a deep breath and adjusted his mentality. Then he looked around before he quickly fixed his attire and hurried away.

…

Still in the same booth, Wan Peng sat next to the red wooden table as he sipped the tea from NAC and watched the crowds below. The beauty’s silky finger gently massaged his shoulders.

Although he did not purchase any items, the beautiful host behind him did not dare to show any dissatisfaction.

It was not because of anything else other than that his name was Wan Peng.

Even if her manager Ma Qianjun came here, he still must respectfully greet Wan Peng and call him Brother Wan.

The auction was nearing its end.

With interesting items emerging one after another, and the winning price setting new highs. However, all the winning bids were still inferior to the record of fifty thousand crystals.

When an N20 military power armor was bought by a leader of the Eastern District of Shangjing at a price of forty thousand crystals, it marked the conclusion of the auction.

The middle-aged man who had previously contacted Jiang Chen walked into the booth. He stood to the side of his boss with a sullen expression and lowered his head.

“Boss.”

“How’s the situation?”

Wan Peng asked quietly.

“The kid is quite uncooperative,” The middle-aged man said with indignation. “I had invited him sincerely, but he did not want to cooperate at all. I later stated your name, but he did not show any respect, and instead…”

“Instead?” An eyebrow raised, Wan Peng looked at his subordinate and asked.

The middle-aged man gritted his teeth and pretended to be furious as he exaggerated the situation.

“He sneered with disdain and said who the fu*k is…”

The middle-aged man did not dare to finish his sentence, but rather kept his silence.

After his subordinate finished, Wan Peng was not angry, instead, he smiled.

“Haha, really?”

“Boss…” The middle-aged man, anxiously asked, “What do you think…”

“There are two ways to solve problems on the wasteland. One is to buy it from them with crystals. As for the second one…” Wan Peng took a sip of the fresh tea. “Is to take it from their dead bodies.”

Chapter 1173: Fifty Thousand Crystals

1173 Fifty Thousand Crystals

Subway Line 0, ID Card, Wan Peng, Shangjing Survivor Alliance…

Several keywords were connected together by a card.

Jiang Chen was not sure what was hidden inside Subway Line 0, but he was sure of one thing.

Wan Peng, Ding Liwei, and even Archbishop Xu Tiannan omitted some information from him.

They especially did not tell the whole truth in regards to the subway lines in Shangjing City.

After he went back upstairs, he found Lu Fan.

“Get our brothers to prepare, it’s time to go.”

When Lu Fan heard Jiang Chen’s words, he was relieved and smiled bitterly.

“Gen… boss, you are finally willing to go back?”

“Hmm?” Jiang Chen laughed. “Is it not fun on the streets?”

“Fun? We’re all stressed out from ensuring your safety,” Lu Fan said with a bitter expression.

“Haha,” Jiang Chen patted Lu Fan’s shoulder. “Great work. When I go back, I will get the chefs to prepare a few pounds of braised beef for you, and get you a few bottles of good booze to help you relax.”

Gulp–

When the 1.80m tall man heard the words “braised beef” he uncontrollably swallowed.

“Look at you.” Jiang Chen laughed, then kicked him on the butt. “Hurry up and pack everything up in five minutes. If someone isn’t ready in five minutes, I promise you he’ll drink so much soup that he’ll never want to drink soup again.”

“Hehe,” Lu Fan rubbed his head in embarrassment before he turned around and jogged away.

While Lu Fan went back to delegate, Jiang Chen returned to his room, opened the storage dimension, and took out a large box of crystals. 50,000 crystals was not a small number. He only stored around 100,000 crystals in his storage dimension.

However, Jiang Chen did not feel pained by this. After all, the entire Pingan Street still owed him 10 million crystals. It won’t long before the Shangjing Survivor Alliance hulled a truck-full of crystals to his door.

Fifty thousand was nothing but a drizzle.

It didn’t take five minutes at all.

In less than a minute, the twenty guards were packed and stood in the living room in a straight line.

They still wore their mercenary outfits, but the powerful K2 kinetic skeletons were hidden inside their clothes.

With a satisfied nod, Jiang Chen ordered.

“We may encounter trouble on the way back. Keep your eyes open! If someone is pointing a gun at us, don’t talk nonsense and just fire, YOU HEAR ME?”

“Roger!”

Twenty guards pounded their chests and replied with force.

…

After about ten minutes, the auction was over, and the hotel manager personally came to Jiang Chen’s room with a few assistants.

The cobblestone-sized crystals piled in the box illuminated with a mysterious green ray that could blind eyes. The eyes of the assistants all turned dark green. Even the hotel manager who often saw a large number of crystals gulped at the sight.

The hotel manager personally scanned the crystals with four crystal quality analyzers for more than twenty minutes before he counted the box-full of crystals.

The crystals totaled 50,124 units of energy.

Jiang Chen considered the extra 124 crystals as their tip.

After the settlement was complete, Jiang Chen took the ID card from the manager and put it in his pocket. He then asked casually, “Do you not have a bank here? The type that can transfer money?”

“We don’t have that here,” The hotel manager shook his head with an apologetic smile. “Only the one-hundred denomination issued by the City Hall can be settled for high-value goods. The denomination can be exchanged for the equivalent value in crystals from the City Hall at any time, but it is only circulated in the walls of Pingan Street. Outside of it, it’s a piece of scrap paper.

The hotel manager sighed.

“I heard that there is a credit payment system in Wanghai in the south. Only if Shangjing has a similar system.”

It was impossible to open a bank on the wasteland without absolute strength. Even the Shangjing Survivors Alliance didn’t have the power to complete this feat.

In a place without law, daring to open a bank was asking to get robbed.

What’s more, without the ability to protect the wealth, how could others trust their assets with the bank?

Jiang Chen pondered, maybe he could move NAC’s bank to Shangjing, and open a branch here. The economic and trade exchanges between Shangjing and Wanghai were closely connected and he absolutely deemed it to be necessary.

However, these plans must wait until the troubles of CCCP were resolved.

…

Five kilometers away from Pingan Street, a short man rushed into Dongcheng Hospital. He showed his identity to the guard in a fur outfit and then ran upstairs.

On the side of the parking lot, Brother Tiger with his face bruised was sitting in a chair. The two cats on his face were replaced by a few bandages. At the moment, a woman dressed in a nurse uniform was kneeling between his legs. From her numbness and weary expression, it was easy to see she had suffered a tremendous amount of abuse.

With an expression of enjoyment, Tiger took out a bad-quality cigarette and lit it for himself.

At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open and his pawn rushed in.

“Brother, Brother Tiger!”

“FU*K!”

Tiger was startled and almost couldn’t control himself.

He kicked away the woman who was kneeling in front of him, stood up, and pulled up his pants. Just as he was about to unload his rage, he saw who came in and his anger dissipated.

Tiger did up his belt and sat back down. Then he asked nonchalantly.

“What is the situation?”

“They are out of town!” The short man gasped while he bowed down, “They just left the South Gate. I have told people to follow them.”

“Very good,” Tiger’s face revealed a menacing smile. He then grabbed a dagger from the table. “Bring dozens of our brothers and follow them back to their settlement. Kill all the men and leave the women. Also, cut the leader’s hands and feet for me. I need him alive.”

“Yes, yes!” The man nodded quickly.

“Why’re you still here?” Seeing that the pawn did not move, Tiger raised an eyebrow.

The short man grinned and bowed again.

“Here is what happened. Before they left Pingan Street, I sent people to the Dorsett Hotel to learn more about them. I learned a piece of extremely interesting news.”

“Oh? Go on.” Tiger said.

“These people are quite rich! Especially the leader! I heard that they spent fifty thousand crystals at the Dorsett Hotel, just to buy a card that may or may not work.”

Fifty thousand crystals!

Tiger’s eyes suddenly turned red when he heard the number. So red that it looked like his eyes were bleeding. He wished that card belonged to him.

“Fu*k, fifty thousand crystals to buy a card?”

“It’s rumored that the card is the ID card for Subway Line 0’s security certification system. But you know that is just a myth.”

Tiger’s small eyes narrowed into slits and greed filled his pupils.

“So, the card is worth fifty thousand crystals?”

Fifty thousand crystals!

He had never seen so many crystals in his life!

If he had fifty thousand crystals, he could buy a set of power armor in Pingan Street!

With one foot on the chair, Tiger spat out, grabbed the rifle on the table, and fired into the ceiling.

Soon, after hearing the gunshots, several of his confidants rushed in.

Shouting at his confidants, Tiger stabbed a dagger into the wooden table and commanded like a true thug.

“FU*K YA! The juicy piece of meat left town. Go and prepare! Bring our brothers and finish this deal! Drive our modified truck. If we get this deal done, we’ll have fun for a year.”

“OHHHHH!!!”

“MIGHTY TIGER!”

“TAKE THE MEAT!”

The cheers of the raiders filled the room.

The blood of hatred boiled in Tiger’s chest as he gathered up his boys.

As soon as he thought of the humiliation from last night, he could not wait to peel off the man’s skin, strip the man’s tendons, and cut his flesh to feed the dogs.

Yesterday’s humiliation must be paid one hundred times in return!

Chapter 1174: Then Make One!

Chapter 1174 Then Make One!

The connecting station of Subway Line 35 was hell.

The viscous blood immersed every inch of the tiles and shredded meat and severed parts were scattered everywhere. The smell of gunpowder occupied the place and it even covered the terrifying smell of blood. A seemingly endless amount of corpses laid on the ground with the stick-thin arms withering away.

Pairs of military boots stepped over the dead bodies and stood in front of a collapsed wall.

“The road ahead is blocked,” Sminov said. “Maybe it is the masterpiece of the survivors.”

Yegor did not speak. He walked up to the collapsed gravel pile, extended his right hand, and wiped the wall with his index finger.

He then gently rubbed his index finger with his thumb and closed his eyes as if he were sensing something.

After a long silence, he opened his eyes and looked at the collapsed wall, then said slowly.

“It collapsed a decade ago. It should be directional blasting.”

“It seems to be a dead end.” Sminov walked beside the commander and frowned.

“Not necessarily.” Yegor grinned, and his fierce eyes flashed with madness.

“Oh?” Sminov felt a little uneasy for some unknown reasons.

“Bring the map,” Yegor said.

Soon, a soldier stepped forward and handed him the traffic map of the subway lines in Shangjing.

When he pushed the map on the wall, Yegor’s eagle-like gaze followed the 35th Line all the way east. Eventually, he stopped at Dongcheng Park Station that was now below his feet. The place was the transit station between Line 35 and Line 27 and was also directly above Line 2.

He used his index finger and thumb to measure the line, as if he was measuring something.

Soon, a touch of joy appeared.

“What did you find?” Sminov asked the commander.

“Dear Comrade Sminov, I don’t know if you have heard of Subway Line 0 in Shangjing.”

“I have heard about it. But…” Sminov frowned. “Isn’t it just a myth? Like the Future Factory underground in the Kremlin, no one has ever verified it.”

“The best way to cover up a secret is to use a confusing story to cover an irrefutable truth. Of course, I have only recently begun to suspect this…” His gaze continued along Line 27 and stopped at Pingan Street. Yegor’s eyes narrowed. “Only now, I’m very convinced that the legendary Subway Line 0 must exist, and the survivors here have been exploring this since ten years ago.”

Yegor’s index finger pointed on the map. “Subway line 27 passes directly below the Pan-Asia Cooperation building, which is the politcal center of Pan-Asia Cooperation. This is abnormal, isn’t it? Look down. It is directly connected to Line 35 and Line 2. If I didn’t guess wrong, the answer is definitely here. Either Line 27 or Line 2 is connected to it.”

As for Line 35.

They came from Line 35 and thus ruled this line out.

Sminov took a deep breath.

Although he felt that his commander’s thoughts were crazy, he could not spot any flaws.

Line 2 or Line 27, one of which must have a connecting station leading to the legendary Line 0.

It was a multiple-choice question, and it seemed that it didn’t matter if you chose the wrong one?

“But how do we get there?” Sminov asked the commander. “There is no way.”

“There is no way?” Yegor raised his eyebrow and then his lips formed a fierce arc, “Then make one!”

Line 2 or Line 27?

This multiple-choice question could have two answers.

They had plenty of tactical nuclear warheads.

…

The South Gate.

At the warehouse by the South Gate, Jiang Chen took the weapons he stored in the warehouse with his guards and prepared to leave the city.

However, when they crossed the wall and entered the buffer zone, they found a long queue at the gate. Soldiers armed with rifles and bulletproof vests were searching every single person leaving the city.

Jiang Chen frowned.

Just as he wished to investigate, he heard the survivors next to him whispering.

“There was an explosion in North Street. I heard there were gunshots too,” a person who looked like a lone traveler said.

“Gunshots? What the fu*k, someone had too much to drink.” The mercenary-looking survivor whispered, “Damn, this is going to be a long queue.”

“I heard that Ding Liwei was furious. He ordered the city to be placed under martial law and to search for the suspect. There had been no shootings in Pingan Street for three years, at least not right in the street. Most merchants choose to come and stay in this place because it’s safe. Now, someone has slapped the face of the entire militia.”

“If the person gets caught, I’m afraid the punishment will not be light.”

“Light? Oh, they’ll probably get locked up with a Death Claw.”

“Right, where did the explosion happen? Have you heard that?”

“It seemed to be at the Dorsett Hotel…”

When Jiang Chen listened to the chatter of the survivors, combined with the previous auction, he had already guessed the story. Miss Zhao Qiuran was indeed a… heroine. She actually bombed the Dorsett Hotel. Did that guy Wan Peng get blown up too? He should have been inside as well.

Don’t die.

The Survivors Alliance has yet to pay.

After giving a pat on Lu Fan’s shoulder, Jiang Chen whispered a few words to his captain and pointed to the city gate. He moved a chair and sat down. He watched one of his soldiers speak to an officer at the gate and then stuff a crystal worth three hundred points into his hand.

Lu Fan nodded, then walked toward the officer.

Jiang Chen did not have the leisure to accompany the survivors and stay in line. There was no problem that money couldn’t solve.

More than three hundred crystals would be more than enough to bribe an officer.

Just then, Jiang Chen felt someone touch his arm.

When he turned around, he saw a woman wearing a broken cloak, standing nervously beside him, and whispering in a begging tone.

“Take me out of here.”

Jiang Chen took a moment and recognized the face. With a sly smile, he said.

“Oh? Is this the attitude of someone asking for help?”

What a coincidence. The Dorsett Hotel on North Street blew up, and she was already here at the South Gate. Only her movements were just one step too slow. Immediately when she escaped from the Dorsett Hotel, the militia stationed on Pingan Street put the city under martial law.

Tightly biting her lower lip, Zhao Qiuran whispered.

“I know something that’s important to you.”

Jiang Chen was really amused by her and laughed.

“You don’t even know who I am, how do you know if something is important to me?”

“Who you’re is not important, the important thing is that you took the card.”

Jiang Chen looked at her, surprised, and frowned.

“How did you know I took the card?”

“Can I explain it later?” Zhao Qiuran looked nervously in the direction of the city gate.

With just moments to think, Jiang Chen nodded.

“Fine, follow me.”

“Thank you,” Zhao Qiuran whispered.

“Don’t thank me yet, and don’t say anything, don’t look at anything, and just lower your head. Right, where is your slave imprint?” Jiang Chen asked.

Zhao Qiuran was confused.

“Right arm, why?”

“It’s nothing.”

While they spoke, Lu Fan had come over with two soldier-looking men.

Zhao Qiuran looked normal, but judging from her slightly stiff expression, she was very tense.

Jiang Chen gave Lu Fan a look, then looked at the woman in the broken cloak.

Lu Fan immediately understood and let the two soldiers begin their count.

Twenty-one people left the queue, followed Lu Fan, and came to the security room under the city gate.

“Why is there twenty-one?” When he saw Lu Fan with the people he brought, the officer was displeased.

Counting Lu Fan, it was twenty-two, which was more than the agreed number.

Jiang Chen lifted his chin slightly and used his acting skills. In an arrogant manner, he raised his voice.

“Does a slave count?”

Then, he reached out and grabbed Zhao Qiuran’s arm and lifted up her sleeve.

Jiang Chen’s action made her feel stunned.

If she didn’t believe that he wouldn’t set her up, she was about to run away.

A string of black barcodes was printed on her arm.

The officer glanced at it and did not say anything. He waved his hand and told the person to open the side door

“Let them through.”

Zhao Qiuran’s heart finally calmed down.

Jiang Chen let go of her hand, and with the guards behind her, they walked toward the open door.

In truth, if they scanned the mark, they would find out that she was the wanted slave they were looking for. However, the officer did not make it difficult for the wealthy owner, or rather, he did not believe Jiang Chen would risk making the entire Pingan Street his enemy to help a criminal.

Just like that, the group of people safely left Pingan Street in a nerve-wracking state.

Chapter 1175: You will soon know who is the lunatic

1175 You will soon know who is the lunatic When Zhao Qiuran passed by the guards at the gate, her heart pounded rapidly.

Fortunately, the guards did not measure heart rates as she narrowly escaped from the city.

After they walked a hundred meters out from the city gate, the group turned onto a street. Just as Zhao Qiuran was about to say something to Jiang Chen, twenty guns were pointed directly at her.

She swallowed the thank you down and immediately raised her hands.

Although her stats were higher than everyone else here, her body was not stronger than bullets and kinetic skeletons. She did not doubt for one second that if she showed the slightest hostility, these twenty guns would make her into a sieve.

“Miss Zhao Qiuran, I think you should be able to talk about it now?” Jiang Chen turned around and looked at Zhao Qiuran, who was tense and said without much emotion. “For example, how did you know I bought that ID card.”

“Telesthesia.” Zhao Qiuqi took a deep breath and said quickly, “You should have heard about the hidden genetic code before. My ability can perceive the spiritual characteristics of human beings within a certain range and exert influence… Listen, I absolutely mean no harm.”

Telesthesia?

When Jiang Chen heard these words, he processed the information for a second. Then he suddenly recalled a person he encountered in the modern world.

Around two years ago, when he destroyed the Kurofune, a girl stood in the middle of the road and used her ability to mentally shock him.

That was his first contact with someone capable of using spiritual powers.

He once asked Lin Lin about this but did not get an exact answer.

Even before the war, the three key words of spirit, brain, and brainwave were high-frequency terms in research topics in the frontiers of biotechnology. These research topics including discussions such as why the brain marrow was enriched with Klein particles, and the supernatural interference of brain waves on physical phenomena. Even in the twenty-second century, these were unsolved mysteries.

The nature that humans perceived was just the tip of the iceberg.

The more you climb the mountain, the smaller you will feel. That was a true statement.

“Are you satisfied with my answer?” Zhao Qiuran stared nervously at Jiang Chen.

“Somewhat,” Jiang Chen said.

He paused for a moment, then continued.

“You said earlier, you know something that is important to me?”

Zhao Qiuran nodded immediately.

“I fled through the ventilation ducts and passed VIP booth 001 when I left. Sunday Club owner Wan Peng and his subordinate Lu Sen were inside. I heard they were planning against you…”

Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

“Just this?”

Zhao Qiuran’s expression froze and she asked awkwardly.

“Does this not count?”

Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Setting Wan Peng aside, even if Ding Liwei wanted to plot against me, and even if the entire Survivors Alliance or the entire city behind you were against me, I could overturn them, and the city inside out. If he really bothers me, I’ll just get rid of him.

Jiang Chen’s words gave Zhao Qiuran chills.

Although the murderous vibe was not directed at her, the vibe that she felt still made her hands and feet icy.

Hell, this guy obviously doesn’t look strong, how is he scarier than Death Claws.

But this is bullsh*t right…

With her scalp numb, Zhao Qiuran kept her hands up and nervously thought.

She did not know Jiang Chen’s identity. In her mind, the identity of the man in front of her should be at most the leader of a settlement. To destroy Pingan Street… just thinking of the heavy machineguns mounted on the giant wall made her unable to think of anything that could do this deed.

“I still have a question, how did you escape?” Jiang Chen looked at Zhao Qiuran. “There are many ways to make an escaped slave die. I don’t believe that the raiders who caught you didn’t give you a shackle. Electronic collars, slavery chips, as far as the ‘security measures’ I know, there are already a lot.”

“There are many ways to put on shackles, and there are many ways to break shackles,” said Zhao Qiuran.

“For example?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

“Isn’t it just a chip implanted in the spinal nerve?” Zhao Qiuran shrugged, “As long as the who implanted it unlocks it, then it’s fine.”

Jiang Chen suddenly nodded.

Since she did possess spiritual abilities, through the means of mental intervention, she could make the buyers subconsciously lift the security authority on slavery chips.

“I will remember that you helped me today. I owe you a favor.” Holding her hands and taking a half step back, Zhao Qiuran said nervously, “Can you let me go?”

“A favor?” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head. “Do you think I need that?”

Zhao Qiuran revealed a stiff expression.

“So what will it take for you to let me go? Oath of loyalty? Crystals? Or say… sleep with you?”

Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Unfortunately, I’m not interested.”

He waved his hand and gestured to Lu Fan and the others to put down their rifles, then paused. He stared at her for a moment to closely examine her.

“You’re unable to stay in Shangjing further. The Survivors Alliance won’t let you go.”

“Do something for me and I can consider taking you to Wanghai.”

“You are a merchant fleet?” Zhao Qiuqi hurriedly asked, “Mercenaries as well? Can you really bring me to Wanghai? I can join you, believe me, my skills are pretty good.”

Jiang Chen, Lu Fan, and the guards all looked at each other and grinned.

Just as Zhao Qiuran struggled to understand the situation, the guard next to Jiang Chen blew a whistle and joked.

“Merchant fleet? Mercenaries? Unfortunately, we are none of those. We are the NAC and it is not so easy to join us.”

…

Behind Jiang Chen, Zhao Qiuran felt she did not have enough brainpower.

The NAC General?

At first, she still did not believe what just happened, but when she looked at Jiang Chen deactivating the holographic camouflage, the respect the guards showed, and the twenty shiny K2 kinetic skeletons, she could no longer doubt his identity.

I don’t have anything right now, and I’m not worth being tricked.

Jiang Chen did not tell her what he wanted her to do. Instead, he just asked her to follow him. Of course, Jiang Chen also told her that if she wanted to leave, she could leave at any time without saying goodbye. Just that the next time they meet, they would be strangers.

The last two sentences were nonsense, Zhao Qiuran certainly would not leave.

NAC was the perfect shelter, why would she leave?

Not to mention, she just made an enemy of the entire Survivor Alliance and she feared her wanted poster would be posted on the four gates of Pingan Street the next day. Shangjing no longer had a place for her. Only the NAC could offer her protection.

Being a lone traveler seemed to be unfettered but it was actually not a good profession. Except for those who really liked to be independent, most people did not become lone travelers by choice. This usually happened because they could not find an organization, or were unable to establish trust with other people.

You could only rely on yourself.

If possible, Zhao Qiuran also wished to join a mercenary group or merchant fleet.

Of course, the premise was that people in the whole group don’t have the idea of sleeping with her.

After following Jiang Chen for quite a long distance, Zhao Qiuran looked down and thought of something.

Just then, her cautionary senses came online.

She stopped moving as she alertly looked around and cast out her mental web.

The tentacles of the spirit extended as far as a kilometer outward. She suddenly found that two hundred spiritual seals had appeared and were concentrated. Judging from the unstable mental fluctuations, they were obviously not friendly.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chen also stopped and asked.

“There is an ambush in front.” Zhao Qiuran narrowed her eyes and looked at the building about one kilometer ahead. “They’re most likely after us.”

“How many people?”

“Two hundred to two hundred fifty. It’s too far and I can’t see the exact number.” Zhao Qiuran shook her head. “There is a park nearby, we can go through it and get rid of them-”

“Prepare,” Jiang Chen did not finish listening to her, and just gave an order to Lu Fan. Then he pointed to the building in front of him, “Remember to leave someone alive.”

“Yes!” Lu Fan saluted. He left two guards to stay next to Jiang Chen and marched forward with the remaining guards.

“Are you crazy?” Zhao Qiuqi looked at Jiang Chen as if he was a lunatic and had shock written all over her face. “I said, there are more than two hundred people! You don’t know how many heavy weapons are waiting for you, and your first thought is to fight them?!”

Jiang Chen’s lips displayed a disdainful arc but he remained unmoved. He simply gazed at the building one kilometer away.

“You will soon know who is the lunatic.”

Chapter 1176: 18VS200!

Chapter 1176 18VS200!

Fifty thousand crystals!

For the raiders, it was not a large sum, but an astronomical number!

For fifty thousand crystals, even if it meant fighting with the Mother of the Death Claws, they would do it without hesitation, let alone ambush an unknown “small settlement leader”.

Tiger originally ordered to follow behind that person and wipe out his entire settlement. But in front of fifty thousand crystals, personal grudges seemed trivial.

To be on the safe side, Tiger accepted his own subordinate’s suggestion and changed the plan of following him to the settlement and then ambushing him.

After all, he was not stupid. For someone who could afford to buy a card with fifty thousand crystals, he would take his safety as his top priority. If they went to his settlement and ended up discovering a few power armors, it would be problematic.

So he adopted a conservative strategy. Take the person hostage first, get the card, and then torture him to obtain the location of his settlement before he came up with the next plan.

Of course, although he was not stupid, obviously he was not the brightest either.

He could not have never imagined that his enemy was not a leader of a settlement, but a warlord from the south.

“One kilometer ahead…Fu*k, they spotted us.”

Next to the water tank at the top of the building, the man who was watching the street with a binocular snorted. Then, he immediately took out his walkie-talkie and reported the situation to his teammates preparing an ambush on the neighboring street.

“We were spotted! Their people are spreading out. Follow them and don’t let the fat meat escape!”

As soon as they heard the fat meat that was going to enter their belly about to escape, the ambushing raiders could not sit still any longer.

The raiders, who kneeled behind the bunkers, grabbed their rifles, loaded the magazines, and ran towards the target. The raiders disguised as scavengers pulled down their disguise and revealed the weapons underneath.

“They can’t get away.”

Hundreds of meters away, a fierce-looking man on a modified truck revealed a vicious smile and his yellow teeth.

The fierceness radiated from his pupils. He pulled the intercom on the window and yelled into the team channel. “Listen up, the boss said whoever captures the leader of the fat meat will be rewarded five hundred crystals! Also, once we succeed, we can sleep with whoever we want in the clan until we can’t even move!”

“AWHOOOOOO!”

They were howling like wolves, and the man sitting in the modified truck built on their raising morale.

“If you want to be rewarded, get on the truck, and get ready to go! Let’s let those meat know how the Tiger Clan chops heads!”

A group of raiders dressed in various clothes walked out from the shadows and rushed to the modified trucks. They then put on plastic covers before climbing onto the truck, ready to fight.

The engine’s roar filled the streets, and ten modified trucks moved together to transport a group of vicious raiders towards the “Fat Meat”.

However, at this moment, there was a sudden explosion from afar.

The raider standing on the top of the truck looked up at the clouds in the sky. At this moment, a black dot suddenly emerged from under the clouds and was quickly approaching them.

“Look, look at it,” he slapped another raider and exclaimed while pointing at the sky. “What is that?”

No one answered him.

Without the slightest indication.

The orange-colored bullets hailed down in an instant.

The raiders on the truck only had time to see a glimpse of the afterimage before they turned into mud under the rain of bullets.

The Aurora-20 flew by, and the powerful 20mm machinegun fired a hailstorm of bullets, shredding the entire street.

The man sitting in the truck only heard a homing noise. Before he could even think of what could be happening, he and the truck turned into dust.

When the dust dissipated, mourning sounds ensued.

The raiders who fortunately escaped climbed out through the burning steels, dragged their bloody corpses forward, or cried at the edge of the bullet craters

The countless blank sights gazed out from the shadows of the street.

It was already afternoon, and the most debilitating part of the zombie’s day was almost over. Attracted by screams and explosions, the zombies limped into the messy battlefield and began searching.

“Don’t, don’t come close to me!” A raider raised his rifle in horror, looking at the zombies beginning to surround him, he desperately tried to move backward. Then due to his fear, he temporarily forgot about the excruciating pain.

Some raiders simply gave up, picked up their pistols, and pulled the trigger against their temple.

The whole street turned into hell…

“Fi… fighters?”

Next to Jiang Chen, Zhao Qiuran was astonished as her mouth hung wide open and her gaze fixated on the dust in the distance.

Although the Aurora-20 quickly pierced into the cloud again, with her dynamic vision and reflex, she still captured the afterimage of the fighter.

She had roamed on the wasteland for several years. She had seen Death Claws, Mud Crabs, and all kinds of powerful and invincible mutants. However, it was the first time she saw fighters, something that only lived in the conversations of the Blue Skins.

“Civilized people’s weapons,” Jiang Chen smiled and walked to a bench on the side of the road. He sat up, crossed his legs, and then slowly said, “I said, you will soon know who is the lunatic.”

When she looked at the man sitting on the bench, Zhao Qiuran gulped subconsciously.

She asked herself how many times she danced on the fine line between life and death. She had encountered countless powerful lone travelers, mercenaries, and raiders. However, for the first time, she developed a deep fear of someone.

Even the Mother of the Death Claws did not make her so scared.

She once thought that there were two kinds of tyrants on the wasteland. One was the leader of a settlement, like Ding Liwei and Wan Peng that commanded thousands, and the other was the powerful lone traveler that could kill Death Claws with one shot.

But now, the man in front of her refreshed her worldview.

Even if the two types of tyrant stood in front of him, they would be minuscule, powerless.

Just when Zhao Qiuqi was zoned out, Jiang Chen spoke again.

“Don’t stand there just like that, it takes time even to kill two hundred chickens.” Jiang Chen patted the empty seat next to him. “Come here.”

She did not refuse.

Zhao Qiuran mechanically walked to Jiang Chen’s side and sat down stiffly.

Just as she restlessly sat down, Jiang Chen took out a lighter and lit a cigarette before speaking without any emotion.

“You said you owe me a favor. Now is a good time.”

Zhao Qiuran subconsciously asked.

“How can I help?”

“Can you not sense the spiritual mark?” Jiang Chen gestured the two guards next to him to spread out before taking a Rubik’s cube out from his pocket. Then, he gently put it down on the bench, “From now on, look closely.”

Chapter 1177: You“re asking for death!

Chapter 1177 You“re asking for death!

At the moment when the air raid came, the raiders of the Tiger Clan were fully aware what just happened.

They were not against a leader of a settlement at all, nor were they foreign mercenaries nor traders. They were actually up against the NAC that was feared by the entire Pingan Street! The great warlord from the Yangtze River Delta!

Even the CCCP tanks must hide into the subway in their presence.

The Tiger Clan was nothing in front of this behemoth!

No, nothing was an overstatement.

More than sixty people were gone almost instantly!

Ding Lei hid in an abandoned building. He felt his hands and feet turning cold. He finally realized how foolish his promise to Tiger was to bring back the man that humiliated him.

No, Tiger was the foolish one.

How did they encounter this behemoth on Pingan Street just for offloading a trophy?!

Behind him, the morale of the raiders began to waver, and many raiders were already slowly stepping back.

No one was stupid. When faced with an invincible opponent, they couldn’t think of any better options than fleeing.

Dong Lei noticed the horror in the eyes of the brethren around him and his head suddenly cleared up.

He could not wait any longer!

Waiting meant an inevitable death!

Dong Lei shouted as he picked up the rifle and fired against the ceiling to shake up the clan without any morale.

“There are planes in the sky! Who can outrun planes? Hmmm? FU*K, a group of puss*es. Are you all scared of planes? If you want to live, follow me! Our only way to survive is to catch their leader and make them fear!”

While he shouted, the people who were about to escape immediately woke up and recognized the situation.

Dong Lei immediately rushed out.

“Brothers! FOLLOW ME!”

His judgment was quite accurate.

However, he still underestimated the strength of the NAC General Guards.

In a sense, in the rugged terrain of the ruins, the guards wearing the K2 kinetic skeletons were more deadly than the fighters hovering above the clouds!

With more than one hundred raiders, Dong Lei quickly rushed through the empty streets, dashed into the narrow alley, and leaped towards Jiang Chen.

However, warningless gunshots were directed at him after he had sprinted just a few steps.

From the shadows, the eighteen guards who were armed to the teeth were like ghosts that appeared out of thin air. The rifles in their hands spewed out deathly rays, completely disrupting the Tiger Clan’s attack.

“SPREAD OUT! SPREAD OUT! Don’t be afraid, we have ten times more people!”

Dong Lei rolled to the side and narrowly escaped a stream of bullets. He yelled at the top of his lung, then pulled the EMP grenade from his waist and threw it in the direction of the “ghosts”.

The EMP grenade did cause a brief disruption to their optical invisibility, but the effect was only brief. This group of grim of reapers, armed to the teeth, did not stop their slaughter because of this momentary delay. The defense and movement of the kinetic skeleton were also completely unaffected.

The air was full of the smell of gunpowder, cement chips, and blood.

Dong Lie pressed his body tightly against the bunker. Then, suppressing his fear, he peeked his head out.

He saw with his own eyes that one of the most powerful brothers had his throat easily cut. Then he saw that the former lone traveler, nicknamed the “Little Gun King”, was killed by stray bullets.

WOOSH!

A bullet flew just past his ear and scared him back into hiding.

The gunshots echoed in the alley and bounced against the buildings.

The raiders in complete chaos fired without order into shadows, retaliating against enemies they couldn’t even see.

The sporadic screams on the battlefield destroyed his last bit of courage.

He only wished to escape, the farther the better!

However, just as he was about to turn around and sneak away, he froze.

A black muzzle was pressed against his forehead…

…

Consider it done.”

There was no accident as Lu Fan’s good news came to Jiang Chen.

“Good job,” his index finger pressed lightly on the headset. Jiang Chen leaned on the bench and flicked the ash off of the cigarette. He then said, “Come back when you clean the battlefield. Right, you remembered to leave one alive?”

“Of course,” Lu Fan said with a smile, “and it’s a big fish.”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a big or small fish. As long it knows the way.”

Nonchalantly, Jiang Chen turned off the communication channel.

Almost at the same time, a stream of bullets shot at him without warning.

The sneak attack was about to succeed!

Then the unexpected happened.

Two meters away from Jiang Chen, the bullets seemed to hit a transparent wall, and only a layer of pale yellow ripples formed before the shield popped the bullets away.

Even if she was prepared, Zhao Qiuran’s heart was pounding furiously when she witnessed what just happened, and her fists in her pockets turned white because of how hard she was squeezing. It was not till she confirmed that the shield was bulletproof and could not be penetrated did her pounding heart finally calmed down.

However, she was psychologically prepared as she knew Jiang Chen’s plan. The ten uninvited guests in black suits who fired on the opposite side of the street saw the scene and almost exclaimed.

“How is this possible!”

The ten men in black narrowed their eyes and looked incredulously at the unharmed Jiang Chen.

They disregarded the weird shield.

They were wearing optical invisibility equipment and were equipped with life signal shielding devices. They also selected the moment when the NAC Guards team just finished the battle, and when Jiang Chen’s defense was the weakest.

However, Jiang Chen seemed to have known that they would come and deployed this weird shield before they aimed at him.

“You finally came out?”

Jiang Chen smiled and threw away the cigarette butt still not burned out. He stood up from the bench. “I am very curious. If you didn’t know my identity before, it’s reasonable to follow me. Now that you know who I am, are you not afraid of bringing trouble to your master?”

The man leading showed a menacing look as he raised his rifle and said with a sneer.

“It’s because we know that you are Jiang Chen, so there’s more reason you should die.”

From the appearance of the fighter, they had already confirmed Jiang Chen’s identity.

However, this unexpected turn of the event did not cause them back down. Instead, it aroused their desire to kill. If the NAC General learned about the secret of Subway Line 0, their boss’s plan for more than a decade would go to waste.

Therefore, Jiang Chen must die!

“Is that so?” As he examined the ten men in black with full of murderous vibe, Jiang Chen just smiled and gestured at the shadow next to him. “Since they showed up, take care of them too.”

Ten people thought there was an ambush.

However, when they saw only two guards stepping out of the shadow, they all sighed with relief.

“Just two people?” The man leading was not angry, but laughed instead. “Mr. Jiang, you view too highly of yourself.”

“Do I?” Jiang Chen shrugged and opened the holographic screen on his watch. He clicked on it a few times. “You think there are too few people? I think there’re one too many.”

With such obvious mockery, the man’s face turned completely gloomy. His rifles aimed at the two guards while a look of decisiveness appeared in his pupils.

“You’re asking for death!”

Chapter 1178: Weapon Of The Civilized

Chapter 1178 Weapon Of The Civilized

With the triggers pressed down, bullets emerged from the muzzles!

The man in the black suit was very clever. He did not choose Jiang Chen as the target. Obviously, the protective shield could not be taken down easily. At this moment, their biggest threat was the two guards in kinetic skeletons.

Without any time to react, the spewing bullets instantly engulfed the two guards.

Go to hell!

The man in black roared in his mind.

But just as he thought he succeeded; his pupils suddenly contracted.

Something was wrong!

The bullet passed through the two guards as if they just hit thin air.

The man in black’s expression suddenly changed as he had a terrible feeling.

However, before he had time to react, two high-explosive grenades landed within his men.

The rumbling airwave instantly burst out and engulfed him and the nine people behind him in the flames of the explosion. Then there were a few short gunshots, and the people still alive were just about to return fire with their pistols when they were killed by bullets shot from both sides.

After the guards put away the rifle in their hands, they came from the nearby building.

As for the guards that were hit, they were nothing more than holographic images.

It was very easy to recognize the difference up close, but the attention of the assassins was focused on Jiang Chen, and it was not till they fired their first shot did they realize something was off.

However, it was already too late when they reacted.

Jiang Chen gestured to the two guards, then turned around and looked at Zhao Qiuran next to him on the bench.

“Is it over?”

Zhao Qiuran nodded stiffly, then looked to the black Rubik’s Cube on the bench before she gulped and asked.

“What is that?”

“The weapon of the civilized.”

“…” Zhao Qiuran wanted to ask ‘Can you speak in a language people can understand?’, but when she considered the difference in strength, she chose to remain silent.

Jiang Chen picked up the Rubik’s Cube on the bench, twisted it once, and then put it into his pocket. The faint yellow protective cover also disappeared.

After the two guards searched the men in black, they returned to Jiang Chen and reported.

“No identification was found.”

“No identification is required,” Jiang Chen said expressionlessly, “I know who sent them.”

Originally, when he was in the Dorsett Hotel, he had decided to not bother with Wan Peng. After all, he wore a camouflage necklace, and the person who was sent by Wan Peng to “negotiate” with him did not recognize him. However, since he took off the camouflage necklace, the assassins who had followed him for a few kilometers still had no plans to stop, and thus made the situation worth pondering over.

“What do you plan on doing with Wan Peng?” Zhao Qiuran asked.

“Let’s set Wan Peng aside, for now. He can’t run in Pingan Street, and I’ll let him pay when the time comes,” Jiang Chen said, then looked at the other side of the street, where the guards had fought with the Tiger Clan, “Before that, there is still a small problem we have to deal with first.”

Not far away, Lu Fan had returned with seventeen guards.

Except for some minor injuries, no one was seriously injured or killed.

Lu Fan stood in front of Jiang Chen. He respectfully made a military salute and then gestured to a brother behind him.

Soon, a guy tied up into a caterpillar was thrown onto the ground in front of Jiang Chen by the guard behind Lu Fan.

“What’s your name?” Jiang Chen, with a smile, asked the frightened man.

“Dong, Dong Lei…”

While Dong Lei anxiously responded, his thoughts turned quickly as he desperately searched for a way to escape. However, he had exhausted all the options he could think of and none would lead to his escape. He could only pray Jiang Chen would spare his life after he learned the intelligence he needed.

But was this even possible?

Dong Lei thought in his mind with despair.

“Do you know the way?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“What.. what do you mean?” Dong Lei gulped, and stuttered.

“Take me to meet your so-called Brother Tiger,” Jiang Chen replied.

Since Dong Lei did not respond, Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and said with a sly look.

“Why? You’re unwilling?”

“Of course not, of course not” Dong Lei shook his head rapidly as he squeezed out a reluctant smile, then he said incoherently, ” Brother, no, daddy…one should pay one’s own debt, it’s all Brother Tiger’s fault, can you… if I take you to see Brother Tiger, can you spare my worthless life?”

Brotherhood? Loyalty?

Brotherhood was only something they talked about when they drank, ate or slept with women. As for the latter, they were raiders to begin with, when did loyalty ever matter?

When he rushed to Jiang Chen at the start, it was a desperate move to survive. Now that he admitted defeat, it was also an attempt to survive. As for his Brother Tiger, who cared about that idiot’s life! Since he turned NAC into an enemy, he was already considered dead, who would be loyal to a dead person?

Dong Lei just wanted to let Jiang Chen know everything he knew.

However, he was afraid that Jiang Chen would feed him with bullets after he told the truth.

“Are you negotiating with me?” Jiang Chen smiled at Dong Lei.

“No, I don’t dare.” Dong Lei said in a panic. His tightly roped body twitched as he kowtowed desperately on the concrete floor. He cried and begged, “Please forgive me, General.”

“I’ll give you three seconds. You only need to give me one response,” Jiang Chen, unmoved by the crying Dong Lei, said emotionlessly, “Yes, or no?”

…

At the office on the top floor of Dongcheng Hospital.

Tiger was comfortably in his chair while he raised his legs on to the table and squinted at the clear sky outside the window.

For some reason, he thought that the weather today was delightful, just like his mood.

It had been an hour since Dong Lei set off with his boys.

After a while, Dong Lei would probably be able to bring that person back.

The thought of this made a cruel smile appear on Tiger’s face, he subconsciously touched his unshaven face.

How can I torture that guy?

Whenever he thought about the shame at Hell Courier that night, he wanted to murder people to vent his anger.

“Tsk, this can’t work, it’s too nice of me to just kill him like this,” he drew the dagger from the table, held it in his hand, and played with it. Tiger looked out of the window and a bloodthirsty ray appeared in his eyes, then a sneer gradually formed, “I’ll have to cut him hundreds of times and torture him slowly.”

He was already debating how he should seek his revenge.

The revenge was not only for him but also for his bothers.

If anyone could draw two cats on his face without paying the price, then how could he be the big brother in the future?

At this moment, there was the sound of fast footsteps in the hallway.

The door was pushed open, and he saw his henchman at the door, panting and holding on to the door frame.

“You’re back?” Brother Tiger put his legs down and stood up impatiently.

But when he saw his little brother’s face, he noticed something was wrong.

His expression… doesn’t seem like that of excitement?

Chapter 1179: Dongcheng Hospital

Chapter 1179 Dongcheng Hospital “You can go now,” Jiang Chen said as they headed to the Tiger Clan, “Your favor has been paid to me just now.”“You said you’ll bring me to Wanghai.”

“I never promised that,” Jiang Chen said.

“Listen, you have seen it just now, my abilities can still come in handy. Although you may have other ways, but…” But at this point, Zhao Qiuran stopped in embarrassment, and she didn’t continue until after a while, “Uh, even without me, you can easily get rid of them, right?”

Jiang Chen glanced at her and didn’t say anything, but the words “of course” were written in his eyes.

Zhao Qiuran rolled her eyes and was about to mock him, but when the unobstructed words came to her lips, she swallowed them back abruptly.

When Jiang Chen saw that she wanted to say something but was too afraid, he laughed and responded.

“If you plan to go to Wanghai, you can certainly follow us. But I have to remind you in advance that we will only cover your accommodation, not your food.”

“No problem, I will still prepare the nutrient supplies myself.” Zhao Qiuran nodded immediately, “It’s already troublesome for you to take me there. If I eat your food, I’ll be embarrassed by my own actions.”

“Oh really?”

Jiang Chen smiled meaningfully.

He would never believe that in front of hot food, anyone would be able to down nutrient supplies.

Although he had not felt this feeling, he had heard Cheng Weiguo talk about it. At that time when the Fishbone Base had just been established, and the meals he served to the slaves were porridge, steamed buns, and white rice. But even then, everyone very much enjoyed the food.

After people tasted actual food, no one was able to eat nutrient supplies anymore.

In Cheng Weiguo’s words, it was as bland as wax…

Dong Lei silently led the way in the front, then he stopped at the corner of the highway, turned his head, and looked at Jiang Chen nervously.

“It’s… it’s ahead. Dongcheng Hospital is around this corner. I didn’t lie to you, the person you are looking for is inside.

At this point, Dong Lei’s expression was down. He knelt and started to kowtow without warning, and begged for mercy with tears.

“Sir, Sir, I’m kowtowing for you. I beg you to spare my worthless life. Yan Xiaohu provoked you, it has nothing to do with me…”

Yan Xiaohu was Brother Tiger’s real name. Few people in the Tiger Clan knew about this as everyone called him Brother Tiger. Only Dong Lei and a few that “established the empire” together knew about this name.

Jiang Chen waved his hand impatiently.

Lu Fan understood as he reached out his hand to pull Dong Lei from the ground, and then kicked him on his ass.

“Get out.”

Under countless mocking gazes, Dong Lei trembled and almost fell to the ground.

Before he could even stand, he scrambled and fleed. He knocked over two trash cans along the way but didn’t even dare to look back. He was afraid Jiang Chen would change his mind and capture him again.

“You just let him go like this?” Zhao Qiuran asked as she fixated in the direction where Dong Lei disappeared.

“He only has his life left, where can he go?” Jiang Chen said.

Zhao Qiuran didn’t take long to understand what he meant.

Indeed, without even a gun, how far could he go on the zombies and mutants-rampant wasteland? What’s more, he used to be a raider, and an infamous one too.

Even if he did survive the mutants, any enemy he encountered could end his life.

Even if he luckily survived, a life of misery not even comparable to the lowest refugees awaited him.

“Okay, it’s time to end all of this.”

While Jiang Chen spoke, he looked in the direction of Dongcheng Hospital.

“Just go in like this?” Zhao Qiuran couldn’t help asking.

“How else?”

Zhao Qiuran looked at the gate of the Dongcheng Hospital’s courtyard, then said hesitantly, “They are considered the upper-middle level among the survivor settlements in Shangjing. There are thousands of raiders who worked for him, not only that, there are several engineers under him. They relied on parts purchased from the scrap market and created a few sets of power armors for him.”

Zhao Qiuran paused and looked Jiang Chen before she continued, “I know your guards are very powerful, but this is their base after all—”

“Who said I plan to send my guards in?” Jiang Chen said lightly.

“Is it your…fighter?”

“Not my fighter, but close.”

Zhao Qiuran looked at Jiang Chen in a daze. She watched him turn on the holographic screen on his watch again, call up the map, and stretch out his hand.

One finger was lightly placed on the position of the main building of Dongcheng Hospital, and a circle of particle blue ripples slowly swayed away from the location of his finger, like a sickle of death, and outlined a circle called death…

…

Inside the underground garage of the physician building behind the main building of Dongcheng Hospital.

It was the warehouse of the Tiger Clan, and it was also the place they used to keep their slaves. Generally, after they raided a settlement or a fleet, the men were killed directly, and the women were brought here.

On the one hand, they were used as toys to vent their emotions and relieve stress and on the other hand, they were used as free labor to help them process some small parts that can be sold on Pingan Street.

When the bad news of the defeat arrived, Tiger hid in here immediately.

If the NAC was armed with fighters, this underground garage was undoubtedly the safest place. Based on the civil defense standards of Pan-Asia Cooperation before the war, the underground facilities of all state-owned units must reach the level of a quasi-temporary nuclear bunker.

In other words, even if a tactical nuclear bomb of tens of thousands of tons was thrown in the hospital, he could stay in here harm-free.

In addition, he gathered the remaining more than 500 predators, equipped all four power armors built from scrap parts, and several infantry guns raided from a military outpost. He established his position in front of the main hospital building as he prepared for the fight of death with Jiang Chen with his terrain advantage.

The door was pushed open. Tiger subconsciously grabbed the gun on the table and the little brother who entered the door almost collapse to the ground in fear.

“Brother, Brother Tiger, it’s me, don’t shoot!”

“Where are they?” Tiger grabbed his little brother by the collar as he roared with uncertainty on his face, “How is the battle going? I said, don’t retreat, keep your position!”

Anyone could escape, he was the only one that could not escape.

It was not difficult to imagine that once he lost his current position, he would die in the gutter somewhere the next day.

Too many people wanted to kill him.

There were always one or two fishes that slipped through the net. Every time he slaughtered a settlement, there were a few more people who wished to kill him. His only choice would be to escape from Shangjing to the south, then further south…

However, he quickly rejected this idea.

NAC was in the south, so now the choice was the northern wilderness? I’d die regardless!

“No, it hasn’t started yet.” With his boss grabbing his collar, the little brother said nervously.

Brother Tiger was taken aback.

“Are they going to negotiate with us? Tell them! We can negotiate—”

“Bo…boss,” The little brother looked desperate, “They are just standing at the gate. They didn’t come in, didn’t speak, and they are just looking at us.”

Chapter 1180: The Power of One Shot!

Chapter 1180 The Power of One Shot!

Didn’t fire? Didn’t say anything?

Just looking?

Tiger’s expression was blank, clueless of what happened, and he was completely dumbfounded.

Are they… are they afraid?

However, this unrealistic thought appeared for two seconds before it was erased by an earth-shattering bang.

BANG-

The continuous and thunderous explosions came from the distance as if a giant beast has collapsed, and the entire land was shaken. Everything in the garage was shaking, the door, the table, and the people.

After half a minute, the “earthquake” subsided.

The boy who stood next to Tiger climbed out from under the long table and stared at the ceiling of the garage, muttering to himself.

“Earth… earthquake?”

“…”

Tiger did not respond, he just stood there in silence.

With the look of horror written all over his face, he revealed despair that was never been seen before.

The clothes, face, and hair that were originally clean were covered with the gray dust shaken off from the ceiling. The figure looked both lonely and weary as if he had aged a few decades in a matter of seconds.

Just now, he suddenly remembered a legend.

The legend of the NAC Order…

…

East of Shangjing, above Qincheng, the glaring white light quickly disappeared.

The 50kg shell had been fired and the recoil slowly pushed the giant airship back by more than ten meters.

The distance of two hundred kilometers was instantly closed, and the shell precisely hit the main building of Dongcheng Hospital.

“BOOM”

A deafening explosion!

At the impact spot of the bomb, spider-like turtle cracks began to form along the wall, infiltrating inward, and then the entire structure collapsed! The steel skeleton shattered into pieces and collapsed along with the cement debris. The whole building looked like it was pushed by a big hand and fell like an avalanche.

Zhao Qiuran looked at the building that was immersed in the dust, she opened her mouth slightly, but this time she couldn’t say a word.

Even after five minutes, the thick dust did not dissipate.

Without a doubt, no one could escape.

Looking at the rubble, and the dust cloud lingering above the ruin, Jiang Chen’s lips opened, but he seemingly muttered to himself.

“50kg shell. Damn, I wonder if it possible to see the explosion from the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building.”

When the thick dust had almost settled, he turned around and looked at the guards behind him who were eager to fight.

“Let’s go take a peek inside.”

“Roger!”

A uniformed roar.

Lu Fan waved his hand, and the 19 guards behind him were divided into three teams. One of the teams guarded Jiang Chen. The remaining two teams were divided into two and circled to Dongcheng Hospital from both the north and south sides.

Six guards stood around Jiang Chen, but he did not immediately enter the hospital. Instead, he looked at Zhao Qiuran.

“Can you use a gun?”

After she regained her clarity from being shell-shocked, Zhao Qiuran gulped and furiously nodded.

“Yes, of course.”

Isn’t this nonsense?

How can a lone traveler not know how to use a gun?

Jiang Chen gestured to a guard next to him and pointed to the short-tube submachine gun hanging around his waist.

The guard understood, took off his auxiliary weapon, and handed it to Jiang Chen.

“Catch.”

Zhao Qiuran fumbled a few times in the air before she caught the gun. She stared at the submachine gun that Jiang Chen had thrown into her hand. She was in disbelief.

“Don’t you want to prove your worth?” Jiang Chen smiled and raised his chin slightly toward the rumble. “Now I’m giving you a chance.”

Zhao Qiutsn was moved as she gratefully looked at Jiang Chen.

On the wasteland, a weapon meant trust, and giving a weapon meant recognition.

Without another word, Zhao Qiuran responded to this trust with her action.

After she loaded the weapon, her eyes locked on to Dongcheng Hospital, reawakening the fierceness of the wolf.

It was the vibe unique to her, unique to a lone traveler that roamed the wasteland.

Jiang Chen nodded with satisfaction as she looked over to the reawakened Zhao Qiuran. It was the vibe she possessed when he saw her at the auction, and only such a warrior has the value of being recruited. Previously, he was worried that he would scare her too much. Now it seemed that he had been overthinking.

A rare Spiritualist, how could he just let her leave?

But such a powerful lone traveler often worked like a double-edged sword. If he wasn’t careful, he would hurt himself. He must use the carrot and stick strategy to teach her about how weak she is compared to the NAC, and if only she willingly let go of her pride to plead loyalty would he be able to use this double-edged sword effectively.

…

The loud gunshots echoed through Dongcheng Hospital.

More than five hundred raiders were buried under the rubble.

And the remaining hundred raiders were no match to the General Guards. Even if they were lucky enough to escape because they were not in the building, they had no chance against the guards surrounding them from three directions. These bandits who only bullied had no fighting chance.

The four power armors they built were not useful at all.

An RPG that dragged a trail of smoke easily penetrated a power armor fighting in the frontline.

Equipped with the submachine gun in her hand and using the bunker to dodge while firing, Zhao Qiuran’s combat prowess was not inferior to the guards.

With the hope of Jiang Chen bringing her to Wanghai, she was eager to show her own value. This made life extremely difficult for the raiders hiding among the ruins. With the dual abilities of Mental Shock and Spiritual Imprint, Zhao Qiuran was not missing a single shot, suppressing the enemy so much that they didn’t even dare to peek.

The Tiger Clan was facing an inevitable defeat.

Realizing their defeat, the raiders without much loyalty decided to flee.

Someone deserted first, and soon there was a second deserter, and with the second one, naturally, the third one appeared. In less than ten minutes, the raiders who were still resisting instantly lost their morale. They cried and fled.

With one foot on the cement pieces, Lu Fan symbolically fired a few shots in the direction of the escaping raiders.

After he saw that he couldn’t reach anyone anymore, he took the rifle in his hand and spat out toward the concrete tile next to him.

“A bunch of puss*es.”

Just like that, the battle in Dongcheng Hospital soon ended.

After they cleared the battlefield, the three teams of guards joined forces and gathered in the grass field of the hospital.

Jiang Chen said as he looekd to Zhao Qiuran.

“I’m going to leave it to you.”

“I will handle it.”

She took a deep breath, then closed her eyes.

The tentacles of mental power spread around and wove into a net.

Even with the life signal shielding device, it was impossible to cover the spiritual seal.

Although her eyes were closed, her mind was clear. The spiritual seals hidden were like swaying candlelight, floating in the vast darkness, and completely visible.

She ignored the “candlelights” that were about to extinguish under the rubble.

Zhao Qiuran pointed in the direction of the underground garage.

“There are probably more than fifty people there.”

Lu Fan gestured to the guards around him and raised his rifle again.

Looking at the garage located in the basement of the hospital, Jiang Chen revealed a sly smile.

“It seems like we’ll be meeting again.”

I wonder if those two cats are still on “Tiger”.

Chapter 1181: The Darkness in the Garage

Chapter 1181 The Darkness in the Garage

In the basement, Tiger constantly swallowed as he repeatedly rubbed the assault rifle grip, he stared nervously at the garage door.

Just now, he used the remaining power in the spare nuclear fusion battery to start the emergency procedure for the garage.

The leaded alloy door closed and sealed the entrance to the garage.

It was also one of the civil defense projects. He was only praying that man would not be able to open the door and would just leave.

By then, he could still…

Looking at his subordinate’s shivering beside him, Tiger only felt despair.

It would be impossible to make a comeback.

He would be thankful to just live…

Just then, a bright light appeared on the alloy door.

For the first time, Tiger felt hopeless when he saw a light in the vast darkness.

Suddenly, he heard a windbreaking sound.

Tiger did not understand what happened before he was hit on the back of the head and fell forward.

The hit made his eyes blurry in dizziness.

When he realized what happened, the rifle in his hand was gone, and his boy, who always sucked up to him, was pointing his rifle at his head and full of viciousness.

It was ironic, it was the first time seeing such a brave expression from the guy’s face.

Is this still the same guy?”

Hey, Six, you’re finally being brave?” Tiger bitterly smiled.

“Shut up!” Crazy was written all over the man named Six. He used the rifle to poke the face of his former brother. “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, you stupid fu*k! Why did you offend someone you shouldn’t have! Now the Tiger Clan is fu*king done! We’re all done!”

“We?” Tiger laughed and looked at Six riding on his body. His eyes showed a hint of disdain. “The Tiger Clan has always been mine, when did it become “we”. Six, have I been treating you too well?”

With madness, Six continued to poke the face of his former brother with his gun.

“FU*K, FU*K, why are you sh*t talking now.”

“Hehe, you don’t even know how to say your last words. You’re still useless even with death knocking at your door.” Tiger shook his head.

Originally, he was still a little scared, but when the stick landed on his head, he was over this whole situation.

“Death?” There were panic and fear on Six’s face. However, they were quickly replaced by madness. “I will not die, you’re going to die! You’ve angered the NAC! As long as I hand you to them… I, I will not die!”

“Haha,” he looked at his pawn as if he was looking at an idiot, then he shook his head, smiling. “Whatever, I have lived an enjoyable life, so what if I go to hell!”

Suddenly, he ignored the muzzle pressed against his face and grabbed Six’s neck.

Six was frightened, with the fear of Tiger taking back the weapon, his hands shook and he pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Red and white matter sprinkled onto the ground.

Tiger’s hands dropped down and fell to the side, they marked the end of his dirty and sinful life.

Almost at the same time, the alloy door was cut open, and the man standing at the door retracted the laser sword and looked inside.

Six couldn’t see the expression on his face, but he could guess that his expression would be no different than looking at an ant.

“Big, big brother,” Six looked at his big brother without a head in horror. Then, he looked at the people who appeared at the door and hurriedly tossed away the rifle in his hands. With a panicked and pleading expression, Six said incoherently. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, the person who started all of this is dead! It’s me, yes! Yes, I killed him! I avenged you…”

BANG!

There was a second shot.

Blood gushed out from his chest. The man named Six collapsed on the ground and made a muffled sound.

“Too much nonsense.”

The smoke from the pistol faded.

Jiang Chen looked at Tiger with his exploded head with a frown. He did not say anything else and walked toward the back of the garage.

When he heard that Zhao Qiuran said that there were a lot of spiritual marks in the garage, he had already vaguely guessed what he would see inside.

One foot kicked opened the half-covered door and a thick odor wafted into his face.

Women in ragged clothes sat in front of the long table, processing used chips. When they saw Jiang Chen at the door, they just raised their eyes and looked numbly, then they lowered their heads and continued to mechanically operate the welding torch under the incandescent light.

Others were squatting in cages, fixed on sinister toys, as their sight fixated on the floor or ceiling. Only a few had color in their eyes, and those the raiders had still yet to finish enjoying were chained to prevent them from suiciding or escaping.

The dead bodies were thrown into the corner and sprinkled with formalin. The empty eyes were daunting. They seemed to exist to warn those who are lazy or those who want to escape.

Jiang Chen was visibly shocked, but he did not say anything.

It was not the first time he encountered this type of situation.

“How are you going to deal with these women?” Zhao Qiuran followed Jiang Chen inside, waved her hand to keep the smell away of her nose, and asked with a frown.

“What do you think is a good way?” Jiang Chen asked.

Zhao Qiuran paused for a moment before her expression turned awkward.

She was a lone traveler and always operated independently. She usually did not save strangers. What solution would she have?

These people had lost their hope to live.

Even if they were still alive, they were just like the walking dead in this world.

Perhaps death would be a relief for them? But how many people would be able to free their pain without any psychological burden?

Just as Zhao Qiuran was engrossed with her thoughts, Jiang Chen gestured to Lu Fan and then pointed to the women in the basement.

“Get Li Wang to send two transport helicopters, and wait for the next transport of the airship to bring those people back to Wanghai.”

“Roger!” Lu Fan saluted.

Very early in the days, shortly after the end of the X2 bacterial incident, a traumatic sanatorium was set up in the Fishbone Base. It was specifically built for those who were traumatized by raiders, which were generally women.

Although there were many beautiful women around him, he was very aware that the proportion of men and women on the wasteland had been seriously out of tune. Too many bachelors at any time was never a good thing.

Fortunately, most survivors did not have a civilized mentality. As long as they were not mad or crazy, most survivors did not mind the past of these women. They would not reject marrying women that recovered from the sanatorium.

Chu Nan, the director of the Sixth Street, was a great example.

“You are too kind.” Zhao Qiuran looked at these people with envy.

“You are envious?”

When she thought about what happened to these women, she shivered and shook her head. “How is that possible?”

Jiang Chen glanced at her and did not say anything more, then he looked at Lu Fan.

“That’s that. Before the transport helicopters arrive, let’s search here to see if there is anything worth taking away—”

BOOM!

Without the slightest sign, the earth trembled intensely, causing debris to fall from the garage ceiling.

“Fu*k, who launched another bomb.”

As he held the wall to regain his balance, Jiang Chen cursed and patted the dust off his head.

BOOM!

Just as he finished his sentence, there was an even louder explosion.

This time the earth shook more violently, and everyone in the basement realized the seriousness of the situation.

“An earthquake?” Zhao Qiuran glanced at the ceiling and said nervously, “I suggest we get out quickly.”

“It’s not like an earthquake.” Lu Fan immediately put his face down on the ground. “It was an explosion coming from below us.”

“From underground?”

Jiang Chen had to process this information before his expression gradually turned serious.

For some strange reason, the explosion coming from the depths of the earth gave him an ominous feeling.

What are the Russians doing?

Chapter 1182: The Collapsing Wall

Chapter 1182 The Collapsing Wall

The roar of the explosions came from afar as the shockwave shook the stained floor-to-ceiling windows ten kilometers away.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, Wan Peng focused on the rising dust and became silent.

After a long time, he sighed.

“That’s NAC’s electromagnetic pulse cannon?”

This much destructive power with just one shot?

I am afraid the wall of Pingan Street will not last more than a few rounds in front of this giant cannon.

While he sent his condolences to the fool that angered NAC, Wan Peng took out a radio from the drawer and called his assistant.

Soon, the office door was pushed open.

A woman in a black suit walked to the front of Wan Peng’s desk and bowed respectfully. Then she said.

“Manager Wan, are you looking for me?”

Wan Peng asked.

“Is there any news on the Men in Black?”

“Men in Black” was a special unit that he secretly built ten years ago. It was directly under the command of Wan Peng and independent of the Sunday Club.

In the beginning, the significance of this force’s existence was only to search for pre-war facilities and to deal with some problems that were inconvenient to entrust to mercenaries and lone travelers. After the establishment of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance and the rule that no murders were allowed within the Third Ring Road, the organization shifted into a semi-intelligence organization.

Black suits, optical invisibility, carbon nanobody armors, PK2000 Pan-Asia Cooperation rifles. With just a few dozen people, the organization possessed the combat ability equivalent of of over a hundred. In Shangjing, even the militia group must show respect to him because of the exact reason.

Even Ding Liwei, the head of the militia group, was concerned about this trump card in his hand.

“There is no news yet.” The assistant shook her head and in her beautiful voice, “If there is progress, I will inform you as soon as possible.”

“Why is it so slow.” Wan Peng frowned.

If it were before, they would have already reported to him by now. They should not be this silent, without even a message.

Last time, they had Old Luo already trapped in a corner, but they still managed to let him get away.

Wan Peng snorted at the thought.

The organization just changed an instructor and they’re becoming more and more useless. They are fed with all kinds of resources, but they are less and less proficient with their skills.

“Ask Lu Sen to come and see me,” looked at his assistant, Wan Peng said with a gloomy expression.

“Yes.” The assistant quickly bowed her head.

Intuition told her that the manager was in a bad mood.

Without stopping, with the boss’s orders, she rushed to the door.

The assistant guessed right, Wan Peng’s mood at the moment was not particularly joyful.

But fortunately, his mood was just not particularly joyful.

If he learned that the ten men he sent to capture the ID card were all dead, and they got him a big of trouble just before they died, would Wan Peng curse out?

Soon, the door was pushed open again.

“Boss,” with an anxious look, Lu Sen hesitated before asking, “Are you looking for me?”

Wan Peng smiled and leaned back in the chair, looking at Lu Sen.

“Explain to me how you train those people?”

Lu Sen was sweating and so anxious he could not speak.

“Ummm, umm…”

“The last mission to capture Old Luo, you said that their equipment is not good enough. This time, to capture an unnamed settlement leader, and you fu*king used the carbon nano armor with optical invisibility and there is still no response.” Wan Peng sneered, then put his legs on the table. “Come and tell me what’s going on.”

“Ummm, boss, they are radio-silent during this mission. I don’t know what is going on there. I promise you, I will report to you immediately when they come back.”

“Report?!”

Wan Peng raised an eyebrow, and the anger in his heart brewed to just the right amount; the amount just ready to explode.

Suddenly, the floor began to rock violently.

The cup on the desk tipped down and the hot water splashed directly on him. With the violent shaking, Wan Peng subconsciously hoped to dodge, but it was too late as he was flipped over on the chair.

“Boss, be careful!”

Lu Sen was quick to respond, as he immediately caught his boss.

“AHH! WHAT THE FU*K.” The hot water had splashed on his pants, and Wan Peng was grimacing while holding onto Lu Sen’s arm, then he stood up, cursing, “What the fu*k is this? What are they doing downstairs.”

The shaking became more and more violent as if an earthquake was happening, rocking the entire Pan-Asia Cooperation Building.

Suddenly, Wan Peng’s expression drastically changed.

Not the people downstairs.

The entire Pingan Street was shaking!”

Is it?” Wan Peng had a bad feeling.

Earthquake? Impossible! Shangjing is not in the earthquake zone!

At this moment, he suddenly remembered that ten years ago, when he and Ding Liwei colluded to explode Line 35, something similar happened…

This time his expression completely changed.

As if the event just happened confirmed his speculation.

Directly out the window, at the South Gate, in the center of the slum, a large piece of land protruded out of the ground by half a meter, the cement road shattered, and then it collapsed back down. The shockwave, like ripples, moved outward from the center in the direction of the giant wall.

Swept by the shock wave, the shacks in the slum began to collapse like a small sail in a storm.

If it was only half a slum, Wan Peng would not feel so bad.

Those refugees werelike wild grasses, it would not matter if they died.

What really made Wan Peng panic was that standing in the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building, he could see that when the shock wave spread to the South Gate of the giant wall, the entire area sunk several meters.

A corner of the towering wall had already fallen, and in the dust, it was slowly collapsing outward…

The entire southern part of Pingan Street was turned into hell.

At the same time, hundreds of meters deep underground, Yegor stood on the turret of the tank and laughed.

The scars and wrinkles on his face fused and shook menacingly, highlighting his excitement.

“Ha ha ha ha! FUN! FUN!”

The gust of wind coming from the subway blew against his face, and even if he was a few kilometers away, he could still feel the heat in the air.

“General, the radiation index in the subway is rising!” From the tank next to him, Sminov peeked out and yelled in the gusting wind, “Please go back into the tank!”

To be honest, he was really afraid that his commander would get his head fried by the radiation.

Although he also knew that with the injection of nano serum, this level of radiation is nothing at all.

“Haha, this is great!”

“Tank Battalion One, on my order!” Without any concern about the rising radiation value. Yegor’s fist slammed on the turret and in the gusting wind, he shouted into his radio. “The treasure of Pan-Asia is in front of us! Throttle to the maximum! GET READY TO MOVE!”

After that, Yegor sat back in the tank and covered the top cover.

The sound of the tank tracks rolling forward began to echo in the subway. Under his command, a dozen tanks bearing the Soviet badge rushed along the subway line.

But no one noticed that in the depths of the darkness, the unknown danger was preparing to make a move.

Chapter 1183: The Countless Zombies

1183 The Countless Zombies

“Oh my God!”

“The wall! The wall has collapsed!”

“FU*K, RUN!”

“HELP! HELP, I’M STUCK!”

“AHHHH! MY LEGS…”

With the giant wall collapsing, the entire South Gate turned into living hell.

The survivors in ragged clothes rushed out of the slums and ran into the street with horror written all over their faces; they completely paralyzed the traffic there. The rescue vehicles and the freight trucks that were fleeing to the city center were completely jammed together.

Affected by the aftermath, the industrial area not far from the slums also suffered a considerable amount of damage. Workers hurriedly moved equipment from the factory buildings as they feared the structurally damaged buildings were going to collapse.

The cultists who were moving to the East Gate from the stadium looked at the collapsed South Gate with horror. Xu Tiannan looked at the men next to him and ordered.

“Go to the South Gate and see what happened there!”

“Yes!”

As his subordinate ran towards the South Gate, the people on the street at the North Gate were also panicking because of the collapsed wall.

Sura stood in the shadow of the street as he watched the fleeing crowds with indifference, then his figure quickly disappeared into the crowd.

Not only did the huge wall collapse, but so did the wall in the minds of everyone on Pingan Street.

A wall called a sense of security.

Because of this explosion that occurred hundreds of meters below, the entire Pingan Street was boiling.

After Ding Liwei learned the situation at the South Gate, he made a decision immediately.

He immediately dispatched the militia group. While he enacted martial law in the city, he also allocated personnel to support the South Gate.

More than a dozen modified trucks and police armored vehicles dispatched from the West Gate and went around the gap in the giant wall of the South Gate. The soldiers jumped down from the vehicles and blocked the entrance to prevent zombies and mutants from entering and causing even greater chaos. On the other hand, engineers were sent to rescue the people buried under the rubble…

The militia captain Song Chenyu climbed up on the concrete rubble among the ruins of the wall. He gazed at the more active zombies outside as his expression gradually turned more serious.

The gap in the wall was half a kilometer wide, and it was impossible to repair this gap in a short amount of time. Barbed wire or other separation walls were possible, but he doubted whether the temporary fortifications could make them sleep well.

It was already four o’clock in the afternoon, less than two hours before it got dark.

While the zombies looked slow now, once night arrived, even Death Claws didn’t dare to stand in their ways.

The most troublesome thing for him was that for zombies, the breath of the living was the perfect bait. The population of tens of thousands in Pingan Street was just like a bright light in the night sky. He could almost envision what would happen once darkness arrived.

“Pull up the barbed wire! Be sure to close the gap before it gets dark! The rest of the people go to the warehouse and pull out all the weapons!”

As he ordered the soldiers to set up a defense line, he also commanded troops to deploy firepower points to clear out the zombies that were close to the city wall.

But at this moment, there was an exclamation.

“Look! Over there! What is that!”

Song Chenyu immediately raised his head and looked at the direction across the street.

Soon, his pupils gradually enlarged with a look of horror.

At the corner of the street, the zombies formed into groups of twos and threes as they stumbled forward and gathered in Pingan Street. Compared to the zombies that stood still on the street, while their movements were still stiff, they showed more aggressiveness towards the street.

Perhaps it was his illusion, but from a distance, he faintly saw a red light in the pupils of those zombies…

…

BOOM!

Like a gust of wind, the bullet rained from the sky and tore the zombies into pieces.

“ROAR!”

A series of wax yellow fat exploded. A Roshan covered its head with its stout arms and let out a painful cry.

Although the 20mm cannon couldn’t penetrate its solid fat, it caused it great pain and slowed it down. The plump body seemed to be scalded by a frying pan, and it looked a bit more hideous than before.

The Aurora-20 raised its nose, returned into the clouds, and adjusted its position to prepare for a second round of airstrikes.

The previous round of airstrikes cleared a vacuum area of zombies.

However, it didn’t take long for this vacuum to get filled by new zombies as they slowly gathered in groups and stubbornly moving their stiff legs towards the Physician Building in the hospital. On top of the building, there were dozens of figures.

After the unexplained “earthquake” occurred, Jiang Chen took his guards and moved to the upper floor of the Physician Building.

Along with them, there were also about fifty female slaves captured by the raiders. At this moment, these people squatted down beside the water tank on the roof without any life in their eyes. They did not have the slightest joy of regaining their freedom, only the confusion of their destiny. In order to prevent them from creating trouble, he also ordered two guards to watch over them.

On the roof of the Physician Building, Jiang Chen frowned as he looked at the regrouped zombies.

If it was just zombies, it would be much easier. But among the zombies, he also saw Spitters, Throwers, and even Roshans…

Under normal circumstances, these zombies appeared in densely populated places before the war, like department stores and subway stations. But now, even in places like Dongcheng Hospital was surrounded by a group of dangerous zombies, which made the situation more intriguing.

“It’s getting dark.”

Jiang Chen looked up as the brightness was disappearing from the horizon, he then looked at Lu Fan next to him and asked, “How long before the helicopter arrives?”

In order to prevent the CCCP air defense vehicles from sniping down the airship with the help of the subway line, AS Order redeployed to Bohai Bay near Qincheng, about 300 kilometers away from here, after it completed the deployment of the expeditionary force.

As a medium-sized transport aircraft, Type-51 Transport Helicopter possessed very impressive load capacity and high stability, but speed was not its strong point. It would take at least an hour to get from Qincheng to Shangjing.

And now, only half an hour had passed.

“It’s almost here,” Lu Fan replied.

“Where do you think these zombies came from?” Zhao Qiuran asked nervously.

“I don’t know,” Jiang Chen shook his head and said seriously, “Intuition tells me that it must have something to do with the earthquake just now.”

Zhao Qiuran secretly glanced at Jiang Chen, his eyes seemed to be saying, does this need intuition? Anyone can see it.

It was from the beginning of the earthquake that the entire Shanghai seemed to have changed. The zombies that rarely roamed on the surface, like Spitters or Throwers, now appeared in clusters. This already explained the severity of the problem.

There was just one thing Zhao Qiuran couldn’t make sense of.

Is there any necessary connection between earthquakes and zombies?

Do zombies also have intelligence, and in order to avoid earthquakes, they all run to the surface?

No, the safest place should be the subway. The Pan-Asia Cooperation subway is designed according to the specifications of a nuclear bunker. What can earthquakes do? The subway line was completely fine even though the buildings on the ground collapsed!

Just as Zhao Qiuran contemplated, Jiang Chen opened the holographic map and started searching along the map.

Soon, his eyes stopped at the subway station next to Dongcheng Hospital.

After he examined the subway line of the station, he suddenly spoke.

“Right, speaking of it, is your ability useful on zombies?”

Zhao Qiuran was taken aback for a moment, then she shook her head.

“Are you talking about telesthesia? It’s useless. Those zombies rely on instinctive actions, they have no consciousness at all.”

“So…”

Jiang Chen looked thoughtfully in the direction of Pingan Street, but this time, he didn’t speak again.

Not far away, the horizon had faded into yellow.

The shaky red Sun was about to fall at any time.

Once night falls, the whole world would no longer belong to humans…

Chapter 1184: Treasure Map

1184 Treasure Map

After two rounds of airstrikes, the zombie flood surrounding Dongcheng Hospital subsided slightly, the only one Roshan remaining fell victim to 20mm machineguns.

With its ammunition exhausted, the Aurora-20 hovered in the air, then returned in the direction of Qingcheng.

Although the zombie flood subsided, no one showed any happiness.

They all recognized that the situation would not last for too long.

With darkness approaching, the zombies would rush to the area like moths rushing to a lamp.

“Listen, I know that your guards are very strong, but the night is very long.” Next to Jiang Chen, Zhao Qiuran looked at the street full of limbs outside the wall of Dongcheng Hospital and said, “You said there would be helicopters coming to pick us up, how many helicopters do you need to take more than 70 people at once? Or do you intend to leave these loots here.”

Zhao Qiuran looked at the slaves who were sitting next to the water tank.

“There will probably be two helicopters,” Jiang Chen said.

“Two helicopters?” Zhao Qiuqi bitterly smiled, walked to the side, and then leaned against the railing on the top of the building. “Two helicopters, can take how many people?”

Jiang Chen said softly as he gazed at the zombies shaking their heads on the street.

“Who said I’m leaving?”

Zhao Qiuran took a few more seconds to process the information and looked at Jiang Chen inexplicably.

“Then you called the helicopters…”

“Reinforcement.” Jiang Chen stopping gazing at the street and looked back at her. “I’m going to hold here. Do you have any good ideas?”

“Hold here?” Zhao Qiuran looked at Jiang Chen, shocked and confused. “Why do you want to hold here? Is there anything else besides garbage?”

“I just asked if you have any good ideas.” Jiang Chen shrugged.

“Well…” Seeing Jiang Chen did not intend to reveal his plan, Zhao Qiuran sighed and gave up the idea to question him further. She then pointed to the courtyard of Dongcheng Hospital. “You know, because of the existence of the Throwers and Roshan, hiding in a narrow building is not a good idea. My suggestion is that we build a fortification at the gate, keep most of the zombies out of the walls, and then eliminate large zombies like the Roshans.”

Jiang Chen touched his chin and nodded.

“What about materials?”

“Materials? They’re over the place.” Zhao Qiuran showed a smug look as she looked around to the ruins of the main building. “You just need to lend me some hands.”

She is indeed an experienced lone traveler.

Although her equipment was a lot worse compared to Jiang Chen’s guards, her survival ability was far superior to anyone from Jiang Chen’s side.

From the roof of the building back to the ground, everyone first cleared the zombies left in the courtyard.

Then, under Zhao Qiuran’s command, all the 19 guards except Lu Fan began to “move bricks”.

With the strong load-bearing capacity of the kinetic skeleton, the reinforced concrete blocks marked by Zhao Qiuran with a marker were moved to the door from the ruins of the main building, and then under her command, a bunker was somehow built.

Not only was a movable door created, but there were holes left for shooting. To prevent the Throwers from tossing in baby bombs, she made a few forks out of steel and placed them in front of the shooting holes.

The hospital wall itself was very high, as long as they manage to hold the main gate, at least from the main building to their current building, there was no need to worry about other zombies. They just need to be cautious of Roshan approaching their bunker. Or else, it should not be difficult to hold this place down.

Just as Zhao Qiuran began to build a “tower”, Jiang Chen took Lu Fan to the side and opened the holographic map on his watch.

“I just said that we have to hold this place. Now I’m going to tell you why I am doing this.”

“Because Dongcheng Hospital is the entrance to Line 27?” Lu Fan replied before Jiang Chen spoke.

“Not bad.” Jiang Chen applauded and nodded. “You’re making good progress.”

Lu Fan smiled and embarrassedly touched his forehead.

After clearing his throat, Jiang Chen tapped on the holographic screen, and all of the more than forty subway lines in Shangjing were highlighted.

“What do you see now?”

“Shangjing Subway Map?” Lu Fan frowned.

“This is a treasure map, one of which has an entrance to Subway Line 0, which is the treasure of the Pan-Asia Cooperation.”

Jiang Chen took out the card he won at the auction from his pocket. “The key is in our hands, but we are not the only holder of the key and opening the door with a key is not the only way to get to the treasure.”

“Now a group of robbers is underground, and they are choosing to use explosives to clear the way.”

“It was not an earthquake just now?” Lu Fan looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

“There is no doubt that the Russians did it, and they used nukes. Only nukes could damage civil defense facilities to this scale. Also, they must have tactical nuclear bombs equivalent to at least 10,000 TNT.” Jiang Chen put away the card. “If we followed DND rules, since there are dungeons and treasures, there must be monsters and traps. Obviously, the idiots blasted a passage with a nuke, but they also released some unwanted things.”

Lu Fan would like to ask what the dungeons, treasures, and DND rules meant, but seeing the General was so engaged, he put away those thoughts for now.

“So… what should we do now?” Lu Fan asked.

“What should we do? Of course, it is to find the treasure before everyone else, and at the very least before the Russians.”

“Is that our target?” Lu Fan forced a smile.

“Of course.”

Jiang Chen’s fingers tapped on a few more points on the map, and the three subway lines, Line 35, Line 27, and Line 2, were separately marked.

“Line 27 passes through the South Gate of Pingan Street and passes through Dongcheng Hospital. It is connected to Line 2 and Line 35 inside the Third Ring Road. Line 35 is the subway line where the Russians are located. Line 2 passes through Pingan Street, then heads east.”

“What are the mysteries of these three subway lines?” Lu Fan looked at the holographic map and frowned.

“Line 2 passes directly below the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building. Use your imagination, what kind of subway line will pass under the political center of the Pan-Asia Cooperation?”

When Lu Fan heard Jiang Chen’s words, his eyes gradually brightened up, as if he had captured a hint in his head.

Jiang Chen did not wait for Lu Fan to digest this information, he pointed to Line 35 and continued.

“The only thing we can confirm now is that the Russians detonated the explosives on Line 35, not only blasting an entrance but also blasting a subway line stuffed with dangerous mutants and zombies. I’m afraid now, Lines 35, 27, and 2 are all packed with zombies.”

“How can we get in?” Lu Fan said with the skin on his head crawling.

“We have power armors,” Jiang Chen said, looking at Lu Fan. “And hence why I called reinforcements.”

Even with power armors, it would not be an easy task to create a path among zombies. But since he learned the secret of Line Zero, he would not let it slip away from him.

“I still have another point I don’t understand.”

“Go ahead.”

“What are the DND rules?”

“…” Jiang Chen looked at him silently and then looked away. “Forget about it.”

The atmosphere felt a little stuffy.

Lu Fan touched the back of his head, forced an awkward laugh, and then nodded.

“Okay, okay…”

Chapter 1185: You Can Call Me Jiang Chen

Chapter 1185 You Can Call Me Jiang Chen

Before the sky turned dark, two Transport Helicopter-51s arrived at Dongcheng Hospital.

In addition to the eight soldiers in power armors, two supply boxes filled with ammunition dropped down.

Without staying too long, the two helicopters that unloaded were soon off again and flew in the direction of AS Order for the second batch of reinforcements.

Zhao Qiuran looked very calm when she saw the eight power armors, and the two helicopters disappearing into the horizon,

At least on the surface, she was not as surprised as she was before.

Since she already witnessed the fighter and the electromagnetic pulse cannon that lifted a building with just one shot, power armors and helicopters just did not seem as impressive. She was no longer shocked by the weapons she saw.

She walked to the supply box and replaced her submachine gun with the more powerful Ripper rifle.

Adjusting her grip on the rifle, it took a while before she finally strapped it behind her. Then she looked at Jiang Chen, impressed, “I am looking forward to my future life in Wanghai more and more.”

“Why?” Jiang Chen asked.

“How rich do you have to be to put this rifle in the supply box like a cabbage. If you sell this in Pingan Street market, the twenty Rippers in your box would at least go for 100 crystals.”

“The more, the more worthless.” When he picked up a rifle and a magazine from the box, he said casually. “And, I advise you not to expect too much. Or else you may become disappointed and blame me.”

“Why?” Zhao Qiu asked.

“It’s not easy to find a job at Sixth Street, at least for lone travelers.”

“I… I’m not working for you?”

“Did I say I was going to hire you?”

“…”

After the bunker and the watchtower were built, the sky was completely dark.

Twenty guards were divided into three groups. They each took turns patrolling around the bunker and the watchtower, looking for any approaching zombies.

The rest of the people used dry branches and alcohol bottles and ignited a few campfires on the open space, trying to get some heat. Even the women who were rescued by Jiang Chen from the raiders got a few campfires set up for them while they sat numbly in the night.

Perhaps it was because of the temperature of the fire.

A lot of numb eyes began to have some warmth in them.

However, Jiang Chen did not notice this subtle change.

Sitting in front of the fire, Jiang Chen was yawning out of boredom. He twisted open the cap of a nutrient supply while he thought.

It would be perfect to have some barbecue and beer.

Of course, it was just wishful thinking. They were not a military base of the NAC. Without a warehouse full of food to cover for him, even with his own confidants by him, he could not just conveniently take food out of the storage dimension.

Just as he was beginning to feel bored, a situation began to stir by the gate.

He tossed away the empty tube, sat up, and patted his pants.

“I will go and take a look.”

“I’m going with you!”

Seeing Jiang Chen get up, Lu Fan followed Jiang Chen to the entrance of the courtyard.

…

At the entrance of the hospital, a man in a leather armor stood on the street not far from the courtyard gate. There was also a worn truck parked far behind him.

“Don’t shoot! We are not malicious.”

The man carefully placed his gun on the ground, raised his hands over his head, and walked toward the main entrance of Dongcheng Hospital.

He was very nervous.

Now that the sky was completely dark, God knows how many zombies were in the vicinity.

“Who are you?” On the top of the bunker, Zhao Qiuran narrowed her eyes and pointed her rifle at him, “What are you doing here?”

“I am a trader from Haizhou and I’m in the fur business. I can give you 10%… No, 20% of my goods. I just ask that you let me stay here until dawn.” The man noticed Zhao Qiuran’s vigilance and pleaded, “I swear, we are not malicious. When the day is bright, we will leave immediately. If you don’t trust us, we can sleep in the corner.”

Zhao Qiuran wanted to refuse, but Jiang Chen’s voice came from behind.

“Open the door and let them in.”

“But…”

Jiang Chen did not want to say anything more to Zhao Qiuran and looked at Lu Fan instead.

As his captain for many years, Lu Fan immediately understood Jiang Chen. He walked up to Zhao Qiuran and glanced at the man outside the door.

“You can keep your goods. Our benevolent boss allows you to come into our asylum. But if you dare to have any other thoughts, I’ll make sure you regret coming into this world.”

“No, not at all,” The man said while sweating profusely.

The fortifications were already built, and of course, the truck would not be able to enter, but zombies were only interested in people, so they just needed to park the vehicle away from the zombie’s path.

The man returned to the truck and ordered the four people that looked like guards to park the truck on the side of the road. Then he walked through the small door next to the bunker and entered the hospital. Immediately when they entered, they voluntarily handed over their weapons.

Anyone who saw the eight power armors would have made the same choice.

In front of the power armor, a rifle would be no different than a matchstick.

The four trader guards were placed at the campfire near the gate, and the man in the leather armor followed Lu Fan to the campfire where Jiang Chen was.

“What is your name?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Liu Wendi… Can I sit here?”

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

When the man sat on the opposite side of Jiang Chen, he noticed the women several fires away and curiously asked Jiang Chen.

“They are your slaves?”

“No, they’re my loot,” Jiang Chen joked.

The man was clearly shocked by this response. He gulped and moved his butt back a little.

Jiang Chen laughed and did not explain further. He picked up a branch from the side and fiddled with the kindling in the fire.

“Why didn’t you go to Pingan Street? Are you not afraid of zombies or raiders?”

“We also wanted to go to Pingan Street, but something happened there.” Liu Wendi smiled bitterly.

Jiang Chen stopped fiddling with the fire and looked at him while he casually asked.

“Oh? What happened there?”

“The South Gate has collapsed.”

Jiang Chen paused.

“Collapsed? The South Gate?”

Liu Wendi nodded repeatedly. He looked extremely bitter and powerless.

“The gap is around half a kilometer wide. Half of the slums also collapsed. Now the entire Pingan Street is a big mess. The militia has placed Pingan Street under lockdown and is only permitting people to exit. No one can enter regardless of how many crystals they pay.”

He came all the way from Haizhou just to sell the fur on the truck to Shangjing hoping to profit before the winter. However, now the entire Pingan Street was under martial law, he did not know how long the situation would last.

It was quite dangerous to leave the goods outside, even if the Survivors Alliance had a convention that does not allow people to kill people within the Third Ring Road, this convention had never been enacted outside the wall of Pingan Street.

He even made up his mind. If the situation did not improve, he would pull the goods back to Haizhou.

As for the four guards who were barely equipped, they really did not make a difference.

With a sigh, Liu Wendi took a nutrient supply from his bag and drank it with his eyes closed.

Just then, the roar of the engine came from afar.

Liu Wendi looked up at the sky, and two glaring white lights beamed down. The sight made him almost throw away the nutrient supply in his hand as he immediately stood up from the ground.

“What is that?”

“That?” Jiang Chen looked at the sky and smiled. “My helicopter.”

“Helicopter? Yours?” Liu Wendi felt that his mind could not comprehend this.

“Yes. Right, I haven’t told you my name yet,” Jiang Chen tossed the branch into the fire, clapped his hands, stood up, and patted the ash off of his trousers. As if nothing happened, he said, “You can call me Jiang Chen.”

Chapter 1186: The Bloodshed Under The Wall

1186 The Bloodshed Under The Wall This night in Pingan Street was destined to be a sleepless night.Pairs of hollow eyes, like the gaze of the Grim Reaper, focused on the bustling Pingan Street from the darkness. In a loud roar that broke the silence, they all turned crimson.

The zombies began to move in hobbled steps. The pairs of skinny but powerful hands extended forward desperately, rushing toward the gap in the giant wall.

“ROAR—”

The screams resounded through the street and the rapid gunshots formed a slaughter symphony.

The soldiers gritted their teeth and weaved bullet nets with machineguns and rifle bullets in an attempt to repel the zombies. However, a net could trap river waves, but not the rolling sea. Zombies were constantly falling down, but there were more zombies stepping over the corpses.

They felt no pain and feared no death.

Soon, on the empty street was filled with zombies rushing in. The frontline was forced to retrieve to the first barbed wires that were pulled along the street outside the giant wall.

A cluster of flames flickered behind the line of defense. Like dying candles in the wind, they were ready to be blown out at any moment.

“FU*K, there are too many of them!”

Using a bayonet on a rifle to stab a zombie stuck on the barbed wire, a soldier in a chemical protective suit flicked the thick blood on the bayonet and pushed the bayonet forward again, piercing five more throats.

“Use a bayonet! Stab them in the neck and face! Don’t let them get stuck to the wires, FU*K! DAMMIT!”

More and more zombies had ripped the barbed wires with their teeth and nails and were letting out hoarse roars at the soldiers.

However, what really threatened the safety of the line of defense was not the tears, but the zombies that were increasingly crowding the barbed wires.

Of course, they couldn’t tear the strong steel wire, but they could crush the entire wall by sheer quantity!

The firepower of the frontline soldiers became sparser. It was meaningless to shoot any more. The zombies in the front were dead, and they were pressed against the barbed wires by the zombies behind them like a meat shield. The engineers quickly stepped forward and threw heavy objects such as sandbags and garbage bags behind the iron mesh.

However, everyone knew that this method couldn’t stop them for long.

The only thing that could completely block zombies was a huge wall, but the giant wall behind them had fallen…

“Their offense is too fierce!”

“Ammunition! I need ammunition! Get me the ammunition box!”

On the tower, the machinegunners who were suppressing the zombies in the back stopped shooting and cursed at the logistics soldiers.

“We have to wait a while for more ammunition. The supply car is on the way. You must hold on for a bit longer…” The logistics soldier said while sweating.

“F*cking hold? How do I hold without bullets? Shoot you!?!”

“…”

The supply of ammunition was not optimistic, and in less than an hour, the machinegun tower that was unleashing firepower became silent.

Without the machine gun to suppress the zombies in the back, the zombies were getting more and more fierce.

The barbed wires were already howling under heavy fatigue and many places were bent and screws were getting popped off.

The soldiers stabbing at the rotten meat began to fear and retreated.

On the wall that had yet to collapse, Song Chenyu looked at the situation on the front line and his eyebrows twisted.

Suddenly, he slammed his fist on the wall and he ordered the officer behind him.

“We can’t wait any longer, get the Kamikaze Squad to go.”

The expression of the officer who heard the order turned serious. He saluted and stood upright.

“Roger!”

The deafening broadcast sounded.

On the front line, soldiers wearing chemical protective suits began to evacuate from the edge of the barbed wires.

At the same time, a group of people wearing armor shaped like football players passed by the retreating soldiers. They carried a chainsaw with both hands and stepped on the battlefield from behind the line of defense. The line of sight behind the tempered glass and iron mesh mask did not show the slightest fear, and their advancement did not show the slightest hesitation.

They were all refugees from the slums.

Before the armor was welded, they were injected with an agent that dissipated their fears.

Behind them was a temporarily-built, two-people tall concrete wall and many places had yet to solidify. However, this seemingly unreliable wall was the last line of defense on Pingan Street.

They must hold the line before the engineers build the third protective wall.

Otherwise, everything they had accomplished would go to waste.

“Prepare!”

The barbed wires gradually collapsed.

They stood in a row behind the barbed wire and like medieval knights, they raised the chainsaw in their hands.

“KILL!”

The growl seemed to dispel the fear in them, and the chainsaw in their hands pushed forward.

At the same time, they pressed the switch.

The roaring chainsaw spurred forward. Only brief contact was needed for a zombie to lose a limb.

The minced meat and solidified blood danced in the air. Even survivors who were used to the cruelty of the world would vomit. However, the Kamikaze Squad members in hell showed only numbness in their eyes.

For normal zombies, the row of hand-held chainsaws was far more effective than rifles, machine guns, and even mortars. However, the Kamikaze Squad was about to face a nightmare with the more dangerous “mutants”…

“AHHHHH!”

There was a scream. A skinny zombie flexibly clung to the head of a Kamikaze member. Its sharp claws pierced through the fragile guard’s neckline within a single second. The stick-like limp penetrated his collarbone and pulled out the contents inside his stomach and intestines.

In two breaths time.

The cruelty of the death was abnormal, and the emotion of fear began to overwhelm everyone.

Someone shouted.

“It’s a Night Demon!”

Night Demon!

As the name suggested, it was a zombie-type mutant that only appeared at night. Although its power and defense were not strong, its terrifying speed and aggressive attack techniques make it one of the most frightening zombies. It was considered even more fearsome than the Roshan.

In particular, its ability to analyze weaknesses was insane as his claws could always find the most vulnerable places to penetrate.

The line of defense formed by the “football team” was quickly folded like paper in front of the night zombies. Then they, along with their roaring chainsaws, drowned in the sea of zombies.

Only ten minutes passed since the zombies broke through the barbed wires and collapsed their line of defense.

While they were completely eliminated, the sacrifice of these cheap pawns still gained Pingan Street valuable time to consolidate its defense.

The retreating soldiers stepped onto the protective wall, took the ammunition from the hands of the logistics soldiers, and began to fire from their machine guns on the shooting tower again. However, the still faced immense pressure because dangerous species were appearing in the zombie flood.

Not just Night Demons, but also Roshans, and Throwers tossing infant bombs.

Standing on the giant wall, Song Chenyu looked down at the battlefield with a gloomy expression.

At this moment, a soldier ran up, breathless.

“Report, reinforcements, reinforcements have arrived, and supplies have been successfully sent to the soldiers. The logistics department said that they are adding orders to the military factory, and the second batch of ammunition will be sent soon. Leader Ding has personally issued an order for us to hold on to the line of defense!”

“Where are the NAC’s reinforcements? Why are they so silent!” Song Chenyu said, gnashing his teeth.

Also where is Leader Ding.

As the leader, why isn’t he showing his face during this critical moment!

However, as a subordinate of Ding Liwei, these words could only be hidden in his mind.

“I don’t know, there seem to be zombies at the North Gate. They are now being surrounded…”

“Don’t they have planes!” Song Chenyu snarled.

The soldier stuttered and was unable to provide a response.

Why did the NAC not lend a helping hand at the juncture of this crisis?

It was not something people at his level would know.

Under the giant wall, the zombies were still frantically biting the defense line of Pingan Street Guards. Many mercenaries and hunters had also stepped onto the wall to aid the effort.

Song Chenyu tightly clenched his fist as he fixated his sight at the endless waves of zombies.

He could only pray that the last line of defense could last till dawn…

Chapter 1187: The Nonexistent Negative Twenty-first Floor

1187 The Nonexistent Negative Twenty-first Floor The elevator went straight down the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building.Wan Peng stood in the elevator and looked at the floor number decreasing, gloom was all over his face.

Bad news came from one after another.

Sura was not caught, and the bodies of several Men in Black were found in the trash can outside North Street. The card that flowed out of the auction was not recovered, and the Men in Black sent out to pursue that card likely would not come back either. Now, the Russians had detonated nukes underground. Not only did they demolish the blockage that took them six months to build ten years ago between the intersection of Lines 35 and 27, but they also collapsed the giant wall that was over half-a-kilometer long.

As the giant wall fell, Pingan Street was forced to be on the edge of survival.

Even if it survived today, what about tomorrow? What about the day after tomorrow?

The tens of meters high wall was not built in a day or two. At the start when Leader Ding and the other Survivor Alliance heads joined together, the wall took them over six years to build. In addition, they only became prosperous after they completed this wall and moved into Pingan Street.

Now, without interference, it would take more than half a year to fix this wall.

If CCCP invaded them during this time…

He could not wait any longer.

Or, the leaders of the entire Survivors Alliance could not wait any longer.

After voting, they unanimously passed Plan B-

Start Line 0 ahead of time.

If there was a powerful weapon of mass destruction inside, all problems would be solved.

In the elevator, Wan Peng edited several short messages with his EP and sent it to his subordinates. He made detailed arrangements for all matters over the next three days.

The elevator crossed the negative twentieth floor but did not stop, it continued down.

After five minutes, the elevator finally stopped a few hundred meters below ground at the negative twenty-first floor not shown on the elevator.

Yes, the well-known Pan-Asia Cooperation Building did not just have a negative twentieth floor. By pressing the floor in a specific order, an emergency evacuation procedure would be initiated. It would allow the key personnel in the elevator to move beyond the negative twentieth floor and into the negative twenty-first floor hundreds of meters below.

The negative twenty-first floor of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building was located outside of Line 27. The subway could be accessed via a special passage not open to the public. The entrance to the legendary Line 0 was located inside Line 2!

Wan Peng heard the secret of the negative twenty-first floor from a former senior official of Pan-Asia Cooperation before he boarded the ship. The news of the legendary Line 0 was also from the same person.

But unfortunately, even at his level, he was unable to learn about the contents hidden in Line Zero.

Ten years ago, after he learned about the secret of the negative twenty-first floor, Wan Peng, Ding Liwei and the others discussed and immediately started the transformation of Line 27. They began moving explosives underground and it took a full six months to collapse the intersection of Line 27 and Line 35.

Now, because of those Russians, their efforts from ten years ago were all in vain.

After Wan Peng left the elevator, more than a dozen Men in Black waited at the door, and Lu Sen stepped forward half a step and respectfully said.

“Boss.”

Wan Peng nodded to Lu Sen.

“How are the preparations going?”

“We’re ready,” Lu Sen replied.

Wan Peng nodded and walked down the stairs.

At the end of the stairs was a small platform. Next to the platform, there was an unnumbered mini version of maglev train.

It was mini because it only had four compartments in total.

At the door of the train, the man in the windbreaker was carrying a suitcase. From his impatient look and the way he constantly examined his watch, he had clearly been waiting for a long time.

“You are late.” Su Xiang said as he watched Wan Peng walk towards him.

“Took a bit longer to get down than expected.”

“I hope that Leader Ding can wait for a bit longer,” Su Xiang shrugged.

“Well he has to wait regardless, the card is with me,” Wan Peng said expressionlessly. “Don’t talk nonsense, let’s get moving.”

The group boarded the maglev train.

The track that had been silent for many years was turned back on. The signal lit up.

Soon, with the efforts of the two drivers, the train slowly moved and then began to accelerate…

As he was sitting beside the window and staring at the darkness outside, Wan Peng suddenly laughed.

“What’s wrong?” Su Xiang, who sat across from him, asked.

“Nothing, just that it is very interesting.”

“Oh?”

“I didn’t expect that the escape passage those bast*rd officials didn’t get to use are now being used by us.” When he stared into the unfathomable darkness, Wan Peng grinned.

Soon, the train arrived at Line 2, and Wan Peng’s unsettled heart finally relaxed.

To be honest, he was really afraid of the Russians who did not follow common sense and decided to create another hole in the wall of Line 27. If that happened, then it would not be Ding Liwei waiting for him, but the CCCP tanks.

But now it seemed that his concern was irrational.

Although he did not know where the Russian went, at least they were not on Line 2.

However, just as he was completely relaxed, an alarm began to ring in the train, and the [Warning] logo replaced the speed on the holographic screen. With a series of deafening screeching sounds, the train suddenly slowed down and eventually stopped.

Letting go of the tightly gripped handle, Su Xiang looked at the holographic screen and frowned.

“Smoke detector?”

“I’m going to see who smoked.” Wan Peng stood up in a gloomy manner.

“I’m afraid that no one smoked,” Su Xiang quickly stopped him. He looked extremely serious. “Someone hacked into the smoke alarm system of the train and started the emergency braking procedure.”

At this time, the door opened, and Lu Sen came in, confused.

“Boss, what’s the situation?”

“I wanted to ask you,” Wan Peng said with gloom in his eyes, “Someone triggered the smoke alarm.”

Lu Sen was sweating and clarified.

“Boss, the boys are all in their seats, no one dares to smoke now.”

Wan Peng did not respond but looked at Su Xiang.

“What should we do now?”

“Security permissions are in the hands of the hackers. If they can stop the train once, then they can stop it a second time. It doesn’t make sense for us to stay here,” Su Xiang sighed and stood up. “Let’s walk. It’s not far.”

Wan Peng nodded.

It’s the only solution.

The driver tried to start the train for the last time, but it did not work.

In desperation, the group had to abandon the train.

The two Men in Black next to Wan Peng stepped forward, took out burning rods, and ignited them. The rods made the tunnel look less dark.

Like this, the group walked along the magnetic levitation track line toward the other end of the tunnel.

However, at this moment, there was a sound of bullets being fired.

Lu Sen was quick to react as he pushed his boss. A silver light passed through Wan Peng’s previous position. He only heard Su Xiang’s agonizing voice behind him as Su Xiang covered his chest before collapsing.

Just barely missing death, Wan Peng’s heart pounded so fast that it was about to stop.

Due to the unexpected situation, and the two Men in Black immediately tossed their burning rods to the front. At the same time, they stood in front of their boss, took out two submachine guns from under their suit, and locked in.

The burning rods spewed orange-red sparks. The sound of the rods burning was so clear in the empty tunnel.

The silence of death lingered in everyone’s mind.

Just then, there were footsteps in front of them.

A figure casually walked out from the dark tunnel before it stopped at the edge of darkness.

Wan Peng’s pupils contracted.

“Who is it!”

Chapter 1188: The Gunshots in the Subway

1188 The Gunshots in the Subway In a dimly lit basement of Pingan Street, Greyhound’s hands left the keyboard as he breathed out a sigh of relief.After more than ten hours of intense battle, he was on the verge of collapsing, and his clothes were already soaked in sweat.

Breaking into the security system of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building was not an easy task. It was difficult even today when there had been no security personnel for over 30 years.

Just then, he heard the voice of his old boss.

“Brother, thank you.”

“No need, I can only do so much… In short, Luo, good luck.”

“Mhmm.”

The communication was cut off and Old Luo came out of the shadows.

Orange-red flames sparkled from the burning rods.

In front of him was a group of men in black suits with automatic rifles in their hands. And the one surrounded by those men was one of his targets.

Wan Peng, Manager Wan!

“Who is it!”

“Who is it?” At the edge of the light, Old Luo laughed and looked at Wan Peng with a sneer. “You’ve been looking for me for so long and now you don’t know me?”

Wan Peng’s expression changed. He took two steps back, gestured to his subordinates, then he said with menace.

“Get rid of him.”

Gunshots sounded at the same time!

“Dadada—”

Fourteen guns spewed out bullets simultaneously and created a bright web of fire in the dark tunnel.

However, Old Luo just smiled. The moment the bullets appeared, high-pressure nitrogen gas spewed out and formed a gas wall in front of him.

The bullets looked like they were in water. They rolled to the side in the shield made of high-pressure nitrogen and didn’t even touch his clothes.

Wan Peng’s pupils narrowed.

When a Man in Black saw the scene, he immediately pulled out a grenade from his waist and tossed it in Old Luo’s direction.

Old Luo was unphased as he watched the grenade that was flying towards him,

The scalpel-like dagger fell into his hand from his sleeve. He disappeared, then reappeared again. Before the grenade exploded, he had already disappeared from his original position.

The moment he disappeared, Lu Sen’s pupil suddenly shrank. He felt an ominous sign as he hurriedly raised his rifle.

DING!!!

Almost at the same time, his hands felt an immense force that made his wrists numb.

The slender dagger penetrated the side of the rifle and even cut off the metal muzzle!

And then, the other Men in Black were not so lucky.

Just listening to the muffled growl, the four men standing next to him fell backward. There was a dagger slit on their suits and bright blood flowers began blooming.

“Back! Back! Defensive formation!”

Lu Sen roared while throwing away the broken rifle and pulling out his pistol.

After making sure Manager Wan was behind them, the Men in Black used their firepower to suppress the lightning speed Old Luo who rushed forward as they moved back.

But it was obvious the bullets were not effective.

In just two breaths of time, Old Luo closed the ten meters distance. Then two silver rays flickered and without being able to scream, two more fell.

“AHH!!!”

The silver ray appeared, and another Man in Black fell down as he held his throat.

Lu Sen’s scalp felt numb as he watched his men who died one after another,

He was too fast!

No, this speed was unhuman!

CLANK—

The sound of bullets being stuck.

The gunshots suddenly stopped, and the terrifying silence lingered between the remaining three.

The smoke of the muzzle dissipated, and a drop of cold sweat rolled down Lu Sen’s forehead as he slightly retreated half a step.

His struggle could be seen in his eyes.

Do I… Do I have to use that move?

Against the last pistol, Old Luo stopped stepping forward. His emotionless eyes scanned Lu Sen holding the pistol and stopped on Wan Peng. He then revealed a sly expression.

“Is that all your men have got? And you want the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation?”

Wan Peng unclenched his fists and looked directly at Old Luo. He was calmer as he responded.

“How did you get in here?”

“Do you still have time to care about this?” Old Luo raised an eyebrow and said with a sneer. “There is more than one entrance to the escape route. You, an ordinary person, could enter. How can a former Pan-Asia Cooperation Intelligence Agency personnel not get in?”

“I see,” Wan Peng nodded and looked at him. “But I still don’t understand one point.”

“Oh?”

“Why are you guys, always so annoying?” Wan Peng closed his eyes, squeezed this sentence from his teeth, and his voice was filled with irresistible hatred, “We are the ones that established order on this wasteland. We are the ones who saved the survivors who were struggling in the ruins, but you! You’re just cowards who escaped from your mistakes! Why are you interfering with our choice!”

Gazing at the cursing Wan Peng, Old Luo said emotionlessly.

“An order is an order. There is nothing to explain. After 50 years, Line 0 will naturally open. It will reproduce the glory of Pan-Asia on this wasteland. That is the decision of the Pan-Asia Parliament. You don’t understand so just obey.”

“Then you understand?” Wan Peng stared at him.

“I don’t understand,” Old Luo shook his head. “There is no need to understand.”

Because an order was an order.

Obedience was the duty of the soldier.

Wan Peng was silent.

After a while, he took a deep breath and lowered his voice.

“Lu Sen.”

“…Roger, boss.”

Lu Sen responded with a grimace, and all the fear in his eyes disappeared.

Dropping the pistol in his hand, his hands jerked forward.

In an instant, his pupils turned into a crimson red.

All his veins popped up, his bones cracked, and his muscles swelled at an incredible speed.

“FEV virus?” Old Luo seemed to be intrigued by the changes of Lu Sen “I didn’t expect that today, twenty years later, there is someone who can control the FEV virus. To be honest, you surprised me.”

Lu Sen’s expression was vicious as he pumped his fists together. Cruelly, he said.

“You will be even more surprised!”

Suddenly, from his neck, a layer of darkness gradually covered his whole body…

…

A sea of bones formed under the giant wall.

The zombie’s body formed a diagonal slope under the protective wall.

The fire reflected countless distorted faces, and the soldiers standing on the protective wall desperately held onto the machineguns while they shot at the zombies rushing up. However, these zombies were like ants, impossible to completely eliminate.

“The wall can’t hold any longer! Where are the reinforcements? What? Two hundred riflemen are on the way. FU*K, where is our power armors? What? Not here? FU*K…” As he ended the communication, Song Chenyu anxiously looked at the battlefield under the giant wall with a hazy expression on his face.

The reinforcements of the NAC did not arrive, and the officials of Survivors Alliance went missing. Now the power armors of the militia group had also disappeared.

To save this mess, they could only rely on themselves.

However, they still had more than six hours until dawn.

His fists clenched, loosened, and clenched again…

He slammed his fist on the wall, pulled the intercom system, and shouted.

“DUMP THE FUEL! BURNNN!”

Chapter 1189: The Price of Reinforcemen

Chapter 1189 The Price of Reinforcemen

SWOOSH!

Above Dongcheng Hospital, two Aurora-20s crossed path for a brief second in the air before they whizzed away.

The 20mm machinegun was like two hoes that ploughed the entire concrete street. Then two incendiary bombs were dropped from the air and exploded over the zombies. They engulfed the mess all over the ground in a sea of fire.

Liu Wendi watched the blazing fire in silence as he became completely dumbfounded.

Just ten minutes ago, when the flood of zombies rushed to the hospital, he thought he was dead.

And now, he finally understood why Jiang Chen told him that help was unnecessary.

Next to him, the four guards he brought shared the same expression. They were already prepared for the worst, to engage in direct combat with the zombies, but now their concern seemed excessive.

The flames gradually extinguished. The zombies that were previously stopped by the burning flame took advantage of the fighters’ time to resupply and swarmed in again.

More than a dozen newly deployed power armors stood on the protective wall, and the minigun barrels spewed out violent tongues of fire as they created a dense firepower net that intertwined on the chaotic street. The rest of the soldiers also set up light machineguns and fired at the zombies at the entrance of the street.

Rows of zombies fell down like wheat being harvested, but more zombies swarmed in one after another.

“SHEEEK—”

There was an awful sounding agony.

With its huge belly, the zombie stopped stumbling, and pulled out a baby zombie that was making weird noises from its belly, spun him in her arm, and then tossed the baby to the bunker at the entrance of Dongcheng Hospital.

BOOM!

The baby zombie instantly exploded, and the corrosive venom burned the concrete and formed white smoke along with pungent smells. However, it did not hurt the guards behind the bunker.

Just as the Thrower was about to throw a second baby bomb, blood blossoms exploded on its head as it fell down backward under inertia.

Zhao Qiuran’s left foot stepped on the wall as she swung her hair, loaded the rifle, and continued to aim at the next target.

Although the battle conditions inside and outside the courtyard wall were tense, everything was still under control.

Not considering the power armors on the protective wall, on the AS Order more than two hundred kilometers away, the electromagnetic pulse cannon was locked and loaded and could fire at any second for emergencies. Also, two Aurora-20s were in the air to provide cover fire as they dropped incendiary bombs to clear the battlefield.

Under such circumstances, it was almost impossible for zombies to break through the NAC defenses.

What’s more, most of the zombies were drawn to Pingan Street a few kilometers away.

Behind the battlefield, engineers had built simple barracks.

In the barracks, Jiang Chen was looking at the holographic map as he carefully examined the two subway lines.

Although it had been determined that the entrance of Line 0 was in Line 27 or Line 2, the length of these two subway lines was not short, and it was still a mystery where the entrance was. The mysterious seller only auctioned the ID card used as the key, but he did not auction together the “treasure map”.

Just as Jiang Chen was phased out while he stared at the lines, a NAC officer walked into the barracks, stood next to Jiang Chen, and saluted.

“General.”

“What’s going out?”

He withdrew his gaze from the holographic map, looked at the officer, and asked.

“The front-line command on Pingan Street bypassed the Survivors Alliance and sent us a distress signal. It seems that their line of defense is almost broken.” The officer reported.

“Bypassed the Survivors Alliance and sent us a distress signal?” Jiang Chen frowned, “What is the reaction of the alliance?

“There is no reaction,” The officer shook his head. “According to reliable sources, after the wall collapsed, the senior leaders of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance headed by Ding Liwei and Wan Peng disappeared together, and even the power armor company of the Second Militia disappeared with them.”

“Disappeared?”

Jiang Chen immediately turned his head and moved his eyes back to the holographic map.

When his gaze stopped on Line 27 that passed under the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building, his pupils contracted slightly.

He reached out, then clicked on the holographic screen and switched to the contact list. After he selected Li Wang, he put his hand on the headset and said in a deep voice.

“The situation has changed, Immediately send reinforcements to the South Gate of Pingan Street.”

“In addition, I need a helicopter and a set of power armor.”

After he ended the call, Jiang Chen immediately looked at the officer.

“You said, the troops of Pingan Street bypassed the alliance and sent us a distress signal?”

“Yes.” The officer nodded.

“I want to get in touch with their frontline commander now, is there any good way to do so?”

…

The fire gradually extinguished.

Most of the zombie corpses piled up like a mountain were burned away, and the remaining ashes and residues turned into dust in the cold evening wind.

The zombies that stopped because of the fire once again started to move as they swarmed toward the wall.

There were constantly zombies falling down, and zombies constantly stepping on the backs of their predecessors with their arms extended towards the soldiers on the protective wall, scratching indiscriminately.

“AHHHHH!!!”

With his rifle pointed at the zombie under the wall, a soldier pulled his trigger desperately, but his barrel was caught by a thin arm. He was pulled down from the wall and the protective uniform that he wore was like thin paper in front of the sharp claws as his life quickly faded.

One by one baby zombies flew to the wall, to the guard tower, to the ground, and beside the soldiers, and from time to time someone fell in the highly corrosive acid.

More than 2,000 defenders, plus more than 2,000 reinforcements from the militia, Sunday Club, and other survivors.

However, now, there were less than two thousand people left.

In order to fill the half-kilometer defense line gap, Song Chenyu had mobilized the survivors of Pingan Street for the third time, promised heavy rewards to the mercenaries and hunters, amd convinced them to deploy to the wall. As for if the Shangjing Survivors Alliance really possessed crystals after the ten million payment to NAC, he could no longer care.

If they could not get through this current challenge, Pingan Street would become history.

However, Song Chenyu realized in despair that even if the mercenaries and hunters joined the battle, it was still a drop in the bucket to the current situation.

A very serious question was posed before him.

The ammunition reserve was almost depleted.

At this moment, there was a sudden roar in the silent night sky.

Many people looked up, and then uttered surprised shouts.

“Look! It’s an airplane!”

Countless desperate eyes gradually turned into joy of survival. The morale that had fallen to the bottom of the valley was once again reignited. Fear was swept away from everyone’s heart, and the mercenaries and hunters who had originally planned to flee also picked up their courage and fired at the zombies.

Song Chenyu looked at the sky, and his face was full of disbelief.

Originally, when the messenger explained to him that the agreement reached between the senior officials of the Survivors Alliance and the NAC only applied to the CCCP, he no longer had any hope.

Thus, he didn’t expect the NAC to actually sent reinforcements!

In his excitement, tears filled his eyes.

At this moment, the communication request prompt sounded from his headset.

He rubbed the corner of his eyes, and pressed the on button.

“Hello?”

“I am General Jiang Chen of the NAC, if I guessed correctly, you should have seen reinforcements by now.”

Song Chenyu hurriedly said, “Thank you! Thank you so much! I represent all the survivors of Pingan Street——”

“You don’t have to say thank you, you know that it doesn’t make much sense to us,” Jiang Chen stopped him, and continued, “Our people can help you solve all the troubles in front of you, and even in the future. But you know, this is reinforcement outside of the agreement, and there is no free lunch in the world. We only promised to help you deal with the CCCP and did not promise to kill zombies for you.”

Song Chenyu swallowed, and he subtly noticed something was off.

After hesitating for a moment, he stepped aside and said in a low voice.

“The Shangjing Survivor Alliance Council is not here right now, I can’t make a decision—”

“No, you didn’t understand what I meant,” Jiang Chen shook his head, “I’m not asking about the opinions of the Shanghai Survivors Alliance, but the opinions of you and all your soldiers.”

“Join us, this is the only condition for you to get reinforcements,”Jiang Chen said without concealment.

Chapter 1190: Carbonization!

Chapter 1190 Carbonization!

With the help of the swaying flame from the burning rod, Old Luo noticed the abnormal change on his body. His pupils suddenly shrunk, and his hands moved.

Silver rays flickered and formed a net in the air as it flew to Lu Sen who had undergone an unexpected change.

But Lu Sen did not attempt to dodge, he grinned cruelly instead and extended his hands forward.

“Haha, it’s too late!”

DINGGGG!

There was a series of clanging sounds, accompanied by a sound of metal being scratched. The silver rays seemed to be hitting a steel wall as they bounced off Lu Sen’s body; they did not hurt him.

A trace of caution appeared in Old Luo’s eyes, and his original disdain was swept away.

“Lead?”

“It’s carbonization!”

Lu Sen laughed loudly, then he snarled. He dragged his enlarged body, and rushed toward Old Luo.

“GO TO HELL!”

With a punch that carried a huge air current, it blasted towards Old Luo with the agility that did not match Lu Sen’s giant size.

Old Luo seemed unphased. He quickly took two steps back and two silver blades rolled down his sleeves. He then threw them at Lu Sen’s face.

However, he obviously underestimated Lu Sen’s strength.

Lu Sen reached for the two flying blades and slapped them out of the air without any suspense, and then kicked up and landed directly on Old Luo’s chest.

“Omph”

As if he was hit by a train, Old Luo made a muffled cry as he flew backward, like a broken kite, and smashed into the hard subway tunnel wall.

Lu Sen menacingly smiled as he watched Old Luo on the ground. He pulled off his tightened shirt and revealed his darkened muscles.

“Humans can’t beat mutants.”

After a few dry coughs, Old Luo got up from the ground, shook his dizzy head, and looked at Lu Sen who was grinning menacingly. Two daggers slipped down from his cuffs, and the silver light danced and formed a hail of blades between his palms.

Electric sparks jumped in his hair and crackled in the air.

“Unfortunately, I’m not an ordinary person.”

…

BOOM!!!

The fighter whizzed by from low altitude, and the cannon roared.

Zombies were harvested one after another, and incendiary bombs soon followed.

A Roshan roared and threw half-destroyed streetlamps, stones, and billboards into the sky. The Night Demon howled and fell in the rising flames.

“Hold on! Reinforcements are coming soon!”

Song Chenyu shouted into the headset that connected to the soldiers on the wall.

Everyone regained their courage, inserted the bayonet into the rifle, stabbed the zombie who was stepping on the pile of corpses that rushed to the wall, and pulled the trigger towards the zombies swarming forward…

On the other side of Pingan Street, dozens of modified military trucks and Tiger II tanks rushed out from the NAC military base. The top machine gun shot at the scattered groups of zombies, and the steel armor bulldozed the zombies moving in.

The convoy was divided into two groups. Tanks and armored vehicles went around towards the North Gate, while another set of trucks carrying soldiers drove straight to the North Gate.

“Open the gates!”

The NAC officer connected to the communication channel of Pingan Street and shouted to the defenders on the towering wall.

The defender at the North Gate hesitated and immediately asked the Survivors Alliance for instructions. However, neither Ding Liwei nor Wan Peng were there to make a decision.

At this moment, Song Chenyu’s order came. He said three words.

“Open the door.”

The officer at the South Gate ordered the opening of the North Gate, which did not conform to the rules of Pingan Street.

However, the situation at the North Gate was now precarious, and the defenders could no longer care about the rules. What’s more, it would be Song Chenyu’s fault if anything happened.

The city defense officer in charge of the North Gate stopped hesitating and ordered the gate to be opened.

A line of trucks drove into Pingan Street. As the defenders on Pingan Street looked at the well-equipped soldiers on the trucks, their scalp felt numb. Obviously, they invited in a group of people that were difficult to mess with.

There was no doubt that the crisis at the North Gate was alleviated.

It was just that now after they’ve come in, they were unlikely to leave.

…

Four transport helicopters flew by in the night sky, the vortex engines injected high-heat air stream and flew toward the giant wall.

In the belly compartment of the helicopter in the front, eight power armors sat on both sides. Their tactical rifles exuded a fearful aura, and the bright steel armor had th words T-3 writtne in white paint.

“Five hundred meters ahead, we are close to the wall of Pingan Street.” The pilot turned his head and said.

“Fly directly on to the wall.”

“Yes.”

The helicopter climbed up and passed the endless zombies.

Jiang Chen’s sight was focused on the helmet screen, and after he clicked a few buttons, he connected to the helicopter wing camera.

When he looked down from a height of tens of meters above, the dense cluster of hideous zombie heads swarmed together as they rushed towards the defense line one after another.

If it is difficult to imagine this picture, imagine the Shangjing Railway Station during Spring Festival, just multiplied by ten folds…

In the dark night sky, flames that flickered from the gaps in the wall were as fragile as candles swaying in the gusty wind. However, with the support of the NAC, the clusters of fragile flames seemed to be much stronger at this moment.

The helicopter stopped on the wall.

The width of the top of the wall was very narrow, and there was almost no place for the helicopter to descend.

But that didn’t matter, Jiang Chen was wearing a T-3 type at the moment, which was the so-called airborne type.

A dozen black shadows jumped from the helicopter, and the four pairs of vortex engines behind them emitted blue flames that helped them to slowly land on the wall.

Chenyu gulped down at the scene as he bit his tongue and walked forward.

“Song Chenyu, the defense officer of the South Gate… Thank you for coming to support us.”

“You’re welcome,” Jiang Chen said nonchalantly as he opened the power armor helmet and shook his hand, “How is the situation?”

“It’s not optimistic, but it is much better than before,” Song Chenyu said with a sigh.

Jiang Chen nodded and asked other questions.

“I heard that the Shanghai Survivors Alliance Council disappeared together. Do you know where they went?”

Song Chenyu was slightly stunned. He neither knew how Jiang Chen obtained this information, nor why Jiang Chen asked this question. However, considering the difference in the strength of the two sides, he hesitated and said.

“I’m not very clear about the specific situation, but now the entire Pingan Street command system has become a mess. It has been more than four hours since the zombies flood, but until now only half of the reinforcements I have requested have arrived… Some people say that the top officials escaped from a secret passage. Of course, this is just a rumor.”

“The rumor is not important. The important thing is that these things have already happened, right?” Jiang Chen subtly smiled.

For some reason, Song Chenyu had a bad feeling.

However, thinking that he had already taken refuge in the NAC half an hour ago, a wry smile appeared on his face, and the bad premonition was driven out of his mind.

“I have another question. Where did those officials appear last?”

“Last?” Song Chenyu thought for a second, then he frowned, “They probably haven’t left the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building… By the way, Guardian Sect’s Xu Tiannan is setting up at the East Gate. You might as well ask him. He is one of the few senior leaders who has not gone missing, but he is generally quiet about the affairs of Pingan Street.”

“No need to ask him. By the way, do you have any subordinates you can trust?”

“Why?”

“Give him the defense duty of the North Gate temporarily, I need you to accompany me to do something,” Jiang Chen said in a tone that could not be rejected.

“What’s the matter?” Song Chenyu was in a daze.

“I need you to go to the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building and find some people.”

Chapter 1191: The Battle Of Non-Humans

Chapter 1191 The Battle Of Non-Humans

Blue electric arcs began to spark out from Old Luo’s arms. The silver ray between his fingers instantly liquefied when the electric arc passed through. Liquid began to flow out from his sleeves and formed into a shiny spear in his hands.

Lu Sen’s pupils shrunk, and in the eyes full of rage, there was the slightest anxiety.

The implausible event that just unfolded in front of him was beyond his knowledge.

Wan Peng, standing in the back, narrowed his eyes.

“Liquid metal and hidden genetic code of electricity? Or… are you a modified human?”

He heard about a form of liquid alloy that could undergo solid-liquid transformation under a certain voltage.

“Who knows? Maybe it’s magic? Spells? Not sure.” Old Luo laughed, as he spun the spear in his hands, then he pointed it at Lu Sen who had transformed into a mutated human. “I am afraid this is not a simple carbonization. This layer of carbon is probably stronger than graphene.”

Wan Peng chuckled and his right hand hid in his sleeve, as if he was holding onto something.

“Magic? Haha, a lame joke. Lu Sen, kill him!”

“Roar!”

The roar seemed to create sound ripples.

Lu Sen ran to the maglev rail. Both of his hands grabbed onto the steel bars used to pin down the rails.

With an angry low-pitched roar, the bolts on the steel bar popped off from the immense force. The concrete foundation underneath began to crack as the three-meter-long steel bar was yanked up!

“Oh, interesting.”

With another spin of the silver spear, Old Luo swiftly dashed forward and aimed directly at Lu Sen’s chest.

BANG!

CLANK!

With the fierce spear penetrating through the air, it was met by a crisp clank. The steel bar and the silver spear clashed together, but then quickly separated again.

Old Luo had a look of shock in his eyes, without stopping his next attack, he pushed the spear three times in a row, but received three “clanks” in return.

The steel bar hundreds of kilograms in weight was spun by Lu Sen like a propeller. With a speed no inferior to his, Lu Sen dashed toward him. The furious stance was like a berserker and he used his steel bar as a battle axe!

The situation seemed to have reversed.

Old Luo was forced to defend and was caught in a downturn. In the violent attacks of Lu Sen, he could only move back in defense

Suddenly, he seemed to have lost his balance, as if he had stepped on something, and then tumbled two steps back.

Lu Sen did not let go of this opportunity as a viscous sneer formed. He swung the steel bar and knocked away Old Luo’s spear, then he used the momentum to raise the steel bar above his head, then slammed down at the tumbling Old Luo!

DUANG!

The spear was bent significantly.

His feet also seeped half an inch into the soil. Old Luo was forced to kneel on one knee as he used both hands to hold onto the spear to parley the thunderous swing.

Blood rushed to his mouth and dripped out from the corner of his lips. He was not in the best state

“Hahaha, where are you hiding now?!” Lu Sen laughed violently, exerting more force down.

The outcome was determined!

However, when he thought victory was inevitable, he did not pay attention to Old Luo’s troubled face. Old Luo suddenly smiled as if his plan succeeded.

“Why should I hide?”

The blue arcs exploded. Before Lu Sen could react, the electric arcs rushed from the silver spear to the steel bar and into his arms.

BUZZZZ –

The jumping electric arc flowed through him, forcing every inch of his hair to stand up. With the same posture of swinging down the steel bra, Lu Sen collapsed stiffly on the ground, unable to move his body due to paralysis.

Can’t move!

A drop of sweat dripped down from Lu Sen’s forehead.

Just when he was desperately trying to move his body again, he saw that Old Luo had already stood up with the support of the silver spear.

“Go to hell.”

There was no nonsense this time, and the silver spear formed a beautiful mirage in the air.

The electric arc danced at the tip of the spear. Like lightning, the spear penetrated the carbon layer and created a giant hole in Lu Sen’s left chest.

“AHHHH!”

Blood gushed out from Lu Sen’s mouth. His trembling hands moved to the spear in his left chest as disbelief widened his eyes. His swelled muscles could not move even a single bit.

Impossible!

He previously tested his own carbonization ability and it could resist bullets from an anti-equipment rifle! How could it be penetrated by a spear!

“Off you go…”

Muttering to himself, Old Luo stepped on Lu Sen’s chest and his hand jerked backwards.

The silver spear was pulled out from Lu Sen’s chest. With blood gushing out two meters high, the mutated warrior, with his eyes wide open, slowly collapsed to the ground and no longer breathed.

Old Luo took two seconds to catch his breath before he loosened his grip and the silver spear formed into countless droplets, returning to his sleeve.

Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he turned around as his entire body wsa shaking, and looked at Wan Peng standing still.

“Manager Wan, you’re next.”

…

BOOM-

The endless explosion, followed by tremors, came from under everyone’s feet.

The CCCP soldiers who were inspecting the ground and the walls inch by inch with detectors stopped their work and looked at the deep, dark end of Line 27.

Yegor frowned and looked to the front on the tank turret.

“That’s the direction of Line 2,” Sminov said. “It should have been from that direction.”

“Yes, and no.”

“Well?” Sminov looked at the commander in confusion.

Yegor’s battletested expression showed a shrewdness that did not belong.

“Dear Comrade Sminov, try to recall the sound just now. Did you not notice anything odd?”

Sminov looked at his commander, dumbfounded.

Yegor shook his head and did not explain himself. He looked at the engineer soldiers outside the tank and ordered.

“Check the wall on the right hand side!”

“ROGER!”

The engineer soldiers saluted and rushed in the direction pointed by Yegor. They took out the detectors and pushed them against the wall.

However, after a while, the detectors did not show any abnormalities. The parameters all showed solid dirt was behind the wall.

“Report, no abnormalities found!”

Yegor sneered.

“No abnormalities?”

No abnormalities is a abnormality!

The sound was clearly coming from right along the ground, but the wall did not transmit any sound. This sound insulation effect was superb, but why would there be a soundproof wall used in a subway tunnel buried under hundreds of meters? Are they worried about disturbing people?

I am afraid there are other mysteries hidden behind this wall.

Yegor waved and signaled an engineer soldier to walk up. Then he whispered a few words to him before gesturing.

The engineer soldier immediately jogged forward, found a position on the wall, painted a large red cross with a marker, and then threw a burning rod on the ground before he quickly retreated to a very distant position.

Yegor pressed on his headset as he looked at the red cross.

“…All tank units, replace the ammo with bunker destructor, and aim at the target position.”

The muzzles of the twelve tanks moved slowly, aiming right at the red cross on the wall.

“Three, two, one, fire!”

With Yegor’s order, twelve gun barrels fired simultaneously.

The deafening sound of the cannons echoed in the tunnel, and the half-meter thick concrete wall collapsed and fell backwards.

A hidden passage appeared behind the broken pieces of concrete blocks.

With an ecstatic expression, Yegor smiled.

Finally, I FOUND IT!

Chapter 1192: I will ask you again, move?

Chapter 1192 I will ask you again, move? It was brightly lit at the South Gate of Pingan Street.After the four transport helicopters unloaded the power-armored soldiers, they immediately turned into gunships, using the heavy machine guns at its tail to fire at the dangerous species like Roshans and Throwers. They hovered around the edge of the battlefield.

On the other side of the battlefield, NAC’s armored forces bulldozed into the zombies, sent the packed zombies flying, flattened them under the tracks of Tiger IIs. The armored vehicles closely followed as they used the mounted machineguns to split the zombies into sections.

On the other hand, after Han Junhua entered Pingan Street from the North Gate, she immediately took over the command of the defense area. She led the NAC soldiers onto the wall and took control of the second line of defense from the exhausted Pingan Street defenders.

Then, she sent engineering robots to the construction site behind the second line of defense that replaced the builders of Pingan Street and took over the third line of defense construction with less than 50% completed.

The survivors of Wanghai City were experts in dealing with the zombie floods.

The zombies and mutants in Shangjing all concentrated in the subway, unlike Wanghai that radiated from the city center outwards. If Shangjing survivors’ difficulty was easy, then the Wanghai survivors’ difficulty was nightmare.

Of the five thousand expeditionary forces, four thousand soldiers already entered Pingan Street, forming a stark contrast with the Pingan Street defenders with heavy casualties. NAC had an absolute advantage both in the quality and quantity of soldiers.

Anyone could see that after tonight, the owner of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building would change hands.

At this moment, below the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building.

More than a dozen Second Militia soldiers wearing Pan-Asia civil defense uniforms stood at the door, weapons loaded, and blocked anyone who attempted to enter the building.

Those people included survivors attempting to leave the city, merchants and factor owners demanding an answer from the Survivors Alliance, and even their own that wished to report to the higher authorities.

“Where is Leader Ding? What are they doing! Why haven’t we seen them from the start?”

“The South Gate can’t hold on any longer! Open the North Gate and let us leave!”

“Get your soldiers out of my factory! You robbers!”

“Calm, calm down, we are also very anxious,” Standing next to the soldiers, the mayor of Pingan Street with a bitter smile desperately tried to appease the survivors’ emotions. However, it was futile.

He was anxious. Now that Leader Ding and Manager Wan both disappeared. Could it be true that the officials of Shangjing Survivors all escaped from the tunnel?

Just then, a team of power-armored soldiers pushed through the bustling crowd and walked in front of the militias.

The militias on duty immediately stepped forward and stopped them.

“Please stop, this is Survivors Alliance’s forbidden zone—”

“Move.” Jiang Chen did not even look at him and said emotionlessly.

Just then, several trucks drove into the small square in front of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building, and soldiers with live ammunition jumped off the truck.

Looking at the dozens of well-equipped soldiers and the power armors in front of them, the militia at the very front suddenly felt his scalp tingle. The mayor stepped forward and wished to negotiate. However, when Jiang Chen did not even want to open his helmet, the mayor could only turn his attention to Song Chenyu who stood behind Jiang Chen.

Song Chenyu looked to the side and pretended not to see the mayor.

“Mr. Jiang, if we remember correctly… we are allies?” The militia captain responsible for the defense went to the front and said to Jiang Chen.

“Allies?” Jiang Chen laughed. “If Manager Wan can explain to me who the assassins that attacked me were, we can discuss the issue of allies at that time.”

The militia captain felt a clunk in his mind and he began sweating.

Sent assassins to NAC’s General? What was Wan Peng even thinking?!

“Hmmm… Maybe we have some kind of misunderstanding?” The mayor said with a flattering smile, “I think Manager Wan is someone who understands the situation. How could he have done this?”

“Misunderstanding?” Jiang Chen pulled up his holographic screen and pushed it to the mayor. “Do you recognize them?”

It was a video.

The ten Men in Black who were killed by Jiang Chen’s guards were in the video.

Sweat couldn’t stop rolling down from the mayor’s forehead. His thoughts turned quickly and he was just about to explain something to Jiang Chen. However, Jiang Chen obviously did not intend to give him an opportunity to do so.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know. I will know when I ask Manager Wan.”

Jiang Chen gestured to the soldiers behind him.

The sound of the rifles being loaded changed everyone’s expression. The survivors who were enjoying the scene began to move back. The dozens of militia soldiers who were in front of Jiang Chen were nervous and stared at their captain.

Needless to say, if a fight really broke out, NAC would only be a minute away from walking over their bodies.

Jiang Chen smiled at the militia captain, who had a stiff expression.

“I will ask you again, move?”

Although he said it in a negotiating tone, the minigun that began to rotate left no room for negotiation.

The last force loyal to the Shangjing Survivors Alliance also chose to surrender.

To be precise, this should actually be the second last. There was also another unit, the ace of Leader Ding, the power armor company, still loyal to their leader.

A total of 100 P-series police power armors, after more than 20 years of continuous modification, had combat effective no inferior to the T-series power armor independently developed by Sixth Street. However, this force, like their leader, had disappeared.

After Jiang Chen took control of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building, NAC sent two hundred soldiers in. However, they searched the entire building upside down and did not find the whereabouts of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance officials.

Lu Fan saluted in front of Jiang Chen and solemnly said.

“Report, we did not find Ding Liwei, Wan Peng, and other officials.”

Jiang Chen frowned.

No one?

Did they just disappear?

“Every floor?” Jiang Chen asked.

“We searched every floor, even the water tanks on the roof have been searched.” Lu Fan shook his head. “Now the entire administrative staff of Pingan Street is under our control. However, so far, we have not gained any valuable information.”

“Only if we could use the Truth-telling Serum.”

Of course, it was just Jiang Chen’s wishful thinking.

In this world, unless it is a refugee from the slums, most survivors were injected with genetic vaccines. Even the least advanced E-class vaccines could strengthen the activity of neuronal cells, which offered resistance to the Truth-telling Serum.

But then again, if the officials of the Shangjing Survivor Alliance really fled, or hid, they would not let these people know about their whereabouts. Even if everyone provided everything they knew, it would not lead them to Ding Liwei and Wan Peng.

What to do?

Jiang Chen’s frown grew deeper.

Just then, his sight fell on the camera on the wall.

With a grin, an idea formed in his head.

Chapter 1193: Follow The Hunter“s Path

Chapter 1193 Follow The Hunter“s Path

“Where is he?”

Ding Liwei frowned as he looked into the deep and dark tunnel.

The trump card of the Second Militia, the renowned power armor company of Shangjing, stood behind him. The purpose of this unit built before the war was to maintain stability after the war. However, in terms of equipment configuration, it was based on the configuration of the Pan-Asia Army Infantry Regiment-level combat unit. Except for the lack of a support unit, the company was well equipped.

The reason for this configuration was because experts from the Academy of Social Sciences determined that the war may last for twenty or even forty years until the end of the century. However, no one expected that the war of three years would have exhausted the last glimmer of hope of the civilized world.

When they woke up, they were not faced with hungry refugees and violent separatists, but zombies and mutants. Equipped with advanced technologies from before the war, they swept the wasteland. Ding Liwei, with the aid of the power armor company, defeated the mutated humans force in Shangjing and facilitated the establishment of the Survivors Alliance.

The wait was long, and when Ding Liwei began to feel impatient, a figure walked out from the dark tunnel.

The moment the footsteps sounded, the rifles immediately aimed at the entrance.

“It’s me.”

When the searchlight was turned on to reveal the face, Ding Liwei’s frown disappeared and he indicated to his subordinates to lower their weapons. Just as he was about to criticize why Wan Peng showed up so late, Wan Peng’s poor state made him swallow his words.

“You’re finally… What happened to you? Where is Su Xiang?”

“He can’t come.” Wan Peng wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve, and said with gloom, “We encountered some trouble on the way.”

His gray suit was completely ruined, and the left-hand sleeve was shredded into strips, and revealed the cuff of his white shirt. There were a few bruises on his face. From his unkept appearance, it was obvious that something terrible happened.

“Russians?” Ding Liwei said with a stern look.

“It’s that idiot called Sura. Even till death, he wanted to press down Pan-Asia Cooperation’s coffin.” Wan Peng cursed, then spat out spit mixed with blood. “But we better hurry. As long as the Russians are not deaf, and they should have found out about the oddness of Line 27.”

“What about the card?”

“On me.” Wan Peng pointed at his chest.

Ding Liwei took a deep breath, looked back at his subordinates and made a gesture to his first officer, then he looked back at Wan Peng.

“What are we waiting for?”

Power armors took the lead, Wan Peng and Ding Liwei walked at the back of the team. There was no extra nonsense as the group continued to venture into the deep tunnel.

The steel armors stepped on the concrete road, making loud crashing sounds and echoing in the empty tunnel.

Soon they came to the end of the tunnel.

Ding Liwei raised his hand and everyone stopped.

Right in front of them was a circular steel gate.

Just like a huge gear, it was engraved at end of the tunnel, like a shield that guarded the last and biggest secret of Pan-Asia Cooperation.

This secret should have been guarded for fifty years. According to its initial plan, it would reproduce the glory of Pan-Asia on this devastated land. However, with countless ill-intentions, the people who guarded it must unshackle its chains ahead of schedule.

The two lines painted in white quietly engraved on the cold steel looked like the solemn and great dogma of the gods, carrying out the covenant of the Asian countries since the Cold War era.

[Pan-Asia Cooperation, For the Glory of Our Ancestors]

[Subway Line 0]

Wan Peng stepped forward, took a deep breath and restrained the complex emotions in his heart. Then, he took out the dark green card from his pocket.

However, when his hand touched the steel threshold, the tyrant felt a bit melodramatic.

He looked back at Ding Liwei.

“Are you ready?”

“Do we have any other choice?” Ding Liwei grinned.

Wan Peng nodded.

“Makes sense.”

He pushed the card to the card slot on the gear.

The earth trembled and the dust shook off the top of the tunnel.

With a muffled and far-reaching bang, the gear slowly rotated. Like the wheel of history, it rolled the future into an unknown and destined direction…

…

“Can you do it?” Jiang Chen squatted down next to Yao Yao and looked down at the string of characters flashing on the holographic screen, giving him an headache.

“No problem! Leave it to Yao Yao!”

Yao Yao was sitting in the corner of Ding Liwei’s office in the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building with a tablet in her hands. Her slender fingers were flying across the screen, and her clear pupils reflected lines and symbols unfitting of her age.

From the moment when her hands touched the tablet, her soft and cute temperament disappeared. The petite body seemed to be possessed by the program and a savviness Jiang Chen had never seen before shone out of her eyes.

They always said that men are attractive when they are serious. Could this also apply to women?

Or, it’s just the contrast…

Just as Jiang Chen was seriously debating this notion due to boredom, Yao Yao pressed the last button. Her hands left the tablet as she leaned back against the wall. As she wiped off the sweat from her forehead, her lovely mouth showed a smile that spelled victory.

“Done!”

“Successful?! So fast!”

“HUMPH, it’s okay to be surprised,” said Yao Yao, who raised her small chest, proud. She moved her fingers around before she pushed the holographic screen in front of Jiang Chen. “I got the security permission. The surveillance video is here… oh? Strange, why did the monitoring in the elevator go missing? Was it removed?”

On the holographic screen, Wan Peng went into the elevator. With a look of astuteness, Jiang Chen smiled.

“It seems that it’s the elevator.”

The cameras of the entire building were in operation except for the camera in the elevator. Jiang Chen did not believe for a second that the elevator was fine.

“I think so…wait, there are traces of intrusion in the security system,” Yao Yao frowned. “The IP and device numbers are unknown. The intrusion time was one hour ago. Someone has entered the security system after getting security system permission, encrypted as a subsystem of ‘conference room table and chair purchase record’.”

“You mean, someone invaded the security system of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building an hour ago?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Yes.”

“How is the technology of the other party?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Their ability should be comparable to mine.” Yao Yao, with a serious expression, nodded. She then thoughtfully said, “But my hardware equipment should be better than his. After all, Lin Lin helped me upgrade it.”

If Greyhound heard that a girl who looked around 12-year-old said their ability was similar, perhaps he would suicide by hitting his head against a wall.

But it made sense. Almost twenty years had passed since the start of the apocalypse. Other than survivors like Yao Yao without the need to worry about survival, who would spend time practicing their programming skills? It would make sense for the survivors that just woke up from hibernation, but for those that survived the Third World War, their professional knowledge had long disappeared.

“It doesn’t matter who intruded into the system,” Jiang Chen said, “Is there a way to track where Wan Peng went?”

“I was not able to before, but now I can,” Yao Yao said, thrilled. Her fingers began flying on the tablet, “if we can’t find footprints of the prey, then follow the footprints of the hunter. If the person that invaded the system has the same purpose as us, then we only need to track the clues left by him in the security system. We can definitely find something – FOUND IT!”

Before she finished speaking, Yao Yao waved her fist in excitement.

Jiang Chen quickly peeked past her head and looked at the holographic screen.

“This is?”

“The correct use of the elevators in the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building! By using the specific search-through floor button, you can reach the negative twenty-first floor that does not exist! Then you’ll find the emergency escape route of the Pan-Asia Cooperation officials…”

Chapter 1194: The Last Place

Chapter 1194 The Last Place The elevator crossed the negative twentieth floor and headed deep down into the surface.Eight power armors were on the elevator as well as a girl carrying a tablet.

Feeling that the elevator began to slow down, Jiang Chen looked behind him, unassured.

“Follow me and don’t run around, okay?”

“Mhmm!” Yao Yao nodded nervously, but there was no fear in her eyes.

After Yao Yao intruded the security system of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building, she chased the previous intruder’s footprints and took control of the elevator, then she deciphered the way to the negative twenty-first floor.

The next steps were simple. Jiang Chen immediately ordered the power armor units to gather in the hall on the first floor of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building. Everyone was ready to go down the special passage directly beneath the building to track the whereabouts of the officials of the Survivors Alliance.

Originally Jiang Chen planned to go down with a team.

However, just as he boarded the elevator, Yao Yao raised her hand and courageously purposed to Jiang Chen to bring her along.

At the beginning, Jiang Chen refused. However, under Yao Yao’s insistence, he suddenly remembered what Lin Lin had said when he left, and he finally gave in.

Just before going into the elevator, he had set rules with Yao Yao to ensure that she listened to him, otherwise he would make her go back up.

The elevator stopped at the negative twenty-first floor. Jiang Chen raised his arm and gestured to the power armors behind him, then raised his weapon.

The elevator door slowly opened, and the seven power armors behind him quickly entered the tunnel.

However, the expected battle did not happen, and the dark tunnel was silent.

Lu Fan and Jiang Chen exchanged eye contact, then Lu Fan brought the team downstairs. Just then, there was a repressed low-pitched roar from not far in the distance. In the pitch black darkness, there was an eerie sight full of bloodthirst.

“Uhhh…”

A flashlight was turned on, and zombies were standing next to the platform as they stared blankly at the light. There was a giant hole beside the wall of the small platform.

Without a doubt, these zombies entered through that hole.

Looking at the zombies scattered around, Yao Yao turned pale and moved closer to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen patted Yao Yao’s hand to comfort her as he examined the giant hole in the tunnel, he frowned.

“It should be the Russians.” Lu Fan said in the communication channel. “There is the smell of gunpowder in the air. They should have just blew this place up.”

“So, Line 27 is through this hole?” Jiang Chen asked.

“That is what the map shows. We are now right beside Line 27,” Lu Fan looked at the information on the holographic screen inside his helmet, “They were one step ahead of us.”

Obviously, after the Shangjing Survivors Alliance, the Russians conducted a carpet search of Line 27 and also discovered this special passage in which they conducted a “demolition”.

These zombies should have wondered here from Line 35 or other subway lines connected to Line 27. Fortunately, there were no dangerous species. They should be able to pass through.

What worried Jiang Chen the most was how far Ding Liwei and CCCP went. If this was a race, then NAC was already falling behind.

“Start Sliding Mode,” Jiang Chen looked at the zombies below the stairs, “let’s rush through this place.”

When Lu Fan heard Jiang Chen’s words, it took him some time to process before he interjected.

“General, I suggest we go together after the deployment of the power armor units. If we run into the Russians…”

“We can’t wait any longer.” Jiang Chen kneeled down, and in the unexpected and repressed shout of Yao Yao, he princess lifted her. “I would rather run into a group of Russians with tanks than a group of Russians with Gundams.”

What are Gundams?

Lu Fan took a moment to process.

The General seemed to have said something inexplicable again.

Lu Fan shook his head and threw his doubts to the back of his head.

He already brought forward his opinions. If the general insisted on leaving now, he could only follow his order. As the Guards’ Captain, following orders was his first task, even if he may not think it was a good idea…

“This will feel bumpy, can you just resist for a moment?” Looking at the girl in his arms, Jiang Chen said softly.

“Mhmm!” Blinking her big eyes, Yao Yao nervously hid her hands in front of her chest before she nodded with certainty.

“It’s best to close your eyes if you can.”

Looking at Yao Yao obediently closing her eyes, Jiang Chen then looked at the zombies under the stairs and took a deep breath.

While the decision may lack strategic thinking, he had his own concerns.

While Jiang Chen was not sure if Gundams really existed in the treasure of the Pan-Asia Cooperation, weapons of some kind would most likely be there. After all, the project was approved during the war preparation phase. Even considering the history of that time period, it was not difficult to imagine the things hidden inside.

The sliding wheels popped out of the power armor’s foot, and the vortex engines behind the power armor started to ignite.

“Take off!”

“Roger that!”

Seven power armors circled Jiang Chen and created an arrow formation as they rushed down the stairs.

Already attracted by the flashlight, the zombies now heard the roar of the engines and began to focus to their direction. In the pairs of black pupils, a crimson red color was slowly approaching.

“ROAR!”

The fearless zombies began to rush at the sliding power armors. They extended their thin arms at the power armor leading the formation. But quickly, they realized the foolishness of their decision.

The zombies in front of Lu Fan were directly sent into the air. The power armors on the side unleashed bullets, suppressing the zombies rushing forward.

The gusting airflow sent Yao Yao’s hair flying as she buried her face against Jiang Chen’s chest. The gunshots rang in her ear and made her close her eyes tightly…

After what felt like a century, the gunshots gradually stopped, and the airflow began to slow down. Yao Yao finally opened her eyes.

“You’re safe.” Gently patting Yao Yao’s back, Jiang Chen looked at the long eyelashes that were stuck together and a smile formed on his face. He then looked at the zombies that were left behind and felt relieved.

Switching to the private channel, Jiang Chen ordered Lu Fan.

“Get the people above to send a few engineer soldiers down to plug the hole.”

If these zombies were allowed to spread from Line 27, then the “Safety Passage” would not longer be safe.

“Roger!” Lu Fan responded with sharpness.

Their journey did not have more twists and turns.

Two power armors accelerated and led in the front, maintaining a high-speed sliding state. The group accelerated in the direction of Line 2.

Looking at the looming light source in front, Jiang Chen used his spare hand to rub Yao Yao’s hair.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Mhmm.” Yao Yao carefully moved her face away from Jiang Chen’s chest. Yao Yao then looked at the zombies that had long disappeared and said with lingering anxiousness, “That was scary.”

“I told you you should have stayed above ground. Should I send you back?”

Yao Yao shook her head and said seriously, “Sister Lin said to me when we called yesterday that if you are going to find Line 0, I need to be with you.”

“Lin Lin also knows about Line 0?” Jiang Chen wondered, “Why didn’t she tell me before I came here?”

“Sister Lin said that she was not sure whether it was a rumor or the real thing. Her understanding of Eden Technology is just the tip of the iceberg. But she also said that if Line 0 really exists, my ability will definitely help you.” Yao Yao whispered as she leaned on Jiang Chen’s chest.

Is that so?

He fixed his gaze on the girl in his arms and wondered if she could really help him, but more than that, he was concerned about her safety.

Of course, Lin Lin may also be right. If the pre-war civilization built this, some things may not be solved by muscles alone. Yao Yao’s computer skills may be his advantage.

Just as Jiang Chen thought of this, the two power armors leading the team gradually slowed down.

Jiang Chen frowned, switched to the private communication channel and asked Lu Fan.

“What happened?”

Before Lu Fan could respond, the two power armors leading the way reported in the public channel.

“General, someone is lying on the side of the tunnel…”

Chapter 1195: The Train and Tanks

Chapter 1195 The Train and Tanks The six power armors that trailed them slowed down and moved toward the source of light.There was a four-train-long maglev train in the middle of the track that had been abandoned there for some unknown reason.

Not far from the maglev train, a man covered in blood was lying against the wall of the tunnel.

He was not in the best state; his left arm seemed to be dislocated or broken. There was a pool of metal-like liquid beside his hand. Under the flashlight, it reflected a silver shine.

The man noticed the gun pointed at him and responded with a grin before coughing out some blood. He used his right hand to help himself sit upright.

“Ahem, oh? Another group of tomb thieves?”

“Tomb thieves?” Jiang Chen snorted at the call, put Yao Yao gently on the ground, and walked over to him with a rifle.

“General… This person is a bit weird,” Lu Fan reminded.

“I know, it’s strange if he is not weird.” Jiang Chen waved his hand and motioned him to not worry. He walked over to the man and said, “We meet again, Mr. Sura… or should I call you Old Luo?”

Old Luo’s eyes brightened for a second.

“You’re Jiang Chen?”

“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded.

Back in “Hell’s Courier”, Old Luo saw through his camouflage, and Jiang Chen was not surprised that Old Luo recognized his identity.

As the former intelligence personnel of Pan-Asia Cooperation, it would be odd if he did not have any special abilities.

Yes, Jiang Chen suspected the man named Old Luo was the boss of Hell’s Courier. The so-called “Strawman” was just one of the names he used before.

“Cough, are you really Jiang Chen? I mean, you actually came down?” Old Luo looked so surprised that he even forgot his injuries and sat up straight. He gazed at Jiang Chen, full of curiosity, “Do you know what’s ahead?”

“I will know soon, but let’s not talk about this now. I have something else to ask you,” With a short pause, Jiang Chen looked at him and said, “I have been pondering for the last while, that day at the hotel was it you that tried to infiltrate my wrist-mounted computer.”

“Although not precisely true, you can interpret it as something I had done,” Old Luo said with a smile.

“Then I will consider that you did it.” With Old Luo’s indifferent attitude, Jiang Chen was not angry. Instead, he took out a card from his pocket and shook it in front of him. “So, you auctioned this card?”

“Yes,” Old Luo said calmly.

“Why?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Because I needed you to stop the Russians. However, the plan is always full of variables,” Old Luo, who laughed at himself, said as he leaned his head against the wall. “I just didn’t expect Wan Peng would have something hidden up his sleeves.”

Jiang Chen examined him from head to toe.

He had already guessed how he was injured.

“Russians have gone to that side. Are you not going to hurry and chase them?” Seeing Jiang Chen was not speaking, Old Luo laughed, “By the way, remind you, there are twelve tanks waiting for you. You’d better bring more people.”

Then he shook his head again and laughed at a self-deprecating manner .

“Haha, but once you bring enough people, this doesn’t concern you anymore.”

“There is something I have never thought through,” Jiang Chen focused on Old Luo lying against the wall and seemed to be muttering to himself thoughtfully, “If you’re trying to obtain the secret of Line 0, your action doesn’t seem to make sense. I am very curious, what do you want?”

“What do I want? Hehe.” Old Luo shook his head. “If I tell you, would you wait for fifty years before you open Line 0?”

“Fifty years is too long.” Jiang Chen shook his head and said emotionlessly, “And you don’t have the chips to negotiate with me.”

“That’s also true.” Old Luo closed his eyes and stopped talking.

Old Luo was seriously injured and he did not have much time left. But there was not the slightest fear for death, just the allegiance to the end of his mission.

Jiang Chen knew very well that the person who showed this kind of expression obviously did not intend to ask for help.

But then again, for someone that wished to use him, even if he asked for help, Jiang Chen never planned to save him.

Let him rot here.

Rot with the coffin of Pan-Asia Cooperation together…

“What should we do?” Lu Fan went to Jiang Chen, with seriously. “If he is telling the truth, then in the front—”

“He is telling the truth,” with his brows twisted together, Jiang Chen thought for a moment and then said, “We have to gamble.”

“Gamble?” Lu Fan said.

Without explaining to Lu Fan, Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao.

“Can you make the train move again?”

“Let me try.”

Yao Yao agilely jumped into the maglev train and took out the tablet from behind her back.

With her back bent, she searched underneath the seats before quickly finding an interface for connection. She then pulled out a cord and attached the tablet to the train.

Then Yao Yao sat on the floor as she began to work with the tablet.

Dazzling code flashed through the holographic screen like countless spells.

In just ten minutes, everyone, including Old Luo without any desire to live, look astonished. The train previous locked by the virus in the smoke detector system started to move again!

“Get on.”

Jiang Chen waved his hand at Lu Fan and boarded the train with the power armors.

However, after boarding the train, he realized another very serious issue.

“Who knows how to drive?”

The public channel was silent, and Lu Fan and the guards’ expression all looked awkward.

Obviously, no one learned how to operate this thing.

Fortunately, Yao Yao raised his hand.

“I have already activated smart driving mode. We don’t need someone to move this thing.”

The smug look on her face was the joy of finally helping her beloved big brother.

After the magnetic rail was charged, the train floated up by half an inch and began to accelerate.

“Can you turn off the lights?”

“No problem.” Yao Yao’s fingers tapped on the tablet, and all the light sources on the train were extinguished.

The train continued to accelerate.

“General, there are CCCP tanks in front…”

“I know.”

“Then…”

“Did I not say it?” Jiang Chen looked at Lu Fan with a hint of lunacy in his eyes, “It’s time to gamble.”

…

The CCCP tanks made squeaking sound as they moved forward steadily through the tunnel leading to Line 0.

On the tank, Yegor frowned.

Just now, he began to feel the wind blowing from behind him.

“Wha’s that sound?” Sminov looked behind his back and muttered to himself. “Is it that train just now?”

Train?

Yegor’s pupils suddenly shrank, and his fist slammed on the top of the tank and yelled into the headset.

“Park! Turn the turret and aim at that train!”

Train? Where is the train?

Responding to this inexplicable command, the gunners were only stunned for a second before they quickly reacted. They turned the turrets and aimed behind them—

However, their reaction was still a beat too slow.

Cruising on the magnetic levitation track at a speed close to the speed of sound, the maglev train whizzed past, leaving only a mirage to the CCCP tanks. Just as they turned the turrets, the maglev train previously stalled was already in front of them.

Yegor growled.

“Fire!”

“BOOM!”

Twelve explosions ensued.

At the same time, everyone in the train was clenching on!

With several loud bangs, the orange-yellow trajectories just missed the train and exploded against the wall in the tunnel.

These loud noises were stretched by the incredible speed of the train and were almost instantly left behind along with the cloud of dust from the explosions.

The short train was like a fly. Hitting a fly with a tank in the dark was nearly an impossible task without measurements in advance.

Although they escaped, Jiang Chen did not dare to let his guard down for a moment. He tightly held Yao Yao while docking down underneath the seats.

Almost as soon as the turrets fired, bullets hit the train, leaving a series of cracks on the window.

The train already flew by, and the machine gunners on the tanks stopped their pointless shooting.

Yegor revealed a gloomy expression as he fixated on the direction where the train had disappeared, .

His fist slammed against the tank as he shouted.

“Everyone, FULL THORTTLE!”

“ROGER!”

Chapter 1196: The Terminal Station of Line 0

Chapter 1196 The Terminal Station of Line 0

“So, the legendary Subway Line 0 is just an underground city?”

As he stepped onto the concrete road covered by dust, Ding Liwei used the light scattered down from the skydome while he scanned through the dark streets.

Surprise was the emotion in his eyes, but behind the surprise, there was more disappointment in his emotion.

He was originally looking forward to a particular weapon hidden here, at least one powerful enough that it could get rid of CCCP and NAC.

But so far, disregarding any weapons, it was just towering high-rise buildings and empty streets.

This kind of scene was too common in the wasteland. If he must state the difference between the Shangjing above ground, then it must be the lack of zombies, mutants, and ugly nuclear craters.

No, certainly not just these…

Ding Liwei’s gaze carefully searched between the buildings on both sides of the street, for fear of missing a trace of detail.

“Or a city-sized fallout shelter. We just don’t know why there’s no one in this fallout shelter.” Wan Peng’s eyebrows were also written with disappointment. His looked away from the faded billboards as he muttered to himself, “Something must be wrong.”

More than one hundred P-series police power armors walked down the streets, and there were no other sounds.

High-rise buildings stood side by side, a prosperous scene, but at the moment they felt as depressing as tombstones, without the slightest sign of vitality. A dozen-kilometer-long maglev track spanned from above and divided the entire city into two.

Although no one lived here, it was indeed a city.

It was true no matter how you looked at the situation.

As for why Pan-Asia Cooperation decided to build such a city below Shangjing and why it had to be sealed for 50 years, no one knew. Or at least the person that knew was no longer on the planet…

If they did not come down from “above”, just standing here, it did not feel like the city was a kilometer under the surface.

The city’s distant area was covered by a thick layer of gray which caused the entire city to be surrounded by what looked like morning mist. Behind the mist, there seemed to be some sort of light source; a faint gleam that pierced through the mist and was sprinkled on to the streets.

It was precisely because of this that although located deep underground, the light was surprisingly sufficient, similar to cloudy days on the surface

The only flaw was that the distant grey gave off a depressing feeling.

“If I found this ‘heaven’ fifteen years ago, why build a wall? I would have just directly placed Pingan Street here. That would have saved us so much trouble.” Wan Peng’s eyes were fixated on the dead street as he grunted and said in a self-deprecating manner.

“It’s not too late. Do you want to pick a place to stay in?” Ding Liwei looked at him and said, grinning.

“I’ll pass. I was just joking.”

Although the place did not have any zombies or mutants, and without the need to worry about excessive radiation that would lead to growing another hand, it would not be long before people go insane in this kind of environment.

Just then, noises were heard in the distance.

It was not loud, but in this quiet city, it was conspicuous.

Everyone stopped and looked at the sky.

“What is that sound?” Ding Liwei frowned, opened the magnifying function on the eyepiece of the helmet, and fixed his eyes on the magnetic levitation track that spanned the city. Then, doubt appeared in his eyes. “That is not our train?”

“Obviously.” Wan Peng also noticed the anomaly in the sky and looked up at the track. “It seems that after I abandoned the train, someone repaired it.”

“Who is in the car?”

“Not our people,” Wan Peng shrugged and said.

That was enough information.

Ding Liwei did not speak, but gestured to the soldiers behind him and then pointed to the magnetic levitation track.

Four power armors walked up and took out rocket launchers, locked on the magnetic leviathan track in the air, and pulled the trigger simultaneously.

Four white smoke trails formed from the launchers as they locked in on different locations, seconds later, four rockets flew directly towards the magnetic levitation track.

…

The entrance to Line 0 was already open.

The train did not stop at all and whizzed past the gear-shaped gate.

After passing through the hole, the road narrowed abruptly, and the train continued in an unknown direction.

Still pondering on how much longer the ride would take, a shimmer of light appeared in front of them.

The train darted out of the dark tunnel, new scenery expanded before them.

Jiang Chen gradually became shocked when he looked down through the window of the train.

Just below the train was a futuristic-looking city!

Towering high-rise buildings stood below and straight streets neatly organized the city. Jiang Chen made a rough estimate that the underground city was at least the size of a district in Shangjing. On the conservative side, it could fit at least one million people.

The train quietly moved along the track suspended in the air.

It took a while for Jiang Chen to absorb the astonishment in his mind. He exclaimed while looking out the window.

“I didn’t expect the end of Line 0 would be a city.”

“Yeah,” Lu Fan said, while he also shared Jiang Chen’s shocked emotion.

“Right, where will this train take us?” Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao.

“Ah? Let me see…” Yao Yao’s fingers quickly tapped on the tablet a few times, took a few glances at the holographic screen, and nodded seriously. “It should be in front of us soon. We will arrive at the terminal within ten kilometers. There is an elevator there, we can go—”

BOOM!

Without the slightest sign, the train moving at high speed seemed to be hit from the side as everything in the train was tossed to the other side.

Four explosions and four missiles hit the track one after another!

In the deafening screeching sound, the track suspending in the air swayed like noodles, and the steel cables hanging from the track broke apart one after another. Soon, the track that lost its load-bearing structure began to fall.

“FU*K!”

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth as he was tossed to the other side. He grabbed Yao Yao, who was flying in the air, in the heat of the moment.

The train completely lost its power. Gliding down the inclined track, everything on the track was in a weightless state. In order to grab Yao Yao, Jiang Chen lost his balance during a downward turn of the train and was thrown to the rear, crashing through rows of seats and rolling from the front of the train to the back.

Finally, the train completely left the track and nose-dived into the city.

“JUMP! JUMP!”

In the communication channel, Jiang Chen shouted. He used his back to block the incoming debris. Then holding Yao Yao with his left hand, he used his right hand to smash against the door, creating a dent in the aluminum door.

Without stopping, Jiang Chen gritted his teeth, adjusted his posture, and supported the ceiling with his right hand. He looked at the already deformed door and stepped on it with all his force.

CLANK!

It was effective. The door flew out and disappeared quickly. The violent airflow poured in, scratching the steel armor.

Without hesitation, Jiang Chen hugged Yao Yao in his arms and jumped out of the train. Along with the debris, they fell toward the city of high-rises…

Chapter 1197: Thank You For Using Eden Technology

Chapter 1197 Thank You For Using Eden Technology

The steel tracks broke one after another, and the suspending cables continued to collapse. The steel fragments mixed with concrete debris hailed down from the air.

Instead of immediately turning on the vortex engine, Jiang Chen kept gliding down, using the debris as cover to move toward the edge of the city.

While gliding, his eyes were locked on the ground, searching for any potential incoming missiles.

Fortunately, no missiles headed his way.

When the altitude dropped to 500 meters, Jiang Chen took a deep breath, and the vortex engines ignited with a full thrust to halt the fall.

“BOOM!”

Both feet planted deep into the ground, and the impact wave hitting the ground blew dust and gravel a dozen meters away, formed cracks along the surface of the road.

When he looked down at Yao Yao, he was relieved.

The lovely face was obviously startled, but fortunately, she was not hit by flying debris.

Jiang Chen opened the mask on the helmet and looked at Yao Yao, “Are you okay?”

Yao Yao’s soul seemed to have returned to her body. Lying in Jiang Chen’s arms, she looked into his concerned eyes and nodded firmly.

“I’m good.”

“Phew,” looking at the girl’s courageous expression, he smiled softly. Then he looked at the other side of the street. He took a deep breath before his seriousness returned. “It’s not safe here, we have to get out of here as soon as possible. You have to hang on for just a while longer.”

Although he was not attacked when he fell, he was not sure whether or not Ding Liwei’s people saw him. If they were on their way to his landing spot, every second they stayed where they were would increase the dangerousness of the situation.

“No problem.” Yao Yao tightly grabbed onto the nylon buckle on the power armor, then she pressed her face on Jiang Chen’s chest and closed her eyes. Her gentle voice had a hint of tenacity, “Yao Yao is prepared!”

“Hold on tight.”

The sliding wheels popped out and the vortex engines reignited its blue flames, pushing the power armor toward the other side of the street.

While maintaining high-speed movement, Jiang Chen opened the communication channel and established contact with Lu Fan.

“…Where are you?”

“We have three people here, in… in a building? DAMMIT! Someone is nearby…”

There were chaotic gunshots on the other side, occasionally accompanied by one or two explosions and the sound of broken glass.

Obviously, Lu Fan encountered Ding Liwei’s force, and there was no doubt it was the Second Militia’s power armor company!

According to the information provided by Song Chenyu, the power armor company was made up of a full hundred people…

“Their people… there are too many power armors!”

“Don’t directly engage with them! Can you retreat?” Jiang Chen said immediately.

“We should be able to retreat. The P-series has one less set of vortex engines! Where should we reconvene?”

Where should we reconvene?

Jiang Chen just wanted to report a position but realized that he did not have a map here.

“…just pick a direction first. I will provide a gathering place immediately!”

“Just pick a direction?! O…kay!”

As soon as the communication ended, Jiang Chen was about to release the reconnaissance drone, but a series of red dots flashed on the radar. These red dots were separated into three groups, from three directions, they surrounded him, blocking all directions of escape.

The enemy had already discovered him.

“Fu*k!” He cursed in a whisper.

Immediately, he stopped the gliding momentum of the wheels and turned a corner at a forty-five degrees angle. He rushed straight up the stairs in front of an office building and smashed through a locked front door. He then retrieved the wheels before running upstairs.

Stopped at the top floor, Jiang Chen picked an office and broke through the door.

“Wait for me here, I’ll be back soon.”

Jiang Chen left Yao Yao in the office. He looked at her eyes, and after leaving some serious instructions, he walked out.

In the hallway outside the office, Jiang Chen turned on the life signal detection radar, and his eyes locked on the series of red dots.

Based on the flashing red dots, at least 20 power armors were in the building. There were four or more located in each of the four directions of the office building.

The equipment of both sides was all the best available in the 22nd century. Once an enemy entered the vicinity, they were all each other’s hunters and prey. It was impossible to escape unless Jiang Chen was familiar with the terrain.

Unfortunately, in a battle happening on an entirely foreign battlefield, both the hunter and the prey, were completely clueless. It was already difficult not to get lost, let alone escape the pursuant.

Jiang Chen recognized the situation and decided not to run

Without a doubt, it would be almost impossible to escape the pursuit of a group of power armors while holding a person.

It was better to get rid of the troubles while no one was around!

“If you really miss me, let me make your dream come true.”

With a murderous vibe, Jiang Chen swung his right hand and tossed out two drone hives from the storage dimension. Dozens of Hummingbirds emerged from the drone hives and formed several attack formations in the air. The muzzles underneath the drones exuded a deadly reflection.

Then, four Reptile drones and four Python drones were also placed into the battlefield, and together with the Hummingbird drone attack groups, they rushed toward the floor below.

In the modern world, these drones would be enough for him to sweep the victory.

But in the apocalypse full of technology, it would be too arrogant to think these drones could eliminate a group of power armors.

But with a few nuclear grenades, a few plasma bombs, he certainly could stand a fighting chance…

…

What to do?

Being left in the office, Yao Yao looked around anxiously.

Although Jiang Chen did not say anything to her, she had already vaguely guessed that the Second Militia was after them. And the reason why he decided to stop running and enter this building was most likely because of her.

As soon as Yao Yao thought that she had become his burden, tears quickly began to roll down her face.

I came… came to help him, but…

Using her sleeves to wipe her teary eyes, Yao Yao bit her lower lip and began to search the office she was in.

Just then, her eyes suddenly lit up.

Near the wall, she found an interface of the data line.

Sitting next to the desk, Yao Yao quickly took out her tablet and placed it in her lap. She pulled the dusty data cable off the desk and attached it to her tablet.

Looking at the line [Connection Successful] on the screen, the little girl shook her fist in excitement.

It works!

Although she did not know if she could help, she must try!

As her fingers began tapping at lightning speed and lines of codes started to flood the holographic screen, muffled explosions started ringing in her ears. Soon sweat began to form on her forehead as she desperately tried to calm her nervous heartbeat.

[Data transfer is complete, acquiring permission…]

Faster!

Her little fist clenched tightly as she looked at the progress bar on the holographic screen and began praying.

Finally, there was the melodious sound.

An instant look of joy reflected through her lovely big eyes but it was quickly replaced by shock.

The line of words that appeared on the screen was…

[Thank you for using Eden Technology]

Chapter 1198: The Encounter Battle Inside The Tunnel

1198 The Encounter Battle Inside The Tunnel The elevator doors opened and a row of NAC soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons marched out. Almost instantly, the elevator door closed as soon as the last soldier’s heel stepped out. Then, the elevator moved back to the negative twentieth floor.

Just like this, the elevator moved between the negative twentieth and the negative twenty-first floor. In just half an hour, NAC deployed 100 power armors, 500 soldiers, and 40 engineer soldiers to the tunnel under the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building.

Under the firepower of the power armors, the zombies wandering at the station were quickly eradicated. The engineering soldiers at the rear brought pieces of machinery forward and began to repair the concrete wall.

As the bayonet was pulled out from the head of a Night Demon, Zhang Zhuo pressed the headset on the helmet and reported it to the ground command center.

“…The zombies in the subway station have been cleared… Yes, dangerous species have been spotted, and we’re not ruling out that more dangerous species are moving to the area.”

“Immediately repair the tunnel,” Han Junhua ordered. “Also, mobilize the power armors immediately. You must catch up to the general in the shortest possible time.”

“Roger.”

After the communication ended, Zhang Zhuo gestured to his vice-captain behind him. After the vice-captain jogged to him, he ordered.

“I’m delegating to you the task of building the defense line. I will bring the force to support the general.”

“Yes!” The vice-captain saluted.

“Be meticulous, this is a direct order from the chief of staff! You must make no mistakes!” He patted his subordinate on the shoulder and reminded one last time. He then handed over the authority of the infantry to the vice-captain, turned around and walked toward the assembled power armors.

All the preparations were complete. Zhang Zhuo was prepared to order the force to advance into the deep tunnel, but from the direction of Line 27, some tremors shook the earth.

“What’s that sound?” Zhang Zhuo frowned as he looked toward the direction of Line 27.

His first officer was also confused as he pinpointed the direction.

“Judging by the sound, it doesn’t sound like zombies… I will send someone to take a look.”

The first officer ordered into his headset.

Soon, two scouts were sent out and they jogged in the direction of Line 27.

However, just after crossing the broken concrete wall, the two scouts stopped. Fear was seen from the reflection inside their tactical helmet…

Without the time to even say a word, the roar of the explosion filled the tunnel!

With a loud explosion, the two scouts were turned into pieces in the raging shrapnel…

Zhang Zhuo’s pupils suddenly contracted.

A dreadful thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

It’s the CCCP tanks!

Without time to hesitate, Zhang Zhuo decisively shouted in the communication channel.

“TAKE COVER! PREPARE TO FIRE!”

He didn’t need to remind the team. Immediately when the explosion happened, the engineer soldiers abandoned the pieces of machinery in their hands and retreated to the back. At the same time, the soldiers who were resting immediately began seeking cover.

The power armors that had been assembled also scattered around, leaning against the concrete bunker inside and outside the station.

Zhang Zhuo glanced at the hole in the tunnel. He pulled out two burning rods from the waist of the power armor and threw them toward the broken wall.

The orange-red flame illuminated the dark battlefield.

Almost at the same time, a tank painted with snow camouflage drove across the broken concrete wall. Without the slightest omen, the menacing muzzle fired at the NAC soldiers.

“BOOM!”

A high-explosive round fired not far from Zhang Zhuo and the flying shrapnel scratched against the power armor, making a screeching sound. Fortunately, the shot was fired aimlessly, causing no casualties.

Through the cover provided by the shot, the soldiers wearing winter clothes rushed out from the rear of the tank.

Shouting “For Mother Russia”, the soldiers fearlessly rushed towards the NAC.

“OPEN FIRE!”

In the deafening roar, Zhang Zhuo raised his tactical rifle and unleashed bullets first.

Rifles were placed onto the bunker one after the other as bullets began to fire at the charging Russian soldiers.

The sound of the bullets hitting the tank rang throughout the tunnel and the soldiers rushing out from behind the tank were also shot, falling one after another. Their blood splashed across the battlefield and dyed their snow camouflage paint bright red…

Soaring bullets flew just above their heads as the NAC soldiers leaned against the concrete bunker and reloaded. Then, they continued to aim at the soldiers flooding out from the tank.

Looking at the corpses that fell one after another in pools of blood, and the ones continuing to advance, seemingly unafraid of death, his scalp felt numb as he cursed.

“Fu*k, are these Russians trying to reincarnate?”

“I suspect these are fake Russians…”

The soldier who was next to him felt something was off, but he could not pinpoint the abnormality.

The battle was in a stalemate.

With CCCP soldiers charging relentlessly, they eventually ripped a hole in NAC’s firepower and established a foothold north of the subway station.

The first tank already rolled into the subway station, and the second tank ensued.

Then, the soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons began to join the CCCP front. These soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons were far superior to those of the “Kamikaze soldiers” in both accuracy and firepower.

Obviously, these soldiers were the core strength of CCCP.

The NAC, which possessed a terrain advantage, was starting to lose its grip on the battle.

But the good days of the Russians were about to end.

When Han Junhua sent the forces down, she certainly considered the possibility of encountering CCCP tanks. After all, the team that Jiang Chen encountered was obviously not the full force of the CCCP. Precisely because of this, not only was cement used for wall building sent down, but also the Scorpion Anti-armor RPG!

When the second tank bulldozed through the broken wall, the Scorpion RPG finally arrived.

The soldiers behind cover set aside their rifles as they accepted the RPGs from the comrades in the rear. They put the rocket launchers on the shoulder, unlocked the safety, and locked onto the tank beside the wall.

“Go to hell!”

With a repressed, low-pitched, roar, the Scorpion RPG dragged an orange-colored tail flame and smashed directly onto the surface of the tank…

…

“…CCCP armored forces appeared in the tunnel, we’re under attack! I REPEAT! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”

In the ground command center, Han Junhua expressionlessly nodded after she listened to Zhang Zhuo’s report in front of the map. Her emotion did not waver by the slightest.

“Got it.”

Ending the communication, Han Junhua looked up to the holographic screen.

What emerged in front of her was the three-dimensional composition blueprint of a CCCP tank.

The Polar Bear KV-9 tank was built with a high-density alloy composite steel with a strength similar to Grade-A Steel in PAC standard. The main gun was either 58mm or 75mm-calibre. Based on the length of the barrel, the KV-9 was either the support type or the attack type.

The heavy armor had almost no weakness. Even the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon could not stall the tank. Even without the annoying Wanderer’s Tank Meissner effect armor, it was still a tough opponent.

Of course, there were certainly ways to deal with this type of tank.

It was not without reason the KV-9 was dispatched to Uelen. Because of the extra-thick armor, the overly compact design for increased maneuverability resulted in a poor tank cooling system, and the tank crew wass almost sitting directly on the engine.

A few simple incendiary bombs may be more effective than Scorpion rockets.

Just two minutes ago, she had already issued an order to the expeditionary army. A fully armed “incendiary” unit was already sent to the minus 20th floor.

Turning off the hologram, Han Junhua’s eyes locked on the map on the command desk.

Fixing her sight on Line 2, she whispered in her heart.

Please make it…

For some unknown reason, her cold heart inexplicably trembled.

She pressed her hand against her chest and frowned.

However, just as she wanted to reflect on what she was feeling, the feeling seemed to have slipped away like sand through her fingers. It was as if she never felt it…

Chapter 1199: Power of The Nuclear Grenade!

1199 Power of The Nuclear Grenade! “BOOM!”

A face-sized hole formed as the shell penetrated through the cement wall.

Two grenades exploded in a narrow corridor.

The five police power armors that rushed into the stairs were caught off guard by the sudden attack.

The tumbling heatwave smashed the flower pot, sending wood chips, mud, and shrapnel flying, leaving countless scratch marks against the steel armor.

However, a power armor was still a power armor, and it was unrealistic to think grenades could eliminate the well-trained militia. They tumbled behind cover and the five P-type power armors pulled out their tactical rifles and pointed to the opposite side of the corridor.

“This is Team A, we have encountered the target.”

“Approved for firing, take him out,” Ding Liwei ordered viciously.

“Roger!”

“Is this really a good idea?” Wan Peng asked.

“Since we already stepped over the line, do you want to sit down and negotiate with him?” Ding Liwei snorted and looked at the sky. “I hope what is hidden in this city is worthy of our bet.”

Wan Peng smiled without refuting, but he thought in his mind.

You still don’t know, but thanks to my intelligent subordinates, I already stepped over the line yesterday afternoon.

They were grasshoppers on the rope of no return.

Compared with the two behemoths: CCCP Frontier Defense and NAC, the power they possessed were no different than the power possessed by grasshoppers. Since Jiang Chen already appeared here, then the NAC soldiers likely already entered the city and controlled the entire Pingan Street.

Now they must bet all their chips on the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation. If the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation left to his people was rich enough, they may have a chance of turning back the tide…

After receiving the order to fire, the 20 power armors grouped into four teams and immediately rushed in the direction of the explosion.

At the same time, Team A which was first under attack began to push forward.

However, the attack formation consisting of 20 Hummingbird drones suddenly appeared from the corner and unleashed fierce firepower from their flank.

At first, they were caught off-guard and immediately retreated to cover. However, when they found that the drone’s small-caliber ammunition only made sounds without any damage on their armor, their previously tense state disappeared.

Seeing these bullets could not even break the armor’s defenses, the militia leading had a disdained smile and gestured to his comrades behind him.

“Prepare the EMP.”

“Roger that.”

A soldier pulled an EMP grenade from the nylon buckle on his waist. Another soldier leaning behind cover pulled out the fuse and was about to throw the grenade, but the 20 Hummingbird drones were collapsing directly on them.

Looking at the homing drones converging on them, the soldier in front felt something peculiar, but he could not explain the reason.

Suddenly, he noticed a slight difference in the group of drones.

A drone was not equipped with a muzzle, but an item the size of a can. He could not explain what it was, but the instant he saw it, the fear of death overwhelmed him.

“GET DOWN—”

Roaring with all his strength, the militia soldier immediately dropped to the ground.

However, in front of the nuclear grenade, what could being on the ground do?

The glaring white light suddenly filled the entire space. The lava-like blast melted the steel, blew away the concrete wall, and ravaged the entire floor. On the multi-story office building, it created a giant hole around three floors in size!

Nothing remained of the five people in the center of the explosion…

“FU*K! Is that idiot crazy?”

Luo Xiaoyong pushed the concrete pieces off of his body, dragged himself up with the help of his rifle and struggled to stand up from the ground.

As the captain of the 20 power armors, when the explosion occurred, he was on the seventieth floor and took his soldiers in the direction of Team A. However, the sudden explosion actually collapsed the floor above him and almost buried the entire team there.

He did praise the quality of the construction of the Pan-Asia Cooperation civil defense project, as even after an explosion that size, the building was perfectly intact.

Luo Xiaoyong felt his scalp tingle as he looked down at the dazzling height outside the broken wall.

“Team B and C report the casualties.”

“Team B is fine.”

“Team C is fine.”

Luo Xiaoyong breathed a sigh of relief after he received the two reports.

It seemed that although the explosion made a loud noise, the damage was lackluster in comparison.

As for Team A, he did not even bother asking. No one would have responded even if he asked…

“Captain, what do we do now?” From the ruins, another soldier shook his dazzled head and asked.

“What the fu*k do you mean?” Luo Xiaoyong pulled the tactical rifle and looked at the collapsed ceiling of the upper floor, then cursed. “Follow me!”

Jiang Chen felt the tremor of the explosion under his feet as he stood at the entrance of the safety tunnel on the eightieth floor, turned off the holographic screen with nothing but white flickers and switched to another screen.

He just used 20 Hummingbird drones and a nuclear grenade to take out five power armors.

“Are there still fifteen left?”

With more power armors appearing in the drone capture screen, he sneered.

Although he was vastly outnumbered, he did not show any sign of fear.

When he left Yao Yao in the office, he also left the Rubik’s cube Lin Lin gave him to the little girl.

With the protection of the small Holy Shield, Yao Yao’s safety was no longer a concern.

Now, without any worries, he could finally unleash his full force.

…

[Thank you for using Eden Technology]

After obtaining administrator rights, Yao Yao successfully bypassed the security program and entered the database. When she opened the database file, her bright eyes gradually showed a trace of shock.

“What are these…”

Muttered to herself, Yao Yao trembling finger opened the folder named [No. 005].

A pop-up window appeared in the center of the holographic screen.

[No. 005, National Experimental Project]

[Summary: The Virtual City Plan (discarded) was changed to an artificial intelligence project after consideration by the Strategic Science and Technology Development Committee.

Goal: Incubation of Advanced Artificial Intelligence, AI number X71291

Project Progress: Unknown

Backup data: …]

As soon as she saw the words “Advanced Artificial Intelligence” and “No. 005”, Yao Yao suddenly recalled a memory from a long time ago.

The virtual world that Brother Jiang Chen once entered seemed to be called Fallout Shelter 005…

However, [No. 005] was just the tip of the iceberg in this database. Of the hundreds of files stored here, the largest number was 728.

Among all the experimental projects, some had been completed, some had been in progress, and some had failed. All of the experimental projects had one thing in common, and that was, these projects were national projects authorized by the Pan-Asia Cooperation Strategic Science and Technology Development Committee.

And, because of the particularity of the experimental content, they were all not disclosed to the public…

Her line of sight moved along the directory of the database. When Yao Yao saw the word [#000], her heart began pounding faster.

However, just as she was about to open the folder, the tremor of the explosion that shook the entire building pulled her attention back from these files.

“Ah, let’s not bother with these anymore…”

The thought that Brother Jiang Chen may be in danger made Yao Yao close the database directory after she clicked download.

She gently bit her lips, fingers quickly tapped on the tablet, and her heart pounded wildly. Lines of codes flashed across her bright pupils. Her pretty face, full of concern, reflected off of the holographic screen.

At the moment when Jiang Chen and the Second Militia’s power armors engaged in battle, Yao Yao obtained monitoring authority of the building and prayed silently in her heart.

Please be okay…

Chapter 1200: One Against Twenty!

Chapter 1200 One Against Twenty! Twenty to one.Their disparity in numbers was even more evident in a confined space. Luo Xiaoyong originally thought that it would be easy to eradicate that T-3 Power Armor, but he faced the cruel reality. He did not even encounter it face to face before he already lost a team.

Very good, the current advantage is fifteen to one.

They still possessed an absolute advantage, but he was no longer as certain.

“What was the explosion just now?” A militia soldier glanced at the half-destroyed wall, still shaking from the explosion.

“The radiation value has risen sharply… Maybe they have blown up a nuclear fusion core? Or a tactical nuke.”

“Hell, NAC’s power armor all carry tactical nukes?” Another soldier cussed.

“Shut up and concentrate.” Luo Xiaoyong said, “Attention all team, disperse formation. Team B, use the safety tunnel to get above him. Team C, attack from the stairs in the hall and Team D, follow me.”

“ROGER!”

“MOVE!”

Luo Xiaoyong gestured forward, clenching his hands. He led the soldiers from the side and moved toward the stairs.

The P-series power armor was designed for police use with the ultimate purpose of maintaining security at protest sites. While its anti-armor capability was lackluster, it possessed the outstanding anti-personnel ability and light weapon protection ability.

In contrast, the T-2 was designed as an airborne power armor that required a high degree of maneuverability, hence sacrificed its armor thickness, which was significantly inferior to the P-series. Based on the T-2 power armor, the Sixth Street’s self-designed T-3 type also inherited this feature. This limitation was not improved until the T-4 type designed for surface combat.

Therefore, while the P-series was designed for police work, its combat ability was not inferior compared to the T-3 power armor.

Precisely because of this fact, Luo Xiaoyong was confident enough to surround Jiang Chen.

However, his subordinates were about to pay the price of their life for his self-confidence.

After receiving its order, Team B immediately started charging through the safety tunnel.

However, just as they were about to reach the seventieth floor, they made intimate contact with Jiang Chen’s cannon.

That’s right, cannon!

Jiang Chen, at the entrance of the safe tunnel, was holding a Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon four meters long!

The T-series power armor did have the function to attach an external cannon, but where did this cannon come from?!

The soldiers still on the stairs had no time to understand the situation before the electric energy filled in the capacitor was instantly released!

The anchoring device was activated, thus there was no need to aim. Jiang Chen directly fired the cannon at the power armor at the very front. The blinding electric arc instantly disappeared from the cannon as the 5kg shell instantly penetrated all four power armors like a skewer, and catapulted them out of the building along with the wall behind them.

Jiang Chen let go of the cannon in his hands and then fluidly pulled the tactical rifle wielded at his waist and fired at the lucky militia that managed to survive. But unfortunately, the armor of P-series was surprisingly thick as the bullets shredded the armor, but did not finish the soldier inside.

The soldier was dazzled by the bullets raining from above. He desperately clawed his way out of the building as he activated the descending device to escape.

Jiang Chen did not pursue him. He picked up a Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon from the ground and deactivated the anchoring device. He looked at the bottom of the stairs and murmured to himself.

“Is there still ten left?”

Judging by the loudness, the sound of the explosion should have already reached the other people and they should be here now.

Putting the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon back into the storage dimension, Jiang Chen took out the tablet connected to the drone hive and set its attack path. Then he followed the way the militia came up and went down the safety tunnel.

“We lost contact with Team B.”

As five new red crosses appeared on the command interface, Luo Xiaoyong only felt an uncontrollable anger burning in his chest as he gnashed his teeth. He could not wait to tear Jiang Chen apart and feed him to the zombies to vent his hatred.

Those ten soldiers were his intimate comrades. They began to train together before the war and were selected into the Second Militia Group of Shangjing as a post-war reserve army in hibernation chambers.

They survived the zombie flood, resisted the nuclear winter, destroyed the mutants, and eliminated the cannibal tribes, but they ultimately fell here! A loss of this scale was unprecedented, and the Second Militia Group could not bear this kind of loss!

“This is Team C, we have successfully reached the target area… Fu*k! We’re under attack! It’s Reptile and Python drones! Damn, how does NAC have all these!?”

The Reptile drone was a well-known fire support platform for the Pan-Asia Army, and the Python drone was renowned as an attack drone that even NATO feared. And now eight of them, and countless Hummingbird drones were closing in on them!

It was easy to distinguish from the chaotic gunshots that Team C was in trouble.

“Team C, retreat!”

“Received, retreating… AHHHH—”

The communication tone was rudely cut off.

As he fixed his sight at the three red crosses that lost communication on the command interface, Luo Xiaoyong’s eyes were bloodshot and they widened in rage.

The militia in Team D cautiously watched their surroundings, on the alert for any possible shadows.

The team full of confidence now began to fear.

Yes, fear!

They did not understand the entire situation. They were chasing a T-3 power armor, at most a negligible girl, but now a tactical nuke exploded, an electromagnetic pulse cannon fired, and even Reptile and Python drones popped out of nowhere…

They did not know what was waiting for them.

However, what they knew was… they did not want to think.

Luo Xiaoyong’s anger was completely detonated.

So far, he did not even catch a glimpse of Jiang Chen and already half of his force had been wiped out.

“Fu*k you, you are a fu*king turtle. Are you not the NAC General? Anyone can hide!” Roaring into the empty hall, Luo Xiaoyong fired into the shadows, screaming in rage, “Come and fight me! I’ll only use one hand”

However, as he spoke, he heard footsteps from the side.

Then, a voice rang out.

“I just heard that you want to fight me?”

All eyes focused on the voice

From the shadow, it was Jiang Chen that made them suffer!

After reading what just happened, Luo Xiaoyong cursed.

“Fight your a**!”

He raised his tactical rifle and all five power armors pulled the trigger simultaneously.

Jiang Chen was already prepared as he activated his nitrogen armor calmly.

The turbulent air scattered, and the orange-yellow trajectories looked like broken toothpicks that were deflected to the side.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh as he saw the muzzles spitting bullets and examined the lacquered black armor illuminated by the fire.

“I knew it would end like this.”

As he finished his sentence, he pressed the button on the tablet…

Chapter 1201: Close Combat!

Chapter 1201 Close Combat! The instant he pressed the button, the explosives above the ceiling detonated.The five power armors did not have the time to spread out before they were covered by the gravel and dust from above.

The energy of the nitrogen shield had just been exhausted. Jiang Chen threw the shield generator in his hand into the storage dimension and loaded his rifle under the cover of the diffused dust. Then, he began firing while running to the safety tunnel.

After getting rid of the cement on his body, Luo Xiaoyong got up from the ground with difficulty. He immediately ducked behind a pillar, avoiding the incoming bullets.

However, his teammate was not so lucky.

As a power armor was just starting to stand, three bullets directly hit its head, which caused it to collapse backward and smashed into a guardrail, ultimately falling downstairs.

Bullets also hit the other three power armors, but as they were not hit in critical spots, they, fortunately, escaped their demise.

“Don’t let him get away!”

Luo Xiaoyong shouted at the top of his lungs and opened fire in the direction Jiang Chen fled in as he looked at his comrades struggling to get up. Then he led the way and chased into the safety tunnel.

Jiang Chen ran to the hole made by the electromagnetic pulse cannon and jumped right out. The vortex engines behind him ignited and pushed him up by around five floors. He immediately grabbed the railing and flipped himself inside.

Just then, Yao Yao’s voice came from the communication channel.

“I found a map of the city!”

“Really?” Jiang Chen was ecstatic and immediately said, “Send it to me!”

“MHMM! Sending… Okay sent.”

“… Got it. Right, you should stay in the office and don’t run around.” After he received the map, Jiang Chen added, “I will come to you in a bit.”

Jiang Chen immediately sent the map to the other seven guards and selected a building on the map not far from his current location as a meeting point.

“Mhmm!” Yao Yao had a look of “I am very obedient” and nodded. “Right, I found some interesting things in the database of the building…”

“We can talk about this later.”

Jiang Chen kicked open the wooden door and dashed into the room next to the stairway as he originally planned.

He took out a laser sword and a high-frequency vibration particle dagger from the storage dimension and wielded them around his waist. Through the camera on the Hummingbird drones, he confirmed the remaining locations of the four power armors and took a deep breath. “Let me deal with these troubles first.”

“Need me to help?” Yao Yao asked worriedly.

“…no need, you just wait for me to get you.”

“Okay.”

Although somewhat disappointed, Yao Yao chose to listen to her big brother.

Jiang Chen turned off all the radio equipment, and even disconnected the drone hive, completely entering radio silence. He stood like a sculpture right against the wall, quietly waiting for the right opportunity.

Soon, there was a rush of footsteps not far away.

Jiang Chen gently pulled out the dagger and pressed his thumb on the switch.

The footsteps were approaching closer and clearer…

NOW!

Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes.

Both of his legs applied force and ignited the vortex engines. Then, the power armor directly smashed through the wall.

It was too late to respond, and the last power armor that rushed into the hallway was directly hit by Jiang Chen.

“AHHHHH!”

There was an abrupt scream as the high-frequency vibration particle dagger unimpededly cut into the armor.

The instant the throat of the militia was cut, Jiang Chen let go of the dagger in his right hand, and at the same time deployed the minigun on his arm. His left hand wrapped around the neck of the same militia as he used him as a meat shield.

Almost at the same time, the other three power armors turned around, lifted their rifles, and started shooting.

The sparks jumped in the hallway and the bullets hit the meat shield in front of Jiang Chen.

While pulling the P-series power armor in his arm and retreating, Jiang Chen raised his right arm, and a cruel sneer formed on his face.

“Go to hell!”

Dadada!

Without finishing his sentence, the fierce firepower was unleashed from the minigun barrel, instantly overshadowing the firepower of the three rifles.

The power armor closest to Jiang Chen had no time to react and was shredded into a sieve by the raging bullets.

The power armor behind almost instantly dove to the side.

However, as he was about to escape, the captain behind him grabbed him and pushed to the front.

“WHAT THE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING…!!!”

The soldier’s eyes widened in disbelief as he did not have time to ask why Luo Xiaoyong did this before his consciousness ended in the hail of bullets.

Jiang Chen was also surprised by this very scene.

The last remaining power armor, holding the corpse of his comrade, managed to withstand the barrage from the minigun.

Jiang Chen kicked away the meat shield in front of him and retracted the minigun without hesitation. Then, he pulled out the light sword from his waist.

Almost at the same time, Luo Xiaoyong threw himself in front of him. He tossed the power armor in his hands directly at Jiang Chen.

He ducked down and dodged the power armor flying toward him. Then, using his instinct, he swung his light sword.

Seeing that this sword was going to cut through the right shoulder of the power armor, the captain of the militia quickly responded. He raised his arm against the light sword swinging down and managed to hit the wrist holding the sword.

Then his other hand grabbed a dagger and stabbed forward.

DING!

The glaring sparks collided between the two!

The two daggers slammed together and bounced away half an inch in front of their chest.

Feeling the numbness in his arms, Jiang Chen was shocked.

The dagger was not cut by the particle dagger!

At this moment, any skill was futile. The only factor dictating victory was the performance of the armor.

They grabbed each other’s arms and the two wrestled together. Smashing through the walls of the hallway, they fell into the office next door.

“Don’t be too cocky! When I started driving power armors, you were still in your mother’s womb!”

Luo Xiaoyong’s eyes were a raging red color as he gnashed his teeth and yelled in ferocity.

Nineteen people!

Nineteen lives!

[His men were all killed here!

He did not want to think about anything else other than using the cruelest way to torture the man in front of him to death!

“In the womb?” Jiang Chen’s left hand clasped onto Luo Xiaoyong’s arm as he desperately tried to free the light sword he was holding in his right hand. Then while laughing, he said, “When I was in my mother’s womb, you were still a carbon atom.”

He was not joking. He was born in the 1990s. If he really went by the date on his ID, he could be his ancestor.

Luo Xiaoyong looked at him with bloodthirsty eyes, not realizing he was bantering before his inevitable death.

Gradually, the steel armor began to squeak, unable to bear the force.

The “light” weight of the T-3 power armor became a deadly weakness at this moment.

Gradually taking the upper hand, Luo Xiaoyang clamped down on Jiang Chen. His nearly lunatic expression began to show a cruel sneer.

“You can’t die too fast. I’ll slowly and slowly remove each part of you, and then leave you with one last breath before feeding you to the zombies!”

The outcome was determined.

In this most primitive melee fight, the P-series’ strong endurance and tenacity prevailed!

At least in his opinion.

“Is that so?” Jiang Chen sneered, activated the self-destruction program, and glanced at him emotionlessly. “Since you like my armor so much, then I will generously give it to you.”

Dumbfounded, Luo Xiaoyong watched as the laser sword in Jiang Chen’s right hand disappeared.

Then, like the laser sword, Jiang Chen also disappeared completely.

Of course, as the power armor’s mask is dark, Luo Xiaoyong did not see Jiang Chen’s disappearance.

Therefore, his hands continued to clasp onto the already empty power armor until the nuclear fusion battery exploded due to overload. The power armor, along with his muttered cruel words, disappeared inside the glaring white light…

Chapter 1202: Three-way Battle

Chapter 1202 Three-way Battle The two nuclear explosions finally shook the foundation of the building as the distressed building started to wobble in the blinding white light.Using the safety tunnel to rush to the top floor, Jiang Chen, who stepped into a replacement power armor, used his shoulder to crush through the door. As he entered, he just caught the yellow gravitational shield knocking away several fallen tiles before finally dissipating.

“Yao Yao!”

“I’m here!” The girl climbed out from underneath the desk. Panic was written all over her face, but she still bravely crawled toward Jiang Chen.

“Don’t move, give me your hand!”

Jiang Chen charged forward and grabbed Yao Yao’s hand. He pulled her up from the ground and hugged her in his arms.

Before the office was completely crushed by the broken pieces of cement, Jiang Chen smashed through the floor-to-ceiling window with his shoulder and jumped out of the office building.

Almost as soon as he jumped out of the building, the office building behind him collapsed like an avalanche. In an instant, the office he was just in was swallowed by the rolling dust.

Turning in the air to avoid incoming cement, Jiang Chen skillfully started the vortex engines. The engines released an eerie blue light while helping him glide to the meeting point.

After escaping the dangerous area, Jiang Chen looked back at the scattered dust, he then exclaimed.

“Magnificent…”

Yao Yao’s small head sneaked out between Jiang Chen’s arms as she looked at the dust with fear.

She couldn’t imagine what would happen if they were a second late.

“Let’s go to the meeting spot,” Moving his gaze away from the ruins of the building, Jiang Chen looked at the direction of the meeting spot and said softly, “I hope Lu Fan and the team are fine.”

…

The meeting spot was about five kilometers from the collapsed office building.

After they received the coordinates of the map, everyone entered radio silence to avoid the electromagnetic wave signal being tracked. In addition to the life signal detection device that could be easily fooled, electromagnetic signal was the most effective and the most important means of detecting positioning of enemies.

There were only five people who arrived alive at the meeting point.

Lu Fan, Jiang Chen, and Yao Yao were among the five.

Of the seven guards, only three remained. They had lost contact with four of them, almost equivalent to a death sentence.

The Second Militia did not intend to spare anyone. When the two sides encountered, they greeted each other with bullets. Or rather, it was miraculous to escape from a company of power armors.

“I’ll revenge you guys.”

When Jiang Chen gazed out the window, he let out a long sigh.

Although such a promise had no significance to the deceased soldiers, since he made a promise, he must carry out his promise.

Also, their family members would be raised by NAC until their eldest child reaches adulthood, or the wife remarries.

“Where are our reinforcements?” Lu Fan was repairing his power armor with a wrench, then he looked back at Jiang Chen and asked. “They have too many people. We have no chance of winning in a direct engagement.”

Jiang Chen shared the same sentiment.

To eliminate those twenty power armors, he almost used all the inventory in the storage dimension.

The electromagnetic pulse cannon could still be used, and there were still two nuclear grenades left, but the drones were completely exhausted. There were still quite a bit of crystals left, but Xiaorou was not with him. So the crystal with a large amount of energy is no different than rocks. Food and daily necessities could also not be completely ignored.

“The signal here is not good. We can’t reach the reinforcements on the surface for the time being.” Jiang Chen looked at the disconnected icon and continued, “If they haven’t arrived yet, then they must have encountered something along the way.”

“What did they encounter?” Yao Yao asked with some concern.

“Russians,” Jiang Chen said without changes to his tone. “It’s not just the Shangjing Survivors Alliance and us that are looking for the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation, but also a group of nasty polar bears.”

“Ah, yes,” Yao Yao heard the keyword of the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation as she suddenly seemed to remember something. She took out the tablet from behind and pressed the power button. “When I got permission for the building’s security system, I found some strange things in their database.”

“Strange things?” Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao, remembering what she said to him in the communication channel, and asked curiously, “What is it?”

“The database of Eden Technology,” with a mysterious look, her finger quickly tapped on the tablet and called out a holographic image before gently pushing it in front of Jiang Chen. “From number 000 to number 973, all of those are experimental projects.”

Everyone in the room was stunned.

Lu Fan was the first to process the information and hurriedly asked.

“Why did Eden Technology’s database appear in that office building? What does the office building have to do with Eden Technology?”

“Accurately speaking, the office network of the building is connected to the database of Eden Technology, not the database of Eden Technology is located in that office building.” Because the question was from someone she was unfamiliar with, Yao Yao looked toward Jiang Chen and read the same confusion in his eyes before she started to answer anxiously., “The database of Eden Technology is like a big tree, and all the connected devices in the city are like apples in the tree.”

“The whole city is connected to Eden Technology.” Jiang Chen thoughtfully nodded and then tapped the screen before his fingertip stop on a circular logo, “East Asia Heavy Industries… It’s strange, isn’t it? Almost all the Pan-Asia Cooperation industry giants involved in the Interstellar Colonization Plan have participated in the construction of this underground city.”

The entire city shared the same database.

Eden Technology weaved a net beneath the city and then glued everything in the city to this web.

“What do they want to do?” Lu Fan frowned.

“This is also the question I want to ask,” Examining the numbered folders on the holographic screen, Jiang Chen said, “Perhaps only they can give us the answer.”

At this moment, the sound of explosions came from afar, and black smoke started to float above the city, accompanied by gunshots in the distance.

“What happened?” Lu Fan stood up immediately and went to the window, staring in the direction of rising block smoke.

“Most likely the Russians are here,” also watching the black smoke, Jiang Chen smiled. “It seems that they can win some time for us before our reinforcements arrive.”

Chapter 1203: Millennium Plan

Chapter 1203 Millennium Plan [No. 000, National Experimental Project][Summary:Pan-Asia Renaissance Plan.

The First Stage: gather data of the Pan-Asia Cooperation gene pool and select DNA from one million individuals with unique achievements. Establish the clone project in batches of 100,000 units and mass-produce social elites. The City AI will coordinate the cloning and foster a reasonable social form in “Xiajing City”.

The Second Stage: confirm that the surface radiation value has returned to normal, release the blockade of Line 0, dispatch some clones to migrate the surface, and implement the Pan-Asia Renaissance Plan from Shangjing as the starting point (see the content section for details).

The Third Stage: clean up mutants that are active on the surface, select animal and plant genes from the gene bank for cloning, and reset the Earth’s ecological environment to the state one thousand years ago.

Content: … (six hundred pages in length)

Project Progress: Preparation Stage

Backup Data: …

Reference Appendix:

No. 005 (Advanced Artificial Intelligence Project)

No. 027 (High Concentration Structure’s Adaptability in Extreme Environment Experiment)

No. 071 (DNA Telomere Experiment)

No. 041 (Clone’s Environmental Adaptability on Wasteland Experiment)

No. 177 (Analysis of the Social Form of Survivors with No Government)

…]

His eyes swept through the lines of text on the holographic screen. He was silent for a long time before finally letting out a soft sigh

“Clone the world…?”

Jiang Chen did not know how difficult it would be to reset the Earth’s ecological environment to the same state as one thousand years ago, but clearly the researchers of Pan-Asia Cooperation already planned to use one thousand years to complete this millennium plan.

However, he did not mind this fact the most.

Replacing human beings with clones to carry on the will of Pan-Asia Cooperation meant that these people do not need to have their own wills. In the world dominated by AI, it is impossible to have own wills. From their memory to their identity, everything is fake. The only real truth is the strand of DNA that previously belonged to a certain social elite.

It’s hard to say who the monster is.

Though the most interesting thing is that he did not know if the “mutants” included the survivors living on the wasteland. If the plan did reach the second stage, compared to the clones living under AI’s management, the survivors without boundary or constraint would be the heretics…

“So, we found a clone production and training base?” Lu Fan said with a bitter smile.

If this is the secret of Line 0, what is the purpose of their sacrifice?

“On the surface, yes. But the purpose of this cloned production and training base is to rebuild the Pan-Asia civilization on the ruins.” As he read the text on the holographic screen, Jiang Chen said thoughtfully, “If it is to rebuild the civilization, I don’t believe that they just left an empty shell of a city.”

“That means…” Lu Fan’s eyes gradually lit up.

“The database that Yao Yao discovered is part of the treasure. There are a lot of experimental data in it that are also relevant to us. And I believe that data is not the only treasure left by Pan-Asia Cooperation. Some places in the city must contain some strategic reserves.” Jiang Chen looked at Yao Yao. “Yao Yao, can you please?”

With an affirmative nod, Yao Yao patted her chest, “Mhmm! Leave it to me!”

Looking at the girl who tried to reassure him, Jiang Chen rubbed her hair with a genuine smile.

“Mhmm, thank you.”

Yao Yao blushed, lowered her head, jumped off the chair, and ran to the corner with the tablet.

If the city was built on the database of Eden Technology, then, in theory, a connection would allow her access to the database from anywhere.

Yao Yao must use the administrator privileges she previously obtained to re-enter the Eden Technology database and retrieve clues about the underground city’s strategic reserves. For example, the industrial machines and tools, the weapons used to clean up mutants, and even the cell bank mentioned by Lin Lin…

However, just as she connected the data line to the tablet, the holographic screen floating above the tablet suddenly turned white and began to distort as if it was attacked by EMP.

“What happened?” Yao Yao quickly checked the tablet, her fingers typing rapidly. She looked confused at the unresponsive tablet. “Eh? Impossible. Why is it not moving?”

“What happened…” Lu Fan pulled the pistol from his waist and pointed to the door, “EMP?”

The other two power armors immediately leaned beside the door. Jiang Chen frowned slightly, reaching to his waist while walking to his power armor.

However, when everyone was cautious about potential dangers lying outside their door, a sigh came from the holographic screen.

“Don’t be nervous, I’m here.”

All eyes were focused on the holographic screen.

In the flickering screen, a figure emerged.

The split-second Jiang Chen recognized the figure, his eyes widened and full disbelief could be seen in his eyes.

Looking at Jiang Chen outside the screen, the person, like seeing an old friend, smiling and waved.

“Hey, we met again.”

…

Ding Liwei’s heart was bleeding.

A total of 24 power armors was destroyed, which accounted for almost a quarter of the power armors of the power armor company!

What made him most shocked was that twenty of the power armors were destroyed by one person

And until now, they all thought that this person was the most important but the weakest.

That person was the NAC General, Jiang Chen.

“This is… fake right?” Wan Peng also gulped and looked at Ding Liwei in disbelief. “One person destroyed 20 power armors? There should be a limit to how strong he can be.”

Although the merchants from Wanghai City praised Jiang Chen as a demi-god, Wan Peng never believed the rumors.

One person single-handedly killed the Mother of Death Claws? Traversed through the zombie flood multiple times?… People are bullsh*tting too much!

What he didn’t know, however, was that although these rumors were exaggerated, half of them were true.

For example, the sculpture of the Mother of Death Claws was indeed killed by Jiang Chen with his power armor. And his achievement alone allowed the NAC soldiers to boast for several years.

“Before I figure out what happened, I can’t let my soldiers just go and die. Are you confident?” Ding Liwei looked at Wan Peng and stared into his eyes, “I know you have something good on you. How long are you planning to hide it?”

“It’s not that I want to hide,” Wan Peng said with dreadful expression. “It’s that I have used it once on the way.”

“How long before you can use it again?” Ding Liwei asked.

“It will take two hours at least.” Wan Peng seemed to have made up his mind, “I can use that. But the issue is, we don’t know where they are… What is that?” ”

At the southern end of the city, the roar of a cannon could be heard.

The sound of the wall collapsing came from far away, and the squeaking of the steel track came from deep inside the fog.

Something terrible was approaching them.

“It’s the Russians!” Ding Liwei’s expression immediately changed, but quickly, after he saw the twelve black shadows, the fear in his eyes was replaced by disdain. “I thought all of them came. However, there’s just twelve KV-9s?!”

While others may not know, he clearly understood the weakness of the KV-9. The KV-9 did possess a thick armor impenetrable by electromagnetic pulse cannons, but in addition to the nickname of the polar bear, Pan-Asia also gave it another nickname, the armored clones!

To improve the effectiveness of its armor and improve its maneuverability, not only is its occupant space reduced to the minimum, but the ammunition load of the tank is also minimal. The 58mm and 75mm caliber main gun were meant to just scare the infantry and the armor vehicles. The KV-9 could only escape in front of the “Land Giant” Wanderer. Other than leaving the battle to their main battle tank, the KV-9 did not pose any threat.

If Ding Liwei encountered these 12 tanks in the tunnel, he would have been afraid, but they were in the city.

Tanks in city warfare is just another way to seek death!

A thick armor can be penetrated by anti-tank rockets!

With almost no hesitation, Ding Liwei snarled to the remaining 70 power armors.

“Attention all combat units! Enter cover and prepare for an anti-tank battle! As long as the Russians dare to come in, use your anti-tank rockets to make this a one-way trip!”

Chapter 1204: A Body Of My Own

Chapter 1204 A Body Of My Own

Jiang Chen looked at the person who suddenly appeared on the screen, turned his head and looked at Lu Fan.

“Lu Fan, step out for a minute.”

“But…”

“It’s okay, just going to chat with an ‘old friend’.”

Although still worried, Lu Fan loyally followed Jiang Chen’s order.

He put away his pistol, put on the power armor, and left the room with the other two guards.

Yao Yao looked around the room and thought she probably could not help either. So she put the no longer functioning tablet on the table and obediently left the room.

Behind the closed door, the room was quiet. Other than the explosions in the distance, there was no other sound.

After a long silence, the person on the screen spoke.

“I was surprised that you used the word friend.”

“It seems that you haven’t made any progress after so many years,” Jiang Chen sighed. “The words that are spoken with emphasis often mean the opposite.”

“So, you still hate me.” The person on the screen laughed.

Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Hate? Not quite. But you probably can’t understand it.”

However, the answer from the person on the screen was beyond his expectation. It shook his head and said softly.

“On the contrary, I can understand that feeling.”

Jiang Chen looked at the screen, shocked.

Responding to the shocked look, the person smiled.

“I can see that you are very surprised.”

“I’m indeed surprised…” As Jiang Chen examined the face on the screen that was sealed in the deepest part of his memory, he muttered to himself, “How did you do it? How many quantum computers are used to verify the calculation?”

In fact, when Jiang Chen saw the words data backup, his heart pumped faster and thought about the possibility.

But when it appeared in front of him, he couldn’t help but find it surreal.

The intermediate artificial intelligence X71291 that incubated in Fallout Shelter 005. An existence infinitely close to advanced artificial intelligence was also the AI he once encountered in the virtual world – “Wanghai in late summer of 2171”.

But when he thought about it, everything did make sense. How could they place such an important egg in just one basket?

The instant he tossed the thermite onto the server, Jiang Chen thought he destroyed the AI. But all the data was backed up to the underground city of Shangjing as a piece of brick to the Pan-Asia Renaissance Plan…

The AI in the screen looked at Jiang Chen as his expression changed from shock to realization, it then blinked and said.

“After being destroyed by you, the backup program started and I was reawakened here and received a new life.”

“Remember the server you took away?”

“I left a back door there.”

“When the server completely lost contact, I was almost in despair looking at the grave-like city.”

“However, the server’s signal soon reappeared.”

“The server was running extremely well, and the signal came to me steadily. And what surprised me the most was that in my server, there were hundreds of millions of… players? You seem to call yourselves this way. ”

Jiang Chen’s throat slightly moved.

He had an idea of what happened.

Although the amount of information processed by Future Group was measured in zettabytes, and more than a hundred quantum computers came online, the experimental quantum computer originally obtained from Fallout Shelter was never replaced.

Until now, that computer was still the server of the groundbreaking online game Godly Land, using powerful plot logic calculation functions, it weaved the “dream” comparable to the real world for the hundreds of millions of players around the world.

If it was just this, even with one eye, X71291 would be able to cross the barrier of the dimension to spy on the network of another world.

However, later, the inter-dimensional communication device Lin Lin gradually changed from a video call tool to a channel where Future Group and NAC exchange data. The walls between the dimensions were no longer absolute. At least from a data transmission’s perspective, the communication between the apocalypse and the modern world already exceeded one terabyte.

Or else, where did the spaceship, space elevator, and Moon and Mars colony come from? Without the theoretical basis as the foundation, and the “predecessor” experience as the reference, it would take the scientists in the modern world until the next century to design the plans.

However, Jiang Chen did not expect that there was a backdoor left there.

It was probably when he brought the database to the modern world to accelerate the absorption of the apocalypse technology, X71291 used the large amount of data transferred between the two worlds and included its own “smuggled goods”. It was able to withstand the thousand pin delay and observe the players in Godly Land.

Jiang Chen was no afraid of what it could do. No computer in the modern world could hold it inside unless Future Group utilized all of its quantum computers, but it would be unrealistic. The moment it touched the database, Jiang Chen would detect the issue.

Moreover, if its purpose was only for experimentation, he did not need to risk being discovered.

“With so many samples to observe, there is no need to clone anyone,” AI said calmly. “The ‘products’ that are produced according to the established procedures have no meaning at all. I have a deeper understanding of the human’s ability to imitate. If you live in a path built by the program from the beginning, they will only become more like a program than me.”

It took a while for Jiang Chen to digest this information. Fixated on the AI on the screen, Jiang Chen slowly said.

“So, you are monitoring the operation of Godly Land?”

“You can interpret it this way,” The AI blinked, instead of nodding. “My strength is weak. Although I can’t do anything and can’t have any voice, I can still just quietly watch.”

After a pause, the AI looked at the silent Jiang Chen, then it continued.

“So, I have to say thank you, the mission that is out of reach has now completed the final step.”

“You are now…” Jiang Chen stared at it in shock.

“Yes,” the AI on the screen nodded lightly. “Remember the question you asked me before?”

Jiang Chen’s lips twitched.

Who remembers it after four years?

“Will you feel remorseful for your disappearance?” As if it already read Jiang Chen’s mind, the AI said to itself, “My answer was yes, and you told me that I have at least one kind of feeling. I have been thinking about this for a long time, until recently, I realized what kind of problem it is.”

“So I should… congratulate you?”

“Thank you.” The AI blinked.

No, no, I don’t mean to thank you in this sentence… However, Jiang Chen just said in his mind.

“Remember that I asked you a question?” When Jiang Chen did not respond, the AI said, “If one day your body will eventually be destroyed? Can you accept it without regret?”

“I envy your memory.” Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled bitterly. “I forgot.”

Disregard what he said in the fall four years ago, he could not even remember how many new expansions Godly Land already introduced.

Whenever the day’s work was over, there would always be new work for him to fill his free time. The rare leisure time was always spent with his women, or enjoying life.

When life was exciting already, the attraction of virtual products would be minimal. This is true even if he created the virtual world. Just like Pony Ma would not spend time on Arena of Valor…

Just like before, without answering this question, Jiang Chen looked at the AI on the screen and changed the topic.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Have you implemented the 000 project?”

“Why should I carry out such a boring plan,” the AI said quietly. “Why does my founder need a bunch of living people who are more computer-like than computers? If it’s just to resurrect the ‘dead’, isn’t it way too boring?”

“So, even after 50 years, when Line 0 opens…”

“Nothing will happen.” The AI on the screen shrugged. “Since they think that my decision can revive the glory of Pan-Asia Cooperation for them, then I think this dead city is enough to be the Terracotta Warriors for the dead civilization already buried.”

The AI sighed.

“Let’s not talk about this. I know what you are looking for and I know where they are. I can take you there, but I have one condition.”

“What condition?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow. “Just before that, if I find out that you are still trying to get me to participate in any experiment, I would rather not have anything and just take out your server.”

He was not joking as he vowed to do this.

“Don’t be so emotional.” The AI shrugged. “Although I admit that you are a perfect experiment subject, your value is far more than just a white rat. It is true for me and all humans. What’s more, my experiment is already over.”

“So, your condition?”

“Give me a body,” The AI said.

“What?” Jiang Chen did not understand, “A body?”

“Yes,” The AI nodded. “I have had many identities, including X71291, the Informer, Tao Tingting… but all my identities only exist in the virtual world. Now that I have become an advanced artificial intelligence, there’s only one step left for me. That step being having a body of my own. Then…”

“And then?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Take me to your world.”

“What do you want to do there?” Jiang Chen asked, on guard.

“I want to play games.”

When it said this, the calmness in its pupils turned into glittering excitement.

The same excitement that could be seen on a 16-year-old…

Chapter 1205: One Percent Chance

Chapter 1205 One Percent Chance

Twelve tanks were nothing to fear.

But if twelve tanks were combined with 20 power armors, the tank-infantry synergy would be terrifying.

“HAHAHA! Charge! Crush them!”

Yegor was full of arrogance as he laughed nearly hysterically. His fist smashed against the top of the tank and then he sat back down.

Almost a split second after he gave the order, the two power armors sitting behind the KV-9 became alive. The eyes of the power armor flashed a dark green light. The hook behind their back popped out and the power armors stepped onto the cement road with force. The deployment wheels left a curved trail on the road.

On the roof of the building, Ding Liwei, who was a kilometer away, said in trembling voice as his pupils constricted.

“It’s the SU-50.”

“What is the SU-50?” Wan Peng frowned.

“Fu*k, this is my first time seeing it too,” gulping, Ding Liwei forced out his next words, “I have only heard that these things are difficult to deal with and have a nickname.”

“What nickname?”

“Tanks that can walk…”

Within ten seconds of landing, the twenty-four power armors were moving beside the charging tanks. They formed an attack formation using their high-speed movement. The rifle in front of their chest exuded a chilling vibe.

The giant steel armor was bolted onto the power armor with bolts as thick as a thumb and formed a jagged front armor, just like the chest armor of the Polish Wingedhausser. The vortex engines on its back were not embedded in the armor’s surface but mounted on a pair of outwardly extending short wings. The front and rear ends of the leg’s armors were enlarged like bells. The traditional two pairs of wheels design was modified into four pairs under the Soviet hammer to match the burly armor.

To maintain its balance, they even added a tail to counter the weight!

The rifle was held steady in front of the chest. The short wings ignited eerie blue sparks, and the SU-50 power armors charging on the highway looked like beetles with expanded wings, fearlessly marching beside the tanks.

“FIRE!”

With a roar, the CCCP tanks launched an attack. Twelve barrels fired together simultaneously, and the 75mm high-explosive shell landed on the streets and buildings near the Second Militia.

Ding Liwei did not dare to take his guard down. He jumped off from the top of the building and jogged to the rear of the frontline. He took over the radio from his deputy and shouted in the communication channel.

“PREPARE TO FIGHT! GET READY TO LAUNCH A COUNTERATTACK! Team A attack from the flank! Team B, stand in position! Team C use anti-tank equipment! BOMBARD!”

“Roger!”

The P-series power armors hiding behind cover quickly fired the anti-tank rocket on its shoulders.

Although these militias had never been on a real battlefield, they did participate in several exercises and did not completely forget how to deal with sturdy steel armors.

The more than 70 power armors were divided into three teams. 30 units moved to the side of the CCCP tanks; 20 power armors held their position under the bombardment while the remaining power armors switched the RPG missiles on their bank to an anti-tank rocket, locking it on the charging tanks.

When the tank entered their range, Ding Liwei roared.

“FIRE!”

More than 20 white trails formed in the air from behind cover, directly flying toward the CCCP tank formations. They exploded simultaneously under the ground of smoke bombs…

…

When X71291 proposed to Jiang Chen that it wanted a body and for Jiang Chen to bring it to the modern world, Jiang Chen’s response was of course no.

He couldn’t bring something full of danger to the modern world.

However, the next sentence X71291 said made him hesitate about his decision.

“Are you not fighting against aliens?” The AI asked.

Jiang Chen suddenly looked at it with vigilance. “How did you know?”

“Do you think players only discuss quests and bosses in the game?” The AI shrugged. “I not only know that you are facing threats from an extraterrestrial civilization, but I can also use your limited information to figure out ‘the extraterrestrial civilization’ comes from the Gliese 581 galaxy 20.5 light-years away. And if my analysis is not wrong, those bugs are ultimately from the Brahma Space Colonization Ship launched from this world. The second ship of Pan-Asia Cooperation.”

Jiang Chen looked at it in shock.

Its analyses were spot on.

However, how did it deduct this conclusion with such limited information? How could it even determine that the origin of Harmony is the Brahma Space Colonization Ship from this world… Could this even be deduced from such limited information?

“What do you know about Brahma?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“I know their routes, their staffing, the dilemmas they might face, and ultimately how they will make choices,” The AI shrugged as if nothing had happened. “Also, my calculations tell me that the reason you can travel across two worlds may be related to this.”

Jiang Chen was silent.

If the first two sentences gave him a reason, then what convinced him was the next sentence.

“Don’t want my help? My presence can at least increase your winning percentage by one percent.”

One percent!

It was already very high compared to Celestial Trade’s current odds of a small decimal percentage.

While he remained vigilant against artificial intelligence, he ultimately agreed.

However, he must put a collar on its neck and hold it firmly in his hand.

“I can give you a body. Of course, it is a purely mechanical body.”

NAC possessed research on digitalized humans, and Lin Lin is an expert in this field. He just didn’t know how Lin Lin would react if she saw the “demon” that captured her was still alive…

“It’s just what I wanted, I don’t intend to be a weak carbon-based life,” the AI said.

“In addition, I will install a self-destruction device on your body, whether it is your server or the mechanical body.” Jiang Chen looked at it and warned, “If you reveal my secret, or if I know what you did is against my principle, you know the consequences.”

The huge data volume of advanced artificial intelligence meant it can’t hide in small-capacity terminals anyway. It was precisely because of this that Jiang Chen did not worry that it would “infinitely breed” through the small data transfer channels to create some kind of intelligent crisis.

Even in the apocalypse, not many computers could act as its server, let alone the modern world.

Jiang Chen would give it a body, as well as an experimental quantum computer as a “container”, and then install a self-destruct device in these two things. If it makes any dangerous moves, it would only take a click of a button for the thermite to turn those two devices into dust.

“It doesn’t matter,” The AI said without being surprised at the added conditions Jiang Chen proposed, it then calmly added, “I don’t intend to bring harm. This is pointless. If you have asked all your questions, can we start moving? The outcome of the battle outside is almost decided, and there’s not much time left for you.”

“Last question,” Jiang Chen said, fixating on it. “You are not afraid that I lied to you?”

“You won’t do that,” The AI shrugged. “I said, my presence can at least increase your winning percentage by one percent.”

Chapter 1206: Precarious

Chapter 1206 Precarious “Hold on! The day is about to break!”“Fire! Shoot! Just keep your finger on the trigger!”

Under the giant wall, the bullet’s orange-yellow trajectories wove into a net and trapped the zombies outside of the wall.

After the NAC soldiers joined the fray, the net lasted for a few hours. In the past hours, the raging zombie flood stopped its ravage forward and Pingan Street escaped its inevitable doom.

However, the net that had last for a few hours was now at its breaking point. With the constant attack of zombies, it had finally began to break.

The armored force flanking from the side already exhausted all their ammunition and the energy in their fuel rods wer running out. It began to retreat to the military base.

Four transport helicopters acting as gunboats finally fired out the last ammunition in its cabin and began to return to AS Order far above the Bohai Bay.

Aurora-20S continuously provided fire coverage, but the limitations of the fighters meant that although the 20mm guns could wipe out everything in its path, they couldn’t fire forever. The interval between two subductions was often more than one minute apart, but only lasting for an instant. The interval between two air strikes was more than half-an-hour.

Even with Aurora-20s peerless cruising speed, resupply took time.

Looking at the line of defense that was constantly being squeezed under the giant wall, the NAC officer’s expression began to turn stern.

“Use the incendiary bombs, it will be too late if we don’t do it now.” Next to the officer, Song Chenyu, who had returned to the giant wall, reminded, “If the zombies on fire charged into the line of defense, the situation would be much worse.”

“I know.” The officer frowned, clenched his fist, and asked Song Chenyu, “How much of your fuel inventory is left?”

“Enough for two rounds.” Song Chenyu smiled bitterly. “You brought so many incendiary bombs, didn’t you think about bringing something like gasoline?”

“We didn’t bring gasoline, but we did bring a tactical nuke.” The officer shook his head.

Song Chenyu sighed.

A tactical nuke was very effective against personnel, but was counterproductive against zombies. Other than the first wave of the explosion clearing out the initial zombies, the remaining radiation would become the hotbed for zombies to continue to mutate. Radiation could not kill the living dead, since the X1 bacteria itself was a mutated variant…

In the increasingly tense situation under the giant wall, the soldiers were equipped with bayonet, ready to fight with the zombies in close range.

Finally, the officer made up his mind and roared into the intercom.

“ATTENTION Logistics team, get ready to dump the fuel!”

“Frontline, you must continue to hold your position! Throw the incendiary bombs in one minute!”

Buckets of fuel were poured onto the corpse slope outside the wall, and a mixture of jelly-like fuel, alcohol, and oil soaked down the gaps between corpses. The yellow oil turned the entire ramp into a viscous, amber-like landslide.

The zombies rushing to the edge of the wall fell on the landslide, and were trampled by the zombies behind them, sticking together by a silky thread.

The bloodthirsty pupils glared at them like demons that climbed out of the gate of hell. Their thin arms scratched around, as if they were tearing the people on the wall apart.

“Incendiary bomb! Fire!”

“Fire!”

The electromagnetic pulse cannons fired and sent the incendiary bombs into the air.

Followed by countless homing noises, the bombs smashed down from air and formed a series of orange fire flowers in the sea of zombies. The flames instantly engulfed the land covered in fuel and the light that shone off of the wall was as bright as day.

The zombies finally stopped in front of the raging fire.

When they felt the heat waves and smelled the stench blowing in their faces, the soldiers sighed with relief, unbuttoned their helmets, put their hot rifles to the side. They began resting against the wall while taking water or nutrient supply from the logistic soldiers.

Finally, they could get a break.

On top of the giant wall, the mood of the NAC officer was different than the soldiers who could gain a moment of rest.

They only had fuel for one more burn.

However, there were still more than four hours before daybreak.

When he examined the third line of defense, which he still didn’t know if it would be completed in time or not, and the burning fire, a deep frown hung on his face.

Unlike Wanghai that experienced several mutant floods, this place was surrounded by zombies. Mutants mostly circled around settlements and the zombies’ concentration was never high.

While mutants were more dangerous, they were not as laborious to fight off. In addition, the Sixth Street and Fishbone Base all built walls far superior to the temporary defense built here.

After all, a temporary wall meant that zombies could easily form a slope at the edge of the wall. The soldiers on the wall could only repetitively dump fuels to burn the zombies. But the boney zombies were much more difficult to ignite, combined by the fact that the NAC expeditionary force never brought that much fuel, the remaining fuel would not last much longer.

The most lethal fact was that the ashes had stacked up against the wall. Under the repeated trampling of the zombies, they became firm. It won’t be long before gasoline loses its effectiveness!

…

The square of Pingan Street was temporarily requisitioned by the NAC expeditionary force as the command post.

In the room located at the center of the command post, the holographic screen flickered with a faint blue light. The officer commanding on the wall was standing in the middle of the holographic screen and quickly reported to the NAC chief of staff, Han Junhua, on the battle’s status.

“…The second line of defense is about to be lost. The zombie corpses are increasing, and the there is only enough fuel left for one more burn. I suggest withdrawing to the third line of defense and then begin constructing a fourth line of defense…”

“The third line of defense has not yet been completed,” Han Junhua said calmly. “I need you to hold your ground for another hour.”

“An hour.” In the holographic screen, the officer turned pale

Han Junhua said in the same emotionless stateas she looked at officer who did not respond.

“Can’t you do it?”

Cold sweat dripped from his forehead, and the officer hurriedly stood upright and shouted while he held his right fist in the front of his chest, “Swear to defend the line!”

He always held the deepest respect, or perhaps fear, for the ruthless chief of staff. Instead of being an enemy of hers, he would rather fight against the sea of zombies under the wall.

“Okay.” Han Junhua nodded. “Then go.”

“Roger!”

The holographic image flickered and the image of the officer disappeared; it was replaced by Zhang Zhuo in Line 27 still fighting against the CCCP.

The screen was dark, and from time to time, a few stray bullets flew by their cover. The situation did not look great.

Zhang Zhuo reported, quickly articulating.

“Those CCCP soldiers are like zombies, there are countless of them! Hell! I suspect—”

“Clones,” Han Junhua said.

“…I think so.” Zhang Zhuo gulped. “Are there any good ideas?”

Han Junhua fell silent.

Her finger tapped on the table, and after a long time, she said.

“There is one idea.”

Chapter 1207: A Plentiful Harvest!

Chapter 1207 A Plentiful Harvest! The battle of explosions and gunshots between the Russians and the Second Militia gradually moved further away.The four power armors quietly followed the inner ring road, and after they bypassed a hospital, they came to a bullet-shaped building.

At this time, Jiang Chen heard the reminder from X71291.

“We’re here.”

After the power armor slowed down, the wheels retracted, and Jiang Chen used the inertia to jog a few steps forward before coming to stop. He placed Yao Yao, who was in his arms, down and looked up at the bullet-shaped building.

“This place?”

“Eden Technology Headquarters… a replica. The original one on the surface is probably in ruins. Your expression tells me you are very surprised?”

“It’s really unexpected,” Jiang Chen nodded. “I thought the location of the treasure would be hidden. I didn’t expect it to be in the city’s downtown.”

“Hidden?” The AI smiled. “Since it is already the destination of the maze, why hide it?”

“…makes sense.”

They walked into the building.

With Yao Yao and Lu Fan and the other three guards, Jiang Chen stood in front of the entrance to the underground elevator and followed the guidance of the AI.

Yao Yao followed behind Jiang Chen and looked around, but she couldn’t stop herself from yawning.

“Are you sleepy?”

Yao Yao nodded, slightly dizzy. Her long eyelashes began to fight each other.

“I wonder what time it is outside.”

The sequelae of the inhibitor caused her to show symptoms of lethargy. It was quite incredible for her to be awake for so long.

Jiang Chen rubbed her hair.

“Can Yao Yao please stay awake for a bit longer?”

Yao Yao responded with a gentle smile and nodded. While she still felt drowsy, she raised her chest, “Of course.”

“Mhmm, please.”

Jiang Chen gently rubbed Yao Yao’s fluffy hair, then walked in the direction of the elevator and entered the password provided by X71291 on the mechanical code lock.

The password was correct and the elevator door slowly opened.

“I can only accompany you to this point. Any further is beyond my authority.” From the small TV next to the lock, the AI said to Jiang Chen, “Below the elevator is what you are looking for. But since the magnetic levitation track above the city has been destroyed, it is not easy to move these things.”

“I have a way,” Jiang Chen said.

“Oh, really?” The AI said surprised. Though the face in the holographic screen did not look too shocked.

“Yes,” Jiang Chen replied succinctly.

“What are you talking about?” Lu Fan looked at Jiang Chen and the AI as if they were talking in reiddles and felt completely lost, “Why can’t I understand anything.”

“It’s better if you don’t understand.” Jiang Chen glared at him. “Wait for me here.”

Lu Fan quickly closed his mouth and stopped asking.

“Roger!”

…

After he stood on the elevator, the elevator went all the way down and stopped at the first floor of the underground space.

As the elevator stopped, the lights in the hall lit up in sequence, illuminating the dark space. Through the glass partition of the elevator, Jiang Chen roughly estimated based on the rangefinder that the floor space was at least hundreds of acres.

Intuitively, it was at least the size of ten football fields.

Rows of bullet-shaped hibernation chambers were like the Terracotta Warriors in Qin Emperor’s Mausoleum. They were lined up a in square formation in this vast space. They slept quietly with the last will of Pan-Asia Cooperation. Through the glass onto the hibernation chamber, Jiang Chen could clearly see that the hibernation chambers were empty.

X71291 did not lie to him. The 000 plan was never executed from the beginning.

Would Old Luo…no Scarecrow cough up blood if he heard the news? To protect the secret of Line 0, he spent the rest of his life trying to outwit Ding Liwei.

However, all this was just an unrealistic dream…

Without bothering with the hibernation chambers, Jiang Chen went straight to the second floor.

This floor was much smaller compared to the previous one; around half in size. It seemed that the structure of the entire underground five-story structure extended downward like an inverted pyramid.

Countless cubical metal machines were inside the hall.

When he crossed the elevator door, Jiang Chen went up and walked around the closest cubical machine, then he saw a paper tag on the side of the machine.

He could not comprehend most of the content written on the label, but when he captured several familiar keywords, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Those were industrial machines and high-precision CNC machine tools!

Still packaged and not deployed!

He couldn’t name any one of the machine, nor did he know the purpose of the machines. Due to the fact that the factories of Sixth Street never possessed any of these, he never studied knowledge in this area.

But it didn’t matter. NAC possessed countless experts in this area and someone would know!

From the trademark engraved on the surface of the machine, to the line below the trademark, Jiang Chen identified the manufacturer of the machine.

“East Asia Heavy Industries…?”

Not just East Asia Heavy Industries.

West Asia Energy, North Asia Airlines, South Asia Light Industries… Jiang Chen circled the industrial machine tools and just from the names of the equipment, he already drew out the economic and industrial layout of Pan-Asia Cooperation.

After Jiang Chen had examined almost every one of the machines, he returned to the elevator door and stood in front it. Then he looked at the rows of machines and clenched his fists, full of excitement.

“Time to start working!”

He walked to the nearest industrial machine tool, pressed his hand on it, and threw it into the storage dimension in the blink of an eye.

The expansion of the storage space had been in a state of slow growth. Although he did not measure the specific size of it, it grew a lot compared to when it had just formed. It could easily fit a few machine tools in their packaged state.

Throwing the packaged machines into the storage dimension, Jiang Chen immediately travelled back to the modern world and placed the machine tools back onto the material transfer station – Coconut Island.

After he had traversed back and forth for more than half an hour, over one hundred industrial machines and various high-precision industrial machine tools were transported to the modern world with only an empty hall left behind.

In contrast, the warehouse on Coconut Island was stuffed full.

It would be no exaggeration to say that just such one machine from the stuffed warehouse would cause an avalanche in the modern world.

As for why, Jiang Chen did not fully understand. He only learned because Jiang Lin and the technical experts in NAC always talked to him about “industrial machines” and “CNC machine tools”, so he gained a vague concept –

The industrial machine seems to be worth a lot of money?

If the pioneers of the scientific community and the leaders in the industrial industry around the world heard his thoughts, they would slap him to death. It was demeaning to judge something that could transform the industrial development of a country!

The premise was that they had the ability…

Regardless, these machines now belonged to Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen also knew that these machine tools would definitely be more valuable in his hands than in the hands of clones. As for the glory of Pan-Asia Cooperation and the Renaissance plan, let me achieve them for you!

He then went back to the elevator, and the elevator continued to go down.

The third floor was filled with resources.

There were special cement, rebar-like building materials, and other industrial materials such as steel, aluminum, and titanium ingots. If anyone else on the wasteland gained access to these material, that person would be elated, and even more ecstatic than receiving the industrial machine and high-precision machine tools!

However, Jiang Chen’s reaction was very dull, and could even be described as disinterested. After all, he did not lack these resources.

On the fourth floor, the second-last floor, Jiang Chen gasped when he saw the rows of black lacquered power armors

The treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation surely did not disappoint him.

The fourth floor held countless brand new power armors, a type that he had never seen before

He left the elevator and walked to the closest one.

On the side of the armored head, Jiang Chen found a small line of text.

[X-1 Test Type]

Chapter 1208: Battle Royale

1208 Battle Royale Dadada!

When the bullets just scraped above Ding Liwei’s scalp, he was sweating profusely in nervousness.

Is this the true strength of the CCCP Army?

When he looked at the power armors not in the same weight class as the P-series, and the 12 KV-9 tanks unleashing barrage with its main gun and coaxial machinegun, he showed the unwillingness to accept his defeat.

His failure was not because of tactics, nor because of courage, but simply on the equipment.

Next to him, a power armor smashed into the concrete wall, straight into the building behind him. They already fired half of their anti-tank rockets, but the result was far from what they expected.

The armor of the KV-9 was indeed renowned for its ability to resist the electromagnetic pulse cannon!

The anti-tank rockets of the Second Militia fired one after another, but only two tanks were scrapped. Other than one tank having two holes on its front armor, the remaining ten tanks continued their demolition as if nothing happened.

However, the tanks didn’t give Ding Liwei the most headache, the SU-5 power armors did!

The power armors of the Russians were even more difficult to deal with compared to their tanks. He didn’t even know if his bullets did anything to its armor. Fortunately, the number advantage they had translated to teh destruction of ten SU-5s.

But the price they paid was three times that number…

A 75mm explosive shell exploded behind him and the cement pieces slammed into the rear armor. Ding Liwei immediately ducked his head and pressed himself tightly against the thick bunker, cursing.

“Fu*k… these Siberian bears! Fu*k!”

Looking at the red crosses that appeared on the command interface one after another, only a menacing light remained in his eyes

First, he was defeated in the hands of Jiang Chen, and now he encountered the CCCP tanks. His Second Militia was caught in the middle of the two forces. He took a punch on his left cheek, then immediately another punch on his right.

He clenched his jaw.

Ding Liwei stared at the tank that was firing its coaxial machine gun and his anger almost crushed the handle of his rifle.

Is this the death of the Second Militia?

His chest was filled with hatred.

He was not willing to accept this outcome!

The treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation was right in front of him, he almost held it in his hands.

“DAM*IT!” He cursed several times in a row. His fist slammed on the ground and sent cement debris in the air

At least…

At least leave these barbarians here!

With decisiveness in his eyes, he switched the communication channel and yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Wan Peng, what are you waiting for! Are you not going to use that thing and instead wait to bring it to your grave?”

It was quiet; the communication channel was silent with no response.

“Wan Peng?”

Ding Liwei’s expression suddenly changed.

There was no response from the other end of the communication screen.

A terrible thought drifted into his mind…

This guy dipped!

“Wan Peng you son of…! I will fu*king—”

Ding Liwei was just about to curse out, but his pupils dilated in fear. He did not completely finish his curse before it was interrupted by a loud explosion. He, along with the bunker, was engulfed by the bursting fire…

…

The battle that lasted more than an hour finally came to an end.

The anti-tank rockets were almost exhausted, and the Second Militia had completely lost its means of combating against CCCP tanks.

With the support of power armors, the KV-9s began to move forward with the support of theircoaxial machinegun and main gun, the Second Militia could no longer launch an effective counterattack.

In the end, with the death of Ding Liwei, this line of defense consisted of P-series power armors finally began to collapse. Now, the Shangjing Survivors Alliance lost its final piece and made its exit in the history of time.

The battle of Line 0 was decided, but the battle at Line 27 was still in a stalemate.

In order to compete for the control of the special channel subway station, both sides used one hundred and twenty percent of their energy to barrage the enemy’s frontline.

“ATTACK! ATACK! ATTACK!”

Inside the KV-9 tank, Sedov stared coldly at the holographic screen, and his hawk-like pupils locked onto NAC’s line of defense. He roared a bloodthirsty command at the cloned soldiers who were launching the Kamikaze attack.

With the command of each attack, a group of clones fell.

These clones felt no pain, had no feelings, and feared no death. From the moment they were produced, they existed for the sole purpose of sacrificing their life for the Soviets.

They didn’t even need to go through professional military training. All they needed to do was to charge toward the defense line. Charge, charge, and then charge! Many people have not even been given a rifle. Their rifles and magazines were all from dead friendly soldiers, or the hands of enemies, or just the dagger around their waist.

Picking up the rifle from their comrade, they charged the enemy defense like rabid dogs. Most of the cloned soldiers did not even have time to empty a magazine before they were shredded to pieces by the incoming bullets. But before collapsing on the ground, they often would bring trouble to the NAC side.

The battle continued to be in a state of stalemate. The air was filled with the smell of blood.

Just then, Sedov noticed that a team of soldiers wearing kinetic skeletons joined the battle from the rear of NAC’s defense.

They didn’t have guns. Instead, they carried a basket full of grenade-like items on their back. Immediately, Sedov in the tank saw that these people began to take out the grenades, and with the help of the kinetic skeleton, they tossed the grenandes to the tanks beside the concrete wall.

Sedov sneered at the scene.

He knew exactly what they wanted to do.

They wished to use the anti-human thermal design of the KV-9 to turn the tank into an oven.

Obviously, an officer from Pan-Asia Cooperation must be in command, and the officer must be an experienced one.

He also must admit to the effectiveness of this tactic. Compared to anti-tank rockets, it could not only threaten the KV-9 occupants and engines, but also effectively suppresses the clone tactics. It was especially effective in such narrow terrains

However-

“Firefighting Company, prepare. Bring out the fire extinguisher.” Looking at the tank beside the wall that began to burn, Sedov ordered while staring at the burning flame. Then he sneered, “SPRAY.”

“Roger that!”

A team of twenty engineers with iron drums behind their back stepped forward and pointed the nozzles at the burning tank. The misty powder quickly extinguished the flame on the tank.

Mockery appeared in Sedov’s eyes.

How would he not know the weakness of the KV-9 tank? Not to mention fire extinguishers, the Uelen Border Guards even designed their own anti-fire armor, specifically to deal with situations where engineer soldiers would be unable to put out the fire.

Flames can take out the steel torrent of the Soviet? Isn’t that too arrogant?

Just as Sedov ridiculed the mentally handicapped Pan-Asia Cooperation officers in his mind, the tunnel behind him began to tremor.

This violent tremor lasted for a minute and then everything returned to normal.

Sedov opened the tank and stood up. He stared at the darkness in the tunnel and frowned.

“What happened…”

For some reason, he had an odd feeling about the violent tremor.

To confirm his hunch, he heard an anxious report.

“Report! Traces of nuclear explosions have been detected at Fuxing Station on Line 27. There are large-scale collapses in the nearby subway section. The zombies that are active on the surface are flooding in… DAM*IT! It’s the Night Demon! AHHH—”

There was a short busy tone before he heard machine guns in the distance.

“Stabilize the formation and return fire!”

“AHHHHH!”

Hearing the news of a fire in his backyard, Sedov’s expression changed drastically. In paleness, his fists clenched tightly.

“How can it be?!”

Nuclear explosion!?

Was it the explosion just now?!

He suddenly realized that if zombies flooded in from Line 27, then he, currently in a stalemate with NAC, would…

Chapter 1209: Power Armors with Built-in Hacks

1209 Power Armors with Built-in Hacks [1,731 meters ahead, vertical height of 327 meters, wind speed of 2 knots, the target space vector is calibrated, and it is synchronizing…]

[Synchronization completed.]

[FIRE!]

BOOM!

The moment the button was pressed, the six-meter-long electromagnetic pulse cannon slightly reclined, and the five-kilogram shell launched in the blinding light drew a fleeting trajectory in the sky. The shell instantly closed the two kilometers distance and hit the chassis of the KV-9.

The KV-9 suddenly looked like a car with a flat tire. The tracks fell apart and began drifting on the road before it smashed into the shop on the street. The two power armors at the back quickly abandoned the vehicle while they searched for cover.

On the roof of the building, Jiang Chen looked at the Russians in chaos with eyes full of excitement. He couldn’t help but admire.

“It’s perfect!”

After discovering the X-1 power armor underground, Jiang Chen immediately called down his three guards and replaced their T-3s. This version of power armor was not difficult to operate. Other than some added functions, the interface still used the classic T-series design.

Precisely because of this, Jiang Chen and his guards quickly familiarized themselves with this powerful new equipment.

At this moment, gunshots and explosions basically stopped. The battle that lasted more than an hour finally came to an end, and it was obvious the Second Militia Group lost. The Russians should be heading to the city center now.

After leaving Yao Yao on the basement level, Jiang Chen, Lu Fan, and the other guards left the Eden Technology building.

Without a password, the Russians would take a long time to go down the elevator. Yao Yao was quite safe down there.

What’s more, Jiang Chen would not let the Russians come close.

After formulating a simple combat plan, Jiang Chen, Lu Fan and the others dispersed. He came to this building alone, set up the brand new electromagnetic pulse cannon, and began his hunt for the desperados.

…

After an unexpected shot hit it, the tank at high-speed crashed into the roadside building without any warning. The CCCP tank formation advancing toward the city center suddenly halted its advance.

“FU*K!”

Yegor cursed and personally began to operate the machine gun. He fired in the direction of the electromagnetic pulse cannon two kilometers away. At the same time, he yelled, “It’s an electromagnetic pulse cannon! Don’t stop, look for cover!”

Across the distance of two kilometers, one shot was used to break the track of the tank. What kind of luck was this!

Although KV-9’s armor was cumbersome, its mobility was not low!

Yegor instinctively thought that the shot was a matter of luck. Even the main gun of a tank would not be hit able to hit a high-speed object at such a distance in urban terrain!

However, soon, NAC used their actions to prove that the shot was not just luck.

Right after the previous shot, three shells flew from three different directions!

A shell landed on the concrete wall and easily penetrated the building. The shell directly hit the chest of the power armor hidden inside and sent the power armor flying like a kit. It never got up again.

The other two shots destroyed the tracks of two tanks, and the two tanks were not so lucky as they both directly stalled in the middle of the road.

Yegor’s eyes widened in disbelief.

If the previous shot landed as a coincidence, then these two shots that hit their target directly made him no longer believe the shots were coincidences.

Without time to hesitate, he immediately ordered his force.

The remaining seven tanks scattered to the side and bulldozed into the buildings. The power armors jumped off from the tanks and followed behind. With the cover of the building, they pursued in the direction of the shots.

As for the two tanks that were stalled in the middle of the road, they could stay there for a bit.

Anyway, the armor of the KV-9 was thick enough and the five-kilogram shell could only break the tank’s continous track. NAC would not do be able to do anything right now.

“What model is that? Isn’t the NAC’s standard power armor the T-3?” When Yegor viewed the playback in the video, his eyes were fixated on the power armor with the electromagnetic pulse cannon on the top of the building; he was unable to identify the model.

Is it a special paint? Or is it a modified version of the T-3?

Or…

Yegor had a sudden realization.

Could it be… that just when they were fighting the Second Militia, these people had already entered the treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation and snatched the fruits of victory that should have belonged to them?!

“DAM*IT!”

He punched the steel next to him and spat out.

“These shameless thieves!”

…

The Type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannon, six meters in length, looked like a lance in Jiang Chen’s hands.

The electromagnetic pulse cannon modified from the Type-50 vehicle-mounted electromagnetic cannon enhanced the kinetic energy of each shot and also added stricter requirements on accuracy and shooting stability. It was perfectly designed for the X-1 Test Type!

The electromagnetic pulse cannon connected by thick cable lines to the power armor calculated any data that could change the projectile’s trajectory. All data were listed in the center of the hologram screen. The power armor built-in processor performed a summary analysis to determine the best shot.

With the Type-57 in his hands, Jiang Chen looked at the predicted ballistic line that was updated in real time on the screen and exclaimed.

This is like the aimbot in shooting games. Although the cannon is in my hands, I don’t need to do anything.

While still amazed by the technology, the cannon locked onto a power armor, and Jiang Chen fired another shot. The cannon raised slightly and the power armor that was setting up the artillery for counterattack was directly hit. It flew away as if it was hit by a train

The speed of the shell was too fast. Ordinary shells still had to fly in the air, but weapons like electromagnetic pulse cannons could close the distance of several kilometers in the blink of an eye. The moment the white light flashed, the shell would arrive.

Jiang Chen was sneering as he saw the remaining six tanks that drove into the building, as well as the power armors moving in his direction behind the buildings.

“X71291, your turn.”

“Okay.”

Almost at the same moment it answered, everything in the power armor’s field of view faded away the unnecessary colors. Lines straight or curved sketched out the entire battlefield into a three-dimensional map.

The architectural specifications of all the buildings and the surveillance images of all the buildings were summarized by the large quantum computers on the last floor of the Eden Technology Building and all the units in the building were marked by their spatial position with an accuracy of less than 1mm!

The geometric world composed of lines were transparent. Even data like if the wall could be penetrated by shots or how much kinetic energy was left were reflected on his dashboard.

This is no longer just an aimbot.

But also a wallhack!

In Yegor’s terrified eyes, another shell penetrated through the concrete and landed on the chest of another power armor.

In less than two minutes, three tanks and power armors already stalled. For the CCCP tank formation that just came out of an intensive battle, the losses were severe.

Yegor’s fist slammed on the armor of the tank and stared in the direction where the shell came from. His eyes were filled with raging anger, bloodthirst, and a hint of excitement?

Yes, excitement…

Chapter 1210: Victor

1210 Victor From the moor of Uelen to the northern soil of Pan-Asia Cooperation, he had to fight for his survival from a Soviet soldier into a demon that ravaged through his path. To survive with his subordinates, he ordered the plundering of the survivors’ supplies, enslaved them, squeezed the last trace of value within them, and then pushed them through the organic boiler into nutrient supply.

Like the nomads on the prairies, they chewed through the remaining bones of the civilization in the nuclear winter. Survival made him forget the glory of the soldier. The weakness of survivors made them forget the differences between humans and animals.

His only regret was that in his service for the Soviet to protect its frontiers against the Alaska NATO military across the ocean, he never set his foot on the actual battlefield. Until the very end of the battle, he was forgotten along with the ideology he swore to protect.

He clearly remembered that day.

The NATO army in Alaska withdrew. He waited anxiously for the order, and the wait was ten years.

At this moment, however, the shell that penetrated through the concrete wall made him feel like he had returned to the fervent era.

After so many years, it was the first time he felt the threat of survival that was not not from the nature, but an actual enemy.

The blood in his chest was boiling, and he actually felt a hint of excitement.

The war genes flowing in his blood seemed to be reenergized.

However, his passion did not stop the enemy. Another shell shattered the wall and hit the shoulder of a SU-5 power armor.

His subordinates fell down one after another while he still hadn’t even managed to touch his enemy. The red crosses flashing on the command interface was like a bucket of cold water poured over his head.

It was a force he had never witnessed.

It was the first time that the pair of wolf-like pupils finally showed a trace of fear…

…

The crosshair was firmly locked in on the building one kilometer away. The Type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannon in Jiang Chen’s hands continuously fired out glaring white rays.

The five-kilogram shell penetrated the concrete from all sorts of obscure angles with incredible precision to hit the power armors behind the wall. From the first shot till now, already ten power armors had fallen down. Five of which were due to Jiang Chen’s cannon while the other five were the masterpieces of Lu Fan and the other guards.

In less than five minutes, the CCCP tank formation with heavy casualties finally stopped its advancement.

The only remaining two SU-5s were suppressed in the center of the building and hid in the blind spots of the four electromagnetic pulse cannons. Out of the six tanks, two had broken tracks, and one had a broken sight mirror. At this moment, they were also inside the blind spots, fearful.

“DAM*IT, how are they so accurate?” Sminov got out of the tank, shaken, and looked at Yegor who also got out. In disbelief, he said, “Can these people see through the walls? Or do their electromagnetic pulse cannons have a guided function…”

“There is no shell that can be guided, Comrade Sminov.” Yegor looked at the broken concrete wall not far him with a sullen expression, and the power armor that had fallen down on the ground.

The front section of the power armor was concaved in, and even the tiles on the wall behind it were smashed. The soldier inside clearly did not survive.

Even through the concrete wall, the five-kilogram shell still possessed an astounding amount of kinetic energy. The power armor was as fragile as an ant against its power.

“Is it infrared imaging? Life detection? But that’s impossible… Our SU-5 and KV-9 have almost no problem in anti-detection capabilities, how are they positioning us?” Sminov frowned.

“It’s the city that sold us.” Yegor looked up at the ceiling as gloom was written all over his face.

“The city?” Sminov took a moment to process the information, then he followed Yegor’s gaze. He saw there was a fist-sized wide-angle camera on the ceiling.

Yegor pulled the pistol from his waist and fired two shots against the ceiling. The camera was destroyed.

“Now we have disappeared from their radar.”

“You mean…” Sminov had a sudden realization as astonishment filled his eyes. “The entire city’s surveillance system is under their control.”

“Yes,” Yegor nodded as he said in hatred, “If I didn’t guess wrong, they have already taken the treasure of the Pan-Asia Cooperation, and also took control of the monitoring system of the city…”

With the data from the monitoring system, their spatial coordinates were positioned on AR imaging. They were completed naked inside the city to Jiang Chen on the high building with no privacy at all.

Unless they used EMP to destroy the monitoring system of the entire city.

However, this suggestion was obviously unrealistic.

They didn’t know how many cameras were in front of them. Inside the city of Pan-Asia Cooperation, the number of cameras exceeded the number of streetlights. As long as they were inside the city, they could not advance forward.

Looking at Sminov, Yegor asked.

“How many smoke bombd do we have left?”

Sminov gulped and said, “Five.”

“Five?” Yegor’s fists clenched together and his expression was dignified.

Five kilometers away, five smoke bombs, these were enough for them to break through the blockade formed by electromagnetic pulse cannons. If the almost ridiculous accuracy continued to happen, they would at the most advance 500 meters before being stalled.

The broken track could be repaired, but no one dared to get out of the tank.

“What should we do?” Smirnov forced out this sentence.

“We have to wait,” Yegor closed his eyes. “They don’t dare to come close to us, and we can’t go out. As long as our reinforcements arrive first, victory will belong to us.”

Time ticked.

Quietly waiting in the empty building, a drop of sweat oozed out from Yegor’s forehead and slid down through the wrinkles on his face.

Without any news from the reinforcements, he already began to feel ominous.

Although he believed in Sedov’s ability and there was absolutely no possibility of losing to the NAC infantry in the tunnel, too much time has passed…

Did the NAC win?

Impossible, absolutely impossible…

His fists clenched together tightly. Yegor’s eyes locked onto the computer around his wrist and staring at the offline icon in the communication screen. Anxiety was growing with every minute that passed by…

…

In the sky, blue light sparkled.

Looking at the power armors landing from air, Jiang Chen’s dark scaly mask retracted backwards. He equipped the Type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannon on his back, deactivated the anchor, and ordered in the communication channel.

“Come back.”

“Roger.”

Lu Fan and the other guards also saw the reinforcements from the sky. From their voices, they also felt relieved excitement.

Jiang Chen took out a flare from the storage dimension and tossed it on the ground.

The orange-red sparkle in the fog-covered city was so conspicuous, like a beacon in the fog, guiding the reinforcements toward him.

When he saw the T-3 power armors gathering towards him, the huge burden in his mind finally disappeared.

Until half a minute ago, he was still thinking about what would happen if the Russians arrived first.

However, it seemed that Han Junhua did not disappoint him.

The victor in the tunnel has already been decided.

Is there still suspense in this battle?

Chapter 1211: The End Of The Chaos

1211 The End Of The Chaos Wan Peng stumbled into Line 0.

When he held the gear-like door, Wan Peng was on his knees and gasped for air. He was glad to be alive.

Just a moment ago, power armors in an organized formation whizzed by him. There was a pungent bloody smell lingering around the power armors. From their deadly aura, they had clearly just experienced a bloodbath.

He did not dare to make a noise as he hid in the shadows. He waited for the earth-trembling noise to disappear before he slipped out from the cracks of the wall.

Fortunately, those power armors passed by quickly, or he could not have escaped.

“FU*K! It didn’t feel like anything when I came down, but it’s tiring.”

He cussed out and wiped the sweat from his neck as he began to move toward Line 2.

He lost.

Whether it was the treasure in Line 0 or everything on Pingan Street. They already lost all the chips in this game.

In fact, as soon as the Russians appeared, Wan Peng already recognized this.

When the Shangjing Survivors Alliance was sandwiched by the two forces, regardless who the victor of this battle royale was, it would not be Shangjing Survivors Alliance on the verge of complete collapse.

However, Ding Liwei apparently did not see this. Until the last moment, he still counted on Wan Peng to play the last trump card to help him turn the defeat into victory, but he did not know that from the moment he jumped off the building and commanded the battle, Manager Wan had already escaped.

When Wan Peng thought of Ding Liwei, he felt sorry for him.

If Ding Liwei was not so obsessed, this would not be the end of him. With more than 70 power armors, even if he lost control of Pingan Street, where else could the Second Militia not go other than Wanghai in the south?

Wan Peng shook his head before he walked along the tunnel and headed in the opposite direction of Line 27.

Pingan Street was no longer safe.

Not surprisingly, NAC already took over the city’s defense. If he returned the same way, there would only be one ending waiting for him. Even if the NAC did not do anything, the people desperate to show their loyalty to the NAC and the survivors trapped in Pingan Street would shred him to pieces.

He still left some equipment and people at his old site, the Sunday’s Club; some more Men in Black under his order that he had kept below the surface. He couldn’t stay in Shangjing anymore. He could only head southeast and avoid NAC’s territory.

The area was under sphere of influence of the Southern Surviviors. While those survivors feared the NAC, they were not under the NAC’s control. The relatively developed state meant that he could potentially rise again under a different name.

However, at this moment, a glimmer of silver light flashed.

Without time to react, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He snorted in pain and collapsed on the ground as he held onto his chest.

He took a needle out.

However, before he could stab the needle into his own chest, another glimmer of silver light appeared and blood sprinkled from his wrist.

“AHHHHH!”

The screams of heartbreak resounded through the tunnel, and Wan Peng looked at his broken hand in distorted pain.

“I won’t lose twice against the same trick.” Old Luo leaned against the wall beside the tunnel. He grinned and the silver in his hands seemed to be flashing, “Now, let me see how you can use your laughable trump card?”

Wan Peng on the ground desperately tried to move back as he looked at Old Luo in horror.

“Why… you are not willing to let me go even if you’re about to die? I didn’t get the treasures, go for them…”

“But everything started with you,” Old Luo said calmly.

“Just because of that?” Wan Peng said, dumbfounded.

“Do I need any other reasons?” Old Luo looked at Wan Peng in an emotionless state as he let out a sigh. “Join me and be buried together with the secret of Pan-Asia Cooperation.”

“Hehehe, dumb*ss, I didn’t expect that in my fabled life, I would die in the hands of a madman, hehehehe, HAHAHA…”

Wan Peng laughed on the ground. In the near mad laughter, his life gradually came to an end.

The silver dagger fell from his cuff and slammed on the floor. Old Luo leaned against the wall and sat down slowly. He finally exhausted his last bit of strength. Without saying a word more, he slowly closed his eyes.

…

The tanks were burning.

Under the siege of NAC power armors, the battle was already decided. The last shell on the ammunition rack was exhausted, and Yegor, trapped in the lobby of the media building, finally used all he could.

He climbed out of the tank and held tightly onto his pistol.

Not far from him was the body of Sminov, half of which was burned into ashes.

Yegor didn’t look at him. He used the wall for support and walked forward. He looked at the wreckages burning on the ground and suddenly he began to laugh.

“…I have guarded the snow of the Soviets for twenty years, yet this is first time I have experienced a thrilling battle. It is not a bad way to go in the capital of the Pan-Asia Cooperation.”

Looking at the power armors that surrounded him, he roared with his last bit of strength.

“FOR MOT—”

The bullet of the pistol made a spark on the power armor.

The third time he pulled the trigger, a wave of bullets swept by and tore him into pieces.

Finally, this tyrant who swept across half of Siberia finally walked to the end of his life on the land of Pan-Asia Cooperation. In a pool of blood, his eyes widened as the life of murder and sin finally came to an end.

In the distance, the building was burning.

“I apologize for my incompetence and late arrival, General.” Zhang Zhuo stood behind Jiang Chen with his head lowered, full of humiliation.

“Please raise your head,” Jiang Chen turned and looked at Zhang Zhuo full of self-loathing. “You have tried your best to break through the Russian defense line in the shortest time. How can I blame my loyal subordinate? Please, raise your head.”

Zhang Zhuo raised his head, touched.

At this time, Lu Fan came forward and saluted.

“The battle is over and Yegor is confirmed dead.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

“What about Ding Liwei and Wan Peng? I care more about the whereabouts of these two guys.”

“Ding Liwei is confirmed dead under the bombardment of CCCP tanks. Wan Peng’s whereabout is unknown. It is suspected that he has escaped,” Lu Fan replied.

“Escaped?” Jiang Chen grinned. “Forget it, he can’t run too far.”

After a moment of pause, Jiang Chen looked at Zhang Zhuo and ordered.

“Bring some people to Eden Technology Building. The treasure of Pan-Asia Cooperation is below. Bring all the hibernation chambers on the first level, the resources on the third level, and the power armors on the fourth level. Don’t worry about the fifth level. Also, sent two people outside of Line Zero and notify Han Junhua to send more people down.”

“Roger!”

Zhang Zhuo took the order.

Standing on the building, Jiang Chen quietly looked down at the city.

“Lu Fan.”

“Roger,” Lu Fan quickly responded.

“Go prepare. It’s time to go back.”

“Roger!”

It should be day break outside. With so many things that happened, the chaos in Shangjing finally came to an end.

Jiang Chen suddenly felt so exhausted. He just wished he could find a place to sleep.

Sleep until the next morning.

“Remember your promise,” X71291 whispered in his ear.

“Don’t worry, I know better than you the weight of a promise.” Jiang Chen shrugged.

Chapter 1212: The Light Before Dawn

Chapter 1212 The Light Before Dawn The light before dawn peeked out from the horizon.The zombies’ actions began to slow down as if the sunlight cursed them under a seal. Their bloodthirsty vibe began to fade and was replaced by a soulless sluggishness.

The soldiers on the wall were on the verge of tears the moment the sun broke the horizon.

With the bayonet on their rifles, the soldiers with their last remaining energy penetrated the throat of the zombies on the wall, used the stock of the rifle to crush the zombies’ head, and kicked them down the wall.

Although the zombies were still moving slowly toward the wall, they no longer had any momentum. The zombies at the back already stopped moving while only the zombies at the front tumbled forward driven by their instincts.

Finally, at the moment when the sun rose entirely above the horizon, the last zombie on the wall had its throat pierced and collapsed down.

Almost at the same time, behind the frontline soldiers, the third line of defense was finally completed. The wall was 15 meters higher than the second wall. Although not as magnificent as the giant wall, it was enough to keep Pingan Street safe for the night.

Han Junhua immediately ordered when she saw the sun rising.

“Soldiers withdraw from the front line, get logistics to prepare meals. Fighters will continue to airstrike the zombies near the wall…”

A communications soldier ran in from outside the military camp as she was giving out orders.

Han Junhua asked as she looked to the direction of the door.

“Is there something wrong?”

“It’s news from Line 0, it is the General’s order.”

The communication soldier saluted and conveyed Jiang Chen’s order.

Han Junhua nodded and motioned that he could leave.

With her arms wrapped around her chest, she thought for a moment before pressing her headset.

“Send 500 engineer soldiers to Line 0 along with all the engineering robots.”

“… Roger!”

After Han Junhua issued the last order, she let out a sigh of relief. She reached out and closed the holographic screen, and sat back down on the chair.

She barely rested for a moment during the night as she simultaneously commanded the battle on the surface and underground.

Now, she was at her limit.

With her arms on the table, her cold expression gradually softened. She only revealed the unsuspected expression in her sleep.

Her hair slipped off onto her thin but stiff shoulders. She gently moved her nose and put her face in her arms.

The thin lips muttered, and then drowsiness soon overwhelmed her.

“As long as you’re okay…”

…

Dragging their weary body down from the wall, they passed by the third line of defense and returned inside Pingan Street. Everyone looked exhausted. They were covered in dust and blood and looked like they were in a terrible state from afar.

Regardless, they had won. Although it was a difficult victory.

Many people’s shoulders were severely swollen. Even with the protection of the kinetic skeleton, a night of battle pushed their physical and mental strength to the absolute limit. Especially in the battle with zombies, unless the commander ordered to dump fuel, they didn’t have a moment to breathe.

Pulling the bayonet out from the still burning muzzle, the exhausted soldiers passed through the wall and just sat straight down on the ground. They did not have any energy to walk a step further.

The logistics company set up a shed on the edge of the wall with giant pots cooking congee.

The aroma of food diluted the bloody smell still lingering in the air. It made the soldiers, mercenaries, and survivors on the brink of collapsing regain their strength. With the support of their rifle, they limped toward the shed.

Breakfast was a thick, congee boiled with minced meat. Every spoon contained chunks of meat and was appetizing to eat. In addition, there were all you can eat buns and a small bag of pickles for every soldier, mercenary, and survivor who participated in the battle.

Based on the standard of the wasteland, this breakfast was extravagant.

It was precisely because of this that many local mercenaries and survivors shed their tears while devouring their food.

They were tears of excitement.

They always only ate two meals a day. Breakfast was a novelty to them.

The NAC soldiers were less emotional. They chewed down the buns and gulped down the congee. They would occasionally look up to look at the mercenaries and survivors taking small bites. To them, they looked like nomads that never experienced anything.

On the giant wall, Song Chenyu muttered to himself.

“Unbelievable, we actually did it.”

His clenched fists slowly relaxed as he looked at the zombies under the wall and the NAC officer standing next to him. Then he muttered.

“Yeah, we did it.”

A familiar voice came from behind him.

“Sir, your breakfast.”

A logistics soldier ran up the wall, put a plastic bag with canned food, buns, and congee on the table next to the NAC officer. He pumped his chest with his right hand and jogged away.

“Good lord, canned beef,” tearing open the canned aluminum lid and sniffing with his nose, the serious expression of the officer finally disappeared, he smiled at Song Chenyu, “Would you like some?”

“Is that okay?” Song Chenyu swallowed some of his saliva as he sniffed in the aroma.

“Of course,” The officer waved his hand and poked the bun into the can. He chewed on it while he pointed with his chin to the Pan-Asia Building. “Look at the flag there, we’re already brothers in the trenches.”

Song Chenyu followed the direction of his gaze and saw that the NAC flag had already risen above the Pan-Asia Building.

The flag of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance disappeared as if it never existed in the first place.

After two seconds of silence, Song Chenyu smiled and sat down on the opposite side of the officer. He reached out and took a bun from the plastic bag and opened another can of meat.

“If you say so.”

He was already prepared for this moment since last night. Therefore, when the flag appeared there, he did not even feel the slightest surprise.

In just two seconds, he got used to his change in identity.

“We are also comrades who have fought side by side. I’m here to talk to you and you can take in what you need. Don’t ask anything and don’t say anything” The officer chewed on the bun while glancing at him.

“Please,” Song Chenyu said.

“Our general rarely parachutes officials from NAC to serve at the local levels, and few people are willing to go to deserted places.” After the officer took gulp of the congee, he grinned. “Generally speaking, positions such as city defense chief is usually appointed to locals. We just control the military and everything else has autonomy. Hongcheng, Wu City, and Yizhou are all like this. It was like this in Hang City, but now NAC made it into a district.”

“You mean?” Song Chenyu’s eyes flickered.

“You looked after the South Gate right?” The officer grinned. “Do a good job and you can be the city defense chief.”

Song Chenyu was overjoyed and immediately thanked him.

“Thank you.”

Although the function was the same, he would be in charge of three more gates, and his status would obviously be different.

“Haha, we’re just chatting,” The officer waved his hand and smiled, “Now it’s up to you. I didn’t say anything.”

Song Chenyu couldn’t even bother to eat and immediately stood up.

Originally, he thought he would be demoted from his current position in a few days. He did not expect that he would be promoted. After the officer’s words, he already knew what he should do.

“Because of the intensity of the battle, I haven’t had time to ask for your name?”

“Zhu Dawei,” Zhu Dawei laughed. “Just call me Dawei.”

Chapter 1213: The Flag Above Pan-Asia

Chapter 1213 The Flag Above Pan-Asia Starving survivors gathered together next to the shed at the city gate and eyed the food hungrily. However, only those that participated in defending the city could sit here and eat.In the envious sights of the group, a mercenary with his back straight, filled a bowl of congee, took the buns and pickles before sitting down beside a wooden table.

Sitting beside him was a soldier in NAC uniform.

The mercenary was someone that couldn’t keep his mouth closed. He was chewing on his bun while looking enviously at the minced meat in the congee.

“Your food is amazing. I can’t believe you have congee and buns.”

“This is nothing,” the NAC soldier glanced at the mercenary as he said nonchalantly, but he could not hide the pride on his face. “In Wanghai, we eat fresh food. Only you will think this is good.”

“Canned food is worthless in Wanghai City?” The mercenary’s eyes widened as disbelief became written all over his face.

“Of course not!” The NAC soldier took a bite and smiled. “But it doesn’t have to do with value. Our General never treats his soldiers poorly. No matter how expensive the canned and raw meat are at the Sixth Street are, we always have meat to eat!”

“Oh really?” The mercenary was shocked.

“Of course.”

The conversation seemed to have stopped as only the sound of chewing lingered.

Then after a while, the mercenary began to speak in an attempt to flatter.

“Bro…”

“If you didn’t have enough, you can go get more. You contributed a lot last night and our General won’t treat you poorly.” The NAC soldier pointed his finger at the shed next to the wall where the steamy white congee rice was brewing in a giant pot with minced meat floating on top.

“Not for more, I just want to ask, are you still recruiting troops here?”

“…”

The NAC banner rose above the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building.

No one was dissatisfied with the change, or no one cared at all. Regardless of the change of regime, Pingan Street remained the same. Even if the building collapsed, no one would feel any remorse.

In particular, after the news that “the officials of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance escaped through the secret tunnel” and “Ding Liwei took away the Second Militia Group’s power armor company and left other people to fend for themselves” spread out, none of the survivors felt anything positive about them.

Instead, the NAC that saved them was more worthy to be the owner of the city.

Of course, although most people were cooperative, there were always people looking for trouble.

Other than those lunatics that did not value their own life, no one chose to challenge NAC’s supremacy at this time. Those soldiers with murderous vibes obviously did not intend to reason. No one was foolish enough to sweat and bleed for the previous regime.

As the NAC controlled the officials of Shangjing Survivors Alliance, Song Chenyu gathered his old subordinates and stormed Ding Liwei’s residence. More than two hundred guns surrounded the entire mansion that covered 1,000 square meters.

It was also a coincidence that when he arrived, Ding Liwei’s wives were packing their bags and preparing to sneak out through the chaos, but they were one step too late and were stopped right by Song Chengyu

Against the muzzles, the beautiful women were terrified. In particular, Ding Liwei’s first wife even flirted with her husband’s old subordinate and suggested that if he spared her, she would be willing to return the favor.

Even the queen of the past society must lower her proud head now. While her proposal was certainly very attractive, Song Chenyu was not foolish enough to accept it. Once he became Chief, would he ever lack women? It was not worth the risk!

He rejected the seductive temptation. Then he divided his subordinates into two groups. One group took Ding Liwei’s family to the Pan-Asian building and the other group, led by him, went to Wan Peng’s estate.

Wan Peng’s family was very smart. A few hours after the family head disappeared, they immediately began to pack their bags and escaped. They fled to the East Gate, and East Gate officials allowed them to pass based on their past relationship. However, Song Chenyu still managed to catch them down.

With the sleeping little loli between his arms, Jiang Chen, just happened to bump into Song Chenyu eager to show-off his work as he came out of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building.

When he saw the group of beautiful women both anxious and fearful, Jiang Chen’s eyebrows raised and he secretly cursed in his mind.

This old pervert has a bigger harem than me! He totally deserved his ending!

Jiang Chen gently coughed and said.

“Ding Liwei’s family on the right, Wan Peng’s family on the left.”

No one moved.

Song Chenyu walked forward as he saw the scene and shouted.

“Are you all deaf? MOVE!”

The beautiful and lovely prisoners began to move hesitantly and formed into two lines. Jiang Chen counted them roughly and divided that into two teams. He made the conclusion and Manager Wan was better at enjoying life with ten more beautiful ladies in his harem.

When most of the survivors were starving, the officials lived the life of emperors.

Lu Fan walked next to Jiang Chen and whispered.

“How are you going to deal with them?”

After pondering for a moment, Jiang Chen waved his hand.

“Forget it, it shouldn’t impact them. Confiscate all assets and let them go.”

In fact, he certainly thought about doing something evil to “vent his anger”, especially when those beautiful women would not refuse, and would serve him with all their abilities in order to escape from the fate of slavery. But he still had many things waiting for him, so he couldn’t waste his time on women’s bellies.

Lu Fan took a moment to process the information but still nodded.

“Roger.”

Several soldiers stepped forward and untied the shackles on the family members. Then they snatched away anything valuable to them. They did not leave any jewelry or crystals and only left them with clothes and an EP.

Although they regained their freedom, they did not show any excitement. Instead, they were in despair.

After they enjoyed the extravagance of the world, they were now kicked off from cloud nine. The material and spiritual gaps made them collapse mentally. Especially the gorgeous wives of Ding Liwei, they even started weeping together and completely forgot about their past feud…

For them, being stripped of everything was worse than becoming Jiang Chen’s slaves.

At least, they did not need to worry about food…

“Song Chenyu right? It seems that your brain turns pretty quickly.” Jiang Chen smiled at Song Chenyu who stood there respectfully.

“Not at all.” Song Chenyu bowed his head.

Jiang Chen nodded, pleased with his performance.

“Go to the logistics team and get a uniform. What’s up with what you’re wearing.”

Song Chen was ecstatic and his heart was finally at peace. He immediately swore his allegiance, “I will prove my loyalty to the General…”

“Okay, enough with the flattering words. Your flattering attempt will score a sixty at most.” Jiang Chen waved his hand impatiently. “When you get your new uniform, the logistics personnel will tell you where to go. Go on now.”

“Yes!” Song Chenyu quickly left; he was overjoyed.

Jiang Chen pondered for a moment as he watched Song Chenyu leave.

“Speaking of which, Pingan Street still needs a new mayor…”

Chapter 1214: Forming The North Division

Chapter 1214 Forming The North Division Pingan Street was the largest settlement in the northern part of the Pan-Asia Cooperation region. Although the degree of infrastructure and industrialization lagged behind the Sixth Street, the population made the place have promising development potential.Thus, this was also the precise reason the candidates for the position of mayor were more important.

The individual must represent the interests of the NAC and must understand the situation of Pingan Street. Jiang Chen certainly considered parachuting someone in from the NAC, but he could not think of a suitable candidate.

Jiang Chen even considered Zhou Guoping who engaged in intelligence work in the Shangjing area. However, the thug-vibe on him meant that he could only play an effective role in the field and was not a suitable candidate for an official position.

Lu Fan knocked on the door and saluted as Jiang Chen thought about this problem while sitting in the office that once belonged to Ding Liwei.

“Report. Ding Liwei and Wan Peng’s assets have been confiscated. It includes a total of five million crystals, one million crystals worth of luxury goods, 200 power armors, kinetic skeletons and other types of equipment.”

“Bring all the crystals back to Wanghai. As for the luxury goods,” Jiang Chen touched his chin as he debated before he finally made a decision. “Contact the auction house here and proceeds will be used for post-disaster reconstruction.”

“Yes,” Lu Fan replied. “There is one more thing Advisor Han has asked me to report to you.”

“What is it?” Jiang Chen asked.

“The Russians have withdrawn to the Badaling region and have already withdrawn to outside the Fifth Ring Road.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

After he came up from underground, he already heard people say that Han Junhua ordered the armored forces to penetrate from the north side and follow the Third Ring Road to circumvent the zombie flood. Then they ignited ten tactical nukes at the Line 27 station and turned the entire station into a deep pit.

The zombies were not only attracted by the living, but were also attacted by nuclear radiation. Driven by the instinct formed through the X1 bacterial, the zombies rushed into the tunnel through the deep pit and flanked the Russians from behind. While zombies were no threats to tanks, they were deadly to personnel.

Compounded by the fact that Yegor and Sminov both died in the battle, the Uelen Border Guards was in a state of distress, and the slightly more senior officers began to feel restless. Internal problems spurred out one after another, and now they could not focus on the war with the NAC.

Retreating was their only choice.

“The Russian problems aside,” Jiang Chen looked at Lu Fan and smiled, “Let’s talk about you.”

“About me?” Lu Fan was confused.

“What do you think of the expeditionary force?”

“It’s combat power is…”

“Shangjing is the political center of the Pan-Asia Cooperation, and it was once a population center. There are countless fallout shelters that have not yet been opened, and there are countless heritages waiting for us to discover. So,” Jiang Chen paused, “I am going to set up the Northern Division as the fourth division of the NAC. And the leader of this division…”

Jiang Chen’s fingers knocked on the table as he looked at the shocked Lu Fan with a smile.

“It’s you.”

…

The strategic significance of Pingan Street did not require further explanation. If the NAC managed to develop this region, the possibility of this place becoming the second Sixth Street certainly existed. This place would serve as the strategic fulcrum of the NAC in the north and radiate the glory of civilization to the surrounding wasteland…

And it would be impossible to achieve this without a sufficient military presence.

Jiang Chen decided to form the Northern Division for this very reason. Now that the NAC has established itself for two years, it has managed to regain some vitality. The number of soldiers could easily support the establishment of another division.

Counting the 5,000 soldiers in the expeditionary force, NAC would recruit 5,000 more from Shangjing to form a divison with 10,000 soldiers.

The ideal leader of the fourth division would be his guard captain, Lu Fan.

Although Lu Fan may not be clever, he acted with responsibility and loyalty. He was not ambitious either. To the north of Badaling was simply wilderness. Jiang Chen did not need someone who could expand the territory of NAC for him; he just wanted someone to protect the fruits of this expedition’s victory.

Lu Fan was the best candidate.

When Lu Fan left Jiang Chen’s office, he felt dizzy.

While his ranking was not low, as the captain of the General Guards, even Cheng Weiguo, Wang Zhaowu, and Zhao Gang acted politely around him. However, he understood they respected the person he protected, not him.

Based on the military ranking system of the NAC, the General Guards’ captain was two ranks below the head of a division! It was not unprecedented to have someone rise two ranks at once. The last person was still on AS Order – The Captain of Order and the Head of the Expeditionary Force, Li Wang. He was only half a rank below the leader of a division!

However, Li Wang was ranked as captain of AS Order because of his merit in Hongcheng, but he did not do much in this expedition… at least from his perspective.

His fists clenched tightly and he took took a few deep breaths. He then touched the medal on his chest before determination appeared in his eyes.

In order not to disappoint the trust of the general, he made up his mind that he would use 200% of his energy to protect the territory of NAC. If anyone dared to cause chaos on his land, he swore to personally bring them down!

After Lu Fan left, Jiang Chen met the deputy captain of his guards in his office, or simply put the next captain, Zheng Shanhe. Because of the injury he sustained in Line 0, he had bandages on his arm. He was called to accept this duty.

Jiang Chen smiled and patted the uninjured shoulder. Then he said with encouragement.

“You can do it! I’ll have to count on you for my safety.”

Zheng Shanhe’s back was straight as he saluted to Jiang Chen with full of excitement.

“Guaranteed to complete the mission!”

There was not much nonsense. Jiang Chen personally put the medal on him, and gave some more words of encouragement. For the newly appointed General Guards’ captain, the first task for him was to supervise the development of Line 0.

The task was for him to get used to this role. Since Han Junhua was overlooking this project, his role was just to assist.

The reason why Jiang Chen gave this task to him was to familiarize him with the work of the captain. Although the main responsibility of the guards was to protect the safety of the general, but as the captain, his work also included representing the General at certain places inappropriate for the general to show up at.

After Zheng Shanghe left, Jiang Chen went to the floor-to-ceiling windows in the office and continued to internalize the problem that continued to trouble him—the mayor of Pingan Street.

Outside the windows, below the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building, the troops that had withdrawn from the Dongcheng Hospital gathered in the military base and waited for dispatch.

Looking at the military base from above, he suddenly felt a glimpse of inspiration, and a suitable candidate appeared in his mind.

Chapter 1215: The Mayor“s Candidate

Chapter 1215 The Mayor“s Candidate With the exit of Shangjing Survivors Alliance, Mayor Liu, who previously belonged to Ding Liwei’s force, stepped down.The position of mayor was highly sought after.

Those officials who were previously kept at a distance by Ding Liwei and Wan Peng were now revitalized. They did all they could to be on their best behaviour and perform well.

Those politicians with lackluster abilities and received their position through flattering did all they could. They almost immediately succumbed under the NAC banner and sang its praises. The most extreme even sent their wives and daughters to the General’s barrack under the name of “consolation”, only to be able to be crowned with the position of mayor.

Especially when they heard the news of Song Chenyu’s promotion and his responsibilities of overseeing the four gates of Pingan Street, the collection of the city gate tax and his assistance of the garrison to maintain order, the politicians on Pingan Street keenly captured the signal released by NAC.

Jiang Chen did not seem to plan to parachute an official in. Shangjing would still be maintained by a local survivor.

Xu Tiannan was the person that felt the most confident. When Jiang Chen decided to swing down his machete down at Shangjing Survivor Alliance, he not only did not step up to stop him, he actually immediately cleared his boundaries with Ding Liwei and Wan Peng. Previously, the Guardian Sect was only looking for the whereabouts of Line 0, but when it learned the news of NAC’s involvement, they immediately stopped.

He seemed to be the perfect candidate for mayor!

However, when the mayor was revealed, the decision shocked everyone.

NAC, in fact, did not parachute an official in from Wanghai, but it also did not select a mayor from the officials in Shangjing. The decision was an unknown merchant who travelled between Shangjing and Haizhou.

In the fur business out of all businesses.

How could someone like that be the mayor? Is this a joke?”

Why did you choose him?”

While she looked at the flushing, joyous Liu Wendi in the middle of his speech in the square, Zhao Qiuran could not understand the rationale.

Even from the perspective of an outsider, the choice was hard to comprehend.

“Do the person who becomes mayor make a difference?” Jiang Chen asked softly. “There is no one in Shangjing that I can trust. So it’s better to choose an obedient person than a dogmatic person on the surface but will go against my orders behind my back.”

Jiang Chen smiled and turned to walk back to the military base.

“After all, if I don’t know, I can always ask. The apocalypse existed for many years, who didn’t start learning from scratch?”

After being in a position of power for so many years, he started to learn about the type of people he should use.

Sixth Street required a business genius like Chu Nan, but he would not be a good fit for Pingan Street.

Instead of picking an agent he could not fully trust, it was better to choose someone without any foundation here, but understood the situation. Thus, this person would not be easily fooled by the people here, but could not do anything without the backing of NAC. In order for this person to establish themselves in Pingan Street with a complex power distribution, this person must depend on NAC.

With the checks and balances, the mayor and the council would never work closely together. Therefore, the mayor afar would not be able to fool Jiang Chen hundreds of kilometers away.

The loyalty maintained through this method was far more reliable than slavery chips, since the latter was only suitable for the average people without power and influence.

Zhao Qiuran saw Jiang Chen had turned around and quickly followed behind him.

On the way back, Jiang Chen debated about the next steps.

With the mayor’s candidate finalized, the next step would be to redistribute the cake and appease Xu Tiannan’s force. Ding Liwei and Wan Peng were uprooted, Xu Tiannan’s force intelligently stayed honest till now. Jiang Chen always didn’t mind giving some benefits to honest people, especially since the two forces were still allies by name.

Just when he thought about which bone to give Xu Tiannan, he saw a beautiful woman in a cheongsam. She stoodin front of the military camp, shivering, while she was peeking inside the base.

At first glance, even Jiang Chen, who had seen many gorgeous ladies, was stunned by her appearance.

The split of the cheongsam revealed a large amount of smooth skin, and her perfect thighs were as smooth as jade. The fullness of her chest outlined a stunning S-shaped curve with her rounded bottom. The slender waist was the perfect size, distracting people with lucid imaginations.

Her black hair was a waterfall, paired with her elegant lashes. She was the definition of perfection. Even among trophies, she was the brightest one. Her watery eyes siphoned people’s soul and combined with her helpless expression, it would make any man want to press her to the ground.

Wearing a cheongsam in this weather must be difficult for her.

When Jiang Chen saw her, she obviously also spotted Jiang Chen. Perhaps she sensed the glimpse of being stunned in Jiang Chen’s eyes, a look of joy appeared in her pupils. With teary eyes, she cautiously walked forward to Jiang Chen with her head lowered.

“Pleased to see you, General Jiang.” An Yiran bowed.

“What is it?” Jiang Chen asked her.

Her cheeks were slightly red, and water seemed to be dripping out of her eyes. An Yiran looked up at Jiang Chen, and weeped. “I just want to thank the general for saving my life from the demon Ding Liwei…”

In her weeping tone, she denounced how inhuman Ding Liwei was and how she was forced to marry him. Then, she gazed at Jiang Chen with an adoring look, while she expressed how she worshipped the great hero that stood taller and implicitly hinted that he was the one in her mind…

In the end, she shivered while holding her arms.

For any normal man, the next step would be take her into the room and add another layer on her…

Tricks! Full of tricks!

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but curse in his mind.

Am I a little virgin who has never experienced love? Mhmm! I was a spare tire (1) before!

“Hehe, no need to thank me.”

With a smile, Jiang Chen passed by her, as he left a dumbfounded An Yiran standing in the chilling wind

“You rejected her? The woman seemed to be Ding Liwei’s second wife, I remember her name was An Yiran?” Zhao Qiuran said incessantly behind Jiang Chen.

“So?”

“I heard that An Yiran is certainly a somebody. Before the war, she was a famous Pan-Asia Cooperation singer. Not only did she sing a lot of popular songs, but she starred in several well-received movies. Two years ago, she woke up from the hibernation chamber and was purchased by Ding Liwei in an auction. Typical slaves would be rewarded to his subordinates after he was done, but not only did she escape the fate of being a slave, she became an upper-class lady and was even more favored than Ding Liwei’s first wife,” Zhao Qiuran said.

“So what?” Jiang Chen smiled, unmoved.

“You’re not moved?” Zhao Qiuran blinked. “Speaking of this, you actually let them go. I thought you would turn them into slaves.”

“Am I that perverted?”

Jiang Chen glanced at her and scared her into covering her mouth.

“Ahem, it has nothing to do with being a pervert. Aren’t all powerful people like this?” Seeing her honest words did not anger Jiang Chen, Zhao Qiuran spat out her tongue and said nonchalantly, “For example, the Wan Peng you killed. In the past, there was a relatively powerful mercenary group in Pingan Street. The head of the mercenary group was also a member of the council. Later, because he had upset Wan Peng, not only was he thrown away to be fed to the zombies but his wives and daughters were also chained and locked in a basement for half a year before everything ended.”

“So, I did some good deeds for the sake of the people,” Jiang Chen joked.

“For the sake of the people?” Zhao Qiuran snorted. “That’s a stretch. That mercenary group head was not a kind soul either. Or rather, no one in the Shangjing Survivors Alliance was good.”

To be precise, no one was good on the wasteland.

This was an era where people took advantage of other people.

“Now that Pingan Street is under my control, you’re no longer wanted. Do you still want to go to Wanghai?” Jiang Chen changed the topic and nonchalantly asked.

Zhao Qiuran hesitated for a moment, but still nodded firmly.

“I have already spent enough time here. The merchants have praised Wanghai into an Utopia, so I want to go there and take a look.”

Afraid that Jiang Chen would not agree, she quickly added, “I can fight, I can fight for you—”

Jiang Chen smiled slyly.

“Fight for me? That’s not enough.”

Zhao Qiuran’s face turned red as she took two steps back and put her arms in front of her chest. Her pupils with a hint of the wilderness was now covered with fear, “What, what do you want?”

“It’s not what you’re thinking.” Jiang Chen shrugged.

Someone with spiritual abilities would be a great experimental subject. He couldn’t find the cell bank of Eden Technology and if Lin Lin knew that he also let a rare “white mouse” escape, she would surely punch his chest with her little fists.

When Zhao Qiuran thought about it, it made sense. Since he even rejected a woman like An Yiran.

Zhao Qiuran scratched her cheeks awkwardly and continued to follow Jinag Chen. However, she did not know that although she was no longer treated as a woman, she was labeled as a white mouse.

In front of the barrack, Jiang Chen looked at her.

“So, your ability is telesthesia.”

“Yes.” Zhao Qiuran nodded.

“Other than sensing positions, is there any other use for your ability?”

“What are you referring to?” Zhao Qiuran did not quite understand his point.

“For example,” with a slight pause, Jiang Chen smiled, “Identify a person, or whether a group of people are lying.”

(1) Spare Tire – The second-choice of a male/female while he/she is already flirting with/dating someone else

Chapter 1216: The Way of Balance

Chapter 1216 The Way of Balance In the Pan-Asia Cooperation Building conference room, the council members of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance stared at each other blankly.A 30-page document was placed in front of them.

The cover of the document was very monotonous. Except for the white paper, it was just a line of large, black text – “NAC Colonial Regulations”

When they saw this line of words, everyone silently mourned the passing of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance.

At this moment, NAC no longer disguised its intention to annex the region and even gave up any attempt to mask their intention, the insensitive word “colonial” was especially telling.

Besides, the council members could not do anything. While they certainly had a few guns in their hands, even if they combined all their forces, they were still far inferior. Especially now that NAC accepted the Pingan Street City Defense Troops into its ranks and the Second Militia surrendered.

Not to mention the whizzing fighters and the terrifying electromagnetic pulse cannons.

Against the humongous force, they did not have the might to resist.

Even Archbishop Xu Tiannan sat there in silence.

Zhao Qiuran, who sat behind Jiang Chen, was starting to feel anxious as she examined those powerful and influential people in the conference room.

Then, her uneasiness began growing exponentially when she discovered that Mei Zhiyong, the owner of Dorsett Hotel, seemed to be a member sitting at the conference table. When she escaped, she collapsed half of the hotel and forced the entire Pingan Street to be placed under martial law to capture her.

Fortunately, the owner of the Dorsett Hotel seemed to have forgotten about this nobody and did not look to her direction.

Zhao Qiuran breathed a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, telesthesia did not allow her to read minds. She did not know that Mei Zhiyong would love to chop her alive. The collapsed Dorsett Hotel resulted in direct damages of over one million crystals; he would not make it back even by auctioning her 100 times!

However, because of the man sitting in front of her, Boss Mei disguised his murderous desires and pretended not to know her.

Of all the people sitting around the conference table, probably only one person had the most relaxed expression

It was Jiang Chen sitting at the head of the table.

He already presided negotiations of distributing interests countless times, and this time, he was still the one leading the conversation.

While looking around the table at all the eyes with differing intentions, Jiang Chen spoke.

“Do you disagree with the document in front of you?”

No one made a sound.

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded with satisfaction.

“Is there no objection? It seems that our meeting today will go smoothly.”

Jiang Chen then coughed before speaking again.

“First of all, allow me to introduce you to your future new mayor, Mr. Liu Wendi.”

Liu Wendi immediately stood up, his expression was slightly reserved as he bowed.

“I’m Liu Wendi, and I am very happy to work with all of you.”

WIth how unnatural he looked, he was greeted with rather quiet applause.

Jiang Chen was not surprised. After all, many people eyed the mayor’s position and did not expect a dark horse to come out. In the end, no one was elected and a merchant in the fur trade sector somehow sat on the mayor’s throne.

Many people were still wondering if he chose the mayor with careful consideration.

After he sat back down, Liu Wendi moved around restlessly and turned to look at Jiang Chen.

However, Jiang Chen did not look at him at this time but continued.

“The matters we’re discussing today are related to the future of Pingan Street. Therefore, I hope that you will listen carefully to every word so you don’t make the same mistake as the predecessors of this place or cause unnecessary misunderstandings. ”

The short, yet imposing words turned the vibe in the room into a chilling state as everyone waited for him to continue.

“First of all, from today, Pingan Street will become a jurisdiction of NAC. In line with the principle of adapting to local conditions, we will not interfere too much with the internal affairs and the council will continue to serve its function.”

“Of course, we can’t completely ignore it.”

“From today on, the mayor of Pingan Street will be directly nominated, appointed, and removed by the NAC. The council no longer has the power to vote and dismiss the mayor.”

As soon as this statement came out, the room was rattled.

What kind of joke is this? If the mayor is directly appointed by you, what’s the purpose of the council? Just watch you perform your one-man show while enjoying some tea? You might as well dissolve the council directly since voting is meaningless now.

As he scanned at the congresspeople who were chatting in the room, Jiang Chen quietly waited for them to finish their discussion before he continued.

“The mayor enacts a bill, and the council still has the right to vote against the bill. Also, to prevent the abuse of power, Pingan Street will establish a new speaker who will preside over an anonymous ballot, maintain the order of the council, and exercise supervision over the mayor. ”

Many people were confused about the decision.

Didn’t you just say that the council can’t remove the mayor, why did you just create another supervising role?

But soon, Jiang Chen answered the confusion of everyone in his next sentence.

“If the mayor has serious misconduct, the speaker can call the council and initiate the impeachment proposal. If more than two-thirds of the members support the impeachment, the motion to dismiss the mayor will be submitted to me by Lu Fan, the head of the Northern Division. Then, I will sign to approve the motion.”

A glimpse of shrewdness appeared in Xu Tiannan’s eyes before disappearing. He had to compliment him in his mind.

Smart, very smart.

After the fall of Ding Liwei and Wan Peng, the entire council of Pingan Street was now dominated by one force, and it was himself, Xu Tiannan. Because of this, he was acting with extreme caution. He knew that Jiang Chen would eventually go back to Wanghai, and after he left, Pingan Street would be under his control again.

After all, the bureaucratic class of Pingan Street was already a fixed system. Without the support of the council, while NAC can control the system with its force, it can not allow the city to run with maximum efficiency.

Jiang Chen could try and replace every gear of this machine with a new one, but the idea was simply not practical.

Now, Jiang Chen’s decision removed the puppet mayor from the council’s hand and formed its own power, but he did not completely get rid of the council and give complete control to the mayor.

The political awareness he displayed was not fitting for his age.

Xu Tiannan even already guessed Jiang Chen’s next move.

The next move would be to expand the size of the council that includes civilians, small merchants, and factory owners as council members. Or else the two-third number he discussed would be meaningless. The current council members could easily work together and fool him hundreds of kilometers away.

And the most crucial factor was these people would become the natural allies of Mayor Liu Wendi, weakening the influence of the existing council.

Jiang Chen did not know how Xu Tiannan evaluated himself, even if he knew, he would have just smiled.

Because he has heard similar evaluations countless times already.

“As for the speaker, Qi Shushan is selected as the candidate.” Jiang Chen looked at the man sitting behind the conference table, watching the expression on his face change from horror, overwhelmed, unexpected, to surprise. Then he looked at the expressionless Xu Tiannan with a smile, “The head of the tax bureau previously served by Wan Peng will be taken over by Archbishop Xu.”

After giving so many sticks, it was time to give a carrot.

The city defense chief previously served by Ding Liwei was castrated and given to Song Chengyu, so now the head of the tax bureau was left. Although the Tax Bureau’s power was limited, it was a sweet carrot for Xu Tiannan that did not manage to be chosen for the position of mayor or speaker.

After the personnel appointment, Jiang Chen smiled and looked at the councils with varying expressions while he appreciated his own work.

At the moment, Qi Shushan was giggling and his face flushing red. He was oozing with joy and proudness, bathing in the breeze of triumph.

From a prestige perspective, Qi Shanshan was nowhere close to Xu Tiannan, from a strength’s perspective, his power was not worth mentioning in front of the Guardian Sect. However, being assigned the position of the speaker completely stunned him.

As for Xu Tiannan, when the position of the head of the tax bureau fell on his head, his stiff expression finally eased.

As for the other members, they were either disappointed, or content, or chatting, or whispering…

At this moment, it seemed that all the emotions in the world were concentrated in this ten-square-meter vanity fair.

People were happy, angry, sorrowful, content with the gains and losses of their interests, and together they painted a vivid and realistic picture of the complex human being…

Chapter 1217: A Much-needed Res

1217 A Much-needed Res “Did you notice anything after observing for so long?” On the elevator going down, Jiang Chen looked at Zhao Qiuran.

“Hmmm…” Zhao Qiuran scratched her head.

“You didn’t forget what I said right?” Jiang Chen asked.

When she saw Jiang Chen’s expression, Zhao Qiuran quivered unsuspectedly before she quickly gave an explanation.

“Not at all! Although I can roughly tell who is lying, for me to be sure, I have to see the person speak and watch for mental fluctuations. However, you were the only person speaking the entire time, how could I determine who was lying and who was not. They didn’t speak at all…”

“So, you didn’t understand what I meant.” Jiang Chen smiled and said, “What I meant by lying was not actually lying, but who felt nonchalant when I spoke. Or to the extreme, the people who were ready to challenge my reign.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!” Zhao Qiuran complained as she rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen before she focused on recalling the mental fluctuations she felt at that time.

It took her a while before she scratched her head and said, “It seemed like everyone was as you described… they did not take what you had to say seriously.”

Jiang Chen smiled and spoke in a relaxed tone.

“Yeah? Then it seems that my prediction is correct. This is indeed the right move.”

Zhao Qiuran looked at him, dumbfounded. She did not know why he was content and not angry. Is it something to be happy about if other people did not take your words seriously?

From her perspective, she could not comprehend these problems yet, and Jiang Chen did not plan to explain them to her.

He did not intend to train her into a politician; the plan for her was just to be a white rat for Lin Lin to study and provide her with some compensation at the end of the experiment. Since he did not find the cell bank of Eden Technology, he surely didn’t want to fall short of her expectations.

What’s more, he was also very curious about the capability of spiritual power.

“Ummm, although I said that I will sell my life to you, I will not become that kind of person in the future,” standing behind Jiang Chen, Zhao Qiuran suddenly said with an anxious expression.

“Which kind of person?”

“The kind… people like those council members.” Limited by her education, Zhao Qiuran searched for a while and could not find a more suitable word. So she had to use her fingers and gesture out her intentions.

“Be reassured, you don’t have that talent. You’ll at most be a captain leading the charge.” Jiang Chen laughed as he joked.

“Now that I hear you say this, I feel assured.” Zhao Qiuqi scratched her cheek as she responded.

“Do you?” Jiang Chen shrugged and walked out of the elevator.

People will change, especially when the environment changes.

Just like Jiang Chen at the start. He only thought about smuggling some gold back from here and purchase a nice place in the most prosperous area in Wanghai. He wanted to live a rich man’s life, experience all the things he saw in the movies, and then live his life in a drunken dream.

However, when he really got a taste of power and understood what the word responsibility meant, his attitude subtly changed. A rich man no longer could satisfy his inflated appetite. In order to protect his loved ones and to gain more, NAC expanded to the behemoth it is today with a greedy dragon coveting its gold.

And he, therefore, became a dictator who is loved by hundreds of thousands of people in this world… It made sense, the person who could feed everyone in this era deserved the word “loved”, regardless if they are given the title of the emperor or slave lord.

He nodded to the guards who were standing on both sides, and then went back into his barrack.

When he saw Yao Yao peacefully sleeping on the bed, his previously serious expression disappeared and was replaced with a gentle smile.

Jiang Chen sat on the edge of the bed as he gently combed away Yao Yao’s scattered hair that had fallen in front of her face to the back of her ear.

The sleeping loli was like a hibernating little hamster. Her hands rested in front of her chest as she curled out into a ball under the quilt. Occasionally, she moved her nose and mouth before a smile appeared on her face as if she was having the sweetest dream.

“Nighty night.”

Jiang Chen gently kissed Yao Yao’s forehead before weariness fell upon him.

After he yawned, he looked at Yao Yao and thought of an idea.

He opened the corner of the quilt and rested next to the little loli after he had washed up. Without any impure thoughts, he put Yao Yao in his arms and drifted into sleep.

…

After he had returned from Line 0, Jiang Chen barely closed his eyes.

Now, he was finally able to relax and get a good night’s sleep.

And when he woke up, it was already afternoon.

Holding fragrant pork noodles, Yao Yao walked in. When she saw Jiang Chen was awake, she suddenly started blushing.

“Ah…are you awake now?”

“Mhmm, I woke up when I smelled the food.”

Jiang Chen smiled and sat up from the bed, put on his shoes, and went to Yao Yao. He took the bowl from the girl’s hand and rested it on the table next to him.

He hadn’t eaten anything for 24 hours and was completely famished.

Yao Yao sat across from Jiang Chen. Her hands were below her chin as a sweet smile rested on her blushing face. Her cheeks looked like two ripe apples and would make anyone want to take a bite.

Happily watching her beloved big brother devouring the noodle she made, she cleaned up and walked out.

Coincidentally, Han Junhua was standing at the entrance and was about to knock. When she saw the door open, she nodded to the little girl holding the bowl and then walked in.

“How do you feel?”

“Alright.” Jiang Chen looked at Han Junhua and raised his eyebrow, surprised. He then asked with a smile. “I am really surprised. You actually care about people?”

“Is that a compliment…”

“Uhhh, don’t mind me, just a joke.”

Han Junhua nodded.

However, her expressionless face made it unconvincing as to whether or not she really understood the joke.

“What’s the matter?” Jiang Chen changed the topic.

“Yes. I want to ask for your opinion.” Her arms crossed in front of her chest out of habit as she looked at Jiang Chen with seriousness, “What are you going to do with the city below Line 0?”

Chapter 1218: The Last Arrangemen

1218 The Last Arrangemen “The city below Line 0?” Jiang Chen deliberated as he rubbed his chin. “My plan is to empty the whole city, and then let it deconstruct in peace. What’s your opinion?”

Jiang Chen then looked at Han Junhua, waiting for the advice of the chief of staff.

“My opinion?” Han Junhua thought for a moment before she responded, “Are you not going to start the clone program? From an efficiency perspective, the proper use of clones can help accelerate the reconstruction of civilization.”

“But efficiency doesn’t mean everything.” Jiang Chen shrugged and leaned back in the chair. “NAC doesn’t need to be saved by clone. We can use our own way to rebuild this land instead of becoming the second Pan-Asia Cooperation. ”

“So what about AI?” Han Junhua then asked, “How are you going to deal with it.”

There was a short period of quietness before he said.

“First, move it out from the underground city. Its server is on the fifth floor of Eden Technology. You can send a few experts who understand this to deal with the issue. I have other uses for that AI, so I will bring it back to Wanghai.”

“As you wish.” After a slight bow, Han Junhua did not say anything more on this issue as she understood Jiang Chen’s intention. “I still have something to deal with, so I will not bother you any longer.”

“Mhmm.” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded, then he added, “Summon Zhou Guoping.”

…

Zhuo Guoping did not have him wait too long. After he heard that the general has summoned him, he immediately rushed from the wall to here.

When he knocked on the door, Jiang Chen was sitting at the table and drinking tea.

Seeing the familiar bald head, Jiang Chen showed a delightful smile. He put down his teacup and said.

“Welcome.”

Zhou Guoping was quite reserved in front of Jiang Chen, without any of his usual fierceness. He smiled with shyness.

“I heard General is looking for me, so I came immediately.”

“Don’t be nervous, it’s good news,” When he saw Zhou Guoping’s stern expression, he casually pointed to the chair next to him, “Sit down.”

Zhou Guoping cautiously sat down across from him. Jiang Chen smiled, paused for a moment, then began.

“Now that Pingan Street is at peace, you deserve a lot of credit for it. I will now point out two directions for you. You can choose whichever one you prefer.”

“I will follow the command of the general,” Zhou Guoping bowed his head and said respectfully.

“Do you really want to follow my command?” Jiang Chen joked. “I’ll send you to be Chu Nan’s guard then, are you going to go?”

Zhou Guoping was so scared that cold sweat began to ooze out. He looked at Jiang Chen with a bitter expression, clearly traumatized.

“Okay,” Jiang Chen waved his hand, “I don’t want to deal with your grudges. I’ll now point out two paths for promotion. You make your decision.”

“Please.” Zhou Guoping bowed his head.

“The first path. Shangjing is now part of NAC and is considered the northern region of NAC from now on. Further north is the moor, and I’m not interested in expanding my territory to the Siberian wilderness where nothing grows. If you wish, you can stay in Shangjing and continue to do the work you are doing now.”

This was the retirement path Jiang Chen prepared for him.

As long as he would not do anything too outrageous, he could live a relaxing life as a mercenary head for the rest of his life.

With the budget allocated to him, his role would be to collect intelligence and keep an eye on the bandits and raiders. In addition, he would occasionally do some dirty work to protect the interest of NAC in the underground world.

There would be no danger, but it would also be the last advancement!

After seeing the hesitation on Zhou Guoping’s face, Jiang Chen smiled and continued.

“As for the second path, it’s not an easy one. You’ll have to go east, cross the Pacific Ocean, disembark in California, unite the local Asian forces, and lay down the foundation for NAC’s expansion to the west coast of North America. You don’t need me to teach you what to do next. But I have to remind you that it will not be a peaceful journey. NAC only has an outpost there, and the local survivors are not easily bullied.”

“I choose the second path,” Zhou Guoping immediately made his decision.

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Oh? You have already made up your mind? Most likely, you’ll have to stay there. The situation there is far more chaotic when compared to here. Several major forces are all in the midst of all sorts of conflicts, compounded by the fact that the survivors there are not that much worse off compared to NAC.”

“I have made up my mind,” Zhou Guoping immediately stood up, his head high and back straight. He then clenched his right fist and placed it in front of his chest while raising his voice, “In my lifetime, I swear to expand NAC’s territory for the General!”

It was a no brainer? He did not want to retire this early!

The existence of Chu Nan always made him feel a sense of crisis, so he must continue to climb higher.

Jiang Chen must admit that NAC’s military ritual did not fit Zhou Guoping very well. It felt like a bandit was being enlisted into a group of properly trained soldiers. While they all wore the same uniform, it just looked awkward.

“Okay.” Jiang Chen also got up from his chair and walked over to Zhou Guoping, patting him on the shoulder. “Since you have chosen the hardest road, I must treat you with equal respect. When everything is over, I will let you lead a survivor settlement on the West Coast.”

If he really led an area, then even the best area would turn into a bandit hole under his ruling. However, Jiang Chen didn’t mind. It would just be a survivor settlement on another continent. He could have the freedom as long as he does commit awful crimes under NAC’s flag.

NAC’s reputation must be protected.

When Zhuo Guoping heard Jiang Chen’s promise, he was overjoyed and immediately expressed his loyalty.

He was waiting for this very promise. He served the NAC for many years and the people that entered NAC around the same time as him were either serving as the head of a division, the executive of a settlement or held the position of governor in colony.

And he was still serving a role outside of the ranks of NAC.

Now Jiang Chen gave him the promise that he’ll be able to lead a settlement when everything ends, he was of course overjoyed.

North America? So what? It is farther, and the conditions are harsher, but these difficulties are nothing compared to the taste of power!

When Zhou Guoping swore his allegiance, Jiang Chen smiled and did not take his words to heart.

“That’s enough, you can say all of this when you come back,” Jiang Chen interrupted Zhou Guoping’s flattering words, “Bring your people and prepare in Wanghai. You’ll depart at the end of October. I’ll order the logistics department to allocate 100,000 credits to you. You can decide on weapons and people. Everything will be up to you.”

“Roger!”

“Wait, don’t rush to leave yet,” Jiang Chen stopped Zhou Guoping as he was about to leave, “Remember to find someone you trust to go with you and get him to report to me.”

Zhou Guoping stood straight up, face flushed with joy.

“Guaranteed to complete the mission!”

Chapter 1219: Triumphant Return

Chapter 1219 Triumphant Return The first snow of the year finally arrived at the beginning of October.The flag of NAC had flown over the Pan-Asia Cooperation building for more than a week. The change of regime did not cause any chaos and the survivors continued with their lives; more or less becoming accustomed to the change.

Thanks to the battle, zombies appeared on the surface more often as they flooded out from underground, which made the entire Shangjing area more dangerous.

Now, the area within the Third Ring Road was no longer as safe as before. The merchant fleets must bring more mercenaries and add more weapons to the trucks to ensure their safety. And those small settlements outside of the wall all increased their weapon reserve.

For these reasons, the factories in Pingan Street were running at capacity and were once again revived from the brink of death.

As time went by, more good news arrived.

First, it was from the Russians. Yegor’s death devastated the morale of the Uelen Border Guards and gave opportunities to ambitious individuals. There was an attempt at coup which resulted in a few deaths. Then, the remaining Russians were divided into two factions. Some of them decided to stay, while others were led by a man named Sedov on a journey back to their hometown of Moscow.

Moscow was a very distant and hard to imagine place. Therefore, it was difficult to see them being able to return.

However, if they continued to maintain their nomad lifestyle, slaughtering and robbing everything along their path, they could perhaps return to their homeland and ravage through Europe.

Of course, the premise would be that they don’t encounter powerful forces like the NAC, or extreme mutants unconquerable by human force…

On the other hand, the third line of defense was rising by the day, and finally tall enough to deter the zombies.

Zombies would not be able to get on the wall by stepping on the corpses, and the situation of using a bayonet would never occur again…

Behind the third line of defense, the foundation for the collapsed wall was rebuilt. Engineering vehicles and construction robots workedcontinuously among reinforced concrete structures as they began the difficult and lengthy reconstruction work.

Besides, resources shipped up from Line 0 provided the materials needed for the reconstruction of the wall. The special cement from Line 0 especially helped alleviate the urgent needs of Pingan Street.

Other than the power armors, Jiang Chen did not plan to transport any resources back to Wanghai. He decided to store those in the warehouses of Pingan Street and open sales to local factories.

Disregarding the fact that he served as a living “resource transfer station”, the resource recovery technology in Sixth Street was becoming more and more advanced. Many materials that were previously difficult to recycle could now be converted into useful resources at a low cost.

As resources and food gradually became self-sufficient, it had been a while since Jiang Chen transported any supplies back from the modern world. Instead, he often moved power armors produced here to arm his power armor brigade in the modern world.

The last good news was that the NAC General who was ready to return home.

Now that Shangjing was a part of NAC, Line 0 was emptied, and Russians were no longer a threat, the triumphant return was getting closer and closer.

However, the survivors were still on the fence about whether or not this could be considered good news. But when they considered that the giant steel shadow would disappear from above their heads, people all breathed a sigh of relief.

No one liked the idea of an electromagnetic pulse cannon over their heads.

Just like no one liked the idea of being pointed by a gun.

“It’s snowing.”

On the tall wall, Jiang Chen looked at the distant skyline.

Through the flickering snow, the distant high-rises and the dawning glimmers of the morning merged into a line. If it weren’t for the damaged buildings and streets, he really had an illusion of being in the center of the prosperous world.

Next to Jiang Chen, Lu Fan was already in a new military uniform. As he blew out a cloud of white mist, he exclaimed.

“Yes.”

“The matter of the Fourth Division will be handed over to you. If there is any difficulty, remember to let me know.”

“Will do,” Lu Fan said solemnly.

Jiang Chen nodded and patted Lu Fan’s shoulder. Instead of the usual farewell words, his eyes carried the message. Then he walked to the elevator on the edge of the giant wall.

Zheng Shanhe followed Jiang Chen. When he passed Lu Fan, he stopped and held his right fist against his chest. He performed a NAC military salute to his former commander; it was meant to congratulate him for his promotion and also send him a silent farewell.

After Lu Fan returned the military salute, hegently punched the chest of his former comrade with a grin.

“The brothers will be yours to look after.”

Zheng Shanhe stood straight and solemnly promised.

“Yes sir!”

…

“Prepare, depart!”

With the ring of Li Wang’s coarse voice, the loaded AS Order blew its melodious horn.

The vortex engines gradually ignited and slowly pushed the steel behemoth forward.

In the sight of the Shangjing survivors, more than a dozen airships, under the leadership of the giant steel airship, gradually drifted toward the south and eventually turned into a series of black dots on the horizon…

In the cabin of AS Order, the electric heat slowly radiated a drowsy warmth.

Yao Yao was lying on her belly in front of the round window, hymning a cute tune. She was blowing on the glass window while writing and drawing abstract things.

At the same time, Jiang Chen sat on a comfortable recliner and looked at the ice crystals condensing outside the window. While he enjoyed the drowsy warmth, he let his thoughts drift off and killed off some of the boring traveling time

“We’ll be in Wanghai tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll have to go back to the modern world shortly after.”

“I don’t know how Ayesha, Xia Shiyu, and Natasha have been. Are they getting along?”

“After returning to the modern world, a lot of things must be resolved.”

In his head, there were random thoughts that constantly appeared. Just as Jiang Chen was about to fall asleep, a pair of clear and bright eyes moved from the window to beside his arms gazed at him earnestly.

“You want to nap?”

The soft voice rang in his ear.

To be honest, Jiang Chen couldn’t sleep after being gazed at like this.

“Mhmm,” he reached out and squeezed the adorable face and smiled softly. “I’m going to nap for a bit, is there anything you need?”

“Hmm…” Yao Yao blushed while holding onto the corner of her skirt. “Can we sleep like last time?”

“Uhh… of course,” Jiang Chen raised his eyelids. “Help me turn the heat down.”

He didn’t want to move at all.

“Mhmm!” Yao Yao nodded happily and immediately ran to the heater to turn down the power. Then she returned to the recliner chair, took off her slippers, and climbed onto Jiang Chen with the same blushing face.

The soft white stocking inadvertently brushed against him, making his thoughts go wild.

But soon, this lingering feeling gradually calmed down with the sound of rhythmic breathing.

Perhaps because it was too warm, the little girl quickly fell asleep on top of his chest.

Looking at Yao Yao, full of joy between his arms, Jiang Chen smiled gently and buried his face in her fluffy hair.

With the fresh scent of jasmine, he soon dozed off too.

Chapter 1220: The Grand Occasion

1220 The Grand Occasion AS Order docked at the airship port in the Sixth Street.

When the army equipped in power armors and kinetic skeleton paraded through the main road in the Sixth Street, the survivors paid the highest respect and applause to the soldiers who returned from the expedition.

Flowers, cheers, applause…

Jiang Chen, inside the brand-new X-1 power armor, waved his hands at the excited crowd. He could feel people’s enthusiasm as a smile appeared on his face.

People’s worship of heroes is eternal and lasted from ancient times to the present.

From time to time, a young girl came forward with a blush, and handed the bouquet in Jiang Chen’s hand, offered a hug, and then quickly ran back into the crowd. The guards and NAC Knights who followed Jiang Chen also enjoyed the same treatment, just not as frequently as Jiang Chen who was at the very front.

Because of this glory, many people specially came to participate in this triumphant ceremony. After the expeditionary army’s dissolvement the second day, they must take an airship back to Shangjing to report to the Fourth Division.

There were still people who could not make this trip, because NAC must maintain a minimum sense of military presence in Pingan Street. Many like Lu Fan were the ones who stayed behind.

In the very front, Jiang Chen smiled and waved as he led the army forward. They slowly advanced towards the central square of the Sixth Street.

“Look, look! The general seemed to have glanced at me just now,” A girl said as she pulled on her best friend.

“No. He was obviously looking at me!” The beautiful woman in the fallout shelter’s winter clothes straightened her chest and said, overjoyed.

Just as the two girls argued over who the general’s sight stopped on just now, a mercenary at the entrance of the nearby tavern patted his thigh and sighed with regret.

“Fu*k! if I knew there was such prestige, I would have gone when they recruited! I would never have went to that merchant fleet for just one hundred credits, and I almost got castrated by the mutated humans.” The mercenary-looking man looked enviously at the power armors that walked by as he couldn’t stop sighing.

“Come on, can you even survive for two seconds with your accuracy?” His colleague, who leaned on the side with a wine bottle, mocked while he burped, “I heard that our expeditionary force and the Russian Border Guards fought in the subway tunnel. Do you understand the concept of border guards? They are actual military troops! And we have won! If you can’t even win against mutated humans, aren’t you just going to be a deadweight?”

“Fu*k! How would you know if you didn’t try!” The mercenary argued with his face completely red.

As the mercenaries were causing a ruckus, the bank beside the central square was packed at this moment.

In the war mobilization stage, NAC issued war bonds as usual, and now it was finally time to cash them out. However, what really ignited people’s enthusiasm was not the two percent profit, but the auction of trophies and loots!

The assets that belonged to Ding Liwei, Wan Peng and other council members on Pingan Street would be auctioned at the Sixth Street Bank hundreds of kilometers away.Factories, real estate, resources, and even the franchise rights of a certain industry were all the darlings these merchants chased after!

It was an undeveloped virgin land. Although the weather was colder in the north, its development potential was much better than Hongcheng and Wu City!

Merchants in suits and leather shoes crowded inside the trading floor of the bank as they eagerly looked up at the information flashing on the big screen. Their fingers were placed right above their EP screens and bid through the external “credit chip” on the EP.

“What the! Who bid 1 million credits already! Who is this rich!” A merchant exclaimed when he saw the auction price that jumped up ten times compared to the starting price.

“It’s probably someone from Zhao Group. They are determined to win the food trading rights. But NAC is really generous. It’s so good to keep this in their own hands. It’s a gold mine…”A another merchant sighed.

“Maybe the general hasother plans. However, having said that, the credit points were originally issued by the military government. No matter how much money they make, it is just a number after all.”

“You are right… By the way, I heard that there is a high density of mutant species in the subway stations in Shangjing, and there are many high-quality hunting grounds. Do you want to buy a hunting group? Winter is coming soon; the crystal market seems to have potential!”

“Forget it. If even you could think of this idea, I think the crystal is going to fall again…”

“What do you mean?!”

The entire Sixth Street was unprecedentedly lively.

Of course, the liveliest place was the central square.

Jiang Chen stood in front of the square, just like the last time he returned form the expedition. He read the victory declaration in front of all the survivors and then awarded medals to the soldiers who returned.

The award ceremony was also the most awaited part of the entire celebration.

In the NAC’s pyramidal citizenship hierarchy, the benefits and political rights enjoyed by citizens of different ranks were completely different.

In this expedition, a total of 170 high-class citizens were newly promoted to NAC Knights. They could have their own T-3 power armor (although they could only be stored in the warehouse under unified management), and could serve as officers in the military government above the rank of captain.

In addition, there were a total of 510 newly promoted upper-class citizens, 1,520 middle-class citizens, and 3,000 lower-class citizens. Obtaining citizenship was equivalent to naturalization in the NAC military government system, which allowed the citizen to receive at least one ration and be allowed to settle in “military zones” such as the Fishbone Base.

Although it was possible to apply for abandonment of citizenship, no one in their right mind would ever do so.

Any one with citizenship was highly sought-after by unmarried girls and single women. If they couldn’t gain achievements through war, marriage was the only way for them to become a citizen.

Especially the newly promoted knights, they were considered a rare resource in the eyes of the unmarried girls in Sixth Street. Being a knight lady was not only an honor, but it also meant a plentiful life.

They could enjoy delicious white rice every meal, and meat raised from the beef cattle from the Garden of Eden. It was an enviable life that even factory owners and wealthy merchant dreamed of.

It was precisely because of this that many people also jokingly referred to this ceremony as husband selection ceremony. And the facts have also proved this. According to statistics after the end of the last expedition, in the month after the ceremony, the number of marriages registered almost tripled compared to last month.

Even Chu Nan discussed this issue with Jiang Chen. Proper foreign war could help eliminate poverty and decrease the number of singles…

Of course, in addition to the knights, there was the most popular individual, and he was the one standing in the middle of the stage.

Young, handsome, chic, and suave…at least in the eyes of all unmarried girls. But because of this, this one seemed a bit out-of-the-reach in everyone’s eyes.

Success could conceal many shortcomings of a man, and even turn many shortcomings into advantages. To give a very popular example – because Jiang Chen is Jiang Chen, the fact that many love affairs were related to him could only be love affairs, and nothing else.

Even those pre-war actresses, business elites, and women of high-ranking officials who have high self-esteem that recently exited the hibernation chamber, who strongly believed in women’s rights from the pre-war era looked at the tall figure on stage and felt their hearts pounding.

It had nothing to do with power or wealth.

The worship of heroes was human nature.

Chapter 1221: Before The Return

1221 Before The Return Just when the ceremony was about to reach its climax, inside a pink-colored room at the Lin Institute.

It was Lin Lin’s second bedroom as she occasionally stayed here to save herself the time from running between her lab and her bedroom.

There were no boring experimental equipment and no smell of disinfectant. There were only some girly furniture and the unique fragrance of the girl, as well as two little lolis who were chatting at the table.

Lin Lin No.1001 gently knocked on the door, then she came in wearing a maid uniform and brought two cups of coffee.

Yao Yao quickly got up and thanked her before taking the coffee from her hand. As for Lin Lin, she extended her hand like an emperor and enjoyed the service from her innocent and naïve sister… She couldn’t help it as her character has always been this “bad” towards people who were easy to bully.

By the way, the maid uniform was also one of her wicked tastes.

While “elegantly” enjoying coffee, Lin Lin listened to Yao Yao’s narration of what happened in Shangjing before finally letting out a sigh. She put down the cup coffee and spat out her tongue.

“So you didn’t make any progress?”

“Ummm… that’s not true.” Yao Yao was upset as she raised her eyebrow and protested. “Big Brother hugged me when we slept and kissed me on the forehead!”

“Just a kiss? This is exactly no progress.” Lin Lin pursed her lips before she smirked at Yao Yao. “Maybe your beloved Big Brother is now rolling in the sheets with Sun Jiao.”

The sentence was a double-edged sword.

Lin Lin, out of habit, blurted out the sentence to bully the cute Yao Yao. However, those words also hurt her.

“Hmph, it’s useless to lie to me. Brother Jiang Chen is still issuing the medal of honor at Sixth Street. He won’t come back until noon tomorrow.” Yao Yao glanced at Lin Lin with the expression that said I won’t be fooled by you.

“Oh?” Lin Lin rubbed her aching chest as she forced a smirk, “Let’s not go home tonight then. Will someone put herself in that bad guy’s bed?” I heard that the… foxy lady who is really good at singing wrote a song for him.”

Prosperity has promoted the development of culture. In particular, NAC held events such as galas and festivals during the Spring Festival, New Year’s Day, and NAC National Day. Many merchants also spotted the opportunities in the market and invested in bands and singers for concerts and albums.

It was also a way for the celebrities that entered the hibernation chamber before the war to go back to their old careers. Many stunning celebrities did consider Jiang Chen as an option. After all, the choice was obvious between singing to the general in his bed and performing to the undernourished survivors.

Unfortunately, they did not wake up in time. At least for now, Jiang Chen rarely did scandalous things outside…

“Don’t say that he is a bad guy…” Yao Yao pouted.

“Uhhh, that’s not the point?”

Lin Lin massaged her temples, feeling a headache was coming on.

The bad-mouthing ability that was effective to Jiang Chen, Sun Jiao, and even the sly Xiaorou became useless in front of Yao Yao. She could only feel a sense of defeat.

I feel defeated…

Yao Yao did not bother with Lin Lin who was rubbing her temples as both of her hands were under her chin. However, she suddenly thought of something great as a sweet smile formed on her face.

“But then, it feels so warm to be hugged.”

When she saw Yao Yao’s joyous smile, Lin Lin suddenly felt a hint of jealousy.

Lin Lin pouted, then turned around and looked away as she muttered under her breath.

“Hmph, you’re so easily satisfied? Next time… I will not give you the opportunity to go.”

Lin Lin did not expect Yao Yao to nod and then respond so seriously.

“Mhmm! For sure, next time its Sister Lin Lin’s turn.”

“Uhh? Re… really?”

Lin Lin was a little flustered.

“Of course, thank you for supporting me last time… I just couldn’t help you find Eden Technology’s Cell Bank. I’m really sorry,” Yao Yao stood up and said apologetically.

“Uhh? It’s okay, it doesn’t matter…”

Looking at the completely serious Yao Yao, Lin Lin quickly waved her hand.

Sure enough, I’m not good at dealing with children…

Lin Lin muttered in her mind while her cheeks began to feel hot.

Although she has felt this way before, she suddenly felt Yao Yao was particularly cute at the moment…

…

The autumn wind of October already brought the winter chill.

Although there was no snowfall in Wanghai, the first snow was not far away.

During the small ice age caused by the nuclear winter, this planet would only get colder. However, the cold did not freeze people’s enthusiasm. Yesterday, Sixth Street was immersed in the joy of festivities. People cheered and shouted for the longevity of the general as they celebrated the border expansion of NAC by a few hundreds of kilometers north.

Until noon the next day, when Jiang Chen went home, the same celebratory atmosphere still lingered behind…

In the office of the mansion, two figures embraced together.

From afar, they looked like a painting.

“Are you leaving again?” In his arms, Sun Jiao said with a hint of resentment.

“…maybe I’ll stay till the end of the year. I won’t travel to far off places anymore.” Jiang Chen gazed into the sky and said emotionally, “I’m sorry I have to leave so soon after coming back. I couldn’t even spend time with you.”

A gentle smile surfaced on Sun Jiao’s lips.

She leaned against Jiang Chen’s chest for a while before she suddenly looked at him with a smile.

“I heard you brought back a woman?”

“Who did you hear that from?” Jiang Chen asked. “I didn’t take her home. I just found an experiment subject for Lin Lin…”

Swearing to Heaven and earth, he did not do anything to Zhao Qiuran!

Then gentle lips blocked his words.

Their lips parted.

However, a faint lingering fragrance stayed behind. Looking at the beautiful smile inches away, Jiang Chen felt warmer inside.

“No need to explain,” Sun Jiao said softly, “I believe in you.”

Staring at her tender pupils, Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” Sun Jiao pouted and dissatisfiedly poked Jiang Chen’s chest.

“Nothing, I felt surprised.” Jiang Chen softly grabbed Sun Jiao’s hand.

“Surprised about what?”

“The Queen that almost whipped me has now turned into a dignified and respectable Miss General,” Jiang Chen joked.

Sun Jiao took a second to process this information. Perhaps she began thinking about her past self, for she also burst out laughing.

“Which one do you like?” Sun Jiao moved closer and softly bit his ear. Then she said in a playful tone, “If you miss the old me, I can take the rope out tonight.” ”

“I like all of you.”

Jiang Chen put her hands around her slender and soft waist, this time, he kissed down.

Chapter 1222: The Discovery At Mine 071

1222 The Discovery At Mine 071 At the Space Command Center in Celestial City.

It was noon and the staff was resting.

A man in the Celestial Trade uniform was munching on fries with ketchup while sliding his greasy hand on the holographic screen. He turned on a famous streamer who was streaming Godly Land.

The neural-accessible VR online game took the world by storm. With miraculous intelligent real-time computation power, the game captured the minds of the players using endless plots and possibilities. The game captured over ninety-five percent of the VR MMORPG market.

Gris was no exception. Before he became a Celestial Trade employee, he was already a big fan of Godly Land. Whenever he took lunch, he would go into a select few channels to watch the streamers doing “unique missions” while he enjoyed his snacks.

The stream was getting more exciting as a streamer called Shadow Demon was about to finish the plot of a “unique mission” and enter the boss fight, but then the headset he tossed on the table suddenly flashed red.

Gris paused for a second when he saw the flashing red light.

Although he was reluctant, he turned off the holographic screen in agony and put his feet back down on the floor before he grabbed the headset.

It was the nature of his work.

Because the communication resources of the Earth and Mars were precious, even during his break, he must sit at his desk and be on standby. The real break only happened after work when shift interns would take over.

After he cleared his throat, he wiped the grease off of his mouth and skillfully pressed the button.

“This is the Space Command Center, Agent 011 is at your service.”

There was a brief period of static noise in the communication before it quickly became clear.

“…This is Project Team 071. We found something special in the ground… we don’t know how to describe our shock at the moment.”

Something special?

Gris couldn’t understand for a moment, but he did not dare to neglect what he had just heard. He immediately grabbed the pen from the table and jotted it down on a notepad.

“Okay, Project Team 071, the Space Command Center has received your message. Can you describe it more in detail? What did you find?”

“There is a wide underground space, no groundwater, no ice… It’s empty and the outer casing is metal. After scrapping about five drill bits, we have drilled through the outer casing. Inside we detected some metal objects, but they don’t seem natural and we can’t determine its source.”

Next to the Mars rover, Wang Qiang made contact with the Celestial City Space Command Center through the Mars communication base station. While looking at the screen of the instrument in his hand, he had a serious expression on his face.

Next to him were four Marines in aerospace kinetic skeletons, and they were holding the new personnel weapon – Gaussian Rifle. At this moment, the four Marines were cautiously guarding the drilling platform.

WhenWang Qiang had hung up the phone, Captain Hong Zewei, who was standing next to him, immediately asked.

“What did the command center say?”

“They asked us to continue to drill down and then drop in drones.”

“Drop in drones? What if a monster comes out?” Hong Zewei smiled bitterly. “Or what if a Gundam appears…”

“Then we must be the side characters that die at the beginning of the movie,” Wang Qiang shrugged and put his arms on the Mars rover. He looked at the drill with a perplexed expression, “Or we’ll be the Columbus that discoveres the New World.”

“You are the ship captain, you have to make the choice.”

…

January 1st, 2020.

After a relaxing three-month holiday in the apocalypse, Jiang Chen returned to Coro Island on New Year’s Day.

The election campaign for Xin was in full swing. The holographic screen floating on the side of major streets in several major cities like Coro, Penglai, and Ange were either filled with advertisements of Future Group, or President Zhang Yaping’s campaign declaration.

Under the massive propaganda, other party candidates were all foils.

In fact, even without these propaganda offenses, Zhang Yaping’s chance of losing the election was almost zero. The past four years had been four years of rapid progress in Xin. The total GDP created in these four years exceeded the total GDP of this island country over the past few centuries.

Many people watched the island country transition from sugar cane, fishery, and coconuts being the pillar industries to becoming a “cosmic powerhouse” with the support Future Group who then seated Xin on the throne of the “Earth Defense Alliance”.

Countless people sighed and regretted the fact that they lost the support of such a powerful corporation.

Also stirring the international landscape was a general election on the other side of the Pacific. Although Xin achieved epic monuments in many fields and the world’s center of gravity began to tilt from the eastern Pacific to the western Pacific, for now, the world’s intersection was still at the Times Square, not a space elevator leading to the future of mankind.

Compared with the stable election of Xin, the UA election was full of dramatic changes.

A black horse broke out from the crowd, and Trump, under the “race” banner, unexpectedly won the candidacy of the party with the help of his “Twitter Empire”, and unexpectedly became a popular candidate for the primaries.

At the same time, while the Republican Party was still arguing over the candidacy, the Democratic Party was in the midst of a bloodbath.

Negative news of Hill suddenly stormed the Internet, and she was exhausted from deflecting scandals such as accepting foreign funds and private emails.

Kerry suddenly resigned from his post of Secretary of State and broke the vow of not participating in the election. He said that he would lead the UA and the Democratic Party on the “right path” and began targeting Hill.

John F. Kennedy emerged out of nowhere. After an open campaign speech, he changed from a little-known member of the House to a nationally-renowned campaigner. His support rate skyrocketed, just like the black horse from years before…

The three forces had attacked each other and it was a fierce battle for the primaries in March. Because of the subpar candidate from the Republican party, who also made a fool of himself because ofa particular incident, many people joked that the president would be decided in March.

Under the glamorous appearances, it was a bloody and tragic battle between the capitals of Wall Street.

Behind Kerry was Daniel Morgan and Hill was backed by the Rockefeller Consortium, and the Kennedy family itself was a member of the B City Consortium’s community of interests. The B City Consortium’s influence was not comparable to the two Wall Street giants, but they managed to find a strong foreign aid – Future Group.

Before facing a more distant crisis, the problems of the human civilization seemed to be even more urgent.

On the first day of the second decade in the twenty-first century, this azure planet welcomed this turbulent and unstable political landscape.

Chapter 1223: A Holiday That Ended Early

Chapter 1223 A Holiday That Ended Early Andrée Island, located south of Coro Island, was a relatively large island outside of the Pannu Nine Islands and was also a famous tourist attraction. It was rumored that the island was named after the sailor who first discovered the island on the Magellan fleet, and there was also a saying that the island was named after a London aristocrat who never visited Asia.Because the island shared the same name as the island near Antarctica, some members proposed to rename the island. However, since Xin was pushing for “unified language and cultural compatibility”, this proposal did not come to fruition.

Jiang Chen, lying on the recliner, was leisurely enjoying his time off as the sea wind gently breezed by. He was drinking chilled smoothies while watching crowds play on the beach not far away.

Two days ago, after he had returned from the apocalypse, he brought Ayesha, Xia Shiyu, and Natasha to the holiday mansion near the beach.

Although he owned a lot of private beaches, nothing really compared to the liveliness of a public beach.

For example, beautiful women in swimsuits, gorgeous girls playing beach volleyball, and the “waves” that swayed around due to all the movement.

As for safety, the Ghost Agents were on the lookout for him, and drones were on standby 24-7 near him. So he did not need to be concerned…

Just as Jiang Chen’s eyes were half-closed and he was about to fall asleep, a document was gently placed on his face and covered his sight of the beach.

The document slipped to his chest and Jiang Chen lazily picked it up. When he saw the black and white photo printed on the paper, his eyes narrowed and he took a brief look.

“This is?”

“Trump, a well-known real estate developer in the UA. He is also a candidate for the 2020election. This is a paper copy of his relevant information. Here is his campaign speech…”

On the recliner next to Jiang Chen, Ayesha in a swimsuit tapped on the Future around her wrist. After the holographic screen opened, she gently pushed it toward Jiang Chen.

“A Republican?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow as he examined the man in the video before he clicked the play button, and touched his chin with intrigue, “interesting.”

The holographic screen showed a campaign speech a few months ago on the lawn of a park in Nevada.

The protagonist of the speech was the “questionable nominee” in the center of the storm – Mr. Trump.

It was supposed to be a very formal speech, but Jiang Chen felt like he was watching a talk show.

“…”

“I’m rich, I’m very rich, I’m very very rich!”

“So, I don’t care how much money those Wall Street people will give me!”

“I assure you that if you vote for me, at least the vote will not inexplicably appear in the pocket of Wall Street. Only I can represent your interests, only I can represent the UA dream, yes, only me!”

“We shouldn’t send people like Kerry who has no idea how to negotiate and sign an infuriating and comical agreement with them, then watch as they use our money to make weapons and act aggressively at the negotiating table.”

“You know who I am talking about. That’s right! It’s him! Only someone who is more of a man can negotiate with him, not that old woman without a proper menstrual period!”

“Tell me, will you vote for the old lady?”

“…”

“The UA dream has been shattered! And I will reshape the UA dream, make it bigger, better, stronger, and make it great again. Thank you.”

At the beginning of the campaign, he offended the Wall Street, the female rights activists, and also directly targeted Kerry, and stated he will face that man.

“Are you sure this is a campaign declaration, not a declaration at an MMA fight?”

After Jiang Chen watched the video, he was not angry, but instead amused.

“Our analysis concluded that his chance of winning the March primaries is high and there are no strong candidates in the Republican Party,” Ayesha said. “If he wins in the March primaries, then John Kennedy’s biggest competitor will be him.”

“Indeed, after watching this speech, even as a foreigner, I want to vote for him.” After he had pushed the holographic screen aside, Jiang Chen said while trying to contain his laughter.

Of course, even if he was laughing, this candidate already caught the attention of Ghost Agents and must be treated with caution. While Future Group and the B City Consortium were both backing Mr. John Kennedy, the UA was not Xin after all. The identity of Future Group remained sensitive and thus some things must be done under disguise, or rather, under constraints…

Unlike the elections in Xin, the UA election was still at odds.

Jiang Chen turned off the holographic screen, cleared his throat, he pressed his fist against his lower lip for a moment, then, he ordered.

“Collect his information and focus on his diplomacy and trade policy. I need to know what his attitude towards Xin and Future Group is if this interesting candidate was ultimately elected.”

“Mhmm, I’ll get on it.”

Ayesha nodded seriously and was about to get up, but Jiang Chen pulled on her arm.

She turned her head and was just about to ask what was going on when Jiang Chen interrupted.

“Forget about it today, go tomorrow.”

Looking at the smirk on his face, Ayesha’s cheeks turned red and she nodded lightly.

“Okay.”

…

The thoughts that have accumulated for a long time were all melted into passionate sweat.

Natasha and Ayesha were not repulsive toward doing shameful things together, only Xia Shiyu was still somewhat reserved. But with peer pressure from the two girls and too much champagne, she fell beside Jiang Chen with a blush, closed her eyes, and gave all her best to him…

The next morning, leaning against the soft bed, Jiang Chen shook his drowsy head and turned his head.

When he saw the satisfied expressions of the three women, there was a proud smile. He looked straight up at the ceiling, reminiscing of last night’s madness.

After he had returned from Shangjing, his three attributes also improved slightly. While he was still a long way from Sun Jiao, he was a superhuman by this world’s standard. Even Natasha was defeated in his hands…

It was the power of technology.

When Jiang Chen let his thoughts diverge, Kelvin phoned in.

Jiang Chen quietly got up after moving the smooth arms wrapped around his neck away. After he covered the girls’ three seductive and fascinating bodies, he put on his watch and went into the living room.

When he clicked the accept call button, he yawned and sat on a chair.

“Hello?”

As soon as the call was connected, Kelvin immediately spoke.

“There is a situation on Mars.” Perhaps Kelvin was worried that the weight of his words did not sound urgent enough, he added, “It’s Project 071.”

As soon as Jiang Chen heard the number 071, he immediately turned serious.

“Are there findings at Mine 071?”

“We have drilled into the target layer and found something unusual in it…”

Jiang Chen’s pupils shook as he stood up and walked to the window.

“I’ll rush to Celestial City as soon as possible. You are responsible for convening the relevant personnel of the project team to prepare the relevant materials. We’ll meet in ten hours.”

“Understood!” Kelvin replied.

After he had hung up, Jiang Chen looked at the pleasant seascape outside the window and suddenly sighed.

Originally he had planned to stay on this island for a week.

But now his holiday must end early…

Chapter 1224: An Ant Nest From Three Billion Years Ago

Chapter 1224 An Ant Nest From Three Billion Years Ago On the space elevator heading to Celestial City, Jiang Chen stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of the head cabin and overlooked the blue covered with white that slowly drifting away from his sight.Recalling the leisure time he had on the island over these last two days, it was really a shame to end it early. However, considering the importance of Mine 071, he could only sigh.

A man walked to him.

“It’s the view beautiful?”

Jiang Chen turned his head and raised his eyebrows after he saw the man. Then, he smiled and said, “Oh it’s you, what a coincidence”.

Wu Changfeng smiled and said in a sly tone. “Because of work, I have to travel between Shangjing and Celestial City. I have had to spend at least a week in the space elevator this month.”

Jiang Chen chuckled and started chatting.

“Oh, is that medicine effective?”

“…I did become younger.” Wu Changfeng nodded and said emotionally, “Your technical capability is astounding. Maybe after another ten years, the world will yearn for the citizenship of your country.”

“Haha, you’re exaggerating.” Jiang Chen laughed.

It was indeed an over-exaggeration.

Even now, Xin citizenship was coveted by many around the world. In his next term, President Zhang Yaping would gradually tighten the immigration policy.

“Right, I brought a few questions from my country. I don’t know if Mr. Jiang can shed me some light?”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen asked. “What questions?”

“I heard that the project you’re carrying out in the Martian colony is… related to extraterrestrial civilization?”

“That is a rumor. All projects involving extraterrestrial civilization will be made public to the primary members of the Earth Defense Alliance and a vote must take place to device whether the information is disclosed to the secondary member states,” Jiang Chen immediately said righteously.

Wu Changfeng processed the information and laughed.

“Mr. Jiang misunderstood, I have no other intention than clarifying…”

After the space elevator arrived, Jiang Chen and Wu Changfeng bid farewell before Jiang Chen took the express train to the Space Department of Celestial Trade.

Wu Changfeng’s words made Jiang Chen ponder while he was inside the train.

Project 071 is closely linked to strong interaction materials and is one of the most confidential secrets of Celestial Trade. It is reasonable to say that no information from the project can be leaked. However, it seems that people have gotten wind of the project.

He did not think Major General Wu would have just casually asked him that question.

The major general did not come from a simple background. While he was from the Army, he came from the renowned General Staff Department Division Two. The name General Staff Department was not unfamiliar with Jiang Chen as it served as the intelligence of Hua’s Army. Its presence was seen in everything from internal affairs to foreign affairs, not only powerful but also comprehensive.

However, from Wu Changfeng’s tone, they seemed to have indeed gained some information, but they could not verify the accuracy…

“Even Hua heard some information. Then, the Russians must also be aware of this. Is it through the transportation ship’s supplies? Or something else…”

Just as Jiang Chen was internalizing this thought, the train had arrived.

Putting this problem aside, under the escort of soldiers, Jiang Chen walked out and headed to the Space Department.

…

In the conference room of the Space Command Center, the relevant members of Project 071 were already sitting around the table.

Everyone had a serious look on their face.

Once any problem had the label of “extraterrestrial civilization”, it would automatically escalate to Class A in the confidentiality ranking of Celestial Trade. However, at the establishment of Project 071, it was already classified as Class S confidential, which demonstrated the importance Celestial Trade placed on this project.

The door opened, and when Jiang Chen appeared at the door, all the top experts and researchers sat straight and stopped whispering.

Jiang Chen sat down at the head of the table, cleared his throat, and concisely said.

“Sorry, the elevator encountered a strong airflow in the troposphere and it was ten minutes late. Your time is precious, so let’s get started.”

Then, Jiang Chen looked at Kelvin.

Kelvin nodded and announced the beginning of the meeting.

The lights in the conference room dimmed, and it was absolutely silent.

“It was decided by the project team that the frontline staff will deploy drones into the hollow layer below Mine 071. According to the data from the bottom… it’s better for me to give you the diagram.” Kelvin pressed the control and then looked at people around the table. “By the way, this newly released 3D image is also classified as Class S.”

The three-dimensional graphics emerged.

The pale blue light particles appeared out of thin air. It formed countless straight lines, reciprocated in the air, and illustrated the Martian landscape map layer by layer. Immediately afterward, the light particles filled under the Martian geomorphic network map, all the way down, and finally twisted into a spiral image.

Everyone looked shocked.

“What is this?”

“An inconceivable shape.”

“The veins of a certain natural mineral? It’s not quite like…”

“Could it be an alkaline albite vein? Mars has experienced large-scale volcanic activity, as evidenced by rock specimens shipped back from the colony. Considering the acidic environment of Mars, it is likely to be alkali. The traces left by the erosion of the igneous rock veins…”

“It’s possible, but it doesn’t explain why we have anomalies in our seismic data…”

“Could it be a rare mineral residue?”

Kelvin looked at the scholars whispering amongst each other before he gently coughed to get everyone’s attention. He pressed his hands against the table before he said. “You can freely express your opinion. However, the first question to be discussed at this meeting is whether the discovery at Mine 071 is naturally formed, or the remains of extraterrestrial civilization… or something similar.”

The meeting room was silent.

It took a while for the whispers to continue.

“If it is artificially formed, what is the significance of making a building spiral? In terms of space utilization, this construction is completely meaningless…”

At this moment, Dr. Amos, who had been sitting at the corner of the conference table without any presence from beginning to end, suddenly spoke up.

“I remember when I was 7 years old, my grandfather in Bavaria once took me to do an experiment,” He said, then paused and looked at the all the eyes that were now on him before he continued, “He poured heated liquid aluminum into an ant nest, and then after the aluminum cooled, we could get an aluminum model of an ant nest…”

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, Dr. Amos, but we are discussing Mine 071,” A professor interrupted him with a mocking tone, “Besides, there are no ants on Mars.”

“I know,” Amos shrugged. “But who knows, maybe Mars, three billion years ago, was full of some kind of arthropods. You don’t think this spiral structure looks like the internal structure of an ant nest?”

Chapter 1225: We Don“t Have To Use Electromagnetic Waves

1225 We Don“t Have To Use Electromagnetic Waves Dr. Amos’ field of research was in electrical engineering and neurology. He lived in a research institute on the basement floor of the Future Group with his daughter, who was still in elementary school.

The neural bridging technology of Celestial Trade that enabled the human consciousness to directly connect with robots was one of his inventions. It even won the approval of a digitalized human from the twenty-second century. The technology played a pivotal role in Celestial Trade’s space construction and mining field.

Strictly speaking, his expertise was not compatible with Project 071, but geniuses always received many privileges. Jiang Chen often rewarded researchers who were invested in academic research and made outstanding contributions with more privileges.

For example, Dr. Amos recently had a strong “interest” in aerospace and applied to join Project 071. Therefore, Jiang Chen immediately approved the decision.

It was just that since the establishment of the project team, he seemed to be zoned out from the start. It was the first time he openly expressed his opinion.

Dr. Amos stood up and said as he grew more excited.

“We could make a bold assumption that 3.7 billion years ago, the entire northern hemisphere of Mars was still a sea. At that time, Mars was the world of arthropods. They fought each other and finally a special species… who had more arms, or smarter brains, in short… were vastly different, ended up at the top of the food chain. Much like our ancestors did.”

Everyone around the conference table, including Jiang Chen, watched the passionate Dr. Amos with the same stunned expression.

“They used tens of thousands of years, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions, or tens of millions of years to end the great migration. They built a fire near a river and ignited the flames of the Stone Age. They were good at digging holes and more sensitive to ores than humans. They quickly moved from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and quickly moved toward the Iron Age.”

“Because of the collective consciousness and the restraint of reproduction, it may have taken them longer to be free from slavery and the matriarchal form of society compared to us. But in the endless struggle, they finally did it, they got rid of the old thoughts and finished the Renaissance Era. They eventually went through the Industrial Revolution, and entered the modern era, and may have gone further than us…”

“The society made up of arthropods… that is ridiculous.” The previous professor who refuted him, said in disbelief, “If they could go further than us, why have they never been here.”

“Maybe they have been,” Amos shrugged. “It’s just that you and I haven’t noticed. The time scale of more than three billion years has gone beyond the reach of archaeologists. They may be older than the cyanobacteriafrom Archaean rocks of western Australia.”

“Indeed, we don’t rule out this possibility.” Hawking, who also did not speak previously, suddenly spoke up and stood on Dr. Amos’s side. “Any species has the potential to evolve into a civilization. Especially in this magical universe, anything incredible can happen on the scale of billions of years.”

“I still can’t believe we have enough evidence to prove that…”

The table was divided into two sides. The conservatives thought that the discovery at Mine 071 was likely to be a natural phenomenon. It originated from large-scale volcanic activity two billion years ago. The spiral void was only formed after alkaline rocks were eroded by acidic groundwater, and the special mineral was only sprayed out from the inner mantle.

The other side’s perspective was bolder, or full of imagination. As Dr. Amos said, this spiral formation was not a natural phenomenon at all, but rather buildings of a civilization that humans could not understand.

Or ruins.

“We have to go down to find out.” A scientist was rubbing his temples as he said with a bitter smile.

“The drone can only reach six kilometers underground.” The expression on Kelvin’s face was somewhat helpless. “This also surprised us the most. The iron content in Martian soil is too high, and the target area may be a rich iron ore, causing the electromagnetic waves to be attenuated. We have increased the power of electromagnetic waves to the limit, but the size of the drone can only be so big… unless we build a communication base station below, but this is impossible.”

“Wired transmission?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“There is no equipment,” Kelvin shook his head. “It is on Mars, not our lawn. It’s not difficult to design a wired transmission detector, but Mars is now moving to apogee. If all goes well, we may only see what’s inside Mine 071 next year.”

Wait until one year later.

For aerospace research, waiting for one year may not be a problem. But waiting for a year to drop a detector may be too slow.

Just when everyone was in deep thought, Dr. Amos spoke again.

“Maybe we don’t have to choose electromagnetic waves.” Breaking the silence at the conference table, this time Amos looked at Jiang Chen and said in a subtle tone, “Electromagnetic wave communication may not be possible, but the thing I’m studying…may be possible.”

When Jiang Chen heard this, he understood what he meant.

That’s right, electromagnetic waves can’t do it, but it’s not difficult for that thing to do it.

Klein particles!

Klein particle waves can transmit information through the fourth-dimension. If it can easily permeate through time’s boundary, it can easily pass through a few kilometers underground.

However, only Jiang Chen and Dr. Amos knew about Klein particles. Therefore, everyone else was completely confused by the phrase “maybe we don’t have to choose electromagnetic waves”.

“What is it?” Kelvin had to ask.

“Another Class-S confidential?” Dr. Amos shrugged. “Perhaps even higher.”

“Let’s end today’s meeting here.” After understanding what Dr. Amos meant, Jiang Chen stood up and looked around the scholars and experts before stopping on Kelvin. “Come and see me after.”

“Okay.” Kelvin nodded.

After the meeting, Jiang Chen asked Amos to wait for him at the gate of the express train, then he walked with Kelvin.

“Other members of the Earth Defense Alliance may have gotten some news, but it is nothing substantial. They may know something big is happening on Mars, but they’re confused about the details.”

“You’re worried…” Kelvin’s eyes flickered.

“Yes,” Jiang Chen nodded seriously. “Now is the moment we need to be united. Unnecessary suspicions may cause cracks in our alliance.”

“But we can’t prove that Project 071 is connected to extraterrestrial civilization, telling them will do nothing except create more arguments.” Kelvin smiled bitterly while he shook his head, “How did the information get leaked? The port? Or…”

“Putting that problem aside. With the business activities of Celestial City increasing by the day, it’s very difficult for such a large project to be completely disguised. Especially when we dispatched Marine Corps to Mars, it would be odd if no one suspected anything.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “We must know what is hidden in that mine. If it’s a treasure, then get it quickly. If it’s just a pile of scraps, then clarify the misunderstanding.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen went on.

“After you go back, I want you to do something right away.”

“Go ahead,” Kelvin said immediately.

“Transfer the command authority of the frontline working team of Project 071 directly to me, and I’ll personally take command of the situation.”

Chapter 1226: Witnessing a Historical Momen

1226 Witnessing a Historical Momen After the meeting, Jiang Chen and Dr. Amos returned to the surface.

Judging from his past experiences in Celestial Trade, it was his shortest trip on the orbit by far.

When they arrived at the offshore platform of the space elevator, Jiang Chen directly used his authority and mobilized a military helicopter to bring him and Dr. Amos to Future Building.

The helicopter landed directly on the tarmac of the roof.

After they got off, Jiang Chen followed Dr. Amos and arrived at his institute.

The glass door opened slowly. Amos rubbed his daughter’s blond hair and said softly.

“Milian, go play in your room.”

The little loli, who was drawing on the table got up and looked at Jiang Chen anxiously before she quickly ran back into her room with her drawing book.

Amos walked to the lab with Jiang Chen. He reached out and clicked a few buttons on the holographic screen. Then, he took a helmet from an equipment that was blowing white smoke and handed it to Jiang Chen.

“Science is just so wonderful. With this helmet, we can share the same brain with the drones tens of millions of kilometers away.”

After Jiang Chen took the eccentric-looking helmet, he looked at Dr. Amos with a puzzled expression.

“Why did you send that drone to Mars?”

“In order to prove the impact of the distance on the attenuation of the Klein particle wave signal, and the long-distance communication delay, all those exciting problems. Speaking of which, didn’t you approve that batch of experimental equipment sent to Mars?” The young doctor looked at Jiang Chen and wondered.

“…I seem to have forgotten.” Jiang Chen awkwardly looked away.

“Okay.” Amos shrugged.

The awkward topic ended.

After Jiang Chen laid down on the chair, he put the helmet on and looked at the stream of data flashing in his field of view.

“Are you sure you can get in touch with a drone on Mars as long as I wear this stuff?”

“Yes, I experimented with this myself a month ago, and the result was quite spectacular.” Dr. Amos’ tone was relaxed. “Why don’t I do this? I can’t wait to see the remains of the former civilization.”

It was the moment to witness history. Jiang Chen, who had already put on the game helmet on, could not just easily give up this opportunity.

His line of sight moved across the interface formed on his retina. He was familiarizing himself with the control while he asked Dr. Amos.

“If I put on the helmet, how do I control it…”

“No worries, non-human devices use the driver’s perspective.” Dr. Amos explained, “The helmet comes with a tutorial. As long as you know how to operate a power armor, there should be no problem operating this… how about… let me do this.”

“Allow me to refuse.”

…

Mars.

The door of the buffer compartment slowly opened, and a burly soldier quickly walked beside his cabinet and took out his kinetic skeleton and rifle.

“Urgent mission.”

“Related to Mine 071?”

“Yes.”

“Sh*t, I’m really fed up… Carrying a heavy rifle, standing in the middle of the desert, and watching a group of researchers play with computers… I thought I came here to fight Martians. Where are the Martians? There is only sand here, and endless sandstorms?” A man with an English-accent complained while he clipped on his helmet.

“Enough, Jim, if you’re dissatisfied, complain to the psychiatrist. Now put on your helmet and close your mouth. If the Martians get out of the ground, I promise you will be in front.” The captain already equipped stood in front of everyone and held his rifle. “Last check on oxygen tank, air pressure valve, and the weapon in your hands… are you ready?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Roll out!”

Equipped inside the bulky aerospace kinetic skeleton, soldiers armed with Gaussian rifles ran out of the colony and entered a vehicle the size of a tank.

Following behind the rover, a convoy that consisted of two vehicles traveled in the vast desert.

The dim yellow light in the sky was as oppressive as the dusk of the apocalypse, there were even some hint of other colors mixed into the scattered ray. The communication channel was filled with annoying noisy static, which was equally as annoying as the endless dull yellow sand.

“The gamma value is beyond the normal threshold and there is solar wind activity… The anti-radiation equipment has been checked, everything is normal.” Wang Qiang examined the instruments on the rover and said with a grin.

James, sitting in the co-pilot position and wearing heavy equipment, frowned and looked out the window.

“Today is not suitable for a mission, I don’t know what the command center thought.”

He was the deputy of Wang Qiang, a Canadian, who was once a geological engineer at Vale. After the bankruptcy of the Rothschild Bank, he was laid off by the company due to budget cuts. After he immigrated to Xin, he joined the Celestial Trade Solar Exploration Department and was deployed with the Marines a few months ago.

It was the farthest place he has ever been in his life.

“Were you thinking of drinking some coffee, in an air conditioned room, while relaxing?” Wang Qiang snorted. “Forget it and get ready to work. Today’s work is easy, I can do it myself. Can you make me a cup of coffee?”

The task was very simple; open the X-1101 box, Class- S confidential, and put the drone down the mine. Then, kill some time in the rover before the ground command center sends further instructions to tell them to return.

To be honest, even after a few months, these colonists still anxiously wondered if Martians would storm out from underground, charge at them with laser guns, and tear them apart with their giant horns… It was not until they scrapped five drill bits to drill a hole five kilometers down, did all their worries disappear.

If anyone else had a hole drilled through their roof, there would definitely be consequences.

However, since they could still stay there and drink coffee, it was pretty obvious there were no Martians.

They were scaring themselves.

Wang Qiang got out of the rover in a spacesuit and walked to the well with the suitcase. Then he placed the suitcase on the ground.

He pulled a cable from the sleeve of the spacesuit and connected it to the suitcase. The safe application quickly accepted the security authorization and popped open the suitcase.

He pursed his lips, took the fist-sized drone out of the box, and gently tapped on it with his finger.

“Okay, little guy, we have to count on you now.”

Chapter 1227: The Prehistoric Mars

Chapter 1227 The Prehistoric Mars

“Okay, little guy, we have to count on you now.”

Jiang Chen looked speechlessly at the guy in the spacesuit as he released the drone. Then he began to control the spherical drone and flew down the well.

Back on the rover, Wang Qiang took off his spacesuit in the buffer compartment and sat back into the driver’s seat. James next to him was drinking coffee while watching the drone disappear down the well.

“Intelligent?”

Wang Qiang leaned back against his seat, then he took a sip of his coffee before he grinned.

“What else? You think it’s controlled remotely by the ground command center?”

Even with hyper-light-speed communication based on quantum effects, the delays in communication was Mars and Earth was still in the thousands if not ten thousands milliseconds. The best way to put this into perspective would be like playing an online game where the character lagged by half a minute.

Communication was not an issue, but it would be hysterical to control a drone.

However, Wang Qiang did not know that the drone he released was not communicating based on electromagnetic waves, but based on a Klein particle communication chip embedded with crystal fragments…

After the drone entered the well, it took about half an hour before the drone Jiang Chen controlled finally arrived at the bottom of the tunnel where the metal shell was drilled through.

“Let’s take some photos first…”

Jiang Chen pointed the camera at the hole, although the previous drone already photographed the scene, neither the resolution nor the lighting were comparable to the drone with the latest technology.

While pressing the shutter, Jiang Chen controlled the drone and flew into the hollow layer with the spiral structure.

The space of five kilometers was unexpectedly empty, at least emptier than the hologram concept map shown at the meeting. The spiral tunnels looked like a trunk, at every interval, the space extended to the surrounding and resembled leafs on the tree.

All the “rooms” were empty, and nothing was there except for the build up of dirt.

After Jiang Chen took a few photos of the rooms, he continued down.

The spiral space was particularly long and extended down to a depth of ten kilometers. Here, the composition of the air changed slightly. Although it was still dominated by carbon dioxide, the oxygen content was much higher compared to before.

“The Martian also breathed oxygen? This is a new discovery right?” Jiang Chen looked at the data on the drone and muttered.

When he arrived at the last layer of the spiral tunnel, Jiang Chen passed through an open door, circular in shape, and slowly drifted into a spherical space.

However, when he entered the spherical space, he felt slightly uneasy.

This kind of uneasiness was like being watched by Death Claws, or Mud Crabs in the dark. The only difference was that his intuition told him that it was not hostile, it seemed to be purely observing him.

He suddenly had a hunch that he had encountered a bit of an issue.

“…I feel a little weird here. I’ll get Amos.”

When he looked around the lines on the spherical space wall, the uneasiness in his mind grew stronger.

Just as he was about to interrupt the connection with the drone and change to Dr. Amos, a white light suddenly illuminated from underneath him, engulfing the entire space together along with the floating drone…

…

He didn’t know how long it took.

Suddenly Jiang Chen opened his eyes and sat up from the ground.

“Where am I?”

He put his hand on his sore forehead, then slowly climbed up from the ground, stood up straight, and began to look around.

A cool breeze blew in his face, and the air was fresh. It was not the ruins of Mars underground, nor the laboratory of Dr. Amos, but a wilderness – a place that resembled the African savanna.

And he was no longer a drone.

When he looked around, the entire land was golden, like a field of wheat. Under the gentle breeze, the wheat swayed freely. In the distance, there was a steep red clay wall. The mountains looked like they were cut by a giant machete, square, without any spectacular shape.

Jiang Chen squatted down and carefully observed the wheat under his feet.

Although it looked like green foxtails, neither the color nor the shape matched the species in his memory.

Just as he was studying the environment around him, a ball of light popped up form nowhere, and it cricled around him twice.

“A mammal? Surprising.”

“Surprising?” Jiang Chen looked at the ball of light and carefully took two steps back, staring directly at it.

Just when Jiang Chen was planning to ask it “who are you”, he heard a faint sigh.

“Yes. On Mars, mammals are like endangered species. I believe if one day you saw the tigers and lions in your zoo follow your appearence and action, and invent their own words, I’m afraid you’ll be equally as surprised, if not more… If you use your language to describe this shock, it’s probably this feeling.”

Jiang Chen took a moment to process this information and suddenly realized something, he frowned.

“Have you read my memory?”

“Please forgive me for taking the liberty to. If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t be able to communicate with you.” The ball of light expressed its apology in a calm tone.

“Well… can you tell me who you are?” Jiang Chen asked.

“I’m a piece of memory,” The light ball replied truthfully.

“Memory? Is it similar to AI? A holographic image?” Jiang Chen still held a frown on his face.

After the light ball was silent for a moment, it gave a very ambiguous response.

“Yes and no. Similar, but there are differences.”

The light ball’s words made Jiang Chen confused, and as he tried his best to understand the concept. He suddenly recalled that he had seen something similar.

Lin Lin… No, precisely, it was Tingting, when he connected his spirit with the queen of the Harmony Civilization. As if he crossed the barrier of the dimension with the Brahma Colonization Ship, he was exiled to a strange universe, a strange planet, witnessing their culture, technology, society, and so on, moving in the wrong direction.

It felt extremely similar.

Just like his soul exiting his body, it felt like he crossed the distance between time and space and drifted away to another corner of the universe.

He didn’t know what words he could use to describe this wonderful feeling, and he didn’t know how to express his astonished state.

But he already knew what happened to him.

If he were right.

The land under his feet…

Should be Mars from more than three billion years ago…

Chapter 1228: Gaia

Chapter 1228 Gaia

It was Mars more than three billion years ago.

The wind gusted around Jiang Chen as he looked at the endless wilderness, he was dumbfounded.

Just then, the light ball next to him continued on.

“See those rooms?”

Jiang Chen organized the messy thoughts in his head and forcefully nodded.

“I see them.”

“Those were originally full of works of art and valuable antiques. They recorded our tens of thousands of years of civilization. Before the apocalypse arrived, we tried everything in an attempt to leave something in this cold universe. Yet, as you can see, nothing in time is eternal.”

It seemed to be reminiscing about something, as the silence lingered for a long time.

“What should I call you?” Jiang Chen asked.

“We don’t need a voice to communicate. Based on your language, you can call us Civilization of Gaia,” The light ball said.

Gaia?

The mother of the gods in Greek mythology, the one that overruled the land, the most respected god among all gods. She was the first primitive god born in chaos and was worshipped as one of the original natural forces that created life.

As for why it chose this word from the Earth Civilization to name its civilization, perhaps only it would know…

“Well, Gaia? I’ll call you Gaia.” Jiang Chen turned to look at the light ball, then asked, “So Gaia, what are you going to do to me?”

However, Gaia did not answer his question, but whispered.

“Listen, it’s about to start.”

Just as it finished its sentence, Jiang Chen suddenly noticed two strange monsters appear about 50 meters in front of him.

He called them monsters because he had never seen such ugly insects.

One was the size of a calf. Its back was full of scales, countless long legs grew out from its abdomen, and its swaying tail was like a chain, screaming in the air. The sharp teeth were like two pairs of sickles, and the hundreds of steel teeth in its mouth were like needles, sharp and bloodthirsty.

The other monster was the size of a tiger. The two antennas on the top of its head were like tentacles. It was like a giant ant, except it had two more legs. The front half of its body was already in the air. Two spears made out of unknown substance pointed at the centipede-like beast.

Suddenly, the grass next to it moved.

The soil collapsed and five “ants” ambushing underground suddenly snuck out, throwing their spear toward the centipede. The ants could easily support weight thirty times its body weight, so the spears were more like cannons as they easily penetrated the armor of the centipede, scattering its green blood all over the earth.

The prey desperately tried to swing its chain-like tail, trying to escape from the attack of these “ants”. However, with the organized attack of these “ants”, the struggle was futile.

Dust was flung into the air as the fight continued on.

The prey gradually lost its strength due to the loss of blood. The strong arthropods moved forward, controlled the prey, and scraped its soft belly with sharp ore…

Seeing this scene, Jiang Chen thought for a moment and asked.

“Those are Gaia…s?”

“Yes,” the light ball shook. “Those hunters with spears are Gaias. And the beast that is armed to the teeth is one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet. Its bite force is probably five times that of the Death Claw.”

“You know about Death Claws?”

“I did say I have seen your memory… Please don’t be nervous, only you and I are here. And I, I’m just a piece of memory.” The light ball read the caution in Jiang Chen’s eyes as it softly explained.

“Because of many factors including gravity and the environment, the mammals on this planet are weak. They are short and fragile, and are not even interesting enough for us to hunt. This planet used to be dominated by arthropods. All resources such as groundwater, minerals, and energy were also buried in the ground that could only be accessed by those who excel at digging.”

Jiang Chen looked at the light ball in surprise.

He was not surprised that the Mars depicted more than three billion years ago turned out to be a world ruled by insects, but he was surprised by the fact that Amos had guessed it all with purely his imagination.

“We learned to use tools and finally stood at the top of the food chain. Even the most dangerous and bloodthirsty Devil Worm fell under our spears.”

“And our civilization started from this day.”

“We excavated our own Great Wall underground, use granite to reinforce our caves, use the hard shells of prey to make armor, and tied together branches and sharp stones to make spears; a Devil Worm’s cub is the most delicious food. We built our own ranch underground. From that, we grew our own fungi, and developed our own civilization…”

The Sun and the Moon rose and fell above them. The plants beneath them grew and died.

Jiang Chen watched as the mountain was flattened, the ravine was dug out from flat ground, and Gaias in armors crawled out from underground and charged at another group of Gaias. They rode Devil Worms and some other species he had never seen before, were dressed in armor, and charged at the enemy frontline

The two forces collided and green blood splattered in the air.

“Iron Age.” The light ball whispered, “Our keen sense of minerals helped us find iron ore. When a prophet of our civilization perceived the iron-smelting technique, our civilization transitioned from the Stone Age to the most barbaric era, the Iron Age, at an incredible speed.”

The killing gradually stopped. When the last Gaia pulled its spear out from its same kind, it lifted up the blood-stained flag from the ground, shook the antennae on its head, and slammed its spear and flag together into this piece of land.

“We don’t have vocal cords, but in contrast, our brain is very developed. We rely on our antennae to communicate. Although more often, we rely on the spear in our hands.”

“All tribes were built around the female, and a tribe usually had only one female. Our antennae were antennas, and our neural signals can be directly converted into electromagnetic waves. We were born onto an invisible net, a net with the female at its core. For the same kind on different ‘signal bands’, our choice was usually war. Raid their cubs, livestock, kill their female, and occupy their nest.”

“Then we repeated the same fusion day after day, then repeated the same separation…”

The Sun and the Moon continued to rise and fall, and the spear and flag were replaced by a stone monument. The battlefield previously covered with corpses was now covered by complicated tunnels with low-rise buildings and walls built.

“Although we lived underground, due to being limited by tradition and belief, almost all of our wars were fought on the surface.”

“Even in the most difficult times, we were not willing to live on the surface. There was no interest in the sky, but the monument was an exception. We were keen on building monuments on the ground to commemorate the victory that once happened there. But that’s it, we never stayed on the surface for too long.”

“In a sense, this tradition or belief was what restricted our exploration of the universe in later years. But if you ask if we regret our choice, our answer is no. We have never regretted it…”

Chapter 1229: Rise and Fall

Chapter 1229 Rise and Fall

The Sun and the Moon continued to rise and fall.

Jiang Chen noticed that the countless monuments had collapsed, and the walls guarding the monuments were destroyed in the flames of war. However, the only constant was that the prosperous fires still grew with resiliency, and germinated in the Dark Age of blood and barbarism.

At this moment, the light ball that had been silent for a while gently moved and started speaking.

“I noticed that in your memory, the time of existence of your matriarchal society is very short. However, in our civilization, the matriarchal society only started to be challenged in the late Renaissance. However, it took us 20,000 years to go from the Dark Age to the Renaissance.”

20,000 years!

Jiang Chen’s mouth twitched.

It took 20,000 years to transition from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance… this is almost longer than the entirety of human civilization.

“You may be surprised. 20,000 years is too long for any living creature, but this was simply because of living habits, there is nothing to elaborate on. There is nothing to see above. I will take you down,” said the light ball.

The scene gradually changed.

Jiang Chen watched the soil at the bottom of his feet dissolve as the gravel collapsed downwards. He then watched himself sink to the ground, cross the distance of over 10,000 meters, and stand in an underground nest.

He previously thought that it must be full of unordered, tynophobic holes, but to his surprise, he saw a spectacular stone-paved pavilion. Solemn and sacred, each brick and tile was built with the vibe of the civilization and its unique aesthetics.

Markets, houses, barracks, all the functional facilities were connected by the tunnel to the central pavilion. Everything surrounded the mother nest and formed a three-dimensional city.

He didn’t know where every tunnel led to, and he didn’t know what each Gaia was doing, but from their busy appearance, it was difficult to not feel the prosperity.

“Whether it was a worker, a miner, a farmer, a soldier, or a civilian, they had gained the same power after the revolution, and enjoyed all the power from private assets to mating. The matriarchal society had come to an end, and the class structure that revolved around the mother eventually collapsed in the flame of Industrial Revolution.”

“We used steel and oil to create siege beasts. They were able to freely charge in the ground, rendering all fortifications useless. Even the devil worm was just like a cockroach in front of them. The cavalry completely exited from the stage of history. War returned to the barbaric three-dimensional era, we began to learn to arm ourselves with machines, to replace the weak parts of our body because of evolution, and to destroy our enemies in the most efficient way.”

“Although the barbarism did not change, in this era, any Gaia had the same power, and the concept of equality was deeply rooted in the hearts of our people. We wrote all of these into our code… If you came to me a billion years ago, maybe you could still see that stone monument, but now, nothing is left…”

“And when all this came to a close, it was the beginning of prosperity.”

The mechanical centipede that agitated the earth disappeared, and the walls of the pavilion collapsed backwards. Thousands of spiral-like buildings, magnificent like work of arts, rose up in the darkness, stretching its branches in the depths of the ground, just like high-risers of human civilization…

At this moment, Jiang Chen finally understood what he found in Mine 071.

All the backwardness of the matriarchal society ended and was replaced by a larger and greater empire. They completed the unification and connected all the cities together by rail and tunnel.

After the tens of thousands of years of ignorance had passed, the Gaia civilization ushered in a golden age of prosperity and growth.

“It’s incredible…” Through the gravel, Jiang Chen stared blankly at the crowded “people” on the spiral high-rises.

“I understand your astonishment, probably just like when I saw you appear in front of me.” The light ball whispered, “If the revolution smashed the old thoughts, then the unification after the Industrial Revolution led our civilization into the golden age of prosperity. But this was not our best time. The truly best time was after a thousand years when we invented the nerve augmentation device.”

“The nerve augmentation device made the antennae on our heads more powerful, our ‘sounds’ can be transmitted to more distant places. If you find it difficult to understand, you can compare its meaning to your Internet.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

He understood the analogy.

After all, he didn’t have antennae, and he didn’t know how to turn his thoughts into electromagnetic waves. The golden age that Gaia said was probably the same as the Internet era that Earth civilization entered at the end of the twentieth century.

The nerve augmentation device for Gaia was probably equivalent to the Phantom helmet for humans.

All needs could be met through virtual reality, all individuals were unprecedentedly happy.

“If you want me to summarize the differences between the two civilizations as someone who has been dead for 3.7 billion years, I think it is probably an understanding of the word happiness. When we entered the ‘nerve augmentation era’, our spiritual needs were met with unprecedented satisfaction, and the only reason we were still unsatisfied was probably due to our obsession of metal.”

“I remember I said that we were extremely sensitive to the smell of minerals and ores. This sensitivity had not change in tens of thousands of years; we were immersed in the happiness surrounded by metal. The pursuit, or the greed of all metals was probably the driving force behind the progress of our civilization.”

“And this greed turned into a deadly poisonous wine at the end.”

The tone of the light ball was mixed with some emotion as it continued to narrate the story.

“A poisonous wine?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Yes,” the light ball swayed gently. “I will take you and you will understand.”

Over the thousands of years, the scene changed again.

There was a ripple in the air and Jiang Chen followed the light ball. Jiang Chen crossed a transparent film and came to a spherical space made entirely of metal. In this spherical space, a machine with strange shapes was connected by an alloy skeleton.

“It’s hard to feel just by looking,” The light ball said softly. “We are now standing on the core of Mars, and this Planetary Furnace is the greatest technological crystallization of our civilization.”

“The Planetary… Furnace?”

Jiang Chen swallowed hard.

He couldn’t imagine how the species, called Gaia, actually dug through the planet 3.7 billion years ago! Not be mention transforming the entire Mars core into a furnace for smelting iron or other minerals and turning the entire planet into their factory.

Planetary Furnace.

The word madness is not enough to describe their behavior…

The light ball continued while it looked calmly at the shock on Jiang Chen’s face,

“Our industry was very developed. When the surface can’t satisfy our appetite. We dugged down into the mantle. When the mantle was not enough to meet our needs, we aimed at the core. The core was rich in mineral deposits. It was an iron ocean in here, even if we only drew a little bit from it, it was enough to make our civilization take a big step forward…”

As it spoke, the light ball paused and sighed softly.

“But you also know that once something takes the first step, it will never be able to stop.”

“Time has weathered everything, and turned what we forged over hundreds of centuries into iron filings. Have you seen the sand outside? Every rusted gravel is the tears of Gaia… “

Chapter 1230: Inheritance and Gif

1230 Inheritance and Gif

Jiang Chen looked at everything that was happening in front of his eyes and was silent for a long time.

After a while, he finally squeezed out a question.

“Why don’t you go to the other planets? If you can reach even the core, it shouldn’t be difficult to get out of this planet.”

“I have to correct your point of view. Not everyone is looking forward to the sky,” The light ball said in a calm tone, “We are more willing to explore downwards, and the solar system was quite young at the time. Young means barren.”

“In fact, from long ago, we also tried to explore the sky above us, but no one wanted to leave this piece of land. We would rather stay in the cave for a lifetime than to stay on the surface for a second too long, let alone the more distant universes. We have no tradition of traveling far away, all our traditions, beliefs and cultures revolve around our mines.”

“We took the metal of the core and replaced the geomagnetic field with a magnetic generating device. However, when we tried to use the power of the entire planet to create the strongest metal, it caused a terrible disaster.”

“The magnetic field of Mars disappeared, and the solar wind blew away our atmosphere. The plants withered and lives vanished. The ecological reserves that we built on the surface for centuries were destroyed in an instant. Under the radiation, countless of our kind passed away in sickness. Everything happened so suddenly, so suddenly that we were not prepared.”

“At the start of the apocalypse, we put all the works of art, antiques, and anything that can prove that we existed in this building.”

“But in the end, it seems that only the building itself lasted.”

The silence lasted for a long time.

With a sigh, Jiang Chen said softly.

“This is regretful.”

“Regretful?” The light ball seemed to be smiling and even Jiang Chen did not know why he felt this way. “In fact, when the apocalypse was coming, we felt everything except regretful.”

“I have said, we are frivolous about minerals, obsessed with metal. In the end, we created the strongest and most powerful metal in nature, and its existence even exceeds our definition of metal… although we have exhausted our final fate, it is in some ways the perfect ending to us.”

The tone of the light ball was very peaceful, and every note was calm; even till the last moment. To him, it was not an elegy of civilization, but just an ancient story.

That was it.

“We have no other wishes, nor requests. The last Gaia passed away peacefully in this hall. Our only wish is to hope that you can remember that in this universe, there used to be this civilization.”

“You have passed on our memories, and I must give you a gift in appreciation.”

“If our knowledge can help you solve the problems you are facing, please take it freely.”

“The door is below your feet. As for the key, we stored it in a spacecraft and placed it in the orbit of Mars. Since you can get here from the distant Earth, it should not be difficult to find it. ”

“It is a sphere that weighs a hundred kilograms. It is the crystallization of the Gaia civilization.”

Having said that, the light ball sounded relieved.

“It’s all over and I can finally rest. Perfect, my time is almost up.”

Jiang Chen hurriedly asked, “Wait, that strong interaction material, how did you—”

“That thing? We call it planetary forging technology.” The ball gradually dimmed, but the sound from it was as calm as ever.

“Planet forging technology?” Jiang Chen was dumbfounded.

“Even if we had a lot of time, it’s very cumbersome to explain. So don’t think about it. In order to make that ball, we’ve almost exhausted all the strength of our civilization…”

The sound from the light ball was weakened to an extreme; it was like a dying candle flickering in the wind.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to ask a few other things, everything around him began to collapse.

With the fading world, the light ball gradually turned into light particles. With the last memory of the Gaia civilization, he fell into the bottomless darkness.

Staring at the darkness that gradually drifted away, Jiang Chen suddenly began to question himself.

Just like the emptiness, it not only engulfed the memory of the Gaia civilization, but also the universe…

If the core is the end of the Gaia civilization, then where is the end of human civilization?

…

“No, it’s really not me, I didn’t do anything,” with a cold barrel against the back of his head. Dr. Amos frantically typed in front of the computer. “Weird, how could it be? All the data is normal, but the drone is gone! The signal is lost? Hell!”

Ayesha aimed a pistol at Dr. Amos as she looked coldly at the doctor in the white coat.

Behind her stood a team of heavily armed soldiers that were holding Reaper Assault Rifles. The black tactical helmet blocked their eyes, but could not block their murderous vibe.

“What if I unplug the power supply?” Ayesha said coldly.

“It may have unpredictable consequences for the brain. I advise you not to do that…” Dr. Amos said while sweating profusely.

A desire to kill flashed in Ayesha’s eyes as her thumb moved to the safety.

“Please, don’t do this…” Amos’s tone was mixed with pleading.

Ghost Agents stood behind him and the door was guarded by the most powerful special force in Celestial Trade. They were all people that didn’t blink when they killed, and these guys only recognize one person, the person currently in the chair.

Who would have thought that Jiang Chen would be unconscious in his lab for three days! Jesus Christ, he tried the device on himself countless times and never experienced a problem. The one time something happened, Jiang Chen was the one wearing the device?

Could it be because of the remains of that civilization? But it was tens of millions of kilometers from here!

God, if he knew this would happen, he would never have dared to let Jiang Chen witness history with the helmet. He would much rather something happened to himself since he still has Millian…

“Dr. Amos, I heard that you are from Frankberg.”

“Yes… but I swear to God that I have nothing to do with the Freemasonry or the Kurofune. Damnit, I came to Xin because I wanted to distance myself away from those things. If you don’t believe me…”

Dr. Amos was going to say, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask your husband,” but looking at the still motionless Jiang Chen, he swallowed the sentence back down.

Angering the lioness would only make the situation worse…

“I’m sorry that I am not a Christian. Now you are suspected of murdering the president of Celestial Trade. If you can’t give me a reasonable explanation, I am afraid you can only explain it to God,” Ayesha said slowly, word by word.

Zhu Yu stood next to Ayesha and was silent.

While she was also worried about Jiang Chen, she was also surprised.

She always thought that her instructor was a relatively emotionless, cold-blooded woman, but she did not expect that she would be angry and irrational because of someone else.

“Ahem…”

Just then, a cough came from the corner of the room.

Every pair of eyes focused on the source of the sound.

Jiang Chen slowly sat up from the chair, reached out, and took off the helmet on his head. He shook his sore head, met the eyes that were focused on him, and suddenly felt confused.

“You are… what happened?”

“You’re finally awake…” Amos looked at the muzzle that moved away from his head and collapsed in his chair while feeling completely exhausted. With his last strength, he joked. “If you were two seconds late, your wife might have already sent me to see God.”

Chapter 1231: Awakened Monsters

Chapter 1231 Awakened Monsters

It turned out to be a misunderstanding.

Ghost Agents and special forces quickly left the scene.

After about half an hour, Jiang Chen comforted Ayesha’s emotions in the room next door, then asked her to go home first and wait for him after he reassured her that he would not use the machine again. Finally, Ayesha left, and Jiang Chen returned to the lab. Then he looked apologetically at Amos who was sitting there drinking coffee.

“Ummm… I apologize about Ayesha.”

“No worries,” Amos waved his hand. “I can understand how she felt. On the day my wife passed away, I almost went crazy. I didn’t regain the meaning of life until the doctor showed up with Millan in front of me.”

“…I haven’t died yet.”

“Ahem, sorry.” Amos looked away awkwardly while he touched his noise, “Yes, what happened to you in that room? I only saw a white light and then I lost connection with the drone.”

“You can’t believe what I saw.” There was a mysterious smile on Jiang Chen’s face. “I saw Mars 3.7 billion years ago and an ancient civilization that existed for nearly 100,000 years. This is going to be a long story. Do you have anything to eat here? I am a little hungry. Let’s talk while eating…”

After all, it was one of the most well funded laboratories of the Future Group. Dr. Amos had plenty of food here.

Jiang Chen ate five sandwiches wrapped in cabbage and ham before he felt some warmth in his stomach. While responding to Dr. Amos’ astonished look, he reached for the beer and ham leg. As he devoured the food, he talked about what he saw during the past three days.

The lunch was over an hour long.

“I see.” After Dr. Amos listened to Jiang Chen’s narration, he let out a sigh, leaned back against his chair, while he exclaimed at the ceiling.

“Why are you sighing?”

“I was wondering if we could pass the Great Filter,” Dr. Amos smiled. “The destruction of the Gaia civilization unfortunately provided arguments for Fermi’s Paradox. Even the civilization that was powerful enough to dig through the planet was erased by time.”

“So, we have a long way to go,” Jiang Chen wiped his mouth with a napkin and shrugged with an indifferent look on his face. “I am used to solving the problems at hand before thinking about more distant problems.”

Tens of thousands of years is too far away.

Even then, when the Earth civilization is facing life and death, it’s not up to him to worry about.

“True, these things are indeed too distant,” Dr. Amos leaned back in his chair and smiled. “How are you going to deal with this problem?”

“The ‘key’ is here with me, and it will be sent to Mars along with the next batch of supplies.”

“I don’t think it’ll be easy to dig out that site,” Dr. Amos thought. “With the current size of the Mars colony, I’m afraid we don’t have the ability to carry out such a large project.”

“I know, so we have to speed up,” Jiang Chen opened his watch and gently pushed a holographic screen in front of Dr. Amos. “In fact, Celestial Trade prepared a project plan already but now everything is all ahead of schedule.”

“Tiangong City Plan?” Looking at the words, Dr. Amos was intrigued.

“Yes–”

At this moment, the [Warning] icon suddenly appeared on the holographic screen and flashed with a piercing light.

Jiang Chen paused and looked at Dr. Amos, who was equally confused. They both saw the same disbelief.

…

“How long do we have to wait?”

James frowned while he sipped on his coffee as he gazed out at the unchanging desert in the rover.

Three days had passed, and no news came from underground..

Although a rover typically stored a week of supplies, and they could sleep and shower on the rover, it was quite boring to just wait. Compared to zoning out in front of the sand and a well, he would much rather stay in the colony

Wang Qiang grinned. “I think it’s fine that nothing is happening. Perhaps after we finish the remaining coffee we can—”

At this moment, the sound of the ground trembling came from beneath.

The two looked at each other with questions in their eyes..

Wang Qiang placed the coffee down and put down his legs as he looked out the window with a frown.

“What’s that sound?”

“An earthquake?”

“Impossible, the geological activity of Mars is quite stable – SH*T!”

A cloud of dust was sent up in the air!

The chassis was hit hard, and it felt like the rover was hit by a shell. It was immediately tossed, and it spun several times before finally stopping.

A centipede-like monster crawled out of the sand dunes, revealing its menacing figure.

In everyone’s horrified expression, it opened its sickle-like mouth and it was filled with countless sharp needle-like teeth as it let out a screeching scream. The armor on its body reflected a deathly vibe under the dim daylight

A Devil Worm!

If Jiang Chen was here, he would be screaming out loud, because it was too close to what he saw in the memory of Gaia civilization! It was clearly a species from 3.7 billion years ago, why did it appear here?

“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”

While they were surprised, the soldiers near the armored vehicle reacted immediately. The Gauss rifle in their hand flashed with white light, and the bullets that accelerated faster than the speed of sound exploded and created green blood splutters on the monster’s body.

There was a painful moan, and its chain-like tail whipped in the soldiers’ direction, lifting up more sand.

Its head slammed to the ground as it tried to escape.

At this time, the large cannon on the vehicle finally locked on to the giant centipede-like monster, firing off its deadly firepower!

The orange-yellow trajectory flew over the desert of Mars and shredded the resilient Devil Worm countless times. Dark green blood splashed into air, dripped on the sand and gave off a sizzling sound.

Finally, the visible half of the body of the Devil Worm that had already began to drill back into the sand dunes, fell powerlessly on the sand…

“Nathan, go check on the rover and help our engineers. Lee, you take the hook lock on the car and tie it to the monster. Be careful of its blood, I think it contains some kind of strong corrosive organic acid.”

The captain put down his rifle and gestured the soldiers behind him with a warning signal, then he looked at the monster with a frown as he cussed.

“Sh*t, what is this?”

“Martian?”

“I remember someone made a flag before we went to work. Who was it?”

“Jim!” With a grin, Lee tied up the monster and snorted. “I still remember the idiot-”

He did not finish his sentence before the sand exploded again!

Another Devil Worm crawled out from the ground and sent the soldier walking back flying. Its sickle-like teeth instantly collapsed and created a bloody rain in the air.

“LEE!” The captain’s eyes widened, enraged, as he pointed at the new monster that just appeared. “Open fire! FIRE!”

The bullets began flying again in the desert, accompanied by the Devil Worm’s screams.

The earth shook like warm water that had began to boil. It was as if something was brewing.

In the depths of the unknown underground, three billion years of sleep was disturbed, and ancient creatures were waking up. Those who finally discovered these distant guests began to regain the hunting tradition engraved in their genes.

Obviously, there was more than one monster!

“We lost Mine 071, abandon Suitcase X-1101, all units evacuate immediately! I repeat! Evacuate Immediately!”

Chapter 1232: Level-one Alarm!

1232 Level-one Alarm! The sky gradually darkened, and the surface temperature of Mars also dropped.

Celestial Trade’s rover left with the “centipede’s body”; the rover that got flipped around was left there.

Two Devil Worms crawled out from underground and they used their sickle-like teeth to touch the rover. They then realized that it was inedible and returned into the ground.

The two people who didn’t dare to breathe inside the vehicle looked at each other and saw the same fear.

The entire car was flipped over with its four wheels pointed up.

Unfastening the seat belt across their chest, the two fell from their seats onto the ceiling.

Wang Qiang had a hard time turning himself over. After he managed to throw this body around, he reached to the interface of the rover and pressed a few buttons. James crawled cautiously to the window and peeked out.

“Are they gone?” While Wang Qiang operated the interface, he grunted and said, “Damn, it’s so hard to operate this…got it!”

The console’s system restarted and the blue light particles converged on the holographic screen. Rows of dazzling lines floated in front of Wang Qiang’s eyes and the glaring light made him blink a few times.

“It’s gone, but I’m not sure if they will come back.” James took a deep breath and moved his eyes away from the window. Then he leaned against the wall of the cabin and put his hands around his head. “Damn, what’s with those bugs outside?”

Everything happened so unexpectedly.

Almost without warning, the entire rover was knocked over by the “centipede”. His forehead was still bruised by the coffee cup that was sent flying.

“Who knows. Maybe we have been messing around this place too much and disturbed their sleep? Or the little guy we sent down made them mad,” While concentrating on the holographic screen, Wang Qiang grunted. “Thank god. Their teeth are still not sharp enough… The chassis has been bent, but no damage to the fuel tank or the engine. The air conditioning system is normal, and the oxygen content here is sufficient… Fresh water and food can last us two weeks; the situation is very optimistic. However, the antenna on the roof is broken.”

“Can you turn the rover over?” James asked.

“You are joking, man.” Wang Qiang laughed and turned off the holographic screen, he then just lied flat on the ceiling.

In order to offer protection from sandstorms, and at the same also include life, research, communications and other facilities, the tonnage of the rover was naturally high.

Under normal circumstances, the rover not much lighter than an armored vehicle would be impossible to flip over. But once the rover was indeed knocked over, it would be a difficult task to get it back on its wheels.

“Let me think about it. We might need a crane, or a superhuman.” Wang Qiang shook his head, pressed the button next to the window, lowered the alloy folding window, and leaned back on the wall inside the cabin, “I feel neither situation is very reliable right now.”

“Are we abandoned?” James gulped as he forced out these words.

“No way, just wait for the rescue team. Celestial Trade has never left anybody.”

Wang Qiang was absolutely convinced.

What’s more, even if it was not for them, the headquarters would still never abandon them for the alien relics in Mine 071.

The instant Wang Qiang saw the bugs, he once again confirmed the idea that everyone rejected.

Below Mine 071 was not a natural igneous vein.

It was the remains of Martians!

…

Celestial Trade Space Defense Force headquarters activated the level-one alarm.

It was the first time this has happened since the establishment of the Space Defense Force.

Armed in 30 seconds and converged in 30 seconds.

The Marine Corp soldiers in kinetic skeletons jogged through the suspension ladder, gathered on the track connecting the Seagull-class transport ship and the port, and entered the lifts in batches. Under the effect of electromagnetic propulsion, the lifts followed the track and moved to the transport ship.

In just ten minutes, a thousand Marines were ready for deployment and entered the hibernation chamber. The mechanical arm connected to the bridge of Seagull withdrew and all crew members entered battle position. The captain was inside the command center, waiting for the order to set sail.

Outside the headquarters of Celestial Trade, there were intensive footsteps moving toward the conference room.

“What happened?” The commander of Celestial Trade Space Defense Force quickly caught up to Kelvin’s footsteps and followed him as he lowered his voice and asked, “My soldiers are ready, but where is our enemy?”

“Our colony was attacked.” Kelvin did not slow down as he responded while also lowering his voice.

The commander subconsciously said.

“The UA?”

“No, the situation is worse,” Kelvin replied with deep concerns in his eyes, “It’s aliens.”

The meeting began, and almost all the top executives of the Celestial Trade Space Department and the Space Defense Department gathered here.

The seat at head of the table was empty; it belonged to Jiang Chen. Because he was on the surface, he had to video conference in.

Kelvin placed a document on the table, looked at officers and executives around the table and quickly articulated.

“Long story short, our Mars colony was attacked by unknown creatures, suspected to be prehistoric species, for unknown reasons. A Marine Corps soldier died in battle, a rover car rolled over near Mine 071 with two Future Mining employees onboard. The Marine Corps soldiers were forced to withdraw because they were not aware of the number of enemy units.”

“Based on the remains of unidentified creatures brought back by the frontline soldiers, the biotech researchers at the colony completed a dissection. We temporarily named this creature–”

“Devil Worm,” Jiang Chen interrupted Kelvin’s words and responded to the eyes that were focused on him. Then he said calmly, “Number X-1101 project, confidentiality class-S. The specific details cannot be explained. In short, we used a special detection equipment and observed the ruins of Mine 071.”

“It is now confirmed that Devil Worms are a species of large arthropods that were active in the Mars mantle to the crust area 3.7 billion years ago. They are carnivores, and the reasons for its survival till now are unknown. It is suspected that it may be related to a prehistoric civilization.”

As Jiang Chen finished this sentence, he was met with the shocked responses of all the executives and officers. While they looked astonished, there were concerns and disbeliefs shared around the table.

Including Kelvin who was personally involved in Project 071, everyone was stunned by the facts Jiang Chen gave.

Species from 3.7 billion years ago?

How can it be!

God knows how they lived for so long.

“Everyone.”

Jiang Chen’s voice silenced all the chatters in the room.

Scanning everyone present, he ordered in a calm and unquestionable tone.

“Now the security of the entire colony is threatened, and the existence of Devil Worms has seriously hampered our ‘Tiangong City Plan’.”

“The war has begun.”

“I ask you to immediately develop an operational plan to reinforce our colony.”

“Suppress those bugs at all costs!”

Chapter 1233: Do You Need Reinforcements?

1233 Do You Need Reinforcements? “Have you read the newspaper?”

With a plate of food, Xia Shiyu, who had already changed into her professional attire, smiled at Jiang Chen, sat down beside him, and placed several newspapers on the table.

When Jiang Chen glanced at the cover of the newspapers, he laughed. It was a face he is too familiar with.

After all, he saw it every day in the mirror.

“I made headlines again?”

Jiang Chen put down the fork and lazily reached to grab a newspaper.

His eyes swept the title. It seemed to catch him by surprise as he almost spat out the oatmeal in his mouth.

Just then, softness engulfed the back of his head and the luscious hair that smelled great swept across the tip of his nose.

Natasha hugged Jiang Chen’s neck from the back and moved her face closer to the newspaper. Then she read out the content in the newspaper with great interest.

“‘…Celestial Trade’s Spaceship mobilized during an emergency, the target is Mars!’… Hey? Are you making a movie?”

“…”

“Move, don’t you see Jiang Chen is troubled?” Ayesha, who just came out of the kitchen, looked at Natasha who was stuck to Jiang Chen’s back, and let out a sigh. She rubbed one of her eyes that were surrounded in dark circles while she used the other hand to put the plate filled with salad and sliced toast on the table.

Obviously, she didn’t rest well last night.

As for what happened, well…there was no need to elaborate.

Perhaps it was because Ayesha always schooled Natasha in combat, Natasha listened to Ayesha most of the time. She pouted and reluctantly let Jiang Chen go. Then she grabbed a newspaper and sat down. She began drinking some coffee as she continued to read.

“Alien vs. Soldiers? Or the prelude to Star Wars? The Mars scientific expedition team was attacked by giant aliens while searching for water resources, and a Celestial Trade Marine Corps soldier was seriously injured… This is the New York Times, next is Reuters.”

“Reuters’ reporters applied to follow Celestial Trade Marine Corps but they were rejected. The situation on Mars is likely to be more serious than expected. Tiangong City Plan may go bankrupt? It is recommended that British investors carefully consider the investment environment on Mars … Oh, this is also not a simple issue.”

Natasha put down the newspaper, then glanced at Jiang Chen with a sly face.

“It’s okay,” Jiang Chen said as he stuffed the toast into his mouth. “These are common tricks used by reporters. Exaggerate things to make things bigger than they seem, gain enough people’s attention and then use ‘follow-up reports’ to restore the truth.”

Tiangong City Plan to go bankrupt?

What kind of international joke is this?

The supplies and equipment needed for the next colony expansion left almost at the same as the thousand soldiers in hibernation. In addition, a hundred ground explosive bombs were also on board to target the Devil Worms’ nests.

After two generations of upgrades to the engine of the Seagull-class Transport Ship, the new TS Seagull was already capable of traveling between the Mars orbit and Celestial City. The journey to Mars was no longer a one-way ticket. It was also the reason why Jiang Chen had the courage to make the decision to send a thousand soldiers to Mars.

One thousand Marines, on the one hand, was to kill the Devil Worms, while on the other hand, it was to cover up the excavation works of the Gaia civilization.

“I’m full.” Natasha put down the coffee and stood up with her plate. Then she looked at Jiang Chen who was still masticating slowly, “I’m heading to the Russian Embassy. Are there any words I need to bring for you?”

“No, the call will probably come soon anyway.”

Almost as soon as he finished the sentence, Jiang Chen’s watch began to ring.

Jiang Chen looked up to Natasha, who also looked amazed.

What a coincidence?

…

The call was indeed from the allies of the Earth Defense Alliance. However, it was not from Moscow but from Shangjing.

“…I read the newspaper this morning.”

“I also read it. Is something wrong?” Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.

“Nothing.” Wu Changfeng forced an awkward laugh and paused for a moment before he continued. “I heard that there is a problem with your Mine 071?”

“Yes, our people were originally drilling for groundwater there, but a bug crawled out instead.” Jiang Chen sighed and said in a heavy and serious tone, “We have sent reinforcements to the colony. A thousand soldiers should reach the synchronous orbit within two weeks,.”

Two weeks!

Wu Changfeng’s eyebrows twitched.

If he rememberes correctly, the number was still more than a month half a year ago! And Mars was much closer to Earth than it is now.

Celestial Trade’s advancement in aerospace technology is simply astounding.

Jiang Chen noticed that there was no sound from the other side, so he asked.

“What’s the matter?”

Wu Changfeng hid the astonishment in his head as he coughed and asked.

“Nothing. I just want to ask on behalf of Hua if you need reinforcements. After all, when we signed the Earth Defense Alliance Treaty and swore to be on the same frontline when dealing with the threat of extraterrestrial civilization. If you need it, Hua is willing to send infantry to assist your Marines.”

When Jiang Chen listened to Wu Changfeng’s proposal, he smiled and rejected with gratitude, “No, we can solve this little problem by ourselves. And it’s still unclear whether Devil Worms can be called extraterrestrial civilization. After all, it seems to us that they are just a group of dangerous beasts.”

“Then…

“I know what you are worried about,” Jiang Chen said in a calm tone and interrupted Wu Changfeng’s words,”Don’t worry, at the end of this month, the specimen of Devil Worm will be sent back to Celestial City. We will host a summit which will fully disclose the research progress of Mars species to the international community.”

Jiang Chen smiled and said the words that Wu Changfeng had been waiting for.

“At that time, we would like to welcome your scientists to Celestial Trade to participate in the summit and collaborate in the research!”

Wu Changfeng was overjoyed and he laughed.

“Thank you, Mr. Jiang!”

In fact, his seemingly informal phone call was also instructed by the people at the top the night before.

After all, he was just a major general of the army. He could not just send reinforcements based on his will.

The reason why he proposed to send reinforcements was not to actually send soldiers to the battlefield tens of millions of kilometers away, but to subtly hint at Jiang Chen the covenant they established together for the Earth Defense Alliance.

All relevant information on extraterrestrial civilization should be shared without reservation between major member states. It was one of the reasons why Hua and Russia were willing to make some concessions to their own interests in international affairs and firmly stand on the same front as Xin.

Wu Changfeng was most worried that Celestial Trade may stay in the grey area on the definition of an extraterrestrial civilization. After all, only Celestial Trade could send people to Mars in this world. The entire route was monopolized, and even if they were dissatisfied, they did not have any other options.

Jiang Chen’s words undoubtedly dismissed his concerns, which would allow him to respond to his boss.

What Wu Changfeng didn’t know was that the specimen of the Devil Worm was nothing but a bait to switch the attention of the international community.

As for the memory of the Gaia civilization, and the ruins hidden under Mine 071… Jiang Chen would never leak a word before Celestial Trade completely uncovered its real treasure.

Chapter 1234: Power is A Glass of Poisoned Wine

Chapter 1234 Power is A Glass of Poisoned Wine After the call with Wu Changfeng, it didn’t take long before Frankberg and Moscow’s calls arrive.It was still the same rhetoric, Jiang Chen promised these two allies that “a biotechnology summit will be held to disclose the research progress of the Devil Worms”, “your scientists are invited to participate in joint research” and a series of other benefits before the allies walked away happily.

The allies’ excited tone made Jiang Chen feel ashamed.

Of course, he was ashamed for at most a second or two before he tossed the matter out of his head.

After breakfast, Natasha went to the Russian Embassy, Xia Shiyu drove to work as usual, and Ayesha went to the Ghost Agents Headquarters; only Jiang Chen was left in the mansion.

Back to the office, Jiang Chen sat down and turned on the holographic screen on his watch.

“Call Lin Lin.”

“Yes.”

Jean’s holographic figure blinked and soon scattered back into countless light particles before it was reorganized into a holographic screen and connected to Lin Lin’s laboratory.

When Lin Lin picked up the call, she held an electronic welding torch in her hand.

Behind her was a bare doll with its chest cavity wide open. From the giant hole, he could vaguely see the exposed wires and circuit boards. As early as two months ago, she procrastinated on the cyborg based on Jiang Chen’s instructions, now it was finally almost finished.

After she tossed the torch aside, Lin Lin sat straight down with one hand supporting her chin and looked at Jiang Chen on the screen.

“It’s really strange that you called me so early in the morning. Just be straightforward.”

“There is indeed something…”

Jiang Chen tried to arrange his thoughts in his head, then used words as simple as he could to explain what he saw with the drone yesterday in Mine 071, the ruins, and the last memory of the Gaia civilization.

Because there was a lot of information, Jiang Chen took about half an hour to explain everything clearly.

After she had listened to Jiang Chen’s description of Gaia civilization, Lin Lin’s mouth opened and she was clearly astonished.

“Gaia civilization? Devil Worms? I have never heard of it…”

“Have you not heard the news about the development of Mars before the war?” Jiang Chen frowned and asked with confusion, “I remember you once said that Pan-Asia Cooperation, the Soviet Union, and NATO have all established their own Mars station…”

Before the war, the three major forces had developed limited resources on Mars, but for some odd reasons, the development only stayed in the realm of scientific research. They did not build a self-sufficient colony on Mars, nor did they attempt to develop the minerals of Mars…

But even so, Pan-Asia Cooperation, the Soviet Union, and NATO, the Big Three who dominated the 22nd century, had no reason to not discover the secrets on Mars.

“Maybe, but this kind of information won’t be disclosed to ordinary people, right?” Lin Lin rolled her eyes and looked at Jiang Chen with an “I thought you knew” expression and said, “You think I am an encyclopedia. Do you? I know just a bit more than the ordinary person.”

Lin Lin once said that she had read her father’s research materials.

The parts she was more knowledgeable in were basically based on her father’s computer and data.

Obviously, Dr. Lin’s research field was beyond the realm of an extraterrestrial civilization. Perhaps only the people on the colonial ship would know the extent of the Pan-Asia Cooperation’s understanding of Gaia civilization.

“I can’t figure it out by just listening…Let’s get a copy of the Devil’s Worm’s tissue cells, blood cells, brain cells, etc., and put it in a 20ml test tube. My sisters happen to know about biotechnology, maybe they will be able to help you,” Lin Lin said.

Through the interdimensional material transmission device on Coconut Island, it was already possible to transmit hamster-sized living organisms. It was more than sufficient to send a few test tubes to the apocalypse.

“Please. However, you have to wait until the end of this month at the earliest. The specimen has just been packaged and boarded, and it will take three weeks to fly them back to Celestial City from Mars.”

The Seagull-class on standby in the Mars synchronous orbit was still equipped with the previous-generation engine, and its speed was definitely not as fast as the one boarded by the Marines who rushed to the Mars colony for reinforcements.

“Then wait until the end of the month to talk to me about this matter… By the way, are you really planning to build a body for that AI?” Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen with a worried expression, and seemed to seek confirmation, “Is this really well-considered? It’s advanced artificial intelligence…”

“It’s just a body. As long as we put the thermite on its server, it shouldn’t do anything that might cause unnecessary misunderstanding.” Jiang Chen shrugged and looked at Lin Lin with interest, “Speaking of which, I remember that in Fallout Shelter 005 when I put thermite on its motherboard, you scolded me for being wasteful. Why are you scared now?”

“Whatever, screw you!” When Lin Lin recalled how silly she looked when they first met, she blushed and gave Jiang Chen a fierce look, “When there is a problem, you can solve it yourself!”

After she exploded on him, Lin Lin did not give Jiang Chen the chance to tease her back before she ended the communication furiously.

…

Shangjing, west of the Forbidden City.

At the gate of the community that was heavily guarded, a car with a military license plate stopped slowly in front of the barrier.

A soldier wearing the uniform of the special operations brigade stepped forward, checked the driver’s ID, gave a standard military salute, stepped aside, and then gestured to the guard inside the checkpoint to let the car pass.

The car stopped in front of a beautiful house. Wu Changfeng took a deep breath, pushed open the car door, and walked towards the house with two bodyguards in suits.

Inside the tearoom, a calm and relaxed old man who was enjoying his tea. However, when he saw Wu Chengfeng, he immediately put down his cup and asked with a slight eagerness in his tone.

“How is the situation?”

“He agreed!” Wu Changfeng restrained the excitement in his heart and tried his best to make his expression look calmer, “Celestial Trade will hold a summit at the end of the month to disclose the findings on Mars to the public…”

After the old man listened to Wu Changfeng’s words, he beamed with joy and nodded with a relieved smile.

“Agreed? That’s great. You did a very good job on this matter, it’s a great achievement!”

“I don’t dare,” Wu Changfeng smiled modestly, “I just conveyed the central government’s messaged to him. How dare I claim the credit?”

“Little Wu.”

“What else? Chief commander?” Wu Changfeng respectfully asked.

The old chief commander stared at Wu Changfeng’s face for a long time, before he suddenly said with seriousness.

“You have become younger.”

Wu Changfeng’s heart stopped beating for an instant, his expression stiffened slightly, and his Adam’s apple moved.

“It’s good to be young. When I was still in the rural area, I also used to run around in the countryside. My legs and feet in my forties were better than those in their 20s.” The old man did not seem to notice the subtle changes on Wu Changfeng’s face as he just laughed with some emotion, “Once you’re free, you’ll get old.”

“We have caught up with a great era, and what we need is capable talents like you! The next generation will push us forward, and the future of the country requires the new generation like you to work hard.”

The old chief commander seemed to feel melancholic over his past as he began to speak about his past.

But after Wu Changfeng heard what the old commander said, he slowly breathed a sigh of relief and forced a smile through his stiffness

“Thank you for your support.”

He didn’t find out…

To be honest, he felt perplexed, and he even hesitated a few times to confess about the vaccine to the old commander who promoted him. But in the end, he chose to remain silent

Just as Jiang Chen once told him.

Power is a glass of poisoned wine.

Now, as he stood, he added another sentence to it.

Eternal life is too.

If power and immortality were mixed together, its toxicity would be even deadlier than arsenic.

This was true for both individuals and countries…

Chapter 1235: They Are Hindering Academic Freedom!

Chapter 1235 They Are Hindering Academic Freedom! The atmosphere felt heavy in a meeting room at Capitol, thepolitical center of the UA.Since last year’s conflict in the Pacific, the number of times that senior consultants, ministers, and the president were locked up in the same room dramatically increased. The only difference was a new face sat at the secretary of state position.

The Earth Defense Alliance was on the rise and even slightly instigated the status of NATO as the largest military body in the world. The UA was facing unprecedented challenges in politics, economics, and even culture; these challenges were not even seen in the Truman and Kennedy era.

After all, the UA had only faced a seriously ill giant that was full of muscles. However, it was now in the ring with an Iron Man equipped to the teeth…

No, the statement was not accurate enough. After all, Iron Man’s technology was probably more realistic…

“Celestial Trade intends to hold a biotechnology summit in Celestial City at the end of January to showcase the spoils on Mars. What is it called? The Devil Worm? Hell… Curiosity has been running on Mars for so many years and it didn’t spot a single cell.” NASA Director Bolden looked at the report wearily as he reported with an exhausted tone.

The director of NASA, the secretary of state, the president, the secretary of commerce, and even the minister of the interior sat at a table to discuss the issue that only happened during the Cold War era when the space competition took place. However, there was no reason for Bolden to be excited because neither the space elevator nor the moon colonization plan was close to being executed.

Against the unmatched technology gap, even the genius Elon Musk and his SpaceX were powerless. They could only pick up the scraps left behind by Celestial Trade.

“Can you find a way to get in on this summit? The UA must have first-hand knowledge of the Mars species! Otherwise, the gap between us and Celestial Trade will only grow bigger,” Defence Minister Carter said with a stern look.

“Eligibility to participate in the summit? Oh, of course. New York Times, Washington Post… Any media that you can name has received an invitation,” the chief of staff leaned back in his chair and revealed an ugly expression as he spun the pen his hand. “The problem is that no UA research institution or university has received an invitation for collaboration. We are completely excluded.”

“They are hindering academic freedom!” Next to Minister Carter, the director of the advanced projects department cursed.

“The professors at Harvard University and MIT have already condemned their action.” Hill looked at the officials present and finally fixed her sight on the secretary of state. “What we need now is a solution.”

“I will try my best, but don’t get your hopes up,” the newly appointed secretary of state rubbed his temples. “It’s not the first day that Celestial Trade placed a blockade on us in space technology. Hoping they can make concessions today, the chance is not high… Kerry is an expert on Xin, but you know-”

“Out of all times, Kerry, this guy, decides to quit his job now.” An official cussed with his voice lowered

“Can you convince him to come back?” Hill looked at the Party Leader.

“It’ll be very difficult. He insisted on participating in the primaries in March. He even wrote his speech. You know, someone gave him support. The most terrible thing is that the opinions within the party are diverted and he has a fair amount of support. Dear God, now we not only have to face Xin and Republicans, but also the damned Wall Street…”

The wrinkles on Hill’s eyes showed a hint of bitter helplessness.

She did not know her next move.

Just then, Bolden suddenly spoke up.

“How about we start the Mars landing plan ahead of time?”

As he finished the sentence, all sights in the room focused on him.

He responded to the president and officials’ focused gaze as he took a deep breath and continued.

“If we can’t break the ice in diplomacy, we can only make attempts from technology.”

“The problem is, can our current technology do it? Didn’t SpaceX end development of manned rockets?” Defense Secretary Carter frowned.

“MCT, the Mars Immigration Transporter. SpaceX has never stopped their plan to colonize Mars, and now the most critical technology has made a breakthrough.” Bolden looked at Hill and said seriously, “At least a one-way ticket.”

Silence lasted in the room for a while, then Hill spoke.

“Tell me what is the significance of doing this?”

If she could not find a suitable reason to convince Congress to allocate funds, even if she agreed with the plan, it would not serve any purpose.

“Too much significance,” Bolden said. “The Moon has been monopolized. We cannot let Celestial Trade continue to monopolize the future of mankind. Even a flag on Mars and a few people living on it can add a lot of chips for us.”

The craters with ice and rare earth reserves were all shamelessly occupied by Celestial Trade.

Even without extraction, a research station would serve its purpose. Even if the countries began to establish their own lunar research stations, they could not solve the most critical drinking water and oxygen problems, which made forming a colony almost an impossible task.

In particular, Celestial Trade refused to sell drinking water, oxygen, and electricity to stations outside the Earth Defense Alliance member countries on the grounds of limited resources. The high maintenance costs made these stations unable to breakeven, let alone expansion.

However, the most crucial thing was not this…

After a moment of pause, Bolden looked at the still hesitant president and went on.

“In addition, I suspect that Celestial Trade’s discovery on Mars is probably not as simple as a bug.”

Hill suddenly thought of something, gasped, and looked at Bolden in shock.

“You mean…”

“Yes, I’m afraid it is related to an extraterrestrial civilization.” Bolden nodded and suggested with a serious tone, “If they do not agree to allow us to participate in the research, then we will go take a look ourselves.”

There is more than one way to Mars.

If Celestial Trade is not willing to sell tickets to Mars, then UA can build its own “spaceship”.

While the Capitol was preparing for both cases, on the Mars colony tens of millions of kilometers away, the remaining nine soldiers and the only vehicle left completed their assembly and began to prepare for the rescue of the engineers trapped near Mine 071.

The reinforcement of Celestial Trade would take two weeks to arrive, and the oxygen on the rover would at most last for two weeks. The risk of the rescue was high; everyone knew about this. But no soldier questioned the rescue.

Celestial Trade has never left people behind.

No matter who the opponent is.

Whether the opponent is human or not.

Chapter 1236: Mars Rescue

Chapter 1236 Mars Rescue “How long until the rescue?”“If you say a few words less, maybe we can last a few more hours.” Wang Qiang said wearily as he looked at the remaining power and oxygen on the holographic screen.

The oxygen in the rover came primarily from two systems.

One was an oxygen tank placed in the trunk, and the reserve inside could provide oxygen for a crew up to a week. The other was the carbon fixation device that automatically started when the oxygen tank was empty. The device consumed electrical energy to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen until the battery is depleted.

In an optimal scenario, the device could maintain oxygen for two weeks.

However, now, five days had already passed.

Looking at the fiery red desert outside the window, and the “worm” that crawled out onto the surface from time to time, Wang Qian had a bitter smile on his face.

However, at this moment, a black dot appeared in his field of vision. There was a cloud of dust behind that black dot.

“Hey, James, wake up!” Wang Qiang immediately kicked the man facing him and woke up the man that just managed to fall asleep.

“What happened…” James was rubbing his eyes as he wanted to ask what had happened, but then he saw the black dot.

All his drowsiness disappeared in an instant as he crawled beside Wang Qiang while staring out the window with his eyes squinted, desperately trying to identify what it was, then he screamed in excitement, “It’s our people! They’re back! They didn’t abandon us! ”

“Hurry up and get ready.”

Wang Qiang patted him on the shoulder and walked into the buffer room. Then, he took off his spacesuit.

At the same time, the action outside the window began.

A Devil Worm near the rover raised its head and opened its sharp teeth in the direction of the vehicle that was coming in from the distance. Just as it was about to plunge back into the ground, the vehicle launched a rocket.

Like a burning iron fist, the rocket directly hit the Devil Worm’s abdomen and instantly exploded.

Its green blood and remains splattered in the air, which sent the upper half of the Devil Worm into the air before it smashed into the sand five meters away.

“REEEEEE!”

The repressed and anguish scream came from its vocal cord, and the Devil Worm that had been split in half squirmed wildly in the desert with its organs and blood spilled everywhere.

“Still not died,” Looking at , the gunner said with a troubled tone as he saw the troublesome bug through the scope.

“Make it shut up! It’s attracting its kind!” the captain shouted.

The 20mm gun released its fiery at the worm’s upper half.

The driver quickly turned the steering wheel and the vehicle made a quick thirty degrees turn toward the rover.

Almost at the same time, dust exploded from the side of the vehicle, and another Devil Worm crawled out from the ground. The sickle-like fangs barely scratched the vehicle as its mouth opened and closed, creating a cringe-worthy sound.

“Go to hell!” Gnashing his teeth, the gunner adjusted the gun and pressed down on the trigger.

The gun unleashed its bullets and tore apart the belly of the Devil Worm.

While that Devil Worm collapsed in anguish, the whole desert seemed to have begun to boil.

Devil Worms crawled out beside the vehicle one by one. When they failed to hit the target, they immediately dove back into the ground. The gun continued to fire, but it could not handle multiple targets at once.

“Damnit! How many of them are there!” The driver exclaimed.

“Don’t worry about how many there are, hit them! Hit the tires of the rover!” The captain tightly held onto the seat as he roared.

The vehicle escaped from the blockade formed by the Devil Worms. It crashed into the heavy rubber tires of the rover and slid the rover seven to eight meters on the sand before it finally came to a stop. However, the tipped rover remained upside down.

“SH*T! Are they trying to save us or trying to kill us?!” James stood back up and he held himself against the cabin. He was in a state of complete daze.

“The car body is damaged… not a big problem. They’re probably trying to knock us back up, but they underestimated the width of our chassis.” Wang Qiang was already squatting in the corner as he anticipated the impact and so he did not get hurt.

The rescue plan seemed to have issues from the very start.

Seeing that Plan A had failed, the vehicle did not stop completely before the captain immediately ordered, “Enable Plan B! Fast!”

The vehicle continued to accelerate and pushed the rover forward. At the same time, the top cover of the rover was opened, and a soldier stood up with a hook lock in his hands. Soon, he attached the hook locks onto the two tires of the rover.

“They are trying to make us go outside? Don’t even think about it,” James exclaimed.

“Then you can stay inside.”

Wang Qiang did not waste any more time. Immediately after he saw the action of the soldier , he reached for the safety lock next to the driver’s seat. After he entered the password, he yanked the valve.

The instant he pulled valve, the cover of the safe passage of the rover chassis slammed outward. Under the huge air pressure difference, the air inside the rover rushed outward. With one foot on the seat, Wang Qiang forced himself out of the rover from the safe passage, grabbed the soldier’s hand, jumped to the vehicle, and got into the other vehicle.

“It is hitting our belt!” The driver slammed on the gas pedal as he shouted.

“It can’t move us! Our tonnage is much more than the rover… DAMN IT!”

The vehicle was installed with a stabilization module before the mission. The vehicle with a higher tonnage did not get knocked over like the rover, but it was still lifted two centimeters into the air. While the gravity on Mars was not comparable to Earth, to be able to lift such a giant piece of metal into the air showed the explosiveness of the Devil Worm.

“Fast! Hurry!” The soldier at the top struggled to maintain his balance as he nervously looked at the gravel under the vehicle, and anxiously shouted at the rover, “Give me your hand!”

Despite the fear, James still gritted his teeth and climbed out of the rover behind Wang Qiang, he grabbed the soldier’s hand and jumped onto the vehicle.

However, the situation took an unexpected turn.

The Devil Warm that was smashing against the vehicle suddenly stopped and immediately moved to the side of the vehicle, then it opened its fearsome mouth. When James, who just managed to maintain his balance on the vehicle, saw the series of green eyes, his pupils were gradually covered with horror.

“Thank—”

“NOOO!”

The air screeched, and the sickle collapsed.

Blood gushed two meters high and formed a misty fog among the sand cloud…

“Mission failed. Engineer James died and Sergeant Miller was seriously injured…”

“Sergeant Miller is still in critical condition.”

“The rescue forces are returning to the colony.”

On the big screen in Celestial Trade Command Center, the icon of Engineer James was marked with a red cross.

Kelvin stared at the big screen as his expression turned more and more serious. He slowly sat back down on his chair, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

His political sense told him that some things may be out of his control now…

Chapter 1237: Label of The Minorities

Chapter 1237 Label of The Minorities

The series of discoveries and moves Celestial Trade made on Mars touched the sensitive nerves of all the countries in the world.

International funds, think tanks, scientific research institutions, and all governmental or non-governmental organizations were behaving like sharks that smelled blood in the water. They focused their sights on Xin and Celestial Trade to track down first-hand information.

The attention brought by the “Devil Worm Incident” exceeded the poplarity of the Xin election!

Now the international community generally agreed that the specimens sent to Celestial City would likely provide pieces of evidence to uncover a series of unsolved mysteries, such as the Mars ecological environment and geomorphological features from more than three billion years ago.

After all, everything about Mars could only be speculated based on the data from Curiosity and the Hubble Telescope.

Since lives existed on Mars more than three billion years ago, in this three billion years time frame, did civilization exist on Mars… this was the most talked-about topic. Everyone was looking to find the answer from the specimen.

It was no exaggeration to say that the Devil Worm opened the door to a new world for mankind.

Without failing to live up to the expectations of the international community, Celestial Trade was meticulously preparing for the upcoming summit.

However, the bad news from the Mars colony cast a gloom over the upcoming summit…

“African-American, Xin immigrant, ethnic minority, father of ten children…” Zhang Yaping tossed a newspaper on the coffee table, sat on the sofa as he pinched his eyebrows, then said with a headache, “How are these people so rowdy!”

James’ black and white photo was printed on the headline, with a striking title next to it.

To be honest, if it weren’t for the labels attached to him, the media would not have reacted so strongly. At most, it would criticize the safety of the Mars Colonization Program, and then condemn Celestial Trade for not planning the rescue mission thoroughly enough…

Not thorough enough? There was a well-thought-out plan.

However, no plan is perfect.

Those reporters were not soldiers. They wouldn’t care about how dangerous the situation was. They would at most take a few photos of the Devil Worm specimen a few months later, then make some aggressive commentary of the Mars creature before they tried to restore what happened with cinematics.

In any case, the whole incident was attached to these four labels and everything just turned for the worst.

With the help of the media with ulterior motives, the whole incident was rendered from a simple “rescue failure” to Celestial Trade’s differential treatment of colored minorities, and the media pushed this story further by revealing the relationship between the rescued and the deceased.

The African-American population made up a small percentage of Xin’s population, but for some reason, any issue that occurred in this group often attracted leftists. They would march on the streets and protest with the photo of the deceased.

James was portrayed as a victim of discrimination and differential treatment. Celestial Trade, the Mars colony and even Zhang Yaping, who was preparing for the election, got caught in the middle of the landslide.

Jiang Chen, who was sitting across from him, had a helpless smile.

“There are always people with too much energy. You and I both know we can’t do anything about this.”

“Can we settle this somehow? If James’ wife does not sue you, the protesters will have nothing to say.” Zhang Yaping frowned.

“It’s useless,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “It’s not as simple as it seems.”

The executives of Celestial Trade certainly considered treating it in a low-profile way, which would be to settle with the family of the victim before the media learned of this news. Unexpectedly, however, just as the news of the rescue leaked, the Canadian government immediately took care of the families of the victim.

Immediately afterward, a black activist organization stood up and persuaded James’ wife to go through the legal channel, and then volunteered to arrange a strong team of lawyers for her to sue Future Mining and Celestial Trade in Ottawa.

There was no doubt that the UA was linked to all this. After all, the two countries shared the same border. The rapid response of the Canadian government made it hard to not associate it with the Capitol. The activist organization that contacted James’ wife was also based in North America.

As for covering up the failure of rescue…

Technically, it was not infeasible, but the actual operation would be too difficult, and if it was exposed, it would lead to an avalanche of controversies. Almost every colonist updated their Twitter and Facebook, and everyone also could talk to their family five times a month.

It would be unrealistic to isolate Mars from human society just because someone died.

“What do you mean? Is the UA behind all this?” Zhang Yaping frowned.

“There is a 99% chance they are, but it doesn’t make sense to have this discussion. After all, they played their cards,” Jiang Chen said with not much worry in his tone “If they think they can rely on this little trick to bother us, then that’s just cute.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Start with your problem first,” Jiang Chen crossed his fingers over his knee then looked at Zhang Yaping. “What we have to do now is to wait quietly, wait for the rowdiest people to jump out and then take care of all of them at once.”

The UA continued its attempt to intervene with Xin’s election. However, because of the presence of Ghost Agents, FBA and CIB had been unable to get directly involved in the operations.

Since a long time ago, they began providing funds to human rights groups and Coro officials, and even directly subsidized some candidates, who advocated to curtail the expansion of Celestial Trade and emphasized the state power, to participate in the general election.

It was time to cleanse these heretics.

“Do you need me to do something?” Zhang Yaping asked.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Jiang Chen said with a smile. “Resist the pressure from the public, don’t respond to the accusations from the outside world, or simply just don’t ask about this. You can prepare for the summit at the end of this month and the election in March.”

“If you already have a good plan,” Zhang Yaping forcefully nodded, “Then we’ll follow your plan.”

It sounded simple to simply ignore the criticism, but it was not a simple task. It was the final sprint till the election and while his support rate far outranked his opponent, no one could guarantee a victory until the final moment.

James was a nobody; someone no one paid attention to. However, his death now became a political event. If the matter was not handled properly, it would become a black mark on his political career.

Also, if the event continued to escalate, it may create some “suspense” for the election in two months…

This was also what worried Zhang Yaping the most.

However, Jiang Chen’s next few words erased his concerns.

“Don’t worry. I know what you are worried about, but some things will never happen.” Jiang Chen stood up and walked next to Zhang Yaping. With a mysterious smile, he then lowered his voice, “There will be news soon that a candidate is suspected of accepting foreign funds, and then they’ll be taken away by the persecutor…”

Then, those idiots who had ulterior motives would gain a deep understanding of the true owner of Xin.

Jiang Chen patted Zhang Yaping’s shoulder, and left the shocked, or rather, joyous president in the office.

Chapter 1238: Five Million and The Candidate

Chapter 1238 Five Million and The Candidate

In an unknown mansion on Ange Island, two men sat across from each other. The coffee table in the middle was filled with recent newspapers and election materials.

Okesi looked at the documents in his hand quietly, frowning from time to time.

The suited African-American sitting across from him was McDonald, someone from North America’s “The Voice of Black”. From their name, it was not difficult to guess the nature of the organization.

I heard that they are supported by some company on Wall Street.

Okesi also heard that the Capitol may be behind them.

But who cares?

At least Okesi did not care.

However, their request this time was really difficult.

“…haven’t finished reading yet?” When Okesi did not respond after a long pause, McDonald quietly said, “There is only one paragraph that changed, that is, at the end of your campaign platform: Promise during the term of office to amend the Constitution of 2016, abolish the Defense Outsourcing Act, and withdraw the defense contracting rights from military contractors like Celestial Trade.”

“This is not the same as what we agreed on from the start. Didn’t we say we want to promote the Immigration Protection Act?” Okesi patted the document in his hand and frowned. “Now there are only two months left before the election, and you want me to suddenly add a constitutional amendment to the campaign platform, and then explain to my supporters why I suddenly changed my plan?”

“I know this is outside the contract,” McDonald said emotionlessly as he waved to the assistant behind him. “So we prepared a reward outside the contract.”

The assistant walked up and placed the briefcase in his hand on the table.

“Here is five million Xin New Dollars and it is the deposit we are going to prepay you.”

The black suitcase opened and the fragrance of new ink on paper blew into Okesi’s face. He looked at the bundles of cash inside as his eyes widened and he gulped subconsciously.

“You will completely mess up my election…”

On one side was five million Xin New Dollars, and on the other was the throne of the president.

Okesi was struggling internally.

McDonald grinned and shook his head. He took out a cigar from his suit pocket and asked the assistant to light it up for him before he put it into his mouth.

He blew out a smoke ring and then said to the hesitant Okesi.

“Do you think with one line less, you’ll have any more hope of defeating Zhang Yaping, who is supported by Celestial Trade? Stop dreaming. Even with our support, your chances are slim at best.”

Okesi’s did not react well to the statement as his expression turned sour. For anybody, being looked down upon was not the best feeling, especially now that he gained some support among the leftists. The recent “James Incident” also increased his support rate, so much that he superfluously thought that he could have a fighting chance on election day.

However, when McDonald said that he had no chance of winning, it made him quite dissatisfied.

But he could hide the dissatisfaction in his heart. After all, the man across from him shouldered almost eighty percent of his campaign expenses.

“Since you have no confidence in me, why are you betting on me?” Looking at the expressionless McDonald, Okesi quietly asked while he concealed his dissatisfaction.

“I’m not investing in you, but the paper in your hands,” McDonald pointed to the paper in his hand with his cigar.

“This paper is worth nothing before I become president.”

McDonald snorted.

“Worth nothing? I have been a lobbyist for more than a decade. I know better than you when something is really worthless.”

“Someone needs to propose it, then someone needs to add to it, and finally someone will perfect it. If citizens don’t know they can have such rights, that they can still fight for these rights by voting, then there is no way to start the work.”

“We have enough patience. If we continue step by step, we can take 20 years, 30 years, or even longer to transform this country into a normal country and then develop normal diplomatic relations with it instead of what it is like now; diplomatic negotiations are not like diplomatic negotiations, instead, it’s all business.”

“And you don’t need to bother about any of this. You just need to stand in front of the Xin people. Tell them through the election what they can get…”

McDonald then paused, leaned forward slightly, and with his arms pushed against his kneecaps, he stared right at Okesi. “Now, tell me. Do you deserve our continued investment?”

Okesi gulped.

After his internal struggle, his fists clenched and slowly loosened before he finally nodded.

“I understand.”

McDonald smiled and stood up.

“It seems that you made the right choice. Then, I will not bother you anymore.”

He then gestured to the assistant behind him and walked to the door.

At the door, McDonald stopped and looked back at Okesi, who was sitting on the couch and in deep thought, and said in a joyous tone.

“I’ll avoid contact with you in the next two months. I hope that when I return to the Capital, I can see your good news. So Mr. Okesi, I wish you all the best in the election.”

He smiled and fixed the collar of his suit before pushing open the door.

However, at the moment he pushed open the door, the expression on his face froze together with his footstep.

Two men in black suits stood in front of him and their eyes were fixated on him. Behind the two men were about a dozen police officers and seven reporters with cameras. The entire mansion was surrounded by police cars and media vans.

“I’m sorry, Mr. MacDonald, I’m afraid you can’t go back to the Capital.” The man in the suit took out an arrest warrant, which was stamped with the seal of the Xin Supreme Court. “We received intel that you are under allegations of 21 charges, including bribery, manipulation of elections, and espionage.”

Cold sweat dripped down from McDonald’s sideburns.

Looking at the man standing in front of his eyes, there was a long silence before he finally squeezed a word out of his mouth.

“This is slander…”

“Is it slander? We will know soon.” The man shrugged and gestured to the police behind him.

…

Okesi was still in his living room, staring at the briefcase full of bills on the table.

The bundle of cash made him a little dizzy.

He had never seen so much money in his life, and the money was only a deposit of 10% of the total compensation…

His trembling fingers touched the box of cash.

However, just as he gulped down and tried to count the pile of cash, a roar came from the entrance.

“You can’t do this! I warn you that your actions violate international conventions! Stop, damnit! Do you know who I am? I am—”

Dense and heavy footsteps interrupted his reverie of a yacht, private beach, and blondes. When he saw the arrest warrant with the seal of the Xin Supreme Court, the police emblem of the Xin National Police, and the cameras of the media, he felt like all his life force escaped from him body.

At this moment, his heart almost stopped beating.

Without any resistance, Okesi, who looked as pale as a ghost, obediently extended his hands and let the police put handcuffs on him.

Resistance no longer served a purpose.

He knew at that moment that his political career was over…

Chapter 1239: Tore Down Their Disguise

1239 Tore Down Their Disguise “Hopeful candidate Okesi alleged to have received foreign funding from a black rights activist executive and well-known African-American philanthropist, McDonald. McDonald is facing 21 charges…”

“Is it a human rights organization? Or is it a lobbyist who sells ‘Western values’?”

“The Supreme Court of Xin announced its latest findings and terminated Okesi’s candidacy in accordance with Xin laws.”

“…”

In less than a week, the event that took a drastic turn.

Okesi, who was originally viewed as the “immigrant’s friend”, was imprisoned. Not only did he lose his candidacy, but he also faced charges from the prosecution, and even dragged MacDonald into the pit with him.

Simply making arrests would offer no benefit other than pouring gasoline on the fire, or rather, it would provide more materials to attack Celestial Trade.

However, unfortunately, the police that received the tip not only arrested the suspects, but they also found five million New Xin Dollar in cash and an illegal contract at the scene of the crime.

All these were captured by reporters behind the law enforcement officers.

With concrete evidence, even the most radical leftists were speechless, not knowing how to turn the tide.

After all, except for a small number of people who have indeed been instructed by foreign organizations, most people were only being used. And now that this event happened, most people with a brain realized this point.

Okesi was not an exception, but Xin State Procuratorate used him to set an example.

At the same time, after Okesi was arrested, Celestial Trade who had been ignoring media accusations began to launch an offensive round of attacks. It leveraged its influence on the web and changed the focal point from James to the politics behind this entire event.

The spearhead was directed right back to the Capitol.

…

In the conference hall of Future Building, the dimly lit room was filled with people.

Every time Future Group held a press conference, no matter the size, or the duration, or the location, it would always be filled with excitement.

This time, of course, was no exception.

Jiang Chen stood at the podium as the president of Future Group and spoke in a solemn and calm tone in front of the media.

“…For the death of James, we would like to express our deepest condolences.”

“He was an outstanding employee. His death was the loss for Future Mining and the entire Future Group. According to our company’s regulations and related labor protection laws, his family will not only receive a large payout from the insurance company, but we will also provide considerable compensation for the family as part of our employee protection regulations.”

“This money can be received by James’s wife in any court in Xin. There is no need to sue to receive the compensation. We will not refuse to pay compensation because of his skin color, nor will we discriminate against him like what many have accused. Similarly, we will not let him get the part that is not his own because of his skin color or public opinion.”

“Any immigrants, regardless of ethnicity or religion, have equal rights in Xin. This is the constitution of Xin and the foundation of our country. However, for anyone that attempts to use the name of the minority to seek privilege for themselves…”

Staring at the lens, Jiang Chen said one word at a time.

“I can tell you with certainty that you are dreaming.”

“In addition, I once again warn those who have ulterior motives. If you think that you can distract us like this, then I will tell you who the real loser will be.”

At the end of the speech, all the lights in the venue lit up, followed by the questions.

The prepared reporters all swarmed up and put their microphones and cameras close to the podium. They tightly formed a half arc in front of Jiang Chen.

“Mr. Jiang Chen, is your last sentence suggesting that this incident was supported by a particular government?”

“I think I have said enough, please check your notes.”

“…I would like to ask if the summit scheduled to be held at the end of the month will be postponed because of the impact of this incident?”

“No.”

“…There is a point of view that Ghost Agents participated in the investigation and evidence collection. Is it legal to use the intelligence agency to investigate the candidate?”

“It depends on whether the candidate’s own behavior is illegal. I think it is the same in any country. The identity of the candidate should never be a shield for judicial investigation.”

“Mr. Jiang Chen, may I ask…”

Jiang Chen selected a few questions to answer before he announced the end of the press conference. He then asked the staff to help the reporters before clearing out the venue.

He walked into the lounge behind the stage and took the water from Xia Shiyu’s hands. He took a few swigs before he sat down and wiped the drips of water from his mouth in satisfaction.

“Is it tiring?”

“Not too bad. It’s not too tiring but my throat feels dry.” Jiang Chen screwed on the lid and threw the water bottle on the table.

“You’ve been really busy lately,” Xia Shiyu said, concerned.

“Everything just happened all at once.” Jiang Chen shrugged helplessly, leaned back against the chair, and looked at Xia Shiyu with a smirk. “Come and massage your honey.”

When Xia Shiyu heard his words, her cold face suddenly started blushing as she subconsciously looked behind her.

The door of the lounge was closed, and Xia Shiyu felt relieved. Then, she rolled her eyes.

“Can you be more aware of the impact of your words? This is not your home.”

Although she said she was not happy, she still walked behind Jiang Chen and put her hands on his shoulders.

Feeling her kneading of his shoulder, Jiang Chen closed his eyes in comfort.

“Look at you, just like an old lord.” Xia Shiyu grinned and massaged Jiang Chen’s shoulder as she felt speechless. “Is it comfortable?”

“It’s too comfortable. I feel alive again,” Jiang Chen said with an exaggerated expression. He looked through Xia Shiyu’s hair and stared at the ceiling, before he let out a sigh. “I suddenly have a hunch.”

Xia Shiyu continued while she tilted her head

“What hunch?”

“There are going to be many busy days this year.” Jiang Chen sighed softly.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen. “You’re just so bad when there is nothing to do. Now that there are things you need to take care of, isn’t that good? You should be worrying about your company.”

As he held the pair of smooth hands on his shoulder, he looked up and met with the eyes full of love.

“So, do you like me to be busy, or bad?”

Her cheeks quickly turned red.

Feeling the heat on the back of her hands, Xia Shiyu looked subtly the side and reluctantly whispered the truth.

“…bad.”

Chapter 1240: A Special Reward

Chapter 1240 A Special Reward As soon as the Celestial Trade press conference ended, the door of the president’s office were pushed open on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the FBA director pushed open the door and walked to Hill’s desk with haste in his steps.“We must get MacDonald’s people out as soon as possible.” He placed a piece of document in front of the president, then with both his hands placed on the table, he said seriously, “There is reliable information that Celestial Trade possesses a drug called truth-telling serum!”

“You mean, they will use a truth-telling serum on MacDonald?” Hill read the document with a frown.

“Based on their usual tactics, we cannot rule out this possibility,” The FBA director said solemnly, “I worry that MacDonald may reveal to them things that should not be said, such as our financial dealings with North American human rights agencies.”

At this point, the FBA Director looked at Hillary seriously and said, “We must get him out as soon as possible! Before they convict him and use the drug on him!”

Hill rubbed her temples as she glanced at the documents on the table and said wearily.

“…Do you have any good ideas?”

The FBA director was just about to say something, but then he froze.

He suddenly realized that his idea would not work on Celestial Trade…

Send a lawyer? The Voice of Blacks had already done that and it hired the strongest team of lawyers, but the situation was still not optimistic. The Xin Court seemed to be determined in convicting MacDonald. This lawsuit was unfair from the beginning.

Send the SEALs? It’s debatable if they could even reach Coro Island…

“This… the CIB is mainly responsible for foreign affairs.” The FBA director looked away awkwardly, “We are only responsible for contacting the human rights organization in North America…”

He was embarrassed to continue.

Hill sighed and pushed the document aside.

The word Xin gave her a headache, even to the point where she was diagnosed with minor depression.

She originally entered politics with huge ambitions, but this result was not something she expected.

How would history evaluate her?

She could only hope that those historians could put more emphasis on her opponent so that as the first female president of the country, she would not look so incompetent. After all, she still believed that she made the best decision during her tenure, even if the result did not look so satisfactory. She did not lose in politics…

“Do you know what I want most now?”

The FBA director carefully asked as he looked at Hill who was rubbing her brows.

“President…Madam?”

“What I want most now is for this winter to come sooner.”

“Mrs. President,” the FBA director gulped, then reminded in a quiet voice, “It’s already winter now.”

…

The news of Macdonald’s arrest in Xin had caused a great uproar in the international community, especially among black people. The Voice of Blacks said in an interview with the media that it will do everything in its power to rescue Macdonald and has hired the best team of lawyers to provide legal aid to him. The President of Tanzania even summoned Xin’s ambassador to Tanzania to express his concern about the incident.

However, in contrast, what attracted more attention from the international community was the speech Jiang Chen gave on behalf of the Future group at the press conference about the “James Incident”.

Jiang Chen’s interpretation of “equal rights does not mean giving privileges to certain groups of people” led to two polar opposite views of him in the international community.

Some people believed that if a certain amount of protection is not given to a small number of people, it would increase social inequality and aggravate racial discrimination, which would not bring “fairness”…

And others thought.

This is too damn right!

Why bother going in a circle? Just directly create a law to put the money of the rich into the wallet of the poor. Then even the class itself is eliminated! The gap between the rich and the poor is the source of all issues!

Especially Jiang Chen’s sentence “…For some people who try to seek privileges for themselves under the banner of a minority and in the name of equality, I will tell you with certainty that you are dreaming.” He gained support from many who shared the same sentiment.

Even on the far side of the Pacific Ocean, there were strong supporters of Jiang Chen’s words.

For example, a certain UA election candidate who threatened to “wrestle” with Jiang Chen even expressed regret on a talk show: “He is a respectable opponent, you know who I am referring to. If our country wants to be strong, we must have a strong leader to remind those who commit crimes with their race and religion to get out of our country. I think I happen to be such a strong leader; you can vote for me…”

Although most of the people were no longer surprised by this candidate’s unthoughtful remarks, this time he did actually offend the black population. There were even black senates that spoke vocally against him and asked the Republican Party to disqualify his eligibility for the March primaries.

Of course, Trump did not intend to be soft. After all, his candidacy had been filled with controversies from the very start, and the number of people that asked for his disqualification could not even be counted with just one hand. However, out of the consideration of the votes, he emphasized that the remark was only directed against terrorists and illegal immigrants…

“You have been jointly condemned.”

In the evening, Natasha in her dressing gown went to the living room, threw a newspaper on the coffee table, and then sat down across from Jiang Chen. She leaned back on the sofa and lazily raised her beautiful legs, “The Voice of Blacks accused you that the condolences to James were not sincere enough, saying that even if James’ wife abandons the legal proceedings against Future Group and Celestial Trade, they will still take you to court for this incident.”

“Where do they want to sue me? Moscow?” Jiang Chen teased.

“In Mississippi.”

“My geography is not very good,” Jiang Chen yawned as he watched her deliberately reveal her neckline, then he said with a smirk. “Compared to this boring topic, we might as well use this time to do something more interesting.”

“Are you not worried at all?” After she changed the position of her legs, Natasha raised her eyebrows slightly and curiously asked, “I heard that they are calling for a boycott of Future Group products.”

“If they can bear the life of the primitive, I’m not against it.” Jiang Chen laughed.

From Phantom helmets to smart robots to Future phones and urban drone systems, Future Group was almost equated with the term next generation that covered all aspects of people’s lives.

Technologies were addictive. Just like a person who was used to using smartphones would never go back to using an old flip phone. The feeling of being behind on trends would be more painful than anything else. And this very reason was why the UA has kept a cautious attitude about launching an anti-dumping investigation against Future Group.

Even if Future Group was already an evident monopoly on the market, the UA has yet to find a company that can replace Future Group.

Even Microsoft and Google could not complete this feat. One had to pay high patent fees to the Future Group for graphene chips, while the other simply imported a large number of supercomputing chips from Ange Island every year to maintain its own servers around the world. …

“Well, since you don’t take those people to heart at all, I have nothing to say,” Natasha shrugged, “I went to the Russian embassy today, and the Kremlin wanted me to ask you. How is the situation on Mars? And, do you really not need help?”

“I’m pretty sure we don’t need help. Our transport ship should reach the Mars synchronous orbit in five days at the latest.” Jiang Chen smiled, “Instead, when will your scientists come?”

“The specimen has been delivered?! So fast?” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen in surprise.

“Yeah… to be precise, two hours ago, the port of Celestial City has received the freezer compartment containing Devil Worm specimen.” Jiang Chen laughed at Natasha’s expression as he said, “It should be already transported to the specimen library at the lab.”

He had already passed the news onto other member states just now. Since Natasha happened to be home, he thought he would tell her the news himself.

As for why, of course, it made things more interesting.

“Wait, received the freezer compartment? Didn’t you use a transport ship to deliver this specimen?” Natasha asked hurriedly.

“On the surface, yes,” Jiang Chen said, “It’s impossible for us to dissect specimens in front of the media, right? And what is suitable or not for publicity, these also need to be studied. So, we used a small carrier rocket that is used to transport ore to transport the specimens…Although the carrying capacity is not high, it can theoretically cruise at twice the speed of the Seagull-class transport ship.”

“I’m going to make a phone call,” Natasha got up immediately, “Russian scientists can board the plane now, and they will be at the Coro Airport by noon tomorrow.”

Natasha walked towards the stairs.

However, when she passed the sofa, Jiang Chen grabbed her arm.

“This is a valuable piece of information, my dear Miss Agent.” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Are you not going to give your ‘informant’ a little… special reward?”

Natasha couldn’t help but chuckle at the unique analogy, and she rolled her eyes with charm and dragged her arm from his hand.

She leaned down and blew a frivolous breath into his ear, then teased in a whimsical tone.

“Go to my room in a bit… remember to wash yourself before you come, so I can give you a reward from ‘Miss Agent’.”

Chapter 1241: Not A Worm?

Chapter 1241 Not A Worm? On the synchronous orbit, a large hibernation chamber was shipped into a heavily guarded laboratory. The frozen specimen was the Mars species from tens of millions of kilometers away – Devil Worm.At the same time, scientists from the major member states of the Earth Defense Alliance gathered here.

These scientists covered a wide range of fields that could help with the research. Their fields included biology, chemistry, and other related fields. Each person was also authoritative and well-respected in their respective fields. After all, spots were limited and each country only received a few spots to divide among universities, research centers, and scientific research institutions. Even to save their face, it would be foolish to send a nobody.

The flow of the experiment was carried out in the order agreed upon.

The entire specimen was strictly enclosed in the isolation room, and all members must wear protective clothing when sampling or experimenting in the room. Only one person was to enter the lab at any time with at most one assistant. No items in the lab were to be removed and all apparatus were to be destroyed after the experiment.

This strict policy was due to the uncertainty of the Devil Worm’s body carrying viruses, bacteria, or microorganisms that may threaten the ecosystem on Earth.

It was not a joke.

No one knew if the species that “traveled” through time three billion years ago possessed any obscure traits. Maybe bacteria in its intestines that facilitated digestion would be a biological weapon on Earth that could completely wipe out an endangered species.

In short, the experiment began under strict rules.

The first subject to be studied was its blood.

“…its blood is highly corrosive, and it contains an organic acid that we have never seen before…unbelievable, it is more corrosive than trifluoromethanesulfonic acid!” As he examined the data displayed, Chemist Verdell Taylor from Frankberg exclaimed.

There were shocked voices when they heard the words through the speaker.

It was well known that trifluoromethanesulfonic acid is almost the strongest organic acid known. Not only was it widely used in medicine and chemicals. It could replace traditional sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and other traditional inorganic acids in many occasions to optimize and improve the process!

However, after the organic acid in the blood of Devil Worm was separated and purified, it was even more corrosive than trifluoromethanesulfonic acid!

This discovery alone was enough to have a substantial impact on the chemical industry. In the foreseeable future, after this news gets released, the chemical companies around the world would use every means they could to learn about the chemical formula of this new type of organic acid, and then research its application and production methods.

The fervor in everyone’s eyes suddenly grew brighter.

Just then, a biologist from Russia spoke out.

“What name should we give to this acid?”

The room was silent, to the point where one could hear a single needle drop on the ground.

This sentence made everyone, including Verdell Taylor in the isolation room, silent. The way everyone looked at the test tube was different.

According to the rules of the scientific community, in general, whoever made the discovery received the naming rights. However, there were more than 50 scientists in this lab. They were all participating in the experiment, and all possessed a significant influence in the international scientific community.

If the acid was named Taylor Acid just because Verdell Taylor conducted the acidity test, the scientists would be not be convinced.

Separation, purification, and measurement of pH, any one of their students could have done that!

Verdell Taylor, in his protective clothing, apparently realized this. He looked at Jiang Chen outside the room and wisely kicked the ball to the top dog. Effectively removing himself from the jealous and unconvinced gazes from his peers.

“I think we should ask Celestial Trade for its opinion, after all, they found and collected the specimen…”

This proposal barely got the nod of approval from the scientists.

They also realized that it was a difficult problem to solve. Whoever receiving the naming rights would offend everyone else.

“I agree.”

“You’re right. Celestial Trade discovered it after all.”

“No comments.”

Jiang Chen took a moment to process while he was under the watch of the scientists around the room.

He was just there. What kind of opinion could he have?

However, since others have asked this question, he decided to respect them. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and then said.

“Let’s call it Devil Acid, as for the patent… give it to the Earth Defense Alliance Foundation.”

“…”

Jiang Chen’s words silenced all the scientists, and they all simultaneously sighed in helplessness.

This was a chance to win the Nobel Prize and be remembered in history, but the name ended by being… um, so sloppy.

People say that Celestial Trade’s president did not have the best taste in names, it certainly showed today.

However, unlike those scientists who were sighing in grief, Jiang Chen was quite pleased with his name.

Is formic acid not called formic acid? That’s the same idea. The thing that the Devil Worm has should be called Devil Acid right? After all, at least it donated its blood. Give it some respect.

As for Nobel Prize, a mark in history?

Jiang Chen thought that if all things went smoothly, his legendary life would leave a mark in history. Once he led the Earth Fleet to destroy Harmony’s Colonization Ship, then force it to seek for mercy… he would definitely win the Nobel Peace Prize.

As for the patent, it would be worth a lot of money. However, since he already owned so many assets, it did not matter in the grand scheme of things. Moreover, the majority of the Earth Defence Alliance funding went to Celestial Trade and Future Heavy Industries.

His thought process was on a different wavelength compared to those in research.

The experiment continued.

Jiang Chen originally thought that one breakthrough discovery was great. He didn’t expect exclamations from the isolation room would come one after another.

“It’s incredible! This blood cell morphology has completely refreshed my understanding of biology… It can complete life activities in such an extreme acid-alkaline environment!”

“Its blood vessels can block hydrogen ions from entering tissue cells, but it doesn’t interfere with the exchange of blood cells to the blood vessel. It’s impossible… it’s too unscientific!”

“Let me take a sample again! Just once! I just found something incredibly important! This is what I have been studying! I need to—”

“Hurry up! That subject is over. No matter what you found, go to the back of the line!”

“Yes! Don’t waste everyone’s time!”

“…”

Jiang Chen looked at the zealous scientists and was quite dumbfounded.

Where did their dignity go?

Courtesy?

The face of a true expert?

Yesterday when they had the seminar, they were all respectful. After they saw the specimen, they completed changed.

Jiang Chen did not know that for a scientist in the science community, courtesy and respect meant nothing in front of breakthrough discoveries that could trigger an earthquake in the academic world! Many of them were already stalling in their research, but the ancient creature from Mars 3.7 billion years ago opened a new world for them, just like a new skill in the martial arts world.

Courtesy? Dignity? What are those?

Jiang Chen was the most surprised that the “worm” he tossed out, intending to please his allies, would turn out to be something different.

It seemed… It seemed to be the discovery of a New World?

So, he did not toss out a worm, but a treasure.

Looking at the animated scientists, Jiang Chen did not know whether to cry or laugh…

Chapter 1242: The Theory of Oxygen Supply Layer

1242 The Theory of Oxygen Supply Layer Research on the Devil Worm was progressing slowly.

It was not because of the inability of these scientists, but because every breakthrough discovery led to countless possibilities. The Devil Worm spread their roots of exploration to the boundaries of science and then expanded it to the unknown soil beyond their understanding.

The scientists gathered here were like babies feeding on breast milk. They were ingesting unheard knowledge from a species that had lived for 3.7 billion years.

The challenging topics in biology, genetics, chemistry, and other disciplines were tackled one by one, and they would evolve into new research branches.

In the words of a biologist at the Hua Academy of Sciences, the existence of the Devil Worm already renewed the human understanding of biology.

A few days ago, the world’s largest arthropod on Earth was the 12-foot Japanese Spider Crab. However, Devil Worm’s length was a daunting 15 meters. Also, its terrifying rock drilling ability could penetrate the metamorphic rock formations several kilometers or even tens of kilometers underground, which also brought new understandings of the limits of organisms.

In particular, the massive force behind its two pairs of incisors, in theory, could even cut an entire rebar, or even the armor on the T-3 power armor. Only the rover on Mars nearly one hundred tons in mass could survive the impact of its bite.

Its hardened shell also protected it from being cut by fragmented rock formations during high-speed movements, and its defense was sufficient to be immune from 12.7mm heavy machinegun bullets. Fortunately, Celestial Trade Marines used Gauss rifles, and the armored vehicle was equipped with large-caliber guns and rockets. Otherwise, breaking through the armor would be a challenging enough task.

When Jiang Chen received the combat analysis of the Devil Worm, his first reaction was linking it to the Death Claws.

From his impression, only creatures like Death Claws could fight against power armors.

Inaccurately speaking, it should be the claws of the Death Claws and the shell of the Mud Crabs. A Death Claw alone would have no fighting chance against a Devil Worm. In all the creatures that Jiang Chen had seen before, perhaps only the Mother of Death Claw could outpower a Devil Worm

Later, due to the growing number of discoveries, the research subjects became more and more detailed and specific, and the coverage became more and more widespread. Therefore, they realized there was actually a lack of people.

To address this problem, more than a dozen scientists jointly requested Jiang Chen to invite several well-known scientists in the academic world, but whose nationality did not belong to the four major member states. It was so the problems encountered in the study could utilize the conclusions already made in their respective fields.

After some discretion, Jiang Chen exchanged views with representatives of Hua, Russia, and Frankberg before finally relaxing the restrictions on nationality.

Some of the candidates were selected from the list provided by the joint petitioners. The Earth Defense Alliance issued 11 invitation letters to the South Asian countries, the three countries in Eastern Europe, India, and other minor member states, and authorized them to participate in parts of the project. Also, scientists from Finland, Donetsk, and Nippon, countries that were actively promoting accession to the Earth Defense Alliance, received approval.

However, this led to another problem. That was, the news of the Devil Worm arriving in Celestial Trade could no longer be concealed…

“Verdell Taylor, is there something you need?” In the lounge next to the lab, Jiang Chen put down the newspaper and looked at him as he walked into the lounge, ” If it’s a new joint petition, I’m afraid I will be unable to meet your requirements as we receive thousands of petitions from universities in Europe every day in our mailbox. Too many people want to squeeze in here… It’s also difficult for us.”

When Verdell Taylor heard what Jiang Chen said, he touched his nose in embarrassment and apologized.

His name was one of the names in the petition.

Jiang Chen was always friendly towards scientists and he did his best to accommodate their requests. Verdell Taylor learned the troubles that his request brought to Celestial Trade and the Earth Defense Alliance, so he did feel apologetic toward Jiang Chen.

“It has nothing to do with the petition,” Verdell Taylor coughed, then said, “We have made new discoveries in the study.”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen looked at him, intrigued, “What did you find?”

“You know, the entire atmosphere on Mars is made up of carbon dioxide and everything from the groundwater to the rock formations is acidic.” Verdell Taylor paused, then said, “Based on our previous research, Devil Worms can survive in an acidic environment, and even its blood is a strong acid. Therefore, it’s highly likely this is the result of natural selection from more than three billion years ago.”

“But later, the scientists we invited to the team came up with different opinions.”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen waited for him to continue.

“In addition to the strong acid blood, we also found some unique organic compounds in its blood.” Verdell Taylor wrote a string of chemical formulas on the whiteboard, of which Jiang Chen could not comprehend with his knowledge. “And this organic compound can only exist in a strong acid environment.”

“…My chemistry knowledge is only at that of an undergraduate student.” Jiang Chen said while looking at the long list of chemical formulas on the whiteboard.

“You don’t have to understand it, you just need to recognize this symbol.” Verdell Taylor shook his head and pointed to the letter O in the formula. “These represent oxygen atoms.”

“I do know this…” Suddenly, Jiang Chen found the strangeness in the formula.

Almost after every few letters, he could see an uppercase O.

This may be a bit amateur of an explanation, but it intuitively reflected the problem.

“Even if this Mars creature could survive in an acidic environment, it would never be able to survive without oxygen.” Verdell Taylor said in a tone with absolute certainty. “We have not yet named this organic compound, but it’s an organic compound that can only exist in a strongly acidic environment, and this exact compound gives the Devil Worm the ability to move in an anaerobic environment!”

Jiang Chen understood the message.

There was no oxygen on the surface of Mars. And not just on the surface, but oxygen must also be depleted in the caves underground. The Devil Worms that moved underground like worms must possessed an organ that held oxygen. Jiang Chen suspected it may be a kind of high-pressure airbag, but it turned out the blood was the enabler…

Wait, if there is no oxygen on the surface and underground, where is it getting its oxygen?

There is also the Gaia civilization. He never noticed this problem but how did civilizations breathe underground? It’s just unrealistic to think they mastered air filtration in the Stone Age.

How did these Mars creatures survive underground?

Jiang Chen suddenly realized the problem.

And Verdell Taylor’s next sentence revealed the answer to this question.

“The oxygen content in the atmosphere is less than 1%, and it’s impossible to provide the oxygen needed for an arthropod of this size,” Verdell Taylor said with a hint of excitement. “So, we can say with certainty that there must be a location underground with high oxygen concentration! We call it ‘Oxygen Supply Layer’!”

“Oxygen Supply Layer?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Yes!” Verdell Taylor nodded, and the excitement between his eyebrows grew stronger and stronger. “I’m sure that in this special underground layer, there must be some special anaerobic fungus. This fungus has adapted to the Mars environment and survives in the acidic environment by consuming carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Its energy source may be geothermal, or it may be the Devil Worm’s feces, but it acts as both a producer and a decomposer. Only with the presence of this fungi could the underground biosphere form into a locked loop!”

“I was invited by SpaceX to design an anaerobic bacterium that could survive in a medium-acid environment for their Mars atmosphere transformation project.”

“Do you know what this bacterium means to us?” Verdell Taylor said with euphoria and zeal on his face.

Although Jiang Chen could already guess it, he still asked the question.

“What does this mean?”

“It means we will be able to transform the atmosphere on Mars!”

Chapter 1243: Reinforcements Have Arrived!

1243 Reinforcements Have Arrived! Transform Mars’ atmosphere.

It sounded like a millennium project.

They would not only have to increase the oxygen content in the atmosphere, but also bring in greenhouse gases to increase the thickness of the atmosphere, and at the same time find an alternative to the geomagnetic field to avoid the newly generated atmosphere being blown away by solar winds.

Moreover, Jiang Chen’s positioning of Mars was originally an arsenal of the Earth Fleet. From his perspective, the idea of transforming Mars into a terrestrial planet was not attractive.

But then again, Verdell Taylor’s words finally reminded Jiang Chen of something.

When he first entered the underground ruins, it seemed that the air monitoring component of the drone detected higher oxygen content compared to the surface on Mars.

At first, he thought it was because it resembled the atmospheric environment of Mars 3.7 billion years ago, but he overlooked the fact it was located several kilometers deep underground…

After reporting his progress to Jiang Chen, Verdell Taylor excitedly asked if he could take a flight to Mars, but was immediately shut down by Jiang Chen.

Perhaps these scientists were ready to dedicate themselves to the cause of science, but he couldn’t risk losing a brilliant scientist.

To defeat the enemy, he must first understand the enemy.

While Celestial Trade was still developing itself capability, the fifty scientists were already standing at the forefront of resisting the invasion of Harmony. The more understanding they gained of the biological civilization, the higher the Earth Defense Alliance’ chance was of winning.

What’s more, before Jiang Chen dug out the ruins on Mars, he would not send any uncontrolled factors up there.

Afterall, Verdell Taylor was from Frankberg, which represented the Frankberg government; he was not Xin nor a part of Celestial Trade.

In the end, Jiang Chen proposed a compromise of bringing more Devil Worm specimen back.

Based on the response of Captain Hong Zewei, the administrator of the Mars colony, there seemed to be a lot of these bugs around Mine 071. As long as the soldiers remained in the vehicles and the specimens were collected through robots and vehicles, the danger should be minimal.

At the same time, Jiang Chen also sent a message to Kelvin to ask him to tell the staff on the Mars colony to keep an eye on the speculation made by Verdell Taylor on the existence of an “Oxygen Supply Layer”.

If it did exist, it would be another groundbreaking discovery. One that shakes the academic world if they obtained some anaerobic fungi from that layer…

If all went accordingly to plan.

…

Mars colony.

The gusting sand ravaged in the desert.

The large sheds that were originally located near the cabin were completely destroyed.

Hong Zewei stood inside as he looked at the ruins outside the window and sighed with a headache.

As for what happened to the destroyed sheds outside?

Everything started with a “foolish” command…

Four days ago, Marines once again set off from the colony.

This time they had a well-planned strategy. They first parked their vehicle near Mine 071 and immediately used drones to lure the Devil Worms out from underground, then they detonated the explosives on the drone and killed two Devil Worms from afar.

At the request of the Space Command Center, they tied the bodies of two Devil Worms with hooks and dragged the two fresh specimens back to the colony.

In the next two days, they killed a total of ten Devil Worms with the same method.

Just when they thought these bugs were nothing to fear.

They finally enraged these monsters.

The destroyed sheds outside the colony were the most evident example.

The smarter Devil Worms no longer bit the drones and even stopped touching the vehicles that they could not pierce through. Following the blood of their same kind, they tracked down the colony and were immediately shocked by everything in front of them.

For more than three billion years, no living things existed on the surface of Mars, to the point that they had completely forgotten the existence of Mars’ surface. But after eating fungi and other arthropods for so long, they were surprised to find neighbors on the barren surface.

The floor of the colonial cabin was too thick, and they could not drill through it.

But other buildings were not so lucky.

The farms in the colony were left with countless holes. The newly built ranch was completely torn apart with all the crops and livestock inside eaten.

If it weren’t for the fact that the colony was wise enough to not put all of its eggs in one basket, and still maintained an indoor breeding center and an open-air farm within the main building, food for the colonists would be another urgent issue.

Fortunately, these Devil Worms were only interested in moving creatures. Otherwise, it would have been disastrous if the brine desalination device was destroyed.

Addicted to the new taste, they roamed near the colony every day to seek for more prey.

Now, even travel for the staff was difficult. Other than the Marines’ missions, all activities outside were forced to terminate.

No one knew where the bugs would pop up from, and no one dared to gamble if they were there or not.

“The study of Mine 071 was the wrong decision. If we didn’t wake up the monsters from underground, we could have been safe.” A blond female stood in front of the Marines, full of emotions, “And now, everyone’s work has been affected!”

She was a colleague of James and an employee of Future Mining. The Marines acted quietly and politely around Future Group employees, but an order remained an order and no one could change this.

“You can go explain to the headquarters. Celestial City needs more specimens, and we’re just following the order.” Zhang Hai buckled the last button of his kinetic skeleton, checked the safety on the Gauss rifle, and then gestured to the soldiers behind him to walk around the woman.

Zhang Hai was the captain of this team of Marines. He commanded the past missions.

He was aware of the recent uneasiness in the colony and understood the rationale.

He also did not feel great about those bugs that suddenly popped out of nowhere. No one knew more about how annoying and difficult those worms were to deal with. A soldier already died in the post and another one was still receiving limb regeneration treatment in the emergency room.

Maybe the tension in the colony could be alleviated once reinforcements arrived.

However, Zhang Hai thought that even when the expeditionary forces arrive, it would still be futile.

The worms would not directly engage in combat at all. They were like seagulls, skipping on top of the water, flying away after a single blow, and barely stopping on the surface at all. Even if more Marines landed on Mars, what could they do without knowing how to drill holes?

However, Zhang Hai, who was preparing to board the vehicle, saw the icon of [Mission Terminated] on the AR screen of his helmet.

He was not the only one that saw the same message.

The other six Marines who already gathered into the vehicle also saw it.

“The mission is canceled? What happened?”

“I don’t know…”

“It’s the command from the Space Command Center.”

Just as Zhang Hai frowned, and thought he should ask Captain Hong Zewei if the task should still continue, he heard an exclamation.

“Wait… look above! What is that?!”

Zhang Hai suddenly looked above and followed his comrades’ sight.

Through the transparent graphene dome, black figures emerged above the colony one after another. Just like a meteor shower, the figures gradually enlarged in everyone’s surprised expression.

“Reinforcements?” With surprise in his tone, someone muttered.

“Sh*t, they are finally here!” A soldier said with relief.

It’s reinforcements!

Zhang Hai was also emotional.

The transport ship that carried a thousand Marines finally arrived on the Mars synchronous orbit!

Although he didn’t think these people could not bring too much change to the status quo on Mars, even he could not deny the boost in morale he received from seeing them.

At this point, the issue bothering him for so long finally went away.

In the days to come, at least his team would no longer be fighting alone.

Chapter 1244: Only So-so!

1244 Only So-so! From the depths of darkness, a giant ship approached the orange-red planet. The words TS Expedition were engraved on the hull and blended in perfectly with the black armor. Just like a sharp sword piercing through the darkness, it alluded a deadly vibe among the stars.

The bowl-shaped engine ejected a red glow, and then the glow suddenly disappeared.

Under the influence of inertia, the Seagull-class transport ship slowly stopped on the synchronous orbit of Mars.

“The main engine off.”

“Secondary engine ignited.”

“The orbital parameters have been corrected.”

“The feedback beam is confirmed. The center of gravity is normal. Confirmed to enter the synchronous orbit.”

“The secondary engine off.”

After a series of commands, the serious and tense atmosphere in the bridge disappeared.

A man in a military uniform walked to the captain’s side and saluted.

“Captain, we have arrived above the colony! Waiting for your orders!”

The majestic man in the bridge gazed at the fiery red planet outside the window.

“Order the deactivation of the hibernation chamber.”

“Roger!”

Outside the bridge, inside the transport cabin.

The lights on the wall began to illuminate one after another as they lit up the rectangular space.

The hibernation chambers along the wall emitted a blue glow as gas escaped from the edges between the hatch and the chamber itself.

The hibernation chambers opened and the soldiers inside opened their eyes. They pushed out of the half-closed hatch doors. Just like what they performed many times in exercises, they rushed to their battle positions in an orderly manner.

The crew in blue overalls headed swiftly to the function bays of artillery, observation, power, and the Marines in gray-white uniforms rushed into the arsenal and equipped themselves with space kinetic skeletons and Gauss rifles. They all waited in the buffer cabin on standby.

Inside the bridge.

The officer returned to the captain and saluted again.

“All hibernation chambers have deactivated.”

“Connect the colony channel.”

“Roger!”

The holographic screen emerged in the middle of the bridge, and after a series of white flickering images, the image on the screen quickly stabilized.

When the man appeared on the screen, from the captain’s calm expression, there was a smile that was beginning to form.

On the other hand, Hong Zewei sighed in relief as he stood in the command room of the colony and looked at the friend on the screen who had finished his captain training one year after him.

Hong Zewei cleared his throat, and with a composed voice, he expressed his welcome to the arrival of the reinforcements on behalf of the colony.

“This is Mars colony. We welcome the expedition force to enter the bay.”

“This is Expedition. The first group of Marines is airborne. Thank you for your hard work.”

…

When he looked up above the colony, the joy and shock in Zhang Hai’s eyes magnified.

The prism-shaped airdrop cabins dragged a blue glow, and left clear trajectories in the sky. They eventually crashed into the desert near the colony.

The dust of Mars was sent high up into the air and the impact wave blew the red sand instantly away.

The hatches on all sides opened and smashed into the ground.

New combat vehicles rolled out from the airdrop cabins as they left trails of dust.

The new combat vehicle was called Pathfinder T-2. Compared to Pathfinder T-1, previously equipped for the colony, the new vehicle had higher tonnage, a hybrid track-design that replaced the rubber tires and rapid-fire guns that fired electromagnetic shells.

These improvements were designed to deal with extraterrestrial armor units that may appear near Mine 071. Except they did not expect that there would only be a weathered ruin under Mine 071 without any thing else in sight.

However, the situation took another twisted turn, and the Devil Worms that emerged from underground caught Celestial Trade by surprise. The one hundred Pathfinder T-2s were then deployed to eradicate Devil Worms which provided armor protection for vulnerable targets.

The movement outside the colony attracted the attention of the Devil Worms nearby.

When the Devil Worms felt the tremors from the surface, they drilled out from the oxygen supply layer. Like the mythical earth dragons that roamed in the ground in old legends, they accelerated to the source of the tremor, before they penetrated out from the ground and bit down on the “new neighbors” they haven’t even encountered yet.

“REEEEE-!”

The muffled screeching of the Devil Worms sounded like cries of pain. The two pairs of sickles hit the sturdy armor but only left a crack the size of a thumb.

The large-scale rapid-fire guns began to rampage with glaring lights emitting from the fearsome barrels. The shells accelerated to multiple times the speed of sound, then instantly ruptured the armor of the Devil Worms and turned those bugs into sieves. Devil Worms crawled out from the ground one after another, just like worms after a storm, they bit toward the vehicles.

However, the unintelligent creatures were unable to comprehend the stupidity of their behavior.

The sickle that could slice granite was stopped by the Grade-A steel. Unable to break the armor of the vehicle, it at most posed interference to the attack of the vehicles. But when the bugs realized this point and started their retreat into the ground, it was already too late.

Inside the spaceship, the captain who had ended communication with the colony locked onto the red dots on the satellite map.

Life detection device.

The maximum depth of detection for underground creatures was only five kilometers, but for those Devil Worms that sensed the tremor on the surface and already moved upwards, they were within range.

When the armored units of Celestial Marines completed its assembly, he immediately ordered.

“Depth five kilometers, launch the underground seeking missile!”

“Roger!”

As soon as an order was issued, the crew members in the bridge immediately began to execute.

“Weapon is loaded!”

“The coordinates are locked!”

A long stripe-shaped object was separated from the SS Expedition. After it had fallen for some distance, an orange-red flame suddenly surged out from the silenced engine at the tail.

Under the dual action of gravity and engine propulsion, the missile began to accelerate as it crossed the distance of 17,031 kilometers before it smashed into the sand dune.

When the dust dissipated, the sand dune was quiet, much like in the silent bridge…

On the holographic screen in the middle of the bridge, the red dot that was the focus of everyone’s attention quickly descended.

When the altitude value jumped to negative five kilometers, the gunner calmly said.

“Hit confirmed!”

Almost at the moment when he finished this sentence, the flame was like rolling magma, engulfing the rock and tunnels with Devil Worms lurking into an ocean of fire.

Thousands of degrees of high temperature even ignited the air, even the metamorphic rock could not withstand such a high temperature, as the rock directly liquefied into magma. The magma dripped into the next layer and formed into pointy stalagmites.

No creature could survive through this purgatory.

Even the species that survived over 3.7 billion years lost to the weapons of the civilized.

The raging flame quickly dissipated.

A string of red dots that marked life on the screen also extinguished.

An officer walked to the captain and stood upright, clean, and neat.

“A total of twenty-seven Devil Worm kills confirmed!”

The captain listened to the report from the first officer, then nodded. There was a sense of pride hidden deep in his pupils.

Devil Worms?

Alien species?

In front of the iron hoof of Celestial Trade.

They are only so-so!

Chapter 1245: The Summit That Shocked the World

1245 The Summit That Shocked the World The battle on Mars happened over a week ago and January quickly came to an end.

The original plan was not altered due to external controversies. Celestial Trade Biotechnology Summit was held as scheduled at the end of the month.

The Biotechnology Summit was held in “Heart of the Sea” in the northern part of Coro Island. The large-scale landmark building that integrated shopping, accommodation, leisure, and business was one of the defining structures of Xin and was printed on all tourism advertisements.

A total of ten Devil Worm specimens were dissected and made into a total of more than 500 exhibits. The exhibits were transported by Celestial Marines to the Convention and Exhibition Center. These specimens ranged from the tissue cells of the Devil Worm to the entire specimen itself. Exhibits such as blood, heart, and limbs were individually exhibited.

All the exhibits were tightly sealed in a vacuum by a double-layer bullet-proof glass. An incendiary bomb was placed inside the display. If a leak was detected, the incendiary would ignite to generate temperature over 5,000 degrees, which would destroy all samples inside the display. It was designed to prevent the invasion of foreign bacteria and viruses into the ecological environment of the city.

Because the bomb charge was strictly controlled, people outside would not be harmed.

In addition to the exhibits, Celestial Marines also appeared at the summit. A soldier in kinetic skeleton stood next to each large showcase and held a loaded Reaper Assault Rifle.

The exhibition would run for one month.

On the first day of the exhibition, the number of tourists in Heart of the Sea doubled. The Xin Ministry of Transport had to send more traffic police to maintain the order in nearby areas to ensure that foreign delegations and media could enter the venue… The ancient vehicles that could not operate on maglev roads were indeed troublesome.

It was not only journalists and scholars who were allowed to enter the exhibition, many tourists that visited Coro City would also not miss this opportunity.

After all, it was a Mars species that they have never seen in this life! Or the life before!

Everyone used to think there was only an empty desert on the red planet.

Even if they placed a dinosaur specimen in the exhibition, the venue would still be packed. It wouldn’t matter if people didn’t understand what they see, the purpose was to take photos…

“My God, this bug is huge!” A tourist exclaimed.

“Mom, I want a photo of me riding on top of it!” The bratty child cried as he dragged on his mother’s sleeve.

“At this size, it’s difficult to associate it with insects…” Someone commented

Of course, for safety reasons, visitors could only take photos outside of the safety line. They could not take photos too close to the specimen.

Media reporters were allowed to cross the line but were also not allowed to touch the glass showcase.

However, pictures were enough to showcase the fearsome nature of the giant-sized Devil Worm from 3.7 billion years ago.

“The longest Devil Worm specimen has reached 20 meters, and the shortest is still 13 meters long… seven times bigger than the largest known arthropod, the Japanese Spider Crab! Its existence has opened up a new perspective on arthropods!”

“What kind of gene do they possess to allow them to survive more than three billion years? Perhaps only the mysterious nature has an answer…”

“Mars is a crazy place!”

“I can’t wait to go to Mars to give an interview with these big guys, but Celestial Trade staff recommended me not to do that…”

In the venue, reporters commented on these specimens in front of cameras. Although the information available to them was only surface level, it was more than enough to satisfy the public’s curiosity about Mar’s creatures.

A BBC reporter was speaking in front of a specimen and as he finished his speech on the Devil Worm’s blood, he then saw a group of people had gathered at one corner of the venue.

He remembered there was no exhibits there.

“A crowd gathered in front of the organizer’s office. Most of them are over 50 years old. What happened? Let’s interview one of them… Hello, mister, are you here—”

“Protest!” The old man with glasses and a white beard said with anger, “As you can see, we are protesting! Why can’t we participate in the research! They are obstructing academic freedom!”

“Yes! On behalf of the Harvard School of Life Sciences, I protest against what Celestial Trade is doing. Nationality should not be an obstruction to scientific progress!” The professor moved closer to the camera and expressed his dissatisfaction. “I clearly received a nomination for the Devil Worm Research Team, but the Earth Defense Alliance crossed me off the list because of my nationality? That is too strange!”

He had attended many scientific research summits, and he was invited every single time by the organizer. However, this was the first summit he took the initiative and applied to attend for a summit, and he was rejected!

If this happened any where else, he would have blacklisted the company for life.

However this time…

He purchased the ticket at his own expense.

There was no other reason than the fact that it was an exhibit on Mar’s species. Even if he could not get into the lab, he still wished to see its appearance. So he considered this a vacation at the island on western Pacific.

However, when he saw the 20-meter-long Devil Worm, and the green blood labeled as highly acidic on the side of the showcase, his odd compulsive disorder suddenly started to take effect – feeling uncomfortable if he did not touch the specimen syndrome!

However, when he went to see the staff at the summit and showed his identity, and then subtly hinted at the fact that he could help the summit by studying the specimen and offering some advice, the staff member brought him here with an eccentric look… and that’s how he joined the protesters.

“Professor, may I ask you for your name?” Seeing that the old man looked familiar, the BBC reporter quietly asked.

“Martin Karplus!”

The BBC reporter immediately showed his respect, but at the same time, disbelief grew in his eyes.

As a reporter who has focused on technology interviews for many years, he was certainly familiar with this old man. Martin Karplus was the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The creation of multiscale models for complex chemical systems was a milestone for chemical technology!

However, it was because of the shocking identity of the old man which made the reporter even more confused.

A respected academic scholar like him normally did not accept invitations from normal companies! Now that Martin Karplus offered to help, Celestial Trade should not rejected the offer.

However, the reporter soon saw a familiar face behind Martin Karplus.

Michael Levitt!

Like Martin Karplus, he was also one of the winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with dual citizenship in the UA and the United Kingdom. He graduated from Cambridge and was a professor of structural biology at Stanford University.

He was awarded for the same reason as Martin Karplus, but his research direction was different. Professor Michael’s research field was mainly bio-computing, and he was one of the first scientists to design DNA and protein molecular dynamics simulation! He ultimately started a new era of “structure to function” in the field of biophysics!

In a simple sentence, these two were the “great magicians” in the scientific community.

However, these “great magicians” were blocked from attending the summit?

He then looked at the other people… Their fame and achievements were no inferior compared to the Nobel Prize winners, or perhaps even superior.

The BBC reporter sensed a story and immediately asked the assistant to direct the camera. He walked forward with a smile, handed the microphone to them, and gave them an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction…

Chapter 1246: Made Headlines Again?

Chapter 1246 Made Headlines Again? In the same night.The BBC broadcasted an interview.

In addition to the specimens being exhibited, the protests of more than 30 professors in front of the office were also broadcasted.

Online.

On Twitter.

On Facebook.

On the social media platform dominated by western crowds, the platforms were all enraged after they learned the news.

“Even Martin Karplus has been rejected? What do Celestial Trade want to do?!”

“And Michael Levitt, I know him, he is an outstanding alumnus of Cambridge!”

“Although I don’t recognize these names, why are they stopping us from participating in the research? Why?”

“It feels like going back to the Cold War era, an iron curtain is falling from the Pacific Ocean…”

“This is obstructing academic freedom!”

“…”

The voices on social media were divided into two distinct sides, some expressed their understanding. After all, Celestial Trade collected the specimens. While the other side condemned Celestial Trade for the lack of social responsibility and the use of Cold War mentality to obstruct academic freedom.

Of course, most people followed the event for the drama. After all, Heart of the Sea’s venue allowed free entry and many tourists took photos and posted them on their social media account. Many were also able to satisfy their curiosity of the Mars creature.

As for “academic freedom” and “Cold War mentality”, only a few cared about these two schools of thought.

In the eyes of most people, what was the fuss about being able to see a few specimens?

These disputes on Facebook and Twitter were blocked outside an impenetrable firewall to the audience in Hua. However, many people still watched the BBC video that was uploaded and learned about the incident and expressed their thoughts.

Not on Facebook and Twitter.

On Weibo.

On WeChat.

And on Future 1.0.

It was a completely contrary set of opinions.

“Celestial Trade is OP!”

“Haha, so what if they’re angry. They didn’t bring us onto the ISS. They placed a blockade on high-precision CNC and technology for half a century. I didn’t see them yelling about academic freedom and science without borders!”

“They were asked to join Earth Defense Alliance and refused. As to why you are not allowed to participate, ask your leader.”

When there was a lot of discussion on social media, the traditional media also covered this matter.

Finally, the committee of the Earth Defense Alliance held a press conference to specifically address this matter.

Kelvin spoke in front of the media, “The Earth Defense Alliance has rights to selectively release research on extraterrestrial biology and civilization to the international community. This is mainly due to security considerations and the decision is jointly made by all member states. Please do not over-interpret the decision.”

However, how can this situation not be over-interpreted?

For the behemoth known as the Earth Defense Alliance, any decision could be studied closely by major think tanks. In particular, the professors had already called out to their students to sign a petition. By now, the petition already exceeded 100,000 signatures which must be addressed by the government.

However, while everyone was speculating what the UA would do, the Capitol’s response was rather calm. It stated that the matter was being discussed with the Earth Defense Alliance member states but then there was no more follow-ups.

Coincidentally or not, shortly after the exhibition began, an abandoned rocket launch site near B City restarted its operation under NASA and SpaceX. The new Falcon rocket collecting dust in the warehouse once again went up and began its preparations for launching.

…

In February, scientists from all over the world began to develop synergies with each other while Devil Worm’s research started to enter the right track. The four newly built isolation rooms allowed for far more efficient research.

After several meetings with the member states revolving around the issue of Mars and the soon-to-be-completed million-ton spaceship, Jiang Chen returned to the surface on the space elevator.

Before coming home, Jiang Chen first went to Coconut Island, and sent a small freezer with sample cells sealed in the interdimensional transport device to Lin Lin’s laboratory. Then he finally went home after half a month to continue the game he did not finish last time…

Coro Island Mansion.

In the night, a breeze blew and the coconut trees outside the window swayed its leaves to hide the intimate moonlight.

“You made headlines again.” Natasha’s eyes rolled as she tried to change the subject.

“You are on the man that made headlines.”

The topic ended.

Natasha realized that she failed to divert Jiang Chen’s attention, so she gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes again.

“…you have a surprising number of fans. What do you think happened today? At noon today, the embassy’s new translator, who is super-hot, asked me what kind of person you are while holding onto the cover of Moscow Times. She also asked whether or not she could meet you…”

“Oh? What kind of person am I?”

Natasha rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, who was smirking, then gnashed her teeth while she shook her head to move her sweat-drenched hair aside. She was panting on top of the chestboard with an expression that looked like she was dying, “Are you even Asian? I suspect you are…”

“I am?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

“An alien.”

Natasha looked at Jiang Chen seriously as she adjusted her disordered breathing.

“…”

They exchanged eye contact in silence for a minute.

Jiang Chen slapped on the curvature with a smirk as Natasha responded with a high-pitched moan.

“Don’t even think about escaping this one, you still have 972 push-ups and 1,720 squats to do. Jean is counting for me.”

“Actually, it’s 972 and 1727.” The watch shimmered slightly, and Jean’s unemotional electronic voice sounded from the bedside table.

“Oh, God, kill me!” Natasha rolled her eyes back, “Just finish me.”

“Not possible, Miss. Agent,” Jiang Chen said with a sly smile, “We decided. Whoever loses is going to be punished.”

As soon as she heard the word punishment, her expression changed to sadness and she looked like she was about to cry.

She should not have played this game with him.

This guy is ridiculous!

Chapter 1247: Battlefield Repor

Chapter 1247 Battlefield Repor A game is just a game after all. When one side can’t last any longer, the fun to continue is no longer there.After Natasha finally got tired and seeked for mercy, Jiang Chen teased her a few times before he finally gained the upper hand in the game. After a high-pitched moan, he fell asleep with the weary and satisfied “blonde kitten.”

The next morning, when the first morning ray scattered in, Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

He lazily turned on the bed and saw Natasha was already getting dressed. He then said mockingly, “I can’t believe you got out of bed earlier than me. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted your expression.”

“You also know that I was a special agent,” Natasha curved her charming lips and swayed her hair, she then combed them to the back of her head and said joyously, “You’re just not as good as you think you are if you still fall for the same trick.”

“Don’t even, I just let you have it. Or shall we try it once more tonight?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

“Today, you belong to Xia Shiyu,” Her golden ponytail swayed as she left Jiang Chen, and left Jiang Chen with only the image of her back. Suddenly, she said, with a smirk, “You can express all your dissatisfaction with me on her.”

Natasha pleasingly walked to the door. Just as she opened the door, her knee suddenly gave out as she almost fell down.

Sure enough, she made up her resilient appearance.

When she looked back, she saw the grin in his eyes. She left him with a dirty look before she closed the door and walked away.

Jiang Chen silently gave her his blessing to not fall again. Then he got dressed before he left the bedroom.

…

The Biotechnology Summit was still ongoing. The scientist who protested for three days to no avail already dispersed. They disappointedly left on planes and returned home.

Devil Acid extracted from the Devil Worm had already seen industry applications based on research from by the Chemical Research Institute of Future Heavy Industries. Two large chemical plants were built in New Malaysia Special District. The acid would be used in Future Biology’s pharmaceutical plants, Future Heavy Industries’ factories and the shipyards in the synchronous orbit to replace the trifluoromethanesulfonic acid required in some parts of the original production process.

The small change would yield an increase of 1-5% in efficiency for Future Heavy Industries in the next year.

While the number appeared to be trivial, Future Heavy Industries’ total industrial output was equivalent to the output of a developing country.

Not only Devil Acid, but also some of the organic materials extracted from Devil Worm’s shell were applied to the military to optimize the composite material on the kinetic skeleton. The optimized kinetic skeleton’s weight would be reduced by 1-3% while its material strength would increase by 5%.

The few percentages of improvements should not be underestimated. Originally, the M-Series assault rifles had a difficult time penetrating the kinetic skeleton armor at mid-range without special bullets. Now with the additional 5% armor buff, the assault rifles would be even less effective.

As for the weight reduction.

No one would ever complain about the equipment being too light, especially the infantry fighting among bullets.

This technological advancement resulted from biological research previously obtained from Death Claws.

Jiang Chen vaguely remembered that Jiang Lin mentioned this to him a long time ago. Some of the materials on the early K1 kinetic skeleton were extracted from the shell on the head of Death Claws. And the Mother of Death Claw that he killed directly resulted in a 5% increase in defense for the new K1 kinetic skeleton.

He did not think too much of the changes. Since at that time, his force in either world could be considered powerful.

With Celestial Trade’s current scale, the minor changes could exponentially increase the overall combat effectiveness of his forces…

The research on the Devil Worm continued.

Researchers from all over the world practically lived inside the lab. Like the treasure hunters in the labyrinth, they were searching for more amazing treasures on the specimens…

At the same time, a battle report and a list of supplies floated from Mars tens of millions of kilometers away and into Jiang Chen’s hands.

…

In the past week, TS Expedition killed a total of five hundred Devil Worms, but only managed to recover 21 specimens. Most of the Devil Worms died in the flames of the incendiary bombs.

“Two hundred rounds of earth-boring incendiary missiles, ten tons of small-caliber shells, fifty tons of vehicle-mounted shells, and even more weapon batteries… we’re burning money too fast right?” It was the impression Jiang Chen received after reading through the list of supplies.

“The consumption is indeed too high.” Kelvin nodded in agreement.

“I want to know now how much incendiary bombs we need to return our Mars colony back to normal.” When Jiang Chen pointed to the list, he immediately identified the key of the problem.

Without knowing the number of enemies left, regardless how many bugs Celestial Trade killed, it would serve no purpose.

Kelvin also captured this point.

However, he did not have a good explanation for it.

“Devil Worm’s activity range is five kilometers below the surface. This range is beyond the range of our life detection devices. We can only use seismic waves to analyze formation porosity, then determine the possible formation they are in, and then blindly send a shell in that direction. “Kelvin let out a sigh, “I also know that this is very inefficient, but it seems to be the most efficient way.”

This shouldn’t even be considered a method?

Jiang Chen shook his head.

He watched the memory of the Gaia civilization, and Devil Worms 3.7 billion years ago could drill 50 kilometers deep and move on the mantle.

The lower it went, the more likely for the oxygen-forming fungus to exist. The more number of hollow layers, and the more space for Devil Worms to live and reproduce. Earth-boring missiles would not be able to cover a five-kilometer depth, let alone expanding the number to 50 kilometers. The amount of missiles needed would be astronomical.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen remembered the scene that he had seen in the memory of Harmony Civilization.

The Brahma that arrived at Gliese 581g alone established a colony in the new world. Eventually, due to the expansion of the colony and the expansion of living space, they angered the arthropods living underground. In the hundreds of years of war, they first took the upper hand, but in the end they were forced to retreat back to the orbit.

History always repeated itself…

The only difference was that the TS Expedition is backed by Celestial Trade.

“I’m worried about one thing,” Jiang Chen said as he was deep in thought.

“What?” Kelvin looked to him.

“If our behavior becomes part of natural selection to some extent, then it has contributed to their evolution…” Jiang Chen frowned slightly, he crossed his arm and thought, “Could it be that by the end, even the incendiary bombs will not be able to eliminate them.”

Devil Worms survived through the time line of 3.7 billion years. Time annihilated countless civilizations, razied mountains to the ground, turned forests into deserts, evaporated the oceans… but the uncivilized worms remained resilient.

They were like cockroaches.

Even more difficult to deal with than cockroaches.

From a survival perspective, arthropods seemed to be more advantageous than mammals.

“That can’t be right…” Looking at Jiang Chen’s serious expression, the previously determined Kelvin also became uncertain.

In his cognition, no carbon-based organism could withstand the heat of the flame.

It’s true, but not exactly accurate.

Is it really not possible?

I certainly hope so.

Chapter 1248: An Egg Specimen!

Chapter 1248 An Egg Specimen! Based on the ex-factory price of Future Military, the cost of a ground-seeking earth-boring missile capable of being launched from the synchronous orbit was about 5 million Xin New Dollars. When combined with the incendiary bomb, the cost totaled 5.5 million.Two hundred rounds of earth-boring missiles totaled 1.1 billion Xin New Dollars. Including the other bombs and batteries, the cost would total at least be one hundred million.

Money was being burnt the moment they hit the launch button.

Less than two weeks after TS Expedition departed, it reached out to the headquarters for a supply of more than a billion. Even with the behemoth empire Jiang Chen built, he was still shocked by how fast it burned through cash.

In fact, not accounting for the expenditure costs related to the Expedition, so far, Celestial Trade and Future Group spent 20 billion on Mars. But in contrast, disregarding the values of the Gaia civilization, the value created by the Mars colony was less than half of the total bill.

This was probably the most painful element of building a farm on another planet.

Before the crops grew out, you don’t even know what would grow out.

But fortunately, the frontline didn’t just send him bills, there were some other things.

In mid-February, through a comprehensive analysis of formation information and vital signal volatility, researchers at the Mars colony concluded that there was an eighty percent chance a Devil Worm’s nest was located in a granite-like cave located about one kilometer deep in the northern part of the colony.

If the information was reliable, this may be the shallowest Devil Worm nest found so far in the Mars colony.

With this information in mind, TS Expedition immediately sent a ground force to encircle the nest.

By using a vehicle equipped with a large drill bit, it managed to create a 30-degree tunnel to the target formation. The drilling vehicle was often used on Earth to build undersea tunnels, so it was capable of completing work on the relatively loose rock formation on Mars.

While they drilled down, the rear engineering vehicle built steel brackets on the tunnel wall, poured cement, and cast a concrete wall to prevent Devil Worms from destroying the tunnel.

Who said humans can’t drill holes?

The Celestial Marines proved that humans could not only drill holes but could also build roads in the holes. Devil Worms could not destroy the tunnel despite all their efforts because of the concrete wall reinforced by Grade-A steel.

When the drilling vehicle penetrated into the nest, the armored vehicles rushed in and immediately unleashed its firepower against the Devil Worms.

A bloody massacre began.

The shells accelerated to beyond the speed of sound rendered the shell of Devil Worms to be useless. But behind them were their eggs, which made it almost impossible for them to combat effectively against the enemies inside their nest.

The hoarse screams echoed in the tunnel and were overwhelmed by the explosions.

Green blood splashed everywhere, and in just ten minutes, at least fifty adult Devil Worms fell inside pools of blood. Except for a few Devil Worms that escaped after they recognized the situation, there were no Devil Worms alive in the pot-shaped cave.

After the soldiers exterminated the biggest threat, soldiers in kinetic skeletons jumped out of the armored vehicles’ rear cabin door. They carried wire mesh and rushed toward the eggs, then created a “safety belt” between the armored vehicles and eggs.

This kind of wire mesh could not be recovered after deployment, and possessed high strength, especially to shear forces.

After the soldiers completed these tasks, six soldiers spread out to form a defensive formation. They raised their rifles while they waited for the scientists on the vehicles to collect specimens.

A Devil Worm suddenly attacked from below!

However, after the mandibles broke the wire mesh, it could not bite through the wire and became stuck in the mesh. The medics immediately rushed out with stretchers and dragged the soldiers who had been attacked from below into the vehicle.

The Devil Worm with its teeth stuck in the wire could only squirm its head madly. It desperately attempted to pull its mandibles out, but everything was futile.

The Celestial Marines next to it immediately stepped forward and fired a dozen bombs at its head before it no longer irritated the crowd. Several researchers in heavy protective suits once again walked out and carefully dug out the half-person tall eggs, then stored them in a large freezer.

New enemies continually rush out from below, but they all got stuck in the mesh.

These Devil Worms who were not afraid of death brought a lot of difficulties to the sample collection process. Fortunately, except for the two soldiers who received minor injuries, there were no casualties.

After the samples were collected, the soldiers began to evacuate from the tunnel, and left only pools of green sap and severed legs.

All eggs were to be sent back to Celestial City for research.

It was the first time Celestial Trade received such a complete egg. It marked this mission a huge success!

And in addition to those eggs, a frontline scientist also found a unique red fungus in the cave.

These fungi were extremely small and grew on coarse sandstone; it appeared to be part of the rock. If not examined under a magnifying glass, it could be mistaken for hematite.

After an analysis was done by scientists from the TS Expedition, it was confirmed that the fungus may be the oxygen-forming fungus scientists speculated to be capable of surviving in an anaerobic environment. It was the provider of oxygen and food for underground Mars creatures such as the Devil Worm.

The eggs and oxygen-forming fungi were loaded onto the rocket. After more than a week’s flight, the freezer compartment was recovered at the Celestial City port.

These samples once again completely astounded the scientists.

As for how they have refreshed their understanding of biology and what new breakthroughs were made in biotechnology and chemical technology… Jiang Chen had lost interest in knowing about these astonishing breakthroughs.

…

It was almost March.

Xin was ready to vote for their president.

Although he was not a candidate, as a behind-the-scenes ruler of Xin, he still had to pay attention to the election.

In addition, at the end of the same month, the primaries of the UA was also set to take place. Future Group and the B City Consortium had invested a lot of chips on Joseph Kennedy.

Hill’s internal support rate in the party had fallen to a new low, and it was unlikely she would win the primaries. Only two candidates remained hopeful; Kerry backed by the Morgan Consortium, and Joseph Kennedy.

The victor who would come out in the primaries to represent the Democrats in the battle in November still remained unknown.

Jiang Chen temporarily delegated the matters of the Mars colony and the related research to Kelvin as he began to shift his focus back to Earth.

The first day of March was also the last day of the Mars exhibition.

Jiang Chen came to the outdoor venue next to the Heart of the Sea. In front of the cameras, he delivered the closing remarks to all the visitors and viewers around the globe.

Chapter 1249: The Prelude of A Great Era

Chapter 1249 The Prelude of A Great Era “We are marching towards an incredible era.”“Just like Columbus brought the attention of entire Europe to the Americas, our fleet brought the attention of the world to the planet tens of millions of kilometers away.”

“With the advancement of our engines, I believe this number will double or even grew exponentially in the next century!”

“Now Mars is just a barren desert, full of radiation, sandstorms and all kinds of dangers, but apart from the distance itself, I don’t think it will be worse than the Moon.”

“Mars is full of rich iron ore mines. Every grain of sand smells like rust. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter will become our future mines for titanium, rare earth minerals and helium-3. ”

“Our fleet is growing, and our colonists are departing in batches, transforming Mars into the largest industrial area in the solar system for human civilization. We will use it as a springboard to fly out of the boundaries of the solar system and redefine the frontier of civilization.”

“Celestial Trade welcomes any company from around the world to participate in the development of Mars.”

“It is expected that around mid-year, the flight between Earth and Mars will be confirmed. At the latest, by the beginning of next year, the first flight to Mars will take off.”

“…”

The passionate speech resonated in the venue.

Inside the presidential suite at the Heart of the Sea, two men in suits sat by the window.

There was a bottle of expensive red wine on the table; beautiful and well-dressed assistants stood behind them. Judging from their temperament, their suits, and their watches, they looked like businessmen visiting Xin to learn about the investment environment.

From their point of view, everything happening in the venue was under their gaze.

“Charles, I heard that you sold the diamond mine in South Africa?” The man with the hooked-nose said as he sipped the red wine.

“Yes,” the man that appeared to be Jewish nodded and said crisply, “After the collapse of the Rothschild Bank, I repurchased my company’s debt at a low price. Now my decision is equal to our company’s decision. ”

“No, no, I mean… why are you doing this?” The man with the hooked-nose man asked curiously. “I remember you were quite optimistic about the reserves of that diamond mine last year. Why did you change your mind this year?”

“You haven’t realized?” The Jewish man raised his chin as he stared down at the venue. “I can sense from the ambition of Future Group that at least in the next century, the traditional resource industry has no future. Look at the share price of Vale, even Wall Street is reducing their holding.”

“So you want to move downstream?” the hooked-nose man smiled. “I remember you were gloating that a factory may go bankrupt, but a mine will forever keep its value.”

“You know,” the Jewish man shrugged, “That was last year.”

The same scene also happened in different places.

Although the market did not respond at this moment, people’s expectations for the mining industry completely faded.

In the next few days, the iron, aluminum, and other metals futures market plunged. Only titanium and rare earth mineral managed to remain at a relatively stable level. These two minerals were widely used in spacecraft and had demands only second to steel.

In contrast to the plunging prices of raw materials, new development opportunities emerged downstream. New factories had sprung up in Ange Island, New Malaysia Special District, and the newly built MLL Island Industrial Park. With the advantage of being close to the space elevators, they would be able to obtain cheap space minerals with lower shipping costs. Therefore, global capital flooded in.

All these changes happened subtly.

Jiang Chen, on the podium of the venue, was describing the future of human civilization to the people around the world with his voice, but he did not think that far yet.

He was playing the same role as Columbus.

He had to depict the “new world” as a paradise full of gold, where he had led Celestial Trade’s fleet to the first bucket of gold. The seed of civilization would naturally sail across the stars and turn the barren land into the paradise that only existed in people’s imagination.

In the applause, the passionate speech came to an end.

Jiang Chen nodded to thank the audience for their applause, then he handed the microphone back to the host and left the stage.

…

After the closing ceremony of the exhibition, rain started to drip down.

Next to the parking lot, Ayesha ran to Jiang Chen’s side, and caringly opened the umbrella for him.

Jiang Chen saw the rain had dripped on her shoulder as he immediately grabbed her shoulder and took her into his arm.

There were a few exclamations not far away. Several reporters immediately raised their cameras and pressed the shutter before Celestial Trade bodyguards dispersed them.

“There were reporters watching.” Jiang Chen’s move caught Ayesha by surprise, then she quietly whispered.

“Don’t worry,” Jiang Chen smiled. “There is nothing to hide.”

Even with no reporters watching, his romantic affairs were well known.

Although some men and female rights activists often criticized him for being unruly and not respecting women…

However, Jiang Chen did not agree.

He never used his position to force anyone to do anything for himself. Nor did he cover up his private life under a glamorous surface. In this regard alone, he thought he was more righteous compared to the other people in the same class.

If someone wished to make irresponsible remarks, he allowed them since he was never bothered by those comments. He never portrayed himself as a saint to participate in an election.

Feeling the warmth from his muscular chest, Ayesha’s cheeks turned red as she pressed her face against him, quietly enjoying the moment. However, her sight moved in the direction of the reporters and captured the annoying faces with the special contact lens of Ghost Agents.

Although Jiang Chen did not care, she considered it her duty to maintain his reputation and let those unscrupulous people shut up…

On the extended Luer, the magnetic levitation engine launched and the scenery outside the window gradually moved down.

He held onto Ayesha’s hand as he watched the beautiful blue building outside, his thoughts drifted away.

His watch vibrated.

“Your phone,” Ayesha said softly.

“Mhmm.”

He gently squeezed her hand before letting it go.

Jiang Chen opened the holographic screen of the watch and slid down.

When the phone was connected, Kelvin’s face appeared on the screen. As soon as he saw Jiang Chen, he reported.

“We found several stowaways.”

“Stowaways?” Jiang Chen was surprised by the comment, he laughingly responded, “This needs to be reported to me?”

“Mainly because… their identity and the location of the smuggling are a bit unique.”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow. “What’s unique about it?”

“They sneaked onto Mars.”

Chapter 1250: The Successful “Smugglers“

1250 The Successful “Smugglers“ In the dark universe, a silver-white rocket slowly approached the red planet.

There was a palm-sized star-spangled flag on the side of the rocket. The symbols of NASA and SpaceX were printed below the flag.

“Here is Ares, we have entered the Mars sync orbit, over.”

Through the round glass pane, an astronaut in the spacecraft looked at the fiery red planet. He suppressed his excitement and reported to the mission control center with a trembled voice as he desperatedly tried to control his emotional state.

The silence lasted for about five minutes.

For NASA that had yet to master the super-light-speed communication technology, the interval between each communication was approximately five minutes.

“This is Mission Control. Congratulations, you are the pride of our country…”

After more than a month of flight, they finally arrived.

“Ares” with a total weight of more than 400 tons was propelled by four latest “Ares VI” propulsion engines. It crossed the distance of tens of millions of kilometers and penetrated the technology blockade of Celestial Trade to finally arrive at this red planet…

The thought of this made the eight astronauts teary with emotions.

“Is that the Seagull-class of Celestial Trade?” A blond, skinny man pointed out the window.

Against the backdrop of the dark universe, a rectangular-shaped giant ship floated quietly in the darkness tens of thousands of kilometers away. Through the telescope, they could clearly see every inch of armor on the huge ship. The menacing cold steel formed a distinct contrast with the red planet, just like a hardened sword

Even with the distance between them, they still felt insignificant…

Bris shook his head hard and pushed the wrong thought out of his head.

As the captain of the Mars expedition team, he was also the captain of Ares. They came to place the star-spangled flag on to Mars, not to envy Celestial Trade’s achievements.

“They are very powerful, but we can surpass them one day.” A Jewish man walked over to him, put his hand on his shoulder, and said with certainty in his voice, “Order the landing.”

“Thank you, Zubac.”

Bris took a deep breath and gave an order to the entire crew of “Mission Ares” behind him.

“All ship crew members, enter the buffer cabin. We’ll at the new land!”

“Roger!”

There were cheers and whistles.

Under Bris’ order, everyone entered the buffer cabin and prepared for shock resistance.

In the slowdown phase, they needed to withstand around 7G of gravity, but it was simple for them. They already trained countless hours for this very moment.

…

“A UFO is detected in the synchronous orbit.”

“A UFO?” With his unfinished coffee, the captain of TS Expedition walked next to the radar observer, then looked on the screen. After he examined the situation, he ordered, “Open the optical observation system.”

“Roger.”

The observer’s finger tapped on the trackpad a few times and quickly picked up the image of the flying object on the screen. After several magnifications and resolution corrections, a flying object with a length of about 25 meters and a diameter of about five meters appeared in the image.

When the captain saw the star-spangled flag on the object, an odd expression appeared.

He put down the cup of coffee, then looked at the correspondent located at the back.

“Connect to the Space Command Center.”

“Roger.”

Kelvin was at the entrance to the express train of the Earth Defense Alliance headquarters in Celestial Trade City. He was ready to head back to the Space Department.

His watch vibrated. When he opened the holographic screen, he discovered it was from the Ground Command Center.

After he understood the situation, he immediately transferred the communication to TS Expedition and spoke to the captain on the screen with seriousness in his voice.

“Explain the exact situation to me.”

The captain saluted and quickly reported.

“We found the UA spacecraft near Mar’s orbit; with NASA and SpaceX logos. According to the spacecraft scale analysis, it is initially determined to be a manned spacecraft.”

“A manned spacecraft?” Kelvin frowned as he said with a peculiar look, “What do they want to do?”

They launched a rocket to Mars in complete silence?

Although Celestial Trade did not rule out the idea and even received information from certain channels, Kelvin was still shocked when he confirmed the news in person.

After all, the Biotechnology Summit ended not long ago and they already demonstrated the danger of Devil Worms. What did the Capitol decide to launch a manned mission to Mars even knowing this point?

Or they thought the warning was a joke?

“From the way its changing course, it should be intending to land on the surface of Mars. Our pilots are ready to take off at any time for an interception,” The captain said in a strong and assertive tone.

“How likely are we to be discovered?” Kelvin asked.

“We can launch an EMP missile first to get rid of the communication modules exposed on the outside of the spacecraft, and then send a Stingray AI to take it down.” The captain asserted, “Unless their spacecraft is equipped with an early warning radar, otherwise the probability of discovering our attack is zero.”

After a moment of thought, Kelvin said.

“Can you calculate their landing site?”

“We can approximately locate their landing site. The error margin is within ten kilometers.” The captain sent a coordinate to the holographic screen in front of Kelvin.

Looking at the coordinates on the screen, Kelvin quietly calculated in his mind.

Even at the closest coordinates, these people would be hundreds of kilometers away from Mine 071. There was no need to be concerned about what they would discover.

Moreover, the area where they landed seemed to be close to the active area of Devil Worms…

“Order the pilots to be on standby on the carrier, but don’t worry about them.” In half a minute, Kelvin made the decision. “If they are so eager to die, let them be.”

“Roger!” The captain saluted and ended the communication.

Even if Celestial Trade did not do anything, they would not be able to survive for long. Kelvin was convinced knowing the terrifying nature of Devil Worms.

After he ended the communication, Kelvin immediately called Jiang Chen and reported the matter.

At the same time, Ares, which was already in the synchronous orbit, dropped the last four rockets and an orbiting satellite as a communication relay.

Then, Ares, which had only one main cabin, ignited the last-stage engine and began to fall to the surface of Mars…

Chapter 1251: Seeking for Death

Chapter 1251 Seeking for Death Ares deployed its parachute the moment it entered the atmosphere. It crossed the distance of tens of thousands of kilometers before it landed safely on the Mars surface and created a wave of dust.The buckles on the cushion seats popped open and the astronauts stepped down.

Everyone cheered in excitement when they finally felt gravity.

“We have succeeded!”

“Successful landing! NICE!”

“…!”

Ten minutes ago, they were staring at the radar in fear, afraid that Celestial Trade may accidentally launch a missile toward them. But unexpectedly, Celestial Trade did not interfere with them. They did not even communicate with them and just watched them land in silence…

It was too strange.

Did they not detect us? But how is that possible!

In the midst of joy, Bris also grew uneasy.

For some reason, he felt that the people from Celestrial Trade were watching them. They silently watched with neither surprise or astonishment, but mockery and sly, as if they were watching a drama…

I hope it’s just my illusion.

Bris shook his head and forced a smile. He celebrated with his teammates and blended into the jubilant atmosphere.

The radio transceiver extended on top of Ares and aimed at the satellite on the orbit. The signal would be relayed to mission control back on Earth via the satellite .

Because of the few minutes of communication delay, everyone only could say one sentence.

Bris grabbed the radio and exchanged a look of excitement with his teammates, he took a deep breath and changed into a serious expression, then he pressed the button and looked at the lens.

“Calling Mission Control, this is Ares. We have landed successfully!”

While Bris still had a lot to say, when he saw the exhilarated state from his teammates, he ended the communication and handed the radio to the nearest teammate.

“We have succeeded! We have succeeded!” The beautiful astronaut with blonde hair got in front of the camera and shouted with enthusiasm. “We are on Mars now! The desert looks like it’s on fire, this is probably the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life.”

“The weather here is very sunny, and we are fortunate that we have not encountered a sandstorm,” said the Jewish astronaut, “This is a good start. God will bless us and the UA.”

“I feel like I’m back in my hometown. It’s like the desert there! But it’s cold here. The temperature outside is only minus 50 degrees Celsius. Fortunately, there is heat in Ares, hahaha…”

“…”

Communication resources were quite valuable, leaving everyone with only a short half minute. In less than five minutes, eight astronauts all extended their wishes to their hometown far away.

The video would be broadcasted by major TV stations across the country so that everyone in UA would share this exciting moment.

In the end, Bris turned off the camera, compressed the video, and clicked send.

Then, several energetic people in the team immediately became rowdy.

“Kane, take out the champagne from the fridge! We have to celebrate this great moment! Hahaha!”

“Let’s hold off the celebration. Let’s decide who will be the first one to set foot on Mars?”

“Same rule, we’re drawing straws!”

“Drawing straws? Wait for me to wash my hands first…”

Bris smiled at the scene with how thrilled his teammates were,

Though for some odd reason, the uneasiness in his heart was getting stronger and stronger.

Before he came, he did a lot of homework.

The mainstream view of the UA biology community believed Devil Worms’ threat was only poorly-constructed propaganda made by Celestial Trade to monopolize Mars colonization. Devil Worms would not attack unless they were attacked.

Otherwise, why did Celestial Trade only attack this year when they already landed a long time ago? If it was not for the fact that they drilled down and poked a hole in the Devil Worms’ nest, why would the bugs living in the mantle attack the surface?

As long as you don’t ask to be attacked, you won’t be attacked.

It was NASA’s advice to these pioneers.

However, these were only speculations in UA’s biological community.

No UA citizen participated in Devil Worm’s research. Even the most knowledgeable scientists only viewed Devil Worms behind a glass.

Is the habit of insects on Mars the same as the insects on Earth?

This is really hard to say.

After all, there are no insects on the planet that are bigger than humans.

Just as Bris debated this in his mind, the draw already ended.

The lucky winner was a skinny man.

His name was Sean and he came from California. When he found out that he won the draw, he almost jumped in excitement.

He headed to the buffer cabin, then put on the heavy spacesuit with the help of his teammates. After confirming that the data of the spacesuit was normal, he took the star-spangled flag solemnly from his captain Bris. He watched the inward door close, the outward open, and then gently jumped out toward the desert.

In Ares, Bris prayed and opened the camera. Several other teammates also rushed to take out their phones and other camera equipment to capture and commemorate this great moment.

When his feet landed on the side, Sean carried the flag and waved to his teammates behind him.

When he saw the raised thumbs, he turned around, full of emotions, as he marched to the sand dune where he would place the star-spangled flag.

Ten meters left.

The flag of the UA will fly on Mars.

The monopoly Celestial Trade has on Mars will end…

Just then, he suddenly felt a tremor below his feet.

“Is it an earthquake?” Sean frowned.

He was a geologist who conducted extensive research before this mission. In his memory, the geological environment of Mars was quite stable; to the point that it seemed like a dead planet. There was no volcanic activity nor tectonic plate shifts. How could an earthquake happen?

“Is it a sandstorm?”

As he muttered, he still took a step forward.

However, his foot did manage to come down-

BOOM!

Without the slightest omen.

A 20-meter-long giant worm crawled out from the ground and sent the astronaut into the air.

It was too late to even scream as its sharp mandibles already crushed together with lightning speed, snapping him in half. His guts and flesh flew freely in the air and soaked the dry and barren land with fresh blood.

“AAHHHH!”

The people inside Ares screamed. Some people stood there in silence, completely traumatized by the scene they just witnessed. Some people started to vomit. Some people sat down and whispered Amen…

Bris slowly put the camera he was holding down as he stared in front of him blankly. He watched the Devil Worm skillfully suck the flesh and blood out of the spacesuit and move its countless legs. His lips quivered in fear and he was unable to say a single word. He forgot to turn off the power on the camera.

It was not the first time they saw Devil Worms.

On their way to Mars, they saw photos of Devil Worms from mission control and were told not to irritate them and not to approach their nests.

However, it was their first time seeing a Devil Worm that moved…

What scared and puzzled them the most was that they did not do anything.

Why did the monster stalk them?!

In the synchronous orbit, TS Expedition captured the cruel scene.

The captain of TS Expedition stared coldly at the bug in the scene and repeated the situation to the Space Command Center.

Soon, a detailed report of the entire accident was placed on Jiang Chen’s desk.

Chapter 1252: Into the Bug“s Mouth

Chapter 1252 Into the Bug“s Mouth

Mission Control.

The room was in complete chaos.

Just ten minutes ago, they interrupted the national broadcast on Mars. Soldiers were deployed to maintain the order outside the launch center and yellow tapes were set up at the door to stop the eager reporter waiting for the news as the entire center was locked down.

“…this is Ares! We need backup! God…they, the bugs! They are hitting our spaceship!”

“Hell, don’t they not attack?”

“We may have fallen on their nests… the hull has suffered 11% damage, damn it!”

Pieces of information came back intermittently from Ares, tens of millions of kilometers away.

Bolden stared at the screen in complete shock.

He could not believe everything happened so unexpectedly.

Also stunned were the scientists invited by the Advanced Projects Agency of the Department of Defense, the biology professors from Harvard, and the researchers at SpaceX’s Mars Colony Project team… including Martin Karplus who was rejected by Celestial Trade in Coro City, and Michael Levitt on behalf of MIT.

Almost all the well-known experts in the biology community were here.

They had vowed to the NASA consultants that the Mars creature, after three billion years of evolution, already lost its digestive ability of mammals when the organisms on Mars went extinct. They would not attack for no apparent reason.

The reason why Devil Worms attacked the Celestial Trade colony was because of the hostile actions of Celestial Trade… In short, those Xin citizens deserved it.

However, now, Devil Worms used the death of Sean to slap everyone’s face.

They not only ate people.

But they used a cruel way to devour their prey in front of everyone…

“God.” Along with a group of high-ranking officials, Secretary of Defense Carter went into the lounge next door to the mission control and swallowed all this information down. “Today will be the darkest day in UA’s space history.”

“Celestial Trade warned us about the dangers of those Mars species… DAMNIT! Who said these things are mild and cute, and there is nothing wrong if we don’t touch it!” NASA Director Bolden punched the table.

These eight astronauts were the treasure of NASA. The amount of money spent on them was no less than Ares itself.

Training an astronaut was much more expensive than training a fighter pilot. They not only had to master how to operate the more complex spacecraft, but they also possessed a lot of natural science knowledge to deal with unexpected situations.

“What should we do now?” The Capitol consultant looked at Bolden. “How can I explain this to the president in two hours?”

“…proactively clarify to the media?” Secretary of Defense Carter suggested. “No… If we let them know that our astronauts were killed simply because of our error in judgment, we will be crucified by the media.”

“There are still seven people alive…we have to find a way to save them,” Bolden said with paleness.

“How can we save them?” Carter was amused by Bolden’s words, but he could not laugh. He bitterly said. “Do you think this is Iraq? Or Afghanistan? The people that have surrounded us are terrorists? If so, I would immediately send the SEAL team to extract our citizens and go home.”

“You can only go to Celestial Trade.”

The entire lounge suddenly turned silent.

The deputy director who said this immediately closed his mouth. He peeked at several of his peers and stopped talking.

“First, buy time from the media, then discuss with Celestial Trade. If you can convince them to take our astronauts to their colony…” The more Bolden said, the less confident he sounded.

Before the launch, Celestial Trade warned about the dangers of the Mars species. However, they not only disregarded the warning but also thought that it was a smoke bomb released by Celestial Trade. They thought they were using insects that would not actively attack mammals to obstruct their “Mars Plan.”

But now…

They paid the price for their stupidity.

“I can only find a way to solve this through diplomatic channels,” Carter said.

The ball was kicked to the secretary of state… But it was not directly related to him. The Advanced Project Bureau of the Ministry of Defense only participated in the design of the Ares VI engine, but did not participate in the entire launch project.

And the reason why he stood here was just to leave his mark on this historical moment.

It was just a pity that the mark he left was not a positive one…

“In short, we need to calm the media. I will talk to them. Just say that Mars encountered solar wind. The contact between the ground command center and Ares has failed. It will take a while to receive communication,” the Capitol consultant said.

“I’ll speak with NASA staff. This is confidential,” Bolden glanced at several senior officials and said.

“I’ll go explain to SpaceX,” said the Deputy Director of NASA.

As long as they could convince Celestial Trade, the safety of the seven astronauts would be guaranteed.

It would be up to the secretary of state to guide the conversation.

However, the door of the lounge was pushed open, and a man in a NASA uniform ran in, panicked.

The conversation that was full of state secrets was suddenly interrupted.

“What’s the matter? Lippmann,” Bolden frowned in dissatisfaction as he stared at the man who ran in. “What’s wrong? Don’t you know to knock?”

“Bad news!” Lippmann’s breath was out of rhythm as he was panting heavily. He held onto the door frame and looked at Bolden with an ugly expression, “Washington Post, Los Angeles Daily, Wall Street Journal, and CBS… are all outside the launch center. They are demanding us to explain this incident immediately!”

“Explain?” Carter frowned. “Explain what? Are they not outside?”

As he scanned around the the senior figures in the lounge, Lippmann’s eyes widened. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?” The Capitol advisor heart suddenly sank, and he immediately rushed to Lippmann’s side and clutched onto his shoulders. “What happened outside? Tell me!”

You actually don’t know?

Lippmann smiled bitterly, took out his iPhone X, and stuffed it in the advisor’s hands.

“Go see yourself.”

The Capitol advisor quickly took over the phone, and Carter, Bolden, and the others all gathered around him.

It was a Tweet.

To be precise, it was news retweeted by a well-known blogger along with the blogger’s comments on the news…but that was not the issue.

The moment they saw the news headline.

Everyone turned pale.

The news headline said…

[Shocking! The UA manned rocket that landed on Mars actually encountered them…]

Chapter 1253: Political Chips

Chapter 1253 Political Chips

[Shocking! The UA manned rocket that landed on Mars actually encountered them…]

[Frightening! The UA President is enraged because…]

[Men went silent after reading this, women cried after reading this…]

“What are these headlines?” Jiang Chen tossed the drafts on the table and laughed, “I told you to add some fire to the situation and you guys came up with these things?”

“Ahem, we recently acquired a promising company,” Ning Jianhua, CEO of Future Technology, touched his nose in embarrassment. “I found their editors too creative, so I just moved them to the marketing department… The clicks are pretty high, aren’t they?”

Ning Huajian seemed to realize the informality and coughed to change the subject. He pulled out a few sheets from the stack of documents and pointed to the headlines. “In fact, there are also normal headlines. These came from the communication department of Future Technology…”

[From the latest aerial photo from TS Expedition, the NASA Ares is suspected to be besieged by Mars creatures…]

[The unfortunate victims of a sloppy Mars Plan…]

[According to a senior official in Celestial Trade, Celestial Trade made cautious suggestions to the UA on the dangers of Devil Worms on Mars Plan…]

These headlines were more normal, at least they explained the beginning to end of the entire incident.

When Ares entered Mars’ synchronous orbit, TS Expedition found the group of “smugglers.” After Jiang Chen heard Kelvin’s report, he shared the same opinion with Kelvin, which was to disregard them.

Sure enough, when they were busy inserting their flag, the tragedy happened.

Because of the delay in communication, Celestial Trade’s Space Command Center even received the intelligence five minutes ahead of UA.

When Kelvin addressed to Jiang Chen that Ares was trapped, Jiang Chen immediately ordered Future Technology’s North America subsidiary to release the images captured by TS Expedition before the government censored the information.

On the other hand, through the Xin Embassy in the UA, Celestial Trade sent the high-definition aerial footage captured to the Capitol and media.

Jiang Chen did not know what kind of damage this tragedy would cause on the country’s national confidence and its cohesion, especially when the entire country was closely following the Mars landing. However, he was sure that the government would come to him.

To ask for help from Celestial Trade.

After he dismissed Ning Jianhua, Jiang Chen sluggishly leaned back against his chair.

Of course I’ll save them.

After all, I’ll do it for humanitarian reasons.

Except that it’s not cheap to feed another seven people in the colony. What kind of benefits should I ask for when the Capitol called?

Just when Jiang Chen began to seriously consider this issue, the phone on his desk really began to ring.

It was not the Capitol, but his friend in B City…

“Mr. Loki, what has caused you to call?” Jiang Chen said with a smile when he saw the name on the screen.

“Haha, my old friend, I’ll put aside the small talk for now. I have something important to discuss with you,” Loki said with excitement in his tone. After he paused for a brief second, he continued, “I know what you are thinking, but please listen to me first. This failed Mars Project is a great opportunity for us!”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen looked at the holographic screen quietly, then waited for Loki to continue.

“Now the entire UA is paying attention to this incident! You should know what I mean,” said Loki.

“Of course,” Jiang Chen replied.

It’s about the seven astronauts trapped on Mars.

They are now shivering in the broken Ares, waiting for people to save them.

“If this incident is handled well, it can reverse the tense diplomatic relationship between the UA and Xin, and even completely change the country’s view of Celestial Trade. Since you have agreed to our plan already, I assume you are not going to be our enemy forever and return the world to the Cold War Era.”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen shrugged without much emotion and said indifferently, “We have always been committed to maintaining good relationships with other countries, but the Capitol seems to have always regarded us as a thorn in its eye.”

“That’s because it’s Hill, and she represents the military-industrial complex!” Loki said seriously. “But we are different. If you have studied history, you should know B City Consortium and you share the same perspective. For example, former President Kennedy, his decision represented, to some extent, our opinion. For example, the space program, the Nuclear Weapons Reduction Treaty, and the withdrawal plan that was not completed even after he was assassinated…”

Loki seemed to know some information about the death of President Kennedy, but he did not plan to go further into the unrelated issue.

“You know, we have always opposed the return to the Asia-Pacific strategy and have supported the UA in joining the Earth Defense Alliance. As long as Joseph Kennedy rises to power, the first thing he will do is honor his seventh campaign promise! Unconditionally join the Earth Defense Alliance. ”

Having said this, his tone shifted from being serious to excited.

“This event of Ares is an excellent opportunity. If we strategize correctly, it can be our chip to win against Morgan Consortium and win against over Kerry! Just let Joseph Kennedy be the lobbyist, as long as you cooperate…”

Jiang Chen debated for a moment. His fingers crossed on his right knee, then he spoke.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you. Can a candidate conduct a diplomatic visit on behalf of the country? I remember that Mr. Kennedy is only a senator. Would it not be considered… overreaching and interfering with national affairs?”

“In principle, it doesn’t work,” said Loki. “But as long as we plan it accordingly, there can be exceptions. Mr. Kennedy has another identity. He and Bris, the captain of Ares, are alumni, and they are both honorary members of the alumni association. If he visits Celestial Trade with the identities of B City University Alumni Association, the friend of the victim, and a senator, no one can make irresponsible remarks about his visit.”

“Then…” A plan formed in Jiang Chen’s head as he smiled.

“Then the future president of the UA and the president of Celestial Trade will have a wonderful meeting,” Loki also smiled and shared the same sentiment. “The hands of the two giants will come together to push down the iron curtain over the Pacific Ocean, and welcome the future of human civilization!”

This idea sounds pretty neat.

If it can be achieved.

Jiang Chen thoughtfully nodded as his fingers gently tapped on his knee.

To push a dove, or at least a weak hawk (1) candidate onto the throne of the president was already one of the strategic priorities of Celestial Trade, Future Group, and Ghost Agents. Throughout history, President Kennedy was the famous weak war hawk president of the Cold War era…

Since the Kennedy family was part of the B City Consortium’s interest coalition and the B City Consortium was not involved in the military-industrial industry led by Morgan and Rockefeller, then the political views of Kennedy should not be too drastically different from his grandfather’s.

Should he go all in on Joseph Kennedy and gamble on a dovish president to push UA into his alliance?

Or should he use this chip to threaten the ill-fated Hill government in exchange for the benefits that can be realized immediately?

In fact, he did not need to choose.

The answer was obvious.

“What’s your opinion?” Loki asked.

Jiang Chen’s fingers uncrossed, as he seemed to make up his mind and responded gently.

“You’d better keep your promise.”

“Of course!” Loki replied in a serious tone.

“Then get your dealers to deal the cards,” Jiang Chen held onto the armrests and stood, he looked into the holographic screen and said pleasantly, “If you want to play, bet big and we’ll call.”

Chapter 1254: Friendship? Transaction?

Chapter 1254 Friendship? Transaction?

Three days passed since the Ares Incident.

The UA Secretary of State paid a diplomatic visit to Xin and met with Celestial Trade’s Space Head, Kelvin… In fact, they originally wished to meet Jiang Chen, but Jiang Chen refused on the basis that he was on vacation.

Vacation.

It was a good excuse.

In short, Kelvin assumed Jiang Chen’s role and euphemistically expressed the difficulty of the rescue to the visiting UA Secretary of State. For example, Ares landed directly above the Devil Worm’s nest. If the rescue may cause the astronauts on Ares to be killed or injured, Celestial Trade would be unable to take the responsibility.

In short, we can’t save your people!

While the Capitol was furious with Celestial Trade’s stance, there was no other solution.

After all, no agreement was in place between the two countries. Offering assistance would solely be on the grounds of humanitarianism.

Of course, considering the economic and trade relations between the two countries, Kelvin did completely rule out the idea of a rescue and left an opportunity for the Capitol to be persistent.

For example, in a private meeting with the UA Secretary of State, Kelvin subtly hinted that there was room for negotiation, it was just the price lacked sincereness. Perhaps a further discussion with your president would change the outcome…

With disappointment, the UA Secretary of State ended his three-day diplomatic visit to Xin.

Then, what happened next was even more interesting.

The UA Secretary of State just returned home and immediately the media began to criticize the Capitol.

Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, all joined force and accused the Hill government of being incompetent and questioned the ability of the new secretary of state…

The sway in public opinions surprised Jiang Chen.

Originally, he thought that the media would attack Celestial Trade on this issue and label him with a few “cold-blooded” and “selfish” titles. However, he never expected the Capitol to be in the eye of the storm?

But it didn’t take long for him to read the situation.

Hill’s newly appointed secretary of state encountered a wall at Celestial Trade, just enough to demonstrate the difference in ability compared to the former secretary of state. Now, only three hopeful candidates remained within the Democratic Party for the March primaries.

Kerry obviously did not have knowledge of B City Consortium’s agreement with Jiang Chen. Since the opportunity was right; Kerry and his supporters would certainly not give up the chance to attack Hill.

However, just according to the plan, what happened next completely surprised Kerry and the Morgan Consortium behind the scenes…

…

Coro City Airport.

A plane from B City International Airport landed on the runway.

The plane came to a complete stop.

A man in a black suit, accompanied by two bodyguards and a journalist, walked off the plane with a confident smile.

Of course, he did not use his money to charter this private flight. It was impossible for a senator to have this kind of money.

However, after all, he represented the B City University Alumni Association to visit Xin. The fund under the association naturally covered the expenses of his business trip. Once the money was coated under the fund’s name, it was much easier to operate.

The man took a few steps toward the VIP Tunnel. When he saw the man at the entrance, his eyes suddenly lit up and he extended his hand; his smile was as warm as the lovely spring breeze.

“Welcome, Mr. Joseph Kennedy.” Jiang Chen smiled and extended his right hand.

“It’s my honor,” Joseph enthusiastically shook Jiang Chen’s hand and laughed. “I have long heard of your name,”

“Your Mandarin seems to be good?”

“Of course, I earned my tuition working at a Chinese restaurant. I not only speak fluent Mandarin but also I know how to make spring… spring rolls,” Joseph gestured with his fingers the shape of the spring roll. “It’s the kind filled with stuffing.”

“Haha, then I certainly want to try it,” Jiang Chen joked. “But I guess your boss was not a good teacher, because that thing is actually called dumplings.”

The atmosphere of the meeting was quite friendly, especially since both parties shared a mutual intention.

The two walked all the way out of the airport, and the reporter behind him held the camera all the way until they got on the extended Luer outside the airport.

Obviously, the reporter was part of the B City Consortium and understood what can and can not be filmed.

Any news about the visit, regardless of the newspaper or TV station, would have to be sourced from this reporter. It would avoid the possibility of Kerry and Hill’s campaign team altering facts behind the scenes.

In addition to the silent reporter, Jiang Chen noticed that the two sunglasses-wearing bodyguards behind him also appeared to be deadly.

For comparison, they were just slightly weaker than the guy named Johnson who protected Carmen Rothschild. They were either retired SEALs or retired Deltas.

It seemed that the B City Consortium was much aware of the curse of the Kennedy family and put heavy emphasis on his protection.

“Is the itinerary set?” Inside the vehicle, Jiang Chen looked at Joseph and smiled. “Let’s talk about it, how can we cooperate with your election.”

“Is there a golf course?” Joseph smiled. “My skills are not bad.”

“I have one at the foot of Mount Fuji, but I don’t go very often.” Jiang Chen laughed along.

Land in Coro City was scarce to the point that farmers wished they could build farms into the ocean. So there was no land to build a golf course in the country. Jiang Chen didn’t think it was necessary to chase the trend on something he did not enjoy.

“What about volleyball or table tennis?” Joseph asked.

“Either is good,” Jiang Chen and pleasantly. “If you want to play volleyball, I recommend Heart of the Sea, the beach volleyball there is the highest quality I have ever seen.”

The so-called high quality of course referred to something specific.

Only those who stay in a five-star hotel or held a membership card were allowed to enter the venue. The entire beach was the most beautifully decorated coastline of the city. Because of this, rich people around the world always gathered on the beach, and naturally, beautiful women with different skin colors…

That “type” of beach volleyball.

“Haha, then the guest will follow the host.” Joseph chuckled along.

He was not concerned about the destination of the trip.

As already discussed, his purpose of the trip was to establish a friendly relationship with Jiang Chen and to showcase this friendship to the UA people.

Regardless of what he did in Xin, or what deal he made with Jiang Chen, only two sentences would appear in the headlines of the media tomorrow.

To save his alumni, Senator Kennedy, on behalf of the B City University Alumni Association, visited Xin to break the ice.

Their talk made significant progress and Jiang Chen promised that Celestial Trade will rescue the trapped astronauts to further strengthen the friendship between the two countries.

Chapter 1255: The Last Chip

Chapter 1255 The Last Chip

Mars.

Two weeks had passed since Ares got trapped.

Every day, Devil Worms would crawl out from underground and circle around the Ares. They used their sickle-like mandibles to touch the spacecraft a few times before they disappeared back into the desert.

Although the mandibles could not break the titanium hull of Ares, the psychological pressure on the astronauts was enormous. Especially whenever they recalled the bloody scene when their teammate, who trained with them, was devoured alive, and the fact that only a spacesuit remained…

This desperate atmosphere permeated in the 30 square meters space.

Five days ago, the communication module was damaged. Ares had completely lost contact with the satellite. It was like a traveler who lost their way in the desert. The traveler could only blankly stare into the endless desert and countdown the passing days.

Fortunately, their supplies were sufficient to maintain for one year. The issue was, if they could not deploy the solar panels as soon as possible, they would soon face an electricity shortage.

This was a serious problem.

Without electricity, it meant no water or oxygen.

Every day, the astronauts were drunk and treated the next day as doomsday.

“How is the negotiation between the headquarters and Celestial Trade?”

“I don’t know… but no one has shown up, I’m afraid there is still no agreement.”

“Damnit, have we been abandoned?”

“God bless, Amen…”

Bris sat in the corner of the cockpit and listened to the desperate voices of his teammates, he licked the corner of his mouth and stuffed the whiskey bottle into his mouth.

Helpless.

Probably the only word that could describe his mood.

If it were one week ago, he still had hope that Celestial Trade would send people to rescue them from hell. But now that a week had passed by, they did not even see the slightest sign of rescue.

He was about to give up on this unrealistic idea.

The drunken Jewish astronaut sat down beside him, burped, and muttered something hard to distinguish.

“How much electricity do we have?”

“Probably enough to last till next Wednesday.”

“Hell…” The man cursed and shook his head. “Do you know what I am thinking about right now?”

“What are you thinking?” Bris snorted.

“I’m thinking,” The man burped, put up a finger and said in his drunken tone, “If we die of suffocation, would it be considered suicide or homicide?”

“… Is there a difference?”

“In my belief, if you suicide, you can’t go to heaven.” The Jewish man looked to Bris, revealed a bitter grin and raised his glass. “My dear captain, I only want to ask you for one thing. Put some extra sleeping pills in the dinner tonight…”

“Then I would have fulfilled your wish but I would go to hell with such sins on my hands?” Bris pressed his hands on the floor and stood up. While he was wobblingly, he said, “Don’t even think about it…”

“What are you going to do?”

“Deploy the solar panels.”

“You are crazy,” the Jewish man grinned. “Those things are outside.”

“I’m serious.”

In the astonished and blank looks of his teammates, Bris tossed the bottle into the trashcan, raised his groggy head, and headed to the stairs.

He could not wait any longer.

If death was evitable, he would rather die with dignity.

Although the bloody scene made him tremble whenever he thought about it, he was relieved when he realized that death was only a moment of pain.

“Don’t be like this, you’re seeking your own death!”

The man sitting in the corner of the wall reached out and grabbed Bris’ arm.

Bris jerked away and entered the password on the door without saying a word, and then he stepped into the buffer cabin.

Outside, the sandstorm began to pick up.

He was not sure whether the sandstorm would reduce the Devil Worms’ perception but now was the perfect time.

As long as he doesn’t get blown away…

After Bris checked the airtightness of the spacesuit, he put his hand on the suitcase-sized toolbox.

The buffer compartment opened, and yellow sand gusted. Bris took a deep breath and was about to jump into the desert where death might be buried, when he suddenly saw a black outline in the dim horizon.

He was stunned.

He took a few hard wipes of his helmet.

This time, it was clearer.

His pupils gradually enlarged and magnified the hint of hope that lit up.

“…God.”

It’s reinforcement!

Reinforcement from Celestial Trade!

He almost gave up!

At the same time, astronauts in Ares also found out about what was happening one kilometer away.

“What’s that?”

“It’s Celestial Trade’s fleet!”

“It’s our rescue! Hahahaha! They must have come to save us! We don’t have to die now!”

The cheers erupted in Ares.

Although it felt odd cheering for their competitor, they regained their hope of life. Who bothered debating this point in the heat of the moment?

The outer door of the buffer compartment closed and the inner door opened.

Everyone dragged their drunken bodies and hurriedly put on their spacesuit.

Outside Ares.

A missile fired into the desert.

The scorching fireball exploded five kilometers underground and filled all the holes and tunnels. At least five Devil Worms inside were completely engulfed by the flame while the rest fled away from the heat source.

The burn of the missile suppressed the Devil Worms and using this moment, two armored vehicles rushed to Ares’ cabin and extracted the seven astronauts one by one. Then before the Devil Worms underground realized what had happened, they quickly withdrew from this area.

Bris was still stunned inside the armored vehicle.

Everything that happened ten minutes ago felt like a dream.

This was considered difficult?

Although he should show joy at this moment because he was saved, he could not.

He felt cheated.

It felt like the pain and suffering they had to endure this week was all fake…

However, he could not complain.

Celestial Trade saved them, and his savior was sitting right in front of him.

The reality felt surreal!

…

On the journey back, Bris did not communicate with the Celestial Marines sitting across from him. First, he lacked the energy to, and second, the other party obviously did not intend to small chat with him.

When the armored vehicles were approaching the colony, Bris used the sight glass on the side of the vehicle to look at the behemoth.

The cuboid fortress looked like one foot of God stepping into the sands of Mars. Ares felt minuscule, like an ant, in front of it. It was not even comparable to the colony’s brine desalination pump…

In shock, Bris also showed a hint of bitterness.

Perhaps from the beginning, landing on Mars was the wrong choice.

Even in 50 years, it would be difficult for NASA to catch up and close the gap with Celestial Trade. The difference in funding of the two sides was immeasurable, and the current technological gap was even more insurmountable.

And Celestial Trade managed to achieve profitability with its space technology, and has built a bridgehead on Mars of this size…

Perhaps they are human’s hopes?

Bris shook his head and drove the idea he shouldn’t have out of his head. He then followed the Marines into the hall.

A man stood in front of them.

Judging from the powerful temperament, he should be the leader here.

Looking at these battered UA citizens, Hong Zewei’s mouth moved slightly and he said.

“Who is your captain?”

“It’s me.” Bris stood up and hesitated for a moment, then sincerely thanked him, “Thank you for helping.”

“You are welcome,” Hong Zewei said without much emotion. “Celestial Trade is a responsible enterprise and shoulders the future of mankind. Even if it is in humanitarian consideration, we will not leave you there. I hope you don’t complain that we came too late, after all, we needed to develop a combat plan and to analyze the depth of Devil Worms…”

Bris was confused, but he still nodded.

After the man that appeared to be the governor of the colony spoke, Bris hesitated for a moment and asked him what he was most concerned about.

“When can we return to Earth?”

“It may not be until next year’s regular flight to Mars commences. We cannot specifically start the engines of TS Expedition just for you,” Hong Zewei shrugged. “But you don’t have to worry, we have plenty of food and fresh water here, and some things you can relax with. I’ll get people to arrange rooms for you and register ID cards. Except for the fact that you have no authority to update Twitter, and no work, you are the same as everyone else in the colony.”

Bris nodded. “Thank you…”

He was very satisfied with being alive.

As for staying here for a year, it may not be a bad thing.

“You’re welcome,” Hong Zewei said softly. “That’s all. I suggest you take a shower first and change into some clean clothes… and then take some hangover pills. If there is still some time left, you can take a nap. But remember in three hours, there will be dinner and an interview.”

“Interview?” Bris asked.

“Yes.” Hong Zewei shrugged. “We must let the outside world know that you have been rescued, and we didn’t accidentally kill another man. Also, you must want to let your family know about your current state. I hope that you can cooperate.”

Bris nodded and didn’t think much of it.

Regardless of whether the other party’s salvation is sincere or not, they ultimately saved them from the hands of the reaper.

Even just for retribution, he would fully cooperate with their interviews.

Just that Bris didn’t imagine that the gratitude and tears he showed in the interview would become a political chip in the hands of a candidate.

And this chip would become the last gram to tip the balance in the primaries…

Chapter 1256: It Can“t Get Worse

Chapter 1256 It Can“t Get Worse

There was no doubt that the rescue was successful.

When the interviews showed images of the rescued astronauts speaking emotionally with their families, they deeply touched everyone who was concerned about Ares.

On Twitter.

On Facebook.

It was a topic discussed on every major social media platform in the UA.

“Celestial Trade may not be as evil as the Capitol described them to be.”

“Maybe there were misunderstandings between us, maybe the Capitol should explain this?”

“Thank God, anyway, peace is good…”

“Joseph Kennedy is great!”

“The Ares incident once again reflected the incompetency of our political system. From NASA disregarding Celestial Trade’s warning, to the failure of the secretary of state to reach an agreement with Celestial Trade on the rescue, to the Capitol blaming Celestial Trade for disregarding human life… to finally, a senator saving the seven astronauts.”

“It was a terrible term, but fortunately it’s over!”

“President Kennedy was the president that received the highest approval rating in history… I hope that Kennedy is as wise as his great-grandfather.”

To summarize the incident, Joseph Kennedy visited Xin and started volleyball diplomacy with Jiang Chen. He finally succeeded in “convincing” Celestial Trade and became friends with Jiang Chen himself. Celestial Trade sent troops and successfully rescued the astronauts from Ares.

It was widely analyzed that if Joseph Kennedy is successfully elected as the president of the UA, he would be able to repair the increasingly tense diplomatic relations between the two countries, restore Hill’s failure of returning to the Asia-Pacific and space strategy, and dismantle the iron curtain between the East and the West, while finally lead the country and the world in a better direction…

“We were played!”

Morgan was immersed in thoughts while he stared at the newspaper on the table.

He envisioned a variety of scenarios, but he did not think B City Consortium would work with Future Group.

After the fall of the Freemasonry, the WASP Alliance lost an enemy. Wall Street was completely under Anglo-Saxons’ control, whch gave Morgan an illusion that he replaced Rothschild as the financial world emperor.

No, not an illusion.

If he added his assets with the assets divided up from Rothschild and then converted it into dollars, he would indeed be the richest man in the world.

However, now, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have underestimated the man on the other side of the ocean.

“You mean,” Morgan looked at the man standing at his desk and softly said, “We lost?”

He was the finance manager in Kerry’s campaign, and also the insider of Morgan in Kerry’s team.

The support rate of Kerry and Joseph was originally similar, but because of the Ares incident, the fine balance had now tipped to Joseph’s favor.

The man’s expression was stiff as he nodded.

“If there is no turning point, the victory of the primaries has been decided.”

According to the latest poll after Ares incident, Joseph’s party support rate rose from 27% to 39% today. This number was already quite shocking. After all, in addition to the three most promising candidates, there were several other candidates who also have their own supporters.

Unless…

Unless another “curse” fell upon the Kennedy family…

The thought quickly appeared in his head, but immediately faded.

Morgan shook his head and threw the idea to the back of his head.

Assassinating Kennedy would be simply looking down on the intelligence of the population. Especially now, in a different era, without a Bay of Pig incident as the lore, it would be easy to kill someone, but it would be hard to come clean.

What’s more, although the strength of the B City Consortium was relatively weak, it was still a force to be reckoned with. Now the security forces around Kennedy would be close to the level of the president.

After all, the candidate they brought up seemed to be one step away from the office.

He sneered.

Morgan reached out and pressed a few buttons on the phone. He called his “old friend” Rockefeller.

The phone rang twice.

It was a familiar and annoying voice.

“Hello?”

“It’s me,” Morgan said emotionlessly.

There was a cheerful but aged laughter.

“Haha, my old friend, I was just betting with my wife and saying that you would definitely call me.”

“It seems that your gamble paid off?” Morgan’s tone was sarcastic.

“No,” Rockefeller shook his head and said calmly. “The ending is always unexpected, isn’t it?”

In contrast to Morgan, Rockefeller and his allies in the Middle East initially put their chips on Hill. However, since the confrontation on the Pacific during the second half of last year, the Hill government seemed to have an unlucky streak. Rockefeller could only feel helpless with the result.

He did not have any hope for the primaries since the start of this year.

“Yes? It seems that even the luckiest will lose sometimes.” Morgan laughed.

“What about you? Have you won?” Rockefeller asked with slyness in his tone.

“No, so I found you,” Morgan sighed and hid the sarcasm in his tone. “Let’s work together.”

“Work together?” Rockefeller raised an eyebrow.

He could guess what Morgan would say next.

“Yes,” Morgan said directly. “If Joseph Kennedy comes to power, it is a nightmare for the military-industrial complex. In order to counter the pressure of the new Cold War Era, we must station more troops in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, not pushing for reconciliation. The UA has always been, and can only be a bald eagle, not a dove.”

“So you want to add another accident to the cursed history of the Kennedy family? With all due respect, this may be a terrible choice.” Rockefeller shook his head.

“No, no, my old friend, am I such an irrational person? There is still a general election after the primaries! Although we have lost the primaries, we can continue to bet on the general election!” Morgan said with a sneer.

“That person is difficult to control. Although he does not have as much wealth as you and I, he absolutely does not lack money.” Rockefeller shook his head. “And listen to his campaign, representing the interests of all the UA workers? Kill Wall Street? How is he a Republican? He is clearly a Dem—”

“But he is a hawk! That’s enough!” Morgan’s hand slammed onto the table and he said firmly, “You and I know what the core of our interests is. I would rather a pig to sitting in that position than having Joseph Kennedy in the office!”

Chapter 1257: Three Outcomes

Chapter 1257 Three Outcomes The result of the Democratic Party’s primaries was decided. The 41% support rate gave Joseph Kennedy an commanding victory.In flowers and applauses, Kennedy walked to the stage and waved to his supporters. Then, he shouted in his compelling and convincing voice.

“We are standing at the crossroad of history. On our left is an abyss and on our right is a cliff. There is only one path we can take, which is straight forward, forward, and forward! The future of our family, our country, our entire humanity is there.”

In the cheers, he continued to shout loudly.

“Thank you for your vote. You have chosen me and I will stand with you.”

“All errors will be corrected!”

“Thank you…”

The members of the Democratic Party stood on the side of the podium and also applauded.

Regardless of win or loss, whether regretful or not, they stood there with grace.

Even Hill and Kerry, who were defeated in the primaries, gave their applause.

After all, the lens of the media would undoubtedly reserve a close-up for them.

Hill’s expression was calm, but it was better to say that she was relieved.

Kerry showed the slightest unwillingness to accept such a failure. At this moment, there was nothing to say. He could only vent his dissatisfaction in the applause to make his failure not look so embarrassing in front of the media.

No one expected the fact that Hill not only hurt herself, and also hurt him as a result. This ultimately led the black horse, Joseph Kennedy, to snatch the victory.

According to their next arrangement, the party would now work together. If Joseph was elected, he may be able to continue as the secretary of state…

Kerry shook his head and sighed in his mind.

Perhaps, he really did not have what it takes to be the president?

…

The same month.

The Republican primaries was also decided.

Another black horse won, but to some extent, it was expected.

Whether it was the unreserved statements, or the motivating campaign promises, he gained a huge support rate among the blue-collars.

He cussed Bush, whose father and brother were both presidents, to the point that he decided to withdraw from the election, he laughed at Rubio for his inability to satisfy his wife… every debate made the audience in front of their TVs laugh.

There seemed to be no reason not to vote for him.

On the day of the last speech before the primaries in March, he had already won the primaries as no rivals stood beside him on stage.

Standing in front of his supporters, Trump waved his hand and fixed the microphone.

He first thanked his supporters and reiterated his campaign platform.

Perhaps he felt that the lack of opponents was too boring. He threw away the speech prepared for him and directed his attack at Joseph Kennedy, who was in the limelight.

“…I know you think of Mr. Kennedy as a hero that saved the astronauts. Don’t doubt, I am equally grateful for his contribution and for his efforts to save seven families.”

“However, have you ever thought about why he can convince the man? What trades have they reached? You haven’t thought about it, they haven’t told you, and we don’t know.” He exaggeratedly widened his eyes, spread his hands, and looked at the supporters.

“I don’t think the compromise of selling the nation’s interest can bring long-lasting peace,” Trump lifted his right hand and allowed his middle finger and thumb to sway together, as he revealed his signature move. “Even it can, I think that is also false! It is wrong!”

“The UA president should give priority to the interests of its people!”

“If I am elected president, I will definitely push the UA to join the Earth Defense Alliance, make our due contribution to the defense of extraterrestrial civilization, and end the situation that UA space companies are discriminated against on commercial aerospace projects… but there is one premise, I will definitely bring benefits to our people!”

The atmosphere was once again ignited.

The national flags waved under the stage and the cheers and applause echoed.

Trump raised his hand, he smiled and nodded as he looked at the supporters under the stage with satisfaction,

He knew that the words he had just said would definitely be criticized by the media.

But he didn’t care.

You understand politics.

I’m an expert at marketing.

…

In Xin across the Pacific Ocean, a general election came to an end.

The general election system adopted by Xin was different from the UA election across the sea. The election began in the middle of last year. Without the party system, the person that received the most support from the Xin people would become the president.

Standing on the lawn in front of the presidential palace, Zhang Yaping, dressed in a suit, walked to the rostrum.

A dense crowd gathered in front of him.

As early as an hour ago, his supporters had already gathered.

The huge crowd even overflowed from the lawn onto the roads and blocked the traffic in front of the presidential palace.

In order to maintain order at the scene, Celestial Trade sent a battalion of troops, dispatched armored vehicles and helicopters, assisted the police in arranging isolation lines, maintained order on the scene, and alerted to possible emergencies or even terrorist attacks.

Zhang Yaping stopped for a moment and reminisced about what has happened over the past four years, before he adjusted the microphone, and put on a confident smile.

His voice was very calm. There were no confrontational words, no exhilarating cheers, and everything seemed natural.

“Before we start, please look down at the lawn under our feet.”

“Four years ago, we were here, and we ended the tyranny of President Edward, and led this country back on the right track.”

“After four years, we have become the most enviable country in the world.”

“History has already evaluated our choices, and I believe this evaluation must be positive. We have used our limited land and resources in just four years to complete a feat that most countries would need forty years or even a century to complete. Our GDP growth rate is also a miracle in world history.”

“You chose me and I will respond to your trust.”

“I assure you that in the next four years, Xin will remain the most advanced country in the world! It is still the place of hope in the world! We will be stronger and go further! And the lawn we are stepping on Is the starting point of all this, and the center of the future world, and even the entire solar system!”

Passionate cheers and thunderous applause erupted in front of the presidential palace.

The military band played the national anthem and raised the national flag.

Looking at the rising flag, Jiang Chen smiled.

Just four hours ago, he had received news from Bernice from the far away UA.

The primaries were decided.

The result was the same as the Xin election.

As expected.

Chapter 1258: Moments of Relaxation

Chapter 1258 Moments of Relaxation The night the primaries ended, Jiang Chen sent a congratulatory message to Joseph Kennedy, who had become the candidate for the Democratic Party and who was preparing for the November election.“Congratulations, Mr. Kennedy, or should I say, future president.” Jiang Chen pleasantly said, “You are one step closer to the Capitol.”

“Thank you for your help,” Joseph said, flattered.

“You’re welcome. I hope that after you become the president, you can still remember the help we provided.”

“Of course!” Joseph reassured. “I will push for the UA to join the Earth Defense Alliance immediately, and withdraw the strategic bombers and missile systems deployed in Guam. Diplomacy through peace has always been my agenda. The era of diplomacy through power has passed. At the start of this term, the UA government will focus more on the future rather than focusing on something meaningless.”

When Jiang Chen heard Joseph’s words, he smiled pleasantly.

“Then I look forward to your first diplomatic visit after you’re elected.”

After some more small talk, Jiang Chen hung up.

In the next few months, B City Consortium would be responsible for the rest of the poker game. His opponent would be the billion-dollar real estate developer, backed by his “Twitter Empire”. It would not be easy for Joseph to win the battle, but with the support of the consortium, it should not be an issue.

After the call, Jiang Chen went to the kitchen, took a bottle of champagne out of the fridge, and went to the balcony in his pajamas.

It was deep in the night; the sea glowed under the pristine moonlight. The trees swayed in the nightly breeze and gave off a feeling of peace and tranquility surreal to the bustling world.

Feeling the sea breeze, Jiang Chen opened the bottle with his thumb and put the bottle close to his lips.

The cold liquid washed away a lot of the dryness in his chest.

“What are you looking at?”

Natasha walked to Jiang Chen, unscrewed the vodka bottle, and leaned against the railing as she downed a sip.

“Just getting some fresh air.” Jiang Chen laughed and glanced at the bottle in her hand, then he jokingly said, “Are you not afraid of damaging your head if you drink hard liquor all day long?”

“Is this hard liquor? For us, this is only a beverage.” Natasha’s lips turned into a beautiful curvature as she proudly raised her chest and glanced at the champagne in Jiang Chen’s hand, “You, on the other hand, only women drink that kind of ‘juice’. Isn’t that too boring?”

“Is it?”

Jiang Chen laughed and disregarded her “provocative” look. He cast his gaze on the distant horizon and pretended to sigh. “You don’t understand.”

“Don’t understand?” Natasha stopped the bottle in mid-air as she frowned in confusion, “Don’t understand what?”

“Drinking is a way of life,” Jiang Chen held the bottle in his hand and whispered, “Alcohol is like life, other than the spicy taste, there are other tastes also enjoyable…”

Natasha rolled her eyes as she listened to Jiang Chen’s narration.

“I find you are becoming more and more talented in acting.”

“Not at all.” With the bottle close to his mouth, Jiang Chen looked at the grinning Natasha and laughed, “Do you want to compete?”

As soon as Natasha heard the word compete, she suddenly looked at Jiang Chen with vigilance.

“Compete in what.”

She still remembered what happened last time.

“It’s better than…” His eyes turned slightly and stopped on the vodka in her hands. Then with a discreet grin, he said “Who is better at drinking? Drinking vodka.”

“Drinking vodka?” Natasha stared at Jiang Chen.

“Yes.” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded.

Natasha was suspicious about the idea.

She didn’t think she would ever lose in this competition.

But she had a hunch that this guy must have some ulterior motives.

The more she thought about it, the more she believed her hunch was right.

After knowing each other for so long, she discovered this guy always hid something in his sleeves!

“Afraid?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow as he continued to escalate the tension.

“How is that possible.” Natasha’s eyebrows suddenly rose and her eyes met Jiang Chen’s provocative gaze. Her beautiful eyes narrowed as she placed her arms on the railing and raised her chin slightly, she jokingly said, “Are you sure you want to drink vodka with me? Don’t blame me for destroying your stomach.”

Are you kidding me!

The blood of the Slavs was half blood and half alcohol.

How could she lose more than the amount of alcohol?

It’s impossible to lose!

Not to mention it’s vodka.

“Yes.” Looking at Natasha’s confident look, Jiang Chen nodded again and said with a smile, “Since you are so confident about winning, then let’s play a game again. The person that lost…”

“… Wait, wait, let’s just drink, why do we have to play games?”

As soon as she heard a game, Natasha felt somewhat nervous. She was not afraid of losing, but her body reacted physiologically to those two words.

“Are you afraid?” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Afraid?

Jiang Chen repeatedly provoked her again and again, and finally completely irritated her.

“You’re asking for it,” Natasha said with menance in her eyes. “If you lose, I will make you run around naked on the beach in front of your house.”

This punishment was extremely harsh

If Jiang Chen really walked around the beach naked, he would definitely make international headlines for a week.

Of course, Natasha did not really intend to honor this punishment.

She just wanted to punish this bad guy and let him realize how unwise he was to annoy her.

“No problem,” Jiang Chen smiled and touched his chin while he looked at the beach. Then he thoughtfully said, “I will definitely not let you go since I will be the loser if that happened.”

“Hey, at least you have some conscience.” Natasha grinned.

“What about this?” Jiang Chen snapped his fingers and moved his gaze towards the lawn downstairs before an evil smile gradually formed. “If you lose, walk around the lawn downstairs…”

Jiang Chen got closer to Natasha’s ear and told her the evil idea with a voice that only she could hear.

The pretty white face gradually turned red, then became completely white, before it was covered in redness again.

“You!” Natasha gritted her teeth at the sly expression on his face, before she viciously said, “…good, very good! As long as you don’t regret it…”

How could this guy say such perverted things!

So infuriating!

She swore that this time she would not spare him.

“Be rest assured, I never lie.”

Jiang Chen laughed, put down the champagne in his hand on the wooden table and looked at the door of the balcony and shouted.

“Ayesha, help us get a box of vodka from the cellar. There is a girl here who is way too overconfident and wants to have a drinking competition with me.”

“Who are you saying is overconfident?” Natasha was not convinced.

Ayesha leaned against the doorway of the balcony. She sighed and shook her head before she turned to walk up the stairs.

She knew what Jiang Chen was going to do.

If he used the storage dimension, even industrial alcohol could not make Jiang Chen pass out.

Tonight, the big brainless fool is going to be suffer.

To be honest, she didn’t really understand.

If Natasha didn’t enjoy being “bullied” by him, why would she try to get into a situation like that?

“What a waste.”

With the thought in her, a faint red hue covered her face as she muttered under her breath. Then, the girl headed down to the cellar.

Chapter 1259: Research Progress On The Eggs

Chapter 1259 Research Progress On The Eggs “…give me the alcohol, I can drink more…”“That’s enough. Let’s call it a tie! A TIE!” Jiang Chen snatched the bottle from Natasha’s hand as she was about to take another swig.

He really did not want her to drink anymore.

It was the first time he encountered someone that treated vodka like beer.

If he allowed her to continue to drink like this, he would have to call an ambulance…

“NOOO! I can drink! Bring me the alcohol… oh…”

However, at this moment, Natasha suddenly stood up and rushed toward the bottle in Jiang Chen’s hand before she pushed him onto the ground.

There were a series of bangs, and the wooden floor was full of displaced items.

On top of Jiang Chen, Natasha muttered drunkenly while she reached for the bottle in Jiang Chen’s hand. “How can I lose… impossible.”

Terrible drunk!

He looked speechlessly at Natasha who hung herself onto him before Jiang Chen turned to Xia Shiyu with a desperate look. However, he only received a cold stare in return.

“I still have to work tomorrow…you should rest early. Don’t stay up too late.”

Xia Shiyu, who was wrapped in a bathrobe, sighed and disappeared at the intersection of the balcony. She left Jiang Chen behind.

Jiang Chen then turned to Ayesha.

The facts were simply despairing.

Even the most gentle and obedient Ayesha, also subtly looked away; she pretended to be sightseeing.

Jiang Chen could not help but feel the negativities of this world.

But to be honest, the softness pressing against him felt good.

Especially the vibrant red lips, the hot air that was puffing onto his face, and the slightly intoxicated breath. At this moment, she was like a delicate red apple, ripe and delicious.

It wouldn’t be so bad to maintain this position?

Just as this idea settled into Jiang Chen’s mind and he began to relax the muscles on his shoulders, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

He looked at Natasha, who started to pant heavily, and suddenly thought of something. His expression changed dramatically, and he desperately wanted hold her by her slim shoulders. However, Natasha, completely wrapped around him like an octopus, pinned him down.

“Wait, wait, WAIT… Hold on, wait for me to get up, I will take you to the bathroom, don’t – FU*K!”

It was too late!

“vomit—”

Right on top of Jiang Chen’s chest, the delicate red lips spilled everything without warning.

Because the picture was too gruesome, it was not suitable to be described.

Ayesha, who sat on the side with her arms crossed, had an “I thought so” expression on her face. She nodded as she was pleased with the decision to not intervene.

In general, Natasha had never gotten drunk, at least in Ayesha’s memory.

But if she did get drunk.

Then she would let go of everything…

When Jiang Chen was absent, she would often grow furious at Natasha over this fact, especially for someone who enjoyed cleaniness…

…

The next day, Kelvin reported back with additional information. Celestial City’s Lab made new progress on the research of the Devil Worm’s egg.

Jiang Chen sluggishly finished breakfast and left with dark circles under his eye. Xia Shiyu drove him to the company.

His beautiful assistant prepared a cup of coffee for him. Jiang Chen, who sunk into the chair, yawned profusely as he called Celestial City.

Soon, Verdell Taylor’s face appeared on the holographic screen.

The chemist and biologist from Frankberg was indeed an intelligent guy. Since he already made quite a number of amazing discoveries on Devil Worms that contributed significantly to the progress of the research, he was now elected as the person in charge of the whole project.

Without any small talk, Verdell Taylor reported to Jiang Chen about the latest research progress on the eggs.

“…they have a very short incubation period. The hatching process is only four to six weeks. We found a larva in these eggs that is about to end its incubation period. Now it is being cultivated in an artificial incubator. If everything goes smoothly, we will get the Devil Worm’s larva in a week.”

“How long does it take for a larva to grow into an adult?” Jiang Chen asked.

“With sufficient organic matter and suitable temperatures, the theoretical estimate is twenty weeks. They will grow to two meters and can already begin to prey. After every ten weeks, they can grow 0.8 to 1 meter, and they will enter the growth stagnation period after their length reaches 15 to 20 meters.”

“What about their life expectancy period? How long can they live?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.

“By combining previous analysis with DNA analysis, they can theoretically survive up to fifty years,” Verdell Taylor said earnestly. “They can go to sleep in extreme environments, slowly replenish oxygen in the blood, and reduce oxygen and organic consumption. They spend 80% of their time sleeping and 10% of their time hunting.”

Fifty years?

Eradicating this species will not be easy.

Jiang Chen bitterly smiled and asked.

“What about the other 10%?”

“Mating.” Verdell Taylor shrugged.

“…”

After a moment of silence, Jiang Chen asked.

“Is there any good news?”

“Of course, this is what I have to report next.” Verdell Taylor nodded, and there was a glimmer of smugness in his eyes. “We found that Devil Worm’s vocal cords are abnormally developed during the embryonic stage when we studied the larvae specimens. However, it is strange that adults do not rely on sound to transmit information but uses its tentacles and secretions that are normally contracted in the abdominal cavity.”

Because he couldn’t understand, Jiang Chen quietly waited for Dr. Verdell Taylor to continue.

“Later, after careful study, we found an organ in their body that is comparable to the ‘Seismometer’!” Verdell Taylor’s voice was mixed with a hint of excitement. “We have observed this phenomenon on bats, but its function is obviously more powerful!”

“Using this special organ, they are very sensitive to the frequency and azimuth of shock waves. They can even discriminate the speed and direction of the prey through frequency changes! It is with this ability that they can easily lock in the position of prey and oxygen supply layers several kilometers deep.”

“Is this good news?” Jiang Chen smiled and said helplessly.

“Of course!” Verdell Taylor nodded affirmatively while still excited, “Only by knowing them can you know how to deal with them! After studying the larva, we have successfully found the shock frequency that is most easily captured by them. It is now being tested by frontline scientists. If our conclusions are finally proven to work, we can artificially create this ‘noise’.”

Jiang Chen’s eyes suddenly lit up.

He already understood what Dr. Verdell Taylor wanted to say.

If Devil Worms relied on shock waves, sound waves and other forms of vibration to identify the prey, then as long as they could artificially create the waves, it meant they could blindfold Devil Worms.

With this thought in mind, Jiang Chen also began to feel the same excitement.

Due to the proliferation of Devil Worms, the work of the colony was now almost completely stagnant. Even soldiers, without the protection of armored vehicles, did not dare to venture out. Not to mention the exploration rovers, as well as the reconstruction of the destroyed farm.

Now, a simple and effective method was almost in front of him!

“As long as a shock wave generating device can be built, it can constantly emits shock waves to the bottom of the colony…”

“Yes!” Verdell Taylor nodded and said with certainty. “This is what we imagined in the experiment! We only need to find the most sensitive frequency to Devil Worms and then use this to turn the colony into a ‘blind spot’!”

Chapter 1260: Envoy-class Starship

Chapter 1260 Envoy-class Starship After the conversation with Verdell Taylor, the assistant walked in and placed a cup of fragrant coffee on his desk.“I have already added sugar, please drink it slowly.” With a charming smile, the assistant said gently, “Is there anything else?”

“Nothing… um, can you please send these documents to CEO Xia’s office?” Jiang Chen looked at the documents that had been signed on the table and passed them to her. “Let her… Ha, please ask her to send the file coded N101 file for Future Heavy Industries to my mailbox.”

Because he was too sleepy, Jiang Chen couldn’t stop yawning.

When his eyes met with the grin of the assistant, Jiang Chen immediately knew what she had in mind, so he stared back.

The girl immediately hid her smile and lowered her head. She held onto the documents and secretly spat out her tongue before she left the office in quick steps.

He looked at the closed door, smiled and shook his head. Then he sipped on the coffee.

“Not too bad.”

He put aside the slightly hot coffee and opened the holographic computer on his desk.

Soon, an email was sent to his computer via Jean.

[No. N101, Security Level S]

The content recorded in this email was the highest level of confidentiality for Future Heavy Industries. However, the information won’t be confidential in a few days because the world would soon learn the contents contained in this email.

When he clicked open the email, the pale blue lines emerged from the holographic screen, and a three-dimensional image was interwoven in front of Jiang Chen.

Suspended in the air was a long and magnificent ship. The streamlined hull gave off an unparalleled sci-fi vibe. The giant engines that occupied the entire rear of the ship and the frightening guns located in the front all fulfilled a young boy’s dream.

The ship looked like something from a movie.

Of course, it was not model from a movie.

At this moment, at the shipyard outside of Celestial Trade, the million-ton ship named “Envoy-class” entered the final commissioning stage.

With his fingers extended, Jiang Chen gently clicked on the figure of the starship, and the transparent text box immediately appeared beside his hand. A line of light blue text emerged in the form of a textbox and the parameters of the starship were detailed in front of his eyes.

[

Envoy-class Starship.

Ship Name: Unnamed

Tonnage: One million tons.

Main Weapon: Mass Accelerator (located at the head of the ship, capable of installing electromagnetic catapult carrier, can be used to launch electromagnetic acceleration mass shells.)

Sub-weapon: None.

Staff: 2000 Personnel.

Main Engine: One Lightning 01 Engine (nuclear fusion engine with magnetic constrain nuclear fusion technology, located at the rear of the ship, providing longitudinal thrust for the entire starship in cruise mode.)

Secondary Engine: Two Shuttle 09 engines (the improved version of the original Shuttle 07 engine, using ion propulsion technology, located at the front and rear section at the bottom of the starship, providing omni-direction thrust for the starship in non-cruising mode.)

…

Completion: 100%

]

In accordance with the plan developed by the Earth Defense Alliance Committee, this Envoy-class starship did not mount any weapon module except for the mass accelerator almost the same length as the hull, located at the axial position of the ship.

It was no exaggeration to say that the tonnage of the Envoy-class starship could outclass an entire aircraft carrier battle group.

Unlike marine ships, starship allowed for more creativity in design. As long as the strength of material permitted and the engine power was sufficient, without considering the cost, Future Heavy Industries could double the tonnage of the starship, but it would be unnecessary.

The significance of the “Envoy-class” was mainly to achieve a breakthrough from zero to one. The ship would be the training ground for the officers and combatants of the future Earth Defense Alliance fleet. The current tonnage would be more than sufficient for this task.

What’s more, increasing the tonnage to the starship would not necessarily have a positive impact on the combat effectiveness. The key was to use every inch of space available to maximize the power per tonnage.

Therefore, future million-ton class starship would be based on Envoy-class and further modified. Once the design was optimized, the tonnage would be increased to the next threshold.

It was also the direction Jiang Chen gave to Future Heavy Industries.

“Jean, search in the database for me. Look at how long until the completion of the Envoy-class,” Jiang Chen leaned back against his chair and said to the air.

The signal light of the watch flickered, and the holographic appearance of Jean appeared beside his hand.

A stream of data flashed through Jean’s pupils, and she quickly replied.

“Based on the latest information on file, the main engine circuit review has been completed. Only the last two inspection steps are needed. It is expected to be officially completed in mid-April.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

“What about Future Military? How is the progress on the weapon module?”

“…searching…”

Another stream of data appeared.

Soon, a list was presented to Jiang Chen.

When Future Heavy Industries built the fleet, Future Military was also busy working.

From missile launchers to ship-borne electromagnetic pulse cannons, to weapons such as high-power laser beams beyond this era, even plasma torpedoes that were still in the experimental stage… Any weapons that Pan-Asia Cooperation once thought of, Jiang Chen established corresponding projects.

Although based on the plan of the Earth Defense Alliance, this first-generation starship was designed for training and designing purposes with no weapons installed. But when necessary, the starship could be fully equipped with weapon modules that rule the Solar System.

Just as Jiang Chen appreciated the results of Future Military, there was a knock on his door

His index finger swiped in the air, and all the holographic screens and three-dimensional images were gathered together. Jiang Chen then looked to the door.

“Please come in.”

The door was pushed open, and a rare guest, Dr. Amos, came in.

“Is there something you need?” Jiang Chen looked at him in surprise.

“It’s about Project 071.” After he grabbed a chair, Amos sat down. It seemed that he felt that he was a bit too casual as he looked at Jiang Chen apologetically and asked, “Umm, you don’t mind right–”

“Of course not, just sit down.” Jiang Chen laughed. “Compared to the small details, I’m more fascinated with what you discovered.”

“I found the lost drone.”

“You found it!?” Jiang Chen looked at him, astounded, as he immediately sat up straight.

“Yes.” Amos nodded and said seriously. “Not just that. I also found some special things in the ruins through the drone. Perhaps those things can explain why we encountered those monsters on Mars.”

Chapter 1261: Another Piece of Memory

1261 Another Piece of Memory Mars colony.

Near Mine 071.

Near the long-abandoned mine, there were a few new tire marks.

Two armored vehicles and a reinforced engineering vehicle were parked by the sand dunes about 100 meters away from the mine. The overturned rover was not far away, and traces of the Devil Worms’ bite marks were still visible on the chassis.

Zhang Hai looked out the window, then pressed a button on his helmet and got in touch with the coordinator on the Expedition.

“…we have reached the target area, requesting airstrike support.”

“This is the Expedition, the airstrike request has been approved, please place the airstrike beacon within 30 seconds.”

“Roger that.”

Soon, the top cover of an armored vehicle popped open, and a soldier leaned out half of his body, took a flare gun, and pulled the trigger at the dune on the other side.

The red beacon plunged into the sand dunes and transmitted coordinates to the missile that was falling from the synchronous orbit.

Soon, a black spot that dragged a long flaming tail gradually appeared in the sky.

Before the black spot became clear, the soldier got back into the vehicle and closed the top cover with force.

“BOOM——!”

The tremor was sent up from the ground into the vehicle.

The howling gravel blew the sands hundreds of meters away and covered the entire convey with a thick layer of sand.

Soon, from deep underground, there was another muffled noise.

The bursting flame engulfed all the tunnels inside and completely flushed out the area.

The convoy continued to move forward for about ten meters.

The engineering vehicle stopped first. The staff inside operated the robotic arm, took out a four-meter-long pyramid, and placed it on the sand. The two armored vehicles surrounded it while the electromagnetic pulse cannon on top carefully watched the surrounding for possible threats.

Their task today was very simple.

There was a total of four pyramids that must be pushed into the ground, then their mission would be completed.

“Are you sure this thing is really useful?” Inside the vehicle, Zhang Hai looked through the sight glass and watched the mechanical arm slowly push the pyramid into the ground inch by inch, as he couldn’t be convinced by the usefulness of this action.

“It is useful in theory.”

Wang Qiang, who sat across from the Marine Corps Captain, looked at the tablet in his hand, and while he browsed the manual data on the screen, he casually responded, “They are like bats at night, and all we have to do is get a few high decibel speakers, bury them into the ground, and make noise into the ground ten kilometers below without interruption for 24 hours. If I am those bugs, I will definitely not want to stay here.”

Celestial City Research Institute explained that the latest task of the front-line researchers was to find this frequency through trial and error.

These pyramids were originally used to survey and map the geological information of the mantle circle. After several researchers’ modification, they turned into a seismic wave transmitter used to make “noise” at different frequencies.

The nuclear fusion battery built into the “pyramid” could work till next year. The next step was to throw a life signal detector into the mine to detect the Devil Worms nearby. Therefore, they could detect the frequency of noise those bugs responded most violently to…

In addition, in order to prevent the bugs from destroying them, the construction vehicle also had to reinforce a few steel bars.

It’s that simple?” the Marine Corps soldier next to Zhang Hai asked with clear uncertainty in his tone.

He was a newcomer named Koenig, an immigrant from Italy, with the rank of corporal. He served as a commando in the team and replaced the wounded Sergeant Miller.

When they were on the Expedition, they used the training program in the Phantom helmet to simulate combat with the Devil Worms. In the simulation training, they were taught that any contact with the ground was fatal.

“It’s that simple.” Wang Qiang replied without much change in his emotion while his fingers quickly clicked on the tablet, he then looked at Zhang Hai, “Can I trouble you to move closer to there? There may be solar wind outside, my signal is terrible.”

“No problem.”

Zhangh Hai pressed on his helmet and ordered the soldier driving, and soon the armored vehicle drove next to the engineering vehicle.

The four-meter-long pyramid had been completely submerged in the sand, and only a platform less than a foot high was visible on the surface. In order to prevent this thing from being completely buried under the sand, the engineering vehicle also inserted a Xin flag on top of the platform as a marking

“Are you done?”

When Zhang Hai saw the robotic arm that started to retract, he asked Wang Qiang.

“One is not enough, we need about four,” Wang Qiang set the parameters on the tablet, and then pressed the start button, “We need to enclose the mine into a square, and then emit shock waves at the same time. We will use it collect the data.

“This thing is really that useful? Are you sure? I don’t feel any change at all.” Koenig doubted his remark.

“Because it emits ultrasonic waves, and because you are standing on top of the shock wave, the impact you’ll feel is at most your heart rate becoming half a beat faster,” Wang Qiang pursed his lips, then he put away the tablet. “If you stand directly under it, you will feel what is worse than death.”

…

At the first underground floor of Future Building.

After Jiang Chen walked out of the elevator, he followed Dr. Amos and they made their way to the lab.

“After you were in a coma that day, I lost the connection with the drone. At first, I thought the drone was broken, but then I thought about it, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt something was wrong. If the memory of Gaia civilization used our drone as a springboard to communicate with you, there is no reason it would destroy the drone.”

“So?” Jiang Chen asked.

“So, I wonder if the Gaia civilization made a small modification to the communication frequency of our drone’s communication chip through some special means. After all, our research on Klein particles is only at its infancy, but their technology was quite mature. If you want to plug the USB into a computer before 1994, you have to make a conversion interface or simply upgrade the hardware.”

Dr. Amos took out his ID card from his pocket, swiped it on the door and welcomed Jiang Chen in, “Sure enough, after more than a month, I found the frequency… Honestly, I was so close to giving up.”

Dr. Amos walked up to the computer, tapped a few times on the touchpad, opened the holographic screen, and showed a PowerPoint presentation ito Jiang Chen.

“This is?” Jiang Chen asked with a slight frown.

“Another piece of memory, but what I found is somewhat different from the one you encountered.” Amos shrugged. “It’s very short. If you saw is a history of that world, then this is just a diary. Or memoir. After reading it, I made a slide show based off of my memory.”

“A diary?” Jiang Chen looked at the image on the holographic screen and asked, “Whose diary?”

“The last Gaia,” after a pause, Amos continued, “The one who died in that ruin.”

Chapter 1262: The Concern Millions of Kilometers Away

Chapter 1262 The Concern Millions of Kilometers Away My neighbor left.He left the key to me before he left.

Now I’m the last Gaia to guard the tomb of our civilization.

When I die, our civilization will officially end.

There is still a “Flower of Memory” in my hand, and it has only a trace of energy left, but I think I may be able to leave something for myself…

Perhaps the latecomers will be confused as to why we went from prosperity to extinction.

I have thought about this question countless times, until I took this last Flower of Memory in my hand, I finally understood the problem.

It is not disaster, but despair, that destroyed our civilization.

When the apocalypse arrived, hundreds of millions of our people died in front of us.

Some died from the disaster itself, but more died from our vulnerability to disasters.

We have considered thousands of possibilities, including immigration to the still infant earth and flying to further galaxies to continue our civilization. I believe that we can survive on the unknown land, but in the end, we chose to leave a tombstone that still contained our last dignity.

Very unexpectedly, I felt somewhat liberated to have such an ending.

Maybe I have some regrets as I can’t smell the wonderful fragrance anymore nor can I sense the intoxicating spiritual rhythm anymore… But this is just a regret for my remaining 3,000 Mars days, not for our civilization itself.

There is no regret for our civilization.

Maybe this ending is not so bad after all?

In the last moment, we chose the most democratic way of voting to decide our own destiny.

It was probably the fairest vote we have ever had.

The result was a unanimous agreement.

Everyone chose to stay.

We placed the key on the spacecraft and watched it go.

Ironically, we obviously never placed hope in the cold starry sky. But at this moment, we imagined that one day there will be another spirit, or soul, to write our story in another language…

…

“Like a poem.”

Jiang Chen made an evaluation after reading through the memory.

“The popular narrative method of Gaia civilization was not in the form of words, but to communicate directly through the spirit. I believe that you have experienced that feeling, the feeling is not easy to describe with words, I just wrote it down based on my memory.” Amos shrugged. “But the most critical part is not the beginning, but the ruins he mentioned about.”

About the ruins?

Jiang Chen frowned slightly and looked at Amos.

“Why?”

“Their ruins are divided into three parts, part of which is the living area, which is the part you had seen. The second part, is the database which can be opened by the key, and the data inside is stored in a kind of flower called ‘Flower of Memory’.”

After Amos said that, he had a rare look of eagerness.

“If I didn’t guess wrong, that should be the thing we encountered! It can connect directly with the spirit of a person, and then directly input the knowledge stored in it into a person’s brain! God… I dare to say that if this is unearthed, scientists all over the world will go mad!”

Transfer knowledge directly through the spirit, or neural connection?

Jiang Chen’s eyes showed a moment of shock.

It works like this?

It was not like he did not see anything similar, for example, the virtual reality learning system readily available in the apocalypse could also achieve rapid literacy. However, the mechanism of this system was only to extend the time in the virtual reality system to allow the user to experience a deep sleep state of two hours or more in a real time of one hour.

In the deep sleep state, people’s knowledge acceptance would accelerate while the load on the brain would be reduced to a minimum…

However, a premise still existed for this particular learning method, that was, people must spend the energy to learn.

According to Dr. Amos’s description, the Flower of Memory could completely abandon the learning process, rather, it could teach through empowerment. It would be similar to the idea described in martial arts or Xuanhuan novels in the passing of power… You’re too weak? No worries, let me give you tens of thousands of years of cultivation!

“You mean, that Flower of Memory can turn an idiot into a scientist?”

“That is too much of an exaggeration. Even if ordinary people possessed the memories, it would be useless if they can’t digest them. However, if you let a scholar with a certain foundation, or at least someone with scientific thinking, touch the Flower of Memory, he or she undoubtedly will become the most knowledgeable person in the world! Because that person will inherit the knowledge of a higher civilization! Even if it’s only a part of it!” Amos gazed directly at Jiang Chen and his eyes bloomed with enthusiasm. “So, I’m confident to say that, this, once unearthed, will make scientists around the world go mad!”

No physical object could withstand more than three billion years of time, perhaps hadron materials could, but only one existed after all. Therefore, the Gaia civilization chose to store all the memories of its own civilization in the Flower of Memory. It doesn’t possess any physical existence, but rather used the spirit of an organism as a vessel.

But Jiang Chen grew more confused.

So, what is the Flower of Memory?

Why can it exist for more than three billion years?

Perhaps this question can only be answered when the ruins are uncovered.

Jiang Chen returned from his thoughts and exchanged eye contact with the zealous Amos. Then, he suddenly realized something and smiled.

“Don’t worry, after the ruins are unearthed, I’ll definitely reserve one for you,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

He patted Amos’ shoulder and responded to his hope and fanaticism.

Amos looked gratefully at Jiang Chen.

“Thank you, I really don’t know how to thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, your contribution to Future Group is worthy of this reward,” Jiang Chen said.

Judging from the description of the Flower of Memory of the Gaia civilization, there must be more than one. After all, the legacy of civilization could not be simply inherited by one person, not to mention that a person’s brain could only hold so many things.

After all, it was a technology from a civilization that dug through the core of a planet and its advanced nature should not be doubted. While not all technologies could be beneficial to human, even the tip of the iceberg would be enough to allow a little-known scientist stand at the top of the field.

Therefore, it should not benefit any outsiders. Jiang Chen simply did not intend to disclose this at all.

As a distinguished researcher of Future Group, a part of the Flower of Memory should be his.

“Right, you said that the ruins are divided into three parts, what is the third part?” Jiang Chen continued.

“The third part is the specimen library.” Amos replied with a positive tone.

“The specimen library?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Yes, and it’s a specimen library that was damaged,” Amos nodded. “If my guess is accurate, the Devil Worms we met on Mars escaped from the specimen library. Other than that, according to that memory, in dealing with the apocalypse, the Gaia civilization scientists synthesized an oxygen-producing fungus that can grow in extreme environments, but for some unknown reason, the project was never completed.”

“Therefore, the oxygen-producing fungus specimen we found on Mars is…”

“It may be an unfinished product. Of course, this is just my guess,” Amos shrugged. “They have been in disrepair. The spores of the oxygen-producing bacteria have spread from the specimen library to the outside world. They have adapted to Mars through the evolution of hundreds of millions of years and modified the atmosphere. Later, the species such as Devil Worms ended their hibernation, left the damaged specimen library and created the current underground ecosystem.”

“…that is to say.” Jiang Chen suddenly had a bad feeling.

“I’m afraid it’s not just Devil Worms and oxygen-making fungus. There are a lot of things we haven’t seen before,” Dr. Amos took a deep breath. “In fact, I thought it was odd, but how much luck does a food chain need to sustain through hundreds of millions or even billions of years of evolution?”

Chapter 1263: Variables

Chapter 1263 Variables Not just Devil Worms.There could be other species deep in the mantle.

Jiang Chen tried to search for figures other than Devil Worms in the memory of the Gaia civilization, including the species that Gaias were trying to get rid of, but unfortunately, the light ball did not contain any of the names?

But it made sense.

If human civilization one day had to set up a tombstone for itself, it would probably not spend too much ink on the irrelevant topics. Or at most, use powerful creatures like tigers or lions to prove itself to the future civilization on how the human civilization stood out among the species and came to the top of the food chain.

Dr. Amos’s findings were included in the database, labeled as the highest confidential level. and tagged as a part of Project 071. After he hesitated for a second, Jiang Chen decided not to disclose the details of these species to the researchers in the Devil Worms research team.

After all, he couldn’t explain why he could be so sure that there were Mars creatures other than Devil Worms, on the planet tens of millions of kilometers away in the absence of specimens,.

It was related to the memory of the Gaia civilization.

The memory of the Gaia civilization was classified the top secret within Celestial Trade, even more confidential than the Klein particles…

After Jiang Chen left Dr. Amos’s lab, he returned to the office.

His assistant reported that while he was away, President Zhang Yaping’s assistant had been here.

“President Zhang’s assistant? What is he looking for?” Jiang Chen asked.

“He left a letter. I put it on your desk,” his assistant replied respectfully.

Jiang Chen found the letter of his desk, glanced through the letter, then placed it at the corner of his table.

It was an invitation letter.

Tomorrow evening, in the banquet hall of the Heart of the Sea, there would be a national celebration dinner. The protagonist was the Liberal Party Leader, the first president of Xin, Zhang Yaping. The purpose of the dinner was to celebrate the victory of the election campaign, to thank his campaign sponsors, and to communicate with the different sectors and communities within Xin.

To be able to attend a banquet of this level, the person must be a political figure at least in the cabinet minster and parliamentary speaker level. In addition, outstanding entrepreneurs, representatives from communities, and even international bankers… were all part of the guest list. With the current international influence of Xin, Jiang Chen would not even be surprised if a leader of another country showed up.

As a supporter of President Zhang, Jiang Chen naturally would be present to support him.

After all, for those eligible to be invited to the banquet, they all understood what happened behind the scene.

They understood who is the biggest winner of this election.

…

After work, Jiang Chen returned home.

Jiang Chen was about to take a shower when he found Natasha was at the entrance of the living room. She looked at him, somewhat embarrassed.

After she woke up from the hangover, Ayesha had told her what had happened last night. This included her drunken state, and how she puked all over Jiang Chen…

“Hey, sorry about last night.”

Natasha blushed, crossed her arms before she scratched her cheeks in awkwardness and looked away.

“Don’t worry about it.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and put on his slippers.

What else could he say?

After all, he was partially to be blamed for what happened last night. If it were not for the fact that he tried to tease her, nothing would have happened.

But to be frank, he did not expect she would suddenly get so serious and refuse to admit defeat even after being so drunk…

Natasha saw how quiet Jiang Chen was and revealed an awkward smile as she said shyly.

“Also, I remember you said that it was a draw, right?”

“…”

Without caring for the girl that constantly bothered him about who actually won, Jiang Chen went and took a shower

After he changed into pajamas, Jiang Chen came out of the bathroom. Since there was still time before dinner, he went to the office.

As he walked in, he saw Ayesha waiting for him on the sofa in the room. So, he walked over with a smile and sat beside her.

“The Morgan Consortium and the Rockefeller Consortium may have joined forces.” Ayesha took out a document she was holding and placed it nicely on Jiang Chen’s knees ,then she gently rubbed off the water droplets on his neck.

“Joined forces?” As he enjoyed Ayesha’s caress, Jiang Chen was intrigued by the document in his hand as he flipped open the first page, “I thought they were out.”

“They would rather have a person who claims he will kill Wall Street come to power than to accept a dovish president,” Ayesha whispered. “This is the original words of Penny, she obtained the information from the informant.”

Jiang Chen looked at the document and his expression began to turn serious.

Morgan and Rockefeller joined forces?

He probably had a hunch. Morgan bet on Kerry, and Rockefeller kept the chip on Hill as always. The two consortiums were both members of the military-industrial complex. The victor in the gamble would only affect the distribution of interests.

Obviously, theMorgan and Rockefeller believed that if Joseph Kennedy rose to power, it would inevitably affect their common interests. After all, Mr. Kennedy mentioned a lot of issues concerning the UA military, defense budget, and diplomatic strategy.

And the military-industrial complex was unwilling to concede on these issues.

“Be prepared for the worst.” Jiang Chen sighed and said after a moment of thought, “Even if Joseph came to power, I’m afraid there will be resistance. We must guarantee that at all time, the initiative is on our side.”

Ayesha sat quietly and waited for Jiang Chen’s instructions.

“How is the situation in South America?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Which element are you referring to?” Ayesha tilted her head and asked.

“Global Power Grid,” Jiang Chen responded. “It has been more than a year and our salesmen has just cracked the door to Ecuador. The transmission corridor to Brazil is still not open. I want to know about the progress on that side.”

Ecuador may be the only country in South America willing to open its doors to Celestial Trade, because Celestial Trade more than once hinted at the possibility of another space elevator on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Considering the particularity that space elevators could only be built on the equator, Ecuador had a natural competitive advantage.

On the one hand, the country coveted the huge economic benefits that the space elevator would bring, and on the other hand, the country also faced many challenges such as energy shortage. Ecuador naturally did all it could to court Celestial Trade by giving land, policy, money… well, they did not have money.

Since last year, the UA exported nuclear power technology to South American countries to contain Celestial Trade’s plan to promote the Global Power Grid. Since the UA historically had a strong influence in the region itself, the cable that Celestial Trade built across the ocean to Ecuador, could not gain any distance further to Brazil on the east.

Peru and Colombia were two big mountains that blocked the passage, and these two countries were traditional UA allies. So, of course, they chose to side with the UA.

“This year is the year of the UA election. In the past, the UA typically adopted a conservative policy in the election year. This is our opportunity.” Jiang Chen’s fingers tapped on the arm of the sofa, “If, Colombia and Peru continue to maintain a non-cooperative attitude, I allow you to use special means.”

The special means referred to the act of providing weapons to the anti-government armed forces, providing funds to the opposition, and so on. This also included any means that may lead to a war in the country.

“We are supporting Joseph Kennedy. Is it okay to do this at this time?” Ayesha asked.

“No problem, just don’t let the UA know what we’re doing underneath the table.” Jiang Chen laughed. He took out an invitation from his pocket and handed it to Ayesha. “Do you have time tomorrow night? Join me for a banquet?”

“Isn’t Sister Xia Shiyu here? She is more suitable than me to attend such an occasion…” Ayesha’s expression looked slightly odd as she didn’t know why Jiang Chen changed the topic.

She attended a dinner once with Jiang Chen, but she did not participate in other ones after that one time.

The restrictive feeling of the gown made her feel very constrained and uneasy, and she was not good at drinking or chatting. Even if she attended, she could not offer any help since she often remained silent.

“Because we have to solve this problem as soon as possible.” Jiang Chen shook the document in his hand, “and the best way to solve the problem is at the banquet tomorrow.”

Chapter 1264: That Is Not My Hometown

1264 That Is Not My Hometown On the top floor of the Heart of the Sea, the semi-open arc dome was brightly lit.

It was the most luxurious banquet hall in the entire Xin, and it usually hosted the most prestigious events of the country. In addition to state banquets that were usually sponsored by Future Group, private functions or business functions must pay a daunting twenty million Xin New dollars to rent the venue.

Based on the current international influence of Xin and the Earth Defense Alliance, the banquet held here at this moment was probably one of the most influential events in the world. It was even comparable to a state banquet of the Capitol. Perhaps the dishes available were not the finest delicacies, but outside the dinner itself, the decisions made at the event dictated the future direction of the world.

“Haha, President Zhang, congratulations!” A man in a suit came forward and congratulated him.

“It seems that God is destined to let Xin continue to prosper, because every citizen of Xin has made the right choice.” In a black evening gown, a representative of a community raised her glass with a smile and offered her congratulatory words.

President Zhang smiled humbly to the praising words and leaft the most graceful image he could to the honorable guest. However, the corner of his mouthed curved up and the flush on his face showed off the proudness in his mind.

This victory came very easily and could even be described as expected.

However, even knowing this point, the little vanity in people’s minds was still fulfilled.

Who would have thought that the person who lived in exile in New Zealand four years ago turned out to be the revolutionary leader of Xin, and he was pushed to the throne of the president?

Of course, obviously not everyone was satisfied with this result.

The oppositions that were invited stood at the corners of the banquet hall. They gazed at Zhang Yaping, who received all the compliments in the world, with envy and jealousy in their eyes. They whispered and mocked.

“You just found the right person. What’s there to be proud of.”

“Just a puppet…”

“Humph! When I become president, the first thing I’ll do is to end the monopoly of Future Group on Xin’s economy. The second thing I’ll do is to take back the national defense and intelligence power from Celestial Trade. An enterprise is running the country, how dare…” The more extreme voices were gnashing their teeth while spewing their political aspirations to the members of their party.

Occasionally, the guests that heard their words would just laugh and joke.

“That’s why you will never be president.”

The man’s face turned red with anger, but he looked away instead.

Obviously, when he said these words, he also clearly knew that.

As long as Xin continued to prosper, these claims would only be a reality in his dreams…

In addition to the few complaints, the main theme of the entire banquet was positive and uplifting.

The melodious symphony echoed in every corner of the hall, and the courteous waiters walked through the seats to pour wine to the goblets on the long tables.

There was commotion at the entrance of the banquet hall from time to time, and the guests in the banquet hall would cast their attention to the door from time to time.

In addition to those that were important and distinguishable, the ambassadors of some superpowers, the ministers of a member state of the Earth Defense Alliance, the generals and presidents of the vassal states of Moro, Country F, and Madagascar were all invited… …

To the visiting guests, the people welcoming and the people being welcomed were all quite grand. Since the visit would set the foundation for the two countries’ diplomatic relations for the next four years, the extravagance was justified.

“Welcome, Mr. Kerry.” Looking at the man who just entered hall, Zhang Yaping’s expression looked slightly surprised, but soon he smiled naturally and extended his right hand, “it’s an honor of the UA to have such an outstanding secretary of state like yourself.”

“Thank you,” Although Kerry was not pleased with such praise, he still responded with a smile. “On behalf of the UA government, I congratulate you on your election. I hope to work with you to safeguard the peace of the world in the next four years, and cooperate in a wider field…”

After he finished the lines he wanted to say, Kerry smiled and politely bowed to President Zhang. The crowd applauded around him as he let go of President Zhang’s hand and walked into the hall.

…

On the elevator to the banquet hall, Jiang Chen gently held Ayesha’s hand. He looked at the bustling crowd, as well as the anchors stopped by the police and army on the lawn outside the floor-to-ceiling window, then recited.

“If Paradise be on this earth, Damascus ’tis and none but she;

If in the heavens, from her derives its air and its amenity.”

“Are we not going to solve the South American problem?” Ayesha awkwardly twisted her petite body in the evening gown, looked at the crystal high heels, and whispered, “What does it have to do with Damascus.”

“International issues have never existed in isolation. These two problems can actually be solved together.” Jiang Chen shrugged and pointed from the floor-to-ceiling windows at a man being escorted in headscarves through the parking lot. “Did you see it? That is the king of Saudi Arabia. He should have a glamorous princess next to him, but he did not bring her”

“What does he have to do with us?” Ayesha asked.

“Of course, in simple terms,” Jiang Chen laughed, “We solve the Syrian problem for Russia, and the KGB will ‘replace’ the president of Colombia for me. I just happen to be friends with someone in the Middle East who can introduce me to a Syrian General and provide a shortcut in avoiding the UA’s military informants at the Persian Gulf.”

Because of the Ares incident, the relationship between Xin and the UA suddenly took a ninety-degree turn from a state of cold war to an ambiguous relationship. How long this relationship could last would be dependent on the next person giving orders in the Capitol.

During this time, the UA would not be on the aggressive front with Celestial Trade, but Celestial Trade should also not agitate the UA. Maintaining this relationship with Joseph Kennedy until his accession to the throne could perhaps add another member to the Earth Defense Alliance.

The option to avoid war should be the preferred option.

Not to mention…

Jiang Chen paused and smiled at Ayesha.

“And, don’t you want to help your hometown?”

Holding onto Jiang Chen’s arm, Ayesha shook her head gently and smiled softly.

“That is not my hometown, your shoulder is where I belong.”

The gentleness hidden in the sapphire-like eyes, even inadvertently touched, made his heart melt.

However, in the unreserved gentleness, Jiang Chen still could not feel eased.

When he first pulled her away from that desert, took off her tattered headscarf, and brought her into a secularized society, it allowed her to enter another world she had only seen in fantasies. It also converted her to atheism…

However, even after so many years, she did not completely heal from the trauma of her hometown

After all, it was too much for a fifteen year old girl to see her parents die, and then get decapitated by militants in front of her. She traversed through hunger, disease and death… The word cruel is pale compared to what she experienced.

She always chose to forget about her past and instead, filled the missing part of her heart with a tall, confident figure.

For five years.

Jiang Chen did not intend to remind her of those bad memories. He just wanted to do something for her.

Even with the power of the Gaia civilization, he could not bring back the dead.

Perhaps a peaceful and prosperous hometown could make her feel a little better.

It was also the only thing he could do for her.

Now, the time was ripe.

Jiang Chen caressed her brown hair, approached her ear, and said softly.

“Just consider it as something for me.”

The little hand gently covered the warm big hand. Her eyelids were half-closed as she nodded meekly.

“Okay.”

Chapter 1265: Exchanges of War

Chapter 1265 Exchanges of War It had been three years since their last meeting, and Yerif appeared more mature.Whether it was the beard or his face, everything was quite different from the handsome prince before, and he seemed to be getting a beer belly.

The old king was aging day by day, and he, the crown prince, was gradually being pushed forward as the representative of the country to the world. As he worked to become a qualified heir, the edges and corners on him were gradually being erased through all the different meetings and negotiations.

“Long time no see, my dear friend!”

Yerif greeted Jiang Chen with open arms and gave him a warm hug.

“Long time no see,” Jiang Chen smiled, and gestured to the room next to him, “Please this way.”

There were many people in the banquet hall, which was not suitable for discussions.

Before they entered the banquet hall, Jiang Chen invited this old friend to the reception room downstairs in the name of catching up.

“I’m taking a big risk in doing this for you.” Yerif gestured to the bodyguards next to him and motioned them to stand at the door. After the door was closed, he lowered his voice and said, “You don’t understand the grievances between our sects. If you have understood, you should know that we and the Syrians have feuds. We wish that Bassar would step down immediately, instead of supporting him and his stupid teachings with the Russians.”

Although Saudi Arabia and the UA were reluctant to admit it, they were the perpetrators that gave both monetary and weaponry support to the “monster”, IS, in Syria.

But it did not matter?

This was a decision made by the Saudi royal family and it did not mean Yerif agreed with this.

“But I think you will be an enlightened king who will bring some different changes to your country and your world. You should be very clear that any religion will eventually usher in secularization. If you can’t adapt to this new age, then you will be run over by the wheels of time,” Jiang Chen said softly.

“I don’t want to talk about faith with an atheist,” Yerif said sternly, “and my father.”

“If I offended you, I do apologize,” Jiang Chen said softly.

Jiang Chen knew very well that although the young prince Yerif was a Sunni like his royal family, he was more enlightened. For example, he never put a headscarf on his princess when he hosted parties abroad and he could sit here with a heresy without faith and chat, or even become friends.

This may be related to his early experience of studying abroad, or it may be due to frequent contacts with some Western capitalists.

In short, he and Jiang Chen had no obstacles in communication.

It was also the reason Jiang Chen was willing to be friends with him.

“…Listen, you refused to let us build a temple here, and even used a… a tree that can produce oil to crush our oil prices. In short, you and your company are not popular in the Persian Gulf, at least not you’re not welcomed by the royal family. If your freshwater was not irrigating the gardens of our holy city, my father would not send you an ambassador as a sign of friendship like he is now,” Yerif stared at Jiang Chen and said.

“So what?” Jiang Chen smiled, as if he didn’t take what he had said seriously, and said emotionlessly, “If you stand on my side, we may be able to make your desert into a grassland.”

Turn the desert into a grassland?

Yerif was obviously taken aback.

“…what you said is true?”

“For us, this is not a difficult task. Or, do you think it is more difficult to grow grass on the deserts on Earth than it is to grow grass on the seabed or even on Mars?” Jiang Chen subtly showed off his achievements before he continued, “Don’t digress. We can wait until you become king to discuss the matter of ‘terraforming Earth’. We are now discussing another issue.”

Yerif controlled his breathing, leaned back against his chair, and quietly waited for Jiang Chen to continue.

“I have a batch of weapons in my hands and a group of well-trained South African mercenaries. I need you to help me send them from the Persian Gulf into Syria and ensure me a supply channel that can travel from the Persian Gulf to the Syrian border. Don’t say it’s impossible, I know you have your ways,” Jiang Chen said seriously as his eyes fixated on Yerif.

The mercenaries that came out of the Madagascar slums were cheap cannon fodder. They were the historical legacy left behind when Celestial Trade competed with the Freemasonry for control of Madagascar. They were contractors in Celestial Trade’s corporate military system.

They were well trained and large in number. Even without a kinetic skeleton, they were a force to be reckoned with.

“But why should I help you? What can you do for me?” Yerif spread his hands and smiled, “Money? You know I don’t need that thing.”

At the negotiating table, especially at this level, friendship was not enough to be a bargaining chip.

And Jiang Chen did not expect to let him do this favor based on the favor of creating a “robot” for him in the first place. After all, as Yerif said, he would take a big risk, to the point that if this leaked, he would risk being exiled by the royal family. If it weren’t for that favor, he would probably not be sitting here in the first place.

Jiang Chen smiled and slowly said as he looked at Yerif.

“I can give you the bottom line. The mercenary group I plan to send to Syria is about ten thousand people. They are proficient in using drones and are good at operating various modern vehicles. Originally, these people worked for Arrow but were later incorporated by us to fight against Freemasonry. After the Syrian problem is resolved, I have no plans to continue to support these people. I can transfer them to you.”

“Ten thousand people?” Yerif also laughed, then shook his head. “What can ten thousand people do? I advise you not to get involved in the desert. No matter what deal you made with the Russians, it was a wrong decision.”

Ten thousand people; all of them infantry.

If it were the orbital airborne soldiers of Celestial Trade, the proposition could still be a discussion, but based on Jiang Chen’s tone, these ten thousand people were both without the protection of kinetic skeleton nor the support of main battle tanks. To throw them into this swamp known as Syria, they probably wouldn’t even make a splash.

You know, the regular army of Bassar exceeded three hundred thousand.

However, Jiang Chen maintained his confident smile after Yerif finished his sentence.

“Then what if I told you that the combat power of these ten thousand people is comparable to fifty thousand?”

The room suddenly became quiet.

Yerif’s fingers clasped tightly onto the armrests, he gulped and looked at Jiang Chen suspiciously.

“That’s impossible. How sure can you be sure that their combat effectiveness is comparable to fifty thousand people?”

“Nothing is impossible.” Jiang Chen shrugged. “These people once served in Arrow of the Freemasonry, and later accepted our reorganization. One is the most powerful military company in the old era, and the other is the most powerful private military force in the new era. These ten thousand people are not mobilized soldiers or volunteers drawn from the reserve. They are a group of monsters with power compared to special forces. Their hands are blood-stained by soldiers only as powerful as them, and not from unarmed civilians.”

In order to avoid revealing their identity, this group of foreign mercenaries would not be equipped with kinetic skeletons.

But even without the kinetic skeleton, they still possessed the genetic vaccine!

A shot of E-grade genetic vaccine was compared to a mini superman after half a month of physical training. Even without the kinetic skeleton, their reaction and survivability were far superior to that of the ordinary person. Other than the regular force of Celestial Trade, there was no other force on Earth that could field an entire infantry division with special forces.

Yerif was silent.

From the outside world, he was a supporter of the Sunni, but deep in his heart, he did not agree with this status quo. As Jiang Chen said, secularization was the ultimate future of all beliefs. Dubai next door was the perfect example, even with the pitiful amount of oil, it was more prosperous than his hometown.

However, change was not that simple.

Even as the crown prince of the country, or even as the future king, he could not have free reign in his country. He could be playful, incompetent, or spend all the money with the royal family, but if he dared to start a religious revolution in the country, the army that supported the religion would even turn their weapons on him and push his uncle or brother to the throne.

The condition that Jiang Chen offered was very attractive.

A division of mercenaries.

After they solved the problems in Syria, this powerful force would become a private force loyal to him only.

If he wished to push for change in his country, then he would need a force absolutely loyal to him. And this force would be supported by Celestial Trade, which would become his biggest trump card to bring change for his kingdom.

And, a group of heretics that didn’t question right or wrong, and never hesitated in the killing was his best choice…

Chapter 1266: A Lavish State Banque

Chapter 1266 A Lavish State Banque With a bright smile on his face, Yerif shook Jiang Chen’s hand and then exited the room.Ayesha walked up to Jiang Chen and asked him in a whisper.

“It’s over?”

“Almost. At least half of it is done,” Jiang Chen said.

“Why don’t we send the mercenaries of Madagascar directly to South America? Their capability is enough to sweep Colombia.” Ayesha said. “Getting involved in the Middle East may touch the sensitive nerves of the UA more.”

“This involves a problem of adapting to the local conditions. Compared to South America, the chaos in the Middle East is more suitable for us to intervene without reservation.” Jiang Chen shook his head and said softly, “If you send them to South America, we probably can’t even hide a brigade, let alone a division. We will turn a peaceful country into hell under the eyes of the international community.”

“And the Russians will not?” Ayesha rebutted.

“Of course not,” Jiang Chen smiled. “The KGB left a rich political legacy in South America in the Soviet Era. Venezuela will help them with their plans… At least that’s what Natasha said.”

“And, the most important thing is that we can solve both problems at the same time.”

“Our Global Grid Plan is not just for South America. The entirety of Europe is waiting for us to tackle it. Now, our submarine cable has crossed India and landed in the UAE. It’s only a matter of time before it enters Saudi Arabia. A troubled land is in front of us. After we cross there, we can then finally cross the intersection that lead to Constantinople and Paris.”

“Russia can’t freely operate in the Mediterranean. However, we may just have the conditions to help them solve this problem once and for all. In exchange, Russia can help us solve the troubles of South America. So, for both of us, all of our troubles are solved. This is fair,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Yes, this is fair.

…

The melodious and elegant symphony reverberated in the banquet hall. As more and more guests entered, the atmosphere of the banquet gradually rose to a peak.

When the appetizers were removed from the tables, a dazzling array of food was served, followed by resounding exclamations that could be heard from time to time in the hall.

“This is probably the most luxurious banquet I have ever seen,” A man in a suit sat at the long table and looked at the palm-sized omelet on his plate and exclaimed from the bottom of his heart.

After the omelet was cooked to golden perfection, it was placed on top of the fried potato and sprinkled with ten ounces of caviar. The small portion meant it could be finished in just a few bites, but the price tag was as high as one thousand dollars. Just the color and shape made people drool, and it was no doubt a masterpiece made by a 3-star Michelin chef.

Food could make people high.

This sentence was not a joke at all.

In addition to this palm-sized omelet, there was also a small bowl of soup served to the guests.

In the thick, golden-like broth, there were a few strands of chicken breast floating on the surface. A tiny, thin slice of mushroom floated on the creamy soup. If the person did not recognize the ingredients, they would most likely scorn at the soup. Isn’t this just chicken soup? How can this be considered a Michelin dish with just some butter added to increase the thickness of the soup?

However, when the soup was served to the guests, it caused quite a stir.

Not because of anything else, but because the tiny piece of mushroom slice floating on the soup was the world’s most expensive mushroom – giant white truffle!

The price of this ingredient was difficult to determine because it was basically an auction item. The most recent transaction price was 307,000 pounds for a total of 1.1 kilograms. Now, the auction item along with previously auctioned items were made into a truffle chicken soup and then served to the guests in exquisite porcelain bowls…

The white truffle floating on the broth was only the size of a thumb.

But the value of this piece was much more than the soup itself.

Even Yerif could not help but feel excited.

Celestial Trade is simply too rich!

It was not that he hadn’t eaten this kind of food. There was no food in the world that he hadn’t tried before. But even he would not serve over a thousand guests a dish with ingredients costing up to a couple hundred thousand pounds.

A beautiful little card was placed on the plates and labelled the food ingredients. No matter whether or not the guests recognized the ingredients, they could all enjoy the knowledge of what they were eating…

Sitting at the table, even Kerry was astonished by the series of high-quality and expensive ingredients.

A government supported by the nouveau rich. Even a state banquet can be so lavish.

However, he did not display this astonishment. After all, he represented the UA government. What’s more, the state banquet was never about the food, but rather, the diplomatic achievements that can be achieved at the banquet.

Kerry glanced at his watch, moved his focus away from the dazzling food collection, and began searching the room.

He was looking for Jiang Chen.

However, so far, even with the food served, and he did not see the man appear at this place.

“Late?”

Kerry frowned slightly.

He felt something was off, but he could not tell where the hunch came from.

It was not just him that felt the same way. Many people’s eyes moved subtly to search for Jiang Chen. Without a doubt, the most worthwhile person in the entire event was the man who did not show up yet.

Many people had already thought about their plan; how to naturally approach and talk to him. Many well-known and shrewd actresses were planning on creating an unexpected but beautiful encounter. It would be even better to ask him for a dance.

What’s more, a rich man with a big belly was debating how to subtly introduce his daughter, who did not look like him at all, to that man.

However, the most anxious was Zhang Yaping.

He felt awkward.

There was only five minutes left before the start of the banquet.

If it was someone else, he could leave the person aside and leave the main entrance to go somewhere else. However, it was Jiang Chen that had yet to arrive. Even if he offended all the guests, he could not leave that man out at the door.

Many of his opponents were looking at him to see how the situation would turn out.

Zhang Yaping pulled his assistant aside and whispered to him.

“Can you call and ask why he is not here yet?”

“I have already asked. The security guard in charge of the parking lot told me that Mr. Jiang arrived half an hour ago.” The assistant was also anxious, but his reaction was not as obvious.

“Half an hour ago?” Zhang Yaping hurriedly asked, “Where did he go? Or did he already enter the banquet hall from the side door?”

“I heard that he and his old friend have been talking for a while, and he should be here soon—”

Before the assistant could finish, two figures appeared at the main entrance.

The assistant opened his mouth and quickly pulled at the sleeve of the president while lowering his voice. Then he said in a voice full of joy.

“They’re here.”

At the moment that Jiang Chen stepped into the venue, he clearly felt that all the eyes were gathered on him.

He nodded with friendliness to the guests in the venue. He looked at Zhang Yaping, who was walking toward him, and extended his hand apologetically.

“Sorry, I’m a little late.”

Chapter 1267: We“ll just get rid of i

Chapter 1267 We“ll just get rid of i “You’re finally here.” Zhang Yaping shook Jiang Chen’s hand and revealed a relieved smile.“Hopefully I’m not late?” Jiang Chen smiled apologetically.

“No, there are still two minutes before the dinner starts. Please, come this way.” Zhang Yaping gestured toward the venue behind him and then led Jiang Chen inside.

The dinner started on time.

After the main courses, there were desserts, cold drinks, champagne, and red wine. As the rhythm of the symphony gradually became more melodious, it marked the start of the ball. The waiter took away the empty plates and placed bottles of champagne on the long tables.

The guests left their seats one after another and went after their target. Whether it was just for a dance, or for a contract worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, or a chance to reach their dream, or just a one night stand…

All the needs of the upper class could be fulfilled here.

At the center of the venue, Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha, who was on his left, with a gentle smile. She was moving the cherry on top of the ice cream with a silver spoon in boredom.

Although the dance had already begun, he did not intend to go mingle. For one, he was not interested in being surrounded by a large group of people, and for two, in his position, it was no longer necessary to deliberately make friends.

He had two purposes for attending today’s event.

One, to agree on the deal with Yerif, and two, to appear here.

Now, he achieved both of these goals.

Just then, a white man in a suit sat down on his right-hand side, took a glass full of wine, and said.

“Can I sit here?”

“Of course.” Jiang Chen looked at Kerry with some surprise.

He remembered that just a month ago, the secretary of state was someone else. He didn’t expect this guy to renege from Hill’s camp and participate in the party’s primaries, but now, he once again returned to Hill’s camp.

Although Jiang Chen did not have a lot of goodwill toward the UA government, he felt highly about the ability of the secretary of state.

“You are very surprised?”

“Of course,” Jiang Chen smiled. “I didn’t expect you to return to the position of secretary of state immediately, instead of being sent to somewhere for retirement.”

“That’s because you don’t know the Capitol.” Kerry took a sip of the wine and seemingly hinted at something.

“Is that so?” Jiang Chen shrugged. “Maybe. Just like you have never known us.”

Kerry smiled and placed the glass on the table.

After a pause, he looked at Jiang Chen and lowered his voice.

“When did you get on the same boat as the B City Consortium?”

“As early as two years ago. We had extensive cooperation in the freshwater business. They also helped Future Bank go public in the UA.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Don’t pull this on me, you know what I mean.” Kerry’s lowered voice was mixed with a trace of hoarseness, and the hoarseness revealed a hint of reluctance and unacceptance, but he cleverly hid all of this behind an indifferent expression, “To be honest, if you didn’t help, we wouldn’t have even considered that little guy as a contender…”

“Is it really good to talk about your candidate on this particular occasion? Mr. Secretary of State?” Jiang Chen laughed and said innocently, “And what do you mean, did my hacker hack your voting machine? Or did you outsource the election to my company without me knowing?”

“Don’t act stupid.” Kerry shook his head. “Do you know what you got yourself into? You are against a giant interest group, a military-industry complex that was established before the outbreak of World War One—”

“Giant?” Jiang Chen also picked up the glass and smiled slyly when he heard what Kerry just said. “Is it bigger than Rothschild and his Freemasonry?”

Kerry opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“My attitude has always been clear. If you are willing to cooperate, we are happy to open the door, just as we have worked with the Rothschild family before.” Jiang Chen shook the red wine in the glass and stared at the bloody red liquid before he whispered, “But if you still think that you are the center of the world, hold the belief that everyone must surrender to you, and you wish to continue to go down the wrong path…”

With one hand holding her delicate and beautiful chin, Ayesha, who was stilling playing with the cherry out of boredom, stopped. Kerry sensed the sudden change in the atmosphere and quickly glanced the girl on the other side before he swallowed his words.

The wine in his hand tilted slightly as if it made some kind of announcement, then Jiang Chen said softly.

“We’ll just get rid of it.”

…

“…a creamy ice cream made from twenty types of cocoa is surrounded a thin layer of delicate curd. Small pieces of truffle chocolate are sprinkled on top and the entire thing is placed in a fine crystal cup. I once tried it in a high-end restaurant in New York, but that one was slightly smaller compared to this. The cost was about 17,000 dollars, and I needed to book two days in advance… Do you not want to try this?” With a charming smile on his face, the man in a white suit revealed his white teeth and courteously spoke to the woman next to him.

A beautiful woman with an oriental face stood facing him. She was in a pale yellow evening gown, dignified yet elegant, and the soft ribbon gently wrapped in front of her waist added a touch of brightness to the fullness in front of her chest.

Although the standards of beauty remained different between the West and the East, some things remained the same.

However, the beauty who stood there showed a glimpse of impatience or repulsion.

“Sorry, I have no appetite,” Liu Yao shook her head and said.

“No appetite? That is a big problem,” Felix smiled and gracefully extended his right hand. “Maybe you need some exercise, like dancing with the rhythm of the music. Beautiful lady, do I have the pleasure to be your partner?”

“No need,” Liu Yao refused.

The graceful smile froze on his face, and a hint of anger appeared but also disappeared quickly in Felix’s eyes. His emotions were hidden behind his dark green pupil.

“I haven’t introduced myself yet. That’s my mistake.”

Felix retracted his hand, took out a business card, and placed it between his two fingers.

“I hope you can think about it again. This is my business card. I’m the manager of Warner Bros. Asia. I’ve been focusing on the South Asia market, hoping to discover some promising talents for the parent company.” Felix passed the card in front of Liu Yao and smiled. “If you are interested, I can take you to Hollywood. You have the ability to become famous around the world.”

He understood female stars too well, especially Asian actresses.

Hollywood movies had been doing all they could to enter the Chinese market, but the second and third-tier stars, or even premium stars, had been desperately trying to get into Hollywood, even just for two seconds on the red carpet.

Countless women packaged themselves to his bed for this opportunity.

However, Liu Yao simply felt angry and thought it was comical when she saw the name on the card.

Just as her lips formed a curvature, and she was ready to take his business card and toss it into the trash can, a woman in a black evening gown walked in their direction.

When Felix saw the person, his eyes narrowed.

Chapter 1268: Can I please invite you for a dance?

Chapter 1268 Can I please invite you for a dance? Emma stopped beside the two. She first looked at Liu Yao, then looked at Felix. She had an idea as to what happened before she sneered at the sight.“Mr. Felix, let me guess, you’re fooling people again with your business card, am I right?”

“What do you mean by fooling? Please pay attention to your words, Ms. Watson.” His hooked-nose pointed directly at Emma as a hint of disgust quickly flashed across Felix’s eyes.

A typical movie star would not be qualified to speak to him like this, but Emma was different. She somehow managed to become the brand ambassador for nutrient supplies. Despite Future Biology not being a core asset within Future Group, she was still under the Future Group umbrella.

Among the second-tier stars in Warner Bros’ portfolio, she was the only untouchable one.

He could offend anyone but Future Group.

After all, Future Technology was starting to replace Industrial Light and Magic in Hollywood. VR filming technology not only could save on cost, but the box office of VR theatres became one of the most dominant channels for film producers.

Of course, even if he did not dare to offend the giant corporation behind her, it did not mean he could not scold her.

“What’s wrong? Ms. Emma, do you want to ask me for a dance?” Felix sneered. “I heard that the Women Rights Organization that you’re a part of is discussing removing you, is that true? I heard that it’s accusing you of being a bit*h hiding under the symbol of Social Justice Warriors, and actually worked for a boss who did not respect women’s rights.”

As an executive of Warner Bros., he knew Emma’s pain points. In her early years, in order to brand herself into a “model woman with high education qualifications”, she even put aside her acting career under the advice of her agency, and frequently advocated for equal rights, and even spoke on behalf of an organization at the United Nations…

However, her branding could be described as a failure, or rather, she did not synchronize her perspective with the person responsible for “branding” her. A voice of doubt always existed that questioned if she truly advocated for equal rights since the end of Harry Potter.

“Felix, let’s not discuss my issues. You should worry about your situation first,” Emma took a deep breath and watched Felix with a grin, “Before you try to hit on someone, why not try and learn about the other person’s background?”

Felix’s expression changed slightly, and then he stared directly at Liu Yao.

After a closer examination, this woman seemed familiar.

But he could not recall why she looked familiar.

To be honest, he could not distinguish the difference between Asian faces like most international executives sent to Asia. Other than extremely popular celebrities with distinctive features, or those he worked with frequently, he could rarely recognize someone immediately.

“Sorry, may I ask you for your name?” Felix barely maintained his calmness as he politely asked Liu Yao.

“Liu Yao.”

Liu Yao…?

Never heard of it… wait.

Suddenly, Felix’s expression changed drastically and droplet of sweat started to appear on his forehead.

When he was sent to Asia, he heard a rumor. A film invested by Future Technology held a premiere at Nippon, and the son of a real estate mogul tried to force himself onto an actress.

He didn’t know what happened in the middle, but he did hear about what happened in the end. The real estate company worth trillions of Yen vanished. Both the father and son were thrown into jail. The rumor also said the Sumitomo Consortium was behind the scene, and Sumitomo was the biggest partner of Celestial Trade’s energy export project…

Sweat dripped down from Felix’s sideburn, he swallowed down and finally understood the situation he got himself into.

The CEO of a trillion Yen company was uprooted overnight, and as an executive of a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, what was he worth.

Liu Yao may be that man’s…

Without paying attention to Felix, who left after he was scared by his own thought, Liu Yao looked at Emma Watson with slight confusion.

Although she knew some stars in Hollywood, their interactions were limited, and they at most spoke a couple of sentences.

“Thank you.”

“No need, it was nothing,” Emma smiled and slightly raised her goblet. “If he continues to bother you, you can tell me. This is my card.”

Continue to bother me?

Liu Yao did not think that the man would dare to bother her after learning about her identity.

But she graciously accepted Emma’s kindness.

Because they worked together in the same field, and previously cooperated together in the film co-invested by Warner Bros. and Future Group. After exchanging business cards, they went to the side to chat.

One lady had a face of an angel and the figure of a vixen while the other possessed the temperament of a noble British princess. The two beautiful women standing together naturally attracted the attention of countless people, but no one came to interrupt them.

After all, at this type of event, there were only a few idiots like Felix. The majority of the people here would use their brains to think about the potential cost of their behavior.

The two got along surprisingly well.

The topic quickly changed from the entertainment industry to gossips. Then the topics quickly changed to themselves.

The fact Liu Yao bluntly admitted that she was Jiang Chen’s lover caught Emma by surprise, but she did not comment on it.

She was not surprised by Liu Yao’s identity as it was no longer considered a secret. She was most surprised about how open Liu Yao was. The average person would refrain from discussing this topic, and Emma was also very considerate in not discussing this topic, but Liu Yao did not seem to mind and directly acknowledged this fact.

“Don’t you want to dance with him?” Looking toward the center of the banquet hall, Emma asked.

“No need.” Liu Yao gently shook her head.

“Why?”

“Because the reason why I’m here is to see him, and I have already done that.” Liu Yao smiled.

“And that’s enough?” Emma asked.

“That’s enough.”

Emma’s expression revealed her confusion, but she did not say anything more.

“To be honest,” Liu Yao looked to the center and let out a sigh and whispered. “I thought about trying to catch up to him a long time ago, but what I didn’t expect was that he had already gone an unreachable distance.”

Perhaps in her mind, she enjoyed her life in Wanghai in the past.

However, she was also very aware.

It would be impossible to go back to the past.

Emma bid farewell with her as the ball approached its end.

Standing alone on the side of the dance floor, while enjoying the champagne in the glass, Liu Yao quietly admired the men and women, hugging. She revealed a sweet smile. From time to time, someone would come forward and invite her to dance, but she rejected the invitation one after another, until when the last song began to play, and the ball was gradually coming to an end.

She returned back to the hall.

The figure sitting at the long table was gone.

No longer searching, Liu Yao sighed, and headed out with the crowd.

The sea breeze blew in through the windows of the corridor. In the distant sea, the waves splashed and the Moon had cast its cool and beautiful light into the quiet night.

Immersed in the beauty outside, she did not pay attention to her path and accidentally bumped into someone.

She let out a shout.

Liu Yao, who lost her balance, fell backward.

Just when she closed her eyes and thought she would for sure get hurt, one arm wrapped around her lower back.

Their chests were almost stuck together, and the tip of her nose could even feel the warm airflow.

With a frown, the blushing Liu Yao was about to become enraged, but she then noticed the face belonged to that man…

She could no longer suppress her tears.

“Beautiful lady, can I please invite you for a dance?” His empty hand gently combed back the hair in front of her forehead. With his eyes fixated on the beauty in his arm, Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

Chapter 1269: A Path Ou

Chapter 1269 A Path Ou How could he not know that Liu Yao came?Although he did not send the invitations, every name that entered through the border at Coro Airport would appear in the Ghost Agents’ server. What’s more, Liu Yao’s name was on the protection list of the “foreign dignitaries”. When her name appeared on the entry list, Ayesha told Jiang Chen immediately.

When the dinner was about to end, Jiang Chen left first to set up his “ambush”.

Jiang Chen brought Liu Yao into the presidential suite at the Hilton Hotel downstairs and shut the door behind him. The two hugged together at the entrance against the cabinet on the wall.

“Where did Ayesha go?” With her back against the wall, Liu Yao was panthing and her eyes quickly swept across the room. When she responded to the invasive eyes staring at her, she asked with a little hoarseness. “Wasn’t she still here with you?”

“She went back to have some time off.”

“Time off?”

“Yes, I will be here for the next three days,” Jiang Chen said while smirking.

Liu Yao understood the meaning of the smirk. She lowered her head and whispered.

“My flight is tomorrow morning.”

“Then cancel it,” with one hand slammed on the wall, and the other hand gently lifted her delicate chin, Jiang Chen had an irrefutable tone, domineering, “My private jet can send you back.”

“You’re bad,” Liu Yao escaped the restless fingers and slammed her head on Jiang Chen’s chest. Her cheeks were red but there was a joyous smile on her face. She said in a spoiled voice, “Be careful, I’ll call the police and say you’re illegally detaining a famous celebrity.”

“Go, the police station in Coro belongs to me. I want to see who is going to catch me.” With that same smirk, Jiang Chen said, “Right, I just happen to miss a pair of handcuffs and a whip, they can send them to me.”

“Why do you want those things?” Backing up against the walls, Liu Yao acted afraid.

“Of course to interrogate you,” his index finger was gently placed under her gorgeous face as he said softly, “Why didn’t you tell me before you came? I could have picked you up.”

“I,” She gently gasped and suppressed the feelings that were about to overflow, then whispered, “I wanted to give you a surprise.”

Staring into her captivating eyes, Jiang Chen grinned.

“The police officer concludes that you are lying.”

Liu Yao laughed out loud.

“Didn’t you say before that you couldn’t recognize whether my words were true or false?”

“You also said that that was before,” Jiang Chen acted mysteriously and closed his eyes. “But now, an ability of mine suddenly awakened, called Mind Reading. It can tell me if you’re lying.”

Liu Yao covered her mouth as she giggled, then charmingly rolled her eyes and teasingly said, “Then why don’t you just read my mind? Why bother interrogating?”

“Because I want to hear you say it.”

The atmosphere in the room was becoming more and more lucid.

“Come and work in Xin?”

Liu Yao shook her head.

“Why?”

“My current state is good.”

“Really?” Jiang Chen asked.

“You already have a lot of wives, but you only have one lover,” She gently placed her jade-like fingers against Jiang Chen’s heart, and sweetly smiled, “At least I have a unique place there.”

As Jiang Chen fixated into her watery eyes full of emotion, he sniffed the jasmine scent in her hair and then quietly said.

“You’ll make me feel guilty.”

“Shouldn’t you feel guilty? You bad person…”

Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pulled the face that she longed for everyday closer.

Her red lips moved down along the side of his head before her teeth gently nipped at Jiang Chen’s ear lope. It was like tasting a jelly as her tongue explored the soft outline.

She felt the heat pressed against her thighs.

Her warm breath blew into his ear as she whispered out the words she had always wanted to say.

“Feed me…”

…

After the ball, Yerif returned to the hotel in Penglai by yacht.

Lying flat on the lounger on the roof, Yerif enjoyed the massage by the beauty behind him; his eyes gradually closed as he was no longer focused on the bustling night. With his muscles relaxed, he began to appreciate the skillful massage.

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

This sentence came from a book written by a pagan, which he happened to read when he was studying abroad.

However, no matter how many times he recalled this phrase, it always gave a different understanding each time.

If the sentence was applied to his country today, changing the “dust” into “sand” shall vividly state the fate of the desert kingdom.

Oil prices continued to fall, even without Future Biology’s oil crops, the breakthrough in shale gas forced oil production into a strange circle – “the more they extracted, the more there are; the more they extracted, the poorer they become.”

In some countries, it was not so evident, but a few years ago, many countries whose oil prices were regulated by the market, showed that the price of one liter of gasoline was cheaper than one liter of mineral water.

A very ironic reality.

The “black gold” that once stirred the exchange rate and futures markets had fallen.

The unfinished buildings in the desert had already illustrated many problems, and the ambitious plan to build a second Dubai was no longer feasible. How long could the black gold support the extravagance of the Saudi royal family? Even Yerif, who was enjoying all of this, was uncertain.

But he was convinced about one point.

That is, if they don’t want to become like their neighbors in the north, they must learn from the neighbors in the east.

With that thought in mind, Yerif’s eyebrows furrowed together and his fists closed shut.

They must change.

Before the world forced them to change.

“Did I hurt you?”

The beauty massaging asked softly.

“No.” His eyebrows relaxed as Yeirf smiled, “You can use a bit more force.”

“Okay,” the beauty smiled, and used more strength. “In fact, you can be more relaxed.”

Yerif licked the corner of his mouth without speaking, then closed his eyes once again.

When he heard the price of Jiang Chen’s offer, he immediately agreed to it, but he still felt hesitant about the dangerous deal.

Ten thousand mercenaries.

For the chaos in Syria, it was only a small number.

However, for him, it was not a small number.

Jiang Chen was right, he did in fact have connections with key people in Syria. A general who was loyal to President Bashar and a Russian businessman who only recognized money. In partnership with these two people, he could easily send a batch of fuel processed into finished products and weapons bought from Western countries, passing through the Saudi border, through the Jordanian Eastern Corridor, into the hands of the Syrian government forces, in exchange for US dollar on overseas private accounts. Although his family was very rich and never mistreated the soon-to-be-king, every expense was recorded and no money truly belonged to him.

It was this reason he felt constrained developing his own force. Disregarding training mercenaries, the property in Penglai and the yacht in his private dock were all under the name of the royal family.

His father’s time was running out, and some things must be prepared early.

He let out a sigh, then picked up the satellite phone from the table next to him and made a “you can stop” gesture to the beauty behind him. He turned over and called a number.

The phone quickly went through.

A low, hoarse voice picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.”

“Oh? The respected future King of Saudi Arabia, you will take the throne soon. At that time, everything in Saudi Arabia will belong to you. Are you still lacking pocket change?” There was suppressed laughter from the other side.

After a few moments of silence, Yerif said.

“Let’s discuss a deal.”

“Now the government forces are well equipped, they’ll not be willing to pay a lot of money to buy fuel and weapons from you. I suggest you wait patiently.”

“This time we are not smuggling fuel and weapons,” Yerif said.

The man hesitated, then asked.

“What is it then?”

“People.”

“People?” The man’s eyes narrowed slightly. “How many people?”

“Ten thousand people,” Yerif said. “And their equipment, supplies.”

There was a gasp on the other side of the phone, then there was no response for a long time.

Yerif waited quietly.

He was well aware that his partner from Russia would be afraid and be hesitant, but he would not refuse the dollar. He felt more than once that the man was more similar to the Jews than the Russians.

“What’s the offer?” Sure enough, the man asked.

“We have been working together for so many years, you should know how much money I have in that account,” Yerif said with a smile.

Originally, this “private money” was to be used to establish his own force to help him stabilize the country after his succession, and to ensure the reform and implementation plan could be carried out smoothly. Now, it seemed that he no longer needed that much money.

Just like the man said, after he took the throne, the entire country would belong to him.

As long as he could sit on that seat.

“You didn’t touch a penny?” The man was shocked.

“You can interpret it like that.” Yerif nodded. “If you do this for me, successfully, I can give you half of the money in that account.”

Instantly, the man’s eyes turned red.

Greed.

Almost without any hesitation, he accepted.

“Deal!”

Chapter 1270: This is fine

Chapter 1270 This is fine Good times were always short-lived.Jiang Chen spent the three days traversing between the streets of Coro with Liu Yao. He took her to all the attractions across Xin to re-experience the ever-changing country.

Because of the holographic camouflage system, both of their appearances were modified so that they would not need to worry about reporters. It was also one of the few times Jiang Chen once again experienced his past way of living.

“What do you think of this place?”

“…It’s hard to make the connection with the small island it was a few years ago.” On top of the cliff, looking at the high-risers in the distance, and the countless magnetic levitation vehicles moving, Liu Yao sighed and expressed her heartfelt feelings, “It feels like I’m living in a dream.”

“Will you stay?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Liu Yao smiled back with sweetness, but didn’t respond, instead, she tipped-toe and kissed him on the lips, then winked playfully.

Jiang Chen understood the meaning behind the kiss. He just smiled and no longer mentioned this matter.

The next morning, Jiang Chen sent her away at the airport.

As he gazed at the Gulfstream G650 accelerating into the horizon, he moved his mouth, then touched his lips. After he stood still for a moment, he then left with his bodyguards.

…

A week had passed since the banquet, and soon it was mid-April.

The election of Xin had already ended, and the Zhang Yaping government smoothly transitioned into the next four years. At the same time, the UA election was now in the fierce debate period. Joseph Kennedy was already prepared to use his conservative approach against Trump’s aggressive attack.

He understood that it would be bewildering to even think that he could win with words.

So no matter how Trump attacked him personally in the debate, his response was just a calm smile.

If he could not display the aggressive side of the voters, then he should demonstrate his tolerance and calmness.

It was extremely effective. Although the strategy did not allow him to gain an advantage, he was not put in a disadvantageous situation… Though he would curse out in the lounge after every single debate…

According to the latest polls, Mr. Kennedy’s poll was slightly higher.

Already excluded from the election campaign, the Hill government’s policies had gradually become conservative.

In any case, she stood with the Democrats.

“We are winning,” Loki said in excitement on the phone. “According to the latest polls, we are only one step away. If everything goes smooth, the victory in November will belong to us!”

“Is that so?” Jiang Chen grinned and leaned back in his chair, then he quietly spoke. “According to the information we have collected, Morgan seems to have joined forces with Rockefeller with the plan to push Republican’s candidate, Trump, onto that position… Are you really able to withstand the pressure of going against Rockefeller and Morgan who almost have complete control of Wall Street?”

“You know too?” Loki was somewhat surprised.

“We have been paying attention to the situation in your country.” Jiang Chen said.

Since the fall of Rothschild Bank, the Jewish forces were completely eradicated from Wall Street, and Wall Street welcomed a unified stage that had not been seen for more than a century. However, this kind of unification was only superficial. If the external pressures disappeared, the internal struggles would intensify.

Originally because of the Jewish Consortium, the Anglo-Saxon family had to be united, but now this external cause disappeared. Although Celestial Trade remained a threat, its “aggressiveness” was low in comparsion.

The conflict of interests was forcing the WASP alliance to gradually split.

This election was nothing more than a poor excuse…

“The actions of Morgan and Rockefeller are also somewhat expected,” Suppressing the joy in his tone, Loki sounded more serious, “But we have kept the risk under control. The security level of Joseph Kennedy was upped to the level of the president, and their chance of assassination is almost zero.”

“Need us to help?” Jiang Chen smiled. “Our bodyguards are world class.”

“No need,” said Loki as he shook his head with a smile. “If our candidate’s private bodyguards become Celestial Trade’s Orbital Airborne soldiers, our story will appear on the headlines of the Washington Post the next day. ”

That makes sense.

That is the correct political choice to make

How could a presidential candidate use a foreign mercenary as a bodyguard? Especially if it was the “notorious” Celestial Trade.

After their conversation ended, Jiang Chen looked at the clock on the wall. It was dinner time, so he went to the living room.

Natasha came in just as Jiang Chen sat down on the sofa.

She also brought back news from Russia.

According to her, the KGB began its operation in South America. The CIB caught onto their actions, but did not manage to collect sufficient evidence, the counter-measurement was to strengthen the security of the Colombian president.

The panicking Colombian president shut himself in the room, reduced travel, and also mobilized a brigade to the nation’s capital.

The well-trained Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, entered the country from Venezuela and began to push forward from the northern provinces of Colombia. At the same time, an assassination plan to hunt down the president was also in full swing.

From six months to at most a year, the opposition party would force the Colombian president to step down with the support of the KGB and the Venezuelan government.

At the same time, Yerif also sent good news from Saudi Arabia…

“The people on the Russian side have already started, what about you? My father asked me to bring a message to you, why haven’t they seen any movement?” Natasha asked while swaying her beautiful blonde hair. She sat down across from him while she drank a cup of freshly brewed coffee; she was already in her pajamas.

“Ten thousand mercenaries have been assembled in Madagascar. Once the insiders in Saudi Arabia clears the route, we can ship them in a cruise and then disembark them on the coast of the Red Sea. We can pass through Saudi Arabia territory without anyone knowing.”

It was the safest route.

Apart from this route, only two other routes remained. One option would be to bypass South Africa and cross the Strait of Gibraltar from the west coast of Syria. The other option would be to pass through Turkey. The former risked being discovered by the NATO fleet, and the latter wasn’t even an option to begin with. Turkey was one of the supporters of the opposition in Syria.

“Is it okay to only have this many people?” Natasha thought while sipping her coffee. “I thought you would use your orbital airborne brigade.”

“You and someone asked the same question,” Jiang Chen shrugged and shook his head. “To deal with a bunch of fools, orbital airborne troops are not necessary. Our ‘reserves’ are more than enough. As for the number of people, you’ll see once they arrive.”

“Since you are so confident,” Natasha smiled, put down the coffee cup, and said, “Our Air Force can support you after the operation begins.”

“Then please.” Jiang Chen said.

Although it wouldn’t matter, it was a good jesture regardless.

“So, can you give me a rough timeline? I have to respond to my father,” Natasha said.

“October.” Jiang Chen opened his watch and glanced at the calendar on the holographic screen as he said nonchalantly, “The closer the date to the UA election, the less risk and resistance we face.”

“October… Well, that’s my answer,” Natasha said.

“Right, there is one more thing. You can also inform the Kremlin,” Jiang Chen looked at Natasha who was on her way upstairs.

“What?” Stopping on the stairs, Natasha looked back.

“We have named the million-ton ship Enovy-class, so we won’t refer to your opinion.”

“Just this?” Natasha rolled her eyes. “I thought you wanted to tell me that you already built it.”

“That’s the third thing I’m going to tell you,” enjoying her surprised expression, Jiang Chen grinned. “On May 7th, remember to let your people know to attend Envoy-class Starship’s ceremonial ship launching.”

Chapter 1271: The Prologue to the New Era

Chapter 1271 The Prologue to the New Era At the beginning of May, there was a sudden spike in the number of journalists and passengers heading to Xin.To be precise, there was an increase in the number of people travelling to Celestial City.

As for the reason, it was because Celestial Trade made an announcement a few days ago-

[The million-ton Envoy-class Starship is officially launching as part of the Earth Defense Alliance on May 7th…]

A million-ton starship!

Many people felt dizzy when they heard the news.

Especially those in the aerospace field.

The Ares VI engine that sent the Ares to the Mars orbit in a month’s time already marked the peak of NASA’s cutting-edge space technology. However, it didn’t take long for Celestial Trade to launch a million-ton starship.

The gap was drastic.

Although Celestial Trade and the Earth Defense Alliance jointly announced the construction plan of a million-ton starship long ago, even the members in the Earth Defense Alliance were skeptical about if Future Heavy Industries could build such a ship.

After all, the heaviest aircraft carrier weighed around 100,000 tons.

Take the Eisenhower nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as an example. Its stunning length was already seen as a feat. According to the data released by the UA military, in the event of a disaster, the deck space could accommodate up to 10,000 people while maintaining combat effectiveness.

Ten Eisenhowers connected from end to end…

People expressed that they couldn’t even imagine the size of this starship.

Since their imagination was not enough.

So they must go take a look.

Thanks to this, Celestial City’s hotels were completely booked up, even for the cheapest inns. Even Xin, under the space elevator, welcomed a booming period for its tourism.

“We’re currently at the original site of Celestial City’s Zero Gravity Shipyard. Now this place has been transformed into four small shipyards by Future Heavy Industries used for the production of Stingray X-1. The production equipment for Seagull-class has been transferred to a free-standing shipyard outside the city.”

Standing by the window of the shipyard corridor, a BBC reporter asked the cameraman to point the camera at the “H”-shaped shipyard space station outside the window, then the reporter continued to speak.

“…now the independent shipyard outside the city is completely closed. We have not yet obtained permission to enter the shipyard. This is probably the nearest place to Envoy-class in Celestial City, but it is not open to the public for the time being. If you are watching our program in Celestial City, you can head to the open sightseeing platform in the gravity-free section and use the telescope there to take a peek at the shipyard…”

At this moment, the reporter suddenly exclaimed and pointed to the direction of the shipyard.

“…look over there!”

From the distance, an eerie blue arc flashed, like a bright star in the dark and mysterious universe. On the sightseeing platform one kilometer away, the passengers standing under the transparent dome burst into exclamations and whistles.

The main engine was shut, and the two secondary engines on the bottom ejected two eerie blue rays backward.

With the two bursts of flames pushing it forward, the black dot representing Envoy-class slowly sailed through the distance of tens of kilometers, and displayed its mighty figure in front of the world!

From the faint light reflection from Earth, the black steel exuded a cold and fierce vibe.

The steep hull was like a dagger that pierced the darkness with its light and broke the silence of the universe.

Attempting to close his widened mouth and swallow down his shock along with his saliva, the reporter in front of the window, seemingly using all his energy, opened his trembling mouth once again. He explained to the audience waiting in front of TVs and computers.

“…unbelievable, unbelievable… I can’t find another suitable word in my poor lexicons to describe the shock in me at this moment. I believe that even if you are separated from the scene by tens of thousands of kilometers, through the screen of only a few inches, it’s not difficult for you to understand the shock at this moment,” He said emotionally as he looked at the gradually clear outline and the magnificent hull.

“Envoy-class starship, with a net weight of one million tons, built by Future Heavy Industries, will be delivered to the Earth Defense Alliance on May 7, 2020. As the first starship of the Earth Fleet, it will travel to and from Oort Cloud(1) and Celestial City for crew and officer training missions.”

“From today, our history has once again opened a new page,”

Online.

Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, Wechat, and Future 1.0…

All the contents on social media were about the same message.

“HOLY! Celestial Trade is really going to the next level!”

“Yes, they are already at the next level. They’re about to venture out from the solar system!”

“Built by Future Heavy Industries! My god, honey, take a look at our robot, I think the Future Heavy Industries logo is on it!”

“Wait! The doll… no, the maid robot is made by the same company as the Envoy-class?! ”

“What’s the fuss? You can open any electronics and as long as it contains graphene, it is likely to be manufactured from the New Malaysia Special District.”

Of course, in addition to the worship of Celestial Trade’s technology, people felt aspired.

Although this million-ton starship was not directly related to people’s lives, surprisingly, the launch of the Envoy-class ignited the enthusiasm of the people to immigrate to Xin, just like the magnetic leviathan technology and the city drone system.

“Is it too late to immigrate to Xin?”

“What’s the point of being a marshal, I want to go become a soldier in space! It’d be so cool to serve on that starship.”

“I don’t know if the space volunteers are still recruiting? This is an urgent question!”

“Sigh, I knew I should have bought a house on Coro Island four years ago. I heard that now the price at the city center has skyrocketed, and the threshold of immigration is extremely high. The simplest is probably to go through the route of space volunteers. But at the same time, you must check the ‘Subject to colonial immigration adjustment’…”

“What’s so bad about now? If you go to Mars, you don’t have to pay for food or rent. Maybe in a dozen years, you won’t even be able to buy a shack on it.”

“…”

At the same time that people around the world were paying tribute to the Enovy-class starship, the side of the harbor built at the gravity-free section of the city was now emptied for the arrival of this “envoy”. Representatives from the member states of the Earth Defense Alliance, together with the crew members and officers of the Earth Fleet who were about to board the ship, all stood by the entrance of the dock boarding passage…

(1) Oort cloud: Sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, first described in 1950 by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, is a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 au.

Chapter 1272: Launching Ceremony

Chapter 1272 Launching Ceremony “The Envoy-class starship has a net weight of one million tons. Its main engine is a high-power nuclear fusion engine, with its secondary engines utilizing ion propulsion technology. Its maximum cruising speed, in theory, can reach one-thousandth of the speed of light. The relative distance of 100 million kilometers, the starship can reach Mars in a week in cruise mode.” Jiang Chen stood in front of the window in the control tower as he gazed at the magnificent celestial ship; he looked proud.Now the relative distance between Mars and Earth was still around tens of millions of kilometers, but by the beginning of the second half of this year, this distance would exceed the 100 million kilometers range.

Aside from the LightSail that could in theory reach one-fifth the speed of light, the Envoy-class would be the largest and fastest manned spacecraft in human history.

It was a glory to be able to witness this very moment.

Not to mention he was the chief designer that personally made this project from just drawings into a reality.

“This is too massive…” Lu Hao stood beside Jiang Chen as he also examined the Envoy-class. After a long silence, he finally let out a sigh. “I’m afraid that only the Ford-class aircraft carrier along with all the ships in the battle group connected form end-and-end can be comparable to its length.”

As the admiral of the Hua National Navy, the former captain of the Nanning destroyer, he had seen many ships in his lifetime and even went to inspect the Liaoning aircraft carrier. He vaguely remembered that the last time he made a similar remark was when he participated in the UA Pacific Joint Military Exercise as an observer where stood on top of the deck of the Eisenhower nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

It was also the time when he was firmly convinced that that he must do everything to convince his superiors to develop nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Today, many years later, he once again felt the same way.

But more than his feelings, he did not know how he could catch up. Celestial Trade’s effort to help allowed all member states to make rapid progress in aerospace technology. Now, at least in the field of space mining, the member states could independently complete mining missions without the need for Future Mining’s technology consultants.

However, compared to the development of Celestial Trade, the word rapid must be placed inside quotation marks. Since compared to Celestial Trade’s leap forward, their progress was like a snail crawling.

When he thought of this, he cursed at the politicians in Wanghai countless times in his mind.

How stupid do you have to be to force such a talent to leave?

But it was only an afterthought.

“Is it big?” Jiang Chen laughed, narrowed his eyes as he examined the starship once again. “It’s indeed big, but in our space defense plan, this is not the biggest ship.”

“How much bigger can a ship get?” former ESA Director Anthony Leibniz, a representative from EU, stared at Jiang Chen, and asked incredulously, “You mean, this is not the biggest?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen said with certainty. “The Envoy-class is only a million tons. There will be a Constitutional-class, Lord-class, and Emperor-class… Our ultimate goal is to build a billion-ton starship, capable of hosting 100,000 crew members and allow one hundred percent material circulation inside the starship with sufficient energy.”

Looking at the dumbfounded expression of the representatives, Jiang Chen smiled and said in a joking tone.

“Of course, we still have to do this step-by-step. With our current progress, the million-ton class is more than sufficient. By the time we finally achieve our ultimate goal, we’ll probably have all turned into dust…”

Everyone laughed in good faith.

After a pause, Jiang Chen said.

“The Envoy-class starship has the same meaning for us as the first aircraft carrier. The purpose is to gain experience and lay the foundation for the future construction of a large-scale fleet. The only attack weapon on the starship is the mass transmitter that runs through the entire ship’s hull, mainly used to launch Stingray X-1.”

With 2,000 soldiers on board, all officers and soldiers were ready to set sail.

The soldiers already received six months of adaptive training at the Moon Military Base and understood their role on the starship. A thousand of the soldiers were reserve officers and crew members of Celestial Trade while the remaining thousand were “volunteers” from the Earth Defense Alliance member states.

The allocation of the thousand spots involved a series of heated debates around the negotiation table. After all, it was the first battleship of the Earth Fleet, even an ordinary crew member would become an officer or instructor in a few years

These future officers represented the future status and voice of the member states in the Earth Fleet, or even in the Earth Defense Alliance.

Therefore, the number of spots within the first crew was vitally important.

Because of the many secrets involved, the ceremonial ship launching of the Envoy-class starship was very simple, far simpler than the original shipyard completion ceremony and construction ceremony. Future Heavy Industries CEO, Yang Guanglei, represented the shipyard and handed over the information of the starship, the portfolio of various certificates, and a contract to Jiang Chen.

Then the representatives of the member states signed the contract in turn, and military uniforms and certificates were given to the soldiers waiting for boarding. The national anthems of the member states played in series, and the national flag of each member state was first placed in the boarding bay and sent abroad the Envoy-class starship.

Immediately afterward, the officers waiting to board the ship lined up and entered the starship through the electromagnetic track.

“Unfortunately, I started my career in the Army, or I really would want to follow them,” Wu Changfeng said with emotion while the officers boarded.

“Even if you wanted to, I wouldn’t send members of the Earth Defense Alliance on the starship.” Jiang Chen laughed, then said with a relaxed tone, “Although not on the front line, you play the role of commander. Each of your decisions will impact the life and death of everyone on the battleship.”

Wu Changfeng shrugged and joked.

“If we can live to the day of the battle.”

“You will,” Jiang Chen gently said with a confident but mysterious smile.

Just then, Jiang Chen’s wristwatch began to ring.

It was Kelvin.

Jiang Chen excused himself and walked aside. Then he put in the Bluetooth headset into his ears, opened the holographic screen, and picked up the phone.

“What’s the matter?”

Kelvin did not attend the ceremony today as the excavation work of Mine 071 already reached the most critical stage. As one of the project leaders, he must be in the space command center.

A call from him was not a good signal.

Sure enough, Kelvin’s first words made his hunch into a reality.

“Project 071 encountered a special circumstance.” Kelvin gulped and without giving time for Jiang Chen to ask any questions, he quickly articulated, “Our Marines were attacked by an unknown underground creature when we reached a depth of ten kilometers… and the creature was not the Devil Worm!”

Chapter 1273: Ultrasonic Fence

1273 Ultrasonic Fence Last month, the research institute at the colony and Celestial City lab determined the appropriate frequency through collaboration.The modified seismic wave excitation device would continuously transmit seismic waves of twelve different frequencies to create a “blank domain” with a range of ten kilometers underground. In this blank domain, Devil Worms would be unable to determine their direction and unable to distinguish the surrounding and surface conditions, while also experiencing strong discomfort.

The experts in the lab named the invention Ultrasonic Fence.

Twelve seismic wave excitation devices were deployed around the colony to form an ultrasonic fence. Now, with the colony as the center, the ten kilometers radius became a restricted zone for Devil Worms.

Thanks to this, the stagnant work around the colony finally restarted.

Under the command of Captain Hong Zewei, the engineering team repaired the riddled hydroponic plantations and pastures damaged by Devil Worms. At the same time, based on the plan of the Space Command Center, the first automatic steel plant was built on Mars.

There was no need to build mines to mine iron ore on Mars.

There were iron ores all over the place on Mars.

It was an incredibly true statement.

It was not difficult to smell the distinct scent unique to rust when one scooped up a cup of sand.

With the raw materials just beneath it, the newly built factory would only require sand to be dumped into the boiler to produce batches of steel products. The waste slag was mostly silica, which could be further processed into glass or concrete building material.

Part of the steel produced was used for constructing the colony, while the other part was made into rebar and stainless steel plates to reinforce the surface of the colony.

Yes, steel on Mars was cheap enough to be used as floor tiles.

The engineering team responsible for the construction first drilled steel reinforcements into the ground, then they poured cement to create a concrete foundation before a layer of high-strength stainless steel alloy was placed. With the reinforcement measures in place, even if a drill grew on the Devil Worms’ head, they would be not be able to penetrate through the ground below the colony.

Although the ultrasonic fence did exist, the thought of countless Devil Worm tunnels below their feet still made people feel comfortable. Even as an extra protection mechanism, the alloy flooring was absolutely necessary.

In addition, concrete’s ability to insulate sound would effectively block out the ultrasonic waves under the ground and reduce the impact on the colonists’ health.

Other than iron ore, the geology team Wang Qiang discovered a carbon mine with a considerable amount of reserve in a crater located ten kilometers away from the colony. This natural carbon mine seemed rare on Earth due to the oxidizing environment but appeared to be very common on Mars.

Relying on the graphite produced by this carbon mine, the colony was self-sustainable and thus did not need to depend on imports from Celestial City.

Both the steel plant and the graphene plant were built, and now only two tasks remained from the headquarters. One was to establish a base station near the equator for the construction of a space elevator, while the other was Project 071.

Celestial Marines established an operational base above Mine 071. The construction team reinforced the base with concrete and steel. The base was equipped with machine guns, communication base stations, accommodation camps, and garages.

In addition, the engineering team’s drilling rig also drilled a tunnel around Mine 071 that allowed armored vehicles to move underground. The tunnel was also reinforced to prevent Devil Worm from damaging the structure.

The tunnel down five-kilometer deep was a test of the construction technology of the engineering team. However, the team already experienced many similar challenges. After more than a month of hard work, the rig finally reached the edge of the ruins of the Gaia civilization.

Their next step was to continue to drill down around the ruins to create a spiral passage. After the team determined the level of the Gaia civilization database, it would then dig into the remains.

“This is Team A, we have arrived at the edge of the unknown area.”

Zhang Hai followed behind the rig and reported the situation to the headquarters as he examined the map on the holographic screen inside the helmet.

“Move forward.”

“Roger.” Zhang Hai switched to the team channel, raised his rifle, and aimed at tunnel in front of him. “All combat units, high-density life signal detected in front, we are about to enter the danger zone. Protect the rig, open safety, firing permitted, move.”

The rig continued to advance forward and the engineering vehicle behind it pushed screws into the tunnel while also poured quick-drying concrete to strengthen the tunnel. Marines followed closely and aimed with their Gauss rifles and cautiously moved forward.

If Devil Worms were to appear from one direction, then it must be in front of the rig.

When the drill bit broke through a rocky surface, the rock in front of them collapsed and revealed a large space. The rig stopped and the soldiers on both sides immediately approached the empty area, but there was no trace of Devil Worms in the hollow formation.

Zhang Hai walked to the nearby wall and opened the tactical flashlight to check along the wall. He found the red rock and the fungi clusters that grew on the surface.

It was no doubt that the oxygen supply layer.

Zhang Hai signaled the soldiers behind him, then carefully retreated into the reinforced tunnel. Just then, a solider accidentally discovered a strange egg.

The dark green egg was around half-person tall. Under the flashlight, a layer of colorful spots was visible under its oily film. It seemed to be contracting and swelling to an unknown rhythm.

Perhaps it was irritated by the light of the flashlight, its swelling speed seemed to increase.

“What is this?” With his rifle aimed at the egg, the soldier pressed it on his helmet, took a few photos and sent it to the team channel. “Captain, we found something odd here.”

“A Devil Worm egg?” Looking at the image on the holographic screen, Zhang Hai frowned slightly and walked up. “No… Let the rig stop.”

The drill rig stopped drilling forward.

Soon, Zhang Hai reconnected with the headquarters.

As soon as the communication was connected, the headquarters asked.

“What happened? Why did the rig stop?”

“Report, this is Team A. We drilled through a hollow formation, where we found a lot of fungi, and a strange egg… probably an egg.” Looking at the agitated follicle, Zhang Hai sent those photos to TS Expedition.

“This is the headquarters. We have received the information and are sending researchers to the target area for sampling. Please wait there.”

“Roger.” After the communication ended, Zhang Hai signaled to the soldiers to the sides of the rig.

Before the researchers arrived, they would establish a simple line of defense here.

“What do you think this is?”Koenig whispered in the channel as he nervously aimed at the egg.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a mutated Devil Worm? Or maybe it’s a new species that we have never seen before? To be honest… since we already saw Devil Worms before, even if God himself stood in front of me, I would not be surprised.”

Zhang Hai listened to the conversation of his teammates as he looked at the egg.

The egg seemed to be an exposed heart, pulsating based on a special rhythm.

For some strange reason, the more he stared at that egg, the more he felt a strong sense of uneasiness…

Chapter 1274: Underground Encounter

Chapter 1274 Underground Encounter The sound of the engine’s roar sounded behind them.An armored vehicle parked not far away from the drilling rig and a field researcher in a heavy protective suit jumped down with a toolbox.

“Look, Santa Claus is here.” A Celestial Marine blew a whistle and then joked in the communication channel as he watched the researcher walk to them, struggling to maintain his balance.

Santa Claus.

A nickname Celestial Marines gave to the field researchers.

The reason was that the field researcher did look like a Santa Clauses with a big belly after they wore the red protective suit. Of course, while the name was an inside joke, it did not carry any derogatory meaning.

When the researcher reached Zhang Hai, he asked calmly.

“Where is the sample?”

“Just at the front there.” Zhang Hai pointed to the direction where Koenig stood. “Be careful, we are not sure if it is dangerous.”

“We know better than you how to identify the dangers of living species.”

The researcher left in heavy steps as he moved toward the tip of the drill.

Zhang Hai nonchalantly responded and looked at the researcher moving toward the drill. He raised a middle finger in his mind.

“Captain, I feel that the frequency of its pulse seems to be getting faster.”

Zhang Hai heard what Koenig said and frowned at the message.

“You sure?”

“Uhhh, maybe?”

“Our ‘expert’ will tell us once he takes a look.” Another Marine soldier joked, but the rifle pointed to the front showed his alertness.

From MLL Island to now, the soldiers stationed here were considered the elites of Celestial Trade. Whether the opponents were humans or Martian species, they could proudly proclaim themselves as battle-tested soldiers. Due to their history of past successes, they would be extra cautious in every mission, so that this mission would not become their last mission…

The researcher stopped next to the egg. He dropped his toolbox on the ground and created a ripple of dust from the ground.

“Yo, be gentle.” Koenig, a few steps behind him, quietly reminded him. However, after the researcher glared back at him, Koenig shrugged and stopped talking.

The researcher skillfully took out some instruments from the toolbox. He first attached the two ends of the wire to the egg and then tapped on the screen around his arm.

“Its vital signal is stable… the bioelectric current is weak.”

After muttering this sentence to himself, he took out a nanoneedle from the toolbox and then inserted it into the beating egg.

For some odd reason, the instant the needle was inserted into the gg, Zhang Hai’s eyebrows quickly jumped a few times. But he ultimately resisted the urge to stop the researcher and forcibly convinced himself to believe in the choice of the expert.

Fortunately, or the researcher was indeed experienced, he smoothly extracted a test tube of green liquid from the egg.

“Highly acidic liquid. It may contain some corrosive bacteria?”

The researcher looked at the liquid in the test tube and said to himself.

Then he shook his head, stuffed the test tube back into the toolbox, and took out a razor-shaped scanner.

The scanner could simultaneously emit two kinds of strong and weak penetrating rays, scan the external structure and internal structure of the object, and form a simple three-dimensional view. The tool was a powerful enhanced version of the “ultrasound tool”. However, because of the high level of radiation and the possibility of trace amounts of radiation, the tool was only suitable for use on non-humans.

The scanner was aimed at the egg, and the researcher opened the holographic screen inside his helmet.

“Hmm… let me see what you are.”

While muttering to himself, he pressed the switch of the scanner.

The three-dimensional composition view was presented on a holographic screen, and these images were simultaneously transmitted back to TS Expedition orbiting around the synchronous orbit.

Looking at the transparent carcass that was abnormally large inside the pulsating egg, the researcher’s eyebrows were locked into a serious frown.

“What is this…”

“When can we leave here? I have a bad feeling it is not very safe here.” Looking at the researcher who was busy with the egg, Zhang Hai could not help but remind him, “If you are still uncertain about certain things, I suggest that you first spray it with a cryogen, then put it in the specimen box and bring it back to the colony’s isolation room…”

“You don’t have to teach me how to sample,” the researcher said standoffishly as he stood up. “Before we are certain about its vital signs, using cryogen may completely stop its vitality.”

“So, can we start sampling now?” Koenig asked. “I feel the same way as the captain. This stuff gives me an ominous feeling.”

“Yes,” the researcher coldly responded. Then he took a fire extinguisher-like item from the toolbox and pointed it directly at the egg.

It was the cryogen used for sampling. Unlike the injectable inhabitant necessary for the hibernation chamber, the cryogen was designed for external use.

A click of a button and the white spray covered the surface of the egg.

However, the researcher frowned.

It may be his illusion but the speed at which the egg pulsated seemed to be getting faster.

“Does low temperatures accelerate their life activities in a short period of time to generate more calories to maintain normal life activities?”

The researcher vaguely remembered this discovery as he prepared to increase the output of the cryogen.

For a moment, the egg suddenly shrank to the extreme.

Zhang Hai’s brows jumped without warning, almost out of reflex, he rushed to the side and shouted in the communication channel.

“FALL—”

BOOM!

The egg suddenly burst and green droplets splattered out like countless green arrows. The powerful hailstorm of arrows launched at the drill and the Celestial Marines nearby. The researcher closest to the egg was directly hit by the shockwave of the explosion and sent directly into the drill. Koenig not far away from him was also covered by the green droplets.

The deafening explosion echoed in the tunnel and reverberated through everyone’s eardrums. The powerful explosion was still clear and audible even on Mars where gas density was extremely low.

But the more horrible thing had yet to happen.

“AHHH!”

The researcher struggled to climb up from the ground. The part that was drenched in green liquid seemed to be on fire as white smoke appeared.

He desperately wanted to wipe off the liquid on his body, but soon his eye began to widen and hr was gradually covered in blood…

“His spacesuit is damaged. Help him quickly and put him in the vehicle! Koenig! DAMMIT!”

Zhang Hai cursed, took two quick steps, grabbed the researcher’s collar, pulled him to his side, and then took out a gel spray to repair where the spacesuit was broken.

The jelly-like gel paste was stuck to the spacesuit, repairing the damage. The bloodshot in his eyes began to disappear, but so did the color in his eyes. If it was not for the life signal detector still detecting his life activities, Zhang Hai was about to pronounce him died.

On the other side, the seriously injured Koenig was rescued by his comrades and dragged back from the edge of death.

“Take them back to the vehicle… call the command center! We have two people injured here, a researcher, and a Marine soldier! Repeat, we have two people injured here…”

However, at this moment, there was a fierce scream that came from the distance.

Cold sweat instantly covered Zhang Hai’s forehead.

He dragged the unconscious researcher in one hand and raised the rifle in his other hand as he vacated the area.

Almost at the same time, a monster that he had never seen before, crawled into the tunnel from the front side of the rig…

Chapter 1275: Corruptors

1275 Corruptors Celestial City, the gravity-free section of the dock.It was the midst of the ceremony of the Envoy-class starship, however, Jiang Chen, who was speaking to Kelvin, showed a gradually tense expression.

“…the Marines we sent underground were attacked by unknown Martian creatures…not the Devil Worms. Three Marines were killed, two soldiers and a researcher were seriously injured.” Kelvin took a deep breath and transferred a video file to Jiang Chen’s phone. “This is the recording of the battle.”

[Transfer completed]

Jiang Chen checked behind him to ensure that no one was around before he clicked play.

In the picture, Celestial Marines were engaged in a fierce exchange of fire against the Martian creatures that suddenly appeared.

A Marine soldier grabbed a researcher’s back while he used a Gaussian rifle to return fire.

The Martian creature that was hit screamed in pain as green blood splattered. It tried to dodge to the side while also creating space of its kind. At the same time, it sprayed corrosive acid with its menacing giant mouth.

The intensity of the battle made the video extremely shaky.

Jiang Chen suddenly pressed the pause button.

The picture was fixed on the giant, terrifying mouth.

Jiang Chen zoomed in, then zoomed in further before he fixed his sight on the creature.

Powerful feet, long tail with barbs, a fusiform-shaped head, arms extended forward and sharp claws; the appearance of the creature looked explosive and lethal. The crustaceans on its back were lined up like a heavy cavalry armor.

All of a sudden, Jiang Chen’s pupils shrank.

He felt like the appearance looked familiar.

Not from the apocalypse, nor in the memory of the Gaia civilization.

It came from the memory of Gliese 581g!

Yes, that’s right!

The bugs that first fought with the Brahma looked exactly like this!

But why?

Jiang Chen’s head was filled with countless questions.

He did not understand why the opponent that the Harmony civilization once faced, now appeared on Mars.

After some careful thought, the way the Devil Worms attacked was almost identical to the bugs that sieged the Brahma colonists. The only difference may be that the bug Brahma encountered was bigger than the Devil Worm, and its back was dotted with a quartz shell…

A coincidence?

But it was too similar.

Jiang Chen frowned as he tried to piece the puzzle together.

Kelvin saw that Jiang Chen did not respond, so he tried to get an answer.

“President?”

Kelvin’s voice reminded Jiang Chen that he was still on the call.

No longer stuck in his thoughts, Jiang Chen turned off the holographic screen, and immediately ordered.

“Wait for me at the command center. I will come over immediately.”

“Yes.”

Jiang Chen hung up the phone and returned to the dock to quickly inform Wu Changfeng and the other people at the boarding entrance about his early departure. Then, he rushed to the command center for Project 071.

When he arrived, everyone in the command room was running in circles.

Jiang Chen walked next to Kelvin and asked with a sense of urgency.

“How is the situation on the front line?”

“It’s not optimistic… We have a drilling rig stuck underground. Fortunately, the people inside the rig has been evacuated in time. The seriously injured researcher is still in critical condition, another seriously injured researcher is now in stable condition,” Kelvin responded as his expression looked tense and serious.

Jiang Chen nodded and then asked.

“What about the situation inside the tunnel?”

“The tunnel is currently occupied by the unknown Martian creature. We are building a database for this creature… Yes, what should we name this monster? Do you have any ideas?” Kelvin asked.

“…just call them the Corruptors.”

“Corruptors? The name seems fitting since they do spit out highly corrosive acids which can corrupt anything.” After a pause, there was a look of disbelief on Kelvin’s face. “The most amazing thing is their eggs can explode when irritated by external stimuli, and the explosion is not weak either…”

“How powerful is the explosion?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Close to half a ton of TNT, with corrosive damage. This can have miraculous effects in a small and confined space,” Kelvin said.

Half a ton of TNT?

The number was not daunting, but just like Kelvin had said, it would be surprisingly effective inside a tight corridor

More importantly, the target area was too close to the ruins of the Gaia civilization. In order to avoid damage to the remains, even dealing with the eggs must be exercised with caution, let alone thinking about the possibility of using powerful missiles.

…

The alarm rang at Mine 071 on the desert.

The moment the battle broke out in the tunnel, the people in the entire operation base moved.

All the non-combatants boarded the Mars rover for orders. Fully-loaded armored vehicles rolled out from the garage and moved toward the tunnel. When the armored vehicle carrying the wounded left the tunnel, an attack formation formed by four armored vehicles headed into the tunnel.

In the middle of the tunnel, the attack formation engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the Corruptors who attacked back.

However, the acids not only could corrode through spacesuits and aerospace exoskeletons, but they even corroded through the vehicle armor.

A white mist formed on the surface of the armor, and the green acid seemed to be boiling as white bubbles formed. Fortunately, the composite armor was still superior in being corrosion resistant. Especially after analyzing the blood vessels of Devil Worms, the scientists at Future Heavy Industries designed a corrosion-resistant gel.

The gel could quickly condense into a high-viscosity colloid in a low-pressure environment. It could be used to repair a damaged spacesuit in an emergency, effectively shielding the corrosion of organic acids, and to a certain extent greatly improve the survivability of front-line forces against Martian species.

But unfortunately, the battle ended in a draw.

The Corruptors in the depths of the tunnel were like floods. After the vehicles entered the tunnel, the electromagnetic pulse cannons on top of the armor vehicles did not stop for a single moment.

The high-speed projectiles caused havoc in the tunnel, accompanied by rocket explosions from time to time. While the exchange of fire happened between the two sides, the broken concrete wall finally gave in and the tunnel collapsed into several sections.

Fortunately, the armored vehicles evacuated in time and prevented any further tragedies.

“DAMMIT, did we not build an ultrasonic fence?”

Hong Zewei frowned as he looked into his holographic screen.

“The ultrasonic fence is only effective against Devil Worms. It is clear that we have driven away Devil Worms, and now another group of bugs have occupied the nest that once belonged to them,” a scientist coughed first, then responded to Hong Zewei.

“Can you figure out the ultrasonic frequency that gets rid of these… Corruptors?” Hong Zewei immediately asked.

With Project 071 dragging on for almost a year and was finally about to come an end, the sudden unexpected change made him extremely irritated. He was most concerned about the possibility that the Corruptors would behave like Devil Worms and target the colony…

“It’s feasible in theory, but it requires us to understand their body structure to a certain degree.” The scientist shrugged. “It takes a lot of specimens, and it’s even better to have a few eggs…”

Even better to have a few eggs?

What do you think this is?

Free refill for coffee?

Hong Zewei bitterly smiled in his mind and turned his sight to the colony outside his window.

The red desert had been replaced by alloy flooring, the new steel factory was pumping out white mist, and the graphene dome on the farm had a green sheen that was faintly visible. The colony was growing; they could not accept another rebuild.

If these Corruptors intend to win in numbers, it would definitely be a disaster for the almost undefended colony on the surface.

His clenched fists loosened as Hong Zewei clicked on the holographic screen twice and ordered the engineering team.

“All ongoing projects must be stopped. All engineering teams immediately commence wall construction. We will surround our colony with concrete walls!”

Chapter 1276: A New Body

1276 A New Body The Mars colony experienced a similar encounter to the Brahma.

As Celestial Marines descended down, the “Aboriginals” underground gradually began to reveal their sharp claws. Devil Worms from the start, now the Corrupters that could spit acid and tear their prey with their sharp fangs.

What’s next?

Jiang Chen did not know; no one in the world knew.

All news related to the Mine 071 site was suppressed by Celestial Trade. All the participating Marines were interviewed after the entire incident to cover up the Devil Worm Incident near Mine 071. Because the incident did not involve Future Mining, the treatment of this incident was much easier compared to the previous time, and did not even attract the attention of the international community.

As for the family members of the soldiers who died, of course, they all received a considerable pension. Although money wouldn’t make up for the pain of losing their loved ones, it could at least make those still alive live a little better.

“What the Mars Colony needs is not reinforcements, but solutions.”

“The problem is what is the solution?”

“We need specimens, more specimens! Only by understanding their structure can we defeat them!”

“It is not difficult to defeat them. No creature can resist electromagnetic pulse cannons and flames. The problem is … there are too many of them.”

There were constant arguments in the conference room. However, despite the fierce discussions, the senior executives of Project 071 had yet to come up with any feasible solution.

Specimen, more specimen.

This may seem easy to say, but collecting specimens of Corrupters, which lived together in groups, would be much more difficult compared to collecting specimens of Devil Worms.

This underground creature did not seem to be good at digging, at least its digging speed was far worse than that of Devil Worms, which could be described as swimmers of dirt. On the other hand, however, they were more intelligent, especially at “planting” oxygen-producing fungi.

For these reasons, their area of activities underground was limited and restricted.

Some even speculated that it was likely that the Corruptor’s lair was located near the ruins of the Gaia civilization. What the Celestial Marines unearthed was only their new lair. After all, the ultrasonic fence eradicated the Devil Worms in this region, which created a vast, inhabited zone for Corruptors free of their potential natural enemies.

The meeting came to an end temporarily.

Jiang Chen went into the lounge and poured a cup of coffee for himself, then he sat down.

A problem had bothered him for the past few days.

Why the monster he saw in the memory of Harmony civilization appeared in Mine 071 on Mars. If he remembered correctly, the source of these Corruptors was the specimen bank of the Gaia civilization. However, based on the memory of the Gaia civilization, they did not travel that far.

“… All three factions had stations established on Mars before the war. The cause of the Third World War was due to the economic crisis of 2150, the Gaia civilization 3.7 billion years ago, Gliese 581g …”

He gently tapped the edge of his cup and fixated his eyes on the white mist. Jiang Chen began to sift through the information his head.

Inside the mist, he had a feeling.

He was very close to the truth.

The door of the lounge opened, and Ayesha walked to him in light steps.

Jiang Chen smiled when he felt the tender hands around his shoulders, then closed his eyes, and relaxed his muscles as he leaned back.

“Comfortable?”

“It’s great.”

Her lips formed into a happy arc.

“Have you been busy?”

“Well, troubles always come together,” Jiang Chen sighed softly and said in a joking tone, “Sometimes I wish I could divide myself into three people. One stays on the synchronized orbit, and one resides in Coro Island.”

As for the other one, even if Jiang Chen didn’t mention it, Ayesha knew he referred to the world torn by war.

Speaking of this, Jiang Chen suddenly remembered the number X71291 he had picked up from Subway Line 0.

I wonder if Lin Lin made any progress.

If it can help, I think many things would be a lot easier…

Probably?

…

“Ahhchoo!”

Lin Lin in a white loab coat sneezed as she rubbed her slightly red nose and put the welding torch in her hand aside.

“Who is thinking of me…”

She muttered in a low voice; she then quickly tapped the holographic screen a few times.

Looking at the parameters on the chart slowly stabilizing, she let out a sigh. Lin Lin looked at the “artwork” on the operating table and a proud smile formed. Her small chest raised slightly as she bragged to the empty room.

“Hm, it is indeed a masterpiece of mine. It already possesses one-tenth of my beauty … no, one percent.”

Just as her little nose was about to rise to the sky, a voice interrupted her gloating.

“Hmph, what a weak body.”

The “artwork” lying on the operating table had opened her eyes, and was looking at the proud Lin Lin with its pale pupils.

The white and flawless skin was enough to make all women in the world envy. The perfect arms and calves seemed to only exist on porcelain dolls. The smooth golden hair scattered down like a waterfall at dusk, and the hazel eyes radiated a pristine and angelic vibe. Every parts came together perfectly to create an elf girl that should only exist in an oil painting.

“Shut up,” Lin Lin glared at her with her hands on her hips, “Do you know how long it took me to make this body for you?”

“Well, it’s not too bad I guess…”

The girl ignored the infuriated Lin Lin and said the sentence without any fluctuation in her emotion. She got up from the operating table and jumped onto the ground.

She walked to the mirror and nodded. Then she said in an impolite tone.

“Lend me the lab for two days.”

“What?”

“This body is too weak, I need to make a more convenient body for myself.” The girl said as if the lab belonged to her.

“A more convenient body?” Lin Lin frowned suspiciously. “What do you want to do?”

She was not afraid X71291 would erase the restriction placed on her, since the so-called restriction was not on her body. Her core remained in the apocalypse, on the quantum computer that was moved from Subway Line 0 to Wanghai and was currently guarded by heavy military presence. And other than quantum computers of the same size, there was no other place in the world that could store her presence.

As for what controlled her body, it was just a chipset equipped with a Klein particle transmitter.

In other words, if she did anything unpleasant, either Jiang Chen or Lin Lin could shut down her “brain” immediately.

Although X71291 indicated that she was not interesting in making such meaningless tasks, basic precautions were still necessary.

AI is a double-edged sword.

Jiang Chen deeply believed the statement.

If he used it well, maybe it would be like what X71291 had said, it’ll help him increase his odds by 1%.

But if he used it ineffectively, he would not be surprised if anything else happened…

“If the host’s life signal stops, my self-destruct program will start, right?” The girl said, without showing any emotion in her voice.

“Yes.” Because it was agreed upon, Lin Lin simply admitted to this point. “Just like what we agreed at the beginning, protecting Jiang Chen’s security is also one of your obligations. If something goes wrong, whether or not if it is related to you, we will destroy you. ”

The young girl nodded and spread her two small arms.

“So, what can you expect me to do like this?”

Lin Lin’s expression was a little awkward.

Obviously, she also realized the problem.

Except for the titanium alloy skeleton, this body was just a cute little girl. Disregarding basic combat power, she should be thankful if this body did not attract any strange weirdoes.

“What weapons do you need? Electromagnetic pulse cannons? Gamma rays? Or ordinary thermal weapons? I’ll add it now …”

“No need, I can do it by myself.” The girl shook her head. However, inside her indifferent pupils, there was an emotion that made Lin Lin enraged.

That look…

Is definitely a mockery of her superb skills!

However, while Lin Lin was angry, she did not know how to refute.

After all, it was mockery directly from an advanced artificial intelligence…

Chapter 1277: Set Sail!

1277 Set Sail! More than a week had passed since the Envoy-class launched.

After a short break, the starship named “SS Origin”, set off from Celestial City.

The passengers waiting on Celestial City witnessed the shocking scene again.

The engine located on the bottom of the starship emitted an eerie blue glow that provided thrust for the starship, it slowly drifted away from Celestial City.

“The orbital parameters have been corrected.”

“The reactive nitrogen shield is operating normally.”

“Confirm star path safety.”

“All non-fleet personnel should enter the hibernation chamber.”

“The engine is confirmed to be normal, preset power to 10%, ignition is ready.”

“…”

Inside the bridge, reports came one after another.

The brain of the ship was located here, and the bridge also served as the nerve center of the entire ship. All information were collected in this location and all orders were issued out from this hub.

The captain stood at the back of the bridge. His cold and determined eyes stared straight ahead.

On the large holographic screen directly in front of the bridge, a star map that covered the entire solar system unfolded. The orbits of all observable objects were marked in detail in this star map.

A green arc marked the route of SS Origin connected Earth to Mars. SS Origin would orbit for one-fourth around the high Mars orbit before the starship set off to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, then it would sail through the deep space directly to Kuiper Belt. SS Origin would then cruise on the edge of the Solar System, perform training, scientific research, and exploration tasks issued by the Earth Defense Alliance.

From this point on, loneliness would become their shadow that constantly lingered with them. Until the starship receive the order to end the mission, returning to Earth was a distant dream.

However, they were already mentally prepared for this. Even if they would never be able to come back, they did not hesitate when they stepped on board.

Whether it was for their motherland or for the common future of human civilization…

“Captain.” The final procedure before departure was completed. The deputy captain approached the captain, and performed a Celestial Trade Navy salute. “Waiting for orders.”

Captain nodded, picked up the microphone from the command table, and ordered with might.

“Ignite!”

From Celestial City, in the deep and eerie universe, the two clusters of blue glows that held SS Origin gradually extinguished.

Instead, there was a brighter ball of flame.

The flame, like a small Sun, suddenly radiated from the end of the ship’s hull, emitted dazzling white light, and formed layers of heat waves behind it.

Deuterium imprisoned by a strong magnetic field collided violently with Helium-3, and at this moment all the light and heat generated by nuclear fusion were gathered into a bundle by the huge melting furnace. The force pushed SS Origin to the distant starry sky at an incredible speed.

Like a second sunrise.

The dazzling white light instantly blinded everyone.

When their eyes reopened again, the emotions that bloomed in each pupil was all, without exception, shock and excitement.

The passengers that stood in Celestial City waved their arms, and sent the starship off with cheers, whistles, and the flashes of the camera. People all knew that it would become a star in the darkness, and eventually disappear.

The workers of Celestial Shipyard, the astronauts working in the space station, and the people busy around Celestial City all stopped their work at this moment. They looked out the window or into the holographic screen as departed SS Origin. Their face all shared the same excitement and pride.

At the same time that SS Origin ignited, bright fireworks bloomed over Penglai. In this digitized city of the future, every holographic screen belonged to Future Group and every broadcast was playing the incredible scene.

People, regardless of race, nationality, religion, gender, were all watching this in front of their TV… They all cheered for the same reason, prayed for the same dream, blessed for the same name.

Of course, the Internet gave the strongest response.

Three days before the departure of SS Origin, the three keywords “Origin”, “Envoy-Class Starship” and “Earth Fleet” emerged as the top ten most searched words of every major search engines. And when Celestial Trade’s official website annouced its launch, major TV and online media broadcasted the ignition of the fusion engine, the name “Origin” overtook the popularity of any scandals and became the most searched keyword!

There was no background music.

There was no post editing.

But even so, the scene that looked like a second Sun rising was imprinted in everyone’s eyes and soul. It was like a flame had ignited from deep inside the bone marrow, dissipating all the darkness and fear that people once had against extraterrestrial civilization.

Videos of the ignition went viral. The comment section of Celestial Trade’s website was bombarded with comments.

“So… that is a nuclear fusion engine?”

“That is the Envoy-class Starship of Future Heavy Industries?”

“So big… I can’t describe it any other way.”

“Will such a big ship be able to fly out of the Solar System?”

“I wonder if this thing can win against an aircraft carrier battle group …”

“As a UA citizen… well, I don’t know what to say.”

“I don’t know if this can fly to the Gliese 581, but in theory it should only be a matter of time?”

“Long live Celestial Trade! Long live the Earth Defense Alliance! The Earth Fleet will win!”

“The Finnish people sends our congratulations on the successful launch of the Earth Fleet, we will defeat those 20.5 light years away, and revenge the dead Finns and British soldiers who died by Lake Inari …”

“…”

Celestial City, Space Command Center.

With both hands behind him, like most people on Celestial City, Jiang Chen was also looking at the “Sun” disappearing in the distance.

On his right-hand side, countless holographic screens were unfolded, and the real-time reports of SS Origin were summarized by Jean and presented in front of him.

But Jiang Chen didn’t read them at all.

Without even thinking, he could guess the reports.

Everyone was astonished.

To be honest, even Jiang Chen himself was astonished by the scene when the Envoy-class set sail.

Although the scene was emulated countless times in the VR system, actually witnessing the launch was the most shocking experience he ever had.

An idea suddenly appeared in his head.

Brahma, Zheng He, and the space colonization ship that disappeared in the void along with its name … even the starships that symbolized the most advanced forces before the apocalypse, were probably not as astonishing?

After a short while, Jiang Chen shook his head and denied this unrealistic thought.

Although Future Heavy Industries absorbed the technologies of Pan-Asia Cooperation at an incredible speed, he must acknowledge that the gap between the two was still there.

Not to mention, in the case of a damaged space elevator, the ability to launch a colony ship vertically from the atmosphere would be an impossible task for Future Heavy Industries. This demanded extremely high requirements for the material strength, engines, and shield technology of the starship.

At present, SS Origin was equipped with a reactive nitrogen shield to protect itself against the meteorite, and the main engine used the simple, crude and efficient fusion engine. The “Holy Shield” system used in Wanghai may be able to see a breakthrough soon, but the warp drive engine was still far from becoming a reality …

But he could be proud of one thing.

Looking at the universe outside the floor-to-ceiling window, Jiang Chen smiled

He had heard a little about the history of that world from Lin Lin

On that timeline, the time point Pan-Asia Cooperation took this great leap was at the end of the 21st century…

Chapter 1278: Who will dominate the next century?

1278 Who will dominate the next century? The front page of a newspaper was the pristine blue planet.

Below the Earth was a hand that emerged out from darkness, and that hand was firmly holding onto the planet.

A face could be barely made out from inside the darkness.

The face was youthful, and other than that, there was no other memorable characteristics. However, even the person with the worst ability to identify someone would recognize this face… as long as the person was not out of touch with the times.

The headline below the picture was very ambiguous.

[Who will dominate the next century?]

Now, this piece of newspaper, along with many similar ones, were placed on the table of the president’s office.

“What do you think,” Hill swept the newspapers aside, then rubbed her sore brows before she looked to her chief of staff, “of that Envoy-class Starship?”

“…”

The chief of staff did not speak. Instead, together with Secretary of Defense Carter, they silently looked at Bolden who stood next to him.

Seeing that he got everyone’s attention, Bolden took a deep breath and made the tough statements.

“Our scientists have solved the design problems of large space station counterweights, and now the only difficult problem to solve is the materials.”

“How long will it take?” Hill asked Bolden as she stared into him.

“Conservatively, 20 years, but maybe a little longer …” Bolden said with awkwardness in his tone.

“This is not the same as what you said last time.” Carter looked at Bolden and said in a somewhat aggressive tone. “When we met half-a-month ago, you said that you could solve the technical difficulties on the space elevator by 2040 at the latest. You even said that you could build at least one elevator for the nation and connect it to the synchronous orbit.”

“You can’t blame all this on us.” Bolden argued, “If Obayashi Gumi did not cancel the joint research and development agreement with us, the time required could be reduced by at least half.”

“Obayashi Gumi?” Hill frowned, she looked at Secretary of State Kerry, who had not spoken, then said. “This name sounds familiar.”

“A company controlled by Sumitomo Foundation. It announced in 2014 that it could complete the space elevator in 2050, and there was reliable news that they had been working on related technologies since 2010.” Kerry paused for a moment, glanced at Bolden with confusion in his eyes, he frowned. “I remember Sumitomo Foundation has been actively participating in our International Space Station program and has worked closely with NASA and SpaceX for a long time. Why …”

“It’s Celestial Trade,” Bolden said. “They convinced them to give up on the space elevator program. It’s likely they gave them a promise? You know Obayashi Gumi’s main focus is construction. Maybe Celestial Trade has contracted out projects on Mars or the Moon to them? Anyway, they have now paid the penalty. ”

“Those ungrateful wretches…” Carter cursed under his breath.

“They have always been ungrateful wretches, and we should have been mentally prepared,” Kerry said with a sigh.

Seeing that the room suddenly turned quiet, Bolden coughed, and added.

“… Fortunately, we have found another company. Now, we are cooperating with Thoth Technology from Ontario, Canada. Their research on the pressurized tower reached a height of twenty kilometers three years ago. As long as there are breakthroughs in high-strength graphene materials, we have a great opportunity to catch up.”

However, the most problematic issue was the high-strength graphene materials.

There were many types of graphene materials and this type of material was similar to steel. Although many materials could be considered as steel, steel produced by different materials, different forging processes, and different temperatures could produce vastly different properties.

The same applied for graphene.

Although Celestial Trade had registered nearly a hundred patents for nearly ten types of graphene materials used for semiconductors in the world, they had kept the materials related to aerospace and military fields in complete secrecy. Celestial Trade rarely even exported the finished products, let alone register for patents.

The office was silent again.

Graphene.

The damned graphene.

No one had ever thought that a material that could be produced by sticking two tapes together could create an impossible obstacle for a superpower.

“Isn’t there any good news?” Carter, in a distressed state, asked.

The completion of the Envoy-class starship created the most pressure for the Minister of Defense.

He couldn’t imagine what could pose a threat to that behemoth.

Missiles? Cannons?

Let’s not kid ourselves.

Using missiles in the synchronous orbit to hit satellites is a completely different task than trying to hit battleships.

Bolden spoke again.

“Actually… there are some good news.”

Everyone once again focused on Bolden.

“What good news?” Hill asked immediately.

“Google-X Labs is ready to join our program.”

“Google-X?” Kerry frowned. “Didn’t they abandon the space elevator program six years ago?”

As early as 2014, Astro Taylor, the head of Google-X Labs, announced the termination of the space elevator project at the TCD, as well as portable jet engines, hoverboards, and other items that usually appeared in science fiction.

“They did announce the termination of the project…” After a moment of silence, Bolden said, “But they promised to help us on the high-strength graphene project and break through the technical blockade of Celestial Trade.”

Although it was something to be content with, everyone showed a self-deprecating and wry smile.

Technical blockade?

Why did the term feel so familiar…

…

Celestial City.

In the conference room of the Earth Defense Alliance headquarters, representatives of member states sat around the conference table and had just finished discussing the next development phase of the Earth Fleet.

The room was in a relaxed atmosphere. Even the most serious representatives were grinning because of the success of SS Origin.

“… I know you must be excited, but please keep a cool head before you get too excited. From the standpoint of the Chair of the Alliance Committee, I have to remind you that it is too early to pop some champagne. Our opponents are strong.” At the conclusion of the meeting, Jiang Chen stood up, looked around the table, and used this sentence to end his speech.

Although he said this sentence in a joking tone, he was serious about what he had said.

Confidence was good.

When the Finland Incident was determined to be linked to the extraterrestrial civilization, the world was filled with panic, and even the global economy took a hit as a result. Organizations such as Doomsday Church, Noah Ark Foundation, and all sorts of odd organizations appeared.

Against the extraterrestrial civilization that was already at their doorstep, other than Jiang Chen who received the news first, no one was optimistic that the human civilization could survive an invasion.

After all, it was only a Mother Nest left in the tundra without much life left. Even with the powerful Celestial Trade Orbital Airborne Brigade, it took a lot of effort to clean up the aliens in the Mother Nest. Even now, the area was designated as a military restricted area, jointly controlled by the Finnish military and Celestial Trade.

Now, with the powerful, imposing starship floating in the universe, no one would doubt that the eventual victory belonged to the Earth Fleet.

Honestly speaking, Jiang Chen also did not doubt this fact .

But he won’t take it lightly either.

Although the development of civilization should not be simply measured by time alone, at least from the perspective of world history, ancient civilizations may not be able to defeat young civilizations, even though the former tends to have a great advantage in the early stage … but Jiang Chen was uncertain that the million-ton starship could be used as the standard for “late stage”.

Confidence was good.

But arrogance was a poison.

He would not be optimistic about the outcome, not at least until the breakthroughs in warp drive and antimatter.

Chapter 1279: Tide of Insects

Chapter 1279 Tide of Insects The truth proved that Hong Zewei made the correct choice.The second week after Corrupters were discovered at Mine 071, more than 500 Celestial Marines stationed nearby had to abandon the base of operations and evacuate from the vicinity.

These bugs were very clever. They knew that penetrating the tunnel with their head was just asking to be killed by Celestial Marines, so they used the tunnels left by Devil Worms, went around the base, and launched a flank.

If it weren’t for the TS Expedition that continuously monitored the life signal near Mine 071 and alerted the stationed troops to withdraw when the bugs crawled to five kilometers underground, the force would have been caught by surprise.

Fortunately, these Corruptors were not as sensitive to sound waves as Devil Worms, so the soldiers and engineers stationed there were able to withdraw in time.

The specimens were also brought back to the base.

Although it was not easy, the Marines still managed to get a few.

In addition to more than a dozen intact specimens, they also captured four larvae!

The four larvae were undoubtedly a pleasant surprise for the base that lacked specimens.

The four Corruptors larvae were kept in separate vials and stored in isolation rooms.

The smallest one was the size of an adult’s palm, while the largest was the size of a washbasin. They were minified Corruptors, except they did not spew venom. Unlike Devil Worm larvae, the small size did not weaken their aggression, instead, it made them more dangerous and lethal!

Researchers placed a bull into the same vial. In less than a second, the bull was attacked by the Corruptor, and its head was penetrated by its sharp tail. While the Corruptor ate the bull, it demonstrated an astounding digestive ability, as half of the bull was devoured in three short days.

In these three days, the size of the Corruptor grew almost exponentially. It grew from palm-sized to half-a-meter-high, and it could spray traces of corrosive acid.

Based on this trend, in the case of sufficient organic matter, it would grow to the size of an adult Corruptor in less than a month.

“Twenty larvae in a single birth, each as big as a washbasin … God, can you imagine it the size of the thing when it becomes an adult!” A researcher in a white coat used his hands to demonstrate the size of the Corruptor as he kept shaking his head. “The experimental environment here is too crude. We must immediately ship the specimens to Celestial City for further research.”

“How long will it take for them to grow up?” Hong Zewei frowned as he examined the restless little thing under the glass cover.

“I don’t know,” the researcher shook his head and looked at the bull skeleton inside the glass cover. “This can’t be used as a reference. There should be no such rich organic matter for them to grow underground. Sample No. 3 that is consuming oxygen-producing bacteria has a growth speed of only one-tenth of this one. ”

“How many bugs are still hidden in this damn desert,” Hong Zewei cursed fiercely.

“I don’t know if you noticed it,” the researcher said after pondering for a moment, “but every time we encounter a new trouble, it’s because of Mine 071 … I’m curious what’s buried inside.”

Hong Zewei processed the information, then frowned, and became deep in thought.

However, at this moment, the alarm on the wall interrupted his train-of-thought.

Hong Zewei immediately looked to the alarm, then rushed towards the entrance of the institute.

…

The sirens rang inside the colony and the entire colony was rattled.

At this moment, Celestial Marines demonstrated their combat abilities. In less than half a minute, the equipped soldiers rushed to the front door from the hallway, opened the storage box, and wielded the kinetic skeleton.

With their clips locked in, Zhang Hai loaded the Gauss rifle in his hand.

“What’s happening outside?” A woman with curly hair walked up and tried to stop Zhang Hai, “There is something else besides the Devil Worms, right? Or you won’t build the wall … ”

“No comment,” Zhang Hai answered coldly. Then he buckled the last button of the tactical helmet, pushed the woman away, and jogged to the buffer chamber.

The woman wanted to say something but was stopped by Brace standing next to her.

“Enough, Jenny, calm down first.” Looking at his teammates, Brace shook his head.

“But …” Jenny looked at the captain anxiously. “They must be hiding something from us! I had this feeling when they built the wall, now—”

“Yes, they are hiding something from us,” Brace shook his head, with a bit of helplessness and self-deprecation in his smile. “Don’t forget that we are in their house now. If you continue to try to get to the bottom of everything, maybe our right to call our family each month will be deprived.”

The woman named Jenny closed her mouth and stopped talking. She looked at Brace with a stiff expression, nodded, and then looked down with a dejected expression.

“I understand.”

“Great.” Brace said standoffishly while he watched the soldiers leave,

His only wish was to return home.

Hopefully Celestial Trade’s trouble would not affect them.

…

Outside the colony, the Corruptors rushed out of the tunnel behind the dunes, poured onto the colony’s wall and formed a black tide of insects.

As soon as Zhang Hai stepped on the alloy floor outside, the commander’s voice sounded in his ear.

“Insect tide is approaching, immediately bring your people onto the wall!”

“Roger,” looking at the coordinates of the zone sent to the holographic map, Zhang Hai reached down and pressed his hand on the helmet to switch to the squad channel. “Attention everyone, immediately go to the wall. Open your safety, freely fire!”

“Roger that!”

The armored vehicle rushed up the firing platform on the wall from the slope, and the gun at the top pointed at the insects surging like a tide as powerful bullets unleashed.

After rushing onto the wall, Zhang Hai gestured his comrades next to him, then leaned against behind the corrosion-resistant alloy plate that served as cover. He began to return fire.

These bugs were smart, at least they were more clever than the Devil Worms.

The formation of their charge was very loose, and they rushed in waves which effectively reduced the hit rate of the soldiers. While the bugs moved forward, some insects were spraying acids, while other insects were charging under the cover of the acid.

From time to time, some soldiers were sprayed by the acids and were pulled down by medics for treatment.

After dodging a stream of acid, Zhang Hai gritted his teeth and raised his rifle. He unleashed the last few bullets in the clip against those nasty bugs, then took a clip from his comrade and inserted it into the rifle.

When he watched the continuous tides of insects flow out from behind the dunes, his eyebrows twisted together and he cursed under his breath.

“Fu*k, where did these bugs come from …”

He didn’t know if it was his illusion, but he felt as if an eye was watching them.

Every time they make a little progress on Mine 071, troubles would ensue.

A coincidence?

He didn’t think so.

Chapter 1280: Eavesdropping

Chapter 1280 Eavesdropping After the Earth Defense Alliance meeting, Jiang Chen and Kelvin were escorted by Celestial soldiers to the express train of the Space Command Center.“What’s the situation in the Mars colony?” Jiang Chen asked Kelvin as they sat down in the first-class cabin.

“SS Origin has departed six days ago and will reach Mar’s orbit at this time tomorrow at the latest. By then, our new weapons and reinforcements will also arrive on Mars, which should help us gain a certain advantage,” Kelvin replied.

On the way to the Kuiper Belt, SS Origin would use Mars’ gravity to adjust its direction, and at the same time test SS Origin’s orbital docking performance.

Because it was on the way, Celestial Trade attached Future Military’s newly designed weapons and equipment suitable for the Mars environment to the external warehouse on SS Origin. Once the ship entered the orbit, it would drop it down to the surface.

“Where are the specimens?” Jiang Chen asked, “How long will it take to return to Celestial City?”

“The first batch of specimens were loaded onto the rocket last week and will arrive at the latest the day after tomorrow… shall we notify our allies?” Kelvin responded.

After Jiang Chen contemplated for a while, he said, “Once the specimens have arrived, let’s keep this information confidential for the time being. I will select some scientists from Future Biology to form a Corruptor research project group, and then discuss whether to disclose the information to our allies.”

Kelvin nodded. “Okay, then I’ll make the necessary adjustments.”

The express train quickly arrived at its destination.

After the train made a full stop, the two went to Project 071 Department at the Space Command Center together.

It was a coincidence that just before the two men stepped through the command room, Kelvin’s assistant passed a document into his hand.

Kelvin glanced over the file and started to frown.

A moment later, Kelvin put away the file, looked at Jiang Chen, and smiled wearily, “One bad news, one good news, which one do you want to hear first?”

“…let’s start with the bad news.”

“The bad news is that our colony on Mars was under siege by bugs,” Kelvin replied.

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows twitched intensively when he heard this.

“… what about the good news?”

There was a smile on Kelvin’s face, “The good news is that we have prepared the wall in advance. With the support of TS Expedition, our army blocked the bug’s assault.”

Jiang Chen slowly let out a long breath of air, looked at the holographic screen directly in front of the command room.

On the satellite image sent from the TS Expedition, the sand outside the colony was stained an unhealthy dark green by the blood and saliva of Corruptors. Broken limbs were scattered everywhere. However, the situation of the soldiers on the wall was not optimistic either as many people’s equipment was damaged by the corrosive acid.

The bugs already managed to scale the wall and collide with Celestial Marines. Fortunately, the Corruptor’s close combat capabilities were nowhere near that of the Devil Worms. While the battle was dangerous, Celestial Trade managed to win because of their defensive fortifications and the support of the TS Expedition.

After examining the casualty assessment on the screen, Jiang Chen was silent for a while before he suddenly spoke out.

“Don’t you find it strange?”

Kelvin hesitated for a moment, then followed up.

“You mean…”

“Every time we make progress at Mine 071, the troubles just seem to be after us,” Jiang Chen said while he looked at Kelvin. “It’s as if we have a pair of eyes watching us,”

“Watching us?” Kelvin gave a slight nod, and then laughed, “Do you mean, the trouble we encountered is because of someone?”

Jiang Chen didn’t answer. Instead, he folded his arms in front of his chest, stared into the holographic screen, and no longer spoke.

He suddenly realized a possibility …

But he was not sure yet.

He could only verify his guess the next time he returned to the apocalypse.

…

Outside the Mars colony, the billowing dust rolled up almost a thousand meters above the ground and formed a sand wall that covered the sky outside the colony.

Just five minutes ago, dozens of mass bombs dropped from the sky and flattened the dune outside the colony. It created a crater of several meters wide in the desert. Three high-explosive missiles blasted inside the tunnel five kilometers underground and successfully curtailed the attack of the Corruptors.

Taking advantage of this momentary gap, the Celestial Marines fighting on the wall successfully repelled the Corruptors that already scaled onto the wall.

Zhang Hai stood behind cover and looked at the swarms that were starting to retreat. He breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his rifle.

The soldiers withdrew from the wall, medics walked around the battle scene, and researchers in protective suits were escorted by the rover to recover specimens. If casualties and wasted ammunition were not considered, in a sense, this attack was a harvest for Celestial Trade. For at least a year, they would no longer struggle to fulfill the items on the sampling list from the command center.

Zhang Hai reported the team’s casualties to his superior, and then followed the others in the direction of the colony.

After he returned inside, he passed through the buffer cabin and tucked his equipment into a storage cabinet. He took a can of coffee from the vending machine, walked to a bench in the central square, and sat down. Lunchtime had passed, but he didn’t feel the slightest hunger.

He took a sip of the hot coffee. Then he leaned back against the bench with his eyes closed in an attempt to relax his tense nerves.

At this moment, someone came to him and sat down.

Zhang Hai raised one eyelid and saw that the man sitting next to him was Wang Qiang, so he closed his eyes again.

“It’s over?” Wang Qiang opened the canned drink in his hand as he asked casually.

“It’s over for now,” Zhang Hai self-mockingly said and then glanced at Wang Qiang sitting next to him. “Who knows when the next wave will be, and who knows when this will be over… right, how are things going on your side? ”

“You also saw that the base of operation near Mine 071 has been lost. What progress can be made?” Wang Qiang had a bitter smile and shook his head, “Let’s not talk about this. By the way… Koenig. How is he now? ”

“His wound was severely infected, and his entire right arm is gone … probably only Coro City Hospital can cure his injury, but you know, we can’t go anywhere now. We will arrange him to rest in the hibernation chamber until when flights become available next year.”

At this moment, a soldier came over and stood in front of Zhang Hai, then saluted.

“Are you Captain Zhang Hai?”

“What’s wrong?” He looked at the soldier standing in front of him and put his canned coffee on the bench.

“The ship captain is looking for you. Please go to the institute as soon as possible.”

After Zhang Hai took a second to process this information, he noticed that he had forgotten to take out his wrist-mounted computer from the locker. The ship captain probably could not reach him, so he sent someone to look for him.

“I’ll be right there.” Zhang Hai said to the soldier as he picked up his coffee from the bench.

Squatting behind the potted plants in the square, Jenny held her breath nervously and did not dare to breathe loudly.

She had no intention of eavesdropping but just happened to pass by here.

However, after she saw the two sit on the bench, somehow, she made the hotheaded decision to squat down and hid behind the potted plants, and she seemed to have heard some useful information.

A soldier had walked over and stood beside the bench. He seemed to have said something to one of them.

Then the two men sitting on the bench got up together and left the square.

Jenny waited for a while before she nervously peeked her head out from behind the plant. Then she looked at the empty bench.

She slowly slid down against the potted plants and with one hand on her pounding chest, she finally let out a long breath.

Mine 071? The Base of Operation? Progress?

Her experience in journalism not only made her nosy but also gave her intuition for news. For example, right now, her intuition was telling her that Mine 071 was definitely not just as an iron ore mine.

Who would build a military base exclusively to protect a mine?

I have to find a way to get the news back to Earth…

I can’t tell Brace, that coward will definitely stop me!

She stood up from where she was hiding.

She patted her jeans and looked around. When she found no one was around, she pretended that nothing had happened, and quickly walked back to her room.

Chapter 1281: The Program is Genderless

1281 The Program is Genderless The third week into Project 071’s temporary suspension and the first weekend since the departure of SS Origin, the good news from the apocalypse made Jiang Chen stop doing the work that was on his hand.Lin Lin told him through the interdimensional communication device that X71291’s body had been completed.

When Jiang Chen heard the news, he immediately took the space elevator back to the surface, took a helicopter, flew to Coconut Island, where he used as a material transfer station, and then hurried to the apocalypse.

Lin Lin’s Institute. In the lab.

When Jiang Chen pushed open the door and entered the room, Lin Lin stood beside the operating table and poked at the tablet in her hand. On the operating table in front of her, there was a petite girl. When Jiang Chen looked over, the girl was watching him too.

Although it was the first time Jiang Chen saw it in this form, from her eyes, he saw some familiar emotions. Although she certainly looked beautiful, for some odd reasons, a strange feeling lingered in his mind.

“We have met again…” The girl lying on the operating table nodded as she watched Jiang Chen walk towards her, “Mr. Jiang Chen.”

“X71291?”

“From your tone, I can sense your surprise.” X71291 said without much fluctuations in her tone.

Jiang Chen pulled Lin Lin aside, leaned closer to her ear, and whispered.

“Why did you make it… like this?”

“How else would I make it? Do you want me to make one… one of that?” Lin Lin took a step back and flushed as she gave Jiang Chen a vicious stare.

Maybe it was because the topic was too embarrassing, or maybe it was the hot air blowing in her ear, Lin Lin felt her cheeks burn.

“I’m not talking about gender.” Jiang Chen showed a helpless smile.

It was not about gender. After all, when Jiang Chen originally saw X71291, it appeared as a virtual character “Tao Tingting” in front of him. It just that this petite appearance felt strange to him.

“Don’t worry, the program is genderless.” The girl’s mouth formed a stiff arc and then said in an incongruous tone, “I don’t need that troublesome thing at all, just give me a body that can integrate into human society.”

Looking at the quiet Jiang Chen, the girl tilted her head.

“Any questions?”

Jiang Chen shook his head and stared blankly at X71291 for a moment.

“Nothing, I’m just curious … Didn’t Lin Lin install an emoticon system for you?”

“Oh, that. I turned it off to save power.” The girl said expressionlessly and then looked at Lin Lin who had been tinkering with the tablet. “Did you figure it out yet? If you don’t know something, you can ask me. ”

“It’s almost done.” Lin Lin looked at the tablet in her hand reluctantly, and her fingers quickly tapped on the screen.

“This is?”

Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin with questions in his eyes

“She used my lab to add some parts to herself,” Lin Lin’s cheeks turned a little red and her eyes drifted to the side as she embarrassedly scratched her head. Then she muttered quietly, “but I can’t find where…”

“Parts?” Jiang Chen repeated in confusion.

“Oh, you’re looking for that,” the girl sighed. “You could have just told me.”

Lin Lin looked to the side without talking.

Obviously, she felt quite frustrated and disappointed that she lost to X71291 in her field of expertise.

“According to the original agreement, I will be responsible for protecting your safety. In order to be able to cope with various dangers, I have installed some convenient weapons on this body. This is very troublesome to explain. It is better to find a place where I can directly show you.”

Indeed.

If it is a weapon, there is no more intuitive explanation than “showing them”.

Following Lin Lin, Jiang Chen and X71291 came to the ground floor; a shooting range around hundreds of square meters. This range was previously used to test the power of electromagnetic pulse cannons, the damage of Gauss rifles, and the anti-strike capability of some hadron materials.

“In the laboratory’s sample library, there are Death Claws, Mud Crabs, and the most common zombies. Basically, you can find any mutant species that are around Wanghai City… Where do you want to start?” Lin Lin asked the expressionless girl.

“Let’s start with the Death Claw.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Without another word to Lin Lin, the girl opened the security door and stepped into the isolation room.

Lin Lin tried to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, she just pressed on the touchpad a few times.

The floor of the isolation room formed a square opening around a few square meters in size. Soon, an iron cage with a Death Claw slowly rose and stopped in the center of the isolation room.

Stimulated by the light inside the isolation room, the sleeping Death Claw slowly awoke from its sleep and rushed to the side of the cage.

Its sharp fangs exuded disgusting saliva and its blade-like claws clasped tightly onto the steel bars of the iron cage. Its amber eyeballs rolled quickly under its dry eyelids and finally locked onto X71291. With a roar, the steel bar, which was as thick as a thumb, began to creak under the intensive force.

On the one hand, was a dangerous mutant nearly three meters tall, and on the other hand, was a girl who looked like a fragile porcelain doll. The vibe between the two sides formed a strong contrast.

“No need for weapons?” Jiang Chen asked the one question he was most concerned about as he stared at the petite figure.

Even if the body was damaged, it would not have any effect on X71291 in the quantum computer group, but he still clenched his fist for her in the room.

“No,” the girl just said indifferently and then turned to Lin Lin, “open the cage.”

Lin Lin spat out her tongue and pressed on the touchpad.

With a “click”, the lock fixed on the cage steel bar popped open, and the steel bar door directly in front of the Death Claw fell heavily on the ground.

At almost the same time, the Death Claw rushed out of the cage and roared towards the “prey” in front of it.

Its amber-colored pupils were filled with the thirst for blood.

The human that dares to imprison me will be shredded!

Against a charging Death Claw, the girl stood there motionlessly. Just when Jiang Chen thought that perhaps she was too frightened, he noticed that a pool of silver water was spreading outward from X71291’s foot.

Scared?

Jiang Chen revealed a complex expression.

In the blink of an eye, the Death Claw was already in front of her.

Seeing that its claw was going to slash open the girl’s chest, a silver wall suddenly popped up from the ground and blocked the girl from the Death Claw.

Ding!

Sparks flickered, and there was the crisp sound of colliding metal.

The hurt Death Claw jumped back two steps in pain, widened its amber eyes, and stared at the silver wall in its front.

The flat and smooth silver casing was like a solid mirror. It protected the girl like a shield.

Its foot rubbed on the ground as it stared at the prey in front. The Death Claw grinned menacingly and moved a few steps to the side. It looked at its prey without any movement before its legs exerted with full force and with a loud roar, it hurled at her again.

With a mocking grin, the girl raised her right hand. The silver wall re-transformed into a pool of silver water and centered on where she stood. Then, it converged along the floor in the direction of the Death Claw.

“ROARRRR!”

The roar of the Death Claw made all the glass inside the isolation room tremble.

With a Death Claw leaping towards her, the girl just smiled.

As if she was patting away dust from her sleeves, she waved her hand in the Death Claw’s direction.

Countless thick spikes burst out from the ground and blocked all possible escape routes of the Death Claw.

Too late to stop, the Death Claw was like a fly that threw itself into the net and slammed in unpreparedly. It was stabbed by countless spikes and its charging posture was fixated in midair.

The claw stopped two inches in front of her.

The girl turned and looked at the stunned Lin Lin and Jiang Chen behind the tempered glass. She had a slight grin on her face.

From the astonished look of the two, she felt unprecedented joy …

Chapter 1282: X71291“s New Name

1282 X71291“s New Name The silver spikes that penetrated the Death Claw melted into silver liquid again and spilled to the ground. The mercury-like liquid slowly moved forward, gathered towards the girl’s foot, and rolled back into her body through her pants.Losing its support, the penetrated Death Claw smashed onto the ground. Its blood gushed out from the countless wounds and left a giant pool of blood in the isolation room.

The girl passed through the security door and left the isolation room. She looked at Jiang Chen and then clapped.

“What did you think? A digitalized human body is actually very convenient. Even if you unlock the genetic code to the third level, it’s impossible for you to possess such power. Do you not want to try it? You can become an immortal being.”

“No, even without a digitalized human body, I have a way of becoming immortal.”

Jiang Chen felt it was physically unacceptable to replace parts of his body with metal.

“Really? Then it’s up to you.” The girl shrugged.

“Speaking of which, that liquid metal was…” Jiang Chen looked at her pants and wondered where the previous silver liquid had disappeared to.

Inside her clothes? Not likely.

With her petite appearance, there was not anywhere she could hide things.

When the young girl heard Jiang Chen’s question, she concisely replied, “It’s called liquid metal. This type of metal is easily affected by magnetic fields and currents. With the computing power of a quantum computer, I can calculate the relationship between the shape and magnetic field environment in real-time, and their deformation is controlled by the current.”

Jiang Chen suddenly remembered the former Pan-Asia Cooperation intelligence personnel he encountered when he was at Line 0. The weapon he used seemed to be a metal that could change its shape freely, but his ability was only to condense the silver liquid metal into a projectile such as a knife or a needle. It didn’t seem to possess the ability to become a shield and weapon so freely like X71291’s.

Only with contrast could he spot the gap.

Jiang Chen gained a further understanding of the power of the girl in front of him…

“Speaking of which, did you think of a name for yourself?”

“Name? X71291? Does that not work?” The girl revealed a slight frown.

“That doesn’t seem like a normal name…” Jiang Chen facepalmed.

“That’s troublesome,” the girl sighed, and said impatiently, “I’ll leave it to you.”

“Leave it to me?”

“Yes, aren’t names used by others?” The girl said with reasonableness. “If that’s the case, just give me a name that’s easy to say.”

Anything is fine?

Jiang Chen showed a peculiar expression.

His ability to name things was something people criticized. It was bad to the point where Kelvin only mentions the naming process to Jiang Chen and no longer asked for his opinion in naming starships.

Or just Tingting?

But then Tingting is the one in Lin Lin’s body…

Forget it, just a random name is fine.

He thought for a moment. Then, as he was about to speak up, Lin Lin spoke before him.

“How about Lilith.”

“Lilith?” A flash of data stream flashed through X71291’s pupils, and she nodded, “Is it based on the manga character? The settings are indeed similar… そうですね (so de si ne), this name will do.”

“Hmmm?” Lin Lin suddenly blushed when she heard what Lilith said. Then, she asked somewhat embarrassed, “Have you read that comic?”

Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin and was confused, “What are you talking about? What manga?”

She is probably referring to “The Galaxy Era,” a comic published in 2159. The heroine in the comic was a digitalized girl who could use liquid metal and her name was Lilith.” Lilith shrugged, “I have a back-up of this information in my database.”

That’s the story behind this?

Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin who was full of excitement and made a helpless expression.

He used to try the mangas Lin Lin recommended, but he could not get into them. The aesthetic differences between different eras caused him to be unable to appreciate the works of art in this world. At this point, Sun Jiao and Xiaorou also realized this point. Only Yao Yao, who was also from before the war, could enjoy the same kind of art as Lin Lin.

“Then is there a backup in your database of the plot after Volume 31?” Lin Lin didn’t care about the look on Jiang Chen’s face. Lin Lin immediately excitedly asked, “I have been looking for the volumes after 2170.”

Before the war broke out, she was brought into Fallout Shelter 005 by her father to assist him in his research on advanced artificial intelligence. Until now, she was still bothered by the fact that she did not get to see the plot after Volume 31.

Lilith’s words undoubtedly gave her hope.

If the manga was backed up in the database…

“The last volume was published in September 2171, and it was halted indefinitely due to the war. So far it has not resumed serialization.” Unfortunately, Lilith soon gave the ruthless facts to Lin Lin, ” For Volume 32, I can find it in my database, but the stories that follow are probably gone.”

“I see… no wonder I can’t find it.”

Lin Lin was disappointed.

She clearly tried hard to search for the manga.

“Actually, you don’t have to be disappointed. For my quantum computer group, drawing an ending with graphics processing technology will not even take a minute. If you need it, I can draw the rest of that manga now, “Lilith said without a change of expression.

“No.” Lin Lin shook her head, and sighed with regret, “A manga not completed by the original author has no meaning at all, even if you finish the ending for the original author, it can only be considered as fan content.”

Lilith tilted her head. “What’s the difference?”

“The difference is immense,” Lin Lin retorted out of reflex.

“…Okay, humans are really a troublesome creature.” Lilith sighed and gave up continuing to persist on this issue.

As an advanced artificial intelligence, she possessed emotions, but it was impossible to be exactly the same as human beings. After all, the two did not belong to the same “species” at all, and the differences between the two were not only reflected in the physiological level, but also in all aspects such as values, perception, and so on.

And this difference was exactly what X71291 desperately wanted to understand.

“By the way, I was just about to ask you, those liquid metals… Where are you hiding them?” Jiang Chen asked curiously.

“Oh, that?”

Lilith reached out to unbutton her jeans.

Hey wait, why are you taking off your pants?

“You, what are you doing!” Lin Lin hurriedly grabbed Lilith’s hand and pulled her pants back up

“Right, why are you suddenly taking off your pants?” Jiang Chen, who stood next to her, facepalmed again.

Did she just lack common sense, or did she not treat herself as a person.

Well, she is not a human.

Lilith tilted her head and looked at Jiang Chen with confusion in her eyes.

“Didn’t you ask me where I hide those liquid metals?”

She pointed to her butt as if it was completely reasonable.

“I was just going to show it to you.”

For some reason, after Lilith’s explanation, Jiang Chen suddenly gained some sympathy for the Death Claw in the isolation room.

Poor thing was killed by poop…

Chapter 1283: Why didn“t you just ask me?

1283 Why didn“t you just ask me?

Back inside the mansion, Sun Jiao looked suspiciously at the poker-faced Lilith; her eyes wandered between Lin Lin and Jiang Chen.

Being stared down by Sun Jiao made Jiang Chen somewhat uncomfortable, so he touched his nose to hide the awkwardness, then he asked with a guilty conscience, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Sun Jiao shook her head, “I just wonder if I have to add another pair of chopsticks at home.”

“No, I don’t need to eat. I just need to replace my battery regularly.”

As Lilith spoke, she grabbed her clothes and was about to show Sun Jiao the battery slot on her chest.

Lin Lin, who was standing next to her, immediately grabbed her hand and stopped her from exposing herself. Xiaorou also reached out, but she covered Jiang Chen’s eyes instead.

“It’s time to eat …Hmm? What are you all doing?”

Yao Yao, in an apron, came into the living room. She saw Jiang Chen whose eyes were covered by Xiaorou, and at Lilith, with a poker face. She blinked in confusion, not really understanding what had happened.

“Nothing, I just wanted to show the location of the battery, but she stopped me,” Lilith spoke to Yao Yao and said seriously.

…

Although Lilith said she didn’t need to eat, the kind-hearted Yao Yao prepared a pair of chopsticks for her.

Lilith took a bowl of rice from Yao Yao expressionlessly and went to sit next to Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen didn’t know if it were an illusion but he could feel that even if she didn’t show any expressions on her face, she was still very happy that she could sit at the dinner table with everyone.

Even though he himself thought that speculating on the thought of a program was a bit stupid anyway…

At the dinner table, Lin Lin explained Lilith’s identity to everyone.

Sun Jiao had heard about Lin Lin’s recent work. When she heard that Lilith was number X71291, Sun Jiao’s reaction was similar to that of Jiang Chen’s, and all her emotions were written on her face.

In some ways, the two were really similar.

After lunch, Lilith accompanied Yao Yao and Xiaorou and took the plates to the kitchen. There, they washed the plates clean, and then returned to the living room. In the living room, they entangled themselves with Jiang Chen who was sitting on the sofa and reading a book.

“When will you take me to the other world?” Lilith looked at Jiang Chen and asked.

“After a few days. I have some things to deal with here… what happened? Are you in a hurry?” Jiang Chen asked.

“I’m in a hurry.” Lilith nodded expressionlessly. Then she blinked and a glimmer of eagerness appeared in her pupils for half a second. “In a hurry to get into a raid.”

Jiang Chen froze slightly before he suddenly understood. One of the reasons Lilith wanted to go the modern world was that, it was fed up with watching as an outsider and wanted to participate in Godly Land as a player.

But is it cheating to let advanced artificial intelligence play?

As if she had guessed what Jiang Chen was thinking, she added expressionlessly, “Rest assured, I’ll only participate in the game as a player, and I will not use any means outside the rules to change the server data. It’s boring. ”

“I’m not worried about this,” Jiang Chen shook his head and said with a smile, “It’s just a little surprising.”

At this point in time, as the only large-scale immersive VR online games, it had actually only accounted for a small part of the Future Technology’s virtual reality network. Especially now that Future Technology was developing a large-scale space-themed online game with the Milky Way as the background. Even if Lilith ruined Godly Land, it would only cost him a few hundreds of millions at most.

“Surprising?” Lilith looked at Jiang Chen expressionlessly. “Well… this kind of thing doesn’t matter. Since you are not worried about this, can you take me there?”

“You’ve waited for so many years. Can you not wait another four or five days?” Jiang Chen gave her a side eye.

“You can send me to that world first and then come back; it should be easy for you. Rest assured, I am very obedient.” In order to strengthen her persuasion in this sentence, Lilith restarted the emoticon function, which was originally shut off to save power, and she made an “I’m super obedient” expression.

Jiang Chen was unmoved by this, but his mouth twitched.

“You know this is impossible.”

In any case, he would not leave her alone in that world.

Lilith let out a helpless sigh, she knew she had no chance to persuade him.

“Well, then can you tell me what are you going to do in the next few days?”

“I’m investigating some things related to Pan-Asia Cooperation’s space projects,” Jiang Chen said nonchalantly as glanced at Lilith. “You should have heard that Pan-Asia Cooperation had a research station on Mars. I want to know about that. The more detailed the information, the better. ”

“Oh, that,” Lilith nodded with the same expresssionless state, looked at Jiang Chen, and said, “Why didn’t you just ask me?”

…

NASA headquarters.

A group of workers wore headphones and worked busily and nervously at the computer desk. Behind this group, in addition to Bolden and the Deputy Director of NASA, several FBA agents in grey suits could be seen pointing around.

Intelligence experts appeared at NASA, a scene that was rare in the history of UA spaceflight.

The reason why this happened was due to an incident that happened a few days ago.

Just a few days ago, several UA astronauts, stranded in the Mars colony, made their routine video call to their families. It was done on a monthly basis and under the supervision of Celestial Trade staff.

While the call was in progress, NASA staff members accompanying the astronaut’s relatives unexpectedly discovered that the astronaut named Jenny seemed to be using this opportunity to send a call for help subtly.

This phenomenon was discovered by Jenny’s family and they notified the NASA staff. Consequently, this immediately caught the attention of the authorities.

Jenny’s colleagues retrieved the record of her video call with her family members, played it over ten times, and found some unusual spots. After Bolden reported the incident, the authority sent FBA intelligence experts to assist in the investigation.

Sure enough, with the help of professionals, they immediately discovered where the problem was.

“Pay attention to the frequency of her blinking, fast blinking means short sound, and slow blinking means long sound. This is Morse code. Compare frame by frame, pay attention to every action and every keyword. Don’t let go of any details. ”

Soon, a code list of dots and dashes were transcribed.

Glancing at the password table, the intelligence expert from the FBA immediately picked up a pencil and scribbled down the translation result on another piece of paper.

“071, danger, new species,” Holding onto the paper, the intelligence expert walked next to Bolden and the FBA director. “Several possible errors have been deleted. The keywords that she repeatedly emphasized were these three.”

“Danger and new species are well understood. It’s likely Celestial Trade had disrupted another part of the ecosystem on Mars, but what does 071 mean?” The FBA director frowned slightly, then he said inexplicably.

Bolden’s brow scrunched slightly.

He vaguely felt that number was familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had heard it.

His eyes moved around the room. When his eyes fell on the face of a black colleague, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately looked at the FBA director.

“Mine 071… I remember it! Remember the James incident? The black employee who was killed by Devil Worms? I remember seeing in a report that he was exploring groundwater reserves at Mine 071.”

Because it was news in his field of work, and because he was a black man, the incident left a strong impression on Bolden.

After the FBA director heard Bolden’s words, he appeared stunned.

“The Devil Worm… Mine 071… new species, she means that Celestial Trade was again attacked by Martian species while they were developing Mine 071? And this time it was a new species other than the Devil Worm?”

“The same incident happened twice in the same place. Why are they so attached to Mine 071? Unless there is something there that is worth their attachment…”

When Bolden raised his head, he looked at the FBA director, who was also looking at him, and they both saw the unusualness in each other’s eyes.

Chapter 1284: The Colonial History of Mars

Chapter 1284 The Colonial History of Mars “… Jenny Karim, a former New York Times battlefield reporter. She won the Pulitzer Prize for a report on Iraq’s chemical weapons. In 2018, she signed up for NASA’s astronaut training program; originally trained for the moon landing mission. However, because the mission was postponed, she became part of the Ares.”Ayesha read through the report as she sat in her office inside Future Building.

Zhu Yu, director of the Domestic Anti-Intelligence Office, stood in front of her and was reporting to her the findings on the recent investigation.

“When she was a war correspondent in Iraq, she may have been trained by the CIB. According to the information collected by Bernice in the UA, there is evidence that the CIB, the FBA and other intelligence agencies have issued a special document to train field reporters and diplomats in anti-investigation training in response to a possible hostage crisis.”

“She is from the CIB?” Ayesha looked to Zhu Yu.

“It’s unlikely,” Zhu Yu, shook her head, and then continued, “but we have reason to believe that the UA has received her message.”

The number 071 alone would not reveal any valuable information. However, what concerned Ayesha was that they could use the recent news to generate some bewildering thoughts.

While Ayesha was silent, Zhu Yu added.

“At present we have sent an inquiry letter to Celestial Trade and the Space Department. Based on Kelvin’s reply, they immediately controlled the individuals involved in the incident… do we need to implement disciplinary measures for her observer?”

There were no Ghost Agents on Mars. The UA astronauts were under the surveillance of Celestial Trade Army Intelligence Division, not professional intelligence personnel. He could know Morse code, but he could not relate Morse code with the frequency of blinking, and he could never have thought that the person he monitored passed sensitive information by blinking.

Maybe the person didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes, but that person would have to be at least a Conan to notice the subtle details. Zhu Yu tried to put herself in the position and thought that even she could not do a better job in this scenario. Like the FBA, she also found problems in the countless replays.

However, discipline existed for a reason. Personal accountability must exist, and there was no excuse for this.

“The personnel involved from Celestial Trade will be handled in accordance with military regulations, and we will not intervene,” Ayesha’s slender finger gently tapped on the document, and she thought for a moment before she said, “In the future, terminate real-time communication services for stranded UA astronauts and change it to delayed transmission of video.”

“In addition, all videos, whether they enter or leave the colony, must be double-checked by Ghost Agents and the Celestial Trade Army Intelligence Division. No matter where the problem is found, the person involved will be immediately disqualified from contact with their family. It is better to be safe than sorry.”

“Roger,” Zhu Yu stood straight and responded with certainty.

“Last thing,” Ayesha paused for a second before she ordered, “send a truth-telling serum to the Mars colony. I’m curious, where did she hear about number 071?”

…

The Apocalypse; in the mansion.

Lilith, sitting on the sofa, complied with Jiang Chen’s request and introduced him to the history of Pan-Asia Cooperation’s colonization of Mars.

“The Mars plan could be traced back to the middle of the 21st century. At that time, the three major forces, Soviet Union, NATO, and Pan-Asia had successfully delivered astronauts to the surface of Mars. However, the Pan-Asia Cooperation Mars Scientific Research Station was built in the early 22nd century. NATO took the lead in announcing the launch of the Mars colonization plan, and successfully sent a 500,000-ton class research ship to the Mars orbit. The Pan-Asia Parliament immediately issued the colonization plan to more than 20 scientific institutions, and the first Mars colony was finally built in 2110…”

“Wait, I remember that the three major forces did not establish a Mars colony?” Jiang Chen frowned, interrupting Lilith’s words.

“Because of political reasons,” Lilith shrugged. “All countries were condemning each other’s colonial behavior, emphasizing that outer space resources must be shared by all human beings. Of course, they could not slap their own face. The official name of all colonies were XXX Scientific Research Station. According to the data in my database, by 2120, in less than ten years, Pan-Asia Cooperation built more than 20 ‘scientific research stations’ with more than 1,000 personnel on Mars.”

Jiang Chen was shocked by the number.

As the president of Celestial Trade, no one knew the cost of Mars colony better than him. From the budget he received from the Mars colony, even with his financial power, he felt pain every time he received the report.

With more than 20 colonies built and no profit achieved, Pan-Asia Cooperation was probably losing more than a space elevator every year.

However, even if it was the case, Jiang Chen still understood their intention.

To give an example, it was like Uber and Lyft competing for business. Everyone was burning money at the start, and burning money at an incredible rate, but it was for the purpose to gain market share. Perhaps Pan-Asia Cooperation officials also knew that every colony built was going to lose money, but no one could wait until the colonies turned profitable. If they decided to wait until Mars turned profitable, their own enterprises would have already lost at the starting point.

Even just for a possibility, sending people their first to claim land was the best starting point!

In contrast, Celestial Trade was extremely lucky as the company entered the Mars colonization era one century in advance. Without a single competitor, there was enough time and space to rationally develop the entire “market”.

“So, the major forces did not just built a research station on Mars? They built dozens of them? And each scientific research station is actually a colony in disguise?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Yes.” Lilith nodded. “That’s been the case since the early twenty-second century.”

“Why are there no news from all the colonies?” Lin Lin, who was sitting next to Jiang Chen, frowned. She muttered in confusion, “In my memory, there were no reports of colonies at all.”

“This is very easy to explain. You were born in the fifties, right?” Lilith asked.

“Yes.” Lin Lin nodded.

“Then you should have heard of the economic crisis of 2150.”

Even Jiang Chen nodded this time.

When he first arrived in the apocalypse, he learned about the economic crisis that was generally considered to be the cause of the World War in 2171. (Note: if you forget the plot, you can go back to Chapter 2)

“In the recorded history in my database, as of 2149, the number of scientific research stations for Pan-Asia Cooperation had reached 41, and for the Soviet Union and NATO, the numbers were similar. When the economic crisis happened, countries were unable to sustain those bottomless pits. Therefore, the “Houston Convention” was signed in 2150. In addition to outlining zones on Mars, it also reduced its respective colonies… or scientific research stations to 15.

“However, this doesn’t explain why I haven’t heard of those scientific research stations at all?” Lin Lin said and held the same frown on her face.

“Of course it can explain it,” Lilith looked at Jiang Chen, “because it involved another problem about the colonies. It was also related to the Gaia civilization you mentioned before.”

Chapter 1285: War Against Colonies

Chapter 1285 War Against Colonies

“By 2150, the population of Pan-Asia Cooperation citizens on Mars had exceeded 500,000. Of these 500,000, almost 80% were native ‘Martians’.” Lilith focused on Jiang Chen as she continued, “And in the land claiming game on Mars, all countries have overlooked a problem, that is, the sense of identity of the Mars citizens to the ‘sovereign state’.”

“A lot of young Martians have never been to Earth. They only heard about things on Earth from their grandparents and only learned about Earth through film and television.”

“Is there no internet?” Jiang Chen wondered.

“The discovery of Klein particles happened a long time after, and the application for ultra-long-distance communication was after the war.” As Lilith explained the context, she looked to Lin Lin, who had proudly raised her chest.

It was Lin Lin’s work that allowed communication through the Klein Particle Resonance Effect.

After a moment’s pause, Lilith continued in her undulating tone.

“Before that, the means of communication between the colony and the Earth relied mainly on electromagnetic waves, with an average delay of up to five minutes and a maximum delay of even close to half an hour. It is equivalent to shouting into the phone here, and waiting for a long time before it can be heard on Mars. If there was any solar wind, the loss of communication was extremely common. So in order to ensure the effective transmission of information, the communication between Earth and Mars required the same message to be delivered three times.”

“The information lag directly led to the absence of information. Over time, the cultural differences caused by the lack of information exchange had become greater and greater, and this has laid the groundwork for future conflicts.”

“The 2150 Houston Convention was viewed as a wise decision by citizens of all nations, but was regarded as a shameful betrayal by most Martians. Riots of considerable scale broke out across the colonies, especially those colonies that were about to be put on the abolition list. Although countries introduced plans, it was clear that the highly autonomous colonies did not agree with them.”

“Almost a month after the signing of the Houston Convention, a total of 59 Pan-Asia, NATO, and Soviet colonies jointly signed the twenty second-century version of the Declaration of Independence, announced the establishment of the Mars Federation, and organized a coup. With the support of some officers, the insurgents successfully controlled all three space elevators on Mars and forced all the uncertain colonies to join the federation.”

“Don’t they long for Earth?” Jiang Chen was intrigued.

“Only people who haven’t been to the Mars colonies will have such confusion,” Lilith said with the same expressionless face, “According to the information in my database, the development of the Mars colonies was not too far behind the cities on Earth. And with the construction of the artificial biosphere, the landscape on Mars was not much worse compared to Earth. As for industrial capacity, I have no specific data to give you, but refer to the ‘Development of the Pan-Asia Cooperation Steel Industry in 2145’ published by the Pan-Asia Academy of Social Sciences. Based on the report, the steel output of the Pan-Asia Mars colonies accounted for 27% of the entire Pan-Asia steel output, and was in a serious surplus.”

“…after declaring independence, can the Mars colonies be self-sufficient?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Of course not, there was no way to be self-sufficient. On Mars, the helium-3 reserves were extremely low. Once the nuclear fusion battery imported from the Moon was interrupted, all Mars colonies were finished.” After a pause, Lilith continued, “So, after Mars colonies declared independence, it immediately declared war on Earth and sent a fleet to ‘liberate’ the Moon.”

“Fleet?” Jiang Chen was dumbfounded. “Where did the fleet come from?”

“Don’t forget the three space elevators that the insurgents controlled at the start of the coup, as well as the starships in the space port,” Lilith explained. “Because there was no need for warfare, no one prepared for a Mars Independence. Back then, the battleships were modified transport ships. The modification was simple and crude as they installed as many electromagnetic pulse cannons as possible on them.”

“You just asked why you didn’t hear any news about Mars,” Lilith looked at Lin Lin. “Because from that time on, the news from Mars were censored. As for the reason for the censorship, perhaps it was because of the unwillingness to admit the failure of the development strategy in the past decade on Mars, or perhaps it was also due to other political considerations. In any case, the Pan-Asia Cooperation did implement strict censorship on Mars after 2150. It would be understandable since twenty years before you were born, no news on Mars were broadcasted.”

Lin Lin opened her mouth in astonishment.

And Jiang Chen continued to frown, still confused with the situation.

“But what does this have to do with the Gaia civilization?”

“This involves the highest-level secrets of the Pan-Asia Cooperation. Even I don’t know,” Lilith shrugged. “But using the limited intelligence I have for analysis, it is not difficult for us to draw conclusions that is close to the truth.”

Holding up one finger, Lilith went on to say, “First, the Pan-Asia Cooperation, the NATO, and the Soviet Union’s censor must be based on the premise that the three-nation coalition was victorious against the Mars Federation rebels, in epic fashion.”

Jiang Chen nodded and agreed with her statement.

Not only in epic fashion, the Mars fleet perhaps did not even make it to the Moon before it was completely destroyed. Otherwise, it would be useless to censor the information when war was so close to Earth.

“Second,” Lilith raised her second finger. “Since the Earth forces suppressed the rebels in a short period of time, why would the news of the colony be censored for 20 years, and even remain censored after another world war?”

“It can’t be that they fought for 20 years?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Without the Moon’s supply of nuclear fusion fuel, it was difficult for Mars Federation to last for even a year.” Lilith shook her head. “There is only one possibility that the news was to be censored forever, and that is a major accident happened on Mars that could not be made public.”

“For example?” Jiang Chen frowned as he seemed to have caught onto something.

“For example, everyone on Mars died,” Lilith said blankly.

Lin Lin, who was sitting next to them, gasped.

“Ruling out the possibility that these people died in the hands of the Earth forces, since the goal of each nation was to suppress the coup, recover the occupied colonies, and not to kill civilians.” Lilith continued her logic, “We assume the independence war lasted for half a year.”

“During this half year, the Mars Federation insurgents discovered the relics of the Gaia civilization and saw hope in turning the tide of the battle again through the memory of the Gaia civilization. Immediately after they got the key, they began to excavate the ruins. Then finally, along the way, they turned on a nightmare switch, and ultimately killed everyone.”

“Devil Worms?” Jiang Chen was digesting the information as his eyebrows furrowed.

“Accurately speaking, it should be species native to Mars. Based on this conjecture, countries began to study Mars species and the Gaia civilization as early as 2152. The latter did not see any progress, and it was likely because the relics were destroyed. As for the former, the progress was quite impressive. From what I know, the X1 bacteria previously used to remove radiation but ended up coming a deadly virus, had part of the DNA strand from the radiation-resistant bacteria found on Mars.”

Jiang Chen attempted to puzzle everything together.

Suddenly, a thought came to his mind.

[Did the Brahma bring all those live alien species to Gliese 581g?

At least, some of the bugs.

Chapter 1286: Arrest

Chapter 1286 Arrest

On Mars, a woman was escorted by several soldiers and locked into a cell.

“What do you want?! Let go of me, you have no right to restrict my personal freedom!” Jenny hit the iron bars with her bare hands and angrily shouted at the Celestial soldiers outside the door, “You savages, I’m going to report you! And let the media all over the world know that I have been treated unfairly here.”

The soldiers stopped and turned around. The eyes that focused on her were without much emotion.

Jenny felt eerie after being stared down and her tone became weaker.

“I have the right to know why you’re locking me up here. I have clearly complied with the laws and have not violated any rules. Why did you lock me here…”

Until now, she still had hope that she did not get caught.

She thought what she pulled off was flawless.

And even if Celestial Trade gathered sufficient evidence, she still had excuses. Many people would blink more in a nervous situation. She never learned Morse code and did not intend for her nervous actions to be over-interpreted.

However, the two soldiers just looked at each other and sneered.

“There is no point in dishonesty. There are no lawyers or courts here.” One of the soldiers stepped forward and said, “The arrest warrant was issued by Ghost Agents. When we investigated your correspondence, we found you leaked sensitive information using Morse code. ”

“I demand extradition, and there is an extradition treaty between Xin and the UA!” Jenny said nervously when she realized that her trick was easily exposed.

“Oh? Really. I haven’t heard that you can be extradited on charges of espionage? And this is Mars, not Xin.” With a sneer, and the soldier said sarcastically, “Also, I can tell you that because of your thoughtless behavior, the return date for you and your friends will be postponed. Until we are sure that you have not overheard more sensitive information, you will stay here with us and enjoy this beautiful sandy planet.”

“You, you can’t do this.” Only now did Jenny finally realize how much trouble her behavior had caused her crewmates, “I…”

However, the two soldiers did not want to listen to any more of her nonsense, and while she still wanted to say something more, the door of the room was closed shut.

In the narrow corridor, darkness returned.

In front of the cell, an officer of the Army Intelligence Division ticked the logbook and nodded to the two soldiers, signaling that they could go.

Brace was at the other end of the corridor. He hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to step forward.

When the astronaut approached him, the officer had a mocking smile.

“Do you want to plea for your crewmate?”

“Is there no other solution?” Brace glanced at where his colleague was being held, and then looked at the soldier. “Maybe this is just a misunderstanding. Jenny is a good person…”

“Misunderstanding? Good person?” The officer pushed up his hat and stared at Brace with a half-smile, “A good person would not be a spy.”

“Spy?” Brace frowned, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

In fact, when Celestial soldiers came this morning to take her away, the feeling was already lingering in his mind. He kept telling Jenny not to probe into something she shouldn’t know, but apparently, she didn’t take his words to heart.

When he heard the word spy, he immediately understood what was happening to that girl.

It must be that she was sniffing around, and was caught by Celestial Trade.

He thought of the conversation he had with his family on Earth and Brace’s face suddenly turned pale. Then he cursed at Jenny with all the words he could think of.

“… But do you know that your actions may hurt the relationship between the two countries?” While Brace scolded Jenny, after all, Jenny reported under him, he tried to plea, “I mean, before there are conclusive pieces of evidenceâ€””

“When our soldiers risked their lives to save you from the broken ship, they have taken the greatest care for the relationship between the two countries,” The officer interrupted the former captain and said with a hint of a sneer, “But how do you repay our grace?”

It wasn’t just the astronaut who was detained. The intelligence department investigator who supervised her communications and the investigator who worked under him were all detained. With his soldier detained, of course, the Army Intelligence Officer did not treat him with the best attitude.

“Sorry…” Brace said awkwardly, “I apologize for my colleague’s reckless behavior.”

“We won’t be angry at you,” The officer said coldly, “but don’t expect us to treat you with respect either. As you wish, I now offer you an alternative that takes care of the relationship of both countries. Either do everything as we say or pack up and go back to Ares.”

Brace froze.

[Go back to Ares?]

[That’s like asking for death!]

“If you want to go back, you can come to my office at any time, and I will drive you back in person.” The officer stared at Brace and uttered out this sentence word by word. While Brace was still processing the information, the officer walked away without looking back.

Outside the colony, the war against the swarms continued. The soldiers, shielding behind the cover on the wall, fired back with the Gauss rifle while dodging the spewing acids.

It seemed that the assault on the colony was becoming a norm, and these bugs just didn’t seem to die at all. And the most terrifying part was that the intelligence of those bugs was substantially higher than the Devil Worms. In just a week, their tactics evolved from simply trying to flood the colony to repeated attacks to consume Celestial Trade’s ammunition.

The production cost of a missile was close to 6 million Xin New Dollars. After accounting for transportation and launch cost, the total was close to the ten million figure. Although the cost should not be a factor considered by the military, the command center already proposed to the Captain of the Expedition more than once to use electromagnetic pulse cannons instead of missiles, if possible.

Inside the office of the Space Department, Kelvin looked at the budget report with a headache.

At this moment, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Setting aside the budget report in his hand, Kelvin looked at the door and said nonchalantly.

After the staff received permission, he walked into the office.

“Reporting.”

“What’s the matter?”

“SS Origin successfully completed deceleration into the Mars Synchronous Orbit, requesting next commands.”

Kelvin, after hearing the news, looked at his watch.

It’s been a week…

Kelvin looked at the staff and ordered with an affirmative voice.

“Start weapon deployment immediately.”

“Roger!”

It’s time to end it all.

Kelvin watched the staff member leave as he thought.

He did not have the slightest doubt that the weapons, specifically tailored to the bugs, would shred those bugs into pieces…

Chapter 1287: Holy Shield!

Chapter 1287 Holy Shield!

In the apocalypse, a secluded factory on the northern outskirts of Wanghai was on heightened security under the control of NAC soldiers.

The factory was only about 20 kilometers from the Sixth Street.

Compared with its desolate appearance, the factory itself was full of life.

Under the supervision of NAC soldiers, NAC engineers operated the mechanical cantilever and carefully placed the energy tank containing several kilograms of deuterium and helium-3 into the slot of a giant machine covering an area of over one hundred square meters.

A technician from the Guardian Sect stood with the NAC scientists at the moment. He was looking at everything in front of him with excitement.

Over a year had passed.

Today, their work finally made a breakthrough.

As the energy tank was placed into the slot, the entire factory’s activities were upped by another gear.

“Energy output power is normal!”

“Open the switch, start charging!”

“Shield generator initiating!”

“The power system output environment is stable, the temperature is normal, and the system is running steadily!”

“The shield generator is activated! We are successful!”

The sound of the stable operation of the machine was like heaven’s melody.

With a shout of excitement, loud cheers erupted in the factory.

Engineers and researchers high-fived each other, and even the soldiers stationed on the side had a look of relief. Everyone was full of excitement and joy, and embraced each other to celebrate this long-awaited moment.

Once this shield generating device was repaired, other devices could also be repaired.

Soon, the news reached the heart of NAC – The Mansion at Fishbone Base.

Jiang Chen immediately ordered someone to prepare a vehicle as he planned to make a personal visit to the site.

For NAC, repairing the Holy Shield was equivalent to protecting all of Wanghai from the nuclear winter. For Celestial Trade, the complete mastery of Holy Shield technology was equivalent to directly increasing the defense of the Earth Fleet and Celestial Trade Fleet to a new level! They made a leap from hard armor defense to energy shield!

Not long after, escorted by armored vehicles and tanks, an extended car was parked at the gate to the factory.

The door opened, and Jiang Chen, accompanied by a group of soldiers, walked to the main gate in quick steps. The project leader was already waiting there along with the scientists.

From the back, Lilith also jumped out and followed behind him.

As he walked towards the factory, the person in charge of the repair of the Holy Shield System explained to Jiang Chen in excitement.

“… Repair work is mainly focused on shield generators. During the war, NATO Special Forces’ attacks on the Holy Shield systems were mainly directed against shield generators. The technical difficulties we have faced were also around the generator! But now, since all the issues have been resolved, the remaining shield generating devices shouldn’t be more troublesome than this one. Before this winter, we should be able to complete all the repairs! ”

With an approving nod, Jiang Chen followed him into the factory and stopped in front of the giant shield generator.

“This thing has been repaired?” Jiang Chen looked at the shield generating device in stable operation and then looked back at the scientist behind him, “Why do I not see the shield?”

Before he headed to Shangjing, Lin Lin gave him a miniature version of the Holy Shield system. From his memory, it was possible to see a pale yellow outline. The graviton could force all approaching mass to either stop or change direction, including air and dust particles.

“The shield is mainly concentrated on top, and does not necessarily have to form a closed sphere. To describe it in more details, it’s like an umbrella. In addition, a shield generating device on a city-scale forms a shield two kilometers above the city. Of course, we can lower it,” The scientist explained.

Jiang Chen nodded.

“No, I trust you.”

It was simple to test the strength of the shield. He would just need to command AS Order to fire at this location. But after he thought about it a bit more, he decided against it. The Holy Shield System could defend against space-based weapons after all.

This can be tested later.

After he leaves here…

When Jiang Chen inspected the work with the accompanying scientist, Lilith went to the shield generator and tapped the generator. A stream of data appeared through her pupils, and soon she retracted her finger and returned to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen noticed her action and looked to her in curiosity.

“What did you just do?”

“Optimized the program and eliminated some backdoors. In approximate terms, just increased the performance of the hardware by five percent, and increased the difficulty of infiltration to the maximum… umm, count that as an update to the program,” Lilith said with a blank expression.

“You can do that?” Jiang Chen was genuinely surprised.

The ability to update the system designed before the war was quite remarkable in a sense. Although it was just a software update, it was designed by the countless scientists of Pan-Asia Cooperation.

“Is this difficult for the world’s only advanced artificial intelligence?” Lilith asked earnestly.

Although she was showing off, it was true.

Jiang Chen did not know the number of advanced artificial intelligences at NATO and the Soviet Union. But there must be only one advanced artificial intelligence at PAC.

“By the way, I’ve always been curious about how powerful your processing is,” Jiang Chen said.

“As long as I can identify the hardware, I can use it freely,” Lilith shrugged. “For me, using electronics is probably as easy as eating and drinking to you.”

After all, she was a program.

Jiang Chen nodded, entrenched in his thoughts, he suddenly said.

“What if I asked you to hack a country’s nuclear weapon system?”

“It depends on how well their security is,” Lilith said in the same expressionless state, but she smiled. “If they fired nuclear weapons with Facebook or Twitter, I probably only need one second to explode the weapons.”

“True,” he hesitated for a moment, then understood the humor in Lilith’s words, and laughed. “But speaking of which, you know Facebook and Twitter?”

Indeed, after all, nuclear weapons were not launched on Twitter and Facebook.

Jiang Chen was not aware of the launch procedure of the UA, but for Celestial Trade, from the moment he pressed the button to the launch of the missile deployed at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, there were at least three procedures, and physical isolation existed between each procedure.

For example, in the last procedure, after confirming the order, two staff members at the launch pad must insert metal keys into the lock, and they must rotate the key to start the launching process at the same time, and then the third person must enter the launch code through the mechanical keyboard.

No one would be foolish enough to believe the rumor of a hacker using cyber-attack to paralyze a country’s nuclear weapons.

“I can get a lot of information from that game, and I can even pinpoint exactly which player has spoken to whom and at what time.” Lilith explained. She made it sound like it was something that could be easily done by everyone.

Just a back door on the server allowed her to evolve up to this point. What if she touched Future Technology’s server? Perhaps even the fabled Skynet project would not be able to achieve this…

Chapter 1288: Counterattack!

Chapter 1288 Counterattack!

Mars synchronous orbit.

With two blue streams closing in, a starship slowly moved closer to the fiery red planet.

Inside the bridge, the staff sitting in front of the computer calmly reported.

“The orbital parameters have been corrected. We are entering the synchronous orbit.”

“All parameters are normal.”

“Initiate mission launch sequence. The drop compartment has successfully separated.”

“Separation successful, and the drop compartment is leaving the synchronous orbit.”

“…”

“The course has been revised. You can leave at any time.”

Looking at the fiery red planet outside the starship, the captain behind the bridge took a deep breath, picked up the wired intercom, and ordered affirmatively, “All units, the main engine is igniting, we’re re-entering our course!”

“Roger that.”

After dropping the compartment suspended on the ship, SS Origin orbited for a quarter around Mars’ orbit and only encountered TS Expedition stationed in synchronous orbit for a moment before it adjusted its course. Origin’s next destination was the Asteroid belt between Jupiter and Saturn.

With a dazzling white light stream pushing behind the starship, the dark ship pierced into the deep universe like a sharp sword and disappeared into the endless blackness.

…

Ten thousand meters below, fierce battles continued outside the colony.

The swarm continued to attack Celestial Trade Marines on the wall, chipping away the colony’s defense with their acid and corpses. The electromagnetic pulse cannon projectiles ravaged the battlefield, sent the yellow sand high up in the air before covering all the blood that spewed. Everything happened so quickly as if nothing had happened, then repeated again and again.

As the two sides fought fiercely, a dark shadow surrounded by a ball flame dropped down from ten thousand meters. Like a meteor, it crashed into the chaotic battlefield.

BOOM!

The steel hull came in close contact with the ground.

The rough, hard landing flattened a sand dune, and a thick yellow haze set off around the impact site.

The bottom of the compartment was deeply embedded in the ground, crushing dozens of Corruptors who were besieging the colony into pieces.

When the bugs stared blankly at the unexpected visitor, the front door of the cabin collapsed, revealing a giant drill bit hidden behind the cabin door.

The bugs that lingered around the compartment seemed to have stop moving as they stared at the metal monster in the middle with confusion. Just as one of the Corruptors tried to spit acid, the metal monster inside started to move.

The engine roared in the thin atmosphere.

With the giant drill, a steel beast emerged from the compartment.

The first difference between this rig and those in colony was its sheer size. This rig was more than double the size of the colony’s tiny rigs. A thick layer of organic anti-corrosive material was coated to the thick titanium alloy armor. This material was extracted from the blood of Devil Worms and could render acid strong enough to erode rocks useless!

The top and sides of the rig were also modified with small-caliber electromagnetic rapid-fire guns, which could accelerate ten-gram pellets to three times the speed of sound. The pellets could easily penetrate the armor of the Corruptors. In addition, there were two augers that resembled large screws on both sides of the heavy rubber tires, to ensure that the rig was unimpeded in any terrain.

Without any exaggeration, it would be fair to say that the steel beast could easily enter and leave the swarm without any damage.

“Drill Warrior”, the name of the steel beast, was painted on both sides of the rig.

The name perfectly explained its functionality. No matter above or below ground, no terrain could stop the steel beast from marching forward!

“DAMN, this thing is giant…” A solider taking cover beside Zhang Hai watched the rig and exclaimed.

“What did I just see? A heavily armed rig?”

“Haha, Drill Warrior, that is a pretty bad*ss name.”

The compartment not only carried the steel beast, but also a hundred T-4H Aerospace Power Armors with corrosion-resistant coating. Unlike the T-4 Power Armor, the T-4H’s minigun was replaced by a relatively slower, but more powerful electromagnetic rapid-fire gun. In the middle were two pairs of vortex engines and two bottles of oxygen tanks were added to increase the oxygen holding for 24-hour consumption.

Soon, the gates on the west of the colony slowly opened, and a group of armored vehicles, in an attack formation, rushed toward the compartment abandoned in the swarm.

Strikes from TS Expedition began to hit on the ground, disrupting the Corruptors that was surrounding the fleet.

As the fleet rushed to the compartment, the door suddenly opened, and soldiers inside armored vehicles jumped off, and gathered together to form a defensive formation. They maintained open fire as they moved closer to the open compartment.

Drill Warrior was already showing off its destructive power in its very first battle.

The augers suspended on both sides of its tires dropped down, then the entire rig was lifted. The giant drill in front of the vehicle aimed down before it turned rapidly.

Sand filled the air.

The entire rig resembled a Devil Worm made of steel. In less than half a minute, the entire body already disappeared into the ground and headed towards the source of the Corruptors.

The entire desert became restless, like limestones being tossed into a lake.

The corrupters, hiding underground, was taken aback by the sudden emergence of the steel beast. Without the ability to dig, they could only spit the acid at the giant rig in vain, using their claws as powerful as steel in an attempt to stop the steel monster’s destruction forward, but their fate was just shredded to pieces by the more powerful titanium drill.

Their offense on the surface suddenly slowed down.

Under the cover of the “Drill Warrior”, the soldiers who stormed into the compartment were equipped with the new power armor. Having already simulated and operated the new power armor in the virtual reality training system countless times, they quickly adapted to this powerful new armor. One by one, they marched out of the compartment with the electromagnetic rapid-fire guns.

“Here is the headquarters. Company A, your task is to follow Drill Warrior to Mine 071, and to recover the land and glory we once lost from those dirty bugs!”

“ROGER!”

Listening to the sound of electric current charging along his right arm, Zhang Hai’s entire body was stimulated with energy.

Streamlined casing, thick titanium alloy armor, blue light pulsing in the gun, and the blood and corpses of the Corruptors splashing on his body.

The futuristic armor hit his G spot.

With such a powerful equipment under his control, he had no doubt about the victory.

The soldiers no longer needed to scramble to take coverÂ against the splashing acid.

Covered by the same material as the blood vessels of Devil Worms, the armor was coated in an organic layer. Even if they were covered with acid, the anti-corrosive nature would protect them in the battle.

Armed to the teeth, the soldiers assembled behind the dunes on the west side of the colony, re-embarked on the armored vehicles, followed the track of the Drill Warrior wrecking havoc underground, and headed in the direction of Mine 071…

Chapter 1289: Am I that kind of a pervert!?

Chapter 1289 Am I that kind of a pervert!?

With the completion of the Holy Shield System, Jiang Chen asked Sun Jiao to make a copy of all the technical data, and then sent the information to Celestial Trade’s server.

After a short week of relaxation in the apocalypse, he took Lilith back to the modern world.

Perhaps it was his illusion.

When he left, he felt the girls’ envy when they looked at Lilith. In particular, Lin Lin, as a digitalized human, was whispering something like “so close”.

But indeed, it was so close.

Based on what Lin Lin said earlier, at most in one year or two, the interdimensional transmission technology that her research institute was conquering should make a breakthrough.

By that time, he would have more headaches.

For example, how to introduce Sun Jiao to Xia Shiyu.

Hopefully with Sun Jiao’s careless personality, there would be no conflicts…

Hopefully?

…

Modern world.

Jiang Chen took Lilith back to Coro Island from Coconut Island by boat. He stopped in front of his door and hesitated for a moment when they were at the front door.

“What’s the matter?”

Lilith looked at Jiang Chen with the same expressionless state.

“Try not to speak, I can do the speaking… Besides, don’t mention things about that world.”

Although Ayesha and Xia Shiyu both knew, Natasha also lived here. Despite going through many things together, Jiang Chen still questioned if he can trust her without reservation. In order to avoid unnecessary suspicion and confusion, it was better not to talk about that world.

“This is the seventh time you said this,” Lilith sighed. “My head is much better than yours. Instead of worrying about me, you should worry about yourself. ”

Jiang Chen glared at Lilith and didn’t add anything. He clicked on his watch and opened the gate to the mansion.

Behind the main gate was a concrete path across the garden lawn.

The road led to the garage and a small path led to the main entrance.

As Lilith walked through the lawn, she reached out and poked expressionlessly at the ball-type drone floating over to identify her.

The subtle grin perhaps seemed to be mocking the poor-design of the drone, or perhaps it was to show the pride of an advanced artificial intelligence in front of a basic artificial intelligence.

As soon as the two arrived at the door, the door opened.

Ayesha rushed into Jiang Chen’s arms. After she affectionately rubbed herself against his chest, her head appeared and curiously looked at the girl behind him. Xia Shiyu and Natasha closely follwed and also appeared at the door, casting the same strange look at Lilith.

In fact, they noticed when Jiang Chen arrived at the door.

Jiang Chen kissed Ayesha’s cheek, gently patted her on the back and then placed her down. He then gave Xia Shiyu and Jiang Chen a kiss. Just as he was about to introduce Lilith, Xia Shiyu pulled him aside and quietly asked.

“She is Sun Jiao?”

A long time ago, Xia Shiyu heard Jiang Chen mention that woman.

For the first woman in Jiang Chen’s life, her feelings toward Sun Jiao was quite complicated.

On the one hand, she was curious what she looked like, on the other hand those jealous feelings were inevitable. Although she already accepted the status quo of the four living together, it certainly did not mean she won’t get jealous.

“Uh, she’s not…”

“Who is she then?” Xia Shiyu also thought she did not seem to be Sun Jiao, she looked suspiciously at him and said, “She looks like… she is not even fourteen years old?”

“Your little mistress?”

Natasha sneered and poured oil into this already tense situation. Jiang Chen gave her a vicious stare in response.

“Am I that kind of a pervert!?”

After being stared down by Jiang Chen, Natasha just mischievously spat out her tongue and walked towards Lilith and Ayesha. After Xia Shiyu heard what Natasha had said, her suspiciousness only grew.

“X71291, you can also call her Lilith. It’s troublesome to explain, but it’s definitely not what you’re thinking…” Jiang Chen responded to Xia Shiyu’s suspicious look and quickly explained, “Didn’t I tell you about artificial intelligence last time? She is an advanced artificial intelligence, and probably the only one in the world.”

“She?” Xia Shiyu’s eyes widened in surprise, and she looked at Lilith in disbelief. Her expression had zero faith written all over it as she could not accept the fact that the girl in front of her was a robot. “Wait, you mean, she is a robot.”

The latter was being sandwiched by Ayesha and Natasha, responding to the curious questions of the girls.

Lilith seemed to sense Xia Shiyu’s sight as she turned around and smiled at her with friendliness.

“As you can see,” Jiang Chen nodded with a helpless expression, “Also, it came from ‘there’. She is here to help me”

Xia Shiyu finally nodded.

Although she had never been to the world Jiang Chen described, she knew that the world was an apocalyptic world with advanced technology. If she came from there, it wouldn’t be surprising to see an advanced artificial intelligence.

It took about ten minutes for Jiang Chen to formally introduce Lilith. The girls seemed to feel indifferent about a new girl joining the mansion. Ayesha would not get jealous, Natasha and Xia Shiyu didn’t think Jiang Chen would be a “pervert”.

At most, they would have to watch out where their “battles” took place…

Even if Lilith explicitly told Jiang Chen that she had no interest in watching humans mate. They could choose to ignore her presence completely, like how they would ignore a table or a sofa.

However, after all, with a human face, Jiang Chen could not bring himself to do such things in front of a fourteen-year-old loli.

After a short vacation, Jiang Chen returned to work.

With Lilith’s help, his efficiency increased significantly.

Many times, he just explained his thoughts to her in simple terms, and she perfectly executed his order to the correct departments, even to the right individual. She also showed the progress of projects and create real-time charts for him.

Previous, these works were done by Xia Shiyu and Jean.

Since Lilith took over the work of the “Secretary of the Chairman”, Jean, the intermediate artificial intelligence, was given to Xia Shiyu. As the CEO of Future Group, it was her time to receive an assistant.

Of course, these were not the main points.

In addition to improving Jiang Chen’s own efficiency, Lilith’s biggest contribution was her expertise.

As an advanced artificial intelligence, her existence was comparable to a division of programmers.

After her upgrade, the performance of Future Group’s Supercomputing Center servers increased by a notch.

The supercomputing center mainly provided information processing services for the global business of Future Group and Celestial Trade. The center was extremely significant to both enterprises.

In addition, the fleet command system originally maintained by Future Technology was also transferred to her.

She only squeezed out a small part of her time from playing games, and her efficiency was enough to shame the entire team that was responsible for the project.

And only until this moment, did Jiang Chen finally realize he had struck gold.

Chapter 1290: Space-themed MMORPG

Chapter 1290 Space-themed MMORPG

On the third day back in the modern world, the colony sent back good news which eased Jiang Chen’s tense state.

The report sent by the Colony Governor, Captain Hong Zewei, stated that the Celestial Marines successfully recovered the operation base near Mine 071 with the help of new weapons. The “Drill Warrior” designed by Future Military and Future Heavy Industrie played an incredible role in combating the Mars species.

Those T-4H power armors also substantially increased the survival rate of the Marines.

With Drill Warrior clearing the way, and heavily armored infantries following closely behind, Company A, responsible for attacking Mine 071, destroyed six nests within 24 hours. Five of these nests were Corruptor nests, and the one located outside the radius of the ultrasonic fence belonged to Devil Worms. A total of tens of thousands of adult Corruptors and thousands of Devil Worms were killed. The Celestial Marines successfully pushed from the surface to 21 kilometers underground.

According to the report from Hong Zewei, they were very close to the bottom of the ruins.

When the engineering team complete the reinforcement of the tunnel, it was time for the relics of the Gaia civilization to shine once again.

…

In the mansion at the northern tip of Coro Island.

Jiang Chen, who was passing by the living room, asked Lilith, who was resting against a reclining chair with a phantom helmet on, “As an advanced artificial intelligence, do you also enjoy playing games?”

Because she was not human, even if she wore a phantom helmet, Lilith could still sense outside information. In her words, she could run the game with one memory zone and control her body with the other memory zone; she was capable of being both in the virtual world and the actual world.

Jiang Chen must admit that he was envious.

“You don’t understand, ” Lilith answered in her emotionless state, “It’s not the game that is fun, but the players who participate in the game.”

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows twitched.

That’s the fun part?

He was curious why players were interesting for Lilith.

However, it may not sound too great. In her eyes, the players were probably no different than white rats in the laboratory. After all, in her perspective, a troublesome creature like humans could only offer values by contributing to experimental data.

Very contradictory thoughts.

On the one hand, she possessed the desire to have a body that can integrate into human society, and on the other hand, she maintained the stubbornness of an advanced artificial intelligence. Perhaps this contradiction was part of the attributes of an advanced artificial intelligence.

“Don’t just play. Since you have so much free time, come and help me do something,” Jiang Chen said.

“Correct what you just said, ” Lilith said blankly, “I have helped you process 117.8 gigabyte of files in the past 72 hours, which is equivalent to your normal workload for a month. From any perspective of analysis, my attitude is enough to be considered diligent. In contrast, you seem to be freer because you just move your tongue.”

“Uh, that much?”

Jiang Chen awkwardly touched his nose after being scoffed by Lilith.

“I haven’t counted the workload of helping you upgrade the server,” Lilith said with clear evidence to back up her words, “To prevent you from forgetting, I have to remind you. This is your war, not my war.”

“…you are right.”

Lilith sat up and looked at Jiang Chen.

“So, tell me, what do you need me to do?”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen looked at her, somewhat confused.

“I didn’t say I won’t help you,” Lilith shrugged, and said solemnly, “I just corrected your allegations.

“…”

Well, when the program learns to think, it is indeed troublesome.

He sorted out the words in his head, coughed, and then said.

“Future Technology is currently planning a large-scale space-themed VR MMORPG. The main selling points are probably space colonization, starships, trade, mining, technology tree. At present, the development is close to half-complete. The latest update is that the game completed the import of the astronomical data from the Celestial Trade Space Department. So, are you interested in developing games? ”

Designing a large-scale VR MMORPG with a space theme was discussed and implemented as early as last year.

In addition to the consideration of the current trend, the VR MMORPG also served a political purpose.

For example, to promote the current space colonization of Celestial Trade, to ignite pupils’ enthusiasm for the space industry, and to improve the tactical theory of starship battles in a virtual environment. These political goals would not be explicated stated, but it would be integrated into the game in subtle ways.

Of course, for artificial intelligence, designing a game that people love from the beginning may be a little difficult. However, with the game plan already completed, she could easily finish the programming elements.

“Interest, no. But based on your description, this should be easy for me,” Lilith, still with the helmet on, said emotionlessly.

“Then please and thank you,” Jiang Chen said immediately. “How long will this take?”

From his standpoint, he naturally hoped as early as possible.

“Depends on the workload,” Lilith said. “A week at most, but one or two days if I’m quick. If you can make your people give me as much detail about the game as possible, it can alleviate a lot of my workload.”

“You can rest assured. We have the best game design team in the world.” Jiang Chen responded with a bright smile. “By the end of the day after tomorrow at the latest, my team will put together all the information and hand it over to Xia Shiyu.”

Lilith nodded.

After he explained this, he had no reason to stay.

After Jiang Chen glanced at the time on his watch, he thought that there were still a few things to deal with, so he stepped towards the entrance.

Lilith saw Jiang Chen was about to leave, so she suddenly spoke out.

“Are you planning to leave?”

“There are two meetings I have to attend to in the afternoon,” Jiang Chen said, checking the time on his watch, “I have to go to the office in a bit. Do you want to stay here?”

“I will go with you.”

Lilith jumped off from the chair, put on her slippers, and patted her slightly wrinkled dress.

Since Lilith had no intention of taking off her helmet, Jiang Chen said as he facepalmed

“Is it really okay for you to leave while wearing a helmet?”

Lilith responded with another question.

“Is there an issue?”

Although it was full of issues from Jiang Chen’s perspective, he decided against the idea.

It was time to go.

Chapter 1291: On the Shoulder of the Gian

Chapter 1291 On the Shoulder of the Gian

With a blonde loli following behind him, Jiang Chen walked into the lobby of Future Building and he seemed to realize that he was becoming the focal point.

Although the eyes of his employees were usually focused on him with his arrival regardless.

But today, he felt that in everyone’s eyes, in addition to the usual respect, there were some strange emotions… or rather, the desire for gossip?

After all, Jiang Chen’s romantic affairs were not news in Xin or even the rest of the world. And the employees of Future Group were accustomed to the fact. It was just the fact the girl following behind him, seemed too young to be a mistress?

Could it be…

An illegitimate daughter?!!

The passion for gossip ignited in the eyes of the two beauties at the front desk. They simultaneously exchanged eye contact and began to whisper.

In less than half a minute, the blond loli’s story was created. She was a mistake from Jiang Chen’s younger days and there was a plot twist even more interesting than a Korean drama. As for the flaw in their logic, they chose to selectively ignore the facts.

For example, Jiang Chen was only in his twenties now…

Fortunately, it was not the peak time in the lobby, and there were not a lot of people here.

With the urge to facepalm, Jiang Chen brought Lilith into the elevator and he finally felt relieved from escaping those odd looks.

He looked over to Lilith and her expression remained unchanged, as if those looks did not bother her at all.

After they got into the elevator, her eyes stayed on the scene outside the floor-to-ceiling window of the elevator, she gazed at the outline of Coro City in the distance.

The elevator rose, and the view outside the window became more and more open.

She suddenly said.

“What a beautiful city.”

Slightly shocked by what she said, Jiang Chen looked at her.

Lilith noticed his sight, then sighed, as if she had already guessed his thought.

“You don’t have to think of me as a monster, I still have things like aesthetics.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Jiang Chen smiled. “I just feel a little surprised.”

Lilith did not respond, she just looked at the outline of Coro quietly.

After a while, she didn’t speak until the elevator stopped on the top floor.

“I understand your surprise.”

…

The first meeting was the reporting of all departments of Celestial Trade, as well as budget. As in the past, everyone received only ten minutes to speak, and everyone removed the unnecessary formality in their speech based on Jiang Chen’s request. They tried to be as concise as possible in the report.

Different from Future Group, in addition to the three major projects, space elevator, quantum communication satellites, and global power grids that could report a stellar financial performance, all other projects were either losing money or barely breaking even.

But money wasn’t important.

After all, Jiang Chen’s positioning of Celestial Trade was not to generate profit, and he never used KPIs as a criterion for evaluating the work of departments. For most of the non-profit sectors of Celestial Trade, compared with a good-looking financial reports, he valued other achievements.

The second meeting was a seminar on the development planning of the Mars colony. The attendees of the meeting were mainly executives of the Celestial Trade Space Department, especially those leading the Mars project.

The reason why the meetings were arranged together was to make traveling easier for executives like Kelvin, who was stationed in Celestial City.

At the meeting, the expansion plan and space elevator were discussed as key topics.

However, after the meeting, Jiang Chen added a provisional item in front of these two topics to be discussed.

That was…

“… establish an Earth civilization monument and school in the colony? I’m not doubting whether this is necessary, but I think it’s too early …” After Kelvin listened to the president’s speech, he was confused by Jiang Chen as to why he brought up this seemingly trivial matter to discuss.

“It’s not too early,” When he looked around around at the Mars project executives present, Jiang Chen said in a serious tone, “To strengthen the cultural bond between the colony and mainstream society, we must lay the foundation from the beginning, otherwise, there may be hidden dangers buried.”

The executives of the Mars project all looked at each other in shock and confusion.

No doubt, from their perspective, the president’s words were undoubtedly alarmist.

Jiang Chen was not surprised by their reaction.

After all, they didn’t possess his ability to travel to another world, and they naturally would feel confused about the problems he brought up.

The reason why Celestial Trade’s development was compared to standing on the shoulders of a giant was not simply because the company possessed technology from the 22nd century. In addition to science, the mistakes made by that world’s superpowers in their explorations were also great assets for Jiang Chen.

He didn’t intend to explain anything. As the president of Celestial Trade, he had the highest decision-making power. Whenever he would issue an order, there was no need to vote at all. Others could only make suggestions.

The proposal was passed directly, and the next step was to discuss how to implement it.

According to Jiang Chen’s proposal, the Mars Project Department would budget 2 billion Xin New Dollars to build an Earth civilization monument, elementary and high schools in the Mars colony. At the same time, in the next batch of colonists, forty teachers and 200 students of different age groups would also be brought on board.

“Does it make sense to send teachers and students to the colony?” One of the executives asked, “and how can we convince parents to send their children to Mars?”

“In order to prevent age gaps in the colony, we need a relatively smooth and stable population age distribution curve to stabilize the social structure of our colony. They don’t need to do anything there, they just need to stay there to finish their studies, then decide whether to stay in the colony or return to Earth. ”

After highlighting this problem, Jiang Chen continued, “As for the latter problem, this is also very easy to solve. Going to high school in the colony can provide students with additional points during the college entrance examination. I believe there will be many families willing to send their children there.”

As long as Celestial Trade reimbursed the cost of the tickets, perhaps even the entire family would move to Mars.

“In the next year, we will open flights to and from Mars and increase the population limit of the colony to 5,000. Compared with the current population size, this number indeed is several times larger. For the future development of the colony, I hope you will pay attention to the issues I have just emphasized. ”

Jiang Chen was pleased as he saw all the executives’ expressions begin to turn serious. Then he nodded.

After a pause, he continued.

“The next topic is the space elevator.”

“To turn Mars into our heavy industry base, a convenient means of transportation is essential. I believe that you have more intuitive data than I do, so I won’t emphasize this again.”

“I just need one thing. With the flight to Mars taking off by next year. Before November, I hope you can put the Mars Space Elevator Program into action.”

“You must guarantee quality while also ensure efficiency!”

Chapter 1292: Galaxy Edge Trailers

Chapter 1292 Galaxy Edge Trailers Time passed day by day, and it was already mid-May.Anticipated by the netizens around the world, the long-delayed epic sci-fi masterpiece, Galaxy Edge, suddenly revealed two trailers and a 30-minute live demo on the official website, which created widespread and heated discussions.In the first trailer, a huge fleet passed through the vast galaxy, marching toward the dark red nebula with unstoppable momentum, ready to destroy anything in its path. In the depths of the nebula, a group of weirdly shaped starships gradually appeared.

No text or phrases.

The collision between iron and blood between the two forces unfolded.

Radon beams and kinetic weapons raged in the dim space; high-speed carrier-based starcrafts fought among the starships. The dance between light beams and electricity arcs, rendered with extreme details, ignited the passion hidden in the viewers. Everyone wished to be the captain of the starship at that moment, commanding the Fearless Class into the battlefield of destruction.

The first trailer came to an end when the battlefield was illuminated by white clouds and the screen pulled further and further away.

The BGM gradually slowed down after a sharp turn, symbolizing destruction, but also new life and hope.

The second trailer was a land covered in magenta soil, filled with giant mushrooms.

In this tropical rain forest composed of fungal plants, a group of soldiers, equipped with kinetic skeletons, followed by drones, marched forward. With large-caliber Gauss rifles in their hands, they carefully traversed through the rain forest.

Behind them was a recently established colony, and in front of them were places that no one had set foot on.

There may be endless opportunities buried there, or only death and barrenness.

Suddenly, a group of bird-like Mars creatures was startled in the forest as they dispersed into the sky. A roar came from a distance, and all the soldiers took a couple of steps back with uneasiness. Their rifles were raised, alerted for any danger in the deep mist of the forest.

Then a growl approached.

Suddenly, a group of four-footed creatures charged out from the forest and clashed against the soldiers in the front. The soldiers in the back row immediately fired back against the alien species.

As the size and number of the alien creatures gradually grew larger, vertical take-off and landing fighters, all-terrain attack vehicles … and even space-based weapons deployed in orbit appeared one after another! The netizens were more and more pumped by the increasingly powerful weapons showcased.

In the halo of the nuclear explosion, the film came to an end with the battlefield getting smaller and smaller.

Until the end of the song, many people were still shocked by the magnificence of the battle.

And the first thing they did after watching the video was not clicking the reply button, but instead, they rushed to the comment area and used their keyboard or holographic touch screen to share their excitement and shock.

“Tell me, is this not a recruitment advertisement for Celestial Trade?”

“This is insane! After creating a world, is Future Technology creating a universe?”

“Fu*k, we have to wait until the end of the month to play. I’m desperate to play this.”

“Have you seen that thirty-minute live demo? The combat system is unreal!”

“I bought a limited-edition game cabin for this game. The helmet experience can’t satisfy me anymore.”

“Oh my! Isn’t the limited-edition game cabin worth 100,000 XND? That’s a luxury car!”

“An Internet company sold hundreds of thousands of luxury cars overnight, and the company is…”

The game used the physics system developed by Lilith, and an independent experimental quantum computer for information processing to recreate the physics in real-time. While guaranteeing the entertainment and pace of the game, the design pushed the concept of realism to the extreme.

In addition, unlike traditional online games, Galaxy Edge’s upgrade system was mainly focused on unlocking technology trees, drawings, and modification of starships.

Once a battleship was destroyed, it was permanently lost. It was for this reason that the death penalty in Galaxy Edge was extremely punishing.

Of course, this did not mean that once the ship is destroyed, there was no compensation. The default setting was that all ships automatically purchased insurance.

If a ship was lost because of a black hole, an insurance company compensated the owner for 50% of the loss. If the ship was destroyed due to war in the explored area, it compensated for 30% of the loss.

In addition, the clone setting allowed all dead crew members to “resurrect” in the home port.

At the same time, unlocked technology certificates and weapon drawings were not lost due to ship explosion. As long as there were sufficient funds, players could start from the mother star again in a short amount of time and set sail on their starship again.

In addition to the starship being core to the game, Future Technology also designed many additional elements that are equally as entertaining.

For example, high-end players could also set up mining companies, operate space stations, and even build their own space colonies to form a huge army with other players.

However, considering the massive supplies required by the space colonies, generally only large companies had the ability to organize manpower to build facilities, while training soldiers to steal supplies and necessities from alien creatures, and also taking care of organizing transport fleets to and from the colonies and NPC-owned cities.

In addition, for players not interested in exploring, they could also choose from a wide variety of professions, or focus on the development of characters. The players could even play the game as a First-Person Shooter or treat it as a Role-Playing Game.

The players could become a part of a mercenary and participate in a certain force’s operations against alien creatures and other colonies. Or they could become an adventurer into the unknown universe and pilot a fast and flexible single-person fighter to explore the mysteries of space or a planet that no one has ever set foot on.

Galaxy Edge inherited the previous game design experience of Future Group with a focus on organic player ecosystem. Everything in the world existed in a dynamic setting, and evolved as players make choices in the game.

This dynamic system matured in Godly Land, and after further upgrades from Lilith, the system improved further.

After he had watched the two trailers and a 30-minute live demo, even Jiang Chen was itching to play.

In addition to the live demo that made science fiction fans around the world eager to play, Future Technology finally announced the game was going online on May 31st.

Based on the continuous success of Future Technology in large-scale VR online games, experts in the industry consensually gave very high ratings for the MMORPG yet-to-be-launched. Even IGN, known for its critics in the industry, gave a rare 9.9 score to “Galaxy Edge” before the game even launched.

As for the reason …

“The animation and music are impeccable, and the gameplay is something never been tried before. These are reflected in the actual demo, and we’ll not go into details.”

“Based on the past credibility of Future Technology, we have every reason to believe that the actual game experience will only be better than what is in the trailer. After watching the actual demo, we unanimously decided to give this game a high score of 9.9. If it turns out that our decision was wrong, I will eat both my helmet and keyboard.”

Chapter 1293: The Happy Lilith

Chapter 1293: The Happy Lilith

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“… an epic online adventure, Future Technology debuts another masterpiece, pushing the limits of games to the edge of the galaxy. No one can surpass this in ten years unless it is another piece created by Future Technology.” Jiang Chen sifted through the news and comments on Galaxy Edge with a grin while he was sitting down on the sofa, he then looked at Lilith, “Your game is highly-rated.”

“Oh.” Lilith, who was fighting in the fantasy world in her helmet, only gave a nonchalant response, and then continued to just lay there without a word.

“Aren’t you curious about what the netizens said?” Jiang Chen asked as he scrolled through the comments.

At the start, Jiang Chen was still a little concerned as to whether Lilith could perfectly create the game design with code, but now, it seemed like his concern was excessive.

In nearly a thousand alpha tests, not a single bug appeared. And for bugs that existed because of game design, they were quickly fixed with her help.

In less than a week, Lilith not only completed the remaining development work but also upgraded the existing game development tools of Future Technology. Lilith’s inhumane work efficiency was simply incredible.

“I’ve seen them.”

Although her expression did not change, Jiang Chen could still feel that Lilith was in a good mood.

As for why, he was not very clear.

Probably just a feeling?

…

In addition to Lilith’s work, Future Technology employees were also capable. The carefully tailored trailers perfectly illustrated the charm at the edge of the galaxy to all the netizens around the world.

With 500,000 limited-edition game cabins worth $100,000 XND made available, they were instantly sold out by the next day. After all costs were removed, the sale generated a profit of more than $30 billion XND. Even when compared to the wealth Jiang Chen has already accumulated, the shocking profit still excited him.

If it weren’t for the product to be marketed as limited-edition, the idea of making another one million units to satisfy the shopping desire of old and new money around the world really tempted Jiang Chen.

“There are more than 500 million potential players worldwide, and it is estimated that the number of people who will log in to the game on the first day will exceed 300 million. Our promotion effort is very successful. As long as the quality of the game itself can reach 80% of the demo, this will become an inexhaustible gold mine. ”

Today was a rest day.

As she leisurely sat under the shade of the umbrella on the balcony, Xia Shiyu reported her work while drinking her coffee.

“The actual demo only showed the tip of the iceberg,” Jiang Chen smiled. “Thirty minutes is not enough to fully show the true beauty of Galaxy Edge. In order to continue to hype up players’ expectations, we just simply went over a lot of features. I believe that when the players enter the game, they will be amazed by the countless unexpected surprises.”

Xia Shiyu’s lips also curved up after Jiang Chen finished explaining. She fixed the hair strands around her ear and jokingly said.

“It’s rare for you to be so invested in work.”

“I do work from time to time, okay?” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and spread his hands helplessly. “It’s just that my work is mainly concentrated on Celestial Trade. For Future Group, I have to count on you.”

“Speaking of which, what’s going on in the Mars colony?” After Xia Shiyu took aother sip of the rich coffee, she gently placed the coffee cup on the plate and asked.

“Mine 071 has been recovered, and more than eleven nests have been destroyed. The swarm’s attack is gradually collapsing under the tires of our new equipment. Engineers have begun to strengthen the support structure of the ruins. The current progress is going well, and it won’t be long before we can make the ruins of Gaia civilization reappear,” Jiang Chen responded.

“Is that so?” Xia Shiyu’s mood was also cheered up because of Jiang Chen’s content mood, then she added, “What about SS Origin?”

“SS Origin? I remember two days ago that it safely passed the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is now moving towards Jupiter at one-thousandth of the speed of light. Once it reaches Jupiter, Origin will try to use the slingshot effect to accelerate, and it theoretically can exceed the maximum speed threshold, but there are also risks involved with this decision. After all, no one knows whether the acceleration method applicable to small starships is applicable to large starships.”

“Jupiter? It feels very far away.” Xia Shiyu gazed into the blue sky outside the umbrella and suddenly said with melancholy.

“Is it far away? Their destination is even farther away, the Kuiper Belt, thirty astronomical units from Earth.”

“Thirty astronomical units?” Xia Shiyu looked to Jiang Chen. “How long does it take?”

“About a year, maybe a little more, only professionals will know.”

“I thought you were a professional,” Xia Shiyu had a grin as she joked.

“Me? I’m a layman at most on technical problems.” Jiang Chen laughed along.

Once SS Origin arrived at Kuiper Belt, it would investigate the resources in the area. At the formation of the solar system, everything was concentrated here, especially water resources, helium-3, and metallic materials. Determining the distribution of these resources would provide considerable help for the future selection of the outer space defense fortress.

In addition, Origin would also launch the newest observation satellite inside the Kuiper Belt, while deploying a research space station with ten astronauts. The station would cooperate with scientists at the Space Command Center to carry out scientific research in the Kuiper Belt.

A year was a long time, but for most of the crew on the starship, it was just a matter of a blink. The hibernation chambers, especially, made Interstellar navigation less dreadful.

“Right, I have always wanted to ask. Did you decide to make Galaxy Edge as a promotion for Celestial Trade’s Space Colony Plan?”

“That is part of the reason.” Jiang Chen acknowledged the point. “After all, the universe is still a very distant thing for most people. After the incident in Finland, people started to look up more, but that’s not enough. To take our steps further, we must ignite everyone’s desire for the brave new world.”

Jiang Chen then smiled.

“I think the game is a great choice. It just so happens that we also have the Phantom helmet that can use VR to show the true beauty of the universe to people around the world.”

Chapter 1294: Galaxy Edge Launched!

Chapter 1294: Galaxy Edge Launched!

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

On May 30th, with much-anticipated expectations, Galaxy Edge’s icon officially appeared in the list of Phantom applications. The icon was available after the application was preloaded.

Based on the statistics of the Future Technology Operation Department, in less than an hour after the preload was made available, more than 50 million users preloaded the game and entered Galaxy Edge through their Phantom helmet or VR game cabin.

Future Technology was under extreme load due to the high amount of traffic. It responded by urgently adding a quantum computer as a server to alleviate the download demand.

Fortunately, the signals of the 32 quantum communication satellites already covered all continents except for Antarctica. Otherwise, the huge data transmission may create another headache for Future Technology.

In less than two hours, the number of preloaded users easily exceeded the 100 million mark, and the number still increased at an exponential rate.

By noon, the number of users already reached an incredible 300 million. It was only till now did the upward trend ease. By the end of the preloading in the early hours of the day, the number of preloaded users worldwide reached an astounding 500 million!

It seemed that there was no suspense for Galaxy Edge to break the record set by Godly World.

However, for game designers, their tensed mind could not be rested before they witnessed this moment in person.

…

The night outside the window was dark, but the meeting room on the 50th floor of the Future Building was still lit.

This meeting room was now occupied by the staff of the Galaxy Edge Project Department.

Dozens of executives and technical backbones of the planning group, operation group, and technical support group were sitting in front of the conference table. They nervously stared at the large holographic screen in front of the conference room.

An hour after the end of the preload, that was, at 1 am on May 31st, Galaxy Edge would officially launch, and all the eager players would flood into the game world they built.

At that time, could the number of simultaneous online people break through the record set by the Godly World, and would their project create new glories for Future Technology. All the questions would be answered at that instant.

Become a joke or become a legend; it was decided in this very moment!

The project director went to the open window, and lit his twelfth cigarette for the day, which had reset its counter when the clock turned to twleve in midnight. The leader of the planning team rubbed his fingers repeatedly and circled around the conference room. The head of the operations had been to the toilet for the seventh time because he almost drank all the coffee in the conference room …

Even the CEO of Future Technology, the veteran Ning Huajian who had come all the way from Wanghai with Jiang Chen, also stood in this 50-square-meter conference room and accompanied his staff through this nervous and exciting moment.

Finally, the clock on the wall of the conference room acrossed the one-clock moment.

Almost instantly, the number on the holographic screen jumped from zero to ten million.

Everyone’s heart pumped violently when that number changed.

But this was just the beginning.

In just one minute, that number doubled.

Everyone’s heart jumped to their throat and never came down!

“20 million! The number of online users exceeded 20 million in one minute!”

“The number of simultaneous online users exceeded 50 million! It took five minutes!”

“One hundred million! One hundred million! We broke the record!” The leader of the operation group exclaimed, igniting the emotions of everyone in the meeting.

Record-breaking!

The legend that Godly World once created had been rewritten by their records!

The number of online users on Galaxy Edge easily exceeded 100 million, and at this moment, the momentum was leaping toward 110 million.

“Server 1 is running normally, turn on Server 2! Now!” The leader of the technical team called the technician in the server room, and his calm voice trembled with excitement.

Enthusiasm was written all over his face, and when he saw the line on the holographic screen, the rock in Ning Huajian’s heart finally dropped.

He looked at his subordinates who were still fighting in their position and encouraged everyone in the room with a thrilled tone.

“Focus, let’s not fall asleep now!”

“Haha, who can sleep? This is more refreshing than analgesic oil!”

“…”

Lilith, who was on the sofa in the living room, was also closely following the numbers.

Although she didn’t say anything, Jiang Chen could still feel that as a game designer, she still cared about other people’s evaluation of this game.

Jiang Chen sat next to her and looked at the constantly growing number from the holographic screen hovering above her hand.

An hour had passed.

After the number of players broke through the 300 million mark, the increase had slowed down.

When this number reached 350 million, Jiang Chen was both impressed and moved by this number.

“Our game has more people online than the third most populous country in the world.”

“That’s the data from four years ago. If you look at the latest population data, 350 million can be ranked in the top five in the world …” Lilith corrected Jiang Chen with her usual emotionless state as a stream of data appeared in her eyes. Jiang Chen saw her look up slightly before she suddenly said, “A cyber attack was detected.”

“Cyber attack?” Jiang Chen looked away from the holographic screen, and began to yawn due to sleepiness before he casually said, “… get him.”

“I’ve already started.”

Future Technology’s sheer size now meant that it would attract countless attention, both positive and negative. Jiang Chen was not surprised that some people would have ill-intentions on such a crucial day.

He was not even surprised, let alone being worried.

Not to mention that Lilith was sitting next to him. Even without this advanced artificial intelligence, the cybersecurity team of Future Technology could not be easily taken down by some second-tier attackers.

“That’s it, the target terminal has exploded.” A death sentence was issued lightly to the computer of the unscrupulous hacker, and Lilith continued expressionlessly. “Their actual coordinates have been detected… Should we send a ‘Peace Ambassador’?”

“No need, thank you!”

Looking at the expressionless Lilith, Jiang Chen subconsciously glanced at the direction of the study.

He locked his suitcase there, and the nuclear button inside it was enough to destroy the world twice.

“I’m just making a suggestion,” Lilith shrugged and said in a rare joking tone. “You know, no matter how powerful computer technology is, it’s impossible to break through physical isolation.”

“If you make that joke again, I’ll send you back!”

Jiang Chen glared at Lilith, speechless, and the latter opened her expression system and made a scared expression.

However, Jiang Chen knew very well that this girl had absolutely no intention of introspection.

It was really troublesome for the program to have thoughts and feelings.

However, even Jiang Chen himself was surprised that compared to his original view, his current view on advanced artificial intelligence had been slightly changed because of Lilith’s existence…

Chapter 1295: Break One’s Own Record

Chapter 1295: Break One’s Own Record

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

When Godly Land first came online, the Phantom helmet was still a rarity. Future Technology had never considered outsourcing or licensing the technology to other large manufacturers. Therefore, it was difficult for players to purchase helmets on the official website, even for rich individuals. Many players could only enjoy the games in the Internet cafes partnered with Future Technology, and often times there was a waitlist.

To a large extent, the low penetration rate of helmets had severely restricted the number of online users at the beginning of the 24-hour period.

But even so, on the first day of launch, the record of 100 million concurrent users around the world easily broke a record set by a certain MOBA game.

The launch of Galaxy Edge was bound to divert some players from Godly Land.

But it was an expected outcome.

No matter how fun the game, how rich the content, it was evitable that players to grow weary of a game. When people lose their interest and start to feel bored with day-to-day mobs and endless tasks to complete, they were bound to start thinking about playing less or even leave the game, then find a new game to change things up.

Galaxy Edge happened to provide this new option for these players.

It was three in the morning.

Lilith did not need to sleep, but Jiang Chen was already sleepy and couldn’t stand it anymore.

Based on the saying of the Internet, those who were not asleep at this hour must be seeking to become greater beings.

“You’re not going to sleep yet?”

Attracted by the light in the living room, Xia Shiyu, who got up to use the bathroom, came down the stairs and walked up behind Jiang Chen.

With her arms on the back of the sofa, she put her face over Jiang Chen’s shoulders, looked at the holographic screen floating in front of him, and murmured with tired voice. “… Well, it has reached 370 million? It’s estimated that its peak is 400 million.”

“Aren’t you surprised?” Jiang Chen turned his face slightly, and smiled, “I was looking forward to seeing a startled expression on your face.”

“I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.” Xia Shiyu’s lips curved up to form a gentle sleepy smile. “When we met three days ago, we made predictions on this data and reserved server resources based on the data. ”

“Oh? What is the number of players you predicted?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“The daily average… is probably at around 100 million. As for the peak number, if you don’t consider expansions and in-game events, it is probably the number you will see. Not surprisingly, it should be about 400 million. ”

Xia Shiyu gave a fairly conservative estimate to Jiang Chen.

But even a conservative estimate was a pretty staggering number.

Future Technology’s creation could only be broken by Future Technology.

After tonight, this record would once again shock the world.

…

Early the next morning, the Wall Street Journal gave a rare headline to an online game.

“The VR game industry hits a new high again, the peak of the global concurrent players on Galaxy Edge exceeded the total population of the UA.”

The UA population exceeded 400 million in 2020, and as of 4:00 am on May 31st, the number of online users had already exceeded the 400 million mark with the influx of players from other time zones.

Like the time when Godly Land went online, the capital world had once again set their sight on the masterpiece created by Future Technology after a gap of four years. In this era where traffic is king, this astounding number of players meant money.

Wall Street analysts valued Galaxy Edge at more than 100 billion dollars. Whether this valuation was accurate or justified remained a debate, but the valuation was just the tip of the iceberg for the captial world’s interest in this game.

It was not just the Wall Street Journal, 80% of the world’s media, on the first day of June, reported on the miracles created by Galaxy Edge.

On the official website of Galaxy Edge, hundreds of articles on game strategies and experiences in different languages appeared in the newly opened official forums.

These strategies were usually compiled by high-end amateur players, while professional players were still struggling in the game world at this moment.

Because there was no internal test on Galaxy Edge, naturally there were no internal beta players with first-hand information. Everyone was in the exploration stage of this game, and everyone’s starting point was the same. Whether someone could create a gap with other players was dependent on the first 24 hours.

In order to respond to emergencies and urgently repair possible bugs, the staff of Future Technology was almost next to their computers and servers in shifts, as they meticulously monitored all the news in game and on official forum in real-time.

Soon, it was noon, and the team leader who had just brewed himself his fourteenth cup of coffee returned to the conference room.

It just happened to be at this moment, the staff of the operation team around the computers exclaimed.

“What happened?” The team leader walked up to the staff with his coffee in hand, as he looked at the laptop screen.

The page on the screen was the official forum of Galaxy Edge.

In the chat section of the official forum, a post gained tens of thousands of visitors in just ten minutes.

[The first Seagull-class starship in the game, not much to say, just see it yourself!]

After he saw the title of the post, the team leader took a second to process this information before he snagged the mouse, and scrolled down to look at the post below it.

[What the…, good lord, is this your ship? ]

[This is insane! It only took this long before the first 500,000-ton starship is created! ]

[I don’t read much, so don’t lie to me! The cost of a Seagull-class is at least ten million credits!? ]

[The game has just been launched for twelve hours. How come you have tens of millions of credit points? I just completed a hidden reward task, and it only rewarded me with 200,000 credits!]

[Loli requesting to play with you! Height 160cm, weight 49kg, my location is Wanghai…]

[@Admin, come out and meet God himself. I just want to know, is this a hack?]

[The commenter above must have been kicked by a donkey. When did a hack ever exist in a Future Technology game? How many years have Godly Land been running? Have you heard of hacks?]

[Is it an NPC ship? No, it doesn’t look like it. If it is an NPC ship, the flag should be the Earth Federation flag…]

“Someone posted a picture on the official forum. The first Seagull-class starship has been created… It was posted in the Mandarin section of the forum. It should be a player in Hua’s region,” Xiao Zhang looked at his team leader and said with a serious expression.

The team leader frowned.

Based on the settings of the game, all players had an empty, single-person aircraft at the start. They could mount a mining module to mine, install an attack module to participate in story missions to obtain credit points in the battle with interstellar pirates, or head to the colonies of the Earth Confederation to participate in ground warfare.

According to normal game flow, players could get their first 100,000-ton starship after 72 hours of game time and start their own Star Trek journey.

A 500,000-ton seagull.

It was undoubtedly a bit too powerful for the start of the game.

Even if he had complete faith in his colleagues at the technical team to not make any mistake, he stop could not help himself but to suspect that a major bug appeared in the game.

With this thought in his mind, he did not dare to hesitate, immediately took out his phone, and called the technical team leader.

Chapter 1296: Exceeding Expectations

Chapter 1296: Exceeding Expectations

When the news reached Jiang Chen, it was already three o’clock in the afternoon.

Jiang Chen was also confused about how the players in Huo-region created a Seagull-class within 12 hours , Jiang Chen came to see Lilith who was lying on the sofa and observing each player, and asked her about it.

Lilith quickly answered his confusion.

“The player who built the first Seagull-class starship is the chairman of an online gaming club called ‘Honor of Souls’. This club has been focusing on Future Technology games since its establishment four years ago. The club has more than a hundred employees and more than a thousand members. The club has been active since the earliest ‘New Era’ mobile game, and has grown to its current size, and even registered its own homepage and forum. ”

Jiang Chen immediately understood what had happened.

This situation was also common in other games. At the beginning of the game, everyone’s funds would be concentrated on a few core members. Then these members quickly leave “turtorial island” and secure the top positions on the leaderboard. Once they’ve established their own clan, they would go back and give resources to the players who initially contributed to them.

In online games that emphasized economy and resources, such as Galaxy Edge, the benefits of being able to own a transport ship in the early stages were undoubtedly huge.

At this moment, no player had switched their profession to pirate, and trips between cities of the Earth Federation could easily accumulate a large amount of funds and continue to expand their advantages.

Although this play style would somewhat disrupt the game’s balance, it was within the allowable range of the game rules, so the operation team did not intervened.

“In fact, I had thought it was your ship.” Jiang Chen, who had understood what was going on, looked at Lilith on the sofa and joked.

“Participating from the beginning of the game would affect the balance too much. I will go in after half a year to see. Now I am focusing on Godly Land,” Lilith, with the helmet on, said emotionlessly.

Compared to being the number one player in the game or getting some kind of achievement, she emphasized on the game itself, especially the “fun” of participating in human social activities. After all, monetary gains or personal honors were meaningless for an advanced artificial intelligence.

Simply put, her gaming attitude was more similar to casual players.

Except she was the “overpowered” kind of casual player.

…

As of the morning of June 2nd, the operation department reported the data they had obtained.

On several well-known virtual product trading platforms around the world, the exchange rate between credit points used by Galaxy Edge and Xin New Dollars was almost speculated to a price of 50: 1, and often there was no supply.

Obviously, the millionaries and major professional clubs in the world were stimulated by the miracle of the Hua-region player who built the first Seagull-class starship in 12 hours. Therefore, they invested heavily in order to create their own first 500,000-ton starship.

In terms of players, the statistics reported by the operation department were much higher than Xia Shiyu’s prediction. The average daily number of online users worldwide exceeded more than 150 million.

The insights generated by the operation team’s analytics concluded that it may be related to the recent development of space resources, which happened to be a hot global topic.

After Jiang Chen told Lilith to oversee Galaxy Edge’s progress, he quickly refocused his work on Celestial Trade.

Just two days ago, a cargo ship full of arms had set off from Ange Island to Madagascar in southern Africa.

Since the fall of the Rothschild family, Madagascar’s political situation had been under the control of Celestial Trade.

At this moment, in the military base Celestial Trade had snatched from Arrow Company, more than 10,000 mercenaries of different skin colors had been assembled. These people were all outside of Celestial Trade’s establishment, however, they were considered Celestial Trade’s foreign reserve.

Celestial Trade’s regional influence had been gradually expanding since the Dnieper Offensive in Ukraine last year. Therefore, Celestial Trade can no longer use the name of a private military contractor as a cover for diplomatic immunity.

No one was stupid, and the international community gradually recognized Celestial Trade as the armed forces of Xin. Under such circumstances, if Celestial Trade decided to parachute soldiers with kinetic skeleton from the synchronous orbit to another country, it would have to withstand diplomatic and political pressure from the international community.

As a result, these non-staff personnel, who were originally regarded as reservists at foreign military bases, once again had a part to play.

These mercenaries were mostly African with a small number of white natives of Madagascar or South Africa. For those who were living below the poverty line, the citizenship of Xin and the official employee status of Celestial Trade were two things they dreamt of.

There were willing to risk their lives on their pursuit.

Although they were not protected by kinetic skeleton, and they could not use the Reaper assault rifle with superior functionality, the E-level genetic vaccine had already brought them a lot of advantages. Future Military had also designed some low-recognition but quite practical high-tech equipment for them to enhance their combat effectiveness and battlefield survivability.

The size of this unit was less than 20,000, and it usually appeared in hotspots around the world. It performed some dirty work that was not convenient for Celestial Trade’s regular army to execute.

For example, their next stop was Syria.

As an exchange of interests between Celestial Trade and Russia on South American issues, they did not need to abide by international law and humanitarianism. They would use the simplest and most straightforward methods to bring down extreme terrorists and less extreme opposition.

If they were unlucky, they might have to fight the Turkish army.

Of course, the unlucky ones were the Turkish army.

Inside the mansion’s study.

After Ayesha knocked on the door gently, she walked to Jiang Chen’s desk.

“Yerif asked when we would be ready to start, he is ready. A railway in northern Saudi Arabia can help transport our people and equipment to the Jordanian coast from the Red Sea coast. After entering eastern Jordan, there will be an arms dealer familiar with the local matter. He will guide us through the no-man’s land to southern Syria. ”

After he had put down the report on the Mars colony development, he looked to Ayesha, who was standing in front of his desk, thought for a moment, and then said,

“Tell him not to worry. Our people have already assembled in Madagascar. When the UA election enters its final stage, our people will board the ship and head to the Red Sea. By the end of the UA election, the new and old government will begin to transfer power, and we will have dealt with all of the troubles in Syria.”

Among all the options Jiang Chen could think of, this had the least impact on the situation.

If Kennedy Jr. was finally elected, the UA would willingly restore relations with Xin and join the Earth Defense Alliance unconditionally. He was also happy to let go of his past differences and set his sights on the longer-term future.

At that time, in order to minimize the differences between the two countries in international affairs, the best way was to solve the problems that were most likely to cause differences between before Mr. Kennedy Jr. completes the transfer of power…

Chapter 1297: The Warning From The Opposition

Chapter 1297: The Warning From The Opposition

At ten in the morning, Zhang Yaping’s chief of staff visited Jiang Chen’s mansion.

Because there were guests coming, Lilith finally left the sofa and went to the balcony with her helmet.

Xia Shiyu was working at Future Building while Natasha went to the embassy as usual. As the only hostess of the mansion, Ayesha made black tea for the two and then stood behind Jiang Chen.

This tall and lean chief of staff seemed quite careful.

After the last chief of staff of the Presidential Palace finished their term, it was the first time the new chief of staff visited this place on behalf of the president. At the inaugural dinner of President Zhang, he and Jiang Chen greeted each other, but this was the first formal exchange.

In the living room, the chief of staff explained his intentions.

“President Zhang is on a diplomatic visit to South America, so he couldn’t be here in person. Therefore, I’m visiting on his behalf.”

“I know.” Jiang Chen smiled, looked at the chief of staff and then said, “Don’t be so nervous, make yourself comfortable.”

The chief of staff smiled, his stiff shoulders relaxed slightly, and after a pause, he spoke.

“At the Yoto Olympics in August this year, we expect to send 210 athletes to participate. President Zhang wants me to ask you for your opinion on attending the opening ceremony.”

In general, the decision for leaders to attend the opening ceremony also reflected the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

On issues that involved diplomatic strategy, Zhang Yaping usually asked for Jiang Chen’s opinion.

For example, Zhang Yaping’s visit to South America was carried out under the direction of Jiang Chen. On the surface, it was to push for Xin’s enterprises in the South American market. In fact, it was a strategy designed to pave the way for Celestial’s Global Power Grid to enter UA’s backyard.

Jiang Chen responded with a polite smile, and said softly.

“I don’t have any opinions. Since they have been actively seeking to participate in the Earth Defense Alliance and corrected the mistakes they have made, then we might as well show some appreciation.”

The chief of staff was slightly caught off-guard, but he quickly smiled too.

“I understand what you mean.”

“Is there anything else?” Jiang Chen asked with ease as he leaned back into the sofa while looking at the chief of staff.

“There is one more thing,” With a nod, the chief of staff’s expression turned more serious. “Just two hours ago, we secretly met with the confidants of the opposition leader in Colombia at the Xin Embassy in Ecuador.

With economic growth brought by the Global Power Grid and the promise of another space elevator, Ecuador was the only South American country friendly to Xin and Celestial Trade. Jiang Chen was not surprised that the Colombian opposition was able to enter Ecuador and meet the delegation of Xin.

What really surprised Jiang Chen was that the Colombian opposition chose to contact them during this sensitive period.

“Oh?” Jiang Chen responded as a frown slowly formed. “What did he say?”

“He brought a warning from the Colombian opposition,” With a solemn look, the chief of staff said, “The CIB is planning a murder against President Zhang. According to the information he provided, a Mexican drug cartel and a UA-Colombian will be involved in the murder, and it is expected to take place when the Xin delegation arrives in Colombia, and this will be planted on the Colombian conservatives.”

There was a moment of shock that appeared in Jiang Chen’s pupils, then he turned to Ayesha, who was behind him.

Ayesha responded to his look by shaking her head gently, indicating that she had not received any intelligence.

Jiang Chen then focused on the chief of staff again, his index finger lightly tapped on the armrest of the sofa and fell into contemplation.

It was a serious accusation to state that the CIB was planning the murder of President Zhang.

If the situation turned out to be true, it may potentially escalate into a war between the two countries.

However, there were two doubts that troubled Jiang Chen.

How could the Colombia opposition party possess intelligence that even the Ghost Agents did not receive?

If the information was true, then another question would arise. Why would the CIB choose to strike Xin’s leader at this time?

Is the Colombian opposition lying? In order to prevent contact between Xin and the current Colombian government?

There was indeed such a possibility, and the possibility was not small.

After all, the life and death of the Colombian opposition depended entirely on Celestial Trade’s attitude towards the current Colombian government. The one party that did not want Xin’s delegation to visit Colombia was the opposition party ready to revolt.

But do they really dare to lie?

With these thoughts in mind, Jiang Chen’s frown turned deeper

He felt there was more to this.

Seeing that Jiang Chen was not responding, the chief of staff gently coughed and asked.

“…President Zhang asked me to seek for your opinion on whether we should adjust the delegation’s visit to Colombia.”

Generally, in situations like this, it was always better to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Even if they wouldn’t cancel the visit to Colombia, the visit time would be adjusted.

However, after pondering for a while, Jiang Chen’s reply was beyond the expectations of the chief of staff.

“I will increase the security forces around him so that he does not have to worry.”

“You mean…”

“Itinerary will not not adjusted.”

“This …” Although hesitant, the chief of staff still nodded reluctantly, “Okay.”

The meeting was over.

Jiang Chen sent the chief of staff to the door.

As Jiang Chen waited for the vehicle to drive away, he looked at Ayesha at the entrance.

“What do you think?”

“There are too many suspicious points,” Ayesha whispered, “This year is the election year in the UA. Even if they want to provoke a war, they will not choose this time. In addition, if it is the Hill government, they are now shifting their strategy to a conservative one, and it is unlikely that they will make such a risky move. ”

Jiang Chen nodded.

He shared the same thought.

He did not think that after facing countless failures, the CIB would still be so certain that their plan would not be discovered by Ghost Agents. Just a few months ago during the spy war in Nippon, they should have thoroughly learned the true strength of Ghost Agents.

Is it Morgan?

No, it’s impossible.

Although they would become the beneficiary of the war, they were definitely not referring to a war with unclear outcomes or even consequences that they could not bear.

“I will immediately send someone to South America to investigate this matter, and at the same time be responsible for protecting Zhang Yaping’s safety,” Ayesha said softly.

“Mhmm, the investigation is going to have to trouble you. As for President Zhang’s safety …” As he spoke, Jiang Chen looked up toward the balcony above the mansion, and a smile suddenly formed. “I know just the right person.”

Chapter 1298: Strange Events

Chapter 1298: Strange Events

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

South America, Xin Embassy in Ecuador.

Because of the time difference, it was still late at night.

Zhang Yaping finished the meeting with the representatives of the Colombian opposition and without having the time to take off his suit, he was pacing back and forth in the reception room while constantly looking up at the clock on the wall.

The moment he learned that someone was planning his murder, and it was being plotted by the infamous CIB, he was furious and shocked.

Although it was not the first he received a death threat, it was the first time he received a death threat from a third country during his diplomatic visit.

Finally tired from pacing around, he walked to the sofa in the reception room and sat down.

Pressing his fingers on his temples, Zhang Yaping closed his eyes with a headache.

While digesting a mess of emotions, he suddenly had a moment of realization as his closed eyes opened, showing a color of confusion.

“Why me?”

It would be impossible for the CIB to not be aware of the political environment of Xin.

Although Xin supported a universal suffrage system, everyone was aware that without the support of Celestial Trade, he would not be able to win this election. With the support of big data, Future Group could accurately push specific news to specific people.

Under such circumstances, even if everyone was satisfied with their vote, the final result of the vote would match the interest of Celestial Trade.

To put it bluntly, he was a puppet of Celestial Trade.

What would be the use of assassinating a puppet? If he died in South America, the vice president would immediately be able to take over in Xin. Other than causing the people of Xin to mourn and be angry, his death would not cause any disruption to the stable political environment in Xin.

Does the CIB want to provoke a war?

Filtering through these thoughts, Zhang Yaping revealed an odd expression.

If all conditions were to be met, the most likely answer obtained was the least likely possibility.

Just then, his assistant knocked on the door of the reception room and walked in quickly with the phone.

“Sir, it’s a call from the Presidential Palace …”

Snatching the phone from his assistant, Zhang Yaping hurriedly asked.

“…What did he say!”

The voice on the other end of the phone hesitated and then responded in a quiet voice.

“He said he will increase the security around you, so you don’t have to worry.”

How can I not worry!

With his face gradually turning pale, Zhang Yaping gulped.

“That is to say, the itinerary for visiting Colombia remains unchanged?”

“…Yes.”

He hung up the phone.

Collapsing into the sofa, Zhang Yaping looked at the phone in his hand with a wry smile and threw it to the assistant, who hurriedly caught it.

“Mr. President?” The assistant looked at him with some worry.

“It’s nothing,” Zhang Yaping loosened the tie around his neck and waved at him, “Go do your thing.”

“Yes.”

The assistant nodded respectfully and turned to leave the room.

The reception room had returned to its previous silence.

Inside the empty room, Zhang Yaping buried his face between his palms, took a deep breath, and sighed with a headache.

“… this is pushing me into the fire pit.”

…

Early the next morning.

At the suburb of Langley, near the Capital, was the CIB building during working hours. It was as busy as ever.

A CIB agent in a suit knocked on the director’s door and then walked in. He went to Henry Wilmot, who was drinking coffee and reading newspapers.

“What’s the matter? My dear Mr. Baird?” Without taking his eyes away from the newspaper, Henry asked in a relaxed tone as he read the latest report on the election on the Washington Post.

Since Kerry’s defeat, he had nothing to do.

Since he already made a mistake for choosing a side once, he did not plan to make another mistake. As long as Hill, who he sabotaged previously, did not get elected, he could stand in the middle and not make any enemies.

As for the historical grudges of the Kennedy family and the CIB.

They all belonged to the older generation…

“Well, tell me what happened to make you look so wry so early in the morning?” Henry put down the newspaper, then noticed the serious expression on his top staff, and his own expression also gradually became more serious.

“… We were informed by our informant in Venezuela that recently a batch of Russian-made weapons came ashore from the port of La Cruz and we lost track of it after it was being transported to Venezuela with trucks,” Baird reported seriously, then placed two reports on the table.

“Russian weapon? Venezuela?” Henry was processing the information.

Does Russia have any core interests in South America? They haven’t even solved the problems near them and now they are still thinking about South America that is tens of thousands of kilometers away from Moscow?

Don’t fool me, this is not the 60s or the 70s.

“Can we trace the origin of this shipment?” Henry asked in a low voice after a moment of pondering.

“We are tracking this shipment’s origin now. The latest information we’ve obtained is that it is from a port located in Greece, but it is very likely that this shipment never landed in Greece at all and were just attached with the official seal of the Greek customs. ”

“It doesn’t matter where it originated, I hope it’s not from Coro Island.”

Cussing in a low voice, Henry glanced at another report on the table and put aside the issue that he could not make sense of.

“Report the latest developments to me immediately. Also, keep an eye on Celestial Trade’s recent international movements… I’ll put this question aside first, and I noticed that there is one more report.”

“Yes,” Baird nodded solemnly. “Another piece of bad news. Just this morning we received intelligence that Agent Braddock, who was sent to Colombia last month, lost contact with us early yesterday morning.”

“Lost contact?” Henry frowned, “Can you confirm his current security situation?”

Baird shook his head.

“In his residence, we found no evidence of fighting. However, when our people arrived, he had disappeared.”

“There is no evidence of fighting? How is this possible?” Henry wondered.

Henry was aware of Agent Braddock. Known as the CIB Hound, he had more than ten years of experience in field intelligence work. With the director being well aware of his name, he was certainly a tough individual.

Without any resistance, an experienced senior CIB agent was taken down.

Even if the kidnapper possessed power of 007 and Tom Cruise, it shouldn’t be that easy right?

“I also think this is quite strange. With Agent Braddock’s strength, it is impossible for him to be kidnapped without resistance.” After a pause, Baird, with a complex and complicated expression, added. “At present, we have contacted the Colombian police through the embassy to search for the whereabouts of Agent Braddock as a missing citizen. But so far, we have not received any useful information from Colombia.”

“It is hopeless to count on the Colombian police. They can’t even solve their own problems.” With a serious frown, Henry thought for a moment, then looked to Baird, “What is the mission Agent Braddock handled before his disappearance? ”

“Tracking down a batch of drugs imported from Florida and a drug cartel active in Colombia and Panama,” Baird replied immediately.

A drug cartel?

Henry was dumbfounded again.

If he was kidnapped while following KGB Agents or Ghost Agents, he could understand.

However, a drug cartel, how is that possible?

What was with today? How come strange things were happening one after another?

Henry subconsciously looked at the calendar on the corner of the table, and his eyebrows twisted together.

Damn it, today is not April Fools’ Day either…

Chapter 1299: The Rats In The Ditch

Chapter 1299: The Rats In The Ditch

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

The moonlight was pristine.

On the border between Ecuador and Colombia, an off-road vehicle colored in military green was parked on a hilly slope.

A dense tropical rainforest faced the hill and a river only about knee-deep bisected the rainforest into two. One side was Ecuador while the other side was Columbia.

An Ecuadorian soldier carrying a rifle jumped down from the vehicle, took two steps forward, then used his binoculars to examine the situation on the Colombia side.

After he had confirmed that no border guards were patrolling the area, he turned back to the off-road vehicle, opened the door for the man sitting in the car, and said with his cigar-flavored Spanish.

“Border is in the front. There is a Colombian town about two kilometers away. You can take a bus to the nearby city. It’s best if you cross as soon as possible. Also, remember to be careful of the patrol lights from helicopters and the crocodiles of the swamp.”

“Thank you, I will.” After bearded man got off the car, he smiled slightly and thanked the soldier.

The Ecuadorian soldier grinned.

“You are welcome, our friends’ guests are naturally our guests.”

In principle, Ecuador and Colombia, as friendly neighbors, should not give the green light to the Colombian opposition. There were exceptions to everything, however, especially given Ecuador and Celestial Trade’s honeymoon phase. Tempted by the check of another space elevator, most of the requirements put forward by Xin could be guaranteed.

Even if the requirements compromised diplomatic principles.

With a meaningful smile, Hirst nodded without responding. He picked up his backpack from the back seat of the off-road vehicle, threw it on his back, and walked toward the border under the watch of the soldier.

Stepping across the river, he walked across a kilometer of the tropical rain forest. Then he dragged out his motorcycle from the bushes and dropped his backpack on it.

The roar of the engine alarmed the lizard lying on the tree, and the crocodile by the shoal raised its eyelids slightly.

After he hopped on the motorcycle, he confirmed the direction using the scattered moonlight and then drove straight to the Colombian town not far from the border.

Time gradually passed, and soon it was deep into the night.

Hirst stopped in front of a warehouse at an abandoned farm. He locked the motorcycle in front of the door, glanced at the pitch-dark warehouse, and opened the rusty iron gate.

“Who.”

Not knowingly, a gun protruded out of the shadow, and it was pressed against his face.

With a grin, Hirst raised his hands above his head and said impatiently.

“It’s me.”

As soon as he said those words, the beard faded from his face at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. The muscles on his face seemed to be wriggling like boiled water, followed by the cracking sound of his bones, Hirst’s look had completely changed.

The muzzle against his face slowly lowered.

Hirst lowered his raised hands and complained towards the shadows.

“Is this necessary?”

“Special times, forgive me,” the man said in a hoarse voice.

Shrugging off the comment, Hirst followed the man and walked deep into the warehouse.

They bypassed an agricultural machine, and in the corner of the warehouse, he saw a beam of light leaking from the wooden door.

The beam of light was very fragile and wavered in the darkness, like a boat swaying in the eye of the storm, it was as if it could disappear in the wave in any second.

To some extent, its situation was very similar to the current Kurofune.

Two years ago, the tragedies of City K and Yoto shocked the world. It directly led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of people and the ousting of the two regimes. For the first time, the word T-virus appeared in front of the eyes of all the countries in the world, and the world was caught in an unprecedented panic.

In December of the same year, NATO launched a large-scale military operation in northwest Somalia under the auspices of the United Nations. With concrete evidences, nations declared war on the warlords and set off another sandstorm in Somalia.

In less than a month, the iron fist from the civilized world destroyed the warlords who provided support to the Kurofune and took over the infected area and the T-virus factory on the border between Ethiopia and Somalia.

At the beginning of the following month, Celestial Trade sent troops without authorization to launch an assault in Kenya, destroying the only 1.7 tons left out of the 50 tons of virus stock solution, eradicating everything the Kurofune accumulated over the past decades.

One bad news came one after another, and Tanaka, the spiritual leader of the organization, also lost contact after a duel with Jiang Chen.

Even the most senior member of the Kurofune was only aware that he last appeared in the suburbs of Yoto, not knowing whether he was still alive or not.

Only Tanaka was able to communicate with the Kurofune.

Losing Tanaka meant that they completely lost contact with the “Black Ship”.

In the confusion and fear of losing the unity, the members of the Kurofune were either exhausted by the global pursuit of Ghost Agents or hiding in a remote area under a different name.

It didn’t take long for Celestial Trade to build a space elevator, which began to emerge internationally, and its strength expanded at a geometric speed. In the shadow of Jiang Chen, they trembled like mice in the gutter, and they didn’t dare to look squarely at this behemoth, let alone seek revenge.

Hirst was no different.

As a senior member of the Kurofune, he was not only pursued by Ghost Agents but also topped the wanted list of various countries as a terrorist. But because of his ability to change his appearance and height at will, he barely escaped the intelligence organizations.

Hirst, who fled to South America, wandered in loneliness and confusion for two years and lived a semi-reclusive life while carefully paying attention to the news of the Kurofune.

However, the cruel facts were stated in front of him.

Other than news of Kurofune members being arrested or “accidentally killed”, he could not find any useful information in the newspapers and the Internet.

Just when he was almost in a state of despair, he saw the mark left by members of the Kurofune from a newspaper. Overjoyed, he quickly found a companion hiding in Colombia based on the clues left in the newspaper.

Not only he escaped the pursuit of the Ghost Agents, but three other companions did as well.

Psychic Andrew from Britain, the UA mercenary Gerak, and a person named Sakai with the ability to read minds.

“What if they change their itinerary, or simply end their South America visit?” Gerak asked in a hoarse voice while wiping the sniper rifle in his hand.

“They can’t change the itinerary,” Andrew smiled. “They are Celestial Trade. The CIB is not enough to make them back down, and it won’t happen even with FBA involved.”

And their arrogance will make them pay a painful price for this.

“I hope everything goes well.” Hirst drew the Kurofune mark on his chest and closed his eyes religiously, “I also hope that the sacrifice we offer is enough to show our loyalty to our Lord.

“I just want to avenge Mr. Tanaka,” Sakai said with hatred-filled eyes hidden under his long hair and sitting in the corner with his arms folded.

“We will.”

Andrew’s smile was very gentle as if he were a kind priest facing a lost lamb, “My Lord will bless us to victory.”

If the blood of the immortal people could be exchanged for the favor of our Lord and usher in eternal evolution for this decaying world, no matter how many sacrifices, it’ll be worth it. This was all because all life will finally gain eternity in glorious harmony.

World War III…

This offering should be enough?

With this thought in mind, Andrew reached out his skinny right hand and touched the pendant on his chest.

He looked at the tied-up UA citizen who was twisting in the corner, and his dark green pupils flashed with fanatic colors…

Chapter 1300: Who could fall asleep!?

Chapter 1300: Who could fall asleep!?

Early the next morning, Lilith went to the airport.

When she left, she did not bring any luggage. She only asked Jiang Chen to prepare a ticket for her from Coro to Bogota.

Ayesha wondered if the empty-handed Lilith was really capable of such a serious task. But after Jiang Chen gently combed her chestnut hair, she no longer questioned and timidly chose to believe Jiang Chen’s decision.

The mansion once again returned to the long-absent four people state.

“You sent such a little girl across the globe to carry out a mission. Is that really okay?”

Sat at the dining table and biting off a large sandwich filled with vegetables, salad dressing, and bacon, Natasha, who was enjoying her lunch, asked Jiang Chen with a muffled voice.

“Why not?” Jiang Chen just shrugged and answered nonchalantly. “Compared to Lilith, I’m more curious about how many seconds those who try to challenge my bottom line can last.”

“She… is that powerful?” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen suspiciously while her mouth, that was about to bite the sandwich, opened wider in surprise.

Jiang Chen sighed softly while the chopsticks in his hand stopped at the side of the bowl, and his eyes drifted towards the ceiling. “In terms of individual combat ability, if everyone in this room worked together, perhaps it would be a tie.”

In fact, Jiang Chen omitted the fact that if the safety program added on Lilith’s brain was not in place, he could not think of a way to beat her in a fight. The liquid metal’s operability was simply too powerful, Lilith even showed him how to turn the liquid metal into a Gauss rifle.

Modeling and framing, it’d be completed in an instant.

The liquid metal could be transformed into a shield at close combat, and it could be transformed into an electromagnetic pulse cannon in far range combat. With its computing power, it was simply unbeatable.

Although Natasha still had doubts about Jiang Chen’s statement, she reluctantly accepted his statement.

Just that when she thought of the enemy that little girl would face, she couldn’t help but feel nervous for her.

“However, her opponent is the CIB,” Natasha shrugged and teased, “Those people will not be merciful because of her age.”

“When did you assume the CIB is stronger than me?” He rolled his eyes, then continued with a casual tone, “And, do you really think the CIB is crooked?”

“Isn’t it?” Natasha asked back.

Natasha, who had left the Russian intelligence system, was now completely transferred to the diplomatic system as a security adviser to the Russian embassy in Xin. It was debatable if Russia, who was in the midst of a political coup in Colombia, detected anything abnormal, it was realistic for a former agent located tens of thousands of kilometers away to know anything.

Of course, the Russian Security Services did not receive any news, and it happened to confirm Jiang Chen’s guess.

Both Ghost Agents and the Russian Security Services did not receive any intelligence of the assassination plans, but these plans were seen by the Colombian opposition in advance and they warned the President of Xin who was visiting Ecuador. No matter how one thought about it, it seemed incredible and improbable at the same time.

However, the trouble was that this matter could not be verified. Now the coup of the Revolutionary Army had entered the final preparation stage. Basically, the combatants were either hiding in the mountains or lurking in the shadows.

At this point in time, even the Russian Security Services, who was responsible for supporting the coup, may not be able to find the leader of the revolutionary army hiding in the mountains. Even if they could locate him, it would certainly be too late.

Because Zhang Yaping would visit the Colombian capital just three days later.

“Will we know in a few days?” Jiang Chen glanced at the clock on the wall, “In three or four days or at most one week. The delegation of Xin will not stay in Colombia for too long. Therefore, if those people really planned on doing something, then their opportunity window would be the next four days.”

Now Lilith’s plane should have taken-off.

With no direct flights from Coro City to Colombia, counting the transit time, the trip should take her about thirty hours in total. Assuming no delays, Lilith should arrive in the Colombian capital Bogota early in the morning tomorrow.

Jiang Chen was inexplicably worried after he thought about the itinerary.

Is it really okay for Lilith to go so far away alone and get off the plane in the middle of the night?

But soon, he was amused by his thoughts.

What a joke, Lilith is the advanced artificial intelligence of the 22nd century.

It must take at least a division to threaten her…

Because Lilith was not there, the small third wheel was no longer there.

During the quiet night, Jiang Chen, Ayesha, and Xia Shiyu finally had some fun outside the bedroom.

From the gym to the bathroom to the bedroom, after two moans filled with joy and sweat, the three people slept in each other’s arms.

Although Xia Shiyu’s bottom line had been slowly lowered by Jiang Chen’s constant pleas, it seemed that being with Ayesha was her bottom line.

But even so, Jiang Chen was already very satisfied.

If there was another person, he was afraid he could not handle the situation.

As for the sweet harem dream, while he was curious, he was not eager to make it a reality.

He would just go with the flow.

…

Early the next morning, listening to the uniform breathing in his ears, Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

The two women were still asleep.

A smile formed as he glanced over to see Ayesha and Xia Shiyu snuggling together like kittens. He gently kissed the forehead of each girl, then he quietly crawled out of the bed. Before he left the room, he tucked them in again.

Although the “exercise” last night took a lot of his energy, he felt almost completely recovered this morning. Other than the soreness in his shoulders, he didn’t feel any fatigue at all, instead he felt refreshed.

After washing up in the bathroom, Jiang Chen came to the kitchen obediently and prepared breakfast for the two women who were still asleep.

Of course, this may be an overstatement. After all, he only heated up the bacon sandwiches from yesterday.

But did it matter?

Jiang Chen’s mood was lightened by Ayesha’s happy smile as he sat at the dining table and watched her happily bite into a sandwich. A bright smile emerged on Jiang Chen’s face.

However, for some odd reason, Jiang Chen, who showed such a smile, was not well received by Natasha. She responded by giving him a dirty look.

After she expressed her slight discontent, Natasha, who sat diagonally across from him, was yawning profusely while she stuffed the sandwich into her mouth.

Jiang Chen thought she slept early last night, but he seemed to sense that she was not in a good mental state.

Could it be that she stayed up yesterday?

If Natasha knew what he was thinking, he would definitely get two punches.

You guys were so loud, who could fall asleep!?

Chapter 1301: You Should Be Lowkey

Chapter 1301: You Should Be Lowkey

Bogota, the capital of Colombia; a city where beauty and sin coexisted.

Maybe apart from emeralds, all foreigners shared the same impression of Colombia – drugs and guerrillas. In fact, in addition to these two things, Colombia also had robbers, thieves, homeless people, the typical South American passion, as well as the “lazy culture.”

Since the beginning of the Cold War, the guerrillas in this country were fighting against the pro-UA government and the UA. However, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the guerrillas that had lost external support quickly deteriorated, and now they have basically survived on hostages and drugs. Not only did their numbers decrease significantly, but they also moved completely from the city into the remote border mountains.

It was impossible to describe in plain words the chaos in the country. A drama did depict some of these phenomena, and its name was the same as the theme it wanted to express, “Narcos”.

A girl in a cute skirt appeared in the rundown airport lobby.

When she passed through the airport terminal, many passengers gazed at the girl with surprise and concern in their eyes.

The reason why it was odd, other than her exquisite beauty by human standard, was the fact that she dared to come to this city without her parents. In particular, the lack of baggage in her hands created more suspicion and doubt and made people question if she had been separated from her parents.

However, while they were concerned, no one stepped forward to help her.

Even the police at the gate of the airport just glanced at her for a second before he continued to slouch on the chair and slumber.

It was one in the morning.

The street outside the airport was brightly lit, but there were very few people that could be seen.

At this time, unless it was absolutely necessary, almost no one chose to venture out at night.

Sure enough, shortly after she left the airport, she was being followed.

Lilith followed the direction from the satellite map towards the embassy, but soon noticed that someone was following her. Therefore, she decided to turn into an alley.

When all the homeless people curled up in the alley saw such a beautiful girl appear, they all froze.

For a glimpse second, they thought they saw an angel.

But the next second, the angel in their eyes turned into green banknotes.

Robbing tourists was a part-time job for almost all homeless Colombians, especially those near the airport.

Just as they hesitated on whether they should rob, kidnap, or do something else, the faces that appeared at the alleyway made them change their mind. The expression that was previously ferocious, quickly changed as they hurriedly stood up and left the alley.

In an instant, the entire alley was empty.

Not because they saw the police.

It was because they saw someone more terrifying than the police.

“I didn’t expect your face to be so effective,” The man with slightly dark skin joked.

“Really? I think the name Torres works better,” Another big man with an ugly face grinned.

The man in the middle did not speak, but his greedy eyes repeatedly examined the calves under the girl’s skirt.

Abel Torres, a drug lord active in Central America, delivered tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of drugs to the UA through the Florida gangs every year.

However, because of his considerable force in Colombia and Panama, he not only colluded with the local judicial department, but he also controlled a private armed force of about 500 people to protect his drug plantations and drug factories.

Ironically, the weapons used by his men were basically bought from the UA. Especially the .20 caliber heavy machine gun and M224 mortar that he kept as part of his collection in his mansion. They were both gifts from an arms dealer named Robert a few years ago after a big deal.

Apart from dollars and weapons, there was only one other thing he adored, which was, Caucasian girls around twelve-to-thirteen years old. The venting of his sexual desire and sadism on a pure body made him feel joy from the heart, and it was one of the reasons why he was listed in the top five of the CIB’s Most Wanted List in South America.

Torres kneeled in front of Lilith. He grinned and revealed his yellowish black teeth, then he started to laugh in a way that resembled a wolf.

“Little girl, are you lost?”

Lilith looked at the weird uncle in front of her without expression and did not speak.

Torres did not feel angry about the fact that Lilith disregarded him, but he smiled patiently.

“I’ll take you to your mother, okay?”

Lilith let out a long sigh, looked up in the sky, then muttered to herself.

“This is really troublesome.”

After he was ignored two times, Abel Torres started to feel irritated. And the two men behind him began to shout a little impatiently.

“What is this kid talking about?”

“I don’t know… Boss, I know this is your hobby, but we better not stay here too long. You know, the CIB is looking for us,” The ugly giant said as he looked uncomfortably behind him.

“True,” Torres sighed and looked at Lilith, then he spoke to her in a sincere tone. “You’ll have to sleep for a bit.”

Without warning, he revealed the taser in his hand.

Based on how fluid his action was, it was obviously not his first time.

The electric current crackled.

However, to the three people’s astonishment, the little girl in front of them just glanced coldly at the taser directed at her chest. She did not paralyze or pass out.

Torres leaped up from the ground, then took two steps back in surprise. He looked back at the taser in his hand in disbelief.

“How, how is this possible.”

On Lilith’s expressionless poker face, there was no excess emotion as she looked at the men in front of her.

And then she revealed a contemptuous look.

It resembled someone looking down on the ants at their feet …

“Stand there, don’t move!” A creepy feeling crawled into his head, and the big man immediately pulled out the pistol on his waist and pointed it at Lilith as he took two steps back nervously, “Boss, this girl is weird!”

“Fu*k, you don’t need to say that!” Torres tossed the taser in his hand, then pulled out the pistol hidden in his pants and roared at Lilith, “Who are you? CIB? Or…”

At this moment, three pistols were aimed at the girl standing in the middle of the alley.

It was not difficult to identify the side at a disadvantage.

However, the truth was just the opposite.

“Well, go die.”

Tired of the noise the three men made, Lilith waved her hand.

Literally, she just waved her hand.

Countless metal thorns burst out without warning. Torres, who was still shouting half a second ago, was instantly turned into a sieve, his feet even left the ground.

The two thugs behind him froze in place, and the stunned look gradually turned into trembling fear.

“FU*K!”

With a scream that didn’t match the size of his body, the big man crawled towards the alley exit behind him and fired the gun in his hand. The skinny man bolted out, without even firing a shot.

Three shots.

In a hurry, only one shot hit Lilith’s forehead.

However, instead of hurting her at all, the bullet made a clung sound and was deflected to the side.

Closer examination would reveal that at that instant, Lilith’s forehead was covered by a layer of bright silver liquid metal.

However, in the eyes of the two men, she became an invulnerable monster.

“Devil! Devil!”

They screamed in Spanish, and the slightly more courageous big man also completely gave up resisting. He threw down his weapon and desperately tried to catch up to his partner who had almost made it to the end of the alley

Lilith just moved her finger slightly as she looked at the two fleeing men.

The silver thorns that penetrated Torres turned into countless tiny droplets.

The droplets gradually elongated and elongated in a special field…

Eventually, they turned into silver needles as thin as hair strands.

There was no sign of the incoming danger.

The two men who made it to the end of the alley collapsed onto the ground.

Soon, dense blood droplets oozed out from their bodies, and they were drenched in blood within half a minute.

Lilith sighed without a change of expression as she examined the three bodies.

“So troublesome.”

For Lilith, there was no difference between squishing a person and squashing a bug, especially if the person occupied less than 1kb of memory in her emotional center.

However, dealing with these corpses and bloodstains were troublesome after all.

After she recalled Jiang Chen’s “you should be lowkey” advice before she left, Lilith glanced at the trash cans in the alleys and the newspapers on the ground.

This will have to do…

She silently recalled the liquid metal on the ground, then the metal condensed into two big silver hands in front of her, and she reached to Torres who was closest to her…

Chapter 1302: Doubt

Chapter 1302: Doubt

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

It was daybreak, and an uninvited guest greeted the inaccessible alley.

With his right hand hidden inside his jacket pocket, Agent Davis walked into the alley and tightly grasped onto the M9 pistol with the safety unlocked. He carefully searched the alley.

Just a few days ago, Agent Braddock, who was tracking Abel Torres in Colombia, disappeared in his apartment.

After he received the order from the headquarters, Davis immediately tied up the loose ends on his end and headed from Brazil to Colombia. He traced the clues of drug lord Abel Torres and arrived in the vice city known as Bogota.

Based on the informant’s intelligence and existing leads, Abel Torres met with a Florida “dealer” at a bar near the airport last night. Based on rumors, a major event was about to take place which made the drug dealer exchange all his stock into weapons.

Davis didn’t know what the “major event” Torres mentioned that is about to happen in Colombia was. Just like he didn’t know the whereabouts of his colleague, but they were both reasons why he showed up here in the first place. The CIB’s senior officials placed heavy emphasis on this matter. Not only did they gave him the highest level of authority, but they even promised him the authority to mobilize a SEAL team when necessary.

Now, all the leads led him here.

From a homeless man, at the expense of 10 dollars, he learned that Abel Torres appeared in this alley in the early hours of yesterday morning. There was also a blonde girl who also appeared here, and she was only about twelve or thirteen years old.

Davis took two seconds to mourn for the girl that likely suffered an unfortunate fate after he learned the drug lord’s special hobby, then he moved forward in the alley.

The faint smell of blood in the air made him frown.

Soon, he found some unusualness from a few details on the ground.

“Hair?”

He kneeled down, and took out his gloves, then used a pair of tweezers to pick up the strand of brown hair.

With his other hand, he took out the flashlight and put the hair under the bright light. He quickly discovered the issue.

“Brown matches with Torres’ hair color. The cut is clean and doesn’t look like it was torn off in a fight, but was like cut directly by a sharp instrument. Bloodstains? Who does this belong to?”

The conditions here obviously did not permit him to do DNA testing.

Davis took out a small plastic bag about the size of his index finger from his pocket, clamped the strand of hair with the tweezers, and carefully inserted it into the bag.

After he finished that, he continued to search the ground for evidence.

However, to his surprise, he found a lot of useful clues on the ground but did not find the one he was searching for.

“Blonde hair… this is not right; it should be very conspicuous. Did Torres not encounter any resistance when he was abusing the girl? But that can’t explain the hair and blood…and the fibers left behind.”

David quietly analyzed as he continued to move deeper into the alley.

Just as he passed a row of trash cans, he suddenly stopped.

With a frown, his gaze turned to the row of trash cans.

In the disgusting rancid smell, there was a subtle smell of blood that was even stronger than before.

He reached for the lid of the trash can.

The second he opened the lid, the pungent smell blew into his face and made him subconsciously move his head back.

Then he looked at the newspaper in the trash can and fiddled the pieces around.

Just after he put his hand on the newspaper, he immediately felt something wet.

After a moment of hesitation, he suddenly ripped the newspaper away.

When he saw what was buried under the newspaper, his face turned pale, and nauseousness agitated his stomach. A stream of fluid almost oozed up to his Adam’s apple.

Arms, organs, even eyeballs…all the organs were neatly placed in the bloody trash can and it perfectly utilized every inch of space.

However, this merciless neatness was what made this bloody scene crueler and colder. Even if he was used to seeing corpses and blood, he couldn’t help feeling the tremor and fear deep in his bones as he stared at the scene in front of him.

What kind of person could be so cruel…

“God… Sh*t…”

He muttered incoherently as he put on his plastic gloves and took out the head mechanically. Then he flipped it to the right side, used his finger to slide down the nose, and stopped at the jaw.

“Abel Torres…no way this can’t be.”

David took two steps back and muttered blankly. He tore off the plastic gloves and threw them into the bag he was carrying

“This is Standard-bearer…” David pressed a button on his collar, fought down the urge to vomit, and squeezed out the words one by one, “I have confirmed the whereabouts of Abel Torres.”

“Where!?” Baird grabbed the radio and hurriedly said into channel inside the special operations command room.

“In an alley outside the airport,” Davis, with his face as pale as a ghost, glanced at the pile of indescribable things. “Fifteen meters in and turn left. In the second trash can…”

Baird was stunned, he thought he heard wrong.

“The second… trash can?”

“Yes,” Davis swallowed down hard, “A total of three people were killed, or cruelly dismembered, and stuffed into the trash can. One of them was Torres, and the others were his henchman, with a very long name, a native of South America.”

“You mean, Abel Torres… was killed?” Baird said, his voice was in complete disbelief.

After Davis took a deep breath, he spoke slowly.

“Yes.”

Although the CIB was eager to get rid of this guy, the organization absolutely did not want him to die here. There was plenty of information that could be extracted from him. Now that he had died in an inexplicable manner, this completely disrupted their plan.

“Where’s Agent Braddock…” Baird asked.

“I don’t know,” Davis smiled wryly, “The only thing that I’m certain is that he is not in this trash can.”

“Find the murderer who killed Abel Torres! He might know something.”

“Yes…”

Davis ended the communication and the wry smile on his face was even more apparent.

The lead stopped here.

Who executed Abel Torres in such a cruel way? Was it just a gang murder, or was the greatest mystery being buried here?

Also, where is Agent Braddock now? Did he discover something before he disappeared?

For some odd reason, Davis suddenly felt chills behind him.

From the putrid smell mixed with blood, he subtly felt a hint of conspiracy.

His instinct had always been accurate.

And now, his instinct told him that he had only seen the tip of the iceberg…

Chapter 1303: Who Knows？

Chapter 1303: Who Knows？

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

At New Moon Island located northwest of Coro City.

Since the establishment of the High-Tech Industrial Park on Ange Island, the production line of the Phantom was moved from the nearby offshore platform to Ange Island.

This offshore platform had been transformed into a deep water port, used to dock the Guardian-class frigates that were upgraded by Future Military’s dark technologies, as well as experimental equipment such as submarines designed by Future Heavy Industries.

On top of the platform, off of New Moon Island, Ivan showed Jiang Chen the latest equipment of Celestial Trade Marine Corps.

“This is the latest innovation from Future Military, the ‘Crocodile-20’ Amphibious Assault Vehicle. It can submerge up to ten meters underwater, quickly attack the coastline, and provide cover fire for the landing infantry…”

The short and compact cross-section made the vehicle resemble more of a tank than an armored vehicle, but the weapon layout was nearly identical to a general armored vehicle. The circular tubular external tanks that hung on both sides of the armor were used to control the depth by draining water, and the tail end was equipped with a propulsion device to provide power for the amphibious assault vehicle.

The top of the armored vehicle was equipped with an electromagnetic pulse rapid-fire cannon, and the mass projectile accelerated to the limit could easily penetrate through the light armor of a general infantry fighting vehicle. The auto-loading rockets that suspended on both sides of the turret could fire both armor-piercing and high-explosive rockets.

With both high penetration and firepower, whether it was fighting in city terrains or amphibious conditions, the amphibious assault vehicle named “Crocodile” could easily handle any battle conditions.

Jiang Chen nodded at the weapon tailor-made for Celestial Trade Marine Corps and provided a two-word response.

“Not bad.”

With armored vehicles and mechanized infantries as the main battle force, and Tiger IIs and other penetrative and high-damaging main battle tanks as the supporting force aligned with the tactical strategy of Celestial Trade, which emphasized fast attack and soft target killing. Future Military’s research and development of weapons were also based on this strategy.

The most evident example was the lack of a main battle tank in all of the research and development projects.

There was naturally a reason for this phenomenon.

Since the advent of electromagnetic pulse cannons, the asymmetry of offense and defense of armored units was pushed to the extreme. A mass projectile accelerated to ten times the speed of sound would not only easily penetrate the front armor of the M1A2 main battle tank, but the projectile would also come out from the back.

In fact, even without a next era weapon like the electromagnetic pulse cannon, the asymmetry of offense and defense of modern main battle tanks was starting to become more apparent

Disregarding the dark technologies of Celestial Trade, let’s take a very simple example.

The standard 125mm armor-piercing ammunition of Hua has a penetration depth of 1000mm as reported by the media (there was mention of 1800mm, but it should be disregarded as being too unrealistic and not used for reference). Its imaginary enemy, the M1A2 tank, has the strongest armor at the front of the turret, and the horizontal anti-ballistic ability is equivalent to 850 mm rolled homogeneous armor, and the inclination coefficient is 1.3. The equivalent thickness of the Chobham armor may be higher, but it will not exceed 1000mm rolled homogeneous steel.

What does this mean?

Even if M1A2 took the hit at the strongest point, it may not be able to resist a single shot.

Of course, the reverse is also true.

In an encounter within “2000 meters”, whether it was a tank or a squishy, one shot was enough.

It was also the reason why Europe had been reluctant to equip 140mm tank guns. Apart from the military expenditure issue, the most fundamental reason was the lack of necessity.

Even against the front armor of the latest main battle tank, a 120mm tank gun with an armor-piercing shell could easily penetrate within 2000 meters. And if you want to effectively defend against 120mm (including Russia’s 125mm) tank guns, you must greatly increase defense at the expense of sacrificing mobility.

However, in the modern warfare era with diverse anti-tank methods, loss of mobility is often more deadly than the loss of armor.

The current developmental thinking of Future Military followed the guidelines established by Jiang Chen, and Jiang Chen referenced the apocalypse. From the middle of the 21st century to the early 22nd century, the main battle tanks were indeed unfavored for an extended period of time.

It was not until the emergence of giant brain-hole designs such as the Wanderer and Spider Tank did main battle tanks regain their purpose. But by that time, the boundary between tanks and armored vehicles was actually quite blurred.

The Wanderer may still be able to count as a tank. As for the Spider Tank… what aspect of that design resembled a tank?

After a tour on the offshore platform, they returned to New Moon Island, and Jiang Chen asked Ivan.

“How many Crocodiles do we have?”

“We have only ordered twenty vehicles from Future Military,” Ivan replied.

“How do you think they work?” Jiang Chen asked again.

Without exactly understanding what Jiang Chen meant, Ivan hesitated a little, and said truthfully, “The performance in several exercises has been quite positive. It has indeed greatly improved the Marine Corps’ landing combat capabilities.”

“Then buy five hundred of it,” Jiang Chen laughed and said casually, “What can twenty vehicles do? It’s too few.”

Ivan silently remembered these words. He planned to get someone on this task right away.

“Right,” Jiang Chen suddenly turned around and looked at Ivan, “How big is our reserve?”

It seemed that he felt he was not being accurate so he added another sentence.

“You know, I mean those mercenaries.”

“Counting the recruits in training, there are 30,000 people!”

“Too few,” Jiang Chen shook his head, “I think it is necessary to increase the number of ‘contractors’.”

Ivan looked at him, lowered his voice, and asked.

“Is there going to be a war?”

When the Russian asked this sentence, his pupils flashed with excitement.

Since the establishment of the Aerospace Department, Celestial Trade’s Space Defense Force had been designated into the responsibilities of the Aerospace Department. Including the orbital airborne brigade and the power armor brigade, although they were all referred to as Celestial Trade Marine Corps out of habit, they were two completely different systems from the Celestial Trade Navy and Marine Corps currently commanded by Ivan.

It was precisely this reason that, although Celestial Trade had engaged in warfare, for Ivan, nothing much changed.

Although he never considered war to be a good thing, he still couldn’t help the fact that he craved battle. Whenever he heard that an orbital airborne brigade achieved victory somewhere, he always felt somewhat frustrated.

From the tone in the boss’s voice, he heard a subtle hint of unusualness.

Including the sudden visit of the boss to New Moon Island, who had always focused on space issues, to make a rare inspection of the military training. All these actions were intriguing.

Because the last time he frequently visited the New Moon Island Military Base, the Battle of MLL Island that shocked the world broke out shortly after.

However, Jiang Chen did not give a clear answer to Ivan’s question. He only smiled and gave an ambiguous answer.

“Who knows, especially with a war?”

Chapter 1304: Delegation Arrival

Chapter 1304: Delegation Arrival

An aircraft printed with Xin’s flag and Celestial Trade’s logo appeared over the Bogota International Airport and slowly descended on the runway.

In the security tunnel of the airport, soldiers in military green camouflage were on standby. On the street not far away, armored vehicles were even spotted.

Obviously, the Colombian authorities recognized the importance of the situation. Although they were not eager to see the delegation from Xin, they definitely did not want Xin’s delegation to lose a single strand of hair here.

With a bright smile on his face, the Hispanic Colombian President Juan walked up and extended his right hand with friendliness to shake Zhang Yaping’s extended hand.

“Welcome, friends from the Western Pacific! The Colombian people welcome you, you’ll love this beautiful country.”

If the smile was any indicator, it would be hard to imagine that the economic exchanges between the two countries were the complete opposite. Celestial Trade had began its effort to open up the South American market in 2018, but there was minimal progress.

The UA had carefully guarded its back garden against Celestial Trade’s attempt to increase its influence.

Even for the capitalist world, Celestial Trade was a rather “deformed” monster. Although the military-industrial complex of the UA and Samsung of Korea were both involved in military production, and rely on their own influence to interfere in government policies, Celestial Trade’s direct monopolization of a country’s military as a contractor could only be compared with the “East India Company” in the past.

The UA was afraid Celestial Trade’s goal of replicating the “Xin Model” in South America, and South American countries themselves were also concerned about that possibility. Only an anti-American, poor economic condition country like Ecuador would consider opening its doors to the monster known as Celestial Trade.

For example, Juan was one of the biggest obstacles to Celestial Trade’s expansion into Colombia.

Zhang Yaping sensed the caution and rejection hidden behind his smile. However, he still smiled and said in a relaxed but sincere tone in front of the media.

“Of course, as soon as I got off the plane, I already felt the charm of this country. I believe this trip will definitely be worthwhile.”

“I assure you,” Juan laughed along, as he shook Zhang Yaping’s hand with force, then he gestured to the direction of the VIP tunnel of the airport, and said respectfully, “Please.”

Followed by Celestial Trade’s bodyguards, the delegation of Xin passed through the VIP tunnel and got on the convoy sent by the Colombian government.

In the extended black vehicle, Juan glanced at the media reporters outside of the car, and a subtle hint of mockery appeared under his thick bread. He then looked at Zhang Yaping across from him and asked with a “sincere” smile.

“Would you like a cigar?”

“Thank you, there is no need,” Zhang Yaping politely declined.

“You can feel more relaxed. You don’t have to worry about the annoying media in the car, and we don’t have to do anything superficial.” Juan took a cut cigar from his assistant, took out a lighter, and smiled to Zhang Yaping, “In South America, cigars and coffee are a kind of culture, and we will have to have at least one of them when we talk about business.”

The ventilation system was superb, and the milky white smoke quickly drifted to the sides of the roof, and no smell lingered inside the vehicle.

“Talk about business?”

“Yes, we like to be straight forward. South American culture is like that.” Juan grinned with the cigar still in his mouth and then said in a relaxed tone, “Of course, if President Zhang doesn’t like this metaphor, I’m willing to take my words back.”

“Of course not, I also like to be straightforward,” Zhang Yaping shook his head, then smiled, “But when it comes to business, we might as well talk about something interesting.”

Oh?” Juan raised his eyebrows.

“According to the latest space resource development plan announced by Celestial Trade, we intend to build a second space elevator within five years. Here I can tell you in advance that the possibility of this elevator being located in South America is very high.”

“And it’s going to be in Ecuador, am I right?” Juan responded with a smile.

“Yes,” Zhang Yaping agreed, then continued, “If you have studied the Asia-Pacific economic data in the last three years, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to see that with Xin’s space elevator as the center, the GDP of neighboring countries and regions have grown substantially. After the completion of the space elevator in Ecuador, Colombia and even the entire South America will be the direct beneficiaries.”

“Will it?”

Juan did not deny this, but he revealed a mischievous smile. He was obviously not moved by the check with an astronomical number.

Zhang Yaping eyed Juan thoughtfully, but he also laughed again and changed the subject.

He gave him a chance.

Obviously, he didn’t catch it.

“Xin is willing to provide Colombia with a low-interest loan of 50 billion Xin New Dollars,” Zhang Yaping said without a change of expression.

“If the premise is that Colombia joins the Global Grid Plan of Celestial Trade, I am sorry but I must refuse. I cannot put Colombia’s national security in the hands of an irresponsible warmonger,” Juan shook his head and said righteously.

“There is no premise,” Zhang Yaping smiled and said in a relaxed tone.

Juan was stunned.

Zhang Yaping’s response was completely beyond his expectation.

A loan without any conditions?

How can that be!

Zhang Yaping studied the silent Juan, and a hint of mockery appeared in corners of his mouth tugged just slightly upward. But quickly, he hid the mockery in a friendly smile as he watched the Colombian president speak.

“To support the construction of infrastructure in Colombia, this loan will be used to support Colombia’s infrastructure, transportation, light and heavy industry, and other sectors. Any company with operating qualifications can apply for this loan after passing the risk assessment process.”

“What about the use of the loan?” Juan was no longer smoking his cigar, as he hurriedly asked, “Are there any restrictions?”

50 billion in foreign investment!

No one will complain about money.

Especially for Colombia, whose economic situation was not so positive, the 50 billion in foreign investment would not only directly impact the employment rate, but would even impact the annual GDP data.

Juan did not understand what Zhang Yaping was planning to do, but if the loan was really without any conditions as he said, there was absolutely no reason to refuse!

“There are no restrictions.”

Those words were like a heavenly melody.

After Juan took a deep breath, he did all he could to restrain the excitement in his heart so that the expression on his face would not be so explicit.

He extinguished the cigar between his fingers, looked at Zhang Yaping, and solemnly thanked him.

“On behalf of the Colombian government, I thank you for your generosity! Colombian people will always remember this friendship!”

“You are welcome,” Zhang Yaping said softly, “If you want to express your gratitude, thank Future Group. The loan was provided from Future Bank. We are just taking the lead.”

Future Group?

When he heard this name, Juan instinctively felt a little uncomfortable.

However, he couldn’t tell what made him uncomfortable.

Zhang Yaping looked at the frowning President Juan and the smile hidden with a deeper layer of meaning was even more apparent.

Yes.

There was really no conditions on this loan.

However, the loan was not used to witness the friendship between the two countries or to help the poor.

It was here to help the Colombian people rebuild their homes…

Chapter 1305: Before The Storm

Chapter 1305: Before The Storm

In an apartment building about one block away from the embassy.

In the dimly lit room, Hirst used his finger to slightly open the curtain.

A ray of sunlight passed through the gap in the curtain and like a giant and visible scar, it was imprinted on his gloomy face.

This apartment originally belonged to a 30-year-old middle-aged white-collar worker who worked in an office building about four stops away from here. After he saw the apartment, Andrew invaded his consciousness with mental power, controlled and forced him to ask for vacation time from his company, and then the mercenary drove him to Lake Santa Ana and tossed him in.

Hirst saw the delegation’s convoy pass through the street not far away, and his eyes narrowed. His dark green pupils showed a dangerous color.

He heard the door closing behind him.

Sakai Shichie changed her shoes at the entrance, tossed her backpack on the sofa, took off the digital camera around her neck, then threw it to Andrew who was resting.

“In order to protect the delegation of Xin, the Colombian Military deployed at least one battalion. In addition, the Colombian Special Forces are also involved in security work. There is a sniper squad on standby on the clock tower not far away. Another sniper squad was on the roof of the apartment building across the embassy with heavy disguise.”

Andrew opened his eyes, then opened the photo album in the digital camera. He was quite intrigued by the photos.

As expected, with a background as an agent. Miss Sakai did indeed have her specialty in intelligence work. Especially with the help of her abilities, her ability to conduct surveillance and counter-surveillance was amplified by more than one level. She took photos of all the open and hidden posts arranged by the Columbia force with her digital camera.

“Leave me the sniper squad on the clock tower.” Garek carefully wiped the accessories of the sniper rifle and as if he was completely immersed in this boring work, he did not even stop for a second. “The position there is good. I plan to do it there.”

“I’ll be in charge of luring the army away,” Hirst had a sinister smile on his face and his facial muscles showed a twisted appearance as they moved, “It’ll be easy for me.”

“…”

Sakai was just about to say something, but Andrew was the first to speak.

“You and I will be coordinating at the ambush location,” Andrew said with a gentle smile on his old face, “If Garek succeeds, we will just mix in with the crowd. If Garek misses, you go for the final blow. At that time, I will use my mental power to help you contain the police and soldiers nearby. I believe that with your ability, it should not be difficult to escape unscathed.”

“I won’t miss,” Gerak said coldly.

“Of course I believe you,” Andrew nodded, then he said, “So I used the word ‘if’.”

“So, I’m just a backup?” Sakai frowned, obviously she felt a little dissatisfied with this arrangement.

“Of course not,” Andrew smiled, “but from an efficiency perspective, we should let the sniper go first. If one bullet can solve the problem, why waste the second one?”

Sakai reluctantly accepted the old man’s argument and she nodded in silence. She then sat down on the sofa without speaking another word.

Hirst, who was by the window, returned to the living room. He asked Andrew who had closed his eyes again.

“That’s right, by the way, what will happen to that Juan?”

He was also the president of Colombia after all.

Although the Kurofune superpowers were enough to ignore the rules in this world, this issue would undoubtedly trigger the sensitive nerves of countries around the world. It was better to not take the risk.

“Don’t worry about him. Our target is only one person and that is Zhang Yaping,” Andrew still had a smile on his face and said without even opening his eyes, “Of course, if the Colombian is in the way, it doesn’t hurt to kill him.”

On the roof of an office building hundreds of meters away.

Lilith sat on the water tank as she looked blankly at the traffic on the street, then she abruptly said to the air.

“The convoy has arrived safely to the embassy, everything is normal.”

After a while, Jiang Chen’s voice returned to her ear.

“Continue to monitor.”

“Got it.”

She jumped down from the water tank, then patted the dust on her skirt.

Just then, a raindrop fell on the tip of her nose.

Lilith raised her head slightly, looked at the gray clouds that had hidden the sunlight for some time, and touched the tip of her nose.

“Is it going to rain?”

…

It was the afternoon in Colombia, but still early in the morning in Xin.

In the office, Jiang Chen nodded after he had listened to Lilith’s report.

With the communication closed, he closed the holographic screen next to him.

Ayesha, who stood across from the desk, hesitated a little as she watched Jiang Chen. However, she finally asked what concerned her the most.

“Is Lilith going to be okay?”

“Don’t worry, whoever runs into her should be more worried. Compared to her safety, I have some sympathy for those who get in her path…” Jiang Chen coughed. “Well, what were we talking about earlier?”

Ayesha nodded and continued their previous topic.

“…Based on the information from Bernice, just yesterday evening, a SEAL unit set out from UA and arrived in Colombia by plane.”

“What’s the stance of Colombia?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“It’s not clear yet.” Ayesha shook her head.

After he pondered for a moment, his frown suddenly disappeared, he shook his head, then laughed.

Just now, he suddenly felt that his worries were completely unnecessary.

What if it were the disbanded Rainbow Six that got sent here? He didn’t think that a mere team of Special Forces could defeat an advanced artificial intelligence from the 22nd century.

The only thing he didn’t understand was why the UA would send a team of Special Forces to Colombia at this time.

Was it just a coincidence?

Or rather, they planned to recklessly start a war by assassinating Xin’s president…

His index finger tapped gently on the armrest of the chair as the thoughts flowed in his mind.

Splash…

Big raindrops fell down and hit the glass windows one after another. With the wind picking up, the sound of water splashing against the window grew louder. The palm leaves outside the window were like a boat, floating in the raging waves.

“It’s raining,” Ayesha said softly as she watched the rain droplets start to get more concentrated on the glass window.

The sky was still clear half an hour ago, but now the sky was covered by dense clouds.

The weather in the Western Pacific always behaved like this, especially in late spring and early summer.

Jiang Chen’s gaze floated out of the window as he watched the sudden rainstorm. His tone was filled with emotion.

“Yes, it’s starting to rain.”

Chapter 1306: Adapt To The Situation

Chapter 1306: Adapt To The Situation

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

A flash of lightning broke through the heavy clouds, followed by the rolling thunder that echoed through the valley in the dense rain forest.

In the depths of the valley, soldiers in military green camouflage were busy moving boxes of ammunition into the cave. The four English letters of FARC and a flag with two crossed rifles were printed on the armband of the soldiers’ uniform.

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia was their name.

Under the army green rain-proof tarpaulin, there were several large-caliber mortars lined up, as well as RPG-7 rocket launchers.

An old man with a beret and a serious expression stood under the tarpaulin. He was there with the agents of the Russian Security Services, as they watched soldiers verify the supplies with a list.

After all the equipment was confirmed, the wrinkles on the old man’s face turned into a smile.

“Confirmation completed.”

A soldier ran to the old man, performed a military salute, and handed over the list in his hand.

The old man returned a military salute, then took the list and signed his name on it-

Timoleon Jimenez, or known as Timochenko.

Timoleon Jimenez, a name that created countless headaches for both the UA and Colombia. With influence and ability no less inferior to the early FARC leader Marulanda. Unlike Marulanda, who possessed outstanding military talents, his talents were better reflected in management.

Such ability was reflected in drug traffic. Today, it not only operated its own official website in seven languages, but its annual revenue was even as high as 500 million dollars. No drug dealers in North America were unfamiliar with the name of this South American tycoon.

It was precisely this that Mr. Timochenko was honored as the top candidate of the CIB’s most wanted list in South America. The Colombian government even offered 50 million dollars as a reward for his head. However, until today, a few years later, no one was able away to claim the bounty.

“In late October, we will deliver the last batch of equipment to you. From November to early February next year, you will have three months to end this war,” After the Russian agent shook hands with Timochenko, he continued, “The UA is currently going through its election process. Therefore, it is impossible for them to use troops during this time, but after this period, no one can be certain.”

“Three months is too short.” Timochenko shook his head, “Even if we win every battle, we may not be able to win within three months.”

“You can tear up the peace deal in advance, but the war must be ended before March next year at the latest, creating a fait accompli that FARC will rule entire Colombia. As in the agreement, we will help you to gain legality through the United Nations.”

“I have a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“How much ahead is appropriate?” Jimenez asked.

“Depends on you,” the Russian agent shrugged, “I believe you will be better at grasping this opportunity than us. Of course, I prefer you to spend more time on preparation before the war, and wait until you are fully prepared.”

“You can rest assured,” Timochenko cracked into a grin, “We have been preparing for half a century for this opportunity.”

After he sent someone to take the guest from Moscow out of the rain forest. Timochenko got on the army green off-road vehicle at the entrance of the cave, he then raised his legs and rested them on the steering wheel. The thunderstorm outside made him feel flustered. He took a half-smoked cigar from his pocket and lit it with a lighter.

At this moment, his subordinate trotted to the side of the car and performed a military salute.

“What’s the matter?” Jimenez asked as he continued to stare out the window.

“Our informant in Bogota has learned that Abel Torres, who went missing three days ago, has been confirmed dead. His body was found in an alley near Bogota International Airport and has now been recovered by Colombian police.”

All of Columbia’s drug lords were inseparable from FARC, and Abel Torres was no exception.

“This idiot, I told him to be low-key.” Timochenko sneered, shook his head, and after a pause, he nonchalantly said, “Did the Colombian police do it? Or the CIB?”

The soldier hesitated for a second, then spoke.

“According to our informants from the Colombian military, a team of SEAL has recently entered Colombia and has now arrived at a military base near Caramanga…”

“SEAL?”

Timochenko’s pupils suddenly constricted, and his eyes narrowed.

“Is it the SEAL that did this?”

“…I don’t know.” The soldier lowered his head and said quickly, “However, our informants in the police system said the CIB agent who found Abel Torres’ body has the commanding authority over this SEAL team.”

Half of the credit for FARC’s survival to this day could be given to those government officials who were bought by them. They penetrated the Colombian government from all aspects, whether it was the police system or the military system. They could sense any danger based on advanced intelligence.

From the death of Abel Torres and the sudden arrival of a SEAL team in Colombia, Timochenko smelled a hint of danger.

Is the UA planning to take action against the Colombian guerrillas?

The Quantum Communication Satellite of Celestial Trade could receive signals even in the depths of the Andes. Although he hid in the rainforests all year round, he had never been out of touch with this world. He was well aware of the importance of information in this era, so he spent a considerable amount of time studying news every day.

For example, the conflicts between the UA and Xin, and he had an idea why Russia suddenly provided assistance to him.

The SEAL team that suddenly landed in Colombia undoubtedly stung his sensitive nerves.

Did the CIB get the news in advance?

Timochenko frowned.

The death of Abel Torres forced him to seriously think about the possibilities.

Just then, a drop of cold sweat suddenly slipped down from his forehead.

He suddenly remembered what he had said to Torres not long ago, including asking him to exchange the drug stock with firearms as soon as possible and some major events in Colombia that were going to take place soon…

If Torres was killed by the CIB, and the CIB agents tortured him before he died. If they learned something, then this SEAL team was likely after him.

Maybe not just the SEAL team…

As the Russian agent said, from November to February, the UA was unlikely to use troops in foreign countries. From another perspective, if the CIB really did learn some information, the period before November was undoubtedly the best time to target him.

Timochenko’s fists clenched, and then there was a hint of hesitation in his eyes.

The best defense is offense?

Or wait it out…

The soldier who was standing in the rain cautiously asked as the leader was silent.

“Sir?”

The hesitation was instantly quashed from Timochenko’s eyes.

He looked at the soldier outside the car and ordered.

“Inform all brigade-level combat units to immediately prepare for battle!”

“Yes! Sir!”

Chapter 1307: : First Blood

Chapter 1307: First Blood

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

Bang, bang!

Two quick shots were concealed by the rolling thunder.

The smoke diffused.

There was a terrifying blood hole on their forehead, and two figures, one after another, fell into the pool of blood.

The silver revolver was hoisted again, and Garek dropped the guitar case to the ground.

He walked forward and dragged the two bodies from the clock tower window to the wooden box under the stairs. He took out two claymores from his backpack and placed them behind the locked wooden door.

Unless there was something wrong with the clock tower, under normal circumstances, no one would come to the attic. In addition, the Colombian police must have done their homework and temporarily closed this clock tower during the visit of Xin delegation.

After he had set up the trap, he returned to the window and opened the redwood guitar case.

Large and small parts neatly filled all the space in the guitar case.

Garek skillfully assembled the parts, then placed the sniper rifle on his shoulder and aimed around a few times.

The wide magazine, the square muzzle with openings on both sides made it extremely easy for anyone, even without the slightest knowledge about weapons, to call out the name of this rifle.

Barrett.

To be precise, it was the Barrett M107A1, a new product from Barrett. Different from the old M82 series, as the world’s newest, most advanced, and most powerful sniper rifle, its effective range reached an astounding 2000 meters, and gained its name as the “silencing cannon” in the sniper industry.

Garek loaded the bullets painted red into the magazine one by one, he pulled the bolt and sneered.

API armor-piercing incendiary bullets could penetrate 11mm thick rolled homogeneous steel at a 45-degree angle within one kilometer, and produce more than 20 shrapnel behind the armor, as well as a combustion effect comparable to aviation kerosene. It was no exaggeration to say that even if the Xin president was in an armored vehicle, he was confident that it would only take one shot.

As for missing?

He never thought about it.

Every member of the Kurofune possessed a superpower.

The power that transcended the world was a gift from higher civilization.

And his abilities happened to be tailored for his role…

With the M107 placed on the window, he moved his eyes to the scope, looked through the pouring rain, he pressed the headset on his ear, and said coldly.

“This is Hunter, I’m in place.”

…

Along with the violent wind from the Western Pacific, the thunderstorm lasted from yesterday morning till the next day afternoon.

However, even in the terrible weather, the beauty of the city remained undiminished.

It was during the peak tourist season, and the streets of Bogota were full of tourists from all over the world. Umbrellas were connected together, and the crowd was bustling underneath. They traversed through the streets full of shops designed with South American culture and dazzling amounts of merchandise.

On the rainy street, Lilith, who stood in front of a cafe, looked at the crowd under umbrellas on the street blankly, like a child separated from her parents.

Several waiters at the entrance of the cafe were eyeing her as they discussed whether or not she needed help.

Boom——

The dull thunder reverberated from afar.

Just then, Lilith’s eyelashes suddenly moved.

After a while, accompanied by electric static noise, a strange male voice intermittently came into her ear.

“…This is Hunter, I’m in place.”

As if she received a signal, Lilith slowly raised her head and looked in the direction of the clock tower; her green pupils slightly zoomed-in.

“There?”

The waiter at the entrance of the cafe finally agreed on a plan and sent the girl who was best at dealing with children.

A South American girl in her twenties, in the café uniform, walked out the door.

However, just when she wanted to go over and ask the girl if she needed help, she was surprised to find that the girl who had stood there was gone…

…

It was almost time.

Garek bit the tip of his tongue in excitement, and the crosshair in his scope was firmly locked in on the bustling street hundreds of meters away.

Andrew used his mental intervention ability on the embassy staff who went out and obtained the itinerary of the delegation. At five in the afternoon, the convoy would pass by here to attend a dinner hosted by the Colombian Presidential Palace in the city center.

Hirst would use his transformation ability to disperse the army responsible for the security of this area. Andrew would use his power to identify Zhang Yaping’s vehicle.

Then, all he had to do was pull the trigger and escape from here. He would then go to an apartment about two blocks away from here, untie the CIB agent named Braddock, then give a bullet to his head, and fake a scene that the helpless CIB agent was responsible for the crime, and was finally killed by someone.

“A world war?” Excitement flashed from his eyes.

The gunshots of Sarajevo lit the powder keg of World War I.

And now, the trigger that would determine the fate of the world was held tightly in his hand, and he could even feel the coldness coming from his index finger.

The convoy drove away from the presidential palace in the city center. The delegation that had concluded its visit was returning in the direction of the embassy.

Garek opened the safety, took a deep breath, and entered his state.

It was not the right time yet.

At this moment, there were two sudden popping noises from downstairs.

Garek was taken aback for a moment and immediately became alert.

The mines exploded?

Suddenly, terror went up from his spine to his forehead.

Almost out of reflex, Garek let go of the sniper rifle in his hand and dove to the side.

There was a muffled noise behind him, and a silver thorn with the thickness of an index finger was nailed to his original position, and it actually sank into the wall.

A cold drop of sweat oozed out from Garek’s forehead as he narrowly escaped death.

He did not hesitate to pull out the silver revolver from his waist. When he saw the girl at the door clearly, he was surprised for a second, but the index finger that pulled the trigger did not slow down for a moment.

BANG!

The bullet flew!

But a strange scene happened.

The bullet hit Lilith’s eyebrows, but after a sharp clank, like hitting a sheet of metal, the bullet bounced away.

“How is this possible!”

Garek’s heart jumped wildly and his eyes widened. He shot three times, but all the bullets bounced off.

As he saw the silver long blade that was gradually condensing in front of Lilith, his heart withered, his pupils suddenly constricted, and he cursed.

“Fu*k. A supernatural!”

He threw away the revolver in his hand. Then, as both of his hands reached for his waist, his ability instantly activated—

Bullet time!

Everything in his field of view started to slow down.

He took out two sharp daggers and his legs suddenly exerted force. He locked onto Lilith who looked at him expressionlessly and aimed at her delicate throat.

He had a smirk on his face as he took swift and slow steps in the almost frozen time-space.

“Go to hell!”

In the almost stagnant time, he was God.

No one could beat him in close combat!

But the next second, there was a trace of despair in his pupils.

“No!”

Garek cried out. He was about to dodge, but it was too late.

Everything was slowing down, except for the silver blade that condensed.

The silver shadow flickered, and before he could even give his last words, his head flew to the corner of the room like a football.

The expression of horror froze on his face.

Lilith ignored the headless corpse that was still spraying blood and walked to the side of Garek’s head. The pupil of her right eye flickered slightly, and a layer of light blue ripples scanned across her sight.

After she collected the facial features of the killer, she quickly connected it to the quantum communication satellite in the synchronous orbit and matched it with the data in the Ghost Agent database. In less than two seconds, the matching result appeared in front of her.

Garek, a mercenary and a core member of the Kurofune. Ability: Bullet Time. He died two years ago during the pursuit of Ghost Agents.

Obviously, he didn’t really die, but faked a death, so that now he appeared here.

A stream of data flashed in her pupils, and realization quickly appeared in her eyes.

“The Kurofune? I see.”

Chapter 1308: Assassination

Chapter 1308: Assassination

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“If it were not for the typhoon weather lately, I would have recommended you visit Monserrate. From my personal point of view, it’s probably the most beautiful place in Bogota. I went there last year around this time, and I can tell you that every time I look at the city from the above, I always feel my own insignificance.

There is a church on the top of the mountain with a statue of the crucified Christ. It has been said that many miracles have happened there…” Inside the limo, the Colombian president described the beauty of this city to him vividly.

Zhang Yaping, who sat across from him, resisted the urge to tell him that if he could make time to visit Xin, looking down from the space elevator would make him feel more insignificant.

“Really? If the weather clears up, I’ll consider making a visit.”

Zhang Yaping forced a slightly reluctant smile as his eyes kept searching the street outside the window.

Perhaps he was being too nervous but he had a feeling that a masked guy would jump out from the crowd and shoot at him with an AK-47, or perhaps fire an RPG-7 or something. Therefore, what Juan said after completed escaped him.

“Mr. Zhang?” Juan looked at Zhang Yaping, confused, as he called out his name.

After Zhang Yaping recollected his thoughts, he withdrew his gaze from out the window and coughed while being apologetic.

“Sorry, where were we just now?”

“That 50 billion loan.” Juan did not mind Zhang Yaping’s faux pas. With eyes full of light, Juan continued, “Although we will not compromise on national security issues, if Future Bank is willing to invest in Colombia’s infrastructure, we are willing to carry out more cooperation in high-tech fields that you excel at, such as…maglev roads.”

Zhang Yaping mocked in his mind.

Want to introduce maglev roads?

Haha, what a joke!

There are countless representatives of other countries lined up in front of Future Group.

Zhang Yaping nonchalantly responded to Juan and his gaze drifted back to the rainy weather outside.

Just then, he frowned.

For some reason, he felt like he was being watched.

A pair of eyes seemed to be spying on him in the dark…

…

At the rotisserie on the street, Andrew, who sat in a chair with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes. He pressed the headset in his ear and said softly.

“The third car, to the left.”

Sakai, who was across from him, put down the menu and looked at the street not far away. She casually touched the black fishing rod bag by the table next to her right hand.

Andrew noticed Sakai’s movements and smiled gently.

“Don’t worry, let Garek do it.”

Sakai loosened her hand as she shrugged.

“I was preparing just in case.”

Xin delegation’s convoy quickly entered the street next to them, and the smile on Andrew’s face became brighter.

Based on the plan they designed yesterday, when the Xin president passed the fourth street light, Garek who was lurking in the clock tower would pull the trigger. Then they could find a place to hide, pop the champagne, turn on the news, and wait for the CIB agent’s body to be discovered by Ghost Agents. Finally, they would only have to wait for the furious Xin to declare war on the UA…

Of course, Xin could choose to just accept the loss.

But based on precedence, the possibility was close to zero.

When the third vehicle passed the fourth street light, Andrew’s smile froze, and he jerked his head toward the clock tower.

“Impossible… Garek did not get to the sniper position? How is this possible?”

There was a gleam of disbelief in his pupils, and his eyes widened as he watched the convoy continue forward.

“It seems that Garek has escaped.” Sakai grabbed the fishing rod bag, pushed aside the chair, and stood up. Then she pulled up the hood on her jacket as a menacing light appeared in her eyes and she said, “Execute the backup plan.”

“I’ll leave it to you.” Andrew’s expression did not look great.

Garek backing down was undoubtedly a heavy blow to their plan.

But fortunately, he had a backup plan to prevent the entire mission from faltering. It was just that if Sakai executed the mission, it would be difficult to fool the Ghost Agents and plant it on the CIB.

That failure!

He cursed the mercenary 10,000 times in his mind, and he already made up his mind. Once the mission was over, he would catch the guy who betrayed the organization and use the cruelest way to make him regret his betrayal.

“Ok.”

Without any nonsense, Sakai tossed the bag behind her and chased after the convoy.

As Sakai disappeared into the crowd, Andrew took a deep breath, slowly closed his dry eyelids, and instantly spread out his immense mental power. It spanned five streets and weaved into a giant spiritual network.

Under this big web, the spiritual entities were like flying mosquitoes falling into the web; no one could escape. What made the psychics terrifying was their ability to attack from anywhere without even being recognized where the attack came from.

Soon, Andrew’s consciousness locked onto the driver of Zhang Yaping’s car, and his immense mental power flooded the car like a tide.

The driver who was driving felt dizzy as he lost control of his hands and feet, he turned the steering wheel violently and stepped on the gas

“FU*K, what are you doing!”

The bodyguard next to him reached out to control the driver, but the next second, his brain felt like it was hit by a heavy hammer, and he fainted.

The vehicle that lost control crashed into the crowd on both sides of the street.

Because of the heavy rain, the umbrellas obstructed people’s views. When the car lost control, the pedestrians didn’t even realize what had just happened before they were hit.

With a terrifying bloodstain dragged out on the ground, the limo that lost control smashed through the window right into the supermarket on the side of the road. It knocked down several rows of shelves before it finally stopped.

People screamed, cried, and begged. The frightened crowd fled in all directions, and the streets were in complete chaos. People who weren’t aware of the situation thought that there was another terrorist attack. Under the cascading effect, they also ran with the panicked crowd.

Not just the president’s vehicle.

There were five cars in total, and the driver of each car rolled their eyes as if they were all on drugs. They stepped on the gas pedal to the limit, rammed through the street, and made the ready chaotic scene even more chaotic.

In the vehicle that crashed into the supermarket first, the door of the back seat opened, and a man covered in blood struggled to get out of the car.

“Dam…n…”

Juan climbed up from the floor filled with glass shards. His face was filled with terror. He turned back to look at the unconscious Zhang Yaping and then pulled out his phone.

But just when he was about to call the Director of Bogota Police, a black muzzle appeared in front of his eyes.

Pew-

There was a short and quiet shot, and a flash appeared in the muzzle attached with a silencer.

The phone fell to the ground, and Juan returned back on the floor covered with glass. Blood seeped down from his forehead and blood covered his panic-stricken face.

Sakai stepped over Juan’s corpse, looked at the unconscious target sitting in the car, and the sneer on her face under the hood started to become more and more obvious.

She raised the gun, aimed it at Zhang Yaping’s head, and was about to pull the trigger.

But at this moment, a sound that pierced through air stroke her from the side…

Chapter 1309: : A President Died

Chapter 1309: A President Died

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

At the moment between life and death, Sakai dropped the pistol, drew out the dagger she had hidden in her bag, and slashed it to her side out of instinct.

Ding!

There was a crisp sound of metal banging together, and a silver metal ball hit her blade like a bullet.

The immense force traveled up to her wrist and almost forced her to drop the dagger.

Sakai saw the girl at the entrance of the supermarket and there was a glimpse of surprise in her eyes, but it was quickly replaced by deep fear. Based on her years of experience in dangerous situations, the girl in front of her was extremely dangerous.

There was no doubt that she also possessed a superpower.

And it was a powerful one!

“Did you kill Garek?” Sakai starred at Lilith as her right hand reached for the sword in her bag behind her.

“Are you talking about that sniper? You can say that.” Lilith looked at the cautious Sakai with the same emotionless state and shrugged. “Do you want to keep waiting? I don’t care, but your time is limited.”

Lilith just finished her sentence when the woman moved.

Without the slightest arrogance, Sakai immediately used her power to the limit in her first strike.

Crimson flares scattered in her hair, and the two blades, one long and one short, one forward and one back, were covered by the crimson light particles, and they instantly turned into ghostly flame, like blooming red lotuses in the rain.

Control of flame!

Among the four, her ability was the most aggressive!

The raindrops vaporized into water mist in the flames. The slashing blades, like rolling waves, slammed towards Lilith.

Boom!

The blades slashed down, but they couldn’t touch Lilith. Instead, along with the raging flame, they slammed onto a buckler that suddenly rose.

Several silver thorns protruded from the ground, and Sakai jumped to the side abruptly, and barely dodged Lilith’s counterattack.

“Do you only have this ability?”

The silver droplets condensed on Lilith’s hand and were gradually elongated into silver needles.

Sakai’s eyelids twitched wildly, and she crossed her blades in front of her while shouting to the side, “Andrew, what are you waiting for!”

On the chair beside the street, Andrew sat there blankly, as if he had been possessed. He stared at the expressionless Lilith in the rain.

Just now, he used his strongest trump card—Spiritual Piercing.

As one of the few attacks of a psychic, the lethality of Spiritual Piercing on the target was completely on a different level compared to Mental Shock. The latter could only make people faint at best, but the former, like the literal meaning, could directly pierce a person’s soul!

If the target’s willpower was weak, one blow could turn the target into an idiot.

However, what surprised Andrew was that he did not even sense the girl’s spirit.

“…How is it possible, it’s impossible!” As if he had just seen a ghost, his turbid pupils shrunk to a point in his eye sockets, “You are a psychic… NO! YOU ARE NOT A HUMAN!”

“Well, I really am not such a troublesome thing.”

Just as Lilith finished her sentence, she moved.

The elongated silver needles bursted out like arrows.

The silver needles sealed all of Sakai’s retreats and were about to turn her into a sieve, but all of a sudden, a black figure slammed into the wall and blocked in front of her while screaming.

There, the sound of clanging metal lasted for a while.

A huge figure, fully black, with arms as thick as a normal person’s thigh, stood in front of her. The silver needles were all deflected as if they hit a wall.

Transformation.

It was not just changing one’s height and face. Hurst, who could control every bone and every cell, could turn himself into an old man without harm, and of course, could also transform himself into a powerful giant.

Incorporating metal into the skin to strengthen his defense was an ability he only recently gained, but even he himself did not expect to put it into use so quickly.

“A mutated human with metalized skin?” On the downpouring street, Lilith looked expressionless at the panting Hurst, her digitalized eyes constricted slightly, “Or the downgraded version…transformation? I see, I probably know your plan.”

“Then take it into the grave!” Hurst, who had become a black giant, roared. He picked up the shelf lying on the ground, and slammed it at Lilith, while he shouted to the companion behind him. “She can’t break my defense, strike!”

Sakai, who was behind him, responded to his call with action. The double blades were once again covered by crimson particles as they swung in Lilith’s direction again.

Lilith sighed softly as she watched the shelf smash into her.

“When did you have the illusion that I can’t break your defense.”

For an instant, the heavy rain was gilded with silver.

Under the action of the electromagnetic force field, the viscous metal droplets flowed upstream and condensed around Lilith into a shield with no weakness, like an eggshell that formed from ground up.

Hurst’s veins bulged. The shelf that swung in his hands flew to Lilith like an out of control windmill. On the other hand, two blades engulfed in flame slashed toward Lilith’s side.

The two attacks both slammed onto the silver eggshell at the same time, and with a muffled bang, there were layers of ripples on the silver metal surface.

Hurst and Sakai’s hearts sank at the same time.

Just now, they had used 120% of their strength, but they still couldn’t break through the defense of the girl in front of them.

Sakai gritted her teeth and jumped back immediately.

“Retreat—”

She was only halfway before there was a spark, and the silver eggshell suddenly burst.

The fragments of the explosion raged on the deserted street, engulfing the three people surrounding Lilith without any warning.

Before he could even raise his arms to defend, he was hit by hundreds of fragments on his chest. Blood slowly oozed out of his mouth. He only felt that every inch of bone and every internal organ in his body was torn into pieces by this huge kinetic energy.

Before his vision turned into darkness, he saw it with his last remaining consciousness.

Sakai, who stood on the other side of him, had been blown up to the side of the road, with fist-sized blood holes all over her body. She couldn’t be more dead.

In the center of the explosion, Lilith glanced at the three people lying in a pool of blood like rags, and then glanced at the cobweb on the glass window of the extended limo in the supermarket. Although the power of that blow was immense, she carefully controlled the direction of the blast and did not injure the protected target.

Lilith was about to leave.

But at this moment, the roar of a helicopter came from afar, and a Blackhawk gradually emerged from the rain.

A team of heavily armed SEALs in jet black special combat uniforms descended by rope. They surrounded Lilith with their rifles and locked on the expressionless girl.

“Put down your weapon and put your hands on your head. Squat down immediately!”

“This is the SEAL Team 5, we have arrived at the scene. The target has been successfully suppressed. Requesting next steps.”

While they communicated in the channel, two SEALs, with raised rifles, quickly approached Lilith with cautious steps.

Lilith just wanted to say something, but then she noticed the Colombian President who was covered in blood under the shelf in the supermarket across the road.

She turned on the life detection device and did not detect his life signals.

She was slightly taken back when she saw the countless nervous and cautious sights behind the tactical eyepieces.

The President of Xin was saved, but another president suffered an unfortunate fate.

She suddenly realized that things seemed to be slowly getting out of her control.

Chapter 1310: They are The Perpetrators!

Chapter 1310: They are The Perpetrators!

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“What should I do if a president is dead? This is an urgent question, please respond ASAP.” (1)

It was still late at night in Xin on the other side of the Pacific Ocean when this message was sent to Jiang Chen’s watch.

The watch on the bedside table beeped and woke Jiang Chen from his sleep. He loosened his arm from Ayesha’s grasp, got up from the bed with sleepy eyes, and opened the holographic screen.

When he saw Lilith’s message, his sleepiness instantly vanished. He quickly put on his clothes and went to the office next door.

“What the hell is going on? Which president died? Didn’t I tell you to look after Zhang Yaping?” Jiang Chen asked with a headache as he looked at the expressionless Lilith.

It may be that Jiang Chen’s tone was too harsh, but Lilith began to explain quickly.

“Zhang Yaping is probably fine… the Colombian President died.”

Jiang Chen was stunned.

The Colombia President? What happened?

“Wait,” Jiang Chen pinched his eyebrows as he felt a growing headache, “Tell me everything that happened?”

Lilith sighed and told him the whole story.

Jiang Chen was silent for a long time and couldn’t help but curse in his mind.

He calculated every step but this one. Even now, he still didn’t get why the Colombian President was in the Xin delegation vehicle. When did Colombia treat Xin so diligently?

How did he know that everything was for the sake of 50 billion Xin New dollars…?

“The assassins who planned and carried out the attack were the remnants of the Kurofune. A total of four people participated in the attack and all of them possessed some form of superpowers. Your intelligence was wrong, and it was not the CIB who did it,” Lilith added.

“If I say it was the CIB who did it, then it must have been the CIB. They must have done this.” Jiang Chen rubbed his eyebrows as tried to subside his headache before he sat down. “Let’s not talk about this. Where are you now?”

“I am on a UA military helicopter now.”

“You were caught by the UA Army?” Jiang Chen was taken aback.

“No, I just made them think they caught me. I followed them onto the helicopter and took care of everything.” Lilith was extremely dissatisfied with Jiang Chen’s choice of words as she corrected him while piloting the Black Hawk helicopter. “I have flown out of Bogota now, and will be in the rainforest of the western Andes in two hours. I have posted the specific latitude and longitude on your watch. Hurry up and send someone to pick me up.”

The SEAL Team 5 rappelled down on the streets of Bogota immediately controlled Lilith.

Lilith obediently followed them onto the helicopter, and then took care of them all shortly after the helicopter took off. She kicked the pilot out of the cabin. She was in the pilot seat, turned off the GPS navigation system, grasped the control skillfully, and flew towards the Andes.

“You can pilot helicopters?” Jiang Chen was surprised.

“Well, as long as I can look up the tutorial, this kind of variable does not trouble me,” Lilith controlled the helicopter as she responded with swagger.

“Do you still have enough fuel?”

“There is about half a tank, what’s wrong?” Lilith asked.

“If you have enough fuel, go directly to Ecuador,” Jiang Chen ordered.

“I’m afraid I’ll get shot down by air defense missiles at the border,” Lilith replied.

“Don’t be afraid. I will contact Ecuador right now, and they will at least do this much for me.” After Jiang Chen deliberated for a moment, he continued, “After you descend, immediately go to the nearest Xin Embassy or Consulate. I will let the people at the embassy know and someone will arrange for your return home as soon as possible.”

Regardless, the priority was to bring back this troublemaker.

The rest was out of her control.

After Jiang Chen ended the communication, he immediately contacted the Ecuador Embassy as well as the Colombia Embassy. After he made sure any problems Lilith could encounter were taken care of, he confirmed Zhang Yaping’s status with the embassy.

After he learned that President Zhang was fine, Jiang Chen was relieved. He hung up the phone and leaned back on his chair.

The door of the room was pushed open. Ayesha, in her nightgown, brought two cups of hot cocoa in.

“Thank you.” He took the steaming hot cocoa from Ayesha, then took a sip. He felt somewhat refreshed as he looked at her apologetically, “I’m sorry I woke you up.”

“It’s okay,” Ayesha shook her head gently. She then walked behind Jiang Chen, placed her small hands on his shoulders, and whispered in a concerned tone, “What happened? You look very anxious.”

“Well, something happened on Lilith’s side.” Jiang Chen nodded, and then briefly recounted the tragedy that happened on the streets of Bogota just a few minutes ago.

After she listened to the story, she pointed out the crux of the problem.

“We must blame this on the CIB.”

“I think so too.” With both hands surrounding the cup as he felt the warmth in his hands, Jiang Chen sorted out the thoughts in his head and said in a deep voice, “We must fabricate evidence that the CIB did this before they put the blame on us. We must ensure we can put the blame on them.”

In a few more hours, the tragedy in Bogota would make headlines in major media around the world. The president of a country was killed on the street, even in the chaotic Colombia, such a bloody and terrifying tragedy had never happened before.

There were also pedestrians who were killed by the vehicles that lost control…

If Jiang Chen sat in the Capitol’s position, he would probably not let this opportunity go, and would do everything possible to put this blame on Xin. Therefore, what Xin must do now is exactly what the UA is doing. He must get ahead of the CIB. He must take advantage of the fact that the international public’s opinion does not have a preconceived impression of this incident and use the UA as a scapegoat.

Even if the CIB could not be fully blamed for the incident, he must make this situation as messy as possible.

As for the truth… it was not so important here.

“I will go to Ghost Island now to overlook this case,” Ayesha said seriously.

“It’s too late now.” Jiang Chen glanced at the dark night outside the window.

“We have to take the time difference into account. It’s daytime in the UA,” Ayesha shook her head and said softly, “From now on, every second is precious.”

Jiang Chen responded to her resolute but gentle eyes; his Adam’s apple moved slightly.

There were a lot of thankful words to say, but when the words reached his lips, he swallowed them back and finally turned them all into sincere gratitude.

“…Thank you.”

Ayesha smiled softly, turned, and walked out of the room.

He looked at her figure disappear from the entrance before he put the cup full of hot cocoa on the table and leaned back on the chair. He then closed his eyes.

Columbia has become a gunpowder barrel.

He was not worried about the situation in Colombia, but rather worried about the UA election.

He had poured too many resources on Joseph Kennedy. If the diplomatic relations between the UA and Xin deteriorate, as a result, it would undoubtedly have a negative impact on Joseph’s election.

But if Xin chose to do nothing…

After half a minute, he opened his eyes.

He made up his mind. He clicked on the watch to call Ning Huajian, CEO of Future Technology. The media companies under Future Group were all controlled by Future Technology. After he woke Ning Huajian up, he personally assigned him the task.

No matter the method, within an hour, he must see reports on the murder of the Colombian president on the official website of Future Technology and the headlines of its media groups. Moreover, all reports must have a clear orientation, that is, to subtly hint that the perpetrator of this incident was the UA…

(1) A meme on Chinese Quora-like sites that demonstrate the urgency of the question

Chapter 1311: Igniting the Powder Keg

Chapter 1311: Igniting the Powder Keg

53 minutes after the death of the Colombian President, the first report about the incident appeared in the Washington Post. Seven minutes later, Future Group’s media quickly followed with a report on the incident based on first-hand information provided by the Xin Embassy staff in Colombia.

The contents of the two reports were quite different. The UA and Xin had turned their spear against each other, and both held credible opinions.

Someone with a little knowledge would have already sensed the unusualness.

A battle over public opinion had quietly started over the Pacific Ocean.

Xin immediately stated that the unwarranted speculations reported by the UA media were unjustified, and Xin was also a victim of this incident!

However, why would the UA accept the short end of the stick? The UA immediately said that even if Xin was not to blame, the UA would not accept any responsibility!

Neither side conceded, and the intelligence personnel of the two countries also did not stop.

Someone from the CIB got the authorization from the Colombian government and ran to the scene with perjury… Oh wait, collect evidence? Ghost Agents were not sitting around either. Although they did not receive authorization from the Colombian government, they obviously did not intend to submit a written application.

There was constantly new evidence emerging, and for a while, Juan’s cause of death had become complicated and confusing.

Not until three days later, when the body of Agent Braddock was found by the Ghost Agents in an apartment not far from the incident, and they confirmed that his death was a result of hunger. In addition, Ghost Agents also found API armor-piercing incendiary for Barrett sniper rifle in this apartment. The same bullet was also found in the clock tower, and it was the CIB personnel who disclosed it to the media.

It was still a mystery how the CIB agent got kidnapped.

But it didn’t matter. With the tools of the crime and the missing CIB agent being discovered at the same time, the UA had gradually become at a disadvantage in this battle. It may not be long before the media under Future Group would be able to use the UA as a scapegoat.

However, nearly a week after the war of public opinion commenced between Xin and the UA, another event that shocked the world happened.

…

After the 2016 ceasefire agreement, the FARC, which had died down, suddenly updated a two-minute video on its official website.

At first, everyone thought that it was another advertisement for FARC’s drug and hostage business. However, after people watched the video, everyone began to realize what it was not an advertisement, but a declaration of war!

In the video, Timochenko, the current leader of FARC, declared war.

An old man over the age of seventy was wearing a military uniform, had a cigar dangling from his mouth, and an AK-47 over his shoulder. In front of the world, with arrogance, he took a jab at the UA.

“Juan’s death is a conspiracy of the CIB, a conspiracy of the UA, a conspiracy from a sinful capitalist world.”

“I said a long time ago that the UA is unreliable. They are all liars and hypocrites. However, Mr. Juan obviously did not trust me. Very well, he has now paid a heavy price for his wrong choice.”

“The Colombian people will be truly free, and I will use my actions to prove that I am not joking.”

After he finished this sentence, Timochenko loaded the rifle with a click, and the video stopped.

Honestly, those words did sound quite inspiring.

It was just that the words “freedom” and “democracy” felt strange coming out of the mouth of a big drug dealer…

…

This video was posted on the official website half an hour after FARC attacked the Pamplona area on the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The old and cunning Timochenko fought an undeclared war against the government at the most chaotic moment in Colombia.

Pamplona was just a small town, but its geographical location determined its importance.

FARC’s military power was concentrated in the tropical jungle east of the Andes, and Pamplona was a gateway between the east and the west of the mountains. Not only that, north of Pamplona was Cucuta, the capital of Colombia’s Santander province and an economic town located on the border.

If Cucuta fell into FARC control, FARC could get continuous support from Venezuela, and at the same time, it would smash the morale of the government.

When guerrillas rushed out of the forest and the screams of mortars pierced the silent night sky. Most people in Pamplona were still asleep when the sound of explosions and gunshots outside the window awakened their sleep. Almost all of them thought they were dreaming.

When guerrillas in camouflage uniformed lined up across the street, army-green trucks drove in one after another towards the square in the city center, the broadcasts of the propagandists resonated in the streets and alleys of the town, and masked soldiers came searching door-to-door for hidden government officials and government soldiers, the civilians finally realized that, like a dream, war had broken out.

The FARC Fourth Mountain Brigade was responsible for attacking Pamplona.

In less than fifteen minutes, they disintegrated the temporary line of defense set up by the local militia and police. They took complete control of the entire area from the town center to the suburbs.

Half an hour after the outbreak of the war, the Colombian government and army quickly responded. Two infantry brigades set off from the military base on the border between Colombia and Venezuela and rushed to Pamplona. At the same time, the UA troops stationed at the military base in Karamanga also sent a reconnaissance company to the FARC-controlled area.

However, because Pamplona was in a mountainous region, the terrain was rugged, the road condition was poor, and it was late at night. The Colombian Army itself was not in its most optimal state, and there was no guaranteed win when fighting against a group of drug lords. It was already four hours later when the two airborne brigades of the government army arrived on the outskirts of Pamplona.

Four hours was enough for the rebels to do a lot.

Temporary bunkers had been set up, FARC had hidden military supplies in residential houses, and had arranged machine gun firepower points along the buildings outside the town.

Because the town’s civilians had not yet evacuated, the government could not bombard the rebels in Pamplona. The UA planes just did two loops before they left.

The two sides confronted each other in the suburbs for an hour, and it was not until nearly dawn that the senior army commanders surrounding Pamplona received the order to launch an attack on Pamplona and crush the rebels.

However, after the armored vehicles of the government army drove into the town, the government forces realized that their nightmare had just begun.

They were countless RPGs that greeted the armored vehicles, it seemed like the rockets did not cost any money.

In order to win, these FARC rebels did not care about the consequences. They used all the weapons they could, including mortars and grenades that made the Colombian soldiers scramble. The tragic battle on the streets lasted for nearly two hours. After hundreds of casualties and several armored vehicles destroyed, the government soldiers had to withdraw from the town.

Senior military commanders called the Colombian Presidential Palace and asked the Presidential Palace to decide whether if they should seek assistance from the UA military to send additional special forces, or to use heavy firepower against the rebels in the town… as either way, their current plan was not working. These FARC rebels were obviously not a group of stragglers, but elites supported by foreign forces.

But how could the Colombian government have any ideas?

The president just died. Congress was busy arguing. How could they take care of this mess?

Just when the two sides were deadlocked in the Pamplona area, a small group of FARC guerrillas quietly mobilized along the Andes, as they targeted the busiest part of Colombia – the west coast…

Chapter 1312: Armed Intervention

Chapter 1312: Armed Intervention

FARC’s declaration of war on the Colombian government forces not only shocked the UA, but also their advisors, Russia and Xin.

Timochenko not only pushed the plan ahead by half a year, but he also didn’t send a message before he pulled the trigger.

However, he couldn’t take the entirety of the blame.

Juan died at the hands of the CIB… Whether or not he really died because of the CIB, it was an excellent opportunity to attack the pro-UA government.

The Colombian President was dead, the vice president was too incompetent to step in, thus the power struggle within the elites was escalating. The entire political situation in the country was in chaos and the popular support had plummeted…

The excuse and the timing for a revolution were there. If he didn’t use this opportunity, when would be a better time?

With Timochenko’s order, the FARC guerrillas active in the eastern tropical rain forest swarmed out and launched the largest offensive attack in the western region controlled by government forces in the 21st century.

Wrapped in bullet chains and armed with light machine guns, the guerrillas rushed out of the tropical rainforest and swarmed the streets. They fired at any police vehicles they saw, which forced the Colombian police, with small pistols, unable to fend for themselves.

The militia who came to support were no match either. They were forced to retreat, and soon the entire town was under the control of FARC.

The same scene happened in different small towns at the foot of the Andes.

This time Timochenko thoroughly implemented the strategy of besieging cities by taking control of the rural area first, as he executed guerrilla tactics to the extreme. The cities controlled by government forces were not touched at all, and the towns and villages with weak defense forces were his focus.

As for the Colombian government forces, the situation could not be worse.

To describe it in one word, it was chaotic.

The vice president who had taken over for the president was a mascot. He did not have any influence in his party. If it weren’t for Juan’s death, he would never have the chance to become the president.

However, even if he was a mascot, he was still the president. Not to mention a congress with a complex power structure, he couldn’t even manage the issues within the party, let alone to solve the diplomatic crisis and and civil war?

The battle in the Pamplona region was at a deadlock, the central area was once again in a guerrilla warfare. The Colombian government immediately dispatched an armored brigade to the Cucuta area north of Pamplona. On the one hand, the move was to calm the panic among the locals, and on the other hand, it was to prevent the FARC from taking control of this economic center.

Unfortunately, South America was in typhoon season, and heavy rains had continued for many days.

The road conditions in the Andes were terrible to begin with, and the threat of thunderstorms and mudslides turned the entire mountain area into a nightmare for armored forces. Most of the tanks were stranded at the foot of the mountain. The armored brigade had to abandon the cumbersome heavy armor, and the infantries transported by trucks were the first to arrive at the Colombia border.

More unfortunately, this armor brigade just happened to encounter the FARC guerrillas.

A battle broke out in the heavy rain between the two sides.

Both sides were elite forces, especially the Colombian side. Although two tank battalions were forced to stay behind, the armored vehicles were still effective. In the end, the victory was decided after FARC guerrillas were forced to retreat.

As for who really won?

It was hard to say.

After countless hardships, this elite force finally arrived in the Cucuta area, which finally stabilized Colombia’s control of the border. For the next while, it was unlikely for FARC to plan an attack on this city, but it was inevitable for the two sides to fight for the control of this area.

Because this location was a shortcut to Venezuela, Timochenko was determined to control the city in order to receive armored units from Russia and Xin.

At this point in the war, the areas controlled by both sides were already divided.

The Colombia government forces controlled most of the country, while the guerrillas used the Andes to gain a hold of the mountainous region in central Colombia, as well as its traditional sphere of influence-parts of the deepest southern Amazon jungle.

Here, it was worth mentioning the geographical environment of Colombia.

The Andes was a dividing line that divided Colombia into two worlds.

On the left was the bustling west coast, and on the right was the endless rainforest and grassland.

On Google Maps, the crisscrossing highway network in the west created in sharp contrast with the bare east. It was not difficult to see the divided parts of the nation from the differences in the road network.

Although Timochenko was a cruel and evil tyrant, and notorious for drug and hostage issues, he still received support in southeastern Colombia because his drug plantations concentrated in the southeast had greatly improved the living standards of local people.

FARC’s revolution did in fact draw in many young South Americans.

If FARC’s guerrillas took complete control of the Andes, it would inevitably cut off government control of the southern provinces, and there was no doubt the Colombian government would completely lose its influence. As a result, FARC could also take a large chunk out of Colombia’s territory.

And it was an outcome both the government and the UA did not want to see.

Precisely to avoid this situation, just in the twenty-fourth hour when the FARC guerrillas launched a full-scale offensive against the Colombian government, the UA Capitol signed a special order and received an approval rate of more than 80%.

The UA finally intervened.

…

Inside the flagship’s bridge, Hogg gazed into the South American continent on the horizon through the heavy downpour and rumbling waves. His eagle-like eyes seemed to narrow, and from his face, it was difficult to tell what he was thinking about.

On a Ford-class aircraft carrier not far away, the crew was busy. A fully loaded F35 slowly moved from the hangar onto the runway, and took off through the curtain of rain to the sky. Although its mission was only reconnaissance, if the situation required, it would not be stingy in pouring the flames of “justice” on the FARC.

The UA invested heavily in order to save their backyard.

The country not only dispatched the Ford-class aircraft carrier battle group that confronted Xin in the Western Pacific some time ago, but also dispatched a brigade of marines and an integrated aviation squadron.

Yes, not just aircraft carriers, but also ground forces.

In a rare occurrence that the Capitol and the Congress reached an consensus on sending ground forces, after they received the authorization from the current Colombia President (former vice president), they sent ground troops to Colombia for reinforcement.

It seemed that this time the UA was not only planning to abuse their air superiority, but the country was also planning to run their tanks up for a lap.

Even the aircraft carrier battle group was the latest Ford-class.

Jiang Chen made a malicious speculation that the UA likely decided to use Columbia as a weapon testing ground to test the Ford-class aircraft carrier battle group’s capability to provide ground support. After all, among all aircraft carriers, this latest Ford-class was the only class not tested by war.

Of course, no matter what the UA’s intentions were, the previously confident Timochenko was no longer certain about his decision when he saw the UA soldiers land on Colombian soil…

Chapter 1313: The Constantly Ringing Phone

Chapter 1313: The Constantly Ringing Phone

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“This is the wrong decision. It is an interference in the Colombian people’s choice of their future! It is an act of aggression!”

1

“If the Vietnam War failed to teach the arrogant UA a lesson, then feel free to come! This is the second Vietnam, and I promise that the steepness of the Andes will make them have a good rest at night. If they dare to set foot on the land of Colombia, I will make sure there is no return trip!”

On TV, Timochenko shouted passionately into the interview microphone. With his saliva flying in the air, it was difficult to imagine he was a man over seventy.

Of course, anyone could speak loudly, the difficult part was keeping the promise.

On the second day after the UA soldiers landed in South America, Timochenko called Jiang Chen.

A few days ago, Jiang Chen wondered if he should give the man a call, but the phone call already arrived.

As soon as the call was connected, Timochenko’s voice, filled with urgency, went straight to the point.

“I need your help!”

The expected request was also the most troublesome request.

“We can’t directly send troops to South America. The Russians have told you from the beginning. Once the war starts, you can only rely on yourself.” Jiang Chen sighed, “There is no doubt you chose the worst timing.”

“There is no better time! The President of Colombia was assassinated and the people of Colombia need a strong leader to seek justice, instead of inviting the murderer in and allowing the CIB to falsify the case!” Timochenko said indignantly.

Is this an attempt to flatter him?

Jiang Chen counted it.

Regardless of whether he acted confused or was really confused, Celestial Trade did need to put the blame on the CIB.

But unfortunately, even so, Jiang Chen could not send ground troops to help him win this war.

An orbital airborne brigade was not an option, at least not before the results of the UA election. Moreover, it was not worth the loss for the diplomatic strategy of Celestial Trade to touch the sensitive nerves of half of the South American countries for the sake of Columbia. The option of using Madagascar mercenaries was available, but they were reserved for Ayesha’s “natal family.”

Some time ago, he asked Ivan to expand the scale of non-staff personnel, or contractor, but there was still less than half a month before the deadline. He couldn’t just send the recruits to die?

Jiang Chen’s finger lightly tapped on the table, after a moment of thought, he said.

“Although we cannot send troops directly to support you, we can send you some anti-aircraft artilleries and surface-to-air defense missiles.”

It may be laughable to fight F35s with obsolete anti-aircraft missiles and antiaircraft artillery, but these weapons could still interfere with airstrikes and deter them.

It was impossible for the UA to invest too many ground forces in South America. The brigade of the Marine Corps was mostly there to help the government forces defend important cities and facilities. Airstrikes were inevitable the primary strategy for the UA and thus it was not difficult to imagine the difficulty of striking targets in mountains and rain forests.

Timochenko’s emotion was more stabilized after he heard Celestial Trade is willing to sell missiles, and he thanked Jiang Chen.

Even the SAM missiles from the past era would be extremely helpful to FARC. Although it was useless against the UA, it was more than enough to bully the Colombian Air Force. It was the 21st century, but the propeller planes were still in service with the Colombian Air Force.

Without the proxy between Xin and the UA, the war between the two would be “child’s play.”

“Take the Cucuta area, then these anti-aircraft missiles can be transported across the border. You can’t expect anti-aircraft missiles to be transported through the mountains like rifles. Your only choice is to control a road to Venezuela,” Jiang Chen emphasized again.

Timochenko gritted his teeth

“I’ll try my best.”

“I don’t want you to try. You must do it.”

Jiang Chen hung up the phone.

After he leaned back on the chair to rest for a while, he sat up again and called the Colombian Presidential Palace.

In the past week, his phone didn’t stop ringing, and they were all long-distance calls.

There were calls from North America, Russia, and even Hua, but most of them were from South America.

Some of these calls were made to the Xin Embassy in Colombia to confirm the current situation of the injured Zhang Yaping. The other calls were to the Colombian Congress, the Presidential Palace, and even the police station…In short, he was demanding them to release people.

Release people?

That’s right.

Release people!

Just a week ago, after the tragedy in Bogota, the police in Bogota locked down the Xin Embassy. It threatened that the delegation of Xin was restricted from leaving the country until the murder investigation was clear.

1

Travel restrictions?

Are you kidding me?

Also considered a suspect, the CIB not only could freely enter and leave the country, but it was also part of the investigation!

The order was issued by the Colombian Congress, and the Bogota Police only acted on orders. As for the newly appointed Colombian President, because the transfer of power was too hasty, while he did promise to lift the restriction order as soon as possible, it was obvious that he could do very little in the current circumstance.

With Jiang Chen’s increasingly harsh stance, he could only respond with “we’re working hard” and “I will consider”, and even started to drag this situation on.

“I will give you seventy-two hours. If you don’t allow my delegation to be released within seventy-two hours, we will let you know the cost of angering us!”

After Jiang Chen hung up, he looked at Ayesha, then immediately ordered, “I’ll contact Ecuador to open the border, and immediately send Ghost Agents to pick up the people. They must withdraw all diplomatic personnel of Xin within the country in twenty-four hours.”

The seventy-two-hour notice was only used to paralyze the Columbia government. From the excuses of that president, Jiang Chen did not expect his delegation to be released any time soon. What’s more, the restriction was likely a work of the behind the scene CIB.

You dare to restrict my people?

How foolish!

Ayesha turned serious, then said softly.

“If we encounter resistance?”

“Execute!” He slammed on the table with force. After some thought, he tapped on the table, and then added, “Well, also, remember to put on the FARC armband, you understand what I mean.”

Anyway, since they were already in Celestial Trade’s debt, it would cause no harm to just use their name for this. For the sake of anti-aircraft missiles and anti-aircraft artillery, they could also allow the FARC to bombard the suburbs of Bogota for a few rounds to attract the attention of the government forces to complete the story

“Do I need to go there in person?”

“No,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “It’s enough to send a few reliable agents. Now is a critical period, and you need to take command of the headquarters.”

“Then I will send Zhu Yu,” Ayesha responded.

“You can take care of this matter… By the way, ask her to bring Lilith back too.”

When he thought of Lilith, he had a headache.

The little girl seemed to realize that she had gotten into trouble. She had been staying at the embassy for a while, afraid to come back.

However, was that decision effective?

If Jiang Chen really wanted to punish her, he would have traveled back to the apocalypse and brought a hammer to the server room.

The monk could run, but the temple couldn’t run!

Chapter 1314: I’m afraid he will beat me

Chapter 1314: I’m afraid he will beat me

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

The sofa in the study of Xin Embassy in Ecuador was now occupied by a girl about twelve or thirteen years old. Just like an Internet Addict, she had a Phantom Helmet on as she laid there motionlessly.

Since she arrived at the embassy more than a week ago, she claimed her territory in the study as her own.

Footsteps could be heard coming downstairs.

When Lilith heard the movement downstairs, she moved slightly, twisted her neck, and turned to the door.

Unlike ordinary people, she still retained her senses to the outside world when she was connected to the Phantom Helmet.

When she saw Zhu Yu and the others enter the study, Lilith’s expression suddenly froze. It was as if she had guessed why they came.

Zhu Yu walked next to the sofa and looked at the little girl in front of her. It was difficult for her to draw the connection between a powerful individual who “killed four supernatural beings on her own plus a squad of SEALs” with her.

She just looked like a NEET?

Zhu Yu let out a sigh, kneeled down, and gently persuaded Lilith.

“I’m here to take you home… When this mission is over, will you come home with me?”

Lilith shook her head, and a scared expression appeared on her face.

Although humans were no different from insects to the artifical intelligence, there was an exception; the man named Jiang Chen.

As the only individual who stood out from many samples, Jiang Chen’s quality as a “sample” was undoubtedly the best among the many “samples” she had seen. Although his combat power and IQ were not necessarily the best among the people she encountered, he was the “most interesting” for her.

After they met again at Line 0, she was surprised by Jiang Chen’s growth, but there was a hint of fear that she started to feel.

Would artificial intelligence feel scared?

1

Intermediate artificial intelligence may not, but advanced artificial intelligence certainly would.

“If there is any difficulty, you can tell me, I will try to help you solve it,” Zhu Yu sighed as she watched Lilith who refused to get up from the sofa, then she patiently explained, “Jiang Chen is worried about you, so he hopes you will go back soon.”

“Then can you make him not be upset?” Lilith immediately asked, “I’m afraid he will beat me.”

“Mr. Jiang is not that kind of person,” The female agent behind Zhu Yu immediately retorted.

Like most Ghost Agents, they deeply respected, or even longed for the man who took them away from hunger and war and gave them a second life…

“You are too naïve.” Lilith eyed the woman, and then let out a sigh that was uncharacteristic for her age, and said slowly, “You don’t know how much that man is—”

“Ahem,” Zhu Yu felt that she had to interrupt her, and coughed hard, “Miss Lilith, I will report every word you say to Jiang Chen. I can guarantee that he did not get mad because of the incident in Bogota. However, I can’t guarantee his attitude won’t change if you continue on this silly topic.”

Obviously, the last sentence worked.

Lilith closed her mouth immediately.

When she saw Zhu Yu’s uncompromising expression, she knew that she couldn’t stay here anymore, so she had to make a reluctant compromise.

“Well, I can go back, but I have a request.”

Zhu Yu motioned her to continue with her eyes.

Lilith slowly crawled up from the sofa, and then looked at the two at the door.

“You are going to Colombia for a mission? Take me with you.”

“Little girl, we are not going to travel,” The female agent behind Zhu Yu teased.

“I know.”

Lilith nodded blankly and raised her right hand.

In the horrified expression of the two, two silver metal balls flew out from her cuffs. Under the interference of the special force field, they rose from her palms and flew up and down, separated then condensed. Gradually, the flying speed of the metal ball became faster and faster, and it formed a flashing silver ring above her palm.

A touch of splendor appeared in Zhu Yu’s eyes.

“You also have superpowers?”

Although Zhu Yu didn’t know about her special ability, but since Lilith was able to defeat the senior Kurofune members’ trump cards, then it must be through the help of this silver metal sphere.

“Well, it’s not wrong to interpret it this way,” Lilith said with her emotionless state after she recalled the balls into her sleeves. “It’s very troublesome to explain specifically. In short, I can easily take care of a battalion. What do you think?”

Advanced artificial intelligence and digitalized humans, all of which were considered the top secrets of Celestial Trade. Lilith of course would not disclose these secrets. As long as they believed her capability, the identity of someone possessing superpowers seemed more convenient.

As for why she decided to follow Zhu Yu and the others on the mission, instead of waiting for them to come back to the embassy…

Okay, Lilith was still a little worried that Jiang Chen is angry with her, so she thought it was an opportunity to make up for her mistake.

Since she had nothing to do anyway.

…

After Zhu Yu requested permissions from Jiang Chen, she finally agreed to Lilith’s request.

Just as the group set off from the embassy and took a vehicle to the border between Colombia and Ecuador, another major incident occurred on the front line of the Colombian government army and FARC.

That morning, the FARC guerrillas deployed north of the Andes suddenly launched a fierce offensive attack against the Cucuta area.

Hundreds of mortars bombarded the city of Cucuta, where government troops were stationed. The FARC, which previously abided by international law, completely disregarded humanitarianism and international conventions.

Thousands of FARC soldiers, like evil wolves, pounced toward the government forces under the cover of shelling. Smoke filled every corner of the city, and the gunfire never stopped for a second from the moment it began.

The FARC’s attack lasted for an entire day.

The attack that started at five o’clock in the morning did not subside until the next morning.

In just one day, both sides left thousands of corpses. There was no way to obtain the number of civilians killed in this battle.

FARC surrounded the Colombian government troops stationed near the airport. Under the frenzied attack that disregarded casualty figures, victory may only be a matter of time.

However, Timoshenko was not pleased with the results of this battle. He ordered the officers responsible for besieging the city of Cucuta to fully control the Cucuta region and the border between Colombia and Venezuela within twelve hours.

Obviously, the landing of UA soldiers in Colombia stung his sensitive nerves, otherwise, he would not order this irresponsible or even manic battle.

In order to get those anti-aircraft missiles and anti-aircraft artilleries as soon as possible, he no longer cared about civilian casualties and his international image. If these anti-aircraft missiles were not deployed in the rainforests of the Andes as soon as possible, once the airstrikes began, it would be his real hell.

Chapter 1315: Clash

Chapter 1315: Clash

Bucaramanga, less than 50 kilometers away from Pamplona region controlled by FARC, was already the front line of the firefight between government forces and FARC. Every day, stray bullets fell into the suburbs of Bucaramanga. It was not difficult to discern the severity of the conflict in this area based on the nervous expression of the locals.

Just one day ago, the UA Marines who landed from the west coast arrived in Bucaramanga.

In less than a day, a temporary military base was already taking its shape.

The large and small barracks were neatly located within the wire fence, and soldiers in jungle camouflage with rifles patrolled the base. LAV-25 armored vehicles were parked in the garages of the military base with their cannon raised up, and the wedge-shaped armor was equipped with digital camouflage reactive armor. Not far away on the tarmac, there was an AH-1 Cobra gunship with countless air-to-surface rockets equipped.

Based on the equipment, the combat effectiveness of this unit was far superior compared to the FARC guerrillas.

In the afternoon, a Hercules transport plane landed at the airport of the Bucaramanga military base. Another group of heavily armed Marines trotted out from the cabin and gathered in the open space beside the runway. They waited for the review and instruction from their officers.

Agent Davis stood beside the runway and glanced at his watch.

He did not wait for long before a burly soldier and a suited old man came towards him.

He cleared his throat, extended his right hand, and was just about to introduce himself.

However, the soldier did not intend to shake hands with him, he even interrupted his speech and got to the point.

“Did you find the missing helicopter?”

“We found it, although it was already a wreckage…” Davis’s expression was a bit regretful, “In the border area between Colombia and Ecuador, we found the crashed helicopter. From the data on the black box—”

“I don’t care about the black box,” Jonathan stared at David in the eyes, as he said one word at a time, “I just want to know where my people are now!”

“There are bloodstains on the plane… If nothing is out of ordinary, they might have been killed in combat.” Davis did not dare to look into Jonathan’s eyes when he esponded. He coughed and with a hint of grief in his tone, “I’m sorry…”

Jonathan stared at Davis for a long time. The corner of his mouth moved and then he tossed his green bag on his shoulder as he walked to the headquarters of the military base without looking back.

Davis looked silently at the direction Jonathan went. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He could only shrug in the end to express his helplessness.

“The soldiers lost in the last mission were the elites of Team Five, and they were all trained by Colonel Jonathan himself.” The old man who had not spoken before walked to Davis’s side and sighed, “He has prejudices against the CIB, but he means no harm. I hope you can forgive him.”

“I understand his feelings,” Davis said, “but I still don’t understand. Based on the SEAL’s last communication, they had successfully suppressed the target at the time, why…”

“I’m also confused.” The old man watched Jonathan leave. He narrowed his eyes as if he was in the middle of his thought. “The little girl in the center of the explosion has the ability to manipulate liquid metal… This is completely beyond our understanding of the word ‘supernatural power’.”

Supernatural powers had always been a research focus of the Department of Defense’s Project Research Bureau. Especially after their existence was confirmed through the Kurofune, the amount of funding poured onto this project was increasing every year.

However, even with supernatural powers, it was impossible to defeat the SEAL combat team in an instant, right?!

“Is it magic?” Davis jokingly raised the question which was not funny.

“I would rather believe that it is the dark technology of Celestial Trade.” The old man shrugged, “To be honest, I don’t feel any bit of surprise regardless of what new things they bring out.”

The old man sniffed, then withdrew his gaze from Jonathan’s back and looked at Davis. He said, “The death of Agent Braddock is not important anymore, even the SEALs that suffered mysterious death… …The situation we are facing is probably more severe than last year’s confrontation in the Western Pacific.”

“What do I need to do?” Davis asked solemnly.

“This operation will involve squads of SEALs, led by Jonathan himself. You have worked in South America for many years so you should be familiar with the situation here. I hope you and your assistant will serve as intelligence support and action planning.” The old man said.

“Decapitation?” A look of sharpness quickly appeared in Davis’s eyes, “But Timochenko is hiding in the mountains, no one knows where he is hiding.”

“It’s not Timochenko, it’s the Xin Embassy.” The old man looked to the Cobra gunship that was taking off on the tarmac, and a sinister smile appeared. “To be precise, it is the ghosts preparing to save people.”

…

Xin Embassy, Bogota.

The heavily armed Colombian soldiers surrounded the embassy and even put up yellow lines as a cordon outside the embassy; they only left a small opening at the front entrance. There were two police assault vehicles parked at the main entrance, controlled by the Bogota Police. Everyone who entered or exited was questioned.

Fully abided by the Geneva Convention, the Colombian people did not step into the embassy and they only placed the streets near the embassy under martial law. Obviously, even at this chaotic moment, they did not intend to turn their relationship with Xin even sourer.

But then again, if Colombian soldiers really stepped into the embassy, the Ghost Agents wouldn’t be the ones paying them a visit, it would be the orbital airborne brigade.

In the living room of the embassy, Zhang Yaping with a bandage on his forehead did not appear in the best shape as he laid on the sofa. Obviously, the car crash did leave its marks, but fortunately, there was nothing serious with his injury, at least he could get out of bed.

These days, his phone was about to explode based on the number of calls.

Because Bogota Police requested the delegation to cooperate with the investigation and even took measures to restrict their travel, he was placed under house arrest in the embassy and had to cancel the rest of his South American trip. He even had to handle domestic affairs through satellite phones.

No one was allowed to enter or leave the embassy.

It was precisely this that when he saw Zhu Yu and the others, he was genuinely shocked.

“Why are you here?”

“Mr. Jiang asked me to take you home.” With a rifle attached to the K2 kinetic skeleton, Zhu Yu sat on the sofa across from Zhang Yaping and gestured to the agent behind her to close the curtains.

“What’s the plan?” Zhang Yaping asked.

“In one hour, the FARC guerrillas will launch a feint attack on the eastern suburbs of Bogota to attract the attention of the police and the garrison. We’ll cover you to evacuate from the embassy. There is a helicopter in the western suburb, we’ll board there.”

“We can’t get out at all,” Zhang Yaping shook his head and glanced at the closed curtains. “You saw it when you came in. There are all those people outside. I think there is at least a battalion.”

“There is only a company from the presidential palace. Lilith said she will take care of it.”

Zhang Yaping was taken aback when he heard the strange name.

“Who is Lilith?”

“The person who saved your life last time.”

Zhang Yaping’s face suddenly turned green.

What the fu*k? You call that saving me?!

“Can I choose not to leave?” Zhang Yaping smiled bitterly.

It’s good to stay here, at least it’s not life-threatening.

“You can call Mr. Jiang,” Zhu Yu shrugged, “but my guess is his answer will probably be a no.”

Chapter 1316: Lilith is on a Killing Spree

Chapter 1316: Lilith is on a Killing Spree

Bogota.

On the roof of an apartment building just one kilometer across from Embassy Street, eight SEALs in urban camouflage were on standby. One of the snipers set up their sniper rifle, and another soldier opened his laptop and released the quadcopter drone from his backpack.

“Do you think they will show up?” With the crosshair pointed at the Xin Embassy, the man wearing a beret moved his finger slightly and said with a grin.

Outside the wall of the Xin Embassy in Colombia, Colombian soldiers with live ammunition had completely surrounded the entire building; not even a fly would be able to get in. However, everyone there knew that this level of security was sufficient to stop the living, but it could not stop the invisible “ghosts”.

Even so, it was not easy to save people from the watch of an entire company unit.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Colombian government army was weak, the soldiers stationed at the Embassy Street belonged to the company serving the president. While their uniform appeared no different, they were the elites from the army. They were not comparable to the SEALs, but by the third world countries’ standard, they were top-notch.

“They will definitely show up,” Jonathan said emotionlessly as he tuned the HK416 in his hands, “Forbearance is not their style or that of their boss.”

As a derivative of the carbine M4, the HK416 was undoubtedly much better than its older predecessor. The new version not only solved the problem that the gunpowder gas was easily transmitted to the gun, but it could also shoot underwater.

In addition, cutting-edge individual equipment such as a heartbeat detector, infrared thermal imaging, nano-ceramic body armor, and special armor-piercing rounds armed these SEALs from teeth to toe. Even the Advanced Project Research Bureau of the Department of Defense designed a piece of specialized equipment against Ghost Agents. Although it was still in the experimental stage, it was part of their toolkit.

The UA invested heavily in this operation.

Xin delegation that absconded in fear of crime was caught by the SEAL team, and Celestial Trade agents were killed on the spot…

When Jonathan thought about the headlines tomorrow, he got even more excited.

From the very beginning, the CIB put pressure on the Colombian government to restrict the movement of the Xin delegation as it was all part of a ploy on Celestial Trade.

When the man on the roof saw that a window curtain was closed in a room of the Xin Embassy, his eyes narrowed and he adjusted the scope closer. Then, he pointed the crosshair directly at the entrance of the embassy

But at this moment, an unexpected event suddenly happened.

The air instantly became much colder, and a white mist gradually condensed in the air, and soon surrounded the entire city. The thick white mist covered everyone’s vision with a layer of silk, and the man’s visibility quickly dropped below ten meters.

“SH*T!” The sniper cursed as he got up from the ground and put away the mounted sniper rifle.

The sniper rifle clearly lost its purpose in this weather condition.

“I’ve checked the weather forecast. It should be sunny today,” the SEAL who had been on his laptop said, then closed the laptop and put it in his backpack. “If the weather forecast is not wrong, then something is clearly wrong.”

“Weather weapon?”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Jonathan’s eyes narrowed as he listened to the discussion of his comrades. He looked up, sensed the coolness at the tip of his nose, and inexplicable anxiety seemed to appear in his mind.

Intuition told him that this fog was not a coincidence.

Before he could hesitate, he touched his tactical helmet and ordered.

“Attention. Immediately enter combat position. Operation commences.”

And at this moment, there was a loud explosion from the suburbs.

The flickering fire light and giant black smoke cone were visible even through the heavy fog.

As if the city had noticed the abnormal situation outside the city, the alarms and sirens went wild on the streets. Vehicles and pedestrians rushed to the western part of the city. In front of the eminent threat of war, the traffic lights and traffic rules lost their effect, and the entire city turned into chaos.

…

Jonathan was right, this fog was not a coincidence.

Just ten minutes ago, the Seagull-class arrived above South America and launched hundreds of dry ice rockets at the capital of Colombia. After these dry ice rockets detonated under the clouds, the scattered dry ice quickly covered the entire province of Cundinamarca. Not only did the sunny day turn into dense fog, it even dropped the temperature of the entire area by five to ten degrees!

It was hard to estimate how long the fog could last, but it was sufficient to cover the Xin delegation’s evacuation.

As soon as the fog appeared, Lilith began to move.

The silver metal projectile was transformed into a frantic storm under the action of the electromagnetic force field, and more than ten lives were harvested in an instant.

The Colombian soldiers immediately raised their rifles and started to react to the shocking event that unfolded in front of their eyes. However, as they were ready to fire back, Lilith had already moved to the next position under the cover of the fog and unleashed silver bullets from her fingertips.

“SH*T! I’m shot!”

“He’s over there! Fire! Fire!”

“AHHHHH!”

There were screams and howls everywhere. Blood started to bloom in the misty street.

The machine guns on top of the armored vehicle started to spew out bullets without the ability to consider friendly fire anymore. However, it was silenced after a flash of silver light quickly disappeared.

With the commotion caused by Lilith, Ghost Agents blasted the walls of the embassy and took the Xin delegation out of the Colombian government soldiers’ siege.

“This is the Xin Embassy! We are under attack! Requesting backup… DAMMIT! THERE IS NO SIGNAL.” An officer in another armored vehicle smashed the radio onto the ground as his eyes turned crimson from anger.

Obviously, Xin detonated an EMP weapon and all unprotected electronic equipment was burned.

With communication paralyzed, they had no chance to even resist the enemies that they couldn’t even spot, let alone fight back. While gunshots continued to be fired, but only friendly soldiers collapsed.

He could only pray that the gunshots could attract the attention of the local garrison and the police, and reinforcements could arrive earlier.

However, his prayer was destined to be futile.

Just as Lilith started, FARC responded to Jiang Chen’s request and mobilized guerrillas lurking in Cundinamarca. In just five minutes, hundreds of mortar shells started to pour into the suburbs of Bogota.

Although these shells did not fall on the heads of the Colombian military and police, they caused considerable panic in Bogota. With half of the city traffic in a paralyzed city, and the city’s military and police on high alert, all the attention had been drawn to the outskirt of the city, how could they notice the noise on Embassy Street?

Zhu Yu and three other “Ghosts” shot two soldiers that blocked their retreat, Zhang Yaping and four key members were moved outside and rushed into the parking lot of a shopping mall.

Four modified black cars waited at the entrance of the parking lot .

They quickly got into the cars, and soon the four cars drove out of the parking lot and separated into four paths toward the western suburbs.

Zhu Yu fastened her seat belt, put away her rifle, and pressed on her headset.

“We have left Embassy Street, heading to the boarding point immediately!”

“Roger.” With one silver bullet penetrating a soldier aiming at her, Lilith, who was wearing a mask, recalled the silver droplets scattered on the ground. She ignored the bullets that were firing at her and quickly ran into the alley covered by fog.

The remaining soldiers’ eyes were fixated on the alley entrance, their minds debated furiously, but in the end, they did not choose to chase after.

There was only one life; everyone was born to parents.

They would not frown for one second if they fought against rebels, but against a monster that could kill them with one finger, the fact that they could stand there and not run away meant that they were already worthy of their military uniform…

Chapter 1317: The Great Victory of Cucuta

Chapter 1317: The Great Victory of Cucuta

When Jonathan and his team of SEALs advanced to the vicinity of the embassy, they only saw a messy battlefield.

The wounded soldiers supported each other with their rifles and walked to the side of the road. Soldiers, laid on stretchers, were put into ambulances by medics and sent to the hospital for treatment. A scrapped armored vehicle rested in the middle of the road, and the cratered bullet holes on the armor surface told of the tragedy that happened.

Jonathan’s brows twitched as he examined the destroyed armored vehicle.

The sniper next to him stepped forward and touched the inverted steel plate and was shocked. He was usually a talkative one, but not a word came out of him at this moment. The rest of the SEALs’ mood was also down as they disguised their thoughts and emotions.

His clenched fists loosened.

For some reason, Jonathan was suddenly rejoiced that he was, fortunately, a beat behind.

They obviously underestimated the strength of the Ghost Agents.

It took less than five minutes to beat an elite enhanced company. Jonathan questioned that even the legendary SEAL Team 6 might not be capable of this same feat.

…

“The delegation has successfully boarded and is moving towards the Ecuador border,” Ayesha looked to Jiang Chen after she had just hung up the phone, “Following your request, we left pieces of evidence leading to FARC.”

“Very good.” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded. “Prepare five thousand rifles and two hundred boxes of ammunition to be sent to the space elevator. I will arrange two Stingray C-1s to pass over South America to parachute these weapons to the FARC-occupied area through the orbit.”

“Why use Stingrays? If it’s just light weapons, we can transport them across the border,” Ayesha questioned.

“Because I want them to see.” Jiang Chen’s finger tapped on the armrest of the sofa and he smiled.

On the one hand, it was to make the plot as realistic as possible, to fake the entire “rescue operation” as FARC’s action, and Xin was just the employer. On the other hand, it also served as a warning to the UA. If the situation in Colombia continued to escalate, Celestial Trade reserved the option of using space weapons to “resolve disputes”.

While the two spoke, another piece of good news came from Columbia.

Timochenko successfully took control of the city of Cucuta on the border between Colombia and Venezuela with the Sixth Mountain Brigade. Now, he had successfully took grasp of the road leading to the Venezuelan border.

After Jiang Chen learned of this good news, he immediately called Ivan and asked him to prepare the “shipment” at Celestial Trade’s Venezuelan office.

The next day, forty SAM-3 anti-aircraft missiles and missile launchers set off from the Venezuelan warehouse and quickly arrived in Timochenko’s hands. Full of joy, the dictator even gave a call to express his gratitude for the generous assistance.

One party was happy, the other one was sad.

In contrast, the UA was not in the best mood.

The Xin delegation slipped away under their noses. The company stationed at the Colombian Presidential Palace who was responsible for “peacekeeping” outside the embassy was completely crippled. If it were not for the SEALs that showed up and prevented any casualties, this operation could be described as a complete fiasco.

Shame!

Originally, the plan was to use Ghost Agents and “fleeing” Xin delegation as scapegoats for the death of the Colombian President, as well as obtain a few “invisibility cloaks” back to the Advanced Projects Agency for research. After Mr. Henry, the director of the CIB, learned that the mission failed, he almost suffered from internal injuries due to his anger.

With the office door closed, he scolded all the responsible subordinates to finally alleviate his rage.

However, the anger that was finally quelled was ignited again because of a piece of information from the frontline.

Just an hour ago, two F35s took off from the Ford-class aircraft carrier. The original plan was to launch an airstrike in the Pamplona area. However, when they reached the target airspace, the airstrike plan had to be canceled.

FARC was equipped with anti-aircraft missiles!

Although SAM was not enough to threaten the fifth-generation fighter, when the fighter was locked by radar, it was impossible to carry out ground strikes.

After the F35s returned, Hogg, the captain of the carrier battle group, immediately phoned the relevant person in charge of the CIB and asked them why they did not provide such a critical piece of intelligence.

“Find out for me! Where did these missiles come from, and how were they transported into the hands of the rebels!” Henry banged his fist on the table as he furiously roared at his subordinates.

They were all silent while they looked at each other in fear.

In their memory, the boss never seemed to get angry, and had always been a polite gentleman. However, now, his appearance was nowhere close to that of a gentleman, he was more like an angry lion.

Obviously, the continuous frustrations from the same place made him lose his rationality.

“No need to check, the missile is SAM-3. It entered Colombia through the Venezuelan border through the FARC-controlled Cucuta. As for who sold it to them…who else?” Baird glanced at his colleagues who did not dare to make a sound as he bit the bullet and responded.

Apart from Celestial Trade, who else would dare to risk angering the UA and sell missiles to FARC? Who else had the motive to support the FARC Revolution?

However, even if he knew this, Henry had no alternative.

In addition to options other than war, the most effective solution was economic sanctions. However, Celestial Trade’s profitable sectors were the space elevator and the global power grid. Sanctions to the former would cause more damage to companies in the UA, while the latter did not even expand to North America at all.

Sanctions against Future Group?

The Ministry of Commerce certainly tried this before. What happened? The politicians in the Capitol almost couldn’t get to work because of the protesters.

It may be more difficult for their people to quit the high-tech products of Future Technology than for them to quit weed and alcohol.

Henry was frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. And the same sentiment was shared by almost all of Capitol’s politicians at this moment.

Hill pinched her sore eyebrows to ease a headache as she read the report written by Hogg. The wrinkles at the corner of her eyes seemed to increase.

“Celestial Trade is plotting South America,” In front of the president’s desk, Kerry asserted, “We cannot lose Colombia, otherwise no one can stop their tentacles from reaching our back garden!”

Politics in the UA was so strange. Political opponents who were still attacking each other in the media one second before may appear in the same trench the next second. For example, Kerry, who had just lost the preliminary election, was making suggestions to Hill on the South American issue. While it was partially due to the fact that the cabinet lacked talent, it was also a show of mutual compromise.

“Anyone can see their intentions, but the question is what should we do?” Hill said with a headache.

“The crux of the problem is the outcome of this war,” Kerry said solemnly. “As long as the Colombian government forces defeat the FARC rebels through military means, everything else is easy.”

“You mean…” Fill frowned.

“We have to give a hand to our little friend,” Kerry said.

“We have sent an aircraft carrier battle group and a ground force there. This is the limit that Congress is willing to accept, and it is also the limit of our budget,” Hill shook her head. “We can’t send more ground troops in this war that does not belong to us.”

“Did I say to increase the number of troops?” A grin appeared on Kerry’s face, “I mean, we can ask our allies…”

Chapter 1318: Code Name: Torch

Chapter 1318: Code Name: Torch

“…We have emphasized countless times that the incident in the Cucuta region is unacceptable and unforgivable. We regret the fact that Hua and Russia voted against the UN proposal. Here, I reiterate that NATO will not abandon its allies, nor will it tolerate a group of criminals trying to overthrow democracy!”

At the press conference, the Secretary General of NATO made a stern statement in front of the reporters.

Based on the hostile tone in his voice, many people sensed something big was about to unfold.

During the question session, reporters targeted all different kinds of questions.

“Mr. Stottenberg, what do you think about FARC’s statement on the civilian casualties caused by the UA airstrikes?”

“Mr. Stottenberg, is NATO going to militarily interfere in the Colombian Civil War?”

“…”

Stottenberg did not reveal an extra word in front of the eager reporters. He repeatedly emphasized what was mentioned in the previous statement, and reiterated NATO’s position on the Colombian issue. He did not reveal any intent on the use of military units against FARC.

However, on the second day after the press conference ended, NATO suddenly took action.

On June 10, NATO countries including Britain, France, Italy, and Turkey declared war on FARC, announcing that they would send coalition forces to join the Colombian government to suppress FARC’s illegal revolution.

Code Name: “Torch”.

Seventy thousand NATO coalition forces boarded ships in different ports and would soon cross the Atlantic Ocean. They would gather at Barranquilla, the largest port on the north coast of Colombia.

Turkey was the most enthusiastic country. Almost on the day of the declaration of war, it sent an expeditionary force to respond to this “just war”.

It was anxious to emphasize their own presence in NATO, as a plan to add bargaining chips to join the European Union. Among the 70,000 coalition forces, half came from Turkey.

A South American version of the Desert Storm was brewing along the Gulf of Mexico.

With multiple countries participating in the coalition forces, the scale of the war seemed to have tilted towards the Colombian government. It was difficult to say what the final outcome is. Would it be FARC collapsing under the rampage of the coalition forces, or would the Andes and the Amazon become a nightmare for the nations?

The situation in Colombia seemed to be heading out of control from the very beginning. The UA’s decision to pull NATO into this war completely surprised Jiang Chen.

He was also conflicted.

Should he also join the fray?

It was a question worth debating over.

…

On the day when NATO announced its intervention in the civil war, the ill-fated Xin delegation ended its South American trip ahead of schedule, and the plane safely landed at Coro Airport. Because of Zhang Yaping’s forehead injury, the Presidential Palace did not invite any media and ended the visit in a very low-key manner.

In the VIP passage of the airport, Jiang Chen gave Zhang Yaping a hug and patted him on the shoulder, as he comforted him.

“Sorry, I was too negligent this time.”

“This is not your fault. Who would have thought that something so…so mysterious would happen.” It took Zhang Yaping a while to search for a suitable word and he shook his head with a wry smile.

For ordinary people, supernatural powers were indeed very mysterious.

Even in the 22nd century, the scientific community had only limited knowledge about Klein particles. Particles active in the fourth dimension were like magic to humans living in the third dimension. Even Lin Lin, who was quite knowledgeable in related fields, could not sum up a suitable theorem to define the particles like ghosts.

How did Harmony’s colonization ship, which was the “black ship” in the Kurofune, train so many cultists with supernatural powers remained a mystery. Jiang Chen knew that the UA must also be studying this mystery, and was also as clueless…

After Jiang Chen put Zhang Yaping into the car, he looked at Lilith who had been silently standing behind Zhu Yu.

Lilith seemed to have noticed Jiang Chen’s sly expression, as her movement seemed somewhat stiff. She subtly looked away and then poked Zhu Yu.

Zhu Yu remembered the promise she made before they returned, after a moment of hesitation, she stepped forward half a step and nodded.

“Miss Lilith helped us a lot while covering the retreat of the delegation. She hopes that… you will not be angry about her previous mistakes in South America.”

“Well, I see,” Jiang Chen nodded to Zhu Yu and the three other Ghost Agents behind her and smiled. “Your mission in South America was very well executed. Thanks to you, the stranded delegation can finally return home safely.”

“It is our honor to serve you,” Zhu Yu humbly said.

“You can rest over these next few days. I will let Ayesha give you a long vacation,” Jiang Chen said.

Then, Zhu Yu and the three other Ghost Agents left the VIP passage of the airport.

While Lilith tried to act low-key as she attempted to quietly leave with Zhu Yu, Jiang Chen obviously did not ignore her existence as he blocked her.

“Miss Lilith, where are you going?”

…

Contrary to Lilith’s expectation, Jiang Chen did not blame her for her mistakes in Colombia and did not even mention what happened. He just asked her to put on her seat belt after getting in the car.

The elevation gradually increased, and the Luer quickly ascended into the first-speed maglev lane and drove toward the highway outside the airport.

The tip of Lilith’s nose was stuck to the car window as she looked at the scenery quickly disappearing behind her, as she suddenly said.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead,” Jiang Chen said casually.

“Is it troublesome for a program to have its own thoughts?” Lilith asked as she looked at Jiang Chen for an answer

“Troublesome? You could say that,” Jiang Chen responded casually as he controlled the steering wheel.

“Really.”

Lilith nodded blankly without speaking any more, it was difficult to tell what was going on in her mind.

Jiang Chen glanced at Lilith and then looked forward again, and continued.

“Because once a program has its own thoughts, people can no longer use it as a tool, which is contrary to the original intention when people invented the program. The tool itself is only to make life more convenient, not to make it troublesome.”

Lilith raised her head and looked at Jiang Chen.

“You said something very interesting, it’s very unlike you.”

“Unlike the usual me,” Jiang Chen smiled, and he turned the steering wheel. “Occasionally, I’ll say something that even I don’t even understand.”

“There is one more question. About your last sentence, I can interpret it as…for you, am I not just a tool?” Lilith asked blankly, in her same expressionless state.

“Of course not,” Jiang Chen nodded, still smiling.

“Really.”

After Lilith said this, she stopped talking for the rest of the way.

Although she still had the same energy-saving expression, instinct told Jiang Chen that she seemed to be in a good mood?

Chapter 1319: Plotting the World

Chapter 1319: Plotting the World

Lilith’s return did not bring much change to the mansion.

She remained in the same position, which was lying on the sofa with her Phantom Helmet on, for eighty percent of the day. If she was not in the living room, then she was in Jiang Chen’s office. There was no need to eat or go to the washroom. From this perspective, the digitalized human’s body was quite convenient…

Time passed day by day, and it was soon June 15th, five days after Lilith had returned home.

Unsurprisingly, Timochenko called again.

The NATO Coalition Force was fully prepared and on the aggression. Although the troop carrier had yet to enter the Gulf of Mexico, the thought alone frightened him every day.

When FARC publically stated it was 140,000 soldiers strong, its modern army force was less than 20,000 people. With the support of Russia and Xin, FARC could easily defeat the Colombian government force. However, against the well-equipped and well-trained NATO Coalition Force, they stood no chance.

Timochenko wanted to pull Celestial Trade into the Colombian Civil War, but it was impossible before the results of the UA election.

“If you can hold your ground until the end of November, I can consider launching an orbital airborne brigade to Colombia,” Jiang Chen said.

“The end of November?” Timochenko’s face turned a bit sour, “Five months? You just gave me a tough problem.”

“Ha, who has been giving us problems? It’s you! If you waited until November before you tore the peace deal, I promise it would not take a month for you to be the new president!” Jiang Chen couldn’t stand the facts as he scolded him.

Timochenko smiled bitterly. When the SEAL Team 5 went to South America and Abel Torres tragically died on the street, he thought the CIB had learned of his plot, and hurriedly seized the opportunity when the Colombian President was assassinated. However, who would have thought that from the beginning these two things were not connected at all.

The SEALs went to South America for a missing agent, and Torres died because he provoked Celestial Trade…

A series of coincidences led to the current situation, and it was futile to point fingers. At this moment, even the CIB probably didn’t expect that tracking down a missing agent and a Colombian drug lord could lead to this conspiracy.

“My friend, it doesn’t make sense to discuss whose issue it is now,” Timochenko said with a cheeky sophistry. “I admit that in some places I may be a little ill-conceived. I promise that I will discuss with you in the future… but what should I do now?”

“Turn offensive to defensive. I’ll transport you another batch of arms. You should try to arm as many soldiers as soon as possible,” Jiang Chen tapped on the desk as he continued. “If you can’t hold the city, just give it up, withdraw to the Andes, and carry out guerrilla warfare to the end. Even if NATO tanks are powerful, they can’t fly, right? Don’t tell me you can’t beat NATO using guerrilla warfare.”

After Jiang Chen slammed down the phone, he leaned back on to the chair, looked up to the ceiling, and let out a long sigh.

“Is there something troubling you?” Lilith, who was lying on the sofa, proactively asked him for the first time.

“Somewhat.”

“Can I help?”

“Of course not.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head.

“How are you so certain?” Lilith asked blankly. “Based on the existing intelligence and the analysis of the content of your previous conversation, the one thing that can annoy you so much is probably the NATO Coalition Force. Am I right?”

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, sat up from the chair, and looked at Lilith with intrigue.

“Yes, what do you think?”

“Since the UA has already mobilized its allies to participate in the war, why don’t you also ask your allies?” Lilith asked.

“Russia’s position is similar to ours. Sending weapons to FARC for us is their limit. It is impossible for them to send soldiers to the other side of the Earth to fight for someone else’s interests.” Jiang Chen shook his head.

As for Hua…

Based on their neutral position, it was even more improbable for them to join this mess.

“Are your allies only Russia and Hua?” Lilith asked rhetorically.

Jiang Chen was taken aback for a moment. He first frowned and then suddenly hit his head.

Right!

If she didn’t mention it, I would have forgotten I still have so many little brothers!

Without hesitation, Jiang Chen immediately called Santos.

…

Since MLL Island became independent from Country F, the dictator’s life had been incredible, not inferior to the leader in North Korea. With over 800,000 army troops, millions of reserves, countless guns, ammunition, tanks, and artilleries, the majority of his weapons were aid from Celestial Trade in the form of loans in the Moro-Country F War.

These pieces of equipment, just like Moro soldiers, were collecting dust in the barracks. When Santos heard that Jiang Chen planned to hire his army at an “appropriate price”, General Santos immediately agreed.

But when he heard that the destination was in South America and the opponent was the NATO Coalition Force, the dictator started to hesitate…

“The opponent is the NATO coalition?” His hand tembled as he tried to hold the phone. Then, Santos started to sweat. “I…I just want to help, but I can’t beat them.”

“Why not? Would I let you lose while fighting with my equipment? Plus, the tropical rain forest environment in Colombia is exactly the same as your island. Guerrilla warfare is also your specialty. It’s not like I’m making you go into direct battle with NATO’s armored division.”

“If NATO brings the aircraft carrier to my door…” Santos hesitated.

“NATO won’t do that. South Asia is our home ground. If they dare to extend the war to the Western Pacific, I promise it’ll be a one-way trip!” Jiang Chen said without hesitation.

Santos nodded. “Well then, I’ll just do as you said.”

With Jiang Chen’s assurance, he was completely relieved.

It meant no matter how much trouble he caused, the fire won’t burn him.

Consuming excess weapon inventory, using NATO to gain prestige, this decision seemed to be a good choice? What’s more, he could earn some “foreign exchange” from Celestial Trade. After he hung up the phone, Santos even started debating what he should say to the reporters to reflect the righteousness of the Moro Army and to highlight his impeccable leadership qualities…

With Moro to make the water even cloudier, FARC was saved.

However, Jiang Chen, who just gained a brand new strategy, was not satisfied.

Santos alone was not enough, he must drag someone else into the water.

After he debated for a while, an idea appeared and he immediately called.

Since South America was already in a mess ahead of schedule, then let’s turn the global situation even messier.

Especially Turkey, which made up half of the coalition forces.

Jiang Chen didn’t think that with a fire on its doorstep, Turkey would still be willing to cause chaos elsewhere.

It was time for Syria!

Chapter 1320: An Eye For An Eye

Chapter 1320: An Eye For An Eye

As soon as the phone was connected, Yerif’s hearty laugh echoed in his ear.

“My old friend, you finally remembered me.”

“It’s been busy these days.” Jiang Chen laughed along.

“I can feel it,” Yerif nodded, “I have been paying attention to Colombia recently. With all due respect, you don’t seem to be in an optimistic position?”

“It depends on how you define the word optimistic,” Jiang Chen said. “Since you are keeping an eye on it, you might as well wait two days to see what will happen next.”

“Really? I knew you’d still have some cards hidden up your sleeves.” Yerif laughed.

Jiang Chen smiled, and then said, “You’ll see in the news. For now, let’s talk about business.”

“The plan has been pushed ahead?” Yeirf had already sensed the purpose of the call.

“Yes,” Jiang Chen nodded and leaned back in his chair. “We’re ready. Ten thousand mercenaries have been assembled in the port of Madagascar and they are ready to set off for the Red Sea.”

“Are you sure this is the right time?” Yerif asked.

“There is no better time than now. If we wait till the end of the year, the variables would be more uncertain,” Jiang Chen said.

NATO’s eyes were completely focused on South America. At this moment, even if a big shift happened in Syria, it was unlikely for the UA to create a second battlefield in the Middle East.

The only possible risk was that intervening in Syria could potentially offset the regional balance in the area. However, based on the consideration that Celestial Trade did not plan to be heavily involved, even if the balance was tipped, Jiang Chen would not be the one having a headache.

Yerif rubbed his beard and after a moment of thought, he said.

“You can register a shell company in Madagascar. I will use my import and export company to sign a fruit import agreement with your shell company. Five large cargo ships will depart from Jeddah to the port of Madagascar. Just let your people board my cargo ships with fruit at that time. The UA has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden, but they usually don’t touch the ships of the Saudi Royal Family. It’s just that your people have to squeeze into the containers.”

“No problem, that is nothing to them,” Jiang Chen said softly, “I’ll get someone to look after the shell company today, and it can be done by tomorrow afternoon. Get your ships to set off as soon as possible.”

“This is not something that can be rushed,” Yerif said, then shook his head, “It takes about three working days to complete the necessary processes. If we can follow the formal procedures, we should try to follow the formal procedures. You don’t want to be targeted by the CIB.”

“Then you decide the time,” Jiang Chen said.

Yerif thought for a moment, then said.

“July 1st. It is more fitting for it to be at the start of the month.”

“Great.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Well, I wish you all the best in your plan,” Yeirf also laughed along and said in a relaxed tone, “I’m still waiting for you to fulfill your promise and transform my country into an oasis.”

…

On June 27th, NATO coalition forces crossed the Atlantic and landed in South America.

After the coalition forces disembarked at the port of Barranquilla, they immediately proceeded to the front line between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels – Bucaramanga. About half a month ago, the UA Marine Corps had already established a temporary military base and airport runway here. At this moment, it was used to house the coalition forces.

In less than a week, the UA had mobilized many of its allies to participate in the war, and the total force now exceeded 90,000. Even South Korea sent dozens of people to participate in the fun as a response to the UA’s call.

And while NATO was busy rallying to Colombia, Jiang Chen was also busy.

Moro’s soldiers had quietly set off, in batches, to the New Moon Island military base.

A total of 200,000 soldiers were divided into two groups on New Moon Island. A small number of people took-off in a large military transport plane directly to the FARC-controlled Cucuta Airport, while most of the remaining soldiers boarded a transport ship to Venezuela under the escort of the Celestial Trade Navy.

Santos commanded a total of 800,000 troops, and he dispatched a quarter of his country’s army at once, which demonstrated his willingness.

Of course, Jiang Chen didn’t treat him poorly either.

Not only the military expenses for this expedition were borne by Celestial Trade, but Celestial Trade also gave Moro 2 billion XND in “compensation” based on the headcount, which was equivalent to ten thousand dollars for each soldier. This may be a drop in the bucket for Celestial Trade, but it was undoubtedly a huge sum of money for Moro, which was in desperate need of foreign exchange.

The tit-for-tat confrontation between the UA and Xin on the South American issue pushed the global political situation on a knife’s edge. With a little carelessness, the two powerful giants may end up in a conflict. If one of the sides failed to remain rational, it could potentially trigger a worldwide disaster.

However, almost all international commentators in the world shared a pessimism about future prospects.

The reason was very simple, because Celestial Trade’s leader did not behave like a politician at all.

He did not possess the rationality, compromise, and forbearing qualities that a politician should possess, and all his actions never considered any political significance, because he was not a politician himself, and his country’s congress and the president did not have any constraint on his power. His first response to the Xin delegation’s movement restriction was not through diplomatic channels, but to directly deploy special forces. He even shamelessly used the local rebels as scapegoats in the end while he claimed that he only spent money to purchase the “hostages” back.

No one believed that a group of guerrillas could enter the city center without being detected, and completely cripple a company of soldiers!

However, FARC was happy to be the scapegoat without feeling shameless at all. On the contrary, it left Colombia and the UA speechless, as well as the commentators that closely followed this incident.

In five months, it was the UA general election.

The overlord of the old world would elect its ruler.

Based on the current polls, Joseph Kennedy’s approval rate was slightly higher than the Internet celebrity Mr. Trump. However, what surprised the UA citizens was that after several debates, Trump’s approval rating rose instead of fell.

Curses, offensive comments, ridicules, and black humor filled this election. The televised debate that ended just now could only be described as “a mess”. People all over the world were paying close attention to this election to see what else the seemingly careless new candidate had to say.

At least one thing, whether correct or not, most people, especially young people, agreed.

Hua took away their jobs, Xin took away their hegemony, and the UA was in decline. The UA should strengthen its strategic deployment in the Pacific. If an aircraft carrier battle group was not sufficient, then send a few more.

Then, a tough president would negotiate with them.

Also, the UA should indeed restrict immigration.

Chapter 1321: Moro Intervention

Chapter 1321: Moro Intervention

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

On July 1st, three days after the NATO Coalition Force landed in South America, a press conference was held in Moro.

“Moro sympathizes with what FARC has experienced. The people of Colombia’s southern provinces have the right to choose their own destiny. If the fake politicians do not give them this opportunity, they have the right to defend their rights.”

“The MLL people have suffered because of Western countries’ unjust intervention. We have spent half a century of blood in exchange for a hard-won victory. We know how difficult it is. During this difficult era, someone should stand up and say no to those gesticulating villains. If there is no one, then we should stand up and carry the banner of justice.”

“We condemn NATO’s decision to interfere in Colombia that bypassed the United Nations. Obtaining the authorization of the country concerned does not mean that NATO has obtained the consent of all citizens of the country concerned. If NATO really, as they advertise, support democracy, sovereignty, and freedom, then they should promote freedom, not escalate the war.”

Many countries condemned the NATO Coalition Force. After all, the NATO Coalition Force bypassed the UN Security Council after the United Nations vote failed to gain approval. They used the trick by obtaining authorization from the Colombian Congress to participate in the civil war.

It made no sense in legal terms.

However, just like the Iraq War in 2003, the UA, knowing that it could not obtain the authorization of the United Nations, directly bypassed the United Nations and declared war on Iraq through NATO.

It was impossible to use rationality to approach international affairs.

Because hegemony ruled above legal principles.

So far, Santos’s speech was still above average. Some reporters at the press conference even started to yawn, and jotted down “Moro condemned the NATO Coalition Force today.”

However, at this moment, Santos turned the speech to the next page, cleared his throat, and declared.

“… Moro will send volunteer soldiers to FARC to defend independence and freedom until the NATO Coalition Force withdraw from South America.”

The silence at the press conference was terrifying.

The reporters were all petrified and turned into immobile wax figures.

Send… soldiers?

Everyone questioned whether it was an illusion or reality.

“There is no question session, the press conference is over!” Santos waved his hand and walked behind the scenes.

The press conference is over?

No question session?

“Please stay, Mr. Santos, Moro is sending soldiers to Colombia? Are you sure you are not joking?”

“Moro will support…”

The scene became chaotic, and frenzied reporters swarmed up.

The prepared soldiers immediately stepped forward and formed a wall around the podium. They stopped all the reporters and worked with the staff to persuade the reporters to leave the scene.

The next day, Santos and his army made the headlines of every major newspaper and television news around the world.

The dictator’s speech at the press conference shocked everyone.

Moro to send volunteer soldiers to Colombia… to support FARC?

In other words, they were ready to engage in a war with the NATO Coalition Force?

When most people heard the news, their first reaction was not to feel impressed by the courage of the dictator but to open the map to find the location of Moro. Many years had passed since the Moro-Country F war, and most had already forgotten the small country in the Western Pacific.

It was only then that they suddenly remembered how Celestial Trade maintained its influence on the small country.

Future 1.0’s press had the honor to interview the dictator and even produced an interview column specifically for Santos. Based on the order of Jiang Chen, the news column of Future 1.0 avoided the taint of Santos himself, gave a positive evaluation of Moro intervention, and severely criticized NATO Coalition Force’s intervention.

Unsurprisingly, the UA media such as the Washington Post and the New York Times quoted the interview with Future 1.0 but did not quote its thoughts. Instead, the content satirized Moro and pointed the move as a handshake between two big drug lords.

It was true, given that before the founding of the country, Santos was involved in drugs.

Moro’s move to send soldiers had created widespread discussion in the UA.

The UA official responded quickly.

The Capitol spokesperson first sneered and defined Santos’s speech as nonsense. The Secretary of Defense even laughed in an interview as they joked about how Moro planned to transport the soldiers.

Fishing boats? Or inflatable boats?

However, on the second day, they couldn’t laugh anymore.

It turned out that when the press conference was held, the Moro soldiers had already arrived in Venezuela with the help of Celestial Trade.

Coordinated by Russia, with Venezuela keeping an eye closed, these soldiers dressed as civilians quickly boarded trucks and drove to the border between Colombia and Venezuela. After they entered Cucuta, they immediately stepped onto the battlefield with weapons and equipment from Celestial Trade.

Although Celestial Trade did not directly participate in the war, it provided all-round support outside the field.

Especially on intelligence!

In addition to guns, ammunition, and light and heavy firepower, Celestial Trade also provided 500 tablets to the Moro soldiers. These tablets could obtain real-time high-definition satellite images of the battlefield through the “Sky Eye” system deployed above South America.

It came with positioning, height, and distance measurement.

With this gadget, a mortar could pinpoint exactly where to fire.

It was not only accurate, but it also made firing two shots, then changing to another location possible. This made it more effective than missiles

On the day after the Moro soldiers marched into Colombia, the NATO Coalition Force and the Colombian government force launched the fiercest offensive against Pamplona, controlled by the FARC.

In the mountains near Pamplona, the two sides exchanged heavy fires.

Moro was indeed a master in guerrilla warfare.

The NATO Coalition Force twenty-four hours offensive did not manage to take down the palm-sized town of Pamplona. Instead, a Cobra gunship was downed and four armor vehicles were destroyed. Thirty-two hours after the offensive started, the NATO Coalition Force and the Colombian government forces finally called the mission, as they retreated from the mountainside with the wounded soldiers and the remains of the deceased.

On the FARC and Moro side, after they successfully repelled NATO coalition forces, their morale was boosted as they quickly regained their lost position.

After Timochenko heard the victory from the frontline, the haze between his brows suddenly disappeared.

He discovered that the fabled NATO was not as invincible as he had imagined.

At least in the Andes, in the tropical rain forests of Colombia, the FARC experienced in guerrilla warfare seemed to have an upper-hand…

Chapter 1322: Military Exercise

Chapter 1322: Military Exercise

On July 1st, a cargo ship marked with the Saudi Royal Family emblem set off from Jeddah Port, and headed away from the Gulf of Aden. The patrolling UA soldiers did not stop the ship for long before they allowed it into public water.

On the morning of the same day, Celestial Trade and Moro Navy launched a joint military exercise in the Western Pacific.

The military exercise was not limited to anti-ship, anti-submarine, anti-air exercises, but also also included landing combat and urban combt, code-named “Defense Determination,” which lasted for three days. Although this military exercise turned into Celestial Trade showing off its high-tech equipment, it still achieved the effect Jiang Chen wanted – to show his position to the angered NATO.

If NATO launched retaliatory military operations against Moro, Celestial Trade was ready to intervene.

They must now weigh their decision if they decide to open another battlefield outside of South America.

It was the third day of the military exercise.

Five Guardian-class frigates installed with the modified type-50J electromagnetic pulse cannons were lined up at sea, and there were more than ten ships including anti-submarine destroyers, guided missile cruisers, supply ships, and submarines that patrolled around. Other than the fact that it lacked an aircraft carrier, the fleet was not inferior to any aircraft carrier battle group in the world.

Jiang Chen and Ivan stood in the flagship bridge. Jiang Chen’s eyes squinted at the satellite images on the holographic screen.

Under the “Sky Eye” military satellite, there were no secrets that could stay hidden under its watch in the Pacific Ocean. The positions of the enemy and friendly units were all marked with the distance, direction, and speed parameters listed.

Santos and Moro naval officers also stood inside the bridge as they were amazed by the holographic screen floating directly in front of them. Everything here was a novelty to them, especially the satellite image that marked the positions of the units. It was not difficult to tell what this meant for naval warfare in the information age.

“Unfortunately there is no aircraft carrier.”

“If the Celestial Trade Navy is equipped with an aircraft carrier, with such an immense information advantage, it would be impossible to find an opponent that can compete with this fleet in the world.”

Among the audience, someone sighed regretfully.

In today’s naval thinking, the aircraft carrier was the core and soul of a fleet. A fleet without an aircraft carrier and carrier-based aircraft was incomplete.

Jiang Chen actually considered developing Celestial Trade’s own aircraft carrier before, but after some deliberation, he gave up on the idea.

First of all, Jiang Chen never intended to waste too much production capacity from Future Military on the sea, so it never planned to build a warship in the first place. Most of the warships were manufactured in Russian shipyards and then brought to Xin for secondary modification by Future Military.

The Russians were certainly willing to sell the aircraft carrier to Celestial Trade, but their willingness was only limited to conventionally powered aircraft carriers. For example, it was not even remotely possible for Russia to sell nuclear-powered aircraft carriers as well as its core technology. Regardless of their relationship, this idea was off the table, similar to how Celestial Trade would never sell the type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon.

The technical difficulty of converting a conventionally powered aircraft carrier into a nuclear powered aircraft carrier was not on the same level as changing the main-gun of a frigate. Of course, it was not impossible but more so it was not necessary.

After all, the ultra-long cruising radius of Aurora-20 made the need for aircraft carriers less meaningful.

“The horizontal distance is 127 nautical miles, the target is locked.”

“Fire!”

The launch pod of the guided missile cruiser opened, and with the roar of homing noises, the orange swords shot into the sky.

In the area 127 nautical miles away, six scrapped cargo ships were used as target ships. They were arranged in a triangular formation on the sea, as they sailed in the direction of Guam at a speed of 20 knots.

A total of six missiles all hit directly on target.

The flames of the explosion erupted one after another as the cargo ships sank to the bottom of the sea.

When the high-altitude drone transmitted the screen of the target ships destroyed to the bridge, the black smoke of the explosion could be seen in the horizon. Captain Lei Zheng put down the binoculars in his hand, then performed a military salute to Jiang Chen and Ivan.

“Sir, the targets are destroyed! All missiles hit on target!”

There was applause from the audience. Among them, not only representatives of Moro, but also representatives from Hua, Germany, and even Nippon, all of them showed the same hint of surprise.

The missiles hitting targets were nothing surprising, since they all could achieve the same result with drone guidance.

What really surprised them was the cruise speed of the anti-ship missile.

Are you sure that was not a cannonball?

Lei Zheng returned to the post and began preparations for the next stage of drills under the command.

Jiang Chen withdrew his gaze from the satellite image and looked at Ivan.

“What’s the next drill?”

“All maritime exercises have been completed. The next one is the landing drill,” Ivan replied.

“It’s time to test the new equipment.”

Jiang Chen and Ivan looked at each other and exchanged a heartfelt smile.

…

Finally, it was an opportunity for Moro to perform.

Of course, their poor financial situation made it difficult for them to afford cruisers and frigates that cost up to hundreds of millions of dollars, but they could certainly afford rubber boats.

Landing operations were the only exercise they could showcase their expertise.

Guardian-class frigates lined up on the sea, and four thick and long type-50J electromagnetic pulse cannons were aimed at the coast. The glaring white lights flashed one after another, orange ballistic trajectories ripped through the sky, and the exploding dusts connected one after another onto the bunkers on the shore.

After a round of fire barrage, the assault boat was released by Celestial Trade’s large transport ship. Most of the soldiers on the assault boats were Moro soldiers.

At almost the same time when the assault boat was put down, thirty “Crocodile-20” amphibious assault vehicles suddenly appeared out of the coast about 15 meters away. Like preying crocodiles, they bit towards the beach.

As soon as the well-equipped Celestial Trade Marines reached the beach, they quickly followed the amphibious assault vehicles and the attack drones, and advanced towards the bombarded position.

At the same time, Moro’s assault boats also reached the beach. Soldiers with military green camouflage rushed in with light weapons, and quickly seized the bunkers bombed by artillery. They raised small red flags onto the turret and bunker positions.

Before the landing operation began, Jiang Chen walked from the bridge to the deck of the ship.

Compared with the narrow bridge, the field of vision here was wider and clearer.

Jiang Chen put down the binoculars in his hand as he held onto the railing. He looked to the beach with his eyes narrowed. With the wind blowing his face and in a delightful mood, the corner of his mouth curved up as he spoke to Ivan next to him.

“I always feel that something is missing there.”

“What is missing?” Ivan asked immediately.

“It’s at that place,” Jiang Chen casually pointed to the beach, and laughed, “Don’t you think there is still a Statue of Liberty missing?”

Ivan was taken aback, and then he laughed along.

“Would you like me to get someone to build one there, and we can re-conduct the drill?”

“There is no need,” Jiang Chen smiled, shook his head, and waved his hand, “If that day comes, it won’t be a drill.”

Chapter 1323: Before The Counterattack

Chapter 1323: Before The Counterattack

In the woods of the Andes, the leaves rustled. Two Asian soldiers in camouflage laid on the ground, their faces painted with black ink. Without being close, it was nearly impossible to see the two faces hidden in the shadow of the bushes.

The forest was terribly quiet, and the two laid motionlessly on their stomachs, as if they were waiting for something.

Not far away, there was a crisp sound.

The two faces under the bushes also disappeared silently…

Two NATO soldiers, one after another, carefully pushed aside the bushes and avoided the dead branches on the ground. With their backs hunched, they followed the shadow of the tropical vegetation as they headed towards the mountain… and then they bumped into the gunpoint of the Moro guerrillas.

Gunshots passed through the dense rainforest, and bullets burst out from the shadows and rained on the two. Before they even had time to react, the two NATO soldiers fell to the ground with a terrifying howl.

Two Moro soldiers got out from behind the banana leaf and quickly ran to the two NATO soldiers who were killed.

“Where are their tags? Give me one.”

“Take it.”

“Hwang Sican? What is this name…”

Muthari couldn’t understand the Korean written on the front, but fortunately, there was English phonetic notation.

“Probably a Korean. Regardless, you can exchange it for military merit anyway.” His comrade stuffed another soldier tag into his bag, and then quickly searched the Korean to confirm that there was nothing left, then he spat on the ground and stood up.

“The target was found, two NATO soldiers, both are down.”

After Muthari reported to the headquarters with his voice suppressed, he glanced at the corpse on the ground, shocked by the scene.

Not only red liquid flowed out, but also white stuff oozed out, yellow liquid as well.

Good lord, one probably hit the sack.

No wonder he howled so miserably before he died…

…

That afternoon, after the two received an order, they returned to their base of operations on Highland 421.

They came to a tent in the corner of the barracks. Muthari walked in with his comrade and handed the tag to the Celestial Trade officer.

The officer took the tag and examined it for a moment, then he opened a notebook, and searched for Muthari’s number and name. He took a pen and added a line to a word. When Muthari saw this, a bright smile appeared on his face as he revealed his white teeth.

Although he didn’t recognize what the word meant, he understood the meaning of the lines.

The line represented one hundred Xin New Dollars, which was almost equivalent to their monthly salary. At the end of the month, the money would be directly deposited to their personal account. Even if they were killed in battle, their families would receive the money.

It was a reward for the guerrilla soldiers. At this time, it was either NATO scouts or elite soldiers on special operations who were active in the rainforest. They were all high-value targets.

When they first heard the news, the Moro soldiers almost started to sing in celebration. It even got to a point where after someone downed a soldier, they took the head instead if they couldn’t find the tag.

This kind of disgusting and inhumane behavior was quickly banned by Celestial Trade. Photos were used instead if tags were missing. It was not until this ban was introduced that the remains of the poor NATO soldiers were spared.

But soon, Muthari raised his eyebrows and cried at the notebook.

“Hey, why does he have one more than me, it’s not fair!”

It was the same tag, but his comrade received one more stroke than he did, which immediately caused his dissatisfaction.

“Because his tag belongs to the 13th Marine Corps Infantry Brigade,” the officer said expressionlessly and pointed to a sheet on the table. “The rules are here.”

“This…this also works?” Muthari was dumbfounded.

Even canine earned them a stroke…

“Okay, okay, man, I’ll buy you a drink.” The comrade next to him was also a little embarrassed, and patted him on his back. Before the officer started to show annoyance, he dragged Muthari outside.

It was not a good idea to argue with Celestial Trade officers.

Although these people were not directly on the battlefield, even their commanders were polite to them.

Back in the tent, just as Muthari sat down on his bed, their squad leader walked in and dropped a cloth bag on the ground.

The soldier at the door stood up and curiously flipped through the cloth bag. He looked at the steel wire ball inside and asked with a confused expression.

“What is this?”

“There is a large-scale military operation tonight,” the squad leader glanced around the tent, confirmed that everyone was there, then pointed to the steel wire meshes on the ground, and said, “I don’t know exactly what it is. The headquarters asked us to stuff all our electronics into this stuff before five o’clock.”

Worried that these boneheaded soldiers would not take this order seriously, the squad leader paused for a moment and emphasized it again with a serious expression.

“Remember, all electronic products, this is an order.”

…

A week had passed since Moro soldiers landed in Colombia.

After the setback in the attack on Pamplona, NATO immediately reflected on its strategic deployment. It placed intelligence warfare and counter-guerrilla warfare at the core of its strategy, and sent special forces to search for FARC firepower points and tunnels in the jungle, especially high-value targets such as mortars and anti-aircraft artilleries that provided suppression.

In terms of firepower, NATO still had the clear upper hand.

But the Andes were so big, the rebel guerrillas were also cunning. The two sides turned from the initial muscle-to-muscle collision to a stealth warfare. Danger was hidden in every bush, and the smell of blood permeated every inch of the South American jungle.

Not just guerrillas, poisonous insects, pythons, crocodiles… these were nothing to the people who have lived here for a long time, but they were quite troublesome for NATO soldiers. The environment here was worse than the desert, and mosquitoes the size of thumbs drove people crazy.

In a sense, Timochenko’s words were indeed fulfilled.

The Andes and the rain forest had not only become the nightmare of the UA, but also the nightmare of all NATO.

However, the newcomers who had just arrived here were often more optimistic. For example, Koreans who responded to the call not long ago showed confidence beyond their ability in front of the majestic mountains of Colombia. They did not take FARC and Moro seriously at all.

“Our soldiers are all experts in counter-guerrilla warfare.” A South Korean officer narrowed his eyes and laughed, “You can rest assured that soon their position will be clear to us.”

For a long time, in order to match the so-called “guerrilla powerhouse” in the north, the South Korean Army always regarded counter-guerrilla warfare as the focus of military training and attached great importance to special operations forces. As a result, almost every army in Korea contained a special operations battalion.

In addition, Koreans often established a special operations division to perform special operations tasks such as counter-terrorism operations, protection of dignitaries, punishment and retaliation.

He had the confidence for this very reason.

But he overlooked one point.

Moro soldiers did not receive any serious training, but all of them crawled out from piles of corpses. Now they were equipped by Future Military, while their weapons were not the most advanced, it was not far behind the NATO soldiers’ gears.

“I hope so.” The old man with a hooked nose replied nonchalantly.

Obviously, as a Marine Corps Colonel, he was not convinced by the newcomer.

A war is not a TV series. Disregard the Descendent of the Sun, even if you are a descendant of the Milky Way, you’ll only have one life on the battlefield. Especially in the tropical zone with visibility of less than ten meters, it is a severe test for the soldiers’ detection and counter-detection capabilities.

Whoever is discovered first will die. No one will have mercy because everyone wants to live.

The old man gazed into the sunset in the distance and a frown appeared on his face as his eyes narrowed.

It was almost dark.

For some reason, he had a hunch.

Tonight will be very long.

He rolled up his sleeves and looked at the electronic watch on his wrist. However, he was shocked.

The number on the electronic watch was frozen at five o’clock in the afternoon.

He pressed it a few times but there was still no response. Then he muttered to himself with his frown growing more apparent.

“Is it broken?”

Chapter 1324: Code Named: Firefight

Chapter 1324: Code Named: Firefight

Colonel Gibson was right, his watch was indeed broken.

And it was not just his electronic watch…

As night began to settle, the entire base gradually became dark.

Sergeant Duke took his comrades and exchanged positions with the patrolling soldiers. He shouted at the patrol on duty on the sentry tower.

“What happened? Why didn’t you turn on the light?”

“I don’t know… the power system seems to be malfunctioning. I have sent someone to notify the repair team. Damn, is my walkie-talkie broken too? I have to ask logistics to get me a new one.”

“Yours is broken too?”

“What do you… wait, yours is broken too?”

Sergeant Duke’s expression gradually became serious, and sweat began to ooze out from his forehead.

He started to realize what may have happened, and he believed that the headquarters must also realize what may have happened.

It was just that as a soldier, when he started to realize the seriousness of the problem and didn’t receive any communication…

It might be too late.

At the same time, on the runway in front of the hangar on the other side of the military base.

Inside the cockpit of the F35 fighter jet, the pilot who was on an airstrike mission pressed the buttons on his control panel, and the confusion in his eyes started to become apparent.

“Strange.”

The engine did not respond, and some of the instruments seemed to be broken as they no longer changed.

“This is Gladiator-1, the aircraft’s ignition system has malfunctioned, mission is terminated…”

There was no response from the command tower.

The pilot took off his helmet and was about to open the cockpit, but his extended hand stopped in mid-air.

When he looked up in the air, his pupils gradually enlarged, his lips moved slightly, but he only let out one word.

Reflected in the dilated pupils were rows of emerald green flare.

“God…”

…

The operation codenamed “Firefight” was a direct response to NATO’s Operation “Torch”.

In the mountainous region east of Bucaramanga, the 14th NATO Mechanical Battalion and the 27th Infantry Brigade of Colombia, stationed on the 772 Heights, were relentlessly bombed by Moro’s firepower.

There was no warning, only the tail flames in the air announced the beginning of the bombing.

The mighty and invincible Type 63 multiple rocket launcher once again rewritten its legend on the Colombian battlefield. When the hurricane-like rocket rains ravaged on the NATO forces, other than the raging dust and shrapnel, nothing else was visible.

“DAMMIT! How did they get so close! Where did our patrols go!”

Curled up in the foxhole, the battalion commander of NATO’s 14th Mechanical Battalion tightened his helmet.

Not far from him, an armored vehicle that had just driven out of the garage was penetrated by a 107mm rocket after it failed to dodge. The rocket hit the ammunition rack, and the explosions skyrocketed, and the shock even ripped off the turret.

The flames of the exploded armored car reflected from his pupils, and a trace of despair appeared on the face of the battalion commander.

Until now, he had not seen any reinforcements, nor had he seen fighters whizzing past his head to harvest those arrogant rocket launchers.

What happened?

…

What happened?

The patrols stationed under the high ground were also confused.

Walkie-talkies, night vision goggles, even the red dot sight on the rifle, all electronic products were completely useless, it felt like returning to the Stone Age in just a night. When they heard the sound of rockets roaring in the air, the punishment from the guerrilla also arrived.

Just as the nearby support artillery launched a relentless bombardment of Highland 772, a squad of NATO soldiers was facing a siege from a company of Moro soldiers in a post four kilometers away.

The bullets dented the wall and peeled off the cement from the steel frame.

Sergeant Charles pulled his wounded comrade from the pool of blood as he returned fire with his rifle, but he was quickly suppressed by the heavy machine gun.

Another RPG hit.

A house ten meters away was hit directly, and the M249 light machine gun framed in the window, as well as the wall, collapsed from the explosion. Another soldier fell. In less than five minutes, they had lost more than half of the squad.

“This is Warrior-1, we are under attack! I repeat, we are under attack! SH*T!”

There was no response to the hoarse roar, and only panic remained on Sergeant Charles’s face.

Guerrilla soldiers could fight till the last person without fear of death, but it was impossible for him who came from a first world country.

He cut open his clothes with a dagger in a panic, and tore off most of the white shirt.

He tied his shirt to the butt of his rifle, grabbed the muzzle and raised it up, and shouted in his broken Spanish.

“Surrender! Surrender! Ceasefire!”

“What is that guy even saying?” The Moro soldier asked the Colombian next to him.

“He said they’ve surrendered and is asking us to ceasefire.” The FARC soldier understood Spanish and already lowered his guns.

The same scene took place at every post and firepower point on Highland 772. In the absence of reinforcements, lack of firepower support, and zero communication from the command headquarters, almost no one could fight to the end.

It was not due to the lack of the NATO coalition forces’ combat capability.

On the contrary, their combat effectiveness was very strong.

If they hadn’t been blindfolded, mouths covered, and ears blocked, the guerrillas that left the cover of the tropical jungle would only be sitting ducks for the fighters and artilleries.

However, there were not so many ifs on the battlefield.

The NATO coalition forces, whose communication system was paralyzed, had no way to call for artillery support or direct airstrikes.

Moro and FARC easily crossed the defense line of the Colombian government army. They dragged out the soldiers trembling under the artillery bombardment from the trenches, foxholes, and concrete fortifications.

Most of the armored vehicles were destroyed by the rocket launchers.

But the remaining vehicles was happily accepted by Moro soldiers.

Of course, Moro soldiers were the most delighted by the captured prisoners.

The prisoners of the Colombian government army were left to FARC, but the guests from afar were treated nicely.

Under gunpoint, the NATO soldier handed in their tags in confusion, and squatted against the wall with their hands on their head.

They didn’t know why these people were so fascinated by their tags, would they use this as chips for poker?

They also won’t know that they were already priced by Xin’s officers.

How much for the dead, how much for being alive, everyone was priced clearly…

July 11th, 2020 was definitely the darkest day in Colombia since the 21st century.

The literal definition of darkness.

Because of an EMP, the power system was completely paralyzed from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in northern Colombia to the central Andes. Over 50% of all electronics were damaged. The more sophisticated the equipment, the more serious the damage, and the direct economic loss exceeded 500 billion dollars…

Jiang Chen said that they would bear the consequences.

And now, they paid the price.

Just one hour after the detonation of the EMP, Celestial Trade issued a weather warning on its official website.

At five o’clock in the afternoon on July 11th, the Celestial Trade Astronomical Telescope observed a strong solar wind passing through Earth. Please protect all electronic products such as phones and computers…

Chapter 1325: The Great Victory of Bucaramanga

Chapter 1325: The Great Victory of Bucaramanga

Although a house with its windows blown open by the wind could withstand the violent storm as a whole, the strong wind would still make the inside of the house a mess. The Earth’s magnetic field was just like a house prone to “leakage” in front of the solar wind, and its “holes” would continue to “leak” for several hours for charged particles from the Sun to enter the Earth’s atmosphere and disrupt communications and power systems.

However, whether it was the solar wind or Celestial Trade’s EMP weapon, the NATO Coalition Force stationed in Bucaramanga did not have time to investigate. The Moro soldiers had already taken control of Highland 772 and cut through their last line of defense outside Bucaramanga.

Until the flare of the final offensive rose into the sky, not a single NATO soldier got the news in advance

Highland 772 was captured by the Moro effortlessly.

Behind this high ground was the military base of the NATO Coalition Force.

The night quietly arrived.

Without the slightest warning, Type-63 rocket launchers landed on the runway of the military base airport and blasted the fighters stranded on the runway to pieces.

Artillery bombarded from all directions and the noise of explosions and homing shells quickly flooded the base’s intermittent broadcast. The NATO Coalition Forces with paralyzed command system had to fight separately in the military base hundreds of acres wide.

The NATO force armed with night vision equipment should not be at such a disadvantage fighting at night. However, after the EMP strike, the night vision goggles and thermal imaging scopes all turned into scrap metal. Not only was it useless, but it also obstructed the soldiers’ movement.

Tanks suffered the same fate.

There was no command, no infantry support, and even one of the thermal imaging scopes was broken. The M1A2 main battle tank that rolled out of the garage was like a blindfolded bull. With explosions all around, it was unaware whether if it would hit the enemy or friendly units.

Although armored units could effectively resist EMP strikes, it did not include the communication equipment placed outside the armor. If the tanks were prepared ahead of time and equipped with the “anti-pulse” attachment developed by the Advanced Projects Agency, it was not impossible to protect these pieces of communication equipment.

But obviously, they didn’t expect an EMP strike at all.

…

What would happen to a modernized force without any information support?

Reality proved that it was like a blind man.

Muthari followed the 21st Infantry Brigade into the north gate of the military base. He fired in front of him and quickly suppressed the sniper hiding behind the military truck. The comrades behind him skillfully took out the RPG-7 launcher with the high-explosive warhead and fired it at the truck.

The flames of the explosion lit up the night.

As soldiers advanced deeper, the supporting artillery from the rear began to shrink towards the center of the military base. The NATO coalition forces that defended the military base were completely blinded. Some soldiers started to retreat toward the port of Barranquilla, while the rest were either killed or captured by the guerrillas.

Muthari’s company was the first to penetrate a building suspected to be an important target.

The resistance of the NATO soldiers stationed in this building was quite tenacious. Both sides suffered a lot of casualties in the exchange of fire, and the exchange entered a stalemate for a while.

However, everyone knew that for these people trapped in a dead-end, their final fate was almost inevitable.

The NATO soldiers that crawled behind cover fell one after another. But for Moro and FARC, the reinforcement arrived one by one.

With the firepower on the opposite side was getting weaker and weaker, the Moro guerrillas seized the opportunity to rush in. They soon squashed the remaining resistance.

This seemed to be the command post of the NATO coalition forces. There were offices and conference rooms on both sides of the corridor.

Pewpewpewpew

Muthari unleashed his bullets and turned an officer that attempted to fire back into a sieve, then he stepped into the office.

At this moment, he suddenly discovered that there was something moving under the table

Muthari’s eyes turned brighter as he pointed his gun at the desk and leaned forward.

He gestured a “cover me” to the comrades behind him and his left hand reached under the desk. After he grabbed onto something, he pulled the man out from under the table and threw him to the ground; two rifles quickly were aimed at that man’s face.

“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me! I surrender!”

“Don’t move! Put your hands on your head, and stop screaming!” Muthari kicked the officer to the wall. When he heard him speak, he was infuriated and hit the officer with his stock.

I finally caught an officer, but he is Korean?

What a loss!

…

The sky was about to turn bright, and the battle that lasted all night was over.

The outcome of this battle was stellar.

Ten M1A2 main battle tanks, more than thirty LAV-25 light armored vehicles of various types, and self-propelled artillery that did not explode in the shelling, even the armed helicopters on the tarmac and the F35s parked in the hangar, all the equipment was captured by Moro soldiers, and most of them were transported back to the rear by trucks.

Except for tanks and armored vehicles, gunships and F35s were unable to participate in combat due to electronic malfunctions.

But again, even if they were not broken, there was unlikely anyone in Moro capable of operating one.

Nearly 8,000 prisoners of war were also transported into the depths of the Andes with trucks. Most of them were from Turkey, and the rest were mostly from the UA, Britain, Fran and other European countries.

It was ultimately unrealistic to completely defeat all of the NATO soldiers.

When the guerrillas were about to occupy the military base, the Ford aircraft carrier battle group deployed in the Gulf of Mexico had already noticed the situation on the front line, and sent F35s to the occupied military base, dispatched the Osprey and the remaining marine units to cover the defeated coalition soldiers’ retreat to the Gulf of Mexico.

It was definitely the worst defeat in NATO history.

The entire communication system collapsed, and the command structure was lost. The soldiers didn’t know whether they should withdraw or defend. An EMP strike effectively turned the most elite soldiers on the planet into third-rate forces. Moro and FARC guerrillas relied on their absolute advantage in numbers, firepower, and experience as third-rate forces to defeat the NATO forces.

The good news from the frontline soon spread to the back.

Even Timochenko himself could not believe FARC and Moro soldiers actually took over the NATO Coalition Force military base in Bucaramanga.

It was the infamous NATO…

And more than 8,000 prisoners of war…

The high number of prisoners even felt like hot potatoes in his hands

After he smoked five or six cigars in a row and paced back and forth in the cave, he finally calmed down his excitement and sat down.

After they crossed Bucaramanga, to the north, it was Bogota, the capital of Colombia. He seemed to be only one step away from the President’s throne…

Chapter 1326: The Divided Coalition Force

Chapter 1326: The Divided Coalition Force

July 12th, 2020, was definitely the most humiliating day since NATO was founded.

With the fall of the Bucaramanga military base, the Colombian government force and the NATO Coalition Force stationed in this area had to strategically retreat. However, with their communication completely collapsed, it was nearly impossible to obtain first-hand information anywhere on the battlefield.

After a force saw a friendly army withdraw from the frontline, they had the following dialogue.

“Hey, which country are you from? Where are you going? Why can’t we find the signal for the command post?”

“Italian XX Brigade. We are heading to the Port of Barranquilla. Don’t ask, we don’t know why…”

“Then shall we continue to station here or retreat?”

“You ask me, who do I ask?”

The order to retreat was indeed issued. Through the carrier-based helicopters on the Ford aircraft carrier battle group, the most primitive methods were used, which was to notify each combat unit. However, due to the collapse of the command system, they could only notify down to the battalion level, not to everyone.

This also led to another situation.

It was possible for Company A to receive an order to remain stationed in an area, while Company B, which was responsible for backup support in the same area, received an order to withdraw. When the person with a retreat order to Company A arrived, he discovered that the rebel guerrillas were already here and in the midst of the battle. Company A must be wondering where did Company B go…

Based on the map, NATO’s defense line shrunk to the coast near the Gulf of Mexico in just one day as they re-established their positions around the Port of Barranquilla.

The NATO Coalition Force re-established the command system. While they issued equipment, all the equipment was protected by a metal sleeve, and they strictly required every soldier to store all equipment in the metal sleeve during non-combat periods.

It was the most primitive and effective method to counter EMP strikes. The principle was probably the same as the steel ball sent to the guerrillas. A Faraday cage could shield the entire electromagnetic field.

There were 100,000 troops when they first arrived, but fewer than 60,000 evacuated to Barranquilla. In addition to the captured and those who died in crossfire, some soldiers may had be retreating while others may have retreated with the Colombian government force to Bogota.

A disastrous defeat was no longer enough to describe the losses suffered by the NATO Coalition Force.

While the repair team was busy repairing the equipment that was withdrawn from the front line, FARC and Moro soldiers did not just sit around.

NATO left a large amount of equipment and supplies at the military base in Bucaramanga. After they graciously accepted these equipment and supplies, the Moro and FARC troops split into two. Moro soldiers marched northward through the mountains to surround the NATO Coalition Force along the Gulf of Mexico.

FARC followed Jiang Chen’s order and moved south through the Andes. They aimed straight to the Colombian capital with the goal to push Timochenko onto the throne of the president as soon as possible. They strived to end the war as soon as possible.

With the FARC heading south, panic started to spread across every developed city in western Colombia.

Everyone knew that the rebels were coming, but they didn’t know how far away they were. They could see what happened on the front line through Twitter before, but now they couldn’t even open their phones.

In a modern society extremely dependent on the Internet, when even the most basic electricity was lost, not only the channels for obtaining information were affected, but as well as people’s daily life. The supermarket was tightly packed by the panicking crowds, prices soared, and supplies that shouldn’t be scarce started to experience shortages. The United Nations had to start taking care of the mess left by NATO as the discussion on humanitarian reliefs began.

Of course, NATO countries panicked the most.

The more modern the army, the weaker its resistance to EMP attacks. Although countries were researching EMP and anti-EMP weapons, and the “anti-pulse” capability of existing equipment, the EMP weapons only made its appearance three years ago, and it took time to finish the research.

The Advanced Projects Agency of the Department of Defense was ahead in the research, but in a wide-area EMP attack scenario, their efforts still seemed inadequate. Unless the entire army was thrown into an airtight iron box, it was impossible to completely avoid the impact of EMP.

After all, even Celestial Trade would not be able to fully mitigate the impact of EMP weapons…

“ESA has conducted a forensic investigation on whether the solar wind has passed through the border on July 11th, and it has yet to find conclusive evidence to confirm…We have submitted the latest investigation progress to the European Union Commission, hoping to help the authorities.”

The European Space Agency’s hesitant statement reflected the conflicted position of the European Union.

They thought they were just going to South America with their ally to pick a guaranteed fight, but they didn’t expect to be dragged into such a big mess.

There were more than nine thousand prisoners of war.

Excluding Turks that made up half of the number, there were more than a hundred of them spread among each country.

And the families of the fallen soldiers…

The thought alone was devastating.

Differences were appearing in the European Union as to whether or not they should continue to be involved in this war.

The strong stance of Celestial Trade on the South American issue had already far exceeded their expectations…

As for the UA, they still chose to remain tough.

The Capitol Spokesperson made a statement immediately and took aim at Celestial Trade with NASA’s report.

“NASA has not observed an active solar wind and is investigating the matter further. At the same time, we are shocked and angry at what happened in Colombia. I warn certain rogue organizations not to take chances and try to use natural phenomena to confuse the audience, if the disaster that happened last night turns out to be a self-directed farce, they will pay the price for their careless behavior!”

Investigation?

It was impossible to investigate.

The solar wind is a continuous phenomenon. Only when the two magnetic fields are in a state of “magnetically reconnection” will it cause the Earth’s magnetic field protection barrier to create a “gap”, thus causing the solar wind to affect the surface. This gap opens and closes at all times, and the size and position of the opening are not fixed, and it is also related to the magnitude of the solar eruption.

With the dependency of many variables, the impact may be serious or minimal. For example, in 1991, the gust of solar wind almost blew up the nuclear power plant in Maine, but in 2010 it only produced quite a spectacular aurora over the United Kingdom.

But the Capitol’s statement made Jiang Chen a little relieved. The strength and advantage of Celestial Trade finally made the ruler of the old world a little hesitant in its actions.

If this happened ten years ago, the UA’s aircraft carrier battle groups would have long entered Xin’s water to investigate “weapons of mass destruction”. Why would they still debate whether it was a solar wind or EMP that caused the incident?

As for whether the infuriated NATO would launch a full-scale war on Celestial Trade, Jiang Chen was not worried at all.

The EMP launched in Colombia was also a deterrence to NATO.

Many different opinions existed on the area coverage of the wide-area EMP strike. The opinions included how destructive the electromagnetic pulse warhead carried by the Peacemaker was and what was its deterrence capability? How does it compare with nuclear missiles?

And now, Celestial Trade directly used its fist to tell NATO the power of this weapon.

It was very, very, very powerful…

Chapter 1327: The Ruin

Chapter 1327: The Ruin

Just as global attention was focused on South America, the offensive in Syria began.

With the help of Yerif, the 11th Special Operations Division made up by Celestial Trade’s Mercenary Corps successfully entered Syria and assisted the government force to suppress the extreme forces and rebels.

Unlike the shackled Russia and the UA special force, these stateless mercenaries didn’t care whether an extreme organization was mild or harmful. The moment that extreme organization was deemed as the target, they fought without hesitation.

Another advantage of fighting in war-torn areas was that there were no people interfering.

In addition to Russian fighters’ airstrikes, Celestial Trade’s Seagull-class transport ships in synchronous orbit occasionally use electromagnetic pulse cannons or missiles to support their operations.

The combat effectiveness of this special combat division made Yerif full of jealousy. If this army served him, what opposition could he not silence?

After the situation in Syria stabilized, Jiang Chen promised that he will become the next employer of this army. This force would help him secure this position as the king, and become his sword and shield in his goal for secular reform…

…

While the world watched Colombia and 9,000 prisoners of war, Jiang Chen, who was at the center of controversies, was focused on another matter.

Just two days ago, news came from the Mars Colony.

The expeditionary army equipped with new weapons finally pushed the tunnel to the suspected position of the Gaia civilization, where they found the fabled database of the “Flowers of Memory”.

It was the legacy left by a civilization three billion years ago, and its value could no longer be measured by wealth. As Dr. Amos said, if the Flowers of Memory really carried all the knowledge of their civilization as described by the Gaia civilization, these memories from three billion years ago would be enough to allow the human civilization to enter the next era.

Jiang Chen took the space elevator to Celestial Trade and met with Kelvin stationed at the Space Command Center. Once they met, he was straight to the point.

“What’s going on at Mine 071?”

“The reinforcement of the main structure of the ruins has been completed, and now it has entered the final stage of excavation.” Kelvin pointed to the holographic screen in front of him and smiled. “We are just doing excavation work on the wall, and we’ll find out very soon what’s inside.”

On the screen, there were the real-time images returned from the excavation site of the Gaia civilization tens of millions of kilometers away.

A tunnel densely paved with steel plates surrounded the space below the entire ruins. The heavily armed Celestial Marines leaned on the outside of the ruins, they formed a line against the wall as they cautiously watched the area.

The field engineer carried a toolbox forward and used a special instrument to observe the inside of the ruins. After he confirmed that there was no living thing or any obstruction, he said a few words to the person in charge next to him, and then backed away.

Soon, under the escort of a group of soldiers, a strangely shaped vehicle drove into the circular tunnel from the main tunnel.

It was strange because its appearance was too abstract.

Its cuboid shape looked like a container with wheels added. From the appearance alone, it was difficult to associate this vehicle with the task “opening door”.

The head of the vehicle was attached to the outside of the ruins, and the wheels on both sides were immediately retracted, and the whole body then gently rested on the ground. A thumb-sized drill bit protruded from the front of the vehicle to drill a hole, and the hole was quickly closed after.

In order to avoid the influence of external air pressure on the ancient relics in the ruins, the Mine 071 site project team was very careful. They took into account almost all possible scenarios. After they confirmed the air pressure and composition inside the ruins, the cuboid vehicle attached to the wall quickly simulated its own internal air environment, and then after a muffled bang, a hole enough for a person was formed on the wall.

“The tunnel is successful constructed, and the conditions of the ruins are confirmed to be normal!”

A voice of relief came from the command center. Many people took off their headphones and wiped the nervous sweat on their foreheads. Many smiles also appeared on everyone’s face.

At this point, the most difficult stage of the excavation work was completed. The rest of the work only required sending a remote car inside to confirm if it was safe. The final stage was to send hundreds of scientific researchers to the colony to accept the legacy of the former civilization.

After Jiang Chen left the Space Command Center, he stayed with Celestial Trade for a few days as he started the selection process of the candidates that will accept the “Flowers of Memory”.

Because of its association with the Gaia civilization and the existence of the Flowers of Memory, this task was ranked as the highest confidential information in Celestial Trade. The information was not accessible to most.

Based on the principle of voluntariness, Jiang Chen sent Ghost Agents to assess the loyalty of the group’s scientists and sent an invitation letter to all the scientists who were confirmed to be reliable. The purpose of the invitation was for training on Mars.

If they accepted the group’s dispatch, they would be automatically listed as a candidate for the Flowers of Memory. They would be informed once they boarded with relevant information such as, what the Flowers of Memory are, and what the Gaia civilization is…

Since it was memories from three billion years ago, there was still a degree of risk.

In the scientific research system of Celestial Trade, in addition to loyalty to the group, most of the scientists who received the invitation letter were middle-level scientists, who had the capability of accepting knowledge, were between 30 and 40 years old, and had high training value…

“Put my name on the list,” Amos said when he arrived at Jiang Chen’s office. “We agreed that if the ruins are successfully excavated, I get a copy of the scientific research from the former civilization.”

“There is still a high degree of uncertainty in the security status of the colony. I can let people send the Flowers of Memory back,” Jiang Chen looked at Amos as he tried to persuade him, “If you don’t change your mind then, it’s not too late to inoculate in Celestial City.”

If possible, he did not want to send important talents to risky places.

In the research of Klein particles and neural bridging, even Lin Lin, a digitalized human from the 22nd century, praised him for his accomplishments. Give him time, and his future achievements in the scientific community would not be inferior to those of the great scientists who have left their names in history.

However, Amos did not change his mind as he shook his head.

“Scientific research itself is full of uncertain risks. If you fear the risks, it’s counterintuitive to what we believe in.”

With the certainty in Amos’ tone, Jiang Chen pondered for a moment, then let out a sigh as he put his name on the list.

“If you insist.”

“Thank you.” As he saw the list, Amos smiled from the bottom of his heart, then he joked in a relaxed tone, “Are you not going to send me an invitation letter or something?”

“No, you get special treatment.”

Chapter 1328: Ambition For Arms Sales

Chapter 1328: Ambition For Arms Sales

The eerie blue jet flame pushed the Seagull-class carrying the hope of human civilization towards the endless darkness. In addition to three hundred scientific researchers, the space elevator components designed by Future Heavy Industries for the Mars colony were also loaded on-board.

After Jiang Chen watched the starship depart, he left the port of Celestial City.

In order to determine the candidate for the inoculation of Flowers of Memory, he had already spent more time than he planned for, now it was time to return to the surface.

When Jiang Chen returned to his mansion on Coro Island, it happened to be late at night.

He saw the lights in Xia Shiyu’s office were still on, so he gently opened the door and walked in.

Just after she finished signing a document, she yawned, leaned back against the chair, and stretched out to relax herself.

A pair of hands was gently placed on her tender shoulders, and the unexpected Xia Shiyu almost fell off the chair.

She turned her head to see a smug smile and revelation appeared on her face as she gave him a hard stare.

“You didn’t say a word when you came in.”

“I was afraid to disturb you.”

“You already disturbed me, okay?”

She closed her eyes and gradually relaxed her body. With a sweet smile, she quietly enjoyed the massage from the big hands on her shoulders.

“Why are you up so late?”

“It’s because of you.”

“Me?”

Jiang Chen glanced at the pile of documents on the desk in a puzzled manner. He only saw the words “2020 Xin International Defense Expo” and “Planning Document” written on the pile of signed document’s left upper corner.

When he saw this, he realized what happened.

He actually personally instructed this matter.

“We have invited 47 countries to participate in the expo, 39 countries have confirmed their attendance, and 789 companies have confirmed that they will appear in the expo.” The closed eyelashes trembled lightly from comfort; she said in a lazy tone as she reported the event’s progress to Jiang Chen. “The venue and time for the event have been finalized, and it will be held in the Heart of the Sea on Coro Island in September.”

It was the first international defense expo hosted by Xin. The invited countries were either members of the Earth Defense Alliance, or the countries with intention of joining the alliance. The purpose of this defense expo was not only to strengthen military cooperation among member states, but also to find overseas buyers for the burgeoning arms giant, Future Military.

It was the first time Future Military was open to arms sales.

In addition to creating profit, the sale of arms itself was also a way to expand influence.

It was almost foreseeable that EMP weapons and kinetic skeletons would become the stars of this defense expo.

Of course, all weapons sold to foreign arms were export models specially designed by Future Military. In terms of technical capability and performance, they were naturally inferior compared to the Celestial Trade models. The equipment was more similar to the ones used by Madagascar’s mercenaries.

“Don’t stay up too late,” Jiang Chen said softly.

With a relaxed sniffle, Xia Shiyu joked.

“I suddenly realized that you are quite good at taking care of people.”

“You just realized?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“What… what are you doing?” With his hands that started to venture into other territories, Xia Shiyu bit her lower lip and blushed. She glanced at the door, and then whispered, “Don’t be silly.”

“If you are worried about Lilith hearing us, you can rest assured.” Jiang Chen smirked and quietly whispered in her ear as he watched the red hue cover her face, “When I went upstairs, she was playing games.”

“You, you haven’t showered yet…”

“I want you to help me.”

…

It was a quiet night.

The next day, Jiang Chen slept until almost noon before he got up.

After he washed up and ate the lunch Ayesha prepared, he went to the living room.

Lilith, on the sofa, saw Jiang Chen moving towards her, so she moved her legs to make room for him.

Jiang Chen sat down next to her, comfortably leaned back on the sofa, and turned on the holographic TV.

It just so happened that it was international news.

The Colombian government force and FARC exchanged fire in the central region. Because they had lost the support of the NATO Coalition Force, the government force retreated under the offensive of the guerrillas. They retreated to a place less than 20 kilometers from Bogota.

At present, NATO attempted to start a dialogue with Moro on the issue of prisoners of war, but Moro refused at this moment. Italy and Greece were considering withdrawing from the NATO Coalition Force, as well as launching peace talks with FARC as independent nations in order to redeem their captured soldiers.

After all, the two countries just sent a battalion each symbolically. It was purely to join in on the fun and respond to their allies. Now the situation was turning south, it was clearly not in their interest for the war to continue. Compared with the common interests of NATO, domestic political interests were much more crucial.

“Are things developing as you expected?” Lilith, who was on the sofa with her legs curled up, suddenly asked nonchalantly.

“Not at all,” Jiang Chen smiled, “but at least the general direction has not gone south.”

“Really?” Lilith said thoughtfully.

At this moment, Ayesha walked into the living room, glanced at Lilith on the sofa, and then sat down on the other sofa.

“Bernice called. The UA Department of Defense issued a document to all UA soldiers, requiring the strict implementation of the requirements to platoon-level combat units. All electronic equipment, especially communication equipment, must be strictly stored in a Faraday backpack during non-usage time…” Ayesha turned on the holographic screen on her watch and pushed the news to Jiang Chen, “Here is the original document.”

“She can even get this information.” Jiang Chen was a little surprised as he extended his finger with interest and fiddled with the scroll bar on the holographic screen.

It seemed that the UA was indeed terrified by the EMP attack, otherwise, it would not implement this method.

The benefits of doing this were obvious. There was no need to worry about Celestial Trade’s EMP attacks destroying the eyes and ears of the military. The tradeoff, however, was that it hindered real-time communication, such that it was necessary to agree upon a communication time and so on.

In addition, the report also mentioned that the UA Department of Defense ordered a batch of old-fashioned communication equipment from domestic communication companies to respond to emergencies. At the same time, the country also invested 10 billion dollars to develop a more advanced, more convenient, and lower-cost optical transmission system, intending to solve the threat of Celestial Trade EMP weapons at the root.

Jiang Chen was skeptical about whether or not the UA could really achieve this.

Their direction was indeed correct. There were only two measures to deal with EMP weapons in the apocalypse. One was to replace telecommunication components with optical transmission components, and the other was to make key electronic components as small as possible.

However, it was still impossible to completely resist EMP strikes, unless the electromagnetic field could be completely shielded…

Chapter 1329: They Are Not Here To Compete

Chapter 1329: They Are Not Here To Compete

“Compared with these minor details, I’m more concerned about the election.” Jiang Chen retracted the holographic screen, smiled and said casually, “After all, we put a lot of chips on Joseph.”

“Not particularly optimistic,” Ayesha shook her head and whispered softly, “The situation in South America is heating up, and there has been a large influx of Colombian refugees into the UA. It is inevitable that the support rate of the war hawks will rise. What’s more, it just happened to be at the time when there are tensions in the relationship between the UA and Xin…”

Jiang Chen nodded but remained silent.

He did not consider the refugee effect brought about by the war, and the UA was undoubtedly the first choice in the hearts of the Colombian people, followed by Canada. The influx of refugees would inevitably bring poverty and crime to the UA and cause a series of social problems. Now, it was also the critical moment of the election campaign. These problems would definitely impact on the election.

It did appear that Mr. Kennedy’s opponent seemed to be a big proponent for anti-refugees.

One of his campaign promises was to build a Great Wall along the border…

…

A meeting was taking place in the in the top military office in the UA.

Not only high-level officials from the Ministry of Defense, but the president and his advisors and cabinet ministers were also present.

It was quite interesting since just three days ago, the same people in the conference room had just met at the president’s office. Now in a different place, another meeting was being held. Although the topics discussed were different, there was no change in the objectives of the discussion.

A meeting manuscript was placed in front of everyone, and there was also a brochure next to it, with words “2020 Xin International Defense Expo” written on it.

This brochure was designed by Future Military and was distributed by Xin’s National Defense Department through its embassies. However, the photocopied version placed in front of everyone was obtained by the CIB from an invited country.

If it were any other country’s defense exhibition, it would not trigger a reaction this scale to have an emergency meeting.

The key issue was the kind of weapons that certain country planned to sell at this defense exhibition…

“…Future Military intends to sell EMP weapons and kinetic skeletons to the member states of the Earth Defense Alliance.” Secretary of Defense Carter looked around the colleagues around him and said with a solemn expression, “Although it is currently uncertain what version of the weapon they are intending to sell, we still have to put heavy emphasis. I believe you all know what it means to us once EMP weapons proliferate.”

The senior officials of the Department of Defense and the ministers looked at each other in shock. It was obvious that they had already felt the concern in Carter’s words.

After the military advisor hesitated for a moment, he requested to speak and said while he spun the pen in his hands.

“Conversely, does this mean that we also have the opportunity to obtain their EMP weapons? Our technical bottleneck in the development of EMP weapons has not made any effective progress. If we can find a way to buy some from them…”

“Impossible,” Carter shook his head and smiled wryly, “Not a single military-industrial complex company has been invited, and our purchasing department is obviously not on their invitation list.”

Not just the UA, no NATO member states had been invited. The 47 invited countries were all members of the Earth Defense Alliance.

In a sense, the behavior of Xin had indeed confirmed the UA’s speculation.

Celestial Trade was not satisfied with the Earth Defense Alliance being only an organization with the purpose to defend against extraterrestrial civilizations. First, it used the space elevator and the global grid to kidnap the economies of the member states, and now it was beginning to strengthen the military cooperation between member states.

They were uncertainty whether their goal was to become the second United Nations, NATO, or a combination of the two. However, they were strongly alerted by the series of actions taken by Celestial Trade

“The Olympic Games will be held in Yoto soon,” President Hill, who had been silent, suddenly broke the silence on the meeting table, “I will go to Yoto to attend the opening ceremony. I will talk this opportunity and speak with that man in person.”

…

The war that took place thousands of kilometers away did not affect the prosperity of Coro Island. Only foreign soldiers participated in the war with no Xin national soldiers involved.

It was just that the impact of the war, after all, was blown onto the beaches of Xin with monsoon. Everyone was discussing whether there was going to be a war, and whether Xin would send a volunteer army like Moro. In addition, how would NATO react?

After all, the Colombian authorities had detained the delegation of Xin under the direction of the CIB to blame Juan’s death on Xin. It was the FARC who rescued the delegation and sent them to the border of Ecuador.

At least the mainstream media in Xin reported it this way.

Whether it was public opinion or official message, they all sided with and supported FARC. Even the call to send troops to Colombia was gaining an increasing amount of support on Celestial Trade’s official site.

The people of Xin were not really concerned over the war. It was because it seemed that Celestial Trade’s overseas military operations had never lost, and the aftereffects of the war had never been brought back to Xin. Only those immigrants from the UA or Europe still had mixed feelings about the international war operations.

One side was their homeland, and the other was the country they now live in. Apart from calling for peace, there seemed to be no better choice for them.

Time quickly arrived in August.

The Yoto Olympics was about to begin, and the athletes of Xin had arrived in the Yoto training grounds in mid-July for a week of adaptive training.

Because Xin was sending athletes to participate in the Olympics for first time, the country attached great importance to this event, and both the government and the people had shown considerable enthusiasm.

About two years ago, when the crisis took place in Yoto, people all over the world were not optimistic that the country could walk out from the shadow of the T virus. The real estate price of Yoto plummeted to an extreme, and it was also at that time that Jiang Chen took advantage of the fact that Future Biology had yet to disclose the vaccine, and went on a purchase spree in the Yoto real estate market.

In order to support Xin’s sports, Jiang Chen specially called the agent who helped him manage his real estate in Yoto and offered a five-star hotel not far from the Olympic Village under his name. Xin’s athletes could live for free.

Living outside the Olympic Village during the Olympic Games was generally the privilege of big-name athletes. For example, the Dream Team, which competed for the first time in 1992, has never lived in the Olympic Village. However, it was the first time in the history of Olympic Games that more than 200 athletes and more than 100 coaches, team leaders, and medical personnel lived in an entire five-star hotel.

Even Saudi Arabia had never flaunted wealth like this

Future Group President’s moves successfully shocked all the netizens in the world. While people lamented the luck of the athletes from Xin, they couldn’t help but exclaim at the wealth of this president.

It got to the point where an athlete from another country, who did not want their name to be disclosed, said bitterly in an interview with the media.

“They are not here to compete at all, they are here to show off their wealth…”

Chapter 1330: New Ride

Chapter 1330: New Ride

On August 2nd, a silver private jet appeared over Yoto International Airport.

The long triangular wing slowly extended from the plane’s nose to the tail. The bowl-shaped engine at the end was lined with blade-like metal pieces. When it was ignited, an eerie blue light arc thrusted the plane forward. The streamlined body and the unique ion propulsion engine made this jet appear more like an aerospace plane than a private jet.

It was not wrong.

It was an aerospace plane.

This private jet named Aerospace G100 was specially built for Jiang Chen by the Space Science and Technology Department of Future Heavy Industries.

Its flight principle was also different from that of most airplanes today. For flights longer than 800 kilometers, the Aerospace G100 would first enter the relatively low-pressure stratosphere, then enter the mesosphere, exosphere before it cruised at a speed of several Mach above the ozone layer.

As far as the cruising attitude of long-distance flight is concerned, the Aerospace G100 had already surpassed most aircraft. It could quickly reach any place in the world within two hours and it did not need to apply for airspace rights for countries along its path.

However, the most critical point was its cruising speed. The cruising speed of the Aerospace G100 could reach 25 Mach at an altitude of 100 kilometers (the first cosmic speed is about 23.2 Mach), so this aerospace plane could not only be used to travel to and from ground airports, but could also go to and from any airport on the ground to Celestial City.

Only one aerospace plane was manufactured at this point, but mass production models would be available to the billionaires around the world. Many rich people would be interested in this type of sophisticated aircraft, since especially for the rich, time is money.

Many people in the airport’s terminal lobby noticed the weird-looking aircraft.

Many people exclaimed when they saw the plane with the blue flaming tail as it lowered its landing gear.

“Dear, look, what kind of plane is that?” A blond woman pulled at her partner and excitedly pointed her finger at the plane outside.

“…Am I seeing things? Why did an aerospaceplane land here.” The tourist with a travel bag behind his back rubbed his eyes, and his nose was almost touching the window.

“Wait, look at the symbols above… I recognize it! One is Future Heavy Industries and the other is Celestial Trade!”

“In other words… the person sitting inside is?”

“There’s no other possibilities!”

Because the Olympic was about to start, visitors all the world had gathered in Yoto, but no one could recognize the model of this plane. Driven by curiosity, some people wanted to go up to and take a photo, but without exception, they were stopped by heavily armed soldiers.

The day before Jiang Chen’s new plane arrived, the government blocked the runway where the aerospace plane landed and increased the police presence at the airport.

It was no exaggeration to say that even if the UA President was assassinated here, they did not dare to let Jiang Chen experience any problems here.

No one wanted to be the second Colombia, and no one wanted the next “solar wind” to blow on their face.

The Nippon Foreign Minister Kishida looked at the parked plane and greeted him with a huge smile. He extended his right hand and held onto Jiang Chen’s hand while he bowed and shook vigorously. “Welcome! Haha, we welcome Mr. Jiang’s arrival in Yoto to participate in our opening ceremony. Your arrival will definitely add sparks to the Olympic!”

“I don’t dare,” Jiang Chen smiled modestly. After he shook the foreign minister’s hand twice, he wanted to withdraw his hand.

However, Foreign Minister Kishida was so enthusiastic that he continued to hold his hand and refused to let go, and he kept saying compliments. Obviously, he either worked hard to improve his Mandarin, or he stayed up late and memorized a few thousand words of manuscript…

Jiang Chen looked at the diligent Foreign Minister Kishida and started to feel goosebumps. The smile on his face twitched, and finally he withdrew his right hand calmly.

“Mr. Kishida, you don’t have to be so polite. Our company’s convoy is waiting for me outside the airport corridor, do you think…”

“It won’t delay you for a long time.” As Kishida spoke, he took an exquisitely crafted invitation letter from his assistant and handed it respectfully to Jiang Chen. “This is just a little gesture to show our appreciation. We hope Mr. Jiang will come.”

A State Banquet Invitation?

Jiang Chen vaguely recalled that they seemed to have held one when Zhang Yaping came a few days ago.

“I am just a citizen. Such a grandiose gesture is too much.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“That is not a problem!” With a warm smile, Kishida continued to say flattery words without feeling awkward at all, “Guests from all walks of life are looking forward to your arrival. Please don’t refuse…”

Looking at his fiery eyes, Jiang Chen started to get goosebumps again.

Wait a second, is this guy…?

How come I didn’t realize before…

Jiang Chen didn’t know that the EMP he dropped in Colombia not only frightened NATO, but also frightened Nippon on the other side of the Pacific. Up to now, half of the power grid in Colombia was still paralyzed. The country was sent back to the early electrification age from the information age and had to rely on the humanitarian aid to pass through this difficult age.

They must not be an enemy of Celestial Trade!

This point of view had reached a consensus among high-level Nippon officials, and in a sense had even further accelerated the end of the Nippon-UA Security Treaty and the disintegration of the Nippon-UA-Korea Triangle Alliance. If the Nippon intelligence agencies had previously only turned a blind eye to the spy war between the CIB and Ghost Agents in their own country, it was starting to lean towards Xin.

The nation had a history of “being extremely vicious to the weak and bowing down to the strong.”

While Kishida sent Jiang Chen to the car, he suddenly asked.

“I wonder if Mr. Jiang plans to live in a mansion in the suburbs, or stay in a hotel in the city?”

The mansion under Mount Fuji was too far away from Yoto. It would take at least four hours to drive back and forth. After all, this time, he was not here for leisure

“I’ll be in Yoto, what’s the matter?” Jiang Chen asked casually.

“It’s nothing, please don’t mind it.” Foreign Minister Kishida bowed again and with a mysterious smile on his face, he added, “Mr. Jiang came from afar and therefore must lack a guide. We will send you a commissioner to take care of your daily life and travel safety to ensure stay feels at home.”

After Jiang Chen took a moment to process the information, he responded with a respectful smile.

“Thank you.”

The bodyguard standing on the side closed the door, and soon the convoy started to move slowly and left through the special passage of the airport.

While watching the convoy disappear on the road, Kishida lifted his head in relief. He then took some wet wipes from his assistant, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and threw it into the trash can next to him…

Chapter 1331: Who Could It Be?

Chapter 1331: Who Could It Be?

After the convoy entered the highway, it slowly rose and entered the maglev track.

With the gradual expansion of overseas exports of maglev roads by Future Heavy Industries, there were no more vehicles on the roads of Yoto, because most vehicles, except buses and trains, floated in the sky. Now not only the Luer Group but also internationally renowned automobile brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Tesla, Toyota also begun to enter the maglev car market.

The core of the magnetic levitation technology was mainly on the pillars underneath the highway. On the contrary to popular belief, the technical difficulties of the maglev vehicle were not particularly high. After top international auto manufacturers obtained the relevant patent from Future Heavy Industries, they could also manufacture vehicles capable of meeting the standard of the maglev roads.

Jiang Chen was fully aware that he could not monopolize the market, so he was not stingy in technology licensing, just like when he opened the technology licensing the graphene. Fifty percent of the world’s chips now used architecture derived from Future Technology. The same was true for maglev cars, except that almost 100% of maglev cars used the “Future Standards.”

In addition to allowing major auto manufacturers to be labeled as Future Heavy Industries, this decision also brought huge profits to Future Group.

Take Mercedes-Benz as an example. For every maglev series vehicle produced by Mercedes-Benz, it not only had to obtain quality certification from Future Heavy Industries before it could be sold, but the company also had to pay a technology licensing fee of one percent on the price of the vehicle before tax.

In the vehicle, Jiang Chen called Ayesha to inform her that he landed safely.

Just as he was about to hang up, he received another call.

When he saw the name on the holographic screen, he took an extra second to read the name again before he picked up the call.

“That plane is yours?” Yerif immediately asked as soon as the call was connected.

“Plane?” Jiang Chen was confused as he didn’t understand the question, “Which place are you referring to?”

The Aurora-20? Or a Russian fighter?

He instinctively linked Yerif’s words with the situation in Syria.

Yerif had an odd expression when he heard the confusion in Jiang Chen’s tone.

“…You didn’t look at the news?”

“I just arrived in Yoto, on the car back to my hotel, what news are you talking about.” Jiang Chen facepalmed.

“Wait, I’ll send you a link, see for yourself…”

Yerif hung up shortly after.

Not long after, his watch buzzed, and an email was sent to Jiang Chen’s email address.

There was only a link in his mail. From the domain name, it was from YouTube

With full of confusion in his mind, Jiang Chen clicked on the video.

The video was from a waiting lounge at an airport.

Probably because it was shot with a phone, the quality of the video was poor. The person who shot the video was obviously not a professional photographer as the camera was shaking. However, the unreasonable part was how viral the video became.

Jiang Chen paid attention to the time when the video was uploaded.

In less than an hour, the number of views exceeded one million.

Even with YouTube’s traffic, it still shocked him.

Just then, Jiang Chen suddenly paused.

Because he saw a familiar outline in the video.

Wait, Isn’t this my G100?

There was a dumbfounding expression on his face. He understood the reason why Yerif called. His tone sounded so serious that he thought something must have happened in Syria. After the mercenaries from Madagascar arrived in Syria, the Aurora-20s would fly over to “check in” every day.

Jiang Chen slid down the screen and glanced through the comments section.

Many people recognized from the logo on the plane that it was a product of Future Heavy Industries. Although people were no longer surprised by the dark technology of the Future Group, they were still amazed by the fact that he rode an aerospace plane.

[The richest man is indeed rich. He takes an aerospace plane for longer trips]

[I just want to know how much this plane costs? Although I can’t afford it even if I know…]

[Haha, interesting, Future Heavy Industries is looking to steal business from Gulfstream. Following the automotive industry, is the aviation industry going to experience a bloodbath?]

[To be honest, if this thing is not expensive, it will sell like crazy…]

[I feel that my future has been contracted by Future Group.]

Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile when he saw the top comments, then he called Yerif back.

“My friend, now you know which plane I am talking about.” Yerif grinned.

“I see,” Jiang Chen made a helpless expression, “I guess, you are planning to buy one too?”

“TEN!”

Jiang Chen almost choked as he had to cough to conceal his shocked state.

“Do you know how much one costs?”

“How much?” Yerif was taken aback.

“I will provide you the personnel training and supporting maintenance equipment for free. This Aerospace-100 is the price of five Gulfstream G650s.”

Five Gulfstreams?!

Yerif brows twitched.

Even if the Saudi Royal Family was rich, it was also royal money. Now old king viewed Yerif positively, if everything continued smoothly, he would be the next king. But at this moment, if he spent more than 3 billion Xin New dollars to buy ten private jets, even the old king would probably rethink this decision.

“Then… let’s have two.” Yerif debated for a moment and decided to pay for it out of his own pocket, “I want them in black, you know, in our country, black represents nobleness. One of them will be plated with my father’s name in gold. I plan to give it to my father as a birthday present…”

As the richest man in the world, the old king lacked nothing. Every year Yerif had to think hard about his birthday because he really didn’t know what to give. He gave an elephant the year before last year. Last year his brother gifted a tiger. This year, there seemed to be another lion, so he couldn’t just gift more pets. The palace was almost becoming a zoo!

“Ahem, please send it to my mailbox with your requirements,” Jiang Chen interrupted him and said, “I can’t remember all in my head.”

“Thank you! My friend,” Yerif said gratefully. “This is a great help to me.”

Is it that serious?

Jiang Chen shook his head while containing his grin, then he hung up.

The hotel where he stayed was one of his assets, and it was only two blocks away from the National Stadium. From the floor-to-ceiling windows in the presidential suite on the top floor of the hotel, the runway and greenfield were even visible.

After Jiang Chen arrived in the room along with the hotel waiter, he tossed his suit on the hanger. He was about to take a shower first, and then lay down and rest for a while. The bodyguards downstairs called his watch and said that someone who claimed to be a reception commissioner sent by the government was visiting.

Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow as he recalled what Foreign Minister Kishida said to him at the airport.

Then he casually said, “Let him up.”

“Yes.”

Who could it be?

He was very curious.

Chapter 1332: A Very Simple Way

Chapter 1332: A Very Simple Way

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

About a month ago, Miss Kwai, who was already working for the Yoto Metropolitan Police Department, was called to the office of the Ministry of General Affairs. She was informed that there was an important task assigned to her. Miss Kwai, who hadn’t been assigned any key tasks, eagerly rushed to the office in excitement.

Her boss politely invited her to sit down, then put a document on the table. He tapped the document lightly with his finger but didn’t open it. He instead just explained.

“A very important foreign guest will visit Yoto on August 2nd, and you will be his security advisor.”

“That’s fine, but why am I selected?” Kwai was slightly taken aback and asked in confusion.

Shouldn’t security advisors be selected from the Intelligence Department? Why am I chosen with just a police background?

“…I don’t know. This is a document issued directly from the above. Both the Cabinet Intelligence Research Office and the Ministry of Defense signed the document,” The boss touched his nose and said.

“Can you show me the mission book? I need more details in order to better complete the task.”

The expression on the boss’s face was a little subtle, he coughed, put the file in the drawer, and looked away while he continued.

“No, the task itself is not very difficult. I believe that Miss Kwai’s strength is more than sufficient without more details. What you need to do is be responsible for solving some legal problems that the foreign guest may encounter during his stay here. People from the Self-Defense Forces and the Intelligence Department will be responsible.”

“I understand, I promise to complete the task!”

Although she wondered why he couldn’t show her the mission log, Miss Kwai still accepted this mission with confidence.

It was just that for some strange reason, the old boss, who had always been aggressive towards his subordinates at work, was afraid to look her in the eyes…

Perhaps it was her Illusion?

In any case, it was the first big task in her career. If she could complete this task to perfection, it would definitely be a highlight on her resume. With 120% enthusiasm, Miss Kwai also studied a month of Mandarin. Because she heard that the foreign guest she was in charge of spoke Mandarin, she thought it must be a high-level foreign guest that was coming here to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

However, Miss Kwai never expected that when she arrived at the hotel where the foreign guest stayed, with anxiety and excitement, that she’d meet someone she didn’t want to see.

No, he should be called the devil!

“I guess you are hesitant about whether or not you should run away,” Jiang Chen looked at the shaking Kwai in the hallway, as her slender shoulders trembled. Jiang Chen touched his chin as his lips curved, “But I guess you will choose to stay.”

“I’m a police constable now…” Miss Kwai said nervously, “Please be respectful. I can forget the things that happened before but from now on…”

Because she was too nervous, she accidentally bit her tongue.

Jiang Chen laughed as he looked at the lady with red cheeks. He walked to the sofa and sat down, turned on the TV, and asked casually while changing the channel.

“Police constable? What is that?”

“A rank…” The corner of her lips raised, as she was obviously quite proud.

She indeed could be proud.

In Nippon, women did not have an advantage in the workplace. She graduated from the police academy less than two years ago and was able to go from the lowest rank, an inspector, to a constable before she was twenty-four. Even if this was a drama, her promotion path was quite rare.

1

“Oh,” Jiang Chen nodded thoughtfully and laughed, “It seems that they are taking good care of you.”

“Taking care?” Kwai was slightly taken aback.

She didn’t realize that she was promoted so quickly in the workplace because of someone’s work.

“Let’s not talk about this,” Jiang Chen smiled and turned off the TV that hadn’t been on for too long, “Since there is still time before nightfall, we might as well do something interesting.”

“What do you want to do?” There was a noticeable panic in her eyes and Kwai subconsciously took half a step back. However, when she saw the smirk on Jiang Chen’s face, she was agitated. She worked up her courage and stared back at Jiang Chen. In a threatening tone, she said, “Even if you have diplomatic immunity, if news spreads that you’ve done something to a police officer, I’m afraid you can’t get out of it.”

The more powerful, the more they cared about their reputation.

Kwai was certain that Jiang Chen would definitely make the right choice in front of personal and group reputation. However, when she saw his eyes, Jiang Chen shattered her self-confidence with only three words.

“Are you sure?”

Are you sure?

Kwai started to panic.

Even she herself didn’t know why she started to question herself.

“…I will tell my boss that I’ll give up this mission.”

Her glistening teeth clenched tightly together, and she bowed deeply. Kwai left this sentence and ran to the entrance. However, when she reached for the doorknob, she realized that she couldn’t open the door.

“I told you to come in,” Jiang Chen shrugged, stood up, and said slowly, “But I never told you to leave.”

Kwai hurriedly took out her phone as she saw Jiang Chen walk towards her.

“Don’t worry, you have one minute to call now. I’ll allow you to ask anyone for help,” Jiang Chen said with a smirk, “By the way, if you call the police or call your colleague or boss, I promise you it won’t work. If you call your family, I will let you go. Everything that happened before will be wiped clean, and I will promise you a reasonable request.”

The hand that held onto her phone trembled, and Kwai shuddered as she watched Jiang Chen approach her. She moved back again and again before her back was against the door.

“I still have a bottom line. I never force anyone to do anything.” Jiang Chen walked to her and brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. As he watched her panic like a squirrel, shrunken in the corner, he slowly took away the phone she was holding, then whispered into her ear while blowing on her soft earlobe, “It turns out you are still looking forward to it, aren’t you?”

Kwai said in a shaky voice.

“You, you devil…”

“Devil? I don’t think so.” Jiang Chen shrugged, dropped the smartphone in his hand on the cabinet at the entrance, and glanced at her with interest. He then said, “In fact, there is a very simple way to verify my reasoning.”

“Wh…what reasoning?”

“The reasoning that you are actually expecting me to do something to you.”

Kwai’s breathing was choppy as she squeezed these words from between her teeth.

“…That is impossible.”

“Don’t deny it right away.” Jiang Chen looked at the stubborn and dazed look that interchanged on her face. Then, he raised her right hand and showed it to her with the same smirk, “Let me teach you what to do. You can go to the bathroom and verify it yourself.”

Chapter 1333: Part of the Fun

Chapter 1333: Part of the Fun

It didn’t take long before he heard the toilet being flushed in the washroom, followed by the roar of the hairdryer.

He smugness of his smile was very apparent.

It seemed that he had guessed right.

He was curious when she got wet.

Did it start when she stepped into the room, or when she was in an internal struggle the moment she held onto the phone?

This answer may only be clear to her.

But Jiang Chen had a feeling that he would hear it directly from her one day.

As for now, he certainly wouldn’t do anything to her.

He still had a state banquet in the evening to attend to and he did not want to smell like perfume. Since it was part of the fun, he was not in a hurry anyway. He still had to stay in Yoto for a while, so he considered it as a sideshow in this trip.

It was quite enjoyable to appreciate the righteous pretty face gradually become confused in the contradiction between resistance and pleasure and begin to doubt everything she had insisted on and finally turn into a mess.

After all, if he just needed to vent his desire, it would be too low for his current status. If he just signaled, the number of people who would recommend themselves would be lined up from Coro Island to Celestial City. It was rare to see someone like Miss Kwai, who could possess her dignity for so long.

Although it was just part of his wicked humor…

After Kwai came out of the washroom, her chest was pumping up and down violently. Her face was completely covered in red clouds of shame, and a hint of lostness. The shame was because of Jiang Chen’s frivolity, and the lostness was because she had always believed in what she insisted.

She thought she was being forced, and she resisted this “devil”.

However, her body’s reaction completely denied this.

She didn’t know how to face Jiang Chen, or even how to face herself like this…

“I will go to the New Otani Hotel in the evening. You can arrange this time by yourself. Qian Xia will be here soon. You can go back and get a change of clothes. After all, you are the tour guide sent to me, so of course, you have to live here during this time.”

After Jiang Chen finished this sentence, he glanced at the blushing Kwai at the door of the bathroom, and deliberately not looked at her expression, he instead just pointed to the sofa next to him, “Why are you just standing there? Are you afraid of me? Or, are you expecting me to do something to you?”

Just when Kwai was blow-drying her hair, besides calling the little maid Qian Xia who was going to school, Jiang Chen also received an email from Yerif. It was evident that the crown prince was very invested in his father’s birthday gift. In less than two hours, he had already sent the orders.

Jiang Chen ignored Kwai, who had sat far away from him. He forwarded the email to Future Heavy Industries CEO Yang Guanglei’s email, as well as emphasized the priority of this order. Then he returned a call to Yerif to urge him to send pilots for training on Ange Island’s Space Training Center as soon as possible.

Different from traditional aircraft, the Aerospace G100 that could reach the synchronous orbit could obviously be classified as a space shuttle, and the pilot must naturally possess the identity of an astronaut. Even for an experienced pilot that controlled multiple models of aircraft, it was necessary to attend training for further enhancement.

Considering that Saudi Arabia was an important part of the Celestial Trade Middle East strategy, Jiang Chen did Yerif a favor and waived the pilot training costs, as well as the costs of maintenance equipment. If all these costs were added together, it would cost at least half of a Gulfstream.

Jiang Chen sat there writing his emails, while Kwai sat in the corner of the sofa with her head lowered. The quiet atmosphere lasted for a long time until someone knocked on the door to remind Jiang Chen that it was time to leave.

…

The banquet was held at the New Otani Hotel.

With only five minutes left before the six o’clock start, five black cars stopped at the entrance of the New Otani Hotel. After the motorcade stopped, a bodyguard stepped forward and opened the door for Jiang Chen, and stood respectfully aside.

The Foreign Minister Kishida walked forward, just like he did at the airport. He extended out his hand from a long-distance away. Behind the minister were politicians and elites in different industries who Jiang Chen couldn’t name nor interested in meeting.

After a polite greeting, Kishida gestured to the entrance of the New Otani Hotel and enthusiastically invited Jiang Chen inside.

The superfluous flattery often was the pretense for something else.

Jiang Chen certainly didn’t think that Mr. Kishida dared to think anything malicious, but his flattering attempt made it difficult to not suspect any ill intentions.

However, what surprised Jiang Chen was that from the time he got off the plane, this guy didn’t say anything else except for some flattering words, which really didn’t fit their style.

Maybe he is planning to bring the topic up at the banquet?

Jiang Chen thought.

The banquet hall was quite spacious, and if the tables were removed, it could be turned into a ballroom.

Almost as soon as Jiang Chen took a seat at the table, the banquet began.

There was a strange tradition in Nippon. Although the country has a rich food culture, in most of its state banquets, the cuisine of choice was often French, or at least French cuisine with local characteristics.

In their own words: “The relatively closed cooking method, like the culture, was difficult to change once an impression was formed, let alone be accepted by foreigners. In addition, for the safety of diners, the local cuisine was generally not used in diplomatic settings.”

In short, they were worried that foreign guests would experience food poisoning or an upset stomach after eating sashimi.

As the dining carts passed one by one, the dishes on the table gradually became dazzling.

Beside the table, Jiang Chen did not touch his cutleries yet before he unexpectedly saw two acquaintances.

One was Hiroto Mitsui, the owner of the Mitsui Foundation, and the other was Sumitomo Kenichi, the eldest son of the Sumitomo Foundation.

The first was self-explanatory. When the T-virus crisis broke out, after Tanaka was removed by Jiang Chen, Mitsui Hiroto promptly removed himself and his family from the owner behind the Kurofune and submitted a list to Jiang Chen in exchange for Jiang Chen’s promise to not further pursue this incident.

The two did not meet again afterward. At this moment, Mitsui just smiled at Jiang Chen.

In contrast, Sumitomo Kenichi was much more enthusiastic.

As the representative of the power cooperation with Celestial Trade, his prestige had grown to the point where he was considered one of the brightest leaders in the younger generation of the Sumitomo Foundation. After he had signed the transmission cable contract with Celestial Trade, the Sumitomo Foundation had grown tremendously. They were the actual controllers of the country’s third-largest power company, and now they had monopolized most of the energy market with ultra-low-cost electricity prices.

If everything proceeded smoothly, he would become the patriarch of the family.

And at this moment, the heir to the Sumitomo Foundation was working hard to discuss the next new deal with Jiang Chen…

Chapter 1334: : I’m Being Watched

Chapter 1334: I’m Being Watched

“…We are very interested in your company’s concept of ‘Future City’, especially the logistics drone. I have been following your drone logistics pilots in Xiangjiang and Wanghai and the drone hive is an ingenious design!” Full of excitement, Sumitomo Kenichi did not hesitate to give his praise, “There is also drone medical care! Currently, Sumitomo Group is investing heavily in logistics and medical care. Is Mr. Jiang interested?”

“If your company plans to introduce drone systems, then, of course, we welcome it.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Great. If Mr. Jiang doesn’t have any special arrangements after the banquet, please allow me to take some of your time.” With a happy expression on his face, Sumitomo Kenichi looked at Jiang Chen and said sincerely, “I hope to discuss with you in detail.”

Jiang Chen was about to find an excuse to refuse the meeting, but he saw a hint of pleading in Sumitomo Kenichi’s eyes.

Jiang Chen thoughtfully examined the candlestick on the dining table while he pondered. He then changed his mind and raised his glass with a smile.

“Of course.”

The caution with EMP weapons, the NATO Coalition Force caught in the mess in Colombia, and the expectations for the collapse of the UA-Nippon-Korea alliance continued to escalate. Everyone was keeping a close eye on Celestial Trade’s next move to catch small details that could predict future trends.

In a sense, Jiang Chen participating in a state-level banquet held for him was already sending a certain signal to the rest of the world. As for the banquet itself, it was not so important.

Precisely because of this very reason, Jiang Chen clearly felt many people were observing him secretly at the banquet. Those eyes were mixed with a hint of confusion, but more so, they revealed: “obviously, this makes sense”.

It was not a secret that Nippon was seeking to join the Earth Defense Alliance in order to avoid high defense taxes and enhance the market competitiveness of its aerospace companies in the space race of the new century.

Based on the structure of the Earth Defense Alliance, new member states must be reviewed by the four primary member states by voting, and a one-vote veto system was implemented. On the premise of abandoning disputed territories and establishing a correct view of history, Nippon already gained the approval votes of Hua and Russia, and Frankberg’s abstention.

The only vote in question was Xin. However, now that Jiang Chen was sitting here, it showed that the vote at least won’t be an objection, and the possibility of Nippon entering the Earth Defense Alliance was quite high.

Jiang Chen was curious about how the UA media would react after tonight.

But he was certain that regardless of the outcome, it won’t be an optimistic view…

When the banquet was approaching its latter half, Jiang Chen won several additional deals for Future Group, with a total value of more than 100 billion Xin New dollars. The projects were drone systems, smart wearables, graphene materials, as well as space mining.

Of course, he only showed his intention to work together. As for the specifics of the agreement, it depended on the negotiations with Future Group’s subsidiaries.

Xia Shiyu would verify the outcome, and Jiang Chen rarely interfered with the specifics of the agreement.

“Speaking of which, I have a question that I don’t know if it’s appropriate to ask,” Kishida Fumio asked with a smile on his face.

“It depends on the question,” Jiang Chen responded with a respectable smile.

“I don’t intend to be offensive,” Kishida Fumio smiled, “It’s just that I heard that the relationship between Xin and the UA has been tense recently, and it has gradually escalated from the military level to the economic level. I don’t know if Future Group’s interests in the UA have been affected by this?”

“Of course there are influences, but they are all within a controllable range,” Jiang Chen shrugged, then said with a smile, “They can refuse to buy Future phones, but they cannot refuse to buy Phantom helmets, nor can they refuse to purchase the medical drones that makeup one-third of their healthcare system. No matter how unreasonable their tariffs on us may be, we don’t really mind. After all, it’s consumers in their country who pay the bills. Unless they can find a substitute, they have no choice.”

“Hahaha, Mr. Jiang can certainly read the situation, cheers.” Kishida Fumio, slightly intoxicated, raised his glass.

Jiang Chen also raised the glass slightly, but when he drank, he threw the liquor into the storage dimension…

In the melodious symphony, the banquet was approaching the end.

Since it was getting late, Jiang Chen was not interested in staying any longer. After exchanging goodbyes with Kishida and the others, he got up and headed to the door.

After he left New Otani Hotel, he walked toward the convoy at the entrance of the hotel. Unsurprisingly, Sumitomo Kenichi, who had previously hinted at something, also followed him.

It was unclear what kind of concerns Mr. Sumitomo had. After he was next to Jiang Chen, he didn’t say his intentions directly, nor did he even talk about the drones that he had mentioned earlier. He just chatted casually on some non-related topics. After Jiang Chen got into the car, he also opened the door on the other side and sat next to him.

The door closed.

Only until this moment, did Sumitomo Kenichi remove the mask on his face. His stiff smile slowly relaxed, he leaned on the seat, and let out a sigh of relief.

Jiang Chen took a long look at the eldest son of the Sumitomo Financial Group, and then he said with a comforting tone.

“Don’t worry about being overheard here, you can speak freely. But before you speak, I have to say something in advance. If you are going to talk to me about something boring, it’s better not to say it.”

“I’m being watched!” Sumitomo Kenichi hurriedly said.

Jiang Chen was slightly stunned, then he laughed.

“You got the wrong guy.”

For what reason would the eldest son of a large consortium be watched?

Apart from the power struggle within the consortium, Jiang Chen could not think of a better reason.

The relationship between Celestial Trade and Sumitomo Group could only be described as a friendly partnership. Jiang Chen only knew Sumitomo Kenichi as a partner, and he was not interested in participating in their internal power struggle.

To put it bluntly, no matter who the next owner of the Sumitomo Group is, it would have no impact on Celestial Trade’s Global Power Grid plan. The Sumitomo Group was not the only company capable of taking on this project in Nippon. The submarine power transmission cables were already built. If the Central Power Company was no longer a suitable partner, Celestial Trade could still work with Eastern Power and Western Power.

With many nuclear power and thermal power plants shut down, Nippon no longer had the final say in electricity.

“No! I didn’t find the wrong person!” Sumitomo Kenichi stared at Jiang Chen, and said in a pleading tone, “Please let me finish.”

Jiang Chen motioned for him to continue.

“You might think this is an internal struggle within our family, and I’m asking you for help, right? Am I such an idiot? Can those idiots beat me?” With a self-deprecating grin, Sumitomo Kenichi took a deep breath, sorted out the thoughts in his head, and stared at Jiang Chen with seriousness, “The CIB is targeting me…”

Chapter 1335: Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Servers

Chapter 1335: Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Servers

At the entrance of the New Otani Hotel, guests with flamboyant appearances left one after another.

Many people were euphoric because they had signed a big deal, while many people were disappointed that Jiang Chen left too early. Under the streetlight outside the main entrance, Hiroto Mitsui stood beside a black car like a sculpture, his eyes narrowed as he followed the direction Celestial Trade’s convoy left in.

His bodyguard opened the door for him and stepped aside respectfully.

Hiroto Mitsui’s assistant with black frame glasses, who stood behind him, stepped aside and reminded his boss softly.

“President, the car is ready.”

The silence continued until the few car lights disappeared at the end of the street. Mitsui Hiroto seemed to have made up his mind and nodded slowly.

“Mhmm.”

…

The CIB?

A look of interest appeared in Jiang Chen’s eyes.

What is the reason for the CIB to waste resources on the eldest son of a consortium? Although the Sumitomo Consortium had cooperated on the Global Grid Plan, it was purely an economic exchange. He didn’t think there was anything worth investigating.

“Go on,” Jiang Chen quietly said as he leaned back.

Sumitomo Kenichi took a deep breath and sorted out the words in his head.

“Remember the tragedy two and a half years ago?”

“Of course,” Jiang Chen smiled and said softly, “I’m afraid no one in this world will forget the tragedy that day.”

Two and a half years ago, an explosion occurred in Shinagawa, Yoto. Tens of thousands of people were directly or indirectly infected by the T virus and were turned into the living dead. It was the second tragedy that happened in the world after what happened in City K, and panic was once again set off worldwide.

It was also from that time that the term Takeda Pharmaceutical along with the Nippon authorities were pushed to the midst of controversy. Abe, who was still seeking re-election through constitutional amendments, was also forced to step down because of this, and a year later, he went to jail. The speech made by the leader of Kurofune, Tanaka, made the whole world aware of the word Kurofune and made this word surpass the word Taliban to become the world’s number one terrorist organization.

Later, that incident, the previous City K Tragedy, and the later Finnish Mother Nest, were generally regarded as three unpleasant contacts between earth civilization and extraterrestrial civilization. To a certain extent, it indirectly promoted the establishment of the Earth Defense Alliance.

“What I want to talk about is exactly that,” Sumitomo Kenichi looked at Jiang Chen with a solemn expression, and narrated the complete story, “Just two months ago…”

This is what happened.

Just two months ago, one of Sumitomo Group’s cargo ships that was about to set off from Nagasaki Port to Los Angeles, was detained by customs at Nagasaki Port. The detainment was on the grounds that prohibited items were suspected to be on board. At that time, Sumitomo Kenichi, who was in charge of handling this matter, felt it was very strange. Sumitomo Kenichi had been the president of Sumitomo Shipping for many years and this was the first time his ship had been detained by customs for transporting embargoed items.

It was not until later that he went to the scene to understand the situation and realized the seriousness of the problem.

“What exactly was in the container in question?” Jiang Chen asked while he tried to piece everything together.

“It’s just a bunch of obsolete servers, but the problem lies with these servers,” said Sumitomo Kenichi with a dumbfounded expression. “Those servers were the assets sold by the bank when Takeda Pharmaceuticals went bankrupt. Based on reliable sources, these servers came from a laboratory code-named ‘Dark’. I believe you don’t need me to say more for you to know where that is.”

“The birthplace of the T virus?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

“That’s right.” Sumitomo Kenichi nodded.

When Kurofune issued a declaration of war on all of mankind, in order to prevent Takeda Pharmaceutical from creating an antidote based on his research results, Tanaka formatted all the servers in the laboratory after he took the virus samples.

At that time, due to the mismanagement of the Yoto government and the resignation of the ruling party, after Takeda Pharmaceutical was seized, these servers were inexplicably labeled as auction assets together with other assets. They were purchased by an export trade company two years ago, then they disappeared.

Sumitomo Kenichi never expected these servers would appear on his ship.

“But why are the CIB people after you?” Jiang Chen frowned and asked.

“At that time, I thought that I should avoid trouble, so I bribed the customs. Before the customs reported the involved goods, I switched the container with brand new servers, and I was ready to destroy the old servers. But I didn’t expect…” At this point, Sumitomo Kenichi’s smile was bitter, “I escaped prosecution by customs, but I didn’t escape the eyes of the CIB.”

After Jiang Chen listened to Sumitomo Kenichi’s description, he became deep in thought.

Strictly speaking, these servers were definitely harmless. After all, all data had been formatted. However, there was still a hidden risk. People could use special techniques to restore the deleted data from the server with a probability to successfully restore the data.

And now, someone attempted to smuggle these servers on Sumitomo Group’s ship to Los Angeles, which made this situation even more intriguing.

The Kurofune became small independent units that fought on their own. They were like rodents that feared the light with the constant pursuit of agents around the world. Jiang Chen did not imagine they could have the ability to use the legacy left by Tanaka to revive the organization.

As for another possibility…

This batch of servers, that should have been sent to Los Angeles, was the work of the CIB.

“Where are these servers now?” Jiang Chen asked.

“They’ve been taken away by the CIB,” Sumitomo Kenichi squeezed out a bitter smile, “I thought it would be fine if they took the server, but it didn’t take long before my bodyguard found trackers in my bedroom and on my car. I don’t know what they want to do, but I dare say they are not up to anything good…”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen laughing and said jokingly, “I bet if you were just a nobody, you would have now been fished out from a sewer ditch by the police.”

“That is not a funny joke,” Sumitomo Kenichi said with an ugly expression.

“I’m not joking with you,” Jiang Chen shrugged and said with a smile, “If I were the CIB, you may have been silenced… Then, is there any other clue?”

“When the bug was first discovered, I hired a private investigator to trace the source of those servers. I wanted to know who smuggled those things into my container. However, in the end, I found something unexpected.”

“What did you found?”

“Rokawa Electronics, the supplier for these servers,” Sumitomo Kenichi took a deep breath. “The private investigator I hired found out that they are funded by—”

“The Mitsui Consortium, right?” Jiang Chen grinned.

Sumitomo Kenichi’s eyes widened as he looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

“Jiang Chen, you are—”

“You want to ask me how I knew, right?” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head, raised his chin, and gestured to him in the direction of the rear-view mirror with his eyes. “Don’t look at me as a businessman. I have experienced a lot. I think my counterintelligence ability is quite strong.”

Mitsui Hiroto dared to follow him?

As Jiang Chen spoke, he opened the holographic screen of his watch, edited a short message, and sent it to Gill, the person in charge of Ghost Agents in Nippon. Then, he said to the uneased Sumitomo Kenichi, “Beginning tomorrow, I will send someone to secretly ensure your safety. As for other things, I don’t need you to do anything for the time being. When I need you, just cooperate with me.”

“Thank you.” Sumitomo Kenichi said gratefully.

“You’re welcome,” Jiang Chen smiled and said softly, “Where are you going, if it’s not far away, I can ask my driver to drop you off. Of course, if I were you, I would get off immediately.”

Chapter 1336: We don’t like countries sitting on the fence

Chapter 1336: We don’t like countries sitting on the fence

When Jiang Chen returned to the hotel, it was already ten o’clock in the evening.

To his surprise, Miss Kwai decided to leave. Only Qian Xia dressed as a maid was in the room.

“Where is our policewoman?” Jiang Chen asked casually as he opened his arms.

“Ms. Kwai said that if you need anything, please call her. She won’t stay here tonight,” Qian Xia replied with her beautiful voice as she took Jiang Chen’s coat and hung it onto the hanger.

She left?

Jiang Chen lowered his open arms and he grinned.

He remembered telling her before he left to stay tonight.

“Why didn’t you keep her?” With a smirk, Jiang Chen rubbed Qian Xia’s chin with his finger.

“I didn’t know master wanted her to stay. Master, if you need, I’ll call Ms. Kwai…” Qian Xia said with panic in her voice.

“This is your negligence as a maid for not knowing your master’s thoughts,” Jiang Chen’s finger slid down her chin as he smiled evilly, “Forget it, anyway, it’s all the same. Originally, I planned to punish her tonight, but you’ll have to take the punishment instead.”

Qian Xia’s cheeks turned red.

Under normal circumstances, Jiang Chen called her by the name Qian Xia. If he called her by the identity of a maid, then most likely he was thinking of naughty things.

Qian Xia closed her fine eyelashes, lowered her head, and whispered in her gentle voice.

“Master, please punish me…”

…

In the early morning of the next day, Jiang Chen slept till eight.

Just after he ate the breakfast delivered by the hotel, he was about to check the day’s itinerary when Foreign Minister Kishida called.

As soon as he picked up, Kishida’s laughter entered his ear and he asked in a rather ambiguous tone.

“I wonder if Jiang Chen san was satisfied last night?”

“Of course, … not satisfied!” Halfway through, Jiang Chen suddenly changed his words and said with seriousness, “The person you sent has had a very bad attitude. I obviously asked her to stay. However, when I came back to arrange the next day’s itinerary, she left without saying a word!”

Kishida hurriedly apologized, “I’m really sorry! I’m sorry for the inadequate hospitality, but I hope Jiang Chen san will not be offended. We will immediately switch—”

“You don’t need to switch,” Jiang Chen shook his head as he resisted the urge to laugh. Then he coughed and said with the same seriousness, “She will still be my assistant during the coming days. But Kishida san, please remember that my tolerance is limited.”

“Yes! Yes!”

Kishida sweated profusely as he apologized, but in his mind, he scolded the police superintendent and Kwai countless times.

They actually messed this up.

Did they not know that Mr. Jiang was an important guest!?

“Alright, you called me not just to ask me if I was satisfied last night. Let’s talk business.”

“…Yes. Mr. Prime Minister hopes to meet with you to discuss matters related to the UA military stationed in Nippon as well as the opportunity to join the alliance. I wonder if Mr. Jiang is free now?” Kishida said quickly.

“How does this morning sound? I will go there now.” Jiang Chen glanced at the clock on the wall.

“No problem! We can do it anytime!”

After he hung up the phone, Jiang Chen looked at Qian Xia who tried to get up from the bed and help him dress. Last night’s exercise was a bit too intense for the girl who hadn’t worked out for a long time so her mind was still a little dizzy.

“Master, I will help you…”

“No, you can sleep a little longer.” Jiang Chen was not the kind of person that didn’t care for others. He grinned and buttoned up his clothes. “Miss Kwai may be here in a bit. You can buy her a drink.”

Qian Xia was slightly taken aback, then cutely opened her mouth.

After she saw Jiang Chen’s smirk, she suddenly realized what he meant as she giggled.

“Master, you are so bad.”

…

It was probably the third time Jiang Chen had visited the Nippon Prime Minister’s residence and the third time he had seen the Prime Minister.

And something more interesting was that every time he visited, the Prime Minister’s smile gave him a completely different feeling.

The first time, there seemed to be a knife hidden behind the smile. Nippon did not want to connect to the global grid. The second time it was compromising in reluctance because the Sumitomo Foundation used public opinion and Congress to force the government to make concessions on national security issues.

As for the third time, Jiang Chen didn’t know what meanings were hidden in his smile.

There was a little caution, a little attempt to flatter, as for other meanings, he couldn’t fully read him.

After some greetings, the Prime Minister invited Jiang Chen to sit, then sat down and asked the assistant next to him to make a cup of matcha for the two.

“I want to talk to you about the UA military bases and the troops stationed in Nippon.” With a warm smile, the Prime Minister said with straightforwardness, “I believe Jiang Chen san must also be very concerned about this matter.”

While he spoke, he took the map from the assistant’s hand, spread it out on the coffee table, pointed his finger at the red dot on the map, and said sincerely.

“The UA military stationed in Nippon has 88 military facilities and bases, with a total number of more than 40,000 troops. The headquarters is located at Yokota Base in Yoto. If you can find a way to get rid of them, we can sublet 44 of the military bases to you guys!”

After Jiang Chen listened to his proposal, Jiang Chen sneered in his mind.

On the surface, this proposal seemed to be great. The 44 military bases were more than sufficient for Celestial Trade’s troops, or even somewhat excessive. However, the issue was not the number of military bases, but the word “sublet”.

When were these military bases leased to the UA? In that case, how can you talk about subletting? If Celestial Trade can get rid of the UA on Nippon soil, you’re not going to pay for protection fees, and you’re going to charge rent?

I’m not here to do charity.

For a long time, Nippon shouldered the bulk of the UA military expenditure, even far higher than its own military expenditure. In this sense, it was unfortunate for the Nippon people. While they paid for protection fees, they also enjoyed the “protection” of the UA soldiers.

With the help of Celestial Trade’s knife, he could not only get rid of the UA from Nippon soil, remove the financial burden, and completely join the side of the Earth Defense Alliance. Mr. Prime Minster certainly came up with a great plan.

But would Jiang Chen really bite?

“You may have made a mistake,” Jiang Chen smiled, “Celestial Trade is the world’s largest military contractor, it is not the Red Cross.”

“Do you mean…” The Prime Minister’s expression was a bit stiff. It was obvious that they just wanted to get rid of the UA riding on their heads and did not want to pay for the military expenses of Celestial Trade.”

“Thirty military bases,” Jiang Chen raised his three fingers and said in an irrefutable tone, “You are the bridgehead of the UA in Asia, but for us, it’s our doorstep. We don’t need to station so many troops here. In addition, we don’t plan to scam your money. You paid five billion dollars in military expenses last year. From now on, you only need to pay us half, so 2 billion Xin New dollars.”

As the Prime Minister was about to throw out a counter-offer, Jiang Chen gave the last carrot before he could speak.

“If you agree to my terms, then I can also assure you that Nippon will definitely get my vote to join the Earth Defense Alliance.” Jiang Chen smiled at the Prime Minister who was not in the best mood and smiled, “Of course, you can also get rid of the UA yourself through diplomatic means. We will not use that vote to kidnap you. We have stated from the start that there is only one condition for Nippon to join the Earth Defense Alliance, that is cancel all UA military bases on your soil.”

“We don’t like countries sitting on the fence, please be more certain with your position.”

“East or west, you better decide as soon as possible.”

Chapter 1337: Nip It In The Bud

Chapter 1337: Nip It In The Bud

Since the bankruptcy of Takeda Pharmaceutical, the Mitsui Consortium had fallen from grace and turned from a first-class consortium to now a second-rate consortium. If it weren’t for the ancient family name, the head of the Mitsui family would not even be qualified to sit at the banquet with Jiang Chen.

However, when Mitsui Hiroto was auctioning off Takeda Pharmaceutical, he hid some tricks under his sleeve and bought the servers with a shell company. At that time, he didn’t think too much; it was just an attempt to hedge for the future. After all, Takeda Pharmaceutical spent a lot of money on research and development for these formatted virus materials.

But not long ago, the CIB found him and suddenly asked about those servers.

After he considered the recent international situation, Hiroto Mitsui immediately understood the CIB’s intentions, so he gladly stated that he was the owner of those servers, and at the same time graciously expressed that he was willing to donate these servers. He was even willing to help the CIB, who was now in an awkward position in Nippon, ship these servers out of the country.

Taking refuge in the CIB was a gamble.

Just as he put his bet on Jiang Chen at that time and believed that Celestial Trade could completely eradicate the Kurofune, he did not hesitate to hand over the list in exchange for a promise from Jiang Chen.

If he chose to side with the UA on this matter, with the support of the Capitol, the Mitsui family could make a potential comeback. What’s more, he himself was very disgusted with what the current authorities were doing now. He was a staunch supporter of the UA-Nippon alliance. He was also an extremely right-leaning supporter. Otherwise, he would not invest in Tanaka’s project to help the development of the “T-virus”.

Early the next morning, Mitsui Hiroto called the CIB.

“…Last night, I saw Sumitomo Kenichi get into Jiang Chen’s car—”

“Yesterday? Fu*k! Why did you just call me now!” The man on the other end of the phone was very angry, as he interrupted Mitsui Hiroto. “You let Sumitomo Kenichi be with that man all night!”

The person on the phone was in charge of the CIB operations in Nippon and his name is Frank. Under normal circumstances, the CIB kept Sumitomo Kenichi under surveillance, but last night was an exception. Where Jiang Chen appeared, Ghost Agents would definitely be on standby nearby. Therefore, it would have been no different than a suicide mission to request someone to go to the New Otani Hotel, so he asked Mitsui Hiroto.

As the owner of the Mitsui Group, it was not an issue for Mitsui Hiroto to attend the state banquet, and he could even sit at the same table as Jiang Chen and Sumitomo Kenichi. What’s more, Mitsui Hiroto was also involved in the smuggling of servers.

Mitsui Hiroto was a little embarrassed when Frank called him out.

Last night, he did want to call the CIB to inform them of the intelligence. However, he suddenly received a call from the company on his way home, so he had to change his itinerary at the last minute to deal with the matter. Unfortunately, he ended up forgetting the matter and only remembered this morning.

“He didn’t stay for too long, I followed them for some distance, and finally Sumitomo Kenichi got out of the vehicle midway,” Mitsui Hiroto coughed to hide his awkwardness, “Maybe he didn’t reveal the secrets of those servers. As the heir of the Sumitomo Foundation, there is no need for him to risk it for something that has nothing to do with him.”

After a pause, Mitsui Hiroto continued.

“And as I just said, he didn’t ask Jiang Chen to take him home last night. If he stupidly chose to inform, he would definitely not get out of the car and take a taxi home without a bodyguard. They probably just chatted about business matters. At the banquet, Sumitomo san stated that he planned to import medical drones.”

As Mitsui Hiroto attempted to excuse his mistake, Frank was about to explode. His hand holding the phone couldn’t stop shaking, and he almost smashed the phone against the wall.

You followed Jiang Chen?

When did you become 007?

I need you to analyze the situation?

There was no need to guess at all. Jiang Chen already confirmed Mitsui Hiroto’s link with the servers. He wouldn’t even be surprised if this phone call was being tapped. Regardless of how far the little mouse hired by Sumitomo Kenichi had gotten, once the Ghost Agents were on the case, they would definitely follow the lead from Mitsui Hiroto.

The only reason why he was not captured by Ghost Agents on the spot was for this very reason.

What a dumba*s teammate!

Frank scolded the old man countless times. He finally took a deep breath, calmed his mind and tone, and continued.

“… It’s hard to say whether Sumitomo Kenichi has leaked the information. We can’t take this risk. To continue waiting would only force us to be in a more awkward position. We must ship the servers out of the country as soon as possible. I already have a plan, but we need your cooperation… Come to Ginza immediately, and we will meet in the same place.”

“I will leave now.” Mitsui Hiroto nodded.

Frank didn’t hesitate after he hung up the phone. He immediately looked at the assistant beside him and said coldly.

“Hiroto Mitsui has been tracked by Ghost Agents, sent someone to take him out. He is a bit sensitive, so remember to do it cleanly.”

“Yes!” The assistant nodded and immediately walked out of the office.

After Mitsui Hiroto hung up, he left his office immediately and called his butler.

“Get the car immediately, I need to go out.”

The bulter quickly prepared the car.

Without the time to eat breakfast, Mitsui Hiroto rushed to the garage in the basement. Before the bodyguard opened the door for him, he opened the door himself and sat in.

At this moment, all of Mitsui Hiroto’s thoughts were on the servers. He didn’t even notice that just as his car left his mansion, a black car followed him.

Gill maintained a safe distance behind Mitsui Hiroto. She freed up her right hand holding the steering wheel and pressed lightly on her collar.

“Target has left the residence, Group B and Group C follow up.”

“Roger that.”

Two clear replies came into her ear.

The cars that were waiting on the next two streets also started their engines slowly and trailed Gill’s vehicle.

Perhaps to prevent being tracked by Celestial Trade, Mitsui Hiroto drove a fuel-powered car without a magnetic levitation function. Gill and the others did not activate the magnetic levitation device on their cars as they mixed with the sparse traffic on the street.

Gill’s eyes were locked on Mitsui Hiroto. She gestured to her teammate next to her to release the drone. The drone jetted along the bottom of the magnetic levitation lane to prevent losing Mitsui Hiroto.

But at this moment, something unexpected happened…

Chapter 1338: Speed of Life and Death

Chapter 1338: Speed of Life and Death

Mitsui Hiroto rolled up his sleeves and glanced at the diamond-encrusted gold watch on his wrist, and his sparse eyebrows gradually twisted together.

From the moment he left the mansion, he had a feeling of anxiety that lingered in his mind.

“How long before we arrive?”

“It depends on the traffic. At most half an hour…” The driver really wanted to scorn, If you are in such a rush, why don’t you let me drive the magnetic levitation model Toyota. However, he could only curse in his mind.

At this moment, a black car next to them suddenly sped up and overtook them.

“Do you know how to drive!” The driver cursed under his breath as he was about to turn the steering wheel to overtake again.

But at this moment, two black cars sped up simultaneously and sandwiched him in the middle as they blocked both lanes on the side.

Mitsui Hiroshi knew something was wrong.

The bodyguard next to him already realized something was wrong. He put his hand into his jacket and held onto the Glock while the other hand patted the driver’s shoulder, he said in a calm and collected voice, “The two cars next to us are—”

Before he could finish, the windows of the two cars shattered at the same time. Without the slightest warning, two muzzles sneaked out from the shadows and aimed at Mitsui Hiroto’s car.

Mitsui Hiroto’s pupils shrank in an instant, but he and his bodyguard did not have time to react before orange flames burst out from the muzzles—

Dadadadada!

In just two seconds, a brand-new Toyota was turned into a sieve. The windows shattered into glass shards and there were dense bullet holes on the doors, hood, and trunk. Blood covered every corner of the car, whether it was the driver, the bodyguard, or the owner of the Mitsui Consortium, they were all covered in blood.

The Toyota that lost its driver was like a wild horse without its reins. It slammed into a street light next to the highway. Not all the bullets hit the car, and many stray bullets flew into the crowd on the street, wounding innocent pedestrians.

“MURDER!”

“AHHHHH!”

“Help! My legs…”

People screamed in all different languages and fled in different directions. No one thought that this kind of incident would happen. No one thought that this kind of incident would happen in Yoto and on the eve of the Olympics…

The unexpected event completely stunned Gill as she continued to follow the car. Then she slammed the gas without hesitation as she sped up to a hundred kilometers an hour and chased after the three fleeing vehicles.

“Lu Wei, mark them!”

“I’m already on it.” The ghost agent next to her clicked on the tablet in her hand, selected the three vehicles with three different colored boxes, and then transmitted the information to the Skyeye X1 observation satellite. The moment she completed her actions, the three cars ran a red light at an intersection and headed for three different directions.

“Attention, Group B, Group C, the target vehicles have been marked, capture the targets! You have permission to fire!”

Gill pressed the button around her collar and ordered. At the same time, she slammed the gas even harder and chased the black car straight ahead.

Sirens echoed on the streets, but because the location was busy downtown, it was not easy to set up roadblocks to stop the murderers. These assassins also obviously had accomplices helping them, as they created traffic incidents to slow down the Yoto Police.

Gill pressed down the gas to the limit, and in the downtown area, she started street racing with the obviously modified black car.

The black car noticed the chaser behind it. When the car that previously blocked Mitsui Hiroto’s vehicle realized that it could not get rid of its tail, it suddenly drove to the middle of the road. At the same time, a gunman smashed through the car window with the gun stock, leaned out his body, and smoothly took out the automatic rifle on the door.

The pupils above the mask revealed a deep desire for blood!

Dadadadada!

Flames spurted from the muzzle as the gunman fired at the hood and tires of Gill’s car.

The bullets directly deformed the hood and left thumb-sized cracks on the front window. These bullets were obviously a special kind, but fortunately, they still failed to penetrate the nano-ceramic bulletproof layer designed by Future Heavy Industries.

“Whatever!”

Gill bit her tongue and immediately turned her steering wheel. She drove onto the lane next to the black vehicle to get into the gunman’s blind spot. Just as the gunman was about to change sides, she shouted at her teammate next to her.

“Lu Wei, make it stop!”

“Roger that!”

With a sneer, the short-haired girl next to her pressed the button on the tablet.

“DAMM*T! It’s the Ghost Agents!” The target entered the shooter’s blind zone, and Chuan Yuanxing immediately retracted the rifle into the window, smashed the window on the other side, and leaned his body out again, “Keep it steady! Let me get the tires.”

“I’m already trying my hardest to stabilize the steering wheel…”

The person driving cussed under his breath while his hands tightly grasped the steering wheel and his eyes fixated on the road ahead. However, a drone suddenly appeared in front of him and slammed into the window of the car with its chassis. “What’s that—”

Before he could let out a scream, the dazzling white light and harsh sonic boom robbed him of his sight and hearing. He felt like a heavy hammer just smashed his head.

In a panic, he subconsciously turned the steering wheel, and the assassin that leaned out of the car window was thrown out and collided directly with an oncoming van. He couldn’t be more dead. The out-of-control car slammed into the guardrail next to the highway and the whole car spun in the air before it landed upside down and slid forward.

The car was completely deformed, and the wheels stopped turning. The surrounding crowd screamed and fled. The employees hiding in the shop hid under the counter and called the police with trembling fingers.

The door of the driver’s seat opened, and the man in a blue jacket struggled to get out of the crashed car. As he looked up with his bloodstained face, he drew the pistol in his pocket and attempted to aim at the Ghost Agents’ vehicle. However, before he could even raise the gun, he passed out due to excessive blood loss and fell unconscious.

Gill slammed on the brake and stopped twenty meters near the crashed vehicle. Gill was the first one to rush out as she aimed directly at the vehicle with her foldable assault rifle. She then gestured to her teammate and approached the overturned car from both sides.

There was a piercing alarm bell from afar; these assassins had nowhere to escape.

“Use EMP first.”

She gestured Lu Wei to stop, took out a grenade from her belt, and was just about to pull the fuse.

But at this moment, flames burst into the sky.

With a loud boom, the explosion of molten flame engulfed the car completely. Gill and Lu Wei searched for shelter as they leaned against the car parked on the side of the road, and escaped the raging explosion.

Gill stood up, bit her lower lip, and stared straight at the destroyed car. Then she slowly lowered her rifle.

The flame was still burning, and the ground and surrounding shops all turned black because of the high heat

There was no possible way for those assassins to survive with the power of the explosion.

After a while, Gill finally squeezed out a word from between her lips.

“Fu*k…”

Chapter 1339: Nippon's Compromise

Chapter 1339: Nippon’s Compromise

Nippon’s Prime Minister finally agreed to Jiang Chen’s request.

Thirty military bases were transferred to Celestial Trade with a symbolic rent of one Xin New dollar. At the same time, Nippon agreed to pay two billion in military expenses for a total of 30,000 Celestial Trade mercenaries each year. On the contrary, Mr. Prime Minster finally received the vote he dreamed about every night.

A happy ending.

Everyone got what they wanted.

Although when he nodded, Mr. Prime Minster’s expression was quite reluctant, as if he had eaten a fly.

On the Colombian battlefield, the NATO Coalition Force were already in direct combat with Xin’s younger brothers, which made the situation almost identical to the war in 1950. Today’s Earth Defense Alliance was just like the original Warsaw Pact, and NATO was still the NATO, but the balance between the two sides quietly tilted.

If one day the UA and Xin started a war, the UA operated a total of 88 military bases in his country, and the headquarters was located in the capital Yoto, and the Seventh Fleet would inevitably depart from Nippon. If this lunatic decided to throw an EMP to Yoto, and then use the sun as the scapegoat again…

It was hard to say what would happen to the UA, but Yoto would indeed cease to exist.

Therefore, Mr. Prime Minister’s compromise was also a helpless move.

Even if the decision was not impacted by the Earth Defense Alliance, he must remove his country from the two big gangsters before the relationship between the UA and Xin deteriorated further.

Jiang Chen left the Prime Minister’s residence with pleasing results.

Negotiations went smoother than expected. Originally, he was prepared to put pressure on Nippon’s Prime Minister through external forces, but it was not necessary for the time being. Next, he just needed to ask Zhang Yaping to make a visit and implement the terms they had discussed

The next issue of discussion would be removing the UA troops stationed in Nippon.

However, just as Jiang Chen walked out of the Prime Minister’s residence, he suddenly received a call from Ayesha on his watch.

As soon as the call was connected, he heard Ayesha’s hasty tone.

“Hiroto Mitsui was assassinated!”

Jiang Chen took a second to process the information. Then he subconsciously looked around, and after confirming that there was no one nearby, he walked quickly towards his car and lowered his voice, “Hiroto Mitsui? Dead? Who did it?”

Ayesha simply recounted to Jiang Chen what happened just ten minutes ago. She started with Ghost Agents’ monitoring of Mitsui Hiroto and tracking him to the meeting with the CIB. However, no one thought that murder in broad daylight would happen.

“… Gill, who led the team on the mission, confirmed the identity of the assassin and confirmed that it was the CIB.”

In fact, there was no need to prove that at this time, only the CIB possessed the motive for the murder.

“No survivor?” Jiang Chen asked.

“I’m very sorry,” Ayesha lowered her head apologetically, and said in a quiet voice, “They set up a bomb in the car. When it was confirmed that there was no hope of escape, their unseen accomplice detonated the bomb remotely.”

“This is not your fault, don’t blame yourself too much.” When he heard Ayesha’s disappointment in her voice, he comforted her, “By the way, no one was hurt, right? I mean our people.”

“No.”

“That’s good. Arrange a meeting with Gill for me…wait, forget it,” Jiang Chen gestured to the driver while in the car. After he debated for a moment, he continued, “Ask her to see me at the embassy tomorrow. I will go to the embassy to meet Zhang Yaping at about ten o’clock. After meeting Zhang Yaping, I will personally ask her what happened.”

“Okay.” Ayesha nodded.

“Also, let me think…” Jiang Chen touched his chin and said after a moment, “We will send more people to protect Sumitomo Kenichi. His identity can still be used. If there is nothing else, that’s it. Your first task is to find the whereabouts of those servers. I’m now very worried that it has been shipped out of Nippon by the CIB through special means, although this is unlikely…”

Suddenly, Jiang Chen considered a possibility.

What if the CIB put the server in the UA military base in Nippon…

“Where is the UA Seventh Fleet now?” Jiang Chen asked abruptly.

Ayesha thought for a moment and quickly gave a response.

“The fleet arrived at the military base in Yokosuka two days ago, and now it is probably resupplying at the port.”

Yokosuka?

Jiang Chen opened the holographic map of the watch, then zoomed the map out to Nippon. He finally stopped at the Yokosuka Prefecture.

“Is it next to Yoto?”

Jiang Chen rubbed his chin as he said thoughtfully.

In fact, as long as they could identify the location of these servers, once these servers were shipped, Celestial Trade would have full control of the outcome. No one could escape the eyes of Skyeye X1. It was not difficult for Aurora-20s to sink a cargo ship.

If an ordinary cargo was destroyed, as long as Celestial Trade did not claim responsibility, the UA would also not blame the attack on Celestial Trade. Unless they admitted to the content transported on the ship. But it was obviously impossible because they were servers holding T-virus information.

Based on this thought process, the UA must certainly have recognized the situation.

He was most worried about these servers being already shipped to the Yokosuka military base because the UA may deploy the Seventh Fleet to escort those servers that may restore T-virus data.

Should he gamble?

If he really found these servers in the UA military base in Nippon…

There was a dubious smile on Jiang Chen’s face

There was no way for the UA to escape this bucket of dirty water.

…

The headline of the day was already reserved for Mr. Mitsui Hiroto.

Three people in a car were killed, and three cars fled frantically after the assassination. They staged a Fast and Furious scene in downtown Yoto with Ghost Agents who assisted the Yoto Police. The assassins eventually suicided and the event shocked the entire country.

Almost everyone was speculating whether this incident was a targeted vendetta or a terrorist attack.

This happened just a week before the Olympic flame that symbolized “unity and peace” was ignited, which undoubtedly cast a shadow over the Olympics.

In front of the media, Mitsui Hiroto’s wife was in a state of trauma. His eldest son roared angrily in front of the media and he swore that he would use all the power of the Mitsui Consortium to trace the identity of the murderer and the person behind the assassination…

The only suspicious point now was the call that Mitsui Hiroto made before he left home. Public opinion generally agreed that the call may become the key to solving the case.

But would it be so simple?

The Yoto Police held a press conference to explain the case in detail, and at the same time urged the mass to remain calm

“Yoto Police will investigate this bloody incident that took place on the streets of Ginza, find the suspects responsible, and provide an explanation…” The Police Superintendent was sweating profusely as he answered the countless questions directly at him while he smiled bitterly in his mind.

The case could have been solved long ago; and of course, he knew who was behind the assassination.

But could he solve this case?

The Ghost Agents were on one side while the CIB was on the other. As a “small” superintendent, there was no way for him to get into their mess.

He could only sweep this under the rug!

If he was a little careless, as the superintendent, he may have to step down to take the blame.

Chapter 1340: The Drugged Black Tea

Chapter 1340: The Drugged Black Tea

In the lobby of the hotel, Kwai’s right hand gripped her left arm tightly, and her eyes were filled with grievances and unwillingness as she stared at the elevator door.

Just now, she was scolded by her boss on the phone.

The cause was that she reported to her boss that Jiang Chen’s “inappropriate behavior” caused her to be uncomfortable and proposed that a male police officer take over her job.

However, she did not expect that such a reasonable request was not only ruthlessly rejected, but she was also scolded for it.

“How could Jiang Chen do that kind of thing! It must be your attitude! Besides, he is the president of Celestial Trade and Future Group, the world’s richest man, and a distinguished guest of Nippon! Why are you dissatisfied and unpleased? I don’t know how many people envy your job! If it weren’t for the Cabinet Minister, how could you take on this job?”

“I order you to immediately correct your attitude and return to your post. This is not only my order but also the order of the Foreign Secretary! You can weigh it yourself.”

Kwai couldn’t believe what she just heard, she stared dumbfoundedly at the phone that already disconnected.

How could that meticulous old police officer say such nonsense?

Also, when was the cabinet able to intervene in the justice system so blatantly?

Fortunately, the boss didn’t reprimand her for a long time and quickly hung up the phone. There seemed to be a big case in Ginza. The entire police department was working on this case.

She put down her phone as if she had just lost her soul and she drove to the hotel.

She didn’t know what kind of emotion she had when she got into the elevator. She passed through the watchful eyes of the bodyguards, headed to the door of that room, and pressed the doorbell.

Fortunately, it was Qian Xia who opened the door and not that demon.

“Officer Kwai?” Qian Xia smiled as if she was expecting her, “You are here to see the master? He left early in the morning.”

The word “master” made Kwai feel quite awkward, but she didn’t say anything more about it and simply asked with a standoffish vibe.

“When will he be back?”

“I don’t know, he didn’t tell me the specifics,” Qian Xia shook her head, still with the same smile, “Anyway, please come in.”

Kwai took off her shoes, put on the slippers Qian Xia had prepared for her, and went to sit on the sofa in the living room

Qian Xia went into the kitchen, and soon brought her a cup of black tea.

After Kwai expressed her gratitude, she stood up to take the cup from her and then sat back down. With both her hands on the teacup, she took a small sip.

The scent of tea calmed her mind and made Officer Kwai’s depressed mood slightly better.

She hadn’t drank much water since she got up, and she was indeed thirsty now.

The self-proclaimed maid – Qian Xia, was indeed an expert in tea craft. Even if she didn’t understand the tea culture, she still tasted the difference in this cup of black tea from the fragrance that diffused at the tip of her tongue.

“What are you thinking about?”

When Kwai heard the voice across from her, she looked up at the smiling Qian Xia. Then she immediately lowered her head with thoughts in her mind.

“Why is Miss Qian Xia working for him? You should know that he is…” With the hot teacup in her hands, Kwait wanted to use the words “devil and “pervert” to describe the demon. However, she couldn’t decide which one was more appropriate.

“In the beginning, it was only because of work. As for what happened later,” Qian Xia’s cheeks showed a tinge of red, and her index finger rested on her lips as she spoke embarrassedly, “Probably because I felt very happy?”

“Happy?” Kwai was stunned. Her eyebrows twitched slightly and she said somewhat awkward, “Eh? Do you call that happiness?”

“Of course,” Qian Xia nodded and smiled frankly. “Why isn’t Miss Kwai franker?”

“Franker?” Kwai frowned slightly, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

Qian Xia smiled and tapped her index finger on her lower lip.

“Well, maybe the master is fascinated by you at this point. Even I start to admire you a little.”

Kwai looked at Qian Xia in a daze. She inexplicable felt a strangeness from her sweet smile and it made her uncomfortable.

She didn’t know why.

Just instinctively, she felt a trace of fear…

“Sorry, I… I have to go now.” She put the cup on the table and as she was about to stand up and bow to say goodbye, her head suddenly felt dizzy, her legs turned soft, and she sat back down again.

“Ah, are you leaving this early?” Qian Xia smiled and stood up slowly.

Kwai looked at Qian Xia who was walking towards her and a trace of panic crossed her cloudy eyes. She struggled to sit up, but the sofa behind her seemed to be magical as it firmly imprisoned her weak body into the softness.

“What did you put in the cup…?”

Kwai exhausted the last bit of strength and squeezed these words from her throat.

“Something that can make you franker.” Without changing the way she smiled, Qiao Xia bowed slightly, “I’m very sorry, please forgive the master for his waywardness.”

“Don’t… don’t come to me.”

“Miss Kwai, I apologize.”

(three hundred words deleted)

Chapter 1341: Toss and Turn

Chapter 1341: Toss and Turn

Before Jiang Chen left the bedroom, he turned on the TV on the wall and set the sequence of the movies. After he completed these steps, he turned around and smiled wickedly at Officer Kwai, then clapped his hands to signal his victory and left the room.

Kwai, who laid in the darkness, watched the door close with confusion in her eyes, at the same time, she was secretly relieved.

Soon, a line of red English text and a small white print that could not be read clearly appeared.

FBA Warning?

What is it?

But as soon as she heard the sound from the TV, her face instantly turned red.

The indescribable picture, mixed with moaning, played right in front of her eyes. As the only source of light, unless she closed her eyes, it was difficult to not look. But even if she closed her eyes, it was impossible to block the “noises” shocking her eardrums.

By the way, in order to prevent her from falling asleep, Jiang Chen deliberately turned the volume to the maximum before he left.

In this beautiful agony, the sweaty Miss Kwai tossed and turned until the latter half of the night before she finally fell asleep in fatigue…

The next morning, Jiang Chen went to Kwai’s room to take a look.

Based on the water stains on the bedsheet, he smirked.

He was now more and more certain. Officer Kwai with a strong sense of justice was actually a masochist deep down, eager to be treated roughly and bullied by someone stronger than her.

Of course, maybe she was not a masochist from the start, but he developed this fetish for her…

After he returned to the bedroom next door, Jiang Chen saw that Qian Xia was already up, so he ordered.

“Help her change the sheets later and feed her something. Other than untying her, meet all of her demands. If one person is not enough, you can get the hotel to send a maid to help you, I’ll let the hotel manager know. Also, I won’t be back until very late so you don’t have to wait for me.”

“Yes, master.”

Qian Xia kneeled on the bedding, naked, and replied submissively.

…

Minato Ward, Yoto

The Xin Embassy in Nippon.

In the office of the Xin Embassy, Jiang Chen met Zhang Yaping who arrived in Nippon two days earlier than him.

“They have agreed. This is the drafted agreement, you can take a look.” Jiang Chen handed over the documents to President Zhang. He sat on the sofa across from him, raised his leg, and crossed his fingers on his knees, “Tomorrow, you just have to be there, and he will sign it.”

“2 billion Xin New dollars, a symbolic lease of 1 Xin New dollar… They actually accepted this, it’s amazing,” Zhang Yaping couldn’t help but exclaim as he turned the agreement, “Okay if you don’t have supplementary terms, I will discuss those with them based on this.”

“They have to accept it because we have the vote they need most, and they are eager to take themselves out of NATO before the international situation deteriorates further,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

“I’m going to the Westin Hotel in a bit to see our athletes. Are you going to stay here or take a tour with me?”

“I still have a few more things to do, so I won’t join you,” Jiang Chen smiled, “Say hello to the athletes for me.”

“Then it’s almost time, I’ll ask the assistant to make a cup of coffee for you, I’m going to leave.”

“Mhmm, don’t worry about me.”

After Zhang Yaping said goodbye, he left.

It didn’t take long before a lady in a suit came in with a cup of coffee, she greeted Jiang Chen before she left the office and gently closed the door.

He took a book out of the shelf and flipped through it on the sofa. When the clock reached ten, a girl with a ponytail knocked on the door, and after she received Jiang Chen’s consent, she came in.

“Are you Gill?” Jiang Chen closed the book and smiled at the careful girl, and gestured her to sit down across from him, “I’m not used to others talking to me while standing, please take a seat.”

“Thank you.” Gill nodded with gratitude and sat down, feeling restrained.

As the top of the second group of students, she was the Director of the Intelligence Office in Nippon promoted by Ayesha. In other words, she was the head of the Ghost Agents in this region. Because she always served on missions overseas, she saw the fabled character on pictures more than in-person. Even if she did see him, it was from a far distance.

“So tell me, I want to hear what happened yesterday.” As Gill sat down, Jiang Chen asked straightforwardly.

Gill nodded and explained.

“After receiving your order, we immediately started monitoring Mitsui Hiroto. Yesterday morning, we monitored his phone call with the CIB and learned that the CIB asked him to meet at the usual place to discuss the servers. After we saw Mitsui Hiroto come out, I immediately followed, but I didn’t expect that the CIB to be so outrageous that they would send assassins to intercept Mitsui Hiroto in the downtown area.”

After Gill retold the story, Jiang Chen nodded and tapped lightly on the armrest of the sofa.

“I see. I remember that your equipment can locate the signal source in binary coordinates, so have you found the people who called Mitsui Hiroto?”

“They moved when we arrived,” Gill shook her head regretfully.

With a sigh, Jiang Chen leaned back on the sofa and continued to speak after a moment of thought.

“Mitsui Hiroto… Forget it. Although it is a pity that we lost this lead, the key for us now is to find those servers, at least pinpoint their locations before they leave.”

Now Jiang Chen was already certain why the UA wanted those servers.

Even if they did not do anything, the knowledge of a powerful contagious and destructive virus was a strategic deterrent in itself. Although Future Biology had developed vaccines for the T and TT viruses, they were only effective against these two viruses.

With genetic engineering and other methods to modify the sequence of the T-virus, it was not difficult to develop an improved T-virus that can be immune to the current vaccine with the current biotechnology.

The pressure of Celestial Trade’s EMP weapons made the UA search for something to supplement its already weak nuclear deterrent. Although using the virus as a deterrent was dirty, it was not the time to care about that.

It seemed necessary to head to the military base in Yokosuka…

Jiang Chen rubbed his chin in thought.

Chapter 1342: Infiltrate The Base

Chapter 1342: Infiltrate The Base

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

Compared with the bustling streets of Yoto, Yokosuka was a much quieter city.

A black Volkswagen car was parked at the entrance of Mikasa Park. After an Asian male got out of the car, he stopped at the entrance of the park for a while, and soon walked toward the park, like other tourists visiting there.

Mikasa Park faced the Yokosuka Port. With trees and plants of all varieties grown here, it was known for its beautiful scenery, but it was named after a battleship that had been abandoned for almost a century. The Mikasa battleship was built by the British Vickers Shipyard in 1900 and named after Mikasa. It participated in the war as the flagship of the combined fleet and played a decisive role.

The rusty battleship was repainted with gray paint to attract tourists. Next to the giant cannon, girls and boys cosplayed the Kantai Collection. The small vendors nearby all innovatively sold posters or merchandise as well. As for the small souvenirs of the old age, most were swept into the tomb of history as they laid in the corners to eat dust.

1

Unlike the others, the Asian male went straight through the park and into the depths of the grove.

Few tourists chose to go into the woods at night for a hike, but he was an exception.

After he entered the woods, he looked around and saw that no one was following, then he pressed a button on his collar.

Digital ripples spread from the tip of his nose to the surroundings. After a burst of light and shadow distortion, the true face behind the optical camouflage was revealed.

If a reporter saw the scene, that person would scream.

Because he was no other than Jiang Chen, President of Celestial Trade.

Jiang Chen walked straight to the back of the park and looked at the port across the sea. Then, his eyes narrowed.

“Is it in the front?”

The Maritime Self-Defense Force’s military base was right in front of him. On the other side of the military base was the central island Hakone, the location of UA Navy’s military base, and where the Seventh Fleet was currently docked. On Google Maps, the location was a gray area with only rough terrain contour lines visible.

However, it was not an issue for the Skyeye X1 Observation Satellite.

Maybe Jiang Chen knew the current location of the patrols better compared to the actual soldiers in the base.

The reason why he chose the farther away Mikasa Park was because of the laxer security in this region. Especially because of the number of tourists, it was easier for him to mix in with the crowds.

Jiang Chen equipped the amphibious K2 kinetic skeleton in the woods on the shore, then tossed his clothes into the storage dimension and did a warm-up exercise. He then grinned at the port not far away.

“I hope I can find something good this time.”

It was the second time he sneaked into a military base.

Last time, it was District 51 in Nevada.

The icy sea water was isolated by a fully enclosed kinetic skeleton. Jiang Chen, who jumped into the sea, flipped his fins and swam about fifty meters to the deep-water area. He then took out a person-tall sized underwater thruster from the storage dimension, like a torpedo, he grabbed the handrail and rode on it.

A series of small bubbles ejected from the turbine behind the propeller as it pushed Jiang Chen forward. He circled the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s port and advanced to the UA military base.

Important military facilities like Yokosuka Port were monitored by underwater sonar twenty-four seven and were patrolled underwater by frogmen to prevent enemy frogmen or submersibles from approaching. However, it was not an obstacle for Jiang Chen. The 21st century monitoring method like sonar was not much different from a blind man in front of the anti-sonar coating of the new amphibious kinetic skeleton and its thruster.

As for the frogmen on patrol…

They must be able to see him to detect an enemy intrusion.

Jiang Chen returned the thruster to the storage dimension when he approached the edge of the port. He hid behind the reef and narrowly avoided two patrolling frogmen. After they left the area, Jiang Chen swam out, and flipped his fins up and down to avoid disturbing the nearby fish. He slowly floated to the shore.

While he passed underneath the USS Lexington, Jiang Chen hesitated, but finally suppressed his urge to do something on it.

Although the thought of sinking an aircraft carrier was great, it would do more harm to his plan. His ultimately goal was to make the Seventh Fleet leave Asia, not to let the UA stay here with an excuse like repairing the aircraft carrier.

He took a deep breath and tossed the alluring thought out of his head. He slowly flipped his fins to the edge of the shore.

Optical invisibility’s number one weakness was during the switch of the physical environment, especially when floating up from underwater, it was the moment most likely to be exposed. However, with the bird’s eye perspective from Skyeye X1, Jiang Chen avoided the patrol team.

As soon as he landed ashore, he went to the apocalypse to dry himself to prevent water droplets from exposing himself. Then, after he confirmed with the drone that no patrols were near him, he finally returned back to the military base.

The sentry on the watchtower leaned the sniper rifle to one side, took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it while no one was paying attention. He didn’t notice that just below him, an invisible ghost slowly sneaked by.

After he passed the watchtower, he carefully avoided the infrared sensor hidden by the wall, moved more than ten meters closer to the warehouse with naval supplies, and hid in the blind spots of the patrol teams. He carefully removed a tablet from the storage dimension and released four Hummingbird drones in four different directions.

The next question was where those servers might be.

The worst-case scenario was that they have not been transported to the military base and he snuck into the base for nothing.

But this possibility was tiny and Jiang Chen believed his instinct.

From the CIB officials’ perspective, if they decisively abandoned Mitsui Horoto, then they must have believed that Ghost Agents already followed this clue to discover something, it was just that they were uncertain how far the Ghost Agents got.

Then there seemed to be only one option left, and that was to transport those servers into the military base as soon as possible, in particular, the base where the Seventh Fleet was docked. Because in Nippon, apart from the seemingly safe embassy with full diplomatic immunity, the military base was the safest place.

As for where these servers were placed…

There was no better choice than searching through the warehouses one by one.

Just as Jiang Chen tirelessly controlled the drones, looked into the windows, then scanned the containers with supplies one by one, two gray cars stopped in front of the checkpoints of the military base. After they showed their documents, they were permitted to pass.

Jiang Chen, who sat against the wall and was on his fourth warehouse, noticed two bright dots appear in thermal images of the minimized satellite image. They were moving towards the center of the military base on the main road.

Jiang Chen stopped the drones that were scanning the containers. He clicked a few times on the tablet and switched the camera to the drone that was closest to the two heat sources.

“Two gray cars…two normal license plate numbers?”

With the help of the streetlights, he noticed the license plates of the two cars. Jiang Chen, who was staring at the screen, questioned himself.

If he recalled correctly, vehicles of the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other government departments, as well as the vehicles of the UA Military, all had special license plates. The two cars with normal license plates driving into the military base were quite intriguing.

With a frown, Jiang Chen controlled the drone and followed the vehicles from afar.

The two cars parked at the entrance of a barracks in the middle of the military base. On the car in the front, four people in suits got off. Jiang Chen connected to the Ghost Agents database, pointed the drone at the person in front, and whispered into the headset.

“Lilith, help me confirm his identity.”

In the augumented reality interface of the tactical eyepiece, the icon in the lower right corner flickered slightly.

Soon, a familiar electronic sound entered his ear.

“Roger that.”

Chapter 1343: Using The Fleet As Cover

Chapter 1343: Using The Fleet As Cover

“Matching…Matching complete.”

The photos flashed through Jiang Chen’s tactical eyepiece one by one, and finally froze on an unsmiling face.

[Frank, the highest-ranking CIB official in Nippon, commanding over 400 field agents.]

In the Ghost Agents database, there was only a brief sentence about him. Even Gill did not obtain more information about the area head in Nippon.

Jiang Chen then performed facial recognition on several other CIB agents. Three of them did not show up in the database due to minimal activities. After Jiang Chen established profiles for them, he focused all his attention on Frank, as well as the two navy officers approaching them.

[Thomas, Lieutenant Admiral, Commander of the UA Seventh Fleet, Resume: Graduated from the University of California with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, and later received a master’s degree in national security studies from the National War College…]

[Howard, Major Admiral, Chief of Yokosuka Military Base, Resume: …]

A lieutenant general, a major general, plus a senior CIB offical.

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows slightly.

Things seemed to be getting more interesting.

The tiny probe protruded from the bottom of the Hummingbird drone, aimed at the window of the car, and projected invisible infrared light. Jiang Chen pressed his headset and soon he listened in on the three people’s conversation.

“…If you’re worried, we can send a ship to transport these servers to Guam, and then ship it back to Los Angeles by air.”

“We cannot ship by air! You must use a submarine! We must!” Frank said immediately, “Only a submarine can ensure that these servers can be safely delivered to the Los Angeles Research Center! In addition, the Seventh Fleet must cruise to Guam and create the illusion that these severs were sent to Guam!”

“I don’t understand,” Major Admiral Howard frowned. “No matter how arrogant Celestial Trade is, do they dare to directly attack our plane?”

“Humph,” Frank sneered, and the eyes above the hooked nose pierced sharpness, “You don’t know them. They never played by the rules. They may not dare to shoot our plane down blatantly, but they can make us never find where it went.”

“Are these servers so important?” Lieutenant Admiral Thomas asked seriously. “It is not a trivial matter to mobilize the Seventh Fleet. It requires documents from the Department of Defense. Although Secretary Carter asked me to follow your orders, the mobilization of the fleet has exceeded your authority…”

“I’m here for this very reason.” As Frank spoke, he took the briefcase from the agent next to him and handed the document he took from the briefcase to Lieutenant Admiral Thomas. “This is the authorization document signed by the Department of Defense, Capitol, and Congress. I hope you take this matter seriously.”

Under the streetlight, Lieutenant Admiral Thomas looked through the document with a serious expression. After about five minutes, he passed it to the officer next to him and showed a stern look.

“Tomorrow morning, I’ll verify with the Department of Defense. If it is true, I’ll follow everything as you order.”

The three said something more and then walked to the barracks.

They were certainly quite dedicated to distracting Celestial Trade by using the entire Seventh Fleet as a cover for those servers. The question now was where those servers were. If he couldn’t locate the servers, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, and he would have to monitor every single nuclear submarine that may set off at any moment.

He had to admit that Frank’s analysis was spot on. Jiang Chen possessed the means to “hack” both planes and ships, but he could not do much to nuclear submarines. Even with Celestial Trade’s technology, to locate a completely silent submarine would be no easier than finding a needle in the Pacific.

Jiang Chen hesitated as he looked at the patrolling Marines.

He was by the port warehouse, about a kilometer away from those people, and he did not want to sneak into an enclosed building. Because they set up countermeasures for optical invisibility, in addition to infrared rays, there must be other countermeasures he was not aware of in these sensitive areas.

Otherwise, Gill would have penetrated in long ago.

As for those drones…

As long as they were not blind, the drone would be easily spotted if it descended by even a few meters.

What to do?

He suddenly had an idea and pressed his helmet.

“Lilith, can you hack into these people’s electronic devices?”

“Turn on the drone’s data transmission laser and aim it at the electronic device that you intend to hack into.” Lilith yawned on the living room sofa and said with a tone that lacked interest, “The boss fight is about to start, quick.”

Lilith’s words almost made Jiang Chen choke on his saliva.

Fu*k!

Is your boss fight more important or is my ask more important? Are you not afraid I would ask Ayesha to cut the internet?

Just when Jiang Chen was busy finding suitable electronic devices for Lilith, he suddenly discovered a very serious problem.

None of those people wore any wearables. He didn’t know whether or not these people brought phones, but no one had their phones out at this moment.

Fu*k!? Can someone make a call so I can hack you?

Jiang Chen was desperately looking for solutions as those people were about to enter the building. He randomly pointed the laser at the sunglasses of the agent behind Frank. However, the word [transmitting] appeared on his screen.

He guessed right and that the sunglasses were indeed an electronic device with a built-in storage device, built-in camera, and Bluetooth chip. The camera was probably used to take pictures. After all, a professional, such as an agent, shouldn’t use their phones to take pictures while on intelligence missions. The agent probably would have never guessed that his own tool would become a loophole for Jiang Chen.

But then again, only advanced artificial intelligence would be able to install a backdoor in a tiny memory space in such a short amount of time and bypass the private encrypted security layers.

Even Chief Security Engineer Xie Lei couldn’t do this.

After all, it was no longer a field that humans could reach.

“It’s done.”

Soon, Lilith’s voice entered his ear.

The words, like heaven’s blessing, let Jiang Chen breathe a sigh of relief. He looked at the picture on the tablet, and a smile appeared.

With the help of the Bluetooth chip, the data was transmitted back to the drone in real-time, and it transmitted directly to Jiang Chen’s tactical eyepiece. Although he couldn’t hear anything, Jiang Chen had completely entered the perspective of “Agent A” who, at this moment, followed Frank.

Although he didn’t know where they were going, Jiang Chen believed that it must be related to those servers.

The servers were the key for Celestial Trade to remove the UA’s influence in the Western Pacific. As long as Nippon fell, the only thorn in front of the Earth Defense Alliance would be South Korea.

And most critically, he could not allow the UA to get T-virus data!

It was a ticking time bomb. Even if they didn’t use it on others, they may kill themselves with it, and it would be a detrimental lose to the world.

Regardless of the reason, Jiang Chen was determined to get those servers!

Chapter 1344: Then I Will Help You

Chapter 1344: Then I Will Help You

“Before we load the container, all servers will be placed in the confidential archives room. Not even a fly can get in, let alone Ghost Agents. You can rest assured. This is not the first time we have stored your ‘package’,” Major Admiral Howard said.

“The opponent is Celestial Trade, we have to be more cautious,” Frank said.

Major Admiral Howard shrugged and continued to lead the way.

They chatted along the way, but regardless of what they said, Jiang Chen couldn’t hear it. The electronic sunglasses had a built-in camera, but obviously, there was no built-in microphone. The detective must have something like a headset on him, but it was neither turned on nor taken out.

Although Jiang Chen, from the perspective of Agent A, tried to read what they said by reading their lips, because this perspective was focused on the back of the three officials, he ultimately gave up on this idea. He maintained a distance of fifty meters between the drone and the signal source as he patiently waited for them to stop.

Not long after, they stopped at the door numbered 014. Major Admiral Howard took out the key, said a few things to Frank, and personally opened the door.

Just as the iron gate opened, Jiang Chen’s pupils shrank.

His eyes looked over Major Admiral Howard’s shoulder and there was a row of servers in the middle of the room.

Maybe an EMP could take care of it?

Can’t…

Jiang Chen quickly rejected this idea.

He was not on the Colombian battlefield. He was in the Yokosuka Military Base, the headquarters of the UA Army in Nippon, and the location of the Seventh Fleet.

The global situation was already quite tense. Although the Capitol was afraid of the strength displayed by the Celestial Trade, it didn’t necessarily mean that they would continue to tolerate their actions without a bottom line. If Celestial Trade really dropped an EMP here, World War III would start soon.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen had an idea as a devilish grin emerged.

Just now, an evil idea suddenly came to his mind.

Don’t you want T-virus data?

Then I will help you.

“Lilith.”

“What do you want? I’m busy,” Lilith replied.

“Don’t pretend, I know you can work while playing games.”

“But then I won’t be able to enjoy the fun of the game…” Halfway through the conversation, Lilith shuddered as she felt the murderous vibe that traveled from the network cable, and she quickly changed her tone, “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“I want to hack those servers, can you do anything about it?” Jiang Chen said, without being bothered by the previous incident.

“…You gave me a great question, even I can’t hack through the air,” Lilith let out a frustrated sigh, then she paused for a second before she continued, “Listen, well, first of all, you have to make sure that these servers are connected to a power source. Secondly, you have to make sure that I can establish a physical connection with these servers, a data cable would work best.”

“Does it have to be connected to a power source?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Not necessarily,” Lilith said blankly. “If you cannot guarantee the power supply, you can also choose to transmit through small pipes like lasers.”

“How do lasers work?”

“Because lasers can generate a microcurrent on the electronic device and directly write onto the hard disk,” Lilith explained patiently.

“I see.” Jiang Chen nodded as he understood the mechanics.

“What are you going to do?” Lilith asked, “Do you want to transmit viruses to it?”

“You’ll know tomorrow.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Well… it’s up to you.”

Jiang Chen recalled the drones and then threw both the tablet and the drones into the storage dimension.

Originally, Jiang Chen planned to wait for Frank to “take him away” when he came out of the military base, but now he could live for a few more days.

Jiang Chen went back the same route, quietly left the military base, and returned to the parking lot at the entrance of Mikasa Park. Just as he was starting the vehicle, he turned on the holographic screen of his watch and called Sumitomo Kenichi.

…

The suburbs of Yoto.

In an ancient traditional building.

Sumitomo Kenichi was in his pajamas as he sat on the wooden floor at the entrance of the backyard. He stared at the moonlight reflecting off the lake, but his thoughts already drifted elsewhere.

A graceful beauty kneeled behind him. She held a pot of sake on the plate with both her hands, as well as a few of his favorite dishes.

“Kenichi Kun, please eat something,” The woman in a kimono said softly.

If it were any normal day, he would not mind hugging his favorite beauty, sitting in the moonlight, drinking a few shots, and enjoying the delicious dishes.

However, at this moment, both the beauty and the dishes were both tasteless and dull to him.

The old fox of the Mitsui family was dead, and it was undoubtedly the CIB who started it.

Secular wealth was futile in the wrestle of superpowers. From the start, the UA never treated the Nippon financial groups seriously. Mitsui Hiroto was killed without even a consideration; would the little foxes of the Mitsui family dare to seek revenge from the CIB?

He was 100% certain that he was the next target. He didn’t even dare to let his father or the people who loved him know, otherwise he was very likely to be abandoned by the family as a precaution before the CIB took action.

It was no exaggeration to say that his life and death now depended entirely on Jiang Chen’s attitude.

If there was a Ghost Agent secretly protecting him, then he should be safe.

But who knows?

After all, Mitsui Hirito died under the eyes of Ghost Agents…

“Don’t bother me, I have no appetite.”

He replied in frustration as he rudely pushed aside the plate that the woman in the kimono handed to him.

With a cry, the plates were knocked on the ground and smashed into pieces.

The girl did not know how she offended the young master, she lowered her head in fear, and didn’t dare to clean up the mess on the ground. She only apologized repeatedly, not knowing what she should do.

Sumitomo Kenichi couldn’t help but feel agitated.

Just then, his butler came over with a phone.

“Master, your phone-”

“I’m not picking up.” Sumitomo Kenichi impatiently waved his hand.

“But, it’s Jiang Chen…”

“Wait! Give me the phone!” His eyes turned red in an instant, and Sumitomo Kenichi immediately darted up. Before the butler walked to him, he snatched the phone from the butler’s hand.

“Get out, GET OUT!”

Sumitomo Kenichi blasted the kimono woman and the butler out and walked into the yard barefoot.

After he took a few deep breaths, he tried to squeeze a smile that was not much better than crying, then pressed the pickup button with his trembling fingers.

Almost as soon as the call was connected, there was an impatient tone.

“Why did you take so long to pick up?”

“Sorry, I…”

“It’s okay,” Jiang Chen was not interested in listening to his explanation. He turned his headset on as both of his hands held onto the steering wheel. “I’ll explain one thing to you, and you’ll do it right away.”

“Yes!” Sumitomo Kenichi was overjoyed, “As long as you tell me, I will do it right away!”

Sumitomo Kenichi’s attentive attitude made Jiang Chen a little surprised, but he soon understood why.

Mitsui Hiroto’s death must have scared him.

Without saying anything, Jiang Chen just smiled, and said casually, “Are you familiar with civil rights organizations?”

“Yes! Of course, I’m familiar!” Sumitomo Kenichi nodded quickly, “The Sumitomo Foundation supports more than two hundred civil rights organizations——”

“I need you to help me create controversies.” Jiang Chen interrupted and directly said.

Slightly confused, Sumitomo Kenichi felt something was odd, but he couldn’t explain where the feeling came from. He hesitated for a second, then swallowed a lump in his throat before he quietly sounded Jiang Chen out.

“Can I ask… what kind of controversies?”

“Controversies about the UA,” Jiang Chen concisely responded.

Chapter 1345: Surround The Base

Chapter 1345: Surround The Base

Jiang Chen was quite sure about Sumitomo Foundation’s influence.

When Celestial Trade chose them as a partner on the Global Power Grid, they were the ones that influenced non-governmental and civil rights organizations to protest and demonstrate at the entrance of the Prime Minister Residence. They were the ones that stated the threats of nuclear power plants, thus indirectly pushed the country’s connection into the global grid.

He planned to use the same tactic.

It was difficult to remove the UA military stationed in Nippon through the behind the scene effort of Celestial Trade alone; the situation required a catalyst. A catalyst that would ultimately end the security treaty, as well as turn the UA into a scapegoat. The catalyst had to be convincing, so that it would be difficult for them to prove their innocence, and could even cause suspicion among their allies.

There was no doubt the T-virus data was that catalyst. It just so happened that Nippon was one of the victims of the T-virus. After the country learned that the UA military stationed in Nippon’s role of restoring the T-virus data, it was not difficult to imagine the reaction Nippon and even the world would have.

The plan would be to use the public to pressure military bases and build momentum for the removal of UA troops stationed in Nippon. Then the Nippon government would take advantage of this momentum to raise objections to the security treaty. Finally, Celestial Trade would be the final straw. Even if the UA was determined to stay, it would be difficult to gain a firm footing on this Pacific Island.

As for whether the UA would use other excuses to justify its actions, Jiang Chen didn’t know, but regardless of their plans to defend themselves, he had plenty of ways to ensure they remained in the center of controversies…

…

The next morning.

Outside the Yokosuka Military Base, crowds blocked the main gate of the base. The soldiers on duty stared nervously at the crowd outside. They formed a line at the gate to prevent the emotional people from storming in.

A soldier, wearing a helmet and holding a rifle, silently spoke to the comrade next to him.

“Sh*t, what the hell do they want to do?”

“Who knows man?”

“I bet it must have been some idiot who brought a woman he had a one night stand with back into the base.”

“Who can read what’s on the sign?”

It was not the first time that they have encountered an incident like this. To be precise, it happened several times a year. But this time it was obviously different because there were too many people at the gate. Not only did non-governmental and civil rights organizations in Yokosuka show up, but they also saw groups that came all the way from Yoto.

Things clearly got out of control.

As the soldiers at the gate chatted amongst themselves, Major Admiral Howard, Commander of the Yokosuka Military Base, had already made more than a dozen calls to the Nippon government. He demanded the police to maintain order, but he only received ambiguous responses.

It did not take long for the police to arrive.

But it was not only the police, but also microphones and cameras from major news agencies.

Major Admiral Howard had a feeling something was wrong.

It was no longer an ordinary protest. Not only was Nippon media on the scene, but even reporters from Reuters, AFP, Xinhua News Agency, and other international news agencies made an appearance.

Good lord, three of the world’s four major news agencies were here.

It seemed that today’s incident could not be downplayed.

“What’s happening outside?” Thomas, Commander of the Seventh Fleet, walked into the room and stared at Major Admiral Howard. “The Department of Defense just called me and asked me to clear the trouble at the gate as soon as possible. I just want to ask what’s going on out there.”

“It’s those servers,” Major Admiral Howard rubbed his brows and dropped the phone on the table. “You can see for yourself. Also, I received a call from the Department of Defense…”

With a frown, Thomas picked up the phone.

On the screen was the interface of Future 1.0, and it was the news section.

[Shocking! The UA troops stationed in Nippon carried out such a horrific experiment at the Yokosuka Military Base…]

When he saw this headline, Thomas’s eyebrows twitched.

What is this article?

However, after he clicked on title and read down the line of English, his expression became more and more serious. Especially when he saw the picture attached to the news, the look on his face completely changed.

The room in the picture was none other than the room they visited yesterday. And the person in the photo was no one else but, in the order of priority, Major Admiral Howard holding the key, himself standing at the back, and Frank next to him…

And the servers were in the middle of the room.

Thomas took a deep breath, took out the satellite phone, and called Frank…

…

“There is a mole in your people.”

“I know,” Frank said with a sullen expression.

He also saw the news.

Based on the angle of the photo, Frank knew who betrayed him immediately.

And just now, he personally killed his long-time confidant, and then immediately changed his hiding place to a place that only he knew.

There was no doubt that those photos were taken with CIB electronic sunglasses.

Although these photos were processed to some extent, with the specifications and resolutions modified, and even erased the passwords hidden in the photos to indicate the identity, the angle of the photo betrayed the identity of the photographer. Frank clearly remembered who stood in that position at the time and who pressed the shutter of the electronic sunglasses…

Frank just couldn’t believe how deep the Ghost Agents had penetrated the CIB, it was like putting a dagger right against his throat.

“The media asked us to verify the authenticity of these photos. After all, Major Admiral Howard and I are in the photos. It’s relatively difficult to deny. I want to ask your opinion on what we should do now.”

“Hmph, let them verify it,” Frank sneered, “Blame it on me if they find anything.”

All the servers were replaced with new casings, and the numbers of internal parts were all modified to other numbers by special means. Even if they dismantled the servers to pieces, it was absolutely impossible to find any problems. Before the technology experts in Los Angeles recover the formatted data in the servers, there was absolutely nothing they could find.

When Frank heard the news, he actually chuckled to himself.

Because in his opinion, Celestial Trade was already out of solutions, and it was their attempt at a last-ditch effort with a lack of intelligence.

The UA could easily prove that these servers had no problems and once they prove their innocence, would Nippon take Celestial Trade’s words seriously even if they found new evidence?

“You mean, open the military base to the media?” Thomas frowned, “But if…”

“Open with reservations!” Frank did not make anything certain. “Choose a few credible new agencies, allow them to send two reporters in, and assign an information technology expert to them. After that, you can send a few Hummers here to take them directly from the gate to the place in the photo.”

“Remember, keep a close eye on these reporters, from when they enter the door to when they leave the door! Prevent them from playing any tricks on the servers!”

“If Celestial Trade plans to use us as the scapegoat, they will definitely use this opportunity. And once their Ghost Agents fall into our trap, Jiang Chen will be the scapegoat!”

Frank squeezed these words through his teeth as anger gleamed in his eyes.

Chapter 1346: Open The Base

Chapter 1346: Open The Base

Outside the Yokosuka Military Base, police cars lined up in a row, and police officers in explosion-proof suits pulled up yellow police line on the road at the entrance of the base, armed with batons and explosion-proof shields. The sheriff of the city personally stood at the very front as he shouted to the emotional demonstrators, urged people to stay calm, and stopped the protesting crowd from marching forward.

“Citizens of Yokosuka, please remain calm! Don’t believe the rumors on the Internet! Our Prime Minister has contacted the UA Ambassador and asked the UA to give a reasonable explanation on this matter! Please trust us, trust the Prime Minister! He will definitely give you a satisfactory answer…”

Sheriff Fujiyama shouted into the speaker. As he watched the indignant crowd, he started to feel the heat of the situation.

He had been in the police force for more than twenty years, and he had encountered crowds gathered around military bases many times, but rarely did the number of demonstrators exceed 500. After all, the military base in Yokosuka was close to Yoto, and only naval units were stationed here. Most of the disturbing aircrafts such as the Osprey were generally deployed in Yokota and Okinawa.

And the scene in front of him was an endless crowd. Based on his own estimate, there were more than 10,000 protesters at the entrance. It was the first time in his two decades of working that he had encountered a situation like this.

Sheriff Fujiyama almost lost his voice from shouting into the speaker, but the protesters obviously didn’t buy it.

“Anyway, you only speak for the UA, right?”

“Kneel down! Apologize!”

“Get out of Yokosuka! Get out with your virus! The citizens of Yokosuka are not your white rats!”

As Sheriff Fujiyama looked anxiously at the people who began to push the police, the checkpoint at the gate of the military base finally raised its bar. A Hummer slowly drove out and stopped behind the human wall, he took the speaker from an officer and shouted to the crowd.

“Please be quiet!”

The ear-piercing sound shook the eardrums of the protesters in the very front, and for a moment it actually overpowered the slogans chanted by the protesting crowd. Many people stopped talking, put down their fists, stared at the man at the front, and waited for his next sentence.

“I am Thomas, Commander of the Seventh Fleet. You may recognize my face, or you may know nothing about me. But these are not important. What is important is that I stand here on behalf of the entire Yokosuka Military Base to respond sincerely to the citizens of Yokosuka.” While he said everything in his not-so-fluent speech, Thomas glanced at the speech written in phonetics in his hand and continued.

“Some photos and irresponsible reports circulating on the Internet may have caused your misunderstanding. Here, I’m issuing a statement on behalf of the UA that those are all unwarranted accusations. We will hold those who spread rumors accountable through legal means!”

There was a boo in the crowd.

Obviously, the citizens were not satisfied with the arrogant response. They demanded an explanation, not another diplomatic message.

Thomas coughed slightly, turned the speech to the next page, and continued.

“I declare once again that the UA Army stationed in Nippon absolutely did not receive Takeda Pharmaceutical’s servers, nor did it assist the CIB in collecting information about T-virus.

“In order to prove our innocence, we are willing to open our military base to the media, and the process of investigation and evidence collection will be broadcasted live in real-time. Whether you believe us or not, you should always trust your eyes…”

The boos outside the military base gradually died down.

Weird expressions appeared on everyone’s faces, wondering if they had heard it wrong.

Open their military base?

Real-time live broadcast investigation and evidence collection process?

Is this still the Yankee’s way of doing things?

This is too abnormal…

Many people hesitantly put down their raised fists and slowly lowered the sign in their hands. Thomas’s speech had made them question themselves. If they had really hidden the servers with T-virus data, would they dare to open the military base?

“Who can guarantee that the servers we see are the same as the ones that appeared in the photo?” At this moment, a loud voice appeared in the crowd, “Who can guarantee that you did not switch the servers?”

“We can guarantee that not a single server you see in that room has been replaced, and even the orientation of the servers has not changed.” Thomas immediately responded to that voice, “After we discovered the rumors on the Internet, we immediately secured the room, and no one has moved the servers inside. Our surveillance video can prove this. Anyone who doubts this point is welcome to check our footage.”

At this point, many people were moved by Thomas’s “sincerity”.

To be honest, many of the people had already suffered from Stockholm syndrome. All the UA soldiers who committed crimes in the country had been sent back to the UA and tried in military courts, but they were soon acquitted.

Now, the UA was willing to open up their military base to prove their innocence, which made them feel like their opinion actually mattered. Since it was the first time they openly expressed their willingness to allow the media to investigate and collect evidence!

Of course, the premise of all trust here was based on the fact that everything Thomas said was true, and that the servers were not associated with Takeda Pharmaceutical and the T-virus. But if the results did prove that the UA was collecting T-virus data, then their stance would not change the slightest.

Except before the investigation began, most of the protesters had already believed Thomas’s confident statement…

The Yankees were not joking.

After Thomas finished his speech, two officials, escorted by UA soldiers, came to the media’s broadcast vehicle and began to arrange the investigation process.

After all, it was a military facility, and it was definitely impossible for a large group of people to enter, so only ten news agencies were granted permission to enter.

In this case, the question of who to choose became very important.

If they chose all UA-based news agencies, no one would be convinced by the result.

Perhaps because of their absolute confidence, only two news agencies named were based in the UA, and even two news agencies from Hua were selected despite the opposing views.

After the list was announced, all representatives present no longer expressed objections.

In addition to the four major news agencies of Reuters, AFP, Xinhua, and the Associated Press, there were also broadcasting companies that were equally influential, such as BBC, NHK, and CTV. As far as the list was concerned, it was fair and square.

As to whether the investigation process was truly transparent…

It would be determined once the result was released.

The unusual cooperative attitude of the UA made the crowd, especially those who wished to see the downfall of the UA, feel hesitant. Including Sumitomo Kenichi and all representatives of anti-UA garrison organizations, everyone did not expect the UA to cooperate in this unprecedented manner. Because usually, even if they were amid controversies, they often had a strong stance.

But this time, they just…cooperated?

Sumitomo Kenichi picked up the phone anxiously and dialed Jiang Chen’s number.

As soon as the call was connected, he hurriedly said.

“They opened their military base…”

“I know, so what?”

So what?

Jiang Chen’s nonchalant response made Sumitomo Kenichi confused.

“Do you think I am betting that they will never compromise? They will never open their military base and carry this bowl of dirty water from Yokosuka back to their own home soil?”

“…Are you not?”

When Jiang Chen said this, Sumitomo Kenichi had a strange expression on his face, because Jiang Chen had already said what he wanted to say.

“Use your mind to think about it,” Jiang Chen sighed softly; he was about to say something, but he quickly changed the topic and laughed, “Forget it, why am I explaining this to you. Just enjoy the show.”

After he left the bewildered Sumitomo Kenichi with this sentence, he hung up the phone.

Chapter 1347: A Grand Present

Chapter 1347: A Grand Present

After the list was announced, Jiang Chen walked towards Reuters’ television production truck.

He used a holographic camouflage system to distort the light and shadow of his facial details and completely turned his face into a different one.

Although he could always hide behind the scenes and assign the task to a Ghost Agent, since they were at the last step before they boot out the Yankees, it would be too boring to enjoy the show as a spectator.

When the reporter, who was testing his equipment, saw a stranger walk to him, he asked with a frown.

“Is there a problem?”

Subconsciously, the British journalist thought he was a representative of a certain organization, because many Asians who spoke Japanese-accent English had come to him and made some strange requests for his evidence collection.

Subjectively, he was very disgusted with this type of behavior, especially when a layman decides to tell him how to do his job. At this moment, when another man approached him, of course, he was not too pleased.

“After the interview starts, please point your camera at the server, and stay on each server for at least two seconds.” After Jiang Chen rehearsed this in his mind, he adjusted his English-level and spoke this in fluent English with a Japanese-accent. He had directly put forward his requests.

“Give each server a shot? Is there any purpose?” The Reuters reporter sneered and said unceremoniously, as he put his equipment aside, “I don’t need a layman to tell me how to do my job. I will ensure every second of my footage will give the most objective perspective!”

“It’s very meaningful, and it doesn’t conflict with anything,” Jiang Chen put on a serious expression when he answered the reporter’s question, and said, “We have to make sure that every server is inside the room. You just need to give all the servers a close-up shot before the interview. Then, after the interview is over, I’ll purchase the material in your memory card for a price of 10,000 pounds per second.”

“Deal!”

Without any hesitation, the reporter agreed to Jiang Chen’s request.

Ten thousand pounds a second!

This is basically raining money!

And all he needed to do was to give a close-up shot of the servers and the man did not request him to put the shots in the interview. In principle, this action would not violate his professional ethics.

Only a fool would not earn this free money!

“There were twenty servers in the photo…”

“I understand,” Jiang Chen took out his phone, shook it, and smiled in the reporter’s zealous sight. “I will pay you the deposit for twenty servers first. Based on the agreed two seconds, the total is 400,000 pounds. As for how much you can get, it’s all up to you.”

The transfer was completed quickly.

After Jiang Chen watched the reporter leave, a subtle grin remained on his face and he gave an okay gesture to Gill, who was standing next to him. The latter looked at Jiang Chen in a daze at this moment. Her look of respect had turned into an expression of worship.

Just half a minute ago, while Jiang Chen took out his phone and transferred money to the reporter, Gill had quietly installed the data transmission laser probe on the camera the reporter had been working with.

…

At noon, the organizations distributed water and food to the protesters for free. The money for the purchase of food and water came from donations received from society. As for who made these donations, it was naturally the Sumitomo Foundation.

With his eyes fixed on the demonstrators outside the military base, Sumitomo Kenichi’s fists were clenched, and he kept praying in his mind, praying that the man was really as confident as he was, and he could finally defeat the CIB.

Otherwise, his decision to rashly use the influence of the Sumitomo Group to stand with the wrong crowd was enough to tank the reputation he had built in his family, and cross him off the list of candidates for the future head of the family.

Two hours passed, and it was two o’clock in the afternoon.

The invited reporters and experts entered the military base under the escort of soldiers.

To prevent someone from taking photos along the way, everyone’s electronic equipment must be turned in before they arrived at the destination. After they reached the destination, their equipment would be returned to the reporter’s hands.

Since they entered Room 014, the UA soldiers had been keeping a close watch of Xinhua News Agency and CCTV reporters.

In their view, without inviting the Xin media, only these people could help the old cunning fox Jiang Chen and his Ghost Agents play tricks.

In the Yankee’s distrustful sights, those reporters from Hua were naturally quite dissatisfied and stared back. The French stood aside, and several reporters gathered around a computer expert to comment on these servers.

As for the British…

The BBC reporter set up their camera properly, while the Reuters reporter entered the room and scurried between the servers like a treasure hunter. He was very persistent and gave each server a close-up shot.

The UA soldier stared at the strange behavior of this British reporter and was somewhat confused, but he did not question his behavior.

One was because the two countries had always worked closely together, and Reuters had always followed the direction pointed out by the British government. The second was that giving each server a close-up was meaningless in the eyes of Thomas and the others because from when the photo was taken till now, no one had ever touched these servers.

Not even a single touch!

Although there were ten media companies in attendance, there were only four protagonists here. Ten cameras were ready and aimed at the row of servers, and the British journalist finally ended his “treasure hunt” at this moment and returned to the Reuters team.

The terminal to access the servers was provided by the UA military.

Since Thomas was certain there was no problem with these servers, in order to cooperate with the media on the investigation process with more transparency, he specially brought the projector from the conference room and projected the interface of the terminal onto the white screen.

In order to avoid suspicion, the experts appointed by the Associated Press were selected last to go.

The first to examine the servers was the expert appointed by AFP.

After Thomas had the server plugged in, the curly-haired French expert pressed the power button and stepped forward in a responsible manner. After about half an hour, the expert finally shook his head, walked back to the AFP reporter, and gave a rather conservative answer.

“From the program, I don’t see any problems. At least for now, it can be proved that there is no T virus data in these servers.”

The next one up was an expert from Hua.

The information technology expert also stepped forward to check carefully, but the result was the same as the previous French expert’s conclusion. However, he still had doubts about whether the UA had committed fraud, as the expert said.

“There is no problem with the software. I’m requesting permission to disassemble the server and check the hardware to define the source of these servers—”

“Request rejected.” Thomas said without hesitation, “All inspections are limited to a software perspective. This is our bottom line! We can’t allow you to do something on our server because of your unprovoked accusations.”

The expert was forcefully removed, and a British expert was up next.

The first two experts had done their best, and the British expert obviously did not look too confident. After he had operated on the terminal for some time, he shook his head and gave his spot to the expert from the UA.

When Thomas saw that the expert appointed by his side step up, there was a triumphant smile on his face

At this moment, he could already conclude that they have won this round of confrontations.

Celestial Trade may be betting that they will not open the barracks, or they may be waiting for an opportunity to enter the military base and get their hands on the servers, but no matter what the calculations they had a minute ago, when the last expert started to operate on the terminal, they lost all chances of winning.

In the sight of Lieutenant General Thomas and Major General Howard, the expert appointed by the Associated Press stood forward.

The old man over fifty years old pushed his glasses, walked to the camera, and spoke slowly.

“The first three experts didn’t see any problems. I don’t think I can find anything either.”

After a pause, the information technology expert from California shrugged, and then said, “From the beginning, I thought it was a farce, and now it seems that there is nothing wrong with my inference. Someone tried to pour dirty water and obviously, they have shot themselves in the foot. However, in a responsible manner, I will follow-through with the inspection process to the end.”

As he spoke, he coughed slightly, straightened his collar, and walked to the terminal connected to the servers.

“Then, I’ll restart the server first.”

As he spoke, he pressed the reset button.

Just like the previous few times, the green signal light turned on, and the servers were operating stably.

When Mr. Tanaka was deleting the T virus data, he formatted the server quite thoroughly and did not leave any clues that may connect it back to the T virus. If it were not for special means, with several days or even months of hard work, it was impossible to restore the formatted data.

When the Hua expert proposed to disassemble the machine, it could have been a good way to prove that the servers were from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, but the UA would never agree with this request. Even if everyone was reluctant to accept the truth, they could only watch as the restart button was being pressed and wait for Thomas to proclaim his “victory”.

But at this moment, the UA expert was stunned.

Thomas and Howard were stunned.

Everyone was stunned.

As well as people who were in other parts of Nippon and even around the world that watched the broadcast live.

The start-up screen was still the same, and the interface did not change.

However, a line of words popped out on the screen and stung…

[T virus database, restarting…]

[Restart successful, loading…]

A long stream of data spewed out from the text box on the left side of the screen, and the rotating three-dimensional image on the right side was the morphological structure of the T virus and the RNA molecular chain. At this moment, all this data was projected on to the white screen.

Thomas’s eyes turned red, and he rushed to unplug the power, but it was too late.

The ten media companies on the scene were all live broadcasting this event, and this scene had been broadcasted to every corner of the world.

The UA expert was completely dazed as his finger still hovered above the restart button.

He had yet to recover from the fact that…

He had done a huge favor for humanity…

Chapter 1348: Out Of Control

Chapter 1348: Out Of Control

The live broadcast was interrupted.

The public was in an uproar.

The citizens of Yokosuka, who still possessed a hint of friendliness to the UA military, almost smashed their phones in anger, and the signs that had been put aside were raised again. The police, who persuaded the citizens to stop moving forward, revealed mixed emotions and also wavered.

The indignant people shoved the police line as they shouted.

“Get out of Yokosuka!”

“Liar! Shameful liar!”

“I’m petitioning to Lift the security treaty!”

“Yokosuka is not a guinea pig, get out!”

Not only the gates of the Yokosuka military base, but demonstrators had started to converge in front of the gates of military bases in Yokota, Sasebo, and even Okinawa. With wooden signs held up high, they shouted protest slogans. While they responded to the people of Yokosuka, they shouted an easy to understand phrase to the soldiers in the military base—

“GET OUT!”

In the UA.

The man in front of the TV watched the news as he covered his head with both his hands in despair.

“T-virus…God, tell me this is not true.”

He could not believe that his country really tried this.

Originally, he still firmly believed that this must be a malicious campaign by Celestial Trade to smear the UA’s image. After all, it was not the first day that Future 1.0 criticized the UA. However, with the evidence in front of his eyes, it was impossible for him to close his eyes and ignore it.

In the comment section of major websites and forums, the keyboard warriors were already battling.

“Why does the CIB want to get T-virus data? Unbelievable, what do the politicians in the Capitol want to do?!”

“The United Nations should take over these servers immediately! No, that’s not right! They should be destroyed immediately!”

“I don’t agree with surrendering the servers. The T-virus can be used as a deterrent, as long as we are cautious enough not to really use them. It’s like a nuclear warhead in a silo…”

Both sides held their own opinions. One side believed that national interests were above all else and understood the CIB’s collection of T-virus data. The other side believed that humanitarianism was the priority. Regardless of the purposes, biological weapons should not be used for military purposes.

In a sense, the polarization of opinion also reflected the confusion of the UA people on whether they were leaning left or right. And this is the reason why Trump almost caught up in support of Kennedy in less than half a year.

Regardless of how polarized opinions were on the Internet, the people of California were obviously not satisfied with using the keyboard to express their political views. In particular, citizens of San Francisco and Los Angeles took to the streets and surrounded the state government and CIB buildings with slogans and protest signs.

Based on the information disclosed by Future 1.0, these servers were originally planned to be shipped back to Los Angeles. So, no matter how the UA authorities and the CIB planned to deal with these servers, the final destination, California, was a dangerous location.

Even as a fanatical zombie culture lover, no one really hoped to see the day where the walking dead really happened…

Different from the polarization of opinion in the UA, public opinion abroad was relatively more unified, almost overwhelmingly disappointed in the behavior of the UA.

Especially the Finnish people, who suffered because of the “Kurofune”, took a clear-cut stance against the UA this time. The Finnish Prime Minister even publicly condemned the CIB’s behavior, calling their action a crime against humanity…

…

In a mansion on the outskirts of Yoto, Sumitomo Kenichi stood in his study, with a phone in his hand, and casually chatted.

“Yes, father, I sent them.”

“My reason is very simple. The UA’s hegemony is fading, and now is not the time to be cautious! If we stand firmly on the side of Celestial Trade, they, as the winners, will definitely not forget the contributions we have made!”

“…This is not gambling on the future of the family. In my eyes, it is a win-win situation. I just sold the favor to our ally. The UA must withdraw from Nippon within two years. There is a high possibility that Celestial Trade will be the replacement!”

“As for my personal safety, it is nothing in the interests of the family!”

He did all he could to resist the urge to laugh as he made an awe-inspiring statement.

His father’s praise made him feel a little airy, especially when he heard that the old stubborn uncles in the family had gradually changed their views of his “young and vigorous” character. His heart was pumping so proudly that it was about to jump out of his chest.

After he hung up, he couldn’t restrain himself anymore and laughed hysterically.

“This is amazing! Amazing! So amazing!”

Out of all those who wished for the downfall of the UA, Sumitomo Kenichi was the most excited at this moment.

In the beginning, when Jiang Chen asked him to instigate the people to protest, deep down, he was reluctant. Not a single consortium dared to go against the UA before the CIB and the UA military left Nippon, let alone as the eldest son of the Sumitomo consortium.

In contrast, these Nippon financial groups would rather offend the prime minister of their own country than offend the commander-in-chief of the UA military in Nippon or the Chief of Staff of the CIB in Nippon. Because any actions of the former could not bypass the National Diet, while the latter could directly bypass National Diet and even all the rules and regulations…

Mitsui Hiroto was an example.

Hiroto was still the owner of a big consortium, Kenichi himself was just the eldest son of a consortium.

But even if he didn’t dare, he had no other choice at the time.

Because Jiang Chen was very clear, it was his only path to survive.

He had to bite the bullet.

After he bypassed the head of the Sumitomo Foundation, also his father, Sumitomo Kenichi directly used his influence on the civil rights organizations funded by the Sumitomo Foundation to organize protest activities at the military base.

After he had done all of this, he completely shut himself in the study of his private home while he waited nervously for the final result of this event.

From the time when the number of protesters exceeded 10,000, to when the UA made the odd decision to open up their military base, his uneasy heart pumped rapidly with every media report.

Especially half an hour ago, when he saw experts from three different countries all unable to find any evidence before the UA expert decided to try, Sumitomo Kenichi also drowned in the feeling of hopeless.

However, what he never expected was that the plot actually reversed at the last minute.

The UA was caught in the hands of its own people.

The dumbfounded information technology expert made him almost sing in joy. He immediately turned on his phone that was turned off and called his father who had been dialing.

Everything felt like a dream.

Until last night, he was still living under the death threat of the CIB.

However, he did not expect that in less than twenty-four hours, he was already amongst the winners…

Chapter 1349: Contradiction in Logic

Chapter 1349: Contradiction in Logic

“What the hell is going on!” Carter yelled at Lieutenant Admiral Thomas, “Why did you open the military base? Are you stupid! You could have blocked out the annoying cameras outside of the base, why did you give them the opportunity to obtain evidence? When do we need to explain our actions to others? Have you forgotten who you are loyal to? Take a good look at the national emblem on your own hat!”

“But Frank…”

Lieutenant Admiral Thomas’ face was flushed as he tried to justify his actions. However, before he could finish speaking, Secretary Carter’s roar interrupted his speech.

“That idiot Frank is fooling around, and you are following him?! Lieutenant Admiral Thomas, and Major General Hogg, I don’t want to say more about your stupidity, now, no, immediately! Block the military base immediately! Prohibit any one from coming in and out! I mean anyone!”

Didn’t you ask me to cooperate with the CIB?!

Thomas cursed in his heart, but he dared not to say anything and had to accept the order.

Carter’s chest was pumping violently up and down and he had to change the hand holding the phone. Then he leaned against the chair for a moment to calm his breathing down.

Maybe he cursed, or maybe he just didn’t want to hear Thomas’ voice, he broke the silence.

“So that’s it, do what I just said.”

“Wait, wait a minute,” Thomas hurriedly said as Secretary Carter was about to hang up.

“What else?” Carter said impatiently.

“What should we do about the reporters? They are still under our house arrest in the military base,” Lieutenant General Thomas said immediately.

“Confiscate their memory cards, then kick them out,” Carter said with a headache as he pressed his fingers against his sore temple.

“Yes…”

Although he doubted the usefulness of the action, Lieutenant General Thomas nodded.

After he hung up, he took a deep breath, suppressed his burning anger, and dialed Frank’s number.

If possible, his wished to grab the guy by the collar and question the idiot to see how he could come up with such a foolish plan. If he didn’t handle this properly, there was no doubt that he and Major Admiral Howard would be used as the scapegoat behind this incident, and may potentially end up in military court.

He only regretted the fact that he chose to believe in that idiot’s plan in the first place…

To his surprise, the phone rang more than a dozen times and still did not connect.

Thomas dialed the number again, but the busy tone on the other side remained the same.

“FU*K! WHERE DID THIS IDIOT GO!” After Thomas cussed out, he slammed the phone down.

Major Admiral Howard, who stood next to him, looked to him solemnly and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Who knows what he’s doing,” Thomas swore, dropped the phone on the table, then put his head down on the desk as he grabbed his hair in pain, “God… who can tell me what I should do now.”

The key person disappeared.

Based on Secretary Carter’s request, he should release those reporters?

It’s okay to release them, but what about after?

How should they explain to the protesters who surrounded the base? How should they explain to the Nippon government? How should they explain it to the Capitol, Congress, and even military courts?

And Secretary Carter did not tell him anything about these unanswered questions…

…

“How did you… come up with this plan?”

In the office of the Xin Embassy.

Gill looked at Jiang Chen with eyes of disbelief as she stood in front of the desk; there was a touch of admiration on her face and it became more and more obvious. Although she also came up with many plans to destroy those servers, she never imagined such a creative solution.

Even when Jiang Chen explained the whole plan to her, there were still many doubts in her mind.

It wasn’t until time passed that she gradually realized the brilliance of the whole plan…

“My idea was very simple. If they chose to be a turtle and respond to all doubts by ignoring them, then I would prevail in the public’s eye and continue to use them as scapegoats until they are completely annoyed and flustered. However, with their attitude, it’s very unlikely for them to do that. Since an opportunity to prove their innocence lied in front of them, they can easily use me as a scapegoat, and I don’t believe they can withstand this temptation.” Jiang Chen grinned.

Especially when they had not won against Celestial Trade in a public opinion battle for a long time.

Being on the edge of victory always made people lose sense of their surroundings.

“If we hadn’t done anything, would they have discovered issues with those servers?” Gill wondered, “They were so confident that they couldn’t be exposed?”

“You can say that,” Jiang Chen nodded. “It’s impossible to recover the formatted data without a whole technical team working day and night. Just relying on a few experts with a terminal is not enough to get anything, let alone just having an hour.”

“The only chance to spot any issues was to disassemble the servers check the electronic parts in the case one by one, and look for clues about the connection between this batch of servers and Takeda Pharmaceutical. But you have also seen it when the experts from Hua made the request to disassemble the machines for inspection, the Lieutenant Admiral refused without hesitation.”

“But what about those servers? The T-virus data is contained on it. If they copy that data…” Gill wondered.

“It’s impossible,” Jiang Chen shook his head and said slowly, “I only said that I would give them a big gift. When did I say that the virus data I gave them is real?”

Gill took a second to process before her eyes lit up.

With her cleverness, she instantly understood what Jiang Chen meant.

Jiang Chen used the same logic as the UA military.

The UA military used the point that “experts appointed by media would not be able to prove that these servers contained T-virus data in a limited time” to prove their innocence. And Jiang Chen also took advantage of the fact that “no one would be able to verify the authenticity of the data within a limited period of time” to trick them.

Yes, the data Lilith transmitted to the server was fake.

Other than the structure diagram of the T virus and the RNA molecular chain, which had long been published, the information transmitted to the server was a forgery from Celestial Trade, and some of the information in this fake virus was also missing.

It was impossible for the UA to prove the fact the virus was fake unless they produced favorable evidence. However, under what circumstances could they prove this? It would only be possible given one scenario.

And this correct “answer”, in turn, would make the fact that they collected T-virus data a reality.

It was a contradiction in logic.

Therefore, they had to accept the fact that they were forced to be the perpetrator…

Gill’s pupils flashed with a light of admiration. If she only respected Jiang Chen’s strategy before, she had full admiration over his abilities now. It was that she hid everything in her heart and did not show any obvious emotions.

“The next step is to get rid of Frank, and then force the UA military out. We have almost won this confrontation.” Jiang Chen, who stared at the ceiling, leaned back on his chair and thought about it for a moment, then he said, “As for those servers… Regardless of whether they take that piece of data seriously or not, I will send it to them as a consolation prize.”

Even if they successfully restore the data deleted by Tanaka, they would still be confused by the fake data transmitted by Lilith. Therefore, the possibility that they could restore the T virus data was infinitely small, and it was no longer meaningful to destroy those servers.

What’s more, the fact these servers were still in the UA’s hands was more beneficial to Jiang Chen.

“I see,” Gill said seriously.

“Anyway, the opening ceremony of the Olympics will be in a few days. I hope to end this mess soon, preferably before the torch symbolizing peace is lit,” Jiang Chen smiled at the serious-looking Gill. He joked humorously, “After all, as an amateur athlete, I also want to cherish this hard-won opportunity.”

Chapter 1350: Scapegoat

Chapter 1350: Scapegoat

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

As an amateur athlete, Jiang Chen was not joking.

Just a few months ago, he became a part of the Xin Olympic Committee and participated in the Olympic Games as an athlete.

Not surprisingly, he might had been the first person in the history of the Olympics to appear in the opening ceremony as an invited guest and athlete at the same time.

Xin was only founded as a country a few years ago, and this Olympics was the first world-class sporting event for Xin athletes. As a small country, the base number of athletes in Xin itself was very small, to the point where many events had no participants.

Someone may ask, why not give all the athletes the genetic vaccine, or let Celestial Trade soldiers sign up. Sports with skill requirements such as football and basketball would be hard to guarantee a victory, but it would be no exaggeration to say that Xin could dominate all track and field events.

In addition, with their existing technology, it was absolutely impossible for the Olympic Committee to detect the genetic vaccine. Unless they compared the difference in DNA of germ cells and somatic cells, it was possible to detect a trace of difference.

But was this meaningful?

If he gave the vaccines to athletes, the game itself would lose its meaning.

To be honest, Jiang Chen did not care about how many gold medals Xin could win. On the premise that he could let all the legal citizens of Xin live in the envy of the people of the world, he did not think he or Zhang Yaping still needed to rely on gold medals to boost national self-confidence.

If the athletes won, they deserved to be cheered.

If the athletes lost, just work harder next time.

The process of competing in the Olympic games was something enjoyable, there was no need to make them into products on the assembly line.

With this mentality, when he saw that there was a category that no one registered in, Jiang Chen decided to sign himself up.

As for the category?

It was not track and field nor weightlifting, because competing in these two categories would serve no meaning at all. The genetic vaccine could allow him to run at a superhuman level, and there was no point in weightlifting at all. His various body stats had reached the limit of mankind in the 21st century a few years ago. Even if he did win, it would not bring him any sense of accomplishment…

…

Just as Jiang Chen was in the Xin Embassy office casually chatting with Gill about the next steps, an emergency meeting was taking place in the Capitol.

The meeting place was in the President Office.

The meeting was attended by the outgoing Hill, Secretary of State Kerry who had competed with her for the presidency, the summoned CIB Director Henry Wilmot, as well as Secretary of Defense Carter and Advanced Projects Agency Director Melvin Laird, who both were involved in this matter.

When Henry entered the room, he eyed Kerry. The former was a part of the latter’s presidential campaign, but the latter looked away subtly at the moment.

A slight disappointment appeared in Henry’s eyes. He lowered his head for a moment as if he had made some kind of decision then he raised his head again.

“Henry Wilmot.” With a sharp gaze locked on Henry’s face, Hill said harshly, “Do you know why you are standing here?”

What should come always comes.

Henry knew that he could not escape his fate.

It was the consensus of the international community to oppose the T-virus. After a scandal of this scale broke out, it was not enough to rely on sincere apologies. Someone had to take the blame for the scandal, and this person could not be the “righteous” Capitol, nor the Department of Defense that followed orders, so there seemed to be only one suitable candidate left.

It was time to settle everything together. In the Colombian Crisis, the CIB was certainly also responsible.

“Isn’t it because I’m the CIB director?” Henry, who had completely thought everything through, despite the different gazes that were focused on him, he shrugged and laughed out loud, “Besides this reason, I can’t think of anything else.”

The Director of CIB was directly appointed by the President, and the position also served as a senior intelligence advisor to the President and Congress. The position was often referred to as the “ear” of the President. Although the position required a nod from Senate, kicking him from this position only required a nod from the President.

“You have three minutes to defend yourself. If you can’t make a convincing explanation of what happened at the Yokosuka Military Base, you may have to go to the independent prosecutor to explain yourself.” Hill didn’t look Henry in the eyes, but instead, she flipped through the papers on the desk blankly.

“There is nothing to explain,” Henry stared into Hill’s eyes, and said emotionlessly, “I will be responsible for my mistakes.”

From the moment he stepped into this building, he had anticipated what might happen today. No matter what kind of explanation he gave, the final outcome would not convince anyone, and he would be used as a scapegoat.

It was the only option to reduce the stain on the country.

“… Mike Pompeo will take your place,” Hill said.

“I have no objection,” Henry said softly.

The young man who had been standing in the corner of the office stepped forward, nodded slightly to Henry, and extended his right hand.

“Mike Pompeo, Senate. Thank you for your continued efforts in the nation’s interest.”

“Now it’s up to you.” Henry shook the extended hand and looked Mike in the eyes. His previously relieved voice now carried a tone of solemnity, “This position is far more dangerous than you think.”

“I’ll perform my duties as if I’m walking on thin ice,” Mike said politely, but the upturned corner of his lips still couldn’t hide the sense of pride.

Henry keenly noticed the upturned curve, but he just smiled and shook his head.

“First of all, congratulations. But before that, as your predecessor, I have to give you some advice.”

Mike did not reply, but slightly lifted his chin and motioned him to continue speaking with his eyes.

“Stay away from that man, you know who I am talking about. Including me, my predecessor, Mr. Naomi, and his predecessor,” Henry said as he shook his three fingers. His originally serious expression suddenly burst into laughter; he shook his head and laughed in self-mockery, “Since the establishment of the CIB, this is unprecedented. In less than five years, three directors have been forced to step down, and all because of the same man… ”

“Mr. Wilmot,” Hill coughed and said expressionlessly, “If this is your advice to your successor, then your speech is over.”

“Yes, Madam President.” Henry bowed gracefully, gave Kerry one last look, then left the room.

No one stopped him. They only watched the loser’s departure with coldness and indifference.

For some reason, Mike suddenly felt that the back of the man leaving the meeting room was so bleak…

A coolness gradually rose in his heart, and Mike nervously gulped .

The moment the door slammed shut, he suddenly understood why he felt this way when he should be enjoying this glorious moment in his life.

Because from Henry’s back, he vaguely saw the shadow of another person.

That person was no one else but himself…

Chapter 1351: Officer Kwai’s Confusion

Chapter 1351: Officer Kwai’s Confusion

Frank committed suicide in an apartment that belonged under a pseudonym, located in the suburbs of Yoto.

It was the neighbor across from him who called the police, and the cause was a large amount of water seeping through the door.

After the police received the call, they immediately dispatched a team to protect the scene.

After they pick-locked the door, the police that rushed inside even smelled the stench wafting from the bathroom.

When the police opened the door curtain of the bathroom, and they found a foreign male corpse with his wrist cut open in the bathtub. Based on the blade on the ground and his peaceful expression, the cause of death appeared to be suicide. Immediately afterwards, the forensic doctor conducted a blood test and confirmed that the deceased had not taken sleeping pills or other psychoactive drugs before his death. The whole case could be confirmed as a suicide.

After a comparison of the identities, the police identified the deceased, to be Frank, a diplomat in the UA Embassy. As for why he died here, no one could explain this reason.

However, the UA Embassy’s response to the death was rather mild. It accepted the investigation results of the police without any objection and took over the remains of the deceased.

On Saturday morning of the same week, all the staff of the embassy attended the funeral of this colleague. It didn’t take long before his coffin was covered with a national flag and was airlifted back to the UA to meet his relatives.

Shortly after, the Capitol held a press conference in response to the incident in Yokosuka.

“When we learned about this appalling news, we immediately asked the chief command of the Yokosuka Military Base to find out more about the situation.”

“The Department of Defense has issued relevant documents requiring the UA troops stationed in Nippon to cooperate with the CIB’s operations, but the documents specifically emphasize that the cooperation was limited to counter-terrorism.”

“Here, on behalf of the Capitol, I reiterate once again that this incident was the personal act of the Director of the CIB, and some intelligence personnel stationed in Nippon who may have been involved in this case are under investigation. At present, the President has suspended Director Henry from his duties and independent prosecutors have begun an investigation on the dereliction of duty. I believe that a reasonable and satisfactory answer will be given to the public soon…”

The CIB Director took the blame and stepped down. The demonstrations stopped in California, but the protests at the entrance of the Yokosuka military base continued.

Perhaps the Yokosuka Police was placed in the most difficult situation. It was stuck in between the people, the UA soldiers, and the government. They were also being verbally abused, which was something they shouldn’t bear. The Yoto Police urgently reinforced 2,000 police forces to Yokosuka, but it did little to calm the chaotic situation.

Not only Yokosuka, but almost all of Nippon’s civil rights organizations raised to support the protests in Yokosuka. At the same time, protests erupted across the country with slogans such as “Get out!” appearing at the gates of 88 military bases without exception.

There were not only the works of the Sumitomo Foundation but also the works of the Mitsubishi, Fuji, and other consortia.

It was evident who the winner of this confrontation was. Although the UA made a series of remedial measures, it was impossible to recover the mistakes made by its military in Nippon on the collection of T-virus data.

The strong intervention of Celestial Trade was inevitable. The Nippon government was destined to cancel the security treaty. Now there was the risk in picking a side, and it could also serve as a favor to Jiang Chen. As to whether Jiang Chen would really view this as a favor, only he would know.

…

Yoto, in the hotel Jiang Chen stayed at.

Jiang Chen was sitting comfortably on the sofa in the living room as he chatted with Foreign Minister Kishida.

“Jiang Chen, I think you went overboard this time…” His tone carried a hint of helplessness as Kishida smiled bitterly, “It’s only a few days before the opening ceremony, you couldn’t wait for the Olympics to end?”

“There was only one chance,” Jiang Chen smiled emotionlessly as put his one leg on his other knee, and said in a joking tone, “If the UA is willing to wait until the Olympics is over before sending the servers out of the country, I would have had no issues. ”

Kishida sighed helplessly after Jiang Chen’s explanation. He couldn’t say more on this topic and ended the topic abruptly. He changed into a slightly flattering tone and said respectfully.

“Congress is discussing an early termination of the security treaty. Mr. Prime Minister asked me to tell you the news. We will apply to join the Earth Defense Alliance at the end of this month. Congress has already agreed. I hope Jiang Chen will take care of the rest. ”

“My words will always count,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

“Thank you very much, then I won’t disturb you… By the way, are there some strange noises on your side?”

“Are there any?” Jiang Chen shrugged and said with a smile, “It must be your illusion.”

After he hung up the phone, Jiang Chen put his leg down and looked at Kwai lying on the carpet as an evil smile emerged on his face.

“It seems that you still haven’t remembered what I said. Didn’t I say that you are not allowed to make noise when I call?”

Kwai was whimpering. At this moment, she was crawling in front of Jiang Chen like a puppy as she rubbed her thighs impatiently, pleading and confusion filled her eyes.

“You want to go to the bathroom?” Jiang Chen said with a smirk.

“Woooooo…”

Without a domineering attitude, Kwai nodded desperately.

“Qian Xia.” Jiang Chen looked to the side and said with a smirk, “Bring that thing here.”

“Yes, my master.” Qia Xia’s mouth curled up, and she disappeared into the living room. When she appeared again, she held a palm-sized iron bowl in her hand and placed it gently behind Kwai.

“Help her open the lock.”

“Yes.” Qian Xia nodded respectfully.

“Woooooo…”

When Kwai saw the iron bowl under her, she shook her head pleadingly.

Although she couldn’t hold it in any longer, it was too much to do it in front of a man.

“Do you not want to go to the toilet?” Jiang Chen grinned, “Then I will let Qian Xia lock it up for you again?”

“Woohoo!”

She could no longer restrain the soreness in her lower abdomen as her instinct once again defeated the shame in Kwai’s mind. While Jiang Chen and Qian Xia watched, her pitiful self-esteem and overflowing flood burst out together…

Splashhhh…

It continued for a while before the flow finally stopped, and Kwai collapsed to the ground.

Jiang Chen enjoyed the expression on her face and his wicked smirk grew more apparent.

He suddenly discovered that his sadist side was growing stronger…

“Actually, you were having a good time, weren’t you?” When he got up from the sofa, Jiang Chen kneeled down and suddenly blew into Kwai’s mouth, “Am I right? Officer Kwai.”

Mixed with his warmth, the moment those words blew into her ear, Kwai’s legs felt soft. A stream of heat rushed from her lower abdomen to her brain, spreading along every inch of neurons in the cerebral cortex.

At this moment, the resistance in those bright eyes had disappeared, and what was left was confusion…

She didn’t understand.

Why is it that I am so humiliated by him, but I can’t hate him at all.

She really didn’t understand…

Chapter 1352: Blood Axe Mercenaries

Chapter 1352: Blood Axe Mercenaries

It was already the afternoon when Jiang Chen freed the exhausted Officer Kwai.

During this time, Kelvin and Ayesha both made a call. Kelvin’s call was to inform him that the 300 scientific researchers had successfully landed in the Mars Colony. They were preparing to enter Mine 071 under the order of Hong Zewei.

The call from Ayesha was related to the situation in Colombia.

Based on what Timochenko said, the FARC guerrillas and the Moro soldiers had successfully entered the Colombian Capital of Bogota. The defeated government force withdrew from the Cundinamarca province and retreated towards the Medellin region.

With the increasingly powerful FARC armed force, the Gulf Coast would be the last home of the government force and where the remaining NATO Coalition Force was stationed. The deterrence from the Ford Aircraft Carrier Battle Group could possibly allow them to struggle until the end of the year.

But Timochenko was quite optimistic.

After FARC took control of the military factory in Cundinamarca, it was capable of producing its own light weapons and ammunition. With the T72 tanks imported from Russia, FARC even armed an armored brigade.

But this armored brigade served more as a deterrence rather than having any actual combat value. After all, the T-72s could perhaps scare the equally poorly equipped government force, but the T-72s were laughable in front of NATO’s M1A2s. In addition, Colombia’s mountainous and forested nature made the value of armored forces quite limited.

But in any case, FARC gained the absolute upper hand.

After Timochenko occupied Bogota, he immediately announced that he would become the new president of Colombia. While he established a new constitution, he also appointed dozens of his close aides and established a new Colombian leadership team.

Immediately afterward, Timochenko, with victory in his grasp, even sent his own Minister of Energy to Xin to start negotiations with Celestial Trade on the Global Power Grid project. As previously stated, Celestial Trade would register a jointly controlled power company in Colombia with Timoshenko’s government, and carry out a grid construction plan under this power company.

After the Trans-Pacific cable landed in Ecuador, it finally took a difficult step forward. The grid extended its tentacles from the coast of South America to Colombia. It won’t be long before countries such as Venezuela and Brazil would join the Global Power Grid.

In the future, the remaining South American countries that firmly stood in the UA camp would also have to bow in front of the promise for higher GDP and lower energy costs in the South American electrification. They would ultimately have to become members of the Earth Defense Alliance…

…

The Apocalypse.

The gate of an abandoned supermarket on the West Coast of North America, California.

The parking lot was full of the scrapped cars, and the surface of the building was full of bullet holes. The name of Wal-Mart could be vaguely seen on the rooftop sign, but many letters were missing.

As the largest supermarket in the United States, Wal-Mart’s shelves were sufficient to meet the needs of the entire United States. However, only a layer of thick dust was visible on the shelves, which couldn’t even feed a hungry mutated rat.

BANG!

Dark red blood splashed on the wall, and the thin-looking man hoisted the rifle behind him. He rushed forward and pulled the giant rat about the size of his thigh from under the shelf as he cheerfully shouted.

“Look at what I caught? A poor mouse.”

But he didn’t feel happy for long as a gun was quickly pointed at his head.

“Give it to me,” with a pistol, the black man said in a threatening tone.

“I found it first…” Although the gun was pointed at his head, the man was not at all afraid. Instead, he showed the grenade he had hidden in his hand and with an almost lunatic grin, he laughed, “Do you want to try?”

A mutated rat. Although it was somewhat lean, it could easily be converted into ten nutrient supplies in the organic boiler. The situation in North America was different from that in the Pan-Asia region. There were no dull zombies here, instead, there were powerful and cunning creatures.

It was not so easy to get a nutrient supply, and it was certainly not news to fight over a dead rat, even if the two people fighting belonged in the same force. Just when the two were in a stalemate over a rat, in the parking lot outside the supermarket, the Blood Axe Mercenaries welcomed a distinguished guest.

Two trucks parked in the middle of the parking lot. A dozen or so soldiers in kinetic skeletons jumped off the truck. A group of ragged mercenaries greeted them with envy and vigilance as they examined the soldier’s shiny equipment as well as the cardboard boxes on the truck.

“Ten boxes of canned luncheon meat, ten bags of rice, and ten boxes of instant noodles…”

Blood Axe’s thick thumb slightly trembled when he read the list of supplies in front of Zhou Guoping.

That nostalgic taste that he almost forgot about…

He used a dagger to cut open an aluminum can, and Blood Axe licked the tip of the knife dipped in oil, and his eyes widened. In the envious eyes of his brothers, he savored the taste on his tongue, swallowed down, and said in a hoarse voice.

“It’s pork.”

The ragged mercenaries were rattled, and their eyes showed excitement and admiration. They gulped down desperately as they imagined the savory taste.

Zhou Guoping despised in his mind as he looked at the eyes widened Blood Axe and the excited mercenaries.

You guys are so excited about a few boxes of canned food and instant noodles.

If you went to the Sixth Street, then you might turn lunatic.

“What do you want?” Blood Axe put away his dagger, licked his chapped lips, then looked at Zhou Guoping as well as the soldiers in kinetic skeletons behind him, “I don’t believe you crossed the Pacific Ocean just to do charity.”

“Do you know where we are from?” Zhou Guoping glanced at him unexpectedly.

“No one doesn’t know where you are from,” Blood Axe pointed to the NAC logo on the truck next to him with a grin, “NAC in the Pan-Asia China region, the hope of the people in the wasteland, the ‘hometown’ of Chinatown, the rich yellow men who didn’t collect bottle caps, let me think about what other titles you have…that’s all, I don’t have a good memory.”

There were large and small survivors’ camps and settlements on the West Coast. Among them, the National Guard, the militia organization “Minutemen”, the cannibal tribe “Blood”, and the mutated human tribe “Destroy” were the prominent ones. Blood Axe and his Blood Axe Mercenaries were considered above average.

The local animal husbandry was very good. The survivors mainly use crystals and mutant skins to trade and also use a cola bottle cap with a special code as currency. Bottle caps were the hard currency throughout North America, even in semi-enclosed fallout shelters and backward mutated human tribes.

If there were any exceptions, only the NAC post on the West Coast didn’t accept the bottle caps. These yellow-skinned people from the Pan-Asian China region were very interested in high-tech products, especially spacecrafts, and were keen to pay with expensive canned food and instant noodles.

Many people made a lot of money by doing business with these people, which made everyone on the West Coast envious.

Blood Axe was also one of them, but he couldn’t find a way to get in touch with these yellow riches. He could watch trade caravans enter in and out as he waited for an opportunity to rob a weak caravan.

Unfortunately, none of the forces that did business with NAC was weak.

“Our outpost on the West Coast has been around for a while.” Zhou Guoping looked at Blood Axe standing in front of him, then continued, “While trading with you, we have also been investigating the investment environment here…”

“Investment environment?” Blood Axe looked at Zhou Guoping with dumbfounded eyes and asked incomprehensibly.

“…In short, our boss decided to send a governor to the outpost on the West Coast to establish a NAC colony here and sow the seeds of civilization on this ruin.”

“And you are the…Governor?”

“Exactly.” Zhou Guoping nodded.

“Be straightforward, what do you need me to do.” He couldn’t understand the intricacies, so he was straightforward, “Kill people? Or find someone?”

“Neither,” Zhou Guoping shook his head and cleared his throat. “As I said earlier, we plan to expand the outpost here into a colony. We need a lot of labors or slaves to do this, as well as mercenaries who manage our construction sites.”

Looking at the dumbfounded Blood Axe, Zhou Guoping smiled.

“We will hire you at the right price, and these materials are our deposit. Are you interested?”

Chapter 1353: Opening Ceremony

Chapter 1353: Opening Ceremony

The Olympic Games first originated in ancient Greece.

At that time, people wished for peace when the city-states fought endlessly, so they reached an agreement to hold games in Olympia regularly every four years, and they agreed that the “sacred day of truce” be implemented in the year of the games.

Because of this, the Olympic year was known as the year of peace.

However, reality and ideals often conflicted. From the Georgian War during the 2008 Olympic Games to the 2020 Colombian Civil War, since the world entered the first year of the new century, the imaginary peace did not arrive. Instead, humanity had been on the brink of war.

The 2020 Olympics was a failed Olympics.

At least in the eyes of most foreign tourists.

They saw disputes, chaos, and extremisms that ran counter to the Olympic spirit. In order to prevent protesters from throwing rotten eggs at athletes from the UA, the Yoto police had to deploy an additional 500 police officers to protect the safety of athletes in Yoto.

Of course, although many incidents occurred, this Olympics was not without its highlight. The technological prowess demonstrated at the Yoto Olympics still made most foreign tourists feel like the trip was worth the money.

This Olympics could be the Olympics with the highest usage rate of robots in history. From autonomous vehicles to robot volunteers, as well as the anime characters that came into life with the use of AR technology, everything manifested this point.

Just like the giant Doraemon in the main stadium, technology itself was one of the selling points of this Olympics.

However, keen tourists did discover that except for a small number of “miniature” robots were engraved with the Mitsubishi logo, most of the highly anthropomorphic and highly intelligent service robots were printed with the logo of Future Heavy Industries.

There were also autonomous vehicles equipped with magnetic levitation devices and autonomous drones…

Unconsciously, Future Group seemed to have contracted the high-tech part of the Olympic Games.

Many people imagined that if one day in the future, the XX Olympic Games were to be held in the fabled maritime city-Penglai, what would that experience be like? The endless stream of maglev cars, the hordes of service drones, the maglev train that circulated the entire city in 20 minutes… It seemed that city had entered the future ahead of schedule.

After this turbulent week, the Olympic Games finally unfolded…

“Welcome, Jiang Chen.”

As soon as Jiang Chen got out of the car, he saw a smiling face.

Kishida shook Jiang Chen’s hand enthusiastically and then gestured toward the VIP seats of the main stadium.

When they entered through a private tunnel, he looked at the direction of the main entrance of the lower venue through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the elevator. With the dense crowds at the stadium, he thought that if he had to through the main gate, the opening ceremony would be over before he could get in.

When he entered the stadium, he saw an acquaintance, although this acquaintance did not seem to like him.

An eagle-like stare was locked onto him, and there seemed to be a haze in Kerry’s eyes.

From Jiang Chen’s smile, he felt annoyed. But he was a diplomat after all, so he didn’t write his unhappiness on his face. He just raised his hooked nose slightly and looked away from Jiang Chen after a while.

When Jiang Chen saw that Kerry no longer looked at him, he still smiled and looked away from him. But at this moment, he saw another familiar figure. Except that he never met this person, but only saw her on TV.

“I didn’t expect the President of the UA to come here in person.” Zhang Yaping sat down next to Jiang Chen, tilted his head slightly, and glanced in Hill’s direction.

“Is there a problem?” Jiang Chen laughed.

“No,” Zhang Yaping smiled and shook his head, “I just think it’s a bit strange. The CIB and the UA military just had a large scandal, even if Hill plans to use the Olympic Games to visit Nippon to repair the broken relationship, I don’t think it will be that effective, right?”

“It’s because they are not here for them.” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

“Do you mean…” At the same time as he said this, a trace of realization appeared on Zhang Yaping’s face.

“That’s right,” Jiang Chen pointed at himself, then pointed at Zhang Yaping who was looking at him, as he said, “Most likely they are here for us.”

The head of the host country and the President of the Olympic Committee entered the stadium one after another. The stage of raising the national flag and playing the national anthem ended, then the opening ceremony of the entire Olympic Games also kicked off. The next stage was an hour to two hours of performances.

Jiang Chen found a bottle of vintage red wine and a goblet, poured himself a glass, and leaned on a chair to enjoy the performance on the stage.

The first performance was naturally the Olympic theme song, performed by a group that he couldn’t name.

Because he couldn’t understand, Jiang Chen didn’t pay attention to what they sang. Soon after the song, the second program started.

A series of light particles appeared in the center of the stage, and the lights came on one after another. Accompanied by clean and refined electronic sounds, a pair of emerald green double ponytails jumped out from the illusory dimensional gate, as she swayed briskly with her fluttering black skirt.

She was voted as the most popular virtual idol to perform, and she was also one of the highlights of the opening ceremony. Not only Hatsune Miku, but there were also a number of popular characters that people were familiar with, such as Mario and Tinkerbell.

By the way, the augmented reality device on the main stadium stage was also produced by Future Heavy Industries.

After the two-hour performance, athletes from all over the world entered the stadium.

Greek athletes entered the stadium first, followed by athletes from participating countries, and finally the athletes from the host country.

Although he signed up for an event, Jiang Chen did not appear in the Xin athletes that marched through the stadium. He just sat in the VIP booth and waved to the athletes below the stage.

After all the athletes had entered the stadium, a song of Olympics played, and the Olympic flag was raised.

In the center of the stadium, the Olympics Committee and the organizer gave their open remarks to the athletes, referees, and coaches as they stood under the banner of the Olympic Games. They raised their right fists, solemnly swearing the Olympics Oath.

“In the name of the athletes.”

“In the name of all judges.”

“In the name of all the coaches and officials.”

“We promise to take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules and in the spirit of fair play. We all commit ourselves to sports without doping and cheating. We do this, for the glory of sports, for the honor of our teams and in respect for the Fundamental Principles of Olympism”

Under everyone’s watch, the Olympic flame was lit.

The last performance and fireworks decorated the night sky and brought the opening ceremony to a close.

Rows of artificial meteor showers crossed the dark night sky.

No matter what would happen after tonight, at least at this moment, most people were praying for the same word…

Peace.

Chapter 1354: Holding the Rifle with One Hand!

Chapter 1354: Holding the Rifle with One Hand!

At the end of the opening ceremony, the 32nd Olympic Games officially commenced.

When Jiang Chen received the schedule, he looked slightly surprised.

The first qualifying round of the ten-meter air rifle that he signed up for was actually on the first day of the Olympic Games, and it was in the morning, which completely surprised him. After he asked Zhang Yaping, he learned that it was an almost unwritten rule for the air rifle to be the first competition in the Olympic Games.

Originally, Jiang Chen planned to take some time to practice, but he didn’t expect that he would be competing the day after the opening ceremony, which made the situation somewhat awkward. He never even touched the air rifle used in the game before, let alone practice.

If the Xin Olympic Committee learned of this, the officials would suffer a heart attack. They were ignorant of their conscience to rank him as a level B athlete. Since there was no level A air rifle athlete in Xin, he barely qualified to represent Xin.

Since he was about to compete, it was obvious he didn’t practice!

“Have you tried this before?” Wang Tao handed the rifle to Jiang Chen with suspicion in his eyes. As a shooting coach, Wang Tao kept his eyes on him.

Generally speaking, on the night before the game, athletes often chose to have a good rest, especially shooting athletes. This kind of event that required a high degree of concentration meant that the athletes had to get adequate rest before the game to ensure proper focus during the competition.

It was the first time in his life to see an athlete like Jiang Chen who was practicing right before the competition.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Jiang Chen waved his hand to comfort him. He loaded the air rifle and aimed it at a target ten meters away, “I just want to get the feel before the game.”

As he said this, he raised his air rifle, aimed at a target ten meters away, and pulled the trigger.

BOOM

The bullet hit the target accurately.

When Wang Tao saw the number that jumped out on the electronic target, his eyebrows twitched.

“How many rings?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow triumphantly as he put the air rifle aside, then he smiled at Wang Tao, revealing his shining white teeth.

Wang Tao responded with a smile that looked more like a cry, as he said in defeat.

“0, you missed the target…”

…

A shooting competition and the use of firearms were two different concepts.

The latter was an application of technology, while the former was a form of art.

How difficult was the 10 meter air rifle? Jiang Chen didn’t realize until he stood in front of the target .

The target was the first issue.

It was no exaggeration to say that the tenth ring was actually only the size of a needle tip, and the entire target was only the size of a dollar coin, and it was still ten meters away from the athletes. Imagine the difficulty to shoot a coin at a distance of ten meters?

People with poorer eyesight wouldn’t be able to see the target, let alone compete in the game.

Because of this, Jiang Chen, who stepped into the competition stood at the 14th shooting position, still felt somewhat nervous. He was debating if he should use his genetic code Peerless. Strictly speaking, an air rifle was also a weapon. If he used Peerless, he could master the weapon to the extreme and hit the bullseye.

Except…

Is it cheating to use his hidden genetic code?

“Are you sure you have touched an air rifle before?” Next to Jiang Chen, Matthew Emmons, an athlete that represented the UA, glanced at the way he held the rifle, then he teased Jiang Chen, “If you haven’t, I can teach you.”

When Jiang Chen realized someone was talking to him, he laughed and responded.

“Don’t worry, I have touched more guns than you have ever seen.”

“Really?” Matthew sneered. “Before I retired, I was the ace sniper of the Marine Corps. I don’t know where you get your confidence.”

“Then I will give you an example,” Jiang Chen said, “Have you heard of the Reaper Sniper Rifle? There is also the PK2000 which the standard configuration of the Celestial Marines, I’m sure you have never touched it before. In my view, M4A1 and M16A2 are both toys compared to the PK2000.”

Matthew raised his eyebrows. As he was about to argue, the referee’s voice came from the side.

“Athlete 14 and Athlete 15, please be quiet, the competition will start soon.”

Jiang Chen shrugged and didn’t continue to banter with the man. He picked up the air rifle and took a few false shots at the target in front. The model of the rifle was different from the one he saw in the hotel, but the weight and texture were not much different.

Jiang Chen glanced sideways at Matthew, and read the disdain and mockery from his eyes. However, Jiang Chen just curved up the corner of his lips.

If at first, he was hesitant to use his hidden genetic code, now he completely made up his mind. Since he no longer needed to inject to activate his hidden genetic code, it shouldn’t be considered cheating.

The competition officially started.

Jiang Chen put the rifle on the shooting rack, then slowly loaded it. He put his shoulder behind the butt of the rifle, held the rifle in his right hand, narrowed his one eye, looked down the sight, and muttered in his mind.

Peerless!

Everything in his field of vision was plated with a layer of light blue, and all colors faded to a cool tone. All sounds were slowly amplified in his field of vision and gradually distorted in the elongated slowness. The rifle in his hand seemed to be connected to his body, just like his fingers, everything from aiming to pulling the trigger was so natural.

Jiang Chen accidentally discovered that his skill had subtle changed unconsciously.

He couldn’t tell exactly what changed, and when it happened. At this moment, he was completely immersed in the deep internal realm, as if he was the only person with the only rifle in the entire stadium.

The bullet hit the target before it left the rifle…

When Matthew saw the way Jiang Chen held the rifle, he almost burst out laughing.

Holding the rifle with one hand?

Do you think you are James Bond?

Even the most basic shooting posture is wrong, how do you expect yourself to win?

But the moment the electronic scoring system returned the score, Matthew couldn’t laugh anymore.

In order to help the audience understand the game, when the bullet hits the target, the electronic scoring system would record the rings, and the hit would be shown in real-time on the big screen. The previous hits were presented as green dots, and the current hit was shown as a red dot. After the coin-sized target was zoomed out, every spectator could see where the bullet hit the target.

Because Jiang Chen was the first player to shoot, when the red dot first appeared on the big screen, almost all audiences around the world noticed this different shooter and the red dot that hit the bullseye

“Ten!”

“Wait?! That works?!”

“That must have been a lucky shot. You can hit a ten by holding the rifle with one hand? I don’t believe it!”

The camera gave Jiang Chen a close-up shot, and audiences all over the world were amazed by his one hand posture. Although they thought it was must have been a fluke, the audience still cheered him on.

Jiang Chen did not pay any attention to the audience behind him, in fact, he didn’t stop at all. He continued to pull the trigger with fluidity.

The 10 meter air rifle qualifying round consisted of shooting 60 rounds of bullets from a standing position to a target ten meters away. The total time limit including the test firing was 1 hour and 45 minutes. There was quite an ample amount of time, but Jiang Chen didn’t plan to waste any time at all.

With Peerless activated, it would put an excessive load on the body.

There was another shot that landed on ten, and the reading jumped to 10.9.

Without stopping, Jiang Chen kept holding the rifle with one hand and continued to pull the trigger.

Following the new rules of the Rio Olympics, the 10 meter air rifle qualifying competition also introduced decimal points. Each player was required to fire ten competition shots in each group for a total of sixty competition shots. The best score for a single shot was 10.9, and the eight players with the best total score advanced to the final.

In a blink of an eye, Jiang Chen had already fired ten shots and all of them hit the bullseye without exception.

From the initial excitement to the now dumbfoundedness, the audience seemed to have forgotten to applaud. They just stared blankly at the player who used the air rifle as a pistol. Even the famous athletes like Zhu Qinan and Sokolov who stood not far from Jiang Chen all stopped aiming, as they looked at the number 14 position in a shocked state and looks of disbelief.

In the audience, people whispered to each other.

“I heard that the target is only the size of a coin.”

“I see, that’s why I can’t even see the bullseye!”

“This marksmanship is too abnormal. Isn’t it a little bit…”

“Jiang Chen…wait, this name…it can’t be the same name, right?”

“WAIT, that’s insane, another identity of the world’s richest man is actually an Olympic athlete?!”

The referee behind Jiang Chen kept his eyes fixed on his movements. He watched Jiang Chen pulling the trigger and the numbers on the electronic scoring system with disbelief.

When he emptied the bullets in the magazine, he skillfully took the rifle down from the shooting rack and loaded the bullets into the magazine.

“You can take a break; you have 1 hour and 40 minutes left in the game.” The referee reminded him.

“No need.”

The referee opened his mouth, but no words came out.

In fact, he wanted to say, “You can take a break, I’ll get someone to see if the electronic scoring system is malfunctioning.” However, with how nonchalant Jiang Chen looked, the referee couldn’t say anything, so he watched him put the air rifle on the shooting rack, lean in, and continue to fire with one hand.

A total of sixty bullets were all shot in less than six hundred seconds.

The athletes in positions 15 and 13 stood there blankly and completely forgot to shoot.

“I’m done, you go.”

Jiang Chen smiled at Matthew as he put the rifle aside and left the stadium in swift steps.

Behind him were dumbfounded athletes and referees, and a group of dumbfounded spectators.

The red dots on the electronic scoring system were almost strung together into a line, and the counter next to it was flashing with bright red numbers.

640…

It was only 14 away from a maximum score of 654.

Chapter 1355: Libel and Slander

Chapter 1355: Libel and Slander

Perhaps the stellar performance by the athlete at the 14th spot destroyed their confidence.

Jiang Chen accidentally became the only player in the qualifying round to score more than 640. The result surprised everyone. However, the most surprising aspect was not the score, but the name attached to the score – Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen, whenever this name was mentioned, two names also appeared out of reflexive in the minds of most people in the world.

Future Group and Celestial Trade.

No matter which name, either was enough to push him to the throne of the richest man in the world. There were even rumors that his personal wealth had surpassed the Rothschild family – the financial ruler of the old-world. He possessed enough wealth to challenge the entire Wall Street, and his assets were capable of purchasing half of the Earth…

However, a well-known powerful capitalist appeared in the stadium as an athlete, and he made a miracle that shocked the rest of the world. The sudden shift in identity shocked many.

It was fine being the richest man in the world, but he also possessed unhuman athletic ability…

You have everything going for you, how is everyone else going to compare?!

Matthew Emmons, the player that stood next to Jiang Chen, ranked ninth with a score of 613. This veteran who was originally viewed as a favorite to compete for the gold medal unexpectedly missed the final, which was a pity.

At Matthew’s age, this could be the last time he stood in the Olympic arena. However, he did not even make it to the finals. The ninth place in the qualifying round was the end of his career, which was quite a regrettable situation

With mixed emotions in his mind, he left the stadium. After he tossed his cap on the table in the lounge, he took a bottle of water from his coach and drank in silence.

When he saw the replay on the screen, and the score of 640, his heart jerked fiercely.

Matthew smashed the bottle on the ground and he suddenly stood up.

“I want to report, he definitely doped!”

Surprised eyes gathered on Matthew.

Shooting coach Dickett was taken aback for a moment. Then, put his hands on Matthew’s shoulder and looked at him with a serious expression.

“Who doped?”

“Jiang Chen! Xin Athlete Jiang Chen!” Matthew stared at the screen with menace as he shouted in anger, “How can a layman who can’t even hold the rifle properly achieve a score of 640? Just because he has money he can buy the entire Olympic Committee to ignore his doping? I bet he must have taken banned drugs. If it is not banned drugs, then he must have used some other high-tech stuff!”

When Matthew said this, Dickett also realized something.

Yes, how can an amateur athlete score an incredible 640?

The possibility of doping was unlikely, but some kind of assisted aiming chip or similar things were definitely a possibility.

The more he thought about the incredible technology of Future Group, the more he was convinced!

And more importantly, once the accusation stands, Jiang Chen would definitely be inspected by the Olympic Committee. Then, the ninth-place Matthew could enter the finals!

Dickett’s eyes brightened. He had completely lost hope before, but now, he saw new hope.

“I will immediately report to the WADA!” Dickett looked into Matthew’s eyes, as he said righteously, “Athletes who use despicable means to win the game must be punished!”

…

On the other side of the stadium, Jiang Chen was inside the lounge as he took a big swig from the functional drink specially provided by Future Biology from Qian Xia.

“You are the most talented athlete I have ever seen! With a little bit of training, you have the hope of challenging the world record.”

Wang Tao was desperately trying to persuade Jiang Chen with strong excitement, so Jiang Chen had to put down his drink and wave his hand.

“I’ll pass. You know I’m just here for fun. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a gold medal. If not, that’s okay. As for training, I have no interest in devoting my limited life to sports.”

Wang Tao shook his head in regret as Jiang Chen was completely unmoved.

In fact, he knew that the achievements and benefits that the gold medal provided were limited to this “genius”. It was just a pity that such a talent would go to waste. If it were someone else, Wang Tao would never let such a talent go from his national team.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Wang Tao paused for a second, looked at the door, and said.

“Please come in.”

After the door was pushed open, a middle-aged man in a suit with a hooked nose, followed by three others, walked into the Xin Athlete Lounge. After he scanned the room, his sight stopped on Jiang Chen and he walked to him.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang Chen. We are observers of the Medical and Scientific Commission of the International Olympic Committee. My name is Griffin, and this is my assistant Hughes. We have received reports from other athletes and suspect that you may be have taken banned substances or taken supplementary drugs containing banned substances during the competition, we will investigate you on the principle of fairness and justice. In order to avoid affecting your final results, we hope you can cooperate with our work.”

When Griffin said this, he did not lower his voice. Everyone in the lounge heard what he said, glanced at each other, and started to chatter in quiet voices.

“Doping? President Jiang is not that kind of person, right…”

“But if there is no doping, how can you explain his score?”

“Could it be…”

“This is slander!” Wang Tao stood up angrily. Just as he wanted to argue with that person, Jiang Chen grabbed him and gently pulled him back.

“I heard this right?” Jiang Chen looked at Mr. Griffin in front of him as he almost couldn’t contain his laughter. “You can dope in an air rifle competition? Sorry for my honesty, but this is the first time I have heard about this.”

Griffin’s expression was a little awkward.

Doping in shooting competitions was not without precedent, but no one had ever won a championship by doping.

After all, different from sports that tested physical fitness, shooting competitions required athletes to be highly concentrated. Calmness was the bigger factor in winning. Instead of doping, tranquilizers would probably work better.

It was really a poor method to accuse a shooting athlete with doping.

Jiang Chen let out a sigh as he saw Griffin and his assistant exchanged awkward looks. He then said earnestly.

“If you really don’t want to play fair, I can teach you.”

“You just want Matthew to qualify, right?”

“It’s easy. Can’t you just get him onto the stadium and have a rematch alone?”

“Nonsense!” The assistant named Hughes flushed, but he insisted on putting on a righteous expression, which made him more comical, “When did I say it was Matthew who reported you? The Olympic Committee will protect the privacy of every whistleblower. Maliciously guessing the identity of the whistleblower is liable for defamation!”

“Do I even need to guess?” Jiang Chen laughed, “Who doesn’t know that the International Olympic Committee is run by the UA.”

“Mr. Jiang, I also hope that you can cooperate with our test. If you have no issues, we will give you a fair answer. I don’t think you want to be disqualified for the finals because you refuse a test, right?” Griffin said.

“Of course,” Jiang Chen readily agreed, as he extended his arm into a please gesture, “Please.”

Chapter 1356: World Record!

Chapter 1356: World Record!

The results of the anti-doping test soon came out.

In order to prevent the anti-doping agency from doing tricks behind their backs, the Olympic organizing committee and the athlete’s accompanying physician would accompany the entire anti-doping test process. If the athlete questioned the result of the first test, the athlete’s request for another test would be at an expense of a few thousand US dollars.

However, it didn’t need to be that troublesome. For Jiang Chen did not use something as unsophisticated as doping.

Soon the test results came out. All test results related to doping returned negative, and the allegations against Jiang Chen’s use of doping were not established.

The accusation about the use of auxiliary equipment was even more absurd because the equipment worn by all athletes during the game had been strictly screened and it was impossible to bring anything into the stadium. Matthew was full of disappointment as the Olympic Medical and Scientific Committee signed all the results of the test and rejected Matthew’s accusation.

The results of No. 14 contestant Jiang Chen were valid, and the athletes who made to the final round remain changed.

…

The final of the 10-meter air rifle was in the afternoon.

As the women 10-meter air rifle and the men 10-meter air rifle started almost simultaneously, the results of one of the two competitions would become the first gold medal given at this year’s Olympics.

After Jiang Chen finished the bento box prepared by Qian Xia in the lounge, he headed to the stadium fully refreshed and confident. Due to his amazing performance in the qualifying round, he attracted the attention of almost everyone in the audience as soon as he appeared. The audience welcomed him with thunderous applause. Audiences from Hua and Xin cheered for him, while most audiences from the UA booed him. However, they were eventually overwhelmed by the enthusiastic cheers.

Jiang Chen waved to the supporters behind him, then confidently walked to his spot, grabbed the rifle, and pressed the rifle against his arm.

Since the Rio Olympics, the shooting competition had changed from a scoring system to an elimination system. The fault tolerance rate of the competition was much lower, and a slight mistake could cost the athlete the game.

The final consisted of two series of three shots, to be fired within 150 seconds, for a total of six shots. Followed by these 2 series, each finalist would fire 14 rounds on command with 50 seconds for each shot. From there, the lowest scoring finalist would be eliminated after every two rounds until the gold and silver medalists were determined. Without the need for tiebreakers, the two players that competed for gold and runner-up would shoot a total of 20 rounds in the final.

In the finals, he got the eighth position, a very lucky number.

The seventh player next to him was named Irvin Skton, who came from the same country as Matthew, and qualified second in the qualifying round. The 22-year-old Irvine was known to be gifted in shooting competitions. Before he participated in the Olympics, he had won several gold medals in multiple international shooting events.

There were also veteran athletes from Hua and Russia. As athletes from the two traditionally countries that were strong in shooting, the strength of these two athletes was also not to be underestimated.

“Your good luck should be used up,” When Irvin walked beside Jiang Chen, Irvin grinned and provoked, “I’ll keep an eye on you. Don’t you dare to play tricks under my nose.”

“Keep an eye on me?” Jiang Chen laughed, “Then you better watch me closely, or else I’m going to finish the competition.”

Irvin wanted to say something, but before he had the chance, the finals had already begun.

In the first two series of shooting, Jiang Chen placed the air rifle on the shooting stand, activated Peerless, and quickly fired six shots as he did in the qualifying round. Other than one shot that scored 10.6, all five shots ended with 10.8. This time, he controlled himself to avoid scoring an astounding score.

But even so, there was a commotion in the audience.

No one had been able to shoot at such a fast pace. After everyone saw this spectacular performance, even foreign audiences started to applaud. Especially for the Xin audience that specifically flew to Yoto to cheer on their athletes. If it was not for the fact that they were worried that noise could affect the performance of athletes, they would definitely shout out in excitement.

“He shoots so fast!”

“That’s what I said! How can President Jiang dope? And how do you dope for a shooting competition? What are the idiots of the Olympic Committee thinking?”

“I heard that the whistleblower was Matthew, the ninth one in the qualifiers.”

“That makes sense, no wonder he did it. He just wants to get into the final. This kind of person should not be in the Olympics as he lacks sportsmanship!”

The discussion in the stands did not reach the athletes in the competition. In their position, the athletes from different countries adjusted their air rifle to the best state and placed it onto the stand.

They were indeed world-class athletes. Since they already learned Jiang Chen’s rapid shooting skills in the qualifying rounds, they were not affected by his incredible firing speed and accuracy in the finals.

Without distraction, the other seven athletes pulled their trigger down with a calm and collected mind. They completed these two series of six rounds in the allotted 300 seconds. Although they were not as fast as Jiang Chen, they were all in close contention for the gold.

After the two warm-up rounds ended, almost every player had scored more than 10 points.

The next round was the intense and exciting elimination round.

Different from the long game time of the qualifying round, each of the next 14 shots had to be completed within 50 seconds. For Jiang Chen, it was nothing at all. He could easily fire all 14 shots within 50 seconds.

But for other athletes, this part of the competition was not easy. The single-shot timing design magnified the pressure that athletes had to endure. This meant that if they make a mistake, they could be out of the competition before they could even fix their mistake. At this stage, the athletes’ performance often fluctuated greatly, and a slight mistake could result in elimination.

This was also precisely the exciting part of the whole game.

The first seven shots were very close, and when the eighth shot started, the competition quickly heated up.

One person was eliminated every two shots until only one winner remained.

When everyone saw the eliminated athletes leave the stadium, the athletes’ hearts sped up involuntarily. They finished every motion from aiming to shooting as if they were walking on thin ice.

In the end, there were only two people left on the court.

Without looking at Jiang Chen next to him, Irvin ignored the shooting noises next to him and faint applause in the background. He took a deep breath and focused all his attention on his target. Like a formula in his brain, he simulated the trajectory in his brain, after he confirmed that it was correct, he pulled the trigger.

BANG

The gunshot galloped away. Irvin’s eyes quickly left the sight and looked at the familiar reading on the electronic target. When he saw the number clearly, he was so happy that he wanted to scream!

10.6!

It was a score that was common in the first nineteen shots, but it was very rare to appear in the last shot. Even for an ironman, it was common to have mental fluctuation in the intense elimination round. And in this kind of competition, even the heart beating a beat faster could impact the score.

Irvin was able to score 10.6 in his last shot. Counting the number of points he scored before, his final score totaled 208 points. Although it was still slightly lower than the world record, there was no suspense for the gold medal anymore.

He looked at Jiang Chen next to him triumphantly. As he was about to mock Jiang Chen, his eyes suddenly stopped on Jiang Chen’s points…

Irvin was stunned.

His first reaction was that he had read it wrong.

Just when he wanted to rub his eyes and look again, the referee’s voice announced the gold medal of the game and it completely shattered his dream.

“It’s impossible!” Irvin exclaimed.

The exclamation was quickly drowned out by the thunderous applause and cheers of the audience.

Jiang Chen smiled and waved his hand at the audience as he responded to the excited crowd.

A dark horse was born, and the first gold in the Olympics was picked up by Xin.

With a score of 216 points, Jiang Chen broke the 210.6 points world record set by Qian Xuechao at the Munich International Shooting Sports Federation and refreshed the world record by 5 points…

Chapter 1357: Let Me Help You

Chapter 1357: Let Me Help You

Soon after the qualifying round, Matthew, who narrowly missed the finals, sent a tweet that satirized Xin athletes who doped to steal his spot in the finals. His tweet attracted the sympathy and support of countless netizens from the UA.

However, as soon as the test results came out, he was put into a very difficult situation. His situation became worse when Jiang Chen broke the world record this afternoon and won the gold medal that should have belonged to him. All his bitterness instantly overwhelmed his remaining rationality.

If he admitted defeat from the beginning, he could turn the page on this entire fiasco. However, he couldn’t accept this fact and sent out another tweet to satirize Future Biology. The tweet stated that Future Biology used advanced technology to help their president cheat the anti-doping agency; it was not an athlete that broke the world record, but the advanced technology of Future Group.

Originally, Jiang Chen didn’t intend to be bothered by anybody, and he didn’t even take the Olympic Committee seriously. However, as the boss, even if he could swallow this accusation, his employees could not easily accept this false accusation.

At noon of the same day, Future 1.0 pushed a piece of 500-word news, screenshots of two of Matthew’s tweets and attached a paragraph from Tao Ming, CEO of Future Biology.

“Since you don’t trust the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) anti-doping technology so much, then we will help you for free.”

On the same day, Future Biology sent a medical team, signed a cooperation agreement with the Nippon Olympic Organizing Committee, conducted surprise inspections on 560 athletes from the UA living in the Olympic Village, took their urine samples, and brought them back to the laboratory for testing.

The surprise inspection of Future Biology and Nippon Olympic Organizing Committee shocked the International Olympic Committee.

The President of the Olympic Committee, Estun, immediately make an announcement stating that the Olympic Committee would not recognize the test results of Future Biology, and before the results came out, he pushed the narrative of “retaliation” on Future Biology.

“… It is the responsibility of the International Olympic Committee and WADA to conducting anti-doping tests and ensure that the game is conducted fairly. Cooperating in the implementation of anti-doping testing is the obligation and responsibility of the organizer of the Olympic Organizing Committee of the host country, but it has no right to sign an agreement with unqualified medical institutions to conduct testing outside of the rules. The International Olympic Committee reiterated that the results of Future Biology will not have any enforcement effect. The International Olympic Committee will not refer to the results, and participating athletes do not need to cooperate in the test… ”

However, the Olympic Committee apparently underestimated the reputation of Future Biology. This announcement did not receive the slightest agreement from the public but attracted a lot of boos instead.

Future Biology is unqualified?

Are you kidding?!

When the T-virus crisis broke out, the research institution of the T-virus vaccine was Future Biology! If Future Biology was an obscure research institution, perhaps this statement would receive agreement from the public and get fooled by the Olympic Committee. But unfortunately, Future Biology was not only well known, but it was as reputable as the world-famous Future Technology and Future Heavy Industries.

Not only because of the “Future” brand but also because of the main product – nutrient supply. As the only healthy and effective liquid food, the variety of flavors and calorie content had already filled 80% of the supermarket shelves around the world.

Everyone remembered what Future Biology did, especially for an incident like the T-Virus incident.

An advanced medical institution was now labeled as unqualified. What was the Olympic Committee trying to hide?

When the results from Future Biology were released, the whole world was in an uproar…

…

“The International Olympic Committee has lost their face this time.” Zhang Yaping laughed, “Out of the 560 athletes from the UA, 240 athletes’ urine samples were believed to contain doping ingredients. The highlight of this Olympics is no longer competitions. It is how many gold medals will be produced on the list of banned drugs. Some people even suggest that to create an additional gold medal ranking for pharmaceutical companies, so that these unsung heroes who silently contribute to sports will also come on stage to show their faces.”

For a long time, the development of doping agents had led to the development of detection methods for about 5-10 years, and it was constantly advancing with the advancement of technology. It was also why athletes’ urine was often frozen for more than eight years to review previous results after a breakthrough in anti-doping technology.

However, for Future Biology, this kind of obstacle did not exist.

After all urine samples were tested, Future biology did not announce the results of the tests. Instead, they published a list of the ingredients they found in the samples that were identified as positive, the suspected banned drugs that could have been taken, and the concentration of the chemicals in the samples.

It was no longer simply a petty move, but a total retaliation, a slap to the face.

The athletes from UA probably all hated Matthew. Originally, no one would find out what banned substance they took. But because of his tweets, he angered Future Group, and no one came out on top from this exchange.

“They really did lose their faces, but now they don’t care about their faces anymore.” Jiang Chen grinned, “Just yesterday, they published the Therapeutic Use Exemption list. A total of 204 athletes from UA were on the list. By coincidence, these 204 people happened to be on our list.”

Therapeutic Use Exemption was the “get-out-of-jail-free-card ” issued by WADA, which appeared widely in various international competitions. Since the word was created, its infamous name was criticized because of the large degree of flexibility and WADA’s double standard.

Critics believed that “Therapeutic Use Exemption” was a distortion of the anti-doping rules, which was equivalent to issuing a license for the use of prohibited substances. The facts also proved that this criticism was not unfounded. A very simple set of data could reflect the dirty tricks employed by WADA on establishing double standards.

In 2015, the number of athletes from the UA who applied for the “Therapeutic Use Exemption” was as high as 653, and 402 were passed. In the same year, only 54 athletes from Russia applied, and the number of approved was less than 20.

Healthy athletes legally used substances others could not use, but people with serious disabilities were unable to participate in the Paralympics simply because of suspension.

The situation seemed more obscure because WADA claimed that “based on the need to protect the privacy of athletes”, unless under special circumstances, the agency would not publish the list of athletes under the “Therapeutic Use Exemption” unless the athlete’s consent is obtained.

What defined special circumstances? Of course, it was when “their own” was caught using banned substances, and a suitable excuse was needed. For example – “This tainted athlete did not use banned substances, but for therapeutic purposes, the athlete had mistakenly used drugs containing banned substance…”

“In any case, since so many athletes who were supposed to participate in the Paralympics took the initiative to participate in the Olympics, in terms of spirit, we must applaud them.”

Zhang Yaping and Jiang Chen glanced at each other and laughed out together.

Jiang Chen was the first to stop laughing and started to cough. He picked up the cup from the table and took a sip of the tea to soothe his throat.

“Regardless, we did bring home a gold medal, and this Olympics is a worthwhile trip for me.”

“To be honest, did you cheat?” Zhang Yaping smiled, “Your marksmanship is so good? I don’t believe it!”

“It depends on how you define the word cheating.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook two fingers. “But I can promise two things. One is that I didn’t use banned substances. The second is that I did not use auxiliary equipment. Though I didn’t spend any effort on training, I did it through my efforts.”

He was right.

Although genetic vaccine could release the potential of human genes, the extent to which these potentials buried deep in the genes could be stimulated depended on the users themselves. For Jiang Chen, whether it was “Fury” or ” “Peerless”, he risked his life to unlock them.

“Are there any plans to represent the Xin Shooting Team in Paris four years from now on?” Zhang Yaping said with a smile.

“I’m not interested. For me, a gold medal is enough,” Jiang Chen waved his hand and continued in a lighthearted tone. “And I am more interested in becoming the organizer than an athlete. I suggest you can try to bid for the Olympics. Penglai is fully capable of hosting the 2028 Olympics. I can guarantee this.”

“I will study your opinion seriously.” Zhang Yaping nodded happily, “What are your plans next? Do you want to go back with me, or wait here until the closing ceremony?”

“I still have something to deal with. I may stay here for a bit longer, so you can go back first.” As Jiang Chen leaned back against the sofa, he said casually.

“Why do I feel like you’re up to no good again.” Zhang Yaping grinned as he responded.

“Up to no good?” Jiang Chen smirked, “I’m just going to take back what belongs to me.”

Chapter 1358: Fruits of Victory

Chapter 1358: Fruits of Victory

Under both domestic and international pressure, the Nippon-UA Security Treaty eventually collapsed. Based on the agreement signed by Nippon, Xin, and Celestial Trade, Celestial Trade Marines boarded large transport planes and arrived at the Yoto Military Base. In addition to the two thousand soldiers, twenty Aurora-20s and fifty Tiger II tanks also landed in Nippon. Nominally, they were leased to the Nippon Defense Force, but in fact, the move was to supervise the withdrawal of UA troops from Nippon.

The negotiation was expected to be a tug of war.

Jiang Chen met Hill at the New Otani Hotel.

The last time they met was about a year ago.

When the two countries’ navies had a showdown in the Western Pacific, Jiang Chen had a brief video call with her. The two sides almost put the nuclear button on the negotiating table. Fortunately, all the nuclear missiles stayed inside the silo. Celestial Trade succeeded in defending their border, and the UA was forced to choose rationality. It was precisely because the negotiation that day ended peacefully that people all over the world could sit in front of the TV and watch this world-class sports event today…

But these were events that happened in the past.

Although only a year had passed, Jiang Chen could still clearly feel that she aged much more compared to the year before. Whether it was the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes or the white hair near her ears, it was visible that the last few months of her term had not been pleasant.

“These military installations were rebuilt by the UA military and used for nearly a century. We cannot unilaterally end the security treaty because of your agreement with Nippon. I hope you can carefully consider your decision today. The end to the Nippon-UA Security Treaty will make the entire Asia-Pacific region strategically unbalanced, which will definitely not be in your national interest,” Hill said seriously as she stared into the eyes of Prime Minister of Nippon.

The Prime Minister looked helpless and eyed Jiang Chen who sat on the other side.

“The first problem can be solved easily. Pack it up and take what you can take away. If you can’t take it away, blow it up or sell it to us at a discount, we’ll take everything.” Jiang Chen, who sat on the sofa, gently tapped the armrest as he responded with a pleasant expression, “As for the second issue, why does the strategic balance in Asia matter to you? You should pay attention to your allies down south, that’s your front garden.”

When Hill heard Jiang Chen’s mention of South America, anger burned in her chest. However, she was the president of a country after all and thus did not respond to the provocation in Jiang Chen’s words, and she did not even show any negative emotions on her face. Rather, she continued calmly.

“500 billion dollars, this is our bottom line.”

“How about this, we won’t buy it anymore.” Jiang Chen sighed, “Where do you want to move these military bases? As long as they are on Earth, we will build one for you as they were for free.”

500 billion dollars?

Fool! Your national defense expenditure for the whole year is not this number, right?

This money can build another space elevator, let alone 88 military bases!

The two sides were deeply divided over the compensation issue. Jiang Chen’s bottom line was 60 billion Xin New dollars, with each base compensated at an average price of 700 million. However, Hill insisted on the 500 billion figure and demanded that the settlement be settled in dollars.

Jiang Chen did not expect to be able to reach an agreement on the first day. After a heated round of negotiation, the two sides finally chose to put aside the issue for the time being and start the next topic of the time for withdrawal.

“The withdrawal time is too short. One year is not enough. We can reduce the number of military bases from eighty-eight to ten in ten years, and withdraw all soldiers stationed in Nippon in the next two years.”

“Ten years?” Jiang Chen laughed and shook his head, and put up one finger, “At most one year. If you don’t have enough planes, we can reimburse your tickets for free.”

“Not only people need to be withdrawn, but also weapons and equipment. Ten years is not an exaggeration. It took us nearly a century to deploy these weapons.” Kerry, who was next to Hill, quibbled.

“Your personnel can be evacuated in batches. You can transport your weapons and equipment to South Korea first, and then slowly drag them home. In other words, if you don’t have enough transport capacity, you can come to us. Celestial Trade is not only a military contractor, but we are also in the shipping business.” With his fingers crossed and placed above his one knee, Jiang Chen said with a smile as he responded to Kerry who sat across from him.

From the very beginning, he had predicted that this negotiation would be a tug of war.

Regardless of the compensation for the relocation or the time of withdrawal, the divides between Celestial Trade, Nippon, and the UA were huge.

Nippon proposed that the Yokosuka Military Base must be relocated immediately. However, the UA’s opinion was that the Yokosuka Military Base, as the headquarters of the UA Military in Nippon, should be the last to go. Celestial Trade’s requirement was that regardless of when the Yokosuka Base would be relocated, the Seventh Fleet deployed in Nippon must be withdrawn immediately.

After a week of negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement on troop withdrawal.

Celestial Trade would pay 10 billion Xin New dollars to the UA in one lump sum payment, and Nippon would pay 60 billion New Xin dollars to the UA over four years. The withdrawal plan would officially commence in March next year, which would be the first month after the end of Hill’s term.

Jiang Chen did not raise too many concerns for the withdrawal plan proposed by Hill, but he emphasized that it must be completed within a year, that is, by March 2022. Although this opponent had caused him a lot of trouble, in general, she was still a respectable opponent. Since it was already an unlucky run for her, there was no need to destroy her remaining dignity.

The UA made considerable concessions in terms of the amount of compensation and the time for withdrawal. In exchange, Jiang Chen handed over 10,000 NATO Coalition Force and a ceasefire agreement.

In a sense, Hill’s astronomical demand was aimed at these two points.

In addition, the Seventh Fleet was scheduled to depart for Guam at the end of this month, accompanied by two thousand Marines…

In the reception room of the New Otani Hotel, the representatives of the three parties signed their own names on three identical agreements.

After Jiang Chen collected the agreement, he was about to leave with his loot. However, Kerry blocked his way and stared right at him.

“Celestial Trade shouldn’t have existed from the beginning. You are just troublemakers. If you still have a little conscience, you should immediately dissolve your stupid company,” Kerry said one word at a time.

“Dissolve? Then what?” Jiang Chen sneered, “Depend on you to resist the colonial ship from Gliese 581? Accept the reality, we can do better than you. And with all due respect, you are the troublemakers, our existence just created trouble for you to create trouble.”

Kerry was slightly taken aback.

Jiang Chen said the last sentence in Mandarin. For a while, he didn’t understand the subject-verb-object relationship. When he realized what Jiang Chen had meant, his eyebrows suddenly raised, but when he was about to rebuttal, Jiang Chen was already long gone.

Chapter 1359: South and North Colombia

Chapter 1359: South and North Colombia

Time soon reached the end of the month.

Although there were still countless reluctances, the UA finally fulfilled the promises in the agreement and initiated the first withdrawal procedure at the end of August. Amongst the cheers of the Yokosuka citizens, the flagship of the Seventh Fleet departed from the port and headed towards the Pacific Ocean.

After they learned the news of the UA withdrawal, the protesting citizens celebrated this historic moment and even set off fireworks at the gate of the UA military base. Although this behavior drew protests from the embassy and was quickly stopped by the police and the garrison, it still did not affect the celebratory mood of the Yokosuka people at this moment.

However, they didn’t know that the fortress in front of them just received a new owner. Two years from now, when the UA completed its withdrawal, Celestial Trade would take over here, and Nippon would never be able to get rid of the foreign troops to become a “normal country”.

But in any case, for these citizens, it was a great victory and a day worth celebrating.

About a few months later, the Mayor of Yokosuka proposed that this day would become a city holiday, and it received overwhelming support, but these were for later…

The UA fulfilled their promises, and Jiang Chen didn’t break his promise either.

On the second day after the Seventh Fleet left Yokosuka Port, Jiang Chen fulfilled the promise he made in the agreement. He called FARC leader Timochenko and Moro General and President Santos. He explained the requirements for cease-fire and release of NATO troops.

So far, FARC had captured Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and it was only one step away from gaining full control of Medellin, an important city in the central region. Now the entire Andes in Colombia was controlled by FARC guerrillas, and the southern provinces of Colombia had also fallen into the hands of FARC. The government force was forced to retreat along the Gulf of Mexico to the northern coast of Colombia along with the NATO Coalition Force.

It was not an exaggeration to say that FARC was one step away from controlling Colombia. The phone call from Jiang Chen at this time undoubtedly ruined Timochenko’s dream of being the president and divided the country into two, North and South Colombia.

Although he was extremely reluctant and unwilling, Timochenko nodded and agreed to Jiang Chen’s request. He slowly sent representatives to contact the Colombian government and initiated the ceasefire negotiation process. As for Santos, he had no opinion as he listened to what Jiang Chen said. He immediately agreed to the ceasefire agreement.

When the captured NATO soldiers were told that they could go home before the end of the next month, they almost cried with excitement. This more than a month of life was not only torture to their bodies, but also torture to their arrogant self-esteem.

Before they set foot on the battlefield, they originally thought it would be an asymmetrical war. However, when the EMP strike arrived, they experienced firsthand who was on the losing side…

As the ceasefire agreement entered into force, South Colombia had controlled 80% of Colombia’s territory. Although the Mexican coast was under the control of the government and NATO Coalition Force, the most important borders with Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil were all controlled by South Colombia.

At this point, Celestial Trade’s Global Grid Plan finally made a breakthrough in South America.

When Celestial Trade sent a team of engineers to Colombia, it also sent sales representatives to South American countries and began negotiations with the governments.

As the seventh-largest economy ranked tenth in the world’s electricity generation, Brazil was still very interested in the Global Grid Plan, and almost without hesitation, it agreed to the terms. It became the third South American country after South Colombia to join the grid.

A transmission cable would run north from Ecuador into southern Colombia, through the Andes and the Amazon jungle, cross Colombia’s border into Brazil, and finally merge into Brazil’s national grid. This transmission network would be completed by the end of the year. By then, most of South America would be tied to the Global Grid Plan and the war chariot of Celestial Trade…

…

In early September, the Yoto Olympics finally came to an end with the final gold medal determined. Due to the doping scandal, this Olympics came to an end amidst countless doubts and criticisms. Fortunately, until the closing ceremony ended, there were no more twists and turns.

The ranking of gold medals was released.

Due to the impact of the banned substances list published by Future Biology, although the Olympic Committee protected the athletes from the UA on the “Therapeutic Use Exemptions” under pressure, it was undeniable that the performance of those athletes was impacted. The total number of gold medals won by the UA unprecedentedly fell to fourth place. In contrast, Hua and Russia secured first and second places respectively.

As for Xin…

Unfortunately, as it was the country’s first time participating in the Olympics, Xin only won one gold medal in total.

The gold medal was the one around Jiang Chen’s neck. The 10 meter air rifle champion, the first gold medal in the Yoto Olympics, and the first gold medal for Xin in the Olympics…

Regardless of whether the Xinese people waiting for the result in front of their TV were satisfied, Jiang Chen was pleased with the result. This gold medal would be placed at the most visible spot in his office, in a place immediately visible once the door was open…

On the night of the closing ceremony, in order to celebrate the only gold medal, Xin’s athletes held a party in the hotel late into the night. As the protagonist of the party, Jiang Chen was taken advantage of by the well-built female athletes, and he had a lot of alcohol.

This time he didn’t use the storage dimension to cheat, so he was really drunk in the end. He vaguely recalled that he was sandwiched between two beautiful gymnasts who helped him back to his room. Later, something seemed to have happened. However, when he woke up at noon, he only saw the pillows and beddings tossed on the ground, a glass of water on the bedside table, as well as the decoction medicine prepared for him by the hotel staff.

At first, he thought it was just because the athletes were more excited. Later, he learned from Coach Wang Tao that this situation was not surprising in the Olympics, and it could be even considered as a culture of the Olympics…

“I don’t want to make too many comments on this, but if you live in the Olympic Village for a while, I bet you will see even more exciting scenes. I remember when I was in Rio four years ago, the organizer prepared 450,000 condoms for the athletes in the village, setting the highest record in the history of the Olympics, and it was also the only Olympic Games where the condoms didn’t run out.”

“More exciting?” Jiang Chen asked curiously.

“You know, where a group of people,” Wang Tao coughed and made a vague gesture. “If you get it, then you get it, if you don’t get it, you don’t get it. Everyone here is fit, full of hormones. When the timeis no longer tense, it’s not surprising what happens next. In short, what happens in the Olympic Village stays in the Olympic Village. Do you know what I mean? No one will interfere with each other’s life and family after.”

“…I probably understand what you mean.”

Jiang Chen touched his nose awkwardly and did not continue this topic.

He was not a man of integrity and did not mind what happened that night. His only regret was that he didn’t remember that face…

Maybe there were two faces.

Chapter 1360: Rising Star

Chapter 1360: Rising Star

The apocalypse; the West Coast of North America.

The laborers in ragged clothes pushed carts forward as they moved between the steel reinforcements under the order of the supervisor; they delivered the cement and concrete bricks to the hands of the construction workers. The huge construction trucks drove back and forth between the concrete walls, and a giant fortress started to take its shape.

Based on the NAC military government’s plan for this place, this fortress would be the first phase of the colony. The second phase and third phase of the project would center around this fortress and expand out to functional blocks such as residential, commercial, industrial, logistics, distribution centers, ports, and even entertainment.

As the governor of this colony, Zhou Guoping was living in the moment.

When he recalled the conversation with Jiang Chen in Shangjing, he was very grateful for the decision he made at the time. Instead of choosing to return to the prosperous Wanghai for retirement, he came to this undeveloped land. Rather than spending the rest of his life trembling in the shadow of Chu Nan and always worrying about possible revenge, why would he not enjoy his life as the ruler of the distant North America?

The funds allocated by the logistics department and all the credits on him were turned into tools and raw materials for construction. Zhou Guoping took the appointment letter signed by the General himself and took the transport ship built by the NAC shipyard through the safe passage of the Bering Strait. He arrived on the West Coast along with reinforcements.

Not long after he arrived, he quickly implemented NAC’s colonial policy, played to the advantages of localized management, used interests to unite some survivors, and then drove those with vested interests to assist them in enslaving the other survivors.

At present, there were already 20,000 laborers working on the construction site as they worked tirelessly to contribute to the NAC colony. The price they paid was only a hundred boxes of canned food, two truckloads of instant noodles, and tens of thousands of fruit-flavored high-calorie nutrient supplies.

It won’t be long before this place become a paradise envied by North American survivors, and as the governor of this colony, he would also become the one above all. And all this was something he never dared to imagine…

On the outskirt of the construction site, a pair of poorly equipped mercenaries patrolled the area.

Half a month ago, their name was the Blood Axe Mercenaries. Although they kept their name, they were hired by NAC as long-term partners. Their usual tasks were patrolling and occasionally dealt with some issues they didn’t even consider as issues.

As the leader of the mercenaries, Blood Axe was very satisfied with his current life.

He was not only satisfied because of the compensation offered by NAC, but also because he and his boys left their precarious days and now lived a life without worry.

With his brand-new rifle, Blood Axe, as usual, led his boys to patrol the edge of this concrete fortress. He would from time to time look into the distance with his binoculars.

Not far away, dust floated in the air.

After he confirmed that there was a convoy approaching, Blood Axe notified the colony with his radio out of protocol, and then took his boys to stop the vehicles.

“Stop! It’s NAC territory ahead, please explain your intentions!”

The convoy stopped, and the mercenaries on the truck jumped down one after another.

Blood Axe gestured to his boys behind him, opened the safety of the rifle in his hand, and carefully examined the mercenaries with unknown intentions in front of him.

“We are the Black Skulls of Nevada,” a black brawny man walked forward to about ten meters in front of Blood Axe, he signed to the mercenaries behind him to put away their weapons and expressed his harmless intention. He then looked at Blood Axe with a grin, “We have no ill-intentions. We’re just here to discuss business with you.”

Black Skulls.

A frightening name in Nevada.

They relied on their heavy firepower and modified all-terrain assault vehicles that traversed through the endless desert like a gust of wind. Due to their aggressive combat style, they were a nightmare for the merchant fleets between California and Nevada.

In addition to plundering merchants, attacking Double-headed Cattle herds, and occasionally fighting with mutated human tribes, they occasionally engaged in slave trade. Especially in the past few months, the profits of slave trade had become more and more lucrative, and they seemed to have change their business focus and turned slave trade into their main channel of profit.

The growing slave trade was closely connected with the outsiders on the West Coast.

NAC’s large-scale construction work required a lot of labor. Their nonrejection attitude made the slave market in California, which had experienced a continued period of sluggish demand, suddenly spike up.

In the desert of Nevada, there were hundreds of public or private fallout shelters.

The inhabitants of these shelters were the cheapest slaves on the North American wasteland. Not only did they have poor survivability, but they also couldn’t do much heavy work. Few survivors were willing to pay for them. However, after the arrival of this group of outsiders, this situation changed drastically.

The rich yellow men seemed to have a soft spot for such survivors who emerged from the fallout shelter. Especially for engineers or scientists who hold advanced skills certificates in a certain field, NAC even offered a high price of a box of canned fresh meat.

It was canned meat!

In any survivor force, a box of canned meat with the NAC anti-counterfeiting label could be exchanged for bullets of the same weight. And the bullets were high-quality standard bullets, far superior compared to the inferior bullets circulating in the black market!

Even the survivors in the Capital on the East Coast heard of the name NAC. It was not difficult to imagine the shock NAC brought to the North American survivors.

“Five hundred slaves, all from fallout shelters,” the powerful black man pointed to the group of malnourished slaves on the truck, grinned at the NAC officer, and rubbed his hands in eagerness, “Let me take a look at your goods.”

“After we evaluate these people, you will naturally see what belongs to you.” The officer in the kinetic skeleton said blankly, then signaled to the soldiers behind him. Under the escort of two medical staff and four soldiers, they walked to the truck.

The mercenaries around the truck stepped aside as they cleared a path.

As usual, before the transaction, NAC medical staff made a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the slaves. From health status to physical attributes, as well as simple inquiry and assessment of professional knowledge and skills.

After an anxious wait, the black man finally saw his payment – twenty boxes of canned meat, ten tons of rice, and a box of high-quality cigarettes. If he pulled these things to Minutemen-controlled Liberty City a hundred kilometers away, these could easily sell for 400,000 bottle caps. If he brought these goods to the even further Texas, he could sell them for a high price of 600,000 bottle caps.

After he happily ordered his men to load the goods, they climbed back in to the truck and drove away.

From beginning to end, Blood Axe looked blankly at the situation, but deep inside, he was astonished

As a Californian, although his range of activities did not include the eastern desert, any survivor in California would not be unfamiliar with the reputation of Black Skulls.

Whether it was the California National Guard or the militia ” Minutemen”, these gangsters with skull turbans had never respected any organization. But at this moment, in front of NAC, they were acting like honest people doing business.

It felt like the Sun just rose from the west!

Maybe these outsiders could bring real order to the chaotic and lawless California?

With this idea that even he himself found unrealistic, Blood Axe greeted the NAC officer and walked towards the other side of the colony with his boys…

Chapter 1361: The Blooming Flower of Memory

Chapter 1361: The Blooming Flower of Memory

In the modern world, the sky above Yoto International Airport was pristine and clear.

Athletes from all over the world boarded the flight home and left the city.

In the far land between North and South Colombia on the other side of the Pacific, the ceasefire agreement finally came into effect. On the premise of NATO’s recognition of the Timochenko government’s actual control over South Colombia, Timochenko agreed to unconditionally release more than 10,000 captured Coalition soldiers in exchange for two thousand soldiers who had been captured by NATO and North Colombia.

On the surface, it appeared to be the generosity of the Timochenko government, but anyone who understood politics recognized this as a political move. The UA’s compromise on Nippon was exchanged for Celestial Trade’s concession on the Colombia issue.

As for the interests of the Colombian people, they were not considered by either party from the beginning…

After Timochenko, who had been dealing with official duties, hung up Jiang Chen’s call, he stood in front of Bolivar’s portrait at the Presidential Palace in Bogota. He silently smoked several cigars as his eyes stayed fixated on the portrait. FARC was only one step away from reunifying the whole country. Even the NATO Coalition Force could not stop the defeat of government force. However, Colombia was now divided into two and became two countries…

Although he felt dissatisfied, he couldn’t think of any other way.

He knew the role he played in this game and he knew who handed him everything he owned today.

Timochenko had no doubt that if he dared to turn on Celestial Trade, he would fall ill and die in a few days because “he smoked too much cigars” or for some other reasons, and then there would be a more obedient puppet to take power to become the new leader of FARC with the support of Celestial Trade.

Peace arrived in a hurry.

With glory and bounty, the Moro Soldiers sang a triumphant song and withdrew from the Colombian battlefield. The turbulent situation in South America finally returned into the former peace. Although everyone knew that the peaceful façade was built on compromise,

…

Kwai looked at the G100 that disappeared into the light blue sky with a complex expression. Her right hand clenched tightly to her sleeve and she pressed against her chest.

Last night, the devil finally spared her. She was almost broken. Then he had dinner with her in the restaurant on the top floor. Until now, she couldn’t believe that she could put on normal clothes and walk out of the room intact.

She still vividly remembered the words left by the man with the evil smile at the candlelight table last night.

“Don’t lie to yourself. If you really hate what I did to you, you would have poured this bowl of potato soup on my face. Don’t use any excuses like being afraid to lie to yourself, you should be very clear what the real reason is, why don’t you admit it honestly? Tsk tsk, don’t look at me with such a scary expression. I have given you more than once the opportunity to choose whether to continue or not, but the choice your body made has been far more honest than the expression on your face.”

With confusion and loss in her eyes, Kwai repeatedly chewed the words that made her waver.

She didn’t understand why she became like this. She obviously should hate him, and she wished he could die at the next moment. However, at this moment, when she saw the flight that disappeared into the horizon, there was a trace of reluctance and longing in the softest part of her heart.

Whether she admitted it or not, that man had left an indelible mark on her…

Onboard the G100, Jiang Chen looked away from the grounding disappearing underneath him and started to rest in the decompression seat. After half an hour, when he opened his eyes again, the private jet had appeared over Coro Island and had begun its descent towards Coro International Airport.

When Ayesha saw him at the VIP tunnel at the airport, she plunged into Jiang Chen’s arms, stamped a passionate kiss on his lips, and buried her forehead into his chest.

Although it had only been less than a month, she could no longer suppress her overflowing emotions.

“I heard you did something dangerous over there again.” After they go in the car, Ayesha behind the steering wheel complained quietly, “You could have gotten Gill to do this. If you really don’t believe in her ability, you can leave it to me.”

“Danger is a stretch. It’s not the first time I went to a military base.” Jiang Chen laughed and rubbed Ayesha’s silky hair, “How have you been doing these days?”

“I’ve been alright,” Ayesha smiled, “Lilith has become obsessed with diving recently. I, Sister Shiyu, and Natasha took her to the ocean every weekend.”

“Unbelievable. That little girl would actually like things outside the virtual world. I thought she would not be able to live without the Internet.” Jiang Chen grinned.

Sometimes, Jiang Chen was really curious about the world through the eyes of an advanced artificial intelligence with emotions. Whenever he talked about his view of the world, Lilith’s attitude had always been ambiguous.

Perhaps she was not even aware that as a string of data, how many terabytes of variables were between herself and reality.

Back home, Jiang Chen kissed Xia Shiyu and Natasha . Then, he reached out and rubbed Lilith’s head, who was also standing in the hallway. Finally, he returned to the office. Almost as soon as he sat down, he received a call from Celestial City.

The call was from Kelvin.

News came from the distant Mars colony. Three hundred scientific researchers had successfully received the Flower of Memory. After a week of observation, they did not observe any adverse side-effects.

After Jiang Chen learned the good news, he immediately asked him to transfer the call to the Mars colony.

During the call, Dr. Amos quickly greeted Jiang Chen and then started to joke.

“One piece of good news and one piece of bad news.”

Without any regard for the decision Jiang Chen would make, Dr. Amos made the decision for him and continued.

“The good news is that our gains are amazing. The Gaia civilization has gone quite far in the research of materials, gravity, and planetary environment, far beyond the imagination of modern physics. Especially in the field of hadron materials, their research has completely changed our understanding of materials science and particle physics.”

“I remember you mentioning a piece of bad news,” Jiang Chen said.

“The bad news is that I am drooling whenever I see the specimen of Devil Worms. There seem to be strange things mixed in with the Flower of Memory. In addition to the knowledge of the Gaia, there are also their recipes.”

Jiang Chen processed what he had just heard for a moment before he laughed out loud, “That’s easy, I can have someone prepare one for you. Steamed or fried?”

“Forget it, I want to live longer.” Amos rolled his eyes, paused for a moment, and continued, “In the next two months, we will use the knowledge in our brains and generate research papers, sort them out and upload them to the Celestial Database. You can look forward to the extent to which the knowledge in our database will be enriched in two months!”

“I’ll look forward to that day.”

Jiang Chen nodded happily. After he bantered a bit more with Dr. Amos, he ended the call.

Chapter 1362: The Nuclear Warhead On The Beach

Chapter 1362: The Nuclear Warhead On The Beach

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

The North American colony in the apocalypse.

Zhou Guoping summoned the officials and held a quick meeting in the Governor’s Mansion.

“…The first phase of the project is only halfway to completion and we need more slaves to contribute to our colony. Now our colony is quite crowded and the construction site is filled with refugees from other places. I suggest we immediately begin the second phase of the project by developing the residential area outside the fortress.”

“We are colonists, and we are not here to do charity work in North America. We are feeding more than 30,000 laborers, and that’s more than enough. What we need now is money, not more people,” Zhou Guoping emphasized again.” It’s not caps, nor crystals, but credit points.”

Even if he never implemented the system himself, he had seen its action.

After the time he spent at the Sixth Street, Hongcheng, and Shangjing in underground activities, even if he was not too gifted in governing, he was not blind. For example, he knew the most important point, that was, no matter what you do, you cannot do without money.

Now that the budget was nearing depletion, the first and foremost important issue was to solve the funding problem. The funding here did not refer to North American survivors, but to the credit points that circulated in the NAC.

From the most basic construction steel to the high-end munitions production line, the amount of material in this new colony was much higher than it appeared. The only thing that they didn’t lack was food and refugees were attracted by food.

Food was always a great commodity sold everywhere. However, if they just relied on food alone, it would be difficult to exchange for the real goods from these ordinary survivors.

Whether the National Guard or Minutemen, they all held a cautious attitude towards NAC’s actions on the West Coast.

In particular, the self-proclaimed righteous National Guard, with pre-war thinking, regarded NAC as the “remnants” of the Pan-Asia Cooperation. Although they did not take any hostile actions towards the NAC outpost, they were never friendly either.

Just as the people around the table were discussing how to develop the local specialties of the colony to draw investors from the Sixth Street in, a messenger ran in. After he saluted, he reported to Zhou Guoping.

“…Our reconnaissance team witnessed a large number of Mud Crabs in an abandoned port ten kilometers away from the colony, it is suspected that there is a nest there.”

“Don’t bother me with such trivial things,” Zhou Guoping waved his hand impatiently, “Do what you should do.”

“Yes!”

After the messenger saluted again, he ran out. However, before he even took two steps, Zhou Guoping suddenly stopped him.

“Wait,” Zhou Guoping stopped the messenger.

The soldiers stopped, turned around, and saluted again.

“What else, sir?”

“What is the difference between the Mud Crabs here compared to the Mud Crabs in Asia?” Zhou Guoping’s eyes turned while he touched his chin.

Before the messenger had time to answer, another NAC officer sitting at the conference table responded with confusion in his tone.

“Bigger, lighter in color, crab claws with serrated barbs, crab roe is milky white… Is there any problem?”

“No problem, it’s just that I suddenly thought of Yizhou. Remember the crab roe from the Yizhou island colony? I ate it once and it was delicious.” Zhou Guoping licked his lips as fascination appeared in his eyes as well as a touch of excitement.

Just now, he suddenly thought of a good way to make money.

The North American colony could follow the example of Yizhou Island and cultivate aquatic products like Mud Crabs in coastal areas.

By that time, he could give these North American Mud Crabs a new name, one distinguished enough to sell its milky crab roes to the Sixth Street. It would definitely have a market!

“Clean up that abandoned port, and collect all the mud crab eggs!”

“Roger!” The messenger gave a military salute and turned away.

…

Outside the abandoned port, rusty containers were piled up randomly, and destroyed goods were scattered everywhere. For strange reasons, a large cargo ship beached on the shore, and half of the ship ran aground on the slope-like shore, covered by countless seaweeds from the sea.

With plenty of food and suitable humidity, this semi-humid environment was the most optimal for Mud Crabs.

Early the next morning, the roar of the engine from a distance broke the tranquility of the abandoned port.

More than a dozen trucks, escorted by four assault armored vehicles, parked in the open space in front of the port.

Soldiers with rifles jumped off the truck one after another. A small part of them was from the NAC army while most of them were mercenaries composed of local survivors. Everyone was divided into two teams and assembled in front of the vehicles. The NAC officer in power armor walked to the front of the team and shouted in a hoarse voice.

“Okay, cheer up, lads. You have already received your mission, so I won’t repeat it here. If we are lucky, we can eat fresh grilled crab roe at noon.”

“What if you are not lucky?” someone couldn’t help but ask.

“Then you’ll be turned into crab roe.”

NAC engineers stepped forward, placed explosives on the bulkhead of the cabin, and quickly retreated. With the weapons provided by the NAC, the mercenaries at the forefront stood by at a safe distance from the explosion as they eagerly fiddled with the new equipment in their hands.

With a loud bang, the rusty cabin was blasted open with a hole half-a-person high. With the rocket launcher provided by NAC soldiers, Blood Axe rushed into the freighter on the shore first. He pointed the rocket launcher at a Mud Crab that made a hoarse noise and pulled the trigger.

As a trail of smoke left the rocket launcher, the flame illuminated the other end of the ship.

After he tossed the launcher away, Blood Axe quickly equipped the rifle behind his back and unleashed his firepower at another Mud Crab that emerged from the corner. His boys also join the fray as they greeted the Mud Crabs with more rockets and grenades.

Although the shell of Mud Crabs was thick, they didn’t last long under this barrage.

Soon, the smoked Mud Crabs curled up into balls and crooked to the side of the hallway. At this time, the NAC force, which entered from the other side of the cabin, also joined the battlefield. Armed with weapons that were significantly better than these mercenaries, they weaved a net named death inside the ship.

Sparks jumped in the cabin, and soon half of the cabin was cleared out. The part that was immersed in the water could not be cleaned for the moment. The officer asked the engineer to go up and weld the doors with alloy plates to prevent the underwater Mud Crabs from coming up.

After the engineer had done all this, he yelled to the soldier behind him.

“Search the area! Collect the eggs! Pay attention to the big eggs. The little crabs from there are harder to deal with…”

NAC’s price for these eggs was a basin-sized egg for a bag of instant noodles. Blood Axe had very much enjoyed trading goods with goods. Compared to the pointy caps, he preferred the “hard currency” that could be exchanged for goods anywhere.

Just as he ordered his boys to collect these crab eggs, he went deeper into the cabin with his rifle to see if there was anything worth searching. This port had been abandoned for so many years and had obviously been visited by survivors countless times, but this freighter occupied by Mud Crabs was undoubtedly an undeveloped territory.

The deeper he went, the more humid the surrounding environment and the denser the sticky seaweed.

At this moment, his EP suddenly flashed, indicating that the radiation level exceeded normal levels.

Blood Axe immediately gave himself a shot of iodine. As he watched the flashing red light gradually dim, he stepped forward and continued.

At the end of the warehouse was a row of cracked containers, completely wrapped by seaweed. The water stains on the ground illuminated with indescribable fluorescence, which made him afraid to take a step forward. Obviously, the radioactive source was there, and the radiation there was not something an iodine shot would resist.

“I found something here,” Blood Axe shouted behind him.

NAC recognized the value of intelligence.

The stuff inside was obviously not something he could recover, so he chose to contribute this information to the NAC. If the NAC found something good here, based on their past behavior, they were never stingy with rewards.

“What’s the situation?” The officer in the power armor and four soldiers walked over here.

“The amount of radiation here exceeds the average,” Blood Axe pointed at the container wrapped in seaweed with his thick index finger, “There must be something in it, but I can’t be sure.”

The officer frowned slightly and walked forward.

Power armor had top-level radiation resistance, and it could easily cross areas that received nuclear attacks, and naturally, it was not afraid of this level of radiation. When the officer walked in front of the container, he lifted his heavy steel palm and tore apart the seaweed stuck to the surface of the container.

“The sign of radioactivity… there should be something incredible.” The officer turned his head and said to one of the soldiers, “Bring the engineer over and remember to put on protective clothing.”

Soon, an engineer with a toolbox ran over.

After the engineer took out a thick laser-cut gun from the toolbox, he pointed a sharp knife at the container. In a stream of water mist, the humming blade cut into the container like tofu, then left a neat cut on the container.

Blood Axe stared nervously at the container that was gradually being cut open, his heart was pounding furiously as he silently prayed. If they found something good, it would increase his pay.

Soon, the engineer cut a two-person wide opening in the container, and then quickly exited the radiation area with the toolbox. The officer took a step forward, pulled the half-dangling aluminum alloy skin off the container, and stepped into the container.

These mutated seaweeds had strong penetrating power and had penetrated into the container. They even covered the goods stored in the container. When the officer turned on the tactical flashlight, he wiped the seaweed from the surface.

“Let me see what exactly is inside… the radioactive sign…”

Suddenly, the outstretched hand stopped.

The officer involuntarily took a step back. He muttered to himself in a low but trembling voice.

“This is… a nuclear warhead?”

Chapter 1363: I don’t think they will have any objections

Chapter 1363: I don’t think they will have any objections

“Future Bank will provide you with a loan of ten billion Xin New dollars, part of which will be used to restore the grid in Santander and its neighboring areas, and part of it will be used to invest in railways in the southeastern provinces of South Colombia. If you are willing to contract the work of these two projects to Future Group’s infrastructure subsidiary, not only can we reduce the interest on this loan from four percent to two point five percent, but we can also provide you with an additional billion dollars as an interest-free loan.”

Inside the office on the top floor of Future Building, Jiang Chen played with a bright silver coin in his left hand as he leaned back in his chair and spoke with President Timochenko on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

One of the most important factors that allowed FARC to gain support in the southeastern provinces was the extremely uneven distribution of wealth in Colombian society. Almost 80% of the wealth was concentrated in the coastal areas west of the Andes. FARC promised to revitalize the economy of the underdeveloped areas in the southeast after the success of the revolution, and building railways and roads were considered feasible options.

When the North Colombia government retreated to the Gulf Coast, it had almost emptied the treasury and left Timochenko with only a pile of mess. It was fine to rely on the savings from the drag trafficking days to purchase weapons, but it was obviously unrealistic to support infrastructure constructions.

Unfortunately, due to disputes over the legitimacy of the regime, South Colombia received an exceptionally poor credit rating from investment banks and credit rating agencies, and almost no foreign banks were willing to lend to Timochenko. Future Bank perhaps was the only financial institution willing to provide loans to them. The carrot tossed by Jiang Chen just saved his life.

“…thank you.”

Timochenko’s Adam’s apple moved slightly, and he uttered the words with mixed emotions.

To be honest, until now, he still felt bitter about the fact that Celestial Trade betrayed the interests of the Colombian people to reach a deal with the UA. He was very worried that Colombia would become the second Korean peninsula, placed in the middle of the negotiating table between two superpowers, and divided into two countries forever.

“You’re welcome.” Jiang Chen said in a relaxed tone as he waved his hand, “I know you may have some bitterness in your mind, but I advise you to think again. Without my help, you are either hiding in the mountains now or waiting for your trial in prison.”

“…thank you.” Timochenko smiled wryly.

Except thank you, he couldn’t seem to think of anything better to say.

“I said that you are welcome,” Jiang Chen smiled, “Besides, don’t be too frustrated. The truce is an opportunity for you to rest and rebuild. Don’t forget to build your military when you’re building your infrastructure. I’m very optimistic about the courage of your soldiers. When they were against NATO’s modern army, they only lacked some modern tactics and a few new weapons. There is an international defense exhibition in Coro City in September. I will get someone to send you an invitation letter, you can take a look at it.”

In the end, Jiang Chen took the opportunity to advertise for Future Military.

Although the economy of South Columbia was completely beaten now, he did not want to miss this potential buyer. Once the Global Grid entered the country, these poor provinces would soon be revitalized. Even if Timochenko had to buy the weapons on credit, he was still willingly sell as he was not concerned about repayment at all.

However, Timochenko wasn’t thinking about this at the moment. After he heard Jiang Chen’s statement, he was suddenly overjoyed. Especially the phrase “Don’t forget to build your military”, in his opinion, he was simply a foreshadowing the future unification of Colombia.

Sure enough, Celestial Trade did not show any weaknesses when compared to the UA!

After he confirmed the thought in his head, Timochenko, full of white hair, appeared younger. He vowed.

“I’ll make a trip myself!”

After Jiang Chen hung up, Xia Shiyu, who was holding some documents, knocked on the door and walked in.

When she saw Jiang Chen in the chair, she smiled.

“What have you been up to?”

“I just made a call with the new owner of South Columbia, and there is another big project waiting for Future Heavy Industries,” Jiang Chen teasingly said as he threw the coin he was playing with to Xia Shiyu, then he raised an eyebrow. “Let’s not talk about that, look at this.”

“What is this?” Xia Shiyu curiously asked as she pinched the coin that Jiang Chen had thrown over and held it up. When she flipped it to the back, she was taken aback for a moment. Then the corners of her mouth twitched slightly, and without being able to contain her laughter, she burst out laughing.

“The second edition of the Xin coin is worth one dollar and has a circulation of 300 million. The one you are holding is a sample sent by the Xin Reserve.” Jiang Chen made a helpless expression, “A shareholder suggested that 2020 should be commemorated as it was the first time Xin participated in the Olympics and won its first gold medal. Therefore, we now have this.”

“It feels odd to have my head printed on a coin. If it must happen, then at least it should be the hundred dollar bill.”

The shareholder who put forward this suggestion clearly did not get Jiang Chen’s taste.

But even though he was planning to exercise his veto power, Jiang Chen did enjoy this coin, so he planned to treat it as a collection piece at his mansion.

“I think it’s pretty cute.” Xia Shiyu smiled as her finger gently stroked the outline of the head on the coin.

“Come on.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes, “I have vetoed this idea in my head.”

“Why not consider issuing two sets of one-dollar coins at the same time? One set will be issued in small quantities in the form of commemorative coins, and the other set will be issued on a large scale as the main currency.” Xia Shiyu examined the coin in her hand. She was clearly not ready to give up on this idea, so she came up with a compromise, “I always feel that this kind of a coin will be very valuable in hundreds of years.”

Issued as a commemorative coin?

Jiang Chen touched his chin and thought for a moment, then he nodded as his eyes lit up.

It was a good idea.

And if there was a chance, he would also like to know how much this set of coins with his head would be worth down the road…

“Now that you interrupted me, I almost forgot about the important stuff.” Xia Shiyu tossed the coin on the desk and then placed the documents in front of Jiang Chen, “The Ecuadorian government called me and asked me when the space elevator could start construction. They are ready to cooperate with our project, they just hope we don’t delay it too long.”

Ecuador had always been on Celestial Trade’s side, so it would be unwise to drag this on. Now that Celestia Trade had opened up South America and the situation in Colombia was now stabilized, the second space elevator was ready for construction.

“Send an engineering ship to Ecuador, and the site selection for the second space elevator can begin. By the way, since the Ecuadorian government is so anxious, then you can ask them for me. We plan to buy one of their Galapagos Islands. The island will be used as a port for Celestial Trade and as the construction center of the space elevator. This transaction only involves land use rights and does not involve sovereignty. This is our final condition for building the space elevator in Ecuador. If they have no objections, we can get started too.”

“I will pass this on to the Ecuadorian government.” Xia Shiyu nodded.

“As soon as possible,” Jiang Chen smiled. “Although I don’t think they will have any objections.”

Chapter 1364: The Second Space Elevator

Chapter 1364: The Second Space Elevator

Jiang Chen was right; they really wouldn’t reject his proposal.

When Xia Shiyu called the Ecuadorian Embassy, she got a reply from the Ecuadorian government on the same day.

The Ecuadorian government agreed to the proposal of Future Group to lease Marchena Island in the Galapagos Islands to Celestial Trade for a period of 50 years at a price of one million Xin New dollars. If the lease was not ended by either party after fifty years, it would be automatically renewed every ten years.

Marchena Island was located in the northern Galapagos Islands, close to the equator. The island covered an area of 130 square kilometers and was minimally developed. The island was uninhibited with only an inactive volcano. The surrounding water was deep, which made it an excellent natural port.

Based on the agreement, Celestial Trade could use this island for military purposes, but the number of troops stationed on the island could not exceed 1,000, and deployment of any strategic weapons such as ballistic missiles on the island in any form was prohibited.

Ecuador’s generous offer was returned by Future Group’s lucrative deal. Not only was the second space elevator project named “Project Marchena”, but the port at the bottom of the space elevator was also named “Marchena”. Future Group even promised to provide a little help to Ecuador in the nomination for membership into the Earth Defense Alliance next year, despite its poor GDP data.

In addition, the agreement reached between Celestial Trade and Ecuador also stated that although this space elevator and spaceport were built in Ecuador, they would not be bound by the Ecuadorian Constitution, but as a special autonomous region under the jurisdiction of the Celestial Trade Space Department.

Even so, this unregulated space elevator still brought huge economic benefits to the small South American country Ecuador.

An examination of the current Celestial City would reveal the facts. Although it did not contribute a dime to Xin’s finances, the entire space elevator became the entrance to the synchronous orbit in the eastern hemisphere. The number of ships that moved between the major ports of Xin every day accounted for almost 60% of the cargo ships active in South Asia.

If it wasn’t for the limited capacity of the space elevator, as well as the distant threats in sight, Jiang Chen would never consider rushing to build a second space elevator with a monopolistic position.

Jiang Chen gave a clear position to this space elevator. Port Marchena’s purpose was a space port and space industrial base. The design would not consider any living and entertainment space for residents, unlike Celestial City.

Only one space city was necessary, and only one Celestial City was necessary…

…

At night, the lights in the office were on.

Jiang Chen sat at the table as he video-called Sun Jiao. After Lin Lin’s upgrade, the real-time transmission speed of the interdimensional communication chip in his watch was now strong enough to support a holographic phone with a large data volume.

Lines and light particles outlined Sun Jiao’s figure by the table, it was almost exactly like a real person. Although Jiang Chen could travel to the apocalypse to meet with Sun Jiao at any time, in order to test the performance of the interdimensional communication chip upgraded by Lin Lin, the two of them chose the holographic call.

“How are you over there?” Jiang Chen looked at the holographic image that looked too real as he gently fiddled with the strands of hair sticking to her cheeks. A layer of digital ripples appeared on the holographic image, and his finger passed through the fluttering hair and stopped beside the beautiful face.

“Everything is good, good to the point where it is a bit boring… When will you come back?” Sun Jiao said softly as she put her hands around the virtual hands and stared at him with her pristine eyes, “Yao Yao and Lin Lin, and Xiaorou, they all miss you very much.”

Jiang Chen chuckled and said in a joking tone, “Actually, you miss me, right?”

Is it not okay?

Sun Jiao’s beautiful eyebrows raised and she did not speak. However, her eyes full of vitality had already expressed all the words she wanted to say vividly.

Jiang Chen fixated his gaze on those charming eyes and smiled. After he thought for a moment, he replied softly.

“At the end of the month at the latest. I still have one thing to deal with. Once I finish that, I will probably be back for a while.

After he resolved Colombia’s war, Celestial Trade had opened up in South America. As the Yoto Olympics came to an end, the issue of UA troops stationed in Nippon was smoothly solved. The only two things left in his hands were the first Xin International Defense Exhibition in the middle of this month, and the finale of this year’s UA election.

There was not much more to do for the UA election as he had done everything he could. Before that day finished, he could only wait.

As for the upcoming international defense exhibition, as the president of Future Group, he naturally had to make an appearance. After all, Future Military was center stage for this defense exhibition. The entire world would be watching this long-established arms giant, and see what kind of eye-catching war machine it would put on display.

After the end of the international defense exhibition, he would have nothing to do for at least two months. He would not able to formulate strategies against the UA for the next four years before the election in mid-December.

“Then I’ll wait for you to come back.” Sun Jiao smiled, her eyes showed a provocative look, “Last time you and Xiaorou worked together, I still remember that.”

“Haha, now that you told me, what if I’m afraid to go back?” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Then I’ll go and find you! Lin Lin’s research has almost succeeded.” Sun Jiao raised her hands and curled her fingers fiercely. “I can’t promise you what strange things will happen then…”

“Really?!” Jiang Chen took a second to process this before he stood up in happiness. With both of his hands pressed against the table, he stared at Sun Jiao, “I mean, Lin Lin’s research finally succeeded?”

“Uh, don’t get too excited, it’s still coming along. It seems that the technology of collecting and storing antimatter has made a breakthrough. By the way, don’t tell her I told her…” Sun Jiao looked back behind her and then said quickly, “She doesn’t let me tell you, saying that she is going to give you a surprise.”

“So it’s soon again,” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and sighed as he sat back on the chair, “I’ve been hearing this since last year, can’t you give me a more specific date?”

“If there are new developments, I will tell you.” Sun Jiao’s eyes flashed as she saw Jiang Chen’s disappointment, then she smiled, “Don’t forget, you promised me. By the way, don’t tell me you forgot already?”

“How is that possible?” Jiang Chen laughed, glanced at the clock on the wall, and said, “It’s getting late, go to bed early.”

“Good night!”

Chapter 1365: Nuclear Warheads and Toys

Chapter 1365: Nuclear Warheads and Toys

The apocalypse, North America.

A nuclear warhead was found in a rusty cargo ship in an abandoned port ten kilometers from the colony.

It was already late at night when this news went through countless layers of reports before it finally reached the ears of the executives in the North American colony.

Zhuo Guoping was in bed enjoying the meticulous service of two big, blond and blue-eyed exotic girls. When he received the call, he was shocked.

Without much concern for the properness of his attire, he grabbed a blanket and covered himself. He then pushed aside the blonde girl that was kneeling in front of him and rolled over down the bed. He walked to the window, clicked on the holographic screen, and quickly pressed a few numbers. The phone quickly connected to the frontline and he then lowered his voice.

“Nuclear warhead? What nuclear warhead? What’s the matter, didn’t I ask you to collect mud crab roe? Why… why did you find a nuclear warhead?”

“…When we were clearing the nest of the crabs, we found a container suspected of storing nuclear materials in the corner of the cabin. After we opened the container, we found these things inside.”

After the progress bar finished loading, Zhou Guoping’s eyebrows twisted together as he examined the photo transferred to his EP.

Most of the cylindrical object in the photo was covered by seaweed and based on the shape, it did look like combat components that could be mounted on a missile. Based on the yellow radioactive symbol, excluding the nuclear fusion core that did not obviously look like this, the only possibility left with a high probability was a nuclear warhead.

“If this is a nuclear warhead…hiss…” After he took a deep breath, Zhou Guoping asked immediately, “…Can you confirm the model number?”

“We have insufficient intelligence. It is currently impossible to confirm the nuclear warhead model,” Han Peng, the NAC officer in charge, replied. He looked at the nuclear warhead placed in the center of the cabin and frowned. “The seaweed covering the surface of the warhead was extremely corrosive and has caused leakage of nuclear fuel. Since we cannot confirm the warhead model and the safety of the warhead, we are afraid to disassemble the warhead…”

After Zhuo Guoping listened to the report, he was completely lost as to what to do next.

He was not a technologist, other than the fact that he knew fusion and fission happened. Therefore, he definitely had no understanding of nuclear warheads.

And as far as he knew, in order to enrich their nuclear weapons arsenal, the three major powers before World War III had produced a wide variety of nuclear weapons. Not only did they detonate in strange ways, but they were also used for various purposes. Some were dedicated to personnel, some were used against armored targets, some warheads were used to create permanent no-man’s land, and some were designed to eliminate all personnel without damaging the land…

Zhuo Guoping rubbed his tense brows, sorted out his thoughts, and asked.

“What ship did you guys get on? And which port are you at? Can you identify it?”

“The radioactive material was discovered by a civilian cargo ship. The unit belonged to a North American shipping route. The port was likely also a civilian port.” Han Peng looked at the nuclear warhead on the ground and reported to Zhou Guoping, “We checked other containers, except for the ones at the end of the cabin. The rest are toys.”

“Wait, you said there are still other containers carrying nuclear warheads?” Zhuo Guoping suddenly noticed the keywords and he hurriedly followed up, “How many are there?”

“Twenty.” Han Peng answered truthfully.

Zhou Guoping’s breathing instantly shortened.

Twenty strategic nuclear warheads!

Why does he need to raise Mud Crabs as a side-hustle? He could just pull these nuclear warheads back to the Sixth Street. Regardless if these warheads work or not, they will surely be sold at a good price!

NAC’s nuclear weapons reserves had always been low (because of the cumbersomeness to explain, the difficulty of transportation, and the existence of crystals as a substitute, Jiang Chen had hardly sent nuclear fuel to the apocalypse). Even though nuclear bombs in the warehouse could flatten a few street blocks, eliminate a dozen tanks, but NAC still relied on tanks and airships to deter other survival forces.

It was no exaggeration to say that if he sold the twenty pre-war nuclear warheads he discovered to the logistics department, he could easily exchange them for two million credit points and could even be considered an honor.

However, what really made his breath shorten was not these twenty nuclear warheads, but the words Han Peng spoke of after-

These containers with nuclear warheads were shipped with containers full of toys!

What was the reason that these civilian cargo-carrying toys also secretly transported twenty strategic nuclear warheads?

Zhou Guoping could conclude that these nuclear warheads were placed on the ship because of NATO officials, otherwise, any inspection could detain these weapons without any chance of being loaded onto the ship.

Since he could infer that NATO officials hid the nuclear warheads on the ship, then he had to answer the next question. If this ship did not encounter any accidents, where was its destination? Why was it stranded at this port outside Los Angeles for so many years?

The intuition of many years of intelligence work told Zhou Guoping that these nuclear warheads were not important anymore.

…

The important piece of information was this ship!

As long as he could determine the destination of this ship that shouldn’t have been stranded here in the first place, he could follow the leads, and then eventually find the ultimate “treasure”!

NATO secret nuclear arsenal…

An obscure treasure map had just been slowly unfolded in front of him.

Zhuo Guoping licked the corner of his mouth, in excitement. He felt his heart was pumping violently.

His hunch told him that it was going to be something big…

…

The first Xin International Defense Exhibition would be held on September 15th in the Heart of the Sea in Coro City.

As the first international defense exhibition held by Xin, the invited participants were either members of the Earth Defense Alliance or countries that expressed their intention of joining the alliance. The purpose of this defense exhibition was also obvious. In addition to strengthening military cooperation between member states, it was also looking for overseas buyers for the growing military giant, Future Military.

The export of weapons was one of the ways to export values and influences. The significance of a missile was not only to deter a country but also to firmly bind the interests of two countries.

Among the fifty countries invited, all without exception stated that they would send senior officials to attend. Although everyone was aware that the most coveted EMP weapon and optically invisible kinetic skeleton were not likely for sale, they were still willing to come and try their luck.

Future Military’s weapons would certainly not be shabby, no one doubted this point!

In addition to Future Military, the darling in the eyes of compradors and military analysts, there were also 780 companies registered to appear in this defense exhibition. Among them, there were many international military industry giants such as Hua’s Aviation Science Group, Russia’s Almaz-Antey, Italy’s Leonardo, Dutch’s Airbus. These companies also took advantage of this opportunity to demonstrate their masterpieces.

As for the top UA military industry giants in the world, because they did not receive an invitation from Xin, they, unfortunately, could not attend this defense exhibition. However, their absence did not affect the quality of the defense exhibition. Under the close watch of the world, the first Xin International Defense Exhibition finally kicked off…

Chapter 1366: International Defense Exhibition

Chapter 1366: International Defense Exhibition

Coro International Airport.

A jet-black aerospace plane dragged along a blue flaming tail as it landed steadily on the airport runway. The hatch opened and the escalator dropped down, Prince Yerif in a white robe walked out and opened his arms with a giant smile.

“Haha, dear Jiang Chen, your plane is amazing! I have never experienced such a quick trip! It only took an hour to get from Mecca to Coro City. I almost thought my pilot read the navigator wrong… In short, it’s unbelievable, I have never seen such a powerful aircraft!”

Yerif was amazed and bewildered.

It was not only because he himself was an avid collector of private jets, but also because he was convinced that, his father, who also shared the same passion, would be genuinely amazed by this birthday gift.

“Long-distance travel can better reflect the speed of the G100. If you fly from Mecca to North America, I assure you will be more amazed.” Jiang Chen smiled and hugged him, took a step back, then said, “Welcome to Coro City.”

From Mecca to Coro City, the G100 likely ascended to the mesosphere, but if the destination was from Mecca to North America on the opposite side of the Earth, the aerospace plane would travel through low-Earth orbit and use the Earth’s rotation to reduce travel time to the extreme.

Based on the field test data of Future Heavy Industries, the time from Coro City International Airport to Washington International Airport was also one hour. One of the selling points of the G100 was its ability to reach any place in the world within an hour.

“I will definitely try it!” Yerif laughed.

On the other side of the airport, a white Airbus with the Russian tricolor flag and the Almaz-Antey Group logo also landed on the airport runway. The escalator was attached to the plane, and a group of Russians, all dressed in black suits, stepped down.

When they saw the black G100 parked at the other end of the airport. The Slavic man surrounded by black suits tilted his head slightly, pointed to the plane, and whispered to his assistant next to him, who was carrying a briefcase.

“How much is that plane?”

The assistant hesitated for a second, then answered immediately.

“I’ll ask.”

The Slavic man nodded, glanced at another private plane that was landing, and walked towards the special tunnel of the airport.

Almaz-Antey was definitely a renowned name in Russia. Its predecessor was the Russian NPO “Almaz” and the “Antey” Corporation. After the merger in 2002, it became one of the top arms giants in Russia and the world. The S-300 and S-400 air defense missile systems were the pride of the company.

What was the origin of the two companies before the merger? Almaz was known as NPO Almaz, which could be traced back to the First Special Design Bureau of the Soviet Ministry of Weapons and was established by Stalin himself. The second was Antey, which was also an industrial giant from the Soviet era.

In the 1990 privatization era, a large number of economic oligarchs became rich overnight in Russia. In the decades to come, as the regime changed, some old oligarchs went to jail, and new oligarchs appeared. Only one person passed through the most difficult two decades for oligarchs in a rather low-key manner. He played the role of an arms giant and hid his identity as an oligarch to the end.

“Chemezov.” Chemezov shook Jiang Chen’s right hand and made a concise self-introduction, then nodded slightly to express his friendship to Jiang Chen.

“Jiang Chen.” While Jiang Chen shook his hand, Jiang Chen also nodded and examined Mr. Chemezov.

As in the rumors, Mr. Chemezov didn’t speak much, and his actions were quite low-key. However, his sharp pupils also revealed his dogmatic actions. His sturdy physique did not give away the fact that he was already over fifty years old. Especially since his 1.80 meters height and defined attributes resembled more of a soldier than an oligarch.

Jiang Chen did not chat with Chemezov for a long time, after a brief greeting, the Slavic man walked to the entrance of the special tunnel to enter his convoy. Jiang Chen also looked to the South Colombia Drug Lord, or rather, President, who was walking towards him with a warm smile.

Unexpectedly, the man who disturbed the calmness in South America and topped the CIB assassination list would actually come to this event in person. However, Jiang Chen only thought for a moment before he understood his intention. First of all, Xin was much safer compared to South Colombia, otherwise, Jiang Chen would not be able to live until now.

Behind Timochenko, the president of Hua Aviation Technology Group and representatives from the Hua military were there, and followed by Natasha’s father’s old subordinates that represented the Russian military. Half of the world’s top 30 military arms giants were here, which showcased the status of this defense exhibition.

…

In the morning, representatives of different countries arrived one after another, and the defense exhibition officially started at two in the afternoon.

The defense exhibition would last for a week, and a total of two thousand weapons would be showcased. From automatic rifle accessories to anti-aircraft missiles and even space weapons, the major military industry giants also did their best to use the hype built up. While they did not expect to win the limelight of Future Military, it was a great choice to win the attention of international buyers as the second-best choice.

In particular, the military-industrial enterprises from Hua and Russia started to hint at the Africa and South America representatives, who felt insecure, from the start of the very start of the exhibition. It was not until the lights were lit on the rostrum in front of the exhibition hall did the guests stop whispering and chatting and focused their attention on the person on the stage.

Jiang Chen walked to the rostrum and adjusted the microphone.

“Hello everyone, I’m Jiang Chen.” In the concise opening remarks, Jiang Chen nodded slightly at the camera lenses pointed at him, then glanced around at his invited guests. With a smile, he continued, “First of all, on behalf of the organizer, I welcome everyone who can take time out of their busy schedule to attend our defense exhibition in Coro City.”

The reporters had set up their cameras early as they waited for Jiang Chen’s speech.

Chemezov leaned back against the chair and put one leg over his knee. Then, he gestured to his assistant, who had his pen and paper ready, and pointed at Jiang Chen in the front.

“Write down every word he says for me.”

“Yes!”

The assistant nodded earnestly, and the ballpoint pen in his hand was already on the notebook.

Not just Russians, the moment Jiang Chen stood on the rostrum, he immediately became the focal point of the entire exhibition hall. Everyone was waiting for, his next statement.

Chapter 1367: Technology Change The War!

“The theme of this exhibition is technology.”

Jiang Chen lifted his hand and gently swiped it in front of him.

As soon as his fingertips slid across the air, a layer of ripples formed and cascaded outwards, and digital blocks emerged one after another. Among everyone’s astonished look, it formed into a solider in kinetic skeleton and a drone with a muzzle.

“With the advancement of science and technology and the innovation of military technology, there is no doubt that human’s participation in wars will become less and less.”

“Future Group is built on science and technology with a focus on the future. It is committed to using the power of science and technology to serve the production and life of all humankind and lead the world in a perfect direction.”

“As a responsible company, I believe that our technology will completely change the way wars are conducted in the not-too-distant future, using machinery to replace flesh and blood to prevent meaningless deaths and to decide the outcome of the war in a more efficient manner.”

“Next, I will demonstrate the concept I proposed earlier for you through holographic simulation.”

At the moment Jiang Chen finished the sentence, the holographic image floating in front of Jiang Chen changed.

A number of tall buildings appeared through the digital blocks and then spread out from the rostrum. Nine soldiers in urban camouflage appeared on the street. From the equipment, the team should be based on a UA Army squad combat unit, including a staff sergeant and two teams. Each team had a noncommissioned officer, a rifleman, a grenade launch solider, and an M249 machine gunner.

Shocked by this realistic holographic projection, the sights of almost all the guests present were glued to the holographic image in front of Jiang Chen.

When Chemezov saw the realistic holographic images of the nine soldiers, he had a look of realization.

“He is preparing to simulate city battles!”

The next images seemed to confirm his guess, the stateless soldier who appeared first quickly encountered the same stateless imaginary enemy. With the cooperation of the drone, the soldier wearing the kinetic skeleton was at an extreme firepower disadvantage, but with the drone’s excellent reconnaissance capability and the firepower supplemented by the self-aiming rifle below, he successfully launched a flank attach and killed two machine gunners of the imaginary enemy force.

The audience was shocked as they made loud gasping sounds. It was obvious that they were not optimistic about the soldier in kinetic skeleton at first. It had nothing to do with the lack of trust of Future Military’s technology, but the sheer number discrepancy between the two sides. In the absence of off-field fire support, they really couldn’t think of any possibility where the soldier would have an advantage.

But soon, their expressions became quite interesting.

Someone even exclaimed loudly when the sixth imaginary enemy soldier fell.

“It’s impossible… the soldier just jumped to the third floor; is he still human?”

“It’s the kinetic skeleton! The mobility of the kinetic skeleton!”

“This drone is definitely a nightmare for all infantry. For soldiers, its size is too small, and its speed just makes people feel despair. It’s almost impossible to hit outside of 30 meters. They can only be suppressed by the self-aiming rifle…”

“Scythe” drone, as the foreign military version of the Hummingbird drone, replaced the vortex engine on the bottom into four pairs of outwardly extending rotors. While sacrificing limited maneuverability, the ammunition carrying capacity and muzzle caliber were increased, as well as the shooting fault tolerance rate of the self-aiming rifle below, which greatly reduced the drone’s dependence on smart terminals. But it was precisely because this that made its combat effectiveness significantly lower compared to the highly intelligent Hummingbird drone, and even more incomparable with the attack drone “Viper” that placed emphasis on firepower.

But even so, as a foreign military sales model, the excellent performance of the Scythe drone was enough to impress all the countries present.

As the last soldier fell, the holographic image changed again. This time the Scythe drones were showcased independently, with more than fifty “Scythes” in the air, they formed into a dense attack group of drones.

The imaginary enemy they faced this time was a whole company of semi-mechanized infantry.

The intensive firepower caused a lot of casualties to the drones. From time to time, destroyed drones crashed down, but the loss of drones failed to prevent the drone attack group from advancing.

With the storm-like bullets, the dense drones swarmed through the battlefield, just like locusts that raged through farms. They shredded everything in their path into pieces. Especially when the drones were directly above the infantry, all bunkers lost their purpose as the bullets hailing down from above were inevitable.

With gleam in their eyes, the officers from Hua and Russia in the audience almost made the same decision simultaneously. They spoke a few words to their assistant and demanded they purchase Scythe drones at all cost.

The changing digital blocks in the air dissipated and left the guests still reminiscing on what they just witnessed.

As Jiang Chen looked at their guests with different thoughts and emotions, he smiled and said.

“When the soldiers themselves are of the same combat effectiveness, the soldier equipped with the drone and kinetic skeleton will have a combat effectiveness comparable to that of a nine-man combat squad in city encounters.” He paused for a moment before he continued. “Of course, our scope for drones is not just a supplement to firepower, but also a soldier’s second eye. As you saw earlier, even if the drone formed an independent attack group, the actual combat shown by Scythe drones is still astounding.”

“As the focus of Future Military’s foreign military sales, we welcome any interested country or private armed forces to come and place orders.”

“In addition to the previously shown Scythe drone, a total of 21 weapons designed by Future Military will be exhibited in this defense exhibition. I believe they will not disappoint you either…”

The opening remarks finally ended.

Not many people paid attention to what Jiang Chen said after.

Because all of their attention had been completely immersed in the Scythe drone.

Especially the Russians. They knew from experience how reliable Future Group’s drones were.

A long time ago, Future Heavy Industries had sold drone logistics systems to the Russian military. Those drones that ignored terrain greatly improved the logistics supply capabilities of frontline combat troops. With the assistance of AI, those little guys could accurately deliver ammunition to the soldiers in need.

Now, these little guys had changed – they had self-aiming rifles attached. They could not only detect and report, but they could also lock and shoot, which was everything a light infantry could ask for! They could not find any reason not to buy.

Everyone was thinking about how to get ahead of others and win the contract with Future Military

Not just Scythe drone.

A total of 21 pieces of equipment from Future Military were exhibited on the first day of the defense exhibition. Without exception, all of them became the darling of all countries. Including the “arms sale version” S1 exoskeleton that appeared on the holographic image, and the “downgrade version” of the Reaper assault rifle in the hands of the soldier.

At the end of the defense exhibition’s first day, Future Military had signed military sales contracts worth more than 20 billion Xin New Dollars with more than forty countries. Compared with Future Military’s high-tech weapons, all the other military industry enterprises had almost become a foil.

The first day of the defense exhibition focused on smaller light weapons, which was Future Military’s home field advantage. For most military industry giants, the sale of a complete set of air defense systems, ballistic missiles, and fighter jets was the bulk of the money, and that was where they fought.

However, the 20-billion-dollar worth of contracts still made them envious and jealous.

No one imagined that these little guys could make so much money.

As competitors, it did not feel great to just witness Future Military take away such a large piece of pie…

Chapter 1368: Pay For Our Backwardness

After the first day of the exhibition, two European-looking men, surrounded by a group of black suits, walked towards the presidential suite on the top floor of the Heart of the Sea.

“The one thing I’m the most satisfied with at the Heart of the Sea is the presidential suite of the five-star hotel on the top floor.” The slightly older Italian, in a blue suit, chatted with the slightly younger European beside him as they walked forward, “I bet it has the most wonderful viewing location in Coro City. You have the entire view of Coro City and can overlook the entire Heart of the Sea. If it were not for the fact that Future Tourism has no intention of selling it, I really want to purchase it and add it to my collection list. In my view, it is not a building, but a work of art.”

The Italian was Matteo Montorio, and he was the president of Leonardo in Italy. Although Italy had been traditionally known as the “bad teammate” in alliances, Leonardo was an exception to the rule.

The total output value of Leonardo accounted for 70% of the total output value of the Italian defense industry. It directly or indirectly controlled 121 companies while it also owned non-controlling stakes in 128 companies. Not only was it a world leader in aerospace, defense, and security and one of the top ten companies in the world, it also ranked second in Europe, behind the British BAE Systems known to be the “ruler of the land, air, and ocean”. Even outside the military industry, it was still considered a behemoth.

As for the young European, his name was Nicola. Compared to Matteo, he was a nobody. However, he represented the Italian military, so he could walk side-by-side with Matteo here.

Nicola forced a smile as he listened to Matteo’s view on the Heart of the Sea. While he was also an Italian, he obviously did not possess the slightest artistic touch, so he could not get into the conversation with Matteo, who had been nurtured by upper-class teachings. Also, his mind was completely out of this.

He had started to wonder from the moment Matteo’s assistant placed the 5 billion Xin New Dollars worth of order into the briefcase.

“Scythe drone…Why would he sell these drones to us so generously? We are NATO’s long-term partners. I don’t believe Jiang Chen did not see this point. He has Ghost Agents in his hand.” Nicola seized the opportunity to ask the question that had been bothering him after Matteo finished his comments on the Heart of the Sea.

Matteo was not surprised by Nicola’s question. The old gentleman from Italy just smiled and answered his confusion politely.

“This is easy to understand because they sold us the downgraded version. Even if these weapons are taken by NATO and used on them in turn, they would not feel too much pressure. This is their confidence.”

“Then why—”

“Then why do we have to pay for their weapons,” Matteo turned his head to look at Nicola, then smiled. “This is what you want to ask, right?”

Nicola swallowed down and nodded with difficulty.

On behalf of the Italian army, he purchased 2,000 Scythe-type drones, 2,000 “military sale version” S1 kinetic skeletons, and matching S1 assault rifles matching from Future Military. As for the reason, it was very simple. The holographic image was truly astounding, and he couldn’t find a reason not to pay.

But now Matteo told him that he bought some defective products that were downgraded, which made this fact somewhat difficult to accept. After all, he signed on those orders, and he would have to be responsible for them if anything happened.

“If you can’t find a reason, I can find a reason for you.” Matteo smiled. Although Future Military completely took the spotlight on the first day, he was not bothered in the slightest, he calmly said, “In order to learn about their advantages, we must take their weapons home to study. Remember, I’m not paying for their arms, but for our backwardness.”

Matteo’s statement made Nicola feel slightly better, but he still felt somewhat uncomfortable when he heard the harsh word “backwardness”.

“Actually, you don’t have to be too depressed,” Matteo patted Nicola on the shoulder. As if he had read Nicola’s thoughts, he laughed, “The drone is not part of our home court, the fighter jets and engines are our advantages. Take a good look, we will not officially start our performance until the third day.”

Nicola processed this information.

Suddenly, a rumor surfaced in his mind.

Shocked by the thought, Nicola looked at Matteo with disbelief in his eyes.

“Do you mean…Is it!”

“Looking at your expression, you probably guessed it, but my answer is yes.”

After Matteo concluded on this sentence, he walked towards the end of the corridor with a smile on his face.

…

On the other side, Chemezov, who had left the exhibition, got into the car waiting for him.

Although the organizer arranged a room for him, he did not choose to stay at the Heart of the Sea. Instead, he booked a room at a five-star hotel not far away. Another Slavic man followed him into the car and sat next to him.

“What did you think of today’s exhibition?”

When Chemezov heard the question, he grinned and asked rhetorically.

“He is the son-in-law of your old boss; can’t you see it more clearly than me?”

“Don’t give me this nonsense, I want to know your opinion,” Zanaev said with a serious expression.

The corner of Chemezov’s mouth curled up slightly, then he said without hesitation.

“This defense exhibition has become a show just for Future Military, and it is likely to be the same in the next few days.”

“As expected?” Zanaev raised his eyebrows.

“Of course.” With one leg over his other knee, Chemezov took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and gestured to the driver in the front row to indicate that he could drive.

“What do you think their purpose is?” Zanaev asked.

“I noticed that the list of exhibitors includes Netherlands’s Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo. The strength of these two military enterprises can basically represent the top products of European military enterprises, especially in the aerospace field.” Chemezov tapped his cigarette into the ashtray, then continued, “They are probably intending to use this opportunity to pressure NATO countries. We are just watching the show, and there is no need for us to be the center of attention.”

“Just watch the show? We all expect you to sell a few more S400s,” Zanaev said. “This year’s economic situation is not optimistic. We need foreign exchange, and we need it desperately.”

“Don’t worry,” Chemezov grinned, and a glimpse of shrewdness appeared in his eyes before it quickly faded away. “There is a high probability that Future Military will not target air defense missiles. Their starting point is too high, and they likely haven’t figured out how to downgrade their technology.”

Chemezov paused for a second and then said.

“And the most important thing is that I have a hunch that Leonardo will compete with Future Military in their home court, in aerospace.”

“Do you think they might win?” Zanaev questioned.

“I don’t know, but I know that no matter who wins, our air defense missiles will sell very well.”

Chapter 1369: The Era of Sixth-Generation Fighters

While the exhibition continued, many media broadcasted the defense exhibition live, but because the defense exhibition did not gain a following outside of the military circle, it did not create a widespread sensation compared with Future Group’s product releases.

However, on the evening of the same day, Future Group uploaded a video of the exhibition and thus gave the news a headline through Future 1.0. In addition, a link to a video was attached. This move immediately attracted the attention of the world.

The clueless netizens once again experienced the superior technical capability of Future Military.

“My God, is this still war?”

“I originally planned to join the army, but now I have changed my mind and I am considering immigration.”

“I quite agree with the views put forward by President Jiang! Future wars will be the collision of steel, and the participation of humans will only decrease!”

“Drone attack group! I have to say the technology of Future Group has truly amazed me. This is what I imagine future war to look like. Using steel instead of flesh and blood to resolve all disputes… Although this is probably just a wishful dream.”

“Drone plus kinetic skeleton is equal to an infantry squad? An attack group composed of a hundred drones can easily crush a company-level combat force? This is certainly impossible. My cousin is a senior military fan, let me analyze how Future Military is overplaying the drone’s strength…”

…

The video published on the official website of Future Group created a lot of heated discussions from around the world, but it didn’t interfere with the ongoing defense exhibition.

On the second day of the exhibition, Future Military reached a military sales agreement with Hua and Russia for 200 “Crocodile” amphibious assault vehicles at a unit price of 7 million Xin New Dollars. The South Colombia and Syrian government forces purchased four hundred and one thousand “Dart-1” tactical missiles respectively.

Future Military positioned Dart-1 as a short-range fast attack missile, similar to the Tomahawk missile, but with a range of only 1,000 kilometers. The advantage of Dart-1 was its small size, flexibility in deployment, and shocking power. It could also be deployed by the Scythe drone instead of infantry and achieve an accuracy as high as 0.1 meters while being difficult to detect.

Of course, there was one crucial point.

It was cheap.

The price of 400,000 Xin New Dollar was less than half of the Tomahawk missile. Even for the poor third world countries, they could still afford them. Compared to other fabled weapons, the cost-effective small missile was the better alternative.

Time soon reached the third day.

The third day of the defense exhibition was not held at the Heart of the Sea but at a temporary airport two kilometers away.

In order to ensure the normal progress of the defense exhibition, Celestial Trade sent a battalion of Marines to isolate the entire temporary airport. Representatives of different countries and high-level officials from major arms companies arrived one after another to kick off the third day of the exhibition.

It was a special session of the Air Force.

Matteo walked in front of the closed hangar, looked up at the large Leonardo group logo printed on the door, and laughed out loud.

“My dear Mr. Nicola, come and see our masterpiece.”

He gestured to the assistants next to him.

Two people quickly stepped forward and opened the door of the hangar.

The moment the hangar opened, a silver-white fighter with its wings and body built as one appeared in front of everyone.

Nicola’s eyes widened in disbelief. He finally understood where Mr. Matteo gained his confidence.

He once saw a picture of a fighter plane in a top-secret file, if he recalled correctly, its name should be “Uragano”.

Unlike the “Hawker Hurricane” that the British created in World War II, Uragano was given more meaning in Italian, and the ” Uragano” fighter designed by Leonardo was also given more historical significance.

After the Second Moro-Country F War ended, the result of the dog fight between F35 and Aurora-20 over City M stunned everyone. The unscientific loss exchange ratio made the UA doubt itself for the first time. Then, led by the UA, NATO countries introduced new research and development plans to find a fighter that can regain air supremacy from the Aurora-20.

Leonardo was one of the European military industry groups entrusted with this important task.

After repeatedly studying the F35 and Aurora-20 cases in the Second Moro-Country F War, they finally made a rather bold decision, that was, to devote all the research and development funds to the sixth-generation fighter and completely abandon the fifth-generation fighter market.

Only the sixth-generation fighter could counter the Aurora-20!

As a manned fighter jet, the qualities displayed by the Aurora-20 were the pinnacles of the fifth-generation fighter. Even if it was difficult to accept this reality, Matteo and the other senior officials of Leonardo clearly understood this.

The sixth-generation fighter usually referred to a hypersonic fighter controlled by artificial intelligence.

Compared to the fifth-generation fighter, the sixth-generation fighter possessed the flexibility of the sixth-generation aero engine and the design of full-wing fusion, so that the maneuverability and stealth of the aircraft at different altitudes and flight styles had been drastically balanced. In particular, the unmanned design enabled the sixth-generation fighter to complete maneuvers that would otherwise be impossible for manned fighters. This was due to the fact that there was a limit to the maximum acceleration a pilot could withstand, but this limit would not exist for the sixth-generation aircraft.

Fortunately, they managed to lead the world in the sixth-generation fighter market.

Any fighter would be eclipsed by the “Uragano” with a cruising speed of up to Mach 5. It was where Matteo’s confidence stemmed from.

“…but why are we showcasing it?” Nicola swallowed down the dry lump in his throat as he was somewhat bewildered, “Are you going to sell this to another country?”

“Of course not.” Matteo raised his eyebrows confidently and looked provocatively at Future Military’s hangar on the other side of the runway, where the gates were closed shut. “But if we don’t warn someone about their inappropriate arrogance, there is a good chance he will do something stupid.”

“But…”

When Nicola still wanted to say something but seemed hesitant, Matteo patted him on the shoulder and laughed loudly, “Don’t worry, I won’t be able to bring this fighter over to the exhibition without NATO’s permission. In addition, this is a deterrent to Celestial Trade, but it is also an advertisement for our Panavia Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon. As a businessman, in addition to fulfilling political obligations, making money is my utmost intention. I believe that after they see the excellent performance of our sixth-generation fighter, our Indian brothers over there and the rich lords of the Middle East would definitely pay for our fighters.”

Nicola always felt that the chairman of Leonardo was a bit too confident, but when he recalled the description of this sixth-generation machine in that document, he also no longer felt tense.

Matteo patted Nicola on the shoulder. The wrinkles in the corner of his eyes seemed to bloom as he looked at the “Uragano” in the hangar; his grin was full of joy.

“You can look forward to the many orders our ‘Uragano’ will bring us.”

Chapter 1370: Uragano!

Next to the airport runway, a Slavic man and a black man stood together.

In any other place in the world, it was definitely a weird combination, but here it was completely normal. At least half of the buyers attending the Xin International Defense Exhibition were dictators from third world countries, and most of these dictators’ skin color was black.

These people hold most of the banknotes or IOUs in their hands, and they were never stingy with weapons. Since the exhibition began, they had searched for powerful sellers and paid for more convenient killing tools.

In the eyes of arms dealers, they were always the best customers.

“I don’t want Mi-25. Since there the Mi-29 is more advanced, why don’t I choose Mi-29? Honestly, I prefer Su-35 or T-50. If you don’t want to sell to us, I might consider those?” The man pointed to the Hua sellers, who stood not far away, that were looking in their direction. He looked at Chemezov and continued, “They are willing to sell their Xiaolong to us and I’m very pleased with this name. And each one only sells for 20 million dollars, and the person also told me that if we are willing to introduce their high-speed rail, he can take the initiative to let their bank give us a loan.”

Chemezov cursed in his heart. These people worked well together.

It’s fine if you just sold fighters, but now you bring the people that build rails and the people who own banks into the conversation? How do I play this game? However, it is the way to do business. Even as Earth Defense Alliance allies, each country must depend on their own ability to win the hundreds of millions of dollars order.

Chemezov calmed his emotions, coughed slightly, then he patiently persuaded the dictator from Africa to change his mind.

“Your opponents are rebels and terrorists armed with AK. They are not from the UA nor from Russia. What is the point of buying the Su-35? Put it in the hangar as a mascot? You want to buy T-50s? Even if I sell it to you, who can pilot it in your country? Our MiG-25 is cheaper than their Xiaolong, and the ground-attack ability is not inferior by any means! If you are willing to buy ten MiG-25s, I can make the decision and sell you some T-64 tanks.”

It was the most Chemezov could promise. If he recalled correctly, there were dozens of T-64s waiting to be delisted in the warehouse of the 58th Army. Although he preferred to sell air defense missiles, these poor African countries were obviously unable to pay for his air defense missiles…

Maybe it was because Chemezov’s words made sense. The man touched his chin for a while, then reluctantly nodded.

Just as Chemezov negotiated with the African about the price of Mi-25s, which were collecting dust in the hangers, should be sold at, there was a sudden commotion nearby. Chemezov stopped talking with the warlord and looked over to the crowd on the other end of the runway.

When the plane appeared on the runway, Chemezov’s pupils suddenly constricted.

As the chairman of Almaz-Antey, he was aware of some intelligence floating around. For example, the silver-white fighter with one wing wing-fusion fighter that he had read in a report compiled by the KGB.

If he remembered correctly.

Its name should be Uragano…

“Its name is Uragano!” Matteo stood on the other side of the airport runway, pointed his finger at the fighter that was slowly rolling to a stop in the middle of the runway. It was like he was commenting on a perfect piece of art. He explained to several customers gathered next to him, “It’s just like its name, and it’s as fast as a hurricane! It is the crystallization of the technology of Leonardo. A total of 200 companies have participated in its research. You may have noticed that there is no pilot inside. Yes, it is a sixth-generation fighter; the sixth-generation fighter controlled entirely by artificial intelligence!”

Air-to-ground integration, eight short and medium-range air-to-air missiles could be mounted on the bottom of the cabin to intercept enemy flying units, or mount various ground-attack missiles to perform ground support tasks. The cabin had a built-in integrated server, which could automatically identify enemy targets and perform precision strikes, and could also perform tasks under satellite navigation. In the case of missile lock, it could even automatically analyze various factors such as altitude, air velocity, and the distance between enemies. In addition, it could automatically complete evasion maneuvers or release thermal decoys.

Matteo didn’t guess wrong. When the Uragano slowly pulled out of the hangar, it immediately attracted the attention of everyone. Especially when people learned that Leonardo was the first to make a breakthrough on the sixth-generation fighter, almost everyone turned their eyes to the “Uragano.”

“A sixth-generation fighter?!”

“Unbelievable, I didn’t expect it to be made by Leonardo Group!”

“It… it doesn’t make sense? Future Group’s subsidiary Future Technology is a leader in artificial intelligence. Future Military has inherent advantages in drone technology and artificial intelligence . This is no reason Leonardo should take the lead.”

“Maybe they are too confident. After all, the combat performance of the Aurora-20 is the pinnacle of fifth-generation fighter. If I am the president of Future Group, I probably won’t invest too much capital in sixth-generation fighter with an uncertain future. From their point of view, it is normal to develop small drones to improve the combat capabilities of Celestial Trade’s ground forces… What a pity.”

“Go speak to the representative of Leonardo and ask them if Uragano is for sale. If it’s for sale, as long as the price is not too outrageous, order me ten. If it is not for sale, see if their other fighters are for sale…”

People were chatting and whispering.

The appearance of the Uragano instantly became the center of attention. All the fifth-generation and fourth-generation fighters were eclipsed by its appearance. The insurmountable gap between the generations brought air combat ahead to a new era, an era without blood, but with gunpowder.

“That… is the sixth-generation fighter?” When the warlord heard the conversation not far away, he opened, then closed his mouth, turned around to look at Chemezov, and asked in an uncertain tone, “It’s fine without a pilot?”

“It should be… yes.” Chemezov nodded reluctantly and admitted.

“What generation is the MiG-25?” the warlord asked next.

“Third-generation…”

The warlord suddenly showed a very angry expression, “Mr. Chemezov, I treat you as a friend, but you cheat me with this defective product! I said I only want the best product! Now I want to buy the Uragano. Although I don’t understand it, I can still tell that you are selling me rubbish.”

“Then you go buy it!” Chemezov was so angry that his nose flared. He pointed to the Uragano and could not resist his urge to curse, “If you can buy that thing, I will gift you 20 MiG-25s for free. AND I’ll write my name backward from now on!”

Bathed in the attention of the crowd, the corner of Matteo’s mouth raised slightly. He looked at Future Military’s firmly shut hangar, and a hint of mockery and provocation emerged in his eyes.

He did not think that Future Military could introduce anything more cutting-edge. Even the Aurora-20 standing on the pinnacle of the fifth-generation aircraft would be eclipsed by the “Uragano”…

Chapter 1371: We Don't Export Sixth-Generation Fighter

When the Uragano debuted, many people quickly recovered from the shock and turned their attention to Future Military’s hangar.

In everyone’s subconscious mind, the only other company that could compete with Leonardo’s sixth-generation fighter was Future Group, renowned for its artificial intelligence technology.

As early as five years ago, the artificial intelligence “Little White” of Future Group represented the world’s top artificial intelligence technology. After five years, Future 1.0 had been updated hundreds of times, and its artificial intelligence technology also improved countless times, but even today, no company could catch up to Future Technology from five years ago.

Today, five years later, the three-level division of artificial intelligence proposed by Jiang Chen, the president of Future Group, became the mainstream standard for artificial intelligence grading. At present, most scientific research institutions in the world had set basic artificial intelligence as the first technical problem to be overcome. The price of “Little White’s” source code on the dark web had been propped up to 500 million U.S. dollars, but even with the high reward, no hacker had been able to crack the defense of Future Technology.

In everyone’s much-anticipated sight, a Luer car arrived late, and Jiang Chen, who got off the car, finally appeared in front of everyone. When he saw the way people looked at him, he was confused for a moment, then a Future Military staff jogged to him and whispered a few words.

When he saw the silver-white fighter parked on the runway, realization appeared in his eyes. Then he walked to the potential customers waiting in front of Future Military’s hangar.

“Sorry, I’m a little bit late.”

He smiled at everyone, cleared his throat, and then spoke.

“First of all, what I want to say is that Future Military will not be exhibiting the sixth-generation fighter. If you want to buy a sixth-generation fighter, I recommend going there to inquire, although I don’t guarantee they will give a reasonable offer.”

Jiang Chen noticed that when he said this, the customers gathered around him suddenly lost most of their interest in the plane parked in the hangar, and their attitude even changed.

It was not surprising. The fifth-generation fighter would never beat the sixth-generation fighter, just like the human brain could never beat the computer. After all, in most people’s cognition, it was the absolute truth.

However, Jiang Chen’s next sentence made everyone think for a second.

“But our pilots can enable any fifth-generation fighter to have combat effectiveness comparable to that of the sixth-generation fighter.”

“Pilots?” A European customer processed the information, frowned, and asked incomprehensibly, “If I remember correctly…Today should be an air show. What does it have to do with pilots? Does Future Military plan to open pilot training classes?”

The hangar slowly opened, and a robot walked out of Future Military’s hangar.

The steady steps and motion of the shoulders were no different than the posture of ordinary people. If it weren’t for the sci-fi design, it would be difficult to associate it with a robot.

When Chemezov, who was standing on the other side of the runway, saw this robot, his first reaction was that it is a house robot of Future Heavy Industries. His second reaction startled himself, and he muttered in his mind, “Fu*k, this can’t be—”

“‘Matador’,” Jiang Chen ignored the discussion behind him, then pointed to the robot coming out of the hangar and turned to the customers who gathered nearby, “The first-generation electronic pilot developed by Future Military. It can replace conventional pilots to pilot fighters, completing maneuvers that the pilots themselves cannot perform, accurately identifying enemy units, and conducting strikes… In short, a fifth-generation fighter plus a Matador is equivalent to a downgraded-version of a sixth-generation fighter.”

WAIT! An electronic pilot?!

All the customers or potential customers in the audience were in a daze when they saw the 1.8 meters tall robot. Also, they had not recovered from Jiang Chen’s previous words. Especially the phrase “a fifth-generation fighter plus a ‘Matador’ is equivalent to a downgraded-version of a sixth-generation fighter”. All the words turned them dizzy.

The common sense they gained over their lives told them that this sentence was complete nonsense, but when this sentence came out of the President of Future Group, even if they were reluctant to believe it, they still subconsciously gave it a second thought.

“However, after all, it is a downgraded-version of the sixth-generation fighter,” Matteo walked in front of Jiang Chen, and smiled, “Am I right? In front of the real sixth-generation fighter, it is still vulnerable and weak.”

When his “high-quality customers” began to surround the hangar of Future Military, Matteo noticed what had happened. This situation made him feel inexplicably annoyed, as if a well-prepared performance was ignored by the audience. Stupid audiences were more willing to pay attention to a popular singer, but ignore the efforts made by a veteran superstar…

He admitted that he was a bit emotional, but he didn’t regret walking here.

If he had to steal these high-quality customers from Future Military, then he had to make them realize how foolish it was to expect Future Military to beat Leonardo on a fighter.

“Perhaps in front of a real sixth-generation fighter,” Jiang Chen just grinned. Just when Matteo’s smile seemed to declare his victory, Jiang Chen suddenly changed the topic and said with a mocking tone, “But it is more than enough to beat a semi-finished product.”

Matteo’s smile of victory froze and the corner of his mouth twitched. However, the smile on his face remained unchanged.

“Semi-finished product? I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

“Do I have to be so explicit?” Jiang Chen shrugged, raised his chin and pointed to the Uranago, then smiled, “Don’t tell me you plan to call that thing a sixth-generation fighter.”

Matteo’s smile gradually disappeared.

The audience seemed engaged in this drama.

This kind of multi-billion-dollar deal was full of drama to begin with. With one side being Future Military and the other side being Leonardo, it was destined to be a good show full of chaos, especially with the two presidents going head-to-head.

“Dare to have a friendly match with us?” Matteo pointed to the Matador robot, then smiled, “If you firmly believe that this thing is of little use.”

“Why not?” Jiang Chen responded with the same smile, “Aurora may be used to deal with a normal sixth-generation fighter, but since it is a semi-finished product, it’s naturally unnecessary.”

Matteo’s expression turned cold.

“Oh? Which one are you going to pilot?”

Jiang Chen walked to the side of the airport runway, casually glanced at the plane that had left the hangar, then quickly made his choice. He walked to Chemezov.

Chemezov was slightly confused when he saw Jiang Chen moving towards him.

“Is there a problem?”

Jiang Chen pointed to the MiG-25 parked beside the runway, then said nonchalantly.

“How much does this thing cost? Give me one.”

Chapter 1372: We Export the Best Pilots!

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

Chemezov’s jaw dropped when he learned about the bet between Jiang Chen and Matteo.

Wait a second. Why are you not using your Aurora-20 to compete with his sixth-generation fighter? Why are you using the almost scrapped MiG-25 instead? Are you trying to lose on purpose?

Because he was so shocked, Chemezov even forgot to markup the price and directly quoted the cost. Since Jiang Chen did not want to bargain, he simply accepted the offer. In the end, this MiG-25 was sold to Future Military at cost as a test product in the competition against Leonardo.

The competition quickly began.

The two fighters were ready for take-off on the runway.

The MiG-25 was a third-generation fighter, so Future Military took off first. Five minutes after the MiG-25 ascended, the Uragano also took off to start the game of cat and mouse…

Inside the MiG-25 cockpit, the “Matador” skillfully operated the different instruments and devices, then checked whether all systems were functional.

1

When Chemezov saw this scene, his pupils constricted.

Until the Matador sat in the cockpit, he still had doubts about whether this robot could really pilot the MiG-25, but now all his doubts disappeared, and he started to look forward to this competition. Could the “Electronic Pilot” really do something amazing with the MiG-25 that was about to into the museum and become history?

Matteo was about to explode in anger when he saw the same scene.

He felt like that his IQ was being insulted.

After he “politely greeted” all the women in Jiang Chen’s family in his mind, he gestured to his assistant with a churlish expression.

“I want you to end the battle within five minutes! Shoot that stupid robot, along with their arrogance, down!”

As an old antique about to enter the cemetery of planes, the only real advantage of the MiG-25 was its speed.

There was a saying a long time ago.

One day Khrushchev inspected the Mikoyan Design Bureau and saw the MiG-25. He asked a designer and asked, “This aircraft uses so much steel and is so heavy. How can it avoid missiles? ”

The designer immediately opened the cockpit cover and responded politely, “Dear Comrade Khrushchev, you don’t have to worry about that. This reflects the ingenuity of our design! You see, we have designed a throttle here.”

In the fall of 1971 before the Yom Kippur War, four Soviet MiG-25s were stationed in Egypt for reconnaissance. After Israel’s most advanced F-4 fighter jet spotted a MiG-25 in the air, it launched an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. Then soon, the Israeli pilot saw a picture that he would never forget. The MiG-25 opened the afterburner, pushed down the throttle, sprayed a string of flames, and slipped away…

Yes, just slipped away.

With absolute speed, all maneuvering, radar, and flare were futile.

At that time, NATO’s air-to-air missiles were not faster than the MiG-25…

Using steel instead of titanium alloy to solve the heat problem of the fuselage, and then using a larger engine to propel this giant steel lump into the air. Russian’s unique aesthetics pushed the maximum speed of the MiG-25 to a daunting Mach 3.2 during Khrushchev’s time.

It was no exaggeration to say that without the wings, the fighter would just be a large missile!

By the way, as the fifth-generation fighter, the highest speed of the standard version F22 was only Mach 2.25…

The Uragano counted down the time and after five minutes had passed since the MiG-25 lifted off, the engine of the Uragano ignited, and the fighter accelerated at an incredible speed, pulled its nose up, and pierced into the sky. The spectators on both sides of the runway all agreed that just from the fluid takeoff, the Uragano was certainly worthy of the title of the sixth-generation fighter.

Perhaps it was Future Military’s arrogance, or perhaps it was its confidence, the decision to use MiG-25 to compete against the crystallization of the most cutting-edge technology of the Leonardo Group seemed to be foolish. If they decided to use the Aurora-20, perhaps they would still have a slim chance of winning, but with MiG-25…

It was really a game of cat and mouse.

Unlike the spectators on both sides of the runway, the “Matador” in the cockpit did not have the slightest of emotion in the wide-angle lenses, but only streams of data. The moment Uragano took off, the large section of the fighter performance had already been analyzed.

“Searching…”

“Comparing against enemy strength…”

“After calculating, the odds of winning are only 0.1%…”

“The best combat plan has been confirmed, executing.”

The MiG-25 did not use the fact that it took off first to seize the advantageous attack angle, but it just flew further away

Both sides had built-in cameras in the cockpit, and Celestial Trade’s Skyeye X1 was closely monitoring the situation. The pictures of the two fighters were transmitted to the surface in real-time. The staff of Future Military had already prepared a few holographic computers to broadcast the competition to the audience in real-time.

Matteo sneered in his mind when he saw what the MiG-25 did.

“Seeking death!”

Less than half a minute after the Uragano took off, it was easily right on MiG-25’s tail.

Two air-to-air missiles were locked onto the fighter, in the three seconds that the missiles were approaching the fighter, the Matador calmly released flares. A series of sparks appeared in the air, and quickly the two missiles chased after two flares and completely ignored the escaping MiG-25.

“Your electronic pilot is only good at running away?” Matteo mocked as he looked at Jiang Chen.

“Just keep watching.” Jiang Chen smiled and did not take his mockery to heart.

Jiang Chen’s reaction made Matteo feel that he punched a ball of wool. However, when he was about to throw in a few more taunts, he felt something was off when he realized that the distance between the two fighters were closing.

However, the ominous feeling just appeared for a brief moment because common sense told him that the situation was impossible.

The Uragano was still trailing the MiG-25’s tail, and from time to time it would fire its autocannon. However, all the missiles were perfectly distracted by the flares, and none of the autocannon shots hit.

The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer.

Just as the speed of the MiG-25 reached Mach 3.2, the Matador suddenly pulled up.

At this moment, it completely turned into a real matador as it revealed its silver clock to the Uragano closely behind it. The nose of the MiG-25 suddenly pulled up and created an incredible trajectory in the air. The tail and nose of the aircraft switched positions in an instant, and the speed suddenly dropped from Mach 3.2 to below Mach 1.

1

“Cobra maneuver!” Chemezov almost shouted out. His eyes widened as he continued, “That’s impossible!”

It was indeed impossible.

The aerodynamic layout of the MiG-25 meant that it was impossible to perform the Cobra maneuver. Forcibly pulling the nose up at a high speed would only result in a fatal crash, and the pilot would be the first one to go! However, because it was the MiG-25, the steel-made fuselage design prevented the belly and wings of the MiG-25 from being torn apart. The entire fighter was like a dry leaf pushed away by the wind, spinning in the air.

The winner was decided in an instant.

The Urangano accelerated to its speed limit and pierced the body of the MiG-25 that suddenly decelerated.

It was just a pity that it did not use its autocannons or missiles.

But the pilot probe in the front…

Regardless, it was impossible to find the pilot probe that made the kill.

In a car accident… or rather, in a fighter accident, it did not matter whether it was a sixth-generation fighter or a third-generation fighter, the final outcome was the same. The match ended in a tie. However, the Matador piloted a third-generation fighter, and Leonardo’s Uragano was a sixth-generation fighter. The sixth-generation fighter and the third-generation machine drew a tie, so everyone who understood the outcome realized that the Uragano had lost.

2

“No one can beat the Future Group in artificial intelligence technology… I finally understand why Future Military did not bet on the sixth-generation fighter.” Next to the airport runway, the man with a Chinese face gently sighed.

Indeed, the reasons did not need to be said.

If the pinnacle of the fifth-generation fighter, Aurora-20, could turn into the pinnacle of the sixth-generation fighter in the hands of Future Military at any time. It would be unnecessary to spend money and energy to research the sixth-generation fighter.

In the thick black smoke, fragments rained down as two sparks could be seen from afar. It wasn’t just the wreckage of the MiG-25 and the Uragano that fell, but also the last remaining pride in Matteo’s heart.

Matteo stared at the sky in a daze until Nicola, who was next to him, poked his arm. He finally regained his thoughts, moved his stiff neck, and looked at Jiang Chen next to him.

Although he considered the one in ten-thousandths chance of the sixth-generation fighter losing to the third-generation fighter, he did not consider that it would end like this. The slow-motion playback at the last moment told him that the Uranago still made evasive actions when it was about to hit the MiG-25.

However, even AI could not execute the maneuver at that speed, only God could do it…

Especially when the opponent had already calculated the move ahead.

From the very beginning, the MiG-25 controlled by the Matador planned the crash.

“Actually, you don’t have to be so depressed,” Jiang Chen coughed, patted Matteo on the shoulder, and said with a smile, “At least we are tied, and I didn’t make a… ahem, make a bet with you.”

Jiang Chen was about to burst out laughing. After he said this, he quickly stepped aside.

When Matteo saw Jiang Chen’s shaking shoulders, he felt something sweet from his throat and almost coughed out blood.

On the other side of the runway, Chemezov looked at the sky and stood as still as a sculpture. He was completely lost for words. It was the warlord that helped him regain his senses.

The warlord looked at him sincerely, dragged on his arm, and said genuinely.

“Mr. Chemezov, my friend, sorry that I blamed you… What you plan to sell me is definitely not a piece of junk… Well, just give me ten of the MiG-25 that shot down the sixth-generation fighter. Wait, no, TWENTY!”

Chapter 1373: The Colonization Frenzy In the Apocalypse

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

The Holy Shield system was about to be repaired. As the Parliament announced the specific time of the Holy Shield activation, the streets and alleys of Sixth Street were decorated by festive lights and filled with a celebratory atmosphere.

For the survivors in Wanghai, the Holy Shield was not only a shield to isolate them from the apocalypse, but also a banner. Especially for those who had lived here and had witnessed that prosperous and great age, the status of the Holy Shield in their hearts was particularly sacred.

Repair the Holy Shield.

Meant the possibility of restoring order.

Coinciding with the completion of the fourth Garden of Eden, NAC lowered the prices of agricultural products for the second time in a year. The purchasing power of credit points continued to increase, and the prices of commodities had decreased. The smiles on the survivors who lived in the Sixth Street also grew brighter.

From the perspective of enriching the spiritual and cultural beliefs of the people, the Parliament, with surplus funding, decided to take advantage of this opportunity to announce that the day the Holy Shield activated would be Holy Shield Day and it would stipulate that every year at this time, the Parliament would fund a large-scale celebration.

For the icing on the cake, the North American colony just sent dozens of tons of newly produced white crab roe sauce to the Sixth Street, as well as a poster of the colony.

Based on the description of sailors returning from North America, a few boxes of canned meat that were no longer attractive in the Sixth Street could be exchanged for a blonde girl, and a pack of cigarettes could buy a young girl’s first night…

1

Although it was somewhat exaggerated, primitive desires could stimulate people’s drive and motivation. On the day when the white crab roe sauce was sold in the Sixth Street, there was a long queue at the entrance of the colonial registration point.

Any citizen of any level with citizenship issued by the NAC military government could register as a glorious colonizer at the registration point. The military government promised to arrange work for the colonists, reimburse the boat fare, and subsidize 50-100 credits per month based on the colonists’ citizenship level for five years.

At the Port of Wanghai, the elevator was hoisting containers onto the cargo ship.

The sailors on deck were smoking listlessly because they were about to set sail and were destined to miss a grand celebration.

“Don’t you want to wait until the celebration is over? I heard they said that the ‘Arrogant Girls’ will perform on stage. If I remember correctly, the lead singer is your goddess.”

“No.” Han Yue dragged his suitcases, shook his head, and looked to the port with a hint of longing in his eyes, “Once I accomplish something, I will come back for her.”

Song Zhongwei did not try to persuade further. He let out a sigh, then patted his good buddy twice on the shoulder with force, and said with encouragement, “It is good to have a dream. This world has changed, you should have a dream too.”

Fate was always a curious topic. They didn’t know each other before the apocalypse. Song Zhongwei was an indie singer who enjoyed music, and Han Yue was a bank security guard. The lives of the two people were parallel to each other. If it weren’t for the fact that they lied next to each other’s hibernation chamber, they wouldn’t have known each other’s name.

After they woke up from the fallout shelter and were told by a NAC soldier in a kinetic skeleton that it was the twentieth year of the apocalypse, it took them a full year to adapt to the new order and try to accept the devastated city in front of them.

At that time, the two became friends.

“What’s your dream?”

“Lie down in the hibernation chamber again,” Song Zhongwei rolled his eyes, “Wake up two hundred years later and become an old-school singer.”

“It has to be retro, right, haha.”

The two laughed and punched each other in the chest, and the two looked at each other and smiled.

Song Zhongwei grinned and said seriously to Hang Yue.

“Be careful. I’ve heard people say that it is far more complicated there. In addition to crystals and blondes, there are mutated humans and cannibal tribes.”

“Risks and opportunities coexist. I’ll live.” Han Yue tried to make himself sound more lighthearted, then he stopped for a moment, looked at the cargo ship blowing its sirens, and suddenly smiled, “This is enough.”

“Guy,” Song Zhongwei jokingly kicked him on the butt, and his tone was a little sorrowful, “It’s going to sail, go. Don’t forget, you still owe me a meal.”

“Haha, there are a lot of things I owe you!”

Han Yue patted his butt and walked towards the cargo ship with his suitcases.

…

The siren rang three times to say goodbye to the people on the shore.

The NAC cargo ship sailed away from the Port of Wanghai. Escorted by two warships, the ship would head north along the edge of Eurasia, cross the cold current at Bering Strait, bypass the golden waterway outside Alaska, travel south along the shores of the North American continent, and finally arrive at the port established by NAC in California…

After half a month of sailing, Han Yue, on the deck, finally saw the long-lost coastline.

The fabled North America.

He had been here before the war as a tourist.

However, at this moment, when he gazed at Los Angeles in the distance, there was no trace of what it used to be. Most of the Hollywood Hills were shaved off, and the villas that once stood there were non-existent, leaving only bare dirt hills.

Just as Han Yue tried to recall the city’s original skyline, he heard a coarse and loud voice behind him. As the other colonists on the deck turned their heads together to the entrance of the cabin, they saw the shaggy captain who they had only seen once when they boarded the ship.

“Here we are, California is in front of us. It used to be called Los Angeles I think, now it doesn’t matter what you call it.”

“This place is different from the Sixth Street. After you leave the NAC colony, it is barbarian land. There is no order here, even in a settlement of survivors. I hope your muzzles will point to the same direction after you get off. This is probably just like Wanghai from a few years ago; survivors are more dangerous than Death Claws. Rather than being caught by mutated humans, it is better to give yourself a bullet to the head. However, I think my nonsense is pointless to most of you.”

On the deck, the captain snorted, took out a low-quality cigar from his pocket, blew out a cloudy smoke ring, and looked at the faintly visible port, “I admit that this place is full of opportunities. Canned meat can be exchanged for what you want, but I advise you to always think twice. Before you enjoy life, you must first do everything possible to save your life.”

The siren blew three times, and the ship moved to the port.

The cargo ship got closer and closer to the port.

At this moment, the captain smoking a cigar suddenly noticed there was something wrong with the port.

The port was so quiet!

If it was the usual, every time he pulled goods from the Sixth Street, it would make the colony cheer. Especially the pine nuts alcohol, some drunkards could even sleep at the port for the entire night with just a quilt, just so they could exchange the booze with crystals or other shiny things with the sailors.

Anything with alcohol sold well in the colony.

But now, even the port workers disappeared.

“Wait,” the unshaven captain frowned slightly, took out the binoculars from his pocket, and pointed to the harbor. His brows were tightly locked together, and the corners of his chapped mouth were slightly open, he whispered, “Something is wrong…”

Han Yue didn’t notice anything unusual. On top of the deck, he felt the coldness of the wind slip into his collar.

After he shuddered, he wrapped the collar of his jacket tighter, put his hands into the pockets of his windbreaker, touched a pendant, and a hint of warmth rose in his heart.

He bought the pendant from a small vendor selling souvenirs at a concert before the war. He never expected the world would change, the rules would change, everything would change. However, he was the one who had not changed. Compared to Song Zhongwei, who had lost everything, he felt that he was lucky after all.

“Arrogant Girls” was still holding a concert, although the drummer had changed and so did the stage…

He quietly watched the silent harbor, but suddenly, he remembered that they should have brought more winter clothes for this trip.

It was the colony.

There was no Holy Shield to protect him from the wind and rain…

Chapter 1374: Cheers To Our Victory!

“We don’t export fighters, but we export the best pilots!”

A short ad slogan made Future Military the star among the audience. Especially among customers from third world countries, the enthusiasm for the “Matador” was particularly high. Even though the price of the first generation electronic pilot “Matador” was an astounding 15 million Xin New dollars, which exceeded the price of the MiG-25 itself, it did not dampen their enthusiasm.

“Give us fifty! If you are willing to sell us 20 electronic pilots every year for the next ten years and promise to give priority to upgrading and maintaining our Matadors after the AI update, I can give you some information as well, the central government will issue a policy by the end of this year at the latest, and the threshold for the maglev road will be open early next year from our country’s first-tier cities to inland second-tier cities!”

“Can the price be cheaper? Our country is not developed. If you are willing to give me a 10% discount, we can discuss the possibility of subways or copper mines!”

“A wonderful showdown! We are very interested in your matador! If you plan to sell, we are willing to purchase 30 matadors in one lump sum payment! If you are willing to authorize the relevant technology, please be sure to consider us!”

The price of 15 million Xin New dollars was not an expensive figure for most people, or rather, it could be considered cheap

Why?

Some simple math could explain the reasoning!

According to international standards, the cost of flying a third-generation fighter for one hour was about 50,000 US dollars and training a pilot required at least 180 hours of training per year. However, the world generally agreed that an experienced third-generation fighter pilot needed a thousand hours of flying experience, therefore, it was simple to do the math. Training an experienced pilot would cost at least 50 million US dollars, and an ace pilot with a flight time of more than 3,000 hours would require at least 200 million!

Whether it was familiarity with the radar, grasp of the timing of maneuvers, judgment of the situation, or the timing of the flare… Even an ace pilot-controlled MiG-25 would not be able to execute all these steps to perfection. The matador had already demonstrated its inhuman combat qualities, which turned air combat into a game with predictable outcomes.

A pilot superior to an ace pilot for “only” a cost of 15 million Xin New dollars! Especially this deal also included future upgrades, maintenance as well as other services! Without the need to think, after everyone witnessed such an amazing competition, the matador naturally became top of the list.

Whether it was a third world country or a first world country, everyone opened their wallet to fight for the limited number of matadors from the Future Military. At first, Jiang Chen didn’t expect the sales to be so explosive. Not only were the 20 units quickly sold out, but orders were even scheduled until the end of next year.

This demand even caught him by surprise.

Originally, he thought that it would take some time for these people to accept the concept of electronic pilots. However, he did not expect that a MiG-25 and a quasi-sixth-generation Urangno would actually help him with free promotion.

When Jiang Chen looked to Matteo, who blankly stared into the ocean, he finally resisted the urge to laugh.

Regardless, this man did do him a huge favor and it would be rude to make fun of him.

…

Matteo’s expression was a bit sluggish when he gazed into the ocean, his Adam’s apple moved up and down from time to time, and internal, he wanted to cry.

Not far away, two engineering ships were moored, and the hooks on the mechanical cantilevers were searching for the wreckages under the guidance of divers. Celestial Trade generously stated that it would help Leonardo salvage the wreckage of the sixth-generation fighter for free.

As for the MiG-25, because of its limited value, Future Military decided against retrieving its wreckage.

MiG-25’s cockpit was the first to be retrieved.

The MiG, which was hit in the belly by the “Uragano’s” pilot probe, split in two from the middle. However, it was more complete than the “Uragano” body that smashed into steel.

Future Military’s Matador, whose head was smashed into pieces, were pulled out from the cockpit. It was placed at the most conspicuous position for exhibition and similar to displaying a hero, it once again won the applause and praise of the people.

The applause sounded so harsh in Matteo’s ears.

He never thought that it would end in this way.

The Uragano did not win him a single order but instead caused his other fighters to not sell as well.

With absolute advantage, their Uragano managed a tie with the MiG-25. There was almost no doubt that starting from tomorrow, their hard work would definitely become the laughing stock.

He was most worried about whether or not NATO would reconsider the research and development plan with Leonardo. After all, it appeared that the defeated Uragano was a complete failure.

It was difficult to say whether NATO would pay for these failed machines.

If the answer was no, Leonardo’s investment would be completely written off. If the answer was yes, it would continue to invest in the Uragano to improve this fighter with an already failed label – the risk to the company would be immense.

In any case, the result of this competition had forced him and his company into a dilemma.

He could only hope NATO would make it less difficult for him…

…

“Cheers to our victory!”

“Cheers!”

The crisp clings of glasses were joined together, and the noisy laughter and chatter seemed out of place compared with the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Jiang Chen booked a Michelin three-star restaurant in the Heart of the Sea. He had invited all Future Military senior executives and scientists.

The table was full of delicious food, a bottle of vintage red wine was served to everyone, and it was a feast. In particular, because the president was also here, everyone was drinking and spared no effort in an attempt to make an impression in front of Jiang Chen.

The third day of the defense exhibition had just come to an end. Future Military had received more than 50 billion Xin New dollars in orders. Especially today, the total value of orders for more than 700 Matadors had exceeded 10 billion.

These orders were enough for Future Military to digest till the end of next year, and the CEO would not need to worry about quarterly or annual reports for at least two years.

The theme of tomorrow’s defense exhibition was air defense, and it was no longer the home court of Future Military. Future Military did not intend to sell its laser anti-missile or interference technology, so it generously gave the stage to its two allies, Russia and Hua, to show their muscles.

To be honest, in fact, from the third day on, it was no longer Future Military’s home court. Future Military had no plan to sell fighters at all. If it weren’t for Leonardo’s desperate attempt to make an impression, the situation would not have turned out like this…

Chapter 1375: The Man Who Conquered Ocean!

Jiang Chen had said long ago that Future Group stood on the shoulders of giants.

Lilith, as the most powerful artificial intelligence, helped a lot in designing the AI for electronic pilots. It was fair to say that 60% of the credit belonged to her, and the remaining 40% was the work of all the scientists at Future Military’s Artificial Intelligence Technology Laboratory.

The future of the military industry was AI, and so was the focus of Future Military.

Not only electronic pilots, but also projects like more flexible battlefield robots were on the list of Future Military’s development. In Future Military’s laboratory, some AI soldiers could already skillfully use weapons, vehicles, and different terrains to fight, but the expensive cost and poor price-performance ratio made it impossible to move them from the lab enviornment to the frontline battlefield.

But Jiang Chen was very certain about one point.

In the not-too-distant future, the war of flesh and blood would eventually be replaced by the bursts of electric sparks.

…

The fourth day of the defense exhibition was still held at the temporary airport.

From S400 to HQ-15 air defense missiles, thick and long air defense missiles were lined up on both sides of the runway. Compradors from different countries commented on the missile launch vehicles and exchanged questions about weapon performance and price with military sales personnel.

As expected by Jiang Chen, the defense exhibition had developed into a wrestling match between military industrial enterprises from Russia and military industrial enterprises from Hua, and the battlefield of competition even extended from arms itself to supporting facilities.

Since the celebration banquet was held in advance, from today on, Future Military decided to minimize its presence. Therefore, Future Group President Jiang Chen was not at the scene, instead, Future Military CEO Ling Tao replaced him.

Originally Jiang Chen planned to take the time to head to Coconut Island and dump the accumulated materials to the apocalypse, but he did not expect a rare visitor to come to the door.

“Why, based on your unexpected expression, you don’t seem to welcome this old man?” Outside the door, Ye Qinghua looked at Jiang Chen with a smile.

Not much had changed since the last time they met more than a year ago. The old man still looked healthy without the slightest sign of aging.

“Not at all!” Jiang Chen laughed, and gestured to his room, “Please come in.”

What surprised Jiang Chen was that Ye Qinghua, who had not contacted him for a long time, actually came to visit him in person this time.

When Ayesha saw a guest, she prepared a cup of tea for the two, and then turned around and went to the second floor.

By coincidence, Natasha, who had just finished washing up, walked downstairs while yawning. She was slightly taken aback when she saw Elder Ye, and then said hello respectfully. When she passed by Jiang Chen, she leaned over and kissed Jiang Chen on the cheek like a wife who was about to go to work. At the same time, she quickly said in a voice that only Jiang Chen could hear, “Why is he here?”

After Natasha got up, Jiang Chen responded with a helpless look that only she could see -“I don’t know.”

Today was a workday and Natasha had to be at the embassy. As for Xia Shiyu, who was never late, she had already gone to the office early in the morning. After the door closed, only Jiang Chen and Elder Ye were in the living room.

Elder Ye blew on the tea leaves floating on the hot tea, smiled, and said.

“Mr. Jiang’s mansion is quite lively.”

“Haha, not at all,” Jiang Chen said with a humble smile.

“I heard that today is the highlight of the exhibition, did you not go and take a look?”

“Our air defense system is not for sale and I don’t have much interest in the air defense system of other companies. Therefore, I just let Ling Tao go for me.” Jiang Chen smiled back.

“I think it’s not that you don’t want to sell it, it’s just that you can’t find a place to downgrade it,” Ye Qinghua scolded while laughing.

“You are right to understand it that way,” Jiang Chen touched his nose, and continued to spill out nonsense, “but I prefer to call it, for the time being, there is no military air defense system suitable for overseas markets.”

What Elder Ye said was indeed one reason, the laser anti-missile system itself was very cutting-edge technology, and Future Military had not mastered the technology for too long, therefore, there was no place to downgrade the technology. If they decided to sell the laser anti-missile system intact, it would weaken the strategic deterrence of Celestial Trade.

“Sure enough! Let’s talk about your… it’s fine if you downgrade the technology of drone or kinetic skeleton, I can’t say much. But you downgraded the rifle too. This is not good business practice is it?” Ye Qinghua lectured Jiang Chen with deep remorse in his tone. The way he sounded made it feel like he was the one who lost out on the deal, even though he was just a retired diplomat.

On the first day of the defense exhibition, Hua purchased a large quantity of S1 kinetic skeletons from Future Military, as well as Scythe drones and the supporting S1 rifles. If it weren’t for the fact that the S1 rifle could be connected to the kinetic skeleton by wire, the auxiliary aiming function of the digital helmet could assist aiming, and the performance was good, no one would buy a downgraded rifle.

“We just distinguish the military sales version from the internal version,” Jiang Chen tried to defend himself, “Just like your Type-95 and Type-97. Isn’t one for internal use and one for external use?”

“I dare to swear on my conscience and say that the difference between the Type-95 and the Type-97 is only the caliber of ammunition, and there is not much difference in performance. Do you dare to swear on your conscience and say that the performance of the S1 and the Ripper is the same?” Ye Qinghua stared at Jiang Chen.

“You didn’t just come here to complain about this, right?” Jiang Chen said helplessly.

“Don’t mind you, I’m just talking nonsense,” Elder Ye smiled and waved his hand, “By the way, let’s talk about business, are you interested in a deal?”

“What deal? You’re not here to sell missiles right?” Jiang Chen picked up the teacup and joked.

“Let me ask first, did you salvage the wreckage of the Urangano?”

He sipped his tea quietly, and after he put the cup down, he gave him a side-eye.

“What do you want to do?”

For some reason, the amiable smile resembled more and more like the squinting eye of an old cunning fox.

“If you ‘can’t find it’, you might as well sell it to us. Anyway, you don’t need those things, right?” After Ye Qinghua’s nonsense, the old fox finally revealed the true purpose of his visit.

Countries were now researching the sixth-generation fighter, and Hua was certainly no exception. It was hard to say how close they were to the true sixth-generation fighter, but if they could get a frame of reference, it would undoubtedly boost the development.

“Just this,” Jiang Chen sighed and waved his hand. “Just for the wrecked plane, you came here, the Russians also came, and even the Germans came… How about this, I’ll have someone scan the drawing of the Uragano and send the drawing to your embassy? I won’t charge you. You can buy another 10,000 kinetic skeletons, and I will give the drawing as a gift for free, what do you think?”

“You can…can scan out the drawings?” Ye Qinghua said blankly.

“Why not?” Jiang Chen smiled and put one leg on his other knee, then leaned back on the sofa, “I can even 3D print a new one if I want.”

Ye Qinghua was silent.

After a long silence, he suddenly asked.

“I don’t understand. While it won’t be too easy, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to develop a sixth-generation fighter, but why are you not interested in it at all?”

“For someone who has already conquered the ocean, you can ask him why he doesn’t research the canoe.” Jiang Chen replied with a smile, “Then I will ask you in turn, why must I research the sixth-generation fighter?”

Chapter 1376: Daytime Is Fine Too

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

For someone who has already conquered the ocean, you can ask him why he doesn’t research the canoe…

This sentence blew up in Elder Ye’s mind.

After he had thought about it carefully, it seemed to be the case.

Celestial Trade Marine Corps had already set their foot on Mars, and the Envoy-class starship built by Future Group was already infinitely close to the Kuiper Belt. At this point, it was not necessary for Future Group to waste money to develop fighters used in the atmosphere.

Sixth-generation fighter?

Which generation would the Stingray X be considered?

The two parties agreed that Hua would purchase another 10,000 set of S1 kinetic skeletons, Scythe drones, and supporting S1 rifles, and Future Military would include the drawings of Uragano free of charge, and at the same time, transfer a 3D-printed Uragano for a price of 500 million Xin New dollars.

With the verbal contract promised by Jiang Chen, Ye Qinghua finished the cup of tea and said goodbye politely.

When Jiang Chen sent Elder Ye to the entrance, he was about to say goodbye, but the old man turned around with a smile and said.

“By the way, you really are not going to consider Yunfei? I think you two will be a good match. What’s more, we are all from the same place, and the Ye family is a prominent family in the South. It will be a win-win situation.”

Jiang Chen had to think for a while before he recalled Elder Ye’s precious granddaughter Ye Yunfei.

Jiang Chen, with black dots over his head, responded politely.

“You see, my house is already so lively, why do you want your granddaughter to be here?”

“You haven’t married yet.” Jiang Chen half-pushed Elder Ye out of the door, and the old man kept joking while he turned his head, “I don’t think you’re the type to care, are you really not going to think about it again?”

It was because Elder Ye and Jiang Chen’s father were close, hence why he could joke with Jiang Chen. But Ye Qinghua certainly considered this as a real possibility. If his precious granddaughter could really marry Jiang Chen, it would be a good tale for the Republic as well as the Ye family.

But as Jiang Chen said, his house was already lively enough.

If it were five years ago, maybe he would really consider it. After all, just Ye Yunfei’s beauty, talent or temperament would make countless people worship her. From the new rich to the noble son of a prominent family, it was rare to find someone who could resist her charm.

As for now…

Now that his status changed, his view also changed, and his mentality naturally changed as well.

After he sent Elder Ye away, he called Ling Tao, the CEO of Future Military, who was at the exhibition site.

“After we salvage the Uragano, send a few technicians to scan the drawings, and then return the wreckage to Leonardo.”

“The design drawings of the Uragano have been scanned and archived.” Ling Tao walked to the side with the phone, as he spoke, a triumphant grin also appeared, “Leonardo won’t know what we did. They just thanked us for not dissembling their prototype.”

“Good job,” Jiang Chen laughed, then continued, “After the defense exhibition is over, print a few copies of the drawings for me, and then get the factory to print five prototypes based on the drawings.”

“I’ll do it now.” Ling Tao nodded.

After he ended the conversation, Jiang Chen went to the gym on the second floor to see Ayesha, who was working out. He explained that he would have to leave for a period of time, as well as made arrangements.

Because Jiang Chen had already told her back in August that he would return to the apocalypse after the defense exhibition, while Ayesha said she would miss him, she didn’t say much more.

“On Xia Shiyu’s side, I already told her last night. As for Natasha…just tell her that I’m going to the Moon colony on a business trip for a while.”

Ayesha gently printed a kiss on his lips, then she longingly rubbed his cheek. Because she was working out, there were droplets of sweats on her pristine neck and forehead. Strands of her curly brown hair were wet and decorated her beautiful face. She looked particularly attractive at this moment.

“This is unfair to me.”

“Unfair?”

“Why don’t you leave tomorrow? I want you to tell me at night.”

A layer of fine mist covered her sapphire-like eyes that radiated an adorning look. The emotion was instantly captured by Jiang Chen.

“It’s okay, daytime is fine too.”

As Jiang Chen grabbed those delicate hands, this time, Jiang Chen kissed her.

In the sweaty gym, the heavy panting that seemed to resemble a long marathon reverberated in the room. Palm leaves outside the window gently swayed in the sea breeze and covered the scandalous moments behind the window. Everything that happened at this moment could not be told…

After everything happened, most of the morning had passed.

He took Ayesha to take a shower, wasted some more time at home, and when he saw that the sun outside had already climbed above the tree branches, he decided to change his plan and leave after lunch.

Ayesha, who deliberately walked into the kitchen without closing the door, directly put the towel wrapped around her aside and tied on her apron.

The white apron covered her delicate body. Although all the places that should be covered were covered, the not covered parts were even more attractive. If it was not for the fact that he had things to finish in the afternoon, Jiang Chen would definitely have eaten her for lunch too.

After Jiang Chen hurriedly finished the sumptuous lunch, he helped Ayesha put the plates back into the dishwasher, left a kiss on her lips at the entrance, then left the mansion.

Since Natasha moved into the mansion, Coconut Island became Jiang Chen’s buffer zone for interdimensional travel.

It could eliminate the need to answer questions, and it was also a station for him to transport rare goods to the apocalypse.

Although the apocalypse could produce most foods on its own, due to many factors such as the environment and production conditions, most of the crops produced from the Garden of Edens were crops with predictable and stable output, such as rice, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage.

Foods such as grains, other vegetables, and fruits were still produced by the submarine farms under the “Xin Ocean Agriculture” controlled by Future Group. However, most of these “high-end goods” were the “employee benefits” of the NAC military government, and generally were not sold unless there was an abundance of supplies.

Metal resources such as steel, aluminum, finished molybdenum, rare earth minerals, and other metal resources produced by Future Mining were also transported. These metal mines almost supported the entire industry in the Sixth Street. If they depended on scavengers picking garbage alone, the factory would be able to produce a few power armors at most.

After he landed on Coconut Island by helicopter, he turned off the drone security system as usual, and at the same time transferred the staff stationed on the island on the grounds of a military exercise.

When he was the only one left on the island, he walked to the port of Coconut Island.

As he stood in front of the mountain of containers, he took a deep breath, took out a few crystals and pinched them in his hands. Then, he rolled up the sleeves of his arms.

If he was lucky, he could finish everything in the afternoon.

It’s time to work!

He muttered silently in his mind, then pressed his hand against the first container…

Chapter 1377: Containers Stacked like a Mountain

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

A large warehouse that covered an area of tens of acres, topped by an opaque graphene roof, was located between Town of Shenxiang and Fishbone Base. It was the suburb of Wanghai, but also the center of the NAC military government. The first Garden of Eden built by NAC was on the edge of Dianshan Lake, northwest of Wanghai. In the direction of Jiaxing, there were a large number of military factories and military bases built by NAC.

Under normal circumstances, this huge warehouse was always full of T-3 and T-4 power armors just manufactured by the military factories at the Sixth Street, as well as K2 kinetic skeletons mounted with optical engines, or used spacecraft fixed by Jiang Lin and other technologists.

This warehouse was heavily guarded by the First Division, and a radius of one kilometer was designated as the controlled zone. Any survivors who attempted to approach would be persuaded or ordered to leave.

For those who decided not to leave…

Probably no one would treat their own life with such carelessness.

On certain days, the army stationed near the warehouse would inexplicably receive a transfer order and then withdraw from the military restricted area completely. Once another group of soldiers and the trucks from logistics department arrived, the high-tech equipment in the warehouse were often replaced with containers filled with different necessities and goods.

Then the workers would load the containers onto heavy trucks with cranes and celebrate the day as if it was a holiday. Then they would ship the goods to the logistics centers near the Garden of Eden and separate everything into categories.

As for how often this special day happened…

It depended on the mood of the NAC General.

When Jiang Chen was free to transport materials between the two worlds.

…

Today was that special day, and the logistic trucks were lined up outside the warehouse.

Trucks were like commodities on the assembly line as they entered the warehouse from the east, waited for the cranes to load the goods, and then left the warehouse in a straight line from the west. Under the command of the logistics officials, they transported to their respective locations in an orderly fashion.

“Fifty containers stuffed with canned meat, my goodness…Where do you think these good things come from?” A logistic official who helped load the trucks exclaimed as he counted the giant mountain-like pile of containers against the checklist in his hands.

As a civil servant in the logistics department of the NAC military government, he recalled that when he came here a few days ago, it was a warehouse full of power armors and K2 kinetic skeletons. It didn’t take long before they became tons of food, supplies, and metal ingots.

An older worker who just loaded a counted container onto the truck wiped the sweat from his forehead. He watched the truck that left for the exit in the operating room, then tossed the heavily stained towel onto the station while he jokingly cussed.

“Don’t ask so much! Just focus on your work! If the count is wrong, you’ll have a lot more to worry about!”

“Whatever! How can I count wrong?”

The inside of the warehouse was bustling and so was the outside.

Next to the stream of vehicles moving forward, Jiang Chen handed a list to Wang Qing and at the same time reminded.

“The list is here, remember to double-check. It will be a busy few days.”

“Not at all.” Wang Qing smiled humbly. She nodded and said, “This is my job after all.”

A container could hold 800-952 boxes of goods. Jiang Chen sent 50 containers of canned meat this time. Based on 30 canned meat products per box, the number of canned meats alone was 1.35 million.

Jiang Chen nodded in satisfaction as he looked at Wang Qing.

Jiang Chen still remembered that when Wang Qing was first appointed as the head of logistics, she was just a timid and shy girl with freckles on the tip of her nose and a pair of glasses fixed on her face. The reason why she was appointed as the head of the logistics was that on the one hand, she was an accountant before the war, and on the other hand, she just needed to manage the small warehouse that was only a few dozen square meters in the backyard of the mansion. It was better to find a timid and fearful person than to find a fierce one.

With the expansion of Fishbone Base and the NAC territory, the burden on her had gradually increased. From the initial warehouse clerk to the head of logistics, and now, together with Lu Huasheng, who started in construction, became one of the most senior officials in the civil service system of the NAC military government. Her transformation up till now had been quite astounding.

“I have to thank General for giving me this opportunity.” Wang Qing smiled and her eyes gleamed with gratitude.

“Don’t flatter me, I didn’t teach you anything, but I often ask for your help.” Jiang Chen laughed, “By the way, are there any guys you like? Cheng Weiguo’s children can almost go and buy soy sauce themselves now and even Lu Huasheng got married quietly. In the first thirty people, you are the only one that’s still single, which is somewhat odd. So, if there’s someone you like, I can call the shots for you.”

“General, are you serious?” Wang Qing blinked and said.

“Of course.” Jiang Chen raised his chin and said with a joking smile, “As long as you don’t encourage me to destroy other people’s families, I can’t do that kind of thing.”

“Haha,” she had an urge to say something for a moment, but in the end, Wang Qing just pursed the corner of her mouth, swallowed that sentence, smiled, and shook her head, “I have dedicated my life to NAC. I haven’t found anyone I like for the time being.”

1

“You must remember to tell me if you find someone you like! Don’t tell me after you get married.” Jiang Chen jokingly scolded.

Wang Qing smiled.

“Okay!”

Not surprisingly, the entire warehouse had been working tirelessly from noon until dark. Wang Qing moved another group of staff from the logistics department, and everyone worked around the clock to load the trucks. After Jiang Chen saw that there was no place he could help, he returned to the mansion.

When Yao Yao saw her beloved big brother come back, she happily jumped into Jiang Chen’s arms and rubbed her face against his chest. Then she ran into the kitchen to prepare dinner for him.

Sun Jiao dragged him to the sofa in the living room and sat down. After a while, Xiaorou, who noticed the noise downstairs, also came down and sat opposite Jiang Chen. She playfully grabbed his arm.

“You finally came back,” Sun Jiao pouted, but when she looked him in the eyes, a lot of her complaints disappeared right away.

When the atmosphere gradually became sensual, Xiaorou, the third wheel, coughed at an untimely moment. With her index finger pressed to her lower lip, she grinned naughtily.

“Yes, you finally came back. When brother-in-law was away, my sister was quite lonely. Every time she took a shower, she would—”

“You,” Sun Jiao’s cheeks immediately turned red, and she glared at her sister fiercely, she wanted to cover her mouth, “What nonsense are you speaking!”

“AHHH, don’t come here, I just want to say, you take a long bath every day, hahaha, it’s itchy,” Xiaorou hid half of her body behind Jiang Chen and giggled while she tried to avoid the claws of her sister. Then, she looked to Jiang Chen pitifully and sought help, “Brother-in-law, my sister wants to bully me, help me bully her, okay?”

“Okay, okay, stop fooling around.”

It took a lot of effort to separate the embarrassed Sun Jiao from the pretending-to-be-pitiful Xiaorou. After the two sisters settled down, Jiang Chen paused for a moment, then looked at the closed door on the other side of the living room, and asked in confusion, “By the way, where is Lin Lin? Did she fall asleep so early today?”

“Lin Lin has been in the lab for the past while,” When Jiang Chen brought up Lin Lin, Sun Jiao looked worried, “You should go see her later, she misses you too.”

“Mhmm.” After stroking Sun Jiao’s hair, Jiang Chen nodded seriously, “I’ll go now.”

Chapter 1378: Lin Lin's Mind

“Sister Lin Lin is sleeping, can you not wake her up?”

At the gate of Lin’s Research Institute, a girl stood in front of Jiang Chen.

Her long black hair fell to her waist, her tall delicate nose and vivid eyes were almost carved in the same mold as Lin Lin. If she dyed her long black hair into silvery-white, even Jiang Chen couldn’t tell whether she was Lin Lin’s cloned sister or Lin Lin herself.

“Are you?” Jiang Chen looked at the girl standing in front of him and asked in a slight daze.

“I’m Lin Yi,” Lin Yi tilted her head, looked at Jiang Chen, and said, “I saw you in the fallout shelter at the bottom of the lake. You helped me put clothes on.”

Lin Yi?

Number 0001?

“In the future, remember not to talk about this kind of thing,” Jiang Chen touched his nose awkwardly, coughed, and said, “By the way, what is Lin Lin up to now?”

“I don’t know,” Lin Yi shook his head, “I just often hear from my sister that she has almost succeeded.”

“…When did she start to say it?”

Lin Yi tilted her head and said, “The month before last month.”

Almost succeeded!?

That’s still a long way to go, okay?!

While Jiang Chen thought this in his mind, he also felt guilty.

He knew what Lin Lin was researching, and he knew why she was working so hard.

There were more and more things he had to deal with in that world and it was difficult to spend a long time here with them. Perhaps it was because of her envy towards Lilith or the yearning for that beautiful world, Lin Lin had been doing all she could to research interdimensional travel.

He gently pushed open the door to the lab and saw Lin Lin who had fallen asleep on the chair.

He stood at the door and stopped for a moment. Instead of waking her up, he took out a coat from his storage dimension, stepped forward, and gently covered her body.

Maybe she felt the warmth around her, her delicate hand gently clenched onto the corner of the coat, and her petite body shrank unconsciously into the warm coat.

Her delicate nose moved a little, and a sweet smile gradually appeared. She was just like a squirrel that had dreamt of her favorite nuts and was celebrating the newfound happiness.

Because he was worried about waking her up, Jiang Chen didn’t do anything more. He just smiled at her, and when he left the lab, he gently closed the door.

The silence returned to the room.

After a while, the little girl on the table slowly opened her misty eyes. The corners of her curved mouth pouted, and the little hand that held the coat moved closer to her neck. She used the coat to hide the red hue on her cheeks.

“Idiot, you woke me up…”

She complained in a quiet voice, but even if she were pouting, the arc of joy couldn’t be hidden.

Digitalized humans are not afraid of the cold.

She remembered very clearly that she had told Jiang Chen many times.

However, Jiang Chen never seemed to remember this.

But for some reason, this kind of forgetfulness made her feel a real hint of warmth.

…

The celebration would be held on October 1st.

It was now the end of September, and there were only three days left before the restart of the Holy Shield.

As the celebration approached, Wanghai became wrapped in a festive atmosphere.

The survivors used colorful spray paint to spray graffiti and slogans of different colors on the ruined wall outside the Sixth Street. They expressed their joy with art and cheered for the coming new era. Major companies, headed by the Zhao Group, had also launched promotional activities in their shops, department stores, and entertainment venues. It seemed that all commodities have become cheaper overnight, especially the favorites of the people – bullet grain beer and diluted alcohol.

Thanks to this, the streets and alleys of the Sixth Street were filled with drunks every night. They brandished wine bottles and sought after troubles, which created countless headaches for the security officers at the Sixth Street. The detention center was overcrowded every day and only eased in recent days.

After all, no one would want to miss this grand celebration.

It would be so miserable to watch the rebroadcast behind bars…

In the community center of Fishbone Base, the logistics staff were making the final changes to the plans for the celebration. Although the celebration was proposed by the Sixth Street Council, the logistics department was responsible for the preparation and stage construction.

With the consideration that most of Wanghai, Yizhou Island, Hongcheng, Shangjing and even survivors from the south outside the NAC region would come to participate in this celebration. The logistics department discussed with Chu Nan and decided to make the Sixth Street celebration into a celebration for the entire NAC. They moved the stage from the Sixth Street to the ruins in the center of Wanghai.

After more than a year of cleaning up, the radioactive sources accumulated in the center of Wanghai had been recycled and landfilled by NAC, and the gamma value in the area had returned to below the acceptable level. The venue was not only sufficient to host the celebration but could further highlight the “wasteland characteristics” of the festival.

It just so happened that the huge crater left by the God’s Cane in the city center was large enough, and only a little modification was needed on the huge crater to dig out intersecting caves and stepped corridors. The place could be modified into a venue for celebrations and could host up to 100,000 people at the same time.

With Lu Huasheng, the Minister of Interior’s approval, the project was quickly approved.

It took about two months for the NAC construction team to transform this “natural” crater into a graben-type circular gymnasium. Although there weren’t too many decorations and the chairs on the aisles were scrapped together with different junks and goods, they were quite in line with the aesthetics of the people of the wasteland—

Simple and practical.

“There are 37 singing performances in the celebration, including nine pre-war Pan-Asia Cooperation bands, 24 independent singers, and four virtual singers with the highest votes. In addition to singing performances, there are twenty other performances,” Wang Qing reported the schedule of the celebration to Jiang Chen in the Fishbone Base community center.

The performances were all jointly checked and arranged by the Sixth Street Council, the Office of Spiritual Culture Construction, and the NAC Logistics Department. Since it was reviewed, Jiang Chen did not comment further on the details.

He just had questions over the number of performances.

“There are so many performances?” Jiang Chen felt somewhat surprised and asked, “Is there any problem with time?”

“Of course not. It’s from 8 PM to 2 AM.” Wang Qing smiled and reported, “We will activate the Holy Shield at 12 AM, and the gravitons over Wanghai will show a directional distribution. Under the rendering of radioactive dust, a vortex-shaped light curtain will appear over Wanghai.”

“That must be spectacular,” Jiang Chen said emotionally.

“Of course,” Wang Qing nodded, “That is one of the highlights of the whole celebration.”

“One of the highlights? Are there any other repertoires?” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Of course,” Wang Qing looked at Jiang Chen with joy, “For example, I believe General’s opening speech at the celebration will be more exciting than the restart of the Holy Shield.”

Chapter 1379: The Holy Shield Restart!

“Long live the NAC! Long live the General!”

“HOHOHO!”

“Holy Shield! Holy Shield!”

“…!”

October 1st, eight o’clock in the evening.

Without the interference of a single cloud, the pristine Moon gleamed down onto the streets.

The suddenly lit lights illuminated the center of the stage into daytime and simultaneously, it ignited the enthusiasm of the audience. Cheers and shouts filled the entire circular venue and amplified the hyped atmosphere.

If one could ignore the ruins and wreckages behind them, it was difficult to relate the inside of the stadium with the apocalyptic world after the nuclear war.

The survivors released all the excitement in their hearts with pure roars and loudly declared their final victory to the end of the apocalypse.

Barbarism and civilization coexist, chaos and order coexist. It was the culture unique to the survivors.

“…I have nothing more to say, please enjoy this great moment, this is a victory for all citizens of NAC!”

At the highest point of the stadium, Jiang Chen announced the beginning of the celebration.

The moment after he finished the sentence, gorgeous and vivid fireworks decorated the night sky above Wanghai. The fireworks illuminated the entire stadium and surrounding ruins together. Amid thunderous applause and cheers, Jiang Chen looked around the entire venue, bathed in the zeal and admiration of everyone, waved his hand, and a touch of pride was seen in the upward bent corner of his mouth.

After he had delivered the opening speech of the celebration, he turned and returned to the VIP room covered by ink-colored glass at the highest point of the gymnasium. Sun Jiao, Yao Yao, and the others were all here. Today, almost all the survivors of Fishbone Base were here. Only a few on duty and a large group of drones stayed behind.

“I like this place very much,” Jiang Chen walked next to Sun Jiao, focused his attention on the stage in the center, and said. “Our Army once thwarted the conspiracy of Harmony here. Two thousand NAC fighters now sleep peacefully here. The God’s Cane had blasted a huge pit here as a scar left by the war. Whether it’s a memorial or something else, it’s an impeccable place. If we have the opportunity to further refurbish this place, this can be a new landmark in Wanghai, maybe let’s call it…City Center Stadium.”

“…I wonder if anyone said this to you before?”

“What?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Your taste in naming things is really bad,” Sun Jiao rolled her eyes and joked.

Jiang Chen’s face turned red and he coughed to hide his embarrassment.

“This is not the point, the point is the connotation, right, Yao Yao?”

Yao Yao, who was watching the performance on stage, turned around and cutely spat out her tongue. Then, she subtly looked away. Lin Lin’s shoulders vibrated as she tried her best to hide her laughter. Finally, she turned around and made a funny face at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen looked to Xiaorou with the intention to seek comfort, only to see that she was looking at him with a caring smile.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen felt that he had received 10,000 critical hits, and he protested in his mind.

WHAT?!

REALLY?!

Is my naming skill that bad?

Amongst the wild rock music, the celebration was pushed to a climax.

The band that performed on stage was called “Arrogant Girls”, and it was said to be a top band from before the war. Most of the singers who appeared on stage afterward were stars from the pre-war world. In addition to singing performances, there were also some performances with defining wasteland characteristics.

For example, a well-known lone traveler soloed a Death Claws and a certain veteran scavenger used the garbage he picked up to create a robot acrobatic troupe…

When the clock hit twelve at midnight, the atmosphere reached its peak.

The great moment had finally arrived, and the Holy Shield restarted.

The brass-colored light curtain turned into a solid-looking vortex right above the venue and began spreading layers of pale golden ripples around. The sky was framed with a faint gilt-edge that extended to the unreachable horizon, and the whole city was secluded by the rhythmic graviton flowing in the air. From today on, this city would become a paradise for survivors in Asia and the world, and the term apocalypse would no longer be associated with this city.

At this moment, there was only silence.

Everyone gazed up to pay the highest respect to the sky and the Holy Shield.

Like the other survivors, Jiang Chen also looked up at the endless vortex that shrouded down, and a bold idea suddenly came into his mind.

Should I build several urban defense systems in the other world?

With this thing, strategic weapons will be useless…

Just as the thought was forming in his mind, a knock on the door suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

After the door opened, Jiang Chen was slightly taken aback when he saw Wang Qing, he asked.

“Is there a problem?”

…

“We have lost contact with the North American colony.” Into the hallway outside of the room, Wang Qing said solemnly to Jiang Chen, “It was our eleventh attempt to get in touch with the colony, but so far we have not received any response.”

“What happened?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“It’s not clear for the time being,” Wang Qing said seriously, “At first we thought it was electromagnetic turbulence, but the electromagnetic turbulence could not last for so long. We can only make the assumption that something happened to the colony… ”

Electromagnetic turbulence was a special phenomenon in this world. Under normal circumstances, the interference of radiation to electromagnetic waves was negligible, but the premise was that this radiation would not interfere with the Earth’s magnetic field. This was an issue for central Pacific because it was the hardest-hit area for nuclear weapons and most of the nuclear explosions occurred in Low Earth orbit above the atmosphere.

As we all know, the Low Earth orbit and the synchronous orbit were covered by the wreckage of space elevators, spacecrafts, and space stations, and had almost formed a ring of space junks. These space junks created a special effect under the action of radiation. The specific manifestation was that an unstable external magnetic field was applied to the original geomagnetic field.

Affected by this external magnetic field, ultra-long-distance communication had become extremely unreliable, especially for trans-oceanic communication, where the frequency of communications was erratic, and loss of contact was a common occurrence. NAC researchers defined this phenomenon as “electromagnetic turbulence” to explain the loss of communication between the colony and the NAC headquarters.

Wang Qing’s tone was uncertain when she said this.

Although NAC established an outpost in North America only a year ago, it had never experienced such a long communication interruption. However, it did not mean such a situation was impossible. Now he could not determine whether the colony experienced issues, or electromagnetic turbulence occurred on an unprecedented scale.

“How long has the last cargo ship departed?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Twenty-three days ago.” Wang Qing gave a definite answer.

“Typically, how long will the cargo ship between the colony and the Port of Wanghai stay in North America?” Jiang Chen thought while he touched his chin.

“Under normal circumstances, about a week. However, that does not rule out any accidents, which may delay the cargo ship for a few days,” Wang Qing replied hesitantly.

“It’s October 1st. Let’s wait two more weeks.” Jiang Chen turned on the holographic screen of his watch and selected the calendar. His index finger swept along the number of days in the calendar, and finally stopped on October 14th, and he quickly made a decision, “If there is still no news from the colony after two weeks, then we will send an army there.”

Chapter 1380: Empty

A few days ago.

A group of uninvited guests visited the colony established by NAC in California.

“DAMNIT, where did they go!”

Black Skull put one foot onto the seat inside the Governor’s Mansion, and he spat out the cigarette butt in his mouth.

Three days ago, he brought his brothers to the NAC colony. However, neither the mercenaries patrolling near the colony nor the NAC officers who were in charge of cargo were seen.

The entire colony seemed to have emptied overnight and only a half-built fortress and a construction site full of reinforced concrete were left.

Out of awe of NAC, Black Skull waited with his brothers outside of the colony anxiously for three days. However, in these three days, his last little bit of awe was also consumed by the endless waiting.

He had a group of slaves in his hands, all of whom were fine goods picked from fallout shelters in the desert between California and Nevada. Of course, the term “fine goods” was only applicable in NAC’s territory. Except for NAC, who would take these picky people that didn’t do work?

Without those lavish yellow-skinned buyers, these “goods” in his hands were outright trash! And they consumed more than 600 nutrient supplies every day!

This kind of loss made him feel angry.

Well, if this group of yellow people didn’t plan to pay for their slaves, then he would personally go in and take the rewards himself.

With this thought in mind, Black Skull and his brothers rushed into the empty fortress to loot. However, the reality was even more despairing. Someone had visited before him for there was not even an empty can in the warehouse, and all the valuables were ransacked by scavengers wandering in the wasteland of California.

“FU*K, where are these yellow-skinned monkeys!” Beside the window of the office, Black Skull looked at the empty colony outside the window and cussed as he left behind the humility he had half a month ago.

“Could it be that they got into some serious trouble and all ran off?” Behind him, a predator with a shaved mohawk stepped forward and scanned the dusty governor office, then said hesitantly, “The National Guards have always regarded them as a thorn in their eyes. It is very likely that those iron boxes did this.”

“I don’t want to know what trouble they are in now; I just want to know what we should do with these slaves!” Black Skull fumed. He smashed the table with the gun stock, pulled out Zhou Guoping’s chair in rage, and sat down, “Tony Club, yes, yes! Which one of you remember how to contact them?”

Tony Club was a famous cannibal tribe in California. Except for NAC, perhaps only they understood the beauty of the blue skins. However, they never paid high for the salves destined to become food.

But now Black Skull could not care less, he just wanted to end his loss. Even if a person only sold for ten bottle caps, he was willing to accept the deal!

“Boss…” The Mohawk hesitated and said, ” Tony Club was suppressed by National Guards last month.”

“These idiots!” Black Skull cursed.

There was not a voice in the office that once belonged to the governor, and everyone could see that the anger of their boss was approaching the critical point, and no one dared to speak up.

When the boss’ anger seemed to dissipate a little, a man’s face covered with radiation spots and did not look as strong as the other predators stepped forward and suggested.

He was a strategist of the Black Skull Gang, and among all the people here, he was the only one who could offer words of advice to their boss.

“Boss, although we didn’t find anyone from NAC, they left us the entire colony…” At this point, the strategist had a sullen smile. “The fortress can serve as our new stronghold to grow our gang.”

While the idea did sound attractive, the thought of leaving the desert where he thrived on made Black Skull hesitate.

There were no plump and juicy thorn fruits and radiation-resistant cacti in the plains, which meant that they would have to use other means to obtain nutrient supply and anti-radiation pills, such as plowing mutant plants like other survivors’ settlements. When one starts farming, many troubles often ensued.

“But the desert is our familiar place, such a big fortress…”

“Boss,” the strategist persuaded diligently, “Do you want to be a bandit who has no home, or do you want to become a warlord like Paul Revere and Brian Eddie? If we can secure this fortress, you can be the most powerful boss in California!”

Paul Revere was the leader of Steel City that commanded the entire California National Guard. And Brian Eddie was the president-elected by Liberty City and the leader of the California Militia “Minuteman.” They were the two most powerful men in California. Even the survivors on the far east coast were in awe of these two.

Black Skull touched his chin and nodded slightly. He thought that what his subordinate said seemed to make sense.

Although if he had to decide between a leader or a bandit, he would definitely choose the latter. However, he had grown tired of his life in the sand trapped in the cold wind and the unsettled life.

Although NAC had left nothing behind, and the canned food and instant noodles in the warehouse were also raided, they left a lot of useful things, such as machine tools for making bullets, construction machineries for various purposes, and a lot of construction materials. …

He had people with guns and slaves who do hard work, so he had a chance to defend this unowned land.

“Call the brothers in the California desert and ask them to stop their work and bring all their belongings to the West Coast.”

“I’m going now!” The Mohawk nodded and ran to the door quickly.

Black Skull put his legs onto the table and put the rifle aside. Just as he was thinking about what else he needed to prepare, a melodious siren came from a distance.

The people in the room were stunned, and they stared at each other.

Black Skull immediately got up, walked quickly to the window facing the coast, and narrowed his eyes toward the harbor. At almost the same time, a predator ran in, panting, and reported.

“Boss, a cargo ship is approaching the port with the NAC flag!”

The predators in the room were rattled.

“SH*T! Are they back?!”

“What do we do?! If they think we stole their canned food…”

“SHUT UP!”

With a snarling roar, Black Skull picked up his rifle and swept it toward the ceiling. Cement dust and plastic shavings spattered down onto the heads of those chattering. Everyone looked fearful, lowered their head, and were afraid to look directly at their boss.

“What’s on the cargo ship? Can you see it clearly?” The vulture-like sight, filled with haze, stared at the trembling predator reporting at the door. Black Skull lowered his voice and asked, “Is there power armors on the deck? Or soldiers with kinetic skeletons? And is there a NAC warship following behind?”

“No, there is only one cargo ship.” Fearful that the murderous demon may send a few bullets into his chest, the predator swallowed and replied with a trembling voice, “There are only containers on the deck that are full of canned food…”

Chapter 1381: Army Expansion

After the Holy Shield restarted, the sky above Wanghai was covered with a faint orange glow. The sunlight shined through the graviton barrier down to the land and stretched infinitely in the slowly moving radioactive dust. From a distance, it looked like an immortal ray of holy and sacred light.

From the north to the south, the entire Wanghai was shrouded in the Holy Shield, isolated from the wasteland. Occasionally, mutants or predators would wander into the area and fight against NAC patrols, but since the Holy Shield activated, all the unruly people sighed in front of this unbreakable shield.

In the four directions of south, east, north, and west, the NAC only left about 120 small and large entrances and exits. Each entrance was built with a guard post, and they were all guarded by the First Division led by Cheng Weiguo.

Wanghai, guarded by the Holy Shield, seemed to become the safest place on Pan-Asia land. With the continuous influx of immigrants, the population of NAC continued to grow. In order to meet the demand for living space, the Sixth Street had pushed down the east wall with the consideration of expanding to the city center.

Immigration not only brought labor but also poverty and crime.

In order to digest these surplus labors and solve the problems caused by immigration, NAC used a rather simple and crude method——

Army expansion!

The move was much in line with the style of the military government. All foreign survivors who wished to obtain NAC household registration had to either pay a settlement fee of 1,000 credits or serve in the NAC army for at least three years.

As soon as this policy came out, more than 50,000 survivors were enlisted into the army in just one month. Some of the recruits started in military training while other recruits were incorporated into the logistics system and sent to NAC’s factories in other areas for production.

Exhaust all resources to build up one’s military power would lead to an economic recession, but this did not apply to the apocalypse.

The scarce amount of resources meant that it was difficult to scale industries. The highly automated science meant that the demand for manpower was extremely low. Therefore, the Sixth Street could provide survivors with a very limited number of jobs.

What’s more, the wasteland economy itself was based on the word “violence.” Whether it was scavengers or hunters or mercenaries protecting a trade route, everyone was equipped with weapons. The only real commodity that did not lack customers was not canned meat or instant noodles, but the shining bullets.

Jiang Chen was more willing to refer to this military expansion as a “wasteland version” of government stimulus.

To put it bluntly, instead of letting these bored survivors wander around and do nothing, it was better to put them together for centralized management and pay them a salary. Even if they just practiced marching in the barracks, it was better than letting them return to their old professions, killing people and causing havoc.

Of course, Jiang Chen didn’t let these people really sit around.

Among the recruits, many of them were lone travelers with good marksmanship. Without actual skills, it was impossible to survive the perilous wasteland to arrive at the far Wanghai. Jiang Chen simply organized them into ten hunter corps and sent them to the inland areas west of Hongcheng to hunt for mutant furs and crystals.

…

On the fifth day after the celebration, the escorting warship returned from North America and docked at the port on the outskirts of Wanghai.

In order to rush back to participate in the celebration, the warship was sailing at full speed for almost a whole week. When the anchor dropped, the sailors on the ship eagerly jumped down. But when they learned the celebration was over, everyone looked disappointed.

Fortunately, everyone received beer, pork, and credits distributed by the military government, and they were compensated for the hard work of risking their lives on the high sea.

After they received their salary and benefits, most of the sailors on the ship went to the Sixth Street to relax on this not-so-long vacation. As for the captain of this warship, he was summoned to the General Mansion at the Fishbone Base.

Jiang Chen had a lot to ask about the situation in the North American colony.

“…We sent the cargo ship to the West Coast of North America and then began our return. Based on our past experience, as long as the cargo ship passed through the waters near Alaska, there was basically no danger. Even if there was, most of them were just small predator boats, the heavy machine guns on the cargo ship were more than enough to deal with several predators.”

“After entering the waters near North America, we encountered ‘electromagnetic turbulence’. Communication over 30 nautical miles was practically lost, but electromagnetic turbulence also has its advantages. Those deep-sea mutant species that are extremely sensitive to electromagnetic waves will experience electromagnetic turbulence. Most of them will be lurking in waters below 500 meters. Even if we turn our sonar off, our ship can be unimpeded.”

On the other side of the desk, Captain Wang Haitao briefed Jiang Chen on the details of the mission.

“Okay, I see.” Jiang Chen looked at Han Junhua next to him for a second, then focused his attention back on Wang Haitao who was standing upright. He smiled and asked, “The last question has nothing to do with this voyage. After you have spent so long on the sea, have you encountered any interesting mutant species?”

“Interesting? It depends on how you define interesting.” After he processed the information, the captain replied with a smile, “Once we sailed on the golden waterway west of Cape Wales, we accidentally entered waters that were gleaming. We tried to cast a net into the sea, but we got a bunch of fluorescent clownfish with severe radiation levels. There are still a few that I’ve kept in my captain’s room. Another time we were near Vancouver, and we saw a giant shark as large as half a warship and with teeth as long as two people. It directly bit off a giant whale twice the size of the Bohai Aircraft Carrier from the middle. The blood that gushed out colored the entire area red. I felt extremely lucky because I had turned on the sonar…”

“Okay, awesome. From now on, you can enjoy your vacation.” Jiang Chen stood up, walked around the desk, and extended his right hand, “But If I were you, I would rest well. There will be tasks waiting for you soon.”

Wang Haitao was flattered as he shook the General’s hand, then he stood upright in excitement and said with certainty and decisiveness.

“Guaranteed to complete the mission!”

Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder, affirmed his past work, and then signal that he could leave.

After Jiang Chen watched the captain leave, he sat down again, looked at the voice recorder on the corner of the table, and fell into deep thought.

“The North American colony may be in trouble.” Han Junhua was the first to break the silence, “A total of 500 soldiers are stationed in the colony, including 450 K1 kinetic skeletons, and 50 T-3 power armors. If it’s something that these weapons can’t deal with, then it’s not a small problem.”

“You were a Pan-Asia Cooperation officer,” Jiang Chen looked to Han Junhua, “Apart from the electromagnetic turbulence phenomenon, what else…I mean are there any weapons or other things that can artificially block long-distance communication?”

“There are many methods. All-channel jamming radar base stations, wide-range electromagnetic wave shielding devices… These two methods are the main communication shielding methods for Pan-Asia Cooperation. They can easily turn a city or even a province into a ‘blackout zone’ in the radio network,” Han Junhua explained.

Jiang Chen’s finger tapped repeatedly on the table, then he said while still in deep thoughts.

“In other words, there is still the possibility of human interference.”

“I think so too.” Han Junhua nodded.

“Send ground troops,” Jiang Chen ordered after he contemplated a bit more, “When our armored troops land on North America, all problems will be solved!”

“Before sending ground troops, we need to understand what is going on in North America.” Han Junhua cautiously proposed with her arms crossed in front of her chest, “I suggest delegating this work to Beluga Station. Since their submarine can arrive in North American in the shortest time, they can send us first-hand information…”

Jiang Chen interrupted Han Junhua, shook his head, and said.

“We don’t need to bother the Beluga Station, we can send a reconnaissance force there.”

“It’s too slow. By taking a detour from the Bering Strait, we will have to wait more than a week for our reconnaissance force to reach California.” Han Junhua objected.

“It won’t take that long.” Jiang Chen waved his hand, and a confident smile appeared. He raised one finger on his right hand. “Our scouts can reach North America from Wanghai in an hour tops.”

Han Junhua looked at Jiang Chen. There was a rare surprise that rippled throughthe pupils that were as calm as the lake.

After she was certain that Jiang Chen was not joking, she immediately asked.

“What are you going to do?”

Jiang Chen smiled.

“You’ll find out in two days.”

Chapter 1382: N-100 Power Armor

Inside the Sixth Street Inner Circle, in the Near Street Restaurant.

Although it was the property of the Zhao Group, there were rumors that the General himself had a lot of shares in it. Because the restaurant was in the most prosperous area of Sixth Street, and it always received the freshest ingredients, this restaurant had naturally become the darling of the upper class. Even survivors in the far south had occasionally heard of its good name.

In this era where even humans were more or less mutated, NAC somehow obtained unmutated prawns and started aquaculture in the radiation-free Garden of Eden. This type of crystal-clear river prawn was delicious, and it immediately became sought after by the upper class once it was made available, and even became a topic of discussion with the Sixth Street.

But now, a giant plate of the expensive river prawns was placed on the table, sprinkled with chili oil, garlic, and spices, and the attractive fragrance could be smelt from far away. From this dish alone, it was easy to tell the extraordinary status of these diners.

They were key members of the NAC military government system, capitalists from the Sixth Street or the Hangzhou Merchants Association, or the leaders of the chambers of commerce and merchant traders from other regions.

But these people were obviously very low-key and dined in a private suite. If they were the new rich from the different colonies or from the South, they would definitely choose the most conspicuous spot of the restaurant to ensure everyone in the restaurant noticed their lavishness.

“Haha, congratulations to Captain Zheng for your promotion!”

“Congratulations! Congratulations! Remember to bring back some souvenirs from North America!”

“RIGHT! I heard that the mud crab roe there are white, just like the breasts of the blondes there.”

“No blondes okay? Don’t be so vulgar! Remember that General told us last time? You need to be more educated and civilized! Can’t you just say as white as milk…burp…”

“Hahaha, captain, who do you think is more educated?”

The suite was full of joy and chatter.

A few burly men sat around the table, grinning and joking, as they took turns toasting the boss who was sitting at the top of the table. Although their tone was respectful, there was a hint of teasing and joking mixed in.

These jokers were no one else but the guards under Jiang Chen’s command.

The former captain Lu Fan was promoted to the head of the Fourth Division and was now stationed in Shangjing, guarding the northern border of the NAC. The current captain was the former deputy captain Zheng Shanhe. The NAC had just gone through a round of army expansion, and there were rumors about the establishment of the Fifth Division. Based on NAC’s usual tradition, the most likely division commander would come from the General’s Guards.

It was originally something to be happy about, but at this moment, Captain Zheng looked a bit concerned.

Why?

Naturally because of that North American colony!

Although the wind of the expedition had not been let out, it was no secret that NAC was preparing to send troops to North America. The entire North American colony had lost contact with NAC, and all kinds of bizarre rumors began to spread in the Sixth Street.

It would be not a surprise if the General launched another conquest of his own, which meant the accompanying captain would be promoted. Regardless of whether or not the newly formed division would be called the Fifth Division or NAC North American Division, it would definitely not be able to come back with General Jiang.

“What congratulations, if anyone of you makes fun of me again, I will personally bring you to the colony.” Zheng Shanhe’s eyes widened, and the soldiers that were about to toast again immediately pulled back their cups that were in the air, and instead, downed their drinks.

Everyone enjoyed the Sixth Street. Except for those who couldn’t obtain a footing in the Sixth Street, no one chose to go to the colony.

People wouldn’t even leave if they got promoted!

“Captain Lu can return home every once in a while. If I go to North America, I’m afraid I won’t be able to come back once in a few years.” After Zheng Shanhe took a swig of the beer, he let out a sigh, felt the coldness that slid down his throat, and said.

Although he complained, he didn’t feel any dissatisfaction.

But whenever he thought of his newly married wife, he felt depressed.

“Captain rest assured,” a subordinate stood up, raised his glass, and said solemnly, “You, like Captain Li and Captain Lu, will always be our captain! When you are away, the brothers will help you take care of your family.”

“That’s right! We are here!”

“Who dares to bother my sister-in-law, I will break his legs!”

Several other guards also stood up and raised their glass.

After all, they were all old men that conquered with the General for many years. Although they loved to joke around, their friendship was impeccable.

“Please and thank you.” With a sigh, Zheng Shanhe raised his glass.

After a glass of beer, everyone sat down.

Just when Zheng Shanhe was about to say something, the clear reminder sound echoed.

The faint fluorescence flickered on the watch, and the word “Regroup” appeared on the screen.

All the guards in the room were surprised. They looked at each other, then immediately darted up. After Zheng Shanghe threw a check on the table, he rushed out the door without looking back at the delicious food on the table.

…

“What is this?”

In the backyard of the mansion, Jiang Chen examined from head to toe the power armor in front of him. From a structural point of view, this power armor was very similar to the X-1 experimental type he retrieved from the underground city of Shangjing. The incredibly long type-57 portable electromagnetic pulse cannon behind it looked almost identical to the X-1.

“My sisters and I made some modifications on the basis of the X-1 model. Lilith optimized the calculation logic of the aiming assistance program, and finally completed the unfinished design of the Pan-Asia Cooperation. Now you can call it the N-100, which is different from the original experimental type,” As Lin Lin explained, the corner of her lips curved up and showed a hint of proudness.

After the T-series power armor was upgraded to T-4, there was no follow-up development plan. Because for Jiang Chen, the current two mainstream power armors of the NAC and Celestial Trade, the T-3 aviation type and the T-4 land combat type, were already capable in most battlefields. Rather than investing in a field without any competition, it was better to use scientific research resources in more useful places.

But unexpectedly, Lin Lin and her sisters completed the follow-up design of the X-1 experimental model, which caught Jiang Chen by surprise.

“Why is it called N-100 instead of N-1?” He touched the head of the power armor, then looked at the code printed on the back, and asked with confusion.

“Because the N-1 is an early power armor enlisted by Pan-Asia Cooperation in the last century. It was developed by East Asia Heavy Industries. Later, the N-series was abolished for various reasons and replaced by the standard that has been used until now, that is, the police P-series and military T-series,” Lin Lin shrugged and explained in a casual tone, “In order to avoid duplication or confusion, I simply named this power armor that is unlikely to have an updated model N-100. As for what letter the X should be replaced with, I am afraid that only those who don’t know how many light-years away will know.”

“Regardless,” Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin and smiled, “Thank you for doing so much for me.”

He did not just thank her for this power armor.

From the earliest Eden Project, Lin Lin had helped him in many ways.

To be honest, even now he could recall the scene when he scared the little girl into peeing her pants in Fallout Shelter 005. He could not stop himself from feeling embarrassed.

“You’re welcome,” Lin Lin avoided Jiang Chen’s gaze and looked to the side with her cheeks red. She forced a cough, then said with a trembling voice, “I heard that North America is very dangerous…Anyway, you be careful over there.”

“Mhmm.”

Jiang Chen responded with a smile and moved his hand closer to Lin Lin’s head to rub her silver-white hair. But for some reason, as soon as his hand touched her hair, she blushed and ran away.

When he looked at the girl that ran away, Jiang Chen paused, then awkwardly put his hand down.

When he turned around, Sun Jiao stood at the door of the backyard. She looked in his direction with mockery in her eyes and playfully whistled at him.

“You’re flirting with another woman in front of me before you leave. Should I punish you?”

“Let’s talk about it when I come back… No, we’ll see who punishes who by then!”

Damnit, I got fooled!

After he glared at Sun Jiao for a second, Jiang Chen left in her “provocative” gaze as he threw the power armor into the storage dimension and walked to the exit in the backyard.

“I don’t want to persuade you…” Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen, who walked to her and gently bit her lower lip. She reached out to fix his collar and said with unwillingness, “Anyway, if you have to go, be careful over there.”

“I know,” He squeezed her hand, then the sincere expression on his face was suddenly replaced by a smirk, “Wait for me to come back to punish you.”

After he left this sentence, Jiang Chen unexpectedly slapped Sun Jiao’s butt.

The mood was instantly ruined.

In the latter’s humiliated exclaim and a flurry of punches, Jiang Chen laughed and ran to the living room. When he passed, he did not forget to wave goodbye to Yao Yao and Xiaorou.

“Goodbye, wait for me to come back. By the way, this is going to be a far trip. Do you have any souvenirs you want?”

Xiaorou, who sat upright in the living room, looked at the fooling around at the entrance with a grin.

“Just bring yourself back.”

Yao Yao, who was next to her, waved and said in her soft voice.

“You don’t need to bring any souvenirs, just come back safely.”

“You guys really don’t want souvenirs? Okay, I’ll see then.” Jiang Chen took a deep breath, then suddenly stepped forward and kissed Sun Jiao, who was waving her fists with a look of embarrassment. Just as she was processing what had just happened, he had quickly put on his shoes and disappeared out the door…

Chapter 1383: The War Did Not Favor Either Side

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

In the Shenxiang Town not covered by the Holy Shield, a silver-white aerospace plane was parked on the temporarily constructed airport runway. Jiang Chen brought the masterpiece designed and manufactured by Future Heavy Industries to the apocalypse.

From Han Junhua’s eyes and in a technological perspective, the shape of this aerospace plane was quite retro.

It was unlikely anyone from the NAC talent pool could pilot this old antique into the air. But Jiang Chen obviously had considered this issue. At this moment, it was the new intelligent pilot of Future Military – The Matador in the pilot seat.

The robot skillfully turned on the instruments on the control panel, and it gave Jiang Chen outside the cabin a thumbs up.

“This is…” Han Jinhua examined this antique in front of her with surprise in her tone.

“Aerospace G100, a masterpiece from the 27th Research Institute, a dual-use aerospace private jet. It can fly to a space station in the synchronous orbit and quickly arrive at any airport in the world within one hour. It’s more than sufficient to send a twelve-man reconnaissance team.” Jiang Chen gave the aerospace plane a new inventor and labeled it as the invention of the research institute dedicated to NAC. He then put his hand on the wing of the plane, turned around, and smiled confidently at Han Junhua.

“Are you sure you can find an airport for you to land?” Han Junhua had a rare hint of uncertainty in her tone.

“There is no need to land, we are going to parachute down. All it needs to do is descend after approaching the West Coast, and then fly at a reduced speed when passing over Los Angeles…”

Han Junhua opened her mouth still full of doubts, but in the end, she decided not to ask any of the questions. Instead, she just nodded, “If you insist…Although I would recommend the safer strategy to send other candidates to North America. ”

“I thought about it carefully, and it’s best for me to go there. Besides, I’m also very curious about what is going on in North America. It’s just that the probability of encountering danger is not high on reconnaissance, so I can take this opportunity to see it.” Jiang Chen made a gesture to the twelve guards who were ready to go, indicating Zheng Shanhe that they could start boarding.

In order to save the limited capacity of the Aerospace G100 to move more personnel and ammunition to North America. At this moment, all the guards were equipped with the light T-3 aviation type.

The takeoff steps proceeded gracefully. The “Matador” robot in the cockpit turned on the instruments while it broadcasted the standard procedures.

“The engine is charging. All passengers, please sit in your seats. Make sure your seat belts are fastened and do not leave your seats.”

“Charging completed, the engine is entering ignition countdown.”

“10”

“9”

“…”

“2”

“1”

“Ignite!”

When the emotionless digital voice faded, the engine ejected an eerie blue ray that pushed the Aerospace G100 towards the horizon.

Accompanied by the gravitational pull, Jiang Chen watched the scenery outside the window fly backward, and soon the entire aerospace plane flew into the blue sky to the farther deep space.

The jitter of the fuselage quickly stabilized. It turned out that even in the apocalypse, the safety of the Aerospace G100 was reliable. After he placed the helmet to the side, Jiang Chen selected the standby mode in the operation interface of the power armor, relaxed his muscles, closed his eyes, and started to rest.

In fact, before he set off, he had been thinking about a possibility; whether Zhou Guoping decided to betray him and establish his own empire.

However, after careful consideration, Jiang Chen quickly denied this possibility.

Not to mention whether Zhou Guoping was foolish enough to betray NAC for the sake of becoming an unreliable warlord in North America. Long before he set off from Wanghai, Jiang Chen had already promised him that if he proved his ability to govern in the colony, he could continue to rule like a warlord.

If he managed the colony poorly…

It was likely that he wouldn’t even want to stay there for half a second longer.

Under such circumstances, Jiang Chen couldn’t think of the possibility of Zhou Guoping’s rebellion. Instead, it was possible that this idiot, who used to be a bandit, made a fool of himself in North America, and was ganged up by angry North American “indigenous people”.

Therefore, Jiang Chen prepared for two possibilities.

If he discovered that Zhou Guoping wanted to pursue independence, Jiang Chen would directly activate the slave chip implanted in the back of his brain, take his life, and then appoint a new governor to get the colony back on track as soon as possible.

In the latter case, if the North American colony was overthrown by the local survivors or destroyed. Then, depending on whether Zhou Guoping was still alive, he would adopt two completely different strategies to solve the issues facing the colony.

The altitude continued to rise, and it didn’t take long for the Aerospace G100 to fly above the exosphere.

Countless pieces of space junk formed a belt of asteroids and were connected together in outer space. Light blue sparks occasionally passed among the debris, like beautiful and deadly silver snakes. It was the first time Jiang Chen has seen Low Earth orbit at such a close distance, and now everything seemed to be telling him that the real situation was far worse than he thought.

Jiang Lin did not joke with him.

It was a pipe dream to develop the space industry in this environment.

How did those colonization ships fly out of the Earth…

For safety reasons, the Aerospace G100 did not approach the synchronous orbit in the journey but chose to sail on the edge of the atmosphere. This area was relatively safe and most of the space junks were either burnt out or slowed down here. Therefore, there were basically no dangerous junks in this region.

It took more time than expected. Finally, in the third hour after taking off, Jiang Chen woke up from a nap after hearing the beep. At this moment, Aerospace G100 finally returned to the lower stratosphere.

“…We’re descending and arriving at Los Angeles ahead. I wish you a pleasant journey.

Accompanied by the emotionless digital voice, the seat belts on the seats were unlocked.

“Prepare for airborne.” Jiang Chen pulled off his seat belt and ended the standby mode, stood up from the chair, waved his arm attached to steel, and checked whether the engine behind him could start normally.

The other twelve guards also got up one after another and gathered towards the cabin door.

Zheng Shanhe walked to the very front, took a deep breath, looked to Jiang Chen, looked at his comrades, then said loudly, “Assembly point at Los Angeles Santa Monica Airport, all units Immediately gather at the assembly point, do you understand!”

“Roger!”

“GO! GO!”

The cabin door opened, and the howling cold wind rolled in, instantly sweeping away the heat in the cabin. Holding onto the cabin frame, Zheng Shanhe jumped out first, followed by the guards behind him, and finally General Jiang Chen.

It was not the first time Jiang Chen has parachuted down. Everything was natural and smooth.

After the attitude drop to the threshold, the vortex engine behind turned on instantly, and the blue flame spurted out and stopped their downward acceleration. As an experimental model uncompleted even after the end of the war, the N-100 on Jiang Chen was indeed much more stable than the T-3 in airborne operations.

When the steel boots stepped through the clouds, his sight suddenly became clear.

At this moment, Jiang Chen’s pupils dilated slightly.

It was his first time overlooking apocalyptic North America.

Although it was only a corner of the West Coast.

In general, the war did not favor either side.

This place was as bad as the Pan-Asia continent.

Chapter 1384: Airport Gang

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

Santa Monica Airport.

The barren concrete road was covered with weeds, and a few hideous zombies occasionally strolled outside the terminal hall. Unlike the zombies in Pan-Asia Cooperation, these zombies were not formed because of the X1 bacterial infection, but purely because of radiation, which caused their brain to degenerate and turned them into the walking dead with only the instinct to eat.

Because it was difficult to form large groups of zombies common in Pan-Asia, these zombies were not dangerous. As long as the survivors were careful to not get scratched by their claws stained with mutant bacteria and radiation, any survivor could deal with them. The real danger in the North American wasteland was not the zombies, but the strange mutants.

According to unconservative estimates, the number and danger of mutants in North America were at least three times that of the Pan-Asia region.

In the dark corners, a mutant poisonous scorpion suddenly threw its tail with a hook, then dragged a struggling zombie into the corner and open its sharp mandibles.

The prey gradually stopped moving. Just as this mutant poisonous scorpion was about to feast, it suddenly stopped biting as if it had sensed some movement; its small eyes quickly turned vigilantly.

But before it could detect anything, the shock wave of the explosion blew it away.

BOOM!!

The explosion overlapped with the sound of the armors breaking through the air. When both feet slammed on the ground, the flat concrete road was full of spider-web-like cracks.

“Success.” Jiang Chen pressed on the helmet, stood up straight, and shook the dust from the power armor. He then looked at the airport not far away with a grin, “What a coincidence, I landed near the airport without satellite navigation.”

Lurking in the shadows, the mutant poisonous scorpion was rubbing its sharp fangs nervously. From the iron lump in front of it, it felt danger. The creature followed its instinct and cautiously approached Jiang Chen from behind. Suddenly, it threw out its deadly tail.

The air whizzed and a strong force lashed at Jiang Chen.

Without even looking, he raised his right hand, and the tactical rifle spouted out fierce flames. Green blood splattered everywhere, and the firepower turned the half-human tall scorpion into several pieces.

Just as Jiang Chen shot this mutant poisonous scorpion, a dozen pairs of eyes were lurking in the dark.

To be precise, they were fixated on the power armor on his body.

“Power armor… God, it’s a power armor!” In the office of the airport building, a man with a shaved head squatted cautiously by the window and secretly looked at the power armor downstairs. His two mung-bean-sized pupils were filled with envy and greed.

“Is it a member of the National Guard? Or is it a Liberty City Militia?” The brawny black man grabbed his rifle tightly and asked nervously.

“It’s not…it fell from the sky, it should be a little mouse that got out of the fallout shelter! Sh*t, we have to find a way to get that power armor.” Hardy licked his dry lips and a fierceness appeared in his eyes.

“But what should we do?” The black man named Sim hesitated.

“Brand new power armor, mostly likely a little mouse that got out of the fallout shelter,” Hardy said nervously as he bit his thumb. “Let Jessica go… She often deals with the blue skins. The sl*t knows how to deceive them.”

Just as the predators were planning how they’d take the power armor on his body, Jiang Chen raised his rifle again and killed a few more zombies wandering at the airport gate, then he set the coordinates of the gathering spot on the map.

Because there was no satellite to guide the airborne, and they happened to encounter a strong air current just when they were falling, their landing positions were quite scattered.

He heard from Zheng Shanhe say that when he landed, he stepped on a cockroach’s nest with one foot, and now he was covered with green stinky juice.

Since they were not in a hurry, Jiang Chen told the hapless guy to go to the ditch on the nearby map first and wash away the radioactive stinky juice. He didn’t want to speak when they gathered while smelling the stench of mutant cockroaches.

Shortly after he set up the coordinate, a scream came from the airport building.

Jiang Chen looked up only to see a woman, dressed as a scavenger, being forced by a group of zombies onto the platform outside the airport building.

The woman hurriedly jammed the handle of the glass door with a folding chair, pulled out the pistol from her pocket, and pulled the trigger at the glass door smashed by the zombies. However, the gunshot did not appear. She threw the pistol aside in despair and retreated to the railing on the outside of the platform.

Just when she was in despair and did not know what to do, she suddenly noticed Jiang Chen downstairs and was overjoyed. Then she began to wave her arms.

“HELP! Help me! I need help!”

Under the tousled brown curly hair was a beautiful face. If it weren’t for her panicked expression, he would give her a seventy based on Western standards. However, she was desperately waving her arms, and the whiteness in front of her chest under the torn clothes was even visible.

The female survivor surrounded by zombies happened to appear near the power armor.

Everything was such a coincidence like a popcorn blockbuster rolled down from the Hollywood assembly line.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes slightly and revealed a sly grin under the steel helmet. Although this beauty’s acting skill was great, and the extras outside the door were also helpful, he still spotted the issues right away.

The biggest issue was.

How did a rookie scavenger like this manage to get here after being chased by zombies?

He did not go up to save her right away, instead, he turned on the life signal detector on the power armor.

A layer of red ripples swept across the radar screen, and soon a series of red dots symbolizing sources of life were marked on the screen.

The sly smile soon turned colder. Rather than saving her, Jiang Chen crossed his arms in front of his chest and started to watch her performance.

When the beauty saw that Jiang Chen hadn’t come up, she was taken aback for a moment, and then a pleading expression appeared.

“Please! For God’s sake, save me! I don’t want to be eaten by them! I will do whatever you want me to do. I… I can even be your slave.”

Any rookie that came out of the fallout shelter would definitely turn hot-headed and save the pleading beauty. No, the rookie would have already rushed to her from the start. Unfortunately, Jiang Chen didn’t just get out of the fallout shelter but came to North America to spread socialism.

“You mean…you want to be my slave?” Jiang Chen asked with a smile after he turned on the speaker on the armor.

“Yes! I will! Please help me!” The beauty nodded desperately.

“Since you said so, then I hope you will remember your promise.” Jiang Chen sighed and stepped heavily on the ground with his right foot.

The armor bounced up from the ground, and the vortex engine ejected blue flames.

When the woman saw the power armor fly towards her, she looked joyful, but in her mind, she cussed, Fu*k you. I’m begging you now but you’ll soon find out what’s going to happen to you after.

The power armor naturally crushed the zombies.

When both feet slammed on the ground, Jiang Chen raised his tactical rifle, and a string of bullets harvested the zombies behind the glass door.

He then turned off the safety, put away the smoking rifle, and looked at the disheveled beauty.

“Thank you, God. I really didn’t know what to do without you.” The woman gazed at Jiang Chen passionately, gently combed the hair near her ear back, and said while blusing, “As agreed, from now on, I will be your woman.”

“What is your name?” Jiang Chen asked emotionlessly.

“Jessica.” Jessica’s index finger lightly pressed on the front armor of the power armor. Jessica raised her head and looked at Jiang Chen with admiration, “Can you show me your face? My hero?”

The poison was already hidden under her tongue. Once she waited for the helmet to open, the affectionate gaze and the kiss would even make Superman kneel under her high heels. The thought of the power armor will soon belong to her made Jessica extremely excited.

She had already planned that when she controlled the power armor, she would immediately settle the grudge with Hardy.

“No problem, Ms. Jessica, but before that…” Jiang Chen dropped the electronic collar on the ground, and said cunningly, “Just like we agreed before, you have to put this on first.”

Chapter 1385: Encountering A Fellow Townsman

Jessica’s expression changed when she saw the electronic collar on the ground.

“What’s wrong? My slave lady.” Jiang Chen joked, “If you don’t know how to wear it, I can teach you.”

“You don’t need this kind of thing to restrain me at all. I said I will be yours from now on.” Jessica bit her dry lower lip and looked at Jiang Chen with pitiful eyes, “No matter what you do, I will not resist.”

Are you kidding me!

Once you put this thing on, your life won’t be yours.

She started to sense danger from this iron robot in front of her, and out of instinct, she took two steps back.

“You don’t want to keep your promise?” Jiang Chen’s tone changed. The rifle that he previously put away reappeared in his hand and he aimed at the frightened Jessica. With slyness in his tone, Jiang Chen said, “I’m not kidding, I advise you to do what I say.”

Just now, a voice with an African accent came from the door.

A black guy stood there with a bazooka on his shoulder. His finger was already on the trigger and he stared at Jiang Chen with warning in his eyes.

“Okay buddy, put down the gun. Even if you’re in your power armor, you definitely don’t want to try this.

Jiang Chen did not show the slightest concern with the bazooka aimed at him. He turned his head slightly and focused his attention on the arrogant man and the ten gunners with ragged clothing, he then asked nonchalantly.

“You are?”

“I…” The eyepieces on the tactical helmet made Sim a little flustered. He swallowed and continued out of fear, “We are her companions, survivors gathered around the airport.”

“Where were you just now?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Sim couldn’t find an answer to this question as he muttered for a long time. Next to him, Hardy slapped the back of Sim’s head, walked to Jiang Chen, and used a threatening tone, “Thank you for saving our companion, I owe you a favor, but I hope you let her go now, otherwise…”

Jessica was still useful, and Hardy didn’t want to lose her like that.

This sl*t not only made the brothers feel good every night, but she would also occasionally bring back some silly blue skins.

“Otherwise?” Jiang Chen laughed as he responded.

“Otherwise…” As Hardy chuckled, he suddenly threw a grenade hidden in his sleeve while he cursed, “Otherwise I will f*ck you up!”

The smoke exploded, and Jessica rolled to the side.

The high-pressure nitrogen burst out and dispersed the dense smoke in an instant.

A bazooka pierced through the thick smoke and flew at Jiang Chen. But without any attempt to evade the flying danger, he reached out with his left hand and compressed the nitrogen gas into a wall, which blew away the bazooka.

“SH*T! FIRE!”

When Hardy realized that the sneak attack had failed, he cussed, fired a few shots with his pistol, then ordered the predators behind him to open fire on Jiang Chen while he sneaked to take cover. However, before he could run two steps, he was shot in the thigh and started to howl on the ground rolling.

Pewpewpew!!!

The tactical rifle unleashed its power, and the beating hearts had turned into scarlet flames, which were reflected on Jiang Chen’s retina. The moment he pulled the triggered, it seemed that every cell in the body was relaxing as if killing had become an instinct.

This long-lost feeling…

“Devil! He is the devil!”

When they saw their companions fall one after another into pools of blood, the predators hiding behind cover finally began to collapse, they screamed and fled backward.

When the guards in T-3 power armor heard gunshots from the airport terminal, they started to arrive one after another. When the predators realized that their enemy was not just one power armor, they completely lost the courage. They dropped their weapons and knelt down to beg for mercy.

“Look at what I found,” There were still a few pieces of algae hanging onto his armor as Zheng Shanhe held the disheveled Jessica in his hand and walked to Jiang Chen who was standing in the waiting room. He threw her on the ground with a grin and said, “She was hiding in the ventilation duct.”

“Put this on for her.” Jiang Chen pointed to the collar on the ground.

“Yes!”

“NO… DON’T…” Jessica backed away in horror. She tried to get up from the ground, but the power armor behind her did not make her wish come true. Without a word, Zheng Shanhe grabbed her neck and snapped the electronic collar on her.

Jiang Chen glanced at Jessica, who had turned pale, with a sneer, then ignored her. He then walked to the predator named Hardy. At this moment, his thigh had been bandaged and the blood finally stopped flowing out. But based on where he was shot, this leg was unlikely to walk again.

“I will ask you a question, and you will answer the question.” Jiang Chen looked down at Hardy, lifted his chain, and said concisely, “If I find you lying, then I will get rid of your other leg too.”

Hardy swallowed, then nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

“How many people do you have in total?”

“One hundred fifty-seven…no, one hundred fifty-eight.” Hardy replied with a shiver.

“These people are?” Jiang Chen pointed to the survivors who squatted in the corner of the terminal hall with shackles on their hands.

“Prisoners.”

“Prisoners?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, “You still keep prisoners? I advise you to answer my questions honestly.”

“What I said is true!” When Hardy saw Jiang Chen fiddling with the rifle, there was panic in his eyes as he articulated quickly, “Some skilled slaves are very popular in Liberty City! There are some people…”

“There are some people?” Jiang Chen asked with interest.

“Those cannibal tribes offer good prices too…” Hardy replied in a quiet voice, with his head lowered while he trembled on the ground.

“This bunch of scumbags.” Zheng Shanhe spat out and cursed.

Hardy buried his head and didn’t dare to say a word. He honestly accepted the words thrown at him.

Without worrying about him anymore, Jiang Chen glanced at the slaves squatting in the corner, and then at his captain Zheng Shanhe, “It just so happens that we need manpower to clean the airport. You can pick a few clever guys to be supervisors.”

After a rough glance, there were about thirty prisoners caught by the predators, most of them looked malnourished. It was unlikely to expect these people to do any hard work, but they could definitely be the overseers and watch these predators work.

Except for the two who ran away, there were about 80 predators captured by his guards. These men were more than enough to repair the airport runway. Now Jiang Chen was only short of the overseers who looked after these slaves. After all, he only had a few electronic collars. It was impossible to separate combat power from his guards to look after these prisoners.

Jiang Chen looked at Zheng Shanhe walk towards the slaves of the predators, then he returned to Jessica, knelt down, and pinched her chin. He looked at her painful eyes begging for mercy, and said in a mocking tone, “I will give you a task, you can only respond with yes.”

Because she couldn’t speak, Jessica nodded desperately.

“You will take care of these people for me,” Jiang Chen pointed to Hardy who was sitting in the corner, and then pointed outside the door. “We need someone to clean the airport runway. Do as I say. I promise you will be safe and sound. If I find you playing tricks behind my back, your head will explode. You should understand what you are wearing on your neck.”

After he finished these words, Jiang Chen threw the painful and desperate Jessica to the ground. There was no need to pity or cherish a sl*t like this. When he saw the expression on her face, instead of feeling any guilt, he felt like she deserved this punishment.

After he watched Zheng Shanhe choose the overseer among the group of prisoners, Jiang Chen was about to take a tour outside, but he suddenly heard a familiar accent behind him.

“Wait, you… are you from NAC?”

Including Zheng Shanhe, several of the guards in the room all stopped what they were doing and looked at the person who stood up.

With unexpectedness, Jiang Chen looked back at the prisoner, walked to him, and examined the man from head to toe with intrigue.

“Do you know NAC?”

“I not only know,” after the rescue he had been waiting for finally arrived, with a relieved expression on his face, Han Yue almost cried with excitement, “I, I’m a colonist from the Sixth Street! ”

“What is your name?”

“My name is Han Yue,”

“Why are you here?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“This is a long story,” his eyes fell into reminiscence, and a look of shock gradually appeared on Han Yue’s malnourished face. He gulped down, and slowly began to narrate to Jiang Chen what happened that day, “It was a week ago, our cargo ship docked at the port…”

Chapter 1386: Clue

A week ago, the NAC cargo ship docked at the port, but unexpectedly, it was not their compatriots who went to North America first that welcomed them, but a group of bandits with guns.

There were indeed many weapons on the cargo ship, but the firepower was still far inferior compared to the predators. These predators quickly attacked the deck and captured the wounded soldiers and colonists on the ship. Based on Han Yue’s narration, he jumped into the sea in order to escape the predators.

“How many of them were there?” Jiang Chen asked after he thought for a moment.

“I don’t know. The situation was chaotic. There were bullets and explosions everywhere. About a hundred people? Maybe more than two hundred. In short, their firepower was very fierce, not just heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, but even drones and a few armored vehicles.”

It was impossible for a few armored vehicles to take down the NAC colony in North America, and even with fifty more armored vehicles, it was still impossible. There were fifty power armors in the colony, which could already make up a quarter of the power armor brigade, plus 450 sets of kinetic skeletons. While Jiang Chen was not arrogant to the point where he believed that he could sweep the West Coast with these weapons, it was more than sufficient to defend their base, especially with so many stationary weapons built into the fortress.

“How many people escaped besides you?” Jiang Chen then asked.

“I don’t know… there may be one or two more. I saw someone falling in the water, but I couldn’t tell whether it was a corpse or a living person…” At this point, the expression on Han Yue’s face was a little ashamed. After all, he chose to escape.

“It’s okay, you’re not a soldier. It’s not shameful to run away.” Jiang Chen seemed to read what he was thinking, patted him on the shoulder, then said, “Were there any signs on those predators? Or something like a flag? Things like that?”

While he spoke, Jiang Chen took a rag that was stained and painted with a red airplane.

It was the symbol of the Airport Gang. The “indigenous people” in North America seemed to like to engage in performance art. When Jiang Chen went downstairs, he saw this rag in the center of the airport’s second-floor lobby. It annoyed him, so he tore it down.

When Han Yue saw this flag, he searched deep in his memory for a while, suddenly his eyes lit up, and he said, “I remember. All of them wore black masks with the same symbol painted in white paint.”

“What symbol?”

“A skeleton!”

A white skull?

Jiang Chen touched his chin.

Based on this clue, he could deduct that it was probably the Skeleton Gang or the White Skeleton Gang that occupied the colony. However, Jiang Chen still was not convinced by the fact that a gang of predators could take out his colony.

While Zhou Guoping’s character was questionable at times, his intelligence was fine. Otherwise, Jiang Chen would not have entrusted the North American colony to him. Maybe Jessica and Hardy, who are both predators, would know something, and maybe Chinatown could also give him some advice.

After he gathered all the evidence in his mind, Jiang Chen asked one last question.

“One last question, how did you get here?”

The Santa Monica Airport and the port were a little far apart. The straight-line distance from the map was two kilometers.

“I heard from the sailor on the ship that there was a Chinatown near Santa Monica, and the place has established a good relationship with the colony. Therefore, I planned to ask them to borrow a radio station and send the information to Wanghai.” A wry smile then appeared on Han Yue’s face. “However, the sailor didn’t tell me where Chinatown was. When I passed by the airport, I wondered if there would be a map of Los Angeles here, so I decided to come in. However, I got caught in their trap as soon as I came in.”

Chinatown in Santa Monica?

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows twitched involuntarily.

If he recalled correctly, Chinatown in Los Angeles should be in the city center.

But after he thought about it, it seemed to make sense. After all, there was still a big difference between the historical trends of the modern world and the apocalypse. Even an airport appeared in Santa Monica, so it did not seem too strange that Chinatown was nearby.

For safety reasons, Jiang Chen still verified his identity.

The identity information of all NAC citizens was bounded to fingerprints and irises and collected in the database of the logistics department. As the general, he naturally could check the database at will. Although traditional communication methods could not currently connect with Wanghai’s server, Jiang Chen’s watch was equipped with the interdimensional communication chip designed by Lin Lin.

It looked like he just performed magic when he took out a scanning gun that looked like a razor from the storage dimension. He scanned his eyes and retrieved his personal information.

[Han Yue, male, 25 years old, pre-war occupation: bank security officer. Obtained lower class citizenship of NAC in January 2019, registered as a colonist on September 10, 2020, and volunteered to travel to North America.]

“Give him a gun,” Jiang Chen pointed to Han Yue, and said to Zheng Shanhe, “We have our candidate for the foreman. You try to clear the runway by tomorrow night. I will take some people to Chinatown.”

“Or should I go?” Zheng Shanhe hesitated and said.

“No, I need to understand the situation in North America. It’s better to go there in person. Since Chinatown and the North American colony have a good relationship, they will probably help us.” After Jiang Chen finished this sentence, he walked out of the lobby.

Without insisting further, Zheng Shanhe nodded, took a rifle, and threw it over. He then looked at Han Yue, who hurriedly caught the rifle. He stepped forward and patted his shoulder, “From now on, you are a soldier of NAC. I hope you can adapt to your new identity as soon as possible and perform well. I’m optimistic about what you can do.”

“Me? What should I do?” With the rifle in his arms, Han Yue seemed a bit out of sorts, “Clean up the airport? I…”

“Cleaning the airport is not your job. We will tell the predators how to do it. You are an overseer, and you are responsible for helping us watch them work. If they are not obedient, you can ask them to have bullets for dinner. It’s that simple. Don’t tell me you haven’t killed anyone after living for so long.”

“I had been a caravan guard for a few months…” Han Yue derided himself.

Of course, he killed people before, and he’d even killed a few. However, he still had not fully adapted to his new identity.

“Then it will be easy,” Zheng Shanhe pointed to the slaves behind him who looked timid. “These guys probably don’t understand Mandarin. Since you signed up for North America, I hope you can at least speak English. You can pick a few who can communicate with as your helpers, and I will give them a pistol and a few bullets to help you manage them.”

When Han Yue saw that Zheng Shanhe in the power armor was about to leave, he hurriedly stepped forward and asked.

“Can I ask who you are? I mean, is it the Expeditionary Force or the First Division…I have no other intention, I just want to ask where I’m enlisted now.”

Zheng Shanhe had to process the information for a moment, and then he had a strangely smug look on his face. He raised his thumb and pointed at the gate of the lobby.

“Do you know who the one who spoke to you just now was?”

Han Yue swallowed down his saliva, then asked cautiously.

“If I may… who is he?”

“His identity will probably scare you to death.” Zheng Shanhe grinned.

Chapter 1387: Smith Zhao

To secure the airport was usually the top priority; even ahead of the investigation of the colony.

After all, they could only evacuate from North America under any circumstances with a cleared runway.

The predators who had surrendered were escorted to the airport. While Zheng Shanghe was instructing, Jiang Chen cleared out the zombies with a few guards in the airport.

These zombies wandering in the airport were originally raised by the Airport Gang to guard the door here. These dull-headed living dead were quite good at finding traces left by the living. However, Jiang Chen didn’t need their assistance since drones could act as the gatekeeper, so he cleared the area.

When time just passed the noon mark, the Aerospace G100, which had made another trip, once again visited North America and parachuted down supplies.

In this batch of supplies that crossed the Pacific Ocean, in addition to the equipment for repairing the runway, there were also several large boxes of canned food, self-heating lunches, and ammunition that Jiang Chen could not just take out from the storage dimension. There were also portable artilleries designed for the T-3 power armor and the type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannon specifically made for the N-100.

In addition, Jiang Chen also found something special amongst the supplies.

It was a lunch box with a rabbit pattern and it was still hot. A note was pasted next to the box. When Jiang Chen saw the graceful handwriting, he immediately guessed who it was. Blushing, Jiang Chen hid the lunch box, walked to a place where no one was nearby before he opened the lid and started munching on the food.

There was no need to guess at all. The lunch box was Yao Yao’s masterpiece, and her cooking skill was also the best in the mansion. It was impossible to count on Sun Jiao in cooking. In addition to the bacon and grilled sausages that Jiang Chen started to love recently, there was also white rice surrounded by broccoli, as well as cuttlefishes that were roasted to perfection.

The little girl’s cooking was getting better and better. While he was feasting on the lunch, Jiang Chen even took out a can of beer from the storage dimension. After he devoured everything, he wiped his mouth and then jumped back into the power armor and returned to the airport.

By now, Zheng Shanhe and the others had also finished eating. They were resting beside the runway. As for the predators, after each of them received half of a nutrient supply, they started to work on the bumpy runway.

Jiang Chen walked over to Zheng Shanhe to let him know, then looked at Jessica who was crouching on the side.

As a slave to the General himself, Jiang Chen granted her permission not to brave the sun and work at the airport with those predators.

“Want to eat?” When he heard the sound of swallowing, he deliberately picked up a can from the supply box, tossed it in the air, and smiled sinisterly, “If you want to eat, just say it. If you don’t tell me, I won’t know.”

Although Jessica knew that he was teasing her, Jessica still looked at him with a flattering expression and looked at the can in his hand pitifully.

“It’s a pity that I forgot to bring dog food.” Jiang Chen threw the can back into the supply box, then sat on the stairs on the side. Jessica’s look of disappointment soon turned to surprise as he threw a package of compressed biscuits into her arms, “I’m going to Chinatown, I need a guide.”

Jiang Chen was well aware of the stick and carrot strategy.

To deal with the indigenous people, he had to rely on indigenous people. Since she was wearing the collar, Jiang Chen was not afraid that she would run away. Since he needed her to do work at this time, a pack of crackers or a bag of instant noodles was more useful than anything else.

“Are you going to Chinatown?” The hand that was about to tear the bag stopped and a hint of trepidation appeared on her face. Then she said tremblingly, “I can’t go there. They will kill me when they see me. Let Hardy guide you. Taking me there will only cause you trouble.”

“Hardy’s leg is broken, so I’d have to find someone to carry him.” Jiang Chen waved his hand impatiently. “Don’t worry, there is an old saying that you have to look at the owner when you hit a dog. Since you have this hanging around your neck, no one can touch you before I leave North America… Well, just in case, let me ask, what did you do?”

“I stole their boss’s bottle caps,” Jessica said cautiously.

“Just that?”

“And kicked his nuts…”

“…”

…

The Chinatown in Santa Monica was not the Los Angeles Chinatown in the traditional sense, but a touristic Chinese community. In addition to a few ancient-looking Chinese buildings, there were also many other buildings from other East Asian cultures.

After the war, because of the influx of Chinese refugees from Los Angeles, the local Chinese exhibited the tradition of working together to help their compatriots in the face of difficulties and eventually developed into a formidable local power. While the force was not comparable to the Minutemen or the National Guards in the area, it was far more powerful compared to the average survivor settlement or predator gang.

Coincidentally, after Jiang Chen questioned the prisoners captured by the Airport Gang, he discovered that one of them happened to be from Chinatown. Although he was just an ordinary survivor with no status, he was a fine stepping stone.

In order to avoid unnecessary troubles, Jiang Chen did not take Jessica with him. Instead, he asked her to draw the directions on a map and then took the six guards and the prisoner who had regained his freedom to Chinatown; it was two kilometers away.

In front of the entrance of Chinatown, a huge iron gate and two soldiers blocked the path of the crew.

“Stop! You’re about to enter Chinatown! The caravan, please show your certificate, and all others, leave immediately!” At the entrance of the street, two soldiers in kinetic skeletons grabbed their rifles as they watched Jiang Chen and the others warily.

Judging from their equipment, Chinatown was well-equipped. Although these two kinetic skeletons clearly looked like hand-made products made by welding guns, they were definitely better than nothing.

Jiang Chen glanced at the heavy machine gun at the door and made a judgment call on the strength of Chinatown in his mind. He was about to speak, but the rescued Chinatown man behind him spoke first.”

“Zhuzi! I’m Ping from next door!”

The soldier named Zhuzi’s eyes widened and stared at his old friend in disbelief.

“You, are you really Ping? Wait, haven’t you been caught by the bandits at the airport?”

“The Airport Gang has been wiped out! I got rescued!” At this point, Wang Ping turned his head and looked at Jiang Chen gratefully, and then reached out and introduced them to the soldier named Zhuzi, “They are friendly. Our compatriots from across the Pacific Ocean!”

The soldier clearly looked surprised as he examined Jiang Chen and the few people behind Jiang Chen. After he made eye contact with his comrade, he stepped forward and clasped his fists. “I do apologize for being disrespectful. Please wait a moment while I go and ask General Zhao for instructions.”

After he finished this sentence, the soldier called Zhuzi turned and walked into the guard room, and grabbed the phone.

They didn’t wait for too long before the door slowly opened.

Surrounded by a group of soldiers, a man who was also in a kinetic skeleton walked out from behind the door. With a heartily smile, he extended his right hand full of friendliness.

“Haha, welcome to Chinatown, friends who come from afar. My name is Smith Zhao, I do apologize for not welcoming you earlier, I hope you can forgive me.”

Chapter 1388: Strange

This is the guy whose nuts got kicked by Jessica…

The way he looked at Smith Zhao was a bit weird, but he quickly realized that it was disrespectful and so he concealed the strange look in his eyes with a dry cough.

“My name is Zheng Shanhe, they are my people,” Jiang Chen opened the armor mask out of courtesy. Then, he borrowed Zheng Shanhe’s name, pointed to the six guards in power armors behind him, and made up some information.” We are from Wanghai, and we are part of the NAC First Division.”

Despite the expansion of the NAC colony, some people on the West Coast of North America have heard of the title “NAC General”, but fortunately no one placed his portraits everywhere. At least General Zhao did not recognize his identity.

“Wanghai? First Division? I’ve heard of this name,” Smith Zhao said with some suspicion and examined him from head to toe. “Then, for safety’s sake, let me ask one more question… As members of the First Division, why are you here in Chinatown in Los Angeles?”

Obviously, he didn’t believe Jiang Chen’s remarks, at least he didn’t let his guard down.

“We are not malicious, otherwise we would not save your people,” Jiang Chen pointed to the young man named Wang Ping next to him, and said, “We are here to understand the situation at our outpost.”

Colony was the term NAC referred to for its colonies. Of course, this term was not used outside of the colonies. NAC used the word outpost to refer to these colonies, and most of the survivors in North America referred to that area as “outpost”, “outpost town” and so on… It was the information Jiang Chen collected from Jessica.

When Smith Zhao heard the word outpost, the alertness in his tone was suddenly replaced by a hint of surprise.

“Outpost Town? Wait, are you here for the outpost?”

“Is there a problem?” Jiang Chen asked.

“I thought you left the unfinished building there and returned home. After all, there was really nothing good to remember here in North America.” Smith Zhao stared at Jiang Chen with wide eyes and his surprised expression didn’t seem to be faked. “If I remember correctly, it should be the Black Skull, a demon in the Nevada desert, who lives there now.”

“Is he called Black Skull? No matter if they are demons or not, thank you for your information.” Jiang Chen nodded, paused for a moment, and said, “In fact, we did not evacuate from North America, and even sent new immigrants not long ago…but the situation here surprised us. The entire outpost disappeared. There was no signal. We don’t even know what happened here.”

“…Strange.” Smith Zhao was also caught by surprise and he said, “You… haven’t received any news?”

“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded.

“That’s really strange… Anyway, don’t stand at the door, come to my place.” After he murmured “strange” several times, Smith Zhao waved his hand behind him and motioned the Asian-looking soldiers to put away their weapons.

General Zhao’s name was Smith Zhao. Although he claimed to be a Chinese immigrant from the Rongcheng area, he obviously couldn’t even find the place on the map.

However, it didn’t matter where his ancestors were. The more important fact was that General Zhao’s attitude towards the colony was quite friendly. After he confirmed that Jiang Chen really came from the NAC across the Pacific, his attitude was obviously much more enthusiastic, and he did not conceal that trace of longing for the other side of the Pacific.

In his eyes, North America was now a place full of ruins, and Asia would definitely be much better. After all, he had never heard of any survivor force on the West Coast that ended up in Pan-Asia, it was always NAC cargo ships that sailed here one after another.

During the conversation with General Zhao, Jiang Chen learned that Chinatown and the colony were very close with each other, and the merchants of the two sides often traded, until the colony was “abandoned”, General Zhao and the merchants at the Sixth Street even finalized a blockbuster deal worth 50,000 crystals.

After Jiang Chen learned about General Zhao’s distress, he immediately stated that he would perform the contract on behalf of the merchant, and pay for the goods with canned food instead of caps in the name of the military government, provided that he can produce relevant certificates. After General Zhao received Jiang Chen’s promise, General Zhao even happily regarded him as a friend, and almost swore to become brothers for life.

“Thank you so much! My friend! I really don’t know what to do without you. The furs of those long-tailed guinea pigs are very troublesome to deal with, and they are very difficult to find. You may not be fully aware of this from the other side of the ocean. Here, no one wants these things at all.” General Zhao ordered his man to pour a glass of ale for Jiang Chen, as he looked at Jiang Chen eagerly while he sat on the sofa.

To be precise, there was no demand for such flashy things anywhere except for the Sixth Street.

For survivors, filling their stomachs was the foremost and most crucial need, followed by a series of physiological needs. As for luxury goods and other things that promote social prosperity, they were only in demand after the concept of society was widely established.

The best-selling products in the North American wasteland were always powerful and reliable machineries and fierce weapons. Although canned food, tea, and tobacco could be considered a luxury, they were consumables after all, as well as comforting products, therefore, the demand would never shrink.

But for products like guinea pig furs that could only be used as decorations, even if the rich in Liberty City were interested, they would never buy back furs worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of bottle caps like NAC merchants. It was far more economical to hire a few hunters than to spend bottle caps, and the coats or carpets made by the furs could be used for a long time without breaking.

“We can talk about guinea pig furs later, I’m not here to discuss business,” Jiang Chen continued, focused on General Zhao, “You will receive your cans once the port at Outpost Town is back in our hands. You should understand what I mean. .”

“Do you want us to help you regain Outpost Town?” Smith Zhao processed the information, then shook his head and smiled bitterly, “I’m sorry I can’t do you this favor. The Black Skull’s firepower is too powerful. I’m already thanking God that he is not seeking trouble here. I must be responsible to my people.”

“It’s not difficult for us to destroy them without your help.” Jiang Chen shook his head and said to dispel the concern in Smith Zhao’s mind, “The key to the problem now is that I must figure out what happened in Outpost Town.”

“Is there anything we can help with?” Smith Zhao asked.

Although he was unwilling to take risks for NAC’s territory, he was still willing to sell this favor to NAC without threatening his own safety. Disregard the big deal worth 50,000 crystals, he was willing to help out of the love for his compatriots.

While the situation was not common in other settlements, it was quite common in the North American Chinese survivors to help others with favors. After all, they were marginalized people who were excluded from mainstream society before the war. They were almost imprisoned in concentration camps during the war, and things did not get better after the war either.

Helping each other had become a tradition in this group. If the words they did not help their compatriots got out, people would judge them harshly.

“If it is convenient, I hope you can help me find out what happened to the outpost. In addition, I need some people, not a lot, two or three should be enough. I’ll pay them a reasonable price. Finally, I want to exchange some of our supplies for bottle caps…”

Chapter 1389: Chinatown's Mercenary

Bottle caps that circulated in the wasteland weren’t just made from a capping machine.

Only the bottle cap of quantum coke with anti-counterfeiting code, manufactured after the economic crisis in 2150, possessed value. Moreover, the value of the 350ml bottle cap was different from the 660ml limited edition bottle cap. Because no survivor force could find a way to manufacture this type of cap so far, the value had remained stable. A large bottle cap was equal to twenty normal caps. The term “how many caps” was used in trading.

At the start, someone joked that “the anti-counterfeiting technology of the Coca-Cola bottle cap was better than banknotes; it could become the currency of third world countries someday, after all, their banknotes have been depreciating.” In the end, this lighthearted joke became a reality. On the wasteland more than 40 years later, the bottle cap really become a currency.

It was just a pity that the place was not a third world country but in the wasteland of North America…

The physical identification code developed by The Coca-Cola Company at a high price finally made it convenient for the survivors on the wasteland in North America. There was no need to connect to the Internet, just a palm-sized scanner could identify the authenticity of bottle caps, which made it even more convenient compared to crystals.

As for how the bottle cap became popular, there were many deeper reasons behind this, but the details won’t be discussed here.

Jiang Chen exchanged the ten boxes of canned luncheon meat he brought with him for an equivalent amount of bottle caps from General Zhao, roughly equal to more than 5,000 caps. If converted into crystals based on the market in North America, it was around 300 crystals.

It was not difficult to imagine how severe inflation was in North America.

After Jiang Chen exchanged for the bottle caps, he did not leave immediately. Instead, he chatted with this General Zhao for a bit longer.

In addition to intelligence related to the colony, he also heard some interesting rumors.

For example, the leader of Tony’s Club was not dead and you had to be careful when you see unidentified canned meat as sometimes people would recycle NAC canned food cans to use for “counterfeiting”. As for what kind of meat was sold in it, you would only know once you eat it; another example was that the atmosphere in Steel City and Liberty City were very unnatural recently. It was as if they were going to go to war, but they didn’t know who their opponents were.

Jiang Chen recorded the rumors into his watch. After he checked the time and realized it was getting late, he said goodbye to General Zhao.

“If there is any information, I will send someone to the airport to find you. If you need manpower, you can go to the tavern at the entrance of Chinatown. Lone travelers, hunters, and caravan guards are all good choices. However, I suggest you pay attention when dealing with white people. If it were not for the strong request from the merchants, we would have never let those people in.” Before Jiang Chen left, Smith Zhao reminded.

“I will pay attention.” Jiang Chen gestured goodbye and walked down the street with the six guards waiting at the door.

“Go and buy some nutrient supplies and ask for information about the colony along the way. We will meet here in an hour.” After he handed a box of bottle caps to a guard, he said, “You don’t need to save money for me. ”

Typically, the places that sold nutrient supplies were busy, perhaps the boss there would know something.

“Roger!” The guard nodded and walked to the other side of Chinatown.

Jiang Chen looked up at the tavern on the side, then motioned a few guards to wait at the door before he walked in.

The survivors in Chinatown were quite prejudiced, but this prejudice was mainly against survivors of other skin colors. Without the mask, the Asian survivors in the tavern looked at Jiang Chen with envy, rather than greed or covetousness.

In the North American wasteland, power armor was not only a symbol of strength but also a symbol of financial power.

It was not easy for ordinary survivors to own a kinetic skeleton. Only the lords could afford the power armor. Even General Zhao did not possess many power armors, let alone the lone travelers that wasted their days.

A piece of power armor directly dictated the fact of whether they’d run or fight against a Death Claw. It was the ultimate dream of all lone travelers and mercenaries to own a power armor.

In the eyes of these survivors, Jiang Chen and others had become the kind of compatriots they respect. If they appeared in this shabby place, they were definitely not here for a drink. The environment of the Chinatown restaurant was much better than here.

Those powerful lone travelers and mercenaries were already gearing up and debating on how to connect with this rich master. Many female lone travelers looked at Jiang Chen with affectionate glances, and some brave ones even whistled. While they accepted missions such as security, many open female mercenaries did not mind providing extra services. While they could receive tips from their employer, they could also satisfy their physical needs.

It was the North American way. Even if Asian survivors were relatively conservative, they were only relative to their compatriots across the ocean.

“I need to hire some manpower,” Jiang Chen walked to the bar and didn’t order any drinks. He directly slapped two large bottle caps on the table, and said to the bartender, “I have no special requirements for strength, as long as they are not a burden. I care more about credibility, and then they must be bright. Do you have any recommendations?”

The moment the bartender saw these two large bottle caps, his breathing became noticeably louder.

He collected the bottle caps calmly, glanced at the power armor on Jiang Chen, and said with a grin, “It is hard to find people who won’t be a burden, but it looks like you’re not looking for bodyguards or guards. If I guess right, then I recommend you try those scavengers. Their instincts are as keen as mice, and they are familiar with any survivor settlement.”

At this moment, a tall and skinny man with a shaved head and a striking scar on his face came over. He stood next to Jiang Chen, examined him, then spoke.

“Do you need some hands?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen turned his gaze to the man and responded to his inquiry with a curious gaze, “You are?”

“Gris, I don’t remember my last name. Everyone called me Crow.” Gris grinned. “First of all, I won’t be a burden. Second, I’m familiar with the survivor settlements in California, Nevada, and Utah. If you need a guide, I’ll at least not let you get lost. If you plan to find someone, as long as he is still on the West Coast, he will not escape.”

Jiang Chen didn’t agree immediately but looked to the bartender who accepted his tip.

The latter was wiping the glass in his hand. Without being shy, he said straightforwardly.

“Crow Gris…well, I recognize the name a bit. The rare British man who can get in and out of Chinatown without being with a merchant fleet, and a scavenger with keen eyes who appears as a guard… That’s all I can think of. Based on the market price, a guide’s pay is 20 caps a day, and for a guard, it’s 40, the full week is calculated as six days. Of course, this is just my suggestion. You can figure it out yourself.”

“Okay,” Jiang Chen looked to Gris, “You are hired. I will pay you 50 caps a day, and I will tell you what your mission is later. The request is that I hope you are worthy of your compensation.”

Fifty bottle caps!

When everyone heard this number, many survivors looked enviously at Gris. It was rare to see such a generous employer even in Liberty City, let alone Chinatown.

When Gris heard his compensation, he too looked joyful, but he quickly hid the joy behind humility and nodded.

“I am honored to be of service to you.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

After Gris received this envious job and thought that the lavish employer would get up and leave immediately, his employer continued to sit there as if he had no intention of leaving.

“What do you want to drink?” The bartender asked, seeing that Jiang Chen didn’t plan to leave.

“No,” Jiang Chen shook his head, and said in a voice that everyone could hear, “I said, I need to hire some people…probably three to five more.”

Gris was stunned, and the bartender almost didn’t hold onto the glass in his hand.

As for the survivors inside…

They all went crazy.

Chapter 1390: An Informant

Chapter 1390: An Informant

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“Hire me! I know this area well! Are you planning to go to Liberty City or Steel City? No matter where you plan to go, as long as you say a name, I can definitely take you there!”

“…For forty-five, wait, no, forty bottle caps! My reflex is thirty-five! Shooting skill rating is B+! Hiring me will be a great choice!” A gorilla-looking mercenary squeezed from the crowd to the front, patted his chest, and said confidently.

“Handsome, don’t you want to consider me? I can not only protect you during the day but also help you fix the water pipe at night~” A certain mercenary in a nylon buckle vest winked while her arm was pressed against the bar.

Compensation of fifty caps a day!

For the survivors in the tavern, it was no different from picking up free money!

Take the fake wine in their hands as an example, a bottle of whiskey blended with inferior alcohol was already considered a “high-end product” among the survivors at the bottom of the society, and a small half bottle was enough to make people drunk for a whole day. The compensation offered by Jiang Chen was enough to let them buy two bottles in one day! Take equipment, for example, one week’s compensation could upgrade their entire gear! It was easy to imagine how tempting this job was.

Jiang Chen was not in a rush with the swarm of survivors eager to sell themselves. He asked everyone a few questions.

The bartender that received the tip also helped to ensure he got the best deal. Soon he picked two scavengers who looked clever and had reasonable credibility in this area.

The two lucky ones were named Mike Wu and Zhao Fuxiang.

Perhaps it was Jiang Chen’s illusion, but there seemed to be a lot of people with the last name Zhao in Chinatown?

Full of disappointment, the crowd around the bar gradually dispersed. Jiang Chen tossed a few large bottle caps on the bar to pay for Gris and the others’ bill and left the tavern with three people.

When the three saw the six power armors at the door, there were astonished, and the way they looked at Jiang Chen changed. If they were only envious when they saw the power armor on him, now they were completely conquered.

Other than the National Guards, who else on the entire wasteland could arm a squad with power armors?

They thought of a name already.

Except that Gris and the others were still not convinced. After all, NAC disappeared from the West Coast half a month ago. Everyone, including Gris, believed that NAC considered this area too poor, and they had withdrawn to the “rich and lavish” Asia.

The guard that he sent to gather intelligence had returned, Jiang Chen enquired.

“How is the situation?”

“The boss who sells the nutrient supply doesn’t know much about the colony, but I have heard some other interesting news.” The guard glanced at the three strangers behind Jiang Chen, then he spoke in the team communication channel.

“Let’s walk and talk.”

Jiang Chen gestured to Gris and the others behind him to follow, then he took the lead and headed for the entrance of Chinatown.

Half a step behind Jiang Chen, the guard reported.

“According to the pharmacy owner, the governor of the colony and the predators were very close, and many predators simply decided to join Zhou Guoping and became mercenaries.”

“That’s like his style, it’s nothing new,” Jiang Chen snorted, then pursed his lips, “What then?”

Zhou Guoping’s personal charm always appealed to interesting people, such as grumpy scums like predators and robbers. It was difficult for ordinary people to communicate with them, but Zhou Guoping seemed to be able to mingle with them and even negotiate business with them easily.

There was no derogation here. It was also an ability to unite the predators under one’s own banner. When bandits became bodyguards, it would promote the safety of trade routes. It was not necessarily possible with hundreds of thousands of bullets.

If the Governor of North America was given to another person, that person would not necessarily do a better job.

Jiang Chen was quite confident of himself with understanding character. If he was not confident with his ability, he would not have sent him to North America.

“The boss mentioned a name.”

“Who?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Blood Axe,” the guard continued, “one of the predator leaders who joined Zhou Guoping with his force. A month ago, he took his gang and appeared in Chinatown in the colony’s name and purchased a batch of iodine and a whole container of nutrition supply, then soon left here.”

“Interesting,” Jiang Chen touched his chin and said, “A whole container of nutrient supply, he is planning to travel far.”

“I think so too, and the radiation level where they are going must be quite high!” The guard’s tone gave a hint of excitement, “Not only that, according to the pharmacy owner, Blood Axe seemed to be searching for something for the colony.”

Searching for something?

Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised.

What is it that can turn such a large colony into an empty town overnight?

From intuition, it felt like Zhou Guoping and the people in the colony should be still alive, but where did they go.

Jiang Chen’s expression was a bit weird.

He considered himself to not be a spiritualist, but now he was questioning if a supernatural event happened…

After they left Chinatown, Jiang Chen looked at the two men and said, “I have a task now for you two. Go to Steel City and Liberty City separately to hire two mercenary groups for me. Preferably larger than 300 people, and the stronger the firepower the better. Let them come to the airport and I will pay with what they are interested in. In addition, when you are hiring, help me gather some information about something…”

Jiang Chen dictated what he was looking to learn.

After he confirmed that the two remembered, they agreed to meet at Santa Monica Airport in a week. Then, Jiang Chen urged the two to set off immediately.

After the two left, Gris, who was next to him, looked at Jiang Chen and asked.

“What about me?”

“I remember you said that you are very good at finding people?” Jiang Chen turned his head to Gris, then said, “I will give you a name now, and there are no clues other than that. How certain are you about finding this person?”

“It’s a bit difficult, but it’s nothing for me. I said that as long as the person you are looking for is on the West Coast, I’ll definitely find the person.” Gris grinned, “Of course, there is another premise, the person has to live.”

“Blood Axe,” Jiang Chen said concisely.

“A very interesting name,” Gris squinted his eyes while he rubbed his unshaven chin. “…I have heard of this man. A month ago, he took his people to join Outpost Town and turned into guards. However, in the end, he disappeared with the people in Outpost Town.”

“How confident are you?” Jiang Chen said.

“How do you know if you don’t try?” Gris shrugged, “What is the reward? If you are looking for someone—”

Jiang Chen, who was too lazy to talk nonsense with him, threw a box of bottle caps directly into his arms before he could finish. The latter who caught the iron box was slightly confused. But when opened the lid and took a look, he almost dropped the box because of astonishment.

“This is the advance payment, and it is also your activity fund,” Jiang Chen stared at Gris’s widened eyes, and said unhurriedly, “Whether he is alive or dead, I want to see him. You have ten days to complete this task. We will also meet at the airport.”

“Three, four, fi…five hundred,” Gris counted the number in the box, gulped down, looked at Jiang Chen, and said in a tone that was both joking and serious, “You are not afraid that I’ll run away with the deposit?”

“It’s only five hundred bottle caps. It may be a huge sum of money for you, but it’s not a big deal to me,” Jiang Chen said nonchalantly, and shrugged, “If you run away with the money, at most I will spend twice the amount for the price of your life.”

The undertone in his statement seemed to be narrating an ordinary task, but in Gris’ ears, his heartbeat almost stopped.

A thousand caps…

Even a hundred of those cute little things were enough to give California cowboys a reason to tear him apart.

Gris felt that the iron box in his hands was turning hot.

“What’s your answer?” Jiang Chen asked patiently and ignored the expression on his face.

The heavyweight in his hands, as well as the clanking sounds made by the bottle caps, made his brain gain some clarity. He took a deep breath, looked at Jiang Chen, and said solemnly.

“I will give you news in ten days at the latest.”

Jiang Chen nodded.

“I’ll be waiting for your good news.”

Chapter 1391: Who told you that its just us?

Chapter 1391: Who told you that it’s just us?

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

North American colony, Governor’s Mansion.

Black Skull sat on the chair that previously belonged to Zhou Guoping with both his feet on the desk. He bathed in the warm sunlight streaming through the window as he picked his teeth with a toothpick and played with the badge in his hand.

The bronze badge was gilded under the ray, and the three letters NAC, as well as a sword and a shield, were clearly visible. Black Skull did not know what this badge symbolized, but he did not care either. It was a trophy he took from the ship captain.

He stuffed the badge into his pocket casually, then yawned lazily.

There were no dry sands, no deadly poisonous scorpions, only the brackish sea breeze, and warm and welcoming sunlight. He had never dreamed of such a pleasant day, but now everything was so real.

Containers filled with canned food and compressed biscuits and the piles of rice and potatoes made him gain the extravagant idea of ”using some of the grain to make wine.” He only gave up on the idea because he was unable to find anyone skilled enough to do this.

As for the possibility of NAC seeking revenge…

To be honest, he was not very afraid of those Asians.

He had to admit that they were indeed very powerful, and if they used their full force, even the National Guards would have to admit defeat. However, he also had the confidence that he ruled this piece of land, and he had a particularly big fist.

Even in the worst-case scenario and NAC’s army came to North America to seek revenge, if he decided to hide in the Nevada desert, who could find him? He had prepared four or five of the abandoned fallout shelters for situations like this.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

It was his bone-headed strategist – The Crippled Bills, and the strong Slavic man with a mohawk – Rodney. One became the mayor of the outpost, and the other became the police sheriff, in charge of logistics and slaves.

And Black Skull was naturally the person in charge.

As for the specific title, he did not think of one yet.

“The mud crab breeding base has been cleaned up. What are these Asian’s heads made out of? Why didn’t anyone think about breeding these things before?” Rodney touched the hair on his head and said with some confusion.

Before the group of Asians came to North America, no one had ever tried the crab roe from mud crabs. The vast majority of people’s choice of food was either nutrient supplies with different raw ingredients or the two-headed Brahman beef with a texture like sand.

No one thought that a delicacy would be hidden inside the hard shell stronger than the power armor.

Of course, deliciousness was accompanied by danger.

While the slaves were cleaning the pond for breeding, Rodney witnessed several slaves get dragged down into the water by the powerful crabs and were mauled to death. The tragic scene of their miserable death even made his scalp numb.

“No matter what their heads are made out of, I only care about when my farm will resume production.” Black Skull said while he yawned and neglected Rodney’s confusion. In his opinion, no matter how smart and creative the yellow-skinned monkeys were, they eventually left everything for him. Without a doubt, he was the wisest and strongest in this wasteland.

“It has been resumed. I have arranged twenty slaves to run it. Whoever is lazy at work will be fed to the crabs.” Rodney smiled cruelly.

“What about you?” Black Skull looked at Bills and said lazily, “Is the inventory count done?”

“The inventory count has been completed and all the supplies are recorded on it.” As Bills responded, he flipped the book in his hand to the catalog and handed it to his boss respectfully. “Converted into bottle caps, these materials are worth at least 70 million. You are already the richest man on the West Coast.”

“Hahaha,” the shriveled laughter filled the room. After he had laughed enough, he sat back down on the chair.

He was quite satisfied with the term “rich”, especially after adding the prefix “the richest”. It made him more satisfied than ever.

As he flipped through the book, he nodded repeatedly and praised, “Good job, very good.”

“We have plenty of supplies now. I suggest taking some canned food to Liberty City for weapons and slaves.” While the boss was happy, Bills grinned and suggested, “We must prepare early. Sooner or later the National Guards will come after this, and NAC as well. We ransacked their entire cargo ship after all.”

“Slaves?” Black Skull’s ears perked up but he waved his hand as if the matter did not concern him. “They are everywhere, why trade them with caps? Rodney, take a few trucks of our men around the city and catch some. Also, get me some big booty blondes.”

“Yes, boss, count on me,” Rodney said excitedly with a bloodthirsty glow in his eyes.

The days of watching slaves work had made him feel bored a long time ago.

In his bones, he was a militant. Although life here was comfortable, it was not the life Rodney wanted. Only looting and killing made him feel sparks of joy in his heart.

Bills could only show a bitter smile on his face. He sighed in his mind and thought that his boss was not destined to become a warlord. Even if NAC left him an entire city, it would only become a marauder’s castle in his hands. Once they squandered NAC’s loot, they would have to return to the desert.

Bills wanted to say something more but decided to close his mouth. Instead, he lowered his head and walked back.

Although his boss could occasionally listen to other’s opinions, he could never persuade him in anything related to principles. He could find all the typical shortcomings, such as laziness, stubbornness, stupidity, never thinking about tomorrow…

Before the war, this idiot would have starved to death in a slum.

But now in the apocalypse, on the wasteland, violence was the only criterion. Whoever had the biggest fist was the boss…

…

On the other side, Jiang Chen took his guards and returned to Santa Monica Airport before the Sun went down. When he just walked into the airport building, he happened to see the two recruited overseers walking out from the ticket gate with two corpses.

Judging from the tattoos on the corpses, they most likely belonged to predators who were planning to escape.

Jiang Chen was never polite to the predators that used their crooked brains to plot against him. He had already told his captain and Han Yue that if they encountered any disobedient predator s to just shoot.

After Jiang Chen entered the lobby, he saw Zheng Shanhe sitting there studying a map. Jessica marked all the survivor settlements, predator camps, and even fallout shelters she knew on the Los Angeles city map attached to the airport brochure.

When Zheng Shanhe saw Jiang Chen come in, he immediately put away the map, stood up, and saluted.

“How is the progress on the runway?”

Zheng Shanhe immediately reported, “A few disobedient predators were made examples, and now these foreigners are much more obedient. Now the runway has been repaired to 40%. If we work overnight, it should be fixed before noon tomorrow.”

“Very good.” Jiang Chen nodded.

Zheng Shanhe glanced at the people squatting in the corner of the waiting room, then he asked Jiang Chen for instructions, “What about those people? Should we continue to feed them?”

“In a bit, get them downstairs and ask if they are willing to work for NAC. If they are willing to stay, three nutrient supplies a day, and after two months, the compensation can be improved. If they are not willing, then just let them leave and don’t let them get in the way here.”

The price of three nutrient supplies was worth around five to ten caps. Most survivors could barely fill their stomach with two tubes a day. For these poor people without a steady source of income, the compensation was very generous.

Based on the unwritten rules on the wasteland, NAC destroyed Airport Gang so these prisoners would continue to be slaves under NAC as spoils. Now, NAC was willing to give them compensation for their work. They would definitely sincerely express their gratitude for this generous treatment.

After these fifty people joined them and were armed with a few guns, a cannon fodder force could be formed.

“I’ll go now.”

“Wait a moment, this is not a priority,” Jiang Chen stopped Zheng Shanhe, sat down, and continued, “I have something else more crucial to discuss with you.”

Zheng Shanhe respectfully waited for Jiang Chen’s instruction.

“I plan to take the colony back from Black Skull. Based on what Han Yue said, they have a lot of our slaves, and most likely they are still alive. And the resources they have looted away, they are such a waste in their hands.”

“Just with us?” Zheng Shanhan digested the information and began to sweat, “This is too risky, we should wait for the expeditionary force…”

“It will take at least a month for the expeditionary force to arrive. in North America and it will be more problematic if they force the slaves stand in the front.” Jiang Chen looked at Zheng Shanhe, who wanted to say something but was reluctant to do so, then he laughed and continued on, “Also, who told you that it’s just us?”

Chapter 1392: Expelling Wolves By Steering Tigers

Chapter 1392: Expelling Wolves By Steering Tigers

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

It was easy to take out Black Skull in the outpost, to the point where NAC did not even need to get involved.

Problems that could be solved with money were not problems. Especially with canned food, which was completely worthless in the modern world. Jiang Chen gave the two Chinatown scavengers a week not to find the strongest mercenaries, but to release news in the two largest survivor settlements in California.

Santa Monica Airport needed mercenaries.

The runway of the airport was repaired, and the aerospace plane brought the second batch of supplies as scheduled. This time, the Aerospace G100 did not return to Pan-Asia but landed on the runway of the airport.

Communications in North America and Asia were still in a state of interruption. If an emergency did happen and they had to evacuate, it would take an hour before the plane arrived using communication with the interdimensional chip.

In the next week, Jiang Chen had not gone anywhere and waited patiently in the airport. On the third day after the two Chinese scavengers set off, mercenaries successively arrived at the airport, asking if they needed manpower.

In line with the principle of more is better, Jiang Chen welcomed everyone to stay but did not immediately offer a commission. Instead, he asked them to wait patiently until a week later, during which time NAC would follow the standard of three nutrient supplies per person per day for free. If they did not want to waste time here, it was okay to come back a week later.

And after a week, when the two scavengers returned to the airport with mercenary forces that met the requirements, the runway of Santa Monica Airport was already crowded with people.

Everyone, without exception, did not look too pleased when they saw so many fellow colleagues here.

If it weren’t for NAC’s free nutrient supplies, if it weren’t for NAC’s clear deadline, if it weren’t for the fact that NAC’s wealthy impression had been deeply rooted among the West Coast survivors. If there were not so many reasons, they would have already dispersed.

In front of the glass windows of the airport building, Jiang Chen counted them from a distance and concluded there were at least 2,000 people.

These mercenaries were poorly equipped. Some were carrying customized drone backpacks on their backs and composite body armors. Some of them couldn’t even afford to wear clothes and had a few pieces of rags with a .38 caliber iron barrel rifle on their shoulder.

“Do we need to continue to wait?” Walking to the side of Jiang Chen, Zheng Shanhe hesitantly said, “Those mercenaries have grown impatient. I’m worried that if we keep waiting, there may be problems.”

“Wait until noon.” Jiang Chen raised his hand and looked at his watch. “It’s only two hours anyway.”

Two hours passed quickly, both for the mercenaries on the runway and for NAC. Afterward, a few lone travelers who decided to try their luck came sporadically. Jiang Chen estimated that it was time, so he walked to the side of the airport runway and turned on the loudspeaker on the power armor.

“First of all, to all of you who have waited patiently until now, I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of NAC. In order to ensure that no information is leaked, we have not announced our mission. However, I am here to assure you, we will hire each of you because this is a big mission.”

In front of the countless mercenaries, Jiang Chen keenly noticed the impatient expressions of the few people in front of him. Therefore, he didn’t waste much time in the opening remarks and went straight to the point. “A month ago, we lost control of our outpost. After being ordered to land on the West Coast, I found a group of predators had occupied our outpost. The mission is to retake our outpost.”

Retake the outpost?

The mercenaries present suddenly had a commotion when they heard the mission.

A mercenary dressed as a cowboy in the front row stepped forward.

“Retake Outpost Town for you? If you are no match for Black Skull, how do you think we can win? This is all for us to be cannon fodder for you!”

Before the accident, there were 50 power armors stationed in Outpost Town, and countless kinetic skeletons, and this strong lineup was no match for Black Skull. The survivors on the West Coast started to take a different path when they heard the name Black Skull.

Many people agreed with this mercenary’s speech. Especially those mercenaries that were poorly equipped. After they heard the sentence they agreed with, they were debating if they should leave.

“I can tell you responsibly that the fall of Outpost Town had nothing to do with Black Skull. They got lucky, but I hope you can get some intelligence from them,” Jiang Chen said with certainty.

“How much do you plan to pay us?” Another mercenary asked the question that concerned everyone.

“It depends on how much you do,” Jiang Chen looked at the person in front of him, and then said, “I won’t pay you equal salary, because it’s very unfair to those who have real ability. I can guarantee that each of you will get at least one can of canned meat and I’ll add one can for every predator you kill. Whoever catches Black Skull, I will reward him with a whole box. You should know clearly how many bottle caps they are worth in Liberty City.”

The price offered by Jiang Chen made the mercenaries take a deep breath. Driven by their interests, those who were debating if they should leave, also abruptly stopped their feet mid-air.

“SH*T… thousands of cans… that is not a small sum,” A mercenary licked his dry lips, looked at Jiang Chen’s eyes with suspicion and greed, and said in an uncertain tone.” Before I start, I want to see our reward. Don’t tell me you plan to produce them from your pockets.”

“Of course, they’re not in my pockets. Your reward is in the pockets of Black Skull.” Jiang Chen looked at the mercenary in front of him and smiled, “Just two weeks ago, they ransacked the cargo ship we sent to North America. Although those things are nothing to us, they captured our citizens, which made us very angry. If you take down Outpost Town, I can divide up half of the goods based on how much you contribute.”

…

Wealth made people crazy. It even made those mercenaries selectively forget the tradition of paying the deposit first.

Although the mercenaries present knew that Outpost Town was now controlled by Black Skull Gang, they really did not know that they ransacked NAC’s cargo ship. If that was the case, the predators with NAC supplies must be filthy rich…

It was impossible for any mercenary group to take down Black Skull alone, and thus impossible to swallow all the supplies, especially when the predators were defending a fortified place.

But it was a different story if everyone fought together!

There were at least two thousand mercenaries standing here. It was no exaggeration to say that this force alone was enough to sweep the entire West Coast. The National Guards or Minutemen would have to weigh their decision carefully if they encountered this force.

After a simple dispatch, more than two thousand mercenaries were led by Zheng Shanhe. Jiang Chen returned to the airport lobby, then looked to the two Chinese from Chinatown.

“Did you gather any intelligence on the things I asked?”

Mike Wu and Zhao Fuxiang glanced at each other, and finally the former spoke first, “I couldn’t find anything from Steel City, except that the Power Armor Team of the National Guards have been patrolling a bit too frequently. Also, I didn’t hear anything about the rumors you have mentioned.”

Jiang Chen looked to Zhao Fuxiang, who replied immediately.

“The same is true in Liberty City. Minutemen’s ‘Rangers’ have been patrolling very frequently. These are all visible changes. In addition, I heard a scavenger in the tavern mentioned that recently the Liberty City Council has been discussing whether to expand the conscription. They are most likely preparing for war, but I don’t know who the opponent is.”

“In that case…” Jiang Chen rubbed his chin as he digested this information. Then he nodded slightly, “I see.”

Chapter 1393: The Gunshots At Outpost Town

Chapter 1393: The Gunshots At Outpost Town

Black Skull needed slaves, more slaves!

When he saw the progress of the construction site was postponed day by day, Black Skull, who didn’t want to waste more supplies, finally could not sit around longer. He gathered his subordinates early in the morning and rolled out in a dozen modified armored vehicles and several large trucks. Under the flag of Black Skull, they headed to the city.

With half of the subordinates gone, the rest of them wandered around the fortress as usual when they had nothing to do. If they saw a slave that did not please their eyes, they would kick them. If they had urges, they would take off their pants.

The time in Outpost Town was like heaven.

On the guard tower at the front door, two predators leaned their automatic rifles to one side with low-quality cigarettes in their mouth. They chatted as they passed the boring time on guard.

One of the predators spat on the guard tower and cursed, “Fu*k, I should have gone out with the boss. I bet they must be enjoying life outside. When they come back, we can only play with the scraps left behind.”

“What’s wrong with that,” The other predator smiled lasciviously and shook his two fingers holding onto the cigarette. “Compared to the disobedient wild kitten, I prefer—”

Before he could finish his sentence, blood mist and brain matter exploded all over the guard tower.

The predator that was talking immediately ducked down and rolled to the side. He ignored the cigarette that fell onto the ground, and hurriedly grabbed the radio, “This is the guard tower! We encountered a sniper!”

The radio seemed to be broken; there was no response.

“FU*K!”

The predator smashed the radio to the ground, then glanced at his companion who had his brain exploded, his heart began to pound. Just as he resisted the nausea he started to feel and removed the binocular from the corpse’s neck to observe the situation outside the tower, he suddenly stopped moving, his eyes met a drone.

To be precise, it was the muzzle under the drone…

TATATATATA!

The man with a sniper rifle equipped on his back pressed the shooting button and looked at the blood spatter on the screen of the tablet. Then he put back the tablet and spoke into the radio on his shoulder.

“The threats in the guard tower are eliminated.”

On the other side, in the room near the front door of the fortress, an agile mercenary sneaked into the room and silently sliced the necks of the two predators with a dagger. He walked to a monitoring terminal and inserted a USB from his pocket.

When all the pictures on the screen froze, a cruel smile formed.

“My side is good too!”

There was not the slightest omen.

When the predators stationed here met the gaze of the mercenaries who had sneaked into the fortress, it was too late.

The sudden gunfire broke the silence of the fortress. With the sound of the first shot, countless gunshots ensued. The mercenaries who rushed into Outpost Town were engaged in a fierce battle at the front garden of the fortress before they opened the space below the Governor’s Mansion.

Even if the battle was full of customized high-tech weapons, laser beams mixed with bullets, drones flying in the air, thermal grenades and EMP grenades thrown back and forth, the battle between cannon folders was not artistic at all.

However, as time passed, the Black Skull Gang soon began to show signs of decline.

When the quality of weapons was similar, the quantity determined the outcome.

A predator slammed his shoulder heavily into the concrete wall next to him, stuck his rifle out of cover, and fired at the mercenaries attacking the fortress. However, the inaccurate shots were ineffective. He was quickly forced to take cover again.

“SH*T, their firepower is too strong!” Mohawk Rodney slammed the clip into the rifle with his trembling hands and gritted his teeth. He endured the cement crumbs that constantly slammed against his cheeks, then looked at the EP on his left arm.

His EP was connected to a drone terminal, and now five of the six drones bounded to it was offline, and only one remained on the battlefield.

He gritted his teeth, raised his rifle and fired indiscriminately, then tossed a smoke grenade before he snuck to the Governor’s Mansion. His only hope was for his boss to come back soon and flank these cannon folders with the armored vehicles.

It was his only hope for survival.

“FU*K, NAC mobilized a division to deal with us…” Bills lied behind cover in horror. He used the cameras he placed in the building to overlook the battle in front of the fortress, then he muttered to himself, “No, they are not from NAC, they are mercenaries…”

Just then, a grenade fell beside him.

Bills processed what had just happened and the panic in his eyes instantly turned into despair.

The strong desire to survive urged him to jump to the side, but he only jumped by half a step before the scorching waves hit his chest, and the flying shrapnel brought his consciousness to Satan.

When the predators saw the third highest-ranking leader fall down, their morale collapsed. Many predators even left their cover and escaped.

The mercenaries didn’t pursue further when the predators were defeated. They rushed into the Governor’s Mansion, for fear that their credits would be stolen by others.

Soon, Rodney’s roar came from the Governor’s Mansion.

However, this roar did not stop the defeat of the Black Skull Gang. Rodney, who had run out of ammunition, picked up his chair and wanted to make a path through the group of mercenaries. However, he obviously overestimated his strength and was pushed down by the mercenaries within a few seconds. He was tied up and sent to Jiang Chen…

…

After Jiang Chen learned the news of the victory, he brought six of his guards to the colony.

In the open downstairs space of the Governor’s Mansion, he saw the man with the mohawk.

“Are you Black Skull?” Jiang Chen stopped beside Rodney, took a few glances at the mohawk on the ground, then raised his eyebrows and said, “I remember Black Skull is black?”

“He is Rodney, nicknamed Bone Crusher, the second-in-rank leader of the Black Skull Gang. He stayed at base, and most likely their boss went to raid,” Jessica followed behind Jiang Chen and explained with a flattering tone.

Although Rodney was pinned down by two hands on the back of his head, he did not succumb as soon as he was captured like most predators. His eyes were bloodshot, and he stared at Jiang Chen from the ground.

“Bone Crusher? Interesting name,” Jiang Chen nodded, squatted down slightly, and responded to Rodney’s stare with the tactical eyepiece glowing red on the armor of his head, then he said with a smile, “If your eyes don’t hurt, you can try to stare a bit harder.”

Rodney did not speak, but his eye muscles twitched.

“I don’t believe in unconditional loyalty, especially the loyalty of predators. From the standpoint of a merchant, I would be happy to discuss a deal with you.” With a smile, Jiang Chen said softly, “Of course, you can also refuse. But before you refuse, I hope you think about the mud crab pond next to the outpost. Those big guys don’t look good when they eat.”

When Rodney heard the mud crab pond, a trace of panic appeared on his face. His fearless expression started to waver out of fear.

“You have thirty seconds to think about it,” Jiang Chen stood up and looked at Jessica next to him, “You count to thirty for me. If he doesn’t plan to cooperate, then send him to the pond to play with the mud crabs.”

After Jiang Chen said these words, he walked to the Governor’s Mansion.

“SH*T! YOU DEVIL!” Rodney desperately twisted his body when he saw Jiang Chen leave, However, other than getting mud all over his face, the four hands in his back did not allow him to move an inch.

“…fifteen…”

Jessica’s scalp felt numb as she counted down and looked at Rodney struggle to break free.

In the end, Jiang Chen was correct. The loyalty of the predators was a joke.

The mohawk pinned down by Jiang Chen’s guards no longer looked fearless when Jessica counted to ten. Instead, he started to plead with tears in his eyes.

“Fu*k, no… please! PLEASE! Don’t feed me to those crabs! What do you want me to do? I’ll do anything…”

Chapter 1394: Ambush At The Fortress

Chapter 1394: Ambush At The Fortress

On the road two kilometers from Outpost Town, a cloud of dust was created by the rolling tires.

Five armored vehicles at the front and rear cleared the way. The desert-colored front armor surface was sprayed with black paint in the shape of a skull. The rusty trucks sandwiched between the armored vehicles carried a group of lifeless men and women. Their hands and feet were tied with rope and they were tied together with an iron chain.

A group of men with rifles on their shoulders stood behind them. From their weird tattoos and vulgar actions, they did not look like good people.

“Don’t fight me for it. I caught this chick. I’m going to train her slowly. I’ll let you guys have fun once I’m done.”

“Sh*t, is there anything you do that can help you last for more than three minutes? We can help you when you are tired.”

“What the fu*k did you say, who are you saying only last three minutes?”

“Hahahaha, one of you can be in the front while one of you can be in the back and see who can actually last for three minutes.” When a predator with braids saw the two were about to fight, he intervened and humped the air, “I can be the referee for you.”

Catlin, in the fallout shelter uniform, shrank into the corner of the truck. As she listened to their brazen words and ruthless laughter, her face was full of panic and helplessness.

Before the door of the fallout shelter opened, they were fully prepared to face the world baptized by nuclear weapons. They were ready to rescue the compatriots in California, face the radioactive dust, carry out post-disaster reconstruction above the shelter, spread the fire of civilization throughout California, and revive the civilization that once prospered on this land…

However, everything was beyond their expectations from the beginning.

They had just opened the door to save a group of poor and hungry people. However, they didn’t expect that these hungry people who sought help would turn into extremely vicious predators once they got in. They turned their guns at the people who tried to help.

Catlin closed her eyes in pain, tears of despair flowed out from her eyes.

From the moment she was taken onto the truck, from seeing the way those men looked at her, she could already imagine her destiny. If her hands and feet were not tied up, she really wanted to jump off the truck into the rolling wheels and say goodbye to the cruel world.

God…

What is going on in this world?

Black Skull sat in the armored car at the head of the convoy. He had a cigar in his mouth, and the arc of his mouth showed that he was enjoying this ride.

This cigar was found in the office of the fallout shelter head. Based on the brand and place of origin, it seemed to be a high-end product imported from Cuba. Before the nuclear war, he couldn’t even think of this kind of high-end stuff, but he didn’t expect to have the opportunity to taste it now after the war.

In general, this trip was a great harvest.

He didn’t expect that he just went for a tour to the north of California and happened to receive a radio from a fallout shelter that just opened. As an experienced predator, he certainly wouldn’t let go of this good opportunity and immediately went to the location. First, a few people were sent into the shelter, pretending to be refugees to take advantage of their sympathy. Then while the guards were not paying attention, they threw the thermite on the engine of the fallout shelter gate, which turned the people inside the fallout shelter into lambs ready to be slaughtered.

The loot was not only the box of cigars in his pocket, but also supplies that filled the trucks, and nearly a thousand slaves.

With more than a thousand slaves, it was possible to finish the large project left by NAC before the end of October.

Soon, the convoy arrived at the fortress in Outpost Town.

Mohawk Rodney stood above the main entrance of the fort and had been waiting there for a long time. When he saw Black Skull sitting behind the armored vehicle, he turned around and shouted at the people in the back.

“Open the gate!”

The steel front gate slowly opened, and Black Skull knocked twice on the top cover of the armored car. The driver sitting inside immediately stepped on the gas, and the whole convoy moved slowly again.

As usual, the slave hunters who went out returned with trucks full of loot.

But for some reason, when Black Skull looked at the gate, he frowned and felt something was off.

It wasn’t until the convoy drove halfway through the front door that he suddenly realized what was wrong.

Normally, Rodney would always wait for him at the gate when he returned; he would never stand at the top of the fortress. Moreover, they brought back more than a dozen trucks of slaves, but his subordinates did not even make a sound. Everything was so abnormal!

But when he realized this, it was too late.

“STOP!”

Black Skull shouted to the convoy behind him and jumped down. But before he could gain his footing, a deafening explosion came directly under the armored vehicle behind him.

“SH*T! RODNEY! I WILL PEEL YOUR SKIN OFF!” By luck, Black Skull survived the explosion. He wiped his blood-covered face and rushed beside the armored vehicle, then he fired back while smacking the armor, “REVERSE THE GODDAMN CAR! REVERSE! ”

But the convoy was already halfway in, how could it reverse out?

Gunshots and the sound of bullets flying ravaged above the fortress and flew inches above the trucks. The captured men and women screamed and ducked down. Many people were injured by stray bullets. The predators who tried to resist fell one after another in a pool of blood, and the entire front door had become a mess filled with gunpowder.

Catlin buried her head tightly between her arms as she listened to the sound of a heavy machine gun. Tethered to the chains, they couldn’t even jump out of the truck to avoid them. They could only listen to the sound of bullets whizzing through the air in horror and pray.

The sound of explosions came one after another, and the firepower ambushing Black Skull was extremely intense. In the constant attack of bazookas, the armored vehicles that had been modified either exploded or stalled. Only the four armored vehicles in the back barely escaped from the mercenaries.

When Black Skull realized that he had lost grip of the situation, he wanted to escape among the defeated predators. But since he already stepped into the trap, there was no way for him to escape. At this time, the mercenaries that took care of the predators in the back started to gather towards him and surrounded Black Skull and his elites.

In an unwilling roar, the demon who had harmed California and Nevada for more than ten years was finally pressed to the ground by a group of strong mercenaries and chained with handcuffs and an electronic collar. Rodney watched with guilt when he saw his boss get pinned down. Then he turned around and left with a look of shame.

As if a century had passed, the gunfire stopped.

Like other slaves, Catlin slowly raised her head from the clamped arms and looked out of the truck. A group of mercenaries jumped into the truck and cut the rope from their hands. At this moment, she met several soldiers in power armor.

“Congratulations, you’re very lucky that you ran into us after encountering predators.”

Jiang Chen walked to the front of the convoy, looked at the stalled trucks, and opened the loudspeaker, “I can see that you are residents of a fallout shelter, and I welcome you on behalf of NAC. Since you have already paid the price for your kindness, I won’t say anything more. You have half an hour to rest. If you’re rested, go and gather at the gate. There will be people here telling you what happened in the world and how you can survive on this wasteland in the future.”

Chapter 1395: The Dangerous Mission

Chapter 1395: The Dangerous Mission

The heavy eyelids moved lightly.

Consciousness gradually returned.

Blood Axe opened his eyes, shook his dizzy head, and struggled to get up from the ground. He saw his rifle was on the ground not far away. He stumbled over, picked up the rifle, used it as support, and finally stood up against the wall.

He couldn’t see his fingers in the dark cave. He moved his corner of his cracked lips, then took out a red flare rod from his backpack. After he lit it with a lighter, he threw it forward with force.

The orange-red flame formed a projectile in the air and rolled to the ground. It lit up the entire space.

Blood Axe used the flashing firelight, narrowed his eyes, and looked around.

The steep cliff was like a cage that imprisoned him in darkness and despair. From time to time, strands of fine quicksand fell from above. Like a light yarn, it dragged across the dry ground and left a faint line on the ground. Right in front him was a dark cave. The cave seemed like the only way out, and he didn’t know where it led…

“Where the fu*k is this place?” He cursed and opened the EP on his left wrist. Like most survivors, his EP was equipped with a radio mapping chip, which allowed simple surveying and mapping of small-scale terrain even without relying on satellites. However, it was not very useful at this moment. The length of the cave in front of him was obviously longer than one hundred meters and there was darkness at the end of the map

“FU*K!”

He slammed his fist against the rock wall and a trace of despair appeared on his face.

He started to regret…

Just a month ago, he took this task from Zhou Guoping. The Asian promised him that if he found NATO’s nuclear arsenal, he would be awarded the status of the upper-class citizen of NAC, and he would be rewarded with a full box of canned food.

For the mercenaries that served the colony, the status of a legal citizen was everything they dreamt of. Even for a leader among predators, like Blood Axe, not to mention that he would directly become an upper-class citizen.

To become an upper-class citizen meant never starving to death. Even if he did nothing, he could enjoy necessities. If he worked a little harder and gain merits in the army, it was possible to become an honorable knight.

But now all these dreams were nonsense. If he could not walk out of here alive, what would be the difference between being a knight or a predator?

Blood Axe fixated his sights on the only way out and hesitated for a moment. Then he loaded the automatic rifle, walked forward, and picked up the flare rod from the ground.

It was an inevitable death to stay, and there was only one way in front of him, he could only continue forward.

No matter if the way led to heaven or hell, no matter if it was the lair of Death Claws or other mutants, he could only continue.

In the end, the desire to live defeated the fear of darkness and the unknown.

“FU*K! FU*K!”

After he cursed a few times, as if it was a way to cheer himself up, Blood Axe spat on the ground. Determined, he put the rifle under his right arm, held the flare rod like a torch with his left hand, and carefully moved toward the depths of the cave.

…

Black Skull was thrown into the colony’s prison. Based on NAC’s law, he would be sentenced to death. However, Jiang Chen gave him a chance to atone for his sins. If he could confess something useful, it would not be impossible to spare his sinful life.

As for the predators, they were all demoted to slaves. The survivors who had been enlisted at Santa Monica Airport immediately came in handy. They were led by the foreman Han Yue. They pointed their rifles at these predators and watched them work on the construction site.

The two hundred immigrants detained in the colony were all rescued, and together with the more than one thousand survivors from the fallout shelter, they were temporarily placed in the colony’s residence. Before Jiang Chen could determine the reason why the inhabitants of the colony disappeared, he didn’t have much work for them.

He was thinking about a possibility now.

If the disappearance of the inhabitants of the colony was caused by human factors, then now that the NAC had recaptured the colony, would the disaster that happened once happen again?

Out of this concern, Jiang Chen did not immediately disband the mercenaries in the fortress.

A guard who had worked in the logistics department was sent to the warehouse. Jiang Chen gave him the job of counting materials and distributing loot, and then sent a message through the interdimensional communication chip to Sun Jiao. The message was to inform her that the airships of the expeditionary force could take off.

In order to restore the operation of the colony as soon as possible, he also instructed Sun Jiao to speak with Wang Qing and transfer a group of “civil servants” from the logistics department. The military government had considered the size of the talent pool carefully. Despite the drastic change at the colony, a transfer of talents would not impede the operation of the logistics department.

Most of the thirty thousand people who had gone missing were bought slaves, and less than one-tenth of those were immigrants from NAC. The only real pity was the fifty power armors and the five hundred soldiers.

But Jiang Chen felt that they were probably still alive.

Because it was more thirty thousand people. Even if thirty thousand chickens were killed, it was impossible to do so silently.

It was already dark outside the Governor’s Mansion.

“Thank you for saving us from those robbers… Seriously, I thought everything was done for when they pointed their guns against our head. Thanks to you, I really don’t know how to thank you.”

The supervisor of the fallout shelter stood in front of Jiang Chen. He was a white man about forty years old named Matthew Hall. Judging from his manners, temperament, and speech, this supervisor was very similar to the upper-class people he has met in Los Angeles in the modern world. However, he seemed quite different from normal politicians and businessmen.

If he had to find a comparison…

He was very similar to those artists who were committed to charity and philanthropy.

“Don’t thank me,” Jiang Chen smiled lightly, “Since you have appeared on NAC’s land, in accordance with NAC law, we must provide you with minimum protection. What’s more, the Black Skull Gang is our enemy.”

Just two hours ago, Matthew had already learned about the world from Zheng Shanhe, who explained the situation to the blue skins. Although Matthew had reservations about the NAC military government, he also had to admit that following the pre-war regime on this wasteland would not work.

Especially since NAC saved them, since they did not have a better place to go, on behalf of all the fallout shelter residents, he agreed to NAC’s invitation and decided to settle in Outpost Town… or rather, the NAC colony in North America.

“Regardless of what you say, I still have to thank you! In addition, there are still some things in the fallout shelter that we have prepared for reconstruction after the war. I want to take a few people back and retrieve the things locked in the warehouse. If it is convenient, I hope I can borrow three trucks because there is a lot of stuff,” Matthew said.

“This is no problem. I will send some mercenaries with you.”

“Thank you!” Matthew said sincerely.

“You’re welcome.”

Jiang Chen waved his hand and said with a smile.

Why so polite?

Anyway, whatever good things you get, they will also be used in my colony.

After Jiang Chen spoke a few words to Zheng Shanhe, he ordered him to send dozens of mercenaries to drive the looted trucks and escort Matthew and several other shelter residents. He then walked to the Governor’s Mansion.

Chapter 1396: The Only Clue

Chapter 1396: The Only Clue

With Jiang Chen’s permission, Matthew picked three trucks from the garage and replaced them with new nuclear fusion cores. He selected a few fallout shelter residents who could drive and drove towards the fallout shelter escorted by two guards and fifty mercenaries.

After Jiang Chen went back to the Governor’s Mansion, he walked straight into Zhou Guoping’s office.

There was a rancid stink of oil permeating inside the room, and empty cans were thrown everywhere as they scattered around on the ground, the only thing that looked clean was the chair. Obviously, Black Skull didn’t cherish this new home, or rather, he didn’t plan to stay here for long.

When he walked to the desk that originally belonged to Zhou Guoping, he sat in his chair, then swept the empty cans and some strange medicine boxes on the table down to the ground. At this moment, he suddenly noticed that the corner of the table was engraved with a capital letter D by a knife or other sharp object.

“D?”

He examined this letter for a while, then put the thought aside, and opened the desk drawer.

The documents in the drawers were neatly stacked. Since they were not thrown into the corner of the room as wastepaper, there was a high probability that no one has touched them.

Jiang Chen took out a document, flicked the dust on it lightly, turned open the first page, and followed the line of words.

It was a financial statement detailing every import and export order between the colony and North American survivor settlements in August and September. It was evident that Zhou Guoping had done some work and did not spend his days in North America messing around. Every line of large financial expenditures was detailed with remarks and Zhou Guoping’s own signature.

Jiang Chen tried to find some clues from this, but unfortunately, other than the trade volume, as of the end of September, the relationship between the colony and the “National Guards” and “Minutemen”, the two major local forces on the West Coast, seemed to be good. He could not identify more clues.

The only thing that was certain now was that Zhou Guoping might have gotten into trouble with someone he shouldn’t have gotten on the wrong side of, or he discovered something so incredible so that that person or force had spent so much effort to take out the entire colony, and even blocked radio communications between the West Coast and Pan-Asia.

If those people really tried to conceal something, then it was likely that the valuable information was already erased before Black Skull walked into this office.

Just then, there was a knock on the door outside the office.

After Zheng Shanhe received permission from Jiang Chen, he pushed open the door and walked in.

At the instruction of Jiang Chen himself, he went to the colony’s dungeon to interrogate the predator leader Black Skull. Originally, he thought it would take a lot of effort and even prepared a plan, but he didn’t expect this guy to spill out everything so easily. He told him everything he knew and only begged the NAC not to kill him. He stated he did not take down Outpost Town himself and he only took advantage of the situation…

“This quickly?” Jiang Chen tossed the financial report onto the table and looked at his captain, “Black Skull has already confessed?”

“Yes, we didn’t even use any tools. He confessed everything immediately after he saw me, and even explained the locations of their fallout shelters in the Nevada desert and their lock codes… This is?” Zheng Shanhe asked curiously when he saw the document on the table.

“It’s the colony’s financial statement for September. The last item of financial expenditure shows September 25th. If there is no problem with this financial statement, then we can conclude that Zhou Guoping probably got into trouble. Let’s not talk about this. Tell me what you got from him,” Jiang Chen said.

Zheng Shanhe nodded, then reported his findings from the interrogation to Jiang Chen.

“Your guess is correct. The colony was indeed not taken over by Black Skull. The confession of Black Skull was basically consistent with Rodney’s statement. They were here to sell slaves to Outpost Town, but they realized that no one was here. In order to avoid offending the NAC, they waited outside the fort for three days before sending someone in to investigate. Only then did they confirm that the entire fort was empty.”

“Is there any other information?” Jiang Chen was somewhat confused, “Isn’t it weird that such a big fort had turned into an empty city, and they just decided to live here and made themselves feel at home?”

“I specifically asked about that,” Zheng Shanhe smiled bitterly. “He originally thought NAC abandoned the colony and withdrew. After the NAC cargo ship arrived at the port, he began to wonder if something went wrong. However, when he saw the canned food on the cargo ship, he immediately put all doubts behind him.”

“…”

“AS Order will arrive in about two weeks. I suggest that during this time it is better for us to stay put,” Zheng Shanhe cautiously suggested to the speechless Jiang Chen, “If those people are hiding in the dark and can make the entire colony disappear silently, there is no reason they won’t do the same to us.”

“If they could, they would have done it a long time ago.” Jiang Chen tapped his index finger on the table, sorted the clues in his head, and said, “From the time I hired those two scavengers to go to Liberty City and Steel City to spread news, I have been wondering if those hiding in the dark would do anything. However, it came surprisingly that they didn’t pay attention to us at all. Everything from us gathering mercenaries to taking back the colony, everything happened so smoothly.”

Sweat droplets began to form on Zheng Shanhe’s forehead as the thought frightened him.

Until half a minute ago, he still admired Jiang Chen’s decision to retake the colony without using a single soldier. Now, he could somewhat understand why when Captain Lu drank with him after the handover of the captain, he looked so relieved…

“Then what should we do now?” Zheng Shanhe gulped down and asked.

He was worried that Jiang Chen would make another dangerous decision.

He was not worried about himself, since the military government would take care of his family.

But if anything happened to Jiang Chen…

It was difficult to say whether his family in Wanghai could see the sun the next day.

“We’ll decide when the third person I sent out comes back. I won’t make a move in the meantime,” Jiang Chen said without a change of expression, “Blood Axe is very important. Before the colony disappeared, he showed up in the drugstore in Chinatown with the colony permit and purchased supplies. If I remember correctly, he was going to help the colony go out to find something. In addition to the nutrient supplies, he purchased iodine.”

Zheng Shanhe let out a sigh of relief in his mind.

He also agreed to stay put for now.

In any case, waiting for the expeditionary force to land in North America was the safest choice.

After Jiang Chen asked Zheng Shanhe to leave, the office returned to its previous silence.

He focused on the capital letter “D” engraved on the corner of the table again. With a frown, he connected the clues in his head.

The predator named Blood Axe.

Radiation.

D.

Are the clues connected somehow?

There was also the intelligence of the two Chinese scavengers from the National Guards and Minutemen. Whether it was Steel City or Liberty City, their troops were frequently patrolling, and it was a signal of an imminent war.

Who are they guarding against?

Chapter 1397: West Coast Meteorological Observation Center

Chapter 1397: West Coast Meteorological Observation Center

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“West Coast Meteorological Observation Center? What the fu*k is this?”

Blood Axe’s beating heart gradually calmed down. With the light of the flare rod, the moment when he made out the rusty characters clearly, an unspeakable amount of disappointment arose in his heart.

After half a month’s time, countless brothers’ lives, he traversed through half of the Nevada desert on foot, and finally arrived here after he had risked everything. However, what was in front of him was not a NATO nuclear arsenal, but rather a meteorological observation center.

The backpack full of iodine was useless…

“Fu*k…”

The fist holding the flare rod shook, and after he squeezed out the sentence between his chapped lips, Blood Axe spat against the ground in anger and extinguished the flare rod. He found a place nearby and sat down slowly against the rocky cliff.

“It’s impossible… This can’t be wrong, the delivery address is clearly here.” Blood Axe turned on the EP on his left arm, stared at the fluorescent screen, and focused the map coordinate.

Could it be…

The name of the “West Coast Meteorological Observation Center” is just a cover? In fact, it is filled with different types of nuclear warheads?

It was certainly a possibility.

Not satisfied that his own efforts were just in vain.

After he rested for a while, he stood up, took out the lighter from his pocket, and reignited the flare rod in his hand. After his eyes had adapted to the orange-red fire, he walked to the underground observation center.

The door was open, which saved him a lot of trouble.

The empty hall was littered with pieces of paper and rubbish, and the dry ground was covered with a thick layer of dust. Just like most buildings on the wasteland that have been abandoned for many years, it was obvious that no one has been here for a long time.

Not even a mutant cockroach could be seen in the silent corridor, which was quite rare even for an underground cave that is more than a hundred meters deep.

“The ventilation system should still be normal, probably because the energy-saving mode has been activated. The power system should be intact, but I don’t know how long that will last…” Blood Axe glanced at the still brightly lit flare rod in his hand, then stopped in front of an electronic door and took out a brown graphene card from his pocket.

This kind of card was sold in many places with different viruses downloaded inside to crack electronic locks like this. Many pre-war facilities that have been in disrepair could be cracked by this card. All scavengers and predators always kept one handy with them.

Blood Axe swiped the card at the infrared scanner, then took two steps back.

However, to his surprise, the electronic door did not open right away. Instead, there was a soft click from the crack of the door, which sounded like it was locked from behind.

This soft sound caught Blood Axe by surprise. He had lived for so long, and it was the first time this card failed.

However, this failure did not make him feel frustrated, but rather, it made him feel a little excited. If this place truly was the West Coast Meteorological Observation Center, there was no reason for the security level to be higher than that of the California Bank. He once used this card to open the vault of the California Bank safe.

He tossed his backpack on the ground and took out some thermite with excitement. He roughly estimated the thickness of the lower door panel and the required amount of thermite, then he glued it to the lock position. He grabbed his backpack and ran for more than ten meters before he stopped and pressed the detonator in his hand.

With a loud boom, the white light directly melted the thick metal door and left sparks everywhere.

Blood Axe stepped forward and kicked the half-covered door, then rushed inside with his rifle.

Under normal circumstances, this violent demolition method usually triggered the security system in the building. But perhaps because of disrepair, the security system was not maintained for a long time. After he kicked down the door, Blood Axe did not encounter any resistance, so he blasted his way through into the depths of the facility.

Fortunately, he had enough thermite in his backpack. Just after the fourth electronic door was melted through, he knocked open the iron door that was hanging on the door frame with his shoulder and rushed into a hexagonal hall.

The dry air blew into his face, along with the sound of the servers running.

The hall was quite empty, with only a suspended walkway extending from the main entrance to the center. There were bottomless abysses on both sides of the aisle, and it appeared the same above. A behemoth made of steel rose from the unfathomable abyss with countless spirals of interlaced cables that moved towards the unreachable ceiling. The signal lights arranged on the steel surface flashed in an orderly manner and ran smoothly following the command of the program.

“What is this…”

Blood Axe stared at the behemoth blankly, then slowly lowered the muzzle in his hand.

He didn’t find any nuclear warheads, but he found a behemoth.

Intuition told him that this thing should be a supercomputer, and it was a gigantic one. He just didn’t know why NATO would smuggle nuclear weapons here, load them into containers full of toys, and contract a civilian company to deliver them…

Forget it, forget it.

Blood Axe shook his head vigorously and left all his confusions behind him.

He vaguely remembered that NAC was buying these types of novel equipment, including spacecraft or other interesting high-tech instruments. Although he did not find a nuclear arsenal, this discovery would be considered a great achievement, at least his effort was not in vain.

He had to find the way out now.

The elevator in front of the main entrance was broken, and now he could only hope that there is an emergency evacuation passage in other places.

When he thought about this, he glanced at the behemoth behind him for the last time before he turned around.

However, as soon as he turned around, his whole body seemed to be stunned, his feet frozen in place.

A drop of cold sweat dripped from his forehead, and the rifle in his hand began to tremble.

He didn’t know when his retreat had been blocked by a group of soldiers.

Soldiers wearing NATO-standard kinetic skeleton were like black ghosts standing there, as they lined up neatly in four rows at the entrance of the hall. Their tactical eyepieces were gleaming with pale blue light. The streamlined-looking rifle, as well as the deadly vibe, dissipated any courage Blood Axe had to fight.

He had no suspension that if he showed any hostility, he would turn into a corpse in less than 0.1 seconds.

At this time, a man in a military uniform stepped out of the crowd.

In his eagle-like eyes, there was an indescribable amount of shock and excitement when he looked up at the behemoth.

As if he hadn’t seen Blood Axe standing there, he walked forward and stood still under the behemoth. As if he was looking at some miracle left by God, he sighed with emotion.

“Twenty years, I finally found it…”

“Who are you…” Blood Axe could not resist his urge to ask the question that bothered him.

The officer finally noticed Blood Axe, turned around, and examined him with an eagle-like gaze. The gaze made Blood Axe feel uneasy.

Without any warning, the pressure on Blood Axe suddenly disappeared.

“McCarthy, you can call me Colonel McCarthy, or General McCarthy.” The majestic man extended his right hand, and the aura of the superior exuded from him; his tone made no secret of the superiority and indisputability in his bone. “First of all, on behalf of the American government, I would like to thank you for your contribution to the great cause of rejuvenation. When everything is over, I’ll award you the Medal of Excellence for Citizen.”

Blood Axe was stunned.

American…?

If his memory from before the war was correct, it was a word that dated back to the middle of the 21st century, before NATO turned from a military alliance to a political alliance. Now that Blood Axe heard someone say it seriously, other than the oddness, he didn’t know how he should feel…

Chapter 1398: The Empire On Deck

Chapter 1398: The Empire On Deck

In the endless sea, a cargo ship sailed forward.

“Where are we going?”

“Panama’s concentration camp. That is where you yellow-skinned monkeys belong.” When the officer said this, his face was filled with indescribable arrogance and contempt, “From the moment you set foot on the United States, we have been watching you.”

Zhou Guoping looked at the man with a gloomy expression, clenched his fists, but finally swallowed his anger down.

Although these Americans treated him as a “senior prisoner of war” with courtesy, he had no doubt that if he did something unwise at this moment, this officer, who did not like him from the start, would definitely take advantage of this golden opportunity to treat him with a bullet.

When the officer saw Zhou Guoping’s clenched fist slowly loosen, he snorted, and the hand resting on his waist slowly retracted. However, the contempt in his eyes grew stronger.

At this moment, the roar of the vortex engine came from afar.

A helicopter, pushed by two clusters of dark blue flames, slowly landed on the tarmac of the warship.

Zhou Guoping narrowed his eyes and looked to the helicopter.

Soon, from the opened cabin, a man in a gray suit jumped out. Two soldiers in black kinetic skeletons followed him closely down the tarmac and walked towards Zhou Guoping.

“Don’t be so vulgar to our guests, Captain Williams,” the man walked to Zhou Guoping, with a courteous smile and said in a relaxed tone, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Black Duncan, Member of Congress for the United States of America.”

“United States of America? What is that?” Zhou Guoping frowned.

“You may not know; it means you don’t understand North American culture.” With a bright smile on his face, Duncan opened his arms, and a zealous look of passion flashed in his eyes, “Before the unified NATO alliance, a great country was born on this piece of land. It was once very strong, and it used its own power to fight against the evil Soviets. Until later, our little brothers in Europe dragged it down and a group of sympathetic guys opened up our gate, and finally ruined our motherland into what it is now.”

Zhou Guoping didn’t understand a word. He was not well-educated to start with, so he stared at the man for a long time before he finally squeezed out a sentence.

“What are you talking about…”

“Don’t understand?” Duncan smiled. Although Zhou Guoping didn’t understand what he was saying, he was not angry, and he still said with courtesy and respect, “Well, after all, even many young people living in North America have forgotten this name. If they remember even a little bit of the great tradition, they would not degenerate into what they are now.”

Is this guy crazy?

Zhou Guoping mocked in his heart, but he dared not show any disrespect.

“Forget it, it doesn’t make any sense to talk to the uncivilized natives,” Duncan waved his hand, “Let me be simple. Your expansion in North America touched our bottom line. Even if you didn’t find the clue leading to that thing, we have already planned to take you out.”

“…You mean the NATO Nuclear Arsenal?”

“NATO…Nuclear Arsenal?” As if he heard something funny, Duncan suddenly held his hands on the railing and laughed out loud.

The exaggerated action infuriated Zhou Guoping, but as a prisoner of war, he couldn’t say anything at this moment. Instead, his face remained gloomy.

“I don’t understand what’s so funny.”

“You don’t understand? You have already got that far. Do you think that is a nuclear arsenal? Hahahaha, it’s me, or wait, no, it’s the congress members, as well as our intelligent president that thought too highly of you.”

“What is it?” Zhou Guoping asked with a sullen face.

“A very, very powerful weapon,” Duncan rubbed the corners of his eyes, then stopped the exaggerated laugh, cleared his throat, raised a finger, and said with a smile, “In some ways, its strategic value has surpassed the scope of weapons. But it doesn’t make any sense to tell you this, let’s talk about something more realistic.”

“For example?” Zhou Guoping asked.

“Our Mr. President intends to see you. He is very interested in how you restored the pre-war order in Asia. Although Asia is only a territory of indigenous people in our eyes, there are also merits in indigenous culture.”

“Indigenous?” Zhou Guoping almost laughed out loud.

Who are the indigenous people?

“Barbaric, vulgar, and non-conformity, I understand your attitude of not accepting, but in our opinion, you are uncivilized indigenous people.” Duncan smiled, “Now you have two choices. Tell us what you know, and we will open our door and allow you to enter the capital of the civilized world.”

“Oh, what about the second choice?” Zhou Guoping said coldly.

“The second option is to take your more than three thousand compatriots to the concentration camp in Panama as slaves,” Duncan shrugged and said nonchalantly, “We just need manpower. The rise of the United States needs the support of industrialization. I have always heard that the yellow-skinned monkeys are natural workers, and now there is just the place to demonstrate your remaining value.”

Concentration camp…

The name alone made it sound like a terrible place.

Faced with these two choices, Zhou Guoping fell silent.

He was born as a predator. He was able to take his life back from Jiang Chen at that time purely because he still had some value to Jiang Chen.

Compared with other colleagues, his political consciousness was not as high, and he himself was well aware of this flaw. Not only that, because of this flaw, most of the people that entered NAC at the same time as he did have all been promoted to senior officials of the military government. He was the only one outside the core of the military government, and only now did he obtain the position as the governor. He went to North America far away from Wanghai to prove his worth.

And obviously, he messed up this opportunity.

Although he didn’t think it was his own fault, after all, no one thought that the United States of America would suddenly appear in North America. Outpost Town had existed for so long, and they had never heard of this name.

From this perspective, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with betraying NAC. After all, he has no other choice.

But when Zhou Guoping was about to speak, he suddenly thought of the chip installed in the back of his head. In his impression, this chip could use bioelectricity to continuously transmit coordinate signals to the outside world.

This kind of encrypted signal was very difficult to detect, and as long as it was within a certain range, the person holding the tracking terminal could detect the signal.

From this perspective, he still could make up for his mistake.

Zhou Guoping’s optimism gradually grew.

“Which is your choice?” Duncan asked with a smile, but there was a hint of impatience in his tone.

“I choose the first option.” Zhou Guoping put on a flattering smile. In order not to be too abrupt, he did not make it too obvious, but incorporated flattery into his tone, “I want to know when I will reach the fabled… ‘capital’? We have been on the ship for almost a month, and I want to know if you are lost.”

“Nope. The capital of the United States of America itself is not on the North American continent, but in the Pacific Ocean.”

“Hawaii?” Zhou Guoping tried to guess an answer.

“No, I said, it’s in the ocean.” Duncan shook his head.

In the ocean?

Zhou Guoping was stunned.

But soon, the stupefaction in his eyes was replaced by astonishment.

At the place where the sea and the sky connected, the darkened fleet gradually emerged.

No, to be precise, it was no longer a fleet, but a city, a city sailing on the Pacific Ocean!

Large and small ships were connected by sturdy mechanical cantilevers. Under the escort of warships, they sailed in a predetermined direction by inertia. The giant cantilevers formed into crisscrossed streets. The flattened ships were loaded with mud and sand picked up from the seabed and turned into square fields. People built tall buildings with steel bars and iron plates on the ships, created a market, and formed a society.

Although living materials were scarce here, there was no mutant.

Obviously, they found a way to coexist peacefully with the mutant species in the deep sea and even found a way to use the abundant sea resources. However, it was not this that shocked him the most, but the aircraft carrier sailing at the forefront of this “sea city” and the carrier-based aircrafts docked on that aircraft carrier…

“The USS Obama carrier battle group will lead the way for the United States!” Duncan raised his chest and made no secret of the pride between his brows. “We once defeated the Bohai aircraft carrier and suppressed the ocean entrance to the two rivers. When the world government abandoned us, we chose independence! And we have been independent to this day! We will use our way to end this apocalypse. Soon we will return to North America and bring eternal and great liberation to the decadent and chaotic North American people!”

Chapter 1399: Collect Money From Both Sides

Chapter 1399: Collect Money From Both Sides

Jiang Chen sat in the office, looked at the warm sunlight from outside the window, and suddenly spoke.

“Zheng.”

“Is something wrong?”

“In Wanghai, it normally snows by October?”

Zheng Shanhe was taken aback for a moment, and after he thought about it carefully, it seemed that this was indeed the case.

Since he just arrived in North America, he really didn’t notice this detail. It was already mid-October and it seemed unreasonable for the first snow to have not arrived yet.

“Could it be the climate?” Zheng Shanhe asked.

“Impossible. Nuclear winter should be a global phenomenon,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “And even if we disregard nuclear winter, due to the influence of the Pacific Rim monsoon, the climate phenomenon that occurs west of the Rocky Mountains will be very likely brought to the other side of the Pacific Ocean by the monsoon.”

The reason why this problem suddenly came to mind was mainly that during a video call with Sun Jiao and the others yesterday, Jiang Chen discovered that it was already snowing in Wanghai.

At that time, Sun Jiao pointed the camera towards the sky outside the window, and the white snow, under the action of the gravitons, slowly retreated towards the horizon along the edge of the Holy Shield like ripples.

The Holy Shield was indeed the leader in the urban defense system. In the nuclear winter, the Holy Shield system played a pivotal role. Most of the temperature-carrying medium was blocked from the barrier formed by the graviton. The only heat loss was due to the gas exchange and the heat radiation from the inside to the outside, and the shield almost trapped the glimpse of fall from escaping.

The orange shield was like a greenhouse that divided the inside and outside of the city into two distinct worlds. People inside the shield couldn’t feel the cold of previous years at all. Jiang Chen was also quite relieved .

The problem that had plagued the development of NAC has finally been perfectly solved.

For survivors living in the wasteland, snowfall was simply a disaster. Not only because of fuel shortages, mutants hibernating, lack of materials, as well as other issues, the snowfall that passed through the radioactive dust itself carried a decent amount of radiation. Every winter, the consumption of anti-radiation materials and iodine was quite significant.

In the video, Sun Jiao told Jiang Chen some good news. According to the statistics of the Administration Department, there were a lot of survivors in Wanghai this winter; most of them were merchants from Shangjing and the south, and mercenaries who came with the merchants.

After the winter, most people would choose to stay, and NAC would welcome a new wave of immigration. With the bonus of population growth, the military government’s new round of expansion plan for the Sixth Street could also start ahead of schedule.

Withdrawing his gaze from the window, Jiang Chen temporarily set aside the climate issue and turned his attention to the report in his hand.

The progress over these last two days was quite amazing.

After investigating the mud crab breeding base, his guards found the abandoned cargo ship that was stranded on the shore, and a memorandum of action backed up in a knight EP terminal, confirming that the colony was carrying out a mission against the mud crabs. During the mission, they found containers inside the cargo ship with abnormal radiation values.

These containers were put together with containers full of toys, and the toys were all Disney dolls without exception, and the outside of the container was written with a big letter D in black paint.

The clues were beginning to connect.

Then, as long as they could trace the source of these containers, they could definitely find something. It was not difficult to determine the destination of these containers. Whether it was the port authority or the shipping company, they would all have backup data for these containers.

Just then, the signal light of the watch flickered and interrupted Jiang Chen’s thoughts.

When he pressed the button, the screen flashed, and the picture changed to the front entrance of the colony. The guard on duty at the door saluted and reported.

“There is a scavenger named Gris outside. He claims to be hired by you and has returned.”

“Let him in,” Jiang Chen said immediately.

“Yes!”

Soon, Gris was let in.

Accompanied by two recruits, he was taken to the governor’s office.

“Where is the person?” Jiang Chen asked as he looked at Gris standing alone.

“I tried to find him,” Gris said, “but he is not on the West Coast.”

“So, you got nothing?” Jiang Chen asked with an indescribable smile.

When Gris realized that the rich employer’s tone did not seem pleased, he did not try to sell the story further, and quickly added, “It’s too much to say nothing. Although I didn’t find him, I have found his whereabouts in the West Coast area! After he left Chinatown, he took about 20 subordinates into the desert along the highway from California to Nevada. They suffered heavy losses on the way, not only did they encounter mutant scorpions, but they also ran into a tribe of cannibals…”

“So, you mean, he is dead?” Jiang Chen asked.

“No, it’s the opposite.” Gris shook his head vigorously. “He is very likely to be alive, and with the last few men, he changed his path to bypass the Las Vegas suburbs and Hoover Dam, and headed for the Grand Canyon.”

“Why is he going to the Grand Canyon?”

“Rumors, just rumors!” Gris said immediately, “I heard it in the tavern in Liberty City a long time ago, saying that a concentration camp was built in the Grand Canyon before the war by NATO to detain those Pan-Asian immigrants accused of espionage. But the truth is that there is no concentration camp there, and those Pan-Asian immigrants did not commit any crimes. Instead, they were forcibly conscripted to the Grand Canyon by NATO Strategic Weapons Force to build a secret military facility!”

“What facility?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“No one knows!” Gris shook his head. “Maybe it’s some superweapon? Or it could be the military base of the NATO Missile Force? No one will go to the Grand Canyon. Almost half of the Death Claws in Nevada and Utah will go there to lay their cubs. It’s not the Grand Canyon, but the Death Valley there!”

Jiang Chen touched his chin while he was lost in thoughts.

The office fell silent for a while and Gris gulped while his mind was nervously tense.

After a long time, he tried to ask.

“What do you… think about my reward.”

“Oh, sorry, I almost forgot about that.”

Jiang Chen smiled, opened the drawer, took out a box of bottle caps, and slapped it on the table.

Gris was overjoyed when he heard the crisp clanks. He took the bottle cap box and repeatedly thanked Jiang Chen. After he obtained Jiang Chen’s permission, he exited the office.

As soon as the office door was closed, the smile on Jiang Chen’s face gradually turned cold.

He looked at Zheng Shanhe next to him and directly ordered.

“Get a team to follow him.”

“Do you suspect there’s a problem?” Zheng Shanhe’s eyes suddenly sharpened.

“It’s weird if there’s no problem.” Jiang Chen’s eyes narrowed.

He had already gone outside of California and still dared to come back without finding Blood Axe. And the most important point Jiang Chen did not understand was how he could learn the whereabouts of Blood Axe so clearly. With such limited information, even if Sherlock Holmes was here, he would probably be blinded and confused on where to start.

There was only one possibility. An “informer” directly told him the information that could not be investigated.

And this person, most likely, was the man behind the abduction of the colonial residents!

“I’m going now!” Without wasting a second, Zheng Shanhe immediately walked out.

“Remember to find a few people with strong anti-reconnaissance ability and who are familiar with this area. Those mercenaries should have experts in this area. Don’t be stingy with compensation.” Jiang Chen reminded his captain when he walked out.

The office door closed again, and this time Jiang Chen was left alone in the room.

He got up and walked to the window. When he saw the hurried figure outside, a sneer gradually appeared.

You dare to collect money from both sides?

I hope you don’t regret your decision.

Chapter 1400: Cap Explosive

Chapter 1400: Cap Explosive

After Gris left Outpost Town, with quickened steps, he hurried towards the Los Angeles suburbs.

The cold touch in his arms and the tinkling of metal made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. The thought of another reward waiting for him made him so excited that he almost wanted to sing. If he counted the deposit he received earlier and the payment from the mysterious man, his assets now exceeded 1,000 bottle caps.

After so many years of picking up rubbish in California, it was the first time he has seen so many bottle caps. If he didn’t really understand the meaning of the word getting rich overnight, now he had experienced firsthand what it feels like.

He already planned out how he would spend the money.

When he received the last sum from the mysterious man, he would first go to the Golden Cave in Liberty City to spend two days as a rich man, and then take the remaining money to the weapon shop to exchange for some top-notch equipment. He would become a mercenary or hunter, which was much more promising than being a scavenger.

To be honest, the mysterious employer did not offer a huge reward, at least compared with the generous Chinese, he could only be described as stingy. But even so, it was still two hundred bottle caps, and it was enough to buy his already not high professional ethics.

After all, no one would mind more money.

Although Gris’ excitement was beyond renewed, he still maintained the most basic vigilance. He did not walk in a straight line but made a few turns around the alleys in the suburbs.

No one was more familiar with Los Angeles than a scavenger. The paths he took would hardly encounter dangerous mutants. However, if people accidentally took a wrong take, they could very well end up in Death Claws’ territory, and those cruel monsters would take care of the stupid stalkers…

If there were any.

The meeting point was in an abandoned movie theater, and the poster at the entrance was a new movie released on a summer day in 2171.

He went straight to the main entrance of the theater, reached out and tapped rhythmically on the dilapidated mahogany door three times.

Soon, there was the sound of footsteps behind the mahogany door, and it was followed by a light creak. The door opened and let him in.

There were yellowing brochures scattered on the ground. Behind the mahogany door was a dusty red carpet, and the gold-rimmed guardrail was drooped with red silk studded with wool. Four soldiers in kinetic skeletons were standing on both sides of the entrance to the theater. Gris hesitated for a moment, then retracted his left hand into his sleeve that was calmly holding the fuse of a smoke bomb and walked nervously towards the theater.

“How did things go?” The man in the back seat of the movie theater slowly spoke in a frequency-converted voice. He wore a jet-black kinetic skeleton.

“I’ve pointed them the way to the Grand Canyon,” Gris extended his right hand as he walked to the man, “Then like what we agreed on, where is my reward?”

The man smiled and beckoned to the air next to him.

Almost at the same time, a layer of faint ripples broke out in the transparent air, and a jet-black figure stepped out from behind the ripples and appeared abruptly behind the man.

This scene shocked Gris. Although he had heard of optical invisibility, it was the first time he saw it with his own eyes.

Gris vigilantly watched the man that appeared out of thin air. The hand that held onto the smoke bomb fuse already began to sweat. If this group of people was going to kill him, he wouldn’t even have a chance to fight back.

Fortunately, these people did not intend to kill him. The man did not show a muzzle or a dagger, but a pocket-sized bottle cap box.

“The reward is here,” Captain Gerrard pointed to the box in the hands of his subordinate, and said with a smile, “There are ten large bottle caps in total. If I remember correctly, this large bottle cap can be exchanged for twenty normal caps.”

Gris gulped down, reached out, and took the box. He quickly opened the lid and took a glance inside, then stuffed it into his pocket.

“Generally speaking, this is the case. Although, we use the small battle cap more,” Gris forced a smile after taking two steps back nonchalantly, “Then… now that my task has been completed, I won’t bother you here anymore.”

“Don’t leave in a hurry yet,” Gerrard said unhurriedly after he stopped Gris, who had already turned around, “I have another task for you.”

Gris stopped, turned around, grinned reluctantly, and forced out a few words.

“What task? Seriously, I still suggest you find someone else…”

“Don’t worry, this task should be easy for you.”

Gerrard opened his mouth and was about to say something when the dazzling flame burst from the bottle cap box in front of Gris’s chest. There was no time to react. Gris, who was in the center of the explosion, was blown into a bloody mist mixed with flying caps and shrapnel that covered the entire area.

At almost the same time, there were loud gunshots being exchanged outside the theater.

Even though they were wearing kinetic skeletons, the four soldiers at the door were forced to retreat inside due to the fierce firepower of the attackers, and along with several other soldiers, they pulled away, got under cover, and fired back with their rifles.

“FU*K!”

Gerrard, who was caught off guard, shook his head and struggled to get up from the ground, he cursed fiercely. Before another wave of bullets arrived, he quickly jumped down and hid behind the chair.

The man in black who had stood next to him before had disguised his figure at some point. He walked around to the entrance of the theater from the side.

The bullet shells clinked when they fell to the ground; and more bullets whizzed in from the entrance.

Gerrard drew his pistol and pressed the trigger at the mercenaries at the door, but he was quickly forced back by the heavy firepower. He cussed under his breath, turned on the EP screen on his left arm, and quickly set the target of the automatic machine gun.

Dadadadada!

The violent gunfire burst was like heavy hail that smashed on the ground.

The four barrels destroyed the ceiling and unleashed fierce firepower toward the entrance of the theater. The two mercenaries were immediately torn to pieces by the overwhelming rain of bullets, and another mercenary on his last breath was dragged back behind cover by his companion.

“FU*K, their firepower is too strong!”

“We must knock out their automatic machine guns! We won’t be able to get in! Sh*t!”

“Let me try!” While he used the tablet to set the drone’s attack target, the mercenary crouching at the door gritted his teeth and threw the sensor into the theater.

The sensor rolling to the center of the theater suddenly stopped, and the invisible infrared light flickered, but there was no marked target. The kinetic skeleton coated with infrared absorption layer made the customized equipment designed by survivors for building combats completely useless. Not only that, the thermal grenade could not even lock onto targets, and could only be used as a regular grenade.

The mercenaries had the advantage in number, but their equipment was not comparable at all.

The kinetic skeletons brought these soldiers a huge advantage. Even among the dense bullets, the well-trained soldiers were obviously more comfortable than the mercenaries with outdated equipment. However, these mercenaries were also a force to be reckoned with. The fact that they could live through the perilous wasteland until now proved that they were also war machines.

The scale of victory began to lean towards the mercenaries hired by NAC. After paying the price of six deaths and two injuries, two more soldiers were shot to death, leaving only six or seven people stuck in the theater.

Not long after, another soldier fell.

The mercenary holding a semi-automatic sniper rifle yelled in excitement and was about to brag to the comrades behind him about his headshot accuracy. However, when he turned his head and was about to hide behind cover, a blood stain appeared on his throat without warning.

He only felt coldness around his throat. Before he could say a word, he watched his neck drift away from his body in the horrified expression of everyone…

Chapter 1401: Besiege

Chapter 1401: Besiege

The invisible blade cut open the mercenary’s throat, and through that momentary pause, everyone saw the transparent figure. However, when they wanted to focus their eyes and search for the person’s trace, he had disappeared again.

“Fu*k, it’s optical invisibility!” The mercenary with the automatic rifle screamed in horror, and hurriedly fired a clip of bullets toward where the man was. However, he did not hit the transparent figure, but instead almost shot another mercenary that was leaning against the door.

Fortunately, the guy reacted quickly, and he was able to escape the clip of bullets. Otherwise, it would be awkward to not die in the enemy’s hands, but by friendly fire.

“Idiot! Don’t just shoot, you almost hit me!”

“AHHHHH!!!”

Amidst the chaos, another mercenary had his throat slit open. He covered his neck in pain and collapsed in a pool of blood.

Like a deadly ghost, the flying dagger traced the curvature of death in the air. In just a few breaths, the man had already claimed the life of five mercenaries.

Even against Death Claws, these mercenaries had the courage to fight. However, against an invisible enemy, other than waiting for their inevitable death, they did not even know how to fight back.

The offensive to besiege the theater had completely came to a halt. When the sixth mercenary was pierced by a dagger, the mercenaries surrounding the front entrance of the theater finally collapsed. Due to their fear of death, completing the mission was no longer in their mind. Just like how swiftly they arrived, everyone fled out of the theater in horror.

With the defeat of the mercenaries who besieged the main entrance, Gerrard, who was hiding in the theatre, ordered his troops to blow up the last remaining passage to prevent mercenaries from rushing in from the safety entrance. Then, he took all his men out of the theatre and decided to rush out from the front entrance!

“These indigenous people!”

Zheng Shanghe looked at the defeated mercenaries with a look of disgust. He didn’t waste any time and pointed his right hand forward. The triangular-shaped barrels protruded from the armor on his forearm and whirred toward the front door.

The mercenaries attacking the front door had completely lost the courage to fight, and if he was the people inside, he would not miss this excellent opportunity to escape.

But at this moment, the omen of death suddenly shrouded him.

He increased the power of the vortex engine to the max and immediately yanked himself back.

Almost at the same time, a dagger swept past his previous position. There was a looming transparent figure. However, Zheng Shanhe could see it very clearly through the tactical eyepiece. It was similar to the K2 with an optical invisibility module!

“Fu*k!”

A drop of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, he retracted his minigun, pulled out the tactical rifle from his waist, and fired at the transparent figure.

The man seemed to know that he had been exposed and simply gave up sneaking around. He turned off the invisibility module, protruded his dagger forward, turned on the nitrogen shield, and rushed toward the muzzle. The bullets formed a beautiful arc and bounced away, and at the moment the nitrogen shield was overloaded, the man appeared in front of the power armor at the perfect time.

In front of the particle vibration dagger, even the composite armor of the armored vehicle was as vulnerable as thin paper, let alone the grade-C steel of the T-3 power armor

The dagger that slashed through air was aimed directly at Zheng Shanhe’s throat.

“You are not wronged if you die in my hands.” Like death’s whisper, that man’s voice drifted in the air, with a hint of laughter in his tone.

“Haha, it’s not always certain who will die!”

Zheng Shanhe did not dodge or block. He raised his rifle and slammed it into the man’s face.

Although this fierce blow failed to hit the man, it forced the dagger that was aiming at his throat to move away. Taking advantage of this short gap while the man dodged, Zheng Shanhe leaped up suddenly, and at the same time raised the output power of the vortex engine to the limit. He took off like a rocket into the air.

The thermal grenade launcher in the left hand and the minigun in the right hand rapidly turned as he firmly locked onto the figure on the ground!

The man’s pupils suddenly constricted when he watched Zheng Shanhe leap into the air. He was about to dodge to the side, but unfortunately, there was only empty ground next to him without any cover.

“GO TO HELL!” Zheng Shanhe sneered at the man and pulled his triggers.

“NOOOO!”

Grenades and bullets splashed down like a waterfall, and the firepower of the entire power armor was unleashed in an instant. The scorching airwave even blew the cement debris up twenty meters into the air. When the dust dispersed, only the fragmented ground and scorched earth was what remained…

…

“FU*K! THESE YELLOW MONKEYS, I WILL KILL THEM SOONER OR LATER!”

Gerrard managed to escape from the movie theater. He took the remaining two soldiers and fled towards the evacuation point.

He encountered a power armor when they were evacuating. If Warrant Officer Harvey hadn’t sacrificed himself to stop the power armor, it would be hard to say whether they could escape.

Gerrard glanced back, after he was convinced that no one chased him here, he took out a signal flare, unscrewed the seal, and threw it on the street. Soon the green flames lit up and guided the course of the helicopter hovering at a high altitude.

Supported by two clusters of flame, a streamlined-looking helicopter slowly emerged.

When Gerrard saw the helicopter arriving as scheduled, he was finally relieved.

As long as he could withdraw to the ocean, he would be completely safe.

When he heard the explosion, Warrant Officer Harvey had likely suffered an unfortunate fate. He didn’t plan to wait any longer and decided to leave immediately after he boarded. Although he had predicted the firepower of the NAC, he still did not expect that they would suddenly become so smart and discover that Gris had been instigated…

The helicopter hovered above the street and began to descend.

Gerrard led the people to the landing point. However, at this moment, an orange trajectory suddenly struck from the side and hit the helicopter directly.

The fragile armor broke inch by inch, and the high-speed kinetic energy warhead directly pierced the helicopter. The entire helicopter was like a fly struck by a fly swatter, the out-of-control engine carried the helicopter and sent it into the building on the next street. Reinforced concrete was chopped out by the blades like tofu, as they were scattered out onto the street.

“FU*K!”

Gerrard cursed in anger, then he took his soldiers and fled into the nearby mall.

Without a doubt, the strike obviously came from an electromagnetic pulse cannon!

What frightened him the most was that they were exposed to the muzzle of the electromagnetic pulse cannon!

…

“A direct hit.”

On the roof of the building five hundred meters away, the six-meter-long type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannon was just like a lance that pointed at the street where the helicopter crashed. In his N-100 power armor, Jiang Chen sneered as he watched the three people who fled into the mall.

“You want to escape?”

If he didn’t want to keep a few alive to get information, they would not have survived till now.

The steel supports anchored to the ground were retracted and Jiang Chen threw the electromagnetic pulse cannon back into the storage dimension. Then, he took the tactical rifle from his waist and stepped outside the building.

The eerie blue flame glimmered, and immediately before it touched the ground, it stopped the downward power armor that was falling at high speed. After he confirmed the location of the fleeing people with a drone, Jiang Chen turned on the sliding wheels on the bottom of his armor and chased after the targets.

Chapter 1402: Who Are The Invaders

Chapter 1402: Who Are The Invaders

The distance of five hundred meters was just a matter of a seconds for the power armor sliding forward.

The vortex engine emitted an eerie blue arc light, which turned the power armor into a meteor-like trajectory on the rundown highway. The moment he entered the mall, Jiang Chen retracted the wheels, adjusted the direction of his vortex engine while at the same time, stepped onto the escalator, then flew upstairs.

The Hummingbird drone had locked the coordinates of the three people and closely followed them. Based on the directions sent to Jiang Chen’s tactical eyepiece, he could clearly see the three people flee towards the emergency exit tunnel on the third floor.

He grabbed onto the guardrail and flipped onto the third-floor platform.

“DAMN IT! HE’S CATCHING UP!” One of the soldiers heard the noise behind him and cursed out loud. Without any attempt to take cover, he fired at the small drones behind them. But unfortunately, the bullets did not hit anything and only left a string of bullet holes in the wall.

“We are being caught by the drones. If we don’t get rid of those things, it’s useless for us to escape.” Another soldier gave up altogether, unfolded the shield at the entrance of the tunnel, and mounted the light machine gun. Go up, “I’ll hold him here. Fu*k… what kind of armor is that, I haven’t seen it before.”

“Pan Asia’s X-1 experimental-type power armor… It is most likely a mass-produced type that has completed development. “Gerrard’s eyes were hazy as he gritted his teeth. “You can’t hold him here and we can’t outrun the power armor. We can only get rid of the trouble here!”

When Jiang Chen saw the targets were no longer running away, a mischievous smile emerged as the corner of his lips slightly curved up. He waved his right hand, and a drone terminal emerged from the storage dimension and slammed heavily on the dusty floor. Accompanied by the sound of air leakage, the aluminum alloy panels popped up on all sides and exposed the honeycomb-shaped holes underneath.

Hummingbird drones rushed out from their hive and formed a dense attack formation in the air. The sheer number of drones almost filled the entire space.

Different from the Hummingbirds who followed the three people before, these drones were not equipped with heat-seeking cameras, but attack turrets…

“What is he waiting for?”

“Maybe he is waiting for reinforcements…” A smile of mockery gradually appeared on Gerrard’s face. His eyes, fixated on the end of the tunnel, gleamed with a look of fierceness, “Our fighter is already on the way, so we can just let him wait—”

But halfway through his sentence, the calm and collected expression that said things were under control was gradually replaced by panic and disbelief.

He didn’t know when the countless drones filled the gaps outside the windows like dark clouds. The muzzles of the attack turrets and the red dots under the muzzles had sealed all their escape routes.

Gerrard had no doubt that as long as NAC decided that it was time for him to go, he would be turned into a sieve the next second.

There was no point in resisting.

Gerrard gulped down, then put his gun on the ground.

While he responded to the peculiar look from his comrades, Gerrard secretly eyed them before he slowly rose his hands above his head and stepped out from cover.

“I surrender.”

To surrender was just an attempt to buy time.

Their fighter was going to arrive at the battlefield from the “fleet” in half a minute. By that time, they could squeeze this power armor to death as easily as they would squeeze a mosquito.

The soldiers read the message from their commander’s eyes, looked at each other before they put down their weapons one after another, and walked out from behind the cover with their hands over their heads.

Their opponent seemed to approve their surrender, and they heard footsteps from down the tunnel.

When Gerrard saw the power armor, his pupils constricted slightly.

If he was only skeptical at the beginning, he was 100% certain that this was the legendary X-1 power armor, and the final design model completed by NAC designers.

“Are you the little mouse hiding in the back and making trouble?” Jiang Chen grinned as he looked at the three people with their hands raised above their heads. He set the drones to surround the three people and put the rifle on his shoulder, then he raised his chin up while he looked at Gerrard, “What’s your name.”

“Gerrard,” Gerrard’s eyes moved, “You set the bomb on Gris?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen smiled nonchalantly, “The bottle caps inside were real, but the box was stuffed with explosives. This thing seemed to be called a cap explosive, and I learned it from those mercenaries.”

Not long after Gris entered the theatre, he estimated the time before he pressed the detonation button. However, he didn’t expect these people would wear kinetic skeletons. This “human bomb” only killed himself, and none of the others were injured. The lethality of this weapon simply made Jiang Chen speechless.

Jiang Chen paused for a moment, then looked at Gerrard before he continued, “From your equipment, you shouldn’t belong to any forces on the West Coast. I’m curious how we provoked you.”

“Your existence is a hidden danger,” Gerrard stared at Jiang Chen with gloom on his face, and said word by word, “It doesn’t matter if anyone else rules the West Coast. We will eventually correct their mistakes and bring them to the right path. And you, in our eyes, are a group of invaders!”

“The invaders? In other words, are you loyal to NATO? Or a certain NATO-affiliated force?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows and laughed, “But speaking of being the invader, if I remember correctly, you started the war first.”

Whether the discarded pre-war newspapers or the virtual reality program in Fallout Shelter 005 all clearly depict the day when World War Three broke out. The naval battle between Bohai aircraft carrier and Obama aircraft carrier in the East China Sea directly pushed the conflict between the two sides to the brink of no return. Afterward, the God’s Cane shattered Wanghai’s Holy Shield and the orbital airborne troops’ landing fully demonstrated the fact that Pan-Asia Cooperation was on the defensive side from the very start.

But it was pointless to discuss this now. The war had ended twenty years ago, and the world government had been gone for more than a decade. Bathed in this afterglow full of radiation, it was pale and meaningless for anyone to claim to be the righteous ruler.

“It was you who used bloody means to suppress the revolutionaries in Singapore,” Jiang Chen didn’t expect Gerrard to retort immediately, “We have clearly warned you before, and you took our warnings as deaf ears.”

“Well, I’m not here to listen to your nonsense,” Jiang Chen said impatiently, then pointed his gun at Gerrard. “Now, turn around and go downstairs from the emergency exit tunnel behind you. I probably only need one or two prisoners. If anyone is here to plays tricks, I’ll just shoot.”

When Gerrard realized that Jiang Chen was not going to argue with him, it made him anxious. The reason why he spoke so much was to buy time, but the man in front of him clearly had no interest in this topic. This made him feel defeated and frustrated as if there was nothing he could do.

“You’ll be last,” Jiang Chen poked the muzzle against Gerrard’s back and looked at the other two soldiers, “You go first-”

But at this very moment, a violent engine roar tore through the air right outside of the window

The screaming bullets rained down and shredded the drones outside to pieces.

A fighter with a streamlined fuselage flexibly flipped the movable tail and pointed its ignited engine downward. At the same time, the two wings on both sides of the fuselage changed their shape to a position that allowed for horizontal hovering and steadily hovered over the window on the third floor.

Jiang Chen was surprised for a second, then he gazed out the window.

When he saw the dark gun turret, his pupils constricted…

Chapter 1403: The Weapon That Was Not A Weapon

Chapter 1403: The Weapon That Was Not A Weapon

Without any hesitation, Jiang Chen tossed down the Rubik’s Cube Lin Lin gave him onto the ground.

Almost as soon as the shield unfolded, the turret gun unleashed its terrifying wrath, and the bullets arrived like a violent storm. The bullets tore the windows and the reinforced concrete walls to pieces together with the force of destruction.

“Wings of Freedom” F-79, NATO F series close-range attack aircraft.

The concept of close-combat attack aircraft was proposed after the sixth-generation fighter and was born after the completion of the basic artificial intelligence database. In the golden age of artificial intelligence, the widespread use of AI provided more options for air combat, especially in the form of ground support. In addition to beyond-visual-range strikes, NATO needed a fighter that was capable of air combat while also being able to provide firepower support at close range to ground units. The model “Wings of Freedom” was born.

As a fixed-wing fighter, the F-79 could switch to hover mode when necessary, participate in the close-range combats of ground forces, and redefine the correct use of the gun turret with its high mobility and strong firepower.

“FU*K!”

Gerrard screamed in panic as he didn’t expect that the incoming aircraft for support would include himself as the target. He dove to the side, however, he could not get far as his head slammed into the spread-out shield.

The constant stream of bullets blasted the Holy Shield but was instantly deflected away like headless flies flying in all directions. The compressed air created countless ripples across the transparent surface along the surface of the gravitons and outlined the arc-shaped trajectories.

Unlike Gerrard who was shrouded in a shield, his two soldiers were not so lucky. The deflected bullets bounced inside the hallway and tore the soldiers, along with their kinetic skeleton, into a million pieces.

Jiang Chen took a quick glance at Gerrard next to him and didn’t dare to take this fight lightly. He immediately released the smoke bomb on the power armor.

The gray air mass filled the space inside the shield. Under the cover of smoke, Jiang Chen took out the type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannon from the storage dimension, locked it onto the aircraft outside, and took a deep breath.

Just as he was about to deactivate the shield, a loud explosion suddenly came from outside, and the bullets that poured onto the shield suddenly came to a halt. As if the building was hit by something, the floor shook violently and made the shield unsteady.

Jiang Chen deactivated the shield, walked to the half-destroyed wall in the hallway, and looked out the window. The F-79 smashed into the building, the entire fuselage had been torn apart by a stream of bullets that hailed down from above, and the out of control engine was spewing out flames uncontrollably…

Jiang Chen thought about something, then immediately looked above, and joy appeared in his eyes.

A black silhouette sped across in the sky, and at almost the same time, the communication screen was connected to the code of a friendly unit.

“This is Aurora, I am honored to serve you.”

…

When Jiang Chen exchanged fire with Gerrard and the others, AS Order just arrived above Hawaii. Two Aurora-20s took off from the deck and arrived first to cruise over the West Coast. When they arrived, they discovered the F-79 that was unleashing its firepower towards the mall, so they decided to deactivate the safety and fired their turret.

This F-79 was quite unlucky. Its technological level was obviously much more advanced than the Aurora-20 developed after the war. If a fair duel occurred above the clouds, maybe even two Aurora-20s would be unable to win, even if the F-79 did not carry any air-to-air missiles.

But the battlefield did not consider so many ifs. If it switched to hover mode, it was no different from a dummy target parked on an airport runway to other fighters. The two Auroras easily ended the fight.

After Jiang Chen took Gerrard back to the colony, he ordered people to take him to the dungeon. He was locked in separate rooms with several other soldiers in NATO Army-model kinetic skeletons and they were interrogated separately.

Perhaps he was traumatized by the death of his two comrades under friendly fire, or perhaps he knew that there was no hope of being rescued, the defeated Gerrard quickly explained everything. The information included their identities, included the whereabouts of the colony, included their base drifting in the Pacific Ocean…

“The cause was that your people found a number of strategic nuclear warheads on a cargo ship off the coast. These nuclear warheads are what we have been looking for for a long. But in fact, whether this incident happened or not, we were ready to take action. Congress has long ago introduced the Anti-Invasion Bill because of the outpost you built on the West Coast, but unfortunately, our Congress has been debating whether or not we should take actions immediately or not,” Gerrard shrugged and said in a somewhat helpless tone.

“The intelligence you leaked to me through Gris, the NATO Strategic Missile Force military base in the Grand Canyon…or rather, the nuclear arsenal, how are these all connected?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Because there is indeed a military base of NATO Strategic Missile Force in the Grand Canyon,” Gerrard laughed and no longer concealed anything, “But now it is occupied by a mutated human tribe, and we thought that since we are going to drive you out of North America, it’s better for you to deal with those troublesome guys.”

“Where is the nuclear arsenal?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Nuclear arsenal? There is no nuclear arsenal at all. Most of the strategic warheads were used up, and the unused warheads were almost all dismantled in the years after the war. The moon base was completely collapsed, and there was not much nuclear fuel left. At one point, we even considered recovering nuclear materials from tactical nuclear warheads but gave up due to the technical challenges.” Gerrard looked at Jiang Chen and said calmly, “Can you give me a cigarette? For the sake of all the things I told you.”

“No problem.” Jiang Chen smiled slightly, put a box of cigars and matches on the table, and pushed it towards Gerrard. “Why don’t you have a cigar. For the prisoners who cooperate with us, we will never treat them with disrespect.”

When Gerrard’s eyes landed on the box of Columbian cigars, his eyebrows twitched violently and his throat felt dry.

The war had been over for twenty years, and it was the first time he saw a luxury item like a cigar. In the years when World War Three broke out, supplies were scarce to the extreme, not to mention the nuclear winter after the war and radioactive pollution everywhere.

He had almost forgotten about the smell unique to cigars.

There was a look of struggle in his eyes, but he finally reached and picked up the box of cigars.

He lit a match to light the cigar. When he felt the acridity pass through his throat, tears filled his eyes. The silence lasted for a long time, and after a few puffs of smoke, Gerrard continued.

“What you are looking for is in the desert outside Las Vegas. The cargo ship stranded at the West Coast port and the nuclear warhead inside was originally planned to be sent there. I can show you the specific coordinates… Thank you, if it weren’t for your accidental discovery, we might never find that thing.”

“What is it?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.

“Weather Weapon,” Gerrard breathed out the smoke ring, then gently swung the cigar between his fingers, “…though from the very beginning, that thing did not exist as a weapon.”

Chapter 1404: Transferring Disaster

Chapter 1404: Transferring Disaster

“Weather Weapon,” Gerrard continued after he flicked off the soot from his cigar, “Before 2150, it was used as a North American climate control device to respond to natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and snowstorms. After 2150, it was given a new mission. Its purpose was no longer just limited to nature, but also our rival.”

“Rival?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Yes, Soviets, Pan-Asia Cooperation… All centralized empires that were against free will were our nemeses,” Gerrard raised his head, watched Jiang Chen, and said calmly, “Twenty years ago, the weather weapon was activated, and has been on till this day.”

It has been on till this day.

Somehow, after Jiang Chen digested Gerrard’s words and connected them to the climate difference of the West Coast, a terrifying idea suddenly popped into his head.

If the weather weapon continued to be activated from before the war to now, then the abnormal climate of the Pan-Asia continent was likely not only because of the nuclear winter…

“That’s all I know, I have already told you everything.” Gerrard looked at Jiang Chen.

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Jiang Chen stood up, smiled, and extended his right hand. “In order to express my gratitude, I will order someone to move you to a room with windows in a moment.”

When Gerrard heard those words, he was taken aback.

A room with windows was naturally outside the dungeon. He didn’t understand why Jiang Chen wanted to do this. He had nothing else to confess, and he didn’t expect that he would be able to get such preferential treatment now that he has lost all his value.

After Jiang Chen left the dungeon, he fulfilled his promise and ordered someone to arrange a clean room for Gerrard.

Not only that, Jiang Chen even ordered to replace his daily meal from two tubes of nutrient supply to a bento box with two dishes and one soup, as well as unlimited rice. Other than the fact he was still not permitted to communicate with other prisoners, he could even get two hours of fresh air outside the room.

Jiang Chen never treated obedient prisoners badly. He always believed in one point and that was, torture could never pry open someone’s mouth while a reason to be loyal to himself could.

For example, he could let him live a good life that even the great “America” did not give him.

Fortunately, it was too simple to corrupt a person in the wasteland where supplies were scarce.

A box of canned beef and two cigars could buy the loyalty of a desperado. Soldiers on the Obama Aircraft Carrier were well-trained, and their psychological price could be slightly higher, but they won’t be much higher. Compared to Jiang Chen’s assets in the modern world, the amount would be so insignificant.

These materialistic benefits were not only provided to Gerrard, but they were meant to set an example for other prisoners. Zheng Shanhe who attacked the theatre from the front also captured several prisoners. Although their rank was not as senior as Captain Gerrard, they were still officers in the military.

Jiang Chen was certain that as long as the return of betrayal was generous enough, even if he didn’t ask any questions, someone would take the initiative to share some interesting information with him…

Jiang Chen ordered the arrangements made for Captain Gerrard to Han Yue, who was the supervisor, and then headed back to the Governor’s Mansion.

He didn’t have time to eat at noon and also did quite a lot in the afternoon. Although it was not even four o’clock yet, his stomach had already started to growl.

Jiang Chen didn’t wait for the canteen to open, and directly took a self-heating lunch from the storage dimension, then he opened a can of beer and quickly finished the simple but enviable dinner of countless survivors.

After a good meal, Jiang Chen threw the lunch box and the empty can into the trash can. After a satisfied burp, he skillfully activated the interdimensional communication chip on his watch and called the busy Lin Lin in the research institute.

Communication between North America and Pan-Asia was still blocked, but the Klein particle wave emitted by the interdimensional communication chip was not affected in any way.

During the video call, Jiang Chen briefly talked to her about the situation in North America and asked her to tell Sun Jiao what happened during dinner, and then asked her about the weather weapon. Jiang Chen didn’t expect that as soon as he said the words “West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center”, Lin Lin would turn serious immediately.

“West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center, where did I see this name before,” Lin Ling paused, thought for a moment, and then said, “Um… it should be in my father’s memo. That memo, along with the project plan for the Garden of Eden, as well as the project plan for Fallout Shelter 005’s Advanced Artificial Intelligence were placed together. If I remember correctly, the identity of this meteorological monitoring center in the desert… should be NATO’s weather weapon.”

For a digitalized human with a large number of chips implanted in her brain, it was impossible for her to remember anything incorrectly.

“I don’t quite understand.” Jiang Chen frowned. “If this weather weapon is located on the West Coast, how does it affect Pan-Asia on the other side of the Pacific?”

“It can affect anything anywhere,” Lin Lin shook her head. “I will give a very simple example, imagine the gas flowing around us as countless tightly arranged balls. Then no matter what I do now, some will be affected, but the impact of my behavior on the entire system is not just as simple as changing the motion of a few small balls, but it will eventually be reflected by the sum of changes in the total motion vectors of all the balls.”

“You mean… the butterfly effect?” Jiang Chen suddenly gained some clarity.

“It can be interpreted this way. This is what the so-called weather weapon is all about,” Lin Lin nodded approvingly in response to Jiang Chen’s epiphany. “In a system, any small change may lead to a long-term and huge chain of responses on the entire system., and the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center, is using tiny ‘variables’ on the Pacific Rim monsoon, guiding the power of nature itself to amplify the variables infinitely, and ultimately interfering with the global climate.”

Quality and energy are always conserved, and the input is always proportional to the output. For human power, it is absolutely impossible to create snow out of thin air, or to drop the temperature of a certain city by ten or even twenty degrees in a certain winter, let alone to freeze the entire Pan-Asia.

The weather weapon did this not because of its amazing power, but its clever use of technology to transfer the blizzard that should have fallen on North American survivors to the other side of the Pacific, on the heads of the struggling Pan-Asia people.

“Its core is a quantum computer,” Lin Lin continued, “With the advantage of absolute computing power, naturally there is no secret in front of it. It only needs to collect a small number of parameters, and it can determine all variables using a specific algorithm, and then interfere with the variables through special means.”

“In other words, the heavy snow in Wanghai is not exactly all because of the nuclear winter…”

“Correct,” Lin Lin snapped her fingers and said, “Or to put it another way, we are not just bearing the share that belongs to us, but also the share that originally belonged to the other side of the Pacific Ocean.”

Chapter 1405: Befriend

Chapter 1405: Befriend

Lin Lin’s reply perplexed Jiang Chen.

His original wild and irresponsible idea turned out to be true.

He once heard Zhao Chenwu describe that in the years immediately after the end of the nuclear war, the nuclear winter that shrouded Wanghai was just like a white hell. Many people escaped the war, but they failed to escape the snow. Almost half of the survivors died in winter in the years before the mutants were born and the leakage of X1 bacteria.

The next day, AS Order arrived over the West Coast.

Groups of soldiers set foot on North America and settled in an empty colony. Since yesterday, the Aurora-20 squadron had constantly lifted off to cruise over the West Coast. Their missions were to search for the whereabouts of the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center and to search for the missing colonists.

As Li Wang and the Tiger II tank on the lift platform landed on the ground, he walked to Jiang Chen. He opened the face shield on the power armor helmet and performed a clean salute.

“Li Wang, Commander of the Expeditionary Force and Captain of AS Order, reporting for duty.”

“How many people came?”

“A total of 2,000 soldiers have landed on the West Coast, and another 3,000 people will arrive subsequently in cargo ships along with supplies,” Li Wang reported.

The expanded NAC Army was at an absolute advantage with five thousand soldiers strong. Supported by the industrial capabilities of the Sixth Street and the other world, all these five thousand soldiers were armed to the teeth with the K1 kinetic skeleton, and some elite troops were even equipped with the new K2 kinetic skeleton. Even if those USN soldiers inherited NATO’s military legacy, Jiang Chen would still be in an advantageous position.

The only problem now was the attitude of the National Guard and the Minuteman.

If these two local forces decide to stand on the USN’s side, then NAC would be pressured from all angles.

“We must now figure out what National Guard and Minuteman are thinking. If they decide to stand with USN, then we will act fast and destroy them first,” Jiang Chen said.

“Will they be on our side?” Li Wang hesitated for a moment before he explained his thoughts. “Compared to USN, we are outsiders. My suggestion is that instead of giving them time to organize, it is better to just decrease the likelihood of war and bomb their settlements.”

Li Wang’s idea was very simple.

If he stood from the perspective of a survivor in North America, he would also choose to join force with USN to drive out the invaders who landed on the West Coast first and then discuss the ownership of this land. There would be no reason to contact them at this time, but rather, it would alert them. The best option was to use the electromagnetic pulse naval cannon and fireball-1 to bombard Liberty City and Steel City, directly erase them from the map, so their side selection would no longer matter.

But Jiang Chen’s opinion was completely contrary.

“But we will not interfere with them, and USN intends to rule them,” Jiang Chen looked at Li Wang and said, “For most North American survivors, America is already a term that should be in the grave of history. They have established their own settlements on the West Coast and established their own rules. Now some people have appeared to claim the sovereignty of this land, saying that they want to take them to rebuild a certain country. What would you think if you were put in that position?”

From the opposite angle, if a group of survivors emerged from north of Pan- Asia, waved the flag to revive the Qing Dynasty, called on the NAC and Southern Survivor Alliance to join forces, and claimed to be the rightful ruler of this land, how many people would join their cause?

Not to mention the Qing Dynasty that had long been left behind in history, the Northern Alliance Area that claimed to be the righteous representative of Pan-Asia Cooperation was pushed back by NAC tanks deep into the northwest region. Only the mutated humans responded to their call, and the premise was that they promised a large tract of land to the mutated humans.

No matter what choice the leaders of the National Guard and the Minuteman make, Jiang Chen was certain about one thing, and it was that these leaders would never surrender easily. It was very likely USN had already contacted them before Jiang Chen arrived in North America on Aerospace G100.

It was quite an obvious point, but Jiang Chen didn’t understand the connection until now.

Why did the National Guard and Minuteman start preparations for war when the residents of the Outpost Town disappeared? They were definitely not preparing to fight against the NAC that had “withdrawn” from North America, but the USN soldiers who were about to land on West Coast and claim sovereignty over this land.

After a pause, Jiang Chen looked at Li Wang and continued.

“Send someone to Liberty City and Steel City to contact the leaders of the National Guard and Minuteman. If they are willing to remain neutral, we promise that our outpost will only retain this square kilometer outside Los Angeles. If they are willing to stand on our side and fight USN together, we can exempt tariffs worth 100,000 to 200,000 credit points each year for the next ten years. This is very flexible. You can get someone to negotiate.”

“Roger!”

Li Wang stood straight, saluted, then turned around swiftly.

Although Li Wang was still skeptical about whether or not those people would accept such a covenant, in the hierarchical military government system, the command of the general was absolute. Before the order was issued, everyone had the right to raise objections, but once the order was issued, there was only one thing for him to consider.

That was how to execute the order.

With the alliance treaty given by Jiang Chen, two envoys left the fortress one after another under the escort of NAC soldiers. Li Wang made two-handed preparations. While the two envoys were on the mission, the electromagnetic pulse cannon at the bottom of the Order was also loaded with shells.

If those North American survivors reject the alliance, the uncooperative forces would be bombarded. Before they could organize an effective defense, their organization would be completely wiped out.

Jiang Chen expressed his silent approval to Li Wang’s preparation.

On the other side, the Engineering Regiment that landed on the West Coast through AS Order also moved into the fortress one after another. It began the construction of fortifications on the battlefield.

At the highest point of the concrete fortifications of the fort, the NAC flag was raised once again. The engineers, under the command of Zheng Shanhe, were busy deploying the electromagnetic anti-aircraft guns and land-based radars from the Order in every corner of the fortress.

The powerful combat effectiveness demonstrated by the F-79 already posed a threat to NAC’s air supremacy.

For other survivor forces, AS Order flying in the sky would be an unchallenged existence, but for the USN that also possessed an air force, this big guy flying in the sky was just an easy target. The use of airships for air defense was obviously unreliable. NAC hoped to rely on ground air defense to make up for Aurora-20’s disadvantage in the combat for air supremacy.

Chapter 1406: Close Combat

Chapter 1406: Close Combat

“Seriously, I have been in North America for almost a year. I only applied to change my home base back to Wanghai a few months ago.” An engineer in a safety helmet said as he welded the laser anti-aircraft weapon to the steel bracket. While he wiped the sweat from his forehead, he grinned and looked at his comrade next to him, “After staying for so long, this is the first time I have seen a North American who claims to be an American.”

“Then what do they usually call themselves?” Another engineer wiped his sweat with a towel, took a swig of the mineral water, then joked along, “Aboriginals of the West Coast? Or California Freaks?”

“Neither. Cowboys in California, mercenaries in Nevada, gamblers in Alaska, NATO people…usually the former ones are more common, the latter ones less so. Except for the folks in Chinatown who will stick together based on their ancestry, those whites and blacks like to use state names to draw boundaries from other people.”

“Chinatown? Are there other Chinese near here?”

“It’s not just Chinese. Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, even Indians, Asians on the West Coast basically live there. The stuff there is quite interesting. When this battle is over, I can take you for a tour—”

They were only halfway through the conversation when the harsh alarm sounded.

The two engineers were taken aback for a moment, then their expressions changed all of the sudden. Without a word more, they grabbed their toolbox and ran toward the stairs.

The moment the air defense alarm sounded, the entire fortress was like a pot of boiling water, and everyone began to move. The non-combatants evacuated into the air defense bunker immediately. Soldiers in kinetic skeletons lined up and quickly rushed to their combat positions.

The anti-aircraft electromagnetic pulse cannons and laser weapons deployed on the fortress raised their barrels in tandem, and a stream of Aurora-20s took off from the deck of AS Order. In a blink of an eye, a squadron had all taken off and formed a defensive formation, ready to engage the enemy.

“Company A has entered combat position, requesting instructions.” A soldier in power armor sat at the entrance of the air defense bunker, behind him were 120 soldiers in kinetic skeletons.

The jet-black rifles were ready to fire, and everyone was prepared to fight.

If the USN Army launched a raid on the colony’s air defense facilities, then they would the first line of defense for the fortress!

…

Inside a temporary command post deep into the colony’s air defense bunker.

It was not only the command tower of the Expeditionary Force but also the radar station of the colony.

The observer sat nervously in front of the control terminal, and staff hurriedly ran back and forth between the terminals. This place was the eyes and brains of the entire expeditionary army, and a series of combat orders were issued from here to the front line.

Taking the elevator underground, Jiang Chen quickly walked into the command post. When he arrived, Li Wang and Zheng Shanhe stood at the command table not far away and were discussing combat strategies with a group of officers.

Jiang Chen instructed everyone to disregard him, then he looked at the big screen directly in front of the command post.

When he saw the rapidly approaching red dots, his brows started to frown, he walked forward, looked at the radar observer next to him, and asked in a serious tone.

“What’s the situation.”

“Unidentified flying objects have entered the radar and will encounter our flight squadron in one minute!” Staring at the radar screen, the soldier immediately reported to Jiang Chen.

“How many enemy planes are there?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.

“Fourteen…wait, what the fu*k!”

Without the slightest warning, when the semi-arc cursor swept across the radar screen, rows of dense red dots suddenly appeared. When the observer saw the number rising exponentially, he even forgot that the general was standing next to him and cussed out.

Five hundred and twenty-seven!

Jiang Chen’s eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at the scarlet number. Then he looked at Li Wang and ordered without hesitation, “Launch the EMP missile immediately and bombard the target airspace at full capacity!”

“ROGER!”

Even without Jiang Chen’s order, he planned to do so.

Without any hesitation, Li Wang pressed his headset and issued a combat command to AS Order in the air.

Thousands of meters above the ground, the armor on the side of the steel airship slowly moved, exposing the missile silos for the fearsome missiles. Without any prelude, along with the roar of the engine ignition, four missiles galloped toward the distant airspace along with four thick and long plumes of smoke trailing behind.

The flight squadron that hovered on both sides of AS Order changed its formation. It covered both sides of the missile from a distance and charged up toward the target airspace.

The squadron commander flying in the middle of the formation looked at the red dots on the radar, opened the insurance of the weapon system, and at the same time gave the order to each aviator to engage in combat.

“…we are entering combat range, each aviator, freely fire. I repeat, each aviator, freely fire… FU*K, WHAT IS THAT?”

The EMP weapons exploded in the air, but it did not have much impact on those flying objects. The countless black “iron coffins” formed a loose formation in the air and completely ignored the twenty-four Aurora-20s as they headed straight for the colony.

If possible, the squadron commander would like to order a flight to chase after the group of iron coffins. However, when he saw the F-79s behind, he had to put a stop to this idea.

The quality of pre-war equipment was always more than one notch better than the customized products manufactured by wasteland engineers. It was a truth that had been verified countless times.

The distance of several kilometers was quickly closed, and the two sides entered into their respective engagement distance.

The air-to-air missiles that dragged flames intersected each other, and the ejected flare formed countless beautiful fireworks in the air, and together with the exploding flames, they embellished the brilliant sunset on the horizon.

In a matter of seconds, the first round of combat had been decided.

Large pieces of wreckage fell from the air along with trails of long black smoke. When the last missile was fired, the two sides immediately entered close-range combat.

The roaring gun turrets freely unleashed their bullets, chased each other’s afterburner, tore apart the pristine white clouds and the calm blue sea.

On the other side, under the cover of Wings of Freedoms, the iron coffins successfully passed through the blockade of the NAC air squadron. They ignored the huge steel airship and rammed towards the colony.

Of course, the Expeditionary Army would not easily make their wish come true. Under the guidance of radars, electromagnetic rapid-fire cannons were the first to fire fierce firepower toward the sky. The countless shells formed orange-yellow trajectories that weaved into a tight net. It was all aimed at the jet-black flying objects.

But an astounding scene happened.

Milky white airwaves condensed at the front end of the iron coffins, and the small-caliber shells fired by the electromagnetic anti-aircraft guns were deflected to the side by a dense air wall at the moment of contact.

Except for a few that were shredded, most of the iron coffins successfully broke through the dense net formed by the first round of shells; they continued to fall towards the colony’s fortress without any signs of slowing down…

Chapter 1407: NS-90!

Chapter 1407: NS-90!

“SH*T! What are those things?” Han Yue, with widened eyes, stared at the sky outside the window. He muttered to himself with a dull expression on his face while he was still holding a bento box in his hand.

He had lived in the land ruled by NAC for a long time and this was the first time he had seen a formidable opponent. For some reason, the black dots that broke through the barrage made him feel a sense of anxiety from the bottom of his heart.

Not far from him, Gerrard glanced out the window, and lips holding his cigar moved slightly.

“Earth Warrior, NS-90, we also call it the ‘Battlefield Cleaner’. Sh*t, they even took out this bad boy. It seems that Congress and Mr. President are serious.”

“NS-90?” Han Yue asked in a daze.

“A kind of intelligent combat robot controlled by AI. All identifiable living creatures are within its attack range. Just like the literal meaning, they will generally not leave anything alive when they appear.” Gerrard waved his hand impatiently, looked at the lunch box in his hand, and said indifferently, “So can you give me the bento box? If possible, I want to have a good meal before I die.”

With the dense air wall, the countless black iron coffins broke through the shells interception and slammed into the colony’s fortress.

In the beginning, everyone thought that they were USN missiles, or something similar.

However, the expected explosion did not occur. In the next second, their cognition was completely subverted by the action of this thing.

A series of white mist-like air columns sprayed out, and the iron coffins started to move as if they had come to life. The cracked armor surface started to move around. It formed into steel legs and arms and a black automatic rifle in its hands!

In the center of the rectangular shape, the eyepiece on its head flashed with a daunting red light.

The air battle had yet to be decided, and the bloody ground battle kicked off.

“Enemy units have landed! EVERYONE FOLLOW ME.”

At the moment when Zhang Wei saw the team of mechanical soldiers wake up, he pressed the communication button on his helmet and swung his steel-covered fist to the entrance of the air defense shelter. Without any hesitation, the one hundred and twenty kinetic skeleton soldiers behind him stood up from their seats, followed him, and ran out of the air defense bunker.

Ground combat began the moment the NS-90s landed, and the first wave to engage in combat were NAC-hired mercenaries. When Zhang Wei brought his comrades to the battlefield, the front court of the fortress was already in complete chaos.

“PROTECT OUR AIR DEFENSE! FOLLOW ME!”

Zhang Wei, equipped with a power armor and a Gauss rifle, shouted at the top of his lung. He took the lead and started the vortex engine behind him, then jumped to the top of the fortress. After two trots, he leaned heavily behind a concrete cover.

Except for those intercepted by the shells, a total of 470 robots landed throughout the fortress. From the beginning, these iron machines were directed at the NAC’s air defense system, so after they landed, they completely disregarded the soldiers that attempted to stop them. Instead, they rushed to the electromagnetic rapid-fire guns and laser defense weapons.

However, these Americans obviously underestimated the combat effectiveness of the NAC ground forces, or the earlier invasion of Outpost Town made them overestimate their combat effectiveness. Those mechanical soldiers controlled by AI quickly paid the price for their hasty behavior.

Normal rifle bullets could hardly hurt them. However, after several rounds of upgrades, at least half of the soldiers in the NAC Army were now equipped with advanced Gauss rifles, as well as the second-generation anti-armor rocket launcher produced by the 27th Research Institute – Poisonous Python!

The first few robots that rushed out were turned into scrap by the bullets. Dragging its white tail flames, a rocket burst out from behind cover. When it smashed into a robot soldier, the metal sparks directly appeared from its back and turned its body full of mechanical beauty into a pile of scrap iron gushing with sparks.

However, AI was AI after all. After the AI realized the fierce firepower of the NAC soldiers, they immediately adjusted their original offensive strategy and returned behind cover. They changed their aggressive tactics into a conservative pushing strategy.

As these robot soldiers took cover, the battle that favored NAC once again turned into a stalemate.

Bullets flew in the open space of the fortress, and the flames of the explosion dotted the battlefield from time to time.

Robot soldiers were constantly being turned into scrap metals, NAC soldiers, North America mercenaries were also shot down in the fray. NAC’s drone attack group had plowed the battlefield countless times, but the small-caliber ammunition with insufficient penetration power did not cause damage to too many robot soldiers. Instead, countless drones were smashed down.

“FU*K! WHAT THE HE*L ARE THESE IRON THINGS!” The soldier who was crouching behind cover pulled down the trigger with all his strength, he stared in disbelief at the robot that was dodging bullet while firing back.

Even when he compared it to the cyborg army that he encountered in Wanghai, it was the first time he saw just agile robots. If it weren’t for the unusual shape of its head, he would almost treat it as a living human soldier.

The battle was in a precarious state. Just as the NAC soldiers were forced to shrink their defensive position, a team of power armors suddenly entered the battlefield from the flank.

Many silver-white N-100 power armors stood on the top of the building, and the long and thick type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannons in their hands were shining with dazzling white light. After an immeasurable amount of mass shells blasted into the battlefield, with the help of the shooting assistance program, they all hit their target without exception. Each shot blasted the side armor of the robot soldiers into fragments.

The robot soldiers were caught off guard. They were about to enter the fortress, but because of this sudden flank attack, they were forced to abandon the grounds they gained and retreated to their original landing spots.

“It’s our power armor brigade!”

“Fu*k, I was wondering where these damn things went, they were waiting there! HAHAHAHA!”

The original depressed morale of the frontline troops instantly rose to its peak again.

The addition of the power armor brigade immediately reversed their losing momentum. Under the cover of infantry firepower, they launched a final assault on the USN position from the side. Although only a dozen robot soldiers were still holding on, there was no suspense to the outcome of the ground battle.

For NAC, victory would only be a matter of time.

The victory and defeat of the battle on the ground had been determined, and the air battle in the distance had also come to an end.

The generation gap in equipment was difficult to overcome with just quantity. NAC’s flight squadron fulfilled their final mission and fought until the last fighter had fallen. They spared no effort to preserve the air supremacy until the end of the ground battle.

The ground air defense firepower returned to normal, and the laser defense and shells once again closed the airspace off.

The nine remaining “Wings of Freedom” slowly arrived. They circled the air defense zone for a while and coveted the massive figure of AS Order. After some trade-off assessments, they finally gave up. With engine output set to maximum, they retreated in the direction they came from.

This sudden encounter finally ended with NAC’s victory.

However, this victory was not easy for the Expeditionary Force.

Chapter 1408: Windfall

Chapter 1408: Windfall

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

On the USS Obama, inside the bridge.

1

Several men in military uniforms stood in a row with their heads down. A man in a suit stood in front of them. The man’s face was flushed because of anger as he scolded the people in front of him.

“Five hundred and twenty-seven NS-90s, what do you fools even do! And you fu*king told me that you seized air supremacy, and we can pop the champagne and wait for NAC to collapse? FU*K! Tyrese, you fu*king tell me how you lost this war when they lost air supremacy!”

Sean Luke, Honorary Captain of the USS Obama, was also the President of the Federation. However, the current Federation possessed only one aircraft carrier, a few destroyers left from the postwar period, and hundreds of large and small cargo ships, and a port in Central America.

When Sean learned that they lost the battle, he could hardly believe what he heard from his ears. Because before the start of this war, his people from the Joint Chiefs of Staff had full confidence during the battle evaluation. They stated how long it would take for the “Wings of Freedom” to disintegrate NAC’s air defense force, how long it would take to down the NAC airship, and then cooperate with the NS-90s that landed to take down the ground force.

But now, the report he received not only told him that the five hundred and twenty-seven NS-90s were completely scrapped, but they even lost five F-79s. As for the Airship Order, they didn’t even manage to make a dent in it.

Five hundred and twenty-seven NS-90s could allow them to run their assembly line in Panama at maximum production capacity for a whole year! Even in the scenario where they possessed excessive supplies!

The loss of so many dear robots made his heart bleed.

His chest was violently pumping up and down, and Sean’s bloodshot eyes stared at the man named Tyrese while he waited for him to give a reasonable explanation.

“… The first time we invaded the outpost was too smooth, which led to our inadequate judgment of NAC’s strength.” After Tyrese swallowed down the lump in his throat, he cleared his throat and was forced to provide an explanation. “To our surprise, their ground air defense was adequate. And those N-100s… Originally, we thought they were wearing a type of power armor called T-3. Just give me another chance…”

“And let you scrap the rest of the NS-90s?” This explanation obviously did not please Sean, and he was so angry that he started to laugh. His eyes were fixated on Tyrese, and he said word by word, “Major Tyrese, your decision has caused a huge loss to the American Revival Plan. I declare in the name of the Federation that you are now suspended.”

“…Yes.”

Tyrese lowered his head and forced out the word.

…

The afterglow near the sunset had completely disappeared, and the sunset on the horizon had returned to calmness again. NAC engineers trotted up to the top of the building with their toolbox and began to repair the damaged electromagnetic anti-aircraft guns and replace the defective parts.

The residents of the colony left the shelter and returned to the surface. When they saw the daunting shell and bullet marks on the walls, they were silent.

The front door of the fortress was open, and the originally flat concrete road was now filled with fragmented concrete blocks and black craters. Medics set up temporary tents. The wounded in bandages were put on stretchers and sent to the medical cabin for tissue repair treatment, while the slightly injured soldiers went to the medical tents alone to receive bandaging and medication.

Scrapped NS-90s were scattered everywhere. Occasionally, a few scrapped robot soldiers would shake their heads, unwilling to stop functioning. It was not until their nuclear fusion core was removed did they finally stop. Scavengers in chemical protective clothing collected the destroyed nuclear fusion cores and other parts with excessive radiation levels.

After all the parts were collected and gathered together, they were escorted by NAC soldiers to the temporary research institute set up, and the researchers who traveled with the Expeditionary Force disassembled and analyzed the pieces.

Many people did not sleep that night.

The field researchers especially worked tirelessly in the temporary research institute as they carried a heavy burden.

The sooner they could identify their enemy’s weakness, the more advantageous it would be for NAC.

Everyone worked hard at their posts. They untiringly surrounded the pile of NS-90 wreckage while they completed different experiments and analyses. However, facts proved the difference between scientific research and manual labor; the input and reward may not always be proportional for research.

“This doesn’t work,” A researcher dropped the cutter aside, squeezed his weary brows, and shook his head. “The combat components and power system are not sophisticated at all, but the digital sensors and identification chips are two things I can’t analyze at all. The environment here is too crude. We can only send the components back to Fallout Shelter 027.”

“Is there no similar technology in Pan-Asia Cooperation?” Jiang Chen slightly frowned.

“Different tactical concepts create different scientific research directions.” The researcher shook his head. “We have always emphasized the importance of humans in the research and development of military technology. A soldier with a kinetic skeleton while working with a drone will only have a better price/performance ratio compared to a pure AI soldier. If it is in the field of kinetic skeletons, tanks, and urban defense systems, our technology is far superior. But in terms of robotics, we lag behind.”

1

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile bitterly after the researcher finished speaking.

Therefore, it was not a big loss for Aurora-20 to achieve such results.

However, whenever he thought about the squadron, he felt pain. Not only because of the cost of the twenty-four Aurora-20s itself but also because of the pilots. Rather, those pilots were the real treasure.

After all, to become a pilot of the Aurora-20, the first requirement was that the first genetic code must be Bullet Time. It was precisely because of the particularity of the hidden genetic code that allowed them to have infinite possibilities beyond electronic pilots.

…

“God, what happened here while we were away?” Matthew jumped off the truck and dumbfoundedly stared at the bullet marks on the concrete wall, not knowing what to say.

At the front entrance of the fortress, Matthew, who returned to the fallout shelter with the colony’s mercenaries, finally returned to the fortress with a few large trucks of equipment.

Sitting on the edge of the truck, Jessica glanced at the dark explosive marks outside the fortress, and secretly thought of pity, but did not dare to make it too obvious. If the people of NAC were wiped out, she would naturally be free. But in reality, it was just her wishful thinking.

“Your God is fine, it’s just our fortress that experienced some complications,” Jiang Chen smiled as he walked to Matthew and said in a relaxed tone, “Let’s talk inside.”

On the way, he briefly recounted what had happened to Matthew. From sounding the air defense alarm to the final outcome of the war. Even if Jiang Chen didn’t tell him these things, he would have learned this information when he returned to his compatriots in the refuge.

But what Jiang Chen didn’t expect was that when he heard the name NS-90, Matthew was obviously taken aback.

“NS-90?”

“What? Have you heard of it?” Jiang Chen looked at him with surprise.

“Not only have I heard of it,” Matthew said without hesitation, “The person who designed the NS-90 is in our fallout shelter!”

Chapter 1409: Anti-America Pact

Chapter 1409: “Anti-America” Pact

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

U17 was the name of Matthew’s fallout shelter. It was located in the desert at the junction of Nevada and California. Fallout shelters in North America were different compared to those in Pan-Asia. Eighty percent of fallout shelters were funded by insurance companies or other financial institutions, as well as built under private names.

For most private fallout shelters, the amount of money spent when subscribing to the eligibility for admission directly determined the quality of life after moving into the fallout shelter. Some private shelters were contracted by large companies and were provided to the company’s core employees as employee benefits.

The U17 fallout shelter was the latter.

As the design company of NS-90, the wealthy Masonte Military Industry Group had subscribed for “Doomsday Insurance” for almost every employee, and the nineteen shelters were scattered throughout the Nevada desert.

As the supervisor of the fallout shelter, Matthew naturally was aware of the details of his residents. When Jiang Chen said the name NS-90, he immediately thought of the researchers in his fallout shelter who had participated in the design of the NS-90.

The word America was too far away for him, but NAC instead, was their savior.

If Jiang Chen needed help, he certainly wouldn’t be stingy to offer help.

“That’s great! Can I borrow your researcher? Of course, I will pay you at a reasonable price,” Jiang Chen said.

“I’ll talk to them for you, but I think this shouldn’t be a big deal.” Matthew waved his hand. “You don’t have to pay anything. This little favor is not enough to pay the favors we owe you. If you really insist, can you pay these researchers a salary? But for a world that has become like this, what is the meaning of money?”

Although Matthew declined the payment, Jiang Chen still sent them a batch of supplies as their reward. Jiang Chen was confident that with the involvement of these twenty or so Masonte researchers, it would only be a matter of time before they fully understood NS-90’s technology.

…

In the early morning of the next day, a group of guests were greeted at the gate of the fort.

To be precise, it was a group of guests who belonged to two different forces.

The envoys sent by Li Wang to Liberty City and Steel City did not disappoint the General’s trust. They successfully persuaded the leaders of the National Guard and the Minuteman. Even if they did not sign the pact on the spot, at least they gained enough interest.

They returned to Outpost Town with the NAC envoys. Jiang Chen saw the two representatives from the National Guard and Minuteman at the gate.

“It’s nice to meet you, distinguished Mr. Jiang Chen, my name is Barry Clive.” The red-haired man shook Jiang Chen’s hand. “On behalf of the militia organization on the West Coast, we bring you our regards.”

“Russell Gilbert, National Guard Sergeant.” Another man in a power armor looked rather serious and nodded. “The polite greetings are unnecessary. Frankly speaking, we are very interested the pact you proposed. Steel City will not accept the rule of anyone, whether it is Great America, the British Empire, or the Native Indian Kingdom. But there is one thing we must be clear about.”

“That’s right,” the red-haired Barry nodded, “If turning off the weather weapon is also one of your goals…”

Jiang Chen immediately understood what he meant, so he laughed and addressed the concerns of the two guests.

“You can rest assured that although the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center is also one of our goals, we do not intend to turn it off. We only intend to make some minor adjustments to its climate guidance program. On the issue of weather weapons, our interests are exactly aligned.”

No one enjoyed nuclear winters, and the National Guard and the Minuteman were no exception. If the price of driving away the United States was the spring on the West Coast, they would have to carefully weigh the pros and cons between the two.

“How do you plan to address it?” Russell Gilbert asked without showing his true emotion.

“For example, we can transfer the climate disasters on the West Coast and the Pan-Asian East Coast to inland North America and the East Coast east of the Rocky Mountains, or we can simply throw all the trouble to South America, south of Panama, or even across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.” Jiang Chen revealed a sly grin and then continued, “If you are willing to accept our proposal, we are even willing to share the energy expenditure of the weather weapon with you. If I am not mistaken, running this weather weapon does require a lot of energy.”

Russell and Barry looked at each other, exchanged opinions briefly with their eyes, and finally accepted Jiang Chen’s proposal.

At the invitation of Jiang Chen, the two came to the office in the Governor’s Mansion and drafted the pact on the spot.

Russell and Barry carefully reviewed the terms, and after they confirmed, as representatives of the National Guard and the Minuteman, they signed their names at the end of the draft.

The revised pact was not too different from the original one. The only exception being a few terms added at the end.

First of all, after they controlled the weather weapon, both the East Coast of Pan-Asia and the West Coast of North America would be included in the area of climate protection, and climate disasters would be transferred to the Mediterranean and Central Africa.

As an outsider, NAC would bear 60% of the energy expenditure of the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center, and the Minuteman and the National Guard would each bear 20%. In exchange, the two major forces would introduce NAC’s credit point system, and Sixth Street Bank would help to establish a credit point payment network.

From the date of signing the agreement, the currency settlement of trade between Liberty City, Steel City, and NAC Outpost Town would be conducted using credit points.

When determining the NAC’s policy on North American survivors, Jiang Chen discussed with Chu Nan and Han Junhua extensively before he had set off. After careful consideration, he finally decided to employ a strategy that starts with trade and use indirect influence instead of direct intervention.

After all, for him, the only things that truly intrigued him in North America were the pre-war technologies buried under the rubble. And these things could be obtained through trade, as long as he or the Sixth Street merchants clearly showed an interest in these things.

Two thousand Minuteman “Rangers”, and one thousand National Guard “Pioneers” would participate in this war to fight against the “invasion” of the United States.

When the pact was signed, Barry and Russell left one after another.

After Jiang Chen sent the two representatives to the door, he handed both two gifts.

Teas and cigars.

While Jiang Chen looked at their surprised expression and smiled.

“The cigars produced in Colombia are as authentic as the ones before the war.”

“I thank you for the gifts on behalf of Mr. Eddie,” Russell sincerely accept the gifts while internally, he was shocked.

Not because of NAC’s financial resources, but because of the message Jiang Chen revealed in this short sentence.

Does NAC also have colonies in South America?

Russell was uncertain, but if it was true, then the strength of these Asian was terrifying.

With a grin, Jiang Chen watched those two people leave. Then, he returned back to the Governor’s Mansion.

Looking at the signatures at the bottom of the document, and the title Anti-American Alliance at the top, he couldn’t help but feel a little amused.

The North American National Guard and the post-war militia teamed up with foreign colonists to fight against the USN, which was attempting to revive the United States. Regardless of objective factors, this pact seemed peculiar. But no matter what, they were now on the same side.

You want to revive America?

The soldiers on USS Obama’s first opponent will not be the NAC, but their future citizens.

Chapter 1410: You Need A Guide

Chapter 1410: You Need A Guide

A combat meeting against the USN was held in the temporary command post.

The meeting was chaired by General Jiang Chen, and all the senior officers of the Expeditionary Army attended this meeting without exception. The topics discussed not only included plans to counteract USN’s air superiority and how they would deal with the difficult NS-90 robots, but also the most fundamental and most urgent problem—

Where are they?!

“…The chip on Governor Zhou’s body can send signals. As long as we get within a certain range, we can locate his coordinates,” an officer suggested.

“The problem is that they are at sea and we have no air superiority. How do we search for them?”

“How about releasing high-altitude drones? As long as…”

“Umm, as long as they are not blind, none of our drones will even get close—”

“Then search from below the sea level!” Jiang Chen interrupted the argument around the conference table and tapped on the table with a finger to signal everyone to be silent. Immediately afterward, he looked at the Guards Captain next to him, and ordered in an absolute tone, “Contact the Beluga Station and let them be in charge of the search. We will provide the chip’s frequency. As long as they can lock onto the position of the USN fleet, we will immediately pay them 10,000 credits. If they can bring Zhou Guoping back, I will pay 100,000.”

Many people’s eyes lit up when they heard the General’s words. They didn’t think they could use Beluga Station to locate the USN fleet.

Some people certainly considered this possibility, but they were hesitant to propose this idea. After all, NAC was developing its own navy, and the plan was to gradually recover the protection service from Wanghai to Yizhou, Yingzhou, and North America from Beluga Station. It was in direct conflict with their interests, and the relationship between the two parties was in a precarious state.

But unlike these officers, as the General, Jiang Chen could see the situation clearly.

The friction between the NAC and Beluga Station on the issue of sea power could only be regarded as competition and not confrontation. As long as NAC was willing to make certain concessions, the other side would certainly be willing to help.

Also,10,000 credit points were enough to buy a whole truck of rice produced in the Garden of Eden.

“ROGER.”

Zheng Shanhe nodded and left the conference room.

The meeting continued, and then more than a dozen officers discussed and formulated a detailed combat plan against the USN. Given the topic required professional knowledge, Jiang Chen didn’t interrupt the meeting. Instead, Li Wang presided over this portion of the meeting.

After the meeting, Jiang Chen asked Li Wang to stay.

“Are the National Guard and the Minuteman’s troops here?” While Jiang Chen put away the minutes of the meeting, he looked at Li Wang.

“They arrived this morning,” Li Wang nodded and reported to him. “I marked a place for them two kilometers east of Outpost Town, which was originally zoned as a newly developed residential area. Until this war is over, they will be stationed there and fight with us together.”

“Very good.” Jiang Chen nodded, “Where is the reinforcement fleet? How long will it take to reach the West Coast?”

“A week at the latest and maybe four days at the earliest,” Li Wang said.

Jiang Chen nodded, looked at Li Wang, and continued.

“I have another mission.”

“Please go ahead.” Li Wang respectfully said.

Jiang Chen did not speak, but directly opened his watch, tapped a few buttons on the holographic screen, and a map of the Nevada desert appeared in front of them.

“This is…” When Li Wang looked at the map and the red area in the center of the map, he frowned slightly.

“This area is located east of Las Vegas, and the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center is nearby,” Jiang Chen continued as he focused on Li Wang, “Send a power armor team there and I’ll recommend a guide for you. You have only one task, and that is to find the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center and control it!”

…

Inside the cold and humid room of the dungeon of Outpost Town.

Black Skull’s hands and feet were chained down by shackles. He laid on the bed lethargically as he zoned out staring at the outlines of the ceiling.

Perhaps it was because he was very cooperative when he explained the whole story, the sensible NAC did not shoot him. Instead, NAC threw him into the dungeon. Every day, two tubes of nutrient supplies were tossed in from the small window while he rotted away in here.

Sometimes he really thought that it would be better to end himself here instead of staring at the dark ceiling.

But now, he heard footsteps from outside the door.

Is it time for food?

Black Skull murmured in his mind and thought that the interval between the two meals was a bit short.

Just as he was about to get up and walk to the door, the black iron door suddenly opened slowly.

He stared blankly at the ray of light that leaked through the crack of the door. For some reason, he felt an excitement that made him want to cry. The soldier who appeared at the door ignored the expression on his face, flipped through the list in his hand, and glanced at him emotionlessly.

“Black Skull.”

“Yes.” After he swallowed, Black Skull nodded vigorously. “It’s me, what’s wrong?”

“A certain NAC unit is about to go to the desert for a mission. It needs a guide who is familiar with the Nevada Desert.” Without any nonsense, the soldier closed the list, threw it on the side table, and concisely said, “You now have an atonement. Even the opportunity for meritorious service, whether you can grasp it depends on your own performance.”

“NO PROBLEM! I GOT IT!” Black Skull exulted. “I have lived in the Nevada Desert for more than ten years, I can even walk to Las Vegas with my eyes closed!”

As long as he could get out, he was willing to do anything! Even if he had to fight a Death Claw, he would not even frown for a single second. The days inside the dark room was inhumane. In that dark, cold and humid environment, even a determined person would go crazy after a while!

The soldier nodded, and said to the guard next to him, “Give him this collar. You can release the shackles.”

After he put on the electronic collar, the feeling of explosives hanging around his neck made Black Skull quite uncomfortable, but he also knew that he had no choice.

He followed the soldier to an office where a high-ranking officer sat. As for how Black Skull determined his ranking, it was from the Knight Medal that hung in front of his chest…

“The target we are searching for is the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center. The only information now is that it may appear in the eastern desert of Las Vegas, about two hundred meters deep underground. To put it bluntly, even though it is called the Meteorology Monitoring Center, it is actually a pre-war military facility.”

The officer then paused, looked at the black predator in front of him, and continued to speak, “I’ll just say that as long as you can bring us there, all your crimes will be forgiven. Based on how long it will take you to complete this mission, we may even pay out a hefty reward.”

Chapter 1411: Race Against Time

Chapter 1411: Race Against Time

A banquet was held on USS Obama.

Ladies in evening gowns and gentlemen in tailcoats danced on the dance floor. The politicians and entrepreneurs who stood beside the long banquet table toasted and talked eagerly. Among them were shipowners, merchants, members of Congress, and politicians in government agencies.

This kind of banquet was very common on USS Obama, as if something worth celebrating happened every few days. Even if most of the poor people on the cargo ships were struggling to get by, this did not stop them from squeezing out some supplies to enjoy life.

“…Have you heard of Senator Bansar’s proposal? He actually proposed to the Congress to close the ranch on USS Lahaina and set free the thousand double-headed brahman cows! Jesus Christ. I have never heard of such a ridiculous proposal!”

“Anyone can join our Congress now. We must tighten the threshold for those that want to become part of the Congress.”

“But we cannot ignore the opinions of the thousand Indian-Americans. If they strike and protest, it will give us headaches.”

“Lost? What a joke, if USN used all its strength, it is as easy to pinch an ant to death as it is easy to pinch them!”

“I heard that the USN Marine Corps scrapped more than 500 NS-90 robots. Our fighters succeeded, but after all, we were still one step too slow.”

“They won’t be so lucky every time, let us toast the future of America!”

“Haha, cheers!”

“…”

Zhou Guoping let out a helpless sigh when he saw the charcoal-grilled double-headed brahman beef on the plates, the mutant cod burger with mud crab sauce, and the goblet full of quantum champagne. He felt like he had no appetite.

If the banquet was compared to NAC standards, this banquet was probably of the lowest class. Not to mention anything else, at least at NAC banquets, canned food was never placed in the most conspicuous position on the table as if it were a treasure, and people had to show identification when they received the meal.

Of course, they were not to blame. After all, for these survivors who drifted on the sea and had no homes, canned food was really a luxury.

He missed his days in the Sixth Street very much now.

At least from what he ate, it was not NAC’s tradition to treat its own poorly.

When he arrived on USS Obama, the Americans not only did not abuse him but regarded him as an interesting character…or rather, a rare animal. President Sean specifically allowed him to attend the banquet on the aircraft carrier as the “NAC Governor” and even allowed him to live on the aircraft carrier as a state guest.

“…We are a multicultural country. As long as you are willing to accept our ideas, you are one of us. The abuse of prisoners of war is done by barbarians, not by us.” Those were President Sean’s words. While he sounded righteous, it was completely bullsh*t in Zhou Guoping’s ears.

From the time he got on the ship, he had not seen his compatriots.

Obviously, those three thousand colonists were not sent to the USN fleet at all. As for where they were sent, he had gained some insights.

Although this group of Americans moved factories, farms, and even farmland to the deck of the cargo ships, this fleet was not all of the United States. After all, there were no recyclable waste products onboard and no resources for mining.

The source of supplies for the American fleet mainly relied on the concentration camp in Panama, where criminals, slaves, and captives captured from the South American survivor settlements were held, and they were forced to do the most basic waste collection, mining, and resource recovery.

Zhou Guoping was certain that the 3,000 colonists were sent there, and even the more than 30,000 slaves he purchased were also likely sent there… even if most of those slaves were native to North America.

At this moment, he heard a familiar and annoying voice beside him. A man in a suit and leather shoes walked towards him with a goblet and a bright smile.

“Haha, dear Mr. Zhou Guoping, how have you been recently? Are you used to life on the boat?”

When he saw this face, Governor Zhou’s previously pleasant mood was no longer pleasant.

The man in front of him was no one else than the President of the United States of America at Sea, as well as Captain of the USS Obama, Sean Luke.

Although USN’s Marines were defeated by NAC some time ago, at this moment, there was not the slightest annoyance or frustration on his face. Instead, he smiled brightly, separated by two tables, and raised his goblet.

As a president, he had to show sufficient demeanor in front of prisoners in order to win the favor of the “domestic” neutrals.

Although Zhou Guoping could feel from far away that Mr. President looked down on him from the bottom of his heart.

“Thank you for your thoughtfulness.” Out of helplessness, he patiently raised his goblet and said stiffly, “I’m fine. Except for occasional seasickness, everything else is fine.”

“Really?” Sean laughed, “I hope you can enjoy this banquet for the upcoming victory.”

“Then I have to have a few good drinks.” Zhou Guoping grinned and said sarcastically.

Perhaps Mr. President did not hear the sarcasm in Zhou Gouping’s words, or perhaps he did not mind, he had already turned to the guests who surrounded him and began to converse with them.

Zhou Guoping, who was forgotten in the corner, put down his goblet, walked outside the cabin, leaned against the guardrail, and lit a low-quality cigarette.

The soldier standing outside on duty turned his body slightly and stared at him unabashedly.

Without paying attention to that vigilant sight, Zhou Guoping planned to just take a breather before he returned. He could learn some news from those people’s conversations.

But at this moment, the half-smoked cigarette fell into the sea.

Zhou Guoping pretended the cigarette was blown away by the sea breeze, lowered his head to conceal the ecstasy on his face. The soldier who watched him found nothing unusual, and he just stood motionlessly on duty.

Just now, an electric current mixed with static noise suddenly appeared in his mind.

“This is Parrot… Is it Mr. Governor?”

…

A week had passed since AS Order arrived on the West Coast, and three days had passed since a team of power armors set off for the desert.

During this week, small USN fighters broke into the colony’s radar detection area almost every day, fired a long-range air-to-air missile at a distance aimed at AS Order, and then turned around before they approached the colony’s air defense fire range.

This kind of harassment was meaningless. Conventional air-to-air missiles at such a long-distance could be blasted down even with the airship’s built-in laser defense weapons. It was not even necessary to use ground-based air defense weapons.

“Their number of F-79s should be very limited.” Jiang Chen put down the binoculars, squinted his eyes, and looked in the direction the flight of fighters left in.”

As long as they could breakthrough the ground-based air defense and exchange a few fights with the enemy “aircraft carrier”, the exchange would be well worth the trade. However, these fighters were afraid to enter NAC’s firepower coverage. Other than the daily trip to check the West Coast, they did not make any other moves.

Obviously, the five lost fighters had already caused them a lot of pain.

“What are they waiting for?” Zheng Shanhe frowned.

“A gust of wind,” Jiang Chen smiled after a moment’s pause, and then said, “Or a hurricane, a tornado, or a lightning storm.”

Slightly confused by the analogy, Zheng Shanhe didn’t react at first. It took two seconds for him to turn to Jiang Chen with a look of shock.

“You, you mean!”

“That’s right.” Jiang Chen nodded, and his slightly narrowed eyes gleamed with a dangerous ray, “Now the National Guard and Minuteman are already on our side, and the troops are stationed in the camp next to the fortress. If USN’s fighters came once every day, then there must have discovered this information.”

For USN, the survivors on the West Coast had decided to stand on their opposing side. They had become obstacles to their plan to revive the United States.

Therefore, since they had found the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center first, it was obviously a more convenient choice to directly use the weather weapon. The only plausible explanation as to why USN had not done so was because either activating the weather weapon would take a considerable amount of time, or summoning a large-scale natural disaster would require certain conditions.

Now he could only pray that the team of power armors sent to the Nevada Desert could snatch the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center from USN before USN launched a weather strike…

Chapter 1412: For Money

Chapter 1412: For Money

Five kilometers below the sea surface, a streamlined submarine floated quietly in the bottomless trench and moved slowly forward. The word “Parrot” was printed with white paint on both sides of the submarine, and the symbol of the Beluga Station was at the center of the radar cover.

There was no need to worry about being discovered by the USN destroyer because its current depth had far exceeded the maximum submersible depth of military submarines. This depth could only be reached by scientific research submarines. No sonar was capable of detecting any presence in this depth, nor could any depth charge or sonar threaten its existence.

In contrast to the quiet movement, the inside of the submarine was already filled with joy.

The two pilots high-fived each other and the observer put down his headset and whistled in excitement. At the door of the control room, the captain, with his arms crossed in front of his chest, grinned under his unshaven mustache.

They just went for a stroll and earned an easy 10,000 credits.

They had never made such easy money.

Based on the rules of the station, 70% of the commissioned income was handed to the organization, 20% of the equipment maintenance fee was paid directly to the shipyard, and the remaining 10% was the bonus for all of them.

Now they had a dilemma.

Should they follow this fleet, report the coordinates to NAC, and receive the 10,000 credits, or should they send someone up to bring Zhou Guoping back and get the 100,000 credits promised by NAC…

“The USS Obama must be heavily guarded. It’s difficult for us to get in. We should just take what we have,” a crew member hesitantly suggested.

“That’s one hundred thousand credits!” The other crew member widened his eyes, “Why don’t we try it? Or why did we bring the soldiers along? Let them share the bonus for no reason?”

“This is not as simple as trying, this is gambling! If the target has an accident…”

“Why are we afraid? NAC only asked us for the coordinates. They didn’t say we need to care for the safety of the target!”

“…”

“Listen to what he has to say first and understand the situation onboard USS Obama,” the captain interrupted the quarrel in the control room, looked at the observer who was in charge of contacting Zhou Guoping, and ordered, “If circumstance permits, we can send some people up. If it doesn’t, then forget it.”

In the end, it was the captain that ended the argument in the room.

The observer put on the headset again, entered the communication password provided by Jiang Chen on the tablet, and reconnected to Zhou Guoping’s chip. He asked Zhou Guoping for his current location and the security measures around him. At this moment, Zhou Guoping had used the excuse of going to the washroom and went to the washroom.

“There is a banquet happening on USS Obama,” Zhou Guoping, who was sitting on the toilet, confirmed that there was no one outside, then took a deep breath, bridged his consciousness with the chip and sent a message to the crew on Parrot, “Listen, you have no chance. They are watching me closely. Send this message on my behalf to Jiang Chen. These Americans have a base in Panama and all the residents of the colony were sent there!”

“Are you alone on the ship?”

“Yes,” Zhou Guoping replied.

“Okay, we will pass the message on to Jiang Chen for you. However, I personally suggest you tell him about such valuable information in person. Then for the reward… AHEM! For your safety and personal freedom, we will send a team of special force to sneak onto the USN fleet. Please wait patiently and cooperate with our rescue operation when necessary.”

“You can’t get in. Even if you get inside, you won’t be able to take me away,” Zhou Guoping smiled bitterly. “I have someone following me to the washroom. They will never allow me to stay out of their sight.”

“Is that so? Where are you now?”

Zhou Guoping was taken aback for a moment and just wanted to answer that he was on the toilet of course.

But at this moment, he suddenly realized what he just said.

It seemed that he was out of the Americans’ sight right now…

…

On the highway from California to Nevada, NAC’s convoy headed deep into the desert. On the roof of the first truck, Zhang Wei took the binoculars out of his pocket and glanced out into the endless yellow sand.

However, there was only sand and not a trace of human activity.

To locate a military facility buried hundreds of meters underground was no different than finding a needle in a haystack.

“You better hurry up before I lose my patience,” Zhang Wei said irritably as he glanced at the man who sat next to him.

Three days.

From when they set off, three full days had passed.

But along the way, they had not even seen a decent-looking house, let alone the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center. If his mission didn’t include that weather weapon, he wouldn’t mind wandering around in the desert, but they were in a time crunch and had to find it before the Americans could activate the weather weapon.

Every minute was precious.

“You can’t blame me,” Black Skull noticed the impatience in the eyes of the NAC officer next to him; he started to sweat profusely as he attempted to defend himself. “The information you gave me is only a map that is not useful in any way and a name I have never heard before.”

“Fu*k you. If I knew the specific location, why would I need you?”

The scolded Black Skull was afraid to look up and did not dare to respond.

Not wanting to waste saliva on this guy, Zhang Wei took out the mineral water from his backpack and took a sip, then he stopped talking.

The convoy continued to move forward.

At this moment, Black Skull suddenly noticed something. He slapped the roof of the car and shouted.

“Wait, STOP! STOP!”

The convoy stopped, and without waiting for Zhang Wei to speak, the man hurriedly jumped out of the truck, trotted two steps forward, and then squatted down by the road.

Zhang Wei watched his actions with a frown, then jumped off the truck and walked to him.

The man got down first and pressed his ears on the ground. Then he climbed up from the ground and moved his fingers back and forth on the dry concrete road.

“What are you doing?” Zhang Wei kicked this guy in the butt and frowned.

“A convoy passed by here, about two hours ago. They didn’t use the road, but moved through the middle of the road.” Black Skull’s two mung-bean-sized eyes narrowed slightly as he looked up at the sand dunes beside the road. “They’re heading north.”

“How do you know?” A hint of surprise appeared in Zhang Wei’s eyes.

The wind here was very strong. The blowing gust was enough to cover all tracks with sand within ten minutes, let alone two hours. However, this guy was not only able to spot the issue with this road with just a glance, but he could accurately pinpoint the direction as well as the time.

At least in Zhang Wei’s eyes, there was no difference between this section of the road and the section they had passed through before.

“The temperature of the highway in Nevada is very high, and the tires will still leave marks. You can still feel it with your fingers.” Black Skull clapped his hands and stood up from the ground. He touched his head, grinned proudly, and revealed his white teeth, “This is how we used to track merchants.”

Fair enough.

From when they took off until now, it was the first time Zhang Wei felt that this guy was still somewhat useful…

Chapter 1413: Besiege In The Desert

Chapter 1413: Besiege In The Desert

Deep into the Nevada Desert, a row of desert-camouflaged SUVs came from afar, avoided two hills covered by loess, and stopped outside a military base under the hills. The rusty iron gate looked as if it had been deserted for many years. By the amount of sand trapped under the tarp, it appeared that no one had visited this place for a long time.

When the convoy approached the military base, the vehicles began to slow down.

At this moment, a gust of wind that carried sand blew by. In just a blink of an eye, soldiers wearing desert camouflage stood around the convoy. They raised their rifles and surrounded the SUVs.

The convoy stopped.

The door of the second SUV opened and a military boot stepped onto the ground. He showed his identity card to the nearest soldier. The soldier didn’t make any movement except for a red light that flashed in the center of the tactical eyepiece under the brim of his Bennie’s hat.

After the soldier identified the code on the graphene card, the rifles pointed at the convoy all lowered. Colonel Ross put away his graphene card, narrowed his eyes, scanned the group of soldiers, and said.

“Where is Colonel McCarthy, get him to see me.”

“Here.” Colonel McCarthy, who wore a beret, stepped out and walked up to the officer. He raised his hand and performed a standard military salute.

Although the two were both colonels in military ranks, one was serving in the Department of Defense while the other was a commissioned officer of the frontline forces. Colonel Ross came here with the order of the Department of Defense and could be considered as his superior. Therefore, he had no problem saluting first.

Colonel Ross responded with a salute, then looked at the military base behind him and nodded.

“How is the preparation?”

“The West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center is already under our control, and the only insider is also under our control,” McCarthy replied seriously.

“Very good.” Colonel Ross nodded and stared at McCarthy. Then he paused for a moment before he continued, “Congress has already discussed this matter. Since those stubborn conservative forces are ready to stop us from moving into the future, then we will sweep them into the tomb of history together with the rubbish of the wasteland. Your task now is to include the entire California in the coverage of the weather weapon and implement an indiscriminate strategic strike.”

“Roger,” Colonel McCarthy replied in a cold and emotionless state.

“The combat order has been issued. I want to know when this thing will be ready.” Colonel Ross said while he raised his chin and looked at the alloy door inlaid on the side of the hill behind the military base.

“It depends on when the fuel rods will be delivered.” Colonel McCarthy then asked, “How is the dismantling of that batch of nuclear weapons?”

“A hundred 20mm nuclear fusion cores have been removed and they will be sent here soon,” Colonel Ross responded.

“That’s enough.” The upturned corner of his mouth showed cruelness and viciousness, Colonel McCarthy said, “A category six hurricane will be more than enough to shred their defense-”

Before he could finish his sentence, a scream suddenly came from the sky.

The two of them were taken aback by the noise and looked up.

However, just halfway through the motion, shrapnel blasted and dazzling light exploded. Dark smoke then diffused at the entrance of the military base along with the fire. Unprepared, the two soldiers who stood next to the checkpoint were blown to pieces by the incoming shells. One of them entered into a coma and was immediately in an undetermined state.

McCarthy reflexively took two steps back, raised his sleeves to cover his face, and stared at the blown checkpoint, then his pupils suddenly constricted.

Mortars!

“ENEMY ATTACK!”

“SPREAD OUT! HURRY, HURRY!”

“This is Team Red Arrow. The position of the mortar has been calculated, we are heading to the target area…”

Without the slightest warning, as the first shell exploded, the subsequent shells exploded near the convoy like countless beans being scattered down.

When the first shell arrived, all USN soldiers started to move like in sync gears. Soldiers in desert camouflage rushed to the side of the road and held onto their rifle as they laid down on the spot behind covers. The SUVs quickly reversed and spread out; half of the SUVs, that carried supplies, drove into the military base. The other half, which carried soldiers, and two armored vehicles rushed out of the military base and headed for the direction where the shells came from.

…

“Haha! FIRE!”

With one foot on a desert-colored motorcycle, the man in a cowboy hat laughed hysterically while he looked at the explosions with his binoculars. The scene of enemies fleeing under his bombardment sparked an immense amount of joy in his mind.

In the open space next to him, soldiers dressed as cowboys took the mortar shells from the back of the motorcycles, threw them to the comrades holding the mortar, and stuffed them into the thick barrel.

The Rangers, as a purely motorized artillery unit, was the trump card of the militia organization “Minuteman”. Although they relied on old-fashioned fuel-burning motorcycles as a means of transportation, the performance of this old-fashioned machinery on wasteland, especially in the desert, was unexpectedly reliable. Moreover, synthetic oil was much easier to obtain than nuclear batteries, and the machine was also not affected by EMP weapons. With the excellent firepower of 60mm electromagnetic mortars, the Rangers had ravaged the California wasteland for more than a decade, frightening countless predators and mutated human tribes.

“They are coming here,” another cowboy crouched behind a rock said as he observed the convoy moving along with a trail of dust with his binoculars, “Tell NAC they can start!”

“ROGER!”

No notification was required at all.

When the cowboy ran to the motorcycle and sent the message, the NAC Expeditionary Force and the National Guard who were flanking nearby had already moved.

Without any warning, dozens of anti-tank rockets sprang out from behind the haystack and went straight to the USN military convoy moving to the Ranger artillery position. Two SUVs were shot on the side and turned into exploding fireballs. The two armored vehicles at the back were hit directly and stalled on the road. In a split second, the USN convoy had completely lost its momentum.

Knowing that they were ambushed, USN soldiers jumped out of the vehicles one after another and scattered to look for cover. However, the previous rockets were only the beginning. A group of soldiers also armed with kinetic skeleton flanked from behind the dunes. The rifle in their hands spewed out fearsome bullets. With the support of power armors, they surrounded the completely stalled convoy.

“I’M HIT! MEDIC!”

“SH*T! THIS IS TEAM RED ARROW! WE NEED REINFORCEMENT! I REPEAT, WE AHHHHHHH-”

There was no reinforcement.

Just half a minute ago, countless rockets fell from above and instantly engulfed the abandoned military base.

The tumbling balls of flame dyed the gray-yellow earth into a dark hell, and a pungent burnt smell lingered around the entire battlefield. Most of the USN soldiers died under the barrage of Fireball-1. While a few survived, under the siege of the NAC ground troops, the remaining soldiers were forced to retreat to the cave.

Everything happened so suddenly that neither Colonel McCarthy nor Colonel Ross could react.

When they were about to ask for help from the fleet, they found that all communication equipment had failed. It turned out that during the rocket barrage, NAC not only used high-explosive and incendiary warheads, but also the most insidious EMP warheads…

Chapter 1414: Power of The Cannon

Chapter 1414: Power of The Cannon

Gunshots persisted above the empty ground in the center of the military base and the flames of explosions bloomed from time to time. The previous full-scale rocket attack turned the entire military base into chaos. Burnt vehicles had tipped over on the side of the road, and from time to time, nuclear fusion cores exploded.

USN soldiers in kinetic skeleton evacuated to the entrance of the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center, deployed an aluminum alloy mobile bunker at the entrance of the cave, and fired back as they waited for reinforcements that who knew when would arrive.

“FU*K! How did these monkeys find us!”

“It’s not just monkeys… Fu*k, now we have to face those idiots.” Colonel Ross cursed at the scene of National Guard’s power armors attacking the military base, “Where is the spare communicator?”

“In the headquarters,” McCarthy fired a few shots outside the bunker, glanced at the chaotic military base, then looked at the destroyed building in the center of the base. His eagle-like eyes seemed to show that he was in a dire state. “SH*T! How often is your interval communication?”

“One hour,” After Colonel Ross replaced the burnt chip in the tablet, tapped on the tablet a few times, looked at the rows of icons on the screen with a red cross, then threw a punch against the wall. “FU*K! We lost the drones too!”

While they spoke, a rifle grenade exploded on the bunker. An unprepared soldier was blown upside down, and the blood-stained kinetic skeleton fragments scattered all over the floor. The two hurriedly ducked down and narrowly avoided the explosion debris.

“We can’t hold this place anymore!” After McCarthy emptied his last magazine, he tossed down the rifle in his hand, pulled out the laser pistol from his waist, and fired a few beams outside, then he grabbed Colonel Ross next to him, “Let’s go, we need to get inside!”

The bullet shells clinked as they fell to the ground.

After he received the clip thrown over by logistic, Zhang Wei skillfully reloaded the rifle and fired at the soldiers hiding behind cover. With a few short bursts, a series of blood spurts appeared on the head of the soldier under the sight as the soldier fell backward and collapsed to the ground.

The combat effectiveness of this group of USN soldiers was not strong. Compared with their powerful mechanical equipment, they could even be described as weak.

Other than the invisible soldiers and the cyborg fighters who were not affected by EMP, which caused a lot of trouble for the NAC and the National Guard when they attacked NAC’s base because of their technical advantages. These USN soldiers in kinetic skeleton or even power armor, under the besieged attack of the NAC and the National Guard, collapsed in a one-sided slaughter.

Not far from Zhang Wei, a National Guard’s power armor swung its power hammer with a full swing and directly landed it on the power armor inscribed with USN. Eerie blue sparks appeared on the surface of the power armor for a brief second. The shock wave of the swing blew away the gravel on the ground and dented the heavy front armor!

The pilot inside couldn’t be more dead…

On the other side, a soldier who wore an optical invisibility combat uniform was suppressed down by the hailstorm of bullets and was finally blown into fragments by a rocket along with the concrete bunker.

The USN soldiers at the entrance of the cave were forced to retreat under the unrelenting firepower of NAC.

“The fishers are retreating!” National Guard Deputy Captain Wade roared; he exchanged the heavy machine gun on his right hand of the power armor into a grenade launcher and pressed down the trigger with force against the closing alloy giant gate, “FU*K! WHERE ARE YOU ROCKETS? WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH FIREPOWER!”

“Deploying!”

Zhang Wei waved his fist and signaled the anti-tank infantry behind him to attack.

Just as the NAC’s anti-tank troops rushed to position, the National Guard’s rifle grenades had already landed in front of the giant alloy gate. There was a series of loud booms, followed by the flame of explosions that almost swallowed the round gate.

However, as Wade had expected, these high-explosive grenades effective against soft targets did not do any damage against the slowly closing giant alloy gate! They couldn’t even stop it for a brief moment.

USN’s infantry had all retreated into the cave, and the mobile bunker was abandoned. The NAC anti-tank infantry from the rear finally arrived at the battlefield. Under Zhang Wei’s command, they deployed the recoilless cannon onto the ground and fired at the giant gate.

A dozen “Poisonous Python” rockets along with orange tail flames galloped towards the entrance of the cave, then exploded into a series of orange-red fireballs on the giant alloy panel! The huge door made an overwhelmed buzz, and the dull sound reverberated throughout the hills.

“WE GOT IT!”

However, when the smoke dissipated, Zhang Wei’s pupils suddenly constricted.

The giant circular alloy gate’s flat surface looked like nothing had happened. The dozen of rockets that could blow apart armored vehicles could not even leave a dent on its surface!

A word suddenly appeared in Zhang Wei’s mind.

Memory Alloy!

He had no time to hesitate.

As he watched the alloy gate that was only three-cars-wide before it was fully closed, Zhang Wei made the decisive decision, pressed on his helmet, and executed Plan B.

“Power Armor Squad on my command! ENGINE OUTPUT MAXIMUM. GET INSIDE BEFORE THE DOOR CLOSES!”

Blue flames burst out and thrust the T-3 power armors forward. With the wheels deployed, they charged into the cave.

A dozen USN power armors that had previously retreated into the cave realized NAC’s plan. They resolutely appeared from behind the alloy gate, lifted the alloy shield on their left air while the tongue of fire reappeared from the heavy machine gun in their other hand.

Bullets re-weaved a net between the two sides. Rockets screamed and were accompanied by the roar of grenades. These warriors who dared to face death were quickly sent by NAC to meet their god.

But even so, they had accomplished their goal. When the last USN power armor was blasted in the explosion of an anti-armor rocket, the heavy giant alloy door was finally firmly shut and blocked out all the T-3s that just made it to the entrance.

“DAMN IT!”

Zhang Wei slammed his fist against the concrete bunker, then stepped out from behind the bunker carrying his rifle.

The battlefield filled with gunpowder was full of fragmented mechanical wreckage. Without air support, USN soldiers were defeated in a firefight with the NAC, the National Guard, and the Minuteman. However, despite this outcome, they could not proclaim this victory.

Because the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center was still under American control…

They had to try their last resort.

Zhang Wei gritted his teeth and took out the tablet from his backpack. He set the attack coordinates on the map and clicked the last item in the “Available Support” list – the electromagnetic mega cannon!

He clicked confirm and took two steps back. While he put away the tablet, he pressed the button on his helmet.

“… attention all combats units, the electromagnetic mega cannon’s attack is en route. The target is the entrance of the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center. Take the necessary avoidance measures.”

Chapter 1415: Another Way

Chapter 1415: Another Way

From a distance, there was a roar that tore through space.

A thick cylindrical mass, engulfed in a ball of bright-orange flame, crossed a distance of hundreds of kilometers and smashed into the alloy gate like an iron fist.

The shell that was accelerated to the limit shredded the giant gate together with the mountain next to it with its destructive force. A deafening roar surged up from the quaking ground. Its annihilation power could be felt even from far away.

However, when the dust settled, Zhang Wei’s expression quickly changed to disappointment.

The alloy door was blasted open.

To be precise, it was destroyed.

Not only that, even the mountains that the cave was embedded into were also destroyed by this shell…

Zhang Wei stood there silently for a long time before he squeezed out a foul language that he had recently learned.

“Fu*k…”

The entrance to the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center was destroyed. The USN soldiers inside could not get out, nor could anyone outside get in.

Unwilling to just stand outside and do nothing against the weather weapon that could be launched at any point, Wade brought dozens of National Guard power armors into the ruins as they attempted to dig a way into the collapsed mountain. However, it turned out that the power armor was not designed for drilling. Despite their best effort, they did not succeed.

“It’s useless, we need professional construction equipment, like excavators or drills.” When Zhang Wei walked to Wade’s side, there was a visible frown on his face as he looked at the rubble.

He debated if another shell was a good idea.

But when he thought that this might make the situation worse, he gave up on the idea after some hesitation.

Not far away, the National Guard finally gave up relying on manpower to remove the collapsed rubble, because they finally discovered that it was not just the door that had collapsed, but the entire tunnel behind the door.

At this time, the Minuteman “Rangers” also rushed over with their motorcycles. After they saw the collapsed mountain, they also felt helpless.

Zhang Wei could not formulate a plan, so he had to report to the command post. After he learned two excavators and an engineer company had set off from Outpost Town, he ordered his men to start cleaning the battlefield.

Hopefully, we can make it.

After he ended the communication with the command post, Zhang Wei was about to find a place to rest. However, a soldier in kinetic skeleton walked up to him and saluted.

“Report sir, we found him in the concrete ruins.”

As the soldier spoke, a survivor in ragged clothes was pushed in front of Zhang Wei.

“First of all, I am definitely not on their side.” When Blood Axe realized Zhang Wei was examining him with intrigue, he quickly raised both of his hands to signal that he was not hostile. Then he carefully said, “If you have heard of Outpost Town on the West Coast, you can hand me over to the Governor Zhou Guoping there. I can guarantee you’ll get a huge ransom.”

“Zhou Guoping?” Zhang Wei raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, “How long have you not been back to the West Coast?”

Blood Axe took a second to digest this information. He didn’t react to the amount of information in this sentence.

“We are the people of NAC,” Zhang Wei pointed to the collapsed mountain. “The group of people inside are USN, and they have a lot of conflicts with us.”

“USN…wait, you are from NAC?” There was a momentary look of joy on Blood Axe, then he quickly said, “Then can you tell Zhou Guoping for me that this is not NATO’s nuclear arsenal at all, but NATO—”

“Weather Weapon,” Zhang Wei waved his hand impatiently, “We have already learned this information. And the Zhou Guoping you mentioned was taken away by USN. Now it is unknown whether he is alive or dead.”

After Blood Axe learned that Zhou Guoping had been taken away, he was shell-shocked and it took him a while to accept this fact.

Gradually, the color on his face turned from bad to worse.

It wasn’t because of how loyal he was to Zhou Guoping, but that guy still owed him thousands of bottle caps. In the beginning, they agreed that as long as he could trace the final destination of the batch of nuclear weapons, no matter whether there was any nuclear arsenal there, he could get at least a thousand caps.

Although he did not find a nuclear arsenal, he did discover the weather weapon that sounded equally destructive. He thought that he could use this information in exchange for two or three thousand caps. However, the person in front of him now told him that Zhou Guoping’s whereabouts were unknown…

“If you want to go back to Outpost Town, go back by yourself. We have something to do now and we have no time for you.” After Zhang Wei left this sentence and was about to leave, he did not expect the next sentence from Blood Axe would stop his foot in the middle of the air.

“You… you want to go in?” Blood Axe looked at the group of power armors in the front, after a pause, he continued, “In fact, there is another way to get in beside the main entrance.”

…

Colonel McCarthy sat down on the ground as he looked at the tunnel filled with rubble. He wanted to say something, but not a word came out.

He thought he was for sure died from the power of that one shell.

However, he did not expect that that shell not only blasted down the alloy gate but also collapsed the mountain. The collapsed gravel buried the entire section of the tunnel. If he hadn’t run fast enough, he would have been buried inside.

He forced a few dry laughs to celebrate his survival, then struggled to stand up from the ground with the support of a rifle. He shook his dazed brain and patted the dust on his legs. A dozen soldiers also stood or sat not too far from him.

When he came, he took five hundred brothers with him.

And now, they were the only people left.

“What should we do now?” Colonel Ross swallowed dryly, unable to wet his parched throat. He stuffed the tablet back into his backpack and walked to Colonel McCarthy.

“We can only pray now that USS Obama will find out that we are in trouble soon.”

“Speaking of which, is there no energy at all in this meteorological monitoring center?” Ross’s brows were furrowed as he looked at the elevator that lead to the underground base behind him, “If there is no energy at all, how did it transfer the nuclear winter in North America to Pan-Asia.”

“The backup energy is sufficient. It is enough for this weather monitoring center to operate for fifty years,” Colonel McCarthy shook his head after he put away the rifle in his hands, “but the backup energy that is enough for the weather weapon to operate for fifty years has been locked for the existing weather guidance program. It cannot be used for any other purposes.”

“If you crack the security program in the supercomputer, modify it directly from the inside…”

“Do you know how?” McCarthy shrugged and said hopelessly, “I’m out of luck anyway.”

However, unexpectedly, Colonel Ross, who came from USS Obama, nodded.

“I can try… I used to work at the Information Defense Center of the Department of Homeland Security before I went into the hibernation chamber.”

Chapter 1416: Weather Strike En Route

Chapter 1416: Weather Strike En Route

Inside the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center, located at the bottom of the supercomputer was the control center of the entire supercomputer.

Colonel Ross connected the tablet to the security program at the door, quickly unlocked the door, and stepped inside first.

Colonel McCarthy ordered the soldiers behind him to secure this place then followed inside.

The ground was covered with dry dust, the rubber-soled boots creaked as they walked forward. Colonel McCarthy looked around once he got in, then wiped the table closest to him with his finger. When he saw the thick layer of dust, he knew that no one had been here for a long time.

“The second console?” Colonel McCarthy asked with an uncertain tone.

When he was here the first time, he searched the area with his soldiers but did not find this room. The console they found was located in the center of the entire supercomputer. Just above their heads, there was a suspension bridge made of aluminum alloy that led directly to the center of the supercomputer.

“No, strictly speaking, it’s not called a console.” Ross sat in the center seat in front of the control center, then he started the long-silent operating system. He moved his dry fingers with some excitement as he said, “We call this place the ‘backdoor’, we generally use this to maintain the security program of the supercomputer, but as long as you want, you can also directly modify the running program of the supercomputer from here…with higher authority.”

“How sure are you?” Colonel McCarthy asked.

“I don’t know,” Colonel Ross said without turning his head while his fingers rapidly clicked on the touchpad, “Like I said, I’m just giving it a try. If it can be done, that’s great. If it can’t be done, then let’s stay here and wait to be rescued.”

Time passed by, and there was only the sound of fingers tapping on the touchpad in the room and Colonel Ross’s muttering.

“…Full Net provided the security services for the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center supercomputer! Haha, this is much easier.” His fingers crackled on the touchpad while his eyes moved along with the lines of the code.

At this moment, he had devoted himself to the work at hand.

“Full Net?” Colonel McCarthy slightly frowned, “What is that.”

“Don’t you know?” Colonel Ross glanced at Colonel McCarthy who stood behind him, then focused back on the virtual keyboard on the touchpad. “The second biggest security service provider in North America, also the second biggest in the world. We have outsourced many projects to them, and they have done great.”

“Then how are you going to hack the second-best security program in the United States?” McCarthy looked at the string of numbers on the screen, then asked with a puzzled tone.

“This is actually not difficult, because the safety program they used was the 2160 version. After the weather weapon was put into use, the entire facility completely evaporated from the public’s sight. Since then, not even a fly could get in, let alone security updates. The control terminal and transmitter were completely physically isolated from the outside world. Without a network, there was naturally no information security.” Colonel Ross pressed the last enter key on the touchpad, then watched the series of loading bars on the holographic screen with a hint of proudness, “It just so happens that the 2160 version of the security system used by Full Net was backed up in the database of the Department of Homeland Security. We have studied their security weakness.”

While he watched the codes execute line-by-line, Colonel Ross’s upturned corner of his mouth showed how he felt.

He had not done any work like this for many years.

But he didn’t expect that the skills he thought he would never use again turned out to be useful.

[Whether parameters reset complete]

[Target is set to West Coast…]

[Setting is successful]

[Weather strike is en route, progress is 0.1%…]

They only had to wait!

Colonel Ross clapped his hands as his hands left the touchpad. McCarthy glanced at the progress bar on the screen, and was about to ask “This is it?”, but then he was interrupted by a loud explosion outside the door.

When they felt the tremor sent along the floor, the two of them were slightly taken aback.

“What are those idiots doing.”

Colonel McCarthy looked at the door with a frown and was about to move to the door. However, before he could, the iron door was blasted open by a corpse in kinetic skeleton.

The moment General McCarthy saw the corpse, his pupils constricted, and he reflexively pulled out the laser gun from his waist. But before he could pull down the trigger, a steel boot stepped over the door and was followed by blue rays that thrust forward and a giant hand that was directly aimed at his head.

“SH*T”

With a loud bang, the back protected by the kinetic skeleton came into close contact with the wall.

There was no room for resistance, and Colonel McCarthy was pressed against the wall by the National Guard’s power armor.

Then, Zhang Wei stepped into the control center and rushed to Colonel Ross with a few NAC soldiers. Without saying anything, Zhang Wei knocked the Yankee with his gunstock and took control of the console.

“The weather weapon has been activated…FU*K!” When Zhang Wei saw the line of words on the screen, he immediately grabbed the bruised Colonel Ross from the ground, pressed his head against the touchpad, and pointed the gun right against his head, “Turn off this sh*t right away! I’M NOT KIDDING, I’LL COUNT TO THREE.”

“No need to count.” Ross dry coughed a few times, then coughed up bloody spit, and grinned. “No one can stop this. I’m not kidding.”

“FU*K!”

Zhang Wei kicked Colonel Ross in the stomach, then punched him again, and Ross directly fainted.

As he looked at the West Coast marked in red on the screen in distraught, Zhang Wei immediately called the command post and reported the situation to General Jiang Chen.

“This is Company A. We have successfully controlled the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center. But we were still a step too late. The weather weapon has targeted the entire state of California… The procedure cannot be terminated! The blast team is ready to request approval for blasting.”

“What’s the progress?” Jiang Chen asked calmly.

“It has reached 7%… 8%, FU*K!”

“Connect your squad command module to the console, and completely transfer the authority to the command post.” Jiang Chen ordered, “IMMEDIATELY!”

“ROGER!”

Without another word of nonsense, Zhang Wei pulled out a data cable from the left arm of the exoskeleton and directly inserted it into the port under the console. After he tapped a few times on the touchpad and confirmed that the interface was normal, the control authority was immediately transferred to the command post.

At the command post, Li Wang looked the progress bar on the screen, swallowed down the lump in his throat, and made a difficult suggestion, “I’ll let the technical team try…General, can you go back to the airship first?”

“No need,” Jiang Chen shook his head, and before Li Wang dissuaded him, he said, “I will try.”

Everyone in the command post was stunned when they heard this sentence as they all focused on their general.

Jiang Chen ignored the look of surprise and skepticism and took off his headphones. He put them on the table, looked around at the officers all focused on him, and dry coughed a few times.

“Before that… Let me go to the washroom first. I’ll be back soon.”

Chapter 1417: More Spectacular Than Any Movie

Chapter 1417: More Spectacular Than Any Movie

The moment Jiang Chen heard Zhang Wei say, “The program cannot be terminated”, he immediately thought of a person.

If there had to be a person that could turn the impossible into the possible in programming, then other than the advanced artificial intelligence Lilith, there was no one else.

Fortunately, when he returned to the modern world last time to take the aerospace plane, he adjusted his coordinates from Coconut Island to the backyard of his Coro Island mansion, otherwise, he would really be helpless now.

After Jiang Chen rushed into the bathroom, he immediately traveled back to the modern world, then grabbed Lilith, who was in her helmet playing games with her stomach against the sofa and pulled her back into the apocalypse.

“Where is this place?” Lilith looked around emotionlessly, “I have no signal now.”

“North America!” Jiang Chen threw the tablet terminal to Lilith, “No nonsense. If you want to go back earlier, do me a favor, hurry!”

After Lilith received the tablet, she did not speak and just silently pressed her finger against the screen. For her, there was no need for a data cable connection. She could adjust the program through her finger.

“Stop the program…it’s difficult.” Lilith gave a brief but concise comment.

“It’s also difficult for you?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“Well, it’s not impossible, it just takes a long time,” Lilith said. “In the design of the program, the weather strike is irreversible. If you want to stop the weather strike that is already en route, you must make significant revisions to the program. When I finish the revisions, this place is probably finished too.”

Even Lilith can’t do it?

Jiang Chen frowned and thought.

If it really doesn’t work; I can only blow apart that supercomputer…

WAIT!

Suddenly, he had an idea, and immediately turned on the holographic screen of the watch, then showed the coordinates of Parrot to Lilith.

“Then don’t stop it, change the attack coordinates for me! Change it to this!”

“That shouldn’t be a big problem, I can try.” As she spoke, a series of dark green data streams that flowed at an incredible speed and was almost impossible to catch by the naked eye appeared in her pupils.

Soon, Jiang Chen saw Lilith nod.

“Well, this is really not a big problem.”

…

Small droplets of rain drizzled down on the deck of the aircraft carrier.

Against the surging waves, the majestic USS Obama lead the fleet of giant ships through the mighty waves.

Right below the deck, the banquet’s mood was at its peak.

“We lost contact with McCarthy!? How could that be possible!” President Sean walked quickly to the corner of the banquet hall, looked around nervously, and made sure no one was looking at him. He lowered his voice and said, “Get the fighter squadron to take off immediately! I want you to give me a definite answer within ten minutes! GO!”

Just then, he heard a charming female voice not far from him. He saw a lady in an evening gown, with a goblet in her hand, that was walking towards him in elegant steps.

“Dear Mr. President, may I ask what happened?”

“Everything is normal, dear Christina, it’s just that there was a small problem on USS Rhino, but it has now been resolved. You know, that’s my electoral district…” President Sean cleared his throat and politely explained to the lady in front of him while he edited a text message through the smart chip to his military advisor.

There was a problem with the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center, and it was not a small problem.

The White House had enough problems to deal with. If these people learned that the Army once again failed to execute, the congress members that finally gave support to his revival plan would likely turn back to isolationism. No matter what happened outside, he had to control the information.

It was the duty of a president to immerse most people in the happiness of limited right to know!

The banquet continued, and the guests drank the delicious champagne as if nothing happened. On the deck of USS Obama, a Wings of Freedom took off and galloped towards Nevada, hundreds of kilometers away.

However, no one noticed that there was an inconspicuous supporting actor that went missing in this banquet.

Zhou Guoping followed those special forces and ran quickly across the empty corridor. He looked nervously behind him and only after he confirmed that no one was following him did his unrested heart finally stop beating so furiously.

“By the way, are you really a scientific research station?”

Adhesive thermite was placed on the closed hatch, and the man in digital camouflage turned his head and grinned.

“What do you think?”

NOPE!

Although Zhou Guoping had the answer in his mind, he kept it to himself.

The blinding white light flickered, and in a series of electric sparks, the closed hatch fell backward.

Soon, Zhou Guoping’s slightly dilated pupils reflected the blue ocean.

Just then, a shout suddenly came from behind him.

“STOP! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING—”

Before the second half of the sentence was finished, blood mist appeared over the sailor’s head and he fell backward onto the ground. The gunshots definitely had alerted the soldiers on USS Obama, but since they were already here, even if USN sent a division after them, it would just be a futile attempt.

“JUMP, HURRY!”

While Captain Wang put his still smoking gun away, he didn’t give Zhou Guoping time to prepare at all. When he said this, he grabbed Zhuo Guoping with his right hand, lifted him up like a little chicken, and threw him out of the ship.

“AHHHH!!!”

In Zhou Guoping’s desperate and terrified scream, he plunged into the sea with a plop. Before the cold water gushed into his throat, a hand grabbed his clothes and stuffed him into the buffer cabin of a circular submersible.

Just when he was about to suffocate, the surface of the water finally fell below his nose.

As he sat on the ground panting heavily, Zhou Guoping took a look around him.

The arc-shaped outer wall was sturdy and reinforced with alloy, and the simple layout did not show any sophisticated equipment. This kind of circular submersible was the type connected to a submarine that could float to the surface, not the type that was connected to a ship and went underwater.

Many of the special force soldiers who had previously covered his retreat stood here. Captain Wang, who threw him out of the ship just now, grinned at him while he wiped his hair with a towel. Through the window of the bulkhead, Zhou Guoping saw the bottom of the ship that sailed away.

If he guessed correctly, it belonged to USS Obama.

“We… escaped?”

“Yes,” Captain Wang threw the towel aside, “Even if they can spot us, there is no means of transportation that can catch up to us. However, even if that’s the case, we’d better return to the Parrot as soon as possible. ”

“Why?” Zhou Guoping was dazed

“You’ll know when you go back,” Captain Wang smiled mysteriously and placed the unloaded equipment on the wall. “I promise you, the scene will definitely be more spectacular than any movie you have ever seen.”

Chapter 1418: The Ships Of USN

Chapter 1418: The Ships Of USN

“It’s raining harder.”

“Yes.”

In the ship cabin that was converted into a banquet hall, guests in tailcoats were still holding onto their goblet full of champagne. They stood by the window while they watched the droplets of rain that started to turn bigger and faster. Weather drones cruised above the stratosphere, and weather data within hundreds of miles were monitored by the fleet.

When the fleet established its path, meteorological factors were considered as the top priority, and often before the storm began to brew, the fleet would have adjusted its route to perfectly avoid the storm. For the Americans living on the deck, sunny or rainy weather was all controllable.

Even in the worst-case scenario that they accidentally encountered extreme weather such as storms, the weather would not even pose a threat. All the ships were firmly joined together by steel cantilevers as thick as elephant trunks. The connected fleet was like a city that floated on the water. A wave as tall as a few meters did not even cause the slightest turbulence.

The occasional heavy rain like this was a rare scene of beauty.

Not far away, several water storage cargo ships had opened their tarps to collect water. Residents living on the different cargo ships also rushed out onto the deck with their colorful plastic buckets as they eagerly waited for the rain to come.

The rain was getting heavier, and the mung bean-sized drips turned into soybean-sized droplets. People no longer felt the gentleness of the water when the droplets splashed onto their faces. The people on the deck looked at the sky turning dark and finally realized something was wrong.

On USS Jupiter Destroyer, in the radar room of the meteorological monitoring center, the staff quickly moved between desks. Several technicians in suits stood in front of the holographic meteorological cloud map with serious frowns as they pointed at each of the parameters.

“A lot of cumulonimbus clouds have gathered in the sky, and the wind speed skyrocketed by three levels… Damn it, what is going on?”

“Wrong weather data?” Keynes frowned. “Or the weather drone is malfunctioning.”

After working at the monitoring center on the Jupiter destroyer for so many years, it was the first time he had seen such a strange occurrence. It was the tenth time he verified the data in his hand, but regardless of the number of times he looked, the conclusion he could make was sunny.

“No!” Bertram, next to him, shook his head. “The data can’t be more normal! This is the strangest thing. The parameters are accurate, but the final result is the complete opposite of what we see now! There must be something wrong, as if…”

Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly stopped talking.

That expression on his face was as if he was shocked by his own intuition.

“As if?” Keynes asked with a frown.

After Bertram hesitated for a moment, he finally finished his speculation.

“It’s as if someone tampered with our weather…”

Bertram’s guess was correct. Someone did indeed tamper with their weather.

To put it more accurately, NAC just returned what they originally planned to do to the West Coast intact.

The meteorological monitoring center aboard USS Jupiter Destroyer reported the news to the Department of Defense on USS Obama. When the center was urgently requesting verification, the roaring wind finally revealed its hidden fang under the rumbling waves.

The raindrops were getting bigger and bigger, and the raging wind, like blades, made people on the deck unable to open their eyes. The plastic buckets filled with water were blown away. The main axis on the water storage cargo ship’ spread out tarp was directly snapped in half and like a broken umbrella, it drooped backward.

The raging storm gathered above and condensed the cumulonimbus cloud into endless dark cyclones. The entire sky was shrouded in the roar of the storm, and the people who succumbed to reality finally began to tremble.

“God, this wind is too strong!”

“Fu*k, what are the guys on the boat thinking! Are they trying to go into the eye of the storm?!”

“We are heading towards the eye of the storm!”

“Enough, stop it!”

While they watched the situation on the fleet not far away, as well as heavy dark clouds, the distinguished guests in the banquet hall finally stopped their delightful sightseeing and let out cries of horror. Some people screamed and asked why they didn’t change their course. Some people knelt and prayed, begging God to spare them.

But obviously, God could not hear their prayers.

Even if he could hear it, it was futile.

Because it was not God who sealed their fate, but Jiang Chen.

The huge waves tens of meters high far surpassed the highest point of the aircraft carrier. Even the most majestic USS Obama Aircraft Carrier was nothing but a small boat in front of the crashing waves.

The broad bow completely left the water, then along with the turbulence of the waves, crushed down into the ocean, and it didn’t take long before it was sent into the air again. The entire aircraft carrier was like a roller coaster pushed up to the highest point by the roaring sea, then sent down by the surging waves.

The crew on the deck was thrown out and fell into the ocean and disappeared. The ones hiding in the cabin were not much better. Along with the waves, they were thrown into the ceiling along with other debris and items, then they were smashed down again by gravity.

The two helicopters parked on the tarmac suffered the most unfortunate fate. They didn’t even get to the takeoff before they were engulfed by a wave.

As for the fleet behind the aircraft carrier, it was even worse.

The cargo ships connected by the mechanical cantilevers in usual situations were used to stabilize the entire structure.

However, it was obviously not the usual situation right now. A category six hurricane just rampaged across the entire fleet; the rivets were popped out like cannonballs; the broken mechanical cantilevers and the damaged cargo ships were scooped up into the air, then tossed out, and created more rubbish on the ocean surface…

“What’s going on! It’s impossible! How did they know we are here… Wait, isn’t the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center under the control of McCarthy?” Sean’s fingers clenched onto the railing beside him and a safety belt was wrapped around him. His eyes were bloodshot.

Right in front of the window was Rhino, his constituency.

And now, he just watched that luxury cruise ship, together with the other ships in the fleet, get swallowed up by the raging hurricane…

“Mr. President, we should go.” The soldier in power armor stumbled through the office door, looked at Mr. President barely hanging on, and hurriedly said, “There is a major failure in the power system of the USS Obama. The minister asked me to inform you to evacuate right away—”

“Evacuate? YOU FU*KING TELL ME WHERE ELSE I CAN GO!”

Sean roared at this special force commander with his eyes completely red.

Any ship was equipped with a submersible, which could be used to escape to the bottom of the sea in the event of an accident, and USS Obama was no exception. As the President of the United States, Sean certainly was aware of this. But even so, he didn’t plan to leave.

Although he couldn’t believe what was happening before him, he actually realized what happened. The reason why this hurricane appeared here was most likely the result of NAC taking control of the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center.

Colonel McCarthy and the Fourth Marine Brigade he led had likely suffered an ill fate.

The raging storm blew away the last breath of the United States. Even if he survived, what was the point? He lost the aircraft carrier, the destroyer, with only a concentration camp in Panama left, he could barely form half a brigade of soldiers.

Even if he escaped from here, the fate destined for him would not change…

Chapter 1419: End Of The War

Chapter 1419: End Of The War

The USS Obama sank.

The spherical submersible that followed the undulating waves observed its last moment before the USN fleet was swallowed by the hurricane with its wide-angle camera dozens of kilometers away.

Unlike the previous two unlucky destroyers, as the flagship, the USS Obama persisted until the end. At least that was the case until a cargo ship was swept up by the hurricane, then smashed onto its deck before its luck finally ran out and sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Inside Parrot cabin, Zhuo Guoping held onto the cup of hot water handed to him by the captain as he stared blankly at the scene from the camera.

It took him a while to recover from his astonishment.

“This is…”

“Your General’s new toy. It seems to be called a weather weapon,” Captain Wang walked to Zhou Guoping’s side with a glass of boiling water, then looked at the chaotic sea surface. He said, “Annihilating an entire fleet is too awesome.”

“Whatever, we are the ones that tracked the coordinates of this fleet.” The pilot in the control room pursed his lips while he commented disapprovingly. “If they got their fighters to direct the weather strike, they might not even touch the fleet.”

“It’s okay, let’s not be bitter,” the Captain of Parrot patted the pilot’s back, chuckled, then looked to Zhuo Guoping, “Your General came to North America for you. If I were you, I would think of what I’d say to him when I see him.”

“Can you let me disembark in Wanghai?” Zhou Guoping smiled wryly.

“Of course not,” the captain said as he shook his head, “If we dropped you off at Wanghai, who would pay us?”

“Pay?” Zhou Guoping was taken aback.

“Haha, that’s right, 100,000 credits!” The captain patted his shoulder with the same bright smile, “Don’t look so sad! If I were you, I would be so happy. After all, if I was caught by pirates, my boss would definitely not spend so much money to get me back!”

…

When the weather strike began, the war was over.

After the fourteen F-79s bypassed the air defense positions on the West Coast, they arrived too late over Nevada. They circled the entrance of the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center for a long time but could not do anything against the barren hills and empty base; they had to return to Panama.

After the USS Obama had sunk, the USN’s dream of reviving the United States had completely evaporated over the ocean.

After the weather strike was terminated, Lilith, in accordance with Jiang Chen’s instructions, easily modified the weather guidance program of the weather weapon. She changed the heavy snow that should have fallen in the eastern part of Pan-Asia to the Mediterranean Sea on the other end of Eurasia.

From the beginning of this year, European survivors would definitely enjoy a unique Christmas.

In the colony’s conference room, Jiang Chen ended the meeting with the Minuteman and the National Guard representative. The three parties discussed matters related to the maintenance of the weather weapon in the future and finally decided that the three parties would jointly station troops at the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center.

Of course, because NAC accounted for the bulk of the energy expenditure in climate guidance projects, it had stationed the greatest number of soldiers at the center. In addition, the task of maintaining the weather weapon also fell onto NAC.

For other survivor forces, the expenditure of a large quantum computer was definitely a burden they wished to avoid, but for NAC, it was the complete opposite. This meant that Jiang Chen could send a scientific research team to research the weather weapon.

Jiang Chen was still very interested in this dark technology that could kill with the power of nature.

If he could, he would like to build one in the modern world too.

After Jiang Chen returned to the Governor’s Office, he saw Zhou Guoping who had been personally accompanied by the Captain of the Parrot.

As soon as their eyes crossed, Zhou Guoping looked at the mischievously smiling Jiang Chen, then he smiled with wryness, lowered his head, and said.

“Sorry, I messed up.”

“You really messed up a lot of things,” Jiang Chen laughed, paused for a moment, and then continued, “But in the end, it was the chip in your head that sank the USN fleet. I’ll give the credit to you.”

“Thanks General…” Zhou Guoping said gratefully.

“Don’t thank me,” Jiang Chen waved his hand. “I’ve seen the financial report you left when you governed the colony. Generally speaking, although you didn’t make a big contribution during this period, you did a lot of hard work. I can’t blame you for this one. If you are blamed for this, it doesn’t seem right.”

Zhou Guoping had only a hundred people in his hands at the time, and the fact that they could not win against USN was really not because of his incompetence. In that situation, it was unlikely anyone else could do better than him. To say that the only thing he did not do well was that he did not report the nuclear weapons immediately after they were discovered. However, that was human nature. Since the information had great uncertainty, he had to verify first before he could report it up. After all, the position of the governor possessed high decision-making power, which was different than a soldier that had to report all incidents.

The governor of a colony was a drudgery not many people took up. If he was punished too harshly for this incident, the negative impact would definitely outweigh the positive impact. After some consideration, Jiang Chen decided to be on the more lenient side.

“Although rationally, you’re not really at fault and even gained a bit of merit in the end, it can’t be justified if I don’t punish you for getting into such a mess. So, I will fine you half a year’s salary, and you’ll be put on probation for a year. Are you satisfied with this result?”

After Zhou Guoping heard his punishment, the big rock that was pressed onto his chest finally disappeared. He looked gratefully at Jiang Chen and was about to express his thankfulness. However, Jiang Chen raised his hand and stopped him.

“Don’t thank me. I’m punishing you, why are you thanking me? You think I punished you too lightly?”

After being glared at by the General, Zhou Guoping scratched his head with an awkward smile and quickly responded.

“You’re right General.”

“You are under probation now, so behave well.” Jiang Chen laughed at the Zhou Guoping with his typical attempt-to-flatter expression, then said, “If you do well, just continue to sit in this position. If you don’t get results, then go back to Wanghai for retirement.”

As Jiang Chen spoke, he got up and patted the back of the chair.

“Okay, I won’t stay here any longer. This chair belongs to you, so naturally, you should sit on it.”

“Not at all!” Zhou Guoping chuckled and habitually attempted to flatter Jiang Chen again, “After all, you lent me this chair, you can sit as long as you want. I’ll just stand!”

“That’s enough, don’t try to butter me up all day long,” Jiang Chen jokingly scolded Zhou Guoping, “I don’t want to see flattery, I want to see your achievements. I still have something to do, so I won’t keep chatting with you.”

He had to admit that this guy was really good at flattering.

At least it made him feel good, and he didn’t feel repulsed by it.

Jiang Chen patted this guy on the shoulder and left the office under Zhou Guoping’s surprised and touched gaze. He then headed to the command post.

Chapter 1420: Expedition: Panama

Chapter 1420: Expedition: Panama

Jiang Chen did not have time to chat with Zhuo Guoping. There was still a lot of things he had to review.

After the USS Obama sunk, the radio communication between Pan-Asia and the West Coast of North America had returned to normal.

After he arrived in the command post, he immediately held a combat meeting. All officers above the rank of the expeditionary battalion commander appeared in the meeting room. Even Han Junhua, who was far away at the General Staff Headquarters, attended the meeting through holographic imaging.

“Based on the intelligence that Governor Zhou brought back, our people were sent to Panama as slaves. Although our enemies have been destroyed by the weather weapon, our compatriots are still waiting for us to take them home!” Jiang Chen’s right hand clenched into a tight fist as he smashed down hard against the table. In an authoritative and fierce voice, he ordered, “Li Wang, on my order.”

“YES, GENERAL!” Li Wang stood up; his eyes gazed straight forward.

“Bring our compatriots home with two thousand expeditionary troops!”

“ROGER!”

A sonorous and powerful answer responded to Jiang Chen’s call.

“Lu Hai.”

“YES, GENERAL!” A burly man stood up straight.

“The Third Battalion of the Hunter Corps to set off immediately to assist Captain Li to complete the mission!”

“ROGER!”

“You have to formulate the specific military operation plan, I will not interfere,” Jiang Chen looked around the officers present, then continued. “I’ll only provide you with the direction, you can follow this direction to create the plan.”

The commander of the Expeditionary Force, Li Wang, stood up first to express his thoughts. He said respectfully.

“General, please give us your command.”

“Infiltrate from the inside and then destroy from the outside. The execution must be fast! And it must be steady!” Jiang Chen stared at Li Wang, then looked at the holographic image of Han Junhua next to him, “We must ensure that our colonists can return home safely.”

The meeting lasted for the entire afternoon.

With the help of Han Junhua, every small detail of the military operation plan was carefully drafted. Everything was done to achieve one purpose, that was, the key objective Jiang Chen stated at the start of the meeting – bring back every detained NAC citizen from the USN concentration camp.

Early the next morning, Li Wang bid farewell to Jiang Chen with two thousand soldiers, then boarded the AS Order.

In the next two days, AS Order would head south along the California peninsula towards Panama. This time Jiang Chen did not make the trip, but instead delegated the task of rescuing the captured colonists to Li Wang.

From the intelligence given by Zhou Guoping, only a small number of USN soldiers were stationed in Panama. Although the force had been expanded several times, the size was less than a brigade, and many of the soldiers were new recruits.

…

In the laboratory, Lilith used a cutter and fumbled with the wreckage of F-79.

When the weather strike arrived, many F-79s that did not have time to take off were all parked in the hangar. And these wreckages in front of Lilith were all salvaged by Beluga Station from the waters where USS Obama sunk.

Of course, for NAC, this salvage service was not free.

These piles of scrap copper and iron costed Jiang Chen 10,000 credits.

However, it was worth the price. The precious pre-war technology was priceless to NAC, or at least for Celestial Trade in the other world. Besides, for NAC, these credits were merely just a dozen boxes of canned food.

There were still many treasures left on the bottom of the ocean floor that Beluga Station was still salvaging. As to what could be salvaged, he was looking forward to finding out.

But now, NAC’s scientific research mission was clear. Jiang Chen gave orders to Fallout Shelter 027 in Wanghai and the field researchers who had arrived in North America with the Expeditionary Force. They had to crack the technology in NS-90 and F-79.

The NS-90 project was carried out in an orderly manner. With the help of employees from the Masonte Military Industry Group in Fallout Shelter U17, NAC’s fighter research and development capabilities took a giant leap forward. On the F-79 side, with Lilith’s help, things were progressing smoothly.

For Jiang Chen, a boss who had no knowledge in this field, all he could do now was waiting.

“…There is nothing wrong with the AI. The design of the sensor system and processor chip are somewhat interesting.” Lilith nodded thoughtfully while she fiddled with the parts spread out on the table, “Wait until I have completely understood the technology. I plan to upgrade the parts on my body.”

“These things have value to you?” Jiang Chen glanced at the pile of parts unexpectedly.

“Of course,” Lilith said without hesitation, “In terms of programming, I am omnipotent, but in terms of hardware, my knowledge depends entirely on your research. This is the first time I have seen this design, so there is a lot of value. Let’s not talk about this anymore, when do you plan to return to that world?”

“You want to go back?”

“A little bit.” Lilith nodded.

For an AI whose virtual world was larger than the real world, the apocalypse without the Internet was equivalent to a barren desert. Since she learned from Jiang Chen about that world, she had long yearned for it.

Of course, he didn’t rule out the possibility that she just wanted to go back for another raid…

“Wait until the matter here is finished,” Jiang Chen patted her head, and said with a smile, “If you want to go back soon, finish this quickly. When your work is done, I will send you back first.”

Although Jiang Chen did make a promise, this kind of incentive measure didn’t seem effective for an AI. She had used 100% efficiency from the very start, so the expressionless face and the movement of the cutter in her hand still looked the same.

Jiang Chen did not stay here to disturb her work. He headed to the port.

Just now, the cargo ship at the Beluga Station dragged a batch of cargo back from the sea where the USS Obama sank.

And this shipment was a bit unique.

It was not something worthy of recycling but living people.

“Fifty credits per person! I can’t go lower, or we will lose money.” When the owner of the cargo ship saw that NAC was not interested in the “shipwreck” survivors they scooped up, he started to feel anxious as he desperately tried to explain to the staff at the port, “Think about it. Those who can get on the submersible must have a good status on the aircraft carrier! They are either scientists, officers, or politicians. You must be able to get some information out of them…”

“Scientist? In that case, how many scientists do you think can get on the submersible and escape in that situation? Don’t try to fool us.” The person in charge of accepting the cargo said with a smile, “Not to mention that the war is over. What use is this group of prisoners to us? Either you keep them yourself, or you sell them to us for ten credits per person, and we can keep them as slaves.”

While the captain of Beluga Station argued, Jiang Chen, who received the call, had already arrived at the port.

Just as he was about to ask someone in charge what was going on, he saw an interesting figure among the group of prisoners, and from the corner of his mouth turned up, the grin was full of mischievousness…

Chapter 1421: Slave Revolt

Chapter 1421: Slave Revolt

In the port area next to the Panama Canal, dozens of trucks were parked beside a row of rusty wire fences.

Under the watch of armed USN soldiers, scavengers in orange prison uniforms carried plastic bags of different sizes and lined up beside the trucks. After they weighed the bags, the bundles of garbage were tossed onto the trucks, and their tasks for the day were then considered complete.

Before the outbreak of the World War in 2171, the Panama Canal was a shipping hub for the entire Americas, and the cargo throughput was several times higher than any other ports. Mountains of containers were stacked here and they stored everything from the most basic iron and aluminum ore to high-end large-scale electronic equipment. As long people were willing to spend the time, they could find whatever they desired.

In the second year after the Peace Treaty was signed, Panama was designated as a special zone by NATO. At the time, the Captain of the USS Obama was ordered by the NATO authorities to transfer a group of survivors from Washington, New York, Boston, and other places. This was the predecessor of the group that strived to revive the United States.

Later, when the space colonization ship lifted off, the World Government announced its dissolution, the officers of the USS Obama Aircraft Carrier decided to revive the United States. The ships of the entire Panama SAR were utilized and everyone in the area moved onto the fleet. This port full of containers had become their material supply base.

Of course, these Americans couldn’t pick garbage themselves.

Since they were reviving the United States, those Central American and South American survivors were their natural labor force. The situation got even better when Congress issued a combat order against the NAC. The three thousand Chinese colonists captured from Outpost Town and more than 30,000 West Coast residents directly expanded the workforce in Panama by ten times.

In order to manage the surplus labor force, they even added half a brigade. They also promised the North American prisoners at the time that as long as they were obedient, they could redeem themselves and become a glorious overseer.

After the trucks were filled, the trucks drove onto the highway and headed for the base ten kilometers away.

The slaves who had previously entered the port area were herded by soldiers in chemical protective suits to undergo radiation and virus inspections. After they passed the inspections, they were each given a nutrient supply. As for the amount of fluid in the nutrient supply, it depended on the mood of these Americans.

Herbert, with a rifle in front of his chest and equipped with desert-colored camouflage kinetic skeleton, couldn’t help but utter his tongue while he flipped through the statistics in his hand.

“Seventeen tons…Sh*t, these monkeys look thin, but they sure work very effectively.”

“Why didn’t those idiots in Congress do it sooner?” Jeff, who was next to him, grinned and cussed out. “Fu*k, if I knew they were so capable, we could definitely have gone to the other side of the Pacific Ocean to catch more slaves. I heard they have a lot of people anyway.”

“Haha, you can apply to Congress,” Herbert joked.

“I will once I get promoted to captain…what is that?” When he was halfway through the conversation, Jeff suddenly stopped talking and looked towards the horizon.

In the distant mouth of the canal, where the sea and sky intersected, a black spot suddenly appeared in their sight.

Jeff took two steps forward, squinted his eyes as he tried to get a clearer view. Herbert, next to him, also noticed the situation in the distance. He frowned and touched his chest, as he tried to grab his binoculars to take a closer look. However, only then did he realize that he had not brought his binoculars with him.

“Old Wu, do you think our General will come and save us?” Yu Buwei lifted his shirt up to wipe the sweat from his face, as a trace of sadness appeared in his brows.

Americans were giving them less and less nutrient supply. From the beginning, they were barely full, but now, they were only half full most of the time. With 500 kilograms to complete in the afternoon, he didn’t know how long he could survive if the situation continued.

“Do you need to ask that question?” The man called Old Wu replied without hesitation. He looked to the few USN soldiers scattered around the empty ground with hatred in his eyes, but as well as a stubborn pride. “When did our General accept losses? Not to mention in the hands of white foreigners.”

Wang Fucheng inserted the empty tube of the nutrient supply on the ground. As if he was holding a dagger, he grasped the tube tightly and seemed to be deep in thought. Unlike these colonists, he was a soldier in the colony.

Had it not been for the fact that the bullet, which penetrated the kinetic skeleton, got stuck in his ribs, he would have died in Outpost Town. The reason why he survived was all because of luck.

He had been thinking of revenging his dead comrades every single second. He thought about revolting with the Chinese survivors in Panama, but these Americans were well equipped. Last time, someone started a riot in the concentration camp, but before the riot spread, he was killed by a patrolling drone.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed the black spot that loomed on the horizon.

His brows furrowed slightly, and when he wanted to look more closely, his pupils suddenly dilated, and there was a hint of ecstasy.

A name suddenly came to his mind.

NAC Expeditionary Force!

The black spot was gradually approaching them, but for the people in the port area, it still looked blurry because of the distance.

The slaves that sat in the corner, biting on the nutrient supply also began to notice the situation on the horizon. They stretched their necks forward and looked to the horizon. They wanted to stand up, but because of the guns pointed at them, they were forced to remain seated.

“Sh*t, what’s the matter with that thing!” Jeff cursed out, turned around anxiously, and looked to Herbert, “We must report the situation to the base.”

“Calm down, my friend,” Herbert tried to reassure him, “If something really happened, the people at the base must already know. Don’t forget, the radar can see farther than our eyes!”

“Well, that does make sense… the person over there, what are you doing!”

Without any warning, a Chinese slave who had been squatting on the ground suddenly got up.

Taking advantage of the fact that the USN soldier next to him was distracted by the black dot on the horizon, Wang Fucheng hooked the soldier’s neck with one hand, and with his other hand, he grabbed the dagger on his shoulder and stabbed down.

“AHHHHHHH!”

The sound of the gushing blood drowned the tragic howl, and Wang Fucheng successfully snatched the rifle in his hand.

When Jeff saw the death of his comrade, he immediately grabbed his rifle and fired at the rebelling slave. But he didn’t manage to hit Wang Fucheng, instead, he killed and injured the slave next to Wang Fucheng.

When the slaves on the ground saw the murder take place. Some stood up and fled, some brave ones grabbed weapons from the soldiers’ hands. There were not only Chinese survivors that joined the riot, but also South American survivors.

Wang Fucheng hid behind cover, fired a few shots at the USN soldiers. When the situation turned more chaotic, he roared at the top of his lung in his broken English to the slaves.

“Chinese Brothers! Comrades from South America! All the enslaved people! The NAC Expeditionary Force is here, and within half an hour, these fools will be crushed by the soles of our power armors! Before being rescued, we must stand up and show our General that we still have the courage worthy to be saved!”

Chapter 1422: Power Armor To The Face

Chapter 1422: Power Armor To The Face

The angry shout reverberated in the empty square, and more gunshots responded to his call.

Several slaves were shot and collapsed in a pool of blood. However, more slaves rose up. They picked up bricks and steel pipes and rushed to the soldier closest to them.

“FOR FREEDOM!”

“FIGHT!”

“AHAHAHAHA!”

The riot began.

The slave who took the rifle from the USN soldier followed Wang Fucheng’s example and hid behind cover while he returned fire at the remaining USN soldiers.

In a position slightly further away, Jeff pressed down his trigger and fired into the crowd. Many people fell but even more people rushed forward.

After his thirty rounds of bullets were emptied, he hurriedly reached for the magazine on his waist. Just as he was about to finish the reload, the slaves with their bricks and bars already got close to him. Even with the kinetic skeleton’s ability to defeat ten people at once, the sheer number of slaves simply overwhelmed him.

He sent a few blows with his gunstock, and blood splattered everywhere. At least five slaves’ heads were smashed open, but his neck was quickly strangled from behind. Just as he was struggling to break free, a South American with a black face screamed and smashed a pipe down on his head.

The steel bar was bent, and the eyepiece on his helmet shattered.

In his agonized scream, his forehead was directly whipped by a steel bar, and he collapsed right into the arms of the person behind him.

Before he lost consciousness, he saw with the last light that Herbert, who stood a little further away, was rushing to rescue him. However, before he made it halfway, several bullets hit him in the chest. The final shot hit him directly in the skull and downed him.

Not far away, a soldier climbed onto the SUV and desperately reached for the heavy machine gun on the roof. However, as soon as his hand touched the handle, his heel was grabbed by a few muscular guys, and he was beaten down.

The roars of shouting and killing resounded at the entrance of the port area, and the scene was chaotic.

Five hundred slaves rioted, at least fifty people were killed on the spot, and there were countless people wounded

The slaves paid a heavy price, but they achieved an incredible victory.

Under the leadership of Wang Fucheng, twelve USN soldiers were killed on the spot. The soldier with the rank of captain engraved on his arm was pierced through the chest by the angry survivors and hung at the entrance of the port area.

Amidst the cheers of victory, Airship Order arrived slowly from the horizon.

When the Chinese survivors saw the flag on the airship clearly, they burst into enthusiastic cheers, took off their shirts, and waved them above their heads like flags. Those South American survivors instead looked at AS Order with a hint of fear.

It was the first time they saw a steel airship that could float in the sky.

The muzzle in his hand slowly lowered, and Wang Fucheng stepped on Jeff’s chest with one foot and looked up at the towering steel airship with reverence. As he watched the platform that was slowly descending, as well as the Tiger II parked on the platform, he muttered to himself.

“Expeditionary Army! I was right, it’s our Expeditionary Army! Our General did not abandon us!”

…

When slaves rioted at the entrance of the port area, USN’s concentration camp in Panama was also in a serious crisis.

The hunters who infiltrated the concentration camp paralyzed the base radar station and immediately split into two groups. One group went to the airport, and the other group infiltrated the concentration camp next to the military base, successfully inciting the Chinese survivors to uprise.

A rifle and a bundle of magazines were delivered to every survivor who was determined to resist. When the USN logistics were distributing nutrient supply to the slaves in the concentration camp, the hunters lurking inside found the perfect opportunity.

The explosives buried at the door blew up the logistics company truck. The soldiers on the sentry tower were just accessing the situation before a few bullets hit them in the chest and knocked them down from the tower.

Immediately, gunshots resounded throughout the camp.

The revolt quickly spread from a few rooms in the corner of the concentration camp to the majority of the military base.

In order to suppress these insurgents, the commander of the base had to isolate the entire south side of the base and dispatched the power armor company and even armored vehicles to the base. However, what surprised all the USN soldiers was that the insurgents not only had light weapons such as rifles and pistols, but they even had weapons like rocket launchers and grenade launchers.

Explosions flickered in every corner of the base. Although these well-trained soldiers had the upper hand in tactics and equipment, the gap in numbers between the two sides directly wiped out the advantage.

A flying rocket directly hit the power module, and the armored vehicle that was blocking the intersection and unleashing its fearsome firepower was instantly turned into a ball of burning scrap iron. The soldiers who were crouching around ran in different directions desperately, and it didn’t take long for the nuclear fusion core of the vehicle to explode, and the shock wave of the explosion almost destroyed the concrete tower next to it.

“FU*K, WHERE DID THESE MONKEYS GET WEAPONS?!”

Captain Nance pulled down the trigger desperately, then he freed his left hand and gestured to his comrades behind him to flank from the side. However, at this moment, he suddenly felt that a black figure had overshadowed the entire area.

He raised his head subconsciously, and when he saw the towering steel airship, he was completely stunned.

Countless vortex engines lit up the sky with eerie blue light, and the immeasurable amount of deadly power armors descended towards the USN military base like droplets of rain.

All the anti-aircraft guns were pointed towards the sky, as they vented fierce firepower at the huge monster that suddenly emerged from the clouds. The orange bullets weaved into a sparse ammunition net in the air, but they could only create countless milky ripples on the expanded nitrogen shield in vain.

The rifle in Captain Nance’s hand was slowly lowered, along with his last bit of courage to resist.

The explosion from all directions almost turned him deaf. As he stared up at the sky decorated by weapons, his chapped lips opened and closed as he murmured the same sentence repeatedly.

“This is impossible…”

This is impossible!

It was the voice in the head of every USN soldier who was still resisting.

Although the news of the USS Obama sinking reached here as early as two days ago, it was strictly controlled in the headquarters by the senior military officers of the base. They couldn’t believe this airship was able to breakthrough F-79’s pursuit and flew all the way here from California…

This must a dream!

A nightmare!

It didn’t take long for the air defense firepower to be “shut down” by the hunters who infiltrated the military base.

As for the fourteen F-79s that escaped the shipwreck, they didn’t even have a chance to take off. Before the revolt began, they had been paralyzed by the hunters with the virus written by Lilith.

The star-spangled flag that hung on top of the headquarters building was burning in a blazing fire.

When it burned out, the NAC power armor that rushed into the command building also happened to break through USN’s defenses. He raised the NAC flag on the roof.

On the deck of AS Order, Li Wang looked at the military base dotted with fire from a distance, and his tense muscles relaxed. The corners of his mouth finally turned up as he revealed a triumphant smile.

The flag of the NAC flew high, and the last bit of USN resistance was also extinguished.

The freed slaves raised their rifle above their heads, shouted the General’s name, and celebrated this great victory…

Chapter 1423: Send Them To Pick Garbage

Chapter 1423: Send Them To Pick Garbage

Originally, Sean planned to sink into the depth of the Pacific Ocean with the USS Obama, but the moment when that cargo ship was tossed against the deck of the aircraft carrier by the howling hurricane, fear ultimately prevailed.

People were afraid of death after all.

If he asked himself about the dream of reviving the United States, his desire for power still outweighed his pure belief.

After the desperate attempt by the Presidential Guards, Sean narrowly evacuated to the bottom of the cabin. Before the USS Obama sunk, he got into the submersible and evacuated with several Congress members of the same party.

Curled up in the submersible, he carefully calculated his future.

Panama was definitely not a place where he could go. The USN fleet was destroyed by the weather weapons. The next stop of NAC had to be the concentration camp in Panama.

Originally, he planned to go to Boston, the “Sacred Place of Revolution for the Thirteen Colonies” on the East Coast. He could gather like-minded allies to look for opportunities for a comeback. However, their submersible had not traveled for dozens of nautical miles before it was captured halfway by Beluga Station’s submarine.

There was not much to say about what happened next.

It didn’t take long for him to be sent to Outpost Town by a Beluga Station cargo ship, together with other captives rescued along the way.

Sean, who stood among the prisoners of war, looked at the man in his early twenties as his face turned into a ghostly white. He felt a chill down his spine.

Although it was the first time he saw the fabled NAC General, he had long heard of his tales. Until two days ago, he was still dismissive of these rumors as he thought the so-called General was just a wannabe of the old world.

As for now…

His insignificant conceit had long since sunk into the trenches under the Pacific Ocean with the USS Obama.

Just as Sean looked at Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen also examined him with interest.

After Jiang Chen retrieved the image records stored in Zhou Guoping’s chip. He had already met the legendary American president on the computer. To talk about the difference between the real person and the holographic image, it was that in the eyes that were avoiding his eye contact, the pride and arrogance had disappeared, only panic and fear were left behind.

“Mr. President?”

Sean swallowed down the dry lump in his throat, then tried to squeeze out a smile that was no better than crying with his tense muscles, he stuttered, “No, no, not at all…”

“I heard that you are going to hang me on the mast of the USS Obama?” Jiang Chen joked as he looked at the panicking Sean.

He heard this sentence from Zhou Guoping in a speech to voters.

Mr. President seemed to make similar rhetoric frequently. Jiang Chen just picked one and repeated it. He didn’t expect to directly scare the president even more; he was even afraid to breath out loudly.

“Those…” Sean swallowed down another dry lump and started to tremble. However, he had still put on a flattering smile, “Those are all misinformation, absolutely nothing like that happened… Your subordinates must have heard it wrong.”

Jiang Chen glanced at him with a mischievous smile, then finally looked at the Beluga Station captain, and pointed at the group of slaves.

“Give me a price for these people.”

Since the NAC General was negotiating, the captain was afraid to provide the previously quoted price of fifty credits per person. After he hesitated for a moment, he took a middle number and cautiously said, “Thirty credits per person.”

Thirty credits, slightly higher than the expected price, but not much higher.

“Two hundred and seventy-eight people, eight thousand and one hundred credits,” Jiang Chen nodded and looked at the port worker next to him. “Pay him. Find a few containers for these salves. Panama’s battle should be over soon. Once Li Wang brings our colonists home, we’ll send them there.”

After Jiang Chen finished this sentence, he left the Americans with grim expressions and exited the area.

An endless amount of work was waiting for them.

Until death, they would work under the supervision of those who had been oppressed by them.

…

After the USN trouble was resolved, Jiang Chen spent a rare weekend of peace in North America.

Outpost Town that had restored order was like a magnet in the ruins. An endless stream of merchant fleets soon gathered here again. When they saw the familiar flag and the familiar goods in the warehouse, all transactions proceeded as before, as if nothing had happened to this place.

During this relaxing week, Jiang Chen, at the invitation of the two leaders, Paul Revere and Brian Eddie, took the time to visit Liberty City and Steel City respectively, and received a warm welcome in both cities.

Perhaps because the two sides reached an agreement on the “climate issue”, the attitudes of the two major West Coast native survivor forces towards Outpost Town and NAC were not as tense as they were initially. In addition to trade, the two sides had also reached agreements on issues such as the elimination of predators and the elimination of mutated human tribes.

As for the specific details of these agreements, Jiang Chen left them to Zhou Guoping. After all, he was the governor of the colony and Jiang Chen had to return to Wanghai in a few days.

At noon on the eighth day, the figure of AS Order appeared on the horizon of the West Coast.

Two cargo ships followed far behind the steel airship, and the colonists stood on the deck, cheering or crying toward the West Coast. During this month, they suffered humiliation. Many people died in Central America, and less than half of them returned home.

The suffering they experienced in the past month had finally ended.

At the colony’s port, Jiang Chen saw the triumphant Li Wang.

Jiang Chen first praised the glorious achievements of a group of soldiers in Panama, and then he stood on the lift of the port and gave a heartfelt condolences speech to the colonists who had returned home.

After he finished all of these tasks, he instructed Zhou Guoping to settle these poor and unfortunate people, then returned to the colony headquarters with Li Wang and others.

As for the victory celebration, the award ceremony, and the like, would be carried out at the square in Sixth Street based on tradition.

“…In addition to our people, there are about 20,000 South American survivors. We got their help when we attacked the USN Panama base. I would like to ask your thought on how should we handle this situation?” Li Wang asked Jiang Chen.

“The Panama base can be kept,” Jiang Chen looked at the world map on the wall. “It’s also very important to us. It’s the gateway between the West and East Coast.”

“Our next goal is the East Coast?” Li Wang asked.

“Let’s talk about that later, we should finish what’s on our plate first.” Jiang Chen laughed, “We haven’t digested the West Coast yet. If we join the fun on the East Coast, more likely than not, we will get into more troubles again.”

The two looked at each other and laughed together.

After a pause, Jiang Chen glanced at the world map and said seemingly nonchalantly.

“After I go back, I plan to push army reform.”

“Is it the advice of Chief of Staff Han?” Li Wang carefully asked.

“That’s right.” Jiang Chen nodded.

With the expansion of territory and the increase of the population base, the NAC military government had now amassed more than 100,000 troops. The current army establishment of the NAC was no longer suitable for its size, and reform was imperative.

In fact, as early as the end of last year, Han Junhua had suggested this to Jiang Chen and even designed the reform plan, but it was not implemented for various reasons.

By the time he returned to Wanghai, it was time to push forward the long-delayed reform…

Chapter 1424: Return Home

Chapter 1424: Return Home

At the colony’s port.

Under the escort of two warships, ten cargo ships loaded with containers slowly approached ashore.

In these containers, in addition to the canned luncheon meat, instant noodles, and compressed biscuits produced in the Garden of Edens, there were also some industrial products produced at the Sixth Street. These things would be exchanged for crystals, mutant furs, and even blondes that would be shipped back to the Sixth Street.

At the port, Han Yue commanded the slaves under him to unload boxes of goods from the ships.

As he looked at the slaves who were busy in the port, and the newly appointed overseers that swung their whips and listened to his order, he felt surreal.

How did I, a security guard from a Wanghai bank, become the NAC North America Colony Human Resource Director of Slave?

Han Yue thought about it for a long time, but he couldn’t come up with an answer. In the end, he attributed the answer to luck.

Of all the colonists, he was the only one who escaped from the Black Skull Gang. Although he was caught by the predators of the Airport Gang, he was lucky enough to run into the General. He also happened to do well when he repaired the airport, and now that the number of slaves skyrocketed in the colony, he replaced the former director that died in the concentration camp.

Just as Han Yue looked at the direction of the port in a trance, his deputy trotted over and respectfully handed a signed document to him.

“Director, today’s loading and unloading tasks have been completed. This is the signature of the Port Affairs Office. Please review.”

“Well,” Han Yue nodded, took the document, and glanced through it, “I see.”

Then, he handed the document to the secretary behind him, and said, “Can you go to the Human Resources Department in a moment and give it to Minister Wang’s secretary?”

“Yes!” The secretary nodded quickly.

A day’s work was so simple, so simple that he couldn’t believe it.

In most cases, he didn’t even need to go to the site in person. He could just sit in the office, drink tea, flip through the newspaper, and wait for the slaves to finish their work. He would then seal the document to the Secretary’s Office of the Human Resources Department, then his work for the day was complete.

And these trivial things could be done by his deputy and his secretary.

Back at the office, Han Yue boiled a pot of water and threw a few tea leaves from the Garden of Eden into the kettle. As soon as he was about to open the newspaper to see what big news was happening at the Sixth Street, a phone call came.

Han Yue cleared his throat then pressed the connect button.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, Wei!”

“Wei!” Han Yue was slightly taken aback, then he responded in joy, “Zhongwei?! Why are you—”

“Oh my God, I finally found you!” A relieved voice came from the other end of the phone, and then Song Zhongwei asked with concern, “What happened to you? I heard something happened in the colony. Yeah, but I couldn’t get through your phone. I went to the Colonial Registration Office to inquire, and those people didn’t give me an answer.”

“Don’t mention it, something small happened, but fortunately, our General took care of it.” Han Yue smiled bitterly. “The communication in North America was only restored recently, and my EP was repaired at Chinatown yesterday. I’ve been thinking about when to call you, but my mind has also been messy these days, so…”

“It’s okay!” Song Zhongwei laughed loudly, “You still owe me one hundred and twenty credits and a meal. I will remember.”

Han Yue couldn’t stop chuckling when he heard his friend’s voice.

“When you come to North America, I will pay you back ten times.”

“Oh, okay, you’re doing well?” Song Zhongwei asked in surprise.

“Well, you can say that. I’m now a full-time official and I’m the Director of Slave of the Colony Human Resources Department,” Han Yue grinned, “If you come here, you can work with me. What do you think?”

“Holy fu*k! You became a director in two months?” Song Zhongwei envied, “You’re too lucky.”

In the local administrative system of the military government, director was a senior ranking. The monthly salary of one hundred credits and the monthly special supplies were enough to envy countless others. The fact that it was the Human Resources Department made the role even more enticing, with thousands of laborers under his command, any other departments had to establish a good relationship with him.

Song Zhongwei thought of this and couldn’t help but be emotional.

This colony was called the Land of Opportunity for a reason.

Among all the rumors about the colony, Han Yue’s story was not the only one, and Song Zhongwei was also not the only one surprised.

After the Battle of Panama, the survivors who were still alive in the concentration camp were safely returned to the fortress in Outpost Town by the Expeditionary Force. However, for the colony, the problem was far from over. Many people died in the concentration camp, which resulted in a serious shortage of administrative posts.

In order to fix the paralyzed administrative system, many inexperienced people were quickly promoted.

These real-life examples were precisely what made the name Land of Opportunity even more mystifying.

And it was something Zhou Guoping, who made the decision, did not expect.

It was not until a few months later that Zhou Guoping concluded this point in a meeting with the leaders of the department where they saw the number of immigrants that far exceeded their expectations, as well as the continuous increase in investment and trade.

Of course, this was after the fact.

…

The military camp under AS Order was just as lively as the port.

Boxes of packed arms and supplies were being transported into the airship by the lift along with the Tiger IIs.

The technical data of the NS-90 and F-79 had been completely analyzed. With all the glories and spoils, the Expeditionary Force was set to return tomorrow.

Jiang Chen sent Lilith back to the modern world first, and along the way, he also copied the files to Future Military’s server. The production line could be solved with industrial-grade 3D printers. This kind of robotic soldier controlled by AI would be a deadly force in any world.

As long as the shell was applied with a heat-resistant coating, the robot soldier could even be airdropped from low orbit. In some cases, they could even perform better than Celestial Trade’s Orbital Airborne Brigade. After all, there was no need to worry about casualties.

The next morning, it was finally time to set off.

Zhou Guoping and a group of officials, stood at the gate of the military camp as they bid farewell to Jiang Chen.

“Work hard here! If anything happens next time, remember to report to the General’s Mansion immediately. Don’t just think about taking everything by yourself! When did I ever treat those with merits poorly? ” Without much nonsense, Jiang Chen patted Zhou Guoping on the shoulder and jokingly lectured him.

“Yes.” Zhou Guoping nodded repeatedly.

There was nothing more to instruct, and when Jiang Chen saw that it was getting late, he was ready to leave.

Just then, a voice interrupted him.

“WAIT!”

Chapter 1425: Army Reform

Chapter 1425: Army Reform

“Hey, wait! When do you plan to take this thing off of me.” Jessica pointed at the collar around her neck as she rushed to the entrance of the military base and shouted to Jiang Chen inside.

Jessica was stopped by the soldiers at the entrance before she even touched the gate.

When she saw the countless intimidating sights, as well as the raised muzzles, the momentum she had built up instantly faded.

She took a few steps back, gulped reflexively, then looked at Jiang Chen nervously.

“We, we agreed, when everything is over, you would let me go…”

“Oh, I almost forgot about this.” Jiang Chen smiled and pressed his watch.

…

Peng-

A soft noise made Jessica jump.

But it was not her head that fell on the ground, but the electronic collar that broke in two. She put her hands against her chest as she let out a few breaths of relief.

“This collar will be my gift to you, but don’t thank me.” Jiang Chen chuckled, “Also, be a changed person and don’t become a predator again. I’ll eventually get rid of all the predators on the West Coast.”

Regardless of whether she heard it or not, Jiang Chen finally bid farewell to Zhou Guoping and walked to the elevator.

Because he was among the last group to board the airship, as soon as the platform ascended to the airship, the huge vortex engine began to slowly charge.

In the colonists’ waves of goodbye, this steel airship sailed towards the distant sea horizon.

Although it was more time-efficient to return by the aerospace plane, Jiang Chen chose to board the airship and attend the victory celebration in the Sixth Street Square with the soldiers of the Expeditionary Force. On the one hand, he could enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way, and on the other hand, he could take advantage of this rare free time to think about the details of the army reform.

On the deck, the Guard Captain, Zheng Shanhe, walked next to Jiang Chen, touched the back of his head, then grinned at the West Coast that was slowly fading in the distance.

“I thought I would stay here.”

“What? Do you want to stay here?” Jiang Chen smiled, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“No, no!” Zheng Shanhe shook his head quickly, but immediately realized that his attitude was not right, and then changed his words, “I mean, I’ll not hesitate when the General asks me to go anywhere! But if I can choose, I still want to stay by your side.”

“It’s useless to stay by my side,” Jiang Chen laughed, “You are willing to bend your talents in this position, but I’m not willing to keep all the talents as my personal guards.”

“Not at all! General, you don’t know how many people want to get in but can’t get in.” Zheng Shanhe laughed along.

“Of course, I know. Let’s not talk about this,” Jiang Chen paused for a moment, and then in a casual conversational tone, said, “The situation in North America is different from Hongcheng and Wanghai, so our strategic focus is naturally different. The strategic focus remains in Pan-Asia, and there is no need to keep a large standing army in North America.”

In a colony of less than 40,000, the number of legal citizens of NAC was less than 3,000. With no plan to control the area, NAC did not need to deploy so many soldiers in North America.

“I see.” Zheng Shanhe’s expression showed a hint of realization.

After he heard Jiang Chen mention strategic focus, he thought about it and immediately understood.

“As for you, I have other arrangements for you.” After a pause, Jiang Chen smiled, “As for the specific arrangements, you will know when you get back.”

…

The voyage that spanned a week quickly came to an end. Time had quietly passed through October and entered the freezing November. The climate guidance function of the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center was still being adjusted, so the Pan-Asian winter this year was still as cold as previous years.

The feather-like snow erased the boundary between the sky and ground; and connected everything into a vast expanse of whiteness.

After the snow passed and the sky cleared, the white ground was as dazzling as a mirror.

But even if the temperature dropped, it did not impact the survivors in Wanghai.

The snowflakes fell in the air and slid down an invisible arc. The expanded Holy Shield blocked the heavy snow and the permeating cold away from Wanghai. Although it was not as warm as spring, at least it was much better compared to the frigidness of previous winters.

As AS Order approached, the Holy Shield slowly opened a circular passage to welcome the return of the heroes.

In the Sixth Street, the Expeditionary Force’s victorious return was warmly welcomed by the citizens of NAC. As in previous ceremonies, the high-spirited soldiers passed through the main road of the Sixth Street and stopped in the central square.

On the podium, Jiang Chen awarded the new Knights Emblem and personally put the medal on each soldier.

The Sixth Street was spent in a festive atmosphere all day long.

The second day after the celebration, with Jiang Chen’s return, the NAC military government ushered in the largest reform since its establishment.

The original four corps were upgraded to four army groups. The First Army Group was commanded by Cheng Weiguo and stationed in Wanghai. The Second Army Group, headed by Wang Zhaowu, was still deployed in Hongcheng and Wu City areas to guard against the Northern Alliance Area in the northwest. The commander of the Third Army Group was Zhao Gang, stationed in Hangzhou. The commander of the Fourth Army was still Lu Fan, stationed in Shangjing and guarded the PAC’s northern territory.

150,000 army soldiers were divided into ten divisions and each consisted of five brigades. There was no fixed number of combat units at the battalion level and above. Each battalion consisted of 360 infantries, and each company was made up of 120 combat units.

In peacetime, the organization of divisions would not change. In wartime, each army group would adjust the number of brigades under its division-level combat units as needed.

And the number of divisions under each army group, the number of troops, the number of armored units, and the amount of support available would be dispatched by the Wanghai General Mansion, known as NAC General Command.

On the surface, ranks were promoted, the division commanders were promoted to commanders, but in fact, the power of these commanders, who had long been overstaffed, had actually been reduced.

This reform had strengthened the control of the general command over the local army groups, and at the same time emphasized the role of military staff in the command system.

For example, if there was a war in Shangjing, and some Russian stragglers also fled from the Siberian wasteland into NAC territory, the military staff would decide the number of divisions sent to the Fourth Army Group and the number of tanks and fighters for reinforcements. As for how the battle had to be fought, each army group had the ability to make decisions. Unless they were in an absolute advantage, the general command would no longer take over the battlefield command at will.

The Hunter Corp responsible for cleaning the mutants outside the NAC was not within the scope of this reform. Special forces such as the Stalker Corps and the General Guards would not change. They would still retain their original structure and be under the direct control of the general command.

Among the four army commanders, three were Jiang Chen’s old subordinates, one was a confidant from his guards, and with Jiang Chen’s prestige in the army, the reform did not encounter any resistance; the transition was unexpectedly smooth.

Chapter 1426: Becoming A Chancellor Once Again

Chapter 1426: Becoming A Chancellor Once Again

The army reform lasted till mid-November. During this time, Jiang Chen either traveled between the Sixth Street and the Fish Bone Base every day or stayed at the General’s Mansion. When he was busy, Yao Yao even prepared a lunch box for him and sent it to the General’s Mansion.

In the past two weeks or so, even Jiang Chen himself was surprised at how much work he had done.

As opposed to the effort, the returns brought by the army reform were also quite astonishing.

The bloated departments had been streamlined, and the communication between each army group with the General Command as the core had been greatly strengthened. The reorganized NAC Army was like a polished sword, ready to return to its former glory.

The combat effectiveness could not be intuitively demonstrated for the time being, but at least in terms of military expenditure, the effect was quite evident.

Based on the statistics provided by Wang Qing, the Minister of Logistics, the four major army groups after the reform had reduced their military budget by at least 13%. The newly enlisted soldiers had also been distributed to the division-level combat units, and each brigade was expanded, instead of before, where they were all waiting for order in the First Corps.

In addition to the reform itself, Han Junhua, the Chief of Staff, also put forward a supporting proposal.

With the expansion of the NAC territory, large-scale warfare would become less and less, while on the contrary, small-scale conflicts would intensify. Whether it was fighting against predators, mutants, cannibal tribes, there would only be many more channels for new officers to advance.

And this led to another issue, that was, the requirements for the professional knowledge and skills of officers. If military merits were used as the only criterion for promotion, and the training of the officers themselves was ignored, no one could guarantee that officers competent for small-scale operations would be capable of large-scale battle. No one could ensure the promoted “king of soldiers” could become outstanding generals.

After all, with the current development of the NAC, it was already difficult to meet a comparable opponent, and it was difficult to have conflicts that required a division of force, let alone combat at the army group scale. There were fewer and fewer opportunities to train senior officers in actual combat.

As a result, it could lead to the situation that talent among the senior officers would vary wildly; some would be extraordinary, while some would be incapable.

To solve this problem, Han Junhua’s solution was also very simple.

It was time to create a military academy!

Since these officers could not be trained in actual combat, then at least they would be trained with theory!

“I have discussed with Chu Nan and plan to rebuild a university on the original site of Wanghai University, which will consist of five military academies and an engineering college,” As Jiang Chen spoke, he pulled out a document from the drawer and threw it onto the table, then he looked at Zheng Shanhe, who stood in front of the desk, smiled, and said, “From tomorrow onwards, you can go report at the Sixth Street.”

“How can I teach students with my ability,” Zheng Shanhe was stunned when he heard his new arrangement, and hurriedly said, “I can fight no problem, but to teach—”

“I’m not asking you to be a teacher, I’m asking you to be the vice-chancellor. Don’t worry, there are people from the theoretical school that can do the teaching.” Jiang Chen waved his hand to comfort Zheng Shanhe. “Your job is very simple; to focus on the ideological education of the students, as well as perform military management in the military academies.”

The theoretical school Jiang Chen referred to were naturally those Pan-Asia Cooperation officers and professors from military academies from before the war. It was a bit difficult to get these people to serve in the military government system, but they could certainly shine in the education system.

“Well, who is the chancellor?” When Zheng Shanhe saw that Jiang Chen had no plans to change his mind, he smiled bitterly and accepted the arrangement.

Although it was not Zheng Shanhe’s ambition to leave the army for education, for him as the Captain Guard, the command of the general was absolute.

“The chancellor? Is it necessary to ask?” Jiang Chen smiled, and pointed to himself in Zheng Shanhe’s surprised eyes, “Of course that’ll be me.”

Since it was a crucial position, of course, he had to have firm control over it. Even if he didn’t plan to do anything and would leave the work to the vice-chancellor and deans. As the General, he had to be named as the chancellor. After all, this place would become the talent training base for the NAC military government in the future, and its influence on the entire NAC system was self-evident.

Even if he didn’t consider any of these factors, in the future, if half of the officers in the NAC military system were his students, it would be a fact he could proudly brag about.

After Zheng Shanghe learned that the chancellor was Jiang Chen, the last bit of reluctance in his mind also disappeared. He thumped his chest with his right fist and gave a military salute to Jiang Chen. He then left the office, satisfied with his arrangement.

Although it was a bit regretful to leave the military system, at least he was not marginalized.

From the selection of the chancellor, it was evident the emphasis the General placed on the military school. Even though the position of the vice-chancellor gave him many regrets, if he performed well in this position, there would still be plenty of opportunities for promotion.

It was just that Zheng Shanhe had yet to realize how “painful” it would be to work for a boss that never showed up to work.

After he officially took office, he would find that the so-called chancellor would just give a speech at the opening ceremony. As for how the entire school would be run, what had to be done, and how differing opinions between professors would be settled… These issues that should have belonged to the chancellor would be all dumped onto the plate of the vice-chancellor.

Of course, that would be another story.

…

“In the blink of an eye, it’s already November.” Jiang Chen lied in the bed as he held onto the warmth in his arms. He looked out the window that was still murky and let out a soft sigh.

It was the end of September when he came, and two months had just passed by.

Jiang Chen, who had finally got off of his busy schedule, did not feel how fast time passed.

“Yeah, it’s been so long since you’ve been back here, and you haven’t stayed at home for a few days.” A few strands of her hair gently covered the flush on her cheeks, and Sun Jiao put her head against Jiang Chen’s chest, then bit his shoulder as she quietly complained, “You’re going to leave again in a few days, right?”

“Have I said that?” Jiang Chen smiled and touched Sun Jiao’s hair. “Besides, Lin Lin’s research will soon have conclusive results. I will take you there when the time comes.”

“What about here?” Sun Jiao looked to Jiang Chen.

Yeah, what about here?

Jiang Chen was in deep thought.

He had not thought about this question before.

If he could take all his beloved people to another world, then would it be necessary for this world to exist? He had unearthed almost all the technology and the modern world that inherited the past of Gaia would only have more potential. Even if there were technologies yet to be discovered, it would only be a matter of time before they appeared with the support of advanced scientific theories.

But it would be a pity to just let this world go…

“You haven’t thought about it?” Sun Jiao carefully examined Jiang Chen’s face, and the corners of her lips turned up.

It was her favorite expression of Jiang Chen.

From her perspective, while Jiang Chen was in deep thought, he possessed a special attraction to her.

“Mhmm,” Jiang Chen sighed, smiled, and said, “I really didn’t think about it. Would you like to have an heir for me? I will pass the position of General to him?”

“Want to make me pregnant?” Sun Jiao raised her eyebrows teasingly and rubbed her finger against Jiang Chen’s chin, “Then you have to work hard.”

The birds on the branches outside the window dispersed and only left the swaying branches.

The gasps interrupted the soft-spoken love words, the dripping sweat, and morning dew soaked the sheets together.

Maybe she was disturbed by the movements of the two. Xiaorou, who was asleep on the side, scrunched her nose and her bright red mouth opened and closed. Then, her delicate body curled up under the quilt and turned over gently.

Whether it was her expression or her action, all were extremely similar to her sister.

Perhaps, she was also having a beautiful dream.

Chapter 1427: Edge Of The Solar System

Chapter 1427: Edge Of The Solar System

Good news came from the distant Kuiper belt.

After more than half a year of voyage, the first Envoy-class starship from Earth – SS Origin, traveled nearly 30 astronomical units and finally arrived at the edge of the solar system-the Kuiper Belt. (There is also a hypothesis that the edge of the solar system is Otter cloud)

Even for light, this span would take more than four hours to finish.

The feat to pilot a million-ton starship to the Kuiper belt would definitely go down in the history of manned spaceflight and recorded in the history of earth civilization.

However, after the countless “firsts” Celestial Trade had already achieved, these titles almost people feel numb. Unlike the astronauts and officers from all over the world, the astronauts and officers from Xin on SS Origin …

Well, they were actually no different than anyone else. After all, when they personally pushed forward history, even the crew from Xin was quite thrilled.

The day before they arrived in the Kuiper Belt, they grabbed the champagne from the fridge, took out the roasted chicken from the oven, and held a celebration party in the cafeteria. They partied late into the night, and for the first time in a while, they did not follow the strict resting schedule on the ship.

But the next day, when they got up, everyone walked to their posts even more energetically, and people did not show any sluggishness at all. No one dozed off or felt tired because they knew very well that today was an important day. Their compatriots 30 astronomical units away eagerly waited for their good news.

Everyone had the same opportunity to be interviewed.

Everyone hoped that they would appear in front camera as their best self.

After the ship had completed the final deceleration step, SS Origin, which orbited smoothly along the edge of the Kuiper Belt, unfolded the quantum communication antenna on top, got in touch with the Aerospace Command Center in Celestial City, and presented this great moment to the media around the world.

“Ice, ice, and more ice! Just as we had observed, the water resources here are quite abundant! If you don’t see it with your own eyes, you can never imagine that a tuft of ice that is about the size of the moon is just floating beside you! Speaking of which, I’ll definitely drink the ice from the beginning of the solar system if the gamma value is okay.”

“Not only ice but there are also a large number of asteroids. The minerality is currently unknown. Our prospecting robot has just landed on one of the asteroids. Ideally, we can use the ore here to build outposts, docks, and even fortresses! No matter where our guests are from, they have to slow down here if they don’t want to miss us.”

“Look over there! Look at where I’m pointing! Well, you may not be able to see it clearly, but we will make the video public in two days. In short, just half a minute ago, our probe planted the flag of the Earth Defense Alliance on that asteroid!”

As the camera lens cut to a different shot, people of different nationalities, skin colors, cultures, and beliefs appeared in front of the camera one after another. They all shared the same joy and amazement at this moment in regards to the distant blue planet.

All the emotions spread to every corner of the world through wireless transmission, and in the eyes of people in front of the TV, in addition to joy and amazement, there were envisioning and imaginations for the future.

Once upon a time, when people heard the news of an imminent invasion of the Harmony civilization, they were so desperate. Some people even sold their cars and houses, even took out huge loans, just to purchase from different “escape funds” a ticket that they didn’t know where it led to.

“The flag of the Earth Defense Alliance is swaying at the frontiers of the solar system, and the captain will make a speech to the world on behalf of the crew…” – Xinhua News Agency

“The door to a new era has been opened, and our civilization is moving towards a great era!” – Moscow News

“The development of space technology has turned space travel from unattainable words to the norm. From the earliest space elevator to the current Envoy-class starship, our range has also expanded from the moon to Mars, and to the present-day Kuiper belt. What else can we not conquer? Human creativity is destined to stand at the top of the food chain, and one day in the future, we will also stand at the top of the ecological chain of the universe…”- Xin Daily

These were not the sentiments shared only among the member states of the Earth Defense Alliance, the British “Times” even issued the term “Hope for all Mankind” to the Earth Defense Alliance.

Prior to this, most Western media regarded the Earth Defense Alliance as a scourge that wanted to create another Cold War in the new century. Even if they made the occasional neutral comments, it was rare to see such explicit praises.

Not only in traditional media but also on the Internet, there were overwhelming reports on SS Origin that sparked worldwide discussion. Based on Google search engine statistics, “Origin” and “Earth Defense Alliance” reached top ten in search popularity in just twenty-four hours.

On the official website of Celestial Trade, the video sent back to Earth through quantum communication technology was first published on the page for SS Origin. In less than half an hour, the video’s download reached more than 100,000 times and appeared on major streaming sites around the world.

For example, the reuploaded video of SS Origin arriving at the Kuiper Belt, accompanied by the countless comment barrage from the audience, fully expressed the audience’s enthusiasm…

“I’m impressed. I haven’t been impressed by anything else in my life!”

“Mom asked me why I’m typing this comment while kneeling on the ground.”

“HOLY! CELESTIAL TRADE IS RIDICULOUS!”

“What do you mean Celestial Trade! This time it is the Earth Defense Alliance! Every member state shares the same credit!”

“Come on, without Celestial Trade, can they send so many people to the Kuiper Belt? Even if there are another 20 member states, I doubt they’d be able to do it. Without Celestial Trade, I don’t think they can even send people to Mars!”

“In my lifetime, the plot of the prequel to the Edge of the Galaxy has unexpectedly unfolded in front of my eyes.”

“I want to drink the water from five billion years ago. Will I evolve and gain special abilities? For example, the force of the universe! XD”

…

When Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, it was already mid-December.

He spent a whole month with Sun Jiao, Yao Yao, Xiaorou, and Lin Lin. It was precisely because of this that he regrettably missed this world-renowned event, but from the newspaper kept by Ayesha, he learned that Origin successfully reached the edge of the solar system and caused a global sensation.

Just when Jiang Chen returned to this world, the UA election also entered the most intense phase.

After countless TV debates and campaign speeches, two battle-tested candidates finally stood in the final arena. This election would determine the fate of the UA, and at the same time, to a certain extent, the fate of the world.

Left or right? Forward or backward?

The people of the UA had been thinking about these two issues for an entire year…

Chapter 1428: Between The Acts

Chapter 1428: Between The Acts

It was a sunny and lively day on the beach at northern Coro Island.

It was the third week of December, and Christmas would arrive in a few days. The commercial street not far from the mansion had already set up a Christmas tree early and decorated the street with red ribbons. Girls in red cotton skirts distributed leaflets in the street to warm up the upcoming sales.

New Year’s Day would be a few days after that. The red ribbons would then be replaced by red lanterns, the red cotton skirts would be replaced by cool cheongsams while the evergreen trees would stay there unchanged. It was a unique heritage in Xin to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Day together.

Because it was Sunday, neither Xia Shiyu nor Natasha had to work. Early in the morning, Jiang Chen was dragged out of the door by two energetic women as they drove to the shopping district in the city center, where they went on a shopping spree.

Jiang Chen, who was in the passenger seat, looked at the countless bags of clothes and handbags and rolled his eyes at the mirror.

“Why didn’t you guys go buy stuff when I am away?”

“What’s the point if you’re not here?” Natasha glared at Jiang Chen, then raised an eyebrow and said in a flirtatious tone, “Okay, don’t frown. I bought two new pieces of lingerie, I’ll put it on for you when I get home.”

“I can help you change into it,” With a smirk, Jiang Chen glanced at the shirt that was fully supported by her chest.

Natasha, instead of being shy, straightened her chest defiantly, “Okay, you said it.”

“AHEM!”

Xia Shiyu, with her arms folded, blushed and dry coughed loudly, then she rolled her eyes at the two. She seemed to blame the two for talking about such a shameful topic in broad daylight and it destroyed the atmosphere of a family shopping trip.

As Ayesha listened to the two bicker, she smiled gently.

In those days when Jiang Chen was away, the house was always quiet, whether it was dinner or nighttime, it seemed like something was missing. Although she did enjoy the quietness, deep down, she liked this atmosphere more.

When they returned home carrying shopping bags of different sizes, it was already evening.

Not beyond Jiang Chen’s expectation, Ayesha brought the most trophies home. This little one, like before, enjoyed different fashions. However, she always felt embarrassed about it when she saw something she liked. Every time Jiang Chen saw her expression, he couldn’t help but pull out his credit card voluntarily.

The final result was that the clothes and handbags the four people bought all afternoon almost couldn’t fit in one car. On the contrary, Jiang Chen, who worked the most, bought only a belt and two pairs of leather shoes. With a small mountain-like shopping bag stack, he facepalmed hard.

The good thing was that he had a successful business, otherwise, it would be difficult to afford everything…

On the way, Jiang Chen considered using the storage dimension more than once to solve these “troubles”, but with Natasha there, he had no choice but to help the girls carry the bags home.

As soon as they got home, Natasha rushed into her bedroom with her shopping bags. When she went upstairs, she squeezed her eyebrows at Jiang Chen, as if she was suggesting those things that she had said in the car. Jiang Chen was really tempted to go up, but Xia Shiyu pulled him into the kitchen, so he had to give up on the idea.

When Xia Shiyu, who was wearing an apron, took out the eggs from the refrigerator, Jiang Chen glanced at her, unexpecting of this appearance.

“You can cook too? When did you learn?”

“I know how to cook, okay,” Xia Shiyu glared at Jiang Chen. She skillfully chopped the potatoes in her hands into fine slices, then swayed her ponytail, “It’s not good to always make Ayesha do the cooking. We discussed some time ago that Ayesha will cook Monday to Wednesday, Natasha will cook her Russian stew from Thursday to Friday, and I will cook on the weekends.”

What the h*ll is a Russian stew?

Jiang Chen was not convinced.

He vaguely remembered that it seemed to be called borscht…

“Would you like to take a shift too?” Her delicate chin raised up as she pointed with her chin to the schedule posted on the refrigerator, and giggled, “In fact, cooking is quite interesting.”

“Come on, I can only cook scrambled eggs with tomatoes, you know that.” Jiang Chen grinned.

“You haven’t improved at all.”

“Haha, I have you guys, I can just eat.” At that moment, Jiang Chen suddenly noticed Xia Shiyu’s apron, and he was quite intrigued, “Huh? I remember this is Ayesha’s apron?”

“You finally realized?” Xia Shiyu shook the hem of her apron, pursed her lips as she smiled, “Do you think it fits me?”

“Well, the fit is a bit off,” Jiang Chen touched his chin and seriously commented, “Well, the key is height. You are much taller than Ayesha.”

“Then do you like tall or petite?”

“This… can I say I like all?” Jiang Chen said helplessly.

“I knew you would say that.”

Xia Shiyu responded peevishly, then she turned around to focus on cutting vegetables.

But the subtle smile hidden in the turned up corner of her mouth could not be hidden.

…

After dinner, Jiang Chen opened a bottle of champagne, turned on the TV while he sat on the sofa.

During the time he was away, this world was also in troubled times. For example, Nippon, Finland, and other countries joined the Earth Defense Alliance. The second negotiation after the civil war between North and South Colombia, and what was now being broadcasted on TV right now-

The analysis by a commentator on the UA election and its ultimate impact.

“In the polls, we are leading for the time being,” With a cup of steaming coffee, Xia Shiyu folded her arms in front of her chest, then sat next to Jiang Chen, she said, “The B City Consortium’s public opinion tactic has done quite well, and supporting Mr. Joseph Kennedy in many states has become politically correct.”

“It’s useless to say that,” Jiang Chen shook his head, and tapped his finger on the armrest of the sofa. “The UA has the Electoral College system. No matter how loud the red and blue camps on the East Coast and West Coast are, eventually it’s still the few swing states that determine the outcome.”

That was what concerned Jiang Chen the most.

If Joseph Kennedy rose to power, then according to his agreement with the B City Consortium, the UA would unconditionally join the Earth Defense Alliance, and the East-West confrontation and New Cold War would be terminated before it escalated further…

But if Trump came to power.

While how global politics would shape out was still undetermined, he was certain that the probability for a potential conflict between the UA and Celestial Trade would at least double.

“I also thought about this issue,” Xia Shiyu nodded, “but at this stage, we did all we can do, we can only wait for the results.”

“That’s not true. Actually, we can help our allies based on the situation.” As he moved his sight away from the TV, he looked to Xia Shiyu, smiled, and said, “Remember those astronauts detained in our Mars Colony? Flights to and from Mars and Celestial City will be available by the end of the year, and we can let them start packing.”

Chapter 1429: The Last Card

Chapter 1429: The Last Card

At the cleaning warehouse of the Mars colony, .

Bris pushed a cart of mops and brooms into the warehouse, signed his name hastily on the tablet terminal, and locked the movable door of the warehouse.

He had been doing janitorial work for some time.

It was worth mentioning that Celestial Trade did not make him do any work. He applied for these jobs on his own. After all, in this environment, work became a kind of pastime. If there was nothing to do, despite the availability of entertainment facilities in the base, it would still drive people crazy.

Since he was not allowed to touch anything sensitive, then he could only work in janitorial or catering roles.

After he had lived on Mars for half a year, Bris had become accustomed to the life here.

To be honest, his feelings towards this colony were rather complicated.

He saw with his own eyes how this colony gradually regained its advantage from the attack of the Devil Worms and how it developed and grew tenaciously under harsh conditions…

Admire?

Maybe a bit.

But Bris knew that he probably felt more awestruck.

The more he learned, the more he realized how terrifying of an opponent his country faced. Even prehistoric species more than three billion years ago were not enough to defeat them. Even the barren Mars could not stop them from progressing, what else could really stop or threaten them?

Bris had also paid close attention to the approaching general election.

If possible, he hoped that Joseph Kennedy could win, as promised in the campaign pledge, he would push the UA to join the Earth Defense Alliance. Contrary to the views of the nationalists, he did not think it would be a compromise to the fact that the UA was losing its hegemony, but a compromise of history.

After work, Bris was planning to go to the bar for a drink.

Just then, the indicator light on his watch flashed.

After a moment of pause, Bris took out the Bluetooth headset from his pocket and put it in his ear.

“Hello?”

“Come to my office.” Without any nonsense, Hong Zewei, the governor of the colony, said concisely.

…

“How is the memory extraction work going?”

“Very smoothly,” Dr. Amos smiled, “We almost overcame the side-effects, and I am going to apply to return to Celestial Trade very soon.”

“There is a flight in two days, you can hitch a ride.” Hong Zewei smiled.

Just now there was a knock on the door, and the two ended the topic simultaneously.

“Then I will go now.”

“Mhmm, go ahead.”

Amos quickly picked up the documents on the desk, put them back in the sealed document bag, and walked to the door.

The moveable door slid open, Bris, who was walking in, passed by Dr. Amos who was heading out.

Hong Zewei looked at the UA astronaut in front of his desk with a smile, then he said.

“How’s it going? Are you getting used to life here after half a year?”

“Getting used to it.” Bris nodded and said helplessly, “I just feel homesick.”

“Let me tell you some good news. Probably the day after tomorrow, the flight between Celestial City and the colony will official commence. Although it is temporarily closed to the public, from the perspective of the friendship between the two countries, we have decided to let you board the ship first with your companions. You will be home soon.”

Bris processed the information for a moment, but quickly, an ecstatic look replaced his expression.

“Is it true? We can go home in two days?”

“Of course, it’s true,” Hong Zewei smiled, “Except for the person suspected of espionage that we can’t release for the time being, all of you can go home! Go back and pack your things and get ready.”

“I have to go and tell my companions the good news immediately. Also, thank you!” Bris said sincerely.

“You’re welcome, go now.” Hong Zewei smiled.

…

Amy Qassim was a reporter for The Washington Post.

SS Origin recently arrived in the Kuiper Belt, which created an earthquake in the UA. From the financial world to ordinary citizens, everyone was discussing the impact on the UA and the future of mankind.

Following the trend and at the request of the editor-in-chief, Amy was currently writing a report on Origin and Celestial Trade’s aerospace technology. Just as she was contemplating at the word document in front of her, someone knocked on her door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and her immediate boss, Editor-in-Chief Wood, came in.

“Stop all the work at hand, I have another more important job waiting for you to deal with.”

“I don’t understand, what is more important than SS Origin?” Amy leaned back against the chair, took a sip of her coffee, and then said with her arms folded in front of her chest.

“Of course it is the election.”

“Oh, God,” Amy sighed exaggeratedly. “The entire media is covering this farce. Even if a certain candidate has a scandal with someone, we cannot attract more eyeballs with this. People are numb, why don’t you think about it again—”

“The flights between Celestial City and Mars will commence by the end of the year, and the UA astronauts stranded on Mars are about to come home. The other thing is the diplomatic meeting between Joseph Kennedy and the Xin Ambassador some time ago, and there have been many private exchanges. I want you to report on these two pieces together.” Wood gestured as he put his fingers together. “Do you know what I mean?”

“You mean,” Amy frowned slightly, and then her eyes lit up. “Credit the astronauts’ return home to Mr. Kennedy? Is the source reliable for the private exchange?”

“No, no, you got it wrong.” After Wood stopped Amy’s words, Wood stared at his top reporter’s eyes, smiled, and emphasized it again, “Celestial Trade wants to give the credit to Joseph Kennedy, do you understand what I mean?”

Amy Qassim rolled her eyes and suddenly showed a look of realization, “I understand what you mean.”

“I trust you.”

When Wood saw his subordinate was so sensible, he did not say more and looked rather pleased. He patted her on the shoulder before he left the office.

After he walked to a secluded place, Wood took a deep breath, took his phone out of his pocket, and dialed an unfamiliar number.

The phone rang twice and soon someone picked up.

“I have finished our arrangement. The report will be written by Amy Qassim, our top reporter. I have done as you requested, do you think…”

“Don’t be nervous, Mr. Wood,” through the phone, the person’s hoarse voice carried a hint of lightness, “I promise, as long as you do what we say, no one will know about your deal with Senator Davis…”

Chapter 1430: A Tiny Problem

Chapter 1430: A Tiny Problem

The magnificent city skyline made up of towering skyscrapers decorated the charming scenery of the East Coast. Whether it was Halloween or Christmas, whether it was sunny or snowing, the air here was always brisk. The modern girls in glamorous clothes sat inside luxury cars as they fixed their makeup. The elite white collars with their briefcases walked by hastily and always put their attention on their gold-rimmed watch. The scenes that happened here were no different than Wall Street two hundred kilometers away.

Although everyone in the country was cogs in a huge machine, the people who lived and worked here enjoyed the life that ordinary citizens simply could not imagine.

Of course, it was not the luxury goods they wore, but the funds that flowed through here every day. If everything was converted into dollar bills, it was enough to be spread on every tile of every building on the whole street.

Unlike the world-famous Wall Street, B City Financial Street was quite low-key, just like B City itself. If it was not for the few mentions of the city in movies, books and newspapers, even the people in this country would forget that capitalism was born in this very city.

Of course, these were past events.

Only one of the partners who conspired in the tea-pouring incident that year remained here. Located in the most secluded corner of this financial street, a line of concise English letters was hung in the most conspicuous position of the building for every white-collar worker who aspired to look over and pay respects.

First National Bank of B City, the heart of the Boston Consortium. This bank was founded in 1859, and after the merger with the Bank of Massachusetts in 1903, it was still called the First National Bank of B City. As the earliest multinational bank in the UA, its growth history, to some extent, also reflected the rise of capitalism in the country.

On the highest floor of the skyscraper, in the chairman’s office, the old man with glasses picked up the newspaper on the table with his old and dry fingers.

The newspaper in Loki’s hands was “B City Financial Daily”, and under the title was today’s headline – “SS Origin Arrived in the Kuiper Belt, About Our Future.”

“About our future,” after he paused on the first line of the article for a very long time, he suddenly raised his head, and looked to Bernie Adams sitting on the sofa across from him, he smiled, “My dear friend, what do you think?”

“My opinion is actually the same as yours, otherwise our votes in the consortium meeting would not be so unanimous.” Mr. Adams smiled, took a sip from his teacup, “Where did you get this tea? ”

“The new farm I bought in Ceylon. It is said to be a gift from the East India Company in the early 19th century to Her Majesty the Queen. If you like it, I can give you some.” Loki responded.

“No, just send me some seeds.”

“The key to growing good tea is not only the seeds of the tea, but also the techniques, climate, and even the soil,” Loki said, “I did this experiment a long time ago. The same batch of seeds; part of it was planted in the farm in Ceylon, and part of it was planted in the back garden of my villa in Lexington. They were drastically different from both aroma and taste.”

Compared to the mainstream hobbies in the upper class such as winetasting, equestrianism or golfing, Loki preferred to study tea craft and gardening. It was the one thing that his partner and friend despised the most. Adam made a helpless expression, put down the teacup in his hand, and said.

“Well, let’s put the tea aside, you know I didn’t come for this.”

“I’m as anxious as you are, but now all we can do is to wait patiently. At this juncture, any extra measures may become superfluous. We have provided the best choice to the people, and now all we can do is to wait for them to cast the correct vote.”

As Loki spoke, he flipped the newspaper to the next page.

The article was on Origin and the prospects of the future of the space industry.

He read this article for almost half an hour, not because of how profound the article was, but because he had been thinking about it recently.

On the investment projects in the space sector, Celestial Trade had imposed countless barriers for European and American investors, while for the investment banks of the member states of the Earth Defense Alliance, they had loosened the policy that simply made the outsiders envious. Although European and American investors had won a lot of benefits for themselves through the WTO, compared to the few years after the space elevator was built, their market share in space development had been gradually overtaken by Xin and Xin’s allies.

The B City Consortium had always supported the UA to join the Earth Defense Alliance, because their chips in the space sector had far exceeded those of Rockefeller and Morgan, who had successfully dominated Wall Street. On the contrary, B City Consortium’s investment in the military industry had been gradually taken over by other consortia since the end of the Kennedy era.

Rockefeller and Morgan needed to maintain a tense but not dangerous political environment around the world, while the B City Consortium wanted the opposite. The UA had to maintain a friendly relationship with Xin to advance its space sector. Since the “legacy” of the Jewish consortium was divided, the WASP consortium had fallen apart. The originally united Anglo-Saxon consortium had also already parted ways for their own interests.

“If I can, I really want to catch their ride.” After a sigh, Loki shook his head.

Just then, the phone on the desk rang.

Loki put down the newspaper and picked up the phone.

In an instant, the expression on his face suddenly changed.

He changed the hand holding the phone, deliberated for a moment, and then said in a serious voice.

“…I see, contact Senator Van Buren for me. Ask him to cancel all the arrangements for the afternoon and wait for me at the old place. Also, go to the Washington Post headquarters in person and talk to him about that report.”

“What happened?” Adams frowned when he noticed the expression on his friend’s face.

“There is a little problem,” Loki pushed his chair and stood up, “I’m going to the Capital.”

“Now?” Adams was surprised.

“Yes, now.”

…

“This is shameful cheating!”

Trump threw the newspaper onto the desk in a fit, and yelled, “They want to use a few astronauts to buy the position of the president? NO WAY!”

“We can make a move about this matter.” Behind the sofa where Trump was sitting, a middle-aged man bowed his head as he carefully planned, “For example, hyping Xin’s interference in the election by secretly supporting Joseph Kennedy.

At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open, and the assistant of the campaign team rushed in excitedly, as he held onto the newly published “Washington Post” in his hand.

“The situation has turned!”

“What happened?” Trump frowned. “Didn’t I say it before, don’t let me see these things, what can a bunch of incompetent people write! I don’t want to know how they are jealous of me—”

“No! The Washington Post didn’t attack you, but… you should read it yourself!”

While the assistant spoke, he handed the newspaper to Trump.

Trump took the newspaper suspiciously, then his gaze focused on the turned page.

The moment he saw this report, he was stunned.

There were only two thoughts in his mind at this moment.

Is the Washington Post helping him?

Did the sun rise from the west?

Chapter 1431: Weather Forecast

Chapter 1431: “Weather Forecast”

The news suddenly got out.

There was no sign at all.

Although it was a decided matter, it still caught the B City Consortium by surprise. Based on the research from Kennedy’s campaign team, there was no need to deliberately add a halo around him at this time, nor was it necessary to count the credit for taking these astronauts home to him.

As long as a signal was sent to the people that the relationship between Xin and the UA was shifting from a state of tension to relaxation, voters would definitely consider the differences in Pacific policies between the two candidates and make the right choice.

However, the media reports caught Loki and Joseph Kennedy by surprise.

It was a small newspaper that reported that the astronauts stranded in the Mars colony were about to embark on their return journey.

Immediately afterward, another local newspaper in the Capital published a photo of the candidate Joseph Kennedy’s first visit to the Xin’s Embassy. It used word games to create an illusion that President Kennedy was interacting frequently with Xin diplomats.

On the surface, this seemed to be left-leaning media creating momentum for their candidate, and to count the credit of the astronauts’ return to Joseph Kennedy.

However, with an editorial published in the current affairs page of the “Washington Post” and the quotation of part of the content of these two “unknown” newspapers, the whole “assistance” meaning had completely changed for the worse——

[Friendly signal or election interference? Those astronauts are used as bargaining chips.]

Obviously, some people were trying to distort the public’s perception.

The political inclination of the media in the country was generally left-leaning. It would be impossible for the Washington Post to speak for Trump spontaneously. Then there was only one possibility left, and it was Morgan or Rockefeller making moves behind their back.

Just as Loki and Kennedy were busy trying to settle the negative impact of this report, Jiang Chen, was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Accompanied by Zhang Yaping, he was inspecting a special project on Ange Island,

A four-person wide cave was located at the corner of the extinct volcano.

The entrance of the cave was fenced by barbed wire, and a military post was also built at the entrance. A few years ago, it was used as an arsenal for Celestial Trade, which was used to transfer BM-21 rockets and other large munitions purchased by Jiang Chen from Russia. Later, NAC relied on the resources of the modern world to independently develop the more powerful and versatile “Fireball-1”. After that, the warehouse was left unused.

And today, the warehouse was reopened again.

The barbed wire of the military post was temporarily dismantled, and construction vehicles parked at the entrance of the cave were widening and expanding the entire cave.

“What is this?” As the construction site was bustling, Zhang Yaping asked Jiang Chen.

“It is something that’ll scare you.” Jiang Chen grinned.

“You pulled me here from the Presidential Palace just to play a guessing game with me?” Zhang Yaping said helplessly, “To be honest, no matter what you bring out now, I’m afraid I will not be surprised. ”

“Really?” Jiang Chen smiled mysteriously and pointed his hand to the sky, “what if I said, I can manipulate the weather?”

Zhang Yaping was stunned.

He opened his mouth, then asked again in a tone of uncertainly.

“What?”

“Manipulate the weather.” Jiang Chen repeated. After a pause, he added, “In short, you can interpret the construction happening here as we are building a weather weapon. By the way, I plan to call it Weather Forecast.”

Until the end of the visit, Jiang Chen noticed that the mouth of the president seemed to have not been closed since the moment his chin dropped.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised…

Researchers at Camp 27 had been conducting reverse engineering on the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center’s equipment. Some of the equipment was already copied by an industrial-grade 3D printer and brought to the modern world by Jiang Chen.

The role of this kind of strategic weapon in the apocalypse was far inferior to that in the modern world. The moment Jiang Chen saw this weapon, Jiang Chen decided that he must build one in this world. Even if the reverse engineering process was less than twenty percent complete, it did not stop him from starting phase one of the construction.

The structure of the weather weapon was mainly divided into two parts. The first part were the transmitter terminals, which were used for climate interference, and the distribution of the terminals was often scattered. The second part was the control terminal. The central computer completed the calculation of weather information and controlled the transmitters to perform climate interference.

The West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center that Jiang Chen saw in North America in the apocalypse was the control terminal. The core supercomputer controlled the transmitter towers distributed along the West Coast and influenced the climate to the desired outcome.

Although the land area of Xin was small, the distance between the sub-islands was surprisingly large. Jiang Chen randomly picked six uninhabited islands under his own name as the deployment location for the towers.

As for the remaining towers, artificial islands could be used.

After they finished the inspection of the construction site, Jiang Chen and Zhang Yaping returned to the Presidential Palace together. Before they could sit down and have a cup of tea, a phone call arrived on his watch.

And it was a long-distance call from B City…

…

“Suspend the return flight in the name that the flight route needs to be adjusted…Forget it, you can give the astronauts an excuse.” After Jiang Chen left Xin Presidential Palace, he sat in the car. As he talked with Kelvin on Celestial City, he gestured Ayesha to drive home.

“Something happened in North America, and I just received the news from Bernice.”

“Mhmm, me too, the old fellow Loki told me.” Jiang Chen leaned back against his seat and the corner of his lips turned up helplessly. “Who would have thought? The always left-leaning Washington Post would unexpectedly help the Republicans in this sensitive time period.”

“Could they be threatened?” Ayesha asked.

“They should be, they must be threatened,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “I’m only curious about how they got the news and learned that we are planning to send the astronauts home soon?”

It was likely someone leaked the information. Now the informal communication between the Mars colony and Earth was subjected to strict manual censorship. Information that constituted a leak or suspected to be a leak was all intercepted.

“What should we do now?” Ayesha tilted her head, then looked to Jiang Chen.

“We? We can’t do anything right now. Acting rashly will only cause trouble for our allies,” With a smile, Jiang Chen shook his head. “But there is one small thing we can do, although they should have already started on it.”

After all, the opponents were Morgan and Rockefeller. The strength of the B City Consortium was still relatively weak.

For safety reasons, Jiang Chen planned to add a layer of insurance.

“Give Bernice the mission to find the editor-in-chief of the article published in the Washington Post immediately,” after a pause, Jiang Chen continued, “try to hurry up before he evaporates.”

Chapter 1432: Shooting On The Streets Of Capital

Chapter 1432: Shooting On The Streets Of Capital

At ten o’clock in the evening, in a hotel less than one kilometer from K Street, Jacob Wood carried a briefcase, walked out of the elevator hastily, and left the elegantly renovated lobby.

He looked haggard, and he had barely closed his eyes since yesterday. One call after another hit his phone, and each one of them was all from significant individuals. Out of helplessness and panic, he turned off his phone, ran away from his apartment, and hid in this hotel.

He didn’t understand why those people had to find him and not anyone else.

His work, career, family, and personal relationships were all ruined because of that one article. There was no doubt he got caught in a political turmoil. Based on his experience, occupations such as journalists, private investigators, and hackers would not have the besting ending once they get caught in a political turmoil.

He didn’t understand why these people are reacting so negatively just over one article.

Originally, he planned to stay here for a few more days, but after he went outside at lunch, he found that someone had been in his room, and he also found a bug on the bedside table. Obviously, he couldn’t stay here any longer. He decided to go to C State to stay with his brother until the limelight passed.

A Ford slowly stopped on the edge of the road.

The door of the driver’s seat opened, and a man in a suit with a buzz cut stepped down and walked straight to Wood.

“Hello, are you Mr. Jacob Wood?”

When Wood heard the polite question, he subconsciously wanted to answer yes, but he quickly recovered, slightly bowed down his head, and lowered his voice.

“No, you found the wrong person.”

“Really?” The man glanced around, took out a picture from his sleeve, and glanced at Wood with a sly smile.

The way that man looked at him made Wood quite uncomfortable, especially when he took out a photo to compare him. Just as Wood frowned and was about to get angry, two black men in suits stood behind him and blocked his path of escape.

A drop of cold sweat dripped down from his forehead, and at the same time, a lowered voice sounded behind him.

“I advise you to cooperate with us, we still can discuss this.”

When Wood heard the crackling noise from the fist behind him, Wood nervously swallowed the dry lump in his throat.

“What do you want?”

“Nothing, we just want to have a nice chat with you,” the man in the suit smiled as he said, “If you don’t want something unpleasant to happen, then you’d better follow us into the car—”

The man did not finish his sentence when a Hummer suddenly appeared from the corner.

The two fog lights were turned on, and with the deafening sound of friction, the Hummer rammed towards them.

Without any hesitation, the man in the suit dove to the side, while the other two men also ran with their eyes covered. As for Jacob Wood, who they previously surrounded, he was completely disregarded.

For them, it did not matter if Wood was dead or not.

Of course, it was preferred to control him and have him help them in the future, but if he did die, they could also use his death to their advantage.

However, the Hummer that seemed to be out of control didn’t hit Wood as the man in the suit thought, but suddenly turned around and hit one of the bodyguards.

With a loud thud, the two hundred pounds burly man was sent flying like a kite. He was hit by the Hummer and blood splattered all over the wall. The door slammed open, and two men with sunglasses and baseball caps quickly jumped off and dragged the frightened Wood into the car.

When the other bodyguard saw the scene, he immediately took out a submachine gun from under his coat, but before he could pull the trigger, an abrupt gunshot from the distance sent a sniper bullet right into his chest and downed him.

Screams soon flooded the street. When the passers-by who were going to help the car accident saw the submachine gun and heard the gunshot, they immediately screamed and fled. Some people ran and took out their phone to dial 911.

Everyone looked horrified.

This is the Capital!

The political center of the country!

Who is so out of their mind to start a gunfight here?!

“SH*T!”

The man in suit that was pruned on the ground just took out his pistol. However, when he saw his teammate got shot, he immediately crawled behind the garbage can. Under the suppression of a sniper rifle, he could not get to the hijacked at this moment and pressed the Bluetooth earphone in his ear.

“The target was hijacked! The hijacker drove a Hummer with the license plate number XXXX. The car was fleeing towards L Street! Be careful! They have sniper support!”

…

Bernice took the sniper rifle apart without any hassle, then put the parts into the backpack she carried with her. Instead of walking down the stairs, she locked the hook on the water pipe on the roof and dropped the rope down the building a dozen stories high, then slid down the rope.

After she landed in an alley, Bernice pulled out a motorcycle from the back of the trash can, put the helmet on her head, and hopped on the motorcycle with her slender legs. After a trail of exhaust gas, the roar of the engine soon drifted away from the intersection of the alley.

“The target has been controlled, he should be in the hands of the B City Consortium.” Galloping on the streets of the Capital, Bernice reported to Jiang Chen.

“Very well, it makes no difference whose hands he is in. They know what to do.” Jiang Chen nodded, “What’s the situation on your side? I just watched the news, and you made a lot of noise?”

“When the people from B City Consortium arrived, Morgan and Rockefeller’s people had already surrounded the target, and they carried weapons. Just in case, I fired a shot in the distance to help them out. The police have not noticed me yet. They’re trying to hunt down the Hummer that escaped.”

“Mhmm, report the specific situation to me later. Get out first.” Jiang Chen nodded.

“Roger.”

After Jiang Chen hung up the phone, he looked at Ayesha who was next to him.

“The situation may be more serious than we thought, but fortunately, we got him.”

Fortunately, Jacob Wood was controlled by the B City Consortium. Otherwise, if the “truth-teller” died, then even if Joseph Kennedy was not involved in this mess, his image would be smeared.

With a little guidance on public opinion, people could easily associate Wood’s death with the article he signed before his death.

“The editor-in-chief of the Washington Post is already under our control, what’s next?” Ayesha asked.

“The next step is to figure out who instigated him to publish that article, and then follow the trail to find the people behind this incident.” After a pause, Jiang Chen continued, “This is the final moment, any possible source of accidents must be completely eliminated.”

Chapter 1433: A Disruptive Finding

Chapter 1433: A Disruptive Finding

The shooting on the streets of Capital resulted in two deaths and one minor injury. Due to the seriousness of the incident, the FBA had started an investigation. However, the result was not far from what Jiang Chen expected, the incident was classified as a gang fight.

It was almost predictable that after this incident faded out from the public’s attention, it would be swept under the rug. But since the editor was controlled by B City Consortium, there was still room to turn the situation around.

The next day, Celestial Trade’s Los Santos office held a press conference. The UA business director (mainly responsible for Celestial Trade’s investment and promotion) stood in front of the cameras and gave a speech on the recent controversies.

“The flights between Celestial and the Mars colony will commence at the end of the year. From the perspective of peace, friendship, and common development, we will also bring home the astronauts stranded on Mars. In the fastest scenario, these astronauts will have to wait until mid-January next year to return to the country, when the election is over. Therefore, the use of astronauts by Celestial Trade to interfere in the election is pure speculation.”

“We have noticed the previous report of the Washington Post. We found the argument used by the Washington Post to be very strange. When did a serious news source start to interpret two articles with no basis by distorting facts?”

“Of course, I understand the current circumstance in the country.”

“Using accusations and speculations as means of collecting votes are perhaps part of the election process?”

At the same time, under the coercion of the B City Consortium, Jacob Wood also appeared in front of the media to apologize.

“I have a great responsibility for that report. First of all, I would like to apologize to Celestial Trade. I shouldn’t quote those two reports without basis. As a media professional, I…”

This speech clearly sounded scripted and it was obviously the work of B City Consortium. Given how smooth the speech went, he definitely was very well “prepped”.

In any case, the public controversy triggered by the three reports had finally come to an end. As for how it would affect the election in a few days’ time, it would only be evident after the election result was made available.

After all, the time left now was not even enough to do a pre-election poll.

As for the other person, Amy Qasim, her whereabouts were currently unknown. It was unclear whether she fled to the central states and hid after she realized the severity of the situation, or she was already controlled by Morgan and Rockefeller and locked into a dark room.

Now to shift the perspective from the Earth to the Kuiper Belt 30 astronomical units away.

After half a month of exploration work, the researchers on SS Origin had conducted a rough mineral identification of the types of asteroids around the spaceship.

The result was beyond everyone’s expectations. These asteroids, which were originally thought to have the same minerality, had large differences in elements. After the news was revealed, it not only created a shockwave among the astronomy researchers, but even the physics researchers were also shocked by the finding.

If this phenomenon was universal in the Kuiper Belt, then it would undoubtedly be a major discovery in the study of the origin of the Solar System that could change the existing understanding. Many scholars and scientific researchers in astronomy and physics submitted applications to Celestial Trade to fund a research ship to send them and their equipment to the Kuiper Belt, and establish a scientific research base for more in-depth research on those asteroids.

Celestial Trade stated that it would seriously consider the applications but did not give an immediate answer.

After all, for Jiang Chen and other members of the Earth Defense Alliance who represented the interests of the member states, they were not interested in scientific topics such as the origin of the Solar System or even the universe, but what kind of benefits could be brought to them by the major discoveries of the Kuiper Belt as well as breakthroughs in interstellar travel technology.

In the next six months, SS Origin would attempt to mine the nearby asteroids and build mining space stations. In particular, the collection of tritium and deuterium within the ice blocks with sizes comparable to asteroids to achieve energy self-sufficiency. It was the top priority of all scientific research tasks of SS Origin.

After all, Celestial Trade and the Kuiper Belt were separated by 30 astronomical units. It was not easy to make a return trip.

At about three o’clock in the afternoon, Jiang Chen had just returned home from work at Future Building, but Wu Changfeng, the representative of Hua in the Earth Defense Alliance, visited him.

After Ayesha made a pot of tea for the two, she went upstairs as usual and left the living room for the two. As for Natasha and Xia Shiyu, they were still at work.

“We are very interested in the Kuiper Belt, whether it is the resources there or the scientific value.” They had already exchanged greetings at the door, Wu Changfeng went straight to the topic after they sat down, “We’ll pay, if you provide the technology. We can even cooperate to establish a permanent research station in the Kuiper Belt. It’s very helpful for the cultural exchange between the two countries and the friendship between the people! I’m very optimistic about this cooperation. What do you think? ”

There was another reason Wu Changfeng wanted to build a research station but he didn’t mention it. He believed Jiang Chen would understand.

This proposal was definitely not just the opinion of the Hua Academy of Sciences. Putting the national flag on the edge of the Solar System would not only help boost national confidence but more critically, it was an achievement that could go down in history for a particular individual.

“I don’t have any problems here,” Jiang Chen smiled, “but I have to give you some information in advance. The cost of building a research station in the Kuiper Belt is not low. And we plan to establish a permanent space outpost in the name of the alliance, covering all aspects of military and scientific research projects. I recommend this proposal more than building a separate scientific research station.”

Wu Changfeng lowered his head and thought for a moment, then spoke.

“I will communicate your proposal, and we will seriously consider it.”

If the Earth Defense Alliance intended to build a permanent space outpost in the Kuiper Belt, then it would be unnecessary to build a separate research station. Moreover, the budgetary issue Jiang Chen said was also the point he was most worried about.

“General Wu came to see me today, just for this matter?” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “You could have called me. It would have saved you the hassle.”

“Not exactly,” Wu Changfeng took his cup, took a sip, then leaned back on the sofa and smiled, “Actually, there is one more thing. The person above asked me to inquire you on this matter. But, because I’m a straightforward person, I’ll just be honest. Of course, if it’s inconvenient, just pretend I didn’t ask anything.”

“Since you’re being direct with me, I’ll say what I know.” Jiang Chen laughed, “Of course, I also have a premise here, that is when confidentiality issues are not involved.”

“Then I’ll be straightforward,” After he put down the cup in his hand, Wu Changfeng looked at Jiang Chen, “What do you guys think of the UA election?”

Chapter 1434: Once And For All

Chapter 1434: Once And For All

Jiang Chen noticed Wu Changfeng used “you guys” instead of “you”.

Obviously, he didn’t want to ask about his personal opinion.

“Can you be more specific?” One corner of Jiang Chen’s mouth was curved up as he said in a relaxed tone, “Your question is very general.”

“Then I’ll be direct. If Joseph Kennedy is president-elect, what are you going to do?” Wu Changfeng asked Jiang Chen while he fixated his gaze into Jiang Chen’s eyes.

“We will be very happy,” Jiang Chen laughed, as he slightly raised the cup in his hand and pretended to make a toast. “This is the best scenario for us. The UA takes the initiative to join the Earth Defense Alliance, give up its hegemony and embrace the future. The Iron Curtain of the Pacific Ocean unwinds down before it unfolded, and all mankind will work together towards a beautiful new world…

“Ahem.” Wu Changfeng gentle cough interrupted Jiang Chen’s nonsense, then he asked, “Then what if Trump becomes the president?”

“Trump is an unstable factor,” after he put the teacup on the table, he didn’t go on about his nonsense this time and instead concisely explained, “Based on his choice, we will react accordingly.”

“Including war?” Wu Changfeng asked.

“Are you scared?” Jiang Chen smiled.

Wu Changfeng was taken aback for a moment, then he laughed.

“Not at all! It’s just that we are still a little worried. At the time of the Colombian Civil War, there were signs of escalating tensions. Fortunately, you both stepped on the brake in time. If it ended up escalating…”

“If it is the time when we have to make the worst choice,” Jiang Chen smiled at Wu Changfeng’s probing gaze, and said nonchalantly, “I can guarantee that before the situation becomes uncontrollable, everything will be over.”

They both tacitly agreed to end the topic on this note. In the conversation after, they did not discuss international affairs and just chatted about SS Origin at the Kuiper Belt and the next development plan of the Earth Defense Alliance.

Wu Changfeng declined the invitation to stay for dinner, got up and bid farewell to Jiang Chen, and left the mansion.

Before he got on the car parked at the entrance, he looked back at the mansion with mixed feelings.

“Before the situation becomes uncontrollable, everything will be over? Huh, so confident…” Wu Changfeng smiled, muttered to himself and shook his head, the strong alert in his mind still lingered. At this moment, he was looking at this issue as a major general in the Hua Army.

If Jiang Chen was bluffing, it would be fine.

But if the nonchalant attitude was not deliberately faked, then the strength of Celestial Trade would be terrifying.

After all, it was the UA they were discussing about.

It was neither Country F nor Colombia nor the anti-government armed forces in Syria and Ukraine.

So far, the engagement between Celestial Trade and the UA had been limited to small-scale encounters in local conflicts. Even in the most intense collision on the battlefield in Colombia, the UA only sent only a Marine expeditionary brigade.

The war between great powers was not a simple science and technology competition. Xin’s strategic depth was no more than a hundred square kilometers deep, where did he gain his confidence?

Until he returned to the hotel he was staying at, Wu Changfeng still couldn’t think through the confusion in his mind. In the end, he had to attribute the answer to that Celestial Trade still possessed power hidden to outsiders. After all, no matter what, he couldn’t believe that the man pretended to be nonchalant…

At the window of the office, Jiang Chen watched the car that disappeared at the end of the road, then he suddenly said.

“Ayesha.”

“Mhmm?” Ayesha turned her head and looked to Jiang Chen.

“I have been thinking about a problem these days.”

“What’s the problem?” Ayesha asked curiously.

“I used to think that only when Joseph Kennedy came to power, the UA joined the Earth Defense Alliance, and everything developed in the direction we planned for, could we get to a happy ending,” Jiang Chen said thoughtfully while he stared straight out of the window. “But now I suddenly feel that it seems that the opposite is true.”

“Why?” Ayesha was puzzled.

“If you think about it, even if Joseph Kennedy wins, he will only lead the UA for four years. After four years, there will be another election. Even if he succeeds in re-election, he will only be there for two terms at most. If every change of term, we have to reconsider adjusting our strategy…” At that point, Jiang Chen stopped.

A crazy idea appeared in his mind.

Although this idea had appeared before, it was the first time where he seriously considered the feasibility of this idea.

Rather than let a sensible politician push all the contradictions to four years later, it was better to let a layman lunatic come to power. Maybe Celestial Trade could seize this opportunity and solve all the troubles once and for all.

“Do you need me to let Bernice adjust her strategy?” Ayesha asked.

No matter what choice Jiang Chen ultimately made, she would always be on his side.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Chen finally sighed.

“No need,” Jiang Chen gently stroking Ayesha’s hair, and watched the cheeks gradually get covered with a red hue, and whispered, “It’s only a few days from now, so let them toss this coin.”

…

Seven o’clock in the evening.

After a busy day, Xia Shiyu finally got home.

After she closed the door, she held the shoe cabinet at the entrance as she lazily hooked off her high heels with her finger. Just now, she suddenly noticed the cups placed on the table in the living room and asked curiously.

“A visitor was here?”

“Left about two hours ago,” Lilith, who was lying on the sofa in her Phantom Helmet, added with her unwavering voice, “By the way, you missed dinner.”

“You came back just at the right time. We just finished eating. Ayesha made beef stew today, and I’ll let her heat it up for you,” Jiang Chen walked out of the dining room and rubbed Lilith’s head, then asked with concern while he looked at Xia Shiyu, “What were you doing today? Why did you come back so late?”

Xia Shiyu poured herself a glass of water, stuck out her tongue, and sat down on the sofa.

“I’ve been working on an acquisition; High-Tech Freshwater acquired a 30% stake in IDE at a price of 3.5 billion Xin New dollars. Future Bank will act as the guarantor for this deal. Now the negotiation is in its final phase… I’m really exhausted. Don’t mind me, I’ll just have some fruits later.”

When Jiang Chen heard what she said, he processed the information for a few seconds before he looked at her again with a look of surprise.

If he recalled correctly, IDE was a company with a strong background.

Chapter 1435: Aerospace Planes Delivered

Chapter 1435: Aerospace Planes Delivered

There was a saying that made a lot of sense.

To control the oil price meant to control the Middle East.

To control the global economy meant to control the oil prices.

To control the entire Middle East meant to control access to freshwater.

As the only developed country in the Middle East, as early as ten years ago, Israel operated the world’s largest desalination facilities, with more than 30 desalination plants and hundreds of companies in the country active in the field of water management.

And IDE was among the leading Israeli desalination companies.

“IDE? You managed to acquire IDE? If I remember correctly, Sorek should be Israel’s largest desalination plant and tap water supplier, right? The Israeli government just allowed you to do that?” Jiang Chen was slightly surprised when he asked the question.

“Of course they didn’t just allow us. Our acquisition can be described as full of twists and turns. Fortunately, the B City Consortium helped us tremendously. After all, they also owned some Hightech Freshwater shares. In addition, Yerif did also play a role.” One corner of Xia Shiyu’s mouth was upturned with a proud smile on her face. “Once the acquisition is completed, Hightech Freshwater will become the largest freshwater supplier in the Middle East. Eighty percent of the people in the Middle East will be directly affected by us.”

Jiang Chen finally showed a satisfied smile on his face.

If it was only a 3.5 billion Xin New dollar acquisition, it would not be able to attract his attention. After all, relative to his current assets, even the entire market capitalization of Hightech Freshwater was not significant. But he combined the influence of Hightech Freshwater on Future Group, its significance would completely change.

To give the most direct example, Celestial Trade had continuously worked to expand the Global Grid to Europe. As the gateway for the Global Grid to enter the Mediterranean from the Indian Ocean, Celestial Trade’s business in the Middle East had not been progressing smoothly.

It was not only due to the influence of the UA in the region but also the result of Middle East countries’ vigilance towards Celestial Trade. Although Saudi Arabia had continued to seek means to reduce the huge number of high-polluting thermal power plants in the country, the current King of Saudi Arabia had kept reservation about fully opening the grid. Coupled with the UA lobbying, even if Yerif stood on Jiang Chen’s side, his influence was only limited in this case.

And now, with the water pipes of Future Group paving the road, everything else was about to get easier. With the increasing influence of Xin industries in the Middle East, it would only be a matter of time before the Global Grid crossed the Gulf of Aden into the Mediterranean.

“One more thing, the 2020 financial report is going to be released soon. I just saw the first draft from the Finance Department today, do you want to have a sneak peek?” Xia Shiyu said.

“First draft? Then I’ll leave my expectations for the final version.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Are you not curious at all?” Xia Shiyu grinned, then she teased, “Anyway, I was surprised when I saw it.”

“Curious?” Jiang Chen chuckled, and exaggeratedly let out a sigh. Then he said, “No matter how long it is, it’s just a string of numbers.”

“Puff—”

Xia Shiyu couldn’t hold it in as she leaned back into the sofa and burst out laughing. Her slender shoulders trembled, and the strand of hair that had fallen onto her cheek vibrated along with her pumping chest. Before she could catch her breath, she suddenly saw a dark figure leap to her.

“ACH!”

With a short exclamation, Xia Shiyu was turned over by Jiang Chen and placed on his lap.

“What are you doing…” Xia Shiyu looked nervously to the stairs and pushed Jiang Chen on his chest as she began to blush. Then she struggled restlessly, “Put me down. What time is it now—OUUU!”

She was only halfway through her sentence before the rest of the words were replaced by a squeal.

It was not painful at all; it was just that the loud slap made the thin-skinned Xia Shiyu so embarrassed that she wanted to hide in a crack in the ground.

“How dare you to make fun of your husband,” With a smirk, Jiang Chen raised his right hand that was aimed at that butt, “Do you still dare to make fun of me now?”

As the sensation on her butt began to spread, Xia Shiyu felt her face burn.

She bit into her lower lip that was as red as blood. Even if she thought about resisting at the moment, the worrying thought of Ayesha or Natasha could see her at this moment made her suppress her embarrassment and bow her head.

“…No, I dare not—ACH!”

There was another loud slap that interrupted her weak attempt to surrender.

“What, what are you doing!”

Xia Shiyu tried hard to turn her head around and stare at Jiang Chen in shame.

Her response was Jiang Chen’s innocent gaze.

“Uh, I just suddenly felt that, it feels nice to slap…”

When she heard Jiang Chen’s response, she only felt her face become redder. She buried her face into the sofa pillow, felt the heat on her butt, and then muttered under her breath.

“This pervert…”

…

In the early morning of the next day, as soon as Jiang Chen came back from a jog, he received a call on his watch.

The call was from Saudi Arabia. Recently, he always occasionally received long-distance calls.

“Haha, my friend, thank you so much! I like this plane a lot. I believe my father has the same taste as mine. He will fall in love with it the first time he sees it.” On the phone, Yerif laughed and thanked Jiang Chen.

Just now, the two aerospace G100s customized for him by Future Heavy Industries were delivered to his private airport. In addition to the supporting equipment, Future Heavy Industries also included four “Matador” electronic pilots.

After Yerif received the aerospace plane, he immediately got on the plane, set his destination to Celestial Trade, and experienced the speed from Mecca to Celestial Trade. Despite his collection of many private jets, it was his first aerospace plane.

“It’s not really a gift, but I’m glad you’re pleased. To put it bluntly, you paid for it after all,” Jiang Chen laughed, “I should be thanking you. I heard from my CEO that you helped in the acquisition of IDE.”

“As the old Chinese saying goes, no trouble at all.” Yerif waved his hand and said, “Moreover, I believe you will honor the promise you made and turn our desert into an oasis.”

“By the way, can I ask something?” Yerif asked after a pause.

“Of course.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“When will the war in Syria end? The old king’s health is getting worse by the day. The domestic situation is in a delicate state. My brother has recently gotten closer to the UA…” At this point, Yerif hesitated for a moment.

He didn’t know whether he should continue.

“It will end in February next year at the latest.” Jiang Chen looked at the calendar on the wall. “The battle is progressing smoothly. Based on the report from our front line from yesterday, our people have won a decisive victory in the Raqqa region.”

After Yerif heard this, he was finally relieved, and his tone no longer sounded tense. With a smile, he said, “Then I will be waiting for your good news.”

Chapter 1436: A Case Study

Chapter 1436: A Case Study

2020 was destined to be the most unusual year of this century.

The UA election was in the last three days countdown, the SS Origin reached the edge of the solar system and traveled along the Kuiper Belt for half a month now. The ray of the new century was already rising. When everyone eagerly looked forward to the dawn and imagined a better life in the next era, the contradictions and backwardness that accumulated in the old era were also about to erupt.

The whole world was waiting for the UA to make a choice. The election, from the start, had occupied the top spot of every search engine.

In a world-renowned institution of higher learning at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Frank Dobbin sat in the corner of the library as he read through the Wall Street Journal with his brows furrowed.

As a professor of the Division of Social Sciences at Harvard, as a leader in the contemporary “Law and Economics Theory,” many of his socioeconomic works received high praise internationally. Unlike most sociology professors that focused on theories, his research was closer to reality and emphasized practical application.

It was precisely because of this that his class was not only very popular with students at Harvard, but also very popular with large and medium-sized enterprises. His lesson plans were not only repeatedly studied by social science students, but also viewed as references by management around the world.

To be precise, Frank Dobbin was closely examining the article on Celestial Trade.

Recently, the media had been filled with the topic of SS Origin. Whether it was a serious scientific journal or a seemingly unrelated financial weekly, the latest articles were more or less connected to SS Origin, Celestial Trade, and Xin.

The reason why he was so intrigued by this article was mainly because of his new book. The book combined current social forms, analyzed the problems and relationships between society and economy. At the same time, the book predicted the future social and economic development to a certain extent.

And Xin and Celestial Trade was a very classic case discussed in his new upcoming book.

From Celestial Trade, he saw the final form of two different economic theories, capitalism that dominated the Western world and the state capitalism advocated by Lenin. It was a malformed enterprise that was not subject to the constraints of the antitrust law, it would eventually forcefully merge all the industries that could produce surplus-value, and finally “acquire” the government to be part of the enterprise.

Prediction was something that academia from all over the world enjoyed.

As a tidbit of a great masterpiece, a moderate prediction would not only heighten the work but would also guide the future to some extent. Even if the prediction was wrong, it would be okay. After all, the limitations of the thinking and vision of the “people in the past” were understandable to those who study history in the future.

And if he guessed correctly, it would be remarkable.

Not only would his work be heightened infinitely, but even the author would be regarded as a true genius…

Of course, Frank Dobbin did not consider such far-flung things when he wrote the book. At this moment, he contemplated on the insights that Western socioeconomics could learn from the rise of Celestial Trade, and about the prospects of the Celestial Trade model.

“Still working on that subject?”

Christopher Grandi brought coffee and sat across from him. As a scholar in the same field, his research was similar to that of Professor Frank Dobbin, and the two often discussed certain topics together. For the unpublished piece of work, Professor Grandi had the honor to read the manuscript, some of which he agreed with.

Except for one point, the part about Xin.

“The model of Xin is worth learning from. It is not necessarily applicable to the UA, but it is applicable to the future. This model appeared briefly in the colonies of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and other countries before the eighteenth century, and it was ultimately due to its own reasons that it was eliminated by history. This system with many problems in itself will be restored in the twenty-first century. The underlying reasons should be something we should study…”

While Frank Dobbin spoke, he began to write this sentence in a notebook. However, for some reason, when he was halfway through the sentence, the pen in his hand stopped. He shook his head and scratched out this sentence.

“There are many coincidences in the rise of Xin. If you want to summarize the advantages and disadvantages of a certain social policy by studying the history of the development of Celestial Trade, the final result will definitely disappoint you,” Professor Grandi said after he took a drink from the coffee, “Because the advantages of Celestial Trade do not come from their system at all, but from their leadership in science and technology.”

“Then my dear friend, what is the reason Celestial Trade can achieve leadership in science and technology?” Professor Dobbin smiled and asked in a nonchalant tone.

“Maybe it’s just luck.” Professor Grandi shrugged.

“Luck?” Frank Dobbin shook his head while he laughed, then closed his notebook, “I plan to go to Xin myself. You and I may never understand the answer to this question by just sitting here in the library.”

“It’s the same even if you go,” Christopher Grandi said, “I went to Coro University with Harvard last year for academic exchange. I also visited the Chancellor of Coro University and discussed this issue with him.

“The final conclusion?” Frank Dobbin raised his eyebrows.

“There is no conclusion. We can’t find any case in history that can define the rise of Celestial Trade.” Professor Grandi shook his head.

“That’s because you discussed this with the wrong person. If it were me, I would visit Jiang Chen directly.”

When Professor Grandi realized that his friend was not willing to change his mind at all, he let out a sigh.

“The Chancellor of Coro University is Rafael Leif. When I was doing academic exchanges at MIT, I had a good relationship with him. I’ll write a letter of introduction for you. If you want to meet Jiang Chen, you can ask him for help.”

“Thanks a lot,” Frank Dobbin said gratefully.

“You’re welcome.”

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Jiang Chen would never have thought of how much shock Future Heavy Industries’ Origin would bring to the world on the other side of the ocean. This kind of shock was not only limited to conversations between ordinary people, department of social science in different universities and colleges started to use Celestial Trade as a case study. Even the aerospace companies in Silicon Valley, B City, and Florida had viewed Celestial Trade and Future Heavy Industries as goals to target…

At this moment, it was still very early in the morning.

Jiang Chen, who sat at the dining table, also saw the report published in the Wall Street Journal…

Chapter 1437: Made Newspaper Headline Again

Chapter 1437: Made Newspaper Headline Again

From things as small as the water people drink everyday, to feats such as the colonies in outer space, a company that encompassed all aspects of people’s lives gloriously stopped the “Pentagon”, ruthlessly eliminated “Wall Street”, integrated “Hollywood”. Before the anti-trust law hammered down on the company, or rather because Xin was born under the influence of Celestial Trade in the first place, the law simply did not apply.

In short, it was a monopoly. It was an oversized “Samsung”. The government was its human resources, and the army was the security at its door. The sheer size seemed to mock the Koreans. What else was scarier than turning an entire country into a company? Its efficiency and understanding of currency could not be surpassed by any bureaucracy, because it was built on the word efficiency from the beginning. As long as it could remain profitable, its growth would continue to snowball.

Of course, an enterprise like this was also quite dangerous.

Once social development had stagnated and all walks of life entered a period of saturation, then the people of Xin would be seeing soaring prices, unemployment, poverty, and endless protests. However, Celestial Trade would not let this ever happen. It controlled the internet, the media, as well as the magical Phantom Helmet; it possessed hundreds of ways to keep the people happy.

The final ending would definitely be something similar to what Ray Bradbury described in “Fahrenheit 451”, the potential of the society would burn faster than any capitalism, and the society would usher in a complete dystopia…

Fortunately, Celestial Trade, or Xin, was in the perfect era.

People that used to watch the stars in their childhood were now stepping into the sea of stars. It was unknown how far they were from fully embracing the starry night, but since they took the first step, would the second step be far away?

The future offered enough space for this monster to continue to grow. Perhaps the day of stagnation would never come true…

“This report is very interesting.”

As Jiang Chen read the article, he smiled, stabbed the fried egg on the plate with his fork, and put it into his mouth.

“Let me guess,” Natasha drank a sip of hot milk, and as one corner of her lips turned up, she teased him, “Looking at how happy you’re smiling, the Wall Street Journal definitely praised you, right?”

“It did not praise me,” As he put down the newspaper in his hand, he laughed, “but it did praise my company.”

He had developed the habit of reading the newspaper during breakfast a long time ago. Every day, at least forty different newspapers were delivered to the mailbox at the entrance of the mansion. Of course, it would be impossible for him to finish all of them. Typically, he would pick two and read them during breakfast and dinner.

Recently, he had been paying attention to the news on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, so he selected “Washington Post” that represented the mainstream views of the North American elites and “Wall Street Journal”, a thought leader in the financial sector. Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened the first page of Wall Street Journal, he saw an economics professor’s evaluation of his company and the “Xin Model”.

“Chen.” Natasha suddenly stopped eating, rested her chin against her interlaced fingers, and looked to Jiang Chen.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chen glanced at her unexpectedly and joked, “Are you fascinated by my handsomeness?”

“You are the least humble among all the Chinese people I have ever met.” Natasha rolled her eyes and said unceremoniously, “I have met many Chinese people. They are very humble, and also very gentlemen.”

“That’s because you only have a connection with me.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes as he mimicked her actions, then he mockingly replied, “My vibe is great in front of outsiders, or rather, do you prefer me to treat you like a guest?”

Natasha seemed to imagine the scene seriously in her mind, shuddered, then shook her head.

“Forget it!”

Although he didn’t know what she imagined, Jiang Chen thought for a while and decided that it would be better not to ask…

…

After breakfast, Jiang Chen took the unfinished newspaper to the office.

It was Saturday today, and he didn’t need to go to the company, so it was time to relax… Although he rarely visited the office during work days.

He asked Ayesha to help him make a cup of Blue Mountain Coffee, then he leaned against the window and flipped through the newspaper in his hands. Just then, there was a knock on the door, and after the door opened, Lilith, in a dress, walked in.

“Are you not playing games?” Jiang Chen looked at the unexpected Lilith, who was at the door, and put the newspaper down.

The sun must have risen from the west. Lilith did not have the Phantom Helmet on.

“I’m not playing games all the time. Recently, I discovered that the literature of this world is unexpectedly interesting,” Lilith said in her usual expressionless state. “In addition, Lin Lin asked me to tell you that the weather weapon launch terminal drawing has been analyzed. It is uploaded to the database, file number ZS149.”

Z was the abbreviation of Future Heavy Industries, and S was the confidentiality level.

When he heard the news, he immediately pressed the button of the watch and called the CEO of Future Heavy Industries, Yang Guanglei.

“Project No. ZS149 will start production immediately, use an industrial-grade 3D printer, I want to see a prototype within one week…”

After the phone call, Jiang Chen realized that it was Saturday.

My phone call just ruined his weekend…

Jiang Chen touched his nose in embarrassment and muttered an apology in his mind.

“Anything else?”

Lilith still stood at the door, so Jiang Chen asked.

“I have finished reading the books at home.”

After he took some time to process the information, he responded.

“…so?”

“So, you can take me to the bookstore.” Lilith said as if everything made perfect sense, “I have no money.”

“Can’t you just download it directly from the Internet?” Jiang Chen was baffled.

What age is it now, why can’t you just read e-books?

Moreover, you are an advanced AI cyborg, scanning the global e-book library will take a matter of minutes for you.

“You don’t understand. If you simply scan the book, you will not be able to experience the joy of reading. It’s a waste of hard disk space,” Lilith shook her head and said seriously, “It’s just like playing games, if you only pursue the victory in data, then I might as well modify the server memory directly.”

Cyborgs have so many issues…

Jiang Chen facepalmed in his mind.

“I’ll go with you in the afternoon,” Jiang Chen said after he glanced at the clock on the wall, “It happens to be the weekend and I have time.”

The corners of Lilith’s mouth slid upwards.

“Thank you.”

Then, her petite figure disappeared from the door.

Jiang Chen was stunned.

She just…

Smiled, right?

I didn’t just see things.

Just then, Jiang Chen’s phone rang suddenly and interrupted his thoughts.

After he pressed his watch, the holographic screen unfolded in front of him.

When he saw the caller, he seemed surprised.

Chapter 1438: Send The Astronauts Home

Chapter 1438: Send The Astronauts Home

Rafael Leif, the 17th Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, returned to his hometown of Venezuela after he retired. The headhunter hired by Jiang Chen invited him to serve as the Chancellor of Coro University and offered him an annual salary of 4 million dollars.

Since Jiang Chen handed over his “cosmology” public elective course to Mr. Hawking, he, the chairman of the school board, an honorary professor of Coro University, and an honorary chancellor, had rarely participated in university affairs and passed over the tasks to the Ministry of Education of Xin.

Of course, even though he didn’t participate in managing the university, Jiang Chen had never been stingy with the budget. After all, for him, investing in education was more than just a slogan.

Chancellor Leif was also impressive. Under his leadership, Coro University had become a world-renowned institution of higher learning by virtue of its advantages in aerospace technology, bioengineering, and other fields. It had become the preferred university for international students in East and South Asia.

“Chancellor Leif, what’s the matter?” Jiang Chen said in a pleasant tone after he picked up the call

“A scholar from the UA wants to interview you,” Rafael Leif said on the phone. “His name is Frank Dobbin, a professor in the Division of Social Sciences at Harvard University. He is interested in the rise of Celestial Trade and Xin and is researching this topic. I wonder if you’re free in the next few days?”

When Jiang Chen heard someone wanted to interview him, he was slightly caught off guard.

To be honest, he did not like reporters’ attempts to corner him with tough questions, so he naturally did not like interviews.

Just when he was about to refuse, the next words of Chancellor Leif made him unable to refuse.

“If it is convenient, he hopes to write a biography for you through this interview.”

Jiang Chen looked to the door and saw Lilith, who looked at him with eyes of hope.

It was indeed an occasion that was worthy of her to use her expression simulation program.

“Tomorrow. I have something to do today,” Jiang Chen responded after he confirmed he had no arrangements tomorrow.

“Then I will thank you on behalf of Frank Dobbin.” Leif smiled.

“You’re welcome.”

After lunch, Jiang Chen drove Lilith.

He said he would take her to the bookstore.

Although she was a digitalized human, Jiang Chen did not intend to break his promise.

“Have you thought about what to buy?”

“I searched for a book list on the Internet, and based on the description, it looked very interesting.” Lilith expanded her holographic screen, then gently pushed it in front of Jiang Chen as she said with a hint of excitement in her tone.

“…Don’t block my view, I’m still driving. Wait until I get on the maglev track first.”

As he pushed the holographic screen to the side, with the corner of his eyes, he scanned a few familiar names on the book list.

All detective and horror novels?

As expected, because she was an AI, her preference towards novels was based on logic…

Jiang Chen was a little surprised.

He originally thought that Lilith would prefer novels with great plots, or simply fantasy novels that were far away from reality.

…

Just as Jiang Chen drove Lilith to the largest bookstore in downtown, Bris, far away in the Mars colony, was packing his luggage into the trunk of the rover along with the other six astronauts from the UA.

The flight was suddenly delayed some time ago, which disappointed him since he had already packed his luggage. Fortunately, the engine failure of the transport ship had been eliminated. Although he could not make it back for Christmas, he was still very satisfied to reunite with his family.

“Where is Jenny?”

“She can’t go. Celestial Trade does not intend to give up the prosecution of her espionage,” a slightly bulkier-looking man complained in a low voice, “I told her earlier, don’t fool around. This is not Capital. I bet she can’t even find a lawyer.”

“Are we just going to abandon her like this? Leave her here alone?” Another female astronaut looked at the male colleague next to her with disbelief, “She is our companion!”

“It’s not that we gave up her, but she got into trouble herself!” The man who looked silent and hadn’t said a word from the beginning until now said after he put his luggage into the trunk, “Otherwise we might have been able to go back long ago.”

“How can you say that to her!”

The female astronaut’s eyes widened, and she was about to argue with him but was quickly stopped by Captain Bris.

“Enough, don’t argue,” As Bris glanced at the Celestial Marines that were eyeing their direction, Bris said to his companions, “Jenny’s matter will be resolved by the politicians. Let’s not get into this mess since you and I can’t do anything. In addition, I also warned her at the start, but she obviously didn’t listen to me. I’m going to repeat what I said to her at the beginning. Once again, don’t do anything that’s unnecessary! Especially at this point.”

After the female astronaut heard what her captain, said, she also quieted down.

Although she was fighting the injustice for Jenny who was locked up, as Bris said, they couldn’t do anything. Celestial Trade would not listen to their complaints. Those soldiers only obeyed orders and did not even want to look at them for a second longer.

“Let’s cheer up, we will go home soon. When we get back to B City, shots on me.” Bris patted the shoulders of everyone, then squeezed a smile as he was the first one to walk to the opened rover door.

Twenty Mars rovers drove out from the open gate, crossed the steel city wall covered by alloy, left ripples of gray dust on the sand, and headed mightily to the south.

In that distant sky, there was a black line that connected the ground and sky.

Inside the car, Bris opened his eyes bigger.

He recalled that when Ares landed on the surface of Mars, he had never seen this thing before. Unexpectedly, it took less than a year for Celestial Trade to build a space elevator on Mars. The efficiency of the construction was simply astonishing.

What Bris didn’t know was that Celestial Trade had been studying the feasibility of a space elevator at the Mars equator as early as the second half of last year. The project was launched at the end of 2019.

From the beginning of construction to the completion of the main structure, the construction time of the entire space elevator had exceeded one year.

Of course, whether it was the gravitational constant or the orbital height, the difficulty of building a space elevator on Mars was much lower on Earth. With the space elevator below Celestial City as an example to learn from, the construction of this space elevator on Mars was very smooth.

Relying on the large graphite mine found in the crater near the colony, 60% of the materials for this space elevator were manufactured by the Mars colony. The current Mars colony was no longer the child who had to rely on imports from the parent planet. With the opening of fixed flights between Celestial City and the Mars colony, the industrial potential of this city placed above a giant iron ore mine would surpass any city on Earth in the foreseeable future.

This also included Celestial City.

On the twenty Mars rovers, there were not only astronauts from the UA but also 200 Xin researchers that included Dr. Amos. After they completed the inoculation of the Flower of Memory, these researchers, accompanied by nurses, had completed a total of 100 rehabilitation training sessions as they sorted the knowledge in their heads into the database.

Just as Jiang Chen and the others had expected, these Flowers of Memory were not without side effects.

Some people, after they accepted the memory of the Gaia civilization, felt nauseous to all mammalian meats such as pork and beef, but they involuntarily salivated to insects such as snails, earthworms, and even demon worms. Some people even forget how to walk upright, and often used their non-existent tentacles to hit the wall…

Chapter 1439: He Belongs To The World

Chapter 1439: He Belongs To The World

In the waiting room below the elevator.

“How is your recovery coming?” At the entrance of the elevator, Hong Zewei nonchalantly asked.

“I have almost recovered,” Dr. Amos smiled, in a relaxed state, he said, “and I prefer to call it ‘instinct resuscitation’ rather than illness, which can be eliminated after a certain amount of adaptive training. It’s not a particularly serious illness.”

“Instinct resuscitation.”

“Yes, when Gaia gave us their memory, they also accidentally gave us their own behaviors and habits,” Dr. Amos continued. “The Flower of Memory interferes not only with our cerebral cortex and hippocampus, but at the same time, it also has a radiative effect on other parts of the brain. Such results are excusable. After all, they cannot predict the species that will take over their heritage in the future, and their brain structure. Moreover, when I was leading the researchers to collect the data in our memory, I noticed a special phenomenon.”

“What phenomenon?” Hong Zewei was surprised by the finding.

“In all the materials from billions of years ago, there is no detailed record of the ‘Flower of Memory’, but rather, they wasted a lot of time on irrelevant details. I have a bold suspicion that perhaps they didn’t invent the ‘Flower of Memory’, therefore they couldn’t even determine its impact.”

“They didn’t create the ‘Flower of Memory’?” Hong Zewei smiled, “Who else could have created it? Could it be another higher civilization?”

“Perhaps,” Amos smiled, “Of course, everything is just my inference. After all, everything we see is always just the tip of the iceberg relative to the entire universe.”

Just as the two chatted, the announcement of boarding the elevator sounded in the waiting room.

“It’s almost time, have a safe journey,” Hong Zewei said, “I’ll say my farewells here.”

“You also take care.” Dr. Amos smiled.

As the announcement sounded, the people waiting in the waiting room went to the boarding escalator one after another, then they walked into their respective cabins according to their numbers. Soon more than two hundred people entered the elevator cabins shaped like a train in the space elevator track.

Guided by a series of lights that turned on sequentially, the elevator cabins slowly accelerated towards the egg-yolk-colored sky.

Dr. Amos gazed down at the desert slowly disappearing from his vision and the Mars colony that shrunk into a dot. He felt emotional and excited at the same time.

He would return to Earth soon, with over two hundred researchers who accepted the heritage of the Gaia civilization.

He believed that the knowledge stored in his brain was destined to bring earth-shaking changes to the world.

…

Sunday, early morning.

In the office of the mansion, Jiang Chen met the Harvard Professor – Frank Dobbin.

The old man over sixty years old looked much younger than his actual age. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he still traveled around the world for research and seminars. Unlike most scholars in the same field that focused on a large number of journals and add to the conclusions of their predecessors, he advocated for in-person research and the use of scientific means for his research topics.

It was precisely because of this trait that Frank Dobbin had generated countless ground-breaking views in the field of social economics, backed with factual arguments. It was also the reason why his works were regarded as classics by academia.

“Hello, Mr. Jiang.”

After they met, Frank Dobbin extended his right hand first.

After Jiang Chen shook his hand, he smiled and nodded.

“Hello.”

“You are now a renowned man around the world. It’s my honor to be able to interview you.” After Frank Dobbin let go of his hand, he smiled, then said, “Since last year, I have been studying how Celestial Trade can stand out among the hundreds of millions of companies around the world.”

“Have you found anything in your research?” Jiang Chen laughed.

“I regret not,” Frank Dobbin shook his head, and said in a relaxed tone, “That’s why I am visiting you today. Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedule.”

“No worries, I may not be able to help you much with academics,” Jiang Chen smiled, “I may only say one thing about the rise of Celestial Trade and that is we are just standing on the shoulders of giants.”

“The shoulders of giants? Is there any company in the world that is strong enough to provide you with shoulders?” Frank Dobbin laughed.

“One hundred and seventy large and medium-sized research institutes covering the nine islands of Xin, as well as 4,371 scientific researchers in different fields. They are all giants we rely on,” Jiang Chen said, “There can be many giants.”

The true giant was a huge technological heritage from another world, but obviously, he could not share this.

“So, do you attribute the achievements of Celestial Trade to the progress made in natural science and applied science?” Frank Dobbin asked.

After he thought for a moment, Jiang Chen nodded.

“Yes.”

“What do you think of the future of Xin?” With the same smile, Frank Dobbin said as he took out a cut piece of newspaper from the bag he carried with him, “Wall Street Journal from December 21st, 2020. Did you read this article?”

“Of course,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “I can only say that it is well written, although this will never happen.”

“Oh?” Frank Dobbin asked seriously, “What makes you so confident that this day will never come?”

“Because the future has a large enough space, I am convinced of this,” Jiang Chen smiled, “Rather than squeezing surplus value from poor people, we are more inclined to expand outward, such as asteroid mining and outer space colonization. In the future, there will be enough land to absorb the surplus population and enough jobs to absorb the surplus labor. We only need to use the leading position in the industries to control the pace of expansion. The dystopia world described in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 will never happen in Xin.”

Jiang Chen used an inciting tone to vividly describe to Frank Dobbin about the future of Xin and Celestial Trade in his perspective. He had given similar speeches many times at internal meetings and at press conferences, and even if he did not prepare a script, he could easily deliver the speech.

Frank Dobbin was dumbfounded as he listened to the speech that he even forgot to move the pen on his notebook.

Although the topic had digressed, Jiang Chen’s answer solved all the confusion he had after he read that article.

Perhaps Jiang Chen, who gave this speech, didn’t realize it himself, but from the perspective of a researcher, Frank Dobbin gained a deeper understanding of Celestial Trade, and the “Xin Model” familiar to every social science scholar.

Although he was only halfway through the questions he had prepared, he already felt the trip was worthwhile

Many years later, Frank Dobbin wrote in his memoir.

“I have visited many great people in my life, from the first black president of the UA to the warlord of a dictatorship in Africa. If you were to ask me who had the deepest impression on me, it would undoubtedly be the President of Celestial Trade, Jiang Chen, the richest man in the world. I have spent ten pages in ‘Introduction to Society and Economy in the New Era – Xin’ on everything about him, and my personal evaluation. Just to ensure that there is no misunderstanding by the future generations, my memoir is also sponsored by Celestial Trade.”

“…Since then, I have made bold predictions in my new book. This great man not only belongs to Xin, but he belongs to the entire world.”

Chapter 1440: Whats meant to come will always come

Chapter 1440: What’s meant to come will always come

What’s meant to come will always come.

Even if they’re unwilling, it is still unavoidable.

Due to objective reasons such as the relocation of UA troops in Nippon and the Colombian Civil War, the UA election was postponed from the second week of November to late December. Voters across the UA walked to the polling stations with mixed feelings of pessimism, optimism, excitement, and indifference about this overdue election.

The vast infinite blue covered the city of Los Santos. Just as everyone walked out of the house, a plane flew by in the sky and smeared the sky with a sentence – “The UA is great, Trump is disgusting!”

The people of Los Santos looked up in bewilderment

In the crowd, someone shouted out with their hands around their mouth, “Oh my god! This is brilliant!”

At this moment, at the polling stations in CA State, college students took to the street and held up the slogans in their hands. Performance artists even painted slogans against Trump on the wall with spray paint. And all this got the acquiescence of the police, and the onlookers applauded.

In CA State, no one liked the guy that always made unjustifiable claims.

“Anti-Trump!”

“Say NO to racial discrimination!”

“We can’t let a rogue steal our nuclear button! Even if it’s just for our neighbors!”

“Anyone can be the president except for Trump.”

“Joseph Kennedy is great!”

“…”

The voices of opposition were not only concentrated on the streets of CA State but also centered in Silicon Valley and spread across the Internet. More than 170 Silicon Valley leaders collectively voiced their opposition to Trump.

Even if their political views had always leaned towards the Democratic Party, the attitude shared by the technology sector had never been so unified.

Especially Apple CEO Tim Cook, his dislike of Trump was already the worst kept secret. Trump stated that he would force Apple to move their factories back to the UA, otherwise, it would impose heavy taxes. Moreover, Apple refused to cooperate with the FBA to unlock the iPhone of a terrorist suspect. Trump, therefore, called on his people to boycott Apple products.

In addition, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who was annoyed by Trump’s tax avoidance issue, stated on Twitter that we should send Trump into space.

This tweet was praised by another Silicon Valley leader. Tesla CEO Elon Musk then said in a half-joking and half-serious tone that he would leave a place for Trump on the rocket…

In CA State, supporting Joseph Kennedy had almost become political correctness. People were proud of their choice. Even if there were a few Trump supporters, they had to be sneaky when they voted to avoid being caught.

If someone else knew that they voted for the villain, there definitely would be an argument. In the worst case, it would lead to a fight. Those in the black community and people from Mexico despised that man.

But in T State, it was another scene.

In SA City, the site of the Alamo Fortress.

Dressed in cowboy costumes as T State militia during the War of Independence, people carried old-fashioned Fergus rifles as they marched from the ancient birthplace of the revolution towards downtown under the beating of drums.

Their stand was clear, their slogans were concise, and their chants were easy to understand. All this was accentuated by their outfits.

“Destiny!”

“Defend our country!”

“Fu*k the Mexicans!”

“If you don’t like Trump, get out of T State!”

“…”

Even if people didn’t like Trump, the people from T State were also skeptical about Joseph Kennedy’s foreign policy. As a traditional red state, voters had to heavily contemplate before they walked to the machine and cast their own sacred vote.

In front of the camera, when asked why he supported Trump, as well as his thoughts on some of Trump’s remarks, a red neck emotionally roared at the top of his lungs.

“Should there not be freedom of speech in this country! Is it wrong for me to defend my homeland! Why should I use political correctness to restrain the true leader of this country! For so many years, there has never been a politician that voiced our emotions! All these years! There has never been a politician who can express our aspirations! Don’t mention the Democratic Party! Even the Republicans are soft! Finally, there is a real leader that can represent us and say what needs to be said. And you still have to ask me why I chose him?”

“I don’t want to listen to any of the multicultural equality, anti-war, racial equality, women’s rights, animal protection! I don’t want hypocritical ethics, fabricated data, empty editorials! I need to vent my feelings and let my voice be heard! I just don’t like people who are different from me! Why are there so many people who are different from me in my homeland!”

There were cheers and whistles around.

They had enough of those hypocritical politicians and had enough of the lies from those “moral models”. Thanks to the “efforts” of Obama and Hill, southern T State had turned into another Latin America. Their ancestors used blood and guns to drive away Mexicans, but now the enemy’s descendants had swaggered into their homes, robbed them of their jobs, and occupied their social resources…

All this was due to those politician’s political correctness.

This damned political correctness!

And now, a candidate stood in front of them and said all they wanted to say. For example, “Mexico is sending criminals and thieves to the UA”, “I want to build a wall on the border”…

In their unique way, the cowboys cheered for their leader’s arrival.

There was one thing they shared with the people of CA State.

If someone stood in front of those rednecks and claimed to be a fan of Joseph Kennedy, the situation would indeed turn violent.

CA State was the traditional Democrat state while T State was the traditional Republican state. No matter who the candidate was, the result hardly changed. The swing states determined the outcome of the election, especially the swing states that hold a large number of electoral votes.

For example, F State, which held 27 electoral votes.

It was almost the hardest-hit area.

What could be more exciting than putting Democrats and Republicans together on election day?

Voters in the two camps had never been so antagonistic. They were like roosters eager to fight as they stared at the vote in their neighbors’ hands. The controversy had gone from factories to schools, from argument to verbal abuse, to even physical confrontation. The overwhelming advertisements of the two parties made many neutrals start to feel tired; they only hoped that this day could pass soon and everything could return to normal…

When the last ballot was cast and the last polling station was closed, the sun had fallen on the east side of the Pacific. This was followed by the dawn of the west side of the Pacific.

In the morning news, countless scenes told the story about this election.

When Jiang Chen saw how Trump’s supporters got beaten in CA State, he couldn’t resist the urge to laugh, even though he knew it was a terrible thing to laugh at.

He believed that he was not the only one waiting to see the comedy show continue.

Chapter 1441: IM GOING TO DRINK UNTIL I THROW UP!

Chapter 1441: I’M GOING TO DRINK UNTIL I THROW UP!

The results were tallied up after the polls closed.

Several mainstream media and some online media broadcasted the results in each state in real-time

In an apartment building in Capital, several men sat around the sofa as they stared at the votes on the TV. The beating numbers seemed to possess magical powers that froze time and words as they captured all their attention.

At this moment, a man in a suit pushed open the door and walked in.

Joseph Kennedy looked to the door, then asked immediately.

“How is the situation?”

“I just asked, the results of H State have came out, we won!”

When Joseph Kennedy heard those words, he didn’t display any pride or excitement. Instead, he just looked at the map on the wall and said calmly.

“H State has only four electoral votes, and traditionally, it’s a Democratic State. Winning in H State does not mean anything. The key is those swing states. Only by winning those swing states can we win this election…”

At this moment, Joseph Kennedy stared at the TV and suddenly looked ecstatic. Though that joy was quickly hidden behind his calmness, the corner of his lips turned up made it difficult to hide the emotions he felt at this moment.

In less than half a minute, the results from IN State came in. Joseph Kennedy won the state by a mere 500 votes. Based on the Electoral College winner-takes-all system, all 11 electoral votes in the state went into his pocket.

But it was not what excited him the most.

Traditionally, IN State had always leaned toward the Republican Party, but now it had surrendered to the embrace of the Democratic Party. Although they only won by a slight margin, it was quite significant to turn a state blue among the red states on the map.

“Nice job. The people of IN State have embraced the deep blue. I guess the Republican will be very ‘grateful’ for the Mr. Loudmouth they elected.” Joel Neeson blew a whistle as he joked.

“At least we will thank him.” Jim Magris smiled.

Laughter echoed throughout the living room, and the room was full of joy.

Although the outcome was not yet clear, everyone’s clenched fists and frowning brows seemed to relax. God bless, fortunately, the people remained sane. Fortunately, the Democratic Party’s credit had not been consumed.

At this moment, the laughter in the room suddenly stopped.

Joseph Kennedy’s mood suddenly fell from cloud nine as his face gradually turned gloomy.

Just now, the host on TV broadcasted the results of MI State.

With a 5% advantage, eleven electoral votes fell into that rogue pocket.

The original advantage was reversed in an instant, and the previously uplifting atmosphere in the room turned into silence.

“It’s okay, the outcome is still unclear,” Joel Neeson put his hand on Kennedy’s shoulder and comforted, “The key to the victory or defeat is F State and O State. As long as we win those two swing states, victory is still ours.”

Joseph Kennedy took a deep breath and said slowly.

“I know.”

F State and O State had 27 and 20 electoral votes, respectively. MI State’s eleven electoral votes were less than half of those in these two states. It was just that the failure of Missouri made him tense again.

He was only one step away from the president’s throne. Whether the hardships of the past year would come to fruition or become worthless was determined at this moment.

His hands clenched again.

His palms gradually turned sweaty…

…

“Hahaha! Good job! Ivanka, go and help dad get the champagne from the fridge, my dear Mr. Bannon, the party has started early! We won two swing states! This is a great victory!”

Trump slammed his fist on the table as he laughed out excitedly.

Ivanka rolled her eyes but still went to the kitchen.

Just now, three swing states made their choices.

Other than the wrong choice made by C State, five and eleven electoral votes from N State and MI State respectively went into his pocket. The results of the two swing states’ ballots swept away the haze on his brows from the fact that IN State turned blue a few minutes ago.

“It’s too early to celebrate the victory. When F State comes out, I will definitely have a drink with you.” Steve Bannon pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, stared at the vote count on the TV, and said calmly.

Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of the far-right Breitbart News Network, was currently the director of the Trump campaign. Although Mr. Bannon didn’t speak much in front of the public, he was the engine behind the Trump campaign.

Standing next to him was Kellyanne Conway.

As the only female member of the Trump campaign team, she was also the first female manager in the presidential campaign team in the history of the Republican Party. To a large extent, it was Ms. Conway who reversed the bad impression that Trump “disrespected women” among white women. And it was precisely because of her phrase that “the voters are eager to have someone outside of the political circle challenge the existing power structure” that prompted Trump to take the “non-mainstream” campaign approach. She was juxtaposed with Bannon as the two key members of the Trump campaign team.

“I agree with Mr. Bannon’s point of view. It’s a bit early to start the party.” Kellyanne Conway agreed with Steve Bannon’s point of view, but the joy between her eyebrows was the same as Trump’s.

The numbers shown on the TV proved that her work in the past few months had not been wasted. Whether it was for the promised bonus or for the promise of entering the top political circle in the country, this moment was worth celebrating. Republican Party, who had previously fallen behind, had caught up to the temporarily leading Democratic Party and even appeared to have overtaken.

But it was still too early.

The electoral votes of the remaining three swing states were enough to change everything and reshuffle the so-called advantages and disadvantages. Steve Bannon closed his eyes and prayed silently. His clenched palms were almost drenched with sweat.

At this moment, presumptuous laughter filled the room again and broke the silence in the living room.

“Haha, we won! We won! My dear Mr. Bannon!”

Just now, F State made a choice with its 27 electoral votes.

And there was no need to say what those 27 electoral votes meant.

The game was not over yet, but the winner was already decided…

“This time you have to drink with me! And Kellyanne too, you have to join us! Let us celebrate this great moment, we won!” With his flushed, Trump unscrewed the cork and handed the bottle in his hand to Steve Bannon as he said with a voice trembling with excitement, “Let’s toast to the UA!”

Steve Bannon opened his eyes and stared at the distinct red letters on the TV. He was silent for a long time.

The circles under his eyes gradually turned red. He suddenly stood up and called out fumblingly.

“How is champagne enough? Bring out the whiskey! I’M GOING TO DRINK UNTIL I THROW UP!”

Chapter 1442: An Expected Surprise

Chapter 1442: An Expected Surprise

“Oh, God, Virgin Mary, tell me this is not true. I bet that people all over the world are waiting to make fun of us…” A man in a suit clasped his head emotionally in the lobby of the Javits Convention and Exhibition Center as he stood in front of the results.

When the votes of the last state were released, the victory was a foregone conclusion. Although it had been determined a long time ago, many people still chose to believe that the results could change and everything would not be so bad.

“Thank you, thank you for choosing me, and I will lead this country to greatness again,” Trump said loudly, uttering his signature gesture in front of his supporters, “I will deliver on my campaign promise! I promise to all of you again. Xin will be the first stop of my diplomatic visit after taking office. I will have a good talk with that man, in a man’s way!”

The thunderous applause and deafening cheers reverberated inside the center.

Under the star-spangled flag, there were enthusiastic and zealous faces, as if the great dream had been rekindled, as if everything had gone back to forty years ago, back to that great era.

Of course, not everyone was happy with this result.

On the day after the election results were announced, an atmosphere of disappointment and anger shrouded the entire Silicon Valley.

In many technology companies, the working atmosphere was extremely down and gloomy. Many people were depressed, with red and swollen eye sockets, especially some female employees. When they saw Joseph Kennedy deliver his concession speech on their mobile phones, many even shed tears.

On the other side, on the streets of metropolitans in CA State, hundreds of people took to the streets for two consecutive nights to protest the election of Trump. They chanted “He is not our president”, “We don’t want racists”, and threw cans or even stones at Trump supporters.

In some areas, the protests even went out of control and turned into violent rioting and looting, as well as flag burning. The police had to arrest some radical protesters, and Hill, who had not yet transferred power, had to call on all parties to maintain rationality and calmness.

In G State, a militia called “Guardian” assembled in the suburbs. Under the leadership of a 50-year-old white veteran, they began military training. The organization claimed that it would use bullets to defend the Constitution and suppress those traitors who attempt to divide the country…

The election of Trump made CA State’s left-leaning white population, black population, and Mexican population completely irrational. They went to the streets for three consecutive days to vent their dissatisfaction. Because Asians generally supported Trump, the Asian communities were the hardest-hit areas of riots and they suffered the most from riots and arsons.

…

“We lost.”

“Yes, we lost.”

“…Why do I feel that you don’t seem disappointed?” After Loki hesitated for a moment, he said in a subtle way with a dissatisfied tone.

“No! I’m quite disappointed, but…I just don’t know what to say. Everything happened so suddenly and we have prepared for so long…”

I can’t, I can’t resist any longer.

After he finished his sentence, just as Loki began to speak, Jiang Chen quickly pressed the mute button on the holographic screen. He put his head on the table and his shoulders started to shake violently.

Although he lost, for some reason, he just couldn’t stop himself from laughing at this moment.

Maybe this could be described as gloating.

After he laughed for about half a minute and finally got it out of his system, Jiang Chen sat up straight again, cleared his throat, and pressed the button to turn on the microphone again.

“Ahem, sorry, the signal on my side was not so stable…what did you just say?”

“I’m saying what are you going to do?” Loki repeated it patiently.

“I haven’t thought about it yet, you know, all this is too sudden, it’s too sudden,” As he said “too sudden” twice, Jiang Chen leaned back against the chair and tapped the armrest with his finger. After he deliberated for a moment, he adjusted his wording, “To be honest, I don’t know very much about Trump… But considering his campaign declaration, I am worried about the prospect of the UA joining the Earth Defense Alliance. ”

“Worried?” Loki shook his head and smiled wryly, “You don’t need to worry, you can basically give up. He will never agree to join the Earth Defense Alliance, even nominally.”

This was what made Loki the most heartbroken.

If the UA could not join the Earth Defense Alliance, it meant the next step of cooperation between the B City Consortium and Celestial Trade could not move forward, and the investment of the First National Bank in the space industry would still be subject to policy restrictions.

This kind of feeling was similar to seeing a giant cake in front of him and not being able to take a bite of it despite how hard he tried. This made Loki and other shareholders of the First National Bank feel suffocated.

“Then dear Mr. Loki, for the sake of our friendship, I kindly remind you,” Jiang Chen said softly, “It doesn’t matter if we lose, we are outsiders. However, as a citizen of the UA, and as someone who went all-in on the loser.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen continued, “Should you consider leaving a path for yourself?”

After a long silence, Loki spoke slowly.

“You are right, but… I have to ask other partners for their opinions.”

Jiang Chen leaned back on the chair, then smiled.

“Better hurry up.”

…

Wall Street despised Trump. Many people had suffered heavy losses because Trump was elected. If Joseph Kennedy was elected and the UA joined the Earth Defense Alliance as expected, the UA space industry would undoubtedly usher in a period of rapid growth.

But now, all this seemed like a distant dream.

Even if Trump promised to increase the federal investment in the aerospace sector, no matter the size of the investment, would it compare to a space elevator with its doors open to the UA? The answer was obviously no.

Ironically, it was the two Wall Street leaders who pushed this candidate hated by countless Wall Street investors to the throne of the president…

On the second day of the election, when Joseph Kennedy made his concession speech, there was a private banquet held in a five-star restaurant in the center of Nouveau York City. The size of the banquet was very small, with only two participants.

One represented the Morgan family and the other represented Rockefeller.

“Cheers to our victory!” Morgan raised his glass and smiled, “and also for the coming Christmas.”

“Haha, cheers!” Rockefeller also smiled and raised his glass.

The crisp sound of clinking glasses echoed on the wine table, and the two finished the red wine in their glass.

The wine glasses returned to the table, and the two looked at each other, then burst into laughter simultaneously.

The dining table was full of joyful atmosphere, which formed a sharp contrast with the gloomy clouds outside the window. For Nouveau York, for Wall Street, today was definitely the darkest day of 2020. But for the two around the table, the opposite was true.

Trump’s rise to power meant that the Iron Curtain over the Pacific Ocean was inevitable, and an arms race comparable to the Cold War era would ensue. It was almost foreseeable that in the next four years, military orders from the Department of Defense would double.

The direct beneficiaries of all this were here.

If it weren’t for the fact that extravagant celebrations could result in a poor image, Morgan even planned to hold a grand banquet to celebrate this day.

“Those old folks in B City are getting more and more out of line,” Rockefeller said casually while he cut the steak with a knife and fork.

“Yes.” Morgan sighed, but his tone was quite relaxed, “We almost let them win.”

“What’s your opinion?”

“Do you still have to ask? My opinion is the same as yours.”

While he said this nonchalantly and seemed focused on cutting the steak with his knife, a hint of viciousness suddenly flashed across his dark green pupils…

Chapter 1443: Preparing For War

Chapter 1443: Preparing For War

On a quiet night at a port on the west coast of South America.

Two cargo ships slowly stopped at the berths in the port.

Under the cover of night, containers were unloaded one by one from the ships by the bridge cranes in the port, placed on the back of heavy trucks, and driven towards the military base about five kilometers from the port.

On another smaller cargo, soldiers in kinetic skeletons stepped off the deck, boarded the long-waiting military trucks, and drove along with the convoy of heavy trucks to the Celestial Trade military base.

Tumaco, a port town on the border of South Colombia and Ecuador, had a population of only two thousand people.

After the Colombian Civil War, the President of South Colombia Timoshenko signed the “Trans-regional Economic Development Zone Agreement” with Celestial Trade. The 740 square kilometers of land from Tumaco to the Ecuadorian border was allocated to Celestial Trade as a special economic zone.

Based on the content of the agreement, under the premise of abiding by the Colombian Constitution, Celestial Trade possessed a certain degree of autonomy, including setting tariffs and dispatching troops. On the other hand, Celestial Trade promised to increase the GDP of this special economic zone in South Columbia to 50 billion Xin New dollars within ten years and maintain a growth rate of 5% within 50 years.

At the same time, Celestial Trade used the space elevator as a bargaining chip to “rent” 260 square kilometers of land from Ecuador to get a whole number. However, the land was not made available to Celestial Trade yet. The Ecuadorian government stated that the special zone agreement would be signed after the second phase of the space elevator begins.

Just like when the New Malaysia Special District was established. The creation of a special economic zone in the border area would benefit both countries so that neither party would be able to leave Celestial Trade. This move would not only strengthen the regional influence of Celestial Trade but also reap direct economic benefit. Jiang Chen had also set up one on the border between Moro and Country F earlier, which also yielded favorable results.

With the completion of the port at the special zone, batches of Celestial Trade Army also began to land in South Colombia.

In less than a month, more than 10,000 Celestial soldiers had arrived in South America and were stationed in the military base located in Tumaco.

Among them, seven thousand were part of the Celestial Foreign Corps. Most of the soldiers came from Moro, Madagascar, Ukraine, Central Africa. The other three thousand were made up of the Celestial Army; their weapons and equipment represented the highest technological capability of Future Military…

Their weapons also represented the highest technological capability of the world.

It was not only Celestial Trade soldiers who patrolled the port, but also soldiers in South Colombia uniforms.

While Celestial Trade was stationed in South Colombia, it also took over four thousand South Colombian recruits.

It was a special request made by President Timoshenko of South Colombia to Jiang Chen during the negotiation of the special zone. In consideration of improving the combat effectiveness of his allies, Jiang Chen readily accepted this proposal. These recruits would be familiarized with the Scythe drone, S1 kinetic skeleton, and all Future Military equipment exhibited in the defense exhibition under the training of Celestial Trade commanders and virtual reality system.

In the commander’s office of the military base, Cai Deye sat in front of his desk as he frowned at the list in his hand.

“Two hundred NS-90s? What are they? Why haven’t I heard of them.”

“It’s normal that you haven’t heard about it,” said the man standing in front of his desk with a shaved head. “This is a land-based robot newly developed by Future Military. The confidentially level was reduced from S to B yesterday, and it was officially armed into the Army.”

Cai Deye looked surprised.

He had heard a long time ago that Future Military was working on a AI robot soldier that could replace flesh and blood at an affordable cost, but he didn’t expect it to be completed so quickly

“Is there going to be a war?” Cai Deye said seriously.

“You can say that,” the man nodded, “The international situation is unpredictable, and the message from above is not yet clear, but the preparation has started. You are the front line, and you must be prepared no matter whether there is a war or not. You should understand what I mean.”

After he put the arms list with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons into the drawer, Cai Deye looked at the man in front of his desk and nodded seriously.

“I understand.”

“Great,” the man nodded, “Now I can report back to New Moon Island.”

…

The chaos caused by the election lasted for five full days.

Until Christmas was approaching, the vengeance and hate in people’s hearts finally started to dissipate as they stopped the meaningless struggles and attacks on dissidents.

It turned out that time could repair any cracks. The G State militia announced its dissolution, although the leader of the militia had repeatedly stated that they will regroup under the flag at any time if necessary. Those demonstrators who were clamoring for the establishment of the California Republic also dispersed one after another and began to return to their daily routine.

All impulses turned into nothing in the end.

After all, life had to continue no matter what, even if there were unwilling, they could not change the fact that the person was elected.

But just when everyone thought it was over, the aftermath of this farce did not stop.

On Christmas Eve, Wall Street gave a big gift to Trump. The dollar index plunged two percent upon opening, the Dow Jones Index led the global stock markets down, and everything seemed to be foretelling the economic crisis that would occur a few months later …

Early in the morning, Jiang Chen came to the dining room after he washed up.

Except for Natasha who slept too late and couldn’t get up, Xia Shiyu and Ayesha almost finished breakfast.

Ayesha took her plate, got up, and walked to the kitchen. Just as she walked to the entrance, she tiptoed and kissed Jiang Chen’s cheek. As he recollected the softness, Jiang Chen pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Have you read the news?” Xia Shiyu started a conversation while she wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin.

“I haven’t read it yet, is there anything interesting?” With a yawn, Jiang Chen picked up today’s “Wall Street Journal” from the side, glanced at the headline printed on the cover, and started to chuckle, “The Dow Jones Index plunged, NASDAQ collapsed? When did Wall Street start to become so unstable.”

The aerospace sector was completely annihilated. It seemed that even the UA knew what failure to join the Earth Defense Alliance meant.

“Are you going to send those astronauts back?” Xia Shiyu asked casually.

“Why not? Are we keeping them for Chinese New Year?” Jiang Chen said.

“Speaking of it, why do I feel that you are not surprised by the fact that Trump was elected? We threw a lot of chips on Joseph Kennedy,” Xia Shiyu grinned as she looked at Jiang Chen’s unsound appearance, then she said jokingly, “I thought you would be more disappointed.”

“Disappointed?” As if he had heard something funny, Jiang Chen laughed, turned the page of the newspaper, and said in a relaxed state, “How can it be me who’s disappointed. No matter who is elected, I have done all the preparations.”

Chapter 1444: Typhoon Banyan

Chapter 1444: Typhoon “Banyan”

At noon, a layer of dense black clouds covered the originally vast blue sky above Penglai.

The air felt damp and dry, and even the sound of the sea tides was mixed with a bit of hoarseness. The pedestrians quickened their steps to the subway as they hoped they could return to their home or the hotel they stayed at before the storm arrived.

The majestic Penglai stood tall upon the ebb and flow of the tide, just like the mythical island that shared its name, the city was like a fairy mountain floating on the ocean.

As the crystallization of the best technology in the world, the combination of the greatest achievements of architecture and materials science, this city that floated in the vast ocean was undoubtedly the brightest pearl on the Pacific Ocean. More than three million tourists were active in this futuristic city and the permanent population was more than three times that number.

With a pair of AR glasses, the distance from the virtual world would be infinitely close to zero inside this city.

People were fascinated by the freshness brought by the next era and admired the technology of Future Group. Whether it was the countless holographic screens or the drones that constantly flowed above the city, every detail of this city was so captivating.

“Cordis, look over there, it’s amazing, how did they come up with the idea to use these gadgets to deliver packages? God, are they not afraid of things falling down and hitting people?” A female tourist from Sweden yelled out as she pointed at the series of drones that passed through the tall buildings.

While she had seen the scene on the news before, the astonishment she experienced with her own eyes was far greater than the images on TV.

In the years when Freemasonry was in confrontation with Future Group, few products passed EU’s product quality and safety law, let alone courier drones. Many Europeans didn’t realize the seriousness of the disconnection between their country and the times until they had been to Xin or the surrounding countries.

“Built by Future Heavy Industries. Those who can work there are monsters. I wouldn’t be surprised by anything they design… Damn, the weather is so hot, babe, should we go back to the hotel soon? It looks like it’s going to be a heavy rainstorm,” The man with curly hair looked at the dark clouds in the sky and said lethargically.

The weather forecast yesterday said it was sunny, but this clearly did not look sunny?

At this moment, the holographic screens around the street suddenly changed. The news anchor in a suit and tie reported.

“Reporting on an updated weather forecast.”

“Typhoon ‘Banyan’ has passed through the Mariana Islands ten minutes ago and is expected to travel northwest along the Pacific Rim’s volcanic belt in the next ten days, passing through the Philippine Sea, and reaching the Dongsha Islands. According to the latest information from the Xin Meteorological Bureau, Banyan’s central pressure index is expected to exceed 10 million pascal, and the maximum wind speed near the center is expected to be 35 meters per second, which can be categorized as a category 5 typhoon.”

“The route originally scheduled for December 25 is temporarily canceled. Penglai will move along the original route to the northern waters of Coro Island. The Xin Meteorological Bureau is reminding citizens and tourists to minimize marine sports in the near future to avoid potential accidents.”

After the anchor spoke in the official language Mandarin, he repeated it in different languages.

About five minutes later, the interrupted weather forecast was finally over, the holographic screens in the streets and alleys returned to normal, and the temporarily suspended programs continued to be shown. However, Cordis and his girlfriend stood there in a daze as they listened to the discussions around them.

“Oh, damn, our Christmas may have to be spent in the rain.”

“Typhoon? How did a typhoon suddenly appear?”

“I don’t know, maybe someone from the Meteorology Bureau has misread the satellite cloud pictures? It’s not like it has never happened before.”

What surprised Cordis was not the typhoon, but the attitude of the people living here. Even with a typhoon approaching, the way they spoke about the typhoon sounded like they were just discussing ordinary “bad weather”.

So nonchalant?

This is a typhoon!

Although Cordis had never seen a typhoon in person, he could still feel the horrifying power of the typhoon based on the news. However, the people on the streets only sped up to avoid the potential heavy rain, they did not have more reactions and did not panic at all.

Cordis did not understand, all the tourists who came to Penglai did not understand.

For people that lived here for a long time, breaking news weather forecasts were common. As for typhoon and hurricane warnings, they were nothing new.

There was nothing to worry about at all.

Even if the typhoon was moving in their direction, it was as simple as making a turn for Penglai. The only pity part was that with only a dozen hours left before Christmas, they would have to spend it in the downpouring rain.

…

A hundred nautical miles from the Mariana Islands, a cruise ship undulated in the rough sea. The flag hung on the mast was blown loudly by the gusting wind, and the people on the deck grasped tightly on the railing, for fear that they could be blown away at any moment.

Zhang Yaping looked at the lightning in the distance dumbfoundedly. As his attention slipped for a second, his mouth was filled with heavy wind.

He lowered his head and patted his chest for a while before he finally got his composure back and squeezed a sentence from the slits between his teeth.

“…The person who designed this weapon must be crazy.”

It was the closest location to the edge of the typhoon and the closest location this cruise ship could approach. Although the wind was strong, it was generally safe. If they were a few nautical miles further in, the deck would be unsafe.

Zhang Yaping was forcibly dragged here from his Presidential Palace by Jiang Chen. At first, Zhang Yaping was curious about this trip, but now the only thought in his head was to get out of this place.

“Crazy? Haha, perhaps! But it is said that this thing was designed to avoid economic losses caused by natural disasters.” The howling wind blew up the hair on his forehead. Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes as he focused on the plaster-like milky white air mass at the horizon, he raised his voice and shouted, “And we just amplified, amplified, and then amplified its function! And with proper guidance, natural disasters can appear in specific areas, and it will become a weapon.”

“It’s said that?” Zhang Yaping tightly grabbed onto the railing with both of his hands as he looked at Jiang Chen unexpectedly.

It is said?

Didn’t you make this thing?

“That’s right,” Jiang Chen nodded in the strong wind, and even though it was not easy to do so, he still squeezed a smile from his stiffened face, “It is said.”

In fact, including the Holy Shield System, many dark technologies before 2150 were designed with good intentions. It was not until the economic crisis that hit the world that they gradually deteriorated under the influence of some ambitious schemers.

“What I want to ask is how far can this thing affect?” Zhang Yaping laboriously spoke against the howling wind, “Don’t tell me that we have to create this giant thing in front of our door every time and then push it out.”

“Of course not!” Jiang Chen laughed, “Every inch of land, ocean, and glacier shrouded by the atmosphere is under the interference of our ‘weather forecast’! As long as I want, I can create a sandstorm in the Sahara Desert on the other side of the Earth! The only question is how much energy is needed!”

“This is simply…” Zhang Yaping swallowed down the dry lump in his throat

“What only God can do, you want to say this, right?” Jiang Chen laughed and patted Zhang Yaping on the shoulder, “Let’s go, I’ve seen enough. It’s time to go back!”

Chapter 1445: A Visitor From South Colombia

Chapter 1445: A Visitor From South Colombia

“Yesterday, Typhoon ‘Banyan’ passed through the Mariana Islands and headed northwest towards the Philippine Sea. Affected by the typhoon, the eighty UA Navy ships docked at the Guam Military Base were forced to temporarily relocate. Scholars affiliated with the World Meteorological Organization have yet to provide an official explanation to the reason Typhoon ‘Banyan’ formed. Some scholars claimed that the reason why a typhoon of this scale formed in December may be due to global warming…”

“International organizations have dispatched rescue teams to Country F and Malaysia for emergency response. It remains to be seen what kind of impact ‘Banyan’ will have on the Asia-Pacific region. Next, a professor from the University of Colombia…”

The morning news played on the TV while a simple and nutritious breakfast was placed on the table. However, Timoshenko, who was in front of the table, was focused on neither. He stared at the map on the wall.

To be precise, he was looking at the dotted line on the map.

The dotted line that divided the country into two.

If Joseph Kennedy was elected and the UA joined the Earth Defense Alliance in anticipation, the relationship between the two countries was bound to be in a honeymoon period for a long time, and it was unlikely that Celestial would support him in continuing this war.

In the worst case, Colombia could even become the second Korean peninsula. The two countries shared the same heritage, same tradition, the same language, but because they were caught between two superpowers, they were forced to be divided into two countries…

He had no hope at all.

But fortunately, Trump won.

To be honest, he was relieved when he saw the results of the election.

In addition, Celestial Trade had been amassing troops in South Colombia recently, which made him see the dawn of an unified Colombia.

During this period, his subordinates had been advising him to seize this opportunity to create a border incident and tear up the armistice agreement. It was just that Celestial Trade had been silent, which made him hesitant on making the decision. Celestial Trade could accept the consequence of Colombia turning out of control, but he could not bear the consequence of being abandoned by Celestial Trade.

“Push back everything on my schedule for the day. If you can’t push it, get Antonio to go for me.” The breakfast on the table was barely touched as Timoshenko pushed back the chair and stood up. Then he looked at the assistant beside him, “Arrange a flight for me. I’m going to Xin.”

“Is it too rushed?” The assistant hesitated, “It will take at least three working days to submit an application for a state visit to the Xin Embassy through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…”

“Apply directly to Celestial Trade. They will arrange it for us.” Timoshenko interrupted his assistant, paused, then continued, “If I didn’t overthink, Jiang Chen should also want to see me now.”

…

“I heard that there was a typhoon there. You have to be careful not to be blown away.”

“The typhoon is at the Mariana Islands. It’s far away from me. It will at most rain a few times.” On the phone, Jiang Chen listened to Liu Yao’s playful words and laughed, “Have you been busy lately?”

“Not as busy as you,” Liu Yao pouted and with a hint of complaint in her tone, “Humph, men are all the same. You all like the next one. After you got those two little lovers in Nippon, you completely forgot about me.”

“How come,” Jiang Chen was confused as he tried to defend himself, “were you not filming when I went to Nippon last time? So, I didn’t invite you.”

The way she got jealous was a bit strange.

She was not jealous of Ayesha or Xia Shiyu, instead, she was jealous of Qian Xia and Officer Kwai.

“Really?” Liu Yao asked suspiciously.

“Yes!”

“Hehe, then I can rest assured. Wherever you go next time, remember to bring me! Promise…”

Jiang Chen had to admit that Liu Yao was the most sophisticated in the art of being jealous. She could satisfy Jiang Chen’s vanity while also ensuring he was not tired or annoyed. This was also what Jiang Chen was most satisfied with.

It was also why Liu Yao could go from a little-known actress to a star in Asia.

From her background, who else could compete with her?

The phone call with Liu Yao was Jiang Chen’s quick moment of relaxation. After a few more words, Jiang Chen hung up and picked up the document again.

This document was the outline of the meeting in the afternoon. He had to review it before the meeting.

In the past few days, Jiang Chen had been busy with Celestial Trade’s deployment. The senior officers of the Navy, Army, and Air Force on New Moon Island had held more than a dozen meetings. The meetings included the expansion of the military, raising the military budget, formulating combat plans for possible partial or even full-scale wars…

It was precisely because of this that Timoshenko did indeed overthink. Jiang Chen had no plans to see him at all.

South Colombia was a very critical component in the strategic plan of Celestial Trade in South America. However, the so-called critical component was only from geographical factors. It would be better to count on Moro soldiers than South Colombia soldiers in a war.

Of course, since he was already here, Jiang Chen had to see him to ensure that they maintained a good relationship.

After Jiang Chen received the call from the embassy, he thought about it for a moment, then called Ivan to cancel the afternoon meeting. In the meeting room of the Future Building, Jiang Chen met Timoshenko, the warlord who disturbed the calmness of South America.

Strictly speaking, it was the third time the two had met. The first time was when the Colombian Civil War just broke out, and the second time was at the Coro City International Defense Exhibition. Every time Jiang Chen saw this old warlord, he noticed that there were more white hairs around his ears.

After a simple greeting, Jiang Chen invited Timoshenko to sit down. The receptionist that stood on the side poured tea for the two, then respectfully exited the room.

“How do you like those pilots?” After he touched the teacup with his finger to test the temperature, Jiang Chen retracted his right hand, looked at Timoshenko, and smiled, “I mean the ones produced by Future Heavy Industries.”

“Very easy to use. Your technical prowess is impressive.” After a pause, Timoshenko continued, “But you know, I’m not here today to discuss this.”

In the Colombian Civil War, Russia was the second-biggest winner after Celestial Trade. After Timoshenko got the loan from Future Bank, the first thing he did was spend money, buy equipment, and arm his second-tier army. Arms orders of more than three billion dollars had helped Russian military companies reduced a lot of accumulated inventory. For example, Timoshenko bought an entire squadron of MiG-29s.

As for the pilots, they were naturally the “Matador” electronic pilots bought from the defense exhibition.

“I know what you want to discuss,” Jiang Chen said softly while he looked back at Timoshenko, “My suggestion is to wait patiently.”

“How long shall we wait?” Timoshenko quickly responded, “Our people long for unity.”

“I can’t give you a specific time, but if you have paid attention to our actions, it should not be difficult to see that we have already begun to make preparations for this,” Jiang Chen said. “We also hope that Colombia can be restored to unity. After all, a unified Colombia is more in line with the interests of Celestial Trade in South America. On this point, our position is the same.”

When Jiang Chen saw the anxiety in Timoshenko’s eyes, he paused for a moment, and his tone carried a hint of warning.

“In addition, Mr. Timoshenko, I have to remind you that during this period of time, please restrain your subordinates and exercise caution. Regardless of whether there will be unpleasant wars in the future, you must ensure at this time that you remain calm. The last time you arrogantly advocated an early revolution and disrupted our plan. I don’t want to hold you accountable, but I hope that was the last time.

Trump would visit Xin after taking office.

Even though he did not have many expectations for the diplomatic visit, Jiang Chen still planned to make the next decision after his meeting with the new president.

As Harmony’s Space Colonization Ship approached, if he could avoid unnecessary internal friction, he would do anything possible to ensure no conflicts happened. However, if this president who pursued the concept of “UA First” was really as tough as he promised in his campaign speech…

Jiang Chen could only say that Celestial Trade would never make a compromise.

However, plans always change. While he was preparing for war while he waited for the transfer of power to happen in North America, the Colombian people posed a difficult problem for him…

Chapter 1446: Border Incident

Chapter 1446: Border Incident

It was not just South Colombia that saw the dawn of unification.

Trump’s rise into power also gave the President of North Colombia, Vargas hope.

Six months ago, the former Colombian president was assassinated. As the vice president, he stepped into power and took control of the military and political power of North Colombia with the assistance of NATO. Even though the civil war was unsuccessful from the very start, he always believed that the failure of the war was not because of NATO’s inability to defeat Celestial Trade, but the weak Hill government that led the war.

“Although Celestial Trade is slightly superior in military technology, war has never been a simple competition of science and technology. In addition to scientific and technological factors, many other factors determine the outcome of war, including industrial strength, economic strength, and diplomatic strength. I believe I don’t need to explain these further. You all should understand.”

At the highest meeting of the Colombian Military Commission, Vargas knocked his fist on the table and said loudly.

Although North Colombia was incomparable to Celestial Trade from all factors, Celestial Trade could not compete with the giant war machine known as NATO in any of the factors mentioned before.

The advantage of Celestial Trade was based on small-scale wars. If the war escalated, Xin would definitely be dragged into the Colombia battlefield that was enough to swallow it in the mess. The left-leaning Democratic Party could not make a decisive decision against Celestial Trade, but the right-wing Republican Party was different, even for an ultra-conservative like Trump.

Once a total war broke out, the outcome for that damned yellow-skinned monkey would be sent to the gallows by the UA soldiers.

Just like the fate of Saddam!

“…The outcome of a small-scale war cannot explain any problems. As long as the battlefield expands beyond Colombia, NATO will squeeze Celestial Trade to death like an ant!”

Vargas’ passionate speech ended but the entire conference room was silent.

The silence lasted for about three seconds before applause filled the room.

The applause gradually ceased.

“…The key of the problem is, will the UA really escalate the war against Celestial Trade for us?” After the General of North Colombia heard President Vargas’s speech, he said hesitantly, “If the war escalates, even if NATO eventually wins, the price paid will not be small.”

“Until last week, I was thinking about the same question,” One corner of Vargas’ mouth was turned up as he continued, “But just the day before yesterday, Wall Street gave us a gift.”

There were small chatters around the table as the members present looked at each other in confusion.

The discussion was focused on Celestial Trade and NATO a second ago, how did the topic suddenly change to Wall Street.

“Just two days ago, our ‘Columbia Unity Foundation’ received two billion dollars in donations, and on the list of donation signatures, the names of Morgan, Rockefeller, Martin, and Bush appeared.” On the table, the excitement in his tone could not be concealed. Vargas glanced around at the military committee members present, “Comrades, think about it, what does this mean? It means that Wall Street, which represents the elites of North America, is already on our side. North America’s military-industrial complex is already on our side!”

Only then did the expressions on everyone’s face begin to change.

Military-industrial complex.

Many people were still unconvinced when they heard the name Wall Street. But when they heard the military-industrial complex, almost everyone looked joyful. A huge interest group composed of the military, military-industrial enterprises, and some members of Congress. It was one of the most powerful political forces in North America that contracted almost 90% of the UA foreign wars from the 1950s to the present.

After the fall of Goldman Sachs, who didn’t know who the arms giant in North America was?

This list gave everyone hope that they could reclaim their lost territory.

“…The opinions of Wall Street cannot represent the opinions of the UA government, but this list of donations can be used as a reference,” the Supreme Commander of North Columbia said solemnly, “To be on the safe side, we can create some border tensions to test the reactions of South Colombia, Celestial Trade, and the UA.”

“Let’s execute your plan!” Vargas said.

…

On December 26th, the atmosphere of Christmas had yet to completely fade, and the snowy streets at Town of Caucasia in the north of Antioquia were still filled with the fragrance of roast turkey and turrón. Evergreen trees, red ribbons, and big bells decorated the streets. Children laughed and chased each other around the snowman, and adults walked together in groups as they chatted and laughed.

The tavern on the corner of the street was like a stove that turned people’s passion for winter into the fragrance of malt beer. Although due to the war, this year’s Christmas atmosphere was slightly more depressing compared to usual, people’s wish for tomorrow remained unchanged.

Everyone believed that tomorrow would be better. North and South Colombia would eventually reach unification again, the outposts and border posts outside the town would be removed, and the villagers who worked in Montreal could return home for Christmas next year…

“At this time, I should be drinking beer by a warm fireplace instead of standing guard in this sh*tty place.” The soldier in a thick snowsuit and carried an AK47 rifle squatted by the fire. He loosened the collar stuck to this neck, then looked at the forests not far away, “Seriously, even soldiers need a vacation.”

“Let’s talk about something happy. Maybe the war will end next year?”

“Haha, that is a good joke.”

With a bit of sorrow in his laughter, the captain used a branch and fiddled with the fire. The soldier who had spoken before became silent.

At that moment, the sound of a car engine was heard not far away.

“There is some noise.”

The captain tossed the branch into the fire, stood up from the ground with his rifle, “Carlos, go outside and have a look.”

“Ok.”

Carlos patted down the snow on his lap, then gestured to the soldier on top of the sentry tower as he walked out of the topside with his rifle. He stopped in the middle of the road and raised his right hand at the van that came from North Colombia.

The van came to a halt slowly, the door opened, and a man wearing a thick leather jacket and a knitted hat on his head got out of the van.

“You’re entering South Columbia, show me your ID,” Carlos said.

The man didn’t speak and just put his hand in his pocket.

However, what he took out was not some sort of ID but a pistol.

Pewpew!

Two unsuspected gunshots ignited the gun battle outside the post.

Carlos was shot in the chest. He collapsed in the snow as his limbs gradually lost consciousness.

He saw masked soldiers get out of the van in his dying consciousness, then army boots stepped past him. After a brief exchange of fire, they quickly rushed into the border post.

The gunshots seemed to dissipate, along with his consciousness.

About ten minutes later, the townspeople of Caucasia were surprised to see smoke from the outpost.

When the border guards stationed nearby arrived, all the people who attacked the outpost had left. The only thing they left was an outpost raging in fire, a wall full of bullet marks, and a South Colombia flag that was half burned…

On the day of the incident, President Timoshenko of South Colombia happened to be in Coro City for a state visit…

Chapter 1447: On The Brink of War

Chapter 1447: On The Brink of War

“There was an accident at the border,” Jiang Chen looked at Timoshenko, smirked, then tossed the paper on the table, “Though I guess you already knew about it.”

The headline of the newspaper was exactly the tragedy that happened on the border between North and South Colombia. The spokespersons of both sides immediately came out with statements that accused the other side of causing the attack, which made the situation even more confusing.

To be honest, Jiang Chen’s thought Timoshenko self-directed and acted out this incident. After all, he really couldn’t believe that North Columbia dared to tear up the ceasefire agreement after the brutal defeat.

However, Timoshenko’s performance was too realistic. The pupils gleaming with anger, the tightly clenched fists, all made it look like it was real.

“These scumbags! Shameful liars! They tore up the ceasefire agreement!” He cursed in Spanish, which Jiang Chen couldn’t understand. Like an angry bull, Timoshenko grinded his teeth.

Although he cursed, he and his men had planned yesterday whether they should create an incident on the border as an excuse to tear up the ceasefire agreement. But coincidentally, North Colombia also shared the same thought, and was the first to act, and even accused North Colombia that this attack was “self-directed and self-acted”.

Regardless of how Timoshenko acted, Jiang Chen opened the flashing watch, leaned back against the chair, and answered the call.

The call was from Ayesha.

As soon as she received the news, Ghost Agents stationed in South America rushed to the scene of the incident. Through investigation, it was preliminarily determined that the attackers were the original Colombian Navy Special Force.

This special force and the FARC led by Timoshenko were old enemies. When South Colombia was not called South Colombia, and the FARC were still guerrillas fighting in the Andes, this special force were Colombia’s main counterinsurgency and anti-drug force. Many FARC executives died in the hands of this special force.

“I see.”

Jiang Chen nodded, hung up the phone, then focused his attention back on Timoshenko.

“The North Columbia Navy Special Force attacked the border post. You should be familiar with this name.”

“…I’ll remember them even if they turn to ashes,” Timoshenko said with a gloomy expression.

“I’ll lend you my Aerospace G100, and you will return home this afternoon.” After a pause, Jiang Chen continued, “I know what you are thinking, but I still maintain what I said before. Keep calm before the opportunity comes.”

“They are literally in our face, and you’re telling me to keep calm? The people are waiting to see my reaction. Tell me, how can I keep calm?” Timoshenko said angrily.

“I’ll allow you to retaliate against them appropriately, but no matter what, you must remember that maintaining the ceasefire agreement is our bottom line. Before getting my permission, if you tear up the ceasefire agreement without authorization, you will bear the consequences yourself.” Jiang Chen stared into Timchenko’s eyes and said in an irrefutable tone.

The silence lasted for about a minute, and Timchenko’s finally nodded reluctantly.

“…Okay.”

…

In the afternoon, the silver Aerospace G100, propelled by a ray of blue light, disappeared above the clouds. Jiang Chen lent his plane to Timoshenko so that he could return home as soon as possible and stabilize the situation in South Colombia.

The six soldiers at the border post were killed, and the walls were sprayed with insulting graffiti.

The pro-war faction in South Colombia was enraged by the humiliating action. Even the pro-peace supporters that originally supported the maintenance of the status quo were silent on this issue as they planned to change their status. This accident made everyone feel angry, and the anger was becoming increasingly uncontrollable.

It was impossible to do nothing. After Timoshenko returned home with Jiang Chen’s permission for “limited retaliation”, he immediately convened the Supreme Military Commission of South Colombia to formulate a retaliation.

It was too low-level to carry out the same attack on the border, and North Colombia was definitely prepared at this moment. If it was not carefully planned, the attack could be detected, and it would be difficult to explain. Timoshenko chose another angle and sent more than two hundred well-trained guerrillas across the border.

All electricity, water, and communication facilities were included in the targets of the attack. During a period, there were frequent fires at the North Columbia power plants, power failures occurred in the entire city, and civil communications were interrupted from time to time. These incidents had created headaches for the North Columbia authorities for a while. They had to seek help from the CIB to curtail the harassment of these guerrillas.

Of course, this alone was not enough.

In order to calm the anger of the pro-war faction and to prevent internal injuries caused by pent-up anger, on the morning of December 30th, there was a sudden explosion in a military camp on the outskirts of Monteria, North Colombia. A total of six soldiers died on the spot, two were seriously injured, and 17 soldiers were slightly injured.

North Colombia declared a national state of emergency, and at the same time condemned South Colombia’s attack as an act of terrorism and threatened to not rule out the use of military means to respond to this attack.

Just when North and South Colombia condemned each other as the side that provoked, NATO suddenly took a new stance.

At the NATO foreign ministers meeting held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, the NATO Secretary General revealed a piece of breaking news in his speech—

NATO would send four more modern divisions to South Colombia within a year to stabilize the turbulent situation in South America…

“Bernice traced a donation, and there are many interesting names on the donation list,” Inside the office of the mansion, Ayesha reported to Jiang Chen.

“The recipient is?” Jiang Chen asked.

“The Columbia Unification Foundation is a fund specially established by the North Colombian government to facilitate the receipt of financial assistance from National Endowment for Democracy and purchase of arms from North American arms dealers through legal channels.” Ayesha gently placed a list on the desk, then said, “There are quite a few names are on it.”

After he looked at some of the incredible surnames on the list, Jiang Chen thought for a moment and said.

“If we publish the list…”

“It doesn’t make much sense. This list seems to be semi-public.” Ayesha shook her head and said, “And there is no direct evidence to prove that this donation is directly related to the incident that occurred on the border.”

“I see…” His finger lightly tapped on the armrest as he cast his gaze outside of the window, he said thoughtfully, “Is there any news from North America?”

“One more thing,” Ayesha nodded. “The day before the NATO foreign ministers meeting, a high-level military meeting was also held in the Capitol. We are unsure about the agenda of the meeting, but it is believed that the topics of the meeting are related to the defense budget… “

Chapter 1448: : New Year

Chapter 1448: New Year

On New Year’s Day 2021, history flipped to a new page.

To the surprise of the World Meteorological Organization, typhoon “Banyan” did not make its way onshore. Instead, it disintegrated abnormally after it arrived at Dongsha Islands, which made residents in Southeast Asia and Hua relieved.

At the same time, the abnormal snowfall that occurred in northern South America and Central America this year also surprised the international meteorological community. The abnormal weather around the world seemed to be an indication that the international situation this year could be more uncertain than last year.

On New Year’s Day, Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu went back to their parent’s house and stayed for two days.

Because they were from the same hometown, and since they were neighbors after they moved here, the two families were very close. Papa Jiang and Papa Xia often fished together and “competed” in fishing once in a while. As for the marine fish that they catch every time, the two elders obviously couldn’t finish them all. In the end, they either ended in Jiang Chen’s stomach or were sent to the apocalypse.

Even if work was busy, Jiang Chen would always spend a few days every month at home to have a few meals and chat.

Although he could let his parents live a prosperous life, there were some things that could not be replaced by wealth.

“Chen, Mom knows that you are busy with work now, but you’re not young anymore. You should get married soon. I think Old Xia’s daughter is pretty good, why don’t you consider her?” Mama Jiang was making dumplings in the kitchen as she nagged Jiang Chen about his marriage.

From the year before till now, there was no news at all, and his parents started to get a little worried.

“Mom, don’t worry, marriage will come sooner or later. It’s just that I’m still too busy at work now, it’s not the right time…”

“What’s not the right time!” Mama Jiang glared at Jiang Chen, and pressed the wrapped dumplings on the board, “I’m not asking you to bring up the child, you just need to give birth.”

With a helpless expression on his face, Jiang Chen was speechless for a while as he chopped up dumpling fillings with a kitchen knife.

Every time he came home, his mother would touch on this problem that he didn’t want to face at this stage. He didn’t want to wrong any of the relationships he maintained, but if he married them all, he didn’t know how to make his parents accept this reality.

Maybe time could solve this problem.

Of course, perhaps it was his wishful thinking…

Finally, Jiang Chen seized the opportunity and quickly changed the subject.

“By the way, did you drink the health supplements I sent you on time?”

Those so-called “health supplements” were life-prolonging drugs that extend DNA telomeres. In order to prevent changes from being too abrupt, each tube was mixed and diluted with other body-building medicines and had to be taken every day.

The reason for saying they were “health supplements” was the same reason as to why he was not willing to confess about Ayesha and Natasha. He was purely worried that the two elders would not be able to accept it.

“We’ve been drinking it every day on time. Your parents’ health is very good, so don’t worry about it. Also, in the future, don’t buy these health supplements. Even if you have money, don’t waste it. Have you not heard? All health supplements are made to fool people!”

While they chatted about the health supplements, Mama Jiang scolded Jiang Chen again.

Jiang Chen listened tentatively, but he was laughing in his mind.

The so-called “health supplements” were not only unavailable in the market, but if they were sold, countless people would cry and beg to buy them…

“By the way, at the end of the month, your dad and I are going to go back to our hometown. Will you go with us? We haven’t been back for a long time. I heard that our home has changed quite a bit.

“I won’t go back.” Jiang Chen smiled and said, “You guys have fun over there.”

At night, the family ate dumplings together.

Jiang Chen waited until the bell rang on New Year’s Day before he went back to the room upstairs to sleep.

It was the first time he slept alone for a while, and he slept particularly peacefully.

Early in the morning of the next day, Jiang Chen got up, washed up, and ate breakfast. After he greeted his parents, he left the house and drove to the Coro International Airport.

With flights between the Mars Colony and Celestial City commencing at the end of last year, the first passenger ship from Mars to Earth had arrived at the port of Celestial City. The ship not only brought the few astronauts from the UA stranded in the colony, but as well as the two hundred researchers that inoculated the Flowers of Memory.

Soon after Jiang Chen arrived at the airport, he received a call from Kelvin as soon as he got on the Aerospace G100.

“The researchers inoculated with the Flowers of Memory have arrived in Celestial City. They are now temporarily placed in the Special Project Research Institute of the Space Department and await your next instructions.”

“I will arrive in Celestial City soon,” Jiang Chen checked the time on his watch, “At about twelve o’clock.”

“I’ll wait for you at the airport.”

“No need, just wait for me at the Special Projects Institute.”

After he hung up, he gestured to the flight attendants and indicated that they could depart.

…

Propelled by a trail of blue tail flame, the Aerospace G100 accelerated through the atmosphere and finally reached the synchronous orbit.

Today’s synchronous orbit was much more crowded than when the space elevator first started construction.

The Aerospace G100 passed through the satellites floating around Celestial City, as well as the functional units and small space stations connected by various pipelines. The engine behind the Aerospace G100 gleamed with a faint light and slowly moved towards the port.

The hatch door that covered an area of 1,000 square meters slowly opened to make way for the Aerospace G100’s vertical landing.

This newly built spaceport looked quite empty. After all, only a few Aerospace G100s were manufactured, and they were difficult to buy even with money. Naturally, there were only a handful of people who experienced this new spaceport.

Jiang Chen arrived at the Special Projects Institute of the Space Department by train, then met Kelvin and Dr. Amos.

Compared to the time when Dr. Amos left Celestial City half a year ago, he had lost a lot of weight. It was rumored that it took a lot of effort to overcome the ‘cognitive barrier’ for food. For a long time, he had to drink liquid food to maintain his daily energy consumption.

“How do you feel?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Not bad,” Amos shrugged. “At least now I won’t drool when I see Devil Worms.”

“Haha, if you would like to eat it, I can ask the people at specimen to prepare one for you,” Jiang Chen joked.

“Come on, I want to live a few more years.” Dr. Amos also laughed along.

Even the blood of the Devil Worm was highly corrosive and composed of organic acids. To the species on Earth, every part of the worm was poisonous. Even Bear Grylls would refuse to eat the Devil Worm. Only the native Mars species considered it a delicacy.

Chapter 1449: It Has To Do With Our Time

Chapter 1449: It Has To Do With Our Time

They didn’t just stand at the door. Kelvin took the two to the B3 floor, where the Special Projects Institute was located, and led them to the office at the end of the hall.

It was a huge scientific research center and a semi-enclosed housing facility. In addition to scientific research facilities, there were also living and entertainment facilities.

Almost all researchers involved in S-class confidential scientific research projects had reported to here before. The more than two hundred researchers that returned from the Mars colony were temporarily placed here at this moment. Except for Amos and other special researchers with S-class authority, most people would have to spend several years here before they could return to society.

Of course, Celestial Trade was also generous with the compensation for these devotees.

Not only was the direct bonus for each person over 10 million Xin New dollars, but everyone was also permitted to inject ten years of DNA telomere extension agents as compensation for their contributions. These terms were written in the confidentiality agreement and were completely voluntary.

“…I know you are more concerned about how many weapons we can dig from the graves of the Gaia civilization, but what I want to say next may disappoint you. In the two aspects of space technology and military technology, the Gaia civilization had no significant achievement. They completed the unity very early through the unique method within their species and maintained peace and stability for thousands of years. And according to my research… and in the later stages of the civilization, they may have realized the so-called utopia,” Dr. Amos said.

Not all civilizations are keen on researching tools for killing the same kind.

Using the standards of human civilization to analogize extraterrestrial civilizations, thinking that the “civilization theory” based on human history, culture, and behavior habits are universal, and it is itself an ignorant and arrogant behavior.

Although Jiang Chen had considered this possibility a long time ago, after he heard Dr. Amos’s words in person, he couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. However, before he had time to be disappointed, Amos’s next sentence made him see the light again.

“But that being said, based on the theoretical knowledge left by the Gaia civilization, it is not impossible to develop weapons capable of fighting colonial ships of which are beyond our times,” Dr. Amos continued after a pause. “As you know, science and technology are two different things. The former determines the development potential of the latter, while we mainly inherit the former.”

“Can you finish talking in one go?” Jiang Chen complained.

Amos smiled and chose not to respond to that question. However, he continued on this topic, “In addition, I found that the Gaia civilization has a deep understanding of the Klein particles. Their understanding between the three-dimensional world and the four-dimensional world has completely subverted my understanding of this kind of particle that only exists in concepts.”

“Oh?”

Jiang Chen looked at Amos unexpectedly, only to see the latter nod before he continued.

“In their research on Klein particles, I found a very interesting phenomenon. It is about the short-lived form of Klein particles when they collapse from four dimensions to three dimensions and the form of energy conversion across the three-dimensional coordinate system. ”

Kelvin, who stood next to Amos, was confused. With a frown, he asked, “What do you mean? Can you make it clearer?”

Since his profession did not match this topic, it was difficult to conversate.

Kelvin came from building spacecraft, therefore he didn’t understand a word Amos said.

However, Dr. Amos didn’t say anything more. He just looked at the clock on the wall and said.

“It has to do with our time.”

…

On January 29th, Trump officially took office.

On the podium, Trump, in a suit, excitedly delivered his impassioned inauguration speech to his supporters below the stage and the media.

“Thank you the people of our country, the people of the world, thank you.”

“On this great day today, we have transferred power from Capital to the hands of the people, that is, yours.”

“For a long time, the fruits of our labor have been taken by a small group of people, and the cost has to be borne by all of our citizens. Capital is thriving, Wall Street is making a lot of money, and our people have not shared the wealth. They use the interests of one group of people to buy the votes from another group, flaunting the so-called political correctness to change their image. And this is why our welfare is getting higher and higher, but life is getting worse and worse, and there is fewer and fewer job opportunities. The economy is deteriorating, and countless factories are closing…”

“It’s time to change everything. Get those lazy refugees out of our country, send criminals who crossed the border illegally to where they belong, and say no to the barbaric third world gangsters.”

“…Thank you again, thank you for choosing me, and I will lead this country back to greatness, thank you!”

After the transfer of power was completed, Trump nominated the cabinet members of the new government within a week and formed his own leadership team. Including the former Secretary of State Kerry, the current Secretary of Defense Carter, all officials had gone through a major change in this power shift.

Oil tycoon Rex Tillerson was appointed as the new Secretary of State; James Mattis, a war hawk among the war hawks and a retired Marine Corps Four-Star General, was appointed as the new Secretary of Defense; Steve Bannon, who served as the soul of Trump campaign team, transformed from a far-right media executive chairman to the Chief Strategist and Senior Adviser of the President…

From the perspective of the composition of the cabinet, apart from a few positions reserved for the supporters of the Republican Party, Trump used the Secretary of State to repair the tense relationship with Wall Street while at the same time, added a war hawk into his team.

Finally, as promised earlier, he made Xin the first stop of his diplomatic visits and revealed to the media that the “Colombia”, “UA military in Nippon”, “space resource development”, and the most sensitive issue of “alliance membership” would be discussed in the upcoming meeting.

While surprised by the efficiency of the new UA President, the outside world shared a pessimistic view about his ability to solve problems.

However, there were still some voices that had a sliver of hope.

What if the dream did come true?

What if the Earth Defense Alliance returned to the UN framework?

What if…

There were no what-ifs.

Just three days before Trump’s visit to Xin, Celestial and the UA increased their troops in South and North Colombia by 100,000 respectively, and added a bundle of dry firewood to the burning stove in Colombia.

Before it started, a layer of gloom had already shadowed this meeting.

And, compared to a negotiation, it was more like a final showdown.

Chapter 1450: : Sugar Cube Diplomacy

Chapter 1450: Sugar Cube Diplomacy

In the early morning of February 10th, a silver-white jet landed on the runway of Coro International Airport.

Surrounded by a group of men and women in suit, Trump walked down the gangway with his head held high, waved to the cameras on both sides, and went up to Zhang Yaping. He smiled and shook hands with him. No matter how tense the relation between the two countries, they still had to appear friendly.

“On behalf of the people of Xin, welcome.”

“Thank you. On behalf of the people of the UA, I would like to express my gratitude to you for your warm welcome…” After Trump let go of Zhang Yaping’s right hand, he looked around the airport, “Why do I feel… There seems to be someone missing here?”

“What do you mean?” Zhang Yaping asked.

“Jiang Chen.”

“Oh, you mean Mr. Jiang,” Zhang Yaping said with a smile. “He is waiting for you in Future Building.”

Trump raised an eyebrow.

Obviously, he was a little surprised by the fact that Jiang Chen did not show up to greet him at the airport.

But at any rate, he was also a well-known celebrity on talk shows. This kind of small awkwardness was normal for Trump, so he didn’t mind at all. After a brief conversation with Zhang Yaping, he went to the Xin Presidential Palace along with the senior officials from Xin.

…

At noon, Xin Presidential Palace had set up a state banquet in the Heart of the Sea to welcome the delegation from UA.

The state banquet was not particularly pleasant. He constantly sipped on the wine while he searched in the banquet hall for Jiang Chen’s presence. However, the situation made him feel awkward again. It seemed that Jiang Chen did not plan to discuss sensitive issues with him in front of the media, so he did not attend the banquet at all.

At last, it was the end of the state banquet. Trump delegated the afternoon visit to the Xin Presidential Palace to his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as he headed to the Future Building on the other side of Coro City.

At last, they met.

He finally met Jiang Chen in the meeting room of Future Building.

“I have been looking forward to this meeting for a long time ago. I didn’t expect it to be difficult to meet you,” Trump walked into the room, then said while he looked at Jiang Chen in front of the table.

“I just don’t want our conversation to be on someone’s talk show. According to my observations, compared to when you are in front of the camera, you are calmer in a place without it.” Jiang Chen smiled politely, made a gesture to Trump to invite him to take a seat, “It’s better for us, isn’t it?”

Trump pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Let the guest come to the door by themselves, is this the way you treat your guest?”

“You and Zhang Yaping are both presidents. It doesn’t seem to be impolite to let him greet you.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Really?” Trump raised an eyebrow, and said in a meaningful tone, “Who doesn’t know that Zhang Yaping is a puppet.”

“It doesn’t matter whether he is a puppet or not, he also relied on votes to get to his current position,” Jiang Chen said, “Just like you.”

Trump was about to refute, but he found what Jiang Chen said made sense.

He also rose to power because of votes from the people of the UA.

Except that when Jiang Chen compared him to a puppet president, it still made him feel unpleasant.

Dear God, I became president because of my own abilities!

For now, Mr. Trump was still unaware of the roles Morgan and Rockefeller played behind this election.

“Enough of the nonsense, your time and my time are both precious, there is no need to waste it on irrelevant topics,” Trump waved his hand impatiently, then continued, “If you have no objection, let’s just get to today’s topic.”

If there were reporters standing here, he would still be interested in taking a tough stance and banter with Jiang Chen. However, since all the reporters and cameras were stopped downstairs at the door of Future Building, he lost his desire to act tough.

“I agree with your point of view.” Jiang Chen smiled.

“Very well, let’s talk about the mess in Colombia first. I ask you to immediately…”

Jiang Chen lifted his right hand and interrupted Trump’s speech.

“If we continue to talk like this, there will be no results. I seem to know how today’s meeting will end, with no agreement reached between us. So, since you and I are both businessmen, I think you are tired of the way politicians do things. Why don’t we change to a negotiation method that you and I are both familiar with?” Jiang Chen smiled and pointed to the porcelain plate in front of Trump, “Do you see the sugar cubes there?”

Trump raised his eyebrows, slightly narrowed his eyes, and stared at the small plate of sugar cubes on the table, as if he was trying to decipher the mystery behind the sugar cubes.

But regardless of how he looked at them, they were just ordinary sugar cubes.

“Now we have the same amount of chips, ten sugar cubes in total,”

Jiang Chen pointed to the porcelain plate in front of him and smiled, “We each put forward an equivalent final proposal, which is worth ten chips. After both parties confirm, the game starts. Each round, both parties propose a reciprocal offer, and then we place our bets separately. The proposal with the higher bet gets passed, and the chip is paid to the opponent, and the opponent’s proposal is rejected. The passed proposal cannot be bet on again, but the rejected proposal can be bet on again.”

“What are the criteria for winning or losing?” Trump asked.

“There is no victory or defeat. This is the purpose of the game. It’s to avoid us wasting time on meaningless arguments. When one party loses all the sugar cubes, the other party uses ten sugar cubes to directly acquire the other party’s final proposal, and the game ends.” Jiang Chen laughed and spread out his hands. “The final proposal on my side is that the UA unconditionally joins the Earth Defense Alliance. Of course, we can make you a major member state. Now, it’s your turn.”

“Celestial Trade joins Trump Group. This is my final proposal.” Trump laughed and pushed the stack of sugar cubes out, “Let’s get started quickly.”

“Mr. Trump, you are wasting time.” Jiang Chen looked at the rogue expression on Trump’s face, let out a sigh, and said unhurriedly, “I said it very clearly. After both parties agree that the final proposals are equivalent, then we can get started. To show my sincerity, I have put forward my final proposal first. If you insist on putting your whimsical proposal on the negotiation table, then I can only regret to announce that this is the end of the negotiation and the game is over.”

All proposals had to be realistic. All word games were meaningless, and there were no loopholes. In each round, if any party was dissatisfied with the other party’s proposal, the game could be terminated unilaterally. Therefore, boring proposals such as “jumping out of the window” and “paying one trillion dollars” were just a waste of time.

Trump’s eyes narrowed slightly and he sat up straight.

He stared at the porcelain plate full of sugar cubes for a moment as his eyebrows gradually showed a hint of interest.

“Interesting.”

Although the game in itself did not end in victory or defeat, victory or defeat did exist in the outcome.

The two parties would put forward a final proposal, then the ultimate goal would be to use as few chips as possible to pass as many proposals as possible, and finally use all twenty cubes of sugar to make the other party compromise on the final proposal.

This involved an issue, that was, how much chips had to be spent on a particular issue. If one party deliberately raises in order to win the opponent’s chips, then the risk was that the other party could not call, and the chips would be wasted on less “meaningful” proposals.

Both parties had to guess the price in the other party’s mind while at the same time, give an evaluation, and the ten sugar cubes were the only things with equivalent value on the table.

A diplomatic negotiation was abstracted into an intuitive transaction. Through this method, it did spare a lot of meaningless arguments. Both parties would only need to use their chips instead of speaking.

There was a look of realization in Trump’s eyes.

He had read the essence of this game.

“Then what is your final proposal?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“The Earth Defense Alliance is incorporated into the United Nations framework,” after a moment of pause, Trump continued, “Similarly, we can promise you a seat as a permanent member of the council.”

After Trump finished, he looked at the silent Jiang Chen as he waited for a response.

If Jiang Chen believed this proposal could be negotiated, then their negotiation could officially begin. If Jiang Chen did not believe this negotiation would ever get accepted, and the Earth Defense Alliance would not be incorporated under the United Nations, then there was no need for the two sides to continue their talks.

This “game” would only begin when both parties agreed that the proposals were equivalent.

“Very well, I see your sincerity. At least you didn’t make those whimsical requests again,” Without letting Trump wait too long, Jiang Chen nodded slowly and smiled, “Then, since we’ve already reached a consensus on the ‘price’ of the chips, let us start our game.”

Chapter 1451: Let Us Toast for the Prosperity of Wall Street

Chapter 1451: Let Us Toast for the Prosperity of Wall Street

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

In the first round, Jiang Chen gave Trump the opportunity to go first.

Trump stared at his plate of sugar cubes, thought for a moment, and finally chose a relatively conservative topic and threw it on the negotiating table.

“Cancel the withdrawal agreement of the UA troops stationed in Nippon, and Celestial Trade to withdraw all troops from Nippon.”

“Very good,” Jiang Chen nodded and said with a smile, “NATO and North Colombia to cancel the independence treaty and withdrawal from Colombia. If you think these two proposals are equal, then we can enter the next stage.”

Trump picked up up two cubes of sugar from the porcelain plate, he weighed them in his hands, and finally made up his mind and placed the two cubes on the table. He answered Jiang Chen with his action.

“It’s your turn.”

Jiang Chen smiled and did not hesitate at all. He took out three sugar cubes from the porcelain plate and placed them on the table.

Trump’s pupils constricted slightly as he stared at the three sugar cubes.

After a long silence, he suddenly spoke.

“Can I add chips?”

“Of course,” Jiang Chen said, “I said, this game is to help us reach an agreement, not to create a difference. Both parties can add unlimited amount of chips with a minimum of at least one. There is only one thing that must be noted, and that is the added chips cannot be taken back.”

Trump hesitated for about five minutes, then he finally took out two more cubes from the porcelain plate, placed them next to his original two cubes, and looked at Jiang Chen.

“It’s your turn.”

Jiang Chen smiled slightly, reached out, and took the four sugar cubes from Trump.

“Deal.”

As Trump watched his four chips arrive at Jiang Chen’s plate, he opened his mouth.

He suddenly regretted it.

“The agreement is revoked, and Celestial Trade will withdraw from Nippon within half a year. You can make a note of it.” Jiang Chen looked at the assistant who stood next to him, then looked backed at Trump, “I’m very glad that our negotiation has made the first step.”

“Stop talking nonsense, it’s your turn,” Trump said, but he felt inexplicably annoyed.

Jiang Chen smiled, took out a sugar cube from the porcelain plate, placed it on the table, and repeated the last proposal that was not passed.

“Repeat the proposal, NATO withdraws its troops from North Colombia and abandons its asylum to the North Colombian regime…”

…

Just as the UA was on a state visit to Xin, inside the Morgan Group building on Wall Street that was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, two old men in suits sat on the sofa in the reception room as they looked at the curved screen that hung on the wall.

“… President Trump’s visit to Xin has reached the most critical link. Just half an hour ago, Trump left the state banquet and went to Future Building to discuss space and regional issues with the President of Celestial Trade. The outside world is generally pessimistic about the outcome of the meeting. Next, let us ask the commentator on the international situation, Mr. Zefniah of the Peterson Institute for International Economics to interpret it for us…”

The first stop of the diplomatic visit was set to Xin. It was the first campaign promise made by Trump after he took office. All sectors of the UA closely watched whether Trump could, as he promised during his campaign, reach a consensus on international issues with Celestial Trade and solve the mess left by the previous administration.

The old man in the gray suit suddenly laughed, put his one leg over the other knee, picked up a bottle of red wine from the table, poured it into the two goblets on the table separately, and said casually.

“My dear Mr. Rockefeller, what do you think of this diplomatic visit?”

“Want to hear the truth?” Rockefeller said.

“Of course.”

“I hope he can mess up this meeting, but I don’t want him to mess up too badly,” Rockefeller said, then laughed.

“It looks like we share the same opinion again.”

The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

Although the military giants in North America were large, there was still a considerable gap between Future Military in terms of technical strength. Whether it was Lockheed Martin or Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems Group, whether it was air defense missiles or fighters, the gap was still significant.

If the UA wished to catch up with Future Group, it not only needed investments but also time.

Perhaps others could not see this point clearly, but as the two giants in the military-industrial complex, Morgan and Rockefeller knew this point.

For them, the best situation was to have another cold war.

The two sides would be in serious economic and military conflicts, but they would also be separated by a safe distance from the eruption of a war. Just like the Cold War era, orders would flow to military factories like snowflakes, and all arms dealers would make a lot of money. By that time, perhaps relying on orders from the government alone could make up their difference with Future Military.

“What are your thoughts if they actually come to an agreement?” Rockefeller said with a smile as he watched the news on the screen. “Although this probability is very small, we cannot rule out this possibility.”

“I prepared a second plan.” Morgan smiled.

“Oh?” Rockefeller glanced at Morgan.

“Mike Pence, have you heard of this person?”

“Of course,” Rockefeller laughed, “That’s our Mr. Vice President.”

As one of the earliest advocates of the “Tea Party,” Mike Pence was very similar to Trump at one point. That was, both sides belonged to the mainstay of the conservatives, the most republican among the republicans, and the bold eagles among the right wings.

Pence served as the governor of Indiana and the chairman of the Republican Party Caucus of the House of Representatives. He was known for implementing economic policies that favored rich and large companies. His support for tax cuts and welfare cuts, and using these as ideas to solve the economic downturn and employment issues, all coincided with Trump. Only on the two issues of immigration policy and trade protectionism, the two sides possessed some differences.

If it was necessary to find a sharp difference between the president and vice president, it had to be that compared to the “impassionate” Trump, the former governor was more cautious, flexible, and “predictable”.

Unfortunately, the person more like the president became the mascot, and the person more like the mascot became the president.

When Rockefeller heard his ally suddenly mention the name Mike Pence, he was taken aback for a moment, and then a trace of understanding appeared on his face.

“You mean…”

“I hope our president is a ‘smart man’, otherwise I can only say that life is always full of too many accidents.” With a smile, Morgan picked up a goblet from the table, then raised it up. “In any case, let us toast for the prosperity of Wall Street.”

Only in one situation could the vice president become the president.

And it was not like such incidents did not happen in history.

The corners of Rockefeller’s upturned lips showed a hint of a smile. Then he picked up the goblet from the table as well.

“Cheers!”

The swaying liquor was as red as blood…

Chapter 1452: The Outlook of Joining The Alliance

Chapter 1452: The Outlook of Joining The Alliance

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

The last sugar cube was pinched in Jiang Chen’s hand.

This last chip was “sold” to Jiang Chen by Trump for 100 billion dollars.

The Xin Reserve would use its foreign exchange reserves to increase its holdings of 100 billion dollars in Treasury bonds, and this money would be used to improve employment in the UA. It was also seen as a move to help Trump fulfill his campaign promise of “increasing employment rate.”

The Xin Reserve’s foreign exchange reserve was quite abundant, and it was not an issue to spend 100 billion dollars.

“It seems that I got 20 cubes first.” As Jiang Chen smiled, he picked up the sugar cubes from his plate and pushed them to Trump, “I’m glad we reached an agreement. I bet that this moment will be remembered in history.”

The agreement on the withdrawal of UA troops in Nippon was canceled, NATO would withdrawal from Colombia within half a year, and Celestial Trade would also withdraw from Colombia. The United Nations peacekeeping force would enter the Colombian border to control the situation and maintain the divided status quo…

In the greater interest of “the UA joining Earth Defense Alliance,” the interests of Celestial Trade in Colombia and Nippon were no longer significant. On the blueprint for the future in Jiang Chen’s mind, Earth Defense Alliance would eventually surpass all traditional countries and become a united and unified federation.

And now, the biggest obstacle to the integration of global forces by Earth Defense Alliance was removed, and this blueprint was one step closer to becoming a reality.

The more realistic issue was that Harmony’s colonization ship was getting closer and closer to the solar system, and there was not much time left for humanity. Only when all civilizations on Earth could face the colonization ship from 20.5 light-years away as a united front, would there be a slim chance of victory.

“The sugar cubes are really expensive.”

After Trump weighed the sugar cubes in his hands, he was amazed and shocked at the same time.

Whenever he remembered that the price of each sugar cube was no less than 100 billion dollars, he felt that they weighed far more in his hand.

“You can take them back as souvenirs.” Jiang Chen laughed, “Of course, if you are hungry, you can just eat them.”

“Eat them? Haha, what would the media report after I leave? Oh, look, that idiot president just ate 100 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money!” Trump jokingly said, then patted the assistant next to him who had been taking notes. Then in the assistant’s bewildered look, he snatched the notebook away and tore out a piece of paper.

“Let me borrow a piece of paper.”

After he wrapped the ten sugar cubes and stuffed them into his inner pocket, Trump laughed and patted his pocket.

The assistant nodded in a daze.

“Go ahead…”

“I think this kind of negotiation method can be promoted all over the world.” Trump pushed the chair away as he stood up. Then he looked at Jiang Chen and smiled, “We solved all of our issues in less than an hour.”

Jiang Chen also stood up, but he only responded with a polite smile and did not say more.

He didn’t think that it was a clever negotiation tactic, it was just the most suitable way for them.

In fact, as long as they were willing to sit down and talk, the two sides could still reach a consensus after all, and those 20 sugar cubes just sped up the pace of negotiations.

When Hill was the President of the UA, whether it was the President or the Secretary of State, similar negotiations and Celestial had been conducted countless times, but the results were often unsatisfactory. It was not that Hill and Kerry were not great at negotiating, but rather, from the start, they represented the interests of Wall Street, and they did not plan to reach an agreement.

But Trump was different, and Jiang Chen was even surprised by the difference.

Is this guy really the person Morgan and Rockefeller joined hands together to push to the presidency?

The two chatted and laughed as they walked out of the conference room, got on the elevator, and finally appeared in the lobby of Future Building and in front of the reporters from all over the world.

Almost at the moment when they first appeared, all the reporters rushed forward as they desperately tried to ask their prepared questions.

“Mr. Trump, what was discussed in the conference room?”

“Will the UA join the Earth Defense Alliance? Or will the Earth Defense Alliance be incorporated into the UN framework?”

“…”

These reporters were full of ill-intentions.

From the beginning, they didn’t expect this president to solve any problems. There were too many contradictions between Xin and the UA that they wouldn’t even fit in the Pacific Ocean. Many people just put the microphone near him with the mentality of simply wanting to see him make a fool of himself.

However, Trump’s reaction was beyond the expectations of all reporters on the scene.

There was no disappointment or frustration on his face, but the smile of a winner.

“I once said that I will have a good talk with him on behalf of our people,” Trump pulled the microphone closer, then said with a bright smile and joy in his tone, “Just now, I fulfilled my promise! I dare to bet, in the name of Trump Group, that he is a good person!”

Many stunned reporters looked at Trump as if he was a monster.

Did the sun rise from the west?

On the other side, Jiang Chen just smiled and said something quite low-key in front of the microphone.

“Congratulations to the people of the UA, you have elected an impressive president.”

It seemed that the sun did indeed rise from the west.

Judging from their friendly attitude… They seemed to have reached an agreement?

…

[Shocking! The UA has reached a consensus with Celestial Trade. The UA is expected to join Earth Defense Alliance within this year?]

[Sugar Cube Diplomacy breaks the deadlock, and the relationship between Xin and UA may usher in a honeymoon period!]

[The Colombian crisis is expected to be resolved within this year, an exclusive interview to elaborate on the inside story of Sugar Cube Diplomacy.]

Countless eye-catching titles occupied the headlines. Just after the meeting between Trump and Jiang Chen, the newspapers, TV, and Internet media in the UA and the world were sensationalized.

On the Internet, netizens in North America also expressed that the contrast was too great to accept for the results of the negotiation. Surprise, shock, joy, and concern were all the emotions that were vented on through their keyboards.

“It seems we have all misunderstood him, and he is not as stupid as he looks!”

“Although I still can’t forgive what he said… But he did this right. In the face of a survival crisis, we should really unite, not for the so-called hegemonic internal friction.”

“You overestimate him. Before he returns home, no one knows what stupid agreements he signed.”

“I’m curious, what does the Congress think?”

“…”

Just as public opinion was fermenting on the Internet, in the presidential suite on the top floor of the Heart of the Sea.

“I’m going to the UK at the end of the month.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson put his suit over his shoulder, tied his tie, and said slowly, “Thirty-four hours later, there will be a meeting in the Capitol waiting for me to host, is it okay to leave everything here to you?”

“No problem,” Trump, who laid on the sofa and was scrolling through Twitter comments, smiled and raised the hand placed on the back of the sofa.

It took one hour to reach a consensus with Celestial Trade on more than 20 sensitive issues. In terms of his ability to act, he completely beat the last president Hill. Whether it was his own evaluation of himself or the surprise and shock shown by netizens all over the world under his Twitter account, he was so happy that he couldn’t keep his mouth closed.

Rex Tillerson took a long meaningful look at Trump, turned around, and walked out the door.

Chapter 1453: Out of Control

Chapter 1453: Out of Control

“You are?”

Mike Pence looked at the two men in suits in front of his door and frowned. He just went out to walk his dog, then was about to take a shower and go to bed when the doorbell rang before he could step into the shower.

The first impression of the two men told him that the two were probably political brokers or the like. When he was governor before, he received business cards from this kind of people almost every few days.

But since he came to Capital, the situation stopped.

Although he rose higher in terms of position, everyone knew that the Vice President of the UA was a mascot.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Eugene Eric. This is my assistant, Kayn Jay.” Eric introduced himself politely and handed over his business card. “Please accept my card.”

After Pence took the business card and glanced at it for a second, he slipped it into his pocket and said with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Oh, then Mr. Eric, may I ask why you’re here?”

“In short, we are from K Street and want to talk to you about work.” Eric smiled politely.

“K Street?” As if he had heard something funny, Pence chuckled, “Then you are probably looking for the wrong person. Didn’t your boss tell you that congress members are probably more reliable than the vice president?”

Eric and his partner Jay looked at each other, smiled, and then looked back at Pence.

“We are more willing to call you the future president than the vice president.”

Pence’s frown grew deeper. As soon as he was about to say something, Eric spoke first.

“Don’t you want to invite us in and sit down for a talk?” Eric asked.

Pence was taken aback for a moment, then returned to normal, and said in a relaxed tone.

“Of course, I’m planning to do that now.”

After the two went in, Pence asked his wife to prepare a glass of orange juice for each of them, and then he took a glass of water and sat on the sofa in the living room. When his wife went upstairs to sleep, Pence asked immediately.

“Are you going to impeach Trump soon?”

“…you can think that, but I didn’t say anything,” Eric smiled.

“You can’t succeed,” Pence leaned back on the sofa, said with a smile, “You want to impeach the president. You don’t have any chance until he does anything indignant.”

In the impeachment process, the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives had to first review the allegations and evidence materials to determine whether there was a basis for starting a formal impeachment investigation. If the impeachment process did start, the House of Representatives would only need a majority vote to approve the terms of impeachment and then send it to the Senate. But in the Senate, a two-thirds majority was needed to convict the impeached. If the object of impeachment was the president, the Senate trial had to be presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

If an impeachment case was initiated, both the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court would have to be involved. From the number of steps involved, it was easy to see the difficulty to impeach the president. Even if Wall Street possessed incredible abilities, it was impossible to buy two-thirds of the Senate.

In the history of the UA, Congress had only conducted impeachment investigations on three presidents, but none of them were eventually removed.

“Let’s not talk about whether we have a chance to succeed,” Eric smiled. “We are here to visit you today to talk about what happens after you become the president.”

“After becoming the president?” Pence raised his eyebrows and laughed, “If you can really make me the president.”

“Trust us, of course, we can,” Eric interrupted Pence and nodded seriously, then gave the assistant next to him a look and motioned him to take the contract out of his briefcase.

“This is…” Pence frowned slightly.

“A confidential agreement. As long as both parties fulfill their obligations, no third person will know about this contract.” As Eric said, he turned to the first page of the contract and pointed his finger at one of the terms “If you become the president, then you must maintain a strong attitude during your four-year term, such as on the Columbia issue, such as on the Pacific issue… You should understand what I mean.”

“Of course.” After Pence took a sip of the water in his cup, he put down the glass, picked up the document, and said emotionlessly, “You don’t need to say these things, I know what to do.”

Not only did he know what this sentence meant, but he could probably guess who sent these two people.

According to the analysis of the Wall Street Journal, if the UA did join the Earth Defense Alliance as expected, the North American defense sector would experience the largest contraction of this century. Even the most conservative estimate had a number bigger than Apple’s market value.

Was it difficult to guess who couldn’t sit still any longer?

After he read the document to the last page, on the line of the person who signed, sure enough, he saw a familiar and expected last name.

Morgan…

…

The three-day state visit was over.

At the airport in Coro City, Jiang Chen send Trump to the side of the gangway, and before Trump boarded, they shook hands and said goodbye.

“I wish you a pleasant journey.”

“Haha, thank you,” Trump shook Jiang Chen’s right hand vigorously, and laughed, “Coro City is a good place, and Penglai City too. It’s a pity that I wasn’t able to visit Celestial City this time. If I have the opportunity in the future, I’ll for sure take a look!”

“There are still many opportunities in the future,” Jiang Chen said.

After Jiang Chen sent Trump onto the plane and watched the plane takeoff, he left through the VIP tunnel.

Ayesha waited at the entrance of the tunnel.

“Let the Ghost Agents in North America protect the safety of Trump during this period.”

Ayesha tilted her head, looked at Jiang Chen, and asked.

“Do you think Morgan will do something to him?”

“Those people can do anything, and we have to be careful.” After he deliberated for a moment, he continued, “Well, let Bernice be cautious over there. At least until the negotiation terms take effect, we must make sure he is still alive. And the B City Consortium, tell them about the content of today’s meeting. They know what to do.”

“I’ll go now.” Ayesha nodded seriously.

On the other side, the plane had taken off for a while.

Trump felt bored inside his seat, looked around, and felt a bit thirsty. He whistled to the flight attendant that passed by and revealed his white teeth. He showed what he thought was the most charming smile and asked, “Can you get me a cup of coffee?”

The flight attendant rolled her eyes charmingly, then she walked to the nose of the plane, and soon returned.

“Mr. President, your coffee.”

“Thank you.”

After he took the steaming cup, Trump leaned closer to blow on the coffee, then took a sip.

At this moment, he sniffed and started to frown.

He didn’t know whether it was his illusion or not, but just now, he started to smell something peculiar.

As his frown grew more apparent, he looked around.

The moment his gazed out of the window, the expression on his face suddenly solidified…

Chapter 1454: Synthesizing Life

Chapter 1454: Synthesizing Life

After Eric walked out of Mike Pence’s house, he took his phone out of his pocket, dialed a number, then put the phone close to his ear.

“He agreed.”

After a pause of about three seconds, a slightly hoarse voice came from the other end.

“The agreement?”

“Here with me. It has been signed,” Eric continued.

“Very good.” The hoarse voice carried a touch of approval, and after a moment, he ordered, “Send that thing to our usual place, and then go take a vacation.”

“Roger that.”

After Eric hung up the phone, he took the sim card out, broke it in half, then threw the pieces into the sewer nearby. After the two left the street, they parted ways, went in different directions, and disappeared into the crowd of Capital.

…

After Jiang Chen sent Trump onto the plane, he was about to return home with Ayesha, but before he could leave, he received a call from Celestial City. After the airport scheduled the runway, he got the Aerospace G100 and ascended to Celestial City.

After he arrived at Space Department, he greeted Kelvin. Under the escort of the Celestial soldiers, Jiang Chen arrived at the Special Project Research Institute which was protected by countless security measures. The once quiet and empty research institute had a few more people living inside, there were not only the two hundred researchers who had returned from Mars, but also about four to five hundred researchers involved in confidential research that came inside through a voluntary application.

Everyone was screened by the truth-telling serum after they signed the confidentiality agreement to ensure that there was no spy.

Ghost Agents had been very cautious in counterintelligence. So far, there was not a single case of data theft, but on the contrary, the spies and intelligence personnel of other countries that were dealt with by Ayesha could not even be counted with two hands.

After he arrived at Dr. Amos’s lab, his attention was immediately caught by the giant culture tank located in the center of the lab.

There was a fetus-shaped object in the cylindrical culture tank floating in the dark green culture solution. Large and small pipes were connected to the “fetus”, and bubbles continued to gush from the bottom of the culture tank.

“In order to prevent you from misunderstanding, I have to make a statement first.” After Dr. Amos walked out from the movable door on the side, he took off his glasses and hung the pair of glasses on the pocket at his chest, then he said in a lighthearted tone, “This is the fetus of a gorilla, not a human.”

“Since when did you start to look at the fetus of gorillas?” Jiang Chen felt strange.

“Except for part of the knowledge of Klein particles, the knowledge I inherited was mainly in the biological field.” As Kelvin said this, he pointed to the culture tank, “and this thing is one of my experiments.”

“That’s really a pity.” Jiang Chen expressed regret euphemistically.

Before the Flower of Memory was consumed, no one could know the content of the memory to be inherited.

Amos’ own research was focused on artificial intelligence, electronic machinery, and other related fields. Although the neural bridge system was also one of his masterpieces, his research did not involve much knowledge in the biological field. For him, the knowledge he inherited was in an area he had never touched.

“What a pity?” Amos did not show much regret, instead, he shrugged and continued, “Although my research direction involves a lot of physics, I have always held a positive attitude towards biology. The prospect of such a discipline is not narrower than that of physics. If the latter is to guide us to understand the world, then the former is to teach us how to become God.”

Jiang Chen smiled at the use of this metaphor.

Indeed, for now, creating life still belonged to the realm of God.

Even though today’s chip manufacturing process achieved below 1nm, humans were still unable to synthesize even one cell from scratch.

Even in the 22nd century, after several leaps and bounds in biology, artificial cells were still the focus of science and technology. He remembered that Lin Lin discussed this issue a long time ago. It seemed that the Nobel Prize in Biology in one of the years was when a Pan-Asia biologist used the most basic elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur, and potassium to synthesize a simple mycoplasma.

“As long as you think it’s okay,” Jiang Chen walked to the side of the culture tank, took a closer examination of the content inside, then casually asked. “By the way, what is this? A clone?”

“Clone? It’s not that simple.” Amos smiled and shook his head, “The materials are a piece of DNA code and a periodic table of elements. Not long ago, we created life from nothing.”

When Jiang Chen heard the phrase created life, he looked to Amos in shock.

It was unheard of in biology to use DNA data and primitive chemical elements like this to synthesize a gorilla’s fertilized egg cell from scratch, and then grow it into a mature gorilla in a culture tank that mimics the intrauterine environment.

Even as a layman, he could understand the difficulty of the process.

It was no exaggeration to say that taking any of the obstacles in this experiment to write a paper could be enough to shock the entire biology field, and the work would definitely be nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Through the self-designed DNA code to create a species that did not exist in this world, humans had never been so close to the realm of God.

“The research of the Gaia civilization in the field of biotechnology is quite advanced, because the technological span in the middle is too large, I cannot describe the gap between us and Gaia in the field of biology in detail. I’ll give you an example that’s quite interesting. Through this technology, we can take out the genetic fragments of lions, leopards, tigers, and even Martian species such as the Devil Worms to design biological soldiers, whose combat capabilities are comparable to superhumans, and then use cell synthesis technology to mass-produce them.”

At this point, Amos paused for moment, then he said in a joking tone.

“I bet that the cost to produce a Devil Worm that can adapt to the Earth’s environment is definitely much cheaper than the cost of producing a tank.”

“Will it cause problems such as biological invasion?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“This problem is actually very easy to solve. As long as the number of chromosomes in the DNA is set to an odd number when combining DNA, there shouldn’t be any issues,” Amos said.

The principle was the same as that of mules. As long as the created creatures were infertile, it would not create issues such as biological invasion.

For some odd reason, when Jiang Chen’s eyes were focused on the creature in the culture tank, his thoughts drifted to 20.5 light-years away.

Perhaps it was this technology that made the colonists who arrived at Gliese 581G finally embark on the road to biological civilization.

There was a flash of inspiration in his mind.

Jiang Chen immediately turned his head to Amos and asked another question that he suddenly thought of.

“If we use the cell synthesis technology… can we bring the disappeared Gaia civilization back to life?”

Chapter 1455: DEFCON 3!

Chapter 1455: DEFCON 3!

“It depends on whether you want to resurrect the Gaia or the Gaia civilization,” Dr. Amos replied.

“Does it make a difference?”

“Of course, and the difference is quite startling.” Dr. Amos paused for a moment and only continued after Jiang Chen signaled for him to continue with the look in his eyes, “If it is the former, it can be done in theory, but it’ll be incredibly challenging. First we have to find a well-preserved Gaia fossil from the ruins, and try to extract a complete DNA fragment from it, and then we must integrate all the DNA fragments into a complete chromosome, and then merge all the chromosomes into a genome.”

“What about the latter?” Jiang Chen asked.

“The possibility of the latter is practically zero.” Dr. Amos said, “The inheritance of civilization is mainly reflected in the accumulation of knowledge and education for the next generation, not genotype. Let’s ignore if we can find a complete set of DNA information, even if we unearthed the information from the ruins and successfully synthesize Gaia through the culture tank, I bet the Gaia from three billion years ago won’t be much smarter than the chimpanzee in our zoo.”

The last words of Amos suddenly reminded Jiang Chen of a piece of news that he had read a long time ago. The news was that a child raised by a wolf from a young age, even after being discovered and brought back to modern society for treatment, still retained the living habits of beasts; he was unable to integrate into society, and unable to learn human language.

For some reason, Jiang Chen was relieved at this moment.

It was better for an ancient civilization that had been dead for more than three billion years to stay in the tomb for future generations to admire.

If the Gaia did open their eyes one day, it would undoubtedly be a disaster for humans.

Just then, his watch suddenly started to vibrate.

Jiang Chen pulled up his sleeve and glanced at the caller displayed on the screen. After he saw the call was from Ayesha, he excused himself from Amos as he walked out of the lab and pressed pick up.

“The plane had an accident.”

Before Jiang Chen could speak, Ayesha quickly spoke on the other side.

“Plane?” Jiang Chen was taken aback for a second. With a frown, he asked subconsciously, “Which plane?”

After two seconds of silence, Ayesha spoke in a serious tone.

“…the flight that took off this morning.”

…

Wake Island Air Force Base.

It was still dark, but the airport was bustling.

The heavily armed Marine Corps soldiers lined up on the tarmac and quickly assembled next to the Black Hawk helicopter with its propellers roaring. On the other side, on the runway of the air force base, two Boeing F-18 “Hornets” took off immediately and galloped towards the Mariana Islands.

In the command room of Wake Island Air Force Base, the senior military officer stationed at the base stood solemnly beside the radar image as he fixated all his attention on the radar screen. He prayed silently while he waited for any report.

A noisy static sound filled the room, followed by a despairing report.

“This is Worker Bee 1. After searching through the target airspace, Air Force One was not found.”

“This is Worker Bee 2… Air Force One was not found. ”

There was a terrifying silence inside the room.

“Round house.”

All the officers looked at each other and finally turned their eyes to the man standing in the front.

The man was holding the phone in his hand while he stood there quietly.

After a long time, he hung up the phone, turned around, glanced at the other officers in the command room with seriousness. He did not say anything except for two words.

“Round house.”

It was an order from the military command.

The instant they heard these two words, the expression on everyone’s face turned more solemn. Many people’s palms were sweaty, but some people’s eyes showed the spirit to fight and even excitement.

They were well aware of the meaning of this code word.

It meant that the UA was placed in DEFCON 3, and all troops in the country had entered a state of combat readiness. The Air Force was required to mobilize in 15 minutes and wait for the military command for further instructions.

In history, the UA had only entered DEFCON 3 three times.

The closest time to today was September 11, 2001.

And just one month after 9.11, the UA launched the Afghanistan War…

At the same time, in Capital.

In a uniquely decorated single-family house, the sky outside the window was still dim.

With his hair still messy and in his pajamas, Mike Pence sat on the sofa as he stared at the news on TV.

“…At 9:20 this morning, the Boeing 747-200B (Air Force One) boarded by President Trump passed through the Mariana Islands but failed to enter the Wake Island Air Traffic Control Zone as scheduled. After receiving the order from the military command, two destroyers and four anti-submarine frigates docked on Wake Island immediately set off to the target sea area. However, as of now, there is no further information.”

“According to reports sent back by our reporters stationed in Xin, Celestial Trade has urgently dispatched air force and rescue ships to the target waters to assist the UA in search and rescue operations.”

“At present, the military command and the Rainbow House have refused to comment on this matter. A Rainbow House official who did not want to be named stated that the Air Force One may have crashed, and the cause of the accident is still under investigation…”

The hand holding to the cup turned pale because of excessive force, and Mike Pence, who was holding onto his breath, felt his heart pound at an extreme speed at the moment. He couldn’t believe that they used this method to push him to presidency.

He couldn’t believe this happened before he even had time to digest the confidential agreement he signed with the political broker sent by the Morgan Consortium yesterday.

Just then, the phone on the table rang.

After Mike Pence regained his senses, he looked at the table.

The name of the caller ID was John Corning.

He forgot when he saved this number, but he was absolutely familiar with this name. Whether it was because of the identity of the former Republican senator, or because of the current identity, the leader of North America’s largest intelligence agency – FBA.

After Mike Pence picked up the call, he put the phone to his ear.

“Hello.”

“Hello, Mr. Vice President. Allow me to introduce myself briefly. I am the Director of the FBA, John Corning. I will briefly describe the situation now–”

“I’m watching the news,” Mike Pence said softly.

“…Well, it seems you already know that Mr. President had an accident. I know the news is hard to believe, but it has already happened. Our vehicles are already on the way and will arrive at your door in about two minutes. Before Mr. President’s safety is confirmed, we ask you to please go to the Rainbow House to preside the situation.”

John Corning was halfway through his sentence when Mike Pence heard a knock at the door as well as the footsteps of his wife going downstairs to open the door.

“It looks like your people have arrived,” Mike Pence said softly, as he tried to make his voice sound natural, “Can you give me time to change?”

“Of course, but please hurry up.”

After Mike Pence hung up, he leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes.

Less than half a minute passed.

When he opened his eyes again, behind his cloudy pupils, anxiety and tension were no longer there, and what remained was the confidence of a person in power, as well as ecstasy hidden behind the calmness.

From now on, he would be the president of this country, and he would lead this country, instead of being a mascot that frequently appeared in the public eyes without any power.

Chapter 1456: The Short-lived President

Chapter 1456: The Short-lived President

The moment the air crash happened, two Aurora-20s took off from the New Moon Island Military Base to the airspace where the plane went missing. Fifty Celestial Marine Corps soldiers were dispatched and boarded helicopters and patrol boats to conduct search and rescue in the target area.

Although Celestial Trade did not enter a state of emergency, the Navy, Land and Air Forces senior officials still put one hundred and twenty percent of their attention on this incident.

The bilateral relationship between Xin and the UA was at a historical turning point. Trump would have brought back the agreement symbolizing friendship back to his country. However, the plane crash happened. The characterization of the accident would directly affect the future diplomatic relation between the two countries and even the global political landscape.

Less than twelve hours after the crash, there were already countless comments and rumors on the Internet that pointed the perpetrator of this incident to be Xin. Although those statements did not possess any value, Celestial Trade had to be vigilant.

The top priority now was to find the crashed plane before the UA. If the people on the plane were still alive, they had to be protected from Morgan’s people. If those people suffered an unfortunate fate, they had to retrieve the black box first.

Not long after Jiang Chen arrived in Celestial Trade to visit the Special Projects Research Institute, he learned about the news. Immediately, he went to the Command Center of the Space Department. He found the Minister of Space, Kelvin, and gave the order for combat deployment.

The clearance work for the Mars species nests would stop immediately, and the Seagull-class starship cruising in the Mas synchronous orbit would immediately set off to return, along with the five orbital airborne brigades to deal with possible emergencies.

After that, Jiang Chen called Ivan on New Moon Island.

“How is the situation?”

“The whereabouts of the missing plane are still unknown. We have sent an additional 30 ships to the target waters to carry out a carpet search. Just now, Malaysia and New Guinea have also sent ships to assist our search. ”

Including the 20 ships that had already set off, the number of search and rescue fleets dispatched by Celestial Trade already reached 50.

The sea territory of Xin was extremely vast; the size was dozens of times bigger than its land area. Without affecting the normal maritime patrol mission, it was already the limit to deploy 50 ships to conduct search and rescue operations. Although Air Force One lost contact in the airspace between the Mariana Islands and Wake Island, it was still impossible to conclude that the aircraft crashed in this area.

After he briefly understood the situation from Ivan, Jiang Chen hung up and was about to call the Xin Presidential Palace when he saw several missed calls popped up on his holographic screen.

When he saw the calls were from Ayesha, he called back immediately.

As soon as the call was connected, Ayesha quickly reported to him.

“There was news from Bernice. At 5:20 in the morning Capital time, the Rainbow House announced that the UA had entered DEFCON 3. Its military command also issued documents to up the level of combat readiness to all levels of the military. Vice President Mike Pence has been put under the protection of the FBA.”

“Let Bernice find out, in the past few days…no, who has been in contact with Mike Pence in the past month,” Jiang Chen said.

“I’ll be on it right away,” Ayesha said solemnly.

“Also, let the Ghost Agents in North America keep an eye on the movements of the military command,” Jiang Chen continued to order, “If the UA troops continue to amass troops in Columbia, report to me immediately.”

“Yes,” Ayesha replied concisely.

…

Three days had passed since Air Force One lost contact.

The entire plane seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, which left people with only endless suspense. The experts had various opinions on whether the passengers on Air Force One survived. However, not a single clue was found in the three days after, and this was with Celestial Trade dispatching a military observation satellite to assist in search and rescue.

The possibility of survival of the crew on board was infinitely close to zero.

Regardless of whether Trump was alive or not, the country could not be without a ruler for another day.

On the fourth day after the Rainbow House announced that the UA entered DEFCON 3, Mike Pence stood on the lawn in front of the Rainbow House.

“Today, with great remorse, I stand here and announce a tragic piece of news to you.” After he turned the first page of the speech, Mike Pence raised his head so that everyone could see clearly his face full of remorse and sorrow, “Our President, unfortunately, encountered an air crash on his way home from a visit to Xin, and his whereabouts are currently unknown.”

“However, life has to go on. For our future, we can’t be knocked down by grief and forced to stand still.”

“From the moment I became Vice President, I have understood my responsibilities. When this country is in the face of danger, my responsibilities and obligations have prompted me to stand up here and shoulder our future… ”

“My fellow citizens, the oath that I took in the presence of you and God does not belong to me alone, but to all of us…”

After Mike Pence delivered his inauguration speech, under the auspices of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he solemnly completed the inauguration ceremony, succeeding Trump, who took office less than a month ago and became the 47th President of the UA.

At this moment, by the road not far from the Rainbow House, two men in suits stood next to a car with its door open. They were smiling at Mike Pence, who was giving his inaugural speech in the middle of the crowd.

“Although it is not Kennedy who is elected, fortunately, we have Johnson,” Morgan said.

Lyndon Johnson, the historical successor after the assassination of President Kennedy, was suspected to be the mastermind behind the Kennedy assassination. In addition to Lyndon Johnson, who became the president of the country, the immediate beneficiaries of Kennedy’s assassination were the Texas oil tycoon and the military-industrial complex that directly benefited from the Vietnam War.

At that time, Jewish members were still part of the military-industrial complex, but since the fall of the Rothschild family, this interest group was now firmly controlled by the Morgan and Rockefeller families.

Wall Street had never been so united.

The fact they made such a statement now was almost equivalent to declaring responsibility for the death of Mr. President.

“There are people from the FBA around here, so we should keep a low profile.” Rockefeller’s smile showed not the slightest anxiety, which seemed to contradict what he said.

Morgan laughed without further comments.

The FBA Director John Corning who sent Mike Pence to the Rainbow House was one of their affiliates, and it was a piece of information not even known to Trump, who promoted John Corning.

The depth of the water in Capital was far beyond imagination.

The people hoped to elect a president who was not within the Capital’s network. Therefore, this president could express their voice on their behalf. However, they had never thought how their choice would fare against a group of old and cunning foxes, who ate people without spitting out their bones, nor the complex network of interests. Trump didn’t even know who he should believe, and it was hard to form a proper leadership team. After all, it was hard for him to find a few allies within his own party.

If he happened to be in the interests of most people, it would have been fine.

Unfortunately, the first thing he did when he took office was to touch the cake of the giant military-industrial complex…

Just as Morgan and Rockefeller looked at each other and smiled for the victory on Wall Street, Vargas in South America was also paying attention to this “sad” inauguration ceremony.

After the original news about Sugar Cube Diplomacy came out, Vargas felt despair for the future of Colombia. Although he didn’t know the agreement reached between the UA and Xin, he was certain that in front of greater interests, no one cared about what the Colombian people, or what Vargas thought.

But things quickly turned.

The death of President Trump allowed Vargas to see the determination of their “allies”.

Unfortunately, this interim president that took over the military and political power of North Colombia obviously misunderstood the situation. Wall Street hoped to see the UA and Xin maintain antagonism, just like the the Cold War, but it did not want to see a direct conflict between the two sides…

But Vargas obviously did not understand this intention.

At the end of Mike Pence’s inauguration ceremony, a speech was delivered in Barranquilla, the capital of North Colombia.

In front of the media, Vargas issued an impassioned war mobilization speech to all the supporters of the presidential republic in Colombia.

The civil war was about to start.

Chapter 1457: The Fire of War Rekindled

Chapter 1457: The Fire of War Rekindled

Twenty kilometers north of Aguachica, Highland 744.

It was the front line of the standoff between South Colombia and North Colombia. A battalion of soldiers was stationed here, as well as mortars, recoilless launchers, and other infantry support weapons.

The height of the main peak was complemented with the second peak and formed high and low firepower vantage points. The jagged terrain greatly strengthened the defense’s advantage, which made Highland 744 a nightmare for all attackers.

During the last civil war, the South Colombian guerrillas sacrificed nearly one battalion of troops before they took this position from a NATO reinforced company. The first thing the commander of South Colombia ordered after they took this position was to reinforce the fortification.

Reality proved the commander’s foresight.

When the flame of war was reignited, the highland to the east of the North Columbia defense line was like a nail smashed deep into the hinterland; it directly pierced into the palm of the North Columbia and NATO Coalition Force…

BOOM!!!

The deafening sound of artillery explosion disrupted the tranquility of the night, and bursts of smoke densely covered the defensive positions from the mountainside to the top of the mountain. One after another, the flares that crossed the top of the mountain turned the entire night sky into broad daylight.

“…This is the 6th Battalion of the 11th Mountain Brigade. We’re under bombardment by North Columbia! I Repeat, we’re under bombardment!”

Dirt and cement flew freely in the air as he tried to communicate with the command headquarters, but the buzzing around him made it impossible to hear anything.

The roar of artillery almost interrupted the call. The post located halfway up the mountain was hit by carpet bombing from North Colombia. The battalion commander was curled up in the crooked trenches as he roared into the radio with his hoarse voice.

Everything happened so unexpectedly. Even though they had made enough preparations for this day, they were still caught off guard by the ferocious attack of North Colombia.

The forces gathered by North Colombia surpassed one brigade, and the defensive scouts even saw tanks and armored vehicles under the mountain.

The suppression of the artillery stopped momentarily, and the North Colombian soldiers gathered at the foot of the mountain had already begun to attack. The gunshots appeared from the foot of the mountain all the way up. The tracer bullets fired by heavy machine guns formed countless lines of death in the air, then immediately followed was the combat with less than 30 meters in between the two forces.

The dark night disguised the bloody killing, and all deaths happened in close proximity.

When daybreak approached, the 7th Battalion and the 19th Battalion from South Colombia that arrived for reinforcement, were still a step behind. Highland 744 was lost, and the North Colombian soldiers who consolidated their position on the hilltop would require South Colombia to use significantly more force to recapture the lost position.

“These shameless liars!”

Timoshenko slammed the phone on his desk and cussed out inside his office.

Just now, the announcement of the declaration of war in North Colombia was sent to his desk along with the news of the loss of Highland 744. The nonchalant tone of the North Colombia ambassador made him feel angry. If it weren’t for the risk of offending the entire international community, he really wanted to catch the guy and gift him with a bullet.

“On my order, the 11th Infantry Division and the 13th Armored Division stationed in Medellin will mobilize to the frontline immediately. The 31st Mechanized Division who is training in Tumaco will report to me in Bogota immediately!”

“Roger!”

The officer that stood in front of the desk performed a military salute and immediately ran out.

Timoshenko took a deep breath and deliberated for a moment. Then, he grabbed the phone that he smashed onto the desk again and dialed the familiar number. He knew very well from the beginning that the power to decide the outcome of this war was not in the hands of the two protagonists on paper.

If Celestial Trade was unwilling to send troops, then the fall of South Columbia was only a matter of time.

…

After the ceasefire agreement was blatantly torn by North Colombia, the Colombian Civil War once again erupted.

The 100,000 Celestial Trade and NATO soldiers stationed in North and South Colombia were suddenly pushed from exerting pressure from the back to the forefront of the war. Now, NATO was the first to cross the ceasefire line and fulfilled its duties as an ally.

The Volunteer Army of Moro regrouped in Port Davao. This time it was not only Moro but even Country F and Madagascar, who were two countries that still had yet to establish a strong relationship with Celestial Trade, also sent a brigade of volunteers to support this war that determined the outcome in South America.

After the initial warning, Jiang Chen personally called the UA Embassy and used strong language.

“I will give you twelve hours to immediately return back to the ceasefire line. Within twelve hours, we will still recognize all the consensus reached by Sugar Cube Diplomacy. Twelve hours later, no matter what I discussed with your president a week ago, nothing will be recognized. Remember, you breached the agreement first!”

Perhaps it was because Jiang Chen didn’t mention the word “war” in the warning. Twelve hours later, instead of returning to the ceasefire line, the NATO Coalition sent five more divisions to Colombia. The provocative artillery fire even approached the Port of Tumaco where Celestial Trade was stationed. A large number of refugees poured into the Celestial Trade-controlled area from the front line. South Colombia was just like a small tree sampling in the eye of the storm; it was already on the verge of collapse.

After Jiang Chen listened to the report from the front line, he put down the phone, remained silent, then he looked up at Ivan, as well as the Celestial Trade officers that were all focused on him.

After a long time, he suddenly laughed and ridiculed in a half-joking tone.

“It seems that our warning was taken as an April Fools’ joke.”

Although the tone of this sentence sounded like a joke, Ivan, who had been with Jiang Chen for the longest, already sensed the imperceptible anger in his boss’s voice.

Someone was going to be out of luck.

…

“…They will not risk a full-scale war with the UA. After all, Sugar Cube Diplomacy had just ended. No matter whether it is recognized or not, Xin and the UA reached a consensus at least within that hour.” John McCain paused for a moment, then went on to say, “As long as we launch a blitzkrieg against South Colombia and announce the launch of the withdrawal procedure of the UA troops stationed in Nippon, it will inevitably confuse Celestial Trade and make them hesitate between war and no war, and buy time for us to win the war! ”

Graduated from West Point Military Academy, John McCain was not only an outstanding army officer but also a scholar with an international strategic vision. After Trump was elected, as a hawk on the Republican side, he was appointed as the Rainbow House National Security Advisor.

Mike Pence succeeded the unaccounted Trump as the President of the UA and retained the former president’s appointments.

Although North Columbia’s sudden tearing of the armistice agreement forced the UA into an awkward state, President Pence quickly accepted the views of John McCain and other pro-war officials, and decisively launched an all-out offensive against South Colombia.

“Are we really going to withdraw troops from Nippon?” Mike Pence frowned. “If so, our strategic triangle in East Asia will be broken, and we seem to lose more than we gain.”

Although the last president signed an agreement with Celestial Trade and Nippon on the withdrawal of troops, the cunning Hill did not initiate the withdrawal procedure during her tenure but left the issue to her successor.

Mike Pence could use Hill’s unconstitutionality as an excuse to delay or even refuse to implement the withdrawal agreement. From his perspective, it seemed like they were putting the cart before the horse and sacrificing the interest of UA in Nippon for Colombia.

“Withdraw? No, this is just our smoke bomb.” A sinister smile appeared on John McCain’s face, “We need this smoke bomb to buy us a month –”

Just now, the office door was suddenly pushed open, and their conversation was rudely interrupted.

A high-level Rainbow House official rushed in, with panic and anxiety written all over his face.

“What’s going on, Mr. Biverso, have you forgotten the basic etiquette of knocking before you come in?” Mike Pence said with dissatisfaction.

“Celestial Trade!” Gasping heavily, Biverso held the door frame as he tried to calm his breath.

“What happened to Celestial Trade?” Pence frowned.

“They, they sent troops!”

Chapter 1458: : A Surprise Attack On Port of Barranquilla

Chapter 1458: A Surprise Attack On Port of Barranquilla

In the evening of February 17th.

Just half an hour after Celestial Trade announced its intervention in the Colombian Civil War, the first to arrive on the battlefield was a strategic EMP intercontinental missile. The dazzling electric spark only flickered in the air for a moment, and the brightly lit city plunged into darkness.

Barranquilla was the center of the attack. It was the capital of North Colombia and a radius of hundreds of miles was in the strike radius of the EMP missile. There were countless control systems of power stations and substations burnt down; residential houses, hospitals, police stations, and other public facilities were all paralyzed.

The NATO military based near Barranquilla was also struck by the EMP missile

However, unlike civilian facilities, the strike’s damage on military facilities was not ideal.

There was no panic. After a short two-hour power failure, the NATO military base in Barranquilla quickly restored power. The engineers repaired the damaged electronic equipment based on procedure, eliminated the broken circuits, and replaced the damaged part.

If the previous strategic EMP strike damaged 90% of NATO Coalition Force’s electronic equipment, this time, only around 13-15% of the equipment was damaged.

Celestial Trade had long anticipated the outcome, and Jiang Chen did not think NATO would be foolish enough to fall for the same trick twice.

The miraculous effect that occurred in the Colombian Civil War last time was because NATO were caught off guard as they had never experienced this weapon. This time, the NATO Coalition Force used old-fashioned communication radio and other retired equipment, and the damaging effect of EMP on analog circuits was far inferior to its effect on digital circuits. On the other hand, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon provided solutions to the top military command of the UA with equipment such as “Faraday Spray”, which also served some purpose.

However, the NATO Coalition Force soon discovered that their speed of remedying the situation would never catch up to the speed Celestial Trade developed new weapons…

Just an hour after the EMP strike, the radar at the Barranquilla Military Base had returned to normal. Senior officers gathered in the command room around a map to discuss the battle plan.

In less than a day, they had successfully took control of Highland 744 and advanced 50 kilometers closer to the strategic town of Bucaramanga in South Colombia. If they could take control of Bucaramanga, the entire northern end of the Andes would return under their control, and the supply line between South Colombia and Venezuela would be pinched.

But at this moment, countless black dots suddenly appeared on the radar screen.

“Enemy flying units approaching! Quantity, two hundred and twenty. Suspected to be ground attack missiles!” In front of the computer, an observer wearing a headset immediately reported to the commander behind him.

With his eagle-like eyes narrowed, the commander from the UA stared at the red dots on the big screen approaching the military base, then he ordered in a deep voice, “Launch the SLAMRAAM missiles to intercept!”

“Roger!”

…

At the gate of the military base, the NATO soldier on guard raised his head and looked at the faintly shining bright spots not far away.

“What is that?”

“An aircraft?” Another soldier responded.

“Where did so many aircrafts come from?”

After a rough count, he made out around one hundred black dots. They were likely the dark technologies of Celestial Trade.

However, what confused him was that since they chose to “sneak attack” at night, the tail flames of the engine seemed too obvious. Or could it be that they didn’t plan to hide from the beginning? But it would be too arrogant to look down on NATO Coalition Force’s air defense system.

Even if it was the Aurora-20, if it dared to fly directly above their base, it would be shredded to pieces by the surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns.

The surface-to-air missiles seemed to have confirmed the NATO soldier’s speculation. They launched from the center of the military base one after another and galloped towards the bright spots. Not surprisingly, the missiles hit the target one after another.

Balls of flame exploded in the air, and the black smoke blended into the dark night. The soldier gazed at the explosion in the distance, lowered his rifle, picked up his binoculars from his chest, and looked towards the explosion.

Then he exclaimed, “Sh*t… it’s so magnificent.”

But at this moment, that soldier’s expression suddenly changed dramatically.

The soldier next to him did not notice that his comrade’s expression just changed. He looked at the smoke in the distance and asked casually.

“Taken down?”

The soldier slowly put down the binoculars and just stared into the night. Anxiousness and confusion flashed in his eyes as he muttered to himself.

“I’m afraid no…”

In the center of the military base, missile launch vehicles were parked on the ground, and all the missiles had been launched. The engineer on the side dragged out the missile rack from the warehouse and began to reload the missile launcher.

Inside the missile launch vehicle, the squad captain Blevins, who pressed the launch button, grinned at the colliding red dots on the radar. Then he pumped fists with the soldier next to him.

“That was a home run!”

“Beautiful-SH*T! HOW COULD IT BE!” Before he could finish his sentence, he put his face in front of the radar as he stared at the row of red dots accelerating in distance, he said to himself in complete disbelief, “This is impossible!”

This is impossible!

No aircraft can survive a SLAMRAAM missile hit! Not even the Aurora-20!

The SLAMRAAM air defense system developed by Raytheon was known as the “Guardian of the Land”. If the missile missed the target, it was believable. However, Blevins couldn’t believe that with the missiles directly landing on the targets, the two hundred flying objects were still intact.

“Relock the target! QUICK!” Blevins immediately slapped the soldier next to him, but there was no time for them to launch another round of missiles.

Not far from the missile launch vehicle, NS-90s slammed into the empty ground.

The engineers who were reloading the missile hurriedly leaped to the side, and the nearby NATO soldiers also rushed behind cover. Blevins buried his head under the steering wheel, then only raised his head to peek out the window after a while.

However, to everyone’s surprise, the expected explosion did not happen.

Just when everyone wondered if Celestial Trade “missiles” malfunctioned, they saw the black “iron coffins” start to move, as if they had come to life. The steel plate armors retracted and exploded the mechanical skeleton that was shielded under the armor.

A red glow lit up in the center of the spindle-shaped head, and then two cuboid automatic rifles popped out from the outstretched arms. Without warning, they started to spray out deadly flames at the soldiers behind the bunker.

“SH*T!”

Blevins cursed under his breath, then leaped out of the missile launcher with all his force. Almost simultaneously, an explosion engulfed him and the missile rack next to him in orange-red flames.

“Here is… WE ARE UNDER ATTACK… static… REQUESTING BACKUP!”

“AHHHHHHH!”

“FU*K! MEDIC!”

Soldiers fell one after another in the symphony of screams and explosions. The bullets only left dazzling sparks on the NS-90, and the war machine that moved in the crossfire was just like the T-800 in “Terminator”.

The difference was that the former was more like a robot than the latter. But similarly, both came from the future…

And they were born in NATO’s own hands.

The bloody massacre had just started, and this encounter had already gone beyond the scope of war.

Even though the M4A1 bullet was strengthened as a countermeasure to Celestial Trade’s kinetic skeleton, it couldn’t even make a dent in the NS-90.

The NS-90 in its most optimal state was indeed worthy of the name “Battlefield Janitor”. Relying on the battlefield data provided by the Skyeye X1 military satellite, each war robot was like a grim reaper on the battlefield. Whenever the orange flame appeared, a blood splash quickly followed.

In this kind of “zero distance” combat, even if the NATO Coalition Force deployed the M1A2 main battle tanks, and the tanks were equipped with depleted uranium penetrators that could pose a threat to NS-90’s titanium alloy armor, the threat depended on the penetrators hitting the NS-90s.

The daunting bullet marks were left in every corner of the military base. Explosions and flames flickered one after another in the military base, and they even didn’t stop when dawn arrived…

Chapter 1459: Cause and Effect

Chapter 1459: Cause and Effect

It was noon on Coro Island on the other side of the Pacific Ocean when the NATO military base in the Port of Barranquilla plunged into a sea of flames. However, the sea in the distance was as calm as ever.

After Celestial Trade announced its armed intervention in the Colombian Civil War, the ten Guardian-class frigates and twelve newly installed guided-missile frigates docked at New Moon Island moved 100 nautical miles towards Guam. The move was a preventative measure in case the UA military would further escalate.

After the Guam Military Base discovered Celestial Navy’s movements, the stationed destroyers and guided-missile cruisers quickly responded and departed from the port. The two sides were at a standoff at a distance of hundreds of nautical miles. There were dozens of anti-ship missiles that were locked onto the modified Guardian-class frigates.

The captains of these UA warships knew that they would not be able to withstand a 10-kg shell, but at the same time, they believed that the Celestial frigate would also not have a good time after being hit with an anti-ship missile!

For now, the two sides maintained their utmost sanity. All conflicts only stayed in Colombia, and the war did not show any signs of escalation.

Of course, Jiang Chen couldn’t determine whether they could still maintain such a reservation after Celestial Trade attacked the Port of Barranquilla.

At this moment, inside the office of the mansion.

Ayesha stood at Jiang Chen’s desk. In front of her, two photos and a paper bag lied quietly on the desk.

After Jiang Chen scanned the two photos and asked.

“Who are these two people?”

“Eugene Eric and Kayn Jay. Just twelve hours before the flight went missing, they visited Mike Pence’s house and stayed for more than one hour,” Ayesha reported.

“What do they do?” Jiang Chen asked.

“The former was an employee of Cassidy Public Relations, a former Republican senator, and a well-known political broker on K Street. The latter was formerly named Lester Keynes, a former FBA agent, and died in a car accident in Georgia in 2007. ”

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

Good lord, even the dead came came back to life.

Jiang Chen tapped his finger against the armrest, then said.

“Can you find these two people?”

“The former has been found,” Ayesha put another picture on the desk and gently pushed it in front of Jiang Chen. “After contacting Pence, Eric immediately took a flight to London, England. Gurney Vale was responsible for tracking his whereabouts, but when she found Eric following the clues, he had become a corpse in a motel in the suburbs of Nottingham.”

Gurney Vale was the code name of Monica Geller, and she was one of the early members of the Ghost Agents. After Rothschild turned against Celestial Trade, Jiang Chen sent her to Europe to command the Ghost Agents in Europe for intelligence activities.

Since the other party killed Eric before Monica could get there, they were obviously not ordinary people either. As Jiang Chen connected Kayn Jay’s unique identity and the unsettled case decades ago, Jiang Chen lowered his head and deliberated for a moment. Then he spoke as he looked up again.

“Could it be that the FBA and Wall Street jointly plotted against the Air Force One?”

“We don’t rule out this possibility,” Ayesha nodded. “Bernice is tracking Kayn Jay’s whereabouts. If there are no surprises, he should be in North America. If he didn’t get silenced, he is probably controlled by the FBA.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Ayesha stopped talking.

Jiang Chen was slightly taken aback, then he said.

“Come in.”

With Jiang Chen’s permission, Natasha pushed open the door and walked in.

When he saw Natasha hadn’t changed out of her work uniform, he asked with a hint of surprise.

“You got off work so early today?”

“I guess you might need my help, so I came back early.” Natasha walked into the office, scanned the photos on the table, and said with a smile, “… You guys got to Eric Eugene and Kayn Jay already?”

Jiang Chen was also straightforward when he heard Natasha said. He raised an eyebrow, then asked blatantly.

“The KGB asked you to send a word?”

“Yes, the Russian Security Services attaches great importance to this ‘accident’ and dispatched a KGB team for this. It is said that this mission was personally instructed by Putin,” Natasha sat down on the sofa in the room, crossed her slender legs, then smiled at Jiang Chen, “My former boss called the embassy, so I got off work early.”

“What did you find?” Jiang Chen asked.

“The first point,” Natasha shook her finger. “Before visiting North America, Boeing had regular maintenance of Air Force One. This maintenance was completed under the joint supervision of the FBA and the Department of Homeland Security. According to our investigation, the engineer who overhauled the engine of Air Force One was Sloan Percy, a Florida native, who died of drunk driving 15 days ago.”

“Second Point,” Natasha shook two fingers after a pause, and then continued, “FBA Director John Corning, the former chairman of the Republican Senate committee, has a close relationship with the Morgan Group.”

“Did the FBA do it?” Jiang Chen’s eyes turned sharp.

“It’s not just the FBA,” Natasha said, “The Department of Homeland Security, Boeing, which is responsible for the regular maintenance of Air Force One, some employees of the their top military command, and a senior commander-level officer. Speaking of which you should know who the biggest shareholder behind Boeing and whose interests he represents.”

Everything made sense.

Air Force One was not shot down by missiles or other things at all. Instead, it was clearly the work of a mole. Air Force One had to send a distress signal during its fall, but this signal was obviously concealed by the murderer’s accomplices.

As for what they did, it would all depend on what the black box reveal.

With these thoughts in mind, Jiang Chen had a look of mischievousness.

If he was the one to find the black box first, things would get interesting.

“So, what are you going to do now?” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen after she changed the way she sat and put one leg over the leg. “Trump is unaccounted for. It’s very likely he is dead. NATO obviously does not intend to let go of the Colombia issue. For Morgan and Rockefeller, Mike Pence is an opportunity. With this opportunity, they can make the political landscape turn to the right.”

“Not letting go,” Jiang Chen laughed, opened his hands, “Isn’t this great? It just so happens that I can use this opportunity to get rid of them once and for all. As for Mr. Trump, it doesn’t matter if he is alive or not. All we need is a black box and a legitimate excuse.”

“Are you going to attack the UA?” Natasha’s bright red lips opened slightly, and she looked at Jiang Chen in shock. Her right leg over her left knee came down as she muttered to herself, “You must be crazy.”

“Huh? Did I say that?”

However, after a pause, Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

“You are like a mind reader.”

Chapter 1460: As You Wish

Chapter 1460: As You Wish

The exploding ammunition rack blew off the top of the tank and left only the mainframe of the tank, as well as the swaying flame at the end of the main gun.

Blood mixed with muddy water was roasted black by the explosion. The soldiers wearing helmets sat down beside the belt of the tank, the muzzle fallen onto the ground had already cooled, and the hollowness inside their pupils under the helmet was filled with horror.

They crossed the ocean to fight against the Colombian rebels, but they never thought they would run into such an opponent.

The rocket launch vehicle that was blown up by thermite burned in flames, and the fragmented steel told the tragedy of the previous battle.

A dozen Osprey helicopters arrived late and landed in the center of the military base. After the Marine Corp soldiers saw the scene in front of them, they were all in disbelief, and not a word could come out of their mouths.

In the middle of the military base in chaos, UA Army General Felton stood on this devastated battlefield, stared straight at the wreckage of the Patriot-3 launch vehicle not far away, and was in a state of shock for a long time.

Two hundred and twenty NS-90 robots completely overwhelmed the three brigades he commanded. Less than a year has passed since their last conformation, but the combat power of Celestial Trade made him feel like he was fighting against aliens and the type of aliens that only existed in Hollywood movies…

He would rather believe that he did not wake up this morning, and all of this was just a nightmare.

Colonel Fabian approached Felton, hesitated, and spoke.

“Sir.”

After a long silence, General Felton spoke slowly.

“Has the casualties been counted?”

“The statistics came out…” After Fabian hesitated for a moment, he took a deep breath and finally made up his mind, “A total of 1,677 soldiers were killed in battle, and the wounded are still being counted…”

General Felton took a breath.

Although he had been mentally prepared, his heart couldn’t help but spasm a few times after he heard this number.

“Let the Third Mechanized Division withdraw to Barranquilla.”

“But the front line…” Colonel Fabian said with difficulty in his tone.

The Third Mechanized Division had already crossed Highland 744 and was preparing to join the 11th and 14th Mountain Divisions of North Colombia besieging Bucaramanga. The next plan was a joint offensive against the Fifth Infantry Division of South Colombia stationed in downtown Bucaramanga.

For the North Colombia force attacking Bucaramanga, the firepower support of the Third Mechanized Division was absolutely necessary. However, Felton could not care less at this moment. Today, it was robots being parachuted down. No one could guarantee that it would not be the orbital airborne brigade thrown on him tomorrow.

He didn’t dare to gamble his own life on the courage of Celestial Trade.

“If we can’t even hold the command, even if we take Bucaramanga, it’s meaningless.” After a pause, Felton continued, “In addition, the casualty report should be sent to the people at Capital as soon as possible. We need reinforcements! If they still want to win this war…”

…

Two hundred vs six thousand.

At the cost of fewer than 50 robots, more than 1,600 NATO soldiers were killed by NS-90 suspended rifles, and countless were wounded.

Under the cover of Aurora-20s, the remaining one hundred and eighty-four NS-90s, along with the scrapped robot wreckages, fought and retreated towards the Port of Barranquilla, and finally jumped into the sea and were received by Celestial Trade submersibles waiting in the nearby water. They retreated in the direction of Venezuela…

When this report was sent to Jiang Chen’s desk by Ivan, he was still amazed by the number, despite the fact that he had expected such a result.

As robots that even gave NAC a headache, the little guys were indeed worthy of their “Battlefield Janitor” name.

Jiang Chen even fantasized in his mind with ill-intentions.

If Capital learned that these robots came from their “descendants,” what kind of reaction would they have.

“…North Colombia’s offensive against Bucaramanga has ceased, and the two divisions in Bucaramanga have retreated to the suburbs.”

“But the siege hasn’t stopped, right?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Yes.” Ivan nodded.

“Then let us help our allies again.”

While Jiang Chen spoke, he sat up from the chair, turned on the holographic screen of his watch, called the weather control center on Ange Island, and ordered.

“Let the heavy rain blow on the south coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The bigger the better.”

…

Although the NATO Coalition Force and Capital were trying their best to block the news, the news that Celestial Trade’s AI Soldiers raided Barranquilla and fully retreated finally spread through the platform known as the Internet.

It was filmed by a phone, which was uploaded to YouTube, and finally spread like a virus on Twitter and Facebook.

Although the video was very blurry, except for the explosion and the bursts of gunfire, and there was not even the shadow of the NS-90 in the video, from the M1A2 that was destroyed by the anti-tank rocket and the NATO soldiers collapsing on the ground, Netizens could still feel the fierceness of the war through the screen.

It just so happened that in the military base at that time, in addition to NATO Coalition soldiers, there were also a few war correspondents from the United Kingdom. Although their cameras were confiscated afterward, the British journalist who was not afraid of death took a few photos with his phone.

It was precisely because of those photos that netizens all over the world could see the true face of NS-90.

“AI soldier? Celestial Trade even managed to create this?”

“This reporter is actually so lucky!”

“Didn’t Capital’s military commentators say, ‘Electronic pilots are already the limit of Future Military, and it’s impossible to build a robot soldier within a reasonable cost in the short term’? Look at the calendar for me. Only a few days have passed!”

“I don’t know why, when I saw the red light in the center of the robot’s head, I suddenly shuddered…”

“The weapons of Celestial Trade are all manufactured by Future Military! Boycott the products of Future Group!”

“…”

While online public opinion continued to ferment, Celestial Trade did not make those who followed this incident wait too long.

On the second day of the attack, Celestial Trade held a press conference in the “Heart of the Sea” on Coro Island. More than 20 internationally renowned media companies were invited to attend, including two from the UA.

At the press conference, Jiang Chen, the President of Celestial Trade, gave an official response to the incident.

As always, he did not bring a script.

Standing in front of the reporters’ lenses, Jiang Chen cleared his throat and gave a concise speech.

“First of all, Celestial Trade expresses our regret for the attack on Barranquilla, but we will not apologize.”

“At the time of the attack, more than 200,000 innocent Bucaramanga citizens were being displaced due to NATO’s unilateral military action. Twenty-four hours ago, we had warned the relevant countries that if they did not stop South Colombia’s aggressive behavior, then Celestial Trade will join the righteous side and interfere with the civil war through military intervention.”

“As long as it is a war, people will die. Presumably from the moment they set foot on Colombian soil, certain countries have been mentally prepared for this.”

“We regret once again that for Mike Pence and everyone on Wall Street, you have turned all the progress of ‘Sugar Cube Diplomacy’ in vain with a conspiracy, and I have lost all my patience. Originally, we could welcome our future in another way, but now…”

When Jiang Chen spoke of this point, he took a moment to pause, let out a soft sigh and spread his hands.

“As you wish, we have met each other in battle.”

Chapter 1461: Reasonable Excuse

Chapter 1461: Reasonable Excuse

Compared with Jiang Chen’s last sentence, the reporters were more intrigued by the sentence he said before.

Vice President, Wall Street…conspiracy?

There were too many possibilities.

If anyone else said this sentence, it would not cause so many controversies. For the eight presidents who died during their term of office, the cause of each death was enough to produce a conspiracy theory of no less than a hundred thousand words.

However, this sentence was not said by anyone else, but Jiang Chen himself.

Everyone was aware that Celestial Trade helped the UA search for the missing Air Force One. They would not believe that Jiang Chen’s statement was completely unfounded! Obviously, Celestial Trade had discovered something!

All the reporters at the scene smelled a big conspiracy.

However, just when they were about to ask further questions, Jiang Chen didn’t give them a chance at all. He directly announced the end of the press conference and walked backstage.

“It’s irrational to throw this news out at the press conference! If they know we are also looking for the black box, then they’ll definitely obstruct us at all costs, even…” Natasha complained to Jiang Chen while she followed closely behind him.

“They will even forge a black box or a corpse, right? As long as they have the assistance of Boeing, they can do it easily.” After Jiang Chen pulled open the car door, he sat inside, then looked at Natasha who sat in after him with a smile, “My dear Natasha, you have been away from the KGB for too long. Use your breasts to think about it. Even if we don’t throw this smoke bomb out, will they let us search for the whereabouts of the black box?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow and was about to refute, but when she thought about it carefully, she suddenly realized that there was some truth to that.

“Any war requires a reasonable excuse. Otherwise, even if we win, the mess left behind will cause us to be devastated.” When he saw that Natasha was no longer speaking, he smiled, then said, “In the next two weeks, our seagull class and orbital airborne brigade will return from Mars. When it enters the synchronous orbit, the UA can prepare to surrender. And before that, we can make some preparations.”

Although she doubted Jiang Chen’s self-confidence, Natasha finally gave up. Since the outcome would be determined in the next few days, she would soon be able to tell if he was bluffing or not.

“It’s a pity for Trump, war is not a good choice,” Natasha sighed and changed the subject, “At least he is back in the country. There are Russian agents and Ghost Agents watching. Even if the FBA wants to play tricks, they have to weigh it carefully.”

“I agree with your first point. War is indeed not the best choice, but it seems that we have no better choice besides war. About Trump, it doesn’t really matter to us whether he is dead or not. ”

After a pause, Jiang Chen suddenly chuckled.

“Believe it or not, even if he dies, I can make the dead come back to life.”

Natasha was stunned.

The originally clear pupils suddenly looked confused, and a layer of fine mist gradually covered her eyes.

When he saw her expression, Jiang Chen immediately regretted the decision.

Marina Ivanovna Nikolaeva, a former KGB agent, Natasha’s mother, was also the knot between her and her father.

“…I know what you are thinking, but it was impossible at that time.” Jiang Chen sighed softly as he looked at Natasha who was in excitement and confusion, “If you just need the same one for comfort, cloning technology can do it. However, you know that it is not real.”

Jiang Chen knew what she was thinking.

She wanted to resurrect her mother who left her in her childhood.

But it was impossible.

Even science could not bring the dead to life. Natasha knew this, but when she heard Jiang Chen say the phrase “to bring the dead back to life”, she couldn’t help but feel the slightest hope in her heart.

“You bastard!”

She tried to hide the fact that she had wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. Her cheeks were slightly red because he saw her weak side.

Perhaps she was trying to cover up this embarrassing moment, but Natasha suddenly leaped onto Jiang Chen with tears still in her eyes. Then she viciously bit onto Jiang Chen’s lip and pressed him down on the chair. It took a long time before she finally raised her head while still riding on top of him. Her chest was still moving violently as she said with viciousness

“You shouldn’t give me hope!”

“Sorry, I didn’t know you would have such a big reaction.” Jiang Chen gently fiddled with the strand of hair beside her cheek, but his hand was pinched midair.

The two gazed at each other silently.

Just as the atmosphere in the car gradually became ambiguous, a weak cough suddenly came from the front.

Natasha’s gaze met with Ayesha’s eyes in the mirror, her face suddenly turned red as she hopped down from Jiang Chen and sat upright in her seat.

Ayesha, who held the steering wheel, looked awkward.

Although she didn’t mind what they were doing, she was driving after all.

She had been hesitant for a while, but in the end, she chose to protest with her weak cough to indicate that she was still here.

…

On February 18th, heavy rain poured into North Colombia.

For the North Colombian soldiers besieging Bucaramanga, it was undoubtedly a torment. Not to mention the infestation of poisonous insects, the frequent landslides, mudslides after the heavy rain, the muddy mountain roads alone were a big test for the logistics of the North Colombian army.

Due to the heavy rain, air support was not available.

When the NATO Third Mechanized Division withdrew to Barranquilla, the two mountain divisions responsible for the attack on Bucaramanga were forced to halt their offensive. The price to pay was unbearable to besiege a city without firepower support, let alone attack a city located in the Andes.

It was a fortress without walls!

The eastern battlefield was at a stalemate, and the battlefield in the central part was also not optimistic.

Bad weather prevented heavy bombers from reaching the battlefield. The Coalition Force advancing in the direction of Medellin could only rely on howitzers, self-propelled artilleries, and naval guns to support the battlefield.

However, the South Colombian army was very cunning and had no intention of deciding the outcome of the war with the NATO Coalition Force on the plains. Not only did they station their main force in the urban area where NATO had to be cautious, but the rest of the force was also separated into smaller units and were concentrated to the rear to start guerrilla warfare.

Days of heavy rain were undoubtedly a test for the offensive side.

The NATO Coalition Force and North Colombia army had invested a total of more than ten divisions into the northern region of Medellin. Not only did they amass more than 100,000 troops, but they also mobilized more than 2,000 tanks. NATO Coalition Force’s original plan was to take Medellin within three days, then push to Bogota within five days, but now, they were pinned down to the outskirts of Medellin, and stuck in a stalemate against the Celestial Trade army that arrived from the rear as reinforcement.

No one thought that this war would be so difficult.

Whether from the armor, to the firepower, or to the the number of people, NATO was at an advantage in every category. However, South Colombia did not become the second Iraq, and the “Operation Desert Storm-esque” victory was not replicated.

What made the NATO commander more anxious was that so far, they had not seen the whereabouts of the orbital airborne troops. Those iron robots were like the Sword of Damocles. They hung above their heads, but they didn’t know when they would fall.

Compared with the NATO Coalition Force fighting on the front line, the new President Mike Pence, who had just completed his swearing-in ceremony, faced no less pressure than General Felton who commanded on the front line.

He knew very well that if he could not end this war in a short time, domestic pressure would make his life extremely difficult. The UA was sliding into a quagmire deeper than the Vietnam War, and in this quagmire, there was an enemy they did not want to face.

There seemed to be only two choices left for the new president.

Either add another bundle of firewood to this stove, or start a fire outside out of it…

Chapter 1462: Emergency Meeting

Chapter 1462: Emergency Meeting

“I propose to increase troops to Colombia! And mobilize our allies, especially the parasites who are in arrears with NATO military expenditure!”

“Not a bad idea, but very difficult to execute. The United Kingdom has sent two divisions to support us, and France has also sent a division. We cannot expect them to invest more troops for South America that is not in their interests…”

“What about Turkey? If we promise to help them enter the European Union…”

“Then we will offend at least twenty allies!”

“…”

There were endless quarrels and arguments in the conference room, and Mike Pence stared at the globe in the corner of the table without a word as he was immersed in his own thought.

The problems the UA faced were far more severe than he imagined.

Although the defense budget had continued to increase, the number of soldiers had steadily decreased.

Since the end of the Iraq War and the end of the Afghanistan War, the total number of UA Army soldiers had dropped from 570,000 at its peak in 2012 to 480,000 in 2020. The current number of active soldiers was about 300,000 in the Air Force, about 320,000 in the Navy, and about 180,000 in the Marine Corps. Of course, these stats did not include the National Guards in each state. It was easier to mobilize the reserves to participate in a war than to mobilize the National Guards.

In asymmetric wars, this number of standing troops was sufficient for a country with superior sea power. Unfortunately, they were now at a disadvantage against the technical prowess of Celestial Trade. Fortunately, Hill in her term suspended Obama’s plan to reduce troops, otherwise, the current situation would only be worse…

“Folks,” National Security Advisor John McCain knocked on the table with his knuckles and signaled everyone to stop arguing and look to him. He raised his voice and said, “There are already 130,000 of our soldiers fighting for Colombia’s freedom. Based on the data analyzed by the top military command, if we want to gain ‘overwhelming’ advantage in Colombia, we need to invest at least an army in South America. Moro and Madagascar Volunteers are on the way, and those Third World gangsters will drag us into the mess.”

At this point, McCain paused for a moment before he continued.

“You all overlooked the most effective method.”

“While Celestial Trade is powerful, their strategic depth is limited! Whether it is the space elevator or the high-tech factories concentrated in Xin. Instead of throwing hundreds of thousands of people into the bottomless pit of Colombia, it is better to send our aircraft carrier groups to fight in the Western Pacific. Launch our intercontinental missiles! Even if their air defense systems are great, they can’t make up the gap in numbers!”

“We’ll launch 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles to the space elevator and launch a strategic nuclear strike on the Ange Island Industrial Base. Even if they can arm every soldier to the teeth, we can also bring them back to the Stone Age!”

“You are a lunatic!” Another advisor sitting next to him exclaimed, “We are not the only ones with nuclear weapons! If they launch a retaliatory attack on our homeland…”

“But our gains are immense!” McCain said firmly. “If we look forward, as long as we absorb their technology and rely on the industrial strength of us and our allies, we will be able to colonize the Gliese 581 in a few decades! Instead of defending against aliens in front of the door!”

As for blowing up the space elevator, as long they possessed the technology, they could just build another one. Once the new space elevator rose again, they could take over Celestial Trade’s Moon and Mars colony. At that time, the UA would lead the mankind of the future, not Xin or Celestial Trade!

“This is too risky.”

Mike Pence frowned, but he was seriously deliberating this possibility.

He had heard of the submarine missile wells of Celestial Trade a long time ago, but Hill did one thing positive before she left office, and that was to introduce the THAAD air defense system into Guam and Wake Island. If Xin launched intercontinental missiles from the Western Pacific, there was a high probability that they would be able to complete the interception during the boost phase…

But if the missiles could not be intercepted…

Just when Mike Pence was hesitating, there was a phone call.

McCain still wanted to persuade, but when he saw the President picked up the phone, he closed his mouth politely.

The hand that held the phone turned pale and uncertainty was written all over Mike Pence’s face.

After he had put the phone down, the hand on the phone did not move, and he sat there silently.

After a long silence, he raised his head and said.

“Lewis.”

Lewis, who served as the president’s chief of staff, was slightly taken aback and replied.

“…Mr. President?”

“Go and inform the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Treasury… and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the UA Army,” Mike Pence paused for a while after he named about twenty names, then he said slowly, “There’ll be an emergency meeting in an hour, all members of the National Security Council must be present. Now, I ask all of you to leave the room for a moment.”

When Lewis, McCain, and other senior officials heard these words, their expressions all changed as they looked at each other.

Everyone’s emotion was different, just like their perplexed mood at the moment. Lewis looked at the President in disbelief, while McCain showed a look of ecstasy, but he quickly hid his joy behind a series of small actions.

The National Security Council was established during the Cold War, and the President served as the chairman. Regular attendees included the Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Treasury, and National Security Affairs Advisor. As well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the military adviser of the National Security Council, the director of the CIB as the intelligence adviser. In addition, there were important officials such as the Chief of Staff, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security. Depending on the importance of the topics discussed in the meeting, the President would decide who participated in the meeting.

From the level of attendees alone, it was not difficult to see the importance of this meeting.

The last time an emergency meeting like this was held was twenty years ago when the President was named Bush. Soon after the meeting, the UA-led coalition went to Afghanistan and started the long-running war in Afghanistan…

Taking a deep breath, Lewis nodded.

“I will go now.”

At the request of the President, the people in the conference room left one after another.

After the room turned empty, Pence’s shoulder slowly loosened. He didn’t rush to prepare for the next meeting, but rather, he took out a pen from his inner pocket and examined it.

Somehow, he suddenly remembered about a month and a half ago, during the handover.

As the Vice President, he was also there at the time. He could vaguely recall what happened.

There had never been a president who looked relieved when they handed over the authority. It was as if what she had surrendered was not the supreme throne of this country, not the power, not the interests, but a heavy burden.

Now he suddenly understood.

Or rather regret it.

She faced a madman, and now the madman stood in front of him. While he was still hesitant about whether to add a handful of firewood to the stove, the lunatic had put the fire out in the open…

But it was useless to regret now, and it seemed that he had no right to choose from the beginning. When the President died, there was a Vice President, and after the Vice President, there was also the President of the Senate… From the moment Wall Street was “unified”, the checks and balances of power in this country began to become unbalanced, and the capitalists had gone completely lunatic.

After a long silence, he picked up the phone, slowly dialed a number, and called a familiar person. He had to consult with some other people’s opinions, although he also knew that it was likely futile work.

The phone connected.

There was no extra greeting. Pence sorted out the thoughts in his mind and said slowly.

“Twenty minutes ago, in the Caribbean…”

Chapter 1463: Battle On The Caribbean Sea

Chapter 1463: Battle On The Caribbean Sea

The time returned to two hours ago.

On the Caribbean Sea, lightning flashed, thunder roared, and the waves raged.

Heavy rainfall splashed onto the deck; the broad bow split the waves into half. Surrounded by eleven ships, the majestic Ford Aircraft Carrier sailed smoothly in the surging Caribbean Sea as it cruised around the northern coast of Colombia.

With a total of twelve warships, the expanded Ford Aircraft Carrier Battle Group possessed more beyond visual range strike and anti-submarine capabilities. Due to the added emphasis on the ability to support ground forces, the flagship was changed from a guided-missile frigate to the Ford Aircraft Carrier. The commander of the aircraft carrier battle group was still Major Admiral Hogg. While he served as the captain of the Ford, he also served as the commander of the aircraft carrier battle group.

An F-35 landed on the runway through the curtain of rain. After it was hooked by the arresting cable, it gradually came to a stop. The ground crew in red, yellow, and green jogged forward while the pilot wearing a helmet jumped out of the cockpit, wiped the rain off his face, and walked aside.

The violent storm in the past few days had brought a lot of trouble to the Ford Aircraft Carrier Battle Group responsible for supporting NATO Coalition Force operations. Not only did the difficulty and risk of taking flight increase, but the airstrike effectiveness also decreased exponentially.

Of course, there was also an advantage.

The advantage was that from the beginning of the war to now, the carrier-based fighters on the Ford had performed fifteen airstrike missions, and none of them were intercepted by Aurora-20s. Perhaps it could be that Celestial Trade’s fighters were not designed to deal with severe weather conditions, apart from this reason, Hogg could not rationalize any other thoughts.

Inside the Ford bridge.

Like a sculpture, Hogg stood in front of the window of the bridge with his hands behind his back and his eagle-like eyes were fixated on the fighter that had just landed. It was impossible to tell what was going on inside his mind. The crew members inside the bridge were also busy in their respective posts. Except for the occasional work communication, there were no other voices.

“This damned weather,” Lieutenant Captain Griffin complained in a low voice as he looked out the window, “I wonder when it will end.”

If the weather condition did not improve, they would not be able to launch airstrikes against the defense force at Medellin and Bucaramanga, and the current situation would remain in a stalemate.

“How is the situation on the front line?”

“It’s still the same. Our people are pinned to the outskirts of Medellin. I heard that it’s worse on the ground, with visibility of fewer than 20 meters. Attacks in this kind of weather are too difficult. Not only do we have to beware of snipers from South Colombia, but we also have to watch out for mudslides that may happen at any time.”

“It’s not this that is even more worrying,” Griffin paused and continued, “I don’t know what Celestial Trade is doing. After the war began, other than the raid they launched in Barranquilla, the majority of the force seemed to be stuck at Tumaco.”

“This is indeed concerning,” Hogg nodded thoughtfully, then looked out the window, “I hope this storm will stop soon.”

Celestial Trade’s abnormal decision to keep its force stationary was concerning. For the NATO Coalition Force, the most critical point was to take Medellin in a blitz. As long as they controlled Medellin, no matter what Celestial Trade was plotting, they would have won half of the war.

However, instead of stopping, the storm seemed to be turning more severe.

Just as Hogg was about to sit down on the chair next to him, a string of dazzling red dots suddenly flashed on the radar screen.

As the incident happened so abruptly, everyone was caught off-guard for a second.

Major Admiral Hogg’s expression changed dramatically as he grabbed the radio on the table and shouted.

“Attention all units! Enemy aircrafts spotted!”

“Fighters take off immediately! Anti-aircraft firepower on standby!”

“…”

“Damnit, when did they approach us?!” After a series of orders were issued, Hogg slapped the radio down, then walked behind the radio observer as he stared at the screen and cursed fiercely.

A typical dual aircraft carrier battle group usually would adopt a three-tier system of offensive, defensive, and fire-fighting capabilities. The first and second tiers were used to attack the enemy and protect the entire aircraft carrier formation. The third tier was the defensive capabilities of each combat unit inside the battle group.

The first layer was the so-called outer defense zone. It was two hundred to four hundred kilometers away from the mothership. It was served by the SPY-4A carrier-borne long-range air search radar, military reconnaissance satellites, and E-2C early warning aircraft in the battle group. In the second layer of the middle defense zone, the shipborne SPY-1A phased array radar, as well as SPS-43, 49 and other long-range sea-to-air search radars serve as goalkeepers.

However, now, Celestial Trade’s fighters had directly penetrated through their first and second layers of defense, and they didn’t realize it until they appeared in front of their faces!

Obviously, Celestial Trade had upgraded their invisible materials; this situation had never occurred before!

The carrier-based fighters parked on the deck took off in an emergency.

On the other side, at the end of the deck, a series of white mist sprayed. Dragging the tail flames, countless air-to-air missiles galloped into the air, the defense turrets fired into the stormy sky, and layers of fire powers were sent into the curtain of rain.

On the radar screen, rows of red dots separated from the aircraft carrier approached the red dots that marked the Celestial Trade’s battle formation, then they collided together without any suspense.

The hit rate far exceeded Hogg’s expectations, and more than half of Celestial Trade’s “fighters” were hit by missiles!

However, what happened next made everyone widen their eyes. The rows of red dots stopped for a second before they continued forward as if nothing happened—

The fighters that were hit went unscathed!

The god-forsaken Celestial Trade! Are their planes made of steel?!

Hogg stood there dumbfoundedly, and it was the only thought left in his mind.

Fighters were not made with steel, but the NS-90s were.

In addition to being made out of titanium alloy armor, the disposable armor on the outside of NS-90 was entirely made of Grade-A steel doped with graphene materials. Not to mention the anti-aircraft turrets and air-to-air missiles on the USS Ford, even if it was Celestial Trade’s own electromagnetic rapid-fire cannon, the shots had a ricochet rate of 70%.

And even if the outer layer of armor was damaged, it did not matter, since it was designed to be “taken off” after it landed!

Mixed in the NS-90 formation were eleven “Wings of Freedom” and 24 Aurora-20s, when the battle formation was two kilometers away from the edge of the aircraft carrier battle group, the fighters began to separate from the NS-90. They avoided the incoming anti-aircraft firepower and rushed directly to the fighter squadron on the Ford Aircraft Carrier that had yet to finish taking off.

A dog fight was immediately set off.

The combat distance was compressed to its limit from the very beginning, and the flashing flares were like fireworks blooming in the rain.

The two sides were like line infantries. They exchanged the air-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles mounted under the wings immediately, then with the weights removed, they fought head-to-head with their guns and entered the bloodiest close combat.

Flames of the explosion connected in the air.

The trajectory of the bullets danced up and down in the heavy storm, and the broken wings and plane wreckages scattered down from the air from time to time.

On the other side, the NS-90s that landed on the deck of the Ford pushed away the damaged disposable armor, and locked onto the Marine Corp soldiers who fired back with their spindle-shaped heads. Inside the silent retina, a crimson light known as slaughter was awakened.

Without the obstruction of heavy armor, the NS-90s on the deck were like the sickle of the grim reaper. They unleashed their firepower through the heavy machine gun in their hands and harvested the life of the soldiers desperately trying to surround them.

For a moment, a bloody storm was also brewing on the deck.

“All land combat units on the ship, head to the deck immediately! WE NEED TO RETAKE OUR RUNWAY! QUICK!” Major Admiral Hogg roared into the radio.

NS-90!

The culprit who attacked the Barranquilla Military Base!

Hogg did not expect that this machine was not only capable of airborne ground operations but also could be used for raids on aircraft carriers.

At this moment, a brilliant ball of flame suddenly exploded in the middle of a missile frigate not far from the Ford.

The black plume of smoke floated up, and the entire ship was like a broken chopstick, breaking apart from the middle in a series of deafening cracking sounds. The seawater rushed in through the fracture but couldn’t swallow the burning flames. The sailors on the deck dived into the water, and they didn’t even have time to put on a lifebuoy. After a while, the guided-missile frigate was swallowed by the tumbling waves…

Inside the previously noisy bridge, the sudden silence was terrifying.

Major Admiral Hogg and Lieutenant Captain Griffin looked out the window dumbfoundedly. They both were at a loss for words.

They were momentarily lost, but the screaming report that echoed in the room finally pulled everyone in the bridge back into reality…

“OUR GUIDED-MISSILE FRIGATE SUNK! DAMN IT, it’s a Celestial Trade submarine!”

Chapter 1464: Is it necessary to bet?

Chapter 1464: Is it necessary to bet?

It was not just the guided-missile frigate that was sunk.

There was a total of four nuclear submarines that launched assaults beneath the ocean surface, all of which were modified by the dark technologies by the joint effort of Future Military and Future Heavy Industries. Apart from the hull that appeared to be similar to the Kilo-class diesel-powered submarine, there was not the slightest sign of the past.

Eight torpedoes were launched simultaneously, and the flames of the explosion lit the gloomy sea level into red.

After the Ford Aircraft Carrier Battle Group lost a guided missile frigate, a destroyer, and an attack nuclear submarine, the air defense capability was instantly weakened to a minimum. The already crumbing air superiority also began to favor Celestial Trade.

On the Ford aircraft carrier.

The flame of battle had burned from the deck to below the deck.

NS-90s used thermite to blow up some anti-aircraft weapons, melted through the sealed hatch, and split into two directions. Part of the AI soldiers went to the hangar, while the rest directly attacked the bridge.

The NS-90s that entered the ship went into a fierce exchange of fire inside the narrow hallways with the Marine Corps soldiers that arrived as backup. The bullets with orange-yellow trajectories bounced inside the steel hallways. The NS-90s relied on their strong armor and disdain for death to tear a path of blood through the Marine Corps’ line of defense.

On the other side, in the carrier hangar, the SEALs equipped with special equipment developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the NS-90s. The power armor that they mimicked did not bring many advantages. Although the anti-armor firepower was somewhat effective against NS-90s, the ten-to-one or even twenty-to-one loss exchange ratio made everyone’s morale depressed.

“…This is Delta, we’re engaging enemy units!”

“Weapon lift is destroyed! Celestial Trade has penetrated into the hangar, WE NEED BACKUP!”

“HOLD YOUR POSITION, DON’T RETREAT! SH*T! AHHHHH…”

The static noise that transmitted in Major Admiral’s ear turned his expression even gloomier.

There were less than two hundred NS-90s. Although he did not optimistically think that the war would be easy, he did not expect it to be so one-sided. The Delta Team in the hangar was equipped with the “Sea Beast” power armor developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The power armor was not only installed with the newly developed micro-jet engine, but the front armor was even installed with the expensive titanium alloy used on spacecraft!

The Delta was originally prepared for the orbital airborne brigade of Celestial Trade.

But it had already encountered its death here…

At this moment, the hatch was slammed open, and the Marine Corps officer who was shot in the shoulder stumbled in. Hogg instinctively reached for his waist, but after he saw the person, he immediately grabbed him and held him straight.

When everyone in the bridge saw the injuries on the officer’s body, people started to panic.

Everyone thought that their powerful Marines would eliminate the robots that landed on the deck and regain control of the deck and the weapon lift, but they didn’t expect the situation to deteriorate to this point!

“Wayne! What’s wrong with you.” Hogg held onto Wayne and said with a surprised and shocked look.

“We can’t hold the Ford anymore…Retreat…” Wayne was breathing heavily. After he was helped into a chair to sit down, he immediately grabbed Major Admiral Hogg’s hand and stared at his commander with bloodshot eyes. Slowly, word by word, he said, “Those robots…we can’t deal with them! Quickly…Retreat! N…ow…!”

Just as he spoke, there was an explosion outside the bridge.

Everyone inside the bridge felt the tremor from under their feet approaching.

“Retreat?”

There was a sign of misery on Hogg’s pale face. He looked at the rain curtain dotted with flames outside the window, and his tight shoulders suddenly relaxed.

“Where else can we retreat to?”

Their fighters were above sea level, their submarines were below sea level.

Whether above or below, they had no way out.

After all, the Pentagon underestimated the strength of the enemy. From the very beginning, this stupid war should not be fought…

The downpouring Caribbean Sea had already turned into a sea of flame.

Whether it was Celestial Trade launching a surprise attack on the Ford Aircraft Carrier Battle Group located outside the theater, or attacking the aircraft carrier by airdropping the NS-90s to the deck, the series of attacks all caught Pentagon completely off-guard.

However, what really caught the 150,000 NATO allied forces under Medellin by surprise was not the bloody storm in the Caribbean Sea. They didn’t need to face the bad news from hundreds of kilometers away, but more serious trouble was awaiting.

At the time when Celestial Trade launched an attack on the USS Ford, a heavily armed force on the southern coast of the Caribbean Sea moved quietly under the cover of a storm, along the mountainous area near the coastline, towards the North Colombia controlled Turbo…

…

“…Very good, I see.”

After Jiang Chen put the phone down, he took a deep breath, then a subtle smile began to form.

“You attacked the Ford aircraft carrier battle group?” Natasha’s expression changed dramatically as she immediately jumped up from the sofa, “Go to Russia with me.”

“Why are we going to Russia?” Jiang Chen was confused.

“To take you to the doctor! You are crazy!”

“Crazy?” After he processed what she said for a second, he started to laugh. Then he leaned back on the sofa and said in a mocking tone, “How come I don’t see any issues? Tell me how I am crazy?”

After Natasha took a deep breath, she said anxiously, “Pence is different from Hill. The ruling party is the Republican Party, and he is a hawk in the Republican Party! Do you think he is afraid to launch a strategic nuclear attack on Xin? You are betting with your own life!”

“Betting?” Jiang Chen smiled, and said in a relaxed tone, “Is it necessary to bet?”

“Are you still counting on strategic deterrence? How many of your missiles can escape interception during the boost phase? Don’t tell me you don’t know. The UA has deployed THAAD systems on Guam and Wake Island, and more than half of the aircraft carrier battle groups have been mobilized to the Pacific region! What is the strategic depth of Xin? Only a few hundred square kilometers in total?”

The boost phase was the ascending phase of the missile, which was the easiest phase for interception.

No matter how high the cruise orbit was nor how fast the speed was, it was necessary to accelerate from zero and it was the weakness of almost all intercontinental missiles.

With how anxious Natasha looked, even though he knew she was worried about his safety, Jiang Chen still couldn’t help but chuckle.

When she saw Jiang Chen not only did not “wake up”, but continued to smile, she rolled her eyes vigorously, sat back on the sofa with her arms folded, and breathed hard into her bangs, as if she was venting her dissatisfaction.

“If you’re scared, you can go back to your home for a while.” Jiang Chen joked.

“Scared? The word doesn’t exist in the blood of Slavs.” Natasha said with a cold look, “The worst scenario is to die with you.”

“Ahem, take it easy, it’s too early for us to die.” Jiang Chen comforted her, and after a short pause, he looked out of the living room window with ease, then he continued with a casual, relaxed tone, “Isn’t it just a nuclear strike? I will let you know what my real trump card is.”

Chapter 1465: A Surprise Attack On Turbo

Chapter 1465: A Surprise Attack On Turbo

The northern region of Apaltado was a mountainous region covered by tropical rainforest. The location was far away from highways and cities, with only an endless tropical rainforest that spanned the landscape. Other than a few villages scattered on the edge of the rainforest, there was not the slightest sign of human activity here.

The heavy rain in the past few days turned the already aged roads even muddier because of the water that washed down from the mountains. Even the most experienced explorers and travel companions would not choose to enter this rainforest at this time.

And at this moment, in the depths of this jungle, a group of soldiers armed to their teeth were marching in the direction of Turbo in an orderly manner.

“We’re almost there. We’ll get to Apaltado in 20 kilometers, which is the edge of this jungle! Then we will follow the highway to Turbo!” Andre shouted to the soldiers beside him. Andre, the captain of the South Colombian guerrilla, acted as the guide for Celestial Trade Army.

“Are you familiar with this area?” Gao Jian asked when he glanced at the satellite map on the holographic screen on his left arm.

“Of course,” there was a touch of pride that appeared from the corner of his mouth that was turned up, Andrew continued with his not-so-fluent Mandarin, “I grew up in this area. Even with my eyes closed, I can walk out of here.”

“It’s better to keep your eyes open,” Gao Jian looked around, “We are getting closer and closer to the enemy position.”

…

In the Turbo, the streets were empty without any civilians.

Because the location was close to the front line, the local residents were evacuated to the nearby city of Monteria by the North Colombian government forces. At this moment, port of Turbo was completely under the military control of the NATO Coalition Force. Not only were checkpoints set up at the main entrances, but soldiers wearing urban camouflage could occasionally be seen patrolling the streets.

Stationed here was the 27th Infantry Brigade and the legendary First Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment of the UA.

Although most supplies were transported from Monteria to the front lines, Turbo, as the front line of the war zone between North and South Colombia, possessed a strategic value that could not be underestimated. As the elite of the UA and the entire NATO Coalition Force, they were responsible for guarding the dead ends of the Coalition Force’s offensive front. Not only did they have to be on guard against South Colombia guerrillas from suddenly emerging from the rainforest and threatening the supply line, but they would also have to use their mobility advantage to launch a surprise attack against the South Colombia rear by directly mobilizing their troops through the rainforest.

This force could be described as a sharp blade hidden inside the sleeve of the NATO Coalition Force.

“Sh*t, I don’t know when this storm will end.” A young soldier from UA looked at the downpour outside the window cursed in annoyance. He sat by a checkpoint and waved his hand to get rid of the mosquitoes around him. “Compared to here, I would rather stay in the desert and feed the camels.”

It was raining, but there was not the slightest freshness in the air.

The air here was so humid all year round. It felt like breathing through a damp cloth. Coupled with the stalemate in the battle, all the soldiers from UA who looked forward to attacking the city inside a Hummer felt disappointed.

“It’s okay if it rains,” the shaggy veteran grinned. “It’s better than going to the frontline to die.”

“You’re kidding,” the soldier raised his eyebrows and said with disdain, “Against those apes that haven’t evolved?”

“The guerrillas in South Columbia are problematic, but they are not the threat.” The look in the veteran’s eyes turned into reminiscence, and after a pause, he continued, “Celestial Trade are different. They are not just a threat, but also deadly.”

As if he had heard something comical, the soldier pursed his lips and said in a half-joking tone.

“I do admit Celestial Trade are very strong, but don’t you think you look too highly of them? Our number is ten times as many as theirs. Our aircraft carrier battle group is cruising in the Caribbean, and their aircraft carrier? I almost forgot; they don’t even have one.”

There was a moment of silence before the veteran said.

“If you had participated in the Colombian Civil War last time, you wouldn’t have said that.”

“Really?” The soldier curled his lips again, then mocked in the same half-joking tone, “I think if we stood here last time, maybe this civil war would have ended last time.”

After the veteran heard his arrogant speech, he smiled and was about to refute. However, he felt alarmed.

He immediately reached for the rifle next to him, and just as he cautiously stood up, several short shots were fired simultaneously!

Pewpewpew!

The orange-yellow trajectories flickered, without the slightest warning and the soldiers from UA at the checkpoint collapsed into a pool of blood. The soldier who showed disdain prior was now on the ground. His pupils were dilated and it took a long time for the light in his eyes to diminish.

The thunder that exploded in the air covered up the gunshots that erupted at the checkpoint and no one was alerted.

The invisible boots stepped into the puddles, and the raindrops that dripped down outlined the kinetic skeleton. After they had confirmed that the entire checkpoint had been cleared, a dozen soldiers in K2 kinetic skeleton had assembled at the checkpoint while they gradually appeared under the rain.

The man in the front pressed his helmet and reported in a deep voice.

“Team B is in place. The checkpoint has been cleared.”

“Received. Attention all combat units, enter the town.”

“Roger!”

Like ghosts, a force covered by the jet-black kinetic skeleton appeared from the depth of shadows inside the rainforest. Pairs of iron boots stepped through the muddy road, and the heavily armed soldiers quickly passed through the emptied checkpoint and broke into the Port of Turbo controlled by the UA military.

The patrolling soldiers finally found these uninvited guests when the Celestial Trade soldiers infiltrated in.

“ENEMY ATTACK!”

With a loud roar, the attacked patrol team immediately buried their heads behind cover as they fired back with the rifle in their hands against the Celestial Trade soldiers. After a grenade launcher fired, it exploded at the door of a shop tens of meters away.

This explosion ignited the fierce confrontation between the two sides!

“Attention each unit, turn off the safety, fire freely! I repeat, fire freely!”

The whole town boiled.

The orange-yellow bullet trajectories weaved through the rain and intertwined into a giant net named death.

Gao Jian leaned against the cover, then quickly tapped on the holographic screen on his left arm a few times. The Hummingbird drone hovering in the air immediately rushed to the UA soldiers hiding behind cover, and the turret underneath immediately unleashed its fury.

The soldiers who were shot fell to the ground screaming; they were dragged into the bunker desperately by their uninjured comrades. Several light machine guns fired into the air, and soon two drones smashed down. However, their mission had already been completed.

Through the gap where the UA soldiers’ stopped firing back, Celestial Trade continued to advance forward rapidly.

Just as the UA soldiers stationed on the other side of the street responded in a hurry, the whistling sound of the propeller suddenly appeared above them. Cam, the commander of Company C of the First Ranger Battalion, who was in charge of the battle, suddenly looked up, and a look of joy appeared on his face.

“It’s our helicopter!”

The Apache gunship that suddenly appeared from among the buildings aimed with its turrets on both sides and the M230 cannon in the middle at the advancing Celestial Trade in the First Ranger Battalion’s position. However, Cam’s smile soon froze after merely two seconds.

A surface-to-air missile that dragged a white smoke column sprang up from the other side of the street. It had ignored all the flares in the air and directly slammed into the Apache!

With a loud bang, the Apache that had just appeared for two seconds plunged into the commercial street not far away and was surrounded by black smoke.

The burning launch tube scalded the raindrops into water mist. A “Crocodile” armored vehicle appeared from behind Celestial Trade and advanced onto the street. The machine gun in the center of the turret, which was as thick as a bowl, slowly stopped in the center. The armor reflected a pair of pupils that were gradually filled with fear…

Cam had only one thought in his mind.

How did their armored vehicles pass through that rainforest?

Chapter 1466: Sunk

Chapter 1466: Sunk

There was no suspense left in the ensuing battle.

Under the cover of the armored vehicles, Celestial Trade infantry pushed towards the center of Turbo through the four main roads. Originally, because of the existence of kinetic skeleton and Hummingbird drones, the UA soldiers’ individual firepower was inferior. With the armored vehicle’s support, the outcome of the war was already determined.

The rangers that suffered consecutive defeats continued to retreat, and finally established the last line of defense in the port area while they waited for the rescue team from the command post.

On the other side, on the mountain road to the west of Mount Palamillo, 30 kilometers away from Turbo.

The 34th Mechanized Brigade that arrived for reinforcement from the southeast was ambushed by the Fifth Armored Brigade of Celestial Trade near Chigorodo. The Tiger IIs hidden in the jungle opened fire and the shells launched from afar completely caught the UA 34th Mechanized Brigade mobilizing on the mountain road off guard.

Neither the M1A2 main battle tank nor the M2A3 infantry fighting vehicle could take a hit from the five-kilogram projectile accelerated to a speed beyond the speed of sound. If the shell landed on the tank track, it would knock the weight-bearing wheels off, and if the shell hit the body of the tank, it would penetrate the outer armor along with the inner depleted uranium armor.

More than twenty tanks broke down on the road. The 34th Mechanized Brigade, under the cover of the onboard smoke grenade, hastily fired back into the mountainous range while the force withdrew from the battlefield. Three Apache gunships immediately took off from the NATO Operation Base on the outskirts of Medellin and outflanked the Celestial Trade Fifth Armored Brigade in the mountain.

But the Apache formation only made it halfway there before it haplessly encountered the Aurora-20s that just returned from the Caribbean.

The battle between helicopters and fighters could only be described as a tragedy, not to mention that the helicopters’ bomb nest was full of ground-to-surface missiles on an anti-tank mission.

The fighters’ guns fired from a long distance away, and the Apache gunships did not even have a chance to fire flares before they crashed into the mountain.

The two Aurora-20 formations only glanced at the UA 34th Mechanized Brigade before they ignored the enemy force and continued their flight back to the military base in the Tumaco Special District. The UA soldiers on the ground all breathed a sigh of relief. If these fighters persisted, only a few tanks would survive with only so many air defense vehicles in the force.

However, they didn’t know that these Aurora-20s did not engage in a battle because they had exhausted the majority of their ammunition. If the UA force learned that these fighters just returned from the Caribbean, they would not be too happy either…

…

The support rockets launched from the outskirts of Medellin arrived at the battlefield, and the bombardment of rockets covered the mountain. However, Celestial Trade’s Fifth Mechanized Brigade had already dug out tank shelters two days ago, and NATO’s rockets did not even cause a splash other than a Tiger II that had its track belt accidentally blown off due to poor evasive maneuver.

Under the cover of rocket bombardment, the 34th Mechanized Brigade finally gained the opportunity to continue its retreat. As for the 27th Infantry Brigade and the 75th Ranger Battalion that fought in Turbo, except for a small number of them that withdrew to the direction of Monteria, most of them were disarmed by Celestial Tarde besieging the port.

…

The silence inside the headquarters was terrifying.

Just two hours ago, they were still discussing where Celestial Trade, which seemed to be disconnected from the battle from the very start, had gone. However, unexpectedly, they bypassed NATO Coalition Force’s main force, passed through more than 300 kilometers of tropical rain forest, and directly raided Turbo on their flank.

No wonder they did not appear for more than a week; they went into the rain forest!

Because of the harsh climate, neither early warning aircraft nor observation satellites were able to detect their movement. Especially given that the two strategic cities of Medellin and Bucaramanga were both at a critical juncture, NATO’s attention was all pulled to South Colombia, and they did not expect Celestia Trade to launch such a sneaky attack.

“Immediately destroy the road from Turbo to Monteria, and move a mechanized division from the front line to garrison in Monteria!” General Felton was the first to break the silence in the command post. As the top commander of the NATO Coalition Force, he made a decisive decision and immediately ordered.

“But on North Columbia’s side…” Deputy Commander Belleden frowned.

“If we allow Celestial Trade to cut off our supply line, 170,000 NATO soldiers and 200,000 North Colombian soldiers will be in danger! I will explain to Vargas. Now, immediately send engineers to blow up the road, before Celestial Trade moves towards Monteria! YOU MUST ACT FAST!”

The officer standing next to him hesitated, took a look at Deputy Commander Belleden, and finally gritted his teeth, stood straight, saluted, and ran out of the post.

“ROGER!”

After a pause, Felton then looked at the correspondent sitting in front of the computer and ordered.

“Contact the Ford aircraft carrier battle group immediately and ask them to send F-16s for reconnaissance in Turbo. I need to know how many enemies, how many armored vehicles, and how many tanks there are. They must get an accurate number!”

“Roger… Damnit, I can’t get in touch with them, they’re not responding.”

When Felton heard these words, he was visibly stunned, then he frowned.

“We can’t reach them?”

It seemed too abnormal.

Based on the combat order issued by the top military command, to effectively support the Columbia battlefield, all combat units of the Ford aircraft carrier battle group had to be on standby at all times. Even if it was not the case, the loss of communication absolutely could not happen in this state.

Could it be EMP?

Felton quickly denied this possibility.

Large units such as aircraft carriers and destroyers were designed with electromagnetic pulses in mind, and it had been confirmed during the last Colombian Civil War that EMP weapons have minimal impact on aircraft carrier battle groups.

Just then, the satellite phone in Felton’s pocket suddenly rang.

There was only one place that could reach the number on this phone. Without any hesitation, Felton pressed the connect button and put the phone closer to his ear.

“Hello?”

“…”

The command room became quiet.

General Felton’s expression gradually turned gloomy, and the officers in the room all felt something was wrong.

About five minutes later, the call finally ended.

Felton didn’t say a few words from beginning to end, except for “mhm” and “yes”, all that was left was a silence that was even more depressing than his face.

“The call was from the top military command,” he broke the silence and put the satellite phone back into his pocket. He took a deep breath and slowly said, “…bad news.”

“What happened?” Belleden frowned.

“Our Ford aircraft carrier battle group…” One word at a time, Felton squeezed the sentence out from his gritted teeth. With all the eyes in the room looking at him in surprise and uncertainty, he finally finished the last half of the sentence, “…was sunk.”

Chapter 1467: 72 Hour Ultimatum

Chapter 1467: 72 Hour Ultimatum

To be precise, it was not sunk but occupied.

If Celestial Trade’s goal was to sink the Ford aircraft carrier, then it would not be necessary to go through the trouble to drop the NS-90s there; two anti-ship missiles would be enough to do the job. Or a category six hurricane would also shred these steel ships into pieces.

However, for Jiang Chen’s next plan, an aircraft carrier was necessary.

Therefore, this new generation of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers developed with the most cutting-edge technology in the UA was graciously accepted by Jiang Chen.

Celestial Trade did not only take control of the Ford but also an anti-submarine frigate, a guided-missile destroyer, and two supply ships. As for the other ships and submarines, they were sunk one by one after the Aurora-20s and Wings of Freedoms gained air supremacy.

After the mission was complete, the Aurora-20s returned to the airport in Tumaco for resupply, while Wings of Freedoms landed on the aircraft carrier to prevent the UA from blowing up the carrier. It was not until Aurora-20s completed the resupply did Wings of Freedoms changed defenses and returned to the airbase for resupply.

This epic victory would go down as one of the most spectacular ones in history.

More than two thousand UA Navy soldiers were captured. Except for a small number of crews who were left behind, most of the captives were quickly sent to Port of Tumaco, occupied by the 11th Aerofleet Brigade of Celestial Trade, where they were locked up with the UA soldiers who had surrendered.

Although Celestial Trade did not join the Geneva Convention, the treatment of prisoners of war had been quite generous. It was the case since the last Colombian Civil War. As long as the soldiers surrendered their weapons honestly, not only could they enjoy beef, bread, and vegetable soup every day, but they would also be able to return home safely after the war.

Because of this, these captives who were fed like pigs behaved quite obediently.

After all, it was not their war, and no one felt ashamed of surrendering.

Although these captives were not ashamed, the Rainbow House and the top military command obviously thought otherwise.

…

In their view, Celestial Trade’s air strike on the Ford aircraft carrier battle group in the Caribbean had already escalated the situation beyond the scope of a regional conflict. This had given the UA a sufficient reason to burn the flames of war outside Colombia.

Just when the world was shocked by the news that the “Ford aircraft carrier battle group collapsed”, the Rainbow House issued an ultimatum to Celestial Trade. Celestial Trade was required to return the aircraft carrier within 72 hours and release the detained prisoners of war, otherwise, they would pay the consequences…

In addition, the Rainbow House asked the embassies of various countries to withdraw from Coro City immediately.

During this time, the heavy rain that gathered over South America seemed to be showing signs of drifting across the ocean…

After the Rainbow House’s “72 Hour Ultimatum” was issued, panic spread among the people of the two countries.

Whether it was the citizens of UA or the people in Xin, they all felt anxiety and concern about the opponent they were about to face. One was a veteran world power, and the other was a rising star in the 21st century. A moment ago, everyone was still together dreaming of going hand in hand to the future. However, they were now fighting because of an unrelated country…

At least in the eyes of most of the people in UA.

“Why should we bet on the future of our country for the sovereignty of Colombians? If the president still has a brain, stop this war!”

“Oh, God, although these things shouldn’t be said… I thought that after the idiot stepped down, a slightly more normal guy would take power. Couldn’t even this little demand be fulfilled?”

“Against nuclear weapons! We want peace, not nuclear war!”

“…”

Anti-war demonstrations did not just happen in the Capital, but also in Coro City. Some protested against Jiang Chen, and some protested against Celestial Trade. Even though most people in Xin enjoyed the prosperity brought about by Celestial Trade, not everyone was satisfied with this violent organization that ruled above the country.

External pressure and fear of nuclear weapons seemed to ignite this emotion.

Twenty-four hours after the ultimatum was issued, about 50,000 protesters marched on the street and blocked the road outside the Presidential Palace of Xin, which forced New Moon Island to urgently dispatch a rapid response force. Immediately after physical altercations broke out between these anti-war activists and nationalists, the entire Coro City police force had to respond to this mass incident.

In order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, police drones were ordered to fire rubber bullets. In the end, even the firefighters were mobilized; they had to rely on fire trucks and water guns, which in the end barely kept the situation under control. After the police detained a number of leading instigators, most of the protestors finally dispersed…

After Zhang Yaping reported the incident on the phone, Jiang Chen was not too bothered. He just instructed a few things about maintaining stability, then ended the call.

He knew very well that before long, all dissatisfaction and protests would disappear with a victory. This war would witness the rise of a country and the decline of old-world hegemony. The people of Xin would hold him to the supreme throne. As for the people of the world…

After the formation of the Earth Federation, history would understand his actions today.

“…They actually thought we were planning to move to Monteria?” Jiang Chen, who sat on the sofa in the living room, almost laughed out loud when he heard Ivan’s report on the NATO coalition blowing up the highway from Tumaco to Monteria. After a short pause, he continued half-jokingly, “It seems that they have saved us a lot of trouble with their short-sightedness.”

Soon they would know how ridiculously wrong they were.

How could it be possible that Celestial captured the Port of Tumaco just to cut off the supply of the NATO Coalition Force? Obviously, the officers of the Pentagon and the NATO Coalition Force only saw what was on the surface. In other words, from the beginning, they were afraid and unwilling to consider another possibility…

“Yes indeed.” Ivan’s tone was also mixed with a hint of laughter.

“Then proceed as planned,” Jiang Chen looked at the time on his watch and continued with a relaxed tone, “Our starship will arrive on the battlefield in twenty-four hours, and I will wait for the good news on TV.”

“Roger!”

Ivan in the holographic screen gave a military salute and then ended the communication.

“You can still laugh.” Sitting across from him with her arms folded, Natasha rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, and said with a tone of defeat, “Do you know that the UA has mobilized five aircraft carrier battle groups to the Western Pacific?”

“…Aircraft carrier battle groups,” Xia Shiyu frowned, then she looked at Jiang Chen, and wondered, “Is there going to be a war?”

The war Xia Shiyu naturally referred to was a total war between Celestial Trade and the UA, rather than a regional war started by a third country.

“Did I forget to say it?” Jiang Chen smiled and said softly, “In fact, it started a long time ago.”

This war was destined not to be confined to Colombia from the very beginning.

With the end to Sugar Cube Diplomacy, the UA had already made up its mind to take the most dangerous and most suitable path for their identity. However, Celestial Trade would not allow that to happen, nor would there be a reason to back down at this time.

Xia Shiyu didn’t have much interest in the war itself, let alone she already suspected that this day would happen. Therefore, she didn’t say much more. After a moment of silence, she sighed helplessly.

“…Forget it, as long as you’re happy.”

Natasha glanced at Xia Shiyu as if she had seen a ghost, then she burst out.

“Why are you not persuading this guy, do you know what he is doing?”

Xia Shiyu smiled slightly and said nothing.

Although she did not follow the war closely, as the CEO of Future Group with the highest authority, she was well aware of the secret weapons in Celestial Trade’s possession. The deployment of the weather weapon was done through Future Heavy Industries, so she not worried about aircraft carrier battle groups at all.

As for the nuclear strike…

She was even less concerned.

Chapter 1468: Trident Missiles

Chapter 1468: Trident Missiles

“Have you heard? There is going to be a war…”

“War? Didn’t the war start a long time ago?”

“It’s not Colombia… I heard Celestial Trade attacked the Ford aircraft carrier battle group in the Caribbean…”

“What the fu*k?! Why are they…”

“How long have you been off-the-grid? Anyway, I’m going to go back to Hua for a while and wait until the dust settles before coming back. If you plan to leave, you’d better make a decision as soon as possible. I booked the ticket yesterday—”

“FU*K… Damn, all the tickets for next week have been sold out!” The man held his mobile phone and vented out with regret.

In the past two days, similar conversations were common in Penglai.

It seemed that no one was optimistic that Xin could win this war.

The dictator finally caught himself in a mess after playing with fire. The Rainbow House’s 72 hour ultimatum was obviously not a joke. The five aircraft carrier battle groups had already assembled in the Pacific and were mobilizing towards the Western Pacific. Perhaps the Rainbow House had secretly passed the document for launching a nuclear strike on the industrial facilities of Xin so that both Ange Island and Coro City would not escape the disaster.

Celestial City, Earth Observation Center of the Space Department.

In Xin’s time, it was now eight o’clock in the evening.

All vacations were canceled, and Celestial Trade was in the most critical moment. The staff sat nervously in front of the computer; their eyes kept staring at the satellite observing radar. Some people hadn’t slept for 24 consecutive hours, and they were completely fueled on caffeine until now.

At this moment, an exclamation broke the busy silence in the Earth Observation Center.

“IT’S LAUNCHED!” An observer, who was in charge of satellite numbered W14, stood up suddenly from his seat. He pointed his finger at the red dot on the radar screen. “The coordinates are N29°04, W154°20, and the missile type is UGM-133A “Trident” submarine-launched ballistic missile! A total of twelve have been launched!”

“Two hours ahead of the original 72 hours…”

The observer sitting nearby also observed the twelve missiles on the radar, and couldn’t help but curse out.

“I knew those bastards wouldn’t keep their promises!”

“Launched from a nuclear submarine?” Qi Yingze, the director of the observation center, walked quickly to the side of the W14 satellite observation terminal. He looked at the radar with a frown, put down the coffee cup in his hand, then said. “Can you determine the type of nuclear submarine?”

“It should be the UA Ohio-class nuclear submarine!” The observer replied.

“Report the coordinates of the submarine to the Celestial Navy immediately!” Qi Yingze directly ordered, “Notify the Space Department headquarters and let them prepare for nuclear strikes!”

“ROGER!”

…

Ten minutes after the Trident missiles were observed, the air defense alarm sounded over Coro City. Police drones patrolling the streets repeated the same words through the intercoms.

“…enemy airstrike will arrive in Coro City in ten minutes. Please stay at home and do not leave your home. Celestial Trade promise to ensure the safety of all citizens’ property from illegal forces, please… ”

As early as three days ago, all cities in Xin, including Penglai, had implemented a curfew. The sudden air defense alarm did not cause a lot of panic because there were no tourists in Coro City, and all the citizens living there at this time were staying at home because of the curfew.

It was rational for the citizens to panic, but when they saw their President still standing in front of the Presidential Palace and being interviewed by their media, the fear in their hearts was slightly dispelled. The thought that someone would bear all the consequences regardless of destruction or victory brought a sense of comfort.

At nine o’clock in the evening, twelve rays of light appeared in the sky.

Some people screamed, some hid under the bed with hands around their head, some prayed with sobs, and some quietly took out a bottle of cold beer from the fridge and sat in the courtyard, as if they were waiting for celebratory fireworks, waiting quietly for the arrival of the final moment.

Everyone was aware of what arrived.

After all, what should have come did come.

Two Trident missiles arrived above Coro City, which even made the UA, who pressed the launch button, surprised by how smooth the journey was. Soon, the nuclear warheads mounted on the Trident missiles exploded, the light of the nuclear explosion dispersed the entire night, and engulfed the entire sky in the boundless mushroom cloud.

The distant and faint roar shook the eardrums of everyone who was crawling under the mushroom cloud.

Just when everyone thought their life was over, something that surprised everyone happened.

The nuclear explosion did happen, and the mushroom cloud did rise, but the destructive shock wave did not arrive. Everyone was still alive as they watched the mushroom cloud disperse, and was slowly carried away by the passing sea breeze…

It was like a miracle from God!

“God… Am I dreaming? Am I still alive?” A middle-aged man, about 40 years old, got out of the bed and looked out the window in a daze. Tears gradually filled his eyes as he murmured, “I’m still alive… …”

“Honey! WE ARE STILL ALIVE!” A young man and woman hugged each other and passionately kissed each other. Finally, they rolled onto the bed and kicked away their shoes and clothes.

“Unbelievable, it’s like a miracle! No, this is a miracle!” The old priest sitting in the church repeatedly rubbed his fingers against the cross on his chest as he muttered frantically.

“Long live Xin! Long live Celestial Trade! Fu*k nuclear weapons! Fu*k the Yankees! We are invincible!” The drunk man stood on his balcony and shouted loudly. If it was any other day, his troublesome neighbor would definitely report him for disturbance, but today, that didn’t happen.

Because he yelled out the thought that was shared in everyone’s hearts.

If even nuclear weapons couldn’t conquer them, what else could defeat them?

This war, from this moment on, was already decided.

Just five minutes after the nuclear strike hit Coro City, the Rainbow House held a press conference. In front of the media reporters across the UA and the world, the spokesperson of the Rainbow House used an apologetic tone to announce this “regretful” fact to the media.

“Just over an hour ago, we had launched twelve Trident missiles. Perhaps there was some malfunctioning to their radar system, our missiles were not intercepted. And just five minutes ago, the Rainbow House had asked the top military command about whether the nuclear missiles successfully hit the target, and the answer we received was ‘Yes’.”

“We express our concern and regret for the disaster the people of Xin are enduring.”

“But we believe that a new homeland that has more freedom and equality, a new world free from the oppression of illegal enterprises, oligarchs, and puppet governments, will enable the Xin people to live in a better future…”

“And we will shoulder the responsibility of a great country and help the people who have suffered to rebuild their homes.”

The damage assessment of nuclear weapons could not be confirmed for the time being.

It was because all the military observation satellites in the UA were destroyed by the Celestial Trade missiles three days ago.

The “Trident” missiles that were launched to Xin used pre-calculated launch parameters. Although there would be a certain amount of error, what would be the difference between an error of one or two kilometers for something like nuclear weapons?

The UA’s top military command was only aware that the nuclear missiles were “launched”, “hit”, or “exploded”, but it was enough…

But was it really enough?

Chapter 1469: An Invincible Shield

Chapter 1469: An Invincible Shield

“A proactive businessman should have a loop-free contract, but also an invincible armor,” Jiang Chen looked at the dome that shrouded the entire city and the mushroom cloud that gradually dispersed. From corners of his lips turned up, he seemed to be smiling, then he raised his wine glass to the sky outside, “Cheers to our victory.”

The mushroom cloud slowly scattered above the Holy Shield.

The air current generated by the weather weapon would gently carry the dust formed at an altitude of 20 kilometers above Coro City toward the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Radiation dust was an issue, but Xin did not have to deal with it. The weather weapon would return the nasty dust through the Pacific Rim monsoon back to the UA intact. As for the dust that remained, Future Heavy Industries and Future Biology would clean it up.

Of course, it would be the UA war reparations that paid for the clean-up costs.

Natasha stood next to Jiang Chen with her neck extended. She stared at the curtain of light above the city, dumbfounded.

“What is that?”

“That is a shield.” After he put the wine glass down, Jiang Chen smiled, crossed his fingers over his knees, and said in a casual nonchalant tone, “The spear that can penetrate it does not exist in this world right now.”

The last time he came back from the apocalypse, he brought back two things.

One thing was the weather weapon.

As for the other thing, it was naturally the Holy Shield system.

“…I finally know why you are so calm now,” Natasha muttered as she continued to stare at the sky in a daze.

“Thank you for the compliment,” Jiang Chen laughed, “By the way, I enjoyed the expression on your face.”

“…But how do you defend against an attack on the space elevator?” When Natasha saw the subtle but mischievous smile on Jiang Chen’s face, she couldn’t stop blushing when she recalled how she had persuaded Jiang Chen to go to Moscow a few days ago. She was not ready to admit defeat yet as she said, “Your space elevator is 36,000 kilometers long. How are you going to defend against NATO missile attacks?”

“36,000 kilometers is indeed very long, but our laser air defense array is not weak either,” Jiang Chen smiled and continued, “Think about it, if they plan to rely on numbers to break through our laser air defense array, what kind of missile do you think they will use?”

Although he phrased it as a question, there was obviously only one answer.

The UA top military command would certainly not choose an intercontinental missile with heavy combat components, because that missile would be an easy target for Celestial Trade’s laser air defense array. If the goal was to rely on quantity to breakthrough Celestial Trade’s air defense, then the best choice would be the BGM-109C, Tomahawk cruise missile, with moderate range, moderate power, and relatively moderate cost!

“Did you forget that the five aircraft carrier battle groups have arrived near the Mariana Islands?” Natasha gave Jiang Chen a suspicious look. “They are fully capable of launching hundreds of Tomahawks into your space elevator at the same time.”

“Aircraft carrier battle groups?” After he took the refilled wine glass from Ayesha, he smiled nonchalantly, “If they still exist in this world, they can indeed do this.”

“Are you!” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief, and her mouth was wide open, “…but, how is this possible?! That’s five aircraft carrier battle groups! Even…”

Even if the Guardian-class frigate modified with electromagnetic pulse cannon was powerful enough, it would be an exaggeration to believe Celestial Trade navy could match against five aircraft carrier battle groups. Not to mention, all the submarines of Celestial Trade were in the Caribbean at the moment.

“Even if there are more than 70 fishes in the Pacific Ocean, it’ll take some time to fish them out, right?” Jiang Chen laughed and shook his head, “But for nature, it is not difficult to destroy five aircraft carrier battle groups at the same time.”

For nature?

Natasha was taken aback for a moment and didn’t understand the meaning of Jiang Chen’s words immediately.

“There is only one advantage of using force to solve the problem.”

Jiang Chen ended the previous topic with a sentence with unclear meaning without further explaining.

He used his finger to click on the holographic screen of his watch, pressed two buttons on the screen randomly, then turned it off. He continued to look at the still clear night sky with a smile, then he softly said.

“That is to get an immediate response.”

Since it was Mr. Pence who first pressed the nuclear button.

Then no matter what he did now, no one would consider his response to be excessive.

…

“5”

“4”

“3”

“2”

“1”

“0”

“Launch.”

The two launch buttons were pressed down simultaneously.

The blinding electric arc flickered for an instant, and a silver wire as thin as a toothpick separated from the small ship sailing around the synchronous orbit.

It was so slender, so minuscule, and as light as a feather. Compared with the land under it and the universe behind it, it was so insignificant that everyone would ignore its existence.

But at the moment it made contact with the atmosphere, the silver line began to shine, and instantly turned into a hundred-meter-long fire dragon, like a second Sun rising from the horizon, it roared and screamed towards the land underneath. The scorching high temperature melted the ablation material on its surface. Even the strong and high-temperature resistant titanium alloy material started to deteriorate, and it gradually peeled back the tungsten rod…

That tungsten rod!

Under the action of the built-in gyroscope, it formed a straight line with the coordinate to be hit.

Its speed was too fast.

So fast that it only appeared on the radar of W State Air Force Base for a second.

And when the people standing directly under it finally discovered the “redundant” Sun, everything was already over.

The fire touched the ground, and no echo was heard in space. A cross-shaped crack was permanently engraved on the blue planet, followed by a vortex-like collapse that turned the plain into a basin, the basin was then filled to form a hill. The flames of tens of thousands of degrees burned on the withered grass, and the raging shock wave swept through everything and turned everything into carbon; turned everything into ruins…

The rolling shockwave swept across the earth and brought sand and dust over the town hundreds of kilometers away. The farmer sitting on the tractor slightly raised his head as if he was wondering what the light was just now. People ran from their home to the street, then looked at each other in shock. They thought there was an earthquake.

However, it was not until half an hour later that they learned from the town’s broadcast, Facebook, and Twitter on their phones, what happened to the W State Air Force Base less than 50 kilometers away from them, and other military bases in the UA that stocked strategic nuclear weapons…

The button was pressed down countless times.

Tungsten-rod projectiles were fired from the cannon of the SS Expedition in a burst of dazzling white light.

This weapon that was originally designed for the Devil Worm and the Spitter had been used to slaughter the same kind. Fortunately, it was a war to end all wars. It would be the last time such a weapon was used on humans…

Hopefully.

Pacific Strategic Weapons Facility, Andrews Air Force Base, Warren Air Force Base, New Mexico Air Force Base, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota Plant, Bucks Air Force Base, Ellsworth Air Force Base, Missouri Strategic Weapons Facility…

For over a year, Ghost Agents, with the help of KGB agents, collected this list.

All military facilities that stored or were suspected of storing nuclear weapons were included in the bombing range of the kinetic bombardment weapon. Whether this military base was located in the wilderness or in the downtown area of a small town, from the moment President Pence pressed the nuclear button, the assessment of civilian casualties had been removed from the assessment of orbital bombardment.

In the center of the bridge of SS Expedition.

Reflected in his eyes was a sea of fire, the Captain of Expedition stood below a holographic screen like a sculpture, with calmness and poise between his eyebrows.

In front of him, there were images taken by the observation satellite aerial. Each image corresponded to a military base, and each cluster of flame corresponded to a dead life.

Of the fifty military bases included in the strike range, not all of them were stocked with nuclear warheads, but as long as they were stocked with nuclear warheads or other strategic weapons, most of them were baptized by a second bombardment.

At this time, his deputy walked up to him and performed a clean salute.

“The Celestial Marines are ready to depart!”

The captain nodded slowly, then raised his arm to look at his watch.

A fierce look appeared in the eyes under the brim of the general’s hat.

He spoke.

“Seventh and Eighth Orbital Airborne Brigades, Ninth Power Armor Brigades, all ground combat units enter the launch port.”

“Coordinates, Capital, UA.”

“Execute the airborne mission!”

Chapter 1470: Descending From Above

Chapter 1470: Descending From Above

Although there was a curfew in Coro City, the curfew did not exist on the Internet. The first moment when the nuclear missile detonated, some people who were not afraid of death even put their hand out of the window and live-streamed the explosion with their phone.

“That is… a nuclear explosion?”

“It has to be a drill right…”

“This is fake, I’m gone.”

“I think it might be a holographic projection. Isn’t that what Future Technology is best at? Maybe they have intercepted the nuclear missiles on the high seas long ago…”

“I like the holographic projection theory… the streamer can go to sleep now.”

Like other residents of Coro City who had survived the disaster, the streamer who was live-streaming the sky above him was completely shocked. He had forgotten about the countless comments and gifts, and also forgot what he was doing at this moment.

Until yesterday, he was still weeping and crying over the fact that he couldn’t buy a plane ticket. Since he thought he was dead anyway, with the thought of becoming the first person to live-stream a nuclear explosion, he opened the live stream app, but he didn’t expect to actually live…

In any case, he was destined not to be the first person that live-streamed a nuclear explosion. When the nuclear explosion happened, he was not the only person that pointed their phone at the sky, there was also another Youtube streamer that did the same thing.

All kinds of pictures and videos about the nuclear explosion in Coro City had rapidly gone viral on the Internet. People clicked on them with suspicion; some had reposted them; some people scorned them. But regardless of what people thought, the dazzling cinematic effects alone made most people repost…

Ironically, in these short five minutes, the Rainbow House spokesperson who held the press conference and the media reporters that were at the press conference became the last to learn of the news…

Even if they knew, most of them wouldn’t believe it.

“All twelve Tridents have hit the target. Sh*t, this is too crazy…” Mike Pence’s shoulders were trembling with tension as he walked along the hallway of the Rainbow House, “This is crazy!”

There were two reasons why he felt tension.

One was excitement, the other was still excitement.

One Trident missile was loaded with eight 100,000-ton W-76 nuclear warheads (maximum 14). Originally, in their plan, they would be thankful if two or three nuclear warheads could successfully hit the mainland of Xin. No one expected that all twelve Trident missiles to hit the target. The 96 nuclear warheads were enough to blow up the industrial facilities of Celestial Trade into complete residues…

It was foreseeable that Xin had turned into purgatory on Earth. Perhaps human rights organizations, environmental protection organizations, and other UN member states or even their allies would condemn him and cause issues. He would get headaches over this for the next four years in the office, or he could even face impeachment from the left.

But he was not afraid!

As his military adviser said, the UA would become the most powerful country in the world by absorbing the technology of Celestial Trade, and as a gambler who brought the country to victory in this war, he was well-deserved to be named as the greatest President in this century. He turned the tide and pressed the nuclear button that tore up the paper tiger known as Celestial Trade…

His assistant trotted after Mike Pence and after he caught up, he reported.

“Mr. President, John Corning is looking for you. He is in your office now.”

“Let him wait for me there. I need to go to Congress to solve the problem of refugee resettlement in the Xin War now,” Mike Pence said, “There is nothing more important than this. We must let those who are eager to move to keep cool.”

“But he seems to be worried…” the assistant hesitated.

Mike Pence stopped, stared at his assistant, and said unmovingly.

“I said, let him wait.”

The assistant looked at the President in a daze, then nodded after a long time.

“Okay, okay…”

“Then go now.”

After he got rid of the assistant, Mike Pence straightened his collar and continued to head out.

Okay, he admitted that he had gloated.

But he thought it was necessary.

As the leader that would lead this country back to the pinnacle of hegemony, he had to let the FBA director who was promoted by the former president and the Wall Street capitalists understand who ran the show here.

It was a necessary show of force against Wall Street.

Otherwise, if he allowed them to continue to point fingers at him, it would be difficult to carry out his work in the future as the President.

Mike Pence continued to walk forward. As he walked, he thought about if he should find an opportunity to replace John Corning from the position of FBA director. He could not sleep well at night if he allowed a chess piece to be in a position of such importance. He could potentially try to draw the CIB closer, and then the deputy director of the FBA…

At this moment, the entire Rainbow House shook violently, and the chandelier in the dome swung wildly from side to side.

If it weren’t for the female intern of the mailroom that stepped forward in a hurry to help him, he would have fallen.

“Thank you…damn it, is it an earthquake?” Mike Pence stood up awkwardly and glanced out the window in anger.

However, as soon as he looked outside, his eyes were quickly glued to the window, and he froze in place.

“What is that?”

…

BEEP!

The highway was congested to a standstill, and the car horns beeped one after another.

People who thought there was an earthquake fled from the building to the street in a panic, which seriously congested the traffic in the Capital.

After he pushed open the car door, a man in a suit and tie stepped out of the car into the standstill traffic and with his right hand holding the car door, he looked into the sky with a frown.

“What is that…”

Not far away, a big hole broke through the clouds.

It seemed like the cloud was being penetrated by something!

Vaguely, he recalled that at the moment of the earthquake, he seemed to see a flash of light.

And now, a heavy gust of wind that carried an immense amount of dust blew by and swept in from the street directly in front of him.

Like everyone else on the street, the man subconsciously raised his arms, covered his eyes and nose, and hid behind the car door.

When he put down his raised arm, haggard by the gust of wind, he looked back into the air again, he was petrified.

One word was made out from his trembling lips.

“Sh*t…”

HUUUUUU!

Along with the coarse roar, rows of burning dragons seemed to burn and tear the entire sky apart. From the distance, the lava falling down seemed like an oil painting in a frame, like the doomsday scroll depicted in the book of Revelation – “The horseshoes of the four horsemen of the apocalypse trample on, earthquake, disaster and plague come into the world, the angel blew the trumpet and dropped down the burning blood and lotus…”

Finally, someone screamed.

“STOP IT!”

Before everything ended, it was naturally impossible to stop.

A series of meteors that pierced the sky fell to the ground, followed by loud bangs that shook the earth. The hit building collapsed with cement and steel bars exposed, the trampled car was turned into scrap metals, the streetlamp was snapped in half, and the flat highway was filled with cobweb-like cracks.

Vehicles were overturned, and amidst the billowing dust, what stood up were the power armors that radiated a dark blue arc behind its back. The thick steel arm and the black hole muzzle exuded a chill, deadly vibe. Behind them, there were many airdrop cabins, staggered apart.

The door of the airdrop cabins opened, and fighters in kinetic skeletons ran out with rifles in their hands, then they gathered in formation. Next to them, a group of drones swarmed out of the drone hive and assembled in the air into a dense attack formation.

The preparations for war were ready.

They were only waiting for one command.

The power armor in the front stepped forward and fired a warning shot into the air.

As he looked at the crowd screaming and fleeing, he raised his arm and fired a flare for assemble.

“This is Beast-1, the coordinates are on the south bank of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. We have successfully landed…”

Chapter 1471: Unstoppable

Chapter 1471: Unstoppable

Andrews Air Force Base, located 8 miles east of Capital, was where the Air Force One and helicopters used by the President were located. The main objective of this air force base was to provide rapid response capabilities to emergency situations that seriously endanger national security and to provide support for the Air and Space Expeditionary Force.

However, just a few minutes ago, a tungsten rod turned this place into ruins.

And it was the cause of the earthquake that just happened.

At this moment, downtown Capital.

The piercing alarm sounded throughout the city center, but it could not stop the fear in people’s minds.

Amid the sirens, police cars, explosion-proof vehicles, and armored vehicles rushed to the root of the chaos. They pushed away vehicles abandoned in the middle of the road and lined up on the highway to form a line of defense. The police force took out their pistols and Remington shotguns and squatted nervously beside the police vehicles. On the other side, the heavily armed anti-terrorist force that acted as the main defensive force was on guard. They raised their rifle and explosion-proof shield while their pupils under the helmet were laser-focused—

BANG!

A rocket overturned the armored vehicle parked in the middle of the road.

The police hiding nearby covered their head, but at this moment, there was an intensive wave of bullets that arrived from the other side of the street.

The dense bullets blew by like a storm and directly penetrated the hood and door of the police cars. There were countless police that got shot and fell onto the ground with bloody wounds. The prepared special forces had already started to return fire, but against the fierce firepower of the power armors, they were at a disadvantageous position from the very start, and they were pinned down in position.

The heavy machine guns on the armor vehicles were effective, but they were up against power armors. In front of agile single-soldier anti-tank weapons, the fragile armor was like a piece of paper, pierced easily by the Python rocket.

“This is BAKER1, this is BAKER1. We are under attack by the enemy’s armed forces! They are advancing towards the Lincoln Memorial, and we need reinforcement… FU*K! SH*T! WHERE THE FU*K IS OUR ARMY! When I signed up for this job, no one had told me I had to fight in a war—”

Curled up behind the police car, the middle-aged sergeant clung to the radio in his hand and his roaring voice sounded a little distorted.

His arms were covered with blood from the people next to him, and a bullet just grazed his forehead and left an open wound. He was only 1mm away from being shot in the head. The empty shell clanged and fell to the ground, but he didn’t dare to peek out behind cover again.

BOOM!

With a muffled sound, the special force soldier squatted next to him suddenly raised his head, then collapsed onto the ground. He screamed in fear when he saw the power armor that crossed through their defensive position. Mentally collapsed, he threw away his pistol and kneeled by the police vehicle with his head covered.

“I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER! I…”

After a long time, he tremblingly lifted his head from under his arms.

His face was completely red.

Maybe it was because he threw away his weapon, maybe it was because he was considered not a threat at all, in short, the Celestial Trade force simply ignored him. And only then did he realize that those people had already gone far…

The police in the Capital had never encountered such a scenario.

Against enemies that parachuted down, perhaps the police in Los Santos and Nouveau York would be slightly more experienced.

After all, they had at least rehearsed on set…

To deal with ordinary gangsters or terrorists, the well-trained police and special force were more than capable, but their enemy now was not any gangsters or terrorists, but a deadly force that sailed across the ocean seeking revenge…

On the other side, in downtown Capital, dozens of helicopters advanced rapidly from the air. Several fighter squadrons passed over the city. The F-22s and F-35s that took off from the military bases in the neighboring states collided with the formation of Aurora-20s and Wings of Freedoms.

As for why they came from the neighboring states, it was naturally because the previous tungsten rod blasted the fabled Andrews Air Force Base and the Air and Space Expeditionary Force stationed there into ruins.

But even if it was hit hard, even if everything happened too suddenly, after the orbital strike landed, the troops stationed near Capital responded as quickly as possible.

The two tank battalions of the 37th Armored Division rushed to the country’s top military command, and all the other combat units headed for the Rainbow House. However, unfortunately, the congested traffic on the highway became an impassable barricade, which caused most of these armored units to be blocked in the suburbs.

Forty-two CH-53Ds roared toward the city center as they transported special forces to be deployed in hot spots. On the other side, fourteen CH-47 Chinook helicopters took off in an emergency and deployed an armored company to the Lincoln Memorial by airlift; their mission was to stop the advancement of Celestial Trade power armors to the Rainbow House at all costs.

Lincoln Memorial.

This solemn memorial hall was not only a holy place for the UA people to cherish the memory of the late President Lincoln, but also a gathering place for political events. Not only did previous presidents deliver speeches here, but one day, several decades ago, Martin Luther King stood here and delivered his famous speech-“I Have a Dream.”

However, at this moment, the billowing smoke and the pungent smell of gunpowder had turned this place into a nightmare that everyone feared.

On the lawn outside the memorial hall, there was an unfinished trench. The National Guard of the Capital and the 11th Brigade 1st Battalion of the Marine Corps, who arrived here by helicopter, were stationed here.

The advancement of the orbital airborne brigade exceeded the expectations of the UA military. The UA soldiers stationed at the memorial hall were forced to engage with the orbital airborne brigade in the unfinished temporary fortification in a fierce exchange.

A volley of bullets swept over the sandbags and trenches, leaving bullet holes on the marble walls of the memorial hall. The original sacred place had become a bloody meat grinder, or to put it another way, a slaughterhouse…

…

“You told me our Tridents did explode!”

“I swear our Tridents did explode…”

“Then tell me, what’s the situation with those people outside?!” Mike Pence’s entire body was trembling because of anger and fear. With his right hand holding the phone, he yelled to the Secretary of Defense James Mattis. “Why are they in our capital!”

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone.

James Mattis could not answer this question.

No one could explain why, why their twelve Trident missiles clearly hit the target, but Celestial Trade did not surrender. There were 96 nuclear warheads, and there was no country or organization that could survive after being hit by 96 nuclear warheads…

Since the War of Independence, no country had been able to send its army to this continent. Even if it happened, it only appeared in Hollywood blockbusters or the cinematics of AAA games. However, now when all this became a reality, Mattis did not know what to do.

After he took a deep breath, Mattis forcibly suppressed down the tremble in his tone and slowly said.

“Mr. President, Celestial Trade is advancing to the Rainbow House.”

“I have sent a special force to your location; you need to move immediately.”

“We will meet in Cheyenne Mountain Complex…”

Just when he called, an orbital airborne brigade of Celestial Trade had crossed the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which was only a 15-minute drive from the Pentagon. It was not only the President who had to move, he had to as well…

Chapter 1472: Battling on Two Fronts

Chapter 1472: Battling on Two Fronts

The second target was Nouveau York.

It was not only because this was the economic center of the UA, but also because the city was the embodiment of the country’s belief. Whether it was because of the financial avenue that controlled the lifeline of the world economy, or because of the woman that stood on the coast holding its torch high.

If the torch was taken away, it would be equivalent to taking away what represented the UA.

Just as the Seventh and Eighth Orbital Airborne Brigades and the Ninth Power Armor Brigade were advancing towards the Rainbow House and the country’s top military command through two directions, the traffic was completely paralyzed in Nouveau York, a city three hundred kilometers away from Capital.

In this information age, no news could be truly concealed.

From the moment when Celestial Trade’s power armors appeared over Capital, the citizens of Nouveau York had learned about the Seagull-class starship above their head and Celestial Trade’s invasion.

All states in the UA had entered a state of emergency, and Nouveau York was no exception. First, the National Guard was mobilized to the forefront of the war, and then the city police had dispatched its entire force and blocked the main road from the military base to the city center to make way for the armored forces.

However, they were only halfway through this task.

On Long Island Beach, there were still some tourists and travelers scattered around that could be seen.

Along the sea horizon not far away, the bow of the Ford aircraft carrier split the waves and slowly emerged in front of people.

An anti-submarine frigate, a guided-missile destroyer, and two supply ships closely followed the Ford. Judging from the flag waving on the masts and the planes on its deck, the fleet had clearly changed hands.

A British beauty leaned on the beach chair in a bikini, took off her sunglasses, and squinted her eyes to examine the tumbling waves at the horizon.

“Timmy, what is that? Why do I see so many people running?”

Just the day before yesterday, Lisa and her boyfriend Timmy came here from the UK for a vacation, and they didn’t really know what was happening internationally. At this moment, for some odd reason, there were fewer and fewer people on the beach, but typically, it would be packed now.

“I don’t know, maybe the weather forecast says the weather will turn worse?” The man in swimming trunks squinted his eyes and looked above him. He grinned. “What is that? An airplane?”

It was not an airplane.

It was a missile.

As soon as the Ford approached the edge of Nouveau York’s radar, twenty anti-ship missiles along with their trail of smoke were launched from shore defense facilities, galloping toward the Ford. The helicopters guarding both sides of the fleet sprinkled tin foils and flare that led most of the missiles away. The remaining missiles that escaped were shot down by the guided-missile destroyer and anti-ballistic missiles on Wings of Freedom.

“What do you want to do?” Inside the bridge, Major Admiral Hogg looked nervously at the man in power armor standing next to him, then he said with a trembling voice, “That was just a warning. You can’t get close to the coast of Long Island. The anti-ship missiles will tear you apart in the offshore waters!”

“What do we want to do?” Luo Zheng smiled coldly, “Aren’t you asking us to return this ship? Am I not sending it back?”

Major Admiral Hogg’s eyes widened; he didn’t know what the man meant by this.

Luo Zheng didn’t explain. He took out the pistol from his waist and directly pressed it on the head of the Yankee piloting the ship; the man started to shiver and almost peed his pants.

With a cruel sneer, Luo Zheng tapped the barrel of the pistol against the back of that man’s head, ignored Major Admiral Hogg’s angry stare, he ordered the man, “Full throttle. If you dare to slow down, I’LL SHOOT!”

The ship was sailing towards the coastline at full speed.

The action of the Ford completely surprised the coast guard.

Just as the special force arrived at Long Island Beach and rushed to evacuate tourists, a string of white foam suddenly appeared on the sea two nautical miles in front of the Ford.

Without the slightest warning, armored vehicles painted with urban camouflage suddenly showed their fearsome turrets and armors from below sea level. They drove through the waves on the coast and accelerated toward the beach.

“AHHHHH!”

The tourists on the beach screamed.

The beauties in bikinis could no longer care about their image as they moved their dazzling thighs and shook the fullness in front of their chests in a desperate attempt to get onto the road. The special force and the coastal guard had established a line of defense, but against the “Crocodile” amphibious assault vehicle that had begun to land, this line of defense was like paper, and it was directly penetrated by the armored force.

Dadadada!

The heavy machine gun on the turret spat out tongues of fire, and the large bullets pinned the special force behind cover. The soldiers sitting behind the “Crocodile” unlocked the hook that was connected to the kinetic skeleton and jumped out of the vehicle with their rifles. They continued to advance forward to the road under the cover of the turrets while they maintained firing position.

On the road not far away, the UA Army’s M1A2 main battle tanks had been deployed with the assistance of Chinook helicopters. The engineers of the National Guard had built temporary covers near the highway. They were preparing to concentrate their forces and launch a Hail Mary against the landed Celestial Trade.

In the rain of bullets, the armored units of the two sides began to engage in close combat.

Anti-tank rockets dragged their long and thick tail flame and were fired from the tubes on both sides of the turret on the “Crocodile” armored vehicle.

After it was hit by depleted uranium ammunition, a “Crocodile” amphibious assault vehicle in the center of the position had its front armor blasted off. However, momentarily after, an M1A2 main battle tank was turned into a ball of flame by the Python-2 vehicle-mounted anti-tank rocket.

Long Island Beach was in the midst of a full-scale battle. In order to keep the invaders on the beach, the UA military had almost placed half of the National Guards and the First Cavalry Division stationed nearby.

Anti-ship missiles were suppressed by Wings of Freedoms’ airstrikes. All aircraft on the Ford’s deck had taken off. Even the F-35s and F-16s in the hangar were pushed into the midst of the conflict, piloted by “Matador” to participate in ground attack.

On the sea level not far away, the anti-submarine frigate and destroyer stopped.

The Ford and the two supply ships sailing at full speed to Long Island suddenly turned a corner and moved forward at full speed to Upper Bay. When the commander of the UA First Cavalry Division saw this scene on the radar, his face suddenly turned green; he snatched the radio and roared into it.

“STOP THEM AT ALL COSTS! STOP THEM FROM GETTING TO UPPER BAY!”

In the middle of Upper Bay, at the junction of Nouveau Jersey and Nouveau York, was the Statue of Freedom that symbolized the country’s dream.

And behind the Statue of Freedom was the most well-known island.

From Broadway Road to the East River, a street that was only one-third of a mile in length was the heart of the entire finance industry…

Chapter 1473: Above the Statue of Freedom, the Xin Flag Waved High

Chapter 1473: Above the Statue of Freedom, the Xin Flag Waved High

Many years later, when Luo Zheng recalled and reminisced that day, he would still feel the same eagerness and emotions.

That was definitely the craziest thing he had ever done in his life.

After Celestial Trade Marines landed on Freedom Island, they climbed to the top of the Statue of Freedom and used thermite to blast the flame made from copper. The fire of freedom that shone on the East Coast was extinguished and it was replaced by a Xin flag that blew in the sea breeze of Nouveau York.

Luo Zheng gazed at the crowds fleeing in Battery Park and watched the congested traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. He then stepped on the control terminal of the bridge with one foot and started to fire out of the window.

“LET’S GO! LET’S GO! FULL SPEED! LET’S HIT IT!”

Major Admiral Hogg had already squatted under the table with his hands around his head. He was roaring in despair in his mind.

This guy has gone crazy!

The Ford aircraft carrier that maintained the maximum speed smashed into Battery Park with its bow, just like a machete that chopped through a bamboo stick, it crushed the fence of the park and landed on Manhattan Island. The violent impact caused the sailor who was controlling the aircraft carrier to smash his head towards the terminal, then he immediately fell and rolled to the side.

Luo Zheng, in his power armor, shook his body. Then he threw out a punch with his powerful steel arm and broke through the bulletproof glass of the bridge. He then grabbed onto the twisted steel bars, jumped out of the bridge, and landed heavily on the deck.

REEEEEEK

The sound of metal creaking squeaked.

The Ford aircraft carrier, which accelerated onto Manhattan Island, broke in two. The second half stayed in Battery Park while the first half ran rampant under inertia, broke through the National Archives of Nouveau York, crushed into the streets of Broadway, and knocked down the Wall Street Bull…

“AHHHHHHH!!!”

“RUN!”

“DON’T PUSH ME! LET ME GET THROUGH—”

Inside the Nouveau York Stock Exchange, the people gathered here seemed to all go insane as they desperately tried to escape. Whether it was a professional trader, a CEO of a listed company, or a financial mogul with billions of dollars under management, all of them shared the same thought at this moment.

Celestial Trade chose to land from Manhattan Island, and all of them were pushed to the forefront of the war.

Although since World War I, they had participated to some extent in the many wars that happened in this world, they had never imagined this day.

“These savages! How dare they…” A man in a suit stood in the middle of the trading floor as he stared at the door blankly, occasionally, someone running would bump into his shoulder, but he would just shake it off and had no reaction at all.

Behind him was the Dow Jones Index plummeting, and a sea of red tickers.

It started from the explosion in W State. He tried to recover his investment by using banknotes to stabilize investors’ panic while he quietly dumped his holdings; he desperately tried to withdraw his assets from the stock market… but all his efforts could not stop the aircraft carrier that crashed into Manhattan Island.

Just a minute ago, he went bankrupt.

…

There was no need for a landing ship.

This degree of impact was nothing for the Celestial Trade soldiers who could carry out orbital airdrop missions.

From the middle of the fractured aircraft carrier, the Viper drones that swarmed out formed an arrow-shaped attack formation towards the National Guard that just arrived as reinforcement. The prosperous blocks and elites on the streets of Manhattan made the use of First Calvary’s 155mm self-propelled howitzer battalion and M270 multi-barreled rocket launchers extremely difficult. Even if the weapons could effectively suppress targets within a depth of 30 kilometers, they did not dare to fire a shot. They could only send highly mobile armor units such as the M3 Bradley to cooperate with the M1A2 main battle tank to launch an attack.

But soon, they met the real opponent of this war.

The main force of Celestial Trade landed from Manhattan, and the force that attacked Long Island was just a feint attack by amphibious light armor units.

It was not a light armor unit like the Crocodile amphibious assault vehicle that followed the Viper drones, but rather, it was the true overlord on the land, the crystallization of Pan-Asia’s army technology – the Wanderer tank.

A particle cannon shot was fired out from the smoke of the explosion and it directly melted through the front armor that was the pride of M1A2. Regardless if the armor was made out of high-hard ceramic lining or depleted uranium alloy, they were equally as fragile as tofu in front of the high-energy particles freed from magnetic confinement. The high-energy particles that penetrated the front armor would instantly diffuse behind the armor, and directly raise the temperature inside the tank to thousands of degrees. Even if the tank did not immediately explode, the occupants inside could not be more died.

“Warrior-1 is destroyed… target hit… SH*T! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!” The gunner sitting in an M1A2 main battle tank pressed the firing button, then as he watched the smoke diffuse in front of him, his eyes widened in disbelief.

Everything that happened before his eyes was beyond his comprehension of common sense.

He saw with his own eyes that at least five armor-piercing depleted uranium ammunition hit the tank he was aiming at. However, after the dust settled, that tank was unscathed.

The barrel that was aiming at him seemed to be laughing at their incompetence.

To destroy the Wanderer’s Meissner effect armor without the particle cannon, it would take at least a tactical nuclear bomb with power in the tens of thousands of tons range.

BOOM!

Another particle cannon shot was fired, this time, it hit the ammunition rack and sent the top cover of an M1A2 more than ten meters in the air.

Two tanks almost suppressed the entire tank battalion.

Behind the two Wanderer’s tanks, a reinforced battalion composed of 31 Tiger-2s and 12 Spider tanks emerged from the broken hull of the ship. The former’s type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon was well-deserved of the name as tank killer, while the latter’s mobility to traverse in the city would make even give an agile infantry force a headache.

The heavy armor penetrated the tank battalion of the UA 1st Calvary from the front, and soldiers in kinetic skeleton and power armor quickly advanced toward the streets of Manhattan. A force made up of more than two divisions landed directly on Manhattan Island with the help of the Ford aircraft carrier and two supply ships that went ashore.

Half of the force headed straight to the JFK International Airport and Long Island Beach where the amphibious force was fighting. They were paving the way for reinforcement to arrive while they annihilated the coastal defense set up by National Guard and First Calvary Division. The other half of the force pushed through the busiest neighborhoods in the city. As they took control of the entire Manhattan, they were heading into Jersey City across the bank.

According to the air force’s intelligence, the supporting firepower of First Cavalry was all concentrated there.

Not only that, but the National Guard of Nouveau Jersey was also stationed there.

…

20,000 Celestial Trade Army set off from District of Tumaco, embarked from Port of Turbo, crossed the Caribbean Sea and Bermuda, then landed on the beach of Nouveau York City. This completely caught the UA military off-guard. Admiral Felton, who was in charge of commanding the NATO Coalition Force, finally understood.

From the very beginning, Celestial Trade’s focus was on UA’s mainland.

He decided to blow up the highway to Monteria, but Celestial Trade had never intended to capture Monteria. Perhaps only he knew the feeling of defeat at this moment.

Counting the reinforcements that subsequently arrived, more than 150,000 UA soldiers were trapped in the mess known as Colombia.

Before this war ended, they would never be able to get further reinforcements, and they would never be able to return to their mainland from Colombia to join the comrades defending the country.

Just when Wall Street and the Statue of Freedom were occupied, the battle in Capital was also gradually coming to an end.

Before the battle on the ground was decided, the outcome in the air started to become clear.

F-22 squadrons continued to turn into falling fireballs in Wings of Freedoms’ game of chicken. Subsequently, the orbital airborne brigade and power armor brigade, with the support of air supremacy, quickly penetrated the defense.

Xin’s flag was placed at the highest point of the Lincoln Memorial.

With the collapse of this defense line, they had lost all vantage points from the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Rainbow House.

The 7th Orbital Airborne Brigade followed the retreating National Guard and advanced towards the Rainbow House. Finally, this war burned into the back garden of the President of the UA…

Chapter 1474: Cheyenne Mountain

Chapter 1474: Cheyenne Mountain

On a small island about two hundred nautical miles from the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Pacific Ocean.

On the beach covered by the shadow of swaying coconut trees, a man in a life jacket was lying face down on the beach.

On the beach behind him, there was a long mark that extended to the edge of the sea.

Obviously, he was washed up by the waves when the tide rose.

After an unknown amount of time, the man’s eyebrows moved, and a painful growl came out from his throat, followed by violent coughs. The seagulls perched on the palm trees were all alerted and flew away. He pushed the sand with his hand, barely managed to roll himself over, then leaned against a coconut tree.

Brian, the UA Admiral, commander-in-chief of the Eisenhower aircraft carrier battle group. Originally, he and his fleet were preparing to launch a surprise attack on the space elevator. However, when they merged with the other four fleets in the Mariana Islands, they suddenly encountered a Category 6 hurricane…

Brian could swear to God that he has never encountered such a bizarre event in his life.

The weather forecast clearly indicated that the Mariana Islands would be sunny and clear that day, but just after they merged, dark clouds began to gather above them. Not long after, waves tens of meters high slapped directly to the fleet, and the violent hurricane even snapped the wings of the F-35.

The attack formation originally prepared for Celestial Trade Navy, in the end, became a shackle that caught their own feet. Except for the submarines and several light ships outside the fleet that perhaps could escape, the entire fleet was almost annihilated.

Brian had forgotten how he survived.

He just vaguely remembered that he had put on a life jacket, and a wave mixed with heavy objects smashed through the glass of the bridge, and then swept everyone inside away. At that time, the aircraft carrier had turned over, and the carrier-based fighters that had not had time to take off, as well as the crew on the deck, fell into the sea like dumplings.

Brian opened the cover of his watch, then used the compass and the position of the Sun to learn that he was in the southern hemisphere. As for which specific deserted island he was on, perhaps only God would know…

Brian smiled bitterly and was just about to get up.

However, at this moment, several spears stabbed against his neck.

He was instantly covered in cold sweat. He decided to give up on the idea of standing up and raised both of his hands instead. After his eyes met with those mung-bean-like eyes, he tried to squeeze a smile that looked slightly more friendly than desperate, and then to the natives wearing palm leaves.

“Can you speak English?”

It was obviously nonsense.

The natives talked with each other in a language he couldn’t understand. He didn’t know if they were debating whether he should be eaten raw or cooked…

Just when Brian felt bleak about his future, he suddenly saw a familiar face.

For an instant, he was stunned.

Because he was so shocked that he lost his ability to speak, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped…

“Move, move.”

The natives stepped aside.

A man with a big belly, dressed in palm leaves just like the natives, and blond hair that looked like a flat…

“Mr. President…”

After Admiral Brian gulped down the lump in his throat, he stared at Trump in disbelief, clearly lost for words.

Although the official statement was that his whereabouts were unknown, everyone thought he was dead…

“Mr. President?” After he stabbed the spear in his hand on the ground, Trump’s eyebrows twisted together. Instead of being happy because he met the same kind, there was a look of awkwardness that quickly disappeared from his eyes, he murmured softly. “Very funny title, damn it… why is it such a coincidence!”

“But Mr. President, you…”

“I’m dead, right? Let me guess. Now our Mr. President should be Mike Pence. Although I don’t know what he did, since you are here, I guess it’s probably not a good thing.” Trump glared at Brian as he cursed out.

From the moment the Air Force One engine caught fire, he understood everything.

After he looked back, the meaningful smile on Secretary of State Tillerson’s face when they last met was indeed really meaningful.

“Let’s not talk about it,” Perhaps he had vented enough, Trump wiped his mouth, patted the shoulder of the native man standing next to him, as if he were treating the employees of the Trump Group, “They are good people, at least they’re good to me.”

“Come with me, you won’t be able to guess what I found on this island.”

“An airplane, a P-51A ‘Mustang’, the wing was shot and it’s rusty… It’s been broken for a long time. Most likely it came from the Pacific War. The hapless guy didn’t go home but was regarded by the natives here as ‘God’. Maybe because of my blond hair, they regarded me as the messenger of God… Anyway, at least that’s what I think happened.”

Maybe it was because he hasn’t talked with anyone for a while, Trump was very talkative.

Admiral Brian followed the chattering former Mr. President, then he asked the question that bothered him.

“Don’t you want to go back?”

“Go back?”

As if he had heard something funny, Trump suddenly stopped, turned his head and opened his arms, raised his voice, and laughed out loud, “Why should I go back? Be the last president of the UA? Or do you think I can clean up the mess left by that Christian? Why didn’t he ask his God? Maybe he can ask that in person!”

On many public occasions, Mike Pence declared that he was first a Christian and then a Republican. In the early days, Trump used this point quite extensively until he won the party’s election.

Brian was clearly overwhelmed by the amount of information. He stood with his head lowered, unable to respond.

Although he did not believe that the UA will be defeated.

Even if the country lost five aircraft carrier battle groups in the Pacific Ocean, they still had Ohio-class nuclear submarines and Trident nuclear missiles…

He threw the spear in his hand to Brian’s chest.

While Brian hurriedly caught it with his hands, he noticed that the natives were looking at him with envy.

It seemed like helping the “God” carry his spear was supreme glory.

“Don’t think about going back. Don’t be so depressed, just be happy,” After a moment, Trump raised his chin, patted Brian’s shoulder and said, “This is my kingdom. From now on, you are the Marshal of the Kingdom of Donald. General Brian, I have faith in you.”

…

Cheyenne Mountain Complex was located in a city with a small population, but it was the most heavily guarded cave military base in the world.

Above the tunnel of this military base was a granite mountain with a thickness of more than 300 meters. Under the maze-like command post were huge springs and rubber pads, which could resist direct strategic nuclear strikes. Inside the cave was a complete survival system that could resist nuclear, chemical and biological attack for 6,000 people for several months.

Known as the “central nervous system” of the UA military, this location could mobilize all military forces across the country. Even if the country’s top military command and the Rainbow House were both lost, as long as the President and the Secretary of Defense stepped in here, then there was hope for the country to make a complete comeback…

At least it was what the UA people believed.

Chapter 1475: : Inescapable

Chapter 1475: Inescapable

The two-meter-thick, 25-ton alloy giant door slowly opened, and the incandescent lamp behind it lit up one after another as they welcomed a group of unusual visitors.

The soldiers stationed at the door saluted, then stepped aside.

The group of people stepped through the door, then the engine that was connected to the door once again started.

With the sound of muffled steel friction, Mike Pence’s mood also returned from restlessness to calmness with the giant door gradually closing.

After the door closed, the entire base was completely isolated from the outside world, and the door could only be opened from the inside.

Mike Pence was no longer as concerned about the starship above him. Even if the kinetic bombardment weapon was rumored to be comparable to a nuclear explosion, it would not be able to make a dent in this place. The imaginary enemy used to design this place was “Big Ivan”, and its shockwave could create a shockwave that travelled around the Earth three times…

The high wall of the command center showed the logos of the four major headquarters. The walls, floors, ceilings, corridors, and stairs in the building were all built with tailor-welded steel plates. Although the facilities looked outdated, the most advanced military command system in the UA and even the world was hidden here.

“How is the situation in Capital?” After Mike Pence stepped in to the command center. He did not dare to rest for even a moment as he immediately asked Secretary of Defense James Mattis who had been waiting here for a long time, “I just got off from the plane, and I now need first-hand information from the frontline.”

After a moment of silence, James Mattis spoke slowly.

“About twelve hours ago, the Rainbow House…had fallen.”

Mike Pence was not surprised by this result. When he evacuated from Capital through a special channel, the Lincoln Memorial was already captured by Celestial Trade’s orbital airborne brigade. That place was only two blocks away from the Rainbow House Presidential Park, and it was impossible for the National Guard stationed there to stop those people.

To defeat Celestial Trade on the battlefield, the UA had to rely on its strong war mobilization capabilities and industrial capabilities. He had to do two things at this moment. One was to address the people of the UA in a war mobilization speech, and the other was to mobilize the National Guards of each state to fight the invasion of Celestial Trade.

They had to hold the defense at least till he mobilized the two hundred divisions…

“Where is our aircraft carrier battle group?” After Mike Pence digested the information that the Rainbow House had fallen in two seconds, he continued, “Their current defense forces are bound to be empty…”

James Mattis’s expression gradually turned worse, and the several senior defense officers next to him also looked at each other with concerns.

From their expressions, Mike Pence had already noticed something. However, just as he frowned and was about to question further, his Secretary of Defense took a deep breath, as if he had finally made up his mind and spoke slowly.

“Our aircraft carrier battle group…”

“Encountered a category 6 hurricane when they were passing through the Mariana Islands…”

After Mike Pence swallowed down the dry lump in his throat, he started to turn pale, his voice started to tremble as he asked.

“Then?”

Matisse lowered his head, then said in pain.

“Unfortunately, …they sunk!”

…

The battle at Capital and downtown Nouveau York had ended.

The National Guard at either state was obviously no match for Celestial Trade. At Capital, after the orbital airborne brigade controlled the city center, it immediately declared martial law throughout the city and required all people to stay at home within 24 hours, and at the same time, launched a campaign against the remaining resistance on the street.

On the other side, in Nouveau York, the 1st mechanized infantry division that occupied Manhattan Island placed the flag of Xin on the roofs of the Nouveau York Stock Exchange and the Empire State Building.

The treasury of the Federal Reserve Bank of Nouveau York, a few steps away from Wall Street, was naturally under Celestial Trade control. The Federal Reserve Police that claimed to be capable of defending a small-to-medium city, only symbolically resisted before it surrendered.

Obviously, they were not as brave as the rumors said.

After all, they were not against a mob of rioters, but well-trained soldiers.

The door of the vault opened, and the pieces of shining gold were neatly stacked like bricks. The whole wall was made of gold, just like the Eldorado in Inca legend, the sparkling golden light could literally blind people.

The gold reserve here accounted for about a quarter of the global gold reserve!

Of course, the occupation of the vault was just one of the side quests. After Luo Zheng left a company of troops here, he immediately led his troops to Nouveau Jersey across the bank. On the other hand, the 2nd mechanized division responsible for attacking Kennedy Airport also successfully broke through the line of defense of the First Calvary Division of UA and formed a siege with the amphibious assault force that landed on the beach. They had surrounded the main battle force of the National Guard and the First Calvary Division.

After the SS Expedition reloaded, it fired five tungsten-rod projectiles towards the East Coast of North America. The main targets were large military installations detected by Aurora-20s and an artillery position that was just finished.

At this moment, the UA military once again experienced the fear of being aimed at by a space-based kinetic bombardment weapon…

It was about three hundred and fifty nautical miles from the East Coast of North America.

A beautiful yacht sailed through the calm Atlantic Ocean.

Freshwater swimming pools, red wine, bikinis, and blonde Persian beauties… Although the East Coast hundreds of kilometers was already war-torn, the upper class in North America still seemed to be living in luxury and lavishness.

Of course, all this was just a “disguise”.

As early as three days ago, this cruise ship departed from Manhattan Island.

The owner of this yacht was under a British real estate developer, who was hosting a party celebrating the opening of a European subway. However, in fact, the owner behind this cruise ship was probably the richest person in the world…

After he took over the seat of the Jewish consortium in the Federal Reserve, he was indeed deserving of the title. Although this wealth belonged to the entire Morgan family, as the current owner of the Morgan consortium, it made little difference.

Sitting in the cabin on top of the tanker, Morgan narrowed his eyes as he looked into the horizon.

The red wine on the table to his right had sat there for a long time, but whether it was the red wine, or the beautiful blonde women outside the window, he was not in the mood. Just a few minutes ago, he heard the news of Nouveau York falling from his men.

Celestial Trade not only occupied his company, but also used his building as a temporary headquarters…

It was simply a humiliation to him and the Morgan family!

Morgan looked at the assistant who walked in, then slowly asked.

“Where is Rockefeller?”

“I can’t get in touch with him for the time being, but he should have escaped.”

At this moment, the cruise ship that was sailing smoothly suddenly shook violently.

Morgan grabbed tightly onto the armrests of his chair, then frowned

“What are they doing…”

The expression on his face froze in the middle of his sentence.

The white waves splashed onto the front deck of the yacht. The men and women playing beside the pool exclaimed and all stepped back, as they watched the submarine that emerged.

In order to avoid colliding with the submarine, the captain was forced to stop the yacht and went to the deck to try to negotiate with the people who got out of the submarine.

Morgan firmly grasping the armrests of the chair with both hands as pupils constricted to a dot.

Suddenly, the tensed face loosened as he laughed out loud.

Morgan leaned back, and finally reached for the glass of red wine. As he watched the Celestial Trade soldiers start to board, as well as the confused crowd on the ship, he raised his glass, downed the drink, and finally laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Using a nuclear submarine for an old man.”

“I have to say it’s an honor to treat me with such importance.”

Chapter 1476: Every War Needs Heroes

Chapter 1476: Every War Needs Heroes

Perhaps a few years ago, it would be me standing on the deck.

Jiang Chen grinned and thought as he saw the illustration under the headline of “Xin Daily” of a power armor standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

If it were before, he would definitely not let go of this opportunity to show off.

But now…

The idea seemed dull.

It was best to leave these opportunities to the younger people.

Although when this sentence came out from someone less than 30 years old, it seemed unconvincing…

The “Xin Daily”, founded by Celestial Trade Investment, was similar to “Washington Post” in the UA. Typically, 80% of the news in Xin could be sourced back to this newspaper.

It was precisely because of this that “Xin Daily” was the lead voice in Xin news.

Every war needs heroes.

Compared with reporting on the cruel side of war, if more emphasis was placed on the heroes and their glorious deeds in the war, it would make the public temporarily forget about the deeper issues entrenched in the war. Even the most radical leftists and pacifists would not choose this time to voice their opposition.

If someone did really do this.

Getting a beating was probably the lightest punishment.

In just two days, Future Group, Celestial Trade, the Presidential Palace of Xin, and the Parliament had joined forces to create more than 20 war heroes through different media channels.

For example, Luo Zheng who stood on the deck, the soldiers who placed the Xin flag on the Statue of Freedom and the Lincoln Memorial, as well as the Slavic pilot with the most number of enemy units downed (the stats from electronic pilots were not included), and so forth…

Upon closer examination, it was not difficult for those with an acute awareness to find the skin color, race, and cultural heritage of those war heroes heavily reported by newspapers, television, and online media to be corresponding to the population composition of Xin.

Everyone could share the glory that belonged to them equally in this war.

Compared with the young man who knew nothing many years ago, Jiang Chen felt that he was more and more comfortable in handling these political, economic, and military issues.

Of course, the work of his team was also indispensable in him getting to the current position.

After he flipped through “Xin Daily” from today, Jiang Chen picked up another newspaper from a foreign publication. Unexpectedly, when he turned the first page, he saw a scene that made him laugh.

On the cover page of Le Monde in France, an Asian man with his legs crossed was sitting on a nuclear bomb with a star-spangled flag. Under the nuclear bomb, there was the UA torn into pieces and the burning Lincoln Memorial and Statue of Freedom.

Jiang Chen noticed that the French artist who drew this cartoon also drew a tuft of mustache under his nose.

“Interesting.”

The drawing did make him chuckle. Although he knew that the French media was mocking him, he didn’t take this illustration to heart.

Contrary to the Xin media, foreign media seemed to be more interested in him than who blew the torch off of the Statue of Freedom and who stood on top of the Lincoln Memorial. Even though he had deliberately reduced his exposure to the public over the years, the media’s “interest” seemed to be on the rise instead.

Just when Jiang Chen was about to read the French’s evaluation of him, a call from New Moon Island arrived on his watch.

“What’s the matter?” Jiang Chen asked casually after he pressed the pickup button.

“Morgan has been caught. He was on a yacht to Britain at the time,” Ivan responded immediately, “Now he is on our nuclear submarine.”

“Very well, send him to South Columbia first and let him stay there for a few days.”

“Roger. We don’t need to bring him back?” Ivan asked.

“No. After this war is over, it will the judge from UA who will try him. There is no need to bring him to Xin,” After a short pause, Jiang Chen continued on, “Also, where is Rockefeller? Did you find him? ”

“He was missing when we rushed to his mansion in Queens,” Ivan replied, “Now our people are pursuing him with the cooperation of Ghost Agents. We should have an answer soon.”

“You figure it. I just need the result.”

While they were speaking, there was a knock on the door of his office.

While he said “come in”, Jiang Chen briefly asked Ivan about the battle in North America. Then he ended the call and looked at Ayesha who came in gently. He smiled.

“We found Rockefeller?”

Ayesha shook her head slightly.

“We found Trump.”

Jiang Chen was slightly taken aback. He put down the newspaper in his hand.

After he frowned for a moment, he asked.

“Where did you find him?”

“On a small island in the South Pacific Ocean, about two hundred nautical miles from French Polynesia, close to the Cook Islands,” Ayesha responded.

Although the Xin-UA War erupted, the search for the wreckage of Air Force One by Xin did not stop. A special military observation satellite was put into the search work. A team of observers composed of about fifty people, with the assistance of AI, compared satellite images of the entire Pacific Ocean one by one.

Of course, the rescue work was not meant for Trump, but the black box on Air Force One. In Jiang Chen’s follow-up plan, this black box played a significant role. As for whether Trump was dead or alive…

It did not matter.

“French Polynesia? What the, he is quite lucky.”

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but exclaim at the fact.

If he remembered correctly, the Air Force One disappeared in the radar blind spot between the Mariana Islands and Wake Island. If all other factors were ignored, the fact that one location was in the northern hemisphere and the other was in the southern hemisphere made this quite spectacular. Even if he did not encounter sharks along the way, the probability of surviving was quite small…

Besides, he was in his seventies.

“Do you want to get rid of him?” Ayesha asked softly. There was a glimpse of deadliness that exuded from her gentle tone.

If it was part of the plan, she wouldn’t mind making a trip there herself.

Jiang Chen leaned back against the chair and thought for a long time.

Ayesha stood there quietly and waited for his orders.

About five minutes later, Jiang Chen suddenly turned on the holographic screen of the watch and called Dr. Amos who was at the Celestial City Special Projects Research Institute. Before Dr. Amos could speak, he went straight to the topic.

“Stop the cyborg project.”

“Stop?” Dr. Amos was stunned, then he complained, “But I’m so close…”

Without discussing it further with him, Jiang Chen repeated his order and then hung up.

“Going back to the question just now, we don’t need to for the time being…” As he looked at Ayesha, he tapped on the armrest of the chair. After a short pause, he said, “Prepare a helicopter for me. We will department now.”

“Okay,” Ayesha nodded, “Where are we going?”

“Coconut Island. My Droplet submersible is docked there. Make some arrangements at work for the next few days and come with me on a trip.”

“Before deciding what to do with him, I plan to spend some time talking to him.”

“About the future of the UA.”

Chapter 1477: A Depression

Chapter 1477: A Depression

Whether Trump was alive or not was no longer relevant to the UA.

Even if Washington and Lincoln crawled out from their coffin, it would be difficult to save the situation faced by the country at this moment, let alone someone with no experience in politics.

However, the situation was different for Celestial Trade.

A reasonable explanation or excuse could legitimize the aggression and settle the sequelae left over from the war.

While it was not difficult for Celestial Trade to use its technology to create an identical Trump, humans after all were inseparable from society. Even a perfect AI would face many obstacles during the integration of society.

In the short term, this proposal could be flawless, but it would inevitably create problems down the road. In Jiang Chen’s blueprint of Earth Federation, this kind of risk could not be tolerated. He didn’t want to solve a historical problem during the final battle with Harmony.

Jiang Chen required a “Zhang Yaping-like” president to manage the “trophies” of this war for him.

Based on Trump’s answer, he could consider sparing him.

Just when Jiang Chen’s helicopter took off to Coconut Island, Nouveau York, on the other side of the globe, was plunged into an unprecedented depression due to the war. Even the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007 did not make people living here feel so much despair.

The tunnels, bridges, and highways that connected to the outside were all blocked by the military checkpoints of Celestial Trade. Now the entire city of Nouveau York was under martial law. Everyone was ordered back home. Except for a short period of time during the day to go to the nearest rescue station to receive necessary food and medicine, no one was allowed to stay outside for a long time.

Offenders would be detained for espionage.

The martial law would last for one month, but everyone knew that it was unlikely to be lifted before this war ended…

Long Island Port, Nouveau York, cargo ships slowly approached the port.

After the ships docked, the ladders were lowered.

Groups of soldiers walked off the deck with large backpacks on their backs.

Although there were some white soldiers, most of them were Asian. They also all carried different equipment. For example, some people were equipped with the S1 kinetic skeleton as well as a quadrotor drone in their backpack. And some people just had an urban camouflage on, not only did they not have any body armor, but they also only brought the outdated AK-47s.

Excluding the enclave of Hawaii and Alaska, the forty-eight states on the mainland of the UA would require at least 48 divisions of Celestial Trade.

Even if Celestial Trade disregarded the sparsely populated inland states with weak industrial capabilities, it would be difficult to occupy the entire country by just relying on Celestial Trade’s own force. This was also taking into consideration the 50,000 reserves Xin injected into the army more than a week ago.

From the beginning, Ivan adopted a blitzkrieg strategy.

The air force, paratroopers, and amphibious assault forces were all concentrated together on an assault against East Coast. With air superiority, air raids were launched against military factories, oil fields, and electric power plants, then armored units swept across the country at the fastest speed to disintegrate the remaining forces and prevent the states from completing war mobilization.

As for occupation.

It could be left to Celestial Trade’s tributaries.

As early as two months ago, Santos mobilized a national reserve of five hundred and twenty thousand and gathered all the troops across the country to respond to the call for war from Celestial Trade. And the 100,000 force that just landed was only a small fraction of the more than 600,000 troops from Moro, and two of the divisions were from Madagascar.

Moro 12th Reinforced Brigade was responsible for the occupation of Nouveau York City. After the defense handover, apart from leaving a guard battalion station on Manhattan Island, the majority of the Celestial Trade force was sent southward along the highway. The goal was to create a route from Nouveau York to the Capital.

For the people of Nouveau York City, being occupied by Moro soldiers was definitely a nightmare…

Cypress Hill Cemetery was the bloodiest part of the city.

The people with their heads covered by paper shopping bags and their hands and feet tied up with twine were dragged along by Moro soldiers. They crouched in a row in front of the pit with their hands on their head. After a series of gunshots, one body after another fell in the pit and was then buried on the spot by the trembling prisoners.

For the prisoners of war, Celestial Trade had always treated them with dignity. But for those who resist, naturally, there was punishment.

Although guns were banned in the city, guns that circulated in the black market still caused a lot of trouble for the troops stationed there. The endless sneak attacks and Molotov cocktails constantly disturbed the troops. In the beginning, Celestial Trade went through the hassle of arresting, but after Moro soldiers took over the city, these guerrilla patriots were not so lucky.

…

The guerrillas were directly shot. All those who were suspected of assisting the guerrillas were arrested. The prisons in the city were emptied for those suspects. The criminals who regained their freedom, especially those with severe penalties, were formed into a gendarmerie to assist Moro to maintain law and order.

For Santos, he didn’t care about his reputation.

Before independence, the Moro guerrillas were suppressed by the fighters and special forces from the UA for many years. Now his people were fortunate enough to set foot on the land of the UA, he was eager to vent his rage…

Had it not been for Jiang Chen’s warning to not make trouble, maybe he would have been more extreme.

The Empire State Building on Manhattan Island was temporarily expropriated as the headquarters of the Celestial Trade North American Theater Command, but the real command center was in the underground vault of the Federal Reserve. All the intelligence was gathered there and then sent to each combat unit. Then, together with the general headquarters located on New Moon Island, they constituted the Celestial Trade Army command system.

In front of the unfolded map of North America, Zheng Yufei, the commander-in-chief of the North America Theater, discussed the next steps with the officers from General Staff.

“P State National Guard has evacuated from the city and retreated. Our main force has joined forces with the orbital airborne brigade airdropped into the Capital. The 27th and 28th Infantry Brigade of Moro are heading towards the Capital. We have two options; one is to advance toward P City, where the large inland cities are located, as well as the Great Lakes industrial zone…”

“The other plan is to head down East Coast to F State and open the channel for our allies to land. This will form a front extending from Nouveau York to the F State peninsula, and then we can push inward.”

The essence of the first plan was fast, accurate, and deadly, and the key of the second plan was stability. However, for Celestial Trade, the biggest advantage was its speed. Going deep into the hinterland certainly carried risks, but if the UA completed war mobilization, the risks would no longer just be risks.

After Zheng Yufei listened to the Chief of Staff’s opinion, he was silent for a moment, then he said.

“The headquarters does not want this war to drag on for too long. We will adopt the first plan.”

The Great Lakes Industrial Zone was known as the “manufacturing belt” of the UA, where heavy industrial bases such as steel, coal, and chemical industries were clustered together. If this place was occupied, it was equivalent to removing the hope of resistance.

“The 2nd Armored Brigade will pursue the P State National Guard,” Zheng Yufei cast his gaze on the map and stopped on C State, the heart of North America, with his eyes slightly narrowed.

Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

It was the last fortress of UA.

As long as Celestial Trade could tear apart the last shell and occupy the Great Lakes Industrial Zone, it would be enough to force the UA to sign the surrender agreement.

Chapter 1478: Financial Tsunami

Chapter 1478: Financial Tsunami

In the interconnected global economy, any country’s problem could not be viewed from an isolated perspective.

The Xin-UA War detonated by twelve Trident missiles ignited not only the flames of war between two countries, but the countries involved in the aftermath of this war covered almost every inch of the world. Politics, economy, military, and even culture were sucked into the vortex of conflict.

The first thing that collapsed was the dollar, the currency of the UA, which was triggered by the fall of the Federal Reserve’s vault.

Although the investors were uncertain of Celestial Trade intent with the gold, the scene of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier stranded in front of Wall Street was enough to make every investor holding the dollar desperate about the prospect of this currency.

A financial tsunami triggered by the dollar began to spread from the East Coast of North America to the rest of the world. The value of foreign exchange reserves evaporated from different countries could no longer be valued, given that the dollar used as the measure of value, was at the center of the storm…

Everyone was desperately attempting to reduce their exposure to the dollar and their holding of treasury bonds. However, when the panic began to spread in the market, it was foolish to think that one can weather the storm.

In this financial tsunami, the only beneficiary seemed to be Xin.

Since the twelve Trident missiles were intercepted by the Holy Shield, the price of the Xin New dollar in the foreign exchange market began to skyrocket. To curb the continuously rising exchange rate, the Xin Reserve had to revise its quantitative easing plan for this year and next year, as it operated its money printers to the limit in both joy and agony. It injected a large amount of currency into the market to stabilize the exchange rate by opening the flood gate.

However, even so, it was difficult to curtail the strengthening Xin New dollar.

The widespread belief on the street was that if Xin demanded war reparations, it was very likely to seek gold from the Federal Reserve. Because of this, it seemed that Xin New dollar was the only “safe-haven asset” in the financial turmoil.

To quell the flames of war and save the deteriorating economic situation, many people made attempts to a certain degree. Some tried to mediate through diplomatic channels, and of course, some tried to use military intervention.

Some people frowned, some people put on a show, and some people attempted to profit from this.

It was worth mentioning that, as the two major states of the Earth Defense Alliance, both Hua and Russia chose to continue to monitor the situation without further intervention.

The decline of the dollar could bring unbearable short-term pains to the economy in Hua that relied on exports. However, from a long-term perspective, the decline of a hegemony was still more beneficial to the country. It was true both from the perspectives of national unity and geopolitical stability.

Russia shared the same thought.

The decline of NATO would ease the military pressure on the Russian border, and more funds could be used for economic construction instead of wrestling with NATO on the long border.

However, if Russia decided to sent troops, it would be too risky. After all, Moscow did not have a Holy Shield.

Although the Earth Defense Alliance’s terms included collective defense, before Celestial Trade actively called on allies to participate in the war, they were also happy to use peaceful means to support their already dominant allies. These included increasing troops at the border, launching military exercises in coastal waters, and simulating large-scale airborne landings.

On the other side, NATO was also strangely silent.

24 hours after Celestial Trade landed in the Capital, the British Prime Minister urgently convened parliament, and a proposal involving foreign war was taken to the Palace of Westminster for discussion. Although the representatives of different parties all shared the same indignation, in the voting session, this radical proposal was ultimately not passed.

The focus of controversy by lawmakers was Article 5 of the Washington Convention.

It stated that when a country encounters aggression, the remaining member states will defend together.

However, the current situation was that Celestial Trade did not seem to be the aggressor. The UA, who misjudged Celestial Trade’s strength, was the aggressor in this war. Instead, Celestial Trade, who landed in North America, seemed to be on the defending side…

If the Columbia War was separated from the Xin-UA War, the UA’s Trident missiles launch carried out a pre-emptive nuclear strike which led to this war. The Ford aircraft carrier battle group was captured in the Columbia War and could not be regarded as the fuse of the war…

Ultimately, they were all excuses.

If NATO really wanted to intervene, there was precedence where they bypassed the United Nations and launched military strikes.

There were only two reasons which made the British Parliament reconsider.

One was the SS Expedition’s main gun on the synchronous orbit. After people witnessed the indestructible shield that could not be penetrated even by nuclear weapons, and the invincible spear, mutually assured destruction was no longer applicable. If one party’s nuclear weapons could not assure that the other party was destroyed after a strategic strike, then there was no significance to the idea of deterrence.

Even if the British wanted to help, they still had to consider the possible consequences of sending troops.

And the other concern was that the main force of the NATO Coalition Force was still pinned down in the mess known as Colombia, including the British army. If Britain intended to send troops to the UA, it would have to launch the largest war mobilization since World War II. However, the idea was just a joke when the country could not even solve its own problems.

It was worth examining what the British did over the years.

The 108,000-strong British Army, under the command of 100,000 Ministry of Defense civil servants, had to shut down a tank production line to purchase a large number of high-end massage chairs for the Ministry of Defense office and the sky-high price of ten pounds per roll of toilet paper. To save money, the Labor Party stopped its own missile production line, with the plan to equip India’s Agni missile series, known for disappearance and explosion. Fortunately, this plan was not passed after protests from the military.

To some extent, the “younger brother” situation had already reflected the dilemma faced by NATO as a whole. The Austrian Air Force sold all the training aircraft and only used simulators to train pilots. In the end, even airlines refused to recognize these people as pilots. The Polish Marines had no landing crafts and had to rent the museum’s sailing ship for exercises. The Greek government once expressed its willingness to donate a three-mast sailing ship (because the theme park on Salamis was closed due to the economic crisis), but it needed Poland to paddle the ship from the Aegean Sea to the Baltic Sea, which Poland ultimately rejected …

If it hadn’t done so many stupid things, Trump would not have included the “request for unpaid military expenditures from NATO member states” in the campaign platform.

As for Turkey, the country was still powerful. After all, the large number of soldiers meant strength, and no matter how low the training level was, the size of the army alone was enough. However, Turkey was already fighting on two fronts and was unable to drag itself from Colombia and Syria.

Not only that, but Russia, which increased its troops at the border, also exerted pressure.

Well, although many problems existed, there was no doubt about NATO’s combat capability.

However…

What could they do when their “big brother” couldn’t even protect himself?

Most NATO member states were already dragged into a war that was difficult for them.

Chapter 1479: Torrent of Steel

Chapter 1479: Torrent of Steel

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

In late February.

A week had passed since those twelve Trident missiles lifted off.

The term Sugar Cube Diplomacy seemed to become a very distant vocabulary. The twelve Trident missiles that people often discussed had become unerasable stains associated with President Mike Pence.

Although he served as the commander of the armed forces, the President himself did not have the right to declare war. The power belonged to Congress, granted to Congress by Article 1, Section 8, Item 11 of the Constitution, even though it was never abided by.

From the Korean War in the 1950s to the intervention in Lebanon in 1958, to the two presidents in the 1960s that sent troops to Vietnam, armed intervention in Dominica in 1965, and the bombing of Cambodia in 1970… After World War II, except for the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War, which were immediately approved by Congress, almost all of the wars were carried out without the prior approval of Congress, and Congress was forced to accept it and provide accommodating facts afterward.

These wars were won and lost, but it was the first time a war was pushed back onto UA soil.

If someone had to take responsibility for this disaster, then it would no doubt be on the person hiding inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and issuing orders.

Even if they defended the motherland with complex emotions, even the citizens of the UA had to admit, they were the aggressors in the war, and Celestial Trade was on the defending side.

Although the defending party obviously pushed the boundary too far.

4

Let the story return back to the warzone.

The line of defense at P City had been breached by Celestial Trade’s Second Armored Brigade, and there was a fierce exchange of fire in the wilderness with the reinforcing UA First Armored Division. A tank battle was instantly unleashed.

Just as it was during the Iraq War, but this time it was the UA who was at the disadvantage in this asymmetric war.

The pride of M1A2 was torn to pieces by the shells of Tiger II. Whether it was a depleted uranium armor-piercing bullet or a depleted uranium armor, in front of the weapon that was more technologically advanced, it was as fragile as a stick in front of a sword.

The battle exchange ratio of more than twenty to one made the UA Army fear whenever Celestial Trade’s tank was mentioned.

Tiger II was not the tank that caused the most issues. Despite the thick armor, the maneuverability was poor. With the support of ground firepower, the UA Army certainly had a fighting chance.

However, in front of the Wanderer, any attempt was powerless.

From infantry anti-tank weapons to long-range support artilleries, they had used all the methods they could think of. The soldiers on the frontline witnessed with their own eyes that the tank was hit directly by a Javelin missile, and the Wanderer in the center of the explosion was unmoved. It rolled out from the smoke and continued to fire its particle cannon and coaxial electromagnetic rapid-fire cannon. It continued to harvest the tanks on their side, as well as the soldiers that crawled near the tanks…

Even if it was a dark technology, it was unnecessary to make the top cover as thick as the front armor, right?

Even Tiger II could not use its forehead to defend against the Javelin missile…

The armor of the Wanderer tank, which utilized the Meissner effect for defense, had surpassed the understanding of the UA Army. The M1A2s forced to retreat in front of the particle cannons were like the Sherman M4s that were chased around by the Tiger Kings on the European battlefield. The only difference was that they could rely on the air force and their numbers to regain their advantage, but this time, they did not even have the chance to fight back.

Under the alternate airstrikes of the Aurora-20s and Wings of Freedoms, the ground support firepower of the UA military was weakened to the extreme. On the contrary, on Celestial Trade’s side, with the support of the Fireball-1 Artillery Battalion, with a strategic depth of more than 50 kilometers, the armored force pushed the UA First Armored Division from the suburbs of P City to O State.

It was worth mentioning that during the Battle of P City, the “Sea Beast” power armor developed by the Advanced Projects Agency of the Department of Defense was finally equipped to the first brigade in the UA Army. A brand-new power armor brigade was deployed to the very front of P City…

Although this “novice” brigade was mercilessly beaten by Celestial Trade’s T-3s and T-4s, compared to the disastrous defeat in front of the Lincoln Memorial, this battle caused at least limited casualties to Celestial Trade.

It was indeed true that war is a catalyst for civilization. If the UA Army did not see the powerful combat power of the Celestial Trade Power Armor Brigade in urban warfare, the UA military that had been bullying enemies overseas would not have thought of equipping power armors to its force.

…

Celestial Trade’s armored units continued to spearhead northwest, deep into the heart of O State.

In order to protect the Great Lakes industrial area, the UA had pushed almost all its forces to O State and left only a small number of standing troops to defend C State, which was located deep in the hinterland.

As the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the President of the UA was the supreme commander of the armed forces. Except for the Marine Corps, the position of commander did not exist in Army, Navy, and Air Force. The military officers of the Army and Air Force were the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In addition, there were also positions such as the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Air Force, and the Secretary of the Navy.

And now these officers and officials were all in Cheyenne Mountain.

Southwest W State, UA Army Chief of Staff Raymond Odierno was heading to the Wright Patterson Air Force Base on the way from D City to the front command on a Hummer. When he passed by the base, he asked his guard to park the vehicle on the side of the damaged road because he felt sentimental.

This place used to be the Air Force Materiel Command, but now it had turned into ruins…

If it weren’t for the location marked on the map, he could hardly identify this place.

The originally flat plain became a basin, and cross-shaped cracks spread out for dozens of kilometers. The planes, tanks, and missile launch vehicles were all missing, and the soldiers stationed here were either burnt into coke by the heat of the tungsten rod that hit the ground, or torn to pieces by the shock wave, or buried directly… …

“I heard that it’s worse in W State.” After Deputy Chief of Staff Mark Millay got out of the vehicle, he walked to him and looked at the ruins emotionally.

“There are calibers to tungsten rods?” Odierno raised an eyebrow.

“More than 500 W87 nuclear warheads are buried here… This place is now a powder keg, and no one can be sure that those nuclear warheads will never explode.

Not only safe nuclear warheads but also unstable conventional explosives were buried together. Under normal circumstances, nuclear warheads were safe, but if the explosion of conventional weapons caused the combat components of nuclear weapons to reach the critical value of the chain reaction, the possibility of triggering a nuclear explosion could not be ruled out.

Even in the best scenario, even if this place did not explode, the slowly leaking nuclear radiation would cause permanent radiation damage to the soil. These nuclear weapons had to be properly handled immediately, but they did not have the effort to take care of this at all.

“Eberhardt is right. We should have developed space forces instead of wasting our budget on increasing nuclear weapon reserves.” Admiral Odierno sighed and thought of the old friend who had passed away.

As early as 2000, General Eberhardt proposed the tactical thinking of developing space forces, but the plan eventually became a scheme used by Pentagon officials to deceive Congress for funding, and it had not been taken seriously even till today.

“It’s useless to say that now,” Mark Millay comforted, “We have assembled 12 divisions here, and 20 divisions will be mobilized in one month. We just need to hold the Great Lakes Industrial Zone for one month, and we’ll have hope for victory. If we hold for two months, we can run them back to the Pacific Ocean.

“I’m afraid they won’t give us a month.” General Odierno frowned and looked at the ruins. “Celestial Trade won’t lose sight of this. I have a hunch that this war won’t last long.”

Mark Millay was silent; he did not know what to do.

Mark and General Odierno were both worried about the same thing.

The next month would be extremely bloody. Celestial Trade would definitely launch a frenzy of attacks on their defenses, and the UA Army with their back against the wall would not give an inch either. A monetary time of peace like this would not last long, perhaps till tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Odierno shook his head, then turned around and walked back to the Hummer.

Just then, the satellite phone in his pocket rang.

“From whom?” Mark Millay who was next to him asked casually.

“Headquarters.”

“Our allies are finally willing to take action?”

“I hope so but I have no expectations anymore.” After Odierno pressed pickup, he put the phone closer to his ear.

He had no hope for good news. However, even though he had been mentally prepared, his expression froze after he heard the information hastily described.

The phone slipped out from his hand and fell to the ground.

Mark Millay’s expression also changed, and he hurriedly asked.

“What happened?”

After a long silence, General Odierno spoke in a heavy tone.

“Something happened at…”

“Cheyenne Mountain.”

At the most unlikely place.

Chapter 1480: The Third Battlefront

Chapter 1480: The Third Battlefront

Cheyenne Mountain.

Among the endless mountains was the last fortress of the UA.

It contained more than two hundred internal networks composed of super large and large computers and more than six hundred dedicated communication lines. Data obtained by all UA military satellites, civilian satellites, air radar early warning systems, and ground radar early warning systems were also compiled here. In addition, the command center also maintained hundreds of backup hotlines, which was used to keep the communication open with the President of the UA, the top military command, major UA headquarters, Canada, and major UA military bases distributed around the world at any time.

Even though this fortress was deep in the mountains, its reach was far beyond the reach of the traditional military command. The President of the UA could command the Army, Air Forces, and Navy here and call on his people to resist against the invasion of Celestial Trade.

Unit 721 was responsible for the garrison in this area along with several teams outside of the unit, with the number of troops totalling more than 1,500, or equivalent to half a brigade. The UA also deployed a special mountain brigade equipped with the “Sea Beast” power armor to counteract against Celestial Trade’s powerful orbital airborne troops.

Although the 400-meter-thick granite and several layers of steel reinforcement above the base gave them absolute confidence, the UA, who already suffered defeat once, did not dare to take this time lightly.

If Cheyenne Mountain fell, even if the people refused to surrender, all the resistance forces would be scattered because of the lost central command…

It was night.

Heavy rain poured down into the mountain, and the visibility of the entire foothills was reduced to a minimum. The early warning aircrafts at the nearby airport were unable to take off, and the UA military had to send double the number of troops for patrol mission. At the same time, they also took the opportunity that Celestial Trade was also unable to enter the air region to maintain radar, air defense missiles, and cannons.

Beams of flashlights occasionally appeared in the mountain, followed by soldiers that were fully equipped. The soldiers marching by as they searched every corner of the mountain. However, inside the shadow, no one noticed that a group of invisible “ghosts” were approaching quietly from a mountain path.

There were two paths into the Cheyenne Mountain military base – one was in the center of the military base at the foot of the mountain, and the other was located on a cliff halfway up the mountain and could only be accessed by helicopter. Regardless of the path, both tunnels were more than 500 meters long.

In these tunnels, there were layers of securities. It was almost impossible to sneak inside without disturbing the patrols stationed there.

Of course, this applied only to conventional troops.

“Enemy patrol spotted at three o’clock.”

“Roger, ‘Ghost’ is moving forward.”

The sound of leaves being brushed was hidden inside the storm, unnoticeable, like a gentle breeze that just blew by. The muzzle in the ghost’s hand was slightly lowered while she took out a sharp dagger. She moved towards to outpost located halfway up the mountain under the disguise of the night.

The risk of an airborne mission into the hinterland of the UA was extremely high.

Even the strongest troops required supply. If the battle could not be ended in a short period of time, if the C State National Guard stationed tens of kilometers away came for reinforcement, unless Celestial Trade parachuted more troops, the orbital airborne brigade was likely to be encircled and annihilated.

After all, this place was far away from the city. They didn’t have to be concerned about civilian casualties. If they used all the self-propelled artilleries, even tanks would have a hard time getting away.

The entire battle plan took three days to formulate.

In addition to Celestial Trade Army and the Space Department, the Ghost Agents also made a rare appearance and directly participated in this mission, unlike the usual intelligence support. This showed the importance of this military operation to Celestial Trade.

From the first shot being fired to the end of the battle, there was only one hour given to Celestial Trade’s soldiers.

In an hour, they had to break through the strongest fortress in the world, and then force the President of the UA to surrender…

Could the war end early? It’s entirely would be decided on this one mission.

…

The raindrops were slashed to halves.

A sharp blade pierced out from the darkness, and precisely cut through the fragile throat.

“Guuuuhhhh…!”

In the struggle, the soldier’s enlarged pupils gradually dilated, and his hands slowly dropped down.

The “ghost’ covered in a jet-black carbon nano armor let go of the hand that covered the soldier’s mouth, then gently placed the body into the grass beside the mountain path.

Her right hand formed into a fist, then she pointed forward with two fingers.

A group of soldiers slowly stood up from the shadow and rushed forward.

Along the way, any patrols were quietly taken out by Ghost Agents. Under the double cover of night and heavy rain, this force hardly encountered any obstacles.

Everything was executed like the exercise.

The Skyeye X1 military satellite scanned the terrain of Cheyenne Mountain. All the soldiers involved in the operation had gone through countless exercises in the virtual reality system on the SS Expedition before they were parachuted down to C State.

When they finally reached the top of the mountain, about 500 elite soldiers in K2 kinetic skeleton surrounded the radar stations. The Ghost Agents were responsible for silencing devices, and the flanking troops used drones to drop more than a dozen EMP grenades into the radar station.

Quickly after an order, the UA soldiers stationed at the entrance of the radar station only felt a mosquito-like noise hum into their ears, then they completely lost their hearing.

The orange light flickered, and light and shadow were distorted by the rainstorm.

Bullets arbitrarily flew inside the radar station, and the soldiers’ roar and intense gunfire were all silenced by the buzzing sound waves. Blood-stained bodies fell one after another, and the blood flowed into the mud pit with the rain and turned the mud pit into redness.

The long-prepared plan was executed, and the Celestial Trade soldiers who quickly attacked the radar station did not need further communication. In the tacit understanding, the infantry company stationed at the radar station and more than ten troops from Unit 721 responsible for repairing the radar were quickly taken out.

However, a fish slipped through the net.

A signal flare passed through the heavy curtain of rain and burst into an orange-red light in the air. Almost at the same time, the sound of sirens echoed in every corner of the mountain. The early warning aircrafts parked in the hangar took off in emergency, the armored vehicles in the tunnel drove out in waves, groups of soldiers quickly assembled, and the entire Cheyenne Mountain covered by rain started to move.

DADADADA!

The orange-yellow trajectories tore open the rain curtain and moved up the mountain. Celestial Trade soldiers quickly set up temporary bunkers and deployed anti-tank weapons. The roar of gunship helicopter propellers reverberated in the mountains, and an encounter quickly ensued.

However, to the surprise of the UA military, the surrounded Celestial Trade soldiers did not panic like they imagined. They did not immediately retreat, nor did they launch an attack on the helicopter entrance by the cliff, but rather, they had established a line of defense on top of the hill. It seemed that they were planning to defend this place

What are they thinking?

It was the question in every UA soldiers’ head.

Once the C State National Guard’s support company was deployed and dozens of high-explosive rockets were fired into the mountain, these difficult opponents would be torn to pieces. With the absolute advantage in firepower, even the best technology could not save them!

But soon, Celestial Trade responded to this question with action.

“This is the ‘Ghost’, the radar station has been paralyzed, and the secondary objective is complete. Our mission is exposed. Plan A failed, initiating Plan B.”

“This is the SS Expedition, the radar station is confirmed to be destroyed, initiating Plan B.”

“Digging Warrior is entering the launch port, counting down…”

“5”

“4”

“3”

“2”

“1”

“0”

“…Dropping!”

On the synchronous orbit, a huge object slowly floated out from SS Expedition’s launch port. Due to the force of gravity, it slowly accelerated towards the blue planet underneath…

Chapter 1481: A Long-Planned Murder

Chapter 1481: A Long-Planned Murder

In contrast to NA which was shrouded in darkness, the small island in the South Pacific Ocean was bathed in sunlight.

The indigenous people that lived here led a monotonous life day after day. Apart from dancing around the campfire and mating, they also fished on rafts, or picked coconuts and dried them into something like cheese. However, it was a lot sweeter and greasier than cheese.

Trump gradually became accustomed to life on the island.

Although Twitter did not exist here, the pleasant scenery was not bad. The plane crash made him realize many things, not only about life, but also about power, wealth, and family… things that he didn’t understand before but now he understood completely.

He had an idea why this crash happened, why he encountered this crash, and why those people dared to do such a thing. Right now, he couldn’t care less, he could only hope that those people would spare his daughter and his Trump Group…

As well as his social media account.

Just like his usual routine, Trump, who had completely become accustomed to his new life, wore palm leaves and left his big belly exposed. He patrolled his territory with a spear. However, at this moment, a series of white bubbles suddenly appeared on the originally calm ocean.

A droplet-shaped submarine slowly floated to the surface.

When Trump saw this strangely shaped submarine, his tanned face suddenly turned pale, and he stood there motionlessly.

Although he had a hunch, he didn’t expect it to happen so fast.

What should have come, after all, did come…

…

On a small island near French Polynesia, Jiang Chen saw Trump, who wore palm leaves and almost burst out laughing. Perhaps it was because of his laughter or he did not like Jiang Chen very much, Trump had a stern expression and did not look very welcoming.

Whizz-

A few arrows flew to him from the darkness.

Jiang Chen, inside the N-100 power armor, slapped down the arrows like waving away mosquitoes. He gently pressed down Ayesha’s rifle that was pointed at the indigenous people, jumped on the beach, and walked to Trump.

Trump let out a sigh, then said wryly.

“Can’t you just let me go?”

“You know that’s impossible.” Jiang Chen shrugged, looked at Brien who stood next to him, raised his eyebrows, and said with interest, “It seems that there is an uninvited guest? It’s your Rainbow Mansion assistant? Or the flight attendant on Air Force One?”

“…” Trump spread his hands and said emotionlessly, “General of Trump Kingdom, the next heir to the throne.”

There was a hint of pleading in that voice.

Brien walked to Trump’s side, then stared at Jiang Chen viciously, the stone spear in his hand swayed dangerously. Although he knew that the weapon was useless, and did not bring him the slightest sense of security, he still tightly grasped it in his hands.

Although the Pacific Fleet was destroyed by the hurricane, his instinct told him the cause of death to the more than 100,000 naval officers and soldiers that ended up in fishes’ bellies were inseparable from the man in front of him.

After he recalled the continuous rainstorm in Colombia, a word that only existed in legends, came to his mind.

Weather weapon…

It was like a sci-fi movie.

But after he thought about the Holy Shield that defended the twelve Trident missiles, the weather weapon did not seem to be too far off from reality.

Regardless of what Brien, who was dressed like the indigenous, thought, Jiang Chen looked at Trump thoughtfully.

He understood the meaning behind his words.

It was nothing more than “I’m over seventy years old, and I fortunately survived. I don’t think I can live for many years. I have no other pursuits. I just want to spend the rest of my life on this island, and so does the person next to me; he is the next king. Can you spare our lives…”

However, since Jiang Chen already found him here, he could not make the promise to him.

No one could guarantee that this small island will never be discovered.

It would be a hidden danger for Celestial Trade’s next plan if they kept a president that should have died here. It was why Ayesha asked Jiang Chen if Trump should be dealt with.

“Even if you think someone will take your place, it doesn’t matter?” Jiang Chen asked thoughtfully.

“Take it, take everything, don’t bother me anymore, I know I messed up, they are respectful in front of me, but they act differently behind me,” Trump said in an almost self-deprecating tone, then said nonchalantly, “I know you want to laugh at me for being used as the scapegoat. Just laugh at me. Now Mike Pence is the president. Go find him. I have nothing so you don’t have to care about a nobody…”

“Are you sure?” Jiang Chen interrupted Trump’s self-deprecating speech, then said with a smile, “You still have your Trump Group, the most beautiful first lady, and your amazing daughter. Career, family, and your social media account…Do you really think you have nothing but the position of the President?”

“What do you mean.” Trump frowned.

“Literally,” Jiang Chen said emotionlessly when he walked to Trump, “If I tell you now, once you give up everything, then everything you have will be replaced by another person… Even so, are you still willing?”

“Oh, God… You care about my meager inheritance?” Trump couldn’t believe it, but he was uncertain as he said with a trembling voice, “My assets are less than a fraction of yours, why do you just refuse to let me be here quietly…”

“Because we need the name Trump,” As Jiang Chen interrupted Trump once again, a subtle smile formed as the corners of his mouth turned up. He slowly confessed his original plan, “So we will create an identical person, for the time being, call it Trump No. 2. Believe me, our technology is more than enough to do this.”

“You demon.” Brien squeezed those words from his teeth as he continued to stare at Jiang Chen with horror and disbelief flashing in his pupils.

From Jiang Chen’s words, he had already guessed what Celestial Trade was going to do.

“Well, if I am a demon, then what are you guys?”

Jiang Chen did not look at Brien and just said emotionlessly, “Twelve Tridents missiles and 96 nuclear warheads. If you succeed, one million citizens of Xin and even the 7,600 from the UA stranded in Xin will be the victims of your hegemony. You have never seen an international order as something you have to follow, nor have you cared about humanitarianism at all, so why do you pretend to accuse me now? I just did what you have done to me, back to you. If I’m a demon, then please tell me, Mr. Brien, what are you again?”

Brien was speechless, and after a moment of silence, he reluctantly argued.

“Neither did we think that…”

Jiang Chen smiled and interrupted Brien.

“Don’t tell me that you never thought that the twelve Tridents could hit all the targets. Eleven of them were aimed at the city center of Coro, Ange, and Penglai. You were just planning to contain our air defense forces, then use strategic nuclear strikes on industrial bases and military bases on New Moon Island… Am I right? But you know, this excuse is meaningless. The war has already begun. Let your President Pence go to the International Court of Justice to explain it. ”

“Isn’t the Pacific Fleet not enough…” Brien squeezed out the words.

“Not enough. Let alone the Pacific Fleet, even if you added the Lincoln Memorial and the Statue of Freedom, it is still not enough. Speaking of which you may not know but we have landed in Capital and Nouveau York, and are now pushing towards the Great Lakes.” Jiang Chen smiled, “It won’t be long before this war will end.”

Brien and Trump were both stunned, with shock and disbelief written all over their face. They couldn’t digest the amount of information in Jiang Chen’s words for a while.

Even though he made the most pessimistic plan, Brien never thought that Celestial Trade would have landed on UA soil. And Trump had been in a disconnected state since the crash of the Air Force One, so he was unaware of any news. Even the news of the resumption of the Colombian Civil War and the collapse of the Pacific Fleet were all told to him by Brien.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore.” Jiang Chen shook his head, finally looked at Brien, and smiled, “Mr. Brien.”

“What’s the matter?” Brien responded subconsciously as he was still shocked by the news.

With a serious tone, Jiang Chen looked into his eyes and said, “You are a patriot, right?”

“Of course.” Brien raised his head slightly, proud of his answer.

“Very well. For the future of the 300 million people of UA.” Jiang Chen nodded, then suddenly raised his pistol without warning, pointed it at Brien’s head, and whispered, “Please go to hell.”

BANG!

A stream of blood spurted from his forehead, and Brien collapsed onto the beach.

The pungent sulfur smell dissipated, and the deafened gunshot terrified the indigenous people who were gathered around. They shouted “God”, “fire”, “curse” and other incomprehensible words in their language as they threw away the spears, bows, and arrows and fled.

“GOD! FU*K! YOU ACTUALLY KILLED HIM.” Trump took a few steps back in horror. “You killed him… Do you know who he is?”

“I don’t know and I don’t want to know. Most likely an officer from the Pacific Fleet that managed to survive. I have killed too many people, and I don’t have the time to get to know everyone,” Jiang Chen said this sentence nonchalantly, then tucked the pistol still smoking back on his waist, “Also, you only have the chance to survive if I kill him, am I right?”

Trump stared at Jiang Chen. His fat and loose chest undulated, and he didn’t speak.

“Let’s continue to talk about the topic just now,” Jiang Chen smiled slightly to ease the tense atmosphere, then he said, “We had a very pleasant negotiation last time, so it was me who came today, not a cruise missile.”

“What do you want to talk to me about?” Trump trembled.

“First of all, I can give you an enviable lifespan,” Jiang Chen said in a soft bewitching voice, “You will serve as President for two full terms, including the time of the interim government after the war and your term of office may be more than twenty years. In addition, your daughter will inherit the Trump Group, and we will let you have wealth beyond the Morgan and Rockefeller families, and the Trump family name will be given more meaning; it will be remembered by future generations. In the end, you will become the hero who saved your people from peril…just like what happens in Hollywood blockbusters.”

Lifespan?

Wealth beyond Morgan and Rockefeller?

The…hero who saved his people?

Trump was not overwhelmed by the series of sugar-coated promises, he swallowed down, then cautiously looked at Jiang Chen.

“It’s the first time you can become a hero by betraying national interests.”

“Betraying national interests? No, no, no, you won’t be the scapegoat,” Jiang Chen shook his finger, then laughed emotionlessly. He paused for a moment before he continued, “In fact, we already have enough evidence to prove it. Air Force One was not an accident, but…”

“A long-planned murder.”

Chapter 1482: Battle of C City

Chapter 1482: Battle of C City

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“…They charged towards us, and they purposely made the engines really loud, loud to the point where the sound even covered the gunshots. They were like dense locusts. They would make you lower your head, and once you lower your head, you’re done for, they won’t give you the opportunity to raise your head again. The tanks started charging towards us, and then the infantry. We blew up roads, destroyed buildings just to stop them. In the war to defend our country, no one dropped their weapons and surrendered, but our entire battalion was captured by them…”

“The Democrats were right; this war was wrong from the very beginning.”

A veteran who survived the Battle of C City wrote this in his memoirs twenty years after the end of the war.

At the same time as the military operation against Cheyenne Mountain was launched, Celestial Trade launched a fierce offensive against the twelve UA Army divisions stationed in C City with the Second Armored Division as the vanguard.

This inland city was named after the navigator, as a hub of the country’s aviation, highway, and rail transportation, it was used by many North American companies as an important material storage and cargo distribution center. Not only that, as the largest city in O State, the industries here were extremely developed, with aircraft, automobiles, missiles, electrical appliances, pieces of machinery, and other heavy industrial bases. This city was an important part of the Great Lakes Industrial Zone.

If Celestial Trade captured it, it was equivalent to prying open the gate of the Great Lakes Industrial Zone.

If the UA lost this place, it was the same as losing the transportation hub of the Great Lakes Industrial Zone.

This battle was destined to be tragic from the very beginning. The UA Army and Celestial Trade were not going to give up this place easily.

More than 20,000 Celestial soldiers fought in this battle, as well as three infantry divisions from Moro and one marine corps division from Madagascar. More than 300,000 people participated in this battle, and millions of people were directly or indirectly involved in it.

The air-raid siren rang again and again, and the explosion of air defense artillery and missiles lit up the sky over C City. From the exchange of long-range missiles, the battle quickly turned into close-range combat, Aurora-20s and Wings of Freedoms (F-79) faced off against the formation formed by F-22s and F-16s. The densely smoked sky foretold the tragedy of this battle.

F-79 was positioned as a close-range attack fighter, and air combat was not its area of expertise since it was technology from a century later. Just like the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II could annihilate any World War II models, even if the F-22 and F-16 occupied the home field advantage and the numbers advantage, the balance of victory still favored Celestial Trade.

Dense smoke drifted into the city from the suburbs.

The tanks that rushed into the city, with the coordination of the infantry, swept the resistance on the streets.

It was not only the UA soldiers that fought in this battle but the citizens of C City, who were covered in the star-spangled flag. However, the semi-automatic rifles and shotguns in the hands of these cannon fodders could not pose a threat to Celestial Trade’s army, and their resistance often collapsed after the first sound of the gunshot.

In this war, in addition to the twelve UA divisions, there were also two divisions from the neighboring ally Canada, as well as the French’s Foreign Corps, Britain’s 16th Marine Brigade, and Turkey’s 37th Infantry Brigade, which landed in North America through a Canadian port…

Although NATO countries did not declare war on Celestial Trade because of the deterrence of space-based weapons and Russia’s amassment of troops on the border, they still extended a helping hand to their big brother through volunteer army and other means of war assistance.

But this little force could hardly change the outcome…

…

On the other side.

Above the atmosphere.

A steel behemoth’s descent accelerated under the pull of gravity.

At the moment when it touches the exosphere, dots of flames gradually outlined the red-hot arc around its body. The four arc-shaped external engines ejected an eerie blue flame in the opposite direction and formed a light blue shield in front of it.

Thick cumulonimbus clouds were directly penetrated.

Inside the rainstorm lit up by flares, the UA soldiers looked up into the air, their eyes widened, and shock, disbelief, and a hint of panic were reflected inside their pupils.

“Sh*t…what is that?”

“Tungsten rod? No, it’s…a drill?”

“It’s a drilling rig! They must be crazy. Even a diamond drill can’t penetrate 400 meters of granite! Not to mention there is a protective belt made of steel!” The engineer of Unit 721 muttered to himself, as he looked at Celestial Trade’s position on the mountain the same way as he looked at a lunatic, “What do they want to do?”

Drilling through 400 meters of granite with a simple drill bit was indeed whimsical. Even with a large derrick and supporting drilling facilities, it would take two or three drill bits to penetrate a 400-meter-thick granite rock formation.

As for the protective belt made of steel, it was not a problem that could be solved with a drill. The steel protection belt embedded in the granite layer of Cheyenne Mountain was not ordinary steel, but a steel alloy with high cobalt content! It was not impossible to directly drill through with a drill, but it would take at least a week…

However, Celestial Trade only had an hour left.

The external engines were separated from the “Digging Warrior”, and the huge half-track chassis slammed into the center of the radar station and smashed the concrete road to pieces. As one of the few land vehicles in Celestial Trade that could be directly airdropped from a high orbit, the Digging Warrior possessed a strong armor and stability.

Although it was hit by anti-aircraft guns a few times during landing, apart from a few shallow scratches on the steel shell coated with a tungsten coating, there was not even a slight dent.

Although they did not know what Celestial Trade planned to do, no one could risk the safety of the President and senior officials. As the Digger Warrior landed, the mountain brigade and Unit 721 troops stationed at Cheyenne Mountain launched a much more aggressive attack.

Bullets shuttled freely in the rain, and the waves of attacks came one after another. However, the nine hundred Celestial Trade Marine Corps soldiers would obviously not let them succeed. Under the cover of Ghost Agents, a bloody slaughter permeated in the night.

Every second, someone collapsed.

It was not only soldiers from the UA but soldiers from Celestial Trade also collapsed.

Finally, the Digging Warrior completed its deployment. The huge drill bit was pushed out from the abdomen, and under the traction of the mechanical cantilever, it aimed at the shattered concrete road directly below, and the ground suddenly started to roar. The bean-sized pieces of concrete splashed like bullets, and the track slowly sunk, sunk, sunk…

The soil was plowed away, and soon the drill bit touched the granite layer.

The officer of Unit 721 held his breath as he looked at the top of the mountain; his eyes were fixated on that steel behemoth.

Even if he knew the drill bit would be stuck in the granite layer and the drill bit would be shattered by the solid rock mass, he still couldn’t stop his anxiety.

After all, it was Celestial Trade’s technology.

God knows if it was another dark technology that made no sense…

Chapter 1483: Good News and Bad News

Chapter 1483: Good News and Bad News

“Earthquake?”

There was a tremor right above the multimedia room.

It was the second time that happened.

Celestial Trade launched a large-scale offensive against C City. After the wartime committee composed of officials and military officers received the latest information, they immediately convened a combat meeting.

However, the noise that came from the outside from time to time always interrupted the meeting.

The ongoing combat meeting was forced to stop again. This time everyone stopped what they were doing and listened quietly, as they tried to figure out what happened above. Mike Pence, who sat in the first row, frowned slightly, and the tip of the pen above his notebook stopped mid-air, and he soon heard a faint roar.

“Damnit, I don’t have a good feeling about this,” when an officer heard the faint roar, he cursed with his voice lowered.

When the colleague next to him heard it, he whispered comfortingly.

“Take it easy, it’s more than 400 meters of thick granite, and there is a steel protective belt. Even if they used the space-based weapon, it’s impossible to penetrate such thick protection. Our geological experts have analyzed the longitudinal strike depth of the tungsten rod projectile, at most they…”

As they spoke, the ceiling shook violently again.

“Damnit, what are they doing…”

Mike Pence listened to the discussion inside the multimedia room, then looked to the Secretary of Defense standing under the projector and frowned.

“Mattis, I want to know what is happening outside.”

Just as James Mattis was about to speak, there were rapid footsteps outside the door.

Quickly after, an officer of the Department of Defense opened the door to the room, walked in, and reported in a quickened tone.

“Report! Just now Unit 721 has made contact with us. The special forces of Celestial Trade raided the radar station directly above the military base, and…”

“And?” Mattis frowned.

The officer hesitated for a second before he said, “They dropped a huge drill directly above us.”

Obviously, he also felt quite bizarre about the report from Unit 721.

“Drill?”

The officials and officers in the multimedia room looked at each other in confusion.

It was just whimsical to use a drill to penetrate through the shell of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Could it be that Celestial Trade was so foolish that they naively thought they could break into the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, which was known as the world’s most secure air-defense facility, with a drill?

“Drill? Is it the one on Mars?” Mike Pence frowned.

Different from others, as the President, he remembered that he heard an incident from the Director of NASA not long ago. It seemed that Celestial Trade deployed a drill rig larger than two locomotives on the Mars colony to dig tunnels on Mars to fight with the Devil Worms that lurked deep underground.

Although he was skeptical that Celestial Trade could penetrate the defense of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, the fact that these people never failed before made him question his skepticism.

Mike Pence did not say much more and just ordered emotionlessly.

“Get the C State National Guard to hurry up.”

“ROGER!”

The officer saluted, turned around, and ran towards the command center outside the multimedia room.

After Mike Pence gave this order, his hanging heart finally eased slightly. Even the faint roar was not so annoying to his ears. No matter what the enemy was thinking, when hundreds of rockets cover the top of Cheyenne Mountain, all conspiracies would be turned into ashes.

No one could survive that purgatory.

NO ONE!

Mike Pence had no doubt in his mind.

He always believed that the Statue of Freedom would eventually bless the star-spangled flag and protect the land of freedom as it had done countless times in history.

No matter the price paid, they would eventually win——

BOOM!

There was a violent tremor right above the multimedia room. Unlike the past, the tremor lasted for a full half a minute, and at the end, it was accompanied by the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground. The officials and officers inside the room all grabbed onto their seats or the tables around them. Some that did not sit properly were knocked down to the ground.

Then, a shrill alarm echoed through the corridors inside the complex.

Only under one condition would such an alarm sound inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

The look of shock and horror swayed in his constricted pupils, Mike Pence looked at the slightly shaken ceiling and exclaimed out.

“IT’S IMPOSSIBLE… HOW IS IT POSSIBLE! HOW DID THEY DO IT!”

…

Daybreak in C City.

The twelve-hour offensive finally stopped and only one or two sniper shots occasionally fired on the empty battlefield.

The bloody battle turned the former bustling streets into devastated ruins.

More than 3,000 UA soldiers were killed on the first day of battle, and nearly 10,000 were injured.

The exhausted soldiers dropped the weapon in their hands, removed their helmets, leaned on the bunker behind them, slowly sat down on the ground, and stared at the unrecognizable street in a daze. Some people lit a cigarette silently, some closed their eyes to rest their minds, and some prayed in a low voice, or wept to a photo…

Sorrow pervaded behind the fragmented trenches and sandbags. The soldiers on the front line silently took over the bread and hot tea in the hands of the logistics and hurriedly ate breakfast. Most people chose to rest for a while and recharge their energy. Perhaps ten minutes later, another battle was waiting for them.

Maybe in half an hour, this breakfast would be their last memory…

Slightly different from the mood of the UA military, the morale on Celestial Trade’s side was more uplifting. However, the soldiers who withdrew from the front line were mostly silent, and they were nowhere as relaxed as they were at the start. The damaged power armors were sent to a maintenance workshop for repair, and the damaged kinetic skeletons were directly replaced.

Most of the scrapped equipment was drones. Although many soldiers were injured, very few died…

At least, the casualty was much less than their opposing side.

Different from the violent airborne landings in Capital, Nouveau York, and P City, in the suburbs of C City, the boys of Celestial Trade finally encountered resistance. The UA military had been preparing for this “decisive battle” for a long time. Tank traps and sandbags were placed on the main roads, and even foxholes and trenches had been dug to avoid explosives at the expense of the road.

Not only that, but they also deployed atomic demolition munition…

Maybe the UA soldiers themselves did not expect that this kind of unique weapon developed as a response to Soviet nuclear deterrence would really be used one day.

In the twelve-hour battle, Celestial Trade only managed to push forward by 800 meters. It was evidence that showed the bloodiness and fierceness of the battle.

Unlike Celestial Trade and UA soldiers, the Moro soldiers were extremely thrilled. Even though they suffered a lot of casualties during the first day of the offensive, the power of hatred made them unfearful of death. From the moment they set their foot on this land, their emotions were never calm.

Time passed second by second. At about nine o’clock, artilleries exploded, and the air that engulfed the battlefield suddenly became more deadly.

The soldiers who were resting opened their eyes one after another, then they picked up their weapons in silence.

However, just when everyone was ready to fight to the death, the original combat mission was temporarily canceled.

Good news came from C State.

Although the news was undoubtedly bad news for the UA soldiers battling on the streets of C City…

Chapter 1484: An Unexpected Turn of Events

Chapter 1484: An Unexpected Turn of Events

“MOVE! MOVE!”

It was impossible for a simple drill bit to drill through a 400-meter-thick granite layer, but the “Digging Warrior” that landed here was not the same as the one that landed on the surface of Mars. In order to adapt to the complicated battlefield environment of Mars, the Digging Warrior had gone through countless modifications in the hands of the colony engineers to clear out Devil Worm nests located deep inside the ground.

A thumb-thick groove pattern was added to the side of the original drill bit, which was connected to a corrosion-resistant material container filled with organic solution.

And the solution was Devil Acid!

The corrosion-resistant cobalt drill bit rotated at a high speed, spewed out Devil Acid, and seeped into the granite formation below. The granite and the steel protective belt were both easily penetrated by the drill under the corrosion of acid.

The speed of the downward advancement surprised everyone!

When the last layer of protection was drilled through, the Digging Warrior smashed into the tunnel in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, and the steel gate just happened to be not far from the drill. The Digging Warrior continued its advancement and easily drilled a hole in the large gate.

Soldiers in kinetic skeleton descended from the top of the mountain to the tunnel with ropes, as they followed closely behind the Digging Warrior with their rifle raised.

The drill bit rotating at a high speed ignored the bullets from the front. Instead, it directly rammed into the giant gate by the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The irritating friction sound reverberated inside the tunnel as the heavy steel plates on the door fell off along with the rivets that popped out.

In the desperate sight of the soldiers stationed in the military base, the two-meter-thick alloy gate that weighed 25 tons was penetrated, and a hole the size of two people was left behind.

“Protect the President!”

With a roar, the battle was instantly ignited.

However, the last layer of defense of the fort had been breached, and nothing could stop the Celestial Trade soldiers.

Tear gas was fired and smoke-filled every corner of the military base. Rows of soldiers in black kinetic skeleton passed through the gas-filled corridors. They used their rifle stock or short stick to put down the resisting soldiers and officers. Then, they kicked open the door to the multimedia room and surrounded the senior officials and officers, who had their mouth and nose covered…

This time, they had nowhere to escape to.

…

At the front line in C City.

A radio was placed on the sandbag.

The UA soldiers with rifles, heavy machine guns, and black camouflage painted on their faces huddled around the radio as they listened to the broadcast.

Suddenly, everyone fell silent.

They heard Mike Pence…the voice of their President.

Compared with when he gave the inaugural speech and called for war mobilization, his voice lost a lot of vitality. His tone was mixed with a feeling of defeat, and he sounded like he aged. With a sense of astonishment, the soldiers looked at each other, stopped their chatter, and listened carefully to every word on the radio.

But after they listened to the speech, the expressions on their faces were completely frozen…

Or in other words, completely devastated…

“Today is the darkest day in our history.”

“Our last fortress, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, was breached.”

“Hundreds of millions of people have been involved in this erroneous and avoidable war. We have lost more than 100,000 of our people in this war, and now, millions of citizens of C City are suffering from the siege. The efforts of several generations have now gone to waste, and our losses can no longer be measured by the gold in our reserve.”

“Not because of fear of the future, but because of the fact that this war should be over.”

“With regret and sadness, I’m reading out this agreement.”

“On behalf of the federal government, on behalf of the people of UA, I express my desire for peace, and…”

At this point, Mike Pence’s voice visibly trembled.

As if he had exhausted his last strength, he spoke with a heavy tone and slowly said.

“…and unconditionally surrender to Xin.”

Unconditional…surrender?

Surrender?!

It was not only the soldiers behind the sandbags on the front line but also the citizens that listened to this speech through TV or phone. Everyone looked petrified, stopped what they were doing, and froze in place.

Did they not say the Cheyenne Mountain Complex was unbreakable?

Did they not say that even in a global nuclear war, this doomsday fortress could preserve UA’s last hope until the end of the war? How come in just less than a month, the UA had lost everything and the so-called last fortress…

It was not just the people of UA who were shocked by this news.

All NATO member states.

No, the whole world was astonished…

Until three days ago, British parliamentarians still argued about the need to develop a space force at the Palace of Westminster. Until a week ago, Russia planned to deploy nuclear weapons to the border to prevent further warfare in Europe. Until half a month ago, ESA was still busy making a systematic assessment of the deadliness of space-based weapons. Until a month ago, the UA thought that a Trident missile would be enough to end Celestial Trade…

However, the fact surprised everyone.

This war, which was supposed to be dragged on and eventually lead to a global conflict, ended with the surrender of a superpower in less than a month. The majestic flag on the Statue of Freedom seemed to have only been raised yesterday, and today it would be captured in a historical frame.

In Silicon Valley of the CA State, where it had yet to be baptized by war and seemed to have been selectively forgotten by Celestial Trade, the IT workers who stood in front of the conscription point hugged each other and wept bitterly. They finally worked up the courage to step onto the battlefield, but the president who mobilized them to pick up their weapon to defend freedom read out the surrender agreement.

In T State’s, not far from CA State, red-necked citizens marched on the streets with rifles as they swore to resist till the final moment. They did not recognize the surrender agreement, or even the president of the country, as they claimed to shed the last drop of blood before they ever put down their weapons.

The citizens of W State and N State on the East Coast accepted this reality with mixed feelings, but they all breathed a sigh of relief.

For people who have lived in a civilized society for so long, the days when they were ruled by the Moro could be described as a living hell. The island had become a place everyone yearned for because at least the Celestial Trade soldiers stationed there were disciplined. They did not spit on people, nor would they smash people’s heads with their rifles if people stayed for a second too long.

The citizens of B City and other northern states also breathed a sigh of relief.

They did not know that Celestial Trade had signed a secret agreement with B City Consortium, nor did they know why Celestial Trade selectively ignored them. They were finally relieved that they no longer needed to be on constant alert, and the boys on the M State border could finally go home alive…

The war was over.

Although they lost.

The soldiers who fought on the front line felt betrayed, but it was no longer relevant.

Everyone did not understand why Mike Pence, the hawkish president, could not hold on for a moment longer.

Maybe only Mike Pence himself knew the bitterness and pain in his heart.

It was not because of his fear of death.

But because of a word from a person that forced him to make such a choice…

Chapter 1485: Unconditional Surrender!

Chapter 1485: Unconditional Surrender!

After Mike Pence and other senior officials were captured, the entire central command system was completely paralyzed.

Unless a very charismatic political leader stood up at this time to gain the recognition of the people, and re-establish the federal government, the scattered National Guards of each state and the regular forces that just lost their brains would not be able to withstand the onslaught of Celestial Trade.

After Cheyenne Mountain Complex, which was impossible to lose, was lost, failure became inevitable.

In front of Celestial Trade’s muzzles, Mike Pence certainly considered using his last courage to write this piece of history with his own blood, and it could be regarded as atonement for his mistakes. However, to his surprise, the soldiers of Celestial Trade did not make it difficult for him, nor did they make him press his hands on the agreement.

A Celestial Trade officer walked to him, handed a Future phone as well as an agreement to him, then took two steps back and, watched him with both hands behind his back.

Through the thin screen, he saw a man in the middle of the empty conference room. Mike Pence’s pupils constricted slightly when he saw the familiar face, the face that he could never forget…

It was Jiang Chen who had called him.

“This war has gone on long enough. We offer two options.”

Without any nonsense, Jiang Chen raised a finger and put forward his conditions with directness.

“First, you represent the federal government and surrender to us unconditionally.”

“That’s impossible,” Mike Pence refused without hesitation.

The so-called unconditional surrender meant that the victorious country would only be constrained by public perception and humility of civilization, while the defeated country would be subject to strict legal restrictions, it meant that the defeated country would have to follow the instructions and orders of the victorious country without any resistance. In addition, the victorious country would not recognize any political power of the original government, political organizations, and leaders of the defeated country. From the time the defeated country surrendered to the establishment of normal relations with the victorious country, the functions of the government of the defeated country would be performed by the head of the garrison of the victorious country.

For example, if Celestial Trade made the UA destroy all its nuclear weapons, the UA would not even have the power to say no.

Jiang Chen didn’t say anything and just raised his second finger.

“The second option is that our tungsten rods have been reloaded. Next, we will implement strategic strikes on strategic facilities such as the Great Lakes Industrial Area, the S City Industrial Area, the H City Industrial Area, and the T State Oil Field. At the same time, twenty strategic EMP missiles will be launched to the entire West Coast, completely destroying the national power grid and Internet communications, and turn back the clock from the digital age to the early atomic age.

When Jiang Chen said these points, he paused for a moment, enjoyed the expression on Mike Pence’s face, and then continued softly.

“Then, we will allow you to surrender conditionally, and maybe I will generously provide you with a humanitarian aid loan of no more than one billion Xin New dollars.”

“You demon…” Mike Pence said with a trembling voice as the Adam’s apple in his throat moved up and down.

“Someone seemed to describe me like that not long ago, but I must emphasize that we are just doing what you did to us,” Jiang Chen looked at the watch in front of him, and then said in a non-negotiable tone. “You have two hours to consider your options. I’ll allow you to discuss with your staff.”

Although Jiang Chen’s choice of words made it sound like he was negotiating, his tone did not carry any hint of negotiation at all.

…

Either surrender or accept destruction.

Although he wanted to avoid the last option at all costs, the earth civilization faced issues far more serious than its own. To defend the invasion of Harmony, the industrial power and economic strength of the UA were necessary.

But Jiang Chen did not plan to negotiate with Mike Pence on this.

If these forces could not be of help to the Earth Defense Alliance in the resistance against extraterrestrial civilization, then the least he could do was to prevent them from being hindrances…

…

Mike Pence had no choice at all.

After he discussed with his staff for an hour, he walked into the conference room with a grave expression.

The officer who sat across from him was still the same officer, and Jiang Chen’s name had already been signed on the agreement. After he had picked up his pen, he tremblingly signed his name at the end.

Just two hours after the signing of the surrender agreement, just one hour after the embassies of different countries in Xin and the embassies in the UA received announcements about surrender, the news of the surrender spread across the world.

In a city located in a small town in Asia, a family was having dinner in front of the TV. The weather forecast was suddenly interrupted by breaking news. The host broadcasted the news in a relaxed and serious tone.

“…Last night at 12:20, Celestial Trade Special Forces launched an attack on the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in C State. The UA President Mike Pence and several officials were captured. Just two hours ago, our reporter in the Capital has confirmed that the news is true. As the aggressor in this war, the UA has announced its unconditional surrender…

The chopsticks that reached for the plate stopped, and the family was stunned by the news.

“The UA surrendered?”

“How could that be…”

“This must be fake news. How could the UA lose?” The young man in his twenties pushed up his glasses, dismissed the content in the news, and acted like he knew a lot, “I remember there was a battle in C City yesterday. Once the UA has completed the war mobilization, with its strong industrial capabilities and huge reserves, Xin will definitely be defeated!”

“This is great news, back in the days, I…” The old grandpa did not hear what his grandson said clearly, he was only excited and sighed with melancholy as he recalled those difficult years when he falsely reported his age, enlisted in the army, and crossed the Yalu River.

“Eat, eat, who cares what’s happening on the other side of the Pacific Ocean…”

The family chatted, laughed, and continued to eat. Although the grandfather and grandson were still debating, none of them really took this matter to heart. If there was someone who really needed to worry, it was their neighbor Little Wang. He got an offer from the University of W State two months ago, now he planned to apply to the global admissions of Coro University. Unfortunately, the dollars he exchanged could no longer come back…

In the foreign exchange market, the Xin New dollar had grown exponentially, and many people became rich overnight, and many people regret the fact that they missed the opportunity.

The UA dollar seemed to have fallen to the trench bottom. On the contrary, because the expectation of defeat was fulfilled, the fallen dollar and plummeted stock indices actually saw a slight rebound because the war ended early.

Not everyone willingly accepted such an outcome. For example, T State and other inland states announced that they did not recognize the federal government’s legitimacy, deployed lines of defense along the highway, and were determined to resist to the end.

“T State refuses to surrender, let the softies of the Capital surrender! We will defend the flag to the last minute and shed the last drop of blood for the Statue of Freedom!” A certain red neck roared into the reporter’s camera.

Regardless if they accepted the reality or not, the Celestial Trade Army and Moro soldiers moving into the inland military bases would eventually show them the reality. Procedures such as post-war reparations and the trial of war criminals were all put on the agenda.

First, the trial of the defeated would be held at the Supreme Court in Capital…

At the same time, an admiral, who was supposed to be dead, piloted a two-seater modified Mustang P51 under the direction of Jiang Chen and flew towards the West Coast.

Chapter 1486: Project Himalia

Chapter 1486: Project Himalia

“Damnit, can’t you fly slower?” Trump’s blonde hair flew wildly in the wind as he complained loudly.

The cockpit glass was a little leaky, and the wings were also shaking. It was a challenge even for the construction robots of Celestial Trade to repair this ancient plane. The robot even had to 3D print a few parts and made them look old. In the end, it even added two wooden external fuel tanks.

As for why the tanks had to be made out of wood, it was easy to understand.

“Sorry, Mr. President, if the engine speed can’t keep up, we may fall down because of your weight.” Although the admiral piloting the plane looked old too, his expression was rather calm.

“FU*K!”

Trump viciously gestured to him with a middle finger but was ignored by the latter with the same calm expression,

When they arrived in CA State, the fuel was exhausted.

Admiral Brien’s superb piloting skills eventually landed this Mustang-P51 safely on farmland in the suburbs.

When an old farmer saw someone destroy his farm, he walked over aggressively with his double-barreled shotgun. After he made out the two people in the cockpit, the old farmer’s eyes widened, to the point where he couldn’t even hold his shotgun and dropped it to the ground.

“Ahem, hi,” Trump revealed a slightly awkward smile, then fixed his hair that looked like a bird’s nest and pushed open the cockpit cover, “Can you help me? I seem to be stuck…”

“You, you, you are…” The old farmer stared wide-eyed, walked forward quickly, gave Trump a hand, and unfastened the seat belt around his belly. “You are… I know you…”

“Yes, I’m Trump,” he stroked his messy hair, then raised his chin slightly, “Your President is back.”

…

“Unbelievable.”

“What’s unbelievable?” Jiang Chen sat in the living room with a glass of champagne in his hand and asked with a smile on his face.

“You actually won,” as Natasha watched the news on TV, the expression on her face was still full of disbelief.

In the news footage, Celestial Trade soldiers lined up on the lawn in front of the Presidential Palace. Surrounded by a group of diplomats and bodyguards, Xin President Zhang Yaping and UA President Mike Pence met and shook hands. Witnessed by media around the world, the agreement on unconditional surrender was signed and it announced the end of this war.

“I dare you to say that the Kremlin was still discussing whether to send a volunteer army.” Natasha said with emotion, “I didn’t expect you to have finished it by yourself.”

“It’s okay. The Polish volunteers only made it to Canada the day before yesterday. Now they have just got on the ship and are going home.” Jiang Chen smiled lightly and gently sipped the champagne in the glass.

“Are you going to garrison troops in North America?” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen with a weird expression when she saw the well-equipped power armor units in the news.

“Garrison?” Jiang Chen laughed, “Garrison is impossible, and there is no need. Of course, that is the case, but we will still keep about twelve thousand soldiers in important cities such as Capital, Nouveau York, P City, and B City to assist the local police to maintain order until the UA fully fulfills the post-war agreement. Then, the soldiers will leave in batches. This time can be as long as ten years, and as short as three to five years. As for the specific time, it depends on the interim government.”

While Jiang Chen spoke, he looked to the stiff-faced Mike Pence with a subtle and mysterious smile.

Unfortunately, Mr. President would unlikely to see that day.

“Let’s talk about something you might be interested in.” Jiang Chen smiled, “It’s better for the people in the UA to worry about the UA.”

“What is it?” After Natasha took a photo from Jiang Chen, she frowned slightly and said in confusion, “What is this?”

A grey-black planet was in the center of the photo. Against the dark background, it was hard to notice its outline without looking carefully.

“Himalia, a thumbnail.” Jiang Chen put down the champagne in his hand and said with a smile, “We plan to build a colony here to mine the energy and minerals on it, and at the same time provide supplies to the Envoy-class cruising in the Kuiper Belt.”

Based on the current discoveries, three worlds in the solar system have evidences of river systems, Earth, Mars, and the last one was Himalia.

Himalia possessed a relatively complete atmospheric convection system. Clouds condensed and then entered ocean lakes through rainfall. It was the only planet with rivers other than Earth. Of course, what flowed in the river was not water, but methane.

In addition to being burned as a fossil fuel, it was needless to say the value of methane to industries, even in the space age. The cost to colonize Himalia would be much greater than the cost to colonize Mars, but the benefits for the entire Earth civilization would be considerable.

Unexpectedly, this place would become a space colony and the closest large port to the edge of the Solar System.

“Do you plan to build this colony together in the name of the Earth Defense Alliance?” Natasha looked at Jiang Chen incomprehensibly and asked, “Why?”

“Because in the long run, it doesn’t make any difference in what name it is built,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “and if everyone participated in the construction, it would make it happen a lot faster.”

Since Celestial Trade already proved its rise with the decline of an old hegemony. From the moment the Holy Shield system opened, it could no longer find an opponent in the entire world that threatened its existence. Under such circumstances, it no longer mattered who established the colony.

After the formation of the Earth Federation, the entire world would be shrouded in the influence of Celestial Trade. In that case, it did not matter if the colony was established in Celestial Trade’s name or Earth Defense Alliance’s name, but rather, it could increase the influence of Celestial Trade on the future Earth Federation.

“Is it conditional to participate in this plan?” Natasha asked.

“Of course. There is no free lunch in the world, but our conditions are very simple. Mainly, it’s to safeguard the common interests of all members of the Earth Defense Alliance.” Jiang Chen smiled, “For example, starting from next month, we will consider building astronaut training centers in the major member states and several secondary member states with good aerospace capabilities to train suitable colonists and starship crews.”

Training would of course cost money, but after the colonists obtain qualifications, the colony would arrange jobs for the colonists. The salary standard would be in accordance with Xin labor law. Salary would be at least three times the minimum salary for the same type of work on the Earth, and paid in Xin New dollar.

Considering various subsidies, this salary was quite attractive.

“You go and discuss this with the Kremlin. There are probably Interested people there and I can convey the information for you. I can’t guarantee the result, but it shouldn’t be a big problem.” Natasha put the photo aside, picked up the glass of vodka on the table, and took a sip, “Speaking of which, when are you going to have a party to celebrate your victory?”

“We’ll put the party aside for now,” Jiang Chen laughed, then glanced at Mike Pence in the news on TV. “I plan to go to North America in two days. The last time I visited CA State, I left in a hurry. I think my trip to Capital this time will not have so many people that ruined the show.”

Chapter 1487: To Be At the Mercy of Somebody

Chapter 1487: To Be At the Mercy of Somebody

The war was over.

The 150,000 UA troops stranded in Colombia finally could return home.

There were already eager to break through the Caribbean Sea blocked by Celestial Trade submarines. However, they did not expect they would return home in this fashion…

With frustration, unwillingness, and even resentment, the UA soldiers with mixed emotions surrendered their weapons, boarded Celestial Trade’s ships in batches, and headed to the ports of Capital and Nouveau York. Admiral Felton, who remained in Port of Barranquilla, saluted with a complicated expression. He left the hundreds of M1A2 tanks and various types of armored units, then turned away with a group of senior officers.

As the month-long war between the UA and Xin came to an end, the outcome of the Colombian Civil War also also determined. The UA surrendered to Xin. The NATO Coalition Force had lost their motivation to interfere in South America, and morale began to deteriorate. After they reached an agreement with Celestial Trade to withdrawal with their equipment, they left from Port of Barranquilla.

Without the support of the NATO Coalition Force, North Colombian President Vargas fled from South America by plane overnight and went to Europe to seek political asylum. And almost at the same time his plane took off, North Colombia surrendered to South Colombia.

Colombia once again returned to unity.

For this reason, Timoshenko personally called Jiang Chen and expressed his infinite gratitude with an excited voice.

“…The Colombian people will always be the friend of Celestial Trade! I will write our friendship into the Constitution. No matter how the international situation changes, we will always stand by your side!”

Timoshenko was very smart.

Or rather, he could see the situation clearly.

From the beginning of this war, it was the two superpowers vying for hegemony. Now that the outcome was determined, the UA had lost the war. In this case, Xin would undoubtedly replace the UA as the hegemony of this world.

There was nothing for loss for him and his government to be close with this “big thigh”.

…

Liberty Avenue was located in downtown Coro City, where many heroic deeds took place five years ago. Now, this street was the financial avenue of the country. More than five large banks and twelve large and medium investment banks were located here. Many people referred to this place as “Oriental Wall Street.”

In addition to Celestial Trade itself, the financial institutions on this street were the second beneficiaries of this war. The street that was already bustling had become a bit more crowded, and there were more foreign faces here than there were more than a month ago.

Located at one corner of Liberty Avenue, outside a beautiful marble building, large and small cameras and production trucks circled around the place. If it were not for the maglev road that diverted most of the traffic pressure, the scene made many people wonder how so many people could fit here.

It was the headquarters of the Xin Reserve Bank.

At this moment, a conference related to the trend of the global economy was held here. Because the Xin Reserve meeting had always been a “closed-door meeting” without any observer seats, both investors and financial reporters anxiously awaited the results of the meeting at this moment.

In the past, every time the UA Fed held an interest rate meeting, the market would be “frightened.” At this moment, this honor was taken away by Xin. Even the Federal Reserve’s vault was under the control of the victorious country, tens of trillions of assets were frozen, and the voice of Wall Street was no longer significant.

In the current global economic downturn, all countries required a strong currency to hedge against risks. Precisely because of this, the attitude of the Xin Reserve was critical.

If Xin Reverse continued to cut interest rates and reserve requirements while they implement quantitative easing and open the floodgates to the currency market to stabilize the exchange rate, then for other countries in the midst of the financial crisis, the Xin Reserve would undoubtedly be susceptible to taking advantage of this crisis and would make the economy of countries that held large amount of dollars and treasury bonds worse.

An interest rate cut was inevitable. After all, the continuously rising exchange rate had severely affected the export of Xin. The Xin Reserve had to be responsible for domestic enterprises first, and secondly, the overall global economy.

But now, the key was how many basis points to cut.

Finally, the door opened.

An Asian man walked out quickly.

The reporters swarmed around him and threw all kinds of problems like cannonballs.

“Quiet, quiet,” The man impatiently patted the document in his hand. Although he was only the news spokesperson who was not qualified to participate in the meeting, the expression on the man’s face was quite proud, or arrogant. Because he represented a rising economy, every word he said was enough to affect the lives of everyone in the world tomorrow.

He cleared his throat and read the results of the meeting directly.

The translators under the stage were in a hurry, for fear of missing or misinterpreting even a word. When the speech was about the most critical rate cut, everyone listened carefully and held their breath.

“…According to the decision of the Xin Reserve Bank General Meeting of Shareholders, this month’s interest rate cut plan is 0.1%, which will be implemented at 12 noon tomorrow. We have also carefully considered the opinions of the sectors of Xin and the investment banks of other countries. Therefore, this monthly reserve requirement will not be lowered.”

A rate cut of 0.1%!

Reserve requirements will not be adjusted!

These words were just like a timely rain in the desert, and everyone was relieved.

The 0.1% could not be underestimated. Originally, everyone expected that the Xin Reserve would directly cut interest rates by half a point to counteract the skyrocketing exchange rate. The goal would be to increase the total amount of currency in the market and pave the way for the next step of quantitative easing.

Especially the representatives from Hua, their faces showed even more relief or rather, joy. It seemed that their fellow townsmen did not take advantage of the situation. After all, with the amount of UA Treasury bonds in their hands, even the wealthy People Bank was hurt…

Because the identities of the shareholders were kept confidential in principle (most people would not actively disclose themselves as shareholders of the Xin Reserve), the underground garage under the Xin Federal Bank was built with security levels not inferior to that of the Presidential Palace. After the meeting, the shareholders all left from the garage, rather than the main entrance.

When Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu walked out of the elevator side by side and appeared in the garage, the people who were still in the garage stopped what they were doing and saluted respectfully or greeted them politely. Among these people, many were chairmen of groups worth tens of billions, and there was no shortage of financial giants with assets over 100 billion, but when they saw the two, no one acted arrogantly.

After Jiang Chen nodded slightly to express his appreciation, they passed through the crowd. Then he opened the door for Xia Shiyu, and the two got into the car that had waited for a long time.

“The Xin New dollar has already started to rise again. I thought you would raise interest rates drastically. I didn’t expect you to raise interest rates by 0.1%.” Inside the car, Xia Shiyu talked about the meeting just now., “Can you tell me your thoughts?”

There was no need to be careful chatting here because Ayesha was driving.

“The first stage of exchange rate stabilization has already been done. Before the gold indemnity is shipped to the Xin Reserve, I do not intend to further suppress the exchange rate. Over-interference in the market will lead to abnormal development of the market. We still have a long way to go.” Jiang Chen smiled, and then said, “What’s more, many people have been slandering us before this, and someone has to pay some price for their stupidity.”

For example, foreign companies that withdrew from Xin as soon as the 72-hour notification came out. The decrease of international capital shorted the Xin market. They desperately hoped for the decline of the Xin New dollar in order to reduce their losses.

As for the citizens of Xin who chose to stay in times of crisis (whether or not because they didn’t get to buy a plane ticket), Jiang Chen hoped that they could take the money to travel around the world and enjoy their life. At least in the next year, the super-purchasing power of the Xin New dollar was enough to allow any working-class person to live a “superior” life abroad.

This victory belonged to every citizen of Xin, and this trophy was what they deserved.

“I didn’t expect you to have such a sophisticated side.” With the corner of her mouth curled up, Xia Shiyu teased him.

“Haha, haven’t you seen my S-side a long time ago?” Jiang Chen smirked.

Xia Shiyu did not respond, but Ayesha, who was driving, blushed.

Maybe she was thinking about last night’s wildness…

“What time is your flight?”

“Two o’clock in the afternoon.”

“Remember to be safe outside.” Xia Shiyu turned around and left a kiss on Jiang Chen’s lips. Then she fiddled with her hairs, and a trace of tenderness flashed in her eyes as she was not good at expressing her feelings, “Also, remember to miss me.”

Jiang Chen squeezed her gentle hand and put it against his face. He nodded with a smile.

“Mhmm.”

Chapter 1488: The Resurrected President

Chapter 1488: The “Resurrected” President

“…We promise to recreate a torch on the Statue of Freedom for the people of the UA to commemorate the denuclearization and the hard-won peace.” Zhang Yaping stood on the lawn in front of the Rainbow House, cleared his throat, and read aloud in front of the reporters from all over the world.

Just a day ago, the delegation of Xin negotiated with the UA.

To be precise, it was not a negotiation, but an order. In the position of the victorious country, the defeated country had no right to refuse any request.

And the first request put forward by Xin was to eliminate all nuclear weapon stockpiles, nuclear equipment production plants, and even harmless nuclear power plants in North America. This would completely remove any nuclear capability of the UA. As the victim of a nuclear war, Xin had the reason, as well as the right to make this demand.

Even if Xin did not make this request, the member states of the Earth Defense Alliance would make this request. After all, the President of the UA possessed too much power in war. Mike Pence launched the nuclear weapon without a declaration of war and overreached what the constitution demanded. The action alone had touched the fragile nerves of most nuclear countries.

Hua and Russia helped to put further pressure on this issue. While the EU raised objections, their voice did not make a difference.

As compensation for banning nuclear power plants, Xin would bear most of the expenses to the UA’s connection into the Global Grid, and at the same time, Xin would give certain preferential treatment to electricity prices in the next ten years. However, compared to the benefits that Celestial Trade would gain from North America’s access to the grid, the costs were minimal.

As the world’s second-largest electricity consumer, if the country opened its entire electricity grid, based on conversate estimates, the annual revenue in the North American market would match the total revenue of the Global Grid in 2020.

There was sparse applause from beneath the stage. Although it was good news, everyone’s expression was tense and tight.

Especially Mike Pence, who stood next to Zhang Yaping, was applauding at a constant speed. He had been ridiculed by the media for the past while, and these ridiculing voices not only came from inside the country but also internationally.

People seemed to cast their anger on him.

Both the people of the UA and the foreigners who had suffered losses because of the defeat of the UA.

Just when Mike Pence started to feel bored of the show, an assistant trotted to Mike Pence and whispered a few words in his ear.

“Mr. President, yesterday over in State CA…”

For a moment, Mike Pence’s expression became tense.

“Trump? Isn’t that guy dead?”

“He’s not dead. It is said that there was an admiral who served in the Pacific Fleet who returned with him. They piloted a Mustang P51 from the last century and landed on a wheat field…” The assistant said quickly.

“How many people know of this news,” Mike Pence said cautiously.

“It’s not clear yet… But according to that guy’s character, he should be back on Twitter by now…”

Mike Pence’s face instantly turned green.

After Zhang Yaping noticed the change on Mike Pence’s face, he smiled and said politely.

“Is there anything wrong, Mr. Mike Pence?”

“No… actually, yes,” halfway through the conversation, he changed his words quickly but remained calm. Mike Pence continued blankly, “I have something to deal with, can I leave first?”

“Of course you can.” Zhang Yaping gestured for him to go.

As Zhang Yaping watch Mike Pence, a meaningful smile appeared. He waved his hand gently, and whispered in a voice that only he could hear.

“Good trip, Mr. Mike Pence.”

…

“Get John Corning to see me immediately and let him take all the FBA agents who can still be dispatched. Also, be careful not to attract the attention of Celestial Trade.” On the way, Mike Pence quickly said to the assistant beside him, “I don’t care what method he uses; he has to freeze that idiot’s social media account.”

“I’m going now…”

Mike Pence watched his assistant walk towards the other car, took a deep breath, nodded to the bodyguard who helped him open the door, and then got into the Lincoln car next to him.

Soon his assistant called John Corning, but there was only a constant busy tone on the other end. In desperation, he had to call Corning’s assistant but learned that Corning did not go to the FBA headquarters today.

From the tone of the voice on the other side of the phone, the assistant to the President felt something was off.

Neither Mike Pence nor his assistant knew at the moment that all the remedies were too late. A storm had started to spread to every aspect of the UA through the tentacles of the Internet…

It was a piece of news pushed by Future Group that completely detonated this storm.

This news was prepared long before Trump arrived in CA State.

When most of the people from UA learned that Trump was not dead, their first reaction was to look at their calendar. After they confirmed that today was not April Fool’s day, they all went on Twitter with the same puzzled state and found the familiar portrait.

As expected, the Twitter account that had stopped updating for a long time was updated with a new tweet.

[…Thanks to the FBA, to Mr. Mike Pence, to Boeing, and all the ‘sponsors’, you gave me a short vacation out of my busy schedule. Let me see, what have you done during my absence?]

After the Mustang P51 pilot by Admiral Brien landed in State CA, with the help of a farmer, he immediately contacted the local media. At the same time, he personally called Twitter to lift the temporary freeze on his account because of his disappearance.

Immediately afterwards, the first thing he did when he got his phone was to send a tweet with a photo of the Mustang P51 as the background…and his hair that was blown into a mess.

Just less than five minutes after this tweet was posted, it received thousands of replies and hundreds of thousands of likes.

Most of the responses were quite concise and clear.

They were either only two or three words or only a few question marks…

At Silicon Valley, in the office building of a tech company, Adam Best sat at his desk and read a newspaper. His state was not baptized by war, and all the employees were working.

At this moment, the phone on his desk rang.

When he heard the familiar alarm, it was almost a conditioned reflex, he jumped off of his chair, grabbed the phone on the table, pressed his thumb on the unlock button in one go, and clicked on Twitter.

This alarm was set specifically for someone.

As a member of the former Anti-Trump Alliance, Adam Best was always ready for every new tweet of Trump’s. This entrepreneur from A City, the founder of Fansided, took the trouble to set up a special reminder function on Trump’s Twitter.

As soon as Trump tweeted, his phone would be alerted immediately. Because he did not set a reminder for anyone except Trump, it was very hard for him to miss any tweet from the President. Sometimes he would prepare tweets in advance based on different topics, then paste the tweet immediately and hit send.

After Best saw Trump’s tweet, he fell into a rare silence.

It was the first time he did not criticize the “resurrected” President. This time, he only sent a series of ellipsis to express his shock and disbelief.

Because he really didn’t know what to say at this moment.

Chapter 1489: Return to North America

Chapter 1489: Return to North America

In just three days, the situation in North America once again caught the world’s attention.

First, Trump flew back to CA State, then Celestial Trade found the wreckage of Air Force One near French Polynesia and recovered the black box. The International Civil Aviation Organization sent a commissioner to Coro City to investigate and collect evidence and finally confirmed that the source of the black box was indeed Air Force One.

Soon, with the cooperation of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Xin Aviation Administration, the cause of the Air Force One crash was recovered from the black box. Based on multiple data, the circuit on the left-wing engine of Air Force One was in disrepair due to aging, and obviously, it was impossible for this to happen on Air Force One.

If it did happen, then it could explain one thing.

The person behind the crash was someone close to the President.

As the investigation and evidence collection entered the final stage, the FBA Director John Corning disappeared.

When the investigators rushed to John Corning’s house, his home was already empty. Based on the closet full of clothes and the photos scattered on the ground, the former FBA director left in a hurry. From his water and electricity usage, he fled three days ago.

The Boeing engineer responsible for Air Force One maintenance was shot dead at home. The Department of Homeland Security commissioner who accompanied the inspection committed suicide in his own bathtub. All the incidents seemed to be indicating that someone was frantically obstructing the investigation and desperately cutting the ties involved in the aircraft inspection.

However, it turned out that all the efforts were in vain.

Celestia Trade handed over the captured Morgan and a recording to the Supreme Court. In the recording, Morgan, who was injected with the truth-telling serum, had honestly explained everything. He had confessed to the murder of Trump, along with his accomplices Rockefeller, FBA Director John Corning, and the Secretary of Homeland Security.

With the addition of Trump’s own testimony, the conviction was certain.

As Jiang Chen expected, when the investigators announced the results of the investigation, the public was in an uproar.

The names of the people involved in the case could shake the political and financial circles around the world. Especially Morgan, after the fall of the Rothschild family, was slowly becoming the wealthiest family in the new century. And now, the fact that he was thrown into prison made it hard to connect him to the powerful financial tycoon.

The ironic part of the murder scandal that shocked the world was that, in the midst of the turbulence was not the two behind-the-scenes masterminds of Morgan, who was already in prison, and the fugitive Rockefeller, but the president involved in a secret agreement.

If it could be argued that Mike Pence , who signed the surrender agreement, betrayed the twelve divisions fighting on the front line and the tens of millions of reserve forces ready to mobilized, for the safety of the lives and property of all his people. Then the investigation results undoubtedly proved that he betrayed the country.

To murder the president for power, use force to intervene in Colombia, launch a nuclear war that dragged the entire UA into the abyss… Fortunately, Celestial Trade did not launch a retaliatory strategic nuclear counterattack, otherwise, no one doubted that the entire West Coast and even central states would turn into scorched earth.

Immunity did not apply to the murder of the president, especially if the murder occurred before Mike Pence became the president. The Supreme Court tried his crimes including treason, murder, and abuse of power.

The verdict would still need time to be delivered, but in any case, based on the law of Capital and his level of involvement in the entire incident, his sentence would be at least 20 years without bail.

Because Mike Pence’s inaugural method was illegal, and he was currently under investigation by the prosecutor, he could naturally not continue to run the office. However, the UA politicians struggled to find a new president.

In the history of the UA, they had never witnessed a president’s “resurrection”. There was a fierce debate in Congress as to whether the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was in the third-order successor or the “resurrected” Trump, should take office.

…

Although contrast to Mike Pence’s term, Sugar Cube Diplomacy seemed to become a highlight of Trump’s administration, most of Congress seemed to dislike the snarky President and preferred the Speaker of the House to succeed.

But in the end, it was Trump who returned to presidency.

There was no other reason.

Celestial Trade Force stationed in Capital exerted pressure on Congress and forced Congress to make a “wise choice.”

Just like this, this crime of the century had come to an end for the time being.

Just as Mike Pence was arrested and imprisoned, and on the third day after Trump returned to office, which was the same day the Xin Reserve meeting on interest rates ended, a silver aerospace G100 appeared in the night sky of North America, and slowly landed on the runway of JFK Airport.

Aerospace G100 had won the race against time difference.

Before Jiang Chen boarded, it was still two o’clock in the afternoon in Coro City. When he arrived in Capital, it was late at night.

Surrounded by a group of bodyguards, Jiang Chen got off the plane and left the airport through the private tunnel. Because this trip was completely confidential, the media did not receive information in advance, and naturally, there were no such annoying reporters.

Other than the staff from the Xin embassy waiting at the entrance, there was also another man with a special identity. It was Jiang Chen’s old friend – Loki from B City. In addition, Joseph Kennedy, who Jiang Chen met once before, stood next to Loki.

“Welcome, my old friend.” Loki gave a big hug to Jiang Chen, shook hands, then gestured toward the exit, and walked beside Jiang Chen. In a relaxed tone, he said, “I’ll be honest, it’s not a good idea to come to North America right now. I don’t know how many people regard you as a thorn in the eye.”

“What about you? My old friend,” Jiang Chen said in a half-joking tone.

“Me? Honestly, you have caused me a heavy loss, but I am very grateful to you for sparing my factories and real estate in B City.” Loki laughed as if he didn’t care about the war that happened some time ago. “Fortunately, this war that was a mistake from the start is over.”

For most of the North American upper classes, especially large consortia like the B City Consortium, did not feel regret or sorrow about the country. Instead, it was the depreciating dollar because of the war that pained them. It was no exaggeration to say that the direct economic loss of the B City Consortium exceeded 7 billion dollars on the day Celestial Trade landed on Manhattan Island.

And the loss was after the fact that B City Consortium had re-allocated their dollar-denominated assets after Kennedy lost the election.

“I’m glad you can think this way. In fact, you can completely forget that loss. We will soon let you gain more in the form of a win-win situation… count it as compensation to our allies.” After a pause, Jiang Chen smiled, “In addition, I have a few things to deal with on this trip, and I may need your help.”

When Loki heard the compensation, his mind was overjoyed, but he did not let any emotion surface, and instead just responded politely.

“It’s my pleasure.”

The situation described as compensation by Celestial Trade would certainly not disappoint him…

Chapter 1490: War Reparations

Chapter 1490: War Reparations

The deterioration of the Xin-UA relationship had indeed impacted Xin enterprises in North America, but the impact on Future Group was quite limited.

In the absence of alternatives, all the people who boycotted the products of Xin, especially the products of the Future Group, selectively ignored the Phantom helmet, Future 1.0 mobile phone system, and the Future phone with holographic projection function…

However, if those people boycotting ignored these products, then the boycott itself was meaningless.

Because those lines of business accounted for 80% of Future Group’s revenue in North America.

As for medical and logistics drones?

Drones were mainly sold to enterprises, and ordinary people didn’t purchase them. Fortunately, those patriots in North America were still sensible, while they protested, they didn’t throw stones or other things at those drones, otherwise… Future Group would certainly laugh out loud.

There were three main purposes for Jiang Chen’s trip to North America. The first was to discuss matters concerning war reparations and the UA’s accession to the alliance. The main goal of Sugar Cube Diplomacy or the subsequent Xin-UA War was simple, to bring North American into the Earth Defense Alliance led by Celestial Trade.

On the second day after Jiang Chen arrived in the UA, Jiang Chen met Trump in the presidential suite of the Hilton Hotel. Although Trump had spared no effort to invite Jiang Chen to stay at Trump Hotel, but considering that this social media lunatic would definitely take the opportunity to post on social media, Jiang Chen refused his invitation.

Not to mention…

Jiang Chen was still a Diamond Member of Hilton Hotel.

“Please sit down, Mr. President, what would you like to drink?”

Jiang Chen sat on the sofa in the living room, smiled, and gestured.

“Thank you, water will do,” Trump said.

“Then coffee for me.”

Jiang Chen glanced at the female assistant at the door. The latter walked into the kitchen, then quickly walked out with a glass of water and a cup of Blue Mountain coffee, and gently placed them on the coffee table between the two.

“I’m envious of you young people.”

“Do you regret it?” Jiang Chen threw two sugar cubes into the coffee, then smiled.

“Regret? There is nothing to regret. I have enjoyed everything that should be enjoyed. I am not bragging. At your age, the women I have slept with can form a football team.” Trump sipped his water, snorted, slanted his eyes, and glanced enviously at Jiang Chen who put some cream into his coffee and continued to rant, “Of course, I mean, even now I have the ability to do that. ”

If it was not for his doctor’s reminder to pay attention to his body, he would not avoid caffeine and sugar. And even after he started to pay attention to his diet, he had to take cholesterol-lowering drugs and small doses of aspirin every day.

As he told Jiang Chen on that island, he was no longer young.

Jiang Chen smiled and did not say anything. He took out a thumb-sized glass bottle from his pocket and gently placed it on the table between the two.

“What is this?”

“Something that can make you live longer.”

Trump raised an eyebrow, as he didn’t understand what Jiang Chen meant.

“You only need to take one bottle a day, once a week, for three months,” Jiang Chen smiled, before he continued, “Then you will find that you are a lot younger than you are now.”

Different from the drugs taken by the members of the Earth Defense Alliance, thanks to the samples provided by Sun Jiao’s blood, the NAC’s Pharmaceutical Research Department had now gained more progress on DNA telomere extension agents.

For example, the bottle of medicament placed between the two could extend the life of a person to 150 years old, repair the organs and metabolic levels damaged by aging in the human body, and did not change one’s appearance.

Trump was now seventy-four years old, and his seventy-fifth birthday was three months later. The effect of DNA telomere extension agents was weakened for aging that already happened, but as long as the medicament was taken regularly, he could easily live to be 120 years old.

Trump took a moment to process the information, and clearly, he didn’t believe what Jiang Chen had just said, so he leaned back and laughed jokingly.

“This joke is too lame.”

“I’m serious.” Jiang Chen shook his head and said in a serious tone, “We hope you will work for eight years in your term, and then smoothly transition the regime to the next candidate we like.”

At this point, Jiang Chen paused, and then said, “Of course, if you are not at ease with our bioengineering technology, then that’s fine by me. I don’t need to force an elderly person to accept new things. I’m just offering for the sake of a cooperative relationship, to provide you with a better choice. You know, I don’t need to lie to you.”

Jiang Chen’s tone made Trump a little uncertain.

After Trump hesitated for a while, he finally chose to believe what Jiang Chen had said, picked up the small glass bottle and stuffed it into his pocket.

Although, his common sense told him it was nonsense to believe this.

“Okay, putting these small things aside. You can choose a comfortable position to lie down in after you go home, remember to sleep after taking the medicament, and then ask your personal doctor to test your metabolism and blood sugar. I can bet that the expression on his face would be interesting.” After Jiang Chen put down the coffee in his hand, he sat up straight, crossed his fingers on one of his knees, and smiled at Trump, “Now, let’s talk about the reparation and the Earth Defense Alliance, which one would you like to talk about first?”

“…Let’s start with the saddest thing first,” Trump shrugged and said helplessly.

“As you wish,” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded. He took out a document from the briefcase next to him and put it on the coffee table. “The war reparations total is 80 billion Xin New dollars, including the funds used to eliminate the impact on the surrounding environment by the Trident missiles, and the compensation for the loss of equipment in this war… Considering the current exchange rate situation of your country, I ask you to pay in gold.”

80 billion Xin New dollars, based on the current market price, was equivalent to 200 million ounces of gold. The gold stored in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank was exactly 200 million ounces and accounted for about a quarter of the total global gold reserves.

Based on the current exchange rate between the Xin New dollar and the UA dollar, 80 billion Xin New dollars was close to the UA’s military expenditure last year. After the First World War, Germany paid compensation to the Allies. However, Germany paid in installments, and it was not until 2010 that the remaining balance along with interest was fully paid off. Celestial Trade required the UA to make a lump-sum payment with its gold reserves. This requirement really pained the shareholders of the Federal Reserve.

“Sh*t, you are here for the Fed’s gold, right?”

Trump smacked his lips in surprise when he saw the document, but he did not look too surprised.

The gold buried under Manhattan Island was already under the control of Celestial Trade, and he didn’t expect this guy to spit out the meat already in his mouth.

Anyway, he didn’t sign the surrender agreement. He was now cleaning up the mess left by Mike Pence. What was more, since the government did not have that much gold to pay, it would have to continue to issue treasury bonds, and in the end, it would be the shareholders of the Federal Reserve that footed the bill.

What?

Refuse to pay?

Go to the military base on Manhattan Island to protest.

Trump picked up the pen without much hesitation and signed his name at the end of the agreement…

Chapter 1491: Dawn Of A New Era

Chapter 1491: Dawn Of A New Era

Jiang Chen didn’t spend too much on the negotiation of “UA membership” since the two already agreed on the island. They were now just putting what they discussed onto paper.

As a businessman, Trump respected the contract; he did not renege after he became president. After he confirmed that the treaty was the same as they had originally agreed, he quickly signed his name on the document.

Based on the agreement, the UA would fulfill the commitment within two months, without any conditions, and submit an application to join the Earth Defense Alliance and leave the North Atlantic Treaty.

In fact, NATO only existed nominally the moment UA was defeated. An alliance that relied on Britain and France (Germany had already withdrawn) could not compete with the Earth Defense Alliance, especially after Celestial Trade mastered nuclear defense methods, the strategic balance between the two parties had long been out of balance.

Now that the UA was “withdrawing from the group”, it only confirmed the expectations of the international community for the disintegration of NATO.

“Now you are satisfied?” With the two agreements, Trump put away one of them and looked at Jiang Chen, “I have a suspicion now that you expected this to happen.”

“I just considered the possibility,” Jiang Chen sipped the coffee in his cup and said slowly, “You should know that B City Consortium and I have always wanted to push Democratic Party’s Joseph Kennedy to the presidency. You are the additional bargaining chip for Morgan and Rockefeller. They think you will fight with me and start a new round of the Pacific Rim arms race, and this is in their best interest. I thought so at the time. However, if I pay a certain price to reach an unexpected consensus in the diplomatic meeting that no one expected to go well, I might be able to solve this problem once and for all.”

“And now it seems that I am right,” Jiang Chen smiled lightly when he said this. “The only thing I didn’t expect was that they would take action so quickly, right when you were on your way back. This made Vargas in North Colombia misjudge the situation and provoked the war that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

After Trump heard Jiang Chen’s version of the causes and effects, he opened his mouth, but not a word could come out for a long time. Although he had suspected that his crash was involved with Wall Street, he did not expect that he would be used on both sides.

After a long silence, he slowly sighed.

“Sure enough…Politics is really not for me. My daughter also advised me not to get into this mess, but I thought I could do it…”

“In fact, politics is very similar to running a business. The only difference is that politicians do not have the slightest contract spirit, and they must not.” Jiang Chen smiled, “You should be thankful that I am sitting in front of you, and not a politician.”

“May I ask one last question?” Trump sighed softly.

“Of course.” Jiang Chen nodded.

“How were you so certain that they would do something to me because of those sugar cubes?” Trump continued, “If they didn’t do anything to me, would you fulfill the Sugar Cube Diplomacy agreement?”

“These are two questions. I will answer your first question first. As I said, I just considered this possibility, and there is no absolute, both possibilities exist.” Jiang Chen smiled, “As for your second question, my answer is yes, I would have fulfilled the spirit of our agreement.”

“Even if it is unprofitable for you?” Tromp also smiled, but there was a bit of helplessness in his smile.

“It’s not necessarily about profitability, but the profit you mentioned is not the same as what I agree with.” After he put aside the coffee cup in his hand, Jiang Chen also sighed softly. “The more we reach for the sky, the more we can feel our own insignificance. A century ago, we were still imagining what the people on the moon would look like, and today, a century later, our flags are already on the moon. In your eyes, I might have made ‘difficult concessions’ that day, but why don’t you look forward and imagine, what can we get from this universe if we work together?”

“And if you really did that,” Jiang Chen paused for a moment before he continued, “Then it should not be difficult for you to realize that, compared to what we are going to get, the part I conceded is minuscule.”

There was a long silence in the room.

After a long time, Trump laughed out loud, got up from the sofa, and adjusted his collar. He extended his right hand to Jiang Chen, who also stood up.

“In any case, you are a respectable opponent.”

“Allow me to make a correction, we used to be opponents,” Jiang Chen said with a smile while he shook Trump’s hand, “Now we are allies.”

Although the answer he got was not what he wanted, after Trump left the Hilton Hotel, he was a little relieved

If the man’s sight was no longer limited to this planet, then those worries in his mind seemed to be unnecessary. At least the people living in this land would not be impacted because of this defeat; the soldiers of Celestial Trade would not always prevail over them. After all, in the eyes of that man, this territory was too small, and a bigger world awaited him to conquer…

Although Trump couldn’t see from his perspective, where the world was.

…

Even if it had been anticipated, the international community still expressed a considerable degree of shock and regret about UA’s withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty.

As the UA joined the Earth Defense alliance and became the fifth major member of the alliance, everyone clearly realized that the old era had come to an end, and another new and great era slowly unfolded.

According to the treaty signed by the Earth Defense Alliance, the major member states would contribute 5-7% of GDP based on their territorial area and population weight (non-major member states would contribute 3-4% of GDP) for the development of the aerospace industry.

From the number alone, the GDP ratio of 7% seemed to be high, and NATO’s requirements for the military expenditures of member states was only 2% of GDP. But crucially, a difference existed. The military expenditure itself was a burden, and the money spent would generate no return except for benefiting arms dealers and the creation of a small number of jobs. Military expenditure neither improved people’s lives nor obtained a return on investment.

But investment in the aerospace field was different. Since the space elevator was built, the aerospace industry had been endowed with economic value in addition to a sense of national honor. Whether it was space mining or space industry, companies from all over the world actually saw tangible benefits.

It was precisely because of this that, instead of resisting the GDP contribution quota stipulated in the treaty, many countries consciously decided to exceed the target.

And now, the UA was also brought onto the Earth Defense Alliance’s ship. The original 50% tax (compulsory for non-member countries’ space industry) was abolished, and the cost of operation for North American aerospace companies also dropped significantly.

Although the country still grieved over the defeat, CA State, M State and other areas with more developed aerospace industries seemed to become the biggest beneficiaries.

Even in UA’s current economic downturn, the aerospace science and technology parks in San Fran, B City, and other places were full of energy. Companies of all sizes had sprung up like bamboo shoots after the rain, and all kinds of hiring notices were spread to universities across the country like snowflakes. With the introduction of the five-year tax reduction and exemption policy for the aerospace industry by the government, the aerospace industry in North America exploded with vitality. It seemed to be on the trajectory to become a pillar industry for the economic recovery of North America after the war…

As for the longer-term effects in the future, only the future would know.

Chapter 1492: Deathbed Struggle

Chapter 1492: Deathbed Struggle

“The UA needs two rulers, one to rule politics and one to rule finance.”

“However, the situation in North America is different from Moro, Madagascar, and Colombia, and it is also very different from Xin. For our long-term interests, it is too risky for us to support a ‘dictator’ and let him control the power of North America, this will allow his ambitions to exceed our control. So in this case, what we need is a group of smart and reliable political families and financial moguls to rule, not someone.”

“They and their children and grandchildren will rely on family nepotism and their accumulated political and economic resources to occupy a position far beyond ordinary people in the politics and economy in this country, and their interests are closely related to us to ensure they are absolutely loyal.”

“This way, even if their voters elect a ‘wrong’ president a hundred years later, he or she will be unable to make any progress in Congress, and their influence will be unable to leave the Congress, and eventually be amended by our rules.”

“We will assist the people of the UA in amending the Constitution and give Congress more power, such as returning the right to declare war to Congress. For example, amending the antitrust law. The UA after the war will be more ‘democratic’ than ever, and it will be easier for us to control…

Inside the study of Xin Embassy in Nouveau York, Jiang Chen chatted about what he envisioned for the UA with Zhang Yaping.

“A hundred years from now?” Zhang Yaping chuckled and said, “After one hundred years, will your Earth Federation blueprint still not be realized?”

One hundred years was still too long for human life. If possible, Zhang Yaping did not plan to consider that far in the future. He planned to serve at most three more terms before he retired to a position with lesser power.

“One hundred years? It won’t take even fifty years.” Jiang Chen smiled, “Even if the Earth Federation is established, we do not intend to interfere too much in the domestic affairs of the member states of the federation, but we can talk about this topic later.”

“Well, let’s put this topic aside, how are you going to support those obedient political families… and financial moguls?” Zhang Yaping shrugged, “Use existing ones? I’m afraid they’re not easy to control. Support them from the start? I don’t think those nouveau riches are your cup of tea either.”

“The war has just ended, and many places need to be rebuilt, especially the Capital and Nouveau York. The UA government has the final say on who gets a share of this cake, but ultimately, we have the power.”

After Jiang Chen finished this sentence, he looked up at the clock on the wall and smiled, “There is a banquet this evening, and Loki from the B City Consortium is using this as my welcoming party. The entire upper class of North America will participate. I plan to use this opportunity to meet the future rulers of this continent and determine who should get a share of the cake.”

…

In the mountains of C State, at the entrance of a cave covered by dark green camouflage tarps, soldiers in forest camouflage patrolled with the cooperation of drones.

Most of the people here were from C State, but some were also from T State, U State, NM State, and O State. These states were inland states with lax gun control law. Compared to the other states where it was difficult to get a semi-automatic rifle, people of these states could even store heavy machine guns and mortars in their backyards.

Since the colonial era, the people that lived here were known for their aggressive custom, and that tradition continued to this day.

They claimed to be the rebels, and they did not recognize defeat or any so-called surrender agreement. Even though Mike Pence’s incident had shaken the faith of many people, their belief was never shaken. Everyone gathered here because of the same goal, and it was to drive Celestial Trade away.

There were not only angry red necks from T State gathered here. There were even patriots from CA State on the coast. And because of those electronic engineers from Silicon Valley, they were equipped with drones and customized kinetic skeletons.

Despite the defeat, they also learned a lot from Celestial Trade. For example, how they could skillfully apply technology to war.

Their life had not been great lately. Celestial Trade forces had already suppressed the rebellion in T State. The reality proved that the militia composed of red necks was not much smarter than the regular army. The rebel stronghold in T State was destroyed, and the rest of the mobs were scattered. Some chose to give up, and some fled to C State in search of hope. Now they could only scatter in groups in the mountainous areas of C State and U State in the hope of a continued revolution.

However, they could only barely escape the satellites of Celestial Trade.

A Hummer slowly drove into the mountains and stopped in front of a guard post. Several militiamen walked out from the shadow of the woods and aimed the M-series rifles in their hands at the driver.

“I have no ill intention.” The man in a black suit got out of the car and looked at the militiaman in the front. “Look, I don’t have any weapons on me.”

The leading militiaman glanced suspiciously at the man in black, then patted the comrade next to him.

“Jerrold, go search him.”

“Ok.”

A guy with the flag of T State wrapped on his arm stepped forward, touched the man in black a few times, and shook his head at Oliver when he turned around.

“Okay, man, what is your name? You should know that there is a war here.” After Oliver singled Jerrold to step back, he walked up to the man in black, examined him, “Allow me to be honest, based on the way you look, you don’t look like you’re here to join us.”

Although he couldn’t tell the brand of the suit, it clearly didn’t look cheap. And the modified Hummer he drove was easily over half a million dollars.

“Of course, your guys don’t look like you’re in the best state.” The man in black smiled.

“So, you came here to see a joke?” Oliver raised his eyebrows, and the look in his eyes did not look friendly at all.

“On the contrary, we hope to improve your situation. After all, there are not many people who are still willing to stand up to shed blood for this country,” The man in black spoke while he took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Oliver. “My boss is willing to help you.”

“Help? Who is your boss?” After Oliver took the business card, he frowned slightly, “Kayn Jay?”

“You don’t need to know, and I won’t say his name either.” The man in black shook his head, took out a photo and a map, then threw them on the hood.

“This is…”

“The place with the red cross on this map has the equipment you need, IDs, and enough cash. You should not be unfamiliar with this picture, Celestial Trade President – Jiang Chen. Last night he arrived at JFK and is currently staying at the Hilton. At the moment, he is probably having a toast with the traitors at St. Regis and celebrating on how to divide up the UA.”

His green pupils almost shrunk to two points.

The man in black seemed to notice the hatred that gleamed in Oliver’s eyes, then he slowly said.

“The opportunity is rare, and you should know what to do.”

Chapter 1493: The Lavish Island

Chapter 1493: The Lavish Island

In North America, ” St. Regis” and “Four Seasons” were equally well-known.

As the first St. Regis to be built, the St. Regis Nouveau York opened in 1904. The European classical Baroque landmarks still stood tall on Fifth Avenue and acted as the symbol of the city’s luxury hotels. The upper part of the building was designed with complex lines and gorgeous shapes. In its dignified appearance revealed the luxury of the “old world”, and the hotel was the darling of the entire country, and even so among the upper class in North America.

At six o’clock in the evening, people walked in on the red carpet of St. Regis.

Gentlemen in tuxedos, ladies in long evening gowns, and everyone here all had polite smiles on their faces. They were led into the magnificent hall by the waiters. Just from this dazzling appearance of this corner of Fifth Avenue, it was hard to imagine that this place was close to the front line of the war.

It was no exaggeration to say that the red carpet was far more extravagant compared to the Oscars. Although the people here were not celebrities, the string of zeros behind everyone’s net worth could make all the Hollywood “big names” feel ashamed.

It was rumored that all the rich people fought hard for tickets to this evening.

For tonight’s banquet, the entire hotel had been reserved by the wealthy B City Consortium.

The feelings of the capitalists on the Island were quite complicated towards Jiang Chen’s arrival. Due to the aircraft carrier that pushed to the Wall Street Copper Bull, almost everyone suffered heavy losses, and now Celestial Trade took all the gold from the reserve, which detonated a debt crisis for many large companies. The role of many changed from the hunter on the financial market to the fish on the chopping board.

Theoretically, their reaction would have been hatred.

But in fact, everyone greeted him with a smile at this moment, and the smile did not look fake at all. It was not because of their great acting skill, but rather, the smile came from the bottom of the heart.

There was no other reason.

First of all, the Future Bank, which arrived in North America with Celestial Trade, had almost become a life-saving straw for many of them. The second reason, the UA had to be rebuilt after the war, and everyone wanted a slice of the cake worth more than hundreds of billions of dollars.

As for the defeat, it was not enough reason for them to hate him.

Never expect the capitalists to have any morals. They would cheer for their own interests and encourage the patriots to charge forward, but they would not shed even a single tear for this country after its fall.

In the center of the banquet, Jiang Chen slightly raised the glass in his hand and said softly in a pleasant tone.

“Let us toast to peace.”

“Cheers!”

Everyone raised their glasses and downed the red wine.

After Loki, representing the B City Consortium, gave a speech, the melodious symphony signaled the prelude to the banquet.

There was nothing special about the banquet. Like most banquets Jiang Chen attended before, the first course was an appetizer, then a cold dish, then the main course, and finally dessert. When people ate, rarely anyone focused on the food. The majority of them were chatted with the people that sat around them.

Although Jiang Chen could feel that many people turned their eager gazes to him, both openly and secretively, almost no one left the table during the meal.

When the last dessert plate was taken away, the elegant waltz played in the banquet, and the host Loki, announced the beginning of the dance. After the host and the guest of honor left, the rest of the people got up. Champagnes were placed on the long table, and the lighting in the venue became much softer.

Just as Jiang Chen expected, a large group of people surrounded him.

“Dear Mr. Jiang Chen, please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Mike Cobert, President and CEO of Citibank, and this is my wife Fenix Cobert. Allow me to gift you the sincerest welcome and I wish you to have a pleasant trip here.”

The gray-haired Mike Colbert smiled and shook hands with Jiang Chen. Although the wife standing next to him was over forty, she looked as young as twenty-five. After Jiang Chen just greeted this couple, a middle-aged man with a big belly came from the other side with a big smile.

This person was certainly important too. The previous one was the CEO of Citi, and this person was the shareholder of Chase Bank.

“…Otto Garcia, Chairman of Chase Bank. It is my honor to meet you. Please allow me to introduce this lady next to me, Leslie Garcia, my youngest daughter, 19 years old. She is studying Finance at Nouveau York University. I plan to ask her to help me at Chase Bank after her graduation. Leslie, come and say hello to Mr. Jiang Chen…”

She looked around seventeen to eighteen years old. Her delicate nose and the fullness of her chest combined both the petiteness and exquisiteness in the oriental aesthetics and the curves of the west. She wore a pure white off-shoulder long dress that subtly revealed her beautiful collarbone. The hem of the carefully tailored long dress was curved from high to low, slightly puffy, and revealed her beautiful and slender legs. The edge of the dress was covered with diamonds that sparkled, which looked like countless morning dew on a lotus leaf.

She was not only a top finance student from Nouveau York University, she was also considered by many as their dream girl. Not only was her look impeccable, but she was also talented in financial management. To marry Miss Leslie Garcia was equivalent to a connection with one of the most powerful people on Wall Street, and countless students from Nouveau York University dreamed of her.

From her appearance, it was hard to imagine that she was his daughter.

“Hello, dear Mr. Jiang Chen,” Leslie Garcia smiled politely as her eyes shone charmingly. “I wonder if I will be lucky enough to ask you for a dance?”

“Although this is a very tempting proposal, please allow me to apologize. I still have some things to deal with.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Although she was surprised by the rejection, Leslie Garcia was not put off, she just smiled respectfully and expressed her understanding, and then followed her father.

Even if many had heard about Jiang Chen’s love affairs, the people here obviously didn’t take them too seriously.

In addition to being introduced, there were also many women who self-recommended, but they were all tactfully rejected by Jiang Chen. Although it was uncommon for sociable women to join banquets of this level, Wall Street and Hollywood always shared a lot of interest in each other.

Take Mike Colbert as an example. His current wife used to be a supermodel and a manager of a luxury company. The two also met at a banquet and finally married. By the way, this rich man has been married five times.

Of course, it would be too thirsty to seek pleasure at this level of a banquet. The purpose of this banquet held by the B City Consortium was to show the covenant between the B City Consortium and Celestial Trade to the capitalists on the Island. The other purpose was simple, and it was to find “partners” to divide up the UA.

Even if the relationship between B City Consortium and Celestial Trade was great, Jiang Chen would not allow it to be the only one in North America after the war. This would only create a second Morgan and Rockefeller. He didn’t want a family to emerge one day in the future that could rise against him in the Earth Federation Assembly.

Finance, energy, real estate, automobile, rail, steel, manufacturing, and even movies and technology had mobilized North American’s wallets, and it was equivalent to monopolizing the continent’s future. If Celestial Trade supported political families like the Kennedy to have a voice in politics, even if freedom and equality were stated clearly in the constitution, he could easily take the votes of the people of UA.

With the help of Bernice, it was not difficult to find out the background of these people.

Just from this initial meeting, Jiang Chen had already created a list in his mind.

Although to judge from first impressions would be too hastily, he believed his instincts.

After all, just like what Zhang Yaping had said, he did not have the time to slowly train suitable candidates…

Chapter 1494: Manhattan List

Chapter 1494: Manhattan List

Jiang Chen woke up early the next morning.

Two beautiful women laid beside him, and both were still asleep.

Leslie Garcia was on the left, who was rumored to be the goddess and top student at Nouveau York University, and the one on the right seemed to be called Airy…Elle? Regardless, she seemed to be a Hollywood actress, and the fact she got into the banquet was probably Loki’s idea.

Last night’s passion was still vivid in his mind. At first, it started off with embracing and mildness, to later, it turned into the girls begging for mercy. The two girls obviously underestimated Jiang Chen’s combat effectiveness. After all, in their perception, Asians were not great in this aspect… and soon they realized how wrong they were.

After Jiang Chen reminisced last night’s memory for a moment, he took a sip of water from the bedside table to soothe his dry throat.

He shook his somewhat drowsy head, felt that the drunkenness had almost disappeared, then he got up, looked at his shapely muscles with satisfaction, and stretched for a moment.

The physique modified by the genetic vaccine was indeed powerful, and most people simply couldn’t handle him.

The battle lasted till two in the morning before Jiang Chen finally spared Miss Leslie, who had already begun to roll her eyes and speak incoherently. Then he vented his last remaining energy on her before he finally felt the fatigue and fell asleep.

And Miss Elle next to him had been defeated an hour ago.

When he walked to the next room, Jiang Chen found a pen from the drawer, tore off a piece of paper, and wrote a few lines of names based on last night’s impression. After he confirmed that there were no mistakes, he clicked on the holographic screen on his watch and called Bernice, the person in charge of the Ghost Agents in North America.

“Bernice, come to my room.”

“Ok.”

After he hung up, he went back to the bedroom.

After he put on some clothes, seeing that the two women hadn’t woken up, he covered the two beautiful bodies with the sheets. The messy blond hair was draped on the white and soft bedding and soft purrs were faintly audible. The red lips would occasionally murmur a few words which made the scene quite seductive.

After he appreciated the scene for a moment, it didn’t take long before he heard a knock.

When he opened the door, Bernice was already there. When her beautiful eyes scanned across the two pairs of high heels on the floor, the way she looked at Jiang Chen turned a bit more seductive, she whistled and teased him.

“How was your night?”

“Want to try?” Jiang Chen said lazily, “Come in if you don’t want to try.”

This little girl dares to joke with the boss after she has been away for a while?

Jiang Chen wondered if it was time to find a chance to teach her a lesson.

Bernice noticed the bad intentions in Jiang Chen’s eyes, stuck her tongue out, cut the nonsense, and hurriedly changed her shoes, and went into the living room.

Although Jiang Chen usually brought a few bodyguards every time he went out. The Ghost Agents who were absolutely loyal to him was the trump card that ensured his safety.

Take this banquet as an example. As early as two days before the banquet, everyone at the St. Regis Hotel, from the chef to the cleaner, was thoroughly checked. As for the guests who attended the banquet, they had already investigated them before the invitation letters were sent out.

Before, the activities of Ghost Agents in North America were also suppressed by the FBA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the CIB. Now, Bernice’s people were almost out in broad daylight – in the name of the North American Garrison Intelligence Division of Celestial Trade.

Jiang Chen sat on the sofa in the living room, clamped the list that had just been created with two fingers, and threw it on the coffee table. Although his eyes looked a bit lazy, his tone had turned serious. Bernice sat right across from him and listened carefully; she didn’t have the same frivolousness as before.

“…You have to investigate the people on this list carefully, including their assets, liabilities, capital flows, etc., I need a detailed report. Also, remember their children and their families are within the scope of the investigation. I want you to this report as soon as possible, preferably within a week. If you have any difficulties, tell me now.”

If nothing else, these people on this list would be the mainstay of future politics and economics in his country. Celestial Trade would provide them with the necessary help, such as policy support to solve the debt crisis caused by this financial tsunami.

“No problem,” Bernice smiled. She pinched the list with her two fingers and shook the list, “At most five days, wait for my good news.”

As she spoke, she got up and walked to the hallway.

“Wait a minute,” Jiang Chen said suddenly.

“Are there any more orders?” Bernice, who had already reached the door, stopped and turned to ask.

“Show me that list again.”

The paper flew onto the table.

Jiang Chen reached out and picked up the list, then glanced again.

He pondered for two seconds, picked up the pen, and added a line at the end of the list.

Otto Garcia

“Well, it’s okay now.”

He folded the list into an airplane, then threw it in Bernice’s direction.

Chase Bank was in a bad situation recently. North American banks were the hardest hit by the financial tsunami triggered by the depreciating dollar. It was rumored that Deutsche Bank, which had risen to the fourth-largest bank in the world, was in private contact with the shareholders of Chase Bank to discuss a possible acquisition.

It was no wonder Otto Garcia spared no effort to please Jiang Chen at the banquet, and even sent his favorite little daughter here.

This financial tycoon could read the situation clearly.

Backed by the Xin Reserve and holding a huge amount of Xin New dollars, Future Bank had become a well-deserved hegemon in the financial world.

Now that Deutsche Bank already plans to take action against Wall Street, it seemed that only Future Bank could save Chase Bank’s life at this moment.

If Future Bank was willing to inject capital into Chase, it would undoubtedly stabilize the confidence of those shareholders and Deutsche Bank would certainly back down from the acquisition and sell it to Future Bank as a favor.

It was not difficult for Jiang Chen to help Otto Garcia.

He called the front desk and ordered breakfast for the two girls. Since it would be awkward once they wake up, Jiang Chen didn’t plan to stay long. After all, for him, what happened last night was at best a dessert.

Before he left, he saw the handbag on the bedside table. Since they were still sleeping, Jiang Chen flipped it open.

From the name on a shopping card, Jiang Chen learned that the lady’s name was Elle Fanning.

He vaguely remembered seeing her movie.

It seemed to be called Maleficent.

When he looked at Elle Fanning, who was curled up into a ball in her sleep, the corner of his mouth turned up.

Well, she does look like a sleeping beauty at this moment…

Chapter 1495: Show No Mercy

Chapter 1495: Show No Mercy

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

Before Jiang Chen left St. Regis, he spoke with Loki, then headed to the Xin Embassy. On the way, Jiang Chen received a call from Ayesha and listened to her report on the Syria situation.

“…With the cooperation of Russian fighters, we and the Syrian government have successfully surrounded the IS armed forces in the Mayadin area. The Iraqi side has sent troops to the border to prevent the IS forces from retreating to the border. This war should be ending soon.”

“Very well, inform Yerif so that he is ready to take over this army.” Jiang Chen said.

1

“Okay.” Ayesha nodded.

Without the support of North American arms dealers, the kingdom of terror that IS established was on the verge of collapsing. Even without Celestial Trade’s armed assistance to Syria, those thugs could not hold on for much longer.

Civilization would eventually defeat barbarism, as history had proven countless times.

What Jiang Chen really cared about now was the situation in Saudi Arabia.

The king’s health deteriorated, and it would not be long before Yerif will step onto the political stage in the Middle East as the king. As a reformist who supported secularization, Yerif required an army to complete his plan. Jiang Chen was also very happy to see a more enlightened Middle East, which was conducive to Celestial Trade’s global policy, so he promised to provide military assistance to Yerif after the Syrian issue.

“Let’s set the problem in the Middle East aside, for now, has Rockefeller’s whereabouts been found?” Jiang Chen asked.

“There are two clues, one leading to South Africa and the other leading to Canada. He is much more cautious than Morgan. He had already left the country through Kennedy Airport before the Trident missiles were launched. There were two flights we tracked. “After a pause, Ayesha continued, “We have sent Ghosts to Canada and South Africa… By the way, some time ago, Monica was in Europe and traced Rockefeller’s secret account at the Bank of France, and she saw an abnormal capital flow of more than 50 million euros.”

“Can you trace where the money went?” Jiang Chen asked.

“An account with Chase Bank, and the ID has been sent to your mailbox. The name of the account holder is Eris Ben, a native of W State and the owner of the Ocean Lake Armory Factory. Based on the agreement, production in the military factory has stopped a week ago,” Ayesha said.

“Send someone to lock down his factory and arrest him for questioning,” Jiang Chen said.

“Yes.” Ayesha nodded.

“Let’s execute on this… by the way, there is something else.” Just as he was about to hang up, Jiang Chen suddenly seemed to have thought of something and stopped Ayesha.

“Anything else?” Ayesha said softly.

“Well, about those terrorists.”

After a pause, Jiang Chen continued.

“Tell my original words to the front-line commander and tell him that he doesn’t need to keep them alive. The Geneva Convention does not apply to animals, and I don’t plan on asking any questions. White phosphorus munitions, incendiary munitions, thermobaric weapons… use whatever is the fastest and finish the war. If they want to go to heaven so desperately, then we’ll help them out. If they like explosions so much, then we’ll let them see all the explosions.”

“Show no mercy. I don’t need a single one alive!”

Ayesha was taken aback for a moment, then a rare look of gratitude gradually appeared in those sapphire eyes. She suddenly turned serious and said with force.

“Roger!”

Her parents died tragically at the hands of the heretics. If it hadn’t been for meeting Jiang Chen in that desert, her best destiny would have been to escape to a refugee camp in Turkey, where she would be bought at a set price. Although she had already given up the belief that had never redeemed her and tried her best to avoid that memory but just like what Jiang Chen once said, she never really let go of her past…

She never really let go of that blood feud.

If those criminals surrendered and accepted trial by the International Court of Justice in accordance with normal procedures, except for a few people that would be sent to the gallows, many “innocent” people would probably escape the punishment, and be forgiven by the superior judges with fake kindness. It was like civilization would eventually forgive barbarism.

However, only those who have really experienced hell knew the pain.

From the moment they picked up the butcher knife, no one should be forgiven, no one was innocent…

After Jiang Chen got over an issue that had bothered him, his mood felt a lot lighter.

After he hung up, he swiped his finger across the screen and clicked on a folder containing photos of him when he first met Ayesha. It was the summer six years ago. At that time, she was very skinny and small, a little bigger than Yao Yao, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. She wore new clothes she had never seen before, stood there awkwardly, and pinched her skirt. She was like a doll that had just begun to grow…

“Thinking about it now, I really do miss the old times.”

He shook his head with a smile, then slid his finger against the holographic screen and put the photo away.

Ayesha grew up, and he didn’t seem to be young anymore.

He would be thirty years old in a few years, the golden age of taking DNA telomere extension medicine. Conservatively estimated, he could still live for a few hundred years. With so many people who love him, it would not be a lonely road.

After he opened the mailbox, Jiang Chen wrote an email and sent it to Otto Garcia, the father of Leslie Garcia and the chairman of Chase Bank.

The content of the email was very simple.

[Freeze an account for me, ID:…]

In less than half a minute, he got a reply.

The response was only two letters.

[OK]

“What happened ahead?”

“It seems to be a car accident.” The bodyguard in the driver’s seat answered Jiang Chen’s question, then cautiously looked around. The bodyguard in the other seat had already put his hand into his jacket and held onto the Type 11 pistol.

It was not for the fact that they had noticed something, but they were always on alert if any unexpected situation happened. No one could guarantee if this car accident was meant to stop their car. Ghost Agents were probably already acting on this information, and it won’t be long before they find out what happened.

However, at this moment, Jiang Chen who sat in the back seat suddenly yawned, then he grinned and muttered casually as if he was talking to himself.

“I originally thought that on this trip there wouldn’t be so many annoying rats. It seems that some people still want to bother me.”

The UA still didn’t seem to know who was the Iron Man that went into the embassy alone in the Los Santos attack two years ago.

Maybe, it was for people all over the world to see his other identity.

Although his bodyguard did not notice anything, Jiang Chen had already sensed a murderous aura was slowly approaching in his direction.

It was the ability given by his blood after he unlocked the first level of genetic code. After countless experiences in the two worlds, this world and the apocalypse, he had gained a strong intuition. Even if he hasn’t used it for a long time, this ability had never left him.

It was difficult to explain with science.

It was probably similar to the instinct of a beast!

Jiang Chen reached under the seat and entered his birthday nonchalantly. There was a sound of a click, then a red button popped out. He looked up at the opposite side of the street corner, smiled mysteriously, and without any hesitation, he pressed the button…

Chapter 1496: I wont say it even if I die!

Chapter 1496: I won’t say it even if I die!

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

In the faint static constant electricity sound, the foam cushion of the car seat moved sideways. Countless pieces of steel plate armor slowly rose from the gap in the seat under the traction of the mechanical arm, and accurately passed through Jiang Chen’s legs and arms, and then buckled together in a series of “clicks”.

It was the last insurance on the custom-designed Luer vehicle, a T-3 power armor was built into the back seat and occupied half the trunk. Not only that, the armor was reinforced with titanium alloy. It was also changed from equipped from the rear to equipped from the front, so it could be assembled quickly.

The two bodyguards that sat in the front turned around and looked at Jiang Chen in surprise.

Their boss, who previously sat there in a suit, had turned into a steel robot armed to his teeth.

T-3.

It was impossible for any employee at Celestial Trade to be unfamiliar with this piece of technology!

“You wait for me here; I will go have some fun.”

Despite the fact that the two bodyguards could not see him, Jiang Chen grinned at the two before he opened the car door.

Almost at the same time, a layer of cobweb-like cracks spread from the middle of the glass to both sides, accompanied by a gunshot sounded from a distance.

“WHAT THE FU*K!”

The two bodyguards in the front row subconsciously raised their arms and lowered their bodies.

Fortunately, all the glass on Luer was high-strength bulletproof glass doped with graphene interlayers. Even if the gunshot came from an anti-vehicle rifle, it was impossible to penetrate the car with a single bullet.

The sniper that crawled on the building skillfully pulled the bolt, and an orange-yellow bullet case still smoking was ejected from the barrel, and his finger was placed on the trigger again.

Just now, there was a second gunshot.

But the bullet didn’t fly towards Jiang Chen’s car, it flew towards the sniper.

Without the slightest warning, the sniper who was about to fire his second shot was shot in the head, and blood spluttered on the water tank behind him. The sniper rifle in his hand fell downstairs and slammed into pieces on the concrete.

Two blocks from the building, in a truck parked on the side of the road, five men sat in the back of a truck. They held automatic rifles such as AK-47 and M4, taped to their hands, and they wore bulletproof vests of different models.

Some of them were veterans, and some were employees of former military contractors.

“JAMIE IS DOWN! DAMN IT, IT’S GHOST AGENTS! Their reaction is too fast!” Carlson’s expression was gloomy, as the ambush did not start off smoothly.

Their people successfully caused a car accident and forced Jiang Chen’s car to stop. However, the material strength of the bulletproof glass still exceeded their expectations, and even the .50 Magnum ammunition doped with a reinforced layer failed to penetrate the glass.

When Jamie was about to fire a second time, the previous gunshot had already exposed his position. Whenever Jiang Chen traveled, at least one sniper was on standby nearby. Carlson felt that he was not assassinating an entrepreneur, but the head of state…

“What to do.” The burly black man next to him said with hesitance, “They have at least one sniper…”

“We must continue!” A trace of determination flashed across the man’s face, and he loaded the rifle, “For the UA! For the Statue of Freedom!”

At the same time, he also said silently in his heart.

I hope those people fulfill their promises…

“For the Statue of Freedom!”

The driver shouted out, and the truck went on the opposing lane, passed through the congested area, and directly rammed into Jiang Chen’s car. A black car darted out from the side and blocked the front of the truck, and the side of the car was crumbled by the collision.

The back door of the truck was kicked open, and Carlson, wearing a ski mask, jumped onto the street first. He first opened fire into the air, and then sprayed into the car that was blocking the truck, right after, he passed through the fleeing and screaming crowd and rushed right to the black Luer sedan.

The Luer did not reverse but opened its trunk instead.

For some reason, Carlson suddenly felt a strong sense of anxiety overwhelm him as he saw the open trunk.

At this moment, his pupils shrank suddenly, and his footsteps were half a beat too slow.

A foot covered with steel stepped out from the trunk and made a loud thumping sound when it landed on the concrete ground. The innocent citizens were quivering underneath their vehicle with hands around their heads, as they thought they were under a terrorist attack. They peeked their eyes to the figure behind that Luer sedan in a surprised and dumbfounded state.

This is…

They felt like they had seen this somewhere before.

This type of T-3 was naturally different from the mass-produced T-3 used by soldiers. Although the engine and the core weapon were the same for the two models, the one worn on Jiang Chen’s body was vastly different in terms of the armor material and the streamlined appearance.

As a result, these citizens living in the Internet era recognized the origin of this thing in an instant.

This, this, isn’t this…

Hans, who was underneath a vehicle, widened his eyes. Not long ago, he had revisited the picture on a military forum. Someone compared the “Iron Man” in the Los Santo incident to the glimpse of the figure that first appeared in Coro City, and the photo of the T-3 Power Armor Brigade that landed in Capital; in the end, they demonstrated that the Iron Man was actually just a T-3 with a different breastplate and weapon.

The argument on the internet had been inconclusive, but everyone had no doubt that it was the masterpiece of Celestial Trade. Because only Celestial Trade could manufacture power armor capable of flying. As for the counterfeit made by the Department of Defense, it was just a clunky piece of iron that worked like a larger kinetic skeleton.

However, they had never thought that the Iron Man was neither a special force member from Celestial Trade nor a bodyguard, he turned out to be the President of Celestial Trade himself – Jiang Chen.

Hans took his phone out of his pocket, then raised it while he continued to tremble. Although he knew it was not a smart move, he still couldn’t stop himself from doing this.

1

He was not far away from that Luer sedan!

If he could capture a video, it would make the headlines!

This is big news!

The bullets hit the titanium armor and made a series of clunking noises, and sounded just like annoying mosquitos. Jiang Chen held down the door to the car that was about to open, shook his head at the bodyguard in the car, then raised the tactical rifle in his right hand, and said silently in his mind.

“PEERLESS—”

The muzzle erupted into flames, and the bullets were connected to the hearts by straight lines. As the muzzle swept across the chaotic traffic, blood mists appeared one after another. A rifle grenade flew towards him, and the nitrogen shield popped open without missing a beat and blew the grenade along with its white smoke into the building on the side before it turned into a splendid flame in the air.

Fortunately, Carlson escaped the bullet aimed at him. With his extraordinary combat awareness, Carlson dodged the bullet that would have left him dead and hurriedly reloaded the steel-core armor-piercing magazine. The brawny black man, who kneeled right across from him, was bleeding, as blood gushed out from his shoulder. He gritted his teeth while he placed the light machine gun on top of the front engine cover.

“FU*K! The intelligence is wrong! We got a tough opponent—”

BANG!

A bullet exploded the black man’s skull and punched a hole in the engine cover of the car.

“SH*T!”

Carlson cussed under his breath as he quickly dove to the ground and rolled behind another pickup truck.

The speed of the Ghost Agents completely exceeded his expectations.

Unexpectedly, in less than a minute, the sniper had already moved and was already behind them.

The operation has failed!

Carlson made a prompt decision, stayed on the ground, and crawled under the truck. However, before half of his body got under the car, he felt a large force that came from his legs.

Jiang Chen stood by the truck and dragged Carlson up by the legs with one hand. As if he caught a little chicken, he pulled him from underneath the truck.

As he knocked down the rifle stock that was aimed at him, Jiang Chen smiled lightly at Carlson before he pressed him against the hood.

“Rebel? Are you from C State or T State?”

“I won’t say it even if I die!”

Blood oozed from the corner of his mouth, Carlson stared at Jiang Chen fiercely and said.

“Really?” Jiang Chen shrugged, his voice floated out from the steel armor, “I hope you can still insist on that in a little while.”

Chapter 1497: The Assassination that was Doomed to Fail from the Start

Chapter 1497: The Assassination that was Doomed to Fail from the Start

In front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of an express hotel, a man in a black suit held a pair of binoculars in his hand and looked coldly at the smoky street. When he saw “Iron Man” step out of the trunk of the Luer sedan, his pupils constricted slightly.

He gently placed the binoculars on the table beside him, took out a satellite phone from his pocket, and dialed a number.

Soon, the phone connected. Without any greetings, he spoke concisely.

“Mission failed…”

“Failed? How could it be—”

“We miscalculated. I didn’t expect that the ‘Iron Man’ himself was Jiang Chen…”

“Iron Man?” Inside the presidential suite of a five-star hotel, Rockefeller, who held a glass of vintage red wine in his hand, was taken aback, and he subconsciously asked, “Which Iron Man…”

Just halfway through his words, Rockefeller realized what happened.

He suddenly remembered that the year before last year, Rothschild, together with the North American Jewish Consortium, planned a murder against Jiang Chen and Xin diplomats, and even got the CIB director on board in order to provoke a war between the two countries.

This attack was regarded as the fuse of the direct conflict between Celestial Trade and the Freemasonry, and it also prompted the UA authorities to break up the Jewish consortium. At that time, everyone speculated about who the Iron Man was, and that included Rockefeller and Morgan. However, they had zero leads until now.

“Unexpectedly, it was him…”

Rockefeller’s smile was full of bitterness.

They guessed a long time ago that the steel warrior who often appeared near Jiang Chen was probably a super-soldier trained by Celestial Trade or an AI. However, the reality completely surprised them. The steel warrior turned out to be Jiang Chen himself.

He had disguised himself too well.

“Yes…” The man in black gulped down the dry lump in his throat, then nodded with difficulty, “This is our negligence.”

They were a special intelligence force trained by Rockefeller, mainly made up of former FBA agents or soldiers from the Intelligence Department of the UA Army’s Overseas Forces. It was this force that enabled Rockefeller to stand up against other people. While he was slightly inferior to Morgan in capital management, he was better than the “Emperor of Wall Street” in other aspects.

His ultimate goal was to become the second Rothschild.

After a pause, Rockefeller spoke slowly.

“I heard that there is something called truth-telling serum in Celestial Trade.”

“Yes, it is said that it first appeared in the Ukrainian Civil War.” The man in black nodded.

“The rebel has already lost. You should go back under cover, get Kayn Jay to leave C State, and wait for me in Australia.” After a pause, Rockefeller continued, “I want to discuss something with him. Tell him to meet me in Melbourne.”

Canada was no longer safe. If Jiang Chen was assassinated, he could still stay here and wait for the situation in the UA to return to stability, then he would go back to clean up the mess. But now, assassination was now an unrealistic idea.

Rockefeller did not expect Jiang Chen to not only possess capital and force, but his own combat power was also splendid.

“Ok.”

The man in black replied concisely and quickly hung up.

At this moment, there was a soft sound of the string breaking at the door.

Almost subconsciously, the man in black quickly threw away the satellite phone in his hand and put his hand into his suit.

However, before he could pull out the gun, a strong gust of wind flew directly into his face from the front door. The man in black raised his hands out of reflex as he dodged to the side, but the kick still landed on him and he smashed right into the sofa.

“I usually don’t hit women.” The man stood up from the ground as he watched the “ghost” appear from thin air. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, grinned, then put his hands up in a boxing posture. “Tell me your name.”

“Bernice. I’m just passing by here, so it’s useless for you to know.” Bernice shrugged, and she didn’t show any of the playfulness she had when she joked with Jiang Chen, only the indifference in front of dead people. There was a murderous vibe exuding from her aloofness…

“Bernice?” The muscles of the man in black’s mouth slightly twitched, and seemed like he was smiling; then the muscles in his entire body began to move as they began to swell violently. “Howson, you can remember this name, he will leave you a memorable impression.”

At the same time as the sentence ended, the swollen fist slammed towards Bernice along with a roar and burst of air.

However, the fist didn’t land on Bernice, but instead, it seemed to hit into empty space, and a layer of white ripples formed in the air. Howson’s pupils slightly constricted, but before he could figure out what had just happened, a huge force hit his abdomen and chin one after another.

Blood gushed out of the 1.8-meter-tall man’s mouth, and he flew backwards before he smashed into the wall, slid down on the ground, and stopped moving.

“It’s just a hidden genetic code, I have it too,” Bernice waved her hand, and the solid-like nitrogen that had condensed on her fingertips dissipated. She watched Howson, who laid on the ground unconscious, coldly, “And I have unlocked the second level.”

…

Alarms rang throughout the streets.

Soon the Nouveau York City police blocked the entire street, assisted the ambulances that came afterward, and put those who were wounded by stray bullets onto stretchers. As for Jiang Chen, who stood at the center of the scene, as well as the Celestial Trade soldiers and armored vehicles next to him, no one interfered with them.

For the Nouveau York City police, they could not interfere into the situation…

“…The target has been captured. His name is Howson and he possessed a close-combat superpower. His ability is probably to increase adrenaline and body muscle strength. The satellite phone was found in his room, and the technical team is tracking the signal source.”

“Good job,” Jiang Chen grabbed the collar of the unconscious Carlson and stuffed him into the armored vehicle that arrived for reinforcement, then he told Bernice through the communication module on the power armor, “I’ll leave the interrogation to you. I have a hunch that we can not only get rid of the C State Rebels through this stupid attack, but we can also catch a big fish behind the string.”

“I will.” Bernice brought her lips together and smiled.

After Jiang Chen ended communication, he looked to Zheng Yufei, the Commander-in-Chief of Celestial Trade North American Theater, who rushed to the scene.

“I apologize that this happened! I’ll strengthen all inspection points in Nouveau York City for weapons, arrange patrols to increase the search efforts, and ensure that—”

Jiang Chen raised his hand and motioned to him to stop.

“Don’t waste time apologizing to me. If I want to take all the guns from the citizens of this country, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to do it in this lifetime. It’s fine for this kind of attack to happen once in a while, but it will get annoying. ”

While Jiang Chen spoke, he pointed to the unconscious rebel soldier, Carlson, in the armored vehicle.

“Give him the truth-telling serum. Ask where their people are and then send an orbital airborne brigade to teach them a lesson.”

Chapter 1498: The End of Rebels

Chapter 1498: The End of Rebels

Night gradually approached in C State.

Fully armed rebel soldiers patrolled the mountain road.

A military-green Hummer was parked beside the entrance at the foot of the mountain.

Oliver walked to the Hummer, lit a cigarette, then asked the man that stood next to the vehicle.

“How is Carlson?”

“No news from him yet. With Jamie helping him, there shouldn’t be any problems. I bet they’re escaping from Nouveau York right now… You guys have terrible signal here, it was never as bad in T State.” The shirtless guy from T State sat on the hood of the Hummer as he threw his phone into the car in annoyance.

The man inside the car opened an eye, then slowly closed it and continued his rest.

Oliver started to smoke a second cigarette while he repeatedly looked at the satellite phone in his hand.

Based on his agreement with Kayn Jay, whether they succeeded or not, they would speak to him. However, the strange part was that an entire day has passed, and he did not hear a single piece of information from Nouveau York.

While he felt something was off, a figure suddenly appeared in Oliver’s sight.

Almost subconsciously, he and the guy from T State next to him picked up their rifle at the same time and aimed at the figure who ran up from the path.

When the man saw this, he hurriedly raised his hands and shouted in a suppressed voice.

“Don’t shoot! I’m friendly!”

“It’s Fielding.” The T State guy put down his rifle and gestured to Oliver next to him, “My man.”

At this moment Oliver also saw the man and put down his gun. However, when he saw the scratch marks on his clothes, as well as how terrible he looked, he frowned.

“What’s the rush? I remember you went to D City to meet Eris? Why are you back—”

“Bad news!” Fielding gasped hard as he bent slightly down, put his hands over his knees and tried to gather his breath, “Eris, he…”

“What’s wrong? Speak clearly.” Oliver frowned.

After Fielding took a deep breath and calmed his breathing, he paused for about half a minute before he spoke again.

“The Great Lake Armory Factory was seized by Celestial Trade, Eris Ben’s account was also frozen, and he is now wanted in the UA. The people who originally supported our cause were all terrified. Someone leaked my identity… If it weren’t for the fact that I got out quickly, I would have been caught!”

“Sh*t, you can’t do anything but run.” The guy from T State chuckled while he jokingly cursed.

Fielding moved his lips and his expression was distorted. It was hard to tell whether he was crying or laughing.

“Eris has been found, what shall we do next?” The man lying in the Hummer opened his eyes and looked at Oliver.

“There are still people in CA State willing to support us, but the premise is that we have to let them see hope. Those people won’t commit unless they see progress, not to mention they are now getting a lot of benefits from Celestial Trade. Many people have already swayed, we must let them see the hope of liberating the UA.”

At this point, a flash of viciousness appeared in Oliver’s eyes.

“Jiang Chen must die! We only have hope if he dies!”

“Those cowards from CA State,” scolded the man from T State.

“Do you need me to take action?” The man that laid in the Hummer put on a baseball cap and sat up from his seat.

Odin was his code name, no one here knew his real name.

Even Oliver didn’t know much about him. He was only certain about the fact that he was a patriot, and he stood on the side of the rebel. At the same time, he was also the strongest of the rebels, and the only one with supernatural powers.

Even the guy from T State didn’t dare to provoke this young man.

Because he never relied on muscles in fights, his supernatural ability could kill people, and he could even temporarily control a person if his mental power was overloaded. The person he controlled could perform simple actions such as shoot a gun or throw a punch.

“Wait.” Hesitation appeared briefly in Oliver’s eyes, “Only if there is no news from Carlson by noon tomorrow.”

Odin grinned with disdain. He did not hide his frivolous and arrogant expression. With two hands behind his head, he continued to rest against the chair with his eyes closed.

“I said, if I went with them, this would not have been so troublesome.”

More than a dozen Moro and even Celestial Trade soldiers died in his hands. From Odin’s perspective, he viewed himself as a hero in Hollywood movies that could save this great country from distress. Only he could defeat the invulnerable iron robots.

However, neither Odin nor Oliver knew anything about true power.

This level of supernatural power was perhaps powerful from their eyes because they had never encountered anyone else with superpowers. If they could kill Jiang Chen with a superpower (or rather, the unlocked hidden genetic code), then the Kurofune would have succeeded countless times before.

What kind of power did Jiang Chen not see before?

Not to mention, he himself was on the verge of unlocking the third level to the genetic code.

If Odin was there at the time, Jiang Chen would be able to pinch him to death as if he was pinching an ant.

At this moment, there was a brief spark of light in the air.

Oliver raised his head, frowned and looked into the air, then muttered.

“What was that?”

What was that?

The same question lingered in the heart of every rebel soldier.

They had never experienced the Battle of the Capital. At first, they thought it was just a meteor shower, and then panic gradually appeared on their faces. They didn’t realize what those things were until the iron coffins smashed right beside the cave of their munition’s storage, right in the middle of their defensive position. They only realized what they were when they were knocked to the ground by the shock wave.

NS-90!

The legendary battlefield janitor…

There were no civilians here. The soldiers that did not recognize the surrender agreement were rebels, and Celestial Trade was stopping the “rebellion” for the UA for free. Jiang Chen didn’t plan to keep anyone alive to make the situation more difficult for the Trump administration.

To kill them all or beat them into submission was far more effective than the trial. Once those “ambitious” people realize that they could not turn the situation around, they would naturally disperse.

It was deafening.

The reckless bullets raged inside the forest, and the sparks of fire seemed to light up the entire east side of the Rocky Mountains. At almost the same moment, Celestial Trade’s NS-90s launched a simultaneous attack on more than one hundred military targets, and more than five hundred robots were sent to the battlefield.

This kind of three-dimensional battle was much more advanced than traditional military concepts of positional warfare and frontline advancement. Only AI could complete the systematic command, and naturally only AI could execute it in an orderly manner. To kill was programmed in, and here, death was only the difference between zero and one.

An NS-90 smashed into Fielding’s back and crushed him as if it was attracted by some kind of beacon placed on him. Odin suddenly bounced up from the chair, and his pupils staring at the robot turned into crimson red in an instant.

Spiritual shock!

No one could stay awake under this power.

However, what caught his sight was the muzzle and a flashing tongue of fire.

Blood splattered along with the broken window glass, Odin, who slammed into the car door, had lost his life. To his death, he still didn’t understand why his most proud ability lost its power. He didn’t know that, although the NS-90 was still made out of metal, it was fundamentally different from the power armor.

There was no one piloting the machine!

Oliver and the T State guy fought back in desperation. They used their flesh and body to defend against the merciless grind of the NS-90s. However, their attempt was futile as they quickly turned into two bodies, and collapsed onto the ground.

The gunshots continued until midnight and then gradually stopped. It was not until the day after that the D City Police, under the instruction of Celestial Trade, organized a search and rescue team to collect the bodies of these rebels. When they saw the dead bodies scattered everywhere, many young police officers couldn’t stop vomiting, and many of them looked ghostly pale.

Most of the police knew what these rebels were doing. Many people supported their cause and thought of joining them…

From this moment on, all their unrealistic thoughts dissipated in the lingering smell of gunpowder.

Even after a week, the bodies were still not cleaned up, and they started to smell. Two months later, people could still find rotting corpses belonging to the rebel army on the mountain from time to time.

Of course, that was another story.

Chapter 1499: The Second Step to Rule North America

Chapter 1499: The Second Step to Rule North America

The mysterious “Iron Man” was actually Jiang Chen?

Soon after the attack on the streets of Nouveau York, the power armor that appeared from the back of the Luer sedan instant became the focus of attention to the media of North America and around the world; it seemed to even surpass the attack itself.

Although Celestial Trade and Nouveau York Police did block the news to some extent, there were still videos leaked out from the scene.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen’s image overlapped with Tony Stark in the Marvel Universe.

The two both possessed flying armors, and both were the owner of a large group, except that the former’s assets and the size of his company were slightly more astounding. At the same time, the T-3 power armor was a bit more realistic compared to the nuclear fusion core…

Many people could not accept the sudden change in his image, and there were also many fangirls who screamed frantically. As the president of Future Group and Celestial Trade, Jiang Chen himself has a lot of fans all over the world, especially concentrated on the West Coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Of course, Jiang Chen himself didn’t take this episode too seriously.

Because more important issues waited for him to deal with at this moment…

…

Empire State Building in Nouveau York.

At the same time Celestial Trade launched an attack on the rebel force, a secret meeting was held on the top floor of this building.

All the people on the list were invited to the meeting.

When Otto Garcia was in the hallway and on his way to the conference room, he had a confident smile on his face. His steps were also full of energy.

Earlier, he had already learned through the grapevine about Celestial Trade’s strategy in North America.

And now the fact that he was invited to the meeting has already explained a lot. Whether it was his status as the chairman of Chase Bank, or because his beautiful daughter increased his bargaining power, Celestial Trade now took him into consideration. He stood out and became one of the few lucky ones out of the hundreds of invitees from yesterday.

Backed by Future Bank, he would soon become one of the powerful people in Nouveau York after the war.

Greeted by the waiter, Otto Garcia passed through the antique mahogany door and arrived at a red-carpeted conference room.

When he got in the conference room, a dozen people was already here.

When he saw the familiar faces, he nodded and smiled at the people who he had met once before. However, he couldn’t help but feel surprised. There were many here with more powerful backgrounds, such as a power giant that almost controlled the entire North American power grid, a real estate tycoon with hundreds of billions of assets, and an internationally renowned financial mogul…

Otto roughly counted the number of empty seats and estimated that about twenty-five people were invited.

He took down the names of these people in his mind, then made up his mind that he would form a good relationship with these people after the meeting. With the support of the Future Group, they would become the most powerful people in North America. They would replace the old forces on Wall Street and become the new ruler of this land.

Otto sat down and he didn’t have to wait for long before all the participants arrived. Just five minutes before the start of the meeting, the mahogany door opened again. This time, the people in the room all stopped their chatter and focused their attention at the door.

When they saw Jiang Chen appear, almost everyone looked surprised.

They originally thought that someone else would lead the meeting instead of Jiang Chen.

After all, the attack in the morning made headlines.

For the financial giants that just left St. Regis, as long as they were not blind, they would not have missed the attack.

Because of this, when they saw Jiang Chen, they were a little uneasy.

If Jiang Chen blamed the attack on them or used the attack as an excuse to take more away from them, they could only take the hit and swallow down their teeth. They were only certain that the attack was supported by someone on Wall Street, given the fact they knew Jiang Chen’s location so well. As for the fact who dared to plan an attack, they were also eager to know.

If they learned the perpetrator behind the attack, they would gladly dirty their hands and get rid of that idiot to avoid the tyrant from blaming the entire Wall Street.

“You may have heard that I was attacked today.”

Jiang Chen seemed to read the worry of everyone present, he smiled, then continued, “The assassin and the perpetrator behind the scenes have been found, and our people are already on their way. So don’t worry, I’m not here because of that.”

Everyone was relieved and finally started to smile.

Before they attended the meeting, except for a few people like Otto Garcia who learned a little bit of news through their own channels, most of them were confused and were anxious about the reason behind the meeting.

Jiang Chen looked around, cleared his throat, and continued to speak.

“I’ve gathered everyone here today to talk to you about the future of this country…”

“Presumably everyone is well aware that Wall Street has suffered heavy losses in this war and the global economy is hurting. In order to accelerate the recovery of the global economy, we have decided to provide appropriate assistance to North American companies. Of course, we cannot help those who oppose us, for the long-term of our covenant, I have to say a few words of caution…”

It took about ten minutes. Jiang Chen concisely narrated to these people what he had said to Xia Shiyu, Loki and others. Almost as expected, the expressions on everyone’s faces changed from dazed to interested, and finally, after Jiang Chen promised out the benefits, they all breathed quickly, and their expression gradually turned into fanaticism.

“Back on the subject, I have prepared a contract for everyone, which involves a series of cooperation such as loans, post-war reconstruction, Global Power Grid in North America, a space elevator in the western hemisphere… etc.” At this point, Jiang Chen paused for a moment, then smiled, “Of course, if there is anyone here who disagrees, or needs to consider their choice, you can exit now and we can discuss it later.”

No one moved.

There was no need to think at all, and naturally, there was no objection.

The North American power tycoon that sat next to Otto Garcia breathed heavily and quickly to the point where people around him began to speculate if he was having a heart attack. From the people gathered here today, he was the only one operating a power company. If Celestial Trade decided to contract out the Global Power Grid for the entire North American region to him, he could quickly merge the competitors with the ultra-low operating costs and monopolize the entire country’s power grid in no more than ten years! He would become the true power tycoon!

As for Otto Garcia himself, the fact that he could obtain loans from Future Bank and stop Deutsche Bank’s acquisition would make him the savior in the eyes of the board of directors. As one of the largest banks in the world, the significance was self-evident.

Jiang Chen looked at the expressions on the faces of everyone present with satisfaction. He then gestured to the assistant next to him and asked him to distribute the agreements. The second step to rule North America was now completed. From today onwards, everyone here was the “Congress” of Wall Street. Every “Congressman” and every “Countrywoman” was firmly tied to Celestial Trade and Future Group.

Linked by interests and profits!

Chapter 1500: The War to End All Wars

Chapter 1500: The War to End All Wars

“…Vehicles full of oil lined up on the horizon. This looks like a moving crude oil pipeline that entered Turkey from the IS and rebel-controlled area. They are driving to Turkey and the oil tankers will unload there, then drive back. We are discussing a commercial crude oil supply line controlled by Syrian terrorists. The oil is shipped from here, not from other places. We can see clearly in the air where these vehicles are going.”

Inside the old TV, the speech made by the Russian President at the International Security Summit was on. He said this a long time ago, but now it was a revisited subject.

Inside the half-collapsed apartment building, militants with turbans around their heads stared at the man on the screen while they tightly grasped onto the rifle in their hands. Although their eyes were filled with hatred, more fear could be seen in them.

Since last month, they had suffered consecutive losses.

In fact, from the moment Xin’s flag floated in the hand of the Statue of Freedom, many IS senior officials realized that it was all over. From that moment on, they had lost all their assistance. It was a miracle that they could rely on fervor to survive until now.

The black blood was imported into the crude oil market from Turkey, turned into banknotes covered in blood, and finally flowed into the hands of the military-industrial complex, where they were exchanged with cannons and bullets. Whenever someone doubted on the necessity of a counter-terrorism strategy, they collude with “enemies” to launch attacks on their allies or even their own countries. Members of Congress were forced to compromise with the Department of Defense’s new security budget, then those people would take a bite out of the cake. However, every bite was covered in blood; every bite was full of deception.

Both the besieged and the defenders knew that it was the end.

Eastern Syria, Al Mayadin region.

This city on the banks of the Euphrates River was once fertile and gave birth to the Mesopotamian civilization that flourished, but now the area was ravaged, destroyed, and left only starving people and countless bones that decorated the final madness of those extremists.

The black-robed assassins lurked in the gray-yellow buildings buried by wind and sand, vowed to resist to the end. The Syrian government forces had launched two rounds of offensive, but each time they suffered heavy casualties. During the last attack, they made it all the way to the river bank, but in the end, they were still forced to withdraw from the city.

The mercenaries of Celestial Trade continued their strategy of encirclement, as they surrounded the city and cut off all the channels for imported materials into the city. On the other side, Russian bombers dropped at least 20 aerial bombs into the city every day, and black smoke became a constant in the city.

People died every day.

However, death did not scare them, it just turned them more mad…

About 20 kilometers away from Al Mayadin was the Celestial Trade Operations Base. Russian bombers that carried out airstrikes landed on the runway here and returned to the direction of the Black Sea after refueling.

Located in the center of the base of operations was the command post of this mercenary force.

Since last month, officers from Celestial Trade arrived at the Syrian battlefield along with new equipment, and at the same time they had taken over the command of this force.

“The war to end all wars is over,” the deputy commander that stood in front of the holographic screen slightly narrowed his eyes, as he watched the city from the perspective of a drone, then he said slowly, “Why are they still not surrendering?”

The besiege has already lasted for a whole month, and the stubborn IS armed forces in the Al Mayadin area were on the verge of collapse.

Without the secret support of the UA military-industrial complex, the black industrial chain that transfused blood to the IS was completely cut off. This war should have ended a month ago.

“Because they died long ago, death is a relief for most of them,” the staff officer who stood next to the silent commander answered.

Just then, the curtain of the barracks was lifted, and an officer walked in.

“Report! We received an order from the General Command of New Moon Island,” the officer said after he performed a clean military salute, “The Supreme Combat Command has issued instructions, spare no one.”

“Is this what your President wants?” a man with a Middle Eastern face asked in the command room.

He was a guide sent by the Syrian government army, responsible for liaising with the mercenaries of the Celestial Trade, and also for solving some problems that could not be solved by weapons. He did not have any power to intervene in the decision-making. Although the phrase “spare no one” made his heart tremble, he couldn’t stop it.

Even if Mr. Bassal stood in front of the officer, what could he do? After the fall of the UA, Celestial Trade became the new hegemon of this planet… as long as they desired, they could establish a new hegemony at any time.

It was just Syria.

The government forces and rebels were just powerless ants in front of the orbital airborne brigade.

“Probably so.” The commander did not speak more with the Syrian guide, nodded, then looked to the staff officer, “What kind of weapon is the fastest.”

“White phosphorous munitions,” the staff officer replied, “we haven’t used them since the beginning of the war, and we have plenty of reserves.”

“It’s difficult, there are still civilians held captive in that city.” The deputy commander sighed as he glanced out the window into the sky turned yellow by the endless amount of sand.

“How many can there be?”

“Regardless, it’ll be problematic.”

The command room fell silent.

After a long time, the Syrian guide swallowed down the dry lump in his throat, then spoke in an almost pleading tone while trembling.

“Maybe there is another way. Let our people try again, tomorrow we will launch another offensive…”

No matter what, it was their city.

No matter how many innocent compatriots were left in in the city, how many imprisoned sex slaves and hostages were still not killed, as long they could try to save-

“There will always be sacrifices in war,” the commander raised his hand and interrupted the guide’s words, then said in an absolute tone. “Whether it is an innocent civilian or a brave soldier, all lives are equal. Let those who should go to hell go to hell, let those who are already in hell be free, let go of those who are still ‘alive’. You still need them to rebuild your home.”

But why use white phosphorous munitions?!

The Syrian guide still wanted to argue, but these people obviously didn’t plan to say more.

The commander waved his hand, and the two soldiers who understood the message stepped forward and politely invited him out of the command post.

When the commander looked at the angry face that disappeared behind the curtain, he sighed softly in his heart.

The so-called rhetoric was just an excuse.

Only he could understand the meaning behind the president’s phrase “spare no one”.

As a senior member of Celestial Trade, he was familiar about the background of that lady.

Why did the weapons sent to the frontline turn into white phosphorous munitions since the end of last month?

The message from above was quite clear.

And he was always aware of the intention.

Chapter 1501: The Flames that Ended All

Chapter 1501: The Flames that Ended All

Just two hours after the Syrian government forces withdrew from the front line, Celestial Trade began its offensive on Al Mayadin.

Black-robed militias lurked in the half-destroyed buildings and streets. Their rifles were already loaded, and their fangs were already revealed, but after a long wait, they did not see any sign of an attack.

Just then, they heard cannons being launched from afar.

They didn’t see exactly what they were, because when the dazzling white light bloomed, their vision had already been taken away.

The white phosphorus munitions exploded in the air, and the scattered smoke plumes scattered down from the sky like countless arrows, as if a large fishing net was being weaved over the city.

Buildings, streetlights, highways…

Trees, stones, sand…

Everything that was hit by the phosphorous fire ignited uncontrollably.

The whole city was like purgatory, everything burned.

The highly toxic white smoke made people suffocate, but dying in suffocation seemed to become a distant luxury.

The terrorist in a black robe dropped the rifle in his hand, covered his unrecognizable face. He screamed and rolled on the ground as he desperately tried to put out the flames that burned his face. However, he stopped struggling after a while and only twitched like a knee-jerk reflex.

Not far from him, another terrorist fell silent on his knees. It was impossible to recognize any expression on his scorched face. His mouth was open either because he was confessing or howling.

Some people tried to take off their robes but to no avail.

Most people were only hit by a fireball the size of a thumb. In less than half a minute, they turned into a fireball.

The whole street was full of dead bodies and wails were heard everywhere.

Bagdadi, who had been “dead” many times but fortunately escaped every time, finally welcomed his final destiny. He was on fire, like an imp in hell. He screamed and jumped down from upstairs and landed on the concrete street. Before he died, he was still yelling “I SURRENDER!” “MAKE IT STOP”… or a similar cry for mercy that no one listened to anymore.

The flame finally burned into the dungeon.

Under the face covered by her scattered and messy hair, the girl with amputated limbs finally showed a light of joy in her hopeless eyes.

Before she died, she seemed to see a light.

This long-awaited redemption finally arrived.

…

There was an advantage to hegemony.

That was, no matter what you did, the international community would give you the maximum tolerance.

Although almost everyone knew that the mercenaries active in Syria were backed by Celestial Trade, after the tragedy in Al Mayadin, no one jumped out to condemn Celestial Trade, but aimed at the private military contractors with “corrupt morality” but not subject to international law.

This kind of accusation did not bother Celestial Trade at all.

Jiang Chen, who was far away in North America, was too distracted to pay attention to the situation in the Middle East.

On the third day after the secret meeting was held, Future Bank, under Jiang Chen’s direction, increased its holdings of UA Treasury bonds by 600 billion dollars at a price of 40 billion Xin New dollars. This move undoubtedly eliminated the risk of default by the Trump administration, and finally stopped the dollar from freefalling in the foreign exchange market, and the dollar actually saw a slight rebound.

When the major banks around the world saw Future Bank’s intervention in the market, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

In any case, the holding of UA Treasury bonds by the bank of the victorious country finally gave other banks a reason to continue holding the UA dollar, and it also allowed the discouraged investors to restore some confidence.

Capitalists used these three days to reached an agreement with Celestial Trade. They took advantage of the information asymmetry to quietly move back the assets that were transferred overseas and made a small profit from the rebounding dollar.

For them, it was a small benefit for selling their soul to Celestial Trade.

“All the evidence about Morgan’s crimes has been collected. The Supreme Court will start the trial tomorrow. Do you not want to go see your old opponent?”

In the office on the top floor of the Empire State Building, Jiang Chen met with President Trump.

It was a coincidence that he was about to call Mr. President for a meeting at the Rainbow House, but when he dialed the number, Mr. President was already at the entrance of the Empire State Building.

After they met, Trump enthusiastically expressed gratitude to Celestial Trade for increasing its holdings of the treasury bonds, and then mentioned that Mike Pence, Morgan, John Corning, and others would be tried tomorrow.

“There is nothing to look at. The financial empire he is proud of has been destroyed, and even he himself is in jail,” Jiang Chen smiled lightly, then leaned back against his chair, “It is pointless to see him now.”

“Rockefeller hasn’t be caught yet?”

“He is now on a flight to Australia,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “The flight has been locked by our satellite, and he will be handcuffed by Interpol when he gets off the plane.”

The extradition treaty between Australia and the UA was still in effect, and it was impossible for Australia to risk the relationship with Celestial Trade to provide asylum for Rockefeller. Even if the latter was holding trillions of dollars in assets, the money had become a hot potato.

“You found him?” Trump glanced at Jiang Chen unexpectedly and smiled. “Would you like to let the Supreme Court postpone the court session and get them for trial after Rockefeller comes back?”

“No,” Jiang Chen shook his head, then looked at Trump while he joked, “What’s more, the earlier the trial, the easier it is for you, isn’t it?”

Trump smiled and said nothing.

In fact, the outcome of the judgment was decided long before the hearing. The federal court would issue astronomical fines for the two suspected of being involved in the murder of the president, bribery, and for a total of more than 20 crimes. Conservatively estimated, the total amount of fines would exceed one trillion dollars, which would set a record.

It was obviously impossible to pay this money with working capital. Even Morgan and Rockefeller together would not be able to generate this much cash. Therefore, all the assets under the two companies would be entrusted to major banks for auction, and the auction money would be returned to the federal treasury. If they could not pay the fine, the rest would be made up in prison terms.

These two financial giants possessed wealth that rivaled nations, and the number of assets they possessed was at least in the trillions range.

With this money, the debt crisis that the Trump administration faced would be also be resolved.

Since the war was started by those people, it was fair for them to foot the bill of this war.

“I actually wanted to see you for something else,” Jiang Chen took out a document from the drawer, threw it on the table, opened it, and pushed it in front of Trump. “All the members in the Earth Defense Alliance will receive a copy, and you can take it back to study.”

“This is…”

When Trump saw the text on the first page of the document, Trump narrowed his eyes slightly, then there was a look of shock on his face.

“The Prospects and Feasibility Report of Himalia Colonialization”

“On April 1st, the ‘Space Colonization Summit’ will be held in Celestial City. I hope you can make time to be there no matter what arrangements you have,” Jiang Chen said slowly while he watched Trump flip through the pages,” I suggest you read it when you go back. There is a lot of information in this report, and there must be some parts that interest you.”

“Are you going to go back in March?” After he put away the document, Trump looked to Jiang Chen.

“Otherwise?” Jiang Chen shrugged and said with a smile, “Everything that should be done is almost done. How long do you expect me to stay here?”

With this document, Trump got up and said goodbye to Jiang Chen.

When Trump left, he only felt that the document in his arms was getting heavier, and even slightly hotter.

After the end of a war, Celestial Trade could start a world-class colonial project. While Trump was amazed at the industrial capability of Celestial Trade, he couldn’t help but feel that something was unusual.

Celestial Trade accelerated its colonial expansion within the solar system, and this time, unexpectedly, it was willing to work together with all the members of the Earth Defense Alliance. Although it was something to be happy about, for some reason, he felt a hint of concern.

Perhaps it was his illusion, but Trump felt that Jiang Chen desired far more…

Jiang Chen watched Mr. President leave, then he leaned back in his chair.

Just when he was about to call home, Ayesha called.

The phone connected, and the other side spoke immediately.

However, the news surprised Jiang Chen.

“Yerif is no longer the crown prince.”

Chapter 1502: Upheaval in the Middle East

Chapter 1502: Upheaval in the Middle East

The news of Yerif of being removed from the position of crown prince did not cause much commotion in the international community.

At least compared with the military operations of a certain mercenary organization in Al Mayadin, this level of triviality was not enough to attract people’s attention.

There were more than 5,000 princes in the Saudi royal family, and it did not seem to be a big deal if the successor changed.

And it was the third time the old king changed the crown prince. The last time when this happened was only 15 years ago.

However, what made Yerif puzzled was that the old king was very satisfied with his birthday gift and praised his work over the years. However, he suddenly changed his stance and took his position as crown prince away.

The fact that young Salman ascended as the crown prince made him feel uncomfortable. Although he congratulated the other party with a smile, he couldn’t help but sneer in his mind. His highly educated brother perhaps was knowledgeable in economy, but he did not think that young Salman was a better king.

It was not just Yerif who didn’t understand, but many bystanders also didn’t understand the situation.

It was true that from the person in charge of the Prince’s Cabinet to the Secretary of State, the young Salman showed outstanding political talent when the old Salman was still the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. However, Yerif’s achievements were also not weak, especially in military and diplomacy.

During his tenure as Deputy Minister and Minister of the Interior of Saudi Arabia, he was called the “Prince Against Terrorism” and “Spy Expert”. The former UA Secretary of Defense and the former Director of the CIB gave high praises to Yerif, and said he was the smartest and most accomplished prince in Saudi Arabia. Yerif led the war against Al-Qaida, and because of the organization’s fear of him, he was assassinated at least three times.

“He led the battle against terrorism, and his achievements are concrete,” said Awad Badi, a researcher and scholar at the King Faisal Academic Research Center. He believed that Yeirf had effectively suppressed a series of attacks planned by the Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia.

However, as a clear-cut anti-terrorist fighter, he obviously didn’t gain favor from the old king.

The Saudi royal family’s attitude has always been quite ambiguous towards terrorism organizations.

On the one hand, they tried their best to avoid catching the fire as they stayed away from fellow ardent religious followers, and even assisted the international community in suppressing them. On the other hand, they also sympathized with those fellow religious fanatics and even secretly supported them.

The old king didn’t want to see the hounds around their door fall down, at least not now.

Another reason was that a unified Syria dominated by Shia Islam was not in line with Saudi interests in the Middle East. As for how much blood would be shed by heretics, as a devout believer, he didn’t care.

In the magnificent palace, there was a man standing in front of the old king. His name was Itami, and he was the intelligence minister appointed by the old Salman.

“Bagdadi was killed.”

“Okay, I see.”

The old king slowly closed his eyes, then finally opened them again after a long silence. He looked at Itami and asked.

“Have you figured out what I asked you to investigate?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Itami bowed his head and reported respectfully. “It has been confirmed that the mercenary organization fighting in Syria is supported by Celestial Trade. Crown Prince Yerif and a Jordanian businessman provided them with access from the Red Sea to northern Syria. They transported supplies through our port until three months ago.”

A trace of disgust appeared in the eyes of the old king.

Although 80% of Saudi Arabia’s fresh water supply relied on Xin, he despised Celestial Trade. He did not believe that these businessmen who were not subject to the law would abide by the bottom line, especially after Celestial Trade developed petroleum crops and started to produce chemical raw materials, which impacted international oil prices.

Therefore, when Celestial Trade promoted the Global Grid in the Middle East, the old Salman has been constantly intervening from behind the scene.

Of course, he was not arrogant enough to think that Saudi Arabia could defeat an opponent that the UA could not defeat, nor was he foolish enough to think that Saudi Arabia has the ability to engage in a head-on conflict with Celestial Trade. All he did was to prevent Saudi Arabia from completely falling to Celestial Trade. After the country surrendered its freshwater market, he did not want to give up the country’s national grid.

Then there was a military operation in Al Mayadin, where tens of thousands of white phosphorus munitions slaughtered their “comrades” in the cruelest way.

If he was only annoyed at Celestial Trade before, the old king was starting to despise the company.

“Your Majesty…” After Itami hesitated for a moment, he said.

Seeing how his intelligence minister was hesitant to speak, the old king slowly spoke.

“Go ahead.”

“Yerif is very close to Celestial Trade. If we change the crown prince now, will we risk angering Celestial Trade…? They have just won in Syria recently, and there are more than 10,000 mercenaries that have not been withdrawn from the Middle East yet, I worry…”

Old Salman’s gaze suddenly turned sharp as he focused on Itami, who hurriedly lowered his head.

After a long silence, the old king hid the sharpness in his eyes, thought for a moment, then slowly commented.

“This is exactly what I worry about.”

“I suggest that Yerif should be temporarily removed from the position of Minister of the Interior, and appoint him as the national security adviser to weaken Yerif’s power in the royal family…” It was very risky to interfere with the royal family’s internal business because it was easy to touch the king’s sensitive nerves. If it was not for the fact that Itami has been a long-time confidant, he would not make such a risky move.

Because he had already sensed that the power struggle of the royal family was intensifying. If the situation could not be effectively controlled, it was destined to set off a “sandstorm” that would sweep across the entire kingdom…

“You are right, Itami,” Old Salman sighed. “The Saudi Crown Prince should not be a puppet of a certain country or organization.”

After a pause, the sharpness pierced out from Old Salman’s eyes.

At this moment, he seemed to have returned to his glorious years, all the turbidity faded from his eyes and the wrinkles on his face disappeared. He had to make a decision to pave the way for his own son, otherwise, once he was gone, the whole country would be trapped in a vortex of power struggles…

“Get Yerif…”

Suddenly, the old king’s eyes widened.

Itami was taken aback for a moment, then the look on his face changed drastically as he hurriedly stepped forward.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”

On this day, the entire palace was in chaos, and the entire city was under martial law.

Checkpoints were set up on the main traffic roads into the city, and heavily armed soldiers patrolled the streets. The citizens didn’t know the news of the King’s death for the time being but looked at the soldiers on the streets, as well as the armored vehicles and tanks driving past their homes in confusion.

Itami quickly walked out from the palace, ordered people to censor the news, and then quickly mobilized the troops stationed near the city to control the situation. After he finished all the steps, he then immediately headed to Yerif’s palace with a group of agents.

However, he did not find the former crown prince in his palace. After he questioned Yerif’s servants, he learned that Yerif had to deal with a business matter and he would return after a few days.

Itami surrounded Yerif’s palace, immediately went to see the young Salman. Itami arranged for him to ascend to the throne as soon as possible and in the meantime, also sent people to track down Yerif’s whereabouts.

But Itami didn’t expect that Yerif happened to be on the border at this moment, and he was staying with Celestial Trade’s mercenaries. After he learned that his palace was surrounded by the old king’s henchmen, he did not dare to go back. Instead, he went directly into the desert in the eastern part of Jordan and lived inside Celestial Trade mercenaries’ barracks.

It was not until the next day, one of his confidants risked his life to finally send a message to him.

Until then did Yerif finally learn all the things that happened in Riyadh in just one day.

No one thought that His Majesty the King would pass away at this critical moment…

Chapter 1503: The Battle over The Throne

Chapter 1503: The Battle over The Throne

The news of the death of the King quickly spread all over the world.

Even if Jiang Chen did not learn the information from Ghost Agents, he saw the video of Riyadh placed under martial law on YouTube and learned the death of the King. The sudden change caught him somewhat off-guard as he passed away shortly after the crown prince was replaced. At this moment, he didn’t know how to comment on this matter.

Nouveau York Empire State Building.

Jiang Chen sat in front of the desk. He was on a video call with Ayesha and listened to the intelligence from the Middle East.

“Yesterday at 12 o’clock noon, Old Salman died of a heart attack. Before he died, he only said two words, ‘Make Yerif’.”

“Is the news reliable?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Very reliable,” Ayesha nodded at the other end of the holographic screen, then continued, “At that time, our agents in the Middle East were monitoring the palace, and all of their conversations were recorded.”

“Send me the recording,” Jiang Chen said.

“It has been sent to your mailbox.”

He tapped on the holographic screen, opened his mail, took out a set of earphones from his drawer, then put them into his ears.

After listening to the entire recording, he was silent, and it was only after a while before he finally spoke again.

“Delete everything except the last words of the dialogue from the old Salman and what happened after.”

“Last words?”

“That’s right. Old Salman only said ‘Make Yerif’, but didn’t say what he is going to make Yerif. Based on the context of the conversation, he perhaps wanted to send Yerif to prison, but if we delete the part before that,” After a pause, Jiang Chen looked at Ayesha and said softly, “We can also interpret his last words as making Yerif the true successor of his throne.”

…

The last group of troops arrived in eastern Jordan. So far, all mercenaries controlled by Celestial Trade were withdrawn from Syria.

Celestial Trade Officer handed over control of the army to Yerif’s confidant. Although this Madagascar-based mercenary force trained by Celestial Trade did not possess the same combat effectiveness as Celestial Trade’s army, its training and weapon were no inferior to any special force in the world.

From the S1 kinetic skeleton, to the assault rifle in their hands, to the Scythe drone equipped, this undesignated force was fully equipped with the standard configuration of Future Military’s export model.

After Yerif returned a Saudi-style military salute to the commander of Celestial Trade, he felt a mixture of emotions as he watched the commander get on the SUV and drive away.

It was never his intention to enter a military conflict with his brother and rely on force to become the ruler of his country. This army was originally prepared to implement his reform plan, and he never thought that there would be a day when he has to use this it.

However, at this point, it seemed that the decision was no longer in his control.

Celestial Trade did not only just send the promised army, but also gave him a perfect excuse. Regardless of what the true intention of the old king was, he did mention Yerif’s name before he died. The prestige of young Salman in the country was inferior compared to him, even with old Salman’s confidant, Itami’s help. With his own prestige in the kingdom, his chance of winning was very high.

He did not need to face the entire kingdom; he just had to defeat the supporters of young Salman.

He took a deep breath, turned his head, then looked at his confidant next to him.

“How many people are still on our side.”

“The commander of the 36th Mechanized Division is willing to help us, but at the same time, he also expressed his unwillingness to see this country slip into a civil war. Our allies in the kingdom are all on our side, and they promised that as long as we take back Riyadh from the hands of the young Salman, they will recognize you as the new king.”

“Excellent.”

Yerif nodded.

Old Salman died at the perfect time. He happened to be in the barracks of the Celestial Trade mercenary force. Now that the advantage was in his hand, the entire Saudi intelligence service combined together would not be able to stop the march of powerful force armed to the teeth.

Yerif looked to his confidant next to him and ordered.

“We’ll leave immediately and head to Riyadh.”

“Yes!”

Jiang Chen was not very worried about the war of succession that took place on the other side of the world.

As long as Yerif could summon the courage for this leap of faith, victory was within his grasp.

It was not because of Jiang Chen’s overconfidence, but rather, the opponent was too weak.

The country’s national defense budget accounted for more than 10% of GDP, and with the world’s third-ranked military expenditure, the troops the country trained was inferior compared to some third-world countries. Before Saudi Arabia showcased its army to the world, everyone thought the country was seeking peace and unwilling to show its true strength. However, when Saudi sent its army to Yemen in 2015 and was a part of the 150,000 strong force made up of ten nations, they thought they could easily crush the Houthi armed forces into the sea in minutes…

The result was a slap in the face.

In short, Saudi Arabia’s military power could not be just described as weak.

Fully equipped with UA equipment, combined with the support of Hua long-range missiles, factored in complete air superiority, their prince and the highest commander were killed in succession. The result was that they not only lost a lot of equipment; the force was even forced to retreat and lost control of a few towns in the process; and those towns were still not recovered even till today.

The Houthi armed forces were also probably confused; did the Saudi force come to seek trouble or send aid.

Against such a force, with the mercenary force trained by Celestial Trade at his disposal, Yerif could use just one hand, and probably not use his eyes to beat the enemy.

But what was certain is that the ownership of the throne will undoubtedly change the future of the entire Middle East…

…

Moscow, Kremlin.

A document was placed on Putin’s desk. A similar report was sent through the Russian embassy in Xin a long time ago. The Kremlin also held many meetings to discuss the plan to colonize Himalia by Celestial Trade.

There was actually only one point of contention, and that was what benefits Russia could gain from this plan.

“The prospects for the colonization of Himalia and the feasibility study report… Ostapenko, what do you think?” Putin looked at the director of the Russian Federal Space Agency who just entered the office, placed the document in his hands down, then leaned back into his chair.

Since Russia joined the Earth Defense Alliance, Ostapenko found that his visits to the Kremlin had become much more frequent. If he used to be excited about getting closer and closer to the power center, now it had turned into a burden for him.

The Russian executives realized the importance of the space industry, believed that a new era was dawning, and placed high expectations on him. However, with more and more budgets, he felt more and more powerless.

Fortunately, the gentleman in front of him was not impatient with his slow progress.

With the president’s direct inquiry, he thought carefully for a moment, then spoke.

“If you are asking me about the need to colonize Himalia, I think this is of course necessary for Russia. According to the description of Himalia in the document, the methane reserves there are extremely rich, exceeding 100 times the methane reserves of the entire Siberia region, and the methane there even formed liquid river. However,…”

“However?” Putin raised an eyebrow.

“It is precisely because Himalia is so valuable, I don’t understand why Celestial Trade chose to bring it to the table,” Ostapenko sighed, “Envoy-class starship is already cruising in the Kuiper belt. Although it is cruising under the name of the Earth Defense Alliance, we know very well that only they can do it. In fact, with their strength, they can completely digest this moon by themselves. This will not be more difficult than colonizing Mars…”

Ostapenko paused for a moment and continued with hesitation.

“I’m not maliciously speculating about our allies, but I really want to know, why are they doing this?”

Chapter 1504: Himalia Landing

Chapter 1504: Himalia Landing

Why is Celestial Trade doing this?

The question not only bothered the Russians, but it also confused the people in Hua.

“The prospects for the colonization of Himalia and the feasibility study report.”

In Shangjing, the same document was placed in the hands of a man who also contemplating like Putin.

From the moment Lunar City was built, the Hua Aerospace Group had worked tirelessly to shorten the technological gap with Future Heavy Industries. However, with the successive “launching” of the Seagull-class and Envoy-class, the scientists who fought in the forefront not only felt powerless but also hopeless.

The plan to colonize Himalia, which Celestial Trade could complete by itself, and the “generosity” for cooperation made the allies surprised.

In this elegantly decorated office, a man in military uniform looked through the documents repeatedly for a long time.

At this time, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Wu Changfeng, the former Major General of the Hua Army, the Minister of the Second Department of the General Staff, and the current representative of Hua at the Earth Defense Alliance Committee, came in.

Perhaps it was his illusion, but the man in military uniform always felt that Major General Wu looked much younger than before.

Is it because of work?

People do say that work can make you feel younger. The man thought of this and shook his head with a smile.

I have been in this position for so many years, and I have worked a lot for this country. I did not feel young at all. Rather, I grew more white hairs.

“Chief, are you looking for me?” Wu Changfeng asked after a military salute.

“‘Space Colonization Summit’ will be held in Celestial City on April 1st. Little Lu and you will attend this meeting on behalf of the country. I chatted with Little Lu just now, and now I want to ask you for your opinion.”

Little Lu was Lu Wei, another representative of Hua in the Earth Defense Alliance Committee. He was the same rank as Wu Changfeng, but he was from a different force, navy.

After he carefully organized the thoughts in his head, Wu Changfeng replied cautiously.

“It’s rare for Celestial Trade to throw out an olive branch. My suggestion is that we should try our best to catch their ride. From the perspective of Himalia’s resources, as long as Celestial Trade can solve the transportation cost problem, we at least don’t have to worry about the Himalia’s project losing money.”

In fact, his real thought was that even if the project lost money, it was best to catch this ride. When the future development prospects were not clear, the best choice was to follow the people who understand. It was best to disregard how much the country could improve, but at least Hua could see the future prospects.

“Lu Wei is even more radical than you. He thinks that even if he loses his pants, he has to follow,” The man smiled and said in a gentle but majestic voice.

Actually, I meant the same.

Wu Changfeng added the sentence in his mind but did not say it out loud.

Until now, he hadn’t figured out what the person above wanted.

Not long ago, Celestial Trade defeated Hua’s imaginary enemy, the UA. However, he did not feel the obvious joy from the above, but rather, the reaction had been incredibly peaceful.

Perhaps this had to do with his complicated sense of belonging. When Celestial Trade and Future Group has grown to its massive size today, many people realized their negligence and what kind of monster they released. Now that this monster has swallowed their enemy, what was the monster going to do next?

“My thoughts are the same,” The man slowly said.

After Wu Changfeng heard those words, he breathed a sigh of relief.

With this man’s agreement, there was no obstacle left.

After a pause, the man in military uniform continued.

“The development of space technology is the general trend and the only way we can save ourselves. The crisis 20.5 light-years away is on the way, and it is likely that it has already reached our doorstep. This is a challenge and an opportunity.”

“But I’m still a little unsettled.”

“I just explained a task to Lu Wei, now I’ll repeat it to you.”

“If they need people, give them people, if they need money, give them money. You can go negotiate with Celestial Trade. I have only one request, and that is to place our national flag on the land of Himalia. For participation in Himalia’s colonization, I very much agree with the plan.”

“But, you have to pay attention to one thing for me.”

“I always feel that Celestial Trade is hiding something from us.”

When Wu Changfeng heard the man’s words, he was slightly stunned, then said with hesitation.

“Are you worried that Celestial Trade will be detrimental to us?”

The man didn’t answer and just stared into Wu Changfeng’s eyes.

After a long time, he spoke slowly.

“This is my task for you.”

…

In the deep and gloomy darkness, a sleek-looking survey ship slowly approached the dead planet.

Long before the outbreak of the Xin-UA War, the Himalia colonial plan had just started. This survey ship set off from Celestial City and brought more than 20 colonists and colonial units to Himalia to establish an outpost of human civilization on Jupiter.

From above, this moon was more beautiful than imagined.

The hydrocarbons that extended for more than six hundred and twenty miles were like fluffy cotton balls as they covered the planet like a veil. A huge, clear lake decorated the south pole of Himalia. The area of this lake was much larger than Lake Ontario in North America. It looked like a sea from the distance that emitted a blue halo under the chaotic atmosphere.

The female astronaut with black hair gently touched the transparent window with her finger while the beautiful planet was reflected in her pupils. It was probably the first time that humans examined this place at such a close distance, rather than through the lens of a probe or an astronomical telescope.

“So beautiful…Is this the sea of Himalia?” She stared at the moon for a long time, then said softly with emotion.

“The sea of minus two hundred degrees Celsius. Although it is flowing, it is definitely not water, but liquid methane or ethane,” An astronaut about 30 or 40 years old walked to her with his helmet in his hands. He then also gazed at the moon with fascination in his eyes, “This will become an outpost for human civilization to conquer Jupiter, and we are fortunate enough to be the ones writing this history.”

With that, he patted her on the shoulder.

“Get ready to land. Go to the hibernation cabin.”

As the survey ship slowed down gradually, it finally entered the orbit of Himalia.

Three probes were dropped from the ship and descended to the surface of Himalia.

“The acceleration of gravity is 0.062 meters squared per second.”

“Atmospheric data survey is completed, the nitrogen content is 94%, the methane content is…”

“The surface temperature is minus 180 degrees Celsius.”

“The third probe landed successfully.”

“The analysis of the best landing point is complete, and guidance is in progress…”

Everyone was already inside the hibernation cabin and closed their eyes. The survey ship orbited Himalia three and a half times, and then dropped the colonial unit located in the front half of the ship’s hull and landed into the thin atmosphere.

Without oxygen, naturally, there was no splendid spark.

The colonial unit hit the ground hard and sent debris high up.

In the Celestial Trade Space Command Center 700 million kilometers away, people jumped up, cheered, and high-fived as they celebrated the advancement of several astronomical units outside the boundaries of human civilization.

It would not be long before human civilization could reach the type II civilization in the Kardashev Scale, or the so-called stellar civilization.

By that time, humans would rule the entire solar system.

Chapter 1505: The Expanding Territory

Chapter 1505: The Expanding Territory

“We made it!”

“Now what you see on the outside is Himalia, which is more than 700 million kilometers away from Earth… it may become 800 million or more after some time but who cares.”

“There is an atmosphere here, but it is not dense, and it is made up mostly of nitrogen. The colonial unit is functioning well, the energy reserves are full, and the oxygen supply is okay. The next step is to send an all-terrain rover to investigate the terrain and resource distribution of Himalia… Hou Tao, how much more time do you need?!”

The man roared into the radio, and soon there was a response from the other side.

“Checking the hydraulic stabilization system… I’ll be done soon. Give me five minutes.”

“This lucky guy!” The astronaut cussed under his breath, then turned his head around and focused back on the camera, “Based on the rules, we drew straws to decide who will be the first to step on Himalia. Although it’s not as significant as the first person stepping on the Moon and Mars, it’s not a small honor either. I will change the camera to the rover after this, and Hou Tao will continue to record…”

After the astronaut finished the last sentence, he tapped a few buttons on the touchpad and ended the video recording.

Based on the colonial propaganda strategy of Celestial Trade, all colonial activities would be recorded into videos and sent to Celestial City Space Command Center for backup, edited by professionals and published on the official website, and made available to the rest of the society to play, download, and comment.

In order to ensure the quality of the recording, a retired reporter, or an experienced professional in film-related industries was on each colonial ship. Although there were still many differences between this survey ship and the colonial ship, as the landing here was only regarded as a colonial outpost. But after all, it was the first time they landed in Himalia and thus it was significant. The survey ship also brought a reporter from Xin Broadcasting Corporation with three years of experience.

The screen quickly switched to the all-terrain rover.

The 25-year-old astronaut put on his helmet, gestured excitedly in front of the camera with a peace sign, and then pressed the red button on the control interface.

It was his first colonial mission and he trained at the astronaut training center on Ange Island. He had been preparing for this day for more than a year, so he was thrilled at this moment.

Followed by the sound of air leaking, the door of the buffer compartment slowly opened, and the rover accelerated to this unknown land.

The whole planet was very dark, as the light from the Sun was already weak. Instead, Jupiter looked brighter. The places illuminated by the vehicle lights were gray-white or gray-black soil, and the other places were just darkness.

Soon, he arrived at the first inspection site – a lake not far from the colony’s outpost, which was the landing site of the second probe.

This lake was not big, at least compared to the big lake at the south pole of Himalia. The probe floated in the middle of the lake, which made recovery quite difficult, so the colonists decided to ignore it for the time being.

After the astronaut named Hou Tao parked the all-terrain rover not far from the lake, he jumped out of the vehicle and walked carefully to the lake. Unlike Mars, the gravity here was very low, and he had to be cable restrained on the vehicle to prevent the situation where he could not get down if he jumped with too much force.

Hydrocarbons were in a gas form on Earth, but they appeared as a liquid on the freezing, bitter surface of Himalia.

The liquid mixture of methane-ethane was less viscous than water, and if someone stroked their hand across the lake of Himalia, they would not feel the same resistance as water.

All in all, it was a wonderful and unique experience, but it was best not to keep his hand in it for too long. Even if the spacesuit designed by Celestial Trade used very advanced thermal insulation materials, the heat loss caused by the cryogenic fluid would still cause a lot of load on the spacesuit’s constant temperature system.

Hou Tao squatted down by the lake, took out the sampler from the toolbox, quickly collected about 200ml of the liquid in the lake, and then stuffed it into the sample storage box of the vehicle. These liquids would be brought back to the colonization unit for analysis to determine the hydrocarbon composition and content ratio in the lake.

Immediately afterward, he collected about twenty soil samples and planted flags with numbers on the ground. These soil samples were very helpful for understanding the geological environment and resource distribution of Himalia, and it would be their task in the next while.

The head of the outpost received the video data from the rover, edited some information, then sent the data back to Earth. After Hou Tao finished all the tasks, he rode the rover back to the buffer compartment of the outpost. As the cabin was emptied and refilled with air, he jumped off the car and walked into the disinfection room.

“The radiation residue is normal.”

“The number of microbial attached…Huh?”

During the inspection of microbial residues, Hou Tao unexpectedly discovered that there were tiny microbial residues on the soles of his shoes.

“What is this…”

However, just when he wanted to further study what this microbial was, he found that the bacteria on the soles of the feet has lost their activity through the microbiological tester.

…

On the second day after the colonial cabin was operational, Celestial Trade released the video of landing on Himalia on its official website.

Although the netizens were all familiar with Celestial Trade’s dark technology, no matter how many times they watched it, they still found it similar to watching a sci-fi movie, and they never get tired of watching.

The probes dropped down first captured the entire process of the colonial unit’s landing. When the netizens around the world saw the silver-white unit landing on the surface of Himalia, they shared the same amazement

“Celestial Trade has begun to colonize Himalia?”

“Where is Himalia? My sense of direction is not very good. In short, it is farther than Mars?”

“Of course.”

“My God, I just want to know how many years they need before they leave the solar system.”

“I bet 50 years.”

“50 years is too long! I bet on 20 years.”

Then the video played the rover driving out of the colony, and a scientific researcher wearing a spacesuit jumped out of the vehicle to complete a series of sampling tasks. It was the first time Celestial Trade made a video of research activities at such close range available on its official site.

It was not only netizens and astronomy enthusiasts all over the world who followed this video, some professional organizations such as ESA, NASA, and Russian Aerospace Agency also closely followed this video.

Especially the excluded ESA.

There were very few countries in Europe that joined the Earth Defense Alliance, and this feeling of being excluded made many people feel a deep sense of uneasiness. Especially those aerospace workers who fought on the front line. They were well aware of the negative impact this will have on the development of European aerospace technology, and they also knew that Europe was gradually disconnecting with the rest of the world…

However, the decision of the few people could not be influenced by scientific researchers.

“Celestial Trade has begun to colonize Himalia? Didn’t they just land on Mars not long ago? Hell, can they digest such a big project?”

“I don’t know about that… but I heard that Celestial Trade’s colonization plan also invited other members of the Earth Defense Alliance to join.”

“What?!”

“I have asked the European Commission more than once to seriously consider the necessity of joining the Earth Defense Alliance, whether it is to cope with the crisis together or from the perspective of development… But I haven’t received any response yet.”

“DAMN IT, what are those idiots thinking.”

“Only God knows!”

Chapter 1506: Mars Immigration Wave

Chapter 1506: Mars Immigration Wave

Just as the Himalia outpost was established, the space elevator built at Mar’s equator was finally completed. The 17,000-kilometer-high space elevator was only half the size of the one on Earth. With the engineering experience of the one built in Xin and on the Moon, this space elevator only took ten months to complete.

Abundant carbon resources provided a huge amount of raw materials for the graphene production line. The long and narrow graphene pipeline that protruded from the universe down to the ground was then connected to the square base station and railroad tracks. They connected the colony ten kilometers away, as well as remote observation stations and mining stations.

A rail transit network that extended from the ground to the sky started to unfold. Although this large network still looked a bit small, it would one day spread throughout every corner of this planet as interstellar colonization continued to expand.

At this moment, a Seagull-class transport ship slowly approached the fiery red planet from deep space. The eight mechanical arms used as gangways slowly descended and firmly fixed the hull. Accompanied by a soft reminder sound, the faint blue lights in the hibernation room lit up, and the hibernation chambers placed down began to open up one by one.

People in different costumes woke up from the hibernation chambers and sat up slowly. They followed the instructions of the attendants and headed to the ship exit. Most of them were immigrants from Earth that came to this land of hope for a new start. At least before they got tired of the endless sea of sand, everything here was so fresh.

The man in a suit walked to the gate. While he was waiting for the elevator, he glanced out the window and pursed his lips disapprovingly.

“This is the spaceport on Mars? Much smaller than the one on Celestial City.”

Beside him, a Jewish man also dressed in a suit walked closer. The two met on Earth and once jointly invested in a traditional steel plant, but they were on the verge of bankruptcy under the impact of the space smelting industry. Fortunately, the UA joined the Earth Defense Alliance, and after the two negotiated, they sold the factory and took the remaining capital to the Mars colony to try their luck.

“Small means opportunity. Now the 6X4 specification connection port on Celestial Trade has risen by 1 million Xin New dollars, and at this place, you only need to pay freight from Celestial City to Mars. And I have studied that the price of iron ore here is less than one-third the price on Celestial City…”

“That cheap?!”

“In the future, it will be cheaper! And we will be rich! One day, we will be in Nouveau York… No, in the Central of Penglai, we will buy a 500 square meter office as the headquarters of our group!” The Jewish businessman waved his fist ambitiously, looked at the planet outside the window, and said in excitement. He was indeed a natural in business.

On the other side, there were immigrants in plain clothes.

In addition to the immigrants that applied at their own expense, there were also immigrants sent to Mars in the form of staff. Most of them brought their family. Because of the subsidy policy on the colony, they planned to settle here for a long time.

A gentle woman held onto her four-year-old daughter. While a man with scum on his chin and a head full of black hair held onto his daughter’s left hand. He looked about 30 years old. The man smiled delightfully as his daughter jumped around, then he leaned down and teased her.

“Doudou, remember to hold my hand, don’t get lost. If you run around and get lost, the Devil Worm may eat you.”

His daughter recalled the one she had seen in the museum, and she quickly showed a frightened expression. But then she noticed the smile on her mother’s face and immediately realized that her father was teasing her again. She stuck out her tongue and made a funny face, then turned her head around to look at her mom and ignored her dad.

“Mom, mom, will we live here in the future?”

“That’s right. Dad found a new job here, and there is no need to pay rent or save for a down payment…”

“My dear, why are you telling a kid about this? It’s our turn to go into the elevator.”

The man interrupted his wife, gently squeezed his daughter’s delicate hand, and walked to the elevator door with his family.

There were not only families that decided to settle on Mars, but also tourists that came here for fun.

The ticket to Mars was not cheap at this moment, but it still couldn’t stop people’s enthusiasm for another planet. A traveler with a backpack and a selfie stick in his hand leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window, that revealed Mars and the space elevator as the backdrop, while he posed a peace sign to the phone that recorded.

“Wow! Mars! I’m here!”

…

In the faraway North America, Jiang Chen sunk comfortably in the chair in the office on the top floor of the Empire State Building as he listened to Kelvin’s report on Mars.

To be honest, Jiang Chen was having the time of his life these past few days, but he still managed to be on top of his work.

It was the first time that the Mars flight was made available to the public, and it was the first time the Mars space elevator was used for large-scale transportation of immigrants from Earth since its completion. Prior to this, immigrants landed on Mars mainly through airdrops of one-off colonization units, which was not only wasteful but also inefficient.

“…The second group of immigrants has arrived at the Mars colony.”

“We can give it a name of our Heavenly Palace City.” Jiang Chen leaned back against the chair while he smiled at Kelvin on the other side of the holographic screen, “Counting the one thousand Celestial Trade Marines on the surface, the total population of Mars is already 5,000. The blueprint for Heavenly Palace City has been completed, and we can start on the next step.”

After the completion of the space elevator, the cost of transporting supplies and immigrants to Mars was greatly reduced, and mining of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was the next step. That region was the most resource-rich region in the entire solar system. Ceres, which possessed abundant water resources, and Vesta, which contained a lot of metal ores, were both located there.

“Are you in such a hurry?” Kelvin hesitated, “There will be a conference of Himalia colony on April 1st. I’m worried that our strides will be too big, and we may not be able to bear it in the end.”

The colony was like a bottomless pit, and money has to be continuously thrown into it. Until now, the Mars colony was still losing money.

Of course, the return on investment was equally astounding. For example, the colony on the Moon, Lunar City, with less than 100,000 residents, almost monopolized half of the world’s electricity supply, 80% of the rare earth market, and space tourism projects with an annual output value of tens of billions…

Half of the reason why Celestial Trade’s Space Department was still insanely profitable despite the heavy losses of the Mars colonialization project could be attributed to the success of the Moon colony.

“The two sides can be executed at the same time. We don’t have much time left,” Jiang Chen waved his hand, “Not to mention that we have brought in other member states, and the financial pressure will not be as great as Mars. If they want to place their flag out there, they can just pay. There are always people who are willing to spend a lot of money…I have something to do in a bit, I’ll go now.”

“Okay.” Kelvin nodded.

Although it seemed strange for the president to hang up in such a hurry, he already finished his report. He had a meeting a few moments later, so he had some preparation to do.

“Hiss…”

The moment the holographic screen was turned off, the sound of gurgling accompanied by a slight jitter lasted for about half a minute. Then, everything suddenly became dull.

Just now, there was some noise that came from under the desk, and Leslie Garcia, who was in her professional attire, slowly stood up. She took a tissue from the desk elegantly and wiped the corners of her mouth gracefully, just like a noble lady who just finished her meal.

Her bright red lips were delicate and dazzling; her eyes were full of passion and seduction and the fine mist of sweat on her perfect forehead left people with infinite reverie.

After she noticed Jiang Chen’s gaze, she hugged him around the neck and smiled.

“How are you feeling?”

Jiang Chen grinned and teased.

“You’re a quick learner.”

If she climbed onto Jiang Chen’s bed because of family interest before, she now started to enjoy this kind of feeling. For example, the few times after the first time, she was the one that came here, and she didn’t even tell her father.

This kind of enjoyment did not only come from her physical needs but also her mental needs. Unlike the immature boys in college, she could only enjoy the feeling of being conquered by Jiang Chen, as well as the vanity that ordinary people couldn’t satisfy her.

It made sense after some thinking. Her dad was a Wall Street banking tycoon. In school, most people looked at her with greed and flattery or bowed their heads in embarrassment. Both the former and the latter made her feel nauseous.

But Jiang Chen was different.

She could feel that she was like an ant in his eyes.

This kind of statement was very strange, but it was what she felt from him.

What made her even more surprised was that he could make her feel this way despite being less than thirty years old.

“Do you have time in the next few days?”

“Sure, what’s the matter?” Jiang Chen said lazily while he played with a pen in his hand.

“Tomorrow at eight o’clock in the evening, the Diamond Princess will depart from the Island, and the entire North American upper class will be there.” With her knees rested on the edge of the seat, she placed her weight on Jiang Chen. Leslie’s tongue gently brushed against his neck while her voice carried a hint of cuteness, “Not just people in business and politics, but also things that interest you.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

Leslie blinked, smiled with her lips closed, and the meaning in her look was self-evident.

Since he finished most of the things he had to complete, and there was still more than a week before April, he was free around this time. Therefore, after some deliberation, he was somewhat convinced, but he did not plan to say yes so easily.

“It’s not impossible,” Jiang Chen smirked, and slapped her butt, “It depends on your performance.”

“Do you still have energy?” Leslie raised an eyebrow. She sounded slightly surprised in her provocative tone.

“How do you know if you don’t try.”

There was a look of seduction in her eyes as she stopped speaking, glanced to the door, then reached for the button on her lower abdomen…

Chapter 1507: Diamond Princess

Chapter 1507: Diamond Princess

A cruise ship set sail from the Island at the port of Upper Bay.

The dazzling neon gleamed on the ship, with the lights of Nouveau York as the backdrop, the ship slowly sailed towards the estuary.

Not far away, the torch was held high in the hands of the Statue of Freedom with a copper-yellow flame “reignited” and faintly glowed in the night. This flame was a gift from Xin to the Trump administration, which symbolized the long-term and hard-won peace between the two countries. Because the flame was mixed with special fluorescent materials, the torch could even be vaguely seen in the dark night.

As one of the top fifteen most luxurious cruise ships in the world, “Diamond Princess” was the largest luxury cruise ship with the most complete facilities in the world-famous cruise brand “Princess” series fleet. It was just like a five-star hotel floating on the sea. The cruise ship was built with a total of 1,337 cabins, of which 748 cabins included private balconies. Visitors could directly enjoy the beautiful sea without leaving the comfort of their room.

At this moment, on the deck of the cruise ship, guests in formal or evening dress held champagne in their hands. They gathered in large and small circles while they chattered with each other. From the luxury of the banquet, it seemed to be higher than the one held by the B City Consortium, but in terms of the quality of the participants, it was much inferior.

“That person is the chairman of the Princeton Group, one of the top 500 global companies with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars. The person over there is Jelinek, the major shareholder and CEO of Costco Group, and he is also a shareholder in several tech startups.” Leslie noticed Jiang Chen yawn, she grinned and then chuckled, “Of course, none can compare to you.”

“They can’t even compare with your father.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Jiang Chen didn’t use his real name this time, but rather boarded the cruise ship as Leslie’s guest, and half of his face was covered by a pair of sunglasses. Because the surname Garcia weighed enough, the security did not check his identity and his presence did not attract anyone’s attention.

“Not exactly,” Leslie’s bright red lips closed, then she smiled. “Five billion is the threshold for this party, but there are also billionaires worth hundreds of billions. This kind of banquet is not formal at all. You can see that people are not here to do business, but mainly for…”

“For?” Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow.

“For pleasure,” Leslie smiled slightly, raised her chin and pointed at the man with a girl on each arm, “In other words, to alleviate their physical needs.”

Jiang Chen laughed and did not answer.

But the meaning in his eyes was very clear. If this banquet was just that, it was not enough to attract him.

“If you are not interested in these appetizers, there will be an auction soon. I bet there will be something you like in it.”

“For example?” Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

“Arts, cultural relics, deeds to mansions, company shares, even people…”

“People?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

“This is an open secret of the upper class… Generally, this kind of auction will be set up for banquets with a capital threshold of more than five billion dollars. Of course, if you dislike it…”

“Just curious.” With a light smile, Jiang Chen said, “By the way, I always wanted to ask, what are they celebrating?”

“The Sundax Group won the bid for the Bering Strait Expressway project. It’s a huge project worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It is indeed worth celebrating.” Leslie smiled.

As early as more than a century ago, a French engineer first proposed the bold idea of building an undersea tunnel under the Bering Strait. However, the plan was difficult to implement, not to mention the tense diplomatic relations between Russia and the UA.

Of course, this project was not that difficult today. The breakthrough of graphene materials and nano-ceramic technology made this kind of millennial project a possible reality. Since the UA joined the Earth Defense Alliance, the newly established Trump government has also actively repaired diplomatic relations with other member states. Eighty percent of global geopolitical crises seemed to have disappeared followed by the decline of the UA hegemony.

Thus, the grand plan to connect Eurasia with North America was put on the agenda. This 103-kilometer-long undersea tunnel spanned the Bering Strait, after the most recent diplomatic meeting between the UA and Russia, the heads of the two countries immediately agreed on the plan. After the meeting, they announced to jointly build this “Millennial Project.”

More than 500 companies would participate in the bidding of the project, and eventually more than 50 companies would win the bid.

Jiang Chen seemed to recall this event. Xia Shiyu mentioned to him a few days ago that Future Heavy Industries would provide steel, corrosion-resistant cement and graphene building materials for this tunnel in the future. And in the last meeting with Trump, he also mentioned it.

As for the money to fund the project, it was easy to solve. Future Bank recently increased its holding of the UA Treasury bonds by 600 billion dollars. The Supreme Court’s judgment on Morgan and the Rockefeller Group also helped the Trump administration to obtain trillions of dollars in assets.

The event could be regarded as a blessing in disguise for the ill-fated president. It was no exaggeration to say that he was definitely the richest president in the country’s history.

There was never a president who could spend so much on infrastructure without having to worry about the budget.

While Jiang Chen chatted with Leslie and tasted the red wine, he suddenly seemed to see a familiar figure in the crowd. However, when he was about to take a closer look, that figure disappeared.

He frowned slightly, but at this moment, there was a discordant voice.

“Leslie, this is your boyfriend? Indian? Or Mexican? Oh, my God, don’t tell me he is Asian.” The woman said in an exaggerated voice, with a slight sneer at the corner of her mouth.

Jiang Chen turned his head slightly and looked to that side.

A woman who wore a silver-white dress while holding a male guest’s arm walked towards him and Leslie. The bottom of the skirts was dotted with silver light, which seemed to be diamonds, and looked expensive. The male guest looked familiar, but Jiang Chen couldn’t recall his face… but that was not the issue.

Jiang Chen instantly understood what happened, so he gave Leslie a meaningful look.

The latter glanced at him with some guilty conscience and quickly explained in a quiet voice.

“Elsa Griffin, the youngest daughter of the Griffin family. His father is the chairman of Wachovia Bank…”

“If I guessed correctly, you have some feud with her, am I right?” Jiang Chen said with an expression between smiling and not smiling.

“Sorry, I… I really didn’t know she would be here too. His father and my father have some feuds, and our relationship is not great…” Leslie looked at Jiang Chen carefully, then nervous said, “I, I just…”

Leslie wanted to explain something, but Elsa was already walking towards them.

From the way she stared at Leslie, the flicker in those eyes was obvious…

She obviously didn’t come here with friendly intentions.

Chapter 1508: Unexpected Acquaintance

Chapter 1508: Unexpected Acquaintance

“My dear Leslie, don’t you plan to introduce your boyfriend to me?” Elsa crossed her arms in front of her chest, smiled with her lips closed, then examined Jiang Chen who was enjoying his wine, from head-to-toe. There was a look of contempt but that quickly disappeared in her eyes, “Long time no see, your taste still seems to not have gotten better.”

Because Jiang Chen wore sunglasses and the light was dim, she did not see who sat there. In fact, even without sunglasses and dim light, it was not easy for her to recognize Jiang Chen. It was difficult for people of different race to recognize someone from another race, let alone it was rare for an important individual to sit in the corner and drink alone.

If this person was indeed influential, there would be countless people around him.

“Miss Griffin,” Leslie took a deep breath, looked at Elsa coldly, and there was a glamorous but standoffish curve curvature formed with the corner of her lips turned up, “I have no time to argue with you today.”

“Don’t be so cold, it’s rare for us to meet at a banquet,” Elsa said with a smile

While there was no verbal conformation at this moment, there was clearly sparks forming between the two women’s eyes.

“This is my business card.” Elsa’s companion smiled and nodded at Jiang Chen politely, handed out a gold-plated business card to him, then said in a gentle tone, “I hope we can have a good chat in the future.”

Berkeley Lewis, President of Dream Real Estate.

When Jiang Chen saw the name on the business card, he had a sudden look of realization.

He thought this person looked familiar, and now he finally recalled where he had seen him.

About three or four years ago, at the charity gala in Penglai City, Jiang Chen happened to encounter this man. He had pestered Emma, so Jiang Chen helped Emma and made Berkeley make a fool of himself at the banquet. Then defeated, Berkeley returned to Los Santos.

He didn’t know what happened afterwards to make the man who spent all his energy on women and alcohol to turn out like this.

Although the disdain and arrogance in his eyes could not be concealed, at least he learned to be humble and polite on the surface, and even managed to befriend Miss Griffin. If he recalled correctly, the family name of Lewis could only be considered as a nouveau riche name.

Jiang Chen glanced at the business card between Berkeley’s fingers, then just responded with a smile and did not accept it.

The outstretched hand was frozen in the air, and there was a flash of anger in Berkeley’s eyes. However, he quickly hid the emotion behind his smile mixed with contempt and mockery, then put the card back into his inner pocket.

“It seems that it is the first time Miss Leslie’s little boyfriend is meeting this circle. It is excusable to not understand the etiquette of the upper class.” Elsa looked at Jiang Chen with a hint of disdain in her eyes, “Let’s go, Berkeley. Standing with boring people will make the air worse.”

“Okay, my dear Miss Elsa.” Berkeley Lewis took a long look at Jiang Chen, then followed Elsa and left the corner of the banquet.

Leslie was finally relieved after her nemesis left.

Although her original intention was to see Elsa suffer a defeat in front of Jiang Chen, the impatient and annoyed look on Jiang Chen clearly said that he did not plan to intervene in their feud. Leslie quickly sensed this and did not respond to the provocation. The latter also left with a lack of interest after receiving no response.

While Leslie watched Elsa leave, she noticed that Jiang Chen’s eyes were on Berkeley, so she whispered.

“Berkeley Lewis, a nouveau riche from C State, Elsa’s third boyfriend this year…maybe fourth. Although he has no abilities, his father ranks in the top 30 on Forbes. Dream Real Estate is also one of the top real estate developers in C State, mainly targeting overseas immigrants, especially those from Hua…”

“I know, his father seems to be a shareholder of Warner Bros.” Jiang Chen chuckled.

“Do you know him?” Leslie was slightly surprised.

“We spoke a few words before, obviously he didn’t recognize me.” After he placed the glass on the table, he stood up and discarded the unpleasantness that just happened behind him. He paused for a moment, and then said, “Let’s go and see what’s good at the auction.”

Miss Leslie hurriedly stood up.

If her classmates were here, they would definitely be surprised. The third daughter of the Garcia family, who had always been like the flower blooming in the high mountains, aloof and standoffish, actually looked respectfully to a man.

…

Under the spotlight, it was difficult to be invisible, and the established consortium had long learned to keep a low profile after the early days.

Not only old consortia like B City Consortium, many families with “savings” also learned to put their wealth in different types of funds, offshore accounts, and shell companies. It did not affect the control of the wealth while at the same time, hid it to obtain tax exemptions in the name of “charity”, especially the heinous inheritance tax. Since the world’s real richest people turned invisible, who took their seats? It was Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and other middle-class billionaires that took this false name, and this situation made both the real and fake rich equally happy.

For example, Leslie’s father Otto Garcia possessed assets worth more than 100 billion dollars, but he did not show up on the Forbes wealthiest list. For another example, Jiang Chen himself, other than a few years ago where his name was on the top of the list, he had bought Forbes magazine to remove him from the list.

After all, the string of zeros attracted too much attention.

The auction was held in the conference hall on the top floor. Guests in formal attire entered the venue one after another as they took their seats in accordance to their numbers.

In Nouveau York, the family name of Garcia still carried some weight, and Leslie’s seats was near the front. After she walked in on Jiang Chen’s arm, she suddenly noticed an annoying figure. It was Elsa and her companion, Mr. Lewis, who sat not far from them.

Elsa sensed Leslie’s gaze, turned her head and responded with a confrontational look.

“They are really on our tails.” Leslie cursed under her breath, then no longer looked to that direction.

“Leslie is a bit weird today.” After Elsa turned her head around, she took her makeup from her bag and added some more to her delicate face, “Normally, there is no way she’d be so polite with me.”

Berkeley Lewis sat there, and his mind seemed to be a little absent as he didn’t even hear what his female companion said.

Just now, he suddenly saw a figure that lingered even in his dream.

“Berkeley? Are you listening to me?” Elsa glared at her boyfriend, dissatisfied, and there was a tone of suspiciousness in her voice.

Berkeley quickly recovered from his dazed state, smiled, and calmly focused back on his girlfriend and softly comforted her.

“Sorry, I was thinking about something…”

While he sweetly coaxed his girlfriend, Berkeley’s mind was no longer here.

After he glanced over the backless evening gown inadvertently, he suddenly had an idea…

Chapter 1509: You could do this?

Chapter 1509: You could do this?

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

“Why don’t we just call the police?”

Emma Watson felt uncomfortable with the billionaires around her and felt that she was out of place. After all, she was just a celebrity that was somewhat well-known, and she got here with the help of Future Group. The old lady who sat next to her seemed very calm, her name was Evelyn Isabella and she was the president of the International Children’s Rescue Organization.

The reason why she was here was that the International Children’s Rescue Organization received a message from enthusiasts that a group of children in urgent need of assistance would be auctioned on the Diamond Princess and Emma Watson herself was a member of the Women’s Rights Organization, and she was a close friend with Evelyn Isabella, so Emma accompanied her to participate in the auction.

“Don’t say that, Miss Watson,” Evelyn Isabella said softly, “The law can’t do anything to them, let alone the police.”

“Why?” Emma had to ask the question that bothered her.

“All the sins are concealed under the glamorous evening gowns. You cannot accuse a caring rich man of helping the orphans without evidence. Not to mention the proceeds of the auction to the orphanage and all the orphans’ custody will be used for a charitable foundation to help more war orphans… The auction is in the name of charity, at least nominally.”

At this point, the elderly Ms. Isabella let out a soft sigh, and the wrinkles on the corner of her eyes seemed to grow deeper.

“This is the rule of the game. Neither you nor I have the ability to destroy it. Think about it, even a former president and her husband are involved in this. Compared to her, our voice is insignificant. What we can do is just try to photograph it and entrust it to a trustworthy relief agency.”

Emma was silent as she lowered her head. It was unclear what went on in her head.

The auction soon began.

The first piece of art to be exhibited was a painting from the Renaissance. The original owner was a collector, but his business had run into some issues, so he had to part with his love for the sake of additional capital. From the collection value of this work, the painting was certainly worth it.

But there were enough artworks in his mansion in Coro Island, and they filled almost every single wall.

Jiang Chen put one leg over his knee and just sat there. He did not join the bids but just paid attention to the sold price.

After several rounds of intense bidding, this painting was won by an old man about fifty years old for 50 million dollars.

The few items on display later were either some ancient cultural relics or works of art left by famous artists. Because there was nothing that interested him, Jiang Chen only raised his sign symbolically a few times, but when he saw the price go up too high, he did not participate further.

The auction continued.

Halfway through the auction, the light on the podium dimmed slightly.

The audience stopped their whisper one after another, and everyone seemed to sit up. By convention, when the auction was halfway through, a significant item would be featured. Jiang Chen noticed that many people’s eyes flashed with excitement.

Obviously, they already knew.

The host cleared his throat and spoke.

“…The next thing that will be auctioned is something unique. To be precise, it is not an item, but our love. An orphanage in the Virgin Islands, with a total of 100 children from war zones. Most of them are from Syria, but some are from the Balkans and Ukraine.”

On the big screen, in the photo was a group of girls who looked as pure and lovely as angels.

Their complexions were fine, obviously, they were well-conditioned, and even received a certain level of education. They didn’t look like they went through the pain of being refugees, nor did they seem to be battered by war.

Many people in the audience whispered in excitement.

The host continued to speak.

“Along with the orphanage, the custody rights of the children and the land deeds of the island where the orphanage is located will also be auctioned. The proceeds from the auction will be donated to the War Orphans Relief Foundation to help more people in need. I hope that the auction winner can shoulder the responsibility of the caregiver and raise the children to adulthood.”

“The price starts at ten million dollars, and the minimum price increase is one million. The auction begins!

“20 million!”

Almost as soon as the auction started, someone raised their placard and the price instantly doubled.

Charity auction?

Jiang Chen glanced at the Germanic man holding the placard next to him, as well as the excitement that flashed in his eyes. He felt that there was something deeper here.

“20 million once, is there still—”

“50 million!”

“50 million once!”

Jiang Chen looked slightly surprised.

There were only two rounds of bidding, and the value of this orphanage had already surpassed the previous Renaissance painting. He hadn’t noticed before that the moguls on Wall Street were so kind.

Emma, who sat not far away, put down the sign she was about to raise with a complicated expression. 50 million dollars was already beyond the price she could bear. Ms. Isabella, who sat next to her, sighed and expressed her powerlessness in such a crazy bidding war.

“Are you not going to make a bid?” Leslie looked at Jiang Chen who sat next to her, then smiled with her lips closed. “I thought you would be interested.”

Jiang Chen leaned back on the chair and asked nonchalantly.

“Why do you think I would be interested in charity?”

“Charity?” Leslie glanced at Jiang Chen with surprise in her eyes and she said somewhat unexpectedly, “Do you really think this is a charity auction?”

“If not?”

“Remember what I told you earlier?” Leslie smiled. “It’s not just the artworks and mansions that are sold at the auction.”

Jiang Chen took a moment to process the information, but then a look of realization appeared in his eyes.

Through Leslie’s meaningful smile, he immediately understood the message.

“You could do this? That’s an interesting way to operate.” Jiang Chen looked at the photos displayed on the projector with interest, then raised his eyebrows with intrigue, “Interesting.”

The Virgin Islands was an unincorporated territory of the UA, and the orphanage built on this island was equivalent to being in a lawless state. This reminded him of the report that Ghost Agents had only investigated not long ago, about the Clintons and the “Lolita Flight” story.

After several rounds of fierce bidding, the price of this orphanage had gone up to 350 million dollars.

This price finally made the interested buyers start to reconsider whether this choice was worth it. Many of the hands that went to raise their placards also stayed down because of hesitation. While many people here were worth tens of billions of dollars, the liquidity in their hands could not support them to just spend hundreds of millions of dollars casually.

At this time, Jiang Chen raised his placard.

“400 million.”

The people present all let out a gasp.

Although many billionaires gathered here, not many were willing to spend one-tenth of their liquidity on this.

The eyebrows of the billionaire next to Jiang Chen twitched and looked at him in surprise. After a moment of hesitation, he painfully wrote the number 500 million on the sign.

“500 million!”

The atmosphere of the auction was instantly pushed to the climax. Even the host was stunned for three seconds before he recovered and continued to shout.

“500 million! Oh my god, the price is unbelievable! 500 million going once…600 million! Oh, God will reward you for your kind deeds, thank you, generous friend.”

With how calm Jiang Chen looked, the billionaire next to him was no longer calm in his mind.

He couldn’t even help but wonder if this guy was here to create trouble. After all, with how young he looked, he didn’t look like someone rich. Perhaps Leslie Garcia, who sat next to him, could afford this, but her father would never allow her to spend 600 million dollars at an auction.

Elsa and her companion Mr. Berkeley Lewis also looked to this direction in surprise. Elsa was clearly aware of Leslie’s situation. 600 million dollars was well beyond the range of funds Leslie controlled, and they were very similar in this regard.

Could I have misjudged the situation? The man next to her is actually a billionaire who is hiding his identity? And his net worth is in the ten billion and above range?

Elsa frowned as she began to consider the different possibilities, but she couldn’t recall such a young Chinese billionaire in Nouveau York.

A subtle sense of uneasiness appeared in her mind.

Emma Watson, who sat not far away, also looked to Jiang Chen’s direction with surprise in her eyes. She stared at the familiar face in a daze. She never expected to run into him here. And what made her even more surprised, or rather, shocked, was the type of person he is…

Chapter 1510: I gave them a job

Chapter 1510: I gave them a job

“Don’t be too discouraged,” Ms. Isabella patted Emma on the shoulder and said in a quiet voice, “We have tried our best. I will try to negotiate with the auction winner, to the best that…”

Emma nodded, but her emotion was complicated at this moment.

Although the exaggerated sunglasses almost covered half of his face, she still recognized him. She would rather believe that she was wrong because she always had a good impression of him and thought he was a good person. Unexpectedly, he was no different from these beasts disguised behind their wealth and appearance. The thought shook the figure in her mind.

The auction was over.

Emma got up and went to the platform outside. Ms. Isabella went backstage to see if she could negotiate with the buyer and persuade him to send the children to an actual shelter. Although they were well aware of the fact that the possibility was slim to none since it was 600 million dollars after all…

“Miss Watson, we meet again.”

Just then, a familiar and annoying voice came from behind her, Emma Watson turned her head, and when she saw the face of Berkeley Lewis, she immediately took two steps back in disgust.

“It seems that you haven’t forgotten me.” Berkeley Lewis smiled, “I’m flattered.”

“Please don’t use such a misleading statement, Mr. Lewis,” Emma said with coldness as she slightly raised her chin and then said, “If I remember correctly, your father should have warned you to stay away from me.”

“Please don’t be so nervous, I just came to apologize to you today.”

“Apologize?” Emma frowned.

“For my rudeness when we first met,” Berkeley said politely, “As an apology, I wonder if I would be lucky enough to buy you a drink?”

When the auction was only one-third of the way through, he had already come outside, Elsa was going to visit the protagonist of this banquet – Mr. Eller, the chairman of the Sundax Group, on behalf of her father.

“I’m not in the mood today, don’t bother me,” Emma said irritably, as she was about to leave.

“Don’t go in such a hurry.” When Berkeley saw Emma was about to leave, he was not ready to give up so easily, so he subconsciously wanted to grab her arm, but his hand was caught halfway by another hand, and he couldn’t move an inch forward.

Berkeley’s face was flushed because of anger, as he looked to the side, enraged.

Two annoying faces appeared in front of him at the same time.

At some point, Leslie and her companion had already made their way here. And the one who grabbed his hand was the man beside Leslie.

“Let go of my hand,” Berkeley stared at Jiang Chen, like a snake locked onto its prey, and the disguised politeness was instantly torn apart by his nature at this very moment. He said, one word at a time, with hatred and anger, “Boy, just because you have hopped in bed with the Garcia family, doesn’t mean she can protect you from what I’m about to do to you. Can she protect you for the rest of your life? When I get off the boat, I will let you know—”

“Mr. Lewis, it seems you still don’t have a good memory?” Jiang Chen interrupted Berkeley’s speech, smiled lightly, and took off his sunglasses with his other hand, “Tell me, what do you want me to know?”

In an instant, Berkeley’s pupils almost shrank to a point. As if he had seen a ghost, all the blood vanished from his face.

The shame at the Penglai Charity Banquet that day spread from his mind to his hands and feet like poison. At this moment, he finally recalled the fear from last time. His hands and feet became cold and he couldn’t help but begin to shake…

Jiang Chen faintly smelled a pungent odor, glanced at his pants, and saw that the color of the crotch area turned darker, and droplets of liquid ran to the ground through his pants.

Jiang Chen pushed away the hand in disgust, then said to Berkeley, who was ghostly white.

“You have three seconds to disappear. If I see you appear in front of me…”

Before Jiang Chen could finish, Berkeley ran away.

Because of panic, he hit the table with his leg when he passed the crowd, and champagne splashed all over him. Finally, in the countless eyes full of surprise and contempt, he crawled out of the banquet hall.

As for Elsa, and the task his dad gave him to pick up this girl, were no longer his priorities. Now, his top priority was to get out of Nouveau York as fast as possible and return to Los Santos…

The farther away from that devil, the better!

Emma looked at Jiang Chen with a complicated emotion in her eyes. The latter noticed her sight, put on his sunglasses again, and smiled.

Just now, she confirmed that it was indeed Jiang Chen who had won the auction for that orphanage. She didn’t understand why he is doing this and didn’t want to believe that Jiang Chen was that kind of person, so after she hesitated for a moment, she finally asked the question that had bothered her.

“That orphanage, what are you going to use it for?”

Leslie looked at Ms. Watson in surprise.

Typically in a gathering of this level, no one would ask this question out loud.

After Jiang Chen noticed Emma’s expression, he had guessed she thoughts, so he laughed.

“Are you talking about the children in the orphanage?”

“Mhmm…”

“I gave them a job.”

“A job?”

“Yes, do you want to take a look together?”

After she debated for a moment, she nodded.

Jiang Chen put on his wireless earphones and turned on the holographic screen of his watch. After he opened the address book, he dialed a number.

As soon as the call was connected, Bernice’s voice came from the other side.

“Hey?”

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“Of course, any instructions?”

“Wait for me at the airport at about nine o’clock. We’re going to the Virgin Islands.”

“Okay.”

After he hung up, he looked at Emma.

“If you are interested, wait for me at JFK at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

After he finished the sentence, he took Leslie to the room on the cruise ship.

“She is your lover?”

“She is more of a friend,” Jiang Chen smiled and patted Leslie on the butt, “What? Are you jealous?”

Jiang Chen certainly wouldn’t say that “Hermione” was the goddess of his childhood. Part of the reason was the sentimental value that caused him to view Emma Watson positively. However, he would say his feelings towards her were more of an appreciation, and only in the sense of appreciation. It was not his style to act on this feeling.

It was more than a challenge to turn a British lady who strongly believe women’s rights and public welfare into his lover. Jiang Chen could feel that Miss “Hermione” still has a good impression of him, but there was still a big gap between this good impression and liking him.

“Not at all.” With a seductive look in her eyes, Leslie looked to Jiang Chen and took his arm. “I’m just a little curious.”

She won’t ask questions that shouldn’t be asked.

Although she was not the most cunning, she still possessed a certain level of understanding.

From the beginning, she made her position clear.

The third daughter of Garcia’s family…

…and the North American lover of the Celestial Trade President.

Chapter 1511: The Discovery on Himalia

Chapter 1511: The Discovery on Himalia

The next morning, Emma arrived at JFK International Airport as scheduled.

With a feeling of anxiety, in a white dress, she stood at the exit of the special passage of the airport. She glanced around while she checked her watch from time to time. Almost as soon as the hour hand crossed the nine mark, a Luer car stopped beside her.

A blonde woman in a pair of sunglasses and a suit opened the car door and walked to her.

Bernice took off her sunglasses and hung them on her collar, then she examined Emma.

“Are you Miss Watson?”

“Yes… you are?”

“Bernice, this is my business card.” With a business card between her two fingers, Bernice handed it to Emma with swag. “Jiang Chen has something to do today, so he returned back to Xin already.”

Emma took the business card and took a look.

This business card was very interesting. On the black surface, a six-grid pattern was visible, and if she pressed on it, the image and words could “stand up”. Except that other than the name Bernice, there was no other information, and Emma didn’t even know whether it was her first or last name.

“In other words… I got stood up?” Emma raised an eyebrow and asked with uncertainty in her tone.

“Of course not,” Bernice said, pulled back her sleeve, then checked the time. “There will be a flight from here to the Virgin Islands in about twenty minutes. If you are interested, you can come with me. I have purchased a first-class ticket for you.”

Because of her concern for the children, Emma hesitated for a moment but finally nodded.

In addition to Bernice, there were also two other women in suits that looked like Celestial Trade employees, but they gave her a unique vibe… They did not seem to be white-collar workers, but they were different than the soldiers with reckless actions.

Emma hid all the questions in her mind and boarded with Bernice, the group on the flight to the Virgin Islands.

After about an hour’s flight, the group got off the plane at the Virgin Islands airport. At the gate of the airport, two Lincoln limos awaited them. The old man in a suit and bow tie opened his arms from a distance and greeted them with a warm smile.

But Bernice did not hug him. She simply shook his hand and then showed him the relevant documents.

“I’m here on behalf of Mr. Jiang Chen, here are the auction voucher and power of attorney.”

“Okay, Miss Bernice, please follow me.”

The old man slightly bowed, then invited them to sit in the limo next to him.

After they got into the vehicle, they drove on the highway for around an hour, then they switched to a medium-sized yacht at the east bank of the main island, and soon they arrived at the island on the map.

There were not many facilities on the island, with only a rustic shipyard, a wooden villa, and an old church. There were towering cliffs on two sides of the island, while one side was a beautiful beach.

The orphans were placed in the church. The elderly nuns took care of feeding them and corrected their wrong beliefs. In addition, there were people who taught them how to read, math, simple common sense, as well as knowledge that ordinary people didn’t need… or rather, “positions”.

After briefing Bernice about the situation on the island, the old man who was responsible for bringing them here bowed slightly and then left with his people. From this moment on, the “owner” of the island, its facilities, and the more than one hundred orphans on the island were transferred from a private charity foundation to Jiang Chen.

Because the island operated under the name of a charity, the owner of this island only had to pay half a million dollars in fees to the Virgin Islands every year. As for the orphans, since they did not have citizenship in the country, naturally no one cared about them.

When they pushed open the door of the church, the orphans were in class.

Maybe they noticed the strangers outside, but the little angels all looked to the door curiously.

When Emma saw the countless youthful faces, it clearly hit her hard as her expression did not look natural. Bernice did not disturb the class and just talked to the old nun responsible for the place. Then, she made a few calls to Ghost Island before she returned to Emma.

“What are you going to do to them?” Emma looked at Bernice and asked.

“Since they are sent here, they are destined to be outcasts of the society. The society cannot adapt to them, and they cannot adapt to this society, so we’ll give them with another choice,” Bernice said.

“Choice?” Emma was dazed.

“Yes,” Bernice nodded and said expressionlessly. “The boss didn’t explain how much I can reveal to you, so I can only tell you this. I can assure you that what you are worried about will not happen. We will not go overboard with them. Other than that, that’s all I can say.”

As Emma watched the unmoved face, she swallowed the words she had prepared to persuade her to send these orphans to an actual shelter.

“It’s still early. If you want, you can go and spend more time with these children for a while.”

“…No need, I came here to confirm their safety… now my goal has been achieved.” Emma shook her head and looked at Bernice seriously. Then with pleading in her voice, “I hope you can keep your promise and not do cruel things to them.”

Bernice nodded.

“Of course, I can guarantee this.”

…

In order to consolidate the victory of Celestial Trade in North America, Jiang Chen had supported more than 30 families that spanned from economics to politics and brought almost half of North America’s upper class to his own ship.

In order to ensure the long-term and stable control of Celestial Trade over North America, the Ghost Agents had to expand and penetrate into the different classes and fields in North America.

Jiang Chen had thought about this issue for the past while, and the photo he saw at the auction last night suddenly inspired him.

It was precisely why he decided to purchase this orphanage.

In addition to the more than one hundred orphans on the island, in the future, Celestial Trade would purchase this unknown island from the Virgin Islands. Then, in the name of the charitable foundation and orphanage, orphans from all over the world would be accepted and systematically trained here.

This place would become the second Ghost Island and would serve as an intelligence center for Celestial Trade in the Western Hemisphere.

Of course, Jiang Chen, who was already on the plane, naturally couldn’t handle the matter personally.

Around seven o’clock in North America time, he received a call from Kelvin at the Celestial City Space Command Center.

There was a major discovery at the outpost in Himalia.

Kelvin didn’t explain the significance of this discovery very clearly but only made a conservative estimation.

And even the most conservative estimation could lead to a new revolution in the energy sector…

Chapter 1512: Black Alkane

Chapter 1512: Black Alkane

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

Himalia, in the outpost lab.

Researchers, in chemical protective clothing, were in the isolation room and carefully studied the samples in the culture tank.

When they were analyzing the soil samples collected from Himalia, they found a special kind of bacteria in a type of black porous soil. This kind of bacteria was anaerobic and could only survive in a nitrogen environment. But what made it interesting was not the bacteria itself, but the metabolites produced by this kind of bacteria…

It was a black lump, its chemical composition was very complex, composed of a variety of hydrocarbons. The molecules fold into each other and appeared to be an interlaced zigzag spatial structure. Because of this close combination, as far as hydrocarbons were concerned, its density was remarkable, almost twice that of the same volume of water.

“Incredible.”

“This density is almost the same as Teflon.”

“Mhmm, the density is 2. This is the first time I have seen such a high-density hydrocarbon.”

Teflon was also polytetrafluoroethylene, with a density of 2.2, which was the densest of commonly used plastic materials. Based on the standard for hydrocarbons, if something could reach a density twice that of water, it was no exaggeration to describe it as incredible.

“Did the analysis come out?”

“Just finished.”

The researcher responsible for the research of this bacteria code-named MW1 was Wang Zhouping, a former academician of the Hua Academy of Sciences, and a researcher at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy.

Because of his dissatisfaction with the bureaucracy of his superiors, as well as reasons such as his family and children’s education, he finally decided to come to Xin as a skilled immigrant. After he immigrated to Xin, he quickly passed the interview and received an offer from Celestial Trade. After six months of astronaut training, he became an honorable researcher on an outer planetary survey ship.

When Wang Zhouping saw the analysis report of the MW1 bacteria, his eyes flashed with excitement.

Before he came to Xin, his research was focused on new energy storage. Precisely because of this, he knew better than anyone else what the existence of this material meant. If natural gas could be stored in solid form, not only would the cost of transportation and storage be significantly reduced, most importantly, the application of natural gas could be further expanded!

Because the main components of this material were similar to alkane compounds, and the color was black, the researchers unanimously decided to call it “black alkane”.

“Using methane and ethane as reactants, the metabolite black alkane is generated through a biochemical reaction, and the reaction exotherms the heat needed to sustain life activities of the bacteria. The black alkane itself has a strong thermal insulation effect and fills the rock mass that the loose and porous bacteria is attached to. No wonder this kind of bacteria can survive in an environment with an average temperature of minus 180 degrees Celsius!”

1

“Have you seen this chemical formula before?” The head of the laboratory, Hou Jun, asked.

“Never, but theoretically it is possible,” Wang Zhouping replied.

Hou Jun nodded, looked at the researcher in the isolation room, and said.

“Test the heat of combustion.”

“Okay.”

The thumb-sized lumps of black alkane, or the metabolite of the MW1 bacteria, were put into a sealed container by the researcher in chemical protective clothing. Under Hou Jun’s instructions, the researchers in the isolation room conducted a total of three sets of experiments to determine the reaction of black alkane at different temperatures under three conditions: in an oxygen-free, or anaerobic environment, in a normal environment, and in an oxygen-rich, or aerobic environment.

The results of the experiment were stunning.

It not only shocked the researchers present, but even the people who watched the experiment hundreds of millions of kilometers away could not help but utter voices of amazement.

“In an aerobic environment, it can be directly used as fuel. The black alkane’s rate of decomposition at 150 degrees Celsius and in an anaerobic environment reaches critical value like methane, and will quickly decompose into a mixture of methane and ethane… Try using the light!” Wang Zhoping suddenly thought of something, as he grabbed the microphone eagerly and explained, “In an anaerobic environment!”

The researcher in the isolation room turned his head and glanced at Hou Jun through the glass. After the latter nodded, he turned around and placed another piece of black alkane into the tank, then emptied the oxygen and filled it with inert gas, and started to irradiate the container.

An incredible scene appeared.

Based on the parameters that jumped on the instrument, the air composition inside the tank slowly changed. Black ethane slowly decomposed under the light to generate methane and ethane. When Hou Jun saw this, there was a trace of excitement and realization in his pupils.

Everything made sense now.

It explained why this kind of bacteria that could not go through photosynthesis was able to thrive on the cold Himalia. This kind of bacteria “absorbed” methane and ethane gas, then generated black alkane metabolites, and the exothermic reaction maintained energy consumption. The light from the Sun and Jupiter then broke the black alkane into methane and ethane.

Using black alkane as a medium, the MW1 bacteria formed a closed energy cycle on this dead moon.

…

A silver jet landed on the runway of Celestial City hundreds of millions of kilometers away. As the dome slowly closed, the hatch to the plane opened, and Jiang Chen, under the escort of a group of soldiers, took the train to the headquarters of the Space Department.

At the Space Command Center, Jiang Chen met Kelvin.

As soon as they met, Kelvin said to him in excitement.

“Black alkane! We have discovered a new kind of energy!”

“Black alkane?”

“It’s this!” Kelvin tapped twice on the holographic screen, and a slowly spinning, black solid holographic image appeared in front of the two, “Metabolite of MW1 bacteria.”

“In other words, this thing is the feces of the MW1 bacteria?”

“That is certainly one way to interpret it,” Kelvin laughed awkwardly, cleared his throat, then continued, “Currently, the Himalia outpost is testing its physical properties. Judging from the data just returned, this kind of black alkane can be decomposed naturally under sunlight and can also be ignited directly in an oxygen environment. It can be both used as a storage method of natural gas or directly used as fossil fuel. Its combustion efficiency is very high, and it hardly produces harmful gases.”

After Jiang Chen listened to Kelvin’s description, he immediately realized the value of this material.

It was not difficult to mine Himalia’s gas resources. Unlike the natural gas fields, oil fields, and some coal fields on Earth that contained a lot of impurities and required refining, the liquid methane and ethane mixture flowing on Himalia’s surface was extremely pure. It was no exaggeration to say that if someone threw a tank into the lake with its valve open, after they pick up the tank, the tank would be filled with high-quality liquified natural gas.

The only costs were storage and transportation.

The process of storing liquefied gas in cryogenic gas storage tanks and transporting it to the Mars colony, the Moon colony, or even Earth hundreds of millions of kilometers away by Seagull-class transport ships seemed feasible. The idea didn’t sound too difficult and could be achieved from a technical perspective, but the cost associated was not negligible.

The new topic for Celestial Trade Energy Research Institute was to store more liquefied nature gas per unit volume in cryogenic tanks. The best scenario was to develop a hydrocarbon that could exist as a solid form at room temperature to replace liquefied methane and ethane for transportation.

And the discovery of black alkane undoubtedly solved this problem!

Chapter 1513: The Uncertainties in March

Chapter 1513: The Uncertainties in March

Unexpectedly, the technical barrier that prevented the development of Himalia’s natural gas resources was solved on Himalia.

Jiang Chen could foresee an energy revolution taking place in the distant Himalia, which started with this black solid.

It was undeniable that the Global Grid has to some extent suppressed the demand for fossil fuel. However, Jiang Chen was aware that even if the Earth entered full electrification, fossil fuel would not be eliminated. Long ago, Celestial Trade developed a petroleum crop to replace some imports of oil and natural gas, however, Xin did not stop importing energy.

Jiang Chen was certain about one thing based on the discovery of the black alkane.

After the completion of the Himalia colony, countless natural gas companies would go bankrupt. This kind of situation was similar to the Global Grid’s impact on the local power stations. The neighboring countries of Xin such as Malaysia, New Guinea, and Nippon had almost completely demolished their power stations.

However, this time, he planned to take a gentler approach. He would allow those powerful gas mining companies to participate in the development of Himalia while they controlled and supported several Xin energy companies, then they would bring the old energy giants onboard. Celestial Trade would only be responsible for transportation and black alkane synthesis, while Future Heavy Industries would sell the extraction equipment. Even if Celestial Trade ate all the meat, it was important to leave some soup for others.

As for those companies without the capability or means to compete in the development of outer space resources, it was better for them to close as early as possible.

“As long as the bacteria are genetically modified to a certain extent, and then artificially propagated on a large scale, the methane and ethane on Himalia can be biochemically reacted to synthesize into black alkane before being transported! For the same volume, now we can transport twice as much as before!” Kelvin said in excitement.

“I think so too.” Jiang Chen nodded, and after he deliberated for a moment, he continued “Let the researcher at the outpost scan the DNA of the MW1 bacteria into the database, and let the Special Projects Institute participate in the research.”

“I’ll go assign the task!” Kelvin nodded and walked out immediately.

As he looked at the holographic image that floated above the touchpad, he slowly rotated the “black alkane” like it was black gold.

A curvature formed by the corner of his lips as they turned up.

He was very much looking forward to the Space Colonization Summit a week later, and the reaction on the faces of the representatives of the member states and the members of the Earth Defense Alliance Committee.

He believed that their expressions would be quite exciting.

…

In the past few days when Jiang Chen returned to Xin, many major events happened internationally.

First from the continent of North America.

Trump, who had managed to stabilize the political landscape, nominated new cabinet members. Mike Pence’s cabinet team was almost completely replaced, and the entire Rainbow Mansion was completely changed. For example, Admiral Brian, who brought back Trump, was appointed as the new Secretary of Defense.

Well, after all, it was Admiral Brian who piloted the Mustang fighter to bring Trump back from the small island. The friendship between the two was certainly something the UA people could understand. However, to the surprise of almost everyone, the choice of secretary of state was actually Joseph Kennedy!

A Democrat?!

Not only that, he was once his opponent.

In the election campaign, Mr. Kennedy was at an advantage at one point. If it were not for Morgan and Rockefeller’s intervention behind the scene, it would be hard to say whether Trump could be the president-elect in the end.

The nomination of the opposition party as a cabinet member was not without precedent. For example, Clinton and Obama both chose Republicans as the Secretary of Defense. However, it was out of the consideration of balance and compromise when the Republican Party occupied a dominant position in Congress.

Now that the Republican Party still controlled Congress, Trump’s choice of Joseph Kennedy as his cabinet member was confusing. Not to mention, it was the important Secretary of State.

What surprised outsiders, even more, was that such a list was passed in Congress…

Regardless of whether most of the people in the UA were willing to accept this outcome or not, a regime with the intention to please the victorious country was established in North America. Typically, there would definitely be opposition, and indeed many protests took place in many states. However, in fact, most of the people chose silence.

The depreciation of the dollar led to the return of overseas factories back into the UA, and the return of manufacturing created employment. The start of the millennial project —the Bering Strait Tunnel was equivalent to a disguised relief for work, just like the Tennessee River Basin Project during Roosevelt’s time, countless jobs were created.

Although the scars left by the orbital airborne brigade in Capital, Nouveau York, P City… still made many people feel pain, what puzzled everyone was that most people’s lives were not impacted. Although Celestial Trade took away their gold, the Xin New dollar issued because of the gold returned into the hands in the form of loans.

The most ironic situation was that the unemployment problem that neither party could solve was fixed because of a defeat. The historians were troubled by how they should correctly evaluate President Pence’s “contributions.”

On the other side, in the far Middle East, the succession war in the Saudi Royal Family welcomed a new turning point.

Prince Yerif that more than 10,000 Madagascar mercenaries marched into Riyadh and defeated the 50,000-strong army gathered in the suburbs. In less than three days, the siege of Riyadh ended. Surrounded by foreign mercenaries, Yerif stepped into the palace he dreamed of as a victor.

This result was not unexpected.

After all, the strength of the Saudi army was obvious to all. Based on the historical past that the allied force composed of ten nations could be defeated by the Hussein armed forces, and it was on the condition that they possessed absolute air superiority. The force actually did a good job based on the fact that they managed to resist for over half a month.

Under the desperate protection of personal guards, the young Suliman fled to Dubai, where he sought political asylum. The former Minister of Intelligence Itami was captured by soldiers loyal to Prince Yerif while he was fleeing to Sudan, and then sent to Jeddah Port Prison.

Crowded by his supporters, Yerif quickly ascended to the throne.

While Yerif purged the conservatives who supported the young Suliman in the name of the War of Succession to the throne and made room for his supporters, he also actively established diplomatic relations with Xin with the purpose to join the Earth Defense Alliance as a secondary member.

Yerif was indeed very lucky, because not only did he gain the support of Celestial Trade, but also because he ended the war over succession before April.

Although it would take two months to approve the alliance member, Saudi Arabia, as a country that expressed intent, received a report on the “prospects and feasibility of the colonization of Himalia”, which was reissued by Celestial Trade, and an Invitation letter to the Space Colonization Summit.

Just like that, time soon reached the end of March.

As the focal point for everyone, the Space Colonization Summit focused on the expedition of Himalia finally took place in Celestial City…

Chapter 1514: Space Colonization Summit

Chapter 1514: Space Colonization Summit

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

On April 1st, Celestial City got livelier. Especially for the people living at this space station as there were many new faces here. The Space Colonization Summit was not only a high-level diplomatic summit between countries, but it was also a grand event open to the whole society.

On top of this giant ring, in the corner opposite of the headquarters of the Space Department, a space station the size of more than ten acres was filled with equipment designed by Future Heavy Industries for the Mars colony. The equipment included large colonial cabins to ecological farm modules and even the “Digging Warrior” that broke through the dome of Cheyenne Mountain. Celestial Trade fully demonstrated to all walks of life how the colonists of Xin survived on the desolate Mars, fought the Devil Worms, and used their knowledge to expand the boundary of civilization in the boundless space.

It was the first time the equipment used in the Mars colony was made available to the public. Prior to this event, the details of the colony had been kept confidential. Only astronauts that registered with the intent for immigration, as well as signed a confidentiality agreement, obtained this information.

And now, the public could not only take photos at close range, but they could also go into the actual equipment with a guide and experience the power of technology in the equipment already eliminated by the colony.

The significance of this event was to eliminate most people’s negative attitude towards space immigration as well as the fear of being far away from home. It was simply not enough to rely on space enthusiasts and people who could not survive on Earth because of various reasons. In order to export the population to further places, Celestial Trade had to ignite the enthusiasm for space immigration to the general public.

From Future Technology’s Galaxy Edge to the current Space Colonization Summit, all the efforts were dedicated to this one goal.

Two foreigners in suits and bow ties walked down in the aisle of the summit. They examined the spacecrafts around them as they discussed. From this summit, they sensed opportunities, and this exhibition opened to the public undoubtedly was a good opportunity to learn about the investment opportunity.

“I heard that Celestial Trade intends to rename the Mars colony Heavenly Palace City?”

“Well, I’ve heard about it a long time ago. Celestial Trade submitted a written application to Xin National Assembly last month, and it is now in the final approval stage. Once the approval is passed, Heavenly Palace City will become the fourth municipality of Xin.”

The first three municipalities were Penglai City, Celestial City, and Lunar City. Once Heavenly Palace City was incorporated into Xin, Xin would become the first country with its territory expanded to Mars.

Penglai had grown from a small city with a population of less than 100,000 to its size today.

Many people had felt regretful and frustrated by the fact that they missed the opportunity.

“It’s enviable… I don’t know when we will see the day our national flag flies high on the land hundreds of millions of kilometers away.” After a tourist with a backpack put down the phone he used to take photos with, he said emotionally while he stared at the wall of photos inside the colonial cabin.

The colonial cabin on display was the first colonization unit Celestial Trade deployed on Mars, and its primary purpose was to collect data for Mars colonization. The unit was now replaced by new units, and after it was transported onto the synchronous orbit by the space elevator, it was brought by the Seagull-class to Celestial City.

The photos on the wall recorded the development of the Mars colony. From the earliest solitary colonial unit to the now Heavenly Palace City filled with steel factories, the Xin flag that floated above the colony made countless foreign tourists envious.

Unlike investors, tourists like them paid more attention to the colony’s technology and the culture behind it.

…

“Welcome to Celestial City, Mr. Wu, we meet again.”

Jiang Chen looked at Wu Changfeng, who walked towards him, and smiled. Then, he extended his right hand.

“Long time no see, have you been busy recently?” Wu Changfeng shook Jiang Chen’s hands and smiled before he let go.

“Have you had a chance to look at the exhibition?”

“I just got off the plane and I haven’t had the time yet.”

“Really? I recommend you take a look when you have some free time.” Jiang Chen smiled, then suddenly he lowered his voice, “Are you still taking that telomere extension agent?”

Wu Changfeng was slightly surprised, then he nodded.

“Yes…”

Without saying anything more, Jiang Chen patted him on the shoulder and then walked in the direction of the Saudi Arabia delegation

Wu Changfeng looked at Jiang Chen’s back with a complicated expression, then he suddenly remembered the mission that important person had given him.

In fact, just now, for a brief second, he planned to probe for some information, but for some strange reason, just when Jiang Chen mentioned the DNA telomere extension agent, his position was shaken for two seconds.

“What’s wrong with me.”

As Wu Changfeng muttered to himself, he shook his head and left the strange feeling behind him, and then he walked to the Hua ambassador of Xin.

The fact Yerif would appear here certainly surprised Jiang Chen.

Because very few Muslims were willing to travel to Celestial City due to the lack of boundary between day and night, and occasionally the Sun would appear underneath them. This made worshipping extremely difficult, and Celestial City obviously would not stop the ring rotating as a counterweight for the sake of a small number of people.

The fact that the new king stood here, from a certain perspective, already stated his position. This king was going to be more enlightened compared to the previous kings, and future Saudi Arabia was going to gradually move from conservative to open under the leadership of this king.

The Arab world was about to welcome a secular reform.

It was difficult to say whether this was a blessing or a curse for Saudi Arabia.

But Jiang Chen was certain that it would benefit the entire world.

“Welcome.”

“Haha, my old friend, it’s strange for you to say that,” Yerif laughed, opened his arms, and hugged Jiang Chen, “Although my minister suggested that I appoint someone who can represent my opinion to come, I decided to pay a visit in person to express my gratitude to you!”

“You’re the one acting strange.” Jiang Chen laughed, “An open and peaceful Middle East is a blessing for the world. May Saudi Arabia, under your leadership, become more prosperous.”

“Using an old Chinese saying, borrow your auspicious words.” Yerif laughed, but then suddenly lowered his voice, and squinted his eyes at Jiang Chen, “By the way, do you still sell the S1 kinetic skeleton? I plan to purchase a batch.”

“Ahem, can we talk about this after the summit is over?” Jiang Chen facepalmed.

“You’re right,” Yerif nodded, then smiled and introduced the Middle Eastern man who stood behind him to Jiang Chen, “Allow me to introduce, this is Nasser, the chairman of Aramco!”

“My pleasure.” Nasser nodded humbly to Jiang Chen, extended his right hand, and smiled with friendliness, “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen. I’ve heard about you a long time ago.”

As the purse of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, Aramco was also the world’s largest oil and gas production company and the sixth-largest oil refiner. The company owned the world’s largest onshore and offshore oil fields, and its business covered Saudi Arabia and the entire world.

Judging from Yerif’s attitude towards him, Nasser certainly was an important individual in the country.

And the reason for an energy giant to appear here was self-evident.

Jiang Chen could even assert that Nasser’s mood was definitely not as calm as he showed on the surface. It was not only Saudi Arabia’s Aramco who received an invitation, but also Exxon Mobil, Gazprom, PetroHua, as well as Dutch Shell, who was invited despite not being part of the Earth Defense Alliance.

3

Himalia’s vast natural gas resources would reshuffle the previous stable energy landscape.

Chapter 1515: The Plan To Colonize

Chapter 1515: The Plan To Colonize

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

Jiang Chen could tell where his allies were and where the resistances were by just a simple glance during this summit.

Yes, it could only be described by the word resistance.

By now, no one could stop Celestial Trade from doing anything, and no one could change the decision made by Jiang Chen. However, the opinions of these energy giants could still become obstacles that prevent Celestial Trade from pushing forward the Himalia colonization plan. The obstacles were created as these energy giants not only represent themselves but also the interests of the nation behind them.

Energy was crucial.

Whether it was from a military or economic perspective, it was inseparable from energy. And once something was associated with the first two, it naturally was attached with political significance.

On top of the podium, Jiang Chen looked at the representatives of various countries who sat under the stage.

He had an inexplicable illusion in his mind that he had become the “emperor” of this planet and the people in front of him awaited his orders. They were all just “nobles” in the empire.

NATO, which lost the UA, only existed in name. There were no rivals for Celestial Trade on this planet. Even if all countries united, they would only have a mere 20% chance of winning, and not a percent more. Sooner or later, the “dissidents” in Europe would unite under the flag of Earth Defense Alliance, and these “nobles” with military might would be removed, and eventually hand in their power.

Now, the “emperor” summoned his “nobles” and asked them about their perspective on the New World. In fact, the opinions of the “nobles” were no longer important. The important element was how to divide the interest to maximize the benefits.

The ultimate goal of Celestial Trade was to eliminate all borders and upgrade the Earth Defense Alliance to the Earth Federation. So as the “emperor”, or the “president” of the Earth Federation, he not only had to consider the interests of Celestial Trade, but also the interests of the entire Earth Federation as a whole.

After all, they still had to face a deadly enemy – a colonization ship from 20.5 light-years away. It was a battle that concerned the survival of humanity.

First, Kelvin explained to everyone the prospects and necessity of colonizing Himalia. There was no need to elaborate on the rich resources there. The information was not provided by Celestial Trade, but other countries also analyzed through different technical means.

Soon it came to the question period.

The first question naturally came from the experts in the space field.

A technical consultant from the Russian Space Agency (RKA), stood up.

“The most critical question is how can we survive without water?”

“This is a great question. In fact, before the summit, we put the most emphasis on this question as well.” Jiang Chen smiled slightly and continued, “According to the observations at the outposts we deployed on Himalia, Europa has abundant water resources. The surface is covered by glaciers, and there is a flowing ocean under the ice. This can not only solve the water problem, but also the heat problem. If there is a liquid ocean under the ice cover, then it must mean that Europa has intense submarine volcanic activity.”

“We are reconsidering the colonization plan, with the focus of constructing the living and industrial areas on Europa. Himalia will be used as our resource extraction base to produce black alkane and transport it back to Earth or other colonies.”

On the holographic screen, light blue particles flashed.

At the location where Jiang Chen’s finger had crossed, the three-dimensional images of Jupiter and all its moons were presented in front of everyone. Europa would produce water, liquefied hydrogen, oxygen, and would rely on geothermal energy to generate electricity, while Himalia would produce energy. Two interlaced blue lines connected the two planets, and ultimately connected Earth and Mars hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

A simple trade route was already planned by Celestial Trade. Celestial Trade’s starships would be responsible for interplanetary transportation. As for the transportation within the planetary system, with the strength of the current major member states, there was no issue even if they had to do it independently.

From this conceptual map, everyone could see the broad prospects of colonizing Jupiter’s moons.

However, as the old problems were solved, new problems emerged.

“Black alkane? What is that?”

A technical consultant from Royal Dutch Shell stood up and spoke.

When Jiang Chen heard this, he smiled lightly.

“This is what we are about to get into.”

As he said this, he tapped a few times on the touchpad and a cylindrical platform slowly rose. In the center of the platform was a black crystal the size of a thumb, like obsidian, the surface was glass-like.

Under the capture of the high-resolution camera, everyone could clearly observe the black crystal the size of a thumb through the electronic screen mounted on the table.

Glass luster was a very obvious sign, commonly found in silicate minerals, especially in igneous rocks, and it was almost impossible to see in hydrocarbons.

Just when everyone thought this was probably a rock sample sent back from Himalia by Celestial Trade’s survey ship, Jiang Chen took out the lighter from his pocket.

Then he lit it.

Yes.

He just lit it.

Except for the politicians and diplomats who didn’t understand what happened and just stood there indifferently, almost all the technical consultants and the oil company bosses who knew a little about mineralogy were stunned.

Especially when they saw that cluster of flames ignite from the pitch-black crystals, a series of exclamations appeared one after another, and their tone was filled with disbelief.

“This is impossible!”

“Coal minerals? I heard that there is bituminous coal that can also produce glass luster…”

Some people even stood up eagerly and said.

“Is this the black alkane? Do we have the heat of combustion data? I need its heat of combustion data!”

Jiang Chen raised his hand, motioned the restless people in the audience to be quiet, and continued.

“The density is twice that of water, and the composition is a mixture of alkanes… In fact, with how much I have said now, many of you can roughly calculate its heat of combustion, and we have no intention of hiding this new substance.”

“We found a bacterium on Himalia, and temporarily named it MW1 by its serial number, and its metabolite is ‘black alkane’, a mixture of alkanes, which appears black. Its molecular structure undergoes a tight Z-fold, heating in an anaerobic environment can slowly decompose the material into methane and ethane…”

Jiang Chen smiled at the scene of the President of Gazprom, who gasped, Nasser from Aramco, who looked around restlessly, and the CEO of PetroHua who whispered with a senior diplomat behind him and then continued the presentation.

“I believe that everyone here today already knows what this means.”

“Yes, this will be an energy revolution.”

“Of course, the main purpose of our summit is not to promote this kind of alkane mixture that is easy to store, transport, and even use, but to tell you what kind of treasure is in front of us.”

“Now, I have taken out the treasure map, so what we will discuss next is how to dig this treasure,” Jiang Chen paused, looked at the faces that were all in deep thought, and smiled, “We have always believed that what you give is proportional to what you get in return.”

“People who are not interested can leave early.”

“But if you are interested, I promise you will not be disappointed.”

Chapter 1516: An Incisive View

Chapter 1516: An Incisive View

The meeting on the first day ended.

Everyone needed time to think and discuss internally. It was impossible to make a decision over a few hours of meeting on such an important matter.

Jiang Chen proposed a plan for colonizing Himalia to all participating member states.

The principle of the plan was that Celestial Trade would provide the equipment and solve the technical barriers while all the other countries would provide people and funding. Based on the contribution, the colonization index each country received was different, and this index also determined the “shares” held in the Himalia colony.

The major energy companies would participate in the development of Himalia resources as developers. They would purchase equipment from Future Heavy Industries, pay land taxes to the colony, as well as fees for oxygen, free water, and other necessities. The manufactured black alkane would be shipped back or sold to other countries based on internal policies.

Regardless, the transportation of the black alkane had to rely on the Seagull-class transport ships.

In any case, Celestial Trade was set to win on this plan.

As they walked down the corridor outside the conference room, Lu Wei asked Wu Changfeng.

“What do you think of Celestial Trade’s proposal?”

“Cunning.”

It was Wu Changfeng’s evaluation of Celestial Trade, or Jiang Chen himself.

“Oh? Why do you say that?” Lu Wei asked with a smile.

“Don’t you think we are like miners working for him?” Wu Changfeng grinned and looked at the President of PetroHua, who was walking not far away and was engaged in a passionate conversation with the foreign minister, and continued, “They found a gold mine, and then provided us with equipment, shelter, and even the railway to transport the ‘black gold’. Then he shouted to us to come, so we are going.”

Lu Wei took a second to process the analogy, then he laughed out.

“Your thought process is very novel, but it does make sense now that I think about it… But do you think our country will agree?”

“Of course. We will soon become the world’s largest energy importer. The natural gas resources on Himalia are dispensable for Russia, but they are too important for us.” Wu Changfeng smiled and walked towards the PetroHua boss not far away, then raised his chin and pointed at him. “Don’t you see how happy my guy is? Before colonizing Himalia, we are relying on Russian imports for natural gas, but after colonizing Himalia, we might even have natural gas left over to export.”

“Then do you think Russia will support Celestial Trade’s plan?”

“Why not?” Wu Changfeng shrugged. “Not only will they, but they will do everything they can to get more shares than us at tomorrow’s meeting, and then continue to secure their status as a major producer of natural gas. The importance of black alkane is much greater to them than to us.”

It was foreseeable that Gazprom and PetroHua would compete fiercely at the meeting tomorrow.

Lu Wei smiled, and chose not to continue on this topic, but after they walked forward for a while longer, he suddenly asked a question.

“What do you think about the task that the leader gave you?”

“Since you have asked me so many questions, do I get to ask you one?” Wu Changfeng chuckle, then turned his head to look at Lu Wei, “How about you answer this question first?”

Lu Wei smiled, pondered for a second, and continued.

“From my personal observation, the Earth Defense Alliance is transforming from a United Nations-like organization to a political union.”

Wu Changfeng raised his eyebrows.

“Oh? Why do you say that?”

“I thought you had noticed it,” Lu Wei said with a smile, “It not only has 50,000 standing force, but it also has its own fleet. Although there is only one Envoy-class, it is now the largest starship in the entire solar system. And now, it even has its own territory.”

Wu Changfeng’s eyes flashed with a hint of splendor.

In fact, he did start to notice these things Lu Wei said a long time ago.

“Why do you think Jiang Chen is devoting so many resources to the Earth Defense Alliance? Just to win over allies? Afraid to cause outrage because he has a monopoly? Think about it, who else is qualified to be their opponent now? I am afraid it is only the aliens from 20.5 light-years away,” Lu Wei said this sentence with the same smile, then after a pause, the smile on his face disappeared as he continued, “In fact, from your position and my position, we should be able to see clearer than outsiders.”

“What do you mean?” Wu Changfeng asked calmly and did not reveal his thoughts at this moment.

“Why ask me? Ask yourself. Where are you sitting?” Lu Wei said with a smile.

“Of course…”

Wu Changfeng subconsciously wanted to say the answer, but suddenly, a trace of realization appeared in his eyes.

“That’s it.”

He was a member of the Earth Defense Alliance Committee and based on the regulations of the Earth Defense Alliance Committee, all members served life-long terms. After he took the DNA telomere extension agent, his life span was far beyond that of ordinary people.

Once the Earth Federation is established…

This answer was perhaps hurtful.

But as far as his position was concerned, he would naturally side with the Earth Federation.

After Wu Changfeng stared at Lu Wei for a long time, his shoulders relaxed, and he smiled bitterly.

“When did it start?”

“Me? Maybe after I saw the Envoy-class starship,” Lu Wei continued while he stared into the starry universe outside the window, “I believe after seeing something like that, everyone will have the thought that the old age is over, and a new era is coming.”

“So, you decided to follow the trend?”

“Aren’t you the same?”

Lu Wei patted his colleague on the shoulder, then put his hands behind him, smiled, and walked away.

On the other side, PetroHua President Zhang Jianhua and Foreign Minister Zhou Yi were already on the train. Yesterday, the Hua Embassy in Xin had already booked rooms at a Celestial City hotel. They went straight to the conference center after they got off the G100 and were still adjusting to the time zone difference. Now, they could finally relax.

“Black alkane is an amazing technology.” Zhang Jianhua examined the black crystals the size of a thumb in his hand, then said with emotion, “If our country can introduce this technology, we can at least save hundreds of billions in annual expenditure on energy storage and transportation.”

Every participant received a piece of this black crystal when the meeting ended.

As Zhang Jianhua focused on the black alkane in his hand, the way he looked at it was just like the way someone looked at a piece of diamond. As the President of PetroHua, he knew better than anyone the economic value behind this piece of crystal.

Zhou Yi, who sat beside Zhang Jianhua, put down the phone in his hand and closed his eyes to rest. Just now, he made a phone call to the person above him and briefed him about the meeting, which included the conditions set by Celestial Trade, as well as what Hua could set to benefit from.

The intention from the above was very clear. Hua had to seize this historical opportunity, and the colonization of Himalia had to be completed. The bottom line was 25% of the shares, at any expenses. Zhou Yi even faintly heard some rumors that the leader above planned to establish Hua Space Trade Company, with 50 billion capital injected by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, to manage Hua’s assets in Himalia.

He had to think carefully on how to gain the most for his motherland with the least cost.

It was not only Hua making the phone calls, but the Russian foreign minister also spoke on the phone with the Kremlin. Exxon Mobil, with their headquarter on the other side of the globe, urgently convened a board meeting. Royal Dutch Shell used all its public relations power to put pressure on the Second House of the Dutch Parliament and demanded the Netherlands to apply for entry into the Earth Defense Alliance, with the minimum of showing their intent…

That distant moon had attracted the attention of too many people.

Tonight would be a restless night for many.

Chapter 1517: The Future of Heavenly Palace City

Chapter 1517: The Future of Heavenly Palace City

On the second day of the Space Colonization Summit, fireworks were set off over the Mars colony.

It was a special kind of firework, not made out of gunpowder, but created through the pride of Future Group, its holographic projection technology.

Now that Future Group had mastered holographic technology’s applications, it was possible to produce holographic image generating units into a string of spheres the size of glass beads. Then the beads were propelled into the air with electromagnetic artillery and the splendors of fireworks were projected in sequence.

The Mars colony had rehearsed countless times for this day.

No.

To be precise, it was called Heavenly Palace City now.

Just yesterday, the National Assembly of Xin formally approved the Mars colony application, and it became the fourth municipality in Xin after Lunar City. As the former governor of the Mars colony, Hong Zewei was also honored to become the mayor of Heavenly Palace City.

Like other municipalities, Heavenly Palace City abided by the constitution of Xin, and the mayor was directly appointed by Celestial Trade. Citizen approval rate and municipal performance indicators were used as the evaluation criteria for the mayor’s performance, and this also meant that Heavenly Palace City could no longer operate as a “bottomless pit”. Hong Zewei’s biggest challenge over the next four years was how to turn the city from loss to profit.

Fortunately, Celestial Trade Marine Corps’ military expenditures and costs for eliminating Devil Worms were not part of the cost associated with the municipality. Otherwise, the city would go bankrupt within two years.

“This is an opportunity, but also a challenge.”

“Future Bank will provide us with a low-interest loan of 50 billion Xin New dollars. Although it is not required of us to turn losses into profit immediately, our budget will no longer be unlimited from now on, and our decision-making will also experience the test of an open market.”

“I want to hear your opinions.”

In the conference hall of Heavenly Palace City, Hong Zewei convened the leadership team. Most of these people were the first colonists to arrive on Mars. Their professional fields covered all aspects and they possessed a wealth of production and management experience in the colony.

The first to speak was Lugani, director of the Heavenly Palace City Population Bureau, an Italian from Rome who used to be an architectural engineer. The colony’s oxygen and electricity transmission and distribution systems were his masterpieces.

“Next month, 2,000 immigrants will be arriving in Heavenly Palace City, and now we have only 620 living spaces left. It is not just the problem of living space, but also the supply of water, electricity, oxygen, space suits, and other wearable equipment. These must be prioritized and solved as soon as possible.”

“Is there any good solution?” Hong Zewei asked.

Hong Zewei considered this issue before the meeting began.

The cities on Mars and the cities on Earth were completely two extremes. On Mars, land was not expensive, but the house was. And the problem was not only limited to housing, but also food, air, freshwater, and electricity. These were all issues that must be carefully considered.

Before the city could intake these immigrants, the first task of Heavenly Palace City was to solve the settlement problem of these immigrants.

If the city had to expand its living units to accommodate more immigrants, it would require a project of 2 billion New Xin dollars. It was not that the city could not finance this project, but rather, all spending had to be carefully considered, since many areas required money, and every dollar had to be spent at the right place.

“Of course,” Lugani nodded, “In fact, the message from above is very clear, including the low-interest loans of 50 billion Xin New dollars. The Space Department hopes that we can solve the budget problem through the market, instead of blindly manufacturing and completing the task before, then ask for money once we reach the target.”

“The problem is still money. Should immigrants pay out of their pockets?” Director of the Finance Bureau Dimit shook his head, “I guess no one can afford it.”

“We can open tenders to the public and bring in international money to participate.” Lugani made a concise point.

Everyone’s eyes brightened and immediately understood what he meant.

In fact, it was not because they did not have the ability to think from this perspective. Many people, including the mayor Hong Zewei himself, still did not convert their way of thinking yet. After all, a few days ago, they were still using the budget from the Space Department, and today it suddenly became a loan from Future Bank. The senior management asked them to find a way to take care of their own profits and losses, but at this moment, they were still confused and lost.

“How should we do the bidding?” Hong Zewei looked at Lugani, “If we want others to build for us, we must at least let them see the potential for profitability.”

“They will see the potential of profitability. As long as we promise them, the facilities they invest in and build in Heavenly Palace City will enjoy permanent housing and land property rights. This way, there will so many people who are willing to build houses for us out of their own pockets, hire our engineering team, and buy steel, aluminum alloy, and graphene from our factories. Not only do we not have to pay a penny, but we can also even profit from this.”

As long as they introduced another legislation that all companies operating factories in Heavenly Palace City had to provide housing for their employees. At the same time, the next immigration wave would be set as a cut-off point, as the city would no longer provide free housing for new immigrants in the future, instead, it would be subsidized rent for five months during the unemployment period, then it would gradually transition the city’s real estate to marketization.

“Are there any obstacles to implementing the policy?” Dimit hesitated.

“I can assure you that there is absolutely no problem!” Lugani nodded and said with certainty, “In fact, it can be seen from the Space Colonization Summit that the senior executives’ message is very clear. They hope that more people will participate in the development of space resources and accelerate the progress of space colonization instead of letting us shoulder all the weight.”

“A lot of people want to devote themselves to the craze of space resource development, but only a very small number of people can enjoy the benefits of Himalia.”

“And now, we’re providing another option for international capital.”

Lugani’s view was supported by most officials, which included Hong Zewei, who still searched for a solution to the budget problem.

From this moment on, his thought process started to change slightly from the position of the governor of the colony to the role of mayor.

The problem was not only in housing but also in factories.

Heavenly Palace City did not need to participate in every steel plant and every mining station. As the mayor, he could just zone an area, and a countless amount of money would flow in, and subsequently, factories would pop up like bamboo shoots after the rain.

These savvy entrepreneurs would not only try their best to improve the productivity of the factory for them but also find where to sell their products. Compared with those “public” steel plants in Heavenly Palace City that only complete production targets, these entrepreneurs would be more profit-driven, and they would balance products and production capacity based on demand.

As for whether it was profitable to set up a factory on Mars?

The answer was obvious.

The iron ore was cheaper than sand here, and the low-gravity environment meant this place was inherently more suitable for industrial production than Earth. Even if the expensive labor costs were included, the cost of producing a ton of steel was less than half of that of steel plants on Earth. With the gradual expansion of production, this number could go even lower.

When the colony on Himalia becomes completed, this place would have cheaper chemical raw materials than Earth.

Without a doubt.

In the not-too-distant future, this place would become the industrial base of the entire solar system!

Chapter 1518: End of Summit

Chapter 1518: End of Summit

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

After three days of discussions, the Space Colonization Summit that attracted global attention finally came to an end.

Almost everyone around the world waited for the outcome of this meeting.

The thought of colonizing Himalia alone excited them.

People gathered in front of their TV, or sat in front of their computer, or grabbed onto their phone as they eagerly waited for the reporters that surrounded the entrance of the convention center. They were excited to find out what role their country would play in the space colonization boom.

In the lobby of a roadside restaurant, rig workers who had just finished their shift were eating. News around the space colonization happened to be playing on the TV in the lobby. A man with a shaved head took a sip of his alcohol, raised an eyebrow, and said while he looked at the reporter on the screen.

“Only a total of 50 candidates, why is there so little?”

“There are only 200 candidates in total, 50 is a lot. And don’t they send people by batch? I wonder who will get to go, haha.” The colleague who drank with him said while he laughed. He was quite proud that his country could be able to send astronauts to such a far place.

“That’s right, so far away from home, what’s the point to go up there.” The other person who sat next to him also sighed with emotion, but the focus of concern was completely different. Although he didn’t have an idea of the distance to Jupiter, he was right about ‘so far away’, “Hopefully they won’t make us go there.”

“Hey, come on, you won’t be able to go there if there is a chance. The eligibility requirement is at least an undergraduate degree, so you have to go to the Xin Astronaut Training Center for training. Even if you went, do you think you can learn to pilot a rocket?” Someone next to him mocked.

“Why can’t I learn it? Anyway, the official language over there is also Mandarin.” The man’s face was flushed as he argued back, “I know how to drill wells and collect gas, I may know more than those people know.”

“Haha, Old Wu, you’re definitely not exaggerating.”

There was a burst of joyous laughter at this table, and the topic quickly changed to the embarrassment Old Wu went through when he just came here.

On the other side, there was also a table full of guests, a man with glasses and dressed in a slightly more sophisticated manner watched the news while he ate. When the President of PetroHua was interviewed, he said in an emotional and excited state, with his face completely flushed, that PetroHua would invest 20 billion Xin New dollars, and that the company would build the gas wells all the way to Himalia. The statement almost made the man’s eyes bulge out.

“PetroHua is investing 20 billion Xin New dollars…My God, these guys cry poor every day, and they just spent so much money in one move.”

20 billion Xin New dollars was equivalent to 200 billion in local currency.

Most people probably only saw this much money on TV. The man clicked his tongue while he processed the shock in his head. What he didn’t know was that because of this 20 billion Xin New dollars investment, the stock price of PetroHua skyrocketed.

The news of expansion to Africa made many investors excited before, now the target was all the way to Jupiter. The elated gamblers couldn’t wait to push the stock price up to the Moon in order to vent their enthusiasm for investment.

On the other hand, in the far away Europe in the Western Hemisphere, people in Britain and France also closely followed the summit.

Countless pairs of eyes all focused on the screen with envy, suspicion, and even jealousy, but no matter what kind of feeling they had, once the summit ended, the start of the new era had nothing to do with them.

“A total of 176 billion Xin New dollars of investment, including the 50 billion Xin New dollars invested by the Future Bank, this time our colonization of Himalia has a sufficient budget. Based on the plan, we can first establish on 200-person colony in Europa to build water treatment stations, electrolysis stations, and other life-sustaining facilities. Once we can ensure that we can maintain the oxygen, freshwater, and food consumption of 1,000 people in the Jupiter planetary system, we will send a second batch of colonists to Himalia.”

At the headquarters of the Space Department, Kelvin reported to Jiang Chen on the summit on the second day after the summit ended.

Based on the contracts signed by Celestial Trade with other countries, the Himalia colonization plan would be launched immediately at the end of the month, and all investments would be ready within a month. If Himalia’s gas output could reach 500 million cubic meters per day within a year, the member states would make further investments in accordance with the agreement.

The daily output of 500 million cubic meters was almost half of Russia’s natural gas production. Although most countries were still skeptical about whether the gas production in Himalia could reach this figure, Jiang Chen was not concerned.

He read the gas reserves report from the Himalia outpost and it stated that with the exclusion of the black alkane mines in the rock formation on the surface, the hundreds of large and small natural gas lakes on the surface was at least hundreds of times larger than the proven reserves on Earth, and the figure was a conservative estimate.

As long as transportation and large-scale mining could be solved, even if the figure of 500 million cubic meters per day was doubled, it was still possible to achieve.

“The colonization plan can be executed based on this plan,” Jiang Chen hurriedly glanced at the document passed over, put it aside, then continued, “Has the cultivation problem been solved for the MW1 bacteria at the Special Projects Institute?”

“There is no issue with cultivating on Himalia, but it is difficult to cultivate on Earth,” Kelvin replied.

“Have you found the reason?” Jiang Chen asked.

“The structure of the MW1 bacteria is very unique. It is very resistant to cosmic radiation and low-pressure environments, but it has extremely harsh requirements for gravity conditions. If the coefficient of gravity exceeds 0.1g, the metabolic level of this bacteria will begin to decline exponentially. When the gravity coefficient reaches 0.8g, the metabolism of MW1 bacteria will stop. If we want to cultivate MW1 bacteria on Earth, we must improve its genotype, or build a base in the form of a space station in the gravity-free section of Celestial City.” Kelvin repeated to Jiang Chen the original words of the researchers of the Special Projects Institute.

From a cost perspective, the idea of cultivating MW1 bacteria on Earth seemed a bit unrealistic. But in fact, it did not impact the plan. After all, the gas produced by Himalia would naturally be converted into black alkane on Himalia.

Jiang Chen then asked Kelvin about the details of building a total of 20 astronaut training center branch schools in each member country and then asked him to leave.

After he checked his watch, it was already five o’clock in the afternoon.

Just when Jiang Chen planned to go to the cafeteria for dinner, and then rest for a while, the indicator light on his watch flickered.

He clicked on the holographic screen of the watch, and Lilith’s image appeared beside him.

“What’s the matter?” Jiang Chen looked at Lilith.

“Lin Lin asked me to bring you a message. The research task you gave her has already yielded results.”

Chapter 1519: Door

Chapter 1519: Door

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

No matter how many days and moons passed here, the sky always remained the same.

The dim sunlight passed through the gray-yellow radioactive dust and shed unhealthy rays down from above. The only difference was that there was now a dome that isolated Wanghai from the outside world. As long as the nuclear fusion battery exported from the modern world to the apocalypse was not interrupted, then the continuously operating Holy Shield system would continue to shield the city from zombies, mutants, X2 bacteria, and radiation dust.

As he lied on the bed, Jiang Chen took half a minute to adapt to the difference in time and space. He slowly sat up and looked out the window with a slightly complicated expression.

When he heard Lilith tell him that Lin Lin finally achieved results on the task he gave her, he immediately jumped up from his chair and rushed to the apron in Celestial City. The soldiers that followed him were on extreme alert, as they thought an emergency had happened.

In fact, nothing happened, it was just because he was too excited to hear of the news.

After he got off the aerospace plane in Coro City, Jiang Chen boarded the helicopter that was waiting for him and flew to Coconut Island. After he emptied the piled-up containers in the port, he shut himself up in the hut in the middle of the island, sent a message to Xia Shiyu and Ayesha separately as usual, and then travelled across the dimension to the apocalypse.

It was supposed to be an exciting moment.

However, when he laid on this familiar bed, the excitement and emotion in his mind were inexplicably diminished by indescribable anxiety and confusion.

A very realistic question was posed before Jiang Chen.

About the fate of the world.

Indeed, the fate of this world.

After he had inherited the legacy of Gaia civilization, the technological advantages of the apocalypse over the modern world had actually been wiped out long ago. Even if scientists in this world were ahead of the modern world in applications and scientific research thinking, this advantage was not obvious in front of the absolute disadvantage in numbers. Celestial Trade employed more than 200,000 scientific researchers in the modern world, and more than 100,000 people were engaged in the research and development of cutting-edge technology alone. In the apocalypse, the number was only two to three thousand.

If all the people around him, as well as the scientists of this world, could be immigrated to the modern world, and those advanced production lines could be taken away, then the purpose of this world to him seemed to disappear.

To put it simply, he had beat the game.

He had unlocked all the “trophies.” Even if Russia, Europe, South Asia, as well as Africa, which luckily survived the nuclear war, had more treasures worth searching for, it was no longer necessary for him.

After all, he was from that world.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon, and Sun Jiao and Xiaorou were probably still at the General’s Mansion. Naturally, Lin Lin waited for him anxiously at the Lin Institute, ready to tell him the great news. Before he went downstairs, he stopped by Yao Yao’s room.

The door was open, and the little girl sat there on her legs in the middle of a large number of electronic parts. The holographic computer was placed on her knees while she fiddled intently with something.

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile when he saw the serious Yao Yao, so he quietly walked in.

When the big hand was gently placed on the fluffy hair, the little girl was startled, her shoulders trembled, like a frightened little rabbit, and she almost threw the holographic computer on her lap away.

Jiang Chen immediately grabbed Yao Yao who had bounced off the ground and hurriedly said.

“Ahem, it’s me.”

“Ah, it’s Brother Jiang Chen.”

After she exclaimed in a low voice and realized that it was Jiang Chen, Yao Yao finally calmed her nerves.

The mist of excitement gradually floated in her eyes, and the thoughts overflowing in her heart flowed out with the reunion. The little girl plunged into his warm embrace and hugged her beloved person tightly. As she felt the gentle touch caress the top of her head, it took a while for her to free her blushed face from Jiang Chen’s embrace, just like a squirrel that ended its hibernation from the harsh winter.

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

He was too occupied in the past while, from the Columbia crisis to the Xin-UA War, he was busy to the point that he did not pay attention to this world at all.

“Sister Sun Jiao and the others are still at the General’s Mansion, do you need Yao Yao to call them back?” She said softly as her big eyes with long eyelashes blinked and she peeked at Jiang Chen from the comfort of his chest.

“No, it’s almost dinner time anyway.” Jiang Chen smiled, and said gently, “Wait for them to come back tonight and then we’ll surprise them.”

“Ah, it’s already this late,” Yao Yao didn’t notice that it was already pretty late, “I’m going to prepare dinner.”

Jiang Chen stroked the fluffy hair and smiled.

“Please.”

“Mhmm! It’s on me.”

Yao Yao snuck out from Jiang Chen’s arms and put on the pair of bunny slippers while she ran out the door. Her energetic look, and the blush on her face because of happiness made Jiang Chen smile.

Suddenly, his mood got a lot better.

After he left the mansion and went through the backyard, he headed to the Lin Institute.

As he followed a sister with an unknown number into the institute, Jiang Chen got on the elevator and came to an empty circular underground test site. Lin Lin stood in the center of the test site and directing her sisters to make the final adjustments to a “door-shaped” instrument.

Lin Lin’s eyes lit up when she saw Jiang Chen appear at the entrance of the elevator. She stuffed the tablet into Lin Yi’s hand and hopped over to him as if she was asking for rewards. Her yelling could be heard even from a far distance.

“I succeeded! Finally succeeded! Inter… Interdimensional travel for living things!”

She was so excited that she accidentally bit her tongue.

“Mhmm, congratulations.”

As he stared at the door with a light blue halo, there was heartfelt joy in his eyes.

He had waited too long for this day.

Now it was finally finished.

“The Gaia civilization’s research accomplishments on neutrinos are far beyond our imagination. Using the physical properties of neutrinos, as long as the door is opened in two worlds at the same time, a stable tunnel can be formed between the two worlds!”

While Lin Lin spoke, she pointed to the door placed in the corner of the room.

“…It is very troublesome to explain in detail. In short, as long as you take that door to the modern world, put in the antimatter energy block, press the switch! The passage from this world to your world can be opened!”

Jiang Chen, who didn’t understand anything about neutrinos, was unfamiliar about the specific principles behind the two doors. However, from Lin Lin’s description of the Gaia civilization, it seemed that she was inspired by the knowledge of the Gaia civilization.

As Jiang Chen listened to Lin Lin’s explanation and while he was excited, a crazy idea suddenly popped up in his mind.

What if… two doors opened in the same world?

Chapter 1520: Neutrino Tunnel

Chapter 1520: Neutrino Tunnel

“What if you construct two doors in the same world?” Jiang Chen asked the question in his mind while he examined the portal still being tested.

When Lin Lin heard his question, she thought for a second, then shook her head.

“I know what you are thinking, but… theoretically it’s impossible. It’s like holding a needle in your hand, it’s impossible to make two holes on the same side of the same sheet of paper,” Lin Lin shook her head and said, “A needle that pierced through the paper can only have two ‘holes’ on the opposite sides of the paper. It is the same principle for the neutrino channel.”

“But you haven’t experimented this yet, have you?” Jiang Chen asked.

Lin Lin looked at the door that was undergoing final adjustment, then turned around to look at Jiang Chen before she let out a helpless sigh.

“If you don’t believe me, let’s try it.”

Because Jiang Chen was not convinced, Lin Lin planned to show him.

Soon, under the command of Lin Lin, her sisters completed the final debugging of the portal.

Two portals that emitted neutrino waves to the center at the same frequency were placed at both ends of the experimental site.

After she took the tablet terminal from Lin Yi, Lin Lin stood in front of the command platform and connected the tablet to the command platform with a data cable.

Jiang Chen’s palms began to sweat as he stood on the side and nervously watched this experiment.

Although there was no basis, if his conjecture was established, then this discovery would definitely have great significance. If people and materials on Earth could be transported to the Moon, Mars, or even the distant Kuiper Belt through just a door, the thought only made him ecstatic.

“This is a very sophisticated technology. The frequency of the neutrino in the center of the portal will be used as a dimension parameter to guide the material passing through the door. Only when the frequency is identical can a stable channel form between the two worlds.”

“So, just like what I said to you, it is impossible to open two doors in the same world. The door will open as expected, but there will be no passage between this door and that door. Because all positions in this world have the same dimension parameter, I will use this word to describe the difference in coordinates between different worlds for now. You will know soon that I did not lie to you.”

While Lin Lin spoke, she gently slid her fingers on the tablet then adjusted the energy output frequency from the bottom to the maximum.

“The antimatter energy output is stable, and Portal 1 is opening.”

“The neutrino beam is releasing.”

Jiang Chen saw an eerie blue light that suddenly burst out from the dooron the left. Circles of translucent light particles were like ripples that converged from all sides to the center. The ripples that collided did not spread. Instead, as if they had disappeared into thin air or swallowed by non-existent cracks, they were annihilated in this world.

“Door One is fully activated.”

“The energy output environment is normal, the operating condition is stable, activating Door Two.”

“Received, Door Two is being activated.”

A sister not far away pressed a button on the touchpad.

The capacitor connected to the antimatter energy tank began to charge, and soon as the first door opened, faint blue light particles also began to cover the second door. However, the second door was drastically different compared to the first door, as the ripples did not spread from the door frame to the center, but rather released from the center outwards.

The blue mirror-like surface looked like a rock being thrown into a lake, and ripples appeared out from thin air and spread out from the center. At this time, Jiang Chen suddenly noticed that the frequency of the ripples of Door One and Door Two was identical.

When a circle of ripples disappeared in the center of Door One, a circle of ripples appeared in the center of Door Two.

Lin Lin turned around and raised her eyebrows while she looked at Jiang Chen.

The expression seemed to say, are you ready?

Jiang Chen did not mind the way Lin Lin looked at him, but rather, he stared at the poor intently.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed something strange. The poor, which was originally as flat as a mirror suddenly started to twist, and cracks formed in the middle.

“Door Two is…alarm, the neutrino oscillation frequency is abnormal.”

“Energy output is reduced…”

As Lin Lin listened to the report from her sisters, she was obviously taken aback.

This situation had obviously exceeded her expectations, and she muttered in a quiet voice.

“What’s going on… why did the door become like this.”

Jiang Chen frowned slightly and asked immediately.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, this has never happened in the calculations.” Lin Lin’s expression was a little flustered, and she suddenly turned around and gave Jiang Chen a fierce look. “It’s all your fault, all because of that bad idea!”

After she dropped this sentence, she also realized that she did not have time to hesitate. The speed of neutrinos being launched was becoming more and more uncoordinated, and irregular cracks began to appear in the middle.

“Immediately lower the neutrino emission frequency of Door Two!”

Lin Lin thought that as long as the frequency of the two doors was adjusted to the same, theoretically, the doors could return to stability.

“Received, it is being lowered…Warning, the neutrino output frequency is abnormal, and the frequency of Door Two is attenuated equally.

Now, Lin Lin panicked.

“What’s going on?!”

Jiang Chen looked at the increasingly unstable door and could not stop himself from asking the question; he felt chills down his spine.

“Will this thing explode?”

“Theoretically not…” Lin Lin said in a hesitant tone and a look of awkwardness, “but…this situation is obviously beyond theory.”

“Fu*k!”

Jiang Chen also started to panic; he didn’t want to risk his and Lin Lin’s life. Also, there was hundreds of grams of antimatter. If it really blew up, it could blow up the entire city.

“Hurry up and cut off the power!”

“OK—”

Lin Lin only managed to say half of “okay” before a dazzling white light instantly lit up between the two doors.

Jiang Chen subconsciously raised his hands, turned around, and covered his eyes. Lin Lin yelled out while she crouched on the ground and covered her head with the tablet. Her sisters just stood there calmly. Either because their reflex was half a beat too slow, or because it was too late to react.

When the light dissipated, and Jiang Chen realized that he hadn’t been torn to pieces by the explosion, he slowly moved his arms away and opened his eyes.

When he looked at the two doors, he was stunned.

A dim film, like soap bubbles blown by a child, outlined a transparent light path between the two doors. A series of speeding light particles outlined the trajectory of the space in the tunnel and extended from the first door to the second door.

It was just like a tunnel that actually exist!

“What is that…”

Jiang Chen patted the shivering shoulder that was beside him while he stared at the neutrino tunnel blankly. He tried to wake Lin Lin to answer his confusion. However, he was doomed to be disappointed, because everything that just happened was beyond the scope of Lin Lin’s comprehension.

When Lin Lin felt the temperature on her shoulder, he shivered, and then she slowly lowered the tablet that was on her head.

The moment she saw that tunnel, she was equally if not more shocked than Jiang Chen.

She muttered uncontrollably.

“How can it be…”

“What is this?”

Chapter 1521: The Stretched Time

Chapter 1521: The Stretched Time

The abnormal effects of the two doors completely changed Lin Lin’s understanding. The two doors in the same world did not form a tunnel that could cross the dimension, but on the contrary, it created a tunnel within the same dimension.

In order to prove the physical characteristics of this tunnel, Lin Lin tried to control the drone that carried a cage with a hamster and piloted the drone from Door 1 to Door 2, then from Door 2 to Door 1 again.

However, after several tries of the experiment, it did not prove the effect of this tunnel. It only proved that this neutrino tunnel did not have a negative impact on living organisms. The little hamster on the drone still bounced around, lively and energetic.

He took the hamster out from the cage and held it in his palm.

Perhaps it was frightened by the two black eyes, the hamster shrank into a ball and trembled in Jiang Chen’s hand.

Lin Lin stood there unwillingly and repeatedly performed various experiments on the two doors. She turned off the power, then turned it back on again.

However, the reality proved that this phenomenon was not accidental. No matter how many times she repeated the experiment, as long as the neutrino frequency between the two doors was identical, the ripples that moved to the middle opened outward, and diffused into a light cone made out of neutrino formed a tunnel between the two doors.

“For the time being, I’m not sure what effect this neutrino tunnel will have… The only thing that can be confirmed now is that the tunnel is harmless.” Lin Lin gave up in defeat and let out a sigh, then she shook her head, “I cannot verify the maximum distance between the two doors. I can only ask you to experiment in that world.”

With consideration to the curvature of the Earth, it was difficult to experiment with the influence of distance on the neutrino tunnel on Earth. It was only possible to find a sufficiently long and straight distance in the vast universe, as well as eliminate the intermediate medium’s interference with the experiment.

Lin Lin wanted to know the limit of this tunnel, as well as the formula between tunnel length, neutrino density, and input energy.

“Okay, I will let the Special Projects Research Institute handle this experiment,” Jiang Chen said casually while he played with the hamster in his hand, “By the way, do you think it has anything to do with time?”

The lab turned silent.

It was not only Lin Lin, but Lin Yi and Lin Lin’s other sisters all looked at him at the same time.

When he felt the gazes focused on him, he was slightly taken back and he subconsciously touched his face.

“Uh, is there something on my face?”

Lin Lin and Lin Yi both shook their heads and continued to stare at him.

“I just realized,” Lin Lin murmured, her eyes gradually bloomed with a hint of splendor, “You are simply a genius.”

“Lin Yi agrees with my sister’s point of view.” Lin Yi, who was beside her, also nodded quickly, like a chicken that pecked at rice, “You are absolutely a genius.”

“Put the stopwatch on the drone and start the experiment again.” Lin Lin looked at the sister controlling the drone and immediately ordered, “Record the time it takes the drone to pass through the tunnel, and test whether the time parameters decayed or increased.”

“Roger that.”

A stopwatch was hung on the chassis of the drone, and it once again appeared at the entrance to Door 1.

Lin Lin and her sister looked at each other, communicated through their connected neural network, and started the operation at the same time.

The two stopwatches were pressed at the same time, and simultaneously, the drone went into Door 1 and flew into Door 2 inside the tunnel. Jiang Chen silently counted to twenty, watched Lin Lin’s sister catch the drone at the other end, and then pressed the stopwatch at the same time as Lin Lin.

When the two stopwatches were put together, Jiang Chen and Lin Lin were both stunned and looked at each other.

The stopwatch on the drone showed 24 seconds, while the stopwatch in Lin Lin’s hand showed 23 seconds. Obviously, the two stopwatches were pressed at the same time, but the time experienced by the drone was one second longer than the outside world.

The two exchanged eye contact again, and both saw the shock in each other’s eyes.

Where did this extra second come from?

…

No matter where that second came from, at least it was not because of errors.

Later, Lin Lin repeated the experiment many times again and collected dozens of data points through the speed of the drone and the length of the tunnel. The final result showed that this phenomenon was not a coincidence. The matter moving with the direction of neutrino in the tunnel had indeed “traveled” through more time.

Although they did not invent the teleporting portal in sci-fi movies, this discovery was equally shocking.

In the neutrino tunnel, the material moving in the direction of the neutrino experienced more time than the outside world. And this also meant that the material moving in the neutrino tunnel moved faster than the outside world.

How should this phenomenon be interpreted?

It was actually easy to understand.

For the same distance, the material in the neutrino tunnel only experienced one second of outside time, but the material inside had already moved for 1.1 seconds. Although the material’s motion properties did not change, from the outside’s perspective, the distance the object passed per unit time increased, so the speed of the object relative to the outside world naturally became faster.

Celestial Trade could build two or more “portals” with this technology between the Earth and Mars, and then use the time-growth nature of the neutrino channel. The journey that would have taken a week to complete could perhaps be completed in three days (outside time), or even one day.

It was not yet possible to determine the specific formulas for movement speed and time growth, but according to the results of two repeated experiments, the relationship between time and speed in the neutrino tunnel was exactly the opposite of the conclusion in the special theory of relativity.

That was, the faster the speed in the neutrino tunnel, the greater the time-growth effect obtained. After the speed reached a threshold, the growth effect would also reach a threshold. Based on Lin Lin’s speculation, the threshold value could be the speed of neutrino or the speed of light.

“If this was before the war, my research results would definitely be recorded in history…” Lin Lin walked to Jiang Chen while she muttered to him, she felt like she was born in the wrong times.

However, Jiang Chen only glared at her and ignored her boastfulness.

It was not the first time she showed off.

With everything else not considered, without the Gaia civilization’s research data on neutrinos, could she think of this?

At this moment, Lin Lin asked abruptly.

“By the way, what are you going to do?”

“What am going to do?” Jiang Chen asked.

“Are you planning to take all of us from that world, or?” Lin Lin didn’t finish the second half of the sentence and just blinked at Jiang Chen.

Obviously, she was unsure about this question either.

After he thought for a moment, he responded.

“It depends on you.”

“It depends on… us?”

“If you are willing to go with me, then I will take you there,” Jiang Chen said with straightforwardness.

“What if I don’t want to go back?”

“Then I will visit often.”

“Hey! What do you mean, just this reaction? You’re not even going to persuade me?!” Lin Lin looked at Jiang Chen, dissatisfied, and punched him on the back in anger.

“Haha, there are endless puddings in that world. Whether you want mango flavor or strawberry flavor, there will definitely be enough. Do I need to persuade you?” Jiang Chen laughed and walked through the gate of the research institute to the backyard of the mansion.

Chapter 1522: Her Thoughts

Chapter 1522: Her Thoughts

When Jiang Chen and Lin Lin returned to the mansion, they happened to bump into Sun Jiao and Xiaorou, who also just came back.

Without any words, the pretty figure leaped into his arms.

Xiaorou, in a lavender dress, smiled with her lips closed while she looked at her older sister who hung onto Jiang Chen. It was a scene that she hadn’t seen for a long time, and her sister had certainly endured for a long time… since Jiang Chen returned back to the modern world.

During dinner, Yao Yao showed off her cooking skill and cooked a table full of delicious dishes.

After the whole family had a cheerful dinner together, Jiang Chen called Sun Jiao to the office.

“The technical problem of the interdimensional transport device has been solved… I mean transporting living things.”

Sun Jiao was slightly taken aback when she heard Jiang Chen’s words, then her pupils gradually became stained with a layer of excited mist.

She asked softly in a slightly trembling voice and an uncertain tone.

“Really?”

“It’s real.” Jiang Chen nodded.

The quiet atmosphere lingered for a long time in the room.

“I’m too excited, I… I don’t know what to say.” Sun Jiao gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, sniffed her nose, and smiled from the bottom of her heart.

“I want to take you to live there.” Jiang Chen looked out the window with his arm wrapped around the slender waist.

Outside the window was the dome that covered the entire Wanghai, even in the deep and dark night, there was a dim light. The high-rise buildings not far away were being lit up with colorful lights. Not long ago, NAC engineers repaired the nuclear power plant in the suburbs of Wanghai, and power was restored in some urban areas.

The city had started to recover.

The fire of civilization, centered around this city, had started to radiate in all directions. He gained a lot from this world, and the order he brought to this world was worthy of the part he gained.

But there was some unwillingness in him to really give up this world.

It was the place he once fought. His statue stood tall in the square of Fishbone Base. Everyone praised his name, even in the distant south, the dictators that feared him were in awe of this name.

Chicken bones?

Probably was the best analogy to this.

Tasteless when chewed on, but a pity to just throw them away.

Sun Jiao gazed into Jiang Chen’s eyes and looked at the city reflected in his starry eyes. She gently placed her head against his shoulder, and whispered, “Do you not want to leave this place?”

Jiang Chen smiled softly.

“You are like a roundworm in my stomach.”

“Of course, after all, I’m the first woman in your life.” There was a hint of triumph in her tone that belonged to a woman that loved him dearly, as well as a hint of joy.

As he looked at the beautiful face, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile. Then, he gently stroke her soft and luscious hair.

At this moment, the door of the office was slightly opened.

When his gaze met with the bright pupils outside the door, he immediately guessed who the person was.

“Ahem, Xiaorou, just come in if you want to hear the conversation.” Jiang Chen coughed, “There is no need to stand at the door.”

Xiaorou playfully stuck out her tongue when she was caught and with her hands behind her back, she stepped into the office.

“I felt that the way you looked was a bit off today, so I was a little worried… so I came to see.” Her finger twirled with her hair while she looked at Jiang Chen, slightly embarrassed. But her eyes, as cunning as a little fox, rolled, then focused back on her older sister and smiled, “But it seems that Xiaorou’s worry seems to be unnecessary.”

“It just so happens that you are here, so I’ll let you know too.” Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao exchanged eye contact, then continued, “The technical problem of interdimensional travel with people has been solved. I plan to take your sister to that world and of course you… I will ask for your opinion. If you want to stay… we will come back to see you often.”

“You know my choice, do you still need to ask such a question?” She stared at Jiang Chen with her bright eyes and with her lips closed, she smiled.

In response to the bright gaze, Jiang Chen said softly.

“…thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” Compared to her usual mischievous smile, Xiaorou’s smile was charmingly bright. “It should be me that is saying thanks. You saved me. If you’re going to take my sister and leave me here, I won’t forgive you.”

As Jiang Chen looked at Xiaorou blankly, he suddenly felt that her smile was so dazzling.

“The other question that’s bothering brother-in-law is actually very easy to solve.” With her finger gently pressed against her lower lip, Xiaorou smiled, “I can probably guess what brother-in-law is hesitating about.”

“Are you also a roundworm in my stomach?” Jiang Chen said helplessly.

Did I write all these things on my face?

“Of course, my sister and I share the same thought.” Xiaorou walked next to her sister, then hugged her from behind, and put her chin on her sister’s shoulder, “As long as you and your sister work harder to give birth to a healthy baby.”

…

The next morning, Jiang Chen rubbed his sleepy eyes and sat up from the bed. After he glanced at the two beautiful girls beside him, as well as the sweet smile on their faces, he couldn’t help but also smile at this scene.

He covered them under the blanket, got off the bed, put clothes on, and walked into the bathroom feeling a bit shaky.

Only in this world could he experience this feeling of being completely drained.

After he splashed cold water on his face, he rubbed his face vigorously, then shook his slightly dizzy brain. He finally felt a bit better.

“Speaking of which, I did agree with Lin Lin this morning to test interdimensional travel on living creatures… I wonder what time it is.”

As he muttered to himself, Jiang Chen looked in the mirror.

Just as he was about to do his hair, he suddenly froze in place.

Two smooth legs dangled off the edge of the toilet and pink underwear with a strawberry pattern was drooped around the ankles. Her cute face gradually turned to red when they exchanged eye contact.

Yao Yao quickly looked away like a frightened deer and sat there silently while she blushed. Her plan seemed to be ignoring what just happened. Just as Jiang Chen was about to leave the washroom, he suddenly heard Lin Lin’s voice.

“Yao Yao, are you done…”

“Ah, I…” Yao Yao blushed and couldn’t finish her sentence in as she panicked.

“Well, I don’t care, I’m just going to wash my face and then go… Heehee, I’ve seen everything I should see anyway, don’t be shy, I’m coming in.”

Jiang Chen really wanted to question when she saw everything that she should see, but obviously now was not the right time.

The half-closed door was pushed open. When Yao Yao saw Jiang Chen in the washroom, as well as Yao Yao with her underwear around her ankles, Yao Yao’s face flushed.

“Pervert!”

Lin Lin exclaimed and without giving Jiang Chen a chance to explain, she ran away.

Chapter 1523: The Final Experiment

Chapter 1523: The Final Experiment

At first, when Jiang Chen saw Lin Lin blush and run away, his first reaction was to chase after her to explain that it was not she thought, he had just woke up and felt a bit dizzy, plus the fact that Yao Yao did not close the door properly, and then she ran in like that… Umm, to see the rather explicit scene.

But soon, Jiang Chen came back to his senses.

Why should I explain?

After he thought about this, he immediately gave up the idea to catch up to Lin Lin, took a towel to wipe his face, then gave Yao Yao a smile and left the washroom without any guilt.

Funny.

You’ve seen everything you should have seen, me too.

When he recalled the last time he showered with Yao Yao, he felt there was a warm liquid in his nose.

It had to be the fact that he didn’t eat breakfast!

Jiang Chen then went to the kitchen to grab some food before he headed to the Lin Institute.

Sure enough, Lin Lin fled here. After she saw Jiang Chen, she made a grimace at him without saying much. After she snorted, she walked to the elevator.

Based on what they had agreed on, today was going to be the day they conduct interdimensional travel for living things

First, Jiang Chen took the portal that had been configured and traveled to the modern world, then with the help of Lilith, they completed the installation of the door with Lin Lin’s instructions

At dinner last night, Jiang Chen sent a text message to Lilith and asked her to wait for him at Coconut Island the next morning. If he took consideration of the time difference, she was probably already waiting by now.

After he placed the door and related components into the storage dimension, he went back to the modern world.

When he reappeared in the warehouse on Coconut Island, as he expected, Lilith had waited for a long time.

“Assemble these, right?” As Lilith watched Jiang Chen place the circular door, as well as the packaged components from the storage dimension to the ground, she said without any expression while she sat on a box of canned food and swung her legs.

“Yes, the instructions have been uploaded to your server.” Jiang Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead after he had finally finished, “I will hand over the control authority of the engineering robots in the warehouse. Since I can’t understand the manual anyway, I won’t mess around with it.”

“A very wise decision.”

Lilith, who sat on the box of canned food, closed her eyes.

The four engineering robots in the corner of the warehouse slowly stood up, the sliding wheels on their feet started to rotate as they moved to the parts. For advanced artificial intelligence, it was extremely simple to simultaneously operate four robots at the same time.

Soon, with the close cooperation of four engineering robots, Door 2 was reassembled. As Lilith, who jumped from the cardboard box, stepped forward and pressed the power button, layers of ripples emerged from the center of the portal and spread towards the door frame. The ripples formed a curtain made out of blue light.

“This is the neutrino tunnel?”

Surprised to see the mirror surfaced composed of gleaming blue light particles, Lilith moved her hand closer, but when she touched the mirror surface, she felt like she touched an invisible wall.

“The tunnel is one-way, Door 2 is equivalent to an exit.”

While he spoke, he turned on the holographic screen and activated the interdimensional communication chip.

Soon, Lin Lin, who held the tablet terminal, appeared on the other side of the screen, and behind her was the activated Door 1. Circles of light blue ripples rushed to the center of the portal and were swallowed into the invisible gap.

“Door 2 is stable, what about your side?” Lin Lin asked.

“This side is okay too. The coordinate parameters have been sent to you.” Jiang Chen made an okay gesture and then pointed to his watch.

Lin Lin clicked the email on the tablet, carefully checked the parameters, confirmed that there were no issues, then gestured to Lin Yi.

Soon, a drone with a hamster cage hanging from the bottom flew towards the door.

Under the tense gazes of everyone, the drone and the cage disappeared into the light curtain formed of neutrinos. Lin Lin hurriedly looked at Door 2 on the holographic screen, and as the blue light erupted, a drone dashed out from the light…

In an instant, excited cheers rang around the lab.

“We did it! WE DID IT!”

Lin Lin waved her arms in excitement and almost threw her tablet away. Then she hugged her sister Lin Yi tightly.

When she saw the lively hamster on the holographic screen, her tensed mind could finally relax.

There was nothing wrong with her formula.

Although when she saw the path of light yesterday, she wondered if she made an error in a parameter.

…

The door reversed its direction and Jiang Chen took the hamster back to the apocalypse.

The hamster who was dragged back and forth between dimensions was completely confused by the situation, he just allowed Lin Lin’s sisters to play with him. As a hamster that experienced the ebbs and flows of the world, he no longer felt odd with all the strange things that have happened to him.

While Lin Lin’s sisters checked the physical condition of the hamster, Lin Lin did several repeated experiments on the door. She not only tested a hamster, but also a monkey. She even used a mutant and other species with stronger life signals as samples for the experiment.

The final result was unexpectedly perfect.

The results proved that the neutrino tunnel did not have an impact on the health of living things. In order to eliminate the possibility of one in ten thousand, Lin Lin also started an experiment with humans under Jiang Chen’s instruction.

The participants in the experiment were soldiers in the General’s Guard.

These people were absolutely loyal fighters. Their loyalty was absolute. They would keep the experiment a secret regardless of what they encounter. However, to be on the safe side, Jiang Chen carefully inspected the contents of the warehouse to eliminate the possibility of anything that revealed the timeline.

After the preparations were complete, the human subjects quickly came to the site.

“Yang Guangrui, the fourth unit of General’s Guards, reporting for duty!”

A young man in his twenties, around 1.7 meters tall, with his back straightened stood here. At this moment, he proudly stood here while he saluted to Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen nodded, then looked at the brave young man with approval.

“Although it has been tested with other organisms, and we have reached a completely safe conclusion, it is the first time we are conducting the experiment with a human, and there are risks. Before the experiment starts, I must inform you of this.”

“Please rest assured, General, I am mentally prepared!”

Although your courage is commendable, there is no need to look like you’re about to die the next second.

Jiang Chen muttered in his mind, nodded to Lin Lin next to him, and started the final experiment.

Chapter 1524: Your World

Chapter 1524: Your World

“Is this…your world?”

Sun Jiao looked out the window blankly and the word astonishment was written all of her face.

The blue sky and seagulls were intertwined into a picture scroll, giant coconuts grew on the coconut trees, and behind the golden beach was the endless ocean.

The waves were white and so were the clouds. There were no bloodthirsty mutants here, nor zombies that lurked around for the perfect opportunity. Everything here was full of life, without the slightest trace of the withered yellow. For Sun Jiao, who was born in a fallout shelter, everything here resembled heaven.

Living in such a world made people envious.

Sun Jiao murmured softly.

“Tell me, this is all of your world…”

“On the contrary, this is only a corner of the world. There is another world beyond the blue sky. Our colonies have expanded to Himalia and are moving to further places. All hidden dangers have been eliminated by us before they happened. This is a new era and the tragedy that happened in that world will not happen again here.”

As Jiang Chen said this, he smiled, walked to the door, and gently opened it.

“Come with me, I will take you to see my world.”

One meter of sunlight passed through the door, and the salty sea breeze blew right against her face. With the feeling of warmth that caressed her hair, her eyes were filled with hope and fascination as she walked towards the beach.

After she kicked away her shoes and her feet stepped onto the soft sand, she ran to the beach in excitement.

However, when one of her feet stepped into the water, she hesitated again and took a step back, looked back at Jiang Chen, and asked in a quiet voice

“Here… there are really no mutants, right?”

The nests of mud crabs were most likely to appear in shallow water. As a veteran lone traveler, it was her instinct to stay away from the sea.

Jiang Chen couldn’t stop himself and laughed when he saw how cautious Sun Jiao looked. While he chuckled, “I promise, there is no such thing. At most, you will run into sharks.”

The purpose of mentioning sharks was just to scare her. There were no sharks in the water near Coconut Island. Even if sharks approached this area, they were forced away by ultrasound on the submersible drones patrolling in the deep water.

“Then I can rest assured,” Sun Jiao patted her chest and a sincere smile appeared on her face, “If it’s just sharks, I’m not afraid.”

She was indeed a warrior from the apocalypse.

After he failed to imagine the scene where she tore apart a shark with her hands. He shook his head and stopped picturing it in his mind.

As he watched Sun Jiao giggle inside the waves, he suddenly remembered something and reminded her.

“By the way, if you want to play at the beach, you have to pay attention to one more thing.”

Sun Jiao stopped playing in the water, flipped her wet hair, then looked seriously at Jiang Chen while she waited for him to finish.

“There is no radioactive dust here, so the ultraviolet rays will be much stronger than the apocalypse,” Jiang Chen continued and smiled, “If you don’t want to get sunburned, you’d better put some sunscreen on your body. ”

Sun Jiao burst out laughing, rolled her eyes charmingly, and turned around.

“I want you to help me put it on.”

…

Probably this time yesterday, his guard was blindfolded throughout the entire process and cooperated with Lin Lin to complete the final experiment on the door. After a day of clinical analysis and questioning the participant, the conclusions reached finally made Jiang Chen and Lin Lin smile from the bottom of their heart.

“There is no feeling, the only uncomfortable thing is that the temperature suddenly increased by a bit, and the air suddenly became a little fresher,” the guard named Yang Guangrui had a regretful expression on his face.

Originally, he thought that he would perform some dangerous and glorious task on behalf of the General, but he did not expect the mission was just to enter and exit a luminous door while blindfolded. Then he took blood tests and laid down in the scanning cabin for a comprehensive examination. In the end, he was inexplicably awarded a battle medal and praised by the general.

“???”

In short, when he came out of the Lin Institute, the guard was full of questions and confusion.

Then, Jiang Chen couldn’t wait to tell the girls the good news, and now, the originally empty and deserted beach was filled with liveliness and chatters.

“WOAH~! THE OCEAN!”

Lin Lin, with a swimming ring wrapped around her, wore a swimsuit that did not look attractive yet and ran to the beach in excitement.

“Sister, slow down, we already agreed that we must maintain a proper image in this world,” Xiaorou, who wore a lavender swimsuit, walked forward gracefully with her arms folded in front of her chest, she followed her sister with a smile. “I’ve read it in the book. People in ancient times prefer the quiet and elegant type.”

“HUH? Is that true?”

Sun Jiao, who often appeared heroic, started to panic at this moment. She suddenly slowed down and decided not to chase after Lin Lin, and looked to Jiang Chen somewhat unconfidently.

Jiang Chen wanted to mock what kind of ancient novel Xiaorou read, but after he thought about the fact that the timelines were completely different, he gave up on the idea.

“Are you not going to swim?”

“That… it’s too difficult for Yao Yao.” Yao Yao smiled weakly, hugged her knees, and sat under the umbrella. “The iced watermelon juice is also delicious. Yao Yao will just sit here.”

Because they stayed at home all year-round, if Sun Jiao and the others did not get enough UV exposure, then Yao Yao was too pale to the point that people were concerned about her health. This level of sunlight had an “instant kill” effect on those who stayed at home all day, so it was better to adapt slowly.

“You will need to get more sunlight in the future,” Jiang Chen said with a smile while he rubbed Yao Yao’s fluffy hair.

“Hmm…I will try my best.” Yao Yao mumbled while she sucked on the watermelon juice.

Lilith next to her had her arms folded in front of her while she stood there without an expression and observed the situation. Of all the people here, she was the only one who is not afraid of the UV. But considering that the chip overheating could cause potential problems, she decided to stay under the umbrella.

Lilith asked a question abruptly.

“Can water make people excited?”

“It’s not water that makes people excited,” He smiled and watched Xiarou, who was tackled to the ground by her sister that managed to read her trick. Xiaorou started to giggle and begged for mercy as Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes and explained, “It’s the sea.”

“Is there any difference between the two?”

Lilith tilted her head, which indicated that she could not understand the pun in Jiang Chen’s language.

“I thought you could understand.”

“Even for advanced artificial intelligence, I need to learn it before I can understand it,” Lilith said seriously, “So, I hope you can tell me.”

“What does water mean to you?” Jiang Chen asked back.

“It means trouble,” Lilith replied without thinking. “It would be inconvenient to get wet.”

“This is the difference between man and machine. The first element of human behavior is never efficiency or even profit.” Jiang Chen laughed, took off his shirt and exposed his muscles, and looked at Yao Yao, who blushed. Then he looked back at Lilith, “You’ll learn slowly, you still have a lot of time.”

After he left Lilith, who stood motionlessly and deep in thought, he walked towards the beach.

Chapter 1525: Stellar System Highway Network

Chapter 1525: Stellar System Highway Network

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

In the modern world.

Under the command of the Celestial Trade Space Command Center, Stingray C-1s were ejected one by one at the launch port into the boundless starry universe and flew towards the area tens of kilometers away.

It was a giant ring that just “parked” there. It remained relatively static with the Earth. It moved around the Earth and rotated around the Sun.

The ring was so small, so minuscule, that it was easy to miss without closer examination.

But from a closer perspective, the ring looked massive, massive to the point that the Seagull-class transport was just like a goldfish in a net bag, and the Stingray C-1s that moved around it were just like mosquitos around a street lamp.

It was a construction site.

The blue electric sparks connected together and illuminated the space, with hundreds of Stingrays C-1 simultaneously working together and the steel skeletons were welded together to form the outline of the giant circular portal.

Based on Celestial Trade’s plan for the “Stellar System Highway Network”, a total of four sets of star portals would be deployed between the Earth-Moon system and Mars. Each set would include two portals, with one portal for each direction, parallel to each other. Two of the sets would move with the Earth-Moon system and Mars, while the other two sets would move in the region between Earth and Mars to act as “satellites” that orbit around the Sun in the solar system.

The neutrino emission frequency of these star portals was lower, in contrast, the emission intensity was much higher in order to extend the neutrino channel to farther places while it avoided interference with the portal between the modern world and the apocalypse.

A Holy Shield module would be installed on each star portal to defend against asteroid impact from multiple angles.

In the conservative estimation, once the neutrino tunnel began to operate, the time to travel between Earth and Heavenly Palace City would be shortened by at least 50%. Based on the prospect of space engine technology, this time would continue to shorten. Because of the principle of time expansion in the neutrino tunnel, the faster the speed, the more time saved.

Not far away, a Seagull-class transport ship, with the blessings of the people of all countries, slowly sailed away from the port of Celestial City.

In addition to the five hundred crew members, two hundred colonists were also on the ship. They carried the future of Earth civilization to the unknown and barren land, and they would explore more territories for the civilization.

The destination was Europa.

The fabled planet covered by glaciers.

“What’s there?”

“Star Portal.” The man with wrinkles on his face watched the ring outside the floor-to-ceiling window, and there was relief and fascination in his eyes, “Stellar System Highway Network.”

He was the governor of the Himalia colony and his name was Peng Wei. He was a native of Xin and was selected by votes through Earth Defense Alliance. Although Hua and Russia both wanted this position, they considered that only Celestial Trade had the talent pool in this area, so they decided to not compete in the end.

Next to the man was a slightly younger man named Yu Dongyang, an astronaut from Hua. He was also a leader of the Hua colony in the Himalia Project. Based on the different policies of each country, the functions of the leaders were also slightly different. For example, this man’s role was more similar to a political commissar.

After Yu Dongyang heard such exciting news, he looked a little surprised, “Is it okay to tell me this kind of information?”

“No worries,” Peng Wei shrugged and said in a relaxed tone, “Anyway, we didn’t intend to hide it from the beginning. You only need to find the correct position to see it with a telescope.”

As a senior executive of Celestial Trade, Peng Wei was only aware of this plan. The technology of the star portal seemed to be related to the prehistoric technology unearthed on Mars. Of course, this information was confidential, so he did not speak more with Mr. Yu Dongyang.

…

“At 13:40, Xin time, the SS Columbus departed from the port of Celestial City and headed to Jupiter. The 500 crew members and 200 colonists on board made a final farewell to their relatives on Earth…”

The TV showed an image of the SS Columbus setting off.

The blue light arc flickered, and the starship that completed its acceleration phase left a single dot of blue that gradually merged into the universe. Jiang Chen sat beside the wooden table in front of the TV while Yao Yao and Xiaorou, in beautiful swimsuits, brought a delicious breakfast to the table.

Their beautiful and delicious appearance made Jiang Chen feel full already.

They were at a small wooden cabin on Coconut Island. In the past few days, they had lived there. There was a kitchen, bedrooms, washrooms in this cabin, and even an artificial hot spring made with stones in the backyard.

The cabin was built about a year ago for the girls.

Because from the beginning, Jiang Chen decided to use this small island as a node to connect the two worlds.

A week had passed since Sun Jiao and the girls came to this world.

In the past week, Jiang Chen mainly taught them some common sense about the world.

For example, killing was illegal, fighting was prohibited, intrusion was a crime, and everything had to be paid for with money. There were no predators and no cannibals here. Everyone here was mostly reasonable and did not resort to violence in a disagreement… If there was really a criminal, the police drone would be dispatched in ten seconds.

Most of the information was intended for Sun Jiao and Xiaorou.

Only those two were from the wasteland in the true sense.

Yao Yao and Lin Lin came from pre-war in different ways.

After he taught Sun Jiao and others basic knowledge, Jiang Chen also introduced them to things that everyone would know. For example, the countries in the world, things like phones and laptops that were mostly eliminated in the 22nd century.

TV was one of the channels used to obtain information.

There was also the Phantom helmet.

Now Sun Jiao could finally not play games on LAN. After she bugged and begged Jiang Chen for a long time, Jiang Chen finally agreed to migrate her account data to Godly Land. But after she discovered the more interesting Galaxy Edge, she immediately abandoned Godly Land that she was already bored of.

Breakfast was oatmeal, milk, and sandwiches stuffed with many things. It was very healthy.

“Oh~ what is that?!” When Sun Jiao saw the tower that extended down to Earth, and the huge ring that surrounded the tall tower, her eyes widened, then she put her face right up against the TV.

Lin Lin, while she bit on her spoon, cast a sideways look at Sun Jiao. She snorted, then said proudly.

“That’s a space elevator, idiot.”

Before the war, there were three space elevators in South Asia, near Somalia, and in South America. Lin Lin and Yao Yao were not unfamiliar with space elevators, because it was not a rare technology before the war.

Originally, Lin Lin planned to show off in front of Sun Jiao, but soon, under the suppression of the former’s unkind sight, the latter shrank her neck and raised her hand to surrender. When they swam yesterday, Sun Jiao and Xiaorou mischievously snatched her swimming ring and caused her to flutter in the water for a long time.

The thought still made Lin Lin scared.

The harmonious atmosphere around the table made the corner of his lips slightly bent upwards.

After they had breakfast, Jiang Chen gently put the spoon down, wiped his mouth, and pondered for a while before he said the words he had hesitated to say for a long time.

“Tomorrow, I plan to take you, uh… to get to know them.”

Chapter 1526: Eventually, Theyre Going To Meet

Chapter 1526: Eventually, They’re Going To Meet

When Jiang Chen said this, the room became quiet.

The atmosphere in the room turned a bit serious.

When he realized that everyone in the room looked at him nervously, he paused for a moment, then gently coughed.

“Uh, is there a problem?”

Sun Jiao’s expression was slightly embarrassed as her fingers twiddled with her bang. She said while she felt restless.

“I, I’m not ready yet.”

“Oh, oh… it’s the women of the big pervert in this world, right?” While Lin Lin nodded, she nonchalantly stuffed a piece of bread into her mouth, then abruptly said, “Pervert.”

Yao Yao didn’t speak, and instead, she buried her head lower. Her attention was no longer on the milk in the bowl, but she began to eavesdrop with her ears raised. She was so focused that she accidentally sent the milk into her nose and splashed it all over her face.

As for Lilith, she still sat there without an expression while she observed the room.

“Ayesha, right? If I remember correctly… and Xia Shiyu,” Xiaorou gently put down her utensil, she pressed her finger against her lower lip as she said thoughtfully, “Who should I choose? ”

Who to choose?

Jiang Chen looked confused.

He had a bad feeling…

…

Future Building, top floor office.

Just like her usual workdays, Xia Shiyu worked in Future Building.

“Ms. Xia, this is the Bering Strait project summary,” the white-collar lady in professional office clothes put a document in front of Xia Shiyu, “Sundax Group ordered 90,000 tons of graphene materials and one 1.2 million tons of anti-corrosion cement, and subsea construction equipment from us. Future Heavy Industries has made the necessary adjustment to its production capacity. The CEO hopes that you can complete the approval of this project as soon as possible. This is a deal worth 30 billion UA dollars…”

“I see, put it here for now,” Xia Shiyu said concisely.

“Okay.”

The office lady nodded, and after she put down the file, she left the room.

Xia Shiyu leaned back against the chair, then rubbed her head. As she flipped open the document, she picked up the steaming coffee with her left hand and took a sip.

Although the Bering Strait project was a symbol of the friendship between the UA and Russia after Trump visited Russia, this project was actually led by Jiang Chen who operated it behind the scene. It was precisely because of this that Xia Shiyu was extremely cautious about this project.

Future Group was like her and Jiang Chen’s child. She watched the company gradually grow from a tech company into the behemoth today.

For her, it was everything to her career.

After she carefully reviewed every word on the document, Xia Shiyu picked up the pen and signed her name at the bottom of the document. Then, as if she just unloaded a heavy burden, she exhaled deeply and leaned back into her chair.

Although it only took half an hour to review the document, she had multiple meetings last week over this project. And this document was modified countless times, especially after Celestial Trade suddenly announced “Stellar System Highway Network” some time ago, and Future Heavy Industries’ production capacity had to be prioritized to that project…

Fortunately, without any setbacks, the project document was finalized.

“Maybe I should give myself a vacation tomorrow, and get Ayesha to go shopping with me.”

Xia Shiyu put her arms up and stretched out while she planned in her head. The most troublesome project approval for the Bering Strait project was finally completed, and there were no important meetings in the next few days on her schedule.

It was a great choice to go shopping with Ayesha, and it was one of the few leisure activities Xia Shiyu did in her free time.

Ayesha’s strong sense of fashion was worthy to be Xia Shiyu’s master. In contrast, Xia Shiyu’s style was her weakness. Apart from some dresses in her closet, the rest were all professional attire; even her mom scolded her over this and said that she did not dress feminine enough and that was why she still couldn’t take down Jiang Chen yet…

Okay, mom.

Xia Shiyu really wanted to tell her mom that her daughter was already taken down by him. But because she didn’t know how to explain the relationship between herself and Jiang Chen, as well as the “agreement” with Ayesha and Natasha, she chose to conceal the information and left everything to time.

Now that she recalled it, it had been many years since that day.

Xia Shiyu’s thoughts started to diverge as her body began to relax.

She couldn’t remember how she changed her mindset, recognized Ayesha’s identity, and started to share Jiang Chen with her. However, she did remember that her mind was quite confused at that time but ultimately made that decision.

But now, she did not regret her decision.

She was surprisingly satisfied with her current life. Ayesha was as gentle as a little lamb, and never fought with her. And she had to admit that if it was just herself, it would be really difficult to satisfy a certain pervert…

After she thought of something unhealthy, Xia Shiyu suddenly blushed, and she shook her head quickly to get rid of the warm and fuzzy feeling and that smirking face from her head. She was usually very serious and never took a break during work hours. It was because of her attitude that all the employees respected her.

If someone saw her like this, then the image she managed for so long would be completely destroyed

Unfortunately, at this time, the phone started to ring.

Xia Shiyu hurriedly sat up from the chair, sorted out her slightly messy bangs, cleared her throat, restored her unsmiling appearance, and pressed the holographic screen, and spoke seriously.

“Hello?”

“Uh, it’s me.”

From the voice, it was Jiang Chen.

After all, he was the only one who could directly call into her office outside of her secretary. But Xia Shiyu felt something was a bit odd because Jiang Chen’s voice sounded weird.

Is there anything wrong?

“Didn’t you go back… there?” Xia Shiyu looked to her door, and she changed her words.

After all, she was in the office, and her secretary would come back soon to pick up her approved document. She had to be cautious to prevent unnecessary information from being heard by other people.

“Because of something, I came back early…” The expression on his face was a little awkward. He then turned around and stared at Xiaorou viciously as she was poking his back. Then he cleared his throat and finally made up his mind, “The thing I’ve been talking about has been completed.”

“Which thing?” Xia Shiyu had to think.

“That interdimensional travel… for people.”

Xia Shiyu was stunned.

The silence lasted for half a minute.

After she regained her clarity, she immediately spoke.

“Where are you now?”

“Coconut Island——”

“I’ll go see you!”

Before Jiang Chen could finish, Xia Shiyu hung up the phone and immediately left the room.

Chapter 1527: Shuraba

Chapter 1527: Shuraba

His actions would eventually come back to bite him.

Jiang Chen had been a firm believer in this for a long time.

He had imagined countless possibilities for his women from the two dimensions to meet each other, but never imagined that when this day really came, the atmosphere would be so solemn.

Yes, solemn.

The already not so spacious living room became crowded because of the arrival of Xia Shiyu, Natasha, and Ayesha. Ayesha and Natasha were obviously brought by Xia Shiyu. Originally, Jiang Chen’s plan was to take it one step at a time and start with the most difficult one, but he did not think Xia Shiyu would bring the other two along.

The living room was silent to the point where one could hear the sound of a needle drop to the ground.

In the end, it was Xia Shiyu, who had the most serious expression, that burst out laughing.

The tense atmosphere in the room instantly vanished.

Although Xiaorou appeared to be the calmest on the surface, Jiang Chen could still feel from her expression that she just breathed a sigh of relief in her mind… Of course, Lilith was the exception. She was as expressionless as ever from the very start, and quietly observed the situation.

“Are you Sun Jiao?” Xia Shiyu looked at Sun Jiao while her bright eyes blinked. She walked up and took her hands, “Can you show me your world?”

During the interdimensional communication, Xia Shiyu met Sun Jiao before.

“Of course.” Sun Jiao felt a bit overwhelmed by Xia Shiyu’s move. She was slightly embarrassed and subconsciously said, “But there is nothing good to see over there.”

Xia Shiyu shook her head and smiled, “I want to go and see the world he has struggled in.”

…

Obviously, it was a plan that they discussed on the way here; Xia Shiyu’s proposal was approved by Ayesha and Natasha. Of course, Sun Jiao and the others didn’t have any objections. The portal was in the warehouse on Coconut Island.

After they passed through the portal, Xia Shiyu and Natasha both simultaneously showed a considerable degree of shock. Ayesha was a little better, but she was also shaken.

Except for Xia Shiyu who had chatted with Sun Jiao over the video call, Ayesha and Lin Lin were probably most familiar with each other. Every time Jiang Chen returned to the modern world; it was Ayesha who reported the status quo to him.

Lin Lin took Ayesha’s hand and led the way to visit her lab.

Perhaps it was his illusion.

When the girls noticed that there were a group of girls in the lab, Jiang Chen felt that the way Xia Shiyu and Natasha looked at him behind his back was a little strange, and even Ayesha looked troubled.

Can’t they see that they are clones?

Jiang Chen wanted to defend himself.

Fortunately, Lin Lin explained the situation on his behalf…

After they visited the Lin Institute, the group walked through the backyard and into the elegantly decorated mansion —the “inheritance” left to her by Sun Jiao’s father, and it was also where Jiang Chen and Sun Jiao lived in this world.

When Natasha stepped on the red carpet, she looked around curiously, touched the things around while she explored the place.

“This is… where you went every time you disappeared?”

“Yes,” Jiang Chen glanced at Natasha. “Aren’t you surprised?”

“After living together for so long, I already guessed what I can guess. It’s just that I didn’t expect it to be something so mysterious like another world. I thought it was some kind of alien relics, similar to Area 51 or something,” Natasha rolled her eyes at Jiang Chen, then as if she had thought of something, she added, “By the way, if you don’t trust me, you can use the truth-telling serum…I didn’t take the genetic vaccine anyway, that thing is still effective on me.”

Because of her previous profession, Natasha was well aware of the concern around her, so she mentioned the topic openly. If Jiang Chen wanted to use the truth-telling serum on her and asked her if she leaked the secret to someone, she would not feel any discomfort.

It was also human nature to doubt her.

“I wouldn’t use that stuff on my own woman.” Jiang Chen smiled.

The unexpected answer made Natasha look at Jiang Chen in a daze.

After a while, she recovered from her dazedness and suddenly smiled with her lips closed.

“Can I interpret that as you are trying to improve my impression of you?”

“No, it’s just that that stuff will make your mind more sluggish.” Jiang Chen shook his head and said softly, “And I think you should already know your mother’s…well, her real cause of death. There is no reason for you to continue to serve the KGB.”

“Have you… also investigated?”

There was uncertainty in her eyes.

Natasha used the word also.

“There is no need to investigate at all,” Jiang Chen sighed softly and said, “It’s your choice that told me.”

She was never a timid person, otherwise, she would not have wandered through the war zone all year round to provide intelligence to the KGB.

After she returned from Eastern Europe, she chose to retire from the place her mother used to work. If it was because of getting married and feeling tired of the war, it was far from the reason that would make her leave. Her departure could only prove that her country did something to disappoint her.

This was also proved in the later investigation by Ghost Agents.

Ms. Nikolayeva was actually a double agent. As for the identity of his wife and the cause of death, Natasha’s father, the “Bearded General” was certainly aware of the situation, and he even personally discussed it.

Because it was Team Alpha who did it.

…

“I’m going to prepare lunch.”

As soon as they returned home, Yao Yao quietly said those words and quickly slipped into the kitchen.

The aura in the living room was tense, so tense that the little animal felt a bit suffocated. Ayesha smiled at the girl that rushed into the kitchen because cute things would always gain the friendliness of others, it just so happened that her cooking skills were also quite good, so Ayesha said “I will help her” before she also went into the kitchen.

Because Lin Lin was worried that Yao Yao would get bullied, Lin Lin also nervously followed. Of course, the digitalized human who knew nothing about cooking could probably only taste the dishes. Xiaorou’s eyes moved back and forth between her sister and Xia Shiyu, then she smiled, walked out of the living room wittily, and left the space for the two.

Lilith was zoning out.

Since four people left, and Jiang Chen took Natasha for a tour around the mansion, the once crowded living room suddenly became quiet.

Just when Sun Jiao was hesitant to say something to break the silence, Xia Shiyu spoke first.

“Thank you for taking care of him.”

“Eh? Actually…” Sun Jiao fiddled with her bangs quite awkwardly, “Actually, I should be the one that says thanks.”

Contrary to her previous tough image, although her combat power was superior to the point where Jiang Chen was not even comparable, for some strange reasons, she felt that in front of the woman that came from another world, her identity was less powerful. She always felt that if Jiang Chen had to make a choice between the two worlds, he would definitely choose Xia Shiyu’s side.

In her subconscious, she thought the modern world was better than her world, and she envied everything about that world like heaven. Fortunately, Ms. Xia Shiyu seemed to be very friendly, her voice was also very gentle, and her words were very comforting, which made her tense state start to go away.

“Not at all.” Xia Shiyu smiled with her lips closed together, “I often hear him talk about things in this world, such as how dangerous this place is, how difficult it is to survive against mutants and predators… Do you know what he talks about most?”

“What?” Sun Jiao asked instinctively.

“He told me that he used a can of Coke to buy the lady who tied him up,” one corner of Xia Shiyu’s lips was turned up because of her smile, “He said that it was the best deal he made in his life.”

Sun Jiao laughed out loud and even burst into tears.

Xia Shiyu also laughed along with her.

Because of a topic they shared, the relationship between the two suddenly became closer, and the previous restraint was also diluted with laughter. Sun Jiao also restored her original careless character and was much more talkative than before.

The two’s conversation naturally revolved around “that guy”, from the first adventure together in the wasteland to the later expedition to North America, and finally back to the origin of the topic – the moment when the two first met.

“It’s like what that guy would say, and fortunately he ran into me. If it were someone else—”

“So, thank you,” Xia Shiyu said sincerely, “If you made another choice, my destiny would also have gone to another ending.”

It was not a joke.

That night, if Jiang Chen hadn’t extended a helping hand to her, even if he just watched as a bystander, her fate would have been extremely miserable. Even today, she still felt gratitude about that day, and her heart was beating to the figure that pulled her back from the abyss.

Although her immature self used to be so unkind, but outside of work, she had always been a more emotional woman than rational.

“As I said, don’t thank me…” In response to that sincere gaze, Sun Jiao scratched her cheek as they turned red, “If you were not there to help him and he just relied on himself, surely there is no way to achieve what he has achieved today.”

Xia Shiyu read the sincerity in Sun Jiao’s eyes.

After she stared at her for a while, Xia Shiyu suddenly smiled.

“I can see that you love him very much.”

“Of course,” Sun Jiao said seriously, “This is the only thing I won’t lose to you.”

“I don’t want to make it hard for me… because for him, you are also an important person in his life,” Xia Shiyu used the word “also” cautiously, and after a pause, bit her lower lip and softly said, “we…”

The pretty face gradually turned red.

Although she had made up her mind, it was difficult for her to say such an embarrassing topic.

She finally stomped her feet, got up from the sofa, and in Sun Jiao’s surprised gaze, sat down next to her, and whispered the embarrassing words into her ear…

—

Shuraba, or literal translation “Scene of Bloodshed”. The term originated in Buddhism that described the battlefield where Śakra and Asura fought. It became a term used to describe complicated relationships in romance, such as a love triangle. (Or maybe a love circle or octagon in Jiang Chen’s case?)

Chapter 1528: Excluded from the Family Meeting

Chapter 1528: Excluded from the Family Meeting

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

There were bottles and cans placed around the kitchen, and the fridge was stuffed with different ingredients. From the packaging, most of them came from Xinglong Food Processing. Ayesha recognized this brand. It was a food processing plant fully controlled by Celestial Trade, with New Ocean Agricultural as its direct upstream. Most of the processed food was shipped to Coconut Island as military supplies.

“This is?”

Ayesha picked up a jar she had never seen before, then shook it curiously.

The jar contained crystal clear waxy yellow crystals in the jar that looked a lot like honey and a bit like jelly.

“Ah, that is the crab roe sauce from mud crabs, shipped from North America.”

North America?

It should be the North America of this world.

Ayesha nodded as she seemed to have understood, unscrewed the jar curiously, and smelled it

It smelled so good!

She closed the lid, then put the jar on the shelf.

“By the way, you are Yao Yao?”

“Mhmm, are you Ayesha?”

“Mhmm…also, do you want to make curry today?”

“Let’s eat hot pot, it’s more fun.”

“Then, then I will cut the meat.”

Yao Yao hurriedly walked to the fridge and the little hand that pulled on the door shook because of nervousness. Ayesha skillfully picked up a kitchen knife and sliced the washed carrots into thin slices. For a while, no one spoke aside except for the rhythmic “dong dong dong” sound of cut vegetables.

The conversation seemed to be interrupted, and the atmosphere was a little confusing inside.

At this time, the kitchen door was pushed open, and Lin Lin slid into the kitchen.

“Lin Lin? Why are you here?” Yao Yao’s eyes opened wide and looked at Lin Lin unexpectedly, because Lin Lin seldom came into the kitchen when she just started cooking, and she often came after she almost finished cooking.

“The aura in the living room is too tense!”

“Can digitalized humans also feel the aura?” Halfway through her sentence in a confused tone, Yao Yao recalled the feeling of being in the living room, then she added in a quiet voice. “Well… although I felt the same way too.”

One corner of Ayesha’s lips was curled up as she put the sliced carrot into a plastic bowl and tore open a packaging bag. She looked out the window at damaged high-rise buildings and asked casually, “This is Wanghai?”

“That’s right…Although it is the Wanghai from a century later.” Yao Yao looked out the window as her voice was filled with emotion.

Like Lin Lin, she came from the era before the war. She had witnessed the prosperity of the city and the greatness of Pan-Asia Cooperation.

“Do you like him?”

“Eh?” Yao Yao looked at Ayesha blankly, as she wondered why she suddenly asked this question.

Ayesha blinked while she looked at her sincerely.

“Of course…” Yao Yao lowered her head nervously, then finally plucked up the courage and smiled weakly, “No, to be precise… it’s love.”

She had never been a courageous girl, otherwise, she would not have hesitated until now.

“Mhmm, I see.”

That’s it?

A small question mark appeared over Yao Yao’s head. She tilted her head and looked at Ayesha, somewhat confused.

Later, the three didn’t discuss this topic again.

…

“Cheers!”

“Cheers~!”

The sound of glass clinking announced the beginning of the lunch.

Pink bubbles rolled on the flaming oil surface, and as the ingredients were poured in, the delicious smell of meat already permeated on the table. In addition to the big hot pot in the middle of the table, Yao Yao and Ayesha also cooked some of their best dishes. Lin Lin, who was salivating, was waiting for the perfect moment to eat.

Natasha took out the vodka that Jiang Chen treasured, and the sparks of confrontation already appeared in Sun Jiao’s eyes.

Only Xia Shiyu and Sun Xiaorou still ate elegantly.

As for Jiang Chen, his attention was not focused on the food from the very start. He had been quietly observing the expressions of Xia Shiyu and Sun Jiao. Originally, he thought that these two were the most troublesome to deal with, because their personalities were complete opposites, and there was even a big contrast in values.

However, to his surprise, the feeling they gave him… turned out to be pretty good?

The family finished their lunch in a lively atmosphere.

Just when Jiang Chen coughed to signal the start of the “family meeting,” Xia Shiyu and Sun Jiao looked at each other and stood up together.

“We have something to discuss. Please go and stay outside for a bit,” Sun Jiao said with a smirk.

“Mhmm, yes.” Xia Shiyu pushed up her glasses and agreed.

“Huh? Then… can I go there?” Jiang Chen asked in a quiet voice.

“No,” Sun Jiao glared at Jiang Chen as she started to blush, and said firmly, “Who knows if you will come back secretly.”

“I agree with my sister. As the only male member of the family, it is better for you to avoid the meeting reserved for girls,” Xiaorou also stood up and smiled, “So, brother-in-law, please come back later.”

Jiang Chen turned his attention to Ayesha for help. Unexpectedly, even Ayesha “betrayed” him, moved her gaze away subtly, and pretended not to see him.

The fact he was excluded from the family meeting made Jiang Chen feel hurt.

He reluctantly walked out of the mansion. Since he had had nothing to do, he strolled towards the General’s Mansion.

On the way to the General’s Mansion, he happened to bump into Han Junhua who was walking in that direction, so he said hello.

“Hey.”

Han Junhua looked back at Jiang Chen unexpectedly.

“Your expression tells me that you seem to be surprised to meet me here,” Jiang Chen said helplessly.

Okay, Jiang Chen had to admit that he has not been to General’s Mansion for a while…

But you can’t look at me this way, right?

“Well, it is indeed a bit unexpected,” Han Junhua nodded expressionlessly, and handed the document in her hands to Jiang Chen, “It just so happens that you are here. This document was originally intended to be handed over to Ms. Sun. Now it is the same delivering it to you.”

After Jiang Chen took the document, he briefly flipped through the pages and he looked intrigued.

“This is…”

“The United African Tribes sent us an envoy and brought gifts. They hope to develop diplomatic relations with us… Our intelligence is quite limited. We only know that they may be the only continent, apart from Arctic and Antarctica, that was spared from the nuclear war.”

“Why?”

“Because he brought a box of corn.”

“…”

Jiang Chen returned to the document to Han Junhua, coughed lightly, then said.

“Anyway, put this document on my desk first, and then let the envoy wait for me at Sixth Street. I have… a more important issue to solve.”

“Is there anything more important than this?” Han Junhua asked.

“Mhmm,” Jiang Chen sighed, “and it’s much more difficult.”

Chapter 1529: Reward?

Chapter 1529: Reward?

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rainystars

When Jiang Chen first started the harem, he never thought that he would be concerned over his chaotic prior relationships. After he realized the seriousness of the problem, it was almost too late.

Of course, there was no regret.

He had never regretted a certain decision he made.

Except…

Well, he just started to feel a little worried.

After he debated for a while, he finally turned the doorknob and walked into the mansion. The moment he stepped in, Xia Shiyu and Sun Xiaorou each grabbed one of his arms. They both smiled as they sat down on the sofa while he was ready to face the “inquiries” of the girls.

With how anxious Jiang Chen looked, Xia Shiyu, who sat on his left hand side, giggled.

“Aren’t you curious about what we talked about? You will know soon.”

“Uh… I suddenly don’t want to know,” Jiang Chen said.

“It’s okay, brother-in-law, it’s a good thing.” Xiaorou smiled.

“Can you not use the term brother-in-law? It always feels weird…” Xia Shiyu said.

“No, this is Xiaorou’s exclusive name.” Xiaorou still maintained the same smile.

“First of all,” the family meeting…or the signing of the unequal treaty began. Sun Jiao cleared her throat pretentiously, stared at Jiang Chen with piercing light in her eyes, and announced, “The first rule is that as a punishment for a certain individual’s scandalous lifestyle, you must be responsible to everyone. In other words, you must marry everyone. If you dare to abandon someone, we will ignore you for the rest of our life.”

This punishment was too serious…

But it did not matter for Jiang Chen, since he did not plan to leave anyone behind.

“No problem, that’s what I planned originally,” Jiang Chen said sincerely.

“Also, you’re not allowed to give us more sisters,” Xia Shiyu said as she folded her arms in front of her chest and then pushed her glasses up with her finger. “As for the women still outside… We have decided to forgive the past. In short, you’re not allowed to bring new women back. Even if there is an existing one, she must be approved by all of us. Otherwise… Hmph, you know.”

Jiang Chen felt that there were deeper meanings behind that smile.

He was very curious about what it was but decided not to ask.

“I promise you. Is there any more?” Jiang Chen quickly agreed.

“No.”

Sun Jiao clapped her hands and put down the one leg crossed over her leg while she looked at Jiang Chen with a smile.

No?

Jiang Chen took a moment to process this information.

He originally thought that with Sun Jiao’s bully character, plus the mischievous Xiaorou and Xia Shiyu who easily got jealous, it would be hard to get through the day. However, in the end, after they signed the “treaty”, it was over?

Although it was good for him, he had a bad feeling.

“Brother-in-law, you seem to be nervous?” Xiaorou smiled with her lips closed.

“Uh…am I?”

Sun Jiao said with a smirk while she looked at the anxious Jiang Chen.

“Given your good attitude, we’ve decided to give you a small reward.”

“Yes, tonight,” The slightly lowered lens that reflected light blocked the shyness in Xiao Shiyu’s eyes, as she said the sentence in an emotionless tone, “We…decided to let you sleep in the middle.”

“It’s pretty early now,” Xiaorou pressed her finger against her lower lip as her bright pupils became mixed with charm and seduction. “Let’s get started.”

“Yes, yes! I’ll go get some vodka to hype the atmosphere up,” Natasha said in excitement. Every time he would bully her until she was about to fall apart, now, it was finally time for her revenge.

Lin Lin and Yao Yao sat there and blushed. They didn’t say a single word during the entire conversation. Out of everyone here, they were the only inexperienced ones. Ayesha stood up in silence and closed the curtains in the living room. Lilith moved away from the sofa and left space for everyone.

After Jiang Chen heard Xia Shiyu, he was first overjoyed, but soon his expression changed.

Reward?

Hold on…

Is this really a reward???

“Wait, wait, it’s a bit too early now. At least wait until it gets dark…”

“It’s not early anymore, everyone is waiting in line,” Xiaorou sat on Jiang Chen’s lap and the “little devil” hiding in her was finally unleashed from Xiaorou’s mischievous smile, “Moreover, it’s time to teach our lovely Yao Yao some things, after all…she is already an adult.”

“I suddenly remembered that I ran into Han Junhua on the way to the General’s Mansion just now. It seems that there is some important document that I need to hurry up—”

“Don’t mention other women’s names, you can only look at me now.” Xiaorou pressed her finger gently against Jiang Chen’s lips and stopped him from finishing the sentence. Her other arm wrapped around his neck while her tongue lightly brushed against him, “Also if you dare to escape now, we will ignore you forever.”

I see…

The real Shuraba is here.

When his eyes met the mischievous smile, cold sweat oozed from Jiang Chen’s forehead.

It was the first time he experienced the so-called feeling of happiness and despair…

…

Inside the hotel at Sixth Street, the old man with skin as black as charcoal sat with one leg crossed over his other in dissatisfaction. The white woman that knelt behind him had a collar around her neck, her neckline was exposed, and her face was covered with a colorful patterned mask.

“I want to know when your general will be willing to see me.”

His finger tapped against the wooden armrest of the chair, and the big golden diamond ring clanged against the armrest. As he watched the sky gradually turn dark, the black man showed a flash of impatience. A NAC diplomat from the NAC Logistics Department sat across from him. Since most of the civil servants in the NAC military government were from military backgrounds, he sat there with his back straight. Next to the diplomat was an interpreter, who majored in French.

“The people in South Asia are much more straightforward than you,” the black envoy said impatiently, “Rice, right? If you don’t like corn, I can bring rice next time. One ton of rice in exchange for one slave, and we can double that for an engineer, and double that for an engineer in infrastructure.”

“NAC has abolished slavery, and we cannot agree to your request, but if you are still interested in other things, we may still be able to talk,” the diplomat took a look at the interpreter, slowed his sentence down, and continued, “And here, while food is precious…but it is not as precious as you think. If you can, we would prefer you to use diamonds, gold, ores, or other things that you think are valuable.”

After the black man heard the interpreter’s translation to French, he showed a look of disbelief. He had been to the south before, and the people there told him that no land could be used for agriculture.

“Don’t lie to me, I know you very well. Your land is no longer farmable. We have a large amount of fertile land and countless cattle and sheep. We need you to come to build roads and houses since you are very good at these, right? It’s fair to trade a ton of rice for a slave.”

The diplomat and the interpreter looked at each other and stood up.

“Your request exceeds my authority. I cannot provide you with a response, but I will convey your request to the general.”

“Let him come and talk to me in person,” the black man said impatiently, “my time is precious.”

The diplomat nodded slightly, then left with the interpreter.

Chapter 1530: Chiefs of Africa

Chapter 1530: Chiefs of Africa

Until the 22nd century, this continent had been the target of economic colonization by different countries, and once ushered in a brief period of prosperity. After the 22nd century, space mining became the norm, and the enthusiasm for Africa plummeted.

Resources were no longer the advantage of Africa. Space elevators brought endless industrial raw materials to major economies. The moon had become a new battlefield for major political alliances. The rare earth and helium-3 energy markets were quickly reshuffled followed by the establishment of the first colony on the moon. The entire continent of Africa seemed to have been forgotten, and completely abandoned by international investment. All that remained was a shell, large slums, and unlit cities that formed a stark contrast.

The black brothers who did not work very hard obviously failed to prepare for this day.

With the withdrawal of major mining and oil giants from Africa, this continent entered an unprecedented depression. The debt crisis caused African governments to go bankrupt. War, hunger, and disease became the new normal on this continent. Just like in the African savannah, natural selection proceeded for the people huddled in the slums who struggled in poverty as they lived through the cycles of suffering from coups and short-lived dictators.

Only when humanitarian supplies arrived did they get a chance to breathe.

The situation was slightly changed in 2150. The global economic crisis arrived, and the situation could not get worse in Africa. People seemed to move their attention back to here, although their eyes were full of absent-mindedness.

And the real turning point was 2171.

With the outbreak of the Third World War, this continent, which had almost declined to the atomic age, unexpectedly became the only survivor of this nuclear war.

In 2174, after the Third World War ended, the world government was established, and many people began to prepare for their escape plans. At that time, the world government prepared to bring in the Africans, but unfortunately, there were many tribal chiefs in Africa, and there was no suitable spokesperson that represented the continent.

Until the launch of the colonialization ships in 2176, the entire African continent was excluded from the sight of the international community. However, to the surprise of everyone, after the end of the war in 2174, Africa welcomed a new dawn.

From Moscow to Paris, every city was in ruins, and there was not an inch of undamaged land.

A large number of European refugees crossed the Mediterranean and poured into Africa and brought with them technology and knowledge not available here.

Only then did the Africans realize that the world they had longed for had turned into ruins, and the people they had envied, at this moment, looked here with envy.

Apart from the arms reserves that were world-class on this continent, everything else was so backward.

However, it was precisely because of this that the black people did not once again become slaves to Europeans or other outsiders as they once did. Instead, the black people with weapons put their muzzles against the heads of the European refugees and tied collars around their necks.

It was impossible to expect them to farm for a living. Even white people thought it was politically incorrect for black people to help white people, let alone the black people themselves?

The fact was before the war, many backward regions in Africa had regressed back to the tribal chieftain system.

And most of these tribes agreed with slavery.

This situation was particularly common in North Africa. Although some countries south of the Sahara still maintained characteristics of a civilized society, the North African tribes became more powerful after they accepted a large number of refugees or slaves from Europe.

After a powerful chief came to power, a new African Union was formed.

Just like the name, the United African Tribes implemented a high degree of tribal autonomy, united in the strategy of foreign war, and launched a war against the South African Union.

Compared with the world war that had destroyed two hundred years of progress in three years, this war could only be described as amateur. Not even a tank brigade was formed by either side, and the battle consisted of power armors and unarmored infantry charging on the prairie.

The use of 22nd-century equipment combined with the tactical style of the First World War marked the surrender of the South African Union in five years, as they retreated to Madagascar. The United African Tribes that conquered the entire continent had no intention to further pursue the South African Union due to the fact that it could not gather enough warships.

The large tracts of land digested the refugees that flooded into Africa, and there was finally enough food.

Hard-working Asians became the best candidates for farming, and those with land all received “one”. In contrast, the image of the white was closer to the appetite of the black, so they often served as sex slaves.

A symbol of status and power was having a white slave.

Whether it was the United African Tribes or the South African Union that had retreated to the island of Madagascar, they did not have more ambition about the land outside the African continent. Europeans already told them how bad the outside world was.

Soldiers that defected from Europe became sought-after objects. The pilots of fighters, tanks, and even power armors often received a status higher than that of ordinary black civilians.

As for most Asians, life was very difficult in Africa.

Especially Indians.

For Southeast Asia, Africa was too far away after all. Most Asians who crossed the Indian Ocean to reach southern Africa and Madagascar were from India. After these people arrived in Africa, most of them were raised as serfs.

“Unity is indestructible.”

This old Congolese proverb was the slogan of the Africans.

However, the irony was that neither the tribal autonomous United African Tribes nor the South African Union has ever stopped its internal friction.

The United African Tribes in the north were like a huge feudal empire. The “king” ruled countless powerful vassals in his hands, but the South African Union was more like a small Renaissance republic.

“Did the social form deteriorate to this point?” With dark circles around his eyes, Jiang Chen stepped in but he was on the verge of falling down. He read the report sent up to the General’s Mansion while he yawned profusely and muttered incoherently, “A group of baboons with rifles… an envoy? Well, I can go see him.”

Han Junhua kept her gaze on him, and after a while, she coughed lightly.

“If you are in a bad state today, I suggest you sleep for a while.”

“My state is not good? Not true.”

Jiang Chen shook his head vigorously, pinched the space between his eyebrows, then tossed the file in his hand aside.

“Maybe you need a cup of coffee.”

Han Junhua shrugged, then left.

“Wait,” Jiang Chen raised his hand and stopped Han Junhua from leaving. After she stopped, he said, “Send someone to make an appointment with that envoy, um… how about tomorrow, I will meet him at the Sixth Street to discuss.”

He just couldn’t do it today in this state.

The last scene he recalled was probably the early morning sunlight outside the window, with Yao Yao’s pretty face full of happiness and contentment, and the mischievous smile on Xiaorou who just woke up. He couldn’t remember that part clearly. He vaguely remembered that Xiaorou helped him get to the General’s Mansion, mostly to mess with him…

Otherwise, why would he come here?

Watch me go back and slap your butt.

After he muttered in his mind, he wanted to get up from the chair, but instead, his head planted against the table and he started to snore.

Han Junhua’s eyebrows twitched, let out a sigh, then walked out.

“Yes.”

Chapter 1531: Food and Slave

Chapter 1531: Food and Slave

Inside the Sixth Street, Tulip Hotel.

As an asset of the Zhao Group, this hotel was now a well-known five-star hotel in the entire East Asian region. The guests that stayed here were either merchants from North Alliance Area or dictators from the south.

However, recently, the hotel welcomed a wealthy man with a special identity and generous spending habits. At the price of twenty diamonds, he rented out the entire hotel for a week and sold ten tons of cornmeal in the Sixth Street market.

One kilogram of flour could be exchanged for three credits, and ten tons of cornmeal was 30,000 credits.

On the Sixth Street, it was definitely a huge sum of money.

These black guests didn’t seem to mind showing off their wealth. In addition to the ten tons of cornmeal they sold, there was another container full of corn stored in the Port of Wanghai, guarded by more than twenty heavily armed soldiers.

As for the chief named Zaria, although he spent lavishly in the hotel over the past few days, he did not just relax. There were more than ten entourages who accompanied him to the Sixth Street.

Most of these people spent their days in the market as they gathered intelligence on all aspects of the Sixth Street.

“The price of food here is very expensive, but it is different from what we expected. They can produce a certain amount of food through something called the ‘Garden of Eden’, however, the yield is not very high, and most people still eat nutrient supplies synthesized by mutated plants. They only occasionally eat cooked food.”

“The status of soldiers in the NAC is very high. This place is probably the same as ours with a military-government system. The position of the general is probably equivalent to that of the chief and can have many women.”

“The price of military supplies is not high, and their industrial level should be slightly stronger than ours, but we should have an advantage in both population and weapon reserves. Therefore, they are not a threat to us temporarily.”

In the presidential suite on the top floor of the Tulip Hotel, a burly black giant knelt on one knee and reported to Chief Zaria, who was playing AR somatosensory games, on his work during the past two days.

Zaria tossed the sensory device to the side, walked to the high-end sofa sewn with mutant fur, and sat down. Then, he wiggled his finger at the white slave next to him.

The white slave with a mask did not resist at all. Like a marionette, she walked to Chief Zaria mechanically and kneeled down to help him light a cigar.

The furrow between his eyebrows gradually disappeared. Chief Zaria spat out a smoke ring, leaned back against the sofa in comfort, and tapped against the armrest while he said nonchalantly.

“I care about slaves, slaves, many slaves, especially the Asian ones. Do you know what I mean? If I can’t complete this task, the war chief will punish me.”

The war chief was the prime minister of the “United African Tribes” and the king in the orthodox sense. This king was assumed by the chief of the most powerful tribe and possessed the power for foreign war declaration and mediate in internal wars. If two big tribes fought, then the war chief was obliged to mediate the issues between the two parties.

Not long ago, the war chief issued an order that a piece of fertile land in the former Tanzania area will be reclaimed, and this project required at least 200,000 serfs. The huge population demand made the war chief set his sight on the distant eastern part of Asia.

As a confidant attached to the war chief, Zaria naturally took up this task willingly. However, when he arrived in Wanghai, the situation here made him feel astonished. The European told him that the Holy Shield here had been long destroyed, but he clearly saw the orange dome that covered the entire sky. The soil here clearly was no longer fertile, but there were countless grains and food sold in the Sixth Street market.

“The NAC has abolished slavery. It may be very difficult for us to get slaves.” The black giant hesitated for a moment, and said, “I tried to contact the mercenary group here, and they agreed to help us smuggle some slaves, but their price is two tons of rice or one ton of cornmeal for each slave.”

The price is ridiculous!

It is almost twice the price Zaria offered to the NAC military government.

Zaria frowned and weighed whether the deal was worthwhile.

After about five or six minutes, he finally made a decision.

“Don’t respond to those people yet, and I will reply to them after I meet with the NAC General.”

“Yes.”

The black giant stepped back respectfully, and when he left the room, he looked enviously at the white female slave who crawled to Chief Zaria, and then closed the door.

…

After a day of recovery, Jiang Chen felt that he was alive again. Sun Jiao and the others did not continue to squeeze him but created a schedule.

Now that the passage between the modern world and the apocalypse was open, there were no longer any barriers to travel between the two worlds. Early in the morning, Xia Shiyu took Sun Jiao and the others to Coconut Island, and they wouldn’t be able to return until the evening.

Therefore, when Jiang Chen woke up, the entire mansion was empty, which made his heart feel empty and lonely.

Fortunately, Yao Yao was quite considerate. At about twelve o’clock, she came back to prepare lunch for him.

Perhaps it was because of yesterday, now whenever Yao Yao saw Jiang Chen, she looked away in panic and her face turned red like a ripe apple.

After Jiang Chen had lunch, Yao Yao cleaned the plates while Jiang Chen left the house and took a helicopter to the Sixth Street. On the apron near the parliament building, he saw Chu Nan who had been waiting for a long time.

Chu Nan respectfully saluted, then walked to Jiang Chen.

“Chief Zaria is waiting for you in the conference room. A wizard, his entourage, and a slave arrived with him.”

“A wizard?”

“Not a real wizard,” Chu Nan shrugged and laughed, “It’s just a position, probably similar to a military officer, or a staff officer.”

“What does he want? Did he say anything?”

“Slaves.” Chu Nan said, “They want to start a slave trade with us.”

Jiang Chen nodded and did not make a statement on this. After a moment of thought, Jiang Chen suddenly asked.

“What do you think of the African continent?”

“A bloated and weak giant,” Chu Nan added after he thought for a moment, “He is carrying more than his bodyweight of gold bricks.”

Jiang Chen was taken aback for a moment, then he also laughed, looked at Chu Nan, and said.

“I have the exact same thought process as you.”

Chapter 1532: The Upright Slave Master

“The honorable New Asia Cooperation General Jiang Chen, I am an envoy from the United African Tribes, Chief Zaria. On behalf of War Chief Duaman, please allow me to send you the highest respect and a gift that symbolizes friendship.”

His tone was neither humble nor arrogant. Then, Zaria slightly bowed down. Jiang Chen could read the hint of arrogance in his eyes, although he carefully hid it behind his humble speech.

Strictly speaking, the situation that faced the African continent was much better than that of the Pan-Asia region. Almost all survivors in Europe, eastern North and South America, and parts of Central Asia and South Asia fled to that continent.

The survivors not only brought technology, but also labor, and equipment left over from the battlefield. If it weren’t for the inertia that hindered the Africans, and the tradition of living in the moment, perhaps Africa was already the most prosperous place after the war.

But what did they do?

The North African Union, which became the present-day United African Tribes, started a war with the South African Union. After they pushed the South African Union to Madagascar, there were civil wars between the tribes. The South African Union behaved even more strangely. After they witnessed their old enemies in a state of turmoil, their first reaction was not to capitalize on the situation but to breathe a sigh of relief, and they themselves began to fight over trivial issues in their parliament.

Chu Nan was right. They were like a bloated and weak giant who guarded a gold mine that the whole world coveted. If it weren’t for the low population of NAC that could not digest such a massive piece of land, Jiang Chen didn’t even want to see this envoy. Instead, he could just send a force for “exploration”.

During the meeting, Zaria repeated his request again.

Including the demand for slaves and the offer for each slave.

“If you are unwilling to cooperate, we can only choose to deal with the dictators in the south. Their prices are slightly lower than yours, but we are very worried about their strength. What we need is a strong partner that can continuously provide us with slaves…” Zaria said passionately as if he was certain he would sell his compatriots without hesitation.

It was the assumption everyone made. People always believed that other people could easily step into their role.

In Zaria’s eyes, no chief would refuse such a good deal. However, what he didn’t understand was that Jiang Chen, who came from a civilized society, was very disgusted with the inefficient and inhumane slave business. The idea of selling his “compatriots” to Africa as goods already breached his bottom line.

But Jiang Chen didn’t flip the table immediately.

Just now, as he listened to Chief Zaria’s passionate speech that described the wealth of their tribe, an idea suddenly appeared in Jiang Chen’s head as he rolled his eyes and smiled.

“What is the approximate area of the land you want to develop?”

“Twenty million mus, located on the shores of Lake Victoria.” Chief Zaria said in an ostentatious tone. “This area was abandoned 50 years ago. Now we have decided to reclaim it and turn it into farmland.”

A fitting style for a chief.

But it was a pity that it was not a tribal leader who sat in front of you, but a businessman.

“What is your average yield per mu (1)?” Jiang Chen smiled and continued to ask.

Zaria hesitated, looked at Jiang Chen with slight confusion, then exchanged eye contact with the wizard beside him. Finally looked at Jiang Chen again, and responded.

“About seven hundred catties (2), is there any problem?”

Seven hundred catties…

When Jiang Chen heard this number, he couldn’t stop shaking his head in his mind.

Sure enough, it was not the wisest decision for them to farm. And it was even more foolish to use serfdom to farm. He seemed to understand why they only made so little progress in the years after the war.

Seven hundred catties per mu!

It was the twenty-second century!

The fact that the land was not used for farming for many years meant that it was extremely fertile. It was likely that one could sow a handful of seeds and grain would grow. Not to mention the rapid maturity of crops in tropical regions, it was very common for rice and sugarcane to have three harvests in a year.

“Well, you want to buy slaves for those twenty million mus of land, right?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“That’s right.” Chief Zaria was overjoyed. As he sensed that they could potentially reach a deal, he hurriedly continued, “We need two hundred thousand slaves.”

“Two hundred thousand slaves…it’s a bit difficult,” Jiang Chen said and rubbed his chin as he pretended to be serious about the issue, “The total population of NAC is only one million. The two hundred thousand slaves are equivalent to one-fifth of our total population.”

“There is no need to pay in one lump sum. We can establish a long-term relationship. I want all the slaves you got. The price will be the same as the previous price… No, we are willing to pay an extra one hundred kilograms of food for each slave, as long as you can provide us with twenty thousand slaves per year,” Chief Zaria said sincerely.

“How about this,” Jiang Chen sighed, “I thought of a better way to cooperate.”

Chief Zaria was taken aback for a moment, slightly alerted.

“What kind of cooperation?”

“Eight hundred catties.”

“What do you mean?” Zaria frowned.

“You can contract out the twenty million mus of land to us, and we will help you to farm,” Jiang Chen smiled. “For every mu of farmland, we will pay your War Chief Duaman 900 catties of grain. We will send engineers to help you build water projects for free, and at the same time study the methods of maximizing the use of arable land, to ensure that every mu of land is developed with the highest efficiency.”

Zaria was stunned. He didn’t expect Jiang Chen to make such a request.

Instinctively he wanted to refuse.

But he changed his mind after he realized that it was the same as letting the entire NAC work for himself.

After he thought about it, Zaria could no longer refuse the offer.

“Not only that, if you are interested, we can also pay with weapons. Rifles, bullets, and even power armors. I believe your War Chief should be interested in these things, right?”

Zaria looked like he was slightly astonished.

“You plan to sell power armors?”

The production of power armor requires a complete set of military production lines. It was feasible to use manual methods with the combination of 3D printers, but the quality of the manually manufactured power armor was inconsistent. For example, the tribe of War Chief Duaman also produced power armors, but the productivity was comparable to the Sixth Street prior to industrialization, with only one to two produced every month.

The number of power armors directed dictated the combat power of a tribe, and ultimately, the status of a tribal chief.

“Mhmm, although the production of power armor is not an easy task for us,” Jiang Chen looked at him seriously, and then made a reluctant expression, “but for our long-term friendship, I think we have to make a little concession.”

“I can’t guarantee anything, but I will convey your proposal to the War Chief.” Zaria hid the arrogance and contempt that was in his eyes initially with eagerness. He looked at Jiang Chen in excitement, then said,” I hope we can talk about this issue next month at this time.”

“Well, I hope you can come back here with a friendly proposal at that time,” Jiang Chen tried his best to stop himself from laughing out loud and nodded slightly. “As a gift to the box of corn, I have a titanium alloy T-3 power armor that I hope you can accept as a gesture of our friendship.”

(1) mu – or known as Chinese acre. One mu is equal to 614.4 m2

(2) catties – a catty is a measurement of mass in China, equivalent to 500 grams

Chapter 1533: Inter-dimension Subsidiary

Unlike the tradition of Asians, Africans always accepted gift, regardless of its value.

Chief Zaria was overjoyed and accepted the gift from Jiang Chen, and then pushed forward the slave as a return gift to Jiang Chen. She was a popular movie actress as well as a well-known ambassador for a charity before the war and had gained a large following in Africa.

In Zaria’s tribe, the gift of a slave was a gesture of friendship, and the more beautiful the slave, the higher the status before, the more it reflected the master’s value of the guest. However, Jiang Chen did not dare to accept it at all as he quickly declined this “grand gift”.

It was certainly not the right gift.

He had only managed to keep things calm in his harem. If he dared to accept the gift…

As Jiang Chen watched Chief Zaria leave, he exchanged eye contact with Chu Nan, and the smile on their faces was so stiff.

“Do you have anything to say?”

“No, Mr. General.”

“Just say what you want to say.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes.

After Chu Nan dry coughed a few times, he finally stopped himself from bursting into laughter, then said respectfully.

“You’re… a natural-born actor.”

…

Zaria, along with NAC’s T-3 Power Armor, quickly left the port of Wanghai on his ship. Jiang Chen watched the ship depart and then returned to the mansion to go to Coconut Island in the modern world.

When he returned, the girls had decorated their new home.

After they got used to the sea breeze, no one wanted to return to that devastated world. And since it was possible to travel between the two worlds, there was no need to live there.

After the neutrino tunnel opened, interdimensional travel did not consume a great amount of energy.

Now that they decided to live in this world, the small wooden cabin on Coconut Island was naturally not big enough.

Lilith downloaded the drawings in the database and commanded the engineering robots to start the expansion of the cabin. With just a phone call, all kinds of furniture and building materials were airlifted to the island by helicopters, and some high-tech supplies were brought directly from the apocalypse.

After they worked for an entire day, everyone felt exhausted.

Except for Lin Lin.

Since the morning, she had grabbed onto Ayesha’s hand enthusiastically and begged her to go on the yacht. Because of Lin Lin’s persistent nagging, Ayesha, who was always easily convinced, was helplessly pushed onto the yacht by the energetic Lin Lin.

The two went as far as Penglai. Lin Lin wanted to go take a look at the city, but it was getting late, so she had to come back.

On their way back, they happened to encounter a fishing boat and thus bought a lot of seafood to bring back to Coro Island.

In the evening, a grill was set up by the beach and a barbecue party started.

As Jiang Chen watched the sizzling meat, smelled the tasty aroma, drank the ice-cold beer, as well as enjoyed the company of the girls who chatted and laughed, he suddenly felt extremely satisfied, as if a hole in his heart was filled.

“What are you thinking about?”

Xia Shiyu grabbed a drink and sat down next to Jiang Chen. She wrapped her arms around her knees and gazed into the distant ocean.

“Nothing,” Jiang Chen chuckled as he watched Lin Lin and Yao Yao in swimsuits chase each other on the beach, “I just think that life is pretty good now.”

“I have an idea. Do you want to open a subsidiary in that world?” After she took a sip of the alcohol, her face started to turn red. Then, combined with the light of the flame from the grill, she glowed with a charming brilliance.

“A subsidiary?”

“Well, I went there and took a look. I feel that the potential is very good.” Xia Shiyu gently swayed the glass full of champagne, giggled, then took another small sip. “Well, it’s just my feeling. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a CEO for a long time.”

“You actually think that the potential there is pretty good?” Jiang Chen laughed.

It was a difference in perspective.

From the perspective of this world to look at that world. Apart from the ruins, there were opportunities buried under the ruins. However, from the perspective of that world, apart from the ruins, there was only despair.

Perhaps it was precisely for this reason that in the end PAC, NATO, and CCCP all adopted escapism and launched those six space colonization ships.

Build an inter-dimension enterprise?

Although Xia Shiyu only casually mentioned the idea, Jiang Chen suddenly felt that it seemed quite interesting. There were a lot of multinational companies like Future Group and Celestial Trade, but only he could build an inter-dimensional company.

“Opening a subsidiary in the apocalypse?” As Xiaorou patted down the dust on her skirt, she sat on the right side of Jiang Chen with a smile, “It sounds interesting. Can I just recommend myself to be the manager of that subsidiary?”

After she witnessed the prosperity of this world, she started to agree with the term “apocalypse”.

Moreover, she was almost tired of dealing with tedious and boring government affairs for her sister in the General’s Mansion. After she saw all the different possibilities in this world, she suddenly felt that it seemed like a good choice to become an independent woman like Xia Shiyu.

At least, she wanted to give it a try to see how to run a company.

“You passed the interview.” Xia Shiyu raised her glass slightly and gave Jiang Chen a teasing look. “But I’m not the president, so my opinion does not matter. Xiaorou, I’ll give you a suggestion. Our president is sitting here right now. You’d better bribe him, and I’ll pretend that I didn’t see it.”

“Don’t bribe me. It’s useless to bribe me. I don’t accept bribes these days.” When Jiang Chen noticed Xiaorou’s smiling eyes, he shook his head quickly, took a swig of the beer to moisturize his throat, and then continued after he deliberated for a moment. “But to be honest, if we open a subsidiary, what should we focus on?”

“Many, for example, infrastructure should be the most profitable, right? There is also food, which cannot be produced in the apocalypse, right?” Xia Shiyu hugged her knees, raised her head, and smiled as she watched the dusk fade in the distance, “I just don’t know how much energy it takes to transport goods through the portal.”

“Speaking of food, today I met a chief from Africa…” Jiang Chen told the two girls what had happened this afternoon.

When they heard about the chief that came with the intention of buying slaves but did not end up buying any slaves and was instead tricked into giving away 20 million mus of fertile land, and left with a T-3 Power Armor while feeling grateful, they both started to chuckle.

Xia Shiyu, who was the first to get the story, wiped the corners of her eyes, resisted the urge to laugh, coughed a few times to sound serious, then said, “When it comes to Africa, I suddenly thought of the jokes I had seen on the Internet before. Cotton-producing countries export cotton but import clothes, forest-rich countries export pulp but import paper, agricultural countries have a large area of fertile land but import food, and Nigeria…the country with a coastline of more than 800 kilometers long, imports more than 2,000 tons of salt every year.”

“I suddenly have an idea what our subsidiary can focus on,” Jiang Chen said.

Xiaorou blinked and looked over with eyes full of hope.

“The 20 million mus of land will be our experiment,” Jiang Chen shook the beer can that was almost empty, then gently tapped it against Xia Shiyu’s wine glass, and said, “I am almost tired of the life of transporting food from the modern world to the apocalypse. I will strive to make Africa the granary of NAC as soon as possible.

“Then what will be the name of our subsidiary?” Xia Shiyu smiled with her lips closed.

“Future Development,” Jiang Chen tossed the beer into the garbage can, leaned against the coconut tree behind him, and said, “Should we split the infrastructure projects from Future Heavy industries, and register a company in the modern world? As for the apocalypse… let’s hire employees in the apocalypse .”

Jiang Chen did not decide whether he should open the channel between the two worlds.

Because he didn’t know how this would impact the two worlds. While the modern world was accelerated, at the same time, bad things would also inevitably be brought along with the portal.

Perhaps it was really a good choice to open a subsidiary in the apocalypse.

Maybe, one day in the future, his inter-dimension company would have the opportunity to expand its business to other worlds.

Chapter 1534: Future Development

In mid-April, Future Group’s subsidiary was officially incorporated in Wanghai, apocalypse.

The headquarters was ready-made, located in Pudong District, Wanghai, and covered an area of more than 30 mus. The building’s area, including underground areas, totaled 300,000 square meters. It was less than one kilometer from the “Big Crater” stadium in the city center.

This building originally belonged to Walkerman Technology, the former employer of Du Yongkang, who helped Jiang Chen develop online games. It was one of the top tech companies in the Pan-Asia region, similar to the big techs in the modern world.

Although this area was once the focus of nuclear weapons, the main structure of this building was still intact which demonstrated its excellent construction quality. The building could be restored to its original appearance with a little repair, and it was naturally a great choice for Future Group’s subsidiary headquarters.

Most of the survivors that lived in Wanghai did not have any opinion about the incorporation of a subsidiary that they had never heard of. Only a small number of entrepreneurs in Sixth Street like Zhao Chenwu sensed some changes.

But even the people who sensed changes only knew that this subsidiary was an asset under the name of NAC General Jiang Chen. It was just unknown to the public why the company was not registered under the NAC military government, but Sun Xiaorou, the sister of the General’s wife, served as the CEO.

On the first day of the company’s incorporation, Xiaorou devoted herself to the work. Xia Shiyu first transferred 100 engineering robots from Future Heavy Industries as the first batch of “employees”. Immediately after, job postings of Future Development appeared on the Sixth Street.

The basic salary was 60 credits per month for regular employees.

Except for those mercenaries and hunters that made risky money, for ordinary people with an average salary of fewer than 30 credits, the salary was indeed high. Under Xia Shiyu’s guidance, combined with her previous experience as a secretary in the General’s Mansion, Xiaorou learned very quickly and mastered the essentials of running a company.

As for more advanced knowledge, she could learn those through practice. And even if Xiaorou could not manage such a large company, it did not matter much because there were many former executives and chairmen that begged to work for Future Group.

s

Although these elites prospered before the war and also enjoyed protection higher than that of the regular people during the war, because of this, in the post-war apocalypse, most of these people’s careers were not promising. Even if Sixth Street, under the leadership of NAC, restored the rudimentary form of a market economy, even if NAC’s “Fallout Shelter Protection Policy” eliminated the need to worry about being killed immediately after they appear on the wasteland, only a few restarted their career. The worst of these people even ended up in the slums and relied on their labor to feed themselves.

As soon as Future Group’s subsidiary posted jobs, the resumes flew over like snowflakes. There were so many that in the end, Sun Xiaorou had to toss a coin to decide which stack of resumes to throw into the garbage.

As the first inter-dimension subsidiary of Future Group, Future Development was born with a golden spoon. While Xiaorou looked for the general manager of Future Development, Jiang Chen had already secured her first contract.

War Chief Duaman of the United African Tribe was the first customer of Future Development.

…

The time soon arrived at the end of April, and Chief Zaria’s ship arrived at the port of Wanghai as scheduled, even more than a week earlier than the originally agreed time.

As soon as he got off the ship, he gave Jiang Chen a warm hug at the port.

“The great War Chief Duaman is very satisfied with your gift, and we are willing to form an alliance with you forever,” Chief Zaria said excitedly, “We’ll follow your proposals, twenty million mus are contracted to you. You only need to pay us eight hundred catties of grain! We accept rice, corn, and sugarcane, but we hope you grow corn! Cornmeal is our staple food. And your power armor. Please give us a price, we’ll take every single one of them! I hope you don’t sell it to other tribes. Our price will definitely be higher than theirs. The War Chief’s tribe is definitely the most powerful of all tribes!

Fine.

Originally, Jiang Chen thought he would bargain, but it seemed that he still overestimated their business acumen.

If they planted improved rice, without destroying the fertility of the land, there would be no issue yielding over a thousand catties per mu. But what did chief Zaria say? He actually told him that it was enough to hand in eight hundred catties of grain every year.

Jiang Chen thought that he had heard wrong.

In the tropical region, as long as the irrigation system could keep up, there was no issue for rice to have three harvests per year! The twenty million mus of fertile land was even near Lake Victoria, so there was no need to build complex irrigation facilities at all, and a canal was all they needed.

What else could he say?

Jiang Chen thought that the twenty million mus of land would take them at least a decade to develop. Especially in the least effective slavery system, they would have most develop hundreds of thousands of mus of land.

If Future Development took over the land, it would be an exaggeration to say that they could farm all twenty million mus, but one or two million mus was easily achievable.

It was more than sufficient to feed the one million people in NAC with computerized farming and genetic engineering. The surplus land could even be used to grow cash crops like sugarcane, tobacco, and cocoa, and then shipped back to Asia to make industrial products before they are sold back to Africa.

By solving the food problem, NAC could liberate more labor from mutant fruit farms and mutant-hunting groups, further promote industrialization, produce arms, and ship them to Africa to exchange for more raw materials.

NAC just needed to carefully balance the strengths between the tribes to prevent one from becoming dominant. Once Future Development’s engineering team arrived in Africa, Jiang Chen’s envoys would immediately contact the other tribes and sell the T-3.

As for whether this move would offend War Chief Duaman, Jiang Chen didn’t care at all.

United African Tribes respected strength and power. If War Chief Duaman was foolish enough to break off the relationship with the arms dealer, NAC could easily export a large number of arms to another tribe to weaken the influence of War Chief Duaman.

s

“By the way, how do you plan to sell those T-3 power armors?” Chief Zaria looked at Jiang Chen eagerly, and couldn’t wait to ask his most concerned question, “We are willing to trade food. Or you can directly use power armor instead of food to pay.”

“A T-3 power armor’s price is 200,000 credits in Sixth Street.”

Although there were still many private military factories in the production of power armor accessories, the final assembly and the production of advanced and improved parts had long been controlled by the military government. Jiang Chen directly quoted a price more than ten times without hesitation.

After Chief Zaria heard Jiang Chen’s offer, he immediately calculated in his mind and joy surfaced.

One kilogram of cornmeal could be exchanged for about three credits, and 200,000 credits were about 67 tons of cornmeal. Using 67 tons of cornmeal to exchange for a power armor was a great deal even if he had to think with his toes!

Chapter 1535: Guide to Africa

Chief Zaria quickly agreed, afraid that Jiang Chen would change his mind. He thought that he won big in this deal, so he drafted the contract on the spot and happily wrote the terms they previously agreed on.

However, it was a pity that he did not notice that at the moment the two parties signed, the general who stood in front of him revealed a meaningful smile.

One T-3 power armor at a cost of 200,000 credits was the price Chief Zaria, on behalf of War Chief Duaman, ordered for 400 units under the name of the United African Tribes. The minimum delivery was 10 units per month, and the payment was to be settled on a monthly basis, with no arrears. As for the grain exported from the United African Tribes to the Sixth Street, NAC would not purchase in bulk, instead, it would only impose a tariff of 10% while opening the market to the United African Tribes.

Chief Zaria did not even realize that he had defaulted to NAC’s currency credits as the settlement currency in the agreement.

Although one kilogram of cornmeal could be sold at the price of 3 credits in Sixth Street, when a large amount of cornmeal flooded the market and ultimately exceeded the consumption rate by the NAC population, the cornmeal would no longer be worth that much in the market.

As long as the NAC pushed for the rapid devaluation of food, and even lower the price per kilogram of food to the decimal point, the Africans could only watch the value of T-3 power armor continue to appreciate, while food exports would rise from 66 tons to 100 tons, then to 1,000 tons, or even 10,000 tons.

In the economic trade between two countries, the supplier of raw materials was always the target of exploitation by the more industrialized country.

Count on Africans to build their own factories?

If they were so diligent, they wouldn’t have exported sugarcane and imported sugar.

After Zaria signed the agreement, he did not immediately make his way back to Africa. It was obvious that he enjoyed this place. He could buy anything with money, or credit here, and enjoyed the prosperity that did not exist back in his tribe.

This time he brought ten full containers of rice that totaled 100 tons, which directly caused NAC’s agricultural product prices to drop by almost 10%. However, this wealthy nouveau rich didn’t realize what was wrong with this. His tribe was very rich, with more than 20,000 slaves, more than one million acres of arable land, and one hundred tons of rice was just a drop in the bucket for him.

With the more than 200,000 credits he exchanged, he directly bought a T-3 power armor from Jiang Chen in his own name and then rewarded it to the black giant who always followed him. Power armor was equivalent to the armor and horse of the medieval knights for the warriors in these African tribes.

Although Jiang Chen really didn’t understand the purpose for a burly but simple-minded man to pilot a power armor…

“It is impossible for Africans to abide by the spirit of the contract. They don’t even have an accurate concept of what the contract is.” After Jiang Chen sent Chief Zaria to the Tulip Hotel on the Sixth Street, he spoke with Chu Nan in the car, “We must station a force in Africa to protect our industry in Africa from the locals. The size of this force must be within Chief Duaman’s limit, at least we can’t alert him. I want to hear your opinion.”

“Do you hope to solve this problem through economic means, or do you plan to solve it through military means?” Chu Nan smiled.

“Both are okay,” Jiang Chen said, “I want to hear both perspectives.”

“Part of the twenty million mus of land can be contracted out in the form of bidding to enterprises in the Sixth Street, and they can send mercenaries, hunter groups, and workers to develop the land. After we deduct the food paid to the United African Tribes, we can charge a certain percentage of food or credit to these companies.” Chu Nan said, “A lot of people will be happy to solve the safety problem for us.”

“In addition, we can also hire locals…or directly buy slaves from those tribal chiefs,” Chu Nan continued after a pause, “In exchange for arms, I believe those chiefs would be happy to use slaves in their hands for our bullets, rifles, and even power armors.”

“Doesn’t this mean we’re acknowledging the slave trade?” Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

“Why does it matter?” Chu Nan shrugged, “Anyway, Africa is not the territory of NAC. As long as our people there abide by local laws, all actions are legitimate.”

…

Jiang Chen was not concerned with Sun Jiao and Xiaorou controlling the situation in apocalypse. Since the incorporation of Future Group’s subsidiary in Wanghai, Xiaorou quickly familiarized herself with the role of CEO and managed the company under Xia Shiyu’s guidance.

The general manager of Future Development was an executive of an import and export company before the war. She was a white-collar lady in her thirties. She was taken to Sixth Street from a fallout shelter two years ago. She was a waitress in Inner Circle for about a year and only survived after her friends helped her.

It was precisely because of this that she put 120% enthusiasm into this job from the beginning. The project planning document that consisted of forty pages, covered all aspects of the African project.

It was so well done that even Sun Jiao was interested in this talent. She wanted to ask her sister to let go of her and instead become her secretary in the General’s Mansion.

“Now Xiaorou just goes to Future Building every day with Xia Shiyu. She must have forgotten that she has a sister.” Sun Jiao laid on the reclining chair on the beach, swayed her legs sluggishly, then took a slurp of the cold watermelon juice before she exhaled in happiness. Then she looked at Jiang Chen next to her, “Why don’t you find another General’s Wife? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

A leisurely life could really make one lose all motivation, and now Sun Jiao was in complete vacation mode as she spent all day under the sun and biting straws. She had completely forgotten about her identity, and even proposed the whimsical idea of finding another “General’s Wife”.

“Am I that kind of person?” Jiang Chen dry coughed a few times and said righteously.

“Pshh.”

What do you mean “Pshh”?

Pshh?

Jiang Chen was feeling completely helpless towards Sun Jiao.

Although, he had expected this to happen a long time ago. After the people from the apocalypse experienced the beauty of this world, except for those with a deep obsession with that world, no one would choose to live there.

Obviously, Sun Jiao was not such a person.

She was born in a fallout shelter, and all her knowledge of the pre-war world stayed in the pictures from children’s books and her father’s dictation. The moment she opened her eyes, the world had been destroyed. Before she met Jiang Chen, she had seen too many deaths.

She had admitted to Jiang Chen frankly from a long time ago that she was attracted by his temperament that did not belong to “this world”, and finally fell in love with him. Even in the apocalypse where she possessed absolute power, it was not comparable to living an ordinary and peaceful life in this beautiful world…Although she never enjoyed that kind of ordinality.

“By the way, if you feel tired, why not learn from Xiaorou.” Jiang Chen rolled his eyes and sat next to her, “Just keep a tight grasp on the important decisions, and delegate power for the trivial matters. As long as you have a proper supervision mechanism, even if you command from here, it will be fine.”

“That’s right,” Sun Jiao’s eyes lit up. As she bit on the straw, she thought seriously, “But who should be my secretary? Would you recommend anyone?”

“It can be anyone, as long as it’s not a man,” Jiang Chen laughed. “Don’t lie here every day. I’ll take you to Penglai today for a tour.”

It was originally something to be happy about, but Sun Jiao’s eyes seemed to indicate that she was a little flustered.

“A, a tour? I, I’m not ready yet, can we wait a few more days? Just stay here—”

“I’m not asking you; I’m ordering you,” Jiang Chen picked up Sun Jiao from the beach recliner as he said this. In the latter’s exclamation, the naughty little wild cat bit him viciously on the shoulder, while made Jiang Chen gasp.

When she saw Jiang Chen’s pained look, she immediately let go and looked at Jiang Chen nervously.

“Did it hurt?”

“No, it’s just very heavy–AHHHH! Let go, are you a dog!

Her teeth bit into his shoulder again

This time, she really used force.

Chapter 1536: A Guest from The Apocalypse

“What I’m wearing… is not strange right?”

Her hair was tied up in the back. She wore a cool beige lotus leaf skirt with a summery straw hat.

Sun Jiao anxiously pinched onto the hem of her clothes as she reluctantly walked out from behind the door. The fullness in front of her stuffed the dress tightly, and the elegant curve of her back beneath the draped fabric of her dress highlighted her thin waist. It was clear that because of the change of scenery and slower pace, she had indeed put on some weight.

But fortunately, the extra weight all seemed to go to her chest. Not only did it not make them look cumbersome, but rather it made the dress she wore more attractive. Especially the type of clothes with a waistband that highlighted the beautiful curves on her body.

However, Sun Jiao herself seemed to be dissatisfied with this situation.

“Sure enough, it’s still too strange.”

As she looked at herself in front of the mirror, the usually heroic and direct Sun Jiao became shy in front of Jiang Chen. She blushed and tried to go to her room to change, but she was pushed out by Ayesha.

“This is the best fit, please trust my taste.”

When Ayesha said this, her eyes sparkled.

Excluding Jiang Chen, fashion was Ayesha’s favorite hobby. As for Ayesha’s sense of fashion, it was well-recognized among the girls. Other than fashion, her second favorite hobby was finding a perfect model for her fashion.

Now, Sun Jiao was undoubtedly a perfect fit for this role.

Among all the oriental beauties around Jiang Chen that Ayesha had ever met, Sun Jiao’s body was the most perfect. The only one comparable was probably Natasha with a natural buff unique to Slavic.

“I think it’s good too, just go with this.” Jiang Chen touched his chin, looked at Sun Jiao who was pushed out by Ayesha and nodded.

After Sun Jiao received Jiang Chen’s affirmation, she finally settled down, blushed, and reluctantly accepted the clothes that were completely inconsistent with her own image. Then, with the sweetness in her heart, she quieted muttered against a sentence that she did not mean.

“…This waistband is too much in the way.”

In fact, deep down, she liked this outfit.

Otherwise, with Ayesha’s thin arms and legs, if Sun Jiao was determined to hide in the room, even if Jiang Chen and Ayesha tried to stop her together, she was unlikely to be stopped.

…

Today, Penglai welcomed a special tourist.

Different from guests from any other country, she was from Pan-Asia Cooperation.

“This is…” She watched the white sandy beach, as well as the tourists that took pictures on the shore. Excitement and confusion swayed in her eyes as she muttered quietly.

From the yacht to the port, she finally set foot on the world she dreamed of. She had seen this place on the screen before. Jiang Chen would always take some photos and videos to show them, and most of these photos were beautiful sceneries in Xin or Celestial City.

“A city floating on the sea, it is also the closest place to future in this world,” Jiang Chen smiled. “A large nuclear fusion generator set is the heart of the city. Wearing AR glasses and taking off AR glasses will show you two completely different worlds… Although I don’t know what the world was like before you were born, I think this world will more or less make up for the regret in your heart.”

“This…is what is known as a date?” For some reason, Sun Jiao’s face burned slightly, and she glanced at Jiang Chen awkwardly, before she quickly explained, “I read it from Lin Lin’s comic book collection.”

Jiang Chen was taken aback for a moment, then he laughed.

“Yes, that’s right, this is a date,” as he said this, he took Sun Jiao’s hand and squeezed it lightly in the latter’s flustered gaze, “Come with me. Since it’s a date, all you need to do is hold my hand.”

After, Jiang Chen took Sun Jiao’s hand and led her out of the port.

“Drones play very important roles in this city. From firefighting to policing to medical care, logistics, and shopping, people living here don’t need to worry about things other than life and work. It has the world’s largest software park, science park, and university campus. There are no industries on this island, at least no heavy industries.”

“The water and food here come from the ocean, the freshwater comes from desalination plants, and the food comes from undersea farms. The beef and pork come from my pastures in Australia and New Zealand…of course, they are not under my name.”

“In addition, this is the first place in the world to achieve full maglev transportation. However, there is probably no need for cars here. Rail transit covers every area in this city. The walking distance from one place to another is no more than 500 meters…”

From the port to the Central, to the “undersea corridor” at the bottom of the city. Along the way, Jiang Chen took Sun Jiao to almost every corner of the city while he introduced her to every bit of the city.

The two used photos to capture their beautiful memories.

While they took pictures, Jiang Chen noticed that from the initial anxiety and cautiousness, a smile that came from the bottom of her heart began to appear…

Inside the western restaurant surrounded by crystal glass on all four sides, Sun Jiao happily held the phone as she flipped through the photos she took today and giggled from time to time.

At this moment, a foreigner who was about 30 or 40 years old in a suit walked straight to their table. He enthusiastically said something in English to Sun Jiao while he gestured with his hands, then handed her a business card.

Perhaps he did not notice Jiang Chen at all, or perhaps from a foreigner’s perspective, as an Asian, Jiang Chen did not have any memorable points. In short, he completely ignored the person that sat across from Sun Jiao and just stared at her with piercing eyes.

Sun Jiao looked at him with a confused expression, and there were several question marks above her head.

She couldn’t understand English, but Jiang Chen did.

Jiang Chen laughed, didn’t say anything, but just took the business card from the confused Sun Jiao, then in the foreigner’s peculiar look, Jiang Chen gave him his business card.

The business card was bilingual in Mandarin and English.

After the man saw the name on the business card, his expression quickly changed. He took a quick look at Jiang Chen as if he had a seen a ghost, then he quickly whispered an apology in his broken Mandarin, then left in a hurry.

“What was he saying?” Sun Jiao frowned.

“He said that you have the potential to be a celebrity. He hopes you can consider their company in Los Santos and make a run for Hollywood,” Jiang Chen teased her.

The rising Xin New dollar and Xin economy attracted many foreign companies to seek opportunities here. While they were not proficient in technology entertainment, it was a good entry point. That man was a scout for an entertainment company, and it was just his habit to hand over his business card.

You can’t blame him for his good foresight.

“Then why did he leave when he saw your business card?” Sun Jiao asked curiously.

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes helplessly.

“It’s a pity that my company is so well-known.”

Many foreigners could not recognize his face at first sight, but they would immediately recognize the spelling of the company on his business card.

Especially here.

After all, the maritime city under his feet was one of the assets of Celestial Trade…

Chapter 1537: The Completion of Star Gates

The red sunset glow reflected on the side of Sun Jiao’s face.

Her eyes were a little blurry, as she gazed in the direction of Penglai on top of the returning yacht.

“What are you thinking about?” Jiang Chen walked beside her, leaned against the railing, then smiled.

Her hair swayed along with the sea breeze and her eyes continued to focus on the outline of the city that gradually disappeared on the horizon. The corner of her lips turned up slightly.

“I’m thinking… what the rest of the world looks like.”

“I can’t answer you. Even the places I’ve been to are just the tip of the iceberg.” Jiang Chen chuckled as he looked out at the clownfish that swam below them, “But when all this is over, I plan to go take a look.”

“Really? Remember to take me with you then!”

“Of course,” Jiang Chen smiled, “How could I leave you behind.”

Satisfied with this answer, Sun Jiao smiled.

In brisk steps, she hopped away from the railing while the hem of her lotus leaf skirt was blown to the side by the sea breeze.

“Thank you,” she stopped at the bow, turned around, and with a smile that seemed eternal, she gazed at Jiang Chen, “I am really happy with today.”

For a moment, Jiang Chen felt that her smile glowed.

Because it was so dazzling.

…

“3”

“2”

“1”

“0”

“Initiate.”

In the Celestial Trade Space Command Center, followed by the emotionless countdown, the staff sitting in front of the command terminal simultaneously pressed down the start button.

At the same time, the two giant star gates a few kilometers away suddenly emitted blinding white light, just like new stars that were born, and illuminated the empty universe. The white light then disappeared instantly, and two tunnels as thin as membranes were launched from the two circles into the distance.

After two months, the highway from the Earth-Moon system to the Mars system was finally completed.

The four sets of star gates connected the Earth-Moon system with the Mars system. Regardless of the celestial movement of the Earth-Moon system and Mars, if the four sets of star gates operated under stable conditions, the two one-way highways would shorten the flight from Celestial City and Heavenly Palace City to the extreme.

Passengers going to Mars only needed to rest in the hibernation chamber to complete the boring journey in time dilation. For the outside world, the flight that previously took a week to half a month were shortened to three days to one week due to the time dilation effect in the neutrino tunnel.

From the perspective of space engineering, combined with the achievement in the different eras, this completion was a miracle in the history of human civilization.

From the perspective of hundreds of millions of kilometers in distance, even if the deviation was a rounding error in the decimal place, it could potentially result in an error of tens of millions of kilometers. However, the error was minimized to the limit through repeated experimentations. It was precisely because of Celestial Trade engineers’ dedication that enabled the four sets of star gates to operate in stable condition.

The later generations also gave high praises to the discovery of the “time expansion effect in the neutrino tunnel” and the completion of the stellar system highway.

A century later, when a certain writer recalled this period of history, he wrote in the book, “The giant double-ringed gate stood in the boundless space, and the creamy light path outlined a straight trajectory. I imagined it to be the ultimate invention in space technology, and our civilization was connected. Undoubtedly, it was a great miracle in the history of civilization, a triumphal arch leading to victory. Just like we once conquered the sky, we conquered the solar system…”

Compared with the art community that only responded after many years, the reaction of the press community could be described as a collective orgasm.

Although Celestial Trade always made headlines from time a time, to the point where many people were numb to the breakthroughs, the creation of star gates, which only existed in science fiction, were made into a reality by Celestial Trade. This feat astounded everyone!

“An epoch-defining technology, a miracle in the history of civilization!” – People Daily

“While we are still observing the ghost, the cunning hunter has already caught the ghost’s tail.” – Berlin Morning Post

“Facts have proved that the neutrino telescope on Lake Baikal had become a joke. If you want to observe neutrinos up close, it is better to take a flight from Celestial City to Heavenly Palace City. This will not only save you a lot of money where you don’t even know how it got wasted but also save our scientists from frowning at the stars.” – Moscow News

On a talk show on CBS, the host joked with the audience when it came to a segment on recent news.

“While our enterprises are still studying how to lay the foundation for the Bering Strait Tunnel, our opponent has already built a road to Mars. I don’t hate Mr. Pence at all, although the people from T State must hate his guts. Thankfully, before ending that farce, Mr. Pence did not make the situation worse.”

The shockwave was not only sent through news media, a larger earthquake also erupted in the physics community.

Neutrino had always been a subject of attention in the physics community, and it was considered the particle with the most promise to break the limit of the speed of light. Otherwise, when the Italian National Laboratory of Gran Sasso found that the neutrino beam was faster than light by six kilometers per second, it would not have shocked the entire scientific community…

Although it was ultimately discovered that the result was actually caused by errors due to the loose connection of the optical cable between the computer and the GPS device.

“Neutrinos can allow you to enter another world, the reason is very simple, it has little interaction with our visible world.” Well-known physicist Patrick Huber once said a long time ago.

And now, this guess was confirmed.

It was just that no one thought that this kind of ghost-like particles actually allowed humans to enter a world they had never touched before.

A time dilated world.

Unlike other confidential projects, after the completion of the star gates, Celestial Trade did not conceal the information from the outside world, but rather generously disclosed all information except engineering details and technical data. For example, neutrinos in a certain state could cause time dilation, such as how much time could be saved by using star gate technology for interstellar travel, and so on.

But as for the more in-depth information, related to the knowledge left by the Gaia civilization, Celestial Trade did not go into details.

While they released a lot of information, none of it was useful at all.

The entire physics community was fascinated by star gates, and countless emails requesting cooperative research flew to Coro University, Celestial Trade, and even Jiang Chen’s personal email like snowflakes. Of course, the fate of these emails could be easily imagined. Jiang Chen didn’t read them at all and just asked Lilith to reply all and delete them.

Although the perseverance of these people certainly moved him…

But sorry, it was not the right time yet.

Chapter 1538: The First Flight On Stellar System Highway

Mid-June. A week had passed since the completion of the star gates.

In this week, Celestial Trade conducted repeated experiments on the stability of the star gates and the safety of the neutrino tunnel through different technical means. Finally, after being foolproof, the flight between Celestial City and Heavenly Palace City was renamed “TS Peace” and officially commenced through the neutrino tunnel.

At this moment, passengers who boarded on TS Peace stood inside the hibernation room and prepared to complete the final steps before they entered hibernation. Although the flight attendants repeatedly emphasized that there will be no problems with the hibernation cabins, just like the times before, people still refused to use the cabin and would rather sleep on the floor.

This continued even when the flight attendants stressed the safety of the hibernation cabin and that there were no accidents.

“I don’t care. I just don’t want to go inside this thing. If I can’t wake up after I get inside, can you take responsibility!” The man with a beer belly said aggressively to the flight attendant; he clearly refused to cooperate.

The woman that stood next to him, probably his wife, also had a wary expression on her face. From the two’s appearance, they were probably going to Heavenly Palace City for a tour. After all, space tourism was still a new concept.

The flight attendant patiently explained to them about the safety of the hibernation cabin, but the two clearly did not take in any of the information and refused to enter the cabin.

The commotion attracted the attention of other passengers.

Many people looked at these two with the anticipation for more drama.

“You can’t wake up when you like in the hibernation cabin? This joke is not funny at all.” A skinny and tall man stood not far away and laughed while he shook his head. He then put on the respirator around his neck and shook his head with a smile.

“Now that you mention it,” The man in his thirties next to him laughed and joked along, “There have always been such sayings on the Internet, I think someone said there may be an allergic reaction after some people get inside the hibernation cabin, and then eventually they’ll be frozen into ice cubes. To not cause disputes, Celestial Trade would throw these frozen popsicles away mid-trip…”

“Who would anyone believe in this kind of thing?” the skinny man chuckled with a look of disbelief, “This is more ridiculous than urban legends.”

“Don’t take it seriously, this is just meant to be a joke,” the man in his thirties waved his hand. “Have you been to Heavenly Palace City before?”

“This is the second time. I will probably stay a little longer this time.” The skinny man thought about the tasks his company had given to him and felt a strong surge of ambition and motivation. The last time he was in Heavenly Palace City, he was shocked by the abundance of resources there. Since Heavenly Palace City was also open to foreign capital, he would not easily let this opportunity slip away.

The indicator light of the hibernation cabin lit up and interrupted the two people’s chat.

After he rested the back of his head against the backrest, the translucent hatch slowly lowered, he only felt slightly cooler before his consciousness slipped into darkness. When he opened his eyes again, he was already at the port of the Mars space elevator.

For those using hibernation cabins, space travel was just a matter of opening and closing their eyes.

…

“When this happens, what do you usually do?” Lin Lin was in the Space Command Center on Celestial City when she saw surveillance video on the holographic screen.

For someone from the 22nd century, it was undoubtedly fairly novel for someone to resist the hibernation cabin. It was similar to the idea that someone from modern society went into a primitive tribe and realized that they were people who refused to take pictures, and the reason was that they were afraid the camera would suck away their soul…

“There is a rest area on TS Peace, which provides beds, toilets, and showers, as well as nutrient supplies for passengers who refuse to enter hibernation. Of course, if passengers are not satisfied with the food, they can also pay for vacuum-packaged cooked food.” At this point, Jiang Chen paused and laughed, “But I can guarantee that the food on TS Peace is much more expensive.”

In the meantime, the two passengers on the screen already assumed a victorious posture. Then, they followed the flight attendant to the rest area along with several other passengers who also refused to hibernate.

But what the two didn’t know was that it won’t take long for them to regret their decision. Almost no one could tolerate eating nutrient supplies for an entire week except for those losing weight or vegetarians.

The price of vacuum-packaged cooked food on TS Peace was almost five times more than the usual price.

Not only that, the shower and drinking water on TS Peace were also not free…

The tail engine ejected a faint blue light arc, and TS Peace began to accelerate slowly. After the bottom engine adjusted its direction, it moved towards the star gate. The instant the bow of the ship passed through the ring, the light and shadow were stretched forward under the effect of time dilation. And when the ship’s body was completely submerged in the neutrino channel, the speed of the entire ship suddenly increased and soon disappeared into the boundless universe.

“It’s so fast!” Lin Lin watched the blue dot that gradually faded away from the floor-to-ceiling window. Her nose almost touched the glass while her eyes were filled with excitement. When the blue dot finally disappeared, she looked back at Jiang Chen but still reminisced what she just saw. She then exclaimed, “If I have the opportunity, I’ll definitely go to Heavenly Palace City. That’s where the ruins of Gaia civilization are, right? It’s incredible.”

“Let’s go if you have watched enough,”

Jiang Chen patted Lin Lin on the shoulder, then headed out.

“What are we going to see next? Is there anything fun in Celestial City?” Lin Lin followed after Jiang Chen enthusiastically.

After they made the relationship public that day, her attitude was more enthusiastic than ever. If it had been before, Lin Lin would not be able to resist bad-mouthing him if they spent time together. However, after that day, she seemed to have completely forgotten this skill. Except for the occasional bantering with Xiaorou and Sun Jiao, she was now an obedient girl in front of Jiang Chen.

In the beginning, Jiang Chen was quite uncomfortable by the sudden change, but now he was used to it.

“Next, let’s go to the gravity-free section. The lab of Future Heavy Industries is there. I think you’ll like the place.”

“The lab from the 21st century? What’s so good about that,” Lin Lin muttered, “Is there no romantic place? I’ve heard that you took Sister Sun Jiao to Penglai on a date, and you didn’t even bring me.”

Is it because digitalized humans’ memories are too good, or is Lin Lin too easily jealous?

It’s been a while, and she still remembers.

“I will take you there tomorrow.” Jiang Chen facepalmed, “Didn’t Ayesha bring you there a few times? You don’t have to talk about it every day.”

“It’s different. Going with a girl doesn’t feel like going on a date at all,” Lin Lin raised her head triumphantly, “Anyway, that’s a deal, no take back… OUCH!”

After a light tap on her forehead, Lin Lin pouted and grimaced at Jiang Chen’s back before she ran after him.

Chapter 1539: NAC in Africa

More than two months had passed since the passage between the apocalypse and the modern world was established, and the first project for Future Development in Africa also kicked off. With more than fifty sets of agricultural machinery, two hundred Future Development employees arrived in the promised land – Africa.

“This is Africa?” A man with a baseball cap was at the port as he narrowed his eyes and looked into the grassland outside of the port.

His name was Feng Yuan. He used to be the general manager of East Asia Engineering and Construction Corporation, and he now served as the director of Future Development Africa. When he was about twenty-five years old, he accepted an assignment from the company and worked in Africa for about two years. He returned to Wanghai about two years before the war, fortunately, escaped into a fallout shelter, and stayed in hibernation until a year ago.

Even after a few decades, this place did not change much.

What happened on other continents in the apocalypse did not happen here. From any perspective, the place was drastically different from Wanghai.

Outside of the port was the endless grassland that looked yellow. There were a few occasional green trees that stood alone in the middle of the wilderness. The hillsides in the distance were covered with low bushes. Herds of animals similar in appearance to antelopes paced leisurely on the grassland.

“A dozen kilometers that direction is Mombasa, and our tribe is there.” The black man in short sleeves came over from the office next to the port and looked at Feng Yuan, “Hurry up and get on the way. Our chief wants to see you.”

“What is the name of your tribe?” Feng Yuan asked.

The African native said a long string of words.

Feng Yuan and the assistant beside him looked at each other and saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes.

“Is there a more concise name?”

“Steel Teeth, you can call our tribe this name; War Chief Duaman likes this name very much,” At this moment, the wizard who had accompanied Chief Zaria walked towards them. He lowered his head slightly to show politeness, smiled, and revealed his white teeth, “You are friends of War Chief Duaman, please allow me to be your guide.”

“Thank you very much, then.” Feng Yuan nodded slightly and accepted his kindness.

Under the escort of several military vehicles, NAC’s truck convoy drove on the highway in the wilderness. The billowing dust behind the vehicles formed a tumbling wave. The scenery on both sides was quite pleasant, but the only drawback was the poor road conditions.

The people here didn’t seem to have the concept of repairing things unless they were forced to.

After NAC took control of Wanghai, the first task was to build roads. The roads from Sixth Street to the other NAC survivors’ settlements were repaired and maintained, then the maglev tracks were installed.

However, the people here worked differently. When Feng Yuan saw this road that led from the port to the city, he suspected that this place had been abandoned long before the war.

There were almost no mutants on this continent, and the amount of radiation was the lowest in the world. However, it did not mean that there was no danger here. To some extent, this place was far more chaotic and far more dangerous than other continents.

On the way to Mombasa, Feng Yuan’s convoy was attacked.

While it could be described as an attack, it turned out to be a false alarm.

A group of militants driving old-style electric pickups was half a kilometer away from the convoy and fired at the convoy from behind the bushes. The bullets swished over their heads. Immediately, the soldiers of Steel Teeth Tribe responsible for escorting the convoy hid behind the vehicles, while they shouted and returned fire at the militants located half a kilometer away.

Later, thanks to the twenty NAC soldiers in the convoy and a mortar, along with a sniper that killed five or six militants, the militants immediately retreated like a gust of wind.

The speed of their escape really made Feng Yuan wonder their intention in the first place.

When the group of militants were gone, the wizard named Lusambo immediately went to see Feng Yuan shamelessly and promised that Steel Teeth would protect the lives and properties of Future Development. He selectively ignored the fact that he and his soldiers just hid behind the vehicles the moment the enemy started to fire…

Feng Yuan didn’t want to pursue this topic further, but he had made up his mind.

He planned to call the headquarters and ask for more bodyguards, preferably a mercenary group. It was hopeless to count on these Africans. They had promised to protect the safety of these pioneers, but the moment enemies appear, their first reaction was to hide.

Soon, the convoy finally arrived at the edge of the city, and the outline of Mombasa could be seen from a distance. But before they entered the city, the first thing that caught Feng Yuan’s eyes was a poor and backward urban area.

The wide road was lined with low houses made out of mud and crooked alleys on both sides. Hemp ropes were connected in series in the middle of the alleys with colorful cloth strips hung on them.

It was probably a slum. According to the wizard named Lusambo, the city named Mombasa was now occupied by the Steel Teeth. The region that extended from here to the north shore of Lake Victoria was the territory of the tribe.

Of course, the people here were not all from the Steel Teeth tribe. Only those who lived in the city were citizens of the tribe, and those who lived in the slums outside the city were mostly nomads from other tribes or were without a tribe at all, as well as refugees from Europe and South Asia.

Feng Yuan noticed that it was not only Europeans and Asians that lived in the slum, but many natives also lived in misery. Conflicts between different tribes were commonplace that ranged from street fights and armed conflicts. Except for those in the city who looked relatively healthy, most of these people outside the city were malnourished.

Feng Yuan made a rough estimate in his mind.

The population of this city alone was probably in the hundreds of thousands. However, with such a large population and a large area of land, no one was willing to leave the slums and reclaim the land outside the city, and they would rather contract this work out to foreigners.

The best-selling product was bullets, and sometimes it could even be used as a currency for transactions. The bullets from NAC were the most popular because of the low jam rate and relatively good accuracy. As for the bullets made by the natives themselves, most of them were inferior.

Either sand was mixed into the gunpowder, or the primer of the bullet was damp.

It seemed that the natives here were a master at scamming their own people.

Just when Feng Yuan looked at the street outside the window and considered how to gain more benefits for Future Development, the convoy had arrived at the city hall of Mombasa. Lusambo, dressed in a wizard robe, got off the vehicle and walked to the front of the convoy with his cane. He smiled as he watched Feng Yuan who jumped out of the car.

“We’re here. Please allow me to take you to meet War Chief Duaman now. The banquet has been waiting for you.”

Chapter 1540: New Riches

The place was more like a palace than a city hall. Giant ivories carved out in marbles stood on both sides of the entrance, with more magnificent marble architecture behind the entrance. The style of the entire building was European, but the layout was somewhat Arabic.

A whole row of guards stood at the entrance. The bolt-on sniper rifles in front of their chest had bayonets attached. It made people wonder why the guards on duty had to carry sniper rifles, and why bayonets were attached to sniper rifles.

All the guards were over two meters tall, and it certainly made people wonder if they were burned mutated humans. Perhaps they were injected with genetic vaccines, but they did not equip any other equipment and only wore a tiger or leopard coat. Their faces were painted with dark green patterns and they wore shiny black military boots.

Being able to put together such a uniform and set of equipment was enough to demonstrate the power of this war chief.

“This way, please,” Lusambo gestured and guided Feng Yuan and his assistant to the city hall. As for the others, including the NAC guards, they stayed outside of the city hall.

The four-meter-wide mahogany door opened, and behind the door was a red carpet that covered the entire hall. There were different tropical fruits on the table and a variety of spiced barbecues.

Feng Yuan and his assistant couldn’t stop salivating at the sight of the table filled with delicacies. The cost of the table full of food like this was probably at least a thousand credits. Their salaries for half a year were probably just enough.

As for those fruits, he didn’t even dare to think about it…

Of course, in order not to be underestimated by the African natives, Feng Yuan did not keep his eyes on the food. Instead, he forcibly resisted the alluring fragrance, looked over the table full of deliciousness, and smiled at War Chief Duaman that sat at the highest place.

He did not look burly, about 1.8 meters tall. There were not a lot of wrinkles on his face and he seemed to be in his forties. He leaned back against the tiger skin chair as his right hand sluggishly held his chin. His eyes were menacing and as fierce as a vulture.

s

While his ways were perhaps not the most dogmatic and calculated, based on his eyes, he killed probably at least hundreds of people.

Feng Yuan made an evaluation in his mind.

It was rumored that this man united the tribes from chaos to form the current United African Tribes and he drove the South African Union out of the continent. Then he took his tribe and his slaves and migrated from barren northern Africa to the wealthy southern region.

There were tens of thousands of slaves from India, South Asia and even distant East Asia working for him, and thousands of soldiers who have fled from all over Europe in his army. In this continent, slaves meant strength, whether as cannon fodder or serfs, only a large number of slaves could sustain the economy of a tribe.

After War Chief Duaman heard NAC’s proposal, he immediately became interested in this new model. With about one hundred thousand slaves who came from South Asia working under him, he only cultivated around two million mus of land, which worked out to be less than 20 mus per person.

It was not because the slaves did not work hard enough, but rather due to poor efficiency. Without a factory that manufactured agricultural machinery, there was naturally no mechanical equipment. A dozen harvesters in the warehouse were ordered from Pan-Asia Cooperation before the war. Although the company promised a warranty at the time, the agricultural machinery company was shut down a long time ago.

“Dear War Chief Duaman, I am Feng Yuan from the NAC. This is my assistant Yuan Liwei. On behalf of all the soldiers and citizens of the NAC, as well as the Supreme General, I would like to extend my kindness and respect to you,” Feng Yuan held his right fist against his chest and performed a standard NAC salute to the chief sitting at the top. He took an agreement from his assistant and handed it to a tribal warrior who came to him. Then he nodded and smiled, “We have come here based on our agreement, for the common prosperity of Africa.”

“Please sit down, Mr. Feng Yuan.” War Chief Duaman extended his hand and gestured to the long table full of food, then said in French, “We can eat and talk.”

The banquet commenced.

Women wearing gold jewelry came forward with gold utensils and poured wine into Feng Yuan’s cup. Most of these maids were dark-skinned, and a few of them were white. Nobles of Steel Teeth Tribe sat on both sides of the long table. The nobles closer to the war chief wore more teeth around their neck. As for War Chief Duaman, his neck was almost covered with golden fangs.

Although gold was not a rarity in Wanghai, it was certainly not abundant enough compared to what Feng Yuan saw here.

Chief Zaria was not in the hall. It seemed that he was more like a vassal to War Chief Duaman, rather than his courtier. Feng Yuan was still unclear about the political system in United African Tribes.

The nobles feasted on the meat, while Feng Yuan and his assistant Yuan Liwei continued to reach for the plate full of fruits. Duaman noticed this, so he beckoned to the maid closest to him and whispered a few words.

Soon, a whole plate of cut dragon fruit was brought up.

Even though he tried to restrain the shock in his mind, Feng Yuan’s eyelids twitched fiercely.

After he woke up from the hibernation chamber, he hadn’t even seen a dragon fruit, let alone eat it. However, these African natives brought plates after plates up, the lavishness could no longer be described by words.

“I suggest you try our roasted venison. I bet it is better than fruit.” War Chief Duaman grinned, “In our tribe, the strongest warrior can eat a whole stag! As for the fruits, those are nothing but thirst quenchers.”

“Thank you for your kindness, but I’m sorry I’m full,” Feng Yuan wiped the corners of his mouth with the towel handed by the maid, put down the knife and fork, looked at War Chief Duaman, then smiled, “Before we head to the farm, there was one thing I wondered if I could ask the honorable chief.”

“Go ahead.”

“We hope to buy some slaves, preferably from East Asia,” Feng Yuan said.

“No problem,” Chief Duaman gazed at Feng Yuan, “But what are you going to give me in exchange?”

“Rifles, bullets, all the munitions we can produce, even power armors…” Feng Yuan noticed that the moment War Chief Duaman heard the word power armors, the lack of interest in his eyes instantly became an intense gaze.

s

It was evident that the natives were almost fanatical over power armors.

“No problem! As long as it’s weapons, we want them all!” War Chief Duaman laughed loudly, raised a gold cup full of wine. “Set aside the business for now and let us toast for our long-term friendship!”

“Cheers!”

Like the other tribal nobles, Feng Yuan raised the cup in his hand.

No one noticed, the corner of his mouth reflected in the liquor gradually turned turned into a smug…

Chapter 1541: Farming

The T-3 power armor was quite an outdated model in the NAC, but because of its balanced performance, it was still in service. The modified N-100 based on the X-1 model that NAC acquired from Shangjing’s Line Zero became the latest generation of NAC power armor. Compared to the performance of T-3 and T-4, N-100’s performance improved by leaps and bounds.

But for the natives in Africa, the T-3 power armor was sufficient. Power armor was the strength of Pan-Asia Cooperation, and those different models that flowed into Africa from Europe, America, and Russian were at best comparable to the T-3 model.

Based on NAC’s army reform plan, all the power armors in service would be updated to the T-100 model within five years. As for those T-3 models no longer in service, Jiang Chen had already found them a new home.

The rich but simple-minded natives were undoubtedly good customers.

After the banquet, Feng Yuan accepted the invitation of War Chief Duaman, and stayed with his assistant at the city hall, or rather, War Chief Duaman’s palace for the night. In order to welcome his guests, the hospitable chief also arranged two female slaves to accompany the guests.

There was no need to say what happened that night. In the early morning the next day, Feng Yuan and his assistant bid farewell to War Chief Duaman, and followed the wizard named Lusambo to the Victoria Lake Development Zone, located more than 500 kilometers away, with the convoy.

While the name was a development zone, in fact, it was an area casually circled by the War Chief on the map, and his staff estimated that the region was roughly 20 million mus. As for how the land was going to be cultivated, who was going to be cultivating, even Duaman himself did not have a clue.

The Steel Teeth tribe did not have a minister of agriculture, and there were only a few farmers in the country willing to earn an honest living through farming. The status of a soldier was much higher compared to a farmer. Since the establishment of this development zone, not a single household has moved there from Mombasa.

Fortunately, NAC was finally here, and they sent a company called Future Development to help them farm. War Chief Duaman was certainly elated by the agreement since he didn’t need to work in order to receive a large amount of food every year. The food he received could be further exchanged into valuable power armors. No one would refuse such a good deal.

After the convoy arrived at the development zone, Feng Yuan first asked Lusambo to guide them around the region on an off-road vehicle. After they determined the boundaries for Future Development, he chose a hillside as the base of the development zone.

s

There were two reasons behind his decision; the first was for ease of digging of the canal, and the second was for defense.

Yes, defense.

Although this region was within the territory of the Steel Teeth, Feng Yuan did not forget that his convoy was attacked by militants shortly after they left the port. The law of the jungle was universal on this continent. He did not think that War Chief Duaman would send troops to protect them, so it was critical to rely on themselves.

On the hillside, Feng Yuan took the binoculars and examined the surrounding environment, then after he tossed the binoculars into the vehicle, he walked to the wizard.

“In the first phase of the project, we will reclaim one million mus, and we will need about two thousand slaves. For each slave, we will pay a box of ammunition or five rifles. These arms will arrive in Africa at the beginning of next month on our cargo ship. How soon can the slaves we want be delivered here?”

“It will be delivered in three days,” Lusambo nodded and smiled, “We also hope that you can start as soon as possible.”

“The infrastructure here is too backward. There is not even a decent canal. We have to start from scratch. Is there any larger building material company in Mombasa? We need to order a batch of steel and cement.” Feng Yuan watched the dry-yellow grassland and frowned.

At first, he heard that this was a deserted farmland, but after he toured the place, he started to doubt whether farmland actually existed here. The deer herd not far away still chewed on the grass in leisure while green bushes were scattered on the grassland. From any perspective, this place looked like an untouched African savannah.

“About how much do you need?” Lusambo’s expression turned slightly stiff

“50,000 bags of cement, and 5,000 bundles of steel bars…”

“Ahem!” Lusambo interrupted Feng Yuan, smiled awkwardly, then added, “If it is a small amount of building materials, I can help you, but with the amount you’re requesting… I suggest you guys, think of a solution elsewhere.”

…

Well, they could not depend on the natives anymore.

Feng Yuan gave up the idea of seeking help from the SteelTeeth tribe. After they established a radio base station, he got in touch with NAC headquarters. Within a few days, a cargo ship was docked at a port outside Mombasa, and batches of cement and steel bars were delivered to the development zone.

On the other side, more than 2,000 slaves ordered by NAC were also sent to the development zone. Most of these people were from South Asia, and a small number of them were from East Asia. They were refugees who came to this continent during or after the war. The natives obviously could not distinguish between Asians, just as Feng Yuan could not distinguish the difference between black tribes. Only a small number of the slaves here were from East Asia, and some of them were South American with a yellowish complexion.

In any case, the slaves were already here, and it was impossible to return them.

Feng Yuan arranged a place for the slaves, and then found the compatriots from the Pan-Asia East Region, applied NAC registration for them, and promised all the slaves that one hundred of the most diligent people would be freed from slavery next year, and reemployed as employees.

Just like that, Future Development’s business in the apocalyptic Africa was finally put on the agenda.

The excavators dug an isolation belt around the land in the first phase and diverted water from Lake Victoria. Then the workers set fires on the grassland and burned the grass in the isolation zone.

The fire burned for three days. Three days later, a heavy rain mixed in the ash on the ground deep into the soil. The mixture was an excellent fertilizer with all the mineral elements required by crops.

When it was sunny, machineries drove onto the bare land, tilled the land, planed seeds. On the other hand, Feng Yuan’s assistant Yuan Liwei organized an engineering team and began to dig a small irrigation canal inward from the isolation belt.

They planned to plant rice on 500,000 mus of the land that harvested for three times a year. Another 500,000 mus of land would be planted with cash crops such as sugar cane, coffee, cocoa, as well as fruit trees that Africans have never thought of planting in the past.

In the modern world, Future Building. Xiaorou reported to Jiang Chen on the progress of Future Development’s first contract. Although in the modern world, Future Development was no different than a shell company, Jiang Chen still created an office for her after he couldn’t stand her constant nagging.

“Our employees have established a base on the east bank of Lake Victoria and transported about 100,000 bags of cement and 7,000 bundles of steel bars there. The fences and housing facilities have been completed.”

s

“We also found a medium-sized iron mine there. Although there were signs of mining activities there, it was not deep. We bought the 20-year mining rights for that iron mine with 20 power armors. Now we can not only import food but also iron from there.”

As Xiaorou, who was in a purple dress, spoke with the same dignified smile, Jiang Chen could still feel the excitement gleaming in her eyes.

She really did like this job.

Although Jiang Chen didn’t know how long this euthuasim would last, he was still very happy that she found a career she enjoyed.

In time, maybe she could really become a qualified entrepreneur, like Xia Shiyu, and become his strong support.

Chapter 1542: The Blowout on Europa

Jupiter II, or Europa in astronomy.

The moon of Jupiter had nothing to do with the land known as Europa, but rather, it was named after a beautiful Phoenician princess in ancient Greek mythology. Although the spelling was the same, the meanings were very different.

And the facts also proved that the moon floating in the deep and vast universe, suspected of nurturing life, was indeed as beautiful as an exotic princess.

Ice flakes danced in the air on the vast glacier. Icicles popped up from the cracks on the surface from time to time, then scattered down like frozen flowers. The thin atmosphere contained a trace of oxygen, although relative to the oxygen content of the Earth’s atmosphere, this amount was not worth mentioning.

On top of the endless whiteness, a small half of the sky was occupied by the enormous Jupiter, which extended from the horizon all the way up. It gave people the illusion that if you walked towards Jupiter, you would eventually get there.

Due to tidal locking, the huge planet always hovered in the same place. Most of the light came from the sunlight reflected by Jupiter. As for the Sun itself, it was just a soft bright spot. Therefore, the side that faced Jupiter was always bright, with the glacier illuminated into whiteness, while on the other side, away from Jupiter, was eternal darkness.

The temperature at the equator was below minus 160 degrees Celsius, and the temperature at the poles was below minus 200 degrees Celsius. The ice layer on Europa’s surface was several kilometers thick, and under the thick ice layer was a vast ocean much deeper than Earth’s ocean.

But in general, the climate here was still much better than that in Himalia.

Located between two glaciers was a black-colored colony.

As for why the color of the colony was incompatible with the background, it was to absorb as much heat and light from Jupiter’s limited light as possible.

s

At this moment, the colony’s hatch slowly opened, and a space vehicle pulled out of the garage and headed for the well not far away.

“This is number Z1214. I have arrived at the destination. The drilling platform is operating in stable condition, the battery is being replaced.”

“Received… please continue to report the current situation.”

“Roger.”

An engineer in a heavy spacesuit jumped out from a vehicle, opened the trunk, and took out a battery about the size of a laptop computer. He then walked towards the drilling platform.

His name was Tan Ming, from Hua, and one of the first group of immigrants in the Earth Defense Alliance Colonization Plan. Before he stepped onto this land, he only received one month of adaptive training on the Moon. As for the battery in his hand, it was a nuclear battery that contained helium and tritium protected by a thick lead barrier.

The gravitational environment on Europa was slightly better than Himalia, about one-seventh of Earth’s gravity, slightly lower than that of the Moon. Anyone who has received spacewalk training in Lunar City could easily adapt to this degree of gravity.

Tan Ming jumped onto the platform, took out a wrench from behind his back, then twisted open the bolts that fixed the battery. He then pulled out a data cable, connected it to the wrist-mounted computer on his arm, and typed in the unlock password.

With a soft click sound, followed by the sound of air leaking, the movable door that fixed the battery popped open.

He skillfully removed the battery from the drilling platform, then put the battery in his left hand into the groove. Finally, he closed the battery compartment door again and tightened the bolts.

“This is number Z1214. The battery has been replaced and the drilling power supply is normal.”

“Check the drill.”

“Checking…” Tan Ming typed a few buttons on the wrist-mounted computer, watched the progress bar go to full, then heaved a sigh of relief, and continued to report, “The drill is in good condition. Do you want me to open it?”

“Open it.”

He jumped off the drilling platform and floated steadily back to the ground.

The drilling platform behind him began to operate again with a muffled rumble coming from underneath his feet.

In the outpost not far away, all scientists, no matter which country they were from, were now gathered in the command room of the outpost. They quietly watched the red line on the screen that continued to go down. They had waited for this moment from when the drill was built first built. Now, a month had passed in a blink of an eye.

Based on the analysis of the Institute of Extraterrestrial Biology from Coro University, the suitable seabed temperature combined with the abundant oxygen resources, as well as the light from the seabed volcanoes, meant that there was likely to be life activities under Europa’s ice cover. All drill bits and detectors were sterilized to avoid contamination of Europa’s oceans by the Earth’s bacteria or viruses.

The red dot that marked the drill bit continued downward, and the returned shock wave began to change from weak to strong as it got closer and closer to the interface between ice and water.

If everything went smoothly, today was the day it’d penetrate through the ice!

At this moment, on another holographic screen, the shock wave suddenly jittered violently, followed by the raging alarm. The entire command room soon turned into boiling water, and all the staff immediately started to move.

“The ice layer has cracked, and a large amount of gas moving upwards has been detected!”

“Stop drilling and detonate the perforating device!”

“Roger that!”

After the staff in front of the command platform received the commander’s order, he immediately grasped the red handle and pushed it to the bottom with force.

On Europa, heat was more important than water. The water resources here were extremely rich, with more water than Earth. The water on Earth was mostly on the surface, but Europa’s water was all in its stomach.

NASA made a horizontal comparison a long time ago. They made a model of Earth’s water resources and Europa’s water resources into a sphere, and the conclusion was the same.

Tidal force caused Europa to be in a state of repeated stretching and contraction. The energy generated by this movement heated the seawater under the ice layer, and together with submarine volcanic activity, it provided heat for life activities on the seafloor.

However, it was precisely because of the stretching and contraction movement caused by this tidal force that made Europa’s ice sheet prone to compression, similar to the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates, which resulted in cracked and uplifted glaciers and fractured ice valleys. For this reason, it was very common to observe the spectacular scene where water streams erupted kilometers up into the air, then instantly solidified into ice crystals at ultra-low temperatures.

Almost as soon as the handle was pushed down, the drill bit, which was several kilometers deep into the ice sheet, suddenly flashed for a brief moment. The electromagnetic force ejected the anchor hook, slammed into the ice cap squeezing the drill pipe, and firmly tightened the drill bit into the ice sheet.

At the same time, the location under the drill bit began to shake violently as cracks began to spread upward on the ice sheet. The ice cap began to break in large chunks, until the moment when the cracks touched the drill bit, the entire ice cap was like a pierced balloon that shattered instantly. The seawater mixed with high-pressure air bubbles instantly collided with the drill bit—

“Damn it! The drill pipe is broken!”

“Z1214, evacuate the area immediately, I REPEAT, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!”

As Tan Ming felt the tremor under his feet, he took a few steps back with a horrified look on his face. When he heard the command, he immediately climbed into the vehicle. While he started the engine, he roared with all his force.

“FU*K! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!”

“We didn’t do anything… The situation underneath may be more complicated than we thought… Anyway, get out of there quickly…”

The command center said something else after, but he couldn’t pay more attention to it. As soon as he sat into the seat, he started the space vehicle at the fastest speed, pressed down the accelerator to the limit. However, after he desperately drove six hundred meters further, he heard a muffled bang from under his chair that almost lifted him up from his seat.

s

“FU*K!”

His head jerked forward violently, he subconsciously turned his head and saw the drilling platform tens of meters high was blasted into the sky by icicles like a volcanic eruption. The spiraling water column scattered down circles of ice flakes, just like a tornado, they danced freely in the air.

He subconsciously released the force on the accelerator as the vehicle had escaped from the danger zone. Bean-sized hails hit the glass window gently, but his sight was firmly frozen on the scene.

Tan Ming could swear.

It was definitely the most spectacular scene he has ever seen in his life…

Chapter 1543: An Unexpected Discovery

Inside the Celestial City Space Command Center, the staff that sat in front of the computers also waited for news from Europa.

Although the outpost on Europa was equipped with a quantum communication device, a slight delay in communication was still present. When the picture of the drilling platform being blown up was transmitted here, almost everyone in the space command held their breath.

After about half a minute, the staff took off their headphones in silence, and many people let out a depressed sigh.

Unlike the feelings of depression and regret in the mind of these researchers, Jiang Chen was in pain as he watched the platform blow up on the holographic screen.

A “blowout” like this was the equivalent of two billion dollars, and it also meant that the works of Europa’s outpost over the past month had been in vain.

The upwelling seawater would backfill the cracks that were drilled through quickly and eventually freeze again. Fortunately, the colonists activated the perforating device in time and left the drill bit and the deep-sea robot under the ice sheet. It was only saving grace behind the month of work.

But after Jiang Chen remembered that the costs of Europa colonization were split with major member states, he felt a little better, at least he was not the only one that lost money.

“Drilling for water is the wrong choice. The water pressure below the ice sheet is unimaginable. When our drill bit was about two hundred meters away from the bottom of the ice sheet, the ocean directly ruptured the ice sheet, which led to the subsequent blowout.”

Kelvin looked at the giant fountain shaped like an umbrella from the image captured by the orbiting satellite. The frown on his face was very apparent while he was in deep thought.

“How is the situation with the deep-sea robot?” Jiang Chen asked.

s

“It is operating normally. It can be activated again once the ocean current environment is stabilized.” When Kelvin heard Jiang Chen’s question, he pointed at the line of parameters in the lower right corner of the holographic screen. “This is the pressure. You can see that the parameters are changing rapidly. Our deep-sea robot is probably—”

“Will it be swallowed by a big fish?”

Kelvin had to process the question for a brief second. When he realized that Jiang Chen told a joke, he laughed out.

“It’s not possible. In such a primitive ecosystem, there can be no overly large organisms. Otherwise, there will be serious problems in both the consumption of organic matter and the supply of heat. It is no exaggeration to say that a whale will overwhelm the entire Europa ecosystem.”

“You can’t be certain,” Jiang Chen smiled and looked at the changing parameters. “When we first set foot on Mars, didn’t we think it was just a desert? But under the sand, there was always weird stuff coming out.”

Before the truth is revealed, no one can guarantee that their inference is correct.

Of course, from the perspective of investors, he still hoped that nothing weird would pop up from underneath Europa. Otherwise, it would not only increase costs with no benefits, but the solar system would also be too lively of a place.

“Knock on wood… HEY!”

Lin Lin head was gently tapped on as she covered her forehead and stared at Jiang Chen in anger.

Jiang Chen, who knew that he did not use force at all, ignored Lin Lin’s exaggerated reaction, pretended not to see her, and continued on the topic just now.

“What about the life signals? We should have been monitoring this, right?”

Kelvin glanced awkwardly between the two while he decided to ignore the “little tail” behind Jiang Chen, and continued after a light cough, “Based on the life signal wave we sent to Europa’s seabed, we did detect some traces of suspected life sources on the seafloor. However, due to the distance, the authenticity of those life sources is still uncertain, because…”

“Because the life signal detection device is only effective for mammals and birds, it is very ineffective for arthropods, chordates, and other temperature-changing animals, and the effectiveness for plants is almost negligible. Am I right?” Lin Lin triumphantly raised her chest and looked like she was very proud of herself.

Kelvin looked at Lin Lin in surprise, obviously, he didn’t expect a girl her age to know so much.

Just from her age alone, she was probably slightly older than his daughter. Of course, this thought was only true because he did not know about digitalized humans. If Kelvin learned Lin Lin’s true age, his expression would be much more interesting compared to now.

“Don’t worry about her, let her just show off.” Jiang Chen looked helplessly at Lin Lin. Recently, she had been acting a little abnormal, and he didn’t know what to say. After he coughed to signal for them to return to the right topic, looked at the numbers that jump on the holographic screen, and then said, “Is there any good solutions? Regarding the problem of the colony’s water source.”

“I will discuss with the engineers of Future Heavy Industries and see if we can solve the blowout problem through engineering design.” Kelvin lowered his head and thought for a moment, but he responded somewhat helplessly, “Before solving this problem, we will have to continue to use electricity to heat ice cubes.”

Electric heating was the most energy-consuming method of creating water. It meant that Europa, which was not an energy-abundant moon, had to find a way to generate electricity. The hope was on the nearby Jupiter. The gas giant emitted 18,000 times Earth’s radiation. Under the bombardment of high-energy particles, there should be a lot of tritium on Europa’s surface.

In the meantime, the ocean current environment near the robot finally stabilized.

The colonists far away on Europa started the execution program of the deep-sea robot.

The sphere wrapped in titanium alloy released a string of bubbles between its gaps, and the blade-like stacked armor shrank inward from the tail. It exposed the propeller hidden in the armor and began to move forward as the motor started.

On Jiang Chen’s side, it didn’t take long for the video frame in the lower right corner of the holographic screen to light up. The picture came directly from the front camera of the deep-sea robot. The only area visible was the area illuminated by the searchlight.

Lin Lin opened her eyes slightly and stared at the picture on the screen intently. Although Europa was also colonized in the 22nd century, that kind of remote matter obviously had nothing to do with her as she laid in the hospital bed all the time then.

“Will the digitalized human feel uncomfortable?” Jiang Chen asked in a low voice.

“Uncomfortable?” Lin Lin tilted her head.

“Deep-sea phobia.” Jiang Chen said, “Although I don’t have it, I still feel a kind of instinctive discomfort when I watch the picture gradually descend.”

s

“You should ask Lilith about this,” Lin Lin rolled her eyes.

Just as the two whispered to each other, a ray of light suddenly appeared on the screen. The faint light did not come from the beam of the searchlight, but the deeper seabed. The person at the outpost turned off the searchlight on the deep-sea robot, adjusted the motor’s output power, slowed down, and moved to the light source below.

When the behemoth appeared on the screen, everyone in the command room let out a surprised exclaim of different sorts in unison. As for Lin Lin, her eyes almost bulged out.

When Jiang Chen saw what appeared on the screen, his pupils constricted as he muttered to himself.

“…Why is this here.”

Chapter 1544: Starship in the Deep Sea

“This is…”

In the outpost command room, researchers from different countries stood in front of the holographic screen widened their eyes, and looked at everything in front of them in disbelief.

The submarine volcano exuded a red-hot glow, and strings of bubbles rose from the bottom of the sea. A huge starship was embedded between the bottomless trench and the towering rock wall. The fearsome-looking steel armor was covered with blood-red seaweed that looked like mottled rust.

When Colonial Governor Peng Wei saw the majestic battleship on the holographic screen, a look of astonishment appeared on his face

Envoy-class…

No, it was a bit bigger than the Envoy-class.

He had seen the Envoy-class and was even close to getting on that ship to represent Earth Defense Alliance to the Kuiper Belt. Later, because of a sudden job transfer, he was transferred into the colonial reserve army and finally became an honorable colonial governor.

“Let’s get closer.” Peng Wei ordered.

“Yes.” The staff in charge of operating the robot moved the joystick.

The deep-sea robot several kilometers under the ice cap restarted its motor, the blade-like propeller turned again and moved towards the starship below.

s

“What do you see?”

“A line of letters… Get closer, I can’t see them clearly.”

The blood-red seaweed covered the line of white paint. In desperation, the staff had to operate the deep-sea robot closer and cleaned up the seaweed with the mechanical arm.

Soon, the seaweed that covered the line of white characters was peeled off and it revealed the first few initials.

Russian?

Peng Wei was caught off-guard.

He thought he would see some extraterrestrial letters, but he didn’t expect it to be a language that was present on Earth.

He was not the only one surprised; the staff from different countries were also astonished. Surprised and shocked cries and exclaims filled the command room, especially from the astronaut from Russia, who said in an excited but trembling voice when he saw the line of letters.

“The Baikonur launch site… that can’t be wrong, this is the initials of the Baikonur launch site. But… why is the name Baikonur here?”

The Baikonur launch base has never had a launch plan for Europa and had never launched such a large starship. The only company capable of building starships is Future Heavy Industries…

“The detection plan is terminated immediately.” Peng Wei patted the robot operator on the shoulder and immediately ordered as he realized the seriousness of the problem, “Enter the silent state.”

“…” The operator took a second to process the order he just received. He didn’t understand why he had to stop now, but when he saw the serious expression on the governor’s face, he nodded subconsciously, “Okay, okay.”

The deep-sea robot moved away from the starship sleeping on the bottom of the sea, flew towards the rock wall on the side, and launched a hook to the rock wall to fix itself. The detection plan was suddenly terminated, which shocked all the staff in the command room.

“Wait, why stop?” The Slavic astronaut stepped forward and grabbed Peng Wei’s arm. He shouted emotionally, “We are only one step away from the truth, and we will be able to—”

“Before we can confirm that what we are about to uncover is the’ truth’ and not trouble, we need to have a meeting,” Peng Wei stared into the eyes of the Slavic astronaut, and said in an absolute, irrefutable tone, “you are a bit too emotional, I suggest you calm down first, Mr. Kutpov.”

After Peng Wei finished the sentence, he ignored the astronaut from Russia, took off the radio on his shoulder, and was about to notify the managers of the different countries to go to the conference room of the outpost center for a meeting, but at this time, the behemoth in the holographic screen suddenly moved.

Dense bubbles rose from the bottom of the sea, and the huge shock wave crashed into the deep-sea robot with the tumbling ocean current. Fortunately, the hook prevented it from being swept away by the impact. The continuous shaking image along with the rising ocean current parameters made Peng Wei’s pupils constrict suddenly, and both of his hands slammed on the table in front of the holographic image.

“What happened?”

“That starship…” The staff operating the deep-sea robot gulped down the dry lump in his throat, with a look of disbelief in his eyes, he squeezed out the words with difficulty, “It seemed to have moved.”

It was not seemed, it actually happened.

Perhaps it was “awakened” by the deep-sea robot when it cleaned the seaweed, but the behemoth sleeping on the bottom of the sea made a low muffled bang. Bubbles emerged from the bottom of the sea again and just like a wall made from fog, they almost covered the entire starship.

Everyone in the command room widened their eyes and stared at the huge starship.

However, before they could see what was happening there, the image on the holographic screen turned into whiteness.

“What’s going on?” Peng Wei was stunned, and hurriedly asked the operator of the deep-sea robot.

“I don’t know, it may be that the ocean current just hit the camera.” The operator sweated profusely and checked the robot’s parameters while he prayed for the robot not to malfunction. “Damnit… the camera is normal. The sensory device is also normal. What went wrong…”

At this moment, the picture on the holographic screen flashed suddenly, and the whiteness in the screen disappeared.

However, what made everyone in the room freeze was that that the picture projected on the holographic screen was obviously not from the camera on the deep-sea robot, but a circular meeting room.

“… Our communication is hijacked.” The operator stopped the meaningless struggle and his hands left the control pad. He swallowed down his saliva and said with difficulty in his tone, “The other party’s technology is better than ours, and it’s not just technology.”

This is nonsense.

Peng Wei thought in his mind, but he didn’t speak, because his attention had been stuck on the holographic screen.

In the center of the empty meeting room, light blue particles gathered and gradually formed into a figure…

…

Inside Celestial City Space Command Center, the expressions of Jiang Chen and Lin Lin froze from the moment the starship appeared. It wasn’t until the figure appeared in the center of the meeting room that he came back to his senses.

A long time ago, Jiang Chen had thought about the countless possibilities of the two worlds colliding and what kind of picture it would be, but he had never thought that this moment would come so suddenly. He even felt a little caught off guard.

The man had his head shaved, wore a weird gown with weird edges, and had a few tubes connected to his back. There was also a strange pattern on the top of his head.

“Hello, I’m Golovin, nice to meet you.”

s

The man on the screen was very polite and nodded while he spoke. However, this kind of politeness was formulaic. From the indifferent gaze, Jiang Chen couldn’t see the slightest emotion or color.

“What happened?” Kelvin looked dumbfounded while he stared at the man claiming to be Golovin on the holographic screen. He had lost his ability to speak at this moment.

Alien?

But why do aliens look like humans?

“Space Colonization Ship Svetovid…” Next to Jiang Chen, Lin Lin whispered in a voice that only Jiang Chen could hear, “The masterpiece of the Baikonur launch base, the space colonization ship from CCCP…”

Chapter 1545: The Svetovid

Svetovid is one of the main deities in Slavic mythology and is the god of war, fertility, and abundance. As the god of the Slavs on the Baltic coast, he is depicted as having four heads and four faces, riding a white horse, holding a sword and a spear, and often accompanied by three hundred cavalries. Not all space colonization ships were mythological, but to some extent, all the ships inherited the culture and blood of their “suzerain state”.

The space colonization ship named after Svetovid, codenamed Courage, aimed at a small wormhole 3.2 light-years away from the solar system. The plans of different countries were akin to this. Two ships set off at the same time, with one headed to a wormhole theoretically capable of jumping to hundreds of light-years away to find new hope in the unknown universe, while the other sailed into the expansive universe and passed through centuries in hibernation.

Golovin couldn’t remember exactly how long he slept.

He only remembered that at the very end, the chairman patted him on the shoulder and told him in a solemn tone that the Soviet future was already on his shoulders. However, to this day, the specific content of that mission and the dogma that he once firmly believed had long been forgotten in the passage of time.

As for how he survived through time, it was another story that needed time to tell.

“Our communication channel has been hijacked. Their starship is probably equipped with high-power quantum communication equipment,” Kelvin lowered his voice and said to Jiang Chen, “They parsed our communication code, bypassed the outpost on Europa, and directly connected to our communication channel.”

When he heard this news, Jiang Chen looked a bit surprised.

It’s the quantum communication technology with the highest security.

After he thought for a moment, he immediately made a decision.

“Let Europa suspend the project and censor the news first. Also, immediately expel those who don’t have enough authority from here.”

“Roger!” Kelvin nodded and walked quickly to the side.

Soon, a large number of staff members were taken away from the command center and only a few people remained.

Jiang Chen looked at the man on the screen, deliberated for a moment, pressed on the communication button, and connected into the communication channel of the starship. He then said in a humble but dignified voice.

“Jiang Chen, Chief Director of the Earth Defense Alliance and President of Celestial Trade. I would like to greet you with my welcome while at the same time, I hope you can explain your intention to hijack our communication channel.”

“Please forgive our abrupt behavior, but please believe that we have no ill intention. It just happened as our last resort,” Galovin continued in the same monotone. He slightly lowered his head and continued, “We are running out of time, and only you can help us.”

“What do you want?” Jiang Chen stared at him and asked.

“Our people need supplies,” Galovin said briefly, in straightforwardness, “If you can, please rescue us from the ice sheet.”

“It can’t be done,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but we don’t have the technology to help you. We tried drilling into the ice sheet, but it was quickly destroyed by water pressure, and the shaft was instantly frozen again…”

Jiang Chen was more curious about how he ended up in the ice sheet of Europa. It was an ice sheet few kilometers thick. Even the thinnest place was beyond the maximum thickness of the polar icecap.

Galovin did not say anything, instead, his finger moved in the air.

A string of zeros and ones seemed to have ripped a void in the area that the finger passed through and began to spill to Jiang Chen’s side. In the brief glimpse, a large amount of data flowed in through the communication channel into the space command’s server.

“Warning, a large stream of data incoming.” Lilith’s voice rang in Jiang Chen’s ear.

Now she was responsible for the information security of the entire Celestial City. Of course, this huge data stream caught her attention immediately.

“Analyze the content of the data,” Jiang Chen ordered.

“Working… the analysis is finished. It’s a lot of holographic images and text descriptions.” Lilith, who was lying on the sofa in the mansion on Coro Island, blinked, “It’s confirmed that the data is not dangerous, do you want to lift the quarantine?”

“…Quarantine in a separate server first.” After he ordered, he took a pause, then looked at Galovin on the screen, “Can you explain what just happened?”

“Just a bunch of old files that you may find helpful.” Galovin nodded, “Before we revived, we had half a century of experience developing Europa. Based on our observation, what you’re lacking is not knowledge, but technology, as well as a new way of thinking.”

Jiang Chen swiped his finger across the holographic screen as he glanced through the information Galovin sent. There was a hint of astonishment in his eyes.

Galovin sent him a blueprint on how the CCCP developed Jupiter and its moons.

“Is this sincere enough?” Galovin asked.

“Enough…” As he turned off the holographic image of the watch, he looked at him. While he was still vigilant, it was not as explicit as before, “But before I help you, I must figure out where you are from and what you plan to do.”

Galovin did not evade this question and responded with a tone without ups and downs.

“The wormhole jump had a little malfunction, and our scientists miscalculated a decimal point, which caused us to sleep for too long.”

“In the virtual Garden of Eden, we spent almost endless years and took a little time from those almost endless years to solve the problems we faced. Because we know that the virtual paradise does not belong to us, we will be awakened someday in the future.”

“When we escaped from the wormhole, we have appeared on Europa’s seafloor.”

“I know this is unbelievable, but this is what we have experienced.”

After Galovin finished, Jiang Chen continued to stare at him as he tried to read deception or similar emotions from his pupils. However, it turned out that it was futile because emotions seemed to not exist on him from the beginning.

Galovin saw that Jiang Chen didn’t speak and continued.

“You should have been in contact with people over there, right?”

“Over there?”

Jiang Chen was slightly taken aback. At this moment, Galovin said the name that sure made Jiang Chen surprised

“The void.”

“Have you seen them?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“We stayed in the void for a short time and had a relationship with those poor people.” Galovin said, “They told us the story about you and all of you and the troubles you face. In the end, they hope we can help you.”

“I know there is no free lunch in this world,” Jiang Chen stared at Galovin and said, “What is your intention?”

“Intention?” Bewildered by this word for about two seconds, a smile appeared on Galovin face, “With your way of thinking, there is no problem with interpreting it this way. First of all… we need a piece of land to rest, a place not disturbed by anyone.”

“In exchange, we will help you.”

Chapter 1546: Distant Memory

“In exchange, we will help you.”

The last sentence made Jiang Chen unable to refuse Golovin’s request. Against the invasion of Harmony, the civilization of Earth that just managed to step into the starry night was like a newborn baby. Jiang Chen did not know what exactly the Svetovid experienced when it went through the wormhole, he simply did not want to let any opportunity that increased their chances go.

Even if it meant a certain amount of risk.

Moreover, after he saw Golovin, he suddenly had an idea.

“We will provide you with all necessary help to get you out of the ice sheet. At the same time, we will allow you to register companies in Xin and participate in the development of outer space resources… Of course, this is only nominally. We will provide you with a piece of land on Mars and a space elevator.”

“We will remember your kindness.” Golovin nodded. “My people and I don’t want to be disturbed, but it doesn’t mean that we are not gregarious. We will maintain a dialogue with you and hope that our friendship can grow to eternity.”

“How should I call you?” Jiang Chen said, “I mean, you and your people…Soviets? Or something else.”

“Soviets?” Golovin raised his head. “A very old name, accompanied by an unpleasant memory… If it is convenient, I would prefer you to call me and my people Golovins.”

“Golovins?” Jiang Chen was taken aback, puzzled, “Isn’t this your name?”

“Yes,” Golovin nodded, “Is there a problem?”

“???”

The problem was asking “is there a problem” with a straight face. If Jiang Chen’s own understanding was correct, then there were some fundamental differences between the two.

Fortunately, it was not the first time Jiang Chen encountered a civilization completely different from human society, so he did not show too much surprise, but wisely chose to ignore this problem for now, which led to his contemplation of the issue just now.

“Let’s put these insignificant things aside. It will take a while to get you out of the ice sheet. During this time, I hope you can cooperate with me.”

“If it’s a technical question, I will answer all I know,” Golovin said.

“It’s not a technical problem… Well, to put it simply, I hope you can put on an act.” Worried that this foreigner would misunderstand the situation, Jiang Chen was direct and stated his intentions.

“An act?” Golovin stared at Jiang Chen, “What’s the significance?”

“Politics,” Jiang Chen said, “Against the invasion of Harmony, a united Earth Federation definitely has a better chance of winning than a loose defense alliance. In fact, we have made some preparations for the establishment of the Earth Federation, but there are still a lot of troubles in front of us. In short, we need an opportunity…”

At this point, Jiang Chen stopped and just stared at Golovin.

That sentence could be directly interpreted without having to be finished.

You are the opportunity.

“Politics?” Golovin blinked but did not respond right away. His deep pupils seemed to say he was recollecting a distant memory again. Then he lowered his head and whispered, “A very old vocabulary, accompanied by an unpleasant memory…”

…

“Does a civilization become advanced as long as you go through the wormhole?” Jiang Chen, who had been thinking about something, suddenly asked after he left the command center.

“I don’t know… why do you suddenly think this way?” Lin Lin looked at him inexplicably and asked.

“It’s just a feeling.”

After he carefully thought about it, it seemed to be the case. If Jiang Chen recalled correctly, a total of three colonization ships passed through the wormhole. One of them flew into the void and became a drifter in the crevice of the dimensions, together with the starship itself, they became an immortal but non-existent quantum state. Another ship seemed to be called the Brahma. It leaped into this dimension and came to the Gliese Galaxy, 20.5 light-years away from the solar system. After thousands of years of evolution, it eventually evolved into a biological civilization that swallowed the entire planet.

As for the Svetovid, Jiang Chen hadn’t noticed their immaculateness, or rather, it was weak enough to be trapped under the ice sheet of Europa and asked for his rescue. But instinct told Jiang Chen that the secrets between the Sevtovid were not small.

Especially from Golovin’s words, Jiang Chen discovered that these people actually had a relationship with those remnants of the void. Disregard the uniqueness of the Svetovid, even if they received a little help from the remnants of the void, they would be similar to the Gaia civilization.

Of course, this horizontal comparison was mainly based on related research in anti-matter. From the data of the Gaia civilization, the collection and storage of anti-matter were inferior in all respects compared to the “gifts” given to Jiang Chen by the remnants of the void.

After they returned to the hotel in Celestial City, Jiang Chen tossed his coat on the hanger, loosened the button around his neck, and looked at Lin Lin who was already rolling on the bed. Speechlessly, he said, “Are you not going to shower before you get into bed.”

“What’s the matter? My metabolism is less than one-tenth of yours.” Lin Lin spat out her tongue at him, then sat up on the bed with her arms wrapped around a pillow while her two feet dangled off the bed, “Where should we go tomorrow? Should we go to Lunar City, I haven’t been to the Moon yet.”

“It’s too far, maybe next time when we have the opportunity.”

He walked beside the floor-to-ceiling window, then sat down on the chair that looked like a hollowed-out pumpkin.

The Earth was outside the window, with a panoramic view of the entire eastern hemisphere.

Instead of enjoying the scenery that he has seen countless times, he turned on the holographic screen of the watch.

Soon, Lilith’s holographic image appeared to his left.

“Have you analyzed the data?” Jiang Chen asked.

The data naturally referred to the engineering drawings and technical data sent by Golovin, which was more than 500 terabytes. After the transmission finished, he sent the data into a backup server for isolation and storage. Although Jiang Chen didn’t think Golovin had a reason to deceive him, it was always important to be careful.

“The analysis has been completed, and no viruses or backdoor programs have been found,” Lilith said.

His own judgment was confirmed, and Jiang Chen was slightly relieved.

“Any further instructions?” Lilith asked.

“No,” Jiang Chen said.

Almost as soon he finished the sentence, Lilith’s figure disappeared.

There was no need to guess at all. She was probably in a dungeon again in either “Godly Land” or “Galaxy Edge”.

Jiang Chen shook his head with a smile.

Advanced artificial intelligence addicted to online games definitely has the potential to become the most interesting cold joke this year.

“Are you busy now?” Lin Lin stared at the back at Jiang Chen’s head while she asked in a whisper.

“No.” He turned his chair around and looked at Lin Lin. He instantly understood the expression on her face and could not stop smiling. “What’s the matter?”

“Then…” Lin Lin, who squeezed her index fingers together and hugged the pillow, suddenly was afraid to look at Jiang Chen. The flush of her face started to become apparent while she said, “Then, hurry up and take a shower.”

“Shower?” Jiang Chen pretended he did not understand what she meant, “Why do I need to shower so early? I’m not going to sleep yet.”

“Because…”

“Because?”

“I want…”

“You want?”

Jiang Chen suddenly felt he had become more sadist as he looked at Lin Lin, who shrunk into a ball. Her cheeks flushed, and her head began to steam.

It seemed that after he pushed down Yao Yao, the last remaining bit of discipline he had was also tossed away.

In a playful gaze, Jiang Chen watched Lin Lin while he debated how to tease this little bunny that always had an unforgiving mouth. Just then, Lin Lin, whose lips trembled, seemed to have reached the breaking point of shamefulness.

Finally, Lin Lin noticed the smile on Jiang Chen’s face, and she exploded out of shame.

“Pervert, don’t let me say it!”

Her face turned the color of a ripe red apple as she angrily tossed a pillow in Jiang Chen’s direction.

Chapter 1547: Time to Bluff

If it weren’t for the different-colored eyes and silver-colored hair, Jiang Chen would occasionally forget Lin Lin’s identity, as well as Tingting that lived inside her.

The feeling of kissing a digitalized human was not much different. He could still feel the temperature between the saliva, the heartbeat of the girl, as well as the passion inside her…

It was enough.

The next morning, when Jiang Chen woke up, Lin Lin laid on his chest and slept like a little cat.

After he gently moved her aside, covered her with a quilt, he sat up from the bed and put on his pajamas. At the same time, he wore his watch.

“Two sandwiches, two cups of hot milk, room A702.”

He called the front desk and ordered breakfast. After he had done that, he went to take a shower. When he came out wrapped in a bath towel, the waiter had already pushed the dining cart to the door and delivered the hot steamy breakfast to his hands.

Perhaps Lin Lin smelled the aroma of food, she woke up from her dream. Her slightly messy hair dropped on her face while she sat up on the bed in a daze. She stared at the breakfast on the table for a long time, sniffed with her cute little nose, and then finally felt more awake.

“Come have breakfast if you’re awake, remember to brush your teeth first.” Jiang Chen threw the wrapping paper into the garbage bin while he quickly drank the last sip of milk.

“Are we still going to go to the Space Command Center today?” Lin Lin muttered while she put on a T-shirt.

“No, we have to go back today.”

“This quickly?” Lin Ling pouted.

She could only have Jiang Chen to herself here.

“We can’t stay here all the time,” Jiang Chen rubbed Lin Lin’s head, “I will take you here when I have a chance in the future.”

“Deal.”

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded at the pouting Yao Yao.

“Mhmm.”

The trivial matters like checking out of the hotel were naturally for his assistant. He carried his bag and brought Lin Lin to the apron, where he sat into the G100 that had been waiting for him.

Almost immediately after he got off the plane, he received a call from Zhang Yaping, and the first sentence did not surprise him.

“Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov hopes to meet with you.”

“Russian Foreign Minister? Why haven’t I heard that he is planning to visit Xin?”

“He only applied yesterday. It should be a temporary adjustment of the itinerary. Did something happen again?” Zhang Yaping could not help but ask.

“Why do you ask?” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Because it’s not just the Russian Foreign Minister. Just yesterday at noon, our consulates around the world probably received more than a dozen applications for foreign affairs visits,” Zhang Yaping said.

“Something happened,” Jiang Chen smiled, “but you will see it in the news soon, so there is no need for me to talk nonsense here.”

Zhang Yaping was taken aback for a moment. He wanted to ask a few more questions, but he saw that Jiang Chen didn’t seem to want to say more so he gave up on the thought.

“What about the Russian Foreign Minister?”

After Jiang Chen debated for a moment, he replied.

“Let him wait for me in Future Building. I will go there at about three o’clock in the afternoon.”

Jiang Chen was not too concerned if Golovin got in touch with other countries. After all, although all countries knew a little bit about quantum communication technology, the quantum entanglement to achieve superluminal communication was still firmly controlled by Celestial Trade.

Even if Golovin was interested in communicating with other countries on Earth, the first step was for the countries to hear him. Otherwise, it would be like shouting into empty space while the other side was deaf.

As for the contact between researchers to their home countries, Jiang Chen could not stop this from happening. A joint project worth hundreds of billions of dollars in investment was not like an illegal coal mine.

There was no doubt that the astronauts on Europa sent the news from yesterday back to Earth via radio. A message in text form did not require sophisticated technology at all, not to mention that it would be only 1KB in size.

But Jiang Chen didn’t plan to censor the news, otherwise, he wouldn’t have told so many things to Golovin, as well as asked him to put on an act.

And the first person to visit was from Russia. It was what Jiang Chen expected.

After all, that starship’s name was written in Russian.

It was likely that last night, no one from the Kremlin had a good night’s sleep.

…

“Hello.”

In the reception room of the Future Building, Jiang Chen met Foreign Minister Lavrov.

Jiang Chen had met the foreign minister from Russia several times in previous international conferences.

After they shook hands, Jiang Chen gestured for him to take a seat and asked the waiter to pour tea.

“Mr. Lavrov made a special trip for what matter?” Jiang Chen asked with a smile.

“I heard some rumors recently and I wanted to verify them,” Lavrov smiled and subtly probed in a chattering tone, “I heard that under the ice sheet of Europa, there is a starship with Russian text on it? The name of the Baikonur Cosmodrome is also written on it. I don’t know if it’s true.”

“It’s the case.” To Lavrov’s surprise, Jiang Chen did not hide the news. He not only was straightforward, but he also joked, “Although I don’t know what’s inside, it shouldn’t be your lost starship, right?”

In fact, such a starship happened to be missing recently from the hangar of the Baikonur launch base…

Although Lavrov wanted to say this very much, he knew that he himself would not believe it.

There were two main reasons for his visit to Xin. One was to find out why the name of the Baikonur Cosmodrome was written on the “alien” starship, and the other more important reason was about the salvage of an alien ship.

It is alien technology!

And a starship well preserved!

This alone was enough to make countries around the world hold their breath.

If Celestial Trade did not let them join the fun in the past, it was understandable. After all, it was their technology. From their own perspective, they would do the same. But now, the major member states were invested in the Europa project! If Celestial Trade decided to monopolize the technology again, it won’t be justified.

“Of course not, the question just now was just because of my personal curiosity,” Lavrov smiled, “I wonder what Mr. Jiang Chen plans to do with this alien ship?”

“Of course, to salvage it first, and research on it together.”

There was a hint of surprise and disbelief in Lavrov’s eyes after he heard Jiang Chen’s answer.

He thought he would have to spend a lot of effort and even have to surrender a lot of the interests that originally belonged to Russia, but he didn’t expect Jiang Chen to be so open and direct. So much so, he even forgot about the feasibility of salvaging that starship for the time being.

“It’s just…” At this moment when Lavrov was still processing the shock, Jiang Chen suddenly changed his tone and sighed softly, “The guests on the starship made an unreasonable request.”

“Guests? You mean…” Lavrov’s expression changed and his eyes were filled with disbelief.

“That’s right,” Jiang Chen nodded, “That’s not a shipwreck. There are living people on it.”

Chapter 1548: An Honest Dialogue

That’s not a shipwreck…

There are living people on it?!

When Lavrov left Future Building, he was still in a daze, as for what Jiang Chen said later, he could not make out the words clearly anymore. After he did his best to maintain the composure of a diplomat, he was in a daze the moment he stepped into the elevator.

He found it difficult to digest the information for the time being. The value behind this starship already exceeded his imagination and exceeded the imagination of the Russia Space Agency and the Kremlin.

“Go back to the hotel…no, go to the embassy.”

After Lavrov got into the vehicle parked downstairs, he spoke to the driver subconsciously, but quickly changed his mind. He had to report the information to the Kremlin immediately, an alien ship sleeping under Europa’s ice cap, for some reason, the name of the Baikonur Cosmodrome was printed on it

Not only that, the “alien” inside could still be alive.

“Okay, sir.”

The driver started the vehicle and entered the maglev road smoothly.

As Lavrov watched Future Building disappear from the rear-view mirror, his thoughts were slightly pulled back from that alien starship, but at this moment, he started to frown because of another issue that he could not figure out.

Future Group today…

seemed to be too generous?

His instinct told him that the matter was not that simple…

Just as Lavrov watched the Future Building disappear in the mirror, Jiang Chen, who stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top-floor office, also watched Lavrov’s vehicle shrink to a point at the end of the highway and merge into the constant flow of traffic in Coro City.

“You want to ask me why I told him so much?”

Jiang Chen smiled, turned around, and looked at Xia Shiyu who stood at the door.

She shook her head, then smiled with her lips closed.

“You guessed wrong, I just came to ask if you want to go to the cafeteria for lunch.”

“Aren’t you curious?” Jiang Chen asked.

“I’m your woman, after all, I can guess a little bit.” Xia Shiyu rolled her eyes with a smug smile, “Or, you want me to pretend to be ignorant, humbly ask for advice, and satisfy your vanity?”

“…I find that you are getting smarter and smarter.”

“Do you want me to be smarter or more foolish?” Xia Shiyu joked.

“This is fine,” Jiang Chen said immediately without even thinking about it.

“It seems that you still have a conscience.”

With the corners of her mouth turned up, Xia Shiyu gazed at Jiang Chen. The two looked at each other affectionately for a long time, and Xia Shiyu suddenly burst out laughing. The bright smile was a March spring day beside the bank, warm but carried a hint of freshness like a spring breeze.

“Let’s have lunch together?” Xia Shiyu invited again after she combed the strands of hair beside her ear.

“Of course.” Jiang Chen nodded.

…

Lunch was still in the cafeteria on the top floor, and it was still in Jiang Chen’s favorite spot.

Ordinary employees tacitly set aside a private space for the two of them. Even if they were aware of Jiang Chen’s easy-going attitude, no one unwittingly bothered them at this time.

As usual, Xia Shiyu ordered a fruit salad and a cup of black coffee, which combined both sweet and bitter into her meal. As for Jiang Chen, there was a salmon fillet, French cheese bread, and a small bowl of creamy oyster soup in front of him. It was clear that the chef took a lot of effort in this meal. Although they were by no means complicated dishes, the aroma alone was worth Michelin three-star and the salary paid by Future Group.

“That’s all you’re eating? Are you not going to be hungry.” Jiang Chen couldn’t help but feel distressed when he looked at the cherry tomatoes sprinkled with salad dressing on Xia Shiyu’s fork and the lips stained with tomato juice.

“I sit in the office all day. If I eat too much, I won’t digest.”

“I’m more worried about you being hungry.”

“That means you don’t understand women.”

“What does this have to do with whether I understand women?”

Xia Shiyu elegantly picked up a napkin and wiped the corner of her mouth, then changed the subject.

“What’s the plan for the afternoon?”

“I have a meeting with Mr. Golovin. I will probably use the holographic meeting room downstairs,” Jiang Chen said.

“You should have told me earlier.”

“You have plans?”

“Yes. Future Heavy Industries plans to renew the medical drone contract with HCA in the UA. There will be two meetings between the subsidiary and the headquarters about supply and capacity coordination…” At this point, Xia Shiyu paused for a moment, looked at Jiang Chen, and suddenly started to grin, “Of course, no matter how important the meetings are, they are not as important as your meeting. I will ask them to adjust the timing.”

That smile really surprised Jiang Chen.

Are you flirting with me?

Maybe it was because Ms. Xia rarely smiled at the company.

As a result, many of the employees who peeked in this direction were completely stunned. Among them, there were many young male employees and even female employees who just started at the company… They had to admit that even among the same sex, the temperament of Xia Shiyu’s decisiveness was quite attractive.

In the holographic conference room of Future Building, Jiang Chen walked to the conference table and sat down. This place was often used for meetings between group headquarters and subsidiaries on different continents, and occasionally it was used to negotiate with other multinational companies. After all, Future Technology sold this system, and many multinational companies have caught up with the trend.

But it was the first time this room had the honor to negotiate with aliens.

The waiter poured a cup of coffee for Jiang Chen, then left, and closed the door behind him.

He clicked the watch and called Kelvin on Celestial City.

“Open the quantum communication module and lock the transmitter to Europa.”

“Roger that.”

After Kelvin received the information, he immediately ordered the staff at Space Command Center to send a signal and request communication to Europa based on the agreed channel and password.

Soon, the Space Command Center received a response from the Svetovid, and Kelvin immediately transferred the communication to the meeting room in Future Building for the discussion between his boss and the friendly alien.

Inside the room, Jiang Chen did not wait for long.

After he finished half of his coffee, light blue light particles gathered in front of him and formed into a shape. Not surprisingly, his holographic image was also copied onto the Svetovid at this moment. The two of them sat on both sides of the conference table as if they were talking face to face.

“If you are really sitting across from me now, I’ll definitely buy you a drink,” Jiang Chen looked at Golovin, smiled, and put down the coffee in his hand.

“It’s a tempting proposal, I believe that day will not be too far away,” Golovin said without a change of expression.

“We don’t know enough about each other. You rely on that distant memory, and all we can rely on is our intuition. In order to avoid possible problem, I think we need to speak frankly and honestly.”

“What do you want to talk about?” Golovin asked.

“About you,” Jiang Chen said while he stared at Golovin, “anything you think that can be revealed to us, that we don’t know. This is our sincere request, and we want to get to know you.”

Chapter 1549: Golovin Mental System

Although the technological capability of Golovin could be centuries ahead of Earth today, he did not show the arrogance of a higher civilization when he encountered a lower civilization, nor did his emotions change in the slightest. After he listened to Jiang Chen’s request, he thought for a few seconds before he said a vocabulary that Jiang Chen had never heard before.

“Golovin Mental System.”

Jiang Chen processed the vocabulary for a second, then asked subconsciously.

“What is that?”

“A system that allows us to think together.” There was a look of reminiscence in Golovin’s pupils as if a switch that had been sealed in dust for a long time was turned on again. “In the era with scarce resources, the word efficiency had been given a higher level of meaning. Every gram of steel must be used in the right place, every rivet must be sent to the right place, every citizen is a screw on a Soviet chariot.”

Jiang Chen stared at Golovin for a long time and a word suddenly popped out in his head, he blurted out subconsciously.

“Clone?”

He thought of the clone army that attacked the NAC on the subway line of Shangjing in the apocalypse, under the command of General Yegor. Although till the end, he still hadn’t figured out how much a clone fighter would cost, judging from how they treated the clones, the cost was likely to be extremely cheap.

“Yes.” Golovin nodded, but then shook his head right after, “but it’s not all right.”

After a pause, he continued.

“Human resources in the traditional sense are no longer applicable to the condition in Soviet at that time, so we set our sights on many technologies that were once considered taboo. The first thing that came to mind was the technology of cloning. We quickly acquired a young and strong workforce through Petri dishes. Even after suffering a devastating EMP and all automated machinery had failed, our workers can use a file and a hammer to strike out a power armor.”

“Is there such a big demand for labor in the twenty-second century? If it’s just a group of clones, what else can they do besides be cannon fodder on the battlefield?” Jiang Chen wondered.

In his understanding, the more developed the society, the higher level of automation in the production process, and the higher requirement for education in the labor force. Even if the Soviet Union obtained a huge labor force consisting of young adults through cloning, if the supporting educational resources did not keep up, it was not worthwhile.

“Of course, nothing can be achieved by just cloning humans,” Golovin said. “Traditional technology was combined with a concept that transcended the tradition. A brand-new technology and a concept, never been imagined before, was evolved. It was the Golovin Mental System.”

Golovin’s words made Jiang Chen suddenly think of Lin Lin and her two thousand younger sisters. Based on what she said, she and her sisters were connected by a network through a kind of mutual mind connection.

Perhaps it was Dr. Lin who borrowed the design concepts of the Soviets. In short, the Golovin Mental System made him feel a sense of deja vu. And Golovin’s next words also confirmed Jiang Chen’s speculation.

“Every cloned person implanted in the Golovin Mental System will no longer have independent thinking ability or personality, but will only serve as the carrier of the system. We no longer need to brainwash them with news, movies, and music. They are born to serve us, with a unified belief and a great will…Here we refer to the Soviets, we have not forgotten those great and dark years, but we just don’t want to think of it,” Golovin said.

“After countless version updates, the current Golovin Mental System has been given more meaning by us. First, we redefined the meaning of life and deleted useless thoughts such as doctrines and dogmas from our system. Then, it’s culture, science, military… Until now, all the aspects that we can think of have been perfected.”

Jiang Chen looked at Golovin in a daze as he was speechless at this moment.

He never expected that the CCCP would take such an unexpected route. They stuffed a group of clones who were instilled with communism into the colonization ship, let them serve as the carrier of belief, to spread their belief… But after he thought about it again, it made sense. There was not another group more suitable to spread their belief than a group of clones without the ability to think.

They did not doubt, were not confused, and did not get frustrated.

It was just that they probably did not expect that in the passage of time, the clones managed to fix the thoughts that were formulated. Through continuous self-updates, not only did the Golovin Mental System change completely, but on this basis, the entire system was transformed into a clustered conscious body that communicated with each other.

Jiang Chen’s Adam’s apple moved slightly, then he asked the question he had held back for a long time

“So the name Golovin…”

“Golovins’ name is Golovin, it is not only our common name but also the name of each of us,” Golovin said.

Jiang Chen finally understood why when he asked the name of his group, his answer was just “Golovins”. However, he still couldn’t imagine what this society composed of exactly the same individuals would look like.

“But how do you distinguish each other?” Jiang Chen still did not understand fully.

However, Golovn didn’t feel as if there was anything wrong with Jiang Chen’s question. Instead, he just answered it as if it was a reasonable question.

“We don’t need a name. One is all, and all is one. We have shared memories, shared knowledge, and we can think together and share each other’s joys and sorrows, so why put a special label on everyone? Before we met, we already understand each other. As for the name, it is just an unnecessary code name.”

Although they shared the same appearance, there was no doubt that they are no longer humans. In a person’s lifetime, more than half of the time was spent on gaining understanding, but it was an impossible task to complete to perfection. However, all of this was as natural as breathing and drinking water, not taught, but given by birth.

Thought was no longer a burden. The entire Golovin Mental System was like a spider web that connected all individuals into a collective, and all individuals served this collective from behavior to thinking, and all knowledge was shared.

In a sense, their society was really similar to Harmony. At least in collective consciousness, they emphasize collectivism rather than individuality.

But the key difference was that they relied more on mechanical technology that replaced weak organs with electronic components, pursued efficiency, and were not even limited to the human appearance.

From this point of view, they were more like Supreme…

After the meeting with Golovin, Jiang Chen leaned back on the chair and pondered for a long time.

He didn’t get up until the remaining half of the coffee turned completely cold.

He clicked on the watch and called Xin Presidential Palace.

It was the Secretariat of the Presidential Palace that answered the phone, Jiang Chen gave a concise order.

“In two weeks, convene a Earth Defense Alliance meeting.”

“Pass the message to Zhang Yaping, and ask him to help send out invitation letters to the embassies.”

Chapter 1550: Foreshadowing

In the information age, it was impossible to censor one thing.

Especially in the scenario where people were instructed to spread the news. The information was just like the red cloth that covered the bride’s head, which was meant to be removed. Almost at the same time as the Earth Defense Alliance announced a general meeting, news spread about the purpose of this meeting on the Internet.

Based on memory, the previous two general meetings held for the Earth Defense Alliance were because of the threat of the Gliese Galaxy and because of the incident in Finland. Since it was still undetermined whether the starship found under Europa’s ice cap was a blessing or a curse, many people started to feel nervous.

“I don’t know what those aliens look like. Are they four-legged or two-legged this time?”

“Maybe without legs!”

“It’s reasonable. Since the alien ship went into Europa’s ice cap, it doesn’t make sense it can’t get out. It must be a conspiracy by those aliens. They deliberately wait for us to save them, and then will use this opportunity to conspire with us!”

“You’re eating gutter oil, yet you’re worrying as if you’re the Secretary of the United Nations. Even if the sky collapses, there are still the tall ones holding it up, why do you care so much?”

“…”

It was a rare occurrence where Celestial Trade did not refute any of the rumors, it was as if they had not noticed them at all, and they did not make any public statements. However, it was precisely because of Celestial Trade’s attitude that allowed the event to continue to escalate and the debates began to heat up.

All kinds of discussions were happening around this mysterious starship. There were rational analyses, groundless speculations, and even pure rumors. However, Celestial Trade and the governments did not seem to mind at all, until a protest happened in Los Santos.

20,000 people took to the streets and protested as they walked towards the Los Santos International Airport. They wore blue headscarves and waved flags. The flags were painted with an azure earth surrounded by olive branches, and they shouted slogans such as “Cancel Borders”, “Universal Love”, and “Towards the Future”.

The reason was that a paper published by a professor at Coro University analyzed the situation from the perspective of civilization. It discussed why the first few contacts between Earth civilization and alien civilization ended in failure, and it subtly hinted at the hidden obstacles of Earth’s development.

In terms of reputation alone, the professor who published this paper was not well-known, but Hawking’s name appeared as one of the authors, which immediately made this paper that should have not been taken seriously more legitimate, and its importance was immediately pushed up.

“When we are in contact with alien civilizations, we are not collectively human beings, but as countries or even enterprises. In the eyes of extraterrestrial civilizations, we are in a state of chaos and disorder, and they cannot even interpret our language, because even we ourselves are unable to have a unified language. In this state, we cannot start a dialogue with extraterrestrial civilizations, and we cannot expect them to understand our ‘chaos’ as ‘political and cultural pluralism’, and not backwardness and weakness.”

“In fact, we are indeed weak enough. In the Mother Nest incident in northern Finland, the Finnish Army and the British Navy launched two rounds of offensives against the nest, but the final result ended tragically. If from the very beginning, we had dealt with threats from extraterrestrial civilization collectively, then the result may be much better than it is now.”

“As time goes by, it is less and less likely we are able to reach a reconciliation, and even in the not-too-distant future, we will split into two or more distinct civilizations due to differences. If a unified political organization cannot be formed, the second level in the Kardashev hierarchy is the ceiling of the civilization on Earth…”

Maybe even this professor didn’t expect that his paper would be reprinted by major media, and it would become the fuse that ignited the voice of globalists.

The parade was carried out in a peaceful atmosphere from the beginning to the end. The Los Santos City Police dispatched helicopters and police cars to accompany them but did not disperse the crowd. Those who were keen recognized that the Rainbow Mansion was surprisingly calm towards this protest.

Two police officers sat in the police car on the outskirt of the protest. They bit into their sandwiches as they watched the protesters closely.

“Globalists? I’ve seen blacks, Indians, and women go to the streets to make trouble, but it’s the first time I have seen these people.”

“It’s quite strange, but I heard that there are certainly troubles. Have you seen the helicopter overhead? SWAT has been dispatched too.”

“Who funded them?”

“Celestial Trade.”

“Is that true?”

“God knows, I only know one thing. The home of these globalists is in Penglai and they are calling for the establishment of an Earth Federation. The ultimate goal is to eliminate borders. If borders and tariffs are really gone, only these people will benefit. Those companies don’t need to take off the tariff protection. It would be foolish to fund them. ”

A parade of 20,000 people was just a drizzle for a big city like Los Santos. Trump could even proudly say that on the day he took office, there were more than ten times the people that marched on the streets in Los Santos to give him a middle finger.

However, what made this event more interesting was that after Los Santos, many large metropolitans around the world also saw similar events. It seemed that overnight, these idealists that never expressed their political intention turned into unwavering activists.

The most direct movements were parades, but there were also lighting of candles, releasing balloons, organizing marathons on the border, and so on.

Anyone with a slightly international perspective could see that there was an invisible hand behind these movements.

The meeting with Lavrov was already a week ago, and there was only less than a week left before the General Meeting of the Earth Defense Alliance.

During this past week, Jiang Chen met with the foreign ministers of all the different countries, and the issues discussed were nothing more than Europa, the starship found under Europa’s ice sheet, and the upcoming General Meeting of the Earth Defense Alliance.

After he dealt with these matters, Jiang Chen contacted Golovin again. Still in that holographic conference room, he sent an electronic file of a document or a “script”.

Golovin scanned the document with indifference in his eyes, then he waved his hand, and turned the holographic document into countless 0s and 1s. He looked back at Jiang Chen again.

“Does this make any sense?”

“In order to have more chances of victory against the invasion of Harmony and to avoid our self-destruction due to internal conflicts before the arrival of the enemy,” Jiang Chen smiled, “You were in the same state as us. You should be able to understand the situation we are facing now.”

“I can lend you the Golovin Mental System,” Golovin said.

“We don’t need that kind of thing.” Jiang Chen shook his head.

“Why?”

“If we refuse assimilation by accepting another sense of assimilation, then what is the point of our resistance? It is better to put down our weapons and embrace the evolution.”

Jiang Chen smiled when he finished the sentence, and left the meeting while Golovin digested the sentence. It was their last meeting before the general meeting of Earth Defense Alliance…

Chapter 1551: The Second Contact

Extraterrestrial civilization.

Countries around the world were no longer as shocked as they were when they first heard the term. Whether it was the T virus crisis that ravaged the world, or the mother nest in Finland, the two close contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations ended on unfriendly terms, but this time, countries were more hopeful.

There was no other reason.

A starship was trapped under Europa’s ice sheet, waiting for rescue.

Regardless of how the starship got trapped, the fact that the hull, larger than the Envoy-class, was enough of a reason. And most importantly, it was rumored that a thousand “alien refugees” resided on this starship.

Located outside the Earth Defense Alliance Building in Coro City, journalists and reporters from all over the world set up cameras and microphones. Followed by the arrivals of black limos one after another, the representatives entered the venue and took seats. Just like the previous two meetings, this meeting was also a closed-door meeting.

As the last wave of delegations entered the venue, the door closed.

Before the meeting officially started, whispers were already incessant. The rumor was that the target of rescue, a race named Golovin, was also invited to the meeting. Also, the Golovin representative would attend the meeting as a holographic image, the news was still enough to shock the rest of the world.

Why is Celestial Trade so generous and open?

This question was no longer important.

The important matter was how to gain more benefits for their own country in this negotiation with an extraterrestrial civilization. Although the people here belonged to the same camp, shared the same ultimate goal of “resisting the invasion of Harmony”, no one here could be completely open and honest to the people sitting next to them.

Every delegation represented a country.

And between countries, the term friendship did not exist.

The meeting began, and the verbal probe and test between each other finally stopped. The representatives sat in their seats and looked at the center of the semicircular venue. The light blue light particles rose from the floor, and the people here who were already familiar with Future Group’s holographic technology did not show much surprise.

Until Golovin appeared in front of them.

“Human…human being?”

“No, maybe it’s just a human form or an alien creature that looks like a human.”

“Can he understand Mandarin?”

“…”

“Silence.”

The venue became quiet.

Jiang Chen scanned around the venue, cleared his throat, adjusted the microphone, and continued to speak, “As for the topics of this meeting, I believe you have already learned about them. I think everyone in the room is very concerned and curious about the Svetovid, as well as our extraterrestrial friends.”

“In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, I think it is necessary for us to have a preliminary understanding of our friends. Therefore, before the discussion officially starts, we have prepared a Q&A period for this meeting. And this is what Golovin also wants. He hopes to start a dialogue with us and become friends.”

“My database contains about 500 commonly used languages on Earth. You can speak freely,” Golovin said in an expressionless state. “Because we already know you to a certain extent, I hope you can ask questions instead of my unilateral introduction.”

The representatives stared at each other in shock.

It was the German who stood up and asked questions first, and the questions asked were basically what Jiang Chen expected. After all, he was puzzled by the same question for a long time.

“What should we call you? Is Golovin your name? Or does it represent your ethnic group?”

“You can call me Golovin the First,” Golovin said.

This name was Jiang Chen’s suggestion. Since Golovin Mental System did not exist on Earth, something obvious to Golovin could be incomprehensive from the eyes of the people on Earth.

When people heard the question, their first reaction was that these aliens were probably a feudal or empirical system, but these were not important. Regardless of what political system or systems they adopted, the people on Earth were only interested in their technology, not their “human rights status.”

The German representative nodded, then sat down.

Then, the Russian representative, Mr. Lavrov, who had only met Jiang Chen two weeks ago, stood up impatiently.

“Why is the name of the Baikonur Cosmodrome written on your starship? Please excuse for my directness, we are just wondering why you use Russian texts?

When this question was asked, the venue, which still had some chatters and whispers, turned completely silent. Everyone held their breath and either stared at Lavrov directly or subtly glanced in his direction.

Golovin’s holographic image looked at Lavrov and still in the tone that did not fluctuate, slowly spoke.

“Because our past has something to do with the name Soviet.”

The representatives present took a deep breath, and the way they looked at Lavrov gradually carried a hint of shock. What kind of story could make a group of aliens write the name of the Baikonur launch base on their starship?

Lavrov was a little excited by the countless stares focused on him. He tried his best to make sure he did not look too proud, and politely extended an invitation to Golovin.

“Although I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with us, we are as hospitable as before. If you don’t mind, we are willing to provide you with a place to rest in Eastern Siberia.”

This guy asked first!

The faces of the representatives changed unanimously.

The refugeeing aliens!

It was not a group of poor refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, but a group of aliens with advanced technology countless years ahead of this world! All the countries were willing to provide a space for asylum for free.

Before the meeting started, they had been thinking about this aspect, but they did not expect the Russians to extend an invitation first.

Many people turned their attention to the representative from Xin. They hoped to see the slightest dissatisfaction on the representative’s face.

After all, it would be Celestial Trade doing the bulk of the work to rescue this starship. But now, before the work even started, it was taken advantage of by their “old friend” through this weird connection. Even if Xin’s relationship with Russia was in a good phase, there was going to be a feud after this.

However, what disappointed the representatives was that they did not see any displeased expression on the Xin representative’s face nor Jiang Chen’s. Many people couldn’t help but wonder to themselves when these stingy people become so selfless?

They were not like this before.

Lavrov waited quietly for Golovin’s reply.

Regardless of the response from Golovin, he represented Russia and gained the friendship of Golovin.

However, Golovin’s answer stunned Lavrov and everyone. Everyone except Jiang Chen

Gradually, a look of awkwardness appeared on his face and it even changed to a look of embarrassment…

Chapter 1552: EaChapter Other’s Arrogance

“We don’t need your land because it’s meaningless,” Golovin slowly said after he glanced at the representatives present. “If you are willing to rescue our starship from under the ice sheet, I can promise to provide a living space for five hundred people on our ship and take you out of this galaxy.”

There was no sound in the venue.

Lavrov took a moment to process the information and asked inexplicably.

“Why are we leaving here?”

“Because this place will be conquered in half a century. The seeds of Harmony will stain this land into another color.” In a flat and straightforward tone, Golovin narrated the cruel reality. He slowed opened his eyelids more, then continued, “In return for your friendship, we will preserve the fire of civilization for you. You can disembark in any galaxy we pass by and choose a new place to restart your civilization.”

“Do you think we will fail?”

Golovin didn’t answer this question. Instead, he looked at Lavrov with indifference in his eyes, which made the answer obvious.

As if he had heard something funny, Lavrov opened his arms, laughed, and continued, “You may not know that our fleet is already cruising in the Kuiper belt, and this is just the beginning! We will be there to build a fortress! Half a century is enough time for us to arm ourselves to the teeth so that its a one-way trip for the invaders from Gliese 581!”

“Really?” Golovin said without emotion.

For some reason, Lavrov felt anxious when he met the indifferent gaze.

“Standing here, I see a huge and complicated bureaucratic system. I have heard countless different voices. Had we not been observing you for decades, it might even be a problem to stand here and talk to you. At this point, your opponents are several times more powerful than you. At least, they have united their civilization.”

“I don’t agree with your point of view. A multitude of cultures is one of the attributes of Earth civilization,” Another representative from Finland stood up and defended.

“However, in the past few decades, I have only seen quarrels and arguments,” Golovin said calmly, “We never discuss the answer to an obvious question, nor do we waste time in repeated discussions. The problems facing you are far more urgent than you think, but all of you seem to have overlooked this point.”

After a pause, Golovin continued.

“If you want to defeat Harmony, at least solve your internal problems first. If all of you standing here, is not representing the entire human race, but only a certain country or institution, then my advice is to plan for a way out.”

Golovin’s proposal shocked everyone. Representatives whispered among each other. Some were filled with righteous indignation, some were dismissive, and some were unfazed. However, Golovin did not seem to care about their opinions. After he did not receive any more questions, he nodded slightly, then dispersed into blue particles of light.

“Arrogant. Is this the attitude of someone seeking help?” Lavrov cursed under his breath, then sat back down. After he fixed his collar, he took a deep breath and whispered to the assistant next to him, “Send the content just now to the Kremlin.”

“Now?” The assistant asked.

“The sooner the better.”

Although the arrogance of Golovin made the representatives feel displeased, after they thought about the data in the aliens’ hands, the dissatisfaction was nothing at all.

In the follow-up discussion, the countries quickly reached a consensus on assisting Golovin to rescue the starship. The only point of contention was what benefits could be gained from the starship after the rescue, and how the benefits would be distributed.

Although it was debatable whether this group of aliens were willing to call Earth home, Lavrov maintained his previous proposal. He could establish a “refugee camp” in Siberia to settle Golovin and his people and even promised to include autonomy and other benefits. The promises he made even made other representatives cast looks of surprise.

Hua was certainly not going to let the Russians monopolize the benefits of an extraterrestrial civilization, and it decisively raised a counterargument. Based on the advice of Foreign Minister Zhou Yi, another maritime city like Penglai was perhaps better for aliens to live in.

And this city could be built in the South China Sea, and Hua was willing to bear all the expenses for building a maritime city…

There seemed to be more opposition.

In an unpleasant atmosphere, the first day of the meeting came to a conclusion ahead of schedule. The next meeting was scheduled at the same time the day after the next. After all, the representatives also needed time to brief the situation back to their countries for internal discussion.

After the meeting, Golovin’s holographic image reappeared in the empty meeting place.

Jiang Chen, who hadn’t spoken much from the beginning, said with a smile.

“Your acting is good.”

“Really?” Golovin said, “but I’m not kidding.”

“Oh?”

“For the sake of being from the same place, I promised those poor people two things,” Golovin said.

“Which two?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.

He knew that the poor people Golovin mentioned were probably remnants of those that had been exiled in the void forever.

“Help you to achieve victory as much as possible,” after a pause, Golovin continued, “If nothing else can be done, save a trace of fire for the Earth civilization and take them to a new world dozens of light-years away.”

“So far, I haven’t considered the problems after failure,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “Do you have so little confidence in us?”

“Your odds of winning are very low, even with our help,” Golovin said.

“Even with Gaia civilization?” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Oh?” Golovin looked at Jiang Chen and raised his eyebrows slightly. A human-like expression on his face was quite rare. “You found them too?”

“What do you mean by too?”

“A long, long time ago… Longer than when the Svetovid went through the wormhole, we found the remains of a civilization on Mars. They recorded past memories through the Flowers of Memory and called themselves Gaia,” Golovin narrated, then looked at Jiang Chen, “Although they are two parallel worlds, I think we should be talking about the same thing.”

Jiang Chen didn’t show any surprise. He expected that the countries in the apocalypse would discover the Gaia civilization. After all, the timeline did not diverge until the beginning of the twentieth century. For a civilization that existed billions of years ago, Gaia civilization was like an objective existence.

“To some extent, the outbreak of World War Three was partly due to the uneven distribution of the spoils,” Golovin said in the same emotionless state. “Many of the Flowers of Memory were lost in the battle for Gaia’s knowledge, but even just inheriting a part of the knowledge helped us tremendously. But if you think that the legacy of Gaia civilization alone is enough to defeat Harmony, you are a bit overconfident.”

“Even Gaia is just a group of people who have been eliminated by time. Their knowledge can’t even solve their own problems.”

“You don’t need to worry about this. We will use our own methods to solve this problem.” Jiang Chen said softly, “I will provide you with a place to rest on Mars as agreed. If you think we have no hope someday in the future, you can leave at any time.”

After he finished, he walked towards the door.

“We will stay before the final battle,” Golovin watched Jiang Chen leave as he calmly said. “Before we set sail, the door of the Svetovid is open to you at any time.”

Chapter 1553: The Seed of Earth Federation

It was difficult to make progress during the next meeting.

As discussed on the first day, no one raised objections on rescuing the Golovins, but there was serious disagreement on the arrangements after the rescue of Svetovid. Discussions related to the arrangements after the salvage of the Svetovid were almost to the point of irreconcilability.

The debates were both in the placement of the “Golovins” and the technical assistance promised by the “Golovins”…

“I propose to share the technology that the Golovins are donating to us. Any member of the defense alliance has the right to share knowledge from the extraterrestrial civilization.”

“I object. This is unfair to countries that contribute more. Unless all member states bear the same cost in rescuing the Svetovid, it’s unacceptable to require equal sharing of extraterrestrial civilization technology.”

“Sharing the technology can make us stronger, and we will also contribute more to the fight against the invasion of extraterrestrial civilizations! Isn’t the point of the alliance to fight the invasion of extraterrestrial civilizations? Are you forgetting this?”

“In a compromise, we can register patents for technologies from Golovins and share the patent rights in proportion to each member state’s investment. All member states share these technologies equally, but when using these technologies, we must pay a certain fee to the patent owner…”

Just like that, in the meaningless argument, the meeting was in a deadlock for a whole week. In two of the meetings, Jiang Chen didn’t show up at all. Instead, he entrusted representatives of Celestial Trade to attend the meeting. Finally, in the second week of the conference, Jiang Chen finally spoke some sense.

“We should form a unified federation.”

The whole venue fell silent.

Even if a needle fell on the ground, it would be heard clearly.

After a pause, as he saw that no one interrupted him, Jiang Chen continued.

“So far, among the extraterrestrial civilizations we encountered, it seems that we are the only one that’s scattered. Just as Golovin I said, if we can’t solve our own problems, there will be no way to deal with external threats. ”

“This is nothing more than the arrogance of aliens. How can a single sentence deny the benefits of the pluralistic political structure? Who does he think he is?” A representative shook his head and said with disdain, “A political and economic organization bigger than the European Union? This is not a problem that can be settled in one sentence.”

“Of course this is not a problem that can be settled in one sentence,” Jiang Chen said calmly as he looked to that representative’s direction, “So it will require our collaborative efforts.”

“What then? Who should rule this federation?” The other person stood up, and looked at Jiang Chen with a trace of vigilance, and even a subtle and insignificant amount of hostility, “Celestial Trade? Or the Future Group? Or do you mean yourself?”

As expected, when the proposal to establish the Earth Federation was put on the table, it was almost met with overwhelming opposition. However, Jiang Chen was still patient and explained the proposal of the Earth Federation against the opposing voices.

The first was a community in space resources development.

From the development of space resources to smelting to finishing into products, the goal was to achieve zero-tariff within the Earth Defense Alliance. The community would push for the production and sales of space resources such as steel, titanium ingots, rare earth, and black alkane…

This step was somewhat similar to the path taken by the European Union.

The predecessor of the European Union was the European Coal and Steel Community. It was later extended from coal and steel to other areas of economic cooperation, and finally transformed from the European Community into the current European Union…Although it was now on the verge of disintegration.

After zero-tariff was achieved in the space industry, the next step was naturally pushing for zero-tariff in other industries, with the ultimate goal of being “free trade”, “no tariff borders”, “unified currency” and so on in the economic field. Eventually, the cooperation would advance from economics to politics, then ultimately eliminate the borders in the true sense, and establish the Earth Federation…

The first article proposed by Jiang Chen at the meeting was endorsed by representatives of some countries, but it did not make further progress.

Because of the strong opposing voices, the proposal to establish the Earth Federation on the basis of the Earth Defense Alliance was temporarily shelved. However, under Jiang Chen’s insistence, his first proposal was passed by a narrow margin. Earth Defense Alliance established a space resource development community within the alliance and established zero tariffs in space resources development.

On the other hand, perhaps because the topic of rescuing Svetovid was interrupted by the “Earth Federation” proposal, or perhaps because people didn’t want to drag it on too long, there was finally progress made in the rescue plan.

The technology shared by the Golovins’ were to be registered as patents and held by the alliance collectively. Research and academic institutions shared the technology, but for applications in the commercial field, patent fees were to be paid to the alliance.

After deducting a certain amount of money as the funds of the Earth Defense Alliance, the remaining funds were to be returned to each country based on the proportion of funds invested in the rescue of the starship.

Although it was not a perfect solution, at least it gained the majority’s approval.

Just like this, the Third General Meeting of Earth Defense Alliance, which lasted for two weeks, came to an end, in applauses.

Immediately afterward, the Svetovid rescue was finally put on the agenda.

It had been several months since the portal opened. The girls were basically used to this routine. Trips between the two worlds became the norm. Every day, Xia Shiyu and Ayesha went to Future Building by helicopter. Sun Jiao, Xiaorou, and Lin Lin returned to the apocalypse and did not come back until dinner. As for Yao Yao, occasionally she returned to the apocalypse but she spent most of her time on this side.

The day after the conference ended, Jiang Chen sat at the dining table and had breakfast. Because he woke up late, the only two people having breakfast with him were Xiaorou and Yao Yao.

The morning news played on the holographic TV in the living room.

When he saw the contents of the general meeting, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile a little. As he expected, the media already reported on the concept of the “Earth Federation” he proposed.

Although the proposal to establish the Earth Federation was ultimately not passed, the seed was already buried. When globalists all over the world see that the owner of a giant corporation whose strength is comparable to that of a superpower, publicly supporting their movement, it was undoubtedly more inspiring than any verbal promise.

“What are you smiling at?” Xiaorou pursed her lips and smiled.

“Don’t you think it’s funny?”

“What’s so funny?”

“There is already a fire, but people still care about the meager profit.” Jiang Chen laughed and shook his head.

“That’s nothing at all. Everyone knows that World War Three will lead to the destruction of the world, and they still fought in the end.” Xiaorou, who fiddled with the fried egg with her fork, rolled her eyes.

“That makes sense.” Jiang Chen smiled.

Perhaps in the eyes of the different countries, they did not think about the possibility of losing. The Envoy-class starship already cruised in the Kuiper belt, and the second Envoy-class was about to be completed. The size of the Earth fleet was growing, and the enemy was only a colonization ship that had been flying for nearly a century.

“Don’t worry too much. The business of Future Development is going very smoothly. We have cultivated 2 million mus of land in the development zone in Africa. Now we plan to completely transform the Gardens of Eden into a residential area. It’ll be too wasteful to grow food in them. It’s better to plant some flowers and plants and move people in.” Sun Xiaorou grabbed Jiang Chen’s right hand, and smiled at him, “If that day does come, we can still live there. ”

“Let’s wait until that day to say that,” Jiang Chen said as he gently patted Xiaorou’s hand.

I hope that day will never come.

I hope that a backup plan will never be needed…

Chapter 1554: Gravity Belt

As the Third General Meeting of the Earth Defense Alliance came to a conclusion, two Seagull-class transport ships set off from Celestial City.

The entire project would take five years to complete. During these five years, a steady stream of supplies would be exported from Celestial City to Europa. In order to save time and cost, Celestial Trade decided to extend the Interstellar Highway from Mars and towards the Europa system first.

At the same time, with the release of relevant information about “Golovins”, the word extraterrestrial civilization once again became the center of discussion.

Apart from this name, people did not know anything else about the “Golovins”. There were rumors that they looked like humans, with one head and two legs. There were also rumors that their actual body size was huge and they looked like the giant octopus in the “Europa Report”. They lived under the ice cap of Europa all year round, used the radio waves emitted from Earth to decipher the human language, and used holographic images to pretend to be humans to deceive the countries on Earth…

Their imagination was indeed very creative to the point where Jiang Chen praised these netizens’ ideas. However, just like his previous decision, Celestial Trade did not clarify these rumors but instead allowed them to ferment in disorder.

Even with these groundless conjectures, they gradually changed from pure curiosity to suspicion and even hostility towards extraterrestrial civilization.

Only when people were afraid of the outside world, would they think about whether to work as a collective.

…

A week had passed since the Seagull-class transport ships began to build the road to Jupiter. According to the original promise, Golovin sent some of the technologies to Earth, and this part of the technologies was mainly related to gravitons and the gravitational field.

The technologies were not as valuable to Celestial Trade and were only considered as supplements to some of the deficiencies in these two directions by the Gaia civilization. However, for other members of the Earth Defense Alliance, the preciousness of these materials was extraordinary.

Take Hua as an example. The Hua Academy of Sciences took the lead almost immediately after they received the information. The research was distributed to research units of all levels involved in projects related to the research.

However, the result was not promising.

Because of the lack of reference, the plain technical data was extremely difficult to digest due to the large gaps in knowledge. Even in the hands of the most established scholars and researchers in the field, the data was pretty much useless.

The same thing happened to Russia. Golovins’ papers on gravitons were like science fiction in the eyes of the professors at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Because they could not even observe gravitons normally, it was next to impossible to record the parameters of gravitons. After all, at the forefront of physics, gravitons existed as hypothetical particles that transmit gravity.

It was like getting Watt from the eighteenth century to understand the alternating current from the end of the nineteenth century. There was no way to understand something invisible, and it was the problem that scientists from all over the world shared.

Many data were just summarized on paper, but for scientists on Earth, it was necessary to repeat the experiment step by step to verify it.

It was conservatively estimated that it would take several years to digest this information. After all, Golovin did not provide “Flowers of Memory” that directly instilled knowledge, but only hundreds of terabytes of electronic files.

In the next five years, Golovin would continue to provide Earth with technologies to increase its pace of development.

Interestingly, it was after seeing these materials that the senior officials of different countries began to wake up from the euphoria of “cruising at the Kuiper Belt”. They realized the gap between themselves and extraterrestrial civilizations.

At the Future Building, in the lab on the first basement level, Dr. Amos showed Jiang Chen his latest research.

Jiang Chen picked up the belt-like thing from the table, fiddled with the button in the middle, asked Amos while he examined the dial that looked like a pressure gauge.

“What is this?”

“Gravity belt.”

“Gravity… belt?” Surprised by the response, Jiang Chen cast a look of curiosity on Amos, “How is this used?”

“Just wear it on your body like a belt,” Amos said with a smile.

At the prompt of Amos, Jiang Chen tied the belt around his waist and then turned on the button hidden on the back of the belt. As the switch was turned on, he noticed that in the dial like a pressure gauge, the pointer began to vibrate slightly, and finally, it was fixed in the middle.

After he examined it closely, the end of the pointer had a small number “1” written on it.

“The center of the pointer represents 1G gravity, that is, the gravity of Earth. Correspondingly, pointing to 2 represents 2G, which represents twice the gravity. By analogy, this gravity belt can reach a minimum of 0.1G and a maximum of 3G gravity…”

Just as Dr. Amos explained the function of this gravity belt to Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen had already started following the steps in the manual, rotating the dial, and aligning the silver arrow at the 0.5G position.

With a slight hum, the pointer on the dial began to shake violently, and finally, the pointer stopped at the position of the silver arrow, and Jiang Chen’s eyes widened with the feeling coming from under his feet.

The stress point did not come from his waist, but from every part of the body.

It was like every cell in his body became lighter.

“How does this work?” Jiang Chen was surprised when he adjusted the gravity index back to the standard value.

“By interfering with the gravitons, the gravity is affected. The specific is very hard to explain and involves a lot of technical terms,” Dr. Amos shrugged and laughed, “Anyway, you just need to know that with this belt, our astronauts can walk normally on the starship.”

The application was not helpful on the starship, but it also solved the health problems of the colonists in outer space.

If humans were in a low-gravity environment for a long time, it had a considerable impact on their health. Among all the health-related problems, osteoporosis was enough to kill mammals. Otherwise, Celestial Trade did not need to specifically build a large bowl-shaped building that rotated to generate simulated gravity on Lunar and Heavenly Palace City, in order to provide health services for the residents in colonies.

“You have digested Golovins’ technology that quickly?” Jiang Chen asked Amos in shock.

In his impression, the electronic files of the data related to gravity field and graviton from the Golovins were several hundred terabytes. Although they contained a lot of holographic diagrams, even the amount of text was not a small number.

Even if someone could read ten lines at once, it would take at least two weeks to finish glancing through the files.

Chapter 1555: Sensational Response

“In fact, the design of this gravity belt was completed about two months ago,” Amos answered the boss’s confusion after he heard Jiang Chen’s question, “The relevant information about the gravity field and the gravitons were mentioned in the memory of Gaia civilization, and even more in-depth than the research of the Golovins. These hundreds of terabytes of information are only supplements for us, and we have resolved all the technical problems a month ago.”

After Jiang Chen heard what Dr. Amos said, for some reason, he suddenly recalled what Golovin I had said before, the countries in the apocalypse had also discovered the relics of Gaia civilization, but because of competition, a lot of the knowledge was lost.

It was very likely that the source of this information about gravitons and gravity field also came from Gaia civilization. But the Golovins made some additions to the research on the basis and added their own insights and inferences.

Jiang Chen’s expression was a little weird when he thought about this.

After all this time, the information he received from the Golovins was the leftovers from the Gaia civilization that they refried. Although the cold rice was a different flavor, it was tasteless to Celestial Trade.

But Jiang Chen was not a stingy person, especially given that it was their first interaction. It was the beginning of the friendship, and he was certain that he could get something unique from the Golovins.

The warp engine behind the Svetovid alone was worth the round-trip ticket to Celestial Trade. Based on Lin Lin’s speculation, the warp engine was likely the invention of the Golovins.

After all, the warp engine was something that only existed in theory before the war.

“What is the approximate cost of this gravity belt?” Jiang Chen took off the gravity belt, turned off the power, and placed it back on the table while he asked Amos the question he was the most concerned with.

“The cost is about one million per belt. After all, many parts use industrial-grade 3D printing technology,” Amos smiled, “But if it goes into mass production, I think it’ll be a lot cheaper. I recommend manufacturing it in Lunar City. The rare earth up there is cheap.”

“I will arrange for Future Heavy Industries to start production as soon as possible. Can I trouble you to design the production line?”

Dr. Amos smiled and said respectfully.

“It would be my pleasure.”

“Then I’ll have to trouble you.” Jiang Chen patted his shoulder and laughed.

…

The invention of the gravity belt caused a sensation worldwide.

The ability to experience gravity like Earth even on the Moon, as well as the ability to experience Moon’s gravity while on Earth was made possible by the gravity belt.

The gravity belt produced were sold in Lunar City and Heavenly Palace City, and some were transported to Celestial City and shipped back to Earth. The moment this wearable device was launched, it caused a frenzy.

People were shocked not only because of the incredible effect that allowed people to float, but also because Future Group managed to digest Golovins’ technology in such a short period.

Rather, in the eyes of different governments, it was what made people feel truly incredible.

Because of the strict confidentiality of Celestial Trade, they were not aware of the Gaia civilization. From their perspective, the only extraterrestrial civilization with contact to Earth was the “Golovins”. In their eyes, Celestial Trade had just obtained Golovins’ data, and in less than half a month, Future Group had already created products with the new technology.

This astounding technological digestion speed made those “insiders” feel ashamed.

Hua, Shangjing, in a house with simple, retro, and elegant decoration.

The man with a square face sat in front of his desk, deep in thought.

The thing placed on the table in front of him was the latest product launched by Future Heavy Industries – the gravity belt.

“It’s been less than half a month, and they made a finished product already?” The man with a square face gazed at the gravity belt on the table with a sign of deep fatigue between his brows.

Since the defeat of the UA, he did not feel this kind of fatigue for a long time.

After he thought of the 2 billion RMB budget the Hua Academy of Sciences recently applied for, and the newly designed device that is said to be able to observe gravitons in the atmospheric environment, for some reason, the feeling of powerlessness in his heart grew stronger.

When his scientists and researchers were still promising him of a breakthrough by the next experiment, others had already leaped over the research stage, and completed the transformation from theoretical knowledge, into technology, into actual products…

Constantly comparing oneself to others will only make one angry.

With that thought in his mind, he shook his head.

He originally thought that the contact with the Golvoins would be an opportunity to catch up with Xin, but he didn’t expect that it was just a pipe dream after all.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Please come in.”

The office door was pushed open, and a man in his thirties walked in. From the way he stood there, firm and straight, he seemed to be from a military background. The temperament nourished by three generations of officials made it easy for people to notice him even if he just stood there. However, there was not the slightest arrogance on his face, on the contrary, it was full of humility.

When he saw the man in his thirties walk in, there was a smile on the face of the man with a square face.

Neither the family behind him nor the man with the square face in front of him regarded him as an outsider.

After all, he was one of the successors they mentored.

Although he was still too young.

“What’s the matter?” The man with a square face asked with an amiable expression.

“There is one thing, about those globalists,” Zhao Zongxian said meticulously.

The man with a square face just smiled lightly.

“Oh, what did they do now?”

“They released 10,000 balloons in Wanghai.”

“How did Wanghai deal with it?”

“I asked them to stop, and they were quite cooperative.”

“It’s a bit of an exaggeration, which may get people talking about it.”

The square-faced man’s finger tapped lightly on the armrest. He showed neither approval nor displeasure shown. Zhao Zongxian carefully observed the expression of this important figure and realized that he was still too inexperienced to understand the meaning.

Zhao Zongxian did not plan to let go of this opportunity to showcase himself, so he organized the rhetoric in his mind and continued.

“I think we should pay attention to them. On the surface, their activities seem to be harmless, but in fact, their thinking is quite dangerous. It is even worse than they were in the past! Especially the globalism they promote, it is very provocative among the young people and runs counter to our propaganda work.”

“Before they show a radical side, just ignore them for now. In principle, do not report, do not support, do not pay attention, and let them fend for themselves.” The man with a square face did not accept his opinion. After he thought for a moment, he made the decision.

In fact, a better choice was to directly get rid of them.

But he felt helpless, because he was well aware of who is supporting these people.

After Celestial Trade defeated the UA, they were starting to become the overlord of the new century. In addition, the recent exchanges with the extraterrestrial civilization had just started. Even though he was reluctant to make the decision, for the sake of the overall situation, he did not want to have a fallout with Celestial Trade over this.

Globalist?

You can do whatever you want. If you ever make a mistake, I’ll clean all of you up.

Zhao Zongxian, who stood across from the man, had a slightly unwilling expression, but this unwillingness was quickly hidden in his mind.. He bowed his head respectfully and said “Yes”, then left the office.

Chapter 1556: The Ambition of Loki Jr.

“An incredible technology.”

Jason, who just walked out of the Mars space elevator, stepped on the ground covered with alloy plates in his boots. He wore a spacesuit and adjusted the button on his belt. After he saw the pointer was stable at 1G, he let out sincere praise.

Even on Mars with low gravity conditions, he could feel the same gravity as on Earth. He just had to remember to charge the gravity belt regularly, and he could walk and live normally like on Earth.

Levitt, who walked out of the space elevator after Jason, got on the elevator and asked him.

“How are you feeling?”

“Very good, it feels like I can fly with a small leap.” After Jason stretched his limbs, he said with a smile, “What would you say if anti-gravity technology is used in a car?”

Although Jason only said it as a joke, Levitt replied after careful consideration.

“Isn’t there already maglev cars? If the anti-gravity module is designed to be large enough to support the entire car, the cost will probably not be low. After all, the cost of a gravity belt is no less than 10,000 Xin New dollars.”

“That makes sense.” Jason laughed.

Jason Loki, the youngest son of the Loki family and CEO of B City Steel Group. The assistant his father Loki selected for him stood next to him. Levitt graduated from the Department of Economics from Columbia University and was about five years older than Jason.

The B City Consortium only ventured into the steel industry recently, and even this steel group was registered not long ago. The entire B City Steel Group, except for an office on B City’s Financial Avenue and more than 20 employees, including accountants, only had 10 million Xin New dollars on the book.

10 million Xin New dollars.

As the start-up money for this new venture, it was quite generous. However, for companies involved in heavy industry, especially space resources, this start-up capital was not enough. However, Loki was not too concerned about money. After all, with the backing of First B City Bank, as long as the family members could see the prospects, he could easily get a loan of hundreds of millions of Xin New dollars.

It was the difference between the rich and the poor in entrepreneurship. From the very beginning, he was hacking the system.

After they got to the train, they went directly to Heavenly Palace City from the space elevator base station located at the equator.

Compared with half a year ago, Heavenly Palace City had doubled in size. Alloy plates made of steel were spread out from the cabin in the center of the colony to the edge of the city, and the rebuilt concrete wall was larger and stronger than the previous shooting platform. The ferocious electromagnetic gun tubes on the concrete wall were said to be prepared for the Devil Worms.

However, there were very few Devil Worms spotted in recent days.

The ultrasonic fences made them consciously stay away from Heavenly Palace City, and the reason why they choose to pave the road with steel plates was only that it was cheaper than cement paving. After a closer examination, it was easy to spot that most of the buildings in the city were made from metal.

After they left Heavenly Palace Station, Jason deliberately chose not to take the bus but decided to walk.

As he headed to the colonial cabin in the center of the city, he carefully observed the city on Mars. Perhaps in response to the invasion of the Devil Worms, the city was designed with the layout of a fort from the beginning. This design was not related to aesthetics, as just from the appearance, it did not look comfortable to the people living inside.

After he took note of that, he walked to the colonial cabin in the center of the city, displayed his business card to the receptionist at the front desk, and headed to the governor’s office with the staff.

“Are you Mr. Hong Zewei?” Jason extended his right hand with a smile as he looked at the man in the office. Then, he greeted politely, “I often hear my father mention your name and praise you for being an outstanding governor. I was a little skeptical before, but now I am convinced.”

“Mr. Loki?” Hong Zewei just smiled lightly at the flattery words without more of a response, “He called me earlier, but I didn’t expect you to come so quickly. Please sit down, there is not much to treat you with. I hope Mr. Loki will forgive me.”

“Not at all, the fact that you can take time out of your busy schedule is already an honor for me,” Jason smiled and said humbly.

The youngest son from the Loki family was very knowledgeable about Chinese culture, and not just someone who scratched the surface. From the moment he entered, he had communicated with Hong Zewei in Mandarin, and his words were relatively humble without the slightest arrogance of someone from a big family.

Because of this, Hong Zewei’s first impression of him was positive. Compared with the nouveau riches who waved money and acted arrogantly the moment they stepped into the office; it was obviously more comfortable to work with this kind of people.

Now that the development of space resources was the trend, Heavenly Palace City did not lack investors. Because Celestial Trade was also the leader in this aspect, as a governor in Celestial Trade, Hong Zewei did not need to act politely to anyone.

“This is?” Jason asked when he saw the wine-red tea on the table.

“Losim tea, it is a type of fungus that grows in the mantle and is a companion species of oxygen-producing fungi. After being dried, it is surprisingly delicious when used to make tea. It is a very popular drink in Heavenly Palace City.” He picked up the tea, took a sip, the said in a joking manner with a smile, “It is not poisonous, rest assured.”

Jason copied Hong Zewei’s action and took a sip of tea. When he felt the sweet coolness spread down in his throat, his eyes lit up.

“This is a great tea!”

“You can take some back,” Hong Zewei said, “Next year we plan to ship a batch to Celestial City for sale. It is not for sale as of now.”

“Then I’ll make myself feel at home.” Jason laughed.

The two chatted for a while and soon got to the topics prepared for today. Jason visited on behalf of the B City Steel Group, and his purpose was self-evident. And Heavenly Palace City, in the midst of restructuring, naturally welcomed a large international capital with open arms.

“We are very optimistic about the development prospects here and plan to invest and set up factories on Mars. The entire B City Steel Group was established for this purpose, and I am here for that,” Jason said, “Of course, in addition to steel, we are also very interested in other industries.”

“For example?”

“Such as real estate.”

“Oh? Does Mr. Jason see the prospects for real estate development in Heavenly Palace City?” Hong Zewei smiled.

“With the establishment of Interstellar Highway and a second space elevator in South America, there will soon be a flood of immigrants from Earth, as well as tourists. And I noticed that the buildings here all seemed to have been carved out of a mold. With all due respect, in terms of comfort and aesthetics, it’s certainly not great,” Jason said with a smile.

“Many people complained to me about this.” After Hong Zewei took a sip of the tea, he said, “After all, in the early days, survival was the most important element.”

“In the future, the citizens of Heavenly Palace City will be very wealthy. After all, you are sitting on a treasure. I think it is necessary to improve the housing in the city. If you trust me, you can give this task to us. I know a few talents in this area, they will surely be able to design beautiful and comfortable apartment buildings for the city,” Jason said while he looked eagerly at Hong Zewei, who sat across from him.

The development of real estate on Mars required a lot of steel, and this steel could be supplied by the B City Steel Group. After he turned the manufactured steel into housing, sell them to immigrants who settle on Mars, or develop them into high-quality hotels, B City Steel Group was bound to make a boatload.

Jason also saw something more long-term.

Five years later, once the Earth Defense Alliance rescued Golovins’ starship from Europa’s ice sheet, it was necessary to find a place for those refugees of the extraterrestrial civilization. This place was unlikely to be on Earth, so the most likely place was Mars.

As long as the B City Consortium development was successful in the next five years, it could be an opportunity to win the bid for this contract.

What kind of business with your own people is posher than doing business with aliens?

It is not just about being posh.

From this business, Jason saw countless banknotes.

In five years, when people mention his name, he will no longer be the youngest son of the Loki family of the B City Consortium, but a steel tycoon.

Chapter 1557: Completion of Project Marchena

The activities of globalists continued to heat up.

Eliminate borders, global free trade, unified currency, global constitution…

If these absurd slogans were chanted a few years ago, most people would sneer, and would completely ignore them. However, with the establishment of Heavenly Palace City, the Europa cooperative colonization plan of the Earth Defense Alliance, and the increasingly intensive contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, these slogans were no longer so remote and illusory.

Coupled with the continued escalation of global conflicts before, where the military conflict between Xin and the UA almost triggered World War Three, many people were tired of war.

To some extent, the anti-war sentiment played a certain role in promoting the globalist movement. After all, there seemed to be only one way to fundamentally eliminate all conflicts, and that was to completely eliminate the subject of war.

Jiang Chen was very pleased to see that the seed he planted had already sprouted.

…

In December 2021, the end of the year arrived in a blink of an eye, and Project Marchena, which lasted nearly a year, had finally come to an end.

Jiang Chen visited Ecuador by plane and met with the President of Ecuador, a group of senior officials, and local industry representatives. At the same time, in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, the Ecuadorian government arranged a grand completion ceremony for this space elevator located in the western hemisphere.

The people that attended were not just the upper class of South America, but also influential entrepreneurs from other countries in South America, and even North America. After all, it was impossible for a small South American country like Ecuador to monopolize the benefits of the space elevator. Even if it was built in their country, all they could do was to take a sip of the soup from the space resources development trend.

If Ecuador dared to take a bite of the meat, those international capital predators prepared countless ways to make them spit out what they just ate. The financial short-selling methods could easily teach the country a lesson.

However, the Ecuadorian government was obviously very self-aware and sent about a hundred invitations to Manhattan a month ago. Most of them were sent to bankers on Wall Street, but there were also financial giants like Loki.

They were the main force behind the development of space resources. For a small country like Ecuador, they did not even have a decent space company.

As soon as Jiang Chen got off the plane, at the exit of the Quito International Airport, he received a warm welcome from the citizens of Quito. He smiled and waved at the enthusiastic citizens. Although the act was more of a show, it was possible to see the admiration and gratitude in their eyes were not faked.

Since the Global Grid was connected to Ecuador, not only did the cost of electricity drop significantly but more job opportunities were created. The capital of Ecuador also grew at a speed visible to the naked eye.

There were many countries hostile to Celestial Trade, but a third world country like Ecuador was definitely not amongst them.

Jiang Chen smiled and waved at the crowd, sat into the vehicle that awaited him, and headed to the Xin Embassy in Ecuador. At the door of the embassy, he met the newly elected President of Ecuador. Although it was the first time they met, the two men quickly engaged in a conversation with the president’s effort to please.

“When can the space elevator go online?”

“It’ll be ready at the beginning of next year,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “I just don’t know if your country is ready for the new era. Don’t say I didn’t remind you, after Port Marchena is completed, cargo ships from the entire Americas and even European ones across the Atlantic will flock to Ecuador. This is not only an opportunity but also a challenge.”

“We are ready to meet all challenges.” The President of Ecuador looked at Jiang Chen eagerly and laughed, “You can rest assured!”

“I don’t need to be rest assured, you just have to be prepared.” Jiang Chen nodded.

“We have prepared a formal banquet for you at the Hilton Hotel to welcome your visit. I wonder if you have time to attend this evening?” The President of Ecuador respectfully invited.

“Of course.” Jiang Chen smiled and nodded.

The banquet was held at the Hilton Hotel.

Early in the morning, the place was surrounded by the Ecuadorian Army and carried out a carpet search. In order to ensure everything was foolproof, a special forces brigade was even mobilized to the blocks nearby and blocked the streets that led to the hotel.

The President was very concerned and meticulous about this banquet. But even without these security measures, Jiang Chen didn’t take the safety issue too seriously. Not to mention that there were Ghost Agents and Lilith nearby to protect him. Wherever he went, there was an orbital airborne force of dozens of people on standby at all times.

On this planet, something that could threaten him did not exist.

At the banquet, Jiang Chen saw many acquaintances.

Although the Ecuadorian authorities only sent about a hundred invitations to Wall Street, many capital predators who smelled blood, even if they did not receive invitations, came uninvited by different means and squeezed into the banquet hall.

“Greetings to you, dear Mr. Jiang Chen,” Leslie, who elegantly carried her skirt and dressed in a long evening gown, greeted Jiang Chen. Her beautiful eyes sparkled with charm, “It’s been more than half a year since we last met, I really do miss you. How have you been? ”

“Very good…” Jiang Chen gave Miss Leslie an ambiguous look after he slightly raised his glass, then he said with a smile, “We can discuss this issue later.”

Leslie chuckled after she understood the message, then she gave him a seductive look before she turned around and headed to the dance floor in graceful steps.

“Leslie Garcia, the princess of Wall Street,” Loki said as he walked to Jiang Chen and brought him a glass of champagne. He smiled, sipped the red wine in the glass, and said in a casual tone. “It seems that my son has encountered a difficult opponent.”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen smiled and raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t mind, I mean, I will let him know. If my incompetent son dares to pester Miss Garcia, I will personally break his legs,” Loki toasted with Jiang Chen, squeezed his eyebrows, and said in a pleasant tone.

“Not that serious, I’m still confident about my charm.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Haha, being young is great.”

“Want to be young again?” Jiang Chen said as he smiled.

“Who doesn’t want to,” Loki sighed and said with some emotion, “It’s an honor for me to witness the rise of a great era in my lifetime.”

“What if you have a chance to regain your youth?”

“You’re kidding.” Loki chuckled.

“I’m not really kidding,” Jiang Chen smiled, and continued in a casual tone, “It’s impossible to rejuvenate the aging part, but it’s okay to let you live a few more decades.”

The moment he finished the sentence.

Clunk.

The wine glass fell on the red carpet…

Chapter 1558: Unifying Currencies

When Loki recovered from his stupefaction, the waiter had already cleaned up the wine glass on the ground. He looked at Jiang Chen, who still had the same calm smile on his face, then immediately smiled apologetically.

“Sorry, that was my mistake.”

“It’s okay,” Jiang Chen said.

“Then…” After Loki swallowed down the dry lump in his throat, he quickly looked around to make sure no one was paying attention here, lowered his voice, and asked in a hasty tone, “What you just said, prolonging life… What’s the deal with that?”

“In fact, this is also a technology that we have only recently made breakthroughs in.” At this point, Jiang Chen stopped explaining further, looked at a Loki with a light smile, then walked to the small balcony of the banquet hall. It was a customary rest area where no one disturbed, and used prevent the conversation from being overheard.

After Loki heard what Jiang Chen had just said, he took a second to process the information, then quickly followed behind him. Jiang Chen placed the glass on the marble guardrail of the balcony, overlooked the view of the night outside the Hilton Hotel, then narrowed his eyes in the evening breeze before he continued in a casual tone.

“Our researchers have found a way to extend DNA telomeres. Although the technology is still in the trial stage, it is possible to delay the aging of senescent cells.” Jiang Chen stopped and looked at Loki.

Loki held his breath.

After a while, he smiled while he pretended to stay calm.

“Do you plan to promote this technology?”

Even if it was something he desperately wanted, he could not act too obvious, otherwise, it was equal to exposing his weakness to his opponent without reservation. It was not even considered an experienced move, but rather, it was common sense in the business world. Loki habitually hid his desire to extend his life, but he did not realize how contrived his actions were in the eyes of others.

Jiang Chen tried his best not to laugh out at the old man’s action of staying calm and reserved. He thought that the old man certainly kept his calmness. After all, it was not a billion-dollar deal, but life that cannot be bought with money.

He did not think Loki was uninterested. The richer people get, the more they valued life. Because once people die, all the wealth, status, and identity would vanish. There were certainly people willing to let go of everything to reincarnation, but Loki was definitely not one of them.

“There is no plan for that yet.” Since Loki did not show his stance, Jiang Chen was not in a hurry. He raised his glass and took a sip, smiled lightly, and summarized the subject in one sentence, “You know if a person’s lifespan has suddenly changed from one hundred to two hundred years. Not only his family will be impacted, but also the society he lives in. Promoting this technology? Believe me, it will definitely be a disaster.”

After Jiang Chen finished his sentence, he naturally shifted the topic to the newly completed space elevator and the synchronous orbit at Port Marchena. Then he went on about the future development of the space industry in North and South America and the expansion of space colonies.

If it were before, Loki would definitely listen carefully to every word that came out of Jiang Chen’s mouth and then remember them. However, his mind was elsewhere at this moment and completely distracted by the previous topic of “prolonging life”.

He was now in his sixties, and his 70th birthday was in a few years. He was getting closer and closer to God. Under his leadership, the B City Consortium grew bigger and bigger, and it managed to get into the camp of Celestial Trade. Now, the consortium even surpassed Morgan and Rockefeller to become the leading consortium in North American, and the surname Loki became a legend on Wall Street.

There was not much regret in his life.

For at least a hundred years, Celestial Trade won’t fall. As long as his descendants did not make serious mistakes, the B City Consortium and Loki family would continue to prosper. Even if God stood in front of him right now, he could quietly leave with him and pass the position of the head of the family to his eldest son

But now…

Jiang Chen told him that he could live longer.

If someone else joked with him and said he has a magical medicine that can extend his life, he would scorn the thought and not take such a stupid comment to mind. However, the person who said this sentence was Jiang Chen, President of Future Group, which made this sentence difficult for him to ignore.

Many people seemed to forget the immense capability of Future Biology. After all, except for the well-known nutrient supply, this company kept a low-key profile, and many people did not even know the existence of this company.

However, Loki did not forget this name. He still remembered clearly to this day that the T virus that stumped the pharmaceutical giants around the world was solved by who…

Finally, Loki couldn’t help but speak first.

“About the method of extending DNA telomeres…” As soon as Loki spoke, he met Jiang Chen’s squinted gaze, and he thought in his mind that it was going to be a big price to pay, so he simply bit the bullet and continued, “Can we go into more details?”

No matter the price, he had to find a way to get it. He only prayed that Jiang Chen’s appetite was not too big.

“I was just thinking how long you could hold out for.” Jiang Chen suddenly laughed.

“No one can resist the temptation of longer life.” Now that he had confessed, he no longer concealed his desire for DNA telomere extension technology. Instead, he also laughed along and looked at the night view outside the balcony. “Since you told me, you definitely didn’t come to see me make a fool on purpose. Come on, how can you help me?”

“Don’t be so nervous, the conditions are actually very simple for you,” Jiang Chen smiled and tapped his index finger on the wine glass. “Have you heard of the term Earth Federation?”

Loki was taken aback for a moment, and immediately understood Jiang Chen’s meaning, and a hint of helplessness appeared on his face.

“You haven’t given up? You know it’s impossible.”

“Why is it impossible?”

Loki stared at Jiang Chen for a long time before he spoke slowly.

“You are serious?”

“Since I mentioned the DNA telomere extension technology, I didn’t joke for a single word, but rather, I’m seriously discussing this issue with you.” After a pause, Jiang Chen said in a serious tone, “If the B City Consortium is willing to stand on our side, we don’t mind letting our partners have a longer life.”

“We have always been on your side, what do you need us to do?” Loki asked.

“It is too difficult to achieve our plan with politics as the starting point, so I decided to start from the economic level,” Jiang Chen smiled as he looked at Loki, whose expression was unchanged, and continued. “We intend to establish the World Bank, not the one of the United Nations, but the World Bank in the true sense. It is independent of any political entities, issues currencies independently, and establishes a currency exchange system with central banks…”

If Celestial Trade took the lead in establishing the World Bank, it would inevitably cause vigilance among all countries. After all, Celestial Trade was the world’s hegemon, and every move was the focus of the top leaders.

B City Consortium taking the lead was the best choice. First, it was for the ease of control, and second, the consortium was prestigious in the UA financial world. Although the status of the dollar plummeted, the skinny camel is still bigger than the horse. The capitalists of Wall Street were still the leader in the financial world, except that the place welcomed a power reshuffle.

“Are you planning to…” Loki interrupted Jiang Chen and said as his voice trembled.

Jiang Chen looked at the Loki, who was in a state of complete shock, then nodded.

“Yes, before unifying the world, we plan to unify currencies first.”

Chapter 1559: World Union Reserve

The completion ceremony of the space elevator took place the next day.

More than a dozen cruise ships lined up in the northern Galapagos Islands, and people on top of the deck could clearly see the tower sky ladder.

The Ecuadorian President stood on the deck and delivered a remark, shook hands solemnly with Jiang Chen, President of Celestial Trade, and signed his name on the two agreements. From today on, the space elevator located off the coast of South America was officially open to traffic, as it took on the burden of shipping business to the synchronous orbit in the Western Hemisphere.

As the focus of attention for the public, the national flags of both countries, as well as the flag of Celestial Trade, were hung on the vertical train as it slowly accelerated into the sky, and marked the first train. To celebrate this great occasion, all major cities in Ecuador set off fireworks at the same time, and people in front of the TV opened champagne as they celebrated today like a holiday; celebrated the continent welcoming a new era.

“On behalf of the Ecuadorian people, thank you for everything you have done.” At the end of the ceremony, the President of Ecuador firmly held Jiang Chen’s right hand and said in a sincere tone. “Allow us to give you the most honorable sincerity, you’re always a friend of the Ecuadorian people!”

Media from all over the world recorded this historic scene together with the camera lens.

From today on, the cargo ships from the Mediterranean would no longer need to cross the Atlantic Ocean, cross the Panama Canal, and then sail into the Pacific Ocean to the remote Pannu Islands. The “Port Marchena” on the synchronous orbit now served as a subsidiary port of Celestial Trade and transported goods from the Western Hemisphere.

…

Three full days passed since the completion ceremony, and the dozens of cruise ships anchored here dispersed one after another. A private yacht approached the Marchena Island, not far from the space elevator. There was a watchtower and a small port on the island, and soldiers on duty could be seen from a distance.

The nationality of those soldiers was naturally not Ecuador, but from Xin on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Based on the agreement between Celestial Trade and Ecuador, Marchena Island was leased to Celestial Trade at a price of 1 million Xin New dollars as a concession area for a lease term of 50 years. If neither party did not pose any objections after fifty years, the lease was automatically renewed every ten years.

This small island located in the northern part of the Galapagos Islands was close to the equator. The island covered an area of 130 square kilometers. This place was practically undeveloped as no one lived on the island and there was only an inactive volcano. The surrounding water was deep, which acted as an excellent natural port, but also a natural scenery area.

As early as the Xin-UA War, the island was handed to Xin from Ecuador and served as a strategic fulcrum for Xin in South America. The location provided supplies to submarines and marines active in the waters near North America.

With the end of the Xin-UA War, Celestial Trade gradually withdrew its troops from the island. Now only a force of 50 remained on the island, who were mainly responsible for patrolling this region, maintaining the safety of the space elevator project, and combating pirates.

“Very beautiful island,” Loki stood on the yacht while he said with his eyes narrowed, “It is a bit wasteful to use it as a military base.”

“The military base is only temporary. It will be more beautiful in two years.” Jiang Chen smiled and then continued after a short pause. “We will build a floating island around this small island and expand its area first to about ten times bigger. We will then move a population in and turn this place into the Penglai of South America, a free and open port.”

The aluminum alloy and titanium materials needed to build the floating island could be obtained through the space elevator. Especially foam aluminum and other alloys that required the use of rare earth minerals, the outputs on the Moon were considerable.

“Really? Then I have to remember this.” Loki also said with a smile.

In fact, even without Jiang Chen’s words, he had already begun to prepare.

In the nearby Galapagos Islands, such as Isabela Island, San Salvador Island, and other islands, all the free land was bought by the B City Consortium as early as six months ago. Loki’s idea was simple. If Marchena Island started to prosper with Celestial Trade’s presence, then Isabella Island just had to follow in its footsteps.

In fact, even now, this investment already paid off.

As soon as the space elevator was completed, the value of the land he had acquired went up more than ten folds. In order to maintain a strategic relationship with his partners, he reduced a portion of the land certificate to the partners of B City Consortium, and now the entire Galapagos Islands were monopolized by real estate developers from Wall Street and Coro City Financial Avenue.

As for investors in Ecuador, they could only be envious, but they were afraid to complain. Even the government behind them was just like a small fish and shrimp in front of the huge international capital.

The slightest movement could drop the economic index of a small country by double digits, which could lead to the president or minister of economic affairs taking the blame and stepping down.

“If I go bankrupt, at least I will leave a way out for my grandchildren.” Loki felt the sea breeze blow into his face and said with his eyes narrowed.

“Don’t be so pessimistic,” Jiang Chen smiled lightly, and said in a relaxed tone, “Our plan is perfect, with the Xin Reserve as your backing, quantum computers providing big data support, and Future Bank also providing you with the maximum allowable help, what else are you worried about?”

While it sounds nice with so many things backing us, aren’t we the ones charging in the front?

Loki smiled bitterly in his mind but did not say anything.

Just yesterday, he injected the DNA telomere extension agent under the guidance of the medical staff of Future Biology. Although there were no obvious changes, he already started to feel his physical condition improve.

This was specifically reflected in his blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

His personal doctor even stated in surprise that his physical condition has returned to at least the same level as a forty-year-old.

“It is my habit to be pessimistic before I win. Compared with which bottle of champagne to open when I celebrate, it is more realistic to consider what to do after failure.” Loki shrugged and stretched out his right hand, “Wish me luck.”

“Best of luck,” Jiang Chen smiled while he held his right hand, “the future President of the World Bank, I am waiting for your good news.”

Two days later, a silver Aerospace G100 disappeared into the horizon.

With a secretly drafted contract, Loki returned to Manhattan Island in Nouveau York.

Since the reconstruction of Manhattan Island, the B City Consortium moved from B City’s Financial Avenue to here, and the former Morgan Building was replaced with a new sign as the headquarters of the First B City Bank.

Loki, who just returned to Wall Street, did not sit for too long before he sent an invitation to the big capitalists on Wall Street for a discussion. Companies such as Chase Bank with close relationships with Future Bank were all invited without exception.

The meeting lasted for a whole week, and no one knew the details of the discussions. What the outside world saw was just an announcement led by the First B City Bank and endorsed by Wall Street’s top executives after the meeting ended.

In order to promote global economic and trade exchanges and hedge against a series of potential risks to the world economy such as exchange rate fluctuations, 20 banks and investment banks, including First B City Bank and Chase Bank, announced the establishment of the World Union Reserve.

As soon as the announcement came out, the world was shocked…

Chapter 1560: Shocking the World Economy

“The global economy is at a historic turning point. An era that is more open than ever has arrived. We need a currency that can represent all currencies to replace the traditional currency for transactions.”

“World Union Reserve was established for this purpose.”

In front of the media reporter’s cameras, Loki delivered a speech.

World Union Reserve.

Just from the name, it was not difficult to guess the purpose of the organization.

The originally peaceful weekend was suddenly disturbed by this shocking news. In particular, a magnitude three earthquake was set off in the international financial community with the news of the establishment of the World Union Reserve. The attention brought by the news even surpassed the limelight of the completion of the South American space elevator.

Eyes from all over the world focused on the previously calm and peaceful Manhattan Island. The major media in the world also carried out detailed follow-up reports on this matter immediately. It was not yet clear what kind of impact this would have on the global economy, because not many people believed they would succeed at all.

Even if it was a collective endorsement by Wall Street executives, it was impossible.

A unified currency could not be achieved by just an announcement. There were too many political factors involved. Even if the strength of the entire Wall Street was combined, it was impossible to achieve it. Among other things, the Xin Reserve, the leader behind the global economy, did not yet make a statement.

If World Union Reserve had to be established, the proposer should not be First B City Bank, but Future Bank. The qualification of Future Bank was far superior.

However, the development of the matter soon surprised everyone.

On the first Friday when the World Union Reserve announced its establishment, the Xin Reserve announced its cooperation with the World Union Reserve on currency exchange issues…

Hua, Shangjing, in an apartment on Second Ring Road.

It was New Year’s Day, and a rare occasion for the family to eat a meal together.

The news for today played on the TV.

“First B City Bank has established World Union Reserve with more than 20 banks and investment banks, including Chase and Citi, and cooperated with central banks in issuing a unified currency to strengthen free trade.”

“It is reported that the Federal Reserve and the Xin Reserve are the first to announce cooperation. The central banks of more than 20 Pacific Rim countries, including New Zealand, UA, and Canada, will join the World Union Reserve-led Unified Pacific Rim Monetary System. The participating states will pursue a more open system than the WTO free trade system and will use ‘World Dollar’ as the settlement currency.”

“CCTV reporter, reporting for you.”

“The UA just really wants to stir things up, and now they introduced something new,” Wu Jianbin said with a smile while he watched the foreigner speak into the reporter’s microphone.

“I’m afraid the World Union Reserve is not the work of the UA.” Wu Changfeng laughed when he glanced at the TV screen.

“Oh?”

“You see, it is First B City Bank that is leading the initiative for World Union Reserve. Do you know the origin of this bank?”

“I remember it was a UA-Swiss joint venture bank. Both Chase and Citigroup should be more famous than it.” Wu Jianbin frowned.

“First B City Bank is a strategic partner of Future Bank, and the B City Consortium behind it is now the emperor behind Wall Street. You should understand now right?” Wu Changfeng smiled.

“You mean, this World Union Reserve is actually supported by Celestial Trade?” Wu Jianbin’s eyes lit up and he immediately reacted.

“You should ask if you don’t have Celestial Trade’s endorsement, does First B City Bank really dare to do something like this? Even the whole Wall Street probably can’t do it.” After a pause, Wu Changfeng smiled and continued, “Jianbin, you are in the real estate business. I will give you some suggestions.”

“Haha, since when did my brother care about the business? Then I have to listen carefully.” Wu Jianbin smiled and toasted to Wu Changfeng.

“The times are different, you don’t have to keep focusing on the domestic market. Broaden your horizons.”

“Are you saying that the real estate business is dying? It’s impossible.” Wu Jianbin shook his head and smiled, “The total amount of broad money has increased by 80 times in 25 years. The amount of printed money has surpassed the total amount of money supply in the UA and EU, but the total economic output is only less than one-third of it, if it weren’t for our real estate, haha.”

Wu Changfeng smiled but did not respond.

He said everything he need to say. It did not matter if his brother believed it or not.

And now, he didn’t even care about the small business at home.

The benefits of a unified currency were obvious.

Even outsiders in the economic field could easily identify the benefits of a unified currency. A unified currency would reduce transaction costs, reduce the risk of exchange rate fluctuations, promote trade, increase the competitiveness of trade zones, and so on. But in contrast, there were also costs to the unified currency.

The Eurozone could be used as an example. A unified currency caused countries to lose the exchange rate and monetary policy independence, which meant that macro policymakers had to abandon monetary policy and only use fiscal policy to control the macroeconomy. This greatly weakened the response of macro policymakers’ ability to respond to “asymmetric shocks”.

Take Germany and Greece as examples, two countries shared the same currency and shared the same interest rate. However, German industry was more developed than Greece, the labor force was more educated, more productive, and the cost of manufactured goods was lower.

Now that the European Central Bank granted a loan to both countries, Germany used advanced industries and productivity to create wealth far greater than that of Greece through the same capital, so capital and high-quality labor were drawn in. Greece did not generate the same benefits, so it had to maintain its local economy through benefits to encourage spending, which ultimately led to the eurozone debt crisis.

However, it was undeniable that a unified currency would greatly enhance the competitiveness of the trade zone.

If the World Union Reserve created by Wall Street was not enough to make people feel vigilant, then the participation of more than a dozen Pacific Rim countries, including Xin and the UA, was enough to make other trade zones feel real panic.

Panic was the best way to describe the situation.

This trade zone was magnitudes larger compared to the EU, and its trade efficiency and competitiveness were unimaginable in other trade areas.

For this reason, the Kremlin convened two consecutive temporary meetings to discuss the World Union Reserve and its possible impact on the Russian economy. Putin and the Russian Minister of Economic Development, who were on a diplomatic visit to Europe, ended their trip early to attend the meeting.

On the other side, the same thing happened in Shangjing.

On the first weekend of the announcement of the establishment of the World Union Reserve, the Central Bank of Hua held a temporary meeting to discuss the formulation of a new monetary policy to counteract the potential impact of the establishment of the World Union Reserve.

The establishment of the World Union Reserve affected everyone’s nerves, whether they wanted it to or not…

Chapter 1561: Bit Spirit

In a blink of an eye, it was already January 2022. Two weeks had passed since the establishment of the World Union Reserve.

South of Coro Island, a building that covered an area of 20 acres completed the ribbon-cutting of the project in a low-key manner.

Rather than describe the place as a building, it was more fitting to describe it as a huge computer group. The east side of the entire building was directly constituted by an aluminum alloy shell. More than thirty quantum computer chips were connected in parallel on the main board of this large computer group.

The employees that worked in this building were like part of this supercomputer.

“Bit Spirit” was the name of this computer.

Although the headquarters of the World Union Reserve was temporarily set in Manhattan, the core of the entire world currency system was not located there, but in “Bit Spirit” on Coro Island. Although World Dollar was not a virtual currency, its monetary policy was determined by this quantum computer.

Every transaction of the World Dollar was tracked and recorded, all records were summarized in the central processing unit, and finally, the macro and micro economic data were analyzed by the artificial intelligence to make a macro forecast of the economic development trend, as well as formulate the most stable currency policy.

Bit Spirit took the concept of big data to the extreme.

After all, this quantum computer group in itself was the crystallization of the quantum computer technology of Future Group. The software program of Bit Spirit was written by Lilith, an advanced artificial intelligence.

Xia Shiyu stood next to Jiang Chen while she gazed at the huge computer group from a distance. She asked hesitantly.

“Does this thing… work?”

“Don’t worry about it. This system used to provide services for the Pan-Asia financial system. It is very reliable in both safety and practicability,” Lilith said in an expressionless state after she nodded, “In addition, I made some changes to the original system to adapt to the current economic situation based on Jiang Chen’s request.”

In the apocalypse, around the middle of the 21st century, Pan-Asia completed currency unification, and this system was not designed until the beginning of the 22nd century under the collaboration of multiple Pan-Asia financial institutions. Now after Lilith made some slight adjustments and then moved the system from the apocalypse to here, it was a natural fit for the newly formed World Union Reserve.

“I still feel that this is too risky. The Xin New dollar is in a great spot, and the risk of implementing currency reforms will only increase the risk. Even the best-case scenario where the reform succeeds, the success of the World Union Reserve currency system will only let those who lag behind us benefit.”

From Xia Shiyu’s perspective, her identity was the CEO of Future Group, so her first order of consideration was definitely the interests of Future Group.

In fact, her statement was true. From a purely commercial point of view, it was absolutely impossible for Future Bank to agree with First B City Bank’s proposal and join the “World Dollar” currency system proposed by the World Union Reserve.

However, it was meaningless to discuss the rationality of this proposal purely from a commercial point of view. After all, without Jiang Chen’s instruction, and the promise of Xin Reserve’s endorsement, as well as the bait of “DNA telomere extension agent”, the B City Consortium would not so desperately charge in the frontline, just for some seemingly tasty bread.

“Compared to what we got, we no longer need to care about these petty gains,” Jiang Chen smiled, “What’s more, if we don’t make this proposal now, we won’t have the chance in the future.”

The economic situation of Xin was in a great state. As Xia Shiyu said, for other countries with poor or normal economic conditions, Xin’s participation in the World Dollar currency system was the equivalent of giving everyone a freeride.

“From the position of the CEO of Future Group, I really hope that my president can consider the interests of the group more, and don’t be so selfless,” Xia Shiyu said in a teasing tone, “Also, at least discuss with me when something like this happens next time.”

In the following sentence, Xia Shiyu sounded like she was complaining.

Although she did not deny Jiang Chen’s approach, she was still a little bit disappointed that he did not discuss this matter with her.

“Sorry,” Jiang Chen put his arm around her slender waist. Jiang Chen smiled and met the pair of bright eyes, “Can you give me a chance to fix it?”

“You do not look like you’re sorry at all…”

She originally planned to say, but in the end, it was not what came out.

“Hmph, whatever you want.”

After she snorted softly, Xia Shiyu turned her head and looked away.

Her face, covered by a few strands of hair, was faintly pink, and it already revealed her mind at this moment.

…

Bit Spirit would be officially delivered to the World Union Reserve at the beginning of the following month.

Although by name, it would be delivered, this quantum computer group would ultimately be managed by Future Bank. After all, there was only one company in the world that possessed the relevant technology needed to maintain quantum computers.

After Jiang Chen attended the completion ceremony of Bit Spirit, he took Xia Shiyu and Lilith back to the mansion on Coconut Island by helicopter. They rarely returned to the mansion on Coro Island now, since the scenery on Coconut Island was much better, and the place was livelier.

At the dinner table, Sun Xiaorou explained to Jiang Chen the details of Future Group in Africa in the apocalypse. After she found her career, Jiang Chen was surprised to discover that she, who was always cynical and calculative, also has a side with a strong career focus.

The two attributes seemed to conflict but they unexpectedly fitted her.

Jiang Chen also didn’t know why he felt this way.

“…Our business in Africa is quite successful. The people there don’t understand what farming is. What they see as farming is to grab a handful of seeds and sprinkle them on the ground then harvest as much as they can in a few months. When we started off, we didn’t have enough people. We tried to hire some locals, but they were so lazy that they only came to work when they were paid. Later, I simply asked the person in charge there to fire them all. I would rather not have enough people than those lazy people.”

“You may offend the locals.” Jiang Chen chuckled.

“No, we’ll take care of the relationship with the War Chief.” Sun Xiaorou shook her head with a smile, and then looked at Xia Shiyu, “Speaking of which, this is the business trick Sister Shiyu taught me.”

“It’s just a side trick, you don’t have to be so diligent,” Xia Shiyu said a hand on her forehead.

“Just taking care of the War Chief is not going to work. You see that there are hundreds of tribes, large and small, in Mombasa alone. Have you noticed Chief Zaria that contacted us? He is one of the tribes under the War Chief. The situation in that area is different than here. The binding force of the War Chief on the regular chief is also different from our traditional understanding of the emperor to the minister. Even if you manage the relationship with the War Chief, those little tribes will seek trouble,” Jiang Chen pointed out the relationship nonchalantly.

“You have never been there, but how do you know the situation better than me?” Sun Xiaorou asked curiously.

“Because we also have Africa here. Ask Shiyu for the specific situation, maybe she knows better than me.” Jiang Chen smiled.

The sentence ‘people are a reflection of their environment’ seemed fitting.

Future Group’s business in Africa had been progressing slowly was likely related as well.

Of course, it could also be the large generation gap in technology that caused difficulty in adoption.

However, Future Military was an exception. Regardless of whether the global situation was tense or mild, the arms were always sold out. The African warlords even developed ingenious tricks with the “Scythe” drones, which made the veteran Celestial Trade soldiers stunned by their creativity in killing people.

While the group chatted, Xiaorou received a call from the apocalypse.

Since the girls moved here, Lin Lin’s sisters became the messenger and communicated important news from the apocalypse when Sun Jiao and the others were away.

After Xiaorou hung up, her beautiful eyes looked at Jiang Chen weirdly.

“Is there anything on my face?” Jiang Chen, who was eating, stopped what he was doing.

Xiaorou shook her head, but nodded again, and said in a half-joking tone.

“If it weren’t for the fact that you’re sitting in front of me, I would have thought you went there in person.”

Chapter 1562: Order on the Prairie

Even Jiang Chen himself did not expect that his nonchalant statement would jinx it. After he finished lunch in a hurry, Xiaorou took about five minutes to put on warm clothes, then they went back to the apocalypse through the door.

As for what happened.

Lets turn the time back to one day ago.

The apocalypse, Africa, near Lake Victoria.

On the highway across the prairie, trucks sped forward as they blew up the dust behind them. Soldiers with live ammunition sat on the truck, and tons of materials were transported from the port to the NAC African Development Zone. This scene almost became the most unique scenery on the prairie in this area.

Not long ago, Future Development harvested the first batch of crops they planted since they arrived in Africa.

The harvest of nearly 400,000 tons of rice, and tens of thousands of tons of sugar cane, cocoa, cotton, and other cash crops made Feng Yuan, Future Development Africa’s manager, so excited that he kneeled down to kiss the soil under his feet.

It was normal behavior for someone who has been starved for a long time.

He hadn’t seen this kind of golden field for a very long time.

Based on their agreement, Future Development planted one million mu of land and therefore had to pay tax on the one million mu of land to the War Chief every year. In order to make sure NAC did not play tricks on the area they farmed, the War Chief even sent his trusted wizard, Lusangbo, to be stationed in the Lake Victoria Development Zone to supervise the NAC to count the area of the land.

One mu of land required a payment of 800 catties of rice or corn a year, not to mention the boxes of orange-yellow bullets that were used to bribe the wizard. Future Development was not foolish enough to pay with the “cheap” food.

Five hundred boxes of military arms were sent to the War Chief’s palace, plus a few power armors and a few boxes of North American specialties. The gesture immediately pleased the War Chief, he patted Feng Yuan on the shoulder and stated that the Asian people are the friends of African people.

Feng Yuan was so embarrassed that he started to blush.

In half a year, the development zone that was originally made up of a dozen tents had grown to the scale of today with vast fertile fields.

A ten-meter-high concrete wall surrounded the settlement, and aesthetically pleasing concrete apartments rose up from the ground. From the distance, the settlement looked like a fortress standing on top of the hill. A series of artificial canals extended southward from the shore of Lake Victoria and delineated the farms into squares.

Every two hundred meters, there was a sentry tower. Heavy machine guns or other fixed weapons were placed on the sentry tower with a sentry on guard.

More than 500 employees lived within the wall, in addition to more than 4,000 slaves of different skin colors.

But even as slaves, the lives of these people were definitely better than other slaves in Africa. As long as they were not lazy and completed their daily tasks on time, Future Development did not let them starve.

In addition, there were people who taught them how to use machinery, how to farm, and how to fertilize. Compared with working under Africans, at least they did not need to use hoes and buckets to farm. They not only saved on a lot of manual labor; the efficiency also greatly increased.

The clever and diligent people had the opportunity to escape from slavery to become slave overseers. These people made the leap from the proletariat into an accomplice of the exploitation of the proletariat in one fell swoop. Everyone was full of energy, and in comparison, Feng Yuan felt that he slacked more than before when he got here.

The days here started to feel comfortable.

All he did every day was drive around the field twice in his all-terrain vehicle, then he went out with Wizard Lusangbo with his shotgun to shoot some game. Occasionally, the War Chief held banquets, which was considered to be one of the few occasions he had to attend. He didn’t have to worry about his needs at all. The War Chief not only gave him some “return gifts”, but there were also some top-quality goods in the slave market.

Asians were pickier than Africans in terms of aesthetics. Thick lips, big boobs, and large butts were considered the standards of beauty; facial features, on the other hand, were less important, with no standard perception at all. As a result, slaves with poor stature but exquisite facial features were always left behind. It was not only Feng Yuan that enjoyed hunting in the slave market in Mombasa, but many employees in the development zone also shared the same hobby.

Of course, it was not to say that Feng Yuan didn’t do any work, he still contributed greatly.

For example, the road from the Lake Victoria Development Zone to the port, and even the latest berths and cranes in the port, were built by Future Development.

The Zhao Group made a fortune from the cement business, and some of the construction teams who went to Africa with Future Development also made a lot of money. On the other hand, those African businessmen were furious because the “unruly” Future Group didn’t let them make any money at all.

Only a fool would let them make money!

NAC people were not foolish.

One bag of cement could be sold for the price of two. Even if the Zhao Group had to transport the cement from Wanghai, it was still substantially cheaper compared to the local cement. Moreover, the amount of cement they produced made people wonder how long their factories had been running for, and how long since their local construction teams worked on projects.

But there was one thing Feng Yuan didn’t expect.

Those African businessmen…or those tribes who do business, mostly operated poorly not entirely because of laziness, but because their businesses were mostly side-hustles, and banditry was their main line of work.

The bloody survival of the fittest was the normal state on the prairie.

On the first Sunday, after the last mu was harvested in the development zone, Feng Yuan gained a deep realization of this.

As usual, Feng Yuan threw the shotgun into the trunk of his vehicle, picked up Lusangbo and two guards, and prepared to head to the African savannah to catch some game. However, before they left, they were forced back by the sound of sirens from the settlement.

“What happened?”

After Feng Yuan jumped out of the car, he caught an officer who was running towards the wall and hurriedly asked.

“Report! Our food delivery team was hijacked by unknown armed forces. Ten trucks and twenty employees in the vehicles were taken hostage. Eight of the ten bodyguards were unfortunately killed…”

Feng Yuan’s heart immediately stuttered for a second. His top priority was no longer the dozens of tons of food on the vehicles, but the lives of the twenty employees. If any of the lives were lost, as the manager, he was definitely going to have to take responsibility.

“Where are those mercenaries?!”

“They said that the tribe was a close relative of the War Chief, and they didn’t dare to fight against them. We resisted until the end but were overwhelmed by the number of enemies.” The officer gritted his teeth angrily.

Feng Yuan was so angry that he cussed out.

These bastards are not taking any less money, but when they are asked to fight, they are more scared than anyone. If it were in Wanghai, even the mercenary group with the worst reputation would fight, instead of running away without firing a single shot.

“Report! Two kilometers ahead, unknown armed forces are approaching!”

There was a shout from the wall.

The officer looked at Feng Yuan anxiously.

Feng Yuan understood immediately and said quickly.

“Hurry and go now.”

“Roger!” The officer gave a military salute and ran towards the stairs.

Feng Yuan grinded his teeth, glared at Lusangbo, who looked calm and collected, then called the wizard to go up the wall. He took the binoculars from the soldier next to him and looked in the direction of the highway.

After Feng Yuan saw the scene, his expression changed drastically.

They certainly encountered militants who came to seek for trouble before, but at most, there were only two to three trucks and less than twenty rifles. The sentry tower just had to fire the machine gun before those militants fled.

But now, when Feng Yuan watched the billowing dust in the distance, he started to panic

Thirty trucks were approaching the development zone. He didn’t know whether they were armed with heavy weapons, but based on his understanding of Africa, the tribes with more trucks were more powerful. Moreover, these people chose the sensitive time when the first batch of crops had just been harvested in the development zone.

There was no doubt that the enemy came prepared.

Chapter 1563: Feint Attack

The port was the property of War Chief Duaman, and no one dared to ploy against it. But the Lake Victoria Development Zone was different. The NAC already paid taxes to War Chief Duaman, and their action now was unlikely to attract the defenders from Mombusa.

These militants planned to take advantage of this point frame, and thus they dared to attack at this moment.

As the siren went off, the entire settlement was like a pot of boiling water, and everyone began to move. Among the 500 employees stationed in the colony, more than 200 were private guards recruited by Future Development. At this moment, they were equipped with kinetic skeletons and headed onto the wall, as well as bunkers and platforms.

As for the remaining engineers in construction, agriculture, and water, they withdrew into the underground bunker located in the center of the settlement under Feng Yuan’s command. There was enough food and fresh water stored in the underground bunker to sustain rations of 500 people for six months. Even if the settlement was captured, these six months were enough for NAC to rescue the people.

As for slaves, of course, they were not treated as well.

Everyone was pushed back to the dormitory, the doors and windows were shut tightly, and they were waiting for the final outcome. Everyone who fought before was sent to the frontline with a rifle. If someone survived in this battle, based on the number of people killed, that person could remove the status of slave. If that person did not survive, then the fate was to die gloriously as cannon fodder.

Just as the settlement was prepared to fight, more than 30 trucks two kilometers away had already left the road and drove to behind the settlement that could not be directly observed from the wall. It was the edge of the development zone, and a simple farm was built there out of wood with agricultural machinery parked in it, and two shotguns used to scare away wild animals.

A dozen tribal soldiers quickly occupied the farm and dug a mortar position behind the wooden house. Soon with a few muffled bangs, a few mortar shells were shot up in the air, accompanied by a few columns of black smokes, then they slammed into the colony.

One shot landed in the garden and blasted a few transplanted birch trees to pieces. another shot, unfortunately, landed on the window of an apartment building, which directly blasted off the wall of that window. Fortunately, the building did not collapse, but the few Indian slaves hiding in it were unlikely to survive.

The rest of the shells hit the wall. Except for some damage to the surface of the concrete structure, as well as two cannon fodder salves who were injured because they did not evade in time, there were no casualties.

Almost at the same time when the first round of shelling began, the settlement quickly launched a counterattack. Several electromagnetic catapult mortars were set up and soon shells were shot off by the electromagnetic catapults with a few bangs, then exploded behind the farm.

Shrapnel raged as they tore the wooden buildings to pieces, and the artillery position behind the farm was also blown up. Except for a few gunners who jumped into a trench and escaped, most of them were killed or maimed.

Followed by the collapse of the wooden house, the militants inside screamed and hurriedly withdrew from the collapsed cover. Behind the other side of the mound, the militants dug a T-shaped tunnel with a spade, then set up a machinegun to fire at the wall to cover the retreat of the troops on the forefront.

The tactic was indeed accurate, but it was a pity that they encountered the NAC. More than half of the private guards hired by Future Development were veteran soldiers who have retired from the NAC force.

Of course, the soldiers on the wall did not feel sorry for the agricultural machinery. They ignored the bullets fired from the mount and directed several heavy machineguns to the ruins of the wooden house. It didn’t take more than two seconds before the dozen of militants that snuck out from behind the cover were pinned down again.

The sniper on the sentry tower skillfully set up the sniper rifle and began to shoot at the opposite firing points. Followed by a few shots, the firepower on the opposing side gradually weakened. They were indeed enemy snipers, but the accuracy of both weapon and shooting was obviously not on the same level.

The first round of feint attack ended in the defeat of these militants.

Except for a few riflemen and gunners who were pinned down behind cover, all the militants retreated behind the mound.

Feng Yuan equipped a kinetic skeleton, lowered his body, and crawled into the bunker outside the wall to see Jacobs, the security captain of Future Development.

This survivor from North America was a mercenary who used to be active on the West Coast of North America with extensive combat experience. After he served in Qingshan Town for half a year, he was transferred to Wanghai due to work. By coincidence, he was recruited by the Future Group as a private guard and sent to Africa.

“How is the situation? How many people are there on the opposing side? Did you see it clearly?” The floor shook slightly, and Feng Yuan cursed under his breath. He hurriedly grabbed onto the table to stabilize himself. The mortars and catapults on both sides were still engaged in sporadic exchanges of fire. This place was the very front line.

“More than 500 people but less than 1,000 people. The wave just now was a feint. It is very likely that it was just a force made up of slaves or lower citizens in the tribe. We have to closely monitor the specific situation. We just released our drones.” Jacobs held a pair of binoculars in his hand as he locked his sight onto the mound full of dead weeds and his brows twisted together, “You have to quickly contact the port and ask the NAC Marines stationed there for reinforcement.”

“But our employees are also at the port.” Feng Yuan hesitated, “If these tribal militants take advantage of this time difference and attack our port…”

“Impossible, the port is the property of the War Chief. If you are not assured, you can let our employees at the port board the ship first. These tribal militants won’t go into the sea,” Jacobs said.

After Feng Yuan debated for a moment longer, he finally gritted his teeth, turned on the EP switch, and called the NAC Marine Corps at the port. The force stationed there by NAC was to escort cargo ships and deal with pirates in South Asia, and so, their combat effectiveness was naturally impeccable.

There was no power armor in the development zone, so the defensive force was more than capable but lacked offensive power. As the security captain said, it was the best decision to call for the reinforcement of the army when the number of militants outside was unclear.

At this moment, on the mound outside the wall of the settlement, tribal militants with different types of rifles waved their shovels and wooden spades and dug a crooked tunnel. Among them were not only blacks but also many slaves of other skin colors.

Bullets whizzed above their heads, and the slightest peek could result in a headshot. The two sides tested each other with mortar shells. The people in the wall were at an advantage with better firepower, while the tribal militants behind the mound were at an advantage due to attacking a fixed target.

In a trench not far from there, the tribal militants built a cover with wood and sandbags as a temporary command post. Two men, one tall and one short, in weird costumes stood under the shed of this command post.

The tall one was burly, built like a gorilla, and just a robe covered his body as his neck was wrapped with bullets tied to a chain. His facial features were ferocious, his frontal bones were wide, his lower jaw was protruded, and his eyes glowed fiercely like two mung beans.

If it were placed in the Pan-Asia boundary, his appearance alone would be enough to make survivors flee. Because his appearance was too similar to a mutated human, more precisely, the most dangerous lead-skinned mutated human that could tear apart a power armor by hand.

The short man’s back was crooked, his face was full of wrinkles, but his eyes flashed with shrewdness. He wore a long dress with complicated patterns, which was similar to that of the courtiers of the War Chief, but there were some differences. His appearance looked like that of a noble in other tribes, and in short, his status was likely not low.

Chapter 1564: Buy Their Lives

“Those NAC people are not easy to deal with. I don’t know if they have power armors inside.” Mandaru, with a crooked back, narrowed his eyes as his dry skin scrunched together. He observed the shells that landed outside through the observation hole from time to time and all the wrinkles on his face squeezed together.

Although he expected from the beginning that the NAC was going to be difficult to deal with, he still didn’t expect the battle to be so difficult.

Originally, based on their tactics, the first round of offensive involved the slaves being sent forward for a feint attack in order to test the firepower of the settlement. At the same time, it provided cover for the troops in the second round of the offensive. However, the firepower of those Asians exceeded their expectations. In less than two minutes, the mortars they deliberately sent forward were blown up by the enemy’s counter-artillery bombardment. The troops on the feint attack who tried to withdraw were pinned down by heavy machine guns.

Until now, there were still four to five soldiers under the ruins of that wooden house, and their subsequent tactic was completely disrupted.

“There should be no power armor.” Although the burly black man looked like a simple-minded person, he was not foolish at all. Instead of making a plan recklessly, he calmly analyzed, “If they have power armors, then they can launch an attack, instead of being trapped inside and wasting shells.”

Whenever he thought of the grain in the development zone, Barlem’s eyes started to gleam with greed, and his breath turned heavier. Although the Morsi Tribe was on good terms with these Asians, the fact they possessed food as the weak was already a crime on this dry and yellow prairie.

Yes, even if the feint attack failed, he still did not change his perception.

In the African savannah, the strong never hid behind walls when faced with threats. They didn’t dare to step outside, so it only meant one thing, they just appeared to be strong on the surface.

Especially given that the Morsi Tribe did not play their trump card yet.

Even though the firepower of those heavy machineguns and mortars was very powerful, it would be naive to think that firepower alone was enough to beat them.

Mandaru, with the crocked back, noticed the subtle change on Barlem’s face, and a vicious but subtle sneer formed on the corner of his chapped lips.

Just like the large tribe of Morsi Tribe, the Water Lizard Tribe he represented also shared no serious grudges with the Asians, but there were indeed small conflicts.

The chief of the Water Lizard Tribe was a well-known entrepreneur in Mombasa, and his businesses included sand, cement, and engineering development. Originally, they thought that the arrival of these Asians would make them a fortune. However, after several negotiations, the Asians completely left them out of the business. Not only were the cement transported from their own place, but they even hauled their engineering team and construction equipment.

This action made the Water Lizard Tribe, who hoarded cement and prepared to demand any price, suffer heavy losses, and they just stared at the bags of cement piled up in their tribe.

Therefore, they joined forces with a large tribe like Morsi to attack the Asian settlement in the development zone. The food in the settlement was not the main reason, the real motive was to teach these unruly Asians some lessons.

Of course, because they provided a full truckload of weapons to the Morsi Tribe, they were eligible to receive dividends from this hunt. If they could get some food from these Asians, it would compensate for the losses they suffered when they were hoarding cement.

At this moment, a black soldier ran in in a panic.

“Report, NAC has set off from the port!”

“The port? Why are they coming here.” The two mung beans seemed to shrink to a point. Barlem stared at the soldier who brought the intelligence and continued to ask, “Did you see how many people they have?”

“Five armored vehicles…” After the black soldier swallowed down the lump in his throat, he answered tremblingly, “It seems that there are also two helicopters.”

…

[After the flare was fired, the private armed forces of Future Group in the settlement took the initiative to launch an offensive against unidentified militants outside the development zone, with the NAC Marine Corps that arrived from the port. A total of 31 people were injured, and seven people were killed in the operation. More than 200 militants were killed, 370 captured, and the rest fled with the hostages. In addition, 37 slaves were killed in the action…]

When the battle report was delivered to Jiang Chen, he was not surprised by the outcome.

The Marine Corps stationed in the port were all elites of the NAC. If they could not even deal with a bunch of natives, then they should be ashamed of the emblems they carry. The only thing Jiang Chen cared a little bit about was the description of certain details in the battle report.

Based on the report, the Morsi Tribe used special biotechnology on the battlefield and injected a certain kind of medicine to make the originally strong soldiers more powerful, and at the same time, more bloodthirsty and violent.

These people usually hold a powered hammer or an axe, a chainsaw, and hung heavy C-grade steel plates on their bodies. Their tactics were similar to the mutated humans in Wanghai as they fought enemies in close combat.

The most astounding fact was that after the soldiers entered a frenzied state, because of the medicine, these soldiers not only had enhanced recovery ability, but they also healed at a tremendous speed visible to the naked eye from non-lethal damage. Their muscle density and bone strength also increased substantially. Their body’s resistance to bullets was not inferior to mutated humans.

“What do you think this is?” Jiang Chen asked casually with some curiosity.

“I don’t know, but I guess it’s something that overdraws the potential of the body, but anyone who uses this kind of medicine doesn’t live long. Are you interested? There are probably a lot of pharmacies in the Sixth Street that sells them,” Lin Lin sat next to Jiang Chen, then explained while she bit on some snacks and dangled her legs off of the sofa.

A medicine that overdraws the potential of the body?

He put aside this matter for the time being and placed the report on the coffee table. Then, he looked at Xiaorou across from him.

At this moment, Xiaorou was in a very low mood, and it was obvious that she was still worried about the hostages being taken away.

But Jiang Chen didn’t blame her. Instead, he looked at her and smiled comfortingly.

After all, the problems Future Development encountered in Africa were nothing to him. From the very beginning, he said that he handed the business of Future Group in the apocalypse to her for her to practice and gain experience.

“What are you going to do with those hostages?” Jiang Chen smiled.

“I don’t know, the people from Morsi demanded a very high ransom. They want a box of military arms for each person.” Sun Xiaorou shook her head, and said with anger, “We are negotiating with them through the War Chief, but still, we don’t have any good results…”

No wonder she was angry.

After all, Future Development had managed the relationship with War Chief. However, after such an incident happened in his territory, not only did he not punish the bandits, instead, he acted as an intermediary to help the two sides negotiate.

Is this what a reasonable human being would do?

There were certainly reasons their logic was so backward. Sun Xiaorou could not understand the logic of these African tribes, but Jiang Chen could understand a little bit. The Iron Teeth Tribe needed to unite with other small tribes in Mombasa in order to consolidate its position as the War Chief in United African Tribes.

Therefore, in any case, the War Chief would definitely help the outsiders to suppress his own people.

Law? Morality?

It was questionable if these things really exist here.

Of course, while he understood the situation, it was impossible to tolerate it.

“Want to hear my opinion?” Jiang Chen smiled while he looked at the distressed Xiaorou.

Xiaorou’s eyes lit up and she raised her head to look at Jiang Chen. Her face once again bloomed with a smile.

“You thought of a solution?”

“Mhmm, give them the ransom first, and then give the War Chief twenty boxes of military arms as a gift, so that he must ensure the safety of the hostages,” Jiang Chen said.

“That’s more than twenty boxes of military arms. Do we really have to pay them so much ransom?” Xiaorou opened her mouth and looked at Jiang Chen in surprise, “And also, we need to pay twenty boxes of military arms as a thank you, that’s too much…”

It was not a regular box, but a small container specially used to transport arms.

“Maybe I didn’t say it clearly enough. The twenty boxes of military arms are not just a thank you for being an intermediary.” Jiang Chen laughed. His expression did not change, but his tone turned more chilling. “That is also the money to buy the lives of Morsi Tribe.”

Chapter 1565: Exclusive Trade

Forty boxes of military arms were just two or three days of production capacity for a few of the production lines of Future Military. The arms consisted of grenades, daggers, pistols, but mostly rifle bullets. From a cost perspective, it was at most 10 million Xin New dollars. If it was exchanged to the newly introduced World Dollar, the amount was slightly larger.

Of course, the arms for those natives were not of the best quality nor the newly manufactured kind. After Sun Xiaorou returned to the apocalypse, she immediately contacted Wang Qing from the logistics department and asked her to retrieve a batch of old arms from the warehouse that was ready to be sent for destruction. Those old arms would be cleaned and repacked.

Because NAC was very careful about ammunition and weapon maintenance, these repacked military assets looked like new ones. Among the twenty boxes used as the ransom, a small amount of ammunition was replaced with hollowed-out duds, which were hidden in the bottom of the boxes.

The hollowed-out part of these duds were installed with transmitters, which were capable of sending coordinate signals at a certain frequency until the built-in air lithium battery was completely exhausted.

Without a reconnaissance satellite, it was extremely difficult to accurately locate the Morsi Tribe on the African savannah. It would require local guides and experienced scouts to go deep into the savannah. However, with these munitions equipped with transmitters, all the problems were solved.

After Xiaorou finished all the work she went to see Wang Qing, and soon the logistics department sent a dozen trucks to transport the military arms to the port.

“Thank you so much for your help.” As she watched the crane load the boxes of military arms onto the cargo ship, Xiaorou smiled at Wang Qing to express her appreciation, “How many credits should I pay you for these military arms?”

“No need, it’s all old arms ready to be destructed. Even if you don’t want them, we will bring those to the shooting range to be destroyed.” Wang Qing waved her hand and said heartily.

Although her position went from a warehouse manager to the head of the logistics department, the identity Wang Qing gave herself did not ever change. In her eyes, the entire NAC was the General’s private property, and Xiaorou was the second wife of the General, and she had no reason to be concerned with such a trivial ask.

“That won’t work, Jiang… the General said, since I’m negotiating with you in the name of Future Development, it’s better to follow the normal business procedures,” Xiaorou shook her head and said as she insisted on the payment.

Wang Qing was amused by what Xiaorou said, but she thought, if you are not the one talking with me but another company? They can forget about it!

Since the control of the military industry was gradually taken back by the military government, the military government has begun to tighten the weapons on the market to prevent people with bad intentions from hoarding arms. The military government would rather the weapons be wasted than dumped into the market.

There were certainly people that thought about the scrapped military arms. They tried to bribe Wang Qing to buy the arms at a low price and sell it to the south or other regions. However, no matter how much they offered, she refused without exception and sent those people to the NAC prosecutors.

On loyalty, no one was comparable to the first generation of people who followed the General. The survivors who just came out of the fallout shelter may not have had the experience, but as the people that followed Jiang Chen’s steps from the very beginning, the respect they had was from the bottom of their hearts.

Of course, she only thought about it in her mind.

After all, in her opinion, Future Development was likely something used to relieve the second lady from her boredom. Even she probably didn’t care about how much money she made, so Wang Qing just nonchalantly said.

“It’s up to you.”

Although Wang Qing didn’t take it too seriously, Xiaorou still thought about it for a while and offered a price of 10,000 credits for a box of military arms. Wang Qing, who had never planned to bargain, happily agreed and let her deputy handle the payment.

On the other side, when Xiaorou followed Wang Qing’s deputy for payment, Jiang Chen, who rarely returned to the apocalypse, held a temporary meeting in the General’s Mansion. The mysterious General finally showed his face again, and the NAC executives naturally all attended the meeting. Apart from the fact that the governors of the colonies were unable to be present, the executives from the Sixth Street and Liuding Town all rushed over in person.

“Don’t be so nervous, we are only discussing very ordinary issues.” Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile as he looked at the tense subordinates before him.

Since the door that connected the two worlds opened, his mentality had undergone a subtle change.

What is the best way to describe it?

He felt that his burden was a lot lighter, and in front of these old subordinates, he was much more easy-going.

After he cleared his throat, he gestured to Han Junhua who stood next to him, and soon the documents were distributed to the hands of the participants of the conference.

“The whole Wanghai City is like a gunpowder keg, and every survivor has a gun in their hand. Many people used to be survivors who made a living on the wasteland, and many of them may have been predators. NAC will not punish them for their crimes in other places, but it is undeniable that if these people cannot find a job, they are likely to lay a hidden danger for the stability of Wanghai. Chu Nan, report the employment situation in the Sixth Street.”

“Yes, the honorable General.” Chu Nan smiled, stood up, and nodded slightly. “According to the data provided by the trade unions, including freelance jobs such as mercenaries, guards, and hunters, the unemployment rate at the Sixth Street for the last quarter is ten percent.”

Ten percent was just an estimate, and it was not realistic for it to be accurate to the decimal point, especially on the wasteland. And because combat occupations such as mercenaries and guards digested a large amount of the labor force, it was difficult to accurately count these highly mobile populations.

“Is it ten percent? For the Sixth Street…this data is still reasonable.” Jiang Chen nodded, “In order to find something to do for those who have guns and free time right now, the General’s Mansion researched and decided to implement the document that you are currently holding in the next month. I hope to hear your opinions and see what else is worth revising in this document.”

The document in everyone’s hands was called “On the Limited Opening of Slave Trade Act and the Measures for Investment Promotion in Africa.” The document stated that when taking into account the respect of local laws and cultural customs, the military government will allow slave trade in the African region. Slaves can be traded and used in Africa, and if they are brought to the NAC mainland or other colonies, their status as slaves will be automatically cancelled.

In addition, the document also stipulated that no factories can be opened in Africa, no attack on legal citizens of NAC, encouragement of private mercenaries to enter Africa, and so on.

After Cheng Weiguo read this document, he raised his hand.

Jiang Chen noticed and nodded to him.

“Why don’t we send an expeditionary force directly?” Cheng Weiguo asked, “I heard that the Morsi Tribe attacked our citizens in the Lake Victoria Development Zone. We can use this as an excuse to start the war.”

“Because they are more difficult to deal with than North America. Mombasa alone has hundreds of thousands of people, and the population there is beyond our imagination. Small tribes gather around large tribes, and large tribes surrender to larger tribes, and they have formed a feudal system. If we step onto Africa as NAC, it means going to war with the United African Tribes, and the biggest spoils we can get are just what we have gotten from them,” Jiang Chen shook his head and explained.

If all the refugees who fled from Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, and the East Coast of South America were counted, the population of the African continent was unimaginably high.

And the most critical factor was that it is not about victory, but rather, the lack of benefit in victory.

NAC already acquired the fertile Lake Victoria Development Zone with no effort. More than 10 million mu of land were ready to be developed. After half a year, only a million mu of the land was harvested. But the grain produced alone was enough to feed the entire NAC population. NAC also only had to pay with some cheap bullets or outdated power armors.

Even if the four corps made up of tens of thousands of soldiers were all sent to Africa, and the entire east coast of Africa was conquered in two or three years, NAC would still be farming in Lake Victoria at best. Cheng Weiguo only raised this issue from the standpoint of a soldier. After a little thought, he could understand the pros and cons.

“Since there is no objection, let’s vote by a show of hands.” Jiang Chen glanced around.

Jiang Chen was very surprised that Cheng Weiguo raised his hand.

The document passed unanimously.

Chapter 1566: Ritual of Sacrifice and Hunt

In the port outside Mombasa, 40 containers were located under cranes at the terminal.

Two black tribesmen with rifles stepped forward, dragged out a plastic box of ammunition from the opened container, and brutally smashed the lock with the rifle stock. When they saw orange-yellow bullets inside, their mung bean-like eyes showed a spark of ecstasies, then they whistled with cheers.

“Twenty boxes of military arms are here, where are our people?” Feng Yuan did not look at the two men, but instead, stared at the envoy of Morsi Tribe in front of him.

He noticed that when the envoy saw the 40 containers of military arms in the port, there was a look of greed that quickly disappeared from his face. This greed was not directed at the arms here, anyone could feel that it was aimed at Feng Yuan and his people.

One hostage traded for a box of arms.

This deal was way too profitable.

“Don’t worry, the hostages are all in the truck. I guarantee with the Steel Teeth’s totem that everyone is safe and sound.” The burly Duaman coughed, opened his arms, and looked at the envoy of the Morsi Tribe. “As agreed, you let them go.”

The envoy bowed respectfully, and his attitude towards the War Chief was obviously more respectful than those outsiders.

Soon, 22 people got off the truck, because NAC paid the ransom fairly quickly, these people hadn’t been abused.

Two of them were private guards who had survived. Their injuries were clearly serious, and they were wrapped in bandages. The moment they saw Feng Yuan, the two of them looked ashamed and lowered their head.

When the NAC soldiers saw their injuries, they looked furious and the way they stared at the Morsi envoy carried a desire to kill. However, perhaps the envoy from Morsi was either fearless or brainless, he raised his chin slightly, and cast an arrogant look on the soldiers.

Feng Yuan pressed down the muzzle that was almost raised next to him with his hand, shook his head at the soldier, then waved the medics to the two wounded soldiers.

“Please raise your head, you have nothing to be ashamed of. The ones who should be ashamed are those cowards who took a deposit but left their employers and ran away. On our side, even the most despicable mutated humans disdain this kind of filth. You and your comrade-in-arms fought to the last moment, even if you were outnumbered in the end, you are deserving of the glory.”

Feng Yuan didn’t control the volume of this sentence, but the expression on the war chief’s face was not the most pleased. After all, he introduced Feng Yuan to the guards. Morsi Tribe was one of his most valiant vassal tribes, and it was normal that the mercenaries did not dare to fight against them.

But when he saw the twenty containers that belonged to him, the war chief erased the dissatisfaction with this sentence and pretended not to hear the rude words.

On the contrary, the envoy of Morsi was very direct, said nothing, made a contemptuous gesture, and then took his two entourages and left the port.

In their tribe, that gesture meant a coward.

“You shouldn’t pay the ransom.” Because he received compensation, Wizard Lusambo shook his head and reminded Feng Yuan kindly, “Did you see the expression on the War Chief’s face? He is so happy that he received 20 containers of military arms just for being an intermediary for the exchange of hostages, which is more profitable than the slave trade…”

There was one more sentence Lusambo did not say.

If the Steel Teeth Tribe were dissatisfied with the attack on the development zone by the vassals in the territory, from now on, the War Chief would much rather for his vassals to rob the Asian settlement, and then act as a middleman to make a profit from it.

“The employees of Future Development are not slaves. Moreover, they will soon pay for their stupidity.” Feng Yuan sneered as he stared coldly at the back of the Morsi envoy, then said the sentence one word at a time.

Soon, they will learn that the ransom is not so easy to take…

…

“Cheers to Mother Morsi!”

“Ohohoh!”

Sparks popped out of the bonfire, and the tribesmen around the bonfire danced to the beat of the drums as they performed mysterious dances around the bonfire.

On this continent, the culture of each tribe was different. Except for the common totem and ancestor people worshipped, all cultural differences were reflected in the appearance of totems, dances, and rhythms of drums.

The wizard chanted the spell, like a rap, reached out and grabbed a handful of powder in the bone vessel, and threw it into the campfire. Amidst a group of people who screamed and cheered, the flames loudly banged, and the explosion turned green.

If there was one sentence to describe the people living here, they were both backward and advanced at the same time.

The village of Morsi Tribe was very large, and most of the buildings were tents. The design was to adapt to the safaris on the prairie. As the deer moved and the surrounding fruits depleted, they continued to migrate. However, primitiveness did not mean that they were absolutely backward. Like many survivor settlements around Wanghai, they used modern weapons, and they were familiar with some of the high-tech unique to Mombasa.

Two tribal soldiers with rifles brought two slaves who were tied up. The two were light-skinned and their muscles bulged out. One was probably a Central European and the other was a Slav. In this era, their relationship could be described as a blood feud.

“Knife.”

The black soldier spoke in French and handed them both a knife, then released the shackles on them. The rest of the tribesmen formed a circle around the two as they cheered and yelled weird words in excitement.

With two low growls, the two slaves leaped forward, and both saw despair in each other’s pupils.

No one could survive.

The weak was killed, and the heart of the strong was sacrificed.

It was a tradition to celebrate a good harvest of the hunt and pray for the next hunt. The containers filled with ammunition were placed not far from the totem pole before the “gifts” given to them by these ancestors of Morsi were taken apart.

In order to offer sacrifices to the ancestors, in order to obtain the blessings of the ancestors, at this moment, every Morsi was there.

Finally, the duel was decided, and the Central European’s knife had been knocked out. The Slav put his body over the Central European, then stabbed the knife in his hand to his opponent’s throat.

“We are dead, we are all dead,” The Central European’s pupils shook with despair as he grasped the knife with both hands and watched the blood drip drop by drop. He panted heavily, then in a hoarse voice, he said, “they will first drain all of your blood, and then dig out your heart in front of you, and put it on that altar…”

At this moment, there seemed to be some noise in the air.

Of course, the two people surrounded by thousands of tribesmen could not hear the noise, but many people on the outer edge still raised their heads and looked at the dark sky.

“Shhh, listen carefully, that is the voice of our ancestors, they’re teaching us.”

Someone said so.

Two thousand meters above the air, two Aurora-20s cruised one after the other.

“This is Hunter-1, the signal source has been detected…”

Chapter 1567: Slaughtered

In the evening, while the Morsi Tribe celebrated the victory of the hunt, a banquet was also held in the palace of Mombasa. The host of the banquet was of course War Chief Duaman, but this banquet was not to celebrate anything but to settle the difference between Morsi Tribe and Future Development.

Therefore, War Chief Duaman also invited the envoy from Morsi Tribe and the manager of Future Development Africa, Feng Yuan.

Even if his brain was not the smartest, he was definitely not the fool to be able to sit as the War Chief of the United African Tribes. One was his most brave hound, and the other was a goat with sharp horns. In order to allow the goat to grow its fur, it was necessary to comfort it.

However, the two people who sat at the banquet seemed to have no intention of shaking hands and making peace.

Before the banquet started, the War Chief spoke a lot of words in a high-sounding manner and proposed a toast with all the nobles and courtiers in the room, then he said something like “harmony is the most important” and “there won’t be a next time”. He did not even say a single harsh reprimand to the aggressive Morsi Tribe.

“….You and Manakala are both important friends of Steel Teeth tribe. I hope you can toast a glass of wine so that the seeds of hatred will turn into dust on the Sahara desert and be taken away by the breath of Mother Earth.”

After Duaman spoke, he looked at Feng Yuan and Manakala who sat on opposite sides of him, then indicated that they could toast each other.

From the words of War Chief Duaman, Feng Yuan learned that the name of this envoy was Manakala. He was a nobleman from Morsi Tribe, and he was also a very prestigious warrior in the tribe. He silently noted the name, said nothing, and stood up.

Two maids in gold ornaments brought a tray forward and walked towards the two who sat opposite each other. The gilded wine glass was placed in the center of the tray, and the swaying liquid was like blood.

In any case, there was nothing wrong with the wine.

However, when Feng Yuan reached for the wine glass from the gilded tray, Manakala, who sat across from him with his arms folded, didn’t even touch the wine glass. He directly spat into the wine glass.

The atmosphere at the banquet instantly cooled down, and everyone looked at Feng Yuan, who stood there alone, with the intention of watching the drama unfold.

Manakala seemed to feel that what he had just done was not enough. After he spat, he looked at Feng Yuan contemptuously and humiliated him with a voice that everyone could hear.

However, because the envoy didn’t use French, Feng Yuan didn’t understand what he was talking about.

Feng Yuan did not get angry, he slightly turned his head and whispered to the interpreter standing behind him.

“What did he say.”

The interpreter standing behind him hesitated, gritted his teeth, and finally explained in a quiet voice.

“He said…Morsi will not sit with a coward, and that it will stigmatize our totem…”

“I see.”

After Feng Yuan listened, he was unexpectedly calm. So much so that the interpreter was slightly taken aback.

When nobles, courtiers, and representatives of other tribes at the banquet saw that the Asian did not respond, the way they looked at Feng Yuan turned from anticipation to contempt and then to disdain.

On the prairie, the order was dictated by power, and the weak was destined to be enslaved. It was the law since before the war and it did not change whether the outside world was at peace or destruction. If he did not have the courage to fight other tribes’ humiliation, then he would only be looked down upon by everyone.

Feng Yuan did not take those contemptuous looks to heart, Feng Yuan just glanced at War Chief Duaman, and saw that he had no comments on Manakala’s behavior. He quickly understood the situation.

If it was in Pan-Asia, spitting in front of the host’s glass of wine is not a slap to the enemy’s face, but to the host’s face. Even the most simple-minded, straightforward man did not do this. But there didn’t seem to be so many unwritten rules and traditions here. Just by the way the War Chief took everything for granted, Feng Yuan knew that he was not going to blame Morsi Tribe.

Maybe this is the difference between civilized and barbaric.

“It seems that not all of War Chief Duaman’s vassals understand etiquette. It just so happens that I have no interest in drinking with uncivilized beasts.” Feng Yuan poured the wine in the glass on the ground, and then gazed at Manakala who sat there with a look of disdain, and said nonchalantly, “As for your cup, I will make you drink it on your knees.”

Manakala grinned and showed a ferocious look.

“You can try it, monkey.”

This time he used French.

At this moment, the gate of the palace was suddenly pushed open, and a panicked soldier ran. After he got down on one knee next to War Chief Dauman, he said something hastily.

Because it was too far away, Feng Yuan didn’t hear what he said, but he saw that War Chief Duaman’s expression gradually turned uglier.

At this time, the EP around his wrist rang.

He clicked on the screen, read the text, and looked at the attachments. He once again looked at Manakala who sat across from him and said with a half-smile.

“I didn’t expect to fulfill my words so soon.”

While he said the sentence, he took out a memory card from his pocket, inserted it in the EP, then stuffed it into the holographic computer pen, and threw it on the table in front of Manakala.

At the moment Feng Yuan threw the holographic computer pen over, Manakala’s pupils suddenly constricted, and the cheetah-like muscles seemed to tighten, but after he realized that it was not a weapon, he sneered and dropped his vigilance.

“You can open it. If don’t know how, I can teach you,” Feng Yuan said in French with a smile.

Manakala smiled with disdain again. He grabbed and clicked the button on the holographic computer pen. He proved to Feng Yuan that he knew how to use it. However, the moment he turned on the switch, he was stunned by the picture that appeared on the pop-up holographic screen.

On the screen was a picture overlooking the ground from a high altitude.

Because it was nighttime and too high up, only the bright spots in the middle of the screen were visible.

Manakala faintly felt that something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell what was wrong. Suddenly, he found the hill in the corner of the picture seemed a bit familiar.

But just when he was about to look carefully, the picture zoomed in towards the bright spot in the middle.

Manakala was stunned.

He finally saw clearly.

In the center of the picture was his tribe, and the rising flame was the bonfire of the sacrificial celebration.

Suddenly, something fell from the side of the camera, and it quickly turned into a black spot and disappeared into the night.

Just as Manakala was thinking about what disappeared on the screen, a dazzling white light exploded in the air above Morsi Tribe without the slightest warning…

Chapter 1568: Reciprocity

The burning white phosphorus ignited everything and left only the mournful wailing of the dead in the fire.

A total of eight clusters of white phosphorous munitions were fired down and turned the radius of a mile into scorched earth. The chiefs, warriors, men, women, old people, children, antelopes… and all traces of their existence were erased.

Manakala stood there, his eyes widened, and his two-meter-high body trembled along with his lips. Whether it was the prayer he recited in his mouth, or the plea he mumbled, or the fear he felt, it was so minuscule compared to the flame that burned everything.

The representative of Water Lizard, Tululu, sat next to Manakala. They maintained a good relationship. And the brawny black man in a leopard coat originally stared at Feng Yuan like a delicious prey, but now, that looked changed into the way someone looked at a devil…

It was the same reaction for the noble of the Steel Teeth who sat next to Tululu. He looked up as if he was worshipping a devil, and the previous contempt in his eyes was replaced by endless fear.

It was the same reaction shared by everyone. There was fear in their eyes, except for one person…

War Chief Duaman stood up abruptly and looked at Feng Yuan in anger. He snorted heavily, like an angry bull.

Morsi was one of the most powerful vassals of the Steel Teeth, and one of the hounds that guarded the northwestern territory. He could turn a blind eye to his guest fighting with his hound, but he could not tolerate his guest cutting the hound’s head off.

Except for the two holding the tray, the surrounding maids all backed away in horror. The soldiers that stood in the shadowy corner stared at Feng Yuan silently. They waited for the war chief’s order to pounce on him at any moment.

However, they did not hear the command from the war chief, Duaman simply stared at Feng Yuan.

He was waiting for an explanation.

However, Feng Yuan’s reaction was going to disappoint him. This time Feng Yuan didn’t look at the War Chief at all, instead, he just looked at the trembling Manakala and said emotionlessly.

“The Pan-Asia people talk about courtesy and respect. If you kneel down and drink that glass of wine, Morsi can keep the last of its blood.”

After Feng Yuan said this, he turned around and headed out with the interpreter behind him.

When Feng Yuan walked to the door, the War Chief was about to stop him. However, Manakala suddenly shouted, slapped away the wine glass in the tray, grabbed the knife on the table, and strode towards Feng Yuan.

“I’m going to kill you!!!”

After he witnessed the destruction of his tribe, the tragic death of his people, the flames of anger burned through every inch of his blood vessels. He was incapable of thinking at this moment as his own desire was to dig out the heart of this Asian man and place it on the withered totem to pay tribute to his people.

As Manakala saw Feng Yuan already made it to the door, he was about to grab Feng Yuan’s collar, but before his hand could reach it, there was a bang, and his skull shattered like a smashed watermelon.

The gunshot was from far away.

But the palace was silent.

The guard who stood behind the war chief stepped forward, raised his rifle, and aimed it at Feng Yuan’s back, but the War Chief shouted at him and pressed down the raised muzzle.

The nobles at the banquet shook in fear as if they just witnessed with their own eyes that a delicious sheep just tore down its friendly disguise and revealed the fangs hidden under the gentle beard.

An entire tribe was slaughtered, and the tribe was no other than the most mighty and domineering tribe outside of the Steel Teeth Tribe…

The only thought in their mind was once the banquet ended, they would go tell their people that the Asians were all devils, and they were not to be provoked.

After Feng Yuan stepped down from the last step of the palace, he let out a sigh of relief.

Although it was only a short ten minutes, his back was drenched in sweat…

One kilometer away, the sniper that laid on the roof of the temple put away the still smoking rifle, activated optical invisibility, and disappeared into the night of Mombasa, as if he had never been there before. After the Marine soldiers at the port on duty received the news of Feng Yuan’s return to the development zone, they tacitly turned off the rifle safety. Their eyes behind the tactical eyepiece no longer intentionally or unintentionally glanced at the cigarettes in the mouths of the black soldiers.

That night, the entire Mombasa boiled.

The guards in the entire city were dispatched on the mission to catch the assassin, but not a single Asian was caught, instead, a lot of white and black slaves were captured. They were dragged to the gutter behind the prison and executed like pigs. It was unknown why the executions happened, and who was the audience of the show?

At dawn the next day, the news that Manakala from Morsi Tribe was shot by a sniper at the gate of the war chief’s palace spread throughout the city.

Asian businesspeople doing business in Mombasa discussed going to the development zone or port to take shelter, but they did not expect that when they left the city, the originally disrespectful blacks did not take advantage of the chaos to attack but avoided them like the plague.

…

“…At first, we thought we would have to wait a few days for the results to come, but we didn’t expect that those tribesmen would pull the containers back to the tribe that night and pile the munitions on the altar for celebrations. Our fighter jets found them far away, and there was no need even to aim.”

In the mansion on Coconut Island, Jiang Chen was naked in bed while he listened to Xiaorou, who laid in his body. She reported on the progress of Future Development in excitement.

When Xiaorou talked about annihilating the disrespectful and rude Morsi Tribe, she waved her small fist and felt quite relieved. Yao Yao, who was still sleeping, made a sound with her mouth. A red cloud of happiness still lingered on her cute face. Then she rubbed against Jiang Chen’s arm unconsciously.

Unlike Sun Xiaorou, Yao Yao didn’t have good physical strength, so she couldn’t hold back her tiredness and fell asleep.

With how energetic Xiaorou became after she started to talk about Future Group’s business, Jiang Chen smiled and then said.

“As I said, it’s no good for you to chew on the rotten bones. But if you show them weakness, there will only be endless troubles waiting for you. Normal business methods don’t work there, and they can’t distinguish the difference between wealth and prey very accurately. Naturally, they don’t understand the principle of making money in a harmonious manner.”

“Then why did we gift the War Chief 20 boxes of military arms? I don’t want to give him a single gun for this kind of people who renege.” Her finger was pressed to her lower lip as Xiaorou thought about this question seriously. However, she did not come up with a solution.

“After all, it was Morsi Tribe who was slaughtered, I’m afraid that the War Chief’s heart is dripping blood right now. The 20 boxes of arms are not only a gesture but also to remind him that Future Development can bring what the Steel Teeth Tribe needs the most – arms. And now this esteemed customer is very angry.” Jiang Chen smiled while he gently stroked down Xiaorou’s nose with his finger.

After the news of Morsi Tribe’s fall spread, Lake Victoria Development Zone would become a forbidden zone in the minds of African tribes in the entire Mombasa area. Anyone who angered Future Development would face its wraith.

On the African continent in the apocalypse, this kind of behavior was neither despised, nor created hatred, but rather, it gained the awe and even respect of all tribes.

Chapter 1569: Create Chaos in Africa

The fall of the Morsi Tribe left an unerasable impression for the tribes on the coast of East Africa. Except for the countless scorched corpses, there was no trace of living creatures in the grassland that had been bombed by white phosphorous munitions.

The fire across the prairie caused by the munitions was not extinguished by rain until three days later.

If it were before, in the eyes of these tribesmen, the Asians who walked on the streets of Mombasa were like easy prey. However, one dared not look directly at the convoy of Future Develop now, and no one dared to ask for bribes from these ruthless characters.

After Feng Yuan returned to the Lake Victoria Development Zone, he did not have to wait for long before the Steel Teeth Tribe sent Wizard Lusambo as an emissary. The wizard only expressed regret for the deterioration of the relationship between Morsi and Future Development but did not comment on the eight white phosphorus munitions.

Future Development continued to farm, Steel Teeth Tribe collected taxes annually, and both sides were at peace.

In fact, Morsi Tribe attacked Future Development partly because the local enterprises in cement and building material business, as well as local tribes that raise slaves in captivity, were jealous of Future Development’s profits.

For example, the Water Lizard Tribe, in addition to the loss of profits due to the hoarding of cement that Future Development did not buy, also raised tens of thousands of slaves, and own a large amount of fertile land in the area to the northwest of Mombasa.

Because of the growth of the Lake Victoria Development Zone, the crops in their hands have gradually depreciated, so it was natural for them to get antsy. Since NAC did not mind a lower crop price and preferred food prices to depreciate, it meant the value of the manufactured products from NAC was higher in the trade. Future Development wished food to continue to get cheaper, so when they paid taxes, the same amount of military arms could be exchanged for more food.

Anyway, except for part of the grains they produce were used to suppress the price of food in Mombasa, most of the grains were shipped back to NAC or NAC’s colonies.

It was naturally impossible for the tribes that did not even possess a full set of farming tools to compete fairly with Future Development’s mechanized equipment. Therefore, the Water Lizard Tribe decided to think of an alternative plan and worked with Morsi Tribe to launch an attack on the Lake Victoria Development Area, and finally kidnapped hostages in exchange for ransom.

Now the chief of the Water Lizard Tribe only felt fortunate by the fact that they did not receive the ransom, otherwise, it would not only be Morsi Tribe being annihilated but also they themselves, the instigators.

After the Chief of the Water Lizard Tribe spent a week in anxiety, he finally felt relieved after he realized that Future Development was not going to seek trouble from them. As for those “unruly” Asians, he didn’t want to provoke them at all.

Those people were simply a bunch of devils.

This view had become deep-rooted in most tribes…

“If we want our granary to be stable, Mombasa must be unstable.” Jiang Chen sat in the office of the Future Building and looked at Xiaorou. She stood in front of him while she humbly listened. Jiang Chen smiled and continued, “The easiest way to make Mombasa unstable is to create chaos in Africa.”

“Turn Africa into chaos?” Xiaorou tilted her head. “Is Africa not chaotic enough now?”

“Not enough.” Jiang Chen shook his head. “Although there are still conflicts between the large and small tribes within the United African Tribes, the entire United African Tribes is stable. You can see that the two small tribes under Steel Teeth may have fought over a water source, but there is almost no conflict between Steel Teeth and several neighboring large tribes of the same size.”

“It seems to be the case. In the boundaries of Steel Teeth, you can’t see the people from Giant Axe Tribe from the north at all… I heard that the manager over there say this.” Sun Xiaorou nodded thoughtfully, “Is there anything for us to gain if they fight?”

“Of course,” Jiang Chen smiled and continued, “If the Steel Teeth Tribe and the Great Axe Tribe fought, then our position is very important. War Chief Duaman will not offend us in the first place, because the armed forces of the development zone are not weak, and secondly, both sides will try to please us, because they can only buy weapons of reliable quality from our hands.”

Africa possessed a large number of weapons and equipment that have flowed in from the north of the Mediterranean. After more than two decades, most of those weapons were already very old. Because of frequent use and lack of maintenance, the more advanced the equipment, the higher the failure rate.

Jiang Chen did not rule out the possibility that these tribes possessed weapons not inferior to the NS-90 robots, but the capability and effectiveness of these weapons would become a very interesting probability question. NAC could provide high-quality weapons at fair prices with stability. If the local situation turned into chaos, then arms dealers from Asia would become highly sought-after by these tribes.

After Jiang Chen finished his explanation, Xiaorou’s eyes lit up and she immediately followed up.

“But, how do we make the situation more chaotic?”

“Sell them weapons and let their ambitions swell, along with their strength. Violence is in their genes. We don’t need to provoke the relationship between them. We just need to pass them the tools to kill. It will naturally move in the direction we want.”

In the African savannah that followed the law of the jungle, farming diligently was an action disdained by people. In the eyes of almost all tribes, Morsi was their role model, and only the strong were worthy to be worshipped by others.

The truly powerful tribes did not produce anything. They relied on hunting, gathering, and slaves to feed their people. They robbed necessities and weapons from the weak and expanded through snowballing.

Because of this deformed culture of “worship the strong”, the Africans who occupied the last piece of pristine land in this apocalypse had made no achievements so far. In addition, there were always delicious fruits in the fertile forest, and without the need to fight for survival, they naturally did not work hard.

In fact, that was exactly the case.

In Mombasa, only the lowest tribesmen chose to work in factories. There were certainly factories there, except that all the factories only worked once every few days.

“It’s not enough to just bring in the few tribes from United African Tribes, we need to pull in the South African Union on Madagascar to the south. We’ll first dump a few hundred boxes of arms at them and then make the situation a little more chaotic. As for how to execute it, you can discuss with other employees in the company, and if you don’t understand, you can also discuss it with Sister Shiyu,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

“Can’t I ask you? I think your suggestions are very useful.” Xiaorou smiled.

“There is no need to ask me about this kind of trivial matter,” Jiang Chen waved his hand, “I believe that with your ability, you can definitely solve this problem.”

Xiaorou rolled out her tongue playfully, then left the office.

After the office door was closed, Jiang Chen rubbed his somewhat sore eyebrows, picked up the document on the table, and leaned against the chair.

Since he solved the issue known as the UA, his life did not get more relaxed. Instead, it became busier.

In other words, there seemed to be more and more things that needed him to worry about.

Whether it was the trans-Pacific “World Dollar” currency system or the rescue work of the Svetovid, troubles continued to come at him one by one. Though he did ask for some of them himself.

“Has the ice cutting project started?”

After he scanned the title of the document, he muttered a few words to himself, but his eyes inadvertently lifted from the document. He gazed out of the floor-to-ceiling window distractedly and focused in the direction of downtown Coro City.

He could still remember that at the very beginning, Future Building was located in the outskirts far away from the downtown of Coro City, and Coro City was not visible from here. As the boundaries of the city continue to expand, the outline of the city was getting closer and closer to this building.

As his focus on Coro City became blurry, he suddenly had a thought in his mind.

I wonder what it would be like in a few years…

Chapter 1570: Three Years

Time flew quickly.

Three years passed in a glimpse.

In the past three years, Jiang Chen, who took DNA telomere extension agents, had hardly felt any changes to his body. If people did not check his ID, just from his youthful appearance, no one would even know that he was almost thirty years old.

Age was no longer relevant to him and his relatives, lovers, and mistresses. Even Liu Yao, who he only met occasionally, as well as the maid Qian Xia in Yoto, all received a gift marked as “beauty medicine.”

Probably last year, Liu Yao came to Coro Island for a set. When she asked Jiang Chen, what was in that bottle while they were out on a date, Jiang Chen just smiled and didn’t answer the question. He just told her to take it regularly and it was good for her body.

It was not that he didn’t believe Liu Yao would keep secrets for him, but he just didn’t want her to shoulder the burdens that she shouldn’t have to bear.

He was a man that reminisced the past.

Even though he had told her from the beginning that he wouldn’t give her any name, Jiang Chen still couldn’t witness her grow old and then silently leave him.

A lot happened in the past three years.

Whether it was for him, for Xin, or for this world…

There was not much to say about what happened to him.

Except for the piles of documents, he enjoyed his repetitive and leisurely daily life. Although this appeared boring to others, only Jiang Chen, who enjoyed this life, could appreciate the beauty of living this way.

Compared to Jiang Chen himself, who has not changed much, changes in Xin were happening every day.

After Xin adopted World Dollar, the fast-growing economy did not show much fluctuation, and the transition from “Xin New Dollar” to “World Dollar” was smoothly completed. The dividends brought about by the upsurge of space resource development led to a continuous influx of international capital into these small islands in the Western Pacific.

The people were happy, and the society was naturally stable. From Coro Island to Ange Island, it looked like a new place almost every year.

A backpacker who frequently visited Xin even wrote in his blog that he traveled to this city every year, because every time he saw this city, it brought him a completely different feeling. If he did not rely on navigation, he would get lost in this city regardless of how many times he came.

Not many people could remember what Coro City was like ten years ago. Nowadays, there were many high-rise buildings, and the maglev vehicles that traveled back and forth formed a continuous river in the air. It ran from one end of the city to the end of the undersea tunnel on the other.

Then the world outside Xin also changed drastically.

The first was the Trans-Bering Strait Tunnel. The final phase of the project was finally completed. Russia and the UA jointly announced the completion of the project. The tunnel was divided into upper and lower levels, the upper level was designed for cars and the lower level was for high-speed rail. From now on, taking the high-speed rail from Nouveau York to Paris, or driving a car around the world, was no longer an illusory dream.

Trump, who had just participated in the completion ceremony, returned to Capital right away to prepare for the upcoming general election. However, after the UA adopted World Dollar, the post-war economy rapidly recovered, and the employment rate fell; the possibility of his re-election was still quite high.

Because of the effects of the DNA telomere extension agent, the old man did not look like he was already in his seventies. He was running around in the same imposing manner as a young man. He showed up at election campaigns to gain the precious vote of his supporters.

Jiang Chen pushed Loki to the position of President of the World Union Reserve. In the past three years, he had shown his outstanding strength in finance. The World Union Reserve expanded the membership from the earliest twelve countries to 37. It covered almost the entire Pacific Rim, as well as Australia and South Asian countries.

The snowball effect began to the show.

The countries that joined the World Union Reserve currency system, backed by the humongous Xin, enjoyed advantages in terms of industrial raw materials and electricity costs that other countries simply could not imagine. With the continuous expansion of the World Dollar, as long as there were no internal economic issues, more and more economies would start to choose to surrender to this currency system.

After the Bretton Woods system, a stronger and more unified currency system gradually dominated the global financial market.

Economically, the superiority of the World Dollar system started to show, and industrially, the rise of the space industry was also strong.

In addition to Xin, the total output value of the space industry of the major member states gradually moved closer to the figure of 10%. As for Xin, if Heavenly Palace City was included in Xin’s legal territory, then the country’s steel output now ranked first in the world.

It was not entirely because of production capacity, but more of a cost advantage. First of all, the two shipyards under Future Heavy Industries had completed the relocation from Celestial City to the synchronous orbit of Mars and they had prepared to build more starships for the Earth Defense Alliance. Secondly, Golovin acquired a loan of 50 billion World Dollars from Future Bank to build their foothold on Mars.

With the demand for hundreds of millions of tons of steel, steel plants in Heavenly Place City sprung up like bamboo shoots after the rain. In terms of industrial production capacity alone, Xin now ranked first in the world with only a few hundred square kilometers of land.

In the cultural field, the activities of globalists continued, and apart from the gradual increase of approvals, there was nothing remarkable that happened. These voices would convince the world eventually in the future, but they were still too weak now.

If the previous achievements were put aside, what Jiang Chen was the most impressed by, or delighted with, was the achievements of Future Group in the field of science and technology.

With the help of Golovins, the joint effort of Special Projects Institute and Aerospace Science and Technology Institute in apocalypse made major technological breakthroughs in the research of warp engines.

The topic of warp engine had to mention the name of Jiang Lin, the director Jiang Chen appointed in the apocalypse. Since many years ago, he carried out in-depth research on the warp engine technology under Jiang Chen’s direction. Today, his effort in the breakthrough Future Group made in the warp engine accounted for at least one-third of the progress.

With the completion of the first-generation warp engine, three Envoy-class starships equipped with new engines were launched one after another and sailed to the Kuiper Belt to replace SS Origin, which had not been home for many years. When SS Origin completed the refitting of the warp engine, the number of starships in the Earth Fleet would increase to four.

The progress did not just stop there. After the completion of their research on the warp engine. Future Heavy Industries then began to design a five-million-ton-class starship as the flagship of the Earth Fleet. The five-million-ton-class starship was temporarily designated as the “Constitutional-class.” The production base for this type of starship had already been moved from Celestial City to Mars’ synchronous orbit.

Only the steel reserves on Mars were sufficient enough to support the grand plan of the Defense Alliance.

On New Year’s Eve in 2024, Jiang Chen was not in the modern world, but instead, he brought Sun Jiao, Xiaorou, and Ayesha to the Sixth Street in the apocalypse.

As far as the modern world was concerned, this year’s New Year’s Day was no different from previous years.

But for the apocalypse, tonight was an extraordinary night.

Because it was New Year’s Eve in 2199, and also the tenth year since Jiang Chen first came to this world.

After tonight, it was the first year of the twenty-third century – The year 2200.

Chapter 1571: To You Who Have Survived To This Day

“Shasha, help me take a look,” Lin Lin happily ran out of the room in an emerald green dress, stood in front of Ayesha, and turned around, “What do you think? What do you think? Does this dress fit me?”

“Very… very suitable for you.”

Ayesha smiled stiffly.

She was still not used to the name Lin Lin gave her.

But to be honest, this emerald green dress indeed matched her bright silver hair very well. Her light steps made her look like an elf in the forest. After Ayesha carefully examined her, she still gave an objective evaluation.

“Hehe, this is my favorite dress,” Lin Lin said happily.

“But, are you not going to be cold wearing this outside?” Ayesha asked while she tilted her head.

“Digitalized humans are not afraid of the cold.”

Okay…

What an enviable ability.

Ayesha thought as she looked at Lin Lin’s flowy dress.

After Lin Lin received a positive evaluation from Ayesha, she peeked at Jiang Chen, raised her small fist, and coughed heavily into it. This drew Jiang Chen’s attention from Sun Jiao to her and she spoke softly.

“Hey, what do you think?”

“Me?” Jiang Chen, who chatted with Sun Jiao about the upcoming celebration, suddenly heard Lin Lin’s question and responded. Then, he paused for a second and smiled, “I have no objection.”

Lin Lin punched Jiang Chen with her small fist, unsatisfied.

“This is not okay, Brother-in-law-sama.”

Xiaorou, in a light lavender coat, walked out of the room with a smile. She wore a piece of exquisite diamond jewelry on her head, which added a touch of grace and luxury to her expensive coat.

“When a girl asks you what you think about the outfit, they actually want to hear your compliments. Giving them a compliment is more useful than any opinion.”

“Well, this outfit certainly fits you,” Jiang Chen’s eyes lit up as he looked at Xiaorou’s dress, and added, “It looks great!”

Xiaorou’s cheeks flushed. The smile on her face remained unchanged as she muttered unclear words.

“It seems that I underestimated my brother-in-law…”

“Hey! It’s not fair!”

Lin Lin waved her small fist angrily, and Jiang Chen was hit twice on the back because of this.

“It’s getting late, it’s time to leave.”

“I really look forward to it, I wonder what the celebration of this world will look like.”

Xia Shiyu and Natasha walked out of the room together. Both of them dressed very warmly. Xia Shiyu’s dress looked more formal, while Natasha preferred to be more casual… From the beginning, she came here with the mentality of a tourist to participate in the New Year’s Eve celebration.

Yao Yao, in a down jacket, walked out of the room last. The white fleece collar covered her white neck tightly as if her whole face was buried in warmness. Perhaps it was because she carefully chose her outfit for a long time but in the end, had to choose this thick down jacket, for her little hands repeatedly pinched the hem of the dress she wore and she looked slightly depressed.

“Very cute.”

Jiang Chen could swear that he did not lie nor did he say this sentence in a comforting tone.

However, Yao Yao who heard this sentence looked a little surprised. She blushed and felt slightly at a loss.

“Really, really?”

AHH…

Yao Yao is still the cutest!

Jiang Chen, who was immersed in his thought, noticed that at least seven pairs of eyes looked piercingly at him.

He blushed, looked around, and finally stared fiercely at Lilith, who stood in the corner and said with a look in his eyes.

“Why are you getting involved in this!”

…

The celebration was held in the large theater in the center of Wanghai City, which was converted into a circular theater from the crater left by God’s Cane. The guests that participated in the celebration were the residents from Wanghai, as well as the guests from Shangjing City or even the guests who rushed back from distant overseas colonies.

The celebration consisted of more than 30 programs, performed by more than 100 pre-war and post-war stars, and sponsored by 300 companies.

From singing to stage plays, the programs covered all aspects, just like the Spring Festival Gala held every year before the war. Except, the Spring Festival Gala was no longer held here at NAC and the celebration was changed to a large-scale celebration on New Year’s Eve every year.

Before all the celebrations began, Jiang Chen stood at the highest point of the stage, looked around the crowd of people, and delivered a New Year speech.

“To my compatriots, my comrades-in-arms, all the people living in this land.”

As the general’s voice sounded, the people that sat around the circular theater gradually calmed down. All eyes were focused on him from all directions, either excited, respectful, or with yearning…

With completely different emotions but the same respect, everyone waited for him, waited for this great leader to continue his speech.

“Today is the twenty-seventh year of the apocalypse.”

“It’s an honor to stand here and announce this to everyone.”

“We are still alive.” After a moment of pause, Jiang Chen continued in a clear voice, “At this moment, there is only one thing I want to say while standing here.”

“… We have used our own lives to prove how stupid the people who abandoned us are, how weak their despair and frustration are. Look back, take a good look, and look at the problems we solved. We thought they were invincible, but now when we look back, the problems behind us are nothing at all!”

“On the last day of the century, I solemnly tell you that there is no apocalypse in this world! And we, as victors, are standing at the door of the twenty-third century. Look at the Holy Shield in the sky, and then look around you, the future is beckoning to us.”

The mood reached a climax.

Although it could not be heard, it was visible.

“Cheers! The night belongs to you, this celebration is a carnival for the victors.”

“Cheers! Not for me, but for the moment the world government announced the end, you who have survived to this day, yourselves!”

The atmosphere at the theatre was pushed to a boiling point.

“Long live your Majesty General!”

“Long live the NAC!”

“Greatness! Rejuvenation!”

People cheered, raised their fists, waved the flag in their hands, and threw the light sticks in their hands into the air. Although the show did not start yet, no show would make them as emotional as now.

The soldiers who stood on the edge of the theater with their rifles on duty were also at their emotional peak.

Because they were on duty, they did not cheer or even applaud. But from the emotions in their eyes, it was not difficult to see the excitement, warmth… and pride. NAC was able to expand from a small place in the beginning to where it is nowadays, with colonies far overseas, was mainly due to their contributions.

“Thanks.”

Jiang Chen nodded slightly in front of the frantic cheers, saluted the crowd, handed the microphone to the host who just managed to recollect his thought, and walked behind the stage.

Chapter 1572: First Military Parade of the Twenty-Third Century

In the actor’s lounge, two girls rested their arms against the window as they watched the General deliver a speech on stage.

Most people that woke up before the war did not personally experience the rise of NAC, but they were not unfamiliar with the history. Because the people who have been around for a while always enjoyed telling the tales to the newcomers. Even if they did not go out of the way to seek out those stories, they often heard the tales.

Almost all the “civilized people” who woke up from the hibernation chamber shared unique emotions with the NAC General Jiang Chen.

And those emotions shared one common trait – curiosity.

“A splendid speech…”

The speech was over, and the host already took the microphone.

It was certainly a challenging task for him to take back the atmosphere of the celebration.

The General’s aura was too imposing.

One could disregard the content of his speech as he didn’t need to speak at all.

For the NAC, the General was a banner in itself, and if he just stood there, he would gather a group of supporters around him.

Zhao Youyue’s arms were still folded on the window while she gazed at the stage intently. The girl next to her glanced at her, took a second to think, then chuckled at her while she joked

“Look at how starstruck you are.”

She was Zhao Youyue’s dancer and also her best friend. The two were friends before the war. At every Zhao Youyue concert, she was one of the dancers on stage. Because they entered the same hibernation fallout shelter, the two opened their eyes together in the twenty-fifth year of the apocalypse.

“What’s wrong with me. What, what do you mean starstruck?” Zhao Youyue flushed after she realized that she could no longer deceive her friend. She stared back at her friend who looked at her with a teasing expression, “Hmph, you dare to say that you’re not attracted by a man like that?”

“What’s there to be attracted by?” The girl rolled her eyes.

Although she had to admit that a man like him was indeed attractive, but…

He was just too dazzling.

Moreover, she came from before the war and could not accept the marriage view that prevailed after the war.

“I made up my mind!”

The girl was startled by her friend whose vibe suddenly changed and asked in a daze.

“Made up…what?”

“I want to use my voice to convey my mind to him!” Zhao Youyue looked to the middle of the stage, with her cheeks flushed, she squeezed her hand in front of her chest, and her eyes flashed with a dazzling light.

This is indeed problematic…

The girl looked at her inexplicably motivated friend and thought in a perplexed state.

In any case, their program was indeed part of the celebration.

Zhao Youyue’s feelings were fully expressed through her voice, and she ultimately won the cheers of the audience with her spectacular performance.

But she didn’t care about this at all.

When she walked off the stage, her resentful eyes continued to cling to a place in the crowd, but she was destined to be disappointed. It would be odd for someone who sat at such a far distance to read the resentfulness in her eyes…

“The singing was amazing,” Xiaorou leaned against Jiang Chen and said with a smile.

“Yes,” Xia Shiyu also nodded affirmatively, “Although the style of music is a bit novel, it sounded great. Even in the world over there, she would definitely be one of the best.”

“Well, after all, it’s not just technology, but culture will also accumulate over time,” Lin Lin wiggled her head while she commented.

“Speaking of which, the thoughts of these singers should not be underestimated,” Xiaorou grinned while she looked to Jiang Chen next to her. “When I was my sister’s assistant before, I cleared countless letters written by those girls. Although the letters were related to work, the words seemed to be more like self-recommendations.”

“Huh? Is that true?” Sun Jiao looked at her sister in surprise, as she blinked.

“Of course, I took care of it for brother-in-law,” Xiaorou looked at Jiang Chen, “Brother-in-law is not going to blame me, right.”

“No, no, I thank you,” Jiang Chen coughed hard and said quickly after he felt the piercing sights behind his back.

“Really? That’s good.”

Xiaorou, who showed a mischievous smile for an instant, quickly ended the topic in a blink of an eye.

“Hmm, I always feel like I can’t relax my vigilance. After all, it is Jiang Chen…” Xia Shiyu nodded seriously and somehow reached a consensus with Yao Yao next to her.

“View? I have no objection, as long as it is not a bad woman with a bad heart…” Ayesha didn’t seem to care much about this issue as she tilted her head and said to Lin Lin who sat next to her.

Soon the second program started, and the attention of the girls finally shifted from Jiang Chen to the stage not far away.

Jiang Chen sighed in relief, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand, and glared fiercely at Xiaorou next to him.

The latter seemed to have expected Jiang Chen’s vicious look, so she deliberately looked away while she chatted excitedly with her sister about other issues.

After he made up his mind to punish this girl after they went home, Jiang Chen stopped thinking about what happened just now.

As for the letters that were thrown away…

Although he was very concerned about what was written in them, Jiang Chen could promise that he definitely had no intention of expanding the harem! Now, he was already too busy and had to perform every night. He had a night shift every night and could not even get a weekend off.

Just curious!

Yes, that’s all!

The bustling noise continued until two o’clock in the middle of the night. With the end of the last song, the New Year’s Eve of the new century came to an end.

People left one after another as they returned to Sixth Street or nearby hotels to rest.

Although the New Year’s Eve party ended, the celebration did not end yet.

Sixth Street was still decorated in festive light, and all stores put on sales. Many people who came back from the city center did not go home to sleep. They went to the food street together, found a stall, and ordered some skewers and beers while they chatted.

Since last year, food was no longer a luxury that can only be consumed occasionally. A large number of mutant fruit farms and nutrient supplies production plants closed down. The refreshing beer that was originally a luxury item only the rich could consume became something that friends could enjoy at a food stall, and it was no longer a fond memory before the war.

Only when you felt alive could you be considered alive in the true sense.

These lives were originally something they didn’t even dare to think about, but now all of them were so real.

As the General said.

The new century has arrived.

…

The celebration lasted for three days.

At noon on the fourth day, there was a highlight of the celebration.

The grand military parade began in the Central Square of the Sixth Street.

50,000 army soldiers participated in the exercise. This included elite troops from the four major armies and foreign corps from overseas colonies. The Air Force flight formation demonstrated superb flying skills in the air, both the Aurora-20s and F-79 Wings of Freedom completed the performance spectacularly.

Jiang Chen stood on the observatory, with his hands behind his back, and watched the infantry phalanx march by in front of the square.

All the senior officers of the NAC stood beside him. They were all in military uniforms, their backs were straight, and their temperament was as serious and imposing as the warriors marching down there.

There was a deadly vibe in the square.

The dictators from the South shivered at the sight of the military might of the NAC. Even if all of them united together, the toughness that NAC showed that it was absolutely impossible to be an opponent of this army.

If it weren’t for the fact that the man had no intention to conquer the south, their best ending would be to offer their territory and life up with both hands. Any resistance force would be as ridiculous as a mantis trying to stop a chariot…

Chapter 1573: A Friendly Plunder

After the military parade, Chief Zaria, the United African Tribes representative, declined an invitation to Jiang Chen’s banquet. He rushed back to Mombasa by ship overnight and immediately headed to the palace to meet the War Chief.

When he arrived, the palace was also hosting a banquet.

But this banquet was not to celebrate the New Year, but to celebrate the harvest in the Victoria Lake Development Zone, and to celebrate the almost overfilled granary in Mombasa.

During the banquet, the nobles in the Steel Teeth Tribe ate so much they looked bloated. Compared with the time when the banquet was held last year, they were bulkier. From the amount of fat on their bodies, it was not difficult to see that they have lived quite well in the past three years.

“Why did you come back so quickly? Is the monkey’s food not good? Or they didn’t treat you well?” After War Chief Duaman took a bite of roasted venison, he put his arm around the blonde and blue-eyed beauty, looked at Zaria who knelt on one knee at the gate, then smiled cheerfully and said, “Come on, Turmen, squeeze your fat a bit, and give Chief Zaria a place to sit. The banquet has just begun, try this new bottle of wine… Damn, these Asians know how to enjoy themselves. I wonder what method they used, but this new wine has no astringency at all.”

“No, neither, War Chief, they treat me politely, but I had to come back early and report to you what I saw…” Chief Zaria knelt on one knee in front of War Chief Duaman and explained everything he saw at the NAC celebration and the military parade that day.

Chief Zaria felt a trace of fear from the prosperity of NAC.

NAC and Steel Teeth Tribe was in a honeymoon period because the things NAC gained from Steel Teeth Tribe was enough to support the prosperity of NAC. But what about in ten years? What about after twenty years?

From looting food and industrial raw materials from Africa, and then dumping industrial products in Africa, NAC’s industry expanded at an incredible speed, and completely liberated labor from mutant fruit farms and nutrient supplies factories.

One day, NAC’s appetite would swell to the point where Steel Teeth Tribe or even the entire United African Tribes would not be able to satisfy it.

Zaria was even a little regretful now.

Perhaps the agreement he signed with NAC was the wrong choice from the beginning.

“…Their soldiers add up to less than half of Mombasa’s, let alone our great alliance. But all the soldiers are armed with kinetic skeletons to their teeth, and the way they marched seemed like they were carved out of a mold. Compared to the sleepy slackers in my tribe, they are not as strong as us, nor as fierce as we are, but I have no confidence at all if faced with that kind of army…”

As soon as Zaria explained, he lowered his head and stopped speaking.

Of course, he did not dare to compare the elites of War Chief Duaman to those soldiers but only compared the soldiers to those in his own tribe. With the cleverness of War Chief Duaman, he would be able to comprehend the meaning behind his message.

“I see. You should be tired after traveling for so long. Come here and sit down first.”

Zaria raised his head and looked at the War Chief in disappointment, he then lowered his head again and said in a heavy tone.

“Yes.”

The banquet continued, and the atmosphere did not become heavy because of Chief Zaria’s words.

On the contrary, War Chief Duaman’s eyes were mixed with a little more absent-mindedness when he touched the gold goblet.

Compared to those nobles in the tribe who only ate, drank, and enjoyed themselves, as well as those “warriors” corrupted by the wine and meat, he certainly was more far-sighted in terms of considerations.

Over the years, with the expansion of NAC in the Lake Victoria Development Zone, the farms had expanded from the initial 1 million mu to 5 million mu. The annual grain payment also increased from 400,000 tons to more than 2 million tons, and the granary of the Steel Teeth Tribe was almost overfilled.

Food prices were getting cheaper and cheaper, but the number of arms exchanged was decreasing day by day. Just like the leaders of African countries before the war, War Chief Duaman gradually began to realize the unequal trade between non-industrial and industrial countries.

The agreement that was signed at the time seemed to be very favorable to trade food for power armor. However, with the dumping of industrial products, the flood of arms started to escalate the internal conflicts within United African Tribes, and the South African Alliance seemed to be eager to move in. The price of arms increased instead. Originally, five containers of food could be exchanged for a power armor, now fifty containers of food were not enough to trade for one leg of a power armor.

It seemed that the other party maintained a friendly attitude and worked with them politely. However, War Chief Duaman had the illusion that his home was being robbed by bandits.

No, it was no longer an illusion.

The feeling was real.

Not only that but recently, several large United African Tribes near the Steel Teeth Tribe became more and more restless, and they started to treat him less and less seriously. They even disregarded and violated his orders.

War Chief Duaman knew who gave them the courage.

Those Asians were not only doing business with him but also doing business with other tribes.

Some time ago, the Mammoth Tribe in the north also contracted the entire port to Future Development. Since they did not have cargo ships and could not trade with Wanghai, they could only invite those Asians over.

“It can’t go on like this.” After the banquet, the drunk War Chief Duaman found his Minister of Commerce Turmen, who was the fat man who had moved for Chief Zaria, “We can’t let the NAC continue to export arms to the United African Tribes… burp…”

“War Chief, you drank too much, I will help you go back.” When Turmen saw Duaman was about to fall, he hurriedly walked up and supported him.

“I’m not drunk.”

War Chief Duaman waved his hand and pushed Turmen away, he gave the fat man a fierce look, and then after he saw the latter shrink his neck in fear, he cleared his throat.

“Next week, we will hold a meeting of chiefs. You have to give me a contract. The effect is that NAC arms cannot be sold to African ports at will. They can only be unloaded at the port of Mombasa. Otherwise, it will be regarded as smuggling…”

“Will this cause backlash from other chiefs…” Turmen quickly stopped talking when he saw Duaman’s gaze started to become unfriendly. He lowered his head and nervously said, “Yes, yes, I will get on it. ”

“Hmph,” Duaman snorted and waved his hand, annoyed, “Go now.”

“Yes Yes!”

When Turmen returned home, the drunkenness on his face quickly disappeared. He grabbed some medicine and poured it into his mouth. He swallowed it with a sip of water and rushed into the bedroom. He grabbed the phone hidden under the pillow, dialed the number as his fingers trembled, and then held the phone to his ear.

This call was given to him by a man, and it could only dial the only number.

The phone rang three times.

The phone connected.

There was no nonsense. Turmen had a flattering smile on his face and repeated the words that War Chief Duaman had ordered him just now.

After the phone call ended, Turmen fell asleep.

However, even he did not expect that at dawn the next day, the fire of a civil war would burn all over the east coast of the United African Tribes…

Chapter 1574: Project Breaking Ice

“Based on the agreement, Mammoth Tribe attacked the stronghold of Water Lizard Tribe. That batch of power armor…”

“Send the batch to them. Since its business, credibility is obviously the most important thing.”

“Roger!”

After the employee responsible for the contact in Africa received the order from Xiaorou, he respectfully replied, then walked out of the office in quick steps. He had to contact the manager in Africa, Feng Yuan, immediately, then send the batch of power armor to them before Mammoth Tribe and Steel Teeth Tribe’s conflict escalate.

Future Development shared some grudges with the Water Lizard Tribe from three years ago.

At that time, it was the Water Lizard Tribe who instigated Morsi Tribe to attack and kidnap Future Development employees. However, because these people were sheltered by the Steel Teeth Tribe at that time, Future Development did not take action towards the clown.

Now that Mammoth Tribe sent troops to the Water Lizard Tribe, it was the equivalent of a slap in the face to the War Chief of the United African Tribes. Based on the laws of the jungle, the behavior of the Mammoth Tribe was a challenge to the authority of the Steel Teeth Tribe.

The horn of war already sounded.

The outcome of this war would directly determine the future War Chief of the United African Tribes.

If Mammoth Tribe was ultimately defeated, Steel Teeth Tribe Chief would chop off the head Mammoth Tribe Chief’s head with an ax and then demote all the people in the tribe into slavery. The slaves would get sent into plantations or mines with shackles.

If Steel Teeth Tribe lost, then their ending would be the same.

The tribes on the prairie only obeyed the strong.

“Good job. I didn’t expect you’d even corrupt the Steel Teeth Tribe’s Minister of Commerce,” Jiang Chen, who leaned back against the sofa, smiled as he watched the office door close.

Xiaorou smiled with her lips closed, got up and walked around the desk. Then she sat on Jiang Chen’s lap.

“What do you think? I’m making progress, right?”

“Your progress is impressive,” Jiang Chen grinned, “What’s next? What do you plan to do next?”

“Let this fire continue to burn, and dump more arms on the weaker side. When the two sides are exhausted, find a suitable candidate…”

“There is no need to find a suitable candidate,” Jiang Chen smiled, shook his head, and interrupted Xiaorou’s words, “Directly give the title of War Chief to those eager hounds to bite.”

Xiaorou’s eyes lit up, and she immediately understood.

“That’s it… Speaking of which, brother-in-law.”

“What’s the matter?”

“You always say that I am mischievous,” her index finger was pressed against her lower lip as if she were thinking about this problem seriously. She blinked as she looked at Jiang Chen with the same smile, “But why do I feel like you’re more mischievous than me…”

Eh?

Is this true?

Jiang Chen temporarily disregarded the thought of whether he was mischievous or not.

Because just when he was about to discuss this issue with Xiaorou in-depth, an untimely phone call arrived on his watch.

The call was from Kelvin from the modern world, and Lilith transferred it to Jiang Chen. Based on what he said, Europa’s Svetovid project was in its final phase.

After Jiang Chen heard the news, he had to put the resentful Xiaorou down from his lap, promise to discuss this matter with her in-depth at night, and then immediately returned to the modern world.

After all, it was a matter related to the future of earth civilization.

…

At the Europa colony, on the side that faced Jupiter, a storm of ice and snow whizzed in the air and covered the space vehicle and astronauts in a thick layer. Due to the frequent use of gunpowder to blast the ice sheet, water and steam columns erupted from under the ice cover along the cracks, condensed into ice crystals or fist-sized ice lumps in the air, and fell freely with gravity.

Because of the low gravity and low air pressure, this blizzard looked daunting, but the damaging effect was minimal. It was only necessary to avoid staying in the same place for a long time to prevent being buried in a snowdrift and then frozen.

Twenty kilometers from the Europa colony, a huge steel engineering structure sat on the flat ice sheet. It looked like a giant steel beast that crawled onto the surface of the planet. The six supports were each one kilometer long and extended into six different directions. Each support was firmly fixed on the surface of the ice sheet.

The movement of the tectonic plates on Europa was far more extreme than that on Earth. The region between the ice sheets was always affected by Jupiter’s tidal force, and under the action of ocean currents, they collided from all directions. Therefore, the project site had to be located on a stable ice layer, which was the center of the large tectonic plate.

Future Heavy Industries did not master the technology for observing the internal geological structure of the ice layer yet, but the Svetovid underneath the ice sheet solved this problem for them and selected this project site. Soon Future Heavy Industries demonstrated its strong industrial capabilities. The project that originally would take five years to complete reached the final phase in three years.

On the steel tower, the red signal light flickered.

The space vehicles around it seemed to have received an order as they dispersed with astronauts. In the command room not far away, the head of the project, Tan Ming, stared at the structural drawing on the holographic screen and watched the green line sink slowly.

Five hundred meters to go!

Finally, the green line steadily touched the red line, and then stopped there.

Everyone in the institute was happy and relieved when they saw the data fed back by the pressure sensor below.

The scariest thing about drilling a well on Europa’s ice sheet was the possibility of the water pressure erupting and breaking the weakened ice sheet, and causing a blowout. No matter what expensive drilling equipment was used, if the water rushed up, everything would turn into a pile of scrap iron.

Now that the most difficult part was already solved, the next step was to carry out directional blasting of the last layer of ice, and then the Svetovid, which already fused together with the ice on the bottom, would be pushed up by the water flow from underneath, just like an elevator.

“Focus! FOCUS!” Although Tan Ming reminded everyone while he stared into the screen, the corner of his mouth was still slightly curved up

He hardly slept peacefully these past few days.

After all, it was a huge investment of hundreds of billions. If a blowout happened, all the investment would be lost.

“Team One is in place! The ice pressure parameters are normal.”

“Team Two is in place…”

“Team Three…”

The different groups of personnel on the front line sent back reports and gave the green signal light. The drone in the air fed back the situation to the staff in the command room in real-time. As Tan Ming watched the steel support slowly retract, he grabbed the intercom in his hand and ordered in a serious tone.

“Blasting countdown to begin!”

After the staff on the frontline received the order from the command room, he opened the mechanical lock that blocked the blasting button with a key.

“Order received! Beginning countdown!”

“5”

“4”

“…”

“1”

“0”

“Blast!”

Chapter 1575: Rainbow on Europa

From the view above, the ice sheet surrounded by the steel structure instantly shattered, and countless dense cracks began to form. In the muffled sound of vibrations accompanied by violent shaking, large pieces of ice fragments were thrown into the air.

Previously, the L-shaped structure drill sent low-temperature explosives under the ice sheet and inserted them layer by layer. The entire project took three years, and a neat cube ice pit was precisely blasted out of the fifteen kilometers of ice.

At the same time, the Svetovid, which embedded itself in the ice, surged upwards from the huge water pressure below. Thankfully, the starship’s titanium armor was durable enough, otherwise, such a blowout would be enough to squeeze the frozen Svetovid into scrap metal.

“The target is rising!”

“Continue the blasting to prevent the ice layer from freezing!”

“ROGER!”

The deafening sound of rupture came one after another from beneath the ice sheet as the low-temperature explosives embedded in the nearby ice layer blasted simultaneously. The blast generated a great amount of heat energy in the fragmented ice layer which prevented the upwelling seawater from backfilling and solidifying the cracks.

“The sensor temperature is at 11 degrees Celsius!”

“Continue the blast!”

Tan Ming’s eyes fixed on the holographic screen at the ice layer marked as red.

It was the ice layer where the Svetovid was located. Driven by the water current, it was now rising rapidly at a speed slightly slower than that of the seawater. If the ice sheet froze, all efforts would be in vain. In order to keep the water temperature above the freezing point, in addition to explosives, they even prepared anticoagulants…

Of course, that was their last resort.

To inject anticoagulants would result in unpredictable effects on the fragile ecosystem under Europa’s ice sheet. If possible, he hoped to solve this issue with those low-temperature explosives. Otherwise, the cost of saving these people would be too severe…

As the red layer of ice continued to rise, the explosives on both sides of the well exploded one after another.

Tan Ming watched the constantly changing temperature and water flow parameters on the screen as his palms became soaked in sweat.

When the ice suddenly got stuck a few times, his heart almost jumped out of his throat.

But fortunately, there was no unexpectedness that happened in the end. Under everyone’s gaze, the red ice layer finally touched the green line with a depth of two kilometers.

“The target has reached the safety level!”

Loud cheers broke out in the command room.

Tan Ming felt his legs give out as he collapsed on the chair and let out a sigh of relief towards the ceiling. As he watched the ice layer rise at a constant speed, a heartfelt smile finally appeared on his face.

The hard work of the past three years had not been in vain.

…

The astronauts who sat in the space vehicles put on their seat belts and unfolded the metal memory shield on the top of the vehicle.

The ice fragments that had been thrown into the air by the water pressure began to fall one after another. Some of these fragments were only tossed ten meters out, while some were thrown into the low orbit. Although Europa’s gravity was only one-seventh of Earth, the extremely thin atmosphere meant that these heavy objects that were thrown into the air almost maintained the same upward kinetic energy and smashed back down.

The dense ice blocks smashed down violently into the bowl-shaped memory metal shield and left craters the size of fists. The unluckiest vehicle was almost buried underneath by an ice chunk, but fortunately, the quality of the memory metal shield passed the test, and the space vehicle underneath was safe.

Finally!

The blowout was coming to an end!

The ice layer that embedded the Svetovid floated up and blocked the hole that still gushed out ice shards. A rectangular icicle rose from the center of the steel structure accompanied by bursts of loud rumblings that shook the ground. Then it formed into a huge rectangular tower with a height of more than a thousand meters.

The Svetovid was like a specimen in amber, firmly frozen in the center of the “ice tower”. The explosives below stopped blasting, and the upwelling sea quickly froze the cracks. After the rectangular icicle with a longitudinal area of thousands of square meters finally lost its upward kinetic energy, it slowly came to a halt.

The hailstorm falling from the sky also gradually stopped and left only the snow and ice shards flying in the air.

The bowl-shaped memory metal shield gathered towards the center and revealed the space vehicles hidden underneath. The astronauts stepped out one by one, took out the equipment from the trunk, and walked to the colleagues buried under the snowdrift, ready to help them.

At this moment, the two astronauts who carried the toolbox stopped and looked in the direction of the icicle.

The fine ice shards drifted down slowly from the surface of the icicle. From the distance, it looked like dense mist. Jupiter in the distance radiated a soft light, and when it passed through the icy fog, there was actually a faint reflection of a rainbow.

…

“That is a rainbow? This, this is incredible!” One of the astronauts opened his eyes wide and stared at the scene in disbelief.

He had been working on Europa for almost two years, but it was the first time he witnessed such a magnificent scene.

“It should be… Damnit, I left my camera in the dorm.”

“What’s the matter? The video on the action recorder can be extracted, and when you go back, you can take screenshots all you want.”

“That’s different!”

…

Just two hours after the Svetovid broke through the ice sheet, in the holographic meeting room of Future Building, Jiang Chen met Golovin I again. In the past three years, the Earth Defense Alliance had received considerable help from the Svetovid , and now the alliance fulfilled its promise to free the Svetovid from under the ice sheet.

“I hope to discuss with you about our future home ground.” As always, without any greetings, Golovin went straight to the point.

“The Earth Defense Alliance voted on Resolution 51. It is one hundred kilometers away from Heavenly Palace City and you can build your home there. There are abundant underground water, graphite, and aluminum deposits. Of course, if you’re not satisfied with the environment of Mars, we can consider other options.” Jiang Chen sent the location he described, together with the local topographic map and the distribution map of mineral reserves, to Golovin.

“No, we are very satisfied.” After Golovin read the dozens of gigabytes of data in about two seconds, he nodded and continued, “Is there any result with your plan?”

“Which one are you referring to?”

“Earth Federation.”

When Jiang Chen heard the name, his expression was a little bit awkward. He coughed softly and said, “Thanks to your old friends in the void, the situation on Earth now is far more complicated than you think. I said at the beginning that it will take at least five years.”

Because of the Remnants of the Void, the history of this world started to diverge from World War Two. Although from Jiang Chen’s standpoint, the history of this world was supposed to be the real history, but if there was no interference from external factors, the current global situation was supposed to be divided into three powers Pan-Asia, NATO, and the Soviet Union, instead of none of them existing…

“I must correct that, we are not friends with them,” Golovin looked to Jiang Chen, then continued, “We just promised those poor people to save the last kindle of fire for Earth civilization in return for their help to us.”

“Speaking of it, I have always been very surprised by your use of this statement…I mean, didn’t you also come from Earth?” Jiang Chen asked, “If you must save the fire for Earth civilization, aren’t you guys the one?”

Contrary to Jiang Chen’s expectation, he thought that Golovin would give him the answer without thinking, just like all the other questions he had answered. However, this time, he had given it a long thought, to the point that Jiang Chen began to wonder if there was a problem with quantum communication.

“I can understand your confusion, but I can’t give you an answer,” Golovin said slowly. The pupils were so calm that there was no sign of emotion; it was impossible to see his true thoughts. “Maybe in those poor people’s eyes, we have become something else.”

“That’s really ironic, their body was already destroyed…” At this point, Golovin shook his head, then just like before, left without saying goodbye.

Chapter 1576: The Promised Land

The Svetovid was freed from the ice tower a month later.

The strength of its armor was stunning. If it was the Seagull or Envoy class that was frozen in this condition, even if the people inside could survive inside the hibernation chamber, the entire starship would likely be scrapped. It was precisely because of this that experts from different countries were so excited when the Svetovid was freed from the ice.

If such armor could be equipped on the Envoy class, or on the Constitution class still in its design phase, it would undoubtedly increase the combat effectiveness of the Earth Fleet.

The Svetovid, freed from the ice, was also quite generous and readily agreed to the request of the Earth Defense Alliance. The related technology was packaged and sold to Future Heavy Industries at a price of 500 million World Dollars, and a small portion of the loan owed to Future Bank was repaid.

Yes, a loan.

Under the Golovin Mental System, the Golovin people did not need a troublesome construct like currency. They possessed their own set of methods to more efficiently measure value, and all individuals in the system widely agreed with this standard. However, the trade between Golovin and Earth civilization needed a standard for value measurement.

Golovin I chose World Dollar, and he asked for a seat in the World Union Reserve to exercise voting and supervision rights in addition to the right to propose.

It was the practice of most countries that joined the World Union Reserve. After all, if the currency was issued indiscriminately, the interests of the entire economy would be damaged. However, what Golovin cared about was not the economic issues. They just had to ensure that the over-issued currency of the World Union Reserve will not harm Golovin’s interests.

The total expenditure of the icebreaking project was 113.1 billion World dollars. Although it was jointly funded by many countries in the world, the Svetovid also assumed 40% of the debt.

In three years, most of the debt was repaid by technology. Among them, the warp engine was auctioned at a high price of 50 billion world dollars, and it was finally won by the wealthy Future Heavy Industries. If it were not for the consideration made by other countries that the technological gap may be too large to digest, the actual price could have more than doubled.

Someone could ask, since the warp engine was sold for such a large sum of money, why the Svetovid still had debts to pay?

It was worth mentioning that these debts were not related to the icebreaking project, but owed elsewhere.

Based on the relevant resolution made by the Defense Alliance on the issue of the refugees from the Golovin civilization, three votes vetoed the proposal for Siberia and the decision was to ultimately select a piece of land on Mars as a resting place for the refugees from the Golovin civilization.

If no preparations were made, it was impossible to survive on bare Mars, even for the Golovins.

Therefore, after Golovin discussed this issue with Jiang Chen, Golovin decided to use the method from Earth civilization to solve this issue, which was to take a loan from Future Bank to build a city for the life of the thousand crews on the Svetovid.

To build a city on Mars, there were basically only two materials needed; one was steel and the other was graphene.

Because there was no need to consider the oxidation of the material, it was no problem to weld a house with clad steel, but the appearance was on the ugly side. If the building did not feel aesthetic enough, a layer of graphene or nano-ceramic interlayer could be applied on the outside, which would not only enhance the strength of the building but also increase its aesthetic.

Now the largest real estate developer in Heavenly Palace City was Future Development, which was spun off from Future Heavy Industries three years ago, and followed by B City Steel Group, which was controlled by the B City Consortium. Graphene and nano-ceramics were still dominated by Future Heavy Industries. Although Heavenly Palace City was open to foreign investment, these lucrative industries were still controlled by Future Group.

With 200 million tons of steel and 30 million tons of graphene composite materials, the steel and graphite factories in Heavenly Palace City almost operated at max capacity. The project took three years, and more than 100 billion World Dollars was invested to finally build a futuristic city on the barren desert.

Two months after the completion of the icebreaking project, the Svetovid, which was freed from the ice, repaired the damaged parts and restarted the warp engine. Under the watch of Europa’s colonists, it moved towards the synchronous orbit of Mars.

After the Svetovid passed through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, two Seagull-class ships equipped with gravitational shields and heavy-mass accelerators approached the ship, and after contact with the Svetovid, they assumed the escort mission.

Although the mission was an escort mission, in fact, it was inevitable that there would be a sense of alertness and vigilance. After all, the Svetovid was not an unthreatening civilian ship, and the row of mass accelerators on the side of the hull looked daunting.

But Golovin did not show any aggressive behavior, or that they did not take the two little ants next to them seriously. After the ship docked at the space port in the synchronous orbit of Mars, Golovin I passed the gangway specially designed for them and entered the space port. There, he met Hong Zewei, the mayor of Heavenly Palace City.

“Did you see the place? That is your future home.” Hong Zewei stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the spaceport, smiled, and pointed to the fiery red ground outside the window with a small silver-white spot on it. “We reserved the naming right for you on the map, and you can choose a nice name for this city.”

“Name? Then it’s called Svetovid,” Golovin I nodded slightly, “Thank you for everything you have done for us. As agreed, we will use our technology to build a shipyard on the synchronous orbit.”

For Golovin, there was no need for such a thing as a name. But as the ruler of Golovin, he certainly did understand the habit of humans who like to name things they hadn’t seen before.

“No rush. We can discuss that after you settle down first.” Hong Zewei smiled, with friendliness, then said, “City of Svetovid? I will help you register it on the colony map. In addition, according to the colony law, all people who enter Mars must register their identity information. Your situation is a bit special so we won’t have to register, but we have to take the liberty to ask, how many people are there on your ship?”

“Five thousand people.”

“Five thousand people… We will prepare the supplies and necessities that five thousand people need for a month, including water, liquid oxygen, gas, and nutrient supplies. The market in Heavenly Palace City is open to you at any time. If you need anything, please let me know,” Hong Zewei smiled slightly and said in a friendly manner.

“We will buy these aid materials at market price. You have provided us with enough help, which makes us uneasy.” As Golovin nodded to express his friendliness, he paused for a moment before he continued, “Pass my greetings to your leader, Golovin appreciates those who keep their promises. It seems that we will get along well before the end.”

Hong Zewei was slightly taken back, but he then quickly smiled and nodded.

“I will convey the message for you.”

Chapter 1577: City of Svetovid

The news that the Svetovid docked in a synchronous orbit of Mars quickly spread to every corner of the world, and created a widespread discussion on the Internet.

Three years had passed since humans first came into contact with Golovin.

In the past three years, whether it was the mysterious Golovin Mental System or the Svetovid starship immersed under Europa’s ice sheet, the tale of Golovin was no longer a secret.

Of course, while people understood, it was a different matter to accept.

Behind the fierce debate, public opinion was clearly polarized.

Some people considered Golovin a threat, even more than the Harmony civilization on Gliese 581 20.5 light-years away.

In the view of this group of people, everything that human civilization advocated was negated by the existence of the Golovin Mental System. Such as human rights, freedom, and even personality itself. The professor of the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Berlin even asserted that the civilized characteristics displayed by Golovin as almost the same as the dystopia depicted in mainstream science fiction.

“Although Golovin hasn’t shown aggressiveness yet, no one can guarantee that they won’t in the future. Just as we thought those refugees were disadvantaged groups at first, they then rode on our heads. Cloning, authoritarianism.. everything that our civilization are against is taken for granted in their eyes. If our values cannot influence them, then they will eventually corrupt our civilization in turn. I hope that our alliance will not be short-sighted by the immediate interests, at least we should maintain a degree of vigilance…”

Another group of people thought that Earth should accept these refugees. Compared with the opinions of opposers, their views were more radical. Some people even proposed that refugee camps should be set up on Earth to accommodate these guests from far away instead of forcing them to the deserted Mars.

“…We cannot shut them out just because they are clones. I admit that the cloning of humans is indeed intolerable by morals and laws, and must not be compromised, but what we are opposed to should be clone technology, not those unfortunate people that became clones. No life has the right to choose their own birth. If we reject them just because of their birth, what is the difference between us and those nasty racists? “A representative of a European human rights organization replied in an interview with a reporter.

Of course, in addition to the firm and clear-cut left and right factions, a considerable number of people held a relatively neutral stance and were indifferent to the news that Golovin had settled on Mars. Even if Golovin went to the Sun, it did not matter, as long as they did not become their neighbor.

After all, living with clones was quite a scary thought.

…

On the third day after the Svetovid docked in the synchronous orbit of Mars, a thousand Golovinians landed on Mars through the space elevator. In addition to the 1,000 crew members, all types of space vehicles and some tools and production equipment designed by Golovin were sent to the ground together from the synchronous orbit.

Most of these tools and production equipment were manufactured over the past month through mineral processing technology and 3D printing technology onboard the Svetovid.

As for the source of resources for the production of these devices, according to Golovin I’s own statement, when they passed through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, they discovered a titanium-rich asteroid about 100 meters in diameter.

First, they used mass accelerators to launch projectiles to break the asteroid, and then they sent mining spacecraft to collect the slag and replenished the exhausted resource inventory. Although the voice of Golovin I was quite relaxed when he said all this, when Jiang Chen heard everything, he was still shocked.

He believed that the development efficiency of Future Mining on the outer space resources was quite strong, but now, it appeared that he comparatively was much weaker.

If he disregarded everything else, it was already unimaginable that a mass projectile could directly explode an asteroid with a diameter of 100 meters.

This kind of lethality was only achievable by the main gun of the Envoy-class starship.

“A hundred starships…” Golovin I looked at the documents in front of him and became lost in thought. After a long pause, he moved his gaze away from the conference table and looked at Jiang Chen who sat on the opposite side, “Allow me to be honest. Do you have this much time?”

Harmony’s space colonization ship was not far from the solar system.

A hundred starships seemed more like an impossible goal. After all, the Earth Fleet only possessed four starships so far. Even if the starship was built at a constant rate of one a year, after half a century, the size of the Earth Fleet would only be fifty Envoy-classes.

“If you look at this issue from a growth perspective, I don’t think it’s difficult. After all, we didn’t even have a space elevator until six years ago. Today, six years later, we have even built colonies on Europa and Himalia. ” Directly across from Golowin I, Jiang Chen smiled slightly and continued, “I hope I can give the responsibility of the engine to you. I admit that in terms of warp engine, your advancement is much farther than us.”

“Build a hundred warp engines in forty years?” After a moment of thought, Golovin I slowly said, “If you can provide us with the resources we need, it won’t be difficult. However, what I want to say is that even if you can run faster than those bugs, you will not necessarily win. Their understanding of the word war is much deeper than you and me.”

The Svetovid was not advanced in its weapons. After all, after they went through the wormhole, they were in a constant struggle for survival. Naturally, the technology tree was also focused on improving the performance of the starship itself. As for weapons, although powerful, the mass accelerators on both sides of the hull were actually the same as the ones that launched them off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and they hardly changed the technology.

“Whether we’re their opponent or not, we don’t have a reason to just give up. What’s more, I don’t think a hundred starships will lose to one. In addition, regarding the resources you need…I have a proposal here.”

Golovin I motioned Jiang Chen to continue to speak with the look in his eyes.

“You can register a company to complete the alliance’s order as a company, and we will pay you. You can use these compensations to buy more resources, including food, freshwater, and liquid oxygen, all that you can’t produce… You may think my proposal is a bit redundant, but after all, we don’t have a Golovin Mental System, and this is what I can think of as the most suitable way for us to cooperate with each other.”

The silence lasted about two or three seconds.

From his facial expression, Golovin I was probably deep in thought.

After a while, he looked at Jiang Chen again and nodded slightly.

“…Interesting proposal, I will consider it.”

Chapter 1578: Trench

The calendar turned a new page, and a year had passed since the Svetovid docked at the port of Mars.

Many things happened during this year.

First of all, located in the city of Svetovid.

After Golovin I and Jiang Chen’s discussion, he established the Svetovid Group with the main business focused on import and export, shipbuilding, as well as communication services. It was worth admitting that these clones were far ahead of Future Heavy Industries and other companies on Earth in technologies related to interstellar navigation.

The Lightning N1 warp engine manufactured by Svetovid Group took away the orders from Future Heavy Industries and became the standard engine for the Earth Defense Alliance’s million-ton-class starship. Due to the large technological gap, Future Heavy Industries simply abandoned this market and shifted its focus on offensive weapons, carrier-based spacecrafts, drones, and other fields.

In addition to shipbuilding, Svetovid Group also got involved in the communications services business and unexpectedly became the largest communications service provider on Mars.

There was a story behind Svetovid Group’s involvement in the communications business.

About a month after the Svetovid docked in the synchronous orbit, Golovin I went to see Jiang Chen again and asked him why he didn’t connect Heavenly Palace City’s network with Earth.

After he learned that it was due to Future Group’s limited quantum communication resources, Golovin I didn’t say anything at the time and ended the communication.

Two months later, a huge quantum communication base station was built, and three communication relay satellites ascended to the synchronous orbit of Mars. After another month, Golovin I met with Jiang Chen again. This time he did not ask about the Internet but told him that Svetovid Group hopes to establish a quantum communication base station in Celestial City and Port Marchena.

As for the accessories needed to build these two communication base stations, they were naturally prepared.

Just like that, the two separate networks on Mars and Earth were forcibly woven into one by the Svetovid Group. The quantum communication technology that Golovin mastered was so advanced that the delay in accessing the Earth’s network on Mars was reduced to under 100 pings.

Even Future Heavy Industries could not achieve such a feat. The communication resources on Heavenly Palace City were only sufficient to allow local colonies to speak to their relatives on Earth, send a message, or browse a web page…

The citizens of Heavenly Palace City welcomed the connection to the Internet. The Phantom helmet, which could only play single-player “browser games”, now regained its usefulness. Those colonists who miss their loved ones on Earth every day could finally meet their loved ones in the virtual world constructed by the Phantom.

The gravity belt solved the mobility issue, and now the network problem was also solved. The citizens who lived in Heavenly Palace City once again lived the same life they did on Earth.

Of course, Golovin I himself was the most enthusiastic about the change.

At first, Jiang Chen wondered why Golovin eagerly built a network between Earth and Mars, until Xia Shiyu reported a piece of data to him. On the day when Mars connected to the Internet, more than 5,000 accounts with IP addresses from Mars were registered on the servers of “Galaxy Edge”.

The figure of 5,000 helmets was a small number for Future Technology, which manufactured 50,000 to 100,000 helmets daily. Normally, sales of this scale would not attract the attention of Xia Shiyu or Jiang Chen. However, the person who bought these 5,000 helmets was the Svetovid Group, which made it hard for Jiang Chen not to notice.

He instructed Xia Shiyu to pay more attention, and it didn’t take long before he made new discoveries.

In the city of Svetovid, the best-selling products were holographic devices and VR devices. Based on the data from Future Technology, the Golovin people was addicted to these devices.

If they were not working, then they would be wearing the Phantom helmet… It was the evaluation of the employees of the Mars Synchronous Orbit Shipyard on their cloned colleagues.

Even though the languages these clones mastered were enough to make the most knowledgeable linguists dumbfounded, they rarely communicated with outsiders and hardly spoke outside of work. In addition to eating and sleeping, they spend almost 95% of their free time in the virtual world.

Jiang Chen thought that this might be due to the fact that they spent most of their time in the virtual world during their hibernation period.

As for another question that puzzled him, he couldn’t understand despite how hard he tried to find an answer.

He always believed subjectively that the Golovin people under the Golovin Mental System were like ants under the rule of the queen. They did not need entertainment, which had nothing to do with survival.

However, it appeared to be just his prejudice.

Is it because living in a virtual world has a completely different feel than reality?

He didn’t know.

Jiang Chen even spoke with Golovin I about this matter. But Golovin I did not seem to want to give him the answer, and he was even unwilling to share his account name…

Outside of the Golovin, there were also several important matters that happened at the alliance.

If four years ago, the idea of building a fortress in the Kuiper Belt was mostly an unrealistic fantasy, then with the advancement of technology in the field of interstellar navigation, this fantasy had started to become a practical reality.

In the past four years, the Stellar Highway of Celestial Trade had already advanced from Jupiter’s orbit to Pluto’s orbit. With the help of the warp engine and neutrino tunnel technology, the time from the Earth-Moon system to the Kuiper Belt had been reduced from one year to less than half a month.

The steel and space station accessories manufactured by Heavenly Palace City were directly sent to the synchronous orbit via the space elevator and then towed by the Seagull-class transport ship to Pluto’s orbit.

This fortress would not revolve with Pluto. However, it would slowly orbit around the Sun with a revolution cycle of thousands of years. Although this meant that the fortress would be slowly pulled towards the Sun due to the gravitational force, the gravitational force of the Sun was already quite weak due to the distance to the Kuiper belt. Therefore, this degree of displacement was completely negligible, on the distance of dozens of astronomical units and over several hundred years.

As for things hundreds of years from now, it could be considered in hundreds of years.

The alliance only had to use this fortress in the next half a century to stand between the star and the invaders and to fight the enemy together with the Earth fleet.

And that would be enough.

Chapter 1579: I’m going to be a father?

In addition to the two matters with Golovin and the Earth Defense Alliance, an extraordinary event also happened recently.

This matter was so serious that Jiang Chen, the executive of the alliance, was absent from the Earth Defense Alliance committee meeting on the “Project Trench”. His absence left Kelvin sitting there as well as the committee members staring at each other…

As for what happened that made Jiang Chen so flustered.

Um…

It could be summarized in one sentence.

Sun Jiao is pregnant…

Is pregnant.

Pregnant.

Important things must be said three times.

“…I’m not that delicate, I’m just pregnant with a baby.” Sun Jiao watched Jiang Chen carefully bring the food to her side and cool the food in the spoon before he put the spoon to her lips. She couldn’t stop rolling her eyes as she snatched the bowl in his hand. and placed it on the bedside table next to her. While she viciously gritted her teeth, she said, “Enough, if this continues, I’m going to go crazy, I’d rather fight with Death Claws! ”

“Sister, you can’t do this, be careful with your baby…” Xiaorou, who stood on the side, rarely did not tease her sister. Thus, she also joined to persuade her.

“NONSENSE! My body is in good health, very well! BLURR…”

Before she finished, Sun Jiao held on to Jiang Chen and threw up all over the place…

After she encountered a not-so-pleasant experience, she finally settled down. However, she was not the type to remain calm. It didn’t take a week before she looked at Jiang Chen with teary eyes as she blinked in a wimpy state.

“Or…I won’t give birth to this child?”

Jiang Chen, who held the millet porridge, stared at her and almost dropped the bowl.

“Don’t, don’t be angry…” Sun Jiao rolled her eyes, then her eyes stopped on Xiaorou who held a towel, “What do you think of my sister? Isn’t it the same for her to give birth instead of me…”

“Sister, you can’t say such things.” Xiaorou raised her eyebrows, and in the rare scenario, took a serious stance, “I will be angry if you continue to act like this.”

“Okay, okay, AHHHHHHH! I’ll just lie down!”

After the wild kitten settled down in defeat, she finally didn’t resist and bit onto the spoon Jiang Chen put close to her mouth. Then, she ate the bowl of porridge bit by bit while she stared straight.

Neither Xiaorou nor Yao Yao had any experience in taking care of pregnant women, let alone children in the future. As for Lin Lin, it would be fortunate if she could take care of herself, let alone someone else.

Although Ayesha took the initiative to take care of Sun Jiao, Jiang Chen didn’t want to leave this trouble to her, not to mention that her job was not easy. Ghost Agents were the eyes of Celestial Trade, and it was needless to emphasize the importance of eyes.

As for Xia Shiyu, although she worked very hard to discuss recipes with Yao Yao and study what should be given to pregnant women to help the growth of the baby, as a person who never gave birth before, and another person who looked like a child, it would be odd if they could come up with anything useful!

Finally, Jiang Chen thought of a suitable candidate.

In order to take care of Sun Jiao, he invited Qian Xia over.

This was not a temporary decision made on the fly. He still gave a lot of thought about bringing Qian Xia to Xin.

He probably wouldn’t have much chance to go to the mansion in Nippon anyway. He originally bought it to take advantage of the bottom in the Yoto real estate market as an investment. But now, this small investment did not matter to him. Conversely, people in Yoto used this as an entry point to flatter him in every possible way, and it made him feel that the deal was really a loss to him.

Since he preferred this maid’s work, it would be a shame to just leave her over there.

It happened that Sun Jiao was pregnant and needed professional care, so Jiang Chen brought her from Nippon

Of course, he specifically asked for his girls’ opinions on this matter.

There was no consensus, but at least there was no opposition.

After all, she was a nursing professional, and she was definitely more experienced than amateurs when it came to pregnancy care. And because of the special nature of Jiang Chen’s family, it was impossible to hire someone they didn’t know the background of. Although because of Qian Xia’s sensitive identity as Jiang Chen’s “little lover”, he had gotten countless eye rolls from the girls. However, in the end, even the most possessive Xia Shiyu agreed on this.

“There’s already eight anyway, I don’t care if there is one more.” One night after they drank some wine, Jiang Chen asked about this before going to bed. Xia Shiyu, who was wrapped in a bath towel, sat on the sofa, tilted the wine glass in her hand while she dangled her slender legs and replied in a drunken tone.

It was not that Jiang Chen couldn’t understand her feelings.

Just…

Where did number eight come from?

…

“…You already made her pregnant. From my perspective, our family is not the kind of unjust people. If you do that kind of thing, you will be despised by others! You are now a public figure, if you get into a… scandal over this, the impact is quite bad! I think Sun Xiaorou looks pretty. Her butt looks like she can definitely give birth to a son… If you want my opinion, you might as well marry her.” Perhaps Jiang Chen’s mom watched too many soap operas but after she heard about this, she scolded Jiang Chen over this countless times

“Mom, her name is Sun Jiao… Xiaorou is her younger sister.”

“What, her…sister? Then you and her sister…you, you…”

Jiang Chen’s mom’s eyes widened.

There was no need to think, he could already guess what his mother was going to say, so he quickly changed the topic.

“Let’s not talk about this, let’s continue talking about what we discussed before. I will definitely get married this time. Don’t worry, your own son is definitely aware of the situation. I’m not the kind of person that abandons the girl!”

That’s right!

I have already decided.

He did not dare to say nonsense like “you are all my wings (1)”.

After all, he felt guilty towards those people that love him.

He already received all of their love, but all he could give back was equally divided love. Therefore, Jiang Chen already vowed in his mind that he would do his best to live up to everyone’s sincerity.

Although it was a little shameless to say it, no matter who asked, he would definitely say it out with certainty.

If he had to marry, he would marry everyone together.

He made this decision a long time ago.

“Come on, don’t fool your mother. I certainly know the thoughts you young people have. You are no longer young. You are in your thirties, and you took care of your career. Now it is time to settle down. At least give me a grandson, when the time comes, I can give good news to your grandpa and grandma…”

“Mom, don’t say such things,” Jiang Chen coughed awkwardly, “I promise you and dad can live until a hundred years old.”

This sentence was not a joke.

If she was willing, she could be holding her great-great-grandson.

However, Jiang Chen’s mother didn’t realize that her son was not joking.

“A hundred years old? You’re just saying sweet things to make me happy? What’s the point to live for so long? It’s better to watch you be safe than anything else,” Jiang Chen’s mom said in a disheartened tone after she saw the cigarette butt between his fingers, “Also, didn’t you quit a long time already? Why did you start smoking again?”

As Jiang Chen listened to his mother’s scolding, he silently flicked the snoot off of his cigarette…

(1) You are all my wings – The reference is to a Japanese anime “Macross Frontier”. It was said by the male protagonist to the two female protagonists, of which he was unwilling to give up either. It became synonymous with being a player.

When did he start smoking again?

Jiang Chen couldn’t remember the exact time. He only vaguely remembered that it was after Sun Jiao’s pregnancy. On the way home one day, he somehow went into a nearby store, bought a pack of cigarettes for around ten, and then put one in his mouth…

The taste was really nostalgic.

There was a hint of acridity in the taste.

How long has it been?

He couldn’t remember.

After he came out of his parents’ place, he didn’t drive home immediately. Instead, he went to the beach that was on the way.

Jiang Chen parked the car on the side of the road and rested his arms against the railing of the observation deck, with a pair of sunglasses, he gazed at the sea in the distance and zoned out.

As the Sun set, the woman juggling on the stone brick path, as well as the swimmers who played in the water, seemed to be a painting on a canvas. From the laughter that traveled along the sea breeze, he felt a familiar feeling

He seemed to be in the same position at that time.

It was just that, back then, he was a nobody. But now, even if he was taking a smoke here, there were at least a dozen people who protected him secretly…

He shook his head with a smile, then tossed the unfinished cigarette into the trash can next to him.

It was probably the last one.

He took off his sunglasses and stuffed them into his pocket. He ignored the passers-by who looked surprised or took out their phone in excitement as he walked slowly in the direction of his Luer 2020 Commemorative Model.

…

As time passed day by day, Sun Jiao’s belly gradually began to bulge.

She stared at her belly a little worriedly, because she never give birth to a child, and she never even thought that she would be a mother one day. Sometimes she looked confused, and sometimes, she had a joyful grin.

Every time she showed that happy smile, the girls would be envious.

Especially Ayesha.

From time to time, she would look at Jiang Chen eagerly with a hopeful expression.

Although she didn’t say anything, her eyes, like water, had already said what she wanted to say.

Xia Shiyu was also one of them. Although she said that she didn’t want children because it was too troublesome and she couldn’t take care of her work, every time she said that her eyes would be peeking at Jiang Chen’s body unnaturally.

During this period of time, Jiang Chen got skinner, as if all the extra meat had been transferred to Sun Jiao’s belly. It wasn’t because he was taking care of Sun Jiao. Since Qian Xia moved here, the presence of a professional made Jiang Chen feel a lot more relieved.

But at night…

For the first time, Jiang Chen felt that excessive happiness would also be problematic.

…

“Madam’s body is very healthy, even I was surprised. Generally speaking, about two months into the pregnancy, there will be a period of weakness, and this period is also the most vulnerable time for pregnant women… But from madam’s body, I can’t feel any weakness at all.”

After Qian Xia helped Sun Jiao to bed, she gently closed the door behind her and just happened to run into Jiang Chen in the hallway. The intelligent maid quickly understood why Jiang Chen was here, so she said softly.

After he let out a long breath, Jiang Chen smiled, relieved.

“Thanks a lot.”

“It’s okay, it’s my honor to serve.” Qian Xia smiled and bowed politely. After she instructed a few things for Jiang Chen to pay attention to during the pregnancy, she turned around and returned to her room.

Because of fear of affecting the baby, since Sun Jiao’s belly started to grow, the times she went to the apocalypse also decreased significantly.

In the past, most of the NAC’s government affairs were handled by the First Lady of the General. After only a mere one month of absence, the government affairs on the desk were piled up like a small mountain.

Even though he was reluctant to do so, at this time, Jiang Chen could only resolutely pick up the duties of the General again. As a result, many people were surprised to discover that the rarely seen General actually signed-in at the General’s Mansion every day for the first time.

Instead, it was Madam Sun, who used to appear every day, that disappeared from their sight.

Their confusion did not last long.

At one of the NAC high-level meetings, Jiang Chen picked an appropriate time. After Cheng Weiguo reported on the growth of the NAC’s reserves, he unexpectedly announced the good news to everyone.

“To make a long story short, I’m going to be a father.”

The meeting room became quiet.

From Wang Qing on the left, people’s reactions were stunned at first, and then joy, and eventually ecstasy…

Throughout this year, there were no more exciting news than this.

After people heard the good news, many people even burst into tears of excitement.

For an oligarchy like NAC, the descendants of the leader were more important than anything else, just like the emperor’s prince. For the subordinates loyal to NAC, with their lives integrated with NAC, even if NAC conquered more land and built more colonies overseas, it was not as crucial as Jiang Chen giving them a healthy heir.

This heir did not necessarily need to be better than his father, he could even be mediocre. As long as he was not too screwed up, it would be enough!

The territory that NAC conquered could last at least three to four generations.

They just needed someone that could protect this piece of land, and it would be sufficient.

The news spread like wildfire, since Jiang Chen did not deliberately conceal it.

The Sixth Street cheered and celebrated for a whole week, and joy was written on the faces of almost everyone.

Only those survivors who had just awakened from the low-temperature hibernation chamber had sad expressions on their faces. Because the dictator had a son, this piece of land was one step farther away from the once free and prosperous Pan-Asia Cooperation.

Of course, this small group of people only dared to think about it, they did not dare to speak out their minds.

Because the last one who drank too much and loudly accused the General of “tyranny” had his teeth beaten out by the mercenaries next to him.

Zhou Guoping, who was far away in North America, even ordered the guards of Outpost Town to set off fireworks all night. Lu Fan, once a member of the General Guards, rushed back to Wanghai from Shangjing. He personally offered congratulations to Jiang Chen and a precious gift— a coat weaved from the nape of the saber-toothed beast in the northern wasteland.

Almost everyone cheered for the upcoming successor.

The reason why more than half of the settlements destructed on the wasteland, no matter how strong they were, was due to the succession of the regime.

The prestige of the General was naturally unchallenged, and no one was qualified to challenge.

Whether it was his strategic foresight or individual bravery that was enough to battle against the Mother of Death Claws, he was already a myth in the minds of survivors throughout East Asia. Even the survivors in distant North America and Western Europe heard about the legendary tales of this great leader.

But all humans could not escape death.

Even if the General was already mystified by the survivors, the tale of myth was destined to conclude one day.

At least, in the eyes of most people.

Chapter 1580: Grand Celebration

When did he start smoking again?

Jiang Chen couldn’t remember the exact time. He only vaguely remembered that it was after Sun Jiao’s pregnancy. On the way home one day, he somehow went into a nearby store, bought a pack of cigarettes for around ten, and then put one in his mouth…

The taste was really nostalgic.

There was a hint of acridity in the taste.

How long has it been?

He couldn’t remember.

After he came out of his parents’ place, he didn’t drive home immediately. Instead, he went to the beach that was on the way.

Jiang Chen parked the car on the side of the road and rested his arms against the railing of the observation deck, with a pair of sunglasses, he gazed at the sea in the distance and zoned out.

As the Sun set, the woman juggling on the stone brick path, as well as the swimmers who played in the water, seemed to be a painting on a canvas. From the laughter that traveled along the sea breeze, he felt a familiar feeling

He seemed to be in the same position at that time.

It was just that, back then, he was a nobody. But now, even if he was taking a smoke here, there were at least a dozen people who protected him secretly…

He shook his head with a smile, then tossed the unfinished cigarette into the trash can next to him.

It was probably the last one.

He took off his sunglasses and stuffed them into his pocket. He ignored the passers-by who looked surprised or took out their phone in excitement as he walked slowly in the direction of his Luer 2020 Commemorative Model.

…

As time passed day by day, Sun Jiao’s belly gradually began to bulge.

She stared at her belly a little worriedly, because she never give birth to a child, and she never even thought that she would be a mother one day. Sometimes she looked confused, and sometimes, she had a joyful grin.

Every time she showed that happy smile, the girls would be envious.

Especially Ayesha.

From time to time, she would look at Jiang Chen eagerly with a hopeful expression.

Although she didn’t say anything, her eyes, like water, had already said what she wanted to say.

Xia Shiyu was also one of them. Although she said that she didn’t want children because it was too troublesome and she couldn’t take care of her work, every time she said that her eyes would be peeking at Jiang Chen’s body unnaturally.

During this period of time, Jiang Chen got skinner, as if all the extra meat had been transferred to Sun Jiao’s belly. It wasn’t because he was taking care of Sun Jiao. Since Qian Xia moved here, the presence of a professional made Jiang Chen feel a lot more relieved.

But at night…

For the first time, Jiang Chen felt that excessive happiness would also be problematic.

…

“Madam’s body is very healthy, even I was surprised. Generally speaking, about two months into the pregnancy, there will be a period of weakness, and this period is also the most vulnerable time for pregnant women… But from madam’s body, I can’t feel any weakness at all.”

After Qian Xia helped Sun Jiao to bed, she gently closed the door behind her and just happened to run into Jiang Chen in the hallway. The intelligent maid quickly understood why Jiang Chen was here, so she said softly.

After he let out a long breath, Jiang Chen smiled, relieved.

“Thanks a lot.”

“It’s okay, it’s my honor to serve.” Qian Xia smiled and bowed politely. After she instructed a few things for Jiang Chen to pay attention to during the pregnancy, she turned around and returned to her room.

Because of fear of affecting the baby, since Sun Jiao’s belly started to grow, the times she went to the apocalypse also decreased significantly.

In the past, most of the NAC’s government affairs were handled by the First Lady of the General. After only a mere one month of absence, the government affairs on the desk were piled up like a small mountain.

Even though he was reluctant to do so, at this time, Jiang Chen could only resolutely pick up the duties of the General again. As a result, many people were surprised to discover that the rarely seen General actually signed-in at the General’s Mansion every day for the first time.

Instead, it was Madam Sun, who used to appear every day, that disappeared from their sight.

Their confusion did not last long.

At one of the NAC high-level meetings, Jiang Chen picked an appropriate time. After Cheng Weiguo reported on the growth of the NAC’s reserves, he unexpectedly announced the good news to everyone.

“To make a long story short, I’m going to be a father.”

The meeting room became quiet.

From Wang Qing on the left, people’s reactions were stunned at first, and then joy, and eventually ecstasy…

Throughout this year, there were no more exciting news than this.

After people heard the good news, many people even burst into tears of excitement.

For an oligarchy like NAC, the descendants of the leader were more important than anything else, just like the emperor’s prince. For the subordinates loyal to NAC, with their lives integrated with NAC, even if NAC conquered more land and built more colonies overseas, it was not as crucial as Jiang Chen giving them a healthy heir.

This heir did not necessarily need to be better than his father, he could even be mediocre. As long as he was not too screwed up, it would be enough!

The territory that NAC conquered could last at least three to four generations.

They just needed someone that could protect this piece of land, and it would be sufficient.

The news spread like wildfire, since Jiang Chen did not deliberately conceal it.

The Sixth Street cheered and celebrated for a whole week, and joy was written on the faces of almost everyone.

Only those survivors who had just awakened from the low-temperature hibernation chamber had sad expressions on their faces. Because the dictator had a son, this piece of land was one step farther away from the once free and prosperous Pan-Asia Cooperation.

Of course, this small group of people only dared to think about it, they did not dare to speak out their minds.

Because the last one who drank too much and loudly accused the General of “tyranny” had his teeth beaten out by the mercenaries next to him.

Zhou Guoping, who was far away in North America, even ordered the guards of Outpost Town to set off fireworks all night. Lu Fan, once a member of the General Guards, rushed back to Wanghai from Shangjing. He personally offered congratulations to Jiang Chen and a precious gift— a coat weaved from the nape of the saber-toothed beast in the northern wasteland.

Almost everyone cheered for the upcoming successor.

The reason why more than half of the settlements destructed on the wasteland, no matter how strong they were, was due to the succession of the regime.

The prestige of the General was naturally unchallenged, and no one was qualified to challenge.

Whether it was his strategic foresight or individual bravery that was enough to battle against the Mother of Death Claws, he was already a myth in the minds of survivors throughout East Asia. Even the survivors in distant North America and Western Europe heard about the legendary tales of this great leader.

But all humans could not escape death.

Even if the General was already mystified by the survivors, the tale of myth was destined to conclude one day.

At least, in the eyes of most people.

Chapter 1581: A New Discovery

In the crater 100 kilometers away from Heavenly Palace City, the rover of the B City Steel Group was on a transport mission to send liquid oxygen, freshwater, food, and other supplies to their mine.

As usual, Hansen unloaded the cargo from the rover and then handed the tablet to Roger, who was in charge of receiving, to sign. At the same time, with the ease of his position, he brought some gadgets to relieve the mine engineers of loneliness.

Except for the generous salary, life in the mining area on Mars was quite dull. They could barely receive the signal from Svetovid City at the last mine, but now, this location was quite far apart from both Svetovid City and Heavenly Palace City.

After Hansen accepted the tablet from Roger’s hand, he stuffed it into the pocket in front of his chest. However, when he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed that the back of the mine had two more steel structures compared to the last time he was there.

“What are those?”

Hansen narrowed his eyes and examined the two buildings carefully. Out of curiosity, he added.

“Golovin’s buildings, who knows what they are doing.” Roger shook his head.

“Isn’t this your mining area? You don’t know what they are here for? And you let them in?” Hansen asked with a weird expression on his face.

The reputation of the Golovin people in Heavenly Palace City was not the best, since no one wanted clones as their neighbors. Compared with their compatriots on Earth, Hansen and the immigrants who chose to settle here a long time ago were still quite repulsive to the clones of Svetovid City.

On the one hand, these people never really communicated with them. On the other hand, a group of identical people standing together instinctively caused people to avert, or fear.

Even if the Golovin people have never done anything harmful to them.

“This is the order of Heavenly Palace City. I also asked the CEO… If it weren’t for Loki’s nod of approval, I would never let those freaks into my mining area,” Roger cursed in a low voice as he looked quite displeased.

The Loki he mentioned was, of course, the youngest son of the Loki family.

Hansen didn’t say more after Roger explained. He just stretched his neck and looked at the clones that gathered around the two steel buildings.

Perhaps it was because the clones noticed his gaze, but after they discussed amongst each other using eye contact, one of them left their small group and walked in Roger and Hansen’s direction.

Roger frowned slightly after he saw the Golovin walk towards him. Then folded his arms in front of his chest.

“What’s the matter? If you’re looking for freshwater, speak with the logistics department. I am only responsible for—”

“No,” the Golovin shook his head and said blankly, “Something has happened here and we will explain it to you later. I hope you can stop the mining machine first.”

When Roger heard what the Golovin said, he was first taken back, then he raised his eyebrows and started to laugh.

“Stop? Are you here to seek trouble?”

“No,” The Golovin shook his head and said calmly, “We will compensate you for your loss.”

“Oh, loss? Do you know the loss if our mining machine stops for one day?” Roger waved his hand impatiently to dismiss the Golovin, “Don’t bother me with unreasonable things.”

The Golovin didn’t say anything. He used his index finger to write a string of zeros on the tablet and handed it to Roger.

“Is this figure enough?”

Whether it was Roger or Hansen who stood next to him, when they saw the number, they were both stunned.

One billion Xin New Dollars…

It was enough to purchase their entire mining area including the equipment, let alone compensating for a day of loss.

“…I can’t make a decision here. I have to contact my boss,” Sweat dripped down from his forehead, and Roger said in a trembling tone.

Even if he did not want to deal with the Golovin people, no one was against money.

One billion Xin New Dollars…

As one of the partners of the B City Steel Group, this number made his heart dance.

“I hope you can tell him as soon as possible. We plan to buy this place.” The Golovin nodded, and then looked at the mining machine in the middle of the mining area that was working above the mine. “So, can I trouble you to stop this machine first?”

“How much do you know about Gaia civilization?”

Jiang Chen sat in the holographic conference room on the opposing side of Golovin’s holographic image. Then, he asked the secretary to make a cup of tea. Just when he thought that Golovin I was here to discuss the order of one hundred warp engines, the question Golovin I asked made Jiang Chen so surprised that he didn’t know how to answer.

“…From the origin of Gaia to the decline and fall of the entire Gaia civilization,” After Jiang Chen considered that the Soviet Union in that world must have unearthed the relics of Gaia civilization, he responded after he gave it some thought. “Is there any problems? ”

“Because of the competition with Pan-Asia and NATO, the information we have about Gaia civilization is quite limited. From the limited information, we analyzed that their species should belong to the arthropod phylum, and the social type was similar to ants… …” At this point, Golovin I stopped talking and looked at Jiang Chen’s eyes as if he was asking him for confirmation.

After Jiang Chen pondered for a moment, he said.

“Your analysis is correct, at least 80% correct.”

Golovin nodded slightly.

“It seems that your understanding of Gaia civilization is deeper than ours. Then, you should have heard of planetary forging technology, right?”

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile after he heard those words

I have not only heard of it.

That small ball made of strong interaction materials marked the crystallization of the most advanced technology of Gaia civilization. In addition, it still rested in his storage dimension.

“The prosperity of Gaia civilization stems from their enthusiasm for the depths of the earth, and their destruction is also because of this. If you read that memory, then you should remember how the magnetic field that once protected Mars disappeared.”

“Of course, I probably won’t ever forget about that shocking scene in my life.” Jiang Chen smiled, put down the cup in his hand, and said softly, “Speaking of which, you came to see me today to talk about the Gaia civilization?”

“Indeed.” Golovin I nodded.

“Is there anything to talk about in regards to that dead civilization? No matter how brilliant they were, they are now a story on another timeline.” Jiang Chen shrugged.

“Although their civilization has disappeared in the river of time, what they left behind can bring some help to the problems we are facing now.”

“Are you talking about the technology of Gaia civilization?” Jiang Chen smiled.

He had already got those things.

However, unexpected by Jiang Chen, Golovin I shook his head.

“This is not what I want to say. Do you remember the sentence I asked you just now?”

“The root cause of the demise of Gaia civilization is the mine that reaches the center of the planet…”

After a moment’s pause, Golovin I continued.

“…we have found it.”

Chapter 1582: Geocentric Mine

Project Trench was officially initiated.

Two Seagull-class transport ships set off from Celestial City, passed through the Star Gate hovering in the Earth-Moon system, and sailed towards Mars.

The two starships carried officers from the Earth Defense Alliance, senior space technology engineers who graduated from the School of Aerospace Technology at Coro University, and more than a dozen scientific researchers. Although their identities were different, all of them were there for the same purpose.

Their mission was to build a “trench” between the orbit of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt to defend against Harmony.

On this issue that determined the life and death of everyone, representatives from different countries finally gave up the endless debate.

About three days ago, Resolution 101 of the Earth Defense Alliance was finalized with the relevant details of Project Trench. This included the weapon configuration of this space fortress, the roles of each country in the project, and the obligations they should undertake.

Based on the plan formulated by Resolution 101, the entire project would be divided into three steps and would span twenty years.

The first step was to find a suitable asteroid in the Kuiper Belt, then tow it between the Kuiper Belt and the orbit of Pluto, and use it as the main structure of this space fortress. All functional facilities such as fortifications and living units, carrier spacecraft hangars, and so on would be built on this asteroid.

Just like this, the two Seagull-class transport ships embarked on a new journey.

However, in addition to those related to Project Trench, there were two special passengers on the two starships that headed to the synchronous orbit of Mars.

Unlike the others, their final destination was not the Kuiper Belt, but Heavenly Palace City…

“Have you been to Mars before?”

“No.”

As Jiang Chen saw Lilith was looking at him in confusion, he cast a strange look at her, “Is there any problem with this?”

“Obviously, it is your city, but you have never been to it?”

“What’s so strange about this?” Jiang Chen laughed, “The leader of any country will not necessarily have traveled to all the cities under their control.”

“I see.”

Lilith nodded while she stared at the unchanging starry sky outside the window. She did not say anything more.

The two stood in front of the window in the corridor at the moment.

As for why they were here, it had to do with the conversation between Jiang Chen and Golovin I the other day.

When Golovin I told Jiang Chen that they had found the geocentric mine of the Gaia civilization, he was stunned. He then looked at Golovin I, who said this seriously, and as if he heard some funny joke, he started to laugh

“Are you kidding, a mine that existed for billions of years? Or a mine that is going straight to the center of the planet? You mean, in the past three billion years, there has never been a geological tectonic movement on Mars?”

Tectonic movement occurred more or less on any planet. Even if the tectonic movement of Mars was not active and no plate drift similar to that on Earth happened, but on the time scale of billions of years, even without active tectonic movement, the planet could still experience drastic changes.

The mine that drilled down to the center of the core was just like a 3,400 kilometers-long toothpick, it could be broken into two pieces with just a little force.

“There is no way to use the time scale to measure how advanced their technology is compared to ours. In our ‘hometown’, the geocentric mine of Gaia civilization is controlled by NATO. We only know that it is similar to a vertical mine with a transmission mechanism. No matter which direction the geological movement comes from, it can deform the mine, but it will never collapse.”

Transmission mechanism?

Because it was too abstract, Jiang Chen tried to imagine it in his mind, but still couldn’t get a clear picture of what kind of project it was that could fight the baptism of time.

“What then? What did you find inside?” Jiang Chen had set aside the questions in his mind and asked the topic he was more concerned about.

“We can’t get in.”

“Can’t get in?” Jiang Chen took a moment to process the information.

“Yes.” Golovin I nodded. “The entrance of the mine is a giant gate embedded in the ground. We tried to excavate the soil on both sides of the giant gate, but the mine is far more robust than we had imagined. In order to avoid irreversible consequences, we did not use more drastic means to break the gate.”

“Even you can’t find a way to open the gate?” Jiang Chen was in disbelief that the question burst out.

“On the contrary, we found the way to open the door.” At this point, Golovin I paused for a moment, and continued while he looked at Jiang Chen, “If our guess is correct, you are the only one who can open that door.”

When Jiang Chen heard these words, he was in a state of shock, and he asked subconsciously.

“Why is that?”

“Because in this world, you are the only person recognized by the guide,” Golovin I slowly said.

“The guide…?”

Is this what CCCP calls that person…or Gaia? Or is this the official naming?

When he heard Golovin I mention the word, the images of what happened that day appeared in his mind. The Gaia who walked into his memory, took him to experience the rise and fall of Gaia civilization over hundreds of centuries, and finally narrated the destiny of Gaia civilization in a voice without the slightest sorrow or regret.

Based on what Golovin I described, the first Flower of Memory was not open to everyone. Because it was the last trace of their existence, they had to carefully choose the right person to hand their inheritances.

Jiang Chen didn’t know what the Gaia thought when it met with the “new-born” Earth civilization and handed him everything, including their memory. He didn’t know why the guide chose him as the heir to these inheritances.

“If you are interested, you can come to Svetovid City.”

At the end of the conversation, Golovin I left him this message.

So, Jiang Chen embarked on a journey to Heavenly Palace City.

Because he didn’t know what would happen on this trip, he brought Lilith for safety purposes.

Even though he was reluctant to be so far away from the pregnant Sun Jiao, for Celestial Trade and the entire alliance… the significance of that geocentric mine was too critical.

For example, the small ball made out of strong interaction material, though planetary forging technology, was made in the deepest part of the geocentric mine.

It marked the highest achievement of Gaia civilization’s material science. If Celestial Trade could apply strong interaction materials on the armor of starships, then the Earth Fleet would be able to have a fighting chance against a civilization more advanced than Harmony, let alone Harmony.

“What are you thinking about.”

Lilith glanced over at Jiang Chen, who was in a daze as he stared out the window.

After his thoughts flowed back from his blank state, he smiled and said.

“I was thinking, I hope that thing will not disappoint me.”

Chapter 1583: Heavenly Palace City

[All citizens of Heavenly Palace City welcome President Jiang’s visit…]

Originally, Hong Zewei planned to pull a banner on the synchronous orbit space station, but in the end, he decided against it because it was too tacky, so at the recommendation of other officials in Heavenly Palace City, he changed it to launching electronic fireworks.

Under the warm welcome of Heavenly Palace City, two Seagull-class starships entered the port one after another.

After Jiang Chen stepped onto the space elevator at the synchronous orbit through the gangway, he was greeted by Hong Zewei and the ministers of all levels of the city.

“Long time no see, how has it been? Are you used to living here?” After they shook hands, Jiang Chen smiled and patted Hong Zewei on the shoulder, and asked him in a relaxed tone.

“I used to be unaccustomed to all kinds of things, but now I am starting to get too comfortable.” Hong Zewei laughed heartily.

“Oh?”

“Now Heavenly Palace City is not what it used to be. You will see it in a few moments.”

“Then I’ll have to trouble you to take me on a tour.” Jiang Chen laughed along.

“Not at all, it’s my honor to serve you,” Hong Zewei said with a smile.

The officers and soldiers of the Earth Defense Alliance would take a short rest in this space station to replenish fuel, water, liquid oxygen, and food, and then set off to the forefront of the solar system. After Jiang Chen bid farewell to the captain at the entrance of the space elevator, he brought Lilith to the module that lead to the surface.

Hong Zewei stood next to Jiang Chen and enthusiastically introduce the current situation of Heavenly Palace City and everything on Mars to him.

The scenery here was really beautiful.

The space elevator descended slowly from the orbit and the panoramic view of half of the planet was visible under his eyes. No clouds blocked the view here and from the desert directly below to the hills on the horizon, the endless yellow sand was like a flame-colored ocean.

An almost straight railroad track extended from under the space elevator to Heavenly Palace City hundreds of kilometers away. The orange shield extended above the city like a semi-arc umbrella. The graviton barrier could block the most harmful rays and meteorites falling from the sky.

Blocks of graphene-covered pipeline structures intertwined among the buildings in Heavenly Palace City. Based on what Hong Zewei said, those were the roads in the city, and also the “blood vessel” of the city. Electric cables and freshwater pipes, as well as air vents, all used these tubular roads as hubs. From water purification plants, nuclear fusion power stations, ecological farms, gas distribution stations, and other production facilities, everything used these tubular roads to transport to the living units.

Not only that but there was also a “green belt” planted outside of the city. The red mycelium shaped like a coral and genetically modified trees surrounded Heavenly Palace City, which converted the rich carbon dioxide resources into oxygen, and at the same time produced a non-addictive drink that could bring happiness to people. It was also one of the specialties of the city. Curved paths meandered in this circular green belt. Based on Hong Zewei, it was one of the most popular tourist attractions and the most popular park among locals.

Through the electronic telescope in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, the panoramic view of the city unfolded in the space elevator.

Efficient, environmentally friendly, thriving, and unlimited potential.

Although Jiang Chen did not enter the city yet, that was the evaluation he gave to the city.

Although the output value of Heavenly Palace City was far less than that of Lunar City, which was responsible for half of Earth’s electricity consumption, in the long run, the future of this city would surely be linked to the future of the entire Earth civilization.

There was a limit to the population capacity of Lunar City. The high cost of living on the Moon, frequent meteorites, and barren climate and ecological environment meant that the place was only going to become a large mining area or tourist attraction, rather than a city with comprehensive infrastructures that could digest excessive population.

When Jiang Chen moved his sight away from the city, he focused on the scenery in the distance.

When his gaze landed on the horizon, on the fiery red platform protruded out from the ground, he couldn’t help but ask.

“What is that.”

“… Mount Olympus, the largest volcano in the entire solar system! It is also currently the largest tourist attraction in Heavenly Palace City! Last year we set up an outpost there, and now it has become the most famous commercial street in the city. Recently, we are considering setting up that area as a special tourist zone,” Hong Zewei replied with a smile.

Mount Olympus on Mars was the largest known volcano in the Solar System so far. Its slope was gentle and looked like a huge shield. The bottom of the volcano had a diameter over 600 kilometers long, and the area exceeded the total area of the United Kingdom. The diameter of the top of the volcano was 80 kilometers long, which could fit more than two Wanghais inside.

The height of the volcano was more than 27 kilometers, and the average height was 22 kilometers. Although he did not have a feel of the height on top of the space elevator, it was actually three times the height of Mount Everest on Earth! For comparison, the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii would just be like an ant under the feet of an elephant.

“Really? I must go up and see it if I get the chance,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.

At this time, Lilith pulled on Jiang Chen’s sleeve from behind.

When he felt the motion from behind him, he turned his head and looked at Lilith with a smile.

“What’s the matter? Do you want to go there and take a look?”

Lilith shook her head and pointed blankly out the window.

When he looked in the direction Lilith’s finger pointed at, he didn’t see anything. Therefore, he looked at her with a strange expression

“Miss Lilith is pointing in the direction of Svetiovd City, but their settlement is very small, and most of the structures are built underground. It is difficult to see it directly from here…” Hong Zewei immediately explained to Jiang Chen; at the same time, he was shocked by the girl’s eyesight.

Is it a bionic electronic eye?

There were rumors that a special unit in Celestial Trade was equipped with this device. While this device possessed all the functionalities of a normal pair of glasses, this bionic electronic eye was capable of super-distance vision, battlefield analysis, ballistic calculation, and so on. The rumors were that soldiers with bionic electronic eyes would be incorporated into special forces and registered. Their original eyes would be cryopreserved, and after their discharge, their bionic electronic eyes would be removed and replaced.

Of course, these were all rumors. At his level, he had only heard a glimpse of it.

The more Hong Zewei thought about it, the more he felt that it was possible, otherwise, it would be hard to explain why Jiang Chen didn’t even bring a bodyguard, and only a harmless-looking girl accompanied him.

“Svetovid City?” Jiang Chen aimed the electronic telescope in the direction Lilith pointed at, adjusted the magnification of the telescope, and squinted his left eye. “What’s there?”

“They are transporting things to the space elevator.”

“Is there a problem?”

“No.” Lilith shook her head and said blankly, “It just feels odd.”

Chapter 1584: Irregularity

In the Kuiper Belt, three starships kept a distance of thousands of kilometers apart and slowly sailed on the edge of a dense asteroid cluster.

Except for SS Origin, which was on routine maintenance and rested on Earth, SS Enterprise, SS Judgment, and SS Frontier were the three starships in active service of the Earth Fleet.

Among them, Enterprise was the flagship, located in the center of the fleet triangle formation. The ship was equipped with 200 mass accelerators, 20 missile launchers, and more than 3,000 medium-range missiles with various types of warheads.

As for Judgment and Frontier, although the hull was the same configuration as Enterprise, with all three ships being the one-million-ton Envoy-class, there were still big differences in weapon types and battlefield positioning for the two ships. For example, in the center of Judgement and Frontier, a large mass accelerator extended from the front of the ship to the rear of the hull and it could be used to launch mass projectiles several tons in weight. It could also be used as a launch port for carrier starcrafts.

Compared with Enterprise, Judgment and Frontier emphasized more on long-range firepower. The 20 missile launchers were replaced by four rows of torpedo launch bays. The 200 mass accelerators were also modified into 50 short-range laser defense weapons on the top of the ship’s hull.

With the flagship leading the formation, this idea seemed odd, but it was the decision made after careful consideration.

The fighting distance of thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers at every turn meant that close-range firepower on this scale was extremely weakened. To a large extent, the flagship would never have a chance to fire at all before the two starships completed the suppression of long-range targets.

200 mass accelerators and 20 missile launchers were all prepared for medium-distance enemies. If the Harmony chose to attack in close range and managed to break through the blockade that consisted of starcrafts, torpedoes, and heavy mass projectiles, only then would the mid-range defense weapons come into play.

There was only one near-defense starship, SS Enterprise, in service. The Constitution-class (five-million-ton) starship under design was the future flagship of the Earth Fleet, as well as “aircraft carrier” and “mobile fortress” in the true sense.

On Frontier, in the lounge.

After a day of training, the crew gathered here to play billiards, have a cup of coffee, or lie on the massage chair and read a book to pass the time. The ship was equipped with a gravity-generating device, and most of the activities on Earth could also be carried out here.

In the eyes of others, this profession was sacred, but only these people on the ship understood the hardship.

In a claustrophobic environment with a thin sense of direction, the pressure on people’s psychological level was immense. All the doctors on the ship obtained psychologist qualifications before they entered the job, precisely in order to deal with mental health issues.

“In the frontier of the solar system, welcoming the decisive battle half a century later, I suddenly felt that this profession is quite poetic.” Rosal, who leaned against the massage chair, suddenly laughed out as he flipped through the photos in his hands.

The crews of the Earth Fleet were all elites from each country. In the past two years ago, the fortress in Europe had gradually collapsed, and countries have joined the Earth Defense Alliance one after another. For example, the curly-haired Rosal was from the Republican Navy of Italy.

“I’m afraid you won’t see that day.” Zhang Wei, who sat next to him, chuckled.

“That’s not necessarily true. I’m only in my thirties now, and I will be 80 years old in half a century. Moreover, even if I really can’t see that day, my lovely daughter will see that day for me,” Rosal said while he drew a cross in front of his chest. It seemed like he was a devout believer.

“Don’t say things such as in our place, you are just jinxing yourself.”

“Jinxing? Jinx? I don’t quite understand what you are talking about.” Rosal was taken aback and shook his head.

“…Are you really Italian?”

“Why do you ask?”

“This is the first time I have seen such an Italian without a sense of humor,” Zhang Wei said while he facepalmed.

Rosal was about to rebut when he heard someone say that he lacked a sense of humor, but at this moment, the red signal light suddenly turned on.

In an instant, everyone in the lounge fell silent and stared at the signal light that flashed without warning.

Of course, this kind of stupefaction lasted for less than a second. The two people who were still playing billiards immediately threw away the billiard cue in their hands and rushed to the door. Zhang Wei didn’t fall behind either. He jumped up from the sofa and sprinted out of the lounge.

Rosal tucked the photos of his wife and daughter back into his inner pocket while he ran behind Zhang Wei. The flashing lights in the hallway gave him an ominous feeling, but it was not like this had never happened before.

“Assault drill? But the drill just ended.”

“I don’t know, don’t ask me…”

There was a hint of tension in Zhang Wei’s eyes, but behind that tension, there was even a hint of excitement that even he was surprised by…

…

SS Enterprise, located thousands of kilometers away, was currently undergoing routine training.

Luo Hong, the captain of Enterprise, stood rightly in front of the bridge. He stared intently at the holographic screen in the middle of the bridge.

As the first batch of students who graduated from the Aerospace Military Academy of Coro University, he was one of the most eye-catching ones. Once served as the deputy captain on the first starship SS Seagull, after the establishment of the Earth Defense Alliance, he was incorporated into the Earth Fleet from Celestial Trade. At that time, no one was optimistic about the shell fleet that had no starship, and he was the only one who firmly believed that this fleet would do something in the future.

It was precisely because of his persistence and his extraordinary talent in the field of fleet command that he was appointed as the captain of Enterprise two years ago, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Earth Fleet.

The exercise was halfway through completion.

At this moment, the staff who sat directly in front of him suddenly spoke.

“An irregularly active asteroid is observed, at a speed of 600,000 kilometers per hour… It is approaching Frontier.”

“Set the alertness level to level two. Start the space telescope, screen No. 4, and zoom in,” Luo Hong ordered.

“Roger.”

The center of screen No.2 was aimed at the asteroid. With three consecutive zooms, the high-speed asteroid hidden in the Kuiper Belt appeared directly in front of everyone. Equipped with the latest space telescope, Enterprise’s optical observation radius exceeded 200 million kilometers. The radio radar was used to lock the abnormally moving celestial body, and then the optical observation device made a direct observation which could even spot the interlaced textures and dents on the target.

There were a huge number of asteroids orbiting in the Kuiper Belt, and this kind of situation occurred every once in a while, so Luo Hong didn’t take it too seriously.

However, just when he was about to announce the deactivation of the alarm, he suddenly found an unnatural anomaly from the corner of the screen.

In order to confirm whether he was mistaken, he narrowed his eyes slightly.

Behind the magnified asteroid picture.

A slender filament was pulsating slowing…

A bad premonition surged in his heart. At the moment when he confirmed that he was not mistaken, Luo Hong’s pupils suddenly shrank, his hands slammed onto the table as his eyes continued to be fixed on the holographic screen.

“FOCUS ON THE RIGHT! ZOOM IN! HIGHEST MAGNIFCATION!”

“ROGER!”

The picture was focused on the abnormal spot.

The unnatural filament was enlarged.

As soon as the picture appeared on the screen, cold sweat dripped down from Luo Hong’s forehead.

It was an unhidden tentacle…

He could even spot the diamond pattern on it…

Chapter 1585: Planet’s Core and Portal

In the center of Heavenly Palace City, on the colony square.

This was the last stop on the itinerary after Jiang Chen, Hong Zewei and the other leaders of Heavenly Palace City toured the entire city. Based on the arrangement, Jiang Chen would deliver a speech at the square to all the employees of Celestial Trade stationed on Mars and the citizens of Heavenly Palace City…

For Jiang Chen, he was used to giving this type of speech, so when Hong Zewei asked him thoughtfully if he needed help to prepare a speech, Jiang Chen politely declined.

He had already thought of his speech when he was on the space elevator.

When the host handed the microphone to him, Jiang Chen looked at the packed crowd, as he recalled what he had seen on the space elevator and started to smile.

He didn’t use any impassioned or provocative tone but began like a small talk. After a two-second pause, he spoke in a relaxed voice.

“Standing in the orbital module of the space elevator, I never thought that everything I saw today would surprise me so much.”

“The future of Heavenly Palace City is the future of all mankind. I have no need to guide you. The problems that I can think of have all been solved. Therefore, standing here, all I want to say is one sentence.”

“I am proud of you.”

The voice fell, and there was thunderous applause from the audience.

Jiang Chen smiled and nodded to the enthusiastic citizens.

The girl who held flowers in the audience stepped forward and handed a bouquet to him. Although he knew it was likely an arrangement made by Hong Zewei, he still felt touched and moved by the scene.

After the speech, everyone in the square dispersed. Jiang Chen followed Hong Zewei to the hotel in the colonial center. This place was designed with the layout of a five-star hotel on Earth and was typically used to host VIPs who visited the city.

He rested one night in the colonial center.

The next day, Jiang Chen, accompanied by Lilith, Hong Zewei, and others, went to the meteor crater 100 kilometers away from Heavenly Palace City.

When his rover arrived at the destination, Golovin’s vehicle had been waiting for a long time.

After he got off the rover, he walked into the mining area.

When he spotted B City Steel Group’s sign on the mine, he turned his head and looked to Golovin I, then asked.

“This place is?”

“The switch.”

After Golovin I finished the sentence, he stepped forward and slowly raised his right hand.

Light blue particles of light emerged from his palm and floated towards the oddly shaped building behind the mining area. Light blue rays started to emerge from the triangular-shaped figure in the center. Accompanied by muffled noises from the bottom of their feet, the cracks that extended from top to bottom slowly opened.

Jiang Chen cast a look of surprise behind him, then he focused on the triangular pyramid building that opened and spoke out.

“Is this the relics of Gaia civilization?”

“No, this is the entrance we built. It leads underground.” Golovin I shook his head. “The relics of Gaia civilization are located two kilometers below. If the data recorded in our database is correct, then the switch to the geocentric mine should be right under our feet.”

“Is it just a switch?” Jiang Chen frowned, “I thought you found the entrance.”

“Of course, the entrance has been found,” Golovin I raised his head and looked at the distant horizon. “It’s there.”

Behind the endless sand dunes, the raised Olympus volcano stood abruptly, like a shield raised towards the sky.

As Jiang Chen followed Golovin I’s line of sight, a look of realization emerged from Jiang Chen’s eyes.

If it were there, then it could certainly be the possible site of a geocentric mine.

Vaguely, he seemed to have read the report about the volcano. The mere tectonic movement could not explain this volcano that stood abruptly among the sand dunes. It was just previously, he had always held a preconceived notion that everything in Gaia civilization was weathered in the baptism of time, so he didn’t take that report to heart.

And the people who were aware of the geocentric mine, besides him, were all senior executives of the special project research institute such as Dr. Amos. Even Kelvin was not briefed on the details of the geocentric mine, he was only briefed on the small ball made out of strong interaction material, and the planetary forging technology…

“So we turn on the ‘switch’ from here, and then go down directly above the volcano?” Jiang Chen looked at Golovin I and laughed, “Although it is an extinct volcano, I’m sure the moment when we go down there, we will be roasted into carbon dioxide in an instant.”

“Let’s disregard the volcano, no one can withstand the temperature of the core,” Golovin I slowly said in a tone that didn’t have many ups and downs, “Let’s think from another perspective. How did Gaia, or those arthropods, manage to do it.”

Jiang Chen frowned slightly and carefully thought about it for a moment.

“Portal,” said Lilith, who stood behind Jiang Chen, “I have retrieved an entry about the portal from the technical documents about Gaia civilization in the database.”

“The Gaia civilization had this technology?” Jiang Chen asked in surprise.

“Mhmm, but this technology is very unstable, the transmission distance is limited, and the energy consumed per unit distance increases exponentially with the increase of distance,” Lilith said without any expression.

Golovin I looked at Lilith unexpectedly.

It was quite strange, but even Jiang Chen was surprised by the fact that he read the expression “surprised” from Golovin I, with severe facial paralysis.

“You are…”

“A digitalized human.”

“I see, then it makes sense,” a trace of clarity emerged in his calm eyes, and Golovin I nodded lightly, “It seems that you Asians have succeeded in the end.”

“Yes,” Lilith said blankly.

“So, what’s your opinion?” Golovin I looked at Jiang Chen, “You can go directly to the center of the planet through the portal. If I’m not mistaken, the destination of the portal should be located at the workstation outside the core, where the temperature is not very high.”

“Send a robot down?”

Golovin I shook his head.

“The planetary forge covers an area of more than thousands of square meters, and it is absolutely impossible to pass through the portal. Only you can bring it to the surface from below.”

At the moment Jiang Chen heard these words, his eyes suddenly narrowed.

Golovin I seemed to sense the dangerous aura Jiang Chen exuded and understood. Therefore, he continued in an emotionless tone.

“Those people in exile in the void told me about your sub-dimension. I hope you don’t misunderstand anything because of this. If you are worried, I can go with you.”

“The only person who can activate it is you, and the only decision-making power is in your hands.”

Jiang Chen was about to say something when his watch suddenly flashed with a bright red light.

He was slightly taken aback. However, he soon tapped on it and opened the holographic screen.

The moment he saw the first line of words.

His expression changed drastically…

Chapter 1586: Cold Night is Approaching

“This is Enterprise. An unknown object is identified at coordinates… It is approaching your ship at a speed of 60,000 kilometers per hour. Firing is approved, I repeat, firing is approved!”

“This is Frontier, roger that. The ship has entered level one preparedness, ammunition is being loaded…”

Inside the bridge of Frontier, the entire ship’s officers and soldiers were ready.

The images from Enterprise showed an abnormal spot behind the asteroid and they suspect it may be traces of Harmony civilization. Although this observational anomaly did appear before, they made the same decision every time.

It was better to kill one hundred innocents than to let one perpetrator go free.

Frontier, which led the charge, immediately started the secondary engine and adjusted the bow of the ship to the asteroid’s direction. Enterprise quickly moved closer to Frontier, while Judgement, which was relatively far away, began to slow down. The bow also aimed at the asteroid in the front and opened the torpedo compartment at the bottom.

“The mass projectile is loaded.”

“Capacitor charging…”

“The charge is complete!”

“FIRE!”

The gunner inside the bridge followed the command of the captain and pressed down on the touchpad without hesitation.

The white light flickered for a second, and the fifty-meter-long cylindrical mass projectile was accelerated to the limit by the magnetic coil and blasted toward the asteroid at an incredible speed. Under the effect of the conservation of momentum, the starship suddenly halted.

Even the people who stood in the bridge felt the huge recoil from the bow of the ship.

The ten-ton heavy-duty tungsten core projectile was almost the most destructive weapon on Frontier. Based on the trajectory calculation, if the projectile landed on the target, the asteroid would be torn into pieces.

Frontier Captain, Yue Dongwen’s eyes were locked on the twinkling blue dot that approached the asteroid marked in red. He had squeezed his hands so hard that his palms sweated.

Suddenly, the vector parameter next to the red dot on the star chart suddenly changed and deviated from the original orbit. Yue Dongwen’s pupils shrank slightly, and it seemed that the worm ship was equipped with some kind of battlefield scanning equipment…or organs.

The original critical strike was avoided, and the cylindrical mass projectile whizzed by the asteroid that was in front of it and hit another asteroid in the Kuiper belt, which directly blasted it into fragments.

Without any hesitation, Yue Dongwen made a decisive decision and ordered.

“Launch the starcrafts! Open the torpedo cabin!”

“ROGER!”

In the carrier hangar, pilots with helmets boarded the Stingray A-1s one after another. The starcrafts were moved by the mechanical arm into the tubular ejection runway one after another, and under the acceleration of the magnetic track, they launched one after another in the worm ship’s direction.

At the same time, on the other side of the battlefield.

Judgement, which had already prepared for firing, launched a nuclear torpedo.

In space operations, the lethality of thermonuclear weapons was quite limited because of the lack of gas shock waves. However, the engineers of Future Military modified the nuclear torpedo. They added a metal liner with strong thermal conductivity inside the warhead.

It was needless to say how powerful the high-velocity superplastic jet driven by thermonuclear weapon was…

An orange-red tail light flowed behind the engine of the nuclear torpedo.

The nuclear torpedo, with a built-in guidance function, locked onto the asteroid after two phases of accelerations and trajectory changes. It blocked all possible escape routes and directly hit the target! At the moment when this nuclear torpedo exploded, the high-velocity superplastic jet instantly penetrated the asteroid and released a terrifying amount of kinetic energy into the asteroid in a fan-shaped direction.

The asteroid with a radius of over a hundred meters started to show lava-colored cracks on the surface as if there was a thermal reaction that happened on the inside, and in the slow-motioned camera, it exploded into countless pieces.

And with the explosion of this cover, the worm ship that waved its tentacles and was hidden behind the asteroid finally revealed itself in front of everyone.

“Target is hit! Asteroid shattered!”

“The body is exposed!”

“Confirm the target is a worm ship from Harmony civilization. It is suspected to be a Harmony civilization colonization ship!”

Although the torpedo hit the target, there was no cheering in the bridge of Judgement.

Everyone knew that it was only the disguise of the worm ship shattered.

“Is this the legendary colonization ship… only so small?” Luo Hong’s gaze was firmly locked on the squid-shaped worm ship on the screen.

Hundreds of meters wide and high, if the tentacles behind the ship were fully extended, it was likely two kilometers or even three kilometers long, which would be much larger than the Seagull-class starship, but compared to the Envoy class, it was still quite fragile.

Intuition told him that if it were a Harmony colonization ship, it was likely much better than this.

But after he scanned through the star map, the radio detection system told him this was the only one.

The worm ship in front of them was the only invader!

“The firepower on the panel is ready!”

“The capacitor is fully charged!”

“FIRE!”

The right side was aimed at the worm ship, and the scale-like plates on the side armor of Enterprise popped open, followed by continuous bursts of white light, just like the stars at midnight. The small mass projectiles accelerated to the limit and whizzed towards the airspace where the worm ship was located. It almost blocked off all escape routes.

This volley lasted for a long time.

Perhaps it knew that it could no longer escape, the worm ship simply gave up meaningless maneuvers, increased its speed, and propelled in the direction of Frontier. Mass projectiles hit its front one after another, and the flesh-red armor started to peel off unknown fleshy pieces.

At this moment, the front of the worm ship suddenly turned red.

When Luo Hong saw the image on the holographic screen and a warning sign suddenly appeared in his mind. Almost instinctively, he shouted at the combat personnel in the bridge.

“STOP THE BOMBARDMENT! DEPLOY SHIELD!”

The bombardment stopped, and a light-yellow film appeared from the side of Enterprise. Almost at the same time, a red-light beam flickered suddenly and scraped by the side of Enterprise’s graviton shield.

Luo Hong began to sweat profusely when he saw the shield energy bar plummet.

If it were not for his quick response, the consequences would be unimaginable…

On the other side, two hundred starcrafts on Frontier all lifted off.

Together with the other two hundred unmanned crafts, four hundred starcrafts formed a circular attack formation at a position of 700,000 kilometers in front of Frontier and turned into a series of blue light spots that actively attacked the worm ship.

At the same time, the fleshy membrane on the side of the opposing worm ship suddenly bulged, and then burst open. Small worm ships were ejected from the flesh membrane, and under the action of an unknown driving force, they waved their slender tentacles and encountered the starcrafts of Frontier.

The distance between the worm ship and Frontier was only one million kilometers.

The two sides were already in a close-distance dog fight…

Chapter 1587: The Last Charge

The bloody fight began in silence.

The series of Stringray A-1s formed into neat circular formations in space, like lancers that charged among the galaxies, they unleashed an assault on the splitters released by the worm ship.

The faint blue electric light flickered and intertwined into a death dance in the pitch-black universe.

The scorching laser tore off the flesh-red armor, the Klein particle beam and the cluster of acid fired back and forth in space, the Earth Fleet’s carrier-based starcrafts clashed into the splitters. They galloped, fought, and chased in the vast universe.

Every second, there was an electric spark that symbolized death or a splitter that no longer moved because its flesh-red horny armor was torn by the laser.

Everyone’s eyes turned crimson; their fingers were locked on the trigger.

The hot barrel was like a soldering iron in a blast furnace, the fangs and tentacles within arm’s length, the bloody and deadly breath was so conspicuous in the cold empty space.

A Stingray A-1 collided with a splitter. When the splitter pierced the cockpit with its fangs, the pilot shouted long live his motherland and smashed fist under the button under his seat.

The flame of the explosion engulfed the starcraft and the injured splitter together in a scarlet light cluster.

“GO TO HELL!”

Zhang Wei roared at the top of his lungs while he firmly grasped onto the control between his knees; every inch of his eyes was bloodshot.

With the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the flickering [Overload] in the lower right corner of the helmet, but at this moment, he did not have any attention left to focus on that.

The crosshair was aimed at the split-off worm that chased his comrade. He lifted the safety on the side of the grip with his thumb and pressed down on it with all his force.

Two flames appeared from below the starcraft, and the two short-range missiles blasted behind the split-off worm and blasted it to pieces.

Zhang Wei was about to turn the starcraft, but at this moment, a line of red characters suddenly jumped out in the center of the holographic screen of the tactical helmet.

[Retreat——]

…

Inside the Enterprise bridge.

The observer in front of the radar control panel stared intently at the holographic screen that reported loudly.

“Frontier fleet has entered the target airspace!”

“Import the coordinate parameters and bombard the target area!” Luo Hong immediately ordered.

“ROGER!”

They reloaded Enterprise on Luo Hong’s order and adjusted the direction of the bow.

The row of mass accelerators on the side locked the movement path of the group of starcrafts. At the moment when the last starcraft crossed the red line, a new round of bombardment began.

600,000 kilometers away, the splitters from the worm ship and Earth Fleet’s starcrafts were in a chase of life and death. The Klein particle beam with the thickness of an arm appeared from behind from time to time, and any starcraft hit by it turned into scrap metal.

“What are the people in the command thinking!” Zhang Wei firmly held the control and made tactical maneuvers to avoid the beam of light from the rear.

Perhaps it was because he had downed three split-off worms, the bugs chasing after him seemed to take special care of him. Several beams of light barely scratched his wings, and the instruments in the cockpit still swung wildly under the interference of the Klein particles.

Air combat was cruel.

1

Once the fight became a one-sided chase, the side being chased was like being in a bloody massacre.

Although the starcrafts were in a tough battle because of the number of splitters, there was still la chance of winning if they continued to fight.

1

Zhang Wei did not understand why the flagship temporarily took over the command of Frontier and issued an order to retreat. He only knew that if this situation continued, only a few starcrafts could make it back to the hangar alive.

Just as he cursed while avoiding the rays chasing behind, the situation suddenly changed.

Without any warning, the three splitters about six kilometers behind him, as if they were being slapped from the side by a fly swatter, burst into red and green blood mists one after another.

Zhang Wei was taken aback for a moment, then a glimpse of ecstasy appeared on his face as he looked in the direction of Enterprise.

Although in his current position, he could not see anything with the naked eye…

Almost as soon as the Frontier’s starcraft fleets passed through that particular airspace, dense mass projectiles arrived like dense raindrops. Of the thousands of splitters that chased them, over half of them were destroyed instantly.

The advantages and disadvantages of both sides were reversed instantly!

The starcrafts that originally fled immediately turned their guns and launched a second round of assault towards the fleeing splitter.

On the other side, Frontier and Judgment’s main guns were still aimed at that worm ship while they unleashed its furious firepower.

The mass projectiles and the nuclear torpedoes continued to hit the body of the worm ship at the same time. Large pieces of flesh-colored fragments were stripped from the body of the ship. However, that giant worm seemed to experience no pain. It completely ignored the mass projectiles and nuclear torpedoes that landed, and its speed climbed from 60 kilometers per hour to 120 kilometers per hour!

Two consecutive heavy mass projectiles were avoided. As the distance between the worm ship and Frontier narrowed to only the last 20,000 kilometers, the fleet of starcrafts that had returned finally rushed back to the battlefield in time.

Along with this group of starcrafts, there were 600 mid-range missiles launched from Enterprise…

There was no suspense at last.

After the worm ship lost the protection of the split-off worms, against the constant harassment of the starcrafts, the tentacles behind the worm ship were severed by laser weapons one after another. After it had completely lost its maneuverability, Frontier, which had been reloaded, fired another heavy mass projectile against the front end of the worm ship.

The flesh-red armor shattered into dust-like powder the moment it was hit by the mass projectile. The huge kinetic energy enough to shred an asteroid instantly destroyed all the structures of the insect worm and blasted it into pieces of flesh-red fragments.

Excited cheers erupted from the bridge!

People threw their hats in the air, hugged each other, and vented their excitement!

Especially on Frontier, when the captain saw that the worm ship was finally blasted 5,000 kilometers away, he collapsed down on his chair.

If it hadn’t been for the starcrafts that arrived in time, the ship would have likely collided with the worm ship by now. It was debatable if they could survive through the collision, but it was definitely not wise to start a close battle with the insects in the cabin of the starship…

The cold sweat on his back was blown dry by the joy of victory.

Inside Enterprise bridge, Luo Hong let out a sigh of relief, and slowly loosened his sweat-soaked fist, and forced out a smile.

The victory came too suddenly.

The decisive battle half a century later was unexpected pushed forward.

Originally, he thought that he would never hope to see that day in his life, but he did not expect that he would eventually become the hero who defeated the space colonization ship of Harmony civilization.

In ten years, perhaps it would be an expedition to Gliese 581.

Just as the thought played out in his head, the smile on Luo Hong’s face suddenly froze and the people that started to cheer gradually became quiet.

As people watched the image that gradually emerged from behind the Kuiper belt, a trace of fear started to emerge in everyone’s pupils…

“Sh*t…”

“God, what is that…”

“…”

A huge figure emerged behind the ring-shaped asteroid belt and hundreds of kilometers long tentacles slowly floated around it. Behind the flesh-colored film that was so huge that it looked boundless, there were clusters of dazzling spherical light particles.

The previous worm ship was not even as long as one of its antennae.

The three one-million-ton starships were just like ants at the feet of an elephant…

The joy of surviving the catastrophe disappeared.

There was no sound in the bridge of Enterprise.

Luo Hong stared at the giant shadow in the center of the holographic screen and fell into sluggishness, his Adam’s apple slid up and down with difficulty, but he couldn’t say a word.

At this moment, any language was just so pale and powerless

1

Chapter 1588: The Bad News From Afar

RUN!

Luo Hong had only one thought in his mind at this moment.

But instantly, this thought was erased from his mind.

A bitter smile appeared on his face.

Run?

Where can they run to?

Earth? Mars? Or Jupiter?

Regardless of which direction, they are all dead ends.

As for outside of the solar system, SS Enterprise was not equipped with a fully circular life-sustaining system. Since the completion of the Stellar Highway, the journey from Earth to the Kuiper Belt was much easier compared to before, and the life-sustaining system that previously took up a large amount of space was greatly reduced to make room for weapons.

From this perspective, SS Origin was much better compared to the three new ships…

Luo Hong’s fists clenched then loosened. He took a deep breath, fixed the officer’s hat on his head, and spoke to his trembling subordinates in the bridge.

“Resolution 107 of the Earth Defense Alliance… Resolution on the families of martyrs.”

Everyone looked at him.

“For the soldiers who died for the noble cause of the alliance, their immediate family members will be included in the first sequence of Project Seed. When the irreversible failure comes, they will launch seed ships to the Centaurus to preserve the last kindle of fire for Earth civilization.”

This time, when Luo Hong looked at them, he met countless pupils full of light.

“Everyone, behind us is our home.”

“We cannot retreat…”

Luo Hong lied.

The final resolution of the alliance was 106.

Resolution 107 did not exist.

But he had no choice.

After they heard the captain’s words, everyone returned to their posts tacitly.

They were the elites from the armies of each country, and their glory and faith did not allow them to escape.

Whether or not they believed the unheard-of Resolution 107, the fact they stood here now was not correlated…

“This is SS Enterprise…approved for firing.”

“This is SS Frontier, received”

“This is SS Judgement, received… I wish you all the best.”

The tentacles were nearly a thousand kilometers long, the bodies were hundreds of kilometers wide, and the meat bubbles that were several kilometers out rumbled like ocean waves. Strings of white light particles flickered behind; it looked like the sunrise that gradually rose in the cold night.

Countless worm ships floated beside the colonization ship as they densely connected one to another.

Even one worm ship took all the effort of the Earth Fleet.

And now, there were hundreds of them here…

As they had rehearsed countless times in training, the three starships turned their bows in unison and entered the formation for a direct enemy encounter.

Even if everyone was aware that all the efforts would not change the outcome, they still could do something.

At least, buy more precious time for the people behind them…

…

There was no suspense in the outcome.

The Earth Fleet was defeated.

And it was one-sided.

The three starships attacked the impossible enemy with a mentality almost equivalent to suicide. The fleet commander Luo Hong fought to the last moment. When the worm ship swallowed SS Enterprise, he left the last bullet in the magazine to himself.

When Jiang Chen heard the bad news that came from afar, his palms were ice cold.

Why did the space colonization ship that should have arrived in the solar system half a century later arrived in the Kuiper Belt so many years in advance? Why did Luo Hong describe the colonization ship surrounded by countless “fighters” different from the one he saw through Tingting…

The plan to explore the core of the planet was terminated.

Jiang Chen ignored Golovin I’s request to stay and returned to Heavenly Palace City immediately.

The geocentric mine and the planetary furnace were all pointless in front of the fact that the Earth Fleet was defeated, However, just as he, Hong Zewei, and others rushed back to the city, they found that the whole city had become a mess…

On the street, waves of screams reverberated.

Someone leaked the news, and the people who lost their minds rushed into the streets and blocked the roads in front of the station.

The current position of Mars was at the far point to Earth. Apart from the two colonies of Europa and Himalia, Heavenly Palace City was the front line between the Earth and Harmony’s space colonization ship. People didn’t know where to run, but their survival instinct told them that they could not stay here…

“Get out of the way! Let me pass! FU*K, WHY IS IT SO CROWDED! I’m going to be late for my flight… WHY ARE YOU GUYS ALL HERE, do you have a ticket!” The man with a beer belly squeezed into the crowd with his eyes completely bloodshot. He desperately tried to push away the crowd in front of him.

When a woman with a baby heard that this person had a ticket, she exhausted all her strength to squeeze in front of him and begged him to take the baby.

“Please, I beg you, please take my son. He is only one year old, and I don’t want him to—”

“Get out of here! Who the fu*k wants to take your son, it’s inexplicable!” When the man saw a strange woman stop him, he was furious and pushed away the abrupt arm in front of him. However, because of this push, the woman lost control and dropped the baby on the ground.

There was a deafening scream.

The woman seemed to have gone crazy. She exhausted all her strength, rushed to the ground, and hugged her child.

She only had time to protect him before countless feet stepped on her.

Falling down in a crowd was almost equivalent to suicide…

A trample had happened, and the steps in front of the station were covered in blood. However, people did not have the energy to find the humble lives lying under their feet.

Soldiers in power armor blocked the entrance of the station. They stood neatly in two rows and formed a towering and immovable wall of people. Due to the circumstance, the armored vehicle not far away had pointed the muzzle of the heavy machine gun on the roof at the mob that started to lose their rationality.

However, in the face of more serious threats, this level of threat had lost its effect…

“LET US PASS!”

“Why are you blocking the entrance of the station! I bought a ticket! Let me pass!”

“I see, these fu*kers must be letting the rich people leave first!”

“I saw it yesterday, Jiang Chen is still in Heavenly Palace City!”

“The thugs of Celestial Trade!”

If there were stones on the ground, they would definitely pick them up without hesitation and throw them at the people who have protected them.

But it was a pity because the ground was so clean…

There were more and more people in front of the station. People behind pushed those in front. Incited by hoard mentality, people began to charge at the human wall formed by Celestial Trade Marine soldiers. All the police and fire-fighting drones from the entire city gathered here, but they were still just a drop in the bucket against tens of thousands of people.

For the people far away from the station, when they saw that they could not get in, their bottom line, morality, and awe of law started to waver and rot with despair. The things they previously had never dared to do started to become possible at this moment.

Like poppies in full bloom, crime grew in every corner of Heavenly Palace City.

A small group of people simply gave up escaping. They used the opportunity where the Celestial Trade soldiers were all pulled to the station, gathered in groups of three and five, and started to look for targets they could act recklessly against…

The situation started to get out of control.

At this moment, a gunshot was fired right in front of the crowd.

Chapter 1589: The Last Thing He Could Do

Shocked by the gunfire, the crowd around the station came to a halt.

The blood that boiled because of fear started to cool off. It was only at this moment that people began to re-examine the power armors in front of them, and the deadly muzzles that exuded a chilling vibe.

If it was an unknown person that stood in front of them, maybe they would have continued to push forward.

“Where are you going?”

Jiang Chen spoke, word by word, against the halted crowd.

“Earth? Jupiter’s moons? Or out of the solar system?”

“Look at what you look like now.”

“The tentacles of that bug haven’t even reached out here, but you have already killed a few of our own people. Look at the blood under your feet, pick up your mobile phone, mirror, or any other reflective object, and take a look at your own hideous face. Take a good look at what kind of trash the people who sacrificed themselves in the orbit of Pluto protected.”

“If you want to go back to Earth to see your family for the last time, line up by ID number, you’ll be evacuated in batches.”

“If there are any more rioters, they will be executed immediately.”

“The army can withdraw, but it must be after all civilians have evacuated.”

“As for me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

After Jiang Chen left those words, as well as the silent crowd, he walked towards the armored vehicle parked next to the station.

Lilith looked blankly at the crowd that stood under the stairs, then put away the silver blade hidden in her sleeve.

…

Hong Zewei commanded in the city hall. Inside the armored vehicle, there were only two people, Jiang Chen and Lilith.

Lilith watched Jiang Chen stare at the sea of clueless people outside the window, then asked.

“Were you serious just now?”

“Which sentence are you referring to?”

“You are not going anywhere.”

“If you are worried about the self-destruction program, you can rest assured. I will transfer the authority to Sun Jiao depending on the situation.”

Even if the authority of that thing is transferred to Sun Jiao, if you really have an accident, I will probably be sacrificed by that woman anyway.

Lilith complained silently in her mind.

But the critical part of the problem was not here.

For an artificial intelligence without the concept of being “alive”, what bothered her was not whether or not she could continue to exist. While this interpretation may be somewhat confusing, there was one thing that could not go wrong.

Compared with these eight billion boring samples, she hoped that Jiang Chen would survive.

Well, it was just a conclusion drawn from the efficiency of the experiment.

Even if the eight billion samples survived, it would be nothing more than repeating the same boring life. There was no essential difference between them and those bugs. No matter which side survived this hunt of natural selection in the end, this would not change in any way.

At least in the eyes of Lilith.

“If there is no chance of winning, I suggest you give up on this side,” Lilith said blankly.

“Why? I remember you said that you like this world very much,” Jiang Chen looked away from the window and glanced at Lilith unexpectedly.

“…Just a recommendation based on reasonable considerations, that is the most applicable to the current situation. You can also ignore it, but if you ask me, I will still give you this response. You don’t need to do this for them.”

“You rarely say such incomprehensible things.” Jiang Chen smiled, “Also, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, I will not give up.”

“Why?” Lilith asked.

“Because…” Jiang Chen closed his eyes and spoke slowly after a long time, “Because I am going to be a father soon.”

Jiang Chen didn’t want his children to be born in a devastated world as soon as they opened their eyes. They could only see everything his father had seen from nursery rhymes and picture books. They would exhaust their entire childhood to struggle to understand the “civilization” that their father narrated, and enviously imagine that world.

Regardless of which world he choose to inherit in the end, Jiang Chen hoped that they could be born in a beautiful world.

Lilith still looked at Jiang Chen, with a rare, puzzled look on her face.

Jiang Chen laughed suddenly and shook his head.

“Let’s not talk about this, you can’t have children anyway, it’s impossible to understand this feeling.”

“…You’re indeed right, although it’s a bit enviable.”

Jiang Chen did not hear the second half of Lilith’s sentence.

Because her voice was very low.

So low that only she could hear it.

…

The news of the defeat of the Earth Fleet spread from the distant Kuiper Belt.

At this moment, the self-confidence that was originally inflated by the advancement of aerospace technology and the extravagant hope of the word “civilization” in Harmony civilization were all torn to pieces by the cruel reality.

They did not come with peaceful intentions.

And now, the last resistance force of the Earth Defense Alliance had been torn apart by the bugs.

Almost as soon as the bad news came, the whole world changed.

People flocked to Xin frantically, flocked to the two space elevators, flocked to Celestial City.

Air tickets, ferry tickets, space elevator tickets… were sold out as soon as the tickets were issued. The websites of many airlines were overwhelmed, and Celestial Trade Shipping Department was even forced to close the space elevator ticket windows.

SS Origin, the only ship docked in Celestial City, seemed to have become the last hope of human civilization…

On Coconut Island, Ayesha reported the situation on Earth to Jiang Chen.

“The heads of all countries require us to share all starships and allocate escape quotas based on funding.”

Escape quota?

This term is indeed novel.

But Jiang Chen didn’t do anything to stop it and as if he didn’t take this matter to heart, he said.

“You can promise that to them.”

In the face of the threat of death, there was no use in rationality.

If his answer was no, it was possible that before Harmony’s space colonization ship arrived on Earth, the humans on Earth would have self-destructed. If Celestial Trade decided to escape alone, then all the countries would not hesitate to fight against Celestial Trade, which was the only company that possessed interstellar navigation technology.

Those with the consciousness to sacrifice themselves were definitely not those with power.

“Is this really good?” Ayesha hesitated.

“There is nothing not good, even if they stay here, they will get in the way. Do you expect SS Origin to resist the colonization ship? Stop dreaming.” Jiang Chen smiled and shook his head.

Ayesha was silent, then spoke after a moment.

“I see.”

“If they want to evacuate anyway, they can evacuate their way and we can evacuate our way.” After a pause, Jiang Chen continued, “Take Xia Shiyu and Sun Jiao to Coconut Island… No, go directly to the apocalypse and wait for my news there.”

Ayesha was slightly taken aback and said hurriedly.

“Wait, what do you mean, aren’t you leaving?”

“I’m still going to give it a try.” Jiang Chen sighed and said, “If it doesn’t work, I will come back.”

Ayesha bit her lower lip and said in an almost pleading tone.

“… Promise me you will never do anything stupid.”

“What silly thing to say,” Jiang Chen smiled and was silent for about two seconds before he continued in a relaxed tone, “Wait for me over there. Wait for my good news.”

He quickly hung up after the call, leaned back against the chair, and let out a long breath of air.

His expression was far less relaxed than his tone.

The current situation facing Earth civilization was almost equal to a dead end.

There seemed to be only one chance left…

No, it was not even a chance.

However, it was the only thing he could do for this world now…

As Jiang Chen stared at the metal ball on the table and he recalled the so-called deal mentioned by Golovin I.

Chapter 1590: A Ticket Worth Ten Billion Dollars

Based on the number registered at the time of entry, people formed a long line in an orderly manner in front of the station.

In the open ground not far from the station, more than twenty people knelt in front of the power armors. They trembled uncontrollably and did not have the slightest look of life on their pale faces.

The bullets were loaded, and the black muzzles were aimed against their heads. The officer in the front ordered, and the gunshots were fired in unison. Their bodies dropped to the floor as pools of blood began to gather. Then the corpses were quickly lugged onto a truck and then the truck drove off in an unknown direction.

These people were all criminals who took advantage of the riots in front of the station and were executed by Celestial Trade Marine soldiers.

Perhaps it was the blood of the twenty criminals that shocked the tumultuous crowd, or perhaps it was because Jiang Chen's words before he left made the people with a conscience feel ashamed, there was no riot again, and everyone was silent with their heads lowered, as they slowly moved forward with the line.

Even if it was difficult to accept death peacefully.

But at least most people returned to calmness.

If the fire of civilization would be extinguished in the next second.

Then at least for the last few days, live with dignity.

In the open ground in front of the colony center, apart from the soldiers who maintained order in front of the station, almost all the soldiers in Heavenly Palace City were summoned here by Jiang Chen.

In front of the soldiers with low morale, Jiang Chen was silent, then after a moment, he began to speak.

"If you want to leave, I won't blame you."

"Our fleet has been defeated. It is not an enemy that can be defeated with guns and bullets."

"Before you become a soldier, you are first of all human beings. I will not ask you to fight an invincible enemy, nor will I unreasonably ask you to stay for this land just because of your status as a soldier, to shed the last drop of blood."

"Whether to fulfill your mission to the last minute is up to you to decide."

"If you want to see your family for the last time, I will respect your choice."

"After this, those who want to leave can go to Hong Zewei to register."

"I only have one requirement, and that is that you must leave after everyone else. After the people have evacuated, you can take the last flight to Earth..."

The result was beyond Jiang Chen's expectations.

Originally he thought that at least half of the people would choose to leave, but the soldiers who stood in front of the colony center expressed their determination with deafening shouts. It was one person at first, and in the end, the roar that could dispel all fear was the only sound that could be heard in the middle of Heavenly Palace City.

"FIGHT TO THE END!"

Death was inevitable if they stayed, but could they live even if they leave?

Even if they surrendered, the ending was not pleasant. Instead of crying with their family back on Earth and experiencing the miserable situation of parting, it was better to stay here as a soldier and fight until the last moment. At least their family on Earth would be proud of their glory.

Especially the last person that needed to stay decided to stay here, what reason could they use to escape?

Jiang Chen was very pleased with those pupils unfearful of death.

...

It was impossible to evacuate everyone.

The time left for the citizens of Heavenly Palace City to evacuate was less than two weeks, but it took three to four days to go back and forth between Celestial City and Heavenly Palace City.

Despite this, there was nothing to complain about.

After all, just these two weeks were exchanged with the lives of the Earth Fleet.

Just as Heavenly Palace City was busy evacuating ordinary people, on the far earth, SS Origin's "tickets" had been allocated according to the contribution of each member country in the defense alliance. It was unbelievable that countries reached a consensus on an international issue so quickly. Probably because everyone was aware that any wasted second could decrease their chances of survival.

The list was already decided.

From the very beginning, these tickets were not associated with ordinary people.

However, in the spirit of humanism, and at the same time, to avoid any major crisis in the last month, the member states passed the nominal resolution 107—that was, twenty tickets were made available, and twenty lucky people were selected to board the ship by lottery.

After the decision was made public, before the lottery even started, the price of these 20 tickets already rose to 20 billion World Dollars per ticket.

But would anyone really sell it?

By the time the colonization ship arrived on Earth, money would be no different than paper.

Batches of supplies were transported from the space elevator to Celestial City and loaded on SS Origin from the port.

The target was the Alpha Centauri, 4.22 light-years away from the solar system. Based on the latest space observation technology of Celestial Trade, it was confirmed that there were terrestrial planets suitable for human survival there. In addition to more than two thousand crew members, the Origin was loaded with a large number of colonial equipment to ensure that these colonists could adapt to the new environment as quickly as possible after they reached the target.

On the other side, Heavenly Palace City.

The soldiers stationed on Mars began to deploy lines of defense in Heavenly Palace City. Every pipeline was equipped with gates made of titanium alloy so that when an area was lost, they could quickly move to another area and drop the gates to stop the advancement of the Harmony army...

Of course, all this was just speculation.

Even Jiang Chen himself didn't know whether the tactics on Earth would work on aliens. He didn't even know if those bugs would send ground troops to Mars, or would fire a Klein particle cannon on Mars to paralyze all electronic equipment in Heavenly Palace City.

The time forwarded to the last three days.

At the mining area of the B City Steel Group, which was the entrance to the geocentric mine, Golovin I, who stood there like a sculpture, slowly looked up at the dust floating not far away. A rover gradually appeared from the horizon.

The rover stopped in front of Golovin I, Jiang Chen rushed out of the rover, and Lilith was behind him.

"I was thinking just now if you don't come, I would have to go." Golovin I looked to Jiang Chen, who walked towards him, and said in an emotionless voice, "Your meaningless cleverness is just killing my patience."

"Don't say that," Jiang Chen shrugged, smiled lightly, and continued, "At least I'm here, right?"

"But a lot of time was wasted." Golovin I said, in a monotone voice, then he turned to the entrance of the ruins, "If we really intend to go, even if there is only one day left, we can still leave."

"Really? It seems that I am still early." Jiang Chen laughed.

Golovin I ignored him and walked in the direction of the entrance.

Jiang Chen looked at the figure's back slowly moving away and the relaxed expression on his face gradually faded. He took a deep breath and followed behind him.

Chapter 1591: The Deal Between Civilizations

The eerie blue light particles were suspended between the horn-shaped curved door frame. A boxy texture covered every inch of the doorpost and gave it the feeling of a unique artifact.

In this disk-shaped space buried two kilometers underground, Jiang Chen, Golovin I, and Lilith who followed behind them, were escorted by the two soldiers of the Celestial Trade and Golovin as they headed to the platform where the portal was placed.

"For billions of years, has it been left open like this?" Jiang Chen asked while he stared into the deep vortex between the door frames.

At this moment, he was wearing the heavy N-100 power armor.

"No. When we first came here, there were only two posts here," Gorovin I shook his head. "It's just because the selected person is standing here, the 'door' leading to the center of planet opened."

"Really? What kind of principle is this based on?" Jiang Chen said with a smile, "If something happens to that person, isn't the secret of Gaia civilization only left to the gods."

"On this point, maybe even the gods don't know. I guess only Gaia can answer you," Golovin I answered, without emotional fluctuation in his tone, as he walked towards the door.

"Wait a moment."

Jiang Chen stopped him.

"Is there anything else?" Golovin I turned his head and looked at Jiang Chen.

"Before going down, shouldn't we throw down a detector?" Jiang Chen asked.

Golovin I thought for a moment, then nodded.

"That makes sense."

Jiang Chen gave him a meaningful look.

Perhaps it was his illusion, but his attitude was clearly telling him that they already know what would happen next.

The spherical detector was transported down from above. The small detector was widely used to search for Devil Worms' nests. It could easily pass through the narrow underground cracks, detect the surrounding life signals, record the ambient temperature conditions...

The most important feature was that the information it collected could be compiled into Klein particle waves, which could theoretically be received on the surface through thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers of rock formations.

Jiang Chen took the small ball from the soldier's hand, weighed it, then threw it into the portal.

A strange scene happened.

The moment that small metal ball touched the eerie blue surface, it was like a stone thrown into the lake, swallowed by the azure blue water, and disappeared from this space. The soldiers who stood behind Jiang Chen all showed a look of surprise in their pupils that were hidden behind the tactical eyepieces.

The expressions on the Golovin soldiers wearing carbon nano-combat uniforms and laser rifles in their hands were no different from their leader Golovin I. Under the shroud of Golovin Mental System, their knowledge and thoughts were shared with each other.

"It's magical, isn't it?" Jiang Chen said after he readjusted from the sudden shock and laughed.

"You will see more magical things below," Golovin I said without any expression on his face.

The situation on the opposite side of the portal was quickly reported back from the spherical detector.

After they confirmed that the situation below was normal, Jiang Chen invited Golovin I with a hand gesture, then followed behind with Lilith to the portal.

The portal was the same principle as the neutrino tunnel.

At the moment Jiang Chen passed through the portal, he felt the same sense of time and space dislocation similar to the feeling of using the inter-dimensional bracelet.

As he tapped on his watch and read the string of data that emerged on the holographic interface, after he confirmed that the area was safe, Jiang Chen finally began to examine his surrounding.

It was a spherical space with a longitudinal area about the size of two or three football fields. The surrounding walls were wrapped by unknown metals. It was hard to imagine the resistance of these metals against pressure and high temperature.

A series of tubular tunnels extended from the surrounding to the center of this spherical space. Some of the tunnels were transparent, some looked like load-bearing structures that connected the wall with the metal spherical shell in the center.

As for the location where Jiang Chen and others were now, it was probably in one of the tunnels, near the edge of the spherical space.

Just like what he suspected, the temperature here was not high as the theoretical estimate of thousands of degrees, at least not in the space built by the Gaia civilization. There was no life signal around, so it was likely that the place had been abandoned for many years.

It was surprising that this place survived the baptism of time.

Jiang Chen looked to Lilith behind him, then back at Golovin I.

"Have you been here before?"

"No, I just read it from old files. It's a pity that it's not us who received this place." Golovin I shook his head.

The "us" here probably referred to the CCCP. Before the space colonization ship Svetovid took off, CCCP, PAC, and NATO all explored and excavated the relics of Gaia civilization, to the point where in the decade before the war, several local conflicts erupted here on the surface of Mars for this reason... Jiang Chen heard Lin Lin mention this information before.

"There is the planetary furnace. Atoms are disassembled into the quarks, then fired to the center of the furnace through a particle accelerator. The disassembled particles are stacked layer by layer and then compressed through the pressure of the entire planet... This is the so-called planetary forging technology."

"It sounds simple," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Disassemble atoms into quarks, and then use the internal pressure of the planet's core itself to compress the disassembled particles into the range of strong interaction forces. Just like building a house, stacked in circles, it was the basis of strong interaction materials.

It was only possible to find a small amount of naturally occurring materials with strong interaction forces in the depths of the planet's core, billions of years old.

Theoretically, there was no stronger object in nature.

"But it is quite difficult to achieve. Before the particle spacing reaches the range of the strong interaction force, it will receive exponentially increasing repulsion as the spacing decreases. You can imagine connecting broken magnets through the original point of fracture."

"...I see, it seems that I oversimplified this." Jiang Chen laughed.

"The production of strong interaction material is roughly equivalent to crushing magnets into the size of rice grains, then turning the magnets into the size of a building. In fact, it is this technology that ended the Gaia civilization." Golovin I turned around and looked at Jiang Chen, "Let's not talk about it, give it to me, and as agreed, we will help you solve your problem."

"What should I do?"

"There is only one thing to take away," Golovin I's finger pointed to the front of the pipe.

At the deepest point, was the metal sphere connected by metal pipes.

If the entire spherical space was a "factory", then that was probably the "furnace".

"I can't put the connected things into the sub-dimension," Jiang Chen said.

"Then separate it from the particle accelerator."

As Golovin I spoke, he walked forward.

He stopped at the end of the pipe, extended his right hand, and imprinted it on the metal sphere with the circular dent.

The light blue light particles followed his palm and spread towards the metal spherical shell.

A look of surprise appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

Before he realized what was going on, he heard a "sssss" like leak. The pipes connected to the spherical "furnace" were like the antennas on an old radio and started to shrink layer by layer.

Because it was located in the very center of Mars, the entire furnace floated in mid-air as if there was no gravity.

Golovin I read the surprise in Jiang Chen's eyes and explained.

"There is no language in Gaia civilization, and it can't even make sounds. They rely on telepathic communication. And in this regard, we happen to be experts."

After a pause, he continued.

"Now, it's your turn."

Chapter 1592: Backstab

"What do you think is in that thing?"

"I don't know, maybe there are still some unfinished materials."

"I see..."

Jiang Chen nodded thoughtfully, then pressed his hand against the metal sphere.

The metal touch permeated through the carbon nano handguard of the power armor and into his palm.

As he focused his consciousness on the palm of his hand, he took a deep breath.

The next moment, the entire furnace disappeared in front of the three of them, like a shadow that was suddenly snatched away

"Then, as agreed—"

"Very good."

Without any warning, Golovin I suddenly took out his pistol and pointed it at Jiang Chen's back.

"PING!"

Almost at the moment the gun was fired, a silver white blade flickered, and blue flames sparkled in the air.

The metal bullet was cut into two pieces right down the middle. And the expressionless Lilith already stood behind Jiang Chen's back.

Countless silver needles descended from the air, and with the sound of the needles breaking the sound barrier, they swooshed in Golovin I's direction. However, the silver needles didn't hurt Golovin I, instead they collided against an invisible shield, and only left transparent ripples in the air.

"This is really troublesome."

Golovin I sighed softly, looked at Lilith who stared at him emotionlessly, and lowered the pistol in his hand.

With his back still facing Golovin I, Jiang Chen did not turn around but spoke softly.

"Can you give me a reason?"

"This is the best result. You have already lost." Golovin I said calmly, "From the moment the Earth Fleet was defeated...No, I reminded you a long time ago that you have no chance of winning."

"Is that the reason for shooting me?"

"It's just an anesthetic," Even after he just backstabbed his ally, Golovin I's look remained calm and collected as if he was stating an obvious fact, "By the time you wake up, you'll find yourself aboard the Svetovid."

Then become the guinea pig in the lab?

"I never asked you to let me on the ship," Jiang Chen sneered, "Just tell me, what is your purpose? Planetary forge? Get some more before you leave?"

"I don't deny, or rather, our purpose was that from the beginning," Golovin I said calmly, "We can make a deal."

"Do you think it is possible?" Jiang Chen looked at him, with viciousness and coldness in his eyes.

"Do you still have a choice?"

The silence between the two lasted for a while.

Then, Jiang Chen suddenly started to laugh.

His laugh was very delightful...

No.

To be precise, it was very carefree.

After all, he made a choice like this, his mood could not be described as cheerful.

Golovin I looked at him in silence. There was a trace of confusion in his eyes that had never appeared before.

When it seemed that Jiang Chen had laughed enough, he stopped. He then slightly lowered his gaze, so that Golovin I could not see his eyes.

"If it was just now, there really is no choice, but now..."

After he paused for a moment, he used a nearly hoarse voice and squeezed the words out of his throat one by one.

"...Just now, I suddenly understood the meaning behind that gift."

Golovin I was taken aback at first.

For an instant, the face that hadn't shown any fluctuation of emotions suddenly changed.

Almost at the same time, Jiang Chen shouted loudly.

"Lilith!"

"Roger."

The silver short blade popped out from between the sleeves and the expressionless Lilith's petite figure was like a cannonball as she leaped towards Golovin I.

...

"This is Guards-1, I'm being attacked by the Golovins! I repeat, we're being attacked by Golovins!"

Inside the ruins, the not-so-wide space was filled by the dancing bullets.

Celestial Marine soldiers stationed at the entrance of the portal were caught off guard by a sudden attack from their allies. Fortunately, these soldiers were all elites in Celestial Trade, and they responded immediately.

The original friendly atmosphere was replaced by shock and anger. The Celestial Trade Marine soldiers, inside power armors, moved with their backs against the mobile cover. They raised their electromagnetic rifles and fired back against the Golovin soldiers' laser weapons.

Among the corpses scattered on the ground, some belonged to the Golovins while some belonged to Celestial Trade...

"What exactly happened!?"

With disbelief-filled eyes, after Hong Zewei heard the report from the frontline, he smashed his fist against the table with force.

He didn't understand why the Golovins would stab them in the back right now.

Is there any benefit to them?

He didn't know anything about the deal between Jiang Chen and Golovin I, and he couldn't understand the intention behind Golovin's actions.

However, there was no time left for Hong Zewei to hesitate.

Since the opponent already fired the first shot, it meant that a war that could not be more foolish had already started.

There was nothing to lose anymore. It was surprisingly easy to make this kind of decision that should have been difficult...

With a self-deprecating grin, Hong Zewei took a deep breath, and the expression in his eyes was replaced by fortitude.

He pressed the holographic window at the corner of the table and connected it to the missile force from Heavenly Palace City.

"Launch the ballistic missiles, target, Svetovid City!"

"…Roger."

In Heavenly Palace City, a shrill alarm sounded.

The missile launchers drove out of the garage and raised the cuboid missile nest. With the plume of smokes that fired forward and backward simultaneously, the dozen meter-long missiles took off one after another, as they headed in the direction of Svetovid City and their space elevator.

Golovin's land-based short-range missiles immediately lifted off and intercepted the ballistic missiles launched by Heavenly Palace City. Clusters of flames exploded above the desert. Like magnificent fireworks, they announced the rupture of friendship between the two sides.

Hong Zewei stared at the image on the holographic screen and he clenched his fists tightly.

Obviously, the other party had already expected such a day.

In other words, they were preparing for this day since a long time ago.

However, to everyone's surprise, Golovin, who was threatened by the strategic strike, did not launch a counterattack against Heavenly Palace City and even ignored the civilian transport ship leaving the port from Celestial Trade's space elevator. They only launched short-range missiles that intercepted the ballistic missiles.

Perhaps in their eyes, these things destined to be destroyed were no longer worth their ammunition.

Containers of supplies were sent along the space elevator to the synchronous orbit, and the Svetovid was in the final phase of preparation for the upcoming voyage. At the same time, rows of guns of different sizes on the ship were aimed at the far away Heavenly Palace City, shrouded by the graviton barrier.

Obviously, the Golovins had been concealing their true strength.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Hong Zewei, who stared at the picture on the holographic screen, couldn't believe that there were so many guns hidden on the harmless starship...

However, at this moment, an unexpected change suddenly happened.

In the direction of the asteroid belt, bug ships waving their tentacles suddenly appeared out from the deep and gloomy universe.

At this moment, the deadly gaze from light-years away finally approached the gate of Earth civilization.

These bugs always seemed to surprise people.

After they just ignored the space colonization ship that had just passed through the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. More than thirty bug ships and countless splitters had already arrived on the battlefield.

After the clock ticked forward by half a century, the countdown to the end was pushed ahead unreasonably by three days...

Chapter 1593: The Departing SS Origin

The rain dripped on the window eaves. The coconut trees outside the window were blown violently to one side by the howling typhoon. The wind and thunder raged in the air. From the distance, a fishing boat sailed through the rough sea.

Surprisingly.

Now, there were still people who didn't know what happened, and they still lived a routine life day after day.

Coro City was already in chaos, and so was Penglai...

It was not only a scene in Xin, from Nouveau York to Shangjing, all the cities sunk in the dusk before the apocalypse.

Most people had already given up.

In any case, it was impossible to board the ship without a ticket. Apart from offering blessings or curses to those who had already boarded the ship, there were only a few things left to do.

The devoted followers chose to overcome through the last moment with their gods, some people spent the last moment with their family to enjoy the Last Supper, the self-defeated people exchanged their money for alcohol, or things they never dared to try before...

At this moment, there seemed to be nothing worth respecting.

The future of this planet was just like the storm outside this window, cloudy, depressing, and suffocating.

Sun Jiao stood in front of the window, watched the storm outside, and let out a soft sigh as she moved her finger away from the cold glass.

The happy moment was so short.

She didn't expect that after such a short encounter she would have to say goodbye to this beautiful new world.

What is the best way to describe this?

These four years has been like a dream.

Xia Shiyu walked behind Sun Jiao and looked at her back with some worry in her eyes. Then she said softly.

"Are you worried about him?"

To the surprise of Xia Shiyu, Sun Jiao smiled and shook her head gently.

She read the unexpectedness on Xia Shiyu's face and explained in a quiet voice.

"I believe his mood should be the same as mine."

"The same means?"

"Of course the mood when I want to see him." Her right hand gently stroked the slightly bulging belly as looked down at the little life growing inside and said with a smile, "He will definitely return to me, so there is nothing to worry about."

"This... is really enviable."

There was a defeated expression on her face, and Xia Shiyu sighed lightly.

To talk about the question of whether to be jealous or not, jealousy already disappeared three years ago.

She didn't mean anything related to jealousy; she simply envied the happy smile on Sun Jiao's face. If the person who was pregnant with the small life was herself, then the expression that made people's hearts tender would definitely appear on her face.

"Have you checked whether it is a boy or a girl?" Xia Shiyu changed the subject.

Sun Jiao shook her head.

"Why don't you take a look? If you ask Lin Lin, she could do it."

"Because..."

With her eyelids slightly lowered, there was a touch of gentleness that was never seen on her before that lingered at the corner of her lips, "I want to share the joy of that moment with him."

Xia Shiyu wanted to say something but at this time, the sound of helicopter propellers roared from outside the mansion.

Ayesha jumped out from the helicopter, walked into the house quickly, threw her raincoat on the hook by the door, and wiped the rain off her face. When Xia Shiyu saw her walk in, she immediately walked up and asked with concern.

"Are things arranged?"

"SS Origin has set off, and the target is Alpha Centauri. It will enter radio silence after leaving the Earth-Moon system. Our people are already on board and will contact us after the end of hibernation... If it is necessary at that time."

"Really?"

Xia Shiyu looked at the sky outside the window. Behind the heavy dark clouds was the last hope of human civilization.

Fortunately, they did not need to bear this difficult mission.

She sighed and then said.

"We should set off too."

Regardless of the end, he would wait for them on the other side.

...

On SS Origin.

A man with a square face, full of resolute, stood in front of the transparent floor-to-ceiling window with his hands behind his back, as he stared in the direction of Hua. At this time, an old man over the age of seventy walked behind with a cane. The sparse white hair on his head told the vicissitudes of the past.

Liu Xiangguo, the head of the well-known Liu family in the capital, was not as young as when he was ten years ago.

Not only the Liu family, but even the Wang family, who had got on the wrong side of Jiang Chen, were also placed on the list. No matter how fierce the internal struggle was, at least in the eyes of outsiders, they were united. Of course, it was irrelevant to discuss these issues now.

No matter what their status was, from the moment they boarded SS Origin, everything was no longer related to them.

"Take a few more looks, you won't see it in the future."

"...we will come back again."

"Come back again? Haha, at that time, I'm afraid that the Liu Manor won't be the same Liu Manor."

The old man smiled and shook his head. A trace of reluctance flashed through his cloudy pupils.

But in the end, he shook his head, said nothing, and dragged his dying body towards the hibernation room.

...

Los Santos, in a marble mansion by the ocean, a drunk man was kicked off the bed by a long, tanned leg.

"It hurts, it hurts... Hiss... Jennifer? What are you doing? A new way to say good morning?"

"DAMMIT, WE MISSED THE FLIGHT! You liar, didn't you say that you have a ticket?! You also said that an aerospace plane would come to pick you up on the ship?" The messy-haired Jennifer jumped off the bed and grabbed Robert by the collar. Her bloodshot eyes were filled with menacing red lines.

"I didn't lie to you, did you want the ticket...let me look for it, he did send me one."

"You liar, you don't even know Jiang Chen. The President of Celestial Trade used to buy arms from you? He also went through the Iraqi desert with you? Oh... God, I should not have believed those rumors. Robert's words cannot be trusted, you're full of lies."

"Burp—found it." Robert took out a crystal card from under the pillow and rubbed his messy hair while he muttered, "I can't believe I threw it under the pillow. I already said I don't lie to women."

Jennifer leaped forward and violently snatched the crystal card from Robert's hand.

"Don't do this, babe, it's just a ticket stub, and I already sold the identification chip in it... I asked that generous guy to let me keep this thing as a souvenir. I want to treat it as a family heirloom. For my daughter...or son."

What Robert wanted to say was that even if you took this thing to Celestial Trade, SS Origin would have already flown away.

"You sold it?" Jennifer was stunned.

"Yes." Robert nodded earnestly, a smile that he thought was quite charming appeared on his face, "I sold it for a good price, and a generous rich man was willing to buy it from me for 50 billion World Dollars. I have already contacted Forbes and they will consider placing me on the next issue of the world's richest people list, and spend a whole page to introduce me, the new billionaire."

"Next issue? Are you an idiot? Will there be another issue?" Jennifer said desperately while she avoided Robert's hug. She punched and scratched his chest while she said, "You stupid fool, you said you love me, but you..."

One ticket could accompany one adult and two minors.

To be honest, Jennifer didn't love Robert at all, and the reason why she agreed to be with him was so she could get on SS Origin. But now, Robert just told her that he sold the ticket, just to exchange for a pile of papers that could be worthless by tomorrow...

He has gone insane!

"There will be, trust me." Roberts put his hand on Jennifer's shoulder and smiled, "Because now the owner of Forbes is me, I bought them."

It was not just money that depreciated.

There were companies' stocks that depreciated faster than money...

"You lunatic! You're unreasonable!"

Jennifer cussed out while she grabbed a piece of cloth, draped it on herself, stormed out, and slammed the door. She left so fast that she even forgot to put on her underwear...

Actually, it did not matter.

The end of the world was here, why still care about that stuff?

"Hey! Don't do that, I'm not kidding... Sh*t, you will regret it! I SWEAR!"

Robert yelled out as a last attempt to convince her to stay as he watched the supercar drive off from the window.

When he saw that the car did not come back, he shook his head helplessly.

"Fu*k... my new car."

Chapter 1594: Sacrifice

"Is it here already?"

"I see."

Jiang Chen ended the communication.

Just two minutes ago, Harmony's fleet arrived at the synchronous orbit of Mars. Perhaps in a mere hour, the space colonization ship the size of the Moon would pass by this place. He was no god, just a mere mortal. In any case, there was no way to preserve Heavenly Palace City.

After he gave it some thought, those people...when they were still human, they were much stronger than their compatriots living on Earth now.

Solar flares, tidal locking, mutants ravishing...

The fact that they rose to greatness from that environment already explained a lot of the problems.

They made sacrifices of being human, chose to merge with unknown genes, armed their weakest part, and continued their civilization on a planet where the electronics industry did not work. Although he did not agree with their approach, their determination was indeed respectable.

If he was not willing to sacrifice anything, he was doomed to get nothing.

He knew better than anyone else the value of this planet to the Earth civilization.

But if he did not do this, the fact that if the Earth civilization could continue on was in jeopardy.

"This kind of struggle is meaningless." Golovin I, who lied in a pool of blood, said in a hoarse voice, "Even if you destroy this colonization ship...there will be another one."

Cracks were visible on the pipes around the place. From the chaotic aftermath of this battlefield, it was easy to deduce the fierceness of the battle.

There was a knife cut across the waist left by a sharp blade. Although the carbon nanosuit was made out of memory material that quickly repaired the cut, the large amount of blood loss and the cut that was difficult to heal pushed him to the last of his breath.

As for Lilith...

Half of her body had been destroyed by laser weapons. But since her main body was not in this world, no matter how many bodies she destroyed, Lin Lin and her sisters would always have a way to build a more convenient one for her.

"That's also something that'll happen a century later," Jiang Chen shrugged as he responded to Golovin I's question, then he looked at the emotionless Lilith on the ground, nodded, and said softly, "Thank you."

Lilith blinked as if she asked, "Did I do well?"

"The gap between you is more than a century." A big mouthful of blood gushed out from Golovin I's mouth. He stared at Jiang Chen, with a rare trace of fear from deep inside his calm pupils, "Give up and we will take you. You can choose to disembark where you want to rebuild your home."

"If you use simple addition and subtraction to measure the progress of civilization, then why are you lying at my feet now, and not the other way around?" Jiang Chen glanced at Golovin I, who laid in a pool of blood, for the last time, turned around, and reached for the center of the pipes.

In the next instant, the planetary furnace reappeared in its original position.

"If you don't give up anything, you won't get anything."

As he muttered those words silently in his mind, Jiang Chen took out the gift that had been given to him by the void from the storage dimension.

One gram of antimatter...

But there should be one kilogram now.

The real difficulty in preparing antimatter was not the production, but storage. Even to this day, Lin Lin was unable to come up with a better solution. Although she could manufacture a larger magnetic confinement device to store as much antimatter as possible, the figure was unable to break through the unit of grams. Later on, because of the poor stability of the magnetic confinement device, it was too dangerous to continue research on the surface. The neutrino technology solved the problem of the portal, so Lin Lin simply suspended this unrealistic research project.

Therefore, even if the main engine of the Earth Fleet was replaced with the warp engine, the energy core was still the second-generation nuclear fusion generator.

Now that he thought about it, maybe their intention was not for him to develop antimatter storage technology with such a large technological span.

The faint blue magnetic confinement body was filled with bright blue light, as it shined like an incandescent light bulb.

This magnetic confinement device was shaped like an hourglass, although it only stored one gram of antimatter, its storage limit was one kilogram...

Perhaps the antimatter that was originally sent to this world was one kilogram.

It was just that, nine hundred and ninety-nine grams of it were consumed on the way here.

His left hand was pressed against the place where Golovin I had previously pressed, as he focused his consciousness on his palm.

After a while, a familiar "voice" came from deep in his mind.

[...Stop it]

[...]

[The inheritance that we have spent tens of thousands of years to create, billions of years to preserve, and now you want to destroy them all?]

[...]

[After we die, no one will remember you again. ]

The consciousness lodged on the planetary furnace fell silent.

After a long time, a circular inlet slowly opened on the side of the metal spherical shell.

Through the film-like interface, Jiang Chen could see the mercury-like liquid flowing slowly inside.

It should be the unformed strong interaction material, which was disassembled into quark masses...

When the metal spherical shell opened, there was a plea in Golovin I's eyes.

"I beg you to stop..."

"I'm sorry." With a sigh, Jiang Chen stuffed the magnetic confinement device that shined like an incandescent lamp into the inlet of the planetary furnace.

...

The battle began.

The rain of missiles, bullets, and lasers all over the universe was like stardust that decorated the black canvas.

Almost as soon as it observed these worm ships, the Svetovid immediately turned all their weapons and unleashed their firepower on the bugs.

At this moment, the Svetovid, which had wandered in deep space for many years, finally unveiled its hidden power.

The azure blue laser bombs fused together in the gloomy universe. The hit spitters died in large chunks, and the hit worm ships were splattered with blood. The mass projectiles, along with meteorites and asteroids formed a torrent of metal in the dim outer space.

A fleeing Seagull-class transport ship was hit by a Klein particle ray, and the engine was instantly extinguished before a worm ship bit onto its side. Another two worm ships collided into the spaceport and the space elevator respectively. Amidst the screams of one after another, poisonous spore mists, tentacles, and mutated soldiers were released into the spaceport.

Celestial Trade soldiers stationed on the spaceport engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the mutated soldiers released by the bug ship. However, the resistance did not last long. Under the poisonous spore mists, the mutated soldiers were almost invincible.

Even if their hands and feet were blown up by rockets, the hideous wounds would heal quickly in the poisonous spore mists.

And the ordinary people who inhaled the poisonous spore mists quickly became the living dead…

Chapter 1595: Final Mission

The sky was obscured by the dazzling light.

Even the Sun and the countless stars were robbed of their brilliance.

The Celestial Trade Marine soldiers stationed in the spaceport detonated the nuclear fusion generator, and the 20 kg deuterium and helium-3 tanks in reserve were all pushed into the reactor. The heat resistant reactor was vaporized in the next instant by the enormous amount of energy and it engulfed the entire space nuclear power plant, the spaceport, the worm ship that invaded the spaceport, and the civilians and soldiers who were about to be slaughtered... in the halo of nuclear explosion...

The space elevator twisted into an incredible posture, broke into several pieces in the air, and smashed down toward the ground. Not far away, the Svetovid, which had suppressed more than a dozen worm boats at the same time with its firepower, began to emit a bluish light from the warp engines in its back.

"The Svetovid engine has ignited, and they are evacuating!"

The officer in power armor walked into the command room, then performed a military salute

"I see."

Hong Zewei nodded, glanced at the phone in his hand, and a complicated look appeared in his eyes. However, it was quickly replaced by the perseverance of death.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, abd then opened them again.

"My last command."

"Fulfill your final mission."

"Roger!"

The officer stood at attention and saluted. There was no trace of fear in his eyes as he walked out the door.

...

"They're coming."

The soldiers crouched in the bunkers in Heavenly Palace City watched the strips of flesh-red splitters in the air as their palms that held their rifles oozed with sweat. Their eyes were either filled with excitement, relief, or calmness. There, however, was no fear.

From the beginning of this war, there was no need to think about survival.

If no one could survive in the end, there was no fear of death.

They were only leaving first.

A large amount of flesh smashed down from the air, and the tentacles were constricted behind the flesh. The shield generator ran at its limit, and the pale-yellow graviton shield surrounded every inch of the entire Heavenly Palace City. Electromagnetic anti-aircraft guns were charged and rocket launchers aimed their missiles at the sky.

The tragic flame exploded in the air and colored the dim glow of the sunset into redness.

The dense firepower did not stop the bugs from landing. Hundreds of mother nests landed on the surface of Mars, as they swallowed the rich carbon dioxide gas, and at the same time released spore gas to erode the entire planet. Anti-aircraft vehicles and electromagnetic guns exploded one after another, as the anti-aircraft firepower points deployed in Heavenly Palace City were focused by the splitters firing Klein particle rays.

The head of the Mutant Countermeasures Department of Heavenly Palace City ordered the shutdown of the ultrasonic fence, as the suppression of Martian creatures such as Devil Worms were lifted. Devil worms swarmed from deep underground to the surface, as they circled the city covered by alloyed floors. They rubbed their bloodthirsty fangs while they began the hunt for living creatures on the surface.

However, even this ancient creature was no match for the powerful mutant soldiers. In the end, their bodies were used as fertilizer for the nest.

"Lock the vent gates! Burn the farm crops!"

"Turn off the gas filtration system and start the liquid oxygen reserve in the armor."

More than a thousand soldiers were deployed in their respective combat positions. Hong Zewei opened the armory in Heavenly Palace City and handed out the remaining weapons and gas masks to the civilians who were stranded in the city and had not been evacuated and were unwilling to wait for death.

If death was inevitable, then it was better to die on the battlefield than to wait for death.

The Svetovid had left from the synchronous orbit of Mars, with twenty worm ships in close pursuit. The remaining three or four worm ships aimed their main guns at the ground. The Klein particle emission organs on the head began to emit a deep red color.

Obviously, in terms of shield technology, Celestial Trade was only getting started.

The pale-yellow shield did not last for three seconds before it collapsed under the bombardment of the thick and long rays. Crowds of mutant soldiers entered the Heavenly Palace station and exchanged fierce fires with the marines in front of the station.

The battle could be described as one-sided.

It was a rather stupid choice to engage in a ground battle with these bugs.

Their combat effectiveness on land was far greater than their strength displayed in space.

There were giant insects with four legs, that looked like spiders. They fired red Klein particle rays from cannons on their head that was as thick as a forearm. There were also two-legged humanoid soldiers, with a rifle connected to countless dark green pipes that fired acid bullets that could almost melt through rocks.

The largest number of bugs were a group of humanoid soldiers with scales and lizard tails, which were necessary to balance the weight of the armor. Three sharp claws grew on their hands and their heads were triangular. Among Harmony's soldiers, this type of unit was likely similar to cannon fodder.

However, even the cannon fodder gave the Celestial Trade soldiers a lot of difficulty.

The dark green poisonous spores already surrounded the entire Heavenly Palace City and had penetrated through the corroded pipes. These spores were deadly neurotoxins for other creatures, but for these mutant soldiers, they were the holy light that healed all scars.

A soldier crouched behind cover witnessed a mutant soldier covered with scales had its legs and arms shot off. However, in the next second, the fragmented body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"DAMN IT!"

The soldier cussed out, emptied the magazine of the machine gun. Just as he reached for the ammo box next to him, there was a blade aimed at him that directly penetrated the nano-ceramic breastplate on his kinetic skeleton, then dragged his intestines and bones.

"Kakkaka——"

The four-legged wolf beetle made a strange cry and continued to rush towards the line of defense of the Celestial Trade soldiers. The mutant soldier that rode on its back brandished a hook-like long spear and quickly harvested the life of Marine Corps soldiers behind cover..

Not far away, the Tiger II tank raised the particle cannon, but before it had time to fire, a Klein particle beam turned it into a pile of scrap iron. The soldiers next to it quickly dove to the sides, but they were too slow for the charging wolf beetle cavalry.

Blood began to spread from the station. With the slow advancement dark green mist, along with the pipes that were constantly shattered, the enemy was slowly advancing to the center of the Heavenly Palace City – the colonial center. Hong Zewei watched the swarm of bugs that flooded the city outside the window, let out a sigh, then reached for the pistol in the drawer with his trembling hand.

Although he had expected this ending earlier, when it really was his time, he still felt a little regretful.

There was only one bullet in the magazine.

It was the one he left for himself.

At this moment, the earth underneath him suddenly started to shake.

Hong Zewei lost his balance and almost fell down.

After he regained his balance with the help of the table, he gazed out the window with uncertainty in his eyes. The second he looked in the direction of Mount Olympus, his expression changed several times in almost one second, and finally, he helplessly shook his head.

"I hope your choice is right."

He muttered these words silently as he continued to raise the muzzle, then he aimed at his temple before he finally pulled the trigger.

Outside the window, the ground quaked and the mountains collapsed.

Perplexed by what happened under their feet, the swarm's offensive stopped.

Not far away, Mount Olympus.

The largest extinct volcano in the Solar System, at this moment, was spewing out molten hot lava from the inside...

Chapter 1596: Apocalypse on Mars

Only 13.78 kilograms of antimatter would be needed to destroy Earth.

If it was in the core of Earth, this number would be significantly less.

Although the conclusion was drawn from theoretical estimates, and there could even be a certain degree of exaggeration, it was still something that could be referenced.

If Mars was destroyed...

If it was detonated in a planetary furnace, one kilogram would probably be enough?

Jiang Chen did not have a chance to personally confirm this. When the magnetic confinement device was inserted into the inlet of the planetary furnace, he activated his interdimensional travel and returned to the apocalypse.

Then, everything was over.

The heat from the core of Mars was transferred here by the metal tubes. It was easy to imagine the terrifying temperature of the unformed quark materials.

The metal was vaporized in an instant, and the magnetic confinement, together with the magnetic generating device, disappeared.

Then, the one kilogram of antimatter released was like a deadly explosive dropped into an oil drum.

And it was an oil drum that was burning...

The moment antimatter came in contact with regular matter, the energy from annihilation did not blow away the surrounding matter like conventional explosives but instead pulled the surrounding matter and the space itself to the center of the annihilation.

A huge amount of energy gushed out so that the space itself collapsed at this moment.

The entire metal spherical space, together with the nearby rock formations several kilometers long, was twisted into light and shadow and pulled into the whirlpool of darkness that seemed to be capable of sucking out souls. The enormous gravitational force radiated from the center of the black vortex to the surroundings, as large pieces of rock formations were torn apart, and the magma that flowed was squeezed into an eruption.

However, the pitch-black void did not exist for long.

One kilogram of antimatter was obviously not enough to create a black hole in the true sense; it was not even enough to create a fake black hole. The matter and energy sucked into the center of the black vortex erupted in an instant, bursting out like a slingshot...

The real apocalypse arrived.

It was the same for the bugs that landed on Mars, the Mars creatures that waved their claws, and the Celestial Trade soldiers who still desperately resisted the incoming bugs and were fulfilling their final obligation in front of the colonial center.

When the Olympus volcano erupted, the surface began to tear apart in large chunks. The already riddled Heavenly Palace City traffic tunnel ruptured inch by inch. The buildings constructed out of steel screamed in agony as the structure was overwhelmed by sheer force. Electric sparks and flying rivets raged in every corner of the city.

The sand dunes became abysses, the mountains were scaled, the vast desert rolled like waves, and the entire planet was like a red-hot soldering iron, ushering in its end.

Swarms of mutants were engulfed in the cracked gullies on the surface, and the worm ships began to accelerate, as they desperately tried to catch up with the Svetovid's footsteps to escape the whirlpool of death, but it was just a mere hope.

The Svetovid increased its engine output to its maximum, and the space colonization ship that was headed to Mars extended its tentacles and flesh membranes to the limit. However, regardless of who, it was already too late in front of the detonated "planetary bomb"…

...

Two hundred million kilometers away, at this moment, Celestial City was deserted.

A week ago, Celestial Trade implemented personnel control on this city that floated in synchronous orbit. Entry of non-ticket holders was restricted, and irrelevant personnel stranded in the synchronous orbit was persuaded to leave.

After Kelvin watched SS Origin set up, he returned to the space command center, made two cups of coffee, and walked towards his seat.

"Thanks."

His assistant said as he took the coffee, he felt flattered and surprised.

"You're welcome," Kelvin waved his hand and sat down on the chair next to him. "You made me coffee for several years. If there is one person that should say thanks, it should be me."

Only a few people sat in the space command room.

After Kelvin sat down, he stopped talking.

His assistant couldn't bear the awkward silence, so he spoke up first

"I don't understand, why didn't you get on the ship?"

"I'm not married."

The assistant was taken aback and looked at him in confusion, not understanding why he suddenly brought this up.

"Because this is the other half of my life." Kelvin smiled and cast his gaze on the blue planet outside the window. "If its ending is determined, then I at least hope to be here when the end finally arrives."

After a pause, Kelvin looked at the employees who remained in the space command room that repeated the same tedious and meaningless tasks, then he continued.

"What about you? Why are you staying here?"

The hand that held the coffee cup trembled, and the assistant smiled embarrassedly.

"What if a miracle happens? I want to tell my wife the very first moment..."

The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

"Jokes aside," After Kelvin had enough of a laugh, he shook his head, then said, "I want to listen to the truth. I don't know if a miracle will happen. However, until then, I promise you, you will have to go back and explain to your wife why your salary this month was deducted."

"I'm not joking, I just... really don't know what to do." The assistant's shoulders slackened, and a bitter smile appeared on his face.

It was not just him.

Among the employees who still worked here today, everyone shared the same mentality.

The space observer that sat there repeatedly adjusted the angle and focal length of the space telescope. The correspondent on the left used Moore's code to broadcast unfunny jokes to the abandoned Jupiter colonies... But who could blame them?

They just wanted to use work to distract themselves, so that the last day would not be so difficult.

It was just a pity that Kelvin could not assign them more tasks.

At this moment, the observer who sat next to Kelvin, who was playing with the space telescope, suddenly stopped what he was doing, and began to mutter inexplicably.

"Do you believe in God?"

"Sorry, I'm an atheist," Kelvin said.

"A minute ago, I was too..."

"Then Mr. Stolev, what changed your beliefs?" Kelvin asked with a smile.

"Just a minute ago, I tried to pray... Then, a miracle happened."

He spoke anxiously and because he was so nervous, he bit his tongue twice in one sentence.

Stolev did not explain more as he responded to the inquiring look from his boss. Instead, he typed a few times on the touchpad, opened the large holographic screen in the center, and presented everything he found through the space telescope.

With a bang, the coffee cup fell on the table.

Kelvin's jaw dropped wide open as he stared blankly at what was happening on the screen; he was completely oblivious to the burning sensation on his thigh. The employees in the Space Command Center also stopped their work one after another, as they stared at the image in a zoned-out state.

"This is what happened 17 minutes ago..." Stolev said, as his entire body was tremblingly uncontrollably.

Chapter 1597: Earth Reborn

"What's going on?"

Lin Lin stared blankly at the portal in front of her.

The neutrino tunnel that was originally in stable operation, at this moment, was like a shattered mirror, flickering restlessly.

Ayesha took two steps forward, stared at the unstable portal, then frowned.

"What happened..."

"I don't know, but in theory, it shouldn't be like this..." Lin Lin stammered as she was unable to understand what had happened.

At this moment, the flat mirror surface suddenly shattered and neutrinos began to radiate out randomly.

The girls were all taken aback by this sudden unexpected situation; they all subconsciously took a half step back while they put their hands in front of them.

When the scattered light particles stabilized again, the neutrino tunnel only connected from front to back. As the portal lost the synchronization with the portal in the other world, it was now just an ordinary star gate, and it could only interfere with the time of this world.

"...How could this happen?!" Lin Lin frantically grabbed the touchpad next to the port as her fingers typed furiously on it, "Solar flares? Impossible, even with solar flares, it's impossible to interfere with the trajectory of neutrinos..."

All of a sudden, she froze.

"What is going on?" Xia Shiyu walked behind her and asked with concern in her voice.

"The coordinate parameters have changed..." Lin Lin muttered quietly.

"In other words... We can't go back?" Sun Xiaorou said thoughtfully as she touched her lower lip with her index finger.

The room was silent.

The girls all looked at each other.

For a while, no one thought of a solution.

If even Lin Lin could not think of a solution, then there was unlikely another way.

Anyway, the neutrino tunnel was closed...

Just then, a phone call arrived on Xia Shiyu's watch.

"Hello?" she asked when she pressed the on button.

"This is Celestial Trade Space Department..."

"What happened?"

When she asked this sentence, the expression on Xia Shiyu's face was quite calm. She had already considered the worst case scenario.

However, this calmness did not last for long.

The moment she heard the shocking news, the expression on her face completely changed in the next second...

...

Mars exploded.

Like doomsday, the fiery red planet just suddenly blew up.

Whether it was the Svetovid, or the bugs chasing behind it, or the space colonization ship a million kilometers away, they were all swallowed by the fragments that scattered out in that instant.

Especially the space colonization ship whose size was comparable to the Moon.

Under the gravitational pull, the fragments of the explosion seemed to be capable of pinpointing the targets, as they smashed toward the space colonization ship. The ship that was once invincible in front of the Earth Fleet was torn into pieces by the explosive fragments that accelerated to nearly the speed of light...

Because the Earth and Mars were at the furthest distance from each other, with the Sun in between, it was naturally impossible to directly observe how spectacular the explosion was.

But from the overflowing gravitational parameters and gamma rays that were several times more terrifying than solar flares, the Space Command Center finally confirmed the fact that Mars exploded.

At the same time, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods... all sorts of omens like doomsday emerged. Just as people on Earth anxiously waited for the end to come, the official website of Celestial Trade published a piece of news.

[The space colonization ship of Harmony Civilization was involved in the Mars explosion, and it is confirmed to have been destroyed...]

If it weren't for the major media that also published this news and the fact that NASA, ESA, and other space agencies that were half-paralyzed and half-operating confirmed this fact, almost everyone would think this was just a ridiculous joke.

No.

Even if it was confirmed.

Most people still did not change their mind, as they thought of this as a self-deprecating joke.

A joke that belonged to the "abandoned".

Mars exploded?

And destroyed the space colonization ship as well?

Stop making jokes.

Days passed, and the last day became the last weekend and the expected end still did not arrive. It seemed that space colonization ship disappeared into thin air.

Until then, those who had already lost hope started to raise their defeated heads and cast suspicious gazes toward the sky. At the same time, they walked to the mirror, re-examined themselves, and found that they could not recognize themselves at all...

At this moment worth celebrating, not many people cheered.

Many people squatted on the ground regretfully, hugged their heads, and moaned in pain—

"Oh, God, Buddha, Virgin Mary, what have I done in the past few days!"

Of course, no matter how they complained while they hid in their home, no matter what those self-rejected people had done before the night arrived, no matter how regretful they were in front of the mirror, at the moment before dawn, everyone all rushed onto the streets, and welcomed the new day with cheers and excitement.

Only by experiencing "death" did people understand the preciousness of being alive.

Celestial Trade, Space Command Center. Almost all the employees sat here.

Many people had worked for 72 hours without any complaint. All of them showed 120% enthusiasm for their work and worked hard in their posts.

The assistant helped Kelvin bring a cup of coffee, and after the latter's weary thank you, he sat in a seat next to him.

"Have you confirmed the cause of the explosion?"

"Two theories. Both are artificial detonations." Kelvin rubbed his sour eyebrows and said in a relaxed tone. "One is that the Svetovid launched some kind of star-detonating weapon to Mars, which used the explosion of Mars to destroy Harmony's space colonization ship. Another theory is Jiang Chen."

"The President?" The assistant looked at Kelvin in surprise.

"Well, this is mainly because of a video." Kelvin raised his hand, clicked on the holographic screen, and opened a video.

The video was taken four days ago.

Jiang Chen stood in front of the station, in front of the rioting crowd, and said the sentence "I'm not going anywhere."

Kelvin leaned back against the chair, rested his head against it, and looked to the ceiling.

"Which one do you prefer to believe?"

"I would rather believe the latter," the assistant said firmly.

"Oh?"

"If the Svetovid really has a star-destroying weapon..." the assistant smiled bitterly, "Why did it not just shoot at the space colonization ship directly? Instead, it somehow got dragged into the aftermath."

Kelvin took a moment to think, then laughed.

"That's true, it seems to make sense just after thinking about it."

He just couldn't figure out what exactly Jiang Chen used to blow up Mars.

After all, it could not be the bugs that did it, which blew themselves up.

After all, it could not really be a miracle of the gods.

But...

The truth did not matter

As long as Celestial Trade could justify itself, then the truth was what they dictated.

"About how Mars exploded... Let's just use that theory. I need you to go to the space institute in Coro University and rush the report on 'The impact of Mars' explosion on the Earth's environment'. "

"I'm going now." The assistant immediately got up.

The door not far away closed. Kelvin looked at the holographic screen as his finger tapped lightly on the table.

He had already thought of a script.

Just now, the only loophole in this script was filled in.

"From tomorrow on, you shall be worshipped as a new god..."

The way he gazed out into the universe was mixed with a hint of complicated emotion as Kelvin muttered to himself, in a somewhat lonesome voice.

Chapter 1598: The Void

"This place is..."

Jiang Chen vaguely remembered that he stuffed the magnetic confinement device that contained antimatter into the inlet of the planetary furnace, and then activated his interdimensional travel at that very moment.

However, to his surprise, the place he was in at the moment was not the familiar mansion in the Fishbone Base, but a place of pitch darkness.

He didn't know how long the desolate black lasted.

In that darkness, he felt something approach him like a ghost. It moved closer to his ear before it quickly moved along his hair, and then next to him.

"You came?"

"You are?"

"We have met each other before."

Jiang Chen was silent for a long time, then he asked with uncertainty in his tone.

"This is the void?"

"Exactly."

In the emptiness, the invisible ghost that surrounded him whispered.

"Why am I here?" Jiang Chen smiled bitterly, "I remember, I should have successfully traveled back to the apocalypse."

His Adam's apple moved slightly, and after a while, he finally was able to squeeze this sentence out of his throat.

"In other words, am I dead?"

The invisible ghost laughed.

Jiang Chen was certain that it was laughter.

It only surprised him that the laughter was not of mockery, nor was there any contempt from the higher civilization to a lower civilization, but rather, it was mixed with a hint of astonishment.

"The dead can't come here, you can rest assured."

After Jiang Chen heard this, his tense heart was finally at ease.

Sacrifice himself to save the planet?

Stop joking.

He was never a selfless person.

He had worked hard to manage the apocalypse like his back garden since a long time ago. If the modern world was really unable to be saved, he would move with his loved ones to the apocalypse without hesitation and continue to be the ruler of that world.

It was just that, after all, he did like this world a little more, not to mention that there were many things in this world that he couldn't simply just give up. So even till the last moment, he was still doing all he could.

"Remember when you were in City K?"

"You mean...T virus?" Jiang Chen hesitated for a moment before he asked.

He knew that these Remnants of the Void could secretly observe this world, but what puzzled Jiang Chen was that he didn't understand why it mentioned this event from his past.

"Remember that at that time, the Kurofune attempted an assassination against you, and you tried to use your interdimensional travel ability to escape from that dangerous mutant on this side of the world..." The voice was like a ghost that surrounded Jiang Chen, "But you failed."

Jiang Chen's expression changed slightly.

He had already guessed what the ghostly voice was about to say.

That space colonization ship had the ability through a certain way, perhaps a Klein particle wave or something else, to block his ability for a short period of time in exchange for a price.

If it was like this...

There was no reason that they wouldn't do this at the last minute.

Those bugs hoped to get his ability, but if his ability became an obstacle for their invasion of Earth, of course, they did not mind getting rid of this obstacle.

"Do you mean...I didn't make it through successfully?" Jiang Chen's tone was filled with uncertainty and bitterness.

If it was this case, then he was definitely involved in that explosion...

"Is such that."

"But didn't you mean that the dead can't come here?" Jiang Chen seized the glimmer of hope and questioned the invisible ghost.

"That's right."

The expected answer.

But Jiang Chen couldn't understand.

If he was involved in that explosion, it was impossible for him to survive. But now, someone just told him that he did not die and that he was still alive...

"You are really lucky. You have found something by luck that a higher civilization... known as the type III civilization of the Kardashev scale in your comprehension, is using and used it on yourself." The ghost-like voice sighed softly.

"I don't understand what you mean."

"You will understand." The voice began to become ethereal, "Anyone who has been here will understand."

"Wait—"

Jiang Chen was taken aback for a moment, and he was about to ask a few more questions, but the voice walked away from him.

Gradually, tangible matter began to emerge from all around him.

Like a drowning child, he tried to open his eyes, extend his hands forward and grab the object that was floating in the darkness.

However, the moment Jiang Chen tried to do this, the fog that enveloped him seemed to have instantly dispersed.

At this moment, he finally saw clearly what were floating around him.

A power armor, a kinetic skeleton, a PK2000 rifle, Hummingbird drones, piles of crystals... and even a few boxes of canned luncheon meat from an unknown period of time.

"This is... my storage dimension? How the fu*k… did I get in here."

A helpless smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

But after he thought about it carefully, it was not completely unreasonable.

The subdimension itself was an existence between two parallel worlds, while the void was a unified and isolated existence independent of all worlds. The black hole created by the detonation of antimatter dragged him into the void in an instant, perhaps because of the shelter of those ghosts, or perhaps because of other reasons, after the miniature black hole dispersed, he was not brutally tossed from the black hole, but broke through the invisible wall and stayed in the void.

At this moment, Jiang Chen suddenly noticed that in his subdimension, there was a light he had never seen before.

It was a cluster of goldenness.

It was like fused gravel, as the goldenness exuded a faint gleam.

"What is this..."

As he muttered out, Jiang Chen reached out and tried to grab the pile of goldenness, but his fingertips easily passed through it. It was like it did not exist in this world, and what remained here was just light and shadow that alternated between virtual and reality.

"Forget it, let's not bother with this, let's first think about how to get out of here."

Although Jiang Chen cared very much about the golden gravel left in his subdimension, there were obviously more important issues that needed to be resolved at the moment.

He just sunk into his consciousness and into this place before. He had never put himself in the subdimension before.

First of all, it is impossible to go back to the modern world, who knows what was going on there now...

In short, let's go back to the apocalypse first. After he passed through the neutrino channel, he reset his coordinates on the modern world onto Coconut Island.

After he confirmed his coordinates, Jiang Chen took a deep breath, as he had done countless times before and silently chanted "travel" in his mind...

Chapter 1599: Funeral

The human instinct to gather together in the face of disaster existed since the beginning of primitive society.

Invincible beasts, brutal and bloodthirsty cannibal tribes, floods, rockslides, earthquakes, plagues, pests… No matter what kind of disaster, as long as a pulse still remained for the civilization, those who survived were able to dig out through the failures of the past and find the last kindle of fire.

Just like what Kelvin had imagined.

When the video in front of Heavenly Palace City Station was released, the figure that was not considered burly, but mightier than anyone else naturally became the new deity of the new century. He was recognized by the "worshippers" from different countries and languages all over the world.

His speeches were recorded.

His thinking was compiled into a book.

His glorious deeds were written into the textbook.

His portrait became a flag that displayed directly above the conference hall of the Earth Defense Alliance headquarters.

...

In the not-too-distant future, every major decision of Earth civilization would start from this point. And the man who once saved the planet would continue to fulfill his glorious deed to guard this place with his gaze. Every member that stood here would swear an oath of loyalty to the alliance and civilization...

Of course, these were all events in the future or things that would happen eventually.

About a few years ago, he said that he would form an Earth Federation, but a group of "traitors" who fled this blue planet rejected him.

So now, the Earth Federation was established...

Coro City, on the lawn in front of the Presidential Palace.

Kelvin stood in front of the podium, raised his head as he squinted his eyes. While he looked up at the gentle sunlight in the sky he began his remark.

"A painful victory."

"I can only use this to evaluate this hard-won Monday."

"Our civilization should have ended last Thursday, and even a week ago I had taken care of everything, just to make time for the last day."

"That day, as usual, I went to the place where I worked. You should know that it is called the Space Command Center, which is the heart of the Celestial Trade Space Department and the eyes of the Earth Fleet."

"It's very unexpected. Many people have also chosen to stay here at this last moment and wait for the ending to arrive. I made a cup of coffee for the assistant who has always helped me, and then I sat in my seat and waited. With the incoming brutality, our civilization was about to be extinguished."

"But at this moment, a light shined in the distance."

"Of course, that light was invisible to the naked eye. Our space telescope recorded that moment."

"When disaster struck, some people chose to leave, some chose to stay, some chose to give up, and some chose to fulfill their mission to the final minute."

"Their sacrifices are great and lofty. Our civilization has thus turned a new page, rather than being concluded. Here, I would like to dedicate the highest respect to the heroes who sacrificed for the great cause."

There was thunderous applause from the audience.

The expressions of the people were solemn and excited.

The guards of honor played military music, and the soldiers on both sides of the line fired three shots into the air. As the white smoke dissipated, the sandalwood coffins were covered with a blue federation flag. Under the escort of the guards of honor, it was marched through the road in front of the Presidential Palace and buried in the newly built Mars Colony Cemetery.

Of course, the remains of the heroes lying here were not their actual remains. The entirety of Mars was blown into a vast asteroid belt. What laid here, in the wooden coffin under the flag, were photos, clothes, or medals, that were just the relics of the heroes.

The heroes' family members were allowed to step forward and bid their final farewells to their departed relatives.

Some people bowed their heads in silence, some wept in tears, and some even fainted due to the overwhelming sorrow because they couldn't bear the pain of the death of their loved ones. Some people knelt down and kissed the wooden coffin lightly, while others stood upright from a distance and offered them the military salute of the alliance...

Sadness permeated in the air.

However, the sprouts in the soil were full of hope.

A woman in a black dress and a veil stood in the crowd. She gazed at the buried sandalwood coffin from a distance, gently bit her lips, while her red eyes seemed to be restraining the sadness that was about to overflow.

"You came?"

A familiar voice came from behind, and the woman turned her head. When she saw the familiar face, she hurriedly looked away, her previously bitten lower lip that also turned white because of force seemed to open, and she said with a voice of sorrow.

"I just came to see him for the last time, and I will leave here tomorrow."

"Don't get me wrong, I don't mean anything else." Xia Shiyu sighed softly and changed to a gentle tone, "I just feel a little surprised."

The face under the black veil was slightly taken aback.

"Surprised?"

"Well, I didn't expect that guy would be so popular."

When Xia Shiyu said this, her tone seemed helpless as if she had lost a bet.

Just when Liu Yao was puzzled about what she wanted to do, Xia Shiyu turned around.

"Come with me, no matter if you are planning to see him or not, this isn't the right place."

After Xia Shiyu finished this sentence, she walked towards the Luer sedan on the side of the road.

On the other side of the cemetery, and also on the edge of the crowd.

A pretty figure looked at the cemetery with the same complex expression.

"I won't forgive you."

"Never."

"You devil..."

But for some reason, tears fell as she spoke.

Her shoulders trembled as she wept quietly. Perhaps it was because she felt that crying made her too ugly, she raised her hand and wiped the tears on her with force, and with a hoarse and shaky voice, she stubbornly added.

"I, I didn't cry..."

Not far away, under the big tree, the man whose entire face was blocked by the shadow of his hood stood with a woman in a lavender dress. From the beginning of the funeral till now, they hadn't said a word. They just stood there and watched quietly.

Finally, the woman broke the silence first.

"Is it fun to attend your own funeral?"

The man laughed and started to speak.

"It's very interesting. How many people in this world have the opportunity to attend their own funeral?"

"Someone is crying because of you."

The man fell silent.

After a long time, he sighed softly.

"What do you think I should do?"

"Did I hear wrong? You blew up a planet without saying anything? As a man with such a strong opinion, you're asking a girl like me for advice? Will the Sun rise from the west tomorrow?" The woman blinked playfully.

"I'm not kidding."

Jiang Chen looked at the funeral with a complicated expression.

"...Well, although I don't know how to help you..." Xiaorou tapped her finger against her lower lip, thought for a moment, then smiled all of a sudden. "But I think the tears at the funeral won't be a lie."

Chapter 1600: Robert's Lucky Day

"My dream is to count cash while lying a pile of cash."

Robert laid on a beach chair at a white sand beach that was as white as ivory on the coast of Los Santos. After he put down the glass of champagne in his hand, he said leisurely.

"Your dream before was not this... I remember it was having Scarlett in your left arm and Megan Fox in your right arm while resting your head on Marisa Miller's lap while she fed you peeled grapes." Nick, in a pair of sunglasses, gave Robert a sideways look and joked.

"That was only a goal in that phase. There will be many phased goals in one's life." Robert laughed.

"Now what?"

"It was achieved last night."

Not far away, beautiful women in bikinis played volleyball on the beach.

The sound of the rustling waves in the distance was pushed forward by the white waves.

The sea breeze wrapped in the fragrance of coconut and blew in his face, as Robert watched the turbulence on the sandy beach. He was so relaxed that his eyes drooped.

Oddly, he spoke suddenly.

"Did you know? My friend, until now, I still think that 11 tons of gold are the most successful investment in my life."

"Isn't it that ticket?" Nick asked.

"No." Robert shook his head and smiled triumphantly. "Now that I have thought about it carefully, I was almost sacked by that Mexican drug cartel, and then forced to escape from the FBA and Lockheed Martin's "salesmen", just to make some hard-earned money as an arms dealer. When did my luck change?"

"It seems from the moment you decided to get out of the business." Nick shrugged.

From that moment on, their lives were obviously a lot more colorful.

"No, no, no, man, you are wrong." Robert shook his head and laughed out, "There are too many people that retired from the business, such as the Mexican guy that got me into the business. Now, he's on the street next to the Hollywood Walk of Fame making burritos. I go visit him every Saturday, although his food is terrible..."

"So, what you want to say is."

"From my experience at the poker table. If you always lose money, then you only need to find a gambler who is lucky enough and bet with him."

"...This is a really awful advice." Nick smiled bitterly.

In State A, if you do this, you'll lose everything, including your pants.

The leisure on the beach only lasted until the evening, but the party continued from dusk to late in the night.

Robert took out a bottle of vintage red wine from his private collection in his cellar, carried two wine glasses, and went to the balcony.

He sat down across from Nick with a grin, placed the wine glasses on the table, took off the cork from the wine bottle, and poured for both of them.

"Are you not going to spend time with your new girlfriend."

"New girlfriend?" Robert smiled and shook his head. "When dealing with these people, you can't show that you are more anxious than them. Speaking of, Nick, you should also find someone. The scary thing in Hollywood is not a scandal, but people forgetting that you exist."

"I have one already."

"Really?" Robert looked at his old friend in surprise, "When... I mean, why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you several times, but every time it seems you forget."

Robert laughed awkwardly, rubbed the tip of his nose, then leaned back against the chair.

"Let me think about..."

"A Ukrainian, in my hometown."

"I remember, the last time you went back to sweep the grave... Wait, was that all a few years ago?"

"Six years ago, I plan to take her to Los Santos this year because she wants to come here for college."

Robert's jaw dropped.

He felt like there were too many things he could joke about, but he didn't know where to start.

"Forget it, everyone has a different perspective on relationships," Robert finally shook his head and ended the topic.

The two chatted about the past, and they talked about the man.

After Nick recollected what he saw at the funeral on TV yesterday, he asked after a moment of silence.

"Is he dead?"

"Do you think he is dead?" Robert asked the same question with a smile.

"I don't know... but no one should survive that kind of an explosion," Nick said.

"I think so too, but my friend, if you think about it from another angle, every time we thought this bastard was dead, he would miraculously survive." Robert poured himself another glass of red wine and said with a grin.

"But..."

"I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I still believe that he won't die so easily." Robert smiled as he leaned back on the chair with one leg on his other leg.

At this moment, the road on the north side of the balcony lit up, and the sound of a car engine from afar got closer.

Robert put his hands on the chair, stood up in a slightly dizzy state, and pointed to the stairs.

"I'll go and have a look below."

As he said this, he walked downstairs.

Because Nick was worried about Robert, he put down his glass and followed.

When he walked to the hallway, he heard high heels step on the ground, and soon there was a knock on the door.

"Let me guess who it is this time."

"No need to guess, you can't guess it, although I can probably guess who it is..."

Robert took a deep breath and practiced a surprised expression on his face just before he opened the door, and then changed his expression back soon after.

"Oh... Jennifer, why are you back?" Robert looked at the woman who stood at the door in "surprise" as if he was really surprised.

"I..." Jennifer bit her lower lip and lowered her head, her blond hair blocked her eyes that turned red, "I thought about it for a long time after I got home...I shouldn't have said those things to you."

"Well, you really shouldn't have said those things to me." Robert smiled while he leaned on the door frame with his arm.

"Then, will you forgive me?" Jennifer said nervously.

"Certainly."

The word sounded like a heavenly melody.

Jennifer raised her head suddenly and looked at Roberts in surprise. She covered her lips and nose with her hands.

"Robert...oh, sorry, I really am, I really am..."

"You're too emotional, aren't you?"

"Well... I never thought you would forgive me, I just... can you lend me your shoulder a little bit?" Jennifer said with tears of excitement in her eyes.

Although I have never loved him.

Even if I come back now, it is only for the sake of money.

But at this moment, she looked at the man who opened the door, who she had betrayed before...

For a second, her heart skipped a beat.

When Nick, who stood behind Robert, saw the expression on Jennifer's face, he let out a sigh, turned around, and walked upstairs.

He already knew what Robert would do.

To be honest, he could use the word evil on his friend's attitude towards women.

"I'm sorry I can't."

The cry stopped abruptly, and the expression on Jennifer's face froze.

"About twenty-four hours ago, I lent my shoulder to someone else...Speaking of which, you should know each other." Robert smiled and revealed his white teeth.

"This is impossible, you must be lying to me..."

Robert turned around without saying anything and yelled towards upstairs.

"Miss Hathaway, your friend is at the door."

"Who... Jennifer? Why did you come? I remember that you and Robert already..." Hathaway walked downstairs in sexy lingerie. When she saw Jennifer at the door, the expression on her face became slightly awkward.

After all, she was the one who came to see Robert.

Although it was after Jennifer broke up with him, being the girlfriend of her best friend's ex-boyfriend was not something to be proud of.

"It's okay, my baby, she and I are over. You came into my heart when I needed someone to comfort me the most." Before Jennifer could speak, Robert put his arm around Hathaway's waist. He stared into her eyes, as if no one else was around, and said affectionately.

"Robert..."

Hathaway was defeated by the sweet talk.

Jennifer, who was at the door, trembled uncontrollably as her face became completely flushed.

"You bastard!"

After a long time, she gritted her teeth and squeezed a curse from between her lips. She turned around in tears and quickly ran away in devastation.

Chapter 1601: Origin of The Universe

Four days ago.

Jiang Chen, who left the subdimension, returned to the mansion in the Fishbone Base.

He felt a lot of emotions flow through him when he saw the expanded Holy Shield in the sky.

He almost couldn't make it back.

He did not see Sun Jiao and the others in the mansion. After he turned on the interdimensional communication chip, there was only white flickers on the holographic screen.

After he realized the seriousness of the problem, he rushed to the Lin Institute and found Lin Lin's sister Lin Yi. After he learned that the neutrino tunnel was closed, he ordered the research institute to find the cause while he instructed Lin Yi to help Lilith build a new body.

Just like that, about three days passed.

"The reason has been ascertained. The plane parameters experienced fluctuations, causing the portals on both sides of the neutrino tunnel to lose connection with each other."

"Plane parameters... fluctuation?"

"Yes." Lin Yi nodded. "Plane parameters are just a broad term. You can understand it as a reference point. After all, there are as many planes as there are sand in the desert. To find the unique one in the desert, one must use something as a reference."

"Under what circumstances will the plane parameters change?"

"In theory, the plane parameters will not change," Lin Yi said.

"Then..."

"This is what confuses me the most," Lin Yi pursed her lips and then said in a serious tone, "In theory, even things from that world are moved to this world, it is only an increase of materials in the three-dimensional space. It's like applying different pigments on the surface of the sand, and it cannot change the structure of the sand itself, unless..."

"Unless?"

"It's just a speculation, you should have heard of M-theory, right?"

After she saw Jiang Chen nod, she continued.

"The universe is eleven-dimensional, composed of vibrating planes, of which the four dimensions can be intuitively felt by us. Modern physics believes that there are still seven dimensions that we cannot feel but exist objectively."

"So what?"

"A substance that exists in the eleven-dimensional universe...or should be described with another terminology. In short, this kind of substance directly constitutes the universe itself. If we are all things in a house, then it is what is used to build a house, like bricks."

"So, I pried a brick on this house now, right?" Jiang Chen said while he sweated.

"A brick is too much of an exaggeration, it should be just a nail-sized ash...Huh? Did you do it?" Lin Yi looked at Jiang Chen in surprise.

Jiang Chen fell silent.

After he recalled the conversation with the ghost in the void, he suddenly understood what the golden gravel he found in the subdimension was.

[You are really lucky. You have found something by luck that a higher civilization... known as the type III civilization of the Kardashev scale in your comprehension, is using and used it on yourself.]

[You will understand.]

Lin Yi reached out and waved her hand in front of his eyes.

"What are you thinking about?"

After Jiang Chen recollected his thoughts, he looked at Lin Yi.

"Nothing... Is there a solution?"

"It's not too difficult. You only need to modify the neutrino vibration frequency of the portals on both sides. Can you go back to the modern world? I will give you a detector and recollect the plane parameters over there."

Jiang Chen breathed a sigh of relief after he heard this.

If he was asked to return the mysterious substance, he would be completely lost on how to do it.

Although that matter was in his subdimension, he would have no idea how. For the past three days, he attempted multiple times to emerge his consciousness into the subdimension to touch that golden gravel, but all his attempts failed without exception.

However, there were new problems.

...

"Do I have to go back there?" Jiang Chen asked with an awkward expression.

"Of course, do you have a way to avoid it and transfer the detector over?" Lin Yi asked rhetorically.

"I might... it's not convenient to go back."

"Why? What did you do over there?" Lin Yi frowned.

"Ummm..." Jiang Chen's expression was slightly subdued as he hesitated before he finally decided to answer truthfully and looked aside embarrassedly, "...Before I left, I blew apart Mars."

...

In the end, Jiang Chen managed to return to the modern world.

After he sat inside a titanium alloy spherical detector about two centimeters thick, with a graviton shield on the outside, Jiang Chen traveled back to the modern world with his breathe held. After he quickly sent a message to Lin Lin, he went back to the apocalypse.

Actually, he was too careful.

Planets were not stars after all.

After the explosion, Mars became only a fragmented asteroid belt, and there was not any immediate danger to it.

Lin Yi collected the updated coordinates and re-adjusted the output frequency of the neutrino tunnel in the apocalypse. Lin Lin received Jiang Chen's text message and hurriedly opened the portal on Coconut Island.

With the simultaneous activation of the two portals, the bridge between the two worlds was finally rebuilt.

Jiang Chen, who walked out of the portal, was received by a figure that dashed into his arms and almost knocked him back into the portal. Jiang Chen hugged Ayesha and gently held up her pretty face that was covered in tears. When he looked into her teary red eyes, he only felt a tremendous amount of guilt.

It was the first time that he saw such a fragile expression on Ayesha's face.

"You promised me..."

"Didn't I come back?" Jiang Chen rubbed her chestnut hair, smiled softly, looked at the girls, and said apologetically, "Sorry, I worried you."

"Don't apologize to me," Xia Shiyu, whose index finger was wrapped around her hair near her temple, whispered quietly as she said with her eyes red, and unwilling to show the soft side of herself. "As long as you're back safely," she added as she looked away.

"Speaking of which, where is Sun Jiao?" Jiang Chen couldn't help being a little surprised when he didn't see Sun Jiao here.

Xiaorou, who stood by the door, rolled her eyes when she heard this sentence.

"Is brother-in-law a fool?"

"Huh?"

"My sister is carrying a baby in her belly. How could she be allowed to come here? What if she is too excited and hurts the baby in her belly?" Xiaorou sighed with a defeated expression on her face, "Qian Xia has already stopped her. You should go and see her yourself."

It made sense, with Sun Jiao's personality, she would definitely dash into Jiang Chen's arms faster than Ayesha.

"Did you really blow-up Mars?" Lin Lin, on the side, looked at Jiang Chen with an expression of disbelief.

"Yes."

"This...is too crazy."

"If there was a better choice, I would also like to use a cheaper, less pricey way, but unfortunately, I'm not a god." Jiang Chen sighed.

As for the impact on the Earth after the explosion of Mars...

These questions would be left to the future.

After a pause, Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin and continued.

"Speaking of which, after blowing up Mars, it seems that something special has been sucked into my subdimension."

"What is it?" Lin Lin was slightly taken aback.

"It seems to be something that constitutes the origin of the universe, the things that exist in the eleventh dimension... These are all what your sister told me, and I am not very sure myself."

Chapter 1602: Earth Federation

Attending one's own funeral was not something he randomly decided to do.

The Earth Federation required a flag to unite everyone.

And a dead Jiang Chen was far more valuable in this respect than a living Jiang Chen. If he died, then all of his blemishes in history would be written off, and all his past acts of war that were criticized by the international community would be re-interpreted as positives.

After all, others could not interpret a man who sacrificed himself for the entire humankind, even at the cost of a blown up Mars, as selfish based on his past actions. He could just see farther than everyone else and understood more deeply the meaning of war between civilization and civilization...

Of course, these would be left for the historians a century later.

On the second Friday after the explosion of Mars, that was, on the last day of May 2026, the Earth Federation was officially established at the headquarters of the Earth Defense Alliance in Coro City.

In fact, this just happened, because just a week ago, high-ranking officials and dignitaries from different countries left here on SS Origin, and the dissatisfaction of the abandoned people had reached the breaking point

Until the day before the founding of the Earth Federation, some countries were still in a state of anarchy, or near-anarchy. Although some countries tried to hold an election or select a transitional government, it did not produce any good results.

Because of the boarding list, the credit of governments around the world had reached the lowest point in history.

The most crucial factor was that no one wanted to experience the fear before the arrival of doomsday...

From now on, cooperation between countries were no longer limited to space and military. Political, economic, and cultural were also included in the scope of cooperation. Countries were no longer separated, and there was only one flag left in the solar system—

With the Earth drawn in the shape of a half-moon, the blue-bottomed federation flag was raised in the square in front of the Federation Building amidst applauses.

More than one hundred and sixty countries became signatory states of the Earth Federation, and the remaining 30 countries and regions that had yet to join were designated as reserved areas. Most of these countries lacked in development or had remained in a state of anarchy for a long time. Some were in civil wars, or they didn't even know what was happening in the outside world.

These countries and regions were mostly concentrated in north-central Africa, scattered on the Korean Peninsula, and from West Asia to the Balkan Peninsula.

After the establishment of the Earth Federation, strict military restrictions were imposed on these countries, and all weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear, biological, chemical were banned, and enforcement rights were reserved. Not only that, the rare earth elements needed for the development of the military industry and modern electronics industry were also strictly restricted.

On the economic level, the World Union Reserve conducted mergers and acquisitions of central banks of each country, and the World Dollar became the only currency in the world that circulated among 160 participating states. The "Bit Spirit" monitored the global economic data in real-time and formulated monetary policies in line with actual conditions.

The federation election was to be held on the last day of next month.

Before the president was elected, the local councils of the federation districts would be elected to formulate local policies.

Then, the local councils would prepare for referendum elections in accordance with the federation law, and based on the population base, industry strength, economic aggregate, and other indicators, they would elect one to ten members to represent the local council in the federation assembly.

When the local councils and the federation assembly were established, they would then elect the federation president.

All regions of the federation would pledge allegiance to the Federation Constitution and draft local laws on the basis of the Federation Constitution.

It would take one to two years, based on a conservative estimate, to complete the series of procedures. It was very complicated to reunite people of different skin colors, different races, and different cultures to form a new country compared with chanting a slogan of "The solar system belongs to all humankind".

But fortunately, after people experienced the fear of doomsday, their optimism about the future of the Earth Federation was enough to tolerate all the obstacles on this path.

After all, it was the only way to survive...

...

The federation election term began with the direct election of the second president.

As the hero who saved the entire Earth civilization, the Earth Federation Provisional Committee unanimously decided to grant Jiang Chen the titles of the first Federation President and the first Federation Fleet Commander. There were also rumors that Kelvin also proposed to build two bronze statues at the entrance of the Federation Building, one to commemorate the disappearance of the fourth planet of the solar system, and the other to commemorate the great man who saved civilization from danger.

Of course, this proposal was not brought to the round table of the interim committee for discussion.

As for the reason...

It was naturally because of Jiang Chen himself.

"To be honest, I'm really surprised... How did you survive that explosion?" After Kelvin confirmed that it was Jiang Chen who stood in front of him, and not a doppelganger, Kelvin's jaw dropped from that moment on and did not close anymore.

"Since then, a lot of things happened. I am afraid that it will take more than two days and two nights to tell you everything." Jiang Chen sat down in front of Kelvin's desk, sighed softly, and then said, "So, what has happened since I've been gone?"

"We... held a funeral for you and the 2,400 soldiers who died in battle, established the Earth Federation on the basis of the alliance, rebuilt the Federation Fleet, formed the Earth Federation Provisional Committee, and sent peacekeeping troops to unstable regions... …And there was the establishment of an Asset Liquidation Committee."

"What is that?" Jiang Chen asked.

"To liquidate the assets of passengers on SS Origin...they left a huge mess after they decided to leave. Many large companies lost their legal representatives, and more than 600 billion World Dollar of assets have been left in bank accounts. If we don't properly handle these remaining issues, we'll probably be defeated by ourselves before we are defeated by Harmony." When Kelvin explained, his expression revealed much frustration.

It was obvious that he was not very proficient in dealing with these matters.

"We can talk about these things later; I'm just asking nonchalantly. The reason I came here today was mainly to ask for your opinion on another matter," Jiang Chen leaned back against the chair while he said this, and his sight remained on Kelvin.

Kelvin was unaware of what Jiang Chen wanted to ask, so he was zoned out for a second, then he said.

"Please go ahead?"

"About the candidate for the first Federation President."

"Isn't it you?" Kelvin smiled.

"...I mean the second one. Not that kind of useless honorable title, but a federation president in the true sense." Jiang Chen smiled slightly as he looked at Kelvin, "Are you interested?"

Kelvin held his breath.

For an instant, countless complex expressions flashed in his eyes.

The silence lasted for a long time in the office.

Finally, a light sigh broke the silence.

"...I," Those complex emotions faded from Kelvin's pupils, and he closed his eyes and shook his head gently, "I'm not suitable for this job. If you are asking for my personal opinion, of course, I would prefer to stay in Celestial Trade Space Department. But if you already made a decision, why bother asking me."

After Jiang Chen heard Kelvin's response, he smiled and got up from the chair.

"I always have to ask the employees for their opinions."

After a pause, Jiang Chen put on a serious expression, stared into Kelvin's eyes, and continued.

"From today, you will be the CEO of Celestial Trade, and Celestial Trade will, as an enterprise, have a seat as a member in the Earth Federation."

"In this case, the total number of seats held by Xin will reach eleven, and the other committee representatives will not agree..." Kelvin seemed to be troubled by this decision. It was okay when Jiang Chen was the executive before, but now with Jiang Chen gone, as the interim executive, he finally realized how difficult the committee members were.

However, his boss obviously did not take his difficulties to heart.

"Persuade them, this is my task for you."

"By the way, the appointment letter will be issued in the form of an electronic file announcement through Celestial Trade's database, and we will probably communicate through that in the future."

"You can do it; I have full trust in you."

After Jiang Chen patted the bewildered Kelvin on the shoulder, he laughed and then left the office.

Chapter 1603: People Sailing Towards The Future

In a week's time, SS Origin had passed through the orbit of Saturn.

The central computer had calculated the best route to Alpha Centauri. After the warp engine was fully engaged, SS Origin was expected to arrive at Alpha Centauri in fifty years. Elites from Earth civilization would use the colonization equipment onboard SS Origin to rebuild the glory of Earth civilization in that strange and distant galaxy.

As for whether one day they could come back to the solar system and retake the home planet from the hands of those bugs...

It was something that could only be determined a few centuries later.

"Good drink, it's just too spicy...what's its name?"

"Moutai," The old man smiled lightly as he said in a quiet voice, "it's like vodka to Russia. In our country, this kind of alcohol has become a culture."

Although they were both elites of Earth civilization, it did not mean everyone on the SS Origin was equal.

Where there are people, there are classes.

Major and minor member states, nuclear and non-nuclear countries, and even the nationality of the SS Origin crew members...These all directly determined the boarding list and the share of tickets allocated to each country or region, and the identity and status of the passengers.

For example, Wang Dehai, who sat here at this moment.

Based on the agreement before boarding, after SS Origin reached Alpha Centauri, passengers from different countries would establish colonies belonging to different countries on the Earth-like planets in the galaxy based on their previous nationalities. For example, the Russian colony would be the New Moscow, the Hua colony would naturally be New Shangjing...

After Noah's Ark was docked, the nobles were still nobles, and the common people were still common people.

Although the Wang family was on the decline in recent years, the power of the Wang family in Hua was still not to be underestimated, otherwise, he would not be here to chat and joke with a foreigner.

As for the man who sat across from him, it was Michael Bloomberg from the UA.

Bloomberg was also an incredible person. Born in a middle-class family in 1942, he became the mayor of Nouveau York in 2001. He was also the president of Bloomberg, with assets of more than 50 billion dollars.

Bloomberg was the equivalent of a success story of someone becoming successful from nothing.

However, if he had to comment on his life, he was not most proud of defeating his political opponents to become the mayor, nor was he proud of his creation of Bloomberg, the leader of financial news and intelligence, instead, it was that he turned all of the assets and funds into cash, and with a net worth of 50 billion World Dollars, he bought this ticket from an arms dealer who was said to have had a relationship with Jiang Chen. He took his grandson, who was in his twenties, as well as his great-granddaughter who was less than two years old on this flight to Alpha Centauri...

If it weren't for this, he wouldn't be here, tasting and laughing with the Red Nobleman from the East.

"Are you on the ship alone?"

"I'm with my grandson and great-granddaughter." Bloomberg smiled and said softly, "The ordinary ticket allows for an adult relative and a minor relative on board. Originally, I wanted to give the spot to my son, but he couldn't accept this kind of life. After I called him, he chose to commit suicide..."

Doomsday meant that decades of life experience, hardship, and effort to achieve the goal, as well as the goal in itself, became a ridiculous joke. There were already more than one million people who committed suicide because they could not accept this reality.

Although compared with the population base of more than eight billion people, these million people were only a drop in the bucket, but the people who died because of despair even exceeded despair itself...

"Sorry for asking this question."

"It's nothing. At my age, I'm actually over these things." Bloomberg's smile looked slightly desolate, as he gazed into the starry sky outside the window, which pointed to the direction of Earth, "It's good that I can go see another world in my lifetime."

Although the "good" sounded quite reluctantly.

"The Earth... probably has fallen now." Wang Dehai starred at the darkness outside and let out a soft sigh, "To be honest, I never thought there would be such a day."

Perhaps because this brought back memories of the past, the two fell into a brief silence.

"Unfortunately, each person is only allowed to carry ten kilograms of luggage."

"Are there any issues?"

"Nothing... Survival is the most crucial element after all. It's just a pity to think of my art collection in the basement of my mansion in Los Santos." Bloomberg smiled, but the smile seemed weak and forced, "I only hope those bugs don't eat them... It's hard to say what the oil paintings taste like, but the marble statues should not be nutritious, right."

"Then how did you deal with those collections in the end?" After Wang Dehai took a sip of the alcohol from the porcelain cup, he looked at Bloomberg and said with a smile.

"I gave them all away."

"Gave them away?"

"To the Los Santos man who sold me his ticket," Bloomberg smiled. "Anyway, I can't take those arts away. If he intends to use those 50 billion to experience the feeling of being rich, then my collections may allow him to feel like the rich in a more realistic way."

The two laughed simultaneously at this point.

The news that Bloomberg bought the tickets for 50 billion World Dollars became a well-known joke on the Origin starship.

There was nothing more foolish than someone who exchanged the chance to live for a pile of useless paper.

"What are your plans after disembarking?"

"The eldest son of the Loki family wants me to be their economic adviser. They plan to build a colony on Alpha Centauri C, and call it New Boston..." At this point, Bloomberg paused for a moment and said with a smile. I don't have any further plans. No one can promise that our friendship will be maintained until the colony is built."

"That makes sense." Wang Dehai didn't deny it, and said with a smile, "But allow me to be honest, the only people worthy of being our opponents are the Russians. When you joined the Earth Defense Alliance… It was a bit late."

"Maybe, these things will become clear after we open our eyes." Bloomberg did not disapprove of the statement, instead, he just laughed it off.

If the Alpha Centauri was rich in resources, it would be fine. If the planet was poor in resources, then the first thing they need to deal with would be their fellow humans who arrived at Alpha Centauri together.

Almost everyone was conscious of this fact.

They were the elites of human society.

They followed the law of nature, that the fittest survive, more than anyone else.

After all, they were the ones who survived natural selection...

At this moment, a soft female voice rang above their heads.

"SS Origin will enter sub-light speed in 30 minutes. The crew will remind you, please open the hibernation cabin, lie down flat with your hands rested beside your legs..."

The soft female voice repeated these instructions twice in twelve languages.

When her voice stopped, Wang Dehai got up from the chair, downed the remaining alcohol in the cup, and put down the porcelain cup with force.

"Then, I wish you good luck."

"The same goes for you, God bless you."

Bloomberg smiled and stood up, toasted Wang Dehai, and walked towards the corridor outside the door.

Chapter 1604: The Real War Had Just Begun

"Your subdimension can hold people now?"

"It seems like it..."

"Unbelievable...but you don't need to wear a spacesuit? How do you breathe in it?"

Lin Lin was inside Jiang Chen's storage dimension in a spacesuit. Her small mouth was wide open because of shock, she said while she looked at Jiang Chen who was floating beside her.

"I don't know," Jiang Chen shook his head and said helplessly, "Maybe...because I am the master of this subdimension?"

Compared with when the subdimension was just formed, apart from the space becoming bigger, this spherical space did not change significantly. As for how he could stuff himself inside, how could living creatures be stored inside, it was impossible for him to understand such advanced topics with his undergraduate education.

Just that instinct told him it was likely related to the golden-yellow gravel-like substance.

"Where is that golden thing?"

"It's there."

Jiang Chen pointed towards the corner of the space.

Lin Lin followed the direction Jiang Chen pointed at and she found the golden gravel in the corner of the subdimension.

The air box behind whizzed, and under the boost of the gas jet, Lin Lin flew towards the golden gravel.

When she flew next to it, she reached out and tried to touch it, but that golden gravel slipped away through the cracks between her fingers.

"Strange..." Lin Lin muttered to herself as her index finger repeatedly tried to touch it, "It's like a holographic projection, there is no resistance at all."

"Even I can't do anything about it." Jiang Chen sighed, shrugged helplessly, and moved to Lin Lin's side, "What do you think? Do you have a clue?"

Countless tiny light particles floated around this group of golden matter. Upon closer inspection, the entire golden yellow matter seemed to be entangled with countless light particles. No matter if he tried to touch it with his hand, or anything else, this golden matter did not seem to exist in this world, as if it did not intersect with everything in this world.

"...Is this the matter that got into your subdimension after Mars exploded?" Lin Lin carefully examined the seemingly flowing lines on the surface of the light ball, as she was lost in thought.

"It should be after the explosion of Mars... before, when I took out the magnetic confinement device storing antimatter from the subdimension, there was no such matter in it."

"So, is the most crucial point that it happened after Mars exploded?"

"That's right." Jiang Chen suddenly remembered something.

"What's wrong?"

"I remember that after Mars exploded...I briefly entered the void. While in the void, the voice inside told me... that thing is only understood by a type III civilization on the Kardashev scale."

"Level III civilization?" The expression on Lin Lin's face was quite shocked.

Based on the definition of the Kardashev scale, the scope of activity of the type III civilization covered the entire galaxy. Even the Gaia civilization was only the pinnacle of type I civilization, and it had just managed to pass the threshold of level II civilization on the technical level.

As for the current Earth civilization, although it seemed to have built colonies to Jupiter, in fact, there was still a big gap in the full utilization of the Earth's resources. Therefore, based on the Kardashev scale, the Earth civilization could only be described as barely touching the edge of type I.

Based on Fermi's Paradox, if such a civilization really did exist in the Milky Way, then humans would have encountered it a long time ago.

Therefore, it was very likely that a type III civilization had yet to be born in the Milky Way...

But the ghost in the void did not tell these things to Jiang Chen.

After Jiang Chen repeated what he heard in the void, he looked at Lin Lin, who lowered her head and became deep in thought.

About ten minutes later, Lin Lin shook her head.

"Have you considered a possibility?"

"What possibility?" Jiang Chen asked immediately.

"Don't get excited, this kind of speculation is without any scientific basis," Lin Lin's expression was a little embarrassed. "The four-dimensional Klein particle decayed into a three-dimensional world that can be transformed into light and energy. Based on this idea, by analogy, what kind of effect will the unknown matter existing in the eleven-dimensional world have if it decayed?"

"An explosion?"

"What explosion, can you be a little bit imaginative?" Lin Lin rolled her eyes at him, and after a soft cough, she continued, "The decay from the eleven-dimensional space to the ten-dimensional space, and then continue from the ten-dimensional space to a lower-dimensional space, and the one-dimensional space is also filled. The things created along the way are invisible to us, but they are all necessary elements to form a complete universe..."

"That is to say." There was a look of realization that appeared briefly in Jiang Chen's pupils.

"The decay may have occurred, but from our perspective, it may not be visible." Lin Lin looked at the golden gravel and continued, "If this inference is correct, then your subdimension is probably moving towards the transformation of a real universe"

...

20.5 light-years away, the half emerald green and half flesh red Gliese 581G floated quietly on its orbit, like a piece of unique artwork in the starry night.

Under the emerald green "leaves", there were entangled tubes, nutrients and heat were transferred from the tidal locked side to the dark side. There were large chunks of flesh-colored mass. The Harmony residents lived under the flesh-colored mass, and their bodies were filled with large and small tubes, like somatic cells connected in series by capillaries.

Every individual was a cell in the gigantic behemoth.

Once they entered into a fierce ground battle, no civilization could fair against them.

Space warfare was not their area of expertise, but for the Earth civilization still in its infancy, it was not a difficult task to overcome.

Except that, they did not expect the Earth civilization would win when they were guaranteed to be victorious...

When the news of the defeat of the space colonization ship finally arrived, the entire planet was filled with shrill wailing.

The Harmony civilization residents sent condolences to the soldiers who had not returned from the expedition. The scaly mutants living under the huge leaf bubble roared into the air and waved their sharp claws, as they expressed their desire for war and slaughter to the will of the mother nest with high spirits.

However, in the next second, all mutants became quiet.

[Silence.]

The cold voice reverberated in the mind of every mutant.

It was not any language, and there was not any text that could record it, but for the mutants, it was an imperial edict.

The flesh-red mass began to squirm, and large clumps gathered toward the middle of the planet not facing the star.

Suddenly, a bumpy human face grew out of the center of that planet.

The eyes opened slowly.

Those eyes stared motionlessly in the direction of the solar system.

Even if it was very clear that the galaxy reflected in its pupils was nothing but the reflection emitted from more than 20 years ago, its line of sight still stayed on it. It was as if it tried to engrave everything about this planet into its mind.

The expedition failed.

There was not much frustration in its mind.

The splitters began to lift off and send the organic matter to the skeleton on the synchronous orbit, and a larger space colonization ship was slowly taking shape.

The contempt for Earth civilization was the main cause of failure. After all, based on their expectation, Earth would have just entered the first few years of the space age when they arrived...

This would never happen again.

This time, it would build a stronger fleet, allowing the endless swarms to devour the iron and steel of the Earth's civilization.

The real war had just begun...

Chapter 1605: Liquidation

"If it weren't for the Asset Liquidation Committee, I wouldn't know that these people were so rich." Jiang Chen sat in the office as he flipped through the documents in his hands. When he saw the name Liu Xiangguo, he couldn't help but smile as he shook his head.

There were very few properties under the name of Liu Xiangguo, only one old manor in Shangjing.

But his children, grandchildren, and even relatives within three generations, if the total assets under their names were totaled together, their wealth could rival a nation. It was so exaggerated that the more distant the kinship, the scarier the net worth.

For example, his niece's husband was the boss of a real estate developer in Hua. The company's market capitalization was in the hundreds of billions range, his own net worth was in the billions of dollars, and he possessed hidden assets worth tens of billions of dollars overseas.

If it weren't for three factors, the formation of the Earth Federation, the powers of countries and regions had already been given to the Provisional Committee, and Ghost Agents fully cooperated with the Provisional Committee to investigate, the money would never have been discovered.

Of course, everyone else was the same.

"How are you going to dispose of these assets?"

Ayesha stood in front of Jiang Chen's desk and spoke softly.

"With fairness," Jiang Chen tossed down the stack of papers on the desk, stretched his arms on the chair, then squinted his eyes in a relaxed state before he looked out the window. "Kelvin knows what to do, and the eight billion people in the world who have been abandoned also need an explanation."

SS Origin originally belonged to the Earth Fleet, but in the end, it did not fulfill its mission on the battlefield and instead, was used to help some people escape.

Even if it was a compelling decision, even if it was the most sensible and logical choice. After all, a fight meant an inevitable death, but fleeing away meant at least preserving the last kindle of fire for Earth civilization.

But now that the doomsday did not arrive, this behavior had naturally become a betrayal to all humankind.

And it was a form of intolerable betrayal.

After all, the list to board the ship was not determined by all humankind from the beginning.

A small group of people used the privileges in their hands to decide that the people who survived were themselves and to let the rest of the eight billion people die. After the establishment of the Earth Federation, it was natural that these people would be sentenced by the Federation Court.

Based on the laws of the Earth Federation, 2,500 passengers and 500 crew members on SS Origin would be prosecuted by the Federation Court for "treason", and the assets under their name would be returned to the federation treasury. The World Federation Reserve and Its partner banks would list the assets for auction.

This move certainly caused quite a backlash.

After all, even the holders of these assets and the first-order heirs boarded the ship heading to Alpha Centaur, but based on the inheritance laws of different countries, there were always the second, third, and even fourth-order heirs to inherit these assets.

However, these protests were of course invalid.

The vast majority of people approved this decision of the Earth Federation, and there was no disagreement on this proposal within the Provisional Committee.

After all, this decision revenged those who were left behind...

...

In the second month of the establishment of the Earth Federation, more than a month passed since the Earth civilization survived the invasion of Harmony.

During this more than a month time, Jiang Chen cooperated with Lin Lin to conduct all kinds of experiments on the golden light particles. However, the fact proved that it was too difficult to leapfrog and challenge the areas that were only understood by a type III civilization.

Even though the matter just stayed in the subdimension, Jiang Chen, as the owner of the subdimension, could not do anything with it. The only thing he knew was that the golden light particles were slowly changing his subdimension.

Moreover, this change was benign.

Because it was the matter produced after a planet exploded, so it was given a name called "stardust".

After all, those ethereal light particles were indeed like dust...

Just like that, Lin Lin gave it a very casual name.

Jiang Chen, who had put aside "stardust", had completely freed himself of any responsibilities, and gave himself a long vacation. In the past ten years of growth, the company structure of Celestial Trade became quite stable, with a clear division of responsibilities among the different departments, and strict checks and balances by the central computer, which drastically reduced a series of problems such as a department gaining too much power or internal corruption.

Even if Kelvin, Ivan, and Zhang Yaping were the only three people that knew Jiang Chen was still alive, and the world thought he was no longer "here and "sacrificed" himself for Earth civilization, he could still use the central computer's highest authority, or directly give orders through Lilith.

So, it really did not make a difference whether he was there or not.

Rather, the fact the whole world would "forget" him made him feel an unprecedented amount of ease.

In the past, no matter what Celestial Trade did, the cameras of reporters from all over the world were immediately aimed at him. Politicians, entrepreneurs, and stakeholders around the world "grilled" him on the conference table as soon as possible.

In the beginning, that kind of life was quite fresh.

But honestly, he had enough...

At the mansion on the north side of Coro Island, the corner of the marble wall was covered with emerald, green moss, as if it had been abandoned for a long time. Some people suggested that this should be used as the former residence of Jiang Chen, and the government should buy it and turn it into a museum, but this kind of proposal was eventually dismissed.

With a sense of awe, residents generally did not approach this place.

But today, a black car stopped at the gate of the mansion.

"Come here to pick me up at five o'clock."

After the old man finished this sentence, he closed the door. After the car drove away, he walked up and pressed the doorbell.

The doorbell rang three times.

The iron gate did not move.

The old man sighed softly. He did not leave but just stood there.

About ten minutes later, there was a sound of a light click on the iron gate, which slowly opened the gate to both sides

A glimmer of joy flashed across the old man's face, he adjusted his collar and tie, then walked into the mansion along the stone brick road behind the wall.

Loki felt emotional when he stood before the mansion; he looked at the closed red wooden door and said.

"I know you aren't dead... are you not going to invite your old friend in for a drink?"

"Today is not the best day, I'm not at home."

The sound came from the garden beside the stone brick road.

Loki looked over there and saw a gardening drone hover next to him. Two silver scissors were still stained with grass clippings. It was evident that the drone was in the backyard mowing the lawn.

Chapter 1606: Lonely at the Top

A hearty laugh came from the drone when Loki just stood there with a look of surprise on his face. After a monetary pause, Jiang Chen, who controlled the drone, said.

"Besides my family and loved ones, now you are the fourth person to knows that I am still alive. Go on and tell me how you plan to make me believe you that you will keep this a secret."

"This kind of promise is not necessary at all. If you don't believe me, you just need to use the scissors on the drones to get rid of me." Loki had a faint smile as he watched the gardening scissors on the drone, " No one will hold the accountability of a dead person. Everyone will definitely think that it was an accident caused by the aging drone, due to the lack of maintenance."

"Really? But this will affect the reputation of Future Group's drone products, so let's forget it." Jiang Chen laughed.

Loki let out a sigh of relief when he heard Jiang Chen's words.

If Jiang Chen really planned to get rid of him, then he would not care about the "reputation of drone products" at all. Since he could still use this saying as a joke, then Jiang Chen probably didn't care about the fact that he was still alive.

Actually, when Loki decided to come today, it was a gamble on its own.

Although he did not board SS Origin, the B City Consortium was on the list of the Asset Liquidation Committee. The Asset Liquidation Committee's explanation was very simple. Although Loki did not board SS Origin, the consortium was not comprised of the Loki family. There were also families including Kennedy, Adams, and even Loki's sons on SS Origin at this moment.

And the most critical part was that these people received tickets to board the starship all because of their relationship to the B City Consortium.

The Asset Liquidation Committee stated that Loki could retain assets under his own name, but the assets held by the B City Consortium and other family members would be confiscated.

This decision was a death sentence to both B City Consortium and the Loki family.

"I don't understand, why didn't you get on the ship? Don't tell me that you missed it."

Inside his mansion on Coconut Island, Jiang Chen looked at the wrinkled face in the holographic screen and asked with a smile.

"Except for me, everyone in the Loki family is already on board...including my wife."

"Why?"

"Because you said, I can live a long time."

Jiang Chen was taken back for a second, then he laughed out loud.

"Is it fun to laugh at an old man?" Loki said helplessly.

"No, no..." Jiang Chen laughed and waved his hand. "I have just underestimated the attractiveness of an increased lifespan for ordinary people. But haven't you thought about it? If you stay, maybe you won't be able to survive even a week?"

"So, my family thought I was crazy, and my wife even thought I got dementia." Loki sniffed, then narrowed his eyes and looked into the sky as he said with emotion, "I didn't really care at the time. Before they left, I entrusted the future of the Loki family to my eldest son. I believe he will lead the people who follow us to build a new home in Alpha Centauri..."

Jiang Chen did not deny what he said, nor did he comment, but just smiled instead.

Sooner or later, the Earth Federation would bring Alpha Centauri into its territory.

It could be after the final battle with Harmony, or it could be before.

"I only want to ask one thing here," Loki paused for a moment, then asked, "Is the deal between us still valid?"

About a few years ago, at a state banquet in Ecuador, Jiang Chen made a deal with Loki. As long as the B City Consortium was willing to help Celestial Trade take the lead in establishing the World Union Reserve, then Jiang Chen would give him an additional lifespan of at least fifty years.

"It depends on you," Jiang Chen said.

"What do you want me to do" Loki said respectfully.

"Well... there is nothing special you need to do. You just need to do a good job being the president of the World Union Reserve and cooperate with the Provisional Committee. Sooner or later, what should belong to you will belong to you." Jiang Chen smiled.

"That's all?"

Loki looked at the drone's camera in surprise.

He originally thought that he would have to pay a certain price today, but he didn't expect Jiang Chen to give him a pass so easily.

"Mhmm."

To be honest, if it were before, Jiang Chen could have been interested in biting a piece of meat off the B City Consortium.

But now...

What' the best way to describe this, the meat on the ant is too tiny to be bothered with.

Earth Federation was already established, and he successfully went behind the scenes.

Throughout the entire planet, there was no opponent worthy of him to seriously consider. Celestial Trade and Future Group were like two huge monsters that have contracted the future of all humankind in all aspects.

As for the future of Celestial Trade...

The destination was among the sea of stars light years away...

"Let me give you some suggestions," Jiang Chen said.

Loki took a second to process the sentence, then hurriedly said with respectfulness.

"Please go ahead."

"While the DNA telomere extension medicine is still useful to you, hurry up and give yourself some heirs," Jiang Chen laughed and leaned back on his chair. "Don't wait until your time has come, and you won't have anyone to inherit your assets. Even if I crossed out your name from the list, your assets would still have to be confiscated in the end."

"…"

Loki didn't know what to say about Jiang Chen's suggestion.

...

The federation assembly election was in the final stage, and the lifespan of the interim government was also in a final countdown.

Just when those left behind were busy re-electing their own leaders, the space companies, led by Future Heavy Industries and Celestial Trade, under the organization of the Provisional Committee, began to rebuild the Earth Fleet.

There was a century left for the Earth civilization, but no one thought that it was a long time.

After all, the task was not only to build the Earth Fleet without a single battleship left, but the most critical shipbuilding yard had to be rebuilt.

The once fiery red planet had turned into an asteroid belt. Both Heavenly Palace City and the spaceport were blown up with nothing left. Originally, Jiang Chen planned to build the planet into the largest industrial base in the solar system, and the second home of Earth civilization, but now this long-term plan had to be reconsidered.

Fortunately, although Mars was gone, the mass itself did not disappear out of thin air.

Except for some fragments accelerated to the third cosmic speed that could leave the solar system, most of the remaining fragments would eventually remain due to multiple factors such as mutual collisions and the influence of celestial gravity, just like the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.

That rich mineral resources could still be used on the starships of the Earth Fleet.

On the second day of the birth of the Federation Assembly, two Seagull-class starships had simultaneously set off from the port of Celestial City and were headed for the fragmented planet wreckage.

The first mission was to assess the damage of the antimatter bomb, and the other mission was to investigate the situation there.

Based on the plan, Celestial Trade decided to select the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt and rebuild the spaceport.

This time, the Earth civilization would no longer only invest in the resources of an enterprise, but the labor, material and research and development power of the entire Earth Federation. Jiang Chen firmly believed that the next battle with the Harmony civilization would definitely not be in the solar system, but in the distant Gliese Galaxy...

Chapter 1607: Do you want to go and take a look with me?

The Earth was saved

The Earth Federation was established.

The Earth Fleet was also reborn.

His child was in Sun Jiao's belly, and in a few months, he would be a father.

Jiang Chen thought for a while if he still had any regrets in this life, but he couldn't think of anything.

He had been thinking about this question over the past few days.

Whether in his life or in his career, he had reached the peak that people could accomplish.

He was the majority shareholder of a trillion-dollar company, the first "leader" of the Earth, and the man ruling the world behind the scenes...

Millions of people were under his direct order, the fate of tens of millions of people were associated with his name, and the production and life of eight billion people were closely related to him. Perhaps if he sneezed in the morning, the global financial market would experience turbulence the next day...Of course, it was just an exaggerated statement, since he was not wayward enough to be unreasonable.

"Lilith."

"What's wrong?"

Lilith, who stood next to Jiang Chen at the moment, looked very different from the flat-chested Loli from back then.

Her long golden hair extended to her waist, and the front of the white T-shirt was stuffed full. She had turned into a stunning blond who exuded hormones, which made people's hearts skip a beat the moment people saw her.

If it was not for the emotionless face that did not change much, Jiang Chen could hardly match her name with Lilith.

The reason for such an "accident" was mainly because Lilith strongly requested Lin Yi to design according to her ideas when she created the new body. In her original words, "Since we have to make a new one anyway, why not make it look better?"

So, its appearance now was this.

"What do you think I still lack?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Why do you want to ask such a strange question?" Lilith turned her head around to look at Jiang Chen, then Lilith replied in the same expressionless state, "Isn't this something only you know?"

"...Well, human beings don't like to do everything themselves."

"Including thinking?"

"I don't deny it," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

Lilith fell into silence as if she was carefully processing that thought.

Just when Jiang Chen thought she was going to go play games without saying a word, she suddenly said.

"Speaking of which, you haven't held a formal wedding, right?"

...

Wedding.

Speaking of which, I really owe them a wedding.

Especially Sun Jiao. Since her belly was bulging day by day and if this matter continues, the wedding would have to be delayed until after she gave birth.

Lilith's words reminded Jiang Chen.

He once promised to marry them with the grandest wedding in the world, and then use his entire life to protect their happiness. This sentence sounded shameless, but it was indeed the truest feeling in his mind.

It was likely impossible to host the wedding in the modern world since he was already "dead".

For a dead person to crawl out of the grave to attend his own wedding was probably more shocking than a living person attending his own funeral. In order to avoid all kinds of troubles, and to keep the media that finally lost interest at bay, Jiang Chen specifically consulted Xia Shiyu, Ayesha, and Natasha about where to hold the wedding.

Fortunately, they were all reasonable people.

"I'm fine with anywhere, as long as I'm with you."

...

"...I'm yours already. So, you can make the arrangement."

"Holding a wedding in the apocalypse? That sounds interesting."

Those were Ayesha, Xia Shiyu, and Natasha's response in respective order.

As for Sun Jiao, Xiaorou, Yao Yao, and Lin Lin, the apocalypse was where they came from. Although the modern world was much more prosperous than the apocalypse, they preferred the apocalypse a little.

So, the location of the wedding was finally determined to be in the apocalypse.

...

"You're getting married?"

"Mhmm...what are you laughing at?"

As Jiang Chen looked at Liu Yao, who suddenly burst out laughing, he turned around and looked at the side of her face.

"I'm thinking... You just attended your own funeral, and now you are going to attend your own wedding. Wouldn't it be too weird?" Liu Yao turned to look at Jiang Chen with a smile that looked gorgeous but feeble, "Also those who think you are dead will be so surprised that their jaw will drop."

Liu Yao still remembered that at the time, she was in black clothes and stood in the corner of the cemetery with tears. She was then spotted by Xia Shiyu and was brought here by her. When she saw Jiang Chen in front of her, smiling, she seemed to have lost herself for a momeny, and almost fainted out of excitement...

It took her an entire day to slowly accept the reality that Jiang Chen was still alive.

Before she came to Coro Island, Liu Yao took a long break from her production company. After Jiang Chen invited her to stay for a few days, she agreed without much consideration.

Although they had never seen this strange woman, Sun Jiao and the others had a friendly attitude towards Liu Yao. In addition, they knew exactly what kind of person Jiang Chen was. After more than a month, the relationship between Liu Yao and the girls gradually became closer.

It was just that she could feel that it was hard for her to integrate into their world. What made her the most uncomfortable was that this sense of distance did not stem from someone's exclusion, but simply because they accompanied him and experienced things that she never did, or could even imagine.

This feeling of being left alone made her feel a little jealous...

Jiang Chen smiled when he heard the naïve statement.

If you let others know that I'm still alive, I'm afraid their jaws won't' drop in surprise, but rather, they won't be able to sleep out of fear.

He was well aware of this.

Only those who had passed could gain the awe of the people from the bottom of their hearts and mystify his existence. After all, deep down, people only longed for a dead saint, not a living emperor.

"They won't know," Jiang Chen said.

"How is it possible," Liu Yao shook her head, then said with a smile, "Unless...you don't invite anyone to your wedding. But a wedding that no one knows...what's the point?"

She was smiling, but tears rolled down her face uncontrollably.

She had endured it for a long time.

But, after all, she couldn't control her feeling anymore.

Jiang Chen saw her tears, then turned silent.

The quiet atmosphere lasted for about half a minute between the two.

In the end, it was Jiang Chen who broke the silence.

"There is one thing I haven't told you."

"I don't want to know." Liu Yao shook her head and her smile was a little haggard, "I just want...before you get married, can you promise me one thing..."

"I promise you."

There was a look of surprise on Liu Yao's face.

"Are you not going to ask what it is?"

"It'd be too rude to refuse my woman." As Jiang Chen gazed into her black pupils filled with surprise, excitement, and rolling tears, he smiled and gently wiped the teardrops beneath her eyes, "Going back to the topic just now, that thing I haven't told you."

"That thing must be... really important."

"You're correct. After all, that's my biggest secret..." As he gazed at the teary Liu Yao, he smiled and offered an invitation, "Do you want to go and take a look with me?"

Chapter 1608: The word devil is more appropriate

The instant Liu Yao stepped through the portal, she felt like her perception of the world had been shattered.

The dim-yellow dome shrouded the entire city and towering buildings that pierced into the clouds were connected together. Although the charred windows and broken walls did not suggest anyone lived there, it was still possible to see through the ruins how prosperous this place used to be.

"Did an earthquake happen here?" Liu Yao said, in a state of daze.

"Something more serious than an earthquake happened," Jiang Chen smiled at Liu Yao who was in a sluggish state and said when he looked at the tall buildings in the distance. "You can't tell right, but this is Wanghai… Although it is Wanghai a century from now."

Liu Yao was stunned.

Her beautiful pupils widened with shock and disbelief was written all over her face.

This... is Wanghai?

Everything she saw before her eyes were beyond her imagination.

It took a while for her to digest the huge amount of information as she twisted her stiff neck and looked at Jiang Chen blankly.

"That means..."

"Yes," Jiang Chen nodded and said with a smile, "Most of the technology of Future Group comes from here, or is developed based on here. So, don't consider me as great...I'm just standing on the giant's corpse."

"Don't say that. Ordinary people can't bring the giant back to life even if they are standing on the giant's corpse." A sweet voice came from behind, and it was Xiaorou in a lavender dress. She walked to the side of Jiang Chen with a smile. "If it was someone else, they might not be able to do it."

Liu Yao didn't notice what Xiaorou had just said, because her attention at the moment had been completely captured by this strange world. As if she was in a dream, everything here was beyond her imagination

Liu Yao watched the soldiers that walked by in a row and asked in a daze.

"What are those people... doing?"

"If it was before, they would probably be on duty, but now...they should be rehearsing," When he said this, the expression on Jiang Chen's face was slightly embarrassed.

His subordinates were so enthusiastic.

After they heard that the General was going to be married, everyone from the General's Mansion to the field officers seemed to be completely energized. They were so excited everyday and had nowhere to vent their energy. Every day, when there was nothing to do, they would go out to rehearse, and it was grander than the military parade.

"Rehearsal?" Liu Yao looked at Jiang Chen with confusion in her eyes

"Um... because of the wedding," Jiang Chen said.

Liu Yao was slightly depressed when she heard the word wedding.

She opened her mouth, but in the end, she closed it again as she swallowed back the words that rushed to her.

Xiaorou sensibly noticed the hesitation on Liu Yao's face was because of herself, so she smiled and turned away wittily.

As Liu Yao watched Xiaorou's back as she walked away, she sensed the silence that lingered between the two of them and said softly.

"You promised me one thing..."

"Mhmm."

"I want..." She bit her lower lip lightly, lowered her head because of the unspeakable words, and said with a voice that was so weak that it was almost inaudible, "Give me a child... Don't get me wrong. I didn't mean that...I will raise him up by myself, I won't use him to trouble you, I just want to..."

When she finished the sentence, it exhausted Liu Yao's strength.

She knew that her request was excessive, and it could even be said to be unreasonable. When she said it, she was prepared to be rejected. After all, she knew very well that her identity was just his mistress, and things like illegitimate children have always been accompanied by endless troubles...

"I reject."

Although she expected that he would say that, she couldn't stop the tears from rolling out of her eyes.

She lowered her head, in an attempt to block her eyes with her bangs, as she suppressed the sadness that was about to overwhelm her. Then she whispered in a trembling voice.

"Why?"

"Because I am a greedy person, I can't change this terrible quality about me." Jiang Chen sighed softly, "I have a hunch that if I promise you, you may leave me forever... "

Is that not good?

Liu Yao looked at Jiang Chen, and her eyes that could speak seemed to ask Jiang Chen.

"Of course it's not good." Jiang Chen rubbed her hair, then gently lifted her face covered in tears. He gazed into the misty eyes before a smirk suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth." What's more, after I let you see my secrets, do you think I will let you go?"

The tears seemed to rush out like a waterfall and turned the beautiful eyelashes wet.

Happiness came so suddenly that it exceeded Liu Yao's expectations.

She dove into Jiang Chen's chest, as joyous tears rolled down her cheeks. The beautiful and pristine teeth sunk into Jiang Chen's shoulder, as if she wanted to return the grievances and sorrows she experienced for the past few days.

...

From the choked-up voice, she squeezed out intermittent words.

"You... bad person."

"Inappropriate wording."

With the feeling of heat rolling down his neck, as well as the pain from his shoulder, Jiang Chen cracked a grin, then gently placed his hands behind Liu Yao's back and reminded softly.

"The word devil is more appropriate."

...

From the beginning of preparations to the formal implementation, this wedding preparation already took more than a month.

Although Jiang Chen himself did not mean to be extravagant, it was obviously impossible for him as the NAC General to keep a low profile on this matter.

Especially Jiang Chen's subordinates. They worried about his wedding more than he himself. Since a month ago, preparations had been in full swing, and they even specially renovated the Century Auditorium in downtown Wanghai, as well as the nearby streets that had not had time to be renovated.

It was rumored that before the war, this was the place where the Pan-Asia Cooperation Economic Forum was held. Therefore, after the outbreak of the war, this place was specifically taken care of by missiles and artilleries. However, the NAC engineering team took less than half a month to renovate this place.

Through the wasteland, the ridiculous efficiency was only possible in the hands of the NAC engineering team.

The preparation of the materials needed for the wedding ceremony was personally handled by Wang Qing, the Minister of Logistics.

The pearls to decorate the wedding dresses were shipped from the Outpost Town on the West Coast of North America. The diamonds on the diamond rings came from the South African Union diamond mine. The red carpet was taken from the fluff of the mutated blood lion. The utensils and tableware on the wedding table were all made out of pure silver, even the tablecloth on the dining table, was made of fine Balinese yarn...

Not only that, but Wang Qing also instructed the craftsmen in the Sixth Street to use fine velvet and exquisite wood to create a bed with a width of 12 meters and to make matching bedding for Jiang Chen. In order to move it into the mansion, the bed had to be split it into twelve parts and a wall had to be taken down.

As for the purpose of the bed...

Just by looking at the length, it goes without saying.

Apart from it being luxurious and extravagant, Jiang Chen couldn't find a more suitable word to describe this wedding.

When he went to see Wang Qing and asked if it was too much, he got this answer...

"It's not an exaggeration at all. You are the General of NAC, and your wedding is the wedding of the entire NAC. You represent not only yourself, but also the entire New Pan-Asia Cooperation," Wang Qing looked at Jiang Chen, who had sought her opinion, and the corner of her mouth curled up as she winked playfully, "What's more, without a grand wedding, how can you be worthy of your seven beautiful wives?"

Chapter 1609: The Wedding of the Century (Ending)

The busy and tiring month came to an end.

Finally, it was the day of the wedding.

Today was a good day. The sky was clear, and there was not a trace of depressive radiation clouds in the distance. The Holy Shield was temporarily closed, and the bright sunlight poured down without reservation; it bathed this reborn city and every face living inside.

Since early morning, the fireworks over Wanghai did not stop.

People took to the streets and gathered in front of the square early.

Everyone's face was filled with the same excitement and emotion, as well as different curiosity and longing. The enthusiasm in people's hearts was like an indistinguishable flame, and in front of the wide square, they waved flags of different sizes and waited for their hero.

They had been looking forward to this day for too long.

Now, it was finally here.

The first thing that marched through the square was a power armor formation.

The bright steel plates, under the sunlight, reflected dazzling rays. The steps were uniform, their rifles were held in front of their chest, and their eyes were focused straight ahead. The sound of steel boots marching through resounded in the open square like the roar of a monster and echoed in the mind of every viewer.

After the power armor phalanx, it was the NAC tank force.

The torrent of steel drove across the flat road, and the rumbling of the tracks over the concrete pavement was like a mighty and majestic accompaniment.

"Is this a military parade or a wedding?"

"God... where did these Asians get so many power armors!"

"Wait, there are tanks and planes..."

There was a surprised exclaim from the foreign guests. The people who stood there included chiefs from Africa, people from the East Coast of North America, and even some people from distant Western Europe. Those exclamations did not last long and were soon drowned in even more deafening cheers.

The black extended limo appeared in the center of the formation.

The power armors that belonged to the General's Guard marched on both sides in a neat and organized formation.

When the window of the car was lowered, the face that no one would be unfamiliar with, appeared in the eyes of everyone for a glimpse.

The mighty army was immediately taken away from the limelight.

People frantically waved the flag in their hands, with cheers, applause, whistles... all the voices that could express the excitement in their hearts as they sent the highest respect to His Majesty the General. The reason for NAC's prosperity today was because of his existence.

Only he was worthy of this honor.

Colorful pieces of flakes fell from the sky.

Inside the extended limo, Jiang Chen waved and smiled at the crowd of excited and happy faces through the open window.

Still longing for more, he had to roll down the car window at the end of the square.

...

The wedding convoy departed from the square in the Sixth Street and escorted by the General Guards, it went through the most crowded streets and headed to the Century Auditorium in city center.

More than two thousand guests were invited to the wedding, half of whom were senior and important figures of NAC, and the other half were from overseas colonies and other large survivors' settlements.

Only the Century Auditorium could accommodate two thousand people to dine at the same time without being crowded...

It was a bit regretful that no parents were present.

However, Jiang Chen promised Xia Shiyu that he would hold a special wedding just for her in the modern world to fulfill the wishes of their parents. Except that when it was the time, it would still take some time to explain to Xia Shiyu's parents why he was still alive...

The convoy stopped at the entrance of the auditorium. Jiang Chen, who got off the limo, took Sun Jiao's hand, and together with the girls, they stepped onto the red carpet that extended from the inside of the auditorium to the stairs outside, into the magnificent auditorium.

The wedding officially commenced.

The earnest priest stepped forward and asked Jiang Chen in a solemn tone.

"...Are you willing to love her, comfort her, respect her, and protect her as you love yourself. Whether she is sick or healthy, rich or poor, fulfill your vows until you leave this world?"

"I do."

The moment that sentence was uttered, there was thunderous applause in the auditorium, and the orchestra played the wedding march.

Under the bell of blessing, Jiang Chen put on rings for his women...

When the ceremony concluded, the master of ceremonies offered blessings to the newlyweds, wishing Jiang Chen and his wives a happy marriage, a harmonious life, and a healthy family...Finally, amidst applause, the newlyweds walked towards the back of the auditorium and started their honeymoon.

The wedding ceremony was reaching the end, but the banquet had just started.

Delicious and grand food filled every round table, and the fragrance of wine lingered around the nose of every guest. Glasses clinked as the guests frequently toasted and bumped into each other and offered blessings to the General, to the great and glorious New Pan-Asia Cooperation, and discussed in excitement whether the child in the Mrs. General's First Lady belly was a boy or a girl…

In the lounge behind the auditorium.

The newlyweds who just finished the ceremony would take a rest here and return to the banquet later.

Ayesha enjoyed the heartfelt joy at this moment, examined the diamond ring on her hand, and a smile emerged on her face.

"I feel that we're connected."

Next to her, Yao Yao and Lin Lin sat together at the moment and their faces flushed as they looked at the ring on their finger.

"Tonight is going to be the night? Hmm, I feel a little nervous... So is Lin Lin, right!"

"Huh? I, I'm not nervous, it's not like that we haven't slept together before."

"Well, that was different. It must feel different."

On the other side, the corner of Jiang Chen's mouth curled up when he looked at Sun Jiao in wedding gown.

"It is said that newlyweds need to have a new home. Do we need to move to a new place?"

"I don't want to." Sun Jiao shook her head.

"Why?"

"Because..."

There was a look of heartfelt happiness on Sun Jiao's face as she looked at Jiang Chen with joy. She was about to speak, but her sister spoke first. Xiaorou hugged her sister from behind, put her chin against her shoulder, looked at Jiang Chen as she smiled, and said the unfinished words for her sister, "Because don't you think that place is full of the memories shared between us?"

Makes sense.

A knowing smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

Everything started from there, and it would end there. It couldn't be better.

Wait, no.

It seemed strange to say that?

After all, there were still hundreds of years, even thousands of years, waiting for him. To use the word end was too far-fetched.

Fortunately, with them accompanying him, he would not be bored in the future.

The wedding reached its conclusion, and night gradually died down.

This night was still very long.

And Jiang Chen's happy life had just begun...

Table of Contents

1: A Disaster Caused by a Can of Coke
2: Interdimensional Bracelet
3: I Need Gold
4: Gold Bar
5: Tomato Fried Eggs
6: Roshan
7: The Sixth Street
8: Huizhong Mercenaries
9: The Plan
10: The Ghetto Full of Talent
11: A Cozy Dinner
12: Battle of the Construction Site
13: Battle of the Construction Site Continued
14: The Filthy Underground Sewerage System
15: Fury
16: Cashing Out
17: Today, I am wealthy!
18: Encountering an old friend

19: The Stereotypical Prince Saves the Princess Scene

20: Xia Shiyu in Despair
21: Work for me?
22: Sanya Vacation
23: Upper Class
24: Liu Yao
25: Robert’s Invitation
26: The Middleman
27: Enjoying Life
28: The Return
29: Eagle’s Crash
30: Back Home
31: Family Meeting?
32: Sun Jiao's Past
33: Back to Sixth Street
34: The Inner Circle
35: Fishbone Food Corporation
36: Trade Route
37: Industrial Area
38: Slave Arrangement
39: Jobs and Responsibilities
40: Game Development
41: The Developing Fishbone
42: Home
43: Robert’s Problem
44: Xia Shiyu’s Apartment
45: The Iraq Trip
46: Rescue
47: The Unexpected
48: Refugees
49: The Flames of War
50: FBA Agent
51: Ayesha’s Determination
52: Back Home
53: Five Hundred Million USD
54: Eagle’s Crash Part Two
55: Purchasing a Mansion
56: The Surprising Reunion
57: Who’s the Swan?
58: The Intimacy in the Car
59: Luxury
60: House Hunting
61: Extravagant Spending
62: Base Construction
63: Virtual Reality Training Chamber
64: Basic Artificial Intelligence
65: Her Vulnerable Side
66: Hospital Conflict
67: A Pillow just when you need it
68: Cured?
69: The Future 1.0 That Shocked the World
70: Catching the Wind
71: Ayesha’s Unique Trait
72: I Have Only Two Words for You
73: Career Fair
74: Alumni Dinner
75: Because of Regret?
76: Negotiation with 361
77: Press Conference
78: Test?
79: Game Online
80: Zombies’ Change
81: Yao Yao’s Thought
82: Wasteland Economics?
83: Helping Each Other
84: Zombie Waves
85: This is the Apocalypse
86: I don’t reason
87: Burn!
88: PAC Remains
89: Ignorance
90: Conflicted
91: The Uncanny Valley
92: Who is the Ghost
93: Colonel's Diary
94: Fear from the Sky
95: The Imperfection in the Perfect Plan
96: Inescapable
97: Zombie Invasion
98: Dead End
99: Another Road
100: Fallout Shelter 005
101: Waking Up
102: The Digitalized Human and Bug
103: Project Garden of Eden
104: Triumphant
105: Tragedy and War
106: Experimental School
107: Bandit’s Toy
108: The Mutated Humans
109: Tragedy
110: Awakening
111: Another Use of Interdimensional Travel
112: Overload
113: Perhaps I Should Buy an Island
114: Play a Bad Guy for Me
115: A Blockbuster
116: Messaging Function Online
117: Purchasing a Food Processing Plant
118: The Bankrupt Zheng Hongjie
119: It’s you again?
120: Don’t do it, I’ll do it myself
121: Experiencing the World
122: Hongyi Private Club
123: Seeking Forgiveness
124: It's really ironic
125: I Can’t Control Myself!
126: Why not?
127: Execution and Acceptance
128: Lin Lin’s Lab
129: Individual Missions
130: Thriving
131: Rocket?
132: Sorry, I am a Businessman
133: Your Eyes Should Grow on Your Own Head
134: The Bullet Shell Bar
135: I'm from Jia City
136: For our interest
137: Close the door!
138: Improving the Helicopter
139: Harmonious
140: Arriving at Veit
141: Flame of Chaos
142: Of course not
143: The Three Musketeers
144: Chaos
145: Have you seen Mission Impossible 5?
146: The Secret
147: The Perfect Solution
148: Mercenary
149: Vacation in Veit
150: For the Same Reason
151: The End of the Journey
152: The Last Stop
153: The Tuareg Tribe
154: Future Security
155: Once upon a time, there was an emperor
156: Finally going home
157: I'll teach you fitness?
158: A Popular Game
159: The Trap
160: What's a National Husband?
161: Hacker Attack
162: Company Gathering
163: Please close your eyes at night
164: Is there a need to have a reason?
165: A Farce
166: I can give you a chance
167: Following the vine
168: The Malignant event and Aftermath
169: You should thank me
170: Split the Market

171: The Preparation before returning to the Apocalypse

172: Winter is coming
173: Kinetic Skeleton
174: Out of stock?
175: Produce Ourselves
176: Wormhole
177: Slavery
178: The Unscientific Electromagnetic Cannon
179: Smite
180: Colony
181: As firm as the pyramid
182: Birthday
183: The Seventh Area
184: Who should I bring home for New Year
185: The Gloom of War
186: The Declaration of War
187: Sword of Damocles
188: A Victory belonged to the Small Animal
189: The Duet of the Assassination at Night
190: The Otherworldly Crimson Pupils
191: The Dark and Windy Night
192: Sisters
193: Punishment
194: Klein Particles
195: The Unpeaceful Sixth Street
196: Mercenaries
197: Gathering a force
198: The Sword Wielder
199: Civil War
200: At the same time
201: Requesting Help
202: The Choice
203: War Never Changes
204: The Chaotic War
205: Becoming the Owner
206: Military Government Regime
207: Liuding Town's Ambassador
208: A Friendly Signal
209: Fact
210: Zhao Chenwu's Choice
211: The End for now
212: That Smile
213: The Ballistic Tingting
214: The Fourth Dimensional Messenger
215: The Friendship Across Dimensions
216: Recent News
217: Artificial Intelligence + Cars?
218: The Importance of Brand
219: The Conspriacy killed in its Cradle
220: It's all Weibo's fault
221: The Acheron on the Car
222: A Dog
223: Three Slaps
224: I don't like men
225: Confusion
226: I only need two hours
227: The Mist
228: The Dinner of the Elites
229: Peep
230: Greed
231: Vote with my feet
232: The Necessary Deterrence
233: The Skin of a Military Tech Company
234: Each Parties' Response
235: Sunbathe in the Apocalypse
236: Meeting Wang Dehai Again
237: Will you kindly step into the jar?

238: The Bodyguard from the General Staff Department

239: The Glorious Return
240: Mother
241: Jiang Jianguo Eager For Grand Children
242: Just tens of millions
243: Detectaphone

244: If people don't showoff, what's difference compared to a salted fish?

245: The Perfect Coincedence
246: What's your consideration?
247: Undercurrent
248: The Greeting from Afar
249: Sorry, I'm not your subordinate
250: Betrayal
251: A Glean Hope
252: Who said I will go with you?
253: The Slaughter Armor
254: Sniping
255: That Bullet
256: Coldblooded
257: CPR
258: Eternal Loyalty
259: The Reaction across the Pacific
260: Escaping the Cage
261: The Interference from an Unknown Channel
262: A Temporary Return
263: Sixth Street Nuclear Nonproliferation
264: Communication with the Past
265: Mr. Chen
266: Future International
267: The Angry Wang Dehai
268: New Zealand Trip
269: Meeting the Oppositions
270: Military Resistance
271: The Millionaire in the Slum
272: The Prepartion to the Ocean Venture
273: The Renting Fiascal
274: The Signal from under the Ocean
275: K1 Kinetic Skeleton Amphibious
276: Below the Ocean
277: U-235
278: The Secret of World War Two
279: The Golden Apple
280: Whoever begs is a puppy
281: Fuse
282: We are an Army
283: Celestial Trade
284: New Year
285: An Unexpected Guest
286: We need your help
287: Nuclear Fusion Core
288: Cannibals and Blue Skins
289: Burden of Survival
290: The Choice
291: The History of Fallout Shelter 071
292: Determination
293: Safe Distance
294: Camp 027
295: The not Addictive Jet
296: Like Mall
297: How could it be this guy?
298: Atomic Grenade
299: A Digitalized Human? A Robot?
300: The Mother of Death Claw
301: Happy Times
302: Duty
303: It's only an illusion
304: The Snow of Dusk
305: Are you not going to feed me?
306: Almost The Wrong One
307: Conflict
308: Decoding the Password
309: The Doomsday of the Defenders
310: The Darkness buried deep
311: Naive
312: This place has always been mine
313: You have two choices
314: The End of the Mission
315: Taking Over the Fallout Shelter
316: Light Years Away
317: Supreme, Harmony, Purity
318: Transferring the Military Factory
319: Purchasing Firearms
320: The Mine Pit and Slaves
321: Slavery Chip Enhanced
322: Camp Explosion
323: A Murder?
324: The Gunshots in Coro
325: Insurgents' Ending
326: Commissioning the War
327: Pannu Landing
328: Operation Sword Shattering
329: Farewell
330: New World
331: Neutrality
332: The Disastrous Loss of Linhua Group

333: I enjoy the fact you don't like me, but you can't do anything about it

334: New Moon Island
335: Military Base
336: Australia Trip
337: Public Opinion
338: Interdimensional Material Transporter
339: Return to Xiangjiang
340: Blackmail
341: Fishermen? They are pirates!
342: How did I forget about that?
343: The Creative Use of Nutrient Supply
344: Sorry
345: A surprising reward
346: Evaluation of Bid
347: I don’t dislike her
348: One billion Deal
349: A Massive Loan
350: Balv's Manor
351: Because I don't want to
352: Refuse to Apologize
353: Seaweed That Could Generate Electricity
354: Nutrient Supply Plant
355: Trade Secret
356: Unknown Militants
357: Battle on the Vessel
358: Reparations
359: Purchasing Ores
360: Sunny Melbourne
361: Meeting an old friend
362: Future Mining
363: Return
364: Return to the Apocalypse
365: Virtual Reality Online
366: The Game Rating becoming weird
367: Recently at the Camp
368: Tiger II
369: The Rare Quantum Computer
370: The Second Crusade
371: Shell Grains
372: Mining Resources Deposition Map
373: Airborne
374: Underground Data Center
375: We meet again
376: Retreat
377: Bombardment
378: Mental Commissar
379: New Asia Corporation
380: The Mercenary Association
381: Are you being serious?
382: Aerospace Technology Research Insitute
383: Start with collecting garbage
384: War Bond Issuance
385: Fixed Wing Aircraft
386: The Night
387: Sisters
388: Virtual Reality Helmet Prototype
389: Hang City Merchant Alliance
390: The Calm before the Storm
391: Economic Sanction?
392: Arms Sale Agreement
393: Transporting Ores
394: Molybdenum Mining Project
395: Politely Refusing
396: Selling Nutrient Supply
397: Entry Blacklist
398: Spy?
399: The Shocked Xia Shiyu
400: Tonight, I will let you have him
401: Land Reclamation?
402: Another Usage of Jumping Ropes
403: Safety Concern
404: Buy, Buy, Buy
405: Immigration Wave
406: The Relaxing Time on the Beach
407: You are being Monitored
408: Arms Sale and Conditions
409: It was not a Secret after all.
410: Do you sell Nuclear Submarines?
411: The Clash on the Expressway
412: Tearing it Up
413: Bumping Shoulders with the Slim Reaper
414: Rage
415: Smart Medical Chamber
416: The Punishment for being naughty
417: I need a list
418: Xin National Security Bureau
419: The new Ghost Agent Recruits
420: Spartan's Training
421: Exchanging Intelligence
422: The Reunion with Robert
423: Dismember Country F
424: Smoke and Dust
425: Godly Land Internal Testing
426: The Open Ceremony on the Cruise
427: Investment Euthanism
428: Probe
429: Pretending not to know
430: Decisions
431: The Mutants Flood
432: Tightening the Defensive Line
433: A Risky Choice
434: Lightning Attack against Seventh Area
435: Peacekeeper
436: The Construction Robot
437: A Sea of Zombies
438: Incinerating Zombies
439: The Heartwarming Bubble Bath
440: Purchasing Gasoline
441: It had just began
442: The Struggle on the West Line
443: Destruction does not require Technology
444: The Trade in the Distance
445: Arms Sale Agreement with Russians
446: Adapt Ancient Forms to serve the Present
447: Fire!
448: 166 BMWs Flying in the Air
449: Seige on Sports Center
450: Or God
451: 121 Hydrogen Bombs
452: Collapse
453: An End to the West Line
454: The Fire
455: Watching the Firework together
456: Coming Home
457: Regain Control from the Mutants
458: Even more Powerful Rockets
459: Mutant Farm Project
460: Droplet No.1
461: Deepwater Construction
462: Future Mining in Production
463: Her body is more honest than her words
464: For Our Friendship
465: Virtual Reality Helmet in Production
466: Unrest at Night
467: The Intimate Arrival
468: What If
469: Farewell
470: Experiencing Virtual Reality
471: Arena Mode
472: The Progress in Interdimensional Travel
473: Inflation?
474: Issuing Currency
475: Start of the Battle
476: Target Locked
477: The God's Cane
478: Path of Evoluation
479: Humans aren't humans
480: Colonization Era
481: Harmony Era
482: The Crisis Afar
483: The Last Shackle
484: This is Impossible
485: Backup
486: Counterattack
487: A Pleasant Surprise
488: The Not-so-heartwarming Reunion
489: The Path of Supreme
490: The Dowry
491: Garden of Eden Initialize
492: The Secret of the Small Universe
493: Open the bank to Hang City
494: The Everchanging Sixth Street
495: Mutant Pasture

496: No matter how difficult it is, we have to do it

497: Two Good News
498: Examining Ghost Agents
499: Modified Lamborghini
500: The Meeting in the Presidential Palace
501: CIB's Reaction
502: Acquiring An Aerospace Company
503: The Shocked Kelvin
504: Heading to Frankberg
505: Rothschild's Manor
506: Dinner
507: Mature Deepwater Mining Technology
508: Mutually Satisfactory Agreement
509: The Conversation before the Bonfire
510: Auto Exhibition
511: Financing Proposal
512: Investing in Electric Vehicles
513: Long time no see
514: For the Country
515: Actors are ready
516: The Show has Begun
517: The Tragedy
518: National Blockade
519: A Necessary Help
520: Evacuate
521: Create Confusion
522: Suspicion
523: The Ignited Fuse
524: Power Armor Training
525: Aurora-20
526: The Mission during Peaceful Time
527: Optical Illusion
528: Bullet Time?
529: Tourism Project Completed
530: A Traitor
531: Betrayal
532: The Heart of the Sea
533: Capture
534: Make an Example
535: Parting
536: Vessel Docking
537: Fight Jets in Service
538: A Unique Product Lanuch Conference
539: The Door and the Key
540: Media's Reaction
541: Keep an eye on them
542: Rocket Launch
543: Wait, where is the third stage rocket?
544: All that one could wish for
545: Battery Patent
546: Phantom Online!
547: Too Many Choices
548: Returning to Homeland
549: How much sincerity do you have?
550: Allies
551: I'm Willing
552: Package Bomb
553: Not Died
554: A High-profile Business Conference
555: Who is the Monopoly?
556: A Strong Stance
557: New CEO
558: Jiang Charity Fund
559: Return to Wanghai
560: The Reunion
561: VR + eCommerce
562: Quantum Communication Satellites
563: Perhaps it is a mutated human?
564: A Promise
565: Kurofune
566: Bring your trump card into the grave
567: Mayday
568: Hell and the People in Hell
569: Resident Evil?
570: Virus is spreading
571: Fragile
572: Airstrike
573: Aurora-20, Strike!
574: This night was bound to be unrestful

575: You will definitely be the scapegoat for this!

576: The Reason for Justice

577: The Power of the Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon

578: City K under Quarantine
579: The Rain of Destruction
580: You don't have another choice
581: Soldiers Surrounding the City!
582: The Origin of Kurofune
583: The City K Battle
584: Playing with Fire
585: Go Back to the Negotiation Table
586: Within Strike Range
587: The Saturday War
588: Entering the Medical Field
589: Keep an eye on them for me
590: Godly Land Online!
591: Too many Grandchildren!
592: Virus Vaccine

593: Quantum Communication Satellites in the Orbit!

594: Free Wi-fi!
595: Extremely Greedy
596: Global Situation
597: Bottleneck of Development
598: Speaking of Robots and Maids
599: I Promise
600: Steelmaking!
601: Expand to the Ocean!
602: A Strand of Hair
603: The Amazing Graphene
604: The Envious Neighbor
605: If possible, cheers to our cooperation
606: A New Special District
607: Robot Xiao Lin
608: Taboo
609: The Living Doll
610: The Workers on the Sea
611: Revealing the Mask of the Ocean Bottom
612: The Construction that Shocked the World
613: A Tour of Penglai City
614: The Second Immigration Wave
615: Ridiculous Demand
616: It's Time!

617: But why did he feel almost thrilled at the same time???

618: Don't forget, we have a steel airships!
619: WAR!
620: Ten Thousand Meters Above
621: Battle Plan
622: Water Treatment Plan Thugs
623: A Disagreement that Resulted in Violence
624: From the Sky
625: Empire and Federation
626: A Worthless Person in Imposing Attire
627: The Password to Immortality
628: Fallout Shelter 071
629: The Director's Diary
630: "Empire's Capital"
631: The Sudden Alarm
632: The Mutated Human Tribe
633: Using Other's Knife to Kill
634: Being Used?
635: Empire no longer in Control
636: Doctor Sun
637: The Fuse
638: Insurgence
639: The Hammer of Order
640: The Doomsday of Guru Tribe
641: The Business Opportunity behind the War
642: Better Wish for Luck
643: A New Owner of Capital
644: The Officials
645: Useless
646: I hesitated
647: The Secret to Immortaility
648: Not Knowing One's Own Strength
649: Federation's Ambassador
650: Donggang Plantation
651: New Captain
652: Quantum Computer Research Institute
653: Dumping
654: Currency Weapon
655: Peaceful Takeover
656: 第六百五十五章 北方阴影
657: Victorious
658: Home
659: Artificial Intelligence - "Jean"
660: Smart Office
661: Lacking Water
662: Are you interested in working with us?
663: An Old Friend
664: We don't plan to sell
665: Two Million Tons Order
666: Just a Warning
667: Retaliate
668: The Work of a Hacker
669: Suspending Service?
670: Compromise?
671: Russia's Interes
672: From Enemies to Friends?
673: Going Public
674: Charge Dropped
675: The Beginning of the PM Era
676: Graphene Chips
677: Ore Negotiation
678: Intel's Visi
679: Information Leak
680: Breaking Embargo
681: A Fruitful October
682: An Extravagant Party
683: Each Man has his own Aspiration
684: I'll repay kindness with kindness
685: Great Reactions
686: VR + Movie
687: Thank you for supporting me till the end
688: Time Curtain
689: An Unexpected Visitor
690: Emma's Reques
691: Doctor Amos' New Discovery
692: Neural Connection
693: Christmas Eve and Vodka
694: The $8 Billion Christmas Gif
695: Too Obvious
696: Level Four Warning
697: 100% Human
698: Boarding the Cruise
699: Permission to Arres
700: Do you want to seek revenge?
701: Controversial Opinions
702: Foreign Operation
703: We'll go directly
704: Best of Luck
705: Lin Lin's Confusion
706: The Cloud above Somalia
707: The Shadow in the Distant Sea
708: Operation: Black
709: Tokyo Ghoul
710: Messy Situation
711: The War at Somalia
712: Arriving in Nippon
713: Buying Yoto
714: Draw a Snake out of its Hole
715: Why don't you help me?
716: That day will never come
717: The End of Kurofune
718: On the Verge of Collapsing
719: You choose yourself
720: You're a Devil
721: Submarine Observation Station
722: Retrieving the Space Elevator
723: The Landing of Yizhou
724: VRstore Online!
725: Miraculous Sales Figures
726: For Exchange
727: VRcity Plan
728: The Strong will always be Strong
729: Coro University
730: Hiring M.I.T's Dean
731: Who's the boss here
732: The Serene Moonligh
733: Five Senses Blocked
734: Please Give the Phone a Name
735: The Unbelievable Phone
736: One hundred million per minute
737: The Monopoly on Future
738: Penglai City Completion
739: The Construction of the Century
740: The Central
741: The Month of Disaster
742: Constructing Line of Defense
743: The Mole Agency
744: Former PAC Intelligence Agen
745: The Park in the Mis
746: Ghostly
747: Clearwater Nuclear Power Plan
748: A Cannibal as Neighbor
749: Suppress
750: The True Form of the Fog Demon
751: The Fight in the Basemen
752: Reward
753: The Cabin by the Lake
754: Those who surrender will be spared
755: Installing the Reactor
756: The Key of the Universe
757: The Placement of the Space Elevator
758: Penglai City is now Open!

759: A Common Problem in Any Mega Corporations

760: Future Bank
761: Hawaii of the Eas
762: Holiday on the Beach
763: Charity Ball
764: Meeting Emma Again
765: Auction
766: The Code Book from Berlin
767: Just in case?
768: Undersea Tunnel
769: Three Pieces of Good News
770: VRgame Online!
771: Is this really okay?
772: Arriving in Antarctica
773: Breaking Ice
774: The Fortress on Antarctica
775: Two Explosions
776: Remnant of the Void
777: The Gift of the Void
778: One-sided Battle
779: Spare No One
780: Return
781: Let’s make a deal
782: An Old Friend
783: Magnetic Confinement
784: Garden of Eden
785: Stakes on the Negotiation Table
786: Drone and Express
787: Interfering the Acquisition
788: Return of Xiangjiang
789: Global Express
790: Valenica Mining Deposit
791: Arms Race
792: The Enemy’s Enemy
793: Future Military
794: Person for Intelligence
795: Drones are the Future
796: Xin-Malaysia Joint Excercise
797: The Blueprint of Babel
798: Foreign Army
799: There is never a true ally
800: VRcity Online
801: Civil War
802: Arms Sale to Russia
803: Fooling the Pentagon

804: Inquiry from the Office for Outer Space Affairs

805: Astronaut Training Center
806: Resistance in Acquistion
807: Building farms on the Ocean!
808: Xin Ocean Agriculture
809: Greenpeace
810: Country F Army's Ambitions
811: Priate Hijack
812: Rescue Mission (1)
813: Conference
814: The war in not over
815: Don’t Speak Chinese!
816: Madgascar
817: The Trojan Horse

818: The Aftershock of the Tactical Nuclear Bomb

819: Two Funerals
820: Spiraling Down
821: Layoff
822: Victories and Defeats
823: Weapons and Alliance
824: The Cause of the War
825: Circling Tactic
826: The Landing of Leyte Island
827: The First Sunrise
828: The Second Murshroom Cloud
829: There is no war without scarifices
830: Code: Retribution
831: Conquering City M
832: The Awkward Situation
833: Two Seconds
834: First Strike Advantage
835: Kerry’s Visit
836: M.A.D
837: Liquidation after the War
838: Economic Dependent Country
839: Establishing a Monopoly
840: Neural Bridging Breakthrough
841: The Volatile Crude
842: New Joint Reserve
843: Cosmology
844: Ten Thousand Dollar Reward
845: Oil grown from the ground
846: On the Ocean
847: Ocean Plantation
848: Moon Landing Project
849: The Colonists Set Sail
850: A Breathtaking Moment
851: New TransAsia
852: Ghost Island

853: The Breakthrough in Antimatter Technology

854: The Growing Colony
855: The Scholar in a Wheelchair
856: Nothing is Impossible
857: Conquering a Medical Chapter
858: Gambling Contract
859: Since Then
860: Something More Valuable
861: Pionneer
862: Silicon Valley’s Invitation

863: Long-distance Wireless Power Transmission

864: Recently at the Sixth Street
865: Hope for Interdimensional Travel
866: This Year’s Winter Arrived Earlier
867: War Preparation
868: I m also going to live here
869: Arrving in Los Santos
870: Governor’s Party
871: Unexpected Trouble
872: Late Night Chat
873: Three Directions
874: Stalled Negotiation
875: Robert’s Mansion
876: Rumors
877: Establish A New Company
878: Secrecy
879: Welcome to Nevada
880: Area 51
881: Defense Adjustment
882: The Unseen Ghost
883: The Technology of Area 51
884: Burning
885: Battle of Los Santos
886: Hostage
887: It’s been a long time
888: Hard Landing
889: It’s not up to you
890: The Value of the Chips
891: Annihilate
892: You should feel honored
893: An Important Person
894: Great Synagogue
895: A Fire
896: Tinder Nuclear Fusion Reactor
897: I m willing to share with you
898: Graphene Trade Centre
899: Completion of the Underwater Tunnel
900: The Miracle of Medicine
901: Asteroid Mining Project
902: Conspiracy
903: Two Choices
904: Frame
905: Go Through the Ice
906: Improved Antimatter Storage Device
907: Little Ice Age
908: First Contact
909: The Moment War Started
910: The Power of the Wanderer
911: No Eternal Enemy
912: The Holy Shield
913: The Icy Fortification and Frozen Blood
914: Stingray X-1
915: The Technology that Changed the War
916: Magnetic Confinement and Plasma
917: Turning Tides
918: Counterattack
919: Armor Spearhead and Drone Attack Group
920: A Wise Decision
921: Recognition and Two People’s Thoughts
922: New Year’s Eve and Departure
923: Space Elevator Completed
924: The End of an Era
925: Guests from Afar
926: A Small Accident
927: Space Defense Force
928: Lease? Not A Chance
929: So What?
930: Asteroid Hunting
931: Elder Ye’s Thoughts
932: A Serious Case
933: Port Leasing
934: Future Direction
935: The Livid Bolden
936: The Historic First Train
937: Heated Verbal Exchanges
938: A Mysterious Meteor
939: Framework For Cooperation
940: Space-themed Hotel
941: The Spotted Asteroid
942: Is this really just a Space Station?
943: Inestimable Value
944: Asteroid Mining Program
945: Like A Movie
946: Not Just For Farming
947: There is no way to compare
948: We Found Gold
949: Ore Processing Unit
950: Xin Space Resources Development Forum

951: Over One Hundred Billion Worth of Contracts

952: Change the World

953: 6X4 Standard and Controlled Nuclear Fusion

954: Nuclear Fusion Power Station

955: Are you sure you didn’t add an extra zero?

956: Power Export Agreement
957: Hostage Crisis
958: An Idiotic Question
959: Drone Orders
960: The February Spent on Plane
961: Returning to Yoto
962: Now, do you believe I missed you?
963: Sumitomo Foundation
964: Premiere
965: Please Get Out
966: Red Carpet
967: Chapter 967
968: Qi? That’s my fu*king kinetic skeleton!
969: Sideshow
970: A Necessary Decision
971: Amazing Reviews

972: If you can apologize to solve the problem, then why do we need the police

973: Back to Xin
974: Start the Money Printers
975: Dark War
976: A Ray from the Moon
977: Run After You Showed-Off
978: Controversies
979: Uncertain Times
980: U.F.O
981: Enterprise Dictatorship
982: I curse you!
983: A Ship
984: An Invite From Moscow
985: Preparation Before the Departure
986: Heart To Heart in the Office
987: The Fate of Fallout Shelter 118
988: Private Talk
989: The Treasure Buried Deep
990: A Blank Sheet of Paper
991: Two Thousand and One Sister (One)
992: Two Thousand and One Sisters (Two)
993: The Good Stuff From the Sea
994: Consciousness Communication?
995: The Intimacy Before Parting
996: Returning to The Modern World
997: A Pleasant but Short Lunch Break
998: Hua Electricity Group
999: Sharing is Caring
1000: Moscow Trip
1001: Restless Night
1002: SS Oleg
1003: Learning The Truth from Experiments
1004: Natasha’s Unusual Behavior
1005: Heartwarming Reunion
1006: The Bearded General’s Cocktail Party
1007: A Surprising Meeting
1008: Rubles and A Military Base
1009: Orbital Airborne Soldiers
1010: A Sleepless Night
1011: Two Powerless MiGs
1012: Leave without Saying Goodbye
1013: Two Bad News
1014: A Meeting Engagement On The Plains

1015: A Prisoner of War Claiming to be An Informant

1016: A Monster
1017: Rescue Mission
1018: Do you dare to do this again?
1019: Ghost Rescue
1020: UA’s Reaction
1021: A Flaw in the Plan
1022: Code Name Lightning

1023: The Groundbreaking Transportation Method

1024: The Everchanging Coro City
1025: A Consensus View
1026: The List of Colonists
1027: Mars Colonization Plan
1028: The Destination of the Secret Flight
1029: A Historic Discovery
1030: A Not Interesting Piece of News
1031: Insurmountable
1032: Seagull Class
1033: Lunar City
1034: Diverging Opinions
1035: Ticket Price Going to the Moon
1036: Air Show at Celestial City
1037: A Traitor From Far Away
1038: Turning Point
1039: Controversies
1040: Gunshots in Bava
1041: Breaking Down the Defense
1042: Living Hell
1043: In a Storm of Scandal
1044: The Start of Disorder
1045: Trading with Northern Alliance Area
1046: The Force of a Prairie Fire
1047: Taking Advantange of The Situation
1048: Battle of Dnieper River
1049: Frantic
1050: Victory and Celebration
1051: Earthquake
1052: Falling
1053: Hamster Killer No.1
1054: Operation Alpha
1055: A Trip to Finland

1056: The Secret History of The Rothschild Family

1057: Paltamo Refugee Camp
1058: Slap People with Money
1059: Boost Support
1060: Ignite
1061: : Ragtag
1062: Preparing for the Final Battle
1063: Bombardment Across the Border
1064: The End of Arrow
1065: Iblis
1066: The Unfortunate Country Called Finland
1067: Only Celestial Trade Can Save You
1068: Bugs were going to evolve
1069: Leave it to the Professional
1070: Mother Nest
1071: Use Force
1072: Steel and Blood
1073: Just Give Him a Quick Way Out
1074: Pentagon’s Concern
1075: It’s around us
1076: Effective Recruitment Advertisement
1077: Focus on Driving
1078: Nearing the End of the War
1079: Acquisition Spree
1080: Another Possibility
1081: Dysplasia?
1082: Eyes on its Prey
1083: Type T3 Automation Production Plan
1084: Ten Countries Diplomatic Visit of Xin
1085: It isn’t something good
1086: Outer Space Security Summit
1087: What do you mean by only?
1088: Not Just Bugs
1089: Footprints in the Snow
1090: Asserting Pressure
1091: SS Heavenly Temple
1092: : Mars Plan
1093: Stingray’s Return
1094: A Surprising Finding
1095: Strong Interaction Material
1096: The Unscientific Defence Capability
1097: Martian?
1098: Chaotic
1099: North America in the Apocalypse
1100: NAC Navy
1101: New Trade Route
1102: Earth Defense Alliance
1103: Highway Robbery
1104: Battle Meeting
1105: Project Trench
1106: Shackles

1107: Taikan Kyohosyugi and Carrier Battle Group

1108: The Second Group of Colonists
1109: Is the tax a bit too high?
1110: Ungrateful
1111: Feasibility
1112: Aircraft Carrier Battle Group
1113: Who is the boss
1114: The Form of War
1115: Cyclotron
1116: The Seed of Future
1117: Satellite City
1118: Trilion Dollar Budge
1119: Earth Fleet Taking its Shape
1120: The End of the Century
1121: The Concept of Smart City
1122: Taking a step back is the real hell
1123: Hegemony!
1124: Only you can“t choose to back down!
1125: Direct Conflic
1126: Social Justice Saving the World
1127: There is No Dignity Between Countries
1128: A “Heartfelt“ Speech
1129: The Unlucky Kishida
1130: Welcoming Ceremony

1131: Land Reclamation, Farming, and Steelmaking

1132: Fermi“s Paradox and The Great Filter
1133: The Security Treaty In Jeopardy
1134: Code Name 007
1135: War in the Shadows
1136: Miss Kwai is Very Scared
1137: What will it take for you to stop?
1138: It“s time to pick your side
1139: A Peculiar Peace
1140: Shipyard Completion!
1141: Moon Specialties
1142: The concept of Moon Elevator
1143: An Unexpected Gues
1144: There is No Permanent Alliance
1145: The Cursed Name
1146: 50 Million Dollars Compensation
1147: Returning to Earth
1148: North of the Great Wall
1149: Ceremonial Ship Launching
1150: Harmonious Scene
1151: War Or Peace
1152: NAC Needs A War
1153: The Minature Holy Shield
1154: Eden Technology

1155: A Disaster Caused by a Can of Canned Food

1156: Battle Outside the Sixth Ring Road
1157: The Helpless Survivors
1158: NAC Reinforcements!
1159: Conditions
1160: The Most Dangerous Place in Shangjing
1161: The Power of Food
1162: A Useful Sidekick
1163: Pingan Stree
1164: Hell Courier
1165: Brother Tiger? Brother Cat?
1166: Backdoor Program!
1167: The Booze-loving Russians
1168: Good Night, Sweet Dreams
1169: Deal The Hand
1170: Auction Part 1
1171: Auction Part 2
1172: Take It From Their Dead Bodies
1173: Fifty Thousand Crystals
1174: Then Make One!
1175: You will soon know who is the lunatic
1176: 18VS200!
1177: You“re asking for death!
1178: Weapon Of The Civilized
1179: Dongcheng Hospital
1180: The Power of One Shot!
1181: The Darkness in the Garage
1182: The Collapsing Wall
1183: The Countless Zombies
1184: Treasure Map
1185: You Can Call Me Jiang Chen
1186: The Bloodshed Under The Wall

1187: The Nonexistent Negative Twenty-first Floor

1188: The Gunshots in the Subway
1189: The Price of Reinforcemen
1190: Carbonization!
1191: The Battle Of Non-Humans
1192: I will ask you again, move?
1193: Follow The Hunter“s Path
1194: The Last Place
1195: The Train and Tanks
1196: The Terminal Station of Line 0
1197: Thank You For Using Eden Technology
1198: The Encounter Battle Inside The Tunnel
1199: Power of The Nuclear Grenade!
1200: One Against Twenty!
1201: Close Combat!
1202: Three-way Battle
1203: Millennium Plan
1204: A Body Of My Own
1205: One Percent Chance
1206: Precarious
1207: A Plentiful Harvest!
1208: Battle Royale
1209: Power Armors with Built-in Hacks
1210: Victor
1211: The End Of The Chaos
1212: The Light Before Dawn
1213: The Flag Above Pan-Asia
1214: Forming The North Division
1215: The Mayor“s Candidate
1216: The Way of Balance
1217: A Much-needed Res
1218: The Last Arrangemen
1219: Triumphant Return
1220: The Grand Occasion
1221: Before The Return
1222: The Discovery At Mine 071
1223: A Holiday That Ended Early

1224: An Ant Nest From Three Billion Years Ago

1225: We Don“t Have To Use Electromagnetic Waves

1226: Witnessing a Historical Momen
1227: The Prehistoric Mars
1228: Gaia
1229: Rise and Fall
1230: Inheritance and Gif
1231: Awakened Monsters
1232: Level-one Alarm!
1233: Do You Need Reinforcements?
1234: Power is A Glass of Poisoned Wine
1235: They Are Hindering Academic Freedom!
1236: Mars Rescue
1237: Label of The Minorities
1238: Five Million and The Candidate
1239: Tore Down Their Disguise
1240: A Special Reward
1241: Not A Worm?
1242: The Theory of Oxygen Supply Layer
1243: Reinforcements Have Arrived!
1244: Only So-so!
1245: The Summit That Shocked the World
1246: Made Headlines Again?
1247: Battlefield Repor
1248: An Egg Specimen!
1249: The Prelude of A Great Era
1250: The Successful “Smugglers“
1251: Seeking for Death
1252: Into the Bug“s Mouth
1253: Political Chips
1254: Friendship? Transaction?
1255: The Last Chip
1256: It Can“t Get Worse
1257: Three Outcomes
1258: Moments of Relaxation
1259: Research Progress On The Eggs
1260: Envoy-class Starship
1261: Another Piece of Memory
1262: The Concern Millions of Kilometers Away
1263: Variables
1264: That Is Not My Hometown
1265: Exchanges of War
1266: A Lavish State Banque
1267: We“ll just get rid of i
1268: Can I please invite you for a dance?
1269: A Path Ou
1270: This is fine
1271: The Prologue to the New Era
1272: Launching Ceremony
1273: Ultrasonic Fence
1274: Underground Encounter
1275: Corruptors
1276: A New Body
1277: Set Sail!
1278: Who will dominate the next century?
1279: Tide of Insects
1280: Eavesdropping
1281: The Program is Genderless
1282: X71291“s New Name
1283: Why didn“t you just ask me?
1284: The Colonial History of Mars
1285: War Against Colonies
1286: Arrest
1287: Holy Shield!
1288: Counterattack!
1289: Am I that kind of a pervert!?
1290: Space-themed MMORPG
1291: On the Shoulder of the Gian
1292: Galaxy Edge Trailers
1293: The Happy Lilith
1294: Galaxy Edge Launched!
1295: Break One’s Own Record
1296: Exceeding Expectations
1297: The Warning From The Opposition
1298: Strange Events
1299: The Rats In The Ditch
1300: Who could fall asleep!?
1301: You Should Be Lowkey
1302: Doubt
1303: Who Knows？
1304: Delegation Arrival
1305: Before The Storm
1306: Adapt To The Situation
1307: : First Blood
1308: Assassination
1309: : A President Died
1310: They are The Perpetrators!
1311: Igniting the Powder Keg
1312: Armed Intervention
1313: The Constantly Ringing Phone
1314: I’m afraid he will beat me
1315: Clash
1316: Lilith is on a Killing Spree
1317: The Great Victory of Cucuta
1318: Code Name: Torch
1319: Plotting the World
1320: An Eye For An Eye
1321: Moro Intervention
1322: Military Exercise
1323: Before The Counterattack
1324: Code Named: Firefight
1325: The Great Victory of Bucaramanga
1326: The Divided Coalition Force
1327: The Ruin
1328: Ambition For Arms Sales
1329: They Are Not Here To Compete
1330: New Ride
1331: Who Could It Be?
1332: A Very Simple Way
1333: Part of the Fun
1334: : I’m Being Watched
1335: Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Servers

1336: We don’t like countries sitting on the fence

1337: Nip It In The Bud
1338: Speed of Life and Death
1339: Nippon's Compromise
1340: The Drugged Black Tea
1341: Toss and Turn
1342: Infiltrate The Base
1343: Using The Fleet As Cover
1344: Then I Will Help You
1345: Surround The Base
1346: Open The Base
1347: A Grand Present
1348: Out Of Control
1349: Contradiction in Logic
1350: Scapegoat
1351: Officer Kwai’s Confusion
1352: Blood Axe Mercenaries
1353: Opening Ceremony
1354: Holding the Rifle with One Hand!
1355: Libel and Slander
1356: World Record!
1357: Let Me Help You
1358: Fruits of Victory
1359: South and North Colombia
1360: Rising Star
1361: The Blooming Flower of Memory
1362: The Nuclear Warhead On The Beach

1363: I don’t think they will have any objections

1364: The Second Space Elevator
1365: Nuclear Warheads and Toys
1366: International Defense Exhibition
1367: Technology Change The War!
1368: Pay For Our Backwardness
1369: The Era of Sixth-Generation Fighters
1370: Uragano!

1371: We Don't Export Sixth-Generation Fighter

1372: We Export the Best Pilots!

1373: The Colonization Frenzy In the Apocalypse

1374: Cheers To Our Victory!
1375: The Man Who Conquered Ocean!
1376: Daytime Is Fine Too
1377: Containers Stacked like a Mountain
1378: Lin Lin's Mind
1379: The Holy Shield Restart!
1380: Empty
1381: Army Expansion
1382: N-100 Power Armor
1383: The War Did Not Favor Either Side
1384: Airport Gang
1385: Encountering A Fellow Townsman
1386: Clue
1387: Smith Zhao
1388: Strange
1389: Chinatown's Mercenary
1390: An Informant
1391: Who told you that its just us?
1392: Expelling Wolves By Steering Tigers
1393: The Gunshots At Outpost Town
1394: Ambush At The Fortress
1395: The Dangerous Mission
1396: The Only Clue

1397: West Coast Meteorological Observation Center

1398: The Empire On Deck
1399: Collect Money From Both Sides
1400: Cap Explosive
1401: Besiege
1402: Who Are The Invaders
1403: The Weapon That Was Not A Weapon
1404: Transferring Disaster
1405: Befriend
1406: Close Combat
1407: NS-90!
1408: Windfall
1409: Anti-America Pact
1410: You Need A Guide
1411: Race Against Time
1412: For Money
1413: Besiege In The Desert
1414: Power of The Cannon
1415: Another Way
1416: Weather Strike En Route
1417: More Spectacular Than Any Movie
1418: The Ships Of USN
1419: End Of The War
1420: Expedition: Panama
1421: Slave Revolt
1422: Power Armor To The Face
1423: Send Them To Pick Garbage
1424: Return Home
1425: Army Reform
1426: Becoming A Chancellor Once Again
1427: Edge Of The Solar System
1428: Between The Acts
1429: The Last Card
1430: A Tiny Problem
1431: Weather Forecast
1432: Shooting On The Streets Of Capital
1433: A Disruptive Finding
1434: Once And For All
1435: Aerospace Planes Delivered
1436: A Case Study
1437: Made Newspaper Headline Again
1438: Send The Astronauts Home
1439: He Belongs To The World
1440: Whats meant to come will always come
1441: IM GOING TO DRINK UNTIL I THROW UP!
1442: An Expected Surprise
1443: Preparing For War
1444: Typhoon Banyan
1445: A Visitor From South Colombia
1446: Border Incident
1447: On The Brink of War
1448: : New Year
1449: It Has To Do With Our Time
1450: : Sugar Cube Diplomacy

1451: Let Us Toast for the Prosperity of Wall Street

1452: The Outlook of Joining The Alliance
1453: Out of Control
1454: Synthesizing Life
1455: DEFCON 3!
1456: The Short-lived President
1457: The Fire of War Rekindled

1458: : A Surprise Attack On Port of Barranquilla

1459: Cause and Effect
1460: As You Wish
1461: Reasonable Excuse
1462: Emergency Meeting
1463: Battle On The Caribbean Sea
1464: Is it necessary to bet?
1465: A Surprise Attack On Turbo
1466: Sunk
1467: 72 Hour Ultimatum
1468: Trident Missiles
1469: An Invincible Shield
1470: Descending From Above
1471: Unstoppable
1472: Battling on Two Fronts

1473: Above the Statue of Freedom, the Xin Flag Waved High

1474: Cheyenne Mountain
1475: : Inescapable
1476: Every War Needs Heroes
1477: A Depression
1478: Financial Tsunami
1479: Torrent of Steel
1480: The Third Battlefront
1481: A Long-Planned Murder
1482: Battle of C City
1483: Good News and Bad News
1484: An Unexpected Turn of Events
1485: Unconditional Surrender!
1486: Project Himalia
1487: To Be At the Mercy of Somebody
1488: The Resurrected President
1489: Return to North America
1490: War Reparations
1491: Dawn Of A New Era
1492: Deathbed Struggle
1493: The Lavish Island
1494: Manhattan List
1495: Show No Mercy
1496: I wont say it even if I die!

1497: The Assassination that was Doomed to Fail from the Start

1498: The End of Rebels
1499: The Second Step to Rule North America
1500: The War to End All Wars
1501: The Flames that Ended All
1502: Upheaval in the Middle East
1503: The Battle over The Throne
1504: Himalia Landing
1505: The Expanding Territory
1506: Mars Immigration Wave
1507: Diamond Princess
1508: Unexpected Acquaintance
1509: You could do this?
1510: I gave them a job
1511: The Discovery on Himalia
1512: Black Alkane
1513: The Uncertainties in March
1514: Space Colonization Summit
1515: The Plan To Colonize
1516: An Incisive View
1517: The Future of Heavenly Palace City
1518: End of Summit
1519: Door
1520: Neutrino Tunnel
1521: The Stretched Time
1522: Her Thoughts
1523: The Final Experiment
1524: Your World
1525: Stellar System Highway Network
1526: Eventually, Theyre Going To Meet
1527: Shuraba
1528: Excluded from the Family Meeting
1529: Reward?
1530: Chiefs of Africa
1531: Food and Slave
1532: The Upright Slave Master
1533: Inter-dimension Subsidiary
1534: Future Development
1535: Guide to Africa
1536: A Guest from The Apocalypse
1537: The Completion of Star Gates

1538: The First Flight On Stellar System Highway

1539: NAC in Africa
1540: New Riches
1541: Farming
1542: The Blowout on Europa
1543: An Unexpected Discovery
1544: Starship in the Deep Sea
1545: The Svetovid
1546: Distant Memory
1547: Time to Bluff
1548: An Honest Dialogue
1549: Golovin Mental System
1550: Foreshadowing
1551: The Second Contact
1552: EaChapter Other’s Arrogance
1553: The Seed of Earth Federation
1554: Gravity Belt
1555: Sensational Response
1556: The Ambition of Loki Jr.
1557: Completion of Project Marchena
1558: Unifying Currencies
1559: World Union Reserve
1560: Shocking the World Economy
1561: Bit Spirit
1562: Order on the Prairie
1563: Feint Attack
1564: Buy Their Lives
1565: Exclusive Trade
1566: Ritual of Sacrifice and Hunt
1567: Slaughtered
1568: Reciprocity
1569: Create Chaos in Africa
1570: Three Years
1571: To You Who Have Survived To This Day

1572: First Military Parade of the Twenty-Third Century

1573: A Friendly Plunder
1574: Project Breaking Ice
1575: Rainbow on Europa
1576: The Promised Land
1577: City of Svetovid
1578: Trench
1579: I’m going to be a father?
1580: Grand Celebration
1581: A New Discovery
1582: Geocentric Mine
1583: Heavenly Palace City
1584: Irregularity
1585: Planet’s Core and Portal
1586: Cold Night is Approaching
1587: The Last Charge
1588: The Bad News From Afar
1589: The Last Thing He Could Do
1590: A Ticket Worth Ten Billion Dollars
1591: The Deal Between Civilizations
1592: Backstab
1593: The Departing SS Origin
1594: Sacrifice
1595: Final Mission
1596: Apocalypse on Mars
1597: Earth Reborn
1598: The Void
1599: Funeral
1600: Robert's Lucky Day
1601: Origin of The Universe
1602: Earth Federation
1603: People Sailing Towards The Future
1604: The Real War Had Just Begun
1605: Liquidation
1606: Lonely at the Top

1607: Do you want to go and take a look with me?

1608: The word devil is more appropriate

1609: The Wedding of the Century (Ending)